The Lost Bay is a suburban horror RPG set in the 90s
Play report diary by Gorkhan (who plays Hakim) - Characters and classes: Hakim (Asphalt Kitten), Tim (Splinter), Creek (Screamer), Facilitator: IKO
photo credit chiaralily on flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
A Saturday night, like any other in the end of summer. Hakim and his pals: Tim and Creek, stop by a 24/24 shop to buy some beers before going to Creek's concert. This is the shop where Alex is working, a girl friend and fellow punk musician of Creek.
In the shop, the floor is soaked with water. Alex is nowhere in sight. With all the electric stuff running in there, Hakim does not want to get inside. Tim jumps on the cashier's desk to avoid the water, and starts exploring. The three guys are calling for Alex... when Tim sees someone laying on the floor, their legs blocking the door of a closet, the upper body hidden inside. Forgetting safety, the young men rush in to help. Creek and Hakim arrive first and discover Alex, laying in a pool of brackish water, chocking as a fountain of the stinky liquid pours out of her mouth. Hakim is chocked and can't move. Creek tries to help Alex out of the closet, and Tim calls for an ambulance. Finally, Hakim get back his sens and helps Creek to move Alex on the parking lot. The poor woman is drowning, and the stream of water does not stop. Tim tries to call for Saint Abraham The Young to stop the flow, but the holy patron is deaf to the prayer. Tim start's expelling water as well, but after a cough, his own fountain dries out. In the mean time, Alex is dead. And the ambulance arrives...
The next afternoon, the three friends, still chocked by the events of the night, meet at the skate park. Tim remembers that the emergency agent on the phone let think that this was not the first time someone died this way. Hakim tries to collect information from two kids playing around, but they know nothing. Creek has a punk friend who is also a cop (!), and might have a clue. He calls him, but his friend does not want to talk about it on the phone. He proposes to meet at the pizza truck this evening.
To kill time, they decide to go to Alex's flat. The door is closed, but Jimmy, her cat, is meowing from inside. Tim can't stand the sad voice of the lonely cat and breaks in. While he takes care of Jimmy, Creek and Hakim visit the place. In the fridge, Creek finds a bag filled with disgusting dead... snakes ? fishes ? Anyway, not the usual food Alex his cooking. In the bathroom, Hakim finds some of Alex's clothes, soaking wet and still stained with mud from the marshes. Then, Hank enters the flat, calling for Alex. Hank is one of Alex's neighbours. He didn't know about Alex's death and is devastated. He tells the guys that they went to a great place in the marshes just the day before. He is fuzzy about the place itself, talking about a long trip by boat to get there, about a cool guy cooking eels (Alex loved it and got some in her fridge), about a cabin in the wood, and happy mushrooms they took before going there. Hakim asks Creek of his cop friend would be interested talking to Hank, but Creek thinks it is better not to involve Hank for the moment.
Leaving the flat, the three friends take Jimmy to Tim's place. At a moment, Tim feels sick and spits brackish water again. Luckily, the flow stops quickly, but Hakim and Creek wonder if the "fountain syndrome" might be contagious. When Tim seems ok, they decide to go to the Pizza Truck to have dinner.
A woman is there, talking to everyone, asking questions around. When she spots the young men, she gets to them and presents herself: Linda, born in the Lost Bay, and back after a long stay in the big city. She is looking for strange stories for her novels. She is a wannabe horror novelist. She tells them that the drowning events happened at least 14 times in the past two weeks, and affect only young adults. When Creek's friend arrive in a cop car, Linda leaves quickly on her motorbike...