Post by Cassian on Feb 1, 2024 17:33:21 GMT -6
Desires for the Night:
December 31, 2004 (New Years Eve)
The Purple Rose, Fells Heights District
9:12 p.m.
The Domum Carnis, Edge Harbor District
9:15 p.m.
The Domum Carnis, Edge Harbor District
9:23 p.m.
The Purple Rose, Fells Heights District
9:39 p.m.
The Domum Carnis, Edge Harbor District
9:42 p.m.
New Years Eve Party, Carlos O’Kelly’s Mexi-Irish Pub, Fells Heights District
11:48 p.m.
The vampires earn +3 Experience.
- Jack: To kill Masuko and Balthazar
- Harri: To figure out the source of his trance/vision
- Cassian: To investigate the Tzimisce and the Domum Carnis
December 31, 2004 (New Years Eve)
The Purple Rose, Fells Heights District
9:12 p.m.
- Harri and Fakkir discuss Alanna’s torture. The Sheriff offers to enter The Rose through the roof and open a side door to the alley to let Harri inside. Fakkir makes a soaring leap from the fire escape and lands quietly on the club’s roof.
- Harri uses Cloak of Shadows to go invisible. He sees an Invictus ghoul standing outside the front door of the club. Harri hears the sound of hinges grating and squeaking somewhere on the roof.
- Harri gets 4 successes on a Stealth + Dexterity roll and makes it to the side alley undetected.
- Five minutes later, the door opens and the Sheriff is there bathed in the red glow of an exit sign.
- Fakkir says, “I have seen them. In the office. Both are there. I will engage Masuko. What she has done is a grave breach of the Prince’s law. Follow me, quietly.”
The Domum Carnis, Edge Harbor District
9:15 p.m.
- After staking out the Domum in Jack’s car and detecting no activity, Jack and Cass approach the building on foot.
- The front door is boarded up. Cassian circles the building’s perimeter but finds no way in (failed Investigation roll).
- Jack uses Soaring Leap to jump up to a decorative balcony railing that encircles a sloping dome on the second floor.
- Jack looks through a dirty window and can see a single light source deeper inside the building. The light is not moving.
- Jack searches for a loose or unlocked window (1 success on an Investigation roll) and finds a rusty latch on a window, which he breaks.
- The smell of musty air accosts Jack. He peers inside and sees that he is overlooking the lobby. He sees a bar, a pair of spiral staircases, a ruined red carpet, and a smashed chandelier on the ground.
- The light source is coming from a set of stairs leading down.
- Jack leaps back to the ground, takes hold of Cassian, and leaps again back up to the balcony (3 successes).
- Cassian focuses on the light and uses Premonition (2 successes) to trigger a vision: He sees a moment in time… a vision of Newcastle’s elite of the 19th century, elegantly dressed, socializing in the lavish lobby, sipping wine and absinthe. Cass also triggers an idea of “escape”.
- Jack and Cass leap down and investigate the light. The source is an ancient, much deteriorated exit sign on the wall at the top of a staircase.
- The vampires see three figures standing below the sign. Upon closer inspection, the figures are mannequins, dressed in 19th century clothing, posed to appear as if they are chatting.
- An inhuman cry of agony is heard from far below in the bowels of the building.
- Cassian activates Silence of Death and he and Jack descend into the main lobby. The lobby is full of posed mannequins.
- The vampires see light from the open doors of the main auditorium. Cass and Jack make their way toward the doors by moving along the perimeter of the lobby, keeping their backs to the walls and their eyes on the mannequins.
- The vampires enter the auditorium and find a strange scene. The seats are occupied with a mannequin “audience” and the stage is filled with mannequin “performers”, posed as if in the middle of an opera scene.
- Mozart’s Requiem is playing from some unknown source behind the stage. The music has the scratchy, tinny sound of an old record.
- In one of the aisles of the orchestra section are strewn pieces of grotesquely deformed body parts — arms, legs, hands, heads, torsos — in pools of fresh blood. The body parts are hideous aberrations: multi-jointed, inhuman, twisted, too many (or too few) limbs and joints.
- As the vampires enter, the music grows louder.
The Purple Rose, Fells Heights District
9:17 p.m.- The Sheriff leads Harri through the club. The entrance is completely dark — pitch black and reeking of blood and despair.
- Harri and Fakkir move through the darkness and arrive in the main club area. The room is gargantuan and unnervingly quiet. In the blackness, it appears frozen in time — light rigs and scaffolding, tables, chairs, alcoves, bars, mirrors and velvet curtains all devoid of life and the usual thrum of energy. It is a tomb.
- Harri detects the smell of booze and garbage, as if the employees all simply left mid-shift and abandoned the place in an instant.
- Harri looks behind the bar and finds a loaded shotgun. He takes it.
- The vampires enter the club’s VIP room. Here they find the enormous round velvet couch, empty glasses, trash, cigarette butts, lines of cocaine.
- Beyond, from the corridor lined with dressing rooms leading to Alanna’s private office, they hear Alanna’s voice, weak and pleading. “Please… I can’t take this anymore.”
- Masuko is heard saying, “You will be released as soon as I get what I want.”
- The Sheriff is fuming. He creeps toward Alanna’s office door and quickly peers in. His face reflects utter shock and he grips his sword hilt.
- Harri activates Unseen Passage and vanishes into the darkness of the hallway.
- Fakkir draws his sword, whirls into Alanna’s office and shouts, “On. Your. Knees!”
- Harri hears the clanging of swords and the slicing of air. He suddenly hears the sickening sound of flesh being pierced and vitae spurting onto the floor. Someone falls to their knees.
- Harri looks in. He sees Alanna, naked from the waist up, suspended off the ground in chains with her arms and legs splayed in an X. She is deathly pale except for her eyes which are completely bloodshot. She is emaciated. Her skin is paper thin. Her breasts and torso are obscenely deflated. A shard of wood is lodged in her left breast. She appears feral. Her once striking features have been replaced by a haggard mask of agony.
- Fakkir and Masuko have impaled each other! Masuko is standing. The Sheriff is on his knees.
- Masuko says, “Your power is over. There is no longer a Prince in Newcastle. There is only Invictus.”
- From the shadows, Harri rouses his blood, raises his shotgun and unloads on Masuko. (6 successes)
- The blast hits her completely by surprise squarely in the chest. The impact forces her to withdraw her katana from Fakkir.
- In an instant, the Sheriff brings his own sword down on Masuko, but she is a blur of movement. Fakkir cleaves her and Harri sees the wound in her torso heal immediately.
- Harri racks the shotgun and moves to Alanna. He pulls the wooden stake from her chest. Alanna’s body jolts and she enters a full hunger frenzy!
- Masuko, moving far faster than Fakkir, slashes him across the chest and darts out the door in a blink.
- Fakkir falls to his knees again and Harri sees his wound begin to heal on its own, though slower than Masuko’s.
- Harri approaches the Sheriff and tries to staunch his wound. “What do you want me to do?” he asks.
- Harri sees the Sheriff’s vitae spurting between his fingers (fails a Willpower roll) and impulsively begins to feed on the Sheriff’s open wound!
- The Sheriff roars in a rage and pushes Harri away. “Get a hold of yourself!” (Harri is now Sheriff Fakkir’s thrall!)
- Harri stumbles out of Alanna’s office and makes his way back to the VIP room to find a bottle of vitae.
- In the darkness, Harri hears Alanna raging followed by the Sheriff saying wearily, “Calm down, Primogen!”
9:23 p.m.
- Jack and Cass choose to approach the stage via the aisle with the carnage. They carefully pick their path without disturbing any of the body parts.
- Jack sees an old phonograph in the wings of the stage. He hops up on the stage causing the old boards to creak and the phonograph needle skips, stopping the music momentarily. Jack resets the needle back to the beginning of the first movement and the Requiem begins again.
- Cassian sees an alcove near the edge of the stage leading to an open area. He and Jack enter the alcove.
- The alcove is a side foyer with stairs leading up to the second balcony level seating as well as stairs leading down below the stage.
- In the center of the foyer is a baby carriage. As Cassian enters, he sees a young pregnant woman descending from the second story landing. “It was you,” she says to Cass, and he hears the cries of an infant from the carriage. “You never gave him a chance.”
- Cassian is frozen. Images of the grate on Graves Island flood his brain. The woman approaches the carriage and lifts out a mutilated, bloody malformed baby.
- [insert Trav’s joke about Capri Sun juice bags here]
- Cassian panics and turns to Jack. “Make her stop. Please.” Jack scans the room and looks at Cassian, puzzled. There is no one else there.
- Jack takes the lead. He and Cassian descend into a catacomb network of corridors below the Domum. The corridors are filled with naked mannequins.
- At the base of the stairs, two of the mannequins nearest Jack appear to be burned.
- Jack draws his sword and stabs a burned mannequin in the head. It immediately animates and attacks!
- Jack strikes the mannequin (4 successes) and does 6 damage. It falls to the ground, split in two.
- The other burned mannequin animates and attacks Cassian. Cass uses Lethal Body and rips one of the mannequin’s arms off with his bare hands.
- Jack spins and slashes at the mutilated mannequin and does 3 damage while it grabs at Cass’s throat with its remaining hand.
- Cassian brings his Beretta up under the mannequin’s jaw and fires a Dragon’s Breath round into its head. (4 successes)
- The head explodes in a brilliant shower of gore, magnesium and phosphorus.
- All of the mannequins in the corridor slowly turn their heads toward the vampires.
The Purple Rose, Fells Heights District
9:39 p.m.
- Harri finds a bottle of vitae in the bar and slakes 1 Hunger. He returns to Alanna’s office and offers it to the Sheriff.
- The Sheriff pours the vitae into Alanna’s mouth and she gulps it greedily. In moments, her breathing calms, her body regenerates to its healthy form, and her eyes return to normal.
- “Care to get me down, sweetheart?” she says to the Sheriff. Fakkir swings his sword and cuts her chains.
- Harri asks Alanna if she’s got any more vitae around. “You’re welcome to have a drink here anytime,” she responds.
- The Sheriff says, “I will secure the perimeter.” He exits and runs down the hallway toward the front of the club.
- Alanna and Harri talk. She expresses her gratitude to him for saving her from Masuko. She asks if she can sleep in his haven to fully recover. “Sharesies?”
- Harri is reluctant and declines her offer. “Okay. I understand,” she says. “I owe you one.” [Fr. Rhegga notes a major boon.]
- Fakkir returns and says, “They are gone. No vehicles. No sign of Masuko.”
- The Sheriff pulls Harri aside. “She owes us both a boon. We should use that to extract information. I owe you my life, Harri.” [Fr. Rhegga grumbles and scribbles again.]
- Harri brings another bottle of vitae to Fakkir and leaves The Rose to join his coterie at the Domum Carnis.
The Domum Carnis, Edge Harbor District
9:42 p.m.
- Jack and Cass ready their weapons. But the mannequins don’t attack.
- As one, the mannequins’ mouths open, their jaws distend unnaturally, and a hissing female voice emanates from them all and fills the hallway.
- “There is no need for further violence. What is the purpose of this visit?”
- Cassian says he is here to recover property stolen from the Lancea Sanctum and to claim his missing priest.
- Jack demands that the kindred reveal herself properly instead of speaking through puppets. He rolls 5 successes on a Persuasion + Composure roll.
- The voice responds, “Come… We will meet… in the flesh.”
- Six mannequins robotically move to flank the vampires and escort them further down the dim hallway.
- The vampires pass darkened dressing rooms with shadowy mirrors and the smell of old greasepaint.
- The hallway ends at a set of large double doors. The mannequins lead the vampires into the final dressing room just before the double doors.
- Inside, the vampires see moldering posters on the walls from opera and stage productions from the 1920s. The dim lights of dusty bulbs framing a cracked mirror above a dressing table buzz and hiss with electric current.
- Jack and Cass then see a girl. She is largely naked, young, in her 20s. She has what look like tattoos all over her skin… but the tattoos appear to move on their own. Her hair is gently moving as if underwater.
- Then, the vampires see that this “girl” is connected to something protruding from the wall — the same wall with the large double doors in the hallway. It appears to be a grotesque, organic limb that is fused to her body with sinew, bone, flesh and tissue.
- She introduces herself as Sasha Vikosh.
- Cassian and Sasha discuss kindred law and rights of ownership. Cassian claims that the Tzimisce stole the body of Cassius Vulpa from his sire, a priest of the Lancea Sanctum.
- Sasha states that the body was claimed outside the Prince’s domain. She refuses to give up her claim to Vulpa. Cassian grows impatient.
- While the conversation is happening, Jack visually investigates Sasha’s “body” for anything vital like organs or joints.
- Cassian presses his claim and states that he is Hand of the Bishop and represents the interests of the Vampire Church. He threatens Sasha with open war if she will not return what is rightfully Church property.
- In the wardrobe of the dressing room, the pregnant woman appears again holding her mutilated baby and stares, unmoving, at Cassian. Cassian feels panic rising again. (All Social rolls are -1.)
- Sasha asks, “What is your interest in the Roman? Why do you wish to wake him?”
- Cass responds, “It is not for me to question the will of God. Will you show us our priest?”
- The wall anchoring Sasha dissolves and becomes transparent, revealing a cavernous room beyond the double doors filled with what appears to be a sea of blood.
- Rising from the center is a colossal pillar of flesh made of hundreds of fused body parts.
- Viktor’s body is fused to the pillar, half his face and body embedded in flesh, his mouth open in a state of agony. A single green eye is open and fixed.
- Cassian is enraged and tightens his grip on his Beretta.
- Jack steps in and says, “What is it that you want, Sasha?” (rolls Wits + Etiquette and gets 6 successes)
- “Ah… Now that is the right question. Your priest friend here can no longer speak for himself, but you… You still have a will of your own. What I want is one who is near and dear to you. The Invictus Balthazar. I wish to know where he sleeps. But bring no harm to him. His business and mine… coincide. And he will be useful. Bring me this information and we will consider it a down payment on the Roman.”
- “You demand payment for that which is not yours,” grumbles Cassian. “And our priest?”
- “The priest is mine. Tell me where the Invictus sleeps and we will talk again.”
- The mannequins escort Jack and Cassian back out through the front door of the Domum.
- As the vampires get back in Jack’s car, Cassian turns and sees two figures leering at them from windows on the second story of the decrepit opera house. Jack and Cass recognize the figures as the same two slatchta who attacked them in the church on the cliff.
- Jack says, “Well, Cass. I’d say my boon to you is paid.” Cassian nods.
- Harri arrives in his K-car. He takes one look at the Domum and sees the figures in the windows. He leaves his keys in the car and gets in Jack’s car.
- “Yeah, they can have that piece of shit. My gift to them,” says Harri. “So what’d I miss?”
New Years Eve Party, Carlos O’Kelly’s Mexi-Irish Pub, Fells Heights District
11:48 p.m.
- In borrowed expensive suits, Cassian and Harri do their best to blend in with the throng of revelers in the noisy pub. From across the room, Jack raises his glass and clinks it with Jack Sr. He makes eye contact with Cass and Harri and nods knowingly to them.
- Hank is lit and leading a group of equally drunk Army vets in a rowdy drinking song.
- Elsewhere in the city, the Duke stands alone on his penthouse balcony staring out at the sea of lights far below him that is Newcastle.
- A gang of skinheads, beer bottles in hand, burst out of an apartment bedroom where they have just raped a girl.
- D’Angelo emerges from the nearby shadows with a machete, stalking the skinheads with a smile on his face.
- Sean McVaigh lies unconscious on a respirator in a private ICU room at Morgan County Medical Center.
- In a tower of flesh, deep in the bowels of the city, a single green eye gazes out transfixed in perpetual horror.
- Balthazar and The Mouth stand side by side and look down at the ground before them.
- Ten, nine, eight, VII…
- Happy New Year, kindred and kine of Newcastle.
The vampires earn +3 Experience.