Should have bought that Celerity

Evil Prince Basketcase seems to have brought the proverbial popcorn with him, as he's wondering how Lottie would rate her cousins' physical abilities. Dafuq? Is this just a game to him? The two Malks tell the Prince about Jeanine's intel about the Sabbat wanting to attack Brooklyn, and apparently he already has people watching the place.

Val and Frankie stick together, while Theo and Edgar head up top of some buildings. Shooting ensues after a noisy group of ghouls with a vampire walk the streets making a lot of noise. The two cousins go through the back of a shop to see who the group of six nervous vampires on the other side of the building are. They are spotted and end up fighting three Tzimisce shovelheads inside the shop. One of which manages to put his fingers through Val's face, upon which Frankie finally rolls to resist Frenzy ... and succeeds.

The Prince suggests Lottie shadows the Sabbat guy alone, which doesn't go down well with her or Julius, but they still go along with it.

 

It's all gone a bit strange 'round here

 Three new characters, two strapping young lads and an old lady, are mysteriously invited to a building in the city. It's about a job. Our job interview is basically an escape room scenario. We have to find certain things - at least three of them - and evade something called "cleaners" (killer robots, sort of) in order to find the way out.

One of the ways to do this is to have skills that mean you can tell them to go away, or for one to take care of the other two. After finding three, the group has a choice - do we continue to look for more of the thingamabobs or leave? We decide to continue, which was the correct answer. Had we decided to go back to the lobby, job done, we would have failed the job interview!

Turns out the organisation that invited us deal with multiverses, and it just so happens there's a case to go on straight away. In Wisconsin. A university student seems to have certain skills and knowledge that he really shouldn't have (they appear to come from one of the multiverse locations). Why is that? Is he actually from that place, and not from Guildford after all? Let the investigation commence!

Starring:

• Beverley "Bev" Squares
• Colin Scarlet
• Franklin "Frank" McClure
  

 

Chipmunk stripper ghouls in bow ties

Lottie and Julius need to melt their piece of brass somewhere, so Aisling takes them to a place she knows in Manhattan. As they drive across the Williamsburg Bridge, the Malks Auspex the water, and there's a shape lurking below the water. As it breaks the surface, it's a pyramidal mound. We've seen those before - in dreams ... Both Malks pass out, and are woken up by Aisling, who didn't even realise what had happened until she pulled up at the place.

At the ironworks, the metal is melted down into an amulet and they do the ritual. They get a teeny bit distracted by the smell of each other's delicious blood, because they have to part with some of it to submerge the amulet in. They also have to kiss the blood-soaked amulet, and not licking their lips is a bit like not licking your lips when having a sugar-covered doughnut. They succeed with the ritual, and successfully give themselves selective amnesia.

They go to speak to the Nosferatu in order to get a message to meet with the Prince. The Prince's twin ghouls show up and drive them to a post office location on the outskirts of Harlem. It's the Hell Gate Station. Not at all worrying ...

Meanwhile at Coffey Park, a car comes screeching to a halt. Edgar, another Brujah, shows up to say that the Sabbat are moving in on Harlem right now. Instead of going "oh, is this one of those times we should think before we act?" Frankie, Val and Theo pile into a car and follow Edgar up to Harlem.

Turns out the source was Ellie Harewood, the Setite the cousins had met previously. Some Tzimisce went right up to her, in front of some Kine customers that had to be adjusted, and fleshcrafted talons saying they were taking over. Or words to that effect. Either way, was Red Hook only a distraction and their actual target is Harlem? Which is fine by Frankie, because Harlem isn't Brooklyn. That shovelhead we "encountered" in one of the first sessions did say something about how the Manganos were supposed to be lured south, away from Harlem.

 

I feel like we've just met a vegan elf

Ah, I was wrong. This is actually where we tried to get the big ox god’s head up the big hole in the ground. The god is dying and the head needs to get back to where it was taken from. We finally put it on a cart and dragged out of the city.

We get rides from barbarians with ginormous creatures. Two hours later we get to a clearing with a big ox corpse in the presence of elves, and save the god.

The next morning, Elsiosi barges into Murmei’s bedroom. He tells her off. Valgai throws her out (for barging in like that), then invites her back in when she's suitably apologised. She comes bearing a letter from Mother, summoning Murmei to Ravenia. Elsiosi also wants to give Murmei tea to cure the abomination problem that he doesn’t actually have - he's just wearing a belt.

Valgai announces he's planning on retiring and heading back across the mountains. The rest of us convince him to maybe come with us first to Ravenia so Murmei and Deadorna can tell Mother to shove it.

What Would Lottie Do?

Theo's Vampire 101 class continues, teaching Frankie about the Sabbat. After being asked why they'd have to wait until Elysium before nominating that Toreador guy to Scourge (isn't the point to get in there first, so why wait?) he's told the "wheels are already in motion" for it.

Lottie and Julius decide Aisling should be in charge of the Fetish they're making - no, not the one they seem to have about blood bonding and then having sex in torture rooms with drains in the floor. This Fetish is to do with hiding memories. They decide to leave a cryptic message in the package Frankie is supposed to pick up from Seb tomorrow, so they'll get a prompt to go back to Aisling to restore their memories. They also discuss what/how much to hide away.

When it comes to the guys in Red Hook, Val shows up to report on how his chat with the police contact went. Turns out the cops further down know the charges are bogus, but they're scared to bring it up with their superiors? Smells like mind control. Theories abound. They should, however, not go charging in there, because that sounds exactly like what they'd be expected to do - and exactly the kind of stuff Lottie said not to do. She would be so proud of her cousin!

In Queens, they start looking at brass to use for the Fetish. It has to be brass, and made in the shape of an amulet. The piece they have appear to have been a part of the steel mill explosion in Red Hook, belonging to a Japanese guy. Hopefully they can shift the bad mojo from it before making it a magic item?