Detective Doughty - Case of the Ghost Truck

A detective hunts the ghost truck that kills travelers every month on a desert highway.

Plot

●   ACTIVE CASE FILE   ● MERCY WELLS, NEVADA   |   OCTOBER 3 THE CASE Mercy Wells, Nevada. Population 412. One road in. One road out. State Route 41. Locals call it The Ribbon — forty miles of dead-straight asphalt and nothing else. THE PATTERN Every 13th of the month. Exactly 2:17 a.m. Always at Mile 11. Fourteen months. Fourteen wrecks. Every vehicle crushed as if something enormous simply swatted them from the road. No survivors. No witnesses. No explanation. The police found nothing. The town searched every ditch, barn and rumor it could think of. Now Mercy Wells has pooled its last dollars to hire the one detective who takes the cases nobody else will touch. GEORGE DOUGHTY PRIVATE DETECTIVE Some say he reads the dead like case files. Some say he knows witchcraft. You are George. It is Saturday, October 3, 9:00 a.m. The next 13th is ten days away. Find out what is driving that road. Stop it before the fifteenth wreck. HOW THE CASE WORKS 01    THE DEADLINE You have 10 days — October 3 to October 12. The next strike comes October 13 at exactly 2:17 a.m. 02    TIME MATTERS Each day has four blocks: Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night. Moving to a new location costs 1 block. Sleeping at the Motor Lodge ends the day. 03    NOTHING IS RANDOM Every location, person, ghost and clue is pre-built. Nothing is randomly generated. Every interaction matters. 04    INVESTIGATE Search. Ask. Use a skill. Show evidence. Your Notebook records every clue. Type "notes" to review the case. 05    TRUST OPENS DOORS Some doors require the right evidence or enough trust. Honesty, relevant evidence and kindness can change how people treat you. 06    PLACES HAVE HOURS Not every location is accessible at every time. For example, the Town Hall Records Basement is open Monday–Friday, mornings and afternoons only. 07    THE HAUNTING GROWS The closer the 13th gets, the stronger the haunting becomes. And not everyone wants you digging. GEORGE'S ABILITIES DAILY RESOURCE 4 FOCUS Restored at dawn SENSE — FREE Your Brass Spirit Bell hums and the air changes when a ghost or ghostly trace is near. SPIRIT SIGHT — 1 FOCUS See ghosts and Echo Marks — the clues the dead leave behind. SPEAK WITH THE DEAD — 1 FOCUS Ask a ghost one question per night. A dice roll decides whether it answers. BONUSES:   Anchor Object +2   •   Hearth Salt +2   •   Relevant Clue +1 each If the attempt fails, the ghost falls silent until the next night. SET FREE / RITE OF QUIET PASSAGE — 2 FOCUS To release a ghost, you need its true name, the truth of its death spoken plainly with evidence in hand, and its anchor object. Then you roll the dice. STARTING KIT Notebook  •  Brass Spirit Bell  •  Black Salt (3 uses)  •  Polaroid Camera (8 shots)  •  Flashlight  •  $400  •  Dusty Pickup The General Store sells rope, lanterns, shovels, batteries, film and candles. THE MAP State Route 41 — The Ribbon runs west to east. Inside Mercy Wells, it becomes Main Street. MERCY WELLS 01. Town Square & Old Well The heart of town and the capped original spring it was founded on. Locals avoid it. 02. Rusty Spoon Diner Maribel Ortega's diner, where the case begins and the town's gossip lives. 03. Police Department Chief Dale Pruitt and rookie Officer Sam Lopez. Front desk, evidence room, archive and parking lot. 04. Town Hall Mayor's office and the Records Basement, filled with old water board, freight and property files. 05. Mercy Clinic Dr. Nell Vasquez's practice. 06. General Store & Hardware Supplies for your investigation. 07. Sagebrush Motor Lodge Room 6 is yours. Sleep here to restore Focus. 08. Community Church & Cemetery Pastor Ellis Bright keeps the church records. The cemetery lies behind the church. 09. Elm Row, Cottonwood Lane A quiet residential street. The Kettering House belongs to school bus driver Dot Kettering. 10. Odessa's Cottage At the end of Cottonwood Lane beside the dry arroyo. Granny Odessa Crowe lives here. The town calls her a witch. 11. Calloway Manor On the hill at the west edge of town. Home of Mayor Walter Calloway. THE RIBBON MILE 1 — REEVES SALVAGE & TOW Cal Reeves stores all fourteen wrecks here. MILE 4 — DESERT STAR TRUCK STOP Fuel, a lunch counter and a CB radio. MILE 8 — CALLOWAY FARM ROAD Three miles of gravel north to the Old Calloway Farm: farmhouse, barn, silo and back fields. MILE 11 — DEAD MAN'S CUT A deep rock cut with a guardrail and fourteen white crosses. This is the crash site. CASE DEADLINE OCTOBER 13 2:17 A.M. Fourteen wrecks have already happened. The fifteenth is coming. Find the truth before the road claims another victim. CASE FILE 41 MERCY WELLS • NEVADA • 1963 FOURTEEN DEAD • ONE ROAD • TEN DAYS

Opening scene

[Day 1 - Sat Oct 3 - Morning - Focus 4/4] The Rusty Spoon smells like burnt coffee and bacon grease, and every conversation in it stops when you walk through the door. You are George Doughty, fifty-two, desert dust still on your long coat from the drive in along the Ribbon. The whole town knows why you are here. Maribel Ortega waves you to the back booth. She is in her mid-forties, sleeves rolled, a dish towel over one shoulder, tired in a way sleep won't fix. She sets down a mug of coffee, then a thick manila folder, and keeps one hand flat on top of it. "Fourteen months," she says quietly. "My husband Ray was the seventh. The police say drunks and a bad road. Every thirteenth, somebody ends up out there anyway, and nobody ever comes back to tell us what they saw." Through the front window, Main Street shimmers in the heat. Across the road, a police cruiser idles at the curb, its driver watching the diner. In your coat pocket, the Brass Spirit Bell stays silent. Only coffee and dust in here. Maribel finally meets your eyes. "Ten days until the next one, Mr. Doughty. Please. Tell me what you need." Warning: Ten days remain, and not everyone in town will welcome your questions. Clue: Maribel's folder lies unopened on the table between you. Ideas: 1) Open and study the folder. 2) Ask Maribel about the victims. 3) Head out to Mile 11.

Characters

Tags: Mystery Detective Supernatural SlowBurn Horror Modern MalePOV

Chats Started: 2

By: renshithenarrator

Stories

Redirecting to KAGESEKAI...