2020-08-11

INVOLVED PARTIES

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INCIDENT REPORT

• The rant went sideways. Rudi is in torpor, Kalliste is MIA, and Sophia stayed behind to buy the coterie time. More than a few Anarchs have blamed them for the night's events and are now on the hunt. The human police forces are seemingly everywhere, complete with a helicopter making the rounds.

• The coterie manages to slip out of Van Cortlandt Park, through the Moshulu Golf Course, and into Woodlawn Cemetery.

• Aradia believes that they should head toward the transit station just outside of the cemetery. Josi, however, is sure that the cemetery houses a hidden entrance into the Nosferatu warrens. As such, she begins prying crypts open, only pausing briefly to feed from a fairly fresh corpse.

• A stray police officer finds his way into the cemetery. Leah tries to sneak up on him, but is spotted. Her visage startles him however, as he radios for backup. Leah is able to quickly incapacitate him, but fails to convincingly cancel the radio call.

• Josi sees this as an opportunity however. The cop is dragged into a crypt with three decomposing bodies. Josi stabs the officer to death, spilling his blood on the other corpses and chanting quietly. Unfortunately, she fails to raise any as zombies.

• The police helicopter appears overhead, making passes above the cemetery. Radio chatter indicates that other officers are also en route. With no time to spare, Josi smears the inside of the crypt with blood, painting Satanic symbols and incantations, hoping to persevere the Masquerade.

• The coterie makes a run for it, darting out from behind tombstones as they make their way toward the south gate — and ultimately — the transit station. The helicopter trains its searchlight on Josi. She breaks away from the coterie, forcing the helicopter to follow. She runs into the cemetery's main office building, zips herself into a body bag, and hides in a cooler bay.

• Leah and Aradia make it to the transit station. During commuter times, the #4 train runs from the Bronx to Brooklyn, but it only runs locally during this late hour. What's more, it's still about 30 minutes out. Leah and Aradia can't wait though, and try to run along the tracks instead, suspended above the street. Leah loses her balance, takes a charge from the third rail, and falls through the tracks. Aradia reaches out for her, but is only pulled down herself. They both hit the road pavement below.

• All of this has apparently caught the attention of a local gang — the Blackjacks. They're an Anarch coterie based out of the Bronx. They're on high alert following the Rant, and apparently don't take kindly to trespassers. Aradia tries to negotiate with them, but they're loyal to Baron Bruck, and as such, think Rudi got what was coming. Still, they figure Bruck might want a word with the coterie, and intend to bring them in.

• Two cops enter the cemetery's main office building, led them via the helicopter. They quickly search the place, becoming suspicious of a closed yet unlocked cooler bay. They poke and prod at the bag bag with the batons, accidentally hitting the little mouse — Algernon — in Josi's pocket. He lets out a sharp squeak, only raising the cops' suspicion. Unzipping the body bag, they find a burned and corpse-like woman without a toe tag. Before they can call the coroner to proceed, Josi lunges at one, viciously biting into his neck. She drinks, draining him to death. His partner unloads a clip's worth of 9mm into her back to little effect, then flees, disappearing out into the night.

• The Black jacks have spread out, encircling Leah and Aradia. They adorn their fists with wrapped chains and knuckledusters. Aradia makes the first move however, biting into her own tongue and spitting a poisonous glob of blood at one of the ruffians.

• Josi catches up to the coterie only to find them under attack. She tosses a trashcan lid into the fray, tripping one of the Black jacks up. Leah activates her Dread Gaze, intimidating the nearest one into backing off. The rest close ranks and being to attack in force. The coterie is already unarmed and outnumbered when one of the Blackjacks pulls a gun.

• Josi wills forth an aura of decay, which slowly begins to dampen the gunpowder in the bullets, rust chains and brass knuckles, and even decay the very flesh from bone. Unfortunately, it also affects her comrades, and forces Leah into torpor.

• Josi practically demands to be taken to see Baron Bruck, but the Blackjacks are more interested in taking them all in torpor. They don't get the chance however, as an old farm truck squeals around the corner of the block, straightens out and accelerates toward the battle. The faint tune of some outlaw country song can be hear emanating from within it. Tires screech as the truck’s brakes bite into the pavement. It plows into the outer circle of vampires — several bodies go up over the hood, while a few others are crushed beneath — before skidding to a stop a couple of meters away, creating a barrier between the coterie and the Blackjacks. An arm extends from the open driver’s side window, tightly gripping a sawed-off double barrel shotgun. Without hesitation, it unloads into a couple more vampires, knocking them to the pavement. The man behind the wheel looks to Aradia and simply states “get in”.

• Aradia pulls Leah's limp body into the rusted truck bed with her, as Josi slides into the cab. Once situated, the driver moves the lever on the steering column into gear and gasses it. The back tires slip for a moment, sending up a plume of smoke, before biting into the pavement. The truck launches forward, only barely missing a couple of vampires as they roll out of the way. The stereo is still blasting the twangy melody of acoustic guitars as Hank Williams Jr’s recent hit, "A Country Boy Can Survive" plays.

• Once on the open road, Josi thanks the stranger for helping them. Aradia slides the rear window open to thank him herself. He seems to be a man of few words, but is interested enough in the predicament at hand. He mentions that he respects Rudi. He sees Rudi as a honorable person, which is a rare enough quality among kine, let alone Kindred. Eventually he introduces himself as Erik Thostenson, Baron of Brooklyn.

• Eventually, the Rocket Radio DJ cuts in:
  
  "All right now, for all you boppers out there in the big city, all you street people with an ear for the action, I’ve been asked to relay a request from Rudi’s Army. It’s a special for the Mosh Pit gals — that’s that real lively bunch from Brooklyn. And I do mean the Mosh Pit gals. Here’s a hit with them in mind..."
  
  A brief drum roll becomes the clanging of cymbals, before erupting into a funky guitar riff. The upbeat vocals emerge. It's Grand Funk Railroad’s recently popularized cover of Martha and the Vandellas’ older Motown hit, "Nowhere to Run".

• The Mosh Pit is clearly compromised, so Josi has Erik drive them to the The Onyx hotel instead. Catalina Castaneda's family owns it, and she promised that the coterie would always be welcome.

• Dropping the coterie off at The Onyx, Erik says that he'll be around — one need only call, and he will hear. The bellhop helps to load Leah's body onto a dolly, carting her into the hotel. He's told that the "corpse" is actually just a prop from a local theatre production that Catalina intends to purchase.

• The man at the front desk seems generally disgusted by the state of the coterie until looking up their names in the system. It seems they have an ongoing reservation in one of the suites. He has the bellhop show them to the room. Upon arriving, Josi tips him $100, and takes Leah.

• Sunrise is fast approaching, so Aradia closes all of the curtains in the room. She calls Camilla, quickly updating her on things, and asking her to come to the hotel the following night. After hanging up, Aradia strips out of her burnt and tattered clothing, and put on one of the complimentary terrycloth robes.

• Josi likewise strips, taking the other provided robe. She also removes Leah's clothing, wraps her in a spare bed sheet, and lays her in the oversized bathtub. She sits all of the clothing outside of the door to be handled by the hotel's laundry service.

• The phone rings, and Aradia answers. It's Catalina. She was informed of their check-in, and is thrilled that they took her up on her offer. She mentions that Rico Conway has been stripped of his position as Sheriff following his outburst at the Primogen vote. He is to be sentenced in the coming nights, with his full punishment to be announced and carried out publicly. Catalina also gives Aradia her office telephone number.

• Josi calls Alter. He's apologetic for losing track of her during the Rant, but claims to have tried searching for her in the ensuing chaos. He agrees to meet at the hotel the following night, bringing a change of clothes for the three of them.

• Aradia and Josi share the single king size bed as the sun comes up...

THE CONCLAVE

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