Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – The Electric State Part Four

Read the previous part here

Scene One
Six months ago
Crystal went out the night she got the eviction notice. She needed to drink until she couldn’t remember anything. Losing her apartment. Catching her boyfriend cheating on her. It needed to drown and die. And that’s how she met Randy James. At first, Crystal saw him like any other shitkicker who wandered into Victorville on a Saturday night. But that wasn’t Randy James at all. He said he was a professional philosopher. She rolled her eyes. But damn, if he wasn’t charming as hell. RJ had many thoughts on neuronics; he said he worked in R&D for Sentre, developing new interfacing for the neurocasters. That’s what led to them having sex in his truck with their neurocasters on. It was unlike anything Crystal had ever experienced. She was enamored. 

After about a month of meetups and lots of sex, RJ invited Crystal to his place. He explained that he owned a commune out in the country. Four other people lived there, and they were working to become self-sustainable. After weeks of couch-crashing with friends, Crystal thought it might be a good place to chill. 

The wooden sign hanging over the gate had an orb eclipsing another carved into it. Nick. Sergio. Ollie. Roxanne. They were all really nice and helped her get settled in. They never pressured Crystal to join the farm work, but she felt it was only right if she did it. In the evenings, Randy James would hold court and talk about a bevy of esoteric ideas that Crystal didn’t understand half of. Over time, these “sermons,” as she came to think of them, unnerved her. 

Randy James woke everyone up around 5 a.m. one morning. He was implementing new training: hand-to-hand combat and target practice with an arsenal of guns. He suddenly revealed he had been hiding. Crystal was surprised at how everyone else was going along with this. She got good at both hand-to-hand combat and with a gun. He started calling them the Children of the Eclipse, saying that they would significantly change humanity forever.

Then, the day came when he brought everyone to the barn, which he kept padlocked. Everything changed when Crystal saw what he was holding inside.

Scene Two
Shift: Evening
Encounter: Abandoned Car
Tilt: Medium Good for the Travelers
Threat: Violent Threat – Law Enforcement Officers
Stop Countdown Event: Victims Appear
Oracle: Defend Knowledge

Crystal eased on the brakes and stopped yards from the abandoned car in the middle of the road. It had been shot to pieces, riddled with bullet holes. She gave a look to Wyatt, silently saying, “This could very well be a trap, right?” Stella poked her head up from the back seat. “Head on swivels,” Crystal tells her fellow travelers. Taco whimpers and nuzzles up against Stella.

Crystal notices the blood, lots of it. No bodies, though. Whoever shot this car up must have taken the victims. The indentations in the road pavement stand out. Massive footprints? A rustling sound from the brush off the side of the road. A teenage girl emerges with an unsettling grin on her face.

Maya Leon, 23
Personality: Survivor | Emotional States: Joyful  | Motive: Technology  | Method: Power

“Bonner got ‘em,” she says, followed by a giggle. “I watched them shoot the car apart, drag the bodies out.”

Crystal notices the rifle slung over the girl’s shoulder. “What’s your name?” she asks, trying to distract this stranger.

The girl giggles, stepping closer. “Maya.” Crystal can see the bloodshot eyes and heavy dark circles under them. With the unnerving glee, she knows she’s looking at an addict. 

“Who’s this Bonner?” Crystal asks. Keep the girl talking so she can size her up and look for an opportunity.

“He’s the sheriff in Bakersfield,” Maya explains. “Crime is ‘out of control,’ they say, so he’s shooting first, asking questions later. He doesn’t take kindly to strangers passing through his territory.”

Maya continues, “I know the only safe route through Bakersfield. I won’t tell you unless you help me and my group.” She giggles nervously. “You have to come with me.”

Crystal doesn’t like being threatened by this junkie (Flaw: You always react to threats with violence)

Crystal attempts to take down & disarm Maya.

(Strength check (6) – Success)

With Maya disarmed, Crystal explains the girl will take them to the way out and hand over some of her group’s supplies. If Maya tries anything, she’ll fucking kill her.

Wyatt is stunned by this sudden burst of violence and attempts to calm Crystal down quietly as Maya waits in the back of the Explorer bound. Stella and Taco stand by, worried.

Wyatt (Empathy check (2) – Failure)

Crystal (Empathy check (3) – Failure)

Tension increased by 1 between these two

Crystal tells him that if Wyatt tries to interfere like this again, she’ll ditch him on the side of the road. What about Stella? I didn’t say I was going to ditch her, detective.

Wyatt doesn’t trust this woman with Stella’s safety.

Scene Three
The Resistance HQ
Tilt: Low Bad for the Travelers
Oracle: Escort Problem

Maya didn’t lie; her group has set up at Miguel’s Shoot Em Up, a shooting range marked as permanently closed for business.

Crystal has Maya walk ahead, she has Maya’s rifle trained on the girl. She shouts out toward the building that they were jumped by this kid on the road. They just want supplies and to see the clear way around the police; they have no qualms, but they won’t be threatened.

(Strength check (6) – Failure)

Uncle Miguel, 54
Personality: Pragmatist | Emotional States: Crazed  | Motive: Trauma  | Method: Power

Miguel steps out onto the front porch and says to kill the girl; she doesn’t matter; only the fight against Bonner does. The “safe” path is littered with IEDs that only he knows and can disable anyway. Crystal is stunned by this; her bluff has been called, and she lets Maya go. Miguel says he understands why Crystal did what she did, the girl was in the wrong. She’s all hopped up on crank.

The resistance is Maya, her Uncle Miguel, and her creepily quiet friend Luca.

The police use a refurbished military drone to enforce their rule. Crystal thinks about Randy James and the barn. She can’t dwell on that for too long. 

The trio wants the Travelers to help them take out Bonner’s drone so the people can overwhelm him. They have been building explosives in Miguel’s shed out back.

Maya attempts to charm her way into checking out Miguel’s workshop. She could use a bomb. She tries to charm him by remembering survivalist chit-chat during her time with the Children.

(Empathy check (3) – Failure)

Miguel seems completely disinterested in her charms; he’s not anything like Randy James.

Event: Conversation – Religion
Oracle: Refuse Leader

Crystal connects with Miguel about dealing with a madman who is out of control and how the only way to deal with some problems is to blow them off the face of the Earth. Through this conversation, Miguel decides to take them down the “safe route” through Bakersfield.

Tilt: Low Bad for the Travelers
Event: Traveler event – Tries to overcome a Flaw, they have a personal revelation and face their flaw – Wyatt: You see the worst in everyone.

Wyatt almost trips over a wire strung across the path. Maya blocks him, saving his life. He had sort of written this kid off as a junkie, but she’s still a good person. He glances over at Crystal, who chats with Miguel as he carefully pulls off the tripwire. That woman is way too volatile, what did she want a bomb for anyway. He figures he and Stella should try to find another way to San Francisco once they get through Bakersfield.

From a nearby hill, a Kid Kosmo drone, used by the Children of the Eclipse, scans the woods with its thermal vision. It identifies Crystal and heads back to let the others know she’s been found.

Read Part Five here