Post by Alyssa_OOC on May 12, 2023 9:30:39 GMT
THE LIBERTAS: The Newspaper of the Barony of Santa Monica
(OOC: 2023-05-12)
(OOC: 2023-05-12)
The Los Angeles War of 1981
by Amrita Watson
The Anarch Free State still stands after a short but brutal war with the forces of the Camarilla. The Movement dealt the Camarilla an unprecedented defeat after two baronies put their differences aside in the spirit of the Status Perfectus and worked together to defend against a group of coordinated attacks. The Baronies of Hollywood and Santa Monica did not claim this victory without help though. In addition to members of the Movement, local Independents as well as a traveling coterie from San Diego joined in the effort as did a number of Camarilla members which either defected to the Movement or simply aided in what they felt was an unjust war forced upon them by an unpopular prince.
While it is easy to simply say that all Anarchs are good and all Camarilla are bad, that is not the case. And it was not the case here. The majority of the Camarilla members never chose to belong to the sect, they were embraced into it and would have preferred to live in harmony with their fellow Kindred. Even those who firmly believed in the ideals of the Ivory Tower, did not necessarily believe in the reality of what the Camarilla City of Los Angeles was. In truth, the majority of the Kindred were oppressed by a few elders who held nothing but their own power dear. The two most notable among these elders were Prince Sebastian LaCroix and Primogen Maximilian Strahd.
LaCroix and Strahd both sought to eliminate every member of the Anarch Movement. They also both sought to claim the power that they believed was contained within a legendary Kindred artifact known as the Ankaran Sarcophagus. It was their quest for this power that proved to be their undoing and ultimately left the Camarilla forces unable to regroup and mount any other serious attacks after their simultaneous defeats when the combined Anarch forces secretly aware of the coming attacks on three of their locations turned the tables on the Camarilla aggressors.
LaCroix and Strahd devised a plan to strike three separate locations simultaneously and without any declaration of war. The locations to be attacked were Baron Voerman’s The Asylum Santa Monica location, Damsel’s The Last Resort, and Baron Abrams’s Hollywood location. The neonate Camarilla residents of the City of Los Angeles had been ordered to form into a war coterie to engage in smaller skirmishes.
The plan was to eliminate the entirety of the Anarch leadership in these initial attacks and then deal with the scattered remnants of the Anarch Free State. When the fighting had ended, nearly every survivor was to be executed. Those who were deemed to not have committed any crime against the Camarilla would be given the chance to defect, losing all holdings and then spend the next fifty years as probationary sect members.
In order to carry out the attack upon The Asylum, a neonate of no particular importance aside from that she had established friendly relations and gained the trust of a number of the Anarchs through serving effectively as a Consul to the Movement without being killed and then later coordinating combined missions with the Barony of Santa Monica was brought into the plans. The neonate was to play a crucial role with promise of great reward. LaCroix and Strauhd’s plans were laid out for the neonate with an explanation of exactly what her orders were.
The neonate was to use the trust that she had earned to lure a member of the Movement into a trap and deliver him to Strahd. While held captive the Anarch would be blood-bonded and dominated into serving as Strahd’s agent to carry powerful explosives through Asylum security. Once inside, the operative would detonate the bomb destroying the club packed with mortals, the the Anarch Kindred and their ghouls, the operative, and most importantly the Voerman sisters.
The neonate made a decision that night and arranged to meet in secret with Baron Voerman where she shared what she had been told of these attacks. Upon verification of the truth of the neonate’s words, a plan was devised to lure the Camarilla forces into committing to the attacks upon The Last Resort and Hollywood where the Movement would be ready for them. Critical to this plan was finding an Anarch brave and loyal enough to allow themselves to be turned into the Camarilla operative. All efforts to capture the operative alive and to undo the conditioning and see that the bond was broken would be made, but there would be a very real chance that the operative would not survive the ordeal.
After careful consideration, Xero agreed to be turned into the operative. All knowledge of the plan was taken from his memory and while under the appearance of the Camarilla neonate, Baron Voerman staked him. From there the neonate delivered Xero to Strahd so that he could be prepared for his mission as a suicide bomber. While Xero was undergoing this, other preparations were made.
The Last Resort and Hollywood were quietly fortified for the coming battles. Vehicles were made ready and pipe bombs were crafted. Weapons and ammunition were stockpiled. While returning to Camarilla territory as a double agent, the neonate arranged for an ally of hers in the human underworld to make a strike on a location where the Camarilla held blood reserves on the night of the attacks. The neonate was also given the information needed to find the item that would seal LaCroix’s fate.
The night before the opening battles, Xero was released to complete his mission for the Camarilla. While the capture team of Jeanette Voerman, Therese Voerman’s War Coterie, Sabrina Foster who was also Xero’s sire, and the neonate along with two of her ghouls were tracking Xero through Camarilla territory, he unexpectedly went to an ally who unwittingly aided him in his suicide mission.
The following night, Xero emerged with no sign of the explosives. After putting up quite a fight and nearly getting past the team, Xero was finally torpored but before he could be collected and taken back for deprogramming, the explosives that were hidden inside his body went off. The capture team split to join the Anarch forces at the other two location where the battles would soon be underway.
The Battle of the Last Resort came in the form of the Camarilla forces under the orders of Strahd attacking Damsel’s bar, The Last Resort, a frequent gathering place for members of the Movement. These Camarilla forces were the ones acting under the command of Strahd which were composed largely of members of his clan, Clan Tremere, as well as others who were enslaved by him including a number of gargoyles. Strahd himself was not present as he had business elsewhere with LaCroix.
The Last Resort was largely defended by members of Clan Brujah. Led by Damsel the Brujah were Alexander Durham of Baron Voerman’s war coterie, Nines Rodriguez, Smiling Jack, and Yunmei. The Brujah, all worked together engaged in and epic skirmish with the Camarilla forces taking considerable damage. The teamwork of Damsel and her childe Yunmei was a sight to behold. And all of the Brujah managed to survive the conflict aside from Nines Rodriguez who was torn apart by one of the gargoyles.
Joining the Brujah in the defense were Bertram Tung and Velvet Velour. During the early part of the battle, Bertram Tung was surrounded and torn apart by the gargoyles. Velvet Velour nearly succumbed to her wounds as well but managed to slip away and hide in a decidedly unglamourous dumpster until the fighting ended.
The Anarch forces were also joined by a group of Independent Gangrel that came to aid their friends at The Last Resort. These Gangrel were led by Tiffany Brooks with Aleric Windhurst and Lytta Wriedt. The Gangrel showed how deadly they are in combat tearing through the Camarilla ghouls. Tiffany Brooks unloaded her beloved minigun cutting down rows of her enemies laughing as they fell. Aleric Windhurst and Lytta Wriedt sliced through the enemy with their claws and both took some serious wounds but made it through as well.
And finally, helping the defense were members of Clan Tremere that had defected rather than aid their former Prince and Primogen. These defectors were Amrita Watson, John “Nero” Walker with his canine Blue, and Shane Windemere. John “Nero” Walker put up a valiant fight taking down enemy after enemy with his riffle until he ran out of ammunition and was swarmed by Camarilla ghouls who stabbed him to death. Blue dutifully defended her master until she could not fight anymore and was rendered unconscious losing a leg. Shane Windemere barely survived taking a bullet to the head and lost an eye. Amrita Watson’s wounds were less severe than her clanmates and she managed to save one of the three enslaved gargoyles when they suddenly became confused in the middle of combat halting their attack when their blood bonds were snapped.
Meanwhile, the Battle of Hollywood had also begun. The attacking Camarilla forces were those assembled by LaCroix and led on the field by Sheriff Abiodun. These considerable forces were comprised by members of the City of Los Angeles of all clans besides Clan Tremere that was fighting the Battle of The Last Resort.
The Barony was defended by Baron Issac Abrams who was joined by members Henry, Molly, and Safiya Abara. Baron Issac Abrams meet the Camarilla forces that came to kill him on the field of battle and was seriously wounded but survived his wounds. Henry and Molly showed no hesitation in engaging the enemy rather seeming to take great pleasure as they tossed pipe bombs and peppered their forces with bullets. As Camarilla ghouls swarmed Henry he laughed holding a bomb as they piled on him sending a shower of limbs and guts falling down around where he had stood a moment before and nearly having killed Molly in the process. Safiya fared better than the other Barony members taking only moderate damage as she fired upon the enemy picking them off.
Anarchs Cecilia Lux, Laura Stephens, and Sabrina Foster came from outside the Barony to aid the defense. Cecilia Lux worked her way through the battle field using her Malkavian powers to cause chaos among the Camarilla forces but paid the price as there were far too many enemies around her and she barely managed to slip away with her life. Laura Stephens used her expert marksmanship to thin the ranks of the enemy but was badly injured losing an arm. Sabrina Foster also came to the defense of Hollywood even after watching her child perish. She fought bravely clawing her way through the enemy lines but in the end was surrounded by their superior numbers and stabbed to death.
Baron Voerman’s own war coterie also came in assist led by her sister, Jeanette Voerman. The coterie members joining Voerman there were Amanda McBride, Charlie Abbott, Ellie May Lee, Hamish Moody, and Janice Lane. The coterie fought together like an experienced unit all knowing each other’s moves and took down enemy after enemy until they came face to face with the Camarilla general, Sheriff Abiodun, and his massive batlike warform. After a long vicious combat with the Sheriff the coterie managed to take the monster down, but not without the loss of both Hamish Moody and Janice Lane.
And finally an Independent coterie coming out of San Diego and consisting of members Brittany, Francesa, Isabella, and Morgan was hired by Baron Voerman to fill out the ranks of the Hollywood defenses. The Independent coterie was eager to show their value to the Anarchs wading into the Camarilla forces and left their mark on the battle field taking down many of the enemy. Unfortunately their team took the heaviest casualties of any group that defended Hollywood. Of the entire coterie, only Morgan survived that night.
In both locations, there were many other ghouls fighting among their Kindred counterparts. Many Anarch ghouls fell in battle against the superior numbers of the Camarilla forces. There were also countless Camarilla ghouls that fell in battle, not because they wished to be the aggressors in this war but because their masters commanded it.
While these battles were going on, one the last major piece of the Los Angeles War of 1981 was coming to a climax in LaCroix’s tower. LaCroix had come to Los Angeles not only to take back the the City of Los Angles whom his sire once held Praxis but also for another purpose. That purpose was to find the mysterious Kindred artifact known as the Ankaran Sarcophagus. It was believed that within this sarcophagus lay a sleeping elder of great power, and both LaCroix and Strahd planned to be the one to commit Amaranth upon this helpless victim and with that stolen power rule far more than the City of Los Angeles.
Smiling Jack had come into possession of the sarcophagus and knowing that LaCroix sought the item opened it replacing the contents with a surprise of his own. From there the artifact made its way into the hands of a group of corrupted werewolves known as the Black Spiral Dancers. Baron Voerman shared this information with the same neonate that brought her the information of the planned attacks upon the Movement. This neonate had been tasked to retrieve the sarcophagus by both LaCroix and Strahd and thus would make the perfect choice to deliver it to LaCroix but in order for the surprise to be effective, the neotate would have to retrieve the item without the help of the Movement.
The neonate arranged for a meeting with the Black Spiral Dancers to negotiate for the sarcophagus. She brought two of the Sheriff’s ghouls to serve as bodyguards and witnesses and purchased the item with ten million dollars of LaCroix’s wealth. After it was delivered to LaCroix she arranged for Strahd to meet him to bear witness to the unveiling. This was to cement Strahd’s appointment as Seneschal and give him an opportunity to make his plans to steal the treasure away. When the Ankaran Sarcophagus was opened, Smiling Jack’s surprise exploded killing both men.
With Prince LaCroix and his soon to be Seneschal Strahd both killed in the blast as well as their general, Sheriff Abiodun, fallen in battle, the remaining remnants of the Camarilla forces were left with no leadership to help them regroup. After a couple of minor skirmishes, the remaining survivors of the Camarilla withdrew from the region returning to areas held by the Camarilla. The Los Angeles War of 1981 has become the worst defeat that the Camarilla has suffered against the Anarch Free State, and will not soon be forgotten.
The reader might ask how all of these details from events that happened behind closed doors are known. The answer is that the writer of this article was the Camarilla neonate of no real importance that fate placed in the center of the events of The Los Angeles War of 1981. The author is but one of many people who all played their roles, many making the ultimate sacrifice. May we never forget our fallen heroes.
In Memoriam:
The Fallen Heroes of the Los Angeles War of 1981
- Bertram Tung (Clan Nosferatu)
- Brittany (Without Clan)
- Francesa (Clan Tzimisce)
- Hamish Moody (Clan Malkavian)
- Henry (Clan Malkavian Ghoul)
- Isabella (Clan Nosferatu)
- Janice Lane (Clan Malkavian)
- John "Nero" Walker (Clan Tremere Ghoul)
- Nines Rodriguez (Clan Brujah)
- Sabrina Foster (Clan Gangrel)
- Xero (Clan Gangrel)
((OOC: The names and clans of all of the fallen nameless NPC Anarch and Independent ghouls would also appear in this list.))