Activity Log: November 30, 2000 - December 6, 2000 How utterly frustrating. After all the effort I have gone to over the past few weeks, the details of the Embraces are still quite unclear. It seems that the mystical connection I have to these newly-created vampires is relatively weak - an effect that alone will provide a foundation for decades of new research - but it seems to be reinforced by proximity. The first indication that I had of this was on November 30. The vague images that I had been getting - blurred trees, a hotel room, and a priest among them - suddenly coalesced. I was able to recognize Facility Alpha. It seemed that hundreds of people were scurrying about, especially between the administration buildings and the central fenced-in compound. One of the subjects - Ethan Cypress - was left at the gate by Sophia, the woman I deduce is his sire. I immediately realized that another of them must already be within the compound for things to have cleared up so much, and I was able to detect the signature of Nathaniel York within one of the crude shelters erected in the central compound. As Ethan made his way from the gates to the administrative center and then to one of the barracks, a tractor-trailer truck pulled up. I was able to sense the presence of another of my subjects, Ari Lefkowitz. An intriguingly tattooed woman herded a number of Kindred out of the truck, shouting something about the Tremere meeting their quota. She and an elderly man herded them into the camp, where they were processed and sent to the central area. Ari seems to have received somewhat different treatment, being escorted out of a car by two large thugs who I presume to be custos. I do hope he survives; it is rare for anyone, let alone one of my kind, to have the opportunity to peer at the secrets of the Tremere. If his poise is any indication, he will likely do well. The others certainly seemed as cowed as the warlocks intended. From what I was able to see, it seems that this camp is intended for training the new vampires in their abilities, and in the general technologies of war. I have heard, albeit academically, of the great Sabbat war parties where tens, if not hundreds, of mortals are given the grave and then the blood, and thrown into battle to die. The Camarilla, at least in this case, seems to have taken the approach of training its recruits, and of taking them from individual sires rather than having the organization choose them. Interesting methods, and quite different from the choices made in Houston in '93; I'd be interested to learn who is truly behind this assault and what they hope to gain from it, since I think a comparative study could be most fruitful. In any case, whatever the Camarilla's intent, the fledgling vampires were thrown together in this large central barracks with individual shacks for daytime protection. The subjects interacted with few, though they did meet a young woman named Gili. She claimed to be a co-religionist of Ari's, and her dress seemed to bear her out. She did comment that the guards in the towers knew how to use their guns, though, which seems odd for someone as religious as she claims to be. Unfortunately, none of the subjects summoned the courage to talk with the newfound Nosferatu. A shame, really, as I would have loved to examine the process of physical change that they must endure. Perhaps one could design a study to determine whether environmental factors determine the rate of change, or whether it is within the blood, though it might be hard to find a cooperative Nosferatu. Ah well, I do ramble. After a few hours of milling about, four figures mounted one of the guard towers to address the gathered fledglings. One of them introduced himself as Jan, Prince of New York City - quite a presumptuous claim for him to make, especially as he also claimed to be running the assault. Oh, he looks the part - tall, blond, regal - but I had thought that social systems among vampires were based more on power and less on politics. I suppose I will have an opportunity to observe this at close hand in the coming months. I do remember his name from our files on the New York Camarilla before the Sabbat takeover. He was the favored childe of the old Prince, as I recall; I will have to dig up those papers and see what our informants had to say. He certainly seems quite changed from my vague recollections - he used to be rather mild-mannered and effete. I will have to research what could have caused such a change. Though forty years of exile could certainly have done it, he ought to be too old for such a radical change of personality. This Jan is quite a canny fellow. He discussed the immortality and the vampiric powers that the new vampires were given, and he managed to cast it as a gift of the Camarilla (represented by himself, of course!). This gift, naturally, would have to be earned by helping kill the evil Sabbat. It is so foolish of the Camarilla to call the Sabbat monsters. They have some quite fascinating rites, though I suppose they are much less interesting for the unwilling participants in them. He also introduced his three comrades on the platform - a lovely woman named Celeste and two rather unappealing characters, Faida and Dimitrios. Faida is clearly Nosferatu - horribly burned and scarred - while Dimitrios is likely Gangrel, though I have heard of others who bear the same animalistic features despite their membership in other clans. Dimitrios was left to handle the stunned and angry crowd. It is unclear what his position is, but it would be unlikely for the Prince to give such a task to anyone but a trusted seneschal; it would be too easy to turn the crowd's anger at other than the designated target. He talked about the need to obey orders, or they would die at the hands of the Sabbat. Nathaniel shouted, "Why a prison camp?" I am glad to see that the Embrace has not left him unable to function; these were certainly the first words I heard from him, and they were quite welcome. Dimitrios explained that they would have to learn discipline because of what they were up against. He then - oh, most fascinating! - brought out an object lesson. A caged... thing... one must assume it to be Tzimisce, given the lack of ability to perform the proper tests. It was eviscerating a dog rather effectively using nothing but its bare hands; another dog with far too many limbs was howling pitifully next to it. I only wish I could have watched longer. I have never had the opportunity to see such arts in practice before, and the techniques it used were quite extraordinary. I am sure I could have learned much just from looking at it; it was quite beautiful, with an elongated skull and plated spine. Unfortunately I only had a few moments to glimpse it before it was hauled away. The fledglings were then assigned to groups, which seemed to be about half established vampires and half new ones. It seems this is how they intend to control the young ones. The subjects met their controllers: Grant, Teri, Alexis and Sanchez. A discussion of clan led to the perhaps unsurprising revelation that Grant and Sanchez are Brujah, the horribly disfigured Teri is Nosferatu, Ethan is Toreador, Nathaniel is Malkavian, and Ari is Tremere. Alexis did not discuss this with the others; she seems to have some degree of social status to protect. A young Ventrue named Rudy was also assigned to them, though he seems rather more shaken than the other fledglings. Grant certainly seems to have the authority within the group, however. He explained to the fledglings about the clans - rather tedious, really, and with little insight. Ethan seems to have shared my assessment, as he vocally doubted the group's ability to fight and walked away from the others. Grant sent Sanchez to stop him, defusing his anger by telling him to "take it up with your sire". Grant also seems to be in charge of the feeding. Blood was brought to the entire group. I cannot imagine where they have found so much of it. Either they have some quite impressive resource that our research has not uncovered, or this effort has even more serious backers than we know of, or they have been preparing this for a long time. It would be interesting to know which. The girl, Gili, refused to drink the blood her group leader offered her. Anastasia demonstrated remarkable strength in forcing it down her throat. I assume they cannot afford a single blow to be struck in anger, since the whole camp could go up in arms and defeat the whole purpose of this exercise. The child's defiance is perhaps expected, since not all take to their new state as easily as one might hope from an academic point of view, but nevertheless quite interesting to watch. On their second night in the camp, the leaders of these small teams rousted their groups out of the barracks and split them up for training. I cannot say how glad I am that the subjects have managed to be assigned together - could it be a side effect of the rituals I used, drawing them closer? Grant took his team for physical training, running laps. The young Toreador refused to run, but after being beaten by Teri and then comforted by Grant, agreed to participate in the training. Watching the Nosferatu beat Ethan was quite interesting, as she is clearly unusually strong; she snapped his arms like twigs. It was even more interesting to watch as Grant taught Ethan to use the blood to heal himself, though I find it hard to believe what a primitive understanding these vampires have of their own powers. I suppose they do not need a deep theoretical understanding in order to use them, though it might help them to unlock the farthest possibilities of their abilities. Most of the group moved on to an obstacle course. Despite his outward hostility, Sanchez helped Rudy and Ari complete the course, while Alexis was left to monitor Ethan's run. Unfortunately, during what happened next I got clearer readings from the obstacle course than from Ethan's activities, but I was able to gather that Ethan ran off to see his sire and was subdued by a young woman named Alice. Alice seems to hold a position of great authority within the camp and was unafraid to use it. She cut off Ethan's hand and staked him. It was truly fascinating to watch his hand reattach to his body, though it surprised me that it did not rot while it was not imbued with his essence. Rothberg's work on the decomposition of severed vampire limbs is a classic, but perhaps some of his conclusions are flawed, since he does not explain an incident such as this one. I will have to suggest to him that his experiments were not complete; I believe one or two of his subjects are still in his possession, and I am sure he will credit me in his references if this does come to something. Blood was passed around again, this time of two sorts. One came out of a sort of cooler, while the other seemed to have more limited quantity. I am unsure what the distinction is. Gili refused again to drink what was offered, and Anastasia forced her to drink. Ari discussed with Gili that she must drink the blood and it is a sin not to, since she must survive. The woman seemed somewhat receptive, perhaps due to his religious authority. The following night, December 2, the group was sent for weapons training to the shooting range at the north of the camp. Anastasia's group was also training, and there was a quite interesting little scene when Gili refused to pick up a weapon. Anastasia ordered her to repeatedly, and when she refused, jumped on her and forced her own blood into Gili's mouth. I have never had a chance to see the blood bond administered before, and I must say the experience was fascinating. Only moments later, Gili was ordered to pick up the gun again, and this time she acquiesced. In fact, she tried to rebel by pointing it at Anastasia, but proved unable to shoot her. I would love to know when human will is able to overcome the magical capabilities of the blood; I would have thought this would be such a case, but clearly I have been proven wrong. Quaintly enough, both Ethan and Ari attempted to interfere with Anastasia, who seemed quite irritated with both of them. Ethan even approached Grant and traded a promise of good behavior for Grant's promise to get Gili switched into their group. The lesson for the night turned out to be about the blood bond - that drinking three times on three separate nights of another vampire's blood creates a supernatural love for that individual. Ethan seemed quite upset about this; perhaps his sire has been feeding him blood on the sly? They were also told about other uses of the blood - to heal, to become faster, stronger, and tougher, and so on - and they spent the rest of the night practicing their skills. Grant also revealed to them that they have now drunk of his blood twice, so that he can bond them if necessary in the heat of battle. Interesting that this did not interfere with my mystical connection to the subjects; in fact, I was not even able to detect what had happened. I will have to see if I can devise a ritual to do that. Over the following days the group was given no more of Grant's blood - unsurprising, I suppose, as the Camarilla would likely not allow mass bonding. The subjects began their vampiric studies. Nathaniel studies with an individual I have few records of, an older woman named Isabella; she teaches him how to perceive things more clearly. Jan himself teaches a few of the fledglings the arts of command, including Ari. And Julia, the head of the camp prior to Dimitrios's arrival, teaches the skills of battle to Ethan and a large number of other fledglings. I am quite surprised that these powerful vampires are even interacting with fledglings, much less teaching them some of their abilities. Perhaps they wish to make their contribution to the greater struggle without facing combat themselves? In any case, tensions among the more powerful seem to be rising, and given my limited sources, I cannot tell why. This situation will bear careful watching. I will let Elizabeth know what must be done. Transcribed and maintained Elizabeth Kent