Officer Dolores Chavez

Concept: psychic Cop

AKA: Lots of her fellow street officers call her “D”

Desc: Middling tall for a latina, not an ounce of fat on her. No ink. she has the musculature of a hardcore swimmer. Hair like black glass and dark eyes that have seen a lot.

History: She doesn’t remember it all that well, but Dolores was possessed once. They went out and got someone who could yank the spirit out. and when he did, he called for a guardian to keep an eye on her. That guardian stayed with her and taught her much. and when he bid her goodbye, he gave her a gift, Well...She already had the gift but he helped her to learn how to use it.

Papa Chavez had been a highly decorated cop in his day, and he had a smile ten miles wide when she graduated from the police academy.

And now, she walks the streets trying to walk the straight and narrow. but her gifts actually make it harder for her in some ways.

Attitude:  “You’re Lying. I can smell it on you. Now I can run you in, shine a light in your eyes and keep you awake for a few days, or you can tell me what’s happening down the street...”

Skills: Physically. She is well skilled. Plentiful dots of athletics, weaponry, and Brawl. Plus dots of dirty fighting FS. She is in great great shape.

mentally, she’s no slouch. She paid attention to her “guardian angel” and got good grades in school. Also, she knows more about the spirit world than most people OUGHT to. She has dots in occult with a specialty or two.

Socially, Dolores is a bit of an introvert, loves to read with her kitty curled up on her lap. Can spend an entire afternoon dicking around on Twitter. Has a lot of fun going around to psychic fairs and outing the charlatans and keeping an eye on those few who are the real deal.

In terms of her abilities. she has the ability of aura reading and she has the ability to sense nearby disturbances in the fabric of the veil between words. Portals opening and closing and stuff like that.

Gear: Standard issue police gear obviously. Also, a number of holy symbols on her keyring that have proven useful in the field. A metal flask which carries holy water, refilled every sunday when she goes for mass.

Home: Dolores and her sister share a spacious two bedroom apartment in a relatively decent part of town. They live close to Scamps and Gloria chavez spends enough of her evenings there after her shifts at the hospital that Dolores has had to post a sign on the fridge that reads. “Get your own food manwhore! Pick through my fridge at your peril.”

Circle: “D” knows some cops, a few of her neighbors and most of the people at her church.  Her natural tendency, in spite of her ability to aura read is to want to believe the best of people. hopefully this won’t get her killed some day.

Story Uses:

“Stop! in the name of the LAW!”

Sometimes, you just want to know that there IS a hero cop out there fighting the good fight. Dolores gives people that sort of impression and it’s true, she means it.

“i may know a thing or two about destiny and having some courage.”

having supernatural merits doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t change into something with more juice. Dolores would be a natural as a Hero chasing beasts. Beasts would be wise to steer clear of her. 

Connections:

* Sgt. William Donnelly Toughest white man I've ever met, never seen him lie.

* Detective Dana Crowley She's likable and all. But If I tell her what I've really seen, They'll be fitting me for a straight jacket next.

*Detective Bob Greider Brightest aura I've ever seen. And funny as hell.

* Officer Wesley Ullman  "he's a seething vortex of unpleasant emotions and such. I wouldn't go anywhere with that guy."

* Special Agent Owen Maccready "I met him once on a crime scene. Totally out of his element. poor bastard."

Detective Jimmy"James" Harkness

Concept: “that One Dick”

AKA: People tend to whisper about James harkness behind his back rather than nickname him properly. Often times his most common moniker is “spook show”

Desc: A large black man in his mid forties. He’s got good wind and goes and hits the heavy bag whenever he’s trying to noodle something out. if there’s anything that’s a little bit off-putting about  Jimmy Harkness it is, that his sense of humor has become so gallows black that even the other homicide dicks often look at him with stricken “DUDE! Too Far!” looks on their faces. He’s already been officially reprimanded for a bad bout of church giggles he got at a crime scene within earshot of the grieving wife, who also turned out to be the perp by the way.

History: Jimmy has seen some shit. he’s worked as a cab driver, a corrections officer and then eventually got a gig with metro PCP. He’s been in a scrap or two in his life. He grew up in a part of the state where you worked in the mines until you coughed out your life in a hospital bed. So he’d rather do ANYTHING else than go back there and die like his pop did.

he came to the big city and started working as hard as anyone can. because Jimmy had seen some shit already and knew a few things that they don’t teach you about in big city public school. Nor in big city community college.

   Like knowing a few things about Haints, and a thing or two about hoodoo. and then the actual flesh and blood predators out in the night.  It didn’t take too long for The Union to come around and recruit Young Mr Harkness. and he’s been working with them all this time.  It explains a bit how his career has been somewhat checkered and how he’s moved around laterally. He’s also pretty good at it, The Hunting AND the Homicide detecting. He has a good grasp of psychology and while his schooling isn’t great, he’s got great people radar and isn’t lazy as fuck like Blanchard and Skiggs.

Granted it’s not all chili and hot dogs. his sick sense of humor comes from being triggered in the field a few times. His work and his hunting make it difficult to keep a girlfriend (Even though Jimmy is something of a catch. He’s not hard to look at and in decent shape. Occasionally, during hunting there are cash windfalls and Jimmy always invested them well.)

Attitude: “Keep your eyes open kid. Pay attention to the big stuff going on around you and the little stuff too. Remember to keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel and you just might get to die in your bed at an advanced age. I certainly hope to.”

Skills: mentally he’s pretty fast on the draw. he might have a number of investigation specialties and streetwise specialties too. He’ll have a dot or three of occult. and might even have encyclpodic knowledge. He’s always buying books with strategies on how to become a math wiz or do that “memory palace” shit, but he tends to get bored midway through and so he’s never really managed any of that.  But he is GREAT at reading people (Give him a five in empathy, which makes his inappropriate jokes even worse.) He’s got great radar for people and almost always know when you’re lying. ESPECIALLY TO YOURSELF.

Physically, he’s in good shape. Plenty of dots of brawl and some boxing FS. He’ll have decent brawling dodge too.  Isn’t anything special with his gun but CAN hit the broad side of a barn.  He’ll have some athletic dots but is probably not going to have enough flexibility to ever do anything like Parkour.

Socially, he’s a decent guy and most people like him even though he has a bad habit of speaking his mind and being terribly honest. It hasn’t endeared him to some in the department. His size and frame can make him a bit intimidating and if he decides he don’t like you he will invade your personal space.

Gear: he’s got cuffs and obviously a service piece. he’s also got a very large holdout piece which has a kick on it like a mule. he’s also carries a large tool bag for evidence handling and field testing. When on the hunt. Jimmy prefers a rather large shotgun and/or a big baseball bat.

Home: Jimmy has a lovely houseboat which he intends to retire onto. It’s on board arsenal is non-trivial. It is also booby trapped and in case of heat from monsters, he can always pull away from shore. 

Circle: He knows most of the people in the department of course, a subset of criminal folks, and the people around the marina. He’s not terribly outgoing from there.

Story Uses:

“Did you or did you not see these markings? Seriously Skiggs. DO you not know what a clue looks like?”

As I may have mentioned Jimmy has seen some seriously fucked up shit in the line of duty. He’s not one to stop listening when the witness says, “OK. Now this is going to sound crazy....” I’m not saying that James is going to become your own personal captain ahab. but anything weird is GOING to be passed up the chain to his people in the Union and lord only knows what will come out of that.

Options: 

If you want to juice up Jimmy Harkness, you can always give him psychic merits, a Second Sight hedge magic template of some sort. or have him be unwitting wolf blooded or an unwitting Dhampir.

Connections:

*Has a nodding acquaintance with the officers of  The clean-up crew. If they meet in the field, on the hunt, it's going to get very awkward very quickly.

* Shawna Bishop "Real shame what happened to that girl. real shame."

* Sgt. William Donnelly "You got a problem with Big Bill. Then you got a problem with me. And if HE's got a problem with you, Then I don't think I want to know you kid.

* Thomas Jones Rutherford  "yeah I know TJ. He's my boy! Dude would have made a pretty good cop himself I think. He asks the right questions.

* Paul Castellamarese "Id love to nail him on that thing from two years ago. But he lawyered up real good and the goombas closed ranks.

* Detective Marty Bennetti "That man is complicated to talk about. Errybody KNOWS he's crooked. But He also saved my damn life once. Don't partner with him if you're career minded.

Detectives Blanchard and Skiggs  "the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy of PCPMetro.

* Sheriff Hank Settles Probably the only other lawman i can count on in the field. man I wish he'd transfer to metro. While I'm wishing I might as well as for lotto numbers and a blowjob.

* John Joseph Staglione "Love to find that dragunov of his and close about a dozen cases, but the man is out of the game and I hear for good. Besides i've seen him with his grandkids. I couldn't toss him in jail NOW."

* Miss Virgie Hawkins " i think she knows more than she lets on."

* Norman Cayce  "I think he's right and I help when i can.

T Morgan Barlow

Concept: Pillar of the Community

AKA: Most know him simply as mister barlow, few are familiar enough to know him as “tommy” 

Desc: Big and broad and barrel chested. White hair, capped teeth. Looks good in a cowboy hat and a string tie.Also tends to go for cowboy boots, but nothing overly adorned, plain black and/or brown is just fine. his suits tend to go the same way.

Drinks a bit and it’s starting to show on his face.

History:Thomas Morgan Barlow tells people he was raised on a farm. Which is technically true. His family OWNS a number of factory farms and many times they wintered there. and he did enjoy his time on the farms, but it wasn’t as if he was exactly stuck there. His father encouraged him to explore all aspects of the agribusiness consortium they owned and so he’s shorn sheep, and milked cows and all the folksy stuff that he likes to talk about at public events. But he also played polo and golf at the local country club.

T. Morgan Barlow

 started a widely successful chicken shop franchise called “Winner,Winner,Chicken Dinner” or Winner’s Chicken for short. PC town has 14 shops and they’ve just broken ground on a new rendering and processing plant in one of the bedroom communities adjacent to PC town.  While Millersburg needs the jobs, they have no idea how utterly filthy a chicken rendering plant is and how badly it will affect the local environment. Mr barlow has made certain that doctored studies have made it into the hands of the Millersburg city council.

As you might imagine, the whole plan was designed and directed by the higher ups  of the Vermillion House. They intend to put the plant squarely on a large piece of land seized by eminent domain that was the largest locus in the area.

Attitude: “Son. If you want to get ahead in business You’re going to have to get tough. No one is going to give you anything in this world. No one ever gave anything to me.”

Skills:  he’s made some very savvy moves in business over the years, but not because he’s super smart. but because he’s at least smart enough to recognize smart and hires the best bean counters that money can buy. Physically, he’s Ok. but nothing special. He’s got some size, some reach and a little boxing in his pockets. He’s been in a scrap or two in his life so he doesn’t get rattled easily in a tough situation.

Socially, he’s a shark. Like most sociopaths he’s gravitated to the top of his company because it’s where the power is.Also, he inherited it,  He’s always convinced himself that it’s necessary to be the sort of person that can order a plant closing and then sleep like the dead that night.

Gear: He doesn’t like to carry anything in his hands so he’s got two men who follow him everywhere who carry his stuff. His iPad, his phone, his wallet. and the like.

Home: Palatial and with the kind of security you only see in a Ocean’s Movie. Massive pool. Spends much of his time in his personal study. otherwise he’d have to deal with his wife and his 8 children.

Circle:  Unless you are rich, white and an evangelical christian, T Morgan Barlow doesn’t know you and doesn’t want to. In fact, he tends to abstain from most of the reindeer games at the vermillion house, not because of any real belief in God or any guilt of any kind, but because if ANY of it ever got out he’d never live it down.

Story Uses:

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head none. I’ll take care of the whole thing.”

Thomas makes a good target or antagonist. He’s a “pillar of the community” with all that that implies. He’s a good tool and probably even a good person to have in your rolodex for business related purposes. he’d very likely make a decent mentor for a person with similar attitudes as his.

Options: Obviously he’d make a decent ghoul for someone. he might be a part of some conspiracy outside of the Vermillion House. He might also be bankrolling one of the more christian flavored hunter groups.

Connections:

 Judge Stephen Warren Golf Buddies for life

Klaus Dietrich "Smartest man i know. Best banker I know too."

Blaise Newark "Never fails at what he does. Glad he's in my wallet."

Ralston Van Doren  very interesting guy, but SO intense.

"Dr. Coulton Bennett" Thinking very seriously about donating to this cause.

Meredith Shaw "Known her since she was knee high to a grasshopper. Mean as a snake. just like her momma.

The Vermillion House A big contributor to the House general project fund. But not going to be considered for the inner circle because of his churchy leanings.

Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean There was some unpleasantness some years ago with some widespread wage theft chicanery. Fortunately Roderick holmes was able to clear all that up.

Mike Welch

Concept: Head of the Public Defenders office.

AKA: “bleeding heart” and snowflake are some of the kinder epithets that he’s been called by some of the DA’s staff

Desc: Tallish, flyaway hair reminiscent of Jake Busey. Clean well engineered smile. tired eyes. Hits the gym every other day, still. Eats like a horse. Needs glasses.

History: By rights he shouldn’t even be here. He’s a privileged kid. a B+ plus student in law school. he ought to be on the partner track somewhere. But He’s not. He’s working in a cramped little office for precious little money and his job is coming perilously close to consuming his entire life. It’s not like he’s planning to die working this job or anything, but he never seems to get off the dime when it comes to working on his own life.

Mike may have self esteem issues, but it is at least clear that he takes his job and the lives he quite literally holds in his hands very very seriously. Some think maybe he’s got some guilt over something big, like he skated when someone else did not. But so far no one has dug it out and and some have certainly tried.

   He drives himself very hard, and while he’s never said as much, he does so in order to let the other lawyers in the PD office know where he stands on the work itself. It breaks his heart a little every time one of his people leaves and gets a gig somewhere else. even though he’s outwardly happy for them.

Attitude:  “Ok. Stop. You’re approaching this like some mental exercise. Like some Gendankenexperiment or some bullshit like that. If you do that, a man goes to jail for a portion of his life.

Skills: Mike is in decent shape but isn’t truly a combatant. He could throw a punch maybe and he  actually HAS a small light pistol which he’s not bad with. But in a fight he’s liable to go down fast. Although he may keep trying to get up...He’s got a little more stamina than anything else in his physical suite. Long nights working on cases, and he runs a bit at night in order to clear his head. Socially, he’s pretty adept with a little more manipulation than anything else. he’s also solid mentally with more resolve than anything. More than most of the people in his office, truth be told.  He’s loaded with dots in academics (Spec: Law) and he’d make a pretty decent investigator from working with the PI that the PD office occasionally has to hire. he’s not genius brilliant like some other litigators, but he Always DOES THE FUCKING WORK and if they haven’t, brilliant or no, he’ll crush them.

Gear: his attache is home to a laptop, His pistol, his smartphone, and bottled water. he’s normally got a breakfast bar in there and yellowjackets, or stacker 2. Mike does not sleep much. Although he has been found nodded off in his office.

Home: He and his wife Joyce live in a modest little brownstone in a decent neighborhood gated community. Mike is still occasionally embarrassed by the privilege they still enjoy, but he tries to make up for it by being involved in the neighborhood watch. Mike wants kids, but Joyce refuses to have them as long as he’s still wrangling the PD’s office. He’ll never see them otherwise.

Circle: If you aren’t some sort of habitual lowlife or an officer of the court, You probably won’t get to know mike at all. Sorry.

Story Uses:

“i’m sorry, Christine is right. This is a loser of a case. My advice to you is plead it out.”

Mike is going to be overseeing things in the PD’s office and if something goes sideways, he may step in and try to head it off.

Options:

Mike may have suffered some sort of transformative event. Like a mastigos awakening or something like that. Or he may be wolf blooded and working closely with his kin. He may have something extra in his pockets.

Connections:

 Judge Stephen Warren Quite possibly the worst jurist I have ever seen in my life.

ADA Calvin Donloe Kind of a cock. Still sort of a friend of sorts.

Judge Mattarazzo  I'd like to work for this guy someday maybe.

Christine Horowitz Naturally, this one is kind of complicated. Mike and Christine have a thing, and there's a certain amount of tension between them and it tends to rear it's head occasionally, but he didn't meet her until after he was already married to Joyce, and it doesn't matter what HE wants. He's already made a commitment. So...

Scamps

To put it lightly, Scamps is a fuck bar. 

I mean, not like people are practically humping on the tables or anything like that.

Scamps is situated in a small strip mall adjacent to a  number of apartment complexes. And the main demo of this neighborhood is young urban professionals. HORNY young urban professionals.  People who work long hours and don’t really have the time to actually look for a relationship.

Scamps is such a meat market that the expectation is if you’re there, it means you’re looking to bump uglies tonight and you aren’t terribly picky about who with. Doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed at all but you’ve got to be some kind of misanthrope to not get laid if you go in there to drink and relax a bit.

One might be tempted to think that there is something supernatural going on here. But there isn’t. Although there ARE spirits that congregate here for the outpouring of emotional and sexual energy on display. For some spirits this place is like an endless buffet. In fact, the place is like a regular watering hole for those sorts of creatures that trade in lust and there seems to be a sort of unspoken covenant about not upsetting the applecart. If there is any that the creature who come here for sustenance DON'T Want. it's open warfare guaranteed to scare off the people. But if you turn up here and start making waves, or worse, leave an untidy corpse out to be found, they will come for you. And you likely won't see them until it's too late because they'll come at you sideways.

There's really nothing supernatural going here. it's not some ley line thing, or greater demon aspected towards lust. It’s simply a central location for many of the locals to get loose and their apartments are within walking distance so any kind of hijinks are possible on a friday night.

The bar isn’t terribly well stocked. The most popular whiskey they have is Fireball. They’ve got a few flavored vodkas and dazzling selection of light beers. But nothing artisanal. The tiny kitchen does pub grub and every bit of it is fried.

Most of the TV’s are tuned to ESPN or local sports.  They have darts and pool and Karaoke on the weekend evenings.

Casey runs the bar. She’s cute in a kind of ravenesque way. Her ink is quite impressive. She runs the bar and programs all the music.  She does a whole night of rockabilly on wednesday, not because she likes that shit but because it draws in the hipsters. When the place is all but empty, she kicks over onto her personal play list and sings along with the Cure. Casey is the de facto den mother for the other Bartenders and keeping them on a straight and virtuous path is not easy when the clientele is clearly ready to go. 

The place opens at 5pm and stays open until last call at 2am. 7 days a week except for certain holidays. 

Connections:
Dr. Laney Reese and her roommate sometimes turn up here on the weekend nights. She's made friends with Casey and is considering some ink herself as result. Casey's offered to do it for her.
ADA Calvin Donloe is often in here with friends of his from the office. While Calvin likes to look, he's not interested in fucking things up with his woman. But he'll play wingman any night for his bros.
Blaise Newkirk Brought home a Daeva one night and she gave it to him so good that occasionally he comes around hoping to see her again.
Christine Horowitz "Oh sweet god, what am I doing here again? This guy is worse than the last one mom tried to set me up with. I have to be out of my mind..."
Rick Deluca  It's not a party until Quinn the Eskimo gets there.
Collette Reeves "C'mon. my apartment is right over there.
Darla Grumman "Still crushing on Casey after all these years. It's not helped by the fact that Casey is heteroflexible and tends to like to kiss girls when she's got a few drinks in her.
Lara X  SO many of her articles have been written right at this very bar.

"Nikolai"

Concept: Master of disguise
AKA: As the man has passed into espionage legend, he has garnered a number of nicknames, most notably, The Chameleon, And Mr. Can’t Miss

Desc: Brown eyes, brown hair, average build. The musculature of a martial artist.

History: “Nikolai” was a spook. A pretty good one too. He found that he excelled in the field of disguise and impersonation. He had some talent as a natural mimic and he put that to work for him. If he could procure an audio sample of the person he was impersonating, he could many time ape their speech patterns well enough to fool those who knew them for short to middling long intervals. He’s quite adept at dialects too.
Like many former KGB operatives, he is very disciplined and when the USSR came apart he went private and salted away a decent amount of cash for himself. Then he simply disappeared.
“Nikolai” is essentially retired. He doesn’t take on contracts anymore unless they are particularly fat or offer an interesting challenge to him. In which case, he’ll often go to the extent of telling the target that he is coming for him and give the target a time when he is going to meet his maker. This often has the effect of making the target do terribly stupid things out of desperation. 
   Often, if Nikolai is on a job, he’ll take on the identity of someone close to the victim and wait for the proper time to strike. He can be very patient when he has to be.

Attitude: I don’t bother judging people. I leave that to others. However, when the money is right. I’ll go after someone. Invariably I see something about them in doing my research that makes it okay for me to erase them. if you’re IN this world, you’ve done something terrible...That’s not really up for debate.

Skills: Quite a bit of points salted into languages. Intellectually, he’s fairly strong and a sharp student of people. Socially, he’s also pretty strong with a bit of emphasis on Manipulation. Physically, he’s not terribly strong. But that’s because by the time you know it’s him and that you’re under attack, you look down and realize you’ve already got two knives sticking out of you. He may have some points salted away into some kind of gunfighting/sniping fighting style as well. He’s got a decent spread of dots in academics and various other skills that indicate the kind of life lived traveling all over. He has plenty of dots in Crafts (Specialty: make-up) and expression(special: improv/acting)  

Gear: He has an old beat-up steamer trunk that doubles as his make-up workshop it can be unpacked and he can be working on a project in ten minutes. it can be re-packed in about the same amount of time. There is also a non-trivial amount of plastique in the bottom of the case, in case he needs to leave it behind for any reason.  His everyday carry involves a smartphone and an attache case which is home to an SMG, A silenced pistol, A garrote, and 3 sets of combat knives. He tends to wear a layer of thin kevlar underneath whatever else he might have on.

Home: In addition whatever house he has decided to hang his hat in, he’ll have a gulf stream mobile home that he can be on the road within under 6 minutes. This gulf stream is loaded with cash, salable items, and bogus papers. just in case, he needs to leave the country in a hurry. he keeps a satellite phone in there and a very heavily encrypted laptop. Just in case of a rainy day.

Circle: As I mentioned, Nikolai is retired from the game, but it does mean he can do now what he always wanted to do. And so, he’ll find himself doing community theater and doing it fairly damn well. Most of his friends know him this way. The people who truly know him know him from his espionage days and they know that he can be prepared, tricky as fuck, and ruthless as a top rated assassin can be.

Story Uses:
“Who am I? I’m just a man who is in his element and if you want to live through this, you’ll do what I am telling you.”
Nikolai makes for an unlikely hero. He’s done bad things. Taken lives and so on. But In the right circumstances, he might turn around and out-clever the bad people who might be causing you some trouble. He doesn’t rattle easily and he’s not one to fog up in the middle of a conflict.

“Kid. I have to hand it to you, You made this one interesting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got money to collect....”
On the other hand, You might come up against Nikolai. He IS an espionage legend for a reason. Mainly because he never takes any of it personally. He’s not invested in revenge or anything that might put him off balance emotionally. He leaves that to other people. Targets, and clients usually. he plans meticulously and can improvise on a moments notice. He’s tough to come up against. The KGB made sure of it.

Connections:
*Dr. Dennis McMurtry (They used to tangle back in the old days. Nikolai has one habit that occasionally has given him away, He tends to be fidgety with his hands. If there is anyone who could spot Nikolai while he is in disguise, it's dennis.)
* Aldous Church ( Each has the other in their professional rolodex. Each rarely has need of the other based on their respective specialties.)
* Clarinda Hale  (Used to know Clarinda's father, thinks of himself as a kind of uncle. Has taken a number of her language classes in various guises.)

Slocumb's Horseshoe Motor-lodge

Every town has one. PC town is no different.

There’s always one place in town where people get up to mischief. The sort of place where drug deals go on. Marriages are...adulterated. and occasionally people get shot. Every place I have ever lived has a spot like this. Mostly, they are motels.

Martin bought Old man Slocumb out. Martin was flush and bought into the business, and the old man wanted out so he let himself be bought out cheap. Martin didn’t care about a lot of the things that went on in and around the Motorlodge as long as it didn’t really hurt the profits. And for the most part, it didn’t. People need rundown seedy motels for many different reasons that have nothing to do with lodging.

Then Martin passed away and his sister Gail inherited the place and she is NOT HAVING IT. Gail is a former marine and is not interested in her property being a roosting place for drug deals and other illegal activities. (Although she’s much softer on the prostitutes for various reasons.)

The layout:

There is a central building that stands in the middle of the property. The Pool is on the back side of the central building. The rest of the place wraps around the central building much like a horseshoe shape. The laundry/housekeeping/physical plant area take up part of the bend on the back side. A chain link fence runs all the wall around the back side of the property and the parking lot opens onto the street in only two places. All of the units face inward toward the central building. There are two levels, the street level, and the upper level. Ice machines and vending are located at the ends of the horseshoe and are in a brick alcove that is sheltered from the elements. An ice machine and additional vending machines are on the back side of the central building facing the pool. There is precious little shelter there though.  An old pay phone is on the wall next to the vending machines and it sees a surprising amount of traffic.

The rooms have an extremely low pile dark green carpeting That scrubby kind that can actually give you pretty bad rug burn and a light beige wallpaper. All the art is bolted to the walls. The TV’s are fairly old but DO have cable and they’ve been gimmicked so that their volume only goes so high. The walls are on the thin side, so they have to. The beds are clean but a bit lumpy and the AC units only seem to have three speeds 1) Convection oven, 2) Jack London Novel, and Off.  The pressure in the showers is pretty good. Each room has a mini-fridge and a small microwave and coffee maker. there’s wifi too but it’s not terribly good or fast. the firewall software is also pretty crap but truthfully, War-dialing is probably the least serious crime that EVER goes on here.

There’s a flying “J” across the road which is a chain for those who are unfamiliar, of large truck stops. Like a speedway on steroids. Mostly for 16 wheelers and so forth. Large cab big rigs tend to park over there and Gail has created a short stay rate for truckers who simply want a shower. Local prostitutes, known in trucker parlance as “Lot lizards” also take advantage of the short stay rates. The Flying “J” also has a pretty good sandwich shop inside. Gail gets a lot of her sustenance there. She’s not much for sweets and the empty calories of gas station snacks and candy.

Gail keeps an apartment directly above the central building and on the occasions when someone is out in the parking lot making some kind of ruckus, she has been known to come out in her PJ’s with a loaded lever action shotgun. She’s pretty good with that gun as some of the local dealers have learned so a lot of the time they keep everything to a dull roar. A lot of the deals that take place around here are simply two cars pull in together and the deal happens in seconds and off they go.  Hundreds of transactions happen like this in a week.

The spiritual landscape:

First: let’s talk about the dead people. there are a few of them Martin is one, congestive heart failure caught up to him one night while he was minding the desk by himself. Every once in a while Gail thinks she’s seen him out of the corner of her eye puttering around at the desk. Martin doesn’t know he’s dead and is pleasantly surprised each time he encounters his sister.

Izzy Washington got himself gunned down in the parking lot some years ago. He knows he’s dead and now most of the anchors holding him here are resolved, more or less. But for some reason, probably fear, he’s afraid to let go and move on.

Daryl turns up nearly every full moon. Daryl’s pretty sad. He found out his girl was cheating on him with his best friend and stabbed them both to death before blowing his own head off.  It used to be that same scene would play itself out about once a month. it used to scare the socks off the odd person who despite warnings would room in 106.  It turned the room into an abattoir until the blood would fade away in the daylight.  Finally, a group of ghost hunters came around and laid Paco and Trina to rest, but Daryl is either stubborn or dumb as hell and won’t move on.

    There is a slight undertow of negative chi that runs through this place, not like a full-blown ley line of it or anything crazy like that. But occasional murder and violence spirits turn up here and when they do, disagreements turn into fights and fights turn into serious violence.

   Occasionally, Gail finds animal carcasses in the parking lot and no sign of whatever slew the animals in question. once, she found a deceased mountain lion that had just strolled into the parking lot from the scrublands out back of the place. No idea what might have slain it to this day.

Other Staff:

While Gail is more than capable of holding down the front desk and lives just above it in case there is a problem. There ARE other employees.

Theresa Patalski is the maid. Theresa is a housekeeping machine. Capable of covering all 25 units in a solid 4 and half hours. Theresa is an Ex-marine friend of Gail’s and is turning herself into something of a jack-leg electrician. She managed to rehab one of the ice machines all by herself.

Morris Stuyvesant is Martin’s son and Gail’s nephew. Morris would be running the place himself except he has a general anxiety disorder and low-grade narcolepsy and frankly any shift other than third stresses him right the fuck out. Morris minds the place while Gail sleeps and as far as that goes, he does a pretty decent job. He’s a little in awe of his aunt and a little stuck on Theresa, but neither of the marines thinks much of poor Morris.

Morris is actually on the payroll of the local vampire sheriff. He's been given a list of weird things to look out for and then had the conscious memory of the list erased. He was approached by a ghoul who posed as a member of local law enforcement and paid like a confidential informant. When he sees something on the list he gets a weird feeling about it and then calls the number.  Suspected vampires translates out to be "Weird and pale and shy" and the person taking notes on the other end has one of the sheriff's deputies out to investigate personally.

Options:

naturally, this place is a slowly simmering bowl of various plots that can be stirred up with a little effort or made to boil over without too much additional effort as written but there are additional possibilities.

1) The hotel might be the roosting place for a Hunter style greater Demon of some sort.

2) You might add additional ghost with lurid deaths that cause additional problems.

3) The Motel is very near the torpored body of a vampire of the Malocusian bloodline and it uses the place as it’s personal feeding ground.

Connections:

Shawna Bishop And Izzy know one another and occasionally, Shawna's perambulations bring her out here.

Vuldorusss isn't far from here, This place is not his area thankfully, but he does explain some of the negative chi flow around this neck of the woods.

Norman Cayce Has noticed a number of bodies have been found in and around this area. A statistically significant number.

The Clean-up Crew

Concept: Group of Predatory Ghouls/Hunters

AKA: The names of the Officers are of course eminently changeable for story purposes but their original names are becoming almost a moot point. When the group was constituted, the decision was made to use Code Names in the field. The Group has taken the following names. Hunter, Miller, Brewer, Fisher, Cooper, and Smith. Strangely, those code names have begun to sink into their subconscious minds. Miller keeps accidentally trying to sign her name as “Miller” on Official forms. Brewer has taken up craft brewing in his spare time, and Smith has taken up the post of being the weaponsmith for the group.

Desc:  Each of them is fit, strong, and in the peak of health. Each of them has a strange and slightly off-putting intensity. They tend in conversation to a certain monotone and a lack of blinking. Which is handy during interrogations. Miller is a woman. Cooper is a very tall black man. 

History:  It started out simply. Kindred occasionally decide that they want to bring someone into the fold and put them on the payroll.  Different kindred have different ways of going about such projects. Some stake out places where they think they can find such individuals. Others go the route of setting up some kind of computer program to search for a particular profile.  This particular project was very hush-hush. The young man who created it was promised a number of things. All he really got from it was an early retirement and his corpse dumped in the reservoir.

     The reason why it was kept so quiet is that the Ventrue in question was somewhat paranoid and he was looking for a dedicated cadre of hunters for his own purposes. He wanted police because they would have power, access, and wouldn’t be as accountable as some other citizen.  He found people with the right temperament and skills and over the course of 8 months recruited them. Turned them into an effective vampire killing force and began to clear away some “problem” kindred from the local landscape. Also, they ended up being very handy for dealing with the occasional odd Draugr.

    And you know they probably would have been fine. The Master was even thinking very seriously about embracing Hunter.  But things have a way of going south in the world of the undead.

   One night when they were out dealing with one of the Master’s “Problem Kindred” they all caught a sinking feeling and something like a bond breaking. It nearly got them all killed. It definitely got Tinker killed.

That night, they learned that the master had met his end.  They never got a straight answer about exactly why he was killed. There were political reasons of course, but also it seems that the master may have been mentally ill in some way. Not that the team would have known. 

They circled the wagons. They emptied the account that the master had set up for them as a discretionary fund. They bought a place. A grungy old Motel up in the hills. The place has been shut for years. In order to stay off the grid. They created a working well and bought multiple generators.  They no longer had the Master to take from and be strengthened. So they decided that those who had the power and strength they needed would give it to them. Whether they wanted to or not.

They’ve almost got it down to a science now.  If they can get the bag on a kindred target, They bring them up to the Motel. and over the course of days, they’ll drain them dry.  Cooper’s even working on a means to preserve blood in some specially prepared casks. (It’s only working intermittently. They still haven’t exactly hammered it out.)  Some they interrogate. Others, like Draugr, they don’t bother with. 

And they’ll keep going...for as long as they can. They don’t know what else to do.

Attitude:   “We have a powerful need.”

Skills: Physically, Each is in great shape. Fisher brought his weights and his Bowflex up to the Motel and they all use the thing. Each will have a spread of dots in combat based skills and merits. Each will have Police Tactics and some martial art FS dots of some sort.

Socially, Each of the officers has become weird, intense, and monosyllabic. This has done a bit of damage to their social lives.  Each of the officers was chosen for their lack of familial entanglements so that at least is not a problem. The only thing that has been enhanced by their “Change” is they have become more manipulative and more intimidating.

Mentally, Each of them has dots of Investigation of course. Hunter has dots of streetwise and Survival (Bit of a camping nut) Smith is becoming the weapon maker and quartermaster of the group. So he’s got some crafts out of the yang.  Miller’s the Wheelman and has craft’s as well as dots of Drive.  Miller’s the computer nerd and has built a Faraday cage for her rig in one of the Motel’s rooms. Cooper is the combat point man and he’s pretty good with a Bow and Arrow. Fisher is their jack-leg medic.

They’ve stopped talking to one another altogether. They’ve developed some weird short-range telepathy with one another. They all possess Unseen Sense: Vampires.

Gear: Naturally they all possess regular duty arms and equipment. Smith has gotten good at picking up useful firearms, He’s been training with a top of the line Dragunov sniper rifle they took off some arms dealers. Miller managed to score some military grade net-guns off of some airport security cops in Munich.  Hunter has installed a Lathe and carpentry workshop in one of the rooms and hand turns the stakes they make.

Home: While each of them has their own places. (Brewer and Fisher were room-mates) They spend and more time at the run down Motel. They park their vehicles in back which makes them invisible from the road. The asphalt parking lot is showing more wear every year and there are multiple places where the grass has simply said, “Fuck this shit” and broken through the asphalt. The place is painted white and has become pitted and decrepit. The name of the place is the “NOE MOTEL” and they keep the exterior of the place looking like no one’s been there in decades.  The place sits at the top of a middling-sized hill which has been peppered and salted with booby traps, Pits with pungie spikes and dead-falls.   There’s one road in and if you use that road, you’ll get there without setting anything off, but they’ve set up alarms on that road so unless you’re able to fly, your ability to get there without them being warned is very small. On more than one occasion, Cooper has been sent to the roof to discourage interlopers with his bow. He’s not good enough yet to routinely hit a target with an arrow that has a lit stick of dynamite tied to it...But that day will come

Circle: They probably know all the cops from Painted Corners and a few of the criminals as well. They occasionally go out as a team and attack mortal criminals mainly for purposes of keeping themselves in cash and weapons. Hunter has schooled them in SWAT tactics and they are efficient and precise like a scalpel. The Criminals don’t normally stand a chance unless they’ve got supernatural juice of their own.  The criminals, they go after at night.  The Vampires, they come for in the daylight.

Walter Blevins

Concept: occult assassin

AKA: Goes by the handle “Iscariot” For those who don’t know, Iscariot translates out to mean ‘Dagger man”

Desc: Pushing fifty and jowly like a bank manager. Iron gray hair and the sort of disposition and demeanor of a chronic Constipation sufferer. Looks somehow like he hasn’t taken a shit in a month. Low and edge filled voice with a dash of silken menace thrown in. Big hammy hands

History: one does not set out to become an occult assassin. One merely gets involved in the occult and discovers that they have certain aptitudes and either goes into business for themselves or get co-opted by the group they belong to into dealing with external threats. In Walter's case, it was the former. Walter had certain talents and realizing that he had the aptitude went Pro-Am. Much of his work involves summoning horrifying creatures from the darkest corners of the spirit world and making deals with them to off the target or summoning and binding a horrifying creature into some warding circle and the tricking the target into breaking the circle. It’s only very rarely that Walter has to actually get his hands dirty and he doesn’t really have the temperament for that. Walter makes a comfortable living and doesn’t have to deal very often with the problematic life of the professional assassin, As in, once he’s assassinated someone, the client then tries to get rid of the assassin. Since Walter mostly uses demons and other less savory creatures as cut-outs, there is so much less to trace back to the client. besides, the things that Walter can do make his clients afraid of going against him.

Attitude:  “No thank you. I’ve seen that contract before and I have no interest in it. I, however, have taken the liberty of drawing up another contract of my own design and I think you’ll find that it will satisfy all of the parties involved. So, Can we begin talking about the target?”

Skills: Physically, Walter is relatively strong in the way that a bulky man with a lot of fat can be from having to haul his own carcass around. But he doesn’t have a lot of wind and isn’t the most dextrous person. Socially. He’s a closed book and not interested in personal relationships for the most part. He has a few friends in the occult circles but he’s not terribly friendly or outgoing and distrusts extroverts on principle. Mentally, he's dangerous. he is knowledgeable about poisons and venomous animals of all sorts. He has undertaken a certain amount of law school and still works as a paralegal because black magic work ebbs and flows. he has also taught himself how to read and speak Latin in his spare time.

Gear: keeps a doctor bag with necessary tools for summoning and banishing and if need be exorcising a spirit from a person place or thing.  Has a few demons that have been bound into throwable articles for a quick escape should he require it.

Home: a smallish house in a relatively peaceful upscale neighborhood. Floor to ceiling with bookshelves. Also home to an extremely vicious cat named “Warren”

Circle: Occultists and that’s about it.

Story Uses:

“It’s not personal you understand. Although I’ll understand if you take it personally.”

Walter is a killer. Or rather he’s the sort of person who gives marching orders to the actual killers. So if you’re attacked in your home by a colour out of space. Or something equally horrific, it’s likely to be Walter on the other end of that attack. Some people only know him as a talent summoner. Others are aware of the darker nature of his work and steer clear of him accordingly.

Speaking of potential options. Walter may have a hedge magic template or may, in fact, be a full magus. If he is a full magus, He is unlikely to be involved with the pentacle magi at all. Exarchs, however, may welcome him to their bosom.

Connections:

he is no longer welcome in Merl's. There was a misunderstanding. Someone got hurt. It was all very sordid. Now no one can stand to be in the kitchen. Walter didn't have to be told not to come around anymore. He does miss the gossip though.

Blaise Newark  "Are you kidding me? he's my best guy. and he almost never misses."

Ralston Van Doren "Walter's good for removing problems that can't be dealt with more personally."

Special Agent Owen Maccready "I am sure I have seen these markings and this handwriting before."

The Vermillion House "My home away from home."

Judge Stephen Warren

Concept: Your Juridical nightmare (Part 2)

AKA: Not the sort of guy to attract nicknames.

Desc: White Anglo Saxon Protestant, and to such a degree that he resembles an X-Men Villain. Snow white hair that would fill Mike Pence with a gnawing envy. Skinny and pale. Bright blue eyes. Favors dark suits when not in his actual robes. Looks weirdly uncomfortable in casual wear. 

History: it is an unfortunate fact of life that people who are truly what you might call a “Villian” are always convinced that they are good and decent people and that they are doing the right thing. Whereas good and decent people are never really sure.  It’s like the Dunning-Kruger effect of morality. Steve Warren grew up VERY conservative. He was born into a monied and a politically oriented family. So he was groomed from an early age with certain attitudes and philosophies.

And those attitudes and philosophies managed to survive contact with other people at law school.

Look. It’s not as if Stephen is some kind of monster. He’s not. But he IS a racist, a sexist, And he considers any person with a religion that isn’t extremely protestant to be kidding themselves, and also tends to take their belief as a personal affront. (God help you if you walk into his court and profess a belief in the Church of the Subgenus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. He’ll throw you up under the jail if he can.) Worse, He is routinely put into the position of holding the lives and livelihoods of people in his hands. His attitude towards the “peasantry” is well known and certain lawyers play up to it.

Stephen is a circuit court judge. Which means, that many times he is called on to provide judging for cases that happen in PC town and the surrounding counties which don’t have their own district courts. 

Attitude: “ The wheels of society can only turn when people understand the concept of right and wrong. YOU, Clearly have poor judgment when it comes to this most basic understanding. And you should feel bad about yourself. I’m remanding you to the Clearwater Penitentiary for a period of not less than six months and may GOD have mercy on your soul.

Skills: Physically, he’s not much. he’s got decent stamina because he’s shtupping a college girl and it’s put some actual muscle on his core and lower back. Socially, He’s pretty potent, especially with a certain segment of rich white people. He also is as intimidating as fuck when he’s working. Intellectually, He doesn’t seem to recognize that things are going to catch up to him and that maybe Karma is working on something special for him. He’s never been the brightest student. (He’s never had to be. His father bought the law school a building) and when it comes to women younger than his wife, he can’t seem to keep his hands off of them. He has fantasies about visiting someone charged with contempt of his court and then ruthlessly dominating them in their cell. SO, If you’re a woman and stuck in such a situation, where you are clearly ASKING FOR IT. He’s going to be licking his lips and seeing if it’s going to be possible.

Gear: Has a small pistol which he possesses a concealed carry permit for. Also has a smartphone

Home: Has a palatial McMansion out there in the rich suburbs. His wife Deirdre, spends much of her time and effort making certain that the place is neat as a pin and is a showplace on ten minutes notice. As a means of relaxing after ordering the domestics around all day, Deirdre enjoys being vigorously rogered by the Pool Boy and the Chauffer. Sometimes, both at once.

Deirdre is a sharp-voiced harridan and is easily as loathsome as Stephen is. She is a wheel in Reverend Mike’s church and her strident attitudes are easily as horrifying as Stephens

Circle: As you would imagine, Stephen and his wife surround themselves with like-minded, lily-white rich people and it should be no surprise that they hold membership in the Vermillion House.

Judge Warren also donates to white supremacist causes, although, he is smart enough at least to be sneaky about it and insulate himself somewhat.  Being a circuit court judge is an elected position and so far, it’s still not easy to get elected if you belong to the KKK. Boy, DIdn’t used to the be the case though. My grandfather told me stories...

Story Uses:”Look me in the eye when I’m talking to you!”

Obviously, Judge Warren is likely to be your personal nightmare if you end up in front of him. Especially if you happen to be a Woman or a POC. Or Poor. He will fuck up your life, and then go home and sleep in his enormous house...and not lose a wink of sleep over you. Once they drag you out, he will forget your face and your name.

“Don’t worry about any of that. I’ll take care of it.”

Naturally, all the things that make Stephen kind of loathsome, are the same sort of things that make him a useful tool. So, naturally, You’re going to want to put him in your pocket. There’s just one problem. The Vermillion House considers him an asset that ought to be protected. He possesses a ring that was gifted to him by one of their number. As long as he wears it, he possesses the merit(s) Unseen senses, and Indomitable. Not insurmountable, surely, but will make things interesting.

Connections:

* The Vermillion House (Considers him worth cultivating. He's a natural stopping point for any kind of scandal that might affect them. and he won't see a single ethical problem with it.)

* The Caboose (A regular, as you might imagine. has a taste for girls into nose candy.)

* Officer Honus Brightwater "he's a fine upstanding young man. Our community is lucky to have him."

* Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean "They're always fun to watch. Roderick and I went to law school together. No idea why he pals around with that... Cullen Gillis.Also: That Ilyana Baker? Quite possibly the best fuck of my life..."

* Reverend Mike Plumber "Mike's a good man. Just one of the boys. He's great at barbecue. Also, keeps the peasants in line. It really is true, Religion is the opiate of the masses.  Mike is our Pfizer."

* Robert Nathan Herbert "Don't worry about a thing Robert. I'll see to it, that none of your boys have a problem."

* Christine Horowitz "Yeah. Someday. I'm going to stick my dick in that and reeducate that little bitch. Then I'm going to get her disbarred."

* Reverend Dr. Miranda Goines  "This one...Ugh. Too bad she's smart enough and rich enough to be able to afford a really decent lawyer. I'd LOVE to throw the book at her."

* Judge Mattarazzo  "John. You really need to stop acting as if your shit doesn't stink."