Mister Vampire: Requiescat in Potentia

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 3:45 am

"Could be. Jay never mentioned Strive by name. The rat lead doesn't get us too far on its own," Marco says with a shrug. "I'm going to try summoning Becker and Lyons. It's tough without a body or a personal connection, but if you can give me a vivid picture of what they were like I may be able to pull it off."

(So, yeah 8 dice for summon attempts.)

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:51 am

Grant can describe Becker well, but he didn't know Lyons directly. This has pretty predictable effects on the attempts to summon the ghosts of the two: Lyons is a bust even with a photograph to help, but you do manage to summon Becker's ghost. So, the bad news is that she is definitely dead, a swirling cloud of ethereal dust that forms itself into a vaguely recognizable shape. Being rapidly incinerated is a bad way to go in terms of what ghost body you end up with.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 6:22 pm

"We need your help, sheriff. You, your safe, and your informant were all targeted and we'd like to know why."

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 4:26 pm

"The contents of that safe are nothing to be trifled with," Becker says, circling Marco, "spells and poisons, yes, but also a candle. Snuff out the flame of the candle with a drop of blood, and the owner of that drop will be snuffed out with it. A single wound could be fatal if they get away with your blood. The safe is welded shut and can only be opened by my touch, but it will not take them long to simply rip it open now they have it." Details on the 'spells and poisons?' "It doesn't matter, they're not important." She sounds a bit irate at the suggestion. Being a ghost must be getting to her. What about Lyons? Any idea why he was targeted? "He was giving a report on the Chambers killings. He didn't have any strong leads and we were discussing the evidence trying to get somewhere. We didn't." She snarls and hisses, "whoever that bastard is he is not getting away with this! I will drag him with me into Hell!" And then, without missing a beat, "the killers knew where to find Chambers and his crew. There's no way they could have killed them all, killed them so quickly, and when they were isolated, without knowing in advance where to find them. They seem to know where we'll be very well. Chambers sometimes tried his hand at experimentation in his hospital. Maybe he discovered something they wanted, or didn't want us to have."

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:14 pm

"Three days after your death Jay Jordan fell in battle while attempting to exact answers and vengeance from a wererat. He claimed that rats from the Pack had previously been making friendly overtures and that they were the only ones who could have timed your ambush. He was rather upset so I did not press him further, but I did get three names out of him: Trevor, Yvonne and Eddie. Does that mean anything to you?"

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:49 am

"Some minor luminaries following Kit Strive. We had considered them as culprits, but only among dozens of others," Becker says, "to our knowledge none of them have any powers that would lend them to raising cults, but mortal minds are malleable even without supernatural influence."

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:50 am

"I'm inclined to believe that at least one of them is a part of this, but I'm concerned that accusing them without more evidence might get other groups hacked off at us. Even if we fingered the right rat they wouldn't have a hard time claiming that Jay's death was just an act of self-defense given the way he went in full bore. We should probably start lower on the food chain and see if we can make the cultists cough up something interesting."

Marco'd be happy to describe what little Jay saw of the ritual if there's any doubt on how to find these cultists.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 10:58 am

Like most wraiths, Becker is spending most of her time teetering on the brink of her brand new Despair frenzy, and therefore has little consistent commentary to give on investigation strategies. Grant, for his part, was never much of an investigator himself, although he has had a fruitful career as a spy and an assassin, which is how he built up the political capital he needed for his Los Angeles assault back when. To that end, if you can point him at a specific group to eavesdrop on or if you want a dagger in the dark when you go to confront the culprits, he's willing to get his hands dirty in order to expedite the resolution of the current crisis.

Neither of them particularly recognize the ritual, although Becker remarks that it might just be an initiation rite. Maybe the rat hadn't quite thought things through when he sacrificed a bunch of his cultists with the bus bomb.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 12:05 am

Nah, I have no clear idea where to point yet, and I'm sure Ellis doesn't need me micromanaging his time now that he knows there's a persistent rat connection to look into. It's not like I'd know better than him how to use Tongue of Beasts. As for Becker, I'll thank her for the help and gently remind her that securing fetters and providing connections in Mictlan is an Ulmi specialty if she needs any help acclimating. (Later when Marco's got free time he'd like to make the same pitch to Jay, I just kinda forgot to mention it). If we're treating this whole scene as one big Friendly Banter I've got a dicepool of 5 (Cha:2+Makhzen Politics 3) for leaving people with a good impression.

After politely excusing himself Marco's next focus will be contacting Dan Slade and getting the troglodyte investigation rolling.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:06 pm

Mr. Slade works at the local mortuary, is very pale, and wears a very dark suit that looks like he hasn't updated his look since the 40s, probably because he hasn't, except perhaps draining out what little color business suits had along with everyone else around the turn of the millenium. He hardly says a word while fetching the urn containing Chambers' ashes.

Marco's luck still holds - he's able to summon up Chambers' ghost, his ethereal form still mangled by the bullets that killed him. Victims of poisoning must be the supermodels of Mictlan.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:41 pm

"Greetings. Someone has been targeting the Kindred for theft and murder, with your asylum outfit being among the first victims. With your help I aim to do something about these killings. Tell me what you know."

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:25 pm

Off the top of his head, Chambers doesn't know much more than you already do. He was ambushed by mortal goons while heading with one of his crew to talk about the disappearance of some of the others. At the time he wasn't sure if there'd been a hold-up, they'd deserted, there'd been an accident, or if there'd been an "accident." It became pretty clear when a pack of gangsters ambushed him with shotguns and assault weapons in an alley. He was taken by surprise and didn't really stand a chance.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:05 pm

"I am not surprised. So far the hits have all taken their victims unawares, as if someone knew their movements suspiciously well. Let's go over who has been killed and see if you can connect any dots for me. I want to know if there's anyone in your crew alive who by all rights should also have been targeted." Marco will list off who's been killed, including that of the investigators.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 7:06 pm

The names include Chambers' entire crew - but the order is a bit screwy. Cedric Waters is listed towards the end, one of the last of Chambers' men to be killed, but he was one of the very first to go missing. He, along with Tracy Stewart and Elias Schultz, were the first group to fall off the radar.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 12:15 am

"Were these gangsters flying any colors?"

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 8:44 pm

Chambers is not very familiar with the details of gang members, but he didn't notice any particular colors on them. They wore a lot of black, but presumably that was to avoid being seen. They were hispanic and had a lot of tattoos, though.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 10:03 pm

Marco will thank Chambers and excuse himself to go make a few calls. He wants to use his own personal knowledge as well as that of his contacts to figure out if there's any relatively safe Wells into the Deeper Gloom in San Bernardino. If so he'd like to get the remains of Waters, Schultz and Elias and have a nice chat with one of them in a place where it'd be possible for his men to punch them in the face until secrets come out.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:34 pm

You're in luck. There's an Ulmian cultist in town who curates this kind of knowledge, silently trying to work up the nerve to actually act on it while his anxiety at the knowledge he is accumulating mounts with each new fact and he is slowly driven insane. Someone should probably fireproof his notes before he snaps.

In any case, he's got the location of a Shadow Gate on file, but it may or may not qualify as "relatively safe." There's a building that burnt down and has since been rebuilt. Rather a lot of people were caught in the fire, which means the building is as well-represented in Mictlan as in Limbo. In the basement of the new building is a Shadow Gate, and if anyone is burned to death in the building, it opens for just a few minutes. We know this because that happened by accident once and a very large and angry poltergeist terrorized the building for hours, killing over a dozen people, before any supernaturals realized what was going on and contained the problem. The poltergeist was sent back to Mictlan, and has probably gotten bigger and angrier now that it's got a couple more casualties heaped onto its pile.

Slightly better news is that Slade can provide you with the urns containing the mortal remains of every supernatural, spawn or not, who's died in this city since the Clinton administration (except for the incinerated Becker and Lyons, which is something of a sore spot for him, and he eagerly asks if you happen to know of any spells or rituals that would allow him to locate their ashes), including these recent ones he's just cremated and filed away in his storage room a few days ago.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 1:25 am

Marco will tell Slade that unfortunately the best he could do is talk to Becker about it--if her ashes are her fetters she may be able to locate them easily enough.

Otherwise I think Marco will abandon the Deeper Gloom idea for now-- Shadowgates are unpredictable compared to Wells, poltergeists vary wildly in power and any wraiths he summons may be fairly cooperative anyway if they happened to have been betrayed. Assuming Chambers is still where I left him--he's probably stuck there or nearby until sunrise--I'll go back there and try summoning Waters, Schultz and Stewart. If none of them point me at the killer right away Marco will try a Questions of Subterfuge gambit to see if anyone says something fishy without outright accusing anyone of anything. He's only got 5 dice for that sort of thing, but I figure something interesting may come out if you get 4 ghosts talking about why they're dead.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Nov 08, 2014 7:29 am

Stewart and Schultz are summoned up and were ambushed just like the rest. Waters was with them, and they assumed he had died with them. Stewart begins going into an incoherent and fortunately quite catatonic rage when he catches on that Waters lived longer.

Waters himself cannot be summoned. Not even a spawn ghost would've vanished this soon after death, so someone must've either bottled him or fed him to a poltergeist.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Sat Nov 08, 2014 4:29 pm

Marco will let them in on the rat connection in case any of Waters's known connections looks suspicious in that light.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Nov 08, 2014 6:39 pm

They'd seen a few rats around the institution a few days before the attacks. They weren't sure if it was supernatural infiltration or just a regular infestation (they aren't super concerned about maintaining the building so long as it isn't falling apart completely), but the former is seeming a lot more likely in light of recent events.

When Chambers thinks about it, he's pretty sure one of the patients began talking to himself around the same time the rats showed up. Maybe it wasn't himself he was talking to. Clyde Robinson was his name. He should still be there, if he hasn't been cleaned up already.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 9:06 pm

(I think yesterday was about as busy yet unproductive as a Sunday off could possibly get. I even had to get a few stitches because we had One of Those Guys who thinks rec leagues play by prison rules.)

Marco's interested in this lead but what do they mean by "cleaned up?"

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:14 pm

Well, whoever these attackers are, they seem to have been reasonably thorough about making sure leads don't pan out. People who might know something go missing, and if they're really concerned about it than even their ghost goes missing. If they were talking to Clyde, they might have killed him and dumped the body after his use ran out.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 8:57 pm

Marco will visit this guy just to be thorough.