Bestiary

The majority of the underworld war is currently being played out in the United States. The cities of Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston (Detroit being summarily controlled by Sapa Inca) have seen a notable upswing in violence among gangs and organized crime syndicates. However, within the last two years, riots and other outbursts have begun in Italy as the Mafia families strike against their long-time oppressors, the Giovanni. Such attacks are nothing to be ignored; many of them have taken out small stronghold, burning entire libraries of necromantic works and slaughtering a handful of Giovanni neonates, ancillae, and ghouls.

Haiti, too, has begun to see a rise in underworld violence as powerful vodouisants hear the “Dark Word” and realize that there are vampires in their midst. This has caused a significant upheaval for the Setites; ghouls are turning on their masters, and Setite control over the Caribbean is beginning to fail for the first time in decades. Superstitions once carefully created and developed by the Clan are now being turned against them, and more than one Setite coven has been sacrificed to the very gods they once impersonated.

Throughout the United States, the Justicars of the Camarilla struggle to get agents into the affected areas in order to quell the rapid spread of information, but they have had little success. The agents of Sapa Inca and their allies seem prepared for this, and have taken steps to ensure that Archons have difficulty finding a foothold of influence. Because they are tasked to keep the Masquerade, these vampiric agents find themselves placed in extraordinarily difficult positions; break the First Tradition, or lose track of their prey in the underworld.

Even the Regent of the Sabbat has noted the danger these mortals pose, though he is politically constrained against acting as if he has any concern about their behavior. Instead, he sends nomadic packs into the area as “tests” of their combat-readiness. These packs have somewhat more success than the Archons of the Camarilla. Still, once or twice the Sapa Inca and their Kerberos allies have managed to arrange these two more powerful factions battling one another – while the mortals sit back, laugh, and mop up the remnants.

For the moment, Zek’s conspiracy appears to be devastatingly effective. It’s only a matter of time, however, until the elaborate vampire-hunting apparatus she’s constructed realizes that Kindred are at the center of their information network, and they turn on her and her brood. But for now, she’s still managing to work the long con.