Vampire the Masquerade V5 - Session Twenty Three - Countdown (Part Two)

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 campaign is set in Los Angeles and features a small group of Camarilla agents sent into the 'Free States' to search for ways to once again bring the Ivory Tower to dominance under the pretence of being disillusioned neonates looking for the freedom of the Anarch way of life. Now with a barony of their own it's time to consolidate their position and then plan their next move.

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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.
'Infiltrate LA' Chronicle
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
'Foothold LA' Chronicle
Solo Session - 'Hostile Takeover'
Story Four - 'Countdown' - Part One

The PC's

Phil as Michael Tomassio - Toreador Baron of Pasadena

and Hope Romero - Gangrel Scourge

Tom as Johnny 'Roach' West - Malkavian Seneschal

and Marie - Clan Carna

Matt as Dr Daniel Matthews - Banu Haqim 'Fixer'

Dave as Vincent 'Vin' Ghast - Brujah Sheriff

The player characters stats and backgrounds can be found HERE should any-one be interested. There's also some minor 'house-rules' HERE that have occurred as we went along.

As I have written out introductions and dialogue for certain NPC's and some location descriptions I'll post these more or less as I wrote them so they'll be in a 'reading to the group' style and they'll also be in blue so you can tell them apart from the more traditional write-up sections and occasionally an obscure Malkavian premonition will turn up in purple. 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...

Storytellers Note - Two separate work related incidents caused two PC's to have to pull out at the last minute so some improvisation was necessary. Also as there were only two people there was a lot less debating decisions so a lot happened which means this is quite a long write-up...

Introduction

Henrique 'Hank' Boyd - Brujah
Crypt's Sons Baron

In part due to there being barely a week until the kindred of Los Angeles discover if the Crypt Sons keep to their word about re-establishing their territory the vampire rumour-mill has been on overdrive. With one gangs preemptive strike repulsed, two others already evacuated and a fourth having apparently negotiated the right to stay put it seems that those gangs it effects are taking the threat seriously.

Three of those groups that seem to intend to remain have made a pact to come to each others aid though their combined strength is still less than a dozen so it's imagined that the Crypt's Sons will roll right over them especially as their numbers have swelled considerably due to active recruiting and a number of independents, newcomers and Barony of the Angels locals deciding it's easier to join them than attempt to beat them. In response those loyal to El Hermandad have also been making their presence felt at 'A Taste of LA' a common first stop for kindred visitors to LA and have been engaged in their own recruitment drive.

For it's part the coterie has been consolidating control of as much of the criminal and political power in Pasadena in order to ensure that they are secure should any element of the upcoming conflict threaten their own borders or assets. Unfortunately to complicate matters several students at Cal-Tech have disappeared over the last few months and there have been an increase in reported assaults. With the elimination of the more violent criminal gangs in Pasadena and the more subtle approach of the Apostles under Reuben Hart and Roach, problems should have gone down rather than increased. As no-one has seen Roach for several nights and he isn't answering his phone (neither of which were unusual enough to be alarming) you'll have to deal with the problem without him.


It's only a matter of time before these events gain national attention and the last thing your fledgling empire needs at this early stage is a heavy police presence. It is therefore imperative that you sort out the problem before it reaches a wider audience. Of course you now have another problem as well...

Scene Six - Vice

Based on information received by the police from an as yet unknown source, three of Vin's 'street' girls have been arrested and unfortunately one of them had a considerable quantity of drugs on her at the time.

Though not important to Vin's operations in of herself she is aware of the Apostles connection to organised crime in Pasadena and this is exactly the kind of information that in the Brujah's opinion might be exchanged in return for a reduced sentence. Being aware that Michael was attempting to obtain a police contact he decided to take the matter to his Baron to see how he'd like to approach the situation. Michael agreed to see what he could do and gave his new 'friend' on the force a phone call.

Franklin 'Frank' Atkins - Ghoul
Corrupt Cop

He explained to Officer Atkins that certain ladies of negotiable affection who were unfortunately associated with one of his acquaintances enterprises had been arrested and that this might reflect badly on his legitimate businesses. He also put forward his opinion that pursuing charges against these three ladies was probably a waste of valuable police resources and letting them go might be in every-ones best interests especially if the evidence was lost due to some administrative error.

Of course Michael was well aware that any drugs that disappeared would probably find their way into the cops own stockpile despite him having generous access to drug via Roach's expanding narcotics empire.

Though Michael was expecting to have to return the favour at some point he didn't realise the request was going to come quite so soon.

"You might be able to help me with a small problem in return?" Michael confirmed that if it was within his capabilities he'd be willing to give what assistance he could. Franklin then continued. "A colleague of mine is pressuring, by blackmail I believe, a witness into testifying against a small time fence, however this fence is a very good contact of mine. Unfortunately this being a robbery case I have no pull to make it go away." "I need the fence's contacts and info to bring down a minor pornographer who if I can nail will help my career considerably for certain reasons."

Vin's 'Herd' - Returning to Work

Michael took the liberty of checking whether 'minor' in this case meant trivial or underage as he knew if he involved his Gangrel 'Scourge' Hope in this situation the latter would probably involve her hunting down the pornographer and brutally dismembering him. The cop had no evidence that the girls were underage but was sure that at least some were being coerced so was quite keen to put the man out of business. Michael could tell from Franklin's tone that there was more to the matter than he was revealing but across the phone he was unable to bring his other gifts to bear to ascertain just what.

Storytellers Note - Unfortunately for the players, very few vampiric disciplines work across phone-lines.

As he had another matter of more immediate urgency to the coterie to deal with the Baron apologised that he wouldn't be able to deal with the problem for a couple of days and the officer confirmed that this would be fine but that he needed some movement within a week. He did however offer to have the three hookers released immediately as a good will gesture as he was sure the drugs evidence on the one girl were about to go missing. After obtaining some basic information he bid the officer farewell and returned to the other matter that had been bought to his attention by Hope.

Storytellers Note - The cops problem was too involved for me to re-work for two players so I side-lined it and moved other issues forward. Hopefully I can get everything back on track when the two missing players are available.

Scene Seven  - Poachers

Jenna Cross - Thin-blood Baron
Preparing for War

In response in part due to pressures from their Gangrel members many of the Los Angeles established baronies have hardened their policies on feeding rights and poaching which has in turn increased the pressure on those who still have an open borders policy as increased requests for feeding rights are now having to be refused which is in turn creating more tension.

The increased levels of intelligence sharing between clan Gangrel for the purposes of giving advanced warning of Sabbat incursions has also enabled them to tally new arrivals via the various usual locations as well as between territories and the poaching by thin-bloods and Caitiff has been revealed to be far more extensive than previously thought. Jenna Cross it seems has effectively put her followers on a war footing due to this hostility and her response to any messengers from other baronies or gangs has more or less been "fuck off".

Hope had been informed by a gangrel runner that several caitiff and thin-bloods have been consistently skirting down-town and poaching in Pasadena. It seems they'd been doing so rather carefully under Edward Vignes nose for a while but with his demise have now increased the frequency of their visits. As per the information sharing agreement between the Gangel at the clan 'Gather' Hope has been informed of the trespassers but as the agreement also specified respecting each others 'turf' they stopped pursuing them at the border of what is considered to now be Michael's domain of Pasadena. She has however also been informed of the entry point into the barony which is via the outskirts of Highland Park near route 110 or possibly via route 110 itself.

Sarah - Ghoul
Vin's Prodigy

As Vin had disappeared back to the most profitable of his two current establishments with his ghoul Sarah to "Sort out some things..." and Roach was on one of his periodic walkabouts Michael decided to send Daniel along with Hope to investigate the poacher issue.

Michael was one of the few Barons in LA who was still fairly flexible about granted feeding rites to kindred who asked first but the important part of that policy was the 'who asked first' part. Weakness was the last thing he needed to show and a reputation as a leader unable to control his domain would soon lead to other problems especially with a kindred gang war on the cards. He was however clear that should they discover any poachers they were to warn them off rather than kill them off.

While they were pursuing this lead he also tasked them with investigating the escalating missing person issue in case the two problems were somehow connected. Before they set off in Daniels car to the location given to them by the Gangrel messenger the Banu Haqim contacted his two ghouls and set them the task of researching these various assaults and missing persons, particularly looking for any connection to the route they were about to search. Hope also bought along her famulus wolf 'Hermanita' should it be necessary to pursue a scent trail of some sort.

Near to the locale specified they found an area that appeared to have been used quite frequently as an unofficial parking area and judging from the tyre tracks the user had been the same vehicle every-time. Hope judged the foot traffic to have been made by three people, at least one of which had entered the nearby park on foot and seemingly returned the same way some time later.

After cross-checking the park, road and attack locations Daniel was informed by his ghoul Andrew that about four weeks ago a young lady called Maisy Humphries had been found dazed and confused in the park having suffered considerable blood loss due to a severe beating. Both Hope and Daniel were well aware from the coterie member Vin's preferred hunting methods that physical assault covered up the signs of a messy feeding quite well. The young woman was a student of Caltech which was a short distance from the roadway they suspected was the route used into Pasadena by the poachers. It seemed that Michael's suspicions that the two incidents were connected were not without merit.

Hope allowed her wolf time to pick up the scent before they got back into Daniel's vehicle and headed off to Caltech campus. Both were aware that it might be a long-shot but they had to start somewhere and all the information they had up to now indicated that this was as good a place to start as any. Daniels's ghoul had filtered out the obviously unconnected incidents and had narrowed the list of likely connected events to five murders, four disappearances and six assaults. Though this was still a considerable list it was a much smaller pool of incidents to investigate than the thirty or so they'd started off with though there was still no particular pattern to any of them.

Storytellers Note - Daniel's player recently asked if he could 'upgrade' his ghoul and I allowed him to spend the extra three xp to take his stats to that of a gifted mortal in order to increase his usefulness as an investigator and technical assistant. He'd used him extensively so it seemed reasonable that he'd have gotten better over time or had always been capable of more and just hadn't shown it yet.

Finding a suitable car-park near the densest selection of student bars and clubs near campus they decided to try their luck with a patrol of the area. Hope left her gun in the car in case she needed to get into any bars with door staff though Daniel took his silenced Colt just in case. In theory only one of them needed to enter any establishments while the other could keep watch outside. Hope also put a lead and collar on her wolf as this would be marginally less strange than having it roam free. Taking it in turns trawling the bars one by one they began their search for any-one with the demeanour of a predator or hunter of kine though what Hope mainly found were drunk young men who thought they were pick-up artists.

On their way to what was actually their fifth bar but felt like the hundredth the wolf picked up an unusual scent. Communicating with her famulus via her abilities with the Animalism discipline favoured by many Gangrel she ascertained that the scent wasn't that of their potential poachers but was confusing her animal. It was as far as she could tell from the imprecise method of communication that the animal seemed to be unable to discern between the human aspect of the scent and something else. Curiosity piqued they decided to see where this new mystery would lead them...

Scene Eight - Kiara

Kiara - Garou
Glass Walker Tribe

The trail led to a slightly less busy section of the campus next to a locked car-park. Running alongside this sealed off area was a narrow and poorly lit alleyway. The wolf was now getting a much stronger scent and was following at a good pace though for some reason seemed to need a lot of encouragement, almost as if something about the scent was spooking her. As the impulsive Gangrel strolled purposely into the dark, the more careful Daniel blended into the dark using his supernatural abilities of cloaking and followed behind.

An athletically built woman has her foot on the chest of a heavy-set young man and despite out-weighing her by a significant margin appears to be unable to get to his feet. You appear to have arrived at the tail end of the conversation "For the last fucking time, where is Mirilla?"

As Hope moved closer the woman turned to face her but still kept her boot firmly on the man on the floor. "This is no concern of yours 'leech' and that goes for the other bloodsucker who thinks he's hidden over there...". Well aware that he wasn't exactly an amateur in the area of stealth Daniel immediately gained a begrudging respect for her abilities. Her awareness of what they were, the fact that the wolf identified her as neither human nor animal and definitely not kindred led both Hope and Daniel to a concerning conclusion about what the woman might be. Hope immediately went on the offensive deciding that the need for subtlety went out of the window as soon as it was obvious that the other knew what they were "No concern of ours? I'm census taker for the Baron of this domain which makes it very much my concern". The Banu Haqim slid his hand into his coat for his weapons expecting an explosion of violence in response, he was pleasantly surprised when what followed instead was a conversation.

Storytellers Note - I'd made a big deal about the deadliness of werewolves and their dislike for vampires so it threw the players a little when they met an articulate fairly reasonable one that didn't immediately try to kill them.

Seemingly impressed by the Gangrel's nerve, the woman introduced herself as Kiara and explained that the man currently lying on his back had been seen with a missing person she was very keen to find but was denying the encounter. Hope suggested that she have a chat with him instead and explain to him just how perilous his situation was. Sceptical about how useful a leech would be when her own persuasiveness had failed but apparently desperate enough to allow them to make an attempt she removed her foot from his prone form and took several steps back. Daniel could tell from her posture that she was still ready for violence so he decided to go with Hope's plan and slowly moved his hands away from his knife and back to where Kiara could see them.

Hope Romero - Gangrel Scourge

Hope then explained in impressively detailed fashion how death was actually the least of his concerns at the moment and laid out a colourfully explicit set of potential fates for him if he didn't talk. Convinced that his only chance for surviving the night was cooperation he promptly told the group of three all he knew. His name was Hugo Olsen, a photographer by trade who spent his evenings searching student bars for attractive young women to in his words "Offer them a chance to be a star...". Daniel visibly rolled his eyes at this statement as he saw Hope's eyes narrow and her hands beginning to clench and un-clench and mentally recalculated the odds of Hugo surviving the night from 50/50 to about one in ten.

He changed his story from not knowing Mirilla at all to having met her on a previous evening though his repeated "Chance to be a star..." line caused Daniel to drop his survival odds to closer to one in a hundred. He claimed to have been 'ran off' by a black woman and the couple of 'scary looking dudes' who were with her though upon being pressed came up with slightly better descriptions of the three. He then further claimed that she hadn't left with either him or the group of three but rather a pretty-boy student philosopher type who he hadn't seen before.

Michael Tomassio - Baron of Pasadena
"You want me to meet a what?!?"

Indicating to Hugo that any attempt to run would result in a bullet to the head Hope, Daniel and Kiara discussed what their next move would be.

Hope surprised Daniel by suggesting that another murder might not be the best solution as enough attention was on the area as it was and she was sure that attention was the last thing that either lupines or vampires wanted. "I thought you called yourselves kindred? Never-mind...I have some abilities that will cloud the mind of this piece of shit enough so he'll barely remember anything that's occurred today. I know like me you'd really like to gut the bastard but you make a good point about the attention". Hope suggested they exchange contacts numbers and keep each other informed of their respective investigations and also that an informal none-aggression pact between the three of them might be in order. Kiara also mentioned that her tribes leader, one Don Alonzo might be interested in meeting this new baron and in the interest of avoiding offence Daniel arbitrarily stated that he was sure Michael would be "More than happy to..."

Werewolf - Delirium

Unsure of how whatever she had planned would effect kindred, Kiara asked them both to leave and a moment later the pervert wannabe photographer ran out of the alley as fast as his legs could carry him as if the devil himself was chasing him. Business between them concluded for the moment kindred and lupine left the area in opposite directions. Despite it being unnecessary due to their undead condition both Gangrel and Banu Haqim breathed a sigh of relief that the situation had concluded more or less amicably.

Deciding that they had made sufficient progress to warrant reporting in they rang up Michael and gave them an overview of what had occurred, including a chance meeting with a werewolf and the possibility that it's leader might pop around for a visit. Once their Baron had time to digest this information the coteries Scourge and Fixer stated their intention to attempt to pick up the poachers trail at the bar mentioned by the scumbag photographer Hugo.

Scene Nine - On the Trail

The bar to which they had been directed was indeed significant as Hope's wolf picked up a number of trails. While Hope waited with her wolf Daniel made an inspection of the exterior looking for a way into the offices upstairs as he'd noticed several security cameras within.

It was a simple matter for him to leap the few metres to the fire escape and Hope was quite impressed as he covered the distance with a single jump before athletically climbing up to the upstairs window. The lock was a simple affair and Daniel bypassed it in a moment before cloaking himself and entering the upstairs office. Hope decided that a lookout was probably unnecessary and decided to have a look around inside.

Daniel was unimpressed with the security system which seemed to consist of a number of ancient CCTV cameras connected to an old video recorder but he nonetheless located the tapes from the previous days and fast forwarded to the time specified by the terrified Hugo. The tapes confirmed his story that the three he had described had attempted to pick her up but had moved onto a table with two others after they'd chased off Hugo.

The fourth poacher - Clan Unknown

The tall handsome man she had eventually left with hadn't been picked up by the exterior camera which was focused on a seemingly random point in the distance. The three targets he was initially interested in left at the same time as the couple they'd been speaking to but he couldn't tell whether they went to another location together due to the terrible exterior camera. Hope meanwhile had spent a frustrating few minutes dealing with a man whose hand kept wandering to her knee, making a mental note to return to the bar after they'd finished their mission and break all his fingers. Seeing Daniel outside she left, retrieved her wolf and discussed which trail to follow.

As the werewolf Kiara was no doubt pursuing her own enquiries about her missing kin Mirilla they decided to first deal with the group of three and then work on the other trail if any of the evening remained. Fortunately the scent was distinct and recent so her Famulus wolf followed the trail with ease eventually leading them to an off-campus car-park containing a single jeep with a smoking man leaning against one side, another male figure was sitting in the back and both appeared to be waiting for something. Seeing no need for subtlety as dealing with uninvited guest to Michael's barony was her job Hope crossed towards the pair just as the third member of their party approached from a different direction with a young lady. It seemed that they were waiting for the female member of their hunting party to bring them a new victim.

Hope Romero - Gangrel Scourge
Ready to Negotiate

As Daniel's experiences with Hope tended to end with her covered in some-one else's blood he approached from a different direction in case the situation needed fixing at some point. The Scourge gestured to the intended mortal victim that she should leave as fast as she could and something about Hope's manner made her believe that this was a very good idea indeed. The pair waiting by the jeep began to move towards the confrontation as Daniel stealthily flanked them. "The Baron was quite specific about how feeding rights worked. You ASK permission and if he deems it appropriate THEN you can hunt. He was also precise about what forms that hunting could take..." Hope's tone made it clear that this wasn't a debate. "...Michael has been more than generous compared to what other Barons have offered. Leave now and don't come back...after you've told us what you know about a missing girl called Mirilla..."

The woman who's job appeared to be luring in victims for them all to feed upon was unrepentant. "Things are changing in LA, we can do what we want and soon no-one will be able to stop us going where we please and doing what we please..." As she spoke one of her fellow poachers drew a gun from a shoulder holster. Using his preternatural speed, Daniel 'blinked' across to the armed kindred with his own weapon in hand. "I'd reconsider that idea if I was you." As he did so the woman drew a knife and pointed it at Hope. As Daniel saw this out of the corner of his eye the second man moved towards him.

Conscious of her standing orders from Michael to remove rather than kill any intruders she resisted the urge to pop her claws and instead neatly blocked the blade at her chest and gave the overconfident kindred lady a significant but none fatal punch that sent her staggering backwards. Daniel slid around the kindred in front of him, neatly grabbing him around the throat from behind and moved him between himself and the other threat while pointing his own gun directly at the second target. "I meant what I said about reconsidering that idea. It's still possible to resolve this with a conversation..." Daniel was hoping that his Gangrel ally was taking the same approach.

Not taking the hint the female poacher attacked Hope and this time the Gangrel decided a more convincing lesson was needed. Sweeping her legs from beneath her Pasadena's scourge drove the attackers head towards the ground at significant velocity. Unfortunately for Hope the beast that lurked within all kindred had taken the opportunity to exert it's influence and the woman's head exploded like a ripe melon as it was driven into the tarmac with crushing force.

Storytellers Note - There were a lot of critical successes in the dice pool rolled by Hope's player including on all the hunger dice so I decided that she had succeeded spectacularly well...or more accurately that the beast had succeeded spectacularly well...

With one interloper dead, the Banu Haqim decided that the situation wasn't going to be salvageable and so moved his powerful handgun level with the heart of the thin-blood he was grappling and promptly punched a whole through his chest with a high calibre round. Not slowed significantly by the body, the round continued with enough power to wound the second of the male kindred. Hurling the corpse at the wounded survivor of the attack Daniel drew his blades and gave him his final death before he even had a chance to respond. Covered in blood Hope closed her eyes for a moment and fought down the urge to fall into frenzy and tear the bodies of the dead to pieces. She did however sate some of her hunger on the blood of their fallen enemies.

Daniel was used to cleaning up the scenes where he'd 'worked' but this normally just meant picking up shell cases and removing security tapes, this was somewhat more complicated. Satisfied that the only camera in the park had been sabotaged, presumably by the poachers who used it as a place to take away victims he loaded the bodies into their own vehicle before indicating to Hope to keep an eye on the scene while he retrieved some items. Returning quickly with various bleaches and industrial cleaners acquired from a nearby business he poured the contents over the blood stained floor in order to at least interfere with any forensics. As it was nearing morning they dumped the bodies in the sewer near the gallery, cleaned themselves up and proceeded to the gallery to lie to Michael about just how they'd dealt with the situation.

They told their baron only that they'd talked to the thin-bloods and told them to leave and mentioned that there was still the loose ends of the missing werewolf kin and the other poacher whose scent they'd identified. They went to sleep away the day before dealing with these minor problems the following night and of course the slightly more significant problem of disposing of the thin-bloods bodies which were still in the sewers near the galleries escape tunnel.

To Be Continued in 'Countdown' Part Three

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...

With only two players present due to the other two having last minute commitments I moved a couple of the upcoming stories around and so this was less part of the planned countdown to war and more in the area of a side-mission. It fitted well enough with their preparing of their borders though to still fit in with the overall context of the story.

It went pretty much as I expected though I did consider the outside possibility that they might for once bring a target back alive...

Acknowledgements
I've used pictures of real people to represent some of the characters and art for others so in no particular order Michael Tomassio is represented by the actor Matt Bomer, Johnny 'Roach' West is quite obviously Kurt Cobain, 'Vin' is the actor Scott Adkins, Dr Matthews is Mads Mikkelsen, Hope is Deborah Ann Woll, Marie is Eva Greene, Franklin Atkins is Michael Chiklis, Sarah is Elesha Thorn and Jenna Cross is Rhona Mitra. 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...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.