In Manhattan, Charlotte and Val turn out to be in the apartment. Val isn't thrilled about his fancy car being busted up, and puts on some bravado about fitting in with the Toreador. Charlotte takes Frankie aside to ask some questions, which he does his best to answer as vaguely as he's able.
The group end up playing some cards while Charlotte asks around about who might be behind the attack. Turns out to be some ghoul family owned by the Giovanni. Their gang is known to be cruel, but they don't often make moves, so them trying to attack a Brujah Primogen candidate and the new guy sounds strange. Perhaps they ought to go over to Little Italy and be a little menacing as a response?
In Staten Island, AltLottie and Julius discuss options of what to do with Jeanine. Julius decides to lead the Nos on a wild goose chase while AltLottie takes a meandering sort of route to get to the rendezvous point with Jeanine - which turns out to be a lonely cottage on the harbour with a little old lady inside. Jeanine and Tommy the Fool are stashed in her cellar for later. Little old lady turns out to not only be an Autarkis Malkavian, she's Julius's Grandchilde! She tells a surprised AltLottie, “He’s 800 years old, you think he never sired someone before?”
The two Brujah call on some respective goons and gear up to go hit some Giovanni-related speakeasies in Little Italy to make a point that you don’t fuck with the Brujah. Fun times were had.
Julius shows up at the cottage, having shaken off the Nos finally, and it's time to interrogate Jeanine, and oh boy does she have things to say! She doesn't know who did it, but she was alone at home earlier this evening when she felt like someone was pulling at her veins, and she fled to Staten Island - to feed, to make contact with the Anarchs, or possibly to Diablerise someone to get her Generation back up.
Jeanine thought she could somehow become a bridge between the Camarilla, the Sabbat and the Independents. She has been talking to the Chombra Corporation, a subsidiary of Pentex for those keeping score, for the past couple of months. There's a lot to unpack here, but suffice to say it's a can of worms. The Sabbat are planning a hit on Brooklyn. There's a link between Chombra and the Giovanni. She had no idea Charlotte even knew about her little ghoul project - she had been so careful?
GM: “Let’s start with Frankie.”
Player: “Because the GM has more control over what happens there than what AltLottie decides to do.”
Player: “If she was staked and left out in the sun, Lottie would watch.”
GM: “Bit cold.”
Player: “No, hot. She’s about to catch fire.”
“You do as you’re told, 12th Gen bitch.”
“Lottie! We’ve started a war with the Giovanni!”
“Can’t leave you alone for two fuckin’ seconds.”
“Brujah used to be all about finesse and then Carthage happened.”
“AltLottie is generally quite calm when she’s not being horrible to people.”
GM: “He’s not going to walk into his own grave. (looks at result) Oh, never mind, he is.”
“I almost feel sorry for Jeanine.”
“Don’t. She’s not going to be around for much longer.”
“I liked it when I thought I was dealing with Hermetics.”
“Brooklyn’s where all her Kine businesses and family are, but that was two weeks ago.”
To be continued!