Two Paths Diverged in a Darkened Street
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The sudden blat of a siren draws you to a heavily traveled portion of downtown, where a jewelry store has just been broken into. The front window is shattered, and it looks like a smash-and-grab job. Figuring you might be able to catch up with the thief, you pad swiftly but silently down a likely looking nearby alley. You scout around for a few minutes and are just about to give up when you pass another, smaller alley and notice a skulking form slinking out the other end.
Before you can dash down the alley in hot pursuit, you hear shouting coming from the alley on the opposite side of the street. It sounds like a man and a woman are arguing loudly. What do you want to do?
Options:
- Continue following the suspicious figure
- Investigate the shouting in the alley
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Results
If you chose Continue following the suspicious figure:
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Access and Alleys
Figuring a potential jewelry thief is more significant than what's probably a domestic dispute, you sprint down the alley after the shady figure. You pop out of the alley into another large street just in time to see the figure open the front door of a towering office building across the street. By the time you get there the figure has disappeared from view, and the front door is locked. You vow to keep an eye on the building in the future, but for now there's nothing else you can do.
If you chose Investigate the shouting in the alley:
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To the Rescue
After a moment's reflection, you decide that an active fight trumps a potential thief, and stride over to investigate. As you approach you see a middle-aged man and a young woman struggling. Both are wearing the robes of the Zion's Tears cult. He's holding her by the wrist and trying to drag her down the alley, while she's struggling against him and shouting at him to let her go.
"What's going on?" you ask.
They both jump, startled. But then the woman says "Help me! They won't let me leave the building! They've already taken everything, and I just want to go, but they won't let me!"
The man, a couple of decades older than the woman, shakes his head sadly. He says, "This is my niece. I'm trying to take care of her. She's not well--delusions, you see. She stopped taking her medicine, and she's gone completely paranoid. We just want to take her home so she can get the care she needs."
You think about the situation for a minute, and say "I think we should go talk to the police first." The man starts to argue, but you hold up a hand. "If what she says is true, this is really serious. If you're telling the truth, she'll be back in your care in a couple of hours, and I'll apologize for the trouble I've caused."
The man sputters and yells and argues, but you make him release the woman and take her by the hand. There's a moment when you think he's about to attack you, but then he turns and stalks off, shouting that he's going to get the lawyers and his own police, and have you put behind bars.
"Thank you so much!" the woman says when the man is finally out of sight. "I never thought I'd be free! That man's not my uncle. He's just one of the senior members of the Zion's Tears brotherhood. I thought they were okay at first, but ... but once you're in they won't let you leave!" She breaks off for a minute, sniffling, but then continues. "They're doing scary stuff up there. Sometimes they talk about an invasion. At first I thought it was just metaphorical, but they've got rooms full of weapons. I wasn't supposed to see, but I did."
The woman doesn't say much else during the rest of your walk to the nearest police station, but right at the end she whispers to you the location of the Zion's Tears headquarters. It sounds like you'd better check the place out.
Location(s)
Notes
- One-time adventure.
- Part of the Don't Cry for Me, Zion-tina quest.
- Choosing "Investigate the shouting in the alley" is a shortcut in that quest, opening Zion's Tears building.
- Choosing "Continue following the suspicious figure" leads you on the longer path, leading to Should Have Been a Linebacker.
References
- The adventure's name is a reference to the first line in Robert Frost's poem The Road not Taken.
- "Access and Alleys" is a play on Axis and Allies, a board game from Avalon Hill.
