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, the coterie is back in Elysium. Nathan deals with the fallout of his murderous frenzy and Tony seeks counsel about the beast stalking the sewers. Meanwhile, things are coming together for Beth, as she seems to have made allies of both the Tremere and Toreador Primogen (what could possibly go wrong, eh?). As for Spencer … then came the shot.
Session 18 – We’re Leaving – March 27, 2015
A cheap plastic banner (courtesy of Patrick) proclaimed: “Good Show, Debutantes!” (a backhanded compliment on the coterie’s first appearance at a Salon) as the coterie entered the Biltmore’s Grand Ballroom. Spencer’s Tremere visitor from California, Ochumere, approached the Prince and knelt, asking to be acknowledged and for permission to reside in the City. Reiss caught Beth’s eye and then supplied that Ochumere had her Primogen’s blessing and an understanding of the Traditions. The Prince of Providence nodded and Spencer was quick to congratulate his friend.
Meanwhile, Nathan had some bridges to mend. The Brujah crossed paths with Don Coyote, who explained that he had quite the conundrum ahead of him. A raging Brujah was quite the potential Masquerade breach, but Don Coyote understood that Nathan had done his best to clean things up. Still, the Deputy was still angry about Nathan slaughtering heir only link to anarch leader Rachael. Nathan promised that he would find her and make amends with Tex, who was understandably upset about his VFW post getting trashed.
Nathan moved on to speak with Spencer, who had an idea about using Thaumaturgy on the vitae-infused drugs, which Beth had now twice found at the coterie’s club, and hopefully learn their source.
Beth approached Reiss, who was happy to announce that “their girl did well” before inquiring about the Malkavian’s progress translating the materials he had provided her. Beth explained that it was a pre-Columbian manuscript that contained other-worldly figures and motifs that she recognized as references to various Mesoamerican deities. Beth had determined that the codex was a divinatory manuscript that could be used as a key or lens to decipher another manuscript that the codex constantly referred to. Additionally, Beth described various references to the “Lords of the Night”, a set of nine gods who each ruled over every ninth night forming a calendrical cycle. Each lord was associated with a particular fortune, bad or good, that was an omen for the night that they ruled over. Beth concluded the Lords of the Night could possibly be ancient Kindred. Quite pleased, Reiss noted that he would need to rely on Beth a bit more now and promised that a courier would deliver what Reiss believed to be the companion tome to the Codex. Throughout the conversation, Spencer and Tony observed the interaction carefully, looking for signs that their handiwork with Kevin had been noticed.
Tony located his mentor, the Nosferatu Primogen, and told Densch that he wanted to discuss what they would do about the sewer monster. Densch tentatively agreed, but mentioned that they should find a more secure place to talk. After agreeing to give Densch a ride home, Tony approached Prince Elsa of Hartford, who was attending court as Prince Jerome’s special guest, and presented the gift he owed her from their encounter at the Salon. Not wanting to seem too eager, Prince Elsa produced a parcel of her own and slid it across the table to Tony. Tony opened the box to discover a key bearing the logo of a rather high end British car manufacturer.
Prince Jerome then introduced and welcomed Carla to the city, a personal guest of his, and proclaimed her the court’s ambassador from “The Clan of Death.” Carla rose, produced a card, and in a heavy Italian accent, read that she was very happy to be welcomed. Despite her presentation as being unfamiliar with English, the members of the coterie were able to recognize her from her visit to Quintessence on opening night a couple weeks before, when she had displayed no such difficulties. The Prince then proclaimed that, at long last, the Domain of Brown would be conferred over to a joint “Toreador and Malkavian interest.”
The Prince continued that he was elated that there was “lots of multi-clan support for this” decision and that he was “very glad his subjects can come together and agree in these modern nights.” Toreador Primogen Marie-Claire took the floor to mostly echoed his thoughts. With the more senior Malkavian, Pickman, not terribly well-suited to public speaking (and not involved in the arrangement anyway), the Prince’s gaze fell upon Beth, and he invited her to address the court on behalf of her Clan. Beth agreed with the already expressed sentiments, and went on to talk of Brown as a great opportunity for Kindred to learn from each other.
Marie-Claire turned to fellow Harpy Caoimhe and shot her an acid victory smile, earning a scoff in return. Under her breathe (but not quiet enough), Caoimhe grumbled about Marie-Claire’s pettiness. “You are the petty one” the Toreador retorted. “Well, if your kind wasn’t spending all their time threatening the Masquerade with their Salons, you’d notice the real danger that we’re all in” Caoimhe shot back. With an alarming level of heat flaring between the coterie’s Shadow and her newly-sealed ‘ally’ in the Toreador, Beth attempted to intervene between the two. She pressed on the Prince’s words of words of unity, but Marie-Claire verbally lunged, proclaiming that her rival was “a mortal lover and too soft for this existence”. Defeated, Caoimhe nodded to the court and departed the scene. Marie-Claire gave a shrug of innocence. Beth, well aware how much Marie-Claire’s ‘insult’ would apply to her as well, remained near the court’s political center. But Spencer took off after Caoimhe, with Nathan not too far behind them.
Spencer rushed past a maid and caught the Ventrue as she traversed the mezzanine to the parking garage. “Are you okay?” he asked the (former?) Harpy. Caoimhe turned, wiped her face, and said that things “were well in hand.” Further conversing, Caoimhe revealed that her present to Patrick, left by the coterie at the Salon, had been nothing more than a silver letter opener. Spencer mentioned his plan to use blood magic to trace the weird drugs and Caoimhe agreed it was a good plan before riding off on her motorcycle.
As the sound of the engine faded, Spencer heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being loaded. He turned to see a woman dressed as a maid – the same one he had passed on the way to the garage – pull out a .308 rifle and begin to monologue: “Have you felt the fear yet? Imagine my luck to have found two of you. Your kind took my Juanito from me. Now I will take something from you. You will know how bad I hurt.”
Recognizing the rhetoric from an earlier note, Spencer shouted, “Hey! You’re the person who bricked my car!” His exclamation was answered with gunfire. But Nathan, who had not been far behind Spencer, arrived on the scene and knocked the woman to the ground before she could get off another volley. Together, Nathan and Spencer disabled her and texted the rest of the coterie, who arrived soon after. The coterie looked around for a convenient place to store the woman when a tall European man in a grey suit and chauffeur cap exited a beautiful vehicle and presented a solution.
“Mr. Castiglionni, the name’s Arthur Bates and I am at your service. Shall we put her in the boot?” The coterie followed his advice and took the would-be assassin to an abandoned section of sewer to start their interrogation. End Session 18