Monday, September 10, 2012

A Dark Balkan Beginning

The first game of the Vampire campaign went very well.  Because the beginning was an intro to the world and the initial embrace it flowed a bit like a video game opening cinematic, but I warned my players that would happen and that it wouldn't be the norm.

The game opened with a little back story on how they were being prepared for the embrace ritual.  I explained that they had been chosen and given the opportunity to  become Gods like those they had worshiped their entire lives.  Over a month of preparation they learned at least a little bit about what would be required of them once they became "gods" but honestly the important things were not shared.

They were cleaned and prepared in fine ritual robes and taken to the central court of their vampire lord.  There several vampires and Mages held court and watched the ritual, but 5 specifically walked forward and took part.  They were drained of all of their blood to the point where they were dead, but the last thing they remembered was some of each of their blood being collected in a chalice.

Then in the vague way you see things through the eyes of your dying soul when it is untethered enough to see but has not yet left your body the 5 vampires collected their blood in a chalice and the lord walked down and added one drop of his own  blood.  While the other vampires' blood was thick the lord's blood looked practically solid.  The very nature of whatever allowed it to move at all obviously not of natural origin.  When it touched the other blood on the chalice it merged and flowed and became as the other vitae.

The blood was then given back to the players now dead corpses.  As with all embraces they rose at the first taste, but were left in a state of extreme hunger.

The court watched patiently as their bodies died and they suffered the agonies of first creation.  When it was complete a group of humans were brought into the court in irons.  They were introduced as those who had earned the death by committing crimes against their fellow man.  The players were all held tightly and made to face one of the prisoners while bits of their human blood from before the embrace was splashed onto their faces.  The smell of blood, even their own drove them into frenzy as they were only given enough vitae to fuel the change.  Then they were released on the prisoners.  However, they were not allowed to completely kill the criminals before them.  Something powerful in the core of their  blood was brought alive and pulled them back from frenzy.  Somehow they were all aware that this power originated with their king.  When they pulled away the vampires that made them moved in and the king spoke more words of the ritual.  He spoke of the beast and death.  His voice rang out in the hall and cried for the beast being so driving and so infernal that it can be summoned even by the scent of ones own humanity.  He looked at the players, almost as if into all of their eyes at once and told them that the chained rabid thing in their gut is their beast.  It knows not love or compassion, it knows not right or wrong.  The beast knows only hunger and rage.  The criminals which lie before them bleeding onto the court's floor are here to die, but they had not rended their throats out of justice or what was right.  If they had killed those before them the beast would have taken a part of the vampires with them as it is always want to do.  Death and killing are part of the world, but the beast must never be allowed to fuel those drives.  Then their sires finished the criminals off in a cold calculated manner that, if anything was more unsettling and alien than their previous blood frenzy.

At this point in the ritual the corpses of the criminals were removed and the players closest human companions were brought into the court.  The players characters were each put in front of their particular loved one and the king began speaking again, this time about the creatures they had become and the power and responsibility that they assumed as a part of that transition.  Now it was time to understand the eternal nature of their new existence.  Then their sires walked up behind them and staked them.  After an eternity which both lasted for a time beyond agony and was only a few moments they re-awakened with the same loved ones in front of them, only 10 years had passed.  A teenage son was now a middle aged boy, and a pregnant wife now stands with with her 9 year old son by her side.  The ritual progressed from here with the characters being bound through the blood to the one thing in their life which both ties them to their lingering humanity and reminds them of the alien things they have become.  The players are offered their closest loved ones to keep as ghouls.  So that they could each have someone to walk with them through the long night ahead who can understand them, but who will give them a link to the mortal world they have left behind.

Their loved ones had been offered a special place standing eternally by the side of a god, and could hardly refuse.  They they were all prepared for this moment.  After their human companions were bonded to them the ritual was ended and they were taken from the hall and shown their new home, and told of the valley in which they all now live.  Their first task would be to go down into the courtyard where the gypsy's were setup and gather information about the outside world.

The players went to the gypsy camp and each of them spoke with someone different.  While the gypsies had a relationship with the king of this little mini kingdom they obviously did not hold him in high regard.  Many of them were dismissive of the Lord's goals, which were revealed to be the recreation of the balance of the first city.  After quite a bit of discussion and investigation one of the childer heard strange voices coming from one of the gypsy's wagons.  He asked to look inside, but was refused.  The sire who had accompanied them assured the childe that there was nothing to worry about.  Though none of the players nerves were settled by that assurance.

They took the news of a coming war, and unstable times back to the king, and then proceeded towards their first day of sleep as new vampires.  Though one of the childer was not satisfied with the dismissive approach of just assuring them that the unsettling voices they had heard were nothing to be concerned with.  The players confronted the sire who accompanied them to their sleeping chambers and asked again what they had heard.  When it was apparent that the young cainites would not be content to sit by and accept what they had been told they were informed that they had heard several names of the dark mother.  They were told briefly of Cain's time in the darkness after the first murder and that he was taken up and cared for by the first woman Lilith.  It was in her arms, and under her tutelage that he had come into his dark powers.

This satisfied the players and so they thanked the elder for his forthrightness and retired for the day.