Dark Before Dawn Session Summary: Establishment of Order

Lewis Epcott's cheerful smile makes a great contrast
to Prince Saeed's thoughtful concern.

Harry Saeed of the Ordo Dracul hosted a social soiree at his café so that he could declare himself their new prince.  After his declaration, Siobhan O’Baoill and Talitha Salvatore revealed their own prize that they had earned through an online play-by-post session: a torpid (unconscious) vampire who could control bee swarms.  Allegedly this vampire belonged to a mysterious bloodline (sub-group) of vampire called the Melissidae who could control swarms of insects.

They brought the vampire inside and tied her to a chair (where I sat with my wrists crossed behind my back) and roused her with some vitae direct from a vampire’s wrist.  They discovered that she couldn’t speak directly to them.  Instead she spoke through bees that she summoned from her lungs so only those with the vampiric discipline of Animalism could understand her.  When she was backhanded back into torpor, the bees fell into a desiccated state.

This strange turn of events made them wonder if she were indeed a Melissidae at all.  They searched her body and found lumpsaround the base of her neck.  Gary Dodd did some, ahem, exploratory surgery with a knife and dug them out.  He discovered the notes to be a gak-like substance that moved further in.  He pulled on them, pulling out tendril after tendril, that started waving toward him but Prince Harry Saeed sapped their will with one of his powers (Numbing Touch) and they ceased to move.

Finally they roused her again, chatted to her some more, then put her back into torpor.  Prince Harry Saeed assisted by Doctor Jonathon Taylor surgically removed all of the strange pieces from her body, cautious not to kill her.  Finally they staked her and transferred into Gary Dodd’s care for safe keeping.

Afterwards, Siobhan O’Baoill, Seamus O’Baoill, Talitha Salvatore and Thomas McAllister went to visit a guy (played by me again) in a nearby pub for general conversation (and some justifiable swearing on Siobhan’s part).  We did this in the “Elsewhere Room.”  I leaned up against a cupboard that was at the right height for a bar and drank iced tea to represent beer.

Later FatherMother revealed that she could provide the vampires with Lacrima (vampire wine).  Jonathon Williams also offered to steal some deluxe bottles of Lacrima from Duchess Alicia Brown’s collection.  Then the conversations turned to the usual political schmoozing as various individuals jockeyed for various positions.

Through all of this the thought of the faux Melissidae and her missing demonically possessed sire was not far from everyone’s minds…