Episode one was played over 2 sessions on Sunday afternoons, Covid19 unfortunately, put a spanner in the works and there was a big gap between the 2 sessions.
It was a Sunday and we'd gathered in Vicky's garden for the first time in person for about 6 months, social distancing restrictions had been eased and we could now meet. The players created their characters and we were ready to go for session one. Session two was 7 weeks later and again we met at Vicky's on the hottest day of the year so far.
Locations
Bay City A vibrant and lively beach city that straddles the ocean, located some 20 miles south-south-west of Los Angeles.
Cove Beach A 3 mile ribbon of gold that skirts the edge of clear blue Pacific waters and the western extent of Bay City. The beach runs more or less north-south and is apopular and busy destination for sun-seekers, surfers, swimmers and more. 6 lifeguard towers populate the length of the beach and all are used during the busy season.
Cove Pier The unusual triangular shaped pier at the north end of Cover Beach. Contains numerous diversions, hospitalities and tourist attractions. The Beach Patrol HQ is also located on the pier.
Beach Patrol HQ The HQ is a 2 storey building located just on Cover Pier, it has various administrative offices, meeting and training rooms as well as storage lockers and changing rooms for staff. On the water next to the HQ are secured berths for Beach Patrol's compliment of boats. Just off the pier is a locked garage used to store the various land vehicle used by Beach Patrol. Lifeguard Tower 1 The northern most lifeguard tower is manned by Ditch, Bratt and PJ. There's a modified Beach Patrol pickup truck assigned to tower 1 that Ditch likes to drive a lot and is very territorial about!
Lifeguard Tower 2 This is where our heroes will be assigned for their shifts. As well as all the usual accoutrements, Lifeguard Tower 2 has quadbike with a trailer big enough to carry a stretcher assigned to it.
Club Lagoon A newly opened smallish nightclub located on Cove Pier that had good word-of-mouth and was attracting a lot of attention and customers. Club Lagoon is partly owned by Ditch's current girlfriend.
NPCs
'LT' David 'Ditch' Muchannon A strapping six-four, Ditch Muchannon wears a mullet like it never went out of fashion. Ditch runs the Beach Patrol on Cove Beach and is fully dedicated to the job, a hard-working and experienced lifeguard, he is a stickler for the rules and is honest and upright, tough but fair, with a wry sense of humour. Just don't ask him how it got the nickname Ditch.
Bradley 'Bratt' Mody Earning his nickname from his boyish good looks, Bratt Mody is Ditch's second in command and has 3 years experience under his belt. Bratt can sometimes be rash or impulsive and tends to throw himself into whatever he does, he has a passion for motorbikes. Brat is in a off-and-on romantic relationship with PJ.
Posey Jean 'PJ' Carker Rounding out Ditch's team is the blonde and beautiful PJ, like Bratt she has 3 years experience as a lifeguard. PJ has good social skills and people respond well to her (Especially the guys!). PJ is loosely into yoga and meditation which she practices when off duty. PJ is in a complicated relationship with Bratt.
Sgt Barney Kellerbee Barney is a career cop at BCPD. For the past 4 years he's been assigned to the Cove Beach crime unit, he patrols the beach either on his mountain bike or a quadbike. Barney is middle-aged with the middle-age spread to prove it! A committed family man, he's a stand up guy and long time friend of Ditch.
May 18th 1996
Our Heroes had successfully completed the lifeguard training programme and have been inducted into Beach Patrol by Lieutenant 'Ditch' Muchannon who formally welcomed them to the team at 0600 on this, their first official shift. Our heroes already know the LT quite well as he was involved with their training but this will be their first day on the job without direct supervision.
Ditch explained to our heroes that they will be stationed at Lifeguard Tower 2, Ditch and his team man Lifeguard Tower 1, where he can be close to our heroes if needed.
Shift Start A weather warning was issued in the small hours of the morning before the first shift on Cove Beach: The outer edge of Storm Daphne is expected to make landfall close to Bay City at approximately 0100 hours tomorrow morning. This shouldn't affect the day Ditch elaborated.
Head Over Feet It was 0800 and the early crowd were already out making the most of the beach, the sky was endlessly blue and the day was beginning to heat up. Our heroes were either patrolling their stretch of Cove Beach or keeping an watchful eye out from their tower. Chad was on lookout, scanning the beach with binoculars, his attention was drawn to a small fluorescent orange dinghy precariously rising and falling on the vigorous morning swell with two boys, Nico & Lewis aboard. As he watched a freak wave flipped the boat and the two boys crashed into each other, knocking heads as they tumbled into the sea. Neither were wearing life jackets
Chad gave a shout to BJ who was close by and leaped off the tower and into action! He looked around to make sure girls on the beach were watching and tensed his muscles as he pulled off his t-shirt exaggeratedly. They dived into the ocean and powered through the swell to the capsized dinghy, being good swimmers they easily reached the two boys and pulled them back to shore. BJ looked at them, they seemed about twelve. "Where's your adult supervision?" He demanded. The two boys, Nicolás & Lewis looked around sheepishly and one of mentioned something about an older brother. A couple of minutes later a sixteen year old boy, Karsen appeared and nervously explained that he had been told to look after them but had become distracted.
The two boys seemed unharmed, but our heroes called out a paramedic to check them, meanwhile Chad route an incident report in the tower's log book. It wasn't his strong suite and was terribly written, on the next shift Ditch would berate Chad on his poor reporting skills.
Follow You Down A little later; Ruth, a middle aged woman came running up to Lifeguard Tower 2 in a panic, her friend Riley had collapsed! BJ, Sean & Sharon ran to the incident, they had to push their way through a crowd of gawkers that had congregated around the man.
Riley was unconscious and was clearly breathing labouredly, Sean quickly checked him over, no sign of injury and airways appeared unobstructed, he found no obvious cause. Then our heroes spotted a bright yellow wristband he wore, it was an allergy bracelet and said Riley had a severe allergy to mica! It was anaphylactic shock! Mica, our heroes wondered? It was usually a component of sparkling make-up and there was none apparent on Riley?
Ruth explained that Riley had an EpiPen but it was with their belongings with two friends close to Lifeguard Tower 1, which was half a mile away. Sean kept an eye on Riley's breathing as BJ leapt on the quadbike allocated to Lifeguard Tower 2 and raced up beach and soon returned with the EpiPen. Once it was administered to Riley, his breathing stabilized. Our heroes called the paramedics, Riley had dodged the bullet but still had to be taken to hospital for a full check-up.
Our heroes got someone other than Chad to write up the incident.
Shiny Happy People At noon our heroes noticed a commotion about halfway between Lifeguard Towers 1 & 2, a large crowd of people had inexplicably gathered, our heroes went and investigated. At the centre of the hubbub an attractive young woman was posing for a cameraman as some sort of photoshoot was underway?
Sharon recognised her; she was Pearl Jenkins a local Bay City celebrity, news of her appearance had spread and attracted a large crowd. Pearl Jenkin's small security team was struggling to keep the crowd from mobbing her! To make matters worse, Erik, head of the security team was entirely distracted by an argument he was having with his girlfriend Ariah, who obviously didn't trust Pearl. Pearl Jenkins seemed a little nervous at the crown but clearly relished the attention.
Sean, BJ & Finn stepped in, ordering the crowds back, eventually dispersing and quelling them as the photoshoot wrapped. Erik's argument turned out to be having a domestic dispute with his girlfriend Ariah, she seemed to be unhappy with Pearl about something? Wisely our heroes stayed well out of that. However they did approach Pearl Jenkins and her team as they were preparing to leave, they told her that she shouldn't be coming to the beach to do something like this without informing Beach Patrol, there was an obvious public safety concern. Pearl Jenkins was nonplussed.
As she was leaving, a member of public approached our heroes and asked them if someone had handed in a wallet. Our heroes asked around and several other people reported missing wallets and purses, a pickpocket was operating! One of the victims was an attractive young woman, Chad jumped in! Making sure that she saw him pulling his t-shirt off, he began looking for a likely suspect. He spotted a tall youngish man, Declan, who looked out place and jittery. "You, stop!" Chad yelled, pointing at the man. Declan turned and ran, he was a fast runner but Chad was faster! Dashing down the beach in slow-mo he caught and tackled the runner to the ground. the others arrived and they restrained the man. They discover he has a rucksack filled with purses and wallets. Chad found the purse belonging to the young woman and returned it to her, she was happy and impressed with Chad, she gave Chad her number and her name was Jessica.
Out heroes then put a call into Sergeant Barney Kellerbee who was on beach assignment from BCPD. He came over and took the pickpocket and evidence into custody and called a wagon for him.
Distant Sun
At 1500 a revised weather report comes in, the edge of Storm Daphne is now expected to make landfall 6 hours earlier, Ditch gives the order to shut Cove Beach down by 1600. Our heroes go out and instruct people on the beach to pack up and go home, they also have to call in boaters and swimmers in.
Half an hour later as the beach is emptying, blue has given way to bleak grey populated by angry black clouds, the temperature has noticeably dropped and a brisk wind has picked up. Ditch radios Lifeguard Tower 2, he explains that his team have their hands full handling a drunk who refuses to leave the beach, he needs someone to go Cove Pier and deal with some teenagers loitering, PK and Finn head on over. They found half a dozen teenagers, Triston, Wiley, John, Lucas & Javier lurking under he boardwalk, as they approach they encounter the pungent aroma of weed. After some heated exchanges, Pete and Finn manage to convince them to leave.
At about the same time, BJ, Chad and Sean were approached by Isabella Martinez at their lifeguard tower, she looks frantic and desperate, her son Antonio went missing about 5 minutes ago as she was packing up into her car, he's 6 years old. Our heroes head to the gravelly car park, it's practically empty, the last couple of other people are packing up their car and getting ready to leave. Our heroes looked around, nobody was there. The car park backed on to a long stretch of undulating grassy mounds that straddled the space between the shore and the beachfront properties, they checked the mounds but found nothing and continued searching. At one end of the grassy area is a grove of widely spaced palm trees nestled amongst some foliage, they headed over to look around and found a single small shoe at the edge of the grove. Isabella confirmed it belongs to Antonio, our heroes look at each other, it looks bad. Heading into the grove, they continued the search and after pushing their way through some bushes they found a young boy sprawled in the undergrowth, they was a bloody cut on his temple and he seemed disorientated and confused.
Sean quickly gave Antonio some checks, there was a possibility that he was suffering a concussion, he would need observation and so they called the paramedic. BJ asked the what happened? Antonio said that while his mother was packing up he was running around the beach and saw two strange looking men coming out of the sea with a large bag. One of the man had glowered at Antonio and started caming towards him, Antonio ran off into the grove to escape, slipping and hitting his head.
Once the ambulance arrived to take Antonio and Isabella to hospital, our heroes went to the beach, it was devoid of people now, the wind continued to pick up and the day was darkening, they locked up their lifeguard tower and returned to Beach Patrol HQ.
This Is How We Party
Back at Beach Patrol HQ, Ditch congratulated them on their first day on the job and he was taking them out to celebrate! He explained that his girlfriend Imogen was part owner of a hot new nightclub that had opened on Cove Pier called Club Lagoon - a name inspired by the almost lagoon shaped pier. Ditch had scored some free passes from Imogen, he told them to go home and change, then meet him there at 1900.
Rain was lashing the coast by the time evening came along but nothing was going to stop our heroes having a good time. They had turned up in suitable nightclub attire - except for Sean, he was wearing a bucket hat, tie-dyed t-shirt, florescent trousers and a whistle on a chain round his neck. Ditch was there, as were Bratt, PJ and Barney.
Inside, the small nightclub was buzzing, DJ was pumping out the tunes and the dance floor was heaving, seats were filled and the bar was stacked. Ditch had managed to arrange a couple of booths for everyone.
Everyone was having fun, especially Chad who made a point of flexing his muscles in front of any pretty girls he saw. The only exception was Barney. Why was the music so loud? Why was it so crowded? Why is everyone drinking so much? Why are the girls so young? Are You sure they're eighteen? Why are they wearing so little? Wondered Barney. It was all a bit too much for him and he went home after an hour.
Later Ditch approached our heroes, he told them that he was sure he'd seen a guy dealing drugs near the dance floor. Ditch pointed to a guy in sunglasses and a grey baseball cap and told them to watch. After a few minutes, our heroes saw sunglasses guy talk to someone, over the music they couldn't hear anything but they did see the other person hand over some cash. Ditch said this other guy was the buyer. Sunglasses guy went to a booth and sat down, he rested an arm along the top of the seat and made a casual gesture with a couple of fingers to no one in particular.
The buyer headed to the bathrooms, closely followed by someone else? Ditch said that the other person had the drugs and the exchange would happen in the bathrooms.
Our heroes and Ditch went to talk Imogen, she was shocked and had no idea that dealers had gotten in, she wants to run a clean club. Before anyone could discuss any further action, Ditch decided to confront them.
The two men, Charlie & Davey were quite hostile and belligerent but with our heroes and the bouncers to back up Ditch, the dealers had to back down. They were escorted off the premises into the rainy blustery night by Jordan and Toby, the club's bouncers. When our heroes spoke to the bouncers about the dealers, they said that they didn't recognise them and had not been let in by the main entrance. They must have gotten in some other way, perhaps someone on the inside let them in.
The rest of the night went uneventfully into the small hours and closing time came. Our heroes and co. left the night club only to encounter a bunch of shady looking guys stepping in front of our heroes and out of covered doorways and the like.. Charlie & Davey had come back but with some friends, Cameron, Alfonso, Sam, Jay, Leon
A fight was about to kick off and Chad slowly unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, flexing his muscles all the time. Then a fight ensued! Chad, PK and Sean lunged for some thugs and Finn managed to dissuade one from attacking him, meanwhile Sharon was knocked to the ground and pretended to cry. Ditch and Bratt also waded in, PJ stayed behind Bratt. A couple of the thugs were knocked out and the one who had shoved Sharon fled, Chad pursued him from the fight out of brotherly protection (and not because he had taken a beating and was in a bad way), however, Chad was himself pursued by a thug. Chad tripped him up and he crashed into a wall, then he got up and fled. Back outside the nightclub, Finn had grappled one to the ground and Ditch's had taken care of the last two.
Imogen had put a call into BCPD when the fracas had broken out. Our heroes thought about questioning the thug they had apprehended but didn't bother in the end. Soon the cops were on the scene, slightly grumpy at having to come out in the rainy storm. Luckily they knew Ditch and he vouched for our heroes and explained what had transpired. Chad took the opportunity to big himself up. Our heroes were told by the cops that they would be asked to provide witness statements in the next few days "This isn't over, were gonna get you," shouted the prisoner as he was hauled off by the cops.