This is my first RPG session of 2022 and it's time for episode 8 of Beach Patrol
New NPCs
Griff Wilkins a.k.a. Griff Watson An undercover police officer from Malibu PD whose face became too well known in his hometown. Now on secondment with the FBI as a special advisor, he is part of a task force investigating the flow of narcotics into southern California and particularly Bay City. Has spent the past few months working undercover as a dealer to try and work his way up the trafficking network's food chain.
B-Boy A mysterious and unknown individual who is said to control a significant prportion of the drug trade in Bay City.
July 13th 1996
A sunny band of light was smeared over Bay City's eastern horizon as the sun crept up on the dawn. Our heroes were coming into Beach Patrol HQ when the early morning peace was broken by a distant but loud buzzing, it quickly grew louder, seemingly expanding to fill the air as a high performance motorbike came growling into the carpark, with a squeal of rubber and a wobble a Yamasaki Ninja Samurai Flameblade 600R came to halt in a parking space and the rider dismounted, removing his helmet. It was Kenny on his very new, very expensive looking motorbike. Our heroes knew that until recently Kenny had had a problem with a local loan shark, Art asked Kenny how he'd acquired the bike? "I borrowed some money to get it!" Kenny explained. Inwardly, Art sighed. "Don't worry," Kenny added. "It's an investment!" Our heroes asked what he meant and Kenny went on to quietly tell them that every Saturday night, there's some street races at Widow's Rise and there's some big bucks to be made from betting. Our heroes couldn't help but notice that Kenny wasn't the best of riders.
Ditch was waiting in the meeting room with his customary steamy cup of coffee. When everyone had settled down, he waved a copy of the Bay City Inquirer at them, it had the headline Gold fortune on lost Nazi sub! Ditch explained that it had attracted beachcombers and treasure hunters from all around and the last few days had been busy, he expected it to be as busy again today. Other than this, it was a normal roll call.
People Everyday Early into their shift and our heroes saw that Ditch was right, the beach was a lot more crowded than usual this early and more boats were travelling the waters along Cove Beach.
As our heroes were diligently watching when they saw a small speedboat towing a giant inflatable banana carrying half a dozen passengers cutting through the water, then up ahead, they realised there was what appeared to be an unanchored boat listlessly meandering on the waves, its crew not paying attention. It drifted close to the speedboat, too close. The speedboat pilot tried to alter course, but it was too late, our heroes could only watch as the speedboat heavily sideswiped the other boat. There was a clash loud enough to be heard on shore, the impact had caused the speedboat pilot to stumble overboard as well as two crew aboard the other boat. The giant banana swerved dramatically and rolled over, spilling all its passengers into the sea, luckily they were all wearing lifejackets and bobbed to the sea's undulating surface. Even so, there were three people in the water, Stella, Winter and Art dived into the sea, speedily swimming towards the incident, Doc unfortunately, had got tangled up in his floatation device's cord and was behind them. Our heroes arrived at the two boats and secured the three victims, helping them back aboard their boats, no one had any injuries other than a few bruises, although the boats had taken some scrapes. Once all the passengers were back aboard the giant banana, the speedboat pilot took off. Our heroes took the opportunity to admonish the crew aboard the other boat, none of them admitted to being in charge of the boat. They agreed to be more careful in the future, although our heroes were pretty sure that the crew would simply ignore the advice.
A couple of hours later and our heroes spotted an altercation breaking out on the beach, they then went and investigated. It appeared that a group of beachcombers and beach goers had been treading on each other's toes and were on the verge of fighting. Our heroes managed to split them up.
Our heroes were kept busy throughout the day with a constant stream of minor problems and issues to deal with. Towards the end of their shift, they spotted a plume of black smoke rising from a boat our to sea. After focussing their binoculars on the boat, they saw the flickering orange tongues of flame emanating from the rear, a man had grabbed a small fire extinguisher and was unsuccessfully attempting to put the fire out. It was beginning to spread and the four crew members were forced to jump overboard. Doc got on the walkie-talkie, radioed HQ and advised them to send out a Nimrod with some firefighting gear. It arrived after a few minutes and quickly picked up the crew and doused the fire. Once the boat had been secured, it was towed back to Cove pier.
Music Sounds Better With You
It had been a long day at lifeguard tower 2, our heroes had returned to their lockers, which is where Ditch had caught up with them. He explained that his girlfriend at Club Lagoon was in trouble, she'd discovered her partner, Georgia had been 'cooking the books' and confronted her. Turned out that Georgia had been laundering money for some one. Imogen reckoned that Georgia had even been letting the dealers in secretly. Now Georgia and her half of the financing for Club Lagoon was gone, Imogen needed a big inflow of cash to keep the club alive. Luckily, Ditch had a plan. He showed a flier to our heroes, it was for a regional final of a 'Battle of the Bands' at Barracuda's a nightclub in Bay City Old Town in two weeks. Ditch said that if they formed a band, they could try and win the cash prize. It would take a lot of practice though! After some consideration, the band's line up was agreed. Ditch; vocals. Stella; lead guitar. Winter; bass guitar. Doc; drums. Art; Saxophone
Eventually, after much, much discussion, Ditch and our heroes came up with a name for the band; Beach Division.
After leaving Beach Patrol HQ, Stella got a call from Griff Watson, a guy she'd rescued at Oceanside who been mysterious and evasive, following their short conversation, Stella had given him her business card, now Griff had just arrived in town and was looking for a good time tonight. They agreed to meet up and head to Carbon, the trendiest nightclub in Bay City.
Before that though, Stella decided she wanted to participate in the street racing and went out Lower Street in Old Town to purchase a sports bike and came back with a yellow and red Honduki WTF950 Road-shredder with neon blue rim lights and under lighting and a Yoshi-Moshi aftermarket Terror Bird. She also bought herself a Pink leather jacket, spray on black Lycra trousers, pink high heel ankle boots, a tight yellow t-shirt and a black open face helmet with adhesive cat ears. Finally, Stella decided it was a good idea to accessorise with a designer leather shoulder bag.
At around 7pm, Griff picked Stella up from her apartment in a fairly grubby looking car, she had assumed that he was more wealthy and was unimpressed. It was a Saturday and Carbon was just beginning to get loud and busy, Stella and Griff got a booth along a wall, ordered some drinks and relaxed. After this, Stella went and powdered her nose, which meant she actually went and bought some drugs and loaded up on them. Griff noticed that Stella was blazing and over the pumping music asked her where she'd gotten her stuff from, she pointed out a dealer to him.
Griff went up to the dealer and bought some drugs, Stella noticed that he was clearly flashing some money about. Whilst he was distracted, she ordered some expensive cocktails, when he came back, Griff didn't seem to notice. The pair of them danced a few hours away before heading back to Stella's apartment for some hot coffee.
Life Is A Highway
Midnight was fast approaching and it was time for Stella to head out to Widow's Rise. She asked Griff if he wanted to ride pillion, he looked at her and saw she was still tweaking. "I'll take my own ride," he said. When Stella and Griff arrived, the rest of our heroes were already there as were Kenny and about a dozen other people. There was a vibrant, almost party vibe in the air as riders bantered and drank beer.
Widow's Rise was a steep hill south of Bay City and also a colloquialism for the unlit and winding strip of asphalt that passed for a road that ran up to the viewing spot at the top of the hill. Instead of providing adequate barriers, road markings and streetlights, following a string of accidents, it was cheaper for the local authorities to simply close the road to vehicles instead. Now it had become a venue for illicit racing.
The rules were simple, any rider could challenge any other rider, competitors would race up to the observation point at the top of the hill and race back down, who ever got to the start line first was the winner. Anything was acceptable for stakes, including side bets, although small bets were generally frowned upon.
Kenny was eager to make some money and challenged a guy called Matt to a race and put up a stake of five grand. Art didn't trust Kenny's riding skills and wanted to bet against him, but since he was a friend of Kenny's no one wanted to take that bet, instead Art ended up betting on Kenny! It wasn't a good bet! Matt and Kenny roared off up the hill and into the darkness, but a couple of minutes later, on the return leg of the journey, Matt got back first, Kenny had lost. Art had lost his stake and so had Kenny, who was now trying to borrow more money off people, no one made eye contact with him.
Next, Stella decided to try her luck and got into a race with a guy known as Cloudy, she initially put up a stake of sixty thousand dollars! Cloudy told her that there was no way he could match that money, instead Stella offered racing for pink slips and Cloudy went for it. The pair of them lined up at the start, revving their engines aggressively for good measure, spinning tyres to warm them and then, they were off! Stella got the better start and powered into the lead, as they loudly charged through the inky night up the hill, Cloudy rode hard and began gaining on Stella as he followed her on the treacherous road. A miscalculation made Stella's one-eighty at the start of the return leg turn wider than anticipated, allowing Cloudy to take lead as they began the return journey, Stella though, was unwilling to concede anything and poured it on, retaking the lead. Cloudy wasn't done either and managed find just enough extra speed in some corners to overtake Stella. Coming into final quarter mile or so, they were practically neck-and-neck. Stella dug deep, the tortured engine-roar that had almost drowned her thoughts earlier became distant and inconsequential, the world seemed to fall away as the oscillating road grew to fill her eyes, only the road mattered. As the pair of them blasted across the finish line, Stella was ahead by half the diameter of the front wheel, she had won.
Cloudy handed the keys of his bike over to Stella, for him, the racing was over tonight. Stella in turn, handed the bike over to Winter, who in her own fashioned, was pleased to receive it. More racing continued for a while longer, Kenny even managed to win another race, however, the cash he won didn't cover the losses from the first big bet he'd lost on. Once the racing was done for the night, all the riders and our heroes went their separate ways. Stella went back to her apartment with Griff for some more hot coffee.
Confide in me
Sunday morning came and a sore-headed Stella awoke to find Griff already gone through squinted blurred vision. After some breakfast, she went and joined the others and they spent the afternoon searching for musical instruments.
Having heard more rumours about the beast of cove beach, our heroes decided to investigate the matter. Late that night they headed out to Cove beach, not too far from where their lifeguard tower was positioned and hid themselves in some of the foliage that flourished on the palm groves along the beach. Daylight had melted away, replaced by a temperate evening, it was relatively quiet at this hour and the crowds had thinned away. For several hours, our heroes watched from the bushes, greeted only by the rhythmic gentle crash of waves breaking on the shore. By the small hours, our heroes had seen nothing and called it a night.
Monday came and as Stella went out in the morning, she got picked up, but not in the usual way! Two men in uniform grey suits and sunglasses identified themselves as FBI agents, they wanted to bring her in for some questioning. The FBI branch was situated in an anonymous glass-fronted office block in downtown Bay City, Stella was led to an interview view room and made to wait. A little later and Griff Watson walked in.
His face and hair still had a slightly rough and dishevelled look that clashed with the unremarkable suit he wore. He explained that his real name was Griff Wilkins, an undercover cop from Malibu PD, he was on secondment with the FBI as a special adviser. He'd been tasked with investigating the flow of drugs into southern California and had ascertained that a major route was running into Bay City. Preliminary investigations had shown that someone known as B-Boy was supposedly the architect of this network. Griff Wilkins explained that he was determined to find out who this was and bring them down.
Griff wanted Stella to help him, but she wasn't having any of it and chose to remain silent. Griff explained that he even though he seen her buying certain substances and riding a motorbike under the influence, he had no interest in charging her with any crimes, but Stella refused to budge, writing down that unless she got a deal, she wouldn't cooperate. Griff thought about it and said that he wasn't in a position to make a deal. They had come to an impasse, so Griff gave Stella business card and let her go.
Can't Stop This Thing We Started
Night came and our heroes decided to stake out Cove beach again, on a Monday night it was a lot quieter, lacking night revellers and party-goers. Again they hid the foliage, waited and watched. At about midnight, a pickup truck rolled into the carpark, crunching on the gravelly surface and parked up. Our heroes could see the murky silhouette of a single figure sitting in the cab, he was just sat there, waiting. So our heroes also continued to wait.
About an hour later, in midnight's half-light they just about made out two SCUBA divers emerge from the tumultuous ocean quite near to them, between the pair they were dragging a bag across the sand and from their strained, swaying steps, it looked quite heavy. Our heroes waited for the bag to be slung into the back of the pick up and sprang into action! Doc, with pistol in hand sneaked closer to the pickup, shrouded in the general gloominess of night and unseen, meanwhile Stella crept past the divers who where hefting the bag towards the pickup. The pickup however, was parked in the open and Doc, quiet as he was could only get so far. One of the divers gave a cry as Doc was spotted.
Doc reacted quickly, putting a couple of rounds into the pickup's tyres and all hell broke loose. The two divers turned and ran for the sea, limbs flailing wildly as they desperately traversed the sandy beach in flippers. The pickup's engine growled into life as the driver hit the gas and tried to pull away, gravel was sprayed through the air as the wheel-spinning vehicle squirmed on the unstable surface with a pair of flats.
Stella moved to intercept the divers and tackled one of them, Art broke cover, also sprinting towards them. Doc then fired a couple of rounds into the cab of the pickup, the engine roar died away and dropped to an idle as the vehicle lurched to halt. The divers were proving to be a handful and struggled hard even after Art had grappled one, it wasn't until Winter came over to help that our heroes managed to pacify them. In that time Doc had ran to the pickup, opened its door and turned off the engine. The driver was slumped sideways and bleeding profusely, Doc checked him over - it was bad, he tried to staunch the flow of blood and stabilise him, it didn't work and the driver died. Stella went over to the pickup and opened up the bag, inside she found a large quantity of drugs. Meanwhile, Doc lobbed his unregistered pistol away.
Our heroes put a call into Griff Wilkins and the police, who were already on the way. When they arrived, they cordoned the entire carpark off and arrested everyone present and took them to the closest police station. A search found the pistol and some forensics identified Doc as the shooter. Our heroes were advised to call their lawyers. After some legal advice, it looked like there might be a lengthy trial with no guarantee of not getting some serious jailtime, specifically for Doc. Griff came into the station and spoke with our heroes, he told them he could help them if they agreed to help him. After some deliberation, our heroes decided to take Griff's help. Griff went and spoke with Bay City PD and told them that the FBI were taking federal jurisdiction over the incident as it involved the passage of illicit substances over state borders. Bay City were put out of joint by this but begrudgingly released our heroes into the charge of Griff Wilkins without any charges. Griff released our heroes and told them he would contact them later.