During the month of December, there were two important events:
First of all, a brood of Brujah Anarchs unwisely attempted to lean on Stang’s pawnshop. It was actually a trap to draw a Councilor away from the rest so Jonathan Case could remove his heart. By the end of the evening, the Anarch pawns were dead and Sebastian’s heart was long-gone.
Second, over the course of the month the entire city, Kindred and Kine, slowly grew more and more tired and listless in an effect we dubbed "The Malaise." One night, we simply didn’t wake up. We were drawn into a collective dream by an unidentified Kindred (who some believe manifested that night and walked among us). I don’t know what he actually hoped to accomplish, but many of us developed incredible powers that were promptly abused and terrible atrocities were committed. When we awoke the next evening, the Malaise began to lift and no one was actually killed, but many old rivalries were exposed.
As the Malaise began to lift, Rakesh issued a formal challenge to a duel to Musashi. In January, two of my childer, Cecilia and my daughter Amana, came to town, along with the Toreador Doctor Funkenstein and the Tremere scholar Doctor Robert James (dubbed, "the Doc.") Gregor, a Nosferatu from Terre Haute, also appeared this month. Also, François announced that he was retiring from the role of Speaker of the Council and retreating into obscurity. I became acting Speaker until a replacement could be found.
The Council began its final decline when François left it. The next gathering was a blur of activity as we scrambled to deal with multiple brutal murders, several empty positions, and bombings.
By this point, Bloomington was well on its way to becoming an urban hell as the population continued to explode and the difference between rich and poor kept growing. A protest against prostitution and gambling turned into a riot when someone turned the police on the crowd.
The duel between Rakesh and Musashi never took place: someone hired an Assamite specialist to kill Rakesh before the duel, when it became apparent he wasn’t going to show up, and Musashi found and disposed of the body. The night was incredibly violent without them.
In February, we appointed Doctor Robert James of the Tremere to the office of Speaker. At this point, the Council was divided over many issues and Stang, Sebastian and Mike killed several votes, such as who should be Harpy, again and again. Sebastian became increasingly hostile towards me and I grew tired of comforting his growing paranoia.
In the course of an investigation, I let a reckless urge get the better of me, and I found myself being shipped home in a box with my soul removed and placed in a large ruby. Sewers are such nasty places. The details are a bit more complicated, but it gave me a nice little vacation to reflect away from the Council. I stayed in contact with Amana through telepathy, and she acted in my interests. Amana eventually rescued me, and pulled off a tremendous diplomatic coup by getting a visiting Giovanni to restore me to my body.
Amana had done very well for herself in the meanwhile, having designed the Tower of Babel for Jonathan Case (it’s a simply amazing building that opened that month.) She had also started a romantic relationship with the Doc, which I approved of. I credit her with preventing an all-out war with the Giovanni when Sebastian almost picked a fight with them when they asked for a small cut of my casino. Sebastian backed out of an agreement to sell his share of the casino to Amana when he found out she was willing to deal with the Giovanni. Not wanting to see either side burn it down out of spite, I closed it myself.
I revealed my ideas about Marston Gray being a diablerist, which prompted Sebastian and Stang to form a mob to comb the streets for him. They applied police influence as well, but apparently issuing APB’s to look for invisible Malkavians with Mask of 1000 Faces didn’t help. The Doc solved the problem in his own way by having Jonathan Case summon Marston. The fight ended with both the Tremere and the Malkavian torpored on the floor of Jonathan Case’s office. The Council destroyed Marston. Jonathan Case stole the Doc’s heart. At the gathering, it was revealed that Jonathan Case was the Setite who had been causing so much of our trouble and that the Doc and Sebastian were missing their hearts.
Also, Prince Henry Thomas Elliot of Indianapolis, a fellow
Toreador, arrived to address the ongoing war between the Toreador and the
Brujah Anarchs of his city. Mike and the Tremere began looking for non-Tremere
that knew Thaumaturgy. The unsolved murders continued.