Goals: Play through the embrace and introduce Frenzy, the 3 rules of Vampirism, feeding, and have at least one race against the sun.
I played through this shuffled together with the other player's stories, taking turns of about 5-8 minutes of dialog or whatever. I present Marcel's story in it's entirety, and plan on put the other two's stories up shortly.
Marcel's Story:
Marcel has had a rough night. He got fired from his Magic performance job in Santeria, CA. He remembers when he used to fill seats for a month, and tonight he had his lowest turn out: only 8 guests. On top of that, he is also getting evicted due to late rent payments. He needs a place to stay and he only has three friends who he thinks would actually harbor him. He calls Laurie, his extremely well-paid prostitute friend. Laurie: "What's up sugar?" she asks over the phone. Marcel: "I need a place to stay, so I can get back on my feet. I lost my job, and I'm getting evicted." He says despondently over the phone. Laurie: "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Marcel: "This was my problem, and I wanted to deal with it, but now I have run out of options."
She says she will be over soon with a truck for his stuff. She shows up and sits him down to talk with him. “There is something I need to tell you, something I was going to tell you when the time was right; and I think that time is now. I am a vampire, a literal 'lady of the night.' I don't actually fuck rich men for a living, I just make them think I do.”
He looks at her dumbfounded.
Laurie: “It isn't really eternal life, but I have stayed 24 for the last 80 years, and I want to extend the same invitation to you. My profession turned around with my new abilities, and I was actually able to get out of a rut I would have been stuck in. I offer the same ”
Marcel:“Prove it.”
She uses “the voice” on him. He is compelled to do as she says, each command making his blood react, and flow to the proper limbs to complete her whim.
Laurie: “Stand. Jump. Fall. See?”
Marcel: “And I will be able to do that?” he says with a glimmer in his eyes.
Laurie: “With my training.”
Marcel: “How long do I have to decide?”
Laurie: “This is a now or never deal. This doesn't happen every night, you won't ever get this chance again.” she assures him.
Marcel: “I'm game... how do you do it?” he asks looking a little frightened.
Laurie: “Well, first I suck out all of your blood, and then give you a little of mine, and will you to rise again.”
Marcel: “Sounds painful.. can you like put me to sleep first?”
She smiles, commands: “Sleep,” and descends upon him.
Marcel jerks awake, his lips wet with blood. He licks his lips and then sees red, he is hungry: more hungry than he has ever been. Laurie curses herself for forgetting about the hunger, and tries to catch him as he runs for the front door. He makes it outside and it just so happens his neighbor is walking groceries up to her room. He runs towards her and before she can react he is on top of her, drinking her lifeblood, with each pump she pushes another pint into his system. He feels a hand on his shoulder and he is yanked back into reality.
Laurie:“That's enough sugar. Now, lick her closed.”
He looks at her confused.
Laurie: “Lick her neck, Marcel, close the wound before she bleeds out.”
With a grimace he does as she says.
She feels for a pulse. The girl's heart is racing to make up for the lack of pressure, but she will make it.
Marcel: “You didn't tell me about this? What the hell just happened?”
Laurie: “You will get used to it, I told you there were some sacrifices. There are some things you need to know. First, don't let anyone know what you are now. Next, don't go creating anymore of us. And don't drink from any other vampires. Got it?”
Marcel: “You told me what you are. What if I had said no?”
Laurie: “You wouldn't have said no.”
Marcel: “But what if I had?”
Laurie: “I woulda killed you.”
He pauses and stares at her.
Laurie: “No, I would have just erased your memories of it, now lets get this girl in her room. You grab her keys and put away her groceries, I'll put her in bed and rewrite her a happier evening.”
They put her to bed and then pack up all of his stuff in the back of a pick-up she is borrowing from a friend. It took them longer to pack up than she thought and she realizes they don't have much time until they reach her place.
And then the front tire of the truck pops on the way there.
She swerves into a parking lot. They are now in the middle of the city, 1 minute drive from home, but 3 minutes until the sun rises. Even if they ran full speed, they wouldn't make it in time. Marcel tries to remember if there is a hotel near by, but his mind comes up blank. The sewers seems the only option. The sky is already starting to light up as he and her pump their arms and legs with blood, trying to lift a man-hole cover that is locked to the ground. The sun peaks up, and they both burn a bit in it's rays. She goes into a frenzy, pushes him away, rips the cover off the manhole, and jumps in. He continues to burn in the light, but manages to pick himself up as his beast takes over, leading him to jump down the hole as well.
He doesn't remember falling asleep.
Questions? Comments? Flames?
Angela's Story:
She finds herself at the movie theater on a cold night in November, in a suburb of Santeria. She waits for her boyfriend to meet her and watch the newest horror flick that is out. He shows up slightly late.
Angela: "Where have you been?"
Will: "Just had to grab a bite to eat before I came."
Angela: She pouts “And you didn't invite me?”
Will: “I just got something from the house, but I'll buy you whatever you want from the concessions to make up for it.”
They make their way into the movie theater, the place is pretty lonely except for a guy on the front row.
Half way through the movie Will makes a move, and starts to kiss Angela's neck. He has done this before, and each time it has been absolutely wonderful. But this time, he doesn't stop. She tries to push him off but feels weak and then blacks out. When she wakes up her boyfriend is standing over her with a slit wrist and she can taste blood on her lips.
Angela: “Oh my god!? How Did you cut yourself?” she licks her lips. “Is this your blood?”
Will smiles and looks down at Angela.
Will: “It worked, you are now one of us. I've just brought you into a whole new world that we can now share together. Forever.”
Angela looks at him as if he is crazy, and then notices that his wrist is no longer slit, as if he had never cut himself. She feels irresistibly hungry. She resists the odd urge to go head over heels down the seats and attack the man in the first row.
Angela: “Where are you getting these lines? What the hell do you mean a whole new world(( we broke out into Aladdin songs and had a good laugh))? You are crazy. Bat-shit.”
She storms off, furious, not knowing what to think about what he has said, and getting even angrier that he is not following her out. She leaves the theater and when she gets outside she realizes she forgot her jacket: but it is no longer as cold outside to her. She takes this new temperature difference as an indication of her temper heating her up. She feels hunger pangs from deep within her body again, and she decides to make her way to the Marble Slab next to the theater.
Service assistant: “Welcome to Marble slab.” the lone worker says as she enters the empty shop.
Angela looks through the different flavors of ice cream, but none of them sound appetizing, and then she looks up at the clerk and realizes what she really wants. Her instincts take over and she finds she has leaped over the counter, put one had on the clerks shoulder, another on his head: to expose his neck, and then she sinks her fangs deep into his jugular, feeding. The blood is warm, but the experience feels cool; like jumping into a pool during middle of summer. She comes to her senses a bit later and looks in horror at what she has done to the poor clerk. She feels for a pulse, he is still alive, but barely. She calls an ambulance and leaves the scene, taking the long trek home. ((this scene was played out with the song "Bad Moon Rising" playing in the background, it was supposed to be the music over the intercom, but it made for a perfect frenzy scene that was really in intense, yet a little light-hearted. nice dichotomy in play. Reminded me of the "Don't stop me now" scene in Shaun of the Dead.))
While she is walking home, her boyfriend drives up next to her.
Will: “Get in the fucking car.”
She stares him down
Angela: “Say it nicely”
Will: “Get in the fucking car, please?”
She kicks his front fender on her way around and hops in the passenger seat. They don't say a word the whole way to her house. They stop in front of her house and he turns to talk to her.
Will: “I know you are angry with me, I thought you would love what I have giv-”
She opens the door to leave before he can finish
Will: “Wait. Before you go, do these things for me... at least do this. Don't tell anyone what you have become, don't go into the sunlight, and you need blood to survive, but try not to kill anyone while taking it. I will be back in a couple of nights to help you out, for now just si-”
Angela: “Don't tell me what to do, all right? I didn't ask for this!”
She slams the car door and rushes into her house. Her parents are asleep and she goes straight to bed, not knowing what to think of tonight's events.
I wanted her to attack the guy in the front row, but when she rolled for it she got an exceptional success. I shouldn't have made her roll for it, I should have just role-played it; but it worked out for the best because it was more interesting for her to play out her hunger in the Ice cream shop.
She said I didn't play her sire correctly after the game. I figured that since she was a Rebel, that her boyfriend would be as well, but she wanted him to be more suave and kind, and that was one of the main reasons she was still with him. I was trying to think of a way to fix this problem when I decided on something really vile, and it is going to make an excellent plot twist and story arch. The vampire that sired her was not Will(who is a vampire, mind you.) It was one of Will's rivals, a Mekhet with Obfuscate 4 that disguised himself as Will and turned her into a vampire before Will could.
This Mekhet stole her from Will, and Will is going to be heart-broken and pissed, searching across the whole city for the bastard that took his Childe from him.
But I will get to that later on in the AP, when we actually play it out.
VampDT:I introduced my players in a similar way, I like what you're doing and your layout but make sure it doesn't become a computer game tutorial level. Give the players at least one thing from their backstory to engage with. Do you plan out how you are going to introduce the rules/ systems or do you let the players dictate what happens andyou throw in these rules/ systems as obstacles. I would recommend the second way. Just my tuppenceworth.
Drizzy:Like in Damnation city, the list of flavor npcs, i like to have stuff like that to pull out of my ass when I don't really know what to do next.
Cliff's Story:
He is on his way to an abandoned apartment building in the projects of south Santeria. Two of his commanding officers gave him this assignment, to check out some purported vandals on the third floor.
He has his badge in his breast pocket, and his Gun in hand as he approaches the building. The front door shows signs of forced entry. Cliff creeps through the halls, flashlight over pistol, and works his way up to the third floor. He sees flickering lights; as if from a candle and gets closer to the room in which the light is emanating, shutting off his flashlight on the way. There are voices coming from the room, one which Cliff thinks he recognizes, but he can't quite place whose voice it is. He gets closer to the door but makes a noise on the creaky floorboards and is met first by silence-
And next by a shot gun shot through the wall. The shot misses, most of it getting stuck in the wall, and it is only moments later that Cliff sees one of his commanding officers in front of him, revolver raised. The officer takes a shot to kill: and hits cliff right in the jaw. Cliff reals back in pain, but raises his gun and tries to shoot his assailant. He hits the fucker right in the same place, fucking up the officer's jaw. An eye for an eye.
The man with the shotgun comes out of the doorway of the room and fires another shot, but Cliff is ready and ducks low under the fire. The man with the revolver slinks back behind the cover of the doorway, garbles out a “fuggg!” and shoots at cliff again. Cliff gets hit on the other side of his face, the bullet popping out the side of his neck, making his blood run down his uniform. He calls on the blood in his stomach to patch up his wounds, it is enough to stem the bleeding but he is still pretty fucked up. He fires at the shotgun wielder, aiming for the head, but misses his shot, instead taking a shotgun blast to the chest. His bullet proof vest soaks the worst of it, but in his last moments before unconsciousness he sees his Vampiric boss rush past him and into the fray.
---
He has no idea how long he has been out, all he knows is the taste of blood, most his own, but some he realizes is the taste of his master. He feels unnaturally cold, and wakes from unconsciousness feeling like a sack of shit.
Cliff: “I'm supposed to be dead...”
His master, and now sire: “You are dead.”
His master stands over him.
Cliff: “What?” He sits up and rubs his bloodied neck.
His sire: “I couldn't waste my most valuable resource in the Police department, so I was forced to turn you into a full vampire.” He turns around, now facing his new Childe. “But don't get cocky, you son of a bitch, you are still under my control.”
Cliff looks at his sire and smiles with his broken jaw.
Cliff: “You give me power for information and favors, it is an even trade.”
Sire: “Well I have just given you all the power I can, so you better tell your work you can only take the night shift from now on.”
His sire looks at him in disgust and contempt. He hates what he has had to do to keep his contact “alive.”
Sire: “Get some blood and heal up your face, you look like shit. Why the hell would you follow an errand given to you by those two? You know they are trying to ruin you.”
Cliff: “I--”
His sire snaps his fingers, interrupting Cliff's excuse. A small balding man walks up to into the presence of the two vampires.
Clyde, the loaned ghoul: “I am here my temporary master, what do you wish?”
Sire: “Cliff, feed from this man, bite his neck, take his blood, and heal your face.”
Cliff looks awkwardly at the little man.
Cliff: “So, this is going to be awkward for both of us...”
Clyde: “It won't be awkward for me, I loove the kiss.”
Cliff grimaces.
Cliff: “Ok, then this is going to be just really awkward for m-”
His sire interrupts.
Sire: “Drink the God-damned blood!”
Cliff places his hands on the ghoul and imbibes in a nice long drink, the ghoul writhes in pleasure as the kiss raptures his body. Cliff uses some of the blood to heal himself, but begins to feel hungry again only after a bit of patching himself up.
Cliff: “I think I need more blood...”
Sire: “You can take some from the officers who set you up, they are both unconscious in the other room. Don't kill them though, I don't know what I want to do with them yet.”
Cliff takes a bit from the shot gun wielder, but skips over the officer with the bloodied jaw, not knowing how much blood he could safely take from the fucker.
Sire: “I need you to go back to the office and fudge tonight's paperwork.”
Cliff: “Are you going to kill the two?”
Sire: “That is my business, you will do what you are told. Leave me, I will contact you in a couple days to present you in front of the Prince. I will make it so your embrace is legal; you don't need to worry.
Also. Two new rules: Do not make any more of us, and don't drink any other vampire's blood. Only my own. Got it?”
Cliff: “You're the boss.”
Cliff takes his leave, makes his way back to the office, uses the blush of life (he had seen his sire do it once before) to get past some of his colleagues so he can make up some paperwork for what happened tonight. He ends up staying too late, forgetting that he has to get home before the sun rises. He goes to weather.com: 20 minutes till sunrise. He races out to his car, enters it duke hazard style and high-tales it to his neighborhood. He gets into his neighborhood right as the sun is coming up, but is still too far from his house. He drives his car into the back yard of the “Show home” of his neighborhood. As he starts to feel the suns rays burning his flesh he freaks out, running from his car and jumping through a window on the first floor of the show home. He finds his way to a closet, and finds sleep in its comforting darkness. For now.