CbN004: The Third Fire

General Summary

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March 11th, 2017.
The weather in Chicago takes a moment to ease it's yoke on the people. The frozen wind in the lakeside melts, the sun shily comes out.
It gives the Kine of Chicago enough leeway to come out of their winter havens, get a lungful of smokey air, enjoy the thawing of the grime.
It gives the Kindred of Chicago enough food coming out of the street to finally stop tapping on their herds and refresh on new blood.
For too long has the city held it's breath in anticipation, and now the masses pour out into the wet streets. In unison Kine and Kindred alike seem to realize one thing at the exact same time: Donald J. Trump has been inaugurated the 45th President of the United States of America.
Chicago breaths in frustration, then exhales violence.

Daddy Issues

On a dark alley, silhouette against a flickering light we see the figure of Chad, waiting in the middle of the night. A black Sedan stops in front the Rose, opening up automatically by some high tech mechanism. Fancy. Within there is pure darkness, but Chad knows exactly who is inside. The unmistakable smell of his Sire, Eddie Wu, greets Chad as he goes in and sits next.
"That stunt you pulled off at the Sheriff inauguration party? That was some sweet thing Child, very well done"
"It was team work" Pointing out the work of his Coterie.
"Nonesense... you're my child after all." Chad can feel his Sire presence get closer a hand fall on their knee. " And what you did that noisy Rose that called us out in the middle of Elysium? HMMMMMM delicious, ah I wish I could've seen their face hit the floor like that. VERY well done"
"Who is he anyways?"
"Oh, you didn't even know? That would be Bret Stryker; Annabelle's boy. My blood brother."
Chad thinks for a moment, that would mean Bret is his... blood uncle?
"So ... is it okay if I mess with him?"
"Okay? Hmmm... even preferable; just don't make any noise Childe."
Chad just nods.
"Now, for the real reason I'm here. I'm seeing a couple of important people in town, setting up a big job. Hold on to your seat Childe, I will come calling; but I need you to know something, urgently. That new venture you have in South Side? Given to you by the Prince? That, I need you to make sure none of our money is tied in that."
"Why?"
"The Prince, more importantly, the Seneschal has eyes on this business. I don't want them tracking it back to us. You do what you need to do, but keep the gang's money away from it."
"I understand..."
"Good good, now.. best of luck to you Childe. We'll meet again, soon."

Basement Talks

The Coterie has been setting up the Confessional night club, having set up an escape route, they discuss in the basement what they shall do next. Apart from money, something that will just take them time to get together, they knew they had three urgent tasks to deal with:

Find out who was tagging the Church with the words Bloodsuckers!

Look into a strange disease that was spreading all over the Bear Creek.

Get a liquor license for the club, since getting it through regular means was not working.

Mary Lovelace informed the group she knew of someone that could help them. A man by the name of "Gooey" that was a regular at a bar called the Nine Hells. Apparently this guy was able to get them a liquor license when the city's bureaucracy couldn't. In exchange she needed Gooey's necktie.

"It will make sense eventually" - Mary

The Coterie made a decision, they will set Maude Lansbury 's contact, Turner, to investigate the tagging on the Church; follow up the "kids doing this" and report back; while they themselves went into the streets and looked into this disease.

Third Fire

The group split, and searched for clues:

• Mary Lovelace hacked the hospital records, she couldn't find a lot but she found other similar reports. Piecing things together she found a picture of multitude of reports of assault reports related to this disease.
• Maude Lansbury asked around among the homeless, she found out that many claim that the disease makes your body rot, causing confusion for the police and health staff at the scenes.
• Clementine Guerrero sneaked into the hospital to try to find someone that saw the bodies directly, she couldn't find that; but she heard some health staff gossiping about this. They were discussing how the disease was spreading like rabbies, through biting and violent attacks.
• Chad Smith asked business people around the area, they confirmed all the reports of homeless folks with the disease becoming violent and that there was confusion because the business owners would report an assault for the police to fire back that the bodies were long dead. Chad also heard that all over town there were graffiti of the roman number 3 (III) and Peter Pan. He managed to narrow the search to a single block, where most of the disease and graffiti where found.
• Lilliana took the opportunity to feed. She tried ambushing someone in the street.
• Kim The Ghoul went to the block to ask around, a homeless person told them of a single guy, that had been said to have been infected recently, their name being Tin Can Bill.

Tin Can Bill

The Coterie talks to Tin Can Bill, a man that smells of rot and alcohol. His skin is paper thin and falling off in places; teeth, nails and even fingers missing. When talking to the man, Clementine and Kim are nice to him, but the rest of the Coterie stays far away. Who knows what this guys might have.

"Ghouls are immune to disease, right? .... right?" - Chad

Tin Can Bill tells them he has been hunted by "a monster for weeks". The monster would be invisible and constantly whispering things in Bill's ears. Tin Can Bill says something about the number III. Tin Can Bill is not long for this world, he pukes vile and blood and barely collapses, Clementine catching him as he falls; with its dying breath Tin Can Bill points them to a near by sewer.

"It.. it comes from bellow..."

The Sewers

Lilliana effortlessly flips open the sewer cap, then six faces look apprehensively down into the darkness. They slowly make their way down, as they land they look around at their two choices, left to more sewers and tunnels leading down, or right to a locked metal door and a cement hallway past it.
They take the right, the group making easy work of the locked door. They are greeted with a long cement circular corridor, like a bunker. As they walk forward, the floor becomes more and more mushy, filling up with some mud/rotten thickness the group rather not think what is made off. Maude opens their eye to the world beyond, and they can see the walls covered in the roman numeral III. As they move forward, the Coterie can see light coming from a room beyond.
A huge room opens up, half deep muck fills it. From a ceiling three stories high up, thick iron chains drop and end in hooks. Multiple bodies in different stages of mutilation hang from the hooks, like some horror show version of a meta locker. Gas lamps light up the place, placed two each to the side walls and two at the far fall from the entrance. Mounts of trash, body parts and rats line up the walls. On a stage made of discarded wooden pallets, Brother Kanker waits hidden by his vampiric powers. Maude calls upon their blood and sees through the illusion, spotting the vampire.
"Hello" Maude say simply.
What shows up is a pallid vampire, weather discarded robes, sharp cheeks and bloodshot eyes. It moves in an eerie way, its lanky body twisting and cracking. It extends a tree branch of an arm towards Clementine, it's boney finger pointing straight at a tattoo on her neck.
"I can smell it, the rot, you have it in you, do you not wish to be enlightened? I could teach you" its arms extend wide, pointing to the gore around himself "so much"
"Yeah... " Clementine pulled the collar of her jacket further up, trying to hide her neck. "Teach me then... what is all this? What is number III? .... What are the Peter Pan graffiti?"
"They herald the coming of the cleansing of this world my Sister!! They expose those that lost their shadow, lost their ways..." Kanker takes a moment adjusting his body, he squints his eyes, moving closer to Clementine. "I... I can teach you what Father taught me Sister! Then we can both spread the blessing. You're marked, like I am." He shows a number III tattooed on his chest. "You and I, can bring forth the great cleansing of this world."
"Wait" Says Maude, puttin their hand across Clem's chest. "We've got to ta-"
But Kanker doesn't let them finish. "Oh, some of you resist enlightenment? It is all well, it will be easier to speak with the dead instead."

"THEN I STARTED BLASTING!" - Chad

Chicago By Night    Campaign Log      CbN004: The Third Fire

Report Date

24 Oct 2022

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