(IC 2) San Francisco by Night: A Requiem in Fog

[Bennosuke]

Anna's shot goes wild even before Prince Gorman begins to move. The moment she sites down her rifle at the pair of demonic red eyes like fire in the darkness, the Mekhet is filled with sudden unspeakable terror. The Prince's laughter seems to pound and echo in Anna's skull as flashes of torture blink their way through Anna's memories like escaping dreams once a mortal wakes up. Anna's shot actually comes close to clipping the charging Alejandro Perez in the back as he rushes past Anna towards the Prince with his saber raised.

Then the mob of Kindred fall upon Gorman. Others rush past Anna and Karl, some firing guns, others charging in with swords or clubs. Prince Gorman is on the run now, moving quickly, though not with the same blinding speed of one such as Julian who closes in on The Prince in the blink of an eye. All is chaos as the two Kindred in the back of the mob, continue to fire on their breatheren, and the basement room is lit in a strobe effect with every rifle or pistol fire. Shots seem to land on Gorman, though nothing that seems to slow down the Elder vampire, who continues to strafe sideways, drawing a greater number of Kindred towards him.

(OOC: Anna resolves the shaken condition and gains a beat. Updated in your character box. It is now Karl's turn again)

[Daishain]

Karl looks to the mob chasing after the prince, not wanting any part of that mess, he decides to do something about the suborned kindred firing at his allies instead. Slipping back up towards them while staying out of their line of fire, he waits for an opportune moment before reaching for the magazine release on the nearest weapon.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Dex+stealth+obfuscate (7d10)[7][9][6][5][8][10][1](46)
ten again (7d10)[3][5][6][2][3][1][10](30)
3 successes, a decent shot I think, still depends on their roll of course.

[Bennosuke]

Like a ghost in the crowd, Karl moves silently up to the gaunt man in the trench coat. This close to the vampire, Karl can see that there is no light in his eyes, his jaw slightly slack, his face heavily lined in a strange trance-like concentration. Karl darts a hand out hits the slide mechanism needed to eject the rifle's clip. The black cartridge drops from the rifle and clatters to the ground.

It takes the vampire nearly three seconds to realize that the gun is out of ammo, his attention turning to Karl in sudden surprise, his lips curling back to expose fangs in a fearsome glower.

(OOC: Lillith's turn)

[Ladorak]

With Karl ghosting up to the Carthian as unseen and as deadly as the Reaper Lilith turns her attention to the other source of bullets flying into the crowd. She charges the woman, chopping down on her gunhand.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Strength-untrained+vigor+all-out-attack
3-1+1+2
(5d10)[5][7][6][9][2](29)+1L
10again
(5d10)[9][6][4][10][1](30)

[Bennosuke]

Lillith charges forward, her machete raised over her head, lips curled as she closes in on the dark skinned vampire with the pistol. But the Dominated vampire's attention shifts to the oncoming Nosferatu. As Lillith's blade comes whistling down, the female vampire hops back, giving her space to swing her arm around and fire the pistol nearly point blank at the Nosferatu. Lillith suffers little more than a sudden biting sting as the bullet enters her breast and exits out her back.

Nearby the male Kindred in the trench coat turns to target Karl. He swings the rifle around slamming the butt hard against Karl, who is barely able to get his shoulder up in time to prevent the weapon from striking him in the jaw. Though Karl's body still shows the numerous wounds from the evening's combat with The Sheriff, he soaks up the damage of the rifle blow with ease, barely stumbling backwards.

(OOC: Lillith's attack misses after factoring in the target's defense. Both Karl and Lillith take 2 bashing damage. Lillith now has -1 modifier, unless I missed a healing expenditure previously. It is now Anna's turn)

[Thundercracker]

Anna

As the chaos of the battle took over, Anna shook her head to try and clear it. Images of the people close to her, that she’d taken care to protect and the severe consequences of her failing here buttressed her resolve.

Gritting her teeth, Anna maneuvered herself closer to try and get a clear shot at Gorman, then braced her weapon against her shoulder and held the trigger on the machine gun down, intending to close the distance while firing and then switch to her knife either when she ran out of ammunition or approached close enough to use it.

Spoiler

Show

long burst
Dex 3 firearms 1 long burst 3= (7d10)[7][9][1][6][5][3][3](34)
10 again: (7d10)[1][9][5][10][4][2][5](36)

[Bennosuke]

Spoiler: OOPS supposed to be OOC rolls

Show

Dominate roll: Prince Gorman (11d10)[2][7][8][1][10][10][7][10][4][4][5](68) vs. Frank Beato (7d10)[5][6][2][8][5][5][2](33)

Some attack rolls (8d10)[4][6][9][6][4][1][8][2](40) and (8d10)[10][10][8][1][10][10][8][7](64)

and (9d10)[1][8][7][7][7][1][1][2][5](39)

[Bennosuke]

Anna pulls down the trigger, holding on for dear life to the automatic rifle as it kicks a series of high impulse vibrations into her shoulder. A hail of bullets rain down on the darting Prince Gorman; a collective spray of gunfire from Anna, Beato and his bodyguards. Muzzle flare lights up the room in a near constant staccato of long shadows and gunpowder thunderclaps. The barrage peppers The Prince, several bullets (including a few from Anna) jolting the child's body hard this way an that, but ultimately forcing Julian and Alejandro back to avoid friendly fire.

But Prince Gorman somehow finds the way to stay upright as his face, chest and abdomen become riddled with wounds that fail to bleed. The boy-corpse now grievously wounded, Gorman reaches a hand out accusingly at Frank Beato. His eyes glow read in the low light and gunfire, and The Prince commands, "Protect me," his voice so thunderous that it seems to echo throughout the entire mansion.

Frank Beato shudders for a moment, his body going rigid as if struck suddenly. The massive refrigerator of a vampire gives a high pitched squeal, his face hardening into a rictus of pain, before going suddenly placid. Beato turns, still firing bullets, to turn the muzzle of his assault rifle on one of his bodyguards. The spray goes wild, barely hitting its target, but suddenly distracting the all three of the Lord's bodyguards as he falls under the will of Prince Gorman.

Spoiler: OOC:

Show

Anna gets one hit and with the others do a massive amount of damage. The prince spends vitae to soak with resistance and heal as much as he can. I accidentally skipped Gorman's turn and he uses dominate to control Frank Beato. It is now back to the top of the initiative order with Karl then Lillith

[Ladorak]

Shocked and strangely affronted by the tiny hole passing all the way through her chest Lilith's retaliation was less than effective. She takes a wide swing at her opponent but it sails over her head.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

1 BP to heal 2
Strength-untrained+vigor+all-out-attack
3-1+1+2
(5d10)[4][1][2][4][7](18)
10-again
(5d10)[7][7][3][7][1](25)

[Daishain]

Karl snatches up the fallen magazine along with any others he can reach and backs off, seeking the relative safety of the Shadows once more.

The commotion as Frank is dominated makes him want to curse. This was turning just about as ugly as he thought it would. Damn Beato and his overconfidence! They needed to hit the prince with something that he could not simply ignore...

Spoiler: OOC

Show

The prince's outfit. Does it have any large pockets, a hood, a loose shirt collar, anything I might be able to stuff one or both of these grenades into?

[Bennosuke]

The hole begins to close up nicely in Lillith's breast, but her attack does go wide of her target.

Karl takes a moment to study The Prince, who darts about the room lit only by the glowing red light of his eyes, and the strobe effect of gunfire. The Prince is dressed in his regular costume, an outdated double breasted black suit, complete with an old style collar that only doubles over at the front of the neck of a dark red ascot-like tie. His shirt sleeves are a ruffled white fabric. The jacket does have pockets, though, nothing wide open.

(OOC: Lillith heals. She is down to 3 bashing damage and 6 vitate; updated in her character box.

For Karl to successfully plant the grenades, he can make a Str + Grapple -2 modifier -5 defense. Alternatively, he can make a Dex + Larceny (like pickpocketing) -5 for Prince's defense. Don't forget Karl still has the Shaken (Prince Gorman) condition. It is still Karl's turn.)

[Daishain]

Karl slips up to the prince while the others are occupied with Beato. Slip around him, get the grenade out, pull the pin, and... There! Karl's hand darts out, attempting to hook the lever of the grenade into the child monster's pocket rather than trying to stuff the whole thing in at once.

Whether or not he succeeds, Karl dashes off afterwards, in the opposite direction the prince had been moving in.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

3 successes in the OOC channel

[Bennosuke]

Karl is just able to get up to Prince Gorman, dropping the grenade in the Prince's pocket just as he recognizes what is happening. Prince Gorman's eyes lock on Karl's. Bright red light fills the Mekhet's consciousness, pulsing and dimming like lit coals. Suddenly there is no fight surrounding Karl, the racket of machine gun fire and the howls of fighting Kindred all become a distant indistinct buzzing. All there is for Karl is the light of Prince Gorman's eyes, and the childlike laughter that thunders through his brain like the world's worst migraine. The Prince's will takes hold of Karl's mind like a fast growing tumor, freezing Karl's body in a hypnotic trance.

The Prince's skin continues to heal itself, recovering from the insult of a thousand angry bullets.

Just outside the room, Lillith finds herself confronted by both of the dominated Kindred. The two begin pummeling the Nosferatu with the blunt end of their ballistic weapons. Lillith finds herself unable to escape the impacts, and the blows create meaty cracks as rifle butt or pistol grip slam into the Haunt.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Okay, so Karl successfully plants the frag grenade, but has run out of movement to get away. The Prince successfully dominates Karl, though with a relatively poor roll, does not have enough successes this time to issue a command in the same turn. Karl takes the Mesmarized condition, and is now stuck standing next to the Prince who is wearing a primed grenade (that could go off any moment, hint hint). It is now Anna's turn.

Lillith takes 4 bashing damage.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Anna had been steadily closing with the Prince and was about to try and grab him when Karl dropped a grenade into Gorman’s pocket. For a split second she considered the insane idea of trying to drag Karl away, but her own sense of self-preservation kicked in.

“Karl, run!” Anna shouted, hoping to get through to him. No way was she going to try and drag him with the Prince and a live grenade right there. She took her own advice and moved to cover, then took another shot at the Prince if she could.

Spoiler

Show

Sorry daishain, Anna’s dirge is survivor and I just can’t justify her rushing into this situation to try and save you, much as I want to as a player.

Priorities:
1. Get behind cover from the grenade.
2. Shoot at Gorman again long burst.

Spoiler

Show

(7d10)[3][5][9][5][8][4][3](37)
10 again: (7d10)[10][5][9][7][2][8][6](47)

[Bennosuke]

Anna move back, putting herself against the corner of this relatively empty room; the only other cover being the stone alter which she deems way to close to The Prince for cover. Her hail of gunfire shreds Prince Gorman's clothes, jerking him about and making him stumble to the side.

Karl is barely aware of the storm of bullets occurring immediately before him, standing still and dazed. Far off, the Shadow hears someone curse, and suddenly he is being carried incredibly quickly away.

Others witness Julian throw down his sword and curse, only to wrap his arms around Karl's waist and in a blur, carry the entranced Mekhet away from the Prince.

Gorman is struck several more times by gunfire. Then the grenade in his pocket goes of with a mighty bang that drowns out all other sounds. The room is momentarily lit up like it were daylight; so bright it hurts the eyes in a strange mockery of the sun. When the dust settles and Kindred eyes adapt to the sudden changes in light, The Prince is struggling to get up. He is missing a good portion of his abdomen to what is now just a charred cavity of meat. His right leg is completely shredded.

(OOC: Back to the top of the Order. Karl is still mesmarized so we are going to go straight to Lillith. I will give Anna a WP for being so cold hearted).

[Ladorak]

Lilith span away from the girl who'd put two rounds in her, a grenade going off tended to reorder one's priorities, providing a strange sort of clarity even as it deafened and blinded
'Don't get up on our account.' hissed Lilith as she swung her rifle to bare 'On your knees is where you belong.'

She braced for the recoil and held down the trigger

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Longest burst, using WP
(6d10)[3][4][10][9][10][1](37)
10-again
(6d10)[4][7][10][3][1][1](26)

[Bennosuke]

Lillith can barely control her rifle as she blasts slugs into the grounded Diablerist Prince. Rounds that should normally shatter a child's skull do little more than dent or puncture the bestial child's body.

Defiantly, Prince Gorman begins to rise, pushing himself up on shredded arms. His eyes glow a brighter red, like headlights on the semi from hell. His lips are curled back now in the most inhuman of snarls to show his long fangs, and the words that escape his lips are near completely unintelligable.

All Kindred present in the room who still have their sanity can feel Gorman's beast rising up, threatening to take over, threatening to kill and maim every last living thing on the face of this earth.

(OOC: It is now Anna's turn)

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Seeing Gorman was about to fly into a rage, Anna’s form blurred, and time seemed to slow down as she pressed the trigger again, moving towards the Prince to get a better shot until she was right behind him. If she can kick the dropped sword to Julian on the way, she does so.

Spoiler

Show

Long burst adding willpower this time: (10d10)[1][7][8][8][9][8][2][2][3][4](52)
10 again: (10d10)[1][10][5][4][10][1][2][9][3][1](46)

“Take my blood, if you can,” she taunted Gorman.

[Bennosuke]

Anna's volley slams into the Prince-child as he struggles to rise. Shell after shell thud into Gorman's corpse, slamming his small frame back down into the floor. The Prince lets out a long howl that is more wolf than human, before his body suddenly seizes for a moment and goes rigid and unresponsive to Anna's gunfire.

There is a moment's silence in the room as Anna's automatic rifle runs out of ammunition, and the basement is again thrown into darkness. Even though Kindred can see in the dark, it takes several moments for everyone's eyes to adapt after the light from the gunpowder discharges.

The two entranced vampires stand motionless and limp, like puppets waiting for their strings to be pulled. Their eyes twinkle dully in the darkness.

Then Frank Beato turns to Anna with dumb shuffling sort of steps. A stupid half grin spreads across his otherwise placid face. Then he raises his rifle, and opens fire on Anna. The motion is sloppy and the Ventrue's aim is not quiet right, and Anna is only grazed by a bullet in the shoulder, but somehow, this isn't over.

In a flash Julian is up and off Karl, and blurs into existence next to Beato, a swipe of the saber shredding the flesh off of half of Beato's face, leaving it a mess of bloodless severed muscle and fracture bone. The eye is pulped into a yellowish substance that fills the bottom of the orbit.

(OOC: Okay. Daishain, please give me Resolve + Composure -2 to see if you can shake off the Mesmerism. Otherwise, it is Lillith's turn. Anna takes 3 bashing damage from the unimpressive Firearms roll)

[Ladorak]

As the room plunges into darkness Lilith stifles a shriek, another time and it might have scared her, but there had been enough weirdness tonight for a lifetime. She starts running to where she had last seen the Prince, but when Beato fires, lighting himself up like a pyre at midnight, Lilith turns on her heel and unloads the remains of her clip into the Ventrue's ruined face

Spoiler

Show

medium burst
(2d10)[6][5](11)
10 again
(2d10)[10][4](14)

[Bennosuke]

Lillith's shots go wide as the rifle kicks hard against her shoulder, causing her to nearly lose her grip on the weapon. Fortunately, the wild shots just go overhead rather than causing any friendly fire, and Lillith takes her finger of the trigger as she wrestles the weapon back under control.

(OOC: I guess I will wait for Daishain's roll)

[Bennosuke]

Rather than turning his focus to Lillith, the massive Lord swings his attention back to Julian, twisting his rifle around to try to strike the Dragon with the weapon's stock. One moment Julian is before Beato, the next he's a yard away, and there is nothing for Beato to hit.

Karl remains motionless on the floor, the same vacant stare in his eyes as the two standing thralls.

(Beato's strike misses. It is now Anna's turn).

[Thundercracker]

Anna winced as she took a bullet, but allowed her blood to flow into the wound in her shoulder and it immediately started healing. She ignored Beato for the moment to bring her combat knife down onto the motionless Prince.

Spoiler

Show

I'm not sure if I need to roll or if I get bonus dice for attacking a defenseless NPC so will roll some extra dice just in case.
2 str + 3 weaponry
(5d10)[4][9][4][2][1](20)
10 again: (5d10)[6][5][8][6][9](34)
extra dice: (5d10)[6][10][7][4][7](34)
bladed weapon so it's lethal damage, for what that's worth

[Bennosuke]

Anna brings her knife down hard, gripped in both hands, on the prone boy's neck. In that moment the Mekhet loses all self control to hatred. Her blow lands with a wild shriek jackal shriek. The blade pierces through skin and bone, but the tissue is thick and unnatural, like a very dry clay. The child's neck was so thin that the knife should have performed a clean decapitation, but instead, the knife wedged in deep and became stuck as if in quicksand. To free her weapon, Anna is forced to wrench upwards with both arms, pulling so hard that it pulls the torpid Prince's corpse up off the ground and around so that Gorman is now staring up at the Shadow. The Prince wore a wicked grin, lips pulled up, and curled back to expose fangs, eyes somehow seeming to find Anna's even though the glowing red inner light had been extinguished. His expression was one of laughter, like The Prince found Anna hilarious despite his torpid state. Somehow, Anna had failed to kill The Prince with her blow.

(OOC: The rule for killing blow is that you count every dice that you would have rolled as a success, and add the weapon modifier (knife is +0). So Anna dealt 5 Lethal damage. Due to the Prince's large Health box, this is not enough to kill him. Anna heals 2 bashing damage, and now only has one bashing, dropping her Blood Pool down to 5/10).

Both Julian and Alejandro were on Beato now, sabers flashing through the darkness. The two circled the entranced vampire like wolves cornering prey, darting in with measured slashes. Julian was clearly the more capable fencer, his cuts landing more cleanly and regularly on the giant. But a saber was not a massive blade meant for severing large sections of tissue; it could sever a wrist but didn't have the weight to bisect a ribcage. The gashes created by Julian's cuts were too superficial to slow Beato down, and each bloodless wound quickly healed over defiantly.

Nearby, Beato's old bodyguards, stood motionless, the shifting melee making it too difficult to line up a safe shot on their former commander.

(OOC: terrible rolls for Julian and Santiago. It is now Lillith's turn again)

[Ladorak]

Her clip had run dry and Lilith had no time to reload, everything was happening so damn quickly. She lets the rifle drop with one hand as she fumbled to bring her blade to bare with the other, all the while her traitorous feet brought her closer and closer to the fallen Prince. She brought the machete crashing down on the back of his exposed neck with all the strength she could muster.

Spoiler

Show

1 BP Physical Intensity +2 strength
1 BP Vigor effect +1 strength and 1 point of damage to machete

Str+untrained+vigor (passive)+vigor (active)+physical intensity+all out attack
3-1+1+1+2+2 =8
(8d10)[1][10][4][6][3][5][4][1](34)+1L
10again
(8d10)[4][1][3][10][6][9][5][5](43)+1L

[Bennosuke]

Lillith's machete cuts through the air singing like a wisp of wind. The primitive blade slams down through the meat of The Prince's neck, rattling hard against cement floor of the basement with a thunderclap like bang. The impact causes vibrations to travel all the way up Lillith's arm into her shoulder.

Prince Gorman's head goes rolling. The lips on the severed head pull back in a rictus grin, mouth open wide to show long fangs. The room is filled with a raucous cackle, the noise starting as the high pitched and innocent laughter of a child and slowly morphing into the crazed noises of a braying jackal. The noise continues for too long as the head's rotations slow. The thing keeps laughing, apparently unaware of its missing lungs till the head's momentum is stopped at the foot of Karl's downed body. Once Gorman's top stops rolling, the echoing laughter stops.

Then the body writhes, turns itself over on all fours, moving so suddenly it knocks Anna and Lillith back. It crawls forward, wriggling with its one good leg. Gorman's body takes several clawing paces towards its head. But with every length that the Prince's body pulls, its flesh withered, turning ashen, then nearly charcoal black. The skin turns thin like parchment, crinkling until it cracks, flakes, and swiftly turns to a pile of ash and bone stuffed into a pile of fine child's clothing.

Nearby, Julian and Alejandro are still sniping at the stumbling entranced Beato. But when Gorman's body finally deteriorates, Frank Beato turns suddenly rigid, a clarity coming into the vampire's eyes. The two other dominated and then disarmed Kindred also seem to suddenly come to, both going rigid as their weapons clatter to the ground. Frank Beato puts a hand up to speak, and it is this moment that Julian's saber finds his neck. In a sick parody of Prince Gorman, Frank Beato's head comes straight off. However, unlike the Prince, the giant immediately crumples, his massive body hitting the ground with a thud that echoes throughout the basement. Beato's body does not so much as quiver in death, though the body is slower to deteriorate. Ultimately, the effects are the same as a second vampire meets the Final Death.

With Prince Gorman's death, Karl's senses return to him.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Okay. Combat is over!!! I encourage the three active players to converse. I am swamped with work ATM, but will endevour to start tallying beats up in the OOC thread on Thursday. There will be two epilogues; the first in which we revise Aisling and invite Erulasto back into this game!!!

My plan is for after the epilogues, we will start Act III (assuming people still want to play). Act III will primarily be made up of personal vignettes similar (similar to interludes), with the focus based on every player's Aspirations. I will basically be using listed aspirations as request for scenes, so think hard about this.

Erulasto, thank you so much for the patience.

As an aside pertaining to combat rules, a rule that I did not uphold strictly in this last act was the rule of readying weapons. Dropping a weapon costs nothing, but drawing a weapon is an Instant Action, meaning you cannot draw a new weapon and attack in the same round... unless you have the appropriate Merit. I realized I wasn't enforcing this midway through, and therefore did not hold it up with other players. However, as there is a separate merit just for this, I will be more strictly enforcing this rule in the future

[Daishain]

Karl gives a start as his senses return to him, shying away from Prince Gorman's eyes, which were suddenly no longer there... Looking around, he sees the pile of dust nearly at his feet.

Shoulders slumping with relief, Karl mutters, more to himself than anyone else, "And so yet another mad tyrant falls, I wonder how long before there's another?"

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

A great feeling of relief swept through Anna as the Prince was decapitated by Lilith's machete, followed quickly by a sense of shock as the body started crawling towards the head. The scene was so disgustingly surreal and horrific she couldn’t even think enough to go after the body to stop it. Thankfully it turned to dust before it could reach the lost appendage.

Then Beato's headless body crumpled.

"Oh no," Anna thought, "Julian killed Beato!”

Her second thought came just a metaphorical heartbeat later.
"He must have had a good reason, plus Beato sent us in first even after we took down the Sheriff, kind of a jerk thing to do," Anna thought.

She cleaned off the combat knife and moved to Julian. She wanted to embrace him, but looked to his expression to take her cue. She hoped for eye contact or some kind of acknowledgement from him at the very least.

[Bennosuke]

After the kill, there is a moment where Julian stands over the beheaded corpse of Beato, blade held at his side as he watches the body disintegrate into dust. There is a cold look on the Dragon's face, eyes dark and unblinking, body motionless.

But Alejandro is on the Sworn of the Axe in a second, eyes wild and lips curled back to expose fangs. "What the **** did you just do?" the Crone screams, swinging the tip of his saber to point from the pile of ash, bone and clothing, back at Julian with accusation, "What was that for?" Alejandro raises his sword as if to prepare a strike, but Julian does not even flinch, simply bringing his dark stare up to Alejandro impassively.

The other Kindred in the room are beginning to gather around Alejandro and Julian, though none move close enough to involve themselves in the developing scene.

[Thundercracker]

Anna jumped forward and tried to grab Alejandro’s sword arm.

“Don’t!” she yelled.

Spoiler

Show

str + brawl: (5d10)[8][10][7][7][2](34)
10 again:(5d10)[10][4][10][2][1](27)