2020-06-30

INVOLVED PARTIES

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INCIDENT REPORT

• London, England ⁠— 1967. It's Friday evening, and the fall equinox. A group of mortals ⁠— colleagues in fact ⁠— are rendezvousing for a drink or two. They all work for the pharmaceutical research firm, Magadon, Inc. They are: Bridgett Blackwood, Jeff Brooks, Abigale Livingston, and Carol Watkins. Their roles at Magadon vary, with positions such as executive assistant, custodian, geneticist, and intern respectively.

• Our group has agreed to meet at the infamous Cannibal Club, in Soho. It's a sketchy neighborhood, largely made up of sex shops, burlesque theaters, old beatnik coffee houses, and gay bars.
  

  The Cannibal Club, circa 1967.
  It's not at all the kind of area London's more respectable citizens would be found. The club itself is a clandestine music venue — devoid of any legal liquor license — and known only by word-of-mouth. It occupies the cellar of an abandoned grocer and butcher shop, which was originally excavated for shelter during the London Blitz.

• The crowd is trendy, and most appear hip to the current mod fashions — lots of bright paisley shirts, pointed boots, loose ascots, and bold geometrically patterned miniskirts.

• The characters all order drinks, with Carol causing quite a stir with her request for a cosmos. Jeff is able to easily score some LSD. He lets the acid laced blotter paper dissolve on his tongue, eventually sharing it with Bridgett in a lingering kiss. The band, Purely Purple, takes to the stage and begins playing their fan-favorite song, Psychedelic Mind Love.

Purely Purple's debut LP, "Psychedelic Mind Love"

• The crowd is grooving to the droning melody, when the show is interrupted by a group of rockers. Three motorcycles comes roaring down the stairs and into the crowded club, followed by several on foot. They initially seem to be toying with the club patrons, riding circles around them and such, before the scene turns violent.

• Abigale is set upon by one of the leather-clad ruffians, who sinks his fangs into her, draining her to near death.

• Carol hides behind the bar, fainting when presented with the possibility of being found.

• Jeff and Bridgett back themselves into a corner. Jeff is having the worse trip of his life as the acid fully kicks in. Birdgett pulls a small pepper-box from her purse and fires into an approaching assailant. It doesn't seem to have any effect however, as the figure impales her with his clawed hand before turning to Jeff.

Bridgett unloads her pepperbox into the Rockers.

• The group awakens an indeterminate amount of time later. They open their eyes, but can't see. Their movements feel sluggish as they become aware of the pressure pushing against them in all directions. They're underground. They've been buried alive.

• As they struggle to free themselves from the embrace of the cold earth, Bridgett feels something take over. Perhaps it's just adrenaline, but she forces her way to the surface and into the cool night's air. Reaching back in, she grasps Jeff's hand and pulls him up as well. Abigale and Carol are both able to breach the surface without further aide.

A group of Rockers, with their modified "café racer" style motorcycles.

• Topside, the ground is littered with a dozen or so corpses making up two or three piles. They're not altogether intact, but most are recognizable enough to assume that they're peers from the club. Jeff, his nostrils filling with the metallic scent of ichor, pulls himself toward a pile. Reaching in, he grabs a limb and begins to lick the blood from it.

• A loud chuckle breaks the eerie scene, as Ductus Jasib Alcala watches with amusement. He seems to be leading the rockers who attacked the club, as he orders them to bring Jeff and his friends over.

• Once assembled with the other still "living" club patrons, Jasib informs them of their fate. None of what he says makes sense to the group — he mentions vampires, shovelheads, the Sabbat, and more. The main point is clear however; whomever makes it through the night may impress Jasib enough to join his pack and be formally inducted into the Sabbat.

• "Fuck that, and fuck you!" — a single voice calls out, perhaps saying what everyone else is thinking. Sadly, it is immediately silenced by one of Jasib's ghouls, who fires an incendiary round from his shotgun and into the protestor.

• A figure steps out of the shadows (literally so) to scold the shotgunner. This allows Jasib to introduce him as Ishmael Zamora, Inquisitor of the Tal'mahe'Ra. Ishmael addresses the entire group — shovelheads and true Sabbat alike — informing them that the Inquisition has uncovered a Bahari garden in London, full of heretical infernalists who must be purged in the name of Caine. Unfortunately, a treacherous Tzimisce by the name of Kristoff van Dale has leaked this to the Bahari themselves, allowing them to move their garden. Time is of the essence, and is indeed the only reason the Cannibal Club patrons were targeted for mass embrace. With Jasib's war pack already down a priest, simply having boots on the ground become a priority.

• Everyone is loading into a pair of sloppily converted bread trucks, with the group riding alongside Jasib and Ismael. The two share a brief conversation, with Jasib asking after the Bishop of the Granada diocese and the vacancy she has left there. Ismael relays what information he can, stating that the Sabbat occupation of New York City has ended, but with the Bishop — now Archbishop — positioned within the Ivory Tower itself. Soon, he says, the Archbishop will work to destabilize the New York Camarilla from the inside.

• Ismael has a brief exchange with Abigale, summarizing the Church of Caine's beliefs, and warning her of the practices of the Bahari. He then leads the group in prayer, verbally anointing them as angels of Caine.

Covent Garden, circa 1967.

• The trucks unload at Covent Garden. Jasib and his two ghouls enter, and almost immediately engages with a handful of women, all wielding makeshift weapons. Ishmael stays behind, content to let the shovelheads be his front line.

• In the scuffle, Jasib and one of his ghouls are lured away — chasing after another group of Bahari cultists. This leaves his other ghoul, Abigale, Bridgett, Carol, and Jeff alone to finish off the current group of Bahari.

• Bridgett tears into a cultist, drinking deeply of her blood. It seems they die as humans do, so perhaps they are not vampires? Jeff joins in, as the two of them share the meal with an air of passion.

• Abigale manages to get another in a hold, attempting to feed herself. Unfortunately the Bahari struggles free, and is instead put down by a slash of Abigale's claws.

• Carol is taking a beating, receiving shallows slashes from her adversary's sharp kitchen knife. Abigale joins her, and the two are able to subdue the blade-wielding woman.

• Suddenly, a shot rings out. Jasib's ghoul has apparently been incapacitated, and now one of the Bahari has his shotgun. The flaming flechettes are streaming toward Carol and Abigale. Abigale lunges, pushing Carol out of the way and to safety. Some of the projectiles tear into Abigale however.

• The Bahari pumps another shell into the shotgun, but is unable to get a shot off before Carol closes the distance, swatting the gun to the ground. The two dive for the gun, with the Bahari literally landing atop it. A quick squeeze of the trigger ensures that Carol is destroyed in a spray of glowing embers.

• Bridgett frenzies, her beast taking over, dulling her intelligence.

• Abigale is struck in the head by a baseball bat. A stray Bahari stands in front her. Before the woman can swing again, Jeff tackles her, sending his claws deep into her chest.

• In the chaos, another shotgun blast rings out. The burning hot shrapnel of the incendiary shell whizzes through the air, dozens — if not hundreds — of blazing projectiles tear through Abigale, rending flesh from bone as she falls over dead.

• Enraged, Jeff charges the shotgunner, and in one fluid motion, slides past her and swings his arm upward, slicing his claws along the length of her spine and several vertebrae.

• With the first wave of Bahari slaughtered, Jeff and Bridgett move forward in a brusque stride. They're drawn to an illuminated store facade, inside which seems to be a workshop or tool shed. More importantly however, paces a tall, slender figure.

• Jeff and Bridgett slink into the room and lunge at the person from behind. Jeff drives his claw up under the person's scapular, seemingly dislocating his shoulder. He spins with a painful howl, slapping Jeff and Bridgett away.

• This figure is clearly the Tzimice traitor, Kristoff. As he fiddles with his arm, seemingly attempting to pop it back into place, he sympathizes with the two shovelheads. To be torn from their lives so violently, only to be thrust onto the front line of a war they know nothing about. He gives them the chance to simply leave, lest he kill them himself.

• While agonizing over the finer points of this makeshift parlay, Kristoff simply pulls his arm the rest of the way free. His skin stretches and snaps as the limb comes loose and is thrown to the ground. Within seconds, the arms begins to sprout bony, crab-like legs. The open wound at the end forms into a gaping maw, with whipping tendrils in place of a tongue. It begins to crawl, almost akin to a fleshy centipede, and circle Kristoff's feet with a cat-like grace.

The centipede-like arm of the Tzimisce, Kristoff.

• Distracted by the horrifying visage before them, neither Jeff nor Bridgett hear the second vampire approach from behind. Without warning, she thrusts the wooden handle of a broken hand tool through Bridgett and out her chest. It pierces her heart, immediately paralyzing her as she falls to the ground.

• Without a second thought, Jeff wraps his arms up under Bridgett's and begins to drag her back toward the room with the shotgun. Neither the Tzimisce nor the Bahari pursue with any haste, but the autonomous arm creature does. It scuttles past its former host and quickly grabs onto Bridgett's foot. It climbs its way slowly up her body and eventually onto Jeff's arm. Eventually, it wraps its thin tendrils around his neck. The tendrils tighten, but Jeff doesn't need to breath. Then the rough, almost scale-like texture of the tendrils begin to cause enough friction to cut into Jeff's neck.

• Panicking, Jeff lifts the shotgun, resting it across his chest with the barrel at his shoulder. He intends to shoot the thing off of his neck. He's not even sure if this is real, or if he's still at the club, tripping on acid. He hopes for the best and pulls the trigger, but is only greeted with darkness as the shotgun explodes into a display of hellfire. The arm is destroyed, but so is most of Jeff's skull.

• Still staked and paralyzed, Bridgett can see the world move around her. She's being dragged deeper into the garden. In the dim, flicking light of a back room, Bridgett is strung up, her arms tight and high above her head. A stereo is set up, playing unsettling ambient noises. The Bahari woman comes into view, introducing herself as Circe.

• She explains the "truth" about the Bahari, the transcendence of Lilith, and the aggressive mediocrity of Caine. She wants to share that transcendence with Bridgett. A floor length mirror is positioned so that Bridgett may see herself. Circe explains that she is going to skin Bridgett, so that she may see herself in a deconstructed state. Eventually, she'll slowly feed her blood, so that she can then watch her flesh grow back. She will be torn down, only to be built back up in the light of Lilith...

THE CONCLAVE

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