Vampire the Masquerade - V5 - Interlude Session - 'Recon'

I'm currently running a Vampire the Masquerade chronicle using the 5th Edition rule-set for a small group of fellow role-players. These are the chronicles of their adventures.

Our chronicle is set in Los Angeles and features a small group of Camarilla agents sent into the 'Free States' to bring them back under Camarilla control. Over a year of plotting allowed the coterie to gain control of two North-Eastern Baronies and a large part of a third. Now they are moving on to the final stage of their campaign and have their eyes on taking over the entire city, either directly or by proxy.

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The now obligatory warning bit - Unlike my other RPG write-ups this one will contain swearing, sexual references and other references that might offend. If you can't tell the difference between real             peoples opinions and grown-ups role-playing predators who crave blood then this probably won't be for you. I've also used actual photographs to represent some characters which I'll give acknowledgements to at the end if I've any idea who they are.
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The introduction to this campaign, the first story and all the other parts can be found at the following links and are in chronological order. If you'd prefer a summary of each session rather than read everything then there's a more detailed link page HERE as well as links to the first episode of each story in the blog sidebar.
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Chronicle One - 'Infiltrate L.A.' 

Welcome to L.A. - Introductory Session
Story One - 'Three Murders' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
Interlude Session - One
Story Two - 'The Pasadena Problem' - Part One, Two, Three, and Four
Solo Session - 'The Neillson Library'
Story Two Continued- 'The Pasadena Problem' - Part Five, Six, Seven and Eight
Story Three - 'Becoming Baron' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
Solo Session - 'The Gather'
Story Three Continued - 'Becoming Baron' - Part Six, Seven and Eight

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Chronicle Two - 'Foothold L.A.' 

Solo Session - 'Hostile Takeover'
Story Four - 'Countdown' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Five - 'The Missing Chantry' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
Solo Session - 'The Anaheim Assassination'
Story Six - 'A Meeting of Barons' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Seven - 'The Carmelita Situation' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Eight - 'The Blount Sisters' - Part One and Two
Story Nine - 'Blood Money' - Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six
Story Ten - 'Anathema' - Part One and Two
Story Eleven - 'Predators and Prey' aka 'The Blount Sisters' - Part Three
Story Twelve - 'Aftermath' - Part One and Two
Story Thirteen - 'The Messiah Complex' - Part One, Two, Three and Four

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Chronicle Three - 'Incursion L.A.'

Story Fourteen - 'The Rant'
Story Fifteen - 'Ties of Blood' - Part One and Two

Solo Session - 'A Gathering of Roses'

Story Sixteen - 'The Southern Solution' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Seventeen - 'The Baker Disappearance' - Part One, Two and Three

Story Eighteen - 'Inevitable Betrayals' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five

Story Nineteen - 'The Marius Contracts' - Part One and Two

Story Twenty - 'The MacNeil Protocols' - Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five, 

Story Twenty - 'The MacNeil Protocols' - Part Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten

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Interlude Session One - After Griffith Park

Interlude Session Two - Divide and Conquer

Interlude Session Three - On the Brink of War

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Chronicle Four - 'Conquest L.A.'

Story Twenty One - 'Veni, Vidi, Victor' - Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five

Story Twenty One - 'Veni, Vidi, Victor' - Part Six, and Epilogue

Story Twenty Two - 'The Unbound' - Part One, Two, Three and Four

Story Twenty Three - 'The War Council' - Part One, Two, Three and Four

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Storytellers Note - As I knew I would only have two players available this session I decided to try something a bit different. This time the PC's will be the two ghouls of the PC Daniel Matthews. I upgraded them both to 'Deadly' ghouls for this session, however the additional skills were decided by me, the players would have to make do with what they had.

The PC's

Matt as Andrew Francis - Investigator and Driver

Phil as Keith Chang - Investigator and Assassin

The Storyteller

Garreth - Everyone else...

The player characters stats and backgrounds can be found HERE should any-one be interested, but be warned that the page is usually several stories ahead of the most recent write-up and may contain some spoilers. 

There's also some minor 'house-rules' HERE that have occurred as we went along.

If I think something needs a bit of out of character explanation then those will get a storytellers note that will helpfully be in red. Where particular NPC's have a mention in a faction profile you will be able to reach it by clicking on their name or faction beneath their picture.

Dr Daniel Matthews Ghouls
Storytellers Note - As I mentioned earlier the ghouls have been upgraded to 'Deadly'. They have also gained a few extra disciplines courtesy of Vin's use of his own disciplines Draught of Elegance, Draught of Endurance and Draught of Might which grant the recipient half the donors dots in Celerity, Fortitude and Potence respectively.

Storytellers Note - I also believe that the ghoul rules in the V5 corebook are a bit underwhelming so I made some minor modifications. I allow ghouls to have 1 dot in a physical discipline available to their domitors clan (or Potence if they don't have one) as well as the 1 specified in the book. Though the rulebook says that this dot needs to be of the highest level discipline possessed by their creator, I let them pick 1 dot from any discipline that they have. If the player upgrades them to a 3 dot retainer at some point then I also let them have a 3rd level 1 dot power.

Andrew Francis - Investigator and Driver

Recruited by Daniel Matthews to facilitate the extensive research he puts into his assassinations as well as to take advantage of a number of useful contacts that the former military man still had from his days as a mercenary.

He also occasionally acts as a spotter for when Daniel wants to remove a target from a good safe distance.

Strength 5, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3

Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 3

Intelligence 4, Wits 5, Resolve 3

Health 6, Willpower 6

Skills

Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Drive 4 (Tailing), Firearms 3 (Sniper), Melee 2, Larceny 4, Stealth 4, Survival 2

Insight 3, Leadership 2, Persuasion 2, Streetwise 3, Subterfuge 3

Academics 2 (Criminology), Awareness 4, Investigation 5 (Profiling), Technology 3

Disciplines

Auspex 1 (Heightened Senses), Celerity 1 (Rapid Reflexes), Potence 1 (Lethal Body)

Temporary Disciplines

Celerity 2 (Rapid Reflexes, Fleetness), Fortitude 2 (Resilience, Toughness), Potence 2 (Lethal Body, Prowess)

Backgrounds - Contact 3 (Arms Dealer), Contact 3 ( Hacker), Contact 3 (Security Expert), Contacts 1 (Library Archivist), Resources 1

Weapons and Equipment

9mm Handgun (+3 Damage), 2 Spare Magazines

Boot/Combat Knife (+2 Damage)

Brass Knuckles (+1 Damage)

Night Vision Scope

Optical Sight

Lock-Pick Set

Camera with Telephoto Lens

Keith Chang - Investigator and Assassin

Keith is a military veteran given compassionate leave when his family were killed in a botched home invasion. He subsequently became addicted to prescription pain killers when his previous medicinal use due to injuries sustained in the Gulf became habitual due to depression.

Having concluded he had nothing to live for he decided to go out doing something meaningful and using his military skills began a minor crusade against crime. After starting with assault he moved onto the murder of criminals and began to draw the attention of the authorities to Pasadena.

Tasked with his removal Daniel took the somewhat unorthodox solution and instead of killing him, recruited him. He has been educating him in more subtle methods of assassination and has been pointing him in the direction of the enemies of the coterie.

Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5

Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 4
Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3

Health 8, Willpower 7

Skills
Athletics 4, Brawl 2, Drive 1, Firearms 5 (Quick Draw), Melee 2, Larceny 2 (Lock-Picking, Pick Pocket), Stealth 4 (Urban), Survival 2

Insight 3, Intimidation 3, Leadership 2, Streetwise 3, Subterfuge 3

Academics 2 (Military History), Awareness 4, Investigation 3, Medicine 1, Science 1, Technology 1

Disciplines
Celerity 1 (Rapid Reflexes), Obfuscate 1 (Cloak of Shadows), Potence 1 (Lethal Body)

Temporary Disciplines

Celerity 2 (Rapid Reflexes, Fleetness), Fortitude 2 (Resilience, Toughness), Potence 2 (Lethal Body, Prowess)

Backgrounds - Contact 3 (Underworld Arms Dealer), Haven 1 (Hidden Armoury 2, Postern 1, Security System 2), Resources 1

Merits - Linguistics 1 (Japanese)
Flaws - Addiction (Morphine), Insomnia

Weapons and Equipment

Desert Eagle Handgun x2 (+4 Damage), 2 Spare Magazines (Per Gun)

MP5K (+3 Damage), 2 Spare Magazines

Sawn-Off Shotgun (+4 Damage, Close Range Only), Pocket full of spare shells and solid slugs.

Combat Knife (+2 Damage)

Home-Made Stake (Improvised Weapon, +0 Damage)

Flash Bang Grenade x2

Introduction

Before the reconnaissance operation against the suspected primary Camarilla base within the city, Daniel has sent his two ghouls to do a preliminary investigation of the surrounding area. Unlike him his ghouls have the luxury of being able to operate during the hours of daylight...

Scene One - A Gang of Two

"Part of Keith's Armoury"

The ghoul team used a vehicle borrowed from one of Mr Hertz's gang ran business ventures. This vehicle was both untraceable to the coterie and expendable enough so that the ghouls could dump it if necessary. Generic SUV's were so common in L.A. as to draw little attention. Andrew was by far the best driver of the two and so he took the wheel while Keith checked his vast armoury of weapons for the third time. 

After some discussion they had decided that initially they would attempt to get an overview of the area before getting too far ahead of themselves with any specific planning.

Andrew did several circles of the area around the construction site looking for likely observation points, Keith meanwhile was on the look-out for likely ambush points on the approaches to the site. The pair rarely worked together as they had very different areas of expertise. Andrews talents were as an investigator, Keith on the other hand was more use when subtlety wasn't required. 

Johnny 'Roach' West - Malkavian
Current Whereabouts Unknown

When Daniel had discovered Keith he had been gradually working his way through the street level criminals of Pasadena and had drawn police attention to the area. Instead of killing him as Roach had ordered, Daniel instead recruited him.

The wonders of modern technology had made obtaining a detailed map of the area fairly simple and a deeper search had gained them a lot of information on the businesses occupying the surrounding buildings. Specifically they were looking for an empty apartment building or office from which they could observe the target area from an elevated position.

There were very few empty offices in the area though they did find a few. Andrew was concerned that the Camarilla kindred based at the construction site may have had a similar idea to them and set up observation posts of their own. Keith also pointed out that they would have the same criteria as themselves, namely a location with a good view of the target area and it's approaches. They also theorized that some of the surrounding businesses had already been occupied by the infiltrating Camarilla forces and that they would need to be very careful, regardless of which building they selected.

Eventually they settled upon a tall building with some apparently empty offices on the side facing the construction site. It also seemed to have only a single security guard in the lobby area that should be easy to bypass. There also seemed to be very few people remaining in the building after office hours so they could still infiltrate it with some hours of daylight remaining.

"Keith Chang being 'Stealthy'..."

"Do we need the guard eliminating?" asked Keith. "Not if we can avoid it..." replied Andrew "...we're trying to keep a low profile, remember?"

Keith nodded noncommittedly. As far as he was concerned the best way to keep a low profile was to kill all potential witnesses but he also knew that Daniel had been quite specific in his instructions to Andrew and himself.

After observing the security guard for some time, they saw him let the last few office staff out of the building and then abandoned the lobby for a small security room off to one side. It was the opportunity they had been waiting for.

Scene Two - Onwards and Upwards

Keith expertly picked the lock while Andrew disabled an exterior security camera, and then they slipped silently inside.

"The Security Guard is on high alert..."

Andrews had found that his senses were far more acute as a ghoul than they had even been as a mortal and he could hear the guard moving about in the office. He heard a fridge opening and closing, the sliding of a chair and then the faint sound of someone eating while flipping through the pages of a magazine. He leant close to Keith and told him what he had heard.

"He's eating a sandwich..." revealed Andrew. Keith just shrugged. If they weren't going to be killing the guy then Keith had zero interest in them. Deciding that using the lift would create too much noise, they made their way to the entrance to the stairs and began to climb to the fifth floor office that Andrew had decided would give them the best available view from this building.

"I know how these rent-a cops work...." said Andrew. "...he'll be asleep or watching TV in ten minutes time. He may do a token patrol but judging from his appearance I doubt he does much walking about. We should be fine for quite a while."

Andrew's Lockpicking Kit

"If he was dead, us 'being fine' would be a certainty..." grumbled Keith. Andrew ignored him.

The door from the stairs to the fifth floor offices was also locked but easily bypassed by Keith, utilising Andrew's lockpick set. Noting how useful the set was, Keith decided to acquire himself some after this mission was complete.

Keith found a light switch but they decided that this would draw too much attention. They were both accustomed to working in the dark and both had excellent night vision so they continued to advance as quietly as possible so as to get into position before night fell. The light would certainly be noticed once night fell. 

Concerned about being snuck up upon while working, Keith wired one of his flash-bang grenades to the entrance door with a length of wire. It wasn't subtle but would certainly do the job of alerting them and catching any interloper by surprise. He also loaded some solid slugs into his shotgun, "Just in case..."

Scene Three - The Target

Andrew handed Keith his night vision scope and used his own enhanced senses and the telephoto lens on his camera for his personal observations.

The area was surrounded by security cameras on tall poles which gave them a commanding view of the complex. The surrounding fence was seven foot tall and consisted of solid metal fencing fixed to concrete posts. The security office which enabled access to the site was a solid brick building which was also observed by both cameras and actual guards.

The guards themselves were wearing highly generic uniforms with no indication of the firm they were supposedly working for. Both Keith and Andrew noted that the guards had a definite military bearing and were alert and efficient. "Well they're breathing and it's still daylight so at least we're not facing an army of vampire security guards." Stated Keith, though Andrew had already came to the same conclusion. 

Though there was an articulated semi-trailer truck within the compound, there was a noticeable lack of traffic in and out and it was easy to conclude that no-one was in any hurry to complete the building.

"Did you see the guys on the roof?" asked Keith. "They look suspiciously like a sniper team." He continued. Andrew shifted his gaze to the half constructed upper portion of the building to confirm Keith's assessment. "You're right..." he replied. "...there's the top of a rifle sticking out by those boxes in the far corner. They've got a good view of the gate too." he concluded. He took several photographs for reference. Maybe if he had a look later he could identify the weapon specifically.

"Is that an entrance to an underground car park?" asked Andrew. Keith had a look too but couldn't tell either. "Let's see what night fall tells us then try and find a better angle." suggested Keith. Andrew agreed.

As the sky grew dark, the two rooftop guards were joined by another individual who they seemed to defer to. Andrew took a photo of him too. Just because the others treated him as being in authority didn't necessarily make him a vampire but his emergence as darkness fell was a bit of a coincidence if he was mortal. As soon as visibility became poor, spotlights at strategic locations illuminated the complex.

"Well, sneaking in under cover of darkness is out of the question." said Keith, somewhat sarcastically. Despite himself, Andrew smiled. Keith might be a borderline psychotic, mass murderer but he had a dry sense of humour that he his fellow ghoul had begun to appreciate.

Andrew noticed some units along one side of the complex that may have been residential in nature. He had already noted that there was very little foot traffic in and out of the site which seemed to indicate that most of the construction workers were housed within somewhere.

A fourth individual in combat trousers and a jacket joined the other newcomer upon the roof and began to observe the surrounding area both above and below. At first they suspected that they might have been spotted but they then noticed that their focus was upon any signs of movement in the sky.

Andrew theorized that he may have been looking for creatures under the control of other kindred that might be spying on the site. Andrew knew that such a thing was within a vampires capabilities but that not all vampires were the same. The specifics were something that Daniel had never discussed with him. Though a guess, it did fit the limited information that he had available to him.

Andrews musings were interrupted by an observation from Keith. "It looks like they've got their own generators too so creating a power cut would involve taking out both the internal and external power sources. That's not going to be wrote off as a coincidence..." 

Andrew agreed with his assessment as Keith continued theorizing. "Some of the vamps can convince guys to do stuff, right?" asked Keith but continued talking without waiting for a reply "So maybe they could get one of the workers to do a bit of sabotage?"

"It's an idea..." replied Andrew. "...but I was thinking more under the lines of creating a reason for a building inspection. I bet there's loads of shit in there that they'd need to hide real quick..."

Scene Four - Further Investigation

Flash-Bang Grenade

Andrew and Keith both concluded that they'd documented all they could from this vantage point and that they had time to see if they could get a better view from higher up in the building. They'd heard nothing from the security guard so presumed that Andrews earlier assessment of his thoroughness had been spot-on.

A bit of exploration, supplemented by more lock-picking later, they found a vacant sixth floor corner office. This had a better view of the side of the site that they suspected had underground parking access. Keith repeated his booby-trap from the earlier floor and they began a second round of observations.

From here they could indeed see an underground entrance and this was guarded by at least two men. From the shifting of the shadows nearby they also theorized that there may be more guards just out of sight. Not far from this entrance was a bunker-like building that was covered in warning signs. If there were indeed explosives on site then this was certainly where they were stored.

A few minutes later a man in an expensive suit emerged from the entrance they were watching. He was accompanied by two military looking men who were obviously his bodyguards. He summoned the two existing guards and the five of them returned underground. a moment later two more security men replaced them. It seemed that those within were unlikely to leave any area unguarded for more than a moment.

Sophisticated Security Camera

By now they had been observing their target for an entire evening and the rest of the night and soon the building would be occupied by those office workers who liked to turn up early. "We've probably got an hour left before we start risk being discovered." Stated Andrew, "Anything left to do before we move out?"

"Let's check the roof..." said Keith. "...cuz if we think this place has a good view of the site then we might need to be able to get up there later. Best to find out how easy it is to access while we're here already."

As Keith climbed the stairs, Andrew grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. "What the Fuck?" said Keith, a little too loudly.

Andrew put his finger to his mouth indicating silence and then pointed towards a security camera mounted near the roof entrance. It had quite obviously been placed there recently as it didn't match the other security measures. It was state of the art, far beyond anything else they'd seen so far. Andrew also noticed that it had a transmitter attached. Obviously it fed to somewhere other than the buildings own security office.

"Thanks." said Keith, somewhat begrudgingly. "I can hear movement too." added Andrew. "I think our targets might have their own observation post up there. If so then I bet there are some on the other buildings too."

"Some fucker down there really doesn't want to be caught by surprise." said Keith. Andrew nodded before replying. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Epilogue

The two ghouls sat on some plastic chairs by a sandwich truck near the site entrance. As they drank their coffee's they listened to the conversations of the site workers who were stopping by to grab their breakfasts. No-one paid any attention to a couple of guys having a drink and a bacon sandwich which made it an ideal place to pick up rumours.

They discovered two things of interest. Firstly that there was no work currently going on yet the construction workers were still getting paid. Secondly, several of them looked pale and tired, possibly this explained why the kindred hidden within the complex hadn't needed to emerge to feed.

"This isn't going to be a simple nut to crack." said Keith. 

"I suppose we better report in." added Andrew.

They had gathered a lot of information and they knew that Daniel would be keen to utilise it to formulate his plan of attack.

To Be Continued in 'Resistance' (Part One)

In Conclusion

I like to do a round-up of how the session went in these features but if you couldn't give a shit what I think then feel free to skip this bit...

This was a bit of a change of pace for the players. Though quite deadly by mortal standards, the ghouls would stand little chance against a kindred opponent so this session forced them to be a lot more cautious.

It was also a chance for them to have a go at roleplaying a different character. As I sprung this on them without notice they did very well indeed.

Acknowledgements
“Portions of the materials are the copyrights and trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB, and are used with permission. All rights reserved.”

I've used pictures of real people to represent some of the characters and art for others so in no particular order Andrew Francis is Ray Stephenson, Keith Chang is Daniel Dae Kim and 'Roach' is Kurt Cobain.

Everything else is from vampire related folders and searches and is as far as I know is all of the 'fair use' variety. If there's something that you feel should be attributed to some-one then feel free to let me know and I'll happily add an acknowledgement.