My long time friend and I like to combine all the available White Wolf books into one setting to make a wildly varied setting. Such a setting gives the storyteller a lot to plan and have fun with. It also gives the characters a lot to learn and even more to deal with. This campaign takes place in a large metropolitan city with its fair share of a dark underbelly. Gothem is as good a name as any for such a town. The name is not meant to imply anything or to rip off a comic book company. If anything we are trying to Gothem by using the name to give everyone involved a similar dark city image.
Dr. Thornman's Apartment
Jack Thornman doesn't spend much money on his apartment, but it thankfully came fully furnished. The furniture mostly matches. His large apartment windows set the mood for the whole apartment. All the tables are glass. The carpet and tile are white, which is offset by the black leather chairs and couch. The kitchen countertop is also black with white cupboards. Since Jack often eats elsewhere and spends a lot of time at the hospital his apartment remains almost spottless, save a few articles of clothing and a stack of mail on the coffee table.
Phillip's Den
This mysterious place was never actually visited. But, we assume it was messy and smelled of horses.
Sara's Hollow
Sara's home has a back door to a rodadendren bush near Gothem's main bus terminal. The main door leads to somewhere in Miami. She keeps everything nice an tidy despite having thorn laden walls winding from either city up to the main house. Even inside this very secret and safe home she has locks on each bedroom and bathroom door.
Lenny's Blue Tarp Abode
Lenny built a surprisingly sturdy cardboard and tarp home under a freeway. Also, there is a door in the back of his slummy construction on the freeway's concrete wall. This door leads to a thorny maze of paths that Lenny can use to reach a quiet all dirt room with a soft moss bed. The room is lit by some unknown sourse since there are no windows and no electricity.
Characters:
Jack Thornman:
Jack Thornman is first and foremost a doctor.
Phillip:
Phillip uses his calm and collected personality to better combat the things that go bump in the night. Despite being a creature of the woods, he somehow avoids being related to the fey. His centaur form has not yet been seen by anyone we know about. His inability to dodge a car on August 3rd would have killed a small bear. But, he just got back up after a mid-size car hit him at 40 mph.
Sara Parke:
Sara did not remember hardly anything before her trip to Miami almost a year ago. She may seem to have a small mousy body, but she has all the courage of desperate lost woman.
Lenny:
Lenny has no real-world skills. So, he is living under a bridge until he starts making more money from his cage fights.
Even Evermore:
Even lived in the mid-west for most of his childhood. He wanted to see the world and go on great adventures. Once the opportunity presented itself, he grabbed it! Seven African nations, six years, and seven friends lives later he lost his taste for adventure.
The Story
Chapter 1:
Proliminary Exam
August 3rd: I will never forget this day. For the first time ever I have witnessed the things I learned about in my monster books. Defying simple chance, two such creature happened to be in an examining room with me at the same time! I should step back a little though.
My day was going as usual until 6:05 PM. Susan had just finished filling out the chart for a Mr. ----(Phillip). Taking the chart and entering the room I saw a mousy looking young woman and a rugged looking man with badly torn clothes on. Susan's brief notes and messy hand writing showed that she didn't like one of these two. I began by with a few questions about the odd situation the nurse scribbled down. The woman claimed she hit the man. The man didn't seem to care. Few men, let alone large animals can survive a 40 mph collision. Phillip's clothes were definately looking beat up enough. His one scraped knee was either a miracle or this was some new insurance scam. Unfortunately, it was neither.
My line of questions kept getting half certain answers. The woman, it turned out, was having trouble remembering things. Considering the situation I saw no reason not to check for oddities in time. I took a look at reality with respect to time and saw that the woman was not as young as she appeared. She had her own kind of magic, no not like that. I am far too old for that fake body of hers. The man seemed normal, so she should have been the one I was so suspicious about. But, I believed she had little to no idea what was going on. He kept this aire of almost contempt about him. I'm not sure how, but I think I managed to avoid showing how frightened I was by these two. Then the power went out.
I lost my zen. I sent out a barrage of questions that I'm sure were also accusations. The backup generator came on right after I had finished launching my questions. I tried to recompose myself, but I doubt it worked. Again, unfortunately I had walked into a room with two creatures, not two people. Before we could clear much of anything up the darkness in the room began to encroach on the light. I felt my stomach sink. I remember being more terrified than I have ever been before. One of them suggested we leave the room. I was all for leaving until I realized the darkness was creeping up along the walls of the hallway as well.
Some creaking metal sounds came from down the hall near the doors for surgery. Phillip poked his head out and I followed my curiousity despite my fear. I saw a man wearing a long black coat and a black hat rip the doors off. He didn't seem to care about what was behind him. We sneaked out into the hallway and headed the opposite direction towards the nurses station. Cathy was huddled close to the floor. I told her to stay where she was and I grabbed the flashlight. We needed to get help, security, a repairman, someone! The closest stairs were on the other side of surgery. Looking back we saw the man in black holding a thin shiny object. He turned the corner out of our sight.
Another set of stairs were on the opposite side of the floor. We headed for them, but the flashlight batteries started to die. I shook it franticly. The woman took the flashlight from me, turn it off and then back on. It was at full strength again. But, the light began to get eaten by the darkness again. We hurried up to the first turn where the elevator also was. Inside the elevator we could hear that there were people. A sickening slash reverberated down the hall from surgery. I then remembered that someone important from the city government had been scheduled for an operation on this day. Phillip went down the hall and broke the glass casing for the fire axe. Alarms went off. Just as Phillip started towards surgery the killer came around the corner and jumped through a window.
Since we were on the seventh floor any normal man would die from jumping out that window. I fear I will see him again before this is all over. All our attention quickly shifted to the elevator. Phillip pulled the doors open with a little help from the axe. In the elevator there was a person who had gotten rebar stuck through their abdoman. The two nurses with him hurried him into surgery. We took an empty surgery room. Still, I managed a side-ways glance into the main operating room. There was a fair amount of blood on the floor and at least one of the nurses in there was crying.
My surgery went well. I had to use my healing heart rote to make sure he would be alright. Ever since I developed my unnatural healing powers I feel like my actual medical skills have been little more than a show for the nurses. After surgery the police wanted to talk to me. I explained what happened. I omitted most of the unnatural events in one way or another. My chorus for their questions was, "it was dark, so I'm not really sure." I made sure to give details about all the noises I heard. "If they somehow figure out my surgery on the construction worker was more than just a surgery," that was what I was thinking about the whole time, not the man in black, not the man in the next room who would never breath again.