It appears we've got a tie.
Well, here's my last attempt to induce a flip-flop. Right now, the stakes are too high to go around drawing attention to ourselves by attacking some idiot shovelheads. Mandrake is watching us, and the last thing I want here is for him to get footage of Anthony and two other men murdering a bunch of kids in hoodies on a video camera. There is a Hunter threat within London, and the last thing we need to be doing is getting involved in a battle in the middle of the street. We've already killed two shovelheads on our property, but if a fight spills onto the streets it might result in a Masquerade violation - precisely the sort of thing we don't need right now.
Worse yet, it's somewhat close to dawn. This is why it's a problem, other than the obvious "we'll burst into flames" bit:
The genteel cobbled street outside Witanhurst descends down a steep hill, past Highgate Cemetery, down towards Archway and, eventually, Islington. And now, by the light of the distant lampposts and the grey pre-dawn sky, you can make out two of the hooded figures, lingering just beyond the crest of the slope.
“They’ll have a van nearby,” you warn. “They’ll have to - only way to get away before dawn.”
Why is this a problem other than the obvious? Because Highgate Cemetary is the location of our bolt-hole:
You’re in Highgate Cemetery, you realise, the old Circle of Lebanon; through the low doorway of the tomb, you can make out the outlines of the brooding Victorian vaults and the famous black cypress tree. With a slightly raw creak that suggests the mechanism is beginning to fail, the sarcophagus lid slides back shut behind you.
If these "shovelheads"* turn our to be more game than we've expected, this battle might drag out for a long time. If we have have few precious minutes to spare to get back to the safety of our haven, we'll have to come back in through the secret tunnel. Which means that Vogler, and more importantly, Mr Cripps will also have to go through the tunnel as well.
Which means that Cripps will know all about our secret entrance during a time of intense political conflict where we have a lot of rivals who want to rub us out. You think that he's going to keep his fucking mouth shut? Fuck no, in all likelihood, he'll sell that info to the highest bidder and then our escape route will become a death trap in the event of an attack.
Courage and character development are great, but they'll do us no good if we are attacked in our home, then as we head out of our bolt-hole thinking we're home free, we are ambushed by a swarm of Hunters/Sabbat/Turcov/Scotland Yard/The Vase/Jews who knew where to wait for us because
somebody sold us out. Courage and balls are great assets and they can go a long way to making Anthony self-reliant and versatile in his skill set**; but we're in politics - this is a smart man's game, not a tough man's game. We get swarmed by a bunch of angry individuals outside our escape route, and we're still just as dead, brave or not.
It doesn't matter how brave Anthony is if his bolthole is compromised. Donnie is the bravest individual we've met - look how it worked out for him.
* By the way, we don't even know whether these Sabbat are all typical Sabbat idiot shovelheads. Just because Vogler referred to them as shovelheads doesn't mean that they are - it's pure conjecture. Sure, the two vampires Vogler and Cripps killed were easy prey, but that doesn't mean that the vampires calling us out are too. They could simply be bait to draw us out. While I think that this is probably not a dangerous ambush, I believe that there is too much at stake here to go around scrapping with some shovelheads. We've got bigger fish to fry.
Besides, why should we trust Vogler? He's clearly an antitribu anyways.
** For the record, while Anthony's strong suit will always be politics, I think it's very much possible for him to become a competent fighter. He's never going to be like Eddie or Mr Cripps, but I certainly think he could become a more well-rounded individual who can kick some ass in the future. I mean, look at Vogler; the guy started off as your typical Gangrel hunter type, but we've seen that he's also seen that he's very clever based on the meeting with the Archon.
That being said, while it would be nice for Anthony to have a broader skill set, now is the time to keep our nose clean. I am not as against A as
ironyuri because I think it is in-character (Anthony
wants to be brave, and he wants a chance to prove himself) but I don't want to take chances at a time like this. And the risk of revealing our escape route is too much.
