nigga start postin already

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File: 1392189951124.pdf-(1.94 MB, PDF, Chicago Unmasqued setting.pdf)

1.94 MB PDF

We start off with a little document containing setting info. This is not meant to be read from beginning to end but it's a reference document detailing all the npc's, locations and also some oc stuff like forewords from players and the storyteller.
You can use this to investigate some of the npc's we will meet in the story that you find interesting and want to know more about.

FOR FUCK'S SAKE OP POST THE GODDAMB STORY ALREADY

Prologue: The affinity

The Preludes
At the start of the chronicle, the players were invited to
create their mortal characters as they saw fit. They were
allowed the right to veto certain clans and bring some
guidance into what would become their prelude to an
Embrace, but ultimately they were not sure what clan or
sire awaited them.
The storyteller wrote out five possible Embraces
beforehand and matched them up with the characters
once they were presented. These Embraces were not so
much played through, but discussed in an immersive way.
Each of them started a private plotline and all of them
together provided great diversity for a starting coterie.

Albino: The Black Hand's Pawn
A Sabbat Malkavian sire whose paranoia knows no
bounds has an agenda of his own. It is his intention to
sire a childe to become a double agent in the Camarilla,
but cannot trust a childe enough to actually tell him of
the sects. He therefore Embraces someone according to
Sabbat tradition before sending him off to Chicago to
uncover what is going on there without a word of the
Sabbat’s existence or goals. He gives a bit of Chicago’s
history and endears the character to settle there.
Later this character might recognize the method of
his Embrace with Vitch Varga’s tale, but little more than
that. The Chicago Sabbat are unaware of the character. The
character can however perform Dementation, contrary to
all Camarilla Malkavians at this point in time.

(Sidebars will be greentexted even though shitty OP can't greentext)

>Introducing: Albino
>This character was played, unfortunately, by someone who >left the game after only the first few sessions. Despite this, >Albino is essential to the story to come and his actions and >associations will reverberate far beyond the prologue.
>His nickname derives from his stark-white hair, long and >uncombed. He wears fingerless gloves and many layers of >clothing, enough to give the impression of being a drifter. >Contrastingly, a pair of leather cowboy boots adorn his feet. >He’s generally untrusting and silent and deals drugs in the >street for a living. Also, Albino’s not above dipping into his >own wares.

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Brian Parker: The Tentative Reach
A Kindred from another city has been preparing for
his departure to go to Chicago, but not before collecting
on a debt of the Prince to sire. The sire sends his childe
ahead to Chicago to make his introductions to Lodin
before coming later himself. What’s more, the character is
to make a full report of the situation in Chicago, so his sire
may come prepared.
The sire’s name is Marvin O’Leigh and he drinks solely
from the type of good housewife he beat as a mortal.
Brian Milov Parker
Player: Mark
Clan: Ventrue, Generation: 11th, Nature: Competitor, Demeanor: Judge
Strength ●○○○○
Dexterity ●●●○○
Stamina ●●○○○
Alertness ●○○○○
Athletics ○○○○○
Brawl ○○○○○
Dodge ○○○○○
Empathy ●●●○○
Expression ●○○○○
Intimidation ●●●○○
Leadership ●○○○○
Streetwise ●○○○○
Subterfuge ●●●○○
Charisma ●●●○○
Manipulation ●●●●●
Appearance ●●○○○
Animal Ken ○○○○○
Crafts ○○○○○
Drive ●●●○○
Etiquette ●●○○○
Firearms ○○○○○
Melee ○○○○○
Performance ○○○○○
Security ○○○○○
Stealth ○○○○○
Survival ○○○○○
Perception ●●○○○
Intelligence ●●●○○
Wits ●●○○○
Academics ●●●○○
Computer ○○○○○
Finance ○○○○○
Investigation ●○○○○
Law ○○○○○
Linguistics ●○○○○
Medicine ○○○○○
Occult ●○○○○
Politics ●●○○○
Science ○○○○○

Specialties: Manipulation (lying, fast-talk)
Disciplines: Presence ●●●, Dominate ●
Backgrounds: Generation ●●, Herd ●●, Mentor ●●, Resources ●●, Retainers (Al) ●●
Virtues: Conscience ●●, Self-Control ●●●, Courage ●●
Humanity ●●●●● ●●, Willpower ●●●●●

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>>30183935

Brian spent his early years in Trenton, New Jersey. He was raised by parents who spent more time fighting with each other than they did raising Brian. Brian learned to stand on his own two feet from a very early age. He was raised among many ethnicities; all of whom he could get along with adequately. Most of the children didn’t understand Brian and were afraid of him, however. One child tried to make fun of Brian once, something Brian can remember from his early childhood all too well. It never happened again after the child found maggots in his lunch.
Brian was a single child; he was actually a mistake. At the age of five, Brian’s parents got divorced, after which he lived with his mother. Until the age of eight, Brian lived there happily. After that, his mother started drinking abusively. He was placed back with his father, who had never been too fond of his ‘mistake’. Brian often got beaten by his father, calling him the “Spawn of Satan come forth from the demon Lilith.”
At the age of eleven, Brian became overly angry with his father after the beatings increased. One day, he decided to revert some of the fear to his father with a prank. He loosened the screws on the stuffed deer’s head that hung above his father’s chair. As soon as his father sat down, the deer’s head tumbled and fell on right on his head. Unfortunately, Brian’s prank went bloody well. When Brian’s father did not respond anymore, he called for an ambulance. By the time they arrived, the man was already dead.

Things were looking up for Brian. He was going to live the American Dream and do it so much better than his parents did. But, things changed. When Brian finished his studies, he had a hard time finding a job. Also, Brian’s wife was diagnosed the muscular disease ALS and became rapidly less mobile. To make matter worse, Brian’s mother died around the same time. Eleanora and he had to move to his mother’s old house in Trenton as they could not afford to live anywhere else. Brian took a job as a cab driver in order to put food on the table. To distract himself from the growing misery around him, Brian started seeing a woman on the side. The affair with a schoolteacher twisted him up, but not enough to stop.
Appearance: middle aged man, white with a hint of Afro-American heritage, curly hair, dressed in suit with an amiable expression, though it is very hard to read Brian’s true emotions.
Feeding habits: Brian drinks exclusively from elementary school teachers, preferably women. After his Embrace, his sire forced him to drink his own wife dry to sever all ties with his mortal life. While Brian did kill his wife, the blood he longed for was that of his mistress, the school teacher.
Havens: Fisher building luxury apartment.

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>>30183994
(I have to admit that this is my first time really contributing anything to /tg/ which was about time after years of lurking)

Evan Jackson: The Firecast Elder
A low-generation vampire introduces himself only shortly after ripping the character from his mortal life. The elder, named Magnus, intends to throw himself into the fire and asks the character to deliver his ashes to a ‘young Kindred’ named Lodin, ‘a Norwegian’, in Chicago, so that he in turn may deliver the elder’s remains to his ‘sister’, Eletria. The elder briefly explains the vampiric condition and invites the character to explore it as he has, until the world holds nothing left to be found. Then he leaps into a bonfire of old texts and furniture.
The character is left a 7th generation Caitiff, with a subplot to discover his true Toreador lineage through
Lodin and his history in Mexico. This may tie in with keeping Lodin alive later, as he is aware of the facts, or digging deep in a history he doesn’t wish revealed, or seeking Thaumaturgical help, or any number of other ways. The character has effectively spent all Background points in Generation and has spent six more freebie points on a sixth dot in it.

>Sidebar: Two Notes Worth Making
>This Embrace was a testament to the Anne Rice novels as well as one hell of a way to start your very first game of Vampire: the Masquerade. Unlike the other players, Ria was new to this World of Darkness. To give the player a bit of a boost in play, she was given a character that would be prominent by definition. It had its risks, but it worked out excellently.

Introducing: Evan Jackson
Player: Ria
Clan: Caitiff, Generation: 7th, Nature: Martyr, Demeanor: Conformist
Strength ●●●●○
Dexterity ●●○○○
Stamina ●○○○○
Alertness ●●●○○
Athletics ●●○○○
Brawl ●○○○○
Dodge ●○○○○
Empathy ●●●○○
Expression ●●●○○
Intimidation ○○○○○
Leadership ○○○○○
Streetwise ○○○○○
Subterfuge ○○○○○
Charisma ●●●○○
Manipulation ●●●○○
Appearance ●●○○○
Animal Ken ●●○○○
Crafts ●●●○○
Drive ○○○○○
Etiquette ●●○○○
Firearms ○○○○○
Melee ●○○○○
Performance ●○○○○
Security ○○○○○
Stealth ○○○○○
Survival ○○○○○
Perception ●●●●○
Intelligence ●●●○○
Wits ●●●○○
Academics ○○○○○
Computer ○○○○○
Finance ●○○○○
Investigation ○○○○○
Law ○○○○○
Linguistics ○○○○○
Medicine ○○○○○
Occult ●●○○○
Politics ●○○○○
Science ●○○○○

Background
As a mortal, Evan lived in New York. His career was his life and his colleagues were his friends. A below-the-line camera assistant of horror B-films, he worked long hours and was paid barely enough to pay the rent. His job was making sure the actors were always in focus, adjusting the depth of field, guessing the distance. Evan had studied a field broader than that, though. He had gone to the New York University to study filmmaking in general, figuring that if he worked on other people’s projects now, someday they might work on his.
The thing Evan always craved was to be part of a team. He found this in film crews, mostly. As a real team player he sacrificed a lot for the gain of others. Outside of work, this cost him many a friend, relationship, and at one time even the annual Christmas dinner with his loving parents.
Appearance: doesn’t stand out in a crowd, blends in, usually wears dark, comfortable clothing, hooded sweaters and jogging pants, short blond hair, a young face, average height and a strong build.
Feeding habits: At this point, Evan is quite reckless in feeding. After a dramatic Masquerade violation involving a car chase and driving of a bridge Evan decides it will be best to stick to feeding off prostitutes.
Havens: Even after a few nights in Chicago, Evan does not have haven of his own yet. His havens are always just the most convenient ones for the moment. He has no real preference and so never chooses a location for himself.

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Lanzo Orsini: The Private Eyed
Working in Boston as a private eye, this character is exposed to a case where a paranoid individual, himself a victim of clear mental deficiencies, suspects being stalked at night. The client is a potential childe as selected by a deranged vampire (Mycroft). In this endeavor, however, the roles are reversed and the character is deemed more suitable as childe.
The childe is then offered the great mystery, the greatest case of his life: the mystery of Chicago. Lanzo is sent there to investigate the matter while the true identity of his mysterious sire is left yet another mystery.

Introducing: Lanzo Orsini
Player: Stef
Clan: Caitiff, Generation: 8th, Nature: Director, Demeanor: JudgeStrength ●○○○○
Dexterity ●●●○○
Stamina ●●○○○
Alertness ●●○○○
Athletics ●○○○○
Brawl ●○○○○
Dodge ○○○○○
Empathy ●●○○○
Expression ●●○○○
Intimidation ●○○○○
Leadership ○○○○○
Streetwise ●○○○○
Subterfuge ●●●○○
Charisma ●●●○○
Manipulation ●●●○○
Appearance ●●○○○
Animal Ken ○○○○○
Crafts ○○○○○
Drive ○○○○○
Etiquette ○○○○○
Firearms ○○○○○
Melee ○○○○○
Performance ○○○○○
Security ●○○○○
Stealth ●●●○○
Survival ●○○○○
Perception ●●●●○
Intelligence ●●●●○
Wits ●●○○○
Academics ●●○○○
Computer ○○○○○
Finance ○○○○○
Investigation ●●○○○
Law ●●○○○
Linguistics ●○○○○
Medicine ○○○○○
Occult ●●○○○
Politics ○○○○○
Science ○○○○○

Specialties: Perception (attentive), Intelligence (book knowledge)
Disciplines: Auspex ●●, Dominate ●
Backgrounds: Allies (police, lawyer) ●●, Contacts (librarian, mobster, city hall) ●●●, Generation ●●●●●, Mentor ●●, Resources ●●, Retainers (Ennio) ●
Virtues: Conscience ●●●, Self-Control ●●●, Courage ●●●●
Humanity ●●●●● ●, Willpower ●●●●● ●●●
Merits & Flaws: Acute Hearing, Acute Vision, Cast No Reflection, Stigmata
Derangements: Synesthesia
Background
Lanzo (full name ‘Lazzaro Vittere Orsini de Avezzanesi’), was raised by strict Catholics in the old country. To his parents’ frustration, he questioned everything around him. Despite his rebellion, he always strove to become a good man. As a child, he suffered from terrible asthma and allergies, often to the point of hospitalization.
Following an earthquake, his family moved from Italy to America, where Lanzo thrived in new opportunities. Eventually, he managed to start his own business in Boston as a private eye, which he has not given up since his Embrace.
Appearance: looks unconfident, with a slight color to his skin, black hair cut short, average dresser, wears collared overcoats and a round hat.
Feeding habits: Lanzo prefers to remain unseen while he feeds, often shadowing people walking out alone. He is not picky about his victims.
Havens: His private haven is a small, bare studio. Lanzo keeps the place to himself and receives visitors at his office two blocks down. The office holds enough room for his cousin to stay in and features file cabinets, plenty of workspace, and a computer. The place is decorated in the styles Lanzo knew from his home town.

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Jim Antwiler: The Brothel's Scion
In his endeavors with City Hall’s plans for public transportation in Arlington Heights, this character is faced with the attentions of Madame Zharinsky and Gordon Keaton. The character frequented the place while his sire and grandsire’s endeavors unfurled and was eventually Embraced by Zharinsky out of loneliness. Keaton disapproved, however, and dictated they may exchange no more than five words at a time. Events may conspire in this vicious triangle to push one of three away. Which that is will be up to Jim.

Introducing: Jim Antwiler
Player: Minkers
Clan: Caitiff, Generation: 13th, Nature: Rogue, Demeanor: Director
Strength ●●○○○
Dexterity ●●○○○
Stamina ●●○○○
Alertness ○○○○○
Athletics ○○○○○
Brawl ○○○○○
Dodge ○○○○○
Empathy ●●○○○
Expression ●●●○○
Intimidation ○○○○○
Leadership ●●●○○
Streetwise ●●●○○
Subterfuge ●●●○○
Charisma ●●●●○
Manipulation ●●●●○
Appearance ●●○○○
Animal Ken ○○○○○
Crafts ○○○○○
Drive ○○○○○
Etiquette ●●○○○
Firearms ○○○○○
Melee ○○○○○
Performance ○○○○○
Security ○○○○○
Stealth ●●○○○
Survival ○○○○○
Perception ●●○○○
Intelligence ●●○○○
Wits ●●●○○
Academics ●●○○○
Computer ●○○○○
Finance ●●●○○
Investigation ○○○○○
Law ●○○○○
Linguistics ○○○○○
Medicine ○○○○○
Occult ○○○○○
Politics ●●○○○
Science ○○○○○

Specialties: Charisma (criminals), Manipulation (criminals)
Disciplines: Dominate ●●●
Backgrounds: Allies ●●, Contacts (city planning, police) ●●, Influence (high society) ●●, Mentor ●, Resources ●●●●, Retainers (Rajiv, Daren) ●●
Virtues: Conscience ●●, Self-Control ●●●●, Courage ●●
Humanity ●●●●● ●, Willpower ●●
Background
Jim Antwiler acquired immense wealth in his mortal years. He owes this success mainly to his knowledge of finance and numbers, his persuasive and leadership skills, and having a keen eye for risks and potential gain. A decade ago Jim held a minor position in Chicago´s city council while trying to get his advertisement agency up and running. It did not take long before Antwiler´s considerable talent for influence and advertisement along with his knack for business and creative bookkeeping spiraled his company through the roof. Eventually, he resigned his seat at the council to focus on his company: A for Advertising.
A for Advertising now holds seven employees who see Antwiler as a kind soul. A portion of Jim’s success lies with his power to motivate his working staff and having the recourses to reward them accordingly.
Jim made sure that his Embrace did not affect his company. He hosted a company party announcing to his workers that he would retreat from the day-to-day activities within the company due to advanced skin cancer. He left most of his company in the capable hands of Rajiv Narayen, a young upstart for whom Jim has high hopes.
Appearance: 41 years old, age clearly shows on his, wrinkles started early, prominent moustache and some light stubble, fresh fashion sense, dresses to the occasion.

Feeding habits: As Jim would say, it’s all about getting close to the neck. After that, the Kiss comes easy. A little deception goes a long way in that regard. Jim usually deceives his prey by pretending to have a sore throat, talking in hoarse whispers, usually asking polite questions, the way to a restaurant for example. The prey tends to close in in order to hear the barely audible pleas. They usually don’t remember what the question was.
Havens: Several appartments spread throughout the city.


>(OP here. now that we have the main cast introduced we can dive right into the story)

13th February 1991
Of the flights entering Chicago this night, one arrives from St. Louis. The unforeseen cancellation of direct flights to O’Hare from places like Boston and New York City ensure that this particular airplane is packed with people making use of the changeover. Tyler has orchestrated these flights to concentrate into a single plane, on a single night, after learning of a particular group of new arrivals booking their tickets—neonates on their way to Chicago, the characters.
Jim Antwiler, although he is a resident in Chicago, has taken a trip out of and back into Chicago, returning home tonight, to avoid suspicions of an Embrace within the city. Evan Jackson arrives from New York City—a city unwelcoming to Camarilla Kindred, even if he is as of yet unaware of what that even means—following clear instructions from his sire. Brian Parker, similarly instructed, yet with very different intentions, arrives from Trenton, New Jersey on behalf of his sire. Lanzo Orsini, whose retainer has stayed behind for now, arrives from Boston, with the intent of moving his business here.
All four neonates are aboard the same plane. When they land in O’Hare, they find themselves singled out and are taken to an interrogation room guarded by armed security officers. Tyler has planned for the characters to arrive in this fashion, to use as a ploy against Lodin. The characters pick up glimpses of a Primogen meeting over an intercom before realizing how they’ve been used. When their link to the Primogen meeting is cut off, the characters are told they are free to go. Within two nights, they are to present themselves to the Prince in an official capacity.

>Over the Intercom
>Lodin: “I assure you all, my grasp in this city is secure. It needs none of your aid or intrusion.”
>Tyler: “Is that so?”
>Lodin: “Yes, Tyler, now sit down.”
>Tyler: “I’ll do no such thing! Here, I reveal to the Primogen precisely how the Prince’s grasp on foreign policy has waned.”
>(…)
>Tyler: “Well? State your names.”
>(…)
>Tyler: “Now, Lodin, do you mean to tell us you were aware of no less than four Kindred immi-grants?”
>(…)
>Lodin: “What a show you have made again, Tyler. Surely your monopoly of O’Hare does not give you the right to demand this of me.”
>Nicolai: “All this shows, my Prince, is another facet that is beyond your control. Surely, you would not refuse the >Primogen’s help? That is all Tyler asks.”
>Critias: “Consider this, Lodin. It is man’s prerogative to rely on his own devices before relying on those of others that these schemers would intend to remove from under you—the very pillars they place you on. Fall not to the woman’s nagging, I say.”
>Tyler: “You pedophilic old—”
>Inyanga: “Hush, child, and sit down.”
>Annabelle: “Well, I certainly agree avec Nicolais. Vous avez tous oublié Maria est toujours porté dis-paru?”
>Nicolai: “Yes! With a better sense of what goes on in and out of Chicago, this may never have happened. One of our own eldest, my Prince!”
>Lodin: “I’ll take it under consideration as soon as someone turns that damn microphone off!”

Outside, the characters hail a cab together, 215 Yellow Taxi, whose driver, Alfrede, has listened in on many a Kindred conversation before. He lets it slip that he might know what the characters are talking about.(In truth he is an old Anarch ghoul) Alfrede becomes a regular means of transportation for the characters.
The characters decide to find havens. Antwiler, being a local, suggests they try the abandoned Farwell Building up in Streeterville, near where he lives himself. The characters scout out the building and agree it looks abandoned. Lanzo decides to climb the building next to it for a better look. Through the windows, he perceives bright fire immolating everything within the building. No sooner than he goes up, he returns in a state of panic of what he saw within. Jim Antwiler then invites everyone over to his apartment, where they may spend the day.

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in the South Loop. Morris’ usual charm is later exercised on the other characters as well, as he finds the neonates.2
Morris also finds a man called Vitch and a girl calling herself Medusa wandering the night-time streets. This kind stranger arranges a meeting of all these neonates of Chicago. They all meet in Nancy O’Shaenies Pub in the South Loop and share their stories.
Morris unites all the neonates present as the ‘Class of ‘91’ while everyone confides as much as they dare. It comes up in conversation that the characters are to meet the Prince the next night. Vitch stays with Antwiler for now, after explaining he was sleeping in a grave.

>>30184544
>(Shit I fucked up there. This should be)
14th February 1991
† Settling In, Our Best Friend is a Witch
After everyone rises, Jim Antwiler makes a phone call to Madame’s brothel, arranging a feast for the others. Afterward, everyone decides to get their affairs in order. For one, Lanzo Orsini’s cousin and retainer, Ennio, arrives by plane and they set up their business in the Loop. Similarly, the others scout out apartments.
Simultaneously, Albino has crossed the Canadian border and arrives in Chicago this very night. The first other vampire he meets is Morris Daighnae, who comes up to him disarmingly while Albino is trying to deal drugs in the South Loop. Morris’ usual charm is later exercised on the other characters as well, as he finds the neonates.2
Morris also finds a man called Vitch and a girl calling herself Medusa wandering the night-time streets. This kind stranger arranges a meeting of all these neonates of Chicago. They all meet in Nancy O’Shaenies Pub in the South Loop and share their stories.
Morris unites all the neonates present as the ‘Class of ‘91’ while everyone confides as much as they dare. It comes up in conversation that the characters are to meet the Prince the next night. Vitch stays with Antwiler for now, after explaining he was sleeping in a grave.

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15th February 1991
† First Elysium
The eight neonates meet the Prince of Chicago, Lodin, in their first Elysium. They report to him in the Prudential Building, on the 34th floor. When they meet the Prince, he is flanked by two of his childer: Ballard and Neally. Neally seems to act as Lodin’s secretary while Ballard scowls and seems to interrogate the characters without saying a word.
One by one, the neonates are to tell their story. Albino, Jim, Evan, and Vitch are deemed to be Caitiff and shunned for it. Lies are spotted by Ballard and communicated to Lodin by his heavy fingers tapping on the desk. Only one lie passes through their sights, when Antwiler admits he was Embraced in Chicago, but tells them it was Keaton who did it, not Gibbs. A Blood Hunt will be called on Keaton.(Gordon Keaton’s scheming with Anarchs of Gary made it so that Lodin was looking for an excuse to call a Blood Hunt on him. )
Evan also relays his sire’s message for Lodin. Surprised, Lodin in turn confirms he knows Eletria and that if Evan proves loyal to the Prince, he will be able to tell Evan of his lineage. He forbids Evan to consort with the other elders of the city in exchange for this.
The neonates are threatened and it is clear they all walk on thin ice. They have yet to earn their right to remain in the city. They are dictated Lodin’s laws, among them the ban on harming tourists. After the meeting, the characters return to the pub with Morris and converse amiably once more.

>Lodin's Laws
>“I have but five laws in my city. As long as you obey them strictly, I shall not harm you. Heed these words and do not attempt to disobey my laws. I am a fair and even-tempered Prince, but I warn you: do not cross me.”
>I. None in my city shall kill and leave behind evidence of their feasting. If your slaying shall cause an investigation among the police, or worse, among the press, then I shall track you down and extinguish you—or if others speak for you, exile you. You must lick all wounds and dispose of those you kill. I hold the Traditions in high regard and do not take such violations of the Masquerade lightly.
>II. Do not harm travelers to this city, for its wealth is based upon it being the center of commerce and travel. You may feed from such, but do not leave any evidence of your feast. You should not test me in this, for these folk are the basis of the wealth of my realm.
>III. Have nothing to do with any of those among the press. They are to be strictly ignored. They are my domain. Neither should you attempt to create contacts or retainers among the police of this city. They are my domain as well.
>IV. Keep the sanctity of Elysium, for that is our place of rest and recreation. No act of violence or struggle shall be tolerated. You may attend my court here, as all in my city are free to do, but you must not carry your conflicts into the sanctity of its ground.
>V. Do not hold commerce with my enemies or those who seek to usurp my rightful authority. I shall repay treachery with treachery and rebellion with iron might. Let me caution you: I know all that happens within my realm. Do not think you can keep secrets from me.
>From Chicago by Night, edited

16th February 1991
† Our Best Friend is a Witch
From the moment they step out into the night after rising, the characters notice the city is hosting many railway-themed events. The Class of ’91 meets in the pub again. They start to carve out plans and make arrangements among themselves. Albino offers Vitch drugs, to be taken from a mortal’s vein after it takes them. Morris bluntly offers to teach the characters Thaumaturgy. Lanzo, in particular is interested. Morris promises to swipe some books tomorrow night.
Lanzo calls his sire from a payphone to seek his advice. Mycroft suggests the neonates try to contact the Toreador of the city, as they provide the least hostile connection to Kindred society.
Albino is confronted with more signs of the Sabbat. In addition, his attempts at dealing drugs in Chicago have not gone unnoticed by mortal gangs, Anarch competitors, not to mention Capone and Jackson.
Brian Parker writes to his sire with an account of the occurrences so far. The letter and his sire’s response take some nights in transit.
When Antwiler returns to Arlington Heights, Madame is overjoyed at feeling her Blood Bond with Keaton is suddenly lifted. Keaton must be dead.

>Brian's Letter
>Dear Marvin,
>I have safely arrived in Chicago. Yet, there were many disturbances.
>At the airport a SWAT team waited for me and three other Kindred. We were taken to a separate room, where we could hear the Prince and the Primogen talking through an intercom system. I could not clearly understand who was who, or what they were exactly talking about, but it was peculiar that a Kindred with a child’s voice seemed to have so much power.
>After we were released, one of these fellow Kindred knew a place we could use as a haven. All of us are neonates. We arrived at an abandoned apartment building. One of them, this man with an Italian accent, found an entry point. He quickly came back down however, claiming there was a fire. At first, I suspected a traitor in our midst and turned my anger on the one who led us here. He was unimpressed, but offered to let us stay in his haven, the penthouse floor of a building nearby. He told us that we were welcome as long as we respected his privacy. In the end, I agreed with this man.
>All these fellow neonates are very peculiar. Our host said he only recently came to Chicago, having been Embraced elsewhere. He doesn’t known his own clan and neither do the other two. The one I haven’t mentioned yet, every word he says seems regal and commanding, as imposing as a train going by. Despite this, he is also Caitiff. Worse, he doesn’t know a thing about the Camarilla! He told us his sire leaped into the flames after ordering him to bring the ashes to someone here in Chicago. I think he is meant to give them to the Prince himself.

wow buncha caitiffs

>After our first night here, the Italian told us he’d had a dream. In this vision, the imposing one was supposedly of half our host’s generation. If this is true, then who was his sire? The Italian is a weird one, though. I distrust his claim to be clanless. We checked on the building again and there was no sign of fire damage. Maybe he is a Malkavian?
>Quite some odd things to happen on a first night, right? The coming time I will focus first on settling down in the city. I hope the teachers are nice here.
>Yours sincerely,
>Brian Milov Parker

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>>30184686
(as explained earlier. we thought it would be cool if the players didn't decide the nature of their embraces as the embrace is usually beyond the fledgelings control)

17th February 1991
† Our Best Friend is a Witch
‡ Annabelle’s Party
The neonates meet as usual in O’Shaenies, where Morris has for them his Thaumaturgical tome. It contains all first level rituals of Thaumaturgy. Unfortunately, there is no possible way, try as Morris might, for the characters to reproduce these until they have a basic grasp of Thaumaturgy. Morris promises to try stealing a different tome and it is left for another night.
It becomes apparent this night that Vitch and Medusa are becoming close, and that Vitch has returned to sleeping in his grave. Vitch also displays less gout through the blood, as he claims. Speaking of the Toreador, they decide to visit a local gallery. The hype of railroads still courses through Chicago, and the gallery they visit is holding an exhibition on railway art.
There, they meet a selection of Annabelle’s party elite: Annabelle, Bret, Sophia, and Garwood. Morris acts up in trying desperately to stay out of sight after Garwood Marshall makes an appearance. Eventually, some of the characters manage to exchange words with the Toreador. They learn of the Succubus Club. Evan, who is approached by Annabelle herself, is given an invitation to a private party the following night. He is allowed to bring one guest.

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18th February 1991
† Media Repercussions
‡ Annabelle’s Party
The characters plus Morris head over to the Succubus Club. At the door, Jim befriends Rex, the bouncer of the Succubus Club. Evan decides to bring Brian along as his allowed guest to Annabelle’s Party. While Jim and Lanzo are still downstairs, Morris hooks up with Liz Schumpeter. Later, Jim and Lanzo try to talk their way in as well. Brennon Thornhill is courteous to them, and let them come up with him.
At the party, Evan is singled out to meet some of the elders of the city (Nicolai and Critias in particular) while Annabelle does her best to divert Brian away from them. Brian is left to befriend, among others, Bobby Weatherbottom, a childe of Lodin, who speaks of having a purpose in Chicago.
Before long, then, everything goes wrong at the party to the continual embarrassment of Annabelle. Eventually, she loses her temper and erupts in frenzy. Brian then steps up and, completely out of place, uses Dominate to quench Annabelle’s frenzy.(It is the act of insolence in Elysium that shocks Annabelle out of her frenzy, but then catches herself realizing that to all others in the room, it appears as if she was just actually barked down by someone of considerably thin blood. )Everyone is soon dismissed from the party.
Just outside, Balthazar, the Sheriff, approaches them and tells them of how he was hunting Keaton as per Lodin’s Blood Hunt, but that he got away. Jim learns the Blood Bond breaking between Madame and Keaton did not signify his Final Death. The Sheriff is particularly vile to the characters, distrusting them. Madame Zharinsky, at hearing the news of Keaton still walking the night, moves in with Jim in his haven in Chicago.

The night ends with Evan attempting to feed near his own haven. Horribly messing it up, police soon arrive to take Evan away, but not before he can call Brian for help. Brian’s attempts to dissuade the police and crowds gathered in the little suburb through Dominate fail and soon, the two resort to breaking free and fleeing under hot pursuit in Brian’s car. The chase brings them all the way to the heart of Chicago on the Dwight Eisenhower Expressway. On the bridge across the river, Brian decides to ram the car over the railing, counting on their vampiric resilience to survive and swim away underwater. The other characters witness this chase live on the news.

>(op here. The storyteller made a video about Annabelle's party because we met so many new NPC's there. Giving us a chance to put faces to the name. I'll be looking for the video in between posting)

19th February 1991
† Madame’s Confession, Our Best Friend is a Witch,
A Child’s Wish
When he awakens, Jim Antwiler hears a confession from his sire which leads him on a trail to discover his great-grandsire: Theodore Dooley. Brian Parker receives a letter, a response from his sire.
At O’Shaenies, Morris arrives with his date from last night, Liz Schumpeter, with whom he seems to have hit it off rather well. He has also brought a new tome on Thaumaturgy. He offers the characters its secrets, if they can understand it. He speaks lightly of a dark pact they can make to learn it faster.
Up to this point there had been no sign of Vitch, Medusa, or Albino at the pub while the rest were all present. When they enter, the characters notice a dramatic change. Medusa’s face is restored in its former beauty, a dark reflection of the model she used to be. She calls herself Persephone, now.(Persephone was played by Lotte this evening as her first role in the chronicle. )Vitch also looks younger, healthier, and no longer feels pain in his every movement.
Then, the doors of the pub are blown open by a cold wind as Nicolai enters. All candles are blown out and the lights are dimmed. He orders a glass of red wine without paying and strolls over to the characters’ table as time slow down to standstill for all the mortals in the establishment. He demands back the tomes Morris stole from the chantry and takes a sample of the neonate’s blood. Upon seeing Vitch, Nicolai cuts him for some of his blood as well, faster than is natural, but the characters do notice this.(Here, the characters witness, for the first time, the Path of Aether’s Father. )
Nicolai continues with the second purpose of his visit in offering Evan his clan’s support. Nicolai mentions Gargoyle-guarded havens and Thaumaturgical protection, all for Evan’s friendship. Evan politely declines, saying he can take care of himself. This is the start of an ongoing insistence.

After the Tremere elder leaves, the mortals in the pub continue their drinking as if nothing had happened. The characters hazard a guess at Vitch being what few of them have heard about before: a Tzimisce. To calm their nerves, they decide to head to the Succubus Club again, where Persephone more than nearly breaks the Masquerade.

20th February 1991
† Lodin’s Broods, The Defectors
Lanzo receives a hasty phone call from his retainer, Ennio, who he had set to work on the computer networks to find out more about Chicago. He is calling from a payphone and communicates verbally what he found. It appears to be a list of Lodin’s childer. Ennio confesses his fear and intends to lay low for a while. Lanzo understands.
At the pub, Albino still has not made an appearance. When the list is recited, Morris notices a coincidence about one of the last names. Subtly, he looks over to his new doll who suddenly jumps up and bolts for the door at his questioning gaze. The characters stop her from leaving with Morris’ help, displaying powers of time manipulation akin to Nicolai’s actions the night before. They get it out of her that she is Liz Schumpeter, youngest daughter of Jacob Schumpeter, one of Lodin’s childer on that list. She became a vampire hunter long ago and already has several kills to her name outside Chicago. She learned that her father recently caught her older sister and is holding her hostage among his herd to feed from. She manipulates the characters into pitying her and she is held close for one more night.
On top of that, this night, Vitch departs with Medusa.

>Marvin's Response
>Childe of mine,
>Your tribulations are no doubt the very beginning of the journey ahead of you. It seems to me that with every insight into the depth of Chicago’s mysteries, only greater mysteries become evident.
>As to your new companions, I have used some of my contacts over the nation to uncover more of them. The Italian you speak of, at least, I have learned is Lanzo Orsini. His sire is Mycroft, a Malkavian indeed, from Boston. Mycroft enlisted Mr. Orsini’s services as a private eye to uncover the mysteries of Chicago. Unlike myself, Mycroft has no interest in migrating there. I will try to engage the madman in a correspondence on behalf of our mutual childer.
>In conclusion, I see my restraint is no longer anything other than counterproductive. The arrangements have been made. I depart in seven nights. Expect my arrival at O’Hare at eleven at night on the 24th. I shall begin to rent an apartment on the first of the next month, I expect to be able to join you at your haven until then.
>It is still of imminent importance that I have a layout of the clans. By the time I arrive, I expect a full report on all Lodin’s childer, who I understand make up all the Ventrue of the city save yourself.
>Your patient sire,
>Marvin O’Leigh

>>30185005
Go OP go

>Morris' Pact
>To reflect aptitude, the character makes a successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 9). The number of successes acquired may be used as ‘borrowed experience’, spent now, gathered later.
>Morris has a faster way to learn, however. The method appears diabolic, but what he suggests is no true Dark Thaumaturgy. In fact, the investiture he suggests comes from a wraith he has acquainted.
>To add up to the seven experience points needed, Morris’ dark pact is one the character can make over a diagram. The character may sacrifice points of maximum vitae in their blood pool to add to the rest of the experience point cost, which can be bought back at 2 experience points per dot. If seven experience points are gathered, the character gains insight and may select a path and a ritual.

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>>30185029
(Thank you for not giving me the feeling I'm talking to thin air! It's very appreciated Anon. On a sidenote. It appears the Annabelle's party vid is removed from youtube. But there are other cool video's which will be posted in due time. A recording of a session in which the coterie finds themselves under heavy nosferatu investigations!)

21st February 1991
† Schumpeter’s Fall
Liz Schumpeter is made to leave Chicago. Jim uses the Forgetful Mind on her to make her forget about everything.
Evan is visited by the Nosferatu this night. Jurgis Rudkus introduces himself, horrifying and disgusting Evan himself. Ennio, unconscious, is carried in by Peter and Tammy. For returning the transgressor on their digital domain, Jurgis states the characters owe Clan Nosferatu a favor. For cleaning up Evan and Brian’s car accident, they owe another. The first favor they may clear immediately: they are to cleanse the Farwell Building as the Nosferatu desire it as a base of operations above ground.
Resenting not doing so earlier, Morris brings his camera to the pub tonight and takes a photograph of what remains of the Class of ’91. Peculiarly, Lanzo is nearly invisible on this photograph.
Jim sends his retainer Daren to investigate Albino’s disappearance. Soon, he receives the response from the streets investigation that he was abducted by ‘two Frenchies.’ Albino was probably trying to deal his drugs on the wrong turf. Daren suspects it involves vampires though, and notifies Antwiler that he will be going underground for a while.
The characters end the night by driving past the Farwell Building, observing it from the outside.

22nd February 1991
† Haunted Chicago, Diablerist’s Consequences
Tonight, the characters explore the Farwell Building. Morris joins them, as do hired mercenaries. When the characters enter, they go in prepared and packing firearms
From the ground floor, everything is simply deserted, but very well locked with active security measures such as triggered glass.
The characters decide the best way to enter is through the fire escape of the adjacent building. They can step on a ledge on the second floor that way and maybe get through the glass in the back of the building. This time, the place isn’t on fire. However, they hear Hotel California playing in the background.
Once they break through, they enter an unfurnished room, with no idea where the music is coming from, though slowly as they proceed, it goes away.
An endless stairway follows. Fire coming from below challenges them into Rötschreck. Blood streams and drips down the steps from of higher floors. Bodies are flung down the staircase from high above, screaming, burning to ashes before they hit the floor. By now, Morris has wreathed himself in a globe of water to protect himself.
The characters end up at a penthouse level, finely furnished, in it a man pointing a gun at the characters. All the terrors they witnessed on the way here end as if they were never there. The man is Georgio, the Ravnos occupant. Georgio is ever paradoxical, guessing the characters’ purpose in life. He taunts the characters and feigns jumping from a window with his Chimerstry. When Jim Antwiler approaches the ledge to see if the fall killed him, the Ravnos appears behind him and shoots him in the head, making a pompous statement. Jim survives the bullet and the characters combat the Ravnos into torpor.
Shortly after, Morris offers to take the torporous vampire with him. Clearly, he intends to diablerize the Ravnos. The characters advise against it and demand he do nothing for now, but do allow him to take the body with him.

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>>30185099
Later, Brian Parker leaves a voicemail message for Bobby ‘the Hurricane’ Weatherbottom to get them a meeting with the Prince.
Morris diablerizes Georgio the Ravnos.

23rd February 1991
† Media Repercussions, Keaton’s Fate
‡ Blood Bond
Tonight is going to be a long night for the characters, with longer ones yet awaiting them in the future. First, Ennio discovers that the bodies thrown in the river by the Nosferatu to cover up Brian and Evan’s accident were two students from San Francisco, both tourists, in conflict with Lodin’s laws. Also, Madame Zharinsky decides to move back to Arlington Heights.
Khalid, the Nosferatu Primogen has set a meeting with Evan. Brian and Lanzo are the only ones to show up, however. After an imposing introduction at the Farwell Building, he asks after Medusa, who even he can’t keep tabs on, in exchange for a transcription of the Primogen meeting the characters played a part in when they arrived in the city. Khalid tells the two characters that Nicolai is not done with his offer for Evan yet, but that he was lying about how many Gargoyles he would have for Evan, and that even Critias intends to approach him soon. One favor for the Nosferatu remains, and Khalid will not dangle his blackmail over them any longer than that favor, he ensures them on his honor.

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The characters drive from the pub to the Succubus Club, still early in the evening, to notice a disturbance in the alleys. A three-headed dog is menacing through the streets, not yet quite under the control of Persephone, who hastily chases the abomination and drops something, an envelope with four tickets(Intended for Persephone, Vitch, Albino, and Keaton. ) to a (long sold out) theater production of Carmilla the same night.
The characters put down the Cerberus and catch one glimpse of Vitch’s silhouette far down a street, two horns now protruding from his head. They decide to attend the play, but the show isn’t for a few more hours and they head for the Succubus Club in the meantime.
At the Succubus Club, Lanzo is seduced by Emily, a beauty in a red dress who is the envy of all around. She is a ghoul, it seems, who isn’t drinking from her master anymore. Lanzo feeds from her blood and gives her some of his in return. He is torn away from her side by the rest when it is time for the Carmilla play. The tickets grant them a box in the balcony with a fantastic view of the play. The box contains a card that reads: ‘Hope you enjoy the show, Brothers and Sister.’ Lanzo’s further investigation reveals a special decanter of blood laid out for them and a gun strapped under each seat.
The curtain rises, and a beautiful girl, no older than sixteen by the look of her, steps out of a mist clinging to the stage. Elegantly draped in a white dress, she begins narrating a tale while the backgrounds behind her are moved to concur with it.
During her narration, the doors burst open under the characters’ box. At first they can’t see who has entered, and only hear sniggering laughter and nervous reactions. Listening carefully, Lanzo overhears them saying “Hurry up, the sewer rats will have noticed us by now and they’ll have called the big bad Sheriff.”

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The figures move forward to the first row, where the characters can see them: bikers with a gang patch, a black hand on their back, labeled ‘TORONTO’ under it. They sit down after flinging several people off the first row and tell the actress of Carmilla to get on with it, ‘darling.’
The Sabbat members continue to harass the mortals and turn to violence and murder quickly. The characters decide to enter the fight. Mortals flee the scene and the Sabbat start to tear the structure down. The Sabbat members taunt the characters into forsaking the Camarilla, hinting at the renunciation of Blood Bonds in the Sabbat.
The Sheriff, Balthazar, shows up with several bodies to even the odds. The characters learn the Sabbat were looking for something—someone—in the theater. They are chased out by Balthazar before they find it, however. The Sheriff expresses his distrust for the characters. They are to report to the Prince the following night. As the Sabbat flee the theater into the city, Balthazar and his men initiate a hunt through Chicago’s streets. The characters are left alone to stumble upon a staked corpse in the concrete: Jefferson’s staked body

>>30185172
Rats are Summoned to the body to try to chew through the stake but the characters fend them off. They guess at the purpose of the Sabbat in the theater and distrust the corpse. Later, Emily is Summoned to Jefferson as well, and Lanzo takes her aside to ask several things of her. She explains a little about her history with this very theater, Neally, and Jefferson.
Brian calls Bobby Weatherbottom again, telling him about ‘the leader of the Sabbat we found at the theater here.’ Later, Neally himself shows up, after the characters asked Emily to call him. He destroys Jefferson’s staked body and takes Emily home, threatening the characters to forget everything that happened here. All that remains of Jefferson is his coat, smeared with ashes. Inside, the characters find a faded old picture of Emily on stage.
When he returns to his haven, Brian has three messages from Bobby Weatherbottom. The first message offers his sire’s consent in a meeting Bobby had arranged, as per Brian’s request. The second message was a confused, unbelieving one regarding Brian’s phone call earlier this night. Nonetheless, he tells Brian he has informed his superior of the matter for him. The third message is plain and final: “You can never call me again. Neally is my brood’s leader.”
Lastly, Jim has a message on his answering machine as well. It’s from Morris: “I’m bored. Where were you guys?”

>(What follows are two big sidebars)

>>30185172
what's that say on his belly?
i am twice as dead something?

>One Brand in a Thousand
>One of the storytelling motifs used for this chronicle was that the story was always in the players’ hands at all times. From the very beginning, there was not one single direction toward which the story attempted to converge.
>In fact, with the diversity of the Class of ’91 members—Albino and his link with Toronto, for example—the idea here in the beginning was to make the choice between Camarilla and Sabbat an equally likely one. This will not have been the last such branching, culminating in the players’ shock to where they ended up further down the road, thinking on where they could have been.
>All that, began here. Although we can’t say for sure if a different road would have proven better, it is a certainty the characters end up with regrets.

>>30185210
(I'm deader than you)

>The Story of Neally and Jefferson
>The story begins with two young American aristocrats from Chicago; one was named Jefferson Foster, the other Neally Edwards. The two men were inseparable friends since early childhood. Coming from rich families, the two were afforded much time to devote to frivolity and they did their best to enjoy life’s pleasures. Jefferson was the more ascetic of the two and preferred to experience cultural delight whereas Neally preferred self-indulgence and reveled in hedonism, all while retaining a front of respectability. Though the pair had disparate tastes, they complemented each other perfectly and attended most social functions together, forever trying to comprehend the appeal behind the other’s favorite pleasures.
>Their relationship changed when Neally became addicted to morphine. Jefferson stood by his old friend through the entire period of degradation and social uproar surrounding his old friend’s addiction. While Neally’s other friends and even his family turned their back on him, Jefferson remained at his side. Neally had expected rejection and could not understand why this one friend stayed with him. Guilt and refusal to accept that someone could give such unconditional friendship began to haunt him. As the pain of rehabilitation continued, Neally began to resent his old friend for his faithfulness. When he finally left the morphine clinic, a broken and lonely man, he unconsciously took to avoiding Jefferson. Then, he met Lodin, the vampire Prince of Chicago.

>Jefferson accepted that his old friend needed some time to himself to recover from this traumatic period. What Jefferson did not know was that his friend had recently been taken from the realm of mortality and turned into a vampire. Approached by Lodin, Neally had required little persuasion to leave his old life and enter a new one. Neally found his new existence more fulfilling than any other physical pleasure he had experienced. He also found it the perfect way to revenge himself on his old friend, while telling himself he was doing Jefferson a favor. Neally took the first opportunity to change Jefferson into one of the undead. Now Neally could be stronger than his old friend for all eternity, and he secretly reveled in the fact. Once again, the two spent almost all their time together, but things had changed between them.

>Jefferson did not appreciate the physicality of his new existence. He resented his Beast and silently longed to be human again. However, since Jefferson’s companion had accepted his new life, he decided he should too. He never realized why his old friend really enjoyed his company and he grew to accept that Neally was now his better.
As the pair rediscovered their old ways, they had the capacity to enjoy more of their favorite pleasures with their newfound longevity. Their forced camaraderie faltered, however, when they two saw a beautiful actress on the Chicago stage. Her name was Emily Carter and her grace and vivacity captivated both Jefferson and Neally. Jefferson was drawn to her for her purity and innocence. He cherished those ascetic qualities as he would a work of art. Above all he appreciated her Humanity and wanted to allow her to retain that virtue, thus giving him back something of that which he had lost. Neally on the other hand, cherished her for more carnal reasons. He was greatly aroused by the woman’s purity and innocence. He wanted to corrupt Emily and make her undead like him so he could master and abuse her at his leisure. While Jefferson wanted to protect her, Neally wanted to possess her—and both began to compete for her affections.

>>30185265
>When the two men courted Emily, their frayed friendship strained and finally snapped for good. Eventually their divergent motives resulted in direct confrontation. Neally ultimately won Emily’s love, attracting her without the use of his supernatural powers. Although Neally originally wanted to Embrace her, he found making her a ghoul more satisfying. He realized twisted sexual pleasure in possessing Emily as a private, permanent source of blood. Coincidentally he also discovered that Emily’s continued Humanity caused Jefferson much distress. Neally had come to enjoy his friend’s useless efforts to win the girl. By leaving Emily her Humanity, Neally could still be entertained by Jefferson’s vain efforts. Emily’s Humanity kept Jefferson intent in his desire to win the woman. Had she been given the Embrace, Jefferson would know that she was unattainable and would have given up the hunt.
>To ensure Emily remained his, Neally then did force her into a Blood Bond. Jefferson was outraged by Neally’s crime and moved to steal Emily away and protect her from further corruption. His desperate rescue efforts failed, however, the strength of the Blood Bond being immutable. Thus the old friends became bitter enemies, intent only on causing harm to the other.

>Over the ensuing years Jefferson made several attempts to break Neally’s hold over Emily. His efforts were wasted, so he sought some hidden means to break the bond. Some methods seemed promising, but none succeeded. It was then that Jefferson learned of the secrets of the Sabbat, of their mastery over the Blood Bond. The only way to learn the Sabbat secrets was to join them. Jefferson traveled to Toronto, where the Sabbat were known to be in power. Once his dangerous journey was complete, he entered a graveyard in the center of the city and announced his presence to the dreaded brethren. After passing their trials, he was initiated and accepted into their pack.
>His initiation into the Sabbat was maddening, tearing him from his last vestiges of sanity. After he had pulled himself from his own grave, as their doctrine demanded, Jefferson lost all shreds of his Humanity. As a ferocious Beast, he forgot his former purpose and ran with the Sabbat for decades. He had broken free of his past, but he had lost himself in the progress.

>Only after years with the Sabbat, and after gaining considerable power and experience, did Jefferson begin to recall his previous life with the Camarilla. The year was 1967 and by that time Jefferson was considered the leader of his pack and held substantial power in Toronto. However, with the return of his memories, the passion of his former love for Emily returned as well and Jefferson could no longer bear being apart from her. He therefore forsook his power and abandoned the Sabbat, leaving Toronto for Chicago.
>Back in the city, Jefferson learned that Neally was still alive and had gained great authority as a servant of Chicago’s Prince, Lodin. Neally had risen high in the Prince’s ranks, earning Lodin’s trust and becoming one of his most important progeny.

>Not having seen Jefferson for years, Neally had thought his old rival long dead and given him little thought, much like the rest of Chicago did. Subconsciously, however, Jefferson had great effect on him. Since his friend left, Neally had begun to take on some of his partner’s characteristics, becoming more willing to help others and less suspicious and guarded. The two of them had always been opposite halves of the same coin, and with Jefferson gone a void grew in Neally. Over the years he filled that void with the fragile remnants of his own Humanity, and had even managed to exceed what he once was as a mortal. In a sense, the two had traded places, their fates interwoven with one another.
>On his return, the cold-hearted Jefferson had the opportunity to take Neally by surprise and destroy his nemesis once and for all. Having gained much power in the Sabbat, however, Jefferson had also developed arrogance, and resolved to inform Neally of his return so as to season the flavor of the hunt. Given the opportunity to prepare for the attack, the frightened Neally sought to destroy Jefferson before he could strike. It was not difficult to locate Jefferson’s haven. Neally correctly surmised that Jefferson would seek refuge in a place close to his lost love.

>Arriving on the scene of the old theater in which the pair had first seen Emily perform, Neally discovered Jefferson’s sleeping form. The old building was abandoned while it underwent restorations. He created a number of ghouls to assist him and they brought him to the theater just before sunset. He then had Jefferson staked just as he woke. Though he had intended to extinguish Jefferson, he found that his heart would not let him take such action. With the theater under construction, they encased Jefferson’s body into a mold of wet cement and left him there, imprisoned. Immediately after, Neally slew all his ghoul helpers so as to leave no witnesses. When mortals came to work the next day, Jefferson was entombed within the walls of the theater and Neally’s Humanity was starting to crack once more.
>From Blood Bond, edited

>(OP: With the story of Neally and Jefferson (which will have some impact in events to come) out of the way we can get back to the characters as the end of the first Arc draws to a close.)

24th February 1991
† Rise of the Prolific Irishman, A Stone Friend,
Vitch’s Vendetta
Tonight, Brian Parker’s sire, Marvin O’Leigh is finally due to arrive in Chicago. O’Leigh is pleased with his childe’s progress in canvassing the city both geographically and politically and is ready to fulfil the next stage in their plan. After picking him up from the airport, the characters are due to report to Prince Lodin. Marvin joins them.
At the Prudential Building, one of the Sabbat bikers from the night before is held captive for interrogation. The characters explain about the Sabbat defectors they have known. Suspicions about Keaton are also shared. Lodin demands the characters find proof of what they claim. Specifically, they must find proof of the Sabbat’s Vaulderie ritual—the ritual that can break a Blood Bond. This, they are told can absolve them of their involvement with the Sabbat.
In the heat of the meeting, Marvin O’Leigh makes his introductions to the Prince. Bearing documents signed by the majority of major Princes on the East Coast, Brian’s sire manages to claim domain in Chicago for an embassy. The details, however, Lodin would have discussed later.
Morris leaves a message on Jim’s answering machine, asking if Jim can keep a secret at his haven for him. At his haven, a package was waiting for Antwiler. Inside is a child-sized statue with tiny wings that can move. They call Morris, who decides they shouldn’t be doing this over the phone. When he comes over, he explains this is Irmatrix, a Gargoyle he rescued from the hands of the Tremere. Irmatrix will now be staying at Antwiler’s haven.

The characters caught Morris up with the recent news and they decide they need to find Vitch and Medusa, or rather Persephone, as she calls herself now. Morris aids them using his Ouija, an ability of his that still baffles most.(In truth, Morris simply uses the prop to communicate with a wraithly acquaintance. ) They locate the two renegades and confront them. A hatred for the Tremere has surreptitiously festered in Vitch, however, and this is made plain when they meet. The characters steer the conversation in such a way that Vitch and Persephone offer to induct them into the Sabbat. They tell the characters some of them are likely already Blood Bound to two elders pulling the strings of this city. The characters tell their old friends to show them the ritual, to induct them.
Vitch and Persephone take them to Lake Michigan’s shore, where Persephone guides the characters into the depths of the lake in a procession. Meanwhile, Morris stays with the car, as does Vitch. Lanzo is undecided about the whole ordeal as well while his coterie disappears under the water’s edge. A stalemate between Morris and Vitch culminates then, into a Masquerade-shattering duel.

Through the Path of Neptune’s Might, Morris draws immense power from the Great Lake while Vitch indulges his clan’s powers and grows great wings. Lanzo stands by as they duel in midair and a multitude of cars stop on the overpass nearby. In the midst of their heated mutual destruction, after the others have resurfaced, Jim Antwiler grabs a hold of Persephone and threatens her with a shotgun to the head, in order to encourage Vitch down.(Vitch knows true terror when he sees Persephone threatened. Their love has remained strong even through the Sabbat rites, where their Humanity was all but devastated. ) Lanzo joins Jim in this and Vitch relents.
The Class of ’91 manages to stake its two former members and flee the scene of this massive breach in the Traditions. They make their escape underwater, coming up again a mile north of the incident. There, they make for Jim’s haven where they all fall to the sleep of the day.

25th February 1991
† Demise of the Demented Irishman,
A Sacrifice and an Execution
The characters awaken surrounded by the Prince’s ghouls and are dragged to the Prudential Building. There, an assembly awaits them, among them the Primogen and the Sheriff. The characters explain about the Sabbat involved in the attack. When they tell Lodin that they captured both of them, he is pleased and forgives the characters their breach of the Masquerade.(Vitch and Persephone are delivered to the Prince. Lodin intends to interrogate them to learn the Sabbat secrets of undoing Blood Bonds. )
It is then that whispers arise among the Primogen. Inyanga sees the black veins in Morris’ aura. Before long, their whispering is communicated to Lodin. The Prince calls for Morris to step forward and stand accused of diablerie. He is staked violently.
A case is made by the characters in Morris’ defense, in that without him they would not have captured the Sabbat. It is countered that without him the Masquerade would have remained intact. Nicolai insists Morris is handed over for the Tremere to punish. The Primogen put the matter to a vote and Morris is sentenced to Final Death.
Sheriff Balthazar then steps up to Morris with a shotgun where he lies. He turns to the characters and smirks, saying: “You know the thing about staking? You do it when the guy’s awake, and he can see and hear— and feel—everything without being able to move…” before lodging the barrel of his shotgun in Morris’ mouth and blowing his ashes all over Lodin’s fine carpets.

ouch

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The characters are outraged. Morris paid the ultimate price for their ambition in pleasing the upper echelons of Chicago’s Camarilla. They are made to leave after their outburst, where Lanzo lastly adds: “This was not worth it.” In response, Lodin grins at their naivety.
The characters retrieve Morris’ photograph of the Class of ’91 from the ashes and inherit the Ouija board Morris used along with a collection of the books he was studying from Erichto. Jim keeps the photograph. Lanzo keeps the Ouija board and the books. After the mournful meeting with Morris’ sire, the characters each go their own way for the remainder of the night.
Lanzo studies the books Morris left them, Jim visits his sire and here whip claiming “he really needs it tonight.” and Brian finds an ex-cop mercenary to bind into his service using Presence and gives him his first drink. His name is Gary Marble. (Note how we just finished telling a truly sad story and one of the players can’t wait to start telling another one. )

>Morris' Books
>The exact contents of Morris’ little library were never described. It was the intent to give the characters a modest collection of occult books they could fall back on in research from now on. The books were his own, not belonging to the Tremere, and detailed some of Morris’ fascinations in particular, including wraiths if one knew where to look.

Op here: At the end of arc 1 I propose a little break. Strangely enough the story as written doesn't do the impact of Morris' death much justice. Morris was the coolest guy in Chicago and the only one who liked us. In many weeks that followed Morris' demise haunted us OOC. I remember a birthday party in particular where Morris was mentioned and for the hour that followed the mood was completely ruined, the attendees not familiar with the chronicle had no idea what was going on. One of the players couldn't listen to the Dubliners for weeks without crying mantears inside.

There's much more to come though, if you're interested and as I said this is the part of the chronicle from which we remember the least details. Also, it only gets worse from here for the characters!

Please let me know what you think, I'm very curious as to other people's opinions.

Definitely find it interesting, still going through it tho

>>30185741
I agree, it's a massive document. And to be honest I've made a tiny error. This isn't the end of arc I: Affinity and Ambition.
This is only the end in the first chapter in that arc. The affinity with the city. The chapter detailing the character's growing (and selfdestructive) ambition has yet to come!

Could somebody explain how to properly archive threads?

>>30186164
sorry anon no idea

>>30186164
Go to suptg, click 'request archive'
fill the details
???
profit!

>>30186180
Thank you anon! Will it archive from the moment the archive was requested or from the moment the thread dies?

>>30186217
...I mean Indonesian Gentleman, of course.

>>30186217
it will archive it at request, and then at certain intervals of time I do not know. I have seen early-archived threads archiving until natural thread death, give or take one or two posts.

OP here from another location.
I'll get home soon and I'd be able to continue the story. But only if people are interested.

Maybe my mind is simply clouded by my enthousiasm for this chronicle. Be honest with me /tg/, am I deluding myself thinking you would be interested?

>>30188473
We always love story time

File: 1392224147985.pdf-(279 KB, PDF, Histories I - A kindred a(...).pdf)

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>>30189343
In that case we'll continue!

In the image you'll find a kindred history of the city. A nice little extra about how the setting came to be.

And without further ado, we'll continue.

Arc I: Act II The ambition

26th February 1991
The Class of ’91, what remains of it, awakens in mourning. In his haven, Lanzo receives a phone call from Boston. Someone named Marcus is investigating Mycroft. In Mycroft’s haven, he found a voicemail message from Lanzo and traced the number here. Lanzo acknowledges that he is Mycroft’s childe as they talk and it appears Mycroft has gone missing. All Marcus can tell Lanzo is that the Ventrue of Boston had started rumors that the supposed Malkavian is in fact a Lasombra in hiding.
Marvin O’Leigh succeeds in acquiring the entire Navy Pier and the Filtration Plant as his domain as ambassador the East Coast. Meanwhile, his childe Brian has a confrontation in the South Loop, attempting to acquire a pistol. His vampiric abilities lead to a spreading urban myth in the ghetto, originating in the gang 37AVE.
Jim has business in Des Plaines with his driver, Cormick, and his retainer, Rajiv. Evan, who tagged along, meanwhile has an encounter with Son at a local fair, who is stalking a child. After Son kills the child, Evan confronts and destroys the Kindred.1 He continues to search amongst the ashes to find a keycard for Psychiatric Society Illinois Asylum. Meanwhile at his meeting, Jim reveals to Rajiv that he is a vampire.
Antwiler is then called upon to solve the mess caused by Brian in the South Loop by restoring everyone’s knowledge of the situation.
Irmatrix is moved to Lanzo’s haven.

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>A little note about the previous post: 1 Evan, who is still very naïve at this point, convinces himself he did absolutely nothing wrong on account of what he witnessed Son doing.

27th February 1991
† Road to the Anarchs, Blood Hunt
‡ Player of Pawns
Jim’s retainer Daren returns from hiding and the characters are invited to visit Marvin’s domain at the pier. Evan and Brian remain at the harbor while Jim and Lanzo have business in the city.
Lanzo goes to find Emily at the Succubus Club, where he notices Critias and an unfamiliar Kindred up in one of the balconies. He also overhears rumors among the Kindred about Blood Hunts, that another name has been added to the list, just below Keaton’s: Albino. Jim takes the time to look for new havens before he joins Lanzo and they discover the Labyrinth together. Down there, they meet and befriend Damien, learning more of the Brujah in the city.
Critias is involved in an intricate game of chess with his Russian opponent, Dimitri. The stakes of the game are thus that they have both nominated peers and retainers as their real-life chess pieces. While the game on their board moves on, those involved suffer the consequences.
When Evan, now alone, wanders the streets of Chicago, he is kidnapped by Dimitri’s men.

28th February 1991
† Road to the Anarchs
‡ Player of Pawns
Evan, oblivious to his surroundings but for the air-tight concrete cell is faced with a mortal that is tossed in with him. The mortal slowly suffocates. Evan resists feeding from her and resists embracing her to save her life.
Jim has an appointment with Daren at 8 pm to tell him he is to make the trip to New York. Later, when Antwiler goes looking for Damien at the Succubus Club, he is captured by a motorcyclist.
When Lanzo and Brian track down Damien, it appears he is also desperately looking for someone close to him who has been kidnapped, Neon. With Damien’s help, they track down the warehouse where Dimitri is holding his hostages. There, they defeat Dimitri’s ‘queen’, a mysterious hag who manifests to keep her subjects trapped.
With Jim, Evan, and Neon freed, they all head to the Succubus Club to confront Critias and Dimitri. They make their way to the balcony where Critias declares ‘checkmate.’ Before their eyes then, Critias sinks his teeth into Dimitri until he expires.(Thereby elevating Critias to Fourth Generation. ) Critias continues, calmly, to admit to Damien that they are sire and childe. Critias then expresses to the characters his remorse for Morris’ death and insists that if Clan Tremere had defended his innocence instead of admitting guilt but demanding he be relinquished to their own justice, the young man might have been saved. The characters are invited to a meeting of the Anarchs the next night.
Jim schedules a meeting with his great-grandsire Dooley where Hank Cave and Anita show up as well. Jim is disappointed to find out Dooley saw Keaton as an asset, instead of merely hating the man as Priscilla had led him to believe in her confession. Dooley further demands Jim becomes that asset, now that he took Keaton away from him.
Far beyond the characters’ attention, the Gulf War came to an end today.

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1st March 1991
† Road to the Anarchs, A Falling Out, Elder’s Seductions
The Anarch meeting takes place at Critias’ university. The characters hear rants and recognize some of Chicago’s Kindred among those seated. In particular, Jim notices his sire, Priscilla is present. Many around them, they notice, speak with great disdain of the betrayer Balthazar, who now serves as the Prince’s lapdog. They note Salvador Garcia’s ‘An Anarch Manifesto’ which is passed around. They also overhear rumors of an ‘Anarch Cookbook’, a digital document which lists everything a young, rebellious Kindred might want from how to make bombs to tips on diablerizing elders. Most of all, the characters hear about the enigmatic heroine Maldavis. The characters leave the meeting with little ambition in the Anarch ranks.
After the meeting, Lanzo is shocked to find his sire suddenly showing up at his office’s door. Mycroft is raving mad with paranoia and appears to have slept in ditches for the past nights. Lanzo offers Mycroft to stay at his haven even after he voices his extreme distrust for the little Tremere pet, Irmatrix, staying there as well.
Evan, meanwhile, is approached by Nicolai at Jim’s new haven and invited to come to dinner. Jim Antwiler relays this to the others as a kidnapping for Nicolai’s use of Disciplines. The three of them then visit Erichto to see what help they could enlist from her. At her haven, Lanzo is the only one to show manners while Erichto becomes disgusted with Jim and Brian and sends the two of them away.

Lanzo is called twice from his haven to find his sire is in the midst of an even fiercer fit of paranoia than before. He has destroyed Irmatrix out of distrust. Twice, Mycroft asks him over the phone if ‘it’ was Marvin O’Leigh or the Tremere. After the second phone call, Mycroft decides it was Marvin.
The characters become further swamped in the unstoppable actions of elders when Mycroft furiously visits Marvin O’Leigh at the harbor. There, Marvin confesses the rumors in Boston were his doing. By the time the characters arrive, Mycroft is on his way out of Marvin’s office, strangely lucid, contrary to several moments earlier. Brian enters his sire’s office to find Marvin O’Leigh overcome by madness in the form of paranoia. In process of the assault, Marvin’s herd (Consisting of a handful of chained and beaten housewives. ) escaped the cells below his office, to make matters worse.
Lanzo does not tell the others it was Mycroft who killed Irmatrix, but as soon as Jim Antwiler finds out the small gargoyle has met Final Death, he decides the Tremere are to blame. Alone, he recruits gangbangers from the South Loop and presses guns in their hands before he marches on Erichto’s haven in force. Erichto, in response, uses the Path of Aether’s Father on Antwiler. The mortals are never seen or heard from again.(Erichto would never have harmed them, and did not. Jim Antwiler could not have been allowed to witness her sympathy, however. ) Jim remains in Erichto’s haven for what to him seems like months, all the while hearing Erichto’s voice berating him, elaborating to him how he is to blame for Morris’ death. He is allowed to leave when he offers Erichto the photograph of them and Morris. It turns out, then, that it all actually happened within the course of the same night.

All the while, Evan is out to dinner with Nicolai at a restaurant of pristine reputation. Again, Nicolai offers him the luxuries of House and Clan Tremere’s endorsement— of friendship, as he puts it. Evan refuses Nicolai again and tries to make plain it is for the last time. Nicolai storms out, leaving a drained corpse in his wake.

>Marvin's Madness
>The first conclusion to draw from Mycroft’s visit to Marvin would seem to be that a Malkavian has infected a Ventrue with his madness. The Malkavians in the Camarilla do not exercise Dementation at this point, however. This complicates the current questions surrounding Lanzo’s clan in that, yes, he therefore might not be a Lasombra, yet he might be a Malkavian antitribu instead.
>The truth, however, is that when Mycroft entered, he threatened Marvin physically. Rolling for Marvin’s frenzy resulted in a botch, giving him a permanent derangement. The question of Lanzo’s clan persists in ambiguity.

2nd March 1991
After their increasingly hectic nights, the characters take a breather. Lanzo and Brian bury Irmatrix in a dumpster before they part ways, torn by the bad blood between their sires. Lanzo meets Antwiler and Evan in the Succubus Club and explains part of what is happening between his sire and Brian’s sire. He does not mention how Irmatrix in fact met Final Death.
The three of them then visit Madame Zharinsky in Arlington Heights. There, Jim confronts her with her presence at the Anarch gathering. She barks down to him, telling him he is to kiss the Prince’s ass for a while longer if he wants to survive. She proclaims the Anarchs’ time will come, but until then Antwiler should know his place. Lanzo overhears this conversation, also picking up how Madame addresses Jim as her childe.
Evan feeds from a new prostitute at Madame’s. Her name is Thesis.
Brian stays near his sire’s side. Marvin O’Leigh, still wounded from the assault on his haven and his sanity, makes a deal with the Nosferatu to keep the escape of his herd under wraps. As a result, the naked women who showed up in hospitals all throughout Chicago suffered amnesia. Marvin swears a revenge on Mycroft, who has allegedly skipped town.(A lie maintained by Lanzo.)

3rd March 1991
† The Mad Touch, The Sheriff’s Demise
Lanzo meets with Mycroft, who is currently in hiding throughout the city. They agree to only communicate through drop points from now on. Then, as they stand there, a vision overcomes them both simultaneously. The vision reveals that ‘One of the Blood’ has been murdered in Chicago a couple of nights ago, on the 26th of February.(This is a reference to the death of Son, already suspected of being a Malkavian.)
The Entrancement placed on Gary Marble has worn off and he realizes he is being manipulated against his will by Brian Parker. The mercenary abandons Brian but the characters track him down before he is able to flee. Gary resisted fiercely when Brian force-fed the Blood Bond on him.(For which he lost Humanity)
Jim Antwiler and Evan Jackson visit the Prudential Building and play at being informant for the Prince about everything they witnessed at the Anarch meeting.(Brian and Lanzo expressly did not want to associate with this act.)They offer him a letter in which they have compiled questions how to best serve the Prince. About Maldavis, Lodin is particularly intrigued.(Lodin still holds Maldavis on the top of his most wanted list. ) The Sheriff is to be called for to investigate the matter, if the Anarchs spoke so openly about her. The characters notice that Balthazar is reported to be away in Canada for now. They are told to keep their heads down as they leave. Contrary to their misguided expectations, Lodin does not view Evan and Jim as valued spies after their letter, or as having any value at all, for that matter.

The characters then go to the Succubus Club. There, they are approached by a mysterious woman, clearly a vampire. She introduces herself as Ludovica and offers them a drink first thing, in her custom. What follows is a massive Masquerade-breaking illusion that leaves the club closed for the night as a fire appears to break out, forcing vampire and mortal alike to flee the building. Jim and Evan managed to take a drink through the mayhem, however, as offered. When the flames suddenly subsides as if they had never been there, Ludovica offers her services to the characters as they walk outside. She will help the characters with whatever they wish. In exchange, they must answer one question truthfully when they’re done.
The characters realize Ludovica must be a Ravnos. Only Lanzo believes she can be trusted. After the characters agree to her bargain, Jurgis Rudkus emerges from the shadows. He threatens Ludovica with a claw if she opens her mouth.(Jurgis retains his Eastern European hatred for gypsies, let alone Ravnos) He continues to inform the characters the Nosferatu have solved another one of Evan’s Masquerade breaches, for free this time, and that Khalid wants a word with them all.
The characters agreed to visit the Farwell Building, where once more wandering through its desolate walls and up its dilapidated stairs, they appear before Khalid. The honorable Nosferatu Primogen calmly explains that his clan has cleaned up after a corpse was left at a restaurant Evan visited. More to the point, he has a piece of information to offer the characters here and now. He believes they will find it worth the price he asks: one more favor owed. Evan refuses outright and leaves, leaving the favor burdened by Lanzo, Brian, and Jim, who consent. Ludovica, having promised her aid, also shares in this favor owed, binding her further in Chicago.

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Khalid then reveals Sheriff Balthazar’s violent feeding habits, where he assaults a whole family regularly somewhere far enough from the Loop to go unnoticed, or so he thought. Of all the families he has butchered, one child survived, Embraced and abandoned by Balthazar himself. Jimmy Holcomb, is the child’s name, now called ‘Neon’, kept hidden from the rest of Chicago by Damien, both of whom the characters have met. The child is living proof of Balthazar’s actions. For the grudge the character bear the Sheriff, this can be used against him.
The characters, after filling Evan in, quickly find Damien and reveal what they know. Damien remains protective of Neon. However, the characters convince him retribution is worth it. Through Damien and with what they learned of Balthazar’s enemies among the Anarchs, they arrange for Critias to organize a court against Balthazar for the following night, who should be back from Canada any time now.
While at the harbor, a visitor arrives at the embassy grounds. Marvin O’Leigh informs the characters that Dusable has asked to enter his domain and the characters choose to meet him at the border of it, asking Marvin to refuse him.(Dusable considers this a true insult, on top of what happens next. ) Dusable, in mature, clear words expresses his sire’s desire to offer Evan the protection of House and Clan Tremere once more. He makes it plain refusing again will buy the Tremere’s enmity. Evan rejects Dusable and mutters: “Tell Nicolai to fuck himself,” within Dusable’s hearing.
It is then that Ludovica demands her end, that the characters answer her question. She asks: “Where has Georgio the georgio) gone?” (georgio: A Ravnos of non-Gypsy stock; a gajo Ravnos.)
The characters take a moment and answer truthfully: Georgio was diablerized by Morris, a Tremere neonate who has met Final Death, their friend. They then explain why they have this need for retribution with Balthazar.

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To everyone’s surprise, Ludovica approves. She assures them no one is after them for their involvement in Georgio’s murder, that she will take on the role as Ravnos of Chicago, and that if they keep her secrets, she will keep theirs. To prove her good intentions, Ludovica goes on to obscure the entrances to their havens with Chimerstry. Then, she disappears, going about her own business for the coming nights.

>Introducing: Ludovica
>Player: Lotte
>Clan: Ravnos, Generation: 13th, Nature: Architect, Demeanor: Loner
>Specialties: Manipulation (lying)
>Disciplines: Chimerstry ●●●●●
>Backgrounds: Allies (gypsies) ●●●, Fame (gypsies) ●●●
>Virtues: Conviction ●●, Self-Control ●●●●●, Courage ●●●
>Merits & Flaws: Something
>Path of Paradox ●●●●● ●●, Willpower ●●●●

>Ludovica's Background
>Before my Embrace I never really had the cliché warm AND welcoming family. A couple of years before my undead life started in 1945, I lived with a man called Rafael. My parents were long gone by that time. The Germans came for them and took them away to one of their camps.
>As a gypsy living in Venice during the war, I had no choice but to lay low and mind my words at all times. I rapidly matured during those days, although my puberty had actually just started. I never really gave much thought to whether people liked me or not. As long as people just passed me by unsuspectingly, I was content.
>Most people I came in contact with were the costumers at the bakery Rafael owned, where I lent a hand. I was polite to them, knowing that if they found out my ancestry, they could turn me in and have me join my parents’ fate at any given moment.
>Unfortunately that gruesome day came along soon enough. After that, decency was in no way to be one of my priorities. Since Rafael was the one responsible for my betrayal, he had to suffer. He claimed that he was a friend to me. I ended his existence.
>Appearance: 16 years old, shawls, earrings, dark eyes, skirt, layers.
>Feeding habits: Ludovica isn’t really all that picky when it comes to feeding. What’s important for her is that the mortal remains unharmed, unhurt, and untraumatized.
>Havens: Ludovica never stays in the same place for long. A family of gypsies reveres her and travels with her wherever she goes. In Chicago, they rent a small house where she can stay.

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>(OP Here: We're almost done with the 3d of March. In the image you can find the letter Jim and Evan wrote to Lodin, below is a recap the ST wrote to motivate us into planning a new session)

>A Recovered Recap
>It is the 3rd of March, 1991.
>There are two Blood Hunts out in Chicago. Both are linked to the coterie of Kindred led by an ancient risen out of nowhere, according to rumor. While rumors spread amongst those that have not met them, those that have plot vehemently. Few are the friends this coterie has made, and many are the enemies.
>The support of Clan Tremere has turned ashen cold, and contempt may soon rise from their Blood Magic. The death of a dear childe would have been bad enough for most, adding insult to injury... adding to that the refusal of the clan’s eldest...
>Only half the coterie has offered insult to Clan Nosferatu, true enough. The Schreckers are not known as your ‘glass half full’ kind of guys, though.
>An upstart among this very coterie has dared to use Dominate on the leader of Clan Toreador in front of her own party guests. It would take an optimist to conclude not hearing from them in a while means the threat’s been averted.
>Clan Ventrue is known as untouchable in the city by all. Yet, one of, again this coterie, is involved in a complicated affair with the concubine of the Prince’s own left hand and childe.
>Brujah then surely welcomes them with open arms. They do. They did. They really did. The coterie then saw fit to shun them and plot behind their back to alert the Prince of their activities.
>That leaves many a clan, besides. Some of the Camarilla this coterie hasn’t even come into contact with. Some not even in the Camarilla, many not in the Sabbat either. Again, it would take an optimist.

>The Prince has made demands of the rumored ancient Evan Jackson, and he has heeded them as he saw fit while all the Primogen leave no road to walk on in the middle. All the while, Jackson has allowed violation after violation of the Masquerade, so far mopped up by the clan he professes to owe the least amount of allegiance.
>A bitter elders’ rivalry has warped its way through Brian Parker and Lanzo Orsini. Now, two more pieces have arrived on the board that is Chicago, and the question remains where this leaves them and their coterie.
>Jim Antwiler remains in the dark about many things, but attempts to rise above it through schemes and sheer luck. His decision to contact the Prince puts the entire coterie on edge.
>Their rivals align and swarm around them... but the coterie appears to be sleeping in... they have yet to rise from their coffins. All the while, their adversaries have long since put their plots in motion.

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4th March 1991
† The Sheriff’s Demise
At sunset, court is immediately convened. Present are Lodin, the Primogen, the characters, and several other Kindred with a stake in the matter. Balthazar has seen the winds turning against him, and enters the Prudential Building with what he believes must redeem him: the defector to the Sabbat, Albino, on whose head rests a Blood Hunt.
As the case is presented and Neon testifies, the tides turn against the Sheriff. He refuses to run and refuses to accept his fate. As an ultimatum, he levels his shotgun at Albino’s head. He yells that if the Camarilla of Chicago is to betray him like this, then so be it. (He will deny anyone in the room the knowledge of where Keaton is, or what the Sabbat of Toronto have planned for Chicago and Milwaukee)He blasts Albino through his skull, reducing him to ashes. Next, he aims for Antwiler, but is tackled before the shot is fired. The verdict is against Balthazar and he is executed on the spot by Lodin himself. (Behind a carefully crafted mask, Lodin resents destroying one of his most effective pawns.)

5th March 1991
‡ Ashes to Ashes
The characters thoroughly celebrate the Sheriff’s demise in O’Shaenies pub, which they haven’t visited since Morris’ demise. By the time they return to their havens, Neally shows up at their front door.(Which he has notable difficulty finding due to Ludovica’s Chimerstry.) He notifies them that he has taken over all Lodin’s tasks, that Ballard requests a dinner with them tomorrow night at 11 pm, and that Lodin has gone missing.
After the news is shared among the characters, they head for the harbor to consult with Marvin. The Navy Pier being an embassy, it is within his power to grant some form of safe haven if things turn against the characters. He offers to prepare a boat in case of an emergency.

6th March 1991
† Alfrede’s Fate, Methuselahs’ Grasp
‡ Ashes to Ashes
The coterie meets with Ballard for dinner. Over his intimidating gorging of mortal food and his demands the characters do the same, he tells them frankly they are to find Lodin for him. One of the first things they found in investigating Lodin’s disappearance was Evan and Jim’s letter for the Prince, detailing their encounter with the Anarchs. Ballard has no qualms about using this as evidence of the characters’ involvement in the Prince’s disappearance. Either the characters are guilty(Which Ballard puts forth as his suspicion, while this is the last thing he expects them to be capable of.) and returning the Prince is within their power, or they are innocent (Which Ballard does not consider to be a valid state of being. ) and they are now properly motivated to do all they can to aid Lodin’s childer in finding their sire. If the characters can’t find Lodin in two nights’ time, Ballard will hunt the characters down and make sure they hang for this.
As they head for the Sears Tower, to the haven of the Prince of Chicago, Brian Parker is called to his sire’s side. In paranoia, Marvin O’Leigh dictates they should mutually bind each other by the Blood. He suspects others in the city might be attempting to Blood Bond them. Having a pre-existing full Vinculum would prevent this. Brian agrees to do it.
Meanwhile, the others enter Lodin’s haven under Neally’s supervision. All the while, Neally seems to frown at Lanzo. The characters investigate the haven thoroughly. Among their findings, while Neally is being distracted, Lanzo is able to glimpse files mentioning the havens of several of Chicago’s inhabitants, as well as a group called ‘the Wolf Pack.’ More relevantly, they find reports on a growing cult of Satanism in the outskirts around Chicago.

Anarchs are blamed for this trend. In a subsequent file on Anarchs, the characters discover a local 7-Eleven store has been marked as suspicious. On the street, it is known as ‘the ghoulie man’s place.’ Mysterious things are reported to happen when Kindred go near it. Lodin added notes to this file very recently, suspecting it to be a possible hideout of Maldavis. The characters take all this and much more information with them, but it yields no immediate leads. Inexplicably, Lodin was ripped from his haven, a thick, steel vault, in the middle of the day.
On the street, the characters are then taken aside by the Primogen Tyler in her car, driven by none other than Alfrede, who is now stoic and silent.(His tongue has been cut out for what he told the characters so freely before.) Tyler comforts the characters at their being duped. If they can’t find proof the Anarchs are responsible, they will hang. The proof is going to be hard to find, because it doesn’t exist. The Anarchs had nothing to do with Lodin’s disappearance, she says. They are headed inevitably for being used as a scapegoat. Tyler suggests the characters join the revolution before they find themselves at the end of a Blood Hunt in a city run by the warring Ventrue childer. The Anarchs can offer them safe haven starting tonight, she says, in a backup haven run by a ghoul friend since the ‘80s. It’s been empty for the last few nights. At this, the characters agree.

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The characters are dropped off at the 7-Eleven and given a key. Inside, they find closed-off storage rooms that could be used as a haven. Suspecting more, they uncover a trap door to a basement. Below, they enter a basement of desecrated ground. Satanic murals are etched all around, together with newspaper clippings of a cult’s activities. The characters find empty animal cages and blood spilled over a table with vials and siphoning tubes. One bowl, placed ritualistically, contains a British newspaper clipping from 1958. It mentions a shooting in London. A note is placed next to it with ‘Vindictam Lodin’(‘Revenge on Lodin’) written on it in blood. Further investigation shows evidence in notes that a man named Roarke oversees this cult, and that he has moved his following to a cabin in the woods, near Oak Park.
All this while, there is one more door in the basement, leading to a dark room. Something old sleeps behind that door, and it beckons Jim Antwiler to approach. The others, it does not permit to know of its existence. Alone in that dark room, Jim Antwiler finds a corpse that speaks without moving its lips. He finds himself drinking from the being’s veins three times in a row, binding him to the ancient’s service.(Which is strange, since it should be impossible to Blood Bond someone fully during the course of only a single night.) It demands to be moved to a safe place. Jim revels in the greatness of this man and, for now, leaves quietly.
When Antwiler meets the rest outside again, they decide they should head for this cabin in the woods. All the while, Jim is thinking about how to move his new master after they return to Chicago.

The characters drive far out of Chicago, to arrive at St. James Cemetery in Oak Park by 4 am. On the other side of one of its walls lies an abandoned mansion, the home of Roarke’s cult. They wade through a thick wood and are attacked by a devilish ghouled ram. Deeper into the forest yet, they fall on the cultists themselves, interrupting their ritual. Roarke himself is present and dives into a sewage tunnel, beyond which lies Lodin’s torporous body. Roarke unleashes a horde of hungry, ghoul rats to feast on Lodin’s blood, in case the characters succeed in their attack.
Just barely, the characters slay the cultists. Jim Antwiler ends up drinking the last drops of Roarke’s blood, further strengthening his Blood Bonds.(Both to Menele and Lodin.) Lodin is saved from the brink of Final Death by bloodletting because of both Jim and Evan’s donated vitae.
Wounded, but all surviving, the characters return to Chicago and rest in Jim’s haven for the day.

>A String of Coincidences
>The characters, desperate in an impossible task, find two separate leads converging on the 7-Eleven tonight, where Roarke’s identity and guilt are explicitly exposed. If, to the reader—if not the characters—this seems like too much of a coincidence, that might be correct suspicion.
>It is creatures like the man sleeping behind the dark door that wield the strings of an entire city with enough strength to orchestrate such events. It takes two such creatures, however, to explain all that is going on…

7th March 1991
† The Woman in the Red Dress, Enter Giovanni
Everyone awakens in Jim’s haven, including Lodin. The Prince thanks everyone earnestly before he goes off to settle matters.(To prevent his childer from staging a very real, imminent coup.) Jim breaks off from the rest to do his new master’s bidding. He hides the ancient in his suburban haven at Franklin Park.(Jim Antwiler intended this haven as a safehouse in case the Class of ’91 ever got into trouble and believes the Kindred of Chicago are unaware of it. This is far from the truth.)As the ancient lies there, Antwiler is rewarded with knowing his master’s name: Meneleus.
Meanwhile, Lanzo exchanges messages with his sire through their drop points to keep him updated. Afterward, he is surprised to gain the attentions of Emily. She claims she is removed from Neally again. Lanzo and Emily make love again and share their blood.(Twice)
Afterwards, the characters meet again and discuss what to ask of the Prince. It has been made clear Lodin feels indebted to them. They decide that they want to advance in the Camarilla hierarchy here.

The characters meet with the Prince at the Prudential Building. They discuss what occurred and immediately the Prince promise to investigate the 7-Eleven. For a moment, Jim gets nervous. As for their reward, the characters are to be elevated to fill the gap left by the late Sheriff. They intend to turn the position to a more investigative tact. Lodin remains grateful to each and every one of these characters.
Outside, Jim splits off from the group as soon as he can. Nervous about the investigation at the 7-Eleven, he calls Daren and orders him to steal a car, anything that can’t be traced back to him. When he meets Daren at his Franklin Park haven, they move Menele into it. Then, Antwiler sets his own haven on fire. Thinking on his feet, Antwiler has Daren drive them to shore of Michigan Lake. They drag Menele into the depths. Then, Jim murders Daren in cold blood for witnessing Menele’s existence.
By the time Jim rejoins the coterie through two havens and one change of clothes, they decide to take a boat out on Lake Michigan through Marvin’s harbor.(Antwiler's eyes linger on the waters to the south) It is then, on the windy waters, that Lanzo admits to everyone that it was his sire who murdered Irmatrix.
On his way out of the harbor, Brian is followed by Errig Dunsirn. Noticing the brute, Brian speaks up to him and notices the overwhelming foul smell he emanates. Errig insists he and his colleagues come to the Alberta Hotel’s lobby tomorrow. Brian, afterwards, notifies everyone at their havens.
At the end of the night, Lanzo meets with Emily again.

>They decide'
>‘They decide that they want to advance in the Camarilla hierarchy here.’ They really did. This is a major turning point of the chronicle. Here, where we depart from the theme of personal horror and begin a far more horrific journey into the political.
>The characters have burned their bridges with the Anarchs. They are steadfast sure and deadest into making this decision, in denial of their own hubris, overconfident in their own abilities, and ignorant of the dangers ahead.
>Let it be said, however, that Lanzo objected. It was his preference to sink back into the shadows after this fleeting moment of prestige. With this shift in direction, the others adapt their characters’ motivations. In Menele’s name, Jim changes his Nature to Fanatic at this point. Meanwhile, Evan rekindles an intent to climb in Clan Toreador and adopts the Demeanor of Architect. Brian, meanwhile, in light of his own growing ambitions adapts his Demeanor to Judge.

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8th March 1991
† Enter Giovanni, The Truth behind Morris
The characters meet with Elinda Dunsirn. In contrast to the brutish Errig, she is charming, beautiful even, as she strolls over in a black dress, bearing a tumbler of single malt. Elinda is inquisitive about Morris and earnest when she explains he told them lies. She calls Morris her younger cousin and shows them a picture of two children in a field. She asks after Morris’ death, if it had meaning. When the characters elaborate on the bond that was the Class of ’91, she shows no signs of mourning.
It appears the two Dunsirn are after a blue folder in Morris’ possession. They explain it belongs to the family, that they truly mean them no harm, and that they can keep anything else Morris left them. The characters agree and Elinda follows them in her car to Lanzo’s office. There, Elinda is polite and does not intrude, giving Lanzo(Whose curiosity is tested beyond his resolve.) the opportunity to glimpse into the folder secretly after he finds it, before handing it over. Inside, he finds a copy of the photo Elinda had with her, proving her claim, along with a page ripped from a book called ‘Dunsirn: A Threefold History.’ While he struggles to commit it all to memory, the folder is handed over to Elinda, and she thanks the characters.
The characters and the Dunsirn part, now on friendly terms. Elinda hints at her animosity for Clan Tremere, which the characters echo. The Dunsirn decide to remain in town a little longer.
Lanzo then seeks seclusion to try to copy down as much as he can of what he remembers from the document. He is disturbed by a distressed Emily at his door. She can’t seem to stop shouting apologies. She has discovered how she is responsible for subjecting Lanzo to Neally in a Blood Bond. Lanzo curses the trickery.

>>30183805
>Considering that the logs were 200 pages long and there are a 100 pages of additional cool stuff
HOLY SHIT, ANON

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Exactly one week after Annabelle was infuriatingly visited by three neonates, intruding on her mortal masquerade, Evan shows up at her door this evening. Annabelle, barely resisting frenzy, manages enough grace to allow the Toreador aspirant an invitation to Bret’s party in little over a week.
After Lanzo shares his news, the characters decide to approach the Dunsirn for help with the Neally situation. Returning to the Alberta Hotel, they meet Elinda and Errig at their lodgings: the Icarus Suite on the 10th floor. In their conversation, the suggestion is made that Elinda and Errig do away with Neally in exchange for the characters aid against the Tremere. Fascinated by the bravado of these Camarilla specimens, Elinda agrees to look into the matter. (She considers the possibility of compelling a soul to do her bidding and kill this Neally.)

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>>30190857
(This is the situation anon. )

9th March 1991
† Inauguration
The characters are to be inaugurated this night. Preoccupied with their Neally dilemma, the characters visit the Dunsirns without Lanzo just before the Elysium. Elinda has relevant questions to ask the characters before she can go through with the assassination. She asks about Neally’s history, particularly any enemies, particularly any who are currently dead. The characters tell her everything they know about Neally, mostly concerning the events at the theater. Elinda seems delighted at the mention of Jefferson.

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At midnight, then, the characters stand before Lodin, the Primogen, and numerous gathered ancilla of the city, including Neally himself, who distances himself from Lanzo for now. Lodin begins a speech, where he illustrates the historic position of the Scourge, seldom used in modern nights. The characters are then brought forward and one by one, elevated to this elite function, the new Scourge of Chicago. Lodin, to further illustrate his rewards, grants the Scourge his former haven at the Sears Tower as their base of operations. During the applause that follows, Lodin tells the characters to talk to his childe about any particulars they would like built into the Sears Tower.

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Then, they are faced with Neally. The Blood Bond takes a hold of Lanzo. Neally adopts a malicious grin right up to the moment a specter seems to materialize behind him, bearing Jefferson’s face. The wraith, without hesitation, tears his former rival’s head off. The whole of the gathered Elysium turns in shock as Neally fades to ashes and Jefferson evaporates to dust.

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Jim Antwiler preemptively speaks up(Seven successes are achieved on a Leadership roll.) to assure everyone the Scourge will deal with this incursion. In the frantic accusations that follow, the characters suggest Sabbat activity before they hastily leave the Succubus Club.
The characters enter Elinda’s hotel room just as she is done feeding and Errig is disposing of the bodies in a room service cart. After several accusations from the characters’ part, it becomes clear Elinda did not intend for this to happen publicly. She had little control over when it would happen, and assumed he would be alone.
When the characters press her about her Necromancy, she draws a firm line in the conversation. Elinda reminds the characters about their end of the bargain: their aid to plot against the Tremere.

>Why the Scourge?
>The Scourge, being an office no longer in use, fits Lodin’s intentions perfectly. It bestows all the honors of any other position as well as reinforcing a conservative stance to the modern nights. Meanwhile, he is free to determine what exactly the Scourge will mean. Whether the characters are worthy to replace Balthazar remains to be seen. Lodin is well aware that if he wasn’t begrudgingly forced to terminate his Sheriff, he may never have been kidnapped in the first place.
?Later in the modern nights, the office of the Scourge will reappear as a less honorable reflection of its ancient counterpart. Its responsibilities mainly include the genocide of Caitiff, along with other dirty jobs best left to a ruthless executioner, unloved by the city.
>Who is to say that definition of the Scourge did not appear here in Chicago first? It may very well be argued the modern Scourge came from Lodin making up his mind about these characters.

At the end of this act I propose another little break.

A message for people who recently stumbled upon this thread. Don't be intimidated by it's size, I believe that it starts off rather easy to follow at the beginning. It gets more hectic little by little.

I regret posting entire character sheets.. that must've scared some people off.

>>30191109
can you upload the complete pdf (since you have it) for anons' convenience? I don't want to miss something by going offline for a few days. Truly great stuff by the way.

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>>30192354
I was refraining from doing that, thinking it would make people less interested in the thread where I can get a first hand response. Seeing that the turnout wasn't what I expected it to be (It seems that at the time I started posting must WOD people left or something) I'll distribute it anyway.

The file is too big for 4chan though.

You can find it along the videos "From the notes of Nathaniel Brodruff" in which the characters are interviewed about their involvement with the death of Neally (for which they are totally responsible) ánd their involvement with an attack of the Tremere chantry (for which they were set up) here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQbVhHh1utI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUxe6yFPY-czaLiL-2ViVDkg

>>30192541
Awesome, thanks. Hope you have better luck at drawing people out tomorrow. It's certainly worthy of more attention.

>>30193084
No problem! And I hope the same. I found out somebody had already archived this thread aswell. Which will save me quite some time recapping and reposting events.

If there's anything unclear or any details that you'd like for me to elaborate by all means ask. I'll continue namefagging for a while and lurking the wod generals.