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“The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism.
If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky,
justice may show up in the answer.
A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.”
-Raymond Chandler
An adventure for Vampire the Requiem
using the Storytelling Adventure System
Written by: Eddy Webb Editors: Jason Bolte and Genevieve Podleski Playtesters: Amanda Barton, David
Bounds, Genevieve Podleski, Sean Posey, Michelle Webb Contributors: Joseph Carriker, Rich Thomas
Layout: Jessica Mullins Art: Jean-Sebastian Rossbach, Torstein Nordstrand, Aleski Bridot, Samuel
Araya, Dave Seeley, Marko Djurdjevic, Travis Ingram, Michael Phillippi
stOrytelling adventure systeM
SceneS
8
Mental OOOOO
Physical OOOOO
sOcial OOOOO
XP LeveL
o-34
WHITE WOLF PUBLISHING, INC.
2075 WEST PARK PLACE
BLVD SUITE G
STONE MOUNTAIN, GA 30087
“The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism.
If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky,
justice may show up in the answer.
A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.”
-Raymond Chandler
An adventure for Vampire the Requiem
using the Storytelling Adventure System
Written by: Eddy Webb Editors: Jason Bolte and Genevieve Podleski Playtesters: Amanda Barton, David
Bounds, Genevieve Podleski, Sean Posey, Michelle Webb Contributors: Joseph Carriker, Rich Thomas
Layout: Jessica Mullins Art: Jean-Sebastian Rossbach, Torstein Nordstrand, Aleski Bridot, Samuel
Araya, Dave Seeley, Marko Djurdjevic, Travis Ingram, Michael Phillippi
stOrytelling adventure systeM
XP level
o-34
Mental OOOOO
Physical OOOOO
sOcial OOOOO
WHITE WOLF PUBLISHING, INC.
2075 WEST PARK PLACE
BLVD SUITE G
STONE MOUNTAIN, GA 30087
© 2007 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and one printed copy which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire and
World of Darkness are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Storytelling System and Parlor Games are trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved.
All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf. CCP North America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP hf. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright
concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are iction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.
scenes
8
The Masquerade is one of the most important and disputed Traditions among
the laws of the Kindred. Upholding the secrecy of undead society is paramount to
the safety and security of all vampires – it is why it is the First Tradition in every
Prince’s court. But not all Kindred consider the costs of such preservation.
A devoted protector of the Masquerade hires your coterie to find dirt on
an officer of the local court who got caught feeding, and to deal with the
mortal artist who witnessed it. At first it looks like a straightforward job,
but the whole situation is like digging into an old grave – there’s a lot under
the surface that most people don’t want to see.
inadvertently exposed, or when careless vampires have to be punished
for their indiscretions. Mr. Petrovsky approaches the coterie and asks
them to investigate a sensitive situation: the city’s Hound, Simone,
violated the Masquerade near Rapture (a prominent feeding spot in
the Rack) while she was in frenzy. He requires some agents that aren’t
closely associated with him to deal with the human (and possibly the
Hound) and cover up the incident, preferably as quietly as possible.
The coterie starts to dig up information on Simone and Rosario Small,
the witness. As they take steps to deal with Rosario, they are stopped by
Simone. If either Rosario or Simone is confronted, they tell the coterie
that it wasn’t Simone’s feeding that threatened the Masquerade, but
Mr. Petrovsky’s. Rosario took some photos of the feeding. The photos
came out blurry (due to Mr. Petrovsky’s Kindred nature), but Rosario
remembered enough of the incident to create a realistic painting of
the scene. Simone won’t allow Rosario to be killed to preserve the
Masquerade for her own reasons, and she is a very formidable foe.
The painting is now in the hands of an unaligned Gangrel named
Melanie Dunn. Melanie hates Mr. Petrovsky because of what he did to
her sire years ago, and because he attacked her recently. Mr. Petrovsky’s
enforcers try to kill Melanie while the coterie attempts to learn of the
location of the painting. The clues they uncover lead to a special gal-
lery showing of the painting that Melanie arranged to embarrass Mr.
Petrovsky. Although the showing is exclusive, it is full of people that
the coterie will have to work around in order to acquire Rosario’s work.
Afterward, Mr. Petrovsky will personally confront the coterie and ask
for the painting, forcing the coterie into a hard decision.
A Chapter in Your Chronicle
This story is written to be as flexible as possible, so it can more easily
be worked into your existing
Vampire
chronicle. We have no way of
knowing what’s occurring in your game, so much of what is presented
here is intended to give you ideas instead of limiting your options. The
most important part of the story is that three vampires are entangled in an
ugly snarl of vampiric legalities near a prominent spot in the city’s Rack,
and the coterie gets involved. If you already have appropriate characters
in your chronicle that can fit into these roles, feel free to substitute them
and modify the story to suit the changes. You can also replace the Rapture
nightclub with a more suitable location in your chronicle. Alternatively, if
the coterie simply wouldn’t work for an Invictus (or perhaps a Nosferatu),
change Mr. Petrovsky’s covenant or clan to suit your chronicle.
Introduction
Criminal Intent
is a Storytelling Adventure System story for
Vam-
pire: The Requiem
. It’s essentially a kit to running this story for your
troupe, which means only you, as the Storyteller, should read it. Like a
kit,
Criminal Intent
contains all the parts to build a story. The tools you
use to build it are the
World of Darkness Rulebook
and
Vampire: The
Requiem
, as well as the usual paper, pencils and dice. When you get your
troupe together, you’ll use these parts and tools to build a story, but how
you put everything together is up to you. It depends on what you’re trying
to do, whether it’s a stand-alone scenario designed for an evening or two
of entertainment or a story in an ongoing
Vampire
chronicle. The only
right way is whatever ends up being fun for you and your troupe.
A
b o u t
the
S
torytelling
A
dventure
S
yStem
If this is your irst Storytelling Adventure System (SAS)
product, you’ve chosen a ine place to start. To keep this lean
and focused, though, we haven’t included a lot of the core
premises and Storyteller suggestions that are at the heart of
the SAS. Whether you’re a new Storyteller or an old hand, be
sure to read the
free
SAS Guide
, found at the SAS website:
www.white-wolf.com/sas
Treatment
Criminal Intent
revolves around the consequences of a messy viola-
tion of the Masquerade. Mr. Petrovsky, an Invictus Nosferatu, is a fanati-
cal eccentric that has accumulated some status within the local Kindred
political structure for his efficiency in preserving the Masquerade. He
has developed a reputation of being the one to go to when Kindred are
1
If you can’t find a way to use or substitute the presented characters,
you can send the coterie on a mission to another city. Perhaps a patron
of the coterie owes a boon to Mr. Petrovsky, and the patron sends
them to Mr. Petrovsky’s city to repay the debt. Worse, maybe one of
the members of the coterie owes Mr. Petrovsky a boon directly, and he
calls it in. Or maybe the coterie is just traveling through and they are
asked to help. No matter the hook you use to pull the characters in,
it’s possible to run
Criminal Intent
without impacting your established
vampire court, if you prefer.
Theme – The Price of Security
The Masquerade is the single most important law the Kindred have,
and all vampires are expected to do everything in their power to main-
tain it. Some will go to barbaric lengths for the security of all of the
Kindred in their city. Others will blithely ignore the laws in order to
fulfill their own personal and political agendas. Who decides what is
just and what is not? Where are the lines drawn?
Mood – Noir
Mystery, deceit and gray morality are staples of
Vampire
, but the
noir
mood brings them center-stage.
Noir
is more than constant rain,
trench coats and tough talk – it’s a feeling of urban claustrophobia that
pushes people to their limits. Everyone has their own agenda, and an ally
can turn into an enemy on a moment’s notice. This isn’t a story about
paranoia, though – it’s about stripping away preconceptions and making
tough choices in a world that doesn’t give a damn whether you live or
die. The only people the characters can rely on are themselves.
Backstory and Set-Up
Before you sit down with your players and start your first chapter,
certain characters have taken actions that set the events of this story
into motion. How much or how little the players know about these
events beforehand is up to you – you can either have the events hap-
pen completely outside of the coterie’s awareness, or they can occur
in the background of prior stories in your chronicle.
The Killing of Melanie’s Sire
Five years ago, Mr. Petrovsky killed Roth, Melanie’s sire. Roth violated
the Masquerade, but Mr. Petrovsky didn’t petition the Prince for the right
to destroy him – he simply took the matter into his own hands and covered
it up. Melanie, recently Embraced by Roth, inadvertently witnessed the
murder. Simone, not yet Hound at this time, followed Mr. Petrovsky to
the hotel where Roth was staying and helped Melanie escape.
Simone Meets Rosario
A couple of months ago, Simone was hunting near Rapture (a night-
club in the city’s Rack) when she was confronted by a young artist
named Rosario Small. He had taken several cell phone pictures of her,
but they all turned out blurry. He knew that something wasn’t right
about her, and asked her some very probing questions. As a worshipper
of the Crone (in the guise of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue), Simone
was looking for a sacrifice, a man that she would treat like a king for a
year before offering his blood and body to her goddess. Rosario was a
perfect candidate as her sacrificial king. Instead of destroying him as
a threat to the Masquerade, she took him aside and lied to him. She
explained that she was a vampire, and claimed she wanted to prepare
him to become one as well. Over the next few weeks they met off and
on, and she told him more about the world of the Kindred.
The Violation of the Masquerade
The night prior to the story start, things went to hell in a hurry.
Melanie had been wandering in and out of town over the past several
months. On her latest visit to the Rapture, she accidentally ran into
Mr. Petrovsky. He frenzied and attacked her, but Melanie managed
to escape after injuring him. Mr. Petrovsky fed on a homeless man to
recover from the effects of the battle. Rosario, a frequent patron of the
Rapture, was on his way to meet Simone when he walked by the alley
where Mr. Petrovsky was feeding. Out of curiosity, Rosario took a few
pictures with his cell phone. Simone, upon seeing Rosario, called out
to him. Mr. Petrovsky then noticed Rosario, threw the body of the
bum into the dumpster, and fled. Simone took Rosario back to his
apartment, and after she made sure he was okay, she left to find a place
to sleep before dawn. Once she was gone, he looked at his pictures.
He noticed the pictures were blurry like the ones he took of Simone,
and he stayed up all night to paint a picture of Mr. Petrovsky’s feeding
before he lost the image in his mind.
Backstory
There are actually three backstories at play in
Criminal Intent
– the
killing of Melanie Dunn’s sire, how Simone met Rosario Small and the
actual violation of the Masquerade that sets everything in motion.
2
Fitting The Backstory Into Your Chronicle
Certain elements of the backstory have been left intentionally vague,
to make it easier to weave them into your existing chronicle. Here are
a few of those dangling questions – answering them will help you get
a better perspective on how this story fits:
Roth:
Why was Roth really killed? How did he violate the
Masquerade? Was he unaligned like his childe, or was he
part of a covenant? Did Mr. Petrovsky or another vampire
in the city frame Roth in order to have him removed for dif-
ferent reasons?
Mr. Petrovsky:
Where does he fit in the local Invictus power
structure? Does he have a lot of allies in the local court, or is
he considered a maverick? What contacts does he have in the
police department?
Melanie:
What has she been doing these past five years?
How did she get her contacts in the art scene? Has she
kept regular contact with some of the other vampires in
the area?
Simone:
Is she the Hound for the Prince or the Primogen?
Is she a well-known public figure, or just a legend that
the vampires who employ her bring up once in a while
to scare errant Kindred into behaving? What prompted
her desire to seek a sacrifice for the Crone?
Once the political landscape is sorted out, you should find ways
to introduce the characters to the players before the story begins.
Set up a scene where Mr. Petrovsky is rewarded for his service in
successfully covering up a violation of the Masquerade. Show the
coterie how blood-thirsty and heartless Simone is in her capacity as
Hound. (If the coterie must attend one of the Prince’s courts in your
chronicle as part of one of your stories, you can easily work both in
as bits of flavor that the players won’t pay much attention to at the
time, but will come to mind later when the events of
Criminal Intent
unfold.) If you can, arrange to give at least one member of the coterie
some sort of emotional attachment to Melanie. Maybe she did them
a small favor in the past, or she’s a past (or current) flame, or even
an estranged broodmate. If this sort of set-up with the Storyteller
characters doesn’t work for your chronicle, it’s not a vital element,
but it will add texture to the story if the coterie already has some
connection to the characters.
Set-Up
If you decide to use the characters presented in this story, it helps
if you can give them a solid foundation in your chronicle before
the events of
Criminal Intent
. First, you should decide how the
established Storyteller characters in your chronicle feel about them.
Is Mr. Petrovsky the darling of the Prince, or a barely-tolerated
vigilante just begging to draw the attention of the Sheriff? Is Simone
hated by most of the Kindred, or do they have a healthy respect
(and fear) of her? Does the Gangrel Priscus know about the situ-
ation with Roth and Melanie? Since this is a story with potential
for a lot of political impact for your chronicle, determining which
movers and shakers support or hate the various characters ahead
of time will help you if the coterie decides to try to get the local
court involved.
Motives
There are a variety of reasons as to why the coterie might agree
to Mr. Petrovsky’s mission, depending on the composition of the
coterie and the particular details of your chronicle. Here are a few
ideas, but you should try to make the motivation as personal to
the coterie as possible. Use these as a template to find the most
compelling and intriguing way to bring the characters into Mr.
Petrovsky’s plans.
3
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