Session 13 - Investigation

• Harry stealthily enters the hospital security room and breaks into the computer (password: HOSPITAL). He succeeds in accessing the last 48 hours of camera footage.
• At time stamp 12/22/2004 6:58 p.m. Harri sees a black sedan arrive at the hospital front entrance. Two men in black suits get out and open the sedan’s back door.
  
• A very handsome man in a white suit steps out. Harri recognizes him as Balthazar.
• Balthazar walks into the hospital and enters Jack Sr.’s room. Some minutes later, Balthazar pushes Jack Sr. out of the room in a wheel chair and approaches the nurse station.
  
• The female nurse has a brief conversation with Balthazar and then produces some forms. She fills out the forms and Harri sees Balthazar sign “X” at the bottom. Then, he and Jack Sr. leave the hospital in the black sedan.
• Harri captures screen shots of the video footage and emails them to the Hohenheim College Sleep Center email address.
• Harri leaves the hospital without being detected and heads to the sleep study center.
• At the Sleep Center, Harri finds three of the 15 beds occupied with patients. They are being monitored by a Filipino grad student with a Chicano accent.
• Harri uses Mesmerize on the grad student and forces him to take a meal break.
• Harri puts on a lab coat and feasts on the largest sleeping victim, slaking 2 Hunger.
• Harri leaves with his lab coat and the clipboard with the center’s patient schedule.
  

• It is an hour after visiting hours have ended. Wearing his new lab coat, Harri manages to sneak into the Psychology Ward undetected and he finds Petey’s room.
  
• Harri gently wakes him. Physically, Petey seems fine; though he’s clearly very drugged up and hazy.
• Harri asks Petey what he remembers about his attacker, but Petey just can’t seem to recall a thing…
• Harri tells Petey that he’s going to have to stay in the hospital for a little while longer, but to call him when he’s cleared to go home.
  

• Cassian arrives at Henry Coleville’s apartment and finds him alone. Henry invites Cassian in and offers him a beer.
• The two Army vets bond and talk about their past exploits serving in Iraq. Cassian explains that he’s here because he’s concerned about Desirée.
  
• Henry explains that Desirée has been helping him confront his addiction to pain killers. He then breaks down and admits that she has started using again with him, too.
• Cassian convinces Henry to give up the name of his dealer: Kimber Rose.
• Then, Henry expresses remorse for what is happening to Desirée, saying, “She doesn’t deserve this. I’d give my life for her.”
• Upon hearing this, Cassian feeds on Henry and slakes 2 Hunger. He leaves Henry in a stupor in his living room chair with empty beer bottles strewn around his feet.
  

• At the club, Jack meets with Alanna. She offers to protect Jack Sr. and teach him about his new Kindred life, in stark contrast to how Masuko abandoned Jack.
• Alanna offers to keep Jack’s father safe and away from Balthazar; and she’ll do it freely — no ridiculous old-fashioned boons here!
• Alanna mentions to Jack that she has bribed orderlies at the Finscher Park Asylum and therefore has some influence there. (Apparently, old fashioned bribery hasn’t seemed to break the Prince’s mandate about interfering with medical personnel.)
• Jack reveals to Alanna that Balthazar messed with medical personnel and that Jack has proof in the form of surveillance video and still images.
• Alanna is delighted and revels in this news. She says to Jack, “Oh, I can see you’ll go far!”
  
• Jack responds, “I want to take the city.” At this, Alanna’s demeanor turns a bit more serious. She gazes deep into Jack’s eyes and proposes a vision of the future: Carthian/Invictus ruling Newcastle.
• When Jack says he has no interest in being a pawn in the organizations that rise to power, Alanna clarifies: “Carthian/Invictus… It’s you and me!”
• Jack and Alanna hit the dance floor and the late 90s Goth rave music pulses long into the night.
  

• Cassian receives a call from Sheriff Fakkir requesting that the neonates meet him in half an hour at an address in Drover’s Park.
  
• The neonates arrive in Jack’s BMW. The address is two houses down from the Elysium manor.
• The Sheriff is standing outside in the snow next to a parked stretch limousine. The neonates approach and Fakkir instructs them to look inside the car.
• In the back seat is the body of The Host of Elysium, staked through the chest with his severed head resting in his own lap. On his forehead is carved “VII”.
• The neonates reveal to the Sheriff details of what they have learned about VII, including VII’s origin story.
• Harri inquires about traveling to Turkey, to the ancient city where VII originated. Fakkir explains that leaving Newcastle is far too dangerous for Kindred.
  
• The Sheriff instructs the neonates to investigate the current scene and to clean it up without breaching The Masquerade.
• Cassian asks the Sheriff about the time of the attack (shortly after sunset) and the whereabouts of The Host’s driver (Barry). The Sheriff says he will locate Barry and leaves.
• Cassian uses Premonition to focus on the body of The Host and sees a vision:
  

The Host leaves the safety of his manor and willingly enters the limo. The limo drives two blocks and turns around and stops. A figure wearing a rubber clown mask enters the limo. The chant rings in Cassian’s mind.

• Cassian notes that the clown mask in his vision has a gouge, and the missing chunk matches the size and shape of the rubber sample they analyzed.
• Inside the limo, there is no blood. The Host’s body has no small wounds like those on Carter’s body. There is only broken glassware everywhere.
• The Sheriff returns momentarily and takes the neonates to Barry’s body, which is around the corner impaled on a wrought iron fence.
  
• Barry’s throat has been slit and there’s a crude sign hanging around his neck. Scrawled in blood, it reads: Slave to Sinners. The Sleepers have Awakened.
• Barry has been dead for hours and there is blood pooled all around his body.
• Jack informs the Sheriff that Balthazar has broken the Prince’s rule about interfering with medical personnel. He also says he and Harri have proof.
• The Sheriff says that without The Host, there can be no Elysium for a while. Without Elysium, there can be no trials. He explains how Elysium is a “pressure release valve” for the Kindred. By killing The Host, VII has upset the balance in Newcastle.
  
• Harri examines Barry’s fingernails and finds bits of red-flecked rubber. Harri collects a sample.
• The neonates clean up the scene and bring the bodies back to Marshall Manor to allow the morning sun to dispose of them.

• As Harri sets the head of The Host in the pre-dawn snow covering Marshall Manor’s spacious back patio, the head suddenly opens its mouth and says to him: How terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it.
• Harri researches the phrase in the manor’s library and discovers it is a quote from Oedipus The King by Sophocles. (Messy Crit!)
  
• Harri feels the pull of torpor, but soldiers on with his research. He finds a photo of Oedipus and another naked figure with the sex organs of both genders.
• The figure of Oedipus says, “Time to sleep, Harri.”
• The second figure says, “Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”
• Then, both figures chant in unison: The intenseness of the wish gives me power over another, said the First. Though the wish is unexpressed, said the Second…