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 the whole story so far on our main Providence by Night page.
In this week’s update, Tony lies to his boss, Spencer mixes drugs and magic, and Beth finds her own way of “dealing with” the coterie’s hunter problem.
Session 19 – Heaven Knows – March 27-28, 2015
Tony led Beth and Spencer through the now-abandoned Nosferatu Warrens as Nathan kept watch at street level. The two visiting vampires were surprised at how clean-smelling this part of the sewers was as they dragged their captive mortal hunter to a safe interrogation space. A quick search of the prisoner revealed a innocuous collection of garlic, holy water, and holy symbols … and a not-so-innocuous incendiary grenade. Beth watched while Spencer and Tony asked questions, sussing out that the “maid,” a true Catholic believer named Maria, was the mother of “Juanito” and wanted revenge for him. Spencer thought back the last night at Club Theta when Nereus had accidentally drained a young Hispanic mortal and understood. Spencer tried to commiserate, but only succeeded in angering the woman who projected her hate for her son’s killer onto vampires in general and Spencer’s Tremere group in particular.
After Tony and Spencer had run out of productive questions, Beth asked for a private conversation the mortal and the other coterie members agreed and left. Tony doubled back and attempted to listen in on the conversation between Beth and Maria, but had no success, and departed rather than further risk discovery. In the interrogation space, Maria denounced Beth as an abomination, but the Malkavian drily observed that the Church had been calling her an abomination long before she became a vampire. When Maria said that she would not listen to a soulless demon, Beth startled the hunter by asserting that vampires did have souls. And, indeed, vampires were not demons, but rather each was tormented by their own personal, inescapable demon. Beth did, however, readily agree with Maria that vampires were monsters, even her. Still, the Malkavian asserted, Maria should not condemn Spencer for the actions of another vampire – and certainly there were better targets for Maria’s ire. Having sown some doubt, Beth offered the hunter an out – Beth couldn’t have Maria hunting vampires in Providence, but Maria was free to go if she’d simply leave Providence. The hunter relented, although she opined that other hunters would not be willing to listen to Beth’s reasoning, and warned of a coming inquisition on all vampires.
After Tony left the sewers, Arthur Banks drove him back to the Biltmore where they picked up the Densch and Gregor, the Nosferatu Primogen and Seneschal, respectively. The two Kindred entered the car and Gregor muffled the sound in the vehicle as Tony asked what was to be done about the monster stalking the Warrens. “What to do indeed,” Densch muttered. He then directly asked what Tony and Spencer had been doing with Kevin at Elysium the night that he disappeared. Tony shifted in his seat and lied that he was attempting to ease the friction between the Tremere. The two elder Nosferatu met each other’s gazes, and seemed accept Tony’s explanation. Densch explained that the Nosferatu needed allies now more than ever and, with great effort, Gregor had convinced the Prince that that thing in the Warrens was an external threat that the Nosferatu had sacrificed their own home to entrap it. Densch then announced that he would be cashing in the collective boons owed by Tony to “get rid of the abomination!” Densch suggested that Tony should be able to get his coterie to assist him in this, thus providing that the neonate was capable of maintaining allies.
Worried, but nodding his consent, Tony exited the car after his superiors and went back into Elysium to speak with Nick about scouting out the Warrens using his rodent friends. Nick agreed to provide intelligence via Animalism for the good of the clan, while Tony ordered a small drone. Many rats would die over the following week, but allowed Tony to pinpoint the creature’s usual sleeping location, even snapping a photo before the drone was destroyed.
Having let the hunter go, Beth also headed back to Elysium, where she was approached by Kate, the Gangrel who had first introduced Beth to Kindred society, who confessed to ‘looking in on’ Beth at Quintessence. Taking Beth’s Hand, Kate explained that vampire/mortal pairing were never like books and always ended poorly for both. Beth thanked her for the thought, but frankly disclosed that she simply could not get by without Tracy.
Unlike his coterie-mates, Spencer did not go back to Elysium, but instead returned to Quintessence, where he began a ritual to discover the truth of the vitae-infused drugs that kept turning up at the club. He parsed out a sample of the narcotics, mixed it with his own blood in a silver chalice, and drank deeply. A vision quest lead his consciousness through the veil and he was in an old bathroom of a decrepit building. Hearing a distant moan, Spencer called out, “Trent?!” and walked through the walls towards another room before hearing a response. “Rachael, is that you?” Spencer continued, gliding through the building and through the door marked “Dolls.” A man hung upside-down in the bathroom, suspended from his feet with meat hooks driven through his back and tiny fangs poking through his gums. Blood dripped slowly down the chain and into a plastic five-gallon pail near a table covered with unmistakable white powder. Spencer felt himself falling back into the real world, but had the sense of mind to look out the front window of the building and note the nearby street signs.
Spencer informed the coterie of what he had learned before hiring someone to drive him home, as enough narcotics remained in his undead corpse to make him wary of driving himself. Spencer arrived at his beach house haven to open windows and a stinky kitchen. Passing Artemis on the couch, Spencer investigated the mess to discover that a thermite grenade had burned through his refrigerator. Enraged, Spencer berated his mortal friend for the carnage. Artemis explained that he had found a “beer can” on the front porch and put it into the fridge after successfully removing the fishing line. Apparently someone had been busy in case Spencer survived Elysium.
End Session 19