Wow, was this ever fun to write! I keep thinking about what Jack Nicholson said about playing the Joker in Batman: “When you’re wearing a purple suit and have green hair, it’s impossible to overact.” Similarly, I think writing from the perspective of Count Dracula is pretty much carte bla nche to carry on in the most overblown fashion imaginable. Apparently the developers agreed, since the back cover quote – “I saw in the abbot’s mirror my twisted countenance and I knew the hell-wolf I had become” – is, if you ask me, pretty ripe. But in agood way.
The secret bit of Rites is iconography hidden on pages 69, 89, 90, 94, explained in the Ordo Dracul book.