Page 212 - Chronicles of Darkness

for help when their cars passed the point where he disap- The gateways are created and controlled via a tall win-
peared. Another case involved people in a house losing a dowless building located in the exact center of the spiral of
dog and hearing it barking inside the house for several days gateways. Inside this building is a vast and complex machine.
afterwards, but being unable to locate it. The characters can destroy this machine, or they could at-
The Truth: The God-Machine conceals its methods in tempt to adjust it so the overall gateways are significantly
this story by hiding the mechanism creating the portals in smaller or higher off the ground. Both options would cause
the weird “dimension” on the other side of said portals. This far fewer people to be trapped by them, but would not prevent
could be considered concealment Infrastructure, but it’s really all vanishings.
a lack of Infrastructure. This is actually a problem; because
the God-Machine didn’t make sure that the portals fit into Linchpins
our world, it’s interacting with the world in a disruptive way.
This may have simply escaped the God-Machine’s attention, The most obvious manifestations of this phenomenon
or it may be deliberate, which is a decision for the Storyteller are the invisible gateways that move across the region. Once
based on her plans for this Tale. someone has seen someone vanish into a gateway, she auto-
matically gains the ability to see the gateways. At least one of
Interchangeable Parts the characters should see someone vanish.
The gateways appear as faintly glowing ovals that move
Almost any characters could work with this adventure, through the air. These ovals move at a speed of between one
but they need sufficient funds or a car that’s in good shape and six miles per hour. The further from the center the oval
so they can travel across several hundred miles. At least one gateway is, the faster they move.
character who has sufficient knowledge of mathematics to These ovals form a complex spiral pattern all centered on
be able to understand the pattern of the oval gateways would a small city. This city is unusual in that its missing persons
be very helpful. rate is significantly lower than anywhere in the surrounding
Blueprints area, because there are no oval gateways anywhere within this
city. At the exact center of the spiral is a large, windowless
building 17 stories high. Although the building appears well
People are vanishing because they wander into a series of cared for, it has no identifying marks other than a small sign
more than a hundred gateways into another reality. These saying “Koval Corporation Rental Storage” above the door.
gateways form a vast, rotating spiral covering several states. The locals ignore the building.
Each gateway is an oval eight feet high and five feet wide. The building has expensive electronic locks but no other
Bumping into the side of a gateway does nothing, but anyone security system. The first floor contains only unused offices,
who stumbles through the gateway vanishes. Although the a stairway, and an elevator to the upper floors. Both require
gateways are invisible to most people, sound travels through a key card to access. The other 16 floors contain a vast and
them, so anyone near a gateway can hear people on the complex machine. The machine is a confusing mass of scaf-
other side. folding, interlocking gears, flashing lights, and sheets of
The reality that lies on the other side of the oval gateways transparent, glowing glass. The machine is alien to humans,
is exceptionally confusing. The sky and the landscape are but is obviously large, powerful, and exceptionally complex.
almost indistinguishable, and to human eyes both appear as However, near the base are controls that appear far more
abstract swirls of color. Perceptions of distance, shape, and comprehensible, as though they were built by and for humans.
direction are drastically inaccurate, and the terrain is highly The Overseer, an angel sent to operate these controls, has
uneven. Someone could take a single step away from a gateway full run of the place.
and find themselves as much as several hundred yards away Floating in the air in front of and three feet above these
from the gateway. Attempting to walk towards an object or controls is an image of the spiral of gateways. This image
person that seems close by and directly ahead could lead the is approximately seven feet across, and each gateway is
character further away from it. around an inch across. The characters can figure out that
The air in the realm on the other side of the gateways one of the controls affects the size of the oval gateways
is breathable and time passes one tenth as fast in this other and another affects their height. Both can only be adjusted
reality, but eventually anyone who remains here starves to within a limited range. The portal size can range from
death. There is no food, water, or other life in this reality. one to five yards in diameter and the height from a few
Near each gateway are least half a dozen people and a larger inches above ground level to 200 yards high. By making
number of corpses. Some of these people save themselves by the oval gateways both as small as possible and as high as
stumbling back through the gateway. However, none of these possible, the number of people who become lost can be
people can see the gateways and only escape by chance. They greatly reduced.
reappear with only fragmentary and confusing memories of Another advantage the characters have is that they can see
the reality they were in, and the experience drives a few of the gateways, and this allows them to more easily navigate the
them insane. If the characters do nothing, people continue other-space behind the gateways. Being able to see the gateways
to disappear and never return. gives characters traveling into this other-space the chance of

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Missing Persons