Let's Play VtM: Night Empire

[Cassidy]

D

phone the archon and get him and erika to join your attack.

Seconded.

 

[Gondolin]

Update, yay! And a bunch of bad options, yay!

A - No. One step closer to putting their candidate in charge of the city? No, thanks.

B - No fucking way. This isn't a "search team".

C - Interesting. Provided we can hold a surrounded and constantly attacked base.

D - Tempting. I need to think about this.

E - Even more tempting. If we could draw a high-profile target, it would be worth it. This is what our team lives for: striking hard and fast where it matters. The problem is that the only thing the Sabbat needs to do is... not show up. Or, worse, send a wave of Russian infantry shovelheads to overwhelm our defenses.

F - No.

I'd vote E right now, but I want Cripps's report first. Damn.

On a side note, it's good to know that Erika still remembers us... fondly.

 

[Gondolin]

D

phone the archon and get him and erika to join your attack.

The archon dropped his already broken phone. It could've ended up in the mud. It's worth a shot, but...

 

[Smashing Axe]

C, I like Esquilax's interrogation idea.

 

[laclongquan]

If we can survive the capture attempt, chaps. Very big IF. I want to explore the dark tunnels as much as the next man, since our candidate is Down there. But the damn thing is too dangerous to risk.

 

[Storyfag]

Capturing that pack near Witanhurst would indeed be a good start for getting at least SOME intel. Though rescuing the Troeadors is tempting too.

A VERY tentative vote for D. And phone Horn, demanding satellite footage of Soho.

 

[Running Fox]

updates!

I was surfing the interwebz yesterday and came across this thingy.

I had to look up the word "copse" and now I read it a second time in my life in the timeframe of 2 days. Itz sign.

So hoped Schiller to be one of the Sabbat dogs while reading the cameo...
Whats with the militant feminism gesture?




What the fuck does stronghold or strong position or valuable ground means inside the biggest-oldest organic city on the planet in a guerrilla war? Its not WW1, ya know...
As far as I see it, the tougher side wins. And the way to win is to start popping the heavy hitters. Or run.

A) Co-ordinate your team with the Tremere to meet at Greenwich - mages... disgusting and honorless, did you know that the best sprinters in the whole world are the 13 gen mages?
B) Send the team into the sewers in search of the Nosferatu - they dont want to be found and i dont feel like going after vogler anymore, that turncoat spy
C) Take it slow; establish a base in Wistanhurst/Knightsbridge/delete as appropriate, eradicating any Sabbat presence, and go from there. You'll gain a foothold, but in the meantime the Sabbat will almost certainly gain valuable ground. - what for? so theyll know where to find us when theyve killed all the important dudes?
E) There’s only one way to draw the Sabbat out for certain; make a target of yourself. Head into the city personally and set the team up to ambush the Sabbat who’ll come after you. Like they say, no risk... - no fun, they'll send shovelheads if anyone even notices...
F) Why, surely Connaught will keep his promise about giving the Camarilla time to leave the city! Wait it out here for 24 hours to allow the Oxford reinforcements to catch up to you, then choose another option as appropriate. - more waiting? we should have been killing the Gadfly last update...



D) The Toreador are clearly in trouble, and if the Sabbat can establish a permanent beachhead on the north side of the river in the old Elysium, they’ll be in a far stronger position. Send the team into Soho, quickly.

START KILLING

 

[oscar]

C. It seems our weakness here is intel. Helping out the Toreador is tempting though. Tremere can look after themselves and assuming we win this war it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if they got a little roughed up.

+ phone the Archon. Hey it's worth a shot.

 

[Esquilax]

Not sure if interrogation will work, don't know if they'll talk. It's important to remember that the ghoul squad is a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. I don't like the idea of sending them out to help the Toreador because it puts them in the kind of battle that I'm not sure they're designed for. We could be heading into a potential killzone.

I think we're a bit lost as to what to do right now because of our time dilemma: the longer we hold out from attacking, the stronger and more entrenched the Sabbat become. But if we attack unwisely, we risk losing the squad altogether. It's tough.

For the phone call, I'd like to make a tentative suggestion should we vote for D: (P) Costello. She might be dead, but if she managed to flee, she'll probably know about what we're likely to face down there. It would make me a lot more confident in voting for D if we had some idea of what the fuck was going on over there.

It just occurred to me that if we wanted to draw the Sabbat to us, then what better place than our own home? It sucks that we didn't load the place up with traps, though:

METHANE.

A shiver rises up in you. You frown, and turn back on yourself, gazing back down into the grubby darkness of the tunnel, trying to make out that filmy, greasy quality in the air.
How much of the gas, you wonder, would be needed in the air to set off an explosion? Not much, perhaps ten percent – so you pump it into your own escape route, and once you get out on the other side, you light a match, drop it down…and the Kindred chasing you meet a very quick end.

Eddie is a master of Celerity. He uses himself as bait, leads the Sabbat into the escape route easily because he can outrun them, then once he reaches us on the other side, we toss the match. No ghoul squad necessary. Still, one of them might manage to tackle him down as he's trying to reach the other side. No matter what, we've gotta be firm and ready to pull the trigger just like we were during the Angelos hit.

Because I think that our own home functions as an adequate trap, and is a much safer way of using ourselves as bait, I believe that the best choices are between C and D. A could work as well. Right now, I think it would be best to wipe out the pack near our Witanhurst, sit tight, and wait for Cripps to get back to us with a target.

Oh, I'd also like to mention that Iacomo's encounter with Erika has gotten me even more on Vogler's side. This war will shock the Camarilla into realizing that they need a lot of good soldiers (ie Gangrel) to keep things stable. We've earned some good will with Iacomo, and he's now with Erika, whom we've parted with on good terms. This is great for us.

 

[laclongquan]

The squad is government trained, with mean they got adequate skill with explosive. Not as much as a dedicated bomb technician, but enough to deal with some homemade slapdash explosive you might find in Pleasure and Pain.

Since they will be fighting in a public space, the Sabbat will have to take care not to be too obvious, limiting themselves in certain manner. That will help.

As for Costello, she's more on the social side than the combat side, which mean she will be scared shitless, or not enough battle expertise to provide correct intel. Still, it's not a bad idea IF we are rescuing Toreador, since an early warning is helpful. If not, why bother? Call her then leave her hanging? Tsk tsk boorish move.

And I remind you guys that the strongest motive to couter attack at Old Elysium is the recommendation of our action commander. We are and never have been much of a battle commander and we rely on him to provide expertise always. Now is crisis looming, why on earth would we ignore him?

 

[Esquilax]

The squad is government trained, with mean they got adequate skill with explosive. Not as much as a dedicated bomb technician, but enough to deal with some homemade slapdash explosive you might find in Pleasure and Pain.

Since they will be fighting in a public space, the Sabbat will have to take care not to be too obvious, limiting themselves in certain manner. That will help.

The Sabbat are out for war, I don't think they'll really give a fuck about gunning down a crowd of Kine in a nightclub. They want to hit as many Camarilla leaders as they can, and if that means a shitload of collateral damage, no big deal. Besides, this sort of thing is hardly a Masquerade breach, the headlines will simply read "Crazed Gunmen Open Fire in Crowded Nightclub".

As for Costello, she's more on the social side than the combat side, which mean she will be scared shitless, or not enough battle expertise to provide correct intel. Still, it's not a bad idea IF we are rescuing Toreador, since an early warning is helpful. If not, why bother? Call her then leave her hanging? Tsk tsk boorish move.

Ah, my bad. I had meant that if we choose to defend the Elysium (Option D), then we call Costello. Edited my original post. Otherwise, if we vote C, our best bet is going to be either Iacomo or perhaps Bob Griddle. Turcov maybe?

She's not a fighter, but that's okay, all we need are some eyes and ears down there. Just someone to tell us the basic gist of what's going on, we can handle the rest.

And I remind you guys that the strongest motive to couter attack at Old Elysium is the recommendation of our action commander. We are and never have been much of a battle commander and we rely on him to provide expertise always. Now is crisis looming, why on earth would we ignore him?

A few reasons. First, if the situation is a complete disaster, our ghoul squad is toast. I am not sure that this is the sort of operation that our ghoul squad would be optimal in. It's nighttime (our guys are designed for daylight raids), we have no intel, it's difficult to distinguish civilians from hostiles, conditions are far from good. Maybe Random Word would be able to provide us with some insight here, he seems to know this sort of thing.

Second, we have yet to hear from Cripps on potential targets. If we hold out for a little longer, we could get a good lead on the whereabouts of the pack that attacked the Taurien Club. Then, once it's dawn, hit them before they arise the following night.

Neither choice is really that great, though.

 

[ironyuri]

How did sending Cripps after the Taurien Club get more votes than after Turcov? errgghhh

Anyway, voting to save the Toreador, D.

Follow Fellowes' advice. Toreador are not simply preeners who cannot look after themselves, they have auspex, celerity and presence. Alot of London toreador, will, like Fellowes probably come from the 1960s gangster-Soho scene and have at least
some combat worth, but if we hang them out to dry they're toast.

We can't vote for two consolidation options in a row, that's just rubbish. We might have acted and hooked up with Erika and
Iacomo in the last vote had we voted for it, instead we're sitting at the airfield on our hands with no idea what to do, now
half of you would rather sit at Witanhurst on our hands with no clue (hint: Witanhurst was an option in the last vote, so if
you vote for it now, you're just correcting a past "mistake" not taking a new action).

The ghoul squad are made for day time hits, but just remember they come from a war background, Iraq, SAS, etc. Crowded markets looking for insurgents, that sort of thing. They're not idiots, and if we're attacking at night, Fellowes will be leading them from the front, and Sommers will be there too. With their commanding officers (using their kindred disciplines to buff them) they'll be all the stronger.

If we phone anyone now, I'd suggest trying to call Vogler (maybe the Sabbat presence has driven him top-side again) OR I think it's high time we called Bob Griddle and try to strike a deal with the Anarchs; not to cede them territory or something we have no power to do, but a deal that we'll form a united front against the Sabbat because both Anarch and Camarilla stand to lose all of their holdings in this fight, and if we win, Griddle and his Anarchs lose nothing.

Ps/Fakeedit- The Toreador of London, apart from Fellowes, for the most part support Turcov. This is Sommers' chance to actually win some supporters and cannibalise Turcov's base, and all we need to do is prevent them from being horribly disfigured by a Tzimisce Archbishop.

 

[ironyuri]

Edit2:

Griddle might tell us to fuck off, sure, but then who gives a shit if the Anarchs decide to face the Sabbat by themselves? We'll just capture their holdings from the shovelheads when we've put a stake through Connaught's heart.

Edit3:

If we really wanted to go left-field with this, we might phone Bullroarer (Bullcracker? I've forgotten his name), the Rupert Murdoch-esque Nos Anarch spymaster; he's an independent, that much is true and he doesn't give a shit about the Camarilla, but the Sabbat won't look at it that way. He, and Oscar, will be for the chopping block if Connaught discovers them; maybe we could strike up a business deal with him for him to provide information/reconaissance where the Camarilla Nosferatu are unable to do so. This is a long shot if we no longer have a contact for him.

 

[laclongquan]

I think the Nos warning the official comms are compromised might linked to this Bullcracker somehow. or Oscar. So contact them is risky. I mean, the last time Nos warrens were attacked, even their network was safe. This could be Bullcracker stir the stew.

Same situation, Nos warning mean even if Turcov is alive, he wont answer his phone for fear of tracking. So calling him might be pretty useless. And if he's alive, it's chance that he might be at Pleasure and Pain. More likely he's staying low at a safehouse, half-senescence.

Griddle? Ugh, is there any idea why he will answer our call? I think not.

Vogler? Possibly, if he's alive... The fact that he wont call us again after this long argue his capture or death.

 

[ironyuri]

FakeEdit4: Expanding on my consolidation vs. action point: The possible votes in the last round were:

Scout/attack the Taurien club; Rush to Turcov's aid; Look for Iacomo; Go to Witanhurst; Go to the Sussex Airfield (Ghoul Squad); Go to the Sewers, look for Vogler; Stay in Oxford

The votes this round are for:

Go w/ Ghouls to the Sewers; Go w/ ghouls to Witanhurst; Go w/ ghouls to the Toreador Elysium; Bait Sabbat as Tony; Stay at airfield.

There are numerous action vs consolidation votes. Sussex airfield was consolidation (Tony's personal hard power), vs. for example, Stay in Oxford, consolidation (Tony's soft power), vs. for example attack the Taurien club (action, Tony rescuing fellow Ventrue).

This time round we have similar choices. Two consolidation votes means we gather our own resources while the Sabbat run rampant; Tony, even with the ghoul squad, cannot win this war alone. The longer we wait to begin acting and saving possible allies, the longer the Sabbat have to completely extend their control over London.


Ergo, options in this vote which entail a form of action are: Sewers, Toreador, Tony as bait.

Fellowes is the usual commander of the ghouls and knows how best to use them, as a Torrie he's also biased towards his own kindred, however, in this case I think he's right. The sewers will be swarming with Sabbat and fuck knows what else (the Centurion, war ghouls, things that go bump in the night, mosquitoes), even with highly trained ghouls we would need the Nosferatu to guide us through the maze that is Bazalgette and Brunel's labyrinthine sewer network.

Using Sommers as bait is not a bad idea, but all we have are Fellowes and the ghoul squad, we're a man short and we don't control half of the city, it would be too easy for something to go heinously wrong, and I doubt we'll get Connaught as easy as we got Angelos. We might get the brujah antitribu butcher that grotsnik has mentioned in previous updates (Name? Sorry bros); but not Connaught.

This was roughly my thought process and why I've chosen D. D is a mixture of action and consolidation; it means maintaining our foothold in Soho (Central London), it means keeping the Sabbat from gaining ground north of the river, if they secure the Elysium and take more Toreador into captivity the harpies will all but cease to exist, and it might not be a bad idea to have Costello owing us a favour. Sommers has few kindred allies and Turcov has too many Toreador allies, we have a chance to kill two birds with one stone. Fellowes, already loyal to us, will probably have his emotional engagement maxed out, 100% if Sommers shows he trusts him enough on his knowledge of the squad's abilities, and puts his resources to use rescuing the city's Toreador (who might just support Vogler if their in-house candidate turns out to have been burned to a crisp at Turcov's residence [Julian Fox]).

Edit5 (real edit): @Lac: Griddle might answer his phone because, just imagine, if the Camarilla are being fucked as hard as this by surprise, what is possibly going to happen to the Anarchs who have much less territory and less resources? The Sabbat won't just let them remain in the city out of good will. Griddle's Anarchs will have nowhere to go and Sommers can offer them an alternative, fight with the Camarilla to stop the Sabbat and you can keep what you've got for now, fight the Sabbat alone and be certain to lose everything.

 

[SCO]

If it's certain that phoning the archon is useless i vote to phone Gridle, you're right about that.

 

[laclongquan]

If Sommers play bait in the sewer, you might as well cut his throat off right now. Save the loss of Eddie and the squad.

As for Griddle and his Anarchs. Their power lies more in the PR department than muscle. I mean, the very first time Sommers meet 3 of them, there's a good chance he can beat them all. The second they made impressions, they use PR for the fall of Samantha Eames. The third time is when a Griddle's minion running out of the tent amidst the Queen's revelation. All in all, it's not a good showcase of muscle power. Plus, the very nature of Anarchs mean they dont have a formal structure, which mean gathering enough force WILL take time. We need to hit Sabbat the fastest with the mostest, not let them breathing space.

So yeah, D is the right course. We hit back at the Old Elysium, give the Sabbat something to react against, instead of time to think up mischief.

 

[Esquilax]

ironyuri: Great series of posts, bro. We have to trust in our squad's training and in their commander, even if conditions aren't great. Should we succeed in snatching away Turcov's support base, it will be the most glorious troll in history. Between the Pell-mell Queen, Digby Deeds' betrayal, and a young upstart snatching away all of his powerful friends and getting close with the Archon, the guy will probably snap.

However, I really think we ought to call Costello. She's the only one we know who is likely to have knowledge that can help us. I'm aware that it might result in a wasted phone call if she's dead, but if not she might be able to at least give us an idea of what the situation is like. And besides, calling Vogler/Iacomo/Griddle also might result in a wasted phone call as well, so the risk is roughly equal between all of them. But I think that calling Costello is best because it is the choice that's most relevant to our situation.

One more thing:

‘I’m with the Gangrel,’ she says. ‘We’ve been keeping an eye on these Sabbat cunts for a while now - think they’ve taken in a certain antitribu we’re very interested in getting our hands on. Thought this might be her showing her face tonight, no such luck. Just a sewer rat on steroids and a couple of dumb pricks playing with fire.’

Vogler confirmed for secretly female turncoat spy. Just as we suspected.

 

[Gondolin]

All right, D it is.

Phone Iacomo, Griddle or Costello?

 

[ironyuri]

Sounds like Erika is talking about Gadfly, animalism would be how she controls the mosquitoes.

I won't push too hard for phoning Griddle, whether we call him tonight or not is immaterial, but we should call him at some point. To address Lac's concerns, sure his muscle doesn't seem to be up to much, but I'd pit an Anarch shovelhead against a Sabbat shovelhead any day.

The Anarchs have brujah thugs, Toreador poseurs, and probably some hippie gangrels, all kindred that are combat hardy. We might as well try to pit them against our foe. Griddle after all, is not an idiot, surely he can see that if the Sabbat sieze London then his lot will be as unwelcome as Tony, Turcov and the whole clown car full of barons.

If we were to phone him I'd advocate for saying something like: G'day Bob, I bet you've heard those nasty rumours the Sabbat have been spreading. Well, they're not true. We're here to stay. You've got two choices, stand alone against the Sabbat and lose what little you've got, or add your resources to ours and drive the fiends out of the city for both our sakes. I'll be hitting the Pleasure N' Pain (Whiplash?) tonight and striking a blow against the Sabbat, if you want a piece of the action, join us on the ground floor, if not, see for yourself that for a scheming bastard Ventrue, I know how to get a job done right and then make up your mind.

 

[Storyfag]

The Anarchs have always a third choice. A popular one, I'm told. Joining the Sabbat. But we won't be dealing with that at the moment.

I flopped to D in my original post, and want to phone Horn.

This is for all the myriad reasons ironyuri mentioned, as well as for one of my own: We need propaganda. "All the Ventrue Barons are dead" says Archbishop Connaught. Once we hit Pleasure N' Pain and rescue a few harpies, the rumour mill will be on again. And Kindred will hear that Baron Sommers is very much alive, and has a nasty squad of soldiers at his command. They will understand that the Camarilla leadership was NOT broken without a fight. And this will give us the momentum needed for a full counteroffensive.

 

[Gondolin]

If we don't rescue the Toreadors, we have nobody to counteroffensive with. After the Pleasure N' Pain, we should probably link up with the Chantry.

 

[grotsnik]

One more thing:

‘I’m with the Gangrel,’ she says. ‘We’ve been keeping an eye on these Sabbat cunts for a while now - think they’ve taken in a certain antitribu we’re very interested in getting our hands on. Thought this might be her showing her face tonight, no such luck. Just a sewer rat on steroids and a couple of dumb pricks playing with fire.’​

Vogler confirmed for secretly female turncoat spy. Just as we suspected.

:D

As to what you said earlier, Esquilax, yup, the team has a couple of flamethrowers; you can take it they're exceptionally well-prepared and ready to take on any threat. As much as is humanly possible, anyway...

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

D Strike team is for striking. Political advantage later for saving them when no one else would. (P) Iacomo.

 

[Random Word]

I fear, gentlemen, that your fascination with the admittedly impressive esoteric arts of the kindred have caused you to forget the value of our traditional base of power. Yes, it's true we don't have contact with the Nosferatu and their intelligence networks, but one must consider from where they gain this intelligence. To a small extent it may be reconnaisance while obfuscated, but in large part they consult the CCTV networks, the telecommunications networks, and if they're very good perhaps even the reconaissance satellites. These things are all at our fingertips, both figuratively and literally a single call away. Given that this is the middle of the London Olympics, there will not be a single moment in which a satellite is not tasked over London - within minutes we can have a detailed 3D map of any building in Soho and the surrounding blocks, including the positions of everyone present and a rough idea of their stance and what they're carrying (assuming they aren't concealed from the EM spectrum range employed by the satellite e.g. obfuscated). Should it be noticed that at some point a large number of unwashed hooligans emerged from vans with the aim of reducing local property values, CCTV and satellite records can be consulted to track them back to their source. We may not have the magic of the kindred, but don't discount the magic of the kine - we are neither powerless nor blind here.

D - (P) Horn

We ought to have a small, easily dominated emergency intelligence task force established to process our signals intelligence - officially to pursue the terrorist threat from Oxford. Let's find out what surprises await us in Soho, and hopefully find an ideal position from which to employ marksman weapons with incendiary ammo to provide fire support for the beleaguered Toreador. I don't favour Wistman in close quarters battle with kindred at night, but a white phosphorous round through the chest from 500+ metres is something Wistman is supremely qualified to supply.