Exit 23 Dark•Matter Story Hour (NOW COMPLETE!)

Dakkareth said:

Ahh, Dark*Matter ... that's all the advertisement needed. Cool story hour

Click to expand...

I tend to agree. Anything that says Dark•Matter immediately catches my attention.

They all froze. Will Wheeler was muttering under his breath, "They ain't takin' me without a fight," as he tightened his grip on the stock of his M-16. Several assenting mumbles were heard. Even Dr. Akens reached into his large duffel bag, where to everyone's suprise he pulled out a long katana. He shrugged his shoulders at the surprised looks he got.

"Hey, everyone likes to collect something, right?"

Dr. Neary pulled himself up to look over the rubble at the black-clad apparitions in front of them. "We don't have the snow globe," he shouted. "It's gone for good." The faces in front of him grew harder, and many hands reached into black suits, re-emerging with pistols.

"Well, it was worth a try," he said. Wheeler was the first to move. With a shout he stood up and started shooting. Doug Nichols, now holding the shotgun from earlier, was next. One of the agents went down, while the rest hunkered for cover and started returning the fire. Wheeler took some shots and sank to his knees, but wasn't completely out yet.

Dr. Akens leapt forward with his sword, going through his moves as calmly and cleanly as if he were merely running through his forms in the dojo. One bloody agent body fell (nasty critical hit, as it turns out)and then another was hit as well. With a repeated blam, Akens took several bullets to the chest, and was knocked violently backward to the concrete where he lay bleeding. Dr. Neary didn't want to run out into the hail of gunfire to help him, but as a glazed look started coming over his eyes, he screwed up his courage and ran out to stop the flow of blood (Phil Akens was at -9 HP before finally being stabilized; as close a call as you can get).

With only two agents left standing, one of the cars made a desparate weaving motion to block off more gunfire, then it pulled away. All of the agents, even those who had gone down, were missing, leaving only the black tire marks, bloodstains, and one bullet-ridden Lincoln Town Car as evidence that they had ever been here. Dr. Neary looked up from his ministrations on the wounded. His eyes suddenly went wide.

The flame in the frier that had consumed the snow globe had spread. Most of the rubble of the convenience store was now aflame and spreading on the other side ... towards the gas pumps. "Everybody move it!" he shouted, dragging Akens towards his Volvo. Get to your cars and get the hell outta here as fast as you can!"

Mmmmmmmm . . . . Dark Matter . . . .

Really nice take on Exit 23! I take it from your comments, though, that this is not going to be a continuing campaign? What a shame. But thank you for sharing it with us!

Nothing like a little MIB.

Are you concluded or will we get one or two more updates?

If we are done, thanks for another fun romp through Exit 23. If not, I'll keep my eyes open for more updates.

Thanks Josh.

No, this is a single one-shot game that was played at a gameday with players that I didn't actually know before, and who live too far away for me to ever play with again (at least on a regular basis.) So unfortunately, once I'm done, I'm done.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that I'm not actually quite done -- one (or at most two, if I wax lyrical and start using too much text) more update should do it, though.

Joshua,

Thanks for another great update. I think I can speak for the other players that we would enjoy gamign with you again.

One of the things that I most liked about the adventure was the high level of tension and uncertainty. Plus, we had VERY determined PCs.

Those who were conscious, relatively uninjured and had their wits about them dragged those who weren't to the cars. Dr. Neary pulled Dr. Akens to the Volvo, jumped inside and turned the key. With a squeeling of tires, his Volvo, the black Lincoln and Wheeler's old Ford Bronco all slipped through the snowy ramp away from the gas station as quickly as they could.

Time seemed to stop as a fierce orange light suddenly blossomed in Neary's rearview mirror. A roaring sound filled his ears, and a concussive blast slammed into the cars, which skidded wildly. The Volvo crunched into a snow drift, spinning around so that his side window was facing the gas station. He looked outside.

A giant fireball blossomed from the remains of the station. Pieces of furniture, brick, wood, and metal rained into the snow, causing steaming craters to form all around them, but the cars were far enough away that they were unharmed. "I wonder if Mabel got out..." he whispered softly to himself.

The others were all awake now, and got out of their cars, looking in awe at the remains of the gas station that was Exit 23. The evening finally seemed to be over. Weary and sore from the many injuries, the constant state of tension for the last few hours and just the plain lateness on their watches, they all dully helped Neary get his Volvo out the drift, itself a bigger job than they hoped, and turned to each other to say farewell. That's when Nichols pointed to the sky, unable to speak.

The rest of them followed his finger, to see three bright lights darting towards them from the south, coming faster than they believed possible; faster than any helicopter or plane could hope to travel. One of them came right overhead, and the stopped so abruptly that they could almost hear the laws of physics screaming in frustration at being so ignored. A large pattern of lights loomed above them, and the could see beyond the lights a silvery, delta-shaped structure. The lights suddenly blazed, bathing them in blinding white glow. With yells of surprise and dismay, they climbed back inside their cars and sped away. The glowing craft in the sky paced them, keeping directly above them, no more than fifty feet.

Truitt picked up the shotgun that was still sitting in the seat of the Bronco and leaned out of the window to take a shot at the craft. He was so rattled that he missed it by a mile, blowing the mirror off the side of the door. Wheeler still had enough presence to mind to cuss him out for that. (Probably the first time I've seen a -3 on an attack roll. It doesn't help dramatic tension when folks are getting -3's on their attack rolls and making everyone else laugh.)

The lights on the craft began to dance crazily, even though the craft stayed still. Then they flared again, but a deep yellow this time. Their vehicles all shut down completely and came to jerky stops.

Neary hunkered down, as if he could hide in his driver's seat. Two other of the weaving craft come forward, and also shined their brilliant lights on the three stopped cars. And the original craft landed, right there on the road. And a ramp suddenly appeared from the side of it, and they could see something getting out.

It was a man. A middle-aged man in a ... "...military uniform?" said Dr. Akens, confused. He turned to Dr. Neary next to him his face blank. The man outside had a blue dress uniform on, and was heavily adorned. He was not a low-ranking soldier. The two got out of their cars, followed shortly by the other four.

"Gentlemen..." said the man in front of them. "Colonel Crawford, USAF. Pleased to make your acquintaince." He was greated by some half-hearted but mostly confused hellos.

"I understand you've had quite an evening. Most importantly, I understand you've helped keep an important artifact out of the hands of that meddling Hoffmann Institute. My congratulations. Now, if you'll come with me, I believe we need to talk. News of this incident is strictly classified, of course, but I think we can reach an arrangement that will be very mutually satisfactory."

Colonel Crawford turned around and walked into the ship. Nichols looked around, as if pondering making a break for it. Lights now glared at him from the ground as well; he realized half a dozen Humvees, crawling with men in fatigues carrying M-16s surrounded their three cars. With a nervous shrug to each other, they turned and walked inside the flying craft, not exactly eager to see what tonight's adventure had landed them into.

The End​

Yaaaaa-hooooo!

Wow, that was a good ride. Awesome stuff, JD.

Good Story Hours are like Oreos. There's nothing in the world you want quite so much after finishing one as ANOTHER. Mm...

Nice work, Joshua. Good adventure, very well told. Tons of fun. Thanks for sharing that with us.

Amen Josh. That was a whole lot of fun. I did not expect the ending, nice touch.

Keep these stories coming. Just becuase you've rapped this one up does not excuse you from starting another.

Thanks for all the goodness.

Nice ending ... I can hear it: '...and they were never heard of again.'