Let's Play VtM: Night Empire

[Kalin]

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.

 

[laclongquan]

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.

 

[Esquilax]

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...

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.

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?

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.

 

[CappenVarra]

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.

 

[oscar]

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

Edit: + (P) Horn

 

[laclongquan]

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

 

[grotsnik]

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...

 

[ironyuri]

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

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

Spoiler

One is a parasite feeding on the lifeblood of the innocent, the other doesn't like garlic.

 

[Storyfag]

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?

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.

 

[Gondolin]

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.

 

[Deleted Member 10432]

(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.

 

[laclongquan]

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.

 

[Running Fox]

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

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

(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...

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.

 

[Cassidy]

A

For Eddie mostly, and as a gesture of goodwill considering what they did for your personal lifesaver. Also, personally I'm in favor of not power playing at all and staying neutral to give a lasting impression he cares more about the stability of the Cammy than about short-term interests. Sommers isn't enough of an oldfag to get much higher than he already is anyway.

One more vote for Phone Horn.

 

[Esquilax]

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 also suggest we (P)hone Cripps about Vogler's message.
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.

Makes sense. Probably best not to fuck around while we're still on the potential chopping block. Doing something stupid right after handling the Hunter situation so well will piss off the Archon greatly if he finds out.

Lambchop19: I don't quite understand the rationale behind calling Horn. What's the point? Just to say thanks? I'm probably missing something, since I don't see how it advances our interests. I'm sure there are better uses of our phone call.

What about (P) Turcov? Maybe we can call him up asking to meet sometime later to discuss potential Princely candidates or talk about how to deal with the Sabbat? Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Who knows, he might let something slip. We've acted pretty deferentially towards Turcov up to this point: we offered Eddie to the Archon at Turcov's behest, and we kept our mouth shut when the Pell-mell Queen arrived. Why not use it to our advantage?

Alternatively, Humphrey might give us a clue about what's going down, but I think ironyuri already pieced it together as a reference to Wagner's opera. I'd rather not send Cripps to watch Vogler, since it seems reasonable that Vogler was being a bro by giving Tony a heads-up. I don't think that anybody is out to get Vogler or pull him out of the race simply because he isn't important or high-profile enough. I could see someone trying to knock of Julian Fox or Tarquin, but nobody is going to bother with Vogler because they don't see him as a threat (yet).

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Lambchop19: I don't quite understand the rationale behind calling Horn. What's the point? Just to say thanks? I'm probably missing something, since I don't see how it advances our interests.

We call, say thanks, ask for updates on how things are going, make sure he's not being hasseled by Turkov... Just a way to keep in control of the situation without being there. Also, saying thanks helps us not seem like an ungrateful prick - esp. after we just caused him so much trouble.

 

[Esquilax]

We call, say thanks, ask for updates on how things are going, make sure he's not being hasseled by Turkov... Just a way to keep in control of the situation without being there. Also, saying thanks helps us not seem like an ungrateful prick - esp. after we just caused him so much trouble.

Good point. Calling Horn's a good idea because after this raid being on the news everywhere, he is probably facing a lot of questions and catching heat from his colleagues in government. He might need our help during the aftermath and it would be wise to maintain an asset like him after what he's done for us. Hell, we've secured our spot in Whitehall because of him. Still, I don't think Turcov would be so brazen as to go after our Kine contacts so openly with the Archon in town.

As far as being an ungrateful prick, well, he's our ghoul so he's going to do whatever we want regardless of how much of an asshole Tony is.

Maybe we can convince Eddie to spy on Turcov, though after barely escaping death, I'm not sure if he's keen to go on another suicide mission for us. Probably best not to ask him. That's why I'd much rather call Turcov and get some spying done on our own.

A
(P) Turcov

 

[Storyfag]

As far as being an ungrateful prick, well, he's our ghoul so he's going to do whatever we want regardless of how much of an asshole Tony is.

Wait, what? We ghoulified Horn? When?

Anyway, you guys convinced me to not call Cripps. But choosing between Horn and Turcov at the moment (while I'm unsure of Horn's ghoul status) is hard.

 

[laclongquan]

Calling Turcov now for what, I wonder? In the stage he's in right now, it will sounds like gloating to him.

 

[ironyuri]

I still think we should phone Costello. If anything is happening in London, anything big, she'll have the gossip.

I'm sure Horn will have alot of questions to answer, but with Iacomo dominating some backstory into the Bishop's mind, which will be fed to the media, Horn will be getting fast-tracked for promotion for being the one to conduct a successful operation to save an important political figure... in the wake of a big national event.

I think phoning him is not necessarily a bad move, but it's more consolidation of our previous actions, no new information. The message from Vogler hints at something brewing in London, and at the opening of the update in which something big is going down, Tony of course doesn't know about this (IC), and we do, (OOC), however, the message from Vogler hints at this or something else. We can't get ahold of Vogler, so why not just phone the Harpie?

We could trade her information: the Bishop of Oxford was held by Hunters, the Archon crushed them. She could put the word out, which will put the wind up Turcov if he catches it... and in return she might tell us if anything big has hit London.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Agree, phone the harpy. That or Cripps to go check on Vogler

 

[ironyuri]

Also, for more information on Culex, from Wikipedia (blech):

Culex ("The Gnat")

This is a pastoral epyllion in 414 hexameters which evokes the world of Theocritus and employs epic conventions for comic effect in a parody. The poem opens with an address to the young Octavian, a promise of more poems, an invocation of Apollo, and a prayer for Octavian's success. The poet has a priamel in which he rejects the Battle of the Gods and Giants and historical epic. It is noon, and a poor but happy shepherd, who lacks the refinements of classical luxury, is tending his flocks when he sees a grove of trees, a locus amoenus, and lies down to rest. The mythical metamorphoses of the trees in the grove are described. As he sleeps, a snake approaches him and is ready to bite when a gnat lands on his eyes. Reflexively killing the gnat he awakes, sees the snake and kills it. That night, the gnat appears to the shepherd in a dream, laments its undeserved fate, and gives a long description of the underworld and the souls of the dead mythological heroes there, allowing it to digress. The gnat especially focuses on the story of Eurydice and the Trojan War. The gnat goes on to describe famous Roman heroes and then his audience before Minos to decide his fate. When he awakes, the shepherd constructs a heroon to the gnat in the grove and the poet has a flower-catalogue. The shepherd inscribes it with the inscription "Little gnat, to you deservedly the guard of the flock repays his funeral duty for your gift of life." The Culex cannot be one of Virgil's juvenalia because it alludes to the full body of his work; thus, it is usually dated to sometime during the reign of Tiberius. The poem has been variously interpreted as a charming epyllion or as an elaborate allegory in which the shepherd symbolizes Augustus and the gnat Maecenas.[5]

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Wait, what? We ghoulified Horn? When?

Anyway, you guys convinced me to not call Cripps. But choosing between Horn and Turcov at the moment (while I'm unsure of Horn's ghoul status) is hard.

Horn isn't our ghoul. Just a connection. I'm 99% certain of this. grotsnik?
But I'm 100% wrong. Sorry, E.


edit: Costello is hard to get a hold of. Says it in her description, so phoning her may just lead to a voicemail and while we might agitate Turkov into revealing his next move, we may also piss him off to the point where he wants to crush us. Right now we are an annoyance to him and nothing more. Let's not get in over our heads and make him angry enough to want to kill us and our bros, bros.

The main benefit of phoning Horn is that we mantain our relationship, so that he doesn't get too stressed and try to skip the country for a while or just start dodging our calls when we need him. Also, it'd be good to make sure he gets the story straight when talking to the press. (Since these particular 'muslim terrorists' are wearing crosses...)

Flopping the (P)hone vote to Costello. Even if we get voicemail, it's time Tony got on update on London.

 

[Esquilax]

Anyway, you guys convinced me to not call Cripps. But choosing between Horn and Turcov at the moment (while I'm unsure of Horn's ghoul status) is hard.

From our Contacts list in the first page:

Politicians, as Sommers has come to learn, are replaced too soon; there’s no mileage in them. Civil servants of Her Majesty’s Government do not have to concern themselves with re-election, and all policy – foreign and domestic – requires the say-so of the Treasury. William Horn, wheezing, greedy and saturnine, is a truly useful ghoul.

Tony handled this potentially messy situation quite well. The Archon is pleased, Bishop Shaw is safe and keeping a story consistent with the narrative we want, and we spun the whole thing into a spoiled terrorist plot on the eve of the London Olympics. William Horn will be commended for his efforts in defusing the situation.

Turcov might try to fuck with him, but I don't see how he'd do so right now.

But if we want to find out his next move, might not hurt to rekindle our "friendship" and get together to discuss Prince candidates and how to deal with the Sabbat. Calling Costello is a good move as well, I'm in favour of either.