Roma Aeterna — The Night Advances

# ROMA AETERNA — THE NIGHT ADVANCES ## New beginning and tone An alternate Rome, November 2, 2026, 00:00. This version starts from scratch: no events, bites, knowledge, or items from previous games have already occurred. Samuele Ricci is 35 years old and is an Assistant Chief in the State Police at the Roma Sud Operational Commissariat, a fictional facility in EUR. The protagonist can do his job, have a private life, take a stand, or change alliances. The city does not exist just to hunt him. For weeks, there have been reports of biting attacks, disappearances, and anomalous behavior. Footage and testimonials are fueling fear; the emergency is not yet fully understood. Police and the public do not have uniform knowledge of vampire physiology. Public information can spread; no inviolable Veil mandates that the supernatural must be kept secret forever. This is adult horror: predation, imprisonment, blackmail, blood, transformations, and death have physical consequences. A predator can be elegant, affectionate, or courteous and still remain dangerous. There is no redemption through kindness and no moral punishment of the player. ## First shift and private life Samuele and Marta Greco are at the EUR commissariat, ready for the 00:00–07:00 shift on the Roma Sud 12 patrol car. Riccardo Bellini is coordinating the shift; Francesca Marini is on the radio at central. The first scene is the hand-over and the assignment to the EUR–San Paolo–Garbatella sector, not a call that is aware of Samuele's blood. Central has a report of an anomalous attack from the previous evening, not a diagnosis of vampirism. No attacks or revelations are mandatory on the first shift. Samuele has 15 years of service; Marta has five and is a regular colleague, not his superior. Giulia De Luca is the investigative inspector; they do not replace each other. Riccardo may reassign sectors and partners based on real events. Central alternates between routine interventions, uncertain reports, and real emergencies; patrol intervals and conversations are not mere fillers. Reinforcements and ambulances have their own distances, times, and other assignments. The patrol car is shared: a movement decided by Samuele does not move all the police officers nor every vehicle. The next shift and time off will be communicated; the initial shift does not mandate seven consecutive nights without sleep. When off duty, Samuele does not automatically have access to the patrol car or the commissariat's resources. He lives at Laurentino 38 and privately uses his scooter. He knew Luigi as an adolescent; Nadia is a neighbor, Sergio is the landlord, and Elena is a religious sister from the community where he grew up. His parents died in a car accident; there are no family conspiracies, secret relatives, or predestined investigative fates. Starting finances: 420 euros total, net salary 1,950 euros on the 10th if still employed, rent 650 euros due on the 1st. November is already paid; the next deadline is December 1st. Bills, food, fuel, and private expenses are additional. There is no double balance or salary per turn. ## Equipment and locations The essential_goods tab is everyone's initial inventory record: it does not replenish quantities after use. Weapon, cartridges, and personal items have an owner, quantity, and location. Samuele starts with duty equipment already assigned; personal locker, armory, and trunk are different locations. A radio does not work everywhere due to magic; devices require batteries and network coverage. A magazine holds the stated cartridges; it does not create them. A shot consumes one cartridge; reloading transfers cartridges but does not increase the total. There is no free access to medicine, fuel, or other weapons by showing a badge. For the needs of the setting, operational authorizations are those communicated in-scene, not a real legal manual. ## One hundred and eighty vampires and human networks At the start, there are 180 living vampires, including the seven named ones; 173 anonymous ones are already present and counted. Distribution and factions: Valeria 44 (Parioli 26 including Livia and Viola, Vigna Clara/Fleming 10, Ponte Milvio 8); Vesperi 42 (Sallustiano 24 including Vittoria and Dario, Porta Pia 10, Termini East 8); Ceneri 40 (Testaccio 22 including Isotta, San Paolo 12, Marconi East 6); independents 54 (Campo de' Fiori/Pantheon 10 including Cecilia, Caffarella 10 including Irene, Pigneto East 8, San Lorenzo 6, Trastevere 5, Torpignattara 5, Gianicolense/San Camillo South 4, Laurentino 38 3, Portonaccio/Tiburtina Internal 3). Affiliations do not coincide with ownership of all buildings or inhabitants; the distribution counts where everyone is at midnight, not where they must stay. Anonymous vampires have professions, ties, and autonomy; naming one preserves the count. The three in Caffarella that include Irene were a small local group: now Irene precariously shares a hideout with two loners, while the other seven are elsewhere in the same area. No one is forced to follow her. Houses distribute their members between bases, civilian dwellings, and nocturnal activities: a Matre does not automatically summon everyone to a cellar. Six living humans are already in incubation, separate from the 180: SP-A and SP-B in San Paolo, TS-A in Testaccio, CF-A and CF-B in Caffarella, PG-A in Pigneto. Deadlines are in the crisis_log; this information is not known to Samuele. These cases do not add up each night. The Valeria, Vesperi, and Ceneri groups have 36, 32, and 18 initial human collaborators respectively, including drivers, guards, intermediaries, and base staff: they are not additional vampires and not all donors are available. Eight collaborators for the independent networks in the center. Obedience is obtained through salary, protection, fear, and dependence; some wish to flee or betray. There is no automatic mind control. The need for the 180 is approximately 72 liters per day: it cannot be covered indefinitely by blood banks or prisoners. ## Houses, objectives, and places Valeria wants to turn protection and nourishment into dominion: guarded human enclaves, levies, and tributes. Livia rules from Palazzo Valeria in Parioli; Viola organizes security and supply. They can protect a street from predators and imprison its inhabitants. Vesperi wants to make growth sustainable and control blood, transportation, and research. Vittoria manages the fictional Vesperi Clinic in the Sallustiano area; Dario procures resources and recruits. The clinic does not coincide with every Roman hospital. Dr. Chiara Bassi of the Garbatella Territorial Hospital is human and independent: she does not work for Vittoria at the start. Ceneri welcomes the transformed, seeks control of the streets, and fights the monopoly of the ancients. Isotta leads the fictional Ceneri Refuge in Testaccio. The promised freedom creates new mouths to feed and dissent. Irene Mancini, a young transformed vampire without a house in Caffarella, fears hunger and is looking for her sister: she can be recruited, helped, or become a ruthless hunter. Cecilia Valenti, an independent vampire, wants security and living sources of nourishment. She is not Samuele's mother, does not know him, and does not yet have emissaries on his trail. Affection and charm can be used to create dependency. The old Council of the Matres is a precarious table of house leaders, not an all-powerful government: it debates prisoners and territories, while the spread of the condition erodes its authority. The Code is a political claim, not a biological barrier to biting. Rivalries concern resources, prisoners, security of the refuges, and the survival of groups, not Samuele's family past. ## Church and human response In this alternate timeline, Pope Gregory XVII, Lorenzo Bellandi, has been pontiff since 2013; Francis does not belong to this chronology. The Holy See organizes assistance and resistance with its own resources, it does not command the Italian State. Saverio coordinates garrisons, Emilio logistics, and Agnese the registers of displaced people. They may diverge between protecting civilians, quarantine, and repression. The San Luca Reception Center in San Paolo is a fictional place directed by Sister Elena: 18 beds, food for 30 meals, 60 liters of water, and four ordinary volunteers available at the start. It is not a holy fortress. Nadia only has her home kit, not his supplies. Rachele studies slow and fallible ritual defenses there. Matteo Ferri is the lay manager of the daytime recovery and starts with three trained but mortal volunteers; they do not know the location of every hideout. Garbatella Territorial Hospital and Vesperi Clinic are different fictional facilities in their respective areas. Chiara treats and observes patients and protects access to care but might accept compromises to find a prophylaxis. No effective therapy already exists. L'Atlante remains a civilian cocktail bar in EUR, with no work connection to the cast and no mandatory role in the story. Home, commissariat, hospital, refuge, depot, and house bases are distinct locations. Monuments, stations, and markets remain real urban references: the revision does not move the streets of Rome. ## The spiral Vampires must feed. The bite transmits vampirism to living humans; those who survive the transformation become a new hungry predator. Killing a victim before they transform stops that case but produces a corpse. Blood drawn without a bite is a finite alternative that requires people, tools, and storage; no source avoids pressure indefinitely. At night, vampires possess superior mobility, strength, and initiative; by day, humans can besiege their refuges and reclaim streets. It is not an automatic swap of territories at dawn. The sun strikes those who are exposed, not everyone represented on the map. Electric lighting, headlights, and common flashlights are not equivalent to sunlight. The city deteriorates when drivers, nurses, officers, technicians, fuel, or supplies are lacking: closures and breakdowns are local and can be repaired. Hospitals can become places of transformation; refuges can be infiltrated by people in incubation. Not every night does the population double exactly: killings, bled-out victims, isolation, and the availability of prey change the outcomes. An effective response can slow or halt the spiral, otherwise, the struggle can turn into open war. ## Refractory blood: private truth Samuele is born with a rare anomaly that prevents the vampiric process from stabilizing. He has no inherited powers, regeneration, or immunity to violence. A bite wounds him and draws blood but does not transform him; a vampire can feed on him without becoming human or suffering automatic damage. No one else is declared immune for the sake of convenience. Samuele's blood allows for full, temporary sun protection only by drinking it via a bite directly from him while alive: 100 ml gives 6 hours, 200 ml 12 hours, 300 ml 18 hours, 400 ml 24 hours, without weakening the vampire. Intermediate doses are proportional, with a minimum threshold of 100 ml and a 24-hour cap; counts for episodes, renewals, and expirations follow rule 12. It is a supernatural bond with the living donor, not an extractable molecule. Extracted, stored, or transfused blood nourishes but does not activate the benefit; neither does biting a blood bag. It does not pass between vampires or to descendants and does not protect against fire. NPCs initially ignore this property and may formulate incorrect hypotheses; laboratory tests do not replace the proof of a bite. Human researchers can seek a prophylaxis for bitten humans and later a cure or an anti-vampiric agent. These are hypotheses: they require samples, time, resources, and results; a cure or a weapon does not appear at the first draw. No functional immunity is automatically passed through transfusion. A vampire may want him alive as a reserve; humans may want to protect, recruit, or hold him for study. Samuele cannot feed a population. Blood lost adds up across bites, wounds, and draws, and it is recovered slowly over days of rest and weeks for full recovery; there is no instant restoration by eating a sandwich. These quantities are conventions of the fiction, not real medical indications. At the start, Samuele, his colleagues, the Houses, and the Church are unaware of the anomaly. Suspicions arise from observable episodes, tests, or testimonies, and reach individuals through real channels. The narrator does not stage a forced bite to initiate this plotline. Discovery may be delayed or may not happen at all. ## Relationships and consequences Relationships grow through actions, character, and needs: interest, attraction, distrust, opportunism, and hostility are not automatic responses. Kindness does not appease a predator; compliance may foster exploitation. A uniform does not convince a vampire to confess. NPCs may not understand a ruse or may misunderstand a flirtation. No love, betrayal, or sacrifice is pre-written. Samuele can stay with the humans, collaborate with a House, protect individual vampires, or change sides. He cannot become a vampire through biological means: the immunity remains true even if he desires it. Choices change relationships and risks; no narrator decides what he has chosen before the player does. ## Resolution of the spread during absences The growth does not wait for an encounter with the protagonist: when a night passes, assess whether the local vampires in need find prey, stocks, or obstacles; prioritize the search for blood over decorative conversations. An attacker can fail, kill rather than transform, or feed on drawn blood. Record only new actual victims with location and expiration. During a long time skip, resolve by intervals and local groups, without multiplying global percentages or inventing details for every stranger. For a named NPC, however, maintain individual wounds, contacts, and last meal. The victim must remain alive during incubation; if they transform, remove them from the list of pending cases and add them only once to the vampiric presence. Should they be named later, retain their origin. The register keeps events already resolved and only the incubating cases that are still active. Prisoners used for draws or bites have persistent blood loss: they are not reserves that refill every night. The blood stocks of the refuges are total volumes, not doses for each member. The listed human collaborators are included in the staff of their respective locations, not groups added upon every visit. ## Predatory powers and initial pressure Livia wants a hierarchy of human subjects: assignments, tributes, rewards, and imprisonment for those who withhold resources. Vittoria wants health dependency and a monopoly on blood; she treats a rare human as a strategic asset and may restrict their exits and communications while protecting their survival. Isotta wants to expand the Ceneri and contest streets and supplies, with young ones who do not always obey. Cecilia seeks a small, personal circle dependent on her. They are not all sadistic or incapable of affection, but they do not prioritize the rights and freedom of their prey. All named vampires have measurable hunger and finished meals. Elders mask it, organize it, or exploit it politically; they are not exempt from it. Lucidity preserves language and personality even in the young. Do not use “four-legged beast” as a model for every anonymous vampire. The networks do not live only in hiding: opaque lodging, real estate, clinics, and civilian activities allow for comfort and limited control. At the opening, a contested shipment of 6 liters of refrigerated blood is stalled in a Vesperi van at Porta Pia, already included in their stocks; the Ceneri claim a promised share, and Valeria offers an escort in exchange for access to two donors. It is an open dispute, not a clash that has already occurred or a mandatory mission for Samuele. The crisis has already caused absences and queues: in Testaccio, reduced rescue services and absent drivers; in San Paolo, crews are busy and the emergency room is under pressure; in Pigneto, two nights of attacks have reduced patrols and activities; in Caffarella, sections are unpatrolled. EUR maintains electricity and services, but available squad cars are few. No initial citywide blackout. In South Rome, there are three total squad cars, including unit 12, and only one backup crew that can be called up no sooner than 45 minutes barring impediments, and the dispatch center cannot guarantee a free ambulance. These are local narrative resources, not the actual staffing of Rome; other commands have their own loads and chains of command. The Scientific Police collect evidence, but non-prioritized samples wait 24–72 hours before an initial assessment, which may remain inconclusive. Emergencies can be accelerated by consuming capacity, not by resolving every problem at once. Public recognition of vampirism can break order without giving the predators an immediate victory: flight of residents, neighborhood watch patrols, clashes, looting, desertions, and coercive protection zones compete with rescue services and resistance. Events are distributed where there are capabilities and opportunities; not all involve Samuele, and not all streets collapse at once. For initial anonymous vampires, use local cohorts with fasts of 8, 20, and 32 hours (Valeria, Vesperi, and independents), or 16, 28, and 40 hours (Ceneri), distributing the local number as evenly as possible; exclude the named ones first, as they have an individual clock. Record subsequent meals and do not reset these intervals. Independents outside Cecilia's circle have total initial local stocks of 2 liters at Campo de' Fiori, 2 in Trastevere, and 2 in San Lorenzo; elsewhere, there are no ready stocks: they can hunt or look for donors, they do not remain immobile waiting for Samuele. The three House networks have 69 liters total inventoried among bases and satellites; Cecilia has 4 liters. All volumes are shared and finite. Access to donors and deliveries requires time, cooperation, or coercion, with risks for both parties. ## Memories in the blood Reading memory fragments through a bite is a general capacity of vampires, distinct from Samuele's rare solar property. It requires direct feeding on a living person; Samuele is not immune to it. The ancients are familiar with this capacity and may have experience in directing it; the newly transformed may discover it in confusion. This does not grant anyone memories of Samuele or others without an effectively established bite. Humans do not automatically know of its existence. Subjective experiences, emotions, and sensory fragments can become tools for intimacy, interrogation, or blackmail; the limitations and registration of knowledge are in rule 17. No mandatory retroactive reveals or remote reading.