Pippa and Felix have laid the groundwork to have the SI attack the Sabbat during daylight on Thursday, the day of Elysium. The intention is that the two groups will therefore take each other out, or at the very least weaken each other significantly.
The following preparation has been made for the raid:
The SI have the location of the Sabbat hideout, thanks to the scouting work of Pippa and her rats, and Doc, the city Sheriff, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the sewers has allowed the exact location and best routes of attack to be slipped into the SI information network by Pippa and Adie.
Kris, Pippa’s ghoul, will lead the operation as the local agent in charge. Pippa has made him the source of much of the recent breakthrough the SI have experienced, strengthening his position so that he can act more effectively.
Felix and Pippa have both arranged for their various networks to provide observation and potential mop up crews for the upcoming struggle. From Pippa, this support has been in the form of information, pushing them in the right direction to give them tactical clues that might therefore make them more of a match for the Magdalena Troupe. Felix has assisted this with foot work from his own people, who have tracked the movements of known individuals like Danny and Osin to confirm the site.
Mal will head the force monitoring the actual sting, along with Chloe, who has proven herself quite the dab hand with a gun. The pair will be leading a team that includes ghouls and retainers from each of the city’s other major players: Michelle, Dominic, Michael, Lucy Davore (the Ventrue Primogen) and Christiana*. Christiana’s offering will include Murphy, a Thin Blood Day Drinker who has stepped up to support the operation.
(*Note: Adelaide, though still present in the city, has chosen to take a step back from current politics. Though she remains technically a Primogen, her current role is more that of a Dowager Queen, someone to whom the current Prince can turn if they need help/advice, but otherwise very much absent from the day to day politicking that is the blood and viscera of Kindred society).
Juliana has also offered to place some of her bikers surreptitiously on hand, in case things look like they are about to turn ugly.
The night before, Pippa and Felix discuss the plan with their respective operatives. They weigh up the benefits of capture versus kill regards the Sabbat, deciding that if there is the opportunity to take someone ‘alive’ (undead) this would be good, but at the very least the objective should be that no one escapes alive.
Adie has set up surveillance feeds from her current hiding place, allowing the team access to the disused station’s old CCTV network.
Mal and Chloe therefore sit back with Murphy and the rest of the team to observe.
In the first round of fighting, the Second Inquisition’s [SI] choice of a day raid pans out well, as one of the vampires fails to rouse from their slumber, an agent promptly dousing their coffin with a flame thrower. Magdalena, Danny and Osin all manage to shake off their slumber however, as do the team of ghouls they’ve recruited for the current round of performances in the city.
Fighting is fierce, but the SI manage to secure a still groggy Magdalena, staking the blank body at Kris’ instructions, for potential later study. Danny makes a break for it but is also captured, a team of men downing the former Right Hand and staking him in place too, with much zeal and muttering of prayers.
It is at this point Magdalena’s pet Vozhd makes its entrance, bursting forth from a previously concealed trapdoor near the room’s centre. Chaos ensues, Mal rolling his eyes and signalling the team to prepare to step in as the monstrosity, which looks like something out of the imagination of HR Geiger, wades through the assembled troops like a kid in a candy shop. Bodies go flying, and it is all the SI can do to form a tactical retreat. One of their people finally proves their mettle, a sniper who manages to keep their cool (and their Faith) in order to deliver crippling shot to the beast, others stepping up to douse it with cleansing Holy fire. Howling in agony, it retreats back down the hole it emerged from. Even Mal and the team can hear its howls as it heads for one of the cisterns where it vanishes into the fetid waters.
The last of the SI, a stalwart team of four, retreat, dragging the two bodies and what they presume is the sword they seek (this is actually a fake created by Michelle, planted in the hide out by a team of Pippa’s vermin led by McRat, in the early hours of the day). They drag the two blank bodies with them, heading for the surface.
Mal and Chloe signal their people to move, setting up a cross fire to catch the SI as they pass, so that they can secure the bodies. The SI walk straight into the trap, far too preoccupied with escaping the horrors below. Believing they are facing a fresh onslaught they fight fiercely, wounding Murphy and a number of the ghouls, but Mal’s training comes to the rescue, and he is able to take out three of the operatives, allowing Kris (who is amongst them) to ‘flee with the blade’, Pippa and Felix having left instructions this was to be allowed if it becomes a possibility. Kris vanishes into the daylight, leaving the team to claim the bodies of Magdalena and Danny, so they can answer for their crimes. Chloe and Mal chain and box both, checking their stakes remain firmly in place (one thing the SI did do right) before heading to the surface themselves to report the good news.
Pippa and Felix therefore rise that evening to good news, Pippa in the form of Mal’s smiling face with a fresh mug of her best vintage freshly warmed in her favourite mug, Felix in the form of a hand written note in Chloe’s beautiful calligraphy, detailing the raid and its success.
Michelle has also had the news, and extended an invite to both to attend her before Elysium, to compare notes and prepare for the evening to come.
As they make their way to the Prince, Felix and Pippa both check in with their respective people. Christiana confirms for Felix that the Thin-bloods are managing well in their efforts against the Childe, and that she has spoken with Marcus about the proposed ceding of territory for the Lycans negotiated by Pippa and is happy to do this.
Juliana reports managing well with her clean up efforts, stating she is making good inroads to clearing the Childe from the city’s eastern side. The Lycans meanwhile appear to be having a tougher time in the western suburbs where the Sabbat appear to have turned a number of Nazi sympathisers who are offering more organised resistance. They are however holding their own, and decline any assistance.
On the news, the mortal authorities are also reporting a down turn in the gang violence which has plagued the city through recent months, even talking about the lifting of the curfew that had been placed into effect (with the Prince’s tacit blessing) in order to try and curb the rioting.
Felix touches base with his congregation, Father Isaac appearing pleased with the turn in the city’s fortunes. So much so, he delivers a passionate sermon that night on Berlin’s “Return to the Lord’s Light.”
Pippa makes a final visit to Kris. She has decided to let him go (as he intends to do, returning to the SI headquarters in Rome with the sword). She does however use her link with him through the pod to implant the suggestion that he realise his people were horribly played by the Sabbat, led into an ambush, making the team’s deaths his fault.
This causes the agent to submit himself to a number of years of penance when he reaches Rome. He hands over the blade to his superiors (who, mortal as they are, do not yet recognises it for the fake it is) before committing himself to one of the order’s monasteries, where he spends the next few years in a strict program of abstinence and self-flagellation.
Michelle is confident it will take the SI a while to realise what they have isn’t the genuine article.
Pippa also checks in with Adie, who confirms she is okay and, when Pippa states it is safe to return, says she will put herself on the next flight back.
Michelle sends cars for them not. Felix gets Der Kardinal’s limousine (on loan), the Prince’s little joke. Though thankfully it is Laysla waiting for him in the back. They politely fence words, Felix letting her know he is still watching her Master, a message Laysla lets him know she will pass on with a wink.
For Pippa, one of the Ventrue’s fleet of ubiquitous blacked out Rolls whisks her across the city.
Michelle is obviously happy to see them both, congratulating them on the success of the raid.
There is some brief discussion around who will now act as Master of Ceremonies for the evening, with Pippa suggesting she is certain Michael will be happy to step up.
Pippa does note she has one small boon to ask: Magdalena indicated she had information about Pippa’s sire. This is information she would dearly like to have. Michelle agrees that whatever else, she will be happy to ensure Pippa has the chance to extract this.
The talk then turns naturally to what to do with Danny and Magdalena.
Pippa offers to step up again for some public Diablerie. Felix (who would secretly also like to drink Magdalena, as the closest he is ever likely to get to Diablerising Alexandr himself) suggests that he feels Danny at least should stand trial for his crimes.
“Danny’s betrayal is matter for the city’s justice,” he suggests.
Of Magdalena, he notes her power as a symbol if the wider populace come to know of her lineage, suggesting this may incite certain factions who remain loyal to Alexandr. There is discussion from the group around the sensibility of keeping her entirely a secret, maintaining that all Sabbat apart from Danny were killed in the raid.
Pippa acknowledge this, but wonders whether the Primogen at least ought not to know of her, and have the option to be present when she meets her fate (whatever that may be). Michelle agrees this might be prudent, going so far as to suggest they could stake Magdalena out for the sun near one of her warehouses, so that all might stay up to watch her burn if they wish, from the safety of the building’s shade.
It is agreed then that Danny will stand trial at the coming Elysium (Michelle signals to her people to arrange for the transport of his corpse), with there being an ‘after show party’ at the Chantry for the Primogen where Magdalena is awakened and questioned before meeting her inevitable doom.
As they prepare to leave, all seem satisfied with this, though beneath the surface there is tension, Pippa and Felix both struggling with the desire to Diablerise Magdalena. Pippa, for the simple slaking of hunger such an act will confer, as well as the potential power it will give her in terms of consuming an older Kindred. She is conflicted however, aware this will likely break the increasing Humanity she has been working to restore. For Felix, the temptation is entirely more symbolic, as previously noted tying back to his deep desire to consume Alexandr, this being as close as he is currently likely to get.
As they exit, Pippa suggests Juliana should get the sword, with Felix noting in passing that Christiana would also be a worthy recipient, though he is of course happy for the Brujah to claim it. Michelle notes she had intended to gift it to Juliana as a public sign of friendship and hatchets buried, naming the Brujah as her Right Hand, a title she notes she had considered both Felix and Pippa for, though she acknowledges Pippa’s commitments already to the Harpies, and lets slip to Felix that she has heard that the Ventrue Primogen has something in mind for him at the evening’s revels.
Interests suitably piqued, the group climbs into the Chantry’s limousine to make their way to Das Kino and the festivities to come.
Zak's Midnight Show 