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12 Dec 2020

Ep 23 - Crisis of Faith

by Anton Rossini

Sat, 12 December 2020
 
Larissa says that she and Malady are going to go out to investigate the “blister”.
Oxford organises fake medical IDs for us, and Anton is not impressed when he is given one that identifies him as a nurse.
 
The hotel supplies a car and Larissa drives us to the medical centre near Salerno Street. The rest enter to bluster their way in, but Anton remains out front unobtrusively keeping an eye on the comings and goings and, in particular, any potential criminal activity or anything else out of the ordinary. He notices that it is exceptionally busy and also that there is an unusually high proportion of male university-age students coming and going from the centre.
 
After some time, Anton notices two young guys sitting on the bonnet of an old Holden across the road, and a woman he presumes to be a street walker (but wearing a hoody and track pants) down the street. He approaches the woman and attempts to seduce her to get information, but her reaction is far more intense than he anticipates and he is forced to resist her brazen attempts to drag him into the bushes at the back of an empty block. He eventually gets her talking about any experiences she has had with tricks with diseases recently, and she says the “girls” are all talking about it, but Anton determines that she is misleading him and so uses Compel to attempt to get her to tell him her name, where she lives and what she knows about the spread of any STDs she knows of. She says her name is Sasha, she’s from the Gold Coast, and her experiences with STDs are “I don’t want to get one”.
 
Anton also notices there is a tattoo of circles around her right wrist but he does not get a good look. Despite her seeming resistance to the Compel, she seems human and, with no other ideas for her to make further progress with her, Anton turns and walks away as she hurls insults at his back.
 
As he walks back to the centre, he notices Oxford putting the girls into the car and he returns to it, and Oxford drives them away,
 
As we get onto the highway, Oxford thinks we are being followed and asks Anton to check, who confirms we are being followed by somebody who knows what they are doing. Anton instructs Oxford to take us into traffic and, when we can, stop at some traffic lights, and tells Malady to get out of the car and walk across the street and back to create a distraction. When that happens, Anton also gets out of the car and sneaks back, jumping into the back seat of the car following us, discovering that it is Sasha following us. She turns towards him in surprise, and Anton sees that her tattoo is actually a rosary (prayer beads that are kept by Catholics) and she has a gold crucifix around her neck, which starts to glow, causing willpower damage to Anton and driving back out of the car.
 
Anton gets back to the Coterie’s car and tells the others we are being followed by a religious acolyte of some sort who has a crucifix pendant she is using as a weapon. Oxford puts the pedal to the floor and, after a wild bumper-car-like ride back to the hotel, we arrive without any indication we have been followed. Anton tries to tell Lex that they have had some misfortune and some damage was done to the vehicle, but his greater concern is that a Catholic fanatic tried to follow them home and it might be wise to keep an eye on visitors and loiterers. Lex doesn’t seem that interested and sends Anton back upstairs.
 
However, Anton recalls that Callidora once spoke about True Faith being something we always had to fear, and the pain she describes matches what Anton experiences. This makes it almost certain that Sasha is from the Second Inquisition, and the fact that she could trigger this power by prayer suggests that she is of the Church, one of the two prongs of the Inquisition (the other being Government-driven).
 
A short time later, a woman bursts into our room and demands answers about why a ruined car is now in the car park and why Lex is making noise about the Inquisition being in the vicinity. Oxford introduces her as Madame Night Manager, the most senior member of the Camarilla on the Gold Coast. Anton explains that we were sent on a mission to investigate a potential breach of the Masquerade, that he was approached by a woman who subsequently attempted to follow them back to the hotel. When Anton attempted an interdiction, she used a weapon to drive him out of the car, strongly suggesting she is from the Society of Leopold, so we decided to escape and get back to the hotel, ensuring we were not followed. And he didn't think that car was that badly damaged [it was!]

Continue reading...

  1. Embers of a Past Conceit - The Embracing of Anton Rossini
    30 July 2018
  2. Ep 7 - The Book
    14 December 2019
  3. Ep 8 - Blood on the Floor
    14 December 2019
  4. Ep 9 - David Williams
    5 January 2020
  5. Ep 10 - The Blood Gift
    25 January 2020
  6. Ep 11 - Summoned to The Prince
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  7. Ep 12 - The Elysium
    20 November 2020
  8. Ep 13 - Mr Morano
    21 November 2020
  9. Ep 14 - Ronnie and Nora
    22 November 2020
  10. Ep 15 - Willow In Absentia
    23 November 2020
  11. Ep 16 - The Seeds of Retribution
    24 November 2020
  12. Ep 17 - Arming to Strike
    6 Dec 2020
  13. Ep 18 - The Mages
    6 Dec 2020
  14. Ep 19 - The Heist
    7 Dec 2020
  15. Ep 20 - Closing the Deal
    7 Dec 2020
  16. Ep 21 - Show Me the Money
    8 Dec 2020
  17. Ep 22 - On the Beach
    11 Dec 2020
  18. Ep 23 - Crisis of Faith
    12 Dec 2020
  19. Ep 24 - A Night at the Park
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  21. Ep 26 - We Need Guns!
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  25. Ep 32 - The Fire & the Lost
  26. Ep 30 - The Hunter and the Hunted
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  28. Ep 34 - The Blood Hunted
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  29. Ep 35 - Another Big Bang
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  30. Ep 36 - Downtime
    25 Jan 2021
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    25 Jan 2021
  32. Ep 38 - Gari with an "I"
    26 Jan 2021
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  34. Ep 40 - Mirror, Mirror
    27 Jan 2021
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  36. Ep 42 - Crawlies
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  37. Ep 47 - Voice and Body
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  41. Ep 53 - Nora, then Joel
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  43. Ep 55 - The New Enemy
    4 Mar 2021
  44. Ep 56 - The Tzimisce Problem
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  45. Ep 57 - The Know-It-All
    4 Mar 2021
  46. Ep 58 - The Third Option
    5 Mar 2021
  47. Ep 60 - Loadout
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