Vat:09 The Postman Always Kills Twice

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Starring: Steve, Koz, Amiri, Pauline, and Joseph
Guest Starring: Sophia, Mailman
Challenge: Sangrophage
Location: Several homes in McKeesport
Date Played: 26 September 2012

Recoveries

Pauline: I can't say I'm terribly happy about waking up in a hospital, but it gives me a chance to think. Once the painkillers clear, anyway. I spend a long time thinking about what, exactly, it is that I'm doing here. I signed on to the Vat with the hope of making the world, or at least the 'Burgh, a better place. And for weeks now, I've been chasing superspies. It's all a very abstract, not like rescuing children from were-creatures. I also think I need to be much more careful when dealing with these sorts of nasty creatures.

New Pro Bono Case

Pauline: I'm still a little bit shaky after all of this, but when the bosses lay out the problem, I'm all ears. People are missing in McKeesport. Not just one or two, but over thirty- and in two weeks. Obviously, something's very wrong, the cops are flummoxed, so we need to go look into it.

Gathering Facts

Pauline: The best place to start is with the victims. We start with the lonely old lady with a pile of cats. The lady and the cats are no where to be found, but a gigantic pile of crap is. Literally, this lady was a hoarder who kept her depends. A combination of dust masks and baby-wipes keep us from losing our lunch. Yes, I keep baby-wipes in a zippy in my purse, and no, I haven't changed diapers in years. But you have no idea how handy it is to have a pile of wet-wipes readily available.

While there, we discover strange little pebbles in the litter box. They're fragile as anything, and while trying to collect some as samples, we discover: they're eggs.

A few more spot checks yields more of the same. The disappearances and the eggs tie to packages that were delivered.

Team 7 Assembles

Pauline: How many times have we run face first into something nasty with absolutely no back-up? I'm not sure either- I think getting shot too many times has damaged my memory. Old as I am, I've learned something: the team rallies team seven, Vat, Inc.

We lay out the problem, and our best suspect: the mailman. It's a bit of a stretch, because Joseph lays out the details of Sangrophages, and while intelligent, they can't talk. It's hard to impersonate a mailman without talking.

Fighting the Sangrophage

Pauline: But that also gives us a great chance to confirm whether the mailman is a talker or not. We essentially ambush him with riot shields and truncheons. His name is Luke, and he's actually a pretty nice guy, n'at. He actually has a sense of what's going on, but doesn't want to be a suspect. We trail him, at a distance, to see if we can spot what's going on.

And we do: the Sangrophage impersonates one of the residents, accepts the package, and when the coast is clear, she does a quick-change. She turns into the mailman, and then goes to deliver the package. Once we have confirmation, we swarm the bitch, ready to kill. And we do.

Unfortunately, I can't hit a toilet while I'm sitting on it, these days, so I'm basically useless. Joseph gets torn up something awful. We do bring the creature down, but not before Joseph gets gutted a nice-looking old lady opens the door and dies of a heart attack. Joseph we can stabilize, but the old lady's bought it.

We call an ambulance, get the hell out of there, along with the sangrophage's corpse. We didn't save everyone, but this thing won't be killing ever again. And with team 7 on the lookout, we'll hopefully get the eggs before winter comes, meaning there won't be another outbreak next year.

And I've also got a dead sangrophage. According to lore, their bones are super hard. It's not metallurgy, but maybe I can recall enough materials science to find a use for this.

The Sangrophage Itself

(facts remembered listed here)

• Intelligent
• Shape shifter 🎲 DM Autoillusionist
• Eats, lays eggs, and leaves
• Eggs need to gestate over a cold winter
• Bones are incredibly hard

Sophia Dissected a freshly hatched one.

🎲 DM I wanted you guys to see a quick stat block for a monster, and this is a good one to share:

• physical stats all 3
• mental stats all 2
• Claw attacks d8*Str [cf point rapier], Bite attacks d12*Str+1 [cf greataxe] but imposes dodge penalty
• primary skills 3 (ie, brawling, dodge, stealth, notice, acrobatics)
• knowledge/social/technical skills 0-1
• other skills 2
• +50% damage from fire
• life points 100~150

The Night has Never Been Darker

Amiri: We can't do much with Pauline in the hospital. I decided to take some leave time and track down the drug dealers.

I talk to my friend, Detective Collins, and see if he needs some help breaking down some people in the holding cells. We have this thing where I pretend to be an inmate/detainee and either scare someone straight or make them confess. Knowing the chainsaw meth-head was in there, there was a good change he would bit and send me in a cell with him. Well, he bit and I found who and where this person was. Evidently the seller is some guy name D-bone and the person that makes the meth is called Zakarian. They were located out near Hershey, so it would be a bit of a drive to get there and out of this jurisdiction.

After dropping Steve off at his place, I found some inspiration. He had these comic sitting around and I found one called "Vigilante." While he excused himself, I read it and got some ideas.

I ran to Anthony Arms and got a slimline vest. I also went to Play-it-Again and picked up some used padding. Luckily, one of Pauline's kids was good with a needle and I had her sew me up a nice little costume. I paid her, of course.

I made my way down to Hershey and begun my search. It was a bit harder than expected, and it took me over a week to find the meth-house. I busted through the door and took D-bone's thugs by surprise. I wasn't able to take them down before a few shots were fired. It was a good thing I got the vest since one of them had a .45 trained at me.

The firing tipped off D-bone and he was able to prepare himself. All the preparation couldn't help him, though. He was just some scrawny guy from the hood holding a gun with a shaky hand. I ran like lightning to him and he went down with ease. Zakarian was a different matter altogether. The best way I could describe him was a Steve that could actually control his fire. He sheathed himself in flames and was quite formidable. It ended when I shoved him into this barrel labeled "red phosphorous" and it tipped into a large pool of standing water. The explosion took out a corner of the basement and I barely made it out before it was rubble.

When the fire department came and drug out the survivors from the building, they reported that it was caused by "some nigga' dressed dark as midnight." I stayed in the shadows, seeing if Zakarian would be recovered. He wasn't. I don't have time to chase loose ends, so I just hope that he is too under rubble to be recovered at this time. The thing I least need is a pyro with a grudge.