Vampire the Masquerade - V5 - Session One Hundred and Three - 'Strange Bedfellows' (Part Six)

I'm currently running a Vampire the Masquerade chronicle using the 5th Edition rule-set for a small group of fellow role-players. These are the chronicles of their adventures.

Our chronicle is set in Los Angeles and features a small group of Camarilla agents sent into the 'Free States' to bring them back under Camarilla control. Over a year of plotting allowed the coterie to gain control of two North-Eastern Baronies and a large part of a third. Now they are moving on to the final stage of their campaign and have their eyes on taking over the entire city, either directly or by proxy.

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The now obligatory warning bit - Unlike my other RPG write-ups this one will contain swearing, sexual references and other references that might offend. If you can't tell the difference between real             peoples opinions and grown-ups role-playing predators who crave blood then this probably won't be for you. There are however a list of potential triggers listed before the introduction. I've also used actual photographs to represent some characters which I'll give acknowledgements to at the end if I've any idea who they are.
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The introduction to this campaign, the first story and all the other parts can be found at the following links and are in chronological order. If you'd prefer a summary of each session rather than read everything then there's a more detailed link page HERE as well as links to the first episode of each story in the blog sidebar.
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Chronicle One - 'Infiltrate L.A.' 

Welcome to L.A. - Introductory Session
Story One - 'Three Murders' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
Interlude Session - One
Story Two - 'The Pasadena Problem' - Part One, Two, Three, and Four
Solo Session - 'The Neillson Library'
Story Two Continued- 'The Pasadena Problem' - Part Five, Six, Seven and Eight
Story Three - 'Becoming Baron' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
Solo Session - 'The Gather'
Story Three Continued - 'Becoming Baron' - Part Six, Seven and Eight

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Chronicle Two - 'Foothold L.A.' 

Solo Session - 'Hostile Takeover'
Story Four - 'Countdown' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Five - 'The Missing Chantry' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
Solo Session - 'The Anaheim Assassination'
Story Six - 'A Meeting of Barons' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Seven - 'The Carmelita Situation' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Eight - 'The Blount Sisters' - Part One and Two
Story Nine - 'Blood Money' - Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six
Story Ten - 'Anathema' - Part One and Two
Story Eleven - 'Predators and Prey' aka 'The Blount Sisters' - Part Three
Story Twelve - 'Aftermath' - Part One and Two
Story Thirteen - 'The Messiah Complex' - Part One, Two, Three and Four

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Chronicle Three - 'Incursion L.A.'

Story Fourteen - 'The Rant'
Story Fifteen - 'Ties of Blood' - Part One and Two

Solo Session - 'A Gathering of Roses'

Story Sixteen - 'The Southern Solution' - Part One, Two and Three
Story Seventeen - 'The Baker Disappearance' - Part One, Two and Three

Story Eighteen - 'Inevitable Betrayals' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five

Story Nineteen - 'The Marius Contracts' - Part One and Two

Story Twenty - 'The MacNeil Protocols' - Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five, 

Story Twenty - 'The MacNeil Protocols' - Part Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten

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Interlude Session One - After Griffith Park

Interlude Session Two - Divide and Conquer

Interlude Session Three - On the Brink of War

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Chronicle Four - 'Conquest L.A.'

Story Twenty One - 'Veni, Vidi, Victor' - Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five

Story Twenty One - 'Veni, Vidi, Victor' - Part Six, and Epilogue

Story Twenty Two - 'The Unbound' - Part One, Two, Three and Four

Story Twenty Three - 'The War Council' - Part One, Two, Three and Four

Interlude Session - Recon

Story Twenty Four - 'Resistance' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five

Interlude Session - Damage Limitation

Interlude Session - The Killing Spree

Story Twenty Five - 'Personal Agendas' - Part One, Two and Three

Story Twenty Six - 'Strange Bedfellows' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five

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The PC's

Michael Tomassio - Toreador, 'Baron of the North East'
Vincent 'Vin' Ghast - Brujah, 'Constable'
Dr Daniel Matthews - Banu Haqim, 'Fixer'
Hope Romero - Gangrel, 'Census Taker'
Mr Hertz - Nosferatu, 'Seneschal'

Eric Moore - Nosferatu, 'Vigilante Hacker'

The Storyteller

Garreth - Everyone else...

The player characters stats and backgrounds can be found HERE should any-one be interested, but be warned that the page is usually several stories ahead of the most recent write-up and may contain some spoilers. 

There's also some minor 'house-rules' HERE that have occurred as we went along.

If I think something needs a bit of out of character explanation then those will get a storytellers note that will helpfully be in red. Where particular NPC's have a mention in a faction profile you will be able to reach it by clicking on their name or faction beneath their picture.

Trigger Warnings for This Session: Blood (Obviously).

Introduction

After the coterie returned from their meeting with Marius, they did so without Daniel who had remained behind to speak to 'The Fixer' alone. On his return to the gallery, Michael had discovered Daniel's trademark pistols and Karambits placed neatly upon his desk along with a small bag containing a bewildering array of other concealed blades hidden within mundane items. It seemed that Daniel had stepped back from his position within the coterie, at least for now.

This couldn't have come at a more inconvenient time as they were expecting a visit from their Camarilla sponsor, Fiorenza Savona, within the next couple of nights. Without Daniel to organise security, Michael was far less confident about the safety and secrecy of the meeting.

Scene Thirty One - Mending Fences

Mr Hertz has reported in to Michael to detail his progress with re-establishing Hank as Baron of The Crypts Sons and rebuilding their Barony.

Hertz has ascertained that the ill-feeling between Hank and Priss dated back to the establishment of 'The Border' as a separate domain. The territory that Priss received was significantly smaller than that she was promised. As the Crypts Sons had expanded Southwards with the collapse of several South Coast Baronies, the promised additional territory would have been a relatively small addition to The Borders boundaries and far less than the territory the Crypts Sons had already gained. However she was significantly short-changed.

Kayne Lowe - Lasombra
Sabbat, Destroyed

The autonomy that she was to be guaranteed was also reneged upon. Instead, several significant businesses, both legitimate and criminal, were to remain under Hank's control and all the profits funnelled back to the Crypts Sons.

Both of these renegotiations were traced by Mr Hertz to the influence upon Hank of the Sabbat infiltrator Kayne Lowe, who Hank thought of as a trusted advisor. Hertz also discovered that Deacon, Hank's emissary to the other baronies, had his position consistently undermined by Kayne which explained Deacons lack of influence considering the role he was given.

Hertz advised Hank to give Deacon the responsibilities of his position as Emissary as he believed that he would grow into the role. The Nosferatu Hertz was also a fan of having a degree of separation between leaders and their underlings so this served two purposes.

The rest of the negotiations were tense as it seemed that Kayne Lowe had done an excellent job of driving a wedge between the two Barons. Mr Hertz had explained to her that though he sympathised with Priss's position on the agreement, that things had changed considerably and that she couldn't expect Hank to surrender that size of feeding ground and amount of businesses now. Especially as the Southern part of his domain had yet to be fully developed having only been under his control for just over a year, and being far less a part of Crypts Sons operations due to it's different demographic.

'Nannie' Gray - Hecate
Bodyguard for Priss

Mr Hertz also reported that Priss had a new advisor, or possibly bodyguard whom the Brujah under Priss's control referred to as 'Nannie' or Mrs Gray. She was an athletically built black woman, embraced in her late 40's. Of her clan he has learned nothing, though in his opinion she had done something to earn the respect of Priss's people as they all showed her a measure of deference. She also quite obviously answered directly to Priss.

Eventually Hertz managed to convince Priss to accept a smaller expansion than originally promised but larger than she currently had, and the autonomy she wished previously, on one condition. That condition was that Priss pay a tribute to The Crypts Sons from her new businesses for the first year. This took a bit of persuasion.

Though Hank wanted twenty-five percent and a down payment of a round million, they eventually settled upon twenty percent and two-hundred and fifty thousand. Mr Hertz had already calculated that fifteen percent would be sufficient and any cash payment to be a complete bonus but let both parties believe they had emerged with a small victory. Priss had one of her followers deliver the cash payment the very next night and began to patrol her moderately expanded border almost immediately.

These patrols involved only her own people. None of Marius's followers were seen to be involved, though Mr Hertz doubted that he had completely separated his people from Priss's domain.

'Priss' - Lasombra
Baron of 'The Border'

More importantly, Priss had given him her word that she would fully support Hank's leadership of the Crypts Sons and would join with him against any other baronies who attempted an incursion into his turf. Word of this had already began to spread, in no small part to Mr Hertz letting the info slip to the notoriously gossipy Gangrel who patrolled many of the Baronies borders. As a consequence several probes by certain neighbours had been abandoned. Mr Hertz had, as a courtesy, also informed a selection of the Crypt Sons neighbours of the evolving situation.

Michael had been informed in advance that Mr Hertz was putting Fortier, Voerman and Abrams in the picture, specifically to counter Marius, whom Mr Hertz believed was running an exceptionally long 'con' that he couldn't quite yet put his finger on. He wished to gather more information before putting forward a theory. Mr Hertz believes he can slow Marius down, though probably not stop him, in a subtle enough way to not draw attention.

However he had made it clear to the rest of the coterie that he would not take any action without Michael's approval, though even a vagally implied approval would be enough for him to act.

Baron Fortier and Baron Voerman had also agreed, in principle, that Baron Boyd, despite recent setbacks, had been a more steadying influence on his domain than his predecessor and though their support wasn't conditional on him being Baron, it was preferred. Mr Hertz had successfully convinced them that this is the best option for everyone's financial stability.

Baron Louis Fortier and Baron Therese Voerman

Hertz believes that Fortier's support for Hank would be considered by many to be a guarantee that Priss would keep her word and not get any ideas of expansion, even with the confidence she has gained from Marius's recent support. Louis Fortier and Therese Voerman are two of the Barons who Marius has consistently avoided conflict with. Louis due to his resources, and Therese due to the personal power she was capable of wielding when opposed. 

Isaac Abrams - Toreador
Baron of Hollywood

Isaac Abrams had shown no interest in these developments, being relatively far from his own barony, but it was presumed that he would, broadly speaking, go along with Baron Fortier's stance. With these three wishing the status quo to continue, a Marius supported push by Priss was considered by Mr Hertz to be a highly unlikely eventuality.

'The Swarm', a horde of borderline insane Gangrel, led by the actually insane so-called 'Mistress of the Swarm' were, however, known to be patrolling beneath Priss's territory apparently with her permission. Hertz had established with Priss that her borders applied above and below ground and that she would be held responsible for any trespasses by her 'allies' as well as her own people.

She seemed to find Mr Hertz amusing, Mr Hertz on the other hand believed that she was highly intelligent but also clearly walking a tightrope between insanity and hyper-sanity. Daniel's hints to him that it might be better for everyone if Priss suddenly met her Final Death made a lot more sense to the Nosferatu now that he had met her.

Hertz had also compiled a brief report on Priss's new Haven and the defences within that he had observed. As this report was for Daniel's perusal it had yet to be looked at in any detail. The bottom line was that Mr Hertz believed that any plan to permanently remove Priss would need to be implemented away from her base of operations as her current home was a Dillan Fitzgerald designed death trap.

Storytellers Note - Dillan Fitzgerald is a Malkavian architect who designs Havens for kindred with the funds to pay for them.

Mr Hertz had also been perusing the files provided by Marius on potential candidates for embrace by The Crypts Sons.

Scene Thirty Two - Recruitment

Henrique 'Hank' Boyd - Brujah
Baron of The Crypts Sons

Mr Hertz, with some surprising insights from Vin had whittled Marius's file of thirty two candidates, down to twenty three. Several of them were, in their opinion, a little too competent and ambitious and a couple were well known enough in local circles to make their change potentially noticeable. Perhaps a kindred with greater influence in the mortal world might be able to manage them, but Hank, in Mr Hertz and Vin's opinion at least, would need to rebuild first.

Short-term, Hank was going to embrace two new childer and his bodyguard would embrace one. They then intended to spend some time mentoring them before they subsequently expanded their kindred population. Deacon meanwhile would deal with the night to night kindred politics, leaving Hank to concentrate on rebuilding his empire with Mr Hertz's assistance.

Priss had also agreed that four of her Brujah followers would embrace an individual each of Hank's choosing but leave the mentoring to Hank's own people.

In short this would be a purely business arrangement between the two territories, Priss having no desire to increase her baronies population above it's current level. This would increase the kindred population of the Crypts Sons domain to ten which Mr Hertz believed was manageable number with which to achieve their initial aims without the chaotic element which caused the gang so many of their previous issues. 

Deacon - Brujah
Emissary for The Crypts Sons

Many street people who acted as Vin's eyes and ears had begun to mingle with the homeless and disenfranchised who existed on the outskirts of Hank's domain as an early warning system against invasion. Though less effective than actual Sweepers, they had the advantage of numbers. News of Vin's temporary relocation to the area had also acted as a deterrent to invasion. His infamy as a 'Giant Killer' was well known. He had also accompanied Deacon on several of his diplomatic functions just to remind the attendees that Deacon and Hank still had potent and influential allies of their own.

Hank's first candidate for embrace was the Gang Leader of a fairly independently minded chapter of the Crypts Sons. He had managed to strike a balance between protecting his community and still inspiring enough fear to ensure the locals cooperation. Their main income was from drug sales as they might have expected.

The second was named Alexandros Moore. He was one of the two smugglers associated peripherally with Marius and who also had contacts within the criminal community of the South Coast docks. Mr Hertz considered him useful to facilitate drugs and weapon smuggling into and out of The Crypts Sons turf as he effectively had a self contained operation that could easily be absorbed by Hank's. Mr Hertz's research had indicated that his association with Marius's criminal enterprises was peripheral and mainly involved the people smuggling pack known as 'The Jackals'. He deemed this to be exactly the initial income boost that Hank needed as well as providing transport for a variety of other kindred purposes.

Kayden Wolfe - Boxer
Potential Candidate for the Embrace

Kayden Wolfe, Jan Valverde's candidate, was an aging boxer with minor gang connections who had done enforcement duties for a number of mid-profile criminals. Though past his prime, he was still a formidable hand to hand combatant and would make excellent 'muscle' once the distinctive abilities of Clan Brujah were added to his own.

Those chosen for embrace by Priss's people were all fairly run of the mill gang leaders. Selected by Hertz, Vin and in conjunction with Hank. These were to provide the Crypts Sons with some mid-level leadership as all were competent in their roles.

Hertz had sent their names to Michael for Daniel to investigate, but with Daniel now distancing himself, the task would have to wait or be delegated to another. Their names were Granger Lopez, Maya Martinez, Sullivan Cook and Teo Richardson but that was all that they currently knew.

Storytellers Note - Always have a list of generic names ready just in case the PC's decide to ask questions about random NPC's...

Scene Thirty Three - The Misery Lords

Scarlet O'Toole - City Gangrel
Former Sabbat Pack Leader

The captured Sabbat City Gangrel, Scarlet Carson O'Toole, had revealed to Marius's interrogators some useful information on the members of her pack. He had passed this onto the coterie.

Scarlet was a survivor and opportunist at heart. By nature her pack had spent a lot of time separated for information gathering and their Vinculum was fairly weak. She also knew that her survival was now proportionate to how useful she could be. She had, therefore, revealed that the Misery Lords Sabbat pack current line-up was Kole Jeffery, Allen Suarez, Taslima O'Connor, Ammaarah Weaver, Luther Hyde and Sebastian Bradley. She had also provided locations for them all.

As a consequence, several of the Sabbat of 'The Misery Lords' pack were now under surveillance by the kindred of the baronies which they had themselves been observing, though some had been destroyed. The plan was to hopefully follow them to their base of operations as they retreated once their companions had been removed. Sebastian Bradley, a Caitiff hiding in plain sight amongst the Duskborn and Caitiff of 'The Liberated' had been deemed the easiest to monitor and has therefore been the focus of the councils attention.

Kole Jeffery on the Anaheim border was ambushed and destroyed by a small group of assassins led by 'Velme'. Allen Suarez, who was attempting to gain information from the patrons of Nines bar, 'The Last Round', met his final death at the hands of Nines himself who took the infiltration of his base of operations very personally indeed.

Taslima O'Connor - Lasombra
Sabbat Defector

As Michael had suspected, Baron Fortier had informed the council members that Taslima O'Connor, a Lasombra who was currently the guest of 'Atarah', had asked for asylum with the Anarchs and that he was currently carefully considering her request. Until he has made a decision he had warned the other Barons not to interfere with her in any way. It had also been implied by others in his inner circle that he wasn't particularly keen on letting her set up residence in West L.A. and that he might be considering sending her to Priss in 'The Border'. If true, it would be an interesting negotiation.

In addition, it seems that Taslima has attempted to prove her change of allegiance and ingratiate herself further with Louis by giving Fortier information on a third Sabbat Pack operating in West L.A. calling themselves 'The Lost Angels'. Seemingly they were drawn to Fortier's Barony by talk of a wealthy and powerful Anarch Baron, with a mere three kindred to protect him and a handful of merely mortal guards guarding his poorly defended home. 

It seems that their information was far from accurate. Unusual considering that The Misery Lords were considered to be information gatherers of considerable skill. Perhaps this third pack was acting independently? As it stood at the moment, the coteries guess was as good as anyone else's. 

What made this all the stranger was that the kindred rumour-mill was saying that Fortier had his ghouls form a perimeter around this Sabbat Pack's base, before entering it alone and slaying all six Sabbat kindred within personally, and with brutal efficiency and unusual savagery.

Mariel St. John - Ventrue
Mistress of Baron Fortier

What is certain is that Baron Fortier had been uncharacteristically direct and short-tempered over the last week. Unusual for the natural diplomat that he was considered to be by all. Some were connecting this to the fact that Mariel St. Johns duties seemed to have been once more adopted by Elena Gutierrez. In fact, Mariel had not been seen for some time and any attempt to contact her had been rebuffed by other members of the household.

There has been much less success with the other members of 'The Misery Lords' pack. 

Ammaarah Weaver, a Tzimisce who had been observing Hollywood had disappeared, apparently without trace. Likewise, the City Gangrel known as Luthor Hyde had also proved elusive.

However the operation has had some success as Sebastian Bradley has indeed abandoned his post and was followed by El Hermandad's Gangrel sweepers as far as The Wilds. The Wilds Pack had allowed him to believe he had entered their territory unobserved and were monitoring the area where he had gone to ground for the day. Several of the pack had merged with the earth nearby to enable them to follow him the instant he moved again the next night. Hopefully he would lead them to a Sabbat base and perhaps the leader of the more dangerous Sabbat pack known as 'The Killing Spree'.

Scene Thirty Four - A Vacancy

The Temple of Enlightenment - Bahari HQ

Daniel had been distant for the last two nights, having seemingly thrown himself into his medical duties and spending the rest of the time either at Hallowbrook, or the Bahari's so-called 'Temple of Enlightenment'. That he had done so without his weaponry seemed to Michael to be a significant statement about his intentions for the immediate future.

This had, unfortunately, meant that the coteries initial plan to assault the Young Bloods base of operations needed to be delayed or an alternate plan developed to replace it. It is while Michael was contemplating this that he received a visit at the gallery from Victoria. She was accompanied by Yukio, four security guards and an athletic but slightly built individual in casual clothes and a slightly too large hooded top which kept his face in shadow.

Victoria Anne - Ancient Ghoul
Ghoul of Marius

Victoria was as terse as ever. "Evening Michael, I have been tasked with introducing you to someone." She gestured in the direction of her hooded companion.

"This is Eric, an information retrieval specialist who may help to plug the hole that Daniel's absence has created. He's slightly less hands-on but broadly speaking should get you many of the same results. Though probably with a lower body-count, which I imagine will suit you just fine."

She then turns to Eric. "If they decide your services aren't required, I'll have your bike dropped off for you." She then turns and leaves you all in the somewhat awkward situation of what seems to effectively be a job interview.

Storytellers Note - Introducing a new player character can be difficult to do in a plausible manner when a chronicle has been running for a long time. The problem is that most of the PC's allies and contacts have already been established. This seemed as good a way of doing it as any...

They retired to Michael's meeting room where they could have their discussion in private.

Eric had previously worked with Bertram Tung, an information retrieval specialist who resided under Venture Tower. Bertram was one of Marius's followers, though employee might be more accurate as Marius operated his interests more like a business than a kindred hierarchy. 

Bertram Tung - Nosferatu
Information Broker

During that time he'd acted mainly as a compiler of data and therefore had access to the same information that Daniel had on the Young Bloods gang. Daniel had briefed Marius extensively when he had accepted his offer of aid and Eric had been briefed in turn. The only information that had not been shared was that much of the intelligence had been gained from a recording of The Circulatory System's torture of a captured Ventrue liaison of former Prince Vannevar. That particular piece of information, Daniel had kept to himself.

"What do you know about a gang known as The Young Bloods?" asked Michael.

"Just that they're bad dudes..." replied Eric. 

"They are indeed an objectional bunch...." began Michael. "...they detain kindred, harvest their vitae and use the powers they gain to continue the process. They have been expanding and that expansion has resulted in the Final Death of many kindred. Daniel...."

"The British dude?" interrupted Eric. "I worked with him, well, for him, before..."

"As I was saying before the interruption..." continued Michael. "...Daniel was looking into the viability of conducting an operation against their headquarters. An old military bunker on the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains. Would this be a problem?"

Eric Moore - Nosferatu
'Vigilante Hacker' at Work

Eric smiled. "So we hack in, which will be easy, then I can do whatever I like with their system, like really fuck up their shit..."

Michael's doubts were apparently obvious enough that Eric felt the need to demonstrate his abilities. Using only his mobile phone, he bypassed the security on Michael's nearby laptop which began to play a dubstep tune which would undoubtedly never have been on the Barons playlist. It was also being played at a volume just on the wrong side of obnoxious.

"...especially as I had a brief look at some plans of similar facilities. You have people who can do the hands on shit, right? but their jobs will be a lot easier if say...the bad guys armoury access is blocked, we control the doors, and...well...other stuff..." finished Eric as he ran out of cool sounding ideas.

"Well, if an enemy can be irritated to death, I imagine you're the man for the job." quipped Michael, as the music began to wear down his patience. "And you've made your point so you can turn the music off."

"What is your preferred method of payment for your services?" asked Michael. He'd decided that despite his distinct lack of professionalism, this Eric person certainly had some skills that might prove useful. He also noted that the music had been changed, but hadn't been turned off.

"Well, I'm a big fan of Benjamin's." was the reply.

'Eric's Primary Motivation...'

"Money? Really?" Michael was so used to the convoluted mess of boons, favours and the like that made up kindred politics that a simple motivation like material wealth temporarily threw him off. 

"Well that we can arrange." he replied after a moment. Though the arrangement was straightforward, Michael wasn't entirely happy about it. 

Nearly all of those who answered to him had loyalty to something, whether it was to him or to a cause that matched his own. Employing what was effectively a mercenary opened up the possibility that they might get a better offer. "I also have two other tasks, if you are agreeable?"

The first of Michael's concerns was the growing alliance between Baron Martinez of El Hermandad and Baron Maller of Anaheim. Both were childer of the legendary Anarch Salvador Garcia and Michael was suspicious that their mutual cooperation may have been at the behest of their sire.

Salvador Garcia - Brujah
Anarch Revolutionary

Such a notable Anarch could easily be a threat to Michael's own position as Arbiter of the Anarch Council. He also explained that this was simply to assuage his curiosity and that his motives weren't anything sinister.

"Yeah, I get it." confirmed Eric. "Knowledge is power and all that, right?"

The second of Michael's problems that needed to be looked into was the suspected disappearance of Mariel St. John.

"Mariel St. John is a mistress and the adopted childe of Baron Fortier, who I'm sure you're aware of. Her apparent disappearance is a concern to myself, partly because anything that effects the outlook of Baron Fortier is certain to have a knock-on effect on the rest of Los Angeles and partly because as a sometime ally of ours, I'd genuinely like to ensure that she is safe." Michael didn't mention that he much preferred dealing with Mariel than Elena or Catherine. Though all had their own agendas the occasional project they'd engaged in with Mariel gave them more common ground when it came to negotiations.

"That's cool. What's your number one need to know?" replied Eric, in his usual slightly over enthusiastic manner.

Michael made it clear that The Young Bloods were by far his highest priority. "...after you turn that dreadful music off." he added.

"One more thing..." said Eric as he got up to leave. "...security I can deal with. Security guys...not so much..." Michael indicated that this wasn't a problem. "When you have something concrete to share with me, I'll introduce you to Hope. She can deal with the hands-on aspects." Michael also made a mental note to prewarn his sweeper about Eric's potential to be a pain in the rear. He'd hate for something untoward to happen to him before he'd done his job.

With that out of the way it was time to prepare for the visit of Fiorenza Savona...

Interlude - Cacophony

Velme - Daughter of Cacophony
El Hermandad

Velvet Velour reclined in her chair as she listened intently to Velme singing on the small stage. The club was an intimate and exclusive one near the expensive Friendly Hills area of Whittier.

Velvet was surrounded by an entourage of handsome men and beautiful women who had become enamoured of her as soon as she had entered the building, though in truth, none of them were sufficiently special to hold Velvet's interest no matter how hard they tried. 

However the attention of all was now fully focussed upon the stage as Velme drew their most powerful emotions to the surface with every vocal intonation. They had taken them to the heights of happiness and the depths of despair. The current song was enflaming passions around the room, though later none present would have been able to repeat a single word of any song they'd heard. 

Velme was in their element, each note perfectly controlled and filled with supernatural power. They could bring any emotion they wished to the surface, the power they had over the crowd was intoxicating yet it was Velvet they most wished to impress. For someone such as themselves, the emotional extremes they could bring about in one so in touch with their humanity as VV was better than any drug ever created.

The applause as Velme left the stage, after no less than three encores, was deafening. As they worked their way through the adoring crowd they approached Velvet's booth and bobbed a curtsey in her direction. "What did you think?" they asked, with a smile.

"Perfect." replied Velvet. "After such a performance I almost feel bad about asking you for anything, but there is something I'd like to know..."

"Anything." replied Velme.

As Velvet approached the rear door of Abrams 'Golden age' Jewellery store, Sofia, one of her dancers was there to greet her. Sofia had taken over as bodyguard and sweeper for Isaac after the unfortunate destruction of his previous one. Though it wasn't immediately apparent from her secondary career as an exotic dancer, she was, in fact, a highly accomplished master of a variety of deadly weapons.

An attempt had been made upon Isaac's own unlife by Camarilla assassins during their attempted infiltration of Los Angeles and though Isaac had personally destroyed the ambushers, his Sweeper hadn't survived the initial onslaught.

"He's waiting for you." she said as she took the coat that Velvet had worn to conceal her usual attire. Keeping a low profile in Hollywood was difficult enough, but became especially tricky considering VV normally went everywhere in her underwear.

Sofia Rivera - Toreador
Bodyguard to Isaac Abrams

"Salvador Garcia is returning to Los Angeles, but not for at least three months as he is currently occupied with supporting a revolution somewhere or other." began Velvet as she shared what she had learned from Velme. 

"His other surviving childe, Carlyle, isn't actually heading to Los Angeles straight away, despite that being what everyone believes. Currently he's journeying to meet Salvador so as to reduce the time it takes to get his tedious little revolution underway. That way he can get here to advise his other childer even sooner." 

"Neither Gloria nor Allison are fans of Carlyle as they fear he will attempt to use his status as eldest of Garcia's childer to bully his way into a position of power with Salvador's support when he arrives. In fact I got the impression that if something happened to him on the way, they wouldn't exactly be sorry to hear the news." 

Isaac noted that VV looked particularly distressed at the thought that the murder of another could be so casually condoned, yet he knew that enemies of hers had been destroyed at her, admittedly implied, request. He loved VV like a daughter but was well aware that she could delude herself into believing anything was necessary and 'right' if it happened to coincide with her own desires.

Gloria Martinez, Baron of El Hermandad - Allison Maller, Baron of Anaheim

Childer of notable Anarch revolutionary, Salvador Garcia

"So if what you have planned might be interfered with by the presence of Salvador Garcia..." she continued. "You have approximately three months to get it done, whatever that is." She paused, as if the next statement was difficult to utter. "If Carlyle was to be destroyed before he could help Garcia then that's likely to slow Garcia down and delay his arrival even further."

Catherine DuBois - Ventrue, Childe and Mistress of Baron Fortier

That his requests were causing his adopted childe distress bothered Isaac greatly, but nonetheless he needed her to continue. The stakes were far too high to hesitate now. "And my other tasks?" he asked

"I'm seeing Catherine in two nights time under the guise of needing some extra entertainment for an event at Club Vesuvius. It'll make the request seem less like the conspiracy it actually is..." Isaac smiled and escorted VV to the door where his guard was waiting. 

"Sofia. Make sure Velvet gets back to her club safely, please. Then return here. I have something I need to discuss with you..."

To be Continued in 'The Fiorenza Sanction'

In Conclusion

I like to do a round-up of how the session went in these features but if you couldn't give a shit what I think then feel free to skip this bit...

Some mysteries solved, a few more added, not to mention a new PC introduced. The session overall wasn't particularly long but after the epic one we had last week it was nice to go to bed at a normal hour.

See you next week, I hope.

Acknowledgements
“Portions of the materials are the copyrights and trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB, and are used with permission. All rights reserved.”

I've used pictures of real people to represent some of the characters and art for others so in no particular order Michael Tomassio is represented by Matt Bomer, 'Vin' is Scott Adkins, Dr Matthews is Mads Mikkelsen, Hope is Deborah Ann Woll, Mr Hertz is Charles Dance, Kayne Lowe is Jamie Foxx, 'Nannie' Gray is Jada Pinkett Smith, 'Priss' is Sofia Boutella, Louis Fortier is Eduardo Verastegui, Therese Voerman is Whitney Moore, Isaac Abrams is Gary Oldman, 'Hank' Boyd is Michael Clarke Duncan, Deacon is Michael Ealy, Kayden Wolfe is Evander Holyfield, Scarlet Carson O'Toole is Natalya Rudakova, Taslima O'Conner is Shruti Haasan, Mariel St. John is Kate Moss, Victoria Anne is Lilith May, Salvador Garcia is Antonio Banderas, Velme is Ruby Rose, Velvet Velour is Ilona Lab, Sofia Rivera is Eliza Dushku, Gloria Martinez is Ariadne Artiles, Allison Maller is Chloe Grace-Moretz and Catherine DuBois is Margot Robbie.

Everything else is from vampire related folders and searches and is as far as I know is all of the 'fair use' variety. If there's something that you feel should be attributed to some-one then feel free to let me know and I'll happily add an acknowledgement.