Let's Play VtM: Night Empire

[Excidium]

I wonder how secret that "secret" exit really is.

 

[Kalin]

E) seems reasonable enough, I doubt Turcov would expect it.

 

[Esquilax]

I wonder how secret that "secret" exit really is.

Considering we're the only ones that know about it (no, Cripps dicking around in the hallways doesn't count) I would say that it's pretty fucking secret. The main problems with E lie with Mandrake - the less info he has, the better. If he sees the Archon along with a huge entourage come into Whitehall, the potential for embarrassment is huge if he starts to follow Iacomo. It also doesn't help that the Sabbat are only going to get more and more aggressive as this campaign drags on, and since we're opting to ignore them, giving away our very secure haven to a far more vulnerable area in Whitehall seems unwise.

If we pick E), I vote that we ask our would-be Prince, Mr Vogler, to send one of his boys from Swansea for protection. We're going to be in an awfully vulnerable position for a while, and I doubt that Mr Cripps on his own will be enough to protect us if a pack of Sabbat eager for revenge come after us.

The reason I support A) is that it would pacify Turcov for the time being while we build alliances with other Barons and consolidate power via our new banking contacts. Besides, what else would we use Eddie for other than this? I am genuinely curious - he will obviously be unable to help Operation Wistman during the daytime hours, he has already given them extensive training (now they just need combat experience), and we already wanted someone close at hand to monitor Turcov. We want more info on Turcov and to ingratiate ourselves with the Archon without appearing obsequious, so why not just let Turcov win this one? Let him think he's clever for now and it'll buy us time to get at him later.

Another concern is that the Archon living at Witanhurst will paint a bullseye on us. Remember what the Archon said:

“The Palace at Knightsbridge,” Turcov says, getting to his feet, “is unoccupied. You would be far safer-”

The Archon waves a hand, dismissively, and snaps,

“Don’t be a fool, man. If I set up in the Palace, they’ll start whispering I mean to take London for myself. No, somewhere quiet.”

Along the same lines, what will people start to whisper when they find out that the Archon is staying at our place? If everybody in town knows that he's staying at our place, it's exactly the sort of thing that will breed jealousy and contempt among the other Barons, two things we already have too much of. At this point, I firmly believe that we need to keep our heads down, quietly gather support among the other Barons (in particular Frank Biggs and Eda Sly) and avoid doing anything to sow too much jealousy among our rivals until we're in a stronger position.

EDIT: Our overarching goal here is to make sure our man is a lock for Prince. Since it seems more likely that we'll be committing to Vogler, that's where we have to dedicate our efforts to. As I've said before, to ensure our candidate is a lock we need, in order of importance, (1) Support from the Camarilla Inner Circle (2) Popularity among the powerful, important Kindred of London, and (3) a candidate who has a relatively impressive/clean past.

Having the Archon set up in Witanhurst is a move that is sure to tank our already low popularity in the city.

 

[Storyfag]

Guys, don't pick E. This is too obvious. We have to feign being meek and agreeable to Turcov's suggestions. Lull him into a false sense of security. Eddie offered us to spy on him, and this is the best chance we'll ever have! Plus we need to do something about Team Wistman getting restless, and this is the perfect comibination of events.

 

[Esquilax]

Guys, don't pick E. This is too obvious. We have to feign being meek and agreeable to Turcov's suggestions. Lull him into a false sense of security. Eddie offered us to spy on him, and this is the best chance we'll ever have! Plus we need to do something about Team Wistman getting restless, and this is the perfect comibination of events.

More than that, Eddie is also bored out of his fucking mind sitting in an airfield for the past few months. He's probably eager to gtfo of there. If Turcov wants Eddie so badly, then just fucking hand him over - we're going to get a lot more mileage in the long run by giving in here than by openly disagreeing with Turcov. We need to put some perspective on this - the election has barely begun and we are going to have to pick our battles carefully if we want to come out in the best possible position. Why fight so hard against Turcov, here of all places, in the presence of the Archon, when there is so little to gain? If anything, he'll probably see this little dick-measuring contest as pretty pathetic - "YOU WANT EDDIE?! FUCK IT ILL DO YOU ONE BETTER HERES A MANSION!!!!" I think it's the sort of incredibly transparent one-upsmanship that the Archon will see right through.

We hand the Archon the keys to Witanhurst, and I guarantee you that every Baron in London is going to hate us even more than they already do. We need to build powerful allies, so let's not fight Turcov over something so trivial.

Let's say, worst case scenario, Eddie decides to work with Turcov. Then what? Then nothing - if we bide our time and play weak now and forge alliances with other Barons like we're supposed to, we'll be able to get lots of other talented individuals in our service. You guys are placing far too much importance on one asset. Eddie is useful, certainly, but we can't lose perspective of what we need to be doing just because Turcov is trying to fuck with us. I see a lot of parallels between this situation and when we decided to apologize to du Marchais during the Deptford raid. We let him think he won in order to buy ourselves some time, and I think the same applies here. We need to think about the big picture and our overall goals instead of getting bogged down in petty bullshit like this.

 

[Random Word]

I'm not sure I support turning Wistman into a close protection unit, but I do like assigning Eddie to the Archon - what better way to both keep up to date on his activities and ensure that wherever the Archon goes someone in our corner is there to voice an opinion? Who knows, the Archon might even appreciate our impeccable taste in Kindred. Eddie can do no more for Wistman, they're already the best of the best and as stated previously only combat experience can really prepare them for supernatural horrors once they've been given the basics. I think Turcov's made a rather serious blunder here - he thinks he's taken Eddie away from us, but in reality he's just given us the perfect opportunity to put him where he's most valuable.

A

 

[Esquilax]

Ehhhh, correct about the daylight, but i'm not so hot on Sommers giving orders to a bunch of Neanderthals directly. You know how grunts are towards higher officers that parachute in to "command" and Sommers was apparently a very very bad officer in WWI

Yes, Sommers was a cowardly WWII officer - he's clearly no Napoleon. But the ghouls are our bloodbound slaves whom we can enthrall with our PRESENCE or DOMINATE with only the sound of our voice whenever we please - they hardly have a choice in their opinion of us.

I'm not sure I support turning Wistman into a close protection unit, but I do like assigning Eddie to the Archon - what better way to both keep up to date on his activities and ensure that wherever the Archon goes someone in our corner is there to voice an opinion? Who knows, the Archon might even appreciate our impeccable taste in Kindred. Eddie can do no more for Wistman, they're already the best of the best and as stated previously only combat experience can really prepare them for supernatural horrors once they've been given the basics. I think Turcov's made a rather serious blunder here - he thinks he's taken Eddie away from us, but in reality he's just given us the perfect opportunity to put him where he's most valuable.

It's not ideal, but I'd rather have them close to us if we don't have anybody else that can supervise them. Letting a bunch of restless, combat-ready ghouls out without any sort of supervision seems like a bad idea. We'll keep them close for the time being and send them out as needed.

 

[SCO]

Trade votes with you for one of my crazy schemes. If you lie, i will vote against you the rest of the chronicle.

 

[Esquilax]

Trade votes with you for one of my crazy schemes.

Which one? There are a lot of them, you're gonna have to narrow it down for me.

 

[SCO]

Oh there is nothing worthwhile now. Think it like a boon.

 

[Hellraiser]

As much as I hate to let that old fuck have what he wants I have to agree. A) seems like the best option, but we should move the ghoul squad to a different location for safety (read: tasteful mind rape) reasons. Still if he is babysitting Iacomo I doubt Turcov will attempt to use dominate. The Archon might not like his scheming as much as he wouldn't like ours.

 

[Esquilax]

Oh there is nothing worthwhile now. Think it like a boon.

No. Petty politicking would only sully this glorious and undeniably thread.

As much as I hate to let that old fuck have what he wants I have to agree. A) seems like the best option, but we should move the ghoul squad to a different location for safety (read: tasteful mind rape) reasons. Still if he is babysitting Iacomo I doubt Turcov will attempt to use dominate. The Archon might not like his scheming as much as he wouldn't like ours.

By different location you mean Witanhurst, right?

EDIT: Bros, if we really want to get back at Turcov, why not just renovate the mithraeum with our ph4t b4nk3r l3wt and invite the Pellmell Queen over as a surprise guest during a big party. While Turcov stands there in shock, we can ask her to predict his future. After she's drifted off into a screaming fit of Malk-babble, hopefully Turcov will be so humiliated that he'll frenzy in the middle of the festivities. Best party ever.

 

[Hellraiser]

Do we have any other piece of real estate where they can hang out without any of the dozen or so kindred who want us gone discovering them?

 

[Esquilax]

Do we have any other piece of real estate where they can hang out without any of the dozen or so kindred who want us gone discovering them?

They'll stay secret at Witanhurst easily. Here's how: we have a secret exit that leads out into a cemetary. Well, why not simply open up our secret door and have them sleep in the mithraeum for the time being? They'll be close at hand, and nobody will be the wiser.

 

[Hellraiser]

Let's just hope nobody comes to visit and asks to see the Mithraeum.

 

[Running Fox]

We had a dude in the dev department once who was not an engineer but one of the helping hands, trained technicians who dealt with repairs and easy customer requests. Now this dude was some kind of assburger retard who walked funny, talked funny and looked weird. Constantly. He also had no spine, so little spine in fact that I wasn't ever worried that he would run amok some day. Everyone, including the assembly workers, would ask him to do shit for them in a gentle pleading tone and he was moron enough to do it. Could you please copy that for me? Could you put the tee on? Could you get that for me please? He was LET GO after the employment probation period. True story.

Wanna some advice, eh? Besides not caring about kine? I have to think. Hmmm... Vote BBB! Tell em both to fuck off. Get the squad along with Eddie and find a Sabbat elder and kill him. Find someone older and kill them too! Hack and slash your way to low gen power. MWAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAH

 

[Esquilax]

Being a politician in a cutthroat, decadent court of immortal monsters vying for power is a lot like working at tech support.

 

[Random Word]

No. Petty politicking would only sully this glorious and undeniably thread.

Except if Sommers is doing it.

On the topic of Wistman being left to it's own devices and mucking things up, these are SAS ans SBS trained soldiers, not unruly children. They're some of the most disciplined, motivated, and loyal people on the planet, and to top it off they're ghouled. I can't conceive of a scenario where they wouldn't do exactly as they're told by whoever's above them in the chain of command, including continue training for the next few weeks while Eddis is called away for another operation. If you really want to sell it, have him tell them he's off to harass the brass into getting them into the field already.

Certainly nothing bad will come of moving them to Wittanhurst, but if you're desperate to get them doing something I think it would be better to set them up with a safehouse or two in London and have them search for Mandrake. Counterinsurgency training includes blending in with the locals and hunting for hostiles who have gone to ground in civilian populations. They aren't going to be as effective at hunting down a rogue reporter as the SIS, but it will keep them busy and they may very well succeed. Certainly they won't be detected unless someone is randomly examining all the citizens of London with Auspex.

 

[SerratedBiz]

What if one of them is captured? We're using the same train of logic as before: it's much better they know nothing about us.

 

[Random Word]

Then someone might discover that we made a squad of ghouls to hunt down what to all appearances is a Kine attempting to breach the Masquerade? Oh dear.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Actually, I was more worried of them spilling information on our secret hidey hole in Whitehurst Wittanhurst.

 

[Random Word]

Which they won't know about if they haven't been brought to Wittanhurst to begin with - or was your point directed at the plan to have them work close protection at Wittanhurst?

 

[Esquilax]

Actually, I was more worried of them spilling information on our secret hidey hole in Whitehurst Wittanhurst.

Well, if we set them up in a safehouse (perhaps our old home in Primrose Hill? Antonia's apartment?) then it's a moot point. They wouldn't even know about a secret entrance to begin with. I agree wholeheartedly with Random Word's uh... words.

We've already gotten some sort of a lead on Mandrake, perhaps our guys will be able to sniff this dude out.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Which they won't know about if they haven't been brought to Wittanhurst to begin with - or was your point directed at the plan to have them work close protection at Wittanhurst?

I would say there's a high chance of that.

ETA: I had the window open for a while and realize my post came right after yours, which led to the confusion.

 

[oscar]

Tempted to tell Turcov to shove it, but agree that we don't want to appear petty and squabbling. I don't think the Archon personally cares one way or the other about the actual security.

I guess there isn't too much harm in letting Eddie guard the Archon for a little while. Might even make a good impression. What is Eddie doing at present? Will Eddie be able to let us know any interesting things going down around the Archon?

All the other options look kind of bad though. And this is definitely not the time to use our trump card of the ghoul hitsquad. Nor is it a good idea to dilute them into a general security force. I'll cast my vote after further discussion.