Dark Things Chapter 1 Turn 5

Adventurers

Ivor as Emlyn, John as Dexter, Kitty, Paul and Wendy - they are currently in the adventure doing stuff that Emlyn does not know about yet.

Character: Emlyn Cadoc

Settings: Rules: d20 rules Interaction: ‘Go for it!’

Profession: Reporter at the Wyndham Whistle

Player: Ivor Cogdell

Description: Young with an innocent smile. Aged 23, Male.

STR: 14 DEX: 15 CON: 14 INT: 14 POW: 13 APP: 11 SIZ: 13 EDU: 12 MOVE: 9 LUCK: 11 SAN: 65 MP: 13 HP: 13

Attacks: 1 Punch

Punch: (-1 to hit) doing 1d3+1d4+1

Skills: Photography 60%, Acting: 50%, Writing: 60%, Credit Rating: 50%, Dodge: 57%, Drive Auto: 20%, Brawling: 45%, Welsh Language: 21%, Advanced English: 20%, Library Use: 40%, Research: 70%, Gather Information: 40%, Diplomacy: 40%, Sense Motive: 40%

Equipment: Smart office suit, boots, notebook and pen, wallet with about £20 and the keys to a Land Rover! Fire extinguisher CO2 (next to the seat in reception), Press card, bottle of water

Turn 5 – The Gathering Storm – 1pm Saturday June 18^th 1983

Emlyn smirks when Ramsay gives the translation of “SOS, What the Flip, Help”

Emlyn continues “Just about sums up our day”.

Ram asks ”Leg it to the pub?”

Emlyn shakes his head and says quietly, “It’s not worth the risk, these guys are trigger happy lunatics. They would take us down for just blinking in the wrong direction”

“Tell our mate next door to stay put and hide someplace, we will get him when we can. Get any info you can from him, name and so on”

Ram turns to Tom the constable and whispers ‘Let’s see if we can make contact, I’ll give you a dot and a dash and you tap your truncheon on the wall and we’ll see if we can get some answers about what the hell is happening’

Emlyn continues “I’ll go and distract the Colonel”.

Suddenly the hotel reception door opens and a bronzed man mountain walks in as snow and the cold wind follow him into the relative warmth of the reception room,

The guard near the door backs away, covering the newcomer with his weapon.

‘Where did you come from and who are you?” demands the soldier. The Colonel glances across at the commotion whilst continuing to talk on the radio.

The large man raises his hands in surprise before the soldier and says, "Where the hell did I come from? The BUS Man, I'm the Bus Driver, Dexter!! Where the hell did you all come from and why you got guns and shit?"

The young smartly dressed man approaches the colonel asking “Colonel, would it be ok for Marion to see Thomas, just to put her mind at rest, it would give her something to do.”

At this point the receptionist Marion gets up and walks calmly past the Colonel heading down the corridor with the first-aid kit!

‘Erm, young lady, stop!’ shouts the Colonel, ‘It’s my hotel’ she shouts back and continues down the corridor. Meanwhile the Police Officer continues to tap his baton, this time against the wall.

Dexter nods at the other civilians and asks the soldier "And who the hell are all these people?" before walking slowly over to the group and saying, "And who the hell are all you people?"

“I’m officer Tom Egar, erm…Ramsay, what comes next?”

“A dot, Tom” replies Ramsay, the older fellow who remains seated scribbling some message in his notebook while Tom knocks his baton on the wall.

“Erm, Colonel, orders please!’ shouts the soldier as he covers Dexters movements.

The Colonel frowns ‘Concentrate on the door soldier, reinforcements are nearly here’

The young man continues to annoy the Colonel asking “Can I use the other line to my paper, I am overdue to check in I won’t say anything about the situation here, unless you say so.”

The Colonel snaps “Sure, feel free Emlyn. Hey, miss I said stop!”

Marion shouts over her shoulder “and I said I’m going to help my boss!”

The Colonel smiles and says into the radio “Friendly on way to store room, hold your fire, I say again friendly”

The Telephone Conversation

Emlyn wanders over to the reception phone and carefully picking it up listens for a dialing tone before speaking:

“Hi Laura, Emlyn here, Tell Arty I won’t make it back to the office in time for our meeting, the land rovers’ playing up again. Aunt Margaret says hello, I saw her in the cake shop.” Code phrase – I’m in trouble.

Laura “Thanks for letting us know Emlyn. The cake shop is nice but is closed” Code phrase – The office is not safe.

“Oh, nice. Is she ok?”

Laura “She’s fine” Code phrase – we’re okay here.

“Yes, but her ankle is playing up so she doesn’t get about much.” Code Phrase – Held.

Laura “Her feet aren’t much good either” Code Phrase – we’re held as well!

“Her Roger has gone to Greece, got a great deal on a hotel, so she said. Lucky devil, first skiing and now this” Hint. Hotel and snow.

“You mean Roger, the guy in the army” Code Phrase – The army has us in lockdown.

“I’ll see you in the Bull when I get this rust bucket moving. Cheerio, now”.

“Bye”.

After the telephone conversation

“Thanks for that, Colonel”. Emlyn calls over his appreciation, but the Colonel is far too busy on his radio that is squawking rapidly.

Dexter continues grilling Officer Tom and Ramsay:

"Why is it snowing?" “No bloody idea” snaps Ramsay, “A dash dammit, Tom, I said a dash!”

"Why aren't these Army guys out there helping at the plane crash?” Ramsay responds “There’s aviation fuel and it caused me and Tom to pass out when we went near the wreck”

Officer Tom follows up with a loud “This isn’t normal I tell you, not normal at all”

“Well it wasn’t normal you trying to shoot the crew” snaps an angry Ram.

“You say dot or dash to me one more time” says Officer Tom to Ramsay “and I’ll put a bleeding big dash on your head!”

Emlyn tries to take the Colonels attention away from the loud conversation between Dexter, Officer Tom and Ramsay by asking

“So, who or what is this Majestic Land One that’s coming over to help? It looks like you have everything you need for a bank robbery or anything else. Why haven’t you chaps gone upstairs to see if they can find him?”

The Colonel looks grimly at Emlyn responding “You’ll soon find out!”

The argument continues to get more heated as Dexter looks at the Policeman tapping his baton and says, "You might wanna put that away before you hurt yourself!"

“You guys do realise I’m a Policeman” shouts Tom, “Show me some bleeding respect!” Dexter backs off a bit as the officer shouts “No more bloody dots!!!”

Ramsay “Shush, jeez, just be quiet for a moment will you!”

Emlyn strolls over to the main doors, with his hands in plain sight, to see what is going on outside.

“One of my mates is in the army, The 15^th Infantry Brigade, the one with the Insignia of a falcon. What your name, Soldier?” Emlyn asks the young soldier on guard at the door.

“Just call me Charlie the Tango killer” replies the solder, clearly a little unnerved by the atmosphere building in the reception.

“Been in the service long? Seen anywhere nice?” Emlyn adds.

Dexter suddenly shouts out “Have you got any food?"

Tom the Policeman shouts “We could always ask next door, it’s a bar and grill”

Ramsay, “Shut up, you idiot!”

Emlyn wanders back over Ramsay, Tom and Dexter and whispers “You won’t believe what’s going on out there!” Emlyn goes on to provide a description of what he saw.

Outside of the hotel – Turn 5

Now parked outside and abandoned are the police car, a taxi, a land rover and a blue bus. Behind these vehicles is now parked a jeep and a lorry from which troops have climbed and are spreading out across the car park. They are moving cautiously around the back of the hotel and adjoining bar and grill.

Three men have climbed out of the jeep, all dressed in bright yellow hazmat suits. They’re moving toward the hotel each carrying a box and a stretcher.

Further back, at the crash site, a crane on the back of a lorry has lifted up the wreck, which looks vaguely egg shaped – no sign of wings, but then again they could have been ripped off in the crash. Slowly it moves the wreck onto the back of a lorry and a tarp is being put in place to hide the fuselage.

Ramsays message with the Bar and Grill – Turn 5

Ramsay relays the secret Morse Code conversation with next door, while looming over you all Dexter watches with interest, trying to catch up with the crazy turn of events.

The best Ramsay can make out from the Morse Code fiasco is that next door in the Bar and Grill are 3 people, the owner of the bar, a waitress and an ex-military guy with a sausage dog (at least that seems to be the description). They’ve locked themselves in and have turned off the lights.

So, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any help coming from that quarter!

Turn 5a – The Gathering Storm – June 1983

Suddenly the reception door opens once more and in walk 3 figures dressed in yellow hazmat suits.

They’re carrying a fold up stretcher and several boxes. The Colonel indicates their route of travel and they shamble their way down the corridor toward the far service room.

Shortly after a large, severe looking man dressed in civilian attire which is well suited for the severe weather outside enters the reception, flanked by two soldiers. The Colonel points in your direction and the man moves over to you with his arms folded, staring at you intently.

“So gentlemen, we’re going to have to take you to RAF Wyndham for a quick medical check over and debrief. I would imagine, if all goes to plan, that you’ll be returned here tomorrow once the clean-up is complete.”

He produces a clip board from a brief case that he’s carrying and reads from it “During a routine training mission one of the experimental aircraft out of RAF Wyndham was struck by a surface to air missile fired by forces unknown. The crew gallantly kept the aircraft airborne managing a forced landing new New Wyndham Train Station. During the recovery exercise a second attack was launched upon the crew of the grounded aircraft and military forces opened fire to drive off the terrorists”

He looks severely once more at you, particularly at Ramsay and Emlyn “As you can imagine this is a major security situation so we would appreciate you keeping any mention of military action against our aircraft, just mention mechanical failure – that should do the job”

“Now, due to the aviation fuel and the possibility of this toxic material being transferred to your skin, and indeed transferred between you, we’ll have to take you for medical checks and a quick debrief. You’ll have comfortable quarters and we’ll inform all necessary next of kin and work contacts of the situation”

“I hope you understand the need for this official action. Colonel, are there anymore?”

You hear what must be the service door open and the yellow hazmat suited personnel appear, pushing a fold up stretcher with a figure (assumed to be Thomas) lay upon it. Marion follows, still holding the first-aid kit looking very pale.

“Put him in the lorry and young lady, please take a seat here next to these guys. We’ll need to get out of here soon”

The Colonels radio crackles and he calls over “There’s one more at the back, unconscious”

“Okay” replies the severe looking man, “we’ll send the Hazmats round to get that one too”.

“Better search the upper levels of the hotel just to be sure. Now, gentleman and lady, ready for a visit to RAF Wyndham for a debrief?”

Regards all,

Ivor Cogdell

Sunday, 15 November 2020