CHATAMAUGA WARREN

CHATAMAUGA WARREN

THE TALE OF HORACE SLATER LOREKEEPER OFI CHATAMAUGA WARREN If there’s a god - do you know his name?

If there’s a god - if there’s a god - why do 1 feel so ashamed?

Ellen James Society, “God in Heaven”

Philistine. Anyway, AS I WAS SAYIN’, 01’ Nosferatu was a real S.O.B. Yep, just goes to show ya: we were outta luck from Day One. Stop interruptin’ me, dammit!

Anyway, one night 01’ Nosferatu was out huntin’ a sabertooth or somethin’, and he chanced to come across one of Caine’s childer who was also Out huntin’. Actually, he didn’t so much come across her as she kinda sneaked up on him. Well, yeah, I mean, he was sharp, but he was still a mortal at this point. Anyhow, she kinda licked her lips and got her claws ready to kill Nosferatu and do us all a favor, you now, but then he walked out under the moonlight and she good look at him. And she froze in her tracks.

I’m telling this story like I heard it from my sire, who said he heard it from Vechi in Amsterdam, who we all know’s full of it for all he brags about his Auspex, so take it for what it’s worth. Still, over the years I’ve heard enough corrop - corrobor - enough stuff like It to make me think there’s a grain of truth in there somewhere. Hey? You think YOU know any better, YOU get up here and tell it, smart-ass!

You comin’? Huh? Yeah, didn’t think so.

Anyway, IF everyone’s through interruptin’, this is what I hear tell about the guy what made us. The Eldest, the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Nosferatu himself. What? woman? Well, I don’t know, maybe Nosferatu was a girl I’m just tellin’ this story the way it was told to me. M female - don’t matter nohow. Now shut the hell Anyway ...

In the early days of the world, Nosferatu - or whatever he or she called himselfback thenwas the greatest hunter of the land. He’d walk out of the cavesyeah, they was still in caves back then-armed with this bigol’ flint spear. He’d go alone, ‘cause he said everyone else’d get in his way, and he’d track down game for the tribe.

Now by game, you understand, I ain’t talkin’ about piddly little varmints - like that rat I saw you suckin’ the other night ‘cause you couldn’t catch no kine, Herman. I mean BIG game, safari-ho game like lions and tigers and bears and bison and wooly mammoths. No, no dinosaurs - they were all dead. Even Caine ain’t that old. Yeah, it was the Ice Age or somethin’.

Anyway, Nosferatu’d always catch whatever he set his mind to catchin’. He’d always bring back enough game to feed his people, and they all respected him. Notice that I said“respect”-I didn’t say like. Way I hear it, no one liked Nosferatu at all - yeah, yeah, the more things change and all that. He was a scary guy. Kind of a freak, like those Malkavians. Guy hunted ‘cause he liked to kill - more violent than a constipated Brujah on speed. Yeah, I know vampires can’t get constipated - it was a metaphor, you pe, she’d never seen a mortal man that good-looking e. Yep, Nosferatu was a regular Adonna or whatever that Greek guy’s name is. And she knew, hell or high water, Caine or no Caine, she had to have him.

So she followed him, creeping through the undergrowth while he hunted that sabertooth. And the more she watched him, the more she wanted him. But she wanted to see whether he was as tough as he was handsome. So she waited while he tracked that tiger down and killed it inoneon-one combat. Nosferatu was good. Didn’t get a mark on him -just stuck that spear in and dropped the kitty.

Now that was kinda a mistake, ‘cause Caine’s childe had been followin’ Nosferatu a long time, and she was gettin’ hungry. And when all that vitz oozed outta the cat, she freaked. Charged outta the jungle screaming like a banshee for blood.

Nosferatu was a hunter, and real defensive about his kill. And he was a real arrogant bastard too. So instead of doing what anyone with a grain of sense would’ve done - which is, in case any of you idiots don’t know, get the hell out of the way - he stood his ground. Now, like I said, Nosferatu was a great hunter, but he weren’t no vampire. * - w I bet you’re expectin’ me to say that Nosferatu was gly that she was petrified with fear, but that weren’t Came’s childe busted his spear like a Tinkertoy and backhanded him across the clearing and into a tree. Broke his spine.

When she’d finished drinking from the cat, she turned ratu was writhin’ like a maggot on the ground, anin’. She was full now, and thinking ratioded to finish what she’d been intending him then and there. feratu loved being a vampire. Made his hunting even easier. Didn’t have a problem with killing folk, either in fact, he got off on it, ‘cause it was more of a challenge.

Got real good at it, too. He was the first vampire to develop Obfscate powers, and the best, and don’t believe them Assamites when they say different, ‘cause Nosferatu taught Assam everything he knows. He used Obfscate to sneak into the middle of a tribe, and then he’d reappear and kill the lot of ‘em. Yeah, like I said, Nosferatu was a sick S.O.B. and going through his growing pains.

There was only one problem. Nosfe with a passion. Not ‘cause she’d showed himu first met - although that was part of it, ‘ca wanted to be the best warrior in creation. No ‘cause when she popped him that one tim left a mark on his face, and made ascar. Ye tragic? Prissy as a goddamn Toreador. N justalittle white markonhischeek that youcould barelysee even in bright torchlight - but as far as Nosferatu was concerned, it ruined his perfect mug. This, by the way, was another reason he started gettin’ so interested in bein’ invisible and changing his looks.

All he thought about all night long while he hunted was how he was gonna get his sire back when Caine wasn’t looking. ‘Course, he had to keep his thoughts hid, but since he was sneaky anyway, and the only vampire what used Obfscate, it weren’t too hard.

Anyway, Nosferatu was arrogant, but he wasn’t stupid.

He knew deep in his black heart that he couldn’t take his sire, even though he was now a vampire. So he mulled it over, and he realized that one of his kin - I think it was Tzimisce, so we’ll say Tzimisce, ‘cause it’s not really that important - had discovered how to control his progeny through feeding ‘em his blood. Nosferatu sneaked up on Tzimisce one night and saw how this was done, so he started wanderin’ the world, staying as far away from Caine and Company as possible, and makin’ childer and Blood Bondin’ ‘em. Most of his childer were just like him - vicious and cruel. One was a mistake - an act of passion, when he discovered a beautiful woman bathing in a stream in the deep forest. He Embraced her, but she fled from him before he could Blood Bond her. She must’ve been fast as hell to escape. He chased her, but she lost him, and he finally gave up as the sun started comin’ over the horizon.

I wandered After a in the far south. while of doing this, he started thinkin’. Most of his childer weren’t as powerful as he was - not that they could be, of course, ‘cause he was the Great and PowerfulNosferatu - just like he weren’t as powerful as his sire, who weren’t as powerful as Caine. And he started puttin one together.

You see, back then, everyone believed in sp totems. Everyone and everything had a spirit, and you could catch other folks’ spirits and bind ‘em and all kinda craziness. Nosferatu had been a hunter, and he firmly believed that when he caught and ate a bison, he gained the spirit and power of the bison. And when he killed and ate a tiger, he got that tiger’s spirit. So if he could get a hold of a vampire.. .you see where this is going?

So he gathered his “best” childer, the ones who were the fiercest and cruelest and most depraved, and left the rest to wander the world. He and his brood made a beeline back to the cave where Caine and his three childer and their childer were at the time (yeah, it was a cave - the Brujah and Toreador can talk up their First City crap till the Last Sunset, but it was just a cave). But he didn’t show himself.

He told his childer to stay hidden. Then he made himself invisible and spied on the others. And a real nasty plan popped into his head.

Nosferatu used his powers to mess himselfup real badat least to make himself look like he’d been hurt bad. He waited till Came was alone and then limped up to the Father, gaspin’ and moanin’ like nobody’s business.

Well, Caine got kinda concerned, ‘cause none of his childer or his childer’s childer’d ever been really hurt before.

He asked what had happened. And Nosferatu said: o me what thou now seest.”

Now of course, any of us modern Kindred woulda seen that story for the garbage it was, but things was simpler back then, and Caine was right taken. He rose up in a fury, swearing to find the wolf-man and destroy it. Guess he did, too, sort of, else why’re them Lupines always howlin’ for our hides?

So Caine took off a-rantin’ and a-ravin’, like that Tasmanian Devil on the cartoons, swearing vengeance on the wolf-creature and leaving the Three and the Thirteen on their own. Then ol’ Nosferatu went off and hid in the bushes. He waited for a while, and then he started changin’ his shape, like you and I do when we gotta go into a kine buildin’. ‘Cept Nosferatu took the shape of his sire. And in that shape, he sneaked up on the other Twelve, one after the other, while they were out hunting. Then he jumped his brethren, knockin’ ‘em down and clawin’ ‘em up, but bein’ careful to let ‘em get away. Needless to say, they were scared bloodless by this turn of events - one of the Three tryin’ to kill ‘em. The other Twelve ran wailin’ into the jungle, hiding in caves and holes.

Nosferatu tracked ‘em down - he was the best hunter of the bunch - and took back his reg’lar shape. He spun a wild story about the Three goin’ crazy - ‘bout how they weren’t content with the mortals anymore, but had a craving for vampire blood. He said that the Three wanted I never seena be of man. And I appro Caine’s love all to themselves, and then he said how 1 he thought the Thirteen oughta join together and do unto the Three before they got done unto.

Like I said, those was simpler days. The other I Twelve got all worked up, sayin’ how, yeah, now that they thought about it, they had noticed that the Three had been lookin’ at ‘em funny the past few nights.

A Nosferatu had been spyin’ 7 - on the others for quite some time, and he knew all their little annoyances Anyway, he kinda started insinuatin’ things about the Three, and the Twelve, and Caine, and twistin’ the conversation around to his own ends. Most of all, he as lookin’ to make hi a little scheme to wipe the T Nosferatu organized the ot was safety in numbers and all that. He led ‘em back to the cave - oh yeah, the First City - where the Three awaited Caine’s return. Nosferatu tookcharge of all his brethren and taught ‘em the secret of how to hide (though most of the other stupid bastards forgot later). Then they all jumped the Three in a big ambush.

Now there was a fight! Not all the wars in history were as savage as that first vampire fallin’-*out. Nosferatu waited in the bushes with his childer while the Three slugged it out with the Twelve. When he saw his opportunity, he ordered his own childer into the melee. Then, while everyone was distracted, he jumped onto his sire’s back and sank his teeth into her neck.

Right about then, everything kinda froze. Even the birds and bugs stopped chirpin’. The only sound was the slurping noise of Nosferatu suckin’ the life outta his sire. He was real bloodthirsty, was Nosferatu, and as he drank he kept claw in’ her face up, same as she’d done to him. Thought it was a good joke. She had a lot of blood, and it took her a long time to die. By the time she was dead, Nosferatu had carved her face up into something unrecognizable. He was feelin’ real good too, and I don’t gotta explain why. He was feeling power.

J C of he or whatever they had back then. Caine had returned, and he was pissed. He looked down at his dead childe, all mutilated and disfigured, and he looked at Nosferatu and for the first time noticed the tiny scar. And he understood.

“For thy vanity thou hast committed the greatest crime of all,” Caine said. “Thou takest pride in thy mastery over beasts - I take thee and make thee a beast. Thou takest pride in thy form - I take it from thee.” And Caine touched Nosferatu’s face and turned it into a living reflection of his anger and hate. He was the first and the worst of us. Ain’t nobody in the world even been as ugly asNosferatu. ThenCaine said, “Thou hast created childer. I curse them, and thy entire line until the end of all things, as I do thee.” And all across the world, the childer of Nosferatu fell to the ground in agony as they changed. Even the one childe who remained free of the Blood Bond, the woman in the stream, was cursed. It was she who sired us all, all who now call themselves Nosferatu.

Nosferatu staggered to his feet, and all the other vampires blanched. He turned his face from them in shame and ran howling into the deepest caves, where he will lie until the end of time. But he wasn’t through-not by a long shot.

He had Blood Bound all his childer, except that one I mentioned earlier, and through them he vented his wrath upon mortals and vampires alike. His Blood Bound childer’s curse was stronger than ours. They took on all ofNosferatu’s crimes and became the Nictuku, who hunt us until the Last Night.

Nosferatu himselfs still down there, lyin’ in the caves somewhere. I hear that Caine cursed him so that even in torpor he has nightmares of his own face. He sends out dreams and nightmares to the Nictuku, and he hates us - the Nosferatu clan, that is. ‘Cause see, somewhere in his madness, he got the idea that if he can destroy all his progeny and present the deed to Caine as a sacrifice -just like Caine gave Abel to God - Caine will forgive him and remove the great curse. Even now, he’s out there somewhere, commanding the Nictuku to hunt us down. They and their childer have been seeking us since that night, trying their damnedest to devour us all. But we’re pretty good at staying hid ourselves, and until the coast is clear w ain’t never gonna come out. ve heard the legend of the eard it largely scoff at the idea, considering the entire tale an exercise in self-gratification (“the beasts just want to believe that there are things out there even more repulsive than they are”). The Nictuku themselves are Seen as t-nere bogeymen whose Purpose 1s to enforce clan unity. Most Nosferatu, however, take the Nictuku very seriously indeed.

Fear ofthese creatures is the primary reason theNosferatu spend so many of their nights in hiding. The threat of these tainly believe in their existence, and many a night in the warrens is spent telling tales of these horrible and malign beings.

The precise roster of the Nictuku is unknown, though there are many. A few names have been passed down through the ages: Abraxes, Lord of Mists; the cannibal hag Baba Yaga; Nuckalavee the Skinless; Gorgo, She Who Screams in Darkness; Echidna the Mother of Foulness.

The Nosferatu believe that constant vigilance against these creatures is the only way to prevent their attacks. Rumors of strange creatures and inexplicable occurrences are snapped up by the Nosferatu.

A few Nosferatu have devoted themselves to protectIng the clan from these evils. They Spend their nights investigating any rumor that might hint at the presence of the Nictuku, tracking these ancient predators and relaying warnings to clan members. Some have even teamed up with members of other clans, using their allies’ contacts and original Antediluvian d far beyond the ken of ku are in the The Nictuku, so the stories go, are all Blood Bound to the sleeping Antediluvian, and all are consumed with the ratu line. Only then will c