Chris is in charge today, and everyone eagerly awaits another session of Vampire.  Except Bruce, who is Somewhere More Important.  Paul (Allan Macavity, Malkavian), Tim (Byron Ignatiou, Toreador), Chuck (Derek Stone, Ventrue), and Dan (Kemal At-a-Turk, Nosferatu) are in attendance.

    Allan embarks on a six month spy campaign, targeting those elders which he finds the most interesting.

    Little can be learned from spying on William Dobbs.  It is not difficult to spy on the man, but it is extremely dull.  The bored little Malkavian devotes progressively less and less time to Dobbs-watching.

    Kenneth Vaughn, on the other hand, is up to some fascinating business.  He spends most of his time talking to those Gangrel interesting in the city and being a clan leader, and Allen learns a lot about how the local Gangrel are organized.  However, Allan really hits paydirt when Kenneth leaves the city to report to his wilderness masters (who, luckily, do not seem able to pierce Allan's shroud of the unseen).

• Vaughn explains what he is doing for the clan in Houston, which largely consists of arranging for more parks and wildlife.  The wilderness (Gangrel?) seem unimpressed with his project.  When Vaughn challenges them as to what they've accomplished, they eventually admit to doing little more than hanging out in the woods and chasing deer ("defending the territory").
• Vaughn explains his attack on Majid, which he describes as something of a failure.  He managed to chase Majid into hiding, but has not been able to locate him sense, is out of leads, and is calling off the search.  The wilderness masters are unhappy about this, but don't offer any helpful suggestions either.
• Marty, a physique obsessed henchman of Vaughn's, slips off to make a phone call.  This phone call seems to be to Majid.  Marty advises Majid that while the Vampire don't know where he is, it is not safe to return to Houston.  No, I don't know where your damn car is.  It was just a car, right?  So don't worry about it.

    The main event in the twelve months for Byron is the Annual Toreador Ball.  The who's who of the Toreador assemble to discuss the future of the clan, the arts, and damn near everything else.  As Byron isn't precisely on the who's who list of the Toreador, he attends the Other Annual Toreador Ball, in Seattle.  Prince Connor of Seattle has elected to host a sort of reject's party for the clan, in which low ranking Toreador can gather to exchange news and plot against their betters.  Most of the vampires in attendance are pretty relaxed; they can't get much more rejected, so they might as well enjoy themselves.
    Byron is shocked to discover that Prince Connor has both heard about him and eagerly expected his arrival.  Connor then looks at Byron expectantly.  Byron considers insulting the man, thinks better of it, and instead spends the evening at Connor's side, belittling everyone near by.  Connor is deeply entertained, and openly laughs at Byrons victims on a number of occasions.
    Because Byron is too close to Prince Connor to be attacked outright, great vengeance is wreaked upon his rent car.  Byron is delighted at the amount of impotent rage he inspired, even though he won't be getting his security deposit back.

    Byron has a set of twelve custom made wooden stakes made, reasoning that if he's going to carry anti vampire weapons around, those anti vampire weapons should look GOOD.  All told, his collection consists of:

• Something befitting a witch hunter, with ornate Catholic images along the shaft
• A Chinese proverb about violence and victory (carved in Chinese characters rather than english)
• Flames carved along the length
• A demonic alien looking spine, modeled after HR Giger art -  Byron resigns himself to the idea that this will almost certainly end up looking phallic
• A column of internal organs and fleshy masses, with a pommel carved into a heart (the ventricle kind, not the valentine's kind)
• Bodies gracefully intertwined into a sort of vertical orgy
• Meaningless but snazzy occult symbols and geographic shapes
• Screaming terrified faces with some faces having fangs
• Shattered looking, with fake fracture marks spider webbed across the surface
• Spiraling vines with thorns and intermittent flower blossoms, wrapping around the shaft
• Totemic, with predator animals, one stacked on top of another
• Completely smooth and featureless, with one exception: the names of the 12 Toreadors on Byron's most hated list.  This inscription ("dedicated to: …") should be small and discreet, in a small and elegant script.

    He finances "The Aqua-teque," an aquarium themed club.  The main novelty is a large pool/aquarium on one side of the main room, which features semi-nude swimmers dressed in mermaid costumes frolicking for the entertainment of the patrons.  The building process takes approximately six months, with the club's success still very much up in the air.  The building feature Byron is particularly proud of is a submerged lair hidden amongst the crawl tunnels linking the main tank to the dressing room and the pumps.
    The other PCs give Byron quizzical looks, but take little interest in the club.

    The lions share of Byron's time during the twelve months is taken up collecting information on the other Toreador, and being social (in slightly less caustic style)

• About a third of the clan maintain their mortal identities, and so it is easy to track down their belongings and records.  Byron contracts a private investigator to do this and assemble files.
• The remaining two thirds maintain their estates through proxies, which provides a more convoluted paper trail.
• Toreador spend a lot of time plotting, but it's typically about who likes/dislikes who.
• The younger Toreador are very enthusiastic about Avant-Garde art, while the elders sniff at these things.  The older Toreador show a distinctly low opinion of performance art.  Avant-Garde trends will sweep the younger clan members in fads, though occasionally these fads will stick around.
• It's almost embarassingly easy to keep track of the various clan soap operas. The participants are such frequent contributors (and abettors) of the rumor mill that it takes actual talent to be out of the loop.

    Kemal is pretty busy fellow.  Most of his time is spent establishing himself in the city.

    His boat may not have a name, but it does have a lot of traps.  His goal is to ensure that he is the only person familiar enough with the boat's layout to not get executed while wandering around.  He aquirres a huge collection of cheap imported plastic goods (toys and what-not) to make the boat appear to be shipping Something.

    Unlike Byron, Kemal seems to know how to ask for more ghouls.  The Prince not only grants him permission to make two new ghouls, but also provides written, laminated certificates to this effect.  The text on the certificates is a sort of archaic and erudite prose that Kemal cannot make heads or tails of.

    Kemal also makes some illegal ghouls, by dripping blood into the mouths of sleeping women.  After some initial failure, he eventually gets two illegal ghouls with bad snoring problems.

    Taking a third approach, Kemal also ghouls some animals.  He finds a cat, a mouse, and a dog, making sure to get the most vicious dog possible.  The dog is a bastard to begin with, and after one feeding of blood it experiences truly astounding levels of rage and hatred.  After three feedings, the dog is willing to make one exception to it's unrelenting hatred and rage:  sweet, sweet Kemal.  Kemal is delighted with his ultra brutal kill beast, and names him "Hate."  The cat is named "Spiny Norman" and the mouse is named "Spike."  The human ghouls are delighted to learn they are not responsible for feeding the animals, which must not be kept separated.  Kemal later notices that the mouse and the cat seem able to recognize vampires and hide from them.  The cat seems to be the smartest of the lot.  Kemal takes his mouse everywhere.

    Kemal takes time to create a web of false e-mails from a number of addresses, designed to give the illusion that a lot is going on that really isn't.  The intention is apparently to serve as decoys, such that Kemal's legitimate communications are hard to pick out.

    Remembering the trouble with communications from the last mission, Kemal arranges for a text based system, which converts speech to text and vice versa, allowing Kemal to talk to everyone else via a palm pilot when silent.  This adds an approximately five second delay on any messages.

    He equips his rifle with a recoil suppresser, which will reduce one recoil by one die.  He sets up a firewall and other security measures on his boat's computer system.

    His sire offers him a contract to kill a mortal businessman, probably a ghoul.  The man lives in a secured house with a dog.  The jobs pays three points of 10th generation blood.  Kemal politely declines the contract, recommending that it be given to a ghoul.

    Derek spends much of his time in Dmitri's company, learning about his clan.
    Every Tuesday night, several Ventrue congregate for a "board meeting."  Narda Cash is there, and acts very bored.  People on the board need to commit to meeting every Tuesday, not sporadically.  Derek considers things, and decides to join the board, and attend every Tuesday, subjecting himself to weekly doses of boredom.  Most of the discussion involves mortal economics, but occasionally turns to kindred affairs or Jeffrey Harper's status reports.  Derek finds these much more interesting.  In particular:

• There is Sabbat activity around Texas City, where at least one pack is operating.  They come into town every so often to murder and feed.  Jeffrey finds their "blood pinatas," which are corpses suspended upside down from the ceiling and bled into a bucket.
• There's an area in Texas City called the Bone Yards, initially a development for shipping.  The buildings are all derelict, either through incomplete construction or fire damage.  Businesses occasionally set up in the Bone Yards, and all of them fail in suspicious ways (arson, theft, etc.).  There are three officials who frequently foil Bone Yard business ventures, but don't have any particular motive.  Many people disappear around the Bone Yards, with most of the victims coming from nearby gentleman's clubs.  There are no transients in the area.  Harper first noticed the Bone Yards about a year ago, but he can track its behavior back several years through research.  He has sent ghouls, and got back reports that nothing was going on, but that the ghouls felt watched and creeped out all the time.

    The rest of the time, Derek plays the stock market using information he gets from the "board meetings."  He breaks even.  He tried to get other Ventrue to go in with him on some investments, but finds his clanmates to be very conservative with their capital.  He hears one story of a Ventrue in San Antonio who carelessly loaned $8 million to a Toreador based on a verbal agreement, and then never saw the Toreador again.

    Jack Rowell spends much of his time embezzling government funds.  The income is less than he expected, but he is still pleased that his plan is working.  He is mildly depressed that the other PCs don't take more of an interest in his scheme.

    In the aftermath of Howard Jacob's death, confirmed by way of fading blood bonds, Prince Bradford's power begins to falter.  Common gossip asserts that the Prince knew quite a lot about Jacob's varied and zany antics, including the plan to unleash an army of escaped psychotics on the city.  Importantly, Jacob threw in a lot of weight with the prince, and the prince is finding his position a touch more precarious in Jacob's absense.
    The Primogen council (minus a malkavian seat) begins swinging it's collective stick around, and three major changes get made.

1. Certain territories are expanded.  Many local powers are being given larger territories, to the extent that some can almost call themselves princes in their own right.  Some minor princes from outside will move in to take territories.  Derek, through the fortune of attending the Ventrue clan meetings, gets in on the talks on the ground floor.  The PCs will possibly see their territory expanded as Brujah and Nosferatu elders move into larger but farther out territories.
2. The Prince can no longer claim exclusive authority over granting Childer and declaring Blood-hunts, and now requires Primogen approval.  How much approval depends on who you ask.  Most kindred think that the Primogen must approve unanimously, though Derek has inside information that a mere majority can make the decision.
3. Jeffrey Harper gains some face after his recent success in avenging Oliver Bradford's death.  He can now name assistants, called "Banes," and extend his authority through his Banes.

    Allen Macavity receives a call from "TJ."  TJ pegs Allen as a fellow Malkavian.  Allen is so thrilled he could spit.  TJ asks Allen to meet him, mainly because TJ is wants the scoop on what's going on in the city.  He mentions got Allen's number from the Prince.  TJ arranges to meet at precisely 10:05 at a particular location.
    Allen, always on the alert for traps, scouts the area first in stealth-mode.  Noting that 10:05 is drawing nigh, Allen walks into the news stand.  A young man steps out of the obfuscated darkness at 10:06, in an imaculate suit, shiny shoes, and sculpted hair.  TJ stares at people rather intenselly, probably gazing at auras, until he figures out that Allen is the vampire he is looking for.
    TJ, it turns out, is fully named "TJ Tyme."  Most of the conversation revolves around TJ asking questions and Allen answering them.
    TJ's first priority is in staking out a haven.  Allen proves to be a poor source for information, unable or unwilling to point TJ to any free zones, and eventually recommends that TJ pull some favors to arrange for space.  TJ declines an offer of an introduction to Sticks, as he's known Allen Fontaine for a while, and will pursue that option.  TJ asks where are the safe parts of town and where to avoid, and Allen gives him reasonably straight information, such as "don't go to Texas City."
    TJ asks if there are any local Malkavian meetings, and discovers that Allen could care less - he wants as little to do with the clan as possible.  TJ leaves shortly after this revelation, but gives Allen some contact information.  Allen goes home and tries to wash away the crazy-stink.

    The coterie assembles after an invitation to Harper's compound.  He owns the entire compound, though the wealth of the place isn't appatant until deep inside.  Harper's base of operations is like a Spanish hacienda, crawling with goons and servants.  Jeffrey meets everyone outside.
    First, he thanks the PCs for their help.  He explains his recent authority to create Banes, and would like to recruit the PCs, as they are violent, work well together, and have some history with him.  However, he also needs reliability and discretion, and will also require that all information come to him first, and warns that the PCs may need to kill people.  He discusses some basic cover-up tactics ("When dealing with red-necks, use the alien abduction story...").
    The title itself works out to +1 Status, rights to feed (quietly) in patrolled areas, a claim to territory later, and first dibs on dead vampire swag.  Also, Jeffrey can swing communications and other minor miscelaneous gear, and can field some expense accounts.

• Byron offers to help.  "I can write poetry!"  Jeffrey asks Byron to keep a lid on that.
• Kemal asks for some sort of written contract first.  Jeffrey attempts to side step this by forgoing any titles and just employing Kemal as contract muscle on a case by case basis.  Kemal explains that all he wants is some sort of job description in writing.  Jeffrey says he'll need some time to spoon something up.
• Allen asks about assault vehicles, and learns that Jeffrey's collection of heavy vehicles consists of one armored car.
• Derek asks about weapons, which Jeffrey can arrange with little trouble.

• Byron is fast, strong, and more or less immune to mind control.  Harper seems to decide that if he needs to send someone in to talk, Byron will be a good choice, despite his caustic nature: he can't be taken control of, and if shit hits the fan, he can run away.
• Allan admits only to being a good sniper and theif, with strong infiltration skills.
• Stone admits only to gun skills, and an ability to supply guns.  The two discuss grenades, grenade launchers, and other exciting goods.  On the side, Stone does some lineage math, and estimates that Harper is 13th generation.
• Kemal is later supplied with paperwork, which he eventually receives, signs, and returns.  He gets back to his unlife.

    Kemal tries to contact Martin Perdue, the Nosferatu Primogen.  He succeeds only in meeting with Angie, who explains that to speak to the Primogen, you must come to court.  Kemal arranges to meet with the Primogen, and is first led through a disorienting sewer maze, before emerging into the court room.
    Court is a very large area in the sewer, with knee deep "water" seperating elevated concrete platforms, and catwalks sprawling above.  The platforms are loaded with goods, anywhere from electronics (some dating back to the 50s), bolts of cloths, and chests full of valuables.  Light is provided by torches and flood lights. At the far end of the room, Perdue sits wrapped in furs, in a throne of old, dark wood decorated with streamers of red cloth.
    Kemal has to spend the entire interview knee deep in "water," eyed suspiciously by other Nosferatu.  He initially attempts to sell his services as an agent.  Perdue waves past this and lays down the policy: any Nosferatu that wants to be a part of the organization must tithe.  Perdue indicates the platforms for examples of tithes, though secrets are also acceptable.  Perdue had assumed Kemal was not interested, or they would have met earlier.  Kemal assured Perdue of his interest, and they agree that Kemal will pay taxes on a probationary basis, with a re-nogiation occuring in the future.
    Perdue offers to arrange Kemal a small chunk of territory near the docks, but makes it clear he wished Kemal had visited earlier.  Kemal tries to humanize and make small talk, but Perdue has too little  humanity to have much interest in this.
    Talking to Angie, Kemal learns the expected tax is $5000 a month, or equivalent wealth of information, and warns that if he backs out of the tax he'll be a pariah.  He makes contact arrangements with her, and starts to leave.  Before he goes, Angie asks how his sire died.  Kemal allows as how he doesn't know - it happened too soon after his embrace.  Angie recommends signing any messages to Perdue with a signet ring, as this is an easy way to earn points with the guy.

    Stone searches public records on the Bone Yards to flesh out the information he got from Harper.  He gets the names and some pictures of the three city council members responcible for the continued economic silence of the Bone Yards.  He can count about a dozen dissapearances a year for the past twelve years, not counting vanishing transients.

    Frustrated with his research, Stone decides to relax and buy some guns.  He arranges the following arsenal:

• 4 "belly launcher" under barrel grenade launchers
• 4 M-79 styled type scatter guns
• 24 high explosive grenades
• 24 anti-personnel grenades
• 24 concussion grenades
• 24 phosphorus grenades
• several cases of smoke grenades

    While hunting, Stone hears a cry of pain from a nearby ally.  Investigating, he finds a vivisected corpse and the stench of spoiled milk.  Baffled by the scene, he simply leaves and watches the alley.  He sees nothing.
    He checks the crime blotter for a few days, which proves fruitless.  He asks Sticks about it, who only grudgingly admits he might need to do something about it too.  Stone also asks if Sticks will be leaving the area for a newer, nicer territory soon.  Sticks explains that he is not.

    Kemal wraps up his activities by submitting the secret that one of Oliver Bradford's diablerist killers, an Obfuscator of some power, is still at large.  He hopes this will satisfy the tax.
    Later, be buys a house, mortgaged for about a thousand a month, so that he can hold meetings there.

    Stone calls the PCs together for a meeting at Denny's to discuss the spoiled milk killer.  Byron plumbs his occult knowledge, and offers up that witches spoil milk.  Maybe.
    Stone asks if anyone can gather information on the councilmen of Texas City, and why they are keeping businessmen out of the Bone Yards.
    Kamal does some research, but finds out much of what Stone already knew.  He adds that the city was done in by the oil depression of the seventies.  He also learns that the businessmen typically survive getting chased from the Bone Yards - only their finances are harmed.
    There is some confusion regarding why we are even investigating the Bone Yards.  It boils down to curiosity.

    Macavity gathers information, mainly on Gary Parker.  Parker has a deal with the police in Texas City, and if someone wants to smuggle anything through the town, he and his cops get a cut.  Otherwise, your goods go away.  Possibly, YOU go away.  Parker's shady past includes ownership of several "massage parlors" before his political career.  The other two councilmen are Edgar White and Alice Wong, on whom Macavity finds a dearth of dirt.