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...