Chapter Text

The following is inspired by true events.

It’s midnight. You’re at los angeles international airport, terminal 5, killing time while you wait for your 2:13 flight to honolulu, hawaii. Despite being so late at night, the place is active- people from all over the world scurry from gate to gate like there’s no tomorrow. Indistinct men in suits wait in line to have angry conversations over the payphones in languages you didn’t know existed. The little shops and cafes that dot the airport are open and thriving.

The terminal comes equipped with a wcdonalds fast food restaurant, a corners book store, a queequeg coffee shop, a river rock gadget store, and “there’s something on the wing!” bar and grill. Were you to venture out into the unknown wilderness of the other terminals, you might find other stores or restaurants that more closely fit your interests. The flight to honolulu is in about 6 hours. If you have trouble sleeping on planes, finding something to amuse yourself with might be a good idea.

Periodically describe boarding calls being broadcasted over the intercom. Due to airport safety regulations, no ammunition is available to investigators, unless they find some lying around or steal a loaded gun from someone. All weapons, firearms or otherwise, are assumed to be stowed in their luggage somewhere and will take a combat round to retrieve in case a fight breaks out.

Store: Find your reading corner at corners book store!

“Now you see it!” brain teasers- a book of difficult visualization puzzles. Completing a puzzle requires a POWx5 check. After 7 successful checks, the investigator gains 1 POW. $8

“I’m a doctor, not a butthole engineer”- a cheaply printed star trek fan zine stuffed into a shelf along with the regular books. It’s free, since the bookstore doesn’t know it’s there, but anyone but a diehard fujo must make a SAN roll while reading it. On failure, they take 1d2-1 SAN damage

Porn mags- don’t use it on the plane. If masturbation was a skill, you’d get a check for reading one of these. $5

Skill magazines/books- it takes 1d4+2 hours to read, and results in a check for that skill. $5

Store: river rock sells the dumbest shit that will save your life

Sound burger: It’s a portable vinyl record player, because why not $300

Intelliviz Portable b&w television- lets you watch tv from wherever there’s a good signal $70

A ti-83 graphing calculator- lets the user do complex math easily $150

Sandy pocket PC- someone with moderate computer use could write simple programs. Can also do complex math easily. Printer and cassette peripherals are available, as well as a memory expansion $250

RC car- it’s styled to look like some kind of g.i. Joe accessory. It can keep pace with a human, and has a battery life of 45 minutes. you could probably mount something more useful on top of it $60

Strollboy cassette player- plays audio cassettes only. DO NOT TRY TO PLAY COMPUTER PROGRAMS WITH YOUR STROLLBOY $150

Polaroid camera- takes the good picture. An important component of any tropical getaway $130

Additional paper- $20/20 sheets

Synth solutions 4000x mobile phone- boasts an astounding 30-minute call time and 6 hour battery life. Cell networks are spotty, but hey, it would probably come in handy $3500

A yellowstone single-use camera- can take 12 photos. Must be developed at a 1-hour photo or similar store. $7

Zheng he portable GPS device- you can tell where you are, to 4 significant figures! $200

Multitool- contains pliers, philips and flathead screwdrivers, a small knife, a file, a very small pair of scissors, and a bottle opener $60

Casiopea calculator watch- CALCULATOR WATCH!! $80

Simon- a game game that displays a series of colored lights and tones, and prompts the user to repeat the sequence. The investigator makes an INT check against the device, starting at double advantage and decreasing by 1 bonus dice every third round. If you use it on the plane, the people next to you will hate you forever. $30

An LCD digital watch. Some find it easier to read than analogue. $40

Machina dynamica brilliant pebbles- a bag of rocks you tape to audio cables to make it sound (almost) imperceptibly better. $60

Sidequest: toilet struggle

The investigators receive a telepathic message: “someone! Anyone! Please help me! There is a grave emergency in the terminal 5 lavatory, and I need you to help me immediately!!”

The source of the message is hanako suisou, a woman with a hole for a face. She wears her hair in a bob, and is dressed like an office worker, though who knows what sort of office she works in. As she is inside a stall, the investigators can only see her feet

If at any point an investigator sees hanako’s face-hole, they must make a SAN roll. Failure deals 1d6 SAN damage, success deals none. hanako screams and explodes into bees that disappear when they hit a surface

The women’s bathroom is oddly quiet, considering the commotion. hanako beckons the investigators over to her stall. The stall is out of toilet paper, and she needs the players to get her more, or at least something she can use as such.

The next stall over has toilet paper, but it’s locked in its housing. A successful lockpick roll could open it. An investigator could probably feed the paper under the barrier to hanako’s stall. Otherwise, the bookstore is an option.

hanako slides a business card under the stall door and instructs the investigators to call if they see anything weird, you know, besides this apparently telepathic office lady.

The card reads: hanako suisou, kurogawa heavy industries, santa monica, CA.

Hanako will also say something to the effect of “have you noticed how many spiders there are around here? Please do your best to avoid being bitten. Or actually, come to think of it, I don’t think they’re actually spiders.” if the investigators press her on this, she will continue: “well, true spiders have fangs that point inwards towards each other. Most of the creatures I’ve seen here have fangs that point straight down, so they’re mygalomorphs”

hanako disappears as soon as the investigators stop paying attention to her

If the investigators go back later to check back in on her, the stall she was in is empty, but remains locked

Back on the rails

After giving the players an opportunity to mill about for a while, a flight attendant gets on the intercom: “attention passengers, flight 343 to honolulu has been delayed due to a tropical storm in the flight path. It is expected to clear by morning, and your flight will depart from gate 72 in terminal 7 at 8:28 am. Please come to the counter to receive your new boarding pass.”

The investigators and the flight’s other passengers finish what they were doing and begin to make their way over to the new gate. Should any decide to loiter in terminal 5, trigger “hey dipshit, deliver these drugs,” “fishy flirting,” or “pickpocket.”

Investigators on the way to terminal 7 will notice that the trip seems to be taking longer than the distance would imply. Eventually, they hear over the intercom “this is the final boarding call for flight 764 to los angeles”

They’ll probably try to ask a passerby where the fuck they are, and the person will either look at them like they have 3 heads and say “uh, this is atlanta,” or make a joke about how it can be hard to keep airports straight sometimes

Sidequest: hey dipshit, deliver these drugs

Use this if someone is sitting around doing nothing for a while

As you loiter around by the gate, you accidentally make eye contact with a man holding a briefcase, looking around expectantly. He approaches.

The man says something to the effect of “hey, my flight’s about to leave, and I need someone to deliver this briefcase to my colleague over at gate 41.” he will hand the investigator $400 in cash in order to try to persuade them.

The briefcase is combination-locked. Inside is a bunch of cocaine.

Airport security comes by and asks if anyone has seen the briefcase guy. If they recognize the briefcase, the investigator has to convince (fast talk) the cops that it’s a normal briefcase that isn’t full of drugs.

If they hand over the briefcase or are found out, the cops confiscate it. Someone affiliated with the drug boys will pick a fight with them later on

If they don’t deliver the case for any other reason, the drug boys will get impatient and pick a fight with them later

The target location is a bench near terminal 4, gate 41. If they sit around and wait there, another drug boy will trade the drugs for a paper bag containing $1023 in non-consecutive $20 bills.

If the investigator fails to conceal the briefcase from security, they’ll get taken in for questioning at an inopportune time

Encounter: drug boys

If the investigator with the briefcase dawdles a bunch or loses the briefcase, they get accosted by a pair of drug runners in the bathroom. One is armed with a “paperweight,” the other is empty-handed.. They are looking for a fight, but are not immediately violent.

They begin by demanding that the investigator get a move on.

Successful fast talk or persuasion will result in them asking the investigator for both the briefcase and the cash back. They don’t actually know how much the bribe was, so the investigator can cheat them out of some of it if they’re smart about it. Intimidation will get them to back off

If combat starts, they’ll fight until they feel like they’re losing or are attracting attention, at which point they’ll try to bolt.

Store: AMERICA!

Terminal 4 is the home of the AMERICA! Shop. If an investigator wants to add some bona fide american flair to their dull, freedomless life, this is the place to do it

Stock includes clothes, mugs, neck pillows, and ronald reagan movies on both betamax and VHS. patterns include “AMERICA!” “STARS AND STRIPES, MOTHERFUCKER,” and “REAGAN’S HANDSOME DISEMBODIED HEAD”

AMERICA! brand clothes make law enforcement characters like them more.

Sidequest: Fishy flirting

Use this if someone is sitting around doing nothing for a while or to pad for time. It’s best used against a player or investigator who has trouble telling people to fuck off. Alternatively, throw this at someone who would get pissed in a particularly funny way

A young woman, probably about 19, approaches an investigator while they’re alone. She has no luggage, and is dressed casually, if a bit provocatively. An observant investigator might notice patches and pins on her clothes that bely her affiliation

She’s trying to recruit people for the “construction of light esoteric lodge,” which is definitely not a cult. She’s trying to follow a script, and if she gets derailed, she becomes increasingly flustered.

This is basically a social combat encounter, and the investigator wins when they get her to leave them alone. They don’t necessarily have to beat her in a roll or anything, they could just as easily stonewall her until she gets frustrated and leaves, or do something that might attract attention from others. Otherwise, she’ll keep going as long as she’s able to progress in her script.

Sister Caroline’s most holy script of bystander recruitment:

Part I : make small talk

Part II : determine the flavor and extent of their existential ennui

Part III : connect their ennui to a function of the lodge

Part IV : exchange contact info and confer lodge meeting schedules and pamphlet

Level 5 : Attempt to seduce target for the glory of satan !!FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE!!

There are a few ways this is likely to play out

Route A: smile and nod

The investigator plays along with caroline’s script, or whatever they assume the script is, and she leaves once she hands over the pamphlet and contact info.

Route B: stonewall

For whatever reason, caroline gets stuck in her script or the investigator keeps derailing her, and she leaves in a huff. She may or may not leave behind a pamphlet, “in case you change your mind”

Route C: fuck off

The investigator does something that frightens her, be it intimidation, a threat of violence, or drawing the attention of onlookers. She gets the hell out of dodge before things escalate.

Route D: construct the light in me right now please

The investigator actually wants to join the cult. This opens so many bizarre pathways that are way beyond the scope of this scenario that I wouldn’t even know how to handle. Level 5 may or may not happen off in the background somewhere while normal investigators do other things

If sister caroline believes herself to be on amicable terms with the investigator, whether or not it’s mutual, she’ll be a contact they can run into later. Otherwise, the player gets a check in psychology. They’ll be sure to spot a scoundrel like caroline in the future!

Sidequest: pickpocket

Use this if someone is sitting around doing nothing, and also has no contacts with folks at the destination or in some faction or another. Also if an investigator has something important in their wallet, this is probably a good one to spring on them.

An investigator passes through a particularly busy hallway and someone bumps into them and attempts to steal their wallet. Depending on what’s more interesting, the investigator either rolls luck or spot hidden to determine if they catch the thief in the act. If they don’t, they realize the next time they try to buy something, or after 20+ minutes of fucking around in in-game time.

If the catch the thief in the act, they can do whatever they want to try and get the wallet back. If they’re obviously violent, security will detain them, and they can explain what happened.

If they don’t catch the thief, then they can probably ask the staff or other investigators if anyone saw anything, requiring a hard luck roll from whoever they ask. Otherwise, they can go to security, who will have caught the thief either the next time the investigator comes into focus, or at the end of the module. The thief will have taken the cash in their wallet, equalling $60 or 1/4 of their spending level, whichever is lower.

If they involve airport security, a staff member will give them their number to call and be a possible law enforcement contact for later.

The investigator gets an inspiration dice if they lose money at the end of the quest, or a check in spot hidden if they catch the thief in the act.

NPC: Hanako Suisou

Hanako is a spectral manifestation of japanese office culture hailing from the dreamlands. Her lack of a face is representative of the loss of identity within business culture, because if anything characterizes the dreamlands, it’s hamfisted symbolism. She always speaks in very formal language. Sometimes a viscous black fluid oozes from her face-hole when she gets excited.

Hanako’s only special power is that she can use the phone without anxiety. She may assist players with secretarial work and archive retrieval from time to time, but she’s worse than useless in combat and understands only slightly more about ~the true nature of reality~ than the investigators.

The name and sidequest are supposed to be a reference to hanako the toilet ghost, a spooky story japanese kids apparently tell each other.

NPC: Sister Caroline P. Dawson

An acolyte of the construction of light esoteric lodge. She’s been a member for about 8 months, and at least outwardly appears to enjoy it. During that period, she’s gradually cut contact with most outsiders and mostly just exists in lodge-related social circles.

The lodge is total exploitative horseshit, but by pure chance they got some things right. Caroline has a 5% mythos skill, but will always assert the lodge’s own tenets with absolute certainty, regardless of if they’re actually correct.

She’s knowledgeable about the occult as it pertains to various other totally respectable religious organizations, and is decent at persuasion and psychology. She’s rather helpless in a fight, though she carries a knife in her bag in case a level 5 goes wrong.

NPC: Officer Clarence Newton

A police officer with the airport police. He’s black, in his mid 40s, and slightly overweight. He loves coffee and hates crime. He has a generally sleepy demeanor. His daughter’s name is alice, and she’s in 5th grade. If any investigators interact with the police, he’s their point of contact.

If the investigator does crimes or otherwise makes a scene, he’ll be irritated with them.

If they had the crimes done to them, he’s more sympathetic.

He’s proficient with handguns and okay-ish at brawling. He carries a glock, a taser, and a nightstick.

This concludes side A. please flip over the tape and re-insert it into your playback device.