Mayday Plays - Vegas by Night, Ep. 2 - "Welcome to Las Vegas"

Episode Date: July 24, 2022

The coterie returns to Las Vegas, packages in tow, and are called to present themselves before Elysium.

Good morning, Kindred, and welcome to Mayday Roleplay's Playthrough of Vampire the Masquerade, a chronicle we're calling Vegas by Night. We want to thank everyone for tuning in and subscribing to our Patreon and for giving the best response to our first session. Thank you all so much for the well wishes for everything that everyone sent back as feedback.

I'm glad that everyone's enjoying the campaign so far. If you missed out on chapter one of Vegas by Night, don't fear, you can still check it out on Spotify, Twitch, VOD, and our YouTube channel as of right now. If you're wondering how you can get in on that engagement, you can catch our stream here every other Saturday for our main show. You can follow us on all major platforms,

as well as Spotify and SoundCloud for podcast-friendly recordings of all our major shows and streams. And finally, you can donate to us on Patreon and join our Patreon Discord. It's a wonderful space where you get the opportunity to speak with us on a personal level about everything we're creating

and get in on Patreon Community Iran Games. Like, we're running Pathfinder 2e later in the month here for a patron that is donating to us. We engage in tabletop discussions and the most important, we share all of our pet photos. They're very cute. You can see many hippos. It's a good vibe.

In more news, the Doom 2 Repeat session two, season two debrief is on the way. You can catch it here on our Twitch channel on July 23rd at 10 a.m. That's next Saturday, I believe. We have an Orpheus debrief on the way soon, detailing and answering all of the questions put forward by the fans of the show,

as well as the cast members themselves. Keep a lookout for its release and be sure to send in questions to our Twitter and our Patreon Discord so that we can answer them for you. Other than that, please check out our Delta Green campaign Doom 2 Repeat, our D&D campaign Ashoka, and our World of Darkness campaign using the Orpheus system,

all of which are available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube, and our Twitch. Before we get started today, I just want to remind everyone that Vampire the Mass Great can be a dark setting and ask such their content warnings for any watching. Please be advised that there may be violent themes, plenty of adult language,

and the exploration of darker subjects. Please take care of yourself and be aware. There's going to be a lot of body horror in this one, I think, and some things going wrong. So please take care of yourself. Without further ado, I will begin with some more words. What? What?

Humanity was cursed. And when the curse was new, the bearer had a son. Cain gave to Enoch the gift of child. And so Enoch became the first to have sired. For this, we will never know a peace without our elder leaning over. He was the first to know the pain and disappointment of trusting Kindred,

the first to be tamped down into place. But for his suffering, Cain bestowed to him a second gift, the city of Enoch, the first city of the Ivory Towers, and the first of the Kindred kingdoms. There he built a paradise unheard of in his lifetime, in a world where Kindred were known for their true form. We were born to rule.

We are the parasites of the eldest world. We will stake Haven not in the vein, but in the castle. We will take over not the nervous system, but its indentured serfs. We will writhe and fight and claw our way into every throne, not the brain step. And we will stay there until the concrete rocks, not the body.

We will kill our darlings. Welcome to Vegas by night. Welcome back. Let's start off by introducing our cast for today. I'll start, and then we'll go around in alphabetical order, starting with Aaron. I'm Caleb James Miller, and I'll be your storyteller today.

I'm Aaron, thank you for reminding me that my name starts with A. And who do you play? I play Enoch. Hey. I'm like, I'm playing Mal. I'm Amanda, and I'm playing Allison. I'm Eli, and I'm playing Niles.

I'm Sergio, and I'm playing Burroughs. Hey, I'm Vince, I'll be playing Regal. I'm Zach, and I'll be playing Sybil. Perfect, and now we have a recap of last session, written by Mal. I don't know that I was ever afraid of the dark as a kid. I mean, kids usually are. Grown-ups will leave them nightlights

or monster spray or a cracked door, proof that the house doesn't end just because they can't see it. I never wanted it. Not that I think anyone would have noticed or asked if I had been scared. The dark was my own little cocoon. The purple of night, the gold of streetlight,

and the black of shadow all swaddling me into one single pocket of safety. There's a big difference between the magical, imagined safety of your night bubble and the pitch black of nothingness, the void. It's inescapable, all-consuming, impossible. It's better, it feels inevitable. Monsters always feel safest in the darkness,

and maybe this is what I always was. The circumstances of what I am henceforth calling my shadow swim could have been better, but once I realized the fighting back wasn't gonna matter, not being was so much better. I could almost pretend I was dead again. The voices were the only thing that told me I wasn't. Conversations I could never make out clearly,

sharp sounds like laughs or shouts. The one thing I did catch, only a matter of time before they're his, why bother waiting for Kerr? I don't know what these people have waiting for me, but I'm pretty sure willfully letting the sun take me breaks the promise. That's the main reason I went with them.

The weirdos that showed up, the other box boy, and whoever drove up with motors revving and guns blazing wasn't there for a tea party. If the shots they took on Ra'Gel was anything to go on, so just keeping my promise there too, the wet, horny, weird ones, Enoch and Allison took the SUV. Too bad we had to leave it in the middle of nowhere,

I'm not a fan of them writhing in the backseat. Then those things in the desert. I wanted to join them. They looked almost peaceful, standing in the dark, out in the open like they weren't afraid of the morning or what was coming next. I mean, that's before they started attacking the car, obviously.

Up close, they were these damp, wet, hairless bats of humans. They looked sick. I think somewhere in my heart, I felt sorry for them. Mostly I wanted them gone. This group of weirdos actually did a not awful job at getting rid of those things. Not that I'd tell them that, but I don't think any of them

or any of us would have made it past them without the others. They're all curious. The bird girl, Niles, Sibyl, who seems like if she does something wrong, she'll shatter herself into a million pieces before anyone else can do it for her. Burroughs has a beautiful voice.

It's the first time in a long time that I've heard music properly. I missed. It was nice. I almost hope he does it again. I don't know what's waiting in Vegas. I don't know if I care. Maybe people won't be chasing me down there

or at least they'll have a harder time finding me. With lights that bright, the shadows are probably going to be equally as deep. Maybe I can disappear again. Beautifully done. Jesus Christ, so beautifully done. Thank you very much. I am in the mood.

I'm glad you're in the mood because there's something we have to decide all of you. We need to decide who is feeling a little bit peckish this evening as we're all beginning to wake up. We need to decide hunger. I need all of you to take out one D10, one of these lovely little dice right here. If you roll a seven, eight, nine, or 10,

you are good and golden, not any more hungry than you were before. If you roll anything below a seven, that'll help you. Dear storyteller, right back up to three. Oh, beautiful. I'm scared. I'm critted, what does that mean? You're all good, baby, that means no hunger.

Great, if I roll a one, does that mean something extra bad? It does not, just means you're a little more hungry than the rest. But you drank quite a bit, you had your lollipop last game. There's probably still something on there. A clump of pop.

Caleb, I rolled a five. Okay, where are we at then, Niles? I'm already at four. Now, we did roll last night, at the end of last session, this is also something we... Ah! Because we didn't eat, if to...

Fuck. Got to eat a lot. Is it your hunger five? I'm... Yeah. Wait, is this an addition to... Is this an addition from last week? Let me just make this clear,

like, what are you at? Are you at four or are you at five? You told me I was at four at the start of our session last week. Okay, so have we already cleared up hunger? Is that when I'm not getting here? I thought we cleared up hunger at the end of last session. Beautiful, let's keep it then.

Let me just get your numbers. Yeah, avoid the rolls. Okay, then I'm at four. I think I made a mistake there, so, okay. Oh, good. Oh, we're dead. Thousand four. We got Regal at what, two?

Okay, I'm at three. Three, three, three, yep, three. We got Skip at one. Okay, beautiful. There's something else we need to discuss. First off, for the audience, some of the rejuvenation of aggravated damage has been performed offscreen at the end of our last session,

and the coterie has been awarded two experience points. That's what you missed. Some of them got a little bit better, and then all of them got a little bit stronger. We have not spent any of those experience points, so there's no real difference yet, but I thought you'd wanna know. So, to begin, in the town, yes.

Do I have a question? Yeah, my question is, I have one hunger, but I can't remember if that was like, is that counted for our post-feeding, because I actually did feed during that time. Odds are that starting your next night, you have that one hunger. You fed to zero, and you're at one now.

Perfect. In the town of Emery, Utah, the coterie stopped to rest before the final stretch into Las Vegas, and after an attempt at the briefcase, the ending of Apostle Mother of Two, a serenade into the dying night, and whatever was truly happening

inside Enoch and Allison's room, you attempted sleep. Make no mistake that when a kindred sleeps, it can scarcely be called that. It's no conscious decision. The sun beats down on the scared, fragile beast inside, and causes a comatose state unlike any other. If you're not careful, you'll drop where you stand

in the beams of an unkind sun streaming through motel windows. Second fold, a kindred's sleep is death. There are no dreams that come in the intermediary, and for all intensive purposes, it is the closest you'll get to a real death. With this in mind, Coterie, we have some decisions to make. In the last minutes of your dying consciousness,

as the beast rages against the light, how did you protect yourself from the sun fading into your rooms? How do you sleep? Let's go around the table and decide for ourselves if you've done enough to live. Let's start with Regal. Regal, what was the barricade you put up

for yourself in your motel room? Yeah, so I believe I was with, I can't remember which room I was with, to be honest with you. You are more than welcome to decide who was in that room now. Is there anyone that was staying with Regal for the night? I think we left it where everyone except Enoch and Allison were in the same room. They were kind of all bunking together.

So then let's do it by room, then. Regal and everyone inside that room, so everyone but the Kingsters. How do we combat the sun in this room? I got trash bags in my car. It sounds like trash bags from Windows. Probably, I simple would insist that the packages sleep on the bed.

Simple's definitely gonna sleep in the closet. Because though I... I was looking for a closet though. Packages sleep on the bed. Got it. I was definitely, if we have two beds, I was gonna sleep on the far side of the second bed, but not in the bed, but on the floor,

directly next to the bed. So any shadows or any sunlight would be blocked by the bed. Is anyone tubbing it? I was gonna say, Burroughs is amazed. No one thought of it. He takes an extra pillow from the closet and he goes into the tub and he lays down in the tub. Just a beautiful picture of this middle-aged,

beautiful, and legs sticking out. Deep, knee-shirted, Hawaiian, you know. All sprawled out in the tub. Perfect. So, I am going to make some rolls and we'll see. Kingsters, what are you doing in the other room to keep yourself safe? Poiskoyd.

Okay, Erin, I have an idea. You have an idea, go for it. So, the, I would say, parts that would in bed frame have been snapped off and put up against any windows to block besides the heavy curtains to do that. And if there is any side windows to the bathroom, those would also have been covered with furniture or anything kind of scrap pieces there.

We're building a fort, is what we're doing. No, I'm just saying, it's just used as debris. You guys are like some... Definitely collided a fort. Yeah. You guys are like some terrible rock band that's come through here and just sort of destroyed every inch of this place.

Can my contribution... Like a fort-like issues. Can my contribution be smearing some coagulated blood over the windows to tint them? Sure, absolutely. I want to remind all of you just of a concept that becomes pretty crucial to this game and even makes it into the title.

The masquerade. I mean, I have the blood on the windows, Erin. It's too soon. I thought this was a vampire hotel. What? Vampire hotel and my serial killer hotel. We saw normal people walk around. Yeah, that's...

Right, fine. And how long can you truly be a vampire hotel with coagulated blood lining windows? I mean, no tall sixes can get away with a lot, but damn. That's pushing it for even them. They're going to turn the light off. They're going to turn the light off immediately. So good. We'll save our masquerade talks for later.

Good. So, I have rolled through. No one has perished in the night. Congratulations. You've succeeded on your first night here in the world, in front of our viewing public. And you wake up the next night in Emory, Utah, which is obviously where we should have based our coterie and not Vegas.

But for now, you have full purview of the area. You wake up in the same way that you always wake up, which is a sort of shock into being. If anyone has ever fainted before or lost consciousness rather than willingly gave it, it feels a lot like that. If anyone has had a near-death experience where your life is suddenly flashed before your eyes, this is what this is.

Every night you are born again into the same curse that fills your body. And it is like a clawing of a corpse coming back to life, essentially. You are brought back against your will and it is painful. It is probing. It pushes you back into the light.

And suddenly, around 8 p.m., all of you have been suddenly back into life. It is a shocking, jarring experience. There is no rousing from this moment. It is a paddle shock against the chest. And suddenly, that heart that does not beat, the beast inside that drives your body forward is awake. Are there any actions here in this motel?

I'd like to think that Burroughs kind of stumbles out of the bathroom, nursing his neck from just like sleeping or being unconscious in a weird position. He's going to come out and he's going to look at Mal noticing all those brochures that they took the night before. And as they kind of rouse to wake, I think Burroughs is going to kind of lock eyes with Mal and say, hey, those brochures you took mentioned

a naked triangle orgy or a flying great white. Is it nearby attractions? No. Mal does not look at any of the flyers. No, absolutely not. Definitely not. Do you think if we asked those people up front, what the hell we saw last night, they'd give us an honest answer? Given that it's a small desert town, probably not.

But I mean, there's no harm in asking, is there? I suppose not. I'm sure it would be nice to have some answers. If I'm sharing a closet with Sybil. Yeah. Do you want to come out of the closet together? We could, but I'll be like, if I'm on the, I'm going to be probably on the opposite side of this. I'm hoping a long closet, but I'll,

I'm just going to be like dead eye staring at Sybil. Yeah, Niles. With a hunger for your susceptible to what we call frenzy tests. And it takes genuine willpower to deny the hunger inside so much so that you, every moment that you are not drinking, you are in a state of being that is dangerous to everyone around you. So let's do what's called a frenzy test. Nice.

Right now, let me pull up the pool for your right name. So to resist frenzy, I would like you to roll your willpower, which everyone should be refreshed. I don't think anyone took any aggravated willpower damage. So your willpower plus a third of your humanity rounded down. So if you've got seven, you're rolling two. So if I have six, you're rolling two. Willpower plus two.

Good luck. Let's not start the evening with a frenzy. Please start the evening with a frenzy. Four successes. That is enough to stay your hand. There is this rising in your chest. And you can feel inside something start to bubble and metastasize in the same way that it did previously.

In the same way that you ballooned out into that terrifying being of extra skin. You can feel that somewhere in you, that skin is bubbling and moving and growing on the inside, trying to speak out at you. There's a rumble down there in the belly of who you are begging you. You could take this one. You could have this one. She doesn't mean anything to you. You don't even know her.

You could drink everything she is and fight your way out of this motel. Hell, you could fucking kill all of them if you wanted to, Niles. We've done it before. We've ran before. We don't need anybody but ourselves. Drink her. Yeah, no, I'm just like tucking myself like super, super tight, trying to just like, like even like clawing into like the sides of my skin,

just trying to keep it like to myself. But I'm just like staring blankly at, at Sybil from across the way. Spoons, who has been, you know, sort of sitting in the closet with the three of you, your third roommate, is visibly agitated by your state and is sort of preening out feathers and some are plucking through, falling off from its skin as it's regarding you in these nervous little ticks of its, its, its a beak looking directly at you. Whatever has just happened inside of you, Spoons reacts to, you know, in a way that he understands what's happening and how dangerous that might be.

While the door is still closed, Sybil has already noticed that you've been sort of me mugging her this whole time. And as like the emotion intensifies and Spoons starts like tweaking, I think Sybil gets up as much as she can in the closet. I think she's probably like on her knees and just like starts looking from your, like one eye to the next. This is, this is weird of unusual. Are you, are you a new person? Sybil, the moment that you move, you can see that Niles reacts accordingly.

Like a predator might size up prey. There is an involuntary response of backing you further into the corner. Okay. Okay. Is it a blood bag that'll do it? Is this worse? I'm just like shaking my head. Like, I just like...

Worse. Okay. Do we need to get someone from the lobby? I just want to get back to Vegas. Okay. I have what I need. I just need to get back to the city. Okay, but you're taking pieces of the wall with you so clearly you don't have everything.

I'll, I'll be fine if we could just get on the road. You can't eat the road. I'll be fine if we just get on the road, please. She opens the door and leaves to give you room, but is not convinced. So we should probably stop to eat before we go. She says to the group, good morning also. Rise and shine everybody, let's get on our way. Yeah, Regal just heads to the door and goes outside to look for, look for food.

I follow Regal outside. Regal, are you going back to where you met the possum mother last night thinking that maybe you can pick off the children? Um, actually going to try to find something a little more substantive. Um, cause you know, like a coyote stray dog, cat, something. Right. It's probably better that the children survive on their own anyways. That's the attitude.

Yeah. Um, yeah. So I'm definitely going to look for something maybe a little bit bigger, start looking for tracks, start looking for something I can, I can, you know, that, that'll slake more than just one hunger at this point. Cause if I do these onesie twosies, I'm not, I'm not going to last. How far are you willing to go from the motel to find food? Oh, um, no more than maybe a five minute walk.

Okay. Uh, let's hope you get lucky then. Let's get a survival plus wits. All right. That's a dice pool of five. If Mal is assisting you in this, you can add an extra die to your pool. The good gamer in me says that I want to assist, but the actual character in me says that I'm being very loud and unhelpful.

Uh, that is for successes. It sounded like a ton of dice. That was beautiful for successes. You absolutely find the tracks of a coyote, uh, out here, um, not far from the motel either. It takes you out to about the rim of the, those five minutes, but you, you feel that clear track that if you kept following for maybe five more, the, just the smell alone with those heightened senses of the dying beast that you are, you can easily find wherever that thing is.

You could hone, hone in. Are you continuing on? Yeah, I'm not, I'm going to keep track and I am going to stop and look over my shoulder and, uh, at Mal. Are we running away? Do you want to? I mean, I don't really care either way, but I feel like they're going to tell us what to do when we get there and that's super not my thing.

Me either. I mean, I don't know what good could possibly await us. I mean, we got snatched, we got thrown in boxes and now they're like, well, we'll bring you back to the prince. Yeah. What the fuck is the print? Like, I know there was a prince in Denver, but like. So the way my teacher explained it to me is that they have this fucked up feudal system

where every city has a prince. That's stupid. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he kind of brought me back. Did you want to? It's a complicated question. Not really. I was angry enough that yes, because I wanted to hurt.

I still do. The ones that put me there. Glad to go. I'm guessing it wasn't the same for you. I didn't really have a choice, though, so. Running place to place. Got chased a little bit. Met a girl.

Left her place. Ended up in a limo. Ended up in a box. You know, the classic homecoming story. Are you wanting to stay with these weirdos? I got to get back to Vegas anyway. I got to bring him my teacher. He had me pick something up.

I got to get back to him. Let's stay with him. But maybe let's look out for each other because they're sure as shit not looking out for us. Okay. Yeah. We'll look out for each other. Sure.

Instills me with nothing but confidence the way you just said that. Thank you. That's my whole thing. Super confident, super huggy, super emotional. It's at that instant that you can find the coyote as you're moving along these tracks and you can see it. It's moving in this new night through the sort of underbrush, the clay outside of this motel, and is so far unaware of the two very adept

conversational kindred in front of it. You have a pretty good chance of making a rush on this thing if you'd liked it. Yeah. Absolutely. Gonna kind of just shoot a look at Mal and then go for it. I will help this time. After our conversation, I'll help this time.

Okay. So go ahead and add one to your pool here, Regal. You'll have dexterity and brawl as Mal sets you up on the other side. Alternatively, if your survival is higher than your brawl, I'll allow that as well. I'll consider that to be your hunting stat. Okay. Awesome.

I'll just drop that motherfucker. All right. Be right back. That is two successes. Two successes is absolutely enough. What does this look like as you grab this coyote? Regal just kind of kind of drops low and like Moe Kerr has taught him and just kind of almost animalistically just slowly

crawls across the desert floor. And then as soon as he's within distance that he knows his new enhanced kind of strength will allow him to pounce and land on this thing. He shoots up and just drops down on top of it and immediately just goes through the throat and just starts drinking. You snap and then open that easy wound to drink deep. We will say that this slakes one hunger. Got it.

Okay. I have a question for you though. There is a perverse longing in you as you break this coyote in half. You've seen Moe Kerr do it before in times past as he's been teaching you. Anytime that he breaks a beast and usually with your teacher it's eating better than a coyote or a possum in the back of a motel. But anytime he breaks a beast, he has a habit of moving his claws along the outer side to name himself across it.

There is this twitch in the third eye across your forehead and the beast that speaks inside. Let it know your holy purpose. Regal, put it down. Let everyone know your name. Every beast. Every marking. We'll do it.

So you take the time to write out alongside this beast. Your name, Regal? Yes, Regal. What language are you writing this out in? How does this look? What's the script? Well, so what Moe Kerr have taught him a different alphabet to use? I think that you have slowly, very slowly given your age

and proclivity to learning new things past childhood. I think a lot of people have trouble with this subject, but you've been learning basic ancient Aramaic. And that is traditionally the language in which Moe Kerr marks his beasts as in a version of Samaritan Aramaic. Yeah, I'll do it in Aramaic. And it's very primitive. This is not like the script is not fluent.

It's not refined. It's simply choppy, blockish, just almost in toddler level. But he does it. What does it feel like, Regal? Is it like forging father's handwriting? Do you have any idea what you're doing? Is there a feeling behind the words as these letters are inscripted into a coyote off the side of the road?

I hate to use the term, but I think to a certain extent he probably feels like it's a little masturbatory. It's for the sake of doing it more than anything else. What's the purpose? Is this really going to help him achieve the goal? What is the point of all this Moe Kerr still has yet to tell him? But there's an almost ritual to it. And I think at this point,

especially having been subsisting on animals for as long as he has, part of him maybe has kind of started to think that it's a celebration of the animal and its sacrifice. You know, a way of passing gratitude, a perverse kind of fucked up way of passing out gratitude, but yeah. I see. If that makes sense. Absolutely. You've sliked to unhunger. The coyote is named in you and you're free.

Thank you for that. Yeah, that was gross. Carving your name, dude. Weird as fuck. I'm assuming that's your name. I really shouldn't have assumed that. Honestly, it looks like doodles. Gross.

Yeah, I know. I mean, no judgment because we're technically monsters, but like... It's a way of giving thanks. Oh, that's actually kind of nice. I pat him on the head and walk off. I have to reach up super high because Mal is very short. How tall are they? In their boots, they're probably like 5'2", but like...

Jesus, okay. 5' without him. Okay. All right. Yeah. Reg, I'll kind of... Don't tell anybody else. You can call me Ethan. That's a nice name. Appreciate it.

Back in the motel, are there any other morning rituals? Well, as far as we can call a morning that we would like to accomplish. Anything that we are looking to do. Maybe we're looking to make some terrible decisions. Is there a moment now that John is out of his bedroom that Niles goes into the bathroom? Definitely. I'm not there. Yeah. I think that's a question for Niles.

You're muted. You want me to go in the bathroom? It would be easier if it were in the bathroom, but it doesn't have to be in the bathroom. I mean, okay. Well, if you are in the bathroom, Sib is going to follow you and activate Sense of the Beast. Okay. Okay. Yeah. No, I'll go in there and like to like wash my face and try to like calm the fuck down

and see if I could get to a state of just general... Yeah. I can get through this last leg. When you look up again into the mirror, Sib is just there. Yeah. And you would have an understanding of what's going on here for sure. That's the first thing you would notice is that Niles is suffering. The additional bits.

What exactly does Sense of the Beast give us information-wise if you want to fill me in here? So it gives nature, hunger, and hostility in humans and kindred. So nature, clan is near indiscernible in Niles. Okay. Makeup, you couldn't really tell what Niles is, but that's typical of a Sense of the Beast. Not everything comes through crystal clear, accurate every single time and many people will masquerade against that necessarily. But in Niles, especially, there's no real love for nature there. They are in a severe state of hunger, an extreme state of hunger.

Hostility, while not active, is probable, is high. You feel as though this is a ticking time bomb. You feel as though if this person does not feed in some way before you get back to Vegas, you are in... You may be walking into the same territory as the Great White. Okay. Okay. So I apologize. I wasn't being clear before.

I don't mess up, right? So I'm with all of you variables. And it's very hard to continue to not mess up, but it looks like you're about to mess up. So I need you to be very honest in what exactly the solution is to this problem. Hmm? Niles, don't you fucking tell her. She doesn't need to know anything. We don't need anyone.

What the fuck is she playing at? She just wants you for that filthy fucking print, someone else to tell us what to do, Niles. I understand your concern. I've been hungry like this before. I'm in control of it. Okay? You could lock the door. You could kill her right here.

If you can just get burrows to gather the rest of us in head and we can just get on the road. If we can't be that far from Vegas, I should be fine. I'm okay. Seriously, I'm not going to mess up. Niles, you felt it too when we passed that weird naked dance thing in the desert. We were all fine and I almost messed up. That's rare. So we're not dealing with little accidents anymore.

Are you sure? Sure. Okay. That was your chance. Leaves the bathroom. Burrows steps out into the night, makes your baby blue is still there and is, you know, once like everyone is out of eye shot, he himself kind of starts to buckle a little bit. From the stomach pain. He's about three hunger and hasn't been at three hunger in a long time.

You know, he's been in Vegas for a little bit and he's got his routine. So he's kind of struggling, but he stomachs it and deciding that it's better leaving no stone unturned. He is going to go to the front desk and see if that same person from the night before is there. You wake up and, you know, step out into the eight o'clock darkness. And you actually see that a familiar face is loading up into his car and that was the older gentleman from the night before with his beeper. As you're sort of stretching yourself out on the balcony there, he does give you a little wave and tips his coffee to you before getting into his car and starting to pull away. There's that fleeting, running voice that makes its way through your veins that says you could zip right down there and take his life before he would even know it was gone. But you, I assume, walk your way down to the receptionist fighting all urges, right, boroughs?

It translates to a friendly wave, hello. I remember getting a human vibe from him, so, or at least a human that isn't involved with us in the way that I assume. So I think I'll probably leave him alone and try to go for the lady in the front. Right. The receptionist is still there. Still the sweet old lady you had seen before. Sort of a white trash Americana who is considerably younger than she should be for her age. And that has always recognized in you what many of the other kindred that you've been on the cursory level of what would call a ghoul.

You'd assume. It's been in media for whatever, for however, right? And many have called it in cursory circles a Renfield. So this could easily be someone who has been feeding off of vampire blood to keep herself young, especially indicative of somewhere kindred friendly. How you doing, darling? You doing well? Late nights doing you well? That's good.

Do me a lot better if I had something else. What you looking for? Are you a generous type? Oh, I see. Isn't that what your boss is for? Well, he hasn't been around in a long time. Really? What's his name, by the way?

Dino. At least that's what they call him on the streets. Old Dino can be stingy, I know from experience. Oh, you're friends with Dino? Talk to him, talk to him before we went on this trip, actually. Tell me about your little hotel here. Well, well, I'm glad he pointed me in your direction, you in my direction. Maybe then it's fate.

And she does sort of suddenly extend out her wrist, both of them, out onto the desk in front of her, just suggesting. I'm going to very friendly kind of put my hands on her wrists and say, listen, you, all your time out here in the desert, you ever see something funny? Some, maybe normal folk would look twice that. Well, honey, I've run a motel for you people. I've seen plenty funny. Well, what about big triangle orgies?

You ever see something like that? Is this an invitation? Not exactly. I'm just, you know, on our way here, we saw a couple of strange things, including this big, ugly, I don't know, like a, like a great white or something. Some kind of creature. Never seen nothing like that flying around. Once or twice, but it sounded more like boogeyman to you.

You, you types. We had six come through on some sort of hunting party a long time ago and post up in town. Just about took out the whole motel. Told me to get rid of everybody involved, but they went out in the desert, whatever it was, stopped eating all the livestock around here and stopped killing all the pets. And they came back. They came back. Okay.

But hurt real hurt. So it was like an extermination process. There's something out here we got to clean up sometimes. Well, yeah. This is where things go to get lost. You know, big desert like this, especially a canyon. There's nothing up here but us. It's an easy place for things to go.

Feral. I think that's about all I really need to know from her. Burroughs is really kind of struggling. She's a ghoul. So I assume she probably wants a little bit of blood or some of my vitay, right? Yeah. It's just, it leaves a, it feels wrong to give it to her in almost like a hypocritical moralistic sense. So I think, I think he's just going to lean in and give her a kiss.

Okay. Using my lingering kiss discipline. Right. Hopefully that might satiate her. She fully reciprocates. You can feel that there's an expectation there. As if she's realizing, yeah, this is how it usually starts. And then she even sort of bends her jaw down towards your wrists as if preparing herself to drink from you.

She goes, oh, you don't know how long I've waited for a fix. I will stop her chin, bring it back up and say, thanks for the help, baby. And I'll, you kind of pat her face a little bit and I will leave the room. She looks fucking gobstocked. Just absolutely shocked that you're walking. Hey, well, well that wasn't the deal. I gave you information. Please.

I can't tell you, we haven't had anybody through here for weeks and I'm starving. I'm starting to age again. I have wrinkles, please. You can't leave us like this. We can't just come into our lives like this and then just leave us like this. You can see she looks almost manic behind the desk. That's brutal. I, I, he stops at the door and he's like asking himself, what kind of man am I, you know, to let a woman suffer like this.

And he sees Raigel and Mal coming back from the desert and he just shifts his focus to that and just walks past the complaining. He doesn't give her what he wants. Curses you out on the way out. You can see that she's like mopping back tears and sort of rubbing her wrists into her face there. As Raigel and Mal come up, I, I'm just like, like in business mode, I go, hey, would you say your name was Raghu? Raigel. Oh, Raigel. I'm sorry, man.

I didn't mean to do that. Oh, hey, why don't you sit up front with me when we drive and I'll signal towards baby blue. Keep an eye on me. I just need somebody to talk to while we drive. All right. You're out, pasta. We're not going to do that. That's not going to be a thing.

That's not going to come on. Oh, fuck my life. Unlife. Whatever the fuck. Okay. Let's go, kids. Are the three of you piling into baby blue getting ready then? Yeah.

Baby blue is no less worse for wear than they were last night. They are still hurt up the sides. The front fender has sort of been clipped through and pulled back a little from the kick of the foot propping itself up onto the hood. And you can see that there are these huge beast jeal marks across the front side that maybe if you were in a fast and the furious flick, you could pass off as like decal. But here it is the wrenched pulled metal of this old mobile, a town car type that now looks as though it's been peeled by some sort of industrial machine.

And then the same scrapes down the side that have killed that beautiful powder blue paint. But she looks completely drivable. All of it is cosmetic. There's no white smoke. There's no smoke to be seen. And everything's working, no flats. She looks good. She's just going to need a hell of a paint job.

That's fine. Casey can take care of that one and get back in town. I jump in. I claim the seat that is directly behind boroughs so he can't see me. And I squish into the corner and I just try to disappear. Beautiful. Let's check on our Kingsters. Kingsters, how's your night going?

Alison is going to wake up, probably most likely on top of Enoch, but it's, she's actually going to wake up very panicked, like, and calling him. And like she's going to touch Enoch constantly in the face to make sure like, here, here, here, here. Yeah, I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. Don't go, no, no, no, no, no, don't go nowhere.

Okay. Just, and that'll be her for a minute literally just clinging like, I think just very scared, kind of like a lot. Yeah, I think, I think Enoch is like just cradling her through it. But he has like, you know what, as he has like her head kind of like tucked up on his shoulder, he's just kind of like given this little dastardly smile. I'm in control of this situation. And there is a level of control.

There's always been for you two. It is the dynamic of everything that you are. It is a constant push and pull of it. And God, Enoch, it feels so good to be the one in control this night, the start. You know, in the back of your mind, that voice, everything that speaks to you, knows that you could do anything to her, anything you wanted to, absolutely anything. And that to you must be trust, right? The ability to do anything to her.

And in that moment, she's sort of cradled and small in your arms. Go ahead. I think as like those random thought bubbles are bouncing around in my head, I think that my hand is kind of like just at the base where like her neck meets her shoulder. And it's just kind of gradually getting tighter. Not to like the point where it hurts, but like it's noticeable. You're not leaving, right? You're not, you're not, you're not going to leave me, right?

You're not leaving. I'm not going to leave you, Allison. Everything's going to be okay. You promise? Okay. I promise. Okay. We're golden, baby.

Okay. We're all so really late. I think they're waiting for us. Should we make them wait a little bit longer? Fuck. Rupa strangers, I don't know. Or we could play knock, knock who's there. Okay.

Shoot. How long do you want this to go? Okay. Whatever the fuck knock, knock who's there is. I have no interest in finding out. We can just literally until someone like knocks on the door to apply reminder, needless to say, it takes at least 15 minutes that we're holding everybody up.

There is. As civil and Niles, are we getting into the car? Wait, you're on mute. No, go for it. I was, I was going to say, I will be the one that is in a minute. There is a supreme amount of noise so much so that the folks on the first level inside baby blue can hear the guttural screams going on

on the other side of that room, the screams of passion, a fear of at some points violence from both sides. I was going to say about every 20 seconds, you just feel the ground kind of shake underneath you. Whatever terraforming you're doing, clean it up. I would like to think even with the extreme kind of like that noise in that rattle, I do think they would get dressed and they would look immaculate because they would always.

Oh yeah, immediately. Like once we're like done, everything kind of like stills out for a second. Door opens. There's just, you know, five minutes of silence and we come out perfectly dressed. All the furniture, by the way, is quickly back assembled. She, I didn't say everything is like great, but it's like we, we

didn't. I will. I'll say that everything in that room is pristine. Because I haven't, he knows how to, yes, it's pristine perfect. Beautiful. Well, they're doing all that. I'm making a B line for the car and I just like open it, slam the door and just like tuck in everybody.

Good morning. Oh, I'm sorry. Were you waiting for us? Oh, I guess we better get in the car. Just get in the car. Just get in the car. I don't even, I'm not even going to look in there. I would actually open the door to display it on purpose.

Totally fresh. Don't worry. They scotch guarded everything. And then I'm going to go like right. Team not to be like first one to the car wins and just date. That's it. That's fine. It's fine.

It's worth it. First of superhuman speed to get to powder blue, baby blue as Allison moves down the steps. Enoch and toe and civil in shock. I assume we're all getting in and making our five hour drive back to Vegas. Here we go. So I need two things.

We're going to get you straight to Vegas. Just about. We're going to skip that five hour unless something goes terribly wrong here. There's a little bit of business I want to take of. Take care of while we're driving. It'll be absolutely sure. First thing is like it's like all right.

We're off. We'll start going the very first like gas station. I stop. Start filling it up. Go into the gas station and burrows buys every single snack that like they have twinkies, you know, every cookie, you know, they got any me pies. He buys one of everything and he comes back with like two shopping

bags full of food and he will start compulsively eating the entire drive back. What's in there? What do you got? I got some ho ho's. I got some Chocodoo's. What you want? Do you have any like those ringy pops, the ring pops?

Yeah, they had a ring pop here. Here you go, baby. Yes. Throw it back behind me. And I'm going to go ahead and start doing that. But like sign the ring pop very like immaturely for me. I can't eat any of that. I can't taste it all off of her.

The moment that her mouth climbed through and sitting in the front seat like wedged as tight as they can between other people. Absolutely not. No. No. I'm seeing who's like a little uncomfortable about it. It's like, it's like, especially watching. Exactly.

They would probably up it, but also not make sure to the point where it gets too. It's just enough to make everyone a little on edge. Uncomfortable. Gotta keep the vibe up. The other thing I want to do is while we're driving the path to time, Burroughs is going to start just like talking to Raigel.

And you know, Raigel's, he has to sit in the middle where the gear shift is. So every once in a while, my hand will suddenly like fly towards your crotch. But it's actually the gear shift and I'll like change gears or whatever. But as we're driving, you know, the Burroughs is so, Raigel, just how new are you?

It's actually a good question for you too, Mal. I'll adjust the back mirror so that I can see Mal behind me as at least the best that I can. Well, they're in the front seat now. I'm in the front seat now. I crawled into the front seat because Mal's sitting up. I'm just looking down the barrel, you know. Just how new are you?

A couple months. A couple months. Yeah. Same. Same. You guys filled in on everything, you know, you know about the clans. General details.

Yeah. That's good. That's good. What about the boys that took us a visit back in Denver? You notice who they were? The cops. Guns usually mean bad, so. All I know is whatever they had, it hurt like hell.

I even felt something like that since I was alive. I kind of gestured to everyone else. I'm a little new to this, too. I got to be honest with the whole culture thing that that wasn't the cops, was it? Cops don't carry that kind of shit. They can put a hole in a vampire the way they did. No, they weren't.

Special ops government, I mean, federal, maybe? Would I know the phrase second inquisition? Okay. You would know it in its shorthand, which is SI, but it was definitely something that your sire told you a lot about. She was a very anxious woman. And the SI was chief in one of her concerns. You know what they're talking about.

You know just how much of a threat this emboses to your life. So they were almost, I guess cops is close. They're vampire cops. The SI, if we want to stick to cool abbreviations, but they're here to do exactly what they did last night. The SI have a badge? You ever see a badge or anything on them? They're not.

They're organized, but they're not that kind of public. The way that it was explained to you, Sybil, they are like six different organizations that all fall under a similar banner and similar goal, but are reflected in different culture, different continent, different belief system and different backing power. Some are government, some are not. Some are American, some are not.

But all of them serve the same goal. Well, look, all I'm trying to say is Mal, Raquel, you guys, you got to figure it out. I mean, you know the basics. It's going to get better from here. We're going to take you to the Prince. You're going to kiss a ring. You know, it's going to take a little time for them to come

to trust you, but once they do, you're good as gold. You're going to be able to do whatever you want. I don't have to kiss a ring. I did when I met him. Gross. Do you know how many resources it took to get people in, I guess, kindred in New Orleans to A, locate us, B, snatch us, C, secure us, D, transport us back up to Denver?

I mean, all that just to get us to bend the knee, kiss the ring, you really think that's all they have intended for us? There are worse things to kiss if that gives you any peace of mind. Can't you just be thankful to be wanted? Holy shit. I don't even know what to say to that. Think about it. No, think about it.

I mean, the amount of resources it took, it's just to get us to pledge our fealty to some fucking feudal lord. Obviously you two are very special. We'd be lucky to have you in Vegas. Also, I would recommend be careful with the overthinking too much when it comes to how the structure is. Just think of it. Just think of it like one big game.

None of this is real anyway. So you might as well have some fun while we're here. Let me just. I actually kind of agree with that. And I hate that. Yeah. I like you. I mean, you seem OK, most of you for the most part,

but you try to hurt me or Mal. You're going to have to put me fucking down. I like a man who puts his foot down. Look, if I can give you another recommendation, you might want to think about another name besides Ra'Gel when you're talking to, you know, regular folk. I think Ra'Gel's fine. I don't know, it's pretty archaic, don't you think?

My name is Ra'Gel. I mean, people are going to be like, what the hell are you talking about? Oh, the Lord of Ra'Gel. It's the. Sweet God almighty. It's the. Is it there a brand of canned pasta named that? Hey, we're not doing that.

Well, what do you think of Ray Ray? Sure. Whatever. Ray Ray. I had a cousin named Ray Ray. It's a good nickname. It's catchy. All I know is when my teacher brought me back.

He said the old me was dead. And there are people out there who would not take too kindly if who I was was to show back up. So we stick with Ra'Gel. Call you Ra'Gel. Mind your business tactic. Respect me. He's not even minding his business.

He's forgetting his past. I think it's a good idea. Once once you become kindred, you don't look back. It's the rule I have. It gets you through a lot. Yeah, we're going to ask you to change a lot about yourself. Then you won't mind if I tell you to fuck off. I would prefer it.

Holy shit. You can tell us to fuck off all you want. It's the people we're going to go see. You probably can't. It's this Prince, right? I'm guessing what? Camarilla? Prince Aloysius Grant.

Oh, yeah. That's a stupid name. So we agree that Aloysius is the stupider of the two names? Yeah. I mean, you guys are giving Ra'Gel shit for his name. And then you follow some asshole named Aloysius Grant. We can't call him that. We can now.

Wishes? No. Wishy? Oh, I think you'll love that. You should absolutely call him Wishy. Hell yeah. I mean, you could do it once, but it's probably going to be the only time. No, trust me.

Trust me. Simple. You love it, right? Yes. Since you seem to be in the know, what does he want with us? Oh, I don't know. I have no idea. All I know is that he has to see you and he has to have you, but I don't know.

He has to have us. I don't know what that means, but maybe it's just that you're in the city. It's important that he knows that you're there. I think it means exactly what it sounds like. Do we really now think, all of us, do we really now think this is all just about his kiss and summering? Have us? What in the ever-loving fuck?

Have you played the game Hungry Hungry Hippos? What? Yes. That's kind of what princes are. They're like hippos, right? Where they just try to hoard as many resources as possible, and then they sort of show them off during the Elysium, and it just kind of scares people into staying in possession of the hippo.

Yeah. Take up a loved childhood game and make it an orgy. No. Well, it's okay. It's turning a little bit there. Much drier than that. It's just... Nice choice of words.

It's like a neutral middle ground, right, Elysium? Yes. Yes. That is the good thing, is that, well, it's a good thing if we all agree to it, is that the Elysium doesn't get violent usually. Unless provoked. For the final time. Like if you do it, you die, essentially.

You can die. No need to beat a dead horse. We all know what's going to happen if we misbehave. Eventually, this gun is going to explode, and we'll all be dead, so... That's true. That'll be nice. Well, since you seem to know what you're doing, we'll follow your lead, but... I mean, like I said, I'm not the strongest, not the fastest, but I'm going to make you

work for it. I appreciate that. Burrows will... Yeah, go ahead. I was going to say, you heard Ray Ray, I'm in charge. Yeah, Burrows is just going to drive on. Beautiful. I need two things to happen and order for you to live.

Ah. Jesus. Okay. What? That looks kind of weird. What the hell? Burrows. Give me a drive roll.

Okay. Fuck. After doing some math, we realized I needed a point in drive, so here we go. Driving baby blue, no less. That's a specialty. That is one success. It's going to help out. It's going to help out.

Oh, crap. Let's give that extra dice, because I'm a little worried myself. Let's give that extra dice to Nile's pool to be frenzy in this convertible car. Yeah. Oh, fear and panic. Let's go. You can do it. Come on.

Please. Please don't kill us here. It's very important you pass this. Oh, God, they're silent. There's a lot of silence. There's math. That's why. That's why.

Hold on. Okay. Two successes. Okay. The extra burrows dice. Okay. That's with the extra burrow dice. Okay.

I'm going to call this in into chance, because if this happens, it's bad. I hate it. I've just been quiet in the corner. Some time passes. There is a cool calm drive. Baby blue makes it well on the roads. And after this conversation, there is a lull in which the sweet gospel music of the Lord fills. That gospel music feels ironic in a time like this.

In the same way that the way that burrows shovels fast food down his gullet feels ironic. To some of you in the car, it almost feels egregious. Here he is doing exactly what he did in life. And some of you will never do that again, not without its consequences. There are so many things like that. So many moments like that, Niles, that are so foreign from what you were that you begin to question what you've become. Niles, you are barely holding it together. You are fraying at the edges, and all of them smell so good.

So incredibly good. We pull up to the border of Las Vegas, Nevada. Entering into the town. Entering into the city that will become your home for God knows how long. But you don't enter the city like any tourist. There's no huddled crowds underneath the neon welcome sign, no fooling yourself into pretending that this is a vacation, especially not for Niles. This is no vacation. This is a stay.

Instead, you crawl into the city through the back, passing by the speedway and the federal complex of Nellis Air Force Base. But before the hairs on the back of your neck can stand up at the thought of the military and their side on you, you can see the beacon of Las Vegas, the stratosphere. The stratosphere, the fifth tallest tower in the United States, calls to you. The gold post that reminds you that you're home and safe from another road trip. For some of you, maybe this is only a handful of times that you've ever seen it. Maybe a handful of times that you've ever seen the city. But it is a beautiful, beautiful oasis within this long barren drive, especially for you, Niles. It is a symbol that you have made it, that you are at least still breathing and you haven't destroyed this car just yet.

But every neon sign, every beautiful skyscraper, every push of the strip into the world is easy to see through all of this. Las Vegas Highway until it brings you off directly onto Las Vegas Boulevard and into the no-kins land of this city. The true Las Vegas Strip. The nightlife of Vegas is alive every night. This one is no exception. You're greeted by the lights of Circus Circus, the Venetian, Caesars and Bellagio, all before joining the very center of this ecosystem, the center of your world. And every type of sinner is out amongst the dead, stumbling over themselves, spilling drinks and innards along the sidewalk, fighting and fleeing, patiently awaiting ubers at their designated personal transit spots while nursing the heads of their alcohol-poisoned companions.

The worst of humanity is on display for as far as the eye can see. The smell of debauchery laced with Hennessy weed and champagne. Crying strippers and lost drag queens, dying addicts and drunk tourists. As foolish as they all seem, they're alive. More than most could boast, they're celebratory, almost flagrant in their flaunting of life's pleasures. It's enough to salt the tongue against the memory of what it was like to eat, to drink, to feel. Now, from the window of baby blue, it's so much easier to imagine what it feel like to feed as the neon glow basks over the angles of your face. Now, as you fight the traffic and the half-dressed expanses of Las Vegas's pedestrians, you're aware that there's a decision to be made in your half-torn baby blue.

We need to decide where we go next. Well, I know that the arcade is where the Camarillo usually sits, so I'll be heading in that direction unless somebody stops me. They didn't give us a delivery address? You were given the contact information for Santos, who is the liaison for the Camarillo heading out of McCarran Airport. You would know Burroughs as well that the arcade hotel and casino is where the prince houses himself. I see. But that he is, in fact, not the keeper of Elysium. So while the arcade would be a good place to start, there are options here.

So it sounds like we have to find Elysium? None of us know where Elysium is, huh? You could call Santos, and there's no telling. He'd probably give you that information. But as of right now, Sybil has never been invited to Elysium, and she is maybe the only one that would have had an invitation to be in one. So for many of you, it's a secret. It's a first time. I like the thing, I pull out my old cell phone, then I'm like, I look back at Mal, like, God damn it. Somebody's going to need to get to a pay phone or something. We can get ahold of Santos. Do they still have those? Las Vegas absolutely still has pay phones in a world where 90% of your population is intoxicated.

It's very important that they have ample means of communication. Meaning that you can stop at just about any casino and find a public phone that you can pay for, or many of the security guard posts will actually give you one as well. You know what? I'll probably stop at a motel that Burroughs has been to before, and probably quickly say hello to the night clerk and then quickly go to the pay phone and probably call Santos. Yeah, absolutely. You pull off of the strip and it takes a few blocks out, but you find a motel you're usual to. You park in the front there and pull up to the receptionist, and they absolutely allow you to use their phone.

The EGLE has landed. What do we do next? I don't know what that means. EGLE? It means we got what we went out to get. Is this Burroughs, yes? It's Burroughs, yes. I guess I should have introduced myself. Okay. We can meet up McCarran. You'll drop off your car there. Don't bring any weapons. About the dumbest thing you've ever done if you do that. We'll park in McCarran. We'll move in the shuttle. I'll show you Elysium.

The Prince is waiting. They've all been waiting. All right. We'll be there. I'll hang up, come back to the car. They said no weapons. I don't know what that means. We just don't carry any weapons, but we got a whole shitload of them in the trunk. My body is a weapon. Okay. Here, me too. I actually know a door.

I think we'll be okay if we leave them in the trunk. I think they just said, like, not on our first. It's just there. Wait, wait. Do we need to just drop them off in like a holding area? Because if... I think we're all done. We don't want to piss Santos off. I think a holding area might be the smart idea. We should put the weapons in a holding area.

Yes. If there's a location that's not far from... I got this. I got this. Perfect. All right. Tell me where to drive. Caleb, one of my inner, like, fans on that. We have to kind of go to a sheriff's office. Another sheriff. We're going to be cool giving a bunch of weapons to a sheriff. What kind of sheriff?

I cannot say this clearly enough. We will not go to any law enforcement office. We're not going to go to the actual... I just need to use my phone. I just dropped it off. Listen to me. One of my fans will pick it up and put it in a lit location. I only know.

I understand what you're saying. I'm not stupid. What I am saying is I will not go anywhere near a law enforcement office in this state. What about a store hall? What we got a store hall or a fucking... Just put them in a dumpster. Just put them in a dumpster. In a dumpster?

Put them in a dumpster. Put them in a bush. Put a dumpster by the airport. Put a bunch of weapons in a dumpster by the airport. Caleb, how far are we from the hate line? Yeah. Where are we? From which haven are we speaking to? My drainage tunnel.

You would be about 25 minutes from that drive out there? Got it probably a bit too far. With no other good suggestions. I'm just going to start pulling the weapons out and stuffing them in a nearby trash bin. I think we nailed it. We're not on the strip guys. We're not on the strip. We do have to upload these weapons.

So I'm trying to think of an area. There is a beautiful sort of imagery as this conversation is going on. Burroughs opens the door to baby blue, waddles out to the back trunk, throws it open, grabs two shotguns, walks it over to a Las Vegas municipal dumpster, and just chucks two stalks of the fucking shotguns into the back. I go left there and I start feeding the rest of them into his hands. There's Kevlar that's now tossed into the back. I have question.

I have question. You're off the strip, so you're a couple blocks from the main thoroughfare. There are still people walking Vegas because Vegas is a very walkable city and just a couple blocks away. You're still going to be walking through. They pay you next to no fucking mind because it's a Vegas. There is definitely like a second look of, oh my God, what the fuck is happening? Maybe we should call the police later. But they keep walking.

They also do have like that way that they can basically like kind of like a landscape. I don't think we have to worry about that. Yeah, I'm going to use dominate on any unsuspecting. So therefore it could just be like, look away. There's nothing to see here. Move along like Star Wars. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi was just like, because move along, nothing to see. You catch their eyes and sort of slide down the sunglasses on your face.

And as soon as they connect with you, move along becomes less of a suggestion and more everything they've ever wanted to do. They keep moving as if they've seen nothing. I think this is a good opportunity to bring up a topic we discussed earlier in the show. Which one? It is sort of... I didn't mean to like call it rough, but I just wanted to upload it. I don't think I'm referring to Allison this time.

The masquerade is very important in what we do here at Vampire the Masquerade. The masquerade is a sort of thin film we use to protect the vampire world from the human world. And decisions like leaving shotguns in dumpsters. Or you know, anything like that really. Sometimes cause us to throw caution to that thin film separating us from mortals finding out we exist. In these crucial moments, how we handle these situations is how we'll dictate the masquerade score that I've set up for the Chronicle. Like every good scale, we start at zero. And then a couple shotguns later, we move farther along.

Currently for the Chronicle, we're working with a masquerade scale of five. There are five masquerade violations and for each violation, things become a little harder to do in the city. Now, I'm not going to tell you what is and what isn't a masquerade violation. But if the game of fine, this is going to stop me. You are wrong. I just want to make this painfully clear. I'm never here to stop you. I think it just wasn't at three hunger. He'd be thinking a little more clearly. So I think I got it. We got to go through with this. I love it. I just wanted to at least introduce the concept. If you thought masquerade was ever going to stop any of us.

I love you. It's not going to stop me now. That we consider just leaving the shotguns in the car. If this is the alternative, I'm going to go head inside with him. That I would rather bring weapons to the Elysium than leave. From what Burroughs was saying, we are a shuttle, right? You said a shuttle, right, Burroughs? They're going to put us in a shuttle, yeah. We're dumping the car. We're leaving it at McCarran. We're getting in a shuttle.

So as long as we don't have weapons on our persons. All right. All right. I'm cool with that. Next time, tell me before I put the goddamn shotguns in the trash. We were still talking when you decided to do that. Again, this Hawaiian shirted beard-gutted shotgun at each hip walking back to the trunk. Just the most beautiful picture. Now that it's time to put the guns back away, I'm not helping anymore. I'm half-heartedly trying to do shadow cloak to sort of mask it. But it's not real. Mal doesn't care that much.

They think it's kind of funny, so they're not really covering it too much. Reg, I was helping, Burroughs. I do want to grab Enoch, but with my nails and be like, What did we say about disagreeing in public? Did you something wrong? Did I do something wrong? I'm getting in a fucking car. Okay, okay. Okay, I'm getting in the car.

No! Okay. Sorry about that. Okay, Enoch, mechanically, if you are to argue with Allison in the next session, please let me know, as we'll have to make a willpower check to see that. Not even gonna try. I'm just gonna do what she says. Understood. Okay, we're in the car. We're driving off to McCarron.

Driving to McCarron. Beautiful. Beautiful. Are there any stops along the way? Maybe to feed? Yeah. How's everyone doing? We can make a quick stop. Yeah, we can make a quick stop. I'm good. You're muted, Niles.

All day today. Yeah, could we stop somewhere? Tell me where, where, where do you want to go? I'd probably have a, like, old abandoned warehouse that I'm probably shacking up with somewhere in, like, the warehouse areas. All right, let's take her to this weird warehouse district. Yeah. Niles sort of walks you through the directions hand-by-hand instead of using the GPS because,

of course, you can't. But eventually, you find your way into the more industrial area of East Vegas that is more into the locals than you've ever been tonight. But you eventually find this sort of shipping company that has a series of warehouses, one of which has gone completely derelict. The chain link fencing area that Niles has you pull Baby Blue up to that is alternative to the actual parking lot of the shipping company. You're sort of in the next parking lot over.

But there is a very convenient snipped peel in the chain link fencing that anyone could climb through if they knew it was there. And Niles, you're here at your home. At least what has passed for your home for your time here in Vegas. There have been many, many unbound that have slept here with you. It is sort of like a communal housing for kindred who have been lost and destitute. You've had more roommates than you could ever actually befriend anyone through. And this is also the place where you met Hugh originally, who has given you sort of some

guidance here in the city. But you know, this is also where you stashed the last of it. I'll be right back. And I'm just going to get out of the car. Sign the door, leave everybody behind and head towards wherever head to my little space in this warehouse. There's probably like a little like kind of like mattress that I've probably been using and shit.

I'll go under and lift it up underneath. There's like a loose floorboard. I'm going to push that aside and in there is just like a very dark, almost black looking colored bag of blood bag. And I'm just going to like sit off into a corner for a second and just rip into it and just drink all of it. Niles, there is no stopping you in your consumption. As soon as you can smell it, you are ripping the floorboard free.

You toss your bed across the side to the room as it slams into the corrugated sighting of the warehouse. And on the other side from baby blue, you can hear that crash and pulling through the floorboard, it's tossed across to the side. You pull out a blood bag that is maybe a fifth full. It's barely anything. It's barely enough. But Niles, this is the last of us.

You drink it without even thinking, but know that as soon as that last drop touches your tongue, that's everything you brought to Vegas with you. If you're going to drink again, it's going to be half. It's going to have to come from your own accord. You're going to have to find it yourself. You like to hunger drinking through and you can reduce yourself back down to two. Yeah, I'm going to like throw the bag across like the room because I'm all like and just like I'm like almost hyperventilating a little bit because I just want a little bit more

of it. And there's just not enough about enough of it as I'm kind of like trying to like get whatever little bit and just like try to like scraping your teeth and licking in at the things and trying to absorb every last ounce. The feeling is viscous. It has always been a texture unlike anything else that is both a tough and coagulated, but dripping. It doesn't feel like a blood.

It never has. It feels like cursing through thick. It's a feeling unheard of really. It drips down your throat into what you are and becomes sticky like toffee like stained against your rib cages like it fills every part of you like a sickness moving through you. But it is the greatest taste you have ever known. You tasted blood before this.

You've tasted it since and it has never done what this does. It changes you and immediately you feel refreshed. Back at the car while they're feeding burrows is just going to be immediately like who wants to put money down on what her deal is. Hmm. I think she's got somebody chained up in there and she likes to feed on. It's common. She's not a vegan like him.

That's not an animal. It's. Ooh, I like that idea. Could be a specific kind of person maybe. That's what I'm saying. She's got some former lover or something locked up in there. I don't know. I'm getting.

That's the way to do it. I'm getting like vengeful enemy or something in there. Oh, maybe it's both. You don't have to choose. Oh, a friend of me. A friend with benefits. Enemy with benefits. While you guys have a conversation, I'm going to come back.

Niles comes back and spoons has joined them on their shoulder. You can see that she she is still sort of pressing in at the lips. Trying to get every last ounce out, but definitely looks a lot more put together than the on edge effects she had. They had the entire drive through back to Vegas. Is that better? I'm jealous. I'll start the car.

You are jealous, Burroughs. You're starting to feel it. It's been a long night. You're getting a little long in the tooth yourself. We wonder if maybe you shouldn't just take some of Nile's stash before you go off to Louisiana. You just did that. All that stuff you eat to that.

Does that help? No, no, I'll have to pick it up later. It's part of the thing. Do you taste it? Yeah, I can taste it. That's why I mean it tastes good. But I mean, you know, keep my mind off of my real meal. What's your real meal?

What would you like to know? I would. What is it? I would also like to know. No, give me the strength to ignore this. You want to know what my meal is? We know what your meal is. Yeah, we know what your meal is.

Actually, distraction, distraction for you. She pulls out the briefcase and just directly puts it in Enoch's lap. Just open that for me. No, I am sitting on Enoch's lap, so it's probably going to end up on my lap. Okay, that's fine. I don't know how this works and I'm not a part of this. But I can all open it on top of her lap, but I'm like making a game out of it with a sin where I say, oh, what's inside, huh?

Oh, but here's the thing. Here's the thing. And she touches your shoulder. No evidence. If we get this open, no evidence. You understand? Oh, it's that kind of a game. Any deals with him, you do realize, like, there must be a discussion with me.

Hi, I'm here too. I did not realize. Hi. Hi. So, no evidence. What are you putting on us? Hopefully nothing. But if there's evidence, then I suppose whatever the evidence is.

So like all these fingerprints that we just got on it? Well, that's what baby wipes are for. I figured you would both understand that. I'm going to kind of look to Enoch and I'll be like, what are your thoughts? Yes, no, you want to... I like a good puzzle. I bet you I can crack it open easy. Not crack.

Oh, I get it. You want to see what's in there without telling somebody, without having somebody else know that you were inside. Who's this for? It's for the prince. Oh, nasty. You want to break into the prince's briefcase for you? I thought you were like all by the books too.

Interesting. I don't know who told you that. I am... I am about my business. Which is going to be sad. What do we get out of it? Yeah. I don't know.

If something of value is in the briefcase, then I suppose we would share the knowledge. Because I don't mess with people's memories. Nothing. But what if it's a dangerous knowledge? We might be actively taking on a risk by opening this. You got to give us something good for that. Enoch, there's that ring again just in the back of your mind. We should open it.

We need to know. We need to know. Enoch, it's for us. She gave it to us. It's ours. Take it. Take it open it. You know, on second thought, Allison, I think I'd really like to open it right now.

I want to open it right now. I know. I know. And I'm going to kind of pet him, calm him down. I'll grab him and kiss him for a little bit to get him focused a little bit on that. Okay. You good? I'm good.

Can I open it? I get off his lap and I'm going to go ahead and just get off. And I'm like, if something explodes, I'm nice. That's like my sign. You'd rather be next to him instead of on top of him. Not on that. Allison ain't stupid, stupid. She's just reckless.

So she's just going to hop off and be like, yes. So I guess I'm, I guess I'm, I guess I tried to open it. Knowledge is power. Damn it. Yes. I know. Okay. No, we fucked up.

That's what we're here for. We're here to fuck up. Have you met us? Let me get a dexterity and larceny. Dexterity and larceny. You picked the wrong man for this job. Okay. Wait a minute.

I have larceny. Oh, you do? I do. You want to help? Right team. I do have decks. Can we tag team it? You want to tag team it?

Okay. We'll tag team it. Storyteller, does that confer? Does that change the role at all? Well, yeah. Which one of you has the higher dexterity? I have a two. I have a two.

Okay. Which one of you has the higher larceny? I have a zero. I have a one. That's where I was like, at least I have something. So let's have Allison do the role and they'll get an additional one. So a pool of four. There you go.

Great. Two successes. No, no. You can use your willpower to re-roll up to three dice if you'd like to. I got to know what's in there. Wait, did we leave anything behind though? Like everything's like we didn't leave anything. Oh.

Oh, like break anything? Yeah, like you know how you said like. Broke it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Do it. Oh, no more willpower.

I think you should use the willpower. All used. Okay. Sorry. Willpower. I'll go ahead and use that. You can re-roll two and if two of those or if one of those is a success, you may break through.

Oh, I got a 10. Yes. Yes. Okay. Are those two 10s or one 10? One 10 and I was one just like four. Okay. Got it.

So we have three total successes. Yes. Okay. Deciding factor. Enoch, give me one roll. Just one die. Seven and above. We cracked this thing.

Success with seven. Nice. Good. Okay. You just couldn't hold back your curiosity, could you? It's that voice again, the one that convinced you you deserve it all. Well, let me be the first to tell you that you deserve everything that's coming to you. There is a clinical snap as the lock comes free and the seals click open, revealing the

contents inside. Before I tell you what's inside, I'd like to know which of the two kingsters touched the seals? You'll have to pick one. Oh. I mean, and Allison made the roll. I was going to say I made the like whatever I would like to say the dexterity thing. Beautiful.

I agree. Allison. I need you. Okay. To make. Let's see. Oh, Lord. Just don't blow up my car.

I'm about to blow up. Okay. I'm about to go. Listen, it's not as bad as it seems. Just make a straight dexterity pool. Whatever you have in dexterity. Gabala's pretending not to be interested, but is like trying to see over their shoulder. One success.

Okay. That is not enough. I figured. Three of your fingers are blasted clear from your hand, gone, permanently removed. As a ward is activated on the rim of the seals themselves, blood begins to pour from the seals and then rim into the circular glyphs that expose onto the shield of this briefcase as it's covered in this red film of energy and then explodes in the back of baby blue. And Allison, you were flung back into the side of the car missing the first three fingers

on your right hand. You take one aggravated damage for your trouble. Wait, wait. Thumb this this or like the other side. You pinky ring middle. Can't flip people off on that hand for now. This is like in this is like in a pulp fiction where he shoots him in the back of the car. Yeah, it is an audible sound to you.

You all are sort of shocked back by it. Are you okay? What the fuck? Like that's like she kind of is getting off on his two guys. Okay. So I'm just going to turn and then maybe like start like licking her hand. I'm going to stop. Can I can I get in there too?

I'm going to somebody figure out that things going to blow up. What the hell is going on? You all know we need to ditch us now, right? I'm giving a case back to let's not get too hasty. I can tell you what's inside. What's inside? Inside and cut polyurethane squares are two items. One is an ancient spearhead with a thin base running to a razor sharp point

and engraved relief of feathers lying across the head. And for every few bundles of feathers, there is the inscription of the evil eye. A photo realistic rendition of large black irises from the rusted metal staring back at you. Its shaft has dying vestiges of what must have originally been a red tied cloth along the socket, which now stands frayed and breaking. The shaft itself has been broken close to the spearhead. And while it seems the two never part, the shaft was broken at some point through the iron, snapped at a jagged edge making it small enough to fit the case.

It's never good when your shaft breaks. It looks like an artifact of some kind. Ancient. The other is a sort of ceramic disc that is about 10 inches in diameter in a natural clay color that is indented with dashes and lines that perimeter the circle to form borders until reaching the center where a star shape encapsulates two hands preying with fingers outstretched to either side. In the center of the two hands is a moon with a man's bearded face

and bulging bleeding eyes that pool into the craters on that moon. Caleb? Yes. Would any of us actually like recognize with our like this? Like because I'm just trying to double check like would that be something like easily recognizable? Sure, Allison. Go ahead and give me a, what should we call this? Let's call this a cult and intelligence for you.

Okay. Oh, yeah, we can do that. You got something in a cult too? I do. Ooh, three successes. Okay. With that being said, you do recognize the evil eye. That is the most notable symbol on these two items.

The evil eye is used in many different forms to serve as a protection from evil. It is a warning sign to prevent the user from harm. That's the most you recognize. I will, I'll say that out loud because I obviously don't know that much details. I would have told everyone in the car the vague knowledge of that. And just know I would have ripped, just won't have any extra clothing or something so I could wrap my hand up so it's not bleeding all over the car. Yes. Well, our being, being what it is, kindred, you don't bleed in the typical way.

Vitay is expended sometimes, but having not fed in a while, you're not exactly bleeding as much as a human would. It's not like a gush of blood. It's like, got it. Okay, cool. You're a corpse. What did the eyes look like again, Caleb? The eyes look photorealistic with black irises. They look to be crying, but it's a typical depiction of, well, you know what, give me an intelligence plus investigation or science, whatever is higher for you, Regal.

Got it. Okay. Come on, Ray, Ray. You got this. Intelligence, he said. Yeah, intelligence and either science or investigation. It's a good pool. Hunger dice in there.

Okay, here we go. That is four successes. You recognize that the evil eye is most likely a Roman depiction. They enjoyed putting the realistic touch on the evil eye as a form of like appropriation of the Egyptian version that was just the black eyeliner iris. And you also recognize that those hands are actually Cohen's prayer's hands, which are of Judaism, essentially. They are a Jewish priest's, the same hands you give out when you are receiving a blessing, essentially. And those rim out the bearded mooned face in the center. Alison may have just said, like, isn't that that star thing that you showed me?

That star trek thing you showed me because that's how she would just recognize. Yeah. Yeah, one of these. Whatever this, whatever this juju shit is, I'm weirded out by, can we please close the thing and just get on our way? It's not juju shit. It's just wait, Regal. There's more Roman. You're seeing Roman.

You're seeing Jewish and you're also seeing Mokur here. You recognize the language rimming the sides. The language forming around the star in a sort of border over and over and over again in Samaritan Aramaic reads, I am the door. To what? Sibyl, what did we open? What did you do? What did I do? What do you mean that was a part of what we just went to go get?

Well, first I was the only one that got the package as it were. But this is also what we're giving to the prince. Oh, I thought they were the whole package. Well, too bad Alison got all of her blood over it and now we'll just have to keep it first. I guess we have to keep it for now. No, no, no. This was just to give us a leg up on what we're delivering and what happens after. This is going to the prince.

I'll bet you this beer does something real cool. But don't they now know that we opened it? Do they? Is that how it works? Are the wards burned into the briefcase? Great. We could replace the briefcase. We could do like a forge job.

We had to get it out because we had to get it away from the second inquisition. Thank you. Thank you. They've given us a gift that we're going to use it. We found the second position. We also got the briefcase. Now the briefcase looks like this. So now we have to lie.

Yeah. Now we have to lie for the first lie we've ever told his kindred. Yes, we have to lie. You're going to lie to the prince. And here we thought you were all goody-goody. And with that, I think we'll go to break. We'll come back to lie to the prince in about 15 minutes, folks. We'll see you at 12.

We'll be back to the prince. Bye. Welcome back, kindred. We are, of course, coming back to Vegas by night. We just took our 15-minute break. During the last break, we had the opening of a very important briefcase. And a lot of information dealt out to all of you. You're now sitting in baby blue, pulled off to the side.

I'd like to think you're at like a Winchell's Donuts, or like a Hortons, or something like that in the parking lot. With this briefcase. Yeah, Starbucks parking lot. White council. With this briefcase open in the back seat, Allison missing those three fingers off of her right hand. And these two very ancient items still pressed into the polyurethane.

What's the move here? Are any of Allison's fingers in the car still? Are any of Allison's fingers in the car still? Go ahead and make me a wits and investigation. Can I get it out, man? This is very important to me. Yes. By the way, we just got a whole bunch of people subscribing

and gifting tier one subs. Thanks, guys. Mirrored on. Did that for a bunch of people, actually. I think it was just mirrored on. Thank you on. Somebody subscribed. I roll one success.

I got two. Can I roll for my fingers too? Sure. Everybody, everybody make a finger roll. Make a finger roll, please. I got two successes and one is a 10. If at all possible, Caleb, I would like to attempt to use Sensei on scene on these artifacts.

Well, Vince, let me get to the very important roles first and decide the fingers. Absolutely. Absolutely. Sorry. So yes, you guys find two out of three fingers. One is blown from the car. Congratulations.

Miguel, what was your question? I'm sorry, I was making a dumb joke. No, not at all. I would like to try to use Sensei on scene on these items. Right. There seems to be, I'm sensing a connection here. And that is through aspects, correct? Correct.

Yes. Okay. Sensei on scene. Let's see what Sensei on scene does for you. I'm sorry. Oh, I apologize. I only have five senses. No, you're fine.

Disregard. Oh, heightened senses. Okay. Well, if you would like to, you could turn on heightened senses. I don't know what it would do for you here. Probably would not. But in the future, you know, maybe you can get Sensei on scene and we can come back here.

You got it. Unless, of course, the briefcase goes where it's supposed to. Sure. Yes. Can I pull the finger bones out of the fingers? No, these bones. Yes. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Easy. Not the middle finger though. I get the middle finger. I want you to have hidden that I found one of the fingers and try to pull one of the finger bones out. I don't want them to know I have it. Faster. Okay.

Let's get strength and stealth to see how well you can pull out a finger and not be seen doing so. Everybody make sure your phones are away from your mics just so we don't get any of that interference. Get them some buzzing. Maybe that's leg using their powers in real life. No, my phone is on the ground. Yeah, it's the Luzombra.

All right. Four successes. Four successes. Absolutely a success. No one is aware that you've just deboned a finger. You have a pinky bone belonging to Allison. Fantastic. Feel free to write that on your sheet, I guess.

I am putting it in my inventory, in fact. I kind of sprinkle the viscera out the car window as we drive. Your sheet. And I put the pinky bone. Do I have proximal distal or medial? Two out of the three you can pick which two you have. Great. I have medial and distal.

Thank you very much. I'm very proud of you. Congratulations. I hope that does you well. Fantastic. Better hope to cook. God, I never find out. You know nothing.

No, I know. Very stealthy. Done in the shadows. Okay, are we heading off to McCarran Airport then? Seems so. Yes, make sure that everything's cleaned and closed. Yes, that is the matter, right? Are we closing the briefcase again?

Allison? Since I'm the one who has actually, who's lost anything, sacrificed a lot. Go ahead. Go ahead. You'd be a real team player if you closed that briefcase. Oh, no shit. But where are we going to put the briefcase?

How about we leave it open and we put them in something else? No. No, if we close it, it'll look fucked with. But if we take it out, it'll be very clear that we know what's inside. I think we close it up as carefully as we can. And we just say we found it like that. Does the prince even need to know that we've found the briefcase? Yes.

Why? That we found the briefcase? He's expecting. Yes, I got it. Oh, no. The creepy fuckers with the guns. I just want to remind everyone that the briefcase was the chief reason for the mission.

Mal wouldn't know that. I don't know that. For the rest of you. The two hangarons are the, if you can, please do. The briefcase was the main reason. Oh, okay, I was getting it flipped, sorry. All right, if you're going to close it, just do it outside the car, please. I got to reimpulse through this whole fucking thing now.

That's fine. I like it the way it is. That pisses me off. I've lost my fingers. I'm going to, like, puff a knurple there. Sorry. What a shit. So is Allison making an attempt to close this briefcase?

I'm not touching it again. I'm not. I'm like, because I already lost three digits. I'm not touching it. Do you want me to do it? Someone else can do whatever they want with it. Do you want me to do it? Do it.

I don't care. I'll close the briefcase. I'll be as careful as I can. Okay. Enoch, you close the briefcase as carefully as you can. Give me a dexterity plus, let's call this larceny. Now, question. Do I have an understanding that this is, in some way, Sybil's responsibility more than

it is mine? Hmm. Like, they seem pretty interested in getting this to the Prince. Do I get the sense that they have, like, a personal connection here? Oh. Uh, give me a wits insight. Wits? No.

I'm very focused on my job. That's only one success. You have an idea that everyone in this car has a vested interest in getting that briefcase to the Prince. All right. Whether that's personal or not, or whether that's perceived or not. Okay. I'll do it for real then.

I was contemplating doing a bad job intentionally, but I'll try for real. You also have an understanding, Enoch, that it's very important that the Prince gets the briefcase for you. Hmm. Okay. Fine. Fine. I'll seal it up carefully.

Okay. Go ahead and give me that dexterity larceny point. Again. A raw man for this job. I know. But here we go. If you, if you would like to sacrifice a finger. You know what?

Your turn. Hey, if it goes, but well, two successes. Fuck you. With two successes, we managed to shut the briefcase without triggering any more wards. As the briefcase shuts, the wardmarks and that sort of red film begin to encapsulate in as if the shield is going around it once more. And then the burn marks into the seals themselves disappear essentially. It looks the same way it did before you opened it.

Well, you see problems solved. Wipe it down. Good. Yep. Start to sanitize. This is plenty of time to sanitize. This is why we let Enoch solve all the problems. I'm going to also lean over to boroughs and be like, if there's any extra damage to the

car, I will gladly make sure that's taken care of. I appreciate that. We'll exchange insurance later. I'm going to wear my finger down like a good hand down. It's going to be like, we'll do that. And just to glare at Enoch. Enoch. I think you're aware Allison just made a pass at boroughs.

Yeah. I'm obviously aware of that. And as we're walking off to wherever it is we're walking to, I'm going to body check him, stop him for a little bit. And then I'm just going to, you know, kind of do that like aggressive, you know, shoulder shoulder bump thing and continue on my way. What does boroughs do in response? Chuck a Twinkie at him.

Yeah. You hungry? Chuck a Twinkie in his face. Yeah. Really? So with this show of privado as we are stepping out of the parking lot of the visitor structure of McCarran airport boroughs, you feel the push of that man as he glides past you trying to puppy dog back up to Allison's heels there.

And all of you begin moving to meet with Santos who is standing by large black panel van, which is a lot like the McCarran airport shuttles. You assume this is one of the VIP shuttles because they're smaller. You don't get stuck in with the personal crowd or the public crowd. Excuse me. And it seats about 10. He is on the shorter side of five eight. He's in a big green army surplus jacket and long black hair that's been bundled back into

a curly tangle of ponytail behind his head. He's largely expressionless, a big black beard masquerading any twitch of the mouth or movement of his face. And he sort of gestures out to a door that he opens and slides through for all of you to pile in. Looking to you boroughs as you sort of sidle up is as he knows you're the point of contact at least formerly. You're alive. So I know you did well.

Everyone's waiting for all of you and I spend quite a night. I think it's about time we got moving. File in. I got a look as we get in the van. Yeah, as you two file in specifically Santos gives you both a look. First on Mal and then on Regal. You two are the transplants. Is that what they're calling us?

That's what I'm calling you. I guess so. Transplants. Yeah. Tomatoes. Well, I'm Santos. You must be Regal. And your mouth.

If you need anything in the city, you come see me. You're in McCarron. Take care of you. Appreciate it. All right, get in. They file everyone in until you're all seated in the shuttle van. He gets in the front seat and begins escorting you all through Vegas traffic. He turns onto the strip and starts to drift in and out.

Listen, it's really important that you all play nice tonight. I think we all understand that. Absolutely. We've had a long drive, man. None of us are going to try shit. All right, we'll behave just as we should. Good, because the prince has some very strict rules of Elysium. And many of them are broken.

They're immediately punishable by death. Immediately. Final death. So shall we have the rules really quickly as a reminder? Don't speak out of turn. If the prince is speaking, no one else is unless you're invited to. There's no slight against a pre-mogen without proper cause. And any conversation is to be kept cordial.

Any arguments should be done on a blanketed basis, not a personal one. I'm just gonna stand in the back and not talk then. Good. I think that'd be best for you. A lot of MRX people do the same strategy. This is a unique opportunity for all of you to understand what it is to be kindred. And what it is to watch the people who run the city. It's not pretty.

They don't talk nice. They will disrespect you. But ours is to look at that with respect, unfortunately. The prince is a good man to know, but he's a hard man to keep. That makes sense. And anything will have you at the end of Cisco's blade if you're not careful. Well, we don't want to keep them any longer than we have to. Of course.

The final rule is there's absolutely no violence. Any show of a weapon, of a discipline, of any feature of your clan. Without proper clearance, you will not have a head. We understood? Understood. Beautiful. So that means the only one who's going to be executing the two of us here is the prince. Oh no, not the prince.

Never get his hands dirty. Be Cisco, the sheriff. The prince would watch, though. Probably keep the ashes afterwards. What's your role here? I'm the liaison for the Camarilla. They fly in big wigs through Vegas all the time. We're a hotspot place because of the Cirque system.

And when someone important shows, I kiss their feet. That's my job. I'm the dog greeting you at the door. Fair enough. Worthy. I mean, we're just like the lost mutts, so we're all in the bottom shit. Well, welcome to the bottom shit, then. I'm a little higher than you, but I'm down here with you, too.

It's a good life. It's not bad. They'll take care of you if you do right by them. That's all the advice I can give you. And with this going the way it is, do you have it? Yeah, we got it. We have it. Well, then I guarantee you, Prince will take good care of you.

And as long as you don't have any loose ends from what you did over in Denver, then we should be fine. Do we have any loose ends? Good. I'll make sure the Prince understands that. Do you guys speak with Devon, the sheriff? Yeah, we spoke with Devon. Yeah.

Still living, last you saw him, or at least as much as it passes for us? He's good. There was a bit of a kerfuffle, but we got it squared away. Kerfuffle? Some cop type showed up. Cop types. You guys were one in by the SI? Yeah.

Civil? Isn't that what you were calling them? Yep. Yeah, they... They crashed the party. Yeah, they interrupted, but it was handled. Nobody was taken, at least on our side. And it doesn't seem like they saw much.

There was a little exchange of... violence, but not here, but over there. Okay. Well, you just keep that in mind with the Prince. Make sure he knows. He hates to be kept out of a loop on anything. Last thing you want to do is lie to that man. Exactly.

He drives you through. He gives some cursory information. If anyone wants to know on Elysium or the Premogen Council, he's cordial. He speaks with all of you. He has a very casual way of speaking. It's not as though he's as uptight as you all have heard of the Camarilla. And it seems that he enjoys his position enough and his place in the world.

Eventually, he pulls you out and onto a road that cuts closer to the Madison Square Garden dome that they're creating out in Vegas now. And just a few blocks below that, he pulls up to a place he calls the echelon on the way over. And while the name inspires something grand and illuminating, when you arrive at the east proper of the strip, what originally inspired an era of prosperity and superiority and name alone,

now becomes evident only as a work in progress. Santos pulls up to a chain link privacy fence lined with papers informing of the building's latest codes with the city. And as the headlamps illuminate the wispy body of the man that unlocks the gate, you're allowed a scrolling gaze up the half finished tower that makes up a future casino. The echelon, as he puts it, is a 70 floor skyscraper in the middle of construction that is nowhere near done. He unlocks the gate and pulls forward through

and you're given more of an image of a blue steel series of brutalist beams and mortar that make up a dark monolith that looms over the Vegas skyline, threatening to invade the strip. One day it will suck this city dry and open the veins of every fat wallet and site and drink until empty, but tonight the beast sleeps, unfinished and bare, each floor open to the sight of Las Vegas. It's an exposed root of a molar that is yet to bite. It's massive in construction

and the only real light you can see off of it currently is the illumination of the headlamps off of the shuttle cars. He parks it out there in the dirt. He gets out, he lets you all out, he goes back to the construction gate, he shuts and locks it behind. Coming back to all of you, he asks, no one brought any weapons, no one made any bad decisions? We didn't bring weapons, no comments on the bad decisions.

Good. We've got a lot of stairs to march, so I hope you're ready. He starts moving off into the first floor and taking the stairs up. I'll go last, you go ahead of me, I'll go last. Are we going to the 70th floor? I'm sorry, yeah, you are. The very top, yeah. I should have known, and we're taking the stairs.

Well, there's no elevator service. That's fine. Start walking. Santos positions towards the back with you burrows, and you all start to ascend these stairs unless you all have any other plans. Maybe you want to hide some shotguns or open some briefcases. I'll get a piggyback ride from Enoch because I just don't feel like walking. Absolutely disgusting.

They're tall stairs as well. These are no mere flights, they're concrete constructions, so it's clear it's not the final design of what they're putting through, but it's just a means for the scaffolding team to work from each floor. Most of all of that is still in prime construction. Now, as you're moving up, you guys have ascended maybe the first ten floors of this big monolith, this huge construction site. When you spot something out of the corner of your eye,

could you give me a wits and awareness? Wits and awareness. Where is awareness? There it is, okay. One, two, one, two, three, four. One, two, three successes. Okay, you pull up to what you assume is like the 12th floor. You're in the middle of the pack as some of the others are moving already on to the next,

and burrows and santos are pulling up maybe two floors below, I'm sure that santos is in a state of trying to hurry burrows up the floors, and neither of them are moving very quickly. But for a moment, just a brief second, you are the only one on the 12th floor, and that's when you see her. She's 12 years old in this gray jumper that is sort of pulled tight to her skin there and a dress shirt underneath that is imprinted with tiny daisies that are dancing along the collar. And then a pair of blue corduroys that are deep and dark in color.

But they're cuffed at the ankles and show off these bright yellow socks. You remember buying them in a Walmart one day when you had some extra money off of a check. And then these small little clogs that end out her feet and she's staring directly at you. It is an immediate eye connection. The two of you see each other and it's like time stops. I forget everything and just start walking toward her. You walk towards her and immediately she shifts. She's gone.

She's no longer human. She's no longer there. Instead, her skin starts to shift until that familiar shadow, that black, that oblivion begins to crawl in tendrils along her face. And you can see her consumed for a moment until the daisies turn, wilt, and change until they're completely black. She is now a silhouetted figure standing in the center of a darkened uncontrollable construction site staring you down. I keep going. You move forward. She doesn't change.

She doesn't move. She is still this oil, this tar, this being of pure energy standing in the center, completely perfect in their depiction of exactly who you wanted. Even to the slope of her nose, the plush of her cheeks, she is staring at you in this bizarre black shadowed smile. She is smiling. I drop down to my knees and I reach into my pocket and I pull out one of the film canisters and I pop the top. And in it is this little bracelet made of like summer camp plastic tie and tied on one side or orange beads. And then it's the three letters of my name on the other side of purple beads. And I just kind of hold it up in front of her.

Before she makes any movement for it, her hand extends just a few inches and then something jerks in her neck. You can feel her bones start to shift and then break and then break and then climb and climb until she becomes something bigger, something taller, something stronger. Any attempt to swipe through her the oblivion coats along yourself until you're covered in the oil and standing before you as a much taller, stronger, imposing figure. A man in a long black coat, imperceptible to what he's wearing past the black shadow that forms his silhouette. And then he runs for the edge of the construction site and leaps from the edge of the flooring. To those of you pulling up the back, anyone who would like to say that they have been here can say that they've seen Mal react to this, but there is no site for what it is they're reacting to. Mal, are you okay? I'm fine. Keep going.

I've got my hand clenched around the bracelet so the most anyone could see are just like the little sprouts of the plastic. I shove it back in my pocket. Beautiful. Eventually, you all make it up. 65 flights of stairs, essentially. Burrows. You are undead. You do not necessarily feel tired. You do not necessarily feel overweight. You do not feel old. None of those things are perceptible to you. But the undead flesh that still makes up what you are now has a way of mimicking real life.

And even now, you can feel the blush of life causing this bizarre, heavy breath to come about in you. And it is for a moment, a good feeling to be able to mimic what it was like to be tired. And after 65 flights, we arrive. All of your footsteps underneath the first ceiling cause powerfully fluorescent work lights to cast long shadows over you. There are many stairs, too many for any human to complete casually, but you've done it. And now, you have reached an open threshold into a vacant floor, just like the ones before. But you are greeted with a complete full view of Vegas, the highest you have seen so far. And the wind is whipping so powerfully in the night air that it starts to buffet your clothes, and you can feel them cascading off of you in these big winds that attack all of you as you come forward. And now, you, a group of corpses, leeches, are staring out at a sea of neon, like new monarchs, lording over the only thing that holds power in your eyes anymore.

The pumping blood that surges through every drunk prey you can see from the skyline. It is a blinking bastion of life teeming with it. The stark emptiness of this tower is blown so in contrast by the sound emanating from their hearts that you begin to understand it again, that loneliness. This tower is just like you, empty, devoid of any purpose, behind waiting for the day it can steal life from others. It exists purely in torpor, currently hoping that one day it will make enough sense to rejoin that rolling sea of noise and life. It's a beautiful sight that you're all given. Who's standing up here, anyone? No one is standing up here.

It's about 12 feet between the edge of the scaffolding and the start of a wall, a wall that forms a full sort of floor plan that overtakes this floor. And there are two black slate mirrored double doors that are at the front of that first foray once you come at the top of the stairs. And you can imagine that whatever is happening, it's past those doors. Santa stands by those doors and allows you guys whatever view you're having, but it seems as though he's waving there. I'm going to slide down and just be like, shall we? I'm ready as ever. Yeah, I think Sybil was caught up in the view for a few minutes and then, yeah, let's go. He opens the doors and already through you can hear muffled music and conversation that must be happening on the other side.

But as you step through, Santos allows all of you to come in first. You are now in a hallway just big enough to hold your bodies about the size of an elevator. And jarringly below you is glass platforming that opens a full view down a dark expanse, the only occasionally pierced by the lights outside. It's a long drop to the bottom. You'd guess it goes all the way down those flights of stairs you climbed. 50 floors, maybe? On the other side of the hallway is the source of the sound, another set of double doors that same mirrored black. Keep walking. Go to those doors.

Pass the dizzying hallway and through the next door you're greeted by a beautifully arranged dark room lit only by cascading reds, purples, blues, any light that can keep things exceptionally dark. The decor is minimalist in nature. There's sort of sparse wild decorating, a wide decorating that suggests the owner has accumulated so much wealth they don't know what to do with it and decide instead to keep a room empty. The furniture there is oddly opulent, marble architecture that speaks of a dead empire, striking white columns against black slate walls and areas of privated, circled seating like their own rotundas that are cast off the main walkway that lifts up above the rest of the room. What you're standing on is essentially an elevated platform that forms a cross intersection of full on Holy Cross in the center of this room and off the side of where you are now on the cross are these six private booth rooms that could probably seat 20 each. But going past that neon lights the entire walkway of that cross into what is essentially a bar room off to the left, an auxiliary room off to the right where a huge seating table is, and off to the north, this very private booth with a dais at the center in a seating area behind. There is a huge amount of people in here, or at least more than you were expecting for the size of the room. There's a jarring amount of mortals in here, all of them dressed for a club, many of them serving drinks or attending to their guests, all of them periodically stopping to reach over to black painted oxygen tanks and associated masks to breathe deep into them.

On each of their exposed right wrists are blood red capped IV tubes of some sort, ready to be uncorked, and somewhere gold metal collars about their napes inscribed with Latin scripts. You're in Elysium, and there are many people to see in here. Hmm. And where, and Sanchez, can you just lead us to where we need to go? Sure, you could walk right down the cross there, and in the center you can present yourself to the dais, the princes in there having a meeting, until he's ready to see you, you're allowed to mingle. This is Elysium, this is where we come to discuss, to speak, to be heard, to be seen. You're allowed that right after what you did for us. Well, how about we put our name down and we mingle?

Perfect. Sanchez walks you down the center of that cross. There are some people to see here. In one of the rotunda areas to your right, there is a tall emancipated figure, so skinny that the pale green, huge flesh you can see that clings to her bones are just below the surface of her skin, like a small cut might expose them. One such bone makes itself known through the break of her skin at the hip. She wears a formless, perfectly oval mask made of a sort of brass metal that razors out to a point at her chin, and she is cradled in the arms of a man and woman who are just kissing at the pustules and sores along her skin. Further past that, on your left hand side, are two beautiful young twins who are sitting directly next to each other. Their faces are nearly identical, despite one presenting feminine and the other masculine.

One of them in a large red cardigan buttoned and tucked into tight, high-waisted slacks and sensible heels, with a turtleneck underneath that highlights the curve of her body. And there is a necklace that ends in an all-seeing eye along her chest. The other is fitted in a high-fashion black kimono suit with a matching turtleneck tight to their neck and a pair of white dress shoes that match their sisters. They're discussing with a slightly formed, a slight or formed incredibly young, maybe just into college age man, with a shock of muted blue hair that's just beginning to die back to the bleach of the roots. As soon as you guys enter the room, though, that conversation dies completely. Whatever raucous amounts of information were being shared, they stop, move, and stare. So does that masked woman with the disease across her chest. They all seem to pinpoint exactly on your form, exactly on your appearance. It appears we already have some fans. I like a good gawker just as much as anybody else.

Easy, easy. We want to break up or all come together and say hi? Maybe it's best we move us a group. All right. I'll kind of leave the charge and seeing the all-seeing eye burrows is intrigued by that twin, and I think he'll go over the twins, introduce himself, introduce his group. We're here to see the prince. How are you enjoying your night? The twins look at each other and they sort of laugh in this strange unison and then move themselves in the booth to address all of you. Oh, we know who you are. The woman speaks off the side there. We know all about you, but I guess you don't know about us then. And this is Aiko. And Aiko sort of turns in unison at the mention of his name and says next to nothing. This glazed over sort of eye on his face, and she goes to pet his chin and direct him directly at all of you.

Is this your first Elysium? Yes. Oh, no, I will answer for myself. Technically, no, no, I've been here before. Okay. Well, it is an honor to be regarded as guests of the prince, and I look forward to what all of you are going to do in the city. Do you have plans following your great success of surviving Denver? I guess whatever the prince wills, whatever he would like. That's a good answer, towing the party line, I understand. You're one of Emmerichs, correct?

A member of the cobweb? A Malkavian? I mean, what gave me away? Nothing. That's what shocks me. Speaking of where we belong, if you might be asking, what are you two in charge of? There is another laugh between the three of them, the twins in unison once more, and the woman then goes almost completely blank the same as her compatriot, and then Aiko begins to speak to you from that other side. We're the Tremere Premogen. We are in charge of everything that regards to the Tremere within Las Vegas. Can't you tell? Absolutely. It's certainly an honor to meet you. Shame none of us are Tremere. It is a shame, isn't it? That's okay.

Are all the Premogen in attendance today? No. Bugsy never attends personally. You can speak to his proxy, and he points over at the masked woman in the corner there. The Nosferatu, as you understand, are not allowed above ground, not even in Elysium. Dharma is the exception. I see. And Emerick, of course, could not be bothered as he is so very, and Aiko stops and looks directly to you, Enoch, so very sick, as you probably already know. Yeah, so very sick, and I have nothing more to say on that. He says he's sick, and he's sick. I'm going to run my good hand through his hair, like I'm petting it, and then kind of squeeze in the back of his, like, just slowly. Well, if any among you, and she stops and she looks to the two outsiders, the two transplants, if any among you are interested in, well, knowledge of any sort, of any control, I'm always looking for willing participants.

Anybody into magic? And it persists, Vincent, what exactly? Well, some people are possessing a very special blood. Some people are very important to very certain rituals, and if you were ever in the business of making yourself known in Las Vegas, I would see and she stops again, and Aiko takes over again. We would see that you would be taken care of. Special blood, she says. Noted. Thanks. I'll be like, it was a true honor meeting, you guys. I feel like it was an honor meeting you today. Like, she's putting on that little charm, like, just trying to be like that. But we don't want to take up most of your time.

We have one more question, though. What the fuck is in this briefcase? You mean you didn't fall to curiosity yourself? No, I would ever. I would never have. He's getting his hair get shut. Good. Because if you had, there's a terrible ward we all put on it. Something you can never take back. What does that do? Ward? What is this sort of blood ritual enacted by members of my clan to protect them? That's what's most important to Prince.

What's in there? Why all that extra security? Ours is not to wonder. Ours is to defend. So you don't know then? Okay. If I were to know, then I would know already. That's how knowing works. But sure. You're clever, aren't you? I like to think so. Well, this was lovely. Thank you all for your participation.

I look forward to what you're going to accomplish in this city. And please, the next time you need something... Come see us. Give a blight bow. Understood. Listen, I really don't want to go talk to that nuts for our two ladies. She's giving me big-time heebie-jeebie vibes. Fairly. Well, she can't be less friendly than those two. Although they're pretty nice. That's a problem.

Sorry, Caleb, you were saying something? At the bar, there is another intimate conversation in the works, if you're not interested in Dharma. There's a discussion between a wiry and possibly gaunt, so skinny it's terrifying individual, who towers over a slender young woman next to him. There's a sleeveless, deep teal, velveteen coat that almost looks like a tunic, and a long billowing high-fashion patterned dress shirt, and pinks and blue accents that frill into laces at the wrists, and wide-ankled pants that seem as textured as every other element of his wardrobe,

in a complimenting darker teal. Sybil, you recognize this man. This is one of the most important people in Vegas. This is the leader of the circulatory system that you know is slow, casually, but everyone else knows is Ladislav. Speaking with him is a woman below him at the bar, who sips from the neck of a gorgeous young man who has sprawled himself on the bar for her enjoyment. Her hair is pulled back into two manic buns on the back of her head, and her hair is striped in black and platinum blonde streaks across her entire head.

She wears a leather-strapped harness, better suited for a BDSM club than the echelon, restrained over a long t-shirt dress that's been dodged with bleach stains across the front. She fits in maybe the least out of everyone here, and it's clear she knows that. The final bit is a long veil from which she carries over her entire face, in pure white with little black beads across the front. And they seem to be having a very jovial conversation that has slow laughing. I think Syb's gonna motion to the group that she's gonna go talk to him, and immediately best face forward.

Slow, nice to see you here. He breaks up the laughter for a moment and addresses you, and stops and looks shocked to see you even. He picks himself up, and he carries himself with a sort of hunch in this long-angled feature that is so indicative of Romania, of Eastern Europe, of the Slavs. Whatever it may be, he has this iconic European face that looks like he could have modeled years ago, but now is sort of aged into that twilight of only appearing in guest features. But he looks to you for a moment, he says,

Is that Sybil? I know you, you are Therese's little one, yes? Yes. He comes up close and begins to pet your face if you allow it. Okay. Taking both hands to sort of angle around you. Oh, you are as gorgeous as I remember. You are the beautiful one she kept around, yes?

Partying through all of those clubs, acting as though you would be the next in the long form of, well, surprises. And yet here you are. You've made it to Elysion. Yes, look, I made it. You haven't happened to, I don't know, hear anything, see anything, drink anything regarding her location? No, if I knew where Therese was, you would have been at the execution already. You and I would have used the blood hunts to drink every last drop of what she has left. Yes.

It is a blessing that you and I do not know where she is because if we did, both of you would be dead. Great. But it is so good to see you. Look at you. Oh, gorgeous. The perfect golden ratio, right? And your skin color, just gorgeous. Sybil, I am so happy that you went about doing this.

Now you must introduce me to all of your friends and to Bright. Bright. They are the ones I talked to you about and the smaller woman in those big jump up boots and the veil across her face looks at all of you. Oh, so these are the fuckers. And they all sort of regard the lot of you. Are you going to introduce us, Sybil? Right. Bright, slow.

This is us. Mel, Enoch, Allison, Niles, and Ray, Ray. Ray, Ray. Is that native to your country? Yeah. It is very nice on the tongue, Ray, Ray. I like this. I am Ledislav.

I am the primogen of the Torridor. I am also the harpy for this court. So it is very fortuitous that you would come to me and meet me here in Elysium as I am going to be speaking of your praises for years to come. What exactly it seems as if we are the subject of several conversations. That is a statement, not the question. What exactly if you could give us a quick vibe check? Oh, you intend to know how they feel of you so well. Just before the prince is done with his meeting, it would help, I think, everyone.

Of course. They have all been waiting for you dying to hear of your adventures. We have been here since the dawn of night. We have been waiting for the opportunity to see what the new world hath wrought. To see what the next generation has to say for the illumination of our new prince, Aloysius Grant. You are a bit of an experiment in his direction and we would like to see you, well, either succeed or fail. They both do as well. Bride sort of picks up and looks all of you.

She is sort of gravitating towards all of you, but has sidled up between Enoch and Allison and is sort of taking them in. Making direct eye contact with all of you, especially Allison. She has met her eyes quite a few times. Oh, we have heard all about you fuckers. You are crazy. Into Denver. Drawing direct communication with the sheriff of Denver. Fucking taking that briefcase back here to the prince and bowing yourself down at his feet like little fucking puppies.

It's the cutest thing in the world. The lengths that people will go just to be in a club like this. You never had to do nothing like that? Show yourself, prove yourself? No, honey. I came. I conquered. I'm done.

All I do is run the club now. What club is that? What club? What club? It's club asylum. You don't know club asylum? You don't know my club? Oh, yeah, yeah.

I heard club asylum. Yeah, you only know about the good ones. What did you say? Oh, what? I'm sorry. Did somebody say something? I visited asylum in Denver. It was lovely.

She was just close to wetting these two droplets of blood at the corner of her eyes, listening to Enoch, and then zooms in on Mal. You've been to my club? Yeah, I spent a lot of time there. You're a patient? You go to asylum? On a case, I did. I haven't been here, but my friend Tara. Yeah.

Tara? Yeah. You just hired a girl named Tara. Yeah. She's tall, kind of butch. Looks like she could carry you for miles. Yeah, that's her. Yeah, we got her.

I thought so. She was talking about coming down here. I'll be happy to see her. Yeah, I should be only a couple of weeks before we got her on the doll circuit. Can't wait. Hey, that's nice, Mal. You know somebody in town. Yeah, she's great.

Where can I find your club? I'd love to stop by. We're on the strip, baby. Right by Cosmo. Right by Cosmo. Got it. Biggest club on the strip? Biggest club on the strip.

Wow. Y'all have taken it by storm, it seems. We're going to do a lot more than that. But you should come by. It's a good time and a great fuck. Both things I love. I'll do my best. Ladislav sort of picks over and finds Burroughs and comes up to you Burroughs and he starts

doing the same thing he was with Sybil, just sort of pressing his hands in against your face and trying to hold your face for a while if you'll allow it. You know, you can just look, just fine, too. Oh, but then I would not get to feel the consistency of this beauty. Look at you. You used to be handsome, didn't you? Sir Naza Suleim. Oh, of course you are.

It only ages correctly, yes? Oh, but underneath this beautiful flap you have the bones of someone who desires worship. Oh, you are a gorgeous little man who has been, well, torn by the stripes of time, huh? Yeah, yeah, I know how Torridor is a little upset. I'm not one of you. You have to give me your diet plan, though. Upset? I am not upset.

I find you to be magnificent. If you would like diet plan, if you would like anything, I think you should stay in my court sometime. I would do good by you. You would only have to stay by my side. I'm a free agent right now. I'll get back to you about exactly what my place is in town. It is not often I give this offer and I do not do it so lightly.

I would consider. I am a very important man and all you would have to do is show love. Well, I certainly appreciate the honor. But shouldn't we wait for the prince's decision before? I don't think that that has any bearing on what I've asked. Do you? And he looks to you, Allison. Do you always speak at the turn, young one?

I've just learned that sometimes you just have to make your presence known. I like that. It'd be my honor. I'll talk to you soon about that. Good, yes. You come by the stratosphere. Sybil can show you everywhere. She's spent through that building and seen just about the entire operation.

You can speak to this, yes, Syb? Right. Whatever you need, I'm sure we can find something. Good. Good, Sybil. That is the attitude we're looking for in Elysium. It's very important. Good.

At this moment, go ahead. I was just going to say as we kind of walk away, like under my breath, but kind of directed at Sybil, I say I spent the last decade not being anybody's showpony. I'm not going to fucking start now. That's bold and late. Allegra, if you're trying to talk. Oh, you're muted, Allegra.

Thank you. Also, as we turn away, I'm going to offer my hand to Bride. And if she takes it, did she take it? Yeah. I'll slowly bend and kiss it, and I'm going to take the medial pinky bone, not the distal one, not the tippy one, but the one that's right here. I'm going to take that pinky bone out of my pocket, and I'm going to try and slide it into her hand.

Are you trying to do this stealthily or is this show? I think the kiss is a show. The hand off of the bone is stealth. Go ahead and give me a dex stealth. OK. The WTF. Four successes. Yeah, you absolutely get it into her palm.

She takes the kiss at the hand. She looks like she finds the formality of it really funny. In fact, she looks over to slow, and then to the rest of you, like, what the fuck is happening? Oh, my God, I love this. And as soon as she breaks the finger, she looks into her palm for a moment. She looks up.

She looks incredibly happy. She looks to you, and she goes, you're a freaky little fuck. I like you. I want this one and that one. And she points at Allison. You two should come to a silent as soon as you can. I think us girls would get along. Absolutely playing on it.

It's a pleasure. I would love to. And as soon as we turn away, Mal drops whatever, like, person them they had and go back to the completely blank that they've been since the 12th floor. Right is, like, when Mal passes me.

When Mal passes me, I will just gently, like, stop the arm and be like, be very careful because you just involved me now. I don't know what you're talking about. I jerk my arm away. Shit, man, I'm sweating bullets. I'm usually pretty good in these social situations, but I fucking, I'm a mess right now.

Yeah. So blood dolls move past you all. There are drinks being served on silver platters, martini glasses full of blood. It's funny to what your whistle calm you down. What was the original? Was it the one with the mask? That is Darma.

She is still in the corner. She has come out from the Rotunda and sort of propped herself up against the column to watch and just to listen. And she still has those two individuals sort of, like, caddy cornered to their knees, hugging deeply and just kissing up.

Again, she has the sheer see-through fabric where you can see open oozing wounds along her body as if she's got a plague of some sort. But she seems to be well loved. That does not bother me. I'm going to... You going to Darma? Because I'll go with you.

If Allison's going, I... I mean, at this point... I'll hang up by the bar. I want to meet all the key figures. Yeah. I mean, they seem to know us. I don't know anyone here really. Yeah?

So you approach and at first she does not say anything as you approach. She does gesture to you with a move of the mask, but you cannot just, like, distinctly tell any sort of expression on it. It's clear, completely clear, except for the eye holes itself and made of some sort of brass metal

that shows absolutely nothing. But she does regard you. I will say, even with the mask, you are probably the most eye... like, all the eyes fall on you. I am Allison. I just would like to meet you. Hello.

She takes your hand and she kisses it herself up to the brass of that mask, and it touches against that cold metal. And the closer that she becomes, the more your awareness can smell the sort of decay on her. She smells like...

like rotting plants. She smells like festering wounds, like bad pus. But she picks herself up and she says through this tinny sort of modulation of the mask, you're very kind and most likely a liar. But I'll take any compliment I can get.

I mean, everyone's a liar in one shape or another. But you're not dumb. You could tell if I was being insulted, which I am not. I know you're not mocking me, but I know you're not doing this out of the kindness of your heart. I've died.

Now that's been gone for a while. How are you finding Elysium? Are you as scared as I was the first time? Unfortunately, when you're more ignorant and lack of knowledge, it's hard to know what to be scared of. She laughs at this and it sort of reverberates off the mask itself

and she sort of pets the two individuals she has at her knees there and then digs them back into her thigh. You have quite a point there. Trust me, it does not get any easier as you start to understand, but you do start to realize who really is your friend.

I'm gonna have a purpose like maybe side-eye mal at that point be like, I am beginning to understand that. See? I was civil. I was gonna be like, didn't you want to introduce me? I'll be like... Right. Yeah.

Civil guy for the first time at the Elysium. You're... Teresa's? Yes. I see. Was Teresa's? Well, you can never really escape that, can you? We're trying as much as we can.

And you've been finding yourself okay in Elysium? So far, it's been probably eight minutes, but everyone I brought is still alive. I count it a success. Well, Bugsy sends his regards to you and your sire. He was very upset to hear what transpired with Teresa, and well, everything that came out of that situation was poorly handled, at least in his feeling.

He sends his condolences. Condolences received. He also requests that you might send your friend over his way sometime. The new one. Ray Ray, I think they mentioned. Did he mention what he might want with him? He wants to see him personally.

Down in Little Vegas. Okay. I think that can be arranged if he's willing to go. It would do well by him. It's the only way to survive in this city is being okay with Bugsy. True, but we're doing a new thing where we ask people what they want to do. That's not going to last long under the Camarilla.

We'll see. Well, very good. Let's see. Your name was, and she gestures to Allison. Oh, Allison Rockwell. Rockwell, interesting. And you're one of Emeryx. Still being determined.

I see. I'll take that as a yes. And then Sybil, of course, I know. This one I have, though. You are Malkavian as well? Oh, you're talking to me? I am. Yes. I know the mask can make these things a little hard sometimes.

Sorry. Just normally Allison is in charge. So I see. Well, then I'll refrain from asking if you would like to. We'll join the worship. And she gestures to the men at her feet. Oh. I'm good, I think.

I need him to save his strength for later. I understand. Well, the offer stands if you would like to see true beauty. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. Good. Well, I am Dharma. I speak in proxy for the pre-mogen of the nurse for Ahtu.

Bugsy. And if you have any need of the nurse for Ahtu in the undercity, please let me know. I'd be happy to play tour guide. The new generation extends there. They're welcome and thanks. Is that what you're calling yourselves now? The new generation.

That's what we've been called. It seems to fit. We're all relatively new. That you are. Some of you, not even Camarilla Intendant, and she makes an eye over at Niles. I noticed that they looked over and I immediately dropped my attention. I do not want to be noticed.

Fair. At that moment, there is the reveal of some other folks here. In the final booth, coming free from a new conversation, is an incredibly striking black man in deep discussion with a narrow, hard-angled white man. The first man's eyes are patient and calculating over what the other says as they're sort of stepping out from this main dais. He's entertaining the man's point clearly from what you can tell over the loud music, but making little in response.

He's guarding either side of the entrance into the room. Tundra is another man in a chauffeur's uniform that then extends a martini glass of red blood out to the first man. And you recognize both of these individuals' burrows. You know that the first man is Prince Aloysius Grant. The second was an individual that was present in your first illumination of this plan. Was he the nervous one or the one with a knife? The nervous one.

And the one with a knife is standing just off of there. So there's the chauffeur playing guard, the one with the massive sword on their back standing guard, and then the two having their discussion. Prince Aloysius Grant in the center. And it seems as though he's come out to join the party of sorts. The princes? Yes.

Oh, okay. All three of them, essentially. Can I, you know, like I'm, I stayed back. I'm back at the bar. Can I look around? Do I see any, anyone I recognize? Is Dino here? Dino is not here.

I feel so goddamn out of place. Come on, get yourself together. I'm like talking to myself as people are walking by. All right. We're good. We're good. Just kind of humming to myself, waiting for us to call. Right.

You, you think that this would be an open floor? You could at least make an attempt. Santo seems to be standing idle, nearest to Niles and sort of just taking it all in. Fuck. All right. So I have this compulsion, this Gravnos clan thing that I just like the craziest idea in the

moment. I have to do it or also have a negative. I can't. I mean, I don't think you'll necessarily give me a reason to roll, but I will. I'll just, I'll just be like, I'm tired of the waiting around. I'm hungry and I'm thoroughly creeped out by everybody up here. Like Burroughs has not met these people before and he's really

not liking how inhuman they are. So I think he, he'll, he'll, he'll like make a show of it. He'll come to the center of the cross and announce, you know, the, you know, the new generation has arrived. If my friends and my allies would join me, we come bearing gifts for the new Prince, Aloysius Grant, and I'll get on a knee. Fuck. Good.

Can our group just kind of stop and stare at this for a moment? I'll listen. Can I absolutely stop and stay at 100%. I'm going to be like, really? You don't gotta be so thirsty about it. You, you step out, you kneel in the center and like it really does bring things to a screeching halt of all of these people stop and blood dolls move out of the way like they've interrupted

something that was planned and they can, you see how skittish these moral individuals are as they flee to all corners of the room. You can see that the Tremere twins have stood up. Dharma has reached out from the, the pillar. All of these major players have now moved out and there is like a complete unnerving silence for a moment as all eyes are on you burrows.

Okay. I look at the Prince. Is he about to speak? Yes. Okay. Did I say nothing? He laughs and then begins to clap and the rest begin to clap and laugh along with it.

It is clearly at you, not with you, but it is definitely amused in the direction of all things. And the Prince steps out. He steps over to you where you've taken your knee and in this familiar fashion, because you two have done it already. He puts out his hand casually almost, almost playing into your grandstanding joke of it all, laughing still and puts down his hand, that big golden signet ring.

The inspiration for buying your own is now hovering right in front of your face. Burrows. I make sure that I take my time so he sees that I've got a couple of new rings on my hand and I will kiss his ring. He rises you up. He says, Mr. Burrows. I say to him, please, Prince, allow me to introduce the heroes

that helped me bring what you sought after. And I'll turn and be able to say, first we have. Oh, no. The ringleader. The brains. Bring us into this. Sibyl, will you show your beautiful face to the Prince? And I'll kind of walk over to her.

Sibyl, why don't you come show yourself for Mr. Burrows? Please, come on up. OK. Chaos wins. You made me weak. Raw biblical murder. I was at John. And then like changing channels.

Of course, I am Sibyl Geyer. I'm new, but I have what was requested and she holds up the briefcase as well as the additional requests and she gestures to Mal and Ray Ray. I was just going to get to them fresh from the ground. We have Raggill and Mal. I'll bring them forward. Good.

Mal hasn't noticed that anything's going on. They've like full disassociated for majority of what's been going on. New generation didn't phase them. Burrows announcing didn't phase them. Hearing their name is the only thing that kind of flickers their brain back to being like, you have to do things now. So they'll like autopilot kind of teeter totter forward and just butt up next to Raggill, not touching, but hovering next to him.

Right. You hover through and then the prince calls you over to all three new members he gestures to the floor. Oh, Neil. Yep. Burrows can do it. So can you. All right.

Cheap. Yeah. I haven't introduced it yet. Burrows, if you could show me off to the others. We got the dynamic duo performance. We got the dynamic duo themselves, Enoch and Allison. Please come forward. I will like grab Enoch's hand and we could like just walk over

kind of squeeze it and we're just going to be like nail. Okay. And we'll both go nail. And certainly not last. The beast that took down two and I'm pointing to the audience to seconding position. Warriors. Niles.

And I'll bring her forward. Absolutely died. Absolutely died, but I come forward. Don't even look at the prince, but like Neil. Like in terrified. He stands for a moment just sort of walking the plank between all of you and then stands by burrows a moment to regard each and every one of you to give you an idea of what you're looking at.

Prince Aloysius is a tall and then incredibly suave, very well dressed man, conventionally attractive with these tight curls that are parted to the left and then chilled straight down to the face and styled down across the side of his face with the right side of his part is short and close to the skin. There's a beard that extends out neatly past the chin, especially catered and sculpted sculpted. He wears a full three piece suit in an ashen gray and a

handkerchief wrapped about his neck in a pattern of following following magnolias over a sleek black background. He wears a large fur color coat over his top and peers at all of you with these beautiful piercing gold eyes. The awe of his presence is controlling and unavoidable. Any time that he's meeting you, it is an intense desire to meet him and he is absolutely gorgeous when his eyes are locked on you.

But he starts to walk across. You can hear that the heavy footfalls of his boots and only his boots is the music has been brought down completely and the image in all circle around. There's now this sort of arena theater is the Prince studies each and every one of you. And then he starts right from the beginning going up to Sybil offering the ring.

She kisses it immediately. Teresa would be very proud of where you are right now. I know that a lot of us say a lot of things. I know how you feel. It's never easy to lose a sire. But you're in a good place. Thank you. Good.

He moves on to regale puts out the ring. Kisses it. Do you mind if I see it? Is that a request order? Well, he laughs and everyone in the room begins to laugh as well. They seem to enjoy that. Is anything in order is anything a request? We're among friends.

You did me a kindness. I'm going to do you a kindness by all means. I want to know what I saved. Yeah, right. I'll reach up and pull off the cap. This is a audible gasp around this room. Everyone within the room looks shocked at this reveal. And it looks as though most of them had no idea it was coming.

The prince even is taking a step back and he looks at you with this eye of specimen. You're an experiment to him. He hovers for a moment with his hand just shy of the eye. Remarkable. Look at you. And he starts to move past you over to Mal. Puts the ring in. I bend forward and touch my lips to the ring, but not a full kiss.

It's just like a mouth touch and then I pull back. Cisco, I think this one is yours. You can tell by the absolute refusal to respect authority, huh? Listen, I understand. Your people were in charge for a very long time and now you've had to come to terms. It's good to have you. Cisco is going to keep a good eye on you. And he references to the person off the side of the sort of guard post there.

They have a shorn head. They stand at about five foot seven in an oversized blazer that drapes over their form. Button up on top of a point color dress shirt and a Bolo tie with an embossed steel smiley face. High waisted wool slacks that tie over with a belt that has been sharpied to read don't make me. It's pulled loose and hanging over the material. The slacks tuck into a pair of combat boots and on their back strapped over the large blazer is a scabbard that is housing a massive executioner's blade that has been inscribed with these runes along the hill. It looks about as big as she is or they are. Excuse me.

Does it look like the prince would let me speak if I wanted to say something to him? He looks inviting. He's not speaking now. Prince Grant. I am unaware of the breadth and depth of the evils performed by my lineage. I hope to learn my history and if you'll allow it, repent for the sins of my ancestors. I always knew that the monarchs could speak. I always preferred them over the ventrue. No offense, Lucius, and he looks to the redheaded individual off to the side of him. You always had more bite.

And I think that's true of you too, Mal. I'm going to take this into consideration. And hell, if Cisco wants to share some of their knowledge with you, I'm sure it'll happen. I'm sure you are going to be getting to know each other for a very long time. Essentially, everything you do is going to be watched in this place. I welcome it. Good. Good. This is quite a team you have so far, Burroughs. These people are very excitable. I like them.

Excitable and good at what they do. We were able to get out of Denver without too much trouble. Well, you ran into the SI, right? And he moves immediately to Niles. And Burroughs tells me you're the one that saved him. I like, I guess kiss his ring and I just like nod and I say, yeah, I was just keeping everybody safe. There's a flash of his golden eyes as you can see a sheen sort of take over as he's looking at you. My question is, where did you come from? And how did you end up here? You must be huge side of things, huh? Yeah, that's who I know here.

Right. That's who you know here. Right. And he, he stops, he puts his arms out to the rest of the group. That means that we might have a possible anarchy in our midst, folks. Someone who's on the fringe of things. A member of the truce brought together in this room specifically because of the truce that has brought our nations together, right? I mean, I, I mean, I guess that, I mean, I just, I'm just passing through and he's just the person I know. I just, that's it. So there's no allegiance?

I guess not really. No. So if a certain prince was to offer you a life of opulence for the rest of your life, you'd be open to that discussion. I, I mean, I just, I was just trying to do a favor like you asked so that I could be able to just move about the city how I want. That's kind of all I'm looking for. I want to be tied down too soon. I, I understand. I get it. Good. He picks himself up in the news over. Ah, you two, you two.

What am I ever going to do with you two? I'm sure with whatever you please. Is that an offer? Yes, you can do us whatever you want. Look at you two. Just chomping at the bit, huh? Uh huh. I'm going to, I'm kind of like, easy.

Why? You got the bitch to chomp on? I got a lot more than that. Now listen, you two. This is a special situation. And I want to be completely honest in what we're doing here. And discussions with Emmerich on whether it was to put you forward to, to the truce or to see you dead. I was on the ladder. I was of the belief that what you are shouldn't exist.

Not without proper decision. It goes against every tradition we have to allow you to do this without permission. And I won't go ahead and embarrass you and show your whole ass in front of your new friends. Please do. But Emmerich fought hard for you. I thought you should know that your new preemigian sees something in you. That is very gracious and kind. Something like this world.

I only hope we can please him enough to improve his condition. It's not him you have to please. I see. Well, this has been illuminating burrows. Please pick your people up. Crowd. Stand. It was our honor.

Should you ever need it again, please let us know. Absolutely. He snaps his finger and his chauffeur comes over to grab the briefcase and illuminates. I do have some stipulations on some things, but first I'd like to hear how everything went. You saw the SI. I came across the SI, dealt with them, met with our contact in Denver. But we were able to evade them. They certainly didn't track us.

You left no leads. Did we leave any leads, folks? No. That's why we took them. That's why it's suburban. Counts as a lead. No, it looks like idiots were fighting in the desert. There's no trace of anything that actually happened there.

Nothing that comes back to Vegas at least. Reason why, unfortunately, it took so long to return. We just wanted to make sure we brought nothing back, especially to your domain. We're always extra careful. There was one thing. While we were driving, we came across a site. Something I don't think any of us ever seen before. It was a creature of some kind, a pretty foul beast.

Big, like a, I don't know, like a fucking Sasquatch or something. But white, hairless, looked like a bat, tore up my car. But we were able to fight it off. It looks like this. The drawing. Yeah, he looks between Cisco as you're describing it. And the word werewolf begins to form on his mouth until he sees Enoch's journal. And he moves over to Enoch and he says, if I may.

There you go. That's all yours. He takes a look. I think you may have run into a white. A what? We were calling it a great white, so we were close. There you are. Your intuitions are exceptional for us. White, this is, well, he looks to everyone around the room.

This is what happens when you go hungry for too long. This is the consequence of allowing the beast to take over. If you fought one of these and came out on the other side, okay, then. Well, maybe I thought less of you than I should have, burrows. All I did was the driving. They did it all fight. I see. I think, well, after the prince says that, Sybil just sort of thinking and not realizing what she's saying asks, is there a shortage of food in Las Vegas?

God, no. We sit on the circulatory system thanks to Ladislav, meaning that we have more food than anywhere in the nation, at least for Kindred. What dams and rivers can be directed? Are we, are you, are we starving anything out on purpose? Go ahead and give me a manipulation and persuasion. Ask me the wrong question. Can I give you my thing? Well, let's go, Zach.

I have a persuasion score, certainly, that I have, and it's mine. I hope. Okay, that's two successes in a pool of three. He looks to you and says, you know what? I don't think that's a conversation for today. It's a good insight, truly. It's good that you're thinking ahead. You know who you remind me of?

Well, you already know. But I'm not drowning anyone out, and I'm certainly not starving anyone in my nation. If you ran into a white, there must have been some other circumstance. Travel in the desert like that, sometimes you find someone who got lost. Maybe it was that. We've met many fine individuals here tonight that I'm sure would help us in our endeavor of understanding this white. So we appreciate all the information you've already given us. Well, if there's anything else, the Tremere, Eno, and Ico, did you have a, a happen to meet them?

And he points out the twins. They're exceptional with all this. And so is Emmerich, your pre-magin, gestures to the couple. But there was nothing else of that white, just stray off the road. Stray off the road. There was the triangle orgy. Naked triangle, that sort of. I thought that was pretty run-of-the-mill vampire shit.

What? There was a triangle of naked people sort of dancing in the desert that actually sort of opened for the white. Right. And you saw a fit to leave that detail from the telling. Really quickly. I'm so sorry. Erin, did you not, you wrote notes during that, correct? Yep.

Okay. So I'm going to be like, if you would go and actually flip it, if you'd look in his notes. That's the next page? Yes. On the notes. Because he has it. He already has the book. So there.

He flips over and reads through it. That is a piece of the puzzle that I don't have an answer to. But that has more to do with your white than anything else, I would say. Can they be summoned? They can be turned. They can be freed. A lot of our people who go missing or enter into torpor and sleep for thousands of years, sometimes wake up and they wake up hungry, changed.

When you've been alive that long, well, dead that long, it changes things about who you are. You become incredibly powerful, but at the cost of your mind. It's possible you didn't run into just a white, but something that had been woke up from a long sleep. This, this is important. What you found. And I have an offer for all of you.

One that I hope you will consider. One that does not have to be answered now, but has to be answered soon so that I can ensure your loyalty. But I wish to bestow domain upon all of you. I wish to name you Cotery. And I wish to give you full membership in the Camarilla under my jurisdiction and Sheriff Cisco's. I want to give you a place to be, a place to call home.

A safe house in the Ivory Tower. We would set you up with an area out of Naked City. That would be entirely your own out of the Arts District. There is a bar there, a club there that was recently bought out by Premogen Emerick, but he has been so gracious as to bestow it upon his two new Malkavian imports provided that they accept this offer. But it would be all yours and yours to defend under the supreme understanding that you would enter into my service in the new Court of Prince Aloysius Grant.

I don't see how we could possibly say no to that. I think that is a very generous and gracious offer. Extremely gracious. Bullish to deny. Exactly. It sounds like we're all on the same page then. You don't have to say yes if you don't want to. I think we're saying yes though.

I know that this feels forced and he gestures to the circle of people in shrouding all of you. Absolutely. How could we turn down such generosity? Well, I'm glad you see it the way I do. This is a ticket to survival, a ticket to New Vegas, to a world without the petty squabbles that have afflicted us for years. I don't intend to die as the last Prince did, but I will need foot soldiers. I will need people open to this new future.

I intend to name you all Watchmen with the express understanding that your job in this city is to pursue things like you saw out there in the desert. You are going to be supernatural defenders of Las Vegas. Anything that goes bump in the night will be your purview underneath the jurisdiction of Sheriff Cisco. I think Burroughs deserves a toast and I'll grab a glass from one of the walker buys, and I'll raise it up and I'll say to the new generation and to the new Prince, and I'll kind of tip it towards him. Cheers.

Cheers. I'm doing it so everyone watching too feels obligated to lift their glasses. It is a very universal cheer that goes about everyone grabs some form of feeding. Most of them blood dolls from off of the side as those IV tubes are released, and the Prince brings one free to his mouth, and you can see this gout of blood begin to descend from this cork that was apparently keeping back the pressure of that sanguine liquid. The rest of them all do the same, feasting into their prey, into their blood bags, into anything they have available as they all drink to your new memory.

If I drink from this glass and it's got blood in it, I feel like I do it just to satiate a little bit of my hunger. You will remove one hunger off of that blood. I don't enjoy it, but I get caught up in the moment. You're starting to feel that food fight back. Hmm, wonderful. Well, if there's no further business. Oh, there's always business in Elysium, but I am available if you would see fit. I can answer any questions, and I'm sure any of our Premogen, including our Good Ben True Premogen Lucius

and Keeper of Elysium would be happy to answer any questions. As for location and domain, I'll have Ferdinand pass on the information to Santos, and you can leave with your new address. That is provided, of course, that we're all still game for the agreement. That's what the cheers was for. Good. Then the last thing I'll do is tell you the traditions. It's the very last thing, and you're free to go as you wish.

I have rules in the city, and they are thus. There is to be no internet presence. No one is to hold any sort of media imprint. If we can find you, we can kill you. And either I or the SI will see to it. The next, no nose for ought to are to sleep above ground. If you allow, condone, or find any of them doing so, and do not bring them immediately to Sheriff Cisco, I will see to it that they die, you die, we all die.

The lasombra must declare their haven and submit to monitoring. That is Mal's decree. Mal is to stay in my city. It will be under my watch at all times. There is to be no feeding on the strip whatsoever, punishable upon final death. There is to be no action to break the truce between ourselves and the Anarchs. There is to be no kindred who interferes with the circulatory system and its business. Any encounter with the supernatural must be reported.

Any violation of Elysium and its rulings is subject to immediate final death. The right to sire and the right to ghoul is reserved solely on my permission. And I reserve the right to break any rule I like. That's all. Welcome to Vegas. And he sort of drifts away, cheersing his glass to everyone out, and then heads to the bar with Lucius where it seems as though they're picking up another side of that conversation. The room is free to all of you.

I want to get out of here as fast as possible. I think that is what. I agree. Where are we going? Let's head to Santos so he can. Santos is standing by the double doors towards the back. It seems like he's been there since the crowd formed. It doesn't seem as though he has a taste for all this politic.

He opens both double doors for all of you to file out of, and you fill out into the open air where this big brush of cold breeze hits all of you. And you can suddenly feel even metaphorically that you can breathe again outside of the cloying club inside of the tower echelon. And you're back in Vegas staring out at the sea of neon across the horizon there. It is two o'clock. I believe that this is a good place to end. I apologize. There are some things we didn't get to here today,

but we had some shotgun talk and briefcases that had to get decided. Don't blame it on the shotguns. Thanks. Thank you. The shotgun was the best thing that happened in this game. Caleb, as we're leaving, can I just take one of the napkins from the place? Absolutely. There were plenty of club napkins inside which are denoting sort of the mock-up of what the original design will be. And it looks like a very large blue skyscraper breaking out of a square shape on the napkin itself.

You have one now. Thank you. Is there anything else? I got some questions, but we'll wait till next time. Yeah. We will come back to all of that. Is there anything else that we would like to solve here and now, anything we need to declare before next session?

I think this is a good place to stop. I'm going to play more. I feel like this is a good place. We're not going to sleep, so we don't need to roll for eating or anything. No, not yet. You will keep your stats for wherever you are at the start of the next session, because we're still on half a night there. But for this session, I'm awarding one experience point to all of you for your time in Elysium.

Congratulations. Should all now be at three? You can start spending at three. I don't know if you want to, but it would get you a dot in a skill and I think a few other things. Hold on. Another amazing session. Thanks, man. Right.

Thank you guys. Thank you. Everyone who tuned in for chapter two. We've set the stage. We've learned Elysium. We've met some of the major players. There are still a whole cast to meet on the other side of the pre-magens. But we'll get to that.

And there's also the Anarchs coming up soon, who will hopefully be a little more hospitable. And I think our plan is we're going to try to raid something, right, Eli? We're raiding a channel after this. You're muted, love. You're muted. Got them every day. Yeah. We're going to raid over to Jess, the human who is currently doing a two-day charity stream

for reproductive rights. I'll be there tomorrow at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. I'll be playing thirsty swords, lesbians with a bunch of awesome people from the community space. So, yeah, I think that's where we're going to head over after this. Awesome. All right, so stay tuned, guys. Perfect. Bye.

Bye. Thank you, guys.