Xaos
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Post by Xaos on May 14, 2018 0:59:46 GMT
Madrid, 1735
In the sky above, a bloated, waning moon filtered through fast-moving, thin but dark clouds to cast an eerie light onto Madrid's cramped streets. At this late hour few were awake to appreciate this fact, but the men who patrolled the grounds of Carlos Esteban de Santa Anna's villa could be counted among their number. As could the pair of women who looked down on the villa from a near-by rooftop. Santa Anna was, in fact, a knowing puppet of the intensifying Camarilla offensive against the Sabbat in Europe.
Over the past century, as many Sabbat had fled crumbling strongholds to the relative safety and plenty of the New World, a cycle had occurred in which the mass emigration led to more lost territory which led to more mass emigration. Now the Ivory Tower had grown so brazen in its European ascendancy that it was even intriguing here, in the heart of Lasombra power. The two women, Luz and Gabriella, had been tasked with repairing this sad state of events, at least in some small part represented by their actions here tonight. They looked down on the lone guard leaning against the scullery door, which lay over the villa's garden wall. This was the lightest the guard presence had been in that area, which they had determined the best means of ingress, all night.
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on May 15, 2018 6:20:00 GMT
Luz smiled as she looked at the moon and relished in the dry summer wind. She was excited to hunt, especially on such a perfect night. The movement of the clouds would stretch the shade of the night in such a way that no mortal would realize that the very shadows are hunting them.
Not only were the conditions of the night perfect for hunting, but conducive to the success of this mission. To hunt such well-guarded prey was not common for Luz, and often left to the veterans of the pack. She gathered that Ricardo must have been noticing her and her sister's efforts in the pack. Of course it was not as important as hunting a Camarilla Justicar in a war party, or hunting down traitors to the Sabbat, but it was still an important mission, specifically to be completed without supervision.
Moving up felt good.
"What do you think, sister?" Luz asked the woman beside her. "Do we strangle him with our bare hands, or our shadows? Oh! We could tell the poor soul to sleep where he stands! Are we feeling subtle tonight?"
Gabriella was an almond skinned woman with straight black hair and blood red lips. Her skin glowed and even appeared warm, almost as if she were still human. The contours of her face were soft and gentle, unbecoming of a killer. Her eyes were emerald green, always attentive, and seemed lost in thought as Luz spoke to her.
"Gabriella!" Luz snapped, "Are you listening to me?"
Luz had always been a little jealous of her sister's angelic appearance. How had undeath been so kind to Gabriella's features? Luz had been cursed with a touch as cold as ice, and a demeanor that made mortals weary of her presence, Whereas her sister only had to show some cleavage and a coy wink, it seemed, to wrangle cattle for a blood feast.
Luz took pride, however, in her mastery over shadows and domination over the minds of weak mortals. The point isn’t to have the cows like you, after all.
Gabriella salivated while looking down at the lonesome guard below. Luz then realized that Gabriella had not fed since the blood feast five days ago. She had denied Luz’s invitations to go hunting the past three nights. Luz had thought nothing of it at the time, but now it seemed odd.
“The only blood you’ve had was our Vaulderie, Gabriella. You must be starving! Why have you not fed? It is important that you keep your strength up. You’re practically in torpor as is! Do you need to feed on him? I want you at your best, Hermana.”
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on May 24, 2018 2:15:25 GMT
Gabriella wiped the saliva off her lips and grit her teeth, coming back to the present moment.
"No. I'm fine, Luz. I'll eat after we're done here. Besides, he's just a guard. No use leaving a body that could give us away. This needs to go perfectly."
Luz glared at her sister and raised her eyebrow, indicating a certain level of concern. Gabriella, in Luz's mind, seemed to be handicapping herself by not feeding now. They had stashed bodies before, such was some of their first training as vampires. Besides, Luz needed her sister at her best, filled with vitality and strong in the shadows. Feeding on this cow would ensure her sister's safety and the success of the mission. Two powerful Obtenetrists would be most effective if both were full with blood and fervor.
"You're going to eat. You've been starving yourself and it's not good for you."
"Hermana, I said--"
"We eat!"
The silence between the two was quiet, disturbed only by the wind. Luz and Gabriella's eyes remained locked for about ten seconds, each glaring at the other, until Gabriella angrily broke the staring contest and went back to surveying the area.
"Fine," Gabriella grumbled under her breath, "I still see no reason to kill this pitiful human. But if they find the body and we blow this chance, you'll be the one taking the lashings from Ricardo."
Gabriella's reluctance to feed was troubling Luz. Pitiful human Luz thought. Yes, human's were weak, but pitiful was a word that Luz would have used to describe a man decades ago when she was still human. She put her sister's meaning aside for the moment and scoured the area for a place where the meal could take place, and the body could be stashed.
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Xaos
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Post by Xaos on May 27, 2018 1:25:54 GMT
With an eye now long-practiced at the arts of stealth and assassination, and having already spent time observing the guards' patterns, Luz easily determined several different ways by which she could catch this meal without drawing attention. First, and easiest, would be to drain him, toss him over the garden wall into the street, and hope the late hour would prevent his discovery until morning. Alternatively, the body could be tossed over the wall, and the sisters could follow, then stage the body to look like a passed out drunkard in an alley; though that plan would take the most time. Most difficult, but the most potentially useful, would be to push the body through the scullery door, relying on the likelihood that there would be few to no servants within it at this hour. Such a plan would require quick elimination of what few servants might be within but would allow the scullery to be used as a drop point for any further collateral kills. Luz rolls Perception 2 + Stealth 3 to examine her options
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on May 30, 2018 8:43:35 GMT
"The scullery, Gabriella. We kill him and bring him inside." Luz directed. "There will be others that must die, and we will need to go that way anyways. While you feed I will clear out any servants that may be awake at this hour." "That is dangerous, Hermana!" Gabriella protested, "We must not be found out. If a servant screams then they could wake the whole house! Let's do the tried and true." "I hate 'drunkard in an alley'" Luz protested, "It's never any fun!" Gabriella glared at Luz, "It works. We play it safe." "Then what do we do to get in, if we aren't using the scullery?" Luz jeered back at her sister. "Over the roof and through a second story window. If we're lucky we might even get his room." "How about we feed and see how we feel?" Luz said before jumping down from the roof into an alley and making her way through the shadows towards their prey, then beckoning at Gabriella to follow. Luz looked around the corner into the alleyway where the guard stood watch, and did her best to sneak up on him while he absentmindedly skinned an apple for a midnight snack. Her plan was to grab him and cover his mouth so as to stifle the sound, and let her sister take the first bite. Luz felt her blood boil, the power of potence running through her veins as she snuck up upon her victim. She would not fail. I want to use a blood point from my pool to get at least one garunteed success on a grapple. |
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Xaos
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Posts: 351
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Post by Xaos on Jun 1, 2018 1:21:33 GMT
*THWACK!* Luz turned from her new crouched position in the garden wall's shadow in rapid response to the loud noise behind her. She saw Gabriella, still bouncing slightly from the reverberations, flat on the street from an apparent fall while trying to descend the rooftops. "Que Diablo?" came the surprised voice of the guard by the door through the wall, and Luz could hear him walking toward's the wall's gates to investigate. Luz rolls Dex 2 + Stealth 2
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Gabriella rolls Dex 3 + Stealth 2
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on Jun 4, 2018 9:55:29 GMT
Luz glared at her sister and motioned for her to move back into the shadows. Well it looks like dinner will be coming to us then, Luz thought to herself. This is what happens when she starves herself. She gets all clumsy, she can't even hunt right. Ay ay ay…
Luz grabbed some of the shadows cast around the corner by the light from the alleyway and moved it across the mouth to the street she and Gabriella were hidden on as naturally as possible, attempting to obscure herself from view (Shadow play), she knew that Gabriella would be fine as long as she remained still. Should the guard step past them without noticing their shadowy obscured presence she would then proceed as originally planned, smothering him with brute strength as Gabriella feasted. Luz put her finger up to her lips and winked at Gabriella. She then mouthed "Same plan" and turned, awaiting her prey, veins rippling with power, eyes wild with bloodlust. The man will be ready to struggle, Luz observed, I better make sure he doesn't squeal. No reason to stir the rest of the herd. make that two successes and two blood points Gabriella knew this look, the wild look in Luz's eyes, the way her veins throbbed. Why does she always have to be so bombastic. She always wants to grab and overpower people... She would strangle the poor bastard to death if that wasn't where she wanted me to bite him. Gabriella was not like Luz. She did not have the power of potence like her sister, but instead the power of obsfucation, the ability to be unseen. She stood perfectly still and donned her cloak of shadows, becoming unseen to all but the most observant of vampires.
She felt pity for the man, as he had done nothing but try to provide for his family. Blissfully unaware of his employer's connection to the night, he had done nothing but exactly what his job entailed. And now he was to die at her hands, for Luz demanded it and, oh dear god, was she herself hungry. She was not to be feeling this sympathy, for Ricardo taught that mankind was meant to be cattle to the Children of Caine, but nonetheless she could have been food for a vampire had she not become such a skilled murderer in her mortal life. All vampires had been on the other side of the coin. All had been human once, and had the arrogance, once embraced, think themselves better than what they once were. Perhaps it's the hunger talking Gabriella thought, But one thing is for certain. The minute that poor man rounds the corner he is doomed. |
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Xaos
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Post by Xaos on Jun 4, 2018 23:11:51 GMT
A creaking gate and footfalls announced the guard's entrance into the street. It took only a few moments for him, in his aimless searching for the source of the crash, to walk into a spot perfect for Luz to strike. And the Lasombra did indeed pounce with inhuman force, wrapping one arm around her prey's throat and seizing his weapon hand in an iron grip. Luz rolls for hold maneuver, Str 3 + Brawl 2 + Potence 2 + 2 auto successes from spent Potence
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on Jun 11, 2018 5:47:58 GMT
"Feast, Hermana." Luz snarled, raising her arm up just enough for Gabriella to get a good bite. Luz loved this part of the hunt, specifically the subduing of the prey. Once kissed humans almost get too much pleasure out of it. That first good bit of struggle and shock really made the rush of blood worth the energy.
Gabriella sighed and stepped out of the shadows, sinking her teeth into the neck of the guard while Luz kept him helplessly grappled. I am sorry, but this must happen. Gabriella thought as she sucked heavily from the man's neck, taking in the warm and salty blood, relishing in it. The man went limp and started moaning in ecstasy. Gabriella cradled the man and brought him to the ground then covered his mouth to quiet as much of the sound as she could. She drained until he stopped moaning, falling into unconsciousness from blood loss, doing her best to give him a chance at waking up.
"There, are you happy?" Gabriella said after licking the man's wound's closed.
"Extremely." Luz snapped back, her fervor finally fading. "We use the scullery. I'm carrying him so it's your job to sneak in and subdue any staff that might be awake. just convince them that they should be going to bed. We'll store him with the potatoes or something."
"Luz this a bad Idea--"
"Shut up. We go." Luz said with her usual finality.
God I hate her sometimes. We really are like siblings. Gabriella thought as she and Luz worked their way to the scullery door. She then tried to open the door as quietly as possible to peer inside and get a hold of the room to figure out a place to stash the body.
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Xaos
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Posts: 351
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Post by Xaos on Jun 18, 2018 0:17:04 GMT
As much as Gabriella hated to admit it, it did seem that Luz had been correct about her previous disastrous clumsiness having its origin in hunger. With a far more proficient step than before, Gabriella quietly approached the scullery door and began sequentially trying keys from the ring the guard had carried. At last rewarded with a satisfying *click*, Gabriella pressed the door open a crack to survey the situation. One middle-aged woman stood in the room, standing in front of a wooden tub and washing some object or another. Despite this immediately small presence, however, the scullery's other door was open, meaning that at any moment someone could walk by it in the hallway beyond. Gabriella rolls Dex 3 + Stealth 2
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on Jun 30, 2018 22:48:19 GMT
Gabriella moved quickly behind the woman as an unseen presence and then whispered into her ear, commanding the maid with her dominant abilities, "It's time for you to go to bed, you're tired and need rest." (manipulation + intimidation, this breaks unseen presence, obviously)
Gabriella did this in a manner unseen to her sister, who was waiting outside for her cue. Gabriella saw no reason for this woman to die. She knew that Luz would not see things the same way. Gabriella had thought before that mercy helped the Sabbat, that it helped conceal the presence of the Sword of Caine. The more she thought about it, however, the more she realized that she simply found rampant and unnecessary murder barbaric. It seemed backwards to Gabriella that the Sabbat considered themselves superior to humanity, when they behaved more like animals than a higher life form.
Should she succeed in convincing the maid to make her way to bed, she planned to cover the doorway with shadow and call Luz in to hide the corpse.
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Xaos
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Posts: 351
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Post by Xaos on Jul 8, 2018 0:56:14 GMT
With great emphasis on the command word of "rest," Gabriella expertly imposed her will upon the overworked servant. With a great, flourishing yawn, the woman left what she was doing and began to move away from the room to go deeper into the building and find her bed. With this accomplish, a shroud was then summoned and Luz began to bring in the freshly dispatched guard. Gabriella rolls Manipulation 3 + Intimidation 1 to activate Dominate 1
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on Jul 12, 2018 10:12:07 GMT
"All clear?" Luz asked as she stepped in and dumped the body in a closet, not even looking to see it's contents.
"There was no one here." Gabriella whispered, straight faced. "The door was open though so I've covered it from sight. What's our plan?"
"Upwards." Luz said without hesitation. "His sleeping chambers will be above. An estate like this? There's no way he would sleep on the same level as the servants. I know I wouldn't have when I was alive. If we are lucky we can smother him in his sleep; make it seem like he passed away peacefully."
"We must be careful, though." Gabriella chimed in. "He knowingly deals with the Camarilla. They may have a guard here, or at least have possibly set up some sort of defenses against us. Just because he is human is no reason to assume he is dumb."
With that Gabriella removed the shadows from the doorway and looked out into the hall, looking for a stairwell upwards. Luz followed behind, allowing her sister to scout ahead unseen. If any fighting were to occur, Luz would handle it. The sisters had a system, and it worked well.
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Xaos
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Posts: 351
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Post by Xaos on Jul 16, 2018 1:09:48 GMT
Shortly after entering the hall, the vampire duo found themselves face-to-back with another shaggy-looking, hired swordarm type not unlike the one they'd dispatched outside. To their bemused surprise, the man was so oblivious that he hadn't noticed the two women, even as they moved in to sneak only a meter or two immediately behind him. Luz rolls Dex 2 + Stealth 2
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Gabriella rolls Dex 3 + Stealth 2
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Guard in hall rolls Perception 3 + Alertness 1
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Post by Luz Elicia Apaganza Bastilo on Jul 16, 2018 20:08:58 GMT
Luz snickered. Humans really are pathetic. Luz held out her hands. She began to beckon tendrils of shadow from the out of the dark corners of the hallway. Black arms of darkness started reaching out towards the man. Manipulation + Occult, activating arms of the Abyss (difficulty 7). Each success creates one arm. I do not know if the two tens mean that I get 5 arms. Each tendril has a strength rating of 6 (Obtenebration 4 + Potence 2) and a dexterity rating of 4 (Obtenebration 4 + Celerity 0). They each have 4 health levels. My understanding is that Luz has 12 blood points left. Of her 14 she has used one to get the two successes from potence and one to activate this ability. Her Merit makes the first Obtenebration power free and the second one free for the first round of separate combats.
rsykVJuDp_p_p_p_p_p_p_ A tendril of shadow, from the ceiling above the guard, lashed out to grab a hold of the Man and hang him from the ceiling. Luz looked to snap the man's neck, and if not that, at least keep him quiet. Luz rolls to hit with a tendril. (strength of tendril 6 + ambush superiority 2)
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