News and Rumors from the Atlanta Nosferatu

Cullen Bishop spends a lot of time visiting the Anubis Club and Atlanta's Rack every month, chatting with other patrons, listening discreetly to surrounding conversations, and just hanging around in his ruined italian trench coat. He makes a point of greeting any Kindred he recognizes and exchanging gossip and rumors.

The next time Cullen sees you, he smiles a bit, quirks an eyebrow, and walks over.

"Hey, fancy meeting you here. Up to anything interesting these days?" He grins. "Yeah, didn't think so." Cullen makes small talk for a moment and then gets to the News and Rumors.

"So I hear Bron's ditched the whole Anubis Club gig. Seems the Ventrue are running things there, now. There go my hopes for steel cage fights in the back room. Oh, well."

"You know, I heard something else about the Anubis Club, too. Rumor going around that the ghost of Thorian Vryce has been popping in from time to time. Supposedly, he'll show up for a few minutes around his statue, not say anything, and then disappear. I haven't seen it happen yet, but I've talked to a few people who have talked to a few people, you know."

"Besides the Anubis Club, the Ventrue also seem to be making some strategic investments in the other clans. They're retaining the Malkavian Anji, for instance. Presumably for her abilities as a telepath, but, she also just happens to be a primogen. Hmmmm...."

"And speaking of Malkavians, has anybody seen Dr. Vail? He owes me some money. But I'm not the only one - apparently, he bought a vial of 10th gen essence from Salvatore Giovanni, and couldn't pay him back, either. And now he's nowhere to be found.... The Tremere, vonLicht, also defaulted on an auction purchase, and now he seems to be running scared. Salvatore came to me, personally, in my haven, and demanded that I help him locate vonLicht. I've heard a few different theories on where vonLicht may have gone - Salvatore thought he was in the lower half of the sewers (good luck finding him, if so!), others say Vail cut a deal with the Tremere, and vonLicht and Vail are both hiding in the Chantry (good luck again!). The general consensus seems to be that he's fled the city. Discretion and the better part of valour, etc.

"Oh, hey, and while I mentioned Salvatore coming to the sewers, let me clear up this whole Father Black thing. A lot of people seem to have a lot of different ideas as to what happened, and most of them are at least partially full of shit. It actually went like this: During my meeting with Salvatore, which occurred in my personal haven, somebody noticed this strange shadow following us around on the ceiling, spying on us. We called the shadow down, and there was a Lasombra, Father Black. I let him stay while I finished up my business with Salvatore, and then I and some of my Family caught him and asked him why he was spying on us. He said the prince sent him, so I sent somebody to ask her while we held him there. Message came back that she wanted Black sent up to her for questioning. Right about the same time, more Lasombra popped up. (Yeah, I know, I need a new haven.) These Lasombra said they wanted to take Black back with them. Some discussion ensued, and then another message came down from the prince that authorized Black to be handed over to the Lasombra. It turned out later that she didn't send this message, and I still don't know where it came from - I suspect Lasombra trickery of some sort, but I don't know. Anyway, it sounded pretty right to me - I've heard her tell the Lasombra that if they can find Black and take him themselves, that they could have him. So I accepted a modest finder's fee from the Lasombra and gave them their clanmate back - I did have to beat him into torpor to do so, but hell, I'd have done that anyway for spying on my meeting and violating my Domain.

"So that's that. No traditions broken. Nobody killed. A Lasombra was spying on me, so I beat him up and gave him back to his clan. That's it. I mean, they mighta whacked him after they got him back, but that's their internal clan business.

"Anyway. Moving along (and also speaking of Sabbat), the prince seems to have allowed Arliss Khavkin back in to her domain, as long as he 'doesn't cause any trouble.' Arliss Khavkin, international blood-sucking evil bastard of action, isn't going to cause any trouble? Oh kaaay.... Is it just me, or are there a lot of fucking Sabbat running around this city? No wonder there's archons in town. Jesus.

"Oh, well, I got stuff I gotta do. I'll see you around."

Cullen wanders off into the rack, looking down and listening intently.