1. Origins of the Vampyre

Game I – The Origin of the Vampyre. 22nd March, 2019.

Act I. Scene i: Tarrow Hall, Yorkshire. 1731.

Back to back, a pair of duellists separate to begin counting paces. Their field of war is open parkland on the outskirts of a property known as Tarrow Hall, inhabited of late by the reclusive Sir Logan MacGregor whom is one of the combatants. Their Seconds wait near the copse of trees as they observe the gentlemen settle their animosity, an hour after sundown. Normally such affairs were settled at dawn, but at the request of Sir Logan’s messenger, the duel had to be at such a chill hour, if at all.

His opponent, a landed esquire from the neighbouring region, turned on his heel to raise his pistol. A voice cried out from the nearby lane, hurriedly calling Sir L’s name from the leaning shadows of the trees. With shaking hands the opponent fired, hoping to cheat the match by the sudden interjection from the lane, but Sir L and his dignity remained untouched by lead-shot.

Calmly raising his own flintlock, the night air cracked with a second retort that startled distant birds.

Congratulating Sir L, his Second opened the walnut pistol case to collect the small arms as the messenger arrived onto the scene. ‘Batman’ (title of a personal military attendant) John first asked after the gunfire, and quickly deduced that his master had survived the encounter, after laying eyes on the body of the other in the twilight. His news was brief, reporting that Lords Christie and Jotham had arrived at Tarrow Hall on urgent business.

Leaving the collection of the body and widow’s note of bereavement to the remaining Seconds, Sir L walked back along the lane toward his house, musing on what service his sire would have of him after such a long absence. It had been years since their last meeting, which showed itself in the creasing lines of the Lord Jotham’s face once he entered the parlour room to greet them. After the eager exchanges of reacquainting each other, Jotham left the room to arrange for any luggage to be brought into the house (taking the somnolent suggestion at Lord C’s bidding).

Now alone, Lord Christie commented on the sound of gunshots coming from the nearby parklands, before explaining his sudden arrival. Recent events in the red courts of York and London had threatened his position as one of the Primogen, veiled threats against his unlife that he would not describe openly in that dark parlour. The rumours were serious enough that he was making excuses to leave the country by attending a convocation in Vienna to vote for recent positions made available in the Camarilla.

His visit with Lord Jotham was to inform Logan of the danger that he too would experience as a ‘blood relation’. Lord C asked his childer to prepare his affairs and luggage for a trip to the capital of the Hapsburg Empire, to accompany him as a knight would serve his commander.

A ship will be waiting for them in Scarborough, the Dutch vessel ‘Rossenblum’.

Scene ii: Dietmar’s Study, Vienna.

A guardsman rapped his gauntlet onto the hard timber of the outer door, as a thin solitary gentleman waited for the sentinel to allow him passage into his master’s room. A voice from the other side crooned in feigned surprise, asking the guard to usher Friedriech into his quarters.

The room was sparse of furnishings, every shelf and desk taken up with tomes and manuscripts of a thousand different subjects, mundane and otherwise. With these collected volumes sat Dietmar, Friedriech’s sire and guarantor within the clan Tremere. He was seated at a writing desk whose position overlooked the moonlit edges of Vienna’s grand buildings, inviting the neonate to sit with him and speak.

It was the anniversary of Friedriech’s meeting with Dietmar at the restricted anatomy lectures, the fateful night he had dared challenge the possibility of life after death. Since that event Friedriech had been under observation by his Sire and the clan, to which both were now satisfied that he could contribute his talents to their goals.

Rumours across the Hungarian borders had begun to panic the Viennese Court, whispers of ‘vukodlak’ and ‘vampyres’ returning in their funeral shrouds to haunt village roads leading the Hapsburg monarchy to order an official report to satisfy the public gossip. Dietmar had nominated his childer (Fried.) to accompany the military expedition into Serbia with other chosen cainites, to report as an eyewitness for the Tremere into the strange events plaguing the region. Dietmar instructed him further as to how the clan wanted the issue resolved as far as mortal kine were involved: they would learn no truth nor find any scrap of evidence to hint at the true nature of Cain’s children, lest the discovery plunge Europe back into the medieval superstitious muck from which it was blooming into a more enlightened age.

As a personal request, Dietmar asked his childer to perform another task during the investigation. There was a parcel in the care of a Greek merchant by the name of Civan Kabakes, whom was waiting in the same regions to trade it with the Tremere from some previous bargain. Herr Friedriech would make contact with Civan and collect the parcel before the royal investigations were concluded.

His curiosity roused by the uncanny nature of the vukodlak outbreaks, Friedriech asked his Sire if the reports demonstrated any intelligence in these ambulant corpses. There were signs enough, as Dietmar explained: speech, recognition of other villagers, amongst other clues. So far, the Clan’s main suspects were the Sabbat, a sinister menagerie of immoral cainites, or remnant Assamite factions from the Turkish wars. What troubled the elders was why either of these parties would randomly embrace poor peasants en masse.

As for the parcel, the Tremere elder revealed it to be a vial of blood taken from one of the Tzimisce. The vitae would be useful in breaking the secrets of the eastern clan, to possibly form a new path of blood-magic that would touch upon Friedriech’s own researches. Before parting, the elder warned his charge to beware of the Greek merchant’s false charms, and the ugly masks of the Nosferatu, whom would no doubt wheedle their way into joining the expedition.

Scene iii: Woods near Merzse, Hungary.

In the autumn gloom of the wetlands and forests, east of the church spires of Pest a congregation of beggars and lepers was gathering in the woods. Amongst the small crowds that whispered was the stunted form of Johann, ex-inquisitor of the Roman Church. Like the others, he had read the signs to arrive on the new moon after All Saint’s Feast, a meeting of the local clan to address recent troubles.

Soon another joined Johann’s side. A man embraced before the corruption of time had taken his youth, Janos padded like a wolf into the fog between the trees to greet the other. No hint of his white skin could be seen in the thick coat of hair over his face and limbs, though there was intelligence enough in the glint of his eyes. Jonas was from another clan of Cainites, of the wild Gangrel packs that patrolled the scattered forests from the Adriatic coast to Transylvania and Hungary.

Janos admitted that he knew the agenda of the meeting that night; the disappearance of Gregor and his childer in the new borderlands won from the Ottomans. His sinister vanishing act had caused a blind spot in the Nosferatu’s webs of information, particularly in such a volatile area.

The whispers of the congregation ceased as a shadow with an antlered crown crossed through the starlight, garbed in feathers and rags as it raised its open palms to either side in a sweeping gesture to account for them all. The ominous crone had haunted the lands of Hungary and Austria for centuries, punishing the cruel and wicked. Such activities had in time given her the title ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’, the name by which the natives crossed themselves when travellers went missing. Amongst her fellow kindred, she offered the name ‘Borbala’.

Borbala confirmed the gossip of Gregor’s silence over the Autumn months, and more: from the same valleys along the Morava river were increasing outbreaks of ‘vukodlak’ demons that were restless in the grave. The connection was enough for the Nosferatu to persuade the courts of Vienna to investigate and seal any potential breaches of the masquerade. She would attend the impending convocation of the Camarilla soon to ensure that the local princes would act in the clan’s favour.

At the conclusion of the woodland meeting, Borbala summoned Johann to attend her. Tracing her long nails over the deformed scalp of her progeny, Borbala seemed to float on the forest floor as they walked through the moonless night. She explained her plans for Johann to act as her eyes and ears and join the military investigation being organised in Vienna.

Once he arrived at the southern borders with the other Camarilla potentials, she would have him discreetly obscure any real trace of vukodlak from the investigating surgeons, so that their reports to the Hapsburg King (Karl VI) would cause no official witch hunts. Whatever party was suspected in taunting the masquerade, they would have to be dealt with covertly on the side. Somewhere in this muddy pool of events would also be found the fate of Gregor, assumed to have met his end by those responsible for the village haunting.

As a final warning, the elder impressed upon her childer to keep the Tremere candidate for the expedition within sight. Having the majority rule of the Red Court of Vienna and much of Austria, the clan of sorcerers would send their own snake to ensure that they could maintain control of the new lands won from the Turks.

Act II. Scene i: Schloss-Belvedere, Vienna.

A great ball is held in the privacy of Belvedere Palace at the beginning of winter, the social setting filled with twinkling candelabras floating over the crowds, their warm luminescence rose-gold in the wide hall as wigs and frock coats mingled with hooped dresses and coiffures. For a time the majority of those gathered were blue blood mortals, until the candles began to smoke in extinction and draw in the wings of shadows.

With the hour now late, these mortal revellers bid each other adieu as they departed through far doors, the echo of their voices diminishing as they followed the galleries to some distant building. Sir Logan had arrived by coach with Lord Christie before the party broke up, avoiding the attentions of Dietmar and his progeny until the closing numbers left no more screens between them, the meeting inevitable. Outside, Johann and Janos had overseen the gaieties of the evening, noting how the noble guests did not react to the presence of the more unusual Cainites, such as Borbala whom now wore a mask shaped from river clay into a flat featureless visage. After midnight the Nosferatu and Gangrel pair joined the rest of the kindred, seeking out Johann’s sire.

Brought together by their respective elders, the three neonates were formally introduced, hinting that they were to be the members assigned to the Serbian investigation. *(handshake moment) With their own affairs to address, the Ventrue, Nosferatu, and Tremere elders withdrew, allowing the three neonates to study each other as curiosities or potential foes in their clan’s ambitions.

Friedriech circled the hunched Johann like a specimen of disease, fascinated that such a frame could continue living under such stress from the countless abnormalities and leprous rot. Bemused, Johan let the Tremere fledgling judge his horrid appearance, as it told volumes about Herr Doctor’s personality, or lack thereof...

* * *

After becoming acquainted with each other’s names and presentation, Dietmar beckoned for them all to meet the august presence of Prince Lotharius. The retinue around the kindred leader parted to allow an audience with the man in the gold brocade jacket. Lotharius’ broad face smiled warmly as he listened to the call of their names and clans, raising his right hand so they might kiss the large amethyst stone ring as a sign of fealty to his domains.

The protruding needles of Johann’s teeth rasped against the hard gem, a minor social embarrassment that perturbed the English Ventrue among other witnesses. Lotharius questioned them amicably like a grandfather after the formal introductions. Satisfied with the responses given so far, he ushered them to continue speaking privately with him outside. A large pool garden of cherub fountains and balustrade fenced arches afforded them a retreat from the Viennese court, where the Prince could speak his mind on the ‘vampyre’ outbreaks in Serbia.

Similar epidemics of plague and famine had led to mass witch trials and the loss of many kindred in the past, and the Camarilla sought action to prevent any future panic that could injure the clans. A royal investigation was leaving the barracks outside Vienna in two days, a train of wagons that would travel south along the Danube into Hungary and beyond. With the help of a loyal servant (“Isvan”), Johann, Logan, Friedriech and the Gangrel Janos would be smuggled aboard the convoy, inside the supply crates.

Once sealed inside the caskets, they were to only emerge from them at a coded signal from the servant when he had deemed it safe to do so until they reached Serbia. From there they were free to operate in their duties of protecting the investigation from threat, and to hide any evidence that would break the masquerade in the surgeon’s official reports. It was imperative that the two surgeons, Flukinger and Glaser, draw no conclusions other than the religious superstitions of peasants were exaggerating the misery of their own cruel short lives.

Scene ii: Vienna, 2nd Night.

Having accepted the task of keeping the peace in Morava valley outside Belgrade (Serbia), Johann, Logan, and Friedriech waited in the capital, each occupying his own time with constructive pursuits before the journey south.

Friedriech was summoned again by his sire, joining him in another room of the rundown manse that Dietmar occupied in the city. Unlike the study, there were no furnishings save for candles and ritual apparatus. The night’s lesson was a telepathic link that would allow Friedrich to keep in personal commune with him and the rest of clan. Through such subtle speech-of-the-mind, he could report on the proceedings of the investigation.

* * *

Creeping along the carriage lanes and alleys that fed into the ghettos and factory houses near the river, Johann hunted for the fat black rats that had made their home in the thatching of domiciles to escape the winter chill. Ironically, the priest’s curse of eternal night had taught him an empathy that had been lacking in his mortal days. Reaching out with his honest emotions of kindness, the inquisitive rats poked their whiskers from the gutters and eaves, descending into the back streets to sniff at the bent figure whom had befriended them.

Keeping enough of the rodents that could ride in his tattered pockets, scarf, and shoulders, the Nosferatu continued his prowl along the river docks to the barracks further inland, where they were to be carried away in crates to a wild region. There was some indication that vehicles were being collected together near the supply sheds, to which Johann ventured unseen, tracing his thin fingers over four chests that were marked ‘lead munitions’ yet surprisingly empty. Cracking away one of the bottom corners as an aperture through which his new friends could come and go as they pleased during the journey, he quickly left the wagon to fade back into the cold night of the city.

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