What Are Vampires?

Vampires are revenant beings who live convincingly as human but require measured blood intake and careful dawn routines. In Baltimore the Crimson Harbour recognises three broad lines:

• Harbour-Bred: court-facing organisers and logisticians; excel at timetables, cover stories, and donor management.
• Night Watch: retrieval and security specialists; strong restraint training, ash-poles and cuffs; first in, last out.
• Lampblack: artists, clerks, and social navigators; pass exquisitely; keep mortal rooms comfortable and forgetful.

Common traits: night vision, resilience to ordinary trauma, controlled predation protocols, and long memory. Limits & taboos: sunlight burns; uncontrolled frenzy risks exposure; fire and consecrated symbols bite; feeding requires consent/licence; public spectacle is forbidden. Most vampires pass as human and keep strict schedules to avoid turf friction.

Overview

The Crimson Harbour runs the hidden city like a well-kept port: arrivals logged, feeding licensed, disputes scheduled. Governance lives upstairs at the Red Lantern; downstairs looks like a tavern with staff who forget politely. Talk of short, unnatural boosts — a transient gold-surge noted by a handful of elders — remains filed as stories until clean proof appears.

Maxim: “Harbour calm. Keep time. Leave no story.”

Leadership & Faces

• Prince Eleanor Calvert (Sovereign) — Old-brick poise; keeps the ledger and the line.
• Rafiq Haddad (Seneschal) — Timetables, manifests, licencing; nothing late, nothing lost.
• Nyla Voss (Sheriff) — Security, retrievals, sanctions; ash-poles and calm voice.
• Sister Mercy (Chaplain/Seer) — Candle-lit counsel; no feeding within the chapel.
• Gale Morrow (Parlour Matron) — Licensed donors, medical protocols, chain-of-custody seals.

PC/NPC hooks: Petitions via Calvert; schedules and letters through Rafiq; security matters to Nyla; moral knots with Mercy; health/logistics with Gale.

Structure & Chambers

Order (court-led): Prince → Seneschal (Registry • Licences • Dawn) → Sheriff (Security • Retrievals) → Parlour (Health • Donors) → Registered Broods → Sworn Ghouls

Key Chambers

• Council Room: petitions, fines, and quiet accords.
• Licensed Parlour: consent paperwork, medical screening, compensation ledgers.
• Black Rooms: sealed dawn suites; double locks and fire blankets.

Protocol & Customs

Arrival & Audience

• Register at the desk; state business; peace-bind weapons.
• Unregistered arrivals see the Seneschal first; broods petition the Prince by docket.
• Feeding only in licensed spaces, on registered donors, during booked windows.

Boundary Courtesy

• No hunts launched from the Lantern; no red-room spill into neighbours’ salons, tracks, slips, or panes.
• Meridian by appointment; interviews in the antechamber with curtains drawn.
• Festival nights: routes pre-filed with the Concord; handovers through neutral windows only.

Court Law

1. Consent and licence. Feeding without both earns sanction.
2. No spectacle. If it reads on camera, fines become ash.
3. Dawn discipline. Black rooms sealed early; no stragglers.
4. Honour neighbours. Boundaries hold; treaties remembered.

Resources & Fronts

• The Red Lantern: blackout floors, panic stair, armoury nook; a cover bar that forgets gossip.
• Donor Registry: screened volunteers with medical protocols and aftercare.
• Courier Routes: alley deliveries, coded labels, “specialty glassware” invoices.
• Quiet Clinics: two mortal-run practices that sign the Silence Book.

Relations (Boundary-respecting)

• Meridian Commission (Baltimore FO): Formal coordination on exposure; clean stories beat loud arrests.
• Free Court (fae/spirits): Polite distance; no salon overlaps with feeding windows.
• Iron Belt (werewolves): Courteous routes; no chases over park tracks without notice.
• Highland Concord (djinn): Hospitality exchanges and clause reviews for parlour paperwork.
• Glasswrights (mirror-folk): Sightline audits; no crossings during parlour hours.
• Lodge (water-folk): Harbour courtesy; rescues trump rivalry; fog by permit only.

Emerging Rumours (GM Guidance)

• “Gold-surge” notes: Two elders report a brief heightening (senses, poise) followed by shakes; logged, not acted on.
• Empty Cooler: A sealed ampoule case delivered to the alley dock—dry, cold, wrong.
• Donor Drift: A vetted donor returns too compliant; Mercy suspects an outside glamour.
• Policy: Verify twice, act once. No unvouched tonics; seize and store suspect items; no trials on mortals.

Known Havens & Working Rooms

• The Red Lantern (Fell’s Point): council floors; licensed parlour; black rooms.
• Safe Stair Annex: bricked sub-basement exit two doors down; boiler cover.
• Quiet Clinic (Charles Street): after-hours appointments; paperwork immaculate.

Membership (Sample NPCs)

• Eleanor Calvert — Prince; ledger-steady, fire-wary.
• Rafiq Haddad — Seneschal; the calendar is his throne.
• Nyla Voss — Sheriff; ash-pole etiquette and tidy arrests.
• Sister Mercy — Chaplain; hears confessions you’d never record.
• Gale Morrow — Parlour; paperwork before teeth.

Open Slots: 2–3 Lampblack passers, 1 Night Watch retriever, 1 mortal cover staffer who never asks “why”.

Hooks & Episode Seeds

• Panic Stair Clip: Rooftop tourists catch a sliver of the stair at dawn. Retrieve the footage without a bar brawl.
• Wrong Delivery: A perfect cooler with the wrong scent. Who sent it, and who else received one?
• Parlour Breach: A donor arrives already light-headed. Sabotage, glamour, or consent fraud?
• Dawn Lock: A black room fails to seal on time. Fix the mechanism and the story before the sun clears the roofs.
• Seneschal’s Ledger: Duplicate entries appear for a licensed brood. Double-booked… or ghost-signed?

GM Notes (Backstage)

• Tone: old-brick respectability; logistics as power; danger in lateness and loose stories.
• Pressure Dials: Exposure □□ • Rumour Heat □□ • Donor Politics □□
• Escalation Path: rumours → clean artefact → pressure to “overclock” feeding efficiency → internal split (ban vs. trial).
• Fail State: feeding scandal on camera; donors vanish; court loses the room.
• Win State: proof gathered quietly; measured stance; Harbour remains the city’s calmest night port.