The fog was as thick as hash-house oatmeal and twice as cold as her hips said goodbye. Maybe she was too much moonlight and orchids for me but I couldn't help thinking that my crazy powers and hers would be soon fighting against the same malign forces. Natalya was going to meet 'Kole Sorensen' a mole at the Chrysalis Corp. but I could tell that her mind was on GIA manpower...

She made contact, and learned some useful intel, including two possible locations for Alicia McGregor: Mercury Communications and Agrarian Foods which were Chrysalis Corp. subsidiaries.

The team decided split up. Dara and Etsuo staying at HQ to try hacking into the systems of the locations, Agrarian Foods was not on the grid. Smith and Natalya went to Mercury Communications. Marika and I went to Agrarian Foods. Natalya decided unilaterally to sneak around Mercury. The place looked secure, but nothing interesting appeared to be going on there.

At Agrarian Foods, things seemed to be lower on the security end initially. But watching for a while it became clear that the guards outside were pros, with high-end automatic weapons. I called it in - and the rest of the team began to take up positions as a plan had been formulated.

Natalya shifted for easy entry while I followed in a stealth-suit. Using powers of hyper-agility we hyper-sneaked our way into the hyper-basement into a room with old hyper-machinery. A dead end? No, Natalya's keen eyesight saved us from a failed mission as she saw that there were false walls. Naturally the walls were electrified, but a bit of clever physics and some determination saw us through.

We followed some stairs leading down and soon found a suspicious looking covert interrogation chamber. We agreed it merited further investigation and soon found what must be Alicia undergoing extralegal interrogation techniques, with two men in the room, their backs to us.

Natalya and I advanced on the men, Natalya destroying the larger man with a controlled phase shift grid network as he began his transformation. The other, shifted in a sheet of snot, that covered me and started to crush my ribs. Fortunately Natalya cut me out and started dealing with the remaining guards behind us. One of them was down due to a headshot from Smith earlier, and the remaining guards had Natalya in front and Smith, Dara and Armstrong behind. It didn't take much. The grenade might have been overkill.

Dara started vacuuming the data up, and learned a silent alarm had been tripped so we made a quick retreat. Alicia, croaked into Natalya's ear:

Ballard... Rictus knife... the 12th...

Reg found himself suddenly surrounded in his haven. Dozens of armed men were clearly looking for him. Since fighting was out of the question he tried to squeeze past them without them noticing, but it was not to be and Reg was shot and staked.

With dawn not too distant, Gideon gave up the hunt and returned to the city via a Citroen stolen from a farm. Gideon crashed somewhere and waited for the sun to set again.

November 2, 1992

But shortly before the sun set, Thomas' body half on its side, rollle slightly and pushed the stake a little out of his heart. Slowly he mustered his will to remove the stake, and slowly he succeeded and went about the task of unstaking the others, including Reg. They were in a low, damp cave scattered with bodies. Vitally, although unstaked, did not wake. They searched the bodies, one of them had a pocket watch monogrammed "UT", and symbol of the office of Justicar. Could this be the Justicar that was sent to take over the investigation of the masquerade breaches?

Finally they gathered their courage and as the sun set they made there way out of the cave. To be confronted by yet another pack of Lupines, those that had attacked them last night were but corpses in the grass. The apparent leader stepped forward and quizzed them. Once it became clear they were hapless, they were sent back to Milwaukee city with the threat that if if the Leeches couldn't clear up their own mess - the Lupines would force the issue.

Then they headed back to the Prince's haven and met up with Gideon. They spoke briefly and decided to speak with the Prince, and maybe then try and find the Anubis...

They were shown into a reception room, in which all the fittings and furniture had been removed or covered. The gathering of gunmen had been cloaked. But soon almost a dozen men with automatic guns at short range began to fire at them - once again they had been ambushed! And this time in the Prince's haven!

They desperately fought, some gunmen did die. Thomas fell under gunfire - the others to a monstrous gollumn like creature clearly using obfuscatory powers to inject them with an unknown agent that slowly overwhelmed their senses.

They awoke in a small dark cell. Injured, and short on blood they hatched an escape plan. Since Thomas chained to the wall with unbreakable chains - they would rip of his arms and legs. And so Vitally, Gideon and Reg descended on Thomas and began to tear chunks of flesh and skin from him - gnawing through the limbs causing Thomas unbearable agony. Finally, unable to support the weight of his body, the arms tore free and the Quadraplegic spasmo-cannibal splotted agonisingly into a pool of his own vitae and flesh.

Before waking up, staked and lying on the ground along with the others in the same cell. The door was opened and a necromantic green fire in a stone brazier could be seen in the next room. Above it, dangled the body of a woman - her hair beginning to shrivel and her dessicated skin scorching. Beyond the macarbre sight was the hunched figure of Prince Merik who began to recuont the names of those he had killed each time finishing with "I can never forget." Four hundred and twenty two was his total. Finally he confessed to killing his wife, predicted he would be destroyed for it and opined "Oh - I hope they don't forget." as they fell back into a slumber.

And awoke in a cage, different this time. The smell of popcorn in the air. They briefly explored their new surroundings - the cage was covered in a thick sheet and it was difficult to ascertain the time of day. A crowd was nearby. Eventually the sheet was removed and they found they were at a circus, and it was the middle of the night. An extravagant Carnie wearing a ringmaster's outfit described the vicious monsters in the cage and a puppy was presented to the prisoner's. Gideon extradicted the doomed canine immediately. The crowd dispersed as the coterie began smashing their way out of the cage floor. Once free they made teir way into the mass of tents and amusements, coming to an unusual sight. Two tents, one labelled with their base or immediate desires - another with a sign that read "The Truth". Blocking their way was a sandwich board which contained the single word, "OR".

You want the Truth?

They chose the Truth, over slaying Annabelle, acquiring weapons and slaking their thirst. The tent was empty but for one corner that was a studio set of an opulent study. Behind the desk sat a Mediterranean man in simple clothes. He introduced himself as 'Paulos', a Brujah; the Bloodless Animal Man first referenced in Session VI and it was his body they rescued from the Hunter's grasp in Session VIII and it was his power of Dominate that caused them to lose a portion of their memory and to find themselves at the doorstep of Lodin's kidnapper - Roarke, who had subsisted off Paulos torpid blood and whose actions had gotten them tangled in local Kindred politics in the first place. And yea - if Anthonio were present he might have also mentioned that it was his blood that Anthonio consumed to give him the stunning powers of Auspex that were vital in rescuing Lodin before he was devoured by rats.

Paulos went on - he was still in torpor, at the place they buried him which he was not going to tell them. They had been injected by a powerful supernatural psychotropic developed by Saul Osiecki, a hunter with strange powers they met at the Succubus Club in Session XIV. It was meant to merely allow Paulos to communicate directly with users while he was still torpored, but Saul weaponized it.

But, said Paulos, the coterie was exposed and he had time to talk. So talk he continued to do. He was being hunted by a Toreador who he named "Maria". He had thought had escaped her in the New World - but she was not contented and followed him here. He asked that when the time came, they would side with him, since she was the aggressor. He confessed to manipulating them, along with members of the Primogen, including Annabelle who he named as one of his pawns that Maria thought was one of her pawns.

Paulos believed it was she that was responsible for the attack on the Nosferatu, and that she was using a particularly evil group of Werewolves called Black Spiral Dancers to do her deed. Khalid had hidden himself from Paulos, and presumably Maria was ignorant of him for some time too. Paulos hypothosized that she found out about the paranoid Nosferatu and sought his destruction out of fear that he was one of Paulos' tools. He also very definitely did say that if you want to find the BSDs that were responsible, look for a place and time like the one they were in.

He advised them the time for choices was close, that Maria's actions against the Nosferatu were just the first move of her end game - so overt were they compared with the years past. He was trying to awaken, but feared the consequences to those that were unfortunate enough to be nearby when he did. But if he didn't she would find him and destroy him. He didn't know much about Milwaukee and the situation there, other than that which he could extract from their minds. He deduced the Prince had gone quite mad and they were certainly in peril of Final Death. He wished them well, and they faded to black.

They awoke in the cell. Unstaked and unchained. The door opened and six mortals roughly shoved into the cell. A sequence of frenzies began - Thomas notable amongst them began to maul into a teenage boy. The room was filled with screams, sobbing, crying, anguished gargles and the shouts of frenzying Kindred and their coterie mates trying to stop them. They soon fell asleep.

They awoke in darkness in a closed space lying down. They found themselves 'sliding' backwards into a stark white light. A loved one and a doctor looked over them, but they were paralysed and could not speak out. Their loved ones confirmed their identity and they were slid away again accompanied by the sobs of those they had left behind. The scene shifted, they were on a hill side covered in graves. Before they had much chance to converse, the bodies burst forth from their graves. Each stone had a name of a victim of one coterie member or another. Most of them stood still and allowed the scene to play its course - but Thomas ran like hell pursued him at his heels. Through glen and forest he ran. Pursued endlessly by the mauled dead he had sent screaming to the grave. Finally he was caught like a fox in a spotlight - a pack of werewolves had him dead to rights.

But then he awoke. Again in the cell - they all came around. An elderly man opened the cell door and began to wheel in various medical instruments on a trolley. They bowled him over, and Thomas slit his throat with a scalpel. They charged up the stairs, took care of the guard at the door to the cellar and then began a firefight with the rest of them. Gideon began to slake his thirst, Thomas began to open fire and Vitally threw furniture and took cover before dealing with the rearguard. Reg snuck out back and returned to smash through the front door with a brick/pedal Macguyvered car. Once the threats had been dealt with they looked to one another and tried to figure out...where next? But they were cut off from further thought by a loud explosion outside...

Fredegar stood and grabbed the eldest girls wrist and twisted it while Gideon squeezed passed and blocked the passage of the second girl to the old man. Thomas found himself pushed supernaturally against the seat and Anthonio looked to see what Ehrich and Gibson's next move would be.
As Fredegar began to sing a soothing bird song, attempting to defeat the girl's rage and the sound system and as Gideon continued his struggle with the second girl...not wanting to engage in overt supernatural acts, a knife falshed passed him into the upper arm/should of Gibson who began to bleed.
Thomas who had begun to stand up saw they were being watched and made to pursue the watcher while Anthonio attempted to peek into the mind of Gibson, finding himself in some kind of strange dark realm with a rapidly rising moon and an infinite horizon. The two of them casually spoke, Gibson seemed a little...senile but conveyed that he was called Gibson and the other man was once known as Harry Houdini. He also confided that he had a protege named Orloff who bore him some ill will.
Then, the girl Gideon was struggling with gained a seeming burst of strength and pushed Gideon backwards on top of Gibson, causing Gideon to succumb to a frenzy, unable to shake the girl from on top of himself.
Fredegar, placated the girl he was with looked around and saw Trilobyte in focussed concentration and concluded that the only way that a teenage girl could push the mighty faeces fest that is the one and only Gideon Jones, shit eater extraordinaire, was if Trilobyte had used his highly publicised Telekineses powers. In order to punctuate this point Fredegar found a bottle and threw it in his direction. Trilobyte had turned to move after Mystery Man by this time and caught glass in the side of his neck.
Anthonio and Ehrich began helping Gibson by raising Gideon and girl using his telekinesis and sliding Gibson out underneath. Ehrich assessed the situation and concluded the only way out was the Labyrinth, and so they set off.
Thomas had lost sight of the man he was tracking in the dance-floor crowd. A wave of curiosity and concern began to sweep across the club as realization that a bad fight was going on.
Fredegar saw that the main exits were all blocked by Teamsters Heavies wielding baseball bats. As Gideon manhandled the girl and took her with him he had to loudly negotiate with Anthonio to draw his firearms in a nightclub. The argument itself caused a great deal of concern from clientele who nervously started to push back on each other. The music volume was increased.
They made it into the Labyrinth.
Running through the dark corridors Anthonio spotted that they were being pursued by Teamsters and pulled his firearms and threatened them. Leading up the team was Gordon Keaton, an anarch that Anthonio had had friendly relations with previously. The two of them pointed their weapons at one another. Anthonio tried to resolve the situation with words, but Keaton opened fire. A brief exchange followed and Keaton was knocked onto the ground. Again Anthonio tried to peacefully resolve things but Keaton was like a man posessed and did not stay down so easily.
As the rest continued through the Labyrinth they met with Trilobyte, who Ehrich seemed to recognise as he encouraged him to join them. Trilobyte mentally shrugged and, realizing that he would not be able to take out Ehrich alone joined with the rest of his coterie. He faced a choice of the unknown versus the known displeasure of Nicholai and he went with the unknown, realizing that his promotion prospects had just been destroyed.
Then another knife flashed towards them, thrown by the mysterious man. Fredegar deflected the path of the knife and Thomas leapt into the air and threw the knife right back, wounding the knife man.
Fredegar picked up yet another bottle and threw at full force straight into his face and caved the knife throwers face right in, he collapsed in a pile of blood, brains and mucus. As they passed the body Gibson, still bleeding from the wound, muttered "Ah Orloff, I was just talking about you...".
They were nearing the exit when a bullet grazed the side of Gideon's head from behind. They all turned and the bloodied torn-clothed Keaton was there. Gideon, now with a girl in one hand a Tremere in the other pointed Trilobyte at Keaton and had Trilobyte throw Keaton around against walls floors and ceilings.
Satisfied the situation was finally resolved they continued again, but Keaton was not yet surrendered and he tried a third attack. Thomas engaged Awe and Celerity and opened fire, but caught a lucky shot in the brain and collapsed to the ground immobile. Anthonio, tired of the pest that was Keaton wrestled him to the ground and began draining him and dragging him to a niche.
When Fredegar realized their party had been thinned by two, doubled back to see what was going on. He was blocked by two burly security guys, but he shoved them out of the way and began sprinting with them in pursuit. As he returned to Thomas' body he suddenly ducked down and the Security guys tripped over him, as they piled onto him he began to sing his song of serenity. Once completed, he picked up Thomas and carried on looking for Anthonio.
As he saw Anthonio drinking deeply from Keaton's body he surmised that Anthonio was attempting the unthinkable and threw him down the corridor. Anthonio, denied gratification at the very last moment entered total frenzy.
Fredegar thought about taking Keaton, but thought better of trying to flee an enraged Malkavian while carrying two corpses and so he fled with Thomas. By the time Anthonio had left the Labyrinth he had found a way to appease his beast.
Gideon hit the accelerator on the van that Ehrich had provided as Ehrich desperately tried to save his elderly friend's life. "I think it's time for some answers,", growled Gideon.