Session 4: Fetter Finders Report
General Summary
The search begins! Wraiths, and where to find them... The coterie's week between meetings is filled with a handful of bizarre encounters. John catches sight of his cloth brother, Joseph, discussing something secretly with a woman known only as Janet at this point in time. She seemed distressed about something, but as John approached, he was unable to pry any further information from either of them. Whatever it is they're up to must be a mystery to be resolved later on. At another point in time, Eleanor fixates on a missing girl in the paper, but despite her efforts, she's unable to glean any more helpful information from the ad itself. She's only learned that the girl was reported missing on the 21st of August, a piece of information El's friends believe implies she's likely dead. Determined, El tries to push for a vision, her mind filling with a threatening image of a hardwood door littered with numerous locks-- more peculiar is the fact that all of the locks can be unlocked from this visible side of the door. Either "Evangeline" is being held somewhere voluntarily, or someone is really trying to make sure she doesn't get out. Regardless, El finds she doesn't have enough information yet to convince her party to take up the case and reluctantly puts it on the back burner. Later in the week, Adel finds herself at her computer doing research. Figuring the internet is a good place to start looking for ghosts, Adel eventually proves herself right when she finds a video attached to an online forum that depicts a very convincing haunting. The highlight of the video is a rocking chair beginning to levitate before rocketing itself into a wall, crumbling into pieces. Luckily, the address was attached to the thread, giving Adel all she needed to start their hunt for ghosts on Friday.
An hour before the coterie sets out to unite, a Nosferatu by the name of Maki Suzuki prepares for what she assumes will be a long evening of botany experiments. Rather- she gets intercepted by her sire, Fritz Wagner, who pulls her aside for a different task. One of their brood mates, Otto, has been AWOL for two nights now and this is unusual for him. Although Maki isn't usually sent out on missions like this, her other coworkers and clan-mates are preoccupied with more important tasks, leaving her to go find the guy. Unsure, but not against the mission, Maki accepts and sets out into the night to find her clan brother as well as a group of neonates her sire suggested she seek out to make quick work of this mission. Meeting at the Devil's Oasis, Maki quickly makes her acquaintance with the coterie, finding herself quickly accepted amongst them as they discuss their plans for the evening. During all of the discussion, Maki seems to forget about what exactly she was sent out to do, figuring she'll remember eventually as she follows them around. Just before leaving to go ghost hunting (as Adel is insistent they follow this lead), Colin informs the party that there's a strange young woman waiting in a booth alone and asks if they know her or if they'd be willing to see what she's waiting for. It appears that they're exactly who she was awaiting as she greets them all like old friends, inviting them to sit with her as she describes her vision. She's a Malkavian whose "Shine," as she calls it, allows her to interpret the "Cobweb" as visions through her daydreams. And, as such, the coterie happens to have appeared in a lot of her daydreams as of late, with no heads until recently. She describes that something awful is going to happen to a bunch of kine children unless the party intervenes, but as they ask what this horrible event is, Windora shyly admits she actually doesn't know yet. The visions have been very vague, a combination of sounds and feelings recently, but she feels they may become more opaque now that she's found the protagonists of this story. Windora tags along as the coterie heads out to the house where the haunted video was recorded. A group of local teens are easily scared away by Adel before the rest of the coterie enters the house, beginning their investigation. It doesn't take Adel very long to eventually discover the supernatural presence in the house, following it from the bedroom all the way to the sunroom towards the back of the house before it's stopped by both Maki's rat & another. As Adel begins to speak to it, the "ghost" is surprised that Adel can see it, turning & standing up before dispelling its discipline. What the kine on the forum interpreted as a ghost was actually a wounded nosferatu trying to take shelter in an abandoned house. And, to Maki's surprise, the nosferatu is Otto, her clan-mate she was sent out to find. Stricken with the sting of failure, Adel sulks back to the car as Maki arranges for Otto to be sent back to the lab. He tells the party briefly (and rudely) that he was attacked by a Nuwisha while scouting, suffering a grave injury before getting away. He would've made his own way back home, but construction had started in the sewer system that lead back to the lab, so he planned on initially just waiting it out in this house until the situation improved.
Celebrating a job well done for some, the coterie returns to the Oasis to talk things over. Adel, distraught by being fooled again by a faulty sighting, idly watches the door of the bar when both she and Maki spot a cloaked figure suddenly rush out the door. Being an impulsive person, Adel bolts up to chase the figure while Maki makes a comment on the stranger's weird get-up, El ushering the coterie to pursue Adel out the door and after the mysterious stranger.
