[Vampire/Hunter] The City: One on One (Actual Play)

[Cam]

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.

[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...

[Cam]

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”…

[Cam]

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…

[Cam]

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???”

[Cam]

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?

[Cam]

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.

[Cam]

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.

[Cam]

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]

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! :)

[Odie]

This is actually rather cool. The double-helix model of Storytelling.

*takes notes*

-B

[hd42]

Great Story!
I definitly need to rip this off ;-)

[Mike Montesa]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 a