Arkham by Candlelight

Arkham by Candlelight Opening Theme
Arkham by Candlelight was a Hunter: The Vigil chronicle that followed Sebastian Kingsley and his Cell as they battled against all manner of things that went bump in the night. As the name suggests, the chronicle took place in the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts.

A grim start
Arkham by Candlelight began with Sebastian's Cell discovering that someone was opening graves in a nearby cemetery. The Cell discovered that a strange, young woman by the name of Sophia was the one desecrating the graves in the search to find a body she could reanimate to make a child. Sophia was very worried about being caught, but Savanna reassured her that everything would be fine. Sophia led Sebastian's Cell west of Arkham into an abandoned area known as the Blasted Heath, but something was causing Sebastian's Cell to grow distrustful of Sophia during the trip. This tension boiled over when they met Sophia's father-figure, Walter, and began opening fire on him. Walter did what he could to protect Sophia, but her right leg got blown off during the firefight. She tried to crawl away as Walter died: only to be shot in the back of the head by Savanna. When both of them were dead, whatever caused this hatred in Sebastian's Cell faded, and they were the ones to pick up the pieces. Sophia and Walter's bodies were burned inside of the old barn they were both staying in. Sebastian's Cell left the Blasted Heath just as the sun was coming up.

The Dunwich Murders
Sometime after what happened with Sophia and Walter, Sebastian's Cell caught wind a strange ritualistic murder that happened in the Arkham suburb of Dunwich. A diner waitress was found dead on a table with strange Greek-like letters carved into it. During their investigation, they ran into a man named Bruce Kimple: a man with a ghost-like being in his head who had just put the waitress' ghost to rest. Together, they discovered a factory worker in Arkham proper was also murdered in the same manner as the waitress. Bruce went down into the Underworld to discover more about this serial killer while Sebastian's Cell looked more into what the strange Greek-like letters could mean. Bruce found out that an elderly woman by the name of Elizabeth Withers was the one behind the murders, and Sebastian's Cell found out that the Greek-like letters were connected to a discovery made in Macedonia during the 1800s. Bruce quickly left Arkham after giving Sebastian's Cell this information as something he saw in Arkham's Underworld spooked him enough that he decided to head back to New Orleans and forget whatever it is he saw. Sebastian's Cell made for the Withers' residence only to find Elizabeth Withers about to murder a young woman. Sebastian's Cell threaten her to stop, but she went through the murder anyway, claiming that she needed the young woman's power to fight something in the shadows that killed her husband. Elizabeth Withers was soon gunned down, but she quickly got back up again as she became possessed by some sort of abyssal entity. Sam was severely injured by possessed Elizabeth, but the rest of Sebastian's Cell blew possessed Elizabeth's head off and burned down her house, destroying the papers that had the strange Greek ritual. Sebastian's Cell left knowing that while they couldn't save the young woman, they did stop any future murders from taking place.

A slow crawling chaos
Once Sebastian's Cell had recovered from dealing with The Dunwich Murders, Sebastian got a tip from one of his contacts that dead homeless people were being found outside of a nightclub called the Queen of Hearts, all of them being completely drained of blood. When Sam and Sebastian went to investigate the area, they ran into the owner of the club, a man named James. Meanwhile, Dean discovered that his brother, Travis, and his next door neighbor, Samantha were regulars at the club and that Samantha could even get into the VIP area thanks to her friend, Victoria. Sebastian met with Victoria and found himself charmed by her unnatural beauty and he let slip that he was part of a Hunter Cell. Victoria asked Sebastian if he and his Cell would look into a place where a Mage had once made residence in, and Sebastian, in his charmed stupor, agreed. Sebastian's Cell found that said Mage's residence was in an apartment building. Once they were inside, they found a child who kicked and screamed about not being taken back somewhere horrible. It was then that two other people showed up to the apartment, a black woman going by the name Genevieve and a white stoner going by the name Fenrir. Things were tense between Genevieve and Sebastian's Cell, but once they discovered that the young woman who Elizabeth Withers murdered was Genevieve's closest friend they backed off and let Genevieve and Fenrir take the child to Boston where they said the child would get the help he needs. Based on everything Sebastian's Cell had found, they concluded that Victoria was a vampire. Dean went digging in the city's records to find that Victoria was actually named Emily Foster, she was almost 100 years old, she had a twin sister named Elizabeth Foster, and that her father, Robert Foster, was found dead, drained of all his blood back in 1924. Dean also discovered that Robert Foster was once the head caretaker of Arkham Sanitarium and that Emily took over after her father's death, until the sanitarium was closed in the 1950s.

Best left forgotten
Sebastian's Cell quickly took off to investigate Arkham Sanitarium to discover what secrets Emily could have left there. Before they came upon Arkham Sanitarium, Sebastian's Cell found themselves buried in a deep, all consuming fog. When they did arrive at Arkham Sanitarium, Fiona felt numerous ghosts were haunting the area. Sebastian's Cell investigated Arkham Sanitarium only to find it abandoned, but they soon started hearing a familiar voice humming to them, drawing them deeper inside. They found the humming came from Sophia who was holding a twisted plastic baby doll that she called Walter. She asked Sebastian's Cell why she had to die and whether or not they would stay with her. They declined and Sophia told them the Orderly would take care of them soon enough, and that's when Arkham Sanitarium itself seem to come alive as a shadowy figure in an old orderly uniform manifested, and Sophia turned into a lifeless department store mannequin. Thanks to some specially crafted shotgun shells made from the rusty metal of Arkham Sanitarium itself, and Fiona making use of the Orderly's keys, they banished the Orderly. Once it was banished, the fog seemed to clear. In the now clear ruins of Arkham Sanitarium, Sebastian's Cell found an old photo of Emily, Elizabeth, and their father. Sebastian's Cell left after finding the photo. When Sebastian's Cell came back to Arkham, they learned that Savanna was murdered, twisted up like a human pretzel. They never found out what killed her.

An eye for an eye
With this photo from Arkham Sanitarium, Sebastian went to have another chat with "Victoria" and he ended up falling for her unnatural charm again, but this time he let slip that he had information on who she really was. This led to Sebastian's bookstore being burnt down and Sebastian nearly stabbed to death at the hands of a different vampire. Meanwhile, Dean talked with Samantha who told him about what Emily was planning on doing and that she was, in fact, a Beast and while Samantha thought of Emily and Elizabeth as family, she was also worried about Dean and Travis which is why she was warning them now to leave Arkham. Sebastian managed to make his way over to Dean's apartment and get patched up enough to leave the city, and soon all of Sebastian's Cell plus Travis made their way north to New York City.

In the big apple
While fleeing to Manhattan, Sebastian revealed to his Cell that his real name is Jonathan Barrow and that he came to Arkham after having to kill his wife due to her being under the control of a vampire, going by the name of Red Fred. Sebastian's Cell had more pressing matters to deal with, however, as Sebastian was still critically injured from his bookstore burning down. Thanks to a contact of Dean's, a man named Ben, Sebastian found himself as a guinea pig for a group of alchemists known as the Ascending Ones. They pumped Sebastian full of werewolf blood to see if he would gain their powers of regeneration. What happened what Sebastian hallucinated seeing the moon, and on the moon was an invisible, shapeless being which stabbed Sebastian in the right eye. The process sort of worked as Sebastian's wounds were now healed, but his right eye was now an unnatural bright red color which required him to wear an eye patch to hide. After this operation, Sebastian's Cell took refuge in a church headed up by a man and fellow Hunter named Father Wallace. Sebastian discovered he could now see spirits and they could see him. He briefly met with the spirit of New York City itself and a werewolf to learn more about his unusual condition. Sam and Dean in the mean time where under covering a hidden camera in the Ascending Ones lab which led to a laptop that had a SD card with a blue gear on it. Whenever the SD was put into a device, the camera on said device would show a person's aura. The laptop itself led back to a man named Phil whom he and his roommate were using to spy on the Ascending Ones in hopes of exposing the supernatural to the whole world. One gun mishap later, and Phil and his roommate agreed to stop this whole hunting gig. After that was done, Sebastian decided to reconnect with his children. He got in contact with his daughter, Alice, who was very receptive to seeing her father again after all these years. Sebastian was worried that the same vampire that took control over his wife got to his children too which is why he had his Cell staked out nearby Alice's house. When Sebastian entered the house, Alice took him that his sons were downstairs and were eager to see Sebastian again, but when Sebastian went down stairs he was confronted by not only Red Fred, but three other vampires that Red Fred had staked to a wall. One of the vampires was the one who burned down his bookstore and nearly killed him. Red Fred explained to Sebastian that these vampires came after his children, but they ended up attacking Red Fred instead. Red Fred had to drain both of Sebastian's sons dry in order to recover from his wounds which naturally left Sebastian mortified and pissed off. Sebastian's Cell stormed the house when it seemed like something shady was going down. Red Fred threatened to remove the stakes from the three other vampires if Sebastian did not call off his Cell. Sebastian responded by using his pure red eye to cause Red Fred to trip and yank out one of the stakes accidentally, and the now frenzying vampire drained Red Fred right there on the spot. Sam and Dean managed non lethally subdue Alice. Once all of the dust had settled, Sebastian's Cell and the three staked vampires agreed to go their separate ways, and the vampires would see about getting Emily and Elizabeth to stop trying to kill them since one of the vampires, Vincent was the childe of the Voivode of Arkham. Alice was taken into the care of the Ascending Ones who did their best to reverse Red Fred's conditioning which mostly worked as Alice did not want to kill Sebastian, but at the cost of most of her memory. It was also during this time that Sam learned that there was a spike in missing person's cases in Arkham. With this done and with the backing of the Ascending Ones, Sebastian's Cell headed back to Arkham.

Chaos Reigns
On the way back to Arkham, Sebastian got a text that the Voivode of Arkham wishes to meet with him. Sebastian's Cell knew this was clearly a trap, but Sebastian was adamant about meeting them. Sebastian made his way to an old abandoned warehouse where he discovered that the Voivode of Arkham was none other than Elizabeth Foster along with her sister, Emily, Elizabeth's childe Vincent, James the owner of the Queen of Hearts, and Dean's neighbor, Samantha. Elizabeth had several freshly embraced vampires in cages all around the warehouse. Elizabeth then made a deal with Sebastian that if he agreed to drink her blood and become her servant, then they could start getting to the bottom of who is causing the homeless people to turn up drained of their blood. Just before Sebastian was about to drink Elizabeth's blood, Sam and Dean showed up and lit the warehouse on fire. This sent Elizabeth, Emily, and Vincent into a frenzy as they tried to kill Sebastian. Dean made short work of Vincent thanks to his AA-12 having dragon's breath rounds, and Sebastian managed to kill Emily, Elizabeth, and James with Sam's help. The whole time this fight took place, Samantha did all she could to stop the fighting on both sides, but once Vincent met Final Death she crippled Dean with a shadow spike through the left knee and right elbow. Dean managed to get back to his car where he saw a shadowy owl perched on a nearby rooftop. It laughed at him via telepathy and watched as the warehouse started to collapse from the fire. Samantha made her way back inside the warehouse to stop Sebastian and Sam, but she was too late. When she saw the charred remains of her family, she simply stopped and dropped to her knees. Sebastian and Sam left Samantha in the warehouse as it came crashing down around them. Sebastian's Cell returned to their hideout where they found a note from a being called Chaos that thanked them for killing off the vampires.

Blood paid in Blood
A month or so after what happened in the warehouse, a shadowy owl calling itself Chaos paid Sebastian a visit and made him a deal. If Sebastian lets Chaos possess him for a time, Chaos swore that it would never harm Sebastian or his Cell. Sebastian agreed and Chaos took control over him. The now-Chaos-possessed-Sebastian then sent a text to the whole cell, that something happened and they all needed to meet in their hideout immediately. Where a very hungry and pissed off Samantha was waiting for them. The now-Chaos-possessed-Sebastian and Samantha then set their sights on Boston.

Player Characters
Sebastian Kingsley: Bookstore owner with a shady past.

Sam Rouchard: Ex-marine who became a police detective. Lost his partner to Chaos.

Dean Hawken: Old war buddy of Sam's. Enjoyed medieval reenactment fights. His mother was killed by Chaos.

Fiona: A professor of folklore at Miskatonic University who was sensitive to ghosts.

Savanna: A Native American born world class surgeon whose father made a deal with a spirit of pain.

Important NPCs
Sophia: Galateid Promethean who wanted to create a child. Was hiding out with Walter in the Blasted Heath. Shot in the back of the head by Savanna.

Walter: Frankenstein Promethean who was a father figure to Sophia. Was hiding out with Sophia in the Blasted Heath. Had his face caved in by Sebastian.

Bruce Kimple: Sin-Eater biker in his mid-to-late 40s who loved to party. He left Arkham for New Orleans after seeing something in Arkham's Underworld.

Elizabeth Withers: An elderly woman turned Slasher after her husband was killed by Chaos. Part of the Promethean Brotherhood along with her husband.

Travis Hawken: Dean's brother who worked in IT. He joined his brother's Vigil after fleeing to New York.

Chaos: A Strix that managed to weave chaos across three different Kindred Domains. Ultimately turned into a KFC sign by Hellwraith.

Emily Foster: Unaffiliated Daeva and Regent of James. Had a close friendship with Samantha.

Samantha Morris: Eshmaki Ravager. Close friend of Emily and Elizabeth. Also close friends with and had a low-key crush on Dean and Travis.

Elizabeth Foster: Ordo Dracul Gangrel and Voivode of Arkham. Sire of Vincent.

Vincent Knight: Ordo Dracul Gangrel. Chile of Elizabeth Foster. Diablerized Red Fred, Ethan, and Heather. One of the vampires sent to New York to kill Sebastian and his Cell.

Heather Wake: Ordo Dracul Mekhet Khaibit. A quiet person who did her best to reign in her childe, Ethan. Was diablerized off-screen by Vincent.

Ethan Thomas: Ordo Dracul Mekhet Khaibit. The asshole who burned down Sebastian's bookstore on Elizabeth's orders. Was diablerized off-screen by Vincent.

Alice (as in Alice in Wonderland): A Mystagogue acanthus of the Boston Consilium who help Changelings escape from the Hedge. Murdered by Elizabeth Withers. Close friend of Genevieve.

Genevieve: A Mystagogue Thyrsus of the Boston Consilium who ran into Sebastian's Cell after trying to find where Alice went.

Fenrir: A stoner Ithaeur Ghost Wolf. Also Genevieve's boyfriend.