A Method to the Madness

On the surface, everything about the downtown area of Leesburg looks normal. In fact, all but four of the people who work at the postal facility are totally ignorant of what goes on when the sun sets and the shadows crawl into the streets. The hunters can't just walk into a federal establishment and start poking around during the day--especially is they're armed.

"Excuse me...can I help you?"

"Shhh! Be vewwy qwiet... I'm hunting vampiwers..."

But then, nighttime is not widely regarded as the best time to hunt the Undead. This is just the dilemma the bad guys have gone to all this effort to create. As always, players will surprise you; but there are two distinct extremes they could hit.

Scenario 1: Ideally, the hunters arrive in Leesburg and go the sly route. They set up in a hotel and scope the place out; interview the locals and do at least a few nights of recon. They tour the post office during the day and catch on to the naming conventions of the post office computers. Perhaps they even start Emailing the vampire!

Having used their surveillance activities, they mark the garage as the crib area and move in at night--when the interference from the innocents will be at a minimum. Alternately, during the day, the vampire's goon squad will be at their worst, but intervention from police and innocents will be likely. Even with the help of Nate Swain, the hunters have a better chance of catching diphtheria than getting a warrant to enter a federal postal facility armed for vampires.

Scenario 2: The other extreme--the hunters arrive in Leesburg, determine the presence of the vampire and take the whole facility hostage, counting on brute force and speed to save them before the marines show up from Quantico. Of course, if your players are that thick, they will probably just stake Vince Vaughn through the heart and go for a cold one.

This is a delicate and volatile situation, and the hunters must treat it as such. Otherwise Nate Swain is going to have a lot of explaining to do to his boss. If the hunters really really botch any of the hunts in this campaign (to the point of publicly implicating the FBI), they will have a whole new set of woes--but not for long. Uncle Sam doesn't send people to prison for that type of embarrassment if you get my drift.

The hunters will have to be careful and maintain a low profile, at least initially. The vampire in this hunt doesn't always stay locked up in his room without dinner. He likes the night life. Staking the place out carefully is going to make a big difference in how much of the depot the hunters are going to have to pick through before they hit paydirt.

Facility

The facility is in the older downtown area, so there are lots of old shops and offices immediately about. There are also several bars and bed-and-breakfast establishments from where the hunters could keep an eye on the post office. These areas of note are marked on the maps.

If the hunters stake the facility out for an respectable amount of time, they will (probably) notice a single, critical piece of information. One of the smaller express mail vans--distinguishable from the dozens of others only by an ugly dent in its right rear quarter--seems to always be in for maintenance. Except for once every night, or every other night when it goes out for a few hours and returns. It never goes to the depot, though... it only goes back to the garage.

Hmmmmm. How odd.

Block Map

Large version of Block Map (very slow: 146K)

1) Drop Boxes: This corner of the sidewalk adjacent to the post office is often occupied by vendor's cart selling hot dogs or pizza by the slice. A pair of mail boxes are bolted to the concrete next to the edge of the parking lot. The spot is a place of distinction only by virtue of the fact that the peddler's carts have nice soft cloth awnings over them _ ideal for hunters to land on if they've just fallen off the roof while trying to look down into the skylight above.

2) Main Lobby Entrance: On this corner are two more express mail drop boxes, one or more peddlers carts, and the main phone junction box for the block. If the hunters want to take out the building's automated alarms they can do so by disabling them from here. The alarm, and the regular phone lines that would be used to call the police from this area, can be disabled even by so ham-handed a method as just running a car into the junction box.

3 ) The Poor Patriot Bed and Bed: This small hotel is so named because the owner, Vince Vaughn, does not cook. Vince is a heavy man in his mid-forties with a great love of strong drink and weak women. His propensity for lechery has earned him the ironic nickname "Vampire" among the downtown crowd.

The three-story hotel boasts six rooms on the second and third floor, while the ground floor is dedicated entirely to the bar. The second and 3rd story rooms have windows facing the post office, as does the bar--making this an ideal stakeout location for observing the front of the postal facility.

The Vampire Starkin actually stops in here about once every three weeks to scope the local action. Starkin is very careful about taking victims so close to his lair--only one patron in the last 6 months has failed to make it home from the Patriot. She was a girl 17, drinking on a fake ID. Vaughn would not remember the incident at all, save for the fact that he was beat out by Starkin for the underage girl's attentions:

"I was getting all the right signals, y'know? And the, this skinny guy comes along and bang, it's just like shed under a spell... Skinny guy... yeah, he had dark hair..."

Witness accounts of the night's events, and the girl's age, inspired the local police to question Vaughn about his involvement with the disappearance. No charges were ever filed. Her body was never found.

4) Main Facility Roof: The darker shaded areas of the main rooftop are smooth, painted steel and slope down at a 45-degree angle. The lighter area is flat, with the circular markers representing ventilation fans and the two rectangular markers representing access hatches--down to the roof access ladders in the warehouse. From the flat surface of the intermediate roof the "dome" rises up.

The vertical brick walls of the dome are 8' tall, meaning that if your hunters want a look into the warehouse through the sloped skylights, they are going to need a boost. With the situation as it is, getting onto the main building's roof via a zip line could be a favorable plan. The roof provides easy access to the rear lot, is a good penetration point, and no one goes up there without a reason.

5) Post Office Parking: Postal customers only please. Lilac hedges separate the lanes: well-trimmed and about 6 feet tall.

6) Gate: This is one of two gates into the rear lot. The doors open automatically when a vehicle approaches them from the inside, but from the outside it must be opened by a keypad combination. The combination is 90210.

7) Gate: Same as area 6, above.

8) Fuel Depot: Three 5000 gallon tanks, two diesel and one gas. Please note how wisely placed these tanks are--waaaay off in the corner. Blowing them would provide a massive shot of chaos for the lower downtown area of Leesburg, as well as giving a week's worth of work to the local fire dept.

However, when 15,000 gallons of fuel blows, both gates to the rear lot become engulfed in a fireball, making a quick escape difficult. If the hunters want a little carnage, though, it's there for the taking.

9) Garage: A plain, 25-foot tall, flat-roofed brick structure. This is the primary target. The facility has two full-sized bays for servicing the big OTR tractors and two bays for servicing the smaller mail vans or normal automobiles. Each bay has hydraulic lifts for its appropriate vehicle and dugouts for easy working underneath. Right now, there are only two vehicles in for service: a semi tractor up on a lift, and the Vampire Starkin's modified mail van.

From here, the vampire's goons run their nightly errands. Some nights they go for victims. Other nights they pick up a coffin from the airport. Either way, the van with the dented fender always seems to end up in that third bay...

10) Truck Wash: Three metal archways connected along the top by girders suspend an array of swiveling hoses. This whole area is surrounded by a concrete curb to keep the soapy water from flowing all over the rear lot. As it happens, the concrete curb also keeps the gasoline from the ruptured tanks from flowing into that area (not that your hunters should need it).

On each side of the truck wash is a powerful compressor backing a large water cannon. These are for washing the trucks, you guys! (The temptation to abuse them is incredible.)

11) Loading Dock Area: By night, the area immediately around the loading bays will he the best lit and most active anywhere on the site. These big doors lack the electronic security and cameras that smaller pedestrian doors in facility have, and human security is pretty lax. Anyone who looks like they know what they're doing is not likely to be questioned.

12) The Reading Room: This quaint colonial establishment acts as a cafe during the day and early evening, but closes at 9 pm. Most of the literature available for the free consumption of the patrons leans to a distinctly Christian slant. The decor is similar. If the hunters are in need of a quick holy symbol, there are several to choose from in here: wooden ones, steel ones, brass ones, plastic ones, etc.

The owner, Elisha Calloway, lives above the shop and rents out a room to boarders for $400 per month. The rental has a small kitchenette and private bath. It also has an all-important westfacing window overlooking the post office (another ideal stake-out location).

What can Elisha Calloway tell us about unusual occurrences in the downtown area? Well, for starters she is not fond of Vince Vaughn.

"He's a horrible man--feeding young girls full of his sinful alcohol so he can have his way with them. He's 46 years old, for God's sake! I understand the police were asking him questions about a young lady who disappeared about six months ago. He's a lost soul...doin' the devil's work. . . "

She is slightly more fond of Butch Lawson, (see Stickey's, area 16), but not much. She will tell the hunters that she thinks something strange is going on over at Stickey's. The police are always over there.

The Reading Room is not a favorite place for the Vampire Starkin. In fact, as hollowly sanctimonious as she sounds Mrs. Calloway's faith is quite strong, and combined with the decor of the place, it provides a powerful positive essence. While he doesn't need an invitation, Starkin must spend a dark point to enter.

13) Employee Parking: A huge 1979 Cadillac convertible sits in this parking lot. The license plates read DSGRNTLD.

This is Henry the manager's car. If the hunters are in a pinch for firearms, there is a .357 Desert Eagle under the driver's seat and a combat shotgun in the trunk.

14) Pedestrian Entrance: This is a security door. It opens with an electronic keypad comhination of 2112. The camera above the door links to the security station in area 19.

15) Same as 14 above, save for the fact that the door opens next to a pair of trash dumpsters used by the employee cafeteria.

16) Stickey's: A favorite night spot for the local college-aged youth, Stickey's is owned by Butch "Sticky Fingers" Lawson and staffed by as buxom a crowd of scantily-clad coeds as he could find. The place is clean, modern, and moderately priced, featuring a small light show and live entertainment five nights a week.

While he appears gruff and unfriendly, his staff (both men and women) know that he's all bark and no bite. Butch is a former U.S. marine and for several years held the dubious distinction of being the heaviest wide receiver in the NFL (Miami Dolphins 1982-85). The man is a moose.

Lawson has no opinion of Elisha Callaway or Vince Vaughn; he tries to keep to himself. He has plenty of problems of his own. The police frequent Sticky's but this is because many of Lawson's employees have criminal records. Two of his waitresses have records of prostitution, and his head bartender has been busted twice for possession with intent to distribute. Many of these kids came out of the State of Virginia's correctional institutions and are on parole or probation. Butch is honestly trying to keep them employed and off the streets. Many of them hold more loyalty to him than they do their own parents.

His head bartender, Linda Gray, is a very pretty young woman with an ugly past. Even her recent past is ugly. If the hunters come around Stickey's asking about unusual deaths or disappearances, they are likely to get an emotional reaction out of Linda, followed by a "I think you boys had better go," from Butch.

Here's why: Linda is on probation for selling marijuana. Linda's boyfriend, Mark, was a heavy marijuana user. Five days ago, a Leesburg PD patrol found Mark's body behind the wheel of his car. He had 1/4 ounce of marijuana in his possession, which he had gotten from Linda several days before.

Apparently, in a drug-induced fit, Mark had pulled to the side of the road, smashed in the windows of his car, and committed suicide by slitting his own wrists with a shard of broken glass. He had been very distraught recently, having lost his job of 6 years with the post office--for misrouting a large and presumably expensive package.

As long as your hunters can maintain their composure and talk to Butch reasonably after Linda excuses herself, they should be able to get this story from him. Mark was the clerk who mix-tagged the coffin and sent it on to Los Angeles.

Starkin hunted him down in his car five days ago and drained him dry using his hypnotic powers to subdue the already incapacitated young man, and then opening his veins with the broken glass. (The Vampire Starkin is a cunning survivor; as long as he is not in any particular hurry to feed, he uses sharp objects other than his fangs to open his victims up. Just to be safe.)

Nathan Swain

AKA Francis Gutenberg. Operating under the cover of a dead FBI special agent, under the cover of a DOT inspector, Swain is the deputy director of the FBI. Despite his rank, he is a bit of a loose cannon in the bureau. Swain is a believer--grim and determined. He knows he could never get the Bureau to seriously consider the vampire threat... unless he could get himself some hunters... and bag a few vampires. Then he might get somewhere.

He will keep the hunters discreetly under surveillance, ask them for occasional status reports and await the inevitable moment when he has to pull out his real credentials to bail them out. He will try and leave the action to the professionals in this case, but his stats are provided in the unlikely event that he gets into the battle. He wears a gold wedding band on a chain around his neck.

BOD: 2
AGI: 3
MIN: 3
PSY: 1
WILL: 1
Advantages: Major Allies

More Hunters

Player's Introduction
GM Introduction
Leesburg, VA
Main Facility
Garage and Vampire's Lair

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