Part Three: le Meurtrier
Saturday, August 7th 1790
Robert and Virginia arrived at the house to find it empty. They cleaned up Flathead and put him comfortably in his room. When they are done Robert sits in the parlor. Still as a statue. His face is a mask of dark streaks.
“You need to eat” Virgina says more as an observation than a way of showing care.
Ask the Oracle. Do all the vampires in the coven share the same veins? 50/50 yes.
She looked mostly mortal. Fully in control of herself. “You don’t want to be like this when they get back. You are angry. You are going to do something idiotic. Go!” she said forcefully. Shaking Robert out of his stillness. He stood up slowly and moved to the door.
There are two ways for Robert to gain control back. He can use the Sojourn or the Hunt move. Aka he can spend time reaffirming why he needs to stay more human and/or feed nicely or he can go feed by taking from people he doesn’t know.
Robert is going to Sojourn. +heart, and I’m going to work his bonds in so +1 for that. 2+4 vs 4 and 1 . A strong hit. I’m going to take control twice (+4) and momentum +2. Since I don’t think he is going to actually feed.
Robert walks across town to his blacksmith shop. Well it’s not his, Lizzy inherited it. He visits it often. Uses his key, glad the locks haven’t changed. Nothing has moved in the dark space. It pleases him and makes him sad that Lizzy hasn’t leased it out yet. Or sold it. The place is still a wreck from when they took him from it and dragged him home to witness his wife being murdered. The anger comes up in him but the monster inside him doesn’t care about that. It cares about the blood in the people in the next building over, or those the past on the way here. It repeats the world the vampires said earlier about who he was. A murderer. He looks at the door, at the empty street.
It’s barely Saturday. One maybe two in the morning. He takes a step toward the door but then kicks a hammer that had been dropped on the floor. No, he will not be the murderer today. He picks it up and then his body and mind take over for him.
By dawn the shop is cleaned, ready for someone to come in and start the day’s work, but no one will. Robert is at the House, protected from the sun.
That night, Robert is in the parlor after checking on Flathead when Manx comes out of his room.
“What’s the Pacte de Sang?” Robert says before Manx can even say hi. Manx is visibly thrown off and pauses for a moment.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Does it matter. What is it?”
“You should ask CL, it is not my place, him being your sponsor.”
“Bullshit Manx.” Manx moves to walk away. Robert keeps talking, “You kill my wife and force me to help you, then keep me in the dark. This is going to end badly Manx.”
He barely hears Manx reply, “It wasn’t me, it was CL.”
Robert gets up and goes to the other room. Manx is looking at Flathead. “Fuck it was just CL. Soldiers do what the captain says, I get that more than all of you but you still own what you have done. Tell me what this Pacte is Manx and redeem yourself a little in the eyes of your maker, and with me.”
Compel. This is borderline but I think I went more with the +heart than the +iron on this one. So that’s a 4+3 vs 8 and 2 a weak hit. They want something in return.
Manx holds up his hands. “Alright, alright but…” he pauses and looks at the cold murder in Roberts eyes behind the kind pleading about redemption. “Don’t tell CL and if by some miracle you do take revenge, remember I didn’t do it”.
“CL doesn’t need to know shit and if you didn’t hold the knife then you’re in the clear.”
Gather Information. I get a +1 because of the role above. 5+3 vs 2 and 3 a strong hit.
Manx breaks down how vampire society is actually structured for Robert. How vampires of a certain rank hold territories and how all vampires in that territory owe fealty to that lord. “Just like the good old days of knights and kings”. The Knives owe Fealty to McCallister who is part of a collective of vampires who share the territory of New York City and part of its surrounding region. Most of those vampires are royalists, or at least do not care for revolutionary thought. The revolution caught them off guard. They couldn’t move fast enough to stop it and the few vampires who did support it were younger and more willing to take the risk. McCallister is one who took the risk. Earned him a seat at the table but the table is under siege from inside and out.
“So why keep this from me and how do the french vampires come into this?”
“I don’t know. CL said you wouldn’t be around long enough to care.”
“Makes no sense. If we work for McCallister and McCallister is… oh whatever. I’ll figure it out from here Manx. thank you.” Manx almost flinches when Robert puts his hand on his shoulder. “So what can we do for Flathead?”
“Nothing. CL is looking into storing him in the trove.” Robert looks sideways at him. “It’s this place where we keep the sleepers. Ok, the sleepers. You live forever right? Well you do but you are not invincible as you know. If you get too messed up in a fight, to the point that would kill a mortal there are two things that can happen. You take the sleep or you die. Die die. Sunlight and for the french vamps, Iron, seems to make them bite. Everything else just hits you hard enough that your body and mind need to recover. That’s the sleep.”
“How long will he .. sleep?”
“I don’t know, a decade at least. Hence the Trove. It’s where we store the sleepers.”
Robert sits down. “Got it.”
Virginia comes into the room. “You boys are yapping, we have a job to do. Manx, CL said you found another clue in that book.”
“Yes. It seems that their attorney has local offices now. CL wants you two to go raid them for more information on anyone connected to them.” Manx gives them the location.
Robert and Virginia both nod.
Note: I’ve been just going with my mental flow a lot on this part. I haven’t asked the oracle for many of these story element prompts but I have been allowing the data from the previous narratives to inform my choices. I’m intentionally making this a ‘mission’ based game to keep it a bit simple at the moment.
On the way there Robert says, “it’s a trap”. He says it flat and matter of fact.
“How do you know?”
“CL is double crossing McCallister.”
Virginia stops. It’s still early so the streets are busy with people rushing home or rushing to entertainment. People just move around them. “That’s a big accusation, new guy.” As always she is hard to read. He can’t tell if she is angry, humored, shocked from not knowing or shocked because he knows.
Robert shrugs. “I’m not going to try to convince you. We all walk our own path.”
“No. You tell me what you are thinking or I walk to CL and tell him what I’m thinking.” Now he can see a bit of anger coming off of her.
“McCallister fought for his seat at the table. He’s modern. If I know him at all he wants a new society. I don’t know much about all of this but I do know that CL told me the french were invading and we need to stop them. The french are not invading. They came to forge an alliance with the city. You were there. You saw all that wealth at that house. Tell me that they are invading?”
“I don’t buy it. CL and I brought the fight for McCallister. We have been his hand for longer than you have been on this planet. If you think he’s a traitor then you are wrong. Dead wrong.”
Robert shrugs, and in the shrug it says “we’ll see”. He keeps walking.
As they do every time they go somewhere they scout it out. This time Robert watches the front and Virginia looks around the back. In the densely packed streets of New York, going round back takes some time.
Gather Information. +wits 5+2 vs 6 and 4 a strong hit.
This looks pretty simple to him. Lawyers office is on the second floor. The door to it is in a dark spot. Nothing moves in the windows, probably empty. Virginia confirms when she comes back around that the backside is pretty standard as well. “Plus they left the door unlocked, and unlike you I take my partners with me before I go barging in.”
Together they go around back, up the stairs and in the back door. They quickly sweep the offices before anyone who might be there could make any moves.
Secure an Advantage. +edge 2+2 vs 5 and 8. A miss. I think I’m going to let this miss stay. I have the momentum to make it a strong hit but I really want this to be a trap. Pay the Price.
As they sweep from room to room they immediately notice that something is off. The office is almost empty. Shelves are empty, desks have nothing on them. Robert opens the door to the main office and there sitting is the man in blue. He swivels his chair to face Robert. “Bonsoir, ma chère, this is like we like to call a prendre au piège, or as you simple american’s say. A Trap.”
Virginia turns the corner, “We are not alone.” She says and then stops when she sees the man in blue. “Fuck” she whispers. There is noise from the front steps and the back. From the sound of it lots of feet. Robert looks at the front windows.
“Oh don’t worry we are not going to fight. No, no, we do not want to be like you, so brutal. Ah here we are.”
Other people come into the room. One of them carried a body. He throws it at Robert who catches it awkwardly given the tiny hallway. Then drops it to the ground. Blood is now all over him. More people dump boxes of bones and dust in various parts of the office.
“You see you are a murderer. These are the remains of those you murdered. Including my lawyer.”
Robert looks at the hallway and the stairs.
The man in blue speaks, “go ahead run. The Pacte already knows what you have done here. They are on their way. You cannot escape.”
Robert bolts for the windows in the front of the building. It’s the only way not blocked by people and might be the only way they won’t expect.
Face Danger. No one is chasing him so I’m going to use Iron since he is going to try to just push through this and take any damage. 5+2 vs 2 and 1. A Strong hit. +1 Motivation (but he is already full, guess I need to use that).
He smashes through the window at the front of the building and goes hurling into the street. People gasp and glare as he expertly rolls forward and lands glass and dirty sliding off of him. To his surprise Virgina lands next to him.
“Hell” she says, and together they run into the city. Distance the only thing on their mind.