Darius Briggs

***“ As much as i enjoy a good brawl, sometimes the best course of action*** ***is to ditch the fight and head for the nearest sewer grate.”***

#### **Backgrounds**

~~Domain: 2 "The Pit"~~

Resources: 1

~~Herd: 1~~

~~Allies: 1 "Tosh"~~

Alternate Identity: 3 "Alexander Cross"

Languages: 1 Chinese (spoken)

Allies: 2 "L.A. Anarchs"

Fame: 3 "Prince Slayer"

Retainer 3: "Hana Toshino"

Domain: 2 "Wall St Pier"

#### **Disciplines**

Fortitude: 3

Protean: 1

Potence: 1

## **Early Life**

A troublesome teenager growing up. didn't pay much attention in school, often getting into fights for both the right and wrong reasons. Eventually dropping out before finishing his second year of senior high. Wanting his own independence, he moved out into an apartment as soon as he turned 18. For the better part of a year he spent his time as a street thug, doing work for local gangs, collecting money, breaking legs and other similar jobs.

One weekend during a bar crawl in Jersey City he comes across a rock/grunge bar by the name of "The Pit", unbeknownst to him it was run by a kindred by the name of Athena. This place had everything, great music, alcohol and the people there weren't half bad. This place offered another form of entertainment which he would soon find out after getting in a few altercations within the bar. It had a ring where you could fight for money!

This would be now where he would spend most of his time during the night, fighting in the ring against humans and unknown to him sometimes kindred. Some nights he would win, most times though he'd get the crap beaten out of him. It didn't matter, this was the place where he knew he belonged.

## **The Embrace**

*“ I don't know, maybe I'm just one of those shovel heads the Sabbat make, meh.”*

Not much is known about his Embrace, he doesn't remember anything about his sire or the night, guess too many blows to the head does do permanent damage.

He assumes it was either that night he was held overnight in jail, or one of the times he was unconscious in The Pit. It's not really that important anyway, there were others there to help him out.

## **Knight takes Bishop**

*“A Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian and Nosferatu walk into an amusement park, something.. something.. then there was fire everywhere.”*

Having grown up in New York City, Darius seemed content busting heads on the street alongside his fellow Anarchs. He spent his nights at The Pit with Athena, learning the ropes and having a grand old time.

Then the call went out. It was time for the Anarchs to push the Sabbat out of their city once and for all. The War Leader Tails, head of the NYC Anarchs, called a meeting with all of the soldiers in the city. He gave them their orders, sending groups off to prepare for the assault. For Darius, he had a very different mission. Find the Childe of the Bishop and remove her from the board.

After some careful investigation, Darius ran into the other members of the soon to be formed Tinderbox Coterie. Together, they hunted down Maria Thompson and managed to put an end to her. Once the deed was done, the Battle for New York was in full swing and the Tinderbox Coterie was created.

## **After The Battle For New York**

*“Shit, Athena's dead.. I don't think i can keep this place going on my own, HEY TOSH, YOU GOT A SEC? ”*

Cleaning up after the wreckage of the war with the Sabbat, Darius finds his adoptive sire dead an a new responsibility placed upon his shoulders keeping his favourite hangout running. Knowing he couldn't do this alone he would soon appoint a second in charge by the name of Hana Toshino, who would actually look after most of the important business affairs for The Pit.

What the coterie didn't know was the Sabbat left them a present in the form of a 'weird neonate' named Veronica. On the word of Danny, Hanners reluctantly inducted "Ronnie" into the coterie. Their task.. to find out what she is, and make sure she isn't a threat.

Time would go on and while the coterie was learning Ronnie's abilities and quirks, the coterie would have a major Masqurade breach to deal with in the form of a sabbat threatening to post her vampiric escapades on social media.

The coterie would begin to try and find this sabbat, and indeed they managed to find her and her new coterie. While they were able to stop her from breaching the Masquerade, ironically they would end up doing it themselves while trying to deal with her coterie and would soon start the events of The Exodus.

## **A New Beginning in LA - Purge the Cammies**

*“There's something about seeing a ghoul charge into other kindred armed with courage, stakes and a handful of flash bangs. Remind me to never get on Hana's bad side.”*

Moving to Los Angeles under the pseudonym "Alexander Cross", Darius met with the LA Anarchs and quickly integrated himself into their struggles. He and Tosh, now operating under the name of Hana, began to work with Baron Victor Temple. Together, they made several pushes to rid the City of Angels of any Camarilla presence.

Unwilling to subject Hana to the full extent of a blood bond, Alex made a deal with the local Anarch-aligned Tremere. In exchange for a favor to be fulfilled down the line, the Tremere would render Alex unable to bond Hana regardless of how much of his blood she consumed. Now certain that Hana was staying out of loyalty rather than necessity, Alex re-entered the fray with a valued friend at his side.

During the five years that Alex spent in Los Angeles, he fought against the Ivory Tower, the Second Inquisition, rival Anarch factions and remnants of the Sabbat that had been biding their time to strike. These five years of grueling conflict culminated in a long and bloody battle that left Alexander 'The Prince-Slayer' Cross standing over the remnants of the Prince-In-Standing Robert Garrick.

With this final victory in Los Angeles, Alex revealed his identity to Camarilla in an attempt to draw as many of Ivory Tower away from his new allies as possible. He and Hana said their farewells to Victor and the other Anarchs, who had sworn to assist them in return when the time came. After five years, it was time to return home.

## **Back in New York Pt 1 - Ventrue in Disguise**

*“Ha, it's not selling out. It's adapting to your situation and using what people think you are to your advantage.”*

Armed with what they had learned in LA, Alex and Hana returned to New York determined to return it to its previous "free state". The coterie would meet and decide that they would split into two groups to undermine the Camarilla. Alex and Aqua would operate in the spotlight while the rest of the coterie would operate in the shadows. With plenty of time under their belt they split off, agreeing that the 4th of July the following year would be when the operation would come to its climax.

Alex and Aqua over the following months would slowly infiltrate and build allies within the Camarilla. Doing work for The Hellions starting with small jobs for Hans Maynor and working part time for Thom Bradshaw. It would be during that time they met their soon to be good friend Moriarty and learn of Alex's first enemy the Viktor.

More time would pass and a major "Ronnie Incident" where she lost control and frenzied in New York killing some Camarilla vampires and going after one of the coterie. The situation was quickly "wrapped up" and sadly Ronnie was staked and buried in The Pyre. The coterie would then agree to have the rest of the group announce their presence and operate in the spotlight except Hana, who would continue to do what she can from the shadows. Alex and Hana shared a sad farewell and they knew it would be a long time before they saw each other again.

As time went by the coterie would learn that the current Prince, Lucius Stone was seemingly "Un-Cammarilla like" in the way he operated his Domain. This would make things difficult for the coterie as for all intents and purposes he seemed like a decent person.

## **~Interlude~ Those that Hunt Us**

*“So i was a sort of right about who i was.. sired by a Sabbat. Who is now dead and one of theirs is killing all her Childe, shit.. ”*

More time would be spent at the court by both Aqua and Alex. Alex looking to build more connections and allies to potentially have less people turn on them, doing some work for The Odd Jobs and The Raven Wings making acquaintances of both Flynn Moss and Vasilisa. He would also make a "friend" in the Malkavian Marvin, who would often give information to him never direct but enough to push him in the right direction.

Some of this information would include that of his currently unknown sire and what he would interpret as a potential enemy from within, one of the vampires who was "assumed" to be of Moriarty's Brood.. "Mace".

If the tension of this mission wasn't enough, more trouble would also arise as the Archon Corbin Marconi would come to New York for some mission from the Inner Circle. The coterie would have to be doubly careful as they would soon find the Archon was going to question ***all kindred*** here and their cooperation would be mandatory. With his continuous bad luck he'd been having, Alex would be the first of the coterie to be questioned by they Archon. Doing his best to answer truthfully while trying to keep his real identity and purpose secret, only slipping once during the question about his ghoul.

With the Archon off his back for now, he could focus on his immediate concerns investigating about his sire, and following this lead on mace. But not before he arranged a meeting with Hana out of New York, she needed to know she was in considerable danger. They both met up and exchanged limited information, Hana saying she was doing work for Hanners. Alex also warned her of the Archon and his current kill count in New York and to stay safe. They stayed the day and soon parted in the evening, but not before Hana would give him a syringe with the label "R" on it, telling him *"just in case".* Alex was surprised and concerned at where she had got this but didn't pry further, "*Great, more secrets from the coterie"*

Once back in New York, he would then contact a Tremere know as Callisto to see if they had any information about his sire, unfortunately with the information he had he could not get the answers he needed. Once again he would seek knowledge from "The Network" and asked Aqua about the name of his sire. He would forward the description of her to his contact and would soon learn her name a sabbat "Matrosha", who was not the person he had been seeing in New York. That was the former Mar-Duke Molloc who would later kill her for trying to leave the Sabbat and would also punish all her childe much the same.

Alex now knowing he is on a sabbat red list, would now hope that his Ventrue disguise would keep him safe for now..