View Full Version : [Vampire/Hunter] The City: One on One (Actual Play)
Hi Everyone,
You know, foreigners living in Tokyo often have odd schedules. Recently, myself and my friend Mike discovered that Mondays are both free for us, but (surprise surprise) not for anyone else we know. So we decided to try something different: to play a shared one-on-one campaign where we took turns alternating Player and GM duties.
Mike had picked up Hunter, and I've long been a fan of Vampire. So we decided that I would make up a Hunter (and Mike would GM the Hunter sessions) and Mike would make up a Vampire (and I would GM the Vampire sessions). The characters wouldn't start off being aware of each other, but they would start off in the same geographical area and their stories would somehow intertwine and effect each other.
We decided to do this to keep things exciting for both of us; since we keep swapping GM and Player duties there's no way we can plan upcoming sessions, and we certainly can't plan some kind of predetermined ending. It's almost all improvised.
So, with this in mind, we sat down and worked on the basics of the campaign:
1. Stylish and Cinematic: Mike and I are big fans of Michael Mann, especially films like "Heat", "Thief", and "Collateral". We wanted the game to exude the same kind of urban cool, so when we are describing things to each other we take care to note how streetlights play across concrete and chrome, etc.
2. The City: We decided to set the game in a nameless East-Coast city, thereby allowing us all kinds of creative freedom. We can incorporate all kinds of cool urban locations that we've seen before, safe in the knowledge we aren't messing with a real city's landscape.
3. Two Driven Urban Professionals (The Characters): Quite a lot of Michael Mann films feature two driven urban professionals facing off against each other (while sometimes sharing some kind of bond), the best example being the Pacino/DeNiro characters in "Heat". We really like this, so we decided to follow the same formula for our game.
Mike is playing David Cale, a professional bodyguard who worked for the government (even doing Presidential service) before going into the private sector. (Imagine the Kevin Costner character from the "Bodyguard" but played by someone way cooler, like Pacino maybe, and let's just have the "Bodyguard" be directed by Michael Mann while we're at it, 'cos then the movie would've been okay)
I am playing Mickey O'Reilly, a professional thief specializing in breaking and entering whose closest relationship is to his "fixer" Pauly. (Imagine the DeNiro character from "Heat" or the James Caan character from "Thief")
4. Canon takes a backseat: As you've no doubt noticed by now, we're far more concerned with emulating a certain style of storytelling and a certain style of story than immersing ourselves in the old World of Darkness (yep, we're going old school oWoD here ... although Mike just picked up the nWoD corebook the other day and we're thinking about changing over ... though we're not sure how the whole Hunter thing would work). So that means sometimes oWoD canon takes a backseat to our "vision". Just wanted to give you fair warning here before anyone sets the "badwrongfun" ninja squad on us! ;)
Don't worry, it's not too far different to what's printed in the books; in fact, it's very close. The vampires have a masquerade, and they have their traditions, and they have a Prince and Elysium and Conclaves. But we don't delve too much into that (Clan politics have been pretty much entirely dropped), instead choosing to focus on the new vampire David Cale and how he reacts on a nightly basis to what he's become.
Similarly, Mickey O'Reilly isn't an "average guy", which flies in the face somewhat of Hunter's recommendations that players make up "average guys". Mickey's a fairly competent guy, and that fits in with our Michael Mann "Urban Driven Professionals" vision. Nonetheless, he's still a guy, and the Hunter sessions we've played have indeed sometimes focused on Mickey's reactions to the horrific situations he's found himself in.
After each session we've written up a bullet-point summary to help us remember everything. We tend to improvise a lot during the sessions, so we definitely need a written reminder to help us keep everything straight and to maintain continuity. I'll be posting those bullet-point summaries, so please keep that in mind if they sometimes skimp on the gory details. (For example, it just says "they talk about vampires" instead of recounting the whole conversation) That said, if you have any questions or want to know more, I'm sure Mike (and myself) would be happy to tell you.
Okay, so, first up (in the next post), the Vampire prelude...
Cheers!
Cam.
Vampire Prelude
* David Cale leaves the Secret Service (for which he'd performed a number of duties, including Presidential Bodyguard Detail) to take a job a "Defcon 1", a new security/bodyguard firm set up by his old buddy/boss Lance Bishop.
* Cale is one of Defcon's first employees, and together he and Bishop work hard to build up the firm.
* After a year or so, Defcon starts building its profile. They land a contract to bodyguard a number of economists attending a conference.
* Cale is bodyguarding Dr. Stockhausen, keynote speaker at the conference. As Cale is driving Stockhausen out of the conference, a team of professional Italian kidnappers swiftly rams the car. Cale gets into an intense car chase and then a shoot-out with the kidnappers. Cale is successful in protecting Stockhausen, but unfortunately has to use deadly force to dissuade the kidnappers.
* This incident boosts Defcon's profile dramatically. Defcon starts picking up wealthier contracts and clients. Justin and Joanna Templar hire Defcon to bodyguard their daughter Bianca, who has just returned to The City from a finishing school in Switzerland. The task is assigned to Defcon's best bodyguard, Cale.
* After bodyguarding Bianca for a couple of months, and escorting her everywhere, Cale foils an attempt to drug Bianca at The Blue Velvet (a popular ambient club in The City). Cale notices something floating in the bottom of Bianca's drink, and catches a glimpse of the waiter slipping out through the back - and Cale realizes he's never seen that waiter working at The Blue Velvet before. Cale knocks the glass out of Bianca's hand just before she drinks from it.
* Bianca, distraught, demands that Cale take her to "Helton". Cale drives her to the Hilton Hotel, and Bianca starts crying saying "Helton Helton, take me to HELTON. At the Templar Building." Cale, a little confused, drives Bianca to the Templar Building. Cale meets someone called Davis, head-of-security. Bianca is swiftly ushered into a plush suite on one of the top floors of the building, but Cale is firmly but politely told to go home and come back early the next evening.
* Cale picks up Bianca at the Templar Building, and meets Geoffrey Helton. Bianca introduces Helton as an "old family friend". Helton offers to take Bianca and Cale out to dinner to thank Cale for saving Bianca. They have dinner at "La Mer", a very high-class floating French restaurant in the Bay area.
* Not long after this meeting, Defcon is bought by The Templar Corporation. Lance Bishop is still in charge, but is now answerable to The Templar Corporation. Templar Corp insists that Cale is bumped out of field duties, and given managerial duties with one exception: Bianca Templar. Templar Corp insists that Cale and only Cale be her bodyguard. Bishop doesn't like losing his baby, but can't really say no because of the incredible amount of money Templar threw at him.
* Cale continues bodyguarding Bianca. It soon becomes clear Cale is the only constant in Bianca's life; she has no real friends in The City, just sycophants and scene-queens that hang around her. Bianca starts to develop feelings for Cale, and the two draw close.
* Cale and Bianca have a second dinner with Helton, this time at the Imperial Palace, a Chinese restaurant on the top floor of the Imperial Hotel. As they are leaving the hotel, Helton's car is attacked by four assailants. Cale leaps out of his car and helps defend Helton and Davis. Together, Davis and Cale repel the assailants (who must definitely have been hopped on PCP, considering the way they shook off the first couple of blows and gunshots!), but Davis is wounded in the fight.
* Cale is asked to bodyguard Helton while Davis recovers from his wounds.
* Cale and Bianca's romance continues.
* Davis recovers awfully quickly from his wounds...
* As Cale and Bianca are about to drive into the Templar Building's carpark one night, Cale notices the security guard slumped over his desk. Cale is about to put the car into reverse when six assailants open up on his car with automatic weapons. The car gets shredded and stops moving. Cale opens fire, putting up a hell of a fight, as does Bianca (Cale gives her his back-up piece). They take down three of the guys, before the murderous hail of automatic fire tears Bianca and then Cale to pieces.
* Cale, in his dying moments, sees the three survivors as they inspect their handiwork. Cale will never forget their faces:
1. An extremely blonde, Aryan looking guy. Muscular and well-built.
2. A tall guy with a hawk-like face, and long black hair tied back into a ponytail.
3. A dark haired guy with Mediterranean good looks. Actually, he looks a lot like the waiter at the attempted drugging of Bianca...
* Not long after the three leave, Helton walks up to the car, and apologizes for being too late to save Bianca and Cale. He offers Cale a chance, however, for revenge. Cale says yes to this offer, and Helton nods, slicing open his wrist and letting the blood drop into Cale's mouth...
And that's about it! Helton let Cale stay in some apartments in the Templar Building while Cale came to grips with his "change". Helton instructed Cale on the basics of feeding, and the need for secrecy (The Masquerade). The next session will start not long after this...
Hunter Prelude
· Mickey O’Reilly is contacted by Pauly, his fixer. The score is to steal a shipment of diamonds that is being kept for one night at the Bayside Docks.
· Although Mickey usually works alone, Pauly has organized a team for the score. Joe Cary is an electronics expert. Abel is a safecracker. Marvin Ye is a computer expert.
· Watching TV Mickey sees a report about a murder. The victim has been mostly drained of blood. Suddenly the words “DELIVER JUSTICE TO THE GUILTY” flash across the screen. Mickey rubs his eyes in disbelief to see the screen has returned to normal, featuring the detective in charge Guy Trujillo.
· Led by Mickey, the team starts the score not long before dawn. The team drives in dressed as technicians, complete with overalls and a bogus worksheet. Abel is busy cracking the safe when Marvin reports that the security company is sending down a patrol car; they seem to have noticed their computers have gone a little buggy. Mickey realizes they don’t have time to successfully complete the score, and he orders the team to “walk away”. Everyone is frustrated, but they do so, narrowly missing the security patrol car.
· Pauly contacts Mickey with a very lucrative score, in order to make up for the lost diamonds. The score is indeed lucrative, with the principal offering a cool $100 000. Mickey has to break into an art gallery housed in the main building of the Templar Corporation and steal a piece of Sumerian art called “The book of Erishkigal”. Interestingly enough, that particular piece is not listed as being on display in the museum.
· Mickey researches the Templar Corporation, and discovers the “securities consulting firm” has been kicking around since the American Civil War and pretty much constitutes a private army. Templar Corporation employees are currently stationed in Iraq. Mickey puts two and two together, and figures that “the book” was most likely looted from the Museum of Baghdad.
· Strange dreams and signs plague Mickey. He drives to the center of The City to find it curiously deserted. The neon signs are all blank. Suddenly, strange figures begin shuffling towards Mickey out the darkness. Spooked, Mickey runs to his car, as one of the figures lurches to the window. Mickey is shocked to see the figure is a walking corpse! Mickey suddenly wakes to find himself in his own bed … fully dressed and sweating.
· Mickey discovers that Templar takes security very seriously. Scouting the building reveals it is something of a mini-fortress, with very tight security. While scouting out the building, Mickey is assailed by the stench of rotting flesh, making him run to the toilet and vomit. Leaving the toilet he sees many of the security guards are walking corpses! A gaunt, unbreathing man asks Mickey if he is okay. (This is David Cale, main protagonist of the Vampire sessions) Mickey stammers out a “yes” and hurriedly leaves the building.
· Mickey asks Pauly for the name of the principal. He gets a name: Ambrose Niles.
· Mickey launches his plan to get into the Templar Corporation building, recruiting Marvin Ye to help jam the Corporations camera systems. Mickey follows a tech-services worker home on Friday night and steals his pass card. Not long after sundown, Mickey uses the pass card to gain access to the building, and makes his way to the art gallery. “The book” is nowhere to be seen, but Mickey spots a false door. Opening the door Mickey climbs a long flight of stairs, leading to the very top floor of the Templar Building.
· Mickey finds himself in a massive room, with three sides being huge glass windows overlooking The City. He spots “the book”, which is a stone tablet held in the arms of a statue of Erishkigal herself. This statue stands in the middle of a pool. The pool appears to be full of blood. Mickey takes off his shoes, rolls up his trousers, and climbs into the pool. As soon as he grabs the tablet and puts it in his bag he gets a call from Marvin: Mickey’s set off pretty much every alarm possible. Mickey sprints for the stairs, which are closing automatically. He just makes it, and spins around to see the gaunt man from before (David Cale) rushing for the door. The door locks shut and Mickey runs down the stairs.
· Mickey runs to the elevator, and runs headlong into a vampire who grabs him by the throat and throws him down the corridor. “What the hell are you?” Mickey gasps. “Wouldn’t you like to know!” the creature hisses through a fanged maw, charging towards Mickey for the kill. Mickey throws his hands in front of him, defensively, yelling “get the fuck off me!” There’s a brief flash, a spark, a smell of ozone, and the vampire’s gone flying back down the corridor. Mickey, eyes wide with fear, charges down the stairs to the underground garage as he asks Marvin to open the main garage doors.
· Mickey smashes a car window and leaps into a car, hotwiring it. Just as he takes off, the vampire comes running and leaps onto the roof of the car. The creature punches its hand through the metal roof and begins clawing at Mickey. Mickey slams on the accelerator, crouches down in his seat, and aims the car for the garage door which is only halfway open. Slamming into it rips off the top half of the car, taking the vampire with it (with a hellish shriek!).
· Mickey keeps driving, ditches cars, and then drives to the drop-off point. A limousine and a man in a suit are waiting for him. The man takes the tablet from Mickey and shows it to someone in the limo who nods. The suit then gives a briefcase containing $100 000 to Mickey. He says “pleasure doing business” and smiles revealing a maw full of fangs. Mickey stands shocked, as the limo drives away. Briefly, the license plate changes and says, “Deliver justice to the guilty”…
Vampire session 1
· David Cale is at the Templar Corporation, investigating a highly unusual break-in. A thief broke into one of Helton’s private quarters and stole an ancient Sumerian tablet which Helton calls “one of the spoils of war recently taken from Persia.” During a dramatic escape the thief scraped one of the few other vampiric employees of Templar (Johnson) across the ceiling of the garage. The remains are taken to the top of the Templar building for the sunrise.
· Cale briefly talks to Helton, promising to retrieve the tablet. Helton points out a murder in a newspaper, the victim curiously drained of blood. Helton asks Cale to keep an eye on this situation, as it could be a potential breach of The Masquerade. Any such offenders are to be killed. As Cale leaves he smells the blood in Helton’s glass … and yet again it is maddeningly familiar.
· Cale spends some time consulting with Davis, official head-of-security for Templar and ghoul. They agree to shake up the local underworld community.
· Cale checks the Templar database for possible criminal contacts and fixers, and comes up with three names. Paul DeHaven, specializing in theft. Chuck Novak, specializing in muscle and “wetworks”. Giancola, an all-rounder with a finger in many pies, including owning or managing The Enigma, one of the coolest clubs in The City.
· Cale calls his friend the Deputy Chief and asks to talk to him about the murder. The Deputy is happy to talk to Cale as it turns out this is actually the 5th murder in a string. The police have done their best to keep this out of the media, but it appears the killer is becoming bolder with each murder, and more savage too. Early murders appear to have been committed with knives, while the most recent is almost animalistic in nature. Cale and the Deputy meet at Romeo’s Diner (Cale has an untouched coffee). Cale reads through the Deputy’s case files, and promises to let him know if he learns anything.
· Cale decides to talk to Giancola at The Enigma. Grabbing two attractive women from the line, Gina and Julie, Cale walks to the front door armed with a fistful of cash and vampiric powers of Dominate. Cale easily gets in.
· In the club runs into a rather territorial vampire called Lawrence.
· Cale talks to Giancola, giving him his business card. Giancola assures Cale he had nothing to do with the break-in at Templar. As they talk in the V.I.P. lounge above the dance floor, Cale spots one of his killers from a year ago; the dark haired guy with Mediterranean good looks. He is walking towards a backdoor with Gina and Julie.
· Cale excuses himself, and climbs to the roof. 30 feet directly below him he sees his killer giving the girls some coke and trying to have his way with them. He’s rather forceful and is definitely taking advantage of them. Cale steps off the building and drops right behind the scoundrel (Anthony Corelli).
· Corelli spins around, thinking Cale has only walked up behind him, warning Cale “not to go fucking around with my action.” Cale tells the girls to run, and then starts laying into Corelli. Corelli pulls a gun and puts three rounds through Cale’s gut. Cale dives for cover behind a car, and Corelli follows thinking Cale is down for the count. Cale effortlessly springs to his feet and slams Corelli down to the ground with a spinning kick. Cale leans in to rip the gun out of Corelli’s hand, but Corelli manages to put two more shots through Cale’s gut. Angered, Cale picks Corelli up and hurls him against a wall. Corelli slumps to the ground with a crunch and some broken bones.
· Cale leans over Corelli and spits the five bullets out into his hand. Corelli is almost mad with fear. Cale smiles and says he is the guy Corelli killed a year ago and that “payback’s a bitch!” Cale tears Corelli’s throat out and gorges on his blood.
· Cale, worried about the shots fired near a mob-owned business, dumps Corelli’s body into the car and drives away. He grabs a mobile phone and a wallet from Corelli, then dumps the car (and body) into the bar.
· Cale curses himself for indulging in animalistic behavior and not taking the chance to interrogate Corelli. His bloodlust has been satisfied, but he’s learnt no answers.
· Cale realizes that the Underworld is a domain that’s no doubt been claimed by a vampiric resident of The City. Cale wants to make sure he doesn’t step on that person’s toes, so he goes to talk to Helton to find out who that vampire is.
· Helton is at the ultra-modern opera center, attending an after party. Entering the room, Cale can’t help but think of a small fish tank filled with some normal fish and too many sharks. The vampires in the room circle the human herd in languid circles, slowly closing in.
· Cale talks to Helton and discovers that a vampire called Josef von Burian has claimed the Underworld as his personal domain. Helton points Josef out in the lobby below. Helton and Burian have clashed in the past, but Helton says both have come to realize the other provides “necessary services to The City.”
· As Cale leaves the after party two vampires approach him. Camille and Gregory seem very interested in “the young one” (as they refer to Cale). Cale has the distinct feeling the two are checking him out.
· Cale goes home and watches “Blade” an awful lot of times.
· Cale wakes up to news headlines that Gina has been killed in the parking lot of The Enigma. The Deputy calls Cale and asks him to come down to the crime-scene. There isn’t much Cale can do at the crime-scene, but he’s worried that this is the work of a vampire who is becoming more and more bestial. Could it be Lawrence, who seemed so territorial in the nightclub?
· Cale decides to get pro-active about tracking down his killers. He goes to the girly-bar where Chuck Novak usually does business and trails him home. Later that night, he breaks into Novak’s house and interrogates him. Cale asks for the name of the person who organized his murder. Novak locks up briefly, grabbing his head in pain, before finally stammering out the name Josef von Burian. Cale nods, and as he is leaving tells Novak to “forget this ever happened.” Strangely, this comment makes Novak’s eyes widen in horror. Cale quickly leaves.
· Cale reports back to Helton and tells him about Corelli and Burian. Cale is apologetic that he killed Corelli, while Helton seems to enjoy the story, listening with a quiet pride in Cale’s murderous abilities. He tells Cale that “you shouldn’t think you are like them. You look like them, but you are not like them. If you think too much that you are like them, it will hold you back. You are so much more than human Cale. You are the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing. And I very much look forward to you becoming a wolf.”
· Helton is angered to hear that Burian has basically declared war on him. Cale asks why Burian would do such a thing, but Helton has no idea. Helton warns Cale that killing Burian would break one of the only solid laws vampires really have. The punishment for taking the life of another vampire is murder. Helton says that he will give Cale as much protection as he can if he decides to take down Burian in his quest for revenge, but he must be discreet about it. Cale nods and leaves the room.
· Cale, in an effort to find the stolen tablet, stakes out Pauly’s bar. Sure enough, after a while he spots the thief (who he briefly glimpsed). Cale follows the thief, and watches him drive to The Enigma. The thief gets out near the murder scene, and takes a bit of a look around. He then walks inside the club, and spends some time talking to Giancola. While the thief is talking to Giancola, Lawrence suddenly appears near Cale. Lawrence seems very suspicious of Cale, and says that he hopes Cale isn’t making any sloppy mistakes.
· The thief leaves the club and Cale follows him back to his apartment. Cale decides to talk to the thief, and asks the night man to buzz him in. Cale is surprised when the night man says “sure” and lets him in. Cale takes an elevator and moves to the thief’s door. The door quietly swings open revealing a dark Spartan apartment. The thief talks to Cale from the shadows, but after a while sits opposite him, a gun in his hand the whole time.
· Cale and Mickey (the thief) have an extremely tense conversation. Cale is astonished that a human can see him for what he is. Mickey is astonished that Cale isn’t automatically trying to kill him. Cale asks Mickey how he can do it; Mickey says he doesn’t know. Cale guardedly gives Mickey some respect for breaking into the Templar building and taking down Johnson; neither are easy feats. Mickey nervously fingers the pistol, and Cale tells him “that’ll hurt like hell, but you’ll need more than that to take us down.” Mickey says he’s passed on the tablet; Cale says that’s cool, he won’t hurt Mickey, he just wants to know who has the tablet. Mickey gives a name: Ambrose Niles.
· Mickey, meanwhile, asks if Cale is responsible for killing Gina near The Enigma. Mickey knows he was there because Giancola told him that a guy called Cale from the Templar Corporation was looking for him. Cale says he didn’t kill Gina, and Mickey slowly nods.
· Cale puts a business card on the coffee table, slowly stands to leave. Mickey asks Cale if he had a choice; did he choose to become a monster? Cale remembers Helton giving him a chance for revenge and saying yes. Cale lies to Mickey and says “no, no choice”. Mickey then asks, “Can you stop?” Cale shrugs and replies, “Can you?” With that, he leaves the thief alone in the empty darkened apartment…
Hunter session 1
(Overlap with Vampire session 1)
· Mickey reads a report of a sixth murder. A woman called Gina has been savagely killed and dumped in the carpark of The Enigma nightclub. Mickey drives to the club, and spends some time looking around near the scene. He walks into the club and spends a little time talking to Giancola. Mickey asks if anyone suspicious has been hanging around the club, and Giancola says a guy from the Templar Corporation called David Cale has been asking questions about a score. Mickey thanks Giancola and drives home.
· The vampire David Cale comes to visit Mickey in his apartment. Mickey and Cale have a conversation (see Vampire session 1 notes). Mickey is somewhat surprised that Cale doesn’t attack, and scratches his theory that Cale is the serial killer. He also detects a note of self-loathing in Cale’s speech, and wonders if all monsters truly are monstrous.
(Hunter session 1 begins)
· After Cale leaves Mickey realizes his apartment has been compromised. Mickey packs up his tools, grabs all of his weapons including his Benelli M4 semi-auto shotgun, and drives into the night.
· Mickey checks himself into a hotel. He realizes that if Templar Corp has tracked him down, his accomplice Marvin Ye is also in danger.
· Mickey drives to Marvin’s apartment, pays him the $20 000 he owes him, and convinces Marvin to pack up his computer gear and leave. Mickey assures him “it’s only a precaution”, but this is a lie.
· Mickey drives to Pauly’s bar. Mickey tells Pauly that a Templar employee visited him and that his apartment has been compromised. Pauly realizes the danger of the situation and sets up an “out” for Marvin. He also offers an “out” for Mickey. He refuses, deciding to stay on in The City and figure out what the hell is going on. Pauly says he’ll set up the “out” anyway. Mickey says goodbye to Marvin, feeling bad he’s turned the guy’s life upside down, but happy that he’ll probably live.
· As Mickey leaves the bar he sees a neon sign which briefly flashes “YOU HAVE A JOB TO DO”. At the same time he hears a woman scream from a nearby alley. Mickey bolts to the alley, pistol drawn. He finds a fearful woman slumped to the ground, and a vampire holding a bald guy up by the throat. “Put him down!” Mickey yells. The vampire tosses the man to the side, and charges towards Mickey. “Get back!” he yells, and with a spark and a smell of ozone the vampire flies across the alley and slumps stunned to the ground. “Get the girl and get out of here!” Mickey yells to the man. Mickey is then astonished to see the guy pull a silenced MAC-10 out of a bag and then repeatedly hose the vampire with automatic fire. Mickey’s worried about the authorities and is unsure of how to respond to this vampire-killing stranger. “Sun’s comin’ up, help me drag it into the street, will ya?” he says to Mickey. Together they drag the vampire’s corpse into the street, where it bursts into flames as the sun rises.
· Mickey drives his newfound ally, Lane, to a diner for breakfast. Mickey notes Lane has prison tattoos, and a sloppy style when it comes to eliminating the undead. Nonetheless, Lane has been hunting monsters for about a year, claiming to have taken down 12 of them. He’s also the only person in the whole world who doesn’t think Mickey is going insane.
· Mickey takes a calculated risk and asks Lane to meet him near The Enigma the following night. “And don’t bring the girl” Mickey says.
· Mickey meets Lane the following night. Lane has indeed brought the girl, Tracy, along. She obviously doesn’t want any part in this. Mickey gives her money for a taxi and tells her to go. Mickey and Lane argue, but Mickey reasons that Lane would only end up getting the girl killed.
· Mickey and Lane walk around to the back of the club, and break in. Mickey explains he is going to get some information which can lead them one of the “big fish” of undead society: Ambrose Niles. Curiously, Mickey seems to have trouble remembering that particular name.
· Lane stays by the bar while Mickey chats to Giancola. Mickey explains that he wants to set up a meeting with the people who set up the Templar score. Giancola is surprised Mickey isn’t getting that info from Pauly. Mickey explains that Templar heat is on all of them; after all, didn’t a Templar employee walk into The Enigma and start asking questions? Mickey says he’ll take care of the situation, but he needs some way of contacting the principal. (Of course, he’s also approached Giancola about this because he doesn’t want to put Pauly in any danger.) Giancola says he’ll be in touch.
· Mickey looks to the dance floor, and sees Lane pushing his way through the crowd. He’s headed towards a vampire who is seducing an attractive woman.
· Mickey runs to the dance floor and intercepts Lane just before he pulls out a weapon. “There’s plenty of people packin’ heat in here Lane. You don’t wanna pull a piece in a mob joint. Take my car keys and bring the car round the back alley. I’ll meet you there.”
· Mickey follows the vampire and its prey. Mickey momentarily stops at the bar and orders a glass half filled with vodka. He then follows the pair into a back room. The vampire starts to feed on the woman, prompting Mickey to throw his drink over the back of the vampire’s head. The creature turns with a snarl barking, “go!” with a commanding voice. Mickey holds the creature’s stare, and its eyes widen. It throws itself at Mickey who throws his hands in front of him yelling “get the hell away from me!” The vampire flies against the wall with a sudden spark, which ignites the vodka. The vampire fearfully starts trying to put out the flames, and then lunges again at Mickey with animalistic fury. It is again mysteriously thrown back from Mickey who runs to the back door. Lane is waiting holding the M4. Mickey grabs the gun saying “Give me that. I’ll take care of Michael Jackson.” He walks back, points the shotgun in the vampire’s face, and then fires three times. The vampire’s head disintegrates, the girl goes hysterical, and Lane laughs as he drags Mickey out into the alley and then into the car. The car screeches off into the night.
· Mickey is somewhat shocked by his bravado in facing down the vampire, but feels good about what he did. Lane laughs and says “and I thought you were a professional!” Mickey, however, realizes that such bravado could easily get him killed in the future, and decides there has to be a way of taking down the monsters in a methodical, calculated manner.
· Mickey and Lane sit in a diner, watching a TV for any news on the nightclub shooting. None is mentioned, although there has been another savage murder. This time in a park downtown. Mickey is tired, and decides to investigate in the morning.
· Mickey is woken by a call from Giancola. If Mickey wants to get in touch with the principal of the Templar score, he needs to find someone who once worked for Calumay Incorporated called Rojas.
· Mickey and Lane visit the site of the latest murder. Mickey chats to the beat cop at the crime scene, and finds out the victim’s entrails were strewn around the trees. Mickey and Lane spend some time discussing the nature of the murder. Lane isn’t convinced that it’s necessarily the work of an unnatural predator. Mickey, however, is sure that it is the work of the supernatural.
· Unsure of how to proceed on the serial killer front, Mickey decides to look deeper into Ambrose Niles. He gives the name Rojas to Pauly to track down, and spends some time looking for any mention of Niles. It appears Ambrose Niles is a very uncommon name, and only comes up with 2 references to such a person. One is from 1683 and the other is from 1741.
· Pauly contacts Mickey and tells him Rojas did some kind of muscle work for James Skye, one of the top guys at Calumay Incorporated. Mickey realizes Skye must have contact info for Rojas somewhere, and decides to break into Skye’s office.
· Mickey breaks into Skye’s office, but with a complication. While disabling the motion sensor, he is interrupted by a security guard. The guard doesn’t buy Mickey’s story that he’s a tech-services guy taking care of some routine business, and asks to see his work order. Mickey, keeping his back to the guard as long as he can, reaches into his toolkit and pulls out a pistol. He bundles the guard into a closet keeping the gun in the guard’s face. Mickey hopes the guard’s fear kept him from getting a good look at Mickey.
· In Skye’s office Mickey finds a file on Rojas, including parole reports. He also finds files on 4 other guys, all of who have worked in criminal enterprises. One of them is Alexander Sloan, the vampire who Mickey delivered the book of Erishkigal to. Mickey makes copies of the files and leaves the building.
· To complicate things, Mickey learns the serial killer has struck again. This time the victim is a high-profile one: James Skye.
· Mickey pays a visit to Chuck Novak, a fixer known for organizing muscle. Mickey pays Novak $5000 for info on Rojas. Novak gives him an address. Mickey also shows the pictures in the other files, including Sloan, but Novak says nothing.
· Mickey drives to the address, and finds a steakhouse restaurant. Mickey takes a seat and orders a steak and spots Andreas Rojas working there. Mickey is shocked to see Rojas has the potential to turn into some kind of horrid primal beast!
· Mickey drives to a nearby diner, and tapes a rented cell phone under one of the tables (he used a fake I.D. to rent the cell phone). He then parks a fair distance away, and takes out some binoculars. He calls the steakhouse on his own cell phone, and speaks to Rojas. Mickey tells Rojas to meet him at the diner at table 5.
· In a few hours, Rojas appears at the diner and sits at table 5. Mickey, watching through his binoculars, calls the call phone strapped under the table. “Hi Rojas. Bet you’d like to know who this is. I know what you’ve been up to pal. You and your friend Am … Ambrose Niles. Yeah, that’s right, I know what you’ve been up to you freak. You monstrous freak. I know what you’ve been doing and I know what you are. Goddamn you make me sick. Walking around, so high and mighty, thinking you can slaughter people like cattle. Well, guess what buddy? The herd just woke up.” Rojas is furious at this point, and crushes the rented cell phone as Mickey laughs. Rojas jumps into his car and drives away.
· Mickey, however, drives in the other direction, back to the steakhouse. He poses as James Levine, new parole officer for Rojas, and asks to talk to the manager. Mickey gets Rojas’ home address from the manager, and also gets information on his work shifts at the restaurant for the next couple of weeks. Mickey asks the manager not to say anything to Rojas. “This is part of a larger investigation, and we don’t want to tip him off or anything.” One of the waitresses says she thinks she caught Rojas eating some raw steaks in his breaks.
· Mickey calls Lane and asks to meet the next day. Mickey tells Lane they’ve got a break; they can get some information on one of the monsters working for Niles. “Daylight?” Lane asks. “So, this thing isn’t a suckerhead?” “No. Actually, I think it could be like the very first monster you ever saw. Something that can turn into 9 feet of pure primal rage.” “Oh, that’s just freakin’ great,” Lane moans, “silver bullets are just so goddamned expensive.” Lane hangs up, leaving Mickey to stare quizzically at his phone thinking “what???”
Vampire session 2
Part 1: Death at The Enigma
· As Cale comes out of Mickey O’Reilly’s apartment (see end of Vampire session 1) we fade into a montage sequence in the basement of Cale’s house. Cale is training hard, working out his frustrations and aggressions on his punching bag. By the end of the sequence Cale is covered in blood-sweat and the punching bag hangs in ruins.
· Cale meets with Helton and expresses a desire to know more about vampiric politics and relationships in The City. Helton says there are occasional gatherings of vampires at places called Elysium: buildings and events that are considered to be neutral territory for vampires, such as the gala opera after party Cale briefly visited (see Vampire session 1 for details). Helton says he will let Cale know the next time there is a large gathering of vampires at Elysium.
· Cale decides to get proactive in investigating Burian. After a little digging Cale discovers that Burian has influence over the popular nightclub The Enigma. This makes sense to Cale, since he knows that the criminal Giancola operates out of The Enigma, and that Burian has claimed the underworld as his Domain.
· Cale arrives at The Enigma and stands at the bar. With his incredible vampiric senses Cale hears a dim shot fired in one of the backrooms. Moving to investigate, he finds the headless body of Lawrence slumped in a stockroom near a hysterical female club-goer (Lawrence’s intended dinner, no doubt). A car screams out of the back-alley, and into the night.
· Cale grabs a couple of security guys and starts handling damage control. By the time Giancola and his goons have arrived Lawrence’s body has already rotted somewhat, now looking like a 6-month old corpse (skin pulled dry and taunt over the bones). Giancola wonders aloud why someone has chosen to drag a corpse into a stockroom and shotgun its head off: is someone sending him a message perhaps?
· Cale notices one of Giancola’s goons on a mobile phone, suspiciously sounding like a ghoul reporting the situation to its master (Burian, most likely). “Yes, I’ll handle the clean-up. There’ll be nothing left. No, we don’t know who did it.” The ghoul, however, looks significantly at Cale as he says the last of this, and then hangs up.
· Cale discreetly follows the ghoul and another goon as they take Lawrence’s desiccated corpse to a building site, set fire to it, then wait for the sunrise. Any ash is presumably buried under concrete.
· As Cale leaves the site before the dawn he receives a call from Helton. It appears a gathering of vampires has been called for the next night. However, it is not to be just an ordinary gathering of vampires at Elysium. Instead, it is to be a gathering of as many of the vampires of The City as possible, including The Prince; a Conclave. Cale is to meet Helton at the Templar Building to help him prepare.
Part 2: Gatherings of Fiends
(The First Gathering)
· Cale awakes, reports to the Templar Building and meets with Helton and Davis (Helton’s personal bodyguard).
· The Conclave is to be at the Museum of Modern Art. Cale helps organize the team. On top of Helton, Cale, and Davis, there are 4 ghouls: 1 driver and 3 guards. All are armed with H&K MP5Ks, and are traveling in a bulletproof limo.
· The limo arrives outside the Museum of Modern Art. The scene is tense, as limos and luxury cars line the streets outside the Museum. Each limo has its own team of ghouls, nervously puffing cigarettes, eyeing each other off. Museum security, meanwhile, is extremely tight, as Cale spots ghouls with sniffer-dogs patrolling the grounds.
· Inside, almost all of the legally recognized vampires of The City gather in their circles and cliques. Around 30 in total, including the Prince himself, Sebastian O’Neil. When Cale shakes Sebastian’s hand it feels like shaking hands with a marble statue.
· The Conclave has been called by Josef von Burian. Burian theatrically announces that one of their own has been murdered in The Enigma and that, by vampiric law, a Blood Hunt must be called in order to hunt down and destroy the murderer.
· Sebastian declares the Blood Hunt, and the vampires shoot nervous glances at each other. Obviously, they consider the murderer to be one of their own. They cannot even consider the possibility that Lawrence was killed by someone other than another vampire.
· The tension mounts in the room as Cale hustles Helton out of the room. As they leave, Burian locks eyes with Helton and then Cale.
· Back at the Templar Building Helton and Cale discuss the new turn of events. Helton says it’s a dangerous time, as vampires will use the Blood Hunt to act on old grievances against their enemies. Burian, in particular, could use it as a cover from which to strike at Helton.
· In light of this Cale decides to back off on Burian for a little while, and refocus on Ambrose Niles.
· In a nice moment of deductive reasoning, Cale realizes that Niles must be recruiting vampires from those that live illegally in The City. In order to reach Niles, he must reach these “illegal aliens”.
· Cale pulls up files on the “bottom rung” vampires in The City, looking for any who might possibly be connected to any such “illegal” vampires. He strikes a few possibilities, and decides to visit one: Greg Summers, a vampire who lectures in Sociology at the local University.
· Cale talks to Summers and decides to take a chance. Cale tells Summers that vampiric society needs “to be pulled down.” Summers nods and tells Cale to meet him at a suburban address the next evening.
(The Second Gathering)
· Cale arrives to discover a small gathering of vampires. Two of them (including Summers) are legally recognized vampires, but the 4 others are not. The vampires quickly fall into a spirited ideological argument about setting up a new vampiric society in which younger vampires have more say. “Look at these Elders, these self-proclaimed leaders!” Cynthia says, “They don’t even know how to use a freaking goddamned mobile phone! They Embrace us in order to maintain power because we are the ones who understand how this world works now. And that gives us power!”
· Cale says he has no time for ideological arguments. He’s looking for vampires who can “get things done”. “I’m leaving. Contact me if you know anyone like that. Good luck with your revolution.”
· As Cale leaves, Max, a biker vampire who wanders from city to city, intercepts him. He tells Cale that there are a few vampires like he mentioned, in particular one called Alexander Sloan. Sloan was unaffiliated, a drifter, a lot like Max. Recently, however, Sloan traded in his leathers for a Prada suit. Seems like Sloan has got himself a patron of some kind.
· Max also hints at having seen some “weird shit” between the cities. Cale thanks Max for the information, and they exchange numbers.
· Cale visits Chuck Novak, a fixer who finds “muscle” for jobs. Cale asks for information on Alexander Sloan. Chuck says nothing, but Cale can see his mind is working. Cale promises to pay handsomely for information. Novak says he will get back to Cale.
· Cale goes to see a midnight screening of “Blade: Trinity”. As he leaves the cinema he thinks of the gathering of vampires in the suburban house, and it strikes him as being far too dangerous, far too amateur. He realizes he still sleeps in his own house, an obvious target for any enemies he might have. He decides to find a new haven in the next few nights.
· Before he “sleeps”, Cale decides to test his willpower and endurance. As the sun creeps over the horizon Cale forces himself to stay awake in his basement. He goes through some martial arts kata in order to focus. With an extreme force of will, Cale realizes that he can indeed stay awake during the daylight hours. He also realizes that this is somehow linked to his humanity. Does this mean more bestial vampires are even more vulnerable in the day?
Part 3: Fire, Blood, and Death
· Cale awakens feeling unusually groggy. Looking at his watch he sees it is still daytime! A feeling of incredible danger pushes Cale to wakefulness. Panic surges through Cale as he realizes the house above him is on fire!
· Cale manages to hold down the bestial fear of fire that threatens to override his self-control.
· Cale runs to the bathroom and summons all the vampiric strength he can muster. Desperate, feeling the heat growing above him, Cale rips through the plumbing and starts tunneling until he hits a sewer pipe which he tears open. Cale crawls into the sewer pipe and finally collapses into death-like sleep.
· As night falls Cale awakens in the sewer pipe. As he crawls towards a manhole, he hears something breathing and crawling in the pipes behind him. Cale hurries out onto street level to find his house is nothing more than ashes.
· Cale makes his way back to the Templar Building. Davis seems to be almost surprised that Cale survived the burning, but expresses his relief that Cale did survive.
· Cale meets with Helton and suggests that Helton tell no-one of his plans, even Davis. Helton expresses some surprise here. Cale says that he must be close to something if people are attempting to burn his house. Helton says it’s obviously the work of Burian, but Cale is not too sure. Cale decides to pay a visit to Novak.
· Cale arrives to find Novak’s front door open. Cale pulls his pistol and creeps into the house. He hears Novak say “look, I told him everything you wanted me to, no more”. Another voice says “well, thanks, but we just don’t need you any more Novak”, followed by a gunshot.
· Cale hides in the shadows as Novak’s killers (two of them) walk past him.
· Cale leaps out from the shadows, effortlessly disarming one killer, and bringing his pistol to bear on the other. This happens to be Jack Aronofski, one of Cale’s murderers. Aronofski brings up his own pistol, and starts firing.
· This kicks off one hell of a knock-down, drag-out, down and dirty fight between two guys totally unwilling to give up because they both have unnatural power in their veins!
· Cale leaps into another room, then leaps out again shooting Aronofski’s assistant in the throat. Cale then drops to the floor, sweep kicking Jack’s legs out from under him. Jack pulls the trigger as he goes down, shots grazing Cale’s head. As Jack hits the floor Cale pulls out his combat knife, and disarms Jack by ramming it through his hand and into the floor.
· Cale points his pistol at Jack, thinking the fight is over, but Jack has pulled out a knife of his own with his left hand and slashes at Cale with it. Cale rolls back, seemingly out of range, but Jack expertly throws the knife, embedding it deep in Cale’s throat.
· Cale hits the floor hard, briefly overcome with pain, unable to move.
· Jack, thinking Cale is dead (how many people can survive a knife through the throat?) pulls the knife out of his own hand and turns to leave. Cale, meanwhile, uses his vampiric powers to heal himself a little, and rolls over and shoots Jack in the knee.
· Cale leaps onto Jack, disarming him, and then ties him to a chair and begins interrogating him. Jack is a tough nut to crack, and refuses to say anything for a few moments. Suddenly, Jack snaps the bonds Cale tied him with. Cale steps back, thinking Jack is immobilized by his knee injury, but Jack jumps to his feet seemingly uninjured!
· Jack and Cale wrestle with each other, both going for the knife still hanging out of Cale’s throat. Cale eventually flips Jack and pins him to the floor. He now sees that Jack’s knee injury is healed! Cale starts to wonder exactly what the hell Jack Aronofski is: he’s definitely human, but he can heal and pump up his strength like a vampire!
· Cale brings Jack down to the Templar Building for interrogation. Helton looks at Jack in the cell, and says he’s a ghoul, and no doubt a well trained one.
· Cale interrogates Jack, asking for a name. Jack says "you shouldn't have gone messing around man, you shouldn't have gone fucking around with his shit, because there's a storm coming and we are gonna take you out." After a long time, Jack finally gives a name: Burian.
· Cale’s fangs slide out, and he tears Jack’s throat out, draining him. As Cale steps out of the cell he finds Helton watching him with an approving smile.
· Cale retires to a room on top of the Templar Building, looking at the city below him. And he thinks. Aronofski was one tough son of a bitch. He fought professionally and took a long time to crack. That certainly indicates professional military training. A guy like that could certainly find work in the underworld. But did Aronofski really work for Burian? Cale thinks that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. It's more likely Ambrose was covering his tracks because Cale was getting too close to Alexander Sloan. Aronofski was probably lying ... or Ambrose only ever introduced himself as "Burian". If this is true then, it brings Cale back to the central questions. How to get to find Alexander Sloan? How to get to Ambrose Niles? And what is it, really, that Niles wants?
Hunter session 2
Part 1: “Who let the dogs out!”
· Mickey hangs up after talking to Lane (see end of Hunter session 1). He then dials Joe Cary, the electronics expert he worked with on the Bayside diamond heist (see Hunter prelude). He asks for Joe’s help in tapping a phone line the next morning. Mickey arranges to pick Joe up at a diner, making sure it is around the same time that Rojas goes to work at the steakhouse.
· In a newspaper Mickey reads that Chuck Novak has been murdered.
· The next morning Mickey picks up Joe, and they drive out near Rojas’ house. Dressed in overalls, Joe quickly taps the phone line about a mile or so from the house.
· Mickey drops Joe off in The City, and then picks up Lane. They head to Mickey’s hotel, where he throws some overalls and a few bottles of Old Spice to Lane. “What the fuck is this?” Lane asks. Mickey says, “When I went up against that suckerhead in the Templar Building he said he could smell me. And when I was watching dog-boy Rojas yesterday I could see him actually sniffing when he was talking to me on the phone. So, the way I see it, we don’t wanna leave any kind of trail for these fuckers to follow. Especially our body odor. See what I mean?” Lane laughs and starts enthusiastically applying the Old Spice.
· Mickey and Lane drive towards Rojas’ house. “So, we’re gonna take down dog-boy?” Lane asks. Mickey shakes his head and says that today is just recon. Mickey’s gonna break into the house and take a look around while Lane plays lookout in the car. “So, why are we doin’ this again? Why aren’t we just whackin’ dog-boy?” “Well,” Mickey replies, “we gotta follow this doggy and let him take us to his master. Then we can whack him and his master both. That’s the plan.” Lane looks a little uneasy at the thought of a complicated plan.
· Mickey and Lane pull up in front of Rojas’ house. Mickey, dressed in overalls and wielding a toolbox (containing his breaking and entering tools and his 9mm Beretta), makes a show of walking around the house and checking the water and electricity meters. He can see a vicious looking dog in the backyard. He then walks up to the front door and effortlessly breaks in.
· The house is a mess. It doesn’t look like anyone has lived there for a few weeks. A filthy stained mattress sits in the bedroom. Methodically checking the room, Mickey finds something strange spray painted on the wall behind a mirror: a symbol, like a spike surrounded by a downward spiral.
· At this moment Lane hits the horn on the car. Mickey quickly moves to a side window and drops out.
· “Woof woof growl growl bite!” Who let the dogs out! The dog is out of the backyard and sinking its teeth into Mickey’s leg. Mickey viciously smashes poochie in the side of the head with his toolbox, and it goes down with a sickening crunch.
· Mickey grits his teeth and gets to his feet as he hears Lane yelling from somewhere out behind the house.
· The back of Rojas’ house faces onto a “nature area”, a valley that slopes down into a forested area (it should be pointed out that Rojas lives far on the fringes of The City).
· Mickey charges into the nature area, pulling his pistol out of his toolbox.
· Mickey runs into Lane, just in time for Lane to spin and point his Mac-10 at him yelling, “get down!”
· Mickey hits the dirt as Lane fires a burst. Mickey rolls around to see dog-boy is right behind him in all 8 feet of his glory and is unfazed by the bullets.
· Rojas advances on Mickey who starts to throw his hands up yelling, “get ba-!” but he’s not fast enough and he screams in pain as claws rip across his chest.
· Rojas is about to attack again as Mickey screams “fuck off!!!” and this time dog-boy gets knocked back a few meters with a sudden spark of electricity.
· Lane, having emptied his clip, now charges Rojas wielding nothing more than the empty Mac-10 clip! Curiously, the clip is actually glowing a little. With a scream he rams the clip deep into dog-boy’s chest. Dog-boy howls in pain and looks at the two humans with an expression of genuine shock.
· “Lane, we are leaving!” Mickey yells, scrambling to his feet and grabbing Lane by the shoulder. The two start hauling arse up the hill through the nature area while Rojas lets out a howl of rage and anger and starts loping after them.
· Fortunately Mickey’s sheer force of will manages to always keep the beast a few meters away from them. It stops at the edge of the forest while Mickey and Lane throw themselves into the car and streak away.
· Mickey’s bleeding profusely; he’s badly injured, in need of medical attention. Through gritted teeth Mickey gives Lane the address of an underground doctor, and then passes out.
· Mickey wakes up a day later, surprisingly feeling much improved. Lane comes in with a smile, “thought you were a goner back there. Good to see you heal fast. Actually, maybe a little too fast. I reckon we get out of here before your doctor friend asks too many questions.”
· Mickey pays the doctor $2500 and splits up from Lane. He says he’ll contact Lane when he’s back on his feet again. The two Hunters look each other in the eye; they’ve had a close call here.
Part 2: Re-equipping
· On the way to a new hotel Mickey ditches his car in a bad part of town. He doesn’t want dog-boy and Niles tracing it back to him. He buys a second-hand Lexus and then checks into a new hotel.
· Incredibly, after two days Mickey is as good as new. It would normally take something like 3 months to recover from the wounds he’d sustained.
· Mickey gets on the phone to Benny, a firearms dealer. Benny and Mickey meet, and Mickey buys a silenced H&K MP5SD6. He also buys a silencer for his Beretta. He then asks Benny for 1000 rounds of 9mm ammunition … in silver. Benny raises his eyebrows. Mickey says “hey, I wanna send a message to someone. Some people do it by carving a name on a bullet. I wanna do it by using silver.” Benny smiles “Mickey, so long as you got the cash, I’m your man.”
· Benny hands over the H&K and silencers then and there, but says it will take a few days to get the silver rounds ready. Total price for the 1000 rounds is $4000, $3000 for the H&K and $250 for the Beretta silencer.
Part 3: Soldiers and Civilians
· Mickey takes out Lane’s number, dials it. Tracy, Lane’s girlfriend, answers the phone and after recognizing Mickey’s voice gives him the address.
· Mickey drives to a run-down part of town. Mickey sees Lane and they start talking about Tracy. Mickey’s surprised she’s still in town. Lane says it’s cool, she can handle it. “Lane, you’re just gonna get her killed.” “She’s been with me for almost all my kills! She can handle it! She knows what she’s doing!”
· Tracy comes out and sees Mickey and Lane arguing, and starts arguing with Lane herself. After a while she walks off down the street in disgust. Mickey says, “Come on Lane, get in the car.” Lane sullenly climbs in. “She’ll be back,” he says moodily.
· As Mickey drives the two continue to argue about Tracy. Mickey says she has no place on the “front lines”. “She’s the kind of person that we’re doing this for,” Mickey says. “You think I don’t know that?” Lane yells. “Of course I know that! She’s the one I’m doing this for! Hell, she was with me when this first happened to me!” Mickey replies saying “That’s great, you saved her, but you don’t have to keep dragging her into this. She’s not like us. I mean, have you ever thought about the fact that the only two guys who know anything about the monsters out here are both criminals? Are both people that nobody in society gives a flying fuck about? We are expendable Lane! God or the aliens or whatever the fuck did this to us because nobody cares about us! We are the bad guys Lane!”
· Lane replies saying “Look, I know I’m a loser, I know that! But I wanna do this for her! I wanna take care of her! I wanna do something right for her!”
· “Look Lane,” Mickey says, calming a little, “the way I see it, we’re gonna die. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but we’re gonna die. These suckerheads or dog-boys or whatevers are gonna get lucky one day, and we’ll be sloppy, and we’ll die. We will fucking die. And if Tracy is with you, she will die too. But before that happens, why don’t we really try and make a difference? You’ve been going after lower rank suckerheads for what, one year now? And they’re still out there. There’s always gonna be more of them. So let’s set our sights higher. Let’s go after the big fish. Let’s take down their bosses. And if we do this I promise you we will make a difference.”
· Mickey and Lane lapse into an uneasy silence as drive to spot near the nature area. Mickey takes out his phone tapping equipment and explains they can listen in to any phone calls Rojas makes. And hopefully Rojas will give them a lead.
· The two Hunters spend all night sitting in the car, but no calls are made.
· In the early dawn they have a run-in with a suspicious cop who runs Mickey’s license plate (it comes up clean). “So, you just bought this a couple days ago, huh?” “Yeah,” Mickey says, “me and my buddy are gonna do some hiking through the nature area and we wanted to get here early. He was a bit tired and wanted to take a nap before we started.” The cop nods, smashes a tail light, and says he’s gotta call Mickey in for driving with a broken tail light. Mickey bribes the cop with $300 (“to cover the paperwork”) and the cop drives off. Mickey sighs, and back in the car Lane puts the safety back on his Mac-10.
· Mickey calls the steakhouse Rojas works at, once again speaking to the manager and posing as parole officer James Levine. The manager says Rojas stopped showing up for work a few days ago. Mickey hangs up, turns to Lane and says, “the fucker’s gone to ground.”
· “So, how are we gonna find dog-boy? Or this big fish you keep talking about?” Lane asks. “Well,” Mickey replies, “I’ve got someone in mind.”
· On the drive back to The City the two Hunters talk a little more about Tracy. “You think that dive you’re staying in is a safe place?” Mickey asks. “Hey, I wanna do better, I wanna take care of her, I really do.” Lane says. Mickey reaches into a duffel bag, takes out $10 000 and gives it to Lane. Lane’s eyes go wide, and he says “holy shit!” For a moment Lane looks really happy, then he sees Mickey’s stern expression. “Oh … right.” Lane says.
· Mickey drops Lane off near the apartment, and says he’ll be in touch.
Part 4: Interview with the vampire
· Mickey takes out the business card David Cale gave him (see end of Vampire session 1). Mickey spends a bit of time running Cale’s name through the internet and discovers that he was killed about a year ago outside the Templar Building protecting the wealthy Bianca Templar.
· After sundown, Mickey calls Cale and the two plan to meet in Central Park.
· Mickey’s sitting on a park bench when Cale suddenly appears beside him, statuesque, attempting human affectations at times but forgetting them at others.
· Mickey says that he wants to find Ambrose Niles, and Cale says he wants to do so as well. Curiously, they both have trouble remembering that particular name. They realize something is going on. “And the other members of my society don’t seem to even be aware of it.” Cale says. “What do you mean?” Mickey asks. “There’s a society?”
· Cale nods “yeah, and they’re real scared. One of ‘em got smoked in The Enigma the other night and now they’re all shit-scared. They all suspect each other. The arrogant bastards have got their heads so far up their dead asses they can’t even consider the possibility that something other than another vampire can take ‘em out. Something like Niles. So now they’re all pointing fingers at each other while Niles gets ‘em all nice and paranoid.”
· Mickey looks a bit sheepish. “Oh, The Enigma?” Cale nods. “Ah…”
· “Hang on,” Cale cuts in, “that wasn’t you was it?”
· Mickey hesitates, unsure whether to trust the vampire. He gets ready to do his “get back!” trick and slowly nods. He’s a little surprised when Cale starts laughing.
· “Mickey O’Reilly, I’d like to shake your hand!” Cale says. Mickey slowly extends his hand, and shakes Cale’s cold and lifeless one. Cale leans in, “Mickey, are you the only one … like you? I mean, are you alone on this?” Mickey stares at Cale, then nods. “Yeah, just me. And I don’t even know why it’s me. All I know is … well, I know. I can see. And I don’t know why. It’s like the white noise, the static that you and your type throw out to confuse us, well, it’s like that white noise suddenly stopped, and I’ve tuned into the radio station loud and clear. Hell, I reckon it’s maybe psychological. Maybe it’s the start of the 21st century. People are tired of the bullshit and we’re finally seeing through it. Maybe we’ve always known it’s bullshit, and we’re just waking up.” Mickey shrugs. “I don’t know man. It’s a mystery.” The two sit in silence for a moment.
· “So …” Mickey says slowly, “Ambrose Niles. I’m close but someone knows it. One of my contacts got taken out a few nights ago. I’m sure he knew something.”
· “Chuck Novak?” Cale asks.
· “Yeah … how’d you know?”
· “Well, I was there. Woah,” Cale speaks quickly as Mickey looks angry, “I didn’t do him. I got there too late. But I got the guys who did do him. And while they didn’t say it, I’m sure they work for Niles.”
· Mickey nods. “Yeah, that’d make sense. Look, I got these files. Four guys doing dirty work for some corporate type called James Skye. Apparently they’re somehow hooked up with Niles. I was after this one, Rojas, but I lost him. Turned into a freaking huge werewolf, almost killed me. But, I was wondering if you knew about this one.” Mickey taps the Alexander Sloan file. “He’s like you. And he’s the one who paid me the money for the Book of Erishkigal.”
· Cale’s eyes widen at this. “Sloan … no, I don’t know where he is. But I’ve been after him myself. Mind if I take this file?” Mickey says he’d made copies for Cale anyway. Cale says he’ll go after Sloan, Mickey says he’ll go after the other two, Steve Weygand and Will Loomis. Cale says, “Did you say Rojas turned into a … werewolf?” Mickey nods. “Man, those fuckers don’t tell me anything!” Mickey looks a little surprised at this; he thought that maybe the monsters worked together. Now he realizes that they’re insular, perhaps only hanging out with their own kind. Except Niles seems to be collecting his very own creature feature. For what?
· “We both better be careful,” Cale says. “This guy I interrogated, Niles’ guy, he said something big is going down. I think Niles is making his move soon.”
· “And what’s the prize?” Mickey asks. Cale shakes his head, “I don’t know”. “Right. We’d better find out then.” Mickey says. “And when all this is over … what are you gonna do Cale?” Cale looks thoughtful for a moment, “Well, I’m gonna get my own back on the fuckers who did this to me and then …” For a moment he looks incredibly sad. Mickey nods, “Good luck.” And with that, Cale’s gone. Mickey sits on the park bench, staring at the files on Weygand and Loomis, a chill wind blowing through the park.
Vampire, Session 3
l Two down and one to go. Cale’s taken out two of his and Bianca’s killers, but hasn’t seemed to have gotten any closer to figuring out who’s behind it all. It’s starting to look like Aronofski was somehow connected to Niles.
l Cale doesn’t believe that Burian is actually behind all this, but that was the name Aronofski gave him. Despite his doubts, Cale decides it’s better to check all the angles and have a closer look at Burian.
l Before that however, Cale sets himself up with a new house. It’s fairly plush, in a relatively wealthy neighborhood high up in the hills overlooking the City. Inside it looks like a spread from Architectural Digest; untouched and unused. Cale has set up the basement, and constructed his own escape tunnel inside the wine cellar.
l Cale gets a call from Mickey. They meet at Central Park and Mickey gives Cale a photocopied police file on Alexander Sloan. (See end of Hunter session 2)
l During this period, Cale spends time working things out. He mind maps possible connections, pondering the info on the hired guns that Mickey O’Reilly gave him.
l Although he’s set himself up with a “bed”, it’s purpose and design put Cale off. He finds himself “sleeping” in the basement room on his couch or at his computer desk far more often than his specially made “bed”.
l Cale heads off the Templar building for a chat with Helton, hoping he can learn a little more about the history between the two elder vampires. On the way in, it seems the City is going crazy. Fires have started all over the place, and there are incidents of violence everywhere. The police and emergency services are stretched to the limit trying to handle it all. Cale notes this and keeps his eyes open.
l On the 75th floor, Cale finds Helton standing stock still among the shadows. Helton is obliging, as yet it still seems he wishes to help Cale take Burian out. Helton says that in the mid-19th century, he and Burian were originally at odds with each other, and clashed on the streets through proxies (evoking visions of “Gangs of New York”). “Those were more chaotic times,” Helton muses. “We fought each other to a stalemate, and then the Prince stepped in and we made a truce.” Helton says he still can’t think of any reason for Burian to go after him now.
l During the conversation Helton suggests that while he has claimed Domain over “securities and the military” and Burian over “the underworld”, the Prince has Domain over law enforcement in The City.
l Cale says he’s off to see Burian himself. On the elevator down, Cale can’t help thinking he’s being played. Helton seems all too willing to sick Cale on Burian. Cale looks out over the city, and can see the lights of fires here and there, and the flashing of police and fire truck lights. What’s going on?
l Cale pulls up at the Bayside Opera House, where the early evening performance has just finished. An after party in the green room is in full swing, and Cale enters, spotting several other members of the “community”. Cale couldn’t care less about their territorial glares and pathetic territorial “marking”, he’s goal focused. He finds Burian and then approaches.
l Cale tries to reassure Burian that he only wants to ensure that there are no misunderstandings between them. Burian seems amused by Cale’s appearance. He tells Cale about the history he has with Helton and it all seems to jibe. Burian remarks that Helton was “always the aggressive one.” Burian almost seems rather bored with the story.
l Burian notes that someone has recently made moves against some of his “assets”. Would Cale happen to know who was responsible for this? Cale says he doesn’t know, and in fact offers to volunteer any information should he find it. Burian again looks slightly amused, raising an eyebrow.
l As the conversation winds down, Cale makes a few remarks about the chaos on the city streets. Burian blithely quips, “Yes, it would be the perfect cover wouldn’t it?” The perfect cover for what?
l In the end, Cale excuses himself without having really learned anything more about the relationship between Burian and Helton. Cale feels these people are just so self-absorbed in their little games they just can’t see bigger threats on the horizon, despite their longevity and penchant for scheming.
l Before leaving, Cale spots Camille and her “partner” Gregory (these socialiate vampires have appeared in previous Vampire sessions, and have always been eager to talk to Cale ... most likely in an attempt to "size him up"). Cale decides to see what she has to say about things. In conversation, Cale realizes Camille is just as old as Burian and Helton, and quite possibly even older. She talks about the wild days of the past, and how she and others like her came over from Europe looking to escape the stifling traditions of the Old World. But then, as time passed, the New World became just as hidebound as the one she left. “But I can’t complain,” she says gesturing around her with an edge of mockery in her voice, “When I have all this!” Cale has a moment of realization about just how bored an old vampire like Camille must be.
l Cale picks up just a hint of self-loathing in what Camille is saying. Perhaps she feels like Cale does? Naw, he thinks, she’s nothing like he is. If she were, she would already have...no, best not go there yet.
l Cale leaves and heads home, even more convinced he wants no part of this twisted, incestuous, self-centered “society” that he’s become part of. This vampire shit is definitely no boon and no advantage, in the end.
l When Cale’s eyes open again, the evening news is reporting the deaths of several people in what appeared to be random acts of arson and gang violence. As he’s watching the tube, wondering just what the heck is happening, he recalls Burien’s comment about, “The perfect cover.” Things start to click into place. Grabbing the phone, Cale calls up his contact, the Deputy Chief of Police, Randolph Silva.
l Silva gives Cale the scoop on some of the victims of last night’s spree. Cale is surprised when he recognizes an address, and then sees that the house where he met the “fringe” vampires (Max, Prof. Summers, and the other 4 members of their group) is one of the houses that was torched last night. “Perfect cover” indeed, if you planned to wipe out a group of conspirators against you!
l Cale calls Prof. Summers to see if he’s still in one piece. Indeed the academic is hiding out in his office on campus. Cale tells Summers to sit tight.
l Cale goes to Summer’s office on the university campus. The professor is distraught, and clearly didn’t see this coming. Cale gets a bit upset with the professor’s naivety. “C’mon, you think you’re the first who ever conspired against these people? They’ve had decades, even centuries to learn how to deal with “rebels” like you! They could see you coming a mile away!”
l Summers absorbs it all, then realizes he only has one choice: run. Cale tells him to drop everything and go – just leave and go to ground, and don’t come up for a very long time. Nodding, Summers gathers his things and they head for the parking lot.
l As they get into their respective vehicles, another car swerves into the lot heading straight for Summers. Before Cale can do anything, a crew of gangbangers open up on Summers and the teacher drops in a heap. The shooters peel out and make their getaway, with Cale tailing them determinedly. Cale isn’t too concerned about Summers, after all, the man is a vampire, and Cale knows bullets aren’t enough to kill one. A couple of witnesses (students) gasp with horror and run to the fallen professor…
l Cale follows the car to another parking garage. He climbs stealthily up to the top level. Peeking out the door, he sees a strange sight. The “gangbangers” are getting out of their car, changing into paramedic uniforms, and getting into an ambulance. Wha…? Then Cale spots Alexander Sloan, supervising the loading of wooden stakes and mallets and fire axes into the ambulance. Wha…?
l A slow realization creeps over Cale. He understands exactly what is going to happen next. Sloan and his hit squad are going to go back to the parking lot, pick up Summers disguised as paramedics, and kill him in the ambulance!
l Cale races back down to his car and speeds back to the uni parking lot. A small crowd, including campus security, has gathered around the prof, still lying there motionless. The ambulance siren is getting closer and Cale doesn’t have much time. “Ignore me” he says in a commanding voice to the campus cop, and steps over to Summers. The ambulance full of vampire killers pulls into the lot.
l Bending down, Cale pretends to check Summers’ pulse and says, “If you aren’t dead, make some noise.” Summers groans. “Hey! This guy’s alive!” Cale shouts. “We’ve got to get him to a hospital!” The ambulance is now almost upon them, as Cale picks up Summers and throws him into his car. Sloan sees this and is furiously trying to get through the crowd to get at Cale. Before Cale gets into his car, he makes positive eye contact with Sloan, and gives him the finger.
l Cale peels out and thrashes the speed bumps getting out of there. The ambulance is in hot pursuit, lights and sirens going full bore.
l Cale hands his shotgun over to Summers. “You know how to use this thing!?” Summers, who’s probably never held a gun in his life, takes the gun and promptly blows out the back window of Cale’s Lex.
l Cale races flat out through the streets, all his defensive driving skills coming back to him. The ambulance pulls up closer and Sloan and his boys ready their weapons.
l Cale slams on the breaks and jerks the wheel. The ambulance sails past, and Cale whips his car left at an intersection, then guns it for the corner. Sloan cursing, tries to turn around and follow. Cale speeds around the block to come up behind the ambulance so he can tail it.
l Summers is still shell-shocked. Cale says, “You can come with me, but I’m going after them.” Wide eyed, Summers looks at Cale for a moment, puts the shotgun down and gets out of the car. “Thanks,” he says. “Good luck!” shouts Cale as the professor dashes off, already ditching his bloody clothes. Cale floors it and catches up with the ambulance.
l Sloan apparently has given up the chase and the ambulance is running quiet now. Cale grins imagining what is going through Sloan’s head right now. “You fucked up buddy,” Cale savors.
l Cale follows the ambulance to a warehouse. After a short wait outside, Cale figures he’d better go in. Arming himself up to the teeth, Cale infiltrates the stockyard and gains a good position on the roof where he can see inside.
l Cale watches as another ambulance pulls in. When the crew inside get out, Cale can see the inside of the ambulance is covered with blood. Sloan is talking tensely to someone on his cell phone as his boys high five each other over their success. In the ambulance, plus two more that arrive, Cale spots a total of 3 desiccated corpses; no doubt vampires that they’ve pulled the “gangbangers plus an ambulance” trick on. Cale realizes Max, if he’s still around, may be the only one of Summers’ group to have survived Sloan’s hit squads. If Sloan was going for all the “armchair revolutionaries”, that is. And exactly why would Sloan (presumably backed by Niles, after all Mickey did say he’d seen Sloan working for Niles) want to take out the “armchair revolutionaries”? Wouldn’t the Prince want to do that? It’s not like they posed any threat to Niles … so why have them killed?
l Watching the “gangbangers” Cale can see that this is in reality a group of pros who know what they are doing. Cale continues his recce, figuring it’s much better to try and find out who’s behind all this (before he goes in and kills ‘em all!)
l Eventually, Sloan leaves. Cale tails him back to a gated community, Dominates the guard at the gate, and makes note of the address of the house Sloan went to. Cale waits in his car outside just in case Sloan leaves. When it gets near dawn, Cale heads home, satisfied he knows where to find Sloan.
l Upon arriving home, Cale finds his security has been breached. Drawing his gun, he enters through a side window and clears the main floor of the house. No one there. Carefully, he edges his way down the stairs to his basement.
l The basement room is strewn with rose petals. Someone appears to be sitting on the couch looking at the TV. Many thoughts race through Cale’s head, trying to crowd out the growing dread that he knows exactly who is sitting on his couch. As he moves around in front of the figure, it is indeed Bianca, or at least, her desiccated corpse. Pinned to the body is a note that reads, “Next time we’ll finish the job on you Dead Man!”
l Cale’s anger rises in him. He can feel something stir inside him and he manages to suppress it, for the moment. “Save it,” he thinks. “Save it for them, the bastards who did this!” All he can think about now is revenge, and is almost consumed by his anger.
l It’s dawn and he can’t go outside. His security is compromised, and they obviously know where he lives. But exactly who are “they”? And how in the hell did they find out where he lived? Cale had taken extreme care with his new haven, only telling Helton about it. But there’s no time for speculation now and he has no choice about what he must do. He must hide. Gingerly he picks up Bianca’s corpse and pulls her into his escape tunnel. There in the dark, pressed up against the dead body of the woman he loved, Cale closes his eyes.
l When he again awakens, it is to the sound of his own scream of rage! It is night again, and Cale goes back into his house and gets a sheet in which he wraps Bianca. He pulls the hard drive from his computer, shreds and burns any notes he’s made, grabs his guns and gear, then leaves, with Bianca’s body.
l When he gets to the cemetery where Bianca was buried, he sees several police cars and a news crew near a row of graves. Around 50 graves (the freshest, all buried within the last 1 to 3 months) stand empty, the reporter commenting on how someone came in and dug them all up. Strange indeed, but Cale is focused on other things.
l He finds Bianca’s open grave (a little further away from the 50 “freshest” graves). He places Bianca back into the ground gently, then covers her up with earth. When he finishes he kneels down and puts his hand on her gravestone.
l “I’m sorry Bianca,” he says. “I tried to protect you but I couldn’t. The people who did this to us…” he says feeling his anger stirring. “They’re going to pay, and nothing’s going to stop me.” After a moment, Cale rises. A fog swirls through the graveyard. “Maybe you’re the lucky one,” he says to her softly, feeling the loss, trying hard not to let any bloody tears flow to streak his face. As he looks at her grave he thinks, “And when this is over, I’ll be joining you.”
l The camera pulls back, Cale stands there until darkness and the mist hide him from sight.
And ... that's all for now!
We played Hunter session 3, and I'll be writing that one up soon (basically, so myself and Mike won't forget what happened, our primary purpose in writing these bullet-point summaries). Woah, Hunter 3 is quite a doozy. Myself and Mike were quite depressed when we finished that one!
So, anyways, you've just read 7 sessions of our shared campaign, The City (the preludes actually took a whole session each to play out). It's certainly kept us on our toes, switching continually between Player and GM roles. We still aren't sure exactly how it's going to end, because I'm sure we're still going to throw some surprises at each other! But hey, that's what makes it really exciting for us; we're both GMs, but we're also both players. We have some ideas about how it might all end (we're thinking in an enormous shit-storm!!!) but we don't exactly know how.
Well, thanks for reading this far (even in bullet-points it's quite a bit)!
Cheers,
Cam.
Mike Montesa
02-08-2005, 08:20 PM
I'm Mike and I'm playing the vampire character in this game. As Cam mentioned the challenge with this is we both have to respond to events in game without knowing exactl how it's all going to turn out. After each session, we usually sit and discuss where things are going and the reasoning behind certain elements of the story. That helps us figure out what to do next.
When we started, I told Cam I envisioned the two characters' stories like a double helix strand of DNA; they wrap around each other and occasionally cross. I really like this aspect of it, and the scenes where both Mickey and Cale are together are really fun. Gratuitous self-indulgence perhaps but fun anyway. The hard part is if I'm GMing and Cale comes into the picture I need to put on my player hat and just "be" Cale. These conversations are totally improv at that point, and we're both paving the road with each step so to speak.
I like it. It's a challenge and I haven't played an RPG one-on-one for over 15 years, and not with this level of story integration between two characters.
And yeah, when it ends it'll be an enormous shit-storm like Cam said! :)
This is actually rather cool. The double-helix model of Storytelling.
*takes notes*
-B
Great Story!
I definitly need to rip this off ;-)
Mike Montesa
02-10-2005, 08:13 AM
I have to say this is pretty "dense" in terms of story. The one on one mode means a lot more focus on everything the characters do. Also, because Cam and I only have a sketchy idea of where things are going, it can be quite difficult at times to keep everything straight. At the end of Hunter Session 2 for example (which I was running) I was reaching a point where I was having a hard time keeping up. I needed to stop and get my bearings, and indeed consult with Cam about what I had in mind and see if it jibed with what he was thinking.
Also OOC knowledge was really running into a wall with my IC knowledge. Since I was basically running the game and playing my character at the same time, it was very hard to separate the two.
I think what I'm trying to aim for in the moments when Cale and Mickey are "onscreen" together is just that, they're onscreen together playing a scene. So in effect, the game becomes "GM-less" and it's just the two characters talking. That's why it's tough, because I stop GMing and "control" goes completely into the hands of the characters.
Gah, I'm not articulating this difficulty well I think. Try some "double helix" gaming and maybe you'll see what I'm trying to get at. ;)
These summaries that Cam has done really are aids to help us remember everything that happened, and hit the high notes of the sessions more than anything else- I'm afraid some things do get glossed over, forgotten, or remembered wrongly.
If anyone is interested in more details about the characters, just holler. I can discuss the plot because Cam and I both are aiming in the same direction, though I may not be able to tell you what the ultimate goal is (because I'm not even sure myself!) :p
Mike Montesa
03-09-2005, 07:36 PM
Just catching up a bit. Here're Cam's notes from Hunter Session 3:
∑ Mickey leaves the park after his conversation with the vampire Cale, resolved to hunting down Steve Weygand and Will Loomis (see end of Hunter session 2).
∑ Mickey re-reads the prison files in detail, and decides on hunting down Steve Weygand. This is because Weygand had pulled a number of “jobs” in The City with a crew of five accomplices. Mickey realizes that hunting any of these accomplices down could lead him to Weygand. He also realizes that if Weygand was pulling scores in The City and not paying anyone “tribute”, then that could give Mickey quite a bit of leverage in talking to Weygand’s accomplices.
∑ Mickey arranges to meet his fixer, Pauly, in a downtown bar. Pauly comes in with two bodyguards; he’s still nervous. Mickey asks for help in tracking down the five accomplices, and Pauly agrees to help.
∑ Mickey heads back “home”, a motel. He calls Benny again, and asks for a bulletproof vest to be included in the package he’s ordered.
∑ The next morning Mickey is having breakfast at a random roadside diner. He senses that something just isn’t right. He turns on the sight, and over there, in the corner table, he sees them. Three grotesque creatures, mockeries of humanity, gorging themselves on steak, letting the juices run down their pale rotten chins. No one else in the diner seems to notice.
∑ Mickey fights off the urge to vomit when he sees this.
∑ He then fights off the urge to walk up to the three corpses, pull out his pistol, and blow their rotten brains out. “Woah,” Mickey tells himself, “everyone else in here thinks they’re human. I don’t wanna go to jail, and I certainly don’t wanna go to jail for killin’ something that’s already dead.”
∑ For half a second, Mickey thinks he saw the symbol he saw in Rojas’ bedroom briefly appear in the scrambled eggs in front of him.
∑ “Holy shit” Mickey says. He gets on the phone and calls Benny. Are those silver bullets ready yet? Yes they are, Benny’s just boxing up the last of them now. “Right. I’ll meet you on the corner of 10th and Main in 15 minutes.” Mickey hangs up, makes a note of the diner, and jumps into his car.
∑ Driving quickly, Mickey heads to the corner of 10th and Main. On the way, he passes a street sign that briefly changes from giving directions to saying THE MISSION. “Well, that’s what I’m goddamned working on,” Mickey mutters to himself a little angrily under his breath, “and to make sure I do the mission properly, I need the right tools. So just hold on.”
∑ Mickey meets with Benny and picks up the silver bullets and bulletproof vest. Mickey doesn’t hang around long for chit-chat; he’s eager to get back to the diner as quickly as possible.
∑ Driving back, however, something strange happens. Mickey can’t find the diner. It’s almost as if it had never existed. Mickey starts to feel very nervous, very uncomfortable, and heads back to his motel. There, he spends some time loading his pistol and SMG with silver bullets and slipping into his new bulletproof vest. This helps Mickey feel slightly better.
∑ Later in the day, after regaining his composure, Mickey steps out for a coffee and something to eat. Sitting in the diner, he looks up to see Lane come in … followed by Tracy. Lane’s wearing an expensive jacket now. Mickey asks them where they’re staying, and Lane says The Hilton. Mickey looks somewhat displeased by Lane’s ostentatious behaviour; he’d given the money to Lane so he could make good on his promise to take care of Tracy.
∑ Lane asks Mickey what the plan of attack is, looking eagerly at the prison files Mickey has in front of him. Lane excitedly asks Tracy to look at the files too. She starts to turn, obviously only pretending to be interested, while Mickey makes a point of closing the files in front of her.
∑ “Hey, come on Mickey,” Lane pleads. “Tracy’s been in on many of my kills with me. She knows what she’s doing. Right Tracy?” Tracy nods wordlessly at this. “She can help us. Isn’t that right Tracy, you can help us, right?” Again, Tracy nods, but it’s pretty obvious to Mickey that Lane’s put her up to this.
∑ Mickey turns to Tracy. “So Tracy, what did you do before … all this happened?” Tracy says she was a waitress. Mickey asks her a few more questions, asking about what kind of restaurant she worked at, and if she liked it. Tracy starts to get defensive, thinking Mickey is attacking her for being a waitress. “No no no,” Mickey says, “that’s not what I mean Tracy. Everyone’s gotta pay the bills. Everyone’s gotta job to do. Everyone’s got their own talents and skills. You’ve got yours, and me and Lane have got ours.” Mickey pauses, then looks at Lane, “But look, working in a diner gives you absolutely no experience at handling people like Weygand and Loomis. Look at these guys, look at their files. They are not nice people. They are not normal people. And no, I’m not talking about monsters or whatever. I’m talking about how they chose to live their lives. These are bad guys, who deliberately chose their lifestyles, and they would not think twice about fucking up an ex-waitress if they thought it’d get ‘em something. She cannot help us Lane. Both you and her will end up dead.”
∑ The dam breaks for Tracy at this point, and she stands up, angrily telling Lane that she hopes he dies in his next confrontation. Lane angrily stands up, balling his hand into a fist. Mickey decides to relieve the tension by dropping his coffee mug onto the floor. SMASH! Woah, that certainly got everyone’s attention. Thankfully, Lane looks at his balled up fist and calms down for a moment.
∑ Tracy leaves, and Mickey and Lane go to pick up some supplies. They pick up some Fire-Axes, entrenching tools, combat knives, and extendable police batons.
∑ Mickey drops off the gear at his hotel.
∑ Mickey drops Lane off at The Hilton. As Mickey drives away, for half a second, he thinks he hears a low-level growl from somewhere…
∑ Mickey gets a call from Tracy. She says she’d like to meet. They meet at Denny’s, down the road from The Hilton, and Mickey offers Tracy up to $10 000 to get out of town immediately. He notices that Tracy now has a split lip; he’s worried about her. She’s been thrust into a war that she’s not a part of. She hangs around any longer, she will die. Tracy, however, gets angry when he offers the money; she falls back onto what she’d said before at the diner “I can help, I can be of use”. Mickey calmly points out that she cannot possibly help them; what does a waitress know about the criminal underworld? Tracy cries and says there are “other ways” in which she can help; Mickey realizes she means “bait”. He remembers the first time he met Lane and Tracy in the alley, realizes that Lane was probably using Tracy as bait to attract the vampire.
∑ Mickey urges Tracy to get out. However, she’s upset, says that Mickey’s an asshole, says that Lane does take care of her, and storms off.
∑ Tracy was so angry she forgot to take her purse when she left.
∑ Mickey is about to run after her when he sees someone familiar stepping out of the hotel opposite the Denny’s: Will Loomis.
∑ Mickey can’t believe his luck, and settles in to keep an eye on Loomis (who soon disappears back into the hotel). But as time passes, he comes to worry about Tracy and Lane. Slowly, Mickey goes through her purse, and finds a box of matchbooks for a local club: DV8. Opening the box, he says a written message just saying “Todd” followed by a phone number.
∑ Mickey agonizes about what to do; stay focused on The Mission, or run after Tracy and try to calm her down?
∑ Mickey turns on the radio and it booms out DELIVER JUSTICE TO THE GUILTY. Mickey almost shits himself. But he also asks himself what the whole point of it all is. Sure, he can hunt down monsters, but for what reason? And for who? Mickey realizes that unless he’s doing all of this for someone, it’s all meaningless. He’s been chosen to take down monsters in order to protect the innocent. And, even though Loomis is in the hotel just across from him, Mickey realizes his priority tonight is to protect the innocent. A well-timed commercial on the radio brings this point home to him.
∑ Mickey follows Tracy to DV8, only to see her getting it on with some bloke who turns out to be a vampire. Mickey sees the creatures bare its fangs and sink them into Tracy’s throat.
∑ Mickey forces himself across the dancefloor of the club towards the creature. Unfortunately, there is no sign of Tracy when Mickey makes it to the other side.
∑ “Where’s the girl?” Mickey hisses. The vampire refuses to tell, and Mickey suggest they step outside to settles this. The vampire agrees, smiling, looking forward to taking down an uppity human who obviously doesn’t know what a vampire is. Outside in a back alley the vampire launches itself at Mickey. “Get back!” Mickey yells. There’s a spark, a smell of ozone in the air, and the vampire is pushed away from Mickey.
∑ The vampire, in a rage, keeps charging and charging Mickey, getting pushed back every single time by Mickey’s effort of will. This enrages the vampire even more, and it flies into a frenzy. Mickey fires multiple rounds into it with his pistol, then, when the vampire is knocked back senseless yet again, Mickey goes totally freakin’ mental, pulls out his combat knife and starts attacking the creature, hissing “where’s the girl” where’s the girl?” over and over again.
∑ Mickey brutally hacks off most of the creature’s arms and legs, even while it looks confusedly up at Mickey and says, “what are you?”
∑ The cops arrive! They find a crazy man covered in blood straddling a limbless body, ramming a knife into it over and over hissing “where’s the girl?”
∑ Mickey is thrown in the back of a police care. Meanwhile, as the sun rises, the vampire Todd, starts to burn under the white evidence sheet the police have provided. The cops freak out, and everybody is running around. Most of the cops freak out and run away. The few that keep their cool are too worried about the screaming limbless flailing corpse. Mickey takes his chance, and with a supreme effort of strength kicks open the back of the station car. He quietly slips away at this point, heading back to his hotel and falling asleep.
∑ After spending almost all the daylight hours (the DV8 fight took long not long before dawn) sleeping, Mickey wakes to a call from Pauly. Turns out that all 5 of Weygand’s accomplices have died in the past couple of years, conveniently murdered or taken out in “accidents”; even the 2 who were in prison where killed. Mickey realizes someone has gone to a lot of trouble to erase their tracks.
∑ Not long after sundown, Mickey changes and showers and heads to a local diner for something to eat. He meets Lane who is really worried; Tracy has been out all night before, and all day today. Where could she be?
∑ Mickey tells Lane the truth about Tracy coming to see him at the Dennys.
∑ Not long after this, Tracy comes in. She’s … different. She leaps on Lane, and rips his chest open. She turns on Mickey, who yells “get the fuck off of him!” and she is suddenly knocked back. Turning on the sight Mickey sees what Tracy now is: a vampire! Tracy runs out into the night, while Mickey bundles Lane up and puts him into his car. He drives as fast as possible to the underworld/underground doctor.
∑ They work on Lane as much as they can, but it’s impossible. The wounds are too great.
∑ Lane grabs Mickey and confesses that he hadn’t actually killed 12 monsters in his time as a Hunter. He says “that guy we got in the alley together” was, in fact, his first kill. His only kill. He then looks Mickey in the eye and asks him to find Tracy…
∑ With that, Lane slips away.
∑ Mickey pays the doctor handsomely to take care of Lane’s corpse. Mickey heads to Lane’s room at the Hilton, and cleans it out. He finds an old photo of Lane and Tracy together, and Mickey puts that into his wallet. He also finds some Bible quotes; these Mickey also puts into his wallet.
*Luke 21:22 "For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled."
*Ezekiel 25:17 "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them."
*Revelations 6:4 "4: And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword."
Mickey strides out of The Hilton, a look of sadness and determination on his face…
Mike Montesa
03-09-2005, 07:44 PM
Vampire Session 4
Cale drives out of the cemetery. The attacks on the vampires have set off a chain reaction. The City is in flames. Emergency and police services are stretched to the breaking point. On the radio news, the mayor is calling it a state of emergency. Martial law and the National Guard can’t be too far behind.
Cale feels the hunger stir, and realizes he needs to feed. He hates doing it, but there’s nothing else for it. He heads for his usual haunt (a fancy restaurant). There aren’t many customers tonight. Cale waits behind the building on a fire escape until a waiter comes out with a garbage back. Cale drops down behind him. “Don’t move,” he says and the waiter stands stock still. Cale wishes the kid would stop talking, so he moves in and gets it over with quickly. Cale stops himself from taking too much blood, then gently places the waiter by the door. “Sorry,” he says and quickly walks off.
Cale calls Max, and indeed, the biker vampire is still “alive”. Max clearly doesn’t trust Cale, but agrees to meet Cale in Central Park.
The park is empty. Cale sits on a bench beneath a dim light waiting for Max. Shadows move among the trees, but none approach. Sirens wail in the distance punctuated by the sound of gunshots. It’s a bad night. Cale hears Max’s Harley. He stands up and waits.
Out of the dark near the fountain, Cale sees max step into view. His hands are at his sides but Cale can see Max’s six-inch talons. Cale manages to persuade Max that he isn’t going to try to kill him, and that he knows about Sloan’s MO. Cale wants to find Sloan, as does Max. They agree to work together.
“How do we take Sloan out without killing him so we can get him to talk?” Cale asks. Max opens up his coat revealing three hardwood stakes. “I see,” Cale says, realizing Max meant to use them on him.
Cale and Max head for Sloan’s place. They decide to go in just before sunrise – risky but it won’t give Sloan any room to run. While they wait, Cale talks to Max about Sloan. Max is pissed. “That motherfucker sold me out to Burian.” Cale doesn’t think Sloan works for Burain and says so, laying out his reasons to Max. Max is surprised, but doesn’t care, as long as he gets Sloan.
An hour before sunrise, they make their move. As they get out of the car, three mangy dogs come out of the dark. Max squats next to them, like he’s talking to them. This freaks Cale out. “Someone told me something about werewolves?” “Let’s put it this way,” Max says. “You don’t want to go sleeping in any national parks.”
They reach Sloan’s house. Cale goes around the back. As he prepares to enter the house, one of Max’s dogs appears and looks at Cale. Cale gets the impression that somehow, Max knows what Cale is doing.
Cale expertly disarms the alarm system and picks the door lock like in seconds. He glides into the house. Then there is a crash toward the front of the house. Max has kicked the door in. “Come on Sloan! Come and get me!” There are three gunshots, then the sounds of a struggle.
Cale runs into the front room and sees Max and Sloan going at it, both snarling like animals. Cale moves in, holstering his gun and drawing the stake he got from Max. Max holds Sloan up for a moment and Cale drives the stake home! Sloan freezes.
The sun is rising in 15 minutes. They can’t stay in the house; someone will have heard the gunshots and called the police. They have to run for it. They toss Sloan in the trunk and gun it for the gate. The guard has it closed but there is no other way out. Cale floors it and smashes through.
A few blocks away, Max says to let him out. “You got someplace to go?” Cale wonders, hoping he can maybe go with Max. “In the ground,” Max replies. Cale is bewildered but still thinking fast. “Right, go. I’ll contact you tomorrow and we’ll see what Sloan has to say.”
Cale floors it, heading for the Templar building. The car was badly damaged when it hit the gate, and the engine is making nasty grinding noises. Cale is going for all it’s worth. The templar building is in sight. He dials up security on his cell phone. “Open the garage door! I’m coming in!” The sky is brightening as Cale skids around the corner and lines up his car with the ramp down into the garage. Cale has an urge to just slam on the brakes and stop. The hell with it all.
For a moment, Cale sees the sunlight shine between the buildings. It blinds him as the car dives into the garage and slams into the opposite wall. Davis and the other members of Templar security get Cale out of the wreck. Cale looks like a parboiled lobster. Very close call.
Cale orders that the car be moved but otherwise left alone. He’s not saying anything to anyone about the staked vampire in the trunk! Cale retires to the special “facility” within the Templar building.
When he next opens his eyes, the building security personnel are very busy. Martial law has been declared and the National Guard are going to be called in. Cale gets up and heads for the garage. He checks out another car, then moves Sloan from the wreck to the new vehicle. As he’s leaving, Davis calls him. “Mr. Helton would like to see you.” “Tell him I have urgent business to attend to and I’ll check in as soon as I get back.” Cale cuts the line.
The streets are deserted. Cale calls Max and asks him where they can meet to interrogate Sloan. Max gives him an address on the fringe of the city. The police pull Cale over and warn him about the dangers of driving around right now. Cale puts on his innocent businessman face and they let him go (without looking in the trunk!)
Cale meets Max and they head for a small house in the verge between the city and the countryside. They carry Sloan into a toolshed. “So, I pull this stake out of him and we got problems,” Cale says. “Know how to keep him from going hog wild?” “Sure,” says Max cheerfully, and hefts a fire axe. “We take his arms and legs off.” Cale would blanche if he could. “Right,” he says nervously and steps out of the shed. As he stands there in the dark smoking a cigarette, what can only be described as the sound of someone chopping wood comes from the shed.
Cale goes back inside. The shed is an abbatoir now, and Max is covered in blood. Sloan’s limbs are on the floor. Cale barely manages to keep a grip on himself. “He’s a monster, not a man,” he thinks. Cale yanks the stake out of Sloan’s chest. Sloan starts shrieking and baring his fangs. Max and Cale step back until the thrashing subsides.
“You know how they say you won’t live to see the sunrise?” Cale says leaning close. “Well, you will. Start talking.” Sloan says he’s working for Ambrose Niles, and that Niles has plants within the Community. Aronofski; was he one of Niles’ moles? Yes. Who did Aronofski work for? “One of the big shot vampires in the City.” Cale asks, “Which one?” Don’t know, don’t care, doesn’t matter. Why? What’s Niles up to? Nothing short of starting an all out war among the Kindred in the City. “Does Sloan know why? “Because,” he says. “Niles has a vision, and we have a place in it. Something more than just the same endless bullshit night after night after night. He’s shown us the way, and we’re going to clean out the whole back-stabbing incestuous nest.”
Cale realizes that, holy shit, he agrees with Sloan. Suddenly he feels extremely uncomfortable. Some of the things Sloan is saying could be coming out of Cale’s mouth. Cale glances over to Max. “Just make it quick.” Max cheerfully takes Sloan’s head off with his fire axe. They pile the parts up on the woodpile outside to await the dawn.
Max says he’s getting on his bike and leaving. Some heavy stuff is coming down and he doesn’t want any part of it. He says Cale should leave too. “No,” Cale says. “I have business of my own to take care of. Personal business.” Cale gets into his car and when he reaches the highway, he can go right and get away from all this, or go left and back into it. Cale turns and heads back to the City.
As Cale races toward the city lights he starts working things out again. Who’s working for whom, and to what end? Everyone has been telling him Burian ordered the hit on Bianca Templar and Cale. But that doesn’t add up. Aronofski said he was Burian’s man. Chuck Novak choked up Burian’s name but was killed to maintain his silence. In Cale’s conversations with Burian, the man didn’t seem to have a clue. If Cale goes after Burian who benefits? Helton of course.
What about Niles? If Niles is simply trying to encourage the vampires to go at each other, he’s doing a good job of it. Aronofski was a mole for Niles, but who was he really fronting for in the City?
Now Cale feels it in his bones. It had to be Helton. He’s not 100% sure, but this is a hunch that won’t go away.
Cale heads for the Templar building to check in with the boss. He finds Helton and gives him a sitrep, telling him that he’s almost ready to go after Burian (and Helton nods approvingly). Helton is drinking his “special vintage” blood, the stuff that Cale finds so maddeningly familiar. Cale decides to take just a sip…
…and it finally all clicks in. The blood is Bianca’s! The bastard bottled her up after she died!
Helton had Bianca and Cale killed. Helton’s used Cale from the very beginning. He needed a weapon to use against his rival and Cale fit the bill. The pieces fall into place.
When Cale was dying after the hit, Helton didn’t just come upon him “by chance” to save him. You need the Prince’s permission to create another vampire, and Helton is anything if not traditional (this also means the Prince was “in” on it). Cale’s embrace had to be premeditated. Helton (the bastard!) was probably watching the hit go down from a bay window in the building overhead.
The scene with Novak before he died now makes sense. Novak said he “said everything you wanted me to.” Novak told Cale that Burian went to him for shooters (of which Aronofski of course, was one of them!)
Cale’s anger wells up inside him, and the Beast is there tapping on his skull. No, no, not yet. Not yet. Plans must be made and games must be played, but he’s not going to wait much longer. Once he’s ready, Cale’s going in like an MX missile!
Gotta keep appearances up. Be the good little bloodsucking lackey, keep Helton thinking, “Oh it’s just so easy to get him to do my bidding.” This is Cale’s only advantage at the moment, and he has to hang on to it until the time is right to use it.
Cale heads off to see the Prince. The meeting doesn’t give Cale any answers.
Cale is still wondering about Niles. Just what the hell does he want besides chaos (or is that all he wants?) Aronofski wasn’t the only mole Niles had. Who are the others? What’s Niles’ game? Cale doesn’t particularly care if Niles incites the vampires against each other, as long as he gets Helton.
The only person who knows anything about Niles is Mickey. Cale makes a call and heads to Mickey’s motel.
Cale enters the room to find Mickey cautiously watching him from behind the bathroom door. The thief emerges cautiously, his shotgun in his hands. “Whoa!” Cale says showing his hands. “It’s okay.” Cale notices the arsenal laid out on the bed, fire axes, batons, submachine gun, and could those be silver bullets?
Cale thinks Mickey looks like death warmed over (noting the irony) and says so. Mickey seems pretty shaken up about something but Cale doesn’t press it. He snaps Mickey back to business by talking about Niles.
They take stock of their leads. Loomis seems to be the best angle at the moment. Mickey knows where Loomis is so they agree to tail him and see where he goes. Mickey will watch during the day, and Cale during the night. They agree to stay in touch, and Cale leaves.
Cale heads to the hotel where Mickey said Loomis is staying. He goes in and sits down in the lobby. After a while, he sees someone he recognizes and it isn’t Loomis. It’s Aryan boy, the last remaining shooter of the three that killed Cale and Bianca! Cale goes into full hunter mode and tracks the man outside of the hotel. White boy goes behind the hotel, opens a manhole cover and drops in. What the…?
Cale follows stealthily. He slips into the manhole and down into the sewer. With his vampiric senses, he can track his prey. Then things get really weird.
The darkness of the sewer is lit here and there by moonlight filtering down through the rain grates. Cale follows Whitey through the sewer to a door guarded by two strange hooded figures crouching on either side. Cale approaches carefully, drawing his guns. The sentinels look toward him and Cale can see a blissful smile plastered to their eyeless faces. They make no threatening move toward Cale. “You are always welcome,” one says in a voice Cale hopes he never has to hear again.
Cale carefully goes through the door. He seems to be in some kind of underground cathedral. The high ceiling disappears into the darkness above. Cloaked figures sit in the pews before a curiously empty altar. There is no sign of Whitey. Maybe he went through the door in the back that is now opening?
A man (?) comes through the door. Cale slips into the shadows by the wall. The man’s appearance is totally at odds with the dark and eerie atmosphere of this place. It’s as if he is somehow radiant. The man looks like an amalgam of every famous and well-loved politician, tv talk show host, and movie star that ever lived.
The man thanks the congregation for coming. He tells them that they came down there seeking answers, to escape the chaos above (remember the shit is totally hitting the fan with the riots and martial law at this point ... and the supernatural citizens of The City going for each others' throats) seeking refuge. He tells them that he can give them answers refuge.
And most importantly, he can give them HOPE. He smiles beatifically at this point and turns to the darkness where Cale is lurking. He says that a visitor is joining them tonight, also seeking answers. He steps towards Cale, and Cale (taking a deep breath if he could breathe!) steps out of the darkness. Cale is guarded, and asks who he is. "I think you know who I am, Mr. Cale." "What's your name?" "You can call me ... Ambrose Niles." (The intonation hinting that Ambrose Niles sure as hell ain't his real name)
"I'm not ready for this,” Cale says, realizing he’s totally walked right into it. Whoever Niles is, he’s not talking to Cale by mistake or accident.
"We never are Mr. Cale, we never are. But you have come here seeking questions. I have answers." Cale asks if Niles was behind the original hit on Bianca and Cale. Niles says no, but says the killers were a useful tool that he co-opted. "But I did not wield that tool first."
Cale asks who *did*. Niles says Cale knows. Cale pushes for a name, and isn't surprised when Niles says Geoffrey Helton. He says Helton is using Cale to take down Burian. Of course, now that Cale knows the truth, perhaps Helton will die. Niles doesn't care either way, as long as either Helton or Burian dies.
Cale backs towards the exit, then asks "who ... what ... are you?" Niles spreads his arms wide, raising his face skywards, as the congregation burst into song. This is way too gone for Cale and he quickly exits the cathedral, in full fight or flight mode.
Cale runs blindly through the sewers, trying to head back the way he came. Ahead he can see light shining down through a manhole cover, but it isn’t moonlight or streetlight, it’s sunlight. Cale realizes he’s trapped.
As he starts to fight off the onrushing deathsleep of daytime, he whips out his cell phone and dials Mickey. Mickey answers. “Mickey! I found him! I found Niles! He’s under the…”
In a motel room across town, Mickey looks at his phone, “Out of Service Area” blinks on the tiny screen, and Mickey sees dawn break outside the window…
Mike Montesa
03-09-2005, 07:46 PM
Cam and I have done Hunter 4, and it was a real corker! Once Cam gets the writeup done we'll post it up. Vampire 5 is next, and the way things are going, we probably have two or maybe three more sessions to go before the Big Finish.
Mike Montesa
05-11-2005, 11:59 PM
After a bit of a hiatus, Cam's vacation and me starting a new job, we got back to our Vampire/Hunter crossover campaign. We just wrapped the whole thing up last week, so here are the write-ups.
Hunter 4
* Mickey gets the morning call from Cale (see end of Vampire 4). Mickey sees the sun outside. "Oh shit" he says "they got Cale".
* Mickey heads to the hotel and waits in the lobby for Loomis.
* Loomis brushes past Mickey, heads to the carpark, gets in a car.
* Mickey gets in a car and tails Loomis.
* Loomis spots Mickey: car chase!
* Loomis runs a red light ... Mickey follows ... CRASH!
* Mickey stumbles out of his car, grabs his duffel bag of tricks, and carjacks another car. He's desperate!
* Another car chase! A cop car forces Mickey onto the sidewalk, then cuts in front of Mickey. Mickey grabs his bag, and runs for the nearest building, his pistol out to persuade the cop to keep his head down. The cop fires off a shot with a shotgun, some of the pellets grazing Mickeys arm (thank God for the bullet proof vest!).
* Mickey jumps into the sewers, cops hot on his trail.
* After a few hours of crawling through the sewers, Mickey loses the cops ... but picks up a new friend.
* Mickey spots a freakish white THING following him ... Mickey gets ready to fight, but loses his nerve and runs!
* He comes out of the sewers. Walks to a gas station, walks into the car wash, and washes himself. He ditches his clothes, freaks out the attendant in the process.
* He keeps low, going through backyards, steals some jeans and a shirt.
* Tries to hotwire a car ... but the battery is gone!
* He finds another car, but two thugs stand nearby. They threaten Mickey, pull out guns ... Mickey's faster. But ... he can't pull the trigger. He can't kill a human being. BLAM. One of the thugs shoots Mickey! On the edge of unconsciousness, Mickey reacts on autopilot and shoots the thug. BLAM BLAM BLAM. The other thug runs, and Mickey gets in the car, and drives to the doctor...
* The underground doctor patches up Mickey, who needs a week to heal. Mickey had arrived on death's door...
* Gets a call from Pauly. Want to do a job?
* Mickey agrees, and watches Pauly meet the contact.
* Mickey then tails the contact to a meat-packing plant.
* Mickey waits and watches ... 2 trucks arrive and a tonne of "meat" is offloaded.
* Mickey sees Loomis and Weygand and Rojas arrive!
* Mickey goes in, armed to the teeth.
* On the meat packing floor, the trap is sprung! About 30 or so zombies shamble towards Mickey!
* He runs outside, into the second trap: Rojas and Weygand!
* Mickey holds off the zombies, while blazing away at the 2 thugs, full auto!
* Silver bullets no less.
* Jam! Mickey clears the gun, keeps blazing away. A couple of shots tag Mickey.
* The corpses get close ... Mickey tags Rojas with some silver bullets ... Rojas goes apeshit, wolfs out, and kills Weygand in a rage.
* Mickey reloads, and charges Rojas.
* Rojas charges Mickey ... but Mickey's conviction holds Rojas off for a vital second.
* Just long enough to pump Rojas full of an entire clip of silver rounds!
* Rojas changes into a man again ... a shattered shell of a man, torn to bits by full auto fire.
* Mickey looks at Rojas, pulls out his Beretta loaded with silver. "Guilty" Mickey says, and fires into Rojas' face.
* Mickey slowly walks backwards out of the plant, as the zombies crawl over what's left of Weygand and Rojas and start chowing down ...
* Mickey drives away, finally getting his groove back on, a smile of satisfaction his face...
Mike Montesa
05-12-2005, 12:01 AM
Vampire 5 (this is a long one)
Cale wakes up in the dark, the slow dripping of water somewhere in the distance and the low whistling of the wind break the silence. Cale gathers his wits and sets off to find a way out of the sewers.
He heads back the way he thinks he came, looking for the entrance to the “cathedral” where he met Niles. He finds the door, but when he opens it, it is only a small, unused pump room, dank and dark, filled with long forgotten equipment. Heading off again, he soon finds a ladder up to street level and pushes open the manhole cover.
Cale seems to have emerged in the service area behind a large church. A small graveyard is nearby. As Cale emerges from the manhole, the back door of the church opens and a priest steps out. Cale feels the Hunger stir and most definitely does not want to feed on the priest; he fights it down (Cale’s managed to control the Beast throughout the entire Chronicle so far. He’s saving it though – when he finally lets it off the leash it’s going to be…nasty.)
Cale makes up a lame story about being drunk and getting lost. He apologizes to the priest and just asks to be shown the door. As they go inside, the priest says Cale seems troubled. Cale wants to leave, but takes a moment to discuss God and the Devil with the priest, He also asks about revenge, to which the priest replies, “Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord.” Cale just nods. He asks the priest about forgiveness, and the priest tells him that Christ forgives us all our sins. “Maybe not everyone,” Cale replies quietly. He thanks the priest and leaves.
Once out of the church, Cale knows he needs to slake the Beast and keep the fucker down. He heads off to his “hunting grounds” and puts himself in robot mode, taking sustenance from three different victims and “getting it over with”. Cale knows deep down he’s going to pay for what he’s done to his victims. At least he plans to get some back out of Helton’s ass; a little justice for the victims (including himself), that’s all he wants.
Cale has become what Helton wanted; a weapon. A guided missile with one single purpose – destruction. Unfortunately for Helton, his weapon locked onto the wrong target!
Cale returns to the Templar building. His mind is going 100 miles a minute. He’s going to take Helton out, cut loose his anger and purge the whole fucking thing! While going about mundane business at Templar, Cale begins to plan:
1. To maintain appearances, he will indeed attempt to take out Burian, despite not really having anything against him. Cale doesn’t give two shits for Burian. Whether he succeeds or fails in the attempt is immaterial; Cale just needs to keep Helton looking the other way.
2. Cale, as head of security for Templar, has access to the building blueprints, security systems, staff records, rosters, and schedules. This gives him an excellent advantage and he plans to use it. When he makes his move, he’ll have Templar security well spoofed.
3. Cale also has access to the files on every “known” suckhead in the City. The records are explosive; surely, if the other Kindred even knew that Helton had such files (in hardcopy no less) they want his head on a stick. Cale has definite plans for those files.
4. It’s all going to come down to Cale confronting Helton and taking the evil, perverted, old bastard out. This will be Cale’s most dangerous move and it will take some careful thought, planning, preparation, timing, and in the end, sheer guts.
During this period, Cale tries to call Mickey several times but gets no answer. Cale half-notices a news story on TV about a wild car chase after a hit and run accident.
Cale decides he needs to go see Camille, and in particular, Gregory, who appears to be one of Niles’ followers. At the usual haunts, Camille is nowhere to be found. This is strange because the City is coming back to life after a week of traumatic unrest, and most night spots are quite busy. Cale decides to head for Camille’s house.
Camille lives in a huge mansion in an exclusive suburb. Cale gets no answer on the intercom at the gate, so he goes over the wall. He approaches the house, and finds the front door open. Drawing his gun, he goes inside.
From a side hallway, he hears a sound like someone chopping meat. He hides and sees Camille stagger into the foyer, three swords have been run through her! From the hallway, Gregory appears brandishing a cavalry saber. This is not what Cale expected! “You bitch!” Gregory screams at Camille. “One hundred years! You kept me like a dog!” Camille, badly wounded, is kneeling on the floor, paralyzed with surprise and shock more than anything else.
Cale simply wanted to talk, but things are rapidly going south here. He steps from the shadows. “Drop it Gregory!” Gregory looks at him. “Don’t try to stop me Cale! I can’t take it anymore! You understand! You were there! You know!” Indeed, Cale does understand. But all this drama isn’t good for his plan. He’s got to focus, do what he has to do to reach his goal. “I just need to talk to her! I need to talk to you!” “No! I’m not going to wait any longer!” Gregory shrieks and raises the sword over Camille’s head. Cale puts three shots into him.
Gregory flips out and charges Cale in a frenzied rage. Cale empties the rest of the magazine at him but hardly slows Gregory down. As they make contact, Cale tries to disarm Gregory, but what works on humans doesn’t necessarily work on vampires! Cale bends Gregory’s arm the other way and gets the sword out of his hand. Pivoting and dropping low he sweeps Gregory’s feet out from underneath him and follows it up with a nasty slash with the sword. Gregory goes down wounded.
With the situation (barely) under control, Cale tries to talk to Camille, but she is still in shock over Gregory’s betrayal. “But, I loved you,” she says to him. “You call that love!?” Gregory moans. “A century of inhuman bondage!? Nothing but slavery!” he looks at Cale, “You know what’s coming. We’re going to change everything!”
“I’m not going to let you kill her Gregory. I need to talk to her.” Cale says. Gregory snarls and freaks out again, leaping at Camille, but Cale is ready. “You should have waited!” Cale says and takes Gregory’s head off with a slash of the saber. Gregory’s body burns away to ash, leaving only a charred skull. Camille, who’s made no move to pull the swords out of her body, crawls over to the remains. Anything Cale was going to say to her is pointless now. “I loved him,” she says with bloody tears on her face. “I don’t understand.” Cale, however, does understand. He eyes her warily, not knowing if she will jump him in order to try to regain some of her strength. “Did you give him a choice?” he asks her. “I wanted him to be with me forever,” she says. “Nothing lasts forever,” Cale whispers.
Cale backs off. He drops the sword and leaves Camille cradling Gregory’s skull. Cale gets out of there quickly. Every time he’s confronted one of Niles’ followers so far, Aronofski, Sloan, and now Gregory, he finds himself in the totally uncomfortable position of agreeing with them, while at the same time having to take them out to maintain his cover. This is not what he had in mind!
Cale spends the next few nights setting himself up in a new apartment. This time he doesn’t say a word to anyone about it. He also visits a furniture maker, and places a very special order involving teak stakes with fire hardened tips and grooves in the handle for a better grip…
More planning. Cale lays low, just doing his job, all the while figuring out the angles. To get Helton, he has to keep the old monster off guard. He starts casing Burian, doing surveillance on his travel habits. Cale decides when he goes for Burian, it’ll be with a bang. A big one, and that should certainly make Helton happy.
Cale looks closely at the plans for the Templar building. The 75th floor is the big chamber with huge polarized plate glass windows on three sides. The back wall separates Helton’s the chamber from Helton’s office area. Inside is the only entrance to the 74th floor, where Helton has his little “crypt”. An elevator and stairwell link the 73rd floor to the 75th, bypassing 74 entirely. Cale decides if he can confront Helton on 75, and block off his access to 74, he can take a shot at his sire.
Cale looks at the social calendar and sees that the Black & White Ball, a big citywide charity event, will be held in three weeks time. That should be enough time for Cale to set things up. He formulates his plan:
1. On the night of the Ball, Cale will make his hit on Burian. He plans to attack Burian’s car (using a rocket launcher) on the way home after the Ball.
2. Cale will time this all to go down just before sunrise. If he can stage his confrontation with Helton in the last 30 minutes before sunrise, he hopes that the old vampire will be less able to cope with the impending daylight.
3. After the attack, he will inform Helton that it’s done and that he’s on the way back.
4. 45 minutes before sunrise: Cale enters the Templar building. Cale’s goal at that point is to confront Helton on the 75th floor. Cale will be ready for anything; maybe Helton will try to wax Cale to cover his ass, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. Anyone who gets in Cale’s way gets smoked.
5. Using explosives (shaped charges on timers set to blow 30 minutes before sunrise) he will collapse the passage from 75 to 74, thus blocking Helton’s access to his safe haven. Explosives will also be rigged to blow out all of the windows on 75.
6. Then, the hard part. Cale will confront Helton. If Cale survives, he plans to be on his way out of the Templar building (in a mighty big hurry) no later than 20 minutes before sunrise.
7. He then has 15 minutes to reach his final destination.
Cale realizes he’s going to need some help. He needs access to weapons and equipment that he doesn’t have, and checking stuff out of the Templar armory just isn’t going to work. He’ll also need some help getting in and out of the building. Cale only knows one person he can trust with something like this. He calls Mickey.
Mickey answers. “Mickey, this is Cale.” They agree to meet at Romeo’s Diner.
Cale enters the diner and finds Mickey sitting in a booth with his back to the wall. Cale sits down and Mickey eyes him carefully for a moment. Mickey has both hands beneath the table. Cale knows Mickey can see him for what he really is, so he makes an extra effort to put Mickey at ease. Mickey looks tense as usual, but not as haggard as before. Something has changed. “Good to see you’re still in one piece,” Cale says. “I thought you were dead…” Mickey says and catches himself. “Er…well, you know what I mean.” Cale chuckles and the irony releases the tension between them. Cale hears a weapon being safed and dropped into a bag beneath the table. They both relax.
They talk. Cale tells Mickey about his encounter with Niles. Neither of them can figure out what Niles is, or exactly what he wants. “Chaos?” is about all Cale can figure. Whatever Niles is and whatever he’s up to, he’s clearly a major player and making some big moves. Cale says he thinks Niles tried to…recruit him?.. and that Cale’s meeting with Niles was no accident. Cale thinks Niles may try to do the same with Mickey, and tells him to be extremely careful. They’re close. Very close.
Mickey explains what happened with Loomis, and describes his encounter with Rojas and Weygand at the meat packing plant. Mickey seems quite satisfied when he tells Cale that silver bullets do indeed work on werewolves! At the same time, Mickey gives Cale a box of silver bullets under the table! Now, of Nile’s active henchmen, only Loomis and the Aryan guy who killed Cale seem to be left. Cale appreciates the news (and the gift).
“I need your help,” Cale asks Mickey. “I’m going after the bastard suckhead that took my life and my soul, and put the woman I loved in the grave. He’s a major player in the ‘community’ and not an easy target. This is totally personal, and I completely understand if you don’t want any part of it. But I need some help and you’re the only person I can turn to.
“You’re out there hunting things that have all the advantages. Unfair advantages. You don’t even know who they are. I can give you something that will give you the edge you’re looking for,” Cale says, thinking about the Templar files on all of the City’s vampires. “And when this is over my friend, you’ll have these monsters by the balls.” Cale says with undisguised relish.
Mickey nods in agreement. “What do you need?” Cale needs weapons and equipment, and some heavy duty shit indeed: shaped TNT cutting charges, micro-electronic timers and detonators, an assault rifle, and…an RPG-7. The last may be particularly difficult to source, so if it’s not feasible, Cale will try another approach. Cale also needs Mickey to help him get out of the Templar building. Cale assures Mickey that money is no object, and if there is anything Mickey needs help with, Cale will do it, including helping Mickey find Tracy. Mickey mulls this over. Dangerous indeed. Difficult but not impossible. “It’s good to be working with a professional again,“ he says. He’ll do it.
Cale smiles and stands up. “I’ll be in touch,” he says and walks out of the diner onto the street and looks up. The Templar building looms large in the blue glow of the City at night.
Mike Montesa
05-12-2005, 12:04 AM
Hunter 5
It may not come across so well in the summary, but this was one of the most emotional RPG sessions I've ever played.
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ACT I: "Sympathy for the Devil"
* Mickey sits in Romeo's Diner, watching Cale walk out the door and into the night. The two have just begun to work out their plan to take down Helton. Mickey's eyes slide down to the menu, which suddenly flashes LIAR. BETRAYER. DECEIVER. Mickey's eyes widen. Holy shit, is Cale gonna sell him out???
* "Yep, they always turn on you in the end," someone says. Mickey turns to see an older guy sitting at the counter. Crumpled trenchcoat, old fedora, the smell of stale cigarettes. "Yep," he says again, nodding, "they always turn on you in the end."
* Mickey looks at the older guy, thinking he's one of the brokenhearted. Wife must have left him. Something like that. Just a total coincidence he's said this right after Cale has left the building. Right after Mickey's received the LIAR message. Yeah. A total coincidence. Right?
* The older guy keeps talking, and Mickey comes to realize it isn't a coincidence. In fact, after a while, it sounds like the older guy knows something about the supernatural. Mickey invites the guy to his booth, carefully keeping his pistol trained on him under the table.
* The older guy speaks of "those guys upstairs". "What do they know? Always pushing you around. Go here, do this, do that. Don't think for yourself, oh no! Never think for yourself! Just listen to their messages and do what they say." Mickey's eyes widen. Is he ... another Hunter? A Hunter who has turned his back on the messages? "Did they give you a choice? No! They never do! Just pushing you around. Never letting you make up your OWN mind!" Of course, the old guy could just be talking about upper management in the company he used to work for. It's a little hard to tell.
* As the conversation continues, however, Mickey realizes the old guy IS talking about the supernatural. And he's hinting at the "people" that are contacting Mickey. And it sounds like the older guy used to work for them, but now he's gone freelance, doing his own thing, got his own plan, and he'd like Mickey to come on board...
* The penny finally drops. As "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good" begins on the radio, as Mickey notices psycho-corpse-boy Loomis at the counter, as Mickey notices two shambling corpses outside tearing through some garbage, it all falls into place.
Mickey is talking to Ambrose Niles.
* Mickey turns on The Sight. Looks hard at Niles. And he looks ... human. Niles keeps talking about "the people upstairs" and the "falling out" he had with them. Wants to set up his own office now. Wants to "help you people". Mickey wonders; is Niles someone who used to work FOR "the people upstairs" as a Hunter ... or WITH them as, well, something more than human? Or less than human?
* Nile says he wants to help Mickey. Wants to help him wipe out the monsters. Help him find the "others out there that are just like you". Why? Niles is slippery here. Keeps ducking the question. Always comes back and says "I want to help YOU. Help you achieve your true potential. You got a lotta potential kid, and I like what I see!"
* Niles then offers Mickey the ultimate temptation. Niles says he can change Tracy back. Back into a human. Tells Mickey to come back to Romeo's Diner tomorrow night at 8pm if he's interested. Niles takes some lemon pie to go, and leaves...
ACT II: "Nightclubbing"
* Mickey realizes he has to see Tracy. He's read reports of recent violence at some clubs. Tracy sounds like she's out of control.
* First, Mickey makes an appointment to see Benny the arms dealer. Benny's eyes widen when Mickey mentions acquiring an RPG-7, but Mickey assures him money is no object. Benny nods.
* Mickey starts nightclubbing, showing every bartender the picture of Tracy he has in his wallet.
* After a while, Mickey gets lucky. Bartender recognizes the photo, says she comes in every so often. Mickey waits near the bar, and after a while Tracy comes in. She's already got a crew of infatuated blood slaves, middle-management types in love with Tracy's beauty and danger.
* Mickey walks up, "Hey Tracy, got time to talk?" Fear comes into Tracy's eyes and her blood slaves step between them. "Uh - um - I've never seen this guy before. He's scaring me. Get him away from me."
* "I'm not the one you should be frightened of Tracy. It's the others. Your FAMILY. The OTHERS LIKE YOU. When they find out about what you've done, they're not gonna be happy with you. I want to help you. Help protect you from your family."
* Tracy's not listening and is out the door. Mickey tries to follow and is blocked by the blood slaves. "Fuck off" Mickey says and pushes through. He starts to follow Tracy, but the blood slaves run up behind him. "Oi!" says one and throws a punch. Mickey ducks, and slams a fist into his stomach. The blood slave staggers back, and the others pause, sensing Mickey's not really a jilted ex-lover of Tracy's. Mickey glares at them, "You're pathetic following her around like this, just look at yourselves". They back off and head to the club again.
* Tracy's gone, but Mickey wonders if she'll be back again. In nature, predators like to stake out hunting grounds. Maybe vampires are the same. Mickey waits. Sure enough, Tracy comes back (and Mickey realizes the psychology of these creatures is important ... he's gotta get into their heads a little bit ... and he becomes just a little bit more like a Hunter).
* Mickey walks into the club, but Tracy's gone out the back. Mickey silently follows, and finds Tracy feeding on her blood slaves. Tracy looks up, makes eye contact. And then it's on. Tracy tears out a blood slave's throat, gorging herself on the blood she'll need to give herself strength. She charges Mickey, who pulls his gun and yells "Get back!!!" She freezes, and her other 2 blood slaves charge. "Get BACK!" Mickey yells again, and is a bit surprised (but thankful!) that his Edge works on blood slaves too.
* With cat-like grace, Tracy climbs up the side of the building. Mickey looks at the corpse, looks at the 2 blood slaves, and just says "Look, just RUN. NOW." They run. Mickey starts climbing the ladder to the top of the building.
* Tracy leaps from rooftop to rooftop, effortless. Mickey gives chase, taking a deep breath and a long running jump before coming to each edge. Determination is etched into his face. He can't let her go. Can't let her kill any more.
* Tracy leaps up another wall, and Mickey fires shots into her hands to break her grip. But she's strong and tough, and keeps going. Mickey holsters his weapon and clambers up ... almost to the top ... a hand reaches over, picks Mickey up by the collar, and throws him across the rooftop.
* "Yeah, thanks for that Tracy" Mickey mumbles and Tracy stalks towards him. Mickey holds up his pistol "Tracy, I just want to talk! I want to help you!"
* Tracy stops, but hisses "You want to KILL me." Mickey denies it. Says he wants to help her. Says the other vampires in The City are the ones hunting her. "I'm the only one in The City who can help you. And ... well ... I don't know, but maybe there's a way out. Maybe you can change back. Back into who you were before."
* Tracy collapses, blood tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry, I can't take this anymore..."
* Mickey crawls over to Tracy, and puts an arm around her should, cradling her. For a moment Mickey feels Tracy moving towards his throat, feels fangs on his skin ... "Tracy, no, please, you're stronger than that..."
* Tracy pulls away with a supreme effort of will, crying again. "I can’t control it! I can’t stop it! Just kill me!!! Please Mickey, just kill me!!!" Tears well up in Mickey's eyes. He points his pistol into Tracy's face. "I'm sorry" he says, as he pulls the trigger.
* And the gun jams.
* Mickey's emotionally exhausted. The gun slips from his fingers. On the rooftop, above The City, under the night sky, Mickey and Tracy sit. Both of them emotionally and physically drained.
ACT III: "The Last Temptation of Mickey/Tracy says goodbye"
* Mickey cleans up Tracy's bloodsoaked face, and leads her downstairs. They drive to Romeo's Diner. Loomis is waiting inside, and he leads them towards a limo ... which pulls away revealing Niles sitting in a taxi. "Get in!" he says with a smile. "I knew you'd come around, kiddo!" He beams at Mickey.
* "I haven't said yes yet." Niles looks a bit downcast when Mickey says this. They drive towards an abandoned part of town ... it gets dark ... darker still ... and for half a second, Mickey thinks he feels a snake slide across his shoes.
* Mickey knows he's in deep. But he wants to hear Niles out. Wants to find out what he's REALLY up to. And then there's Tracy ... maybe it's worth saying yes. To save one person. To give her another chance.
* They walk into an abandoned apartment building. It gets dark and misty ... and Mickey can't see anyone anymore. "Come on kid!" Niles yells from somewhere up ahead. But where? Mickey doesn't like this. Feels like a set-up. He takes out his shotgun, attaches a flashlight to it. Mickey walks into the darkness, and suddenly sees a smoky trail leading upstairs. Mickey follows, somehow knowing it is the right thing to do.
* The smoke leads to a door ... Mickey pushes it open ... inside, Tracy stands as if in a trance. A circle of darkness all around. Niles stands, impatient. "Okay, kid, so are we gonna do this or not?"
* "I want to know what YOU want" Mickey says again. Niles yet again ducks the question. He wants to help Mickey. Wants to "help you people". And then he lets it slip. Says the thing that makes Mickey realize that Niles wants control.
[And I can't remember what it was he said! Argh! It was a variation on the "I want to help you" line, but he said it in such a way that meant "*I* want to be in control"...]
* Mickey's eyes narrow. "What did you say?"
"What? Oh no, that's not what I meant kiddo. Come on, we gonna do this or not?"
"Not," Mickey says.
"Have it your way kid." Niles shrugs and slams a slim wooden stake through Tracy's heart with pinpoint accuracy. Niles steps back into the darkness, fading into nothing ... and out of the darkness come a group of hideous, pale-white, fanged humanoid creatures! The beasts circle Mickey, who puts Tracy over one shoulder. They charge him ... "Get back!" Mickey yells ... it doesn't work ... one of them gets to close and Mickey pulls the trigger on the shotgun ... "I said FUCK OFF!!!" Mickey yells, and the creatures back off for a moment.
* Mickey hauls arse out the door, Tracy over his shoulder. The pale vampiric things are everywhere ... Mickey's as good as dead ... needs a miracle.
* As Mickey moves, the dust around his feet is kicked up ... and rises ... and rises ... and suddenly Mickey and Tracy are cloaked in it. The vampiric creatures look right through them, can't see them. Mickey realizes this has to be some kind of reward from "the people upstairs" because he rejected Niles' offer.
* Mickey stumbles out the door as the whole building shakes behind him. Loomis is waiting outside. "Niles was right," Loomis says, "you are good. But you should've taken the offer."
"I'll deal with you later, dead man," Mickey says, and slowly walks down the street with Tracy over his shoulder.
* Not long before sun-up, Mickey stops in a lonely children's park. Puts Tracy on a bench and sits beside her. She can't talk, but he hopes she can listen. He tells her he's sorry, sorry things ended up this way. He says he knows she's a good person, and that she doesn't want to be a monster.
* Mickey pushes the stake out of Tracy. Tracy nods, and thanks him. Mickey holds her hand as the sun slowly comes up. Mickey refuses to let go in her last moments as the heat builds and the fire starts. The fire burns Mickey's hand, but he doesn't let go, squeezing as tight as he can, letting Tracy know that she's not alone.
* After a few moments, Mickey painfully opens his burnt hand, and a breeze blows the ashes away. He takes out Tracy's photo and puts it on the pile of ash on the park bench. He raises his face to the sun.
Mike Montesa
05-12-2005, 12:06 AM
The finales of both Hunter and Vampire are done. When Cam gets his writeup done, I'll post it, along with mine.
Both of us were really pleased and we both enjoyed this campaign immensely!
rex monday
05-24-2005, 03:04 AM
I'm really looking forward to the end of this. I really dig the "double helix" thing and the crime movie vibe.
Vortigern
05-25-2005, 07:08 AM
This game seems absolutely amazing. congratulations on running such a successful campaign.
Fabulous. I've run a few one-on-one games, and I've run concurrent campaigns that play off each other, but I've never had the chance to play something that's as rich and complex in its back-and-forth as this seems to have been. Good stuff.
Mike Montesa
06-29-2005, 07:32 AM
Cam tells me he's working on the writeup of the last Hunter session. The last Vampire session is ready to go, but I'm waiting for Cam to get the Hunter part done so we can post both at the same time. The last two sessions were really one long session anyway, and we kept our heads down and the game rolling until we finished (took about 7 hours total).
I'll bug Cam some more tonight! :)
Sunjumper
06-29-2005, 11:25 AM
That was fantastic!
I really can picture that story on the big screen.
Also now that I noticed that the end is still missing my howl of agony might have attracked some hunters...
SweeneyTodd
06-29-2005, 12:47 PM
Wow, those are really damn good. You definately have the Michael Mann vibe going strong. Please post the rest when you get it!
Mike Montesa
07-04-2005, 08:38 PM
Well, we finally got the write-ups done! Here are the last two installments of our campaign, first Vampire then Hunter in the next post. We played both back to back and they overlapped in the middle at the end of Vampire and the beginning of Hunter, so we were both GMing and running our characters at the same time.
These are quite long, so thanks for reading!
I'll post some more comments later, and I'm sure Cam will as well. Anyway, here goes...
Vampire. The Finale
"He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself" – Chinese proverb
Scene 1 - Plotting and Planning
* Cale walks out of Romeo’s Diner. His conversation with Mickey went very well. Mickey agreed to help Cale take down Helton; he’ll talk to his people and see about the weapons and equipment Cale needs.
* For the next few days, Cale just does his job. He doesn’t want to make any waves at all. At the same time however, he is surreptitiously figuring out all the angles; literally. He plans his route through the building, noting blind spots in the security camera coverage, noting which doors he’ll be going through, and which alarms need to be spoofed.
* Cale decides to inform Helton that he will soon be making his move on Burian. When he enters the 75th floor, he sees Davis talking with Helton as they exit Helton’s office. Cale is reminded of the way in which he took a position that Davis likely saw as his own. As things come to a head, Davis most definitely needs to be watched.
* Helton seems amused by Cale’s timing for the hit on Burian; the day of the citywide Black & White Ball (a formal charity event where everyone wears black and white tuxedos and evening dresses). All of the Kindred community in the City will be there (at least, those that care about such things). Helton seems excited at the prospect of saying goodbye to his old enemy. He offers Cale a glass of Templar vintage vitae, which Cale reluctantly drinks to maintain appearances. If Helton knows Cale recognizes that blood, he’s just rubbing it in. Cale curses Helton silently as he leaves.
Scene 2 - "How much for everything?"
* A few more days pass. Cale is busy working up the schedule and duty roster for the Templar security team on the night of the ball. He’s fixing it so the least competent personnel are on duty that evening. He won’t be able to avoid putting Templar’s best people, the Knights, on the roster, but he can minimize their impact on his plans. The regular uniformed security team however, won’t be at maximum efficiency.
* Cale stays in his newest apartment. This place is nothing special, but it is the only place he feels safe, since he hasn’t told anyone about it at all. He swings by the furniture maker he contracted to make some fire-hardened teak stakes. Cale is pleased with the work and pays the craftsman extra. Finally, Cale gets a call from Mickey. Mickey’s arms dealer is ready to meet. Cale tells Mickey to meet him at Romeo’s in 30 minutes.
* Cale and Mickey meet in the diner and head for a seedier part of town. On the third floor of a rundown hotel, Mickey’s arms dealer, Benny, lays out his merchandise on a stained mattress. It’s all there – AK-47, magazines, ammunition, plastic explosives, timers, detonators, control panel, WP grenades. “What about the ‘special item’?” Benny hauls out a large case, “Straight from Colombia. Like new. Gotcha two rounds.” Cale is very pleased as he examines the RPG-7. “You do deliver,” Cale says, handing over a large gym bag full of cash, as Mickey looks carefully out the window. Transaction completed, both parties quickly leave.
* Back in the car, Cale tells Mickey he’s almost ready to go. They discuss plans for the big night. Cale again tells Mickey that this is a personal thing, and he absolutely understands if Mickey wants no part of it. Mickey can walk away and never see Cale again if he wants. “This is just between me and Helton. The bastard killed me and the woman I loved as part of some shitty little scheme, some fucked up undead power play, nothing more.” Mickey however, sees something else in Cale, and understands that Cale is doing this because he knows it’s right. Mickey seems to understand what Cale means to do when this is all over. Moreover, Cale is about to take on one of the major monsters plaguing the City, one with real power, one of the creatures holding the reins. This is an opportunity to really make a difference. “If you go with me on this,” Cale says, “You have to be ready to take it all the way.”
* “I’m in,” Mickey says. He and Cale shake hands; they’re both in this together.
* Cale drops Mickey off, and heads back to the office. He logs on to the security computer in his office and calls up the dossiers Helton keeps on every recognized Kindred in the City, everyone from the Prince himself on down to the lowliest neonate (like Cale). This folder gets burned onto a CD-ROM, which goes into his pocket. Then he heads for the train station and quietly stuffs all his gear into a locker, and the CD-ROM with the Kindred dossiers goes in another locker. Then, back to his apartment.
Scene 3 - Hair Trigger
* On the night of the Black & White Ball, the City is in a festive mood. Reporters are all over the Convention Center where the main charity event is being held. The residents of the City not going to the ball take it as an excuse to have a party, so everyone is dressed up and out for a good time.
* Cale is ready. This is it. Everything ends tonight. Cale collects his equipment from the locker, checks that the CD-ROM is safe (making sure he has the key) and heads for the Templar building.
* Cale holds a security briefing. He goes over the evening’s security plan with the Templar security team. Cale says that he will be monitoring everything from the security center at the Templar building, and Davis will be the site commander for Helton’s close protection detail at the ball. The briefing ends, and everyone gets ready to go.
* Cale goes up to 75 to inform Helton. He finds Helton again standing statue-like among the shadows cast by the columns in the room. The steady trickle of blood in the fountain is the only sound accompanying the click of Cale’s shoes on the black marble floor. “All set Mr. Helton. Enjoy the party,” Cale says. Helton grins wolfishly; he knows Cale is going after Burian tonight. “You will come to see me afterwards,” he says. Cale smiles thinly. “Absolutely, sir.” Davis comes in and Helton leaves with his ghoul servant.
* As soon as Helton’s car and escort vehicles leave the building, Cale goes into action. Down to the garage to get his gear, then back up to 75. Cale plants small, two-ounce charges at the base of every window on the 75th floor. Then he goes into Helton’s office itself. More charges for the windows there as well. Cale can’t resist going through Helton’s desk. He sees that Helton was looking at Cale’s file. Where all the other kindred had full psych profiles and such, Cale’s file is little more than a resume – Cale’s suspicion that he was never more than a tool to Helton is confirmed.
* Cale is positive Helton will try to kill him to cover his tracks, if Cale succeeds in taking out Burian. Then Helton can say, “Look, I’ve taken care of this rogue who violated our laws.” Cale’s hatred for Helton is starting to heat up.
* After planting a charge under Helton’s chair, he carefully descends down the stairwell to the 74th floor; Helton’s private sanctum. It is dark but there is enough light to see. The place is like a museum. There are rooms filled with antiques, relics from old wars, weapons, uniforms, even a Civil War cannon. Cale finally finds Helton’s “bed”. The exquisitely hand carved bed frame was probably looted off some Southern plantation. It’s probably worth a fortune. Cale sees that it gets a charge as well!
* On the way out, Cale finds a room covered in photographs. These pictures show Helton with members of the Templar family over a period of about 150 years! Cale even finds a picture of Helton that was taken in daylight, when Helton was still human. Whatever humanity Helton had is long gone by the time he appears in the most recent shots, including an image of Helton and Bianca! Cale takes the photo off the wall, then angrily smashes the frame on the floor. He picks up the picture and tears it in half between Helton and Bianca. Then Cale is out of there. He arms all the charges and heads out.
Scene 4 - The Big Hit
* Down in the security office, Cale happily shreds the half of the photo with Helton on it as he tells the watch commander he’ll be going out, but will monitor everything by radio. Cale continues to monitor the Ball. Everything is okay.
* Cale heads out to the ambush position he has staked out along Burian’s route back from the ball. He calls Mickey and gives him the heads up. Mickey says he’s ready, and will wait for Cale’s next call.
* Cale gets up on a roof overlooking the street below. He readies the RPG-7, puts on his gear vest, and checks his other weapons. The stakes go in a shotgun shell belt looped over his shoulder. Then he goes into gargoyle mode and waits.
* On the radio, Cale listens in on a conversation as Helton encounters Burian at the party. Helton is awfully smarmy and sure of himself. Burian thinks Helton is just being a dick, but is still wary; they are old enemies after all. Cale radios Davis and tells him to call in when Burian leaves the ball.
* Finally, Burian and his entourage leave. Cale gets ready and loads the rocket launcher. Soon, Burian’s car comes into view. Cale takes aim on the first car in the procession. If he could breathe, he’d be holding it right now! Whoosh! The rocket streaks down from the rooftop into the hood of the lead car. The car explodes, the doors flying off in a gout of flame. The second car stops behind the first and Burian’s men get out. They start shooting at Cale as he reloads another shot. Whoomp! Cale sends another round into the car full of goons and blows them away! Then from the lead car a terrifying screech fills the street as Burian, on fire, rips his way out of the burning wreck! Cale watches as Burian falls to the street. The vampire crime lord howls at Cale for a moment before the flames burn him away into cinders. Cale picks up his gear and quickly leaves, as police and firefighters converge on the scene.
Scene 5 - Two Sides of the Same Coin
* Cale calls Mickey and later picks him up at Romeo’s Diner. The news is going crazy with the story of the “terrorist attack” on the streets. Mickey looks at the TV on the counter as Cale comes in. “You crazy bastard.” Cale grins. Cale wants to lie low for a few hours until it is close to dawn, and time for the final phase of his plan. They drive down to the waterfront.
* Across the water, Cale can see the restaurant where he and Bianca used to go. Cale tells Mickey that he wonders what the point of all this is. What does it mean? Mickey and Cale get into a deep discussion about the nature of what they are and what they are supposed to do with their powers. Cale wonders if the things he has done mean that he was damned automatically when he was turned, without being allowed to choose. Mickey believes Cale is making a choice now. Cale asks Mickey a favor. “No one is going to remember this except you. I just want you to do one thing for me. I want you to remember me as a man, and not a monster.” Mickey nods his head; of course he will.
* It is an hour before sunrise. Time to go. Cale calls Helton. “Well sir, I’m sure you’ve seen the news. You won’t have to bother with Burian any more.” Helton is quite happy. “Excellent!” Cale says he’s coming in and Helton says he’ll be waiting.
* Mickey and Cale drive to the Templar building. The lights of the City reflect along the hood of the car. They pull into the parking garage. Cale gets out and gears up. Mickey is also ready. “If I’m not out by 15 minutes before sunrise, you get out of here.” Mickey checks his radio and says, “Good luck.” Cale thanks him and turns to go, then he reaches in his pocket and takes out the locker key. “Remember that edge I was telling you about?” He tosses the key to Mickey. “By the balls my friend, by the balls!” Cale says with a smile and moves out.
Scene 6 - Retribution
* Cale walks up on the loading dock guardpost. The security staff don’t seem to have noticed anything yet. Cale quickly dominates the guard and drains him of blood until he passes out. He needs the energy for the fight he knows is coming. Then Cale logs onto the security mainframe and shuts down the all the cameras in the building. That should wake them up!
* Cale proceeds into the building. So far so good. No opposition. He passes through the mall heading for the express elevators. A Knight and two uniformed guards are there but don’t challenge Cale, even though he is armed to the teeth! There is an alert, and Cale tells them to go check the stairwells and main doors. When they leave, Cale gets into the elevator. It’s too easy. Something is wrong.
* The express elevator rises to the 70th floor. The car stops, and the doors slide open. Cale glides out, moving tactically, all his vampiric senses fully switched on. He heads up the escalators to 73 and into the museum, and from there, into the stairway leading to 75. As he reaches the middle of the stairs, on the security team channel, he hears Davis say, “Take him.” Oh shit!
* “Mickey! You’re gonna have company!” Cale snaps into his throat mike. Down in the garage, Mickey looks in his rearview mirror to see three security guards advancing on his car. Mickey starts the engine and peels out. From the door in front of him, two more guards with submachine guns emerge and open fire. 9mm rounds shatter the windshield but Mickey holds course, driving straight at the guards. At the last moment he cranks the emergency brake, whipping the car sideways and smashing the guards (and the car) into the wall.
* Cale charges to the top of the steps and comes out into the 75th floor hall. Helton is standing next to the blood pool with a glass full of vitae in his hand. Davis is next to him. “Helton!” Cale screams.
“Why, Mr. Cale, well done. Good job,” Helton says.
“Helton, it’s over!“ Cale says angrily. “I know you set me up. I know you had Bianca and me killed. I know you turned me to use me as a weapon against Burian. I know you’re going to try to destroy me now too. You don’t have any other choice.”
“Even now I can see that I made the right decision, choosing you. Can’t we put it behind us?”
“No! Not anymore! You’re gonna pay for all the lives you’ve taken and destroyed without retribution! Every single one! Mine, Bianca’s, all of them!” Cale shouts.
“Such a shame it had to end this way David. You had so much potential.” As Helton says this, fifteen Templar Knights in full battle gear rush into the hall, ten in front of Cale and five behind. Weapons are leveled and safeties off.
* Infuriated and consumed with hatred, Cale roars, “You haven’t seen my full potential motherfucker!!”
* Cale explodes into action, he turns and raises his rifle to his shoulder, letting off a whole magazine at the Knights behind him, then charging in behind the fusillade. Three Knights go down in a welter of blood, as Cale impacts the other two. He takes one down barehanded and the other Knight drops as gunfire from the other guards obliterates him and everything around him except Cale. Cale takes a few hits, but in his state, and with his vampiric strength, bullets don’t hurt him. Regardless, Cale takes cover behind a pillar to reload.
* Emerging again he charges forward hammering out another hail of 7.62 rounds. Bullet casings rain down on the marble floor. The Knights blast away, shredding the antique columns but they can’t stop Cale. Cale advances, firing reloading, firing, reloading. Each burst is 30 rounds of pure hatred scything down Cale’s enemies like wheat.
* He whirls into close combat, fists and feet crushing windpipes, snapping bones. When his rifle runs empty, he whips out his pistol and pulls the trigger until the slide locks back empty, and another Knight goes down in a heap. Cale drops his pistol and leaps to the attack again. Cale throws one guard into the blood pool next to Helton (who seems to be enjoying this). Finally only two Knights remain. Cale empties another magazine into one hapless Knight. These guys may be good and some of them may be ghouls, but in his rage Cale is unstoppable.
* He gets the last guard into a hold and drains him of blood until he passes out. Cale is a terrifying sight; his clothes are shredded and bloody, and blood from the guard runs down his chin. He drops the guard and turns screaming, “Helton!!”.
* Now Davis steps forward, drawing two wooden stakes. He’s ready to get it on. “It shoulda been me, Cale!” he says. “You stupid bastard. You had it all in your hands and you threw it away!”
“Davis, if you had any idea what it was like you wouldn’t be saying that. Is that what you want to be? His dog? Because that’s all you’ll ever be!” Cale says. Davis howls in rage and charges forward.
* Down in the basement, things are getting stickier for Mickey. Three more Templar shooters are Swiss-cheesing Mickey’s car. Mickey floors the accelerator and hurls the car around the parking garage. He drives through a hail of gunfire, feeling a round or two impact in his body armor (and thank heaven for that!), before slamming his car into the Nissan the shooters were taking cover behind. The bad guys are sandwiched between the two wrecked vehicles. The car trashed, Mickey grabs his gear and bails, looking for another ride. He spots a Mercedes and with practiced ease, slim-jims the lock, jumps in, and hot-wires the Merc. He gets on the radio to Cale. No answer.
* Davis rushes at Cale, who also draws two of his teak stakes. Davis may not be a vampire, but no one wants a two-foot length of wood stuck in their chest! Davis is giving it all he’s got, and so does Cale. In close combat they are evenly matched, so Cale is looking to end this as quickly as possible. Cale dodges and spins, narrowly missing a strike to Davis’ head.
* The Beast stirs inside Cale but he fights it down, not wanting to call on it if he doesn’t have to. They circle and close, and Cale drops and goes low, sweeping Davis’ legs out from under him. Davis is struggling to get up as Cale closes in and jams the stake into Davis’ neck. The ghoul staggers back; he’s done. Davis gags on his own blood, gasping disbelievingly at the stake, and dies slumped against a shattered pillar. Now it’s only Cale and Helton.
* Helton is clapping laconically. “Bravo, Cale,” he says. Cale knows this was all just a show, that the sick old fuck was getting his rocks off watching Cale rip his men to pieces. Helton has an old cavalry sword in his hand and he unsheathes the blade.
“You pathetic coward,” Cale sneers angrily. “Now it’s just you and me. No one left to hide behind, no more schemes.”
* With a snarl, Helton attacks. Cale also engages aiming a vicious blow at Helton with the stake. He connects but Helton manages to deflect the point. Cale and Helton each look for an opening. Helton lunges again and cuts Cale but between Cale’s body armor and his supernatural toughness, the saber does no damage. Cale also manages to get another strike in on Helton but can’t drive it home. The old monster is too tough.
* They back off for a moment. Now Cale and Helton have the measure of each other. Cale has never fought a vampire before in a stand up fight, but now he thinks maybe Helton hasn’t either, or maybe it’s been so long since Helton’s had to do any of the dirty work himself he’s out of practice. Is Helton actually afraid? It doesn’t matter; only one of them is coming out of this in one piece.
* “It’s over Helton,” Cale says. Despite his bravado, he knows he has to try a different tactic. The only way to beat a vampire is to be a vampire.
* “Only for you, Cale,” snaps Helton as he moves to attack. Cale dodges and in one swift motion, grabs Helton’s arms, twists him around and ends up pinning Helton in an arm lock from behind. Cale is perfectly poised to bite Helton’s neck. “Payback’s a bitch!” he says and sinks his fangs into Helton’s neck.
* The potency of Helton’s blood is stunning. Cale never expected anything like this and is almost overwhelmed. Helton shrieks and struggles mightily. Cale hangs on, hoping to maybe drain Helton dry, but Helton breaks free. He’s lost a lot of blood. There’s only one option Helton has left. Cale can see he’s losing it.
* The Beast consumes Helton and the old vampire shrieks in fury as he leaps at Cale.
* Cale calls on his supernatural speed and rolls forward, plucking a white phosphorous grenade from his vest. He pulls the pin and as Helton goes over him, Cale jams the grenade down the front of Helton’s pants! Cale quickly gets clear as Helton rounds on him, perhaps, in his frenzy, not realizing what Cale has done.
Cale looks at Helton and says, “Roast, you fucker.”
* The grenade goes off with a whump, and Helton is covered in white-hot chemical fire burning at 5,000 degrees. His clothes go up like a torch, his hair melts away. He’s not dead yet and so he throws everything he’s got at Cale. Hoping to buy a few more seconds, Cale dodges away, grabs his detonator and sets off the explosive charges he’s wired on the 75th floor.
* The multiple explosions shatter the windows into a million pieces, and the shockwaves knock Cale flat and throw Helton to one side. Down in the basement, even Mickey can feel the building shake.
* Helton is still not down, but the white phosphorous is still burning him up. Cale dodges the shrieking, man shaped torch, until finally, Helton collapses to his knees in front of Cale. Helton’s blackened face is a twisted and burned mask of impotent fury. Soon he is a pillar of charred ashes that collapses into dust.
Scene 7 - Express elevator to hell, going down!
* Cale can hardly believe it. He’s done it. Helton is gone. Now there is only one thing left to do.
* His watch is showing about 25 minutes before sunrise. It’s time to leave. As he heads for the stairway, he radios down to Mickey, hoping his friend is still alive. Mickey signals back. He had a little trouble but things are quiet at the moment. “I did it! I got him!. I’m on my way out!”
* Cale reaches the express elevator and gets in. First he pulls the access panel, then wires a circuit bypass into it. Then he opens the elevator hatch and puts a steel cutting charge on the main cable. Crouching down inside the car, he fires the charge. The main cable snaps with a sharp bang and the elevator car lurches downward but stops as the emergency brakes kick in. Now Cale braces himself, and flips the cutoff switch on the emergency brakes. The elevator car drops like a rock!
* Cale hangs on, riding the car down, around floor 20, he flips the brake switch again. The G-forces slam him to the floor as the car screeches down the shaft. It finally crashes to a halt in on the garage level, the impact blasting the doors open. A normal human being would be smashed into jelly, but these qualities do not describe Cale! His wounds are not serious.
* Cale crawls from the wreckage as Mickey pulls the car up. “I see you traded up,” says Cale as he drops into the Mercedes. “You crazy fucker!” Mickey says in amazement. “The cemetery! Go! Go! Go!” Cale says.
* Mickey floors it and the car peels out, racing from the garage into the street outside. Behind them, the police and fire department are rapidly converging on the shattered Templar building. The sky in the east is just beginning to brighten. The sun will be up very soon. Cale tosses his shot up gear in the back seat, and puts his pistol on the dash.
Scene 8 - Absolution
* As night begins to give way to day, they enter the cemetery. Cale directs Mickey to where Bianca’s grave is and Mickey stops the car in front of it. Mickey looks at his watch. Cale’s got about two minutes before the sun breaks over the horizon. Cale gets out of the car.
* “Well, I guess this is it. I hope there’s something better for us all.” Cale says extending his hand.
* Mickey takes it, looks Cale in the eye. “I think so,” he says.
* “Goodbye Mickey, and good luck. Thank you,” Cale says calmly and turns to Bianca’s grave. The sun is just about to come over the horizon and Cale can already feel its heat. He kneels and puts his hand on Bianca’s name carved into the cool stone.
* “It’s done. I’m here Bianca. I’m with you,” Cale says quietly.
* The suns lifts into the sky, it’s rays washing over Cale. He’s burning, the sunlight is consuming him, and he knows it, but strangely, there is no pain.
* Cale looks up to the sky, seeing the sun again, and for the last time. Everything goes white and Cale can hear the sound of birds, welcoming a new day.
Mike Montesa
07-04-2005, 08:58 PM
And Hunter. This section is quite long so I've split it into two posts.
Hunter – Finale (Part 1)
Scene 1: Exit Cale
* Mickey sits in the car he stole from the Templar Building, his face a mixture of sadness and admiration as he watches Cale kneel in front of Bianca’s grave, whisper something, and face the rising sun. In only a few moments Mickey’s ally has crumbled into ashes, and there is only the sound of birdsong in the cemetery as the sun climbs into the sky.
* Mickey picks up Cale’s empty pistol, climbs out of the car, and walks over to the grave. “You tough son of a bitch,” Mickey says admiringly, and places the pistol in the pile of ashes. “You probably don’t need this where you’re going, Cale, but I figure it’s part of who you are. Good luck pal.” Mickey slowly walks back to the car, and drives away, leaving Cale and Bianca to their rest.
* As Mickey drives back into the heart of The City, sadness begins to creep over him. Everyone he’s fought to help or protect is now gone. Lane, Tracy, now Cale. He’s the only one left fighting the monsters. He’s alone. Completely alone.
* Mickey’s hand strays to a pocket, and feels the key Cale threw to him in the Templar parking area. Mickey takes it out. It’s a locker key for a locker at Central Station. Mickey drives to the station, parks, and walks in, joining the horde of morning commuters.
In the locker area Mickey inserts the key, twists, reaches into the locker and pulls out a CD-R in a clear plastic case. The CD-R has a message hand-written on it with a Magic Marker: “By the balls.”
* Mickey smiles wryly as he puts the CD into his pocket and starts to walk back to his apartment.
Scene 2: Heavenly Visions, Part 1
* Mickey is walking through The City towards his apartment, nursing a cup of strong take-out coffee. It’s been a long night, and he’s exhausted, physically and emotionally. His face is drawn. He needs sleep.
That’s when he feels it.
* Something, some presence, behind him. Towering over him. Enormous. The hairs on the back of Mickey’s neck stand up and he’s almost too frightened to turn around.
But slowly, he turns around.
And he sees it.
* Words can’t even begin to describe it. It’s massive. It’s awe-inspiring. It’s the most frightening thing Mickey has ever seen in his life. It’s the most beautiful thing Mickey has ever seen in his life.
* An angel towers over Mickey, some 50 feet tall, holding a flaming sword aloft. Its face is raised towards the heavens, majestic.
Below, Mickey begins to tremble.
And then it looks down at Mickey.
The coffee drops from Mickey’s weak grip as his eyes fill with tears and his legs shake. Mickey wipes the tears away, and then, the presence is suddenly gone. Mickey is staring at a statue of an angel in a park, covered in pigeon shit.
A passerby stops, looking slightly worried and concerned.
“Are you alright?” she asks.
“Um … yeah, I … just lost a friend,” Mickey says.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she says. “Take care.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Mickey mumbles and slowly walks back to his apartment. He collapses on his bed, and falls asleep almost immediately.
Scene 3: Heavenly Visions, Part 2
* That night, Mickey is sitting on his balcony, high above The City. He watches the lights below, and watches the moon rise above. Far below, sirens wail. People stir restlessly in their sleep. And Mickey knows the monsters are down there.
The monsters. And Niles.
“Niles. How am I gonna find you, you son of a bitch?” Mickey whispers. As he says this, he feels a twinge, a slight pain in his head. A headache coming on? Mickey ignores it, trying to figure Niles out.
* For starters, Niles seems to know far too much about what Mickey is. Niles has been working with monsters, now says he wants to work with humans. Now that Mickey has rejected Niles, Niles will no doubt be happy to work with monsters again.
Niles can easily fuck Mickey over by letting the monsters of The City know about him.
Niles, then, has to be silenced somehow. Taken out of the equation.
“Easier said than done”, Mickey says to himself on the balcony. He rubs his head as he feels more twinges. Mickey pushes himself to focus. He can’t stop now, he’s got to find a way to take Niles down.
* “Focus, Mickey” he whispers. Niles is a major player, and Mickey still doesn’t really know what he is. Niles’ hints about “the man upstairs”, “upper management”, and wanting to “help you people” have led Mickey to suspect that Niles was once human and has become “something else” … or that Niles was once “something else” and has now become something more (or less) human.
* In other words, Niles may not be taken out with a bullet through the back of the head. “Although I’d be happy to try” Mickey smirks to himself.
No. Niles will have to be compromised somehow. Made to realize that any continuation of his plans will be somehow harmful to him.
* Mickey isn’t entirely sure of what Niles’ plans are, but they seem to revolve around control. Control and ego. Niles is starting a war between the creatures of The City. Why? He says he wants to “help you people”. Seems like he wants to not only fill the power vacuum created by a war between the creatures of The City, he wants everyone to thank him for it.
* But why? The other creatures and suckerheads seem happy to rule from the shadows. What’s so different about Niles?
“Fuck it”, Mickey says out loud, “doesn’t matter. He’s got an ego, and that’s what counts. He cares about his self-image for some reason. And what was it the sisters used to say at the Catholic orphanage about Pride going before a Fall?”
* Just as Mickey says this, tremendous pain explodes in his head. It feels like someone has driven a spike right into his brain, and is enthusiastically twisting it. Mickey gasps and falls off his seat. The pain is excruciating. And it feels like … something is pushing itself into Mickey’s head. Something that needs to express itself somehow.
* Delirious with pain, Mickey crawls over to his bed, and picks up a pencil and a notepad. He’s barely aware that his hand is madly scribbling something onto the notepad.
* After an eternity of agony, the pain suddenly stops. Completely. As if it were never there.
* Mickey looks down to see a page full of strange symbols. The pencil in his hand has been broken in half. Mickey stares in amazement at the broken pencil, and at the symbols.
* And he suddenly realizes he’s seen these kind of symbols before. Just once.
On the Book of Ereshkigal.
* Mickey turns on his computer and starts to research the Book on the internet.
After a little while Mickey learns that the language on the tablet is an ancient one known as Enochian. Mickey begins internet searches on Enochian, and is disturbed to find out that some theologians believe the dead language to be Angelic Script, the tongue of the Angels. More internet searches bring up the theory that Enochian was some kind of “base language”; the language or “code” that was used by God and the Angels to create and “program” Creation.
* Some theories postulate that someone with a comprehensive knowledge of Enochian could, in fact, “reprogram” people and quite possibly reality too. It’s a mighty good thing, these theories say, that no one on Earth has a full and comprehensive knowledge of Enochian.
* Mickey’s eyes widen as the implications hit him.
“Holy shit … you son of a bitch Niles, you son of a bitch!”
Although as Mickey says this, he realizes that Niles probably never had a mother. Only a Father.
* Mickey does an internet search for current prominent scholars of Enochian … and discovers that one of the best lectures on Theology at the city university.
* Mickey decides to pay him a visit tomorrow, and gets up to go to bed. He then remembers the CD-R in his pocket, so he takes it out and puts it into his computer. The disc contains about 30 files, each one with a different name. Names like “Camille”, “Sebastian”, “Lawrence” … and “David Cale”. As Mickey begins to open each file, he slowly comes to realize what they are: detailed files on every officially recognized vampire in The City. Names, aliases, interests, realms of influence, personality quirks, home addresses and defenses.
* In short, Mickey probably knows more than any other human on Earth about the vampires in The City. He begins to laugh as the true enormity of Cale’s parting gift hits him. “By the balls!” Mickey laughs. “By the balls!” Mickey chuckles, then quiets as he realizes just what the vampires would do to him if they discovered he had this information.
“Ah, fuck you,” Mickey says out loud, “you’d want me dead anyway if you knew who I was. And now I know where you live. Where you sleep. You’ll be sorry you ever set foot in this city, you predatory fuckers. Judgment Day is coming. And there will be a Reckoning.”
Mickey burns multiple copies of the disc, and then gets some more rest.
Scene 4: Bible Studies
* The next morning Mickey drives out to the city university, and drops by the office of the Theology professor who specializes in Enochian.
Mickey shows the professor the scrawled Enochian on the notepad.
“Do you know what this is?” Mickey asks.
“Well, it’s Enochian.” The professor says, slightly surprised. “Who wrote this?”
“Uh … I did.”
* The professor looks sharply at Mickey at this point. Mickey doesn’t look like the kind of guy who knows Enochian.
“So, what does it say prof?” Mickey says quickly.
“You mean you don’t know what you’ve written?” The professor looks at Mickey as if he’s a bit crazy.
“Oh, ah, yeah, but, uh, I was wondering if you could, check it. You know, if I did a good job or not.” Mickey says this, but he’s not very convincing. The professor looks like he wants to get Mickey out of his office as fast as possible. The professor moves over to a bookshelf, grabs a Bible, opens it, and hands it over to Mickey pointing to one of the passages.
“Right here. Isaiah 14”
Mickey begins to read:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
* Mickey thanks the professor and quickly leaves. Mickey really doesn’t want to think this through. He wrote scripture in angelic script about Lucifer just at the precise moment he was thinking about Niles last night. Mickey pushes down his fear, and climbs into his car.
Scene 5: Heavenly Visions, Part 3
* As Mickey drives back into the heart of The City he passes some advertising banners for an exhibition at The City Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is for an artist called Marc Chagall. But that isn’t what catches Mickey’s eye. It’s the picture on the advertising banner that gets Mickey’s attention.
* The Angel of Judgement.
* Mickey drives to the Museum straight away, and walks straight into the Chagall exhibition. He finds where the Angel of Judgement hangs, and sits in front of it, staring.
It’s beautiful, and Mickey finds something calming in it. After a long while, just before Mickey is about to stand up and leave, he notices something. A tiny mark, worked into the painting, almost impossible to see. But the mark, the symbol, suddenly leaps out at Mickey.
* Chagall was a Hunter.
* Mickey slowly stands, his eyes wide.
“So I’m … I’m not the only one. Me, and Lane … we weren’t the first. There’ve been others…” Mickey whispers to himself as he moves to the other Chagall paintings. And sure enough, in all of the paintings depicting angels, Mickey can see the mark. The Hunter’s mark.
* “And if I wasn’t the first, and if there’s been others before me, then … there could be more after me. There could be more of us out there. More Hunters.”
Mickey turns back to face the Angel of Judgement as he whispers this under his breath. As he does so, his face has changed. No longer does he wear an expression of amazement.
It’s an expression of hope.
Scene 6: Niles’ Cold Meat Delivery
* Mickey leaves the Museum and begins to drive, only to see that he’s picked up a tail. He remembers the last time he got into a high-speed chase in The City, and he doesn’t want to repeat the experience. He leads the car down streets he knows well, then into places he knows have heavy traffic. Mickey suddenly takes a couple of quick turns, and loses his tail … and then drives completely around the block and begins to tail his former pursuers.
* Mickey keeps his distance as the car leads him out of The City, down towards the docks. The car drives through a gate, and stops outside of a warehouse. The two men, looking rather disappointed they lost Mickey, get out and walk into the warehouse. Mickey stops his car a few hundred meters away, climbs out, and moves around the side. A pair of wire-cutters help Mickey cut through the fence, and then he’s into the back of the warehouse.
* Stealthily creeping into the warehouse, Mickey sees a refirgerator truck parked in the middle of the warehouse. A group of men are milling around it. Oddly, they’re not saying anything. The back of the truck is open, and it’s empty inside.
* Mickey hears a muffled moan from somewhere deeper in the warehouse. He quietly opens a door … and finds himself in a very large walk-in freezer. On racks in the freezer hang about 30 humanoid shapes, tightly wrapped up in plastic … and they’re all moaning and wriggling on their racks. Mickey pulls out a knife and cuts away the plastic around one of the body’s heads to discover his suspicions are true: they’re zombies, just like the ones he fought in the meat-packing plant. Wrapped up nice and tight, no doubt ready to be driven somewhere and then unleashed in order to further Niles’ fucked up schemes.
* “Right. Time to leave.” Mickey whispers to himself as he backs up towards the door.
Then he stops as a crazy idea hits him. He pulls out his pistol, and screws on the silencer Benny set him up with. He walks over to the zombie, puts the barrel against its head, and pulls the trigger. THIP! The zombie goes slack and stops moving. Mickey grins as he realizes he can take out part of Niles’ army right here and now. He moves down the row of bodies, putting a silenced round through all of their heads, reloading, finishing the other half, then slamming in a fresh (and final) clip when he’s done.
Mickey smiles, satisfied, as he heads for the door.
The door opens.
* Mickey points his gun directly into the face of the very surprised guy who has just opened it.
“Get the fuck in here or I will blow your fucking brains out!” Mickey hisses. Wide eyed, the man shuffles in. “Move over there!” Mickey gestures with his gun. The man shuffles further into the freezer. Mickey quickly peeks out of the door. Nobody seems to have noticed anything yet. He quickly closes the door.
“Right. What the fuck does Niles want with these corpses?”
The man doesn’t say anything.
“I said,” Mickey walks over and jams his gun right into the man’s face, “what the fuck does Niles want with the bodies?”
The man doesn’t say anything, but just makes an inarticulate sound.
“What the fuck did you say? Cat got your tongue?” Mickey says.
The man opens his mouth. His tongue has been cut out.
“Oh shit!” Mickey exclaims. “Okay, okay. Write it the fuck down.” Mickey pulls out a pen and a piece of paper and thrusts them at the man. “So, what does Niles want with the bodies?”
The man scribbles down “don’t know”.
“Fuck, this is pointless,” Mickey says, “why do you follow Niles? He doesn’t want to help you. He just wants to fucking use you.”
The man looks genuinely shocked, and writes down “he is our Saviour”.
* “Screw this for a conversation.” Mickey says. He unwraps one of the corpses, and then uses the plastic to tightly wrap up the man with no tongue. Mickey cuts a hole for his nose so he can breath, but makes sure his mouth is wrapped up tight. “Oh” Mickey says as he realizes that’s probably pointless, “just in case.”
*Mickey quickly and quietly slips out of the freezer, and heads back to his car. He climbs in and leans over to start the engine…
BAM! The window beside Mickey shatters and sprays glass all over him. He looks up quickly to see dead-boy Loomis standing on top of the warehouse with a sniper rifle. Mickey ducks and starts the car.
BAM! A shot rips through the headrest behind Mickey. He keeps his head down as he floors the engine.
BAM! BAM! BAM! Shots tear through the back windscreen as Mickey screams down the street, then turns the corner.
Mickey smirks as he tears down the street.
“Fuck you Loomis, and fuck you Niles. Score one for the good guys.”
Scene 7: “Dirty Harry”, Redux
* Mickey gets back to his apartment as his cell phone rings. It’s Loomis.
“Happy with yourself little man? Well, enjoy that victory, ‘cos it’s gonna be your last. Check your inbox.” With that, Loomis hangs up.
Mickey turns on his computer and checks his inbox. There’s an email with a photo attachment. The subject line just says “bait”. Mickey’s already got a knot in his guts as he clicks on the attachment. His worst fears are confirmed as he looks at the photos.
They’ve got Pauly.
* There’s a photo of Pauly, badly beaten. Then another photo of Pauly with a shirt tightly wrapped around Pauly’s face. The sleeve of the shirt is tied around the barrel of a shotgun, pointed directly at the side of Pauly’s head. A big burly guy is holding the shotgun.
* Mickey pulls out his cell phone. The number that Loomis called Mickey on pops up. Mickey knows he’s playing into Loomis’ hands, but the dials anyway.
“Like my bait Mickey?” Loomis laughs.
“What do you want?” Mickey asks, all business.
“I want to play a game Mickey! You think you’re shit hot? Let’s see how shit hot you really are. You know the pay phone on the corner of 25th and Lake? Well, I’m gonna call it in exactly five minutes. If you don’t answer, or someone who ain’t you answers, I’m gonna have Tony spray Pauly’s brains all over the place! Bam! Ha ha ha! So, you got five minutes Mickey! Get goin’!”
* “You unimaginative piece of rotten meat,” Mickey snarls, “you’ve seen Dirty Harry far too many times.” With that, Mickey grabs his duffel bag and charges out the door.
* And so the “game” begins. The calls have Mickey desperately running from one side of The City to the other, breathlessly running down darkened streets, leaping into cabs and thrusting twenty-dollar bills into the drivers’ surprised faces as he says “floor it”, running down stairs to answer pay-phones in the subway system, charging back up stairs to street level.
* Mickey’s breathless, his heart feels like it’s going to slam right through his chest, but he keeps running.
* He knows that he and Pauly are not going to survive this game. Not unless Mickey can figure Loomis out, figure out where he is. So as Mickey runs he desperately starts thinking.
* Loomis will want Mickey absolutely exhausted before he finally confronts him. Which means that, in the end, these calls will lead Mickey to where Loomis is. So … if Mickey can figure out where that is, then maybe he can make a beeline straight for Loomis between calls.
* “Where are you, you stinking corpse?” Mickey pants as he runs down another street.
Considering Loomis has ripped this whole thing straight from Dirty Harry, he can’t be too imaginative. Mickey remembers talking to Niles back in the coffee shop, when Niles first asked Mickey to join him. Niles complained about the monsters he worked with; complained about their lack of insight, lack of imagination, lack of creativity. After all, they’re dead. Static and unmoving, their minds and souls as rotted as their bodies are.
“So you’re not going to do anything new, are you Loomis? And you’re not going to respond well to something unexpected either.” Mickey pants as he jogs into the park where the next pay phone is. It’s already ringing as Mickey sprints towards it. Suddenly, out of the darkness, a homeless guy starts shuffling towards the ringing phone…
“No!” Mickey screams hoarsely. “Get away from the fucking phone!” But the homeless guy doesn’t hear, and puts his hand out to answer the phone. Mickey, desperate, pulls out his pistol as he charges across the park. The homeless guy doesn’t see Mickey or the gun. Mickey brings the pistol up…
But Mickey can’t bring himself to kill an innocent human being. The homeless guy, oblivious, picks up the phone.
* “Hello? Hello?” he says into the phone. “Hello? Hel-OOF!” The homeless guy hits the ground as Mickey slams into him, and then scoops up the phone.
“It’s me!” Mickey gasps into the phone.
“Oh, I’m sorry Mickey, but I said that it had to be you answering the phone. No one else. So, I guess you lose! Time to blow Pauly’s brains out!” Loomis says cheerily.
* “No!” Mickey yells. Time to throw Loomis for a loop. “You want some bait? Huh? You want some bait Loomis? Well, I’ve got some pretty good bait right here. Me. Yeah, that’s right, you want me, don’t you? Well, let’s fucking do this, dead man! Come on! Crawl out of your fuckin’ tomb and kill me!”
“Uh…” Loomis doesn’t seem sure of how he should respond to this. Mickey, the cautious B&E expert, suddenly offering himself up?
* In the park, Mickey looks around. The park is strangely familiar…
Then it hits him. He’s near the meatpacking plant. The place where Weygand and Rojas and the truck full of zombies ambushed him.
Holy shit, Loomis is using the same fucking place.
Mickey drops the pay phone and sprints down the street. If he gets there fast enough, and if Loomis is still confused, maybe, just maybe…
Mike Montesa
07-04-2005, 09:00 PM
Hunter - Finale (Part 2)
Scene 8: Showdown
* Mickey runs through the gate into the meatpacking plant’s car park. Sure enough, Loomis is standing near the door, cell phone in hand, a confused expression on his face. Mickey levels his pistol at Loomis as he runs towards the door.
Loomis, his eyes widening with shock, leaps through the door.
* Mickey charges after him, and as he runs into the plant he sees Pauly, tied to a chair with the shirt wrapped tightly around his head. A muscled goon lazily holds the shotgun to Pauly’s head, and looks around with a surprised expression on his face as Loomis and Mickey run in.
Loomis yells “Kill the hos-” BLAM BLAM BLAM!
* The muscled goon drops to the ground as three rounds punch through his chest. Loomis spins around, to see Mickey now pointing his pistol at him. Mickey’s face is a mask of rage that clearly says “you shouldn’t have fucked with my friends”.
* “Oh fuck!” Loomis leaps behind a row of frozen carcasses as Mickey pulls the trigger repeatedly. The rounds rip into the frozen meat, just missing Loomis. Loomis pulls out a pistol of his own, and starts silently stalking Mickey between the rows of carcasses.
Mickey drops his empty pistol, and unslings his duffel bag. He reaches in and takes out the silenced H&K MP5SD6.
* “If thirty rounds of silver ripped Rojas to bits, it should do the same to you, you dead fuck.” Mickey whispers this grimly as he shoulders the weapon and stealthily starts moving between the rows of carcasses.
* Loomis steps out from behind Mickey, raises his pistol, and fires three times right into Mickey’s back. Mickey’s kevlar vest thankfully soaks up the worst of it, but it still feels like being slammed in the back with a freight train. He staggers forward, gasping in pain, then spins around pulling the trigger of his H&K.
* Loomis leaps back behind the carcasses as Mickey empties the entire clip into the rows of meat.
* “Fuck!” Mickey reloads and runs through the carcasses, looking for Loomis. Loomis has slipped away again, and Mickey slows down, trying to hear the dead man.
Mickey catches a glimpse of Loomis out of the corner of his eye, and starts to spin around…
* But it’s too late as Loomis fires again, this time the shots tearing right into Mickey’s exposed flank, where the vest won’t help him. Mickey screams in pain as he collapses face first onto the floor.
* Mickey can feel himself fading fast, as his vision starts to grow dim. His body is numb, cold, and he knows he’s going to die soon. Somewhere, from very far away, he can hear Loomis walking towards him and reloading. Ready to finish the job.
* It can’t end this way, Mickey thinks. I’ve got to make sure Pauly gets out of this. Doesn’t matter if I die, but Pauly never asked for any of this. I’ve gotta get him out of this.
* With a tremendous effort of will and a gasp of pain, Mickey rolls over onto his back, pulling his H&K out from under him, and weakly points it up at Loomis, who’s now standing over him, pistol pointed just away from Mickey.
* Loomis’ pale dead eyes widen in surprise as Mickey pulls the trigger.
Thirty rounds of silver tear up through Loomis’ rotted body, laying open his stomach, chest, and finally turning his head into a spray of putrid grey rot. Maggots squirm out of what’s left of Loomis as it hits the ground, finally and utterly dead.
Mickey relaxes and the H&K slips from his grasp.
* “Pauly!” He says weakly. “It’s okay Pauly! I did it, I did it…”
* Mickey stares at the ceiling, gasping. He’s been able to heal pretty quickly these days, but this time it’s bad. This time, he can’t even move. And Pauly’s tied to a chair, so even he can’t help Mickey.
Is this it?
[/u]Scene 9: Heavenly Visions, Part 4[/u]
* Mickey fades in and out of consciousness as he lies on the cold floor. He’s not sure if he’s conscious or not when the room fills with white light. The light becomes brighter and brighter, and the light suddenly changes, and forms itself into a human shape. Into … Tracy.
* Tracy, glowing, steps over Mickey and looks down at him with a smile on her face. She pulls a glowing sword from a scabbard at her side and gently lays it across Mickey’s chest.
* “It’s only fitting that someone named Michael should carry this into battle.” She smiles and gently places her hand against Mickey’s face. She glows brighter, then brighter still, so bright that Mickey can’t see anything.
* He feels something happening inside of him. He feels the bullets being pushed out of his skin, and feels his wounded and ruptured flesh re-knitting itself. Feels himself becoming whole.
* And suddenly, the white light is gone.
Mickey is still lying on his back. His hand gently moves to his wounds, but they’re gone. They’re all gone. He feels fine.
He sits up, and there’s a sudden metallic clang sound. Mickey looks to his side to see a large broadsword. Mickey stands and picks up the sword. “I guess this must be symbolic,” he says. “Pauly!”
* Mickey runs over to the chair where Pauly is tied up. “Come on Pauly, I gotcha!” Mickey says as he pulls the shirt off of Pauly’s face. But as soon as he sees Pauly’s face, Mickey knows he’s too late.
Pauly’s dead.
* Looks like he’s been dead for a while, due to the bluish tinge of his face. Covered in bruises. Loomis and muscle boy must have wrapped that shirt around Pauly’s face and then beat him to death. And didn’t even notice they’d killed him.
Mickey drops to his knees, tears welling up in his eyes.
* Pauly had been his mentor in the criminal underground. He’d set Mickey up, and taken care of him. He’d been like a father to the orphan, although neither of them had ever said that out loud. And now he’s dead.
* “I’m sorry Pauly…” Mickey softly says. One morning ago, as Mickey watched Cale crumble into ashes, Mickey had thought he was alone. But now, kneeling by Pauly’s side, he realizes that wasn’t true.
Now he is truly and utterly alone.
Scene 10: Into the Gates of Hell
* After a long time at Pauly’s side, Mickey begins to hear something. Far away, but gradually building in pitch and intensity. It sounds like … chanting.
Mickey stands up. He knows who and what it is. He knows what’s coming next.
* “And fuck you Niles, ‘cos I’m ready for you. You think you’re on top? Well congratulations, ‘cos now everyone I care about is gone. It’s just me Niles. You’ve got no leverage on me, not anymore, you dumb fucker. So get ready to stick your lies and emotional blackmail up your ass.”
* Mickey hooks the broadsword into his belt, and picks up his H&K and duffel bag. He reloads the gun, and with a look of grim determination on his face, begins to follow the sound of the chanting.
* The chanting leads Mickey outside, to a large storm water drain. Mickey remembers the last time he was in one of these, and he takes a moment to tape a flashlight to his H&K. He flicks on the light, shoulders the weapon, and moves in.
* Mickey moves deep into the sewers, the chanting building. The darkness around Mickey seems to somehow become thicker and more oppressive, and suddenly his flashlight sputters and dies. Strangely, Mickey can’t hear any of the signature sounds of the sewer anymore. No dripping water, no echoes. It’s as if he isn’t in the sewers anymore.
* Mickey edges forward into the darkness, until the chanting is almost deafening.
Suddenly, a large beam of light comes down from somewhere overhead, illuminating a circle of people in robes. Once upon a time Mickey would’ve shuddered to see that they have no eyes. Right now, Mickey just considers hosing the lot with the H&K.
In the middle of the circle stands Niles, still wearing his crumpled brown overcoat, clutching the Book of Erishkigal in both hands. His face is raised to the light, but as the chanting suddenly stops he brings his face down and looks at Mickey.
* The circle of devotees slides into the darkness, leaving Mickey and Niles alone.
Mickey looks around, and can dimly make out a dark featureless landscape that stretches forever in all directions. He is most definitely not in the sewers anymore.
Mickey thinks thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
“Mickey.” Niles smiles. “Glad you could make it kid.”
Scene 11: The Last Temptation of Mickey
* “So,” Niles says, holding up the Book of Erishkigal, “you know what this is?”
“Should do. After all, I did steal it for you.”
Niles smiles. “And you did a great job, kid. You know what this can do?”
Mickey slowly nods. “Yeah, I think I got a pretty good idea what it can do.”
“Alright then!” Niles says excitedly. “Let’s do some reprogramming Mickey! Let’s reset this whole sick world.”
Mickey cocks an eyebrow. “Why?”
* Niles looks at Mickey for a moment as if the Hunter is crazy. “Why?” Niles parrots, disbelievingly. “Why? Mickey, why not? Look at the world. You think He,” Niles angrily points a thumb skywards, “cares about you? You think He cares about the world? Look at it. Look at what He’s let happen. Hunger. Poverty. Slavery. Rape camps. Nuclear bombs. And behind it all Mickey, the monsters. Preying on you, preying on humanity. And He does nothing about it! It just sickens me! He doesn’t care about you!”
“And you do, huh?”
“That’s right Mickey! I’ve been here for so long, I’ve been watching you all for so long! And you Mickey, you’ve got such potential! With the right guidance, the right advice, the right help, you could wipe out all the monsters! You could lead humanity into a new golden age!”
“With a little help from you, right?”
“Yes! That’s right! He doesn’t care about you, but I do! This is my time Mickey!”
“What did you say?” Mickey says warily. “Your time?”
“No, no, no! Our time, Mickey, it’s our time!”
Mickey shakes his head. “No Niles, it’s not your time. It’s my time.”
* Niles stops for a moment, a little uncertain of how to take this, but then continues on undaunted. “That’s right kiddo! You’ve got so much potential Mickey. I like you. I’ve had my eye on you. You’re not like the others. I know you won’t let me down like they did.”
“The others?”
“Yeah, the others. Look, I can’t do this by myself.” Niles waves the Book of Erishkigal around. “I can’t directly mess with Creation. I’m not allowed to do that. I’ve been locked out. But you Mickey … people like you, you’re different.”
“People like me? But there aren’t any people like…” Mickey’s voice trails off as it suddenly hits him. “Hunters. You’re talking about other Hunters.” Niles nods. “So me and Lane aren’t the only ones?”
“Well, for a while there, yeah. But they all turned me down in various ways. They didn’t want anything to do with me, wouldn’t even listen to me. Recoiled like I was some kinda snake. But you … you’re my kinda people Mickey!”
“The others … what happened after they turned you down?” Mickey asks slowly.
“Well, hey, I let ‘em go. I mean, I can’t force anyone to help me, right? It’s all about Free Will. But, well, my man Loomis got a little jealous of me talkin’ to ‘em. He thought I was gonna replace him if any of them said yes. And I couldn’t very well inhibit Loomis’ free will now, could I? ‘cos that’d just make me a hypocrite!”
“He killed them.” Mickey says coldly.
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault! I didn’t tell him to!”
* And then it suddenly hits Mickey. The serial killer terrorizing The City. The very first message, “Deliver justice to the guilty,” hitting Mickey as he watched the news report about the serial killer.
It was Loomis. And he was killing other Hunters.
* Was this why Mickey had been chosen? To hunt down Loomis and stop him from killing any more Hunters?
“You sat back and let him kill them.” Mickey hisses. Niles just shrugs his shoulders. “You gutless coward.” Mickey shakes his head, disgusted. “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?”
Niles rolls his eyes, exasperated. “That old saw? What, are you gonna tell me to get behind you next?”
Mickey narrows his eyes. “I killed Loomis.”
“And good for you kid! I knew you’d take down that putrefying half-wit. And you know what? I wanna help you take down the rest of them. All the monsters Mickey, I wanna help you take ‘em down. There are still other Hunters out there Mickey. Just say the word and I’ll hook you up with ‘em. And you can lead ‘em. You can lead the army and sweep this world clean of the monsters and the filth! You Mickey! Just say the words!” Niles tries to push the Book of Erishkigal towards Mickey.
“I don’t understand. You hook up with the monsters, but now you say you wanna hook up with us? Help us? I don’t get it.”
* “Look,” Niles rolls his eyes again, “I said before that hooking up with the monsters was a mistake. I know that now! It’s all about people! Humanity! That’s what’s important! Why do you think I kick started that little vampiric civil war? To help you get rid of the monsters Mickey! To help you! You can finish the job!”
“And all I’ve gotta do is say thank you and accept your advice.”
“Listen Mickey, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of gratitude. I’m offering you all the tools you need to do your job! You can’t do this by yourself. You cannot win by yourself. You’ve been set up for a fall; you’re expendable. You think you can do this alone? Take out the monsters alone?” Niles shakes his head. “You know, of all the sins, my favourite is pride. Some people think they can do it all alone, don’t need any help from anyone. They stubbornly refuse help from anyone ‘cos they think they’re so damned good. And you know what happens to those people Mickey? They fall on their faces. Every single time. And it’ll happen to you too unless you wise up.”
Mickey says nothing for a moment, thinking. He cocks his head to the side, looks Niles right in the eye. “You’re not talking about me, are you Niles?”
“What? Who else would I be talking about?”
* “You’re talking about yourself, Niles. Who else would you be talking about? Hell, who else are you even capable of talking about? This whole thing, it’s not about humanity at all.” Anger starts to creep into Mickey’s words as he continues. “Sure, you say it is, but that’s not the truth. The truth is, it’s all about you. You being the savior that saves us all. It’s all about you Niles. You don’t give a flying fuck about us at all. I don’t think you ever have.”
* Niles steps forward, anger flaring in his eyes. “You have no idea what I’ve given up for you people! You have no idea what I did for you! And this is how you thank me? You’d much rather remain in bondage to Him? I mean, come on Mickey, did anyone ever ask you if you wanted this? If you wanted to be fighting a losing battle against the monsters?”
“Nah,” Mickey shakes his head, “nobody ever asked me. But you know what? They were right. Because I do want this Niles. I want to do this.” As Mickey says this he feels his conviction growing stronger. He suddenly realizes that he does indeed want to do this. He wants to be a Hunter. He wants to help the people of The City. He wants to give the people a chance to make their own choices, to live their lives unmolested by monstrous puppet masters. People like Tracy, like Cale, like Pauly … they deserved better.
* Meanwhile, Niles is shaking his head angrily. “Mickey, He doesn’t care about you! He goes on and on about Free Will, but in the end it’s just the will to follow Him blindly and all His stupid rules! Look, but don’t touch! Touch, but don’t feel! Feel, but don’t care! Don’t love! It sickened me to see Him treat you people that way. To see you scrabbling about in the mud, without realizing what remarkable gifts you’d been given. Without realizing how remarkable you were.” Niles’ voice softens a little. “So I came down Mickey. I came down, and I taught you things. I showed you what you were capable of. I gave you a leg up. And I got kicked out for that. I got kicked out for you.”
* Mickey considers this for a moment. And then says, very evenly, “You stupid fucker.”
Niles eyes widen in anger. “Wh-”
* “This is all your fault Niles!” Mickey cuts in, his voice suddenly full of anger. “You come down here, thinking you know better than anyone. You come down here, and you mess with shit you weren’t supposed to mess with. You must be so proud of how we turned out Niles. “Hunger. Poverty. Slavery. Rape camps. Nuclear bombs.” Mickey parrots Niles’ earlier words with bitterness dripping from his voice. “Good job Niles, well done! It’s a total fucking mess! But you know what the crazy thing is? You still think that you know best. You still think you can un-fuck your monumental fuck up. You’ll grab at any straw to prove that you were right and He was wrong. And you’ll even take away our free fucking will to do it!” Mickey gestures at the Book of Erishkigal with his H&K. “You’re just like every other monster in The City Niles. Pulling strings and thinking you’re better than everyone. Hell, it sounds like you were the first one to ever do that! Did you ever think that there might have been a plan, Niles? Did you ever think that humanity was supposed to find its own fucking way? Did you ever think that this is about us and not you? Just fuck off and let us deal with the mess ourselves Niles. We don’t want a savior and we don’t need one. Let us find our own way.” Mickey smirks. “Have a little faith.”
* Lightning fast, Niles reaches forward and grabs Mickey by the scruff of the neck. “It was faith that got me into this, monkey boy!” He hisses this into Mickey’s face, and then suddenly pulls back again, smoothing down the front of his rumpled trenchcoat. “Come on Mickey,” Niles says in a soothing tone, “you can find your own way. I won’t argue with that. Just … let me help you. Let me help you find your way.”
Niles holds out the Book of Erishkigal towards Mickey. Mickey narrows his eyes, looks at Niles, then looks at the Book.
* “You know, Niles, I never was one for book learning.” With that Mickey brings up his H&K and pulls the trigger, emptying an entire clip into the Book. It’s like a jackhammer, the tablet shattering into a thousand pieces, spraying four-thousand year-old dust across Niles’ chest.
* Niles looks down at the dust covering his trench coat, then looks back up at Mickey with a look of exasperation on his face. He sighs and shakes his head, wiping the dust off of his coat. He takes a step back, into the very middle of the circle of light. Niles raises his head.
* “Well, I guess you’ve won this one.” Niles says skywards. Mickey realizes he’s not talking to him. “But I will prove you wrong.” The light fades, and Niles fades with it. Soon, Mickey is alone in the darkness, which seems stronger and more oppressive than before.
* Suddenly, his flashlight sputters to life, and Mickey sees that he’s back in the sewers again. Slowly, he backtracks his way through the sewers, and comes out of a large storm water drain near the bay. There’s a pale blue light in the sky; it looks like it’s almost sunrise.
* Mickey walks to the water’s edge, and sits down. He thinks about everything that’s happened. He thinks about everything he’s lost. He thinks about everything he’s gained. He tilts his head, and looks up at the brightening sky.
* “He’s right, you know.” Mickey says out loud. “We’re fucking it all up down here. I don’t know if we’re gonna make it. But, I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? Fall down, pick ourselves back up again, fall down, pick ourselves back up again, until one day… maybe, just maybe, we’ll learn how to walk. If you come down and show us how, it’s pointless. We’ve gotta learn ourselves, right?”
* There’s no response, just the sound of the waves lapping up against the shore as the sun breaks over the horizon.
* Mickey climbs to his feet, and begins the slow walk back into The City.
Fin.
SweeneyTodd
07-04-2005, 11:33 PM
I'm still reading over these, but I'd like to hear more about the campaign. Can you tell us what the one-on-one experience was like when GMing rotated? How you incorporated elements from each other's plotlines, that sort of thing. Hearing what the characters did is really interesting, but I'm curious what it was like from the GM/player perspective.
Mike Montesa
07-05-2005, 12:25 AM
I'm still reading over these, but I'd like to hear more about the campaign. Can you tell us what the one-on-one experience was like when GMing rotated? How you incorporated elements from each other's plotlines, that sort of thing. Hearing what the characters did is really interesting, but I'm curious what it was like from the GM/player perspective.
I've gotta run, but when I get home tonight I'll post a few comments on these issues. I'll tell Cam too, so he can comment as well.
Sunjumper
07-05-2005, 06:50 AM
It was a pleasure reading this.
I am looking forward to hear how the game worked out, I find the idea of 'helix' gameplay quite intriguing.
Mike Montesa
07-05-2005, 08:47 AM
Cam and I both wanted to let the actions of the characters dictate where the story went. At the beginning, we really didn't know how it would turn out, although we both felt it would be explosive. At least, I know we wanted it to be that way. But through the Preludes and the first chapter of each chronicle we were just letting the characters' motivations steer things. We introduced characters and plot elements on our own, but sometimes we discussed them beforehand.
A good example was Ambrose Niles. I wanted to have a shadowy third party having an impact on things in the City. He had to be extremely powerful and enigmatic. At first, my idea was to make Niles some sort of Mage, and I even tried statting him up. When Cam and I discussed Niles, we both agreed that we wouldn't "define" who or what he was immediately, to let the story do that for us. We kept him on the sidelines, doing his thing, but it wasn't until quite late in the game that I nailed down who Niles was.
It was neat because we were getting to the point in both Chronicles where Niles had to be brought on stage, but up until then it was, in a way, still a mystery for both of us. Then I decided to go with Niles as Lucifer, and I think Cam could read my intentions. I didn't tell him directly but I think he sensed it and indeed Cam brought Niles out first, and did it well. Even then, Niles wasn't completely decided upon.
When I was running Cam's Hunter sessions, I usually went in with some ideas for things that could happen based on the previous session. Then I just played along with what Cam wanted Mickey to be into, and injected my plot elements if I thought they would work out. Sometimes I did indeed not even use something I'd come up with, because Cam was jamming his own ideas for Mickey.
Cam did the same I think. The 50 open graves in the cemetary is an example. Cam thought that up basically to give me something to play around with, and he said he was sure I could come up with some way to use them. Between the end of that session and the beginning of the next, I had found a way to get them into the game.
We also spent time in pre and post-game discussions about what we had done and where we were thinking of taking things. These helped a lot. We were able to get feedback on plot items we'd introduced and warn each other of things we planned to bring it (without being so specific as to give a way the surprise).
I have more to say on this, but before I do, I'd like to get Cam to comment a bit here, and that will probably unlock some more ideas.
I'm still reading over these, but I'd like to hear more about the campaign. Can you tell us what the one-on-one experience was like when GMing rotated? How you incorporated elements from each other's plotlines, that sort of thing. Hearing what the characters did is really interesting, but I'm curious what it was like from the GM/player perspective.
Hi Sweeney!
Rotating GM/player roles every session made for some exciting play. It ensured that we couldn't plan ahead too much; as a consequence most of the sessions were improvised (as we responded and reacted to new elements).
One interesting effect of this was that when I was the "player" part of me was still thinking as a GM. It was necessary for me to think both "in" and "out" of character at the same time. When making decisions I would think "is this appropriate for my character?" and "will this make for an interesting story?"
As a GM, I would throw in stuff to see how Mike would react to it. To use a music analogy: I would play some bass, and then at the end of the session, stand back and let Mike play his guitar. He'd take my bass line, play it, and then start adding elements of his own to it. Then, at the end of his session, I'd nod, and pick up my bass again...
In other words, we never discounted any elements the other GM would throw in. The challenge was to take what the previous GM had laid down, pick it up and run with it. So, if Mike had introduced a plot element that Niles was breeding a race of killer flying demon monkeys ... well, then I'd have to work that into my next session as GM in some way.
Naturally, Mike never came up with a killer flying demon monkey subplot. We'd spent a bit of time at the beginning making sure we had a similar vision, so when we started playing, we could trust each other not to come out with anything too game-breaking.
So, trust was very important in this situation. I trusted Mike to come up with cool new surprising plot elements that I would build on in my sessions. In turn, Mike trusted me to come up with cool surprising plot elements of my own to drop on him. We never said "nah, that idea sucks, let's just ignore that bit". Instead it was sometimes "woah, how am I gonna work that into my session!" but was usually "sweet, that just totally gave me ten cool ideas for my session!"
A good example of this was when Cale drove to the graveyard to find 30 or so of the freshest graves empty. This was in a Vampire session, which I was GMing. However, I did it full well knowing that Mike would pick up on it, and do something cool with that when he GMed the next Hunter session. And I did it full well knowing that it was going to put my character in big trouble! Sure enough, Mickey runs into a meatpacking plant and gets ambushed by 30 or so zombies!
Another good example is the Niles plot. When we started, we had no idea who or what Niles was, or what his plan was. At first, we started to play it like he was a mage ... but we never came out and said anything, because we didn't want to lock ourselves into things. Then, one day, Mike asked to borrow some of my Demon books. I said "okay", and started to play in that direction. When Cale ran into Niles in the sewers I decided to go for it and hint that Niles was demonic.
At the end of the session Mike said "yes!", and took Niles further in that demonic direction in the Hunter sessions. Of course, I had no idea that Mike was actually going to turn Niles into Lucifer himself! That surprised the, erm, hell out of me! But it's a good example of Mike bringing something in ("Cam, can I borrow the Demon books?"), me then building on that a little (Niles' freaky underground cathedral), then Mike building on that (Niles ain't just a devil, he's the devil).
Um, okay, I'm rambling a bit here and maybe aren't being as focused as I should be.
We definitely spent a bit of time after each session talking about what had happened, and our ideas about what might happen next. One of Mike's questions was "what are Mickey's plans ... what are his ultimate goals?" It took me a long time to answer that one. The answer pretty much came out in play, with me (and Mickey) finally realizing that it was all about finally accepting becoming a Hunter and wanting to do something good. When I finally said this to Mike he said "okay, I'm gonna try to make the finale humanistic". Which he did.
(Actually, I think Mike did a totally fucking amazing job of making the Hunter finale humanistic. Mickey's final conversation with Niles was some of the most exciting/intense/meaningful roleplaying I've ever done.)
Well, I'll sign off for now ... let me know if there are any more questions! (And, actually, if I've even answered the original question in a clear way)!
Cheers!
Cam.
Oh, I see myself and Mike have been typing at pretty much the same time!!!
Well, Mike ... back to you for some more commentary! ;)
SweeneyTodd
07-05-2005, 11:01 AM
Thanks, that was very helpful. I've been talking to some people about how thinking outside your character can be a good and useful thing, and this is a great example of that. Some of my favorite gaming experiences involving one person in the group setting something up that another resolved in a completely unexpected way.
Now my only problem is finding the time to reread the whole account, so I catch how all those elements came together. :)
Mike Montesa
07-05-2005, 11:35 AM
One interesting effect of this was that when I was the "player" part of me was still thinking as a GM. It was necessary for me to think both "in" and "out" of character at the same time. When making decisions I would think "is this appropriate for my character?" and "will this make for an interesting story?"
Yeah, I was doing the same thing. Cam and I are pretty dedicated to the "spirit" of play, and I don't think we ever had our characters act on OOC knowledge (consciously anyway...)
As a GM, I would throw in stuff to see how Mike would react to it. To use a music analogy: I would play some bass, and then at the end of the session, stand back and let Mike play his guitar. He'd take my bass line, play it, and then start adding elements of his own to it. Then, at the end of his session, I'd nod, and pick up my bass again...
The music analogy is quite appropriate. We were pretty much "story jamming" most of the time. We'd come in with "riffs" we thought were cool, lay 'em down and see what we could do with them. They may not have all been developed or used 100% - the serial killer angle that Cam laid in at the beginning for example; I was too focused on other things to really work that one out.
So, trust was very important in this situation. I trusted Mike to come up with cool new surprising plot elements that I would build on in my sessions. In turn, Mike trusted me to come up with cool surprising plot elements of my own to drop on him.
Exactly!
Another good example is the Niles plot. When we started, we had no idea who or what Niles was, or what his plan was. At first, we started to play it like he was a mage ... but we never came out and said anything, because we didn't want to lock ourselves into things. Then, one day, Mike asked to borrow some of my Demon books. I said "okay", and started to play in that direction. When Cale ran into Niles in the sewers I decided to go for it and hint that Niles was demonic.
This is a riff that really took off on its own. I was noodling around in the Demon books to see what the cosmology was like (I'd never really played any WoD until this campaign) and I had a half formed idea that Niles was demonic.
Of course, I had no idea that Mike was actually going to turn Niles into Lucifer himself! That surprised the, erm, hell out of me! But it's a good example of Mike bringing something in ("Cam, can I borrow the Demon books?"), me then building on that a little (Niles' freaky underground cathedral), then Mike building on that (Niles ain't just a devil, he's the devil).
Whoa! When you ran that cathedral scene I thought you had already twigged to the idea of who Niles was. What you did with him in that scene totally worked for me, and I probably would have jumped the gun had I introduced him first, and made it obvious who and what he was right up front. So with Cam playing it his own way, I think he actually improved the development of the character, by adding another layer of mystery to Niles before we finally laid it all out!
We definitely spent a bit of time after each session talking about what had happened, and our ideas about what might happen next. One of Mike's questions was "what are Mickey's plans ... what are his ultimate goals?"
This was very much a campaign driven by the characters' goals as I said. Moreso than most other campaigns I've run I think. The ending was going to totally be based on what the characters wanted to achieve. Cale's goal was pretty simple, and indeed, Mickey's was a bit harder to work out though Cam handled it very well.
It took me a long time to answer that one. The answer pretty much came out in play, with me (and Mickey) finally realizing that it was all about finally accepting becoming a Hunter and wanting to do something good. When I finally said this to Mike he said "okay, I'm gonna try to make the finale humanistic". Which he did.
I think I said "existential" but "humanistic" certainly fits the bill too, in that regard. ;)
We talked about Cale's story being like a "blood opera". Cale's story was about movers and players, while Mickey's story was much more personal I thought. In the end turned out to be even more epic than Cale's! I think I said once that Mickey's story was like Mickey floating around in a small boat on the ocean all by himself, and Cale's story was down underneath with all the sharks.
(Actually, I think Mike did a totally fucking amazing job of making the Hunter finale humanistic. Mickey's final conversation with Niles was some of the most exciting/intense/meaningful roleplaying I've ever done.)
Dude, you totally nailed all the right things with Cale's finale. I wanted a big blowout action sequence and you delivered in spades. I was so keyed up during that whole session my hands were shaking. And the ending, man, that was like a release, not just for Cale, but for me too! I was thinking, "My god, I did it!" I couldn't have asked for a better finish!
Mike Montesa
08-01-2005, 08:19 PM
I'm compiling all the write-ups and hand-outs and stuff into a "book" that I'll print out and bind as a memento of the campaign for me and Cam. Cam's written a forward and afterward for it and as they're part of the write up I'm posting them here as part of the thread. Now I have to do mine as well! :)
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Vampire Forward
Vampires, contrary to popular opinion, are not cool.
Granted, they may appear to be all dark and cool and romantic and mysterious, but that’s just all surface. Scratch that surface, and you’ll catch a glimpse of what vampires really are.
At best, vampires are walking metaphors for rape and sexual abuse, drug addiction, plague, and the parasitic nature of a leech-like nobility and aristocracy.
At worst, they’re sociopathic serial killers with more blood on their hands than Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Henry Lee Lucas combined. They’ll manipulate and destroy countless lives just so they can cling on to unlife for one more night. They’re so incredibly bored with the endless succession of nights that the only way they can entertain themselves is by ceaselessly plotting against each other, oblivious to the deaths of “the herd” that get caught in the crossfire (that’s us, by the way).
No, not very cool at all.
So who in their right mind would want to be a vampire?
Or, more importantly, who in their right mind would want to remain a vampire after having been turned?
Oddly enough, almost every single Vampire PC I have ever seen or GMed for has neglected to think about this issue. Almost all Vampire PCs revel in their unholy powers, ruling the night with gusto. Even those PCs that feel guilty about their “condition” still indulge in the nightly politics of their kind, clinging to “life” as long as they can. And almost none turn their back on their own kind completely.
Almost none, that is.
David Cale, the vampire protagonist of The City played by Mike Montesa, swiftly scratches the romantic gothic surface of the vampire myth and sees the ugly truth. He sees the murderous, incestuous, ultimately empty and barren heart of the vampires laid bare.
To which he hisses through clenched teeth, “I am not one of you. I will never be one of you. Damn you for what you did to me. Damn you for what you do to the people around you. Your world is a lie. You will never own me, seduce me, or corrupt me. I will never join you. Damn you all to Hell. And I’m the one who’s gonna take you there.”
Cale spits in the eye of the vampires and swears vengeance. Of course, to get his vengeance Cale must travel through the belly of the beast; he must play a role in vampiric society in order to truly “know his enemy”. This journey through various facets of vampiric society strengthens Cale’s conviction as he sees what vampirism truly does to people, including the vampires themselves. Cale comes to understand something few vampires ever do; every single vampire is dead already, they just don’t realize it.
Vampires fool themselves into thinking they are “unliving”, somewhere between life and death. This is the great lie of vampirism: the idea that they are somehow, in some way, still “alive”. Cale sees through this and realizes that the heart of every single vampire is dead. The soul of every single vampire is dead. Unmoving. Incapable of progress or development or learning. Static. Dead.
It’s just the movement of their cold limbs every night that makes them think otherwise.
Of course, in learning this lesson Cale discovers his greatest weapon against the vampires. Deep down, he realizes he is dead already. But the other vampires don’t realize this. Their fear of losing their “lives” ultimately holds them back, stops them from doing the things Cale is ultimately capable of.
In the end, Cale teaches the vampires of The City this lesson with glee, particularly his true enemy. He shows them how spineless and petty they really are. He shouts down their ridiculous claims to power and immortality.
And then he kicks their asses.
In short, he shows the vampires that they are not cool.
Which is the coolest damned thing I’ve ever seen a vampire do.
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Hunter Afterward
“So, what are Mickey’s plans? What do you think his ultimate goal is? What does he want to achieve?” Mike would often ask me these questions at the end of our Hunter sessions.
“I’m not sure yet. For now, Mickey just wants to stay alive, stay one step ahead of the monsters, and find some way out of this mess he’s in.” This was my usual answer to Mike’s questions.
Unlike Cale, Mickey didn’t have any clear goals at first. Cale’s story arc became clear to myself and Mike pretty quickly; a tale of revenge that took Cale through different layers of vampiric society until he came face to face with his true enemy. This tale was played out on a grand stage, operatic in scope, with ancient inhuman monsters clashing far above The City.
Mickey, however, walked on a far different stage to Cale. Mickey’s tale was played out on the streets of The City, in roadside diners, cafes, and bars. And the supporting characters in Mickey’s tale were, for the most part, “real” people: ex-cons, ex-waitresses, criminals and gang members. Sure, the monsters were out there, but they were mysterious and mostly struck from the shadows; Mickey never really interacted with them (with three notable exceptions). Mickey’s world was far more humanistic.
How did these “real” places and people tie into Mickey’s story arc? At first, Mickey didn’t know and he certainly didn’t care. His goals were simple: stay alive, stay ahead of the monsters, and figure out what the hell was going on.
Of course, for Mickey these “real” people were complications. Lane, Tracy, even Pauly to a degree all got in Mickey’s way. Lane and Tracy in particular held Mickey back from being the consummate professional, the ultimate lone wolf.
In many gamers’ eyes, Mickey started out as an almost perfect character. A lone wolf professional thief. No real connections to the world, except for his fixer Pauly. No obligations to anyone but himself. No parents (he was an orphan), no siblings, no girlfriend, no wife, no children. No way for the GM to “mess” with him by threatening the things he cares about. Perfect, right?
Well, sure, except for being emotionally empty, cut off from humanity, and lonely.
As play continued, Mickey slowly came to realize that these “complications” were people; people with hopes and dreams and fears. He realized that they all had something to offer. He realized that they all deserved a chance to live their lives and make their own choices, good or bad. He realized that they deserved to do all this unmolested by the things in the shadows that wanted to strip away their free will.
As Mickey slowly started to care about the people around him, and reconnect with the world, the stage that he walked and the journey he was on became clear both to Mickey and to myself as a player.
People mattered, and Mickey wanted to become their defender.
By walking the streets of The City, and talking to the people, Mickey had found his goal.
When I told Mike this, he said “Okay, I’m gonna try to make the finale existential.” And he did. Niles, who originally was a mysterious murky figure largely undefined by myself and Mike, began to take shape as a demon, a devil. (We had originally thought he might be a mage of some kind.)
Little did I know that Mike was going to take things one step further; instead of just making Niles a devil, Mike made him the devil!
And so the Hunter finale was played out on a seemingly small scale with two men discussing the nature of Free Will and Faith, but with profound consequences.
The final conversation between Mickey and Niles sums up the heart and soul of the Hunter story. Everything that Mickey had seen and felt and learnt had led him to that point, to those views. Everything he said to Niles he firmly believed, because he had experienced it. The daily life of The City, the roadside diners, the cafes, the bars, the “complications” that Mickey finally saw as people in all their messed up and flawed glory … all of it led to that final conversation with Niles. Because all of it mattered.
And so, in the end, Mickey rejects Niles and decides to truly become a Hunter and take up the fight against the monsters. Mickey accepts and redefines himself, and finally evolves into a fully-fledged Hunter. He raises his face to the sun and says, “This is who I am now”.
But, you know, from another perspective that’s not really Mickey’s most important achievement at the end of his journey.
Mickey is finally a person again. He’s connected to the world again, he cares about people, and he’s taken on an obligation to help those people. Is he vulnerable now? Can the GM “mess with him” now? Sure. But he’s also vibrant and alive. He finally has something to care about, something to live for. Hell, even something that’s worth dying for.
And to my eyes, that is a perfect character.
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