Detroit by Night
Immortal History
Totem's Fall, the 14th anniversary one-shot session
Teaser: The Word of the Dragon
…And on still autumn nights, they say, when the red moon rules the sky and the trees are a bloody red stain spread upon the dying ground when the wolves howl in the hills and the ravens swoop and cry and the trail is a ribbon of moonlight running through the burial mounds a pale man comes riding, riding, riding, a pale white man comes riding, up to the old cabin door.
Deep in the forest, near Fort Ponchartrain along the Detroit river, October 21st, 1762
Nahum threw her head back and laughed as the gray stallion galloped and jumped down the dirt track, which stretched out pale before them between the dark, leaning forms of the trees. The moon dipped and wheeled between the high dark banks of cloud, and occasionally the odd fleck of rain would dust her skin, blown off the trees, or splashing off of the wild mane of her horse. The air still smelt of gunpowder and burning wood from the soldier encampment, and in the last few hours before dawn, a low mist had settled in the dips and hollows of the old mud track, although they sky had not yet began to pale.
Jarvis glanced away from the trail for a moment to look at her and grin, raising his voice over the sound of the horses’ hooves and the wind.
"Are you having fun?"
"Aye!" she shouted and threw her head back to yell into the wind. Jarvis reached across and rested his hand on her leg and she smiled, letting the jerking, shuddering movement of the steed flow through her limbs.
She was beginning to feel a little more sober, the last few dizzying, distorting effects of the night's feeding trickling from her mind, and it was making her feel cold. Slowly, she opened her eyes to the icy sting of the wind and twisted in her saddle, reaching down to the knapsack behind her led and lifting out a blanket, half-standing and slipping it over her shoulders.
She shivered and wrapped the blanket a little tighter, looking across at the man riding beside her. The moonlight streaming through the crystal-dark sky gave Jarvis an eerie appearance. His skin was not only bone white under the cold gaze of the moon, but seemed somehow slick, like polished ivory, or church candles. By contrast, his eyes and hair seemed an almost bottomless black, and he seemed oddly still, the wind not even seeming to ruffle his short-cropped hair, as if he'd simply been frozen in a moment in time.
"Jarvis?" she asked tentatively, and when he didn't answer, she reached out her hand to touch his shoulder. "Jarvis?"
He turned his head sharply to look at her, bottomless-black eyes staring out of a bone-white face, all the shadows cast on him seemed longer, and he looks drawn, sickly. She shuddered and drew away, wrapping her arms tightly around herself against the phantom bite of the wind.
"Yes? What is it?"
Nahum shook her head and looked down into her lap. "Nothing."
Jarvis frowned and tightened his grip a little on her thigh, she started. Jarvis and drew away: "What are you feeling right now, Nahum? You don't look very satisfied, my lady."
"Neither do you," she whispered slowly, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before looking back at him: "Let's go home, Jarvis, I'm cold."
"Certainly," he said, resigned: "I know a quick way back, it's just down this track on the left. Do you think your horse can manage that?"
She nodded slowly and said nothing, not liking the tone in his voice one bit and not wanting to look up at him again lest she find herself staring into his strange, skull-like face again. She closed her eyes and let the lurching movement of the ride absorb her, so that she didn't have to think about the cold, or the dead man beside her.
Somewhere behind the sound of the horses’ breaths and hoof steps along the track, and the whispered roar of the wind catching in her ears, she slowly became aware of something else. The odd noise sounded familiar, but was too disconcerting for her to immediately connect with the dark, rainy October night. She started, sitting bolt upright and opening her eyes, turning quickly to Jarvis and shaking his shoulder until he turned his head to look at her.
"What? What is it now, Nahum?"
"Don't you hear it?" she hissed, she grasping and shaking his cloak.
Jarvis scowled at her and wrenched her hand off his shoulder with a little more force than was necessary: "Hear what?"
"Wolves."
Jarvis laughed and turned back to the trail, resting his hands lightly on his steed’s neck and guiding the white palomino over the uneven path.
"I'm serious, Jarvis!"
"Don't be foolish, Nahum. There haven't been any lupines in these woods for years, we're practically in sight of the fort for crying out loud!"
Nahum crossed her arms and blew the cold air out of her lungs. There was a moment of silence between them, both sitting side by side, staring pointedly at the thin strip of moonlit mud in front of them. After a few minutes, Nahum leaned forward in her saddle, straining her eyes and squinting at the woods in front and brushing a straggling lock of gray hair out of her face.
"What's that?" she whispered softly, then, with a glance at Jarvis beside her, who was staring straight ahead through his frown: "Jarvis, what is that?"
He turned to face her, his eyes burning with anger: "What, Nahum? What the bloody hell are you going on about?"
"That!"
Nahum grabbed hold of his hand and pointed viciously at the strip of mud unrolling before them, where between an overhang of dead or dying, leafless oak trees, there was a dark shape that seemed to cling to the shadows.
Jarvis's scowl deepened and he pulled back on his reins for a moment: "Just some witless deer, Nahum, would you kindly calm yourself?"
He kicked his feet against the flanks of his steed, the palomino snorted as it began to gallop down the bumpy dirt trail. Nahum stared at his back.
"What are you doing? Slow down!"
"Nay," he called behind him and kicked his heels in harder, the palomino jumping and running full speed over the puddles and rocks in the trail.
"Jarvis! Stop!"
Her companion paid her no heed. As he approached the thing, it reared up from the trail like a huge, coiled snake. Rope-like arms ending in long blue claws seized the galloping horse and lifted it into the air like a cougar capturing a rabbit. Jarvis was flung from the saddle and landed hard on his back on the trail as the palomino screamed and kicked helplessly at the air.
“I have a message for your sire, Burleigh.” The voice was loud, yet muffled, as if spoken from a great distance away. “I am coming for him, to take what he owes me. I shall keep my side of the bargain, but I demand my due.”
Jarvis sprang to his feet, and began running back the way he came on the trail. Behind him, the thing’s claws tore his horse into pieces, but not a drop of blood reached the ground. It disappeared into the grotesque black maw of the creature.
Jarvis raced past Nahum, and she wheeled her steed to follow him. As she did so, she glanced back once at whatever it was that confronted them, but it was gone, and she saw only a pile of dried horse bones clattering onto the trail where it had been. Then she was riding hard and heedless into the woods, her steed having difficulty keeping up with Jarvis who sprinted ahead of her.
Characters
For this one-shot session, I decided to conduct an experiment. Player characters would be provided, but instead of extensive background and lots of individual aspirations, the characters' roles would be based around certain archetypes. These were character functions drawn from the Dramatica theory of story, something that I have used before in assigning roles for NP Cs? in Eyes That Burn. While it did allow us to get the game under way much more quickly than last year, some of the players thought that the characters could have used some more motivation.
There were six players at this game, and six player characters. Because much of the background for the characters was mutual, I read most of it aloud for the players. This served to both speed up the session and grant some familiarity with the other players' characters.
Burning Torch, played by Charlotte
Homid, Ahroun, Uktena Werewolf
Veteran Brave of the Udawak Ottawa
Archetype: Reason
You were born 32 years ago on a cold winter night on the shore of lake Huron. Over the years, conflicts with other tribes and the British whites forced the Udawak to migrate westward towards the white settlement of Detroit on the great river.
You were already a man and a Garou warrior when war broke out between the French and the British. You went with your father, who was not Garou but a great warrior all the same, to join the other Ottawa in battles with the British in the Shawnee lands to the south. Despite the efforts of the brave Ottawa and the crafty French, the British overwhelmed their enemies and took control of the French towns one by one.
Two years ago, the British army arrived and took control of Detroit, and made new laws to control whatever the tribes did. If the Udawak need to trade away furs, they must trade with the whites. If the Udawak are fishing and a white man comes along, they must leave and let the white man take the spot. If the Udawak need to visit the tribes for a marriage or a warrior rite, they must bribe the whites to let them pass through their lands. Often, when you notice how thin some of the children are, or when you hear Clear Wind babble in her whiskey stupor at night, you would like nothing better than to let the whites feel your rage, but you keep your feelings deep inside. You are the leader of the braves now and must be an example. The whites must not be angered for what would happen to your people.
Shortly after the British came the night walkers, the cold ones who are alive in death. One of these, a hairy white warrior named Theodoric began to visit your village every night as a guest of the chief. He was an ally of the Ottawa during the war but now hides on this island like one of them. Although his tainted presence makes your skin crawl, you remain courteous to him out of respect for your chief. And Chief Four Claws needs all the support he can get now that he’s fallen ill and keeps sleeping through the day.
Four Claws, played by Dan
Gangrel Vampire, Childe of Theodoric
Chief of the Udawak Ottawa
Archetype: Sidekick
Your father was Chief of the Udawak Ottawa, and since his death, so are you. You doubt that any of your ancestors faced as great a challenge as the one that occupies your mind in these times of strife.
You were born 32 years ago in your father’s lodge on the shores of the river when the Ottawa and the white French lived as peaceful neighbors. Although you did not have much contact with them yourself, you often saw French traders visiting your village. Many times, you father and the village elders would go to the white Fort and come back with blankets, corn and whiskey.
Your father was a good man, but your mother was your greatest influence. She is one of the shifters, those able to speak with the spirits and walk as a wolf. The other shifters in the tribe look to her for leadership as everyone else looked to your father. And when the white French went to war with the British, it was your parents who joined with the French.
During the war years, you saw many braves leave to join the fighting in the Shawnee lands to the east and the shifters fight their own battles in the forest at night. Your mother would tell stories of her visits with the spirits at her sacred place on the island, but as you were not one of the shifters you had never been to that place yourself.
Then two years ago, the war was suddenly over before it ever reached these lands. The British rode into the French Fort one day and proclaimed themselves the rulers. After that, things were never the same between the Ottawa and the whites. The British began to relocate the other villages away from their Fort. It was around this time your father fell ill, and at your mother’s suggestion, directed the village to move to the island to remain close to the shifters’ sacred place. Your father was buried there when he died, and you became the Udawak’s new Chief.
One night, as you sat smoking in your lodge, a white man sat down with you. You had never seen one such as him before. He called himself Theodoric, and told you that he was one of the Germans, another white tribe from across the sea. He told you that he was also another kind of shifter, something like your mother and the few remaining others in the village, and that he had come with a warning and an offering of help.
Theodoric said that there were others like him who were enemies of the shifters, and sought to wipe them from the face of the earth. But he, Theodoric, wanted to help the Udawak fight them and prevail against the whites as well. His words were very compelling, and you talked with him through the night. You offered to let him stay so that you could speak more with him in the morning, and he agreed. But when you awoke, he was gone.
You told your mother about Theodoric, and her reaction puzzled you. She scornfully dismissed your account, saying that it had been a dream. You didn’t agree with her but held your tongue out of respect for her aging mind. The two other shifters, Burning Torch and Corn Stalk warned you to be wary of these dreams. Time passed, and just as you were beginning to believe they had been right, Theodoric visited you again. He said that more of his kind were coming, and it would not be long before the Udawak and the shifters would be in danger from them. After his second visit, you fell ill like your father, and were confined to your lodge by day.
At night, you arose with strength and clarity, and looked forward to Theodoric’s visits, whom no one else could see arrive or leave your lodge. You shunned the company of the Udawak for days, and ignored the concerns they spoke to you through the door at night. Theodoric became the most important person in your life, and he taught you the shifting secrets of the Gangrel as you shared his blood. You were a warrior of the night now, and the time has come to join your mother and the other shifters in their communion with the spirits.
Black Feather, played by James
Dreamspeaker Mage
Medicine man of the Udawak Ottawa
Archetype: Guardian
Black Feather's origins are mostly an enigma, even to yourself. You know that you once lived in an Ottawa village up north near Saginaw Bay, but this early life is remembered only vaguuely like a long ago dream. Your first clear memory was a long and arduous spirit quest. You journeyed far through the spirit world to a hot land of steaming forest, where you lived among the radiant presence of the totem spirits. After many seasons of servitude and meditation Snapping Turtle carried you back to this world on his back of Snapping Turtle to become a protector of the Udawak people.
That was five years ago, and each one of those years has been harder than the last. Cut off from their traditional home by the aggressively militant British, the Udawak and their Garou have been subsisting on a dwindling supply of wild rice, fish, and trade with the whites. One winter, the village’s medicine man passed away, but they were happy when Black Feather arrived in the spring. Despite your long separation from the material world, your insight granted you knowledge of the language and ways of the whites. You became accepted when you showed the Udawak that you could speak with their spirits, although you were not a shape-shifter.
These days Black Feather is one of the few contacts the Udawak still have with the outside world. Although you have been left relatively alone on your island, the Garou have been dying off or leaving for lands unknown, never to return. Clear Wind is now getting on in years and is dependent on the whiskey Black Feather trades from the French. Her daughter Corn Silk has taken over her role as the leader of the Garou, and her brother Burning Torch is the third and last of the Udawak Garou.
Clear Wind, played by Kristen
Lupus, Ragabash, Uktena Werewolf
Elderly wise woman of the Udawak Ottawa
Archetype: Emotion
Nearly 50 years ago you were born on a moonless night on the shores of Lake Huron to two strong Garou kinfolk. They raised you in two worlds; that of the Udawak Ottawa and the other world of the Uktena. You accomplished much in both. You took the Udawak Chief for a husband and helped him lead the village as it migrated first to the west away from the hostile Iriquois, and then to what the whites call Belle Isle after the British took control of the land.
Black Feather, the strange Medicine Man came to your village after your own Theurge was slain in a spirit battle. He is not Garou but he talks with the spirits all the same, and you trust him. The healing whiskey he trades from the whites is all that sustains you now in your twilight years, and you don’t know what you would do without him.
The Udawak Ottawa have always been a proud people, even before the white men came to take away your traditional homeland. As the leader of the Sept, the Garou among the Udawak looked to you for guidance, and it was you who decided that the village should move to the sacred island to keep watch over the cairn. Life here has been hard for the kinfolk, but you believe you made the correct decision.
You have lived a long and honorable life, but not long ago the time came to pass the leadership of the Sept on to your daughter Corn Stalk. Your children treat you with respect, but you can see the pity in their eyes when you are feeling unwell, or when you have gone too long without your whiskey. They think you’re senile, but there’s still enough life left in your limbs to run with the pack. When you’re gone, they will mourn you like no other.
You do not know what your son’s problem is, but you fear for him. Four Claws has always been respectful, but he was born with none of the Garou’s wisdom. For more than a week, he has been holed up in his lodge, smoking his medicine pipe, and sleeping all day. There is an odor of death about the place, and you have begun to suspect that he has caught the same ailment that slew his father. If he doesn’t let you visit him tonight, you are going to tear down the door of his lodge. How can he sit in that smoke and ignore his people? His own mother and sister? Perhaps some of your whiskey can help him.
Heinrich, played by Jeanie
Ventrue Vampire, Childe of Archimedes
French Fur Trader
Archetype: Rogue (Contagonist)
You were born the son of a French settler and an Ottowa sqaw 37 years ago in New France (which will someday be known as Quebec) and migrated south with your father to Fort Ponchartrain when you were eighteen. Because of your fluent Ojibwa you felt comfortable dealing with the local Udawak Ottawas, trading them corn and whiskey for furs and pelts.
Your wife Marie died ten years ago after giving you two daughters, Katherine and Agatha whom you have raised on your small farm on the outskirts of the Detroit settlement. Now that they are reaching the age of marriage, you are concerned that their mixed heritage (through you) will make it difficult for them to marry well.
During the war years, you were prepared to join your fellow Frenchmen in defense of the Fort, but the fighting never reached this far west. Since the British moved in two years ago, they have been driving the Ottowa away. Now only the Udawak village remains out on Belle Isle, and as they have come onto hard times so have you, for they have always been your best trading partners. You are on especially good terms with their medicine man, Black Feather. Like you, he is also from New France and he still makes the trek to your cabin to trade despite the British commander’s prohibition of the natives coming to Detroit.
In recent months, a strange man began coming to your cabin in the middle of the night to buy pelts, and he paid with gold. He called himself Archimedes, and asked you not to tell anyone about him. You felt more than obliged to comply, and burying his gold in the dirt floor underneath your bed. He asked you many questions about the Udawak on Belle Isle, and asked you to keep further tabs on them for him.
This week, rumors have been circulating in the settlement that a British logging company has been given permission to relocate the Udawaks and set up operations on the Isle. This is bad news for you, as you would lose your best trading partners.
Last night, you heard the howling of wolves outside your cabin door, and your daughters held each other in terror. Then the howls abruptly stopped, and shortly after Archimedes came knocking on your door. He was streaked with blood and his clothing was torn, but brushed off your concern and did not appear to be injured. You expressed your concerns over the loggers and the Udawak with him, and noticed that he kept staring at your daughters. When he told you to leave him alone with them, you resisted the desire to grant him his wish, and demanded that he leave your cabin. Despite everything, this may have been a mistake, because he flew into a rage, pinned you on the floor and bit you on the neck. The last thing you remember is hearing your daughters screaming.
When you awoke, your cabin was in a shambles. There was blood splattered everywhere, and your two beloved daughters were lying still and cold on the floor. Nearly as disturbing was the change in you. You felt strong and clear, but hungry. And you could taste blood in your mouth. Archimedes was gone, but somehow you knew he would be back from the Fort soon. You decided to flee to Belle Isle, and warn your friend Black Feather about Archimedes, and the loggers…but then thought again. The idea of the loggers clearing Belle Island now seems like a very good idea. The Udawak could even join the loggers, and become part of the British settlement! You don’t know why this hasn’t occurred to you before, but this is brilliant.
Perhaps Black Feather the medicine man might be able to help you, or at least explain what has happened to you. And you couldn’t wait to tell him the good news about the logging company. You ran to the river bank, took your canoe and paddled it all the way to the Udawak’s island. The night felt warm, and you didn’t notice that you hadn’t yet drawn a breath until you had dragged your canoe ashore.
Actual Play
It took a while to get the game started. There was a bit of kibitzing and joking around, and mass consumption of pizza, candy and wine before and during the game.
Opening scene: October, 1762. The Udawak village on a chilly, overcast night. A waxing moon gleams down on the red leaves of the oak trees.
A strange, somewhat white man (Heinrich) walks into the village. His clothes are stained with blood, and the villagers who are sitting outside of their wigwams stare at him.
Heinrich walks up to Black Feather at the medicine lodge. The medicine man notes the aura of death clinging to the trader. They talk, and Black Feather offers the visitor some whiskey. Heinrich tries to drink but spits it out, complaining that something is wrong with the beverage. Black Feather calls Clear Wind out of her lodge to meet the visitor and to verify the whiskey's quality. Clear Wind drinks the whiskey and states that it is fine. The same can not be said for Heinrich though. He is extremely pale, cold, and smells of death.
The other villagers begin to gather around the meeting and Burning Torch comes outside to see what the commotion is about. He approaches and stands on the edge of the circle of villagers, watching Heinrich closely.
Heinrich tells his hosts about the logging company and how this is a good opportunity for the Udawak to get jobs and make money. His news is met with some skepticism, to say the least.
Four Claws now steps forth from his lodge for the first time in over a week. He approaches and asks Black Feather what Heinrich is doing in the village.
Using his newly gained power of Dominate, Heinrich commands Four Claws to leave. Four Claws is compelled to remove himself from the conversation and sits down in front of his lodge.
Black Feather enters his lodge to ask the spirits for guidance.
Heinrich uses his powers of Presence on the villagers as he tells them more of the logging company's intentions in their language, causing the Udawak to become happy and call for a celebration for their hopeful future. Four Claws tries to tell the villagers not to listen to Heinrich but only manages to sway those nearest to him. The rest of the village brings out food and begin to prepare a feast. Corn Stalk resists Heinrich's will and sees it for the unnatural feeling that it is.
Corn Stalk looks into the Umbra and sees the wind blowing through the village towards the Udawak cairn. While most of the people create an eddy in the Umbral wind as it blows around them, no ripples are seen around Four Claws or Heinrich, and they are not visible in the spirit realm at all.
Heinrich resists the temptation to join the feast and walks out of the village back to his canoe to leave the island.
The Uktena sept gather in Black Feather's lodge to discuss Heinrich's news. Black Feather reveals that the spirit are agitated, Uktena is distracted by something off in the distance on the river and Corn Stalk relates what she saw in the umbra concerning Four Claws and Heinrich.
Four Claws realizes that watching the villagers is making him hungry. In a moment of self-loathing, he goes back inside his lodge.
As Heinrich is pulling his canoe towards the water, he sees another canoe down the shore and a vampire sneaking onto the island, heading into the forest. Heinrich shadows him.
At this same time, Corn Stalk leaves the village, takes on the shape of the wolf and heads towards the cairn to see if anything is wrong there. Burning Torch follows her, leading some fo the village's braves.
Black Feather and Clear Wind go to the chief's lodge and call Four Claws to the door. Black Feather looks closely at him with his penetrating sight and sees that Four Claws's heart no longer beats. He offers the chief whiskey, which is refused. They then offer to share Black Feather's pipe, and Four Claws decides to impress them by holding the smoke in far longer than he should be able to. Then, he assures the medicine mand and his mother that nothing is wrong with him. When they tell him that he doesn't appear to have a soul, Four Claws explains that it has left on a spirit quest. He then tells them about Theodoric again and how his mentor has become his new totem, and that he has become one of the other kinds of shifters. Clear Wind and Black Feather are appalled at this.
Heinrich follows the other vampire to the cairn and sees him set up burning candles on the ground, and begin to do something there with his back turned. Shortly after, Corn Stalk and Burning Torch arrive and chase the intruder away. Burning Torch leads the braves in pursuit of the cairn's defiler while Corn Stalk extinguishes the candles and steps into the spirit realm to see what has been done. She sees Uktena battling a large, dark serpent-like being. The battle is getting closer to the island and Snapping Turtle swims nervously around the banks.
Heinrich saw Corn Stalk disappear into thin air and considers approaching the burial mound. But before he can act, Corn Stalk returns to the physical world and smells Heinrich hiding near the edge of the forest. She produces her klaive and demands to know what Heinrich is doing there.
The fleeing vampire jumps into the Detroit river and begins to swim towards the Fort. Leaving the braves at the water's edge, Burning Torch takes the form of the crinos and continues the pursuit. He catches up with the vampire in the river and tears him to pieces. The vampire crumbles to ashes and dissolves into the current. Burning Torch returns to Belle Isle.
Corn Stalk tells Heinrich to leave the island. He escorts him to the shore where the Udawak braves are waiting and sees Burning Torch returning, still in crinos form. Heinrich gets nervous. After learning what Burning Torch has done, Corn Stalk tells Heinrich that he needs help to escape his curse. Heinrich isn't convinced that what has happened to him can be called that. He gets in his canoe and starts paddling across the river.
At this point, a strange, greenish mist flows over the water, around the canie and onto the beach through the braves. Corn Stalk and Burning Torch see that the mist is very unnatural, and follow it back to their village. They bring the braves with them, but send three to stand watch at the cairn.
Theodoric's mist drifts up to the door of the chief's lodge and takes on his human form. He warns the Udawak that they are threatened by the planned logging operation and that the only way to prevent their home from being ruined is to join him in a direct attack on Fort Ponchartrain vampires tonight. Four Claws praises this plan and endorses it. The Garou answer this proposal with skepticism but Corn Stalk agrees to join Theodoric's attack when he admits that he is most concerned with defeating his rival vampires there. Clear Wind and Black Feather also agree to join.
Burning Torch volunteers to protect the cairn while the rest are away, and leads all of the Udawak braves there, sounding a ferocious war cry as he goes.
Heinrich returns to the Detroit settlement. Leaving his canoe in the common area of the shore, he walks home to find a group of vampires holding counsel in the shambles of his cabin. Heinrich's old customer Archimedes is speaking with two others named Jon and Irving. After taking Heinrich's report of what transpired on the island, Archimedes orders his childe to embrace all the settlers in the neighboring farms and take them to the Fort. Heinrich agrees without argument.
At the cairn, Burning Torch sees a vison of Uktena fighting a writhing black snake that is coiled around one of the whites' ships. Burning Torch stands ready as a crinos, and growls to the braves to be alert.
After running an errand of bloodshed and terror, Heinrich arrives with his horde of undead in the woods near Fort Ponchartrain.
Theodoric leads Four Claws, Black Feather, Clear Wind and Corn Stalk to to Heinrich's mob, then runs to the Fort to find "the leader." Corn Stalk follows him.
The Udawak demand to know what Heinrich is doing and are soon attacked by his fledling vampires. Four Claws stabs Heinrich with his spear and then starts attacking the other vampires. Heinrich gets back up and urges everyone to remain calm. His childer become passive but Four Claws continues rampaging through them. Black Feather and Heinrich debate over whose side they should be on.
Four Claws slays most of the mob and runs to the Fort to see Corn Stalk watching the confrontation betwen Theodoric and Archimedes. Irving stakes Theodoric while invisible. Ignoring his own safety, Four Claws changes into a bat, swoops in to knock Theodoric out of Irving's hands, and returns to his normal form again. His momentum sends Theodoric and himself flying over the wall. Corn Stalk becomes a lupus, charges into the Fort past the vampires and attacks her brother the chief. Four Claws fights back, awhile Theodoric stands passively. Archimedes comes in through the gate and summons forth the British garrison. The soldiers raise their rifles at the combatants, and Corn Stalk changes into the crinos. Assaulted by Archimedes's command to attack and Corn Stalk's delerium to flee, the soldiers panic and begin to fire their weapons in every direction. A few are shot by their comrades. Archimiedes commands everyone to stop. He directs that the three intruders be taken prisoner and shackled. Theodoric lets himself be shackled, so Four Claws surrenders as well. Corn Stalk also changes to homid and lets herself be captured. The three are led outside to the field in front of the Fort and shackled to a tree.
Black Feather convinces Clear Wind to kill Heinrich, and she does so. The rest of the fledgling vampires are dispatched as well, and then they go to the Fort where they see the soldiers piling timber around the tree. They attempt to rescue the captives. Four Claws grabs Theodoric, drags him to the river back and returns to the battlefield. Corn Stalk slips away from the fighting and goes to find where Theodoric was taken.
Four Claws charges Archimedes with his spear, which breaks against the elder Ventrue's chest. Archimedes crushes Four Claws between his hands. Black Feather sends strokes of holy force at Jon. Injured but enraged, the Tremere calls up a thundercloud and smites Black Feather with a bolt of lightning. Clear Wind changes to crinos and attacks Irving. Irving fights back. Clear Wind turns invisible and kepps fighting. Irving turns invisible and pulls a large oak tree out of the ground, which he uses as a club to sweep the area around him. Clear Wind realizes that she can't beat her opponent, so she runs to the river to return to the island for help.
At the river bank, the two masted British ship is coming in. Clear Wind sees a black serpent-like thing extending from the ship, reaching for the prone form of Theodoric with one taloned hand in this world while still wrestling with Uktena in the other. Corn Stalk tries to fight the creature but gives up and swims back to Belle Island. Clear Wind tries to reach the ship but the horrible thing sinks into the river, and lifts the ship over its head with its ropey arms. Clear Wind tries to flee back onto the beach but has the ship slammed down on her.
Epilogue
Archimedes and Irving walk down to the water's edge and see the motionless form of Theodoric laying next to the smashed ship on the beach. They wonder where the ship came from and what could have thrown it onto the land. Irving stakes Theodoric and hands him to Archimedes, stating that he will "take care of the ship." He then picks the ship up from the bottom, turns invisible with it, and walks off into the night. Archimedes watches the trees bend out of the way from the hidden craft. He then looks at Theodoric and says, "Now it is time to make my payment, old friend." He carries Theordoric back to the field to be executed at the tree.
After he leaves, a slight man in British clothes peeks out from behind a tree. He looks around nervously, and shivers in the dark.
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