"A stone's throw you say, you had better be correct my pet. We shall be leaving tomorrow evening then. Hand me that device so I may peruse it more thoroughly," as he snatches the contraption from Sawney.

"Ready everything, we have business that needs to be taken care of and I shall tolerate none of your dawdling," as he turns leaving Sawney to take care of the vehicle and assess the area.

I immediately start back toward the cabin, the device still in my hand. My frustration at this human puzzlebox still seething. As I approach the cabin I set it upon the ground with a soft hand. I shall teach this to not speak to me, it shall certainly not happen again as I crush it underneath my boot. It shall trouble no one else any further.

I enter the cabin and approach our Ductis. "I was able to glean some information from the device, a location not far from here. I told Sawney to prepare for our departure from here by tomorrow evening. I fear the device was very fragile and was not made for Cainite hands though. I am certain the kine made it from their flawed intellect and that is why it failed," looking about for the other two. They shall still need to be watched carefully and another Vaulderie is in order. Sawney had mentioned some bikers and a bar, which I assume is something akin to a pub. Whatever the case, I can be certain that after we are finished there, it will not be the same.

Sometimes i wander. I had been listening to Acid and Sawneys interactions with the device but unless Sawney was getting his face melted i wasnt all that interested. He has his uses but his voice is half the reason i see fit to kick his teeth loose every week or so.

2008-10-27 12:00:16 Dust rolls 4 dice to perception/alertness (Diff 5) 3,6,10,2 (2 successes)

Scouring the wrecked cabin for anything of use or entertainment value i come across the mortal i mercilessly stabbed to death. He looks like one of those butterflys pinned in a box, catalogged and splayed open for inspection...

Something shiny catches my eyes and i look up, his shotgun. Its small,with the name 'Wynona' etched into the side. The joke is lost on me, but the usefullness of the firearm is not.

I re-enter the main room just in time to hear Acid. A biker bar sounds far more entertaining than a blood soaked cabin...

It is unfortunate that the scrying device failed, but certainly not altogether unexpected. It is just as the Priest has said, the frail instruments crafted by man are not intended for the hands of gods. As the thought echoes across my mind, I glance down at my own hands, noting that my talons are still present and find it strange, if only for a moment, that I never sheathed them after the skirmish. It then occurs to me that my hands are more... comfortable, in this form. They always feel clumsy and fragile when bereft of their true potential. Incomplete. I decide to leave them as they are.

Acid will no doubt take a moment to prepare for the Vaulderie, so I busy myself searching for a trap-door, stairway or anything that might reveal a cellar.

2008-10-28 16:17:32 Pathos rolls 9 dice to Perc+Alert 5,7,1,3,3, 9,8,5,8 (3 successes)[4 Successes]

If we are to stay here today, I would prefer not to have to rely on Sawney's carpentry skills to piece that splintered door back together. He will have more than enough to keep him busy as we slumber, it would not behoove us to go in for a possible blackout without proper tactical knowledge of the strike zone.

In the bedroom Pathos will locate a cut away in the floor. It leads to a cramped wine cellar, with about a dozen bottles of mid range vintage. The wine cellar also has a small door that leads to a crawlspace under the cabin. There should be easily enough room for the pack to sleep away from the sun, but quarters will be cramped and likely infested with insects.

Fortification and camouflage. Perfect. I have no immediate use for the wine, the stuff will not even burn, but it does hint at the mutilated kine upstairs being slightly more well-off than first they appeared. I shall have Sawney search them for tradeable goods.

The insects should pose little problem, all beasts both great and small seem to recognize something in me that they instinctively fear. [Flaw: Offensive to Animals]

Returning to the cabin above, I notice that Dust has found herself a new toy. It should prove a useful sentinel as we slumber when properly affixed to the inside of the crawlspace. As I kneel to remove a boot-lace from the would-be mountain man Enoch used as a battering ram, I inform the rest of the Pack that my scouting was successful.

"Lock it down. We sleep here. When the sun falls, we shall attempt to pick up the trail of our brothers and sisters and continue our mission."

The Priest is nearly ready to begin. The Vaulderie should prove especially invigorating tonight, with the increased potency of our younger members.

 I glance about the cabin and immediately start toward the nearest skull, ripping it free from its fetters, sculpting it to my purpose and throwing out the diseased sweetbread inside.

2008-11-04 15:07:37 Acid rolls 8 dice to Bonecrafting 9,10,8,3,9, 10,1,7 (5 successes)(expended one blood trait)

The instrument in hand I raise the skull and call for my pack to attend their duties.

"I summon you all to attend your duties as those before you have done in nights before. It is the will of our father that we should throw off our yoke and share our blood, so that we may free ourselves of his errant childer. They shall not stand before us, nor shall their minions. We have meted out our justice here as prescribed from the code and have fulfilled our duties. I am pleased by our progress and it has been shown our path is righteous. None shall stand in our way, none dare. We are the sword of Caine and through us shall we become one again," as he slits his wrist open, his vitae dropping in the cup.

In the Vaulderie we are all equals. Our order after our Priest initiates is not important as long as we all participate. I will take the skull-chalice from Acid when it is ready to pass. I hold it in both my hands and with just a faint hiss use my fangs to pierce my tongue. I dangle the torn flesh from my redding lips and drizzle an equal amount of my now more potent vitae into the chalice.

With my blood comingling with that of our Priest my small part of the ritual is done and i offer up the skull-chalice to whoever will take it next.  

(-1 blood point)  

--Last edited by Dust on 2008-11-13 20:22:03 --

I take the chalice in one hand as Dust extends it, letting my free hand hover above it as I curl my talons back into its palm, piercing the skin and pouring my own vim into the concoction before sealing the wound and passing the grail to Enoch.

 I take the chalice into my hands with zeal, I know my place and the rite. I tear at my flesh with my fangs and bleed into the skeletal glass we share. It is red, the color of war, the mark of Mars.

I pas the chalice back to our priest reverently, knowing this bonds the Sword of Caine, the Enlightened, the Righteous.

"My blood is yours my brothers"

"As is the word of our father, Caine begat us all as he begat the three.
It is said Caine knew what he must do, and a young man named Enosh,
who was the most beloved of Seth's kin, begged to be made Son to the dark Father.
And Caine, mindful though he was of Uriel's words, seized Enosh,
and wrapped him in the dark Embrace.
And so, it came to pass that Caine beget Enoch and, so doing, named the First City Enoch.
And so doing, did Enoch beg for a brother, a sister, and Caine, indulgent Father,
gave these to him, and their names were Zillah, whose blood was most-favored of Caine,
and Irad, whose strength served Caine's arm.
And these Kindred of Caine learned the ways of making Progeny of their own, and they
Embraced more of Seth's kin, unthinking," it's words rising to a crescendo in culmination of the ceremony.

"We were once those whom are cursed, forever at the whim of our elders, but Caine shone his adoration upon us in this," signifying the cup outstretched in it's arm. "With these we vow ourselves to our sect and ourselves, these shall not fail," as he raises the cup supping upon the vitae inside.

"Drink deeply, my brothers, tonight we celebrate what granted our freedom.

What makes us chosen."  

--Last edited by Acid on 2008-11-14 14:13:35 --

'To our unity and strength, my brothers.'

I raise the skull-chalice in salute to my pack and my priest, and with a lick of my fangs i drink. The commingled vitae is closer to a uniform strength than it has even been.

After my draught i pass the chalice carefully as i did before.

 I reverently take the cup from Dust, staring at it for a moment silently mumbling the code before I finish and drink the vitae, the ambrosia of Mars.

"I feel you all, I am for you..." as he passes the chalice to his Ductis with a steadied hand.

I take the grail from the Legionnaire with an underhand grip as one would use for a snifter of fine cognac, my talons clacking softly against the bone. For some reason, as I peer into the dark liquid and again to my Packmates, I am reminded of Orestes' trial.

Raising the cup to each member, I quote Aeschylus "The gods' concerns are what concern only the gods." and drain its contents. Swallowing the liquid fire quickly, then spit a mixture of blood and saliva upon the floor -a libation, from the gods to the gods- and crush the remnants of the skull-chalice into a hundred tiny fragments.

"The Dawn will break soon. When the sun again falls, a Storm shall rise." and I make my way toward the cellar to rest.

When the others went and Passed out in the cellar, I waited about ten minutes and followed them down, moving the wine-rack in front of the little door that Pathos found. When they were all safely tucked in, I headed back up to borrow the mountain-man's face. I was getting really tired of this wrinkly, old one.

2008-11-10 06:45:24Sawney rolls 6 dice to Perc+Body Crafts (Diff 8, used willpower) 8,10,10,4,3, 6 (4 successes)

It's the getting taller part that I really fucking hate. I mean, as if the excruciating process of stretching all of your limbs out weren't bad enough, it always takes like a week for you to stop banging your head into shit. I wouldn't be able to fool his mother, but it should easily get me around town better than the face I was wearing, at least no one knows this guy is dead.

2008-11-15 14:00:08 Sawney rolls 6 dice to manip+Perf 2,1,8,4,8, 1 (failure)

I try and try to get his manner of speaking right, it's not the voice, the voice I have, it's more the way he carried himself, that cock-sure, I'm-a-badass way that he tried to dismiss me when I found him and whipped his ass the first time. I picture the moment when he temporarily regained consciousness as I was dragging him back to the vehicle. The way he looked at me, as if he could not possibly have just lost that fight, and the way he was completely sure of himself and the words that were about to fall out of his nearly toothless mouth. He said 'You done fucked up old-timer. I am gonna fuck you up six ways til Sund..' that was all he got out before my boot found his jaw, but I can work with it. Looking at my new face in the bathroom mirror, I try again.

2008-11-15 14:01:19 Sawney rolls 6 dice to Manip+Perf (Diff 7) 10,6,2,5,5, 3 (1 success)

Something still isn't right, but I can't pin it down. God-damn it I am glad Acid is not here to see this. I've got to get into town to check the place out like I was asked and be back here before sunset to move the wine-rack. Fuck it. It's a long drive, I'll practice on the way.

I go through the cabin looking for this jackass' clothes. overalls and flannels is all I find. I pilfer the wallet off his corpse, and check to make sure there is an I.D.

'Edgar Jones' it says. Fan-fucking-tastic.

I'm out of here, my watch says I've only got six hours before I need to be back for the kids.

I pop on into the vehicle, adjust the rear-view so I can practice my 'Edgar' on the way out.

2008-11-16 10:35:52Sawney rolls 6 dice to Manip+Perf (Diff 7) 6,3,3,5,6, 1 (BOTCH x 1)

Perfection. That is it.  I am just too god-damn good at this.