Plot: Who Wants To Live Forever (Los Angeles, CA)

Chapter 1: Such Tangled Webs
9 months have passed since the events in Denver. Lacey got Clover and Koln to Los Angeles safely and soon after Clover and Koln were settled, Lacey disappeared. Clover and Koln managed to get a comfortable apartment in Santa Monica. The apartment is above a French restaurant and costs about $1,800 a month without utilities. There are 2 bedrooms and it's small but enough space for the two of them considering that neither one of them has much in the way of furniture. One particular night on October 28th, 2010, just days before Halloween, Clover is on the computer doing schoolwork for the University of Phoenix and Koln is staring at the wall waiting for it to tell him the meaning of life when there is a knock on the door. Clover opens it to find Lacey. Lacey says "Hi!" and Clover slams the door in her face. Koln opens the door and let's Lacey in. She acts rather oblivious to the fact that they haven't seen her in 9 months! She says that she has received a letter from a vampire named Alex who she knew when she lived in New Orleans, claiming that he was "the love of her life". The letter is requesting that she meet him in a fancy Italian restaurant called Osteria La Buca in Hollywood. The letter encourages her to bring "friends". Clover threatens Lacey that if she leads them on another crazy adventure that makes them have to travel halfway across the country again that she will shove Lacey's pigtails down her throat! They both agree to go and Lacey drives them to the restaurant. When they get there they find Alex waiting for them in the back of the restaurant with his two ghouls...and an owl. After Lacey glomps him they sit down and he tells them that the reason he sent Lacey the letter is because he fears for his life. In 1995 he created a vampire from a corpse that he found using some of Lacey's Malkavian blood and some Nosferatu blood from a vampire named Phil. He then bound them together using his own Tremere blood. The experiment resulted in a vampire-like creature who was completely insane! Alex tied the monster down and staked him through the heart, leaving him for the sun. But the next night Alex found the stake at his doorstep and the monster had escaped. Going under the name Paracelsus, he has tormented Alex for some time seeking revenge. Alex asks the group if they will destroy Paracelsus as because of his political status in the Tremere clan, he cannot make such a bold move at the moment as he is next in line to become Regent of his chantry. He believes that this might be a plot set by one of his brethren to usurp his position and become Regent themselves. Hew even offers the group $50,000 as a reward for completing this task! Clover takes some convincing but eventually the group decides to help Alex. Alex tells them that his third ghoul, Meg, is on a reconnaissance mission for him to find a Nosferatu named Gillian who has information regarding Paracelsus and his whereabouts. During the course of the conversation, Clover and Koln notice the waiter coming to their table with some flaming glasses on his tray. They stop him and he snaps out of some kind of trance he was in. He says he doesn't know why but he thought that Alex had ordered to have glasses of flaming Everclear poured on his head. Koln noticed that the owl didn't do anything when the waiter was approaching either. The group leaves the restaurant and for some reason they start checking inside the truck for something (I think it was Lacey's dress?). Lacey finds an invitation for a gathering held by the new "Prince of LA" that night at the Succubus Club, the largest night club in California as well as the country. Lacey asks if Clover and Koln would like to come along and get a chance to meet the other vampires in the city. They agree and after finding Lacey's dress, they head back to their haven to change. They do that, and then head for the Succubus Club. On their way there the DJ comes on the radio and announces the trivia question for that night. The prize is $100 cash but for the players it would have given them a shiny new achievement, worth 10xp. The question was "Who was the director of the FBI who authorized the illegal surveillance of Martin Luther King?” The answer was J. Edgar Hoover and nobody got it. The group arrives at the Succubus Club and they find Alex at the bar with a vampire they have never seen before. She is a Gangrel named Meredith. Lacey gets jealous and demands to know what is going on between Meredith and Alex, Alex says that Meredith has no sire and that he and the Tremere of LA have been offering her a temporary home until she is able to either get accepted into one of the wandering Gangrel packs that roam outside the city or find her own way in vampire society while following the traditions and upholding the masquerade. Koln wanders off and finds a group of Brujah who are slam-dancing on the main dance floor. The leader of the group introduces himself as Smiling Jack and gives Koln a flyer for a meeting that is taking place after the gathering. He says that it would be in Koln's best interest to attend as they are going to talk about recent events in the city. Clover and Meredith leave Alex and Lacey at the bar and sit down in a booth with a vampire named "Sir". Sir is dressed like the 6th Doctor with bright mismatching colors, he stands out horribly in the crowd of black-clad goth/punk attire that most of the clubgoers are wearing. Sir is feeding on some drunk humans in the booth. Clover and Meredith ask Sir if he knows a vampire named Gillian and if so, where they could find her. Sir says that nobody has seen Gillian or any of the Nosferatu recently. He does however suggest a place to look though, a bar called The Cave located in Santa Monica. He said to tell the owner/bartender Horace that they know Sir and he will let them into the VIP lounge. The group gets back together again and it is time for the ceremony to start. Any vampires in the club start to make their way to the upstairs balconies, a popular place for only kindred and maybe a few ghouls and blood dolls. Most humans at the club feel an uneasiness when approaching that area when kindred are up there and tend to stay away, giving them privacy. Clover, Koln, Meredith, Alex, and Lacey all go up to the balcony, they get their first glimpses at the elders and other powerful vampires in the city who can easily wipe a neonate from existence with little effort. They get to meet the Tremere Regent Nicolai "Hi crazy!" and the Malkavian primogen Dr. Alistair Grout. The ceremony proceeds and the Prince Victoria St. John introduces herself to everyone and announces the Camarilla's presence in the city and what it means for all kindred. She is met with many boos and jeers from certain members of the audience but there seems to be overwhelming support for her and the Camarilla. It is apparent that they have been absent in the city for a long time. Victoria says she hopes to work alongside the Anarchs rather than fight with them. It is safe to say the Anarchs probably feel otherwise. So after the speech, all of the kindred, especially the elders, go downstairs to rock out to The Cure. This is where we left off, the group is still in the club, the main band has taken stage. Most of the vampires have either started to leave or are listening/dancing to the music. Alex will probably take his leave and Meredith can decide if she wants to stay or not. If she does decide to stay she can follow the other players to wherever they decide to go.