By Mitchell Kelly (mitch.kelly@tesco.net)
This situation continued throughout the early 1930's, with the gradual strengthening of Germany, but all changed when Hitler began to attack the Jews. The Ventrue had long used the Jews in western Europe as a source of retainers, contacts, allies and herd, and had tried for centuries to protect them with varying degrees of success. Since the Jews largely controlled gold and diamond dealing, as well as banking and finance all over continental western Europe, the Ventrue used the Jews to control these markets the way they wanted. The Ventrue protested strongly over the treatment of their human pawns, but the Toreador pointed out that it was up to the Ventrue to use their own powers to protect the Jews. If it couldn't, then it was bad luck. The other clans remained silent at this point, although some Gangrel began to harbour a suspicion that their own chosen people, the Gypsies, were not altogether safe.
Hitler's obsession with the supernatural is well known, but what is less well known was how this brought him into direct conflict with the Tremere. He probably learned of them from the Toreador Pflatz, but regardless of the means, early in 1938 after the Anschluss with Austria, Hitler began to hunt down the Tremere for their magical relics. The Tremere replied hiding ever more deeply, and by killing off some agents that came too close. The Tremere approached the Ventrue, who were willing in principle to offer some help, but events overtook the two clans. By this time, war had broken out, and the Nosferatu had already become involved, helping the Polish Secret Service to smuggle the secrets of the ENIGMA device out of Poland. The Gangrel, as they had feared, found themselves forced to defend the Gypsies all over the continent. By the time a Conclave was called in 1940, the already incensed Ventrue had witnessed Hitler's attacks on the financial centres of Europe (Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, etc), and saw the end of any stability in commerce in Europe for years. The pace of the anti-Semitic and anti-gypsy campaigns had picked up, and the Tremere were under great pressure. All the clans demanded action against Hitler, before an event that rent the Masquerade occurred, and while it was still possible to stop him. Many of the Kindred began to see that if Hitler were able to seriously penetrate the Masquerade, he would be the greatest threat to them since the founding of the Inquisition.
Initially, the Toreador stalled, but the assault on Paris enraged them, and the whole Camarilla, except a few isolated Toreador, Brujah and Malkavians, swung into line to end the menace of Nazism. However, it was soon seen that the Camarilla was too late in responding to the threat: the Ventrue and the Gangrel were unable to save the huge numbers of Jews and Gypsies murdered by Hitler's legions and the Tremere watched as Hitler plundered the spiritual sites throughout the continent. The other clans acknowledged that they had been wrong not to support the Ventrue and Tremere at the start. The Toreador quickly purged most of their remaining members from the Reich, except the few who fought on the Eastern Front, since they were acting chiefly as spies on the Brujah Council. However, the damage had been done, and it took the allies, secretly supported by the Camarilla, until 1945 to defeat Hitler. It should be stressed that whilst many Kindred acted out of a genuine wish to see Hitler defeated, the Kindred as a whole only acted decisively and together because of the perceived threat to all of them. An altruistic Vampire is a very rare thing...
Once the Kindred took stock of their position and began to act it was obvious that there was a serious leak somewhere, that threatened the Masquerade in its entirety. It took until 1944 to find, when a Toreador named Schimdt established not only that Heinrich Pfaltz was the traitor, but also his whereabouts. Pfaltz was killed late in 1944, staked down in a burning house in Berlin during one of the great allied fire raids. The leak had been plugged, but his legacy of treason lived on. Before the end of the war, Hitler was able to gather many potent magical items, and also to form a super-elite force, called the Drorenkinder, or Thor's Children. This force was virtually unknown outside of Hitler and a very few close advisors. It was drawn from staunch Aryans who were ultra-loyal Party members, physical giants and spiritually iron willed. Able to call upon the resources of the Gestapo and the Sicherheitdienst to aid in its searches, it tracked and killed many Vampires. This was largely a result of the actions of Pfaltz, who rent the Masquerade for his own unguessable purposes, telling the Drorenkinder many Camarilla secrets. Only the Third Reich's passion for secrecy prevented this information becoming publicly known, thus threatening all vampires. The Camarilla had placed agents inside the Reich, and at the end of the war, most of the papers that contained evidence of the Awakened were quietly removed by these agents. A large body of other works simply disappeared, removed by the Drorenkinder. Its personnel, already shadowy, were either dead or well-hidden, and Hitler's obsession with the supernatural became one more strange, interesting but useless piece of information for historians to ponder.
The rest of the apparatus of the Third Reich was dismantled, but the Drorenkinder did not cease to exist. Its leaders had seen the end coming and had reasoned the Camarilla's part in their defeat. After an initial, totally unsuccessful attempt to kill off the Camarilla's agents in the Reich, the organisation dropped out of sight and made plans for revenge. Huge quantities of gold were shipped out of Germany and deposited in Spain, Egypt and Switzerland to finance the plan, and while most of the rank and file membership died in the desperate battles at the end of the war, the leadership of the Drorenkinder took themselves away into hiding. After the war, these men quietly invested the money they had taken and built up a huge financial empire, along with several highly reputable companies world wide to act a screen for their activities. More insidiously, they started to try to suborn ordinary people to their fight.
In 1957, the Drorenkinder began to recruit people into an organisation called the Sonnenfaust, or Sun Hand. Ostensibly, this organisation went back to the time of the Crusades, and had been lay brethren associated with the Teutonic Knights. Its supposed aim had been the preservation of the Christian west against the hordes from the east and the powers of darkness. This message struck a chord with the post-war Allies, anxious to keep the Germans as a friendly buffer against the threat from Russia. The Allies vetted the organisation, found nothing untoward, then allowed it to flourish. The Sonnenfaust in fact dates back only to 1953, but its carefully designed, elaborate and secret rituals seem much older. Records showing the history of the Sonnenfaust were created and displayed in great secrecy. Organised much like the Freemasons, with chapter houses and masters, it provides a focus for ritual, a feeling of comradeship (it encourages its members to refer to each other as "Brother", like the Confrere brethren of the military orders of the crusading era.) and a sense of history. Members swear oaths to uphold the order, and pledge themselves to die upholding its tenets, as well as passing on one twentieth of their wages. The members are encouraged to feel that they, like the knights of old are in the forefront of defending Christendom, and should both discourage and report to the house master any anti Christian or pro communist activity, whether at home or in the work place. The high ranking officers of the organisation are all Drorenkinder members, and pass on this information to the intelligence section of the organisation. The rank and file members of the Sonnenfaust have no inkling that this occurs, and must pass up through five levels of membership, from Initiate through Acolyte, Sergeant and Ritter to Master, before the Drorenkinder is mentioned. Even then it is only as an "inner order" of the Sonnenfaust.
Foss's three deputies are:
Manfred Kohl, a former director of Kessel A.G. and a financial wizard. Kohl is thought to be dead by the authorities, as a result of a clever Einsatzabteilung operation which whisked him away, leaving the body of a vagrant who had been surgically altered to resemble Kohl in the burning car. Kohl acts as a policy advisor on the financial side, as well as being the purveyor of the "official line" on politics within the organisation. He is also the actual leader of the Sonnenfaust, in spite of public appearances by others who claim to be.
Heinrich Embert, again, officially dead, but a former high ranking member of the East German defence ministry, sentenced to death in absentia in 1979 for crimes against the state. He too was rescued and hidden by Einsatzabteilung. The destruction of his house by Stasi agents after his disappearance was also arranged by the Drorenkinder. Embert is a political animal, and has an excellent sense for trouble within the world. He takes an active interest in the information gathering operation, and generally manages overseas contacts, through a pervasive net of informers all over the world. It was his actions in passing information to the Drorenkinder that lead to his downfall, although the East German government believed he was working for the Americans.
Willi Ordenhad is the only non-German in the leadership. Ordenhad is a fanatical right-wing Afrikaner responsible for numerous terrorist atrocities against blacks in Southern Africa. He joined the Drorenkinder in the 1970's after covering up one of their operations in what was then Rhodesia. Ordenhad understands terrorist operations from the inside, and is a great asset in planning operations. His normal tasks are maintaining the support of various right wing terror groups throughout the world, whom the Drorenkinder use as pawns in the bigger game.
Below the deputies come the heads of the four branches. These eight men form the "inner cabinet" of the Drorenkinder, and make all the vital decisions. On day to day basis, the branch heads have considerable autonomy, and usually use their discretion on ongoing work. Behind the facade of the companies that form the Drorenkinder screen, the organisation has four branches. These are:
Administration: (Vervaltungsabteilung) Dealing with membership, basic training, concealment of the organisation, finance, fiscal affairs, operating the cover companies and day to day business. Some people within the shell companies are employed by this section without even knowing it. Administration also covers the purchase and supply of the equipment used by all the departments.
Research: (Untersuchungabteilung) The smallest department, it concerns itself with discovering new ways to identify vampires and mages, and in developing weapons and defences against these adversaries. It has been particularly successful with weapons, especially the UV flash bombs that act like short-term sunlight. (see below).
Information: (Nachrichtabteilung) This department deals with the data sent in by field agents of the action branch, what it learns from scanning all news networks and from the Sonnenfaust. Information branch operates a super computer to correlate and store its information, and has a truly impressive occult library. Its analytical capabilities are as good as anything available to the KGB or CIA for instance, although away from its primary field, its information net and interpretative skills are much weaker.
Action: (Einsatzabteilung) Action branch operates information gathering agents all over the world, constantly monitoring all supernatural activity and reporting it to information branch. Action branch is also responsible for the security of the organisation, which it takes very seriously, and for providing the personnel who carry out overt and covert attacks on supernatural targets. These people are trained to the standards of any special forces/intelligence service (indeed, ex GSG-9, BNS, East German Special Forces and STASI members form the backbone of the branch.) One section deals specifically with preventing penetration of the Sonnenfaust and especially the Drorenkinder by any dangerous elements.
Werewolves: Werewolves have come to the attention of the organisation a number of times, and are a source of great interest. However, they actually know very little about them, although an ongoing research programme was sanctioned. So far, most of the contact has been of a negative nature, with threats to the Drorenkinder from Glass Walkers and Shadow Lords. One rather worrying proposition is contact between the Drorenkinder and the Get of Fenris. Both sides are likely to find more to agree about than argue over, and an alliance against the common enemy is a strong possibility.
Mages: The Drorenkinder have yet to gain any true understanding of Mages. Although there are some formidable Hedge Wizards among their ranks, the Drorenkinder have not realised the difference between such abilities and True Magick. Thus, they tend to underestimate the threat Mages could cause to their organisation
Others: It is unlikely that the Drorenkinder even realise that Mummies exist, although this situation may not be mutual. The same is true of the Immortals. Quite how much the Drorenkinder know about the Gypsies is open to debate: some have suggested that the Nazi persecution of the Rom was due to the supernatural threat they posed. The Drorenkinder have had little contact with The Shadowlands, although the Nazi's role in the previous great Maelstrom, and the huge numbers of innocents that they killed have ensured that there are many Wraiths with a grudge to bear against the Drorenkinder-and plenty of time to wait until they have their revenge.
Weapons obviously form a significant part of the equipment used. All field agents carry pistols, usually SIG Saurers or Walthers. All cars are equipped with either a submachinegun (usually a H&K MP5) or an automatic shotgun, and sometimes both. For more serious operations, assault rifles (G3, AK47 or AK74) and light machine guns (MG3) are available. For taking out vehicles and buildings, in addition to a wide variety of grenades, the organisation has supplies of RPG16 and M72 LAW available, as well as Soviet RPO flame rocket launchers. It is these latter weapons that are most favoured for destroying Vampire Havens. Powerful crossbows, spring guns or even converted shotguns are used to fire wooden projectiles to stake Kindred. These are preferred when capture of a vampire is required. In addition, the Drorenkinder have access to and the ability to use various explosive devices: from Semtex to Claymore mines, via anti tank mines and radio detonated car bombs, these are highly regarded methods. Among specialised weapons and devices used are silencers (for both pistols and SMGs), passive night vision goggles and sights, and most fiendish, the ultra violet flash bomb. Developed specifically to affect vampires, this emits, in addition to a blast wave and deafening bang, broad-spectrum Ultra Violet light of the same type as the sun. Any Kindred caught in the blast cannot soak the damage except by Fortitude, as per sunlight. Fortunately, the damage is non-aggravated. The Drorenkinder also use sensitive infra red sensing devices, that can be held in the palm of the hand, to find vampires: any person who is at ambient temperature is probably Undead... Armoured vests are standard issue, with heavier body armour available if a stiff firefight is expected. In addition, many cars owned by the organisation have bullet-proof glass, runflat tyres and sufficient steel and kevlar armour over the engine, fuel tank and passenger cabin to defeat most small arms except at point blank range.
Intelligence gathering has to be conducted in a slightly different manner to that employed by most intelligence agencies. Since vampires can Dominate or Blood Bond human spies, there is no way that an intelligence officer can run an "agent in place," as they might against a government. Rather, such operations are carried out by single officers, or pairs, placed in cover in a city as operatives of one of the shell companies. Thus, all observation and infiltration must be carried out by the agents themselves, making intelligence gathering both time consuming and extremely dangerous. Some agents use contacts in the police or on the streets to inform them of strange happenings: blood drained corpses, the disappearance of street dwellers, unusual corporate take-overs etc, but this is generally the limit of the usefulness of such people. All the real close up investigation must be handled direct by the Drorenkinder operatives themselves. In spite of all the problems, the Nachrichtungabteilung has had some significant successes in its operations. More significantly, it has never lost an agent who could betray the Drorenkinder. All agents who have come to the attention of the Camarilla have managed to destroy their coding machines and notes and either escape alive or commit suicide before capture. Thus, the existence of the intelligence gathering network is unknown to the Camarilla.
Material Acquisition follows a different route. Intelligence regarding the whereabouts of magical items occasionally comes from the field agents, but more commonly comes from the hunches of naturally sensitive persons in the headquarters, who spend their time using Psychometry and ESP to locate both people and things. Next, a team of field agents investigates the site, assessing the potential risks and difficulties of the operation. If a go ahead is given then another team of field agents will make the attempt at removal. Very few such operations ever take place: there is very little intelligence on magical items, and fewer still are safely recoverable. On one occasion, the tight security around the operations has backfired when the team attempting the snatch was involved in a firefight with the investigation team. A few people have been killed during snatches, but the tactics of the teams make it seem that the motives are purely mercenary: gold, money and objet d'art are always removed at the same time. The secrecy of the Camarilla has aided these teams: no vampire likes to declare what occult resources he or she has, or likes to admit to having been robbed, and thus the possibility of an organised campaign to steal magical items has never been discussed.
Direct Action is slightly more common than material acquisition, and is becoming more so. The Drorenkinder have always been alert for Kindred who have come too close for comfort, and taken action to dispose of them. This has usually involved causing explosions in their havens, or else simple "drive-by" shootings followed by staking and exposure in some convenient spot where the death will be unnoticed. This has been undertaken by small teams, usually three strong, on the specific information of an intelligence gathering agent. Very rarely the same technique has been used on vampires who appear to be over confident, simply to keep the Camarilla off balance. In the last two years, the Drorenkinder have moved on to bigger things, specifically the destruction of all Kindred in a particular city. So far this has been limited to small cities, where communications between the Prince and others are poor, and where the Camarilla's communication network is not fully developed. Thus, several small cities in eastern and southern Europe simply ceased to communicate some time ago. These missions achieved a variable degree of success. Some went smoothly, with few or no casualties, while others were bitterly fought and costly. In one case, in a small city in Greece, it was pure luck only that prevented a Gangrel from escaping to pass on the information that a systematic attack had occurred. These incidents have however only served to improve the tactics that the Drorenkinder use. Their standard approach now is to investigate over a long period, and find out two things: first, the location of the Tremere chantry, and secondly, the Ventrue board's headquarters. Once these pieces of information are found, the attack team moves in. This normally consists of enough people to be easily concealed, but balances Kindred numbers with the above mentioned equipment. After a few days to plan attacks on specific objectives, the first stage of the plan is undertaken. This usually involves a drive-by shooting of one or two vampires. They are normally Brujah, Gangrel or Toreador, and if one member each of a couple of clans can be attacked, so much the better. The purpose of this is to put the Camarilla off balance: the attacks break the Traditions, and are potential breaks in the Masquerade. It also helps to reduce trust, a rare commodity at best. Thus, most of the clans will be busy trying to find out who did the killing, or attempting to pin the blame on another clan, when the second stage occurs. This is a massive, full scale, unsurvivable assault on the Tremere Chantry and Ventrue board. The Drorenkinder know that the Tremere always hold meetings n Tuesdays and will time their attack during one. The rationale for this is as follows: although the Drorenkinder do not know the full extent of the Tremere's powers, they realise that their grasp of magic makes them most likely to be able to figure out what is going on, and to react to it. They have discovered that the Nosferatu can be beaten at their own game, simply by good technique in counter surveillance. Thus the Tremere represent the greatest danger of discovery and are destroyed first. The Drorenkinder have also learned that in a real emergency most of the Kindred will follow the Ventrue if the Prince is killed, and that the Ventrue skill in planning makes them most capable of providing real leadership in a crisis. The third stage of the plan involves watching who comes to the wreckage of the Chantry and Board, deciding which are vampires, following them and killing them and all found with them. This is accompanied by total secrecy and generally no contact. Sometimes a member of a clan is snatched to provide information for more structured attacks. It is no pure coincidence that this is the same technique used by the Sabbat. It works, and at the end of the day, that is the important thing. Indeed, it is possible that veterans of combat with the Sabbat will notice this similarity, thus adding to the chaos.
Nature and Demeanour: The former is usually and active one: Bravo, Survivor, Judge, Architect or Visionary are common. Demeanours are variable, but usually have at least a touch of Conformist or Traditionalist about them.
Attributes: 7,5,3
Abilities: 15,9,5 For Einsatzabteilung, Skills generally predominates, for Untersuchungsabteilung, Knowledges are primary. For the other Branches, choice is free.
Freebie Points: 15
Backgrounds: 3 (Generally Contacts or Resources, sometimes Allies)
Willpower: Base is four, and it costs one Freebie point per dot to buy.
Merits and Flaws: Aptitudes are common, and among the other popular ones are: Driving Goal/Higher Purpose, Code of Honour, Self-Confident, Overconfident, Dare Devil, Iron Will, Magic Sensitivity and Clear-Sighted. Most of the non-supernatural Merits and Flaws from "Halls of the Arcanum" or "Ascension's Right Hand" are usable.