Let's Play VtM: Wild Nights - Chapter 10

[SCO]

First, I am not talking about going outside before the night of the ambush. I am all for staying inside to train and rest. We will go out ONLY when we estimate the time draw near and we need to hide ourself around to provide backup to Jamieson.The safety of Jamieson rank right at the top with the elimination of Angelos. If we kill Angelos but lose him at the same time, I count that as a loss.

Which is why i suggested leaving the flame thrower in the bolthole. He will handle it after angelos is dead and the (surviving, if there are any) pack is in shock and grief. Unexpected snapping of a probably decades long vinculium should confuse them enough to go get the flamethrower and kill them. More, they won't believe it because they have a vinculium with Jaimeson.

More than enough with oscar to watch. Give him a shotgun as a last resort. I strongly disprove going out, like the storyteller indicated. We don't have others with obfuscate, otherwise i would send another with him though. Maybe letting him go with jaimeson as a spotter for him (Fellowes has auspex, so he should be able to avoid shotting obfuscated oscar) in case some shovelheads escape the wrath of Jaimeson.

Second, if we let Oscar decide when to blow the trap, it will backfire badly in term of our relation with him. This trap has incredible risk for a low rank guy like Oscar. If it fails, all parties involved will blame him. If it succeeds, there's not enoughcredits to trigger down to the button-masher. He will think, rightly so, that we choose him to be our patsy. He will either transfer the 'honor' to the nearest authority which is Baroness Samantha Eames then get the fuck out of Dodge. To make it more concretely, you are a normal marketing staff, then your department head as well as your CEO ask you to sign a big contract. What will you do? Right. It smells of traps and patsies alright.

This is a good argument. But still i disapprove of leaving. Make him carry only a relay transmitter - to put near the building. Then they could act as a sniper team to eliminate shovelheads that manage to get out from the Jaimeson flamethrower.

I think them working together would make them happy a little.

 

[Storyfag]

Remember, one of the big reasons we pulled this off was to see how he'd act now that he believes we are no longer a threat.

That got me thinking... how about we ask Oscar to spy on Du Marchais? It'd be nice if he confirmed what the good Sheriff has told us, for example. She claims the Prince and Du Marchais know that Rannigan is alive. Maybe they do not.

Also, do not, even for a hartbeat, doubt that our safehouse is bugged. For all we know, the Council of Seven in Vienna might be watching a live feed of our reunion with Oscar! And Eames is certainly evesdropping.

@SCO:
Edgar can ill afford leaving the safehouse. He's in the same situation as Anthony is. Anyone sees him and the ruse is up.

Regarding diablerie:
Generation is power. We need power to survive and thrive in the vampire world. And of course we'll do it at a later point! Setting Du Marchais up will take time.

 

[SCO]

Tremere chantries are notorious i agree. The description of the awareness powers of the gargoyles leaves no doubt that they can listen to everything in one.

 

[SCO]

EDIT: all the same, I do prefer to leave this blood bond pack to much later until Sommers get more backbone, more willpower. This is too unorthodox to try it now or in the near future. This smell too much of Tremere black magic or Sabbatical practice that we need a tight hold over our straitlaced allies like Edgar before we even introduce it.

There is no rush: Eanes must research the curse and try to find a way around it. But the idea of it, should be planted now, at least with her.

The debriefing of Jaimeson is a ideal time. It may happen by itself. As for straightlaced Edgar and cautious Oscar. I am expecting events will make things quite more desperate. Necessity will be the mother of invention - with a little push.

Regarding diablerie:
Generation is power. We need power to survive and thrive in the vampire world. And of course we'll do it at a later point! Setting Du Marchais up will take time.

No. It is power to low low generation vamps that are fucking old and don't have allies or depend on them or are in the sabbat that follows paths that encourage it.

Doing it among the vampires that purposefully maintain high humanity, that love auspex so would detect it pretty much instantly, that are strongly hierarchical - well, i don't think its a great idea. Lose all allies except ... eanes maybe, that belongs to a clan of cannibals. In fact, the whole point of the vaulderie ritual is to break this hold of the high generation bloodbonds.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Uh uh, open voting. Great. You guys, you guys, I want to go outside and catch a little pretty 15-16 years old schoolgirl and fuck, torture her for a while and then drain and kill her! Who is with me?

I don't like where this is going.
First you get people asking if they are allowed to vote
Then you essentially exclude everyone from affecting the direction of where the lp is going except those wall-o-text maniacs...

And meanwhile:

You push yourself up onto your feet.
"And do you," you ask her, stepping forward to face her , "trust me, Erika?"
She hesitates. For a moment, she gazes deep into your eyes.
"Fuck, no," she tells you.

Next thing you know, she will be blushing... That was embarassing to read in my mind. Oh, and I have a surprise for you, Anthony, here is Oscar, you can have him back. I lub you.

I hope this shit crumbles down like a cardhouse and we die horribly and painfully in the the next few updates.

Yes, I am a hater, deal with it. M:

 

[SCO]

laclongquan has a point. Jaimeson should have a backup on site, but i don't want to send the sheriff. I like my idea of the gangrel contacting the gangrel too much.

It's a pity that oscar doesn't appear old enough to have this bad boy:
••••• Cloak the Gathering [5]: Extend your Obfuscate powers to others

I think that we should risk allowing fellowes to go with him. But disguise him somehow.

 

[Storyfag]

Uh uh, open voting. Great. You guys, you guys, I want to go outside and catch a little pretty 15-16 years old schoolgirl and fuck, torture her for a while and then drain and kill her! Who is with me?

Ah, if we were only playing a Tzimisce...

But noooo, you guys had to vote for a Ventrue

I think that we should risk allowing fellowes to go with him. But disguise him somehow.

That's a bad idea which will end in disaster.

 

[SCO]

Fine. I'm open to alternatives. Ask Eanes? Let him go alone, just as a ace in the hole?

 

[GarfunkeL]

Ask Oscar to spy on Du Marchais, is my vote.

 

[Esquilax]

Agreed with Storyfag. Under no circumstances do I want to leave and blow Donnie's cover - I am not budging on that. Goes for Edgar as well. We need to fucking sit tight. Root's suggestion about having a heart to heart with Edgar and maybe learning some combat skills/talking about our fear of mortality is the way to go here. We have played our part already, getting involved now is a bad idea.

However, laclongquan is also right in that getting Oscar to perform a high-risk mission just after we've mended fences with him is also a bad idea and he will probably take it quite poorly. So how about a compromise: Oscar will provide recon and surveillance for Erika Schiller, while the Sheriff and her people provide a quick diversion for Donnie if things look desperate for him. That way, Oscar is not putting his neck on the line, we aren't blowing Donnie's cover by revealing ourselves, and someone far more capable than us at combat can buy Donnie enough time to run out of the cave and set off the explosives. I think it's a more well-rounded solution.

Also, what would be the benefit of spying on du Marchais? We already have evidence of him lying and we know about his schemes. If we get Oscar to keep tabs on someone, why not the Prince? His angendas or way more murky and there is much less we know about Kirkbeck than we do about du Marchais.

 

[grotsnik]

You push yourself up onto your feet.
"And do you," you ask her, stepping forward to face her , "trust me, Erika?"
She hesitates. For a moment, she gazes deep into your eyes.
"Fuck, no," she tells you.

Yeah, that turned out pretty bishouwhateverthefuckitscalled. Fairly awful. In my defence, it was supposed to be funny.

I don't like where this is going.
First you get people asking if they are allowed to vote
Then you essentially exclude everyone from affecting the direction of where the lp is going except those wall-o-text maniacs...

Not sure what you want me to do about any of this, though. Stop people from expanding on their ideas?

 

[SCO]

sleep now

 

[Murk]

Not sure what you want me to do about any of this, though. Stop people from expanding on their ideas?

Disregard it -- as nice as BBC's artwork is -- his posting both in and out of this thread is arbitrarily volatile and caustic. I'm having a blast reading through the updates -- makes me wish I could have had you for a DM/GM back in the when.

EDIT: On the topic of choice formation, I personally don't have the time to read everyone's input to then think over and offer my own creative solution -- so I usually prefer actual categorical votes, makes it easier for me, but if the majority of the people taking part are all about blah-blahing different solutions then more power to it, I'm mostly enjoying seeing where things go more than taking part in the decision making process.

 

[Esquilax]

Not sure what you want me to do about any of this, though. Stop people from expanding on their ideas?

Think the open vote mechanic is fine, however, I would suggest keeping the updates the same way as you have before: you have a list of options to provide some sort of a baseline to work from, but leave things relatively open to modification if it makes sense.* For instance, when we were first discussing how to get the Caecilian info to the Sabbat, you had four options listed and we expanded based on those options. We had a list of suggestions to work from, but here, things are so open that everybody's mind is going in different directions. It's all very Malkavian.

Which is fine, I love the way that you're running this by allowing us to work some solutions on the fly, but right now isn't much of a discussion because there isn't really much of a focus.

* Obviously, in some cases, modification shouldn't be allowed. For example, if you specify that we're only involved one phone call, the point is to restrict our choice so that we think carefully about who we need to call.

 

[laclongquan]

Let me make this clear: I advocate leaving the safehouse ONLY to provide backup for Jamieson. Not for anyother reason. Asking Erika to provide backup for him (by way of Oscar) is a good idea but do be minded of the fact that she doesnt like our Malk much. But even so I still think we need to rescue Donnie ourself, as a diversion at least.

I know it's risky but we cant leave the battlefield of our own design. We cant and we shouldnt.

Asking Oscar to watch our back while we go rescue that lunatic is another good idea. It's low chance he will agree to accompany us, though: Oscar show all signs of a sneak, not a brute. Still, if he can provide battlefield intelligence it's good enough.

As for what he will keep an eye on, now that I think about it, The Kueijin make a good target. We are quite interested in what they smuggled in since the start. Terrance's territory, that barony of his down south, make for second target. We have to think of further step once this trap sprung, after all. Du Marchais is another target, but it's my vendetta talking.

 

[laclongquan]

You push yourself up onto your feet.
"And do you," you ask her, stepping forward to face her , "trust me, Erika?"
She hesitates. For a moment, she gazes deep into your eyes.
"Fuck, no," she tells you.

Yeah, that turned out pretty bishouwhateverthefuckitscalled. Fairly awful. In my defence, it was supposed to be funny.

It is funny. And it threw people off stride. Though a few think she's just Tsundere, some here distrust her because of that. So no, I think it's fine the way it is. Clues that make people argue about its meaning are interesting.

 

[Lord Andre]

Ups, I didn't realize the castle was so far away.

In that case I vote on the following actions in that order:

- Stay hidden for now.
- Get some combat training and man up about the death thing.
- Talk to our boy Eddie about getting some extra muscle with a name. None of that brujah cannon fodder that die before the fight starts.
- Keep the sheriff and the tremere in the dark about the new info from Oscar. We should be gathering info not giving it away for a wink and a pat on the back.
- Have Oscar keep an eye on the Prince's agents for us - if the sheriff tells him of our plan I'm sure he'd just love to steal the credit.
- Leave Du Marqais alone for now, he's an idiot and will probably die by his own doing as a collateral victim in the following stuggle.

Edit: Also I fully agree with the idea to provide backup ourselves for Jamieson when the time comes. The malk is one of our best assets and we should protect said assets. Plus he's cool - james bond in shorts and sandals - hate for anything bad to happen to him...

 

[Black Bart Charley]

del

 

[Esquilax]

Let me make this clear: I advocate leaving the safehouse ONLY to provide backup for Jamieson. Not for anyother reason. Asking Erika to provide backup for him (by way of Oscar) is a good idea but do be minded of the fact that she doesnt like our Malk much. But even so I still think we need to rescue Donnie ourself, as a diversion at least.

Erika doesn't like anybody much, let alone Donnie. It's incredibly risky and we'd be getting nothing out of it. We may have initiated this plan, but now that we've played our part, it would be downright irresponsible and out of character to start playing the hero. Getting involved personally could be a disaster. Even if Anthony was a hardened combat vet I'd be against leaving the safehouse because we'd endager everything we've worked towards. We have earned a ton of good will with the Sheriff, it's time to use it. Don't blow Donnie's cover.

Oscar is a sneak, so it's all the more reason he be around to provide recon and surveillance for Schiller with his cameras to provide her with a tactical advantage. It doesn't put Oscar at great risk, so he'll readily agree to it, and it gives Schiller a better chance of surviving and getting Donnie out. And all without revealing ourselves.

I think we need to focus our attention on this plan right now and not have our mind on other things now that we have things coming together. The Kuei-jin, Rannigan, du Marchais - those things are secondary right now, and we need to be focused on seeing this shit through.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Not sure what you want me to do about any of this, though. Stop people from expanding on their ideas?

Get back to normal voting. Those who want to expand on it, expand.
You have a core of 5 or so obsessed readers who pushed this thread 5 pages in no time. You certainly write for them but imo you may lose out on additional audience (maybe not). And its unfair, as far as this word is adequate, to those who dont want to write tldr posts but still want to influence the story a bit at least on those decisions where 1 vote is deciding. Right now, its them doing the story crafting and you are just a word-vessel and lurkers who would maybe vote stay lurkers and I dont want to write longish, futile posts explaining my subjective and unpopular opinion...

By the looks of it, I seem to like antagonizing people but I dont, I just cant help it, well, I can, but its like betraying yourself and carving a new character. :/

 

[Storyfag]

So how about a compromise: Oscar will provide recon and surveillance for Erika Schiller, while the Sheriff and her people provide a quick diversion for Donnie if things look desperate for him. That way, Oscar is not putting his neck on the line, we aren't blowing Donnie's cover by revealing ourselves, and someone far more capable than us at combat can buy Donnie enough time to run out of the cave and set off the explosives. I think it's a more well-rounded solution.

It is and I support it.

HOWEVER

I'd like to keep the option to get to Battersea if things go to shit open. Once the Sabbat are in the Caecilian's cave we don't have any more reasons to feign death. And we just *might* happen to be needed there. I'd like to know where the safehouse is and how fast can we get from it to Battersea.

Also, what would be the benefit of spying on du Marchais? We already have evidence of him lying and we know about his schemes. If we get Oscar to keep tabs on someone, why not the Prince? His angendas or way more murky and there is much less we know about Kirkbeck than we do about du Marchais.

Well, the Prince might be intimidating to someone of Oscar's station... Du Marchais less so.

 

[Lord Andre]

I thought the open vote thing was just for this ocassion, being a turning point and all... If given the choice I too prefer the regular voting with options to pick from.

Also I'd like to stress this idea since it might save our ass in the future:

- Talk to our boy Eddie about getting some extra muscle with a name. None of that brujah cannon fodder that die before the fight starts.

 

[laclongquan]

You have no brain and you cant think? Both of us are playing dead in that safehouse, how the hell Eddie can procure such mystical character for you without blowing this charade? And contrary to what you believe, that generic muscle got name. The dead one is Mike IIRC. The alive is, hum, I dont remember. And Eddie is working for you so his resource is very limited. What he know he already provide (two Brujah and Oscar).

As Storyfag put so eloquently: we do need to keep a close eye on Battersea in case things blow wide open. And as I said earlier, we two are the final reserve, the last resource that we can use reliably. We need to be near there to rescue Jamieson, which is the whole reason we get out of safehouse in the 1st place.

Just stay and train with Eddie. Once Oscar report that there's suspicious movment near Battersea we sneak in near and wait, jump in only when the timing is right.

 

[Lord Andre]

And apparently you can't read ?
"Talk to our boy Eddie about getting some extra muscle with a name."

I don't want Eddie to teleport muscle into the safehouse. However, because of his "trade", Eddie probably knows muscle of the mercenary variety. When I say "with a name", I mean equal in combat power to him or perhaps better - it's a metaphor. So, when we DO get out of the safehouse, to watch over Jamieson( according to your plan) - Eddie can make a phone call and hire a good mercenary to join up with us in the sewers. It would cost a lot of money probably, but a ventrue in our position should have that.

Second, it's sort of a story proposal since this is an open vote. If it doesn't go well with the story grotsnik planned then no problem.

Third, even if the mercenary hiring would require a lot more time then a simple phone call, my proposal was that we should start looking for such a candidate soon, and Eddie is one of the people that actually may have knowledge of such things. He's right there with us in the safehouse, what would be the harm in asking him ?

 

[Esquilax]

I'd like to keep the option to get to Battersea if things go to shit open. Once the Sabbat are in the Caecilian's cave we don't have any more reasons to feign death. And we just *might* happen to be needed there. I'd like to know where the safehouse is and how fast can we get from it to Battersea.

If we're needed, sure we can head down there, though I'd rather avoid it if possible. We've got an opportunity to do a lot of manipulation/spying from the shadows, and I'd like to stay dead if possible in order to do some maneuvering on du Marchais.

@ Lord Andre: Right now, I'd rather not have Eddie or us making phone calls to anyone (even if it's as we're heading to the power station), as I don't want Donnie's cover getting blown until the very last second. Having Erika and Oscar work together is a good synergy - Oscar's surveillance will make the Sheriff's people more effective, while at the same time Oscar isn't in harm's way.

So, my final vote is:

- Sit tight with Edgar in the safehouse, talk about our brush with death. Ask him what the fuck it was she fed us and where she got the blood.
- Don't tell Schiller about Rannigan.
- Get Oscar to coordinate surveillance with Schiller so that they can get Donnie out if it looks like he's in trouble.