Cape City: A World of Darkness Roleplaying Game

To: Caroline Johnson, Excelsior Labs
From: Hamilton Lyme, Lyme's Finest Foods
Dated: [[One Week Ago]]


Hi Caroline!

My name is Hamilton Lyme and I own a little food and delicacy distribution company called Lyme's Finest Foods. We haven't yet had the pleasure to meet, but I was recommended to you by our mutual friends at the Free Council of Business as the person to contact in Cape City. According to them, you folks at Excelsior Labs are up to some pretty exciting research!

Lyme's Finest is opening a shop in Cape City this coming week, as well as purchasing farmland nearby for production and testing of some new lines of business for us. I'm planning to head down there soon myself, just to oversee the new farms and get some fresh air (hope that's alright!).

I wanted to check in with you and see if you were amenable to showing me around a bit, let me know if that sounds convenient. Hoping to not step on any tails or toes when I arrive.

Best Regards,
Hamilton Lyme

WHO Amy and OPEN
WHAT A little remnant of her old life. Amy returns to the car garage of a family friend, where she works to earn a little extra, off-the-record cash.
WHERE Random small but awesome car repair place called Gary's Repair Shop.
WHEN Any time, really. Could be she just shows up here randomly for the past week and the next two weeks.
WARNINGS None.

She wears grease-stained coveralls (the nametag reads REESE) and a white tank top. Worker's gloves fitted to her smaller hands that she strips off as she approaches the car that's just pulled into the lot.

She knocks on the window. "Hey," she says. "I'm Reese. What brings you to Gary's?"

Who: Mekhet rebels, sympathizers, random drunks, bar patrons
What: Tensions are rising
Where: Jaberwocky's Den, Wonderland
When: Sunday night (July 24)

It's a well-known rumor that the underground sometimes meets at Wonderland. Trick is, no one can ever prove it.

This unholy night has not been designated as an information dropoff. Knowledge is not being passed, a revolution is not building, and the underground, they certainly are not preparing for anything.

--
The lights in the room rotate between flashing scarlet and black. The music is too loud to hold a conversation. The patrons are too drunk to care.

Sixty or is it eighty men and women are dancing, very close to one another. Drinks are knocked onto the floor. Someone throws a punch, and very quickly, that person is nowhere to be seen.

A man stumbles out of the bathroom, looking aroused yet sedated. His smile is wide open, and his expression looks like a fools -- an unnatural pairing to his spiked hair, dragon tattoo, and pierced ear. The fool rubs his neck once or twice and falls down on a nearby couch. A woman exits the same bathroom. She's beautiful, but you can't really put your finger on why. Her hair is slicked up into a pony and she's smiling out of satisfaction. She chuckles a bit at the fallen-over man and exits towards the back alley.

Two men sitting in a back booth clink their beer bottles together. The labels have both been ripped off, or perhaps the bottles never came with any.

Who: Fatima, the Keeper, the Seneschal
What: Introducing a new member of the city
Where: Elysium
When: ...a long time ago.

Elysium is an imposing building, dominating the city block where it was built. It's a modern structure, built in curves of glass and steel, elegant and beautiful and somehow subtly threatening.

Once inside, the lobby is cool marble and plush chairs. There is a public bar and restaurant, one of the most acclaimed in the city, on the ground floor. Of course, the real quality is in the bar and restaurant on the roof, but that's members only.

The intervening floors function as... well, something like a hotel. There are certainly rooms for rent. That they have certain... specifications, such as extra facilities or blocked sunlight, is incidental.

Below, of course, are the dungeons. A haven for every secret desire, for debauchery and pain and pleasure.

Today, the Keeper of Elysium, Lady Sandra, is performing an inspection of the restaurant on the top floor. Her ghouls know how to contact her, if necessary.

Who: Eran and YOU!
What: Eran's monthly hearing of disputes related to supernatural law. This is also something of a monthly gathering of Kindred etc. without the formality or exclusivity of court. An announcement no doubt went up in advance, so feel free to have your character have heard about it.
Where: The Cape City Marshall Museum of Art -- a series of gathering rooms in the back.
When: Wednesday -- today!
Warnings: None so far.
Notes: Feel free to also tag each other and make new threads, if you like.

In the main room, the marble floors are polished. Tables are set up with varied refreshments, appropriate for ghouls, retainers, werewolves and Kindred alike. Uniformed attendants, employees of the museum, are close by to attend to every whim.

Along one wall is a queue of those who wait to speak with Eran. Past a pair of deep wood doors, Eran's office: lit with stark lamps, decorated in rich carpet and polished wood.

There are also several private meeting rooms, available on request.

Eran, early in the evening, can be found taking care of the petitioners. Late, he stalks out of his office, and takes refreshments, observing the gathering with a glowering eye.

Who: Phobetor and YOU
What: Nightmare feeding and encounters
Where: Your dreams
When: Some time in the evening

Richard Archer stepped through the open gateway, and into a small clearing. He seated himself in a patch of dirt in the center, and closed his eyes. With every breath, he drifted further from his own body. He wasn't sure where the dreams would carry him today - he was exploring, looking for interesting targets to feed from. In the evenings, he exulted in strange vintages of dream.

As he reached the familiar gateway in his own dream, one that, like his sword, always shifted with to make sense with his current form, he put his hand on the handle, took a deep breath, and eased it open. Then, he stepped through.

Who: Fatima and YOU
What: Meeting the peoples
Where: Cape City Marshall Museum of Art History
When: Just after sunset

Now that she no longer felt the need to be vampire bait, Fatima had significantly cut down on the whore-factor of her wardrobe. As much as she enjoyed being at the height of fashion, it could get expensive. Sometimes, it was just easier to wear jeans and a tee shirt. And that is exactly what Fatima chose to wear when she left for the museum: Faded white blue jeans, a black, off the shoulder blouse, and one of her mother's old, silver scarves. Casual elegant. That's what Fatima would call it on a party invite. Her long, brown hair was twisted up into a knot, held in place by a pair of silver chopsticks. Completing the look was a silver charm bracelet, skillfully crafted by a Daeva friend. And not just any friend. She was a Facebook friend.

Fatima breezed into the museum, glancing casually at the displays. Really, she had very little patience or care for art. If it was over a hundred years old and couldn't walk or talk, it was generally pretty boring. She was more of a science museum sort of girl, but this was apparently one of the city vampire hangouts. Which made sense. Fossils loved hanging around with other fossils.

Her phone buzzed and Fatima took it out. A text from Prince Stephens: How are things going? Fatima smiled wryly, composing her response. "Things are..." She paused. She wasn't quite sure how to answer. Things were going...slowly, she guessed. Things were...fine? Really, she wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't made any real progress so far. Which would be fine, she supposed, if she were a vampire. But she was a mortal and had a limited amount of time. She wasn't going to waste all of her pretty years stuck in Cape City.

Quickly, she punched out a reply: If you have an ambassador here already, why the fuck did you send me? And with that, she pocketed her phone.

WHO: Caroline Johnson and Amelia Lauren Reese
WHAT: The longer version
WHEN: High noon, after the conversation here
WHERE: Excelsior Labs

Caroline is outside the front doors of Excelsior Labs, waiting, at precisely 11:55 AM. It wouldn't do to be late for something like this, and she's... interested to see what sort of person this "d4yw4lk3r" is.

She leans up against the front of the building and watches.

[ The following email is attached to a virus. It advertises 'one message waiting' for you at some random website, and if you click on the link, the virus auto-sends the message attached to everyone on your contact list.

Feel free to assume this virus got to your email through a random NPCs, if you like. ]

FROM: d4yw41k3r@gmail.com
SUBJECT: Message for you

(1) Message for [your name here] at ConfidentialDropBox.Com
Click Here to retrieve your message

==ATTACHED TEXT CONTENT==

Tell me where Kyle Reese is, or I will detonate bombs in a city official's Haven by morning.



[ OOC: Relevant notes: Kyle Reese was a member of the Mekhet Underground killed in the raid on the Hound's Haven. This is his daughter. She is unaware of his death. ]

[ The following note arrives at each vampire, mage, werewolf and changeling registered with the city authority, via a preferred method of contact: either an email or a post-delivered letter. This letter tends to arrive once every couple of months, as far as longtime city inhabitants are concerned.

Eran's phone number is common knowledge, as is his mailing address and e-mail address. ]

Dear [species] Resident:

The Sheriff of Cape City, Eran Anah, will be hearing petitions, disputes and accusations of violation of city law on Monday, June 11, 2011.

The hearings will be held in the back rooms of the Cape City Marshall Museum of Art History starting at 8PM. [ OOC: This is well-known as one of Eran's owned buildings. ]

--
Eran Anah
Sheriff
Cape City