(Gimme Shelter) Down on the Farm

[Garrick Marlon]

Reaching the edge of the orchard Garrick hesitates as Konrad moves forward towards the basement. Several beats of an unmoving heart later the white eyed Haunt crouches in the dark of the orchard. Having another person go up would be risky right? Probably. Taking one last unnecessary breath Garrick wills himself into stillness. Not the mind locked numb stillness of keeping the monster in check though. Instead a stillness born of the patience on a gun range and fear of causing a Breach.

White eyes watch through sunglasses and ears listen to the world around him as Garrick waits to see what Konrad signals. Really need to get a suppressor.

[Alice Hart]

If her hears could twitch, they would be at the sound of the scrape escaping the basement. Seeing that Konrad was already looking through the uncovered portion of the window, Alice leaves him to it. Instead she comes to a stop, letting her curse cute her strings as she falls to the grass, far enough away from Garrick that their forms wouldn't be seen together, but still close enough that she'd see any signals he'd relay from the lone savage.

Then, she settles into a rhythm of checking for signals from her milk eye'd cousin, and seeing just what sort of shenanigans the farmhands were getting into - and if they were getting any closer to their position.

[Yumyumcrow]

Konrad

Konrad sees a basement room with bare walls. Some futons lay scattered around and there is a simple alter of some kind placed against a wall. Incense coils up from sticks and censors on the alter, adding mystery and theatre to the room; incense coils around a statue that is at once an angel and a harpy.

At least three Kindred are in the room and the weight of the Beast's crashing into him gives Konrad a momentary pause; a fourth figure emits no Beast but in company such as this, that could mean anything and nothing - at least the rangy figure he met at the Galleria shopping centre now has a face. The petite blonde and the hulking Haunt he had transported are also there.

The fourth person has the strongest Beast, much much stronger than his own. She has her back to him, dressed in white drapery with a homespun aspect to it: anachronistic robes conjured from another time. She slowly holds out her bare arms as if to embrace them: her pale flesh purples and then leaks blood that drips and drops to the floor. The other three move toward her, kneeling, drawing her suppurating arms to their lips. She moves slightly to accommodate them, head lilting to one side in a particularly maternalistic fashion.

Garrick

The jungle orchard breathes into the night. Nothing disturbs the silent statue that is Garrick Marlon. He catches snippets of conversation drifting from the kine and it is only his eyesight that catches Konrad stiffen when he peers into the basement.

Alice

Alice watches, listens, waits.

The farmhands continue struggling with the vehicle. Its not a serious struggle and there is laughter on their lips and their postures are at ease. At last, the vehicle growls to life; whoops of joy accompany it.

[Garrick Marlon]

The hell are the food doing up at night? Unless they're ghouls? Or maybe just minions. The forest massacre was an introduction for Garrick into other ways that mortals can be kept around. Maybe these ones were kept around for usefulness instead of just food. Hell it'd be nice to have someone who didn't look blind and could go out into the day. This is a bad time to be making a to-do list. The white eyed Nosferatu muses to himself just before he sees Konrad stiffen.

Garrick shifts his weight and braces against the ground with his left hand, weight entirely on the balls of his feet. Right hand falling to his hip, near the pistol. Really need a damn suppressor.

[Konrad Roth]

Konrad nearly doubles over with the urge to kick open the glass and reach in to strangle the Beasts. He'd be justified, after all, erasing these squatting parasites from the Domain. But as he begins to recognize the few faces he did know, he manages to contain his urges, focusing instead on gathering intel from the unfolding scene.

He finds the strange secretion of blood from the woman in white an oddity, the liquid pooling like sweat is wholly unfamiliar. The scene makes him think of the Crone, like some maternal feeding ritual. A shame he never read up on their biz. But if he were to guess, the group are now submitted to a bond of Vinculum.

The Savage wishes he could get a good look at the woman. She could be Rhayna or Brady for all he knew.

The sound of a starting engine pulls his attention away, the sudden noise nearly deafening with his heightened senses. He decides to pull back for the moment and return to the orchard where he knows Garrick to be.

He gestures to the outlying buildings so they can put enough distance between them and the farmhouse and he can share what he saw. He beckons him and hopes that Alice is nearby enough to follow.

He whispers to Garrick, "They're there, the ones we met, in the basement. There's another woman with them. I couldn't see her face. She's feeding them her Blood, from her arms, but not from a bite. It's just dripping off her. You ever hear of anything like that?"

[Alice Hart]

The doll's head jerks hard, as a mechanized roar noise is suddenly there. This roaring sound the cause of the kine as their effort pays off. Their laughter is heard under the engine, and Alice feels her lips quirk upward, as least someone was having fun.

Then her thoughts on the kine are interrupted as she sees Garrick move. His hand settling near where she knew his gun was kept. She reaches for the knife she'd 'borrowed' from Jack and waited to see just what was coming next. A relief, when she notes Garrick and persuasively Konrad moving, the wraith moved to join them. "Didn't the guy we met when we dropped off our charges, say something about the Crone?" Alice asks, as she tried, and failed to puzzle out what the blood-drip meant. Sucking in a breath she didn't need, she curses softly, "Shit. I have no clue what that blood means. But...if our charges are drinking this chicks? The Mother - I assume's Bloods...that means...." Vinculum. She leaves unsaid.

  fails to figure out the blood drip

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-07-27 00:10:01		Alice Hart rolls 3 to Drippy Blood ??? (Int 2 + Occult 1) (10 Again)		5, 7, 6		failure

[Garrick Marlon]

Garrick shakes his head to Konrad's question after moving cautiously over to join the Savage near one of the outlying buildings. "Don't remember, sounded like a cult though." How exactly the Crone operates isn't something Garrick knows. He knows that they're pagans and that they can supposedly do magic. Which being dead, makes them fall more into the "weird cult shit" category than anything else.

"Never heard of anyone bleeding blood like that. Also it's probably a good bet to assume the nomads aren't friendly anymore." Blood bonding does bad things to people. "Isn't that also against the Rules?"

[Konrad Roth]

"A lot of this is against the rules," Konrad answers, noting the emerging figure of Alice from the orchard. "But we're not here to execute anybody, especially since we're outnumbered. We just have to see what their intentions are. I don't remember anyone saying Brady or Rhayna were part of the Crone's Circle..."

He rubs his palm over his cheek and chin thoughtfully. "But I remember hearing talk of them being Diablerists, targeting the Ordo." He shrugs. "Can't say for sure. We could try the diplomatic approach and ask. I could try approaching the Kine out front or just tap on the glass and wait for one to come out. If it's just me, it'll be less threatening, though they might just attack right away. If that's the case I'll make a run for it. Lots of farmland to disappear in out here."

"Ooor, if there's an unlocked window or back way in, one of us could try sneaking in to spy on them while the others keep an eye on those basement windows." Straightforward or stealthy approach, both had benefits and drawbacks. For now they still have the element of surprise.

[Garrick Marlon]

Unable to blanch, Garrick's face still falls into a mask of surprise. "Diableriststs? eh Eaters? There's just a group of them somewhere near town?" And they haven't been hunted down and ashed? And Konrad wants to talk to potential monsters? Man back home was boring wasn't it.

"So I know that if I was hanging out somewhere like this and I caught someone sneaking into my place I'd assume they were there to raise hell." Both hands rise in a placating motion, palms out. "Just saying, if they are a cult and really drinking blood like that, not sure they'd like being snuck up on."

"But at the same time if those mortals are controlled somehow it's what, 6 vs 3? if we talk straight forward and things go to shit." Garrick scratches at his beard with his left hand, the right never straying far from his pistol. "But we're here as members of the Domain so..so we have to talk don't we?" It's clear that Garrick doesn't like the idea but pissing off the Prince sounds worse.

[Alice Hart]

Alice frowned, because Garrick was right, if their once charges were blood-bound...then they definitely were no longer friendly. "D-diablerists? Shit." the doll's frown deepens.

"Fucked if I know what way is the best way. I'm great at running and hiding. Shit at confrontation. Either the talking kind, or the you know...bashing someone's head in kind." Alice gives a strings pulled shrug. "Are we just scouting tonight? 'Cause three vee however many...are not good odds. If the talking thing fails. Which knowing my luck it will...can we call in some backup? If you know head bashing is needed."