Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Hunter for classic World of Darkness

As I continue to work my way through boxes of old game notes trying to determine what to keep and what to slash, I came across this piece. This appears to have been for a Vancouver:  by Night game I ran. There are no indications whether I used or didn't use it, nor who played in the game. I have removed the game specific text from the notes and added a section at the end informing of who is what creature.

This is the awful case of Sean Bradstreet, former loving husband and doting father. Unfortunately for dear Sean, his wife becomes the prey of a vampire. How Sean reacts is quite inhuman. As this text goes on, Sean loses more and more of his sanity.

This piece is ideal for someone looking for a mass murderer who is targeting supernatural creatures or those he believes to be supernatural creatures. What if there is a final reveal showing the people he has killed are not supernatural creatures? Maybe that is how his mind rationalized it to maintain his touch with reality. My plans were to have the party try and find the person responsible for the murders. The varied victims would allow me to introduce the different types of creatures in the World of Darkness to the players. 
  • Act One details the setup 
  • Act Two details Sean's accomplishments thus far
  • Denouement details what comes next for Sean
  • CSI details the crime scenes 
  • Notes details conversions to the classic World of Darkness setting

Act One
On April 11, 1996, Sean Bradstreet and his wife went to a friend’s birthday party. While at the party, a vampire put the moves on Sean’s wife. Sean did not realize this was occurring. His wife, Carrie, was hypnotized by the vampire and added to its lists of concubines. The next month passed without a problem.

In May, Sean began to take notice that his wife was staying after work later and later. The first sign was the build-up of fast food, pizza, and Chinese take-out wrappers in the trash. Then, the kids began to complain that they never had chance to spend time with their mother. In the second week of May, Sean approached Carrie and asked for an explanation. She proclaimed work continued to pile up at her place of business with no end in sight. Sean chose to believe her, albeit reluctantly. The children were still upset and Carrie promised she would try to make it home earlier in the evenings.

In June, Sean hired a private investigator by the name of Cedric Richards to look into the situation. Cedric discovered the truth the very first night. Carrie was cheating on her husband. The following day, Cedric walked into Sean’s business office and showed him the photos he had taken the evening prior. While Cedric’s photos did not show specifics, they were good enough for Sean. Sean paid Cedric for his work and the photos.

Sean immediately went to his wife’s place of business and demanded to see her. After being told by her assistant that she was in a meeting, he charged into the meeting. He showed his wife and the rest of the room the photos, while shouting about a divorce and him keeping the children.  He left the pictures in the meeting room and drove around town to cool off before heading home.

Carrie fled the meeting room and went straight to her vampire lover’s home. Once there, she told him of what had transpired. The vampire called in favors. Sean soon found himself with no job, no house, no wife, no kids, and no bank accounts. Everything Sean had ever owned was gone – except for the photos from Cedric.

In October, he began to hunt the city for the house in Cedric’s photos. In November, he found the house. The house belonged to David Hanchette. Sean watched the house over the course of the next month. He recorded the coming and goings of the visitors, discerning the regulars. He would follow them to their own homes, noting the addresses. His spying also lead to finding his wife’s new home and that his children has been sent to a boarding school in nearby Victoria.

Sean eventually found another job that paid for an efficiency apartment and a few luxuries. By the end of December, he had begun to rent a home of his own. In January, Sean began to plot a plan to get even. He decided that he would start by killing the accomplices of David Hanchette. If his wife could use Hanchette to burry him in the dirt, Sean figured he could turn the tables on Hanchette.

On January 21, Sean launched his plan. He received a very stark reality check with his first victim. Suddenly, Sean was faced with a supernatural creature that was not supposed to exist. He panicked and emptied the 9mm semi-automatic pistol into the creature. He left with the body of the creature. Once home, he took the body inside and through it in the fireplace. He hoped the movies were right and all he needed to do was burn the body.

The movies were right.

Act Two
Sean called in sick for the next few days, trying to decide what to do. He decided that if these things were responsible for his undoing, he would see to their final deaths. He purchased illegal weapons and books on vampires and the occult. He read the books during the day and spied on Hanchette’s home at night. He would strike again on February 20.

This attack resulted in meeting a new type of supernatural creature:  the werewolf. Michael Corvin, the werewolf, ran a counterfeit clothing operation across the Canadian/USA border for Hanchette. Michael had just returned from Canada that very evening and Sean followed him from Hanchette’s place to his own. Sean set off an alarm sneaking into Michael’s home. When Michael confronted Sean carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, he transformed into his wolf-man form and attacked. Sean emptied a full banana-style magazine into Michael before Michael collapsed.

Sean quickly read up on werewolves in his books to determine what he needed to do to confine the creature. Once confined, Sean began to experiment upon the creature to find its limitations. Curiosity go the better of Sean and he prolonged the creature’s suffering. However, once he grew completely bored with the experiments, he severed the limbs and head of the creature, placing them away from each other in Michael’s home. Sean left the parts behind.

In March, Sean began researching other potential occult threats that were not vampires or werewolves. He even took the time to learn spells he could employ while hunting. He also returned to watching the Hanchette house and began planning an attack on the home.

Sean noticed through observation that a group of people were always at the house, but were never seen entering or leaving the complex. He purchased a heat-based vision device and used it to observe these people. He watched them move about the house, leave the house, travel under him and his car, and continue on their way. He quickly took to the sewers and discovered their lair within a week. He set a trap for them in a warded room within the sewer system.

One day, as the group was visiting the Hanchette home, Sean placed several pizzas in the warded room near the underground creatures’ sewer home. When the group grew near the room, they smelled the food and went to it. Once they were in the room, Sean closed a stainless steel door behind them and detonated a series of home-made napalm bombs in the room. Sean laughed the night away with the victory.

In late April, Sean captured a vampire. Leroy, the vampire, was selling drugs for Hanchette. The vampire made a habit of drinking from its buyers. Sean waited until the vampire was high on addict blood and used this to his advantage when capturing Leroy. He placed its crucified form on the roof of a local museum and videotaped the sunrise. The tape was later sent to Mark Dieter.

Sean had traced Mark Dieter to Hanchette through Sean’s gun buying deals. Mark was a major seller for Hanchette. Sean traced him home through his own contacts and through Hanchette. In June, Sean and Mark happened to be at the same summer festival. Sean followed Mark around the festival and eventually struck up a conversation with him. Mark asks Sean to watch his drink as he goes to the restroom and Sean agrees. While Mark is in the restroom, Sean places a slow acting poison in Mark’s drink. Four hours later, Mark dies from a coronary attack.

In July, Sean tracked down Conrad Blankers. Blankers was supplying Hanchette with high tech devices. Hanchette then turned and sold them for other goods. Sean managed to get his hands on some of the devices before following Conrad to his lab and killing him.

In August, Sean killed Kerwin Mackinnon and Doreena Byrne with a cold iron bar. The event was unplanned for and unrelated to Sean’s hunting of Hanchette’s accomplices. Sean came across the two of them one night, while out for a walk. For some reason, the two individuals did not have Glamors up to hide their true fae selves. Sean recognized them from his books. He tracked them down and killed them, just in case they were somehow connected to Hanchette.

In September, Sean spent more time tracking more and more supernatural creatures around the city. He discovered there were more than he had ever expected to find. He is unaware of any type of social structure among the creatures.

In October, Sean discovered he was being followed. He managed to turn the tables and became the hunter. He killed Robert Kgari in front of a costuming shop. Sean is worried the killing is too high profile. He plans to quit his day job and hunt from the shadows. He knows of a Joshua Stein and if Joshua Stein gives him trouble, he will be the next victim.

Denouement
Sean is not very stable mentally. His quest for revenge turned has turned into outright blood thirst. Sean will continue to murder until he is stopped. Unfortunately, due to the nature of his victims, he may never be stopped. All of the murders have been covered up by the local supernatural creatures, as to not expose themselves to the public.

Future Actions and Notes
Sean Bradstreet believes Robert Kgari was a supernatural entity. He also saw Joshua Stein. Stein will eventually become a target. The day after Kgari’s murder, Sean quits his job. By November, he will be evicted from his property for not making payments. By then, his grasp on reality will be completely broken. His hunting will increase in quantity at a much faster pace. He will begin collecting the money and goods owned by the murdered in order to get by, including living in their homes.

Sean will tail Joshua for some time. He is unsure of Joshua’s ties to Hanchette. Joshua has no ties to Hanchette. Nor did Kgari, but Sean doesn’t realize this.

Sean is beginning to brainwash others into helping him.



Hunter CSI
If using this as part of an ongoing game, here are further notes about the crime scenes.

Fireplace in Sean’s old home:  No evidence. Sean removed the bones and put them out with the trash. The trash was picked up and removed per the normal routine.

Warehouse, South Westminster:  The body of Michael Corvin was found by “Snatches.” Michael’s body was in various stages of transformation. Snatches patrols the warehouse districts in South Westminster, especially the Sulley Dock area. The weapon was not at the scene of the crime. Nor were hair or nail remains found from the killer. Sean shaved his head bald prior to this killing. He grew paranoid someone might recognize him with his hair still on his head.

Snatches notified Flame-Maker, his pack leader the same day. Flame-Maker took this information to leaders Chernikova, van Daalen, and Tanaka. Chernikova and van Daalen ignored the information. Surely, no one would attempt such a murder. Tanaka came to the scene of the crime with his greatest wizard, Marshall Wells. The magic user deduced who the body belonged to and sent spirits to find its murderer. The spirits have yet to return and Marshall is confused as to why it would take so long. Akemi Tanaka took the evidence back to the other leaders and they suddenly became interested. A search of the city and surrounding vicinities was begun.

Sean is not likely to be found as he has cast a spell upon himself blocking tracking spells of the type used by Michael Corvin’s associates.

Sewer Rom, near Hanchette’s Place:  The door on the outside is clean as possible for being in the sewer. The door is obviously newer. Grime and shit have begun to attach themselves to the lower portions of the door on the sewer side. The room inside is twelve feet long, ten feet wide, and fifteen feet tall. The inside of the room is completely charred. Deep scratch marks are on the inside of the door. The smell of charred flesh still lingers. Upon close inspection, holes can be seen in the ceiling, spaced out over the room.

A red wire leads from the junction of the wall and ceiling into the ceiling proper. Two wires come up from the door and join the red wire in the ceiling. The three wires lead through the ceiling to another room and connect to a circuit board. The circuit board is also connected to car battery and three switches. The wires in the burn room were insulated. Most of the insulation has burnt off. The first switch swings the door shut and locks it. The second switch electrifies the door. The third wire no longer connects to anything in the main room.

The secondary room also has a rung ladder which leads up to the overflow sewer system. From the overflow system, one must climb up another set of rungs to the sewer system proper. The neighborhood is near Oak and 16th in the Shaughnessy ‘hood.

Research in the spirit world suggests a magical barrier may have, at one time, surrounded the secondary room.

Rooftop of the Museum:  The master vampire of the city is currently in possession of the tape sent to Mark Dieter. The body of Leroy was placed facing the east. Leroy’s body was placed above the works of Dr. Keith Herber below in the museum. Details from the video are not the best. A specialist was brought in to clean it up and a copy was burned to CD rom. Of note, the VHS tape used had been previously been used to videotape episodes of a tv show titled, Hunter.

The features of Leroy can be seen in the video. The camera was placed directly in front of Leroy. Blood stains can be seen on Leroy’s body. He appears to have been stabbed by a large weapon in the abdomen, twice. He has lost a lot of blood from those wounds and his clothing is permeated with it. He is also staked through the heart. Walk around video footage showing the entire set up shows the stake goes into the cross. Stakes and handcuffs also bind his feet and hands to the cross. A piece of wood appears to be placed in the mouth to keep Leroy from speaking. The process of his final death is not an easy thing to watch, especially for other vampires.

The video recorder is placed on a tripod or other sturdy surface once the sun begins to rise. A shadow can be seen on the ground, suggesting the perpetrator watched the vent.

Summer Festival:  Sean and mark happen to be invited to the same event. The event was to benefit the local homeless shelters. Sean had performed volunteer work with the local shelters before he lost his wife. Mark was known to hire homeless people to perform temporary work. What the people running the shelter were unaware of, was that Mark used them to run guns for Hanchette. Sean, however, was quite aware of who Mark was and what he did for Hanchette.

The festival was held at the home of Geraldine Findley, a very prominent supporter of the local shelters. He hosts the gala every year. It is considered a sign of good luck to be invited and is considered a sin to decline the invitation.

The vent is coordinated by Becky McMartin (Sleeper). Becky runs the Benefit for the Needy, a city government program. Their offices are located in a downtown office building. There is nothing special about the office or the five other people who work in it. While everyone will remember the murder of Mark Dieter, no one really remembers knowing him. They deal with so many people that they really do not have the time to go out and meet everyone. They do have files on everyone that received the invitations and why they were invited. The file on Mark Dieter shows that he would hire homeless for temp work, but does not mention what type of work.

Dr. Conrad Blankers’ Lab:  Conrad’s lab was located in a warehouse located at the corner of Nelson Street and Beatty Street. The lab is locked. The current owner of the lab is Melissa Tallien, Conrad’s old assistant. Melissa has a Master’s degree in Physics and is currently studying for her PH.D. She specializes in laser work. She is a highly attractive woman. She knows Dr. Conrad was involved with a group of individuals and suspects it was some sort of secret society. She has been warned by the individuals from the secret society to not contact the police, as it would only bring bad things to her life.

Melissa has not moved items around in the lab since Dr. Conrad’s death. She does not like to go to the lab, but will do so to help anyone researching the doctor’s death. She will show the investigators the lab table Conrad was placed on. She can confirm that he was restrained with ropes. There is still a dark stain where his brain was lasered. The laser device is one he was working on and it was intended for use in space.

Home of Kerwin Mackinnon:  Kerwin’s home is located at the corner of Nicola Street and Pendrell Street in the West End neighborhood. Possession of the house has transferred onto the law firm of Humperdink, McCormick and Allison. The house was wiled to the law firm for services rendered. The law firm is under the control of another local vampire named Ken Greenburg. Ken handles a large share of the legal transactions of supernatural int eh area.

Ken was asked by Druce Maccullum to wait on selling the property. Druce is hoping someone, somewhere will find a clue as to why Kerwin and Dorrena were slain. Deirdre Sullivan soes not seem to be taking an interest in the case, but that is just a show. She is very interested, but a cold bitch lacking emotion.

Ken will escort investigators to the home, if requested. The power and water are still turned on to the house. The fornt door does not show sign of forced entry. However, there are a few scratches on the door lock. While the bodies are gone and the sheets have been thrown away, there is still a smell of blood to the bedroom. A puncture wound enters the bed and there is a grand bloodstain around it. The bodies appear to have attempted to free themselves of the iron bar stake, due to the pattern of blood spread around the room. The stake used was from a railroad. The main clue in the home is a size ten, military boot outlined in blood found in the hallway outside the bedroom.

Doreena was known for hanging out along Sunset Beach Park. Kerwin spent a lot of time in the shops down the street from his home. No one knew the two were intimately involved. The bodies were found in their faerie form.

Costume Shop:  Robert Kgari was shot in the back three times with a Cassull revolver.



Notes
If using this for a World of Darkness game:
·         Vampires
o    David Hanchette is a Venture who favors business women. He has Dominate 5 and a large Herd.
o    Leroy is a Nosferatu.
o    Ken Greenburg is another Ventrue.
·         Werewolves
o    Michael Corvin is a Glass Walker.
o    Flame-Maker is a Bone Gnawer.
o    Snatches is a Bone Gnawer.
o    Marshall Wells is a Glass Walker.
o    Akemi Tanaka
o    Chernikova
o    Van Daalen
·         Mages
o    Sean’s spells are Hedge magics.
o    Conrad Blankers is a Son of Ether.
o    The specialist who cleaned up the video was a Virtual Adept
·         Fae
o    Kerwin Mackinnon is a Seelie Sidhe.
o    Doreena Byrne is an Unseelie Satyr.


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