Prologue

The unanimous decision was that Vera was too pretty for her own good - and perhaps it was this fact that cursed her. On the surface every one adored the pretty little baby that seemed so unlikely from the two rather plain parents. Oh, Vera's mother could be pretty enough if she tried but she'd never be beautiful or even the more mild lovely. As for Vera's father, all he could say for himself is at least he wasn't difficult to look at. This odd and unlikely genetic outcome caused more than one person to wonder at Vera's mother's fidelity, of course no one said that. The Hughes were upstanding members of the church, after all.

As the child grew older, people wondered if maybe she wasn't simply a changeling instead. After all, she was a decidedly odd child. For hours on end, Vera would stare out the window into nothing lost in her own mind. It seemed as if when she wasn't lost in her own thoughts, she'd be lost in a book instead. The girl showed no talent for typical feminine pursuits and no interest in typical female interests. If that was all, she could probably have gotten by by just being strange but that wasn't odd.

Vera had a habit of saying things. Not just any sort of things but things she shouldn't have known. Another child may have had their ears boxed for listening at keyholes, but not Vera. No, when she turned her pale gaze upon an adult and said something entirely too insightful in her oddly adult voice it sent a shiver down their spines. Superstition spurred the members of the small town to justify their discomfort with tales of the supernatural. A careless turn of phrase became a rumor and that rumor became a nasty well-circled piece of gossip and soon enough every one knew for a fact that Vera Hughes was a fairy creature, left in her crib when the real infant was stolen.

The Hughes eventually gave up arguing with the others about Vera's true origins when Mrs. Hughes gave birth to another child, an utterly plain unremarkable girl who couldn't look further from Vera's vibrant beauty. They would never admit it, but this event seemed to prove the claim that Vera was some fairy's exchanged baby. From that point onward, little mind was paid to Vera. Oh, she was clothed and fed but otherwise she was left to her own devices. A different child may have been a terror, but Vera just drew in on herself even more. After all, she knew what it meant when people crossed the street to pass her or dropped their eyes and hastily made a sign against the evil eye.

No matter how much one enjoys their own company though, isolation always breeds loneliness and this was no less the case for fey Vera. Vera went through years without realizing she was lonely, having never really felt any thing else but then she met him.

Chapter 1

Dominic Kavanaugh was a handsome man. It was such a pity that he'd denied himself to the women of the world by becoming a Priest - at least that was what was tittered behind hands by the unmarried girls of town. So when Dominic expressed interest in Vera's Greek and Latin translations, no one thought any thing of it. And when Vera started spending long hours in the chapel with him, no one thought any thing of it. After all, what could happen between a Priest and a fairy-child.

Quite a lot, as it turns out. For the first time in her life, Vera had found someone who listened to her. She had found someone who was interested in the same things she was. More, she had found someone who didn't cross themselves, and the street, when she walked by. Dominic considered himself above the silly superstitions of the towns people. It was obvious to him that Vera Hughes was nothing more than a surprisingly intelligent, remarkably beautiful young woman.

Perhaps it was inevitable that innocent conversations turned to illicit meetings.

About two months after their short-lived affair Vera's stomach started to round. Her mother, surprisingly, noticed immediately. After several hours of badgering, tears, shouts and recriminations Vera admitted the relationship. Her parents were appalled. Not that a Priest had taken advantage of a naive young girl, but that a slut had worked her surely devilish wiles on a man of the cloth. Vera was locked in her room until they could decide what to do with her.

In the end, they decided there was only one thing they could do. Vera was kept hidden away until the baby was born, then it was discretely given to a couple two towns over who desired a child and ask little of from whence it came. Having decided that ruined as she was, Vera would have no decent husband - and they could hardly be expected to support the little whore - Vera was sent unceremoniously to the Sisters of St. Clare.

In truth, Vera didn't mind the banishment although at times she longed for the child she was never allowed to hold. The convent was a balm to her soul though and the quiet, industrious atmosphere appealed to her. She spent a year in the serene environment until one night the serenity was shattered - with blood.

Robert Augustine firmly believed in the idea that the faithful of God would turn away the fangs of the Sanctified. He just as firmly believed that evil lurked in the hearts of all men - and women - and thus none were the true faithful. In celebration of Saint Monachus, the coterie always hunted on a member of the clergy, preferably a monk however for this particular celebration a nun would do. Robert Augustine had selected the Sisters of St. Clare to host his hunt this evening and for the most part all went as intended.

The coterie slipped silently through the garden gate and stalked towards the chapel where they the nuns would be at evening prayer. They hid, waiting for the last to leave and the hunt to begin. It wasn't particularly hard to capture the older woman and the four slaked their thirst on her blood while the others went to their cells unknowing. If it hadn't been for the slight involuntary gagging noise, they would have never realized they had a witness.

Robert reminded the coterie that not even Longinus slaughtered all of the monks but one he embraced. Vera wasn't embraced on the spot though, first she was grabbed, gagged and kidnapped. In the end, only the nuns cared that she went missing.

Chapter 2

I am Vera Hughes, childe of Robert Augustine, childe of Julian Kelley of the line Bosonid. I've come to Las Vegas from Los Angeles on behalf of my line and my faith. My cousin through the blood is Penelope of House Hawke, who is acknowledged as the great conquerer of Las Vegas.

Madam Vera Hughes, Interpreter to the Invictus and lay Priest to the Lancea Sanctum, childe of Robert Augustine of the Lancea Sanctum in Los Angeles, childe of Julian Kelley, Priest to the Lancea Sanctum in Los Angeles, childe of Pierre Settipani, renowned member of the Lancea Sanctum in Los Angeles and sibling to Her Grace, Alder Penelope of House Hawke, Duchess of Las Vegas, childe of Renee, of the Lancea Sanctum in San Francisco and the first of the line of Bosonid on the western part of the Kingdom of Americas.

Vera wasn't immediately embraced, first she was taught - and forced to accept - the world of Kindred. She wasn't a ghoul, nor herd, nor vampire. She existed outside the sanctioned world of vampires, a captive student to her sire's professor. In the end, she was given a choice that was no choice at all: death or death through embrace. Feeling that her life, until this point, had been nothing but unjust to begin with Vera had no faith that God would forgive an effective suicide so she decided to take her chances with living Damnation instead.

For the first several years after her embrace Vera stayed in the massive mansion her sire considered a home. She translated original snippets of the Testament of Longinus and theological essays from the original Greek or Latin for her sire. She learned each parchment by heart and was steadily taught the confidence to debate and defend theories with no logical premise. Once more, Vera found peace. She enjoyed the work and found the discussions invigorating. After her release and acceptance into the Lancea Sanctum, Vera remained as she was, doing as she did.

It wasn't until about two years after her embrace that her sire finally realized that Vera had absolutely no intention of leaving the nest and joining society on her own. Robert was at a loss, he had no idea how to make Vera participate in society after all, but he also knew that it was a necessity to advance - and he had every intention of having his childe advance. He hadn't sinned for a convenient translator.

Robert turned to his sire, Julian Kelley, for advice. Julian hit upon the idea of putting Vera into service under one of her Invictus relatives, one of them outside Los Angeles so she wouldn't have the opportunity to turn back so easily to her sire. To say Vera took it badly would be an understatement. For the first time in her short life, Vera threw an outright hissy fit. Of course, maybe she wouldn't have wasted the effort if she'd realized at the time that it had already been decided and she didn't have a choice at all.

Vera went into service under her cousin Alejandro Escobar in San Antonio. She ended up occupying an odd place in society, a Sanctified in service to an Invictus. Alejandro would not allow Vera to take up her reclusive tendencies again but immediately forced her into social situations. He would have her deliver messages and wait for responses, negotiate terms of unimportant deals, wait in Elysium for someone to appear... in truth, most of the tasks were busy work that any ghoul or even one of his own childer to do but Alejandro was aware the service being done was less for him and more for the favors Julian had called in.

Slowly Vera came to realize through her forced association that Kindred society was not precisely the same as the mortal society she left behind. No one assumed she was fairy-left or that her unusual beauty was some sign of the devil. In the halls of Elysium, Vera saw more beautiful women - Daeva who literally sparkled with charm. She saw stranger childer - the awkward Nosferatu whose features seemed somehow put together just... wrong. In fact, to most of these Kindred she was utterly unremarkable - just Alejandro's cousin's shy childe. Suddenly Vera wanted to be remarkable.

After coming to this startling conclusion, Vera threw herself into the social scene of the vampire community. Not to say she abandoned her faith, it was always a quiet understood part of her. If it came up in conversation, she could vigorously defend it. She could debate or discuss, but for the most part it didn't come up. Still unsure what she was looking for or how her goals would crystallize, Vera knew that she wanted to be noticed for the first time in her life. She became a regular in Elysium, she attended parties, and she made bargains on her own behalf.

However, somewhere in the back of her mind she acknowledged her place in San Antonio was temporary and some evening she'd go home to Los Angeles. That night came in the cold winter, somewhere mid-century when the Baby Boomers were singing Christmas carols and Alejandro embraced the twins Isabel Santiago and Isabella Santiago. With his hands full of two new childer and having completed the service of launching Vera in society, Alejandro arranged for Vera to return to her sire.

Chapter 3

If any one had actually known Vera prior to going to San Antonio they would have remarked upon the change in her when she returned. Gone was the shy, studious girl who silently quaked at the fear of being shunned yet again - this time for eternity. In her place was a woman whose personality matched her vivid coloring. However, upon returning to Los Angeles, the first thing Vera had to do was build ties of her own. Her sire had business connections, of course, but Vera wasn't too interested in business and even if she had been Robert Augustine's machinations were a little above her head. However, Mycah Thaine's were not. Mycah didn't seem to mind his younger cousin making herself his unofficial date to a variety of society's functions - cynically she realized that a little arm-candy probably helped Mycah in dealing with older Invictus males as well (and when had she become a cynic after all?) She eavesdropped unabashedly but the transfer of money and goods wasn't something that interested her, much to her sire's chagrin, instead she found herself drawn like a moth to the more glittering lights of the bigger Los Angeles society. She found herself often on the outer edge of the Harpies' circle when she wasn't poaching on Mycah's Invictus contacts to form her own.

It was in this fashion that she became a member of the Lancea Sanctum often working with and for the Invictus, unwittingly following the exact path she was intended to follow. Eventually she separated from Mycah's side, no longer needing his entre into society. Young Sanctified would come to her to broker arrangements with their Invictus peers, arrangements that while vitally important to the neonates of the city weren't worth the effort of discussing for the elders. As an official ancillae, naturally in a position to straddle relations with both covenants, Vera was more than happy to help and guide.

While she never evidenced a desire to become part of the clergy, Vera remained active in the church. She often attended study groups or provided the favor of tutoring for young Kindred - often not even Sanctified. It was surprising how many sires outside the faith felt it prudent their childer well educated on the Testament. Vera suspected the education was less to teach any faith and more to teach childer how to use the book in their political endeavors. Nonetheless, she took on the pupils - some even joined the laity.

In truth, she didn't mind teaching at all. In fact, it was one thing she genuinely enjoyed and genuine enjoyment is few and far between in the Requiem. Vera's ability to teach let her channel her one (okay, more like one of) conceit - she firmly believed that education is the only real thing you can change about yourself and people who don't bother to learn aren't worth existing. She liked to think that she believed in this so fully she'd take on pro-bono students as well, but the truth is in the Requiem every thing that goes around, comes around. This would end up truth when a handful of her students ended up in Las Vegas with her when the time came.

It had become a goal of Vera's to etch out a place for herself in the city. She wanted a domain, oh not a whole domain, those had been claimed before she was even embraced. She just wanted a piece, a Fief that she could call her own. She had grand plans for taking on a few tenants, perhaps setting up a salon, maybe even one day it would be declared Elysium. They were small enough goals, Vera had no doubt they could be accomplished. First thing first though, she had to get enough “friends” (preferably in high places) to convince (or force) Brigid Highwater into granting her the fief.

Chapter 4

Vera's petty politics subsided into a shadow when the news that Penelope of Hawke, her cousin in blood (and lineage albeit several points removed) had started a war over Las Vegas. No one wanted to say it was simply a war for a title, although every one knew it was. Vera had never, ever heard of a Kindred war. She was under the impression that the wars Kindred fought were cloaked in the subtle night-to-night politics of the Requiem. For the most part, she had been right. This was new though and like all new (and violent) things, the Kindred of Los Angeles (and the rest of the Hold, if she had to guess) eagerly awaited each new bit of news like hounds waiting for scraps.

In Kindred terms, a year is nothing, and the fighting was over before most elders even noticed it had happened. For the Bosonids though, it was carefully watched. News of the death of Theodore Bleutwood reached the clan and sent shock-waves through the younger Kindred. Surely Penelope would have seen to the safety of her childe before sending in Knights and mercenaries. The elder members took it in stride, after all, childer die every night. Soon after the ashes settled in Las Vegas, Penelope notified her siblings Pierre Settipani and William Miller of her request that one of the Sanctified of the line serve as a missionary to the newly conquered Las Vegas.

The news that Penelope wanted another to go to the shattered city where she'd sacrificed her own childe on the altar of ambition created a wariness within the ranks of the younger members of the line. It was evident that Penelope's request was clearly politically motivated; it was well known that Joachim Diaz had forbid Kindred death and while this outrageous violation could be excused based on the political convenient technicality that it wasn't his domain when Kindred were being slaughtered left and right, it nonetheless would make it more palatable if Penelope could show that she was doing her best to acknowledge and further his faith there.

The triumvirate of Bosonid elders called together a rare summit, that actually convinced William Miller to travel to Los Angeles (naturally he paid court to the Archbishop there as well, so the trip wasn't entirely wasted). It was decided that someone would have to go - the line couldn't pass up the opportunity to spread their influence. Then came to deliberations of who. Naturally the people under deliberation weren't invited. It was decided the Santiago twins were still too young and unreliable, Robert and Jerrod Chambliss were too well established in Los Angeles, and naturally those even older than them would be too entrenched to handle the move. Which left Vera.

Vera did not take the news that she was expected to give up what she had and travel to Las Vegas to “die on the throne of that bitch's ambition.” It took nearly half a week to hunt enough blood to heal that slap. She found her second fit of her life just as effective as the first - which is to say not at all. With a consolation gift of a very good retainer and quite a bit of money in liquid funds, Vera was summarily exiled to Las Vegas to fulfill the ambition of her elders. Somewhere on the drive down I-15 in the middle of the god-forsaken Mojave desert, Vera realized that if she intended to be any thing other than a martyr (and not even one of the good ones) she would have to look at the sentence as an opportunity. Her flagging spirits raised a little and in the back of her mind, the latent Icarian ambition fired.

Chapter 5

When Vera arrived in Las Vegas it was bustling with people but in the darkened shadows where Kindred usually lurk it was a ghost town. She managed to track down what had once been the Elysium, although she supposed it wasn't now as Sara Malloy hadn't yet seen fit to travel to the potentially dangerous new city yet. There were a couple of Kindred there, like the cockroaches who sneak out of the crevasses to see what's left after a nuclear catastrophe, which was actually a very good analogy in Vera's opinion. They had the sort of hungry looks that the dredges of society usually had. Those Kindred you never could count on to follow their side of an arrangement, the ones that poached, or in these Kindred's cases, the ones that hid instead of fought.

She had been told the Overlord had appointed a Carthian Prince to oversee the domain. She had her suspicions the decision served dual purposes of slapping Penelope's hand and casually moving the Carthians out of the Hold's strongholds - after all, once news that a Carthian Prince would be in charge, surely the Carthians would flock to the city. Until the other Kindred started arriving to establish themselves though, there was little enough Vera could do. She set the maybe-Elysium to rights, avoided the desperate souls that came to feed in the wake of destruction, and worked on carving out a little area for herself.

It eventually became impossible to avoid the vultures that circled. She saw them hiding in the shadows as she walked to the newly righted Elysium. Sometimes new Kindred would show up for a night then never again - were they deciding this shell of a city wasn't for them or was it something more nefarious? She had an awful suspicion that the vultures were diablerists, or worse, those Kindred who collected other Kindred for profit. It was this growing certainty that drove her to seek out Cassandra. The other woman had made it clear that she was from Tijuana and that meant something. For reasons of her own, the Acolyte helped and while it hardly rid Las Vegas of the unsavory sorts just waiting to prey on the unwary, it went a very long way in securing the Elysium. Vera was content to know that was the first small step to a big change.

Others didn't feel this was a step in the right direction though, especially not the founders of what indeed was a Kindred-smuggling ring. They followed Vera and managed to corner her in an alley one night as she hunted. For a moment she had sheer panic, after all she wasn't a fighter and there were two of them. Dominate only helps for so long, but Vera issued her command in ringing tones anyways. Luckily for her the voice of command carries and Troy Evans, a nosy sort all said, overheard it as he slipped out of the back room of the same bar Vera was hunting at. There was a flicker of thought, "he's poaching my grounds", but that trespass was forgiven when the two smugglers decided that the fight was no longer in their favor. They ran and Troy chased. Vera didn't see them again, but she didn't ask questions about it either for once.

With the majority of the unsavory sorts cleared out of the city, the rebuilding could begin. Just in time for the new Prince.

Chapter 6

Mycah was here. Vera was a little annoyed. He had his contacts in Los Angeles, so why was he here? Was it to watch her? Did they not trust her to be alone? A little angry part of her, probably one that'd been subconsciously listening to Cassandra was mad. Obviously he was here to watch her because as the only female of that particular Bosonid branch, she had to have some male cousin to babysit her. After a little sullen venting, it wasn't quite a fit after all so she wasn't yet willing to count that as number 3, she adapted to having her older cousin around. After all, Mycah could be useful. He knew how to do stuff like convince mortals that they wanted to do his bidding. For a while she helped Mycah build his own ties while trying to figure out exactly the best way to go about building her own.

By the time a year had passed, she was ready. Of course, Deion Sanders had put in a whole collection of outrageously lengthy laws, as if the Testament itself didn't outline what laws needs be already. One of the more annoying clauses stated that to become a citizen, one had to perform three tasks for free for another of the city. It was ridiculous. No one does any thing for free and Vera'd be damned if she would either, but it had to be done, so the important part was to figure out how to do it to her advantage. In the end she selected two of the most visible Elysium goers (Vivianne Hartford and Cassandra) and offered them free lessons. Money from instruction had always come in handy and if you have to do something for free (really, whoever heard of that), then you may as well get some advertisement out of it. And for the third? Well, she's always doing something for Mycah. € Eventually, when the time for the€€ Convening of the Collective came around Vera had gained her citizenship and made her arrangements with those who sought greater things for themselves. She made her stand, literally a stand (which€€ she also thought was ridiculous), for Mycah's bid for Diplomat and Vivianne's bid for Sheriff. Troy Evans had asked her to support his bid for Regulator but he was cheap, so when the time€€€ came to stand for him she made no move towards his side of the room.

With the city growing up around her, she found wheeling and dealing to be the common place practices of the evening. It was with this in mind that she once more approached Vivianne Hartford when she heard the Carthian intended on going to Reno. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she gathered it was important to Vivianne and that's all that mattered. Vera offered her the escort of a ghoul and some money. Vivianne had promised to work with a retainer for Vera when she returned, although after the other woman left Vera started worrying that maybe the Carthian thing was going to be dangerous. She hoped she hadn't wasted her money, it was so hard to come by.

Havens

Sanctified Parish Chapel

The parish Chapel of the Black Saints is nestled in a quiet neighborhood in Sunrise Manor. The chapel was one of the oldest Churches of Latter Day Saints in the area until it was foreclosed upon. Now it the exterior remains boarded up while the interior has undergone a complete, and expensive, renovation. The drywall has been torn down to reveal the limestone walls, the stained glass window has been repaired although no light ever shines through due to being boarded up from the outside. The most remarkable feature of the interior of the room is the dais created from thin slices of marble stacked on top of each other and the large red stained marble blocks that make up the altar and podium. More observant visitors will notice that while one rope fastened to the wall supports an unlit chandelier, there is another set which supports nothing and seem to hang over an empty depression in the marble. On some evenings, special evenings that is, a body hangs from the second set of ropes and bleeds into the depression creating a literal pool of blood.

Special Notes:

Consecrated

Geomantic Nexus Potency (Intelligence) 3

Luxor Suite 1324

Situated on the thirteenth floor of the building, this Luxor suite has been so heavily modified that once on the inside it hardly even looks like a hotel suite at all. The living area has been turned into a library. Every wall except the picture window overlooking the Strip has been lined with shelves and books are piled haphazardly on both shelves and floor. One side of the room hosts a writing desk, lamp and chair. The other side of the room has a plush couch and a side chair. Sprinkled among the books on the shelves are random objects, ranging from clearly expensive diamond encrusted objects d'art to strange carved wooden pieces with no apparent purpose. The room has a pleasant odor of old books combined with a light rose scent which those familiar with Vera can recognize as her perfume.

Special Notes:

Extensive Reference Library

+2 Create Art, Repair Item, Solving Enigmas

Specialized Libraries

+2 Demonology Research

+2 Devotions Research

+2 General Sorceries Research

+2 Spoiling Research

+2 Theban Sorcery Research

+2 Cruac Research

+2 Coils of the Dragon

+2 Bloodlines

+2 Relics

Wynn Ambassador's Suite

Located on the fifth floor of the Wynn, away from the regular traffic of the hotel, is the Ambassador's Suite. The suite is one of the most impressive in the building, although rare is the person who gets to see it. The walls of the suite are decorated in a gold brick facade and the lighting is provided by lights purposefully designed to imitate candle light. The main living area of the suite is decorated in golds and neutrals which give it a plush, rich feel which by some miracle seems to avoid being tacky. The couches and chairs are made inviting and comfortable by the presence of throws and pillows, giving the impression to visiting men that it was definitely decorated by a woman. Away from the main living area is a dining table set for eight, always, and a single bedroom which is always stocked with both male and female evening clothes in an array of sizes. Special Notes:

Geomantic Nexus Potency (Presence) 3

Haven Equipment

Sound Proofing

Categories: Ventrue | Lancea Sanctum | Las Vegas Characters