Vampire: The Masquerade Winter's Teeth

Information:

Product Type: Comic Books

Published:August 5th 2020

Where to buy:Vault Comics
DriveThruRPG

Overview

When Cecily Brine, a courier for the Twin Cities Camarilla, takes a mysterious younger vampire under her wing, she’s dragged into an insidious conspiracy. Will she be able to escape with her unlife and protect her aging, Alzheimer’s afflicted sister, or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to the Masquerade? Meanwhile, an Anarch coterie investigates a mysterious killing.^[1]

Notable Characters

Camarilla

Anarch Coterie

Synopsis

Issue #1

In Minneapolis, Minnesota a Kindred known as Cecily confronts another named Conrad about his mortal girlfriend. Against the traditions of the Camarilla he’d told this mortal about him being a vampire and in doing so, broke the Masquerade. An action that causes Cecily to murder the woman, telling Conrad that the mortal was being truthful about never telling anyone about vampires as she leaves.

Following this she meets with Calder, who warns her that things are going to become chaotic in the twin cities. Both Minneapolis and Saint Paul are ruled by Prince Samantha Merrain and are kept in somewhat harmony. However, with the vampiric population growing after healing from the destruction caused by civil wars and the Second Inquisition there’s talk of the two cities splitting apart into two separate domains.

After her meeting with Calder, Cecily heads to visit with a mortal. Karen, who is revealed to be her sister is stricken with severe Alzheimer’s. Posing as the niece to Karen, Cecily visits before leaving. On her way home she discovers an unknown lick on her turf. After confronting them, they discover they are an abandoned and freshly embraced Caitiff named Alejandra who Cecily named Ali. Ali is told to stay the day and after Cecily falls into daysleep, Ali holds a stake over her before laying down and going to sleep.

The Anarch Tales part 1

Colleen, a member of an Anarch Coterie, is given a letter summoning their group to Minneapolis in exchange for a cooler of rejected blood. Within her coterie is Priscilla of Clan Toreador, King of Clan Nosferatu, and Mitch of Clan Gangrel who is Colleen’s sire and prior to that, her husband.

Issue #2

Calder and Cecily, with Alejandra in tow, return to Prince Samantha. Calder is revealed to be a Primogen and Cecily decides to declare that Ali is her childe. Being excused they leave the meeting, while walking back to their car Ali throws up blood on Cecily. Uncertain why Ali is unable to drink both animal blood and bank blood, Cecily takes Ali on a hunt. At first, the fledgling rejects the other, fearful to hurt another person but after Cecily explains that it can be done safely and waiting too long can lead to a Frenzy, Ali agrees.

In Uptown, Mr. Block is meeting with someone named Sphinc and hands over proof that Prince Samantha knows about the coup and is building up her defenses in preparation. Sphinc and his group ask what he wants in repayment, and he answers with Cecily being killed.

Cecily is teaching Ali how to hunt in the "Nod Lot", giving Ali the details of a man who sells drugs to the homeless and specifically homeless kids which often contains poor chemicals and poisons to keep his costs low. This leads to there being a memorial to his drug victims. Ali decides to hunt this man but struggles as she first catches her foot on the fence when confronting him and then scared him. Cecily manages to intercept the victim's escape by hitting him with her car. With the victim in the car, Ali loses herself to hunger, accidentally killing her victim.

Following this, Cecily drives Ali away and past a house with a young child. Explaining the mother was hurt at work and used painkillers to keep the pain away after insurance failed, so much so that she cannot remember her four-year-old child. The child only has one person in her life, the person who takes care of her and pays the bills. That is who Ali killed. Cecily proves to Ali that no matter who you pick, you’re always causing harm and it’s part of the curse, a curse Ali wouldn’t have taken if she’d had a choice.

Cecily calls for a body disposal from Erin, however, Erin rejects the requests and tells her that she needs both Cecily and Ali in Uptown as three Kindred have been found destroyed by hunters.

Anarch Tales part 2

Mitch and Colleen are arguing because he drank all the blood for the trip. Mitch explaining his hunger is much worse than hers and that she’s got it easier since she can see and walk in the sun, unlike the others. Upset with her not understanding he uses Metamorphosis and jumps from the car, fleeing. His Embrace is further explained that instead of being killed immediately he was kidnapped and taken to dig a massive hole with others. A rite was performed as all of them were drained and then fed blood, before being tossed into the grave they’d dug and buried.

While Mitch is out taking time to cool off and the others wait impatiently by their car, he finds a county coroner van and a man working on the engine. A van then drives by the rest of the group, the hunters that get out shoot an arrow into Priscilla’s chest and kidnap Colleen believing her to be a ghoul of some kind. Mitch is then shown with an arrow in his chest in the back of the van.

Issue #3

Cecily arrives at the scene and cleans up the remains, finding the head of Sphinc, who was known for her prolific hacking operation for the previous administration until the whole thing came down. On the wall of the crime scene is the mark of The Shepard's Staff, telling them that this is a group of religious hunters who killed these Kindred. Ali returns with Cecily to her haven and together they attempt to hack into the thumb drive previously found at the scene, while Cecily enters daysleep, Ali does not and manages to get inside the thumb drive finding nothing but a string of numbers. Calder calls Cecily, informing her that pieces of these vampires are missing and that whoever did this was a professional.

With an idea of who is doing this, Cecily heads towards Cordell Block to see him mounted on an X with ghouls speaking to him. Revealed to be the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, these ghouls were once a surgeon, a veterinarian, and a dentist. With their skills, they take pieces from Kindred and add them onto their own body to hide among vampires and take their powers. Jumping through the skylight, Cecily mounts an attack where she reveals she has Celerity, in her attack she kills two of the ghouls but the third is able to use the powers of Mr. Block, Dominate, to force Cecily to begin to burn herself. Ali comes to the rescue unaffected by the power and kills him before Cecily dies, however before they can get the information about what the thumb drive held Mr. Block meets his Final Death.

Returning to Calder, he discloses that this information would be enough reason for the Primogens to want to split the city in two. Cecily informs Calder that Ali had been able to shake off the Dominate while she hadn't, to which he responds with the offer of using his Blood Sorcery to reveal her powers. The offer was accepted, but while he was looking into it they were interrupted and informed that Prince Samantha had been destroyed.

Anarch Tales part 3

The story returns to the Anarch coterie when they were attacked and Colleen was taken by the hunters. King hitches a ride on the back of the Hunter's van that's heading towards Duluth. With the use of Animalism, King uses the dogs within the vans to kill the man threatening Colleen. With the others unstaked, Prissy uses Dominate to convince the living mortal to drive them somewhere safe before the sun comes up.

Issue #4

Cecily and Ali are at the scene where the Prince had been murdered. Cecily sings a song for the late Prince Samantha, stating that before her Embrace she'd planned to teach children the music of her grandmother much to the surprise of Ali. With the bodily remains nothing but dust investigating the murder is increasingly more difficult. Erin Runningbear informs the two and Calder that with a period of silence having been called, the murder of the Prince mustn't be shared until they manage to capture whoever did it. Once they leave Ali asks how bad it is and is told that this could destroy truces and alliances between the clans, breaking down critical vampiric infrastructure and possibly even the loss of sanctioned feedings and body disposal. This means it could reach a point where vampires begin to start and attack anyone in sight out of starvation.

The next night Ali and Cecily begin their investigation as asked of them by Calder. Dressed and ready to go, they head for their first stop in the twin cities council. They plan to not tell anyone about the Prince, instead telling them about the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing threat to put them off guard. Impressively Ali maneuvers through these social situations with different council members, Joe Mother, Jim Gershwin, Bosch Singh, and Elena Kowalski. Showing off that she was a natural at playing to others' egos and getting them to talk, which all of them did. However, none of them attempted to cast suspicion or blame onto the others and let Ali lead the conversation. Meaning that none of them were likely the culprit.

Without a lead, they head to Arlen Haight who has been obsessed with the vampiric apocalypse since Bush Senior's administration. When Cecily asks for information, a bullet comes flying through the house. With the use of her powers, Cecily is able to push the man to safety but with the shooter having Celerity as well she is shot. Anarch hitmen, Trinket and Lil' Shiv make an attack on the haven having been hired by Arlen as guards once the tower told him he had the numbers they wanted. Arlen is shot and killed, being ignited by the bullet as he starts to recall who Ali was. Cecily and Ali make their way out of the burning house, when they stop a distance away Calder calls. Stating that he felt like Cecily had been off the previous night so he pilfered through her haven and found the thumb drive they'd discretely taken from the crime scene. On the drive was apparently a big bonus from Runningbear for offing the Prince and so a blood hunt is called by Calder for her and Ali's head.

Anarch Tales part 4

King spoke to his family in the area, telling the others that the Prince has apparently been destroyed and the Camarilla is rounding up Anarchs. On top of this, their benefactor Mr. Hate found destroyed leaving them without a blood supply. Prissy mentions that she had family in St. Paul but Coleen instead asks if anyone has contacted Cecily. Before Prissy had joined the group, Cecily had been part of it until she left for the Camarilla. With the driver from the hunter's van tied up in the bathroom, Priscilla tells her about her life, and then blood bonds her.

Issue #5

Trinket and Shiv are having a conversation when Cecily manages to track them down, causing immense damage to Trinket immediately and then Lil Shiv after learning from their last encounter. Ali is given their laptop and told to get into it and gather whatever information possible while Cecily has a conversation with the two Anarchs. While the Anarchs burn in the sun, Ali suggests that they leave the city and run as neither have anything left here, an idea that Cecily aggressively shoots down. Having the knowledge of how the Camarilla loves bloodhunts, the two are able to rig the Anarch van with explosives for the next night and make an escape. The two manage to keep moving, using traps and other knowledge of the street to survive the waves of vampires chasing after them. Unfortunately, that chase leads them down into the sewers, where they run into the Nosferatu that dwell there. Due to her actions of bringing justice to those who were slaughtered, they allow Cecily to flee with Ali and live rather than kill her and take the renown that would be offered by the tower.

Knowing where Calder is, Cecily heads to her sister's house where he's slowed down the blood flow to the woman who watches over Karen. Ali barges through the door in an attempt to attack but is quickly stopped by Calder's Blood Sorcery. Cecily enters the room and the plot against the Prince is explained, that everything Calder said in the previous nights was about him. He wanted to kill the Prince and cause enough infighting to break the city into two domains and take the title of Prince of St. Paul for himself. With the information she has, Cecily instead offers another option. On the laptop, Ali had found Algonquian, a language known by Runningbear and the Ojibwe tribe. Because Erin was loyal to the tower, she was pushing key Anarchs with leaked information to attack and keep the domain united from an outside force rather than divide itself. This means that Calder can execute Erin and still take the title of Prince, however, of both domains rather than one after the division. With this all explained to him, Calder then calls off the bloodhunt while Cecily denies any titles herself only asking for something to protect Ali, he then leaves Ali and Cecily alone with the two mortals.

Irma, the caretaker, informs Cecily that her sister needs to be put into a more medical facility and that the disease is starting to affect her more negatively. In denial, Cecily says she's fine and that they were talking earlier. However, when she says that she reminds her of her sister Cecily, Karen doesn't recognize the name. Cecily flees from her sister, being chased by Ali who puts it all together. Realizing that Cecily had chosen to save Ali rather than save her own sister and promises that she'll be good for Cecily. The two go separate ways with Ali taking care of the evidence of the Anarchs they'd killed and Cecily going to a tower to look over the Anarch's laptop. On it, she finds messages still being sent. One contains information about a group of hunters that reveals that one of them had their own daughter turned in order to help eradicate Kindred, this was Ali.

Anarch Tales part 5

Rat King tracks down and finds Cecily on the tower, informing her first that they won't be sticking around long and then about how her old coterie is doing. Mitch and Colleen had already started to head back, but after discussing their mistakes, Mitch decides to leave the group and go his own way. King mentions that one of his clanmates believes that war is just around the corner. Priscilla heads off on her own to meet with someone from her past, a member of the Church of Set, who asks about Alejandra de Luna. With the group currently apart, Colleen wanders the streets, running into someone named Desmond who offers her a meal and to get into the van.

Issue #6

After discovering that Ali is possibly a plant by a vampire hunter, Cecily intentionally leaves out a childhood photo of herself in an attempt to elicit any reaction from Ali but fails. The two meet with Calder, who even with the holidays approaching can't seem to relax. It's revealed by Calder that Justicar Ian Carfax of Clan Tremere is coming to ensure Calder's loyalties before the clan will accept him as Prince. This knowledge is making him a nervous wreck, who asks if he can keep Ali with him for a few days. Even with the risks, Cecily agrees to this deal in order to investigate who Ali is without her trailing behind. On her way out she sees Erin Runningbear who is being held prisoner by Calder rather than having been exterminated, a brief interaction between the two reveals that Runningbear bears a grudge against her.

To calm her thoughts Cecily heads to a club where a man approaches her and she takes him out in the alleyway to feed from. However, before she's able to do so, she's attacked by a small-time hunter. With ease, she's able to overpower her attacker and begins questioning her about the photo of Ali. A tale is told about The Mortician's Army, how the tool Ali is holding in the photo means he's found you, but Cecily doesn't believe any of it and kills the hunter for wasting her time. Cecily returns home and while reminiscing about her past hears something fall to the ground, a red hammer, just like the story the hunter had told her about.

Anarch Tales part 6

Mitch has spent the past few weeks out in the wilderness, after leaving his coterie due to his feelings of failure. While hunting after a buck he hears a howling sound that sends the buck running and before he can make an escape, a werewolf shows up before him.

Issue #7

Ali, having been left with Calder, is only given moments to prepare before meeting with the Anarch emissary. An agreement is struck between the Camarilla and Anarchs as Ms. Sheepdog acknowledges that Trinket and Shiv were acting on their own and not as representatives of the movement. The Anarchs will not make any moves to claim justice for their fallen members. Calder has called a cull on the mortal, Irma, who cares for Cecily's sister. This knowledge turns Ali against him who uses logic to reason out why it's a poor idea and convinces him to do otherwise. Regardless of this, Irma is being held captive and is told that she is about to experience agony as vampires around her hold weapons while the mortals are bound and knelt on the floor. Calder and Ali arrive where Elena Kowalski is holding the cull, interrupting the event he asks for his right to pardon one of the mortals. This pardon is accepted by the others and Irma is let go, however, they then show their next victim who they were saving for last. A ten-year-old boy will take the place of Irma. Ali lashes out at this, that killing a child is over the line. Calder himself agrees, however, a trade must be made. The child is spared, and with the right to kill one of the mortals, Ali feeds from Irma till she dies. Together the three leave, that is until Calder tells Ali she must kill the child and without any way to contest this. She does so in a dark alley and throws an ear at Calder. While these two return to Calder's haven, the Justicar arrives waiting for Elena to pick him up. However, Elena does not make it. She has been captured and the boy who Ali was to kill is still alive, having taken Elena to be killed.

Anarch Tales part 7

Colleen is working at her new job now, having left with Desmond after the Anarch coterie split apart. Desmond calls her to the back when she takes a break to have her witness his alchemy. Unfortunately, his newest brew doesn't work, even when both of them try it and Colleen is called off the break. When she's walking through the kitchen doors she accidentally bumps into a busser with a container of dishes sending them flying, in a split second she accidentally uses Stay the Falling Sand pausing them into the air before they come crashing down. Thankfully no one else saw it, as far as they are aware.

Issue #8

When making a stop to visit her sister, Cecily finds out that Irma has been culled and out of anger manages to shatter a window. She tells her sister to get ready because they are going to go out but leaves saying they'll go when she's ready. Cecily arrives at Elena's haven, however, she'd already met her Final Death. Eugene, her partner, out of rage and anger, screams at everyone including Ian Carfax who immediately drains his body of its vitae without touching him and destroying him immediately. Carfax then turns on Calder as he is unable to protect his court. Immediately Calder pins this on the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing and while Ian doesn't believe it at first, Cecily offers her blood and backs the story. The information had been withheld to keep Clan Tremere from being distrusted as these mortals are using a type of Blood Sorcery to steal powers. Calder then decides that Cecily and Ali, together, are on the task of hunting down this group while telling Carfax that while Cecily isn't immune to manipulation, Ali is.

Storming from the house, Cecily and Ali ride in the car where Ali confronts Cecily on why she'd never told her about her strength against mind control but had told Calder. Rather than answer, Cecily drives through the snowstorm, speeding up alongside a train. Here she threatens Ali to tell her the truth or she will drive the car in front of the oncoming train and while Cecily is fast enough to get out, Ali isn't. Ali caves and says that her father's name is Rafael Obrero and he was a vampire hunter that'd trained her since she was four years old, giving her her mother's maiden name to remind her what vampires did. After amassing a group of hunters her father needed to know when to attack and someone on the inside to give that information. In order to plant someone on the inside, he let his daughter get attacked by a vampire alone in the woods without any certainty of Embrace. Luckily, Ali was Embraced but in her frenzy afterward killed her father and then shortly after that, found Cecily. Cecily uses her Celerity to send the car in front of the train, but instead of letting them get hit, drives it to the Obrero Funeral Home. They get out and Cecily explains how she knew about the attacks Ali called and Ali cries out that she knows about everything Cecily gave up for her.

Cecily tells Ali to make the call, have the attack begin, and that she doesn't care about any of the tower or anyone else living. Rather than do that though, Ali attacks her from behind with the hook saying she has a better idea.

Anarch Tales part 8

A body is brought into a morgue without any information, having been found in the snowstorm. One medical staff attempts to take a photo but the body is missing from the digital camera's shot. When they attempt to determine what killed her, the body lunges forward and bites Maria, Ali's mother. Maria is killed and afterward, Rafael takes the hammer from the operating table and destroys the vampire. One of the medical staff present at the time is recounting this story to the minister and as well as admitting that she knew that Ali was a vampire as it was their plan. When she's unable to tell him who Embraced Ali, he snaps her neck as she no longer serves a purpose. Prissy watches to the side, upset after her death as she'd promised to keep the woman safe.

Issue #9

The call to the hunters is sent out. There are teams both on the ground as police and in the air dropping from choppers as air traffic command reports sky conditions. The attack has begun on the tower where Calder lives, Galtier Tower. Erin Runningbear exposes who is really behind this attack, the Mortician's Army, and asks to be set free. Calder refuses but Carfax uses his vitae to burn the cell apart and free her claiming that without unity they will fall as Berlin did. The Blood Sorcery that Calder uses to keep the mortals back is buying them time, however, the Wolves in Sheep Clothing are also working with the Mortician's Army and with Doctor Jeff still alive. His access to Blood Sorcery means the hunters send him to handle the blockade while the Kindred attempt to escape. The escape plan is falling apart as the court cannot decide whether to trust Calder or not, claiming it could be a Tremere coup, and not knowing which path they think is best as the hunters close in.

Cecily wakes up in the tower, having to immediately fight off the incoming hunters while attempting to figure out why Ali brought her here. Calder and his court make way for one possible exit when they are cut off by hunters who beat them there and begin to fire upon them. Carfax uses his ghoul as a body shield to protect his jacket before turning the fight on the hunters with Calder both using Blood Sorcery to defend against the sudden onslaught. A grenade is thrown at Calder's feet and explodes, Cecily finds him, a torn-up mess but not destroyed yet. While Cecily moves him, Calder confesses to his reasoning as to why he'd killed the late Prince, that he'd done it out of sympathy as she's begun to not see the reality of the cities. The others were already primed to take a stab into her back, so he it to prevent her from suffering a worse agony. He offers to let Cecily leave him here for his Final Death, but she won't leave him, claiming she needs him aware.

While the hunters are killing Kindred one by one, Ali appears, turning on the hunters herself. It is revealed that while Ali told herself the story that she wanted to be the infiltrator that helped destroy the vampires, she didn't believe in it and that her story was that of an outcast child from the middle of nowhere that wanted to be loved, respected, and power.

Anarch Tales part 9

Two Kindred lovers are fleeing in the sewers but are unfortunately caught as one is shot with incendiary bullets. Luckily Rat King shows up in time to kill the hunters by utilizing rats within the sewers to serve as a distraction before he beats them all down. He hears someone approaching and it's Priscilla, who claims to be looking for him. She states that she knows a decent bit about what's going on but she doesn't want to talk about it there, instead wants to find out where the rest of their coterie went. Unfortunately, they don't have precise locations for either of the other Anarchs but still, head off as there is safety in numbers.

Issue #10

The remaining court members are holding out from the hunters after having taken Carfax to the blood bank in the building, their loyalty begins to wane as Carfax is waiting for the perfect moment to activate his powers. This causes one of the Kindred to use shapeshift and turn into a tiger to begin attacking the hunters close in on them. Erin is caught by one of the hunters who recognizes her for killing his sister, but before they are able to shoot her, Cecily comes flying through with Celerity and eradicates them all. Before they are able to escape, Erin is staked through the chest by Ali, who reveals that these weren't her people and that the Mortician's Army was her dad's. This group of vampire hunters was what he wanted and that led to him being ruthless towards her and using her as a messenger, and because she couldn't be one of them he decided he would make her into a vampire. Ali then says the competition is gone, all that's left is Joe who Ali had already saved from hunters, and Carfax who was severely damaged after the explosion but Ali stashed his body in the blood bank telling him that Cecily and herself would handle this. Her plan is to then take the title of Primogen and Cecily to take the title of Prince, but Cecily denies her even as Ali argues.

Calder is still alive and tells Ali that he's been transmitting this entire conversation to Carfax, who knows about her conspiracy and is pissed. Instead of stopping Ali, Cecily tackles Calder to the ground and tells Ali to run. Cecily informs Calder that Erin that the stake missed the heart before running after Ali who is stopped by the Nosferatu in the sewers. They refuse to let her pass even after she claims to be with Cecily as she'd already told them to not let her by. Confronting Ali, Cecily tells her that she won't let her survive another night for the sake of the Masquerade, and rather than put up a fight she drops her weapon and accepts to be Diablerized.

Cecily is made the Prince, Calder is made to become the Sheriff, Erin Runningbear becomes a Primogen, and while Joe remains on the court it is only for the transition period and Cecily will need to rebuild. Leaving for more important matters, Cecily visits her sister who is now in a coma, mourning over her decision not to save her sister. While sitting in a silent room she hears Ali's voice reminding her that she is in fact not alone.

Anarch Tales part 10

Rat King has heard that Colleen joined a thin-blood group that works within a restaurant and is a front for an alchemy lab. The blizzard has shut down the restaurant leaving the thin-bloods holed up, at least until one of them comes through the door on fire. With the use of alchemy, Colleen is able to slow down the explosion and allow everyone to get out safely. With part of the old Anarch coterie reunited they ask where Mitch had headed off to, Colleen claims that she can sense where he is based on their shared blood and that he's in Minneapolis. The group heads that way, finding Mitch in a tent city once he shapeshifts out of his dog form and tells them to leave they are jumped by hunters. This is stopped by the sudden appearance of the werewolf that he'd been following since he first ran into it after it'd just ignored him in the woods. The group flees together, questioning what they'd just seen. The story continues in World of Darkness: Crimson Thaw.