The Handbasket Ride - Episode 6
A solo Electric State RPG actual play report
Wednesday, October 16th, 1996. 11:32am
Scene Chaos Factor: 7
Expected Scene: Finding information on Barstow
Testing the Expected Scene: 3 - Altered Scene
Most of the time, when you portal into the neuroscape of a small town, you normally get a virtual, perfected version of that town, showing off all the positive aspects, and hiding all the dirt and blemishes that all small towns have.
But all that aside, you can usually still learn a fair bit about what's really going on in a town, usually from the community noticeboards and classified ads. Even with everyone spending more time in the digital world, there's still groups that meet regularly to discuss stuff, or just hang out. They still chatter, gossip, spread rumours, and all sorts of stuff like that.
If you're a PI like me, that stuff can be an absolute gold mine of information. With everything going virtual, it makes it even easier to quietly sit back and watch what's going on.
So, when I portalled into the Barstow 'scape, I expected to see a marketer's version of a sleepy little desert town. All of the good stuff, and none of the bad.
What does the neuroscape around Barstow actually look like?
Location Meaning Table: 93/91 - Unexpected, Threatening.
That's not what I got.
The current Barstow neuroscape - or at least the one that I got portaled into - is a desolate, dead, post-apocalyptic nightmare. The sky is dark and heavy with horizon-to-horizon rust coloured clouds that roil overhead like the first trickle of milk into black coffee. The air smells heavily of smoke, and that smell that exposed metal gives off when it's been baking in the sun for hours.
The town is in ruins, with most of the buildings just burned out shells of their former selves. The dust and sand from the desert has taken over, and as you walk through the deserted streets, there's an eerie wind that whistles through. So eerie that it's almost a tune that your subconscious recognises, but there's nothing there for your conscious mind to latch onto and concretely identify. It's maddening.
If that wasn't bad enough, as I moved through the deserted streets, I could hear other sounds of things moving around in the ruins. The rattling of discarded corrugated iron sheets when someone knocks them. The crunch of gravel and broken glass. Howls from some unearthly creature off in the distance that seems to be following me, but still keeping itself out of visual contact.
Then there were the shadows and the movements I'd catch out of the corner of my eye, but there was nothing there when I turned to look right at it. No matter how much I looked around and saw nothing, it still felt like I was being watched.
Barstow was a ghost town here, in perhaps the literal sense of the word.
I wandered the streets for a while, looking for the City Hall or even just a library. Both places are typically good places to find useful information. The chances of them being intact in this 'scape were probably slim to none, but it was something to aim for, which is what I needed right now.
Wits check: Does Eamon find any useful information in the Barstow 'scape?
Eight dice, including +3 from his neurocaster's Processing ability: 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6 - Two successes.
After searching about for a while, I stumble across a newspaper vending machine on a street corner that still has some newspapers in it. The paper is dry and yellowed, but it's still legible. It talks about how the town's water supply has run out and citizens are being encouraged to evacuate the town. Dust and fallout from the war have also affected local vegetation, and destroyed all local food production.
Does he find any information in the newspaper about Nym Shani? Unlikely - 81 - No.
So that partially explained the state of the Barstow 'scape. I've seen abandoned neuroscapes start to develop weird behaviours, seemingly on their own, but never quite to this extent. I'm curious how things got this bad in here. Was it someone deliberately altering the 'scape, was it a virus, or was it something else entirely?
Given the other Wits roll success, what else does Eamon learn from the scape? 32/36 - Fearfully Fragrant
As I was standing there, I caught a whiff of something that forced me to look up from the paper. It was an odd smell, partly sweet, but somehow foul at the same time. It was disturbing.
It took me a while to figure out where it was coming from, but eventually I found the source in a badly overgrown front garden.
Was it the smell of something that had died? 50/50 - 05 - Exceptional Yes
By the time I found the garden, the stench had grown overpowering. When I found the source, I was nearly gagging. There was a collection of what looked like gaming drones lying amongst the dead grass of the overgrown lawn. What was weird about them was they looked as though they had once had an organic component to them, and whoever had killed them had practically disembowelled them. Their torsos has been sliced open, and wires, plastic tubing and some sort of semi-organic organ had all been ripped out. From the smell of them, they'd been there a while.
God damn, that shit was nasty.
Is anyone else nearby? 50/50 - 40 - Yes
Is it Shani's avatar? Unlikely - 50 - Yes
What does Shani's avatar look like? Character Appearance: 33/73 - Fancy, Regal
Does the avatar look like his photo? 50/50 - 95 - No.
Does Shani have a Stimulus TLE/Pro? Likely - 40 - Yes
Opposed Wits Test to avoid surprise: add in Neurocaster's network score
Shani's Wits Score: 3
Shani: 3 + 3 dice - 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4 - No successes
O'Sullivan: 5 + 3 dice - 1, 1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 5, 6 - One success
As I was looking at the remains of these drones, there was a sound from inside the house that the garden belonged to, like someone had kicked something metal like an old can. I squatted down, and pulled the Walter PPK from inside my tux jacket.
Hey, if I wanted to look like James Bond, I might as well go the whole nine yards.
"I know you're in there," I shouted, "and I'm armed. Why don't you come on out where I can see you."
There was the sound of footsteps, and a figure emerged from the gloom inside the house. It was man, tall and ramrod straight. He was dressed in an old-fashioned military dress uniform, which looked something like it was from the nineteenth century. His jacket was a lustrous blue colour, with polished brass buttons. He wore a white silk sash and gold lanyards over the top of his jacket. There were two large jewel encrusted stars attached to the lower left of his jacket, above his black leather belt. His black trousers had creases so sharp he could slice through paper with them, and his knee-high cavalry boots were polished to a mirrored shine. From his waist hung a cavalry sabre in a polished leather scabbard, and he had white silk gloves on his hands. His dark hair was slicked back, and he had a seriously impressive waxed moustache and mutton chop sideburns.
He stood on the veranda above me in the at ease position, his hands behind his back.
If there was anyone less likely to be found in an abandoned American desert town, you would have been hard pressed to find them.
"Who are you?" the figure snapped. "What the hell are you doing here?"
I stood up, pistol at the ready. "Someone passing through. I smelled this mess, and came to investigate."
How does Shani react? Character Conversations: 71/04 - Miserable, Agree
The figure looked down on the remains of the drones in disgust. "Yes, they do smell rather disgusting, don't they?"
"What happened here?" I said. "If the smell is bothering you, why not move to a different building? Or just leave this place altogether? I mean, it's not the most hospitable of places, and there are certainly far nicer places to spend your time."
Empathy check: Five dice, plus three from 'caster's Graphics rating: 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5 - No successes.
Bliss increases by 1.
The man looked at me, as though sizing me up, a frown spreading across his face.
"Why the devil should I tell you?" he snapped. "I have no idea who you are, and you have not even had the common courtesy to give me your name." His hand came from behind his back and rested on the hilt of his sabre.
Wits check: Does Eamon realise who this is? Five dice - 2, 3, 4, 4, 4 - No successes.
Bliss increases by 1 again.
"Hey, no offence, man", I said, backing up a couple of steps. I slipped the PPK back into its shoulder holster, then raised my hands in supplication. "Look, if you don't want to chat, that's OK."
"No, I do not wish to 'chat'," he said, scowling. "Certainly not to the likes of you! I was deucedly busy before you interrupted me. Now, unless you wish to end up like these three, I suggest you move along and get back to your 'passing through'. There's nothing in this town for you to find."
"OK, OK!" I said, backing up, until I was outside the garden fence. "I guess I catch you around some other time."
I started walking down the block, occasionally glancing over my shoulder, and checking him out. The arrogant bastard kept staring at me malevolently until I disappeared around the corner.
I called up a map of the city, and figured out where I was. When I got back into the real world version of Barstow, I wanted to come and take a look at what was going on this place.
Making sure that I was out of sight of His Royal Doucheness, I gave the shutdown command. The Barstow 'scape faded to black.
I pulled my caster off my head. The temperature inside the pickup had risen in the time I was in the 'scape, and sweat ran down my face. I wiped it away with the back of my hand, then reached into my backpack and pulled out the bourbon I picked up in Baker last night.
I took a couple of big swigs straight from the bottle. It was cheap and rough, made only nastier by the fact it was lukewarm. But it hit the spot, at least for now.
What the fuck is going on in that town? Why did its 'scape look like that, and is that what I can expect to find when I get there? Who was the headcase in the uniform and what was he up to?
So many damn questions.
End of Scene Bookkeeping
Things were a mixed bag for Eamon in this scene, so the Chaos Factor stays at 7.
Added Nym Shani to the Character List for the third and final time.
Character Improvement
Given I'm over 12,000 words into this story now, I think that I'm going to make an improvement roll. I'm playing solo, so there aren't "sessions" per se, so I might just make an improvement roll every 10,000-12,000 words, instead.
Stat chosen: Wits (currently 5) - 4. Stat does not increase, so Eamon picks up a new talent: Lone Wolf. He's always talking to himself about what's going on, so it makes sense that he can talk through the things that are bothering him and find a new course of action.
End of Episode Notes
I wanted to use the neurocasting rules in this one to let Eamon find out some information about where he was going. It seemed like a pretty reasonable thing for an investigator to do.
At the time, I did not expect to immediately run into Nym Shani’s avatar, although in hindsight, with the Chaos Factor at seven in the scene, there was a pretty reasonable chance of it happening, even with the odds set to Unlikely. Ah well, it’s one of those learning experiences with solo gaming, I guess.
So this turned into one of those weird solo gaming situations where I (as the GM) know something that I (as the player) do not. I’ll have to keep that in mind in future episodes, and have Eamon act accordingly.