2022-02-21

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INCIDENT REPORT

Last Hours of the Night...

• Justine and Aradia delve deeper into High Regent Sturbridge's private library, trying to uncover further information about the Children of Outer Dark. Atop the reading desk, open and seemingly being annotated, is a thick tome entitled Revelations of Gla'aki, vol. XII. What is already translated seems to back up what Aisling has said — the Children of Outer Dark are ancient beings of immense power, referred to as "neverborn malfeans." Other keywords seem to appear consistently, such as "Nergali", and "Avatar of the Swarm".

• Aradia points out a passage referring to "seven vessels" which each carry a coming plague. Justine figures that her previous tarot reading — the Seven of Swords — is somehow connected. Not only that, maybe everything is, like, totally connected!

• Lina and Josi head to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, to the street-level freight elevator used to access an entrance to Hypogea. This is also where the Aranta-Shadur is currently taking place. With that in mind, the two vampires walk the route from it to Prince Cortés' office at 20 Exchange Place. The intent to pick out the fastest (and safest) route between the two places.

• Upon arrived at Prince Cortés' office, Josi immediately begins to butter up Delores, the Prince's personal assistant. They linger briefly on Sheriff McKenzie's final death, and their concerns about Johnny Five's role as the the new Sheriff. Eventually however Josi makes her reason for visiting clear — she wants an appointment with not only Prince Cortés, but also with Anatoli Petropoulos — the Principal of Faith. Delores looks through her big desktop planner, showing that the following night is completely blacked-out... presumably for the Elysium. Josi notices another, smaller block of time on Sunday when the two will be out of the office — the perfect time to plot a heist! The official appointment is scheduled for Monday evening, though Delores stresses that Mr. Petropoulos has been flaky with his appointments as of late.

Memories of a Dead Woman...

• The next evening, Josi and Lina both awaken in the confines of the Center for Thanatology. Josi shows her guest some different outfits she can borrow for Elysium, before tending to her nightly duties with her Sire, Pius Augustus.

• Justine awakens in complete darkness — she's in the bathtub, locked in the bathroom of Aradia's condo, with Jacques and Didier sleeping on the floor nearby. There is a pounding at the door, as a woman asks "how much longer are ya' gonna be?!"

• Aradia awakens in her plush bed. She digs out an old, Greek-language Bible and takes it downstairs for Justine to study. Justine takes the Bible, and locks herself back in the bathroom. But not before sending Jacques and Didier out to the kitchen, allowing them a "breakfast" if they choose.

• Aradia sequesters herself away in her bedroom, ritually preparing the space for a deep and pointed meditation. She draws blood with her athame — with the Báthory dagger that her own Sire had given her so many years ago. As her consciousness slips between worlds, her eyes dart wide open. But Aradia is no longer within the confines of her own bedroom. Rather, she finds herself walking down the opulent hall of a Sicilian villa. She immediately recognizes it as the home of the mafiosos that murdered her husband, Luca.

• Camilla is there, hand-in-hand with Aradia. She's grinning through the blood sprayed across her face and fine suit. Aradia can feel her belly full of the vitae of those who wronged her. But that's not why she's here. She needs to speak with Camilla as she was then. But Camilla senses that something is... wrong. She states that she's not "really there" and then tersely asks Aradia what she has done.

• Aradia admits to diablerizing Camilla, and explains why she felt it was necessary to do so. Camilla, seemingly resigned to her fate, takes this information in stride. She states that the two of them, now eternally one, is actually quite romantic. She cooperates, and answers what is asked of her. Aradia's daughter, Lavinia, is still alive. She's being shuffled around between safehouses by the Giovanni, but has been given Kindred vitae to keep her childlike. It seems that Lavinia also exhibits signs of stigmata, which makes her a target for Camilla's previous cohorts — the Circle of the Crone.

• The Circle's great goal, spanning almost two thousand years, is to create an Awakened immortal. They have carefully manipulated familial ties and lineages, creating and converging bloodlines as their plans saw fit. It was believed that Aradia could be the culmination of those plans, and so Camilla was sent to fetch her. The tragedies that befell Aradia throughout her life, all were carefully deployed in order to help Awaken Aradia, and eventually drive her willingly toward the Circle. Unfortunately, those plans fell apart with Aradia's suicide attempt.

• Camilla, having grown infatuated with Aradia from afar, could not stand to see her life so effortlessly extinguished, and so Embraced her instead. knowing that Lavinia would now be the Circle's nearest hope, Camilla smuggled her out of the Old World and kept her hidden — just as she kept herself and Aradia hidden from the Circle's retribution.

THE CONCLAVE

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