The entire regular crew shows up, including Chuck (Liam Morgan), Tim (Clayton Burrell), Bruce (Jack Rowell), and Paul (Allen MaCavity). We hope that Dan (Willy Bell) might show up again. Things don't look so promising around 14:00, but things turn around a bit after that and he shows up at 14:20. There is much rejoicing.
Clayton Burrell, faced with the need to feed, admits that he is not able to lick wounds closed. He claims that his plan is to find crack whores who are willing to do practically anything for money and then pay them for blood. The other characters are somewhat appalled to hear this, and suggest that he rely upon thumping people upside the head as an alternative strategy. They particularly emphasize that he is going to catch all kinds of horrible diseases if he relies upon his stated plan.
Faced with a need to replenish four blood points, he spends four hours finding prey. To his credit, he uses the alternative plan.
Jack Rowell spends several hours embroiled in the drama that is the Carter Arms rental and maintenance records. He finds that Jon Gilliard rented a single apartment on the 15th floor, and that several of his ghouls were the tenants in all of the adjacent rooms. He also notes that beyond Gilliard's henchmen, the 15th floor tended to be somewhat less-populated than the lower floors. The rental contracts show that Gilliard's apartment and his ghouls' apartments have all been paid for through the year 2004. This money is coming from a special Federal Housing Fund with a term of 20 years. Almost all of the tenants of the Carter Arms get some sort of rent assistance or relief, but Gilliard and his minions are unique in the source of their funding.
The maintenance budget looks pretty much on the up-and-up, if a touch inadequate: the list of tenant complaints is enough to bring discomfort even to the undead guts. If there is anything to find fault with, it is that much money is being spent to repair things that should simply be replaced. This strategy minimizes short-term problems, but increases long-term costs. More maintenance money than average goes into the 15th floor, a fact that surprises no-one.
Jack Rowell tries comparing rents from before Jon's death to after Jon's death and sees no difference. He concludes that either nobody is skimming money off the top, or that they haven't changed their ways since Jon's death.
Allen MaCavity heads into Sticks' territory to visit the pool hall and talk to the characters' neighbor. He finds Sticks at the table in the back of the hall and persuades him to play a game. Sticks asks if he wants to "make it interesting", to which MaCavity suggests $10 a ball. They play two games. MaCavity wins the first, then very carefully ensures that Sticks wins the second.
Once he has Sticks' attention, MaCavity strikes up a conversation on the subject of Streetwalkers' Alley. He says that according to the Prince's documents, the border between the two territories runs down the center of the street. As a side effect, this means that the prostitutes are in the characters' territory when they find their customers, but that they move into Sticks' territory to actually engage in their… transactions. The pimps and cheap hotels support and feed from the skin trade are actually on Sticks' side of the street. MaCavity suggests that Sticks strike a bargain with the characters over the actual disposition of the prostitutes and their trade. He suggests that Sticks can keep any revenues that he can get from the skin trade, while the characters retain rights to feed from the whores themselves. Sticks is fairly receptive to this offer.
By the end of the conversation, MaCavity and Sticks have reached a tentative agreement. MaCavity admits that he needs to get buy-in from his compatriots and Sticks in turn says that he wants to get another guy to buy into the agreement. Sticks proposes arranging a more formal meeting, with the idea of trying out this arrangement for some quantity of time, then renegotiating. He suggests one year, two years or ("Heck! We're Vampires!") ten years.
MaCavity returns to the characters' offices in Colfield Plaza around 21:00 on Friday evening to pass along the fruits of his conversation with Sticks.
MaCavity knows a lot of people, including criminal types involved in the local drug trade. He uses his contacts to discover that a guy named Don Marcos is in charge of the local crack dealers. Marcos has a gang of 10-15 guys who spend most of their time setting up a nice, clean, wholesome environment so white people in expensive cars can drive up, buy their goods, and leave. They aren't particularly violent, but they have a history of dealing with threats. They do aggressively drive jackers and car thieves out of the way, as this sort of crime is particularly bad for their business environment.
Their system for doing drug transactions is interesting. The vendor is on the streetcorner. He makes a deal, then puts the money into a bucket that gets pulled up to the third floor. Another gang member removes the money from the bucket and replaces it with the drugs. This system ensures that both the gang members (except for the streetcorner vendor) and most of the inventory stay off the street. Anyone looking to knock them off has to go up into the third floor of their well-defended building.
MaCavity spends the evening watching them. He verifies that they do use the pail for transactions, and also sees that they have a gang of children with cellphones on the corners to watch for incoming threats (police cars, gang cruisers, etc.) and send an alert. He gets a description of Don Marcos, but never manages to see him.
Clayton Burrell gets a very confusing phone call from Oliver Bradford, who makes some very confusing claims about fifteen crates and Duke Jack Bradford of Galveston. He then mentions that he's going to be coming to town in high dudgeon. Clayton Burrell listens to Bradford's claims, becomes very confused, and then calls up the Scourge, Jeffrey Harper, to see if this is a real person or not. Jeffrey Harper reassures him that Oliver Bradford is a real person. Burrell then digs himself deep by admitting how clueless he is and explaining that all of Gilliard's ghouls have headed off to Dallas. Harper suggests that the ghouls are a problem that the characters have not solved yet, and that their failure will eventually be held against them. Burrell can almost hear Harper simper over the phone.
Burrell calls Bradford back. Bradford explains that his baggage (just the bare essentials) will be fifteen crates and that he will be arriving in the hour, having already departed from Galveston. Burrell fails to be impressed by the long journey Bradford is making upon the other characters' behalf. Bradford claims that he has been assigned to help investigate and eradicate the ghoul infestation.
Burrell finally mentions this to the characters. They are alarmed, especially because they recognize that the fifteen crates are unlikely to contain any useful hardware.
With the arrival of Oliver Bradford on the scene, the characters dredge through their memories to figure out exactly where he stands in the local social hierarchy:
The group assembles in the 8th floor offices of Seaside Associates. Oliver Bradford shows up with a single retainer to join them. Clayton Burrell meets him and his truck full of fifteen crates upon the doorstep. Oliver is unimpressed by the Colfield Plaza, and asks if there is a nearby hotel. Clayton Burrell suggests several nearby motels, noting that most of them (okay, all of them) have hourly rates. He brings Oliver "up to speed" on the status of the renegade ghouls.
Oliver talks to Scourge Jeffrey Harper, intent upon getting information about what Scourge Harper knows about the ghouls. Harper's initial attitude is quite simple: "What's in it for me?" Oliver tries to argue that watching and dealing with the ghouls was Harper's responsibility, and the fact that he didn't do anything about it was his own damn fault. The characters should be commended because they're helping out and cleaning up his problems for him. Harper is deeply confused by this argument strategy, particularly because the ghouls never were his responsibility: Carter Arms lies outside of his formal jurisdiction. The phone conversation ends with each side convinced that the other is a simpering moron.
Clayton Burrell calls up the skip tracer David Patchmaier and tries to negotiate with him. It doesn't take long to figure out that he isn't the leader (an older ghoul with several Disciplines is), but that he is very interested in becoming a vampire. He's not too happy about his current life, explaining that he's gone from a healthy family environment where everyone spends their time protecting one really great guy to this terrible suspicious environment where people are kidnapping folks and drinking their blood, all the while fearful that terrible things will happen to them.
Burrell does his best to sell Patchmaier on the idea of being a Brujah, "like Jon", but cautions him that this can't happen right away. He says that he's got to wait, to be a subservient ghoul for a while. Patchmaier's idea of what vampires are like is understandably strange. He doesn't necessarily know the difference between Caitiff (illegal), Camarilla and the various Clans, but he does have a fairly good informal understanding of how important status and legality are within Kindred society. He definitely wants to start out in a position that will have him living the good unlife. Burrell eventually promises to make him a vampire in a couple of weeks, and to meet him soon. Patchmaier promises to bring some information on where the other ghouls are, "so you can talk to them" (kill them). He says that getting the information will take about two nights.
Patchmaier also cautions that he's ditching his present phone number, and collects a mobile number from Burrell. Patchmaier thanks Burrell and promises to meet in two days. He comments that he's got a couple of other interesting things from Jon's place even if things don't work out with the renegade ghouls.
By the end of this entire exchange, the characters' opinion of Patchmaier has decayed substantially. Most thought that he would be a real asset as a ghoul (or as a young vampire) at the start of the conversation. By the end, everyone is convinced that Patchmaier is an obnoxious geek.
Given two days until the characters' meeting with Patchmaier, the group decides to go investigate Jon Gilliard's old Haven. Jack Rowell prepares by borrowing a shotgun from Clayton Burrell (he hides it in an athletics bag rounded out with balled-up socks). Oliver Bradford and Liam Morgan compete in their ability to melodramatically yell out "Acting!"
The characters march up to the Carter Arms lobby doors in the dead of the night. At this hour, the lobby doors to the Carter Arms are locked. Allen MaCavity shows off his skills and picks the lock on the front door, barely breaking his step in the process. On the way in, the characters cannot help but notice that sections of sidewalk outside the main doors have been ripped up. It looks like someone is going to put in fencing to restrict access to the front entry. The effect is rather prisonlike, albeit incomplete. The characters conclude that this is some of Vigilance's work. The future starts looking rather grim.
The characters take the elevator up to the 15th floor. In dramatic contrast to the ground flood, the walls on the 15th are painted, the carpet doesn't smell of urine, the halls are well-lighted, and the place actually looks rather nice.
Oliver Bradford leads the way, using Auspex to look for traps or mystical defenses. Everyone makes a series of Perception+Security rolls and notices kiss-all, except for Liam (who botches and thinks that a fire extinguisher is a bomb) and Rowell (who believes him). Allen MaCavity finally manages to succeed in a roll and notices that one of the light fixtures is strangely globe-shaped, suggesting that it might contain a rotating camera mount.
While the characters inspect the corridor, one of the residents walks out into the corridor. He is wearing a 7-Eleven shirt. Oliver Bradford and Clayton Burrell compete to Awe him with their Presence, for no readily apparent reason. Bradford manages to overwhelm the fellow's defenses, then asks him where he's headed. The rather bemused (if Awed) resident answers, "I work at 7-Eleven." The characters give up on him. Bradford shuts his Awe down so fast the 7-Eleven clerk gets a nosebleed. Nobody goes into a Hunger Frenzy.
Allen MaCavity makes fast work of the lock on Gilliard's apartment and pulls the door open. He moves inside to find a concrete anteroom with another, much more durable-looking door at the far end. He quickly concludes that these are obviously after-market features added to the apartment. He then discovers that the second door is a dummy, intended only to draw intruders into the antechamber so a flamethrower trap can douse them with napalm. He is quite glad to find that someone has already removed the flamethrower, leaving only the trap mechanism.
Knowing that the front door to Gilliard's apartment is false, the characters manage to figure out that the only access to the place is through one of the ghoul's apartments, through holes knocked through the walls.
Having managed to get into Gilliard's apartment, the characters proceed to rifle the place. Sadly, they find very little of interest: the evacuating ghouls removed practically everything of value. Clayton Burrell finds a waterbed in the bedroom and takes to draining the thing to see if anything is hidden inside the mattress. His efforts take a fair amount of time, but eventually lead him to a sodden bag containing a pound of uncut gemstones. The other characters content themselves with ransacking the rest of the apartment, locating a package containing 120 small vials of crack and a set of three small containers sealed with lead and marked with arcane symbols.
There are obvious signs through all the rooms that the occupants left rapidly, and didn't expect to be back. Smaller personal items have all been removed, but larger objects (like furniture) remain. The camera mount in the hallway proves to be fairly nice, though the camera is gone, along with all of the monitors and other electronics. Clayton Burrell takes it apart and packages it for removal. He is interrupted by one of the locals, an old woman who comes out of her room to complain about the noise. Burrell manages her with great finesse, explaining, "I gotta take this rental away for the company."
The characters anticipate that they will soon venture out to deal with a pack of misbehaving ghouls. Various members of the group decide that their current inventories of gear are insufficient to deal with this threat, and respond by going shopping.
Liam Morgan buys a motorcycle and a telescoping baton.
Clayton Burrell tries to make some molotov cocktails. Boom! Having achieved some level of success without blowing himself into more than two pieces, he parlays them into a simple molotov cocktail gun. His design is simple: a sawed-off shotgun with a mounting bracket on the muzzle, loaded with a blank shell for propellant. He is so proud of his creation (and dubious about it's ability to be reloaded) that he makes five. Oddly, few of the other characters are interested in carrying them, as they're generally not that convinced that the things won't blow up when they're fired. He carries one, Allen MaCavity carries a second, and the remaining three get stored in the trunk for later use.
Oliver Bradford tries to buy a nice sword-cane out of rapier envy. He discovers that Wal-Mart doesn't carry the things in stock, so he orders one special.
Allen MaCavity talks to Sticks and concludes the agreement he had previously discussed. The two of them agree upon a term of one year, with the understanding that the agreement can be renegotiated at the end of the term. Both MaCavity and Sticks talk a lot about the importance of avoiding disagreements.
The Super of the Carter Arms is a big, middle-aged black guy named Tobe Washington who moves with the sort of speed that implies no matter how hard he works, he'll never be done. Jack Rowell decides that he would be perfect as a ghoul. He sets to converting the fellow into a vampiric servant. Oliver Bradford and Clayton Burrell help. The three of them use Disciplines to befuddle Washington's mind and lure him into the Colfield Plaza.
Rowell also starts the paperwork to set up Seaside Associates as an AIDS testing clinic (it'll take a month) and to hire a paramedic to run the place. His intention is to convert the paramedic into his third ghoul. In the meantime, he arranges to get a lot of biohazard symbols to paste on the refrigerators the characters sleep in. The theory is to make casual investigators unwilling to open up the refrigerators.
David Patchmaier calls Clayton Burrell around 04:00 on Saturday to say that the eleven other renegade ghouls are at an RV park about 30 miles north of Houston. They have one towed RV and one fully-motorized RV. He suggests that the characters go out to talk to them quickly, as they are well-positioned to move on. He doesn't have a land line number for them, but he does have a couple of cell phone numbers.
Burrell arranges to meet with Patchmaier in the food court on the second floor of a local mall. Patchmaier obviously doesn't completely trust Burrell, and wants to meet in a well-lighted, public place. He absolutely refuses to meet any vampires anyplace close to a bar or a nightclub. Patchmaier says that he'll be the black guy in the red cap in front of the Taco Bell outlet. Clayton sets up a Taco- Bell-related call sign and response ("Do you know if the clerks here crap in the food?"). They arrange to meet there on Monday night to discuss what the ghouls are up to.
On the way out to talk to Patchmaier, the characters decide upon their strategy. It is simplicity itself: they plan to first blow them up with pipe bombs then shoot them a lot. If possible, Clayton Burrell hopes to be able to use his molotov cocktail guns. Everyone else hopes to avoid any serious Masquerade breaches. They hope that the whole incident will end up looking like gang-related activity.
Most of the group starts out by hunting for an hour or two. Everyone agrees to rendezvous outside the RV park at 21:00, about two hours after everyone rises. Clayton Burrell shows up with four pipe bombs and his fire-guns. He gives them over to Allen MaCavity, who will sneak up and place bombs underneath the RV's. Oliver Bradford walks up to an adjacent RV to chat with the locals and peer into the ghouls' RVs. He spots a group of ghouls sitting around outside one RV, drinking beer and cooking barbecue.
Allen MaCavity slips up to the RV's to set the bombs. Oliver Bradford walks over to the ghouls to try and chat with them about local sports in an effort to distract them from Allen. Allen sets the fuses to burn for a minute or so, lights them, and sneaks away. Oliver can see the bomb under one RV, and suspects he might be at an unhealthy range from the things. He walks away rapidly.
The bombs go off, inflicting eight dice of damage to the RV's, the ghouls, and several (doubtfully) innocent bystanders. MaCavity manages to get six successes on his roll. The consequences are bloody. There are two impressive explosions, a huge ball of fire, and much destruction. One RV is on fire, and the guys outside barbecueing are visibly thrown to the ground then set on fire. One of them staggers to his feet for a moment, then falls. The others aren't even capable of that much.
Oliver Bradford, Allen MaCavity and Clayton Burrell each make rolls against Rotschreck. Allen ends up going into Rotschreck and runs away. Jack Rowell is waiting some distance away in a car with guns, ready to drive up, pile out, and start shooting. Liam Morgan is on a motorcycle.
Clayton opens up on the second RV with his molotov gun. He discovers that this is an incredibly inaccurate way to launch a molotov cocktail. The heat from the neighboring RV is enough to set the cocktail on fire. One of the occupants comes out, gets set on fire, falls, and screams.
Jack Rowell and Liam Morgan drive up to take part in the massacre. While they're on their way, Clayton splits his die pool to shoot two incapacitated ghouls (both of whom are on fire). He reflects upon the fact that he's going to have to make a really dramatic Humanity roll. Oliver Bradford counts a total of five ghouls killed so far.
Liam arrives. He sends a molotov cocktail straight into the second RV. The consequences are predictable.
Jack Rowell drives up, boosts his Dex with blood, and shoots at the door of the second RV. He doesn't think he hits anybody.
Oliver Bradford rushes into the second RV, intending to use his Awe to persuade any people inside to run out with him: "We gotta get out of here now!" He manages to get himself through the Rotschreck rolls and enter the RV. At this point Burrell decides that he isn't going to send a second molotov cocktail in through the door. Bradford finds one guy inside on fire, another guy with a fire extinguisher, and a third guy pulling a shotgun out from underneath a bed. Bradford grabs the guy with the fire extinguisher and tries to persuade him to leave the RV. It doesn't take him long to determine that Presence powers aren't typically very useful in a firefight. He settles for physically hauling the guy out using Celerity and Potence, with inconsistent results.
The ghoul armed with a shotgun pushes past Bradford and leaves the RV. Bradford turns on Celerity and pumps his Strength, then leaps on the ghoul. He tears the shotgun away, making the ghoul even more unhappy than he was before. In a remarkable display of restraint and concern for their comrade, Clayton Burrell and Liam Morgan hold off on launching more molotov cocktails into the fray.
The ghoul runs off into the distance. Oliver Bradford runs after him and beats him with the shotgun butt. He hits him twice more, once on the back of the head so hard that the fellow mumbles, "Mahh chhildhood mem'reees…" and falls. Bradford knows only that the ghoul is badly hurt, and drags him back to the battlefield for the others to deal with.
With Bradford out of the way, Clayton Burrell lets fly with the molotov cocktail launcher, sending his missile rather wide of the RV door. It sails overhead into the next campsite. Chaos ensues. Liam Morgan drives his motorcycle between the RV's, linking up with Oliver Bradford. More chaos ensues. All this chaos persuades the one uninjured ghoul inside the RV to drag his burning friend outside, only moments before the RV turns into a fireball.
The fireball proves fortunate for the ghoul, as it staggers Burrell long enough to let the ghoul get past him. Rowell (who finds that he isn't all that bothered by huge fireballs) shoots the guy, but only wings him.
At this point, Clayton Burrell decides to try and disperse the watching crowds with Awe. It doesn't take him long to realize that this actually makes him more interesting to the onlookers. He shuts down his Awe, then fires the last molotov cocktail into the second RV to destroy evidence.
The characters leave the scene with the badly-wounded ghoul in their trunk. Oliver Bradford stays behind to look for the remaining survivor. The ghoul reappears from his hiding place and makes an attempt to get away when the fire trucks show up. Bradford trails him, watches him try to make a call at a pay phone, then run through traffic into some woods. Bradford follows, shouting out, "Wait! Stop! I think I knew who did it!" in an effort to get the ghoul's trust. The ghoul is clearly too aware to fall for this ploy, and continues into the woods. Bradford follows him across the freeway, almost getting hit by a truck in the process. He would have wet himself if he still had a bladder. He tries again, and eventually makes it across. He finally manages to outrun the ghoul, catching up to him after a long run. Bradford is almost exhausted by the time he reaches the fellow. A long, painful fight follows. Eventually, Bradford takes the guy down and drinks from him, rendering him unconscious. Bradford ties him up and calls Burrell for a ride.
Allan MaCavity wakes up in Texas woodland area. He is dirty and confused in the middle of the woods, and there are wolves after him. He has no idea how he got there. He walks, and manages to get himself to a road within a half-hour. At this point, he tries to hitch a ride by making himself look like an attractive woman (Obfuscate 3 is great!) Someone stops for him and gives him a ride down the road, back to Houston. He figures out that it's only about 10:15 from the dashboard clock. The driver keeps on asking all kinds of leading questions like, "So, where are you from?" "Does anyone know you're here?" MaCavity senses that if he really were an attractive woman he would find this a very upsetting ride. Even though he finds the driver deeply creepy, he still decides to drink a blood point from him.
By midnight, the characters are all able to link up with each other. Jack Rowell leaves orders with his ghoul Willy buy a copy of every newspaper published in Houston, and to spend the day watching the news.
The characters take their two captives to Bradford's secluded house in Galveston after a quick detour to the Colfield Plaza to wash them up. It quickly becomes obvious that the ghoul who was hit in the head is not going to recover, while the other one comes around in good order.
Everyone makes Conscience rolls, with difficulty based upon the relative vileness of their actions: Bradford is 5, Rowell 5, Morgan 6, and Burrell and MaCavity 7. Everyone makes their rolls except for Rowell, who actually manages to become Deranged.
The total body count announced in the press is seven males and two females. At least one newspaper reports that the police think some people might have also been kidnapped. The characters know that all of the ghouls were male, indicating that there were a couple of (possibly) innocent casualties, and that two of the renegades managed to escape. On the plus side, the police descriptions of the assailants are extremely vague.
Each character gains three experience points. Rowell instantly spends five of these to buy Dominate 2.