The Krume Story : Vampire the Dark Ages + Mage the Sorcerer's Crusade

07/10/2012
The Krume Story
Vampire: The Dark Ages
Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade

Antonin Krum was born a noble in 1305.  First born son of Marcelus Krum.  Very gifted at an early age.  A fast learned.  And for things he could not learn, he would talk his way around.  Charismatic and well-trained.    He was taught he has a right to rule, even before his Embrace.

He was eventually Embraced into the Tzimisce Clan by a Cainite called Gaius, who happened to be his Uncle.  This was on the year 1335.  They openly took over domains and expanded their influence.   The game begins in 1452.   Michael, the Patriarch, who watches over Constantinople calls all the Cainites of the city for a meeting.  There, he merely tells them telepathically to prepare for sleep.  The Cainites depart and Antonin joins his sire in the underground tomb to sleep as the Methuselah commanded, fearing the coming siege of the city.

When he wakes, however, he finds himself bathed in sunlight.  Rising from the silken sheets, Antonin discovers impossible things:  He is mortal, standing in the sunlight, and in some bed room.  Everything he knows of his city has changed.  The world has become a familiar yet different place.  Eventually a servant tells him it is 1916 and Antonin struggles to comprehend how this has happened.  He tries to wake from Torpor but nothing happens.  And when he punches the wall in frustration, he feels the pain and hurt of an injured mortal body.  The vitae is no longer there to heal.  The people refer to him as Master Krume and one young lady welcomes him warmly, answering his questions about the city outside his window.  He struggles to comprehend how it could be that many years since his sleep, and how his body could be mortal.  He asks for them all to give him space to think and locks himself inside the room.

Adding to the strangeness is a red-skinned spirit that he keeps seeing in the room, intangibly watching him.  The spirit turns out to be a daemon, and Krume senses somehow that the spirit is a reflection or representation of himself.  When the dowager countess of the house demands to see him, she chides him for his lack of proper manners and states, "I would have expected a better display of educated presentation from one of the Cosian Circle."

Krume eventually determines that this is either a fevered dream in torpor, a gift of Michael the Patriarch to those who serve under him, or him somehow possessing someone else's body far later in the years to come.

The young daughter returns and insists his "strange actions" are because she insisted that they last night try the absinthe that Master Krume had brought with him from Switzerland.   He hears a strange noise and outside sees a horseless carriage moving down the road.  Krume falls down, confused and lost and wondering what has happened to him.

* 

The game was meant to be a one-shot game, but admittedly I'm finding myself excited to explore this story more.  A pity Urim, the player in the game, had a sudden bout of asthma to deal with.  Price to pay given the cold stormy weather and having a dog in the house I guess.  My intermittent smoking for certain made things worse.  So sadly, we had to cut the game short, rush off to a nearby 24-hour Mercury Drugstore to get him what he needed.

But I guess yeah, that's the kind of game I end up throwing a player when I'm inspired by Vampire, Mage: the Sorcerer's Crusade, Downton Abbey and shows like Awake and Life on Mars.    Too bad the game was cut short.  But who knows, maybe I can throw this kind of twist again in a future session: One shot or not.