(Thorned Ten) Epilogue

[Matamune]

ErlangShen , Cabochard , Vassagon

What seemed like a shortcut to escape from grief for Armond, Vincent and Bob has turned out to be a bottomless sinkhole of addiction and monstrousity, additionally fed by an artifact from the world of the Kindred. The pull of said artifact, now left in Rina Yui's custody proved so powerful that several Vampires had to let go of some leftover Humanity of their own to bring it back where it belonged.

After Armond's house got burned along with the bodies and the remaining memories, several loose ends remained. It didn't take much for them to convince Vincent to drop Bob off at a hospital with a pretty unbelievable story. Shortly after coming to and being fed some blood, the man was able to help Konrad with tracking Karl down. Vincent had disappeared by that point with Juan staying silent on the point. Bob didn't ask questions: if not for his comatose wife, he would have left this cursed city long ago.

By promising a favor to a shady acquaintance of his, Konrad was able to obtain a copy of a key to Karl's apartment and went there along with Juan and Rina.

The place was dank, dark and reeked of putrid meat. Karl's slumped form was found in a chair in front of a still running computer with a needle in his arm. On screen were photos of Emma and Jim, dead, in the bathtub. Must have been taken before the place had been burned. And in a window near them - a shot of younger Karl, Jim and Emma on a beach somewhere, laughing and happy, if a bit pale.

The connection to the cloud server, where Karl stored all the evidence of the existence of Kinred still remained open and the Kindred where able to wipe it all before hastily leaving the room and its former inhabitant behind.

With what Karl had to do to get a shot at precious immortality, life must have already become unbearable.

Even taking into account the fact that Michael Redfill was long gone, the job was still complete and the Kindred - free to report as they saw fit.

I feel like I should thank you guys for sticking with my horrible posting frequency through this one. I hope the plot was fun for you to play with.

Missing changes will be reflected in your charsheets momentarily.

Also, Michael Redfill has secured Tenancy from the Prince for your team in case you completed this job. You will need to report on your success if you want it, though. An ST probably won't be necessary for that scene The bracelet is also something to consider and I'm placing it on Rina's sheet. Occult artefacts with actual supernatural powers aren't very common, no matter their immediate usefulness, so it's up to you how you use it.

Thank you for playing!

[Matamune]

The notes, now in Konrad's possession, revealed the following when he decided to read them:

It was really nothing more than a bound print-out: about 15 pages telling a certain story about a German Bishop in medieval Europe. A Vampire who tended to his flock without fail with fervor and conviction up to the point where he’d turned heretic. During his Requiem, the Kindred’s Mind started to degenerate and become pathologically fixated. The fixation, much to his shame, was on mortal women. Eventually he started dealing with his fixation by catching mortal girls and punishing them for his own weakness.

His mind swerved further and further from the Purpose but he still carried out his functions, up to the point when during one of the nights he met a girl he couldn’t kill. She was a spitting image of the daughter he had back when he was mortal. When he saw her, his self-control gave the final slip and fixation turned to obsession. The girl turned out to be a daughter of a minor noble, just turned sixteen and as pure as fresh snow.

The Bishop, in his madness, decided that she needed to see. That someone of her beauty and purity of belief needed to be tested by being exposed to the teaching of Longinus to be protected from the influences in her later life that would no doubt corrupt her and make her unable to enter the Kingdom of God.

He was vaguely aware that this was a heresy but in his madness and fanaticism, he didn’t care. There was no way the girl’s mind could take what it needed to take without breaking, so the Bishop decided he’d create something that would help him, the elder monster, communicate with the pure girl. Something to bring them closer.

That is when the Band of Thorns was born. A wooden bracelet, once bone-white but now soaked in blood to glossy black. Through perverting a Theban Sorcery ritual with knowledge drawn from a Circle Vampire, the Bishop was able to reverse the normal concept of sacrificing an item to achieve an effect that’s characteristic of Theban Sorcery. Instead, by applying his own blood and the blood of ten Kine innocents to a carved wooden bracelet, an item with a lingering effect was created. The chant and ritual used during the creation were quite specific: they were supposed to bring an item into existence that could bring the mind and soul of a Kindred and a Kine together to a point of mutual understanding through Blood.

Their later fate is unknown except that both seem to have disappeared without a trace right after the creation of the bracelet.