The Wazir's Campaign

## Casualties

*“What do you want, Karl?”*
*“The same thing I've always wanted, Derek. The destruction of the House, the equality of nonhumans with our race, the revelation of the supernatural to the public at large, and peace on Earth.”*— Derek Hawthorne and the Wazir, *Esoterrorism*
**The Wazir's Campaign** was a long-standing war waged by The Wazir and his Emerald Eye terrorist group against The House, particularly Division One. Though it raged on for centuries due to the Wazir's power and longevity, the conflict finally came to a head in the early 2000's, when the Wazir shifted his goal from trying to destroy the House to exposing the supernatural to the general public and forcing all of the supernatural races out into the open. To do this, he intended to release the Matheson-22 virus, causing draugr outbreaks worldwide to force humans to accept the Truth.

In its waning days, the plan was opposed by Derek Hawthorne's Team, who eventually managed to kill the Wazir and all of his collaborators to end the plan once and for all.

## Background

In the early years of the House, back when it was called "The Court" and Karl Bjornson was still a member, they genuinely acted in the best interests of supernaturals and humankind alike. However, the higher-ups of the organization were eventually corrupted by the power and became greedy, forcing the supernaturals underground so they could be exploited for profits. Around this time, Karl stumbled upon a mystical glass eye and, attempting to replace one he recently lost, put it in his eye. What he did not know was that this was Odin's Eye, and Karl was immediately corrupted by the power of the artifact. Becoming convinced that he was the Nordic God of War himself, Karl broke away from the Court, founded the Emerald Eye, and became the House's #1 enemy for centuries.

With countless crimes to his name, the Wazir eventually decided to change his long-term strategy, no longer desiring to destroy the House but now aiming to reveal the existence of the supernatural to the human world, forcing them all out into the open. In this manner, Karl hoped to bridge the gap between the species' so they could live in harmony, even if doing so required countless casualties. However, for this plan, he required assistance, and he found it in the form of Cassandra Cassidy and Dr. Edward Strickland.

Strickland, the leader of the White Room, had recently lost his wife and daughter due to the House's actions, while Cassandra had been brainwashed by her father to marry Derek Hawthorne and was released from her personal hell by the Wazir. Both had reason to want to destroy the House and agreed to the Wazir's plan. Cassandra used her company, Pantheon Corp to provide Strickland with limitless resources for his scientific genius, and the three of them came up with a plan: Strickland would modify the existing Matheson virus to create Matheson-22, a new strand of the virus that turned humans into draugr with the additional twist that these draugr were able to spread the virus through bites. In this regard, the Wazir hoped that the outbreak such a virus would cause would expose the supernatural for good.

Though there were many issues along the way due to the volatility of the virus, Strickland eventually cracked the formula and successfully created the virus the Wazir wanted. To test its efficiency, the Wazir deployed the virus in Wheatfield, Kansas, wiping out the town of 2,000 inhabitants before the House could stop him. At the same time, the Wazir used Strickland and Cassandra to access the Red Room's records, which soon led him to Derek. Analyzing Derek's file left him convinced that he could potentially recruit Derek to his side, so as a test of his character, he arranged for Derek to receive a new partner in the form of Shannon O'Reily, a succubus.

## Conflict

### Thompson City Mall Incident

With the virus completed, the Wazir began to mass-produce it and spread it among his allies and forces. To do this, he arranged for a handoff between several of his members, particularly two rakshasa, and attended the handoff personally because he predicted that Derek would be the one sent to disrupt it. He was proven correct when Derek and his sister, Penny Hawthorne, were sent by the Red Room to disrupt the meeting and arrest anyone present. Their plan was quickly derailed when Derek realized that the Wazir was personally present, forcing them to adapt at the last minute. Rather than focusing on the Wazir's foot soldiers, Derek focused on the Wazir personally and confronted him after telling Penny to pull the fire alarm to get people out of the building.

In this confrontation, Karl revealed that he knew all about Derek's life, including his relationship with his father, ex-wife, and previous partners, before beginning the groundwork to potentially recruit Derek to his side. As Penny pulled the fire alarm and Derek tried to peacefully force Karl outside to be arrested, Karl ordered his rakshasa to begin killing everyone inside, which they did. Derek immediately shot the Wazir dead before confronting the rakshasa, killing both of them as quickly as he could to minimize casualties. After he and Penny killed both of the rakshasa, the Wazir revealed that he was using a homunculus and made a last attempt to break a vial of the Matheson virus, intending to cause a bio attack. However, Derek managed to shoot his second homunculus dead before he could drop it, preventing this from occurring.

After this, Derek was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the attack, but The Professor managed to get him out of prison five days later to begin getting him back to Division One headquarters. At this point, Derek was filled in on the Matheson virus's creation, including the fact that the House knew there was a mole within the Red Room that assisted in its creation and that Cassandra was the prime suspect in its creation. That night, Derek met Shannon for the first time, and though they had a combative start, they agreed to become partners.

### White Room Assault

The next day, Derek introduced Shannon to Division One, where he learned that the Matheson virus had become common knowledge among the House due to Strickland, still hiding himself within the White Room, arguing with Lucy Danvers over the morals of experimenting with the virus. However, as Derek and Shannon received new weapons from Lucy, an alarm sounded across the facility, with the Matheson virus being deployed across the White Room to turn the scientists into draugr. Strickland, making his move to destroy the White Room, had begun an all-out assault, deploying the virus in the air and sabotaging the holy water sprinkler system to ensure it could not be put down quickly.

As Derek and Shannon raced to fix the sprinkler system, mercenaries from the Sons of Mars armed with Pantheon Corp equipment stormed the facility as well. They had two goals - exfiltrate Strickland and destroy the House's information hub, crippling Division One's ability to respond to any later actions the groups would take. As Derek and Shannon fixed the sprinkler system and put down the remaining draugr, the Sons of Mars began a secondary objective of moving through and executing everyone they found, beginning a new killing spree throughout the facility. Meanwhile, Strickland, to cover his tracks fully, betrayed the team sent to rescue him and killed them all, taking the last one's armor so he could sneak out unseen.

Derek and Shannon put down the remaining infiltrators, but before they could escape and find the traitor, they discovered that the security room had been disconnected from the sprinkler system, meaning there was still draugr inside. The fight with them forced Shannon to use her lilin powers, which briefly forced her and Derek into a fight. This gave Strickland just enough time to slip out as the security system was finally shut down, escaping scot free with the House believing he had died in the attack.

### Investigating Cassandra

The Sons of Mars being armed with Pantheon Corp weapons removed any ambiguity as to Cassandra's involvement, prompting the Professor to put out a kill-on-sight order on her. However, Derek, still in love with her, requested that he be put in charge of the investigation. The Professor reluctantly agreed, prompting Derek and Shannon to directly confront Cassandra at the Pantheon HQ in Chicago. After repeated denials and stonewalls, Cassandra finally caved when it appeared that Derek was going to kill her and admitted to working with Strickland to modify the Matheson virus, but she lied about her intentions, stating that it was an attempt to create a miracle cure for all diseases since Strickland himself had just been diagnosed with cancer.

This explanation implied that there were rogue scientists within Pantheon Corp who modified the virus beyond its intended purpose, prompting Cassandra to bring Derek and Shannon into the basement labs of the building. Derek fired a gun in the air to request the rogue scientist surrender himself, prompting a scientist named Ye-jun Park to run for it and be subdued quickly. In the interrogation, Park revealed that Strickland had gone mad while making the virus, uncaring that some scientists spontaneously transformed into draugr due to its instability, revealing that his son had been kidnapped to force his cooperation, and suggesting to Derek that Strickland might still be alive.

However, before they could act on this incriminating evidence, Cassandra revealed that while Derek and Shannon were interrogating Park, she had called the Committee and gotten a deal, forcing the duo to walk away without arresting her. After Derek called his father Nathan to confirm that the deal did exist, Derek wished Cassandra a goodbye. With no other leads to follow for the moment, Derek and Shannon went to a local hotel to resolve their trust issues with sex.

### Hotel Ambush

That night, as Derek and Shannon were sleeping, Derek's own soul gave him a psychic dream, revealing that he would be attacked by Cassandra's forces shortly after he woke up. Derek initially disbelieved it, but it was quickly proven correct when a Japanese Oni attacked them in their hotel room. A fight quickly broke out between them all, particularly with Shannon's lilin form being active from the recent love-making, and soon enough it spilled into the parking garage. The Oni was backed up with even more of the Sons of Mars, confirming once and for all that Cassandra was involved far more than she had led on.

Due to Derek's ingenuity, the fight was over quickly, but not before local law enforcement had to get involved to investigate the crime. Derek, claiming relative ignorance as to why the men were after him, was soon tracked down by Penny, who revealed the awful truth: while Derek was being ambushed, the Wazir, the Emerald Eye, the Sons of Mars, and Cassandra had all made their moves against the House. All of the combat capable units were attacking Division One strongholds all over the world, resulting in countless casualties, while Cassandra first murdered her father and then began destroying their relationship with the United States government, resulting in their assets coming under fire as well. It became clear that the goal of everyone involved was to destroy the House entirely and that Cassandra, who had originally planned for the rampage to happen in a week, was an active co-conspirator in the Wazir's plan.

### Safe House Ambush

With no other leads to go off of, Derek revealed Strickland's survival, and the trio used his true name to track him down to his safe house. Derek and Shannon led a frontal assault against the building and killed all of Strickland's bodyguards, only for the doctor himself to reveal himself with a captured Penny beside him. Strickland, having mummified himself to prevent his upcoming death, tried to taunt Derek about the inevitability of his failure, only for the Wazir to chime in from the next room and demand that all three be brought in unharmed. The Wazir made Derek sit down for a discussion and, as a show of good faith, permanently killed Dr. Strickland when Derek asked him to.

In this discussion, the Wazir revealed several key elements of his plan, including his intention to recruit Derek, his goal of forcing supernaturals out into the open, and, most crucially, a flash drive that he claimed carried evidence of every single wrongdoing the Committee had ever committed, proving once and for all that the House Derek fights so hard for is the most corrupt organization on the planet. The Wazir revealed that he intended for Derek to use this information to ascend to the Committee, which would put him in direct conflict with Cassandra; with their partnership having fractured, the Wazir wanted Derek and Cassandra to attack each other with everything they had, meaning that Karl could swoop in and wipe out whichever one of them survived with little effort.

However, Shannon, who had previously been knocked out by Strickland, woke up during the conversation and, before Karl could finish explaining his plan, killed him once more, again revealing that he had been using a homunculus. At this point, Shannon briefly turned against Derek, demanding the flash drive so she could turn it over to the House. Derek, believing the Wazir due to his previous distrust of the Committee, convinced her to give him the chance to go through it with a pertinent observation: it was common knowledge that the Committee had members that could see the future, meaning that if the Wazir was able to destroy the town of Wheatfield, they had to know about it in advance and chose not to interfere. This convinced her to let him go through the flash drive himself.

### Derek's Ascent to the Committee

After going through the flash drive, Derek was only able to confirm less than 1% of the alleged crimes as true, which was enough to convince him that everything on it was true. This included the destruction of Wheatfield being allowed by the Committee and the murder of Angela Strickland being ordered by them. With this in mind, and with the Committee already ordering Derek to appear before them so they could punish him for his failure to stop Cassandra, Derek made the choice to go along with the Wazir's plan for him to ascend to the Committee and went through the flash drive to decide the best way to do so.

After going through the flash drive, Derek settled on Yuri, a Russian member of the Committee hated even by his fellow Committee members for being a child murderer - specifically, murdering his own child due to a prophecy that said daughter would eventually cause his death. Derek tracked down the method with which Yuri prolonged his life, a mystical egg, and then went to his father's mansion to begin the plan. Nathan, after seeing the documents Derek gathered and agreeing to pass them along to certain Committee members as leverage, summoned him to the meeting of the Committee. After the Chairman opened the meeting and declared their intent to punish Derek, Derek waited until Yuri began to raise a fuss before destroying the mystical egg, killing Yuri instantly.

With the spot on the Committee open, Derek took his place, though the other members did agree that Derek's disrespect warranted them blowing up Derek's eye before he left. After waking up on Nathan's couch, Penny revealed that his new method of cooperation between the various Divisions was beginning to pay off, with Nathan revealing that they had already discovered the location of Cassandra's final base. After confirming with the Professor that the location was guaranteed but that they did not have the manpower to launch an all-out assault given how thin their resources had been spread, Derek tracked down an old friend, Ben Talbot, for help.

Talbot, a retired Red Room agent with decades of experience, agreed to aid in the venture and came up with the team's plan: they would use a magic carpet to fly to the island, plant a Rubik's cube with a fire elemental Talbot called J'bbb'xxx'lllyl inside it, and then flee the base while the monster burned it to the ground. With no other option, Derek, Shannon, Penny, and Talbot loaded their weapons on the carpet and headed to Cassandra's base.

### Battle at Cassandra's Lair

By the time Derek's team arrived at the base, the Wazir had already tracked Cassandra down himself, resulting in an all-out war between the Emerald Eye and the Sons of Mars. Taking advantage of both sides being distracted, Derek's team landed their flying carpet and began their own assault, taking out both Emerald Eye and Sons of Mars along the way. Cassandra soon became aware of their presence and, as a further sign of her instability, began playing their wedding song over the loudspeakers as the three-way massacre was underway.

After finding an elevator and going as deep into the base as they could, Derek's team discovered that Cassandra had built her own lab separate from the Pantheon Corp labs, mass-producing the Matheson virus to potentially commence her own targeted strikes in the future. After the team solved the Rubik's cube, putting the escape on a timer, Tommy Moretti arrived with a group of mercenaries to attack them. Though the mercenaries were quickly dispatched, Tommy lasted longer due to using a Red Hand of Glory for extra power and was able to take Talbot and Penny out of the equation; however, this wasn't enough to save him, and he was eventually separated from the Hand and died from his wounds instantly.

At this point, Cassandra herself arrived and shot Derek, only to be shot in return and rendered unconscious by Shannon. With her defeated, the team went to leave, only for the Wazir to arrive and reveal that he had disarmed the Rubik's cube, scuttling their plan. The Wazir expressed disappointment that Derek continued to work with the House and killed Cassandra on the spot; during this conversation, he hyper-fixated on Shannon, dismissing her as a "whore" and never taking his eye off her even as he continued to monologue about his goals for the world. This gave Derek the opening he needed to roundhouse kick him in the head, knocking out his glass eye and allowing Shannon to destroy it.

With the source of Odin's power destroyed, the power went haywire and destroyed Karl's body, leaving him a vengeful spirit who revealed his true goals: rather than wanting humans and supernaturals to live in harmony as he suggested, in reality he wanted to send humanity back to the Stone Age so that he could rule over anyone who happened to survive. With his power running rampant, Derek and Shannon originally struggled against him; however, Derek was able to use his newfound magic powers to redirect some of Karl's power, giving Shannon the opening she needed to begin absorbing all of his power herself. After a struggle, Shannon completely absorbed all of Karl's power, killing him for good.

At this point, Derek's team reactivated the Rubik's cube and left the base on the magic carpet, watching as the captured fire elemental wiped the island to the ground behind them.

## Aftermath

The Wazir's campaign had a profound impact on all of the survivors. Though the House ultimately came out on top and prevented his potential apocalypse from occurring, it came at the cost of countless lives lost across Division One, especially in the White Room assault. However, Derek's ascent to the Committee helped turn the House into a more well-functioning unit, with inter-division cooperation finally becoming the norm. The destruction of Cassandra's base meant the destruction of the last known samples of Matheson-22, ending the virus's threat forever.

After almost dying during the event, Penny Hawthorne decided to tie the knot with Lucy Danvers and married her.

As a negative consequence of Derek's ascent to the Committee, the other members began to conspire against him as they turned their focus to the Vampire Nation, leading to Protocol Zero beginning to rise in power towards its endgame. This eventually caught Dracula's attention and created the circumstances that eventually led to the Protocol Zero War.

With Cassandra's death, her cousin Roland Cassidy became the next CEO of Pantheon Corp, with its relationship with the House being unchanged despite their complicity in thousands of deaths. Roland, motivated by avenging Cassandra's death, eventually aligned with Nathan Hawthorne, leading to The Fall Of The House.