High up in the mountains is a vast hotel, a ski resort abandoned for nearly 60 years. The roads leading to it are mud-slick, slushy and closed down. Trees have fallen upon walls. Ivy and thorn tangles grow up and into the cracked walls, even during the harshest winters. Park rangers from the nearby wild preserve know the place is haunted and stay far away. Those who risk going near see things in the windows: faces staring out, beasts stalking the empty halls, blood streaking the glass. Others suggest that it’s not haunted at all, but is the place of awful Satanic worship — a temple used for demonic debauchery a few times a year.
In a way, they’re right. The Bellsmeade Hotel is not abandoned, as many assume. It has, in fact, been occupied always, even since the time it closed its doors to the public. Its residents are ghouls — blood-bred servants to a vampire called Bartholomew Bellsmeade. This ghoul family no longer recognizes its own family name, accepting instead the vampire’s surname of Bellsmeade. But he calls them by another name: his pigs.
They exist to serve him. Once upon a time, he loved them — and in a way, he still does. But he no longer loves them as a father, and instead adores them as a god. He knows that he is divine, and they are his servants upon this mortal plane. Several times a year — during solstices and equinoxes — Bartholomew returns to the hotel with his “friends.” For a week each time, he acts as a god in his kingdom, demanding blood, debasing the bodies of the ghoul servants, committing upon them bizarre sorceries (old favorites and new tricks). But the ghouls are not without their rewards. Not only does he leave them enough of his own Vitae to keep them strong and powerful until his next visit, but he also brings them all the things they love: exquisite chocolates, rare books, unusual cuts of delicious meat. And like that, he’s gone, leaving rewards in his wake until next he returns to celebrate his divinity upon his pigs.
Clans: Bartholomew is a Ventrue, and so the members of the ghoul family that inhabits the hotel are all of that clan. From time to time, the ghouls escape the hotel and
can then enter the service of a vampire from any clan.
From time to time, Bartholomew also gifts one of his
allies with a ghoul from the Bellsmeade stock.
Covenants:
Bartholomew’s Pigs belong to the Circle of the Crone and to the Invictus. Bartholomew belongs to both covenants. Not only is he a rich and productive member of the First Estate, but he also believes himself a god among Kindred. He demands pagan worship and even calls himself a “Crone.” He has little interest in existing gods or myths, preferring instead to be a new god at the center of new legends. Still, he is capable in Crúac and delights in the creation of new ghouls within this family. He gladly considers himself a member — a paragon, even — of both covenants, and so his Piglets belong to both as well. Most ghouls who escape (or are gifted) often end up as the prized servants of other Acolytes, largely because they are familiar with the nature of dire worship.
Appearance:
The Bellsmeade ghouls dress as they wish most days out of the year, for their regnant brings them fashions (and fashion magazines) when he visits. Of course, most of the styles are five or 10 years out of date. Some are too debased and feral to care about fashions, however — those ghouls tend to be filthy, foul creatures lurking in the margins of the 300+ rooms of the derelict hotel.
Havens:
The Pigs call only one place home: the Bellsmeade Hotel. It is a monstrous resort, far too large for the small family that resides within. It sits nestled deep in the mountains, barely accessible. A few ghouls have escaped from Bartholomew’s service over the years — these ghouls are free to have havens wherever.
Organization:
Within the Bellsmeade ghouls, the highest authority is Nehemiah, the first ghoul of the lineage. Nehemiah looks nearly like a child in his early teens, but he has the mental capabilities of someone far older (though he still possesses some immature sensibilities, and acts upon them more often than the other ghouls might prefer). While some wish for him to suffer an unfortunate accident (thus ending his capricious ways), Nehemiah remains the favorite of Bartholomew; the vampire calls him his “Favored Piggy.” While the Ventrue is away from the hotel for those long periods of time, Nehemiah is the one who leads the cult of ghouls in worship of the vampire.
The rest of the family breaks down, quite literally, as a family. Fathers and mothers rule over their children, who in turn have nobody to rule over except the animals.
Concepts: Adoring worshipper, animal keeper, escapee, hateful slave, hermit, the madman of Room 243