Alastair “Al” Ardent – Daeva (Zelani), Firebrands

Zachary “Zach” Kovalenko – Ventrue (Rötgrafen), Dragons

Copper – Revenant
Heather Poe – Ghoul
Julius – Revenant
Maximillian Strauss – Mekhet (Tismanu), Dragons
Mercurio – Ghoul
Pisha – Strix
Rosa – Revenant
Sebastian LaCroix – Ventrue, First Estate

Boards of Canada – Smokes Quantity

Boards of Canada – Telepath
Einstürzende Neubauten – Sabrina
Heart – Crazy on You

Al and Zach barely hold themselves together after their fight with the late Brother Canker. After making
nice with a bunch of Russian mobsters on behalf of a femme fatale, they run a man out of town for
witnessing the feeding habits of Pisha the Strix. They then run another man out of town for being a
disgusting voyeur. In the course of running everyone out of town, they discover that the LA plague is
claiming the lives of Carthian retainers, and find a tip about another “Morbus”. With Damsel and a
crowbar, the guys fight it out with Jezebel Locke, and are left with an exquisite corpse…
A few nights have passed since Al and Zach (along with Damsel) knocked Jezebel Locke into torpor. In
that time, Kogaion Strauss instructed Zach to keep looking into the plague bearers, and to be the Dragon
presence among the Carthians.

Al and Zach awake in their separate havens, both finding a rather strongly worded email from Prince
LaCroix indicating that he’s losing patience regarding the Elizabeth Dane assignment. Al also checks the
Cacophony for any leads: he learns that the Masquerade is getting thin in Downtown LA, due to the
plague, and that a Ventrue Dragon known as Alastair Grout is lately losing his mind (and his influence).
Both of the guys feed – Zach does a quick grab-n-bite on a homeless man, and Al heads to a party at the
condemned Hallowbrook Hotel. He takes part in a threesome with a pair of aspiring actors. They tell him
about being on set with up-and-coming actor Daniel Ash.

The guys meet at the Last Round; the Carthians aren’t around, as they’re on lockdown due to the plague.
The guys hear whispers about the Lancea et Sanctum, and what its remnants might have to do with the
“holy plague”. Al knows the Firebrands don’t have much to go on – they haven’t been able to awaken
Jezebel Locke to question her, as her Blood Potency seems to be frighteningly high.

The guys review the Prince’s orders regarding the Dane: they have to make a copy of the ship manifest
and any police reports, and need to examine the state of the Ankaran Sarcophagus. They also have to
remain unseen, and try not to kill anyone.

Al and Zach unhappily head out to Santa Monica to meet up with their old pal Mercurio. He thanks them
for not outing his slip up to the Prince, and tells them he’s happy to provide them with munitions for a
discount. Zach decides to grab one more quick bite off a prostitute while Al discusses how one acquires
body armor. Mercurio instructs Al on the use of a rather flimsy inflatible raft with a motor. The Dane is in
the harbor, not far out from the beach. That done, Mercurio says he’s going to grab a burger, as the
Revenants are still hanging around the beach tonight, and they’re giving him looks. Zach returns, and the
boys head out.

The guys climb up onto the ship…and are immediately spotted. An officer motions them over, as if he
doesn’t want them to be spotted. They decide to go with it.

The cop turns out to be the one who caught them covered in blood after the Gallery Noir incident (and
whom they subsequently bribed). He’s, apparently, expecting someone from the Times, and mistook them
at first. Al manages to convince him that they’re the reporters he’s waiting for, and that that’s what they
were up to the other night.
The cop is running some sort of quid pro quo with the paper: he’s letting reporters get up close to crime
scenes in exchange for graft. He’s wary of two obvious criminals like the coterie, but Al promises he’ll be
well compensated. The cop gives them directions to the ship’s bridge, but warns if they get caught, he’s
never heard of them. With that, he creates a diversion, and sends them on their way.

The guys sneak up to the bridge. They see a cop inside dozing, and a broad view of the main deck. They
see stacks and stacks of crates, and a lit canopy near the end of the area, which they figure is a crime
scene.

Zach wakes the cop up, and immediately Dominates him. Using an Iron Edict, he tells him to undress, go
to sleep, and forget he saw them. Zach dresses up, and uses his bloodline ability to change his face to
match the cop’s. The guys decide to split up: Zach will check out the sarcophagus, and Al will find the data.

Al finds a locked door marked “Records”. The lock is well beyond his capability to pick, so he goes searching
for a key. Narrowly avoiding a horde of cops, he heads back to the bridge. Searching through a pile of the
sleeping cop’s things, Al finds a draft of the police report. The report says that the sarcophagus was moved
from its original location before the police boarded, and that they found it covered in blood. None of the
crews’ bodies were found, and it seems the police are chalking it up to piracy (rather unimaginatively).
Logging that information away, Al keeps searching through the pile, and eventually finds the key.

Meanwhile, Zach heads to the lights on the deck. He sees the sarcophagus, surrounded by police officers
and forensic detectives. This near the crime scene, Zach is almost overwhelmed by the smell of stale blood.
Despite the massacre that apparently occurred directly on top of it, he can make out the sarcophagus
fairly well. It’s a huge, golden object, covered in elaborate carvings. He notices that some of the blood
seems to have spilled out of it, rather than just having been spattered on. He also sees that there’s some
sort of locking mechanism on the lid.

Zach Dominates a forensics guy, and relieves him of his camera. He uses it to take a few pictures of the
sarcophagus, and then uses the camera’s Wi-Fi connection to send himself the photos (though he’s careful
to hide the evidence of his passage).

In the records room, Al looks through the notes the police have taken, and finds the shipping manifest.
The sarcophagus isn’t actually mentioned by name, but by process of elimination, he finds its final
destination – it’s addressed to one Dr. Anders Johansen at the LA Museum of Natural History.

The guys come together again and scram (though not before redressing the sleeping cop).

Back on the beach, the guys notice that one of the Revenants is having an epileptic fit. It’s the dark haired
woman who said weird things to them the first time they came down there. Al uses his Auspex to take a
measure of the group. His Beast whispers that one of them is near frenzy, though surprisingly it’s not the
woman having the fit.
Al goes asks the group if she’s alright. One of them, who has a stutter, says it’s not uncommon for her,
and that she’s usually okay afterward. The one who Al saw was close to frenzy loudly announces that they
(the Revenants) are wasting their time – they need to “kill the head vampire!” so that they’ll all be cured.

Al and Zach gently explain that that’s not how it works, and a few basic tips on the Kindred condition. Zach
privately wonders if this guy might be a potential recruit for the Ordo Dracul – as far as he knows, they’re
the only ones who’ve had any success transcending vampirism. He also knows that the Dragons would
probably love to poke and prod a Revenant. He tells the Revenant, who’s called Copper, that he knows
some Kindred who might be able to help him out. They wouldn’t be able to cure him, but they could
“improve” his lot in unlife. Copper is interested, if desperate. Zach also asks the stuttering Revenant,
Julius, if he’s interested, but he declines, saying that he has his own stuff going on.

At this point, the woman, Rosa, comes out of her trance. She mutters something about a jack-in-the-box,
which Al thinks might refers to the Ankaran Sarcophagus — he thinks she might be experiencing an
extremely intense form of what he sometimes sees (i.e., Dream Visions). More composed, Rosa tells them
she’s going to be leaving the city soon, and they should, too.

Zach tells Copper he needs to confer with his superiors, but he’ll get back to him soon about meeting the
Dragons. Al and Zach head back to LA.

At Venture Tower, the guys walk in on the end of a meeting LaCroix is having with several elders of the
city, including Strauss. The Prince angrily dismisses the others as the guys walk in. The elders barely
acknowledge the neonates as they shove their way to the elevator. Strauss, however, greets Zac, as
warmly as he’s capable. He asks if anything has happened further with the plague, to which Zach responds
no. He tells Strauss that he’s found a potential recruit for the Order, but Strauss tells him to come to his
haven later, to speak of it in private.

LaCroix finally summons Al and Zach over. They give him the bullet points of their findings, i.e., that
whatever was in the sarcophagus woke up and ate the crew. LaCroix isn’t pleased by this “interpretation”,
and is dismissive about their other conclusions. He tells them to leave it to the “experts”. LaCroix has the
Sheriff collect the files, and tells them he has a new project for them, since they’ve been such good
soldiers. He asks them if they’ve heard of Alastair Grout. Al, having heard rumors about him earlier, says
yes, and Zach remembers what Strauss said about Al’s name...

LaCroix tells them that Grout hasn’t been answering messages, and was a no-show to the meeting just
now. He orders them to go call upon Grout at his mansion, and to find out what the hell is going on.

On their way out, Officer Chunk, tells Al that a pretty young woman was asking about him. Sure enough,
outside the building, Al’s ghoul is waiting. She gives him an unwanted hug, and excitedly thanks him for
saving her life. She fawns quite a bit over Al, who isn’t comfortable with that in the least. Wanting to get
away from Zach for this conversation, he invites her out to coffee – at 2AM. He tells her he knows an all-
night café, and they ditch Zach.
Zach, thoroughly ditched, meets with Strauss about Copper. The Kogaion tells him that all are welcome in
the Order of the Dragon, though Zach can’t tell if he’s being polite or if he’s angry that Zach overstepped
his authority in making the invite. Strauss tells him to bring Copper to the haven. Before that, though, they
talk about Grout. Strauss warns that Grout is old and mad, with pseudoscientific (and dangerous) views
of psychology.
STRAUSS
The blood goes toxic sometimes.
ZACH
Kindred blood, you mean?
STRAUSS
I do. The mind changes. You might see things at Grout’s you may not wish to. Dark things.
(Pause.) There is a word that I’m going to tell you. To help you. And I would caution you to
not spread it among others: Malkavian.
Strauss doesn’t offer much context beyond that, but Zach is chilled by the word (Strauss is so often
chilling), and reminds himself to check Beckett’s book to see if it’s defined there. Strauss dismisses him.
On leaving, Zach is disoriented, as he often is entering the Kogaion’s haven, and wonders if it’s not a
Wyrm’s Nest.

Meanwhile, Al and Heather have a talk. He tries to lie his way out of his responsibility for her, but Heather
keeps insisting that she wants to know about him, and thank him for “what he did”. Al, flailing, tries to
claim that he and Zach are already an item, but she says she’s fine with that. She even lets slip that she’s
been stalking him. Al laments that the vinculum has hit this woman like a truck; it’s much more intense
than typical for a single draught of vitae. He gives up, and tells her what’s what. That seems to break the
spell a bit, and she starts to leave. Not wanting her to go around spreading that information, Al hits her
with Majesty. He tells her that he needs someone to help him out during the daytime; she happily (if
anxiously) agrees. He asks more about her, and she tells him that she’s an orphan. Too depressed to deal
with this anymore, Al sends her on her way.

Zach picks up Copper in Santa Monica, and brings him before Strauss. The Kogaion is attended by another
vampire, who Zach hasn’t met before. Strauss questions Copper a bit, and then has the assistant take him
into another part of the building. Zach thinks Strauss is pleased, and he’s offered a room for the day – it’s
getting close to dawn. The room is much nicer than Zach is used to, and Strauss implies it could become
his permanent abode if he plays his cards right.
Before he goes to sleep himself, Al does some Internet digging about his new ghoul. He finds that she was
recently receiving counselling, and that she had to take some time off from school because of
“dependency”, though he can’t find the specifics on that.
The next evening, Al and Zach decide first to go deal with Pisha.
They sneak their way back into the hospital, and make their way to her lair. It doesn’t seem she’s made
any effort to clean the place up, but neither of the guys are terribly surprised by that. In the morgue, Pisha
is meditating. They feel the jagged edges of her Predatory Aura; it’s like walking into broken glass. They
cautiously inform her that they dealt with the witness. They lie and try to tell her that they killed him, but
she sees through that. She’s amused that they didn’t kill him, and offers them a chance to make up for it.
There’s a Fertility Idol in the city that she’s hunting for, and she’d be willing to trade from her own
collection if they’d bring it to her – she shows them something she calls an “Odious Chalice”, which the
guys first take to be a seashell, but then realize is a twisted human intestine affixed with an eyeball,
stretched and warped to look like a seashell. It blinks at them. She tells them it’s the product of a line of
“noble” vampires called Tzimisce, and that the chalice produces a form of vitae. She muses that she heard
there was even a Tzimisce in LA.
Al and Zach tell her they’ll think about being relic hunters for her, but they won’t give her an answer right
away. Zach thinks that, while the chalice is horrifying, the Order loves them some horrifying. Curious, he
asks her about the Strix. She doesn’t answer, but asks him what he is. His answer of “Kindred” doesn’t
satisfy her, so she tells him a story.
PISHA
Rome. A city raised by boys raised by wolves. We took flight there long, long ago. The
hidden voices of your kind say we made it burn.
ZACH
Is that true?
PISHA
I don’t think I’m the person to tell you that… Smoke and ash clog dry arteries, and change
the Kindred. Sometimes to help them hide.
ZACH
Hide from what?
PISHA
Us.
Zach thanks her, and leaves at a quick pace. Al questions why they would want anything to do with her,
and Zach reminds him that Strauss would be displeased if he didn’t express curiosity over things like Pisha.
They decide to cross that bridge at a later date.
Zach tells Al about “Malkavians” and they check Beckett’s book. Malkavia, apparently, is a disease of the
blood, one that causes vampires to go mad. Beckett doesn’t dwell on it long, as he doesn’t seem to have
had much experience with it, but he notes that it affects Ventrue, and confers strange abilities. They
wonder if Grout isn’t one of these guys, and Al questions whether Zach should worry if it’s catching.
Throwing caution to the wind, they go to pay Grout a visit.
As they approach the manor, which is much grander than LaCroix conveyed, the guys notice the gate up
to the entrance is already unlocked. They reach the door of the building, and it swings open – Nines
Rodriguez stands before them.

#maritimemassacre
#GroutsOut