Our chronicle begins in a quiet agricultural town of Haven Meadow, Kansas - population three-thousand. Abigail St Clair owns her family's ranch, a mile southwest of the town. Her parents died in a car accident, leaving her the ranch, and her brother, Thomas, moved to Topeka. Of the three general stores, the largest has been owned by Ardan O'Neill, since he moved in five years ago to be with his ailing grandfather, the former owner, before he passed. The local clinic is run by Doctor Catelyn MacArthur ever since she moved in two years ago after she was medically discharged from the army. Her family lives in Wichita, so she moved to be close to them, but not so close as to be constantly visited. A newcomer to the town arrived not one week before our chronicle begins, whom moved in with his wife on the edge of town. His name is Mark Davidson.
(Disclaimer/Spoiler: If you've seen Jericho, know that I based quite a bit of this first session off of its pilot, shameless stealing most of its story. With a World of Darkness twist, of course. PLAYERS: DO NOT VIEW SPOILERS, UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!)
October 6th, 2012.
Thomas St Clair arrives in town for the day and drops by the ranch. He has come to pick up his part of the inheritance left by their late uncle. Their cousin comes to give him his portion. Abigail and her guests have dinner before Thomas heads back to Topeka.
Its a slow day for Catelyn at the clinic. A little girl, six years old, named Bethany has been fighting an illness. She and her classmates at the elementary school are going west to the town of Bear Gate to tour the salt mine, and she didn't want to miss it. Catelyn has managed to give her the perfect medications, and gives her a clean bill of health. Bethany thanks Catelyn with a hug and a peck on the cheek.
At his general store, Ardan is enduring his weekly 'chat' with Mrs. Witman, an elderly widow that loves to talk everyone's ear off, bless her heart. Mark arrives to buy from fresh produce, and when he comes to the check out, Mrs. Witman excuses herself. Ardan thanks the newcomer once she leaves, saying she probably had another hour of conversation left in her. The two introduce themselves, and as Ardan checks out they hear a car crash outside. They both come outside to see an old pick-up that has run in to a light post, which has crashed down on to of the vehicle. They try, in vain, to force the door out from its wedged position. Together, they pull the elderly man from the broken window without harming him. They call 911, and Mark preforms emergency medical care.
Catelyn arrives with the town ambulance. Seeing that Mark has done the early work for her, she gets the man on a stretcher and takes him to the clinic. Ardan and Mark speak with the deputy that arrives before returning and finished the check out.
Mark heads home to a peeved wife. She is upset at being uprooted from her home in Washington DC by Mark's employers, with no explanation, leaving her congregation behind. Mark is apologetic, and offers to cook steak for dinner.
October 7th, 2012.
Its Sunday, and Ardan and Abigail attend the morning mass at the local Catholic church. Mark and his wife visit, as Mark's wife is searching for a place to go to church until they return to their home. The elementary school kids head off for Bear Gate in their school bus. The rest of the day passes uneventfully, and Abigail always go to Ardan's shop on Sunday's, seeing as she is already in town. Evening arrives, and Ardan starts to close up shop. Catelyn ends her shift at the clinic and starts to drive home. Abigail is penning her herd. Mark is in his basement, illuminated by his laptop.
Suddenly, Catelyn slams into the back of another car that she had no idea had come to a stop. She gets out to speak with the other driver, but the other driver is completely distracted, her gaze turned west.
Ardan notices the commotion of the street, which is normally filled with chit chat and children at play, has come to a dead silence. He looks around and all of the people on the street are looking west.
Abigail's herd begins to act strangely. Her dogs act nervous and look to the west.
Catelyn turns her gaze west. Ardan sees something in the reflection of his doors that he doesn't believe, and must turn to look. Abigail followers her dogs' look. Mark's wife tells him to come up, and quickly.
Past the mountains in the west, in the direction of the city of Denver, is a massive, green mushroom cloud. After the initial shock, the town goes into a panic. Ardan uses his phone as a mobile hotspot for his computer, and goes to the Topeka news site. In place of the usual homepage is a black screen with a federal seal on it, with the words: FEMA - EVACUATION ORDER - TOPEKA, KANSAS. The deputies advise everyone to head to the courthouse, where the mayor is going to address them. Ardan is able to enter the meeting room, while the rest of the player characters are forced to listen from the outside, as the building is packed.
"Everyone remain calm!" the mayor says to a frightened crowd, "We do not yet know what caused the.. Event to occur. We have thus far been unable to communicate to any state or federal emergency channels. We do not have any facts, and therefore should not panic." A woman in the crowd speaks up, saying she was on the phone with her cousin when the phones went dead, saying her cousin was in Miami. "Everyone should remain calm and return to their homes. As soon as we know something, you will too. We do, however, need to find our children. The Sheriff's Department is stretched a bit thin, so we're asking for any adult volunteers to help us search for the school bus. if you'd like to volunteer, find a deputy of Sheriff Blue. otherwise, go home and try to stay ca-" He is interrupted by a city-wide loss of power. He shouts for everyone to see to any perishables until power is restored.
Ardan goes to his store and reopens, expected people to need supplies for their spoiling food, and to do damage control for his goods. Abigail, Catelyn, and Mark all volunteer to help search. Mark tells his wife to go home, but she insists on joining the search. Abigail drives her pick-up, Catelyn the ambulance, and Mark his black SUV. They meet in front of the Sheriff's Office where assignments are being delegated. Mark pulls the Sheriff aside, and tells him, "You should think about covering that." He points to the town name on the police cars, "If this is some kind of attack, you may not want people to know Haven Meadow is out here." The Sheriff disregards him, and asks who he was. Mark introduces himself, and says he's a retired cop from Miami.
By now it is nightfall, and the search teams take to the road, heading west. Mark and his wife see a bus pulled over to the side of the highway, so they pull over. Mark stows a handgun behind his back and walks forward with his flashlight. He notices the bus is white, not yellow. he shines a light on the side, it reads: Rawlin County Penitentiary. Abigail spots the black SUV pulled over and sees the bus. She, too, pulls over with her dog, Sarge. She approaches Mark, and he tells her its a prison bus. She goes back to her truck to get her rifle. They notice a sheriff car parked off the road close to the bus. Mark peeks in to the bus through the windows and spots two men on the ground. Abigail goes to the sheriff car and sees a man in plain clothing, dead. Mark enters the bus and sees a man in a Sheriff's Department uniform, and the driver both dead, along with two inmates. There are two empty pairs of handcuffs on the ground. Mark tries to use the bus radio, but no one answers.
As Mark and Abigail swap notes, Catelyn spots the convoy in the ambulance and pulls over. She's brought up to speed, and Mark asks to use her radio. He calls back to the Sheriff's Office while Catelyn sees if she can do anything for the bodies, who she finds to all be quite dead. Mark relays all the information, and the deputy responding says he'll spread the word, and tries to call the Sheriff. Catelyn over hears the transmission coming from the sheriff car. Mark goes to the officer's body, and reads his name plate: Sheriff Blue. Another sheriff car arrives on seen. Catelyn leaves an EMT to deal with the bodies, and joins Abigail as she and Mark (and his wife) continue the search.
They finally find the school bus, after following some tracks leading off road. When they arrive, they find the driver with a head wound and the teacher unconscious, and only seven of the twenty children. The kids tell them they all fell asleep, and when they woke up, the rest of the kids were gone, Bethany among the missing. Catelyn tends to the driver while Abigail and Mark search for the other kids. Sarge, the dog, follows a scent to a large shrub. The shrub is empty, and his trail ends there. Mark investigates the shrub and finds something familiar, much to his dismay. Abigail tears through the shrub and finds a burn mark on the ground at the center of the shrub.
With what children they have, they head back once the rest of the search teams arrive at the school bus and start looking for the others. Mark allows a few of the kids to ride back in his truck. One kid, Andy Hall, gets noisy and finds a 9mm magazine in the back as well as a labeled bulletproof vest. Mark tells him to forget what he saw, and learns the kid is son of a deputy, whom he decides he should get acquainted with.
A mysterious and seemingly disastrous cloud in the sky, missing convicts, and lost children await the characters next session!
(And this counts as my Wednesday post...)
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