Weekend at Dracula’s, Part 4

The Prime of Ms. Ellen Mowbray

Confronting_the_count_inks_350A terrifying, elemental storm strikes Osmond Singleton’s mansion. The windows shudder as the wind hammers at them. The power goes out as lightning blasts transformers all over South London. Nearby, three members of the team – McAllister (who managed to dodge the MI5 street teams that were crawling all over Westminster), Fitzy (who’s still slipping in and out of reality, and isn’t sure if he’s still playing the role of Alfred Singleton or not…), and Elgin (who saw the Edom team clean up the mess at Hillingham and exit stage right) meet back at the pub recommended by Rev. Rogers. The last member of the quartet, Baptiste, is still locked inside the mansion, hiding inside a wardrobe as Dracula’s wrath roars around the city.

For a brief time, it looks as though the holy wafers, garlic and other supernatural blocks placed at every door might be enough to thwart the Vampire King.

Then one of the ancient yew trees surrounding the house is uprooted by the wind and topples through an upstairs window, shattering the seals.

Dracula coalesces out of the mist. Singleton pleads for his life, promising that he will complete the ritual tomorrow night, that he’ll bind the girl, but he just needs time. It is too late. The Count’s patience is exhausted – Singleton is only the first to die as the Count rampages through the house. Baptiste flees in the confusion and meets up with the rest of the team.

After fortifying the room against natural and supernatural threats, they discuss options – it’s clear that they’ve done some serious damage to whatever was going on, but they’re not sure what Dracula’s plan is, or what Edom’s involvement is. Hopkins told them that Edom was trying to bring Dracula back to England and that she was trying to stop this, but Dracula’s already in London, so what’s going on? What was the point of the ritual at Hillingham, and why were the ghosts of Lucy Westenra and Kate Reed being raised from the dead? (Also, they’re talking about ghosts now, not just vampires, which is a whole other White Wolf sourcebook of weird. Also, Baptiste stole several documents from Singleton, including Hawkins Paper 20, implying that psychic talents may also be in play.)

The discussion is interrupted by a scuttling noise from the roof. They quickly work out that it’s the Child Vampire run by Edom, CALIBAN. The barriers and crucifixes keep him out, and they switch to secure electronic means (WhatsApp) to continue their conversation, but Edom’s on the way. Soon, the front door of the pub is smashed down by MI5, and the team exit via the back, blowing Urban Survival and Surveillance MOSes to escape the dragnet.

They consider going to another safe house, but en route spot a military land rover with a familiar face in the back seat. It’s Oakes, the Edom Duke they spotted at Whitby. When he spots them approaching, he lunges forward and garrottes his driver into unconsciousness, then calls out over the radio that this sector is clear – clearly, he’s willing to talk to the Agents.

Plotting the Conspiracy
Plotting the Conspiracy

Oakes explains that he believes Edom has been compromised by Dracula, and has been since the 70s. There’s some force that keeps Dracula in check, some barrier that restricts his ability to act and keeps him trapped in Romania, and Oakes fears that elements in Edom are trying to dismantle that safeguard. He leaked information to Hopkins because he wanted to preserve his position in Edom – but it looks as though he wasn’t careful enough, as Whitby was a trap for his allies. He suspects he’ll soon be arrested or killed, too. He does offer some assistance – the team loot military radios with Edom encryption, giving them some material for Traffic Analysis, and also gives them the address of someone who might be able to help them more. It’s a retirement home in Malvern Hills, and their contact there is Ellen Mowbray.

The team fake an assault on Oakes, to make it look like they took him prisoner, and then head to Rev. Roger’s flat to hide for the night. The choirmaster has gone on a hasty holiday, but leaves contact details for some senior figures at the Archdiocese of Mechellen-Brussels who know more about the Un-Dead.

Next morning, they decide to gather more information about vampires. Step one is collecting the staked corpse of Inspector Cotford from its coffin at Coldfall Woods, and loading him into the Reverend’s car. They also collect the jet brooch from Elgin’s courier. The plan is to work out how to kill a vampire (Cotford’s corpse implies that a dead vampire doesn’t turn to dust, so what did happen when Quincey and Harker stabbed Dracula all those years ago.) Investigation of Cotford’s corpse is less than illuminating, so they head to an hypnotist that Baptiste knows from his MI6 days – she’s a therapist who specialises in PTSD, but has also been involved in debriefing assets and other unusual cases. Elgin’s brooch seems connected to Dracula, Elgin suspects he’s connected to the ghost of Katherine Reed, and recovered documents bear out the usefulness of hypnosis, so… it’s worth a shot.

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At the therapists, Baptiste and Elgin head upstairs, while the other two (three, counting Cotford’s corpse) wait in the car.

Elgin takes out the brooch and puts it on at the moment of sunset. The world seems to darken; the setting sun leaves a bloody smear on the sky. The lights of London recede, leaving the medical centre (and its car park) alone in a seemingly infinite darkness. It is similar to the effects of the ghost engine at Hillingham, but more pronounced.

Under hypnosis, Elgin makes contact with Kate Reed’s ghost – and finds himself in the body of a woman again. He looks in a mirror, and there’s no reflection. He’s seeing through Lucy’s eyes – and she’s still alive, or Un-Dead at least! He can tell that she’s in Munich.

Outside, the activation of the brooch has called up another ghost. Over the radio comes a sepulchral voice – “Singleton? Is that you? Let me in, you damned fool. Open the carriage and let me in!”

The ghost of inspector Cotford has returned, and he wants his body back. When the pair refuse, the ghost attacks the car. Tyres pop, bulbs explode, the electrical system burns out, the windscreen shatters, but they keep the stake in the corpse’s heart and drive the ghost away with crucifixes and garlic. Putting that horrific encounter together with Oakes’ account of Edom’s past activities, they guess that Edom used a ghost engine in 1940 to resurrect Dracula. It seems that slaying a vampire’s body is only a temporary measure – its ghost can be brought back to reinhabit the husk again.

When the brooch is removed and normal reality reassert itself, McAllister gets a phone call. Caller ID says its Sarita, his Romanian wife, but the voice on the other end is English and mocking. “Call me Elvis. I’ve got your family here, and quite a fucking collection of power tools. This drill, for instance. Unless you’re here by midnight tomorrow, this drill is going through her skull. Understand?”

Another council of war, and frantic checking of flight times. They decide that they can cross the country yet again, visit Oakes’ contact, and then fly to Brussels and drive onto Munich and then finally Bucharest before the midnight deadline. It’s risky, and means leaving McAllister’s wife in Edom/Dracula’s clutches, but they want to assemble all the allies they can manage.

They arrive at the retirement home before dawn, and sneak into the room. There’s an old, old woman sleeping there, and they wake her.

“Mina Harker, I presume.”

Elgin's Notes
Elgin’s Notes

You Know This Because You Are Psychic: Fitzy was supposed to be a one-session temporary character, but the player decided to come back for the remaining two sessions, so I hastily wrote Psychic 2 as an investigative ability on his character sheet, justifying it as a result of Fitzy channelling the spirit of Alfred Singleton during the Hillingham Working. His actual abilities were never explored until the end of the adventure, but even just having it on his sheet justified having an out-of-work actor running around on a par with ex-spies and ex-soldiers. (Admittedly, Fitzy also had absurdly high scores in Weapons and Athletics as well as Disguise – stage fighting, of course, darling.)

Parallel Trails: You can never be quite sure in an improvised campaign which clue the players are going to follow next. Often, you end up throwing out the same lead several times in different forms. For example, the importance of Exeter as an Edom base got brought up dozen times in the first four sessions, and I was sure they’d check it out at least once on their many road trips, but they never got there. The Unredacted dossier hinted at Exeter; I mentioned it when they were discussing Harker; they saw Oakes and Hound driving back to Exeter; there was radio traffic in the Edinburgh hospital pointing there and so on.

Similarly, I dropped a bunch of leads to Munich – Elgin stole the brooch there, his psychic visions pointed there, various documents pointed there. I also intended for Reverend Roger’s connections in the church to point the Agents there. Given the pressures of time, the Brussels link was a mistake – I should have just had Rogers’ allies be based in Munich all the time, and dropped the Brussels element entirely.

In a longer campaign, I could have fleshed out Brussels into a full adventure, or at least a full encounter, as opposed to the stilted “Hello. I am Catholic Vampire Hunter Priest. There is nothing in Brussels other than me saying ‘go to Munich’” scene we got in the final session.

The GM in Repose
The GM in Repose

The Crook: The phone call to McAllister threatening his family is an absolute cliché, but it works. Pacing can be an issue in an improvised campaign; the Vampyramid helps by prompting escalating responses, but with only one session to go, I needed to force a confrontation, and this was a simple and effective way to do it. A full campaign could deploy something more subtle than this ‘crook’ (a shepherd’s crook is basically a hook that drags you forcibly along), but a convention game or one-shot needs a weapon like this in the GM’s back pocket. 

< Session 3 – Street Theatre

The Land Beyond The Forest – Session 5 >

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