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Night 7: Recap

Page history last edited by uriahb@gmail.com 7 years, 8 months ago

Collateral Damage, Part Seven: 60 / Christine Prequel (1958) / Cycle of the Werewolf

 

     PC's walk back towards Derry hoping to find a farmhouse to stay the night in. It's getting cold.  Captain Engle wants to return to Derry and find a safe place to stay until the rescue attempt as he think's this world is too dangerous for the children.  Dinah has not fully recovered from the stab wound she received on the plane but soldiers on.  It's almost a full moon.  Bob keeps bringing up that the PC's know more than they are letting on.  He is not even frustrated about it any longer, he merely keeps suggestion that the PC's probably know more than they think they know and yet keep getting derailed by things that don't matter. 

     The temperature continues to drop and despite passing several farms on on the way out none are encountered as they return.  There is speculation that perhaps they don't want to end up on a farm anyway as King wrote, "Children of the Corn".  Anyway, PC's followed a hunch by Sam that the Dark Tower was out here ... somewhere but his hunch seems to have led him astray.  A few cars blow by them. Teenagers hang out car windows and throw beer bottles at them.  The cars are, clearly, from the 50's. 

     It's not long before they encounter a fork off the road. The off road leads to a drag race / crash up derby.  The races are set up at an abandoned airport.  A familiar looking abandoned airport.  A couple hundred teenagers and early twenty greasers are hanging out, smoking and drinking beer. There are three obvious gangs and their supporters, prepping for the night races for "pink slips".  It's obviously late 1950's. 

     PC's decide to steal a car or get a ride into town. 

 

    • Three Greaser gangs are having their yearly show down.

      • The Skeleton Crew.  Leader:  Vinnie Vincent.  Cars: A teal Ford 32 Deuce Coupe w/ Desoto Hemi, a red (cherry) 1930 Ford Model A Pick-Up.,

      • Night Shift.   Leader:  Roland D. Lebay.  Cars: “Justine”, a chrome red (boozy rose!) 1957 Plymouth Pro Street Fury w/ silver trim, “Christine”, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury w/ white trim.    

      • The Scorpions. Leader: Leo Balmudo. Cars: “Hell’s Chariot”, a black 1949 Mercury Series 9CM with yellow / red front flames, “Red Lightning”, an all red (dark strawberry) 1948 Ford Super Deluxe convertible.  (Oddly, PC's realize that the Scorpions and Hell's Chariot are from the musical / movie Grease and not part of King's cannon).

     The Loser’s Club is there as spectators, but they are hanging around the smash up cars.  In fact, they are sitting on a covered car that turns out to be Mateo's Charger.   They are Bill, Ben, Bev, Richie, Eddie, Mike and Stan.  Eventually, Jason approaches them and talks to them but he mentions too much about the IT plot and the Ritual of Chud and the Loser's Club, knowing Pennywise to be a shape changer, assume Jason is IT (they also mention that one of IT's forms is that of a werewolf).   They panic, run and hide. 

 

     PC's meet Ray Crowell who is the race mechanic. He’s a farmer but knows a bit about everything, including engines so he’s the chief mechanic here at the derby.  He is poor and makes extra money by breeding large dogs to sell.  Has rotties, doberman and bernards. 

 

          After PC's discover Mateo's Charger they had plan to move it out and leave, until they find out that the crash up derby is actually part of the Running Man game show.  PC's stick around awaiting the Running Man portion  and decide to race for "pink slips".  Mateo's Charger destroys the other cars and he ends up winning some pink slips, and respect, from the other gangs.  At the end of the race he owns the 1930 Ford Model A pick up.   PC's notice Randal Flagg hanging out with the night shift crew trying to get Roland to race Christine against Mateo's Charger.  PC decide if Flagg wants it to happen then they don't want it to happen and the race never happens. PC's confront Flagg and the converstation ends with Flagg saying, "This is interesting.  You all seem to recognize me but I don't recognize you.  Which means we meet sometime in my future and your past."   With that he walks away and the PC's lose sight of him.

     Mateo mentions something about Flagg being a time traveller in the books.  Someone suggests that Flagg is using the Tower to travel through time and Mateo says that probably isn't the case because the Dark Tower, in the books, represented Heaven and the protagonists eventually found it in a field of roses.  Which led to Jason asking, "If it's Heaven, why is it called the Dark Tower?". 

     PC's get a second change to talk to the Losers Club and it's far more successful.  The Losers Club reveal that the Ritual of Chud is a psychic battle, a duel of wills.  Apparently, it's personally charged.  The kids poured their will into the silver coins and then flung them at Pennywise and it did him great harm.   They also reveal that Pennywise has a true form, a form of pure evil, a multicolored deadlight that kills you if you look into it's eyes.  

    The derby portion of the races begins as spectators file into the oval arena.  Mateo enters the races in one of the generic crash up derby cars, Sam and Jason slip into the arena on foot.  A force field dome covers the arena preventing Jade from getting in.  Seven crash up derby cars pull into the arena (Mateo makes eight).   Suddenly, Mr. Rush and Kirby teleport into the center of the arena and all the cars gun it at once.  Clearly, all the cars are after Mr. Rush.  Jason in Troll form, Mateo in the crash up car and Sam on foot gun and run and smash their way through the arean and the cars.  Kirby protects Mr. Rush as much as possible but there is too much going on and Mr. Rush goes down (hurt but not seriously). 

     And to make matters more interesting ... aliens are driving the crash up cars.  And they look like your typical bubble headed 1950's space alien.   One by one the PC's eliminate the derby cars (each of which are armed with machine guns, flame throwers and self destruct explosives).  Mateo actually has Mr. Rush in his hands but Kirby pulls him away and the two of them run through a wall and vanish. 

     Later, Mateo reveals that Kirby said Mr. Rush had a kill collar on.  Kirby only has X amount of time in each Running Man zone or color explodes.  So Mateo let Mr. Rush go and hoped Kirby could take care of him until the PC's find another way to rescue them both.

     PC's gathered up a few dozen dollars, some cigarettes and extra gas from their winnings and left the derby behind.  They drive into Derry and listen to the Running Man aftermath on the drive back.  The host, Mr. Killian, seems very impressed with the "crashers" and mentions to the audience, "We'll see you all again in 1985".

     Back in Derry the PC's visit the Pet Cemetary, find out it has been "used" recently.  Jason shapechanges into a fey creature and talks to the plants.  The plants reveal that they Fox and the Bat have already been buried and dug up. 

     As the morning comes PC's bring Captain Engle, Bob and Jade to the Coswell house to stay with them for a while.  They hang out with Marty's uncle.  Marty is super happpy to see them and is really glad they (some of them) are staying.  In fact, he points out that his garage is kind of set up for a huge play date sleep over and the PC's are able to crash for a few hours. At one point Marty talks about "the curse" again.  He's convinced that a werewolf is hunting his family as some of his friends have gone missing.  Marty also mentions a new friend of his that he really trusts, a girl named Victoria.  She works at Needful Things and is "super punk rock".

     Captain Engle, Bob, Jade and Dinah plan to stay at the Coswell house while the others go out into Derry, head to the library to learn more about the town. PC's find a book called, "Derry: An Unauthorized Town History" by Micheal Hanlon (a member of the Loser's club, now an adult). 

     An unpublished set of notes and accompanying fragments of manuscript (which read almost like diary entries) found in the vault.

 

     It opens with:

 

     Can an entire city be haunted?  

     Haunted as some houses are supposed to be haunted?

     Not just a single building in that city, or the corner of a single street, or a single baskeball court in a single pocket-park, the nestless basket jutting out as sunset like some obscure and bloody instrument of torture, not just one area - but everything.  The whole works.

     Can that be?

     Listen:

     Haunted, "Often visited by ghosts or spirits."  Funk and Wagnalls.

     Haunting, "Persistently recurring to the mind; difficult to forget." Ditto Funk and Friend.

     To haunt: "To appear or recur often, especially as a ghost." But - and listen! "A place often visited: resort, den, hangout ..."  Italics are of course mine.

     And one more. This one, like the last, is a definition of haunt as a noun, and it's the one that really scares me: "A feeding place for animals".

 

 

 

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