a vampire post mortem

Nobody was *the* asshole. It was just inevitable. I planned the wrong game for the wrong group, planned a complex mystery and political intrigue for a group that needed simplicity, short sessions, and for the story to be over with sooner and the short sessions caused the game to take months and months and months so that when people's work schedules and relationship statuses inevitably changed, the game could not continue. 

TLDR: we're all poly and queer and the various break-ups and politics arguments that happened over the course of the year caused the group to break up. Also the short sessions required by two disabled players and people with unpredictable work schedules meant the original plan for the game got stretched longer than 13 sessions and the story didn't work. A mystery doesn't work if people don't remember details brought up 6 months ago that in game time happened 2 days ago.

 

Advent 3 – Night, December 14^th 2020 – Lights Out

Scene – Solasa and Damien

Despite the protestations of her beast, Solasa resists the urge to take advantage of Damien’s vulnerability to promote herself to 13^th generation Bruja. Damien briefs Solasa on what he knows. Before the incident with flopsy the clown, Damien what investigating the absence of Malenkov and did not trust the PCs, who botched the previous mission to give him a straight answer.

He was on the tail of a suspect Sabbat he remembered from the war of 1994, Scarletfang, an Aasimite and blood mage assassin. He was defeated in combat and left torpid.

 

The Day Crew – Monday Morning, eye burning light from the accursed day star, December 14^th 2020

“Ugh, what a night!” – we meet the PC’s herds/ghouls sweeping up from their master’s work. The masters have gone into topor in their respective sanctums. Solasa, the thin-blood is with them. She has the ability to function during the day albeit with some hardship.

Unlike Kindred, humans need actual food, breakfast, eggs, sausage, pancakes, bacon, and coffee. A group of ghouls comes to the door, the Uptown Brunch Club.

Our cast of characters

·         Solasa – Thin-blood, see above

·         Johnny Metal – groupie of Erin, also played by Alexandria, bit of a doofus. (weak mortal template)

·         Hank – ghoul of Barbara Anne, also played by Mollie (full character, ghoul)

·         Pissf*gg*t – human servant of Luna’s character, Faye, a washed out punk with pretentions of being a revolutionary artist. Played by Luna(weak mortal template)

The Uptown Brunch Club (all NPC)

·         Ingrid (Alan Sovereign), Camarilla

·         Karl Stott (Abraham DuSable), defacto independent

·         Francis (Anita Wainwright), Anarch

 

 

Advent 2 – Sunday, December 13^th 2020 – The Feast of the Dead

The next night, the group followed up on a clue from Malenkov and Flopsy about a cathedral in the loop. The cathedral just happened to be across the street from a power station. I do not know at all how power stations work so any fine details about their functioning is alien to me. Algernon had a note depicting a figure with black veins in its aura saying “we know” and a meeting but opted not to go to that meeting because of a time conflict with midnight mass at the cathedral.

Before going to the Cathedral, the group, along with Maldavis met with Abraham DuSable, a leader of the Tremere community who has been marginalized and isolated from the Camarilla. He is hiding out in a secret sanctum in the deep pedway, a maze of forgotten tunnels, disused storefronts, storerooms, closed CTA stations and utility tunnels. Here is his library.

DuSable was stubborn about supporting the anarchs, even as the Camarilla prince has abandoned him. He believes in the Camarilla cause and regards Prince Jackson’s recent turn towards paranoia, hostility towards the Tremere and will workers in general, and abuse as a temporary problem that will work itself out. Barbara and Erin make good cases that stir him but he was unwilling to fully commit right then.

Finally they investigate the cathedral. They speak with a suspicious cab driver they saw outside of Ray’s bar. He is evasive, appears to be fully immune to disciplines, only grinning when they try to read his aura or dominate him. “I’m just a driver. I don’t tell anyone where to go, you pick the destination. I don’t judge. I just drive you there every night.” Algernon sends his rat familiar to tail him and his car. Ultimately, the cab driver exists only to observe interesting events. He is neutral and encourages you to make choices. He’s just another vampire, on the path of humanity, existing through damnation like everyone else. He has no love for the sabbat and groans about “my ex-wife” and “idiot grand kids.”

Meanwhile, half the group is drawn to strange graffiti in the power station across the street from the cathedral. It seems to be some kind of blood magic. Barbara was investigating the inside of the cathedral. The blood magic had an unclear purpose but it damaged kindred who messed with the occult symbols. The other feature is that the shifting symbols seemed to be ticking down at a regular, shrinking interval with the rate indicating whatever was going to happen was going to happen at midnight on the following night.

Meanwhile, within the cathedral, there is potluck going on with a fairly mainline Catholic service. They speak of Father Matt O’Malley[1] as a nice guy.

At midnight, “all hell breaks loose” as the Cathedral and the nearby environs is partially transitioned to the shadowlands and ghosts are openly able to interact with the skinlands with no restrictions. The environment cycles between the two states with the ghosts being visible and tangible and invisible and selectively tangible. While the cathedral is in the shadowlands, it looks like the Silent Hill dark world. The ghosts mostly throw things and terrorize the parishioners who are horrified by the events.

One ghost is fixated on Algernon, he was a random mortal that Algernon killed during one of his murderhobo sprees for little benefit in The Sacrifice, come back to destroy the one who murdered him. Algernon is cornered and attacked by the ghost of his victim.

I don’t remember the blow by blow but the group is split between chasing Father O’malley who flees from a particularly angry ghost who calls him out by name, dealing with the witnesses and wiping the memories of the ones who they can find. Eventually they converge on the catacombs and find part of the sordid story. There are numerous partially eaten bodies down there and the ghosts are the ghosts of his victims. Not all of them know they are ghosts. Father Curio is dragged into a permanent portal to the shadowlands by victims of his cannibalism. The coterie does not stop this from happening and are not able to interview him and do not gain access to his remains.

The coterie turns towards fighting Father Curio, a sabbat necromancer who organized the whole thing, he seems to be influenced by the flies as well. Normally his foul sorcery cannot function in a Cathedral as it is a sacred place, the gauntlet strength is too high. Father O’Malley acting upon his cannibal fetish broke the gauntlet barriers. They fight, Curio loses the battle of attrition. The PCs find The Magician Card on his beat down body.

The cab driver pulls up in his cab, Algernon and Lindel get in the car, wave goodbye, and are not seen again.

The characters turn Father Curio in to the Camarilla and gain some degree of goodwill. They order their ghouls, retainers, and club staff to investigate the graffiti during the

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[1] I actually forgot what I named him tbh

Advent 1 – Saturday, December, 12th, 2020 – Crazy Clown Time

 

The Cast of Characters

Returning from the previous pre-COVID chronicle

·         Erin Atkins, Toreador. A night club owner. Played by Alex

·         Barbara Fullerton, Tremere, owns an art gallery, occult expert, seeks knowledge of necromancy. Played by Mollie

·         Algernon, Nosferatu, drunk dealer, runs a methlab underneath the nightclub. Committed diablerie on a random nobody during The Sacrifice. Played by Mykell

New Characters

·         Faye, Bruja, played by Luna. Hound, primarily interested in protecting the kindred and queer community first and foremost from all threats irrespective of politics. Played by Luna

·         Solasa, thin-blood, blood alchemy expert, played by Inara

·         Kira, Toredor, childe of Erin Atkinson, played by Riley

·         Windel, Bruja, engineer, Algernon’s friend. Wasn’t in the story that much tbh

·         A certain problem player who was retconned out of existence, was kicked out during session zero, and never actually appeared in the story.

Advent 1 – Saturday, December, 12^th, 2020 – Crazy Clown Time

Scene – a Clandestine Meeting at O’Toileys

Barbara was contacted by Maldavis for a clandestine meeting at O’Toileys, the greasy fast-food restaurant in the Magnificent Mile that gets little traffic with her coterie. Barbara rather than bringing her coterie alone opts to go alone bringing only Algernon with her. Maldavis implored Barbara to help her convince duSable to join the anarchs given that the Prince had been cracking down on the Tremere and the Tremere were being targeted by the second inquisition. The conversation was interrupted when a group of exploding clowns started attacking people at random in the middle of Magnificent Mile during the biggest shopping week of the year. Algernon and Barbara had to jump into action and downplay the impact of the attack on the masquerade and the people. Because the party was split, they were under prepared.

The horrifying spectacle of terror wound up on the news which the other PCs could see from the club. Maldavis chased the main perpetrator, the clown at the control board. Flopsy the clown, a malkavian had mass embraced some shovelheads, drove them into becoming wights, painted their faces with clown make up and sewn bombs into their frenzied bodies. Those clowns were now diving on terrified shoppers and exploding in an orgy of blood and gore.

Abraham duSable and his caitiff childe Maldavis

Scene – The Succubus Club

Alexa Santos arrives at the Sanctuary to invite them to the Succubus club for an emergency meeting, given what happened. The prince assured everyone that the hounds would be hunting down the Anarchs responsible, rebuffed suggestions that this was the Sabbat with an insistence that the Sabbat are extinct. Either Barbara or Algernon noticed there seem to be invisible flies in the area. Balthasar, the racist former sheriff suggests terrorism against the anarchs in retaliation for the masquerade breaches, uses this as an opportunity to stir up fear against the anarchs.

The prince met with the group privately along with his new ghoul Malcom and his Senechal Alan Sovereign. Curiously, Malcom seemed to be permitted to use electronic devices. The prince made it clear he is not a fool and he strongly suspect the coterie of anarch sympathies and still wants to know where Malenkov is, who they were tasked with delivering to him. He also demanded to know the location of sheriff Damien. They wound up sacrificing Sierra instead and banishing the Lasombra from the Camarilla. Sovereign used auspex to examine the aura of Algernon and said nothing.

Alan Sovereign

Prince Jackson

Malcom Morris

The Backstory

 

The Previous Chronicle – (Spoilers for The Sacrifice, adventure from Chicago by Night)

The Prince of Chicago, Kevin Jackson asked you to do a favor for him. He sent his sheriff Damienn with an assignment. Fundamentally all it came down to was picking up some people at the airport. There were a few problems with this though, namely that there were more than a few licks in Chicago that like to make trouble. You took care of those licks. One of them was a thin blood with an oddly large amount of influence over the airport of all things who goes by Flyboy. There was Nosferatu arsonist named Crook. Another was an obnoxious Bruja Edgelord named Genghis. You set his condo on fire for reason I don’t entirely remember and also got into a barfight. It was then you became involved in a greater game. The two people you picked up from O’Hare were emissaries from the Sabbat. In particular, they were members of clan Lasombra who wished to defect to the Camarilla.

One was a consummate professional and diplomat seeking peace, named Sierra you eventually killed her. The other was a scumbag, you would eventually spare him. What that scumbag Elder Malenkov did not know was that the plan of the ones who sent was for him to be ritualistically sacrificed as an offering to the Camarilla. Malenkov got away for a while, got up some mischief. You got attacked by some licks from Gary Indiana and Algernon diablerized one of them. You never solved the mystery of where the assailants came from but Algernon was able to determine that the one he diablerized was Malakavian and had memories that led him to Lakeshore mental hospital.

You did not follow up on that lead. You didn't see or do a follow up investigation on whatever Malenkov was up to while unaccounted for but the mischief but it was pretty mischievous. Eventually you were able to track him down to a brothel. He murdered most of the women who he rented the services of and decorated the walls of the bedroom with their entrails for no other reason than fun. He was able to manifest fairly high-level oblivion powers conjuring tendrils of shadow from nothing. You were able to subdue him.

You three were confronted by members of the anarchs who you were much more loyal to, including Anita Wainwright. Rather than bringing the Lasombra into the Camarilla which would not be in the interest of the anarchs as it would increase the number of Camarilla bootlicking kindred, they suggested you give the staked and torpid body of Malenkov to them. His elder blood is very useful. In addition to potential Diablerie, they could also use his elder blood to free defeated anarchs in torpor from torpor.

Erin, Barbara, and Algernon agreed to the exchange against the wishes of Sierra. [1]

They go to the meeting point where a bonfire is being prepared. Kevin Jackson and the Primogen are there. There is a debate about whether or not to welcome members of the Lasombra into to Camarilla. There was supposed to be a sacrifice but Malenkov is nowhere to be found (because our heroes gave him to the Anarchs) The heroes contrary to the canon outcome of the module actually persuade the Cam not to welcome Lasombra in the city an Lasombra are kill on sight.

Sierra is a Lasombra.

Sierra is sacrificed on the pyre at the suggestion of Erin.

Sierra, the peaceful diplomat meets her final death, and a message is sent back to the Sabbat defectors.

Malenkov’s torpid body is kept in Anarch custody at Rays Bar in East Chicago Indiana. Labyrinthine tunnels connect the bar with old disused factory buildings. The anarchics periodically dress up Malenkov in absurd costumes such as tacky Hawaiian shirts or in drag.

Intervening Events: They picked the wrong person to be a Shovelhead

A series of Masquerade breaching murders near the Tremere chantry tips you off to something very wrong on campus. Hunters were already involved. Some stuff I don’t remember very well happened and you were eventually drawn in to stopping a Latina grandmother from being abducted by fake INS agents. The woman was the grandmother of the alleged perpetrator of a brutal murder in a dorm where a young college student was dismembered. Despite her close ties with Little Village and humble lodgings. She is actually, not only quite well off, but a US citizen, and a major shareholder in a Spanish language radio, newspaper and television company. Why does she live where she lives? She’s very frugal and hardly buys anything despite her wealth. She also wants to maintain connections with the streets she came from.

COVID shut the game down here so here was what was *going* to probably happen.

You were able to track down a Lasombra neonate named Araceli Riviera who nobody told was a kindred. She was unaware that she needed blood. She sought help from her roommate from this unexplained sickness, fatigue, and burns from even indirect sunlight. Her hunger frenzy surfaced and she killed her roommates Liv and Eve.  Because Lasombra are kill on sight in the city, her cover is that she is a Caitif while in Chicago and the Anarchs have taken her in. She has connections with Spanish language media. Damien has demanded to know who her sire was but the Anarchs will not cooperate with his investigation.

Ominously she says she woke up in this undead state having dug herself out of a shallow grave in a park. The person who had kidnapped her and buried her alive got into some kind of confrontation and left the grave unattended and she got away. The park featured a strange wide hole in the ground but no other bodies.

Recent news

There has been an odd spike in disappearances around the city.

The Tremere Chantry on the campus of the University of Chicago was raided. Abraham duSable is missing and has been for months. He has been communicating with Barbara only through dead drops. Tremere in general are being snubbed and uninvited from events and Tremere havens have been getting raided. While the Kindred usually get away grimoires have been confiscated.

There has been a significant decrease in the number of homeless seen around the city and people are praising Lori Lightfoot’s leadership on the issue. The eviction rate has not gone down but there are also fewer people applying for low-income housing. Rumors among the remaining homeless are of horror stories of being picked up or preyed upon by monsters or dragged into vehicles in the night. Refugees have been getting snatched up as well.

The Cast of Characters

Returning from the previous pre-COVID chronicle

·         Erin Atkins, Toreador. A night club owner. Played by Alex

·         Barbara Fullerton, Tremere, owns an art gallery, occult expert, seeks knowledge of necromancy. Played by Mollie

·         Algernon, Nosferatu, drunk dealer, runs a methlab underneath the nightclub. Committed diablerie on a random nobody during The Sacrifice. Played by Mykell

New Characters

·         Faye, Bruja, played by Luna. Hound, primarily interested in protecting the kindred and queer community first and foremost from all threats irrespective of politics. Played by Luna

·         Solasa, thin-blood, blood alchemy expert, played by Inara

·         Kira, Toredor, childe of Erin Atkinson, played by Riley

·         Windel, Bruja, engineer, Algernon’s friend. Wasn’t in the story that much tbh

·         A certain problem player who was retconned out of existence, was kicked out during session zero, and never actually appeared in the story.

Chronicle: Advent Of Blood

Damien has gone missing. He was investigating potential breaches of the masquerade and was on to something big. He knew that Malenkov was still alive out there and wanted to track down where the anarchs were keeping him. A Banu Hakim named Scarletfang (living name is forgotten but it was Hassan Yousef) sent him some messages through media contacts baiting him with the location of Malenkov. Ambushed him and Damien was up until recently, in Sabbat custody, staked.

The city over the course of 2020 has been plagued with disappearances since March, 2020. An all-human doomsday cult called the Obliviates unleashed a chemical attack at Jackson station during rush hour before a mass suicide. 2020 has been a rough year since many people voluntarily staying home out of fear. Missing posters line the walls all over the city and mortal police forces have been activated since the spike in disappearances. There are routine checkpoints on the CTA and random searches.

In his most recent Elysium, Prince Jackson has reiterated and made it known that no further embraces are to occur as “interested parties” are looking in to the troubles and emphasized everyone is to stay out of the way. The Kindred of Chicago were just as baffled by the cult attack as anyone else, as no Camarilla or Anarch had any connection to the Obliviates. Nevertheless, Prince Jackson has pointed fingers at both the Tremere and Anarchs, with the latter being accused of embracing poachers and the former being accused of spreading occult knowledge.

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[1] Divergent Timeline – The module as written was steering the PCs towards siding with the Cam with the assumed ending being that the Lasombra join the Cam.