"It's my phone," she says, which sounds...not right. "Hurry! They seem to be angrier now that the sun's gone down!"
That's really not right, considering it's not yet mid-day.
Dave frowns from behind the wheel of whichever car they took, though he still insisted on driving it. "That sounds completely wrong. Ask her how she got there."
Maria arrived just in time to hop in the back seat of whichever car they took.
"OK," Valda replied, ignoring the weirdness for now. Enchanted mobile phones are always a possibility. "I need you to give me as many details as to where you are as you can. State, County, etc. Give the Zip Code if you have one. If it's even a little relevant, pass me the information. Give an idea of how you got there, last landmark to where you are now, and we'll try and track you down."
"We were driving, my daughter Ella and I, not too far north of Arzata, NM, maybe fifty miles. I started having car trouble, so I pulled off the road. There was a town, not far up the road, in a canyon. We walked toward it, hoping..." something unintelligible here...
"the sign said 'Black' something. I can't remember. But the gas station was closed..." more unintelligible..."deserted. but there were these things...not people. they moved really fast and I grabbed Ella and ran. We hid in...I don't remember. Oh, gawd they're going to find us..."
You may roll Knowledge/Occult or Knowledge/Arcana at this point.
Dave seems to remember something called EVP or "electronic voice phenomenon." Since the timing is off from the messages, it *could* theoretically be a message from the spirit world.
Valda nodded, and turned away. "You heard the lady, Dave. 50 miles North of Arzata, start looking for the word black." Turning back, Valda continued, "OK, I know it's scary, but keep going. Repeat details if you need to. Some of the transmission is breaking up."
The more Valda listens, the more she think's Dave's spot on with the EVP suggestion. It's possible or even likely that the woman and her daughter are already dead. That said, though, if there's EVP going on, there's almost surely something happening that's in the purview of the team.
As Valda thinks more about their direction and destination, the name "Black Rock" pops into her mind. It's a small town that's been shut down for almost as long as Arzata's been around, though the occasional homeless are rumored to go there to squat.
"Look for a place called 'Black Rock', Dave." Valda glanced at the radio, hoping she was wrong about the woman. "OK, Marilyn. Is there anything else you can tell us? We're on our way now, and we'll help as best we can, but the more details the better."
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"You're the bossman, Valda." Dave takes ten on his driving for a twenty, to get the crew there in a timely and law abiding manner. Ghosts, though? Damn. Just how much of that weird supernatural shit is actually out there? Is Supernatural actually a documentary? Who the f!%+ knows.
The two cars drive to the area of a state highway Marilyn guides them to. It's not hard to find the turn-off, but it easily could be missed if you didn't know it was there. A few yards off the side of the long abandoned asphalt road reads "Black..." with the rest of the name blotted out by rust and sand.
As soon as you pull off the highway and onto the road to Black Rock, Marilyn's broadcasts immediately stop.
Ahead, a cluster of buildings sits brooding and lifeless. Just outside of town, a long brick building sprawls next to an empty baseball diamond. Further ahead is an old gas station, its plate glass windows covered in plywood.
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Isagoras had brooded and pondered during this, as was his habit. As they pulled in to the self-apparent "ghost town" his curiosity and interest were piqued to high levels.
"Just park here, Dave. Let us allow the enormity of the fullness of the situation to efferfulse about us with it's brillig totality."
He gets out of the car and breaths in the air. Tasting it, smelling it, making sensory love to it. "Methinks the game is now afoot, and far shall we trek 'ere long we're for familiar climates come."
The cars pull over in front of the large brick building, which appears to be a highschool long since closed. The gas station is up the street on the right, and several other buildings stretch off up the road.
Isagoras looks up the road into the main part of "downtown" Black Rock. A number of vehicles—primarily old-model pickup trucks and beat-up sedans—are parked along the main drag. Most are streaked with dirt and rust, as though they’ve been sitting there for years.
One stands out, however. Parked in front of the gas station, which you can now see has a sign "Barney’s Garage and Gas Station",is a minivan. It looks like it could have been parked there more recently.
Hopping out of his car - which he happily let Dave drive because he insisted - Joey glanced around, taking in the scenery of this dead town and says, "'Sun's gone down,' huh? Still seems like it's day time to me.. An audio transmission that seems to be out of sync with our own time... Wouldn't it be neat if it turned out she was a time-traveller or something and we're having to save her future self from the demise her past self succumbed to?... No?" Clearing his throat, Joey began to look around as well, trying to spot anything suspicious.
"Could be. But I somehow feel that's not the case this time around." Dave takes a glance around, but he's not really looking for anything as he feels his partners are doing just fine as is.
Clearing his throat, Joey began to look around as well, trying to spot anything suspicious.
The only thing Joey notices that Isagoras didn't is that the hatch on the minivan seems to be partially open, though at this distance it's hard to tell.
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Isagoras nods at Joey's suggestion, taking it seriously. "Indeed. Such paradoxes (paradoxi? Pardoxuses?) must needs be prepared for. Indeed, 'twere we so well-favored as to become involved in a multi-person Tartarus Incident-esque conundrum would be a great and noble thing. Yea, even if we died in ways and places we can not now even grasp in our wildest terror-nightmares, we can but hope that some unworldly ur-entity will find our penundrums with time-space to be of such worth as to sup'd upon our entrails."
Isagoras goes and investigates the car and gas station which holds the most rich source of clues, happy that they now have something to look forward to.
The minivan is empty, though it looks like someone has rummaged through the contents. The van’s registration, which is in the glove compartment, indicates that the vehicle belongs to someone named
Marylin Delany.
Assisting Isagoras with his search, Joey is able to point out an additional clue: there is what looks like decayed skin on the latch of the hatchback, but no sign of blood.
The town seems abandoned, you all get the feeling but someone else is here. You thought you saw some movement between two buildings further up the street into town.
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"You know, I'm not even going to try to understand whatever-the-f*&! Izzy just said."
"Holy crap, what was that?" Stacey says, her hand holding her smart phone up toward where you spotted the motion. You hadn't noticed, but she's been recording the last few minutes or so.
On the left side of main street is the burned out rubble of a building, still smoking. The sign on the street post reads "Lou Ellen’s Hair Fashions". One building further down reads "Elk's Lodge" but is boarded up. It's between those two buildings that you *might* have spotted something, or someone, moving.
Watching the street, Valda replied, "He's saying that your idea, that we're somehow screwing with time here to save two women, would be all kinds of awesome." Making sure the heavy pistol was loose in it's holster, she added, "It's not likely, though. You need some pretty heavy mojo to start screwing with time - way out of my league - and if something like that's around here, we're gonna need some bigger guns. Like, BattleTech Atlas bigger."
"As for what that was..." Valda glanced down the street. "I'm guessing that's the anger management issue Marilyn mentioned."
Valda could swear she saw something...bipedal. Playing it back on Stacey's phone doesn't yield further insight; she switched views too quickly and it's a total blur. But there was definitely movement, and it definitely went between the two buildings.
"We have something that walks on two legs and leaves chunks of decayed skin on a car. I wonder if zombies are a thing in this town?" Without many other options, she headed down between the two buildings, drawing her gun as she did. She made sure the safety on. No need to shoot some kid.
Quick Recap: Isagoras, Joey, Maria and Dave are standing by the minivan in front of the gas station. The van has been here not as long as the rest of the abandoned parked vehicles. The stores all seem closed. You've found that the van is registered to Marilyn, and that there's some decaying skin on the hatch.
Stacey just attempted to record something walking across the street, which several of you noticed "out of the corner of your eye," but did not get a solid look at.
Valda is now moving up the street further to investigate.
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Creeping along side Valda, Joey whispers, "Man, demon fire rituals, zombies, time travel... Never a dull moment for us, it seems!"
With his pistol in his hand, he keeps his finger off the trigger as they advance, but holds it at the ready to fire if he needs to. Trying to look as coolly as possible in front of his favourite radio show host, Joey thinks to himself, Gotta be cool in front of her. Gotta pull a Dave... Should've bought some sunglasses..
Dave keeps a hand close to his blade, as he get's down low. "Never a dull moment at all. I can scout around in the shadows if needed, keep myself hidden."
Here's a map of Black Rock. The gas station with the minivan is location 2. The "creature" (whatever it was) ran between 3 and 4, 3 being the burned out beauty shop.
Stacey follows cautiously behind Valda and Joey. Dave is nearby, and is considering moving off for a more stealthy approach.
.
Rounding the corner, you find a narrow alley, less than 10', between the wall of the burned out building and the boarded up Elks lodge. You see no movement, but you do notice one of the windows has had the board removed, allowing entry.
Adjusting the new sunglasses that seemed to have Dave-ishly appeared across his eyes, Joey nods and confirms, "Alright, so we got Izzy on the flank, Valda and I on point, and Dave scouting from cover. Stacy, stay close and shout if you notice something we don't. Let's get investigatin'!"
With a thumbs up, he continues his stealthy advancement - silently wishing he had a better catch phrase - towards the building that they last saw the movement. He moves slowly through the alley way and cautiously peaks through the boardless window, looking around the old interior with his gun lowered and hopes of not drawing attention to himself.
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As Isagoras moves off, he can be heard mumbling. To some it might sound something akin to stating how t3h 3050 Titan was in no way superior to the Atlas, especially with it's l4m3ZorX OS SRM4 launchers and even the 3025 version would be MUCH cooler with 4 more med lzrz instead of the AC/20. Yeah, that'd be sw33t....
But such words of power would have little meaning to the uninitiated freeborn. :p
"I'll watch your backs." Maria says, as she stays slightly behind Joey, Valda, and Stacy.
Dave cringes, visibly, as Joe loudly thumps into the room with little regard to the actual notion of stealth, before moving in behind.
With Maria on the sidewalk, Stacey behind her with her phone up to record, Joey peeks his head over the window sill. Beside him is Valda, Behind, pressed against an old air conditioner and invisible from the window, is Dave.
A noise can be heard form inside, and Joey and Valda see something lurching around in the darkness; it's too dim in there to see any details.
Suddenly, something flies at the open window.
Initiative
Joey:
Valda:
Dave:
Maria:
"It":
Isagoras will be able to act once he realizes what's going on on the other side of the building, which should be soon.
So Dave, Valda, "It", Maria, Joey
-------------WW------------------------------
__________J______D__________M____S
_________V_______________________
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Dotted lines are walls, solid lines are place holders. WW is window (and the creature, this round).
Pausing before acting, Valda and Dave can see the hideously twisted visage of a man, covered in dust, but with grotesque boney claws and protruding teeth, squatting on the window and prepared to attack.
Seeing his friend about to get wailed on by some... thing, He moves up to the window.
Moving to the side of Joey to get a clear shot, Valda opened up with the pistol.
The creature leaps from the window and swings a claw at Joey, then a bite and claw at Valda.
Joey:
Valda:
Valda:
I believe that hits Joey's Flat Footed AC, so he needs to make a DC 13 Fort Save. Remember Action Points if it's close.
The "G" now represents the position of the creature.
-------------WW------------------------------
_________GJD________________M____S
_________V_______________________
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After that, it's Maria's action, and Valda can still decide to spend an AP to potentially hit with her shot. Speaking of which, now that there's been a gunshot, Isagoras obviously knows something is up and can choose to move around the building from either direction.
Feeling the claw rip at his arm, Joey winces visibly before trying to maintain himself from whatever is trying to plague his body.
Though he's sure his sickly immune system is going to fail on him, he readies his pistol towards the ungodly creature and fires a round.
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Every muscle in Joey's body seizes and refuses to do his bidding for rounds. (sorry, sucks to get knocked out of combat by paralysis).
Maria's action.
Isagoras' initiative (for round 2):
Maria waves her hand at the creature in a dismissive manner, and says "Dormir!"