By Daniel Harms (harmsdm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu) (21 March 1996)
Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear"
The relationship between the two parties was long and prosperous, but it was not to last. In 1664, the British took New Amsterdam from the Dutch, renaming it New York. Anti-Dutch sentiment was high at this time, and Martense decided to move himself and his family away into the Catskills. With the Sabbat's assistance, he bought property near Tempest Mountain and in 1670 built a new family mansion there, equipped with an especially sturdy cellar (which Martense explained to his human neighbors as a place where he could escape the area's numerous thunderstorms).
The Sabbat kept its word and Embraced Gerritt Martense in his old age. His Malkavian antitribu contact left, never to be seen again. The entire family learned of their head's fate and, though they kept it to themselves successfully, their role in the Sabbat's arrival in the New World and Gerritt's favored status made them think themselves above ordinary mortals. The other high-status families in the valley soon noticed these changes, and began to shun the Martenses. The Martenses adapted nonetheless, convincing themselves that a family of their importance could even afford to marry the poorer individuals who dwelt near their mansion.
Gerritt Martense remained active and found that a mortal who drank his blood over an extended period would begin to exhibit the same powers that he possessed. The family squabbled with itself over whether they should accept this gift or not. In 1729, half of the family moved out of the mansion to live in poverty several miles away. The rest remained, and Gerritt rewarded them with some of his abilities (he is not believed to have created any Childer).
One of the most important figures in the clan's history was a young man named Jan Martense. Jan joined the colonial army in 1754, and made friends with Jonathan GIfford of Albany. When the young Martense returned to his ancestral home six years later, he continued to write Gifford; though he did not reveal the family secrets, he could not conceal his disgust to the state of degradation that had occurred. He quarreled with the family, and was preparing to move away when his letters to Gifford stopped. Gifford investigated, digging up Jan's grave on the mansion ground, and discovered that his friend, whom the family had said had been killed by lightning, had been murdered. There was not enough evidence for any legal indictments, but now no one in the region would visit their mansion.
The members of the family rapidly degenerated, digging many tunnels beneath their mansion and Tempest Mountain to avoid discovery. They occupied the mansion until 1810, when they moved entirely into the tunnels. A party of locals who approached in 1816 found no family members, and decided that they had all moved away. The Martenses still emerged from their burrows from time to time, giving rise to stories of devil-beings among the locals.
In 1921, a small party of villagers discovered an opening to one of the Martense tunnels, and were able to escape, inflicting heavy casualties upon the family. The Martenses retaliated by attacking the intruders' village, killing seventy-five out of one hundred and taking the others away into their underground home for unknown purposes. This did not go unnoticed, and as part of a subsequent investigation by a noted occultist many of the tunnels were dynamited, killing most of the family.
The state of the Martense family, and of their founder, remains unknown. It is possible all of them were destroyed or have died out by the present day.
Grimaldi: "Hurrrrrrrrruph." (Outsiders! Eat!)
Obertus: "Grrr." (Outsiders! Eat!)
Zantosas: "Urph." (Outsiders! Eat!)
Sabbat: "Rolggh." (We were once visited by the Mighty Ones, who made us mighty in turn. Perhaps they will return again and acknowledge us as equals.)