First Arc: The Conspiracy Takes Root

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Session 1: Danse Macabre

October 20th-21st, 2014

The down-and-outs, criminals, runaways, and soldiers that would become one of the most successful groups of operators in New Orleans first met on October the 20th. They were all approached, in homes, businesses, and even on the street, all by the same person, a mute, shambling man bearing gilded invitations addressed to the various persons who would make up the group. The invitations were to a party held at an estate in the Marigny, put on by Duchess Brannagh Barimen, the current head of the Red Court east of the Mississippi. After some serious consideration, all the invitees accepted.

The party itself was a somewhat staid affair, though several members of the party saw old acquaintances or enemies. Representatives from Skavis, Raith, and Malvora were in attendance, as well as two Black Court vampires, at least one Warden, and several others. Also in attendance were several unaffiliated persons, such as an apparent Priest, and- perhaps most notably- Sigrun Gard and Hendricks, representing Baron "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone, to whom Damien Vyrce owes both his allegiance and his respect.

It was at this party that the nascent team began to gel, the stronger, more militant individuals moving to protect the more fearful, apparently "weaker" ones in the group that had formed through acquaintance and timing. The party began to turn sour, and Agent Vyrce suggested leaving, a suggestion that was taken as a fine idea by the rest of the party. It was as they were leaving that the Duchess made her move, calling the party to a private room and offering them a contract with a hefty paycheck to find the source of the rogue Red Court or Red Court lookalikes that were plaguing the city. She gave them what information she had and the group accepted the contract, becoming a team in truth.

The group went to examine one of the attack sites, the corner of Rampart and Toulouse streets, and it was there that they discovered the attacks were rather more widespread than they thought. Upon investigating the houses in the area, they realized that not a single one was tenanted, all the inhabitants taken, dead, or fled. They searched the house on the corner and its environs, and found traces of two people, a man and a woman, both large in size. The inside of the house yielded very little save for traces of ash, but as they investigated the upstairs bedroom, something attacked them, a creature of silver and shadows that sprung from the mirror, tall and gaunt and spindly. It put up a brief but spirited fight before Emily Malone accepted her heritage as Emily Raith enough to call up her power on a scale she never had before, ripping the creature's malformed soul from its body with a single touch.

In the aftermath, the creature's body fell apart, yielding black glass bones filled with a liquid that burned green when released, and a silver spike was drawn from the creature's forehead. Taking some of the bones, the team fled the scene, to assess, recover, and plan.

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Oct 24th - 2014

The unlikely team had recovered from the attacks and revelations found in the dead house at the corner of Rampart and Toulouse. They fed, they healed, they plotted and they planned. Damien in particular was busy refining the raw information from the Duchess garnered on the attacks into something usable, looking for patterns, commonalities, and trying to find where they would strike next.

The rest of the group did not sit idly by, either, researching what they knew of their foes, talking with one another, equipping themselves for a stand-up fight, and investigating the remains of the dead priest. They spoke to the Duchess again, individually, learning that the man was a bona fide member of the priesthood and that in the public eye, he was no less than a guardian angel, operating and patronizing soup kitchens, orphanages, and homeless shelters.

More darkly, they also found out that while most of the dead were adults, many of the missing victims were children, runaways, the homeless or destitute, and a surprisingly high number of them taken from the very same establishments established and supported by Victor Grey, the dead Cardinal. With this newfound knowledge at hand, the party correlated it with the pattern of attacks to find the next target, an orphanage in a bad part of town.

The party began to develop its plan of attack, but rightly figured that laying a trap in unfamiliar ground against enemies they had yet to face in a building full of civilians was what might be conservatively called a "bad idea." Emily, however, shed a little light on their enemies when she revealed that she had been to a place that sat in the center of Damien's pattern, their base of operations in New Orleans. The party used their information to effect, hatching a new plan to beard the lions in their den.

The party quickly formed a plan of attack and hit the base, the same tenement where Elisa was found, like a Kansas tornado. Children and other captives were found, cut free, and told to wait in the lobby as the team proceeded to the top of the building, eventually lighting on a ritual space that was a whole panoply of horrors, a space that existed only half in reality, too large to fit in the space allotted. It centered on a silver table, to which a flayed body had been nailed. Above the door was a huge iron pentacle, to which another corpse had been affixed, but this corpse- if it was truly dead- spoke, telling them, "The monster is coming." Damien tried to put it out of its misery with a rifle, but it had no effect on the body. As they fanned through the room, searching, horrified and morbidly curious it repeated its warning twice, before saying, "The monster is here."

This new chant heralded the arrival of the heretofore unseen enemies, and when they arrived, they did it in force, a man in faceless, featureless, seamless silver armor, a winged demoness bearing Lancelot's blade, a mindmage with a staff of bone, and Ugly, Emily's longtime nemesis. They team joined battle, and it was an ugly, brutal fight. Dani was locked in place by the mindmage as the others fought. Damien challenged the Silver Man's armor, only to find it utterly impregnable, while Raven dueled the demoness and the others battle Ugly and the mindmage, Julian. In the end, the party won by driving the others off, taking Julian's hand in the bargain and inflicting heavy damage to the demoness and Ugly, but they got something in return. As they fled, Ugly took Emily, vanishing through a nevernever gate, and Julian accompanied him. The SIlver Man and the demoness left by more mundane means, and try though they might, the party could not kill them as they escaped.