Once again, I have managed to miss one of Chris' Houston Vampire games. Fortunately, Dan has proven more than willing to pick up the slack and offer his interpretation of the events of the day. I give you this week's guest chronicler, Dan!
-BRT
This Sunday's game is Vampire. Chris, Tim, Chuck, and Paul are all there when Dan arrives. Bruce is out trying to expand his mind at a museum or something. As Bruce has spent years writing session summaries in which his own characters are described in glowing heroic colors, while the other PC's are portrayed as moronic gimps, Dan seizes the opportunity to ridicule the action's of Bruce's character Jack Rowell with vicious abandon. In real life, Dan and Bruce are rather good friends, but please do not leak this information as it could be used to link the two of them with a number of open cases currently being handled by the CIA.
At the start of the game Chris hands out sheets with some of the more important members of each clan in the Houston area. He mentions he thinks the kindred population should be something like 1 for every 100,000 kine. Tim decides to drop Clayton Burrell as his player character and introduce a new one. The instant the words escape his mouth, Dan announces that Oliver will blood bind Clayton. As last game left off with Clayton incapacitated and bloodless at Oliver's house, the plan goes off with out a hitch. A dark cloud of foreshadowy impending doom begins to form over Clayton's head but still remains invisible to the players and PCs.
Liam decides to irritate Oliver by taking out adds in newspapers indicating that anyone interested in joining the Errol Flynn Fan Club should write Oliver and includes the address of MoreMaxx Productions. Far from being flustered, Oliver thinks this is fantastic. He enthusiastically responds to his first letter by returning a nicely doctored 8X10 picture of Flynn engaged in unspeakable acts with a ram. He also makes plans to write up newsletters with including more subtle attacks on his off screen lifestyle. About this time, Oliver also begins to comb through his herd for persons suitable to man the expansions in MoreMaxx Productions that he has planned.
One Wednesday night in July, Oliver throws a beach party for the Toreador clan. He successfully gets all of the young Toreador to come and all the old Toreador to NOT come even though they are invited. This frees up the youngsters to cut loose and have some fun. Liam is also invited, although for some reason his invitation mistakenly includes the wrong location. Hiring a band that one of the local Toreador is ecstatic about completes the theme of the party. A huge movie screen is erected on the beach where a movie of a sunrise kicks off the event. Oliver buys up a fair amount of blood for the event and freezing it into popsicles. He takes more frozen blood and grinds it up to be served as snow cones. All though it is not as tasty as "fresh squeezed" the novelty of the idea and its keeping with the theme make it a success. Over all the party seems to be a success with only one sticky moment: One the hissier clan mates attempts to pitch a fit over band selection. She claims her favorite band would have been equally appropriate to the genre, but far more enjoyable to listen to. Oliver, thanks in no small part to a little coaching from Chris, lulls her by claiming he wanted to save the better bands for bigger parties in the future.
At the party, Oliver meets Byron, Tim's new PC. Byron is a depressing and cynical vampire who was only created to serve as amusement to other Toreador. For reasons he can't explain, Oliver finds himself talking to the guy at great lengths. Byron claims that he is sort of searching for a direction in his unlife and Oliver confesses this is an odyssey he has just begun himself. Despite the annoying sarcasm perpetually found in Byron's voice, the two form the beginnings of a friendship.
Meanwhile, Allen and Liam learn that someone has been hunting in their territory. Although Allen is not overly concerned, Liam IS concerned, and spends some time and investigations skills tracking the new comer down. He gets a description of the perpetrator on the first night.
Some nights after Oliver's party, all the PC's hear of a huge explosion and fire in a nearby office building. The blaze continues for quite a while due to the presence of illegal chemicals. The incident is high profile, and no form of news leads with any thing else for several days.
That evening, Oliver spends some time talking to a few important locals. To ensure an audience he purchases a half dozen phone line scramblers from Sharper Image. He gives one to his sire the Duke, one to Sheriff Tanner, one to his grandsire the Prince, and keeps one for himself. The remaining two he keeps for future handouts. The installation proves a simple matter, but the Prince seems baffled by the technology. Oliver spends quite some time trying to teach him to use it and finally thinks Simon has things down pat. When Oliver witnesses the city ruler trying to scramble a message sent to the local pizza parlor while ordering dinner for his accounting staff, Oliver elects to bring in Simon's personal assistant and ask that he operate the contraption on Simon's behalf from this point on. During his various conversations, the following comes out:
Finally Oliver gets permission to create two new ghouls in order to pursue his new dreams of expanding MoreMaxx Productions into a prominent advertising agency.
Electing to follow up on the Jacobs issue before someone else gets the scoop, Oliver calls up the local posse and invites them to help him look into the matter. Allen and Byron think this sounds good. Liam however, elects to take insult at the prospect and delivers Oliver a verbal thrashing. Oliver, who is more than a little perplexed by this reaction, listens for a while and does his best to placate the Brujah. When the barrage continues for a while, Oliver lets out a choice explicative and hangs up. Shortly afterwards, Liam shows up anyway. Jack Rowell has been practicing putting his whole fist into his mouth and gotten it stuck. Because he was picking his nose when the phone rings, he has no hands left with which to pick up the receiver. Attempting to do so with only his nose lands the phone in the fish tank, shorting it out. Jack is then force to spend the evening shopping for a new phone and cleaning his tank and therefore finds himself unable to attend. The rest of the characters gather at a coffee shop nearby the crime scene where it seems likely the police will gather to fill out paper work and compare notes. From this location the characters eavesdrop on the investigating force and don't learn much more than that more information should come out tomorrow. This is not to hard to understand as the investigation is severely hampered by the still raging fires fueled by the illegal chemicals. Oliver does manage to spot a female Deputy-Sheriff and marks her as a future ghoul. A little small talk renders up some digits, although only her work number.
Feeling they have learned what they can, and not wanting to brave the inferno for themselves, the characters depart for the night.
Liam spends more time seducing a future ghoul and has her right on the edge of where he wants her, but decides not to start the transformation just yet. Byron uses the remainder of the night to set his lawyer ghoul on the trail of the legal proceedings surrounding the explosion.
Allen has by far the most interesting evening as he gets a phone call from Malcolm. It quickly becomes apparent that Malcolm really wants to test the blood that was left over from Jon Gilliard's old lair. After a little thought, Allen agrees to let him provided the blood never leaves his sight. During the rituals, Malcolm learns that some of the blood is vampiric and tells Allen whose it is. The next batch Malcolm tests send him into a fit of terror where by he crumples in the corner and whimpers while starring at the ceiling for some time. When he finally comes around, the following discussion leads Allen to the belief that the blood was poisoned.
In an unrelated turn of the conversation, Malcolm tells Allen that he would like to relocate his lair, perhaps even disappearing and starting a new identity. Allen says he will throw out the question to his vampiric friends.
Allen then phones Oliver to ask if there is any chance he could pull some strings and get him accepted in a clan. Oliver mentions he has reason to believe there may be an opening for a Malkavian Primogen, but Allen adamantly refuses to consider the position. Instead, Oliver sets up a tentative meeting for the two of them and the prince.
Oliver sets Clayton Burrell to combing the want ads for used vans. Clayton is happy to oblige. Oliver is glad to give Clayton something to do other than following on his heels like a puppy.
Jack, having finished cleaning his fish tank, takes his ghoul Laquonda Jeets to a cheap hotel where the pass several hours sniffing each other's shoes, socks, feet, and armpits. Eventually Jack deduces that you cannot tell left from right by scent.
All to soon the despicable glowing object know as the sun arrives, forcing the vampires to return to their inky daytime dwellings. The next night finds them all well.
Byron's lawyer learns that the fire was definitely arson, and that the FBI will be called in to handle the case. Liam, meanwhile, continues his investigation of the mystery feeder. Byron calls Liam and asks if he can help since he is rather bored. Liam says sure, but he is almost done. Meanwhile, Oliver calls up most of the local gang, electing to black ball Liam for his derogatory outbursts. Liam decides that Byron told him about the together and since Tim makes no effort to deny the claim, Liam shows up. Jack agrees to come, but can't remember where he parked his car. He spends several hours hunting it down. Once he climbs inside, he finds he has forgotten where the meeting is to take place. He spends the next six hours driving aimlessly around Houston hoping to catch a glimpse of his comrades. Somewhere far away the dark but invisible clouds of doom deepen over Clayton Burrell's head.
Allen relates Malcolm's request to move into their territory and the group is receptive. Oliver invites Malcolm to join their get together. On his arrival, Oliver mentions he heard about Malcolm's desires. Malcolm reacts in fright. Oliver presses onward and suggests Malcolm could come live at his house. Malcolm reacts with fright and says he needs more room. Oliver suggests Malcolm could build a separate house on his five-acre estate. Malcolm reacts with fright and also says he would like to stay inside of Houston. The other PC's tell him he can lair in their territory and (for once) Malcolm does not react with fright. All gathered then turn their attention to the burned out office building.
Allen heads up first using obfuscate to get past the guards, spending some time investigating the wreckage. When Allen doesn't return to report on the best way in, Oliver circles the building in a fruitless search for a fire escape eventually resorting to entrancing the guard and getting the whole party in. On the thirteenth floor, the characters find a huge safe that has not yet been opened. Allen thinks he can open it, but not without LOTS of equipment. The characters depart the scene but return a short while latter with tremendous amounts of safe cracking equipment. Given time, Allen opens the safe and discovers a cooked corpse inside, along with a cot and other melted paraphernalia indicating this safe was a vampire's haven. Malcolm finds there is no blood left in the body and is thereby unable to perform any rituals. Byron suggests checking the "dental records" and a quick lifting of the lips reveals vampiric fangs. Oliver calls the sheriff for a body bag, and the sheriff sends one over. While the other characters carry the body out, Oliver asks the guard to show him where the camera images are recorded. The guard takes Oliver down to a basement where the cameras burn images onto DVD's. Oliver starts a small computer destroying fire telling the guard to let everyone know he smelled smoke, came in and put the fire out. The guard asks who he should say started the fire. Oliver answers, "You can tell them it must have been the same people who cracked the safe you will find out about tomorrow". The guard stares back with a stunned expression. Oliver then learns of a subbasement, and giving it a quick check out finds it is filled with explosives on timers not yet activated. Oliver calls up Clayton, telling him to obfuscate his way over and record anything about the explosives that might be traceable. Unseen by Clayton and Oliver, the dark clouds of foreshadowing billow into a raging hurricane of doom.
The sheriff comes to pick up the body at which time the characters relate what all they have done and about the explosively charged basement. The sheriff's Auspex gives him a prickly warning and he suggests they move down the street. No sooner is the sheriff in his car than lightening flashes from Burrell's storm of foreshadowing. Simultaneously, the building blows sky high rolling the sheriff's car and raining a barrage of debris on everyone present. Oliver and Allen were also warned by Auspex and avoided the worst of the blast. Malcolm, Liam, and Byron aren't so lucky. Oliver, who suspects Burrell had plenty of time to get to the basement, but no time to leave and suspects the worst.
When the sky quits falling, those characters still standing look around. Oliver spots Malcolm buried deeply in the rubble. He rushes to his aid, which primarily involves digging him out. Allen spots Liam who has been pinned beneath a heavy column. Liam however, by spending blood is able to heal himself up and boost his strength sufficiently to free himself.
As the sound of sirens approach, the sheriff tells the characters he will clean up the loose ends here, and they should take the body to the prince. All the characters take the body into a dark alley away from the scene and call for manservant Hecubus to come and pick them up. Malcolm spends the whole ride over muttering things like "Explosions. this is bad. This is really bad." . Oliver explains to Malcolm that if he wants to hang with the cool kids, he is going to half to get used to the occasional huge explosion. The other characters pipe up with other examples of things that Malcolm will have to get used to. Malcolm exhibits a chameleon like ability to turn many shades of pale whites and greens. No one thinks he is carsick.
The characters head out to the prince's pad and find him quite hospitable, even offering them refreshments and clean clothes. The timing is a little chaotic, so no talk is made of helping Allen shrug of the shackles of clanlessness. The characters depart to hunt. All goes well except for a minor mishap when Allen seems to sever an artery in a victim. He stops the bleeding as best he can, changes his appearance, disguises the wound, and calls for help. Then he splits the scene. Jack takes the time to paint flowers and happy faces on his toenails.
The next night the sheriff calls up Oliver and suggest he checks out another haunt of the Malkavian's: an insane asylum. The sheriff warns he should bring a lot of guns and armor. He also offers to send Nickels, who has strong powers of domination
Once again Oliver invites his usual band of ruffians to join in the fun. He invites them to show up half an hour before Nickels so that those who don't wish to partake can leave with out Nickels reporting them as gutless cowards to the Sheriff. Oliver also calls up David Patchmaier and asks him to come by. Planning a bit of espionage, Liam phones back and says he does not plan on attending. He then drives to the location of the assembly and watches from a distance. Jack also declines as he has just fed on a syphilitic prostitute and is feeling a little under the weather. The other PC's and Malcolm agree to come. Unfortunately for Oliver, Nickels beats David to the rendezvous. Nickels turns out to be a huge black man with an Afro that might have been in style 20 years ago. Its size is not quite enough to put Shaft to shame. Oliver eventually asks Patchmaier to dig up whatever he can on Howard Jacobs and where he might be. After Patchmaier departs, Nickels mentions to Oliver that vampires in Houston with out the Prince's permission are liable to get themselves deceased. Oliver (and Dan for that matter) is somewhat shocked that Nickels knew the vampire had not met the Prince. The first thing to pop out of his mouth was "Yea well, he's not that important". This phrase did little to earn Toreadors (specifically a deputy-wanna be / grandson of the prince Toreador) a high degree of admiration in Nickels mind. The characters set out for the asylum.
Liam's espionage soon pays off, as he spots a Harley driving misfit following Oliver's van. The Harley driving misfit spots Liam also. At this point Liam does two things: 1) He identifies the biker as the individual who has been feeding in his area and 2) He quickly calls Oliver to inform him of the development. The misfit does only one thing, he flees. A high speed (and very exciting) chase ensues, but the end results find Liam getting a lecture by a cop about the dangers of reckless driving and the misfit biker escaping.
Oliver's vampire laden van arrives at the asylum, but they decide to park a block away owing to the high number of cars they have seen destroyed in the last few adventures. After a brief discussion Allen agrees to hang back in the van and see if anyone else elects to follow. The party surveys the asylum for a few moments unsure of how to proceed. However, several people seem to be entering and leaving the building despite the late hour, so the vampires march right in the front door. With in moments they have appropriated white lab coats and are doing there best to look like they belong.
Outside, Allen notices that at least one of the guards is a complete loony. Allen hates loonies. Back inside Nickels and Liam discuss their less than flattering views of Oliver and Toreador in general. Liam makes known his intention to infiltrate Oliver's next party in order to screw it up. Oliver, who has just informed them he will be using Auspex listens to the conversation. He contemplates whether Brujah remove their brains like Setites remove their hearts. Outwardly he ignores them.
Things take a decided turn for the worse when a doctor realizes that the vampires definitely do NOT belong here despite their clever use of white lab coats. Things get even worse when Oliver botches an entrancement roll. The doctor turns and pulls a fire alarm attempting to flee but the two Brujah quickly wrestle him into submission before he gets away. Oliver leaps forward switching off the alarm (which turns out to be a silent alarm) hoping that in doing so he may be able to salvage the stealth operation by having Nickels dominate the doctor. The ensuing interrogation of the doctor dashes Oliver's hopes. As it turns out, the doctor appears to be a ghoul of Howard Jacobs and has been preparing for this day for quite some time. The alarm he triggered told a wing full of dangerous lunatics to run for a secret stash of various weapons and fake uniforms (like policemen's, fireman's, etc). The lunatics then were to split into two groups: the larger group would run out of the building and cut through the chain link fence, and into the parking lot full of waiting cars. From there they were to disperse into the city spreading what mayhem they were able before returning to the hospital for additional orders. The smaller group was to wait in the doctor' wing and kill anybody who might enter it. The vampires quickly decide they do not want to go into the wing and get killed, so they storm outside to capture the throngs of loonies making for the cars.
Meanwhile Allen (who, please remember, HATES insane people) has been watching the inmates storm out of the building and head for the cars. He quickly joins in the brawl. Oliver tries to use his newly acquired level of presence to subdue the inmates without blood shed. The Brujah use their not so recently acquired skills at blood shed to subdue the inmates without the use of presence. In the middle of the fray Oliver notices one of the loonies intently comparing him to a page he is holding. Oliver moves in his direction, but the inmate cries out loud and pulls out a pistol and a road flare. Within moments three vampires have tackled the pulling the page from his possession. On the page they find three pictures of Simon, Jack, and Oliver Bradford correctly labeled "The Family of Three". Further investigation of the inmates reveals more pages of vampire images and information on where to find them. It becomes clear there had been a book that was torn apart and distributed page by page among the inmates. While not every vampire is listed, another image turns out to be a picture of Byron. Oliver calls Sheriff Tanner and lets him know what a hornet's nest they have walked into. The PC's excitedly grab the phone from each other all intent on making sure the sheriff gets their input. Tanner decides an immediate appearance is called for. Oliver then calls the prince who also says he is sending some help.
The local vampires regroup and wait for back up, splitting into three groups. Oliver and Malcolm guard the prisoners, Allen and Byron guard the window the inmates used to escape, and the two Brujah guard the main entrance to the wing. Oliver and Byron nearly fall for a clever escape attempt by an inmate disguised as a nurse, but "give her what for" in the end. In the struggle they learn some of the inmates have hand grenades. Liam and Nickels do not even come close to falling for a less clever, but far more comical, escape attempt when a male inmate dresses as a cleaning lady while yet another inmate hides in his/her laundry basket. Oliver and Malcolm are faced with no escape attempts, clever or comical.
When the sheriff and prince's men arrive, interrogations of the doctor continue. Allen, who still hates lunatics, passes the time by wandering amongst the subdued inmates and kicking them. One masochists asks for more. Allen is happy to oblige. Eventually the following information comes to light:
Liam pulls the sheriff aside and asks why the party was sent out to this location. The sheriff says that all the Primogen have ghouls the prince kept tabs on so that they could be squeezed for information in emergencies. Jacobs ghoul got squeezed and revealed that Jacobs spent a lot of time at this mental hospital. Since Oliver had expressed an interest in law enforcement, Tanner suggested he check the place out. Tanner claims he did not realize quite how hazardous the situation was.
Towards the end of the night, Tanner tells the PC's that nearly all of the loonies were captured, thanks in part to the descriptions of Allen who saw them go, and Byron who had the foresight to shoot out tires slowing the escape. More importantly to Oliver, he commends them on a job well done. Oliver and Liam agree that the next night they should try to get their hands on the biker misfit who was tailing them.
Because the players are terribly insightful and clever (and because Chris told them) they realize that the whole building was supposed to have been blown at once, but there was a mishap. The bomber went in to see what happened, resetting the sub basements explosives and getting a new remote detonator. He had been watching the PC's enter and leave the building but did not associate them with the vampires. However, when the prince arrived, the bomber was delighted with the prospect of taking him out. The sheriff however, suddenly felt the hairs on his neck stand up (thanks to his Auspex) and decided to head further down the street to discuss the matter. When the bomber saw him move to the car, he thought "oh no, he's leaving" and blew the building.
Each PC gets four experience points. Dan wonders how much of his summary will appear unedited on Bruce's web page. Dan also wonders if Bruce will retaliate with even more outrageous misrepresentations of Oliver's heroic actions next game.