The new influx of Kindred began in July of 1997. Among them were James Edward Thomas and Gator of the Brujah, the Malkavians Stang, Father David, and Marston Gray, Sebastian Quinn of the Gangrel, a powerful Tremere named Pasch Bastet, and some others. Hans returned, much more stable this time. Shadow also came back and caused minor mischief for which he was punished harshly by Rakesh and others on the Council. The evening went poorly. One Malkavian who identified himself as Tomas de Torquemada was destroyed, his blood taken by Rakesh. Mike and Musashi ended the evening by telling all the neonates they would kill them if they felt like it, to use François’ astute paraphrasing. (It’s really a problem they have to this day, so be warned.) Incidentally, uncharacteristic problems among the Brujah began almost immediately, as Gator, James, and Trotsky took almost immediate dislike to each other.
That month, I discovered a file in the depths of the computer database of the local newspaper. It was a program created to reveal the identities of the Kindred in town prior to the Kindred-Garou war to all major national news services, as well as information about vampires in general and how to kill them. It was designed apparently as some kind of insurance or blackmail policy for the benefit of the long-dead FBI agent, Tim Moore. Eventually, I traced the "Vampire File" to the Brujah Leon Trotsky, fellow Councilor.
François and I decided to address this matter at the August meeting, which was held in a small farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Trotsky didn’t show up until late in the evening. (François kept us entertained by getting us to enact a few more laws - the Council bureaucracy was really quite considerable by the end of its reign.) That night was also the first appearance of Jonathan Case, who identified himself as a Ventrue but eventually proved to be a major antagonist. (More on him later.)
The trial of Trotsky was one of the greatest debacles I’ve ever seen. In the course of the inquiry, the honorable Musashi shot Trotsky in the back and proceeded to chase him through the countryside. (Trotsky’s Majesty was little help to him when his enemies were eventually everywhere, Presence users take note.) He and a few others eventually caught and torpored Trotsky, although Musashi accidentally pulled an old mortal lady’s arm off in the process and she died. (No, I’m not making that up either.)
François and the Malkavian Father David performed clean up and protected the Masquerade, in Father David’s case at great personal cost. Pasch Bastet incinerated Trotsky, who by that point was attempting to bring in Archons and even perhaps his own enemies among the Brujah to his defense.
The surprisingly calm and friendly Archon Tomas of the Tremere appeared in town to investigate at the next gathering. He ruled that enough evidence had been gathered against Trotsky, and granted François, Father David and me status for our work. He punished Musashi by giving him the negative status of "Notorious" for his bungling. Also, more Kindred arrived that night.
It was at about this time that Sonny Corenthos began pulling the political strings to legalize gambling and prostitution in Monroe County, at François’ urgings. I was personally amazed when it actually worked. I began construction of a small casino near the airport and began working with Sebastian Quinn of the Gangrel and his allies at about this time.
That September, we held an emergency meeting of the Council and did not invite Rakesh, who had been grinding the Council to a halt. For numerous political mistakes but mostly for his unbearable arrogance, we stripped him of almost all of his status. (At this point, we still didn’t know what Rakesh was. I wondered why he was on the Council in the first place.) We appointed the Brujah James Edward Thomas to fill Trotsky’s seat. James moved into the neighborhood of New Moscow, which Trotsky had created to house workers near his Industrial Park. It had become the worst slum in town without his support.
Later in September, we gathered at François’ tavern, the Irish Lion. We had several new arrivals, including Pete (a Gangrel environmentalist) and Harry Angel (a former Giovanni ghoul and some sort of magician.) Harry’s contacts checked out and his abilities proved useful, so he was allowed to live. Also, we learned that the corporation PENTEX was buying large amounts of land around the Hoosier National Forest. I had heard tales of the problems they caused before, and we were all worried, but decided to wait and observe at Sonny’s request. Pete was furious with Musashi’s inaction; Musashi threw Pete through a wall and was punished for breaking the Elysium. Meanwhile, Sonny and Jonathan Case pooled their underworld resources to fight the Puppetmaster, an alias of a Kindred who seems only to act indirectly through minions or telepathy. A large gang war resulted. It ended quietly, and I believe the Puppetmaster lost out.
We also began to have trouble with the Brujah Gator at this time. It was revealed that he had been leaking information to an individual who identified himself as the Puppetmaster. (Actually, it is now suspected that Gator was actually answering to Jonathan Case, but that is neither here nor there at this late date.)
It was Casca who discovered this treachery as he was preparing
to assassinate the Brujah under contract. He was soundly trounced by more
powerful Brujah, and was presumed dead. Investigation of Gator’s haven
turned up nothing. Francois, James, and Sonny collected Casca’s property
and ghouls. Father David, Casca’s spiritual advisor, was given his seat
on the Council.
On October 18th, the Kindred gathered at a small house in the countryside. François received two large boxes (from the Brujah hitman Ace, I presume) containing Casca and Gator. Casca was revived. Gator was diablerized by Sonny, although this was not revealed for some time. Unfortunately, Rakesh found out and began using this information against Sonny.
If I had to choose an evening as the turning point when the Council stopped being a problem in progress and began its long and painful fall, this would be it. François, Sonny, Mike, Musashi and Casca retreated into a back room with Rakesh and locked the door. James, Father David and I were left with the neonates. It took a good deal of prying before Francois revealed what actually went on.
Apparently, the vampires in the back room were bound to each other by means of a Tremere ritual called a Blood Contract. Signed in blood, a Blood Contract will cause you to vanish if you even think about breaking it. Now we get to the heart of the matter: Rakesh was so powerful that he could not be forced to enter into such a pact. According to François, Mike and Casca lost their nerve, and Musashi was overly sympathetic with Rakesh. In the end, Rakesh signed a mutual non-aggression pact with Mike, who I’m told was the only one capable of simply killing him.
Also during this month, contact was made with a group of Garou in the neighboring small town of Freedom, Indiana. François made peace with them. Reports on exploration of the region turned up nothing: the only suitable havens of vampires were the established cities of Indianapolis and Terre Haute.
That evening, François and Sonny faked Harry Angel’s death to protect him from the Puppetmaster. Harry Angel agreed to double-cross the Puppetmaster and provide Laura Tobin’s body and heart, which the Puppetmaster wanted him to retrieve. Using his mortal magic, Harry Angel found the heart and Sonny provided Tobin’s body. With the two together, Sonny was able to diablerize Laura Tobin, rendering her forever dead despite her Aegis. Harry Angel went into hiding.
In November, we had another Council meeting. Father David tried to coordinate usage of influence against the Puppetmaster. Father David proceeded to catch Sonny in several painfully blatant lies about how Gator died. Sonny kept barraging Rakesh with Telepathy every few minutes. Nothing was accomplished.
On November 15th, there was a gathering at my casino that turned violent. Before the real fireworks began, someone diablerized a Brujah named Crystal (who had not been seen since the Garou-Kindred War) in full view of mortals while using Mask of 1000 Faces to look like Musashi. It was fishy, but Musashi at first refused to allow Mike to perform a ritual blood test, for fear that he would fall even further from his path if his word wasn’t enough despite his misdeeds. Well, it wasn’t, but the test came up negative. (It took me several more months before I figured out that the real diablerist was the Malkavian Marston Gray.)
Pete the Gangrel caused some trouble by attempting to use Animalism on a variety of Councilors to make them frenzy. He was given to Musashi, but he escaped and he has been seldom seen since.
The real trouble began when several Kindred attempted to assassinate Rakesh, and he overpowered them all with a Presence-like power similar to Majesty. Sonny frenzied and burst out of Obfuscation to attack Rakesh, only to be turned back by the same power. This is what we pieced together afterwards: Rakesh dove out of a window and emerged again from the Umbra in Crinos wolf-man shape, and François and Sonny had to beat a hasty retreat with Rakesh in pursuit. They eventually lost him and François returned alone. We had finally figured out Rakesh was a Lupine, none other than Lord Thomas. Rakesh was blood hunted for the murder of Jacob Aloki, a Ravnos who had been drawing closer to uncovering his secret. At that point, François spilled the beans about Sonny and revealed many of his crimes. Sonny was also blood hunted for crimes revealed earlier in this history.
Musashi and Madame Zita (a mortal Gypsy matriarch) were generally unhelpful in the following announcement of these decisions, and Mike was unable to do anything because of the blood contract. Madame Zita began playing the age-old game of hinting at knowing something but not telling anything, but we figured out Rakesh’s identity anyway. This was made it all the more aggravating when Mike wanted to nominate her to be on the Council. She was made Harpy to keep her out of the race, and promptly lost it again in a subsequent law banning all non-Kindred and other freaks from ruling over those of the Blood.
Eventually, compromises were made and the Malkavian Stang took Father David’s place in Elletsville and Sebastian Quinn of the Gangrel took my place in the airport. Father David and I took the seats of downtown Bloomington and the University, respectively.
White Wolf and an unidentified Garou, probably Rakesh,
killed Sonny as he was trying to leave town. It is important to note that
without Sonny, gambling and prostitution were beyond our exclusive control.
Jonathan Case began the world’s first combination casino and brothel, the
Tower of Babel, at this time. Casca resigned from the office of Keeper
of the Elysium after an inquiry into the assassination attempt on Rakesh.
The second age of the Council began, and was unfortunately
not much better than the first.