Haunting Revelations

[Yog-Sothoth]

After getting in touch with the Reeve Dirge took the time to drop Cerberus off at her haven and get ready for their meeting. She was uncomfortable leaving Cerberus behind, but she was even more fearful of wandering the streets in the open with many of the city's homeless knowing what she is. Her actions were also fueled by her desire to not draw attention to herself or any places that she might be going.

She made her way across town obfuscated using her memory of previous trips and her cane to guide her to the Reeve's hotel. When she entered the lobby she made her way still obfuscated into the women's rest room and after entering one of the vacant stalls dropped her cloak. She straitened her dress, made sure her blind fold and sunglasses were in place, then with her cane in hand made her way to the reception desk to find the Reeve's ghoul, Gary.

Dirge had hoped that the trip over would give her a chance to think over what she was going to tell the Reeve, but by the time she reached the reception desk she realized she was no where near reaching a decision.

Dirge in her dress

[Premsyl]

Gary intercepts Dirge before she makes it to the reception desk, obviously having been prepared to receive her. He guides her into the employees only area of the first floor and to the Reeve's office where he knocks once before opening the door.

"Miss Dirge to see you, Lord Culler."

"Thank you, Gary." Arnold gestures and the ghoul leaves "Miss Dirge. Thank you for your hasty response. There is a chair roughly four paces ahead of you if you'd like to be seated."

[Dirge]

Dirge followed Gary to the private area of the hotel her cane tapping on the floor as she walked. She noticed the buzz of conversation and people traffic grew quieter as she left the lobby and entered the employee area. Then the knock on the door and the sound of it opening told her they had arrived.

She smiled as the Reeve greeted her and informed her of the location of the chair. "Thank you Reeve Culler. I appreciate you seeing me like this. I'm sorry for taking so long I had some very urgent business with my investigation."

After carefully making her way in the direction instructed she felt for the chair and after orientating herself sat down.

[Premsyl]

Arnold watches as the blind Haunt navigates her way into the chair that he had directed her to.

In response to her words he replies "Hmm. I'm sure you'll tell me all about it but, first, start at the beginning. Tell me what you told Prince Clarke and go on from there, please."

[Yog-Sothoth]

"Well, it began with me heading to one of the homeless shelters to continue some investigating. I ran into some other kindred looking into the issue as well. It was Mister Hatori, Primogen Nagaraj, Mister Argent, Mister Hall, and I think one other I didn't catch his name. Argent was recognized by one of the homeless and he tried to catch up to him as he made his way down the alley to the shelter, but then a large group of homeless were made aware of the presence of our kind and they turned on the group. I maintained my cover and rushed to the homeless lines for protection and it was a success. However, the kindred present were soundly defeated and forced to retreat."

She paused for a moment to let the gravity of her words sink in and then finally continued. "A homeless man called Twice Said Fred recognized me and as one of the Rev'rend's men said that he was looking for me. So he took me to Squattaville, the homeless camp by the abandoned train station, being as cautious as I could I ensured the blush was active and my mask of tranquility was up to hide my nature. But, as I stood out front of the Rev'rend's tent a man came up to me and he could tell that I was a vampire just by looking at me. I did what I could to deny it, but it appears that some of them act like bloodhounds and point us out to the rest of the homeless. I also learned that some of them have ways of seeing through our obfuscation, and one of them has an ability to control animals I believe."

"I met with the Rev'rend and found that he has been looking for me. He had tracked me from San Francisco and he organized the homeless community to prevent them from being victimized by vampires. It seems that the man known as the Rev'rend is my father. When I disappeared he hunted for me and found out about our kind then tracked me down here to try and cure me," Dirge trailed off for a time unsure how to continue. "I'll do what I can to ensure that the Rev'rend is killed and the homeless neutralized, I hold no illusions of affection for the man. He is a threat and must be eliminated."

"I also found out that the brood are pulling homeless off the street using their lizard ghouls and then taking them away to use as foot soldiers. Because one of them attacked the homeless at the shelter when I was there and as I left for squattaville. The Rev'rend thought that we were working with the lizardmen creatures and without revealing anything forbidden I told him that they are a faction that we are at war with. They didn't expect this and wanted me to deliver a message and return to them in 3 nights with an answer. So I went to the Prince to deliver the message that they want our kind to stop preying on the homeless and as long as we do not prey on them they will not attack any of us. They also wanted us to work together with the homeless in a joint operation to take out these homeless. I didn't expect a positive reply from the Prince, but I thought he would be the person to speak with about this and his decision to make."

She paused for a moment and then remembering something added, "It's bad, they are organized and very capable fighters from the sound of it. There are dozens of homeless I think at squattaville, and they have enough bon fires and open flame there to burn down several city blocks if they so desired. It will be very hard to assault if that is decided. If we have to we will likely need a couple of water trucks or maybe rent a few old fire trucks like they do for filming movies or something. I believe the Prince had a plan to try and resolve some of the homeless problem though."

[Premsyl]

As Dirge is finishing her tale Arnold's phone vibrates in his pocket. "Excuse me" he says, taking a moment to reply before looking back to Dirge.

"I am sorry to hear of your family issues and I appreciate how difficult it might be to dedicate yourself to his destruction. You are right, of course, however. He and his companions are dangerous and must be done away with. Particularly if some of them have abilities that put us at a disadvantage."

"How did the Prince respond? To my mind, the best course of action would be to use the Homeless against the Brood before turning on the remaining faction once its weakened."

"The use of fire hoses to counteract their weapons is an interesting idea, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Did the Prince mention what his plans for the homeless might be?"

[Dirge]

Dirge nodded at his tactical assessment in agreement. "I agree with you and it seems that the Prince does as well to some extent. I'm sure he could go into more detail with what he had in mind, however, I believe it involved using the city government to put pressure on cleaning up the homeless community...dealing with them."

The blind haunt was pretty confident the Prince would not be upset with her revealing that much, after all if the man did not hold the Prince's trust he would not be Reeve.

"Concerning the plan to pit them against each other...the Rev'rend is proving more intelligent than I feared. I tried to prod him toward the sewers, but he would have none of that and wanted a joint operation between us and them, with us luring the lizard creatures into an ambush set up by the homeless. I informed him that would not be a likely strategy due to the homeless' manner of arming themselves. It appears he at least wants us to share intel with them and point them to places lizard men, or brood, are holed up."

"I pointed them to the sewers because I believe that they must have some staging areas down there to hold people captive, break them and then take them elsewhere to be converted, I assume that it has something to do with the brood's heavy presence at the site that was once Circe's farm. I assume that would be a likely place for transformation if I were to make a guess. Otherwise I believe they may need the site for some occult or ritual significance. It is hard to say for sure without further investigation. Oh, I only mentioned underground locations and haven't given these people any information than they have not figured out for themselves already. I've told the Rev'rend's men nothing of us."

[Premsyl]

Circe's Farm has been taken by the Brood as well? I was not aware of that.

"If the Homeless are so established in terms of inflammatory ordinance then perhaps they should be motivated to travel to Circe's Farm during the day and burn it to the ground. Any Brood making Haven there would be destroyed. I've no doubt that they've thralls to watch the grounds during the day, but let Kine deal with Kine, I say. As for joint-operations, did the Prince express how he felt about such things?"

There were a number of reasons why joint-operations were a bad idea, but on the other hand if these people could be better directed to their goal then the Brood might prove easier to deal with.

Arnold considers what Dirge reports to be the Prince's idea regarding the Homeless. "If we could set the Homeless up to be guilty of a crime, like a murder or two perhaps, then the Kine authorities would be forced to break up their "Squattaville."" he spits the name of the settlement out. "I do not know what kind of allies the Prince has in the city government, but I have none. My friends in this city are less officially-minded individuals. Money talks however."

[Dirge]

Dirge avoided grinding her teeth together in anger at the mention of burning down Circe's farm. She managed to keep a pleasant smile on her face as she listened.

Quick to suggest burning down my property and the property of the Crone are you? How quick would you be to suggest we burn down your hotel or the stomping grounds of the Invictus if our positions were reversed you condescending, superior, smug, son of a bitch? How would you like it if I let slip that the owner of this hotel is one of us?

"That may be one course of action available, yes. However, if the location is burned to the ground we may miss out on clues and intel as to their motivations, thus giving us some way to discover the scope of their operation and finding any additional cells of operatives. Who knows what masquerade breaching effects they will find in such a ritual site. I don't think it wise to risk it."

She paused for a moment before continuing. "I will be reporting shortly the results of the meeting with the Rev'rend to the Prince, but the impression I received from the Prince was that he would wisely refuse any joint operation with the transient population."

[Premsyl]

If Dirge could see she would know that Arnold smirks when Dirge politely opposed his idea to burn the farm.

I should have expected that. I wonder how many might meet Final Death assaulting the Farm at night just to save a shack overrrun by a dangerous enemy. The property would remain, and its not as if anything valuable to the Circle inside now remains after the Brood's infestation. Still, her amiable cooperation is necessary - at least for now.

"You make a good point, regarding the preservation of the Farm. Perhaps it would be wiser to preserve it. In that case it might be wise, I think, to talk with the Homeless to discover when they might plan on moving into the Sewers, if that is what they aim to do. It might be a smart tactic to stage our assault on Circe's Farm to coincide with the Homeless' push into the Sewers."