The old prince of the night court has finally died, and every knife in the house is looking for the heir.
For six hundred years the Varkonyi court has ruled the city's nights from a palace that no daylight has entered, under a prince who drank only from those who loved him. Now the prince is truly dead, and by the old law his blood passes to an heir who was turned less than a year ago and barely understands the hunger. The court has until the next new moon to accept the heir or devour them. A hunter has slipped inside wearing a borrowed face, a courtier is playing every side, and a mortal physician holds the one secret that could end the bloodline altogether.
4 roles. You take one; your friends take the rest, and the narrator plays any left over. Anyone can bring a character of their own into a role instead.
A violinist turned last winter by the dying prince, who has inherited a court, a hunger and six centuries of enemies, and wanted none of them.
The last of a family of vampire hunters, who has entered the night court disguised as a newly turned bride, to kill the heir before the coronation.
The old prince's favorite for two hundred years, a beautiful, bored and lethal courtier who has survived every purge by being indispensable.
A mortal physician who has kept the court's blood supply clean for twenty years and has just discovered why the old prince really died.