“You have no idea what you are up against, boy! You will pay for this! Do you hear me?” The pounding voice of Steward O’Leary was still resonating in David’s head. He had finally managed to overthrow the dominant personality of the insane priest and regain control of his actions. He tried to figure out where he was and in the darkness he couldn’t see much. Once again he regretted that he never paid attention during the Auspex teachings of his sire. The only light came from the hole in the floor and as he looked up he suddenly noticed that he must be standing in a round chamber, about as big as the platform above, as he could clearly see the whole disk. The platform was resonating in a dimly red light, as if it had been heated in a blast furnace and on the inside David could clearly discern the rest of the drawing that he had previously seen on the manhole cover. It was a large devil’s trap in the shape of a pentagram. ‘So that’s why the boy couldn’t leave the platform before we opened up the manhole’, he thought to himself. It suddenly dawned on him that the ramblings of his most insane personality must have had a point after all. The boy really seemed to be some kind of a demon.
Ruthven had in the meantime gotten an idea that might save their skins and so he yelled to Ian, “Hey Brunswick! There seems to be an opening to the waterfront behind that wall. Try to smash the little bugger into the water! Use your hammer!” The Brujah enforcer jumped into action and ran over to the boy. Next to the child, the heat was unbearable. If it hadn’t have been for his superior resilience, he would have fainted immediately. As he swung his sledge hammer, the skin on his hands and face started to blister and the end of his jacket caught on fire. With as much force as he could muster up under the circumstances he threw his hammer against the chest of the boy, who flew several meters and landed next to the mid-high wall. As if nothing had happened the kid stood up and climbed up on the wall. He turned towards them, spread his arms and started to his demonic bark again. The temperature had risen to an unbearable level and Ruthven saw no other way out than to shoot again, but this time with full intend to kill the little devil. He took aim and fired, hitting the child right in the chest. The moment the bullet impacted with the boy, a darting flame burst out of his chest and he fell over backwards into the sea. Seconds after the splashing sound, plumes of steam rose from the water and a loud fizzling could be heard. But this victory gave the three vampires no time to rest easy, as the whole building started to rumble. It felt like a strong earthquake and the roof panels started to come lose and crash to the ground. “Quick into the hole!”, yelled Victor and the three lunged towards the circular opening in the floor. One by one they jumped in, and not a moment too soon, as a giant metal panel crushed to the floor and closed the opening above them, burying them underground.
That’s it. This is how far we have played in the first session and I hope you enjoyed the read, as much as I enjoyed writing it all down. Quite a cliffhanger isn’t it? Well you will have to wait, same as we players, but I promise that I will continue the story as soon as we have finished our next session. Big thanks to my three fellow players and the game master Ben, who thought of this impressive story.
The four had just settled in, when the Seneschal pressed them to divulge all they had found out during their investigation. After a few minutes, the main conclusions they had drawn at the Old Church were laid out and Taylor finally told them, what had seemed so urgent when they had arrived. With a worried look, the Nosferatu informed them, “My informants have just told me that several strange reports have come in from the harbor area. Apparently they are connected to our deaths and I would strongly urge you to investigate immediately. Most reports came from the Surrey Commercial Docks, so you should probably start there.” Before anybody could reply, one of the guards came over and escorted them towards the door. The drive to the harbor’s dock area was a bit longer than expected and it gave the team a moment to revisit everything they had found out so far. David thought about the four dead vampires and the idea suddenly put the whole immortality issue into perspective. ‘Seems like it can be over pretty quickly after all’, he reckoned, but he tried to push those feelings to the back of his mind, as the upcoming task was much more important. The four got out at the entrance to the commercial dock area, a vast space with a seemingly endless number of large metal containers that had been neatly stacked and placed in regular intervals. Several homeless people were rummaging the area and as nobody of the four vampires knew what exactly they were looking for, they thought it might be a good idea to question the local populace. Ruthven took some money out of his wallet and flailed it in front of one of the men sitting next to a shopping cart and a large cardboard box and asked, “Hey you! Did you see anything interesting these last couple of hours? Hey I’m talking to you!” But the man was sound asleep and would probably not have woken up unless the world was about to end. Victor tried a more gentle approach, “Excuse me sir, you didn’t happened to see anything out of the ordinary recently, did you?” The guy he had spoken to, had a baffled look on his face and mumbled to himself. “What? How? So little… but so… terrible…” As he was saying this, he kept pointing in the direction of a large shipping warehouse. “I think we might as well start our search over there”, Victor concluded and the team went off in the direction of the enormous building. On their way over, David noticed several scorch marks on the surrounding freight containers that looked like small hands had burned into the metal. The front gate of the warehouse was made of massive steel and it was closed with a padlock. On the bottom of the door was a small hole, not bigger than a cat flap would have been. It seemed to have been cut open with a blowtorch, but it was too small for any of them to slip inside. Ian who had brought his immense sledgehammer grumbled, “Please step aside. I’ll handle this, easy!” He heaved the hammer over his head and aimed a blow at the padlock. With an incredible force he struck at the lock and the impact with the metal door gave off a loud bang. The lock however seemed intact. Ian looked at it with contempt and seconds later the group could hear a clicking sound, as the small metal object snapped into two. Ruthven opened the gate, which creaked spookily and the four vampires entered the premises. ‘If somebody is expecting us, they sure know that we are here now’, David thought to himself. The front on the inside of the warehouse was fitted with shelves, which were packed with crates of all shapes and sizes. On the far end, the team could see a light burning on the left side, around a corner made by several high shelves. One of the crates had a familiar looking symbol on the side, a mask – the kind they were in Venice during the carnival. “Isn’t this the clan symbol of the Nosferatu?”, David remarked innocently. Ian replied, “Well I’ll be damned! What do those guys need so many crates for? I’m curious what’s inside.” And before anybody could object, Ian had punched a hole in the side of the chest nearest to him. He pulled out his hand and was holding a blood pack. “Seems like the Nosferatu use this warehouse to ship in their blood products”, Victor concluded and nudged Ruthven into the direction of the light at the end of the row, adding “Let’s see what else we can find here.”
None of them was prepared for the sight that presented itself, once they turned the corner. There was a large metal platform, about a meter off the ground. A few steps led up to the giant round structure and in the middle of it was a small child crouched over and fiddling with something on the floor. The four went up the steps and slowly approached the boy. Victor, who was best at connecting with people, crouched down next to the child and said, “Hi there. What are you doing here all alone in this big and empty building? Where are your parents?” The boy did not react and kept scraping at the floor with his hands. They could see now that he tried to pry open a manhole cover that was sitting in the middle of the platform. Victor tried another approach, in the hope to connect to the child. “Are you trying to get down there? Why do you want to go down into that hole?” – “Cause I wanna go back to the ugly people. I was outside and everywhere they were afraid and I couldn’t understand and they were mean to me and told me to go away and then I was all alone. The ugly people were mean to me too, but I know them and I wanna go back!” – “You don’t have to be alone anymore, we are here now. You can come with us and we will find your parents. How about that?” said Victor in the hopes to get the child out of the warehouse. They were after all still hunting a dangerous killer. In the meantime the other three were looking around, hoping to find any clues as to why a small child would be sitting around in a warehouse in the middle of the night. The doctor finally managed to get the boy away from the manhole cover and Ruthven and Ian tried to lift it up in turn. The boy suddenly spoke again, “Will you hurt me like the ugly men do? I don’t want to be hurt anymore, please!” – “Of course we won’t hurt you. You are safe now. Let’s go outside and we will get you some food and a bed.” Victor took the child’s hand – he couldn’t have been more than eight – and went down the steps. Just as the boy wanted to step down, he stopped moving. Victor urged him on and asserted once again that he would be in safe hands with them. But the boy did not move and started to cry, “I can’t move. I’m stuck!” Suddenly the four noticed that the air in the room started to get hotter, like if a warm breeze had been carried in. Behind the boy, Ruthven and Ian were still trying to lift the cover and slowly got it loosened up. David was standing next to them, looking over their shoulders, but not contributing much to the effort. The Brujah went down on both knees and tried with full force to lift the metal plate up and finally the material gave in and he lifted the circle over his head. At the same moment, the boy stumbled down the stairs towards Victor, who caught him in both arms. With a bewildered look on his face, he hugged the child to his chest and left towards the entry gate of the warehouse.
In the moment that Ian had pulled the cover over his head, a whiff of damp air escaped from below it. David, who was still standing next to the two vampires, looked at the circular shape in Ian’s hand and could see a pentagon with continuing edges painted on the inside of the disck Just as he saw the drawing his head started to spin. Suddenly he was hearing church bells and his innards started to cramp up. The bellowing voice of an old man started to resonate in his ears, yelling, “Boy! You little unholy pest! Get back to the hole you crawled from and stay there! It’s my turn now!” He suddenly lost all control over his body and it was as if he had become a passenger in his own mind. The priest had regained control.
I'm terribly sorry to interrupt our story at this point, especially since the last few submissions are coming up, but I am so swamped at the moment that I hardly find time to write and if I do I prefer to contribute to my newest site, Comic(s) Relief. I promise however to upload the final part of the story this week, probably on Friday.
When they arrived at their destination, the four investigators were immediately greeted by a man, who they assumed to be Malik Quina. He was rather tall, and his dark skin complexion was enhanced by his huge bald head. On his chest he flaunted a similar insignia than the one that the guy in military clothes, who they had encountered only moments ago, had been wearing on his hat. The impressive structure behind him was several centuries old and stood out amongst the modern architecture around. The old church building had really been turned into a club and created an interesting and compelling location for Goth and Punk fans to celebrate at. Quina, who was to David’s surprise wearing some kind of a long black leather skirt, had a stressed look on his face as he welcomed them, “Mr. Taylor has called to let me know that you were coming. Please follow me and I will show you to the room, where the incident took place.” He immediately rushed off towards the back of the building and didn’t even give the four vampires a chance to introduce themselves. When he finally stopped in front of a large metal door, surrounded by two guards, he turned around and spoke calmly, “What happened behind these doors is a complete mystery to me and my men. I hope you can make something of it. And please keep it all calm and quiet, I don’t want my customers to be disturbed in any way.” As he said the last part he looked at Ian, who seemed to take the hint. David was wondering if there had been some kind of an incident between the two vampires, prior to this meeting. “If there is anything else, I’ll be inside. Boys, open the door for them and stay put!” The two musclemen sprung into action and with, what seemed to me an enormous effort, slowly pried the huge metal door open. The sight that presented itself, when the four entered the backroom, was even worse than at the mall. Once again there was an air of burned flesh and fire lingering about, but in this confined space a small odor of sulfur was also faintly distinguishable. The four investigators split up and each of them looked at another corner of the room to gather the evidence quickly, as the horrible smell was burning in their noses. This time they found not one void on the walls, but three. Three vampires had perished in there, without leaving a single shred of evidence of their existence, except for the two white circles on the walls and the bright stain reaching over the counter of the small bar in the left corner. ‘This one must have been thrown against the bar and ripped into two by the blast’, David thought to himself. When he found no other evidence at the counter, he turned to his friends and noticed that they had gathered around a small window on the wall with the metal door. As he passed the frame of the huge entrance, he noticed that the door had melted and was deformed from the inside. The fire must have been incredibly hot to singe the massive iron construct. The young man made a mental note and proceeded towards his companions and saw what the fuss was about. The small window had broken and there was blood on one of the shards. Victor was examining the scene and after a while concluded that the blood was neither human nor vampire. There were no other clues in the room and so they decided to present Quina with what they had found out.
When they entered the club through the main entrance they were almost swept of their feet by the loud music pumping through the speakers. The room was packed with people dancing to the Darkwave music and frolicking about. They found the owner at the bar, where he was giving orders to his barkeeper, “… and one third tonic water. How many times to I have to tell you this? Oh, you are back already? Please follow me to my office so we can talk.” The office space was extremely well isolated, as the music died almost instantly when David closed the door behind him. The room was rather functional, but a few artifacts had been placed around the place to give it a mystical touch. On one of the walls were also several medieval weapons, and shields sporting the same symbol that the man was wearing on his chest. The four told Quina all they had found out and concluded that it would have been impossible for his guards not to see the assailant, as he must have passed them, when he or it got out of the window. As he heard this, the massive vampire hit his forehead with his left palm and beckoned them to follow him outside to the two guards. After a few angry words, their fears were realized as the two guards had really left their post shortly on the day in question, giving the killer an amble opportunity to sneak out undetected. “This will have consequences you two bozos! As for you, I thank you greatly for your help. Please tell Seneschal Taylor that I’m impressed with your work. Furthermore, if you ever should like to shake it up a bit, you are always welcome at my club, free of charge!” With this, Quina bid farewell to his four guests and returned to his duties as a host. David and the others concluded that it was time to get back to the Haven.
When they entered the large ballroom back at the Prince’s lair, they saw that Taylor was hectically talking to his men, running from one side of the room to the other and bellowing orders in an almost hysterical tone. As soon as he saw the quartet, he hurried over to them and, after catching his breath, divulged, “Good that you are finally back, something has happened!”
When the four vampires stepped into the giant ballroom, the seneschal was already sitting at his usual place, typing actively on his laptop. They were standing in front of the large throne for several moments before Charles Taylor noticed them and David seemed to get impatient. He was standing still saluting the old Nosferatu, desperately begging for attention. With a bemused look on his face, Tailor chose to reciprocate and asked for a status report. After they told him about the mall and what had transpired at Mike’s apartment, they were nervously anticipating a response. Killing another vampire was very much frowned upon amongst Kindred, but the seneschal appeased them by assuring them of the legality of their actions. “The coward has killed himself, so don’t worry about any repercussions. I will handle it from here. Was there anything else?” – “Sir, Yes Sir! We were intercepted by three soldiers on our way back to the base. They popped one of our tires and told us to abandon our mission or suffer the consequences. Strangely enough they also told us that the war is over, but I have not received such a report yet”, replied David without hesitation. Taylor shook his head as if he was trying to wake from a dream and turned towards the other three asking, “Anybody care to elaborate on that?” Victor took initiative and explained what had happened between the four investigators and the “Trio Infernale”. “This is rather unfortunate. I was under the impression that the three had understood when I told them that I didn’t like their methods and was looking to resolve the matter otherwise. Well apparently they haven’t and I must apologize for the misunderstanding. If you see them again, it would be wise to avoid them. They can be quite unpredictable, I’m afraid.” – “So that’s it Colonel? We are just supposed to “avoid” them? We were following orders all this time and you can’t even control your own squads? I…” But David’s rambling was cut short when he saw the expression in the eyes of his counterpart. He suddenly felt a chill coming over him and fell silent on the spot. His stance shifted from the solid position he had assumed to salute into a stoop and he took a step back.
The look of these three dingy characters sent shivers down Ranjit’s spine and he slowly backed away towards the trunk of the car. When David saw the guy in military garment he stood still and commanded, “Look alive private! Sergeant John McCain from the 32nd regiment! What’s the situation? Has the enemy advanced to this front yet?” –“Man, what the hell are you talkin’ about, fool? There ain’t no war going on here. Are you insane?” The muscleman’s response baffled David. ‘What does he mean, there is no war going on?’ he thought to himself and turned towards Ian, who was standing next to him, still clutching the carjack in his right hand. “Brunswick! Did you know about this? Did command send anything about a ceasefire agreement? What the hell is going on, private?” Ian, who was growing tired of David’s delusion and was starting to get worried about the motives of the three strangers, chose to ignore the young man’s ramblings and addressed his counterparts, “What do you want?” His gaze fell on a shiny dagger, just like the one sticking from the back tire, glistening in the bald man’s hand. The three were obviously vampires and had no real intentions to hide that fact. They had probably never heard of behaving low profile. The ugly guy in leather was probably a Nosferatu, and the girl seemed to be of Gangrel origin. Ian couldn’t be sure about the guy in military clothes although the symbol on his cap did resemble his own clan insignia. The Nosferatu took a disapproving look at the investigators and said with contempt in his voice, “You better listen to what we have to say, if you don’t want to end up like your tire.”
The Gangrel woman bent her body into an upright position and added hysterically, “So you are the four, who were sent out to replace us. You want to steal our hard earned money and get all the thanks, is that it?” Ruthven had also finally gotten out of the car and looked at the whole scene with a questioning look. “And for what would this gratitude be received? What do you think we are cheating you of exactly?” – “Ha, so the old fool, didn’t tell you?”, the woman snapped back at him, turned to her friends and added “He hires somebody else, while he has a team on the hunt and doesn’t even tell them about us. What a manipulative dick.” She turned back towards the four baffled investigators and gloated, “We were the first on this case and we will finish the bloodhunt so we can get paid. I would recommend that you will no longer interfere with our investigation or you will suffer the consequences.” Ian was clutching his fist and tried to control his anger. The arrogance of the woman was insulting, to say the least. The woman turned around and said to her comrades, “I think they got the message”, and the three disappeared back into the alley they came from. Victor and Ian were glaring at the dark corners on the opposite side of the street and it seemed like they would jump on the Brujah’s bike at any moment now, to pursue the arrogant trio. David, who was still captivated by his soldier persona, spun around and yelled, “Ok let’s get this tire fixed and drive back to base. The mission is more important now. We have our orders! Where is that damn driver? Ranjiiiiiit!!!” – “Are they gone?” The voice came from the back of the car. Ian, who was still shaking with anger, opened the trunk and pulled Ranjit out with one arm. The man blushed and bent back inside the trunk to pull out the spare tire. With the mechanic’s help, the deed was done in a matter of minutes and the team was back en route to the Haven.
David’s ears were ringing from the shotgun blast. The gun had gone off almost next to him and he was trying to regain focus, to understand what had happened. When he looked at his friend the mechanic, he noticed that he was covered in blood and gray matter, breathing heavily and almost growling. This second display of Celerity must have made him hungry and the fact that he was sprayed with blood and human flesh probably didn’t help him to control his inner urges. From the door adjacent to the hallway the pit-bull emerged, slowly trotting towards the remains of his master. The animal was clearly distraught and it didn’t even notice the four dumbstruck vampires standing around in the lobby. Brunswick was still shaking and when the dog sat down next to the pile of ashes on the floor, David noticed that the Brujah looked at the dog with an unnerving stare. He licked his lips and took a step forward, still having a glance of hunger in his eyes. He bent down, picked up the dog and just as everybody was preparing to witness a gruesome scene, Ian seemed to come to his senses and put the animal back on the floor. Just as its paws hit the ground, the pit-bull scurried off to the back of the living room and hid behind the couch. “I’ll take this,” barked the young Malkavian as he grabbed the shotgun from the floor. “Everybody, look around and stock up on equipment if you can find anything of use. Meet up, downstairs, ASAP!” He stomped off towards the bedroom and emerged from the door seconds later with a small box of shotgun shells. Ignoring the other three, he stomped off towards the front door and disappeared down the hall. The soldier personality didn’t seem to irritate the others that much anymore. They had gotten used to the fact that the boy was part of the loony clan. The Malkavian usually choose their future clan members among the psychologically damaged and so it was no wonder that David had been sired at an asylum for the mentally sick. It was much easier to sire somebody, who already was insane and would fit into their ranks, than to make them crazy yourself. Their fellow team member was however a bit different, as his insanity was split off from his normal persona. Still, it was impossible for him to live a quiet life, because his other identities were constantly battling within him to take over.
When Victor, Ruthven and Ian, who had cleaned up a bit, finally came outside, David was sitting in the front seat, next to Ranjit hanging out of the window with the shotgun wailing in the air. “Come on people! Get in, it’s time to move out!” The drive back to the Gangrel Haven was used to compare notes. The team was trying to figure out, why Mike had killed himself and came to the conclusion that his paranoia had driven him to a point where the thought that everybody was out to harm him and that suicide would be the only escape. Just as they drove onto Gangrel territory, the taxi slowed down. “What’s the matter, Ranjit?” asked Ruthven from the backseat. “The tire blew out. I’ll have to change it.” The driver got out of the vehicle and took a look at the left back tire. “Well this isn’t good,” he said with a frightened look on his face. Ian had stopped his bike just behind the cab and walked over to Ranjit with a carjack in his hand. When he came round the car he noticed it too. There was a small throwing knife sticking out of the deflated rubber. “I guess you better all get out and take a look at this,” he proposed and then took a look around to find out where the dagger had come from. Ruthven, who was not about the get his hands dirty by helping to change a tire, stayed put while Victor and David got out of the car. David stormed around the car and started yelling at the scared driver, “What’s the hold up? We can’t just stop in the middle of enemy territory! Have you never learned that you don’t stop during a war, no matter what? Come on people, let’s go!” – “Stay right where you are!” The voice had come from a small alley just across the street and when they all turned around to look who had spoken, they noticed three shadows walking towards them.
The three kindred were still standing in the sparsely lit hallway, with David hiding in the shadows, when Brunswick, mechanic extraordinaire, sprung into action. He positioned himself in front of the door and readied himself to smash the wooden panel out of the frame, when the doctor gave him a calming gesture and responded to the resident’s inquiry, “We are here to ask you some questions. You have nothing to fear from us. We just want to know what happened at the mall.” The moment Victor had opened his mouth, David felt enchanted. Somehow the words of the doctor had a magic undertone, compelling you to listen very carefully and follow the directions he was giving. Unfortunately it did not seem to have the same effect on the man inside the apartment and the Brujah, who started to get impatient, decided to knock down the door and skip the measly introduction. As soon as the door swung open, his eyes fell on the growling dog in front of him. A second later he saw its master standing at the far end of the corridor, with a 12 gauge pointing at him. Before he could react, the pit-bull jumped in his direction, aiming for his right arm, cheered on by its master, “Get him Scrat!” The giant suddenly dodged and the dog bumped off his right shoulder against the wall. David was impressed by the speed with which his new friend had reacted to the dog’s attack. “STOP!” The thundering voice of Vathek had surprised the other investigators. He was looking at Mike, the gun slinging maniac at the end of the hall and was concentrating very hard. The young vampire had heard that some of the Ventrue have the ability to control the minds of others by giving them specific commands. It was impressive to see how the man inside the apartment suddenly froze up and turned into a living statue. Just as David wanted to express his amazement, Ian once again turned into Action Jackson. He grabbed the stunned dog by the throat and darted towards Mike. When he passed a door on the right he threw the dog into the adjacent room and rushed forward until he stood just centimeters from the other man. With a quick grapple maneuver he punched the gun out of his opponent’s hand and grabbed him at the neck. The speed with which the Brujah had executed these three actions was impressive. ‘Finally a true demonstration of Celerity,’ thought David, still reminiscing the earlier display Ian had given him at the mall. When the young man had first chosen to vanish in front of the Brujah, he had tried to avoid alienating him by simply running of unseen. So he let him in on his secret, showing him how he managed to dissipate into the dark and move around unnoticed. Ian had in return shown David the merits of being a Brujah. “This is called Celerity,” he had said, before closing his eyes, concentrating real hard and then punching a whole in the concrete wall. Apparently the enormous fellow could spend some of his blood reserves in his body to accelerate his movements or increase his strength. Ian explained to him that it was an ability inherent to the more physical inclined clans, like the Brujah and the Gangrel. So there he was, standing in the door, looking down the corridor where the human statue’s neck was tightly stuck in Ian’s right hand. David quickly snuck inside and tried to step behind Mike, when he notices something odd. The shotgun that had been knocked out of the antagonist’s hand seemed to be floating in the air just next to the guy. David grabbed the shaft and tried to pull it away from the Gangrel but he noticed that, as he pulled on the gun, its former owner’s armed also jerked into the same direction. It took him a while to realize that the weapon was fixed to the man’s arm with a thin silvery wire. Victor and Ruthven, who had finally also moved down the narrow corridor, saw that David was pulling on the 12 gauge and noticed the wire glistening in the dark.
The doctor stuck his hand in his right pocket and pulled out a small shard of glass and put it in the palm of his hand. He closed his eyes and suddenly the piece of glass was hovering over his hand. Seconds later it flew towards the wire, but the impact did nothing except shatter the shard into little pieces. Apparently the wire was not thin enough to snap it with a piece of high velocity crystal. After this display of magic, David was finally convinced that Victor Brauner must be a member of the Tremere clan, who have the ability to control things with their minds and sometimes even command fire. Just as the young Malkavian tried to give the gun another yank, his opponent suddenly awoke from his frozen state. With his left hand he grabbed Ian’s wrist so hard that he was released from the giants grip. Almost simultaneously he pulled back his shotgun, put the barrel under his chin and fired. With a loud bang, the almost headless body slid to the floor and seconds later, turned into ashes.
The group discussed what they had discovered and came to the conclusion that the fire could not have been of natural origin. The temperatures were too hot for a normal fire and the area of the fire was also perfectly round shaped. Natural fire was never this controllable. They also concluded that the two dead guys were probably Jonathan and whoever Mike had sent in as his replacement that day, since they found the remains of one human and one vampire. They shared their insights with the guard, who only added: “That fits. Mike would do anything to get away from work. Maybe the bastard is even involved in all of this. I wouldn’t put it past him. Here is his address if you want to check him out.” He handed them a piece of paper with a barely legible location scribbled on it.
It was only a short drive to the apartment building where Mike was living. When they arrived they thought it would be cautious to not alert the vampire too early to their presence. Ian broke open the door with a silent tug and they snuck up the stairs to the second floor landing. The doors looked all the same and on top of them was a small light bulb to illuminate the doorway. Except for one door on the left, where the bulb had been screwed out. As some vampires are very light sensitive, it was a good bet to start their investigation at this door. David had cowardly shifted with the shadows again and Victor kneeled in front of the door and tried to take a look through the mail slot. He attempted to open it very slowly, but as soon as he lowered his head towards the door he clumsily bumped into the metal mail cover. He opened it anyway and heard a sudden growling noise from behind the door. And sure enough, the first look he got was the broad and angry snout of a large dog drooling and snarling at the intruders. “Um, guys. I think he knows that we are here.”, said the doctor, and just as he did, the dog started to bark loudly. Seconds after a voice could be heard from the apartment, “Who-ho-ho’s there? Don’t come any closer if you hold your life dear.”
“Um, hello…. Sir. Mr. Taylor sent us, and we were wondering whether you could help us out. We are supposed to investigate something here but other than the black floor outside and a void on the wall, we didn’t find anything.” Ruthven was not sure if it was the proper tone to address the giant with the meat cleaver, but he gave it a shot as he started to feel a bit lost on his supposed quest. “Taylor, huh? Typical of him to get other people to do his dirty work. I bet he didn’t even tell you what happened here, right?” It was a bit unsettling that the grossly looking brute was this friendly. Victor took the opportunity to communicate his own opinion on the matter, “Well he saw us fit to investigate in this matter; that should suffice.” – “Sooooo, you are the Butcher right?”, said Ian from the back of the room. “That’s what they call me. I can tell you work has been piling up since the incident. Now that I lost both my assistants it has gotten extremely hard to keep up with the clan’s demands. You have to know, I’m the main blood supplier for the Gangrel. I process meats and drain the blood in order to conserve it for later use.” After a lengthy conversation with the man, who calls himself ‘The Butcher’, the team found out that his two assistants Jonathan and Mike had not shown up for work after the fire. If it had been only Mike who had disappeared he wouldn’t have been surprised. It turns out that he was still a very young vampire and hated working at the mall. He even went so far as to have himself replaced on several occasions by a human. “It’s not that we hate humans, but it is always dangerous for us when they are introduced prematurely to our world. In this case, it was not that much of a problem since the guy was hoping to get turned soon. It’s still annoying when you never know, who will show up for the job. Anyway, on the day in question I was out on business and Mike and Jonathan were supposed to stock up for the next blood transport to the Prince’s Haven. I don’t know what really happened, but when I came back, the entrance was filled with smoke and several pieces of broken furniture were lying around, still on fire. I have seen neither of them since.” – “So this Mike… He seems like a ‘nice’ guy. In case nothing happened to him, where could we find him?” The butcher gave them an address and added, “So if there’s nothing else, I have to get back to work.” – “Actually”, the doctor added with reluctance, “would it be possible for me to take a look at your warehouse?” The creature shrugged, and opened a door behind the counter and went back to work. “Knock yourself out.” David was crouched on the floor in the entrance hall, while Ian and Ruthven were standing around, looking for clues. Suddenly he heard a whisper, very faint from the right corner of the enormous hall. He thought he had imagined it, when the sound grew stronger. “It’s all your….” ‘That voice! No, not again! Why can’t he leave me alone?’ David started to panic, but he was still compelled to walk in the direction of the noise. “It’s all your fault! I thought we were friends!” There it was again, this time stronger almost like somebody was standing right next to him. He looked around, and threw a look at his team members, but none of them seemed to hear anything. There was nothing there. “You betrayed me! You are a murderer! You killed me just like you killed your grandfather! You MONSTER!!!!” The voice had turned into a deafening scream and David flinched and backed into the corner. He thought he saw something for a split second, but on a second look there was still nobody around except for the four vampires. Something suddenly grabbed his shoulder from behind. The boy jerked around and there he was, Steven, his old friend from the asylum, clear as day. David blinked and he was gone again. And without realizing it he himself started yelling, “Why can’t you leave me alone? I’m sorry…. Just let me be!” He dropped to his knees and almost started to whine, when he noticed that his right knee had hit something sticking out of the concrete floor. He looked around and noticed that his friends were looking at him with a bewildered expression. The sounds had stopped as sudden as they had appeared and he turned his attention back to the bump in the floor. Like the rest of the room, the place was covered in smut and so he started to clean the place with his hands best as he could. Ian and Ruthven were on their way over to him. Victor had just emerged from the shop and he saw that the three were gathering at a small spot in the right corner of the room, so he decided to join them. When the rubble had cleared David stood up and backed away from the place. He had uncovered a human skull, sticking out of the concrete, looking like it had been fused with the floor at an extreme temperature.
David, who had finally snapped out of his episode, had chosen to use one of his inherent abilities to look around the premises undetected. So he tried to remember everything his sire had taught him about Obfuscate, the ability to make everybody around you believe that you are invisible, and blended in with the shadows. He snuck past the two high society members of the team, and decided to have a look inside the shop, the two of them found so interesting. He remembered that the Seneschal had mentioned something about a man simply called ‘The Butcher’ but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. When he was still in St.John’s, he had often snuck out of his room to meet his friend Seth Johnson, a fellow patient at the asylum. He was a master at opening doors without making a noise and even a shop door, outfitted with a bell, was no obstacle for the young man. With the finesse of a cat burglar, David reached up to stop the bell with his left hand and in the meantime opened the door just a slit to slide through. Serendipitous about his success, he looked around the small shop, still hidden from sight by his special ability. He looked through the smudged windowpane and saw that Victor was walking off to the shop next door and tried to pry open the door, while Ruthven and Ian where coming in his direction. Suddenly he noticed a buzzing noise from behind him and he quickly turned around to investigate. His eyes needed a couple of seconds to adjust to the half-light. He had never paid much attention when his master tried to teach him about Auspex, the ability to see in the dark and heighten your senses. At mastery you could even determine the demeanor of other beings by their spiritual aura. He shook his head to rid himself of the memories of his training and slowly recognized the silhouette of a very large being standing in front of him, with its back towards the youngster. The creature was apparently busy working on something on the desk, but David could not see what it was. At this moment the doorbell behind him rang and the noise startled him in a way that he lost his concentration and became once again visible to his surroundings. Ruthven had entered the store, the doctor and the mechanic hard on his heels, and he looked at the Malkavian with astonishment. “How did you…” – “What’s this? Who’s there?” The creature behind the counter had turned around and flicked the lights on. With a short buzzing sound the luminescent neon tubes sprung to life and bathed the room in an unnatural light. Behind the counter was now clearly visible a giant of at least 2 meters height, extremely broad shoulders and a leather mask on his face. He was wearing an apron that might have been white sometime in the past, but was now blemished with an obscene amount of bloodstains, ranging from deep red to almost black in color. In his right hand he was holding a giant cleaver; his right arm was packed with muscles and was almost twice the size of his left arm. The man, if you could call him that, was such a scary sight that the team was rather surprised when he said, “Oh hello there. How can I help you folks?”
Ian was rummaging through the shelves, keeping an eye out for any equipment that might come in handy on their mission, when suddenly the previously catatonic boy darted past him bellowing, “Right! Let’s get to it! We got our mission. Assembly is at 0100 hours. The enemy is at bay!” The Brujah enforcer was stunned at the sudden change in demeanor of the young boy, who was behaving like a soldier on the hunt for weaponry. David grabbed a pistol off the shelf but handled it with such negligence that the magazine fell out and hit the floor with a loud clank. With a confused look he picked up the mag, snapped it back into the gun and racked the slide. Ian, who was still watching the young man, suddenly jumped into action, grabbed the weapon from David’s hands and put the safety back on. Handing it back to him he said, “Better watch what you’re doing before you shoot yourself” The reply was equally puzzling as David said, “Thank you private!” Ian turned back towards the shelf, grabbed a tool belt with several large and heavy wrenches and snapped it around his waist. In the meantime Dr. Brauner put several tubes and supplies from a medical cabinet into his bag while Mr. Vathek was yelling on his phone in a demanding voice to somebody called James.Once everybody was assembled outside, a taxi drove up to the curb and the driver, a Middle-Eastern looking man in his forties, stepped out and beckoned them to get in. “My name is Ranjit. Mr. Taylor gave me a location in the Woolwich district and asked me to tell you that your investigation starts there.” After a short drive, with a quick stop at Ian’s motorcycle workshop, they arrived at an abandoned shopping mall parking lot. Ian stepped off his Harley while the other team members exited the vehicle and they then all made their way to the entrance. There was a smell of burned flesh lingering in the air as they approached the building. A sentry, wearing a paper mask to apparently shield him from the smell, was standing in front of the main door. “Who’s this? Entry to the premises is prohibited!” When Ian stepped towards the door, the guard ripped of his mask, put a hand on the Brujah’s massive shoulder and pronounced with a raised voice, “Maybe you didn’t hear me, I really can’t let you in!” When David looked at the now exposed face of the guard, he noticed that his nose was in the shape of a bat’s nostrils. Startled by the view of the deformity, he took a few steps back, formed a cross with his index fingers and yelled, “Demon! He’s a demon! Holy mother of God, save yourselves!” Everybody else, including the guard, were taken aback by the sudden psychic outburst of the youth. Ruthven, who had after the first outburst of David come to the conclusion that he must be of Malkavian descent, turned to the sentry and said calmly: “Don’t mind the Malkavian. You know that they are a troubled kind. Charles Taylor sent us to investigate, so you better step aside now.” Bewildered, the guard moved and held the door open for the four visitors. “Begone demon! Thy kind will never rule this earth! You shall be cast back into the depths of Hell!” Bellowing his insults, David was pushed inside by Ian, who gave the guard a pacifying look, before disappearing behind the giant door. Inside, the Malkavian turned towards the giant and said, “Would you have some parchment and a feather with some ink for me? I have to write a letter to the Holy Inquisition post haste. They have to be informed of the abominations walking the earth in this area.” Ian shook his head and gave him a piece of paper and a pen, in the hopes that he would soon calm down.
