All the usual suspects show up: Bruce (Cyrus Billings), Tim (The Shepherd), Nick (Vincent Gray), Chris C. (Perrin) and Doug (Eric Himmler).
The characters are parked out in a dark field, waiting for Cyrus to finish burying the body of his most recent victim, when the Shepherd gets a phone call from Sattler. Sattler inquires as to whether or not he had found the ghoul he had requested from the Prince. Shepherd allows as to how he had. Sattler further inquires as to the profession of his new ghoul. Shepherd, recognizing that news of his earlier disastrous performance in ghoul-finding must have reached people of importance, says, "Well, he's an attorney." By the end of the conversation, Shepherd has been "invited" to an audience with the Prince.
The characters drive back to the city, pausing to pick up some typically tacky clothing for Cyrus at Target. Shepherd goes off to David's place.
Shepherd enters Prince David's presence with the greatest of trepidation. David asks him how much he likes his new ghoul. Shepherd responds that he dislikes him personally, but that he is using the man for his money. David comments that this indicates that killing the ghoul would thus not be a good punishment.
David interrogates Shepherd briefly upon how he would do things differently, given a second chance. Shepherd offers several suggestions. David finally tells him that he will be asking him for a favor in the near future, then dismisses him.
Over the next several days, several interesting stories come out about Lippo's bodyguard. Apparently, his diaries indicate that he had long had a thirst for blood, and had actually been stalking Lippo for some time. The net effect of these stories is to conceal any real vampiric influence in Shepherd's botched recruiting efforts.
Cyrus is hunting on the Riverwalk when someone shoots him with a silenced pistol. Though the bullets do him no damage, additional shots strike his latest victim, who falls. Cyrus, reasoning that normal people fall dead when shot, falls and plays possum. As he lies upon the ground, he notices a shadowy figure sticking a stake through his victim's heart. Seeking an escape route, he spies a patch of earth about fifteen feet away, then rushes towards it and Earth Melds into it (spending 3 blood to do so).
Cyrus spends the next night underground.
Vincent, Eric and Perrin have just met on the Riverwalk after hunting, and notice a large disturbance some distance away. Several police cars are already on the scene. They investigate and find one body, obviously staked, lying in the middle of the police cordon. Vincent and Eric notice that the body appears to be Cyrus' body, though wearing clothing different from what the characters purchased for him earlier that evening.
The characters decide to leave the area when television news crews arrive and start talking to the crowd to get reaction shots. They follow the coroner's van and page Shepherd, who has managed to get out of his interview with the Prince by now. On the way to the City Morgue, the characters debate the best strategy for springing Cyrus. They decide to try and pass themselves off as an official investigation, as most of them are already wearing suits.
Vincent, Shepherd, Eric and Perrin walk into the morgue. Vincent claims, "I'm agent Andrews, this is Doctor Truman, Agent Farmer and Agent Pippin, we just had a body brought in," and does his level best to Dominate the guard into believing him. He succeeds, but only by the skin of his teeth.
The group enters the examination room to find two technicians removing the clothing from the body while Sattler repeatedly pounds the body's face into unrecognizability. He tosses the stake at the characters and asks if they were responsible. He also tells the characters that though the body's face does resemble Cyrus', the body isn't his. While he talks, he wraps a shotgun in plastic and uses it to destroy all evidence of the stake wound.
Sattler spends some time asking the characters about where Cyrus has gotten himself to. He urges the characters to spend some time asking around the Riverwalk to see if anyone has seen Cyrus. He also asks Eric Himmler to ask the other Nosferatu what they know about his whole situation.
The characters spend many hours walking up and down the Riverwalk, trying to find people who have recently seen Cyrus. They essentially come up empty, though they do find several folk with hazy memories of Cyrus earlier that evening.
Sattler's final cover story is that the victim had been playing pool, and gotten into a fight with a couple of locals who first beat him about the head, and then ended his life with a shotgun. He died clutching his broken pool cue. In the official story, there is no mention of stakes through his heart.
The following evening, the Tremere Beezel seeks out his protege Perrin and asks him for some of Cyrus' personal effects, or possibly his body, now that he's dead. Beezel seems to consider this as a tremendous opportunity: "What you need to do first is watch out for the Tremere, and make sure that any valuables end up in our pockets. A vampire dies in this city, and people just go after him like jackals. We need to make sure that we get our muzzles into the body first."
Beezel's basic plan is to use rituals to talk to Cyrus' spirit, and possibly to entrap it and mine it for information. He warns Perrin that Lucas will probably ask his student to do the same thing, so speed is crucial.
Vincent is hunting in the Rack when he gets a call from Lucas, who says that the word on the street is that Cyrus has either been kidnapped or killed. Vincent points out that Cyrus probably isn't dead, as the body Sattler found was a fake. Lucas asks Vincent to go out to Kerrville and assure Otto that the Tremere are willing to help out in getting Cyrus back, that they will use whatever rituals they can to aid the situation. He also asks Vincent to find some of Cyrus' personal effects, to aid in tracking him down.
Lucas also tells Vincent that if he wants, he can work with Beezel's protege Perrin, just as long as he doesn't tell him what's going on. "There can only be a limited number of people in a Circle around here, and if you don't get in first you might not get in second."
Vincent calls Shepherd in, to persuade him to go off to Kerrville with him. Meanwhile, Eric is contacted by Sam (the batlike Nosferatu), who asks if he knew where Cyrus lived or where his wallet had ended up.
Perrin heads out to the alleyway where the murder took place. He manages to determine that there were at least three people in the alleyway during the event: the victim, at least one attacker, and someone else. He also finds two spent .44 rounds, which might have useful psychometric information on them (assuming he can find someone with Auspex 3).
Eric Himmler also goes to investigate the alleyway. When Perrin notices him approaching, he hides with great success. Eric meanders around for a while, then leaves.
After spending several hours hidden in the alley, Perrin sees two men dressed in cheap suits and shiny black suits (rather like police detectives) approach. They spend some time touching things and whispering to each other. After the two men finish their initial sweep, one of them heads to the end of the alleyway, checks to make certain no one else is watching, then produces a strange black box. He opens the box, which appears to contain something that produces a weird red and green glow. He extends an antenna, then spends about forty minutes surveying the area with this device, while the second man gradually becomes more and more impatient. Finally, the first man packs the box away and the two of them take a large number of photographs of the area. They leave after using about two rolls of film.
Perrin chooses to trail the two "detectives" back to a large, white van with normal license plates. The two men get into the van. Nothing further happens for a while, and Perrin quickly finds that the windows are tinted and thus impossible to peer through. Several minutes later, Perrin sees one detective get out of the back of the van. The second detective grabs the first by the shoulders and pulls him back inside. The van rocks back and forth for a couple of minutes, then drives away.
Perrin, faced with the loss of his only lead, rushes after the van and grabs onto the rear bumper. Things go well until the people in the van realize that Perrin is there, and open the van's rear door. One of the detectives peers out, then takes a swing at him. Perrin dodges frantically, then tries boiling the man's blood. He detective swears at him, then kicks out at the door, shattering the hinges and spilling Perrin onto the street. Perrin, gravely wounded by the impact, picks himself off the ground and limps back to the crime scene as the van speeds off. Before departing, he spends a couple moments examining the shattered door, and concludes that the "detectives" have more-than-human strength.
Vincent, Shepherd, and their ghouls Don and Jimmy head out to Kerrville, armed to the teeth. On the way, they stop off at the field where Cyrus buried his blood-streaked clothing. It takes the about 30 minutes to find them. Vincent triple-bags Cyrus' clothes (which are covered with flies and filth).
At Otto's place, Vincent and Shepherd talk to Otto about what might have happened to Cyrus. Otto already knows about the body and the disappearance, as several folks have already called to offer him consolations and aid in his time of great need. Vincent exlains that he's basically interested in getting Cyrus back, as he's a good friend.
Vincent tells Otto about the pickup truck attack two days ago, which Otto hadn't heard about. Otto tells the characters that the Sabbat sometimes wander by, and that a lot of them have some strange ideas on how to fight. Vincent offers his help, and asks Otto to let him know if he hears anything about Cyrus. Otto's position is essentially that he didn't know Cyrus all that well, and that he's either handling his problems on his own or already dead.
On the way back to the city, Vincent calls Lucas and tells him to go to the alleyway. He also tells him about his conversation with Otto. At a parking lot near the alleyway, Vincent gives Lucas the bloody clothing he dug up in the field. Lucas allows as how it may be possible to track Cyrus (or raise his spirit) using the clothing as a focus, then drives off him his sporty black car.
By the time 02:00 comes around, the entire group has assembled in the alleyway. Around 02:30, Cyrus emerges and tells his version of the story. When he realizes that the "shadowy figure" who staked the mortal might have seen Cyrus disappear into the earth, Vincent immediately becomes very paranoid until Cyrus reassures him that there's nobody around.
The characters head off to Don's basement to talk about the situation. Cyrus remembers that his assailant was wearing military fatigues and festooned with weapons (including a quiver of stakes over one shoulder). Unfortunately, he didn't see the man's face.
Cyrus suggests using his friends among the SAPD and the highway patrol to run the license plate number of the van, and to get some composite illustrations of the two "detectives" circulated around. He won't be able to do this until early the next evening, so he and Perrin spend the rest of the evening hunting.
Before he goes off hunting, Perrin gives Beezel the two shell casings he got from the scene of the attack. He also tells Beezel that Cyrus is still alive (Beezel looks somewhat crestfallen). Beezel gets one of the other Tremere (Isaac) to use Auspex on the shells. Isaac gets images of a blonde 30-something with workman's hands hand-loading his rounds in a trailer.
Cyrus and Perrin go talk to some of Cyrus' friends at the SAPD. They find that the van is registered to Precision Calibrations Inc., a laboratory in San Antonio. They also learn that there are no officers in the SAPD that look like the men Perrin saw in the alleyway. Cyrus' associates agree to look around for the two ersatz detectives.
Over the last several days, Shepherd has been suffering sporadic haunting incidents from Bruce Turner, a ghoul he killed some time ago. He asks Perrin to help, after Perrin hears him talking in the ghosts's voice on the phone. Perrin arranges an appointment for Shepherd with Isaac, the "Jamaican" Tremere. Shepherd spends several hours waiting for Isaac to show up. He finally appears at midnight.
Isaac first causes Shepherd to bleed two pawns of blood into a silver bowl. He then draws some symbols on the floor around where Shepherd stands and dances around him, shaking a skull on a stick. By the end of the ceremony, Isaac has summoned up the spirit of Bruce Turner and bound it to the ritual chamber for 99 years. He assures Shepherd that Bruce will no longer haunt him, but comments that Bruce had said that he wasn't actually haunting him.
Shepherd now owes Perrin a substantial boon.
The characters decide to visit Precision Calibration Inc. Before the characters leave, Shepherd gives Cyrus a fully-automatic shotgun:
Weapon |
Diff |
Damage |
Range |
Rate |
Shots |
Conceal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USAS12* | 7 | 8 | 20 | 6 | 10/20 | N |
Precision Calibration Inc. is located inside a two-story aluminum sheet building, surrounded by a moderately large parking lot. Four white vans, one of them missing a back door, are parked on the edge of the lot. The whole compound is surrounded by an 8' diamond-link fence.
The characters elect to climb the fence and take a look inside some of the vans. Cyrus attempts to pick the lock of the passenger door on the van with the missing door, but fails very dramatically: electrical current shoots through him. After watching Cyrus fry, Perrin walks to the back of the van and pulls off the plastic tarp on the missing door. He finds a brick wall (the mortar still wet) in the way. Shepherd and Cyrus manage to rip their way through the brick wall.
The characters find that the interior of the van is equipped as an electronic surveillace center. One wall is dominated by audio and video recording equipment. A small gun rack holding a shotgun and an ammunition box (which Eric appropriates). After the characters discover that none of the equipment functions, they find a breakaway panel hiding several battery racks, all of them apparently discharged (probably because someone was fooling with the locks).
Most of the screens are fairly straightforward, but some of them are rather odd: "Alpha Brain Scan Activity", "Psychic Gradient", etc. Vincent starts up the computer, and tries the password "clever", which is written on the back of the keyboard. The password works, but Vincent learns only that additional passwords are necessary to get access to any interesting files.
While Cyrus and Vincent wait in the car, Shepherd, Perrin and Eric climb up onto the roof of the building to find a way to break in. Frustrated by the fact that the roof hatches and skylights are all locked from the inside, Shepherd ends up breaking a skylight and jumping through the two stories to the floor. He then takes almost a half hour to find enough wire to bypass the alarm on the front door, though ultimately he is successful and lets Perrin and Eric in.
The building contains a series of fairly innocuous rooms and labs, all of which appear to be typical for a company involved in equipment calibration. This occupies about half of the building. The other half of the building is accessible through only one entrance, a locked and armored door labeled only "R&D". Shepherd attempts to shoot the door open, but manages only to put a small ding in the armor.
The instant Shepherd fires at the door, deep red lights spring on throughout the building. Eric and Perrin Obfuscate and hide, respectively, while Shepherd takes a second shot at the doorknob. This time, Shepherd is successful at destroying the doorknob, but is still unable to open the door.
While Sheperd fails to open the door, a small garbage-can sized vehicle rolls up behind him. It orders him, "MOVE AWAY FROM THE DOOR" in a deep, mechanical voice. Shepherd dodges away as it sends a fusillade of machinegun fire at him. The three characters scatter like chickens with their heads cut off. Finally, Perrin throws a potato-masher grenade at the robot and disables it.
Cyrus, having heard quite enough gunfire to satisfy himself that something has gone badly wrong, rushes from the car to the building, pausing to grow claws and hack his way through the chainlink fence.
Meanwhile, Shepherd and Eric continue to try and break through the R&D door by throwing grenades at it. They ultimately inflict a huge amount of collateral damage on the office area, but run out of grenades before they are able to open the door.
The remaining characters join Cyrus and Vincent in the car and leave. Several characters see a single figure, clad in a black bodysuit, peer out of the building as they leave.
During the characters' escape from Precision Calibration, an ice cream truck pulls up beside the characters' car. Cyrus (driving) notices a machine-gun barrel stick out of the side of the truck. He responds by accelerating, ensuring that the machine gun burst rakes only the characters in the back seat of the car.
Shepherd finally throws one last potato-masher grenade (given him by Vincent) underneath the ice cream truck. The truck slows and stops after the grenade goes off. Meanwhile, Cyrus turns off the car's headlights and speeds away from the scene.
Shepherd asks to be dropped off at Joe's place so he can get some blood to heal his wounds. Cyrus leaves the group in a poor section to find a bum to feed from, then to sink into the earth. Eric cracks a manhole cover and slips off into the sewers. Perrin drives by an early-morning jogger and uses his Thaumaturgy to dramatically violate the Masquerade and draw two points of blood out at range.
Shepherd, down to five blood with three wounds, staggers into Joe's place and asks for blood. Joe tells him to heal his wounds and dress nicely for dinner. Shepherd complies, reducing himself to only two blood. He is led to the dining room, where he finds a human victim bound and gagged, with slight razor scores along his body. Shepherd exercises remarkable restraint in drinking from the victim, taking only two blood points. He finds that he is locked in the room, and unable to leave until the victim has died. He refuses, and sleeps for the day.
The next evening, he waits to find himself bound and gagged, but at 10 blood points. The original victim, also bound and gagged, is tied further down on the table. Two servants enter and pound a spigot into Shepherd's next, inflicting tremendous pain but no real damage. They then draw four points of blood from him, placing them in four cups. Screaming Joe and three others walk in. The three drink from Shepherd's blood, then slay the other victim. Shepherd loses consciousness.
Shepherd regains consciousness in a room with three Hispanic people: man, woman and child. He is famished, but still attempts to control himself. Unfortunately, he fails and kills all three of them an orgy of blood-drinking. Joe watches the whole thing from a window in the door.
All the characters gain five experience points. Cyrus spends ten experience to buy Fortitude 3.