Part 23: XXIII - Occultish Personality

Here we are, back at the Skyline apartments. Milligan has his apartment on the first floor, one level up from here. Once he's through, 4 out of the 6 people renting apartments in this place will be dead.



In order to get into the apartment, we had to go through the front door. The vents are locked.



His apartment is pretty standard, but Milligan is no-where to be found on the first floor. Either he's upstairs, or he's not here.



He's not here in his bedroom, or if he is, it's not immediately obvious where. He does, however, have a computer that might give us a clue as to his whereabouts.



Into his email. The password is ectoplasm.

1 posted:

<Subject> I <3 Haunted LA
<From> Fanboy McGee

Haunted LA is like the greated show evar! I totally am gonna visit all the places you talk about !!1 Hey! You should go 2 this one hoetl I stayed at one time in palm springs i swear it was haunted. The ghost kepy turning on the sink faucet! Maybe he had OCD about washing his hands LOL!!!

I hope Troika isn't making a statement about the quality of most fan letters.



That's the lot of his emails. He does have an upcoming shows section, with two of them listed:

show17 posted:

Show 17: Hospital Horror. A dilapidated hospital in the downtown area, this place is very spooky. Minimal work required, the place is scary as hell. We'll say it's the ghost of a nurse who feels as if she still has patients to serve.

That sure didn't go as planned.

show18 posted:

Show 18: Eternal Unrest. There's a cemetery in Hollywood. It's full of actors with more than just dead careers. Again, it shouldn't take much effort on our part.

There's also a photo on his desk:



He's seen too much. We need to find him. There's one last place in the apartment we haven't looked: the closet.



Very predictable.



[Persuade] It was a joke. They're all waiting for you in the hospital basement. Funny guys....



We lost humanity, but gained 2 experience and a masquerade redemption.

Yeah, you do that.



Milligan runs out of his apartment and back to the hospital. Before we head back to Pisha and see what's become of Milligan, let's go talk to Heather again. Three floors up.



You have any money on you?

Umm... here, here, that's all I've got.

She gives us $20. That's really all we can do with Heather, maybe she'll have more to say later. Back to the hospital.



She works fast.



Pisha mentioned that she's staying in downtown in order to find some artifacts.

Yes. I am searching for two items I have tracked to this area. One I believe may be in one of the local museums; I have not yet searched them all. The other I believe to be in the Giovanni's possession, though I have not confirmed it.



Fair enough. Tell me about the item you think is in a museum.

A fetish is described in a nineteenth century chronicle of a British platoon's encounter with a local tribe. Soldiers would go missing in the night and be replaced by these fetishes. It may be valuable to my studies.

Well that tells us a lot.

And the other?

It is used to communicate with certain entities otherworldly. It is a tome called the "Voce del Morte". Should you find yourself within the walls of the Giovanni, seize the opportunity and take it, for they will make sure you never have another.

If we find these items, we'll bring them to her. But now we have the opportunity to ask her some questions, so we'll take it.

I have another question. You seem a bit preoccupied with death.



Uh-huh... well, remember that severed arm we picked up from Gimble back in Santa Monica?

I brought you a little snack.



That's pretty much it. Time to go.

It's still revolting. Farewell.



Revolting indeed. It's been mentioned in the thread that Pisha is something called a Nagaraja.


So, our next stop would seem to be Grout's mansion. But first we should check in with the other power players, Strauss and the Anarchs, for information.



The first is Strauss. He's a primogen, like Grout, so he has probably delt with Grout before. Strauss might be able to give us some good information on Grout.



I have some questions.

Oddly, we can't actually ask him about Grout.

What do you know about the Ankaran Sarcophagus?



I do not know, although I must admit that I sense a change in the night air, something subtle and not altogether pleasant. Perhaps the arrival of the sarcophagus is the harbinger of something more dreadful.

Can you imagine an anarch speaking like this?

Like what?

I will say no more.

That's all we can get from Strauss. Now to talk to the anarchs, starting with Jack.





It was a slaughter. Whatever was in the sarcophagus killed everyone.

No kidding. Well I guess there's got to be somethin' in there, then, huh? The Camarilla's gonna be scrapin' for answers when this gets out.

You think it was an ancient then? You believe the legends?



Something's going to happen. We just don't know what.

Yeah. I smell what you're cookin'.

You seen evidence with your own eyes. You're caught up in all of this.

I wish I knew where it was leading.

So, other than THAT, what else is new?

We're going to tell him about our mission to find Grout.

Still working for LaCroix...

Where ya headed now?

To find the missing Malkavian primogen.

So a Malk's gone AWOL. If that caught LaCroix off guard, I dunno how he's dodged a hundred years of sunrises.

That would make sense if Grout was the only player. But we don't know that, so there could be something more to this. We can't ask Jack about it, though, so we'll just leave.

Later.



Nines is the only other one to talk to. He'll give us the time of day right now.



We could ask him about LA, or "what we need to know", whatever that is, but how many chances are we going to get to ask Nines about himself?

Tell me about yourself.

Came to California to get out of the dust bowl during the thirties. Been fightin' this fight since the forties when we kicked out the Cam. I was new to it all back then. Not a whole lotta people from those nights still around. And some of 'em are, they're just not anarchs anymore.

Is it worth it? To have to constantly fight to keep LA?



You must have learned a lot in that time. Any advice?



This bumps our Melee stat up by 1.

Time's up. Come around in a few nights if you're still alive. Maybe I'll have time to kill. But I doubt it.

The anarchs didn't have much to say, this time. Now it's time to head to Grout's mansion.



Away from here.



See you there, next time.