Over the next month, Sebastian grew more and more belligerent. He threatened my daughter and me and began stalking Amana. I didn’t reply to his messages but began quietly looking for help. I lucked into a conspiracy lead by Hans, the powerful Gangrel, to overthrow the Council. I threw my support and my faction behind him.
By this point, the Council was close to breaking up anyway. After picking an argument with Father David, I ensured his neutrality by telling him I had seen his point of view. Father David has been away on personal business. James left to parlay with the Anarchs in Indianapolis and has not been seen since.
It was, to everyone’s amazement, Stang who actually broke the Council. On April Fool’s Day, Stang declared himself Prince of Elletsville, which by this point was within the Bloomington urban sprawl. We stayed silent and waited.
Before we gathered at the grand opening of one of Amana’s new hotels in the exclusive high society area, I made my move. I had Sebastian forcefully removed from the airport, only to my amazement he broke the Masquerade and tore off with Celerity. (I covered the breach myself.) I also launched my new media enterprise, a comic strip named Sebastian the Pink Potbellied Pig.
When Sebastian and his cronies attacked me as soon as they could at the gathering, Mike made quick work of the Clanless vampire Dizzy Dancer (who was wanted for knowing Thaumaturgy). Stang and his ally Joe Sterling were staked and stored for judgement. Sebastian vanished into the hands of other Kindred, who assure me he won’t give me any more trouble.
The coup was actually very clean and Hans became Prince with the support of the remaining Councilors present (which included me, the Doc, Mike and Musashi.) I became Toreador Primogen and returned to the airport. Amana became Harpy and controller of the new high society feeding ground, and the Doc gained control of the University. Solomon Epstein of the Ventrue assumed control of the Industrial Park, and Gregor the Nosferatu was given downtown Bloomington. Harry Angel, now returned as the first vampire of his own bloodline, became Keeper of the Elysium and Mike (who has made very good friends with Harry, surprisingly) became Seneschal. Musashi was allowed to remain Sheriff.
Also at the April gathering, Jonathan Case reappeared. We eventually figured out that he was a Setite who had actually diablerized the real Jonathan Case and acquired his personality. After a difficult fight (complicated by Musashi nearly betraying us to the Setite by swearing to protect him from us), Jonathan Case was torpored. Amana and the Tremere Victoria Barlowe managed to manipulate his personalities against each other and found out his plans and the locations of several missing hearts.
Also, Hans and the new government succeeded in negotiating a cease-fire in Indy; whether or not it will hold at this point is unknown.
In May, 1998 PENTEX declared that it was leaving town following a massive protest against it. The murders of Kine continued at a frightening pace; the Masquerade was in jeopardy due to several murders by people being bitten on the neck and drained of blood.
Ignoring my example, several of Bloomington’s most powerful Kindred went to Detroit to attack Jonathan Case’s sire in his sewer haven. The Prince and several Elders left on this apparently suicidal mission and left no provisions for government in their absence. The prisoners in the Wylie House remained beyond our reach.
The Kindred prepared to gather for the auction of a deceased mortal’s collection of occult artifacts on May 9th. I accepted the position of Prince for time being, with Solomon Epstein as Seneschal, Victoria Barlowe as Sheriff, and Amana staying on as Harpy. A newly arrived Toreador, Genevieve, acted as Keeper. We had several new Kindred arrive that night. Word came to us from one of Harry Angel’s ghost servitors that the Elders who had gone to Detroit had descended into the sewers and not returned. We apprehended a mortal vampire hunter that night. There were several Bane spirits at the auction that caused greed and anger to flare several times. Even more confusion arose when a smoke grenade was set off and people began grabbing items.
Eventually, Thaddeus Presprich, the son of the deceased,
arrived and began claiming several items as his inheritance. This Brujah,
as well as a Giovanni, a representative of the rather frightening Church
of the Apocrypha, and Victor Magius of the Tremere all claimed an item
from the collection. I allowed the Tremere to keep it and ordained that
it was not to leave the city.
We met again late in June, at the manor Victoria Barlowe had bought at the auction. Much to our surprise, Hans returned. He said that he, Harry Angel, Gregor, and Larry Teague had all returned, but the others were all dead. I gladly gave back the mantle of Prince, only to find myself as Seneschal.
That night, two Archons arrived and proclaimed that we would face their wrath if we didn't bring about an improvement of the Masquerade within 3 months, at which time, they would begin killing Elders. Shortly after, Victoria killed Alec of the Brujah for Diablerie. Chelsea Monroe was crushed.
This night also brought the introduction of several more Kindred, and another individual who identified himself as "YT." The Tremere, deciding he was some kind of demon, sent Chance Morgan after him.
Chance confronted YT, only to have his possessions and clothes transformed into grape jelly. At the same instant, the roof blew off the Tremere Chantry. Chance frenzied and began throwing flame bolts across the room. He was apprehended and beaten down by angry Kindred.
Thus began our current schism in the city. The majority
of the city was not satisfied with the punishment that Chance Morgan received.
Hans, who spent most of the night in silence or out of
sight, was content to let this stand. Given the warnings of the Archons,
this brought great outrage to every other Kindred of the city. We are currently
on the verge of another civil war.
The situation was further complicated by the Brujah James Edward Thomas trying to kill me with a garrotte covered with Assamite ichor that has been traced back to Casca. I was saved by Doctor James and Victoria and her ghoul Michael and a newly arrived Gangrel named Jason; however, this has only served to further complicate the political situation.