6

Once the Sheriff has finished speaking, one of your party pushes forward from behind to address you. It's Lucca, moonlight glinting off inquisitive eyes narrowed with worry. The elder childe of Corliss, she's recently returned from overseas where she managed your mutual sire's business interests. Despite barely knowing each other, she's taken to you with what seems like genuine enthusiasm, greeting you as a long-absent sibling.

The Nosferatu curse had treated her more harshly than most, manifesting itself in a mostly-bald, lumpy scalp the color of day-old oatmeal. From what you gather, she's a brilliant strategist, but most of her control over Corliss's business had to be remote, where Lucca could hide her face from the managers and money she manipulated with practiced ease.

"I've run the numbers," she says in a barely audible whisper. "The intelligence reports show that there shouldn't be more than six Anarchs in the city at the moment. All the others we've been tracking have shown their faces around Montreal within the last few nights. They could have made their way here by now—at least in theory—but my eyes and ears in Quebec are certain that they haven't left."

"That settles it then," Qui says decisively. "No retreat. We're doing this. Mekuztli," he grabs your full attention, "Nests of Anarchs infiltrating our Prince's domain without his knowledge or blessing are a cancer that the Camarilla has seen again and again, and it's only gotten worse since so many in the Brujah and Gangrel clans defected to join them. If we leave them here to fester, they're a Masquerade breach waiting to happen."

The Masquerade: The one set of rules almost all civilized Kindred can agree upon. Mortals can never be allowed to learn about the supernatural reality that encircles them. Nothing is more important to a vampire in modern nights. Of course such widespread deception is impossible to maintain constantly, and the occasional breach has led to the rise of professional vampire-hunters and secretive government agencies allied into a Second Inquisition—the greatest threat to your kind in centuries.

The Sheriff gestures toward the building beyond. "We're here to take out their leader. Widening our scope to include the other agitators lessens our chances of decapitating the beast. Corliss told me that your input is to be trusted, Mekuztli, so now's your time to show us what you're made of. What's your read on the situation?"