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Vampire the Gentrification

Session 1

Airport Arrival

The players, Magda, Rex and Estaban all arrive to Cork in coffins via private planes of their own, from their home countries; Poland, Hong Kong and Argentina. Bolted into the coffins they're let out to a private hangar where the players do a quick take of their surroundings. Establishing the people around them are a little tense but mostly treating this like a normal day's work all three vampires settle down.

Hungry from the trip, and from waking at sunset, they're offered blood bags which they take and feed on, however they notice something strange. This blood has sated their entire hunger. The vampires know this is strange — there are few ways to satisfy the beast completely and all of them are pretty gory. They activate some more of their abilities — blush of life — feed again if needed, then each pocket a blood bag to keep a hold of this wonderful, satisfying blood. Let's hope they're not patted down by police, or security.

One of the players, Rex, when tasting the blood activates his blood sorcery discipline — A Taste for Blood — but all he can discern from it is this Type-O seems inert. There's no resonance to it, no character of the person it's from. Nor does it have the taste of blood as though from a completely detached, cold and heartless person. For all intents it never held life, but it definitely satisfies all three of the vampires' need for sustenance. It's unusual, extremely unusual, but our vampires are new to this world so don't quite know where to place it on the 'unusual' spectrum.

The vampires get in the lead car of what is a funeral cortege, carrying their now empty coffins in hearses through the city, the Irish flag draped over each coffin. It could be the returning bodies of some soldiers, maybe a diplomatic family attacked on a mission, or even some decades old bodies finally being returned to the country and given honours upon their repatriation.

The car drives into the city, with people doffing their caps and bowing their heads to the seeming funeral, and eventually it drives past a football ground. The police have no compulsion letting the funeral through the cordons for the impending football game.

The driver of the car says to contact him if they need anything — giving them a single old-style Nokia 3210 phone — and after showing them where their home will be, for now, drops them into the city at an accessible location near to where he tells them they should walk.

Kitty Consternation

Concerned about The Traditions, including announcing yourself to The Prince, the players mention this to their driver. He assures them this is all part of the plan and if they do what they're told there'll be no trouble.

Their walk leads them past one rather busy bar, despite it still being relatively early in what will become a late-night partying Friday night.

Just past a quieter bar that seems to be attended by "faces" of the mortal scene — people who want to be seen — they find a small lobby area where a lot of bar stuff, kitchen workers, and security are taking smoke breaks. This matches with where they were told to go, with the workers on break ignoring them, and they venture up the stairs where they find a small bar with just three people in there, one of them a ginger bar-worker who casually greets them with a, "Howya!"

Appearing dishevelled, and like they've travelled a long way, the bartender asks them what they're in Cork for. Thinking quickly Estaban says they're there for the match that's happening; as an Argentinian he's a football fan who travels the world to see games.

Asked if they have tickets for the game they respond they were more about picking up the mood of the evening and maybe sorting out tickets as the next ninety minute progresses.

The bartender tells the other two people in the bar to look after themselves and gets drinks for his new guests, sitting them down at the table after getting three tickets for the game from one of his two drinking buddies.

When they're all sat down, the tone changes, just a little. With Rex, Magda and Estaban now in possession of tickets to the match this person, Gerry, the barman, says the group are being sent to the football match to pick up on some chatter that's happening. No-one is quite sure what's happening, but they think it has something to do with immigrants. He also provides them with one of the maps the football team makes up with the tourist board, indicating sites of interest, eateries, bars, etc. that have paid for sponsorship for that game-week. Lowering his tone, indicating on the map that has obviously been drawn on, he tells them the coloured lines marked in show where they can and cannot feed.

The group leaves, seeing as they've been assigned a task, and are concerned about who they've met and if this satisfies their need to introduce themselves in the city. The GM allows the players with Auspex to activate their 'Premonition' roll with one player rolling a messy critical on their hunger dice (due to GM error, but we run with it.)

Whatever Magda's premonition tells her she gets some idea of The Prince. As this happens cats from around the nearby city start approaching her, including a pack of kittens. She begins to rant about The Prince, with the rest of the group getting worried as people are recording this influx of cats to the cat lady on their phones (Magda has a 'Cat Lady' merit.) Once established this isn't the work of a Nosferatu or some form of Animalism they speak loudly about Magda having had too much to drink. And begin to lead her away.

Unconcerned, Magda picks up one of the kittens, who she has decided, in her premonition state, to name 'Prince' and to hold onto. Unable to change her mind about Prince the group walks to the stadium, getting Magda away from the hubbub of onlookers, where they realise they won't be able to get into the game — and carry out their task — if one of them is carrying a kitten. Instead they spot a bar that has guide dogs in training outside, getting used to a busy atmosphere, and stickers and posters on the windows for animal rescue charities.

The Match

Magda confidently walks inside where a barman looks grumpy, before a barwoman notices the kitten and nigh-on explodes with joy. The barwoman knows they're there for the match and hearing the story of Magda adopting Prince lets them into the beer garden of the pub. It's actually a VIP area that backs onto the football pitch, with a great view of the game; obviously a deal between the pubs around here and the football team.

Near the rowdy terrace, although in their own space, the crew get to work while Magda upholds her part of the deal for this access; "Pictures of her and the kitty for the 'Gram as part of the bar's marketing."

Rex goes into the crowd as a normal fan and Estaban stays in the VIP area, partly to keep an eye on Magda, but mostly to see if he can hear anything from the edge of the terrace.

As the match progresses they learn — while Magda is hamming it up for the 'Gram — that there's some consternation about the library that's nearby. It's always been open 24 hours, usually with access via a pass system, a record of members and a security system, along with some security staff, but now it's going to be staffed 24 hours, especially with social workers who will be helping immigrants and the underprivileged gain access to state benefits, job training and job applications. All via integrated library systems.

Ripples seem to be going out from one person in particular, with the police in the ground only partially aware something is happening but not quite what it is. Messages are being passed back and forth and the word spread about the protest; times, etc.

With the game drawing towards the last twenty minutes, and still a nil-nil tie, the group in the VIP area notice what looks like a social media influencer — also in the VIP area — looking at them, along with her boyfriend. She's wearing a baseball cap, with her blonde hair tied back, big sunglasses despite it being night time, and an absolute mountain of makeup, with some scars from psoriasis or something similar extending out from her sleeves and covered with makeup.

Somehow, for some reason, she interacts with Magda, about the cat — Prince — and lets on that she knows what it is they are — vampires — but shows no signs of feeling threatened.

Confused, the attention returns to seeing if they can gather any more information about what's happening with the library; a protest, apparently, kicking off tomorrow evening, just after sunset, when the 24 hour/night-time system is getting its soft launch.

With the game just about to finish, still 0-0, a Cork City player takes a shot that curls right into the corner of the net, with the crowd going wild at what will be a home team win, except the group notices not all is as it appears. The shot wasn't destined for the net no matter how much curl there was on it.

Something, somehow, seemed to nudge the ball while it was mid-flight, just a little, to change its trajectory; something supernatural. They look for the social media-like influencer who seemed to know what they are, and she's cheering, but her boyfriend has disappeared, arriving back with drinks a couple of minutes later.

The Library and The Gossip

Leaving the game, worried but focused on their task, the players take the short walk to the nearby library that's due for longer opening, figuring with it nearby they might as well investigate.

There a security guard clocks they're immigrants, again, and says despite not being open that night the librarians — when he checked on the radio — said it was fine to send them up.

There a librarian greets them and immediately puts her foot in her mouth, or seems to. Magda picks up on her saying, "You people," to them.

She has a bit of a breakdown and tries to establish that she just means immigrants, which Ireland has a lot of, now, due to its success (the Irish Celtic Tiger happened in the 1980s in this world and Ireland has grown in population appropriately, with consequential income inequality,) and the library really is just about helping people; it's what she wants to do; it's what her life is. There was no harm behind what she said, it's just that she's incredibly flustered with so much opposition to plans to put in place systems that help people who've arrived to the country. To get them settled, and for people who might not have had as much help or opportunity throughout life.

A wiry, 55 year old man spots all this, seeing the commotion, and says they should all have a coffee. This is all explained, again, about attempts to help, but it's of no use. The damage has been done and the atmosphere is all wrong.

The group of Magda, Estaban and Rex all leave and make their way back to the bar they were first in that night, to check in with the man who assigned them their task; the man Magda's premonition was telling her the word 'Prince' about.

Arriving, getting on for about midnight, the bar is busier, and the city is kicking off a bit with revellers about. The small, upstairs bar isn't too busy, though, maybe fifteen people, despite the hopping scene in the bar beneath it.

When the group enter the realise 'Gerry' or the so believed (at least by Magda) 'Prince' isn't there, but a woman does wave at them from a corner table. They immediately get the sense she's a gossip, and she asks them what they found out. Still worried about Masquerades they don't let up much, but do say a little about libraries. The woman sends them to another bar, on the edge of the heart of the city, near — coincidentally — where their home is. All drawn out on the football map, with feeding grounds, like earlier.

The Bridge — Close to Home

Going there they spot, straight away — in a quiet-ish bar of wood and doors leading off the main room and TVs showing other football games — the man who was at the centre of the ripples of commotion and messages being sent out in the terraces at the football match.

Estaban perches himself next to the bar, next to the man, but is studiously ignored by the barman. The man they spotted seems to be focused on keeping his counsel, while others try to regale him with tales; one of whom starts 'talking to' Estaban (i.e. annoying and being a dick to Estaban.)

Estaban ignores the man, quickly realising he's an irrelevance, despite his proximity to the 'important' man. For some reason this impresses the important man, who has a vague feeling he spotted Estaban at the football match.

All while this is happening Magda is talking to the bartender, who's trying to and failing to feed the kitty milk. In the bar by the football stadium the kitty-crazy barwoman found a bottle that had been left behind the counter for ages, a baby's bottle for milk, and successfully modified it for the cat to feed from it. No such luck in this new bar, 'The Bridge.'

The man with influence asks Estaban about the match, and Estaban responds, happy to talk about football — and maybe get an in with this man — bringing up his immigrant status when prompted — perhaps a risk given the protests over immigrants using the 24 hour library being planned, partly by this guy.

Estaban says he travels for football, to watch games, and hearing he has money the influence-making man sparks up. Estaban isn't just here to extract money from the state.

When Estaban mentions he's from Argentina Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' comes up. Estaban says whatever about the cheating Shilton shouldn't have been out-jumped by the tiny Maradona. This causes uproar from all around, and a few cries of, "Damn right!" and "Fuck the English!"

Finally loosened up the man begins to rant about this protest, about why he doesn't know why he's involved. It's all being organised by some guy from the Northside of the city, and they're from the Southside.

Everyone is from Cork, the immigration business isn't great, but the Northside keeps to itself as does the Southside. They shouldn't be interfering with each others' concerns but this wannabe from the Northside is throwing his weight around, for some reason.

All outside having a smoke now, with one failed attempt to flirt with Magda from a young hopeful, the man with influence asks for Estaban's number, enquiring if he really is here just for a match or if he's here to work. Estaban says he might be here for a while, but not to worry about him, he's all setup with a house, and looked after already.

Pleased by this response — another response indicating these immigrants won't be drains on the state's coffers — the men in the bar return to their situation, and the group goes to their home, nearby, letting themselves in for the first time.

Settling In?

However, as they let themselves in, they notice there's an electronic device on the door, a little bug. What for? They don't know. What it is? They also don't know. They just know they've removed it.

They settle in for the remainder of the night, probably talking amongst themselves figuring out all that happened since they arrived in Cork. What exactly is going on with the library? The Vampires? And maybe, even, The Prince? His name was Gerry, right?

Link to the intro to the campaign.

Link to Estaban's write up of the first session, via the player Zekk.

Link to Second session of the campaign.

Back to Vampire the Masquerade.