(The Dark) Pandora's Box

[Yumyumcrow]

And so Josephine Stirling and a Kindred of the Brood are ended.

Is the scene gratuitous? Yes.

Is it pain inducing to watch. Yes.

Is there gore? Kind of.

Thing is, Kindred don’t bleed. Not in the human sense. When Ale carves her claws into the Brood malleable head, neck and shoulders, there is a spurt of blood. Twice. Once from the initial impact and once when the Gangrel Reeve manages to rip the shattered skull from the trunk. When Robert Cross begins his grizzly carving, Josephine’s corpse spills nothing. When the Haunt is done, her body simply rolls away and stays, pale and perfect, for long minutes before it slowly crumbles and ablates away with a speed one might call... glacial.

It is the expectation of blood that is grotesque. It is the cognitive dissonance that is unnerving.

Vitae leaks from the shattered head of the brood. The feminine Kindred can’t be said to smile, even though she did, mockingly, as Alessandra bared her talons - can’t smile when your lower mandible has been torn apart in the fury of slashing and yanking. Ale is trying to draw the last of it from between her fingers.

Outside, Alice can make out the sound of a car as it draws up, surrounded by three motorbikes.

Seven pairs of feet scrape on concrete as they make their preparations. Bags are slung, unzipped. Weapons unsheathed. Guns checked.

“Eat.” A voice commands.

“Breathe.” Another says.

Someone is pacing, bounding, all whipped up fury and pent up rage. “I wanna kill!”

“The door’s over there. Harry - why did you bring that thing?”

“Um. Because its fun?” Some is fumbling with something heavy. Whatever it is, it coughs and splutters into life with a dull growl. Scent of petrol tints the air.

Someone chuckles, letting their laugh gain a maniacal edge.

[Alice Hart]

The sounds of Julia and Josephine's demise ring in Alice's ears but it's soon replaced but he roar of the engines and the myriad of voices.

Alice keeps herself motionless, and hopefully hidden in the brush, as the sounds of the Brood come closer, and Alice dearly hopes that the sounds and scents were not coming from a chainsaw. She had doubts that her little knife will do any good against that.

With Julia and Josephine dead, the others should be coming out soon, her message had been sent, and with the Brood this close Alice didn't want to send another one off. To have it made sense she'd need to speak and sending random letters wouldn't do anyone any good.

And if the others weren't on their way out...Alice will wait until the Brood filed into the warehouse, and pounce of the straggler.

Or at least that's what Alice hopes will happen. Sightlessness really wasn't conductive to striking exactly where she wanted.

[Alessandra]

Did she take any pleasure in ending the Broods Danse? A little. The bitch had been part of the group that killed Emma, thereby sealing her fate.

She retracts her claws, drawing her other gun. Safety was off.

"Next problem, who's driving up and how many of them are there." she says turning to burnt Robert. "But I'm guessing it's not one or two wanting to have tea. Wanna bring the fight to them, or have them come down here? Maybe they see just us," pointing to the other Robert, "or just me, and don't realize how many of us are here. Could give us an edge, but could work against us as well. But I'm not about to hide from these assholes." eyes close as she shakes her head, "This isn't ideal. We don't know what we could be walking into. But if they are brazen enough to drive up, maybe they are crazy enough to make mistakes. If we could get the jump on them, or get behind them, that'd be great." looking around the room, concern crosses her face, "Where the fuck is Alice?!" she was obviously worried and upset about not being able to see the Haunt.

[Robert Cross]

It is better not to look at what he's done. Find something else to focus on, something other than the slowly disintegrating corpse of Josephine Sterling.

Cross pulls out his phone and reads Alice's text. Just as Longstreet speaks about the new arrivals.

Fuck. Things just got messy.

Willing his senses to a higher pitch, Cross follows his fellow Haunt and Reeve out of the basement.

"I can go dark. Make sure they don't see me." He casts a questioning glance toward Longstreet. "You?"

He scans the warehouse for Alice. "Don't know," he answers the Reeve. "But she's got a bead on them, where ever she is." He tries to keep the worry out of his voice, tries to trust that Alice can fend for herself.

"Anyway, I don't see any other option but to let them make their entrance, then deal with them." He can hear them assembling outside, whoever they are. And unless Alessandra has a secret exit out of this place, there's nothing else to do but fight.

"I'm going dark now. Don't worry, I'll show up when it's time."

Once they've finished planning, Cross will draw his gun and step out of the line of sight of the other Kindred and force himself to fade into the shadows of the warehouse.

  CoN, 7 Suxx

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-05-03 14:48:10		Robert Cross rolls 9 to Cloak of Night: Intel2 + Stealth1 + Obfuscate3 (10 Again, WillPower)		9, 4, 10, 6, 9, 10, 7, 6, 3, 9, 10, 9		7 successes

[Robert Cross]

Book keeping

[Yumyumcrow]

The warehouse is of a simple design: a one storey shell with a rather small basement level. There are two pillars helping support the structure in the middle of the space, but that is all. The only light is ambient: yellowed light from the street and security lights from the other lots; a glow illuminating the steps to the cellar. The rest is gothically dark.

Cross exits the cellar and... vanishes into the gloom. Robert Cross unlimited sink
Robert Longstreet Woland has ample opportunity to find a shadowed corner or a pillar, as does Alessandra Orianna if she so chooses.

At first there is a scream! A mad howl of joy!

"Kill! KILL! KILL!"

Yes. Someone is definitely killing the door. They do get bored of this, muscling through the massacred opening and running amok.

First through is a wild man waving two knives (two hatchets are... stuck... in the door).

A scarred and muscle bound figure scampers behind on four limbs, then two, then four again. Fang's bared, their keening Beast is about equal to Longstreet's furious demon.

Following behind is a spare man in a ski mask wielding a chainsaw. His silent Beast is equal to Ale's.

A feminine punk stalks through the door, claws bleeding out from her fingertips. Her Beast is a Scorpion whose sting is as strong as the Reeve's.

An ugly man in a smeared baseball cap slinks through the door and presses himself into the walls. He has a lush and gleaming hunting rifle and emits no Beast.

A broad shouldered man with a tattooed head strides in, carefully adjusting the leather gloves on his hands. Like many of the others, his proud lion is on par with the Reeve's.

A young looking man with luscious lips and a leather jacket hangs back, unfamiliar hands fidgeting with a shotgun. He has no Beast and is lingering outside.

What do you do?

[Alice Hart]

The Brood stalk passed her, a herd of unrelenting violence, the don't notice her. Or with where their steps lead they haven't caught sight of her in the bushes.

The Wraith quakes at the press and pull of strange, unusual and stronger Beasts. It's all Alice has to remind herself and it, that they can't see her (she hopes) fleeing would bring them down on her.

...and her fangs are sharp enough for this.

Silently her head tilts, ear cocks and she tries to map out just where the newly arrived monsters are.

  Mod 6

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-05-05 09:50:59		Alice Hart rolls 1 die for initiative		5

Initiative is 11! Alice will spend her first turn listening!

[Alessandra]

Nods were offered as the plan is decided.

Ale will move to position herself behind a pillar. She didn't know if they would come in with guns, if they would have guns, or what was going to happen. Best a little protection until the situation is assessed.

And then the party arrives. Her own Beast thrashes in anger. There was weak ones, and ones that challenged it. Her Beast wanted off its chain, it wanted to show its dominance.

But not yet. You don't charge into a fight without knowing what you were up against.

  initiative 9

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-05-05 14:03:41		Ale rolls 1 die for initiative		4

[Robert Cross]

A shadow among shadows, Cross watches Alessandra and Longstreet take their places. For a moment, his mind turns to thoughts of Alice. Where is she? Is she safe? If they've already found her...

No.

There's no reason to think like that. Not now. Not when there are Monsters at the door.

And then the door gives way and the horde of Predators is rushing into the room. Cross stands, stalk still, even if they can't see him. Dealing with the press of unfamiliar and more potent Beasts.

His gun in one hand, his knife in the other, Cross prepares for the conflict. Waiting to drop the cloak until the moment is right.

  Initiative 15

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-05-05 14:56:40		Someone rolls 1 die for initiative		10