Tim (Shepherd), Nick (Vincent Cray), Doug (Himmler) and Bruce (Cyrus Billings) all show up.
Thursday night, June 5th. Most of the characters discovered last night that several cops may be part of a vampire-hunting conspiracy. In particular, they found that Larry Ogleby was a part of this conspiracy.
The characters note that several interesting stories show up in the newspaper. One holds up Larry Ogleby as a heroic police officer who was desperately wounded in a shootout between two drug gangs. Another makes mention of a series of drunken brawls near a club, apparently involving several maniacs cutting each other apart with knives.
Remembering that Dr. Brain wanted some chips stolen from a semiconductor plant in Austin, Shepherd tries to learn what he can about the place. He learns a number of interesting, but useless, tidbits about how the place is run and how large it is. He also learns that building security is handled by Frontier Security.
Recalling that the drug smuggler Vincent Drucker had been a member of the Old Saints (Santos Viejos) smuggling gang, Cyrus checks with his SAPD contacts to see what they know about them. They don't know a lot more than Cyrus does, but they do tell him:
In an unrelated note, one of Cyrus' friends tells him that the hits he asked for on the FBI database to learn about Basque terrorists have sparked some official attention. In particular, a team of four FBI agents have shown up in San Antonio asking questions.
Himmler decides to spy on Crask, the Prince's elder Childe. His plan is to drive in to the area around the Prince's haven, then tail Crask. He quickly finds that vehicle access to the Dominion is restricted by a guarded gate. Unable to get access to the neighborhood, he simply parks outside Obfuscated.
After some hours of waiting, he sees Sattler drive out of the Dominion in a large four-door sedan. Himmler, making default Perception+Investigation and Dexterity+Drive rolls, tails him. Sattler drives north on IH-35 up to Austin, where he leaves the freeway and stops at a small adult bookstore. There, he meets with a dark, attractive Hispanic gentleman with whom he exchanges manila envelopes. Himmler parks his car and enters the shop, where he buys the first thing he sees and comes back out to find that Sattler and the Hispanic man are apparently sharing stories.
Himmler returns to his car, then Obfuscates and wanders back towards them. Neither of them appear to notice Himmler. Instead, they continue talking. The Hispanic guy, whose name appears to be Ramon, speaks of how he recently participated in a raid upon a group of Toreador Anarchs: it was a really good fight, and afterwards he got to torture some of them. Sattler tells Ramon some stories about San Antonio's current problems with witch-hunters and Malkavians. Sattler asks Ramon if it is true that there are no Malkavians in Austin, then compliments him upon his luck. As they depart, they arrange another meeting in two weeks, at the "alternate place".
Himmler drives back to San Antonio, not bothering to follow Sattler closely.
Cyrus spends some time working for Otto, to thank him for helping out the next-to-last time he frenzied. He also asks Otto about ways for Kindred to get into Mexico without getting killed by the Sabbat. Otto notes that there really aren't a lot of ways for young, weak Kindred to manage this, and that the best plan is to wait until you are old and powerful, and then go into Mexico to kill off your enemies. However, he does tell Cyrus about Hector and Manuel, two Gangrel working out of the town of Jacquerdo on the US side of the border. They, like most other Camarilla Kindred in that area, have the thankless task of watching the border to try and keep Mexican Sabbat members out. If anyone can get Kindred safely into Mexico, they can.
Otto also mentions that he has several wrapped, body-sized packages that need to be delivered to Hector and Manuel. He has had them for some time, so there isn't much hurry. However, if Cyrus is heading there anyway, he would appreciate it if he could bring these "packages" along.
Otto spends most of the rest of the month trying to learn more about the Old Saints and trying to convince his various friends to accompany him on a trip to Jacquerdo.
Himmler arranges a meeting with Nigel, the Primogen of the Nosferatu, to try and persuade him to teach him Dominate. Himmler is at his unctuous best, suggesting that he wishes to learn the Discipline only to protect his friends and their tendency to violate the Masquerade. Nigel suggests that because he is so concerned about his friends, he would not mind paying any price for this favor. He allows as while teaching Himmler Dominate would clearly be a service to the entire community, he does not have the time. However, William Ducker owes him a favor, and could teach him. In return, Himmler freely agrees to provide several services to Nigel in the future.
The next evening, William makes contact with Himmler. They arrange a meeting at a local hospital. When they meet, Himmler notes that William is truly a sight. He is visibly middle-aged, balding, and is quite rotund. He also has long, almost hypnotic nose hairs. The two of them spend several hours at the hospital trying to Dominate people. Over the next couple of weeks, they practice in other places until Himmler is able to reliably give one-word Dominate commands.
Continuing to reach for straws that will help him to break into Quasi-Electric Semiconductors' Austin fab and steal the microprocessors Dr. Brain wants, Shepherd shows up in the middle of the night and poses as a potential large investor. He manages to talk to a manager (the CMP Section Manager), who tells him that this really isn't the right time to talk about investments. During his conversation, Shepherd takes note of the various cameras watching the site and the handgun the guard carries. He also notices that the manager and the guard both wear id badges. Finally, the manager tells him that the building was designed by Buildings "R" Us, an international architectural design firm.
With this piece of information, Shepherd breaks into the firm's local offices, where he promptly accidentally erases one of the hard drives on their main server. He attempts to make this faux pas look like an accident (he tips over a speaker and makes it look like cat did it), then discovers that he is no longer able to get access to anything. Head between his legs, he leaves.
He also details Theodore Lippo to go visit Quasi-Electric Semiconductor, claiming to represent an investor named Thomas Fields who wants to invest a lot of money, but who will eventually lose interest. Shepherd impresses him with the importance of learning about the security features of the building. By the time a couple of weeks go by, Theodore has learned nothing of huge value but has managed to arouse the suspicion of the local management. He does learn that there are cipherlocks on every door leading to someplace interesting, and that everyone inside wears a badge.
Shepherd then calls Dr. Brain and asks him if he has anything that can go through a cipherlock. Dr. Brain says that he has a fairly simple technique, one that even the likes of Shepherd can understand. He declines to offer any other help, as Shepherd is supposed to be a professional. He does agree to meet Shepherd at Precision Measurements.
When Shepherd arrives at Dr. Brain's company, Dr. Brain asks him to not bring any bombs. When he shows up, Dr. Brain has Ed (one of his deeply-muscled employees) "sniff" Shepherd, just to make sure. Dr. Brain shows Shepherd a number of ways to break through a cipherlock that Shepherd could probably have throught of otherwise.
Shepherd persuades the other characters to help him steal some microprocessors. Cyrus agrees to help if Shepherd is willing to go to the Mexican border later. The other characters also agree to help.
All four characters rent three hotel rooms for three days in Austin. Himmler and Vincent both use the ritual Defense of the Sacred Haven to protect their rooms, while Shepherd and Cyrus share a room, hiding in the closet and the bathtub.
Shepherd, Vincent and Himmler will all go into the facility wearing ski masks, reinforced clothing or armor vests and carrying guns. All three are able to Obfuscate. Cyrus will wait in his car, similarly equipped, ready to provide backup. All four characters are linked with headset radios. The three in the advance group plan infiltrate the facility, using bolt cutters, crowbars and drills to get through locks, then find an engineer, Dominate him to learn where the microprocessors are, take them and leave.
The advance group uses the bolt cutter to get through the chain-link fence around the facility, then sneaks in through the loading dock. Shepherd, deftly covering the fact that he doesn't know anything about the interior layout of the building, leads the characters towards the fabs. Along the way, they encounter a technician whom they apprehend and question. The technician is able to tell them that the XPO98 chips are in the R&D lab, down the hall. He doesn't know the code to the lock on the door. After the characters get the information they need, Vincent Dominates him into staying still for a while.
The characters then break into the R&D lab, which is dark and unoccupied. They lack significant technical skills, and don't know what their target actually looks like, so they simply loot the place, packing away everything that looks even remotely like a microchip. As the characters finish their work, two security guards armed with shotguns enter the R&D lab. The characters simply Obfuscate their way past them.
Meanwhile, Cyrus hears a call going out to the Austin PD reporting armed robbers in the building. He attempts to call the characters to warn them, but finds that the building is shielding out the signal. Regardless, the advance team manages to make it back to Cyrus' car without incident, just as a fleet of police cars show up. It is still early in the evening, so the characters (with all of the advance team still Obfuscated in Cyrus' car) head back to San Antonio that evening.
The characters managed to heist a total of 45 XPO98 chips and 10 URNS99 chips, slightly short of the 50 chips Dr. Brain wanted.
After the characters change clothing and vehicles (to Himmler's car), Shepherd arranges a meeting with Dr. Brain in a Kinko's off Fredricksburg and 410 to make the drop. Shepherd and Himmler wait in the store, while Vincent and Cyrus stay in Himmler's car. After a few minutes, Dr. Brain pulls up in a two-seat sports car with another man. Dr. Brain is dressed in uncharacteristically mundane style. Shepherd greets him, then leads him out to the car where he hands over a bag with the chips inside. The Brain goes over them with a strange-looking device, and is quite satisfied with the results until he scans one of the URNS99 chips. Shepherd offers an explanation that Dr. Brain seems to accept. Dr. Brain tells Shepherd that he considers the debt forgiven. Everyone leaves the meeting.
Each character gains three experience points.