S103_Aftermath Recap: Wednesday January 9, 2019 3AM The combination of the Brooklyn Brigade’s assault and the flooding the area with anesthetine gas causes the Jade Giant to eventually collapse. He transformed back into his Joe Fixit persona. PART takes him into custody along with Marcy Hooper, Janelle Greene, and Ratna Krastev (aka Buzzsaw). As the police raid winds down Network analyzes a suit of PART Turtle armor and gives the blueprints to Network. ---------------------------- Resume: The fight is over and the police, SAT, and PART work on their paperwork and begin heading back the respective jurisdictions. The heroes head home, Revenant to the Haunt and the rest to the Bunker. Noon Revenant starts working on his Hulk-Buster Suit. Following the Governor’s address everyone who heard him speak seems to support his Indentured Servitude crime reforms. The calls flooding Albany are jamming both land line and cell phone circuits. Network wants to start digging into Governor’s background, his internet access, financials and more. He wants to find blackmail material or anything that can destroy the Governor. He also wants to redirect all the Pro calls heading to Albany and transform them to Con calls so the initiative will fail. While Network is preparing to cyber-attack the state of New York from the safe confines of Cyberspace Paladin tries to reach him. With Network being in Cyberspace Paladin reaches him via text-messaging from his phone. Network responds and exit Cyberspace from Paladin’s phone. Paladin explains that he needs Network to help him find Pearl Ivy. Pearl was the assistant to Cassandra Clemons. Pearl disappeared four days ago. She had been trying to reach the group about Cassandra’s murder trial. A while ago Network and Paladin homed in on Pearl’s phone and teleported to it. It was being held by a figure in a suit of black medieval armor. The man in armor crushed the phone after they exited it. Now Paladin wants to find where the man in black is holding her. He claimed she was ‘not available’ because she was on assignment and sequestered. Neither Paladin or Network believed him. Network stops his planned attack on the state and redirects his efforts to finding Pearl Ivy. Big Tuna decides to look into the dead bodies found under the Bessemer Trust bank. He contacts Joe Nardini, his police contact in the organized crime division to see if he could get more information. Joe agrees to meet him at a Capes restaurant for lunch and he would tell him what he could. Okina (Tuna) picks up the tab and Joe tells him the 14 bodies in the lower section of the bank were unusual, old unusual. They were not a local crew, the had to be from outside the New York area. The corpses were mutilated. They had holes in their chests, wooden stakes still in some of them, and they had all been decapitated. He did not have a lot of information. He started looking into the crime and managed to pursue evidence for about an hour. That is when the higher ups told him to abandon the case or he would be chasing dogs in Jersey. Someone else was taking over the investigation. Still from what he saw, which did not include any autopsy information, he would say that the thieves were likely members of the undead and they encountered something bigger and badder than they were. The vault they were breaking into was leased by a single individual, Sofronio Rudyard Meisner. The thieves were all dead but the vault was still empty. The corpses were mutilated, holes in their chests like they had stakes driven into their hearts then decapitated. They certainly didn’t get away with anything so where did the contents of the vault go? The police on the scene found the vault open with the massacre was just outside of it. Nardini tells Okina (Tuan) that this is weird and not his area, He is in organized crime, this freaky stuff should be handled by PART. He recommends that Tuna consult him. Joe is afraid that if the vampires go to war it is only a matter of time until people are caught in the crossfire. Not to mention that if there are casualties the vampires will want to refill their lost ranks. Maybe wanting to ‘recruit’ more soldiers to fight other clans. Okina heads to the base to tell Paladin what he learned. Network has been able to access the security footage of the Clemons estate. The online recordings only go back a couple of days. Older recordings might be being help offline in storage. Viewing the recordings there are no sighting of Pearl. Nor are the sighting of the man in the black armor. There are plenty of views of Andrew Rufus, butler, gardeners, maids, cooks, and so forth but no one else. His next step is to track Pearl Ivy’s financial information. There has been no financial activity except for the automatic payment for her apartment’s rent for January. Network keeps combing through the online information while Paladin goes to her apartment to do some in-person investigations. At her apartment her super is there. He recognizes Paladin but still requests a contribution in order to see the apartment. Paladin gives him $100 and the super happily lets him in with a promise that he won’t take anything. He doesn’t find anything to take. Personal effects are all gone. No clothes, pictures, personal items, are all gone. What remains are pots and pans in the kitchen, her television, and any furniture that was too big to put in a suitcase. There are four days worth of mail on the floor under the mail slot but otherwise nothing. Pearl Ivy drives a small green hatchback car and she would not have had a lot of room for a lot of things. The car itself is also missing. Network tries to tap into the security footage from the Clemon estate’s neighboring properties. He is able to see the traffic into the estate. He sees five days a week Rufus’ limo leave in the morning and return in the evening. Delivery vehicles come and go, the gardener’s truck, the personal vehicles of the maid and other members of the staf who don’t reside on the estate. Network also sees on January 5, a Saturday, a helicopter land at the estate. It remains for roughly 20 minutes and leaves. Network decides before tracing the helicopter he will release the frozen funds belonging to Cassandra Clemons. It turns out to be harder than he expected. Whoever did the computer security on her accounts was a master. He manages to get passed one layer of security and finds another waiting for him. After bypassing several of these he realizes that he is a data maze. It is a decoy that is allowing someone on the other side to try to find him. He redirects the trace algorithm to Bangkok while he tries to escape the maze and resume his quest for the Clemon fortune. His redirection failed and the defending system (or programmer) continued to pursue Network’s trace. He tries again sending the probe to the Google World Headquarters in California where is would almost certainly be lost in the number of contacts. On Saturday January 5, 2019 when the helicopter left the Clemon’s estate it flew to a small airfield in Northern New York. A plane left there shortly thereafter. The destination of the plane was Willow Field Island. Willow field is a UN protectorate that does not like outsiders. In fact no one is supposed to go to the island without an invitation. The island has an airport and several docks but it is not connected to the data grid and is very isolated. Willow Field is 1179 miles SE of Bermuda. The main way to communicate with the island is by two-way radio. . 5:01 PM Paladin calls Sam. Sam is not willing to talk. When Lilli’s plane went down on November 17, 2018 Sam reached out to the Brooklyn Brigade to try to prevent the war that started last night. As Sam remembers the conversation Paladin said it was a Vampire problem and refused to help. Now the war is here and Paladin wants Sam to help stop something that should never have happened. Sam ends the call. Still wanting information on the vampire war Paladin decides to contact Sanguine, lead singer in the rock group Hells Belles. He calls the Devil’s Hideaway asking to talk to her. When she gets on the phone they start their conversation she invites the Brigade to come to the Hideaway and they can chat in person. Between sets the two groups (The Belles and the Brigade) meet in the green room behind the stage. Paladin asks about the vampire war Sanguine starts spilling what she knows, and it is a lot but how much is useful is debatable. She tells the group that she has heard. She volunteers the disclaimer that everything she is telling them is from the rumor mill since she is not a member of any of the clans and is separated from their politics. Lilli was called to explain herself for letting the Brigade know too much about the Masquerade. Not a good sign for a reigning Prince. Her flight to Europe disappeared, assumed crashed with no survivors. Sam, as Lilli’s Seneschal, made the decision to conceal her disappearance from the clan elders. This roused suspicion. Eventually someone, most likely a Nosferatu, discovered that Lilli was missing and made it known to the city elders. From there is was likely a Ventrue who started demanding a new Prince, mostly likely themselves. The Ventrue always think they should be in charge. The Council of Elders probably made demands of Sam that he refused and the war was inevitable. Sanguine thinks Sam’s biggest problem was hanging his hopes that Lilli would come back. He should have just moved to become the Prince immediately. It would have been the wise move. The city is a powder keg. The Sabbat is trying to move in and they brought in a nuclear weapon to try to take control. The name of the Nuke is Dracula. Plus there is some chick in a red bikini hunting Dracula leaving a trail of bodies as she hunts. This is destabilizing the whole vampire society. The red bikini chick and Dracula have a power that makes them feared in vampire circles; they are both Day-Walkers. While she was trying to make herself seem more important than she might actually be she makes the claim that she also a Day-Walker. Sanguine suggests that the group use something they possess to bring the war to an end. The Brigade has a sacred object that vampires would do nearly anything to possess as a lure to bring peace to the city: The Jorum of Kinsmanship. There is only one known to exist, a second that exists in legends and rumors, but it is a highly sought after prize. Sanguine herself wants the bowl but she does not know what it does, if anything. Simply having it is achieving rock star status. It is like Excalibur to King Arthur. Now she has spilled all she knows and wants to be compensated for the information. She refers to the group as ‘her friends’ so Paladin simply says the friends help each other. She tells him that they are not friends. Paladin tells her that ending the war would be payment enough as it would ensure her own survival. Sanguine scoffs, she has no loyalty to the city nor to the clans. She can, pardon the pun, pull up stakes and leave. She also corrects Paladin’s notion that she is part owner of the Devil’s Hideaway. She claims she only works here along with her band. Paladin retries the self-preservation card again saying that is the clans learn she is a Day-Walker they might tear her apart to see how that is possible. Sanguine scowls at him and tells him it is possible because I am not a Vampire. Sanguine suggests she be given the Jorum of Kinsmanship but Paladin says that isn’t going to happen. She asks if the group would be willing to kill someone for her? The Red Bikini chick is causing problems so being rid of her would help the city defuse at least a little. The group declines the assassination request. Paladin does give some thought to trying to reach Red Bikini chick, who he knows as Vampirella aka Ella Normandy. He gave her his contact information but she did not reciprocate. He suggests Sanguine provide him with her bands demo recording and, if it is good, he will get it produced and released for her. Since she does not seem to be getting anything else out of the deal she agrees then Revenant suggests what if the Brigade finds out what happened to Lilli? Sanguine brightens considerably. Yes, that is information that has value! She accepts his offer. She shakes hands with Revenant and she pops her fangs and opens a vein on her wrist offering a taste of her blood as a gesture of friendship with him. Paladin’s danger sense warms him that this is a bad idea. Revenant politely declines her offer. After leaving the Devil’s Hideaway Paladin calls Winguric Caruthers. He says that he has a idea that would be mutually beneficial for them both. Winguric with friendly eagerness invites them to come over. Revenant suggests they bring them a bottle of wine as a gift. They stop at a specialty liquor store and get two bottles. One that is seventy-five dollars a bottle and another that is roughly three hundred dollars a bottle. Reaching the Caruthers house Mary Margret Catherine Lucinda Abagail Caruthers, Winguric’s youngest daughter, answers the door. She is very cool and tries to convince the group to go away but her dad hears them talking and bids them to enter. Mary Margret Catherine Lucinda Abagail Caruthers tells them her dad is in the parlor. The group finds Winguric and Monia waiting for them there. He is delighted with the wine gifts and calls his other daughter Avina to add them to the wine cellar, besides the absinthe. Avina wants to know should it go by the ‘good’ Absinthe or the ‘regular’ Absinthe. Winguric says by the good absinthe of course because … Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder! Paladin tells Winguric about the looming vampire war, the presence of Dracula in the city, and about the Vampire Detection spell that Paladin has and wants to know if he has something with better range and wider sensitivity. Winguric asks Mona to call her sister (after their guests have left) to see what is going on in Romania. With Dracula here Winguric needs to know what is happening in his absence. As for the vampire detection spell he asks Paladin if he ever heard of a ‘stone stake’. It is a device, held like a wand, that detect a vampire at any distance, be it in feet or in miles. As a bonus if it is driven through the heart of a vampire it deals the final death, no need to decapitate the body afterwards. Stone Stakes are hard to come by. First you need a stake that was used to kill a vampire, the stake needs to petrify, then the stakes need to be enchanted. He says he knows how to do the enchanting but coming up with the material isn’t easy. Paladin says he will get the stakes. He also leaves a copy of the Vampire Detection spell with Winguric to see if he can modify it to suit the group’s needs. Winguric has Paladin pen the spell on a piece of parchment, written with a feather quill, using very red … ink. He sends the rest of the team back to the Citadel while he has one more stop to make. He calls upon Cardinal Thomas Alessi and his aid Francis. At St. Ignatius Cathedral Francis leads him to the Cardinal asking that he be brief, the Cardinal is not well. Paladin finds the old man bedridden with labored breathing. Francis is afraid his time is nearly at an end. Paladin asks the Cardinal to get word to Avengelyne. New York needs all the help they can get against the vampires. Cardinal Alessi tells Paladin the Avengelyne and Gabriel are fighting the Blight. He will get word to them as best he can but if they are beyond the Blight Wall it might take some time. Paladin calls Lt. House of PART. He tells House that he knows about the vampire massacre at Bessemer Trust bank and would like to know if he can get some of the stakes recovered from the crime scene. House tells him that the stakes are evidence, even if he does not think anyone will ever be brought to trial for the crimes, and he can’t release them. Paladin would like 5 stakes. With a deep sigh House tells Paladin he will do what he can. Afterwards Paladin heads back to The Bunker. While Paladin and the rest of the group have been trying to defuse the Vampire War Network has been busy warring against Andrew Rufus. He was unable to free the bank accounts and assets for Cassandra Clemons. He was however successful in locking Rufus out of all his financial resources (9 successes), he accessed public records and listed Rufus as being dead (10 successes), and he sends the notice of his death by natural causes to all his business associated (creditors, vendors, etc.). Not satisfied with that he reports his car stolen with VIN and license plate number to police (6 successes). As a final touch he imbeds a report with the IRS that Andrew Rufus’ SSN was stolen and is currently being used by criminal organizations (11 successes). Then from an anonymous IP address he sends a message to Rufus stating that these issues will go away as soon as Pearl Ivy is released unharmed. Meanwhile Revenant looks into the crash of the Plane Lilli was taking to Europe. The flight she was on fell off the radar in the middle of the Atlantic on route to London-Heathrow. Rescue ships were deployed and wreckage was found within 48 hours. The serial numbers confirm it was the plane she was on. The Black Boxes were not recovered, they do not float. Search and rescue was unable to find any signs of survivors. Revenant has the coordinates where the debris field was found. He wants to take the Air Raft and fly to that location to see what he can see. This air-raft trip is currently in the planning stage. Paladin arrives back at the Bunker Citadel. The time is nearly 8PM