On January 5, 1999, the city of Boston erupted into riots. News teams from across the country flew to Boston. Apparently negotiations between the dockworkers union and the shipping companies had broken down, and broken down to an extreme. It wasn't quite as bad as the Los Angeles riots of 1992, but it was still horrifying. A single industrial fire on the south side of the city burned uncontrolled for the better part of four days, causing several hundred million dollars in damage alone. Almost 300 lives were lost.

At least, that is the story that the newspapers reported.

* * *

The Massachusetts Minuteman Milita had been a notable Anarch faction in New England since the early 1800s. Led by a powerful Brujah named Ransom, the Militia had been successful in overthrowing the Prince of Hartford, Connecticut, not once but twice, and claimed some involvement in the removal of Malkavian Prince Trelain Carver from power in Boston in 1895. They were also very well known for their hatred of the Sabbat, and the Camarilla tolerated them because they were a strong line of defense against potential invaders from the nearby north. This Militia had long been critical of the current Tremere Prince, Ashcroft. As Anarchs, they were expected to be so, but this was something more. Other notables in the Militia included Venus, Quinn, Adrian, Garrison, and Tybalt.

In October, Ventrue elder Klaus Rahnmacher met an untimely end from a pack of Lupines as he tried to reach Dartmouth University in rural New Hampshire. The new Ventrue elder, one Isiah Jericho, was fresh out of New York City, and quite happy to be out of the Big Apple. He was not an overtly powerful Kindred, but he was charismatic and honest. Even the Brujah couldn't help but detest him less than they wanted to.

Jericho and Ransom together figured that something was wrong. Someone was manipulating certain elements in Boston that pointed at something very, very sinister. When it was learned that Rahnmacher's death had not been an accident, they started looking for more.

Certain signs indicated the strong possibility of an impending Sabbat siege, probably with inside help. A number of packs had been spotted in the New England area, and Ransom had only gathered enough information to know they were coming, but not when. On January 5, several new Kindred arrived in town. They were meeting with an unknown Gangrel in Boston, and were attacked by Ransom and taken prisoner by the Militia: the Gangrel escaped. While the Militia held them prisoner, it was discovered that they were not the Sabbat presence that Ransom had been looking for, but that Ransom had, in fact, taken a group of Camarilla messengers from New York City, led by a prominent Toreador named Robert Lockley and a paranoid Nosferatu named Solomon. While the Toreador Quinn was trying to explain this to all, the Sabbat attacked.

The first battle took place at a farm just over the Vermont state line. A helicopter full of Sabbat warriors, dressed in the samurai armor of the Cardinal's personal guard, attacked the farmhouse. The Militia and the New York vampires fought together but it was clearly a losing battle. The Militia lost several members of its number, including Garrison, and the remaining Camarilla vampires were holed up in the garage and were running out of time and blood.

Then the cavalry arrived, in the form of the mighty Justicar Democritus. The Ventrue had been contacted by the Gangrel Archon who had originally escaped Ransom's ambush. At the time, the Gangrel (whose name was Crane) had thought that Ransom was the Sabbat presence, but regardless of intent, it brought Democritus to the scene of the battle where he made the difference.

Democritus managed to capture one of the samurai, and efficiently extracted a bountiful harvest of information. The Tremere Prince Ashcroft was a member of the Sabbat faction, and had been so for almost a hundred years. Apparently, Trelain Carver had NOT been killed one hundred years ago, and still maintained a presence in Boston, although through others. Most of all, the Blue Pearl of Amaranth, an incredibly powerful magical relic, was in the Tremere Chantry, and the samurai were to take it back to the Cardinal in Toronto.

The battle was taken to the streets of Boston, where the Justicar attacked the Tremere Chantry, which was protecting Ashcroft and his people. There was a chase, and the Nosferatu Solomon attacked the Prince, but his blood was boiled and he was thrown aside like a limp rag.

Ransom, Lockley and others chased the Tremere and cornered them at an intersection. The Tremere began to ignite the buildings around them and to control the blaze, to hurl it at those who tried to get near. A shape cloaked (or perhaps made of) shadow swept up behind the Tremere and engulfed Ashcroft, swallowing his essence whole, spitting out only a rapidly decomposing husk of what had been a Prince. The rest of the Tremere, losing control of the fire, succumbed to either the flames or the shadow. Those Camarilla vampires watching in mixed horror and fascination saw the true face of the Prince of Nightmares, for the first time in over a century. They will not soon forget.

The battle raged on for several more days, and many of the Camarilla did not wake up from their days of sleep. Several met Final Deaths, and it became obvious that the Prince of Nightmares was indeed that. The focus of the fighting shifted to two things: finding the Prince of Nightmares, and finding the Blue Pearl of Amaranth, both of which had gone missing. Prince Jericho and the Ventrue, not much in the way of effective warriors, directed the firefighting efforts in the industrial district, where fires raged out of control, threatening billions of dollars of heavy industry, businesses and lower-income housing.

The Pearl was eventually located within the torpored body of Solomon. Ashcroft, in a last ditch attempt to hide the Pearl from the Sabbat (and perhaps the Camarilla as well), had fought with the Nosferatu and left him alive so that the Pearl would have a place to rest. This was discovered by the Tremere elder Nero Black, a former Regent of Boston who had returned in order to help the Camarilla defeat the traitorous Chantry led by Ashcroft.

But Nero Black was no better. He had also been influenced by the Prince of Nightmares during his time in Boston, and disappeared with the Pearl. The Camarilla was aware of this however, and at this point, the Tremere Justicar, Abraham Payne, emerged from his hiding place.

Payne, offered refered to as the scalpel to Democritus' sledgehammer, was able to follow Nero Black as he returned the Pearl to Trelain Carver, who was holed up at the center of the largest fire in the city. Payne was able to psychically project into the center of the fire, and tear down the psychic shield wide enough for Democritus and several others to enter the burnt-out shell of a factory and reclaim the pearl, as well as the bodies of several who had never emerged from their dreams.

Isiah Jericho attempted to stall the attack for reasons that were initially unclear to the Justicars, until they realized that he had spent several days "fighting fires" in this area, clearly under the influence of Fear. Once this was realized, Democritus punched Jericho just once, lightly, and torporized him.

The Prince of Nightmares escaped, but Nero Black was returned to Vienna for "dissection" and questionning. Isiah Jericho was, after much discussion, awakened, re-conditioned a bit by Democritus, and made by Prince of Boston. Solomon was also revived and made aware of his role in the grand scheme of things.

The Massachusetts Militia went back to their Anarchistic ways, but both the Militia and the visiting New York Kindred played crucial roles in the defense of Boston -- without either of these groups, the siege would have failed, and with it, the Camarilla control of Boston.

More importantly, many still wonder what would have happened should the Cardinal Madelaine have gotten ahold of the Blue Pearl of Amaranth.

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