A Simple Plan, Scene 2

A Simple Plan

Scene 2

I got out of there as fast as I could. No one seemed to be pursuing me, and I'm not sure I blame them. I figure none of them understood what they had just seen, or why they were fighting. But, it’s not like they would just shake it off and think it was a hallucination or anything. They knew someone had been there. So, I was now screwed two ways. First, I hadn’t been able to get the files I had come here for. Two, they had seen me. Which is the biggest “no no” I can think of. I managed to make a nice mess of things, and I hadn’t even been able to figure anything out. I just wanted to get out there, crawl up back home, and put the night behind me. But as I was walking away—well, ok, creeping away—a thought hit me. What if they call the cops? What if I they had tapes? What if I had managed to screw up the Masquerade? And then I thought, what if they don’t call the cops? I knew whoever had hired me wanted information on vampires, which means this quarry was somehow tied up with our kind, in a way I couldn’t yet figure out. So, they wouldn’t call the cops. They’d call someone else. And who they called, and what that person did in response, could still be pretty useful. At least more useful than just skulking away. So, instead of leaving, I decided to stay. I curled up in the nice dark shadow of a dumpster and waited to see what would happen next.

The prompt for this scene is:

Stake out an Actor or Location. Whether or not you win the check, your opponent gains a Victory point due to delay.

As a Nosferatu with Obfuscate, it’s pretty easy for Terry to stakeout a location. So long as he’s in a shadow he is, for all intents and purposes, invisible. But, there’s still the question of him picking the right spot to see, and maybe hear, what he needs to see. So, that will be his challenge for the scene.

I decide the best roll for this will be Terry’s Perception (3) and Investigate (2) to pick the best spot for his stake out. As the Mental threat is 3, this means the difficulty will be standard, or 6. Each success will give him some information about what’s going on, while a failure is a failure. On a botch, he’ll be noticed. Somehow. Maybe a ghoul or something with Auspex. Oh, he’ll also go ahead and spend 2 blood points to heal, reducing his level to Bruised. He’s still a bit banged up, but has no penalty. Perception + Investigate [5] 5,8,6,9,1 for two successes.

Terry managed to get 2 successes, so he gets some good intel about what’s going. Now I just need to figure out what this intel is. I have some ideas which make sense to me, but I decide to turn to the CRGE to flesh things out and look for a bit of randomness.

Given the “raid” by Terry, I assume the workers will call their bosses, and they’ll call theirs, and through channels, it will eventually reach someone important. That person will either come by to see what happened, or send someone to take care of things. So, let’s see if that’s true. I’m still using the “To Knowledge” tables from CRGE. Does someone come to the office? 29, No. So, no one is coming. I add 2 to the “Surge Count”—whenever you roll a plain “yes” or “no,” you add 2 to the Surge. These are added (to high results) or subtracted (from low results), pushing the game to more unexpected places. Does someone leave? 25 (27-2), No. +2 to Surge, bringing it to 4. Hrm, ok, so there’s no obvious response. No swaggering bad ass vamp showing up, and no panicked exec driving off to meet his betters. Does anyone try to dispose of evidence? -3 (1-4), No, and Unexpectedly… “Unexpectedly” brings me to a new table, where the game goes in a previous unknown direction, modifying the “answer, the scene, or the whole game.” It’s a d20 roll, and I get a 13 for “to endings.” Which means “the next scene resolves or substantially moves forward a thread of your choosing. Set the main elements of the next scene, and start heading toward them in this scene.” So, this doesn’t really help me much. But, it does make me wonder—what if the documents Terry is after have already been removed? Are the documents already gone? 96. Yes, and Unexpectedly…15, Enter Stage Left. “a PC or NPC (new or pre-existing) arrives fresh in the scene.” Is the Actor someone already established? 77. Yes. +2 to Surge. Is this an Actor established in A Lonely Hope? 30 (32-2.) No. +2 to Surge So, it doesn’t look like the vampires of New Canaan have already secured the information. Instead, one of Montrell’s people had broken in previously.   Most likely, this would have been Jayden. Does Terry know Jayden? 81 (77+4), Yes, And. Yeah, he’s also the “courier” who delivered the packages. He knows his car.

But nothing did happen. There was some ruckus as they cleaned up the mess, but otherwise they all just kept working like nothing had happened. It was…bizarre. I expected black Cadillac’s to roll up at any moment. The Prince’s enforcers to rush in.  Something to happen. I was so focused on the front, that I almost forgot about the back. There was a group of them, out by the fire door, smoking and complaining. They were all complaining about something, and it took me a while to figure it out. I wasn’t their first visitor. Someone else had broken in the other night. And the staff seemed to be  more upset about the lack of a CCTV system, which was at least good for me. Of course, my friend from the conference room wasn't with them, so I had no idea of how she was holding up. Instead, they were wondering about the next “sketch artist.” Something about a “sketch” stirred something in my mind. I had seen something when I was in there, and with the door propped open, I could peak inside. There, right by the door, a crude drawing of a man, with a question “Do you know who I am?” I did. If you didn’t know him, it was just a generic looking black man. But if you knew him, even a little, you would see the resemblance. And I had been seeing this man practically twice a night for the past two months. “Mike” my friendly courier, always ready and willing to pick up or deliver anything I needed. And I had at least picked up a little bit of paranoia you had tried to drill into my brain. I knew his car, and I knew his license plate.

Terry knows where the information is, or at least where it was. He gains a Victory Point, but the delay has cost him, and Montrell gets one as well. Montrell also gets to roll against the current Count (2) and gets a 10, so no bonus. Next, I roll for the next scene prompt and get a 4:

Face the foe's best warrior- or the foe himself if this is a climactic battle and they're fit for combat. Face a Fight instead of a check.

Wonderful. This is going to go great.

Victory Points								Heat
Terry	1		Montrell			2		3
Investigation & Action Scene Count				2
Willpower (6)	4	Blood Pool (12)			7		Health (7)		6
Scene Number	Type		Description					Result
1	Investigation		Infiltrate a Location					Failure
2	Investigation		Stake a Location					Success
3	Action		Face the foes best warrior

Rules and Mechanics Base Game: Vampire: The Masquerade (1st Edition) Not familiar with Vampire? Check out the Primer Story Structure: Scarlet Vampire a variation of Scarlet Heroes Oracle: CRGE Other Tools: Universal NPC Emulator, Covetous Poet's Adventure Creator, Everyone, Everywhere, and Storytellers Handbook.