Alberto's captivity was short-lived. No longer protected by legions of zombies and a coterie of cainites - The Sabbat took the opportunity to retrieve their comrade, leaving Zuranna with a sore head.

Alberto in the meantime, went on a team hit mission against Tamoszius. Since Tamoszius knew Alberto and was well disposed towards him, the hit was a simple, quick and hideous betrayal of everything his former coterie had sacrificed so much for.

Gideon had received a call from Thornhill asking if they could identify the body of the thing that attacked the Succubus' mortal manager when Reg was last there...so together they went. As they left Zuranna arrived and tagged along. The body, laid out in Brennon's bare VIP suite, was not readily recognizable though Danior had a fleeting memory of seeing the guy the night of the Werewolf attack on the Succubus Club.

They also noticed a strange tattoo on the back of the right hand of the corpse. Gideon identified that it had been administered post mortem, which would suggest the possibility of some kind of magical/vitae powered tattoo artist, since tattoos on vampires were known to be temporary.

But then the Succubus club came under attack again. From more werewolves. This time they were in a much more precarious position, and fleeing was a more difficult prospect. They all decided to stay and they took what little furniture there was and began barricading the doors. Once the operation was completed, the werewolves burst through the floor to ceiling windows of the VIP suite instead and a fight was on.

Gideon got in a head shrinking, while Danior somewhat successfully sewed confusion and Zuranna took a big hit. Brennon kill one werewolf by shooting it in the head with silver bullets, but as his head was inside the same werewolf's head at the same time this lead to mutually assured destruction. Just as the momentum of the battle began to turn against them the werewolves heard a howl, turned and headed into the labyrinth.

They followed, at a 'safe' distance. The labyrinth was in disarray, a huge fight had occurred down there, but few had been killed it seemed. Genghis confirmed it, that the werewolves were after Portia for some reason. The seeming deathlessness lasted until they stepped inside the heavily damaged maze. Dozens of dead and dying lay about like rejected dolls. Danior was shocked by the scene at first and move to help, but ended by callously drinking all the spare blood that he could. Reg found himself a little secret door, clued in by a bloody hand mark against the wall in an area that would have been much darker but for the damaged walls of the maze.

Entering the closet sized room, he found two bodies. One of them, a werewolf - still in his monstrous form, and the other a young man. They had apparently strangled one another to death as their hands were still around each others throats. Gideon searched the bodies and Reg searched the room.

The body had one thing of interest on it: A slightly damaged gold death mask, set with the visage of Gideon Jones. Gideon took it and looked up to see Reg, in the next room.

Another secret room that Reg had found and slid open. This time it contained a mattress, some manacles set into the wall and in its centre there was a glass vial of thick inviting red liquid lit from above by a single bulb. Reg lifted the vial and decided that he had had good luck with mysterious viles in the past and drunk it down.

"Of course.", were his last thoughts as his vision swam and faded to black.

 


 
 


 

Stibor Vlaszy Bogdanov

Basic history
Born in 1001 to a minor noble Vlaszy family who had recently married into the Bogdanov family which had its lands in Pomorie, Bulgaria (a beach town North of Burgas, jutting out into the Black Sea). Stibor was a younger son, and wasn't likely to inherit his father's lands. But the unique 'status' of the Vlaszy family guaranteed Stibor a small fief and a knight's stipend...and obligations. But the Battle of Salonica was to decide the inheritance - his father being killed there by Byzantine forces under Basil the Butcher. His eldest brother, Bogdan, took over as Boyar.

The Byzantines would continue the occupation until well after Stibor's death, and he would only get two chances as a mortal (but not human, Stibor had never known what it was to be human) to fight them:- the first was at The Battle of Dyrrhachium, which was a crushing defeat. Even Bogdan could see that the Byzantines could not be stopped and he joined with the other nobles in surrender...handing in their titles of boyar and instead becoming strategoi.

The second chance came in 1040 at the Battle of Ostrovo - led by Emperor Peter the blind. Another defeat at the hands of the Byzantines! Curse their Varangian Guard!

It was Lady Kara that ordered Stibor to Jerusalem for the Crusade, by that time of course Stibor was 'dead' and his fiefdom passed to his son, Stibor. Under a competent (but Byzantine) general, Stibor's capabilities were exploited to their fullest and he earned for himself a reputation as a fierce but honourable warrior. Although he suffered a mortal arrow wound while helping citizens to escape a skirmish, he miraculously survived and this was taken as a sign by his men and comrades - cementing his reputation further. But such was not his purpose - Kara wanted Stibor to act on her behalf on a small issue of diplomatic contact with a newly embraced Baron Heinrich von Achern...who seemed to be merely a difficult - but nevertheless likeable, neonate. Also Kara wanted an eye on several Byzantine notables who had set their mind to Danube based territories for themselves.

The arrow might have wounded him - but what Stibor saw at Jerusalem scarred even his tarnished soul.

When Lady Kara visited Stibor in Pomorie, 1145, Stibor had wrestled control of the next 'generation' of Bogdanov strategoi from his brothers using the political and martial skills honed in the Holy Lands. Another Crusade had been called, and again she wanted Stibor there, and again Stibor would be talking with Baron von Achern, but this time the negotiations would be hostile. The two of them talked over the next few nights of Chivalry in theory and in practice - and Lady Kara left with a hint that if he could live up to the principles he had so passionately advocated while in the Holy Lands, she may have seriously consider the Embrace. Stibor was taken aback - having never dreamed a Knight/low-Boyar of a backwater fishing town might become Tzimisce.

The talks with von Achern went as successfully as the Second Crusade - but Lady Kara was impressed with Stibor's courage and honour around the table and on the field. For fifteen years Stibor began to run errands, play host to various Cainite emmisaries. He loathed doing it, but his respect for Lady Kara had turned into a love. She was the perfect counterpart to him - and he was confident she would see it.

So confident indeed, that he proposed marriage to her in April of 1160. Kara was furious, so furious that she lost control of herself and she beat Stibor over and over again before slaking her thirst on his blood. Little did Stibor know that her frenzy was caused by a confrontation between her chivalrous principles and the bestial inhumanity of the blood bond. She regained composure in time to avoid killing him outright - but only just. It became clear that death was unavoidable for Stibor and he fought for every breath.

The death of Stibor Bogdanov

Kara offered Stibor eternal unlife as compensation for killing him, for which she also begged forgiveness, ashamed as she was for her outburst. Stibor's guilt and embarassment burned him as his life ebbed away - that he had caused Lady Kara to enter a frenzied emotional state, to cause her the pain of guilt; he would do whatever it took in order to ease her burden. But she had not finished. Rustovich had been clear that she was to ensure the Bulgarian Vlaszy contingency were bound by the blood to her. Stibor remembered agreeing as a youth to be bound, but had thought little of it since. If he wanted the embrace, Kara continued, he'd have to agree to continue the oath beyond the veil of death - to do otherwise would interfere with Rustovich's plans. The Oath would last no more than a century, and would be terminated upon Lady Kara initiating the Rite of Release.

Stibor gladly accepted the terms, and painlessly found death delivered to him. The change was not so pleasant.



Not able to claim the title Voivode yet, Stibor passed position of strategoi to his eldest brother and entered the full time service of Lady Kara as an Ashen Knight. What followed seemed like endless travelling to him. Lady Kara wanted that he establish himself in the Holy Lands, and so he headed to Jerusalem. Surrounded by unknown powers, and still struggling with his own - he began to seek allies in the city. He soon found himself a modest house in the city, and dug out a small basement/grave lined with Pomorie soil. He would, however, find himself regularly travelling to meet Lady Kara or her agents to exchange news and renew the Oath.

Lady Kara gave him autonomy to get involved during the Uprising of Asen and Peter in 1185 despite the precarious connection to Hungarian politics at stake; he gladly bloodied his hands against the forces of Isaac II Angelus. But while he was taking care of domestic affairs, Jerusalem was falling to Salladin. Stibor returned to try to find his allies and to witness his third Crusade.