Tim decides that his family and his father are more important than hanging out with his layabout friends, so he gives us the miss (though he does show up to see Tomb Raider beforehand). Paul (Allen MaCavity), Bruce (Jack Rowell), and Chuck (Derek Stone). Chris wields the heavy hand of authority.
There is a wild huzzah as Chris decrees that the last session was the end of a story, so all the characters gain all of their Willpower back.
The evening before, Derek Stone attempted to assassinate the Toreador Susan Jackson with an ingenious thermite device in her car. Sadly, the attempt went awry when her Auspex persuaded her to watch her car explode from the sidelines rather than from the front row. Sunday night January 28th finds Derek trying to assemble a fallback plan consisting of more car bombs. He arranges with his dealer ghoul to obtain some smaller thermite charges and five detonators.
MaCavity wanders into the building that used to be the Ad Hoc club to find signs of a firefight. Based upon the pockmarks in the walls, a great many bullets were fired. He digs some of the slugs out, and discovers that some of them were silver. He also finds a broken flamethrower and signs that it was used. To accompany the flamethrower, there is also a collection of fire extinguishers, several of them rather obviously used on the scene.
The devastation stretches across several rooms. The walls are bloodstained. The smells of burnt wood and gasoline linger all around. Several doors are broken, some of them looking to have been simply bashed off their hinges. The damage could have been caused by a vampire with Potence, but one the other hand are also a number of very interesting claw marks running first up a wall and then across the ceiling. The tracks end in a patch of broken plaster where the ceiling finally gave way and fell.
MaCavity takes the shattered flamethrower as evidence. He attempts to determine where it came from, and manages to determine that it was homemade, though professional-looking. It probably used a gasoline or napalm mixture. He doesn't find any other specific indication that anyone else has ever used a flamethrower of this type.
The fire extinguishers prove to be a more profitable route: they were bought as part of a lot of ten at the closing of a Texas military base a month ago. The deal was cash-and-carry, so there is no name on the sale, but MaCavity is able to locate one of the auctioneers who remembers that the buyer was an elderly black man. The auctioneer also remembers that the buyer said that he owned a restaurant in Houston, and needed some cheap fire extinguishers. MaCavity presses for some additional information, learning that the buyer was heavyset, and possibly in his late 30's or 40's (hardly "elderly", but then the auctioneer was rather young). The auction was held during the day, which tends to allay any of MaCavity's suspicions that he might be a vampire.
Against all odds, MaCavity manages to locate three restaurateurs who fit the proper description. Of those, the first man he asks turns out to be the right guy. He goes by the restaurant with Jack Rowell and has a conversation with the fellow.
The restaurant owner's name is Lewis, and he has quite a story to tell. He admits right away that he bought the fire extinguishers. He bought them only a little while before a bunch of ruffians broke into his restaurant and took the lot of them. He is even more upset because they also used thermite and a whomping lot of bullets and burned up his back freezer. His insurance agent has been rather skeptical, and refuses to pay for the claim. On the other hand, the losses could have been worse: the ruffians only burned up the back freezer, which he hadn't been using at all: all of his meat and perishables were in the front freezer.
At this point, Jack Rowell uses Dominate on him to get the full story.. He learns that the freezer's been there as long as Lewis has owned the building, about ten years. He also discovers that the freezer was deliberately left empty. It quickly develops that Lewis is quite savvy to the whole vampire thing - when Rowell's questions start becoming too pointed, he tries to set two burly waiters on Rowell, who stops them with a word. At this point, Lewis tells Rowell that Dominate doesn't ever work on him, though Rowell doesn't particularly believe him. Rowell does get the name of Lewis' insurance adjuster, and promises to make sure the fellow's claim gets approved.
Once Lewis decides that MaCavity and Rowell might be helpful to his cause, he becomes somewhat more helpful, and shows both of them the back freezer. The freezer is walk-in, with an interior door and an exterior door. The ruffians first used a shaped-charge to blow a fist-sized hole through the wall, then welded both doors shut. It appears that they sprayed burning napalm in through the hole at some point in this process.
Unable to wrench the doors open any other way, Rowell calls in his ghoul Isaac Purcell to bring a welding tool to burn open the exterior door. The process takes about an hour. MaCavity goes in first. He finds that the interior might have been nicely decorated once. All that remains now are ash, a metal bedframe, and metal table legs. There is really quite a lot of ash. There is also a certain amount of water, probably from the fire department's efforts. There are no obvious bodily remains (like bones), but then the fire would have burned any vampire away.
MaCavity asks the restaurateur who was staying in the freezer. Lewis says that a vampire named Erwin Williams was staying there. Lewis describes him as, "Like you guys, but nicer." Lewis relates that sometimes Williams would stop by and let himself into the restaurant, and other times he would be let in by the staff. Williams had equipped the freezer well: he had locks on the inside of the doors, and a nice little place inside. Williams had only been using the place for about four months, and had asked Lewis to procure a lot of fire extinguishers. Lewis claimed that though Williams made sure he knew not to talk, he didn't seem worried and he didn't sleep there all the time. Lewis claims that he liked Erwin a lot, and helped him out of some financial fixes. Williams was also inside the night the ruffians came by. Lewis thinks that Williams is sure to be dead.
Lewis is also able to tell the characters that the attack happened before the breakfast crew came in, maybe 04:00 or 05:00 in the morning. The attackers also went through some effort to put out the fire they started.
MaCavity wracks his memory and recalls that Erwin Williams was a Nosferatu who has been missing for about three weeks.
After the interview, Jack Rowell fixes it to make sure that Lewis' insurance guy revises his report to eliminate mention of the welded doors, and to approve the claim.
After the characters finish talking to Lewis the restaurant owner, they gather to discuss the various loose ends they know about. It turns out that there are quite a lot of them.
MaCavity suggests that the characters could try and track down Majid or the mad bomber who put paid to the Malkavian Primogen. MaCavity suggests that he has some privileged information about where Majid might be and what he might be doing at the moment.
Jack Rowell claims to be more interested in the ongoing situation in the Boneyards, particularly in what exactly the survivors of the characters' abortive raid are up to. He sets some wheels rolling in the background by hiring two guys: a lawyer and an art dealer. The lawyer is charged with learning whatever he can about Charlie Bacon's meat packing empire. Rowell deals with him directly, and does his best to give the man the idea that he is associated with some kind of government bureau, and that he thinks that Bacon is (or was) bringing in drugs from Mexico.
Rowell looks to Byron Ignaciou to recommend an art dealer. The Toreador comes up with Leo Plumb. Rowell asks him to compile a complete catalog of Sara Packerett's work, using Presence to ensure that Plumb addresses the project with the proper attitude of enthusiasm (mindless, dribbling enthusiasm, that is). He tells Plumb everything he knows about Packerett and her works, which isn't much: that she produces a new work about every year or so, but that they never stay out on the market (or even on view) for any length of time. Plumb is unimpressed with this information, as he knows right off that Sara Packerett hasn't produced any art in 70-80 years, because she's dead. He tells Rowell that he probably got the idea that she was still producing because every few years a group of her early works pops up. Many of these works come from private collections, and often have never been seen by the public before. Rowell listens with interest, then sends Plumb off to create his catalog anyway. He doesn't mention his wacky theory that Packerett's "early works" are actually current pieces she is trying to slip past the Masquerade.
Derek Stone decides that Jack Rowell might have voiced a small piece of wisdom among his meanderings and turns to investigating another of the Texas City Boneyard vampires. Specifically, he looks into Norman Faircloth, the Ventrue underworld guy the characters recently offed. He finds reference to him as a Mafioso in Atlantic City in the 1970's, when he was involved in gambling and some prostitution. At the time, his last name was long and Italian sounding. Faircloth faded away in the early 80's, with a number of newspaper articles suggesting that he might be at the bottom of some body of water. Stone gets the idea that Atlantic City had a lot of violence in those days due to a serious gangster overpopulation problem.
Derek Stone retains a keen interest in keeping track of the local Toreador social schedule, especially after his first botched attempt to put paid to Susan Jackson. He learns that there is one upcoming event of note: a 150-foot pleasure boat is due into the harbor on Saturday, and an onboard party is scheduled for that evening. In the meantime he manages to figure out which club the local Toreador are hanging out at, and stops by.
Stone is quite happy to find that Narda Cash and her entourage are in attendance, though he also notices that she has made some additions: two rather thuggish sorts who don't blend well into the pretty crowd for all that they seem to be twins. They're quite obviously bodyguards, but Narda is clearly willing to use them for other purposes: Stone watches Narda have them beat some guy senseless for acting annoying. The entire rest of the club goes silent for two minutes as everyone watches this process. Stone notices that the two goons are really happy with their work: they constantly give each other good-natured advice: "Hold him tighter!" "Okay! Hit him harder!"
Stone approaches them for a brief conversation after they dump their victim's body out the back door of the club. He learns that their names are Ben and Gary, and that they didn't actually beat the fellow to death: they merely beat him until he was "immobile." Stone finds this deeply reassuring.
Having satisfied his curiosity about the new bodyguards, Derek Stone tries to flatter Narda and her sense of style. He asks for tips on appearance. She dwells on his shoes. He doesn't understand why. He starts to glaze over, and is overjoyed when Narda sends Susan Jackson off on some errand (to pick a guy up), allowing him to politely excuse himself for a bit of low-impact shadowing.
After a few days of effort, Leo Plumb provides Jack Rowell with a list of Sara Packerett's paintings and sculptures. She had a 30-year history, and produced dozens of pieces during that time. Plumb's list is 110 items long, though he admits it is probably not exhaustive. In particular, he reminds Rowell that previously unknown examples of Packerett's work are found from time to time. He knows of two such caches, one found 20 years ago and another found only five years ago. He also tells Rowell that there are two current artists with similar styles: Holly Morgan (a resident of Houston) and Deirdre Hero. Deirdre is no longer producing art because she stuck her hands under the tires of a moving truck in '75 (Plumb thinks she might have smoked something a bit too potent). Whatever the reason, she lost the use of her hands and never produced anything else. She currently resides in a hospital/asylum out East, in Deming GA.
Jack Rowell's other investigative effort also pays off at about the same time. His pet lawyer tells him that the "Meat-Packin' Czar" Charlie Bacon actually operated in Chicago. His company had several outlets, with slaughterhouses and processing plants in several cities. The height of the empire was in the 1940's, driven (so it would seem) by a certain amount of war profiteering. The lawyer was able to learn that Charlie was personally unable to join the armed forces and do battle in the War. He inherited the business from his father a few years later and developed a reputation for throwing gala parties featuring snacks and food made from various company products. It was in 1953 that the police determined that Charlie and his stable of lovers were killing their enemies and converting them into the meat products that subsequently got served to high-society types at his parties. He was shot trying to escape capture, but even if he hadn't been his social circle would have never made it through the scandal. Several of his associates died in prison. His family company, Blauwitz Meat Processing, is still active. They have a slaughteryard to the west of Texas City that primarily works on imported South American beef.
The characters are talking at the (new) coffee bar that Jack Rowell persuaded the all-night grocery to open up when Laquonda Jeets' nephew rushes in to tell them that some guy just shot Laquonda in the street with a big handgun. Jack Rowell follows the nephew out into the crowd. He finds that Jeets has been professionally "stitched" from crotch to face. She looks quite dead, but a black woman from the neighborhood is trying to administer first aid anyway. The woman tells Rowell that she thinks Jeets is dying. Rowell sees an opportunity to advance his own causes, and uses his cellphone and his mundane influence to make sure that an ambulance shows up. All the while he keeps up a steady oration on how he is witnessing the last moments of a hero of the community. It goes without saying that he uses his Presence without mercy. He manages to deeply touch a couple of the bystanders with his words (and his freaky mind powers).
Several witnesses report that Jeets was shot by a man who looked like a derelict, and who had been hanging around the area for a couple of weeks. They claimed that he ran towards the original site of the Ad Hoc Club. Allen MaCavity and Derek Stone take decisive action and head that way.
Stone sees that most of the crowd is simply gawking, while others appear to be shocked and unhappy. He also notices that there is an open window on the third floor of the Carter Arms, and that someone is taking photographs from it with a long-lens camera. Stone makes note of the specific window, then tries to get into the building. He is brought up short by a group of angry black men in suits who refuse him entry. It is at this point that he remembers that a Nation of Islam-affiliated company is providing security for the Carter Arms.
The Nation of Islam guys seem pretty dubious that a white guy like Derek Stone belongs in the building at all. They refuse him entry, and look like they're getting a lot of enjoyment out of keeping him out. Rowell eventually sends Laquonda Jeets' distraught nephew over to help Stone get inside. This works. Once past the guards, Stone heads for the apartment on the third floor. On the way, Jeets' nephew tells him that a gay couple lives there, but that they have a lot of friends who visit all the time, perhaps eight of them all told.
At the apartment door, Stone finds (and opens) two external locks, only to find that the door is barred from the inside. He goes to the apartment next door, breaks in, tells the two elderly people inside to forget he was ever there (Dominate, 5 successes - they barely even remember what day it is), then tries to make it through the wall. He uses a Leatherman. Chris looks at him rather askance, but eventually gives him a difficulty of five, "because you have a tool".
Even with this generous gift, it takes Stone some effort, in part because he hits an electrical line and zaps himself halfway through. He does his grim best to chop and shovel his way through the drywall, the rat droppings, the insulation, and the old porno magazines. He takes a running jump to break through the remaining wall. He finds himself in a dark room with two armed men, one of them the cameraman he saw earlier. Both of them, oddly enough, are wearing some kind of kimono-like outfit. A gunfight ensues, but ends when Stone drops one of them. The second one yells, "Allah forgive me!" and leaps out the window, camera equipment and all. Stone gives the old man one of the guns and a memory of breaking through the wall to shoot his neighbors.
Quite a lot of people see the cameraman fall to his death, but Jack Rowell and the old woman who had been helping Laquonda Jeets manage to get to the scene first. Jack notices the camera and adroitly removes the film. He pushes the shattered camera into a shadow and spends the rest of his time on the scene making sure that most people don't remember that the fellow had a camera on him when he jumped.
While Rowell and Stone cause trouble at the Carter Arms, Allen MaCavity traces the derelict to the defunct Ad Hoc Club. He finds a WWII-era grease gun and a derelict costume (a jacket and some sneakers) in a trashcan out behind the building. Unable to follow the derelict any further (concrete doesn't hold footprints at all well), he wanders around the building looking for anything askew. He doesn't find anything askew, but he does manage to spot an abandoned warehouse with a door ajar. He goes inside and catches a gas grenade in the face. He evades as best he can, but sucks down some gas anyway. He feels a terrible clotting sensation, and discovers that he now has three blood points that he can't spend, and can't feed to replace. "It's like aggravated blood points!" he cries out. It feels like a solid lump in his chest.
MaCavity decides that discretion has a lot of positive points, and beats a quick retreat.
Jack Rowell has the dead cameraman's film developed. There are about twenty photographs, mostly of the crowd scene. Among them are ten shots of Laquonda getting shot. The cameraman was using a wide-angle lens, so each photograph captures a reasonable stretch of the street outside the Carter Arms. The characters are able to find images of Derek Stone, Jack Rowell and Allen MaCavity in the crowd without any real trouble.
The dead guy turns out to be a bit more of a mystery, even after Jack Rowell gets the Cowardly Tremere Malcolm Carter to visit the body in the morgue to try and ID the guy (or his effects). Jack satisfies himself by pulling a name from the coroner's records and resolving to check the apartment's leasing records the next day.
The session ends with several of the characters making Humanity rolls for their assorted misdeeds. Derek Stone is the worst off: he needs to make one roll for framing an old man for a capital crime, and another for shooting the cameraman's companion. He fails one roll, and drops down to a paltry five Humanity. Jack Rowell tells him not to take it so harshly as he drops down to a nearly-monstrous three Humanity without even a twinge of regret.
Each character gains three experience points.