Danse de la Mort Session 4

The game progresses with each of the coterie dealing with their new condition with various degrees of sanity. Edward seems to be suffering the most, taking the mantle of the monster more heavily and totally than the others. Whilst hunting in a back alley near the Didi's, Edward kills his less than willing morsel and is unrepentant at his actions. He seems to be becoming colder and more vicious.

Meanwhile, Jack decides that a simple knife in the pillow is not a sufficient message and pays a visit to the apartment above the bookshop, this time the owner is home, quietly reading... no doubt soothing his worn nerves and almost convincing himself that what the police said about it being 'just some crank' is true. A glass of wine sits at his side as he reads Racines, Phedre, and all is well.. then Jack puts his head over his shoulder and says 'Hi'. Chaos ensues and Jack ends up leaving the poor bookshop owner who is now screaming for the police out of his window. Jack returns later that week to find the shop closed 'Until further notice' and the apartment empty, and with new window locks.

The coterie decide to meet up in Club Livid and take stock of their position. Various memories are bubbling up from the evening: the death of Becky Lynns brother, a sandy haired man with an evil smile, a woman with black hair and red highlights, helping out a befuddled computer exec. Edward provides some clarity to these memories and some names start appearing: John Harley Matheson, Lucas, Nathaniel Dubios, Mary, Andrea and, perhaps most importantly, Sarah Cobbler, the apparent ring leader. Louis also remembers someone telling him that should he need help he should go to someone called Miss Opal.

Louis sets about trying to find some information on these individuals, particularly, Sarah. This leads to a blog entry on the weblog of someone calling herself Mezzo. Some judicious application of his not inconsiderable computer skills leads to Louis discovering that Mezzo logs on from somewhere in New Orleans.

After some discussion, the odd phone call, the unceremonious application of a bottle of beer over Louis laptop, and some more discussion the coterie decide to phone Alexander and ask who these various people are. Turns out that Alexander knows that John Harley Matheson is an old resident of New Orleans who has been banned on pain of death by fire from the city. He also knows of Miss Opal who is the former Nosferatu Priscus (some sort of clan representative) and a member of the Primogen (a group of the old and wise who provide council to the Prince) and arranges for the coterie to meet with her.

On meeting with Miss Opal the coterie are first impressed with her girth. She is quite open with advice concerning their condition and seems happy to talk about others in the city. She discusses around issues of religion and politics and introduces the coterie to the Carthian movement, a political covenant dedicated to a more egalitarian (for Kindred at least) society than the generally accepted benevolent dictatorship that is the norm. She also knows the whereabouts of Nathaniel Dubios and that he entered into the peculiar embrace for nothing more than money. She will tell the coterie his whereabouts on the conditions that they do not permanently harm him and that they will each owe here an iddy-biddy favour. They agree.

Nathaniel Dubios has set himself up with a nice new appartment with some plesant steel shutters. He is initially less than repentant but the coterie convince him of the error of his ways and he he begs that they do not hand him over to the Prince, on the promise that he will provide him with any assistance that he can. The coterie are left questioning if there is anything that he really can do for them given that he does not know where Sarah Cobbler is to be found.