The Chronicles of San Corita

On one of her first tours, she and Folke run into a pair of arriving vampires. Confronting them, Persia and Folke learn that they are incoming Brujah, disassociated with the city or standard Camarilla politics. The two are not overly violent upon first confrontation and Folke suggests they go see the Prince for introductions. Persia and Folke accompany the two back to Marwood's meeting chamber. Jon and Torn, as it turns out, were traveling independently and met up outside the city. They banded together for safety and now, having met the Prince, decide to stay in the city, for a short while at least, and go into service as part of the local Scourge.

Marwood's dealings with Pang Kung and Fug Sai Ha have put a bug in his shorts, and made him curious of the other undead spirits of the world. Knowing full well of the controversy on the West Coast Marwood tentatively requests a emissary from the Far East to meet with him and give him the chance to learn how the others live. Fortunately he looks to Pang before Pang meets his end, and, as Pang is killed, Sung Hi, a wise man in life and death, gets on a boat for the new world.

Speaking of Fug, Marwood's phone rings and almost by coincidence, after nearly a five year disappearance, Fug is calling. Marwood invites him back to service. With all the recent losses, even a rogue and firecracker like Fug is welcomed back into the circle.

Elspeth lived a long life in olde Scotland. She did not however, live as long as her clan. She became a creature of the night before her clan's extinction. She did, however, outlast her clan, watching her son become clan elder and his son after that. And then there was the day that she watched her clan destroyed. She watched as her kinsmen were slain and her family treasures stolen, all at the hands of what appeared to be occultist fanatics. Dreading this horror, she sunk herself into the ground and submitted herself to voluntary torpor. Years, almost æons later, she rose again to hunt down her clan's slayer. She now wanders the Earth, finding herself in San Cortia in it's time of need. Here she feels close to something and thus wraps herself up in the current plotlines trying to reason why she is here.

Once, Cassandra sang for the Prince; she sang for the Kindred, she sang for the kine; she sang for all that would listen. But often enough they wouldn't so when the Prince asks her for service, she gladly accepts. She sings on her nights off, but pays her greatest attention to the whims of her Prince.

Sung, studying the ways of the West, spending almost all of his time in Marwood's presence. Elspeth requests of Marwood someone to assist her in her research, as she is illiterate and, as a kind of coincidence Marwood assigns the job to Sung, who needs a bit of exposure himself. When Folke and Persia come walking in with Jon and Torn, the Prince proceeds to conduct formal introductions and invitations of hospitality to the new pair. Fug arrives on the scene in time, and the whole group goes to see Cassandra sing at the present location of -Honey Gold (and Sweet Milk)-, Marwood's traveling nightclub. Folke, not really particular to a night of sitting and social interaction, heads back out on his route, leaving Persia to relax in the company of others. Shortly after everyone gets settled, there is a familiar rumbling beat from out the door. Soda Pop hangs and talks with a few people, handing out info and contraband before wandering back down the streets. For many of the coterie, this is their first introduction to Soda Pop, an interesting and sometimes surreal character.

Torn visits with people in the club of all kinds; she has a rebellious nature and does her best to find others of the same. In the process she pisses some people off, she makes friends with some others, and she is randomly handed a business card with nothing on it but "Individuals for Redistribution" hand-written on it. She doesn't make much of it, but keeps the card thinking it may come in handy sometime in the future.

A long evening transpires and everyone grows weary. It is almost as the evening ends, Marwood has already retired and the bands are packing up, that Folke walks in, kicks over a table and sits behind it, prepared for a shoot-out, toothpick frimly clenched between his teeth. Shortly afterwards, a group of Italian Mafia storm in the room and try fruitlessly to take the place out. Folke and the new members of the coterie all band together well and disperse the hired guns.

The next evening a report is delivered. There are people deserting the city like rats from a sinking ship. Something is going down and Marwood is determined to learn what it is exactly. His reputation as of late has not been perfect, and he feels that the turmoil may be somewhat attributed to this. He calls together the crew from the club last night, having heard how well they dispensed the Mafia hit, and calls in a favor of an old friend, Quinn Alexander. Quinn is a bookworm and a researcher, and Marwood feels he would be a benefit to the group in this time of investigation. Marwood, in an attempt to unite the coterie and to keep the lines of communications open, assigns each member a cellular phone. These phones are a bit different than normal phones, in that they only have the Send and End buttons. They have been rewired to only call Marwood even though they can receive calls from any phone. Of course, Marwood, in his infinite paranoia, does not provide the Kindred with the numbers for their own phones.

That night Persia, Jon, Torn, Elspeth, Fug, Sung, and Quinn jumped in a couple of cars armed with some manilla envelopes with info on the fleeing rats, and hit the town. Finding the workplace of a Ventrue, Crispin Abrham, they investigate why he may have exited so quickly. Once scheming past the night security, the group locates Mr. Abrham's office and begins to tear it apart. Quinn waits in the car. While searching the office, a couple of guys who look like cat burglars enter the scene and confront the coterie inside. A brawling fight involving firearms and magnesium flares ensues, and most of the coterie gets out unscathed. Persia is left behind, trapped behind a wall of fire from consecutively exploding flares. Swallowing her immortal fear of fire, she dives over the flaming blockade and runs down the hall to catch up with the group, but unfortunately does not make it to the elevator in time.

Outside, however, as the remainder of the investigators return to Quinn's car, Fug gets in, and in a more eloquent manner than has ever been known to come from him, requests that Quinn take him to Ido. Only a few steps slower, everyone else is left behind. Quinn takes Fug to Ido, calling Marwood on the way and warning him in Latin (a language he is sure Fug won't speak, but Marwood will) of their approach. In the meantime, all the others in the building, with the exception of Persia, make it safely out and into the underground carrying a hostage. They are met along the canals by Folke in an electric speedboat. He insists they all get in with him, and they head off out of the canals and across the bay.

Finally, with brewing anger, Persia escapes the building and sneaks past the inevitable police and fire trucks that show up. Soda Pop surprises her in the crowd, covering her with his jacket to shield her from the media and rubberneckers. Once free from the crowd, before heading off his separate way, he lets her borrow his jacket until she gets some clothes that are a bit less burned. On her way to anywhere, a Gargoyle drops from the sky and tells her of the situation with Fug. Showing a bit of apprehension and little concern, she waves the Gargoyle away. On the other hand, Quinn is showing great amounts of concern while, as he approaches Ido's manor, he watches Fug grow and change into his demon form. Fug finally completes his transformation and slashes at the door to get out and charge the manor. Failure to escape the car throws Fug into even more rage, and after Quinn lets him out of the car, he proceeds to tear at the driveway gate. Again, failure is a bitch, and the P'o becomes more enraged. Fortunately for Ido, upon getting past the front gate, three well-placed rifle shots from snipers on the roof take Fug out pretty quick. He is packed up in the car just as Folke and the others in the speedboat arrive, just a bit too late. Everyone regroups and heads home.

A mission of no particular importance has the group roaming the streets on a routine patrol one night. A relatively slow night turns awry at the sign of someone no one of this coterie has ever seen before. ©Lief Jones Fug and Sung, both using Aura Sight, are blinded by a figure walking their way with an aura so bright golden that they can hardly bear to look at him. Half a block away he pauses and leans against a lamp post. All the Kindred watch in awe as the two Kuei-Jin stare at the mysterious figure up the street, and begin to mutter to each other of Spirit Kings and Gods. Quinn, with his intense occult background, recognized an icon on his gui as that of a Chinese vampire hunter: a Shih. Informing Sung and Fug, who had begun to approach the figure in humbled respect, Fug blows into a rage and begins changing. The stranger begins an attack on Fug, and Fug is soon defended by Sung and others. Quinn calmly walks across the street to a pay phone, and Folke simply leans against a wall and watches. With blinding quickness the stranger successfully fights up to four combatants at once and, upon realizing the odds, reaches in his jacket and throws a handful of paper at Fug and walks off in the confusion. The papers fly at Fug and wrap him like a mummy, immobilizing him. All the while Quinn calls 911 and warns the coterie that the police are on their way.

Sung and Quinn hop in a cab and drive away from the scene, the remainder of the group heads back to the nearest entrance and descend back under the city. There they are again plagued by a list of deserters, and Fug takes it upon himself to explore the sewers for escape routes that may not be overtly known. Detaching his head, he has Folke launch him into a ventilation shaft where he crawls like a slug through the tunnels. Finding next to nothing, he demands a ferryman take him back but most ghouls are averse to talking to decapitated heads. Eventually, Folke comes and collects the head, reuniting it with its body.

So as everyone rests from the evening and gets ready to head out to their individual havens, there comes a knock on one of the room's doors. Two vampires drag in a bodybag and request the prince bring in a gurney. A crazed ghoul crashes into the room shortly afterwards pushing a gurney. The bodybag is tossed onto it and the two vampires warn everyone of what they are about to see. The bag is opened to reveal a body sliced in at least three places. Each slice penetrating almost all the way through the body: at the mid-torso, still only connected at the spine; at the waist, again, only connected at the spine; and the legs both cut off completely at mid-thigh. Also his arms are segmented in multiple places due to the torsal attacks. Elspeth, with her knowledge of bladed weapons, peers closely at the body, and determines that the muscle and flesh was not so much cut as it simply ceased to be connected. There is no tearing or ripping of the flesh along the wounds, as if the entire area were cut by a huge, infinitely sharp scalpel. No one is able to determine the cause or reason for the attack, but they all pitch in to help heal the Kindred on the table. Even after the majority of his wounds begin to close, he still does not wake, the trauma of the attack being too much to recover from in one night. Declaring it an unsolved mystery, they continue on their way and separate for the night.

Persia goes to find Soda Pop, since she needs information and he's the one to get it from. She finds him with no trouble, almost as if he knew she were looking for him. The prince and other Kindred have been talking of a revolution on the horizon, and she wants to see what Soda can dig up on this. He has nothing for her immediately, but will ask around and see what he can come up with. Content with that answer, Persia heads back to her haven and sleeps for the night.

Sometimes members of a pack will wander off and attend to their own agenda solo. Fug, having reattached his head, wanders off to Chinatown to dig up clues on both the man in the gui, and the recent loss of his opium dens in Chinatown. Outside he finds a bum with no information, but still Fug insists upon interrogating the disheveled man to the point of beating him. Fruitlessly, he heads next door to a rundown delicatessen selling a single ham sandwich. Again getting nowhere, he goes to the building across the street, an apartment building, and asks to speak with the landlady. She gives him a double barrel shotgun to the chest, but no information more than that a gentleman on the third floor has been acting strange and refuses to pay his rent. Fug, being a bit brash and quick to act, races up to the third floor to rough him up a bit. He finds the door locked and busts in. A man sits in a chair, the only piece of furniture in the room, and turns to Fug with a look of fear on his face. Fug notices out the window that the opium den is in full view. He asks the guy some questions, and actually learns that a group of men walked to the opium den the night it was shot up. No cars or vans, they just walked up to the den and shot the whole place out. Satisfied with that, Fug threatens the guy one more time to pay his rent and leaves.

All the while, the rest of the group is having a leisurely night of hunting. Persia, Quinn and Elspeth go out hunting near campus. Quinn is a lecturer on campus, and feels that it would be a nice break from the normal fear and hate that go on during a hunt. While crossing campus, however, they notice an inconsistency in the air ahead of them, a blur that resembles heat rising, as if from a fire, but with no fire. Pneumatic shots are heard all around and the sound of projectiles flying surrounds them. Scattering, they succeed in dodging all shots, for the most part. Elspeth flails at one point and takes a dart to the chest. What was in the dart, she doesn't know but she doesn't feel any ill effects. By this time, the three of them have split up in different directions. Quinn runs to an alley between buildings, Persia, using Celerity, watches from a safe distance as three mostly invisible, wavering forms stalk Elspeth, who is trying to dodge behind a patch of trees. The three are able to escape, but narrowly.

They regroup at Marwood's and Persia puts in a request for a pair of IR goggles. Elspeth still hasn't shown any negative signs but is nervous; she retires for the evening and the others, Persia and Quinn, go back out to stake out the scene. Back on campus, Quinn notes that the building is the old Physics Building. In the last year a new one had been built, leaving this one no longer used for classes but, houses all graduate student projects and experiments. While spying, they hear what sounds like a "phaser" blast, and a blue arc of light comes flying at Persia. Knocked back a bit, she starts looking around frantically but, unfortunately, doesn't see anyone. Again, another blue arc comes at her, but this time she dodges. At this point, Quinn has fled again to a relatively safe distance and begins firing blindly. He pulls off a lucky shot and, for a brief second, can see a torso start bleeding before it disappears again. As Persia dodges shots, she runs from tree to building to tree, etc. Quinn turns to notice a pickup careening across the campus green toward them at ungodly speeds. Quinn begins to scamper out of the way when the pickup skids to a stop before him. Soda Pop sticks his head out the window and shouts for Quinn to get in. Quinn jumps in the back and Soda begins racing toward Persia, who is now hiding behind a huge propane tank. Persia turns as the pickup arrives and hears an odd crunch. The hood of the pickup crumples slightly with the sound and there is *whump* on the ground. The pickup doesn't slow down until it is well past Persia. Stopping for a second, Persia begins walking toward the truck as it shifts gears and starts speeding backwards. Again, the crunch noise, the denting and the *whump*.

Amidst offers, Persia refuses a ride in the truck, and Soda Pop tosses her a box and speeds off. The IR goggles are just what she needs to confront these guys. Unfortunately the only two "Lab-coats" she can find are dead on the ground in front of her, runover by Soda Pop's pickup. She loots the bodies and finds that the guns they use don't work, and the belts they wear don't make her invisible. Searching around the Physics Building with her IR goggles, Persia gets more and more frustrated as nothing works and no one shows up. Finally taking target practice on a giant propane tank, she thankfully misses horribly and eventually gets bored and goes home.

The next night they decide to return to the Physics Lab, with a bit more preparation. This time, they bring Folke and Fug. Upon reaching the lab, Fug extends his limbs and climbs to the top of the building. Quinn, on the other hand, takes a more secure route. He performs a ritual that changes him into a blood mist and enters the building through the door they saw some "Lab-coats" escape through the night before. As Fug works his way down the floors, Quinn scours the ground floor and determines that they must have gone downstairs. Following this assumption, he heads down a service staircase and ends up in an interesting basement. He finds the enormous equivalent of a centrifuge. Outside again Quinn reforms, the coterie regroups and heads back into the building. In the hall they meet back up with Fug, who has just finished searching the rest of the building. They head down to the centrifuge and begin hunting around for more clues. Some blood tracks lead into the centrifuge.

Unfortunately the door is shut, but Quinn recalls having seen a control panel around the other side of the room, so he heads off. Soon enough the door is open and the others file in, Quinn watching through a window from his control panel. They search the chamber and find that the blood tracks seem to disappear somewhere near the middle of the system. There are eight panels on the floor with Blueprint "CAUTION" written on them. Of course they are screaming to be opened, and subsequently they find most of the motorwork and gear system below the floor.

While the majority of the coterie is rooting around in the centrifuge room, Quinn happens to notice that the computers are coming online and the machinery is warming up. Trying to fight the computer, he realizes that he can't shut it down and that the centrifuge arm is starting to move. Inside, Persia and Folke have pulled all the panels up and found that beneath one of them is a ladder. Fug extends his head down a bit and discovers multiple pairs of feet at the bottom. It would appear that there are people waiting for them down there. When Persia looks to Quinn for approval in finding the hidden exit, all she sees is Quinn with a bit of a panicked expression. He signals through the window that the arm is going to start really moving. As the arm speeds up, the safety door starts to close. Persia, being the only one really aware of what's going on, dives for the door and makes it out just in time, unfortunately leaving Folke and Fug in the room. Quinn does everything he can to shut the centrifuge down and/or open the door, but finding himself out of luck, uses Thaumaturgy to create a steel shaft from floor to ceiling to block the path of the arm, maybe stopping it for a while. He frantically tries to get the door open, but realizes he just doesn't have the power or know-how to get the door to open for him.

Meanwhile Persia tries her own methods to get Folke and Fug out. She takes to shooting at the windows of the chamber. Unfortunately they are blast windows of a sort and the bullets mostly bounce off of them. One bullet even ricochets around the hallway and bounces past Quinn. Rather than shooting her friends, she decides to go check on Quinn. As she comes around to check on Quinn, they both look into the chamber in time to see the steel shaft shatter and the arm start spinning at ridiculous speeds, out of control. Fug and Folke hit the deck and try to find safe places to hide. Folke decides to take his chances with the scientists down the ladder, while Fug decides to take his chances with the machinery. Diving into their respective holes, they are now safe from the arm, which by now is spinning so fast that it's merely a blur. The roaring machinery and searing heat is enough to send Fug into Fire Soul (similar to frenzy). He starts to fight wildly for freedom, resulting in the destruction of much of the machinery driving the centrifuge. Up at the control panel, Quinn is trying his last efforts to shut the system down, but he starts seeing all sorts of systems fall offline. At the appearance of an emergency temperature gauge, Quinn and Persia decide to cut their losses and run.

As they clear the building they hear the final explosion and walk away in disdain, plotting their return. Inside, Fug manages to tear apart a large amount of the machinery, but unfortunately not enough to stop the inevitable. In the end, the explosion isn't enough to kill him but it is enough to seriously injure and debilitate him, including stake him with a metal shaft. He's immobilized and thrown into tiny-death inside the remains of the machine.

Being still early, Quinn and Persia decide they need to get Folke and Fug out of there. There's no way they can let them stay there all day. Returning to Marwood they ask for help. Not in complete agreement, Quinn turns to the Tremere for help, trying to find a way to sneak in and retrieve their companions; Persia on the other hand asks Marwood for a demolition's expert. Quinn picks up a Tremere friend of his and they are told that the demolition's guy will meet them out there. As they arrive, a Volkswagen station wagon speeds it's way over curb and lawn to them in a far beyond reckless manner. Skidding to a stop in front of the three of them - Persia, Quinn and the Tremere, Arthur - Magnus Ver Magnussen, in a filthy coat and greasy jeans, jumps out of the wagon, and without saying a word to them, runs around to the back of the car and pulls out a box of dynamite. The four of them head down into the building. At the base of the stairs, where before they where confronted by a normal door, they are now confronted with a large, and presumable thick, blast door. Persia runs back to Magnus' car spouting off about drills and jackhammers while Arthur reaches in his bag and starts spraying the door with a simple spray bottle. After five minutes or so the door rots to the point of crumbling.

Inside the room the place is a serious wreck, the door to the centrifuge is finally open again, blasted open by the explosion. They thank Arthur for his help and send him on his way, Magnus on the other hand, came out here to destroy something and he'll be damned if he doesn't blow something up before he leaves. Persia returns with something that resembles an incredibly large drill and climbs down the ladder that Folke climbed down earlier. As she is doing that, Quinn finds Fug, or most of him at least, and starts collecting him in some tarps pulled from Magnus' car. Persia goes to work on a blast panel that is blocking off the escape shaft and eventually it falls right out from under her. Folke appears at the bottom and tells them of how he fought a few guys when he hit the floor, but most of them ran through doors that quickly were sealed off as the centrifuge neared detonation. After the explosion he tried to climb back out but the blast shielding couldn't be moved so he just waited, someone would open something sooner or later. Magnus, bored with the whole affair, just gets up and leaves, disgusted that there was nothing to be blown up. Persia and Folke meet back up with Quinn who happens to be holding a big bag of Fug. Upon leaving the room they notice that Magnus left his box of dynamite. Persia, still annoyed with the night's events, hurls a stick down the ladder shaft, just to blow something up and know that she blew something up. They carry Fug and the remaining dynamite out of the building. While Folke and Persia store Fug in the trunk of Folke's car, Quinn calls campus security on an emergency phone to report that a case of old dynamite is lying outside of the old physics building.

Having discovered and faced the opponents beneath the Physics Building on campus, Persia and Quinn return to their havens. Fug is in a horrible shape and Quinn decides to cache in on this. He begins brewing plans of nefarious evil that will resolve themselves in time.

Waking the next evening, Persia a ring on her bedside table bearing upon it the clan symbol of the Settites. At this Persia goes nuts, she starts panicking and running around the apartment in blind fear. Eventually, in a moment of clarity she calls Quinn who is at this time, studying in his library. She begs of him to come get her and take her to Marwood, more importantly away from her apartment. On his way there, Quinn stops at a phone booth and calls her back, after much hesitation and about nine rings, Persia finally answers. She hears a deep voice that is only vaguely familiar state "I am coming to get you..." Persia goes crazy, hanging up the phone, pulling the cord out of the wall and wielding her revolver recklessly. At last a knock on the door and she again, hesitates. Is it Quinn or the Settites? Finally, leaving the chain lock, she opens the door, shoving the gun out through the crack. She sees that it is Quinn and lets him in. They immediately head out to Marwood's.

Elspeth on the other hand, finds dismay at her awakening. She finds that her body has used more blood in her sleep than expected and that she is one blood point short of where she was the evening before. Such a little amount though is forgettable, maybe she used some power that she can't recall or was slightly bruised upon sleeping and it has healed. There is little worry, but there is suspicion. Nonetheless she heads out to hunt and rejoin the group slowly forming at Marwood's undercity estates.

Upon gathering, Persia insists that she get a new and more secure haven, and Marwood, taken kindly to her offers her a small safe room under the city. They coterie storms off to her place to gather up the rest of her belongings and subsequently trash her apartment (which Folke handles quite efficiently with an automatic rifle) to appear that she has been "taken care of." She races back to her new haven, still fearing for her unlife and finds that it is no more than a large, walk in safe. The cement walls form a room no larger than a bathroom stall and the heavy steel door with the combination lock is pretty impenetrable. Pissed off, but more comfortable, she dumps her stuff inside and becomes eager to hunt (or maybe just kill and destroy).

Back at Marwood's he has a surprise for them. The body that was found the other night all sliced up has healed and awakened. His name is Maximilliann Silver and he was a lone Ventrue touring the country looking for a place to begin developing his skills and influences. In route down the east coast he came upon San Cortia but had no interest or attraction there and kept heading onward, or at least he tried. Passing through the streets of San Cortia he observed a man bend down to talk to a vagrant. The vagrant scrambled away in near paralyzing fear, the man looked at him, pointed, and the vagrant fell dead. "I was afraid that he was kindred, betraying the Masquerade so I ran to confront him and he looked at me with piercing blue steel eyes and said 'Your time is well past due...'. I don't remember anything from that point on."

The coterie decide they need to go out and hunt after all and each heads out in their own direction. Elspeth takes into mind the words of Maximilliann and heads out to some slum corners and asks questions of the bums on the streets. She learns that there have been some attacks in the alleys but not enough to pique the interest of the police. They all seem to be dying of fever or old age. On Persia's hunt, she runs into Soda Pop. He actually turns down his "Ghetto Blaster" for her, as she usually seems to be annoyed by it. He has information on her requests of revolutionary movement and tells her that the word on the street is talking about a meeting at the docks in three nights. A group called "Individuals for Redistribution" is having a big powwow and that may be just the revolution she is looking for. She gathers up the group and convinces them that this would be a good party to crash.

Three days pass and Persia, Jon, Torn and Folke head down to the dockside. Marwood had advised them that Marcus Weatherby, the old harbormaster and Gangrel may be able to help them out a bit. Once down there, he leads them out to the warehouse and lo and behold, within there is a rather large meeting. They file in slowly, separately, leaving only Folke outside. The plan is to hang out and wait until the meeting is in full swing before storming in, after all, no one is really sure what the "Individuals for Redistribution" are all about. Through the meeting it becomes obvious that these are kindred and ghouls planning to overthrow the city structure. At that realization they jump into action and begin to combat the revolutionaries, dispersing them rather quickly. Many escape through the many doors in the warehouse and the coterie takes chase. Outside they find the bloody remains of a second fight, someone was apparently waiting outside for the escapees. Most seem to have escaped anyway, but not in the same condition they left the building. Soda Pop is also there, unconscious with blood all over the sleeves of his jacket. He seems well, just passed out. They pick him up and take him back downtown.

Meeting with Marwood one last time, they report what they have found about the revolution and that it is more than a fearful rumor. They also request that Soda Pop be put under care of some ghouls or retainers for the remainder of the night and the following day to make sure he is all right. Marwood thinks heavily on the events of the night and agrees to put Soda under surveillance. He also announces the recruitment of some new muscle in the city, they will be arriving within the next few nights, things have gotten out of hand and it's time to hammer down. From the other side of the room a door opens and Persia's sire, Perrin, enters. He announces that he is leaving the city for a month or so, fearing that there is trouble brewing and it can only endanger his situation. He leaves Persia in the capable hands of Marwood until his return. To ensure that Persia remains faithful, however, he demands she drink a glass of his blood. Unbeknownst to her, however, it is a glass of Marwood's blood. Marwood and Perrin had previously agreed to share her in a blood bond until a time came that it was safe for Perrin to travel in the open once again.

Quinn completes his ritual on Fug but in an all too efficient manner, like nothing he could have imagined. Quinn has developed a ritual to attempt to bond Fug to him as if blood bound (as Keui-Jin cannot be blood bound to kindred). As he is completing the ritual Fug's Hun begins to awake, the trauma of the waking and the terror of the ritual spawn violent and fear driven actions through Fug's mind. A violent shudder lodges the knife with which Quinn has been inscribing runes with into Fug's arm. Quinn, calm but very confused walks over to the can of kerosene he has had in the corner from the begging of the ritual (in case things went bad...) and returns to pour it over Fug. A second violent shudder wakes Fug completely and in self defense he lashes out to attack Quinn. A fantastically successful attack all but incapacitates Quinn and launches him across the room with the empty gas can. Fug's mind clears and he ambles toward Quinn, but Quinn, naturally, is a bit cautious. He pulls out his lighter and holds it tentatively, waiting for the ultimate doom. Fug is polite and apologetic and seems relatively sincere, Quinn accepts this but still holds the lighter in defense for the next few hours. Fug's P'o is now bound to Quinn by blood and therefore Fug lusts for him in vain, but, only when Fug's Nature can keep the P'o in check. When the P'o takes over, it side steps to the next nearest emotion, hate, and wreaks it's vengeance upon Quinn and it is this that terrorizes Quinn in the future.

A couple days have passed and Elspeth is beginning to feel a little 'drained,' her blood is thinning but she is not entirely aware of it yet. She just feels like she is hungry more often than she should be. As the days pass her blood become so thin that her discipline are taking more effort to control, double the standard cost (and one point for any that are normally free). She still appears a bit ignorant of the problem, noticing only that she needs to hunt more often and is usually over-hungry, but otherwise goes about her daily business.

On another front, Soda Pop is doing well and back on the street, no one ever sees the ghouls that watched over him again, but then again ghouls come and go with such irregularity that no one misses them either. Persia, out for a random walk runs into Soda on a street corner, it seems he is placing himself in her path more often lately. In talking to him, she notices that the sleeves of his jacket are heavily bloodstained but that his arms are healthy with no scrapes, scabs, or scars. Oddly enough, when asked about the events at the dock, he seems to either be playing dumb or genuinely not remember anything. It's almost as if he were never there, not consciously anyway.

When the group reunites at Marwood's estate, minus Jon and Torn, they are kept waiting for some time as Marwood is apparently busy with other affairs. When he does finally show up he is a little disordered and takes a moment to straighten himself out. Folke shows up shortly afterward carrying yet another body-bag Upon opening it, there is found another body like Maximilliann's, only less damaged this time. The kindred in this attack didn't have the same resilience. As a result of this, Marwood decides to send the coterie out to investigate these strange killings. They are to go and pick up Torn and Jon from their Scourge pack first and then head out to begin investigations.

They catch up with the scourge group in an alley way. They had heard that some punks were hanging out in this section of the city and were checking up on their mortality. As the group shows up, the gang of punks run out of another alley and charge down and around a corner. The scourge take off, leaving the coterie behind. As Persia, Elspeth, Quinn and Sung are catching up, six guys run back toward them, stop short and break up; three heading down one alley, the rest down another. Jon and Torn are in pursuit so the rest of the coterie splits up to take out this potential invaders. Torn notices that there is an odd similarity to the fleeing men, the three she is following all seem to be very similar, in build and fashion, a fleeting thought. Various members of the coterie make attacks on different escapees but most seem to fail inconceivably, bullets passing through them and striking walls behind, perfect roundhouse kicks failing completely. Needless to say most of the pursuers are confused but continue the chase. Finally, out of nowhere, Sung successfully tags one with his staff and lands him on the ground. Proud and amazed at his triumph, he notices that the two men running with his victim also hit the ground and are fading - holographic clones.

After accidentally killing one, they incapacitate the other and are taking him to the other scourge to take in for questioning when a cloud of shadows pass overhead. Quinn and Elspeth look up just in time to see a huge gargoyle descending from the sky. With force enough to kill almost any mortal and most immortals, the gargoyle crashes into and literally flies through the remaining captive. Marwood has always used Gargoyles to protect the city, but these look to be larger and more aggressive than any Marwood has ever employed. Stunned as the coterie is, they pass the information on to the scourge to pass on to Marwood and, still in a bit of a daze, head off to investigate the other bizarre killings.

Maximilliann Silver catches up with them as they head into the city. Their first order of business is to go to the crime scene of the last attack. And after a short while, they arrive at the location where the last attack was said to be made. Scouting around turns up nothing but a couple of bums, dead from exposure (or so it would seem). Becoming disheartened, the group gathers to walk off when they hear in the distance the sounds of a gang of motorcycles. Fug recalls back to the days that SF0 having heard motorcycles very similar to these. He doesn't have very long to think about it though, as they hear a second sound from around the corner. A voice screams "No! Keep Away! I'm not Ready!" and the group runs around the corner to see what's up.

Rounding the corner, the members of the coterie nearly stop dead in their tracks as there is a flash of light and a body falls to the ground, dead. Persia slips her IR goggles on, thinking that it may be the same kind of thing they faced back on campus. Strangely though, she sees nothing but a vortex of air, a small, swirling vortex of warmer air. As if that weren't eerie enough, the motorcycles get louder and the coterie has to ditch their current investigation as SF0 comes in to attack them. The fight is riotous at best. Persia uses her dreadgaze on as many as she can see, but they seem to shake off the effects pretty quick. Fug, in an attempt to whisk Quinn to salvation, stretches up to a second story window and takes Quinn with him. Torn follows, thinking the party as a whole is going to run rather than fight, leaving Persia and Folke alone to face five or more enemy. Chaos ensues when Quinn, in an attempt to put and end to it all, conjures a gallon of nitroglycerine just above one of the riders. The explosion takes out almost half of the attackers, a good portion of the street, the corners of a couple of buildings, Folke's back window, and over half of Quinn's car. Running in abject fear, more from the explosion than Persia, the remaining riders are taken out by a combination of Folke's gun and Quinn's conjured gallon of hydrochloric acid.

Upon cleanup and body-count, Persia realizes that Silver has disappeared. They hobble their way back to Marwood's underground in Folke's car, where they are made to sit and wait for him as he seems to be relatively busy. When he does finally show up the group explains the situation and the regrettable loss of Maximilliann Silver. Marwood, set aback by events (needless to say he is a little concerned about Quinn's explosion will have on the Masquerade), but as he is about to issue response a caller comes knocking. A Nosferatu by the name of Gerod Knighton is entered into the room. He introduces himself as a visitor and requests a meeting with the Prince (on a more odd note, none of the members of the coterie remember having seen a Nosferatu in San Cortia before). Before the coterie Knighton addresses the Prince, declaring that he wish to be the Nosferatu Primogen (another thing the coterie never remembers there being in San Cortia) and that Marwood initiate a standing Primogen council in response to the trauma San Cortia has been undergoing.

Marwood utters a very firm negative to this (in his eyes) ludicrous request and orders that Knighton leave. In an attempt to smooth out the rough first impression he has made, he admits he also has information on another deserter in San Cortia. A Malkavian by the name of Carmiel Sandor has been making arrangements around town that would suggest that he is planning a fast getaway. Without wanting to overstay his welcome, Knighton leaves and leaves the Prince and the coterie to deal with this new information as they see fit.

But with the destruction of Quinn's car, they are out of a ride. Marwood usually has some spare vehicles in storage somewhere, he tells them there is a loner car out on a familiar street corner. The keys he hands them are adorned with a lucky rabbit's foot. Arriving at the corner, they find what could not possibly be the car. There is a 1970's Volkswagen Minibus painted with a giant bunny face on the front, the windshield as eyes, ears streaming down the side of the van. Aghast when the keys work, the coterie shakes their collective heads, piles in the van, and drives off.

With Gerod Knighton's information, it doesn't take much work to find Sandor. He lives in the basement under a Motel 6 with little to no security to bypass, they essentially just walk in. They Find Carmiel on his World War II cot in the corner, watching TV. Confronting him, they "convince" him to go with them to Marwood's. As they are leaving with him, Persia notices a face in the cement walls, and in an unexpected turn of events, Gargoyles start crawling out of everywhere, subsequently killing Carmiel and disappearing back into the walls. One Gargoyle, the largest of all, finds himself trapped and entranced in a hallway and agrees to go with them back to Marwood to discuss their recent actions. But on their way back to Marwood's, everyone gets a suspicious feeling, like they're being watched. Elspeth is able to actually point out a few men in white lab coats, thus proving everyone's itching suspicion. Persia boldly questions Herrick, thinking he may know something about this but he denies any knowledge or involvement with these spies and resumes his travel in ominous silence.

Back under the city, Marwood explains to them that the new Gargoyles have been brought in to put a bit more pressure on the masquerade and other conflicts arising in these times of change. He introduces himself as Herrick and with the understanding he and the coterie come to (a weak agreement that they will do their own thing on their own time), he leaves. Marwood asks of the group what they learned at Carmiel's place and Persia admits they didn't hang around to searching or investigating, they were a little preoccupied with bloodthirsty gargoyles. Marwood demands that they go back to the motel and search it thoroughly.

Returning, they find all kinds of incriminating evidence connecting Carmiel to the Sabbat, including a briefcase full of Monopoly money, all with the Sabbat "S" on them in crayon. They gather up the more incriminating items and head out. But on the way, there is that feeling of being watched again, when a man in a white lab coat runs into an alleyway, Quinn stops the van and the rest pile out into the street, taking chase. Elspeth and Torn are the first to explode into the alley, but the man in the lab coat is gone, replaced by two men in blue suits. Fug, Persia and Jon follow quickly and fighting ensues in the dark alley. Sung, watching safely from the top of a building keeps an eye out for additional attackers, which come up from another side alley.

Back in the minibus, Quinn is smoking his pipe, reading a magazine when Soda Pop hops in the passenger seat. After a short, uncomfortable silence, Quinn decides to check up on his companions and drives into the alley. Still fighting in the alley are Persia, Jon and Sung. Unseen, Fug is in a dumpster devouring a fresh corpse, and down the side alley, Elspeth has frenzied and is trying to assault Torn. Finishing off their foes, Persia and Jon head off to look for Elspeth and Torn, while Sung climbs in the van to talk with Quinn and Soda. As if out of nowhere, as the chaos is settling, the minibus is crushed by the dumpster that Fug had been hiding in. Unnoticed by anyone else, Fug had lifted it up over the minibus and dropped it in order to crush Quinn. Fortunately Quinn and Sung escape with only minor bruises, Soda Pop on the other had is knocked unconscious from a blow to the head.

Persia and Jon do find Elspeth and Torn. They find them around the corner in a very heated life or death battle with each other By now it has become difficult to determine who frenzied first, but it is not hard to tell that they are both in the bowels of the beast, each struggling with each other for dominance. Persia decides that things should be left to themselves and returns to the minibus, Jon on her heels. Back at the minibus the find Quinn and Sung setting out to disable Fug; Sung with his martial arts, Quinn with a conjured shotgun, loaded with dragonsbreath rounds. And all in good time, Fug is disabled, Elspeth and Torn are calmed and separated, and Soda is pulled from the minibus. The coterie, with Soda, head back into the city. After a short, early morning talk with Marwood, they all head back to their respective havens, Quinn taking Soda with him.

Quinn gets up early that evening to heads out to see Marwood, he had mentioned something about a laboratory in which to study Elspeth's condition the night before. Checking in on Soda Pop, he is sound asleep, but Quinn determines that he is healthy, just resting. Arriving at Marwood's, they find Persia, Elspeth, Jon and Fug already there waiting. Marwood gives them the address and they head out in a taxicab caravan to the hospital. There is a wing that has been conveniently quarantined, and upon entering find it to be a blood and toxin lab. Quinn goes to work while the rest get some much needed stress free conversation.

Quinn learns that the disease is more of a viral parasite than anything else, it lives in blood, but feeds on vitae. Once entered into a kindred's system, it begins to devour the vitae held there, leaving only a minimal quantity of normal human blood. This parasite also has a reproduction rate that is almost in perfect coincidence with the amount of vitae. The more vitae, the faster it reproduces, and as the body runs out of vitae, the virus slows down and actually goes into hibernation when all vitae is eliminated. He theorizes that a modified dialysis procedure should do the trick, replacing all the kindred vitae with clean blood, making sure to get every drop and residual pool in the process. The procedure, theoretically, should only work if all the vitae is removed first, and then the body is flooded with healthy, preferably white saturated blood. Any mixing of the tainted vitae and healthy blood could negate the whole effect. Finishing up at the lab, Quinn begins to ponder and muse on the potential of this procedure and the methods required for success.

Quinn returns to his house to find a body duck-taped to the front door. A high school cheerleader, in perfect health and beauty. He tries to make the best of the situation, calls her a cab and makes her comfortable until it arrives. She has no idea how she got there or what brought her. After she is gone, he checks on Soda Pop, who by now has moved from the guest bedroom upstairs, down to the den. He asks for a paper so he can keep up on current events. Reading the paper, Soda becomes a bit agitated and tells Quinn about a friend he had lost contact with turned up dead. Earlier that week, Soda had run into his friend for the first time in a number of years. Glad to be back in touch, he is now devastated by his quick demise. He drops the paper and heads back up to the guest room.

At her haven, Elspeth finds a briefcase just inside her door. In the curious, she opens it to find much of the jewelry and family heirlooms she had pawned off for money since moving to San Cortia. note All the pieces had been sold at different stores, but they are all back together again here. In addition, there is money, valuing at least double what she had pawned them for, and an envelope with a note. Elspeth can't read, but she stores everything away, hides the money, and puts the note where she can remember to take it with her the next night.

When the coterie again convenes at Marwood's underground estate, they find him absent, again. Suspicions to his nature are beginning to arise. As they leave the Undercity, they run into Gerrod Knighton. Quinn and Persia seem to be wary of him after the last night's events but he puts on a friendly face and offers them another chance to make good. He convinces them to check out an independently managed warehouse on Dock 14C, he has heard that there is a special moving company for Kindred there. This may be a lead to find out how and why the kindred are leaving the city.

With nothing else to do, and no sign of Marwood (he refuses to answer his phone as well), the shrug and head back out to the docks. There they meet with Marcus Weatherby again. He can't say one way or the other if Knighton's rumor is true or not but he'll show them to the dock. Once there, they do in fact find a moving company by the name of "Overland Moving & Long-term Storage" There are a few dockhands milling around but nothing hits them as out of the ordinary. They enter innocently and begin to casually interrogate the man behind the desk. They learn, through some skilled probing, that the company is actually a cover for another company "Underground Moving" and that they do in fact specialize in moving vampires safely. Deciding not to make a confrontation out of it, the coterie calmly leaves and heads back into the city.

Quinn tries again to call Marwood for insight and guidance and the phone rings on. It appears that every four rings the phone clicks over to another line, as if to an answering service. After seven such instances, Persia's phone rings. Confused and hopeful that Marwood is trying to get in touch with them, Persia answers, only to find out that Marwood's phone rang all the way through to hers and she is now talking to Quinn. Much to Quinn's chagrin and Persia's paranoid delusions, she begins a long term obsession of how shoe could possibly be #6 on the Marwood "Phone Tree". But for now it is time to hunt. They all, as per normal, go their separate ways on the hunt. Torn ends up at a club looking for rebellious personalities and is confronted by an older woman who hands her an envelope, telling her that things can only get better from here. The envelope is full of a lot of information pertaining to the Individuals for Redistribution.

Finally, at the end of the evening, they all meet back at Marwood's and almost to their surprise, Marwood is there to meet them. They do get the impression that they have interrupted something. Marwood has a guest, she introduces herself as Hadria Shanz, in a deep Slovak accent. She seems upset with the interruption and leaves hastily. Marwood tries to recompose himself, it is obvious that something is happening, and gets back to business with the coterie. Knighton confronted him again, he tells them, and made another press at Primogen. He asks the coterie how they feel about introducing Primogen to San Cortia. Persia seems to show a little favor and Quinn speaks in praise of it, while everyone else either seems apathetic or in the dark to the whole concept.

The night closes with the return of Maximilliann Silver, in more parts than the last time he was dragged into the Undercity. This time there are distinct missing pieces, a skull engraved in his forehead and a gold coin in his mouth. Marwood is, expectedly, greatly concerned over this event and the deaths of his Kindred are as unsettling as the rumors of revolt.

When Quinn wakes the next evening, as he passes through his library, he feels that something is out of order. His gun case, with weapons of all ages and periods seems to be a bit emptier. I appears that some of his weapons have been stolen, mostly newer hand guns and pistols. He questions Soda Pop, not wanting to think he had anything to do with it. Soda acts surprised at both the theft and the accusation and can offer no admittance. Soda admits to having slept a lot lately and very deeply, he is still a little out of it from the concussion and seems a little vague on everything going on. Quinn also places a call to "UnderGround Moving in order to get a little more inside information. He places an order to be moved and they let him know that it is more than likely possible, but they will have to run a background check. Quinn, in confidence, agrees to the background check and looks forward to the upcoming reply from the moving company.

Meanwhile, Persia awakens from her "haven" in the Undercity. Heading toward Marwood, she is met by a man with a snake tattooed to his forehead. Persia, undoubtedly, reacts with fear and aggression, pulling her gun on him. He talks her down saying that he has come here against "his" will and that he has brought Persia a gift to help resist "him." The man then presents her with an odd trinket that looks as if it were stolen from a BDSM dungeon. A belt with two long chains attached; one chain connected to a collar of sorts; the other, longer chain hanging to the ground. As she takes it from him he turns and falls to his knees, grasping his head in pain. He then leaps to his feet and runs off down the tunnels at inhuman speeds. Persia looks down at the collar/belt and more out of paranoia than anything else, belts it on and fastens the collar. The longer chain, as expected drags on the floor behind her.

In Elspeth's haven, other things are going awry. She wakes up with bruises around her neck, as if from strangulation but there is no evidence of anyone having attacked her during the day. She heals them painfully, as she realizes that all of her blood seems to be thinning, and heads out to Marwood's in hopes that a cure has been found.

But as per usual, Marwood isn't there when all the Kindred gather for their nightly orders. As Elspeth stumbles into the room, she admits that she is in dire need and they decide that they will get a dialysis machine tonight to begin work on a cure for this disease. At that, they pack up and make plans for a hospital heist. To make a long story short, things never go as smoothly as planned. They get into the hospital without much difficulty, and locate a dialysis machine with only minimal trouble (Quinn's knowledge of both science and medicine make this a relatively easy task). But when it comes time to leave the hospital with the machine, things get a bit more difficult. They hijack an ambulance and manage to get a fair distance from the when two things go wrong. They are being followed by the cops, and they never came up with a place to ditch the dialysis machine. Persia uses some more charming powers and eventually talks her way out of trouble with the cops. Coming up with no other viable options, they double back past the hospital and head for the docks. There they get Weatherby to set them up with a vacant warehouse for a short time, while Quinn completes the development of a purification ritual.

When everything is safe and sound, and the heist is in the past, Quinn returns to his home. Again he finds a body taped to his door, this time a track runner. He is still wearing his jersey and seems to be a bit groggy, as if drugged. Quinn cuts him down sends him on his way, confused again, but not as confused as he is about to be. He walks into his house and nearly trips over a body, decaying on the floor. It is vampiric and it is in torpor at the very least. Another body lies halfway through a living room window. All told there are six bodies found in his front rooms. The intruders don't seem to have gotten any further than that. They have all been killed by bullet wounds; actually killed by bullets, a hard feat to achieve with vampires. Soda Pop, again, doesn't know anything about it, he had been sleeping upstairs all night. Quinn checks him out and he does still seem to be suffering from head trauma, long bouts of deep sleep and unconsciousness would not be unheard of. But still, how much can go on in the house without him noticing, it may be time for Soda to leave.

On her way home, Persia gets a visit from a surprise guest, as Herrick drops out of the sky and lands in front of her. He drags her into an alleyway and informs her of some new, inside information. Apparently Marwood had spent the majority of the night in the National Forest to the north, with Hadria. They had some kind of meeting there with an unknown guest. Herrick had been keeping an eye on Marwood in the Undercity and when Hadria came by to visit, they left, heading north. Herrick was not able to keep up with them when they went into the woods, but he was never able to locate them again afterwards. Herrick suspects that there is something going on between Marwood and Hadria and he doubts that it is any good.

And Fug, in his den, gets a call from an old friend, Mr. Song. He comes bringing a message from Mr. Ido, requesting that he come and look into some recent hits on his territory. It would seem that Vincenzo has found new forces and income and is now attacking Ido's establishments once again. If Fug could bring in some help from Marwood, there maybe important information to be learned by all. Song leaves the decisions to Fug (for better or worse) an disappears into the night. Fug goes to sleep that morning, remembering is lost dedication to the East.

Things get quiet after all the chaos of recent events. The coterie concerns itself with personal matters as Marwood becomes less and less available. They spend the most part of the first week trying to cure Elspeth, and now Torn who seems to have picked up this virus as well. Quinn suspects she picked it up in the frenzied fight by the minibus. Procuring the services of a welder, Quinn is able to have a large Vessel of Transference built. In the end it resembles a large (13 gallon) pressure cooker with a few odd hoses and copper chains hanging off of it, each of the four chains ending in a wide shackle. Quinn's theory is this: by using the dialysis machine in conjunction with the extra large Vessel of Transference, he will be able to remove all vitae and guarantee the purity of the replacement blood. All that is required at this point is to hook the two devices together and find sufficient donor blood. The later task falls into the capable hands of Persia and her glowing personality. Later that evening, the coterie gathers at the warehouse where they previously hid the dialysis machine and go to work.

They attach the Vessel to the dialysis machine via the hoses and hook them both up to a generator/compressor. Persia supplies the blood in the form of a high school soccer team that she encountered on a bus at a McDonald's. They fill the Vessel of Transference with blood and lock the shackles to Elspeth's ankles and wrists. Persia starts up the generator, which powers up the dialysis machine and begins to pressurize the Vessel of Transference The resulting noise is unbelievable but after a matter of seconds, the device seems to level out and generate a gentle (yet still loud) hum. Quinn monitors the dials on the Vessel of Transference and Persia mans the generator. Quinn needs to stop the blood drain at the very moment that Elspeth is completely dry and transfer the new blood in almost instantly. Fortunately Quinn and Persia get the timing perfect on the first try and all of Elspeth's vitae is drawn and replaced with healthy blood. An unfortunate side effect is during the moment of complete death, Elspeth's hair changed to a pure and pristine white (the cause of this is yet undetermined).

Success is obvious as Elspeth stands strong feels the fresh, clean blood in her system. Now it is Torn's turn. The system is cleaned and reset and, as if experts at it, Persia and Quinn perform the almost miraculous feat a second time with no err in sight. Convinced that they are ahead of the game now and have no further need for the equipment, they dump it in the bay, set the soccer team on it's way and head back into the city.

At some point the next week, Fug requests company of his coterie as he heads back in to "Little China." He intends to investigate the attacks on Ido's operations and does not want to wander alone, not after having run into the Shih a few short months earlier. They do some minor investigating, and it does look like the Italians are back at work. But it looks like there's some inside help this time, one of the attacks comes from inside one of the shops. Fug is not sure what to make of this and the others are all more confused than he, never having dealt with this area of town at all. All confusion is put on hold at one point as they round a corner and in the middle of the street, as if waiting for them, is the Shih from before. Quinn spins the suburban they've been driving lately around and races for the safety of another block. The Shih is able to keep up at amazing speeds. As Quinn begins to pull away, balls of glowing light fly at the suburban, rocking it on impact.

They do get away though and foolishly decide to continue their investigations. Of course at the next location they stop at, who is waiting for them but the Shih. Fug is the first in the decimated shop and catches the Shih off guard. He uses this advantage to flee furiously back to the car. Quinn and Jon don't believe him, Quinn accuses him of being overly paranoid and they head in to, only to spy the Shih still in the building. He shows almost no concern for them at all as he heads toward them to leave. Quinn and Jon run to the car, and are driving away before the Shih even enters into the street. Fug decides to possibly put off investigations until a later date, and unsurprisingly the coterie whole heatedly agrees (which doesn't happen very often).

One night at home, Quinn's phone rings. "Underground Moving" calls to inform him that they will be unable to move him out of the city. In fact they tell him that they may get someone else to move him out of the city if he's not a bit more careful. He's not really sure what that means, but decides it may be time to keep a closer eye on his back. Also during this time, everyone gets a call from Herrick, of all people. He calls a meeting for everyone (everyone being Quinn, Persia, Jon, Torn, Sung, Fug, and Elspeth; he specifically uninvites Folke) at the top of the Vanda Building, the tallest building in town and home of the infamous "Sun Room" (where more than a few vampire have watched the sun rise when they displeased the ruling Sect).

At the Vanda Building, Herrick tells them of more recent events, in the last few nights, visits by Shanz have been much more frequent. The last time he was able to eavesdrop, last night, he heard the meeting break down to a fight. There were three visitors this time, one of them spoke directly and aggressively, often bringing up someone named Perrin. But the last thing he heard as the voices got more hushed was Hadria shout "You will see, and your Reign will end!"

Persia shows no reaction to the mention of her sire, Perrin, but she does get more nervous and concerned. They all decide to go visit Marwood; Herrick refusing. When they do finally arrive back at Marwood's, things don't look good. Folke is there, cleaning his gun as usual, but Marwood, is pale, running around the room double checking the hundreds of guns, grenades, swords, knives and other implements of destruction splayed about the room. Before they can say anything, they can overhear Marwood muttering the following:

The coterie have a look of awe about them, they have never seen Marwood in a state like this. As they stand there watching in awe, he continues to babble the prophetic lines again and again. The members of the coterie don't notice immediately, but also present in the room are Mr. Song, making phone calls, and someone they have never met nor seen before. The new guy is musing over maps of the city and writing in a notebook. Marwood finally snaps out of his "trance" and notices the group standing in the room. First off he seems relieved that Fug is with them. He introduces them to Centurion, a tactician he tells them, and one of the greatest unknown resources of the city. He also tells them that things are about to get bad, a Gargoyle was just here informing him of an incoming force, Sabbat by presumption, to take over the city.

It doesn't take long to strike fear and concern into the hearts of the coterie and they start filtering through the stockpiles of weapons to find suitable arms. Quinn approaches Marwood and fills him in on the results of the treatment on Elspeth, and that he would like to head to Atlanta and try to get into the Center for Disease Control to get the virus examined. He explains to Marwood that he is not worthy for nor trained in combat and would prove to be little more than another casualty. Marwood concedes the point and allows Quinn to leave through what he believes to be one of the last, safe, passages out of the city. Persia follows him out of the room and says her good-byes. Quinn confides in her that he is going to Atlanta but leaves with her, a second vial of the Vampiric virus, "for safe keeping." She hugs him one last time and returns to the room.

It takes the remaining coterie a little while to notice, but Sung seems to have slipped off as well. Most assume that it's really not his fight, and in all truth it's not. Fug question's Mr. Song as to his purpose here. Mr. Song admits that he is doing a favor for Marwood in calling all possible allies to help in the fight, but things look grim.

Some of the first people he placed calls to actually show up just in time for the ensuing wrath. Fletcher Nightstalker and Zander Laffayette barge into the room unannounced and head straight to Marwood who, once interrupted from his mantra, gives them the same basic breakdown as he gave the rest of the coterie.

There isn't much sitting around or socializing to be done, the shots can be heard from under the city relatively quick, and as expected as the attack is, no one really expected it to be this soon and this big. The remaining coterie - Persia, Torn, Jon and Fug - run out into the streets followed closely by Fletcher, Zander and Folke. Marwood heads down another passage to check on other parts of the city. The carnage in the streets is ungodly, and by all traditions of the Masquerade, a violation. The coterie pops up out of the Undercity on a well traveled block, met by a force of twenty or so vampires and ghouls pouring down the street. Zander pulls out a sectional spear and starts piecing it together as he disappears behind a car. Fletcher clears out the enemy ranks a bit with some well placed, if not overly obvious grenades. By the time the attacking group gets within melee range, they number less than ten, but there are a couple in the back that strike fear into most of the Kindred on the street, as flames leap up in arcing streams.

The fight is hard fought, but short lived as the coterie tries to hold their city. In a highlight of heroism and sacrifice, Persia makes a bold move against one of the guys wielding flame-thrower. Folke, always in the deep of combat is hit broadside with a burst of flame and napalm. Persia doesn't realize it, but his duster takes the better part of the blast and he is relatively safe once he dumps the coat. But still, Persia sees her brother doused in flame, so she takes aim and unwittingly shoots at the flame-thrower. The resulting explosion not only takes out almost the entire remaining attacking force, but also half of her coterie are coated in burning napalm. She, unscathed, stands nearly dumbfounded as her coterie, including Folke, run for the canals of the Undercity. Fug overcomes his fear of flame and all but eats the other flamethrowing punk.

The coterie is victorious; victoriously licking their wounds, they do not travel far from their Centurion appointed block, but they also notice that there is a general silence, gunshots can be heard, but only silently in the distance. As the sit resting in the Undercity, it would appear that most of the fighting in the city took about as long. Their joy is short lived as Marwood approaches in a gondola up the canal, covered in blood and entrails. His fight, they assume was not as clean, nor as victorious. He tells them that the city is falling on many sides, that his Kindred cannot hold fast against the attack.

As they return to one of the main chambers to discuss with Centurion the next possible option, a glimmer of hope shines on them. Behind them they can see a gondola approaching, carrying three people. Still in the shadows, they cannot identify the people, but they are standing strong and look very confident as the glide ahead. Marwood ushers the coterie into the main chamber to wait for the gondola to land. Inside there are a handful of beaten Kindred, ready - begging - to leave the city. There is a knock on the door and the three guests enter. Hadria Shanz enters, ushering in someone who Persia recognizes as Simeon (her sire's rival) and lastly, Gerrod Knighton. Hadria smiles.

The Fall of the House of...