Monday, July 18th
Prologue
In the aftermath of the Bloodhunt of Wenzel Xeven, which occurred in late January of 2013 A.D., we who were the nocturnal residents of the City of Wisdom could not imagine anything more epic than the struggle to overcome that sinister Ravnos and his allies. We sought to return to the placid normalcy of our nighttime endeavors, to gain some measure of stability in the wake of chaotic and extraordinary events.
The last two decades had seen tremendous upheaval: the Fall of the Brujah Council, the Rise of the Shadow Curtain, the reentry of Sofia into the Camarilla fold. the disastrous Sabbat Assault of 2006 and the then subsequent overthrow of the Nosferatu Prince Emil na Pes for a more Camarilla acceptable candidate, the Ventrue - Brian O'Reilly.
It was hoped by all involved that February would be a quiet month, but that was not to be the case. Quite mysteriously, those who had been acknowledged to be in the cold sleep of the unliving, began to rise. It occurred within a week, a dozen entorpored Kindred rose to wakefulness as if nothing unusual had happened. They were questioned by their friends, the Primogen and the Ventrue Archon. Their last recollections were of the blood hunt against the mad Ravnos and then awakening in the company of the Ventrue Prince and a black clad stranger. Each was told of the vast debt the prince had assumed to prematurely awaken them and that they were not to discuss the matter with anyone who should ask. Then they simply returned to their unlives as if nothing unusual had happened; for those of us so lucky as to avoid torpor, it was nothing short of miraculous.
How Prince O'Reilly planned to explain this amazing occurrence is anyone's guess, including his own; for subsequently he was missed from Elysium for a period of ten days and when he returned, he claimed no recollection of the events immediately following the Bloodhunt for Wenzel Xeven.
Word of the Awakening spread throughout the city in the prince's absence and then beyond. By the time of his return to Sofia, the rumors had already spread to the European capitals and as with all rumors, it increased with each retelling. The details would change, sometimes in small ways or completely depending on who should be the herald of the story.
By the end of February, the Inner Council had dispatched the then Tremere Justicar to investigate and began placing pressure on the princes of major cities to quash the rumors, but this tactic was far too little and far too late. The rumors spread like a blood borne plague throughout the Camarilla and beyond, the fever it ignited would spread into other sects and throughout the manifold reaches of the night-time world.
By March of 2013, the first wave of nocturnal pilgrims had arrived, they were the desperate loved ones of those who Morpheus would not give up, they were mostly neonates and ancillia in search of a miraculous cure or the proxies of the powerful who could afford to send them to Sofia. Their numbers added to the drain of our already overcrowded city must suffer, while besieging the prince and primogen as the Sabbat never could.
While the first wave of nocturnal pilgrims caused a steadily growing pressure to build within Elysium, it was the subsequent waves that would transform Sofia from a Camarilla backwater into the greatest boom-town that sect had ever seen.
How we survived that period without destroying ourselves or shattering the Masquerade, I cannot yet fathom. In late night reflections, I ponder whether some greater power orchestrated everything or we were simply fortunate and on most such occasions, I tend to think it was the former. For the name Darzalas still conjures fancies of dark and impossible miracles and the pilgrimages that came directly after the Awakening were but a foreshadowing of what would follow.
- From the Journals of Anastas Grozdan.
Chapter Synopsis
In the middle of February of 2013, Prince O'Reilly returns to Sofia after a ten day absence he cannot account for due to amnesia, it seems the prince cannot recall even a single detail of his ten day absence except for a single memory. The memory is of him awakening with a strong thirst, in an underground chthonian temple of Greco-Roman style and of a telepathic conversation with a being calling itself - Darzalas. The entity is wrapped in black bandages, gold jewelry and a gold death-mask; it sat upon a throne of human skulls in chamber of immense size and seeming depth. When asked what he, Brian O'Reilly was doing in such a place, the reply was that he had just paid the price for the miracle of awakening a dozen Kindred from torpor. The price was in memories, the coin of Darzalas' subterranean realm. Thereafter, Prince O'Reilly slept with the rising of the sun and awoke in an armchair in his own haven, with no recollection of having been anywhere else. He is plagued with nightmares of childhood loss and the inability to find the missing treasure. The lurking thought that he might have willingly struck a deal with a Slavic deity of death and darkness, but is unable to recall having done so, haunts him. Worse still is the growing paranoia that his memories have been tampered with and that he is no longer his own person; though he isn't currently under the effects of a derangement, he totters on the edge of a self imposed insanity.
By the third week of February - 2013, a half dozen new Kindred had entered the city in search of someone to awaken their entorpored and beloved undead. Some of the newcomers violated the Tradition of Hospitality by hunting without permission or introduction. Those who observed the niceties, were given the city's traditional year and a day to carry out their business; likewise, each of the accepted newcomers sought out the prince in the mistaken belief that he could awaken their slumbering associates. In each case, the prince disabused them of this belief, citing the cause as a onetime miracle, that was highly unlikely to occur again. But, in two cases, he offer the advice that the Sofia's resident Ravnos, Madame Mina might know more on the subject of torpor. These two, an ancillia Ventrue and a neonate Brujah took the proffered advice and made appointments with Madame Mina.
The same week, saw the arrival of the Tremere Justicar Anastaz di Zagreb in Sofia, presumably to investigate the sudden "Awakening" of a dozen Kindred from torpor. His first meeting with the prince took place in Brian O'Reilly's personal Elysium at the Sofia History Museum. The meeting occurred in the third floor Ancient Coins Exhibit, where the prince was sorcerously examined. The sorcerous examination consisted of basic thaumaturgic detection for sorcery and a unique ritual for enhancing Telepathy, which allowed the Justicar to appear in the prince's memories to inspect the cause of the amnesia. Later the same night, they met up at the prince's official Elysium in the Saint Cyril and Methodius Library. At that meeting, the prince was subjected to two other forensic rituals for discerning how the amnesia occurred or if it matched the residue of the awakened Kindred. The first ritual was a third level meta-magic, designed to determine the residue of specific paths and rituals on the subject; unfortunately, it revealed the prince's vast mastery of both, a secret the Justicar has offered to keep to himself. The second ritual, was a level four meta-magic that allowed for the capture of a specified residue revealed by the previous ritual; that residual sample was sent directly to Vienna for analysis. The the results are still pending, one thing is certain, the residue found on the prince was necromantic in origin.
Unknown to the Tremere Justicar, the prince has taken steps to uncover the necromancer himself, but ultimately just muddying the trail.
The investigation stretches from late February into early May. Anastaz di Zagreb places the prince under the watchful eye of a Tremere warden to protect him from further sorcerous assault, while the investigation continues.
The prince wisely returned to the individual scenes of the Justicar's castings to delve their nature with the "Complete Analysis" ritual and now holds the key to learning both of the rituals that analyze for sorcerous residue.
