Let's Play VtM: Wild Nights - Chapter 10

[Black Bart Charley]

I dont doubt that you could write a story why this random stranger nr7 on the street is super valuable but nobody is gonna pick option i. =P
in before someone picking it
Whens the next update? So I'll check this thread only once...

 

[SCO]

My choices are:
I) to find out the location of that number
B) to gift him with the vase, in the interests of contrition about our behavior on the meeting.
Let amanda leak.
(P) the nosferatu to set up a watch on the sabbat location

This is less complex and the setup in the day after ends the same.

P the anarchs, about the location of the sabbat when they move, the sabbat fucks up du Marchais, the anarch fuck up the sabbat we get terrence (alive or dead), and possibly du Marchais too if you roll him alive and we care (ambush).

Maybe tip the sheriff too, if we really want to remove the Bishop, though that is risky. The problem is one of timing. In the meeting scenario we controlled it, here they do. We need to have a reliable watch on the sabbat location too to see when they move. This means nosferatu-

 

[ironyuri]

1. View the footage first at home, asking Oscar to send it to you. Safer and less chance for interruption this way unless Dubrik attack your home (low chance). It's high chance that the video confirm of Sabbat involvement. It's low chance that it's not, and if that is the case the oldfang might well died already. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

2. Contact Bishop Dubrik. It's high chance that you can negotiate Terrance's release. In case if Sabbat's not involved, you can dig for more info from them and/or taunt them about others operate with impunity near their dens. The chance of losing AManda 's role of unwitting double agent is there but worth it. Her card has been played and her value plummet.

I'm with Lac on C

So:

1. C

But I'm with BBC on A.

so

2. A

My reasoning is similar: We need to see this footage, but we must reward Oscar for it somehow and we probably shouldn't try to farm him for information again for a little while, he's too valuable to mistreat. We should also talk to the Sheriff, we know a few things now that wedidn't before. We know about the disappearance by the Thames, we will know the truth about Rannigan, etc etc.

Dubrik thinks he has a spy in our ranks, so rather than alerting him straight off it would probably be best to feed misinformation and use the spy to our advantage. If we contact him immediately we will lose that trump card.

 

[grotsnik]

Whens the next update? So I'll check this thread only once...

Well, as a rule, I'll probably wait until all the regulars have voted, wait a little while longer, write up my chapter plan in full at work if I don't have anything to do, then post it, so...well, fuck knows. Sometime tomorrow or the day after, daytime GMT?

Sorry, I know that's not helpful. But tbh, you can just handily tell it's updated by when the thread title changes from 'Chapter 5' to Chapter 6'. I'd include chapter names as well, like root does, but the damn game name is just too long already...

 

[Black Bart Charley]

right the chapter numbers, but i easily forget what the last number was that i read
aye, 2 days it is, thx

 

[Esquilax]

i think we should buff up and then go visit the thing in the sewers tomorrow night. it sounds the most sensible option, they'll try to kill us again anyway and we don't have fellowes 24/7.

While I'm still hesitant about going on that little sewer adventure, I am totally with you about getting buff and learning how to wreck niggas. We aren't going to always have Edgar covering our ass - we gotta learn how to pull our own weight in the combat department. This will pay dividends greatly in the long-term.

Oh, and let's see Oscar's info on Rannigan. We need to see what he's got and show him some love for the great work he's been doing.

H, C

 

[laclongquan]

Concerning this:

1. We investigate the street info, Karchick and electronic info, Oscar.

2. We establish contact with Anarch, so it might say that we look them up.

3. Look Sabbat up is a bit too dangerous and action-oriented.

So that leave investigate the Prince's side and Du Marchais, Also Home Secretary. I think we could dig more info out of him since our networks there is very wide. Also it's curious that we cant just phone the man.

Okay, BBA and ironyuri convince me. No need to tip our hands with Sabbat yet. Sheriff it is.

Change my post-vote accordingly.

 

[zool]

Let's take some rest and stay home tonight.

H. (this will no doubt come in handy at some point)
C. (make Oscar send the video to us).

 

[SCO]

I had hoped to get rid of the sabbat/duMarchais threat to our person quickly. They are the most pressing, but not the most dangerous. I haven't forgotten the follower of set and exactly why he should be here.

I wonder if the most eldest moved from NY to London.

 

[laclongquan]

And oh boys but Codexers sure has survival instinct of a lemming. Storyteller as much as coming out to say Meeting Centurion has high chance of dead. Malk seeress also warn you of some deadly danger beneath, near waters.

I dont know about you but my finely honed sense of a Ventrue tell me dealing with Centurion underground is a bad idea, kinda like getting a suntan with tanning bed.

 

[SCO]

DP

 

[Serious_Business]

i think we should buff up and then go visit the thing in the sewers tomorrow night. it sounds the most sensible option, they'll try to kill us again anyway and we don't have fellowes 24/7.

root you can't thug through Masquerade. Leg work is for peons. I'll admit it gives some dignity to our guy if he knows how to handle himself AND control the checkpiece, but we have to capitalize on our synergies, I think.

Holy fuck guys, I'd just like to say - what a bro Oscar is, eh? We are an asshole to the poor guy over the phone and not only does he get us footage of Rannigan, he wiretaps our spy and gets us the Bishop's phone number.

If we want to do him a solid, we'll try to come up and look at the info in person. It would be wise to maintain such a great asset.

This is true. We have to be careful about how we handle our guys. There's some Napoleon shit we have to pull off. Not too friendly, but not too much of a cunt either. The point is to awe them into respect as much as possible. The Nos doesn't seem to respect us too much, which is not good. We shouldn't rely on him too much. In fact relying on anything at all is a bad idea. Which is why I can see the appeal in thugging it up - our own prowess won't fail on us. Alas, 'tis the risks of the métier, so we have to try to be a good socializer.

Speaking of which, we should have some blood thralls (vampires who drink our blood). The only real effective way to control people is blood bonds. The rest is too shaky. I used to have a char who would either kill you or blood bond you - it worked. Much better than putting our trusts into emotional Nos who don't like our tone of voice and want money. The political guys we're controlling should also be our ghouls - otherwise they can just be snatched up by our opponents at the wrong time. That's how I roll most of the time. Anyway, just putting it out there.

As ironyuri said, I think we could do more with the spy eventually, so we should really hold on to this. E would probably fail miserably without more planning, F is too risky without having buffed it up (GH).

That said I'm voting C.

The other choice - not sure. I don't see the point of going with A because we're supposed to do this on our own, not with the help of the sheriff (which basically comes down to going back to the prince without having done our job proprely). So... I don't know. I guess I'm really a peon at heart. So let's buff it up. Will probably be handy at some point. Voting H or G (whatever is the most picked) for second choice. Let's get ourselves a nice katana or some shit, and gain some experience points

Btw grotsnik you are a true bro

 

[ironyuri]

After reading SB's post, I'm reconsidering the options (apologies to Lac).

C still seems the best course of action to start with. It's imperative we know what happened to Rannigan before we go anywhere or do anything, obviously what we do next is dependant on that but since we're making two choices now (which we don't necessarily have to do), we're left with the rest of the options after C, most of which are unappealing.

A, now that I consider it more, would, as SB suggests, be returning to the Prince without having completed our job. Either the Prince and Sheriff fed us misinformation, or they are ignorant of the real situation and we should not be the ones to open the shutters. Finding Rannigan alive is to our advantage, doing it in secret or without them realising may be even more to our advantage. It does not seem we have anything to gain from A except either - making an enemy of the sheriff, B - trading for information we don't need or C - none of the above. If we ask for help we show weakness, if we try to laud our superior knowledge over the sheriff we may make an enemy (remember we don't have the Centurion on our side and he's the only one the Sheriff is afraid of).

Edit: Also, as in grotsnik's original post: the Sheriff does not like Ventrue, or our character very much. An early visit might give the Sheriff a reason to show us a sunrise for failure. Let's not tempt her until we can put the fear of god into her.

So... I change my vote to... yes.... I. (in before I!!!).

Because:

Humphrey, the home secretary is the one who gave the foreign office kine our telephone number. He owes us something for free and we have things need looking into, as has been said, Dubrik's phone number is one of those things and I'm sure there may be other benefits. We can't let the kine forget that he owes us big time after we saved his boy in the foreign office (maybe we can make him a ghoul?).


So:

C,I.

H would also be appealing, asking Fellowes to train us, but that may show him a weakness. Fellowes is our muscle and he knows it and we should keep it that way. We'll fight, but it's better we do so with our contacts and kine politicos are our trump card in these wild nights.

 

[grotsnik]

Also Home Secretary. I think we could dig more info out of him since our networks there is very wide. Also it's curious that we cant just phone the man.

You can - I just put him up there as an explicit choice in case you bros were forgetting about him, he hasn't been mentioned in a while.

Storyteller as much as coming out to say Meeting Centurion has high chance of dead. Malk seeress also warn you of some deadly danger beneath, near waters.

I dont know about you but my finely honed sense of a Ventrue tell me dealing with Centurion underground is a bad idea, kinda like getting a suntan with tanning bed.

We don't know what the thing is underground yet, but it probably isn't the Centurion (this shit is starting to get complex, though - should I start putting a 'story so far' plot summary in the OP for anyone who wants reminding of anything?

DP

THERE IS NO P OPTION PLEASE CHOOSE AGAIN

Btw grotsnik you are a true bro

Thanks, and thanks for the thoughts! I'll try to fit in some possibilities of ghoul creation/blood bond in the near future.

Incidentally, should any of you ever happen to find yourselves in Blackfriars, near to where our hero found himself tonight, I recommend walking a short distance to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a narrow, three-storey little Sam Smiths pub in an alleyway off Fleet Street with surprisingly cheap beer for Central London and a truly awesome name.

 

[Ulminati]

Reading this has made it abundantly clear I know *nothing* about World of Darkness, since half the stuff that happens seems to go over my head. Still, entertaining read. Will keep reading, just not participate in the voting. Like some creepy kid, staring at you from across the road.

Always staring...

 

[SCO]

Err, i meant double post.

my choices were:

My choices are:
I) to find out the location of that number
B) to gift him with the vase, in the interests of contrition about our behavior on the meeting.
Let amanda leak.
(P) the nosferatu to set up a watch on the sabbat location

This is less complex and the setup in the day after ends the same.

P the anarchs, about the location of the sabbat when they move, the sabbat fucks up du Marchais, the anarch fuck up the sabbat we get terrence (alive or dead), and possibly du Marchais too if you roll him alive and we care (ambush).

Maybe tip the sheriff too, if we really want to remove the Bishop, though that is risky. The problem is one of timing. In the meeting scenario we controlled it, here they do. We need to have a reliable watch on the sabbat location too to see when they move. This means nosferatu-

The rationale SB gives about bloodbonds is solid. Let's make Terrance/duMarchais our blood bonded inferiors as soon as we can.

If by some bad luck Terrance is not there, oh well. We still fucked up our immediate enemies and got a bit of goodwill from the anarchs, and it didn't cost anything.

 

[SCO]

Is Bishop Dubrik Lasombra or Tzimisce ?

 

[grotsnik]

Is Bishop Dubrik Lasombra or Tzimisce ?

He is Lasombra, as befits a spymaster.

From the updated contact list;

9 - Liverpool: Bishop Dubrik (P only). You first became aware of Dubrik's name after successfully intercepting a convoy heading out of London containing a certain Ancient Mesopotamanian vase...a theft which no doubt resulted in his recent attempt to have you killed. Further investigation has resulted in a little more information about the Lasombra spymaster, whose contacts stretch out across much of England from his Liverpool headquarters, as well as a few audio recordings of the man's bloodthirsty speeches against the Camarilla, sent out to Sabbat members nationwide. It was Dubrik's intervention, you've heard, that led to the assassination of many of the prominent Birmingham barons the year before last.

 

[Storyfag]

I) *PHONE* the Home Secretary and ask him to check up on Bishop Dubrik's phone number;
H) Train a bit with Fellowes;
C) *VISIT* Oscar. With a nice gift, perhaps.

we have to capitalize on our synergies

Now *THAT* is proper Ventrue speak

Speaking of which, we should have some blood thralls (vampires who drink our blood)

Doesn't the Camarilla look down on such things? Not nearly as aggresively as the Sabbat, but I think it's due to the Camarilla's objection that each and every Tremere neonate is not *completely* bound to the Council of Seven...

 

[Serious_Business]

Doesn't the Camarilla look down on such things? Not nearly as aggresively as the Sabbat, but I think it's due to the Camarilla's objection that each and every Tremere neonate is not *completely* bound to the Council of Seven...

You might be right about that. I mostly played Vampire in a medieval setting, where things are less regulated, so I was free to plot things at will without institutionalised assholes looking over me. However, nothing stops us from bending the rules here as blood bonds can't be spotted are not necessarly obvious (why announce it to everyone?). But either way, I know I was the one who mentionned this, but I don't think blood bonds should override each and every relationship problems we could have. It does become a bit dull - if safe. Establishing a blood bond should be hard, either way.

i'm going with SB on this

only i think we should do either G/H before C. you never know.

can you make a blood-bond without the vamp noticing?

I remember having an argument about that. I don't think the rules make this clear, but I don't think you can go around putting your blood in the water and expecting everyone to love you the next night, either. Basically I think the drinker has to somehow know that the effect he/she is receiving from the blood comes from you - so they are basically addicted to you, not the blood.

And yeah, G/H before C. This episode is kind of a mess in terms of options, because there isn't a fluid flow between the two options we take. One option could potentially affect the other one

 

[Storyfag]

yes but can we do that covertly? can we, for instance, use our connection with the Home Sec to taint the water in London with our blood and create a legion of unvawering ghouls?

No. A ghoul needs half a litre of your blood to become blood-bound. A vampire needs three such doses.

 

[grotsnik]

EDIT:

Spoiler

A ghoul is a person who drinks the blood of a kindred and who is willed into servitude by that kindred.

So working that shit on multiple, identity-unknown people in the city is impossible, even if you could possibly put enough blood in the water supply to do so.

As to creating the bond with Karthik, I'd want to check, but common sense suggests you'd need to overpower his (possibly considerable) willpower by some amount...and the amount of blood needed would definitely be way, way more than the size of your standard hookah water jar. Shame, as it's the sort of cunning plan appropriate to our Ventrue.

 

[Kz3r0]

G) Pick up some weaponry.

I) Visit the Home Secretary.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Goddamn self fulfilling prophecies. Next time I am not gonna mention the option no one is gonna pick.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Traitor at Work