Are we SURE we're the good guys?

We had a look at the records over at the Queen's Legate to see which (read: whose) houses went down the hole, in case that has some significance. The archivist there seems to have the hots for Valgai.

When going to speak with a Father Servola, people threw lanterns at us, and we ended up in a fight with some cultists? They weren't being very nice to us, at any rate.

Then some kind of "special" (in a Chosen One kind of sense) 6-year-old child proclaims Murmei is evil. This is a surprise to everyone, because being a bit of an idiot? Sure. Evil? Umm ...? Valgai's Witch Sight confirms this - the belt makes it look like Murmei's some kind of corrupt, evil thing. Perhaps it's a good idea to un-bind himself from that belt at the nearest opportunity?

Maybe you should consider a Path?

In Staten Island, Adelaide says she Sees spiders all over Jeanine, digging into her and eating her regret. (WHY IS DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SPIDERS?!) Lottie "convinces" Jeanine to put some of her blood into a thermos flask. Looking at the thin blood in the flask, Adelaide freaks out, saying it's "cold, so cold". She doesn't mean temperature-wise.

After Jeanine puts the lid on the flask, it's put into some oven gloves for an extra layer of protection. Lottie and Julius strategise what to do with Jeanine, and they decide to leave her there for now, and make their way back to Brooklyn. She asks him about his first Childe, who appears to be missing, presumed dead, after angering some werewolves.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, Frankie and Benny are thinking ahead. If you're in a Prohibition setting, your character is a bootlegger, his ghoul is a bartender in a speakeasy, you and your cousins are planning to open a blood donation clinic, and the house rules say you can mix alcohol with blood to make it fine to drink, it would be rude not to combine these factors, right? If one was to find out which types of blood goes best with which types of alcohol, there's a whole new market to tap into right there.

In the end, the two cousins finally meet up again, at "Angela's", where Frankie was considering heading anyway, after a brief phone conversation. Frankie starts telling his cousin and her Sire his side of what's happened while they were away, and the two Malkavians are not exactly thrilled about his and Theo's raids on the Giovanni affiliated speaks in Little Italy ... If only they knew it was (sort of) Frankie's idea ...

I love your lack of self-confidence

The gang (sans Elindra) go to see Nightpitch. They leave a message then get to meet him in person, to discuss the recent events. Valgai then speaks to Yagaba, the chief witch. Always good to speak to people.

Elindra also speaks to someone, but my notes literally only say "someone", so whatcha gonna do?

We decide the Templars need murdering, because of course they do. It's like a thing, right? Can we burn down the Winged Ladle Inn and plant a heretical book there? And some fake bronze tablets? Because that would work out pretty well, or so we think.

Valgai also gets to torture a cultist, so everyone got to have some fun. Especially as it was suggested Elindra pretends to be a hooker, but her hooker talk was along the lines of calling people "dearie" so she sounded more like a grandma than the 17-year-old she actually is. It was weird.

I can't keep playing Humanity Roulette like this

Lottie and Julius dream about the other person's personal traumas, lying naked in each other's arms in a basement in Staten Island. Frankie and Val head back home to Brooklyn, and to be on the safe side, Frankie stays over at Val's. In the evening, Val heads off to do some stuff, while Frankie got to see his apartment - and a change of clothes! - for the first time in what seems like forever.

Lottie doesn't lose Humanity for what was inflicted on Jeanine. Nor for jointly breakfasting on Tommy the Fool followed by jointly snapping his neck. How romantic!

Frankie goes to see Benny at their speakeasy, and places a number of calls to check on business. Everything is fine, but there is stuff happening in Red Hook. 25 people, running legit businesses and none of them connected to the mafia, have been arrested on shaky grounds, like "running mob fronts". Some premises were completely smashed, others roughed up a little, or basically left alone. It's puzzling. Seb is looking into it further.

Meanwhile, Lottie and Julius go to meet the old woman, Loretta, and her Childe, Adelaide. The Prince doesn't know about Adelaide, who was turned a year ago. Loretta tells the story of who Adelaide is (kind of a serial killer?) and where she found her (an asylum), how she got her out of there, and rescued her by Embracing her.

While Julius and Loretta have a discussion in private, Lottie and Adelaide get acquainted upstairs. Adelaide is well aware they have to leave before the Prince finds out about her. She wants them to go to Georgia. (Maslowe's from Atlanta. Coincidence?) She also talks about how there's something in the water near the Brooklyn Bridge, but she was afraid to look. She could see what seemed like a cold, bright star in that direction - bearing in mind this is supposed to be 6 km away. Loretta didn't see it. Lottie and Julius did see something in some of the very first sessions ...

Adelaide seems to have some kind of weird fortune-telling power. She asks if she can look at Lottie "properly", then says something cryptic about there being something in the blood, "something that feeds, something thin" before snapping out of it and asking if she's looked at her yet. What the actual fuck?! Maybe skipping town is the best option after all.

There’s no zealot like a convert

There's some kind of corrupt person that Deadorna speaks to on the crystal island, and is told people shouldn't go down there. Umm, well, duh?

We don't, in fact, get eaten by ginormous creatures, but instead a deal is made with the barbarians (?) down there that the blind death lizards won't kill anyone who's down there in the company of Deadorna or Elindra - everyone else is fair game. We're happy with that arrangement. and finally manage to emerge from the hole!

Murmei gets a note about meeting someone in an alley. That sounds as bad as it absolutely was - he, Valgai, Knightlight and Vizell get attacked by archers on the roof as well as on the ground. But it's fine, the ones still alive at the end of it get thrown into dungeons, because hello? RUDE!