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New Day Dawning

  1. #1


    The previous night had been uneventful. Ronnie had continued training her ghouled dog, Dev, while Jack had been out on patrol until just before the sky began to lighten to the east. Both had settled down as they had on many other nights.

    Ronnie awakens and immediately realizes it is still daytime. She feels sluggish and lethargic, and at first isn't sure what woke her, but then she hears Dev's low growl, and realizes what she thought was a throbbing headache is in fact Dev calling her attention to the flashing light intruder alarm that has been tripped.

    Ronnie sits up in bed, and immediately texts Jack, hoping he's been awakened as well. ALARM ON. Ronnie pats Devlin's head in praise, then holds the dog's muzzle shut gently and whispers shhhhhh while checking the security monitors in her bedroom.

    On the exterior monitors, Ronnie sees two panel trucks decorated with the logo New Dawn Home Improvements out in the driveway, and two men in workman's coveralls at the rear of the house, near the back door and the outside cellar door. Meanwhile, the interior cameras show three men in the living room and three more in the kitchen, apparently having come in through the front and back doors. On the monitors, she can't see how they bypassed the security measures - deadbolts, chains, sturdy high-quality locks and a metal bar across each door - but she does see that the bar that had been across the front door is on the floor in two pieces, apparently having been cut somehow. Ronnie watches as the men strip off the workman's coveralls, revealing lightweight body armor underneath, then remove gloves, helmets and weapons from the toolboxes. The helmets include cover for the men's faces.

    She also notices one of the men in the living room pointing to the camera.

    Ronnie texts Ben Two Bears and Daisy Mae "NEW DAWN" INTRUDERS IN HOUSE. SEND HELP ASAP. SHe knows they most likely won't get the message until nightfall. Glancing at her watch, Ronnie sees it is 9:22 am.

    On the security monitors, she also sees one of the men in the living room take some strange-looking items out of one of the toolboxes and connect them to each other to assemble... something.

    She still hears nothing from Jack.

    Crap. Ronnie put her head at Dev's level and whimpered and barked in a whisper to him. Bad people here, want to hurt us. Be quiet. Don't attack until Jack or I say to.

    She then concentrates on her blood, using it to strengthen her body.


    Ronnie then lifts the bar on her bedroom door and unlocks the deadbolt. Jack's room is right across the hallway. Hoping he hadn't barred the door and taking Dev with her, she moves quietly across the narrow hallway, uses her keys to unlock, then tries to open it. To her delight, it is NOT bolted. She and Dev slip into Jack's room, after which she quickly relocks the door and bars it.

    Ronnie goes to the closet and looks for something to wake Jack up with. She wasn't sure what might happen if he got woken up so early in the day. Sure, nothing had happened with her and Devlin, but you never knew. All she can find were clothes hangers. She takes a metal one and untwists it to its full length, then pokes him from the foot of the bed, crouching on the floor, as far away from her sleeping sire as she could manage. Jack. Wake up!

    She hears a subtle groan as Jack's body starts pumping Vitae through his system. He sits up, looking like he is having some trouble staying awake. "What is it Darl?' he mumbles as he throws off the Beast to stay awake.

    Ronnie gets up from her crouch, speaking quietly and trying to be concise. It's 9:30 in the fucking morning, and there are at least 6 people in the house, and another 2 outside. I don't know how they broke in, but they're in. And they're assembling what might be firearms or flamethrowers from the tool boxes they brought into the house. I texted the sherrif and Daisy Mae, but I don't think anyone is going to be coming to help us. What do we do now? She looks at the wall at Jack's set of monitors

    Jack stares at her for a good few seconds, just trying to process all of what he was just told. "Fuuuuuuuuuck." He groans as he reaches underneath his bed and pulls out a rifle case and a handgun.

    "Here. Take this." he says, handing Ronnie the gun as he opens the rifle case. "Hopefully they were able to wake up long enough to alert their ghouls. Until then, we hold them off before either the ghouls show. Understood?" Admittedly, Jack did not have high hopes on those two.

    "What do they look like?" he asks.

    On the monitors, Ronnie sees the men in the living room draw an electrical cord from the object they've assembled. They plug the cord into a wall socket and press a button on the object... and suddenly the security monitors explode in a spray of sparks and broken glass. Though neither Jack nor Ronnie is hurt, their Beasts recoil from the blast, even as they find themselves in pitch blackness.

    Ronnie and Jack each need to roll Resolve vs. Composure to avoid fear frenzy.


    Not freaking out man


    I'm good!


    Well, at least it wasn't a flamethrower, whispered Ronnie.

    Jack gave a nod as the fear started to recede. "This is gonna be tough. Here's the gun, get on the other side of the bed." Jack said as he pulled the case behind him and slipped off the bed, facing the door with his rifle raised and ready.

    Dev stays beside Ronnie, teeth bared and growling so low it can barely be heard. He clearly senses something.

    Ronnie checked that her gun was ready to fire. She noticed Dev's reaction immediately, and focused her concentration on listening, and watching the door for any glimmer of light from the hallway.

    What does Dev notice?


    Ronnie hears the squeak of floorboards, then nothing. She sees no light.

    Then she hears someone try to door, the rattle of someone trying the doorknob and finding it locked. She and Jack still can't see a thing.

    Jack kept his rifile aimed at door, unsure if or when it will get breeched. "C'mon..." he muttered.

    Almost as if in response to Jack's muttering, he and Ronnie hear a high-pitched, whirring sound from behind the door.

    I bet that's how they got in the front door, whispered Ronnie very quietly. I'll hold fire until you take the first shot. Try not to shoot Dev, I want him to hold back until they've actually breached the room. At least the hallway is narrow, I don't think more than one can come in at the same time. She located extra ammunition for her gun, putting it within reach.

    "Thinking the same thing Darl." He whispered back, gun still trailed on the door.

    The vampires hear the whirring sound switch to a grinding sound, and a moment later, it gets louder. They can hear the sound of wood being sheared, the sound of something grinding its way through the door jam, or the door itself, and a moment later they hear a sharper grinding sound... the sound of two hard substances meeting, and one giving way. A moment after that, they hear a shriek of tortured metal and see a few sparks. In the brief light of the sparks, they see something that looks like a very thin and extremely fast-moving chainsaw blade has cut its way through the deadbolt and is grinding away at the bar across the door, slowly but nonetheless making progress.

    In less than a minute, the whirring blade has cut competely through the bar and the locks. The blade is then withdrawn through the door. All is quiet in the hallway for a moment, then the two vampires hear a sizzling sound and can see some light coming from under the door and from the strip cut away around the door.

    Ronnie made sure her gun's safety was off and prepared to fire. Wonder what's sizzling? Gaslights? She was glad they had fire extinguishers in the bedroom with them.

    Jack was still facing Forward, the tension really starting to get to him. What the hell are they doing?

    Jack and Ronnie hear a loud slam as someone strikes or kicks the bedroom door, pushing it open, and a figure walks in, holding forward something like a road flare, giving off white-hot flame so bright they can barely see anything of the figure, save the reflection of the flare in the shiny visor of his helmet. It's so dark in the hallway behind him, they can just barely make out the movement of other figures.

    Jack and Ronnie need to roll vs Fear Frenzy. If they succeed, they can take a shot before rolling Initiative, but the shot is at -2 due to their difficulty seeing the target. Either way, they then roll Initiative. Bo can roll for Dev as well; he has a +5 Initiative Modifier.

    The attackers have Armor 2 and Defense 2.


    Have no Fear!


    Jack could feel the Beast inside rise up and scream in fear, but jack was able to force it down. He wasn't going to lose it now. NO! Ne was going to keep focused. Despite his initial hesitation, Jack opened fire, though he suspected it was only a flesh wound due to the sharp light impairing his vision.

    "1 Sux and initiative


    Ronnie wasn't going to let a few sparks rob her of a chance to save her life, although she couldn't help but flinch back when she saw them.

    Not afraid of Bad Guys with Sparklers


    She shot her pistol into the bright light. And apparently missed. She growled in frustration, resolving to do better next time.

    Maybe some extra lessons would have helped, Jack?!?


    Ronnie's Initiative


    Devlin quivered with excitement when he heard Ronnie's growl.
    Dog Initiative

  2. #2
    Jack Bennett's Avatar

    Jack Bennett
    Jack Bennett

    1
    PRE

    Initiative Roster
    Ronnie * Jack * Dev * Soldier Guys


    Although their Beasts urge them to flee from the fire, Ronnie and Jack are both able to keep the Beast in check, at least for now. The man holding the flare moves into the room a bit, and the vampires notice at least two shadowy figures slide into the room behind him, then off to each side of the door. The three barely make a noise.

    Attacking the lead guy takes the same penalty (-2) as last time. Launching a hand-to-hand attack against him requires the vampire in question to have gotten at least 3 total successes against Fear Frenzy (you can roll again this turn, reflexive, if you wish to engage him hand-to-hand).

    Attacks against the others moving into the room are at -3, in addition to the penalties for their Armor (2) and Defense (2; not applicable against firearms attacks).


    Ronnie fired her gun at the lead assassin. She had seen them putting on body armor, so she wasn't sure the bullets would penetrate, but she figured at this range, maybe it would work.

    BANG!


    Jack opened fire again, only thing time he was certain that his shot likely missed or failed to leave a mark.

    damn


    Ronnie pointed at the lead man, who was illuminated slightly from the flare. ATTACK!

    Devlin sprang at the man, trying to knock him down so he could get a good bite in.
    CHOMP!


    Shot earlier by Jack, shot again by Ronnie and with Dev's teeth digging into his right arm, the lead man staggers but does not fall. He struggles to get Dev off him, but is unsucessful, the ghouled dog's supernatural strength being more than the man can overcome. In flailing to try to get Dev off him, he moves the light enough that Dev and Ronnie can get a better look at him, and such that it slightly illuminates the area behind him. He carries a pistol of some sort in his right hand, and the flare in his left. They see two other figures have already moved into in the room, plus another at the door and more behind him. "I've got the dog on me!" they hear the lead man say, his voice distorted.

    "On it," another says.

    The two men flanking the door raise strange-looking weapons at Ronnie and Jack. Red lights shine from the top of each weapon, and Ronnie and Jack both notice red dots appear on their chest as these two men fire their weapons. Each of them feels a sharp impact strike their chests, and looking down, each sees a thin length of wood backed by a metal cap sticking partway out of their chests, near but not hitting their hearts. Jack realizes instantly that those strange-looking guns fire stakes!

    The two more men move into the room. One carries the same sort of weapon as the two who just fired, while another carries a pistol of some sort. The first of these two fires at Jack, with the same results as before, while the other fires at Dev, his weapon making a *pfft* sound. Dev yelps as a dart strikes him between the ribs.

    Jack takes 4 Lethal damage from the two shots, while Ronnie takes 2. Dev needs to roll Stamina + Composure and get 5 or more successes to resist the effects of the drugged dart.

    Due to changes in light situation, Firearms rolls against the enemies are now penalized by only -3 (-1 poor light, -2 Armor)


    Devlin whined as the dart started to do its work.
    Naptime soon


    Ronnie screamed in frustration, and fired at the man who had shot Devlin.
    BANG!


    Ah fuck...Shooting to disable. Jack though as he changed targets, pumped blood into his arms to steady his aim and shot at one of the men who just moved into the room. They were going to get swarmed soon and there was no way they could get out barring the Sheriff's ghouls showing up.

    Big Roll, little payoff


    Devlin makes a low, whimpering sound and slumps to the ground, his eyes closed. He appears to be in a deep sleep, knocked out by the drug in the dart.

    The badly-wounded man, the one with the flare, takes a step back and continues to wave the flare back and forth in front of him, apparently trying to ward off the vampires, keep them on edge and prevent them from closing to melee range.

    The guy that shot Devlin falls back and switches weapons, sheathing his pistol and drawing from his back another of the stake-guns that Ronnie and Jack have been shot with. Another man, stake-gun at ready, moves forward to take his place. Those who have already fired their stake guns chamber eject spent shells and chamber another stake, just as one would with a pump shotgun. Once again the red dots appear on Jack's and Ronnie's chests - two each - as the men fire.

    Jack is struck by two more of the stakes, both striking his chest. Though neither finds his heart, Jack feels himself slide into torpor due to the amount of damage he's taken.

    Ronnie is also struck twice. One hits her high on the chest, under the collarbone, but the other hits her squarely in the heart and she falls back without a sound, torpid.

    Jack takes 4 more Lethal damage (total = 1 Ag, 6 Lethal) and is torpid. Ronnie takes 2 Lethal and is in torpor due to having been staked through the heart.


    <<fade to black>>

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