Not so many folks show up: Nick (Vincent Cray), Doug (Himmler), and Bruce (Cyrus Billings). Tim (Shepherd) promises to show up late, while Little Chris (Perrin) remains unfindable.
Vincent goes to San Antonio State Hospital to retrieve the magical cross the surviving vampire hunter had been carrying. Knowning that he will be unable to carry the thing, he Dominates an orderly to search for it. The orderly is unable to find the thing.
After he fails to locate the cross, Vincent gets an image of the witch-hunter's tattoo (of a sword, a cross and a shield) and takes it to the Tremere Chantry's library to see what he can learn. He discovers that it is the emblem of the Order of the Sword, the Shield and the Cross, an offshoot of the Inquisition in Spain from the 1800's. Their parent organization was originally fairly moribund, but they have become extremely active. One old Catholic document suggests that they possess True Faith and several religious artifacts.
While Vincent researches in the Chantry library, Cyrus uses his contacts in the SAPD to look for information on the Order in the FBI's crime database. He learns that they are an organization of smugglers and terrorists. Their members are predominantly Spanish, but they include known Basque terrorists among their ranks. Members of the Order have been caught smuggling arms into the United States on several occasions.
Concluding that the Order is essentially a Basque terrorist group, Cyrus looks into the history of Basque terrorists in Spain. He learns that they first acted in the 1960's, and have become very active in the 1980's and 1990's. Most of their activities have been car bombings and assassinations. The FBI thinks that they are in the United States to raise money. They may also be active in the drug trade, as there is a fair amount of money to be made smuggling drugs into Spain.
Cyrus immediately concludes that the Order must be working with the faction of smugglers who had him shot down in Chiapas almost two years ago. Vincent disagrees, pointing out that Cyrus hasn't a whit of evidence to support this statement. Cyrus (using his single dot of Charisma) persuades a couple of his police officer friends to keep tabs on the guy for a few weeks. He gives them $1000 to do this.
Cyrus also learns two aliases for the injured witch-hunter: Anonio Cruz and Manuel Espada. He is unsure if either of these are the man's true name.
It is now June 3, 1997, and the Tremere have their regular Tuesday night meeting. At the meeting, Vincent's Sire comments that there are witch-hunters in town, whereupon all the Tremere in the room turn their gazes upon Vincent. Vincent promptly spills his guts, describing everything that he and Cyrus had previously learned about the Order of the Sword, the Shield and the Cross. The other Tremere listen with polite disdain, then start asking questions, like: "Why are they here?" ("I don't know"), "How did they find you?" ("I don't know"), "How many of them are there?" ("I don't know"), and so on. Beezel suggests that they might be here because Vincent or one of his several friends did something to attract their attention. Vincent replies that the situation has been taken care of, generally managing to imply that Beezel is pointing fingers. Both of them become aware that Nastasha, the Tremere Primogen, is listening intently to their banter.
Nastasha also asks if the witch-hunters exhibited any unusual powers. Vincent comments that the one in the hospital was carrying a cross that burned one of the Malkavians (Shepherd), but which has since disappeared. Beezel spends a lot of time trying to convince the other Tremere that this is an incredible disaster, that the ultimate anti-vampire weapon is now in the hands of the enemies of the Tremere. Nastasha tells Vincent that she wants to take a look at the cross, if he can retrieve it. She also cautions him against maintaining a high profile, as witch-hunters are skilled and often well-equipped with technology and mystical weapons. Vincent confidently points out that so far, all the Order has managed is to be a hazard to traffic and a potential breach of the Masquerade.
After the meeting ends, Vincent motions aside to Isaac, the Tremere Necromancer. Vincent tells him that he possesses several personal possessions of the injured witch-hunter, and asks what sort of information Isaac can gain from him. Isaac allows as how he really needs something truly personal (hair, fingernail clippings, etc.), and needs to know the man's name, especially if he is still alive. Isaac also states that he will not be able to do much while the man lives.
Vincent returns to SASH and uses Dominate on his orderly again to take blood samples from the injured witch-hunter. He leaves the hospital with two vials of blood, which he takes to Isaac. At Isaac's he calls up Cyrus to get a name for the man (Isaac specifies that it should be the most recent alias the man has used, unless his real name can be found). Isaac says that it is okay if Cyrus comes by. Cyrus shows up about a half hour later, while Isaac and Vincent are still preparing. Vincent greets him at the front door, and points out that because everything Isaac is doing is a secret, he'll have to Dominate Cyrus into not telling anyone about what he sees. Cyrus declines as politely as he can ("You fool with my mind, I'll cut you into five pieces.") and ends up waiting in the car.
Isaac makes two attempts to contact the witch-hunter's spirit. The first fails, and leaves Isaac visibly shaken. The second is much more successful, and gives Vincent several minutes to interrogate the man's spirit, during which time Isaac is forced many times to scream out demands and threats, and to wave about a feathered-skull wand. The spirit says that there were two groups of Order members brought into the city, one to look around and another to try and locate Shepherd. The first group was the strike group that the characters ran into, while the second group was composed primarily of surveillance and legal types. They originally came into the city after Shepherd turned the lawyer Theodore Lippo into a ghoul. Supposedly, they had not previously had any agents operating in Texas, and are mostly operating out of New York. The spirit claims that in New York, they know of three mutually antagonistic factions of vampires: the Diabolists, the Setites and the Camarilla.
Isaac asks if the Order normally operates in this manner. The spirit responds that they keep files of incidents like Shepherd's, but normally simply move into a city and "clean it up".
Vincent calls up Cyrus and asks if he has any questions. Cyrus wants to know where the group's money comes from, and whether or not they have anything to do with the gang that shot him in Chiapas. The spirit says that weapons and drug smuggling are the Order's primary sources of income, though it also has some legal businesses in Spain and owns a small shipping company in the Mediterranean. The spirit doesn't even know where Chiapas is.
After the spirit departs, Isaac admits that the first attempt to summon the spirit went horribly wrong, and that the man will probably be dead before morning. He claims that he feels pretty bad about this.
Near to morning, Shepherd calls up Vincent. He had been watching over the injured witch-hunter at the hospital, but had run into a problem: after a half-hour of fevered medical activity, the man died.
Cyrus and Vincent make their way to the hospital morgue to recover the witch-hunter's body. Upon arriving, they find that the morgue is fairly active, even at this late hour. Shepherd tells them that this is because the hospital has recently had a number of deaths due to a failure in the oxygen system. Several outside investigators are around, looking into possible malpractice. Shepherd knows that this is troubling the orderlies, as they are stealing more drugs than usual.
Vincent uses Dominate to ensure that Cyrus can get the body out of the hospital, and deliver it to Isaac. Cyrus takes a series of photographs of the body, then Isaac renders the body down with acid to get the bones.
Shepherd checks with the hospital property room to see if he could find what happened to the witch-hunter's cross. He finds that a police detective named Larry Ogleby signed it out as evidence.
Cyrus doesn't know much about Larry Ogleby. He is a fairly friendly sort, one who doesn't stare at Cyrus as if he's trying to hide crimes (which is how some of the other, better detectives look at him).
Shepherd decides that because the Order is after him, the best plan for getting rid of him would involve disappearing. He calls up a contact of his in the CIA and arranges to become legally dead. His contact can give him a death certificate, some new identity papers and a bit of money to get started again. However, he says it will take a couple of months. In the meantime, his contact has some work for him down in Bolivia.
After he deals with his CIA contact, Shepherd makes contact with Sattler to ask whether or not the Sabbat controls the situation that far down. In the conversation, he happens to mention that he's running from some witch-hunters. Sattler picks up on this, and asks him to meet him at the Prince's residence.
When Shepherd shows up for the meeting, Sattler lets him know that the larger cities in Bolivia are run by Toreador Princes, and that there are some Brujah and occasional Sabbat running around starting revolutionary groups. In addition, there are a reasonable number of shapechangers in the jungles, including the Jaguar Folk. Sattler is somewhat perplexed by Shepherd's assertion that he's going to Bolivia to work for the CIA, for their "special vampire wing." However, he is noble about it, and offers to buy Shepherd's ticket for him, whereupon Shepherd asks if Sattler would be upset if he didn't actually go to Bolivia.
Sattler cautions Shepherd a short story, a cautionary tale about another Malkavian who was hunted by witch-hunters. This Malkavian chose to stand and fight, and managed to kill all the hunters. Unfortunately, in the process he broke the Masquerade many times, and was put to death by his Elders. "If you find yourself in a corner, call me. I will help you out. There will be a price tag, but at least you'll be safe and I won't have to kill you."
Cyrus learns that Larry Ogleby is in a downtown station house, working on graveyard shift. Cyrus, Vincent and Himmler, along with Vincent's ghoul Jimmy, head down to the station house to talk to him about the cross he took from the SASH property room. All four go into the station house, though Himmler is nervous about the security cameras seeing through his Obfuscate.
They find Larry working at his desk. He's about forty years old and looks like a balding athlete on the slide. Cyrus introduces himself, then introduces Vincent as "Doctor Clayton Forrester", an anthropologist. Cyrus asks if Larry would show him the cross. Larry immediately asks suspicious. Himmler suspects that Larry knows that both Cyrus and Vincent are vampires, and is merely stalling for time, hoping that they won't pull anything in a roomful of cops. Vincent responds by Dominating Larry and asking him to show him the cross. Larry, asking Vincent questions all the way, takes them to the Evidence Room.
The characters go to the station Break Room to look at the evidence packet. The cross is there, along with some other items (a notebook, some weapons, a watch, etc.). All of them are sealed in litle baggies. While Cyrus, Himmler and Jimmy watch Larry (who Vincent ordered to stand near the sandwich machine), Vincent walks through the station house looking for someone else wearing a gold cross, under the excuse of having to go to the bathroom. He finally manages to buy a gold cross from a man being released from detention. Jimmy swaps the two crosses after wiping the fingerprints off the replacement. After the exchange is made, the characters give the evidence package back to Larry, who very obviously avoids eye contact with all the characters.
After the characters leave the station, Vincent touches the cross with the tip of his finger. His suspicions that Larry had already switched crosses are confirmed when he is not burned.
The characters sit in Cyrus' car in the police department parking lot, debating what to do about Larry Ogleby. Cyrus calls Shepherd, and asks him to join them. On the way, Shepherd notices two things. First, along one stretch of street he sees the same prosititute on every street corner for ten blocks. She appears to be the same hispanic woman he killed at Screaming Joe's place some months ago. He suspects she isn't doing much business, considering the huge rip in her throat. He also notices that a car is following him. He takes some evasive action, passing by the police station parking lot and driving into a Stop N'Go. He parks, then walks into the bathroom and Obfuscates.
The characters finally decide to see what Larry is going to do. Meanwhile, Vincent calls up Lucas at the Tremere Chantry and persuades him to use Spirit's Touch upon the cross. Vincent and Jimmy take a cab back to the Chantry while Shepherd, Cyrus and Himmler wait in their cars near the police station to try and tail Larry when he emerges.
Vincent and Jimmy take about an hour to reach the Chantry. They talk to Lucas, who doesn't remember anything about the name Larry Ogleby. He is able to determine that the cross' last owner was Larry Ogleby, who isn't a particularly devout Christian and who decided he didn't need his cross anymore. He apparently thought that he was doing something sneaky by putting the cross where he found it.
After talking to Lucas, Vincent goes to Isaac and asks him about Larry Ogleby. Isaac checks his computer, and finds that he has a file on an investigation done about eight years ago by three detectives. Apparently, one of the detectives mishandled evidence in a way that allowed two of the Brujah Frank James' ghouls to go free. Larry Ogleby was one of the three detectives.
Vincent makes the conclusion that Larry Ogleby might be one of Frank James' ghouls, and that Frank James may now have the cross. He asks Isaac whether Frank is likely to admit whether or not Larry is his ghoul. Isaac suspects that unless Frank has Larry up to some kind of skulduggery, he probably will.
About fifteen minutes after Vincent leaves the station, Larry leaves. Shepherd and Cyrus trail him for a half-hour, out towards Southwest San Antonio. Larry drives to Southwest Comfort, a shabby-looking bungalow motel. There are seven other cars already parked near several of the bungalows. Larry knocks on the door of #7, and is let in by someone the characters can't see.
All of the characters gather at the motel and fill each other in on what they know. Cyrus offers Vincent the opinion that Larry is probably not a ghoul, that one of the other detectives was responsible for mishandling the evidence in the case against Frank James' ghouls, and that Larry only took heat for it. He thinks that Larry learned about the Masquerade then, and may still have the cross.
The characters decide to investigate the motel. Himmler and Shepherd don headset radios and Obfuscate their way towards bungalow #7. Cyrus and Vincent wait out front in the car. Shepherd uses his Auspex to hear two men interrogating a third man, asking him where his drugs are, where his money is, and who gives him his orders. The interrogation continues for at least thirty minutes.
Finally, the characters hear a chainsaw start up. At this point, the other characters call in Cyrus, who arrives at the door wearing a facemask and work gloves and carrying a .30-06.
Cyrus breaks down the door to see a vision of hell. Every inch of wall and floor space in the room is covered in blood-slicked plastic sheeting. Two men wearing expensive clothing and rain slickers stand over a disemboweled corpse tied to a chair. One of them has just finished removing the corpse's legs with a chainsaw. Larry is standing in a corner, smoking a cigarette.
Cyrus rushes in, shooting the chainsaw wielder with his rifle, then moving to grapple Larry. Larry responds by shooting him twice, dropping him in his tracks. Vincent and Himmler pile in after Cyrus while Shepherd slips around to the back of the bungalow. Vincent and Himmler open fire on Larry while the second raincoated man rushes out the bungalow through the bathroom window, straight into Shepherd. Shepherd fires on him with rubber bullets, incapacitating him.
All the characters attempt to grapple Larry, despite his efforts to shoot himself. Vincent attempts to Dominate him into telling where the cross is, but Larry manages to resist the Dominate. Vincent continues to attempt to Dominate Larry for several more minutes, while Larry does his best to try and bite his own tongue off. Finally, Vincent burns off all of Larry's Willpower. Larry admits that he gave the cross to Frank James.
Meanwhile, Shepherd takes Larry's badge and uses it to disperse curious onlookers. His efforts are fairly successful, save for a hispanic family that doesn't go away until Cyrus pokes his head out of the bungalow and shouts "Policia! Vamonos!"
Shepherd works hard to stabilize the man Cyrus shot and to patch up the man who jumped through the bathroom window. He eventually succeeds, though both need medical care rapidly.
Vincent Dominates Larry into forgetting the characters' assault (and ensuring that he believes a bunch of hispanic gunmen were responsible). He also makes Larry forget the characters' earlier visit to the police station. Vincent also checks out the body Larry's men were disembowelling, and identifies him as Vincent Drucker, a representative of the Mexican organized crime faction the Old Saints.
Shepherd puts the two wounded gangsters into the back of Larry's car, then Cyrus drives it to a nearby hospital, leaves the horn blaring, and runs away. During the trip, he is repeatedly tempted by the wonderful smell of blood. Against all odds, he managed to safely deliver them to the hospital.
After he resists the urge to feed from the two wounded criminals, Cyrus goes to hunt. He finds a drunk couple in the parking lot of a nearby kicker bar. He offers to help them call a cab, trying to use this as a pretext to feed from them. When the first touch of blood hits him, he is overwhelmed by the sensation and frenzies. By the time he comes out of the frenzy, he is hiding in a Hallmark card store next to the shredded body of someone named "Irene." There is some kind of disturbance in the parking lot outside.
Cyrus attempts to make the damage look like a bungled robbery attempt, then runs out the back. Trying to find some new (non-bloodstained) clothes, he runs through the plate-glass window in front of a uniform store. A cop spots him, forcing him to run out the back in a medical orderly's uniform, then run through the sewers.
Some hours later, Cyrus crawls back to the scene of the crime, determining that there are several very messy bodies lying around. Sattler and Crask are also there. Cyrus manages to get Crask's attention, and lets him know who was responsible. Crask has him sent back to David's residence as a "guest". Cyrus ends up spending several days there being mercilessly grilled by Sattler and Crask on the events leading up to the bloodbath.
In the course of his rampage, Cyrus managed to frenzy, acquiring a vestigial tail to match his black fingernails. He also managed to botch a Humanity roll, going down to four Humanity and one Conscience and acquiring a Derangement (to be determined later).
Heedless of what is happening to Cyrus, Vincent returns to the Tremere Chantry and tells Nastasha everything. In particular, he tells her that Larry Oglevy is a ghoul of Frank James. Nastasha asks him if anyone else knows. He assures her that he wiped Larry's memories, but that the other characters (Shepherd, Himmler and Cyrus) all know.
Each of the characters gains five experience points. All characters
without at least Status 2 gains one point of Status. Cyrus spends two points
to buy back Conscience 2 and three more points to get Animal Ken 1.