The gang's all here! Chris, Tim (Byron Ignatiou), Chuck (Derek Stone), Bruce (Jack Rowell) and Paul (Allen MaCavity) all decide to put in an appearance. We spend a fair amount of time trying to figure out what happened last time.
The game starts on Monday, February 26th, one week after the end of the previous session. If it was tough for the players to figure out what happened before, it is even harder for them to decide what they did over the course of the week.
By the time the session starts, Jack Rowell has managed to ghoul three bodybuilders. He persuades them to start taking firearms lessons. He has also put a few protective measures into place, particularly a cheap basement apartment with a pliable landlord (thanks to the wonders of Dominate) and a series of drywalled secret chambers concealing a variety of guns and "survival supplies." He has also hidden several steam trunks full of guns and additional "survival goods" in backyards throughout Houston.
In his spare time, Jack elects to find something to do with the $100,000 he liberated from the ruins of the Carter Arms Community Development Corporation. He manages to locate Ethel Freeman, a broker who can invest the money. Surprisingly, he manages to allay her understandable suspicions, and gull her into thinking that this is money he's just "Saved up for a while..." Even more surprisingly, he manages this trick without Dominating her into a pliable puppet. He doesn't think that she is totally convinced, but feels that she is not too upset at the notion that his money may have come from illicit sources.
Allen MaCavity, who now has a memory of the Sheriff as the cigar-chomping bastard who broke his arm, concludes that Sebastian Locke has been tampering with his memories. He tries staking the guy out. He starts by trying to figure out who paid for the hotel room where their interview took place. It takes him some time, but he finally manages to determine that he is totally unable to find any credit card information on the room.
Byron Ignatiou spends time at his club Aquateque, doing his damndest to build up a herd out of the patrons. Strangely, when he tells patrons that they're really interesting people and should come by more often, he comes off as... needy. And hungry. The pretty people he talks to are quite put off by this. Most of them don't come back.
Dismayed by his troubles at Aquateque, Byron goes shopping. He starts out at Wal-Mart, but quickly expands to more specialized vendors. His purchases include a portable fire extinguisher, a collapsible pole (similar to those used by mountain climbers and dungeon adventurers), and a refrigerated catering truck. Hoping to get a nice tax deduction, he buys the truck through Aquateque, making the somewhat plausible claim that, "Aquateque now caters!" He expects to be able to store a supply of bagged blood in the refrigerator against future need, and urges the characters to take the truck along the next time they go hunting.
As a final touch, Byron decides that he needs some scimitars. He locates a mail-order company willing to sell functional scimitars for $1000 to $1500 each, and arranges to purchase one every month for the next four months.
Derek Stone goes on a shopping spree just like Byron. His purchases are substantially more practical, including machetes, cordless Dremel tools and whatnot. His shopping done, he spends six nights investigating and interviewing people at the Carter Arms. He is interested in getting descriptions of the people who used to spend time around Jon Galliard's complex of apartments on the top floor. By the time he is done, he has descriptions of over thirty people, gathered from nosy neighbors and the elderly people who spend their days gossiping in the lobby. A lot of them were convinced that Galliard was running either a drug den or an illicit poker game. Some of the locals claim that Galliard's apartments were a lot nicer when Galliard was living there (consumer electronics, waterbeds, etc.). Most of them think that anybody with such nice stuff has to be some kind of criminal mastermind.
Galliard's associates were predominantly white (fourteen of them), with the balance being mixed Asian, black and Hispanic. One frequent visitor who attracted quite a bit of attention was a white woman who came and went quite often, all alone, looking surprisingly confident and unafraid considering her surroundings. Among the others were the Brujah Styx and three of his retainers. Derek is only able to gather a few first names, and no complete names. He can deduce that ten of them were retainers who have since met their end (many of them at the characters' hands). He concludes that there are fourteen otherwise unidentified visitors who are still at large, though his descriptions of most of them are incomplete.
The characters have long since notices that stairwells are extremely bad places to spend time. Derek learns this as he attempts to leave the Carter Arms. He finds his way blocked by a young black man with a mouthful of gold. He thinks little of this until the stairwell door behind him is slammed closed by another man with obscene slogans carved into his hair.
The two youths inform Derek that his name is Derek Stone. He demurs, suggesting that he is actually Jack Rowell. They indicate that they do not accept this claim, backing their own version of events with a labeled photograph of him. Derek is forced to admit that he was dissembling.
With that matter settled, the youths very politely sneer and ask if Derek Stone knows "that bitch Narda." Once again, Derek indicates that he barely even accepts that Narda is a name, let alone that someone might actually prefer to be called it. The gilded youth once again provides evidence to the contrary by producing a gun and shooting Derek in the leg.
This new development prompts Derek to turn up the Celerity and respond in kind. Things go according to Derek's plan right up until one of the two fellows touches his arm and causes it to wither into a desiccated shell. Derek is appalled to see the way his gun falls from to the ground, taking one of his fingers with it. Seeking to change the tone off the encounter, he tries to use his Dominate to get the arm-withering chap to jump down the stairwell. Though this approach does not go exactly according to plan, it all works out when the fellow botches his next attack and plummets down the stairwell anyway.
Derek decides to capitalize upon his sudden fortune by dodging back into the corridor. The gilded goon follows him and gets shot for his trouble. Derek follows this up with a stern blow to the fellow's golden teeth that removes a goodly number of them. This proves to be his last moment of good fortune, as the goon is upset enough by the loss of his teeth that he unleashes a hail of bullets at Derek. Enough lead passes through Derek to cripple him. He gets free and hurls himself headlong down the other flight of stairs, healing himself as he goes. The pursuit continues, until he is knocked into incapacitation.
Derek Stone wakes up on a rooftop. It is still night, but he is tied down with duct tape and handcuffs. He is crippled, but has three more points of blood in him. The two goons are strapping him to some sort of antenna arrangement. The one who had lost his gold teeth has managed to reinsert them during Derek's absence. He tells Derek that he should never see "that bitch" Narda ever again. In fact, he should actively avoid her. Smiling boy emphasizes these words by beating Derek with a bicycle chain. After delivering the warning, the second guy (the one with the words in his head and the freaky withering powers) apologizes to Derek, then throws him off the top of the building. Derek is incapacitated again by the impact. He wakes to find himself still hanging, this time about seven stories up.
A few minutes later, he sees a police car drive up to the front of the Carter Arms and stop. Derek struggles to get free. An hour later, he succeeds. The police never come by to bother him. His right arm is still shriveled. Needing help, he sinks to rock bottom and calls Jack Rowell for help. Jack brings a wino and a lot of guns. They link up at the local Starbuck's (the scary sort of Starbuck's) and Jack lets Derek feed. Jack sends the wino off after making him forget the incident.
Derek Stone suggests that he and Jack Rowell should head by Malcolm Carter's place to see if the mousy Tremere can do anything about Derek's arm. They head to Malcolm's Haven to find that he doesn't appear to be at home. Oddly enough, he also appears to have left his door open. The characters very carefully venture in, all manner of military hardware in evidence. They find a pool of blood in the living room and a blood trail in to the bathroom where two corpses sit in the bathtub. One is missing an arm, the other is missing its head. Neither is familiar to the characters. Both of them are ripe to the tune of about ten days' of decay.
Things come to rather more of a point when the characters find a pile of dust in the bedroom, a room fitted out very much like the Haven of a safety-conscious vampire. The place includes fire extinguishers, barrels of water, and heavy shades (plywood) on the window. Other accessories include several firearms and spent cartridges lying on the floor. Jack pokes through the dust to find that it includes several personal effects Malcolm was rarely without. Jack comments, "Either he's dead, or he's doing a kick-ass job of faking it."
Derek Stone recalls that the Tremere Leo Bork (who holds the title of Judge) might be able to identify a vampire from his dust. He and Jack decide to not pursue Mr. Bork, as they're pretty sure that the ashes belonged to Malcolm.
Derek stays in the apartment while Jack heads out to purchase a camera. Derek spends the time feeling quite unsafe. On the plus side, a little bit of the skin on his withered arm flakes off and he sees some new skin underneath it.
Jack returns with the camera and takes photos of everything. This includes a large walk-in closet outfitted as a small alchemical lab that Derek Stone located while Jack was off finding an all-night photo shop. The lab includes a ransacked collection of books, generally the sort of editions you can't find at Borders: leather-bound and hand-made. The characters take eight books, but suspect there may have originally been three times that many. The characters also take two heavy pistols, a shotgun and an automatic rifle.
The next evening, Derek finds that his arm is better. And he's really hungry.
The characters get together at a Starbuck's to talk strategy. Nobody in the group has ever heard of vampires with limb-withering powers. Even the knowledge that Malcolm is dead and that the two fellows who brutalized Derek Stone mentioned Narda Cash doesn't help any.
Byron Ignatiou concludes that nothing good will come of the conversation, so he goes to hunt. While he is heading out he gets a cellphone call from his bar manager, who tells him that the Scary Goatee Guy is walking around in Aquateque. Byron bemoans the loss of his assault rifle, until Jack Rowell hands Byron the AK-47 he got from Malcolm's apartment. Byron rejoices, then reluctantly concludes that a firefight in his bar would be bad for business. He hands the gun back to Jack with a heavy heart.
The characters drop Byron off at his bar, then listen in on a cellphone as he walks into talk to the Goatee Guy. Goatee Guy introduces himself as Ethan and explains that the characters have been causing a lot of problems. He and his associates have been given the job of killing them off. Byron says that he'll be in the Starbuck's on Wilson Street in an hour, then bids Ethan farewell with a cheery call of, "Toodles!"
Byron calls the Scourge to let him know that he'll be at the Wilson Street Starbuck's all night, and that the Sabbat know he will be there. Jack Rowell goes to the Arnold Street Starbuck's around the corner so he can keep an eye on the Wilson Street Starbuck's. Derek Stone waits around in front of Aquateque.
Nothing happens.
For quite a while.
Finally, Byron calls his manager to find out what the situation in the bar looks like. The manager says that the Goatee Guy went into the bathroom. There shouldn't be a way to get out from the bathroom, but none of the characters have much confidence that the Goatee Guy will be particularly discomfited by a mere sealed window.
Derek Stone notices that a suspicious looking car (with a hidden driver) heads out of the Aquateque parking lot. Allen MaCavity takes a look at the car and is able to clearly see that the driver is Ethan. MaCavity gets the license plate number, then calls Jack to pick him up. Jack Rowell drives around, picks up the other characters in his sedan, and gives the wheel to Derek Stone for the actual pursuit.
The characters shadow Ethan as he heads Southeast into a poor section of Houston dominated by row houses and low-rise tenements. The characters speculate that they're being led into a trap. Byron Ignatiou maintains an ongoing running cellphone commentary to the Scourge and the Sheriff, who are both quite interested in the evening's developments. As a side note, the Sheriff suggests that Byron shouldn't boast that he's been talking to Sabbat members.
The pursuit slows to a dismal crawl as the characters approach an underpass. They are able to see several stopped cars, apparently blocked by an accident. Allen, Byron and Derek immediately conclude that something is afoot. They abandon the car. Allen goes to the other side of the street. Derek heads up to the top of the concrete retaining wall. Byron simply rushes straight ahead.
It is at this point that Ethan's trunk pops open and a horde of little red lizards ("Drakes") pours out. Byron Ignatiou sees this, and opens up with his assault rifle full-auto. Everyone else hears the gunshots, but nobody is quite sure what Byron is shooting at. Allen MaCavity decides not to worry about it and nails Ethan with a single bullet to the head from his position behind a support pillar.
Jack, now suddenly back at the wheel, decides to get ready to make a sudden getaway. He has barely started backing up when a pickup truck speeds up from behind and plows into his car.
Byron runs up to Ethan's car, eager to ensure that the fellow does not get away. Along the way, a burst of shadow forms up near his feet and whips out a night-black tendril out at him. He deftly dodges the thing, taking an ineffectual swing back at it with his empty gun. He arrives at the car to discover that Ethan is huddled inside, holding a submachinegun. Byron takes a swing at Ethan's head. His hand passes right through the vampire's head, as if it were liquid. He watches in horror as Ethan's body disintegrates into a puddle of blood that leaps up at him. Byron effortlessly evades it, feeling quite confident until a wave of Drakes rushes at him. He avoids them and starts thinking about slashing open the gas tank on Ethan's car.
Pressed harder by the Drakes, Byron decides that his best plan really is to set the gas tank on fire. He pulls the cap off and fires into the tank. His first shot doesn't manage to do the trick, but the delay exposes him to yet another succession of attacks from bloody hands and black tentacles. His second shot is much more successful, creating a suitably impressive ball of flame. Byron takes quite a lot of aggravated damage from it, then does the only sensible thing: he falls into Rotschreck and flees the scene.
Allen MaCavity notices that the nearby cop is taking some substantial interest in the proceedings. He dismisses the fellow as yet another terrified mortal and fixes his attention to the pickup truck and it's driver. Specifically, takes a shot at the fellow. The pickup driver responds by demonstrating that he has at least enough Celerity to make it out of the pickup and over to MaCavity's firing position with time enough left to strike him upside the head.
By this time, Derek Stone has reached the overpass and met yet another of the Sabbat pack members, a Hispanic fellow armed with a shotgun. The two of them are separated by speeding traffic, so they settle for a brief and ineffectual shotgun duel.
Jack Rowell turns his car around and gets set to drive out of the area. Once again, his desires are stymied, this time by a mysterious (but enraged) six-armed woman who punches him through the window. He elects to tough the blow out, and pays for the decision by spitting out a mouthful of undead teeth. Fortunately enough, this injury is not enough to keep him from gunning the engine. Jack is quite happy to see his assailant tossed away from the car as it surges forward. He is less happy to notice that she is running after him. He is positively discomfited to see her grab hold of the car bumper. This discomfort is only temporary, however, as he executes a bootlegger reverse that flings her into the opposite lane of traffic, right within easy reach of Allen MaCavity.
She decides to change her attention to Allen, as she's now much closer to him. Allen is quite unhappy about this, as he has already been fighting with the Celerity-enhanced and Frenzy-fortified driver of the pickup truck. Allen MaCavity shoots the pickup driver, then endures ineffectual strikes from him and Kali. Another shot is enough to drop the driver. The return strike from the six-armed woman has more juice to it, and is enough to drop Allen down as well.
Derek is happy to win his shotgun duel with Antonio, and even happier to see Antonio struck by a car and carried away by the traffic. He comes back down to the underpass and finds that the only remaining foe in view is a substantially smaller pool of animated blood. He then finds himself the target of one of the surviving Drakes (a second one appears more interested in chewing on the body of a nearby bystander). Derek shoots the Drake, and inflicts very little damage.
Having dealt with the Drake, Derek shoots at the blood pool multiple times. It doesn't appear to take any damage from the experience, right up until it stops moving. Then it starts moving again, so Derek beats it with the empty shotgun until it stops for the last time. He heads back to the scene to clean up the remaining Drakes and tamper with the witnesses' memories.
About this time, a plentiful supply of the Sheriff's men show up in their nice black vans to clean up the mess. The Sheriff's men shoot the remaining Drakes and keep the situation under control until the Sheriff and the Scourge have a chance to walk around altering memories.
The characters remaining on the scene are able to determine that there is only one mortal survivor from the fracas. Derek Stone rather desperately feeds from the unfortunate fellow, killing him. He makes his Humanity roll and feels terribly bad about the whole affair. Derek and Jack (who returns to the scene after a few minutes) walk around contributing to the Sheriff's memory cleanup project. The Scourge apologizes to them for not arriving quicker. He confesses that he is running desperately shy of reliable henchmen after his last few expeditions on the characters' behalf.
Allen MaCavity feeds off the dead to restore his wounds and his blood. He briefly goes nuts from the smell of blood, then cleverly elects to attack the Sheriff, who effortlessly incapacitates him.
Byron Ignatiou comes out of Rotschreck somewhere along the highway. He makes a pay phone call to summon Jack (who brings the food). Allen's staked body goes in the trunk. Jack tells Byron that his plan is to Dominate bums into donating blood, using box cutters and a funnel for the purpose. He will keep Byron chained to ensure that the casualty count remains low. The plan goes well, though there are a few dodgy moments when Byron is overcome by enthusiasm and falls into Frenzy.
The characters spend some time comparing notes on their recent encounter to develop a new picture of the survivors of the Red Army Hammerheads.
The session ends with the characters helping the Sheriff and the Scourge to clean up after the underpass exchange. Each character gains four experience points.