Stories

From Gothpoodle

Plot list for World of Darkness: San Francisco.

Active

Summer 2009: Sea Monster

The Phalanx approaches the pack about a Brineborn which has fled into their territory. After dealing with it, they ask for help with an ancient creature from the deep. The one which raped Stig's daughter should be involved. The Stone Garden pack is assisting the Brineborn.

Theme: Chthonic threats and primordial creatures
Mood: Chaotic nature
Setting: Fight on a boat during a massive storm

Summer 2009: Rat Nest

The massive Beshilu nest under Buena Vista Park is still festering and needs to be dealt with. Alleycat may have useful information and the new host of Gay Plague is still lurking down there. Justin Park is down there as well.

Theme: The problem that just won't go away
Mood: Claustrophobic, terrifying
Setting: Running fight is narrow, twisting tunnels in a place with little or no Gauntlet.
Status: Still on the pack's to-do list.

On Deck

Autumn 2009: Dream Hosts

Kinugal, in the time between when the pack entered her and broke the old binding and re-shackled her, shattered part of her essence and infused it into several score random people currently connected to the Internet. These beings, now something akin to Hosts, seek only to release their mistress from her prison. Consumed by visions and capable of entering and manipulating the dreams of others, they are converging on San Francisco to find the "Binder" and kill him, so that he cannot renew the rite in a year.

Theme: Unfinished business
Mood: Creepy stalking in life and dreams
Setting: An intense dream battle ala Dreamscape.
Status: Adagmos has made the pack aware of the existence of the Dream Hosts.

Autumn 2009: Fire-Claimed

The Keepers of the First Flame have been preparing a vessel for the Great Fire since the Castro War and she is now of age. She was horribly burned as a child by an arson set by the pack and then adopted by its alpha. Since then, she has been groomed to be obsessed with fire so she'll be a good host when their patron is freed.

Theme: Hubris and madness
Mood: Horror
Setting: Battle in an abandoned house which is burning down around them (possible innocents trapped within?).
Status: Thwarted the attempt to stop the ritual this year.

Winters 2010: Lost Cub

A new homeless werewolf First Changes on a Wound and becomes a cannibalistic Bale Hound, hunting and eating the homeless.

Theme: Betraying the Oath for the greater good
Mood: Disturbing
Setting: Harmony threatening chase in Gauru through a crowded street

Winter 2010: Vigilance Committee

A local hunter cell investigates the charges against the pack, cross-referencing the information that was on Bryce's website, and decides to take them out.

Theme: Repercussions and being the bad guys
Mood: Paranoia
Setting: Kidnapping of Rita

Spring 2010: Ghost Child

Christina Bustos gets pregnant with a Ghost Child after an ill-conceived tryst with another werewolf after the Spring Rite, sparking tension within the Aguirre family, and hard decisions on consequences.

Theme: Consequences and responsibility
Mood: Tension
Setting: Hostage standoff with some nasty who grabs Christina when she runs away.

Spring 2010: Goetic Mage

Solomon Janowitz tries a ritual to summon and bind his lust in order to suppress his desire for his apprentice, Nancy, but instead it gets loose and periodically possesses him. It commits robberies, gets in fatal fights, and half-rapes his apprentice. Dexter pursues, ready to kill him.

Theme: Duality and being out of control
Mood: Madness
Setting: Bank robbery in progress, hostages, and wild magic.

Summer 2010: Spirit War

The Court of the Phoenix goes to war with the spirits of Silicon Valley as the rivalry between San Francisco and San Jose reaches its climax.

Theme: Widespread spiritual turmoil
Mood: Chaos
Setting: Massive spiritual battle in the Shadow reflection of Portsmouth Square.

Unstarted

Wiccan Dabblers

A coven of college kids at USF manage to get the attention of a maeltinet when they do a seance at a wound and now are the cult/pawns of a murder spirit who is driving them to acts of excess. A string of murders would not register on the radar of the PCs if not for the odd confession passed on to them by Sean. San Francisco Armory!

Theme: Dabbling in powers they cannot control
Mood: Urgency
Setting: Seance in a clock tower on campus where a new ridden is born.

Tree's Plea

An old tree on a property near Buena Vista Park is going to be removed for new construction. The Choir calls on the Uratha to save it while the tree itself uses its numina against the construction workers and random passers-by around it.

Theme: Routine territorial maintenance
Mood: Dealing with humans without murder
Setting: Construction "accident" endangers passers-by.

Twisted Lodge

A Bone Shadow pack who follows the Lodge of Reaping moves into Outer Richmond. Hints of their deviant behavior take some time to emerge, probably coming to a head when one of their members falls into Zi'ir and goes on a cannibalistic rampage.

Theme: Slow fall into evil
Mood: Depravity and outrage, forced to break the Oath
Setting: Fight in fog-filled streets at night.

Sky-Lords

Falcon shapeshifters on top of something high leave a body and attract the attention of the pack.

Theme: Routine territorial maintenance
Mood: Strange competition
Setting: Fight on top of something high.

Completed

Church of the Lighthouse

Hidden conspiracy of Pure throughout territories. Comes to light when stories of cancer and AIDS patients being cured reach the party. Investigation leads them to the Free Clinic and Hospice.

Theme: Unseen enemies and unfinished business
Mood: Horror
Setting: Clinic and hospice, full of patients and staff, some aware and some not.
Status: The Plague Prophets have been killed and the clinic shut down.

Death Angel

The spirit Death Angel comes to the Haight and possesses a gun, which is then used in a strong of shootings, one involving a cop. The Legend Trippers come in after it and tell the PCs what is going on.

Theme: The chase is on
Mood: Suspense
Setting: Chase through a foggy night in Golden Gate Park, random citizens pulled in.
Status: Bound the spirit with the help of the Night Stalkers and made it into a fetish.

Azlu Web

An azuluth has set up shop on a Shelter Locus in an abandoned building used by squatters in Lower Haight. It is served by two crawlerings. Word gets back to the PCs via contacts that homeless are disappearing who go there.

Theme: Overwhelming foes
Mood: Danger
Setting: The decaying, barely stable building, whose floors collapse under Gauru weight.
Status: Forced the three Azlu to discorporate and cleaned up the nest.

Werewolf Hunters

Wolf-blooded hunters out of Castro led by Devlin's Child (Ghost Child). Assassination attempts on Mission, Haight, and Park werewolves.

Theme: Past comes back to haunt the Tribes of the Moon
Mood: Paranoia
Setting: Daylight attack on crowded street or square.
Status: Pack assassinated cult members and their leader Adam Hellstrom.

Victim's Ghost

The ghost of a street kid tries to contact the party to draw their attention to her killer, who is claimed by a murder and rape spirit (the Dark Man?).

Theme: The horrors of street kids
Mood: Desperation
Setting: Chase through darkened back alleys.
Status: Got the full story from Dougie and Tiffany moved on.

Getting Around the Totem

The Devotees of Wen-Chang need help getting rid of a fairly powerful computer-claimed which they can't kill due to their pack totem's ban. Grandfather Jiang calls in the pack's favor and asks them to handle it. Of course, it will put them on the outs with the Silicon Court, hurting their relationship with Wireless. Hidden plots of the Silicon Emperor are hinted at.

Theme: Obligations and diplomacy
Mood: Ambivalence and foreshadowing
Setting: Fight in a darkened server room after hours.
Status: Track down and slay Cray in her office in Richmond.

Vampiric Satanists

Blood, death, and murder spirits congregating and the disappearance of a club-goer or two and some homeless point to a cult of Satan-worshiping vampires who have holed up in the neighborhood. While young, they are wily and have dark magic. Preferably after getting a hold of Belial's Brood.

Theme: True evil
Mood: Menace
Setting: Fight in a crowded nightclub, lots of hostages and chances to blow the Masquerade.
Status: Adrian and his childer were captured by Vincenzio, Turnbull, and Bousquet and executed.

Occult Sightings Network

An internet website that catalogs supernatural occurances in the city gets perilously close to knowing the truth. The PCs are referenced or some picture is up. Investigation just reveals interested mundane people after lots of implications of otherwise. The site is growing and starting to produce a newsletter. Silicon Empress is behind it, driving the PCs if they don't accept her task.

Theme: Enforcing the Oath
Mood: Hesitance
Setting: A small office (cube farm) in SOMA full of frightened, clueless humans.
Status: Used Summer to manipulate Bryce Kern to remove reference to the pack from the site.

Death of a Vampire

A vampire is killed at Alamo Square. The PCs have it brought to their attention and find themselves investigating in parallel to the Stone Garden pack, who is allied with the vampires and seeking to kill the assassin, in violation of the Oath. The assassin is a member of a hidden Polish pack and an ex-Iraq sharpshooter.

Theme: Secrets and the risks of war
Mood: Mystery
Setting: Meeting at art gallery in the middle of the night.
Status: Kevin kills Cesare with the pack's help, truce with vampires negotiated.

Missing Children

A group of middle school students with an occult bent try a ritual on top of Buena Vista park which inadvertently opens a verge and leaves them stranded in the Shadow.

Theme: Duty to protect humanity from the spirit world
Mood: Urgency
Setting: Battling Liberal Anxiety's brood who has captured the children.
Status: Recovered four of the five children.

Bale Hound

Beshilu leader Bale Hound kidnaps the scion of the Mission pack, removes her face, and impersonates her to get close to the alpha. Assassination attempt at a birthday party or other gathering which the PCs are invited to.

Theme: Vengeance and insanity
Mood: Horror
Setting: Old San Francisco Armory, with hidden Beshilu and kidnapped daughter.
Status: Saved Justin Park but Phillip escaped.

Angry Ghost

The ghost of Caroline Langley, one of the Church members DeAndre killed, shows up to ask him to find her husband Robert Langley, who was taken by the Beshilu and turned into a Rokhan in the Underhill Nest

Theme: Festering wound under the pack's nose.
Mood: Confusion and claustrophobia
Setting: Chase through the Sunset Tunnel.
Status: Pack tailed Robert to work and confirmed he is Beshilu.

Fall of the House of Phelan

Hugh conspires with Phillip Hellstrom to kill Tess to regain control of the family. Phillip has his own plans for using Tess' face to incite a war.

Theme: Paranoia
Mood: Corruption and manipulation
Setting: Hugh backed into his office, defenestration through window?
Status: Tess, Mike, and Hugh are dead, but so is Phillip.

Black Cat

A black cat is seen stealing the breath of a passed-out drunk. It is a death-possessed stray who is feeding on the homeless and helpless.

Theme: Creepy superstitions come true
Mood: Mad chase
Setting: Nighttime, foggy back alleys and maybe the spirit world, if it makes it to the dumpster
Status: Pack tracks down the cat and discorporates it.

Runaway

A young wolf-blooded woman of the Nob Hill Ivory Claws begins to go through First Change and flees, ending up with a college friend at SFU, coming to the attention of the pack. She was told by her mother to get to family in Pacific Heights, but is being followed.

Theme: Dark family secrets
Mood: Outrage
Setting: Spirits and Pure in a dorm hall on a dark, stormy night.
Status: Dropped her off with the Caballeros del Alameda with Chen Zhang's help.

Silicon Empress

The pack is blackmailed into retrieving a bone of father wolf from the Shrine of St. Christopher so that the Silicon Empress can be freed.

Theme: Intrigue, manipulation, ancient history, and myth
Mood: Surreality and strangeness
Setting: The weird spirit world of the Internet.
Status: Pack has shackled her.

Legacy of a Vampire

The spirit Evisceration is looking for a new home now that Cesare Vincenzio is dead and finds it in the Haight, settling into a knife owned by a street dealer, Jamie Sanchez, who becomes a serial killer. This was suggested to him by Liberal Anxiety. He also becomes associated with the Murder Brood

Theme: Repercussions and hard decisions
Mood: Slow build and business fallout
Setting: Confront him where he is hiding out in the Grind.
Status: Liberal Anxiety outed him in a deal with the pack, he's now bound into Gutshot.

Killer's Call

Every Blood Talon in the city gets a feeling of dread and portents pointing to the mountains to the south. Fenris is sending a war-cry, say the Cahalith, and all members of his tribe must comply. The Warlord is gathering the Predator Kings to drive the Forsaken out of the Bay.

Theme: War and duty
Mood: Fear, exhilaration, flashbacks (for Lee and Christoval).
Setting: The mountain wilderness.
Status: The pack killed the Warlord during the attack on San Jose.

Obligations

Don Zappetillo approaches Christoval about supplying himself and the Soldiers of Fenris with silver weapons (including grenades) so they can fight the Pure attacking San Jose. Don Aguirre won't because it is a violation of the Oath and Dolores won't allow it.

Theme: Moral conflict and lodge duty
Mood: Tense
Setting: Ambush at hand-off of goods.
Status: Avoided by the end of the war.

New Recruit

Machete's daughter Rita goes through first change.

Theme: Coming of age
Mood: Drama and compromise
Setting: First Change at the Grind during a concert.
Status: New pack formed with Rita and other First Changes, set up in Outer Richmond.

Hunters Point

The Predator King pack is becoming Bale Hounds due to the influence of the wound on their strongest locus and their pack totem's transformation into a Maeltinet of Violence. Lee's brother asks for help.

Theme: Slippery slope and unwanted help
Mood: Violence
Setting: Gunfight on the street moving into the Double Rock tenements.
Status: Reggie has defected to the Forsaken, disgusted with the corruption in his own pack and swayed by the Predator King defeat at the hands of the Blood Talon led Lunar Crusade.

The Fate of Fred

In order to hold up his end of the bargain with the Night Stalkers, Richard had Fred abducted by the True Fae shortly before he was supposedly killed. He is now a captive, but safe.

Theme: Twisted promises
Mood: Alien menace and paranoia
Setting: Running battle through the Hedge
Status: Resolved otherwise. Fred has returned.

Last Chance

Rick Wodarczyk decides to crawl out of his drunken stupor and try to prove himself to his son and himself. He attempts an attack on Joanna Prescott and manages to destroy Luis Sandino and is captured, tortured, and killed. His body is found in the pack's territory the next day.

Theme: Failed redemption
Mood: Pity
Setting: Posh dinner party at Prescott House with a number of ranking vampires in attendance.
Status: Rick died in the attack on Zmai. Re-purposed as Vengeance.

The Kennel

The Scum Fucks come to the pack requested assistance in finding people who are abducting homeless people. Investigation leads to the vampire Groom and her vampiric brothel in the Tenderloin.

Theme: Humanity as herd
Mood: Disgust
Setting: The brothel and its secret doors and passageways.
Status: Re-purposed as Vengeance.

Refugees

A number of unruly spirits (lust, disease, anger) are coming over from the Castro and causing trouble. It turns out that Penny is driving them out of the territory with his Endless Moon policies. Start with a gang of vandals fettered by Vandalism, driven by fear and anger lesser gafflings. Follow up with lust and disease lesser gafflings in the club scene.

Theme: Diplomacy
Mood: Irritation
Setting: Chasing a lust spirit through a club in Lower Haight, jumping from club-goer to club-goer.
Status: Vandalism and Decent People are urging people into committing violent and destructive acts throughout the Haight.

Cult of the Worm

Zmai, the worm, awakes from the earthquake and enslaves the Predator King pack on Mount Diablo, then begins spreading its influence through enthralled humans. The Centerville Clan discovers one of the thralls and finds out about the cult, calling in Lee (as a fellow member of the Lodge of Night) to strike at the Worm while the other East Bay packs hold off the thralls.

Theme: Epic struggle against an alien foe
Mood: Grim, suicidal fight
Setting: A large underground cave complex filled with morphed thralls.
Status: Slain by a host of religiously-inspired Blood Talons, now Worm Hosts!

Shinto Priest

The new caretaker at the Japanese Tea Garden is actually a Thyrsus mage who, after a bad run-in with Uratha, wards them out of the glade. Implications are that any harm to him might bring down the mage's Consilium. Mage politics ensue.

Theme: Patrolling human mages
Mood: Conflict
Setting: A nearly impossible fight in the warded and glade-y tea garden against a fairly powerful magical foe.
Status: Shelved

Enemy of My Friend

The Lodge of Silence contacts DeAndre and asks him to help out a recently paroled member of the Lodge who is also a member of the Sorenos and looking to challenge Don Aguirre and his organization through his prison contacts. Secretly, he is also a member of the Lodge of Quetzal and is looking to hurt the Brotherhood's interests in the region, as embodied by Aguirre.

Theme: Torn loyalties
Mood: Challenges and stand-offs
Setting: Hit on Aguirre during a family gathering (marriage, birthday, etc) with the assassin skin-stealing Machete.
Status: Jag's on the loose, harrying the Mission pack. Will be resolved off-scene.

Shadowcruiser

Lee's Garage comes into possession of a car-claimed car that can drive between the Shadow and the real world.

Theme: Random World of Darkness weirdness
Mood: Creepy and menacing
Setting: Car chase.
Status: Too small scale for the new campaign.

Summer 2009: Vengeance

Kevin Wodarczyk attempts to take out Joanna Prescott during a large party at her house on the border of the Stone Garden territory. He manages to kill Luis Sandino but Joanna makes eye contact their his scope and uses Majesty to force him to come to her and he is brutally killed. She summons the Stone Garden to demand an explanation, they apologize and take the body, depositing it in the pack's territory.

Theme: Vengeance and humanity as herd
Mood: Rage and disgust
Setting: Joanna's fortified house with its powerful vampire residents and supporters and well-armed and armored ghoul guards, with a basement full of chattel.
Status: Kevin was brought back to exact his vengeance by Grandfather Jiang.