Hello Grandmother,

I know I’ve been a bit fixated on the trial lately, but there are interesting developments happening around the world. One of the biggest that’s come to my attention is: what is happening in Antarctica? The Ministries have had pretty tight control over the region for a while, and there are decades worth of rumors of extra-terrestrial craft buried in the ice.

But now there seems to be a major operation going on. Resources are being diverted there, and key vampire personal seem to be making trips down south, including New York’s vampire leader the King of Hearts. Have they discovered a new technology in the supposed alien remains? Have they been able to uncover a ship? What else could the Ministries be up to down there? It’s not like it would be easy to find out. It seems like this is one shoe we’re unfortunately going to have to wait to drop.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

It doesn’t take a whole lot to claim you’re the lord of darkness. In fact, in the vampire world, it happens quite a bit. It’s the convincing of others of this that makes one unique. The vampire lord who came to call himself Lucifer was more than just a hedonist; he made sin and debauchery a way of life for the vampires who surrounded him. He made tormenting the establishment something outsider vampires could admire.

He’s been gone a while now, though. But his followers remain. And the truth is, the vampires aren’t any clearer about what happens after your gone than humans do. Which means, for all they know, he really was the devil and he really did go to back to hell to build his armies, and take our world. But, from what I understand, he really didn’t do a whole lot when he was here. Is that really what the devil wanted? Come to earth and mess around for a while and then go home? I’d like to believe that evil is better than that. But then, I’m an optimist. So we’ll see what this trial gets us. Whether his followers really believe enough to do something, and whether there’s really some external force in the universe that’s backing their play.

-1159

A couple of quick notes I’ve gotten from reports from the ground in Texas:

The vampire Ministries big project digging in the desert has been put on hold due to some kind of attack by the Cult of Lucifer. I’m still trying to get details, but it sounds like it may be shut down indefinitely.

Blood shortages continue, and with the increased vampire population due to the publicity surrounding the trial, it’s only a matter of time before the human population of Dallas become the topic of vampire dinner conversations.

Apparently the robots in Texas are lead by a rocket ship buried somewhere in the desert outside of Houston. However they still run on the Alternate’s operating systems. More as I know it.

While exact details of the trial are still sketchy, it’s come out that Kelly Burke isn’t in fact representing herself. A vampire of notoriety from England who is not part of the Ministry has stepped forward to defend her. I’m still trying to find out their actually idenity, what’s been reported to me is too outlandish to be true.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Hotel rooms are being booked. Transportation is being secured. Night flights are being obtained. The location of the trial has been released into the world. I’m not going to tell you the exact address, but it’s somewhere on Main St. in Dallas, Texas. The vampires want everyone to know. I think the King of Hearts, the head of the Ministry of Pride, has decided that its better to make a spectacle of the whole thing than to sweep the whole thing under the rug.

Dallas is going to become a convention of the strange over the next week. If you know anyone currently living there, I’d tell them to be careful about crossing any new comers. I’m trying to see if I can get any reports, as it’s still not enough to get me to risk my life by going there myself. The city itself may see an increase in trouble over the next week. I don’t know much about the robot community there; I’ll try and find out more. I have a feeling they may become more important as the trial progresses.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Thanks to Fang, there were a considerable number of robot’s that were roughed up while the vampires were looking for the Illuminati killer. Now that the vampires are trying one of their own for the crime, the LA robot community is beginning to boil over. There were three instances of robot on vampire violence yesterday evening, and about a dozen against robots as some of Fang’s werewolves retaliated this afternoon. This evening almost saw a riot as a group of small, appliance sized robots attempted to assault the vampires leaving a popular club. My understanding at this late hour is that the robots were then summarily rounded up and shut down, and so far that has ended the incident.  But not the tension.

I don’t know if any of this is going to spread outside LA, or if Fang can keep it inside the city. But robots will be paying attention to the trial just as much as any vampire.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Vampire’s have a funny relationship with Christianity. Since a majority of modern vampires in western countries come from a Christian backround, its not uncommon for them to see their vampirism as a curse. Many embrace this and become monsters. Few turn it into its own separate religion like the Cult of Lucifer.

Now, let me clear this up one more time, the Lucifer I’m referring to here isn’t the devil, but a hedonistic vampire lord who saw himself as the prince of darkness. And eventually got others to believe him, especially after he was turned to dust. So this is a cult that is waiting for their evil demonic lord to return and save them, from what I’m not exactly sure.

What I do know for sure is that they are a thorn in the Ministries side. As a vampire group out of power, they have nothing to do but make trouble for those who wield it. And they’ve been given no better venue than the trial of their former leader, Lucifer’s ex-lover Kelly Burke.

So while Burke is about to burn, they will be doing whatever they can to make the process more painful for those in power. To begin with, they’ve been stealing blood from local vampire bloodbanks to make life a little more difficult for the vampires involved in the trial. Keeps the blood drinkers in the city on edge. We’ll see what happens in Dallas as the trial progresses, but I can’t see thing going anywhere but worse.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Vampires kill people for food. Or for sport. Or for pleasure. But they kill each other mainly for one reason: Pride. The vampire hierarchy’s internal affairs are handled by the Ministry of Pride, or MiniPride. For the trial of Kelly Burke, cult leader and accused murderer of Jakob Lawrence, MiniPride has assembled a team of experts to try and convict her, not on evidence, but on deviating from the Ministries authority.

They’re brining in a master of demonic lore from Iran, whose knowledge of the dark arts dates back to the twelfth century and the Mongol invasion; and modern sorceress Faustina Magnus, Germany’s chief soultaker, who they are certain will be able to find traces of Burke’s connection to the spellcraft responsible for the murder. I’m sure it will be easy for her to fabricate when she can’t find a real connection, because after all this is about making her cult look bad, not truly convicting her.

The trial begins this week. I’m still trying to narrow down where. I’ll keep you updated when I know more.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

The Network is starting to yield real informational benefits. The biggest one so far is that I now know how the vampire bureaucracy is organized. I know what the divisions the different agents work for, and I know what their general goals are. They are looking to perpetuate sin. That is how the vampires see their role in the world. The do so with Seven Deadly Ministries. MiniLust. MiniPride. MiniWraith. MiniSloth. MiniGlut. MiniGreed. MiniEyes. These are the groups that keep the vampires in control. These are the forces that perpetuate the vampires wealth and status. And I believe, through these groups, the vampires will be undone.

The didn’t exist before a generation ago. They are dependent upon an ever increasing level of sin to prosper. And they are terrifically inadaptable. Every movement reaches its apex. Every exponential curve eventually runs out of resources. I believe the vampires have had their time, and they’ve reached their limit. There’s no more sin for them to exploit without turning on themselves. Which means that humans are going to have to start working hard to take back the world. Because there’s already another group who are ready to claim it as the vampires start to fall.

And most people aren’t even aware that any of this is going on.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

One of the benefits of being part of a network of people living in the shadows is that I can find out information on the vampires who have kicked the crap out of me. I’ve been asking questions about the African woman in blond dreds who beat me up while I was escaping the Shifting Sands.

Apparently she’s know as the Valkyrie. She’s the premiere assassin for the King of Hearts, the vampire lord who runs New York. She was likely in the Shifting Sands on orders to hunt me down, which honestly is a little flattering. According to the people I talked to, she likely was called off when my plans succeeded, because otherwise I wouldn’t be breathing anymore.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Things may be getting out of hand at the remains site of the Shifting Sands. The whole place seems to be sinking, and the vampires are digging out whatever they can find. This process is made more difficult for them because more than a few robots, on their way to get re-assigned, are blowing themselves up at the sight of their destination destroyed and vampires running the grounds.

Which means that the vampires are just rounding up anything that comes close. And going for a swift execution. This is exactly what I was hoping to prevent. At this point I have to hope the entire facility just drops below the surface before things get even more out of hand.

-1159