Sal marveled aloud, "you serve so many faiths, here! I've never seen some of these symbols; Have you, Mr. Smith?"

"Mr. Smith" looked closely at the symbols.

PM

Seeing no people and no keys, Michael decided to unscrew the caps on the air valves on the tires and slowly let the air out while keeping an ear out for anybody coming outside. After that is done, he snuck around to the back door and peeked inside any windows on the backside.

"Smith" shook his head.

OOC: Can synths modify their voices?.

 Michael found that the back room (while locked) seemed to be a storage room of some kind. There were large cans of industrial sized vegetables stacked along the walls and boxes of what seemed to be beans and other dry goods inside.

"How do you prevent conflict between the followers of different faiths?" asks Sal.

 "We have a strict policy against fighting. Anyone who can't get along will not be allowed back in."

 While Sal was busy talking to the owner of the establishment, Michael noticed a woman walking down the street. Around her neck was the same emblem as the cultist from before but there was something off about her.

 All the cultists seemed a little insane but this one didn't even really seem coherent.

 She shuffled down the street slack-jawed and drooling, chanting "roos roos roos roos."

Michael looked for any strange symbols on the woman besides the one for the cultists. The priest made his way behind the van keeping an eye on the woman. Could this be the work of Reginald or come other faction. He doubted the cult would do this to their own members.

 There seemed to be no further signs on the woman. She continued to shuffle down the street and into the shelter, still mumbling incoherently. There, several people greeted her (though she did not seem to acknowledge them and they did not force the issue).

 She picked up a banana, an apple, and a can of fruit cocktail before turning around and heading back out, still shuffling around as though she were barely sentient, chanting "Roos roos roos roos."

Michael called Sal up on his slate. “Hey Sal, a woman I’ve identified as a cultist just went in there and came out. She seems really out of it saying the same thing over and over. I’m going to check it out and follow her. You come across anything?”Michael proceeded to take to the roofs in following the babbling woman.

 The woman did not seem to notice that she was being followed and entered a nondescript building. There were more returning from some sort of errand (and all seemed sort of out of it).

OOC: To Xanatos Gambit

Sal excused himself to answer the call somewhere private. After confirming with Trinity and Point Break that he wasn't being eavesdropped on, he said, "Besides the usual, the chapel serves faiths I've never heard of, and some that the Church would consider Satanic. Point Break sent images to your slate. Permit him access to location tracking on your slate, so if they jam you, I'll know where it happened. I'll excuse myself from the shelter and rendezvous with you, ASAP." He told the owner he had an urgent manner to deal with, and he'd have get back to him later.

Michael text back to Sal.

Sal heads to the alleyway.

Point break follows.

Michael arrived in the alley holding someone with their face and chest covered with a cloth. He looked back and forth down the alley to make sure nobody else was there before looking back to Sal and Point Break. “Now I’m going to ask you to stay calm and not freak out okay. I will explain after you have a second to compose yourself.”The priest set the body down on the ground and removed the cloth to reveal Milo with a stake buried in his chest. Michael held his hand over the stake. “Do not remove the stake. Somebody else is in his body. His soul was taken by Reginald somewhere else. I don’t know where Reginald or his soul is right now.”
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:28, Wed 27 July 2022.

Per Michael's request, Sal mentally prepared himself. At the sight of the bound and staked Milo, he closed his eyes, and said quietly, through his teeth. "We'll find it. Somehow. Let's take him somewhere safe. Not my place, or Mistral's, though. And we have to keep him out of sight." Sal looked around to see if any other abandoned buildings connected to the alley.

Michael found an abandoned building relatively intact except for a few broken windows on the top floor about a block away. He escorted Sal and Point Break while carrying Milo’s body. They went inside where Michael laid the body down on a few chairs that were pushed together in a line. The Hunter then inspected the rest of the building before coming back. “All clear.”

 The building was isolated and no one passed by the building. It was a perfect place to smuggle in what was, for all intents and purposes, a corpse.

Michael looked to Sal on how to best proceed from here. The priest was more of the stick while Sal was the carrot when it came to vampires. He wondered how having Milo’s soul MIA was affecting him. Michael knew that there was more than likely a spy in Milo’s body, but maybe the others could help with that or at least imprison Milo’s body for safekeeping until they got his soul back.

Sal called Mistral on a secure channel, "Mist, we found Milo. Pretty sure his soul was swapped for an enemy's. We need a secure place to keep him while we figure things out. Somewhere that he can't compromise us. Our current location will work for the time being but lacks security. Any ideas?"

There was a delay of nearly a minute before Sal received a reply from Mistral over the secure line.  "Bordel de merde.  His sire will not be best-pleased, and woe to those responsible."  Another pause and she said, "I can assure none shall find him until I allow it.  I will wish to learn more of this when possible, but let us begin there.  I will claim him when you are ready, mon ami."

 Edit-

 When Sal gave the go ahead, Milo's body vanished as though it were never there.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:59, Sat 06 Aug 2022.