The Vampire Starkin

John Starkin became a vampire in 1872, in Atlanta, Georgia. Born the wealthy son of a cotton grower, Starkin has always enjoyed his wealth, and still does to this day. To defend that wealth, he stood against Grant on the march to Atlanta that took the lives of everyone he knew--this loss took a terrible toll on the young man's sanity. Still, even in life, he was never described as "a nice boy..." His transformation into the Undead unlocked new heights of cruelty in an already cruel man.

The Vampire Starkin is not only a killer out of his Vampiric nature. He is a killer for pleasure. His insatiable desire for control and dominance push him to acts so unspeakable that even other Undead consider him twisted. He views his vampirism as the natural order to the universe--just as humans hunted buffalo for meat, so he hunts humans. He deplores other vampires who live in filth and squalor, viewing it as the mark of a low self-esteem. He feels that vampires are hunters by right, and of this they should be proud.

Starkin is organized, thorough, and quite intelligent at managing the tasks to which he has been assigned. In person he is smooth and charming, with a great love of the dramatic. He loves technology deeply and is quite proficient with computers and electronics (self-taught). He reads voraciously and is versed in all the classics.

Quote: "Do I miss the feel of a sunrise? Sir, I have them all on video!"

Rank: 7
Traits: Fear, Strength, Speed, Hypnotism

Main Facility Map

Large version of Main Facility Map (very slow: 146K)

Built only two years ago, on time and under budget, the new Post Office on Centennial Avenue is a structure the residents of the neighborhood are proud of. It is a classy building of tan brick walls and sloping steel roofs painted maroon. The spacious lobby is fronted in glass and lit with a large plate glass skylight. The crown of the structure is an angular dome also fitted with expansive areas of glass and proudly crowned with the American flag.

A entire block is devoted to the new post office, including the freight area where the trucks load and unload mail. The facility also boasts its own vehicle fueling and maintenance facilities.

Hours of Operation

The front lobby opens to the public at 7:30 am and closes at 6:00 pm. However the warehouse facility out back also handles ovemight and priority mail, so they run 24 hours per day. Trucks load and unload; cargo is sorted and routed through the night. Still, even with a 24-hour schedule of operation, there is less activity from 11:00 pm to about 5:00 am.

Staff

By day, about thirty people work the post office, including kitchen staff and cargo handlers. Route carriers come in and out to pick up their loads. By night, the route carriers and regular postal workers have gone home and only the warehouse crew and perennial long-haul drivers are there. Of course, there is a minimal crew in the garage, in case a truck or forklift breaks down. The night crew is only about 14 people.

1) Main Lobby. Fronted in glass double doors and lit from above with an expansive sloping skylight, the lobby of 100 Centennial Avenue is clean and modern. The floor is done in maroon simulated marble and the heavy counter tops are real oak. Several round pedestals with stationary and pens and postal forms stand at intervals around the room for the customers' convenience. There is a single, swiveling security camera (linked to the security station in area 19) mounted in the ceiling above the main counter.

Each station has a monitor for the UNIX workstation under the counter (this is the Electronic Age, after all). A paper rag on the monitor of each,workstation declares its name: Apollo, Ares, Hera and Hermes. An example of the full address is: "Apollo@ARPA.postal.VA.gov. The name "Athena" on the slip of paper in the vampire Grelet's coffin, was not the name of his contact--it was (and still is) the Vampire Starkin's Email address! (Now you'll think twice about who you get together with in those AOL chat rooms, won't you?)

If they can get a few minutes at one of these workstations, hunters with exceptionally high computer proficiency will be able to tell that Athena is on the local subnet. In other words, the vampire's computer is on the post office premises.

Another important fearure of the front lobby is the artwork on its walls. Like many new buildings of import, the post office has the original architect's sketches hanging in the lobby. These hangings are in big, heavy, glass-covered frames and prominently displayed. The signature in the corner reads, "H. Roarke".

2) Storage: Packed with stacked parcels and outgoing mail received by the mail clerks at the front desk. Normally locked at night.

3) Materials Storage: Shelves along the walls of this room are stacked with all manner of postal goodies: office supplies, envelopes, etc.

4) Vault: Post offices move a lot of money. They sell stamps and money orders and even T-shirts. This small room is protected by a heavy steel door with a keypad lock (8771 is the combo). The room has a small desk and a heavy floor safe with timed lock--it will not open after hours, even if the proper keypad combo is given. Inside the safe is over $41,000 in cash.

5) Back Office: Desk, chair, telephone, employee personal effects, coffee machine, and a work-station (Medusa).

6) Sorting Room: This room is dominated by a large, complex piece of machinery designed to sort letters. During business hours, it's pretty loud. Wheeled carts stacked with parcels are parked haphazardly around the room awaiting routing. Also, there are racks of tall shelves with cubby-holes marked with hundreds of zip codes. Just zip code after zip code after zip code--and they never end. They just keep coming and coming, and you try to get ahead, you try to accomplish something, but they just keep coming... AND IT MAKES YOU WANT TO...

. . .sorry.

In case there is a fight in this room, it might be important to know that those tall shelves are not bolted to the floor and a little tippy... There is another workstation in this room as well (Achilles).

7) Rear Entry Room: This room has a coffee machine, a water cooler, a few chairs and a vending machine (sold out of the hunters' favorite treat, unfortunately). Coat racks along the walls always have a few coats or sweatshirts left over from the day shift. The combo for the outer door is 2112.

8) Restroom: Nice and clean. Persistent hunters armed with any sharp prying implement could dislodge two large mirrors (2'x3') from the walls for later use.

9) Rear Access Hall for P.O. Boxes: A plain concrete hallway. The south wall is composed of a mass of cubby tables--the back sides of the P.O. boxes in area 10. Limited visibility is possible through the P.O. boxes into the well-lit area 10.

10) P.O. Boxes: Really just an extension of the lobby area, separated by glass double doors. The north wall is covered with P.O. boxes; There are tiny glass windows in the front of each box. Whoever is on the other side could be watching you right now...

11 ) Men's Restroom: See area 8, above. Two more mirrors for the taking.

12) Women's Restroom: Same as Men's Restroom, above.

13) Maintenance Closet: Mops, cleaning supplies etc.

14) Assistant Postmaster's Office: This is the office of Claude Carlson, the assistant Postmaster. He is on vacation in Jamaica for the next 3 weeks, but on his desk is a termination notice for Mark Wilson: an employee of 6 years who had apparently reported to work under the influence and mix-routed a large express mail package. The workstation here is named "Pegasus".

15) Postmaster's Office: This is the office of Henry Kamik, the Postmaster. Henry has worked for the U.S. Postal Service ever since he was wounded in Vietnam in 1972. His office is filled with copies of Guns & Ammo and Soldier of Fortune. There are several big, golden sharp-shooting awards displayed up on the walls, as well as a stuffed boar's head and a framed picture of Henry smiling at the camera and cradling a dead deer. In the picture, his face is covered in camouflage greasepaint. In the lower left drawer of his desk is a 9mm Browning and 2 extra clips. Should the hunters try and take over the post office in the daylight, Henry Kamik will be all too willing to defend his country once more. The workstation here is called Theseus.

16) Computer Room: This dingy area is the hub of the facility's electronic communications. There are also banks of video recorders against one wall, serving to archive the images coming in from the security station at area 19. The main telephone hub for the building is here as well.

17) Office: Desk, table, chairs, coffee machine. No books or personals. Looks like this office is not actively used. The workstation here is named Hercules.

18) Supply Closet: This closet is empty, save for a dust-covered parcel sitting in the middle of the floor. The scrawled address on the outside is illegible. but the return address reads only "J. Kaminski."" It looks like the parcel has been here for a long time.

19) Security Station: This is the central hub of the facility's electronic security. From here, the hunters can monitor cameras over each of the pedestrian entrances, the main lobby, and the warehouse. Tapes are recycled once per week, so there is no record of anyone suspiciously relocating any big parcels. There is also a telephone (of course) and a trigger for the PO.'s silent alarm. The security guard on duty is Hal. Hal is a hugely fat dwarf with a really deep and abiding love of not getting killed. If the hunters make any hostile moves toward Hal, he will freeze--mostly because he won't be able to easily decide whether to put up his hands first, or hand over his sidearm. He's married and a father of two.

20) Office: Similar to area 17 above. Workstation: Prometheus.

21) Bathroom: See area 8.

22) Employee Cafeteria: The ceiling here opens to a skylight identical to the one in the main lobby. Five big, round tables, each seating eight, take up most of the floor space. There are vending machines along the walls and several good sized trash cans. There is a 27" TV hanging from the corner of the ceiling. It is perpetually tuned to talk shows.

23) Dispatch: This spartan room is the hub of the warehouse operation. It has a plain concrete floor, a couple of desks and a lot of filing cabinets. A huge map of the U.S., covered in various colored push pins and strewn with colored lines, dominates one wall. There is a single door to the warehouse and a large glass teller's window in the east wall.

Drivers report to the window to get routing orders and drop off freight receipts. The coffee in this room is always hot and the staff in this area is going to be alert at all hours. The workstations here are Perseus and Odysseus.

24) Employee Kitchens: Heavy, stainless steel industrial kitchen hardware dominates this area. Big reach-in coolers, a flat grill, ovens, triple sinks and racks of fragile dishes (easily knocked over) are some of the hi-tech kitchen aid equipment in here. Up on a shelf along the east wall are several big glass jars of waste oil from the fryer. Should a fight ensue, just keep in mind the potential combination of those jars with the tile floor.

During husiness hours, the kitchen is Yoshi's kingdom. Yoshi is a recent U.S. citizen, by marriage, from Japan. He loves his job and is ultimately loyal to his employer. His English is broken and his accent is thick. He hears a surprising resemblance to Jackie Chan. Your hunters might have a problem with this one if a fight breaks out. The kitchen is closed at night--but Yoshi frequently works late.

25 ) Walk-in Cooler: A great place to keep hostages or vampires on ice.

26) Dry Storage Closet: Canned foods, pasta, bread rolls etc.

27) Warehouse: The ceiling in this area is 15 feel at its lowest point, rising to about 40 feet in the center, under the dome. The dotted lines here represent the areas under the skylights in the dome above. A steep metal staircase in the southeast corner goes up to a maintenance catwalk that provides access to the inside of the dome. Stacks and stacks of parcels of all sizes are piled everywhere, forming a confusing maze of tight twisting corridors. If the cargo handlers know their way around here at all, it must be by some super natural instinct.

There are at least two forklifts running at all times and many of the stacks of crates are too high to be safe. Two ladders bolted to the east wall provide access to the roof (a 4-block view). Mark Wilson used to work in this area. Most of the employees here know only that he killed himself not long ago.

"But, y'know, he really didn't seem like the type who would... he was always happy, y'know? Good job and beautiful girlfriend there at Srickey's. Go figure. . . "

Employees

Yoshi, Japanese Immigrant Bearing a Strange Resemblance to Jackie Chan

BOD: 3
AGI: 3
MIN: 2
PSY: 1
WILL: 1
Advantages: Quick
Skills: Melee, Brawling, Dodge Acrobatics

Henry Karnik, Postmaster on the Edge

BOD: 2
AGI: 2
MIN: 1
PSYs 1
WILL: 1
Disadvantages: Hero Complex
Skills: Firearms, Firearms, Firearms

More Hunters

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

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