To the Kindred of Savannah,
Let it be known across our Court:
In recent nights, the diligent work of Miss Aria Jade, Childe of Eleanor Langston, has uncovered vital information regarding the Wyrm Nests that rest beneath our city. These structures—long suspected, seldom understood—are not mere folklore or spiritual metaphor. They are real, ancient, and awake.
Her report, now fully reviewed and verified, has been entered into the Court’s archives and made available to all Kindred in good standing. You may review her findings at the following link: Peabody Archive Entry: Wyrm Nest Survey – Compiled by Miss Aria Jade
I issue this notice as both your Prince and a servant of the Sanctified:
Be cautious.
The Nests are not inert. They react to pain, passion, violence, and upheaval. They feed on it. They twist it. Already, signs of unrest and rising primal instinct ripple through the mortal and Kindred alike.
Do not approach a Nest lightly. Do not act independently of the Court’s guidance. Any investigations or interactions must be sanctioned by the Sheriff or by my direct authority. We cannot afford reckless tampering in the nights to come.
Savannah endures through unity, vigilance, and the wisdom to recognize danger before it strikes. We have survived worse. We will survive this too.
—Marcus Devereaux
Prince of Savannah
Bishop of the Lancea et Sanctum
Peabody Archive Entry: Wyrm Nest Survey – Compiled by Miss Aria Jade
To His Grace, Esteemed Price Marcus Devereaux of Savannah;
I have completed your assignment with diligence and discipline, searching high and low for the answers you sought. Within the walls of Peabody Reading Room, I poured over centuries of content and consulted documents that may not have been handled since the City’s founding. I will share with you what I have uncovered.
First and foremost, we are dealing with something that is far older than many may realize. A number of the tunnels sprawling beneath Savannah predate colonizer and Kindred alike, and harbor carvings of twisted, many-mouthed and limb-laden figures. Speculation about their meaning – whether they are warning or welcome – has long sparked debate.
Before their people were scattered, the Yamasee warned Elders long passed of ‘breathing wounds’ in the soil – they reported ‘spirits whispering lies and truths in the same breath,’ which likely coincides with the discovery that each Nest hums, producing its own frequency. Using modern technology, some Kindred have found these frequencies can share an eerie resemblance to mortal wailing – when they reverse and slow the recordings. Native Kindred also reported movement during tumultuous times, referring to the migration of the Nests over short distances during storms or times of civil unrest as ‘root-turning’. They insisted that no Nest is ever truly still, which I will expand on with more of my findings in a moment.
Moving on, my most notable finding regarding the origin of the Wyrm Nests is that they subsist on misery. Nests were churning, thriving beneath plantations; cruelty drives their growing roots deeper, weaving firmly into the bedrock of the City. Apparently, as slaves revolted and slave owners retaliated, the resulting violence caused the Nests to ‘bloom’ – with multiple accounts that Kindred and kine alike suffered during those nights, experiencing frenetic visions of fire, teeth, and broken chains dripping blood into the soil.
This feeding on sorrow, it should be noted, does not seem a viable method of exerting control over the Wyrm Nests. Records report a conflict with the Brood during the Civil War, wherein the Brood attempted to awaken a Wyrm Nest by executing a ‘mass Embrace’ – this Nest responded by swallowing everyone – to be clear, corpses and new blood alike – only leaving behind a sunken crater, slick with inky water, on the outskirts of town.
Calling back to the perpetual movement of the Wyrm Nests, they appear to be a vast network of interconnectedness. Two particular names came up in my research regarding those connections; Red Isaac, a Nosferatu, claimed that the Nests feed off of one another; that if one Nest is disturbed, all of the Nests react – pulsing like arteries and veins, pumping poison throughout Savannah. A Gangrel by the name of Elijah Moorcroft spent a century in isolation, dedicated to tracing the connections between Nests. Before his Death, he raved these Wyrm Nests were more than connected – they were conscious, comparing them to ‘a buried god dreaming in hunger and pain’.
I highlight these two accounts, and relate them to the warnings of the Yamasee people, because each detail hints at a particular amount of life to the Nests. Essentially, anything we plan to do involving one Wyrm Nest must account for the awareness – and possible participation and reaction – of each Nest with which it is connected. It is necessary that we find, label, track, and accommodate for every possible Nest before action is taken, which leads me to my next point.
In the 19th Century, Elders were able to map a section of this Nest-network by observing and following the migratory patterns of carrion-fed birds. The Nests draw in dead things as if magnetic, in turn attracting the scavengers. Where scavenger birds circled nightly, Nests could always be found churning below. This is the first clue we have in tracking down the Wyrm Nests.
To summarize actionable steps and warnings derived from the information I have gathered, I provide this list:
• If approaching a Nest, be more than cautious – be certain you are at an emotional baseline. DO NOT approach a Nest when intensely emotional, as this could potentially trigger a reaction.
• Do not attempt to evoke or awaken a Nest with acts of mass tragedy –* it will swallow you and everything in your wake*.
• What is done to one Nest is known by the others, to some degree, and they will all react.
• Reactions from the Nests affect everyone, Kine and Kindred alike – sparking strong emotional states and potentially inducing Frenzies.
• Follow the tell-tale signs in the sky: tracking vultures that circle the same area nightly will likely lead to a Wyrm Nest.
With that, I leave you the culmination of my labor these past nights. I hope these revelations are seen as satisfactory, and prove that I am not only capable and confident – but competent in the work I set out to do.
With the utmost deference,
Miss Aria Jade
Childe of Elenor Langston