Skeleton Keys

Location	Avalon
Date Began	Spring 2011 - Presentwarning.pngThe date "Spring 2011 - Present" was not understood.
Storyteller(s)	West, Steven, Wolven Pryde
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Introduction

Skeleton Keys is a venue wide plot that has been going on for a long time, and a lot of Kindred have participated in it's many investigations, adventures and dangers. It has links to other plots as well, showing only how widespread the story is. 'The Prequel' on this page thus only shows us the last scenes of the Robbing a Bank plot. Because, as turns out later, it may have links to Skeleton Keys!

The Pre-Prequel: May 2011

• The Low Places

The Prequel: May 2012

Meeting at University (Also from Robbing a Bank)

• This is a short scene where Regent Erika Brady meets with Max Heinz. She has an ancient text with her, written on human skin. It is what she retrieved from the Kindred that robbed a bank for her. She asks Max Heinz to study it. He is able to discern that the text is in fact written in an ancient Hungarian dialect. Then, to his surprise, she translates it before him.

"Today I came so close to completing the great work. I felt my curse begin to be lifted. I felt something in myself begin to evolve as I feed upon that fool Tamás. As his soul left his body, I feasted on it. My strength grew, and my chains weakened. Lucina was correct. She is so right, through this we can be free. I will join her and follow her path. Through the souls of my enemies, I will be free." - Erika Brady ^[1]

• Curiously enough, she gives him the text and a suitcase with a box in it. The box contains the old helmet. She trusts he'll take care of it.

Up In Flames (Also from Robbing a Bank)

• The same night that Max Heinz got the skin and the helmet from Erika Brady, he decides to destroy the text, and let the helmet sink to the bottom of a lake. The one who wrote the text was probably a Diablerist, and Max doesn't want anyone to become inspired by it. Or worse, he suspects that Erika Brady wants to say more by giving this to him. In any way, he prefers to hide the helmet and keep the text only safely in hidden in his memory.

The Beginning: August 2012

Reeve Office Hours 12
Reeve Office Hours 13

Putting the team together
Aileen McFarlane calls Callum McCann
Tracking the Package

Beginning in September 2012

Skeleton in the Closet

Beginning in November 2012

A Skeleton and a Ford in the Key of E

Beginning in January 2013

Skeleton Keys - A gathering at the Reverence
At the call of Martha Villiers, more Kindred gather to investigate those events.

The body certainly looks old. With the tight, gaunt skin resembling a mummy's dessicated remains, it's difficult to place an age on it. Of course, any Kindred starved in Torpor looks similar.

The heraldic device is of the 11th century Spanish kingdom of Castile. - the geographic and political centre of the old Spanish kingdoms prior to its domination of the eventual union of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile and the unification of Spain.

One side wall of the coffin is slightly thicker than the other. Use of Auspex on it reveals a sense of purpose. Too dull to be the passion of hate, too strong to be a simple sense of purpose. With his heightened senses, Chris Wooding's fingers soon find the faintest of outlines; a seam in the wood that outlines a square the size of a laptop.

The box appears to made of a black metal similar to the armour and appears to have roughly the same distress of age. The upper most face of the box shows a heraldic device embossed on the metal which occupies most of the centre face. Something in the box which sounds, solid heavy and metal inside freely sliding around as she shakes it. The seams of the box are perfect, and flush; there is no apparent way to open it.

At the fiddling with its seams, long blades hidden under the lip of the coffin suddenly swing out in an arc.

It's a puzzle box: that it is made to be opened with a series of manipulations rather than any external key.

Herald Villiers then makes a summary of several ideas she's had: - is there a connection with this incident and the recent slayings of Kindred? The crimes committed by by Traitor Heathcliff Staley may or may not be connected too...it is her belief they aren't as he seems to have suffered from some malevolent and internal corruption of his own design - Miss Sarah LaFleur and Mr Thomas O'Connor were slain during the autumn...er...Fall...last year. Miss LaFleur slew Mr O'Conner...but...well, the Deputy cadre at the time investigated the matter. the crime scene was in extreme disarray. The blood spatter was analyzed by Doctors Powell and Swift, and they identified two separate encounters had occurred, one panicked and uncontrolled, and the other efficient. Mr. Heinz proceeded to use the Sight, and was able to identify that O'Connor was killed by LaFleur, using a lamp from the room. Afterwards, LaFleur was killed by a second attacker - an individual who more than likely wielded a sword. The Deputies were certain that it was a double edged sword designed for beheading. No further notable marks. No particular fighting signature. It was done with a single blow. The interval between the two incidents was not long. Miss LaFleur seemed to be expecting someone, which does not preclude a concealed attacker. The investigation of the room was thorough. there was no obvious footprints, trace scents or other physical evidence. Dr Powell and others did and retrieve other items. A journal...two passports. A firearm. Cheque books and credit cards. A cellular telephonic device was known to be missing."

"Further investigation revealed that an object was removed from the Hotel - an object concealed within a handwritten copy of Grimm's 'Fairy Tales'. Unfortunately, we have as yet been unable to identify this missing object. It is unlikely it was the telephonic device...though Mr. Heinz could not get a clear view of it from the Sight."

"Now...in addition, Grand Wyrm Heinz reported during an earlier investigation that he had two visions that illuminated the crime. During these he saw Miss LaFleur and Mr O'Conner engaged in a heated argument, though the cause of it was unclear. Sometime later Miss LaFleur used a lamp to kill Mr O'Conner. Once she had murdered him she made her way over to a safe and opened it. She was looking for something before hearing a noise and looked back towards the bathroom door. She replaced the journal back inside the safe. Closed the safe and left the room."

"Once she was back in the bedroom area of the hotel room, she meet her attacker. She seemed to recognize him, calling out 'No...Not you...No...Please...' and then screamed. She was then beheaded by the figure with the short sword. Whatever our attacker was after was concealed inside the journal. Miss LaFleur had cut out a hiding place within it's pages. Mr O'Conner ripped the hollowed pages out and tossed them under one of the beds to hide them

Grand Wyrm Heinz wasn't able to get a clear view of what that object was. The best description supplied was that of a metal object, rectangular with rounded corners with...if I recall correctly...holes punched out of it in different locations. Nothing matching that description was found at the time so it was concluded that it went missing along with a cellular telephonic device. It was also concluded that the room was in disarray as, not only was there a struggle between Miss LaFleur and Mr O'Connor, but that the room had been searched by her murderer. Someone known to her."

"turning to the Journal we identified an acrostic code in text. It read: 'T...H....I...S... T...O... B... A... R... E... S ... P...A...I...N' It revealed itself as the letters are a slightly different design...uppercase in strange places...oddly coloured ink...that sort of thing. Now...after giving the matter thought earlier investigation showed that this acrostic cryptogram pointed to the Invictus Ventrue, former Lord of this Domain, Tobias Straiphen.

Former Prince Tobias was later removed from power by various elements in the Domain after a period of chaos and ruthlessness under the rule of Nosferatu Prince Freddrick. At least 70 Kindred were killed under his rule. He himself fell to the rampage of Elder Eric the Ancient...a terrible creature who slew a great many Elders and Officers of Court in the City. It was after that this terror was quelled, a new, brighter, age later followed...Duke Alder Clarke, thankfully, becoming Prince in 2009. I understand that Duke Clarke took an important role in quelling this terror."

"You see, ladies and gentlemen, I applied some examination using Auspex. During this I saw Sarah...Miss LaFleur, wrestling with an inner void of despair...and fear. Sarah worked so very hard to write those clues in a book...to leave the T and S initials...there was some outer force trying to compel her to stop. To struggle against this, it cost her a great deal in Blood and Will. Some other force, it seemed to be causing an outer inertia of despair and...fear...trying to prevent her work.

in September last year there was a theft at a retail outlet involving a book written in Hungarian. This other matter was, at the time, being explored by Mr Calloway and Hierophant Wooding.

At the time Mr Calloway hinted at Herr Von Schutsen...Herr Von Schutsen once openly boasted of being an assassin to the Mekhet in this Domain. What if he is responsible for all this? He has the lethal skills...he knew all the victims well, or donned the guise of the appearance to that effect

Beginning in March 2013

A Plan of Action
SK Grimm Tale
Anthony's Package
Returning and Reporting
[1]

Beginning in April 2013

Skeleton Keys Academic Digging

A letter to Asa. [2]

Beginning in November 2013

Skeleton Keys - More Pieces More Puzzles

Beginning in January 2014

SK - What's in the booooox

Beginning in Mars 2014

SK - The Abandonned - Causality

Beginning in April 2014

Keyhole
Skeleton Keys - Nursing Time

Beginning in July 2014

Skeleton Keys - The Summons

2014 July - Present

• The Enemy
• Skeleton Keys - Reopening the Case
• Skeleton Keys - Needful Action
• Skeleton Keys - Quest for the Kogaion
• Skeleton Keys - Few Return
• Drones and Dragons
• Ill Tidings
• EC 1502 Reeve's Office
• EC 1502 Brady and Wooding
• Confluence
• The Brady Bunch
• Tangled Webs
• Lyke Wake Dirge
• Dark Water
• Cutting Gordian Knots