I’m using the the following scenario as a playtest bed for some of the Anarchs material that’s rolling in. It’s for an elders one-shot or mini-chronicle that uses some of the concepts and mechanics of Anarchs Unbound, currently in development.
The Prince of Atlanta has much to deal with during the week that the city hosts the Grand Masquerade. The agenda for this Kindred convocation seems fluid — vampires of every clan and sect will attend, with a week-long observation of neutrality from all attendees (at least in open sight of others). Camarilla luminaries will rub elbows with Sabbat icons as True Black Hand agents discourse with Anarch firebrands and Inconnu mystics. The gathering will be at once political and apolitical, a chance for the undead to associate without the sanction of their sects… but many contacts are made and relationships are forged in this bizarre crucible “celebrating” the Kindred condition.
For one coterie of Kindred, however, the events of the Grand Masquerade pale in comparison to gaining revenge against a hated rival. For, while the Prince’s attentions lie with the impending convocation of all sects, the time is right to steal the torpid form of the Methuselah Alexander.
Over a century ago, Alexander relented to the will of his assembled Primogen — for he was then Prince — and starved himself into torpor to satisfy the Kindred’s demand for exile. His childe assumed the praxis following Alexander’s abdication, and has since remained Prince. The result empowered the Primogen who, after removing the tyrant Methuselah, replaced him with a figurehead who nonetheless held power at their whim: a puppet, but a puissant one.
For the Camarilla Kindred of Atlanta, the transition from Alexander to his childe was pomp and circumstance. Nothing in their unlives changed as this particular maneuver in the Jyhad played itself out. To the Anarchs, however, the transition represented the grand betrayal of the War of Ages. Meet the new Prince, same as the old Prince, and no Kindred’s lot improves who isn’t already at the top. The shift in praxis was symbolic only, consolidating more power among the council while stripping it from the office of the vacant Alexander. With a strong Primogen and their sledgehammer Prince ruling Atlanta, the Anarchs could do little but bide their time and wait for an opening.
That opening has come. As the Prince and Primogen attend to their high-profile self-congratulatory fashion show, Alexander will be left on his own. And what better statement of Anarch craft and the unsuitability of the Primogen than to abscond with the slumbering corpse of the one-time Prince while his caretakers preen before the rest of Kindred society?
Not everything is so simple for the Anarchs, however. Stealing Alexander would be a grand coup — but they have to find him first. And then, once they’ve seized the torpid Methuselah, what do they do with him? Is diablerizing him publicly, destroying him as a symbol, a grand enough gesture? Would it be better to expose the Primogen for all their vain weakness and demand a ransom? Or might Alexander actually harbor some sympathy for the Anarch cause after a century of torpid punishment?