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[IC] Hunter: the Vigil (Prologue)
mightyspacepope
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Prologue
Three months ago...
You'd parked your cars in an apartment complex relatively close by. The neighborhood was rough, but your cars were bland enough that they hopefully wouldn't be broken into. A pair of short cab rides, another ten minutes of walking, and you were at your destination. With your toolboxes, your duffel bags, and your workboots, you looked like a late-night repair crew or members of the public works commission. No one even gave you a second look.
It wasn't an ideal situation. Your cars were a long way away, so a quick escape would be difficult. The equipment wasn't that heavy, but it was annoying to transport and to stuff into a cab that was already crammed.
Luckily, there was a hole in the fence wide enough to shove the toolboxes and duffel bags through. After crossing, you made your way carefully toward one of the smaller buildings, staying low and crouching behind bushes, pausing at each tree to look out for security guards. Overgrowth and weeds impeded your progress, forcing you to slow down so you wouldn't trip. The young girl had told you the building to enter, the one where you could find the tunnel she'd went into with her boyfriend three nights ago.
He didn't make it back out. She managed to just barely escape, but had trouble remembering the details of what had happened.
They'd gone in on a dare. The party had gotten boring. The game of truth or dare had escalated from kissing, to flashing, to making out in one of the padded rooms at the abandoned Byberry Mental Hospital. She'd begged him to just walk around for a while, then lie to them about doing it. He'd insisted.
He'd gone in there before, told her it wasn't a big deal. They went in a side building, walked down some decrepit stairs. At the bottom floor was an old door, big and metal. He propped it open with a piece of concrete rubble, telling her it locked from the inside. They walked down the hallway, found an open door. He shined a flashlight inside. The room was padded, mostly empty except for some trash and a baby stroller turned on its side. It smelled like mold. He grabbed her hand, pulled her in. Turned off the flashlight. They started making out. He became more forceful, pushing her up against the wall hard. The padded wall cushioned the impact. She giggled, partly out of excitement, mostly out of nervous fear.
She thought she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. It was pitch black, but still. She thought she saw movement.
Then something grabbed her boyfriend. She heard him utter a quick yelp of fear, then hit the padded floor. Then, something sounded like a piece of paper ripping. Then, a splatter. The tone of the scream changed, became constant, ragged.
She ran, hoping she wouldn't get turned around in the dark. She bumped into the metal door face first. Her fingers felt for the gap, found it, then quickly pulled the door open.
Footsteps behind her, moving at an odd pace.
She went through the doorway, kicked the concrete rubble as hard as she could. It skittered away, but she broke her toe in the process. She grabbed the handle and pulled it closed. Something slammed into the door on the other side, then started scratching.
She ran up the stairs and didn't stop until she got back home.
A sign near the door read "N-10: Tebercular Building." You opened the door, flashed your light inside quickly. It seemed to be empty. Gingerly, you made your way down the rusting stairway. At the bottom, you found the metal door. Faded letters long ago stenciled read, "Patient Dormitories."
The door was propped open with an old clipboard.
We can assume that Jacques' character is not present, since he's away until Tuesday.
Also, in the spirit of Supernatural, I will occasionally toss in some rock or metal music to set the theme of what's going on. I'm going to start with some Dio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECsyFB-AZsw
Also, in the spirit of Supernatural, I will occasionally toss in some rock or metal music to set the theme of what's going on. I'm going to start with some Dio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECsyFB-AZsw
mightyspacepope on
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N-10: Tebercular Bldg- Patient Dorms.
Door propped open by clipboard.
Girl didn't say anything about a chipboard.
Police maybe? Ghost of Doctor?
"So, who wants to go first?" Robert ask nervously.
Wits + Craft roll to examine lock. (5d10=18)
After examining the door from behind the group, she opts to take advantage of the provided light. She soon takes a closer look, already producing a lockpick into view from where it had doubled as a secondary hairpin.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2282537/
5d10.hitsopen (8, 10) → [5,9,9,[10, 2],2] = 3 successes
I guess a disarming attempt would be a second roll?
She deftly goes to work on the locking mechanism, disabling it in seconds.
God, if you are out there, please don't let us be killed. Thanks.
Robert checks to make sure his gun's safely is off and hold it like the police officers on T.V.
"Well, lets not stand here all night. I'll go first." Robert whispers to the group.
He steps through the door and looks around.
6d10.hits(8)=2 Did I do that right? Tell me on OOC thread.
Graffiti covers the walls. Some of it is written in English. Some of it looks like the tags of local gangs. Some of it looks like it's supposed to be a language, but one that you've never seen before. There are pictures, too. Some of them the harmless scrawling of teenagers. Others are much cruder. The rest are disturbing.
Further down, doors line the hallway on either side, some open, some closed. The rooms that you're able to see from your vantage point look like they were once patient living quarters. They're small, the walls padded. Some still have cots and chairs, but most are strewn around. Other assorted objects are scattered around. Clipboards. Food wrappers. Pens. Beer cans. Syringes. Used condoms.
After everyone steps through the doorway and stops moving, you hear a faint sound, far down the tunnels. It sounds like yelling.
Then, a scream.
"Buddy, Rushing in there is only going to get you killed. Wait."
Robert shines his light towards the walls and looks at the writing.
"Maybe these will tell us who we up against. Better then losing our heads"
I thought I had more points in Occult. Lets see what Robert knows.
He keeps his composure at the scream but his flashlight beam suddenly jumps ahead of them into the endless dark of the corridor. "The girl said she was in one of the 'residences'," he says, smiling at his use of the word before continuing, "Do you suppose that's where the scream came from?"
He heads for the nearest door and opens it enough to shine his flashlight inside, looking for any obvious signs of life.
*****
Ben finds no immediate signs of life in the nearest room. An old wheelchair has been turned over on its side, trash strewn over the floor. A pile of crumpled up newspaper hints at someone previously sleeping there, but the paper is yellowed and has holes in it. Graffiti on the wall reads, "For a good time, call Sally. 555-1251."
*****
Gerald storms through the hallway, flashing his light in the rooms to either side as he runs. A scream rings out once again, this time much closer. Continuing onward, Gerald almost slips in a pool of blood that's puddling out from one of the doorways. He catches himself, flashes his light downward. On the floor lies a body, that of a man dressed in cargo pants and a hooded sweatshirt. His throat has been torn open, his face badly scratched or sliced by something.
He examines the room. It looks to have once been some sort of physician's office. The body lies just inside what was once a waiting room. The chairs and the small tables have been tossed around, some of them broken. A series of portable walls creates a maze-like hallway out of the waiting room, probably designed to give patients and doctors some sort of privacy.
Just before where the corridor takes a turn, Gerald sees another body, blood also pooling on the floor around it.
From further into the maze, another scream echoes. Gerald is also able to make out at least two sets of footsteps. One of them is panicked, he hears the sound of objects clattering around, followed by an occasional curse.
The other footsteps are much softer, but seem to be moving more deliberately.
As he's making this out, Quinn arrives in the waiting room, followed soon after by Eleanor and Casimir. Robert and Ben are still back just inside the metal door.
She wasn't that stupid.
"Safety is off, right." he says under his breath as they begin walking "Good, it is."
Pulling on some gloves from his back pocket he kneels down and shifts the head, checking the full extent of the damage. As he tries to determine the exact cause of the wounds to the face and neck, he says to the others, "It seems like this is a squat so this thing must have just moved in recently. Or maybe someone just pissed it off."
They follow the turns of the corridor slowly, eventually entering what was once an examination room. Two chairs and an orderly's cart are upturned on the floor. A mirror hangs on the wall, covered almost entirely by mold, or some other darkly colored substance.
Under the examination table, a woman rocks back and forth. She's wearing jeans and a leather jacket. A series of jagged slashes cut across her sleeve, revealing bleeding wounds underneath. Her hands are also cut and dripping blood.
She shies away as someone flashes their light across her, flinching and jumping back. She hits the wall behind her, which shakes with the impact. Squinting at the three newcomers, she scrambles to her feet and grabs onto Eleanor's arm.
"We have to get out of here. It's still in here somewhere. Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god." Her voice is frantic. She's whispering, but you can tell she's barely stifling a scream.
*****
Gerald listens to hear anything beyond the footsteps of the three people walking forward or the musings of the doctor. Somewhere up ahead, he hears a sudden bump, then some whispered conversation.
Then, he swears he hears footsteps further ahead somewhere, past the closest walls. The timing is weird, almost as if whatever's making it is limping or loping.
Then, it starts getting faster.
"Calm down, we're here to help. What is still here?"
Quinn takes a look at the shotgun, noticing that it appears to be in usable condition and is loaded with three shells.
*****
Looking over the wall, Gerald spots a sudden blur of motion as something pale runs past him and toward where the others are.
*****
Quinn looks up from the shotgun to find a pale, emaciated creature scrambling over the wall. It makes it over the wall and lands in a crouch on the floor. It's humanoid, if not human. Despite its hunched appearance, it looks like it would be taller than anyone in the room if it stood erect. It wears no clothes, and its skin is a sickly milky white color, although it looks like it was grazed by a gunshot. Its long fingers end in jagged-looking claws. Its sharp teeth and bat-like ears make it reminiscent of a vampire, but certainly no vampire you've ever seen before.
It looks at Robert, Eleanor, Quinn, and the woman, cocks its head sideways, and snarls. Its muscles tense as it appears ready to pounce.
The woman screams again and pulls herself away from Eleanor, moving back the way that they'd come in.
So, no one is surprised by the beastie.
Initiative (1d10+6=7)
15 - Robert
13 - Eleanor
12 - Gerald
11 - Quinn
10 - Benjamin
07 - Casimir
07 - Monster
Monster Health
[X] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Defense: 4
Important Facts about the Scene
1. The monster is currently at short range (so, you don't subtract its Defense from your attack). It could very likely get to close range on its turn very quickly.
2. The room is small enough that you're probably not going to be able to get to anything further away than short range.
3. There's enough debris in the room that you could conceivably maneuver some of it to give the monster a -1 to its attack pool. This would eat up your move action, though.
4. Gerald, Casimir, and Ben cannot directly attack the creature this round, but they can try to do something else or spend this turn moving to get there for the next round.
She'd love to see the editors pass this off as doctored.
Crap, screwed up, I was using the old White Wolf system. I'm going to go ahead and keep that if I can, and just roll four more dice. Please? Pretty please? Hell, I'll juts keep that and not roll 4 more dice. I think that's fair? Eh? Eh?
Additional dice for attack on clawed thingie. (4d10.hitsopen(8,9)=2)
The shot squarely connects with the creature. As the reverberations die down, Quinn responds to Robert with a "boo."
Gerald considers his options for a brief moment, then leans onto the "wall", putting as much of his weight onto his hands as he can, he kicks off.
Just like climbing a fence.
Just as he vaults the wall, he remembers the last time he did that, he broke his leg, and needed a transfusion.
The room is silent for several moments.
Then, several more pairs of clawed feet scrabbling against the concrete floor. Two more of the creatures climb over the wall and into the patient examination room with Robert, Eleanor, and Quinn. One of them lands on the examination table. The other misjudges its landing, hitting an upturned chair and skidding to a stop near Robert. It quickly rights itself and hisses at him, revealing blood-spattered lips.
In the waiting room, a woman goes running past Casimir and Benjamin, gasping frantically.
After a few heartbeats, a pale creature lopes behind her, skidding to a stop as it sights the other two relatively stationary prey.
Meanwhile, Gerald is somewhere in the middle. He watches as some woman rushes past him, followed by one of the creatures, then sees two more hop into the room in front of him.
15 - Robert
13 - Eleanor
12 - Gerald
11 - Quinn
10 - Benjamin
07 - Casimir
07 - Monster
Creature 1 (Exam Table)
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Defense: 4
Creature 2 (Near Robert)
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Defense: 4
Creature 3 (Waiting room)
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Defense: 4
Important Facts about the Scene
1. The monsters are currently at short range (so, you don't subtract its Defense from your attack). It could very likely get to close range on its turn very quickly.
2. The room is small enough that you're probably not going to be able to get to anything further away than short range.
3. There's enough debris in the room that you could conceivably maneuver some of it to give the monster a -1 to its attack pool. This would eat up your move action, though.
4. The woman is rushing past Cas and Ben, back the way you guys came in.
Except this time, she does take a picture, having disabled the flash beforehand.
The second creature is bleeding profusely from a bullet wound through it shoulder and the blast of buckshot that it took across the ribs. Despite this, it still scratches at Robert, its gaze that of a feral animal near death. Its claws rake across the writer's left shin. His leg feels like its on fire, then he feels blood dripping from the wound, soaking his pant leg and into his sock.
The last creature charges toward Casimir. Accustomed to such a tactic, Casimir sidesteps, causing the creature to stumble and trip over a nearby chair.
The woman continues back the way you entered, neglecting to even look behind her to see if she's still being pursued.
Initiative
15 - Robert
13 - Eleanor
12 - Gerald
11 - Quinn
10 - Benjamin
07 - Casimir
07 - Monsters
Creature 1 (Exam Table)
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Defense: 4
Creature 2 (Near Robert)
[x] [x] [x] [x] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Defense: 4
Creature 3 (Waiting room)
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Defense: 4
Creature 1 (vs Quinn)
3d10 => [2,5,1] = 8
Miss.
Creature 2 (vs Robert)
4d10 => [1,9,9,6] = 25
Robert takes 2 X's.
Creature 3 (vs Cas)
3d10 => [2,4,4] = 10
Miss.
Then Robert aims at the creature. "We could have been friends. Now, you're just dead meat!" Robert fires off a shot.