I Am the Virginal Sacrifice

It’s true; I was sacrificed as a virgin last night. But, I’ll tell you more about that in a minute. First, I’d just like to point out that I haven’t made my new posts on a regular basis, sorry. Shit happens, man. What can I say? It’s strange, though, the number of hits have remained pretty constant. Ok, ok…back to the virginal sacrifice.

There I was lying on a porcelain slab which was in the shape of a crescent moon. I was held down by some mystical force, completely prone, totally defenseless. The four of them held a huge five foot long sword and together they chanted over my body. Each of them, in turn, cut their own hand and let the blood run over me. They continued their chant in a language that seemed to be some sort of basterdized Latin. I vaguely recalled some of the large black symbols that were scrawled around me. I had seen four large symbols on the floor when they brought me in. Each of the four were standing on one of the four symbols that surrounded the alter. I knew, from previous run ins with them, that they were of the Cult of Lilith. This was not boding well for me.

As the chanting continued my anxiety rose. I knew this was going to be the end of me. I watched, helpless, as the sword was raised above my body by the tall, good-looking one who had given me this life. He smiled at me while a small bit of his blazing red hair fell free from the ponytail, as he plunged the sword into my stomach, right through my belly button and beyond me into and through the alter. There was no blood. There was a tremendous rush of pain which seared into my being. I was unable, even, to scream. The chanting grew louder, and my thoughts and feelings swirled around as if they were becoming one.

I began to feel warm, something that I hadn’t experienced for the last several months. I could feel my body pulsating as a horrifying scream penetrated my ears and ruptured any last strength I had. As I lay there slowly slipping into torpor, he leaned over my face, smiled, and kissed my forehead. He pulled the sword from my stomach, it was different somehow. It no longer resembled the cold steel metal that had been driven through me, now, it had an ichor black glow to it. Still unable to react, I saw them stand, turn and leave. The building around me was on fire, there were pieces of burning ceiling falling to the floor on the other side of the room. I laid there.

Finally, when I thought my end was coming, Harper lifted me from the alter threw me over her shoulder and ran. When we reached Lady Imogen’s house I was placed on a cold tile floor, held down by Harper, Jake, and PD. Lady Imogen slit her wrist, the blood leached down my throat and I began to move, to struggle, to come out of my torpor. I wanted more, and I tried to grab her arm to keep the coppery liquid flowing into my mouth, but I was held fast. She drew away and I was back, able to move again; but I needed to feed.

To say the least, the night was eventful. There were many, many things happening all around that night. The Prince of the city has formally declared war. Things are so bad right now, that the werewolves are helping us. Yeah, can you say “bad things are happening”? Icky ichor and Banes are showing up all over the place. There is something draining the spirit life from the Umbra, leaving the world cold and dead. I don’t know what my role in all of this is yet, but I know I’m an essential piece of the puzzle. And I wonder, as I look through the unhealing hole in my stomach, and study the bloodless white dress; why me? My sire said he chose me because I was a virgin, I’m his preferred feed, but is that why I was sacrificed? What about the others who were made with me that night? We were all deliberately chosen by our sires, what does that mean? Has the Cult of Lilith completed its task? Maybe, or maybe, their turns are yet to come.

So, I’m hoping that by now you’ve deduced that this story was my latest Vampire update. It’s was an awesome game last night and I look forward to its continued awesomness. Things are really heating up. Yeah!

BTW – Do you know how hard it is to find a decent picture of a classical virgin sacrifice?

Playing the Catch Up Game

I’ve been introduced to a new phenomenon. Well, ok maybe it’s not exactly new but I’ve never been exposed to it or any thing like it. I’ll spare you the tension…it’s Facebook. Ooo and you thought it was going to be something all out of the ordinary didn’t you? I never got on the My Space kick so I really don’t have any knowledge when it comes to these places. So far, I do like it. It was rather overwhelming at first; there was just so much to take in, but I think I’m adapting now. I’ve been able to have closer contact with many of my friends and I’ve even been reacquainted with a dear friend from my childhood.

It’s sort of bizarre, though, that the technology seems so busy. One would think that a person with a degree in Computer Technology wouldn’t have such a freaky experience with something like Facebook, but here I am. I’m sure that being out of the industry since 2001 has had its effect and left me behind the crowd, but still. I guess the only thing I can figure is that I was a network person more than an applications type. It’s just amazing, though, to find how advanced even the networking has become. So…my amazement aside, that’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of days…working on Facebook.

Yes, that means that I have also neglected my PAD Challenge although I’m not out of luck. I have a few poems to go to finish off the 30 that were requested and I do plan on finishing those. Why, you may ask? Ok…I’ll tell you. It’s because Writer’s Market, the creators of Poetic Asides, have put forth a contest using the November theme poems. Participants are to select 10 -20 of their poems and put them together into a submission where they will be judged. Now, at the moment the only “prize”, so to speak, is bragging rights; it has been mentioned that a really good win may be submitted for a chapbook publication. So, I’m going to submit my work and keep my fingers crossed. Please keep yours crossed for me. Thanks. The winner will be announced February 2nd.

Other catch up news, this weekend is Vampire game weekend. My character is on the verge of being killed due to my “OMFG She Didn’t” experience. It seems that a scape goat may be needed since last game the masquerade was broken when the video made it out to the WWW. This, of course, is very bad for me. I am currently hiding out and may have to abandon my clan and turn to the Toreadors for aid. All of this does seem to be in accordance to our game master’s plan so…I guess this horse will drink deep of the water she has been led to. If anything majorly exciting happens I’ll throw out an update after the game.

As for the bad news….R was notified that the transport company he works for will be eliminating 60% of their workforce by March. Gotta love this economy, huh? We don’t know for sure yet if he will be a part of the elimination, it’s a waiting game now. The cuts will include people from every level, though, so the possibility is certainly there. To my understanding it means over a hundred jobs. Our area here has been hit with this news, and the news of about another 300 – 400 other job losses as well. Hold on folks…it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

OMFG-She Didn’t!

Oh what a night was the Vampire game…a memorable eve in vampire history. The title to this post is the title given to a video clip that was recorded during a social coterie at the Elysium. A coterie is a gathering a vampires for various purposes. A social coterie is just that, vampires get together to socialize. There are many different types of coteries like diplomatic and wartime coteries, each sounding pretty much like what their purpose is. An Elysium is a place where vampires gather and all agree to (basically) behave themselves. In other words, no weapons, no fighting, no clan wars, blah blah blah…get the idea?

K, so back at the coterie a Malkavian, unbeknownst to anyone other than the other Malkavians decided to have some fun. You see, the Malkavians are the crazy vampires, and I do mean crazy as in nuts, out to lunch, the lights are on but nobody is home, crazy. So, Harmony (the Malkavian) decides to round up about 10-20 cats, yes cats, and because it makes her feel at home (she used to do this same thing at the mental hospital she is no longer in) she attached some flashlights to them and released them inside the Elysium. So there we are with cats everywhere and all these vampires going, “What the F***? Where did all these cats come from?” Now, I know what you’re thinking, you’re wondering, “What’s the big?” Right? So what, a bunch of cats.

Well, you see it just so happened that my character was at the coterie. “So what?” you ask. When I created my character I took a flaw. Flaws allow you to gain benefits in other areas so many people take them when they make up their characters. The flaw I took was a “Phobia”. Have you figured it out yet? Yes, my phobia is cats. I freak whenever they’re around me. Now, while I managed to make two rolls that kept me from going into an all out frenzy; I botched a third one.

Frenzies are bad, think 11th century warrior dropped into the 21st century on crack. When a vampire goes into frenzy they’re virtually unstoppable and anything can happen. My frenzy ended after I jumped threw the air trying to avoid the cats, tackled three Nosferatu body guards and then landed directly on the Prince. Oh, it gets better. Not only did I land on the Prince of the city I knocked him off of his throne and rolled with him down the flight of stairs behind him to the landing below where I ended up face to face on top of him. Yikes! As if that wasn’t bad enough.

The evening continued…several vamps got it on tape, so to speak. They filmed the entire thing with their cell phones and then released it out to the ENTIRE vampire community within the city, attaching theme music to it like “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting” and titled it, yep…OMFG She Didn’t! This was fuel for the fire no doubt. The Prince could have had me killed right then and there, fortune was on my side thankfully, as I and the Prince are in the same clan. We’re Ventrue and fortunately the Prince sort of likes me so he only ordered me to go home and not show my face for a while, quite a while.

Now, while the video was making its rounds, Harmony (she is so dead) crazy Malkavian decided to send a present to the Prince to make him feel better. She boxed up a Persian and sent it to the Prince. When he opened the package the cat went nuts, windows were broken, the Prince’s head was latched onto and…it was all captured by Harmony’s good Malkavian friend, on video.

So, at the moment the Prince and I are the laughing stock of the city. He’s pretty pissed off and I’m trying to do some serious damage control before my career and afterlife are wiped from existence. Damn vampires….Through my investigation (I’m a lawyer) I was able to figure out that the Brujahs were responsible for the first video being made and released. I have decided on some serious just revenge, and…I was also able to piece together who was responsible for the cats because I was there at the asylum when Harmony became involved with our city’s vampire population and kitty’s with flashlights were running a muck. Anyway, revenge is in the works. We’ll see how things play out and I’ll try to keep you updated on the more fun/interesting stuff.

Game Night Tonight

We have our Vampire game tonight. It’s been a while since we played. Everyone had something else going on for Halloween weekend, which would have been our game weekend, so we didn’t play. Since we only run the game every other week we’ve been on hold for close to a month now. I can’t remember what I was doing last game; it’s a good thing I take notes or I’d be all sorts of lost.

I remember that I bought myself a house to act as my hidden haven. No one will know where it’s at. I decided to throw off the usual basement sanctuary and make my sleeping quarters in the attic. I had a construction team come in and conceal the entrance and extra exit. I’ve also had the attic lined with steel plating to prevent the accidental hole in the roof. (Sun bad). I’m creating a rather elaborate tunnel system stemming from the basement. It will have passages that lead out to several shelters that have been placed out in the wooded property. It will also have several hidden rooms where I will be able to keep ghouls and an emergency feeding bank. That’s a bit further down the line, though. I currently don’t have the power needed to nest people there and keep them under control. It’ll come, though. I guess that’s it for Vampire right now. We’ll see if anything big happens tonight. If so, then I’ll probably make a post about it.


Still on the gaming topic, but now on D&D. I’ve started running a game for the 4 youngest kids on our off game weekends. They’ve wanted to play for some time now. They see the adult game going on and long to participate. So, I figured it would be a good time to start them out. Their ages are 8, 9, 10, & 13 all but the 13 year old will be advancing a year within the next couple of months. It’s also a learning experience for me. I’ve never DMd before (run the game). I figure if I mess up they won’t notice, so…why not?

The kids are actually doing quite well. I was surprised at their level of understanding so far. Our 9 year old is playing a rouge and has really taken to the role playing aspect of the game. She does a wonderful job of playing in character. She’s always been extremely creative, though, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprise; but I am pleased. The youngest is playing a fighter. He still has a ways to go, I think, before he really gets into it. At the last game he was confronted by 4 goblins, as a dwarven fighter, he should have just kicked their butts, no questions asked. Instead he ran away…silly dwarf. I discussed it with him and found that he was afraid his character would die. (of course, that does happen from time to time). What he didn’t understand, though, was that if the character does die he can just make up another one and continue playing. He thought he would have to start over at the first level and lose all the XP he had gained. I assured him that he would be allowed to bring a new character in at the average party level. I think that made him feel better about fighting. We’ll see next game.

Man, look how I’ve rambled on about this stuff. I really do enjoy playing, if you hadn’t noticed. I guess I’ll cut it off here, though. The kid’s game has really been a lot of fun and I’m sure I’ll post some further updates on it. For now, though, I must go and clean the house, run to the store, and prepare dinner for the game tonight. Check you all out later. Have a good one and, oh…they say it’s going to snow tonight. I wonder if we’ll have our first accumulation *shrug*

Vampire Update

Salright, we played last night. It was good. I went out hunting for the first time; it went well. In other words I didn’t kill my prey and I also made my willpower roll which kept me from frenzying. All in all it was good.

On a slightly side note. We realized, as an uptight human lawyer bitch who graduated from Yale by age 20 and was almost a Jr. Partner in her law firm by age 26, that I had never had the deflowering moment take place. What might this mean for a single, pretty yet uppity, vampire lawyer? Simply this, that due to my restorative healing powers even if (when) I lose my virginity by the next day I’ll be a virgin again. Yes, my hymen will grow back now, each and every time, I have a sexual encounter of the intercourse kind. And, yes, we tried it out (role playing people, just make believe…jeez, get your heads out of the gutter).

Harper, the vampire who has been teaching me to hunt, took the liberty of taking me to this well…shall we say…an underground establishment where I was able to select my deflowerer from a fair sized selection of willing young men show chained with golden chains to the wall. Harper actually selected the one for me since I couldn’t decide. By the way, Harper is an NPC, she works at Lady Imogen’s Burlesque show. She’s very, how shall I put this, uninhibited. So, yeah…I’m forever a virgin.

Then the story shifted a bit and I had to go hunt down a clue at an abandoned insane asylum with the other newbie vamps. It was a wicked thing. The whole situation, it was wicked. We ended up falling through a burnt out floor. Everyone but me went through this tunnel like thing they found to look for what we came for. I on the hand took a different path. When we entered the hospital we came across many, many, and I do mean, many rats. They all watched us very closely and moved and did things that just weren’t normal. It gave us the idea that they were being controlled by someone. Then music began to play, no one seemed particularly interested in this which is why they went their way and I went mine. You see, it occurred to me that we’re in an ABANDONED building, no electricity people. Where was the music coming from? I ended up following several extension cords back to our car to find them connected to a power cell and our car battery. Someone was messing with us.

I saw some lights on the second floor and went to investigate. It turned out the perpetrator had attached flashlights to several cats, yes cats. This quickly became a problem for me, as I had previously taken a particular flaw. (Flaws allow you to get benefits in other areas by taking them) My flaw, a horrible, horrible, phobia of, yes, cats. So, of course failing my willpower roll, I went screaming and running away in a fox frenzy of panic. I never really did find out who the perp was. My companions did, however, but that’s out of game knowledge to me, and so I can’t use it. And that’s basically where we’re at. More fun to come I know it. Out of game knowledge, between you and me, the perp is a Maulkavian vampire; they’re the crazy ones and man oh man she’s playing the role well. Fun, fun, fun….yippy, Vampire!

Vampire RPG

We had our first Vampire game last night, and let me say, I was not disappointed in the least. It was a load of fun and N ran it like a pro. Yes, N agreed to run a game for us.

The setting is modern day Chicago. We were all killed last night in a BDSM club, very interesting time there I tell ya. Basically, we were all there as observers in the club when a massacre took place. Only six of us survived due to being embraced by the attackers; we were all then abandoned. The club, itself, was being run by the Toreador Primogen who took pity on us, and instead of killing us outright she arranged for shelter and blood. She will now have to be responsible for our behaviors until we are old enough to be turned out on our own.

We ended up with a good mix of clans in the group. All of the Camarilla clans, with the exception of the Nosfurotu, are represented. My character is a Ventrue named Lily. If you’re familiar with the show Angel, an offshoot of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, then think Lilah Morgan. I modeled my character after her. I’m a 26 year old, brunette, corporate lawyer with a bitch attitude. [Lilah Pic] So far, it’s working out well.

The other characters include a Malkavian who in his human life was a famous rock star; a Russian tourist who in his human life was a sort of street thug and has now been turned into a Toreador; talk about messed up. I think the sire of these two guys got things a bit backwards. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the clans the Toreadors are the artists and the Malkavians, well, they’re all insane. BTW, the Ventrue are the business minded clan who brought the Camarilla together and just so happens to have a great deal of sway over the sect. Our other group members are a 4 foot 2 inch Italian mob wanna be who is now a Gangrel and a bald headed short female occult bookstore owner who is now a Tremere. The other two are both Brujah. R’s cousin, who has much more experience with the game than the rest of us, is playing a Brujah Neonate while the rest of us are fledglings. He is helping the Toreador Primogen by guiding us and teaching us in the ways of the vampire.

Other than N and R’s cousin, who are both experienced with the game, I have some experience (I’ve played about 4 or 5 one night games) and the rest of the group is new to the game. So, many of us have no real idea yet as to what the game is going to entail. Which is a good reason for us all coming in as fledglings, think baby vampires. The Neonate is a bit older, but nowhere near the top of the ladder. Usually, but not always, a Primogen is the eldest member of the clan. So there we are, and there you have it. The game has begun. I look forward to giving you more updates and hopefully amassing tons of wealth and prestige for my character along the way.

Vampire – The Masquerade

It seems that I’ve been on this sort of “goth” information kick lately so…before I go on let me clarify something here. While many goths do appreciate the vampire, and the vampire image, it does not mean that every goth you meet has some type of unhealthy obsession over them. This post is actually discussing a role playing game and not a goth thing so…

Since R is not going to be able to run our D&D game for a longggg while; N has agreed to run a Vampire game! Yippie! I have been trying to play Vampire-The Masquerade for years now, however, each time I get ready to play we manage to get one, maybe two, games in and then something happens and the game gets canceled. It’s been very frustrating, especially after one spends so much time developing a character and a background for that character.

I have hope for this game, though. We have a stable group that has been playing together for years now and though we have always done D&D in the past, everyone is on board with the Vampire game. I think this will go well. I know N will bring in some awesome ideas, she has the best imagination and she knows the game well. Not too many people in the group have played Vampire before but at least they’re excited about it and they’re wanting to learn it.

I have no idea, yet, what the setting will be. It’s too soon to expect N to have things worked out so it’s impossible to know if we will be coming into the game as Fledglings or maybe as Neonates or Ancillaes, or some type of mixture. Who knows? But, because we don’t know anything about the character requirements yet I can’t really decide what I want to play.

The characters I’ve created in the past, but never really got to play, were always Toreador. I’m drawn to their artistic / writing qualities. I’m toying with the idea of going Brujah this time, however. It seems that Toreador may just be cursed for me or something *wink*. The only thing with Brujah, though, is that I would want to play the character very punk like which could make me be seen as an Anarch which could be problematic for me regarding any power positions within the Camarilla. Of course, N may throw us all for a loop and have us play Sabbot, but I doubt it, but you never know.

At any rate, I’m brushing up on the clans and the traditions and such. I’m looking forward to playing and I’ll keep you posted, now and then, on how the game is going. Until then…Do you remember the Vampire poem I posted in April? No? Gee and I thought you cared *kidding* I hardly remember it myself. Well anyway, I took it to the writer’s workshop and have since done some revising. I think it has come along quite nicely and since there seems to be a running theme going I thought I would post the latest revision. Here we go:

Turning

Cradled dark kiss gift
of unlife.
Death’s love waking
to night’s Gothic arch and lace

Shadows of rolling mist, drawn into
the hush of eternity
Captured in gibbous ashen beams

Marbled façade and truth

Broken skin and gasping tremors of
final moments

Pyretic liquor surges
into the paunch of the giver
taking his fill

Still crying whispers;
rapture vibrations,
plead a hallowed testament

Burgeoning beyond the world

Boundaries left searing as
sunlight forgets its lost.
Travailing into darkness
Embraced

First Draft

Cradled drink of lover’s arms
Black kiss
Death’s love, waking to night
Gothic arch and lace
Shadows slink forward waiting
Moments of eternity
Marbled façade or truth
Captured in the pale moon
Screaming
Desire
Pleasure
Anticipation
Embraced the drink persists