Observations of Anton Nerezza (Clan Tremere):

The night started relatively uneventfully. I attended a short planning session with Elder Tayback and Primogen Crumb, during which we coordinated expansions of influence, assessed the known information about Connery and Damocles, and discussed various events in the news. Later, during the Prince's court, the city was informed that Conrad's third ghoul had been found. Of course, he was dead, this time by an apparent drug overdose. I was surprised to hear that there were no plans to appoint a seneschal; while I am confident that Mr. Tran will learn quickly, he does not appear to have much experience in city management. Judging from his performance during court and later that night, I believe he can use all the assistance he can get.

The peace was not to last, however. After receiving a message the Sheriff immediately informed us that the power had gone out on the bridge. A large group of Kindred was rapidly assembled to investigate the disturbance. While combat is not my specialty, I decided to join them in order to provide a visible Tremere presence in the city's defense. I came armed with a knife, a stake, and my powers of Thaumaturgy; however, the Sheriff was kind enough to loan me an impressive firearm after I informed him that I had some small skill in using such weapons.

Since my abilities in close combat are limited, I joined a group of Brujah (including Mr. Sharp, Meyer, and Rapheal) heading to the bridge with the intention of providing fire support from afar. The attack at the bridge appeared to be well in hand, thanks to the efforts of the Brujah Elder, who seemed to have blunted the Sabbat assault almost single-handedly. However, he wasted no time informing us that two groups of Sabbat had broken through, heading towards the mall and theatre, respectively. Our group chose to deal with the intruders at the theatre, where we were joined by a number of others, including Primogen Tyche. While Primogen Tyche and Sharp led most of the force into the theater itself, three of us, including the Brujah Meyer, a Toreador, and myself, waited at the car. Unfortunately, while we were occupied watching the entrance, an equal number of vampires ambushed us from behind. Next time, I intend to keep a better lookout and use my heightened senses to foil such attempts. The fight quickly turned against us, as a Sabbat used his powers of Presence to instill me with panic while two others engaged my comrades. I should have been able to shrug off the attack, thanks to my thaumaturgical rituals, but I must have cast something incorrectly, for I was compelled to flee from the battle for several moments before regaining my senses. To make things worse, the Brujah chose that moment to fire incendiary rounds from his shotgun directly into the melee, severely injuring the Toreador and myself as well as the enemy. After recovering my wits, I fired at a Sabbat who was in the process of draining the Toreador, who was in no shape to fight back. He promptly turned his attentions on me, flying into a berzerker rage that I barely managed to dodge away from. Even with the arrival of another Brujah, I believed that I was greatly outmatched and consequently used my powers to raise the frenzying Sabbat safely out of reach. The remaining enemies outside were rapidly dispatched, but at that point, Sharp stumbled out of the theater with a panicked look in his eyes and shouted that we were needed inside immediately. Meyer and I charged inside to find a scene of utter chaos, with Kindred fighting everywhere and others curled up on the floor in terror. I thought I caught a glimpse of Primogen Tyche lying motionless on the floor, but when I looked again all trace of her had vanished. I managed to finish off a Sabbat that was chewing on a huge Brujah wielding an equally large sword, but by that time Camarilla reinforcements were arriving and the skirmish was ended quickly. We took a few moments to heal what injuries we could before returning to the Elysium.

Upon our return, all was not well. Despite our overall victory, the Brujah Elder was furious with the sloppiness and lack of judgment shown during the attack. Several massive breaches of the masquerade were perpetrated, including the appearance of a 30-foot alligator and a polar bear at the mall. I was reprimanded severely by Primogen Crumb for my own blatant use of thaumaturgy, an error that I take full responsibility for. The Prince himself was most displeased, commanding that all available resources be turned to covering up the crisis and assigning several prominent members of the city to the task of organizing better plans for the future defense of the city. The presence of Sabbat observers during the battle indicated that this night's attack was only a probing of our defenses, and a more potent attack in the future seems inevitable. After reporting my observations to Primogen Crumb (including the use of Potence, Celerity, Presence, and Obfuscate by the invaders) I retired for the remainder of the evening.