CHAPTER ONE: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

[Laraqua]

"Contact me when you can answer all three questions. Over and out."

[Seon]

"By God, where am I supposed to find a third medal?!" Jack shouted into the radio. Jack tsked, moved onto the driver's seat of the car, then turned the car on.

Spoiler:

If This works, I am heading for the Alchemilla hospital

[Laraqua]

The engine doesn't so much as cough in response. Neither does the radio do much but reveal gentle static. Wherever he's going, it's on foot.

[Seon]

"Right, because you can't drive in the bloody Olympics. Everything has to be on foot. Well, you know what? As soon as I get back to the bar, I'm going to make a cardboard tank. It will be fully mobile, stealthy, silent, tough, and have virtually no carbon footprint in this world. Unlike real tanks." He left the car. "UNLIKE YOU!" he kicked the car once in the tire.

"Maybe there'll be more shotgun shells or handcuffs or something cool like that in the trunk though," Jack briefly wondered.

Spoiler:

Check the trunk then go to the hospital!

[Laraqua]

Jack struggled with the locked boot, getting close to knocking the tumblers into place, but never quite getting there. Finally, frustrated, he turns toward Crichton Street where Alchemilla Hospital lies. The only trouble is that the static patch that had disturbed him so much had occured directly in front of the hospital. As he ponders this, he hears nothing but a blast of angry static coming from the radio. He hasn't switched it off just yet. There isn't that static electricity feeling he had gotten near Alchemilla earlier. Just a sudden burst of noise.

[Seon]

He quickly switched off the radio. No need to announce his presence just yet.

He opened the door to the hospital. He smiled. It seemed like... A familiar place... For some reason. Almost as if... He was born here. Wait, that's true. He was born here.

"The emergency room... Where is the emergency room?" he wondered. It had to be somewhere in the first floor, right?

[Laraqua]

Hide,You jumped a bit. I said you were facing a road, not yet there. The static burst is actually because a monster was approaching you from behind but you hadn't heard its steps. I'll assume that you broke into a run without realising it was there (thus leaving it behind as it's slower than you) and describe what you see.

Jack switched off the radio and burst into a jog, already imagining what it'd be like when he got there. As he rushes down Crichton Street, knowing full well that he'll have energy to spare as it's really not all that far, he notices that the sky is darkening slowly around him so that, by the time he reached the corner of Crichton and Koontz Street, the world around him was so dark he needed his flashlight to see in front of him. The road ahead caved away into nothingness for as far as his flashlight could penetrate the foggy gloom. A footpath continued on through the left, hugging this side of the road, but there doesn't appear to be a way toward the hospital. The other side of Crichton Street, where Konami Burger stands, also has a footpath that continues southward, but the asphalt next to it is gone and replaced by a chasm that flanks the hospital. A droplet of moisture hit his face. Then another and another. Cold and wet water. It was starting to rain.

He's still standing on the corner of Crichton Street and Koontz Street. He can head on down along the sidewalk on his right to see how far it stretches and, worse comes to worse, get back onto Midway Avenue. Or he could follow the Koonts Street sidewalk and see if he can find the entrance that way or even if there's some sign of whoever made that noise on that road. Or he could head back up Crichton Street back towards the police station.

It also occurs to him that if he ever speaks to Cecilia again, or anyone else he runs into, it might be worthwhile comparing notes on any destroyed roads she's found. That way he can find his way around them.

[Seon]

He clicked the radio back on. He may as well investigate the Koonts street again now. Maybe the medals were hiding under that conspicuous box of horror novels.

[Laraqua]

The radio made a slight hiss of static but nothing more as he made his way down the sidewalk. It's disconcerting to walk alongside a cliff down the middle of what used to be a familiar street. He passes by Thrifty Records which appears as empty and lifeless as most of the buildings he's passed. Beyond that is another blank store and beyond that is Andy's Book Store. Andy was a man who preferred Jack's way of making cocktails. Deeply alcoholic. He'd owned that book store since Jack was a small child ... perhaps longer. A cursory flash of his flashlight reveals that torn pages have been ripped out of several books and taped to the walls. The door itself was barricaded from the inside. Beyond that is the corner of Wilson Street and Koontz Street. Just past the Wilson Street turn off is Restaurant Dai Dai and the car with the box of books. The static from the radio grows subtly louder and he can vaguely make out a sound like a man's wheezing.

Sanity Roll,1/1d4 sanity damage. Why? Because of all the crap you've been dealing with should give you a slight hit by now. Disappearing roads, giant scaffolding, a police station door with a coin slot, and the sudden darkness...

[Seon]

"Who's there?" Jack yelled, raising his shotgun.

[Laraqua]

The radio static blares louder and he can hear the vague wheezes a bit more clearly now. He realises, just in time, that that there's something coming from behind him. He whirls around (I'm guessing) in time to see a creature clothed in tattered excess skin like skin fabric hanging like a loose, ripped coat. Its left wrists erupts into a triangular protrusion of glistening bone, its face is blank but for a sucking mouth, and it staggers back and forth drunkenly, before charing towards Jack.

Remember,to make that Environmental Sanity Roll! I think Sanity rolls should be one of the things that players get to roll. If you fail, you take 1d4 sanity damage. If you succeed, you only take 1. You'll also need to make a Sanity Roll for seeing this thing clearly - which is 0 / 1d6 sanity damage. If you lose 5 sanity damage in a single hit, you'll go temporarily insane but unless I roll a 1 on a d10 I have handy I'll have the insanity rear its head AFTER the adrenaline-fueled killing of this creature as SH monsters are more, well, sanity shrieking horrors rather than literal manifestations of shouldn't-be non-reality and therefore it hits normal psychological buttons rather than causing you to speak gibberish and beat your head against the wall while it kills you.

Guns,Oh, and shoot to hit and damage while you're at it. A shotgun deals 3d6 damage, remember, so a butt ton. Enjoy!

[Seon]

Jack was shrugging off the weird town's influence when he saw he creature behind him.

He blinked at the creature before his face contorted to that of incredible fury.

"YOU!" Jack yelled. "You again?! Who do you think's going to clean up the freaking bar from your freaking intestines, huh?! Rochelle?!"

He aimed a shot dead center at the creature's torso and fired once, punching a hole clean throuh it.

[Laraqua]

The creature's momentum meant it pitched forward but this time Jack was ready for it and stepped aside. It landed, flopping and shaking, not far from the crater's edge. It lay there, gurgling, yellow bile streaking from its gaping maw. The radio continues hissing loud static at him.

[Seon]

"And then blood! Do you know how difficult it is to get blood out of the damn bar? Do you know how much money it's going to cost to fix that freaking dent in the car?!"

Jack kicked the creature once or twice. "And murder! You murdered a guy too! But most importantly you were the one who's been sabotaging the cars round here, eh?! Well, I'll shove you down this crater! Send me a post card once you are down there! Don't come running back out!"

[Laraqua]

While it's relatively heavy and blubbery, it's easy enough to shove it off the edge of the cliff, even as its twitching slowed under the heavy weights of his shoes. Unfortunately, while he avoided it hitting him this time, he's still covered in more than enough blood from the first encounter ... and the dog. Heck, some of the blood was even his.

[Seon]

"And let that be a lesson for you all!" Jack shouted down the crater.

"Now where was I? Oh right. Where was that box of horror novels..."

[Laraqua]

Jack continues down the sidewalk and finds that the crater ends just past Wilson Street in front of Restaurant Dai Dai to find no sign of the car. The box of books sits by the side of the road. Glass shatters right behind his ear. Turning, his boots crunch broken glass from what looks to be some sort of milk bottle broken on the ground. It looks well-trodden, though, so it doesn't seem like anyone's thrown at him. Turning back to the box he can see that the books are mouldy with faded covers that prevent Jack from telling whose novels they were or what they were called. At least, not the ones on the top of the box and not by their covers.

[Seon]

Jack spilled the contents of the box onto the floor and began to dig thorough it.

[Laraqua]

A medallion for the Midwich Debating Team on a bright yellow ribbon falls out on top of a pile of old, manky and mouldy books. At least the static from his radio has largely died down to a low hum. Now if he heads back up Wilson Street onto Sagan Street, he'll be able to do the competition and get into the police station and hopefully find Ash.

[Seon]

"There we go, finally!" Jack mumbled. Jack quietly slipped the medal into his pockets and began to trot back to the police station, breaking into a sprint whenever the radio began to screech at him.