Chapter Eight: A Rope Across The Abyss
Session Thirty - Rage Against The Dying Light
As the time for Prince Allister's monthly Court in September approached, the Kindred of Chicago were startled by a variety of arrests, fires and violent episodes that, in short order, caused the Gangrel Primogen to disappear presumably into the hands of the Sabbat, placed the Toreador Primogen and Scourge into the hands of federal authorities, and apparently slaughtered almost the entire Malkavian Clan. Additionally, many members of the Camarilla in Chicago were expecting some sort of retaliatory strike from the Sabbat in response to the failed attack against them that had happened in Gary, Indiana, a few weeks previously.
Accordingly, security concerning where and when the Court would be occurring was tight; the Kindred of Chicago were told that a particular warehouse in town would serve as the Court for the evening, but when people got there, they were all met by security personnel who then gave them directions to where the "real Elysium" was. There were several new Kindred in town who were not recognized by the security personnel at the first warehouse; in these cases, the security personnel called the appropriate Primogen (or, in some cases, merely the most prominent member of that Clan, given that some Primogen had been taken into custody previously) and allowed that Primogen (or whichever Kindred ended up getting the call) to talk to the new Kindred, vouch for them, and bring them over to the new Elysium .Not everyone received the same set of directions to the "real Elysium," and some people got lost or confused on their way to the real Elysium - which was another warehouse, albeit one that some members of the city recognized as a communal Haven that the Brujah of Chicago had created several months previously.
At the Elysium, the new Kindred in Chicago (which included some Toreador, some Caitiff and a Malkavian among others) mingled and met with their various Clanmates and other Kindred of Chicago, discussing the events of the day and what might be done in response to the various things that had befallen some of the members of the Camarilla. Additionally, two Archons had come to Chicago in response to the events in Gary, Indiana - Archon Corbin Bane of the Tremere (serving the Brujah Justicar) and Archon Janos Vulpe of the Ventrue (serving the Ventrue Justicar). Archon Vulpe also had a small team of other Kindred with him to assist him; the members of Vulpe's coterie did not have any additional titles of Offices within the Camarilla.
Many of the Clans had small meetings among themselves - the Toreador met in another location to discuss Grave's disappearance (and also to talk with the Follower of Set, Syndee Reich); the Nosferatu tried to figure out who, if anyone, was the rumored spy who had told the Sabbat about what was going to happen in Gary; the Brujah spent some time talking, presumably about Lochlan McGrody; many of the Tremere talked with Archon Bane as well; the sole Malkavian present in Chicago spent some time talking with the Gangrel and even went to a library with one of them. Furthermore, the Prince met with what was left of her Primogen Council to discuss events in the city, while Archon Vulpe met with the Prince and some select members of the Camarilla in Chicago as well. Eventually, however, the hour of Court rolled around, and people gathered to listen to the Prince and her decrees.
Prince Allister began her Court as promptly as she could, stating that there were a lot of things that she needed to talk about. She mentioned that there "were a lot of new faces" at the gathering that evening, and asked to meet with some people privately, after Court and after a second meeting she was having after Court as well. The Prince then moved on to briefly highlight some matters concerning the Camarilla Administration in Chicago that she needed to clarify; she mentioned that the Follower of Set, Euan Valmont, had been named the Greater Harpy by the Primogen, that Eddie Garibaldi was stepping down from the position of Sheriff for a variety of personal reasons, that Louis DuMonte of the Tremere would be taking over as the Scourge of Chicago, and that Jake Walker and Alton Croup were the Primogen of the Brujah and Ventrue Clans respectively.
Moving on, the Prince addressed the news of the day, stating that it was believed that Genji had been taken by the Sabbat - it was assumed that he was dead, but she wasn't entirely certain if he was or not. Accordingly, Ed, the former Gangrel Whip, would be serving as the Gangrel Primogen for now. Similarly, it was believed that the majority of the Malkavian Clan (Doctor Maclane, Erik Lazarus von Struppe, Jhonnen Vane Barker and so on) were also in the hands of the Sabbat - and while the Prince "hoped" that they were dead, there was a chance that they might be still alive. As such, she urged all Kindred who had "extensive dealings" with those Malkavians to take extreme caution in the future, as it was possible that the Sabbat might learn about them from torturing the Malkavians if they were still alive. Further, it was Prince Allister's belief that Lochlan McGrody and Tiberius Grave were in the custody of the group of Mages known popularly as the Technocracy. The Prince was certain that the widely-spread story that the two Kindred were domestic terrorists and were co-operating with the authorities was a falsehood spread by the Technocrats; she was trying to get those two Kindred back from the Technocrats, somehow, but wasn't aware if they were currently alive or dead.
The Prince then steered the Court to the matters of formally meeting the new Kindred in Chicago - Guido Miretti of the Brujah, Evelien Aislin of the Malkavian, Carlo Bellini and Vadim of the Toreador, Arthur Anderson of the Ventrue and Alexander Reage, Johnny Eaglefeather and Ivor Vanoch of the Caitiff. Prince Allister informed all the new Kindred that it was her tradition to wait thirty days before formally Acknowledging someone to reside in Chicago; during that time, the Primogen of the Clan or the Scourge or some other Officer of Chicago would be checking into the Kindred's backgrounds, making sure that they were indeed who they said they were and were worthwhile additions to the Camarilla of Chicago. The Prince also mentioned to the various Caitiff that they might wish to "align" themselves with a particular Clan in the city. It was not mandatory to do so, she stressed, but doing so would enable the Caitiff to make certain that their concerns about things in Chicago would be voiced by a Primogen and brought to her attention. The Prince also reminded people of the two Archons in town - Archon Bane and Archon Vulpe - and asked Archon Vulpe to introduce his coterie of assistants. For the record, Archon Vulpe's group of assistants consisted of Colette Larsen and Sol Badguy of the Toreador, a Caitiff named Esteban Veras and Victor Lamaroux of the Tremere.
Prince Allister then mentioned that she would talk with some people later about what exactly happened in Gary, Indiana, on August 13th, when several members of the Camarilla attempted to disrupt a Sabbat ritual; she was very concerned that a city that was supposedly occupied by only a few Sabbat could suddenly get approximately sixty people there to fight the Camarilla. The Prince then, shifting topics completely, told Evelien Aislin that, until more Malkavians came to Chicago (or the few that were left in Chicago finally re-surfaced at Court), she was essentially the Malkavian Primogen. When other Malkavians were around, they could discuss who would really be Primogen - but for now, the Prince considered Evelien to be the Primogen. With that, the Prince informed people that this particular warehouse that people were meeting in was only considered Elysium until sunrise - it was not going to be made a permanent Elysium - and ended the Court.
As people started to leave the meeting room in which the Prince held Court, Guido Miretti, the newest Brujah in town, apparently got into some sort of struggle with Nigel Remmington, the sole Ravnos in Chicago, who still had not been Acknowledged by the Prince. While the exact nature of the conflict was never made clear, from the fact that Miretti kept telling Remmington to "turn this shit off," it was widely believed that Miretti thought the Ravnos was causing him to hear some sort of music. Thankfully, the conflict remained at the level of harsh words and was ended before fighting occurred - much to the relief of many Kindred at Court, since both Remmington and Miretti were blocking the doorway into the Court room, and a fight would have prevented people from leaving.
In any case, as the potential fight between Miretti and Remmington fizzled out, people left the Court to go do various things on their own - primarily things involving the missing Kindred, while both Archons met with people in order to talk about what had happened. In fact, at one point Archon Vulpe met and talked with the Garou known as Zachariah-Speaks-With-Silver and had a brief discussion about using Garou "fetishes" (small magical devices the Garou could make) to track down the Malkavians and Genji. Zachariah tried to oblige the Archon (at the urging of Ed), and provided the Archon with something known as a "Questing Stone" that could possibly track the missing Kindred. Unfortunately, using the stone indicated that Genji was either dead or "not on this plane of existence."
Several Kindred, including the new Malkavian Evelien Aislin and the Gangrel Jonathan, visited the burned down remains of the apartment building that Dr. Maclane had been supposedly killed in; during one of the trips, a personal item of Dr. Maclane's was provided to Zachariah in order for him to use the Questing Stone on; it revealed that Maclane was alive, but very far out of the city - so far, in fact, that the Stone wouldn't be able to lead people to him, as the stone only worked for a single day. Ariel of the Tremere also used Maclane's belongings in a Thamaturgical ritual that allowed her to mystically scry upon him; her magical visions revealed that Maclane was staked and on top of a pile of bodies, but did not reveal sufficient information to determine where Maclane was being held.
Shortly after this occurred, several of the Kindred, including Jonathan, the Nosferatu Joseph Wojikowski and several members of the Tremere (including Archon Bane and Ariel among others) went to investigate the house that Genji had lived in before his disappearance. As they entered the simple home where Genji had lived, however, a very odd thing occurred. A large group of rats who had congregated in Genji's home attempt to attack the first person who entered - the Gangrel Jonathan. The rats were unable to hurt Jonathan (and a few of them even died trying to assault him thanks to his powerful Disciplines), but before too much chaos occurred, the Gangrel was able to talk to the animals and determine that these rats had been some of Genji's ghouls. Jonathan fed the rats some of his vitae to calm them down, and people investigated Genji's house. Unfortunately, aside of a very hungry ghoul snake and the corpse of a wolf in Genji's garage, nothing of note was found at the Gangrel's home.
It was during this that Thomas Grinn arrived at the Elysium; when he did so, Prince Allister informed him that he was to now serve as the Sheriff for Chicago, since Eddie Garibaldi was stepping down from that position. Grinn accepted the job. After leaving the Elysium in the hands of the new Sheriff, the Prince, Seneschal Wiederhoft and Eamon Morris left to meet with a person who might have been able to help determine what had happened to Lochlan McGrody and Tiberius Grave. It was only after the Prince returned, a little shaken by her meeting, that people found out that she had been meeting with a gentleman who went by the name of Olorin, who apparently was a Mage - but not a member of the Technocracy. It seems that Olorin met Prince Allister at a BDSM club that he was involved with, and that the activities taking place at the club bothered the Prince somewhat - but not Wiederhoft or Morris.
In the meantime, while the Prince was engaged in her meeting, Archon Bane and his associates returned from Genji's house and got involved in a conversation back at the Elysium; the conversation, among other things, touched upon the concept of "sexiness." In order to demonstrate something about sexuality and Kindred, the Archon performed a brief ritual upon the Follower of Set, Syndee Reich, which apparently made her aroused and seemingly intoxicated. The Archon, pleased by this turn of events, announced that he would be keeping Ms. Reich close to him and left the Elysium shortly thereafter with her. The other Kindred, not entirely certain what to do, did not stop him.
It was shortly after this, and after the Prince returned from meeting with Olorin, that the Kindred of Chicago, realizing that the night was growing short and dawn was swiftly approaching, left the warehouse in order to go their own separate ways and rest during the day.
But of course, that's only one point of view on things that happened that evening. Feel free to check out what some people are saying - in public - to get another point of view on things. Some people are saying other things as well, but just not openly, for all to hear. You'd have to ask people what they thought to find out things other than what's mentioned above, or by people below....
- A Selection from the "Diaries of an Antebellum Gentleman" by Sage DeleCroix....
- A Discussion About "What Is Sexy," by Nigel Remmington....
And, as always, there are things going on in the game world that take place on days other than this particular evening in September. Click here to see what's been going on, and see what sort of things your characters might have to worry about for the future....
Session Thirty-One - Child Across The Sky
On Saturday, October 9th, the Kindred of Chicago began to gather for the monthly Court of Prince Camille Allister, making their way to the Oracle Office Center, commonly known to the Kindred as "the Office Center Elysium." Unfortunately, as many of the Kindred approached the building, they made a startling discovery - the very streetlights of the city were beginning to hurt the Kindred, causing them damage through prolonged exposure. Slightly panicked, the Kindred of Chicago quickly attempt to find another meeting place and tried to figure out just what was causing the streetlights to hurt them.
The Harpy, Euan Valmont of the Setites, was able to hastily arrange a new meeting location at the Millennium Hotel, a place where the Kindred of Chicago had met once before, and the word went out to move the meeting there. As for the lights themselves, no one was able to immediately determine why the lights were harming Kindred - but several Kindred were able to determine that the lights were produced by Eos Technologies, and were part of the "Operation: Disruption" initiative that the Chicago Police Department had recently undertaken to reduce crime in the streets. It was widely suspected that Eos Technologies was somehow involved with the Technocratic Mages who had working against the Kindred of Chicago, but nothing could be tangible proved at that time.
In any case, as the Kindred of Chicago moved to the Millennium Hotel to hold their Court and discuss what was happening in the city, several Kindred stopped along the way to go hunting for vitae in order to heal the damage that had been done to them by the new streetlights. While most people had no problems with obtaining the precious blood necessary for their health, an odd problem occurred with some people's feeding. Simply put, several Kindred drank from mortals and then almost immediately vomited back up the blood they had consumed, hurting themselves in the process. No explanation for why this occurred was found at the time - it appeared to affect a variety of Kindred, and there seemed to be no links between the mortals whose blood was somehow made unfit for food. The few Kindred who encountered these mortals that they could not drink from resorted to other methods for finding vitae - or simply went without. Of course, almost no one talked about these incidents at the time, believing them to be isolated or random events, but later people realized that several Kindred had vomited up vitae for no good reason.
Eventually, however, the Kindred of Chicago made it to the Millennium Hotel without significant incident. After settling in to the hotel and after the Harpy and Keeper of Elysium took care of matters with hotel security to ensure that there would be no problems, people began to settle down, talk among themselves and try to figure out what was going on in Chicago. For one thing, there were a few more Malkavians in town - mainly two Kindred who had been in Chicago for some time but had neglected to make their presences known lately - and the three Malkavians (Evelien Aislin, Cassandra Prozorovsky and Annette Sarah-Marie Miller) had a small meeting to discuss what was going on within their Clan. The Toreador also had a Clan Meeting of their own, presumably discussing whom among them should become the Primogen; it is believed that a selection was made, but nothing was formally announced. The Nosferatu Clan also went off to have a small meeting - while the exact content of that meeting was not revealed, it is assumed that matters of utmost importance were discussed, given that the meeting resulted in the staking of Allen Oppenheimer, who's immobile body was brought back to the main meeting by Charlie Andrews and guarded until Court. The Tremere also had a small meeting of their own with Archon Bane to discuss several of Bane's projects that he had been performing at the Chantry lately, including several involving the Follower of Set, Syndee Reich, whom he had enchanted the month previously.
Prince Allister held several small private meetings of her own; first meeting with Archon Vulpe and his crew for an extended period of time, presumably discussing security matters within Chicago and how to best resist the Sabbat attack was still believed to be occurring very soon. The Prince also met with her Primogen Council and presumably discussed matters concerning Allen Oppenheimer and Millicent Capone, given rumors that leaked out of the meeting afterwards. It should also be noted that, while these meetings were going on, the Gangrel Jonathan had requested to meet with the Prince, and was patiently waiting for her, even refusing to go along with Ed on a matter concerning the Gangrel so that he could meet with the Prince on an urgent matter.
It seems that the Tremere had asked a few of the Gangrel to meet with them concerning a matter between the Garou Zachariah "Speaks-With-Silver" and their Clanmate, Nedra Gollah; this was the matter that Jonathan unfortunately could not attend. It seems that Zachariah had presented Nedra with a rather lavish gift consisting of a large quantity of jewelry, and the Tremere wanted to discuss with Ed (and the rest of the Gangrel at the time, which really consisted only of two Caitiff whom Ed was sponsoring in the city) just what this gift meant - and if they should be worried by Zachariah's supposed amorous intentions towards Nedra. While Ed, Nedra and Zachariah began working things out, the Prince finally ended her various private meetings and began moving to hold Court.
Of course, as the Prince was on her way to Court, she stopped to talk with Jonathan, the Gangrel who had been waiting for some time to talk with her. The moment she did so, however, Jonathan attacked Prince Allister, clawing at her, gouging out her eyes and blinding her. Jonathan's actions caught everyone by surprise, and a small combat broke out as people rushed to defend the Prince and take out Jonathan. Colin Jacobson of the Brujah managed to get between Jonathan and the Prince, while the Seneschal, Fredrick Wiederhoft, drew a sword and struck at Jonathan a few times before literally grabbing Jonathan and slamming him against a wall away from the Prince. Eamon Morris also shot Jonathan a few times, but as Jonathan was pulled away from the Prince, he stopped attempting to fight anyone, became very downcast and compliant. Jonathan was quickly questioned about what had happened, and it appeared that some members of the Sabbat had somehow Dominated him into attacking the Prince. Jonathan was then staked and turned over to Sheriff Grin, who staked him and hustled him out of the hotel, presumably to be destroyed.
In the meantime, while Jonathan was being questioned, several members of the Camarilla, most notably Keeper of Elysium Dante Berne and Greater Harpy Euan Valmont, met with members of the Millennium hotel staff to smooth things over, ensure that any security tapes showing Jonathan's assault on the Prince were destroyed, arrange for repairs to the walls Jonathan had been quietly shredding with his claws behind his back while waiting for the Prince, and so on, essentially doing whatever it took to maintain the Masquerade and the safety of the hotel for the evening. The Prince attempted to gain some vitae to begin healing her damaged eyes, but unfortunately ran into the same problems that a few people had earlier encountered, and was unable to feed without vomiting up the blood almost immediately. Still, Prince Allister eventually found some vitae that she could keep down, and eventually Court formally began. It should be noted that, during this time, Ed received several calls from a pair of new Gangrel Kindred in town, but was unable to get back to these Kindred in time before Court; she did, however, promise to meet with these new Gangrel as soon as she could.
In any event, as the formal Court was called, Prince Allister was guided into the court by Johnny Eaglefeather and Euan Valmont; additionally, Harpy Valmont had found a pair of sunglasses for the Prince to wear to cover her gouged out eyes. The Nosferatu kept a close watch on the staked body of Allen Oppenheimer during this time as well. Prince Allister started the evening by stating that, in contrast to some of her earlier Courts, this particular Court might not be brief, as there was a lot to discuss. Firstly, she began by formally recognizing some of the Kindred who had come to Chicago in previous months - Evelien Aislin of the Malkavians and Guido Miretti of the Bruah were both formally Acknowledged to reside in Chicago, while two Caitiff - Alexander Reage and Johnny Eaglefeather - were formally Acknowledged and announced to be under the sponsorship of Clan Gangrel. At this point, there was a small pause, and Ivan Yanovitch, the Nosferatu Primogen, broke in to announce that his Clan had selected Joseph Wojikowsk (better known as "Woj") to serve as the Whip for their Clan. Prince Allister thanked the Primogen for that information, and then went on to formally announce that both Archons in town - Archon Corbin Bane and Archon Janos Vulpe - were formally Acknowledged and that Archon Vulpe's associates (Colette Larson, Esteban Veras, Sol Badguy, and Victor Lamaroux) were formally Acknowledged as well.
With those matters of importance out of the way, Prince Allister then turned to more important matters. Specifically, Prince Allister announced that she was declaring a Blood Hunt on Millicent Capone due to Capone's recent actions that endangered the Masquerade, including confessing to a priest that she was a vampire. This action was greeted with quiet approval by most of the Kindred present, aside of one or two who hadn't heard about what Capone had done previously. The Prince then moved on to the matter of the staked Nosferatu in the corner. Allen Oppenheimer was dragged out into the middle of the Court by Woj, held up Oppenheimer while Prince Allister explained that it had been discovered that Oppenheimer had talked to the Sabbat about the Camarilla raid in Gary that occurred in August, warning the Sabbat about it. For that, the Prince declared Oppenheimer and traitor and had him killed.
As Oppenheimer's body fell to the floor, Prince Allister commented that if anyone else in the city talked with the Sabbat and revealed information to them, they would be killed as well. The Prince also commented that she was "done dealing with bullshit," and explained that when Eddie Garibaldi left town, he had taken her compassion with him. At that comment one of the Brujah, Shard, loudly cheered and applauded the Prince - who furiously turned on Shard and demanded that she leave the room. When Shard started to protest, stating that she was sticking up for the Prince, Prince Allister calmly told one or two people to either get Shard out of the room or kill her - and that she wasn't too picky about which one was done to Shard. Shard quickly left the room before anyone needed to escort her out or harm her, and as she did so, Prince Allister harangued the room, giving a brief lecture on "weakness." Prince Allister stated that she sat quietly and watched as many Kindred "walked all over Brieanna, who was weak," back when Brieanna Haydn was the Prince of Chicago, and that she "ain't weak," and wasn't going to stand for people walking over her. With that, the formal Court ended, and the Kindred of Chicago quietly left the room.
It was at this time that Ed, the Gangrel Primogen, went off to meet with the two new Gangrel who had come to town, taking with her the "entirety of the Gangrel Clan" (as she put it), which consisted of her, two Caitiff and a Garou. They met at a local restaurant, and the Primogen gave the two new Kindred the low-down on what was happening in town before bringing them back to the temporary Elysium at the Millennium Hotel. A new Brujah, Silas George, also arrived in town, and he spent a portion of the evening being introduced to people, meeting with Shard (whom he apparently knew from before) and being appraised of the situations in town. In the meantime, Prince Allister was having a series of smaller and private meetings, including a few with the two Archons in town. It was during these meetings that Archon Vulpe heard rumor about some of the actions Archon Bane had been performing with Syndee Reich over the previous month, and he attempted to talk to Reich about them. Archon Bane vehemently objected to Archon Vulpe talking with Syndee Reich, and attempted to prevent Vulpe from meeting with her.
One thing led to another, and instead of merely talking with Syndee Reich over Archon Bane's objections, Archon Vulpe and his associates fundamentally kidnapped Reich out of the hotel and drove around town with her, talking to her and finding out that Archon Bane had essentially been using her in experiments designed to break Blood Bonds, binding her to him, shattering those bonds, re-binding her and so on. Archon Bane, furious that Archon Vulpe had taken "his property" out of the hotel, called the Tremere to his side and ordered them to help him retrieve Reich, even ordering the Prince to use her powers of Presence to summon Archon Vulpe back to the hotel. Prince Allister steadfastly refused to get involved in something she viewed as a territorial fight between the two Archons, although she did contact several members of the Tremere hierarchy along the way to determine Bane's status within the Tremere and whether or not he could really order to Clan around as he had been. Several other Tremere also contacted people they knew to find out what exactly was going on, and slowly but surely, lines were drawn between the two Archons and people found themselves on one side or another of those lines.
Before matters could truly come to a head, however, Archon Bane received a phone call from the Brujah Justicar, Jaroslav Pascek, his sponsor. Justicar Pascek informed Archon Bane that he was urgently needed in California, and that he was to leave Chicago immediately and head to Los Angeles. Archon Bane reluctantly obeyed the Justicar's orders and left town. It was also rumored that, during the struggle between the two Archons concerning Syndee Reich, Archon Vulpe, realizing that one of the problems going on was the fact that Reich was not a member of the Camarilla and therefore had no protection under the Camarilla's rules, Accepted her into the Camarilla - although the truth of that rumor was not verified.
It was shortly after Archon Bane's summons to California that, with the night growing short, most of the Kindred of Chicago left the Millennium Hotel and went their separate ways, heading to their respective homes before the daylight came.
Of course, what's written above is really only one take on things that happened that evening. Other people have different points of view on what happened; feel free to check out what some people are talking about publicly - other people might be saying other things, but they aren't saying them as openly as these people are....
- A Smallish Brujah Rant, by Sheryl "Shard" Daniels....
- How To Waste Eternity, by Nigel Remmington....
Of course, things happen outside of this single evening; the world doesn't cease to exist between October 9th and November 13th. So, if you want, click here to see what sort of things have been happening during the downtime, and see what sort of things your characters might have to worry about for the future....
Session Thirty-Two - Like A Flower, Like A Flame
On Saturday, November 13th, the Kindred of Chicago gathered for Prince Camille Allister's monthly Court, this time meeting at the mansion outside of Chicago known as the Mansion Elysium (jokingly referred to as the Fortress Elysium by some of the Kindred). As opposed to previous months, there was no immediately pressing business that occupied everyone's attention, so must of the Kindred gathered, mingling and talking among themselves, catching up on things and generally being sociable creatures.
Several of the Kindred had smaller, private meetings among themselves before Prince Allister began her Court - for instance, the Tremere held a small meeting at their Chantry before coming over to the Mansion Elysium, while Guido Miretti of the Brujah met with several people privately before leaving the Elysium. One or two new Kindred came to town, including a new Malkavian named Malikii, a Tremere named Sandra Rooflawn and a Caitiff, apparently a priest, named Lucius Darkholm. Additionally, a Caitiff named Lucian, who had been in Chicago some time in the past and had been exceptionally helpful to the Camarilla here while he was present, had returned to Chicago as well. These new Kindred spent some time mingling with other Kindred in Chicago, getting to know what was going on, meeting their Clanmates and so on. The Prince, as is her usual wont, met privately with her Primogen and several other Kindred, including Archon Vulpe, discussing matters of state before the Court.
However, the Garou known as Zachariah "Speaks With Silver" interrupted Prince Allister's private meeting with the Primogen, albeit for the proverbial best or reasons. The Garou essentially broke into the meeting via mystical means, and took the Gangrel Primogen, Ed, out of the meeting and into an otherworldly realm known as the Umbra. While in that place, Zachariah told Ed about a looming threat to the Garou and asked for her help. Ed agreed to help Zachariah, and contacted several other Kindred (once Zachariah returned her to the real world) and arranged for them to come to a warehouse in order to deal with this potential problem.
In the meantime, while these events were happening, Prince Allister began her formal Court at the Elysium, drawing together all Kindred who had not go off to assist Ed with her situation. The Prince stated that she would make the Court as brief as possible, since she knew there were other pressing matters occurring in the city - such as the aforementioned situation involving Ed - and she also had other meetings to attend to after the Court as well. The Prince began matters simply, by stating that Millicent Capone had caused the city a number of problems, and therefore she was asking any Kindred in Chicago who had influence among the areas of the Catholic Church or medical industry to contact either her or Seneschal Wiederhoft in order to begin cleaning up some of the messes Millicent made. The Prince then moved on to the problems caused by the (presumably Technocratic) Kindred-damaging streetlights that had been appearing more frequently in town; she stated that the Tremere were working on getting maps of where the lights were and attempting to take care of the situation.
Prince Allister then moved on to more mundane matters, having several of the new Kindred in town formally presented to her by their respective Clans. She also officially Acknowledged Annette Sarah-Marie Miller of the Malkavians and Carlo Bellini of the Toreador, and then moved on to issue Status to two other Kindred in Chicago. Firstly, she brought upo Fredrick Wiederhoft, her Seneschal, stating that he had been her Seneschal, sometimes bodyguard and enforcer for over a year, and she felt that he should be Feared by other Kindred accordingly. Prince Allister then discussed Colin Jacobson of the Brujah Clan, pointing out that twice over the last few months, he had been instrumental in keeping her out of harm, keeping an eye on her and generally keeping her safe. For those actions, the Prince felt that Jacobson deserved the Status of Vigilant; unfortunately, Jacobson was not present at Court at the time, being off with Ed and several other Kindred, but the Prince felt that Jacobson's Status should be known by all.
After that, there was little else to discuss at Court; the past month had been relatively quiet, according to Prince Allister, and she wanted to keep things that way. She urged the Kindred of Chicago to lay low and not cause any "trouble," mentioning that she wanted peace in the city and would stop anyone who would be causing trouble. With that, the Court ended, and several Kindred went off to have their own private meetings (such as Prince Allister meeting with Archon Vulpe to discuss city defenses against a Sabbat attack), while another group of Kindred rushed off to assist Ed and several other Kindred in dealing with a Garou situation.
While Court had been happening, Ed and several other Kindred had been dealing with a crisis. It seems that Zachariah, Ed's erstwhile Garou friend, had gotten involved in something rather dangerous by stealing a Garou fetish that had been missing for some time; unfortunately, Zachariah's theft had not gone unnoticed and several creatures from the Umbra were tracking him down, intent on harming him. This ultimately led to several of the Kindred of Chicago having to get involved in a long and complicated battle between several foreign creatures, including some sort of entity known as a "lighting spirit" and another being that managed to engulf several of the Kindred in a tar-like substance that proved very difficult to remove. In fact, Lucius Darkholm was seriously hurt in an attempt to remove the tar-like substance, at it was at this time that several people suggested calling the other known Garou in town, "Blood-of-the-Moon" to come assist them in cleansing themselves of whatever taint they might have received and dealing with the Garou fetish that Zachariah had obtained.
In short time, Blood-of-the-Moon arrived at the warehouse and after asking a few questions about the whereabouts of the Gangrel Jonathan (and not being entirely pleased with the answers she was given) was told about what had happened. She berated Zachariah a few times (even going so far as to smack him with a newspaper and call him a "Bad Dog" at one point), and assured the Kindred that she would personally take possession of the fetish and ensure its safety. Blood-of-the-Moon also spent a few moments "purifying" several of the Kindred who had been involved with the fighting - except for Darkholm, who had left earlier to find a church to pray in and hopefully recover. Ed arranged for Darkholm and Blood-of-the-Moon to meet later so that she could assist him. Shortly after that, Blood-of-the-Moon and Zachariah left the warehouse via the Umbra, and the Kindred made their way back to the Mansion Elysium.
In the meantime, the Kindred of Chicago had been meeting among themselves, talking and generally being sociable creatures. Shortly around midnight, several of the Kindred who had connections with the street gangs of Chicago began receiving phone calls from gang members they knew. It seems that the leaders of the two largest gangs in town, the Crips (led by Jack "Two Feet" Allen) and the Firebirds (led by Eulalio "Speedy" Ortiz) had decided to, after months of growing antagonism between their two gangs over turf, have a knife fight between the two of them in order to determine, once and for all, who "ruled the streets." Several of the Kindred, along with a large number of gang members, attended the knife fight, and watched as Ortiz eventually overpowered and killed Allen. Several of the Kindred stayed to celebrate with the Firebirds, but most of the people involved in the fighting left shortly afterwards, in order to avoid any sort of police detection.
It was shortly after this event that many of the Kindred of Chicago, even those back at the Mansion Elysium, decided that there was no pressing need for them all to be together, and left to go their own ways and eventually settle down before sunrise.
Of course, this is only one point of view on things that happened that evening and is potentially fallible. Other people are talking about what happened that evening, but unfortunately almost no one is making their thoughts public knowledge. So, unlike previous entries in the city's histories, there are no widely known opposing points of view to share about the events of November 13th....
And, as always, there are events and noteworthy things happening in the times between November 13th and December 11th - there is a world going on outside of events involving the Kindred of Chicago. If you care to know what's happening in Chicago, feel free to click here to find out what's going on and wonder about how they affect people's prospects....
Session Thirty-Three - Paint It Black
On Saturday, December 11th, the Kindred of Chicago assembled for the Prince's monthly Court at a small private martini bar named The Thirty-Six Views, which happened to be owned by Prince Allister. There was no urgent business that needed to be dealt with immediately, so the majority of the Chicago Kindred socialized and talked about matters of the day. One minor note that arose out of some people's discussions was the fact that the Ventrue Primogen, Alton Croup, had apparently tracked down the Blood-Hunted Millicent Capone with the assistance of Ariel of the Tremere, and was planning on turning over Capone's body to the Prince later that evening. Another bit of news that slowly spread throughout the Kindred was the fact that several people, including Archon Vulpe and his associates, had done some investigations into Gary, Indiana, and discovered that there was no Sabbat presence in that city any more.
While the majority of the Kindred discussed these matters and others, back at the Mansion Elysium, Primogen Croup, Prince Allister, Seneschal Wiederhoft and Alexander Belov of the Tremere were meeting in order to deal with Millicent Capone. Unfortunately, it was at this time that events began to turn against the Camarilla of Chicago.
It turned out that the members of the Malkavian Clan who had gone missing towards the end of August had been taken by the Sabbat and joined forces with that sect. The Sabbat had been spying on Prince Allister, learned that she would be meeting with Primogen Croup, and decided to strike against her while she was separated from the rest of the city. As one of the former Assistant Keepers of Elysium, Doctor Henry Maclane was able to bring several members of the Sabbat in to the Fortress Elysium and prepare a trap for the Prince and Primogen Croup. The Sabbat attacked the handful of Camarilla Kindred in the Mansion Elysium, slowly overpowering them. While she was being attacked, Prince Allister managed to contact an associate of hers outside of Chicago - her Sire, Drake Masters - and let him know that she was under attack.
Back at the Thirty-Six Views, Eddie Garibaldi, Prince Allister's long-time companion and confidant, received a phone call from Drake Masters, telling him that Camille was under attack at the Mansion Elysium. Without a second thought, Eddie grabbed a few associates and headed out to the Mansion Elysium. Ed, the Gangrel Primogen, also received a similar call from Drake Masters. Before heading off the Fortress Elysium, however, Ed spread the word that the Prince was under attack, presumably by the Sabbat, so several other people began rushing towards the Mansion Elysium, despite knowing that the fighting would have likely finished during the almost twenty to thirty minute commute from the Thirty-Six Views to the Mansion Elysium.
Of course, not all Kindred went to the fight at the Elysium; a small handful of Kindred remained behind in order to keep the martini bar secure and coordinate the efforts of the Camarilla in attempting to figure out what was going on. One of these Kindred, Carlo Bellini of the Toreador, discovered quite by accident that there were Sabbat near the martini bar as well, when, in moment of idle boredom, he asked some of his artistic associates to spray-paint graffiti on a building visible from the bar. Bellini's associates ran into a pack of Sabbat who were watching the Thirty-Six Views and were badly beaten by them, although one of the graffiti artists did let Bellini know what was going on.
While Sheriff Grinn attempted to investigate matters involving the Sabbat near the Thirty-Six Views, the first wave of Kindred heading towards the Mansion Elysium arrived, discovering that the scene was calm and peaceful and there was no sign of any trouble. In fact, several people were met by Prince Allister herself, who asked people to come inside and help her deal with the few Sabbat prisoners she had suddenly acquired. Of course, this was another trap, as one the Sabbat had managed to Possess Prince Allister's body and was attempting to lure the Camarilla into the Fortress Elysium, where the Elysium's own internal security systems - which included flamethrowers in the walls and electrified floors among other things - could be used against them.
While the Camarilla, suspicious of what was going on attempted to interrogate the Prince further, the Camarilla back at the Thirty-Six Views began to engage the Sabbat as well....
And so, it is at this point that the Storytellers, invoking editorial control over the LARP, left off, rather than engage in several hours of combat. The LARP was ended on an open-ended note; individual players could decide whether their particular characters managed to escape their Sabbat enemies, overcome them, or fall in battle. In any event, it can be certain understood that the Sabbat managed to strike at the Camarilla and disperse them, forcing them to relinquish control of Chicago for the moment.
The Archon and his associates had created a small safe house in Gary, Indiana, actually, and it can be surmised that various Kindred managed to escape Chicago, regroup there, and begin to retake the city from the Sabbat, but the Storytellers felt that running a long-term siege of Chicago, replete with large amounts of combat, would ultimately degenerate the LARP into something that was not what the players really wanted, essentially turning what was once a social event into a series of drawn-out combats and violence. Instead, the Storytellers decided the end the LARP, thank the players, answer questions people might have had about what was going on and what had happened, go out for dinner with the players, remember the good times past and think about the future, and move on to starting a new LARP....