Saturday, August 10, 2024

 

The Day Crew – Monday Morning, eye burning light from the accursed day star, December 14th 2020

“Ugh, what a night!” – we meet the PC’s herds/ghouls sweeping up from their master’s work. The masters have gone into topor in their respective sanctums. Solasa, the thin-blood is with them. She has the ability to function during the day albeit with some hardship.

Unlike Kindred, humans need actual food, breakfast, eggs, sausage, pancakes, bacon, and coffee. A group of ghouls comes to the door, the Uptown Brunch Club.

Our cast of characters

·         Solasa – Thin-blood, see above

·         Johnny Metal – groupie of Erin, also played by Alexandria, bit of a doofus. (weak mortal template)

·         Hank – ghoul of Barbara Anne, also played by Mollie (full character, ghoul)

·         Pissf*gg*t – human servant of Luna’s character, Faye, a washed out punk with pretentions of being a revolutionary artist. Played by Luna(weak mortal template)

The Uptown Brunch Club (all NPC)

·         Ingrid (Alan Sovereign), Camarilla

·         Karl Stott (Abraham DuSable), defacto independent

·         Francis (Anita Wainwright), Anarch

 

Scene – IHOP

During the day, ghouls and retainers attend to the needs of their dominant but are largely unconcerned with politics beyond never going against their master’s wishes. They cross sect lines and gossip, whine, and shit talk. The Uptown Brunch club is a group of both anarch and camarilla ghouls simply looking for order, stability, and a quiet, easy life free of hardship rather than some higher ideal of enforcing hierarchy like the Cam or edgy pseudo revolutionary struggle like the Anarchs. They are sworn enemies of both Balthazar and Genghis, who they have witnessed communicating with each other but are incapable of speaking of the matter to kindred. They invite the day shift to brunch.

The news also announces that starting today, because of the recent events and security concerns, they are installing security scanners at loop L stations. The police presence is more significant. The news interviews a square jawed stern man with a fire in his eyes wearing unusual SWAT gear who’s head looks like a jar. The news crawl identifies the jar headed armored fed as “Guy Blazkowicz” He tersely explains the situation will soon be under control and promises to root out suspicious activity and get to the bottom of the terrorists responsible. His team will rip and tear through the recent threats.


At the diner, on the morning news, the journalists run a story that a bunch of utility workers report sick, call the news, say they have missing time and a strange illness. During brunch at IHOP, the ghouls gossip. Ingrid is envious of Malcom, prince’s new favorite, he’s in the oil industry. Malcom has office hours but never comes to brunch. “I’d be curious to get his take. He seems to know a lot” she says.

Scene – Malcom’s Office

The day shift decide to look in to Malcom’s office, curious about this strange ghoul.

Despite being ostensibly up all night, Malcom seems full of energy. He has a bowtie.

He is happy to see the “Day Shift.” He is new to all this. He has long been a commodities trader who rose the ranks of “Premium Oil.” The commodities trading happens in markets, not out in the fields.

Regardless of whatever opinions they express, he complements them on their insight.

In the office is a tall stern muscular man wearing a fancy black suit and sunglasses in doors. Something is off about his mein.

Malcom by contrast seems glib and likable. His office is littered with unfamiliar technology. Equipment that seems custom built, possessing no logos or other trademark indicating manufacture. Solasa witnesses swarms of invisible flies going in and out of a strange door in Malcom’s office suite.

Malcom emphasizes his sorrow at the horrible, dreadfully disruptive events that have happened as of late, such as these maniac clowns, or the terrorist attack on the loop back in April by mad cultists. “Why can’t people just do the right thing and do as they are told? Keep the peace, keep the masquerade. Ah but you up and commers seem smart and ambitious. I am always eager to see folks like you. “

“Say, can you believe there seems to be someone messing with the power grid?” He has been watching the story about the utility workers, he believe that this woman lurking about in his surveillance footage of the power stations is not to be trusted and is likely the cause everything bad going on. She is probably some kind of witch. “Ever since I became acquainted with the supernatural this year, I have understood the dangers unknown quantities. I’m a quick study you see. Its how I rose to this position. I grew up very poor. But I think we can all succeed with hard work. I can help you.” He says If they have some mind to investigate the grid, don’t listen to a word this woman says.[1]

The group left the office, with a business card. The business card just seems perfect. The business card of a winner, a dominant go-getter.

Scene – The Far South Side

Real life note: Luna missed a number of sessions and as a result the group never followed up on a hook that Faye found when looking for sheriff Damien. The group abruptly decided to visit a warehouse on the south side and found the location where the Devil’s Rejects Sabbat were entombed[2] Notably this is also Anarch territory.

Notes and maps left in the warehouse/tomb led to nearby dead drop points. With some searching, the Day Shift discover Damien’s staked body in a bricked up warehouse. A raving drunk wandered around outside the building, the drunk only seems capable of saying “Don’t Tell Abigail.”

Damien was torpid and starving and the Day Shift had to find a way to contain the hunger frenzy he was almost certain to be in. They restrained Damien and he wound up feeding on the drunk and not any of the day crew. It was still day time while this happened so Solasa stays with Damien while the rest of the Day Shift goes to the power station.

Scene – A Power Station[3]

The woman identified on security camera footage seems to be hanging outside the power station, drawing lines in the snow and manipulating tarot cards. The Day Shift confronts the woman. Her name is Tasha Goodhaven. Tasha is evasive and suspicious of these strange people, much as kindred have to maintain the masquerade, she has her own secrets. She makes an offer of favors for favors and secrets for secrets. She tells them she believes “leeches” – vampires are involved.

The scene plays out between Johnny Metal, Hank and Tasha. The Day Crew determine she is some kind of witch or “willworker,” studying the strange graffiti. While she can dispel it, she needs to know what it does first, who put it there, and what their intentions are. The streets of Chicago are not safe after dark and there are many dangers in the night. The Day Shift reveal they are working for “vampires.”  Tasha attempts to scrutinize these strange people but her accumulated quiet triggers a backlash, injuring her by causing marks to appear on her body due to my dice surprising me. This leads to Tasha awkwardly explaining the concept of “Paradox,” a curse that affects all will workers



[1] To be perfectly honest, I don’t remember the exact details of the conversation. I improved most of it with some emphasis on key points

[2] Divergent Timeline – I did not anticipate the players going this way so this entire scene was improvised on the spot

[3] Divergent Timeline – it did not matter which power station the PCs chose to visit first, the scene would have happened at any power station

No comments:

Post a Comment

a vampire post mortem

Nobody was *the* asshole. It was just inevitable. I planned the wrong game for the wrong group, planned a complex mystery and political intr...