VtM: Shards of Midnight Session 2 Report

General Summary

We continued where we last left off, focusing in on the priestess of the group. Rhys made her way to the Sacellum and briefly ran into the High Priest, Saetbyeol "Sae" Song who was praying at the altar of the Divine Judgment. Sae is a known outsider due to him worshipping Hisao, the Divine Judgment, and for him actually being a fox demon sealed inside a human-like vessel that has turned to the gods for whatever reason. Sae expressed his annoyance with Comstock creating such a messy investigation team and suspected that it was probably to mess with Lynx. Sae also commented on the Lamplight case, mentioning that for the evening he was investigating the strange appearance of a book that could be connected to a false god he would have to kill before it got too powerful. Telling Rhys that the second in command, Rohan Aradhya, was looking for her, Sae left the Sacellum.

Rhys then headed to a private altar room and attempting to speak to her god. However, Rhys quickly found herself in a mysterious and disturbing place that was not the Dream Realm of her god. Instead she found herself in a lake of blood that lapped at her ankles and a funeral precision in front of her while a bleeding red moon hung above them. In front of her was a coffin, chairs that were around it, and decorations of freshly bloomed red spider-lilies. Within the coffin was an infant sized mass of flesh and viscera, various hands grabbing at Rhys as she picked it up and tried to figure out what to do with it. Putting it back, the gash in the moon became bigger and spindly hands with needle-like fingers pried it open, reaching out before Rhys was pulled out of that dream and into the proper dream of her god.

Finding herself in the wheat fields of the Son of Death (also known as the Golden One), she sat beside him under the tree and began to talk to him, asking for guidance now that she's found herself in an investigation team. The Son of Death gave his opinion that Rhys should go along with it, telling her that there may be a connection between the case and other circumstances. If not, he nonchalantly claimed that she could get him more notoriety. Revealing that he really isn't a god, not yet, he appears to wish for more followers and powers to join the ranks of the respected gods and not to be snuffed out by the Sacellum. Rhys then asked for something to do with her eye and he cryptically told her that she needs the "hair of a spider lily", claiming he wouldn't be specific because gods usually speak in vagueness and riddles. Going back to the Sacellum, she went to go find Rohan but had no luck.

Sage then decided to head to the Blood Bar with Cain and surprisingly enough Simon decided to tag along. Simon spent the elevator trip down trying to tell Sage to stop telling the residents of Azoth about the other world while avoiding Cain listening in, deciding to write it down on paper and Sage begrudgingly agreed. After threatening to rip the elevator out of its shaft, Cain wandered away to leave Simon and Sage to talk a bit about living in the modern world and not to mention such things to the Azoth residents. Heading to the blood bar, owned by the last remnants of the Sânge family, they talked to the bartender Abel about what he's heard about the Lamplight case. Abel confirmed that they narrowed it down to four suspects: Two actors, a historian, and a priest.

The party as a whole headed to the circus. Lynx talked to an interesting figure known as Commander M of Astrian's Aigis, who visits the circus often to try and catch a glimpse of the supposedly possessed violinist. He also ran into a young woman, Ryun, who appeared to be a living doll but had little to say to him. Mildred ran into Mr. A, the Archmage, who excitedly spoke about a bunch of nonsense and gave Mildred roughly 13 raises in the span of ten minutes, then poofed into another dimension. Meanwhile, Simon and Rhys headed to an old tavern that had been transformed into a sort of backstage area for the circus members. However, both Sage and Lynx noticed this and the latter followed them in.

Simon and Rhys went to the meeting with Alliaster Gallagher, the mysterious ringleader of the circus. However, Lynx decided to eavesdrop on this conversation while Mildred and Sage went to go find him. Lynx failed his stealth check and the ringleader, Rhys, and Simon immediately noticed him, triggering a survival challenge. Known as Alliaster, the ringleader created a dream dimension that Lynx, Mildred, and Sage had to solve the puzzles to get out alive. Sage thought fast and grabbed one of Rhys's rats, Little Mary, who was used in negotiating when they finally came face to face with the red-headed ringleader. After three minutes of negotiating they were released but stricken with 32 eyes due to the party not investigating what caused the timer to go off. Alliaster offered the group to work for him because of the corruptness of the SLE, specifically taking an interest in the group's coroner, Harper.

Missions/Quests Completed

i. The Fool

Character(s) interacted with

✦ Harper Nianhu James ・ The Butterfly Coroner
✦ Cain E. Hartgraven ・ The Blood-Starved Knave
✦ Vayle Aloyse ・ Le Docteur Sanctifié
✦ Alliaster Gallagher ・ The Exalted Star
✦ Ryun ・ The Celestial Doll
✦ Head Apprentice Vilkas Dagon ・ The Brine Devoured Scholar
✦ Commander M ・ The Gentleman Beast
✦ Casimir ・ The Black Swan