The Darknet is so-called because almost every attempt to determine anything about it has been thwarted. Its a network of indeterminate size, but even the lowest estimates number in the thousands of nodes, and some have suggested it may even be in the millions or billions.

The truly strange thing is that no one is sure where the Darknet computers are located. They are connected to the internet, but traces on the origin of their traffic have proved futile as the traces wrap around the globe multiple times before the trail fades.

Those who’ve tried to investigate the Darknet have suffered a series of increasingly-dangerous setbacks. At first, they found their computers hijacked or wiped by viruses unlike anything yet-documented, viruses which have also resisted all attempts at capture and study. They seem to know what systems are honeypots and how to avoid them.

However, the more persistent have been targeted by stranger and stranger attacks. They’ve had their houses foreclosed on despite never missing a mortgage payment; been declared legally dead; had falsified warrants and arrest records placed in their name, and more.

Recently, some of them have even had attacks made on them in meatspace. One researcher was killed when the balcony of his hotel room collapsed, and was later found to have been sabotaged. Another was assassinated by a known mafia hitman; when the police tracked the hitman down they found him lying dead in a pool of vomit in a motel in Arizona.

At this point, the Darknet has been known for only five weeks and the more it resists inspection, the more it makes everyone paranoid. Many believe it is a Chinese cyberweapon, though the only real evidence for that is that it was first discovered in Tibet. The Russians believe it to be American; the Americans believe it is European, and the EU has been strained almost to the breaking point over infighting. Several African and Middle-Eastern countries and groups have claimed responsibility for it, but have been unable to prove their claims.

One popular theory states that the Darknet is based in satellites in orbit around the Earth or even the moon, which have somehow managed to go undetected as yet. Some even claim that the Darknet is extraterrestrial in origin, and that aliens are using it to study us, whether for good or ill.

Angels and demons are two sides of the same coin, really. Demons are just fallen angels. The PCs might play either, and in the time since the cataclysm the difference between the two has blurred. Renegade angels use their powers for everything from creature comforts to efforts to enslave humanity or even destroy the world. Some demons have taken the opportunity of the cataclysm to repent and fight again for righteousness.

Even among the “good” angels, there isn’t much of a consensus. There’s no longer any reason to try to protect souls, since when a mortal dies their soul will simply be lost to the same oblivion which destroyed heaven and hell. Some angels continue to fight in the name of good for its own sake or out of habit, others fight for guilt, and some don’t fight at all.

The defining aspect of both angels and demons are their wings; minus those, they appear distinctly human. Since mortals can’t see the wings, though, angels and demons pass for human without even trying. The wings are highly individualized, with the caveat that an angel’s wings are always light and a demon’s dark. Other than that, they may be feathered, bat-like, skeletal, or even wing-shaped tendrils of light.

Not all of those futures are quite so willing to go without a fight, though. History, it turns out, is rife with the machinations of time travelers, all trying to guide world events just so that they can continue to exist.

A race of sentient cockroaches calling themselves the Eecheecheesreekheech are doing everything in their power to bring about World War III, and the nuclear winter which will snuff out humanity and allow themselves to take over the world.

They’re frequently opposed by the Shone, enlightened dolphins from a future where world peace extends not only to humans, but to all of the Earth’s creatures.

The Last Reich are time traveling Nazis, seeking Hitler’s body so that they can reanimate him to lead an army of Nazi zombies in taking over the world.

The PCs might be from the current time, concerned only with their own livelihood and what they feel is best for the world, or they might be from yet another alternate time line. In the latter case, enemies can quickly become friends and vice versa when common and competing goals arise.

Some teenagers on the train, seeing the American man and thinking he looked like he’d have some valuables on him, mugged the spy and ran off. They escaped with his briefcase and his suitcase. They were unable to open the briefcase, which contained the biological weapon as well as the spy’s collected intelligence, but in the suitcase they found the prototype weapon.

Looking to make a quick buck, they sold all the stuff to a man named Alexei Bobylev. Alexei used the weapon to kill some personal enemies in the Russian mafia. The gun leaves no traces, it’s as if the victim died of a heart attack. The only thing suspect about the deaths is that they all happened so closely together and only two of the dead men were in poor enough health to be at real risk of a heart attack.

And this is where the PCs come in. They’ve been sent in by the American government to recover the spy’s belongings, and keep it quiet. Unfortunately, the string of bizarre deaths made the national media, and now everyone’s swarming over the area. The PCs will have to contend with the following:

The mafia: They strongly suspect Alexei is behind the murders and are looking to exact their revenge.

The Russian government: The PCs have to recover the items before the Russians do; the spy had also gathered some intelligence on Russia itself, and it lead to an international incident if they found out the US was spying on them. Needless to say, the use of force in dealing with the Russian agents is not an option.

The terrorist cell: They recognized the cause of the deaths and immediately guessed that their stolen technology would be found there. They’ve sent men to recover it.

Time: Immediately after committing the murders, Alexei went into hiding. Since then, he’s been trying to bust open the briefcase, and his less-than-gentle means could spell disaster if he breaks the seal on any of the vials inside.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a terrible beast lurks beneath the streets. Just before the countdown begins, it bursts up from a manhole, sending several people flying, and begins a wanton slaughter.

Transfixed by the ball and deafened by the jubilant throng, even those alarmingly close to the creature are completely oblivious to what’s going on. Several dozen try to run away, but are trapped, and it takes a minute or more before the people in the general area start to panic.

When they do, though, a stampede occurs. People trample each other to get away from the deadly beast.

The PCs might be in the vicinity of the beast’s emergence, pressed into fighting it in the cramped quarters until the crowds start to realize what’s happening and run away. Alternatively, they might be farther away, forced to fight against the tide to reach the beast.

In the latter case, it’s important that they actually have a reason to fight instead of just running away. They may be police officers, government agents, or even scientists from a facility secretly breeding horrors like this. Maybe they even tracked it here and knew it was going to happen.

The hook: One of the characters receives a cryptic note stating that, if they wish to put Morris (the Ventrue who wronged them) in his place, they should show up at Dinah’s Diner at quarter past midnight tomorrow.

The encounter: When the PCs walk into the diner, a trucker in the corner catches their eyes and subtly gestures them over. She’s wearing a baggy flannel shirt, thick jacket, and one of those hats with the flaps covering her ears. Her eyes have a very slight almond shape to them, like a cat’s eyes. It should be pretty obvious to anyone who’s met one that she is a Gangrel.

She introduces herself as Ann-Marie and, despite her appearance, is extremely well-spoken. She explains that she’s familiar with Morris’s operations, and can help the PCs to confound him and gain a leg up on him. If pressed, Ann-Marie will only say that she used to work for Morris.

In fact, Ann-Marie was being groomed by Morris to become his childe. Morris taught her all about the politics of the kindred and, though he didn’t say much about his own business, she picked up quite a lot under his tutelage.

Morris, of course, had his fair share of enemies, including a particularly vindictive Gangrel whelp. Knowing that he could never hope to actually challenge the elder vampire, the Gangrel instead managed to trick Ann-Marie. He lured her out of Morris’s protection and, as soon as she was out of sight, embraced her and fled.

Morris managed to catch him and had him killed, but the deed was done. Ann-Marie was now a Gangrel. Disgusted by her though he was, Ann-Marie convinced Morris to be merciful and not kill her. Now her Gangrel blood makes her ill-suited for the social politics which she was raised to be a master of.

Thus, she seeks out the PCs, hoping that she can put her expertise to good use coaching them on how to bring Morris down.

Adaptation: This could be adapted with relative ease to almost any genre. For example, Ann-Marie might be a debutante in a beauty-obsessed culture who is physically scarred by an enemy of her father. Her father, a minor politician, disowns her as her ugliness would now bring shame to the family.