The Black Mass of Bucharest is a sacrilegious rite of Uchronic Paris held at Natalia Petrovna’s Mansion in Bucharest in the early hours of 4 July 1901, presided over by the vampire Natalia Petrovna and interrupted by the Time Bandits.
| Date | 4 July 1901, midnight to dawn |
| Spanish entry | Misa Negra de Bucarest |
Description
Natalia, leader of the Circle of the Serpent, officiated with Colonel Apis (a vampirized Serbian officer), a corrupt Orthodox priest, pale guards (possibly vampiric or enchanted) and members of the Circle.
- Setting: the main hall: black velvet, scarlet candelabra and windows, a church bell.
- Elements: children dressed as “bridegrooms”, sacrilegious chalices; possibly an altar in the cellars.
- Purpose: apparently a “ritual marriage” or vampiric sacrifice; unclear, possibly demonic invocation, the release of a serpentine entity or vampiric transformation.
- Nature: a perversion of the Eastern Orthodox rite.
History
Tipped off by André Bar, the Time Bandits infiltrated the mansion during the ceremony. Claude Nauge and Corvino attacked at once to protect possible victims, against Natalia, the priest, the guards and the hypnotized André Bar. Natalia attacked with her fangs and escaped as mist to the cellars, where she was killed: staked in her coffin, beheaded, and treated with holy water. The priest died, the guards were defeated and the surviving Circle members scattered.
Consequences
The rite revealed the Circle as an ancestral vampire cult using politics as cover, and suggested ancient dark traditions in the Balkans, possibly connected to Graz’zt, serpentine forces or an unknown demonic deity. It, Natalia’s destruction and the capture of Apis led the Time Bandits to investigate the Circle, travel to Serpent Island and seek the principal Serpent.