Advent 3 – Night, December 14^th 2020 – Lights Out

Scene – Solasa and Damien

Despite the protestations of her beast, Solasa resists the urge to take advantage of Damien’s vulnerability to promote herself to 13^th generation Bruja. Damien briefs Solasa on what he knows. Before the incident with flopsy the clown, Damien what investigating the absence of Malenkov and did not trust the PCs, who botched the previous mission to give him a straight answer.

He was on the tail of a suspect Sabbat he remembered from the war of 1994, Scarletfang, an Aasimite and blood mage assassin. He was defeated in combat and left torpid.

Scene – A Meeting with Sovereign

Upon receiving a briefing from the Day Crew the kindred wake up. Alan Sovereign pulls up in a limousine driven by Ingrid the ghoul, a member of the Brunch Club. Alan knew that Algernon was a diablerist. He held back from telling the prince.

Alan invites the coterie for a chat, privately. In the limousine, Alan says that Algernon is not the only ones with black veins in their aura that cause him concern. There is another, very close to the prince and he could not reveal he could see it in front of this person. There is a ghoul, an up and comer named Malcom Morris.

By all observable accounts and background checks, this ghoul is 100% human. Has a pulse, a medical record, goes out in the sun, walks on the beach and does everything he is told. Prince Jackson is strangely fixated and protective of him, believes him to be a darling up and comer. He is wealthy, has friends in high places, and seems to be an expert on an astonishing variety of subjects. He can make rumors on the net disappear and the prince has made him an exception to the rule against the use of the internet and computers.

Meanwhile, the prince’s behavior has become more erratic, careless as of late, ever since Malcom showed up in the summer. Most other kindred who interact with Malcom report him to be gregarious, eager to please and likable. But disturbingly, Alan’s auspex can see what no one else can. He has black veins in his aura, like a diablerist except he is not kindred and cannot commit diablerie. So why are there black veins in his aura?

 

Scene – Cauldron Bookstore - A meeting with Tasha and Grazz

The PCs, minus Solasa, who is still with Damien converge on the Cauldron bookstore. The bookstore is owned by a wife and husband. Tasha and Grazz. Like with the Day shift, Tasha demands secrets for secrets. She is also in an exceptionally bad mood having just dealt with a meathead german guy. She ejected him from the store when he made demands and started rummaging through her inventory. Upon being asked to leave, the meathead claimed he would be back.

Unfortunately I, the storyteller, do not actually remember the finer details of the conversation but here were some things that Tasha knew. She believes that this Malcom is a member of “The New World Order” a convention of “The Technocracy” who are a group of well connected people who hunt people like herself and her husband, “for the good of humanity.” They are hypocrites as their advanced technology is simply magic in another form. The particular odd thing about their story is that the NWO have been quiet as of late, since March. There have been no raids or other activity. This corresponds to a terrorist attack on the CTA red line a Jackson by a cult called the Oblivates.

The Technocracy is known to use various forms of modern technology, including social sciences as a focus for their powers. The secrecy of will workers is enforced by the cosmos itself. Overt uses of magic in front of witnesses is dangerous and risks especially destructive paradox.

Tasha and Grazz have been studying graffiti to determine its origin and the motivation of who created it. She agrees to dispel the graffiti on all the substations in the city in exchange for information regarding blood magic and the Tremere from Barbara.

The graffiti was drawn by bewitched electrical workers. The had buckets of paint rather than spray cans. A woman with a back problem wearing a hoodie seemed to be directing them. The two hermetic wizards did not engage so as not to provoke the vampire community.

Tasha is cautious in dealing with vampires because they have lost many people over the years. They have enemies enough with marauders and technocrats. Making additional enemies, particularly with immortal predators, is dangerous and unnecessary.

Vampire powers along with the powers of other non-mage supernatural creatures does not trigger paradox because it is “static magic.” It is considered to be part of the world, part of the consensus, rather than outside of it. The two hermetic wizards didn’t know anything about Caine, the Sabbat, Vampire politics, or Antideluvians. Tasha and Grazz are curious about the origins of Vampires since they have the coterie here and might trade favors for relics or evidence.

Mid conversation, the are interrupted by a car crashing through the shop window. The stern man in the black suit from Malcom’s office, who was the German man who said he would be back emerges from the wreckage, unbothered by apparent injuries. His eyes glow red and he is intent on killing Tasha and Grazz. The incident attracts attention from passers by in the early evening.

There is a combat encounter. The Hyper Intelligence Technologies MARK V sprouts chain guns from his bulk arms. It occurs to the coterie that witnesses may weaken the HIT Mark even if it is also, potentially, a masquerade breach. Because the HIT MARK V is a robot, he is immune to many kindred powers and has heavy armor that soaks most damage.

With the help of Tasha and Grazz, the coterie are able to contain the threat and destroy the HIT MARK V through a combination of manipulating electrical currents within the building, drawing his attacks into less effective means, and weakening his defenses by intentionally triggering paradox.

The coterie, Tasha, and Grazz pick up the pieces of the event and continue the conversation. There are nine affected substations in the city and the two wizards know all the locations. It will take 15 minutes per attempt for the vampires to unbind it themselves. They need to accumulate 5 successes in an extended check. Tasha and Grizz can unbind the magic without rolling. They agree to help and over the next few hours, the magic within the graffiti is destroyed.

Tasha suggests that the invisible flies sound like an entropy spirit. The connection with “Premium Oil” is suspicious.

Scene - IED Attack on the Succubus Club foiled

The PC’s trade information with Tasha and Grazz, breaking the masquerade and the two proceed to unbind the blood magic on the power stations with prime over the rest of the evening. Off screen, Faye, Damen, and the Hounds patrolling outside the succubus club, with the lights still on and the city not seized by the chaos of a blackout, are easily able to spot a Nosferatu named Princess driving a van with a fertilizer bomb. They foil her plot and disarm the bomb. Before Faye arrived scene, Prince Jackson leaves the building with Malcom.

There’s a bigger problem though, because of all of these problems and stirrings of rebellion among the Anarchs, a Camarilla justiciar is on the way to the city in a private jet. Normally they would use the private airfield in the city and pay off the right people, but mid-journey, the flight has been rerouted to O'Hare, Flyboy's territory. Also it will be arriving in during the day which is a problem. The coterie will need to send The Day Shift. 

Scene – Celia and her Sire

Celia contacts the group. She’s been contacted by what she believes is her sire. Clova Haines, a Sabbat joins with a warning but wants immunity. There is a low generation witch, a Lasombra among them and she will strike tomorrow night. She wants guaranteed immunity, some way of keeping herself safe from retaliation. The anarchs are the most likely to allow this.

Scene – The Morning Show

While torpid corpses during the day, the coterie all have a vision. They find themselves in a tv studio, with Malcom hosting a morning show. 

"GOOD MORNING CHICAGO! I am your host, Malcom Morris, here on dreamlab studios. We are here this bright sunny morning to meet our guests. The saviors of Chicago, the uptown gravewalkers"

An audience of shadow people wearing pig masks applaud. The coterie members who are in topor find themselves on a big couch in a studio lit by sunlight. They are not harmed by this. On the table are refreshments. The refreshments are not only edible, they permanently increase one resistance stat if the PC indulges but they gain one stain for doing so. Malcome sits behind a news desk like morning show host. So anyway, have folks heard of the movie Terminator by James Cameron? I love that movie. What did you think? Lots of people think that movie is some warning about technology but I think we can all agree what its really about is that the world is doomed, there is no point in trying to change fate, watching the world finely burn as it should is the most wonderful spectacle, and the real winner is the machine, always. Also it’s cool to have a robot buddy. Or several, disposable ones, who can get destroyed by interlopers and it doesn’t even matter!

Anyway, I have got some great news for everyone. This a prize giveaway. The name of this segment is (crowd chants: “WHAT. DO. YOU. WANT?”)

In this segment, you tell me what you want most of all, and I see if I can help you get it!

The PCs were human in this dream and Malcom would simply reset them to the couch. "Isn't TV magical? I can control everything in here, much as I will soon be able to do out there." Malcom asked the PCs questions, asked them for what they want. The coterie had no questions and rejected him at every turn. 

He congratulated them for their brave stance in the face of absolute oblivion. I mean, who doesn’t want to be the hero am I right? I can help you be a hero too. Save the world. Be beloved by all. You just need a little power. And then you can save the ones you love. (crowd: aww)

Upon them rejecting him agan, he transformed into an enormous pig-headed demon monster with the studio becoming swarmed with flies and the dream ended.