#with the black veins if those really are from diablerie

[ohmigoshiloveu]

Uh Arthur being a delinquent back when he was a kid and then becoming Emizel’s surrogate sire in the present and stating at some point that he saw himself in the twins and that’s why he was staying with them? To keep them from becoming him?? Uh, there’s something poetic here but mostly this is just going into my ‘Arthur is Emizel’s dad-mom’ pile. So uh. Yeah.

[smileygoth]

7. Rage Against the System (WODtober 2023)

Part 7 of my WODtober story. Taking the daily prompts and trying to weave a vampire story from them! In this chapter, Miro does some digging into a possible attack on the Prince himself.

Word Count: 1,000 words.

CW:  Rats - that's about it.

Image found on iStock.

Find the previous chapters here!

Miro was tired. He’d spent the entire night running around the city, talking to Kindred after Kindred who had been around when Imogen’s punishment had been carried out, asking questions and putting together a picture. What he’d found out hadn’t helped much - someone had sent an anonymous tip to the Sheriff that she had the black veins of diablerie in her aura, and when the Sheriff had checked it out it had turned out to be true. Imogen had been detained, questioned - roughly - and hauled before the Prince, who presumably had used his own methods of persuasion on her. At no point did she reveal who she had diablerised. Searches had been made of the domain, every powerful and important Kindred accounted for. No one seemed to be missing - no one of consequence, at least - and there had been some talk of her being released - no victim, no crime. But of course that’s not how things work in Kindred society. The Prince had convicted her based on the marks in her aura, and that had been that. She’d disappeared into his catacombs with a stake in her chest and no one ever expected to see her again. 

So now Miro had a better understanding of why she had been imprisoned, but still no clue who she had diablerised or how she had escaped. There were still a few hours til sunrise, and he was wandering back toward home wondering who else he could talk to. So with no better ideas, he bit the bullet and made a call on one of his burner phones to his one and only contact among the Prince’s security team. 

Justin picked up the phone almost right away. ‘Yes?’

‘Justin, it’s Miro.’ Phone pressed to his mangled ear beneath his hood, Miro found a dark doorway to sink back into. He glanced around for passers-by, but the street was empty at this hour.

There was a long pause. ‘Yes?’ Justin said again.

‘Just wanted to pick your brains, my friend,’ Miro said, forcing a relaxed tone. ‘See, I heard a rumour, and you’re in the perfect position to confirm or deny it. And you know how I like to be right about things,so-’

‘What’s the rumour?’ Justin cut in. ‘Make it quick please, I’m kind of busy.’

‘Oh, if I’ve caught you at a bad time-’

‘Quick, I said.’

Miro chuckled. ‘Alright, fair enough.’ He paused, then said: ‘Word is someone broke into the catacombs recently. Is that true?’

Another long pause. Then: ‘First of all, the catacombs don’t exist. It’s just another stupid rumour. Secondly, if they did exist, why would anyone break in? They’re just full of dead assholes.’

Miro grinned. ‘I don’t know, maybe they want to break one of those assholes out?’

Justin sighed. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Never happened. You hear me? Never. Happened. And if you know what’s good for your scaly ass, you’ll forget you ever heard such a rumour. Where did you hear it, anyway?’

‘You know I don’t reveal my sources,’ Miro replied. ‘That’ll include you, if there’s something you’re not telling me. Especially if it’s something that’s, say, good enough to make me forget about that little … indiscretion of yours?’

There was another long pause. ‘Fine,’ Justin replied. ‘The rumour’s good. There was a break-in, and one of the prisoners was taken. But that’s all I know. And don’t go poking into it, okay? The Prince has tripled security because of it. He’s fucking pissed.’

‘I bet he is.’ Miro chuckled. ‘One more question.’

‘What?’ Justin growled.

‘Where are the catacombs?’

‘Goodnight, M,’ Justin said flatly. ‘Don’t ever call me again.’ And the line went dead.

Miro took the phone away from his ear and looked at it disapprovingly. ‘Oh Justin,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘You really think that’s going to stop me?’ He shoved his phone into his jacket pocket and set off for home feeling much more cheerful. There was just one more thing he could do.

Ducking into an alley just around the corner from the train station, he followed it along until it took him beneath the arches of the bridge that took the trains into one side of the station. On the way he plucked a bruised apple from an open bin and stuck it into his pocket. In the inky blackness of the shadows cast by the bridge, he crouched down out of sight and let out a low, shrill whistle. A few minutes later, a small shape moved in the darkness. Bright black eyes gleamed, and a small quivering nose sniffed, taking in his scent. He dropped his hand, palm-up, to the ground, and the fat brown rat climbed into it with a low squeak. 

Miro lifted the rat up until he was face to face with it. ‘Hello, friend,’ he said, contorting his voice until it was little more than grunts and squeaks. ‘I need you and your family to look for something for me. Can you do that?’

The rat blinked and lifted its snout.

‘Keep an eye out for a place where things like me are gathered in large packs,’ he said. ‘With weapons. You know what weapons are?’

The rat squeaked confirmation, its tail twitching agitatedly.

‘You don’t have to go near them, just if you see them, come let me know where they are,’ Justin went on. ‘Will you pass the message on?’

The rat squeaked again. 

‘Thanks, friend,’ Miro said, smiling. He pulled the apple out of his pocket and showed it to the rat, then placed it on the ground. ‘For your help.’

With a happy squeak, the rat jumped from his hand to his knee to the ground and tucked into the apple, holding it still with its front paws as it munched on the soft fruit. Miro watched it for a second, smiling fondly, then stood up and slipped back into the shadows. Without any more delays, he made his way home to where Imogen was waiting.

[ryttu3k]

Elijah’s character sheet, V20 version! A bit trickier than the V5 version, since the only benefit of Amalgam disciplines did at least mean the V5 one had access to Thaumaturgy and Koldunic Sorcery as well as Dur-An-Ki, haha.

V5 version, for comparison. Onwards!

Elijah 'Pyre' Carter

Clan: Banu Haqim (Sorcerer) Generation: 12th (via diablerie, originally 13th) Concept: Magical hacker Nature: Pentinent Demeanour: Visionary

Attributes

Physical: Strength 1, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3

Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 3, Appearance 2

Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 3

Abilities

Talents: Alertness 2, Awareness 2, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 3

Skills: Drive 1, Larceny 1, Stealth 3

Knowledge: Academics 3 (History), Computer 4 (Hacking), Investigation 2, Occult 3, Technology 2

Advantages

Disciplines: Dur-An-Ki 2, Obfuscate 1 (Cloak of Shadows), Auspex 1 (Heightened Senses)

Backgrounds: Alternative Identity 2, Contacts 1, Domain 1, Resources 1

Virtues: Conscience 4, Self-Control 4, Courage 2

Humanity 8

Willpower 7

Merits & Flaws

Merits: Efficient Digestion (Physical Merit 3), Languages - Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Arabic (Mental Merit 2), Natural Linguist (Mental Merit 2)

Flaws: Dark Secret - committed diablerie in 2015 (Social Flaw 2), Derangement - Sanguinary Animism (Supernatural Flaw 3), Prey Exclusion - people (Mental Flaw 1), Soft-Hearted (Mental Flaw 1)

Derangement: Sanguinary Animism, developed after committing diablerie. Sticks to bagging as he believes the soul impression fades after leaving the vein. Avoids drinking from people at all costs.

Sorcery

Paths: Hand of the Magi 2, Life's Water 1, Path of the Levinbolt 2, Path of Warding 2, Whispers of the Heavens 1

Rituals: Horoscope

Profile

Concept: InfoSec expert for hire! Hide your dealings from prying hunter eyes! Sweet, compassionate, good kid who also does Crimes and occasionally gets the extremely strong urge to eat bad people.

Age: Born 28 December 1993, Embraced September 2013. Apparent age 19, actual age 28

Description: 5'6", scrawny and pale, looks perpetually exhausted. Curly black hair, grey-blue eyes. Perpetually bitten nails (they were like that way when he was Embraced and now he's stuck with them!). Usual outfit: skinny jeans, graphic tee, Converses, black choker necklace, oversized red hoodies for days nights.

History: Quiet kid, only child, didn't make too many waves in childhood but was pretty rebellious as a teen and got heavily into hacking and general Computer Crime Shenanigans. Went to uni and started computer science, was not at all academically inclined, dropped out after a year and a half and worked menial jobs to try and survive.

Was Embraced shortly before his 20th birthday in 2013. The Banu Haqim were rapidly increasing their ties to the Camarilla, and the sire, a Dispossessed Sorcerer who neither wanted to join the Camarilla nor bow to Ur-Shulgi halfway across the world, wanted a childe to help build up their personal power. Both Elijah and his sire are fairly young, never lived under the Tremere curse, have never been to the Middle East, and have no connection to Banu Haqim culture in general. However, his sire was ambitious and knew that power was the best way to stay alive, and when they tracked down a Banu Haqim elder in torpor, they ‘encouraged' Elijah to diablerise her (this sire, incidentally, is a diablerist as well).

This was deeply traumatic for the poor kid (it was only a year or two after his Embrace, and he picked up a derangement in the process) and he promptly cut contact with his sire, even if it hurt him greatly to do so. He just… did not want to deal with them. Has spent the last 5-6 years working in information security for people wanting to avoid hunter detection, and trying to expand his knowledge of blood sorcery. Would want to find another Banu Haqim Sorcerer to teach him more Dur-An-Ki, or even learn Thaumaturgy from - ugh - a Tremere.

Personality: Still a genuinely sweet kid who likes! helping people! and so the Humanity hit from the diablerie wasn't too bad, really, and it helps that he felt hideously guilty and traumatised from it. Very very strong moral code - protect people from exploitative institutions and people, even if that means he occasionally gets the extremely strong urge to eat bad people, which he also doesn't want to do because he would rather not like any more souls in his head. Quiet and melancholy, but he can put on a pleasant and calm facade. Can get extremely impatient with himself and doesn't tolerate making mistakes (both for himself and sometimes with others), and is very frustrated with his existence as, well, a blood-sucking parasite. Still craves closeness to others and can be a bit promiscuous, although due to his derangement (see above), he tries to avoid drinking from them at all costs.

Goals: Stay alive. Don't eat anyone (unless they really, really deserve it). Learn Koldunic Sorcery (Path of Fire, Spirit) and Thaumaturgy (Technomancy and Hacktivist paths, level 2 rituals Seal Egress and Deny the Intruder).

Allies & Contacts: One contact - Jackson Lucas, bored employee at Red Cross that Elijah occasionally hooks up with. Slips Elijah blood bags that are about to expire and be thrown out.

Gear & Equipment: Sunbag (lightproof sleeping bag). Beaten-up backpack containing laptop, spare chargers, smartphone (used as emergency computer, not connected to anything), flip phone and spare prepaid SIMs, blank USBs, those USB things with prepaid internet on them, hacked Kindle with blood sorcery grimoires (Dur-An-Ki and Quietus, Thaumaturgy, Koldunic sorcery), basic ritual kit (small knife, lighter, metal, glass, and silicone containers, tea lights, amulets and charms), water bottle (kept mostly full) and muesli bar for sake of appearance.

Haven: Rental apartment in cheap area of town. Blinds not actually lightproof in living room, better in bedroom - still, ‘bed' is for show, has actual sleeping space in wardrobe (his actual clothes are in the pantry in the kitchen). Keeps an emergency sports bag with clothes, mini ritual kit, smartphone, flip phone and prepaid SIM, and chargers under the bed.

[ryttu3k]

Hello naughty children it's Gehenna time.

...which means I'm going to read the book properly this time and write notes on each scenario, partially for my own reference, partially in answer to an ask from @rayshell22livejournalcom​ from about a zillion years ago. Sorry about that!

Mood soundtrack: Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞; Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven; Yanqui U.X.O.

Prelude: Netchurch is an interesting character. Very skeptical, despite, well, the entire setting, although that's definitely, uh, broken by the end. Feel very sad for Afifa, who was a pawn in all this. Creepy babies galore!

Introduction: "While Vampire favors that futile, tragic, and - we'll say it - angst-heavy conclusion" - lmao you don't say. Although I do like how they have the consistent golden rule that if you don't like it, just ditch it! (Of course, the Gehenna scenarios as a whole have been completely retconned anyway by v20 and v5, so this entire book is a good example of taking what you want from it and ignoring the rest.)

"Some people are on opposite sides of this thing. They're elders who don't want to knuckle under to the Antediluvians (most elders will accept their proper place in the heirarchy again with the rising of their progenitors) and poor, misled souls who bought into the lie and are pissed about it (paging Mr. Pieterzoon). Bottom line: the Camarilla collapses like Enron/WorldCom as the worthlessness of its foundation becomes public knowledge. Chaos ensues among the vampire community, princes find themselves besieged by their own locals, and it's all a big clusterfuck."

Have I ever mentioned I love how VtM phrases stuff? Also F to Jan.

I like how they have a masterlist of what's actually going on with the Antediluvians. Spoilers ;D "For example, note that [Tzimisce] is simply referred to as [Tzimisce]. Even here at the game studio, our limited mortal minds weren't able to comphrenend the creature's real name." Lovecraft only WISHES he had eldritch abominations this spooky! Ennoia is 'Active and scary' and apparently spooks the devs just thinking about it. Makes sense. "Giovanni (Augustus Giovanni): Augustus is a pig, and he should probably die as one of the early events of Gehenna. He's the youngest of the Antediluvians and probably possessed the greatest ego (in mortal terms), so it'll be cosmic justice when he eats it." I love how no one likes Giovanni, even his creators. Malkav may or may not BE the Madness Network, in which case they cease to be an Antediluvian and just become... a part of the Malkavians, I guess? Absimiliard may or may not be chilling at the bottom of the ocean, because mood. Tremere / Saulot is definitely a fun one to play with, yeah. Although, oof, if Saulot ever gets control of their shared body, he's going to be fucked up if [Tzimisce] activates, so. Probably better to create a nice fresh body, like what BJD suggests with the child Saulot.

Chapter 1 - the lead-up: Basically a rundown of the signs and how they're interpreted. "An angel dies: How does an angel die? Who has the gall to rise up and slay one of God's firstborn? Or perhaps this is another metaphor. An angel could be a pure and gentle creature, or then again, it need not be one of God's angels (not that God's angels are necessarily pure and gentle). A feared and particularly vicious Necronomist Tzimisce, Sascha Vykos is sometimes referred to as the Angel of Caine. Many would rejoice the night that Vykos died." Hey rude :( I vote they kill Michael instead. He wants to be an Archangel? Fine, he can fulfill a prophesy XD

Honestly I really do dig that Ennoia Earthmelded with the entire planet. You can go so many directions with that, good or bad! Ennoia as The Beast Below, or Ennoia as Gaia? (Wow, that'd really fuck with the Garou XD) I love how the general consensus on Haqim is like, no one knows if he exists or not but lbr Ur-Shulgi is bad enough. Kinda dig the idea of the Toreador ante, Ishtar/Arikel, being genderfluid? I mean yeah essentially demigods have no need for gender anyway, but the constant debates over whether the Toreador ante is the female Ishtar or the male Arikel (or, uh, was it vice versa?) does lead to some interesting concepts. Ooh, similar to [Tzimisce] being linked to its entire clan (and the Tremere, anyone who's ever taken part in the Vaulderie, and anyone who knows Vicissitude), [Lasombra] may be connected to anyone who knows Obtenebration? [Ravnos]... yeah, probably dead. F to the clan. And yeah I think [Tzimisce] is flat-out the scariest one of all, and probably the one most likely to actually start the apocalypse, lbr.

Ugh this is one of the books that calls Sascha 'it' :-\ Do not like. ...Also do not like the suggestion that they're an unknowing agent of the Eldest, given, uh, the last chapter of the DA Tzimisce novel. Shoo! Shoo! You've ruined their unlife enough as it is!

Epistolary material! I do dig those. Most interesting: a letter to Sascha mentioning apocalyptic visions of New York but with the Carpathians in the background, and an anonymous letter to Hardestadt warning him of one of his line tearing down a castle that the writer feels believes the Camarilla. GO JAN FUCK IT UP.

And on to the scenarios themselves!

Chapter 2 - Wormwood: This is an interesting one. Literally a Biblical vengeance - God takes a good look at the Children of Caine and goes, "Well, this is fucked up", acknowledges that Caine never really sought true forgiveness and repentance, and sets forth Wormwood, the Red Star. The truly repentant are saved, the rest just. Die.

Herald here is a dhampir girl named Alia - thinblood father, human mother. When she's twelve, she becomes God's chosen, basically. Traveling with three thinblood guardians, one night, she's approached a Gargoyle named Ferox with True Faith, who sees himself as a fallen angel. And Alia offers him a way of redemption - find the chosen true believers, wait out Wormwood, receive judgement. Anyone can seek sanctuary, only the true believers and the ones genuinely willing to repent will survive the judgement itself. Alia and Ferox set out to find the other chosen ones.

Whew. Very full-on - the players remain in one place with a whole bunch of other vampires for forty nights. I mean, that's a test in and of itself XD All welcome! (Except infernalists and the antediluvians and Caine himself. They're fucked no matter what.)

Like. All welcome XD "Some Storytellers might feel that this character roundup could get too silly, suddenly having all these celebrity Kindred get together for a big slumber party, and they would be correct." Fuck that give me a slumber party AU XD

Am very glad about the note that the vampires inside only lose one blood point per 10 days, rather than every day. Otherwise, uh, it'd get gory.

Yeah, this is a really interesting scenario. Very character-focused, very introspective. All about the characters trying to work out what it means to be good people - not the strongest vampires, not the most powerful, but good people. Are they worthy of salvation? That's the crux of the story. Of course, it's very, uh, Biblical, heh, but it's first and foremost about morality and redemption. I dig it.

Also, giant vampire slumber party.

Chapter 3 - Fair is Foul: Ooh, this is a Lilith vs Caine scenario.

This one has the Withering hit in weird ways, including clan-specific ones - like the Banu Haqim only able to feed on vitae, then only able to gain sustenance from diablerie. Gangrel turn even more animalistic. Lasombra take to the seas, Obtenebration ripping holes straight to the Abyss. Malks, uh, leak madness. Nosferatu get even uglier, Toreador devolve into debauchery. Tremere develop third eyes, and yes, I did laugh out loud when I read that. Tzimisce... hmm... get a bit, uh, uncontrolled. And Ventrue find they can now only feed on... other Ventrue. Fun times!

"At your discretion, Lilith might be particularly vulnerable to Jewish True Faith, as the Jewish tales about her are the source of nearly every negative sentiment ever directed against her in writing. As a result, most orthodox Jews bear Lilith great contempt for defying her husband and her God." Yeah ngl I think she's pretty dang cool and I can just see, like, most of my ancestors facepalming at the idea XD;; Fuck obediance you do your own thing.

"Trying to work out traits for Lilith, Lucifer, Caine, or any of the Antediluvians would just be a waste of our word count and your time." I like the time they published a guide for fighting Caine. It was two words. "You lose."

Ah. Okay, Saulot in Tremere's body being taken over by the Eldest = scary, because have you ever been attacked by an Antediluvian wielding Thaumaturgy, Valeran, and Vicissitude at the SAME :) TIME? :) Yeah :)

Really dig the idea of Abel showing up as the first Wraith. The forgiveness element.

Overall, this isn't my favourite scenario, I think? It feels very chaotic, and while it's probably the most traditional to play, I'm not sure how much it literally challenges the characters, unlike the sheer soul-searching...ness of Wormwood?

Chapter 4 - Nightshade: Chapter starts with, "We all wear masks" and my first thought was "boy you have no idea" XD

Awww yes this is the masquerade break scenario! See here for my thoughts on that and how the Nephtali could be adapted to v5, heh.

Yeah okay earthquakes, volcanoes, and riots are normal enough. A horrible blood virus where it appears some flesh-like thing is living in people's veins and feeding off their blood sounds like something that starts with T and rhymes with Shzimitze. ...Probably. No one knows how the fuck it's pronounced anyway. Oops, those riots are apparently over the existence of vampires. Yeah that'd be... unfortunate. And more earthquakes, this time due to Kupala vs the Eldest. Whew. Red star, yep, standard. MORE earthquakes, this time due to the Second City rising. Sounds legit. Bad times all around!

The details on breaking the Masquerade are interesting. Basic emotions: denial, rationalisation, fear, anger, acceptance. The acceptance one is interesting, because I can definitely see some jumping to it straight away.

So, on to the scenario itself! Jan recruits the players to fight the... uh, mass under NYC. This is the corpse of the Eldest, which is more or less a giant fungal infection held together with Vicissitude, which frankly is just icky. This actually is  canon-compliant with BJD, since it apparently has only just... dissipated? or whatever there, or if it still remains, it's no longer conscious. In this one, its soul flicks back to Tremere's/Saulot's body and wakes up, and basically every Tzimisce, Tremere, and anyone who has ever drank Tzimisce blood (which would be the entire Sabbat via Vaulderie) spontaneously frenzies. Godspeed. Cyscek, a Tzimisce methuselah, helps defeat the, uh, blob at the expense of his life, and warns with his last words, "The Dragon rises. You must stop it. Find Vykos. [They] know." (Okay yeah the text says 'it knows' but also fuck that.) Ooh, plot point!

Aaaand then they retreat from the battle, exhausted, only to find the whole damn thing broadcast on every TV screen, vampiric Disciplines and Cyscek dusting and all. W h o o p s.

Lots and lots of details of a major masquerade breach here. Hardestadt shows up and tells Jan he's proooobably gonna get Final Death for, you know, trying to save the world. Gonna share this bit because it's Very Satisfying.

Please refer to my tag #hardestadt has no rights ;D

Anyway! The characters now recruited, Jan leads them back to London for the Convention of Fire. He's working with Calebros and... like a bunch of others, probably anyone can end up here, so long as they want to actually help and not just fall apart like the remnants of the Camarilla (trying to diablerise their way into keeping power) and the Sabbat (...ditto tbh). Those definitely in attendance are Ambrogino Giovanni, Hesha Ruhadze, and Fatima! And lbr the Nod Squad are probably there too. As if Beckett would pass up the chance to NOT witness what's happening with Gehenna. And Anatole is literally a prophet of Gehenna! They found the Nephtali, led by a council of twelve, with Jan at the head. Name means 'the highest point' or 'no further' - as in, Gehenna goes no further than this.

Oh lmao here we go, the scene I mentioned earlier - Jan vs talk shows.

F to Jan.

Tremere's body (inhabited by Saulot) disappears from beneath the Vienna chantry. Tremere's body, with [Tzimisce] now well in control (having overtaken Saulot; Tremere, meanwhile, has taken over Goratrix's body, with Goratrix's mind stuck in a mirror... it's complicated), wipes out the Vienna chantry. RIP to the Vienna chantry, which doesn't survive in either timeline tbh. Hey, I wonder if that means that Saulot (in Tremere's body) is dead in v5? Etrius manages to escape and reports that the Eldest is now on the way to Ceoris, where it'll call all the remaining Tzimisce to it to become, uh, a part. Pleasant.

Everything between Krakow and Bucharest is straight fukk’d. Ceoris is the centre of all this - IIRC it's somewhere in the southern Carpathians, nearish Brasov. Either way, hell of a fight results with what can only be described as an eldritch abomination, finally both managing to destroy Kupala (the Eldest's goal) and reducing The Thing down to a human-looking body. This bit is interesting! Tremere (in Goratrix' body) and Etrius take one look at each other. "Master..." "I... I know. But where the hell is Saulot?!" Good question, because he sure ain't in Tremere's, uh, former body any more, which was in fact what was fighting them the whole time. Either way, Tremere-in-Goratrix'-body leaps at [Tzimisce]-in-Tremere's-body and diablerises his, um, former body, which must be weird as hell, then tries to turn on the characters and his powers fuckiNG FAIL. EAT SHIT TREMERE. And then the players kill him too and realise that over the course of one night they've destroyed the demon Kupala and two Antediluvians, Tremere and the Eldest. Not bad. This is the battle that causes that second lot of earthquakes I mentioned earlier.

Back to London! They find the mirror containing Goratrix amongst Tremere's belongings. Poor fucker sorry not sorry.

And now the players receive a summons to escort someone from Montreal to the Nephtali headquarters in London! Namely, a Tzimisce named Myca Vykos~ They've recently defected from the Sabbat and want to help take the Antediluvians tf down. (Note: the book here has reverted to using he/him pronouns since they're back in their original form, I'm going to keep using they/them because biological sex does not determine gender identity or pronouns goddammit. ...Anyway. I AM going to use the name Myca since that's the name they're using themself, mostly because, uh, 'Myca' is a bit less noticeable than 'Sascha Vykos', haha.)

So Gehenna has started. Myca's woken up in their original form and being like, "Hey you know what I am preTTY SURE I don't want to serve the Eldest" and promptly joins the Nephtali.

From New York to London to Romania to London to Montreal to London (...London is a hub world apparently), now off to Turkey, to Kaymakli! Which is actually a real place, my brother's been on a tour there. Anyway, this is the part of Kaymakli that they don't show the tourist and that's been sealed shut with lots of angry Cappadocians instead, so that was fun. Presumably Kapaneus hasn't been chilling out there in this one.

Also Colombia has completely been overtaken by the Sabbat so that sucks.

Into Kaymakli! Which usually doesn't let Cainites back out so it may be one-way. Don't worry, there's a ritual for that. At the bottom, they find Augustus Giovanni! Who is pissed off he never actually got to eat Cappadocius' soul and so wants to eat God instead.

As you do.

The book very strongly encourages the players to kill him. Just 'cause. Which is a mood, tbh. Killing him also reveals a beaten, bound Nosferatu, having been Giovanni's most recent food source. An F for Okulos. He's been there for four years, having managed to get a lost fragment of the Book of Nod for Beckett, who promised to come back for him and. Didn't. Which is just rude tbh and I can kind of understand why Okulos ends up betraying Beckett in the Gehenna novel but anyway. (Not canon as of v20, he's perfectly present and chill in BJD.)

End results - the fragment that Okulos went to retrieve shows how to restore the Second City, which holds a complete Book of Nod and may hold the key to stopping Gehenna. It's in Enochian so your player characters probably won't be able to read it (book suggests asking Sascha or Ambrogino). Next stop, Egypt, and a meeting with Hesha Ruhadze! Man this scenario has a lot of signature characters. It also suggests getting third parties in here too, so Beckett would actually be a really good choice. Either way, they find the probable site, and suddenly, a Second City.

Archeologists make grabby hands. Beckett, somewhere, is probably crying in joy. They find a vial with some very old blood in it that they definitely shouldn't drink because otherwise they'll explode (the book uses Sascha as the example here XD;; ). Along with some mystical enscriptions, they return to London and get to work on the prophecy - namely, it suggests that 'the gentle one' (likely Saulot) will die at the hands of another, but arise in a new form, and will stop Gehenna that way. Etrius, one of the only Tremere left and having joined the Nephtali, goes 'fuck it what do I have to lose?' and goes to find whatever new form Saulot is in (potentially can also involve Goratrix here).

Hm. Well. Saulot is apparently in a research centre outside Sydney. Apparently we're mostly chill with vampires, aside from Christians XD Go figure!

Apparently it's a cloning facility. One of the rooms had, past tense, a child, successfully cloned six-year-old, who was in perfect physical form but vegetative from birth. Religious characters will pick up that it's because the kid's body didn't have a soul. Now, it does - Saulot's. Having been thrown out of Tremere's body when the Eldest took over, his soul fled until it could find the most suitable vessel - a soulless cloned body. No actual soul to have to subdue. Saulot ends up reborn, albeit in the form of a six-year-old and without any memories. Turns out, the child was taken by a cult of Thinbloods, believing him to be the messiah.

Sydney's messy situation gets described here! Short version, Sydney's Prince is/was Sarrasine, who was a Toreador. Except he wasn't a Toreador, it was a fairly open secret he was only POSING as a Toreador - he was actually a Caitiff. (Except he's not actually a Caitiff. He's a sixth-gen Setite. Sydney is Like That, yes.) Given Sydney's independence from the sects and its apparent Caitiff Prince, it's become a major site of Caitiff and Thinbloods, which Sarrasine is just thrilled about but can't do anything about because he doesn't want to actually go 'lol I'm a Setite'. Anyway, either way, everyone is unaware of Saulot's return, so the players seek out the little boy, who's pretty spooked and confused. Asks the characters, "Who are you? What is this place? What do all these people want?" and his third eye opens. Tada! Salubri Antediluvian, and like the prophecy mentioned, he's 'unholy' and 'a mockery in the face of God' - a clone.

Back to London with kid!Saulot. The Nephtali have been trying to work out what tf is going on. A researcher tried drinking from the vial. It was messy. The characters might get some downtime. Sarrasine's followers may attack to try and get the kiddo back. Either way, everyone goes to bed, and wakes up to find a Darkness having overtaken the sun, which is generally not good for anyone, and Lasombra characters are just, feels bad man. The Veil of Darkness means vampires can be up 24/7, along with other things that don't like sunlight, and I imagine things like... plants not being thrilled. Also probably very confused animals. I'm not sure if it's like a dark atmosphere, or a physical body between the sun and Earth that just eclipses it whatever vantage point you look from, or what? Disciplines like Auspex, Obfuscate, and Obtenebration go a bit fucky. Then, a few days later, everyone feels a... Summons. For low-generation vampires with still-living Antediluvians, it's strongest. Higher gens with destroyed Antes, not so bad. So I'm sure you can guess what's summoning them.

Yep. Antediluvians. Banu Haqim are getting summoned to Alamut instead so Ur-Shulgi can turn them into an army against the Antediluvians, so godspeed resisting that, Elijah.

Off to the city of Gehenna (it's nearish Jerusalem). Elders of all stripes have been heading there to kill their childer in hope of being rewarded by their Antediluvians to get their powers restored, which is terribly rude. Indeed, the Antediluvians basically go, hey, can you not, and also can you start Embracing more childer for our armies, because they're not very nice either. Pretty much all the characters have been summoned for their crimes against the Antediluvians, and now they're gathered before them - Set, [Lasombra], Ennoia, Absimiliard, Malkav (as like... a cluster of identical little girls with glowing eyes because of course Malkav would use the Creepy Child trope), and [Toreador], who's so beautiful no one can tell if they're male or female. When the players and child!Saulot get there, they question him, but he's literally a six-year-old boy and is spooked. He also has the vial, somehow. Set takes it, and Kiddo says, "Don't drink it. You'll burn up." So Set makes Kiddo drink it instead, because he's a nice guy like that.

Kiddo's third eye opens. A giant black throne appears. The dozen small girls that are Malkav say, "Father's home." Kiddo!Saulot says, "No, Father's dead." Girls start screaming so loud people start bleeding thick black blood from their ears and doesn't stop until Set kills all twelve. A random stranger, now with their glowing eyes, steps forward and basically goes 'wow rude'.

Powerful beam of light appears. The Antes (aside from Kiddo!Saulot) writhe in pain. Angel appears, asks Saulot if he's willing to atone for all vampires. He agrees. Throne explodes, Antes fuckin' die, and everyone promptly frenzies and tries to eat each other, because vampires. In the aftermath of that, vampirism basically... ends. The player characters may be rewarded by becoming human again, as do a lot of Thinbloods, but most everyone older just, uh, dies. Vampirism ends, but the Earth has been saved.

That is... hmm, bittersweet, I think. It's a pretty compelling chronicle, very dramatic, but it's much less character-based and is more, 'the characters get dragged along to Do Shit'. I kind of like the idea of it being a story involving the characters we know, but for original characters, I think Wormwood is a much more compelling scenario so far.

Chapter 5 - The Crucible of God: Okay I'm tired now and this is the 'rocks fall everyone dies' scenario so gonna skim-read this one.

This is the chapter that introduces the level 10 power for all disciplines - Plot Device. The Antediluvians can do shit because they feel like it. Whew. Also, if an Ante spots anyone of their blood line, they can just make them... explode and their blood gushes into their mouth. Monch monch. Spot another clan mate? Roll to avoid frenzy. Just woke up? Roll to avoid frenzy. Good times!

And then the Tzimisce Antediluvian awoke as a mass of Vicissitude flesh fungal infestation with tentacles and lampray mouths and stuff and ate anything in reach until it ate, uh, every living thing in Manhattan. In one night. Bad day tbh. Eventually it burns when the sun rises, but what's left underground is still there and shit's still messed up. Like picking a leaf off a dandelion and it starts bleeding. Trees with faces, swarms of insects forming into eyes and watching. Nice and creepy. In the aftermath, it's basically infecting every life form on Earth with Vicissitude, which is distinctly uncool.

Absimliard has an animal army and currently looks like a giant humanoid jellyfish.

Oh boy here's the Banu Haqim part XD;; Interestingly, it's a lot better for them! Haqim doesn't eat his childer, they feel themselves strongly bonded to him but still maintain their own minds and wills. Downside, anyone who doesn't follow Haqim alone gets hunted down so he can eat them, so Ur-Shulgi's probably having a field day at being vindicated and poor Pyre/Elijah is hiding tf under the bed. Plus side, it only lasts a few months before something kills Haqim, so hey! And there's genuinely a way to become human again, especially for high-humanity, high-gen vampires, so that actually would be a genuinely good outcome for Pyre/Elijah.

Malkavians end up as a giant hive mind. Like, more than usual. [Lasombra] covers the world in darkness, then it stops. Ennoia merges with the entire planet and starts eating people. And vampires. And Methuselah. And other Antediluvians. She's kinda hangry at this point.

Tremere attempts to rule the entire world using the Human Genome Project as the true name of the entirety of humanity. It lasts about two minutes before [Tzimisce] turns him into a meat crime, along with, uh, the entire rest of the world, aside from the players, who were part of Tremere's ritual and thus immune from it.

Also Saulot, who they just met in the form of a little old man.

Turns out, he planned it all along. Lured Tremere to him, knowing that his body was tainted by using Tzimisce blood to become a vampire. Knew that when the Eldest returned, he'd be succeptable, and Saulot would be able to bounce out when the Eldest took over. Now, he can lead the characters in the only way to stop Planet Tzimisce, which is, uh, prayer and letting themselves get eaten. Could actually work! And you end up human again in the bargain!

End result - all vampires gone. Some of the more human ones do end up human again. Either way, world's still fucked. Open Antediluvian rule for several months has destroyed most of humanity. There are still remnants - former Malkavians who are still a bit weird, former Tzimisce who are a bit... Vicissitudey. Ennoia's still around! She's mostly chill except when she occasionally feels like rearranging landscapes. Otherwise, it's time to recover.

Alternate endings - that last one wasn't depressing enough, so here's a scenario where All Is Tzimisce, here's one where there's global extinction of literally everything except the player characters who gradually drop into torpor and never recover (or just flat out burn if they're outside), or there's one where the players are the only vampires left and start a new cycle with them as the new Antediluvians or something, oh and Caine's still kicking and is Very Displeased that God won't let him die already. Gooood times!

Rest is how to basically play it, and character sheets. Which go back to calling Sascha ‘it’ again *sigh* (And using the whole alien look despite explicitly mentioning that they look human again. Of course.)

So, final thoughts! Gehenna is... an interesting scenario. Lots of possibility for introspection. It’s very... apocalyptic, and that may bother a lot of people, since, well, for the most part, it’s going to be the end of playing your character as a vampire. Which I figure most people are playing Vampire the Masquerade for. So it’s basically either a hell of a finale, or you just don’t make use of it.

Favourite scenario did end up being Wormwood. I just really like the introspection and opportunity for hope. Did also enjoy Nightshade, but in a different way, I think? Like for Nightshade, I’d rather read it as existing characters working together, maybe as a novel, whereas for Wormwood I’d want to play it since it’s such an intensely personal kind of thing.

(I also still want a slumber party AU ngl.)