Prague by Night - The Prague Chronicle VIII

Entering the Lord's House

Observer Note:
The following transcript of events involving the Tremere Chantry known as the "Northern Cross Chantry" is a report intercepted by my sources from a Sabbat elite agent, Black Hand, in which he details a mission to assault that location, believed to be Clan Tremere's command center in the city.

-Narrated by Bethor, Salubri antitribu and Black Hand agent infiltrated in the Just Vengeance pack, completely destroyed during the Nights of White Ash, early 1999.

++ Agent Status: Active ++

++ Agent Class: Eliminator ++

++ Mission Summary: After field agents infiltrated and extracted the data required to pinpoint the target location [Tremere Chantry - Northern Cross Chantry], the Hand issued orders through Bishop Stepan to assign search-and-destroy to the Just Vengeance pack, where I had been embedded for six months awaiting completion of the field operation.
The pack was under Ductus Pavel, with Brothers Thorkell, Eugen and Otto, and Sister Ute, from the Furies and the Angels of Cain, respectively.
Once attack orders were delivered, using the Bishop as intermediary to avoid raising suspicion among pack members, we moved to target zone. The chantry, called Northern Cross, was located in a small cathedral near Charles Bridge. That cathedral did not appear on any city map, and in my six months in Prague I had never heard that site mentioned once. Field reports placed the chantry there, so trusting their work, I proceeded with mission.

At 23:45 we reached objective. It looked as though the structure itself had fallen from the sky and wedged between street houses. Typical Prague family homes flanked cathedral on both sides, making clear both building types were complete opposites, with no possible relation, and making it unthinkable this construction had always stood in that exact place. It was as if building had appeared from nowhere.
Structure was built from a fully black stone, basalt-like but without any surface sheen, crowned by three domes, middle one twice as tall and broad as the lateral domes, each topped with silver crosses. Chantry was ringed with traditional stone gargoyles, so confrontation was imminent, given the kind of enslaved servants and soldiers the Usurpers deploy. Ductus Pavel discarded surprise action and, to prevent ambush, gave the order to attack without delay.
Enemy response was immediate. Gargoyles detached from cathedral surface, falling from sky like snowflakes. We were about to be harried and outnumbered from all sides, so retreat was impossible. We launched a frontal assault on cathedral gate to carry fight inside chantry, where gargoyles could not exploit flight advantage.
The gate gave way at once under the overwhelming force of Sword of Cain soldiers driven by blood-fury, and we crossed the threshold, followed by monstrosities crafted by the Usurpers.
I cannot explain what happened next. After a brief daze, we appeared in the middle of a motorway on the outskirts of the city, across three lanes packed with speeding vehicles, with devastating consequences for pack. Not even the extraordinary talents of the Cainites could bring us through that impossible situation unscathed.
Within seconds of appearance, stunned by unreality, response proved useless. Ductus Pavel and Brother Thorkell were struck by cargo truck, crushed beneath wheels and tonnage before they could even utter a final cry. Sister Ute was hit by minivan, launched skyward, then fell into opposite lane where she met Final Death under screeching wheels of vehicles that failed to avoid her. Brothers Otto and Eugen managed to dodge, thanks to bloodline speed, the vehicle that sent Ute to destruction by leaping over it. Car stopped barely two meters behind them while both Brothers hit ground and stared in disbelief... they paid that distraction with their unlives. A car behind minivan slammed into Otto, dragging him at least twelve meters into highway side barrier. Eugen was crushed by another vehicle that pinned him against minivan, trapping him between both like a nut in hydraulic press, and he burned seconds later when attacking car engine exploded.
That explosion unexpectedly threw me clear of near-certain death, though not unharmed. In trajectory I collided with van that braked after striking me at over 100 km/h, leaving me on outside shoulder facing forest. Without losing a second, ignoring multiple broken bones from impact, I ran for safety, vaulted protective fence, and fled into Prague outer woods while hearing brakes and collisions caused by our sudden, inexplicable appearance from nowhere.
Afterward I remained three days in forests, sheltered by earth while wounds healed, though some I doubt can be corrected without Tzimisce craft.
Once active again, I returned to the city but found neither Bishop Stepan nor any survivor of Just Vengeance. Without contacts or support from Hand operatives, and considering changes in larger invasion plans, I elected to withdraw and await contact with another Hand Agent.++

++ Request: Extraction. ++

++ Mission Status: Incomplete ++

++ End of Report ++

Observer Note:

What Nobody Knew.

Paradoxically, the Tremere chantry in Prague is the Camarilla center best known by every Kindred in the city. In many cities, Tremere hide their chantry and secondary havens. Here in Prague, they might as well hang a giant neon sign over its roof. So how does it still stand, and worse, in the middle of Sabbat territory? By literal magic.

The chantry was built atop what mystics call a "geomantic network": a web of ley lines carrying immense energy beneath the earth's surface. Somehow, its builders connected that network to the chantry's heart, creating such a labyrinth that any being walking inside can be "transported" anywhere in the city. Thus, anyone entering chantry, already a feat if they bypass external Stonehead defenses, can pass through an interior door or main gate and end up in public toilets, a castle outside the city, inside St. Vitus Basilica, or in the middle of a motorway, like the unfortunate Just Vengeance pack.

What little is suspected is that Tremere alone know how to move through chantry interior. Some claim one must follow a pattern when crossing doors, and if done correctly, reach the chantry's heart. Others, with many years spent near Old Country Tzimisce, simply argue that every master rules his own dwelling, and no matter what one does, entering chantry means giving Tremere sport by playing cat and mouse.

This masterpiece is believed to be work of Master Builder Zelios himself and a sixteenth-century alchemist-architect named Moidekal Maisel, astonishingly ahead of his time and a prodigy among mortals. Some sources state both, though very different beings, remained in contact throughout the sixteenth century.

Some whisper in fear through shadows that those builders did not limit themselves to Northern Cross chantry, but infused part of geomantic network's power into Prague's buildings. Many Cainites and other supernaturals claim Prague's structures seem alive, healing destructive effects of time and war as flesh heals wounds. Others say city is something far greater, possessed by something terrifyingly powerful, blessed by Cain himself, or made mystically immortal by ages of Cainite blood spilled into its soil. The paranoid speak of havens talking in dreams, of walls that react, feel, and listen to residents. Childer, especially those gifted with extrasensory powers, speak of a palpable yet invisible presence that watches and observes them.