WoD To Do With Ordo Dracul, Part 1

Hehe, the title rhymes within itself. Kinda rolls off the tongue quite nicely. I'm sure many an Invictus Prince (or a Carthian or whichever covenant) has muttered these words to themselves quite a bit over the years. Why? Well, they're a secretive covenant that likes to dabble in things they shouldn't and if you let them dabble as they will then they'll not only probably support your praxis but will doubtless unleash something awful upon the city. If you try to stop their dabbling, then they'll turn against you, because, really, why not let them have access to that old dock or that irritating piece of land that'll never sell? But, I digress, let's take a look at the Ordo Dracul from a plot perspective.

Theme: Curiosity didn't kill the cat. Ignorance did. Curiosity just reanimated it into a horrible abomination.

Mood: Mystery, Secretiveness, Hierarchical bonds, Discipline, Curiosity, and Exploration.

15 Plot Hooks:

1. The Chapter House librarian has been growing increasingly more secretive and erratic ever since that latest shipment of local history books have been brought into the library.

2. There's a little shop in a busy, yet quite old, shopping mall that seems to be at the locus of several powerful leylines according to a map painstakingly put together by the kogaian with some boons paid to a Crone with Arcane Sight yet ... there seems to be nothing odd about the shop at all. Any investigations into the shop's past do confirm that a mass suicide 10 years ago occured which suggest it might be a powerful Crucible of the Coil of Souls yet the place seems about as normal as you can get.

3. An elder Ordo Dracul begins stalking the coterie, interrogating any human allies, and watching over them from afar. He's even provided them some assistance when they've gotten themselves into trouble but otherwise refuses to get nearer to them. Why? And does it have anything to do with the musical tune he hums to himself whenever he gazes at one of them?

4. One of the Ordo Dracul Daeva's eyes have inexplicable become lined with thick, black veins, that make it difficult for her to deal with humans. What is this affliction and where did it come from?

5. The kogaian has gone into a catatonic state but he's not in torpor. He drinks blood when given to him and sits up each dusk and collapses each dawn as he should. Yet he won't move nor speak to anyone. This began when he arrived on the coterie's secret haven door stop.

6. Using Heightened Senses - hearing in the Ordo Dracul Chapter House reveals the distant sound of screams that seem to come from different places, often from within the walls, but sometimes from outside, poised in the air. The higher ups refuse to talk about it and there's no sign of ghostly phenomena. Some Ordo Dracul have gone missing, though, simply vanished within the house's walls over the years.

7. An Invictus gifts an Ordo Dracul with a book filled with strange scrawls in another language with only a few words within it that can act as a Rosetta Stone. Over time, those who attempt to read it, find the words make themselves known in dreams and nightmares that call to them to open a gate to ... where?

8. The Carthians have grown distant and wary, many of them becoming downright hostile toward the Ordo Dracul, though they refuse to give their reasons. This is quite strange as the relationships between everyone used to be quite cordial.

9. A solitary werewolf notices the Ordo Dracul's interests in his locus and, rather than chasing them off, he desperately clings to them, hoping they can help him keep his territory against the Pure that besiege him. He can reveal quite a lot about the Hisil and the wyrm's nests around the city but the price they would have to pay is one of protection ... against his enemies, their own, and possibly the covenant itself.

10. The kogaian's shadow has begun writhing and twisting in absolute horror and agony whenever people deal with her, gesturing desperately as though trying to warn the other Ordo Dracul, while remaining ordinary on the rare occasions when she deals with outsiders. The kogaian herself seems to be acting strangely - stranger even than usual - and sometimes doesn't seem to recognise those whom she's known for years.

11. The Invictus seem to be purchasing a number of properties and demolishing them to make way for new constructions and they seem to be targeting wyrm's nests and other places of interest though they claim that it is entirely coincidental. Have they figured out these location's value to the Ordo Dracul? If this goes on, then study of the coils will ground down to a snail's crawl.

12. The Lancea Sanctum have been spying on the Ordo Dracul with rats for years, and the Ordo Dracul have built up countermeasures, yet recently, strange golden-eyed rats have joined the normal rodents and they move with an intelligence they should not possess and ignore Animalism from even the greatest master of that discipline. What deals have they made? And what are those creatures? (Maybe Beshilim?).

13. An Ordo Dracul experiment has backfired horribly when the mysterious dealings beneath a local women's and children's hospital becomes public. Many of the human staff are arrested and the scenes of depravity below the school become public news. Yet it's too little, too late, all this attention merely serves to feed the growing wound beneath the school and the ghosts and spirits begin to plague the area, creating a growing Masquerade breach on top of the legal one as curious sightseers and hunters both flock to the area.

14. A Crone becomes romantically interested in an Ordo Dracul and goes to increasingly greater lengths to draw their eye. The trouble is, the Ordo Dracul's mentor believes this Crone is disrupting the student's studies and demands the study rectify the situation.

15. The Harpy goes on a crusade against the younger Ordo Dracul and nothing they say or do is good enough. It's vital to figure out what's drawn the harpy's ire and why the elders within the covenant do nothing about it.

Man, do I love the Ordo Dracul. I'd love to run an Ordo Dracul campaign one day where everyone plays Ordo Dracul and their coterie has to deal with all kinds of stuff. I'm looking forward to writing up Part 2 next week. They're just so awesome. What's your favourite covenant?

Next up will be Goals and Daily Activities and finally will be Iconic Locations and NPCs.