In Progress Let's Play VtM: Night Empire

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Agree on that Lambchop-san. The problem is whom to call.

There is still not much info about the second group of Hunters. I think a call to William Horn to prod him and his minions into find out more about Hunters' traces, to ensure that we've accounted for all goes in, is in order.

The German is from Wagner's (Fag)Gotterdammerung:

Nein! - Noch
kehrt er nicht heim.

No! He is not
coming home yet.

So it's possibly a warning from Vogler, Turcov may be upset with Sommers. Iacomo doesn't need us to do what he can do better, which is steal the limelight. Let's leave it to him for now. We chose to return to be at Fellowes' side, forsaking treasure, we should continue with that line of play:

A.

We may be able to get support from the Tremere and sway them from supporting Brother David (or convince Brother David to support *OUR* candidate), why the fuck would Iacomo need us? Votan B is retardo.

This.

Thanks for this. Not 100% sure what to make of it. Text and translation below:
http://www.rwagner.net/libretti/gotterd/e-gott-a3s3.html

In this scene Gutrune learns of Siegfried's death. Siegfried was stabbed in the back... Could it be in reference to Eddie being shot?

How would we go about this? I favor establishing more connections, but seeing as how they've just told us they want to put their man in I don't know what the point is...

Side note: Why are the tremere always trying to get us to sleep over? First Eames now this guy?

edit: A is tempting though - if only because Vogler still doesn't seem to stand much of a chance. Perhaps we should explore other candidates. What say you, bros?

Welll, the point is we can keep an eye on what they do with Edgar. They are Tremere after all, and we're letting them pump him full of unknown blood... and they're blood mages.

Trust not the Tremere.

Vogler's text sounded like a warning to me, saying: "don't come home tonight", if so, then he has his reasons. Rushing back to Vogler is a bad idea.

ALTERNATIVELY:

We could go to Iacomo and show him Vogler's text, maybe he'd be able to infer the meaning. Something is rotten in the City of London, I'd say.

I still think it's a better idea to use this opportunity with the Oxford Tremere *PRINCE*, remember we're being invited to stay by a Prince, not just some nobody with no power or persuasion, because he's a fucking Prince and because he's just saved Edgar's (un)life. He has done us a huge favour, whenn he might have let Edgar die. We should accept his hospitality.

I think the text is a red herring. Grotsnik's just screwing with us a bit just like with Mandrake. We're paranoid and he knows it.

I really doubt the Prince of Oxford would waste his time screwing with Eddie's head/blood. He's a prince and we're a 13th gen nothing that just happens to seem to have the ear of the archon for the moment. Not worth that much effort.

I would like to keep gaining points with Eddie though and you are right that he is a prince and we do need allies with power. I'll have to think about it.

I wouldn't be so certain that it's a red herring. Not every instance in this LP has been a red herring, I mean look at Bullcracker (Mandrake). That seemed like a red herring but it turned out to be something, and it might pop up again at a later date.

You make good point about the blood mages and our bro being pumped full of unknown blood in their hands. I forgot that aspect. A strong reason to stay nearby.

Another strong reason is that Sommers is invited into this Prince's presence. Normally to get an invite like that could cost us a vase or two. Now that we got it for nearly free, we should take advantage of that.

And a reason to avoid Iacomo is that he seems to get everything in his hands with no effort. Run to his side right now could just irritate him for no gain. Let him alone to swallow his portion from the loot, send a message to inform him of our unavoidable delay, and that's it.

Not a red herring? We all thought Mandrake was a big threat and he turned out not to be. Grot encouraged our paranoia and the rest is history. But you are right that it could come up later. That's why I suggested we phone Cripps, so in case something was wrong he could handle it. There's no reason to run all the way back to London just because Vogler sent us a cryptic message and won't answer his phone. (He's kind of a dick after all and dicks tend to do that sort of thing.)

Well, I agree and have in the past advocated our Phonecalls. I'd be happy if we (P)hone Cripps, but remember, he's a Nos too. If Vogler's message is Nos interference/hacking, then Cripps might not be the most trustworthy. Ghoul Antonia can't really do anything useful about this....

Why don't we (P)hone:

Costello

This elegant harpy takes her place, in the centre of a group of highly-fashionable, utterly devoted Kine admirers, in the Fleshmarket in Hoxton, a garish den of earthly pleasures. Costello’s popularity makes her difficult to reach, at times.

And try to find out any information about what's going on in London right now, while we've been away?

What about (P) Humphrey for clues as to what could be going on?

A) It wouldn't hurt to hear them out, especially not after them saving the bro of all bros. Besides, Tremere are far more than Vogler and his kind.

HUmphrey is now a civilian, yo. We deal with him in that capacity.

To deal with things in official capacity we use Horn. Yes, even this short operation is through Horn's office.

Also, dont even think about changing horse now. Thinking like that is playing straight into Tremere's hands. What we do is that meet and greet the Prince, see if he knows any more about this group of Hunters.

Just think about it. He know about the group, let them sit for a while to gather treasures, and only attack when there's outside's major reinforcement (media's control, kine assault squads). He might know more, and we need those info.

Something has just occurred to me - we don't necessarily need to get them to support Vogler, nor do we need to listen to their sales pitch to try and get us to throw our lot in with Brother David. We can work together.

Look at at this way: Brother David and Vogler are both considered long-shot candidates and are among the least likely people to be picked out for Prince. How about we suggest an alliance in which Sommers, Grocyn and possibly other Tremere around London like Shaul Artzi work together for the time being to discredit and marginalize the more likely candidates (i.e. Tarquin, Julian Fox) to ensure a both of our respective candidates get a leg-up in the race? The campaign is still in its early stages and I think that this is a good opening move. We can make efforts to encourage the Pell-mell Queen's ranting to push guys like Julian Fox to drop out. Finding information and creating misinformation to smear other Princely candidates is another obvious one.

I think we can definitely come up with a really mutually beneficial arrangement here. They keep pulling for their guy, we keep pulling for our guy, but we all work together (at least for now) to drag down anybody who has a better chance than either of us. Grocyn might not like the idea though since he may only want to use us for our relatively cordial relationship with the Archon so we can put in a good work for their Prince. Thoughts?

After all, we're here with Eddie anyways, so it would be consistent with our previous choice.

Neither does this guy. The election is still in its opening phase: remember that the Archon himself told us all to worry more about keeping our job than propping up our Prince. Once the election starts heating up, things will start getting very chaotic. Throw in the possibility of a full-scale Sabbat war in the near future and it will be very difficult to predict who is the "most likely" candidate. I believe that there are a lot of ways that we can make Vogler viable.

The Pell-Mell Queen part is disturbing... Something is up. :malkavianmadnessnetwork: Not to mention the Vogler text... also a bad portent or a warning, so they could be related:

Was that his horn?

(She listens)

No! He is not
coming home yet.
Bad dreams
disturbed my sleep.
Wildly his horse neighed;
Brünnhilde's laughter
wakened me.
Who was the woman
I saw walking to the river bank?
Brünnhilde frightens me!
Is she at home?

A) Because whatever happens, we're better off finishing our visit to Fellowes in style. If we leave now it was a futile gesture, but if we stay it's more than that - it's true bro making sure he's all right. Also, chatting with the Tremere chap seems like a good use of the remaining few hours of the night, and it's wind-down time anyway, since we already did our big earth-shattering action for the night.

A, in the hopes that ditching the treasure wasn't a complete fuck up

Edit: + (P) Horn

Not to mention it's too far and take too long to return now.

Actually, the drive from Oxford into London takes maybe an hour and a half. Although it's a much more tiresome journey at present, thanks to the damned Olympic lanes...

Speaking of Shaul Artzi, I just made up a joke:

What's the difference between a vampire and a jew?

Oh, I'm sure the Archon will just LOVE the effect this will have on Camarilla unity and stability. Having said that, I'm still in favour of A, even if only to see Eddie through. I believe it would be extremely rude to refuse the Prince's hospitality, especially after what he did for our man. I think we'll best use our time with the good Prince to extoll Vogler's virtues and reassure him that under our candidate's rule the Tremere would be fully protected. Then we can also mention how unlikely a candidate Brother David is after Eames' antics.
I believe the Archon will handle himself splendidly without our help. Do note, that he only wanted to be informed of the Hunters' whereabouts. We already did more than that.

A. We ought to stay a bit longer and see if Eddie wakes up.

P. Using the phone is not a bad idea. Maybe Cripps can find Vogler.

(A). The Prince may be backing Brother David now, but he must know it's a long shot. We might be able to talk him into supporting someone more likely to get it, and be sympathetic to the Tremere.It is important, I think you will agree, in nights like these, to be pragmatic. The London Camarilla simply will not support a Tremere candidate, given the... unfortunate situation with Eames. Unfair though that assessment may be. I'm sure you understand, Prince Grocyn. It's nothing personal; for myself I know such mud-raking is unfair to the Tremere, and owes more to politics than good sense...

The German quote comes from Act III scene 3 of Gotterdammerung, as Siegfried's body is returned. The other thing is culex, which is a genus of disease-carrying mosquito. So: something is returning that everyone thought was buried and done with.

Is it possible the itchy-feet Vogler fall prey to a Sabbat ambush?

:shrug: In that case returning now would be too late. I dont mind (P)hone Cripps and ask him to check on Vogler. If he use Nos network, we are ready to pay.

Nice title. Cassandra got her ears licked by serpents. Cassandra was always right in her predictions...

We established that the Vogler quote (he is not home yet) is from Gutrune, who schemed with Haden and wanted Siegfrieds cock in her mouth.
The whole story being:
Alberich stole gold from the Rhine maidens and made a ring to rule them all.
Wotan (God) did not remove it from the inventory but had to give it to some Giants.
Schemed to get it back.
His grandson, Siegfried, got it.
But got pwned by Alberich's son Haden.
Brünnhilde, Wotans daughter and Siegfrieds lover (yay incest) gives the ring back to the Rhine maidens and Valhalla gets blown up.


I dont see proper parallels. Having the ring is being Prince? Valhalla equals London? Siegfried is the Prince? Haden is grandson of the original ring owner who in our case is the old Prince? Vogler doesnt seem like a good Gutrune, as far as we know....




Anyway, I dont remember grotsnik ever giving coded and useful hints in the prose.

Is Malory Kempe hot? She is not a disgusting wizard either. She must be one of the Children of Osiris since she mentions Isis. Children of Osiris are pussy ass fucks with dumb ass disciplines and high humanity as prerequisite...


Still, fuck wizards and AAA.
Doing the grunt work in Iacomos place with BBB prolly is the most sensible option.

Voting CCC

That could work. We've already helped out Iacomo and there's really little we could do there in the few hours left this night. Flopping to A. More reasons below.

I'm also changing my (P)hone vote. The Vogler thing is a time waster. I think he was just making refference to Eddie being "killed" in battle. I put forth that we should (P)hone Horn and thank him for his help in all this. (P)hone Costello.

My rational is that the worst Turkov can do to us at this point is:
a) Show up and do damage control with Iacomo - making himself look like even more of a useless sycophant.
b) Visit Eddie in bed and try to win him over to his side - which he won't be able to do if we are with Eddie.
c) Somehow screw with our kine connections - ie, Horn who if we never called to begin with, we'd never have found out about the hunters.

Also, phoning Horn could do the same thing as us being with Iacomo - in other words, if there was a problem we could solve, Horn could do it for us and we could take credit.