Page 205 - Chronicles of Darkness

Linchpins Methods

The characters all find themselves outside one night Crafts: Characters examining the tracks the buildings
when the buildings begin to move. Everyone in the city feels move on who succeed at a Wits + Crafts roll notice that these
a strong unconscious compulsion to get indoors a few minutes tracks might remain visible in tunnels underneath the city.
before the buildings move, but occasionally someone locks An Intelligence + Crafts roll helps characters understand
herself out of her home, drops her keys, or gets lost driving how to permanently disable these tracks.
back from the store. Each character feels an urgent desire to Investigation: Every night, the buildings in a different part
get home (or to the shop, office, or other building they were of the city move. However, all of these movements occur in
planning to be in around midnight) as rapidly as possible, a complex but comprehensible pattern. After observing the
but for some reason fails to get there in time. movements for at least three nights, characters can make an
While they are outside, each of the characters hears the Intelligence + Investigation roll at -2 to determine what the
strange rumblings as the buildings begin moving. Then, the next neighborhood to move will be. A second successful roll
next day the business that a temp worker was working in or the reveals which building will vanish. An exceptional success
shop where the homeless woman was regularly given free food on either roll reveals the pattern, allows the character to
has vanished, along with the entire building it was in. No one completely understand the pattern of the buildings moving,
else notices, and in fact, online maps and the records of the and predict which buildings will move and vanish days or
temp agency clearly show that the business and the building weeks in the future.
never existed, but the characters remember it. The next night, Drive: Characters who begin driving as soon as they hear
characters who live in the same part of town look out their the rumble of the buildings starting to move can drive to this
windows and see buildings in their neighborhood moving. area before the buildings cease moving by making a successful
If at least three people stand and watch the last building Wits + Drive roll.
move, it does not vanish, it simply moves to its final loca- Survival: Character walking through underground tun-
tion and stops. However, all of these people must be able to nels can make a Wits + Survival roll to find the area beneath
clearly see the building and can be no more than 100 yards any particular building or series of buildings
away from it. Also, while that building does not vanish, the Persuasion: A Manipulation + Persuasion roll allows char-
next night buildings in a different part of the city move, and acters to convince the inhabitants of a building that will soon
another building vanishes. It’s possible to keep buildings from disappear to evacuate from the building. Characters must
vanishing in this fashion, but doing so requires a nightly vigil convince people to leave before the building begins to move.
at the location where the last building moves. Once a building begins moving, no one can get in or out.
There is another way to stop the buildings from moving, Subterfuge: Characters can use Presence + Subterfuge to
which requires the characters to seek answers beneath the successfully impersonate emergency services personnel and
city. Like most other cities, this city has storm sewers, access convince residents of a building to evacuate.
corridors, and other tunnels underneath the streets. Anyone Demolisher (see p. 47): Characters with a knack for
who gains access to these tunnels and has watched the build- tearing things apart have an easy time disabling the rails the
ings move can see that the tracks that the buildings move on buildings move on.
are clearly visible in the ceilings of these tunnels, even when Omen Sensitivity (see p.58): When they see a building
the buildings are not moving. that will vanish that night, anyone who gets hints or visions
On the surface, these tracks vanish as flanges of asphalt of the future makes a reflexive Wits + Occult roll to notice
rise up to cover them. However, the tracks remain under- that this building is the one that will disappear.
ground, hidden from sight. If someone cuts, welds, or oth-
erwise disables and disrupts these tracks sufficiently, they Escalation
can be disabled permanently. Cutting one of these tracks, or
welding a metal bar across them, causes lurching and grinding If the characters manage to sever the rails and dodge the
sounds as some buildings move while some of the buildings attentions of Officer Strait, they’ve saved the city from losing
cannot move at all. More extensive damage slows the process buildings and people — at least for the time being. The God-
so that it now requires two nights for buildings to move into Machine might decide to try to rebuild this Infrastructure,
the correct configuration for a building to vanish. Disabling but it will take time and effort, and if the characters want to
these rails at points all across the city causes buildings to cease be vigilant they can stay in the area and try to stop it.
moving and ends the threat of buildings vanishing. Of course, the God-Machine might decide to take a differ-
If the characters attack the rails or otherwise attempt to ent approach, and shift the characters to whatever alternate
stop the process, they receive a visit the next day from Officer place the buildings went. This could lead to Sister City (p.
Strait. Officer Strait is an angel taking the form of a traffic 201) or Missing Persons (p. 210).
cop. He cannot leave the streets, but he attempts to stop the
characters from severing the rails or otherwise altering the
Squares of the City.

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Tales of the God machine