The First Chapter of the Current History of the City

Metamorphoses: St. Louis

Chapter One: "The Point of a Journey..."

Session One
Session Two
Session Three
Session Four

Session One - Spirits Rising, Falling:

On Saturday, January 15th, a number of the Kindred of the St. Louis area, including several Anarchs from East St. Louis, gathered at the Harrisburg Showcase Elysium (also known as the "Gallery Elysium") in order to discuss matters of state, mingle and generally socialize. Rumor had it that Prince Robertson had finally agreed that there should be a Primogen Council in St. Louis again, and many Kindred gathered to figure out whom among their fellows should be in the Primogen Council - and, presumably, be one of the elect to approve a Greater Harpy for the city. Additionally, there was some news of costumed vigilantes actively taking a stand against crime in East St. Louis, and that was a minor topic of discussion for a bit.

The selection of the Primogen occurred exceptionally quickly, as many Clans merely to select their former Primogen to resume their roles. The Brujah Clan, however, could not do so, as their previous Primogen had left town in the middle of 2000. The scant Brujah present at the gathering selected Matthias Griffin to represent them on the Primogen Council; and shortly after that the Primogen Council went into a private area of the gallery to discuss matters among themselves and eventually meet with potential Greater Harpies and interview them concerning the office.

In the main areas of the gallery, while the Primogen were meeting, people generally chatted and conducted themselves civilly. Topics of conversation ranged over matters as diverse as the aforementioned costumed vigilantes, the political leanings of the Anarchs in general (include an attempt to equate them with Libertarians), questions concerning how the two Sabbat trapped in Elysium - Hans and Mary - had fed for the six years they had been in the Gallery, art in general and so on. After several candidates for the Greater Harpy position - Lionel Bradford of the Gangrel, Sheryl Daniels of the Ventrue and Ted Reynolds of the Tremere among others - had met with the Primogen, discussions also included a debate on what would make a good Harpy and questions that the Primogen had asked the potential Harpies during their interviews. Several chess games were also played by a variety of people during this time, and the Seneschal met with many individual Kindred to talk matters of politics, influences and holdings with them.

Also during this time, a large box was sent to the Keeper of Elysium; several Kindred became involved in determining what was in the box and whether or not the box was safe. When it turned out that the box contained a Kindred in torpor, she was brought back to Elysium and awakened. The Keeper of Elysium and several of his associates spent a good deal of time interviewing and talking with the newly awakened Kindred, figuring out who she was and so on. Edie, the Malkavian who had been in the box, was apparently a guest of the Prince, and treated accordingly after she woke up.

Shortly after the Primogen Council finished their deliberations of the matter of the Harpy and spoke with the Seneschal about it, many of the Kindred broke away from the gallery and went their separate ways for the evening.

Of course, that's only a very brief overview of what occurred that evening, excluding many minor and personal details and focusing mainly on generalities. Feel free to look at the following documents to see what some people are saying in greater depth about that night (in character, of course)....

Of course, there are things going on in the world outside of the events described above. After all, there's a living, breathing world out there outside of Elysium, and things happen all the time.... If you want to, you can read the downtime news on what happened between January 15th and February 8th....

Session Two - The Soul of the Game:

Shortly after the gathering on January 15th, Sheryl Daniels of the Ventrue Clan began a discussion about having a Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday) party for the Kindred of St. Louis on February 8th, in one of the city's Elysiums. Unfortunately, as discussions were starting to shape up about the party, Ms. Daniels and Lionel Bradford of the Gangrel became embroiled in a minor scandal concerning the position of Greater Harpy, an office with the city that they were both striving to take. The scandal ended when Ms. Daniels left the city, having been summoned by her Sire to attend to him, leaving the Mardi Gras party in a state of limbo.

Around the same time, two of the city's Brujah -- Solomon Epstein and Mark Bateman -- got into a heated argument concerning discussions which had splintered off of Daniel's original Mardi Gras plans. The two Brujah were unable to immediately resolve their differences, and ended up deciding to have a duel of honor (with shotguns) at some point in the future.

This prompted Sheriff Willamina Fairbrooks of Clan Toreador to announce that the Mardi Gras party would indeed occur -- she, Keeper Bedavere and Seneschal Valorian would make arrangements for the party, and sometime during the evening's festivities (after a costume contest), the two Brujah would have their duel and settle their differences. Further, word had come out that Prince Robertson had rejected the Primogen Council that had tentatively been re-formed at the last gathering for one reason or another, so Kindred would need to meet to re-select potential Primogen.

So, eventually, on Tuesday, February 8th, the Kindred of St. Louis, including several Anarchs from East St. Louis, gathered at the Harrisburg Showcase Elysium (also known as the "Gallery Elysium") in order to celebrate Mardi Gras and eventually witness a duel between the two Brujah. Several Kindred were, in fact, placing bets on the eventual outcome of the duel, much to the amusement of all; Mary Aphra of the Nosferatu eventually stepped forward to act as the "house" for these bets. There were also a number of new Kindred present, most notably members of the Malkavian, Nosferatu and Ventrue clans; these Kindred met with their respective Clanmates and the Seneschal throughout the evening. Further, Ted Reynolds of the Tremere Clan brought a number of "throws" for the evening and distributed them, lecturing on the history of these items (and the fact that one need not display their breasts in order to receive them) throughout the evening.

In fact, as the evening progressed, various Clans met and talked among themselves, attempting to determine whom they desired to be their Primogen -- and hoping that Prince Robertson would approve of these new choices. The only major Clan meeting of note occurred among the Malkaivans, who had invited Mary Might (the Malkavian antitribu trapped in Elysium) to attend as well. While it is not entirely certain what occurred at this Clan meeting, it is widely believed that Might somehow affected a new Malkavian in town named Casper with her Dementation during the meeting. While Casper was mildly agitated by this turn of events, it was believed that he was not harmed in any meaningful way, and the evening progressed.

In fact, shortly after the various Clan meetings occurred and a Primogen of sorts was determined again, the Primogen had a brief meeting. It is not fully known what the potential Primogen discussed, but it believed that the did discuss the matter of selecting a new Greater Harpy for the city among other things. After the Primogen met, it was announced that the costume contest would begin, and Kindred were encouraged to present themselves for judgment upon their attire.

Before the contest could begin, however, a minor incident between the Keeper of Elysium and Kurt Libel of the Gangrel Clan occurred. The Keeper was attempting to explain the rules of the costume contest, but Libel claimed not to understand the rules and eventually frustrated the Keeper with his inability to comprehend. Keeper Bedavere ultimately asked two other Gangrel -- Hicks and Tyra Pelham -- to escort Libel out of Elysium. They did so, but unfortunately Libel got into a fight with his Clanmates outside of the Elysium, was staked and eventually taken away from the area.

A number of Kindred presented themselves in the costume contest, but eventually it was determined that Michael Szabo of the Toreador was the "best-dressed Kindred" that evening, and given a prize of a solid silver medal in the form of a skull and crossbones. With the contest over, matters turned to the duel between Bateman and Epstein, and the majority of the Kindred left the Elysium to go to the distant and out of the way park that Epstein had procured for the fight. Not all the Kindred went; a number stayed behind in the Elysium, including Casper, who had been growing increasingly more and more agitated since the Malkavian Clan meeting.

While Solomon Epstein and Mark Bateman dueled with shotguns in a park, several Kindred back at Elysium attempted to calm Casper down. As Epstein fell in the duel, ultimately being staked with a bayonet-mounted stake Bateman had on his shotgun, Casper became more agitated, eventually brutally attacking a mortal (a retainer of Mary Might) who had been slightly drugged and given to him in the hopes of calming him down. While the majority of the Kindred returned from observing the duel, Casper was staked and Mary's retainer returned to her.

It was shortly after people returned to the Elysium that the main gathering broke up and many of the Kindred of the city went their own ways for the evening.

Of course, this is only a brief overview events that transpired on February 8th, and it excludes a variety of minor details or small, personal events, focusing instead on generalities that everyone might know about. Still, people are talking about things that happened, hinting at things not mentioned above. The following summaries are considered to be in-character and you can assume that everyone will have heard these as well....

And, as always, there are things happening in the world outside of the proceedings mentioned above. The world doesn't just stop when the Kindred aren't meeting, after all.... If you so desire, feel free to read the downtime news on what happened between February 8th and March 5th and see what's going on....

Session Three - Only Immortal For a Limited Time:

On Saturday, March 5th, the majority of the Kindred of St. Louis gathered at the State Theater Elysium to discuss important matters in St. Louis, circulate, socialize and generally be together. There were a number of Kindred who did not attend the gathering -- most notably a large number of Anarchs and the two Sabbat (although, since the gathering was not held in the Gallery Elysium, they could not attend anyway). It was also believed that the Primogen Council, which Prince Robertson had formally ratified only a few days previously, would be meeting to discuss the matter of the Greater Harpy of St. Louis, and many Kindred wanted to be involved with that decision. Further, the Sheriff and Seneschal let it be known that they would be making some announcements that evening as well, so many people came by to hear what the powers that be had to tell.

The beginning of the evening went along with little incident; the Sheriff, Keeper and Seneschal had a variety of private meetings with assorted Kindred, the various Primogen met with their Clans, the Primogen met in a private meeting to discuss the matter of the Greater Harpy of the city among other things, and the bulk of those present at the nightclub generally hung out and entertained themselves, discussing matters of the day, such as the costumed vigilantes in East St. Louis or the triple-murder that had occurred the day before. While there were one or two minor occurrences before the formal announcements -- such as the appearance of a mortal lawyer at the nightclub looking for a specific person among the Kindred (although he lawyer was unable to find whomever he sought, and left without incident) -- noting of public significance came to pass before the Sheriff, Seneschal and Keeper asked people to meet.

As people began to gather in the private, Kindred-only portions of the VIP lounge at the State Theatre, the first thing most noticed was a cloth-covered form roughly in the center of the room, with a small table set up near it. No one took steps to investigate the object, primarily because the Sheriff was standing next to it, but there was some quiet speculation about what was going on. Eventually, when everyone was gathered in the room, Sheriff Fairbrooks began the announcements, drawing the cloth off the object and revealing the staked and immobile body of her Clanmate, Mikhael Romanov. Sheriff Fairbrooks quickly informed those present that, in the course of investigating some irregularities in Romanov's background, she had realized that Romanov was actually a member of the Sabbat and not a member of the Camarilla. When confronted with this, the Sheriff continued, Romanov first attempted to lie to her, but eventually admitted to this truth, also stating that he was trying to defect from the Sabbat and join the Camarilla.

The Sheriff stated that the situation concerning Romanov's past had been discussed by herself, the Seneschal, the Keeper and even the Prince, and in the end, Romanov was going to be formally Accepted into the Camarilla, albeit as a probationary member of the sect. Steps had been taken to ensure Romanov's fealty to the Camarilla, Sheriff Fairbrooks said, but in the process of the investigation, Romanov had indeed lied to her and that, simply put, he needed to be punished for lying. The Sheriff firmly stated that she could not tolerate being lied to, and that this punishment was being made public to also remind others that they should avoid lying in their dealings with her. At that point, Sheriff Fairbrooks asked Johan Liebert Von Wiennen to step forward, armed with his various surgical tools, and remove Romanov's tongue. Johan began the somewhat messy procedure while several of the more faint-hearted Kindred looked away or excused themselves from the room.

It was while Romanov's tongue was being surgically removed that an incident occurred in the club itself, and Keeper Bedavere received a call from his staff. It was quickly determined that a young child had run into the club, stating something about a car accident happening outside and asked for help. When help was not immediately forthcoming, the child ran into the club and Bedavere was called. The Keeper asked two Kindred -- Mark Bateman and Hicks -- to find the child, while he attended to matters and determined what was going on. It was eventually discovered that the child and his mother had been walking along outside the club when a drunk driver had hit the mother, potentially fatally injuring her. Of course, finding this out took some time, during which various people attempted to calm down the child who was growing more and more hysterical as his mother was dying. The moment Johan was done dealing with Romanov's tongue, he came out to attend to the mother as best he could while the police and ambulances, which had been summoned by several people, were on the way.

In the meantime, back in the State Theatre, after Romanov's tongue had been removed and Johan dispatched to deal with the accident, Seneschal Valorian had a few announcements concerning East St. Louis, the territory which had been ceded to the Anarchs back in 1996. Specifically, the Seneschal wanted to remind people that East St. Louis did belong to the Anarchs, and while there were obviously situations going on within that city with it's blatantly corrupt mayor and police force, the Camarilla of St. Louis were not to interfere with what was going on. The Seneschal also stated that he would be meeting with the Anarchs at a later date in order to talk about the situation in East St. Louis and see if there was any way that the Camarilla could assist in taking care of things.

After this, the Primogen announced that they had been discussing matters concerning the Greater Harpy of the city and had come to a few decisions but still wanted input from the city as a whole. Specifically, the Primogen wished there to be a vote of sorts concerning the Harpy -- not that the public would be directly selecting a Harpy for the city, but that the public vote would essentially feed into the Primogen's decision, similar to how the public vote determines the electoral college in presidential elections. The candidates were briefly mentioned and a quick vote occurred. With that done, the formal announcements were over and people went their own ways for a bit -- with quite a number of people going outside to see what was going on with the car accident.

Thankfully, the police and emergency medical technicians had arrived by that time and were taking care of the situation, so many of the Kindred meandered back inside to deal with other matters. The Primogen took advantage of this time to meet again to discuss the voting that had just taken place. After that meeting, an announcement went out that the Primogen had selected Lionel Bradford of the Gangrel to serve as the Greater Harpy of the city, and that Azrael Knight of the Nosferatu would serve as one of Lionel's lesser Harpies. A few other smaller meetings occurred, but breaking news shattered most people's plans for the rest of the evening.

It turned out that, in East St. Louis, a fire -- obviously arson -- had broken out in a local hospital. Several of the Anarchs who were present left the Elysium immediately to investigate what was happening; it turned out that the police had already identified the arsonist and had been attempting to locate him when several of the costumed vigilantes in East St. Louis became involved in the situation and apprehended the arsonist. Several of the Anarchs were also on the scene, and a car chase between the costumed vigilantes, the police and the Anarchs ensued, leading from East St. Louis into St. Louis itself and throughout a few of the suburbs of the city. A large number of Kindred left the State Theatre Elysium to deal with this situation; realizing that most people had stepped away to deal with the arson and subsequent car chase, most other Kindred decided to call the evening to an end and go their own separate ways, hoping that the arson incident would not cause any significant problems.

As always, this is a brief overview of the proceedings of that evening and does not touch upon assorted details or minor and personal events that are not widely known about -- it mainly focuses on the "common" knowledge of things. Of course, people are talking about situations that arose during the evening, touching on affairs only hinted at or glossed over above. The following comments from people are considered to be in-character; you will have heard these one way or another -- although there are more, private, summations out there that you'll only hear about if you talk with people....

Additionally, the world doesn't just stop when the Kindred aren't meeting -- there's always something happening, and who knows what might end up being important for the city. So, if you want to keep up with things, you might want to read the downtime news on what happened between March 5th and April 9th. After all, forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes....

Session Four - Living Inside The Shell:

On Saturday, April 9th, the Kindred of St. Louis gathered on board the Faded Rose Riverboat Casino, one of the city's few Elysiums. Relations among many of the Kindred, especially the Camarilla and the Anarchs, had been tense since the previous month, when several costumed vigilantes and Anarchs had gotten embroiled in a chase between the police and a suspected arsonist. While no one had been openly talking about the incident since March, it was widely believed that one of the main Anarchs in East St. Louis -- Joseph Kerr -- had not only been involved in the chase, but that he had been in the custody of Willamina Fairbrooks, the Sheriff of St. Louis, since then. No one was entirely certain if these matters had been resolved or were going to be resolved during the Seneschal's "office hours" this evening. Adding to the level of tension in the city was the fact that the Tremere Clan had a relatively important visitor that evening; Freida Hoffsdottyr, a Tremere of some power over St. Louis, despite the fact that she was from Kansas City. Additionally, some Kindred were unsettled by the selection of a meeting place on the water, and their tension and unease at being afloat for the evening further heightened the sensations of anxiety many people had about the evening. Finally, there were a handful of new Kindred in the city present at the gathering; the routine of introducing people to their clanmates and subsequent Clan meetings did ease the apprehensions felt by some people, thankfully.

The Sheriff, Keeper Bedavere, and Seneschal Valorian started off their evening by having a series of small, private meetings with a select number of Kindred; while the exact content of those meetings was never revealed, it was widely believed that they had something to do with attempting to root out the costumed vigilantes in the St. Louis area. Around the same time, various Clans had meetings among themselves, discussing matters of the day, introducing newly-arrived Kindred to St. Louis. The Tremere also showed Miss Hoffsdottyr around as well during this time. Somehow, a rumor began that the Brujah Primogen, Matthias Griffin, had become disenchanted with the Camarilla and was thinking of going independent. This piece of gossip spread quickly, causing many people to wonder just why Primogen Griffin was thinking of leaving the Camarilla, and how his departure would affect the stability of St. Louis. Of course, when Griffin heard of the rumors, he laughed it off, claiming that his desire to create an independent record label had been misunderstood, and that he had no intentions of leaving the Camarilla. While this particular story proved to be untrue, the anxiety it generated before being disproved made some people even more edgy than they had been previously. At the same time, while the members of the Camarilla were meeting on the Faded Rose Riverboat, a group of the Anarchs of East St. Louis, including two newly-arrived Anarchs, were having a meeting as well, discussing what to do about the rumors that Joseph Kerr was a costumed vigilante and the sudden deterioration in the relations between the Camarilla and the Anarchs.

Eventually, the Anarchs and a good deal of the Camarilla met to discuss matters concerning Joseph Kerr, the costumed vigilantes and the nature of Camarilla-Anarch relations in the St. Louis area. The Anarchs essentially refused to believe that Joseph Kerr was indeed a costumed vigilante (specifically the costumed vigilante who dressed like a Clown and was sought by the East St. Louis police); some even accused the Camarilla of kidnapping Kerr to set him up to take the fall for members of the Camarilla who really were the vigilantes. Neither the Camarilla nor the Anarchs were really able to see eye to eye on the issue -- harsh words were exchanged and tempers rose. Before events could reach a flash point and take a turn for the worse, Mary Aphra, the Primogen of the Nosferatu, stepped in to broker an agreement of sorts.

Selected members of the Anarchs were to be brought to where the body of Joseph Kerr was -- Kerr had unfortunately slipped into Torpor while in the custody of the Sheriff -- in order to awaken him and question him. Several officers of the Camarilla (including Primogen Aphra and Lionel Bradford, the Greater Harpy of St. Louis) also were on hand to observe the questioning of Kerr. Unfortunately, while John Trent had been exceptionally confident that his vitae would awaken Kerr, it turned out to be insufficiently powerful enough to rouse Kerr from his slumber, and Kerr was unable to be questioned. In the end, Joseph Kerr was turned over to the Anarchs, who were determined to wait until he could arise from his torpid slumber. Mary Aphra helped to arrange this exchange, essentially standing bond for Kerr, setting her personal honor at stake if the Anarchs were unable to produce Kerr in the future if the Sheriff, Keeper, Seneschal (or Prince) needed him. Seneschal Valorian also offered the Anarchs an amnesty of sorts regarding their costumed vigilantism, but none of the Anarchs apparently took the Seneschal up on his offer. The Seneschal and John Trent tentatively agreed to meet later to discuss how each Sect's plans for discovering the identities of the vigilantes and neutralizing their chaotic impact on the town were progressing.

In the meantime, other Kindred of St. Louis were not inactive, sitting around waiting for the Triumvirate (as many people have taken to calling the Keeper, Sheriff and Seneschal) and Anarchs to deal with Kerr. They were off doing things, taking care of business and settling matters on their own.

For instance, concerned about the illegal dumping of toxic chemicals in the McKinley Bridge region of town, a group of Gangrel and Nosferatu undertook some investigations on their own -- in addition to the ongoing EPA investigation into the situation. They did their best to track down the pipeline dumping the waste and determine what company was really using that pipeline, since the company who owned the pipeline -- a computer parts company named Pinaudine -- was not using that pipe at all. After a brief excursion or two to various chemical companies around town and a minor bit or two of breaking and entering, the Gangrel and Nosferatu managed to determine, to the best of their beliefs, the identity of the company actually dumping toxic chemicals. After an action designed to "scare straight" the CEO of that company, the Gangrel and Nosferatu retired back to the riverboat, playing games of chance and creating new variations on chess to amuse themselves.

Around the same time, a number of the Primogen of the City, lead by Evelein Aislin, the Malkavian Primogen, were having a meeting to discuss the recent treatment of Casper, her Clanmate, at the hands of the Keeper. It seemed that after Casper brutally attacked a mortal in Harrisburg Showcase Elysium back in February (after he was supposed agitated by Mary Might, the Malkavian Antitribu trapped in that Elysium) and was staked, the Keeper had deliberately blood-bound Casper to another Malkavian as part of his punishments for attacking Mary's retainer. Specifically, it appeared that Keeper Bedavere had fed Casper the blood of Douglas Mortimer, the Assistant Keeper of Elysium; needless to say, Primogen Aislin was not happy with this turn of events, and managed to express her displeasure to the other Primogen, Whips and Kindred who were gathered. It was rumored that the Primogen were willing to hold a vote of "no confidence" in the Keeper, but the situation never got to that point, especially after the Keeper came -- at the request of several of the Primogen and Whips -- to explain his view of the situation. This particular situation was never fully resolved before the end of the evening, unfortunately.

There was also a rumor going around that, during all of this, Harpy Bradford managed to spend some time with Ted Reynolds of the Tremere, and was naming him as one of his Assistant Harpies. No formal announcement was ever made to this affect, although Bradford and Reynolds did not deny the tale when asked about it.

In any case, shortly after the meeting about the matter between Casper and Keeper Bedavere ending, many of the Kindred, noting the late hour (and perhaps fearing the coming sun) left the Faded Rose Riverboat Casino and went their separate ways, settling down for the remainder of the evening.

Naturally, what's written above is only a select retelling of the events of the evening; it is essentially the common knowledge about what happened and does not expound upon minor events or personal dealings that the public would immediately know about. On the other hand, people are talking about things that happened that evening; the following comments from people are considered to be in-character (you will have heard these one way or another). Certainly, there are people out there talking about things privately -- but you'd have to specifically seek out that knowledge; it is not offered here....

And, logically, there are things going on in the world that don't explicitly involved the events of this evening mentioned above -- there's always something going on in the city, somewhere, and you never just know when something happens that might end up being critically important later. So, if you want to be "in the know," you might want to look into the downtime news on what happened between April 9th and May 14th. After all, it's always easier to figure out a course of action if you know where problems might be coming from, right?