Campaign of the Month: October 2017
Blood & Bourbon
The Caitiff
“Beware those who walk without a clan,
for they will be our undoing.
Pity them!
Adopt the orphans where you can.
But watch them.
In them is the bad seed of their sire.”
The Book of Nod
New Orleans sees more Caitiff than it would like to. Many of the city’s clanless are “Carnival Embraces” sired during Mardi Gras, Southern Decadence, and the city’s other festivals. More than one Caitiff can tell a sob story about a comely stranger who showed them the wildest night of their life (or the most terrifying, or both), turned them into a monster, and then disappeared amidst the beads and booze.
The lucky ones get taken in by pitying Kindred or sires responsible enough to stick around. The unlucky ones run into Caitlin Meadows, or else get dragged before to Perdido House by Vidal’s other agents and executed to warn others against committing Carnival Embraces. Besides these unfortunates, many Caitiff are nomads, drifters, and outcasts from other cities. They’re either there to enjoy the city’s famous party scenes or hoping to escape persecution from somewhere else.
If Prince Vidal had his way, there would not be any Caitiff in New Orleans. Unfortunately for him, he only mostly does. While the clanless get a poor reception in parishes under Sanctified or Invictus regents, Antoine Savoy is all-too happy to welcome Caitiff into the French Quarter. He doesn’t give them the best territory, and they’re usually the first to perish in clashes with Vidal’s and the Baron’s people, but they’re otherwise decently treated and invited to his revels at the Evergreen so long as they behave themselves. The clanless have also been able to make a home among the Anarchs in Mid-City, though they endure semi-regular harassment by Vidal’s people. The Baron will accept Caitiff among his followers and treats them even better than Savoy does, but only long as they share his faith. Ones who don’t find the Baron as uncaring of their plight as any Sanctified or Invictus elder.
Historically, the Caitiff were the lowest of the low in New Orleans. That all changed in the ‘90s when thin-bloods started to show up. Now they’re the second-lowest: there’s more than one clan-blooded neonate who’s remarked, “At least they’re real vampires." While Vidal doesn’t abhor them any less, he treats thin-bloods worse and considers their persecution a higher priority. A few clanless, such as Desirae Wells, have even managed to become accepted presences at Elysium. While they will never be truly welcome, that goes for everywhere else too.
Genealogy
• 9. Andromeda Brooks (e. late 20th century, a. late 20th century)
• 10. Josue Vendredi (e. mid 20th century)
• 10. Susan Turner (e. mid 20th century, d. 2005)
• 11. Amanda Morgan (e. mid 20th century, d. 2015)
• 11. Edith Flannagan (e. mid 20th century, d. 2016)
• 11. Glenn Shaffer (e. late 20th century)
• 12. Dakota Torres (e. mid 20th century, d. 2015)
• 13. Francis “Black Francis” Carver (e. late 20th century, d. 2015)
• 12. Laura Ravenwood (e. late 20th century, a. early 21st century)
• 12. Simon Jones (e. late 20th century)
• 12. Trent Ambrose (e. early 21st century, d. 2015)
• 12. Benjamin Francis (e. 2017, d. 2017)
• 13. Jane Francis (e. 2017, d. 2017)
• 13. Marcio de la Cruz (e. late 20th century)
• 13. Emerson Newhouse Hearst (e. early 21st century)
• 13. Samantha (e. early 21st century)
• 13. Warren Kontkowski (e. 2016)
• Julius B. Baudoin (e. late 20th century)
• Benjamin Moore (e. early 21st century)
• Desirae Wells (e. early 21st century, d. 2016)
Caitiff by Camarilla and Covenant Status
Camarilla or Covenant Status ••
Andromeda Brooks
Lineage: 9th gen. childe of Perseus
Embrace: 1999
Status: Anarch ••, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: OXR ••
Born just before the emergence of punk music, Andi spent her mortal years jamming to records and dreaming of being a rock star. She was in New York during a Sabbat incursion and was caught up by a pack and brought to the site of their Mass Embrace, where her Malkavian sire found and “saved” her by granting her the Embrace. She spent years bound to him before running into Alexander Wright, who was in the city to assist with the Camarilla takeover. He brought her back to New Orleans with him when he left and she was granted permission to stay within the city, though she was more interested in the Anarch cause than serving a prince. When Veronica led a wave of Anarchs over to Savoy’s bloc it made sense for her to jump ship with the rest of her krewe, and the French Quarter lord’s lax view on the clanless prompted Andi to come out as Caitiff rather than continue the Malkavian charade. The clan seemed largely unsurprised: Harlequin had previously snubbed her and other Malkavians said that ”she just wasn’t our brand of crazy.” Andi is a part-time resident of New Orleans, on the road more often than not with her krewe-mate Tyrell where she performs with her band, Love & Liars all over the country. She’s a frequent sight around the Quarter and Marigny when she’s in town and enjoys an easy friendship with the Nosferatu Sundown. She’s been known to don the occasional disguise to perform while she’s at home at the various clubs and venues in the area. While many of the city’s older Kindred (especially the Toreador) might think her music is nothing but loud noises, Andi hasn’t seemed too put out by it. After all, none of them are playing for sold-out stadiums or consistently topping the charts with their new releases.
The Twins
Ghouled: Early 21st century
Status: Ghouls •
The Twins have their own name, but Andi only ever refers to them as their moniker, “The Twins.” One plays guitar, the other keyboard, and both are as devoted to their domitor as any ghoul has a right to be. They don’t seem to do anything for her outside of serving in the band, and the two are never seen without the other in company.
Keegan Malone
Ghouled: Early 21st century
Status: Ghouls •
Probably not the original Keegan considering his Embrace and downfall at Hound Wright’s hands. Maybe Andi wasn’t able to let go of the name, or maybe she just happened to find another boy named Keegan. Either way, that’s what she calls the ghoul that serves as the drummer for her band Love & Liars.
Emerson Newhouse Hearst
Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Juana Sanchez
Embrace: 2012
Status: Anarch ••, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: Night Axels ••
Emerson was born rich, but ADHD and rebelliousness led him to drop out of college in favor of cross-country motorcycling. He spent the rest of his young life as a biker, drifter, and adrenaline junkie until his sire Embraced him. He continued his Requiem largely the same way, sticking it to princes who mistreated him for his clanless blood and surviving unlife on the road as a nomad. He came to New Orleans in 2016 for Mardi Gras and joined Shep Jennings’ krewe after deciding he was happy to stick it to this city’s prince too. Permanently staying in the Big Easy doesn’t agree with him and he’s often away on his motorbike. For the right price, he’s happy to ferry other licks between cities and help them survive the perils of the road.
Julius B. Baudoin
Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 1979
Status: Bourbon Sanctified ••, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: Levee Hepcats •••, Numidians ••
Counterfeit ring mogul & master jazz trombonist.
Marcio de la Cruz
Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Alejandro Gálvez
Embrace: Late 20th century
Status: Anarch ••, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: Night Axels ••
Many Kindred assume the fire-eyed young Marcio is a Brujah from how passionate he is about his political views. Born in Nicaragua with relatives from Guatemala, Marcio lost family to no less than two separate U.S. foreign interventions: the Nicaraguan Revolution and the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’etat. He joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front. at a young age and was Embraced by an Anarch sire after being terminally wounded in a shootout against the Contras so he could continue the fight eternally. Marcio remained a rabble-rouser in death and fought against the Ventrue prince of Managua, Alicia Penobscott, for years until she destroyed his sire and coterie in the 2010s. Marcio fled on the next ship to New Orleans, as the city was a long-time trading partner with Central America. He never presented himself before Vidal and kept a low profile in Mid-City as part of Shep Jennings’ coterie until the 2015 Anarch split. Vidal has had amicable relationships with other Spanish-descended princes in Latin America and figures the staked Caitiff would make a useful gift or bargaining chip at some point, but hasn’t considered him important enough to hunt down.
Marcio was a zealous communist for decades, but has grown disillusioned with Marx in favor of anarcho-syndicalism. He believes all power structures are inherently unequal and that the only answer is to burn it all down, with no higher Kindred government than one’s own coterie. Unlike many Anarchs, he considers the Los Angeles Free State to be a rousing success and only tolerates Antoine Savoy as the lesser evil. He despises fascists and is involved with Antifa and several other far-left political groups.
Camarilla or Covenant Status •
Benjamin Moore
Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 2013
Status: Anarch •, Bourbon Sanctified •, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: OXR ••
Benjamin was a disenfranchised youth that grew up thinking he’d eventually be somebody. His dreams were dashed when he realized after his Embrace that he had joined a whole community of people who would always look down at him for his clanless blood. Anarch leanings but stays in the Quarter, Benji spends most of his time writing songs about rebellion and how “the man” is trying to keep people down. He’s rumored to be lovers with a certain other Caitiff musician and krewed up with her in OXR.
Josue Vendredi
Lineage: 10th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 1963
Status: Caitiff -, Camarilla 0, Circle of the Crone •
Teenage Vodouisant who regularly attended Baron Cimitière gatherings and never knew his sire. The Baron took the boy under his wing out of pity, believing his obligation to his followers extended even to Caitiff, but nevertheless treats him with cold aloofness. For his own part, Josue is desperate to win his idol and benefactor’s approval and show that he is more than his clanless blood.
Laura Ravenwood
Lineage: 12th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 1997
Status: Anarch •, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: The Kindred Liberation Front ••
Laura was always a romantic, raised on the works of Victorian poets and American Transcendentalists. Like many Caitiff, it’s unknown who Embraced her, but the depth and complexity of vampiric society appealed to her literary side and she found it deeply fascinating. She came to New Orleans with Jordan Petrowski in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, hoping to immerse herself in the splendor of “the most vampiric city in the world.” Though she dresses and comports herelf well, and can fluently discourse on literary classics, her clanless blood meant that other Kindred did not accept her nearly so well as she hoped. She’s fallen in with the KLF Anarch gang and regularly shows up to Elysium, though the harpies make fun of her for being “a Caitiff who wishes she was Toreador” if they’re bored for anything else to do.
Simon Jones
Lineage: 12th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 1989
Status: Anarch •, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: The Kindred Liberation Front ••
Originally hailing from Savannah, Georgia, Simon had made his way to Houston by Hurricane Katrina. He hit off with the Kindred Liberation Front (New Orleans’ oldest Anarch gang) when they clashed with some local Anarchs and made a good accounting for himself during the battle. He came back to New Orleans with them when the city rebounded and is now considered a loyal, though quiet, member of the krewe. Simon maintains something of Beatnik image and is fond of quoting Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey. He defers to the more experienced members of the gang and acts in a scouting role when the KLF gets into conflicts.
Camarilla or Covenant Status 0
Glenn Shaffer
Lineage: 11th gen. childe of Douglas Keller
Embrace: 1996
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Glenn was a skinhead and punk rock musician from Jackson, Mississippi who was deeply involved in the white power movement as a young man. A decade-long stint in prison, religious conversion, and interactions with people in the groups he hated led him to question and finally renounce his former views. He gave up a great deal of information on his gang’s activities to authorities, leading to his early release from prison. His sire, who’d been using the skinheads as tools in his own ambitions, was wroth at the sudden removal of his pawns and Embraced the former Neo-Nazi to show him he could never become something better.
Glenn responded terribly to his damnation. He slew his sire in a frenzy and fled Jackson before winding up in the French Quarter, one of many such illegitimates and castoffs from other cities. He’s one of Savoy’s more vocal followers and sees in Vidal many of the same fascist tendencies he so despises in mortal political movements. Though his preferred prey are members of hate groups, he remains deeply, deeply embittered over what he now is and has never come to terms with it. The Anarchs regard him as a seemingly natural fit for “having really gone through some shit,” but Glenn could never countenance to join the Movement before 2015 due to their “devil’s bargain” with Vidal. Pierpont McGinn has offered a reward to anyone who brings him the staked “race traitor.”
Samantha
Lineage: 13th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 2012
Status: Caitiff −, Camarilla 0, Unaligned −
Homeless bag lady Embraced at an ancient-looking age, although she herself hasn’t been a vampire for long. She still sleeps on the streets or in parks and feeds on other homeless people there. The Embrace appears to have done little for her sanity, if much was even left to begin with, and she often meanders aimlessly throughout the city while muttering to herself. She stays entirely out of vampiric politics (which frighten her), but is relatively social and enjoys chatting with other Kindred about how New Orleans used to be in the “good old days”—whenever those where.
Warren Kontkowski
Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Maurice Wheeler
Embrace: 2016
Status: Caitiff -, Camarilla 0, Hardline Sanctified 0
Coteries: Guard de Ville •, Red Right Hand ••, Snake Hunters •
Warren was an army infantry officer before his horrific Embrace at the hands of a Setite that corrupted his sister. The Blood stuck, but the clan didn’t, and he has become a brutal and savage foe of his “parent” clan and all of their supporters ever since, working with the Snake Hunters while also continuing to serve as the mailed right hand behind the Red Right Hand’s member. He despises moral corruption in all of its forms, and supports the prince and his loyalists less out of deep faith than out of absolute hatred for the other pretenders.
Isaac Snyder
Ghouled: 2016
Status: Ghouls •
Isaac will proudly tell you that he spent more than ten years of his life ‘in the sandbox’ to keep barbarism from the shores of the US. He’ll also tell you how much of a kick in the teeth it was then to hear about the kinds of ‘fucked up shit’ going on across the country, and maybe right in his own back yard, at the hands of more depraved Kindred. In another life he might have become a hunter when confronted with that: instead he answered his old company officer’s call and became a ghoul. He’d never been much good at anything other than soldiering anyway. The chain smoking, dipping, hard drinking Texas native was loyal to Warren long before the blood bond reinforced it. His time as an NCO—including three years at Fort Bragg—has made him an ideal ‘trainer’ for other ghouls brought into the fold in service to younger Sanctified, but Isaac’s real passion is being in the churn. Thrice divorced with two kids he hasn’t seen in years.
Randal Little
Ghouled: 2016
Status: Ghouls •
Randal grew up in a small time in Iowa, the kind with three churches and only one general store. He joined the army out of high school in 2010—hoping to both serve his country honorably and to earn his GI Bill. He found the military different than he’d imagined—a cross section of parts of America he’d never visited—and hadn’t even been certain were real. The reserved and conservative young man had some difficult adjusting to army life—especially the macabre humor and sexual jokes he was surrounded by. His fellow soldiers were (largely) far from the ‘Christian Soldiers’ he’d expected and held in esteem his in entire life when he imagined ‘veteran’. Matters came to a head in 2012 when on watch he caught a group of his fellows using fake penises with attached bladders to fool their regular drug tests. Unwilling to ignore the frank dishonesty—and to his mind endangering of fellow soldiers through their use of illegal substances—he brought the matter to his non-commissioned officer and through him his company officer—and suffered the beating of a lifetime when those he’d dimed out found out and assaulted him in the barracks a few nights later.
The experience could have soured him on service entirely, but instead strengthened the Iowa farm boy’s resolve to be a force for good. It also earned him the respect of his NCO and platoon officer, who leaned heavily on him during the unit’s Afghanistan deployment. It was there that Warren earned Randal’s enduring respect in turn when the then still green 1st Lieutenant dragged him out of a burning Humvee after an ambush. Though his service in the army ended in 2015 as a corporal, his relationship with his once and future bosses didn’t, and he answered his call from across the country following Warren’s Embrace.
Though far from ‘ok’ with his boss’ monstrous nature, Randal has been largely able to push aside his misgivings when set alongside some of the things he’s seen since his ghouling in the fetid dens of other vampires and the fact that Warren is still Captain Kontkowski in his eyes. There are worse people he could be working for, and worse things he could be spending his life on. Besides, he owes Warren.
Jessica Kontkowski
Ghouled: 2016
Status: Ghouls 0
The younger ‘baby’ sister of Warren, Jessica is a broken woman that despite the Kindred’s best efforts he has been unable to put back together. Several attempts were made in the months following her ‘rescue’ from the clutches of Warren’s sire to return her to something resembling a normal high schooler’s life—with no success. The trauma’s she endured while serving as a ghouled sex slave (and worse) were too persistent, too deep, for those memories to simply be replaced, especially combined with the poignant physical need for something she couldn’t quite put to words. Twice she turned first to recreational drugs trying to take the edge off, but the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the feeling associated with those experiences inevitably brought up more and more repressed memories.
In the end, after months of trying, Warren was presented with an uncomfortable choice, for the acute and growing danger to the Masquerade she presented could not be ignored: kill her, or ghoul her. He chose the latter—a choice she’s seemed determined to make him regret every night since as the lesser of two evils. Despite attempts to help return her to something approaching decency (as decent as a ghoul can be) she remains a wanton thing, constant in her desire for vitae, for drugs, and even for sex. He’s caught her several times sleeping with other ghouls in the service of the Red Right Hand—and is quite certain that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
There are several other more extreme options he’s considered—including sending her to a Kindred groom or even Else Benson at an attempt at greater ‘reeducation’ but he has always blanched at the more extreme descriptions of their methods.
Today she ‘serves’ her brother mostly running errands, taking care of day-to-day tasks, and working in the office of the Giani Building—mostly so that other more reliable ghouls can keep an eye on her. They regularly drag her along to church services and have been actively working to keep her clean of drugs (other than vitae)—but it’s a constant effort. Despite all professions to the contrary, she doesn’t appear to want to change.
Fallen Caitiff
Camarilla or Covenant Status ••
Desirae Wells
Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 2013
Final Death: 2016 (3 years undead)
Status: Anarch ••, Caitiff −, Camarilla •
Coterie: Night Axels ••
Desirae Wells has total amnesia. She claims to remembers nothing of her mortal life or the circumstances of her Embrace during Mardi Gras several years ago, and often wanders the city seeking anything to spark her lost memories. She’s regarded as an amusing curiosity by many Kindred and has leveraged that perception into some modicum of status: while the local Camarilla elders won’t ever respect her, they see her as harmless and even tolerate her showing her face in Elysium. She’s perhaps the city’s most respected Caitiff, which together with her lack of political ties and skill at putting people at ease, led the Anarchs to make her their covenant’s representative and envoy in 2014. Wells herself runs with Shep Jennings’ krewe of Anarchs and often counsels the younger members towards greater restraint in their behavior.
Since the Anarchs’ factional split in 2015, Wells has walked a careful line trying to stay neutral between Coco’s and Veronica’s camps. Later that year, Caroline Malveaux-Devillers managed to uncover much of her mortal identity (including her birth name, though she’s decided to keep using ‘Desirae Wells’), though the circumstances of her Embrace remain a mystery—as does how she forgot her entire past.
Camarilla or Covenant Status 0
Edith Flannagan
Lineage: 11th gen. childe of Charles Kennan
Embrace: 1955
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
When Edith was a little girl she had one dream: to be a homemaker. She grew up knowing that she wanted to be a wife and mother, have a white-picket fence, bake blueberry and apple pies. Even now, decades into her unlife, Edith hasn’t given up the dream of having children. She keeps three ghouls that she refers to as her daughters and has taken in a thin-blood child that calls her “Mom.” She’s a post-Katrina transplant to New Orleans and resides along Rampart Street within the French Quarter, one of its many Quarter rats. She disappeared around the time of the 2016 Battle of Mt. Carmel and is presumed deceased in the related violence.
Lily Flannagan
Ghouled: 1987
Status: Ghouls •
Lily is both the eldest ghoul and the one who has served her domitor the longest. She was a baby when Edith rescued her from “that terribly abusive booze hound” and has known no other life than the one with Edith. She’s long wanted to be friends with Cloe, though the centuries-elder ghoul has been slow at best to respond to her repeated overtures. This is a source of some embarrassment for her domitor, and many wonder how long the ghoul will be permitted to stick around.
Melody Flannagan
Ghouled: 2003
Status: Ghouls •
Melody had another name at one point, but she couldn’t tell you what it was. Edith named her Melody for the singing she likes to do; the child is always humming a tune, bursting into song in her high soprano, or otherwise letting her voice be heard. She is the “middle child” of the three Flannagan ghouls, both in age and in length of service to her domitor. She says she isn’t afraid of anything, but she still sleeps with a nightlight. Serves as her mistresses’ herald and often disarms people with her charming smile and radiating happiness, though she sometimes mixes up her messages when she tries to deliver them in song form.
Harper Flannagan
Ghouled: 2006
Status: Ghouls 0
The newest addition to Edith’s brood, Baby Harper is thought to be somewhere between 12 and 18 months. She appeared in Edith’s arms shortly after Edith came to the city following Katrina, and many think that Harper somehow managed to survive the hurricane that took her “real” parents. Edith calls her miracle baby and has thus far refused to let the ghoul age. Doesn’t seem to do much other than babble.
Jane Francis
Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Benjamin Francis
Embrace: 2017
Final Death: 2017 (0 years undead)
Status: Caitiff -, Camarilla 0, Hardline Sanctified 0
Coterie: Red Right Hand •
Information on Jane is sparse compared to the Red Right Hand’s over members. They won’t speak of her, and with good reason. Embraced by her husband following his own illegal Embrace, she resided in the French Quarter for more than a month in obscurity as one of its many Quarter rats. She was eventually captured and brought to face the prince’s justice while trespassing into Hardliner territory. Ignorant of the Camarilla’s laws and customs, she pled for her husband’s Requiem. She agreed to bring him over from the Bourbon Sanctified, and to bring in her husband’s sire to face justice. Jane proved duplicitous and easily swayed, for she attempted to betray her krewe as part of a scheme to flee the city with her husband. She was executed for her betrayal.
Other Fallen Caitiff
• Benjamin Francis (12th gen. childe of unknown sire, Caitiff, e. 2017, d. 2017)
• Amanda Morgan (11th gen. childe of Susan Turner, Anarch Movement, e. mid 20th century, d. 2015)
• Dakota Torres (12th gen. childe of unknown sire, Anarch Movement, e. mid 20th century, d. 2015)
• Francis “Black Francis” Carver (13th gen. childe of Dakota Torres, Anarch Movement, e. late 20th century, d. 2015)
• Susan Turner (10th gen. childe of unknown sire, Anarch Movement, e. mid 20th century, d. 2005)
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