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Portland By Night

An overview for the Night's Edge Supplement

NOTE: The information here is provided mainly for Game Masters.

So there you are, walking down the street, watching your feet to keep from slipping on the cobbles. It's a dark night, with only a sliver moon to light your way between the warehouses of NW Flanders as you head for your converted loft. You look up to notice that you passed the mouth of the alley you normally turn into in the fog. You turn to retrace your steps, when you hear a sound: a footstep? You press on, walking a little faster. There it is again, behind you. The cold hand of fear slides across your heart, and your hand slips into your jacket to pull your Armalite 44. The cool grips give your confidence a little boost as you kick in your speedware and cock the hammer. You spin around, leveling the weapon at your follower with lightning speed.

The street is empty.

You turn again, and take a few steps to cover the street better. Still nothing. You begin to relax, thinking you must have scared them away, when you feel a hand carressing the back of your neck.

The fingers are cold, but it is not the hand of fear.....

Night's Edge (NE from here on in) provides rules for running Vampires, Werewolves, and Psychics in the Cyberpunk 2020 system, both as Characters and NPC's. Personally, I recommend using them only as NPC's, unless you make sure that the players start out at a very low power level and keep them there. Letting a player run a Vamp is somewhat akin to giving the party solo an unlimited Millitech charge account and giving everyone else polymer one-shots as far as game balance goes.

As an NPC, however, it can make for an extremely fun horror campaign. For you, anyway, as you twist the players' world into a pretzel.

The rules as they are laid out are a combination of film, fiction and folklore, so whatever theories the players may have may or may not work. This will keep them guessing until nightfall.

The city of Portland lends itself to a Film-Noire or horror campaign very easily, with it's narrow, cobblestone back streets and wet climate. Portland receives over forty inches of precipitation a year, so many nights will have at least a small amount of rain, enough to get the streets wet. The presence of two rivers can bring up a fair amount of fog, as well. The biggest draw to the Vampire community, however, is the architecture: real stone masonry, gargoyles, and -most importantly- nearly every house has a basement.

Werewolves are also drawn to the area. There are over a million souls in the greater PDX area, but the remainder of the once vast Oregonian forests are not too far off, only an hour's drive to get far enough away that civilization is over the hills behind you as you climb into the Cascade Range.

Portland hasn't had a great number of Vampires until just recently, within the last thirty years. An old Vamp named Malcolm moved to the area a century ago, and valued his privacy-he hunted all other Vamps in the area to extinction. The word went out on the after-midnight grapevine, and all others stayed away. For sixty years, he had the town to himself.

Thirty years ago, Malcolm disappeared, shortly after the appearance of "The Blue Woman", a woman largely thought to be myth by the police, but the underbelly of Portland knew her as the devil in a leather jacket and mirrorshades. Any who crossed her path wound up dead or beaten to the brink of it. After she left, Vampires from other cities began to filter in to fill the gap left by Malcolm's disappearance, some say his death.

Now the people of Portland unwittingly support a population of just under fifty Vampires and Fledglings. Some are Loners, but the majority have found the safety in numbers offered by forming Covens. All is not well for the Vampires, since there are agencies who know of their existence and have dedicated themselves to the eradication of the Undead. They are the Hunters.

Loners
There are five notable Loners in the greater Portland area today. All of them are over 100 years old (save for Michael Stevens), and have substantial personal power bases and information networks. It's fairly safe to say that these individuals know of any occurrence that may affect them, and the names, at least, of every Vampire in the area. Sneaking up on them will be very difficult in the least, and will be greeted with swift retribution.

-Malcolm Dumas-
Portland's first Vampire, Malcolm emigrated from France around the turn of the last century, having gotten fed up with his European brethren. There were other Vampires in America, of course, but the Northwest's beauty intrigued Malcolm more than the bustling cities of the eastern seaboard, and he desired some distance from his own kind.
Malcolm, until recently, resided in an old church in the Nob Hill area. The church has been taken over since his disappearance, but the imported stained-glass windows he had installed are still there.

-Albert Montarre-
The "Vampire Brother" to Malcolm Dumas, these two had the same sire. One of the older generation, Albert is now 450 years old. He was on good terms with his brother, and came to the city to try to find him after his disappearance.
Albert's lair is unknown, but he has been seen at parties in the ridgeline mansions to the west of the city.

-Jeanette-
An avid artist, Jeanette liked to live very close to the edge by running a tattoo parlor Downtown, but her shop was destroyed during the Coven wars in the past year. She disappeared for a short time, then re-appeared when she opened her new shop, just down the block from her old place. She lives a very public life for a Vamp, and you can often see her in all her tattooed glory, cruising her Hog through the streets of the city.

-Michael Stevens-
Jeanette got bored with the scene in the city fifteen years ago and created a playmate- Michael Stevens was her choice. A local reporter, Mike quit his steady job and went freelance, specializing in on-the-scene crime footage. He uses his Psyche abilities to charm his way into people's confidences until he has enough dirt to expose them. Mike still resides in the house he owned before his transformation, although Jeanette has tired of him and left him to his own devices.

-John-Walks-By-Night-
-AKA Nightwalker-
A quiet recluse, John stays in Portland because of the many parks, and he's thinking of moving on due to the corporate expansion. He resides in the Lone Fir Cemetery, and hunts in Chinatown, only taking the hoodlums and streetscum for victims. there are tales of a dark man who hunts Chinatown by night, but these are merely stories told around the fire to frighten the hearts of young gangers...

Of the Loners, Michael Stevens is the only one who fears the covens' retribution, as he is the youngest. The others will quickly destroy any who interfere with them.

Covens
Portland has only three Covens in 2020, and there is a very unsteady truce between them at the moment. Two of these Houses have been at war for some time, but recently concluded a truce and laid boundary lines for their Territories. They have divided the city into five districts: Downtown, which covers anything west of the Willamette River. East of the River, Burnside is the dividing line between North and South for the rest of the city. This creates the North East and South East Districts. Both of these areas are bordered on the East by 95th, which then creates the Farside North and Farside South Districts. There is a one-block free-travel corridor on both sides of Burnside and 95th, to allow for travel to the Downtown District, which has been set aside as a Free Zone, along with the airport and the docks.

Any Vampire is free to travel, do business, or move about in any District, provided they give the Coven Master of that district one day's notice beforehand. They may only hunt or own property in their home District, however. Any Vampire caught hunting off their home turf will be destroyed. There is a Sanctuary Clause in the agreement as well: any Vampire may claim Sanctuary and go to ground in any District for a maximum of two days if wounded or caught unawares by Hunters or sunrise. Deliberately leading Hunters into another Coven's District will be met with swift and final retribution. This means the Vampire must be very careful whenever they enter another Coven's District. For the most part, Vampires wounded or on the run have been going to Downtown for fear of improperly crossing a boundary.

Mind you, these rules really only apply to the Coven Vampires. The Loners listed above are, for the most part, older and stronger than all of the Coven Vampires and do pretty much as they please. The only possible exception to this is Michael Stevens. He has more strength than many due to having Jeanette as a Master, but he lacks the experience of the other Loners and the confidence that comes from living centuries with your powers. He will avoid other Vampires whenever possible, but will not run away from them if confronted. The Coven Vamps, for the most part, know who all of the Loners are and keep their distance.

The leader of a Coven is called the Master, whether or not they have created the Vampires of the Coven. The Master decides on the rules his followers must follow. Usually, a Coven is run out of one building in which all the members live. Rules in a Coven usually revolve around permitted numbers and types of victims, creating other Vampires and what beliefs are held. Enforcement ranges from a few days starvation to outright destruction.

The Vampire Lestat
Actually a band, the lead singer had himself bio-sculpted to fit the description of Lestat from The Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice. They played a few clubs and covered the songs that Anne Rice wrote in the books, and even managed to get some local radio airtime. The band was doing well, and making okay money from their engagements. That's when the band disappeared.
They had apparently drawn the attention of a powerful Vampire, whose name is unknown. He found the band, and changed all four of them into Vampires. The lead singer answers only to Lestat now, and the other members of the band have taken names from the Vampire Chronicles as well. (With the exception of Daniel, whose name was Daniel already).

Lestat - Lead Vocals, bass guitar. Band leader/Coven Master.
Louis - Lead guitar, backup vocals.
Daniel - Synth.
Maharet - Percussion, backup vocals.

The band is currently claiming Farside South, and has been active for about three years. They did not ally themselves with either of the Covens involved in the War, they just kept quiet until the dust settled. They are still playing gigs at various venues around the city, but have yet to be discovered by a record label.

Hunters
The NE supplement lists several types of Hunters: Sun Knights, Heart Burn, CSI, Inquisitors, and of course, the Lone Hunter. All of these can be found in Portland, but their presences are small compared to other cities. This is primarily due to Portland's history with Malcolm Dumas. Here is a quick overview of the various types:

Sun Knights
The Sun Knights are a recent addition to the list of Hunters, dating back to the turn of the century. They are by far the most successful, though. This is due to the high level of organization found in this group. This group has been known to farm themselves out as mercenaries to bring in extra funds, as Vampire hunting is not a money career. This is what originally brought them to the greater northwest, but they found signs of Vampirism while they were here, and decided to set up shop. The recent Coven Wars decimated the Portland cell, but they have sent reinforcements to pick up the slack. Rumors say that the group's leader, Ronald Isgill, may be moving to Portland to supervise the extermination: he wants to wipe out the Vamps in Portland before they get a major foothold built.

Heart Burn
This "organization" is based entirely on the Late Late Movie school of Vampire Hunting. In fact they really are the Transylvanian Correspondence School of Vampire Hunting, which offers a degree in Vampire Hunting. Mostly they are Lone Wolves who have done the right thing by trying to research their prey, but went to the wrong people. The course consists of the methods used to kill Vamps in all the movies and the more popular legends. They also offer a phone advice line, only 5.99EB per minute.

CSI (Cryptozoological Studies Institute)
This group is a legal institute, studying all of the supernatural creatures: Bigfoot, Nessie, werewolves, and just about any mythological creature. Their main purpose is to bring back a live specimen. To this end, they have a standing offer of 1000EB for any live Vamp, and 500EB for a dead one. They don't get many takers, though, since most hunters are out to kill, and that will usually involve fire in one way or another just to make sure they did the job right.

The Inquisitors - Predato Nosferatu Sect
These guys are just as nutso as their Inquisitor brethren, and fortunately, they don't get up to Portland very often. When they do, it's the CyberVamps that need to watch out: those (usually cyberpsycho) people who have had cybernetic enhancements to help them mimic Vampires. Do us all a favor and whack a few of these boys whenever you get a chance.

The Lone Wolf
The Lone Hunter is usually just waiting to die. These guys go after a particular Vampire, most often either one who has killed a loved one, or even a relative that has been turned. They rarely do the research, however, and the Vampire will tear them up when he shows up unprepared. Some of them have had good success, but these are rare.