Providence by Night – Fire, Fire My Heart (Session 8)

Welcome to Providence by Night, the continuing recounting of our tabletop Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle. Providence by Night is a low-powered, “street-level” game featuring a group of very new vampires adjusting to unlife in Providence and the vampiric condition. You can read all of the sessions so far on the main Providence by Night page.

In this session, the coterie’s evening goes awry, as they fail to navigate winter weather, fail to think before sneaking, fall prey to a magical ward, gather little information by investigating a firebombed residence, run away from gunfire, and then fail at technological efforts to identify their assailant. But Beth does manage to conduct a rational conversation before the night is over, so let’s call it a draw.

Session 8 – Fire, Fire My Heart – January 26, 2015

Tony, deciding technology – whether Kindred or kine – could not be trusted, began the process of acquiring a set of smartphones for the coterie that he can jailbreak and encrypt. Leaving his house, Tony was surprised to find a mortal waiting at his doorstep. The man stated that in four nights, Tony’s presence was required at the Promenade Apartments. Puzzled, Tony accepted. Upon his acceptance, the mortal looked up, confused, forgetting where he was. Noticing Tony’s twisted visage, the man absconded quickly.  Some time later, Tony joined the coterie at the warehouse at the heart of their new Domain. From there, the group decided to brave roads made treacherous by the winter storm and venture over to Kevin’s firebombed Coventry haven, once more piling into Beth’s trusty sedan. On the way, Beth stops her vehicle at a familiar stoplight on Washington Street. History repeating, she perceived the sounds of approaching motorcycles, and surged the car into the intersection, only to be struck from the side by a smaller vehicle. Beth’s car spun out, and after the vehicles had come to a rest, an angry women exited and demanded that Beth explain why she had run the red light. Catching the woman’s eyes, Beth bade her to “Forget.” The other driver stilled, trying to make sense of the situation, and Beth explained the other woman had sideswiped her, but that it was understandable, given the weather. The mortal apologized profusely, offering her insurance information before the coterie departed. 

The coterie eventually arrived at Kevin’s haven and noticed a white 1980s 4×4 parked near the ruins of the house. Spencer spotted four figures patrolling the area, and sought to sneak around them … but was betrayed as the dome light in Beth’s sedan automatically turned on when he opened the door to exit. The four figures converged on the coterie, and Nathan recognized fellow Brujah Tex leading three aging mortals sporting old Army jackets with VWF patches on their shoulders. Tex explained that the property was protected by a painful force field. Spencer was quick to recognize it as a thaumaturgical ward that had been used by a few of his old crew from LA. After his brute force attempt to bypass the ward failed (leaving some distinctive burns to remind him), Spencer attempted to contact some of his old Tremere contacts using Tony’s phone, but without success. Spencer then called Kevin who, after learning that his wards were still in place and quite active, bid Spencer’s job complete and hung up. Spencer returned Tony’s phone, and the Nosferatu made sure to save the numbers Spencer had dialed.

Nathan inspected the scene further and noticed the husks of a few incendiary grenades nestled in the wreckage of the house. The group converged to share findings when a sudden CRACK! echoed through the night. Recognizing gunfire, Tex and his ghouls hit the deck, then scrambled and fled in their truck. Unable to pinpoint the location of the sniper, the coterie followed suit, and Beth’s already damaged sedan picked up a few bullet holes on way out. Tony asked to be dropped off at a sewer access once the coterie reached Providence again. He made his way to Phillip’s corner of the Nosferatu Warrens and traded a boon for Phillip to confirm that only five Camarilla-issue pagers were present at the scene (the four members of the coterie plus Tex). Tony was no closer to deducing the identity of the shooter.

Nathan was concerned that mortals might be injured wandering into Kevin’s wards, and Spencer was furious that his fellow Tremere had used him to test the continued effectiveness of his magical defenses. When Kevin proved uninterested in responding to Spencer’s contacts, Beth messaged him, noting their role vehme for Prince Jerome. Kevin specified that he would meet her at the Providence Athenaeum. Beth left Nathan and Spencer behind, and found Kevin waiting outside at the top of a long set of stairs. Beth pointed out that her coterie’s time had been wasted but, more importantly, inquired as to whether the wards posed any potential Masquerade issues, should a mortal – especially an investigator – walk into them. Kevin admitted that he never expected others to get roped into the errand he had set for Spencer and indicated that the wards had been in place for decades, but did not affect mortals. Kevin also claimed that mortal authorities had been diverted from investigating the firebombing. Satisfied, Beth turned to leave, but before she left, Kevin commented that he had heard good things about her from Tremere Primogen Reiss, and suggested that she consider joining the Athenaeum.

As Beth walked back to the car, Spencer hustled ahead, having tried and failed to glean anything meaningful by looking in on her conversation with Kevin. Instead, he had to make do with Beth’s report, which left Nathan relieved, and Spencer still angry over Kevin’s trickery and failure to apologize.

End Session 8

 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.