Water of Life Update
Now, before we get into this, just know that we're now into the events of "Strangers on a Hill", which will appear in Strange Alchemies. This is your spoiler warning.
The characters rolled into Boston on 2/15/05. Jesus picked up a copy of the Boston Globe and noted a couple of things. Gang violence was on the rise, for one thing. Also, the city had actually tried bussing kids from low-income to high-income areas, with some violent results (thrown bricks, assaults). But worst of all, apparently somebody got busted at the Boston Airport with a bomb. Details were scant - apparently the HomeSec dudes surrounded him and had him in chains and gone pretty quickly - but rumors suggest it was a dirty bomb.
(Note: The preceding paragraph and everything found following it is fiction. This is all an account of a fictional occurrence in a fictional version of Boston in a fictional version of the world. Did I mention it's fictional? No need to start investigating me.)
Anyway, it was into this environment that the throng arrived in Boston. They stashed the RV at the airport and took the T to Beacon Hill, and found a predominantly white, upper-class and paranoid neighborhood. They walked around until they found an actual hill, complete with kids sledding (must be off school today). They climbed to the top and found the kids throwing snowballs at a homeless guy. Al chased them off (without really meaning to; damned Disquiet) and the guy looked at them and start tapping his watch. He said, "You're early" and gave them a letter. Marty tried to question him, but he ran off. Marty chased and tackled him, and he said that he'd received the letter from a dude named Charlie, a chubby black guy who kept going on about "bad things coming."
And indeed, the letter itself talked about danger for the city, and about someone called "Lighthouse." It asked the characters to meet "Sorry Charlie" at the African Methodist Episocopal Church that night. The throng, curious about Charlie and how he knew them, and about who Lighthouse was, started looking for the church. They discovered that the church itself had moved to Roxbury in the wake of the gentrification of Beacon Hill, but the building still stood. But since Charlie said to meet him at midnight, they decided to kick around for a bit. They visited the building that they were meant to meet him at, and Marty used Firebrand on a window so he could open it later with Animate Firetouched.
Julia activated some of her newfound Transmutations and went looking for vampires. She found one shortly thereafter, who sensed her somehow and confronted her. Because of her Transmutations, he mistook her for a vampire, and figured the rest of the throng were her retainers. After talking in circles for a few minutes, he took her away to meet "the Prince" while the other folks waited.
The man (Bartholomew Metcalfe, courtesy of the Allies & Antagonists chatper of the Invictus book - I don't care what anybody says, pre-made NPCs are a godsend!) took her to what looked like a small private club. There, she waited and eventually was taken downstairs to meet with another vampire, this one named Blaise. He said that he spoke for the Prince, and asked Julia her covenant. To which she replied, "As far as I know, I don't belong to one."
This got the vampires suspicisious, so they asked when she'd been "embraced." She sputtered a bit and said "a few years ago." Blaise asked the date, and she said she didn't know. Bartholomew stepped forward and locked eyes with her, and her will (already shaky around vampires) melted away. He asked her a few questions ("Are you Kindred? What are you") and so on, and then made her sleep.
The other characters were walking toward the club, sure that something had gone wrong, when a cop car pulled up behind them. Marty put on his best French accent and played dumb, which helped. The police informed them that there was a curfew in effect. Just then people started leaving the club, the cops drove up and had a few words with one of the vampires, and drove off ("Neat trick," mused Marty). Bartholomew and Blaise met the characters nearby and had a few words about Boston and the state of things, basically telling them about the Masquerade and that they should follow it. Once that was settled, the vampires went to fetch Julia.
They talked with Julia briefly (and Blaise gave her some blood, after she asked for her "fix" - vampires still think that they can bind her). Julia also mentioned that they could use some legal ID, and Blaise said that there were vampires who specialized in such. He'd send someone to negotiate as soon as the characters had somewhere to stay (evidentally the currency in vampire society is favors).
The throng regrouped and, not for the first time, wondered how much trouble Julia's blood addiction was going to get them in. They headed over to the building, broke in through the window Marty had marked, and found Charlie.
All over the place.
He'd been hacked to pieces, and the room was saturated in muddy blood and the stink of fish. They throng looked around a bit and found two things of note: A key marked "water door" and a piece of paper with four (readable) names: Vox Vulgus, Ti Puenez, Unknown Soldier, and Ep-Tah. As they were trying to puzzle out how to get his body out (in case he resurrected), the cops arrive. Apparently, this was a setup.
Fortunately, they had enough time to flee out the fire escape. They detected an Azoth some distance away, but didn't catch up to it. Deciding that getting away was more important than chasing someone down, they hopped the T and found a hotel. They called Bartholomew to negotiate terms, being out of ideas for the moment.
Turns out the job he wants them to do is kill a rogue vampire named Grigor Swanncott (now, where have I seen him before?). Bartholomew gave them some background on him, a little about Clan Nosferatu and their powers, and the name of a woman who had fought with him. The vampires of the city, it seems, have ways to view past events, and they know the truth about what happened that night. That also means they've asked a throng of Prometheans to find a young woman named Cecelia Arthur.
Most people, though, know her as Morrigan.
But just at present, she's got her own problems.
The characters rolled into Boston on 2/15/05. Jesus picked up a copy of the Boston Globe and noted a couple of things. Gang violence was on the rise, for one thing. Also, the city had actually tried bussing kids from low-income to high-income areas, with some violent results (thrown bricks, assaults). But worst of all, apparently somebody got busted at the Boston Airport with a bomb. Details were scant - apparently the HomeSec dudes surrounded him and had him in chains and gone pretty quickly - but rumors suggest it was a dirty bomb.
(Note: The preceding paragraph and everything found following it is fiction. This is all an account of a fictional occurrence in a fictional version of Boston in a fictional version of the world. Did I mention it's fictional? No need to start investigating me.)
Anyway, it was into this environment that the throng arrived in Boston. They stashed the RV at the airport and took the T to Beacon Hill, and found a predominantly white, upper-class and paranoid neighborhood. They walked around until they found an actual hill, complete with kids sledding (must be off school today). They climbed to the top and found the kids throwing snowballs at a homeless guy. Al chased them off (without really meaning to; damned Disquiet) and the guy looked at them and start tapping his watch. He said, "You're early" and gave them a letter. Marty tried to question him, but he ran off. Marty chased and tackled him, and he said that he'd received the letter from a dude named Charlie, a chubby black guy who kept going on about "bad things coming."
And indeed, the letter itself talked about danger for the city, and about someone called "Lighthouse." It asked the characters to meet "Sorry Charlie" at the African Methodist Episocopal Church that night. The throng, curious about Charlie and how he knew them, and about who Lighthouse was, started looking for the church. They discovered that the church itself had moved to Roxbury in the wake of the gentrification of Beacon Hill, but the building still stood. But since Charlie said to meet him at midnight, they decided to kick around for a bit. They visited the building that they were meant to meet him at, and Marty used Firebrand on a window so he could open it later with Animate Firetouched.
Julia activated some of her newfound Transmutations and went looking for vampires. She found one shortly thereafter, who sensed her somehow and confronted her. Because of her Transmutations, he mistook her for a vampire, and figured the rest of the throng were her retainers. After talking in circles for a few minutes, he took her away to meet "the Prince" while the other folks waited.
The man (Bartholomew Metcalfe, courtesy of the Allies & Antagonists chatper of the Invictus book - I don't care what anybody says, pre-made NPCs are a godsend!) took her to what looked like a small private club. There, she waited and eventually was taken downstairs to meet with another vampire, this one named Blaise. He said that he spoke for the Prince, and asked Julia her covenant. To which she replied, "As far as I know, I don't belong to one."
This got the vampires suspicisious, so they asked when she'd been "embraced." She sputtered a bit and said "a few years ago." Blaise asked the date, and she said she didn't know. Bartholomew stepped forward and locked eyes with her, and her will (already shaky around vampires) melted away. He asked her a few questions ("Are you Kindred? What are you") and so on, and then made her sleep.
The other characters were walking toward the club, sure that something had gone wrong, when a cop car pulled up behind them. Marty put on his best French accent and played dumb, which helped. The police informed them that there was a curfew in effect. Just then people started leaving the club, the cops drove up and had a few words with one of the vampires, and drove off ("Neat trick," mused Marty). Bartholomew and Blaise met the characters nearby and had a few words about Boston and the state of things, basically telling them about the Masquerade and that they should follow it. Once that was settled, the vampires went to fetch Julia.
They talked with Julia briefly (and Blaise gave her some blood, after she asked for her "fix" - vampires still think that they can bind her). Julia also mentioned that they could use some legal ID, and Blaise said that there were vampires who specialized in such. He'd send someone to negotiate as soon as the characters had somewhere to stay (evidentally the currency in vampire society is favors).
The throng regrouped and, not for the first time, wondered how much trouble Julia's blood addiction was going to get them in. They headed over to the building, broke in through the window Marty had marked, and found Charlie.
All over the place.
He'd been hacked to pieces, and the room was saturated in muddy blood and the stink of fish. They throng looked around a bit and found two things of note: A key marked "water door" and a piece of paper with four (readable) names: Vox Vulgus, Ti Puenez, Unknown Soldier, and Ep-Tah. As they were trying to puzzle out how to get his body out (in case he resurrected), the cops arrive. Apparently, this was a setup.
Fortunately, they had enough time to flee out the fire escape. They detected an Azoth some distance away, but didn't catch up to it. Deciding that getting away was more important than chasing someone down, they hopped the T and found a hotel. They called Bartholomew to negotiate terms, being out of ideas for the moment.
Turns out the job he wants them to do is kill a rogue vampire named Grigor Swanncott (now, where have I seen him before?). Bartholomew gave them some background on him, a little about Clan Nosferatu and their powers, and the name of a woman who had fought with him. The vampires of the city, it seems, have ways to view past events, and they know the truth about what happened that night. That also means they've asked a throng of Prometheans to find a young woman named Cecelia Arthur.
Most people, though, know her as Morrigan.
But just at present, she's got her own problems.