Dramatis Personae

Kamali Blackshear (18): Kamali is a young boy in his early teens. He is healthy and is of mixed ethnicity of Caucasian South African and native South African. He is a determined youth who believes in a justice of his own, likening himself to the knight of the round whom he has read deeply into. Just as they stood against the darkness of their age so too does Kamali seek to do the same. For his sister, for his friends, and for the world.

Tag: “A knight without a sword carrying a faith nobody believes.”

Lorenzo DeModouco (18): A handsome and charismatic musician. The loss of his parents didn’t dampen his spirits and he soldiered on after their death. He’s the cheery one always trying to make others happy and sometimes spontaneously breaks into song. Perceptive of others and their feelings, Lorenzo is the one who knows what people are thinking by the looks on their face. He’s also a boy scout and is quite comfortable in the wild.

TAG: “He’s a Jukebox Hero. He’s got stars in his eyes. A Jukebox Hero – he’ll make sure you survive.”

Amos M. Humiston (19) – This boy is far from where he started out at the orphanage. His comfortable existence already gone and instead has gotten used to his new life. Not like his brothers, his talents lay more in mental pursuits and has already started towards getting a double Masters degree at a local college aiming for his goal of becoming a research librarian. Following in his family’s footsteps almost unknowingly, he exhibits certain talents towards more occult pursuits such as druidism and alchemy, mixing up herbal supplements and elixers for the team. And while he’s still somewhat still slipping along behind the group, he has become a lot more outgoing with the rest of the Orphans and have started making friends with folks outside his adopted brothers. Always showing concern for them and trying to make sure they know everything that they need to when it comes to the dangers they face.

Tag: “True alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.”

Gabriel MacAlister (18) – Built like the natural athlete he is, he has grown taller, stronger, and more solidly good-looking. A quiet and hard-working lad, always ready to lend a hand with any work, which he will do without complaint or obligating the other person to respond. He is an expert martial arts teacher, and has been following in the footsteps of a carpenter for some time now. Emphatically not a pushover or weak personality, but also not one to purposefully show off. Has been in many horrible places and seen many horrible things; he’s a bit of a compulsive planner as a result, as well as always feeling that most folks don’t really know how lucky they are. He lost a leg fighting zombies; he got an artificial replacement and kept on fighting the good fight.

Tag: “To serve others is the highest calling; to protect the meek the noblest endeavor, and our works are judged by the effort that went into them”

Timothy I Mitchell (19): Timothy possess an honest if forgettable face. He tends towards comfortable, though inexpensive clothing and durable running shoes, rounding off his typical attire is a deep pocketed jacket and a backpack slung over one shoulder. Timothy appears to be a poster-boy for bad kids, often finding himself in trouble with any and all forms of authority. A victim of neglect, driven to never become a victim again he often acts seemingly on impulse, taking any dare or challenge in his stride. Timothy doesn’t have friends, not in any real sense. Too few of the people who enter his orbit can deal with him in anything more than bite sized pieces, a fact which only further frustrates the young teenager.

Tag: “Darkness is within all of us, it’s how you use that darkness that matters”

Conflict at the Conclave

Last we left off, we are at the conclave headquarters as Gabriel has just stormed off, disgusted at not being able to see his long-term girlfriend.

Lorenzo helps treat people in the lobby of the Conclave while Timothy helps out by using his knife skills with surgical precision.

After aiding the folks in the conclave lobby, Timothy turns to diplomacy and speaks to the man that seems to be in charge of the whole operation, laying out what has occurred in the past couple hours, trying to distract the man from what has been happening the past couple hours.

Once the boys disarm themselves and Lorenzo helps the patients, the old man leads us to a conference room. The old man shows a quartz that glows and then shows a bird’s eye view of the city of Boston. Sickened by the view, Timothy asks for some water. The map starts glowing a bit as numerous red dots have started showing up.

Red dots match up with the bank robberies from yesterday, along with multiple others and several residences but Myriam’s house hasn’t shown up until Timothy gives the old man the news. The news isn’t quite new to the old man as he mentions that there have been multiple other car bombs have been going off all over the city.

Kamali lays down the situation with the homeless group and the abandoned house that had been infested with vampires. The old man agrees that it lines up with everything else that has been going on before debating how things are going with vampires. The old man insists that the local leadership of the vampire clans insists that they haven’t been moving at all. In fact the vampires that attacked us are revealed to have had their abilities long enough to be comfortable in their undeath, mature vampires and definitely not recently turned.

William Sims, the old man, tells that everything that occurred seemed to happen all at once and explains that the psionic blast from last night was the explosion from Murphy Island, the oldest family of Boston and have the resulting Custos powers within the city and within 100 miles.

William reveals that he isn’t even supposed to be in charge, instead he was just the head gardener and merely obtained the position through everyone else being lost. The main power structure having been at a meeting when the building was attacked and the emergency ritual took place and shifted dimensions, however now they can’t actually find the building. Kamali suggests that there was someone blocking the signal causing William to curse in realization.

The local vampire boss, Landry, has her hand in pretty much every sort of vice out there and has been questioned by the Conclave using a Truthsayer spell to ensure the entirety of her questioning to result in the truth.

The boys discuss the wisdom of going to visit a vampire master.

The conclave are members, not necessarily part of, and once she left after questioning. The group exchange numbers and are given a marble in return. The marble given is the same as those in the bag that Amos bought long ago in the Yukon. It’s requested that the Conclave look them over and it’s revealed that the bag of marbles are actually memory orbs. Amos is given a piece of paper with a ritual and the doorkeeper’s phone number.

Amos pulled out a doodad to pull a piece of the truck from his pocket to aid in a divination spell to try to figure out where the truck that blew up Myriam’s house came from. Amos draws tarot cards to divine where the truck came from, casting a ritual to divine from where the truck came, gaining a flash of insight that it came from a used car lot.

Thugs, Carl! Thugs!

Going to check on Carl, we find him holding a man in a headlock with multiple thugs surrounding him with guns. Lorenzo shouting “Fire in the hole!” to confuse them and Kamali immediately starts his interrogation revealing that they were trying sneak upstairs and steal equipment and gear from them, the punks suitably ashamed, they instead cease the standoff and knock the offending party down.

Amos asks for some food to try to tempt Carl Sr. with while Lorenzo examines the patient, making sure that he has stabilized rather nicely so far. Carl, when asked, mentions that there’s an abandoned firehouse that they could stay at for now, having visited with his father. Dropping the boys off, they find a full blown spectre of a fireman that screams at them, forcing everyone into fight checks and scaring the heck out of Timothy causing him to seize up.

Kamali goes straight in, asking for why he’s still there. Timothy, having not yet learned his lesson, interjects and the spectre gets back up into his face. Negotiating that the undead protect Carl Sr., if Kamali lies then he would join the dead in their vigil. Kamali told the truth and the group gets invited in.

Joking some more, Timothy is abused just a little bit more.

Getting Carl Sr into a bed for what is needed when the firemen. The fireman doesn’t believe that the Murphys are dead, though it does say that Darius Murphy is dead, killed by a witch a year ago and the witch was killed by a knight at the same time. Though just because they’re dead doesn’t mean that they’re gone. Timothy, however, is gone the moment a ghost dog tries to get his attention. There isn’t enough in the world to keep him there as he ends up running off down the street.

Gracie, to the shock of most everyone present hugs the spectre, calming it down and the ghosts swear that they’ll protect everyone.

Satisfied the boys leave to find Timothy with Kamali in the driver’s seat. Timothy tells Kamali to move over and gets in as the boys head for Amos’s home to prep for meeting a vampire as Lorenzo lags behind.

Timothy goes upstairs to get some tea while Amos remains downstairs to make some herbals to replace the charms that he used during the fight. With things done, the boys return back to the firehouse in the middle of the pier to see what is happening.  Setting things up, Amos gets down to making charms and casting Restful Rest on himself and Lorenzo to keep awake.

The others sleep peacefully, mostly though Kamali’s singing ringing through the firehouse could cause some issues in and of itself.

Girding for a Night Call

At 3:30 in the morning, the boys prep for looking for Landry, the vampire leader. Getting their weapons set up and slipping on armor. Taking 30 minutes to get there and pass through the security to arrive at a high class brothel. Timothy attracts another supernatural lady that decides that she wants what he’s got.

“You should make time.”

A quick contest later and the woman keeps Timothy busy.

The brothel is full of folks that probably don’t want to be seen and a hawkish man approaches to ask what he could do for us. A few questions later, and a threat from Lorenzo, the man takes a step back as the Major Domo tries to fob us off, telling us that Landry is elsewhere and gives us a card  towards another place and tries to get us to leave, but instead we end up getting free drinks.

In the meantime Timothy “interrogates” the girl, Gwendolyn, upstairs after about 45 minutes of activity. Corroborating the tale of the gentleman downstairs that she’s Elysium. A vampire came into the city and requested guest status which Landry could not refuse. Using his mouth quite well, the girls spills forth. All the succubi fled from their club to the Elysium after theirs got firebombed. Elysium hotel is a neutral zone, a place where you cannot commit violence without hurting yourself, with a large amount of security. Guarded by the offspring of Cerberus and possibly Zeus but management is never seen, though they deal with everything silently. Management is also a guarantor of half of all of the Conclave’s currency.

Gwen tells him that she used to work for Mr. Muldoon until Landry took over the places that he used to own, and she confirms that the Boss knows about supernatural aspects.

Timothy comes down, rather disheveled, and fills in the rest of the boys about what is going on and where Landry is, walking to the car with a bit of a swagger in his step.

Bull Session

Arriving at the hotel, the boys approach the clerk at counter. Timothy explains that Landry is someone that they would like to speak to about recent events and Lorenzo shows him a card given by their major domo. Directed to the elevator and told to put the card into a slot in the elevator which promptly heads downwards where they end up outside the doorway of what appears to be a club with a 9 foot tall Minotaur in reeboks for a doorman.

With the card, they get one free drink but they can start a tab. They also aren’t allowed to start violence, though the minotaur is. A lotus stamp on the hand later and we enter the club itself. A smokey, sultry voice belts out a song as the boys wander through the crowds. Things that cannot be named, things that should not be named, Bob, and even some angels and demons crowd around tables full of drinks. Kamali gets some whiskey made from dragon’s blood.

Timothy and Kamali convince Lorenzo to go up on stage where he performs a touching rendition of Hallelujah and the bar goes completely quiet and the bartender ask about getting him in on Fridays and Saturdays while the two discuss what they should charge. Leaving the bartender to congratulate the bard with some angels in quiet reverence and some demons that have shed some tears.

Finally back to the task at hand, the boys finally look for Landry, finding her at a table drinking a bloody mary. A tongue twisting introduction later, the vampire queen replies curtly. Dancing around subjects, talking in riddles and implications as she smells Lorenzo, noticing that he smells a bit off for a werewolf. “Eventually you will have to choose.” She tells Lorenzo, after a good sniff.

Looking for a cure, she grabs a coin from the bartender and proceeds to make a physical oath with the bartender helping negotiate the contract. Coming back from upstairs, the boys are given a bottle with green liquid, said to be a cure for vampirism and then hands Kamali a ring for Mr. Froofy.

The boys leave the hotel right as the sun comes up. The cars drive in convoy formation bringing the cure back to Carl Sr, administering the cure. He seems bad for a bit, but still regains a bit of colour in his cheeks. In return, Carl tells the other orphans that Gabriel was there for a while.  Kamali contacts the Conclave and informs them that she is protecting her sire. Myriam followed her up from New Orleans and turned the city into their own private battleground.

Myriam’s backstory of marrying into the Murphy family, killed several master vampires and countless regular ones. William cannot seem to believe that this is possible and insists on sending a team over to verify and bury her body. The line goes silent.

Coming to the realization that the boys may not have known their adopted mother as well as they may have thought, the boys decide to go check out the used car lot that Amos had seen. It’s a huge car lot, full of 120 and more cars. A large amount of vehicles go through, quite a few dirty to be cleaned and put back out. Run by a man named Virgil Whobrey and slimy as they can get, all about the money as the boys plan out on how to work out a confrontation with them.

Timothy instead picks out a Bently to steal and deliver to Virgil while the rest of the boys drive over in other cars. Timothy gives a honk and gets into the garage where he says hello to Virgil and looks into getting some information. Telling him a sob story as he hands over the keys, he asks Virgil to check who got the truck. Coming back later with an address that Virgil was supposed to send twelve trucks to completely anonymously while Kamali negotiates for a Honda CRX, a legitimate car.

The boys are now off to investigate the address as things fade to black.