Nick (Vincent Cray) and Bruce (Cyrus Billings) show up on time, and Tim (Shepherd) shows up extremely late. Chris, as usual, is in charge.
Vincent, after agreeing to accompany Cyrus on his trip to Jacquerdo (on the Mexican border), decides to inform the Tremere hierarchy that he will be leaving the area for a while. He ends up speaking to Nastasha (the Tremere Regent). She gives him permission to be absent for up to three weeks, and provides him with a letter-of-introduction to the local Tremere. She also informs him that the letter will include a passage explaining that he is at the service of the area Tremere (though she does suggest that he should try and weasel out of any particularly suicidal or unpleasant tasks they request). Finally, she interrogates him rather closely upon the motivations of Cyrus in going to Jacquerdo. Vincent explains that he is trying to gain favor over Cyrus, who is a useful ready supply of violence.
Shepherd takes one look at Otto's "packages" and concludes that they are bodies, wrapped up in duct tape. There are two of them, both apparently intact and not obviously stakes (careful examination reveals sawed-off stakes in both of them). Fortunately, they are small enough to fit into his trunk along with the rest of his survival gear.
With the bodies safely stowed, Sheperd goes shopping for additional survival goods for the trip, spending a total of $250 on the project:
Unfortunately, this stuff takes up enough space that Cyrus has to sacrifice his spare tire. To compensate, Shepherd buys a rusty old van for $800. Both Cyrus and Shepherd each buy an extra set of tires for their vehicles (costing $300 each) and put them in the van. The eight tires (carefully tied down with bungee cords) take up about a quarter of the room in the van. Shepherd also makes certain to hide his impressive gun collection under a blanket, just so it isn't incredibly obvious that there are guns underneath.
Vincent spends some time learning the Preserve Blood ritual, hoping to use it to lay in a supply of blood for the trip. Unfortunately, one he has learned it he discovers that he must bury reservoirs for at least two evenings to make them useful for the ritual. Planning for the future, he buys a bunch of metal canteens.
It is Friday, June 15th. Each of the characters is down two blood points, and ready to depart for Jacquerdo along Highway 190. The convoy heads out at sundown. Cyrus drives his ex-police car and Shepherd drives the van. Both of them are wearing radio headsets, and otherwise prepared for trouble.
After several hours of driving, Cyrus becomes troubled by the radio conversation for some reason, and turns the radio off. Shepherd and Vincent, who had been talking about crooked cops, have no notion why Cyrus did this.
Seven hours after they start, the characters arrive in the outskirts of Jacquerdo. Cyrus flashes his headlights and pulls off the road just after the 20-mile marker. The city and it's environs have a population of about 12,000. The characters speak, and Vincent notes that the Prince of Jacquerdo is a Malkavian, and should be handled very carefully. Vincent has a phone number that should lead to a lower-ranked member of the local Tremere, while Cyrus has been told that he can get in touch with the Gangrel Manuel at a local bar.
The characters decide to head in towards the town, then find a motel. Cyrus pays for the room with cash, entering his name as Larry Meeker. Vincent puts up Wake with Morning's Freshness and Defense of the Sacred Haven, completing the ritual just barely before dawn. Cyrus verifies that the deadbolt is not that good, so he and Shepherd put the dresser in front of the door.
The characters wake that evening to find a Border Patrol jeep parked next to Shepherd's van. Two Border Patrol agents are wandering around it, occasionally peering in the windows. Shepherd approaches them and introduces himself as John Mallock. Their badges read Edwards and Rodriguez. They ask a few simple questions, then ask why the characters are there. Cyrus spins a story about wanting to look at dwarf deer in a nearby national park, but the agents quickly point out that they know exactly what the characters are, and want to know what they really are. One of them explicitly points out Cyrus and Shepherd as vampires, and says that he suspects Vincent is a vampire.
Shepherd uses Auspex upon one of the local Kindred, and determines that he is extremely old. Vincent tries to make a phone call to Amber Resendez, his local contact, but is interrupted by the local, who asks him not to make any phone calls. The locals ask the characters their names; the characters comply, though Shepherd lies to them. They also ask what the characters' business is, to which Cyrus answers that he is there to talk to Hector and Manuel, two local Gangrels. His friends are along to provide protection. The agents accept this story. Finally, the two agents ask the characters to follow them in their cars.
During the ride, Vincent calls Amber again and asks about the situation. She confirms that many Camarilla Kindred have influence in the Border Patrol. She offers to meet them in the next few hours.
The two agents lead the characters about fifteen minutes' into town, where they take them into the office of a warehouse. A young-seeming man with a heavily-waxed moustache dressed like an urban cowboy sits behind the desk. He asks the characters' names, then writes their names down on a piece of paper, holding the pencil straight in his fist. The young man says that his name is Tyler, a "relative" of some of the people around. He asks the characters' business, and asks for references. It takes him about thirty minutes to check the characters out.
Three Kindred appear from thin air, each bearing a large weapon: Prince Eden Perez, and two "siblings" of Tyler.
Prince Perez is Hispanic, well-dressed in a business suit. His companions are Hispanic as well, and dressed as Border Patrol agents. The Prince talks to each of the characters, especially Shepherd, whom he is apparently quite glad to see. He comments upon the quick-draw nature of Shepherd's holsters, and inquires whether or not he is some kind of gunfighter. He bemoans the fact that so many Malkavians are psychopaths of one type or another, which reflects badly upon the Clan. He is particularly happy to see Shepherd as an upstanding representative of the Clan.
The moment after Prince Perez finishes talking, everyone in the room except the characters disappears. Fortunately, none of the characters actually forget that there were once people in the room.
A half-hour after the characters' interview with the Prince concludes, Amber Resendez calls Vincent back to arrange a meeting. She tells Vincent to go to the parking lot of a mall about three blocks away and wait for her. While the characters wait in the parking lot, Cyrus looks up the address of Manuel's bar in a phone book.
About ten minutes after they arrive, a young couple walks up and the woman asks if any of them is Vincent. Vincent identifies himself, and in response the woman draws an incomplete warding symbol in the air. Vincent completes the symbol, which apparently satisfies the woman. She asks to touch all of the characters on the head to verify that none of them are wearing invisible bandannas or hats. Cyrus growls at her while Shepherd simply looks at her oddly.
Finally, she introduces herself as Amber Resendez. Her companion is Michael, a senior-ranked Tremere. The characters reply in kind. After introductions, Vincent heads off to talk to the other Tremere while the other characters go to find Manuel's bar. The other Tremere of Jacquerdo are:
| Amber Resendez | Young-looking second-circle apprentice |
| Michael | Tall, black third-circle apprentice |
| Raj | First-circle apprentice. |
| Anton | Tremere Regent in Jacquerdo |
During the conversation, the Tremere ask a number of questions about Cyrus' mission here. They also propose to place a ritual upon him that will let them know if anything happens to him in the next four days. Unfortunately, part of this ritual involves him lying down upon an altar for the ceremony. Though he enters into the ceremony with a few misgivings, Vincent finally agrees.
Cyrus figures out how to get to the Harley-Davidson Bar just outside of Jacquerdo. He and Shepherd drive there. The place is pretty decrepit: the neon Harley-Davidson sign looks like it was placed there in the 60's. The building itself is an old wooden building with a wood-slat roof and two ancient gas pumps out front. The parking lot (skillfully paved in sand) is fairly full, with about enough vehicles (especially motorcycles) for 40 people.
Cyrus and Shepherd enter, and their impression of the clientele does not particularly contradict the impressions they had formed outside. Many of the folk inside are wearing biker gang jackets. Cyrus sees jackets for the Santos Viejos, Detroit Lions and Gypsy Jokers, among others. Cyrus asks the bartender if he knows Manuel. The bartender notes that there are a lot of Manuels around, then asks Cyrus if he has a couple of $20 bills. Cyrus gives him the money, gets beer for himself and Shepherd, then heads off to a table to wait for the bartender to find Manuel.
A few minutes later, Cyrus and Shepherd are sitting at a table when they are approached by three young Hispanics. The leader tells the characters that they are sitting at their table, and that they'd better leave. Shepherd reacts by whipping out a silenced pistol and shooting one of them in the kneecap. The kid collapses. One of the Hispanics starts to pull out a gun, but Shepherd holds his flare on him (as if it were a gun) and tells him, "You draw it, and you'll be dead before you hit the floor." The youths decide to leave, after deciding that the characters can "borrow" their table.
After the three youths are long gone, Cyrus' phone rings. The individual on the other end of the line proves to be Manuel, who asks if Cyrus' friend will shoot him if he comes over. Cyrus assures him that if he can't keep Shepherd from shooting him, he'll make sure that Shepherd regrets it. Manuel seems to accept this, hangs up, and walks over from the pay phones on the other side of the bar. He is a tough-looking, dark-skinned Mexican who resembles the Colombian knife guy from Desperado. He speaks to Cyrus and Shepherd for a while, then asks for Shepherd to move away and talks some more about how Cyrus should spend some time hunting Sabbat with the local Gangrel. Finally, Cyrus mentions that he's got some packages, "larger than a bread box" for Manuel.
Cyrus takes Manuel out to the parking lot to show Manuel the packages. Manuel groans when he sees them, then mutters something indistinct. He tells Cyrus that he'll pick them up tomorrow evening, and gives him directions to a dirt airstrip outside of town. Cyrus is to bring the bodies there tomorrow at 10:00 pm, and Manuel promises to be there to deal with them.
While Cyrus is talking to Manuel, Shepherd heads over to his van to pick up some guns. Vincent, having finished his business with the Tremere, meets Shepherd there. Moments later, while Cyrus is still talking to Manuel, three Hispanic youths approach Shepherd. Their leader asks one of the others, "Is he the one who shot your friend?" The other confirms that he is, and a fight ensues. It quickly becomes obvious that some of the youths are Kindred, and others know about the Masquerade. At least one of them possesses both Celerity and Potence, and may be Brujah.
The fight goes quite badly for Shepherd, as he finds himself closely-pressed by one Kindred who quickly cripples him. Vincent pulls out a (silenced) gun and blazes away at one of the other combatants, incapacitating him, then flees for his life.
Cyrus only comes into the fight after one of the combatants finally uses an unsilenced gun, alerting him to the fact that something is going on. He gets his .30-06 out of the trunk and walks over to the fight, looking for combatants to shoot at. He shoots a couple of them, then sees Shepherd in the van with a stake in his heart. Assuring himself that Vincent is not in the van, he drives off and heads for the horizon. Meanwhile, Vincent drives off in Cyrus' car. Someone shoots out the rear window in the car as Vincent slews madly through a cactus.
Cyrus heads out into the darkness. He hides Shepherd's staked body and the two Kindred (also incapacitated with impromptu stakes) and Shepherd's guns in the wilderness, then drives to a gully about ten miles away and torches the van with his highway flare. He then calls Vincent and gets him to pick him and Shepherd up and take them back into town.
In town, Vincent decides to hunt by preying upon hookers. He also places a Blood Rush ritual upon Shepherd to keep him from frenzying for lack of blood. With Vincent feeding on his own, Cyrus and Shepherd head out looking for animals. This turns into something of a debacle. Cyrus first proves unable to use his Animalism to lure over two goats, and then succeeds in using Animalism to lure a horse over for Shepherd, only to have the creature kick Shepherd's head in. Cyrus finally manages to pacify the horse by draining blood from it, then slits his own throat to catch six blood points in a bucket and feed it to Shepherd.
After he has glutted himself, Vincent finds a room at the Dew Drop Inn, obviously one of the sleaziest establishments in Jacquerdo, and waits for the other characters to show up. Eventually, suitably prompted by phone calls, they do.
Some time later, Cyrus' phone rings. The caller is Tyler, who innocently inquires whether or not the characters might have been at the Harley-Davidson Bar earlier that evening. Cyrus allows as to how they were, and how they got into a touch of trouble there. Tyler politely asks that Cyrus emerge from the hotel room to talk, and further requests that Cyrus not shoot him when he does.
Cyrus complies with Tyler's request, and locates the Malkavian at a nearby pay phone. They have a brief conversation, in which Cyrus recounts his story of the evening's events, ending with dumping the two staked Brujah under some carpeting in the wilderness. After Tyler tells Cyrus that those two (and the others involved in the fight) were members of Hutchkins' gang, a group of some 18 Brujah and ghouls that hang out on the East side of the main drag, they head out to reclaim the bodies. They take Tyler's city-boy truck, as Cyrus claims an unwillingness to use his own vehicle (he notes that it just got a window shot out).
At the drop site, Tyler identifies the bodies as Paulo, one of the Brujah, and Rodriguez, a ghoul. Though Paulo is basically okay (if staked), Rodriguez is clearly stone dead. Both of them get dumped in the back of Tyler's truck.
Tyler and Cyrus trade small talk on the way back. Tyler generally acts like this sort of event is not particularly unusual, and doesn't seem inclined to inflict any significant retribution upon the characters. The fact that Shepherd was responsible for lighting the first bit of tinder probably contributes some to his tolerance. The fact that Hutchkins and his various cronies are likely to extract their own venegance doubtless adds some more. As Tyler takes his leave of Cyrus, he warns him to stay clear of the East side of town.
Each character gains five experience points. The characters are all sitting in the Dew Drop Inn in Jacquerdo. Tomorrow, Manuel will meet them to pick up Otto's "packages".