This is a combination of two sessions, partly because they were both short so not a lot was said, and because they both covered Elysium. The first was short because the GM had internet troubles and instead of having no game, we desperately improvised by ending up doing a group call using actual telephones. #OldSchool
So, Elysium. We were at the Met, sitting in the auditorium watching Faust: Part 1. There was a young man with Jeanine, but we didn't recognise him, nor did she introduce him to anyone, and when she did spot Frankie she didn't appear to recognise him? Don Cerro, the Brujah Primogen, talked to Jeanine who introduced the young man as Steven Maslowe. Who?
Nor did it appear the Prince knew, when he invited Lottie and Julius to speak with him. The Prince had invited the Sabbat (!) to Elysium, for a hitherto unknown reason. The Prince asked the two Malks to keep an eye on them, which they did from the Malkavian Primogen box. Lottie wasn't pleased at the Sabbat referring to her as a "morsel".
Frankie told Theo about the knife Jeanine (allegedly) gave him, as she broke into a third party's house to deliver it. Theo later invited Frankie to the Brujah Primogen box and offered to take him under his wing. Don Cerro was, perhaps understandably, a little miffed about this.
So, in front of the entire Camarilla and the Sabbat, Jeanine finally introduced Maslowe to the perplexed Prince as ... her previous Childe from Atlanta, who is hoping to make his mark on New York City. The only people happy about this were the Toreadors, who thought it was hilarious - except for Charlotte (we don't know why) and Val, because his cousin was just very publicly disowned by his Sire. The Brujah were not happy being screwed over by one of their own, but at least Frankie wasn't declared Caitiff as a result. Phew?
The Prince wanted a private word with the two newbies. Did Frankie realise how fucked he was? Sort of? Not really? (Frankie doesn't get politics.) But yeah, he's pretty fucked, as is probably everyone he cares about. (This is just about the worst thing to tell a character who is fiercely protective of his mortal family and who also isn't adjusting well to being a vampire ...)
The Prince said he could potentially offer the Mangano clan a boon of protection, but they would need to ask him the question he had granted them - specifically without Julius being there. Lottie asked about the broken twin ghouls, which the Prince was unable to answer, but said he'd look into. He then granted everyone "of Frankie's blood" the boon of protection, so that's one crisis averted - and another one created. Frankie's uncle (a.k.a. Lottie's "dad") is of course being actively harmed by another vampire's ghoul, so Angela will quickly have to stash him in some care home so he's out of the way. At least his mind is so broken now that he'll never regain proper consciousness ...
(We shouldn't worry about Charlotte being mind-controlled. We'll find out soon enough.)
Val had left with Charlotte, so Lottie and Frankie rejoined Julius and went back to the couple's Manhattan home to discuss events. Frankie went to bed early while Lottie talked about blood bonding with Julius in private, offering. Julius succeeded a Willpower roll to not throw himself at her.
And that's where we left it.
Player 1: “What, Julius winks at him?”
Player 2: “A FRIENDLY wink, don’t get any ideas!”
GM: “Sorry this is how you find out, Lottie.”
“As much as she humanly … Kindredly can.”
Player: “He’s not gonna sit there and stare daggers at her all through the play.”
GM: “A Toreador would. Wouldn’t you want to be like a Toreador?”
“She smiles modestly. She can actually do that!”
“There aren’t a lot of Malkavians you can send without them discussing footware.”
Turlev: “Learned? What have we learned? That we’re a bunch of paranoid fucks just looking at each other? We already knew that.”
Turlev: “The Malkavians are still sore about that? That was 200 years ago!”
GM: “You get no XP this session, because you guessed all of that before I said it!”
GM: “Damnit, I have narrative blue balls!”
“I don’t even think the Tzimice do something as mundane as swing either way, to be honest.”
“They have an entirely different swing set.”
“When the GM pauses for this long it’s never good.”
Julius: “It looked as if Val was acting peacemaker.”
Frankie: “That musta been a sight to see.”
Player: “She would’ve been okay with that.”
GM: “I KNOW!”
GM: “He should know better than that, he’s a Primogen!”
“Even if we’re not gaming, you’re forcing us to watch more episodes of Kindred: The Embraced, you evil, Machiavellian bastard.”
To be continued!
