Session 11 Report

General Summary

Pre-Game Downtime Housekeeping: 1. Coterie: a. 2. Jax: a. Project Roll b. Add 3 Dot Flaw Dark Secret – Diablerie of Dr. Crucio to Character Sheet c. Increase your First Light Lore Sheet to 3 Dots 3. Saoirse: a. Project Roll 4. Quinton: a. Add 3 Dot Flaw Dark Secret – Diablerie of Dr. Crucio to Character Sheet b. Increase both lore sheet to 5 Dots because of the Diablerie c. Influence Results: i. Media: The story about people taking new kinds of drugs such as blood thinners or ones that cause hallucinations is published but doesn’t pick up much traction. Partially because the larger media corporations have been trying to discredit his media influences. d. Touchstones/Humanity: i. What did you decide on when it comes to Princess The Bear? ii. Your visits with Penny the Volunteer were fulfilling. During your time helping her and her organizations, you come to realize that her and the places she has been volunteering have been struggling. There has been an increase in the crime rate in Sunrise Point which is where Penny lives and does most of her volunteering. 5. Douglas: a. Give information that he would have learned during the time jump, which I gave the other players at the end of last session. 6. Tala: a. Hope is willing to meet with you whenever you have time. You have her number so you can call her whenever your ready. Reminders About Storylines For players: 1. Coterie: a. The tension between the Police and the Protestors in the Cultural District have been escalating and have resulted in various spurts of violence from both sides. b. The Freedom Fighters will have secured enough influence and strength within Sunrise Point to officially be able to claim it as their territory. c. Influence Results: You successfully covered up the explosions that occurred at Dr. Crucio’s Lab, by using your Police and Media Influences. 2. Douglas: a. There are rumors flying around Elysium about the Toreador planning a Halloween/Festive Ball/Gala. b. Douglas is being pressured to display a true masterpiece at the event and will be expected to assist them in the leg work of getting the event organized and running. c. Uno Gablavian the Art Collector is being intensely pressured by a couple of different high society art connoisseurs trying to urge him to sell some of the recent art pieces he acquired, and the pressure is getting intense.   3. Jax: a. Your Sire let you know that the Prince has decided it is time for you to undergo what your sire is hoping will be your final Trial of Apprenticeship and that it will be overseen by Magister Harland. Should you succeed, you will be officially Promoted to the rank of Apprentice of the 6th Circle. Should you perform exceptionally well, you could be promoted to the rank of Apprentice of the 7th Circle. Your sire lets you know that he is pretty sure the Prince is only making you do this, because Lord Archon Serrano is pressuring her to resume these trials for all of the Apprentices. b. You will gain a few benefits if you can reach the 7th circle such as: i. Normally Tremere are not allowed to take any kind of titles such as Whip until they have passed into the 7th circle. The restriction on where your Haven is, and what kind of duties you have to do for the Clan are greatly lifted. You basically get to choose. ii. Regents are no longer allowed to demand services from an Acolyte once they reach the 7th Circle without direct approval of the regional leadership. But it is highly recommended that you continue to support the House and Clan… iii. Once you officially are promoted to a higher rank, you will have access to more of the restricted items within the Chantry. c. As for what the trial is going to be, your sire has no idea. It could be just about anything. Your Sire will give you a small envelope which invites you to meet with Magister Harland and Lord Archon Serrano at a set time and place.     4. Quinton: a. You learned from Hound Persephone that your Touchstone, Dr. Quinn, has been looking into things she shouldn’t be. The Doctor has had several patients come in with symptoms caused by a Kindred feeding 3+ dots from them. She began doing research into what could be causing this since she isn’t aware of Kindred. She supposedly had gone to a couple of news outlets to ask anyone who knows anything to come to her so she can help them. b. Persephone is planning on leading the investigation into Dr. Quinn to prevent any further breach and cover up what little she may have already learned.   5. Saoirse: a. Bernice Steven's Pirate Radio has been shut down due to Bernice being arrested for helping to incite a Riot during the Cemetery Protests. She learned this from her Street Contacts who happened to see them arresting Bernice, and they had bugged the cops to tell them what was going on. b. You are also able to pick up the results from Dr. Albert Beitman’s lab work regarding the Synthetic Blood you gave him. I have the notes for you if you would like to have picked them up during the time jump. 6. Tala: a. The larger media outlets are running news attacking the minor outlets for spreading rumors and getting people worked up over nothing. b. You heard rumors that Hope Voss has been expressing concerns over the number of Thin-Bloods who have gone missing. She is willing to meet with you at Mason’s Square whenever you have time. You have her number so you can call her whenever you’re ready. Meeting With Hope: Hope will invite Tala to meet with her at Mason’s Square. She will inform them that she has noticed some strange behavior among the Thin-Bloods. • A lot of Thin-Bloods have been going missing, but at the same time there’s been a lot of new Thin-Bloods coming into town. • Primogen Adam is pretending like he doesn’t know anything about it, but Hope can’t prove that he’s lying or hiding something. • A group of the Thin-Bloods have been training the rest of them on how to fight. Hope understands needing to be able to protect yourself, but a Thin-Blood trying to fight a Brujah is a one-sided fight. No matter how well trained a Thin-Blood is…   Jax Learning About His Daughter: You see that Cassandra’s Fiancé Blake Thorne has moved in with her and her 2 childhood best friends/roommates. They live together in a 3-bedroom house towards the center of the Residential District. It’s a decent older house that has been well cared for. The 4 of them rarely ever seem to have parties, and your daughter only goes out to parties on occasion. Which you could assume due to her and her roommates being in Law School. Whenever they aren’t at late night study groups, in class, or working, Cassandra, Blake, and her roommates tend to do things together on a regular basis such as weekly movie nights in the backyard with a projector or taking trips to go hiking in the red woods. Late one evening you find yourself watching over your Daughter from afar. You find her in one of the private study rooms at the Library of the University working with a handful of other Students. Although you can’t hear them talking, you can tell by their body language that they are having a really difficult time and had been clearly arguing on and off. After what was likely a long and stressful study session/week, she eventually leaves and makes her way home. You can tell by the way that she carries herself, that she is exhausted, stressed out, and probably feeling overwhelmed. You easily follow her home, as she lives only a few minutes of a drive away from the campus, and you make sure she gets home safely. Most of the house is dark and quiet, as it is close to Midnight. Despite knowing that you should take your leave, you can’t help but to stay and watch for just a few more minutes. You see her come and go from the open living room windows before she surprises you. Shortly after she had just got home, you see her leaving her house once again on her own, but this time she is dressed in a nice black dress, carrying some flowers. She climbs into her car and drives off. As you follow her, you arrive at one of the smaller Cemeteries located on the East side of the Residential Districts, near the redwoods. You see her pull in and park her car in the small parking lot in front of the cemetery, before she slowly walks over to what you know all too well is your grave. There are a few light spread throughout the cemetery, offering just enough light to be able to see and feel a little safer. You see her kneel in front of your grave, where she changes out a bouquet of dead flowers for the fresh ones that she brought with her. She then begins to talk to your grave, but it doesn’t take long before she begins to quietly cry. Not just cry, but sob. She continues to talk through her tears. When Jax gets to where he can listen in, she is telling him about how difficult things have been lately and how overwhelmed she is feeling. She feels like she can’t take all the pressure anymore, but she doesn’t want to let you down and she doesn’t want to become like her mother. She continues talking about how one of your old coworkers from the FBI stopped by her house the other day and had some questions about you. She kept telling him that you had died, but he was acting as if you had just gone missing and hadn’t died. So, he wanted her to call him if she ever heard from you. She explains how painful this was, bringing up all the pain she felt when she lost you. After about and hour, she picks up the dead flowers and makes her way back to her car. She seems to be feeling a bit better and is no longer crying. As she is driving home, with you discreetly in pursuit, you quickly realize that you are not the only person shadowing her. There is another black car with tinted windows that is doing an incredible job following her without drawing attention. If you hadn’t been a Kindred, you probably would never have noticed them. Eventually you see your daughter makes it home safely and heads inside, where she seems to go to bed. The car that had been following her, drives past her house when she had pulled in, and it continues driving until out of sight. You do notice however, that there is an SUV parked across the street that wasn’t there when you two had left. If he investigates, he will discover: • The windows are lightly tinted, just enough to make it difficult to tell if anyone is in the vehicle at night. Without walking up to get a closer look and possibly confronting anyone who might still be in the vehicle, he will be limited to what he can learn about it. o He will be able to determine based on license plates, that it is a government vehicle. • Option 1 For Confrontation: If he confronts the person, he will learn it is a Federal Agent performing a stakeout on his daughter’s house. o They are investigating him and not his daughter, as he was thought to be deceased but was witnessed by another Agent at the meeting on Session 1. The Agent will have already radioed in that Jax was there and confirmed to be alive along with photo and video evidence. • Option 2 For Confrontation: He will discover the vehicle to be empty but can verify that it is a Federal Government vehicle. There is nothing inside that would identify exactly who was driving it or where they went. o He will see the typical stake out equipment in the back of the vehicle, such as binoculars, camera, and other such surveillance equipment. Should Jax return for a few nights following this, you do not see any suspicious vehicles in the area, unless he returns 4 nights later. They seem to currently be physically watching over the house ever 3 to 5 nights. Locations: Cassandra’s House Jax’s Grave/Cemetery NPC’s Involved: Cassandra, Agent Smith, Opening Scene You see that Cassandra’s Fiancé Blake Thorne has moved in with her and her 2 childhood best friends/roommates. They live together in a 3-bedroom house towards the center of the Residential District. It’s a decent older house that has been well cared for. The 4 of them rarely ever seem to have parties, and your daughter only goes out to parties on occasion. Which you could assume due to her and her roommates being in Law School. Whenever they aren’t at late night study groups, in class, or working, Cassandra, Blake, and her roommates tend to do things together on a regular basis such as weekly movie nights in the backyard with a projector or taking trips to go hiking in the red woods. Late one evening you find yourself watching over your Daughter from afar. You find her in one of the private study rooms at the Library of the University working with a handful of other Students. Although you can’t hear them talking, you can tell by their body language that they are having a really difficult time and had been clearly arguing on and off. After what was likely a long and stressful study session/week, she eventually leaves and makes her way home. You can tell by the way that she carries herself, that she is exhausted, stressed out, and probably feeling overwhelmed. You easily follow her home, as she lives only a few minutes of a drive away from the campus, and you make sure she gets home safely. Most of the house is dark and quiet, as it is close to Midnight. Despite knowing that you should take your leave, you can’t help but to stay and watch for just a few more minutes. You see her come and go from the open living room windows before she surprises you. Shortly after she had just got home, you see her leaving her house once again on her own, but this time she is dressed in a nice black dress, carrying some flowers. She climbs into her car and drives off. As you follow her, you arrive at one of the smaller Cemeteries located on the East side of the Residential Districts, near the redwoods. Cemetery Scene You see her pull in and park her car in the small parking lot in front of the cemetery, before she slowly walks over to what you know all too well is your grave. There are a few light spread throughout the cemetery, offering just enough light to be able to see and feel a little safer. You see her kneel in front of your grave, where she changes out a bouquet of dead flowers for the fresh ones that she brought with her. She then begins to talk to your grave, but it doesn’t take long before she begins to quietly cry. Not just cry, but sob. She continues to talk through her tears. When Jax gets to where he can listen in, she is telling him about how difficult things have been lately and how overwhelmed she is feeling. She feels like she can’t take all the pressure anymore, but she doesn’t want to let you down and she doesn’t want to become like her mother. She continues talking about how one of your old coworkers from the FBI stopped by her house the other day and had some questions about you. She kept telling him that you had died, but he was acting as if you had just gone missing and hadn’t died. So, he wanted her to call him if she ever heard from you. She explains how painful this was, bringing up all the pain she felt when she lost you. After about an hour, she picks up the dead flowers and makes her way back to her car. She seems to be feeling a bit better and is no longer crying. As she is driving home, with you discreetly in pursuit, you quickly realize that you are not the only person shadowing her. There is another black car with tinted windows that is doing an incredible job following her without drawing attention. If you hadn’t been a Kindred, you probably would never have noticed them. Returned Home Scene Eventually you see your daughter makes it home safely and heads inside, where she seems to go to bed. The car that had been following her, drives past her house when she had pulled in, and it continues driving until out of sight. You do notice however, that there is an SUV parked across the street that wasn’t there when you two had left. If he investigates, he will discover: • The windows are lightly tinted, just enough to make it difficult to tell if anyone is in the vehicle at night. Without walking up to get a closer look and possibly confronting anyone who might still be in the vehicle, he will be limited to what he can learn about it. o He will be able to determine based on license plates, that it is a government vehicle. • Option 1 For Confrontation: If he confronts the person, he will learn it is a Federal Agent performing a stakeout on his daughter’s house. o They are investigating him and not his daughter, as he was thought to be deceased but was witnessed by another Agent at the meeting on Session 1. The Agent will have already radioed in that Jax was there and confirmed to be alive along with photo and video evidence. • Option 2 For Confrontation: He will discover the vehicle to be empty but can verify that it is a Federal Government vehicle. There is nothing inside that would identify exactly who was driving it or where they went. o He will see the typical stake out equipment in the back of the vehicle, such as binoculars, camera, and other such surveillance equipment. Should Jax return for a few nights following this, you do not see any suspicious vehicles in the area, unless he returns 4 nights later. They seem to currently be physically watching over the house ever 3 to 5 nights.       Saoirse And The Salubri Locations: The Immortal Serpent, Salubri’s “Office” NPC’s Involved: Minister Eli, Salubri Opening Scene: Eli will take Saoirse to a secret location to meet the Salubri. Saoirse will have a black bag secured over her head and will be transported in the trunk of a car to the location as an extra means of precaution. They will meet in a small room that looks similar to an interrogation room in a police show however there is no sign of places a cop would handcuff a criminal to the table or anything like that. A small table sits in the middle of the room with a light hanging above it. 1 chair is placed on each side of the table. Across from Saoirse is the Salubri. She will have a few critical questions for Saoirse to answer before she will agree to teach Saoirse anything: 1. What, if anything, do you know about Golconda? 2. Why do you seek Golconda? 3. How do you see your Beast? a. What is your relationship like with your Beast? 4. What lead you to where you find yourself tonight? a. (Partially asking how she lost so much of her Humanity) 5. Are you worthy of Golconda? a. (She would prefer if Saoirse said something like No, she is not worthy of Golconda, but Golconda is worthy of her effort) 6. What are you doing with, and what will you do with eternal life? 7. What are you willing to risk or sacrifice to achieve Golconda?   Assuming Salubri likes what Saoirse has to say, she will agree to take over as her guide along the path towards Golconda. She will begin with teaching Saoirse the basic history of Golconda and the basic origins mythos of Kindred. Saoirse’s History Lesson As you might know, God had demanded that Caine and Abel make multiple sacrificial gifts consisting of “The First Part of All You Have, Which Is The First Part of All Your Joy.”. The First Sacrifice: • As a farmer, Caine gathered the best of his harvest, with which he would offer up to God as his sacrificial gift. • As a Shepard, Abel slaughtered the youngest, strongest, and sweetest of his animals with which he would offer up to God as his sacrificial gift. The Sacrifices were placed upon a Sacrificial Fire: • Abel's sacrifice smelled sweet once upon the fire and was deemed as Worthy. o For this, God blessed Abel. • Caine's sacrifice did not smell sweetly as his brother's did and was deemed as Unworthy. o For this, Caine was struck by a struck by lightning and bestowed a Curse for sacrificing something that was not from the first part of all he had, the first part of his Joy. The Second Sacrifice: • Abel sacrificed the youngest and strongest of his animals which smelled sweetly and was deemed as Worthy as it had done before. o Abel again was blessed for his sacrifice. • Caine knew that God would not want even the best and the most favorite parts of his Harvest, so he instead sacrificed that which was the first part of all he had, and the first part of all his Joy. His Brother. o As the blood of Abel covered the Altar, it smelled sweet, just as his brother's Worthy Sacrifices had. o Instead of a Blessing, God placed a mark upon Caine and Cast him into the Land of Nod to walk in darkness for eternity.  To prevent Caine from seeking someone to kill him so that his suffering would end, God placed a Curse/Mark upon Caine which would make it so that no one who saw Caine would kill him.  This Curse/Mark is debated to represent the Curse of Immortality, the source of a Kindred’s “Beast” and more. The Land of Nod And The Angels: Caine discovers Lilith, Adam’s first wife, when he is wandering in the darkness of the Lands of Nod. Lilith brings Caine to her own version of the Garden of Eden, where she feeds and clothes him. Caine learns that Lilith possess Magic and convinces her to teach it to him which she agrees to do. The ritual that allowed Lilith to teach Caine this magic, required Caine to drink some of her Blood. After drinking the blood of Lilith, Caine fell into a trance where he was falling thru the abyss. It was in this trance/place that Caine was visited by the Angels Michael, Rafael, and Uriel, who came to offer Caine a chance to repent for killing his brother Abel. • Michael was the first Angel to come to Caine, and informed him that Abel had forgiven him, and asked Caine if he would Repent. o Caine refused to repent, and for this Caine and his Childer would fear Michael’s living flame, as it will bite deep and savor our flesh. • Raphael was the second Angel to come to Caine, and informed him that Abel had forgiven him, and asked Caine if he would Repent. Again, Caine refused to repent o For this, Raphael Cursed Caine and his Childer so that they would fear the dawn, as the sun’s rays would forever seek us, and it shall burn like fire. • Uriel, the Angel of Death was the Third Angel to come to Caine and informed him that God forgave him and offered Caine the gift of Death if only Caine would repent. For this, Uriel Cursed Caine and his Childer so that they would:  Walk forever in darkness  Drink only blood  Eat only ashes  Be frozen at the point of death  And cursed so all they touch would crumble into nothing. Gabriel the Angel of Mercy was the 4th and final Angel to come to Caine. Gabriel did not ask for Caine to Repent, Nor did he place a curse upon Caine. Instead, Gabriel offered Caine and his Childer a path toward enlightenment known as Golconda. This would be the only path that would allow Caine and his Childer to regain their Humanity and to achieve Enlightenment, which would allow them to walk once more in the light of God. Saoirse’s Path To Golconda There are a handful of different paths that lead to Golconda, but each is extremely challenging. So much so that there are few Kindred who succeed in achieving Golconda. From what I have gathered, the first steps following the Hunters of the Golden Cicada should be the most natural place for you to begin your journey. The easiest way to state the beliefs of this path would be with the maxim “Use the Blood to uplift the kine and the kine will uplift the Blood.”. To begin your journey, you must embrace the following conviction and fully integrate it into your sense of self. 1. Do not allow cruel treatment of the living The kine represents a unique chance to achieve the glorious state of Golconda. By purifying their spirits, you purify their blood. By purifying their blood, you elevate them. By taking their blood, you elevate yourself. He will explain the following key points in a way better than I can: • Actively embracing this conviction will force you to help mortals, which is much more of a Human thing to do than a Kindred thing and will lead to an increase in Humanity. • She suggests that you do whatever you can to prevent the Beast from taking control on its own. Begin to find your balance with the Beast. (Use Willpower to prevent your frenzy as often as possible) • This will allow you to access the 3rd Dot of the Golconda Lore Sheet. The reason being that as you strengthen your Mortal side, you cannot neglect or ignore the Beast. Especially while it can prove to be much stronger than your Mortal side. o You also must accept that you have your Beast, and you always will. Which means you must accept that there will be times to let the Beast out, and you might be able to control when those times are. • As you master this conviction, he will be willing to teach you of more ways to progress along the path. • The Final test for your journey and path is an event called the Suspire. Think of it as a Vision Quest. Try to only take this test when you are ready for it. The consequences of failing your Suspire, are that you will never achieve Golconda. Not even if you try again. You may also lose yourself because of failure and fall into wassail. Before you depart, the Salubri will magically mark you with the symbol of Archangel Gabriel. This Mark will help you along your path to Golconda. There will be times that you may be about to throw yourself off your path, and this sigil will warn you. (This is how we will represent the first dot on the Golconda Lore Sheet: Seeds of Golconda. When you choose to use this ability, the sigil will activate and begin to glow slightly, and send searing pain throughout your body briefly. This pain will not cause any actual damage.)