Below are a few capsule descriptions of key players in the story. The story plays out best if the individual characters or coteries presented here are just a bit stronger than the players' characters' coterie, thereby insuring that the players' characters work together to beat their common foes. Storytellers who prefer conflict within their players' coteries may wish to make these characters weaker than the players' coterie, relying upon intracoterie conflict for some drama.

Tara, bishop of san diego
9th generation, childe of Justin Davies
Clan: Brujah
Nature: Director
Demeanor: Confidant
Embrace: 1822
Apparent Age: Late 20s

Tara is the Bishop of San Diego, a title that indicates she's nominally in charge. Unlike Camarilla princes, however, bishops aren't tyrants, nor do they plot against one another in the great Jyhad. Bishops are more like gang leaders, as the anarchs don't really want established authority figures in the Anarch Free State.

However, Tara is not content with a mere bishopric. Over the past few years she's been maneuvering to affiliate San Diego so that she may become its prince. This hasn't made her popular with the die-hard anarchs of San Diego, but her own gang supports her bid for authority. Of course, that still leaves the other half of the city's Kindred allied against her.

Tara faces opposition from outside forces as well. The Sabbat would love to establish a foothold in San Diego, making it a staging point for anti-Camarilla operations as well as turning the ranks of the anarchs to its cause. There is almost always a scout pack present in the city, performing some reconnaissance or another. Additionally, the influential anarch Jeremy MacNeil opposes Camarilla presence in the free state. No sooner would Tara ally herself with the sect than MacNeil would take up his ancestral claymore and ride to San Diego with his packmates to "address" the situation.

Tara is as genial as a vampire can be (at least to others' faces). Behind her jovial facade, however, lies a steel temperament and an indomitable will. Tara will have her way, or die trying. The last few years have been spent building alliances and currying favor with the Camarilla, and it looks as if Tara finally has the clout to ally San Diego with that sect. Her southwestern charm gives her an almost "southern belle" sensibility, and many who work with her feel privileged to do so. It's those others who don't even want to consider her position that give her so much difficulty. "Do be a dear and look into that, won't you?" She'd be much obliged.

More information on Tara may be found in Los Angeles by Night.

Federico di Padua, archon to the camarilla
7th generation, childe of Mariennia
Clan: Nosferatu
Nature: judge
Demeanor: Survivor
Embrace: 1444
Apparent Age: Arguably early 30s

An archon to the Camarilla, Federico is in San Diego investigating the recent assassination of former Nosferatu justicar Petrodon. Tara courts his favor in the interest of her Camarilla scheme and promises to keep Federico apprised of any information she uncovers. Federico also seeks to discern whether or not Tara is capable of passing muster as the Prince of San Diego - though the city has its uses, the fact that it is surrounded on one side by eight hundred miles of Anarch Free State and the other by Sabbat-infested Baja California would likely put the city in jeopardy if its affiliation became common knowledge among the Kindred. Federico is at war with himself over the issue. Recovering the recent losses of the Camarilla is important, but establishing a holding in the middle of hostile territory is unwise.

Federico is a no-nonsense archon, having served various justicars and the Inner Circle practically since the Camarilla was formed. He takes being an archon very seriously. He's heard it all before and his tolerance for foolishness and upstart Kindred is low - Federico is all business. Federico is quite compassionate, and he took the news of Petrodon's assassination as a personal affront. [Petrodon had his flaws, but as Federico sees it, his respects the justicar's station should protect him from any personal grievances others may have had with him.]

It is this type of outdated chivalry that makes Federico such a staunch supporter of the Camarilla. He knows it is a flawed model, but in these desperate, modern nights, it's all the Kindred have left to protect them from humanity and each other.

More information on Federico may be found in Transylvania Chronicles II: Son of the Dragon.

Athox
10th generation, sire unknown
Clan: Nosferatu
Nature: Architect
Demeanor: Deviant/Visionary
Embrace: 1957
Apparent Age: Indistinguishable

Before his Embrace, Athox was the archetypal loser. Bullied as a child, ignored during young adulthood and stuck in a meaningless but inescapable job for his middle-aged years, Athox (then William Brewster) couldn't get ahead. He turned to drink, throwing himself ever deeper into his personal abyss. One night, after all the "respectable" bars had closed, Brewster found himself on the wrong side of the tracks in an opium den. After taking a fatal dose of opium and heroin, Brewster stumbled into the alley behind the den where he fell prey to a lurking Nosferatu. Brewster told the vampire to just let him die, which aroused the cruel streak in the Kindred. The Nosferatu drained Brewster's blood and fed him back a bit of his own before vanishing into the night, cackling at his merciless joke.

William Brewster rose as a vampire and took the name Athox, discarding his old name as he discarded his old life. His past anger and frustration exacerbated the horror of being a vampire. Athox vowed he would never kneel to the pervasive vampire authority that refused to let him indulge his hellish undead powers. Learning of the Anarch Free State, Athox fled there, settling among the falsely idyllic suburbs of San Diego. Not long after realizing the true nature of San Diego's Kindred politics and Tara's duplicity, Athox went truly mad. His personality swings wildly between a monster of wicked insight and a resentful, bitter loner.

Then Tara made her play. Rather than allow her to turn the free state into a Camarilla puppet, Athox has adopted a campaign to undermine her bid for power. The latest in scheme is the abduction and sale of the children. He has deliberately left clues of the kidnappings to implicate Kindred involvement - shattering Tara's dreams of Camarilla approval while remaining out of the picture himself. As to whether or not he succeeds...

"Big Mike" Spinoza,
wifebeaters' guitarist
11th generation, childe of Jeremy Noble
Clan: Brujah antitribu
Nature: Bon Vivant
Demeanor: Bravo
Embrace: 1979
Apparent Age: Late 20s

Big Mike was the guitarist for a bush-league New York punk band named Sex With Knives in the late 70s. His propensity for violence far exceeds that of his bandmates. He was thrown out for missing too many shows because of jail, broken limbs and fighting with stage managers. It seemed that Big Mike was destined for a life of locally glamorized failure, like a low-rent Sid Vicious. Fate had other ideas in mind.

Late in 1979 the Sabbat undertook a "recruitment drive" for an upcoming attack on the Kindred of Buffalo. Big Mike saw a pack of what turned out to be Sabbat vampires assaulting a cop in an alley and he joined in the fight just for the hell of it.

After working over the cop, the vampires beat Mike Unconscious. Big Mike awoke for his Creation Rites - it took three blows to the head with a shovel to knock him unconscious - and was the first member of his "class" to dig himself out of his grave.

Big Mike took to the Sabbat unlifestyle quite well. Being a vampire let him indulge his mindless brutality. Although he was never intended to make it past the Buffalo attack, he managed to impress his pack priest enough to make the cut afterward. He and two other packmates formed a nomadic pack of their own and have traveled under the guise of a rock band for four years now.

Big Mike has the full rockabilly shtick down: embroidered bowling shirt; dark, cuffed blue jeans; hair that could stop Elvis in his tracks. As his name implies, he's larger and stronger than the average man, and a little slow. He's not very smart, but makes up for it with meanness, and rarely allows a concert to go by without kicking someone in the front row in the face. Big Mike actually likes being nasty, however, and any interaction with him is likely to result in someone getting hurt.

Kim Wylie,
pack priest and wifebeaters' bassist
13th generation, childe of Micki Prince
Clan: Tzimisce
Nature: Masochist
Demeanor: Perfectionist
Embrace: 1996
Apparent Age: Early 20s

Kim ran with the skinheads and rude boys throughout high school. She wasn't one of the bubble-gummer rebelsubs, either - Kim spent nights out at the clubs and concerts before stumbling home to her father's dingy apartment.

By the time she was 17, she'd been high, stoned, drunk, tripping, smacked up, arrested, convicted, committed, reassigned, stabbed, shot, beaten senseless, and thrown out of her home, more than half of which she did electively. She used to joke with her friends that the only thing she hadn't done was die.

Then she did. One night, as Kim was headed to a speakeasy, a curious group of swing kids she hadn't seen before accosted her in the parking lot. They pushed her around and taunted her - a pack of Sabbat vampires picking at the juicebag for sport. But, Kim was nobody's clown, and after one of the vampires knocked her to the ground she pulled him down after her and split his head open on the asphalt. After a long moment of silence the other vampires erupted in laughter, the eldest among them Embracing her on the spot as a token of respect for her ferocity.

Subsequently, Kim joined the nomadic pack of Sabbat who became The Wifebeaters, taking up the bass so she could travel with them. As it turns out, she's actually quite good with music, and probably the most serious musician in the group. Kim also enjoys tattooing and body modification, and any given concert may see her with some new and dramatic mutilation.

Kim is attractive, if not particularly feminine, wearing her hair shaved short and a complement of stainless steel accouterments on various regions of her anatomy. She wears mens' blue jeans cuffed at the ankle, wingtip cordovans, and tanktop undershirts. Kim is curt and hostile, but is always happy to "talk shop" with anyone who has (or feigns ... ) an interest in her kind of music.

Calvin Callahan,

wifebeaters'vocaiist and drummer
11th generation, childe of Marie-Helene Dutoit
Clan: Ventrue antitribu
Nature: Penitent
Demeanor: Survivor
Embrace: 1970
Apparent Age: Late 20s

Calvin hated Montreal. His Embrace came at the hands of a sire with whom he had nothing in common, and it is unlikely that she ever intended hm to exist beyond the brief skirmishes of 1970's October Crisis. Almost to spite her, Calvin earned the right to remain a vampire and immediately joined a pack headed south into the United States.

White in the United States Calvin split from his original.pack, joining a group of nomadic Sabbat to avoid being tied down. All that travel led Calvin's pack into conflict with the feared Lupines, and the pack built a reputation for itself as they managed to leave several werewolf corpses behind them in their exploits. Howeveri luck eventually ran out, and Calvin's pack was decimated by a cagey group of werewolves who set an ambush for the vampires. Miraculously, Calvin managed to escape, taking refuge in the Anarch Free State.

Before long, Calvin rejoined his sect in Tijuana, where he was selected by Bishop Cicatriz to be an advance scout to the city of San Diego. Assembling a new pack under the guise of a band, Calvin resolved to serve the Sabbat without the failure he demonstrated at the claws of the Lupines.

Calvin is entirely devoted to 'the Sabbat, knowing that the vampires of i the Camarilla are weak and despicable. He's not stupid, however, and believes that the time is not yet right for the sect to take San Diego. He is the most cautious member of The Wifebeaters, making him their nominal leader. Calvin wears high-waisted pants with suspenders and tanktop undershirts. He rarely goes anywhere without his signature fedora, which makes him look like a horror-show Frank Sinatra.

Javier Gutierres,

the gentleman's anarch
10th generation, childe of Victor Girard
Clan: Toreador
Nature: Autocrat
Demeanor: Pedagogue
Embrace: 1957
Apparent Age: Mid-40s

Javier Gutierres received his Embrace in one of his sire Victor Girard's attempts to seize power in Los Angeles. Gutierres saw the impenetrable lock his sire and other Kindred had on the affairs of Los Angeles and knew he had to do something else - he needed to be in a position of control, not servitude!

Assessing the opportunities around him, Gutierres relocated to San Diego, where most of the Kindred were thugs or disorganized malcontents still reeling from the freedom afforded by the free state's founding. Gutierres swept in and built himself a power base, slowly accumulating influence in the city over the past 35 years, particularly in the commercial and law-enforcement arenas.

Javier bears no love for the Camarilla, fearing it will erode the influence he has worked so hard to garner. At the same time he has little sympathy for the rabble anarchs, and actually prefers things as they are currently, with Tara as his only rival and concern.

Gutierres wants the Camarilla far away from San Diego, but he fears that this current development (he is unaware of exactly who is behind the affair) will bring the Camarilla with the added effort to clean up San Diego's troubles. [He is polite in a teacher's manner, imparting the wisdom of his years like a mentor to his proteges.] Gutierres gladly works with anyone who seems lesser than himself, relying upon their ability to right the situation and his own ability to manipulate them out of the picture in the aftermath so he can continue his comfortable unlife.

Shay,
the prince of el cajon
10th generation, childe of Renegade Killah
Clan: Caitiff
Nature: Competitor
Demeanor: Thrill-Seeker
Embrace: 1990
Apparent Age: Late teens

Shay is the self-styled "Prince" of El Cajon, where he has his fingers in all the vice traffic in the "devil's footlocker." His name is infamous in San Diego's Kindred circles. Shay commands vast influence that belies his few years as a vampire. Although El Cajon is not a princedom, Shay is the feudal crime lord there; he has taken the title as a boast to other Kindred.

As befits someone who needs to know the movements of the law, Shay has police, local-circuit court judges, and petty bureaucrats in his pocket. He always seems one step ahead of the straight cops, and no police ever walk beat on his turf.

Shay has contacts among the Sabbat, anarchs, and Camarilla alike, and will talk with anyone - for a price. Of course, Shay has all the money he wants, so some sort of favor may need to be negotiated. Characters who enter into an arrangement with a pimp-drug-kingpin-scumbag of this nature may deserve what they get.

Shay is a master of street etiquette. Few are as street- savvy as he. He is fairly polite as long as he believes there is something to be gained from dealing with an individual. Shay wears casual clothes from urban designers, and almost always has an entourage of ghouls and mortal cronies with him.

"Halloween" and the world of darkness

As most Storytellers can attest, it's impossible to write a truly universal generic story for Vampire. Some troupes won't give a damn about the children or Athox while others might want to aid him in his ploy; still others may decide to ignore the whole story and join the anarch (or Camarilla, or Sabbat, or Kuei-jin, or whatever) cause.

To that end, the story has been left deliberately vague and open-ended. Perhaps your coterie knows The Wifebeaters beforehand. Maybe one of the PCs makes better sense as Athox' childe. It could be that Tara has been overthrown or killed in your chronicle. If these (or anything else) is the case, more power to you!

The bottom line is to take the story presented here and make it yours. If you don't like it, change it - that's the Golden Rule for all Storyteller games, and arguably for all roleplaying games. just, remember to keep your changes in mind for the other chapters of this particular story.

Scenario 1: Vampire The End of Time Begins Here

Introduction
The Story Unfolds
The Cast of Characters