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The entry of Warlord Thorson and his strike force of 60 vampires (and their ghoul retainers) in early April of 1969 into Windsor was unopposed and contact was quickly made with Aidan Sweeney, a Toreador in the Warlords service who had been living in Detroit but could not get word to him after it had fallen to the Sabbat. He informed the Warlord that he had been gathering influence in preparation of the Camarilla's return to Windsor and that he had the location where Durocher and his brood were hiding. The Disgraced Prince and his brood were quickly captured and dragged before a fuming Warlord, who was sitting on a tree stump in a local park. At the sight of the huge Viking warleader sitting before him Durocher could not help but show open contempt for someone obviously his lesser, and a savage Gangrel to boot. Not realizing the gravity of the situation he was in, he commenced to state that he would not waste his time attempting to explain what had happened in Detroit to some unintelligent dirty barbarian and that he would only talk to a proper gentlemen. Within an instant of finishing his sentence Warlords arm blurred at unearthly speed, clamping down on Durochers' throat. He then slowly rose to his feet, lifting him effortlessly off the ground as he did. Holding Durocher within inches of his face he transformed into a hulking half-ton wolf-beast over 10 feet tall. He quietly whispered something in Durochers' ear and the face that had shown confident arrogance moments before quickly transformed into a quivering look of extreme terror. The Warlord dug his claws into Durochers' throat and tore his voice box from his neck, he then tore his arms and legs off. The quivering heap that was once the Prince of Detroit could only just lay there and make gurguling sounds. Warlord Thorson then looked at each of Durochers' brood and calmly said that they would now tell him exactly what happened or else he would begin to get angry. Using the former Prince as a foot rest he listened as each babbled out what they knew. When they finished he reverted back to his human form, picked up Durocher and dragged him out into a clearing in the park and then moved back under the trees. He then told all present that Durocher was a traitor and a coward and he is sentenced to death by sunlight. He then crouched and silently waited until dawn, watching Durocher's terror grow as the sky lightened. He watched impassively as Durocher, disgraced Prince of Detroit, burst into flames and burn to a pile of ash... after which he slowly sank into the ground to sleep.
The Fall of Detroit (as told by Durochers' Brood)
Prince Durocher severly underestimated the growing Anarch problem which was sweeping the country (since he did not witness the Anarch Revolt centuries before his embrace). He saw the movement as a pathetic disorganized group of peasants. He had argued that the cities taken by them were led by peasants pretending to be nobility and that should they ever come to Detroit, he would crush them under his boot. When the first signs that Anarchs were operating in Detroit began to appear in 1967 he quickly squashed it by rounding them up and executing them. The Primogen Council complained that he had destroyed just as many innocent Kindred as he did Anarchs but to no avail.
Relations between the Prince and the Primogen Council deteriorated rapidly over the next year and the growing animosity between them threw the city into disarray and confusion. In August of 1968 a large insurgence of Anarchs flooded into Detroit (at the same time they did in Chicago) and the Primogen demanded that the Prince step down so that order could be restored. Prince Durocher believed that it was a little to convenient that the Primogen made such a demand as Anarchs poured into Detroit and declared that they were working with the Anarchs. He called blood hunts on the Primogen and their followers and, by using his extensive influence, closed the cities borders so that none could escape as well as intercepting and blocking any word that those opposing him tried to get out of the city.
What happened after that gets pretty sketchy. The death toll on all sides was high and it became apparent that the Primogen Council had not been working with the Anarchs, since they were fighting with them as much as the Prince's followers. However the damage had been done and the actions performed after this initial misunderstanding would not allow any reconciliation between the two factions to happen. Set in their respective courses of action, the nightly conflicts became more and more bloody. As a result, many of the battles had spilled out into mortal view and attracted hunters. One night the Prince stated that he had come up with a plan that would end the conflict. He had been talking to another of his Children, Charles Leroux, who was Prince of Toledo and that he would send him some reinforcements from his city to assist him.
Prince Durocher sent some of his followers to meet the reinforcements as they arrived in the city. Instead of Camarilla Kindred their were dozens of Sabbat who quickly destroyed those sent to receive them. Like floodgates thrown wide open the Sabbat poured into Detroit, enveloping the city in a dark wave of destruction. Enraged, Durocher immediately contacted his childe and after a few minutes of conversation he calmed down, shortly thereafter he started asking what those noises in the background were and the line went dead. He looked at his brood as he hung up the phone and stated that Toledo had fallen to the Sabbat. He then gathered his surviving children and fled across the Detroit River into Windsor, after which he used what little influence he had left to close the border. This trapped what remained of the Primogen's forces, the Anarchs, and what was left of his forces on the Detroit side to deal with the Sabbat. They then spent the following months hiding in Windsor, waiting for the Sabbat to come across the river and finish them off... only they never did.
The next night, Ventrue Archons arrived in the city and took Durochers' brood into custody, they were never seen or heard from again. Only a few hours after sunset, while Warlord and his lieutenants were planning their next moves, a Nosferatu Elder by the name of Kincaid appeared in the Warlords camp and reported that a large group of approximently 40 Sabbat were entering Windsor. Nicolas Lune, a Nosferatu in the strike force, verified the Elder's identity and loyalty to the Camarilla. Warlord Thorson quickly divided his forces into two 25-man groups with himself leading one and the Brujah Elder Ivan Kreshenki leading the other. He kept the remaining 10 vampires in reserve (with most of the strike forces ghouls). They caught the Sabbat by surprise in a pincer manuever and attacked both flanks simultaneously as they entered the Windsor Railyard. After a bloody two hour battle that cost the Camarilla side eight vampires they completely annihilated the Sabbat force to the last man. The influence that Aidan Sweeney had gathered became pivitol in covering up the resulting masquerade breach of the battle. Believing the Sabbat presence remaining in Detroit to be severly reduced after the losses they just suffered Warlord Thorson decide to press the apparent advantage and move across the river with the intention to at least further reduce their numbers.
Gathering the majority of his forces (leaving a small contingent to hold the bridge) he set out across the bridge into Detroit in an effort to draw out the remaining Sabbat. They had advanced no more than a few city blocks when they began to come under sporadic harrassing attacks by small groups of Sabbat supported by Hellhounds (Ghoul Canines) and Szlachta (Guardian Ghouls). Though the frequency of these attacks increased, they would not fully commit and would withdraw as soon as the Camarilla forces began to concentrated on them. As Camarilla losses began to mount Warlord Thorson realized that a distinct possibility existed that they were being drawn into an ambush, he ordered his forces to make a fighting withdrawl.
Moving back towards the bridge they ran across a group of 18 Sabbat and 10 Hellhounds (Ghoul Canines) led by none other than Fredrico Luis Alvarez, the infamous and feared Archbishop of Detroit. Believing this confrontation to be to good to be true, the Warlord ordered his troops to avoid this group of Sabbat. As they began to change directions storefronts along the street exploded as 3 Vohzd (War Ghouls) and 20 Szlachta (Guardian Ghouls) swarmed out into the streets and fell upon the Camarilla forces from all directions as the Sabbat they had been withdrawing from reappeared in large numbers and attacked them from behind. Cut off from all avenues of escape Warlord Thorson, in his wolf-beast form, exploded into a blur of destruction as he tore into one of the War Ghouls. A dozen warriors massed their firepower on one of the other War Ghouls, quickly destroying it but losing 3 of their number in the process. The scene was one of complete chaos as the two forces viciously attacked each other. Once the Warlord had finished off the War Ghoul he had been fighting he began to reorganize his rapidly dwindling forces in order to withdrawl.
Suddenly the one remaining War Ghoul shuddered and collapsed under a barrage of gunfire. The reserves who had been holding the bridge had crossed into Detroit, with the help of the Nosferatu Elder Kincaid, to help them withdrawl. Using the exit which had just been opened for them the Warlords forces quickly made their way back to Windsor, with the reserves covering their rear. Shortly after they crossed the bridge, both cities were rocked by an immense explosion that appeared to have happened where the battle took place.
Of the 60 Vampires that comprised the original strike force, 26 remained (8 were lost in the Railyard Battle and 26 were lost in the Battle of Detroit). Of the 120 or so ghouls the strike force had brought along with them, less than 30 remained. The Sabbat losses for both battles were estimated at 70 to 80 Vampires, 30 to 40 Hellhounds (Ghoul Canines), 50 to 60 Szlachta (Guardian Ghouls) and 3 Vohzd (War Ghouls).
The most frightening aspect of it all was the speed and efficieny that the Sabbat covered up the massive battle of supernatural creatures that took place on the city streets of Detroit (combined total of 100+ Vampires and inhuman Ghouls). The mortal media reported that a large turf battle between the two dominant local gangs had errupted and had come to a tragic end in the neighborhood where the battle had taken place. It appeared that stray gunfire had caused a parked car to explode, rupturing a gasmain and igniting the fumes when it did. The resulting explosion leveled the better part of a city block and caused numerous fires in the surrounding areas. It is estimated that over 100 people were killed and twice as many injured as a result. Shortly there after the Detroit Police received a dramatic increase in funding to help combat the nearly uncontrollable crime levels in the city.
As an after thought, "The Battle of Detroit" went down in annals of undead history as one of the largest battles directly involving large numbers of Kindred actively participating in the fighting (there were close to 150 vampires fighting that night). Due to the high losses suffered on both sides that night, neither side was quick to mount another attack so they settled in for a long drawn out siege. Thus began the slow process of fortifying their borders and replenishing their lost personel.
