“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.
