The Turning Point
Throughout most of the nineties, Chicago was a beacon of peace and stability during some turbulent times. Prince Lodin focused on rebuilding the power he had lost in the eighties; the Primogen worked on securing their positions within the city; and everyone else primarily focused on just surviving. The nineties were calm and placid, despite the warring between Camarilla, Sabbat and Anarch elsewhere.
In fact, the only major crisis of the nineties was the "Great Chicago Flood" which occurred on April 13th, 1992, when 124 million gallons of the Chicago River poured through a crack in the 47-mile network of freight tunnels under the central business district. The flood caused extensive damage to the downtown district; after filling the tunnels, the water rose into the basements of many buildings, knocking out electric power and natural-gas services. The flood disrupted markets at the Board of Trade for a week and closed the city's subways for almost a month. It was quickly discovered that the flooding was not an attack on the city; it had happened entirely due to human error.
Back in September of 1991, wooden pilings had been driven into the riverbed next to the Kinzie Street Drawbridge in order to protect the bridge from passing barges and other traffic on the north branch of the Chicago River. It turned out that several of the pilings had been sunk in the wrong location, puncturing the ceiling of the freight tunnel below, and eventually causing the flood. In 1995, the City Board of Chicago agreed to pay up to $45 million in damages to settle lawsuits brought by the owners of flood-damaged buildings.
All in all, the nineties were a peaceful time, recalling the Cauchemar Praxis of earlier days. But all that was to change after the millennium ended.
In 2001, a series of werewolf attacks shocked the Camarilla of Chicago. Werewolves attacked several notable Kindred, including the Gangrel Rose Hernandez. Rose was attacked in her haven, and the Garou killed her. The Garou, who seemed to have no motivation for their attacks, also killed several Anarchs. The attacks lessened after the events of September 11th, however, and most everyone thought that the werewolf threat had ended, just as mysteriously as it had begun.
When the Garou attacked Prince Lodin himself in December of 2001, however, people realized that the Garou had never really gone away. In fact, after their attack on Prince Lodin, the Garou began attacking almost all the Kindred in Chicago. Another attack occurred on Prince Lodin in late January; Lodin managed to kill some of his Garou attackers, and called for a grand Court to be held at the Succubus Club in early February. Prince Lodin commanded that all the Kindred in Chicago, be they Camarilla or Anarch, be at the meeting.
On February 2nd, a large number of Kindred gathered at the Succubus Club, the nightclub and Elysium that Capone owned that often served as a meeting hall for the city. Included among the Kindred at the Succubus Club were several new Kindred, including the Tremere known as Portia, and the Gangrel who called himself Max. Prince Lodin brought the meeting to a head quickly, displaying the corpse of a Garou he had personally slain and declaring a Blood Hunt on all Garou in Chicago.
Prince Lodin's announcement made, the gathered Kindred made to leave the Club and carry out the Prince's orders. It was then that they discovered that all the entrances to the Succubus Club were mysteriously sealed. Several attempts were made to open the doors, but they were resistant to all efforts and even somehow "healed" when someone tried to cut open the doors with a fire axe.
As the situation sank in, the body of a slain Blood Doll was found deep in the catacombs under the Succubus Club. As the death of this vessel was investigated, several Garou manifested themselves in the Club. One manifested on the near-empty dance floor and talked to a few of the Kindred present. Another appeared down in the catacombs and got into a fierce battle with several of the Kindred. The neonate Portia was able to soundly defeat the Garou by herself, causing a few people to question her abilities and her neonate status.
As the evening progress, more and more violence broke out in the sealed club. Several of the Kindred present took to fighting among themselves; in fact, the Brujah Damien was physically thrown from the second floor of the club twice. Additionally, someone present began attacking some of the Blood Dolls in the basement; while Capone's security ghouls went to investigate, someone attacked and killed them as well. Twice more the neonate Portia displayed abilities beyond what most neonates could display, and more and more people began to wonder just who she was.
As the evening progressed, and the Kindred inside the Club became more and more desperate in their attempts to break out, more and more violence occurred. At one point, three of the Kindred present at the gathering lured the Malkavian Johann Weltmann down into the catacombs. The three Kindred, Tyler, Sledgehammer and Son, happened to all be Sabbat, and they attacked and killed Johann.
It was this attack by the Sabbat that finally tipped the hands of Portia and the Gangrel Max. They dropped their charades, and revealed themselves to really be Menele and Helena, the two Methuselahs who had been hiding in Chicago since the 1700s. Using the mental controls they had established over almost all of the Chicago, they forced everyone into two sides - one group for Helena, one for Menele - and they finished their almost 4000 year-old battle, using all the Kindred in Chicago as their warriors. The battle was quick and decisive - Menele, using his superior speed, managed to strike and take down Helena. Helena died at Menele's hands, and no one was able to save her.
As the dust started to settle, the doors to the Succubus Club opened; Helena had somehow been sealing them. But before everyone could leave the Club, Menele turned on Prince Lodin and slew him. Then Menele attacked Sheriff, taking a small wooden branch out of Sheriff's possession. It turned out that the wooden branch was some sort of Garou fetish, and they had been attacking Chicago in the hopes of finding the Kindred who had stolen it from them. As people fled from the enraged Menele, a Garou appeared and took the fetish from him. Menele then began a rampage, hunting down and killing Lodin's children.
As chaos reigned among the Camarilla of Chicago, Tyler and Son, now revealed as Sabbat, fled to the safety of Detroit and told the Sabbat there what had happened in Chicago.
The first Sabbat Tyler and Son ran into when they came to Detroit was a pack named Heart of Obsidian, led by a particularly ambitious Lasombra named Florian Ardenti. When Florian heard the story of what had happened in Chicago, she suddenly realized that the events that occurred were essentially living proof of what the Sabbat had been preaching for ages: that Methuselahs were real, and that they were manipulating the Kindred of the Camarilla to fight their wars for them. Very few of the Sabbat in Detroit could argue with her; after all, according to Tyler, two Methuselahs had essentially torn the city apart in order to fight each other.
Florian Ardenti and her pack quickly spread the word of what happened among the Sabbat of Detroit. In fact, Florian declared herself the "Archbishop of Chicago In Exile," and quickly began organizing an army to invade Chicago, kill the Methuselah Menele and take over the city. The Archbishop of Detroit, a Lasombra named Vincent Mastrodemios, helped "Archbishop" Ardenti gather her troops. Eighteen packs held mass Embraces, and five days after Prince Lodin's death, the Sabbat Army took the four-hour drive from Detroit to Gary, Indiana.
(Incidentally, for the record, the names of the Sabbat Packs that comprised Archbishop Ardenti's army were The Serpent's Bargain, The Dog Soldiers, Death and the Raven, The Men of Extinction, The Riding Club, The Enigmatics, Dark Circus, Broken Machines, Lords of Misrule, This Thing of Ours, The Sword of Darkness, Flavor Country, Dead Man's Party, Amazonian Abuse, The Homicidal Lesbian Terrorists, Aspects of Death, The Fire Upon the Deep and, of course, Heart of Obsidian. Just so you know.)
Thanks to the knowledge that Tyler and Son had of Prince Modius and Gary, Indiana, the Sabbat army was able to quickly take over the city. It seems that Prince Modius was holding a grand ball to celebrate the destruction of Prince Lodin; the Sabbat merely showed up to the party. Sadly, most of the Kindred of Gary were present at Modius' gathering; the Anarchs, under Juggler's lead, had rushed to Chicago in order to have a power play when they heard that Lodin was dead. As a result, the Sabbat conquest of Gary occurred in a single night, with minimal violence, and without any warning getting to Chicago.
The Sabbat quickly reinforced themselves, using the blood of the Gary Kindred to strengthen their troops, and quickly took over Gary's police forces and resources. Sadly, due to the years of actions by Lodin against Modius, Gary's resources were minimal, and the Sabbat were quickly able to take over the town. Archbishop Ardenti stressed to her troops that stealth and subtlety were the order of the day; in a post-9/11 environment, she stated, any massive overt violence would be certain to get the Federal government involved, and no one wanted that.
So, on February 13th, six days after the Sabbat took over Gary, they took the 45 minute drive to Chicago, and began their attack on the Camarilla there. Once again, thanks to the knowledge that Tyler and Son had about Chicago, the Sabbat were able to have a relatively quick invasion. The Camarilla of Chicago were already disorganized after the sudden death of Prince Lodin and the destruction of almost all of the Ventrue, and at first didn't realize that the Sabbat were invading. Most of the Camarilla just assumed that the deaths among the Kindred were still the work of the Methuselah Menele.
The Sabbat had a very subtle attack on Chicago, striking at Kindred in their havens, taking over their mortal institutions, and generally using guerilla tactics to keep the Camarilla off balance and unaware of what was really happening. Almost none of the Kine in Chicago knew what happened in the first place, and the majority of them weren't aware of a supernatural struggle either. Archbishop Ardenti did her best to keep the violence down to a minimum, and kept the mortals in the dark about what was happening. There were only two events during the Sabbat siege that couldn't be kept a secret.
Three Sabbat packs (The Men of Extinction, The Riding Club and The Enigmatics) attacked and destroyed the Tremere Chantry, a mansion near downtown Chicago. The assault on the Chantry was quick, violent and not subtle at all. Essentially, the three Sabbat packs simply shot the hell out of the Chantry and anyone inside; then they broke in, shot everyone they could find, ransacked the place, lit it on fire, and attacked the police and fireman who responded to the panicked calls of the Chantry's neighbors.
The second "not very subtle" thing that occurred was an "inmate riot" at the Illinois Psychiatric Institute, home to the majority of Chicago's Malkavians. Jason Newberry, also known as Son, led two Sabbat packs (The Dog Soldiers and Death and the Raven) into his former haven and slaughtered the Malkavians there, along with most of the Institute's medical staff. They deliberately left the patients and non-psychiatric personnel alone.
In any case, on February 19th, six days after the Sabbat came to Chicago, Florian Ardenti proclaimed herself as the Archbishop of Chicago, claiming that the exile from her "proper place" had ended.
The Reign of Archbishop Florian:
Archbishop Florian quickly set her Sabbat to the task of consolidating her reign. She declared an open hunt on any Camarilla that could be found, and gave the Anarchs and Caitiff of Chicago a simple choice: join the Sabbat or be killed. She began her reign simply, but would not be given time to really do anything important in Chicago.
During all of the Sabbat actions in Chicago the Camarilla outside of Chicago were not standing still. Several Justicars, mostly notably the Tremere and Ventrue Justicars, were adamant about taking Chicago back from the Sabbat. On February 23rd, Anastaz di Zagreb, the Tremere Justicar addressed the Council of the Camarilla about the importance of taking Chicago back from the Sabbat. He pointed out that Chicago was the third most important city in the United States, after New York City and Washington, DC. Given that the Camarilla had just re-taken Washington, DC from the Sabbat and had finally fully taken New York City, he stated, it seemed as if the armies of the Camarilla were active and ready for another battle. Justicars Lucinda of the Ventrue and Cock Robin of the Nosferatu were also vocal about how Chicago could not stay in Sabbat hands. Eventually, after a night's deliberation, the Council decided that taking back Chicago would be a top priority of the Camarilla.
While the Sabbat were settling down in Chicago, and while Archbishop Ardenti was taking control of the city, the Camarilla was gathering its might. Justicars gathered their Archons, people called in favors, and the might of the Camarilla gathered in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to ready themselves for the war against the Sabbat.
On February 28th, the Camarilla swarmed down from Kenosha and attacked.
The Reclamation and Recovery, of a Sorts:
As in the previous Camarilla/Sabbat conflict, great pains were taken to keep the fighting quiet and unnoticed by mortal eyes. Justicar Lucinda herself stressed how bad it would be if any of the fighting alerted the Federal authorities, who were still agitated after the events of 9/11. In fact, the Brujah Justicar, Jaroslav Pascek, decreed that any Kindred who managed to gain the attention of the authorities would be named Anathema and placed on the Red List. Needless to say, this ruling forced many of the Camarilla to be subtle in their strikes against the Sabbat.
Unlike before, the Camarilla was organized this time. Using intelligence gathered by Justicar Pascek, the Nosferatu and several other sources, the Camarilla were able to organize their attacks against the Sabbat with deadly accuracy. The Sabbat quickly found themselves losing to the efficient Camarilla. Several members of the Camarilla put aside their personal rivalries in order to strike against the Sabbat. Still, the Sabbat were not easy targets, and the fighting was not a quick as when the Sabbat took Chicago. In fact, a few times the fighting threatened to spill out into the mortal world and become noticeable.
On March 5th, a strange thing happened that almost ended the conflict. Several Sabbat Malkavians, mostly of the pack known as The Enigmatics, attempted a ritual designed to slow down the Camarilla. However, while they were in the midst of their ritual, a small strike force of Camarilla broke into the warehouse where the ritual was occurring and attacked. The Malkavians were unable to finish their ritual, but even incomplete, the ritual had some effect. All the Malkavians in Chicago, both Camarilla and Sabbat, fell over into a mystical slumber for three hours. When they all awoke, it was discovered that Camarilla Malkavians now possessed the Malkavian antitribu Discipline of Dementation. This "infection" of Dementation quickly spread to other Malkavians worldwide; by the end of the week, not a single unaffected Malkavian could be found. What the ritual was supposed to have done is unknown, as the Camarilla strike force slaughtered all the Malkavian antitribu as they slumbered. Also, on March 17th, a battle in the catacombs of the Succubus Club between the Sabbat and the Camarilla started a fire. The Succubus Club burned down as the Kindred fled the flames.
Finally, on March 28th, Justicar Lucinda and a Camarilla strike force managed to pin down Archbishop Ardenti outside of City Hall. Unfortunately, the Archbishop opened fired with utter disregard to any mortal watchers, and a brief gun battle occurred. In the confusion of the firefight, Justicar Lucinda managed to grab and kidnap the Archbishop. As the Camarilla sped away, the Sabbat open fired and shot wildly. There was one significant casualty in the gunfight: Mayor Richard Daley, who had been leaving City Hall around the time the battle erupted, was hit by gunfire and struck comatose. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. After an all-night meeting, the City Council selected Alderman Bernard Stone as the Acting Mayor, until elections could be held or Mayor Daley recovered from his coma.
In the meantime, Justicar Lucinda whisked the Archbishop to a private location where she was tortured for information and then killed. As the Sabbat felt their vinculums to Ardenti snap, they fell in combat and were easy prey for the Camarilla. Additionally, the information that Lucinda tortured out of Ardenti was useful in finding pack havens and eliminating them.
On March 30th, the Camarilla declared Chicago officially retaken, and began the process of mopping up.