A Shift In The Wind

November 20, 2014

The group heads back to their base and heal up.  It takes several hours of surgery and some Faith Cures to get everyone out of mortal danger and recovering.  While they are able to get rest, all of them have some strange dreams that are vivid and they remember.  

Abraham has dreams about going to a meeting in a corporate board room that's on the other side of a maze of cubicles.  He's moving and moving and sees it but can't get to it.  It seems to take a long time before he can get to it. The meeting room has a glass wall to it and he sees people inside, already talking in small groups.  When he gets to the door and opens it, the inside is not a meeting room but a very nice, executive lounge.  The same people who were at the meeting are now having cocktails and socializing.  As he looks around, he sees them but he also knows them.  Cornelia Brighton, nosferatu prince of the city.  Hatakadu Uankhi, ventrue primogen.  Dmitri and Stephen, who have rats on their table.  Sarah Haversham, Daeva primogen.  Anthony Veccaro, who looks like a literal devil.  John Dennison, Mekhet primogen.  Duncan Vilsick.  Jimarcus Slidell.  Iggy Bayani.  Anton Alexander.  Victoria Weyland.  Miranda Barthes.  Thomas Cushner, Paul Lessner, Yussef Mahudi, Francesca D'Arbo and Olivia Citysmith share a table as a pack.  Cateria Kensas and her pack, Caseem Snaketooth, James Fulton, Gina Calder, and Calvin Ripear glare at Cushner's table.  Another pack consisting of Morgan O'Connor, Sarah Rainbringer, Heather Hammond, Michael Petrusky and William are elsewhere.  The names and faces go on and on.  As he glances around the room, he sees Darcy, who looks right back at him.  "What are you doing here?" they both ask at the same time and wake up to find themselves back in the Chop Shop, staring at each other.  

Abraham's second shock that day comes when Darcy starts talking about parts of his life that Abraham hasn't thought about in a long time.  His time in Vietnam and the military.  Some sort of experiment he saw although the details didn't come through.  His time at Ford and his cover.  Working for the gang and smuggling.  He wasn't happy about it even if he hadn't thought about these things in a long time.  Darcy speculated that him being out is what caused the wards on him to go down enough for her to accidentally intrude on his dreams.  The others, especially Cameron, are talking about it and what it means.  Cameron wants to see if it can go further.  

Thus Abraham's third shock when they knock him out and attempt to get into this thoughts again.  This time, he's back at the base where the experiments were happening on Bobby's dad.  Abraham happened to be there and see a room full of him but his job was to monitor other equipment and build any specific equipment they needed to give drugs in exact dosages or to improve on medical equipment they had.  When Abraham wakes up, Bobby wants to know more but Abraham doesn't have more for him.  "Sorry, kid.  Your dad was one of thirty test subjects there.  I don't know what happened to him before or after.  If it wasn't for this little exercise," he says, glaring at Cameron, "I wouldn't have even remembered this much about him."  

As they talk, the other's dreams come out as well.  

Bobby saw various firearms.  Some old, like the ones they had already acquired, but most were newer weapons from the past forty years or so.  

Darryl saw various holy relics.  Bones of various saints and at least one bone of a dinosaur.  A cup used by the popes in the seventh to ninth century.  The vestments of Clement VIII and the first Benedict XIV (Bernard Garnier).  A Gutenberg bible.  A painting of Daniel and the lions.  Several chalices.  

Mike thinks he was supposed to see some melee type weapons.  He knows he saw a Roman Gladius but then his katana became jealous and shrouded the rest of the dream from him.  

Cameron had a dream that Beatrice passed on the books she was using to learn her spells.  Cameron knows there are two more sets of the books and that they should get them.  

They rest for a few days after this, catching up on their businesses.  With that done, they go after the other books.  One is in the old ruin of where they first met Beatrice and the other witches.  When they get there, there is powerful magic in the area.  As they approach, they are not the first ones there.  A fight breaks out with some ghouls and then the ghouls masters.  The group can't help but think of their first fight against ghouls, where they all barely made it away.  This time, the ghouls are dispatched easily as are their masters.  They save one of them and find out he was sent by Dmitri, and Abraham knows who that is!  He's able to fill in some details.  The man also says the other team is getting the rest of the books, so they hurry to the other location, a university library.  They hit a slight snag that people are still there but are able to get in via a back door and get the books with little fuss.  They are sure someone else was there, watching, and Bobby saw a car that for some reason stuck out to him but was gone when he looked back.  He spotted it, pointed it out, and they give chase.  They are spotted and the car loses them but they have an address and head to it.  

Bobby is able to talk his way into the secure building past the security guard.  The guard even opens up the garage door to let the van into the secure parking area.  Bobby is quite impatient by the time the guys arrive.  And then gets more so when they again talk about how they should approach the two.  After taking several precautions, they are finally standing in front of the apartment.  When it is answered, Bobby demands the books and anything else.  The man is confused and bemused by their presence and greets them warmly.  Bobby has other plans, though, and reaches for his gun.  Even as it clears the holster, the man makes a gesture and the door slams in their faces.  The rest of the group turns and glares at Bobby, wondering what they are going to do now.  

4 points

GM Notes

• The start of the game was a big announcement of sorts.  I basically changed the campaign from a political "take back Chicago" to a more Friday the 13th (TV) / Warehouse 13 style game.  Getting specific items and keeping them out of the wrong hands seemed a better way to go than a nebulous political campaign.  The group seemed to appreciate this and liked it when we talked about it.  
• The dreams individually were confusing to Abraham but I did explain the point was that all of them would talk and then explained how Abraham learned about the people/groups they should keep the items from.  It seemed to make more sense.  
• We had to get more ticks on the "PCs that Cameron has drugged" board and that was fun.
• Overall, I'm happy with the new focus and I think this was a good session.   

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