Today's crowd includes Paul (Allen MaCavity), Chuck (Derek Stone), Bruce (Jack Rowell) and Chris. We all offer a moment of thought to Tim, who is soon to be bound to faraway shores and won't be with us for several months.
Jack Rowell spends 12 experience points buying Acting 3, Empathy 3, and Firearms 3.
The session starts on the night of April 1st. The players express their joy. Derek Stone suggests sending the Prince a tanning bed.
Allen MaCavity wakes in the evening to find that his pistols, which he normally sleeps with, have transformed into snakes. Terrible, biting snakes! He finds them fastened onto his body and face. From the amount of blood on him, they've clearly been hanging there all day long. He does the only rational thing: he screams like a girl and goes bananas. His attempt to kill the first snake is none too successful: the snake leaves off biting his face and commences biting his hand. Growing increasingly desperate, MaCavity surges out of his under-floor haven and into his room. He is appalled to see that there is a foam of greenish slime drooling from his nose and mouth. His entire upper body is covered in snakebites.
Grabbing the two pistol-snakes from their holsters, he hurls them across the room and rushes to his rifle case. He finds that his assault rifle has transformed into a much larger snake, substantially more hostile snake. He flings himself out the door and runs howling through the corridor. Midway to the stairs, he remembers that he has his phone at his belt, so the last half of his somewhat disturbed rantings are delivered directly to the ears of Jack Rowell.
Jack Rowell listens to MaCavity's disturbed rantings with his normal sardonic good humor ("Guns into snakes, hmm? You need to call up Snake-Be-Gone, they're in the Yellow Pages."). He eventually agrees to meet MaCavity at the Starbucks' on 1212 Lemur Lane and to bring a gun for him. He picks out one of the TEC-22's left over from one of the characters' previous battles.
On his way to his car, Jack finds himself walking up to a girl bringing her laundry back from the laundromat. Before he realizes what he's doing, he drunkenly explains to the girl that his pants are too tight, and he wants her to "loosen" them for him. Noting her horrified expression, he manages to exert enough willpower to Entrance her and lead her to someplace "more private" (a public men's room). Along the way he explains that it doesn't matter that he's married because he's planning on leaving his worthless fleabag tramp of a wife anyway. Jack spends a horrific hour with the girl. At the end of it, he looks deeply into her eyes and tells her, "You had the most wonderful hour of your life, but you now think I look like Rob Lowe".
Driving to the Starbuck's, Jack is forced to repress urges to stop at street corners and tell women that he's an important political figure, and needs them to get into the car with him. He spends three Willpower points choking these urges back.
Derek Stone wakes to find that he is the coolest thing on earth. He doesn't bother to shave because he's too cool to need to, but he does put on a quart of Aqua-Velva. His preparations complete, he heads out to the nightclubs to be Disco Derek (and get some hunting in on the side). In the first club, a group of young toughs approaches him. The leader says, "Derek. It's been a while since you've been by. It's been a long time." Derek is sure he doesn't recognize this guy, but he does understand that there is a challenge here. He feels an urge to accept the guy's challenge. By dancing.
Derek Stone dances like a madman. Things start out not so well, and he realizes that he must take it to the next level. He must breakdance! That's where he's strongest. His breakdancing is excellent, and he shames his opponent off the floor. Every woman in the place clings to him. He boasts, "I was John Travolta's dance instructor for Saturday Night Fever!" The young women are terribly impressed, but one of them does ask, "Who's John Travolta?"
MaCavity finds Jack at the Starbuck's counter, asking if the counter girl has seen any blonde floozies around asking for the Senator, then trying to pick up the counter girl herself when she denies knowledge of any blonde floozies, Senator or no. MaCavity explains that Starbuck's doesn't employ straight people. Jack explains, "Hey, I'm willing to go both ways as long as there's a reporter with a camera around." MaCavity doesn't know what to say.
Jack Rowell gives MaCavity the gun. MaCavity inspects it carefully, fearing that it might become a snake at any time. He resolves to never go back to his old lair. He already finds it difficult to remember the event, or even where his haven was for that matter. He heads out to buy some new guns and hunt. It isn't too difficult for him to replace his collection, though it does take him some time.
When normality returns, the characters find that they all have invitations from the Toreador Sir Kenneth for a Night of Court on the following Wednesday at the customary location. It is currently Sunday night.
Jack Rowell dresses up as a trucker and spends two nights talking to people in Texas City who look like they're supposed to be there (mostly security guards). Allen MaCavity backs him up in case of trouble. He claims that his truck had some minor problem that will take some time to get fixed. He does a really convincing job.
He finds that the locals divide up into two groups. The first group consists of Texas City cops (only 2 per night, but different guys each night). They drive around in jeeps and look at lots of buildings. They normally stay away from the area the characters associate with "Danger! Zombies!" The cops think that this is a really creepy place to work, and they wish they had college educations so they could get jobs elsewhere. The second group is composed of the minimum-wage rent-a-cops. Most of them work for White Ape Security. They generally stay in the "safe" areas and visit the area convenience stores often for free drinks. They worry about getting hurt on the job, and form a cross-section of the lower reaches of society.
The closer Jack gets to Uncle Nasty's Sex Shack and the adult bars the greater variety of people he meets, but most of them aren't that interested in the warehouses. The actual warehouse workers keep to themselves and whatever building they work in, often knowing little about what is happening even in neighboring buildings. Talking to vagrants proves to be very irregular: some of them think that life is pretty good in Texas City, while others have some very weird stories ("This guy drank my whole bottle, then went and bit some girl in half"). One bum claims that rats constantly bother him. MaCavity says that the guy is actually a zombie. Many of them claim to be some kind of veteran.
Derek Stone works on buying maps of Texas City. He is interested in all kinds of maps: road, topographical, property plats, sewer, everything. Most of these are none too difficult to find, except for the property plats (terribly fragmented between large overviews and smaller maps of subsection, and in most cases not discernable by address) and the sewer maps (which he quickly concludes are not accurate, not up-to-date, or limited to things that exist in the real world: the labyrinth of sewers in the waterfront area certainly isn't listed at all). Even getting access to the sewer maps requires that he use Dominate upon a worker in the Municipal Building. Derek Stone is particularly interested in finding pieces of property that haven't changed hands in a long time.
He decides to try and get some downloadable maps he can put onto a laptop, then start adding in building and zombie locations. At the moment, he is unable to see any useful patterns or draw any surprising conclusions, though he is able to determine that the zombies seem to wander around at random, and are more common around the warehouse used by Demon Worshippers Incorporated.
Derek goes to the Ventrue Board Meeting as is his normal practice, while Jack Rowell stays away as is his normal practice. At the meeting, Dmitri Meloft mentions that in the next two years he believes that there will be a shakeup of the current hierarchy. He thinks it would behoove everyone to have their own houses in order, and to have as much prestation available as possible. He suggests that people with good political placement would be the most useful folk to have favor with. There is a round of rather querulous questions ("What sort of shakeup?") that Dmitri really doesn't answer in any useful way. Only Narda Cash complains about the lack of warning. Amber Cash spends her time staring daggers at Dmitri.
None of the Ventrue talk to each other much after the meeting.
Derek Stone recalls that the main Texas City Ventrue, Norman Faircloth, had only intermittently made the board meetings in the past, and hasn't made any of them since his... death. After the meeting, Derek comments on this to Dmitri, and asks if he's seen any sign of him recently, claiming that he has a "friend of a friend" who wants to move some contraband. Dmitri suggests that he has a phone number to call for that sort of things, and gives it to Derek, though he hasn't seen Norman around recently.
Court is held at the Prince's high-rise, in a large auditorium on the third floor. The characters see that pretty much everyone who is anyone is here. The room is dotted with comfortable chairs, and a number of (probably) mortal retainers who are charged with seating everyone. The characters are placed in the back, among the less-comfortable chairs. There is a set of closed curtains at the far end.
Just past 22:00, the lights dim and the crowds quiet. Shortly after, the curtains open to reveal Prince Simon Bradford seated upon a dark, carven throne. A spotlight to the right lights up to display a young man in gaudy ("17th century fop") clothing. He proclaims himself as Sir Kenneth, and says that he will be describing why Court has been called. He gestures, and two young ladies are spotlighted as his aides. He explains that the Court has been called to congratulate various members of the community who have gone above and beyond normal expectations.
Jack Rowell finds himself trapped in the gaze of yet another spotlight, described as a master politician, unassuming in appearance but shrewd of mind. Jack wishes that he were still unassuming.
Derek Stone is the next victim, described as a Sabbat fighter without peer, who struck out against the villainous packs even before his Embrace.
MaCavity: an Old West gunfighter, a great thief, but with the demeanor and manners of a Greek God! So many times he would answer an argument by saying, "Oh yeah?" and drawing his guns (Sir Kenneth pantomimes drawing guns).
Sir Kenneth explains that the peerless Byron Ignatiou cannot be here today, for even now he is still on duty, keeping the city safe from the Sabbat.
The characters reach the stage to be met by another long-winded speech about how they lured a Sabbat pack into their sights and decimated them, leaving only one survivor to go fleeing back to his cowardly comrades to tell them what awaits them in Houston. Each of them is gifted with a nice firearm: an engraved hunting rifle for Jack, a set of pearl-handled chrome pistols for MaCavity, and so on. Sir Kenneth says that these are gifts from the Primogen.
The characters feel desperately, nakedly exposed during this whole process. There is clapping during Sir Kenneth's speech, sometimes forced. There is less clapping for Jack Rowell ("Who is Jack Rowell?" someone mentions). Jack is glad that they're not clapping because they don't know who he is, rather than because they do.
After that, a single individual is called up, Nathan Wynn. He is "appreciated" for putting down a terrible uprising of the Anarch community. Though Sir Kenneth is clear in explaining that there are no Anarchs actually in Houston, there was a group that was threatening the Houston community. Nathan sacrificed his own prestige to join with them, judge them, and then crush them. Their names are forgotten, their graves are unmarked. The characters know Nathan Wynn as one of the Texas City kindred, one of the Brujah. There is much clapping, but also a dedicated group of folks who are boo and hiss, most of them from among the Brujah and the Nosferatu. Wynn is given a plaque and a ceremonial title.
As Nathan Wynn returns to his seat, the Brujah Jim Packard (dressed as a 1930's truck driver), points out that Wynn infiltrated the Anarchs for several years, gained their trust, and then stabbed them in the back. He continues on for quite some time, until several of the Kindred beyond Packard's strike zone start trying to shush him.
The Prince claims that there will be additional Court Nights, and that he is interested in nominations for the new positions of Executioner and Keeper of the Lineage. There is a certain amount of uneasiness in the audience at this news.
The characters have been to meetings of the Primogen before, but never anything that has been quite this much of a media circus.
After the lights die down, everyone starts talking at once. The Toreador are generally obsessed by the question of Sir Kenneth's outrageous wardrobe ("Did you see what he was wearing? Totally inappropriate: he should have dressed as Grand Vizier!") Others consider more substantial questions of power and influence in the city.
The characters approach Jim Packard in an adjoining room, a reception hall with a banquet table loaded down with food, punch bowls (full of blood) and ice sculptures. Many of the Kindred are drinking from the punch bowls; each appears to be subtly different. The characters see both Narda Cash and the Scourge sampling from the bowls, expressing distaste at most of them.
The characters find Jim Packard talking to Dobbs, saying that, "This f*****g sucks. We need to take Wynn and nail him to a board, then spray him with jet fuel. Then we need to take his nuts and staple them to someone we really don't like." He appears to be working up to a really good frenzy.
Jack Rowell asks Packard, "You have any idea what kind of ass-clown came up with this idea?" Packard explains that Sir Kenneth was completely responsible. He goes on to describe Sir Kenneth as, "a Toreador, a lying sack of crap who jumps around in his 17th century garb. This has to be costing him a lot of favors." Packard claims that Sir Kenneth was nowhere to be found during the fighting against the Sabbat, but was first among the bootlickers who arrived right after the victory. He might be an important Toreador, and he claims to have some kind of link to nobility.
At this point, Dobbs heads off to talk to Sir Kenneth, but not Rowell manages to insult him. The other characters tell Jack, "You do realize that Dobbs is the Brujah Primogen, don't you? Way to go, Jack!"
Packard watches this performance, then tells the characters, "I've heard not so much of you, except that you tend to get a lot of friends killed, and you blew up a trailer park." Rowell tells him about the characters' fights against the Sabbat, and Packard is very happy to listen and comment. Packard mentions the tactic of throwing acid at attractive vampires. The conversation goes surprisingly well until Rowell mentions that he's been losing weight ever since he changed, at which point Packard starts becoming very uncomfortable. Rowell bids Packard goodbye.
Derek Stone approaches Nathan Wynn. He finds that the guy is surrounded by a crowd of well-wishers, including the Flashman couple. A smaller group of Brujah and Nosferatu are standing some way off and talking among themselves in low voices. The Brujah include Ricky Sultan, Marigold, Pam Durden and Liz Durden. Jim Packard walks up after a while. Stone listens in with his Auspex. The sentiment is that Wynn happened upon a group of guys who were basically hanging around in Huntsville and a couple other crap areas, only one of whom might even have been an Anarch. He hangs with them, and does some things to make their lives easier, then he turns around and gets them all whacked. And a lot of his evidence looks pretty trumped-up.
Stone manages to get a moment with Nathan Wynn, which he uses to rather condescendingly congratulate him for his work against the Anarchs. Derek presumes that if Nathan is at all associated with the Texas City kindred then he'll know who the characters are and the handshake will be his Potence against Stone's Fortitude. Wynn hurts Derek's hand a lot, but does no actual damage. He claims that he really appreciates the thanks because, "I really care what you think." The handshake goes on for quite a while as the two of them stare at each other with weird grins on their faces. Everyone else sort of backs up slowly. They disengage without bloodshed.
His business with Nathan Wynn concluded, Derek Stone spends some time talking to Kallista Traunt. She asks him if he's seen Malcolm Carter, "a low-ranking clerk." She notes that he hasn't made any meetings recently, and this can cause him a lot of trouble. Derek says that he hasn't seen him recently, but will check around and let her know if he finds anything. She thanks him, and says that if Derek can't come up with anything she'll go and ask Jack. She claims that she just doesn't know Jack all that well, so she'd prefer to deal with Derek first.
Derek then approaches Dmitri Meloft, who is talking to Narda Cash. He asks, "You know anything about this dog-and-pony show?" Dmitri: "I think this is a sign of things to come. Prince Bradford has a great deal of taste, and wouldn't set anything like this up of his own accord. I think you will see in the future that many meaningful and meaningless titles will be handed out. It's surprising what people will do or die for in exchange for some words on a piece of paper. If I were you, I wouldn't place too much stock in them." Narda is busily rolling her eyes as if she were trapped through this whole conversation.
All the characters hear kindred talking about embarrassing things that happened to "other" kindred on April 1st. It sounds like these delusional pranks mostly happened only to unimportant, low-ranked Kindred. Higher-ranking Kindred normally got something annoying in the mail, something that retainers could deal with.
Liz Durden, the onetime journalist, talks to Derek Stone and Jack Rowell. She asks him if he minds if she smokes. She has weathered skin and the yellowest teeth Derek has ever seen. The effect is not so much Marlboro Girl as Marlboro Girl's Horse. She mentions that Jack might want to talk to Tyrone, a tailor who specializes in outfitting vampires. She hands over one of his business cards. Jack breaks in to talk about how the Sabbat attacked the characters after they started picking into the identity of the Mad Bomber. He mentions the death of Clayton Burrell in the ruins of the Malkavian Primogen's building. He also mentions that the Sabbat Embraced up three quickie vampires and sent them into his own haven with orders to, "Kill the fat bastard vampire." Jack claims that he was really hurt by that (the "fat bastard" part).
Liz mentions that she heard that the characters got a whole pile of paperwork from a guy who's been blowing things up for the last ten years. Jack defers to Derek Stone, who was actually in on the deal. Derek describes the paperwork. Liz wants to know if the characters can get her a copy of the paperwork, and is willing to offer information in trade, information about the Tremere or Nosferatu, or about people who live around Houston, though she says she won't sell anybody down the river.
Liz Durden mentions that she heard from Sir Kenneth that people who have been granted awards (and ceremonial firearms) will be required to bring them to Court later on. These weapons will simply be passed through security without ammo. Jack Rowell thinks this is terrible: Sir Kenneth will get everyone used to seeing people toting guns around at Court, then his followers will show up with loaded guns one day and get rid of the Prince (or whomever).
Spider tells Derek Stone that he's talked to the Nosferatu Gary in the last couple of months (after Gary's death). Derek is curious about this, and mentions that he thought Gary was a friend of Norman Faircloth, whom he hasn't heard from for a while. Spider gives Derek a phone number that's supposed to connect to Gary. The number is the same as the one Derek already had. The characters agree to go watch movies with him (Army of Darkness and Evil Dead).
Allen MaCavity is approached by Mister T. J. Time, MaCavity's primary competition to be Malkavian Primogen. Time dresses immaculately in suits and has an obsessive avoidance of dirt. He is also obsessed by time. He asks MaCavity very closely about the Sabbat the characters have defeated, asking, "I don't suppose any of them had wristwatches?" MaCavity, barely able to contain his distaste, admits that he didn't check. T. J. Time remonstrates, "You have to check - their watch is their soul...." MaCavity suggests that the Sheriff might have confiscated their watches.
On his way out, the Brujah Marigold calls MaCavity and smears him with the remains of a Danish pastry. MaCavity is confused until he figures out that she has heard that half of the characters are afraid of "dirty things." This is her idea of public revenge.
Derek Stone and Jack Rowell go to a place Spider says he owns, then out to the garage where he's got a big-screen TV. He goes to get some blood ("tomato soup") from the fridge; he microwaves it so it's warm. Spider's cousin and his friends come by to watch movies as well. They're all slackers, and pass around some joints, and none of them seem to notice Spider and his bowl of "soup". The characters leave around 04:00, after the second film. The characters are happy just to endure the films, while Spider and his friends have a really great time.
The characters get together at the new Mission Marketplace Plaza Starbucks'. Everyone agrees: we must attack Texas City. Thence follows a rousing discussion on who exactly might be doing bad things in Houston's vampiric society. Specifically, who has the dirt on the Prince. The characters are divided on whether Sir Kenneth is a pawn or part of the conspiracy. The characters have already figured out that neither Dmitri Meloft (the Ventrue Primogen) and William Dobbs (the Brujah Primogen) don't like the Prince, and might be interested in seeing him replaced. Another valid possibility is that a powerful local Toreador wants to push the Prince into stepping down as Toreador Primogen. The characters debate upon the identity of such a Toreador. They note that Jack Bradford is a powerful Toreador but he is also Duke of Galveston and seems pretty solid in that position.
The characters pool their knowledge about Sir Kenneth. They know that he is fairly old (hundreds of years), but is a gutless weasel. He has made many friends by doing favors that don't require that he hurt anyone. He is a late feeder in the recapture of Houston: he might have sent in some cannon fodder, but certainly didn't risk himself. As a side effect, he hasn't gotten much recognition or reward for his actions. It is possible that he actually views his current office as Master of Ceremonies as a reward. It is equally possible that he is being presented to the crowds as a target or a dupe.
The characters come to the final conclusion that they should make the attempt for Texas City, no matter what the plans of their shadowy patron. However, they also conclude that they will need help, which brings forth the question of who can the characters trust. The answer is certainly not "Sir Kenneth."
The characters decide that they already have a potential weapon to use against at least one of the Texas City kindred, the artist Sarah Packard. They can attack her reputation and her pride. They sketch out a plan to fabricate a black woman, possibly a freed slave, who worked as a maid for Sarah back during her mortal years. They will then arrange to have a book written implying that this woman was the uncredited creator of many of Packard's works. The ideal author for this book would be a slightly-rabid academic in the UT Houston Black Studies or Art History departments. The characters would arrange to provide their pet author with a suitable supply of forged documents, "purchased in an estate sale." Additional evidence can be planted in such a way as to ensure that the author will be able to locate it through "independent research."
The characters reason that distribution of this book will be enough to drive Sarah Packard absolutely ballistically mad.
Kallista Traunt wants to know what happened to Malcolm. The characters debate what to tell her. One choice is to tell her that the characters went to his haven and found him dead, but Kallista is certain to use Auspex to investigate the place. An alternative is to simply lie and feign ignorance.
No matter what the cover story, the characters decide that they need to do some "forensic" cleansing of the apartment (removing the physical remains of traps and so on) to impede psychometry).
The characters go with the latter choice, nominating Derek Stone to act as front man. He meets with Kallista to give her the message, then innocently asks, "How could a Toreador learn Thaumaturgy?" Kallista explains that Tremere are not allowed to teach outside our Clan, but that there have been some cases of people teaching the skills without permission. There are also some Caitiff around who have Thaumaturgical knowledge as well. She asks Derek why he wants to know, assuming that he wants her to teach him some spells. Derek Stone explains that he heard about a guy named Patrick Hagler, a Toreador in Texas City. He's heard that this Hagler character knows some Thaumaturgy. Kallista is immediately curious, and asks how Derek learned this tidbit. Derek mentions nothing, but Kallista presses, eager to learn what sort of Thaumaturgical tricks he can do: Flight? Drawing blood at a distance? A penchant for blue scarves? Stone mentions that there might have been some flying going on.
Kallista then offers up, "If there are folks like you, strapping robust lads, in the Ventrue clan, why does Dmitri feel a need to put together a private army? Folks who have little skill with English, but are good with a gun? Folks who are Serbian or Russian or Slovene?" She explains that she can't reveal anything else without compromising her source.
While Derek Stone is having his little conversation with Kallista Traunt, the other characters are working over the remains of Malcolm Carter's apartment. They remove physical evidence of traps that caused a lot of damage, progressing through the apartment along the same paths they followed before to create psychometric double images. Anything that looks like a Masquerade breach goes away.
As a final touch, Jack Rowell hires a cleaning crew to sanitize the place. He claims that he manages the building and needs to have about twenty apartments cleaned up when he hires them, then Dominates the cleaning crew into spending twelve hours doing an inch-by-inch cleaning job on Malcolm's apartment alone. Jack isn't totally heartless about it: he does pay them for the full day.
Each character gains three experience points. Everyone is quite proud to have managed this feat without even the merest hint of violence.
Jack Rowell promptly burns four experience points to buy Finance 2 and Investigation 2.