Highgate Miniatures: "We still have work to do!" The search for the Master Vampire continues. Game report

Professor Defenzles was standing at the bedroom window of his Belgravia house contemplating his failure two days prior to destroy the Master Vampire he had been chasing half way across Europe. How the Vampire had managed to fool him into pursuing the wrong crate containing the Masters dormant body was beyond him. The search had gone completely cold and he knew the Master would now be safely tucked away in some quiet place in London. It might take him months or even years to find him again.
He was distracted by a carriage which stopped immediately outside his house, out of which alighted two men who made straight for his front door. Policemen! They were so obviously policemen even in their plain clothes, they had that distinctive look about them. The Professor knew he had some explaining to do and the excuses made for the fighting and gunfire in Limehouse would not go unnoticed for long even though his friend Inspector Abeline had been present at the time.

He met the men at the door, waving his butler away, he motioned them inside. "Good afternoon Gentlemen, what can..." He was cut short when one of the men interrupted him. I am Detective Inspector Straker. "We know all about the goings on in Limehouse and we know why you have been searching for a number of large crates recently arrived from Europe. We also know what you expected to find within the crate that you intercepted at the Limehouse Wharf. The professor was taken aback, he did not know what to say next. The Inspector smiled and continued "Do you want to know where the rest of the crates have been delivered to?" "And would you like to know the whereabouts of the Master Vampire, Janek Skorzany at this very minute?"

In the carriage on the way to Limehouse Detective Inspector Straker informed DeFenzles of his involvement in the case. Straker was head of Hades Division, a secret department set up by certain members of the government to combat the rise in supernatural activity in London.

Vampires had always been present, but due to Britain being an island the logistics of getting here kept them few in numbers and their presence had been "Manageable" until recently with a sharp rise in activity and a sudden influx of them from Europe.

Now London was becoming a hunting ground with Covens springing up all over the capital. It had been rumored that their influence may reached the government and may have stretched all the way to the House of Windsor....

So why was Straker telling Defenzles this? simply because he did not have the resources to manage the problem on his own. This new master Vampire Janek Skorzany was remarkable in that he came to London alone, with no Acolytes or Fledglings in tow, and had given not only Defenzles the slip but had evaded Hades Divisions attempts to catch him.

Fortunately Straker had already established Skorzany had ten crates with him when he arrived in London, he had lost one in Limehouse to Defenzles, but six were delivered to an address in Whitechapel which Straker referred to as a "Vampire Safe house" and three others remained unaccounted for.

Straker received fresh information confirming one crate was being delivered to the safe house this afternoon. He believed Skorzany would be in this crate and they would therefore intercept and destroy him before reaching the house.

So the scene was set for the game:

Two groups of Hunters; Hades Branch of the Police and Defenzles's men, their brief to intercept the crate and destroy the contents before it could reach the safe house.

The Vampire Master would be guarded by a group of Henchmen and more Northern Ruffians. Their job was to deliver his crate to the safe house.

The crate would start at the bottom of the table and leave via the gates in the middle at the opposite end. The Hunters started along the top edge of the table.

All is quiet in the late afternoon sun in Whitechapel.

Local gangland members the Mitchell brothers employed by a "strange, tall pale looking fella with a funny foreign accent" load a box onto a wagon tasked with delivering it to a run down estate a mile into town.