Ask Steve where the closest phone is, and call this Dr. Harcourt

You say hi to Steve and he greets you warmly.
"Looks like you've had a bit of an adventure already" he says, pointing at your dusty clothes and dirty arm, smelling badly from where you shoved it in the trash.

"Yeah, I nearly got myself stabbed", you laugh weakly. "Listen, do you know where I could make a phone call, and maybe get some change if it's a coin phone?"

"Sure, there's one in the lobby - I'll take you there and pay because you look kind of lost."

You follow Steve into the lobby and he shows you to the phone, which looks about as beaten up as everything else you've seen in this town. You push one of Steve's local coins into the slot and dial the number, chatting to the friendly American as you wait to be put through.

"So Steve, are you here on vacation?"

"Nah, I'm here on business! I know this country doesn't look like much, but believe me there are opportunities to make money here."

"Really, what kind of business?"

"Oh you know, just... business." Steve gives you a wink and a smile. Just then, a voice answers you on the phone:

"Hello?" the voice sounds English, or Australian, and unusually strained.

"Dr. Sean Harcourt?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"It's Tom Hunter, I'm here for the outreach programme but I was rather delayed and missed the meeting at the airport"

"Oh, yes of course! The voice sounds more relaxed. "I'm sorry we couldn't wait for you, but we're running to a tight schedule. Wait outside the airport and I'll come to collect you in half an hour"

"Thanks, Dr. Harcourt"

The voice clicks off. Steve has been watching you intently throughout the conversation and he suddenly asks you about the call. You explain to him that you're a volunteer on an outreach programme working in rural Ebianova.
"That's interesting" says Steve "Say, did you hear about that big archaeological find out in the western rainforest?"
You reply that you haven't.
"Yeah, apparently they discovered some sort of native temple, untouched for centuries - maybe you'll be working nearby... anyway, it was nice meeting you Tom. Before I go, I think you should take this phrasebook - no offence but I noticed you've been struggling with the language." Steve hands you a book which doubles as a phrasebook and dictionary between English and Spanish. Perhaps now you'll find conversations with the locals more rewarding.

"So long." You leave the terminal. Steve gets into the taxi and, after exchanging words with the surly driver, disappears off down the road.

Once again you are outside the terminal. In half an hour, Dr. Harcourt will pick you up. You have gained a phrasebook which you will use automatically in conversations.

P.S. I would appreciate it if someone more adept at writing fiction could tell me the best way to write dialogue and format it. I'm struggling a bit here.

Reads fine to me, no one's paying you to write a novel.

It looks fine to me too...

While waiting, you explore the airport, always watching the time, so you don't miss Dr. Harcourt.
(Sorry if that has already been done, I've joined the adventure when we were talking to the gentleman with the knife.)

Is Dr. Harcourt there yet?

I think we died of starvation.

Reviving this! What happened in the airport? Any new friend? Any suspicious person that should be followed? Any boy whiling to wait outside in order to tell you when Dr. Sean Harcourt has arrived for a couple buck?

I am making a short trip to my old work near London - when I return (2-3 hours) I will continue this game.

That 2-3 hours should be almost over.

*Ahem* Sooooo

While you wait for Dr. Harcourt to arrive you wander about the terminal building. Nothing much has changed here but it is at least a little cooler than sitting outside in the baking sun. As you were involved in a scuffle with that local man earlier you sit down and decide to check if you're ok:

In your inventory you have: Sunglasses, Letter from MOA, Camera, $195, Piece of bread, Phrasebook
You feel a little shaken by your encounter with the knife-wielding man. You have 5 Luck Points remaining.
You feel focused.

Getting up, you visit the bathroom to wash the dirt off your arm from where you earlier rummaged around in a dumpster. While you admire yourself in the cracked and dirty mirror you hear the honk of a horn outside and you go to investigate, thinking it must be Dr. Harcourt.

Outside the terminal building you see a large seven-seater 4x4 with an open top. It is empty apart from a man sitting in the driver's seat. He looks about 40 with a day-old beard. From under his wide-brimmed hat you can see dark hair slightly greying at the temples. He smiles as you approach and offers his hand, which you shake.

"It's Tom, isn't it? I'm Dr. Sean Harcourt - but please call me Sean. Sorry to hear your flight arrived late - the others are already at our headquarters in the city so if you just hop in the back I'll drive you there."
"Thanks for coming to pick me up, Sean. I had a few problems in the town already as well - it's nice to see a friendly face."
"Yes, you have to be careful in a foreign country - you never know who you might run into... can I see your letter from MOA please? I'll need it for the paperwork when we get to headquarters."

You hand over your letter and Sean takes a quick look at it before stuffing it into the pocket of his khaki shorts and telling you that everything seems to be in order. You get in the back of the 4x4 and Sean begins to drive through the streets of San Fernando. There is very little of interest on the journey - through the clouds of dust thrown up by the vehicle's wheels you occasionally see a building or a group of locals, but your attention quickly turns to the interior of the vehicle. It seems fairly well-kept compared with most of the cars you've seen so far in this country. A map of Ebianova lies on the seat next to you, along with a compass. On the floor of the car you can see what looks like a toolbox.

The time is 3:20pm and you are more than halfway through your journey.

Focus: Available

Delicious Necro.

Ask whats in the toolbox and if you could see the map

You call out to Sean over the noise of the engine and the road, and ask him if you can take a look at the map. "Sure", he says. "It's a map of the country - feel free to take a look now."

Thinking this map might come in useful, you ask Sean if you can keep it. Apparently it is his personal copy so you can't, but you examine it anyway and commit a vague image of it to memory.


You notice that someone has circled a place on the map and written "Dig" next to it. Remembering that Steve mentioned an archaeological dig, you assume that this is where it is taking place.

"What's in the toolbox?" you say casually.
Sean turns to look at you. "Unsurprisingly, tools. For fixing the car and that kind of thing. And no, you can't have any of them".

Sean's reply struck you as somewhat hostile and gives you a vaguely uneasy feeling which you can't place. You are sitting in a seat facing backwards and the toolbox is in front of you. You think there are about five minutes left of your journey as you are now in the city centre, where the buildings are more impressive and built in the old colonial style. You have time for one more action before you arrive.

Focus: Available

A note on the game "mechanics":
As we've seen before, Luck Points are like lives, and allow you to get out of situations where your life is under immediate threat. I'm going to keep it like that because I think it's a cool way of doing things. I've decided to tweak "Focus" a bit though, seeing as it doesn't get used.

Focus: Originally, this was going to highlight possible good actions you could take in a given situation by making you notice things about the environment, people in it etc. So, say you're in a room with bare stone walls and no exit. If you focus you'd notice that one of the stone blocks appears to have a recessed button on it.

Now Focus is going to operate differently. It's going to be context-sensitive and might not work in the same way all the time. Basically, if you focus then Tom will assess his options and automatically take the most advantageous action from a story point of view. Being threatened by a knife-wielding thug? Focus and unleash that kick in the balls! In the back seat of a 4x4 with limited time to take a useful action? Focus and find those interesting plot items. It will still be possible to take correct actions without using Focus, but if you use it then you might do or find something cool.

Focus!

Everything went better than expected!

You focus and take stock of your surroundings. Because of you and Sean's relative positions in the car and the noise of the road, you're pretty sure you can open the toolbox without him noticing.

Taking care, you ease open the lid of the toolbox, which folds out to reveal the inside. Lying amongst a chaotically arranged bunch of tools you catch sight of a piece of paper which appears to be stained with blood. You find more blood spattered on the end of a wrench. You don't have time to read the paper now, but from a quick glance it appears to be a shipping manifest for a company called Panamerican. You pocket the piece of paper and, having a feeling that it might come in useful, you also take a large clean wrench from the toolbox before closing it.

It seems that Sean has not seen your actions, and you sit thinking about what you've seen until the 4x4 pulls up in front of a sizeable three storey townhouse, part of a terrace. Sean switches off the ignition and jumps out of the vehicle.
"Ok, Tom, we're here. No luggage?"
"Er, apparently it got sent to Columbia by mistake."
"Oh, sorry about that. Well don't worry, we have spare clothes here or tomorrow you'll have the chance to go to the shops. Follow me and I'll show you to your room."

You enter the house's reception area, which is floored with terracotta-coloured tiles. A fan blows warm air from the ceiling - it seems that even here there is no air-conditioner. A young shaven-headed man sits on a chair with his booted feet on the reception desk, watching a small television mounted on a wall bracket. Along the wall below the bracket are a series of pegs for hanging jackets and hats on, but they are empty. Straight ahead of you to the right of the reception desk is a door which presumably leads to a room at the back of the building. Another door leads to the right. To the left of the desk is a staircase. On the wall behind the reception desk you see a series of hooks with what look like keycards hanging from them.

The man behind the desk nods at Sean as he enters, and Sean then leads you up two flight of stairs to a hallway with three doors. He shows you to the door at the end.
"Here we are - why don't you get some rest? I expect you're tired after everything that's happened today. Dinner will be at 7pm, which is in... well, about three hours time. We'll send someone up for you in case you're asleep".

You thank Sean and step into your room. The door closes behind you. Directly ahead of you is a wide window looking out over the back of the property, and below the window is a bed. On the bed you can see two towels, shower gel and a bathrobe. A sink is fixed to the right wall, below a mirror. The rest of the furnishing is sparse - one wardrobe and a bedside table with a lamp. The floor is tiled but a navy blue rug lies on it in front of the bed.

As you walk to the middle of the room you hear a faint click from behind you.

You have gained: bloody piece of paper; wrench.
Focus: 1/8

Take a shower.

You look around the room but you don't see any shower. You think maybe one of the other doors in the hall is a bathroom, so you go to leave your room to check it out. To your surprise, you find that your door is locked. Not only is it locked, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of door handle. Odd.

Focus: 2/8