The Pyre of Moloch
When the Romans sacked Carthage during the Punic wars, they brought back tales of human sacrifice, bloody idolatry, and squalling infants thrown into flaming braziers as offerings to foul gods. While Kin- dred scholars regard the Punic Wars as a time when the Masquerade was stretched thin, when open Jyhad between the Ventrue and the Brujah led them to point their pawns at each other in open conflict, few argue the presence of something unholy taking place in the hidden temples and among the desperate families of the Carthaginians.
Tonight, the ruins of Carthage are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but one particular location among the ruins has avoided the scrutiny of the archaeologists. A timeless evil issues forth by night from this unhallowed temple. A great brazier, having lain cold for millennia, surrounded by tiny bones and streaked with the now-black stains of boiling blood, buzzes with flies and crawls with sightless maggots swarming about the grisly offerings left therein. This ghastly place is a spawning pit, and from it emerge vampires — though the “Kindred” are loath to share this appellation with them — devoted to the incomprehensible wills of their vile, forgotten god. These monstrous undead know the songs of Pazuzu and still speak the tongue of Moloch, birthing nightmares and leaving only desecration in their wake.
