Obsidian Butterfly

An Original Anita Blake/Merry Gentry RPG

St. Louis, Missouri, 2013.

The city is a bustling hub for the supernatural. Vampires, as legal citizens, are in the center of the media spotlight. Lycanthropy is a disease contagious in animal form and shapeshifters come in many varieties. Outside of the city in southern Illinois, the faerie sithens lay hidden from human view but the fey themselves are active and involved in the human world, readily prominent for all to see and admire. Every day, there are newspapers filled with stories of something new and exciting – or scandalous – happening in the River District or outside the mounds.

But humans see the world through a kaleidoscope of imagery carefully wrought to keep the darker elements at bay. Strip away the smoke screens and glamour and St. Louis has a darker side; rust on the golden hinges of antique doors and blood stains in the street detectable only by those looking for it. This is the St. Louis that few get to see. This is Obsidian Butterfly.

The vampires of the city are led by the youngest of a clan of vampire siblings believed to rival the Vampire Council in power. Whispers abound that eleven of these siblings intend to challenge the Council for control of the vampire world – but will they succeed? And if they do, what will happen to the vampires of the bloodlines controlled by the Council? Legends say that vampires of a headless bloodline wither and die without protection – will these siblings be capable of protecting the entire vampire world if their plot succeeds? And what about their baby sister at the heart of St. Louis? No one is more eager to see them successful than she, but whether the cost is too great or not remains to be seen.

A melting pot of diversity, the human community of St. Louis gladly welcomes the exiled Blood Trail Jamboree – a group of werejaguars escaping the oppressive control of the vampire Iris in Tucson, Arizona. The shapeshifter community has yet to decide what to do about the new arrivals, though – for surely with their arrival will come reprisal from their former Master and there can be no doubt that St. Louis has enough drama without the addition of more. How will they fit in and will they form alliances with the existing groups?

And hidden away from the prying eyes of the mortal world, two Courts are torn astray. An unknown assassin has been taking many attempts on the lives of the rulers of both Light and Dark – and seems to have succeeded in eliminating the Seelie’s young King. In his stead, the Seelie move to crown a new ruler… his only remaining direct relative, an Unseelie Princess and third in line to the Unseelie throne. On the other end of the spectrum, the Unseelie Queen and her guards seek to protect her from the assassin whose loyalty lay with neither Court but himself; with a child on the way and a King expected for the first time in over five hundred years, will faerie at last find itself united in the face of this danger and with royalty closely related?

… or is the fact that there are teenagers from decades in the future evidence that the assassination attempts will become a success and the structure of faerie itself will collapse?

Only time will tell – but fortunately, time is on everyone’s side.