Campus Vigilantes

[-Sentinel-]

The bartender handed Leon a glass of rum. His face was neutral when the biology student gave him a description of Karen.

"Nope, sorry. I wasn't working here yesterday. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm kinda busy here."


OOC: Anyone who's with Leon (and Leon himself, of course) can roll Wits + Empathy.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Leon takes the drink with a nod. "Thanks. There anyone who was working here yesterday or the ay before? This is kind of important."

[-Sentinel-]

The bartender blew out a breath, seemingly exasperated. Matthew could tell he looked nervous and evasive from the moment Karen had been described to him... As if he knew something and was not telling.

"Do we look like the police? Ask Maria," he said, jerking his tumb at the Latina barmaid working on the other end of the bar. "She's the one running the place."

He went on with his work. While passing by Maria, he leaned towards her and whispered something in her ear. To Matthew it was obvious he was just trying to get rid of them. He had not even taken the time to grab his tip for the rum...

Maria walked over to them, a smile plastered on her cherry-red lips. "I'm afraid I can't help you with that," she apologized. "So many people come and go every night, we can't remember everyone. You sure she came here?"

(OOC: Again, you are allowed a Wits + Empathy test.)

---

1

Lillian was sitting at the bar when a tall, handsome young man with long brown hair and a VIP pin on his shirt sat to her left and called the bartender:

"Hey, Paul! I'm offering a VIP Special to this lady. She's new here, she deserves the very best." He turned to Lillian and extended his hand with a friendly grin. "Hi. I'm Chris. You are...?"

[Misaat]

" Her Motorcycle is still parked outside. It would have been weird to park there if she wasnt coming here wouldn't you agree? "

Mate says while studying her reaction... They where definitely hiding something.

[-Sentinel-]

No emotion was obvious on Maria's face, but her smile did seem a bit forced.

"Maybe she'd drunk too much to drive and called a taxi. No idea what happened to her next." She looked thoughtful. "Wait. The other bartender last night was... Richie. He's better than me at remembering faces. He's not on duty tonight, but we can give him a call." She jerked her thumb at the Employees Only door, still smiling at Matt and Leon. "Will you follow me, please?"

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Leon nods, picking up his glass. "Of course, thank you. C'mon, Matt." He follows the bartender toward the door.

[Misaat]

" All right... "

As he follows behind closely Matt presses 911 on his cellphone and leaves his thumb almost pressed against the "Call" button.

[-Sentinel-]

Maria led Matt and Leon into a small, windowless employees' room with a table, a few chairs, a fridge and a coffeemaker. She closed the door behind her, partially shutting out the techno music, and whistled through her fingers. A half-closed door labeled Emergency Exit opened at the other end of the room and a well-built man who looked like a bouncer came in from the backstreet with a cigarette between his lips and brass knuckles around the fingers of his right hand. He slammed the door and gave Leon and Matt a blank look.

"Ah. Fred," said Maria with a quick nod. "Keep an eye on these two, please. I'm calling Gregory."

Leon blinked when Maria pulled a honest-to-goodness KA-BAR combat knife from her jeans. She was no longer bothering to conceal her annoyance as she leaned against the door leading to the main room, drew her cellphone and began to dial a number.

Fred's expressionless black eyes fell on the hand Matt was hiding. "Your hands where I can see 'em," he grumbled tersely. "Don't be stupid, kid, we're not gonna hurt you." Unless you force us to, his posture was implying.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Note to self: Never go through the "Employees Only" door. It never leads anywhere good. Leon did his best to keep his posture relaxed, and to hide the trembling in his hands. "Now now now, is there really any need for the knife? We're not here to make trouble, we're just trying to find a friend. Why don't we all just relax, put away the various pain implements, and talk like gentlemen. And ladies."

[Misaat]

" Ok ok it's cool... "

He says as he stuffs the cellphone in his back pocket.Then he puts his hands where the big guy can see them.

[-Sentinel-]

Ignoring Leon's plea for putting away their weapons, Maria waited for someone to answer the phone. "Gregory? It's Maria. Sorry to bother you, but we need your special talents in the employees' room right now. There's two of them."

Brief silence as Gregory, whoever he was, answered something. Maria spoke again:

"No, this really can't wait. We can't hold them forever, and we don't want the police all over our asses. You'll get your usual rate. Just hurry up."


OOC:

Spoiler

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Pausing here, in case someone wants to attempt something while Maria is distracted (roll Initiative if needed). If not, we'll skip forward a few minutes.

@ Misaat: I take it Matt didn't press the Call button? It's not too late if you want to do it.

[Misaat]

Matthew looks carefully at the two of them... he doubts whether to press the button or not... and then he just leaves the cellphone in his pocket... He couldn't risk getting find out... After all they didn't have any information yet.

[-Sentinel-]

They waited. Maria looked increasingly nervous as the minutes passed, and her unblinking black eyes never left Matt and Leon. Finally, there was a knock at the door that led back to the main room. Maria opened it, allowed an attractive thirty-something man into the employees' room and quickly closed the door, a look of relief on her face. The newcomer had brown hair and a short, neatly trimmed beard and carried himself with a nonchalant swagger. His business-casual clothes looked expensive, but there was a noticeable crimson stain near the collar of his white button-up shirt. He wore a red VIP pin on his chest.

“I wonder what you'd do without me, Maria,” he drawled in an amused tone, wiping the side of his mouth with an old-fashioned handkerchief that he then shoved into a pocket.

“I'd find someone else,” Maria replied. “It's not like you're the only one who can do that. Can you take care of these two?”

“Sure thing. What are they here for?”

“Looking for that bitch from last night. Karen Turner. I don't know the details, you'll have to ask them.”

Gregory walked over to Leon, reached out as quickly as a snake and cupped his chin with his right hand. The student stiffened at the man's cold touch. Their eyes locked, and Leon felt his legs grow weak under the man's steady grey stare. He found it harder and harder to avert his gaze.

No one was paying attention to Matt. Maria and the bouncer were both looking at Gregory and Leon — and Maria was no longer leaning against the door behind her.


OOC:

Spoiler

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I'm going bit by bit, because this is the kind of situation where a fight can break out at any time. If I have no answer within two or three days, I'll assume none of you two attempts anything. Reminder: there are two doors, one leading outside and one leading to the main room. The bouncer is near the former and Maria is near the latter. Matt and Leon are about in the center of the room. It's not a very large room: anyone can cross it in any direction by moving their Speed value.

Anyone in the main room (if you're still playing), you must be starting to wonder where are Matt and Leon. Roll a simple Wits test to notice them following Maria into the employees' room five minutes ago.

[Misaat]

Doing the least amount of movement's possible Matthew quickly presses the "call" button on his cellphone while he thinks.

"Please please dont let them hear you! I dont even have you on speaker mode!"

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Leon tried to regain some sense of control of the situation. "What... are you... doing? Why can't... I look... away?" That was when his hunter's instincts, though dulled by whatever process the thing holding him was using, kicked in. This has to be the guy! This has to be the one who took Karen, and he probably knows what happened to Vishaka, too. I just need to... something. I need to do something, I just... can't get my head clear.

[-Sentinel-]

Spoiler

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Maria's Wits: (2d10)[8][2](10)
Bouncer's Wits: (3d10)[3][10][2](15)

Gregory is too busy to notice the sound of the phone.

The cell phone's beep made Matt wince; even with the beat of techno music in the next room, it was too loud. Maria and the bouncer both gave him a flat, deadly stare.

“The phone. Hand it over,” said Maria.

As soon as she had it in hand, she checked the number Matt had just dialed, cursed softly and hung up. One thing was sure, the 911 operators did not have nearly enough time to trace the call.

“Nice try.” Maria sounded irritated, but did not appear to see any point in punishing Matt for the attempt. She jammed the phone in her jeans pocket and brought her attention back to the strange scene that was unfolding. Leon was utterly immobile, his eyes wide and unblinking, as if transfixed by Gregory's stare.

“Tell me,” whispered Gregory. “How do you know Karen Turner? Who is she to you?”

Spoiler

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Time for a mysterious roll. Well, not all that mysterious for those with the right sourcebooks, but I'd rather not tell the players everything if I can avoid it. Anyway, I tweaked the rules a bit to give Leon a fighting chance.

(7d10)[6][7][4][7][7][6][4](41)

Leon may oppose this with a straight Resolve test. If he rolls more successes than Gregory, he may either break the hypnosis and do whatever he likes, or pretend to be hypnotized and lie. If he loses the contested roll, he must answer truthfully (the full truth, no half-truths or deceptive wordings, as his mind is too overwhelmed for trickery). If it's a tie, we will re-roll.

Edit: Epic fail for Gregory, but Leon must still roll Resolve, as we may have a tie.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Spoiler

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First the roll, actions come after... (3d10)[7][6][4](17)

Leon looks Gregory hard in the eye. "She's a friend of ours. She disappeared the other night, and we're just trying to get her home safe. No trouble, no vengeance, no police, just bringing a friend home safe."

[Misaat]

" Of course people knew we came here. So it would be better if we where also able to leave... "

Matthew adds. while leaning against the wall.

[-Sentinel-]

((OOC: Sorry for the delay, I somehow missed ToySoldier's post.))


"A friend of yours? Right... Listen to me." Gregory's voice took a commanding tone. "No one here saw her. You're at the wrong nightclub. Last night, Karen actually told you she was going to the Vegas Club. You must have gotten the two places mixed up."

For a moment there was a feeling of confusion at the back of Leon's mind, as if his memories were trying to rearrange themselves. We need to look for her at the Vegas Club, a voice was saying. But there was something wrong about that... I never even met her, he remembered. How and why would she have told me where she was going?

Spoiler

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The gist of it: Gregory has incorrect information, causing the false memories to slide off Leon's mind. Automatic failure for Gregory.

"One more thing," said Gregory, never breaking eye contact. "You will now shut out your mind and enter a trance. You will regain consciousness only when you hear the word masquerade."

He snapped his fingers.

Spoiler

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Another roll: (7d10)[5][1][6][7][7][4][2](32) -- No successes.

10-again if needed: (3d10)[1][6][9](16)

You may oppose it with a Resolve test.

Edit: Gregory must have drunk a bit too much tonight...

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Spoiler

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And Resolve. Not spending Willpower yet, though I may if we need to reroll again. (3d10)[5][5][10](20)

Though his mind remains clear, Leon decides playing along is the wisest course of action for now. He's already got plenty of information that the rest of the group needs to hear. As Gregory says, his eyes glaze over, losing focus, and he appears to slip into a state of trance.

[Misaat]

Mathew presses himself against the wall as he looks at Leon being hypnotized...

Dammit... we need to find a way out of here...

[-Sentinel-]

Gregory appeared satisfied with his "work" on Leon. He turned to Maria, a questioning look on his face, and jerked his thumb at the seemingly entranced student.

"I'd rather you didn't," Maria said.

"Pretty please? I'll consider it as my payment."

Maria sighed. "Not before they're both under control."

"No prob. If it's okay with you, I'll leave this young man in our room while I deal with the other... I'll have to say the trigger word again and I don't want to wake up Mr Sleeping Beauty here by accident."

"Go ahead. Come back quickly," said the barmaid with growing irritation.

Gregory opened the door behind Maria, put a hand on Leon's shoulder and gently led him through the main room — where people kept dancing to the techno music, oblivious.

---

1

Leon:

They passed mere yards from the other vigilantes — Lillian, Christian and the others — but none of them seemed to notice him amidst the loud music, the flashing lights and the dancers. Leon realized how easy it would be, right now, to dart into the crowd and lose his captor in the confusion... Or simply to grab his friends' attention... It was not as if Gregory could attack him here, in front of dozens of witnesses. Or could he?

Gregory was taking him towards the door with the VIP sign...

---

1

Matt:

And now, Matt was alone in the employees' room with Maria and the bouncer. The latter's inscrutable eyes never left the student's face; he seemed utterly incapable of emotions. Maria, on the other hand, was looking annoyed with the whole thing, as if she could not wait for Gregory to come back. She paced back and forth near the door, muttering curses in Spanish.

Matt's cell phone rang. He instinctively reached for it, only to remember Maria had taken it. The barmaid fished the phone out of her pocket with as much care as if it were a bomb ready to explode and stared at it for a long moment, her pretty face thoughtful. Finally, she pressed the green button, handed the phone back to its owner and brought her face almost cheek-to-cheek with Matt's — close enough to give the young man a lungful of her perfume and a superb view down her black tank-top. (Yet Matt could not feel her breath on him; she must have been holding it.)

Whatever was being said during the phone call, Maria did not intend to miss a word.

"Um... Hello, Matt?" said Vishakha's voice after an uncomfortable silence. "How's it going? Did you learn anything?"

[ToySoldierCPlus]

"Employees Only" doors are bad, VIP doors in a club that has vampires on the payroll have to worse. Forget that, I'm out. Leon ducks and bolts into the crowd, shouting over his shoulder as he leaves: "Sorry, bud, but I don't swing that way, and even if I did, I'm spoken for, and I don't think she'd like me swapping fluids with a someone else." Leon keeps low as he moves into the crowd, heading in any direction that is not toward the bar, the Employees Only door, or Gregory.

[Misaat]

Matthew has some trouble concentrating while trying to look at Maria's cleavage but somehow he pulls himself together.

" Yes... I mean No... We found out that maybe she didn't come here after all... Really i don't get why you would send us on this wild goose chase anyway... A law student like you should know its common to start looking for a person AFTER 48 hours not just the next day... she is probably just out there with her junkie friends... "

Spoiler

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I know she doesn't study law. I'm slipping things so she knows there is something going on. Do i need to make a roll for it?

[-Sentinel-]

Leon

Gregory blinked in surprise, clearly never expecting Leon to be in any state to flee.

"Hey... Somebody stop him! Stop him!" he yelled.

Most ignored his shout, made almost inaudible by the music... but from the corner of his eyes, Leon saw maybe three or four of the patrons converge in his direction. All of them, as far as he could tell, had the VIP tag on their shirts.

He ran headlong into Christian Barber, almost bowling him over. The other vigilantes were with him.

"Hey, what's going on, man?" said Christian. "Where's Ma-..."

His voice trailed off when he saw some of the VIPs, including Gregory, splitting the crowd at a run (or as much of a run as they could manage here) to get at them. Two of them held switchblades... and one had pulled a tiny black revolver from his jacket.

"Holy..." Christian began.

And then the rookie cop blurred into action without thinking, finally putting to use hundreds of hours of training. In a blink he unholstered his police-issue handgun, aimed at the disco ball hanging almost directly overhead and pulled the trigger. The BANG was very loud even through the music.

Spoiler

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Dex 3 + Firearms 3 + Skill Specialty 1 + Damage 2 = 9 dice

(9d10)[5][5][4][10][3][4][7][5][3](46)

The disco ball exploded, showering the dance floor with dozens of pieces of metal. And panic broke out at once. The nearest dancers fled screaming, and their contagious fear spread to those who had not even seen what had just happened. In mere seconds the room was plunged into chaos, everybody shoving each other in their eagerness to leave the Rasputin Bar. Anyone who did not go with the flow was likely to get trampled. The VIPs running after Leon were soon lost in the confusion.

Spoiler

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To do anything other than follow the human tide, roll a test based on how you make your way through:

Strength + Stamina to push people out of your way and resist people shoving you.
Dexterity + Wits to move between people.

If you just want to flee like everyone else, no test is necessary.

---

1

Matthew

" Yes... I mean No... We found out that maybe she didn't come here after all... Really i don't get why you would send us on this wild goose chase anyway... A law student like you should know its common to start looking for a person AFTER 48 hours not just the next day... she is probably just out there with her junkie friends... "

Vishakha sounded confused for a moment. "Uh, what? But I'm not..." And then she got the hint. "...Oh. Yeah, I know, that's why I asked you and not the police. Sorry, I'll stop bugging you, but stay in touch."

She hung up.

"Who was it?" asked Maria unhappily.

Before Matthew could think of an answer, a single gunshot rang out in the main room. And then people started screaming:

"Gunman!"
"Everybody out!"
"Oh God oh God oh God..."

"What the fµck is that?" snarled Maria, her hand already reaching for the door handle. "Fred, you stay and watch him."

"Yes, miss," said the bouncer with a curt nod. Little or no curiosity appeared on his face.

Maria stormed out of the employees' room without closing the door behind her and began shouting orders left and right; what and to whom, Matthew could not tell through all the noise. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the chaos and panic that had engulfed the main room of the Rasputin Bar... This looked like his best opportunity to make a run for it.

[Misaat]

Matthew looks at the bouncer and at the door... After thinking for a split second he reacts.

I'm outta here

And he dashes towards the open exit.

[-Sentinel-]

"Hey... you!" barked the bouncer, but his voice was almost drowned out by the chaos.

He moved fast for such a big man, but Matthew had a head start and managed to get lost in the crowd before his pursuer could get a hold of him. Pretty much everybody was scrambling for the main door. Some of the VIP-tag-wearing patrons, armed with knives or other small weapons, stood at the edges of the crowd with a watchful eye on the panic, like shepherd dogs circling a flock of sheep. Unless they were the wolves... The three bouncers, too, had their hands full trying to contain the human tide.

Plunging in the middle of it all, Matthew made his way to Leon, Christian and the others. Christian had put away his handgun, and people did not appear to be fleeing from him in particular; in the partying that preceded the gunshot and the confusion that followed it, nobody knew who had fired, only his general direction.

"How about we get out?" Christian shouted at Matthew and Leon above the screams. "I feel there's some explaining to do."

[ToySoldierCPlus]

"An excellent plan! Watch for the bouncers and the VIP guys - I was right about what they did to Vishaka and Karen." Leon continues moving with the tide, trying to keep as many people between himself and the VIWs (Very Important Wolves) as possible, and keeping his head low. "I'll explain more once we get back to base."

[Misaat]

" Let's get outta here. I think Vishaka called the cops. They might get here any minute! "

Matthew shouts back following his friends out.

[-Sentinel-]

"The cops'll come here in any case," said Christian. "Y'know, crazy gunman and all that."

By the time they made their way outside, cops were already gathering around the scene; there was heavy police presence around bars and nightclubs in early September to keep control on overly festive returning students. The agents were obviously still awaiting orders from higher up and made no move to keep anyone in or out. This was not to say they were not ready to act; the word of a gunman must have spread, because several of them had their pistols drawn and kept an eye on the exit.

In the street, traffic had all but stopped. There was a large throng of people around the Rasputin Bar, both patrons and various rubberneckers trying to make sense of the panic. Those who had been fleeing for their lives a minute ago were now glued on the spot, too scared to go back in but too curious to walk away. Even the clubgoers who had been inside at the time of the shooting seemed confused as to the exact cause of the stampede, but the word gun was starting to circulate among the crowd. Nobody pointed a finger at Christian, which was a good sign.

The worst of the chaos now over, Matthew noticed that few of the VIP's were in sight. It was not clear whether the rest were still inside the club or had left the scene as fast as they could. (Or, simply, had removed their VIP tags to better blend in.)

"I'm not leaving here without an explanation," Christian warned Matthew and Leon, folding his arms across his chest. "I think I deserve one, since I kind of broke the law, put my career on the line and endangered innocent bystanders to save your asses."