Vampire: Dark Ages Help. Lifting the shroud?

[Rinquist]

I'm running a chronicle that will eventually have my players straying dangerously close to legions of angry wraiths. This is a somewhat long game, and the event itself is still several story arcs away, I was wondering if any experienced players or storytellers here on these boards could give me some suggestions on how to bring them full fold into a place where the shroud is very thin?

I'm not talking directly into Necropolis (Though if you have a killer idea on how I can do that while also scaring the crap out of my players, without causing a TPK unless they make a REALLY dumb move, I'm open to suggestion!)

The current timeline is the Dark Ages, my players have set up a haven in Nuremberg, so I figure someplace in Bavaria would be appropriate. Oh, and the game is an "Old" World of Darkness game. I haven't really tinkered with Requiem enough to be comfortable running a game.

My 5 players are:
An Assamite that favors Quietus and Obfuscate
A Malkavian that favors Auspex and Dementation (This is prior to the Council of Thorns)
A Lasombra Obtenebrator
A Tzimisce Thaumaturge
and our Cappodocian that does, well, Cappodocian things. Lousy necromancers ...

With just that raw information, how would you twist your players into a terrifying situation involving a bunch of pissed off ghosts?

[psychoticbarber]

I'm not all that familiar with the actual source material in this case, but I can give you some general advice: Go with your gut, and don't over describe. In fact, don't give your players enough information to know exactly what's going on.

It's the problem with horror movies these days (Gawd, I sound I'm ancient). The best horror movies of the past, as I see it, were the ones that kept you wondering where the next thing would come from. It was axe and blood and gore and screaming, it was suspense.

Take some of the less bass assumptions your players might have (I'm not talking assumptions like "The ground is down", I'm talking assumptions like "If I hit it, it'll be hurt), and twist them. Nothing freaks a player out like something not working the way it should.

That's just my general advice, I'm sorry I can't give you anything better.

[LongVin]

Well the Shroud would be thinner in areas that suffered a large amount of death in horrific ways. While not in the area of Bavaria(it is in Lower Saxony) a battlefield like Teutoburg forest where the Romans lost 3 Legions in a massacre by German Barbarians and the woods were said to be haunted for years after that.

You could go with the same basic premise in your area. As the vampires enter deeper and deeper into the black forests of Germania they catch glimpses of fleeting images at first, the further they go in the more real they become. Eventually they will see nearly tangible images of the soldiers reliving their horrid last moments over and over again.

The more aware spirits might ask the party for aid in the fight or attack them believing they are the enemy. And there is something there for every character.

Assamite- chance to rekill something(can't think of anything else for an Assamite)
Malkavanian- would probably like the chaos and insanity of the scenes being replayed over and over and no doubt would try to interfere to see what happens.
Lasombra-(no idea for this one. Maybe something with shadows and the connection to the spirit world in these haunted forests.)
Tzimice- possible sources for new blood magic rites or reagents.
Cappodocian- EVERYTHING! Plot hooks galore for him. Gathering souls, interfering in the eternal battle.