Alessandra snorts. "I wish our missions back then were this easy. We had to actually fight for our lives back in the day while fending off dehydration! You guys have it so easy."

Victor chuckles. She sounds like my grandparents, lecturing about how they had to walk to school everyday. "Well now we get hungry whenever we try to make ourselves look like we aren't dead, so I don't think that we have it too easy." 

After sharing a pleasant laugh with his friends, Victor moves the campaign on. "Well we do have a quest that's more daunting than that. So let's get moving on, shall we?" 

"A uniformed attendant leads you up a grand staircase to the third floor, then ushers you into a wood-paneled room with a fireplace, comfortable chairs, and a heavy table bearing goblets and bottles of wine. The darkly paneled walls are hung with maps and sea charts. Racks, shelves, and cabinets hold hundreds more rolled-up maps and charts.

A person is seated in an overstuffed chair near the fire. You can’t discern a gender, because only the person’s head emerges from under a heavy blanket draped over the chair, and an embroidered hood and silver mask conceal the wearer’s face. Even the person’s dry, raspy voice provides no clue." Victor says calmly, before adopting a raspy voice as he gets into characters. “Help yourselves to wine, and seat yourselves, friends — I hope I may call you that.”

"Oh my nuts, yes!" Kasha exhales. She grabs the wine bottle and begins to loudly chug as if it was water. About a quarter way into the bottle, her face scrunches as if she had brain freeze and says "AHHHhhhh..." She passes the bottle to the closest person next to her. "Is it always so hot in this place? Are we in space? It feels like we're three feet from that huge star in the sky."

Sorrin voices out his action, "Solaire gives a polite bow, giving a kind and humble smile as he moves to sit in a nearby chair, 'You have my thanks.' Getting himself a drink, he waits to hear more about why they're there."

"More daunting, you say? Very well. Let's get to it then!" She smiles and continues.

"Alejandro (and Philip) both bow to the figure and helps themselves to the wine they were offered. 'Thank you... I believe we are ready to be breifed on why we were gathered here today.'"

"Alazan calmly sits in one of the stuffed chairs, calmly taking a glass of wine, sipping it calmly. "Yes. Thank you for your hospitality. Let us talk business on this task you mentioned, yes?"  The white haired elf sips his wine with curiosity in his eyes and a slight smirk on his lips."

Victor continues on, still speaking in the dry, raspy voice that Syndra was described as using. “I was an adventurer years ago. I died once and was raised from the dead. I have since closed the door on that stage of my life. The death curse you’ve heard about has struck me. I don’t know how much longer I’ll last before I perish. Clerics have no help to offer. They’re stymied by what is happening. My contacts in the Harpers have learned that the cause of the death curse is a necromantic artifact called the Soulmonger. According to their sources, the Soulmonger is somewhere in Chult. Chult is a peninsula ringed with mountains and choked with rainforests. Enormous reptiles, savage goblins, and an army of undead prowl its jungles and ruins. Mapping the place has always been nigh impossible, and nothing is known about the region’s current geography beyond a few miles from the coast. Working from dozens of sea charts, log books, and explorers’ journals, I assembled everything known about the current state of Chult into one map. I’ll provide it to you if you undertake my mission. When you’re ready to depart, I will teleport us all to Port Nyanzaru, the only major settlement in Chult. I’ve been there several times before, so there’s little chance of mishap. Once there, I’ll stay with a friend named Wakanga O’tamu. He’s one of seven merchant princes who rule the city.”

Victor clears his throat as soon as he finishes that lore drop. "****, that was harder on the vocal cords than I thought it would be."

Victor's phone beeped. It was a reminder. Oh yeah. The road trip.

"GET GAS FOR THE RV."

Victor stops the crew before they respond to his prompt. "Never mind. I have to go get gas for the RV for that road trip that we've been planning for months." He quickly fills up the tank in the RV and then fills up a can of gas so that they'll have some more before heading back to the mansion. "Make sure to pack some changes of clothes, as well as enough blood bags for the road, because I'm not stopping to pick up some hitchhiker for you to feed on."

Sorrin gets up from the month long game and calls out to Aless, "I'm gonna grab my clothes, I'll place yours in the basket." He then starts to walk off down to the laundry room, but gives a call out to Victor, "Victor, thanks for the game, it turned out to be very interesting." and retrieves his dry, clean clothes, neatly folding Aless' clothes into the nearby basket.

Alana nibbles her bottom lip in thought before smiling to Aless. "Do you mind if I borrow some of your clothes for this trip? I'd rather not have to go all the way back to the Bliss since I'm already here." She gives Aless a hopeful look, all the while getting her phone and sending a quick text to Lestat, informing him he's in charge while she's gone. She then glances to Harold. "If she allows, you can help me pick out the outfits you thought suited me before." 

Aless stretched her arms with a smile, satisfied at how that month long game ended for them. “I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would.” She admits with a light laugh then looks over to Victor. “Thank you for hosting the game for us, dear. Want some tea for your voice?” She leans back in her sit a bit when Sorrin says something about the laundry. “Oh, right! Thank you, Sorrin!” Then she turns her attention to Alana and her inquiry about clothing. “Don’t worry about the luggage or borrowing clothes, dear, Harold’s been on it since we’ve planned this trip of ours! Everything’s been packed away on the RV, just need some gas.”

"Thank you all for participating." He responds to Aless. "I certainly wasn't expecting you all to enjoy it so much. And tea would be much appreciated, thank you."

Without missing a beat, Harold emerges from the kitchen with already piping hot tea on a silver tray. He sets it down on the table and begins to distribute cups to those at the table who wanted tea, starting with Victor of course. He then bows and excuses himself, signing that there were a few more preparations that needed to be done before they left for their trip.

Alessandra thanks Harold for his services before taking a sip of her tea. “He always gets it just right.” She hums happily. “Don’t know where I’d be without him, truthfully.”

"He is very dependable. I haven't known him long, but I do appreciate all that he's done." And Victor signs to Harold as well. "Thank you very much for the tea."

Misha excused herself at the appropriate time, thanked Victor, and told everyone she would be back shortly. She didn't know how long the trip would take, and was excited to see someplace new. She went to the gym she personal trained at and told management she would be away for a while, and none of them seemed to mind too much, since she was on contractor pay anyways. She spent some time talking to the late night employees and calling her clients. The gym knew and respected her nighttime schedule, as did her clients, so getting a hold of them was not a difficult task. The hardest part of the job was playing down how strong she actually was to avoid the attention that she was something..different..now.

Back when she was the genetically created super soldier of the God of War there was nothing to hide, but that was a time long ago, far, far in the past. Becoming a vampire was not exactly what she expected, but it gave purpose to her life again, even though there were certain..conditions. Did she miss her old life? Of course. But, this was better than nothing, and she felt strong again, even if the source of the strength wasn't from her old god who had forsaken her, but from an ancient curse from a different God. Misha was the kind of woman who needed direction and purpose. She was passionate, and performed deeds and conquered worlds in the name of a power long gone.

She didn't expect to live as long as she did, and her programming - now long faded away - changed her. With the programming to keep her mental and physical abilities in check, when Bane was removed from her life she felt like she was wilting, like a flower - the divine ingredient in her slowly diluting. Then she met Alessandra - someone who lived in the time that she did.

She smiled at the memory. Aless was beautiful, powerful, elegant - like a queen. She was desireable, was sophisticated, and said words Misha sometimes didn't understand. She was smart, and captivating, and wore clothes that highlighted her physical features that made Misha boil with sexual hunger. But, Misha was not as aggressive with Aless as she was with the others. After all, she was her sire, and showed her the respect she deserved. The others, however? Misha snorted in a pleasant laugh. Those she would play with at her desire, her whim. Those she would take if Misha wanted. But, the times Aless allowed her to have her? She would never say no to Aless. Her mind drifted to Victor and how he felt and she began to-

Someone spoke to her, and she returned to the present and corrected someone's form and happily answered questions and gave techniques. Then she left back to the mansion to pack a suitcase full of clothing, took a warm shower, and put on her sweats to rejoin the others.

Victor goes out to go help Harold pack the RV. Not that the Nosferatu couldn't get the job done on his own, he was nothing if not diligent, but it would speed things up to have two pairs of hands doing the work. When the packing was done, Victor punched the route in, specifically making sure that they weren't going to be passing through the domains of other vampire princes. Having to deal with one court is enough. Dealing with multiple courts is a tedium that I prefer to avoid. Once everything is ready, he signs his goodbyes to Harold. We won't be gone too long, but you can text us if you feel lonely. Don't set the place on fire while we're gone and don't go having any big parties now that the mansion is yours. He smiles as he signs that last part, indicating that he's very obviously joking.

Alana smiles at Harold as he returns with tea, taking some with a smile. "Thank you Harold. For everything. You're very pleasant to be around. I'm sure your taste of fashion will suit me just right." Alana sips her tea and looks to the others. Once she is finished, she calmly sets her glass down and looks to the others. "I believe I'm ready once the rest of you are." 

Misha loaded her things into the storage bay of the RV. She closed the hatch and reached behind her back through her jacket, pulling out her pistol, holding it out on display. "Think we weel need thees?" she smirked. "Don't forget, weel hef to play nice and introduce ourselves to Preence once we arrive at final destination. You know. Tradeetions and such."