It had been over a year since the failed siege. Although the city had been tense for months afterwards, including a major false alarm in October, all was reverting to normal.
Of the multitudes of Kindred who had perished in that siege, the only notable name was that of Wilhelm Gearhart, the elder of Clan Ventrue. Gearhart had been a powerful figure in New York for many, many years, and had a wide variety of influence, which many were scrambling for. The most notable of these was Angelflight Industries, a multinational corporation that was the true owner corporation behind several megacorporations, including GM and Merill Lynch.
About 40 Kindred gathered at a building in the Columbia University Science Department, the will of Wilhelm Gearhart was read. One of the stipulations of Gearhart's will was that Malkavian Justicar Randolph Carter was asked to read the will. Why, nobody (including Carter) seemed to know, but the Justicar had arrived for the occasion.
The meeting began with a Primogen meeting, a botched Primogen meeting. Lasombra elder Angelique Montgomery had conceived of a plan, involving highway rerouting. She was supported by Tremere elder Derek Fleming, who had managed to orchestrate it so that the execution of the plan, involving a LOOOOONG tunnel under much of New York, emerged where the Connecticut Chantry of the Tremere was situated. Needless to say, this wasn't very popular with Denver Hammersmith (or his elder, John Diamond). The meeting boiled down to a vote on the tunnel -- Angelique and Fleming voted for the Tunnel, Persephone and Hammersmith voted against it, leaving the tiebreaking vote up to the Archon Armitage. In a suprising move, she voted FOR the tunnel. Denver Hammersmith, in a snit of anger, quietly gathered his things and forestalled the conclusion of the matter.
The reading of the will was undeniably strange. Nothing of value was given away; no shares of stock, no influences and, most importantly, no part of Angelflight Industries was given away to members of the Kindred population. A long time ghoul of Gearhart's, Christof Trevalian, was present, and he claimed that *he* was looking after Gearhart's massive fortune in his absence. Trevalian had been the Chief Financial Officer of Angelflight for many years, and had in fact been the individual who invited them all to the site (see the invitation to the reading of Gearhart's will. No Kindred, especially Gearhart's logical heir, Elijah Hightower, was happy with this situation. A number of threats were conveyed to the unhappy ghoul in regards to the posession of Angelflight, but he claimed an inability to do anything about it.
As the night began, it quickly became obvious that something was amiss. People began disappearing, foremost amongst them Randolph Carter. Shortly thereafter, the Archon Rasputin followed. Several others did as well. Something strange was afoot.
The Toreador elders didn't seem terribly concerned, however. Prince Veronique, deMedici Zaragossa and Gabriel were all in some sort of competition to see who could gather the most affection from the masses, in the form of kisses. How typically Toreador. In fashion true of her chosen profession, Veronique won hands down.
The Nosferatu were having a crisis, as well. The Nosferatu Masters, posing as the Toreador Warhol, was trying to track down the murderer of a couple of the younger Nosferatu. Whoever it was had broken into the "Nosferatu Vault", wherever that may be, and stole an item, a Blue Pearl. In the process a young Nosferatu was killed. Many Nosferatu attributed it to Those From Below -- rumored to be fantastic beasts from beyond the veil of fire. Masters knew better. Masters knew that someone was going to try to sell the Pearl tonight.
Suspiscion began to arise around Rebecca Rockefeller, a Ravnos who had some nebulous connection to the feared Ravnos elder, Chandra. Someone had hypothesized that Chandra was the only illusionist with the power to create two separate worlds: one where the vanishers had gone to, and one where they had come from. Others contacted their influence in city hall, and it turned out that there was not really a building here at all......
When confronted, Rockefeller left. Where she went was undetermined, until another, the Archbishop of Canterbury (one of Carter's Archons) arrived at the second site and reported that Rockefeller had just been seen at the first site. She seemed to be the only person able to trevel willingly between the two and, certainly, the only person able to travel backwards.
When Rockefeller returned, the Justicar, Prince Veronique, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a Lasombra named Thaddeus confronted her. After a failed Dominate attempt by the Justicar, they attacked her. The ferocity with which the attack was returned proved Rebecca to be, in fact, Chandra in disguise. Nobody was terribly surprised at this revelation, but what *was* noted was that Thaddeus, purportedly a young Lasombra, was the strongest combatant amongst the four and without him, the others probably would have died. During this fight, Chandra struck Randolph Carter with a blow that would have destroyed him, but for the pendant which hung around his neck. This pendant, created at the creation of the Camarilla, had been passed down from generation to generation of Malkavian Justicar to protect them from such an occasion. Only useable once, the shattering of this pendant saved Carter's life. Due to this, the group was able to overpower the overextended Ravnos, so Chandra was destroyed and her ashes were scattered to the four winds.
It was revealed that Carter and Chandra had a blood feud going back several years to when Carter had been nominated for Justicar, Chandra had been blood hunted. His task in order to insure his appointment had been to exterminate her. Since he had not done so successfully, his two chief rivals (Rasputin and the Archbishop of Canterbury) had been assigned to him as Archons. Now that Chandra was dead, however, they were no longer required.
Wilhelm Gearhart, supposedly dead, was found posing as the neonate Ventrue Hephaestus. He had been set up by one of his fellow Ventrue, and he wanted to find out who. His plan failed however, for when Chandra was killed, his illusion faded and the perpetraitor was able to cover his (or her) tracks in time. To this day, Gearhart still doesn't know who worked with the Sabbat to ensure that he fell in the siege.
It turned out Gearhart had been working with Chandra, whom he thought was Rockefeller, in exchange for her help with the illusion. He had agreed to summon everyone here to help Rebecca with her task, whatever that might be. Since it had been to help exterminate Carter, the Justicar wasn't (and still isn't) very happy with Wilhelm Gearhart, but he chose not to destroy the Ventrue, on account of the pleading word of Veronique. Needless to say, Gearhart owes Veronique a big favor.
Chandra wasn't the real reason behind the conflict, however. A young Caitiff named Tempest knew more than she was telling. She knew the real reason that Chandra had gathered everyone here. A couple of years back, Tempest was having control problems. The Archon Armitage tracked her down at this abandoned art gallery and staked her to the ground. For reasons unknown, Armitage left her here, perhaps to ponder her ultimate fate.
Tempest wasn't left entirely to her own fate, however. Seems as though this was the resting place of an ancient torpored vampire named Jezebel, who had use for Tempest. Armitage staking her here obviously was no accident, either, and Jezebel needed two things to happen to free her from her torpor.
The first had already happened. Her slumber had been somehow tied into the pendant that had hung around Randolph Carter's neck. Jezebel's puppet Chandra had destroyed that already. There was, however, one more ingredient.
Her progeny were the three Toreador who were involved in the seduction contest. One of them, Zaragossa, was trying to prevent the elder from awakening, and had a piece of her heart. Another, Gabriel, was trying to resurrect the Methuselah, and was competing with his brother. The third, Veronique, made the difference, however, and urged Zaragossa to reveal he had the charcoal lump. Gabriel bled on it, and the dais which sealed Jezebel into the ground cracked and a river of blood flowed out of the crack and into the ground.
The Nosferatu Masters discovered the identity of the murderer/thief -- another Nosferatu named Hyde. This Nosferatu had tried to sell the Pearl to a Tremere named Nero Black, but had been found out by the Nosferatu. Hyde was never found again. Nero Black attempted to return to Vienna with the Pearl (a powerful magical focus), but the Pearl, along with his assistant Trump, vanished somewhere in transit. Needless to say, the Tremere were NOT happy. These events would lead to the siege of Boston several months later.
Finally, the Primogen issue was resolved. Armitage asked to be taken off the Primogen (apparently her entire reason for voting against public wisdom), and she was replaced by Wilhelm Gearhart, although a strong movement was pushed forward by Grendel. This movement, led by Persephone and Elijah Hightower, turned out to be the impetus for Grendel declaring himself Prince of the Bronx four months later.
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