Night 6, Part II Things Fall Apart

Night 6 Part II

Things Fall Apart

“Fuck me,” says Maya, sliding deeper into the back seat.

“What the ever-living shit?” Daron asks, looking desperately around, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the cop just wants them out of his way.

“This is bad. This is bad. This is very, very, very bad,” Trent mumbles.

“Is this car hot? You said it was cool! You said it was fine! What did you get us into?” Daron yells at Trent.

Trent snaps at Daron, “The car is fine! Sean’s dad buys them at auction, for fucks sake. It’s clean, this is a goddamn, fucking, clean, ass car!” He slams the dash for emphasis. “What? Were you speeding? Were you speeding?”

“I wasn’t speeding! I was going like 35! That’s not speeding.”

“Speed limit is 25” Maya says quietly from the back.

“Oh, for fucks sake, no one ever goes 25,” Daron responds.

“Whatever! What are we going to do?” She demands.

They’re on a rural backroad in the middle of the night. A cop is behind them, his lights flashing. The characters have stolen drug money, stolen guns, and are covered in blood that is not their own. Do they pull over and try to “explain” things? Do they slam the pedal and run? Do they start shooting? 

Mythic Roll: Separate Fears

Fuck this, they rabbit.

Chase system
Each vehicle in the system has three rating: Safe Speed, Max Speed, and Maneuverability. Maneuverability is the maximum number of dice that can be rolled, no matter what.  So, if the car has a Maneuverability of 5, and the driver has a Dexterity + Drive pool of 10, the driver still only gets to roll 5 dice. The “lead” car can try various maneuvers, with a Difficulty based on how hard that maneuver is to perform. The Difficulty is also modified by the speed of the vehicles. Up to Safe Speed, no modifier. For every 10 MPH over the Safe Speed, difficulty increases by 1. Max Speed is just that, the fastest that car can possibly go. I decide that the characters need to accumulate a total of 10 successes to get away from the Police. They begin with 1.

The Fairlane is a Sedan, which normally has a maneuverability of 5, with a Safe Speed of 70 and a Max of 120. Given its rough condition, though, I drop the Maneuverability to 4 (not that it matters, as Daron only had a die pool of 4 in any case), and the speeds by 20. The Police Cruiser I assign the value of a Mustang: Maneuverability of 7, Speeds of 100 and 140.  Their car is built to be inconspicuous. The Cruiser is built for exactly this situation.

Round 1. Daron attempts to just go as fast as he can, to get any kind of distance between them and the cop. He slams the speed up to the Safe Speed, a very simple “maneuver.” Difficulty is only a 2 for both. Daron rolls his 4 dices vs the officers (actually, he’s a Deputy, but the distinction is lost on the characters) 5 dice. 4 Success vs 2. He succeeds and Daron has put 3 Successes between them and the Police.

The Deputy was taken by surprise by the beat-up clunker even trying this. Sighing, he turns his siren on, and radios in. Each “round” of the chase, there’s a 10% cumulative chance of backup arriving for the Deputy. Each “backup” doubles the number in pursuit (1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8, etc.).

Round 2. Daron attempts to take a sudden turn at speed. This is still a simple Maneuver, but the roads are a bit slick from the recent snowfall. Difficulty 5. 2 Successes vs 3. The Deputy is gaining on them.

Back up: 1 in 10 chance, roll of 3.

Round 3. Daron increases his speed to Max (100 mph). Difficulty for Daron is now a 7 (+5 for 50MPH over Safe Speed), but only a 2 for the Deputy, as his safe speed is 100. 2 success vs 5. Cop is on top of them.  At this point, he could use a PIT maneuver or the like, but the high speeds make that a bad (and, I believe, illegal) idea. There’s no other cars out, so he just stays with them.

Backup: 2 in 10 chance, roll of 3.

Round 4. They’ve failed completely to outrun the police. Trent offers to lean out the window, fire his gun, and try to drive their pursuer away. Do they agree? NO. “We’re not shooting at cops, you stupid psycho!” Maya corrects him.

Daron looks for a tight turn he can make to shake the cop, and when one comes up, he makes a desperate sudden turn. Base difficulty of 4 (9 for Daron/4 for Cop): Both fail, and the cars start to spin wildly in the snow and dirt. Seeing their best chance, Daron hits the car into as much speed as possible, but the cop keeps with them.

Backup:  3 in 10 chance, roll of 3.  A second Deputy joins the pursuit.

Round 5. They come to an intersection, do they stick to the paved road or follow a dirt road? They choose the dirt road, hoping the rough terrain will allow them some opportunity to shake the cops just enough that they can dive out and run for it.  Their speed is reduced, but the difficulty remains at +5. 

Unlike the Police Cruiser, their car has no business travelling at any speed on these roads.

Backup: 1 in 10 chance, roll of 6.

Round 6. Daron tries the trickiest thing he can think of, a fishtail turn over rough terrain at max speed next to steep ravine—Dif 10. The Deputies are at 5 (I roll just once for both). Daron gets 1 success vs 2. The police are still on them.

The coterie is officially out of ideas. They have got to shake them, and the cops are so close that 

“ditch the car and run” is doomed to failure. They won’t shoot at them. So, what do they do? I roll Mythic and get “Travel Prison.”

“Maya?” Daron asks

“Yeah?”

“How confident are you that you cannot be seen if you don’t want to? Like, even if they’re really looking for you?”

“Um pretty confident, I guess. Why?” She looks around, not seeing any place she could hope to hide.

Daron looks at Trent. “You buckled in?”

Trent rolls his eyes “You cannot be fucking serious? We do this, it’s over, right? Like, we are truly dead. No parents, no school, never going back to our lives. We’ll be on the run. Forever.”

“Look around, dumbass,” Daron says, hurriedly. “We are truly, utterly fucked now. Unless we want to go all gangsta, this is our only way out.”

“WHAT IS?!?!” Maya shots, afraid she already knows the answer.

“Thelma & Louis,” Trent answers. “Daron wants us to crash, and leave him and me for ‘dead.’ The cops will find us, declare us dead, stop looking for us, and then…and they what, exactly?”

“Maya springs us from the morgue.” Daron answers, squinting his eyes, trying to find the right spot.

“Holy shit, how? And won’t they wonder why 2 corpses walk out? Won’t they be looking for a…body snatcher, or something.”

“Guys, we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. We need to do this NOW. Does anyone have a better idea? Hm? Anyone? No, I didn’t think so. Ok, everyone buckle up. And pray. As if it will do a damn bit of good.”

Daron kills the lights, trusting on his enhanced vampiric senses to see better without them. All three spend 2 blood points to increase their Stamina. Once Daron sees a good spot, he guns it, making a Manipulation + Drive roll to make it appear as an accident. This is where his Maneuverability penalty kicks in, as he can still only roll 4 dice. We spends a Willpower for a guaranteed success, and rolls 3 success, for a total of 4. It looks like a tragic accident, as the car spins wildly out of control and careens down a ravine. Due to their speed and plan, I rule that each takes 7 levels of damage, enough to kill any mortal. Daron soaks 2, and so only takes 5. Trent only soaks 1, and so takes 6. Maya is able to soak 3, and thus only takes 4.

The Fairlane crashes through trees and smashes on the rocks. When it finally comes to a stop, Maya looks at her friends—they appear to have been smashed to pieces, broken bones sticking out and their necks at unnatural angles. She asks, quietly, “Daron? Are you alive?” Daron is barely able to spit out a quiet “go.” Maya grabs one of the guns and the cash, and rushes out of the car, avoiding the probing lights of the police and seeking the safety of the forest.

Does Maya cover her tracks? Wits + Survival, dif 8—1 success.  It’s something, but won’t stand up to a thorough search. She crawls away and hides in a copse of trees, allowing the shadows to conceal her.

It takes a while, due to the rough terrain, for the police to get to the crash site.  While she waits, Maya spends some of her blood to heal most of her wounds. Eventually, the response arrives. A helicopter floats overhead, numerous Deputies and Officers from Denver secure and patrol the area, investigators and forensics comb through the wreckage--the whole lot. Trent and Daron remain as still as they can, and are quickly pronounced dead, though their death only raises more questions for the investigators. Where have they been? Whose car is this? What were they doing out here, and why did they run?

Chaos Roll 8 – no event.

It takes a few hours before the bodies are released to the Coroner. Unsure what else to do, Maya attempts to sneak into the van. This is extremely difficult, and will require a Dexterity + Stealth at a difficulty of 10, and 3 net success.  She spends a Willpower to gain an automatic success, and a blood point to increase her Dexterity.  She rolls no successes, and with only the 1 from her Willpower, she’s not able to get in the van. But, I rule, as part of the “partial success” she backs down before exposing herself too much to the investigators, and is forced to watch helplessly as the Coroners van rumbles off into the night.

She looks around, desperate for any other option to get out. Is there a way for her too? There’s plenty of vehicles, but mainly government investigators, and these vehicles are secure. Very Unlikely, Yes. The car is being towed away, and its smashed doors and windows give her a chance to sneak in. Dexterity + Stealth, difficulty 8.  She botches (2 1’s, no successes).

I’m curious as to what the result of the botch might entail, so I roll Mythic and get Befriend Death. As she darts out of the trees for the truck, she is suddenly struck by one of the few remaining police cruisers. She takes 4 levels of damage, and is knocked back into the trees. She balls herself up and hides, and the officer believes that he struck an animal. Soon, all the vehicles are gone, and Maya is left alone in the forest.

They struck the gang early, soon thereafter were involved in the chase. The investigation took a few hours, so it’s currently roughly 1 in the morning. Maya has no idea where she is, and is unwilling to climb the steep ravine to get back to where they were. Worse, unlike Daron or Trent, she lacks the discipline of Auspex, and so can see no better than a human in the night. But, the emergency vehicles have left an obvious and easy path, and she decides to follow them out. The cold doesn’t bother her, but plenty of other things do.

How the hell did things go so wrong, so quickly? They had finally figured out what they were doing, and how to survive, and how to work together. They were starting to unravel who Prestor was, and what they were going to do next. A few hours ago, Maya had dared to allow herself to believe that things might just work out. And now…now she almost had to laugh at how bad everything had gotten.

She is exhausted. Not physically, no. Her dead body could walk forever, probably. She was exhausted mentally, spiritually. All she wanted to do was curl up in the snow and sleep, and let this horrible night be over.  But she trudges on, blindly unaware of any other option she might have.

Maya is down to a Willpower of 1.

Random Event: PC Negative Betray Joy.  Maya is hours away from Denver. She needs to feed, she needs to either find a ride or a place to hole up for the night. As she trudges through the woods, she eventually comes to main road, and can at least see which way the majority of the emergency vehicles has gone, as so she keeps with them, walking along the road. The few times a car drives past, she ducks into the trees, allowing the shadows to conceal her until it passes.  She finds no hope of an easy escape.

What does she find along her journey? Delay Home.

She walks for hours, alone and miserable. She thinks vaguely of hunting, of grabbing some wild creature of the woods to slake her thirst. But the beasts seem to sense her, and flee from her presence. She could pursue, she knew, but even that effort seemed to be too much for her. She thought of hailing on of the rare cars that drove past, perhaps hoping for a ride. Could she bribe them with the money she had? Or, would they become terrified at her visage. That would mean a fight. A fight would mean she could feed, but it all seemed like too much for her to even contemplate.

Eventually, she sees a half-ruined house, set back from the trees. With the night slowly giving way to dawn, she decides to investigate it, as this is the best shelter she’s seen for miles. What’s there? Ruin Elements. The place might have been used by vagabonds or users, but for now it is empty, a cold, ruined husk that perfectly matches her spirit.  She wanders it for a few moments, trying to convince herself she is doing what is necessary and ensuring that it is empty. The truth is, she has no idea what to do next. As the stars begin to fade, and she feels her body starting to give way to the paralyzing sleep, she makes her way to the basement and digs for herself a shallow grave in the dirt floor, and allows herself to rest.

The Chaos Factor Increases to 7.