((GM Notes are in parentheses)
[Mechanical Notes are in braces]
((NOTE - This is our Season 1 TTVD Finale episode, after this session, we'll be switching things up for a few weeks with a different game (Call of Cthulhu) and a different GM))
Nick was in an out of consciousness for the better part of the four hours. He didn't know if they drugged him, but he wouldn't be surprised. In one of the longer stretches of semi-wakefulness, he took stock of his situation.
He was somewhere at sea, and the window of the room he was in was either on a boat or a shoreline. He could hear waves. But the room didn't sway or rock, so this couldn't be a boat, could it?
No one answered any of his calls, screams, or rude statements about people's mothers. In fact, he didn't hear any sound past that of the ocean and his own voice.
And he still had most of this things with him. He was dressed. He had his wallet. He had his watch. His shoes had shoelaces. His belt was still fastened. Gone was his phone (he expected that) and gone was the twenty dollar bill he had in his back pocket. (Not expected, but reasonable).
Two hours passed, his cell was large, and the sink and toilet were in working order. He walked the space, counting twelve by sixteen tiles on the floor. And he waited. At some point, a rubber ball was tossed into his cell from a slot in the door. Yes, he checked the door. It was heavy, likely magnetized and he didn't have the strength to loose it.
But he had a ball. And he knew a variety of games. Like catch-with-your-left-hand, and catch-with-your-right.
He took off his watch. Later, well not really later, more like at some point in the future, he'd smash it with his shoe and try to start escaping.
There wasn't a bed in the room, but he had taken to stretching out in the far corner under the window. If he turned his head, he could see out the window in the door, and he could, if he stayed awake, figure out who guarded him and what their schedule was.
Interrupting this plan was the door sliding open and two people joining him. Desdemona and Rossini were tossed into the room. The first thing Nick noticed was that Rossini was missing a finger. The second thing Nick noticed was the Desdemona was barely breathing.
Rossini explained that he heard from another agent (Chip Chesterton IV, now dead) that Nick was gone, and it was only thanks to Carter Byers' [3-point Preparedness spend] expert surgery that every Agent has a GPS stashed into their hip. Mace, who was also missing now, sent Desdemona and Rossini to retrieve Nick.
And they found him, on an abandoned off-shore oil drilling platform, owned by a subsidiary of MertCo Oil and Gas [CORE CLUE], a major financial backer of the Absalom Properties [previous CORE CLUE]. And they were surrounded just by ocean in every direction for about 30 miles. Rossini "borrowed" [2 point Network spend] a small boat from a fishing buddy and Desdemona was quick to sign on. The rescue mission was supposed to be this - find Nick, escape, keep the fighting to a minimum.
Well, they found Nick alright. They found him about four hours into Nick's captivity, but someone else also found them.
The boat reached platform pretty easily, the rock of the waves drew it right in. But no sooner had they moored that someone joined them on the boat.
This someone they recognized from Aruba. One of the hotel staff, a young guy, Ted or something. He still had on his uniform. It was stained pink with blood, and Ted looked pretty pale right now, but Ted still had on his uniform.
Rossini wasn't fast enough. Even with a neat tuck and roll [2 point Athletics spend], Ted was faster. And Desdemona didn't stand a chance. Ted bit her.
Ted then did something odd. He hocked a big fat lugie at Rossini. Hit him square in the arm. And everything got sort of fuzzy, Rossini swears. Fuzzy like he just chugged a bottle of vodka. Fuzzy like he was looking at the world through goggles filled with sea water.
((Although Ted still wasn't a full-on vamp he was 2/3rds the way through his transformation. He couldn't yet turn others, but his saliva was most certainly narcotic -- see Vampire Spreadsheet))
Rossini fainted [1 point Stability loss] and he came too with a searing hot pain in his hand. An older man, someone practically desiccated, lopped off Rossini's ring finger with red hot pruning shears, then cauterized the wound with a Zippo and a piece of metal. Rossini, in pain, was strapped down to a tilt-table and got to watch two things:
1. This old man shuffling around the room
2. Desdemona being bled out through a weird machine that he was sure he'd seen on TV.
The old man hovered over Desdemona, watching her blood filter out, watching her basically die, and then would take a sharp thing (scissors, a file, a coat hanger, whatever was handy) and jab it into Rossini.
((By this time, each was down to about half their [Health] and half their [Stability].))
Rossini was only asked two questions:
1. Why doesn't he just surrender?
2. Where is Mace Hunter?
He didn't have answers for either, and eventually they were dragged up a flight of stairs and into Nick's cell.
Nick took off his shirt and did what he could for Desdemona [1 point Medic spend], but for the most part, she was a goner. But once Rossini better described the machine, Nick knew what had happened.
She was turned. Her blood pumped out, new blood, vamp serum, pumped in. He also knew [2 point Vampirology spend] that in order to make the changes stick, Desdemona would have to feed. And who better to snack on than the two guys she's held captive with?
MEANWHILE....
Mace had just returned to New York, and was eager to activate as many agents as possible and really put the squeeze on everything.
Just as he was pouring the first afternoon Bloody Mary, his phone rang. MikeSmith on the other end said he was downstairs, and that he had just returned home to find his home in flames and his family dead [Solace lost, Security Lost], and he needed a place to go. Also, there were fifteen packages being dropped off.
Packages? Mace wasn't expecting anything. But he and MikeSmith worked to bring them all upstairs and eventually, after some tears and some drinks, opened them. Each box was addressed differently, to a different cover ID either for Mace, Nick or some other team member.
Inside each box was a head.
Some were Agents. Chip Chesterton IV, Samuel Foster, Ashywa Tarwilligar. Some were Nick's cousins. Mary and Judith.
One was even the girl Mace had a crush on in the eighth grade, Karen.
There was also a smaller package, an envelope, and inside a leather strap with what looked like a smartphone holstered to it. The note was addressed to Mace, from "your biggest fan", and written by someone who's handwriting duplicated Mace's exactly.
((Note - this is the link between this campaign and our Ashen Stars campaign, one of the things we'll be doing in the near future. This is Mace's "out", because I want to keep the character running through all our stories))
Under Karen's head (she didn't age well, Mace noted), was an mp3 player.
It had one track on it. Mace played it. The Voice was not The Man's.
"Good afternoon Mister Hunter. Hopefully with this message you've received our little gifts to you. Perhaps in the future, you'll be more thorough with your background checks of the cleaning company you hire to do your floors. It's a very nice office you have there, but tell me, do all the ladies know the truth? Which Mace Hunter do they know? The suave charmer? Or the haunted spy? It's not fair that you have the ability to pick and choose who you are when people like us have only the one face to show the world....albeit at night. So, Mister Hunter..."
Here the Voice transformed into the Man's.
"...we're going to make you choose. This message is ninety seconds long, leaving you about....twenty seconds to escape. Nineteen. Eighteen."
Mace and MikeSmith ran for the elevator, but not before Mace grabbed the Blue Notebook.
Seventeen. The elevator wasn't coming.
Sixteen. To the stairs they ran.
Fifteen. Mace left his phone upstairs.
Fourteen. All Mike could remember was the way his house burned.
Thirteen. Down the stairs, faster, faster.
Twelve. MikeSmith tapped out a quick 911 text to all Agents.
Eleven. Why the hell did Mace have to live so high up?
Ten. Where the hell was Nick?
Nine. Carter called Mike, saying he was being fired from the Hospital.
Seven. Mace didn't even finish his drink.
Six. Mike couldn't get the stink of gasoline out of his nose.
Five. Poor Karen. Her eyes glazed over.
Four. The first floor, finally.
Three. Screaming through the lobby, "Everyone get out!"
Two. Street level.
One. Mace looked skyward as the sun began to set.
BOOM.
Night fell slower than the building did. The explosion was huge, and shook the entire block. The building didn't collapse, it was built American strong, but the top crumbled and spit out across the street below in every direction.
All Mace had was whatever was on him and the blue notebook. Damn the Man. Where was the team?
RE-MEANWHILE....
Nick looked out the window at the last licks of sunlight, and then back to Desdemona, she was moaning now, these oddly seductive moans that were at once arousing and frightening. She didn't speak much, but when she did she only said,
"Hungry."
((This concludes Season 1 of Tinker Tailor Vampire Die...we'll be switching to Ashen Stars (another great Pelgrane product) and Call of Cthulhu for a few weeks (I'm running Ashen Stars, Craig (who played MikeSmith) is running Cthulhu))
((I should also point out that if you like this thread, and like this game, you should come out to DexCon this July and participate in the
$1,000 Night's Black Agents tournament, which I'm very excited to have a role in.))
((Season 2 will begin in June, more or less. I have some work to do throughout May, which is why I'm playing rather than running as busy a schedule))