CbN026: The Grand Cardinal Casino Heist
General Summary
GENERAL SUMMARY
Oct 10th-31st, 2017MEETING WITH MARCEL
Tucked away in the Riverdale neighborhood of Southside, a nondescript Ghanaian restaurant stands humbly amidst the surrounding urban landscape. It’s unassuming exterior perfect for a vampire that deals in secrets to call it home. Liliana and Clementine walk into Marcel’s turf and are met with boxes and a lot of empty space, as if renovations are happening. Marcel greets them distractedly, his attention on a map of the city. He apologizes for the state of the place and immediately asks what brings them there.Clementine starts the conversation by asking about her past:
Why did it take so long to bring me into the Camarilla while Liliana was so fast?
Marcel answers that the Camarilla was in a state of chaos at the time, a different prince was in charge of the city. He needed time to pass, even if Clem was Montano the Camarilla was going to have a hard time accepting a Lasombra joining. After all, Clem was made without permission and to cause trouble.
What did you have to do to get me in?
All people needed to be in the right place. The Primogen council needed a lot of favors so he did things for them, he talked to Clem’s gransire and Talley, and exchanged favors with them as well. He even made deals with the werewolves, making sure they’d be kept at bay and that’s where Liliana’s sire came into play.
Liliana who had been quite until this point, asks:While talking about the werewolves deals, Marcel makes a lot of emphasis that this conversation should not be shared. Finally, Clementine asks how did he know where to find her that night and he explains that he wasn’t expecting her specifically, but Talley tipped him about a pit happening that night, so there he was.
Why you make a deal with Mactavish?
Marcel hesitates, looking at Clementine and asking Liliana if she’s sure she wants to have this conversation in present company, Liliana nods. He tells them that Mactavish has influence over the werewolves and was supposed to control them in exchange for letting Liliana join the Camarilla in service of Mactavish. However, Liliana’s sire backed out of the deal after Liliana joined and now Marcel wants nothing to do with him.
THE DEAL
After all questions are answered, Marcel explains what he wants them to do in return. He and the Prince want them to get to know the Anarchs with the purpose of making a list of ten Kindred who will be allowed to operate within the city. This comes as a big surprise to both women, as something like this sounds like a big responsibility. Marcel advises them to keep their intentions secret, because even though Gengis and Mactavish might know about this list, the rest should not and it would cause too much chaos if found out. He addresses Liliana directly and says, “And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this but, Mactavish better not be on that list.” Liliana chuckles without humor and shakes her head. There’s no way she’ll add him.TALKS ABOUT JASON
As they head back to The Confessional, Liliana tells Clem all that happened during the Malkavian meeting and what Mary saw. They both agree to be more careful of what they say in front of Maude and play with the thought of finding a way to block Jason’s powers from spying on them.There must be a way, right?
Once they’re back, they fill the others in on what they need to do for Marcel and Maude admits they went to see Jason and can remember everything. Apparently this is not a normal occurrence as they tend to forget everything that happens every time they meet Jason, to the point when sometimes they can’t even tell if it happened at all. The others point out how it’s not a great look on Jason that they forget things, but Maude is sure that if it is him doing this, then it must be for a good reason, after all, they feel great afterwards. They attempt to persuade Maude into being more careful and try to question things a bit more but even though they’re willing to listen and take in some of the advice, they are as defensive of the Primogen as ever. As the conversation closes, they split up and Mary pulls Clementine and Liliana aside for a moment. She expresses her concerns with Jason’s influence on Maude and that it seems Bronwyn knew his sire and might have more information about Elodie, but she can’t implicate Bronwyn, so Maude cannot come with them. Both women agree with Mary and mention the conversation they had previously and how they should investigate a way to sever Jason’s influence or at least block his ability to spy on them. They all share grim looks and nod in understanding, silently vowing to help their friend any way they can.THE HEIST
For the next few weeks the Lost Boys review the dossier with information provided by the Seneschal and devise plans and counter measures to steal the files from the Grand Cardinal Casino. In one of the back rooms of the casino are multiple private digital files that are kept offline from prying eyes. These files are the proverbial keys that’ll allow Alan Sovereign access to a vast amount of wealth that was promised to him in the past. The Hecata, having pulled a disappearing act from Chicago, broke the deal they made with the Seneschal who now have hired the Lost Boys to recover what’s rightfully his. Now, on halloween night, the Lost Boys dress up and get in positions to start the heist. Liliana is dressed as a sexy cat woman, Maude is dressed as the girl from The Ring, Mary is dressed as a clown robber from Batman, Kim is dressed as Marilyn Monroe and Clem, the only one not in costume is just dressed very nicely for the night.PHASE 1 OF THE PLAN:
• Mary must deactivate the cameras past the security zones.• Maude will cause a commotion and distract the pit boss.
• Clementine will steal the card key from one of the floor’s supervisors.
• Liliana will support the rest of the team.
• Kim will keep an eye out for trouble and distract the guards once Clem gets the card.
MARY
Using her Obfuscate powers, the sneaky Malkavian approaches Liliana who is strategically standing outside and against the wall next to the building’s fire escape, she jumps on the Gangrel’s shoulder and gets boosted up to the stairs, stealthily and quickly making her way to the roof, as Liliana moves inside the building.MAUDE
Once the group heads in, Maude immediately clocks one of the VIP rooms and makes their way to it. Liliana joins them, using her Dominate powers to compel the employee standing by the door to allow them in, before leaving Maude to handle the rest. They head inside and find a bunch of wealthy people playing different games, laughing, groaning; the works. They approach a man who seems to be losing a lot of money and start conversing with him. They suggest just giving up, that they have spent enough and should just stop, noticing how the man seems to be getting more and more annoyed the more they insist. Suddenly, the man starts screaming at them, very annoyed and frustrated.KIM
Kim sits at a black jack table, playing a few rounds while keeping and eye out for the guards rotations or anything out of the ordinary. She notices that the three guards standing in the safe zone seem to not move from this area at all.CLEMENTINE
Clementine casually walks around the slot machines area until she spots one of the supervisors. She pretends to play with one of the machines, inserting a coin in to get it started then puts a hand on top of it and the screen immediately glitches, she groans and calls the supervisor over, complaining all the while that she had just won but suddenly the machine stopped working. As the supervisor walks over and starts inspecting the machine, she notices that every once in a while he does a routine check to see if he still has his wallet, his phone and his card key. She also notices that the card key, while just inside his shirt pocket, is attached to a string-- but this was to be expected. While the guy crouches and inspects the machine’s panel, she pulls out tiny scissors from her pocket and sneakily snips the string, while Liliana approaches them and takes the card. Clem removes her hand from the machine and pretends to help the guy stand up, sliding a blank card inside his pocket. She quickly excuses herself and joins Liliana, leaving the guy still inspecting the machine that is now working perfectly.MARY
Mary approaches the door into the security room, she notices it is tightly locked with heavy chains and a sturdy padlock. She pulls out pliers and uses all her strength to cut the chains, successfully removing them and moving in the room. She gains access to the camera's computer and creates a loop in the footage, allowing her friends downstairs to go by the safe zones unseen.MAUDE
As the man Maude had been bothering gets more rowdy, a tall stocky woman walks inside the room, her name tag reads “Dolores”; this is the Pit Boss. She sees the man screaming at Maude who has their hands up and starts escorting the man out gently, but Maude then turns to her and starts shouting about how the casino is to blame for people losing so much money and capitalism etc etc. Dolores grabs Maude’s shoulder too and pushes them out of the room and towards the exit, but they escape her grasp and climb into a table to continue their speech, drawing a lot of attention from the crowd, the employees and especially the Pit Boss.KIM
Meanwhile, Kim has been winning non-stop at the black jack tables, gathering a little crowd of impressed people around her. She orders drinks and persuades the guards in the security zone to take a break and enjoy themselves. She offers them drinks and company and distracts them.PHASE 2 OF THE PLAN
LILIANA AND CLEM (and Mary)
As the guards leave their post to join Kim, Liliana and Clem hastily walk past the safe zone and access the back rooms with the card key. Soon after entering they notice the layout of the place is very different from the maps Mary had gotten before. Liliana reaches out to Mary who starts guiding them remotely but then they spot a patrol and quickly move into a restroom. Mary tells them to stand by and makes her way to them through the vents- they open a locked roof panel and Mary drops down next to them. Together, they make their way to the server room, but the room is locked behind a digital lock. Clementine blows powder on the pad to make it easier for Mary to find the right combination, which she does after a few tries, but she knows that because of her mistakes someone will probably head their way soon. After Mary and Liliana close the door behind them, Clementine heads back to the closest restroom, pulls out a silver knife, slices it across her hand and smears the blood along the shadow created by the door. The shadow turns pitch black, like a tunnel and the Lasombra enters it and disappears. It feels cold and liquid-y inside but she pays it no mind as she waits.KIM AND MAUDE
After Liliana and Clem are safely through, Kim leaves the gambling tables and heads to the restroom. She changes her outfit to a form fitting jumpsuit and starts creating the escape route for the rest of the team. Meanwhile, Maude’s commotion has successfully distracted not only the Pit Boss but a lot of the security as well, they physically throw Maude out of the casino but it’s too late, they have given the team plenty of time.MARY, LILIANA AND CLEM
Mary gets out a laptop and connects it to the servers, she finds that most of the funds are cryptocurrency keys and starts downloading it immediately to one of her USBs. She also finds data of a place called Hatmakers Incorporated, a tower in the south loop close to Chinatown. The notes are a list of assets waiting to be shipped out in about a month. As Mary goes through the collectibles’ list she takes note that they’re worth a fortune- around 200k. But just as Mary starts downloading this info as well, a message pops up on her screen. Hurricane, the hacker that Mary had encountered before sends a message:“I got you, you Zombie looking pieces of shit.”It’s now a race to see who can get the info faster.
OUTSIDE
A few minutes later, Clem can hear the sounds of footsteps coming closer and just as a IT person walks close by she steps out of the shadow, grabs him from the back and puts a cloth full of chloroform against their mouth and nose, effectively knocking them out. She brings them inside the restroom, disrobes him and changes into his clothes before heading back out towards the server room’s door and standing guard. Sure enough, shortly after, footsteps are heard coming down the hallway as a security guard comes to check if everything’s alright. Clem pretends to be fixing the digital pad, using the IT person’s (Steve) tools. The digital screen glitches as she touches it and she explains it was just a minor malfunction and “fixes it” a bit later, reassuring them everything is ok now and successfully making them go away.SERVER ROOM
As Mary downloads the data, she uses the opportunity to ask Hurricane some questions. She learns that they were waiting for someone to open the physical security barrier to be able to access the data themselves but don’t seem to know who Mary is or at least were not expecting her to be there. She also learns that they seem to mostly be on it for the money, thus why they’re trying to get the data on the 200k bounty. After a while, Mary successfully retrieves the data way faster than Hurricane could have expected and shuts down her computer with one last message.“GGs, CU later.”And with that, Liliana and Mary re-join Clementine and head back to the restroom where Kim is already waiting for them. She leads them through the vents and they all exit through an elevator just as a bunch of security are headed towards the safe zones, completely ignoring them. And thus ends the heist.
RETURNING THE FILES
On that same night, the Lost Boys arrange a meeting with the Seneschal who’s very pleased and impressed by their efficiency and discretion. Mary uses this opportunity to mention that someone else was trying to get his files while she was there, but does not mention who. He asks her to look more into it and come back to him if she finds anything, especially if it’s another Kindred. After that, Clementine tells him about finding a new Lasombra in the Racks while she was patrolling a few weeks back. She tells him that she’s staying with them and has been teaching her the ways of the Camarilla and would be interested in integrating her, especially because she thinks her situation is the same as Clem’s. The Seneschal seems interested but detached, at first thinking that it’s best to just give this new Kindred a final death and be done with it, but Clementine pushes, mentioning that she believes this Kindred might be useful, she mentions the connection to Pulso del Mundo and this has an immediate effect on Sovereign. “...Wait, are you talking about Celia Rivera?” He asks with intensity. Clementine takes a pause and then simply says “Yes.”“GOD DAMN IT!!”
Alan yells, slamming his fists against the table forcefully and quickly dismissing his assistant from the room. He explains he had wanted to make Jose Rivera, Celia’s father, into his childe, but after his death he was looking into Celia instead. He refuses to have the same thing that happened to Naomi happen to him, so he looks back to Clementine and orders her to take Celia as her childe. “She’s your childe and you will convince everyone to allow you to have her, say that all that happened was you testing her. I will speak to the Prince, but no one else should know and the newspaper is mine, is that clear?” After a bit of back and forward it is clear that there’s really not much else to do other than agreeing with these terms. Clementine has to do something to impress the Kindred community enough to allow her to have a childe, they must all keep Celia hidden and must not speak of what happened and at the end of it all, the Seneschal will benefit from Pulso del Mundo. Remembering what Naomi said to her long ago about taking crap for a while, Clem bites her lip and agrees. This might be the start of a long and advantageous Lasombra/Ventrue relationship.
Report Date
09 Jun 2023
