10/31/16, 11:20am
"I
hate working on Halloween," thought Lieutenant Detective Dale Chippen.
"It's when all the crazy things happen. And just after the new moon, too.
I think that means something..."
A call had
just come in from the foreman of the crew constructing the new set of houses on
the north end of town. Snoreburbia was erecting Phase 3, and had been for
months. Large, high-end housing complexes, the first two developments were on
either side of the new one. If they'd left the space blank, knowing they'd be
building there, why not name them in order, instead of "1, 3, 2"? But
whatever. The foreman's call was patched through to Dale after the street cops
had already been by the site this week to investigate other calls in that area.
People from the West side of Snoreburbia 1, the construction site's neighbor to
the west, had been reporting seeing a giant flying bug, or several giant bugs.
"Halloween," he thought, "brings out the crazies, and the pranksters."
The cops had found nothing after investigating a few times this week, no giant
bugs of any kind. But today, the construction foreman was reporting the giant
bug himself and stated his men had run off the job site and would not be
returning until they got the all clear from me personally. An entire crew
leaving a well-paying site like that was probably not a prank. When the going
gets weird, we call in Department 7.
"It's
probably nothing, but I'd appreciate your consultation on the matter. Can you
be here by 2?...Great. Thanks. See you then." Another call in the same
fashion and two of Department 7's agents were on their way.
Promptly at
10 minutes before 2pm, both agents arrived, though they had not met. A young,
good looking man dressed in an expensive sweater of Italian wool and soft
tailored slacks held the door open for an equally young woman in a pinstriped
suit and cotton blouse with flawless features and long straight blonde hair
tied in a simply pony tail, and followed her into the police department. She
asked for Lt. Det. Chippen's office and he cocked his head, "same."
She turned her face to him and smiled, giving a single nod of acknowledgement.
The woman produced a badge from her designer purse, but the man did not. They
walked down the hall in silence, minus the bustle of the station and the
clicking of her stilettos. Dale was in his office when they arrived.
"Ah,
good. And right on time. Miss Wraith, always a pleasure," Dale said and
shook her hand, then Chuck's. "Chuck, so glad you could join us. Have you
been introduced?"
"No,"
said Chuck in a curious voice.
"Chuck
Longfellow, this is Inara Wraith, a Department 7 agent from a neighboring city.
Miss Wraith, this is Chuck Longfellow, a recently recruited agent. You were
both called because you have different sets of skills that I hope will be
complementary on this case. We've been getting calls all week about a giant bug
out by the construction site on the north end of town. It being Halloween and
all, we figured they were prank calls, but after several calls of the same
nature, the boys went to check it out." Inara coughed slightly, barely a
sound at all. "I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me - some patrol went to
check it out. They didn't find anything at all, no signs of a bug, no
droppings, no nest, nothing out of the ordinary. Several more calls came in,
then, today, the crew walked off the job and refuses to return until we give
the all clear. I need to know if there's anything out there at all, or if this
is some elaborate prank that scared the workers off their job. The reports were
at the northwest side of the site, where there current construction is taking
place. Let me know what you find, and of course, if you need anything."
As they
walked down the corridor on their way out, Chuck said "May I call you
Inara?"
"Of
course. And Chuck, yes?"
"Please.
Would you like to drive, or shall I?"
"You
can drive. I use a driver, and I don't like him to come with me on cases. It's
simply not his place. I'll just be a moment. Pick me up out front?" He
nodded and walked quickly past her and into the parking lot. There was a
pristine Rolls Royce Silver Wraith stopped in the fire zone. As Inara
approached the car, her driver got out and prepared to open her door. She spoke
quietly to him, dismissing him until her call that she was ready for pick up,
and leaving her jacket and purse with him. By the time their exchange was over,
and the driver was pulling away, Chuck was pulling up in his Escalade.
The site
was indeed deserted. Chuck parked his Escalade along the sidewalk and they
walked slowly around the front of the area, looking for tracks of any kind,
burrow marks, or anything unusual. They saw only the prints of work boots, a
cement mixer, a generator suspended from a crane, another smaller generator
hooked up to outdoor lights for working in the dark, and the foundations that
were poured for the buildings that would eventually be built nearer the
sidewalk.
As they
walked and looked, someone approached from the west along the sidewalk, a
woman, apparently, but there was something very strange about her. As she got
closer it was apparent that she was currently, or used to be, a man. Further,
she had undergone many plastic surgeries, to the point that her face was not
what you'd call normal, but that kind of "new normal" that surgeons
make, or what otherworldly aliens might think humans look like if you asked
them to make one out of clay. She had to shout to be heard from a distance of
about 100 feet to where the pair stood "Hey, whatcha doin' out
there?" They exchanged a look.
Department
7 was not widely known, and was not open to amateurs. If there was something
dangerous they might confront, they did not need a civilian in the middle of
things. However, they were also not the Men in Black and could not blinky-thing
her memory and send her on her way; this situation called for tact. Inara was
charming, and used her skills here. "Hello. We're investigating this site
for disturbances. It may not be safe. You should go."
"Nonsense.
I used to do construction. I can consult for you, tell you if things are
amiss."
Chuck swore
under his breath. "And you are?"
"Call
me CJ. You've probably heard of me. I'm in town doing some public speaking
engagements. I was just having dinner over there and saw you two poking around,
figured I could help." She fluffed the ruffles on her blouse as she
talked, but was otherwise sensibly dressed in slacks and flats. It was hard to
tell of she was wearing a wig or extensions, but hair that long and wavy did
not look natural.
The waves
of annoyance coming off of Inara were almost palpable. "Of course. Have a
little look around. What do you notice, from your expertise?"She signaled
Chuck with a look behind CJ to stay slightly ahead of the outsider, in case of
trouble. They flanked her with room to spare and walked slowly as they listened
to her running commentary on the tools used, the materials, and how odd it
seemed that the items in the building in the far back left were present when
the workers were not. Chuck nodded to himself, the evidence before them
confirming what the Detective had told them about the crew leaving the job
mid-day. The building on this back left corner was the most completed of any on
the lot. There was a second story partially built, with walls put up, but no
roof. The first story was a shell of what would be, with framework in place so
you could judge the doors, windows, and general structure. A ladder leaned
against one wall and the place was littered with work benches, table saws, and
open tool boxes. Not the sort of equipment one usually leaves at the end of the
workday; the crew had left in a hurry. CJ continued "I mean, just look at
this: chalking lines begun but the tool just sitting on the floor? Who does
that? It makes no sense. What happened out here, buckaroos?"
Inara,
never having been addressed as a "buckaroo," even as a small child,
narrowed her eyes at CJ, but spoke cautiously. "We don't know, but that's
what we're here to find out. Thank you for your consultation. You've been a big
help. We can take it from here; we're specially trained in what comes
next."
"Oh,
well what does come next?" CJ did not get the hint that she was dismissed.
Inara
smiled even more sweetly, putting all of her saccharin into her.
"Potentially danger. Please go with our thanks. You've been a great help
to our investigation. We didn't know we needed a consultant to point out such
items as you did, but you were wonderful."
"We
can take it from here," Chuck echoed with a smile of his own.
"Nonsense.
In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. I'll see this through with
you," CJ replied. She wasn't going anywhere, and her curiosity had the
best of her. What was this danger? In her charmed life, a little danger was a
welcome distraction.
After exchanging
a quick glance of annoyance, but resignation with Inara, Chuck stated
"Well then, let's just see if we can find anything around the side or
back, shall we?"
They walked
along the right side of the partly finished building, and were met with as-yet
uncleared trees and bushes, which would be replanted and manicured before the
houses were up for sale next year. They walked along the back of the building,
but it was difficult to see as the sun set early this time of year, and had
done so during their expedition, plus the other building, Phase 1, blocked the
remaining light. There was a slight noise in the trees, like a cracking, but it
was unclear if it was just local wildlife, or something more. Inara left the
group and dragged a light with generator along the opposite side of the
building so they could see into the trees. Suddenly, there was a large shadow
over the tree line some forty feet back. "Did you see that?" Chuck
asked Inara.
"I saw
something. What was it?"
"What
was what? I wasn't looking," replied CJ, now peering desperately into the
trees to get a look at what Chuck saw.
"Just
a moment," Chuck said and pulled a small pair of folding binoculars out of
his pocket. "Yes, there, above the trees, something is flying, something
huge. Here," he said as he handed his binoculars to Inara.
CJ, annoyed
at not being offered a look, huffed "Well what is it?"
Inara was
looking in the area Chuck indicated and could see something moving in and out
of the tree line, and it was indeed huge. If this was some huge bug, she could
see why it scared the workers off. However, if it was just a prank, she did not
want to overreact. "I can't see where the strings would be, if it's fake.
Remote control, do you think? A drone with a costume over it?" She handed
the binoculars back to Chuck, causing CJ to sigh in annoyance again as she
retracted her outstretched hand.
Chuck
resumed looking, answering slowly, "Well, maybe. But that's an elaborate
prank if so. Only - duck!" Both women ducked on instinct from Chuck's
alarm, as did he, and they saw the huge thing charge the light post. It was
twelve feet tall with a fourteen foot wingspan, had a thin humanoid body with
taloned hands, but four thick petal-shaped grey wings that seemed to be made of
quilted velvet by the way they absorbed to the light. It was emitting a series
of clicks and squeaks and darting around the light. Its hideous face had long
sharp teeth and it clattered them together frequently. "What is that
thing?"
"You
aren't just cops, are you?" CJ asked.
"We're
investigators," Inara replied, answering her question without answering
it.
Chuck put
his binoculars back in his pocket, moving slowly. He pulled his gun out in
nearly the same motion. Inara drew her weapon as well. CJ ran off and they both
let out a little sigh of relief until she returned a moment later with a
crowbar that had been left laying around. She took aim and chucked it at the
creature, but missed and it sailed into the trees, landing on a branch and
hanging there. Now weaponless, she retreated again, nearer the building and
away from the creature.
Chuck took
aim and shot at the creature, hitting it in the wing, a greenish ooze pouring
from the wound, making it fly at crazy angles without the use of one of its
wings. It charged him, and it knocked him flat, but he shot at it again as it
closed in, hitting it in the body. It flapped sideways and landed clumsily in
the dirt at the edge of the bushes near CJ, who was wide-eyed with terror. It
let out a screech and she took off running back the way they had come, Inara
running in the opposite direction at the same time. Chuck, on his back, did not
notice Inara's movement from his vantage point, but rolled over and shot at the
creature again. This time, it lay still. Not trusting it was dead, he stood and
backed up slowly, keeping his gun pointed at the thing. Inara came running back
and asked "Is it dead?"
"I'm
not sure."
"What
is that thing?"
"Looks
like a moth, kind of."
"No.
Not like any moth I've ever seen. Those glowing red eyes are terrifying. But it
seems to be still now." They approached slowly.
Chuck
prodded it with his shoe, but it did not move. He prodded it harder, but to no
response. He let out a small sigh. CJ came running back then. "I don't
know what happened, but I was suddenly so afraid and had to run away. It was
like I came to my senses after a moment, and came back."
"Senses?"
Inara quipped, "Who'd run toward this thing? But I know what you mean.
Same thing happened to me when it made that noise." She turned her attention
to Chuck, "You're pretty banged up. We need to get you some help. If
there's more of those things, you're going to bleed out on us and I don't need
to do that kind of paperwork."
CJ pulled
Chuck's arm over her shoulders just as Chuck's leg gave way beneath him.
"I'm strong. I can help you." They walked slowly toward the sidewalk.
Inara
called Dale's cell phone, intentionally falling behind the other two. "We
need an ambulance. New guy's injured, not bad, don't worry. But we, uh, picked
up a stray. I'll explain later. We got it, or one of them, but we need to
regroup. Get back to you soon. Bye."
Dale barely
got in two words, but sent an ambulance to the construction site. "Man, I
hate working Halloween. A stray? What'd she mean by that? I hope there's not a
civilian mixed up in all this."
The
ambulance arrived in good time, seeing the wounded Chuck sitting on the
sidewalk with Inara nearby. CJ had left to see what kind of weapons she might
scavenge from the nearby office trailer or around the site. Inara saw her
emerge a short time later carrying two coffee mugs, but shrugged it off.
One EMT was
treating Chuck and trying to convince him to allow them to transport him to the
hospital to monitor for a possible concussion, but Chuck would not allow it.
The exasperated EMT continued to dab antiseptic on Chuck's wounds and put a
couple of stitches in his arm where the creature's claws had raked him during
the charge. Inara used her charm on the other EMT and asked for a medical kit.
"You'll have to sign for it; I can't just give it to you," he said.
"Of
course," she stated, and signed on the clipboard he produced after handing
her a large box with a handle. They dismissed the ambulance and Chuck, feeling
somewhat better, put the kit in his vehicle. Inara dug around in the kit and
pulled out a vial of adrenaline and an individually packaged syringe and
provided a small amount to Chuck, allowing him to finish what they had started.
CJ was still bustling around and set down the two mugs she had been carrying
earlier next to the crane suspending the generator.
They made
their way back to the still dead creature. As they listened and scanned the sky
and trees for more creatures, a noise was heard in the trees, lower than where
they had seen the creature, but around the same area, as far as they could
tell. All three heads snapped up at once, peering into the dark of the trees.
Chuck pulled his binoculars out again and looked but could barely see anything.
A movement on a tree caught his attention. He switched to his weapon quickly
and shot. There was a heavy sound as something fell to the ground. Back to the
binoculars and he saw it was a raccoon, shot dead from the tree. "Well,
there," Chuck stated dryly, "I've saved us. From a horrible woodland
creature. It was just a raccoon."
Just then,
there was more noise from the same direction, cracking, squeaking, crunching
noises. "No," said Inara, and stalked away down the far side of the
building. She returned with a second flood light and hooked it up to the generator,
pointing it from a perpendicular angle into the woods and peering in. There's a
structure in the trees, around where that thing was. Can you see what it
is?"
Chuck
looked through the binoculars. After a moment he said, "There's a...I
guess it's like a nest, but it's
too...it's not a nest like any creature builds, too angular and complicated,
but yeah, there's definitely something about 20 feet up that tree, but I can't
hear anything anymore. Can anyone else hear anything?"
A quiet
moment passed then CJ stated, "I hear something, something strange, like a
clicking, like a-" and then she ran away again.
Through his
binoculars, Chuck was the first to notice it, a small creature, flying
haphazardly inside the trees. This one was about two feet across and tall, but
seemed to be shaped similarly to the dead one on the ground. "Um, I think
we've got offspring. A little bugger, if you will. Can you see it?"
Inara
could. "I see one. Are there more?"
"Not
that I can tell."
Inara took
aim and shot that one, but the nest erupted and three others poured out.
"Incoming!" she shouted, backing up, pistol pointed into the trees.
Just then,
the cement truck that had been parked in the front middle of the complex came
storming up, like it was being driven by a kid with a learner's permit, causing
Chuck to jump out of the way and toward the building for safety. CJ steered the
truck into the trees, partially driving over the dead creature and turning it
into road kill, knocking down brush and shrub and tree alike, and aimed right
for the area where they had seen the structure in the trees, knocking that tree
down, too, and others near it. She then jumped out of the truck and made her
way to the others.
"Get
down," Chuck yelled to CJ. She crouched and ran for the cover of the
building. He and Inara shot at the two creatures they could see flying in what
was now a clearing. Both creatures fell, dead.
There was a
brief silence. "Phew, that was exciting!" CJ exclaimed. Both agents
turned and looked at her in wonder.
Inara shook
her head and walked toward the truck. There was a fourth small creature stuck
to the front of the truck, also dead. They appeared to be the same variety,
perhaps children of the parent they had initially killed. She began dragging
the lifeless bodies over to the larger creatures, making a pile. CJ wandered
over and poked through the wreckage of trees and what must have been their nest
with the crowbar that was now fallen from the tree. There were bits of bones,
possibly raccoon, molted...whatever that was they were covered in, and not much
else. She dragged it over to the pile also and walked away toward the crane,
returning with the two coffee cups. "Diesel," she said, and handed
them to Inara, who poured them over and around the carcasses.
"I'm
going to call this in. I'm confident this was not a prank and we got the lot of
them. Yes?" She pointed her question to Chuck, as he was the only other
agent on this case.
"Agreed.
I'll do the honors, so no one finds this." He lit the fuel and set the
bodies and nest aflame.
"Seems
a shame," said CJ. "I mean, the Enquirer or someone would pay good
money for a story like this. And with evidence, too, I mean..." but
Chuck's cold expression stated he was in no mood for a discussion of selling
the story, so she trailed off and let it go.
Dale
answered his phone, weary for what Miss Wraith might report. "Not a hoax?
Really? A giant what? Wow. How did you...? Very good. Yes, good idea. A
civilian? A celebrity! Oh no. Well, maybe we'll just have to offer her a
position with Department 7. Yes, very good. Thank you." Oh, there was
going to be so much paperwork!
This is an actual adventure created and run by me with my
husband and two of our friends.*
System: D20 Modern
Play time: 4 hours
Date: 10/31/15
Monsters: Mothman adult female, 4 mothman juveniles (D6 to
determine how many)
*Some liberties taken with the order and details to make it easier to tell and a better read. It was also my first time as DM and I was so nervous I'd mess something up. The worst of my mistakes was confusing spot and search, but that's not so bad.
