(Thorned Ten) Here comes the cavalry

[Matamune]

Vincent allows himself to sag against a wall, keeping a wary eye on Karl all the while. After a short pause, he points to Armond's corpse:

"Could one of you... close his eyes?" - he hesitates, probably thinking of doing it himself before thinking better, - "Armond, he was a decent man once. We were friends back from childhood: me, him and Bob. That's the black guy..."

His eyes drift over the enormous black body sipping blood onto the floor. It is possible the man is still alive but there is no saving him under these circumstances:

"We finished the college okay, started a small logistics business together, got married in the same year - had it pretty good for a while. It all went to hell when our wives went shopping once and got killed by a street gang. A pack of dangerous low-lives were beating on this kid in a back alley and Nora, Armond's wife, decided to step in, the naive girl... They killed her on the spot, my Lucy died in the hospital and Rob's Barbara is in a coma to this day..."

It is apparent that the story isn't coming to him easily as his voice picks up momentum only to fade into nothingness later:

"We... we kind of lost it later. The gang went to prison all right but it only made it worse: we couldn't touch them there and the rage just... burned. That's when Armond started getting into Black Arts. We wanted something, anything to remake ourselves so we wouldn't feel the pain. Went the entire road to from Lovecraft and his bullshit to Goethia but nothing worked. Armond sold a subsidiary of our company and used the money to buy a trove of obscure occult junk, desperate for something real".

He chuckles darkly:

"And boy, we found it. A copy of a diary written by the man who created this... thing. It is still in the safe in Armond's bedroom. It seemed like our activity in the black market hasn't gone unnoticed and this item came with an offer: we could get the bracelet itself. You see, it was made by one of you, with a very specific purpose. Made to bring together Vampires and humans", - the crooked smile gets wider, - "The man who created it, he was in love with a woman but wouldn't make her one of you for some reason so he created it. In the diary he claims it was through a miracle of Longinus whoever the fuck that is".

He pauses to catch his breath before continuing:

"Only something went wrong. The diary ends shortly after the creation and the thieves who stole the thing for us from a museum shipment didn't know any more about the Vampire's fater after he made it. Anyway, the thing brings us closer to each other all right", - he chuckles again, more quietly this time, - "When worn by a mortal it makes you feel invincible, makes you forget all your past sins. It also makes you hunger for blood to drink it yourself - not that you can do anything with it - and to feed the blood to it. It feeds on us, you see, both mortal and Vampire. And when worn by your kind it makes you repent somehow, see what you've become".

He stops, looking somehow happy to have got all this off his chest:

"Do you want to ask something at this point?" - he shifts uncomfortably, - "I kinda teach a course and students always have questions if you talk long enough."

With Wits + Occult roll you can tell that the Vampire who made the ring was probably from Lancea Sanctum. 3xx or more tells you that what he did was probably Blasphemy against the teachings of that Covenant.

[Konrad Roth]

Konrad obliges Vincent's request, squatting down by Armond and gently closing the dead man's eyelids. There's no remorse or sympathy in the gesture, just making it easier for everyone. He stands again and gives his attention to Vincent.

"You got this trove off the black market?" says Konrad with sincere interest. To think that hadn't gotten wind of such a valuable item. But then this might've all gone down before his arrival to the city. "The seller, these museum thieves, any of them give you a name?" Konrad doesn't know anything about this occult business, how something like a bracelet can be made to feed off blood or why it was being housed in a museum. But if mortals were buying and selling that sort of stuff Konrad wanted to know who to contact. Regarding his theory about the bracelet's origins he keeps it to himself for the moment.

  Occult | 1sux

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-05-22 13:57:37		Konrad Roth rolls 3 to tell the bracelet's origin by Vincent's story [WIT+Occ] (1s Subtract)		3, 4, 8		1 success

Konrad's gaze settles onto 'Bob' decorating the floor with a growing pool of blood. The guy had been a decent fighter, giving all of them a hard time. A flickering thought crosses his mind and he looks to Vincent again. "So he's your childhood friend, huh? Think he'd be willing to work under us if I keep him from bleeding out?" After saying this his gaze moves to Rina, as if he were silently asking permission. It had been a lot of trouble to bring him down, which would make him just as valuable. But while Konrad doesn't hold a grudge he couldn't speak for everyone.

[Cabochard]

  Occult Failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-05-22 15:03:59		Rina Yui rolls 1 to Wits + Occult. (10 Again)		6		failure

Rina listens to Vincent's story, frown growing progressively deeper as he kept talking. Some vampire somewhere had decided to make this...thing? And, as far as she could tell, it didn't even do anything useful. Repent? See what they'd become? That seemed awfully useless, to everyone. Making Kine feel invincible...maybe useful. But, as far as she could tell, it just took away their inhibitions and made them drink blood. Again, as far as she could tell, useless.

She turned the item around in her hands for a few seconds, thinking, until Konrad's suggestion cut through. Bob had fought. Sure, he had fought in self-defence, but he had fought. One hand drifted to her katana, ready to draw it and lay down the final blow. But...a moment's thought, and her hand stayed, the blade undrawn. She had killed enough people in one night with Armond. Maybe Konrad could control the bleeding man? Maybe he would just bleed out, without necessitating any work from her. She stared at Vincent, waiting for his answer.

[Matamune]

OOC

Since Erlang is doing job interviews now and doesn't have much time to post I'll ghost him for a short while

ErlangShen feel free to take control back any time or poke me to properly write your toon out of this. We are wrapping up anyway.

For Rina

As Rina takes the bracelet into her hands and starts to turn it around, she has a vision. A woman, in a guard uniform, life slowly bleeding out of her and into the Mekhet. But there is no exhiliration now, no feeling of Vitae making her feel full. Just the terrible look in her eyes as the guard realizes that she is already dead through the haze of Kiss. A deep feeling of regret and shame starts to creep up upon her and the bracelet twitches slightly in her hands, uncoiling just a bit as if reaching for her own arm.

Vincent looks at Bob's form for the first time, a spark of hope in his eyes:

"Yeah, if you let him continue take care of Barbara... Not like we've had much of a life anyway", - in an attempt to be more useful he turns to Rina, - "It's best to put that thing down. It's not been fed for some time".

Meanwhile, Karl has cleaned his blade on some curtains and starts to move toward the front door:

"Well, I got you out so my part is done. I'm leaving a number", - he puts a card with hastily scrawled numbers on it on a table, - "You know what will happen if you fuck me over".

[Konrad Roth]

  First Aid Extended | 8suxx over 5 minutes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-05-25 22:53:42		[05] Konrad Roth rolls 5 to perform First Aid on Bob [DEX+Med] (10 Again)		5, 6, 3, 7, 4		failure
2015-05-25 22:53:42		[04] Konrad Roth rolls 5 to perform First Aid on Bob [DEX+Med] (10 Again)		1, 7, 10, 9, 4, 10, 4		3 successes
2015-05-25 22:53:42		[03] Konrad Roth rolls 5 to perform First Aid on Bob [DEX+Med] (10 Again)		4, 3, 9, 10, 3, 10, 7		3 successes
2015-05-25 22:53:42		[02] Konrad Roth rolls 5 to perform First Aid on Bob [DEX+Med] (10 Again)		3, 1, 3, 6, 7		failure
2015-05-25 22:53:42		[01] Konrad Roth rolls 5 to perform First Aid on Bob [DEX+Med] (10 Again)		4, 5, 8, 9, 7		2 successes

Hearing no objections, Konrad bends down over their giant opponent and begins to work on the wounds. While he lacks any real equipment, Konrad has a rudimentary understanding of first aid and deft hands for the sensitive process. With the steel blade he cuts away bits of Bob's clothing, both to get at the deep wounds he's suffered at Rina's blade and to create makeshift bandages. It's not perfect, some of the bandages either being too tight or too lose, but as long as they're staunched it might prolong Bob's life long enough for real medical assistance.

Hearing Karl mention he is leaving Konrad can only glance over his shoulder to nod at the man who helped them escape.

To Vincent he says, "I'm not sure if these bandages will be enough for him. The blood loss is pretty bad. He's going to need a hospital or at least a back alley doctor. I would make some calls to avoid too many questions but we're losing the night here so you'll have to figure it out on your own. We can help carry him out to your car but then we're out of here after that. All I can say about the rest is you better keep your mouths shut about what you've learned. At least one of us is going to visit again soon to put you to work. Your cooperation and silence will be rewarded."

Konrad looks to Rina and Juan next. "Let's grab that journal from the safe before we go too. Vincent, do you have the combination?"

[Cabochard]

Rina drops the bracelet like she was stung, jumping back a little from the bracelet. For a second, her hands come up, wrapping themselves across her body and rubbing her shoulders, as she stares at the device. She remembered that moment clearly. It had been necessary. She hadn't even thought about it at the time. And now she'd killed even more people. Without thought, without any worry about it, she'd killed Bobcat, and now these people. Had they needed to die? She wasn't sure. Maybe she could have talked them out of it...

She spent a moment in silent contemplation, staring at the bracelet, then bent over, drawing her knife. No matter about her past, she couldn't just leave it lying around. Using the blade, she gingerly picked it up, holding it a good distance away from her, in case it actually decided to jump on her arm. She looks at Vincent, her uncertainty framed in her eyes. "Yes. We will get the journal, and anything else that might be around, then burn this house down. Afterwards, you will come with me, and I will decide your fate."

[Matamune]

Koknrad manages to stem the bleeding without too much trouble but the man's condition doesn't look very good: he's lost a lot of blood. If not for his sheer size and impressive constitution he'd probably already be dead. For now he is stable though and should survive transportation but he'll need either blood transfusion, rest and antibiotics or Ghouling to be kept alive.

Vincent seems to relax even more when he sees that Bob is likely to be fine and he answers Juan's question distractedly:

"Job?.. I teach logistics at the University and Bob... We used to run a middle-sized logitstics company together but we sold it a while back. Not much time for it with all of this..." - he turns to follow Rina, - "Just help me carry him, you have a car, right?"

To himself, he mutters, almost imperceptibly:

"Not like I can simply walk away after all we did..."

[Konrad Roth]

"Ah, I assumed those keys you grabbed were for your own car," says Konrad after Vincent asks him about transport. It reminds him that he still has Juan's phone in his pocket.

Konrad uses it to make a quick call to his Ghoul, Cody, to bring Konrad's van over. The Savage goes upstairs and sticks his head out the doorway to determine the address, looking for any discarded mail by the doorway in case it is printed there. Whether or not they use it to transport Bob will depend on how far away dawn is. Once the call has been made he pockets the phone and heads upstairs to look for the safe that Vincent mentioned.

Konrad searches for the safe

[Matamune]

OOC

Health-wise, these two weeks have been pretty bad for me and I'm sorry. Still, we are almost done with this plot.

Wrapping this scene up.

Konrad easily finds the safe and opens it with Vincent's help. There are ptinr-outs inside of the diary Vincent spoke of. Meanwhile, Konrad's Ghoul gets the van to the house and the Kinred are able to load Bob into it without too much trouble. With the bracelet and the Masquerade-breaching documents, they are ready to depart.

While they were waiting for transport, Rina scoured the house for something to help with disposing of the evidence which didn't turned out to be very hard, considering how much Armond loved using against Kindred. There was plenty of gasoline in the toolshed near the house and the Mekhet used it to douse the wooden floors liberally.

Okay, time to decide some final things before we can finish this plot:

1. Anything you need from the house? A Wits + Int roll can tell you that there are still dogs locked in one of the rooms.

2. Vincent and Bob are available as Retainers for purchase with XP. They are 3-dot, if you are willing to risk not Ghouling them and 4-dot if Ghouled. Bob requires professional medical attention or immediate Ghouling or he will die. Letting Bob die will be a 3-dice Humanity roll, killing Vincent - a 2-dice Humanity roll. You can post what you are going to do in the OOC thread.

3. Karl is currently free and ready to release a bunch of info on Vampires to the yellow press in three days. Probably need to do something about that, so please post in the OOC thread.