Session 12: Bye Bye Blackmail

## Brief Synopsis

At home, Piper gets visited by the Shadow Creature again, and gladly gives up her right eye, when asked.

Meanwhile, Torsten, Gatlin, and Genevieve arrive at Kurt's safehouse, Gatlin once again being a distraction by walking right up to the door and chatting Kurt up. Kurt tells Gatlin he needs to double his "allowance," and holds a knife up to his stomach, taking him upstairs. Genevieve fails to stealth and ends up being brought upstairs as well. The two annoy Kurt and a fight breaks out. Gatlin is shot, but before Kurt can break his legs, Torsten knocks him out, leading to his arrest.

While this is happening, Roxana wakes up in the basement and sees a copy of herself, unconscious. She kills her.

After Kurt is taken away, a lady Kurt was working for walks up to them and offers them power if they eat her current body and accept her into them. She's some sort of worm that feeds off of vampires. They all refuse, but Gatlin is tempted. Roxana asks for a tete-a-tete, then Torsten kills the worm.

## Session

They arrive at a rather large house in the wealthy region of Berlin. Piper uses Obfuscate and sees the Shadow Creature again, and she gives it a cupcake. They non-verbally talk, and it asks her for her sight, which she gladly gives up, leaving a darkness where her right eye once was.

**Piper**: *"Well, if it's for a friend, sure!" \*She nuzzles her head into its hands.\**

— RIP eyeball
Torsten casts a ritual to see inside the house and sees Krauser being beaten by a human that looks like Roxana, then healed in seconds.

Meanwhile, Gatlin becomes the distraction again and walks up to the front door, trying to keep things lighthearted by jokingly saying he's here to confess his love.

**Gatlin**: *"Oh! Hello, daddy!"*
**Kurt**: *"Are you on drugs?"*

Kurt tells him he was planning on visiting him soon, wanting his "allowance" doubled.

**Kurt**: *"Some of your associates might want to know about your liking of 'red wine.'" \*Holds knife close.\**
**Gatlin**: *"Is 'dat a knife or are you just happy to see me?"*

Kurt takes Gatlin upstairs.

Genevieve tries to sneak in, but [Dramatic Fails], the door hitting her face. A guy [Gabriel] sees her, but she Dominates him and flirts. He asks her if she wants to see a secret and takes her up to see Kurt and Gatlin.

The two flirt instead of taking things seriously, causing Kurt to grab them both by the throat and toss them down the stairs. Gatlin takes out his gun and threatens to shoot, while Genevieve Dominates Kurt, only to be Charmed back. Gatlin is shot.

Roxana wakes up and, with Piper's help, finds her sword and an unconscious her on the ground. She raises her rapier and kills it.

Gatlin argues that they can't kill him because they need his money, and Kurt threatens that he doesn't need his leg. This snaps Genevieve out of her Charm and she slaps him, snapping him out of her Dominate.

He hits Genevieve and runs, but Torsten catches up and knocks him out in one hit. He's sent to prison.

A lady comes by and says she needed Kurt, and asks the others if they want to hunt their own kind in exchange for power and the inability to be controlled by Blood Bonds. Gatlin's interest is piqued, but is a little off-put when she says they'll have to eat other vampires (Amaranth).

**Worm Lady**: *"I won't manipulate you to do what I say. I'll just MAKE you."*
**Gatlin**: *"That's even worse!"*

Torsten can see there's a worm coiled around the woman's soul.

Roxana asks the Worm Lady a tete-a-tete and the lady and her fight, Torsten later joining in, while Genevieve and Gatlin talk outside. The fight continues, until it decides to hand Roxana a note and vanishes, but Torsten uses magic to find it and kill it.

Once everything is settled, the Ghouls are "adopted" by Gatlin, half against his will. He has to take them over so they don't decide to pick up Kurt's blackmailing where he left off.

## Notes

* The guy Genevieve flirted with who kept talking about Kurt was retroactively turned into an NPC called "Gabriel," who is the bald guy drawn in some of Lis' sketches. His personality is "Kurt fan." He's rather emotional, excitable, and actually somewhat sweet, but very gullible.
* Gatlin reaches a Breaking Point after getting shot (would've hospitalized a human) and fails his detachment roll, making him fall to Humanity 6.
* Gatlin "adopts" Kurt's Ghouls (about 20 of them). They'll continue to live in Kurt's safehouse. Gameplay-wise, they count as 2 dots in Retainers.