With the coming of the fall
equinox the mortal’s news service become transfixed on numerous murders,
kidnappings, and strange sightings. The local news was alive with the story of
13 mortals, prominent citizens of Saskatoon’s Willows area, that were found
murdered and dismembered on the grounds of the German Concordia Club the night
that everything began to fall apart. Warped mortals and animals were whispered
about stalking the streets and alleys of the Domain. The Kindred of Saskatoon
were forced to bend all their efforts to maintaining the Masquerade to insure
their own survival. Even with the Domain’s Kindred exhausting all their
resources and mortal influences someone noticed the activities within the city.
Rumours circulated among the
vampire populace of black SUVs that were spotted traveling the Domain. These
vehicles were said to travel under diplomatic plates from Rome and carry
specially trained teams of hunters carrying out their duties with diplomatic
immunity, perhaps even with the human government’s sanction. In response to the
presence of church sponsored hunters the Prince, new to the throne, ordered the
Kindred population into the shadows. The importance of the First Tradition was
never more real to those who once felt their powers set them above humanity. Several
Kindred of the Domain disappeared during this time, perhaps some merely hid
themselves away, but others may have fallen to the hunter’s fires.
For
three months the Kindred of Saskatoon went to ground. In this time the Prince issued
orders to keep the Kindred of the Domain safe from those who hunted them. Under
her guidance the Primogen organized their clan’s resources to maintain the Masquerade;
the Keeper kept the secret of the Elysium and maintained the location’s
sanctity; the Sheriff provided protection to those Kindred whose havens lacked
the proper preparations and gave them shelter as needed; the Scourge moved
undetected through the streets carrying messages and keeping an eye on the
movements of the hunters; and the Seneschal insured that all Kindred without
herds were quietly provided bagged blood to sustain them. Even those who did
not hold positions worked toward the good of the sect, opening Havens and Herds
as they were able to clanmate and coterie.
In
the New Year the sightings have faded away. Kindred control of the mortal world
has spun the news to tell tales of monotony and the banal in Saskatoon. Slowly
the hunters have been lead to believe their quarry destroyed, turned against
the enemies of the Camarilla. Now, they are all gone. The hunters appear to
have moved on, no longer do warped creatures stalk the city’s shadows, and the
thing that was once whispered to be hidden beneath the German Concordia Club
has gone silent. Now the Prince has issued a call to Elysium, a grand
masquerade to celebrate the weathered storm and take an accounting of those who
have survived these latest tribulations.
