Prologue to the World of Darkness RP : A Puzzle of Flesh
 

The moon hung in the starless night like a pearl set in a black-blasted frame. Five men got out of the two cars parked on the small knoll near the neighbourhood, the nocturnal wind whipping the long grass around, an almost-tangible entity that stole the warmth from them even through coats and gloves.

If Nicholas Yang was alive, he might have noticed that this wind was abnormal for a night breeze, if breeze was the word one could use to describe this invisible malignance that set his men to shivering. He might even have though that there must have been some evil afoot, some great wickedness in the process of birthing tstelf to have produced hthe ill wind that blew tonight.

But Nicholas Yang was dead, and so thoughts like these did not fill his head, only a mixture of boredom and distaste, flavored with a hint of apprehension. Of course, the truly dead were hardly given to thinking, let alone the melange of plots and emotions rattling around his mind. No, Nicholas Yang could think because he was a vampire, and the small group of his subordinates were the specially-trained ghouls he brought along on missions like this.

He went over the instructions in his head again. Investigate the house. Find out who's behind this. The council itself had issued the dictum, and it was Nicholas, the city sheriff, that they had sent on this mission. Great responsibilities had to be borne by capable individuals, and Nicholas was among the most capable they had.

He resented it, of course. They took him for granted, yanking him here and there like a puppy on a chain, sending him to do their dirty work like they had in the Shadow War, after Prince Nigel had fallen to Eric Caller-to-Arms. Bloody cowards. If it wasn't for the sacrifice of Mars and his men, they'd all be piles of smoking ash like Nigel. And still they tried to assert authority over the city as though they had been the heroes all along.

Oh well. There was a job to be done, and nobody else but them to do it. Natasha was leading the patrols in his stead, and few of the other Cainites were inclined to throw themselves into what could quite possibly be a nest of angry Lupines. So it was up to them, the Red Cell, to find out just what the hell was going on and who the hell would be so dumb as to break the fragile peace between the Lupines and Cainites.

Time to get to work.

"All right, people, enough gawking around. Our objectives are simple - we're going to go in there, check for clues, and leave. And we have to do this quietly - this is Lupine territory here. Capiche?"

(All right, this is a short RP, Nicholas is a vampire, a pretty experienced one, and he has four to five ghouls with him. You can take control of them, but just remember that they have one dot in Potence (extra strength) and increased toughness. Plus, they're trained, professional mercenaries, and they've seen Lupines attack, so they won't be shaken so easily.)

Charles stepped out of one of the cars and nodded at the word from Nicholas. Then he went about checking his assault rifle to make sure it was properly loaded and ready. When going against an opponent who could cross a field, tear off your arms, and beat you to death with them by the time you could blink, you had a tendancy to make sure things would work on the first try to stand a fighting chance. He advanced, ready for action, and said, "Ready for action."

Joanna scowled darkly up at the moon, as she, too, emerged from the car. Goddammit, she thought, won't this make those wolf...things stronger? Her pale skin glowed with an almost unearthly luminescence, and her short, spiky hair was dyed black to match her short dress and combat boots. She had considered herself a Goth once; now she just considered herself royally fucked. While she and the other ghouls had faced these "Lupines" before, she actually knew very little about them, and for some reason relating that information held a very low priority for Nicholas, or any of the other fanged devils she had once sought to emulate.

Nicholas...Damn him! He had seemed so charming at first, a true "creature of the night". By the time he was sending her into battle as a shock trooper, it was too late to pull away; the blood seemed to cloud her mind every time she considered turning on him. For the moment, she settled for focusing her thoughts on the mission, and the two silvered daggers carefully tucked into her boots; she only hoped they would be enough.

After a brief struggle, Xavier managed to extract his hulking frame from the confines of the vehicle.
He looked around wildly, features contorting with panic, until he spotted the master. Panic then faded to grim determination as Xavier padded over to his master's side.
Anything that wanted to get to Nicholas would have to go through him.

"Xavier, you ogre!" Joanna hissed at her fellow ghoul. "Could you possibly attract more attention?" The large man had not really been all that noisy, but Joanna was quite on edge. Plus, she was just a little afraid that Nicholas favored this brute over her. She paced back and forth in agitation. "Can we get this over sometime tonight?"

"Patience, my dear. We're here to investigate, not eliminate. "

Of course, if you were just here to check out a house, then why did you bring Xavier along?

Because we're walking into right the wolf's jaws, and if the merde hits the ventilateur, I want to make sure as many of us make it out as possible.

Then why had he brought Joanna along? It wasn't as though she was a real combatant, not that he needed any for the night's work. Her function under him was primarily as a distraction and a scout, not kick-in-the-door like Charles, or muscle and intimidation like Xavier.

Because I've got no choices left, not any more after the damned war.

The Shadow war had taken a heavy toll on the Kindred population, but more heavily hit was the ghoul population. The Lupines were indiscriminate over who they killed - as long as they smelt blood, it was marked for death. And the Cainites weren't particularly helping the matter either. Most of the selfish bastards threw their minions in the way of rampaging wolves to buy themselves a few seconds of time that would almost inevitably prove to be inadequate. As a result, over eighty percent of the ghouls in the city died over those two years.

And now, with the Kindred community trying to restore the old status quo as soon as possible, there simply weren't enough talented mortals to go around. Everybody and his brother wanted their butlers and assistants bodyguards and what have you, and nobody was willing to let each other have their prized mortals. In the end, the council had to step in and declare a form of rationing, which didn't really change the situation much, but was generally seen as being better than having no rules at all.

Nicholas hated that. It was treating people like cattle, or pets, and he knew what ghouls went through without the Blood. Not first-hand, mind, but it had been close. Being a ghoul was a bit like being a crack addict and madly in love with the dealer too. Or at least, that's what Maurice used to say, before...

Before the werewolves killed him, and Bianca, and Eric, and all the others, when the meeting of Cainites they had been attached to had left them to the tender mercies of the shapeshifters following the discover y of their "secret rendezvous".

No. Not me. I will leave no man behind.

But even as he said that, it felt hollow in the saying; slightly dull, like a dry piece of unleavened bread. A sentence came to mind, a sentence from Mars Pettrovitch, the scourge who had found Nicholas, educated him and eventually died in his place. He didn't want to believe it, of course, but he could not help but acknowledge the truth in it.

"Respect for life is a mortal concern."

Joanna felt only a brief twinge of disgust as a gratified grin began working its way across her face. "My dear", he always said. Of course she was dear to Nicholas-why else would he have brought her to such a forboding locale? He simply couldn't stand to be without her, no matter how large or well-armed she wasn't.

"Investigate. Right. And that would be why G.I. Joe over here is so action-ready, huh?" She jerked a thumb in the direction of Charles.

"Hm? Because I am always action ready, baby! I was born ready! When they made me, they broke the mold, cause no one deserves to be as smart as I am and ready for anything life can throw at me!" Charles said. He threw an exaggerated arrogant swagger into his step, then struck an overly dramatic pose just for effect.

He then winked at Joanna and added, "Plus, you never knew when an 'Investigation' will turn into a 'Strategic advance in the opposite direction while under fire'..." He then walked back over, and after checking his assault rifle to make sure it was ready and loaded, he swung it over his back. He contemplated bringing a shotgun too, knowing that if a wolf got to close some Silver Shrapnel in the face might be enough to ward them off, and decided to go for it, making sure to grab some extra ammo for it and then slinging the gun over his other shoulder.

Joanna rolled her eyes. "Ugh, that would be exactly what I do NOT want to hear right now..."
Secretly, though, she began to feel a little safer, and even a little optimistic. If the group could just manage to slip in and slip out....but when did things ever go according to plan?

The girl sighed heavily, then stood up straight, cracking her knuckles and exuding assertiveness. "All right, guys, are we gonna stand out here 'til sunrise? Let's get this show on the road!"

"I will admit that I would much rather they sent a Nosferatu team than us... but I guess the rifle does not complain about what it's pointed at. Charles, I like your spirit, but we're supposed to bring some evidence back, not destroy it for the Lupines."

Hec racked his knuckles, then put on a pair of black leather gloves. He didn't need them, of course; vampires had no fluids in the bodies apart from blood and thus their fingertips did not produce the oils needed to leave prints. It was force of habit, mostly, and he was also hoping to remind the rest without having to say anything.

"In any case, Joanna's right. Time to go. Keep your eyes open - the Lupines can appear out of anywhere."

Saying so, he started down the hill, under the cover of the copse of trees that ran all the way to the estate.