Sam

ple

file

1

Sam

ple

file

2

CreditsWritten by: Jackie Cassada, Earle “Glas” Durboraw, Heather Grove,

Matthew Hooper, Alan I. Kravit, Nicky ReaAdditional Writing by: Cynthia SummersDeveloped by: Cynthia SummersEdited by: Carl BowenPreviously published material has appeared in: Laws of the Wild,

Changing Breeds Book 1, Changing Breeds Book 2, Subsidiaries: A Players Guide to Pentex, Freak Legion and Book of the Wyrm Second Edition

Art direction by: Aaron VossPhotographs by: Pauline BenneyFront and back cover design: Jaon LingLayout and typesetting by: Jaon Ling

© 2001 White Wolf Pub-lishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the writ-ten permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which

may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire, Vampire the Masquerade, Vampire the Dark Ages, Mage the Ascension, Hunter the Reck-oning, World of Darkness and Aberrant are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Werewolf the Apocalypse, Wraith the Oblivion, Changeling the Dreaming, Werewolf the Wild West, Mage the Sorcerers Crusade, Wraith the Great War, Trinity, Subsidiaries: A Players Guide to Pentex, Freak Legion and Book of the Wyrm Second Edition are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.

This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mysti-cal and supernatural elements are fi ction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

Check out White Wolf online athttp://www.white-wolf.comPRINTED ON DEMAND

Sam

ple

file

3

The Lesson: A Cautionary Tale 4

Chapter One: Introduction 10

Chapter Two: Cosmology 22

Chapter Three: A Map of Hell 36

Chapter Four: The Black Spiral Dancers 56

Chapter Five: The Fallen and the Wretched 108

Chapter Six: Pentex and Subsidiaries 154

Appendix: The Wyrm’s Arsenal 194

Table of ContentsSa

mpl

e fil

e

Sam

ple

file

5

For Carla“How much further do we have to go?” Serenity asked, heaving her

backpack onto her shoulder and following her guide deeper into the cave.“Not very far.” Ellery’s voice echoed as the tall, lanky man pushed

onward, throwing his words over his shoulder at his dogged companion. Serenity sighed and inhaled deeply, gritting her teeth against the tiredness in her shins and the ache in her upper thighs from the day-long trek through the wilderness to this place.

Is it worth it to know what he’s promised to teach you? The young woman asked herself that question for the 50th time since leaving home this morn-ing to follow Ellery’s promise of a “vision quest” that would answer all of her questions about how the world worked.

Serenity smiled secretly. Ellery couldn’t know that she already had a good idea of the ways in which much of the world worked — and that it wasn’t like the world that most people knew. She was Qualmi, a fortunate child of many forms, whose desire for secret knowledge and the will to understand the riddles of the world stretched before her as a road that must be traveled.

Her search for answers to many “whys” had led her to Ellery just a few short weeks ago. Mysterious, seductive yet engagingly friendly, Ellery had met Serenity in the Downtown Bookstore, in the Occult section, midway between Crowley and ESP. After a brief conversation about books in general, occult knowledge in particular and Serenity’s favorite kind of coffee, she found herself sitting across from Ellery over cups of mocha latte in a nearby coffee shop. That evening, Serenity discovered that Ellery knew a lot about things such as vampires and ghosts and other creatures that she knew existed but had only begun to study.

The Lesson: A Cautionary

TaleSa

mpl

e fil

e