The World of Darkness is full of many mysteries and many twisted things lurking in the shadows. While the default focus is on local events and urban locations, people still need to get around. In this series of blogs, I will present some of the cars, bikes and other vehicles that have appeared in my World of Darkness Chronicles.
The Driverless Fleet
"Damn its cold," your partner says rubbing his hands together.
"Quiet," you remind him. It's a crap assignment but you don't need 'Mr. Freezing Hands' to blow the Op.
Three days since you took out the ENE. Two days since HQ decoded the disk you pried from its charred hands. Two nights of watching this alley waiting for a contact, someone willing and able to sell human blood for the disks contents. The guys in D.C. wanted this one alive.
A black car rolls down the street. That's got to be it.
You nudge you friend as you look through your binoculars That tinted glass would be hard to see through even in daylight. You switch to thermal.
The engine is hot from the drive. Not local. You note the plates. Probably fake but it can't hurt.
No heat from inside the vehicle. Must be another blood sucker. You smile and give your partner the sign to take it out.
***
Your breath comes out in great plums as you run to the wreckage. Your partner chases after you sputtering excuses.
The racket has already attracted some sirens. Two shots to the driver's side, a third to the passengers, five more to the engine block. Mr. Freezing Hands came equipped with an antitank rifle. This thing was seriously upgraded.
A broken street lamp, is bulb long since blown out, lies across the car. As you get up to it you are sure nothing has gotten in or out. What is inside? An angry vampire? A couple of dead bodies?
Maybe nothing, you chide yourself. You've been at this long enough to know the things in the shadows tend to melt away with the light of day.
The front door is locked but your partner's shots have totaled the window. Crouched on the hood you look in.
But other than broken glass and some perforated seating there is no one inside. In fact given the damage to the interior, there never was.
They sound like something the Men in Black might drive: powerful black cars with growling engines and tinted windows. Where do they come from? Where they refuel and who maintains them? Their registration information is in order, except that it leads to addresses and people who do not exist.
While their owner may be a mystery, their driver is something else. Very few times has anyone been seen inside one of these cars but it is fairly clear they have only been passengers.
A few people who have encountered these strange vehicles and the people who use them say that the cars belong to a secretive computer genius. Hidden sensors and advanced electronics are behind the cars' autonomy. But who is this person and why does she want to preserve her secrecy so much?
Learning More
Here are some skills that could help in learning more about the cars.Computers: Everything checks out, the car belongs to a Mr. John Pascal on 1331 Alder Street. Investigating the DMV records for the vehicles reveals convincing forgeries for the registrations. But any people or addresses noted don't exist. Careful research shows that the records were forged within the computer system, meaning someone hacked in and placed them there.
Crafts: As the car pulls away your partner unloads their pistol into it. You don't bother. It's either carrying half of Fort Knox or someone has armor plated it. From the way the car's suspension is sagging, the car is carrying a lot more weight than it should. Given that it seems to be about as fast and maneuverable as a car of that model should be, someone has souped up the engine and the suspension. Probably to compensate for a ton of armor plating.
Drive: The car weaves through rain drenched traffic like a madman. The weird thing is that he seems to be able see fine despite the driving rain. The cars seem to have no blind spots suggesting the "driver" is relying on something other than vision. Also the way the car is moving it has had some custom work.
Investigation: Given the traffic, there is no way it should have escaped your teammates. Not unless it had green lights the whole way. But whoever was behind the wheel couldn't have know you were coming. Heck you didn't know until Jack decided to check the crime scene again. To say the odds favor the fleet isn't really accurate. The cars seem to benefit from some force that overrides computer controlled technology.
Secrets
The driverless fleet belongs to a Promethean who goes by the name Patia or Infinity depending on whether she is dealing others of her kind or not. An Osiran with a closer connection to machines than humans, she actually was created with a direct neural connection. Over the years she has enhanced this devices capabilities and now she can control devices such as the cars from across the planet.Between this direct "hand-on" control and a basic artificial intelligence she developed in the past decade she is able to interact with the world remotely greatly extending her reach. Her cars ferry agents, drop off payments, and pick up items in her quest to upload herself into the God-Machine.
Attributes:
The Driverless Fleet uses "muscle car" models: older model Ford Crown Victorias and Dodge Challengers. Souped up and given heavy duty security improvements, they are very hard to stop. Assume the tinted windows have Durability 4 and Structure 7. Making out anything through them requires you to be next to the car. The doors are Durability 6 and Structure 9 and are electronically controlled. The gas tank has Durability 8 and Structure 10.Durability: 6, Size: 12, Structure: 15
Acceleration: 25 (34 mph/turn), Safe Speed: 110 (75 mph), Speed: 210 (180 mph)
Max Handling: 3, Occupants: 4
Default Dexterity + Drive + Handling: 6 ("Hands On" rating is 10)
The trunk typically contains a well stocked first aid kit (+2 to Medicine rolls), a pistol, an assault rifle, and a Kevlar vest, all under electronic lock.
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