I Need More

Arnold walks in to one of the homeless camps that are placed sporadically throughout the city. His dress is that of a homeless man himself, a patched dirty hooded greatcoat, with hands wrapped up in rags. He keeps out of the light of flickering barrel fires as he moves through the camp, forcing a cough from time to time. Feeling out the camp.

This time of night, many of the homeless are out on salvage operations: dumpster diving for aluminum cans and plastic bottles to recycle and tossed-out restaurant food to eat.

Quite a few sleep in simple tents and lean-tos, but more sleep by day and are watchful at night. They're used to getting hassled by drunking assholes wanting to kick someone around, and most of them know there are much darker things out there than psychopathic thugs, even if one would have a hard time finding three who can agree as to what exactly is out there.

Cheap liquor is passed around, cigarette butts are smoked to those last two puffs, and from a few tents come the sounds of someone practicing the world's oldest profession in exchange for some food or some drugs or some booze.

As Arnold prowls the perimeter, he hears the growl of a dog, and looking at the nearest barrel fire, he sees a large, mangy mutt sitting up next to a middle-aged black man wearing sunglasses and carrying a cane. The dog is looking in Arnold's direction, its hackles up, showing teeth.

Arnold eyes the dog suspiciously out of the corner of his eye as he walks into a shadow and dons the Cloak of Night.

Spoiler:

The dog continues to growl, but it is hard to tell whether it still has any idea where Arnold is.

Arnold hears the man. "Whatcha got, Roscoe? 'Nother raccoon prowlin' 'round out dere?" The man cocks his head, listening.

Nobody else appears to have taken notice of Roscoe, the man or Arnold.

Arnold walks with casual speed toward one of the tents, secure in the knowledge that he is invisible. He peeks inside.

Narration:

In the first tent he checks, Arnold finds two people - a man and a woman - crowded into one low, tiny tent, mostly-covered with ratty blankets and an overcoat and using bags stuffed with clothes or rags as pillows. They take up the entire floor space, and both appear sound asleep. They aren't very clean, but they look happy enough, spooned together in sleep. Looking around, Arnold notices all the tents here are pretty small, and all of them are going to be a pretty snug fit for a guy his size, even moreso when they are already occupied.

Arnold frowns, and abandons the tent idea. He was just too big. He'd have to try and snatch someone. He moves to the edges of the camp, looking for anyone straying to far into the shadows.

Narration:

Arnold waits awhile, unseen, unheard. For the most part, these homeless stick pretty close together, and for the most part near the fires. After about a half-hour, however, he sees one get out of a sleeping bag and wander off toward some bushes past the edge of the encampment. Arnold sees it is a middle-aged white guy, balding, with blotchy skin and patched-up clothing. He watches as the man unzips and prepares to answer the call of nature.

Arnold silently walks up, standing behind the man. He lets him finish his business, and then as soon as the man zips up and turns around Arnold reaches out and grabs him, placing a huge hand over his face to silence him.

((ST Note: Roll Dex + Stealth vs. the guy's Perception check of 1 success. If he beats that, he can attack (Grapple) the bum at Defense 0 (surprised). Then roll Initiative. The guy got 13 on his initiative (rolled a 10). If Arnold beats that, he has a chance to muffle the guy before he even has a chance to react.))

Narration:

Understandably omewhat stunned to be attacked by a gigantic man after having just finished taking a piss, the man says "Huh, wha...?" as he thrashes about, attempting to escape Arnold's grasp. He has no luck in doing so, as Arnold is simply too strong. Arnold gets a chance to overpower the man before he has an opportunity to cry out for help.

Arnold lunges in and bites the man's neck, drinking hungrily from the fount of blood that issues forth.

Narration:

The man first stiffens, then goes limp in Arnold's grasp. As he drinks, he can tell the man has a fair amount of alcohol in his system.

((ST question: How much does Arnold take from the man? ))

Arnold drinks until the man is nearly empty of blood. Then lets him fall to the ground, walking away.

Spoiler:

After he's made it a little ways away he begins using the vitae he'd acquired to heal himself.

Spoiler:

Narration:

As Arnold expends the Vitae over the course of a minute or so, he notices two things. First, he finds himself feeling better, recovering from whatever had forced him into torpor while down in the sewers. He can feel his full strength returning.

Second, he notices the alcohol in the man's blood taking effect.((ST Note: It takes Arnold a total of 9 Vitae to heal entirely from the affliction, so subtract whatever you had previously spent toward recovery from 9, and the remainder is how much you need to spend for full recovery.

Also, Arnold needs to roll a Stamina check at -2.))

Narration:
Though Arnold gets very slightly buzzed, the alcohol taken in from the man's blood is not enough to impair him.

Arnold walks around the camp, enjoying the feeling of the buzz. He has the idea of perhaps utilizing his minor skills in Domination. He seeks someone who seems as if they may be easily susceptible to his Commands.

Narration:

Here and there he sees people awake around burn barrels or small impromptu campfires. In most cases there is one, perhaps two people awake, and usually one or two more sleeping near the fire. The only one who appears to be completely alone is the black man with the sunglasses and cane Arnold had seen earlier, and even he has his dog. Some of the individuals who are awake appear to be only barely so... staring blankly at the fire or off into the distance... though a few are busy with some task - stitching some repairs to worn clothing, whittling, one old guy reading a Bible, mouthing the words as he reads. Occasionally one of them looks up as Arnold passes. Most go back to their tasks, but Arnold notices the guy that was whittling has stopped and is looking at him.

((ST Note: Roll Wits + Subterfuge for Arnold))

Arnold sees the guy look at him for a few more seconds, then go back to doing his whittling.

Arnold walks up to the whittling man. "Whatcha working on there, brother?"

The man holds up a thin, foot-long piece of wood he is whittling in the winding shape of a rattlesnake. The detail is quite good, including different-shaped marks to denote the paterns of a snake's skin.

"Ain' seen you 'roun' here. Hard t' miss a big guy like you." His voice doesn't suggest suspision; rather, it seems the man is just neutrally stating facts.

Arnold settles down next to him, a big pile of stinking rags. "Just rolled into town. Caught a ride from Vegas. Do the cops give ya much trouble around here?"

He goes back to his whittling. "Not cops. Sometimes punks and psychos, but cops mostly ignore us long we stay 'way from the good neighborhoods an' stay out of sight during the day."

He chuckles. "An' then there's the monsters. Demons and vampires an' all that, 'cordin' to the Rev'rend over there." He hikes a thumb over toward the black guy with the shades, the cane and the dogs.

Arnold chuckles deeply, the big pile of rags shuddering with each laugh. "What a psycho. It's guys like him that make guys like us look bad, ya know? You and me are just a couple guys down on our luck. That guy over there? Fuckin psycho."

He shakes his head, still laughing. "Psycho..."

The guy nods. "He says God talks to him, warns him about the monsters." He shrugs. "Nice guy, though. Always okay sharin' his booze when he has any."

He looks Arnold over again. "Why you here? You look strong, oughtta be able t' find work."

Arnold just hmphs and extends an arm, pulling back the sleeve of his coat, revealing gray, lumpy, blemished and mishapen skin.

The man leans close, makes a "hmph" sound of his own, then leans back. "That don' look so good. Ain't nothing catchin', is it?"

Arnold shakes his head. "Nope. Genetic, you could say. A little gift from the man who made me."

He looks at Arnold's arm again. "Too bad you can't get a refund on that one." He extends a hand. "I'm Jimbo."

Arnold shakes - hand to bandaged hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Jimbo. They call me Arnie. So tell me more about the Reverend. Is he always talking about all that crazy shit?"

"Nah, not really. Lot of the time he jus' talks scripture, or talks t' people that ain't feelin' good, or have DTs, or whatever. Like I said, he ain't a bad guy. Not selfish at all. Jus' kinda nutty, the demon stuff and mumblin' to himself an' all that." He goes back to his whittling. "Rev says God took his eyes so t' let him see. Stuff like that."

"Hey, Arnie," he says, "You got any food? I got some cans a beans an' peas an' stuff from the food pantry, but I can only eat so mucha that stuff. Trade you some fer anythin' sweet or anythin' like that, or maybe some cheese or crackers, that kinda thing."

"I got some Hershey's Kisses stashed in a crate over there." Arnold points to a stand of trash cans in the shadow. "What have you got to barter?"

"Well, like I said, I got beans - green beans, an' pork n' beans, plus cans of peas. I'll give you two cans of peas or beans, or a can of pork n' beans, for... say six o' them choc'lates." Jimbo seems close to salivating at the prospect of chocolate.

Arnold nods "Let's go get em, then. If I pull out a bag of chocolates around here then soon everyone and their cousin's gonna want one." Arnold climbs to his feet, waiting on Jimbo.

Jimbo stands up, folds up his whittling knife and stows it in his pants pocket, opens his jacket and puts the nearly-finished rattlesnake in an inside pocket, then goes with Arnold.

"You got a lot more choc'late?" He turns and points to one of the tents from which Arnold earlier heard sounds of sex. Jimbo says "Prob'ly shouldn't tell, but Raylene, she's in that tent, you got enough choc'late, she'll prob'ly give you a go."

"I dunno, brother. I don't know Raylene, but I don't think all the chocolate in the world could get a woman to look twice my way."

He leads Jimbo off into the shadows. He begins rustling through boxes, he points at a trashcan.

"They gotta be round here somewhere... Check behind that can. They're in ziploc bag stuffed into a sock. You'll know em when you see em."

As he starts to look where Arnold pointed, Jimbo suddenly stiffens. "Hey, waitta minute, I don' see a thing over here....this some sorta trick?"

Arnold catches Jimbo's eye as he turns.

"Come here."

Spoiler:

Jimbo's eyes glaze a bit as he approaches Arnold to stand right in front of him.

Arnold grabs Jimbo, covering his mouth.

Spoiler:

He bites him, taking only what he needs.

Spoiler:

He leaves him dazed and walks off into the night, healed and sated.