Let's Play VtM: Wild Nights - Chapter 10

[SCO]

Guys, we can't call Fellowes, as he's participating in the raid.

Yeah, so is the sheriff. So what? Get him into her unit, and she can do what she wants. Who is going to tell otherwise?

Presently he is danger of death. After this, he still is, but at least, doing something worthwhile.

 

[Storyfag]

E) (P) home sec, keep the masquerade on the sabbat areas, find out the location of the bishop (hope he is home)
(P) Shoreditch, tell him to follow the sheriff, turn on his auspex
(P) the sheriff, tell her the real location of the bishop, let her strike out.

That is all. Let the stupid motherfucker hang himself. We can get Dubrik ourselves.

Errr. The Bishop is in fucking Liverpool, iirc. We can pinpoint his location *there*, but it won't be of any use in the immediate future.

I say:

(P) Call Humprey to keep the raid under a lid.
B Chat with Du Marchais. Hope he gloats/lets something slip.

 

[SCO]

Errr. The Bishop is in fucking Liverpool, iirc. We can pinpoint his location *there*, but it won't be of any use in the immediate future.

Damn! Not reading the summaries well enough. Well, fuck, then the only option is to move the whole attack or to look good by risking being there. Though if the location turns out to be london i demand to do something like this.
Shit, it's the liverpool prefix.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

I hope this LP ends like this movie and not some other, more sadder version.

 

[Azael]

Fucking quality LP this is!

I'm swayed by Serious_Business' approach so I'm going with that.

Call the Home Secretary (preserve the Masquerade)
B

 

[Esquilax]

Grotsnik, does B also mean that we will not be able to involve ourselves in the raid directly at all (i.e. fight) for the entire duration? After training with Fellowes, we may be able to do some good and gain some status as the Ventrue that leads from the front...

I don't think that it will be as disastrous as SCO claims. Does he think it will be because of the mole we kept alive? That's a possibility. I dunno, a lot to think about. Still, B is best so far.

 

[grotsnik]

Grotsnik, does B also mean that we will not be able to involve ourselves in the raid directly at all (i.e. fight) for the entire duration? After training with Fellowes, we may be able to do some good and gain some status as the Ventrue that leads from the front...

I don't think that it will be as disastrous as SCO claims. Does he think it will be because of the mole we kept alive? That's a possibility. I dunno, a lot to think about. Still, B is best so far.

Don't see why not. Although if du Marchais or the Prince see you leaving them to head into the action, and if they should happen to want you dead, that'd be a golden opportunity.

And there are degrees of 'joining the raid' too, of course. Entering with the second or third wave to mop up survivors and get a first-hand look at the warehouse is quite different from charging in with the Brujah and Gangrel hotheads.

 

[Erebus]

We should call Humphrey in order to preserve the Masquerade. That way, nobody can claim that we haven't contributed to the raid.

We don't have anyone else to call right now. Oscar is probably not in the mood to have a talk. Antonia couldn't do much (unless it becomes necessary to leave the country...). We know too little to be sure warning Dubrik about the raid would benefit us. Besides, when the time comes to call the good Bishop, we should make bloody sure that there's no way anyone can find out about it (which means not using our own phone).

I don't think we can affort to miss the raid and not just because it might make the Prince angry. Important things are likely to happen. We need to see them first-hand and possibly to react immediately to them.

Talking with du Marchais might help us learn more about what's happened but there aren't that many ways to approach him : (1) we behave as a defeated foe and listen to him gloat, which is unlikely to gain us major informations ; (2) we hint that we know about his fabrication and we put ourselves at risk, because he'll warn the Prince (if they're working together) or try to kill us during the raid (if he's not).

I think A is the better solution. We can talk to Eames if we get the chance and wait for things to happen. However, we should be as careful as possible : we don't have much to protect us from an assassin, aside from our wits, our gun and Potence. A vampire with Obfuscate might get very close without our noticing him.

 

[SCO]

Fuck it.

E)
(P) the mob team, let them "attack" the sabbat base that duMarchais is targeting. They already know, so, so what?
(P) the sheriff. Make her delay the attack the most she can, and warn her you've thought there might be a trap (and the reason) and are trying to trigger it prematurely.
(P) home sec, masquerade, dubrik location.


If what i suspect is right, it will be empty and full of bombs.
They wont survive anyway, so consequences are minimal.

I really don't want to lose fellowes, that will likely be in the first team.

This will only work if we are sure of the main sabbat buildings of course. I roll the dice that 400 vampires or whatever they were, can't keep a fucking secret from a lasombra spymaster (and the setite).


No mob team.

 

[Vibalist]

I like to go against the flow, so I suggest we choose E.

Obviously, we'd like to see how the raids unfolds. But do we have enough time to be a mere spectator and watch Cammies fighting Sabbat shovelheads for the whole night? A smarter course of action would be to use that precious time to get ahead of our enemies and try to understand better what's going on. Choosing E. would allow us to do just that by calling:

1. Humphrey Trentbridge, the Kine Home Secretary, in order to protect the Masquarade as the Prince ordered us to - it gets him off our back.

2. Antonia, our ghoul and secretary. We haven't used her so far, and we could ask her to compile all the available info we have on the Sheriff - we'd better know our new ally well in case she tries to betray us.

3. Oscar. Let's try to contact him and inform him that thanks to the video, we've got the Sheriif on our side and that he has no reason to fear for his life anymore (well, we think so anyway... ). If he goes into hiding for good, we will have lost a precious source of information, one thing we cannot afford to.

Seconded. E, and phone the same contacts as zool suggests.

 

[SCO]

This is kind of a critical situation, antonia will do nothing interesting.

How about:
E)
(P) sheriff, ask her to phone Oscar (give the phone). Tell her to say that she knows about the video, but is not very mad if he can scout ahead on schrecknet the attack targets and path. Also tell her to take in fellowes in her team. Tell her the sabbat infiltrated the cammarilla decision centers, and already probably know of the attack. If a trap is confirmed in the schrecknet, may she please execute summary justice on duMarchais and move the attack to a alternate sabbat base?
(P) Fellowes, join sheriff, turn on auspex, watch for traps.
(P) home sec, masquerade, dubrik location.

Yes, i flipflopped 3 times and was mistaken twice. So what?

 

[Murk]

Awesome thread, had missed it when it formed but caught up with it today. Grotskin, you are a very skilled and very modest writer good sir. Much props to you.

Voting:

Call our government friends to cover the raid -- if we don't we'll be totally fucked afterwards.

B -- I don't think Du Marchais will try anything on us during the raid, and it's not a bad idea to be near Fellowes -- we already lost a useful contact and Fellowes has shown he's dependable and loyal, if we betray that we may find ourselves entirely alone.

 

[Serious_Business]

Made myself useful -

Kz3r0 - A
Zero Credibility - A
Black Bart Charley - D
Serious - B
laclongquan - B (not sure, wasn't said explicitly and some of what he says doesn't work)
Esquilax - B
z o o l - E
ironyuri - B
root - E
SCO - E
Storyfag - B
Azael - B
Erebus - A
Vibalist - E
Mikayel - B

A - 3
B - 5 (6?)
D - 1
E - 4

Since I'm the one who initially voted for B, I guess I should argue for it a bit.

How is B going to work? Right now, as far as prince and du Marchais know, we are just a sucker that got played out for his domain. If we start giving them hints that we have damaging evidence (and a video that shows prince's thugs kidnapping a baron is quite damaging), we might just find ourself upgraded to a dangerous liability. Not a healthy position to be in without backup. Let's keep our distance (A) until we gather some.

Man has a point. Yeah we have the opportunity to talk with du Marchais, but what the fuck would we talk to him about? What would be the goal of our conversation and what would we get out of it?

First of all, I'm going to look at it negatively - E is a bad idea because it explicitely shows our lack of engagement in the Camarilla cause, which is what I was arguing for. grotsnik said "It could quite easily be used against you later on - but for now, at least, your lack of participation is likely to go unnoticed." Since I'm aiming for our future in this organization, this is a no-fucking-no.

Now as for the contents of B - I'll admit this is tricky. If this guy has the upper hand on us, we can't outmaneuver him right now. So what can we do? Bide our time. What does it serve to meet him? If we bow our heads and admit we lost - he'll never see it coming and will lower his guard. We still have the Sheriff on our side. I'll admit that this option is risky and involves relying on our Patrician's acting talents, but that's what it's all about. Since he is our main concern, this is why I suggested B. I'm quite litteraly suggesting forgetting about all other possibly hidden parameters and just focusing on this - the point is to find the best position to plot our next move, and I don't see any better way to find an opening than meeting the man himself. Now, think about what will be happening next. What will be in the warehouse? Reuniting the entire Camarilla for nothing? Then they'll need a scapegoat. It's him or us. Who do you think it'll be? Poor little Anthony who was maneouvered, or smug DuMarchais who just gained position and made a glorious overdrawn speech in front of everyone?

Of course, I'm speculating here two things - first that he won't try to have us killed, which I think is fair as long as we don't gloat to him that we have evidence. Second that indeed there's nothing of consequence in the warehouse - I'm thinking Sabbat actually WILL be there, but it'll be rather underwhelming and we won't find our man - who may be dead already, but then have no proof, and so it raises questions. This is why we have to be there to ask the questions and possibly make a scene. Our Pat may be afraid of death, but he's not afraid of a public is he? If the Camarilla is going to know this was all bullshit, then we need to be there to tell them. But is the prince fucking around with them? Of course not - the prince never wills evil on his subjects - but the opportunistic parasites around him do! If anything, this is actually the truth. We were trying innocently to do a thorough investigation - we could have called on day one and said it was a random Sabbat warehouse and get the credit. But the prince didn't confide enough in us to tell us his whole plan - and apparently he did with DuMarchais - or maybe not. If he did, then we need to get DuMarchais out of the way by pinning the evidence on him ; if the Prince didn't confide in DuMarchais, then it doesn't change anything for him who wins this. Either way, our only card right now is the Sheriff and the evidence - and this is the only part where we can play it. I also speculate that the Sheriff isn't deceiving us, but that seems fairly obvious. No one's out to take us down. Only one thing matters : the position we lost because of DuMarchais. That was the point all along.

This is basically my reasoning right now why we shouldn't just stay at home and fuck around on Rpgcodex (because our Pat must be a codexer, right?)

 

[Murk]

The way I see it is that we should be at the raid, even if only as a show, otherwise it could be used against us. So then the option is to either be near the fray or talk with Du Marchais -- we were supposed to be on the same job, right? Why not get some details from him as to how he found what he did and in turn perhaps get something useful we can use later.

Spelunking in the sewers is right out, visiting Rannigan's home is a bit of a wild goose chase, and while a safe distance and extra side options is a neat idea I think it's far more important to make sure we're not completely ruining our reputation. The Camarilla already thinks we're useless, we're going to have to show devotion and allegiance and being there in person is a good way to do that, I think.

 

[Esquilax]

E is an absolute waste of our time since it doesn't further our agenda or our cause in any way. It just puts us back on our heels by making us react to events rather than drive them. Not to mention the fact that it gives du Marchais even more ability to succeed at our expense. We have to stop giving that cocksucker any more ground. The only sensible choices here are A or B. Though, obviously I prefer B.

You know root, I am tempted to pick D if we have it available next time. I'm eager to test out our bro's improved combat skills (with Edgar's backup, of course).

 

[GarfunkeL]

Voting B in the hopes that the smug bastard will let something good slip and as SB said, we'll wave the flag enough by turning up after calling Home Sec and ensuring that Masquerade won't be violated. Isn't that the Ventrue way?

This is getting me interested in the WoD lore in general. Is there something like the 40k Black Library or should I just try to dig up the p&p rule books?

 

[laclongquan]

We do know the number of the Russian thugs:

"Your hand snakes across, and lifts the business card from the table. "
---Chapter 4---

 

[ironyuri]

That's actually very odd, there seems to have been a mishap in Chapter 4.

Top of post in Ch4, grots says vote for B-B prevailed.

B was to stroke Karthik's ego
B was to investigate the sewers.


At the end of the post it says we take one of the business cards, but we didn't keep the number for the thugs. That means either that BB was a mistake and BA prevailed (and we have the Russians) or that BC prevailed and the second B was a mistake (we ignored both cards) or that BB prevailed and after this raid we should rectify the problem and go visit the sewer?

I checked the pages between Chapter 3-4, so we've got a hiccup somewhere there.

 

[Erebus]

the white wolf gehenna scenarios?

I don't remember all of them perfectly, but I know I found them pretty awful. One takes an interesting idea (vampires simply start weakening and dying for no apparent reason) but turns it into an incredibly retarded and lame adventure. At least one of the others requires you to kick antediluvian butts left and right. Seriously.

 

[Rod Rodderson]

A and B seem like the only sensible options for this situation. I prefer B; hopefully we'll pick something useful up, though it is a bit of a gamble. So that's my vote there. Calling the Home Secretary for masquerade protection also seems like a good idea, both to help put him at ease about that mess earlier on and for the obvious reasons.

speaking of that, can someone link me to the white wolf gehenna scenarios? i can't seem to find them on google and the WoD wiki is horrible.

I have a pdf of the book. I could probably upload it somewhere if want that. Or try to, anyway. But, yeah, they're not exactly excellent (although I liked the Wormwood one well enough, or parts of it at least).

 

[laclongquan]

The monster in the sewer doesnt have mobile or phone number. The cards that Karthik slid out are the business card of the russians and a card representing the monster, prolly with instruction to find him. Since he said to lift the biz card of the table I always understand it's Russian. As for the repeatedly appearance of the option explore the sewer I think because we got the vague data that there's a mysterious force there.

Yo, story teller~ Solve the mystery here!

 

[ironyuri]

If it was a mistake and we were meant to ignore both business cards, then that would maintain continuity.

We would also maintain continuity if we have the instructions on how to get to the thing in the sewer (which keeps our option to investigate it open (indefinitely?) for now), but were railroaded because of the Anarch kidnap and our discovery that du Marchais outplayed us. We haven't yet had an option to investigate because of the kidnapping and subsequent events, so perhaps after this raid we should go investigate.

Otherwise a plot retcon where we take neither of the cards works for me.

 

[laclongquan]

Pure speculation! We need clarification from our story teller. Yo, grotsnik!!!!

 

[Esquilax]

Pure speculation! We need clarification from our story teller. Yo, grotsnik!!!!

Kinda cheapens the choice if you get both options, don't you think?

 

[Storyfag]

Pure speculation! We need clarification from our story teller. Yo, grotsnik!!!!

That, or you need to go read the fucking update where it happened and count the votes like we did.