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Cleansing Flame


Late Summer - 1999

In the months that follow the murder of the Taxi Cab driver, the Masquerade holds fast. The monsters encountered in the park withdraw for no apparent reason. The coterie manages to dispose of the body, or at least that's what they thought. Ligon had other plans.

As Ligon possesses a large furnace to comfort him into sleep, he agrees to dispose of the bodies of the creatures in the part in the searing heat of his haven. Instead, he places the bodies to the side and places a call to the Tremere Chantry House. In exchange for the bodies Ligon requests that he have access to knowledge held by the clan. More specifically, all the information they hold on the spirits of the restless dead. After negotiating, the Tremere agree to set up a "study" for him that he may visit for one night, and one night only. Ligon more than happily agrees.

The bodies arrive the next evening, driven by Ligon across town in a stolen van. After the five bodies are transported to the House, the Tremere escort Ligon off the property and they begin the proccess of preparing the Chantry to have a most unorthodox visitor, placing all of the necessary magical wards.

After the bodies are delivered, Nicholas recieves a body to examine. He begins his autopsy in earnest. He goes over it first by standard medical means, removing necessary organs, noting the abnormalities: Elongated jawline, pronounced points to all teeth, rod over cone eye structure found in nocturnal animals, and of course the biggest change, retractable claws. The subject showed that it was recently deceased and non-vampiric. Then the real work begins. He takes hormone samples from the glands and brain and ships them to Dr. North at Boston University for analysis by his contacts there. He recieves a quick visit from his sire, John Constantine, who drops off a piece of the arcane puzzle in the form of an old, yellowed document from the twelfth century. It is an account of a creature much like the one laid out before him. Nicholas is inspired by this new knowledge and he continues to marvel at the body into the daylight, grogilly cataloging everything he finds before he collapses of exhaustion at noon.

About a half hour after dusk, Krieger arrives at the Chantry for his studies. He is escorted by Ivan, who makes it absolutely clear who is the boss at the Chantry, that he is not to leave his study, not to use his shadows, nor is he to take anything with him. Krieger who is quite enraged by the utter lack of trust shown to him managed to hold back the surge of rage seething beneath his calm demanor but decides he can milk them for more information if he plays by their rules... for now. Ivan begins to ask questions about the spirits that plague the Lasombra Antitribu and Krieger answers them as best he can. When Ivan has gathered all the information that he can he leaves Krieger in the library to get more information specifically useful to Krieger's cause. Krieger immediately begins to search the shelf he was told he was allowed to draw research from. Then he tries the others. His hands seem unable to penetrate the warded shelves. He begins to curse to himself as Nicholas awakes in the other wing of the Chantry House.

When he awakes, he finds himself slumped over the rotting body and pulls himself awake. As he does, he notices that his notes, the document and research is gone. Only the body remains. He sees that his window has been opened and a breeze comes through. The first chill evening breeze of oncoming fall. He hears a voice behind him. He turns and finds the hermetical elder Emmerson is behind him.

"So, what have you found my young prodigy?" Emmerson asks him. "Have you found what you were looking for?"

Nicholas answers quietly with, "I still have more work to go. Where has the body been taken?"

The body," Emmerson says, "Is of no consequence. That you have them is bad enough. I'm quite afraid that I have all of the knowledge you need." He begins to grin a small split simle which spreads into a maddening grin. "I know, because they are mine..."

Nicholas hears a noise from behind and spins quickly around in time to see three of the monsterous children appear. Emmerson smiles as three more come from behind him.

"I am their master. And now, you have to die." Emmerson says and green, baleful flames spout about him. Nicholas fights the urge to frenzy and immediately douses one of the monsterous children with one of the many bottles of water in Nicholas' study. He uses his arcane skills with water to envelop two of the children's heads in suspended water, a tactic that he knows will drown them by his findings in his autopsy. As Emmerson and the other children come towards him to finish him, John Constantine appears at the door. He seems to be unaware of the flames or at the very least not care about them. He raises an ancient looking blade.

"Nicholas, childe! RUN!" John screams as he pounces across the flames, burying the sword to the hilt into Emmerson's chest. He screams, jaw extending into a gaping maw filled with pointed teeth. Nicholas cannot seem to build up the strength to cross the flames which seem to forbode his death.

"Sire!" Nicholas screams, beating away one of the monster children with a battered leg from the table, "I cannot leave you!"

"Dammit Nicholas! Leave while you still can!" It was not a suggestion. It was not advice. It was a command. Nichols finds himself leaping over the flames and into the hallway. The slast thing he sees of his Sire that night before the structure above falls into flaming heaps in the room is Emmerson and the children grappling John amidst the flames. It is then that Nicholas realizes that the entire west wing of the Chantry is on fire.

Ligon a floor below hears the first explosion of flames and smells the acrid smell of smoke. His first reaction is to salvage the lore... for himself. He takes several books with shadowy tentacles from the single shelf he is allowed and then attempts to take the others. After futily cluthching for the forbidden knowledge, he sees the green flame erupting amidts traditional flames and something walks through it. Even Krieger has decided that it's time to get the hell out of there. He takes his stolen books and flees, only to discover that he does not know the way out due to damnable Tremere magics set to befuddle those not initiated in thier circles. After enough of the house had begun to burn, the magicks dropped and Kriger saw for the first time the true layout of the building, but it was still on fire.

Nicholas makes his way to the second level of the foyer where ghouls and regnants are on their way out. He sees below him the prone form of the Primogen of the Chantry. LaMornay looks up to him, his face and body blackened by the searing flames. He calls out to Nicholas through his mind.

"Take me..." Nicholas hears and is barraged by mental images of a house, abandonned and decrepit. He gets the vague impression of something travelling east. Then he feels hunger. He realizes that to get the physical prowess necessary for escape from the flames that he is running low on blood. He looks down at the Primogen. All that blood... No. He fights the beast and picks up his Primogen to flee. He takes the Primogen to his car and puts him in the trunk following the instructions telepathically being given to him until he finds the house in the woods. Elsewhere in the burning Chantry, Ligon makes his shadowy escape into the night and back to his haven where he decides to stay until dawn arrives.

Elsewhere, the rest of the coterie arrives at Elysium to find it empty. They hear on a radio in the empty hall above the Fallen that the Chantry has caught fire by the description and location of the building set on fire. They rush to the scene immediately. They run into one of Prince Morrow's ghouls on the way out. He tells them that the Kindred of Boston are not to meet here any longer. The Sabbat uspected to be the Chantry arsonists and if that is so, then the Sabbat could know any of the usuall Kindred hang-outs if they could take down the Chantry. The Fallen is now closed.

When the coterie arrives, they find Erin, the Ventrue firefighter waiting outside. She seems to be talking frantically to EMTs and Ambulance drivers about something. When she sees the coterie she immediately approaches them.

"We've got Ivan in this ambulance. I have the ambulance driver suitably dominated into falling asleep at the next corner. I need you to take the patient in the back into your custody and watch him until I arrive. Do NOT let the authorities get his corpse." Erin then leaves to rush into the burning building once more to retrieve any more possibly unliving Kindred.

The Coterie does as they are told. They find the Ambulance at the corner as they expected and they file into the back with Ivan. The smell is incredible. Burnt hair and blistered skin immediately cause Cailey to instinctively retch, but she holds in her blood. She has a feeling that she'll need it later.

After waiting for several minutes, the coterie becomes edgy. Eddie can't just sit here, he's got to make sure that no one is trying to get at them while they sit there practically waiting for a possible Sabbat attack. He leaves to guard the back as does Shala, leaving Cailey alone to watch over Ivan's torpored form. As she watches over him, she feels something cold enter the ambulance. It passes through her and towards Ivan. The back doors lock by them selves. Cailey would have started to hyperventilate could she still breathe. Ivan sits bolt upright, sending bits of charred skin floating to the floor. His eyelids make a cracking noise as they bolt open. His eyelids fall to the floor.

"I must take him," Ivan's body says, but it is not Ivan's voice. Caliey panicks and unlocks the door to escape. It locks again. The body attempts to move away from Cailey to escape and then suddenly goes limp and Ivan falls with a sickening crack. Cailey is no doctor, but she's pretty sure that that was the sound of his back breaking. The door is suddenly being pounded on and Cailey almost has a heart attack. She looks outside to see Erin waiting alongside Eddie and Shala. She opens it and quotes the words of wisdom.

"Let's get the fuck out of here. Something just tried to take Ivan."

They drive Ivan to a place that Erin guarantees is a safe haven for Ivan: the Octavious Industries building that Cailey and her fellows have broken into before and found monsters beneath. Erin reassures them that it is a safe haven of her clan and that Ivan will be safe here until he is able to heal his grievous wounds. Erin gives him blood and some of the less vital injuries begin to heal and grow new skin, but it is nowhere near enough.

"That will hold him until he is able to feed more readily. I suggest you go home and lock all of your dorrs. Sleep with one eye open."

They do.