Dark_RP

The first thing on the agenda was to rally the Anarchs, this was undertaken primarily by Gideon. Those that would be willing to take action should the Sabbat attack present them with one.

In broad terms:
Hinds, Blackjack and Karl were happy to engage in direct action if it would create a more equitable kindred society, but they insisted they were not interested in gaining power for themselves. They agreed to meet on the Garbage Barge.

Modius was just happy for a shot at Lodin and potential princedom, and agreed to meet on the Garbage Barge.

Juggler agreed to go, as did Gordon, Hank Cave, Dooley, Anita, Gengis, Levesque, Dickie and Damian.

Previous to this - Thomas had bugged the Winnebago and had recorded the discussions the coterie were having about the Anarch Plan; he took this time to talk with Critias and Tamoszius - opening his heart to them and telling them about Gideon's plans to unite the Anarchs to take advantage of the chaos caused by an imminent Sabbat incursion by toppling the Lodin hierarchy. Neither of them seemed keen on creating such instability and inevitable bloodshed. Tamoszius simply preferred a quiet and secure life while Critias did not strictly commit to a position and asked poignant questions of Thomas. "Why topple Lodin? What is more likely - a power hungry vampire with a hard-line on anarchs gaining power of Chicago or someone more tolerant of Anarchs than Lodin? If you wish to cooperate with humans why do you keep humans addicted to vitae? Where are your loyalties? To the innocents of Chicago or to those that call themselves your friends?" etc

Thomas, wracked with a gnawing guilt began to recite the principles of Entelechy. Again and again he kept thinking "Never allow a crime to go unpunished...never participate in the murder of innocents...". Concluding the toll of Gideon's actions would be intolerable he decided to give Lodin advance warning. Lodin was shocked, and demanded Thomas find some hard evidence so that Lodin may act. Thomas, torn in two, handed over the tapes of the Anarch Plan to Lodin and went to meet the rest.

Alberto went to his Sabbat drop point and began filling them in on the Anarch Plan. He learned from them that the Sabbat strike would begin as soon as they were clear of the Midnight Circus.

Reg had tea with Astarte, and she took him on a strange tour, 'teleporting' him to Riverthrush's hotel to the original Gary Gang industrial zone hideout place. Astarte gave Reg the gift of seeing a burning tree in the centre of the room, a sight not in the least frightening to Reg. She explained that Cavendish had some interest in the experiment since he was promised a valuable asset in return in the shape of Lightner. However - she explained - the consequences of the experiment going ahead would be grave and she would need to set up a way to dampen or redirect the effects to avoid widespread death.

They met again at the Winnebago - halfway between Gary and Chicago. They began to compare notes about the Anarch Plan, but Thomas seemed distracted as if something weighed heavily upon him. Upon questioning, Thomas impulsively opened his mouth to lie but stopped. If he was truly committed to his path he surely could not lie to his friends; justice is a double-edged sword, after all. Thomas began to reveal the truth. He had spoken with his sire, the Brujah Primogen and Lodin of Gideon's subversive organisation. Sensing a brewing violent reaction, Thomas bolted for the door.

Unfortunately Danior managed to intercede as Gideon's initial shotgun blast went a little wide. Throwing it down he began to seek a withering opportunity as Thomas and Danior struggled with one another. As Thomas seemed to swing things in his direction - Alberto joined the fray, raking Thomas with terrible claws. Thomas cried out to Venturi to send help but Three-on-one was too much for Thomas and he was taken down to the ground where Gideon began to drink his soul.

Thomas Thomason
Episodes XIX - XLI

Gideon told Alberto to warn the Anarchs they had been rumbled, since he wasn't under the contract. Alberto agreed and went around the Anarchs and confirmed the time and the place and that it was definitely on. He also gave the time and place details to the Sabbat. He began to laugh.

Realizing the Winnebago was bugged and they had killed a sheriff while under penalty of the final death clause, they headed to the Circus to try and find an emergency exit strategy. Baroque spoke to Gideon about his advanced rotting - blaming Mr Bile and Freak City. Advising him to speak with the Cone of Flesh. He seemed happy Gideon was considering staying at the Circus for a while.

Then they made their way to Fortunas Wheel to negotiate with Cavendish to break the Contract they had signed into.

Cavendish introduced them to some of the stockholders. A young girl in ancient Egyptian attire and a man, covered entirely with a large Mac except his face which seemed to be inside out. The Inside Out Man throat growled, and it was girl that began negotiations.

They would circumvent the contract in exchange for one year in service to the Circus. The service would involve corrupting the souls of innocents. The coterie looked at one another to try to judge the others thoughts - was the price worth paying?

For the attention of Thomas Thomason.


The trail for Saul had seemingly come to an abrupt terminus with the Owls losing track of him somewhere in the vicinity of the Succubus Club. A variety of methods and modes were looked into, but nobody could shed light on the wherabouts of mysterious Cainite named Arthur or the hunter named Saul. Suspicions began to flare: Perhaps Arthur and Saul were in cahoots?

Fredegar decided that one way to learn more might be found by speaking with Brendon, the Succubus club manager. Brendon advised Fredegar of the reward of $5,000 for the capture or death of the transgressor and Fredegar managed to get a look at the tapes from the camera pointing at the Elysium toilets during and around the time of the slaying. They showed Arthur following Saul's son, Isaac, and they did not show Arthur leaving by the same route.

Free Fallin'

As Fredegar left Brennon's private suite and made his way out of the club, a scream was heard as a somewhat familiar sight began to unfold. Upon one of the hanging dance floors a young girl was being eviscerated and her body was dropped to the ground level dance floor. The perpetrator, Arthur Gonzales, made his escape upwards into the rafters and through a window near the roof. Not entirely certain about the particular course of action, Fredegar began a pursuit.

Cat on a hot tin roof

And so a highly improbable, but exciting Hollywood rooftop chase scene ensued, with Fredegar at last able to engage in some leaping strongly assisted with Potence. Naturally all under cover of Obfuscate. All was going well until, on one rooftop seemingly containing naught but a Rooftop Pigeon Coop stood a man with his weapon drawn.



Tossing his humanity out the back window (a cocnsience can after all simply be inconvenient and dangerous) Fredegar continued his pursuit, moving to hamstring the man who had been surprised during his rooftop self-training by a insane vampire, but instead taking off his foot and lower leg.

With that done, Fredegar managed to track Arthur to an old abandoned apartment building, filled with an overwhelming stench of decay and death. For a while, that cat on the hot tin roof became a deadly game of cat and cat as both supernatural hunters prowled the building in search of the other. Fredegar caught site of Arthur, clinging on above a door frame and opened fire. Arthur, suddenly aware of Fredegar began a viscious counter assault which was dodged by Fredegar before collapsing to the floor and slowly beginning to rot.

A surprising turn of events, and Fredegar's immediate response was to drain Arthur to his last drop of blood and carry his dessicated corpse back over the roof tops of Chicago to present evidence of his slaying and to collect his reward. After so doing, he went back and got medical help for Ghost Dog as a token gesture of kindness.

Down time

Painting the town red

Anthonio decided to make his way to the Succubus club, but was struck by an urge to enter a smaller Yuppie-ish bar with a large fireplace and open fire as its main attraction. Overcoming a sense of dread at the open flames he walked in and began to soak in the atmosphere. Unfortunately a log rolled off the open fire, landed on some magazines and before long the whole place was a hellish inferno. As Anthonio fleed he gets a sense of deja vu as the scene he leaves behind is entirely like a dream he had had as a young boy.

The strange woman

In addition to that weirdness, Anthonio received a rather strange call from a young woman who seemed overly familiar with him. This was a little disturbing and she seemed to be trying to arrange a date with him.

Later, on the same lines, he had a sort of vision of giving his telephone number to an attractive woman who grabbed his arm in the Succubus Club. The vision is disturbed by a phone call. The same woman, only this time she seems disturbed that he didn't meet her at the Club last night.

Only the Succubus Club is closed due to the high frequency of bloody murders taking place there. Very odd.



Of Dogs, Drugs, and Derring-do

The coterie decided that the Succubus Club's full security tapes held the key to all their woes. Anthonio volunteered to break in, and a few minutes later returned - telling the coterie that there was no point doing it and attempted to leave. An attempt to bribe Anthonio with Copiously Cained Cocaine filled Canine was not enough - though Anthonio did take the dying dog and put it in his glove box to give his car a certain 'dead dog' odour. Fredegar also entered the club with the intent of theft on his mind only to change his mind mid action and leave. Gideon deduced that there must be some kind of security system in place set up by Brennon, and cutting their losses they left the scene.

Annoyingly everybody felt as if they were getting up a little late. It was making them kind of grumpy.

Watch it!

While playing a gig with Baby Chorus a waitress spilled a drink on Gideon, but he was able to control his rising beast and shrug the incident off. However, while at the Purple Ocelot Tongue in Gary - the new business name for Fredegar's outfit - he was approached by two girls who offered him $10,000 cash for two litres of his vitae. Gideon refused the offer and followed the girls, who seemed to speak with their benefactor on a payphone before returning to their standard homes.

A rose by any other name

A man with almond eyes gave Fredegar a rose, before walking off muttering insanities under his breath. This infuriated him. But he kept cool

The Groom

Near to his Chicago haven, Fredegar saw a man threatening to jump off a building. A crowd had gathered and seemed to be encouraging the man to jump. Those bastards. This infuriated Fredegar, but once again he quitened his bloody beast. Instead he kept close to the man, unnoticed as is his way, ready to intervene should the wost happen. It didn't, and emergency services were able to talk the man down. He had been jilted at the old altar. Like a bastard. INFURIATING!


Violent Bloody Death

While out looking for a dog to Frankenstein, Trilobyte got more than he bargained for. A pack of seemingly stray nay wild dogs gave chase. They chased him down an alleyway, decorated with little but for a corpse, hanging by barbed wire from a fire escape. Trilobyte investigated immediately, Bio-forenso-thaumaturgy, level 9 style. The results were conclusive - the guy was dead. Gruesomely so.

Rampant Hell

A crazy old guy began to rant about damnation and hell and souls and demons and the like at Trilobyte. It was kind of annoying but after a while the old man went away.

The Doctor

Thomas Thomson, PI, newly embraced Toreador, found himself the recipient of an invite to meet The Doctor at Chicago University. This he did, where he met Critias who grilled him on his stance on ethics and morality as well as law and virtue. He didn't seem overly appeased and warned him that he will be SCRUTIN EYE SED!

Cheese!

Infuriatingly Thomas woke up late again. Worse, someone had just taken a photograph of him!? By the time full consciousness had asserted itself Thomas was too late to give meaningful chase.

Children in Need

While out on convoy one fateful night they did happen to see a certain Scottie Cartwright interviewing a four year old girl. A modicum of investigation revealed the girl to be a vampire and she was quite terrified of "Scary Mr. Edwards", and was in need of a "drinkie". Playing on his paranoia and trust(!) Gideon managed to rid themselves of the Scottie problem and went, along with Trilobyte, to take to young girl to the Prince.

The rest of the coterie investigated the Orphange from which the young girl had claimed she had walked. Within its confines none other than Neally sat, weeping blood tears as fearful children huddled in one corner of that terrible cold dormitory. With a wink and whistle and he-haw-ho, the mighty coterie...no I can't keep it up. They briefly probed Neally who seemed to express regret, but upon learning that Gideon was going to tattle tale on him, he fled. Pursued in perhaps the most farcical chase scene I've ever been involved in, Neally was shot at, jogged next to and he eventually jumped into Anthonio's car who was kerb crawling next to him.

Thomas Thomson began calling in favours to have the police redirect Anthonio's car now containing Fredegar and Neally to Lodin's place. Furiously they began to plot.

Lodin, upon learning of the accusation demanded immediate proof and called for DuSable to test Becky, the child they had taken to him. The results confirmed, Becky was Lodin's own Grandchilde and Lodin called an immediate, but regrettable Bloodhunt on his former chief aide.

Eventually, Anthonio, Fredegar and Neally made it back to his place - Gideon had arranged to meet there. Neally was getting itchy. Gideon and Thomas burst into Anthonio's apartment side by side, Gideon pointing a weapon at Neally - Thomas began to light a Molotov Cocktail of some kind and the fur really started flying. In due course, to add to the confusion as friend and foe alternately pointed guns at one another, Trilobyte arrived and Neally was head shrunk and staked while Thomas was also staked.

They looked around, restraining Anthonio from attempting to indiscriminately torture their captives, and wondered. "How the fuck do we deal with this shit?"