Tonight's game started off with a couple of dice rolls where people got their bearings and figured out what exactly they know to begin with and to prepare themselves for whatever the gaming night might bring. The game started out at this shindig at the local museum where the prince asked for volunteers to take part in a bug hunt. Seems there are some large nasties who come out every twenty eight days, not werefolk, and terrorize the countryside killing folks and livestock. We're currently interested in what's going on ten miles away in Perry. Something else is going on in Lawrence but I'm unclear about the stuff surrounding that situation.
Once we were briefed on the situation, everyone scattered to the four winds and then congregated at this farmhouse in Perry, KS where we got the lady of the house's impression of the slaughter. Seems that there are huge things lumbering around and slashing up cattle and leaving a good part of the carcass rather than completely feeding on the carcass. She told us about the cellar where we could rest and then her husband came home telling us about how the beavers across the field were slaughtered by these things. A dead kit was in a tree and there were dead beavers all around, there was also a claw-like scoop in the dam where one of these things reached down and started their terrorizing and murdering.
Folks take a gander around, Booner's character decides to see if there are other beavers in the area doing a really good imitation of a beaver's noises but no dice because these beavers were the only beavers in the area. Have I said beaver enough?
I do beg everyone's pardon for being inattentive during the game. I have one or two things on my mind which are kinda outweighing gaming so that should give you folks an idea of the stuff going through my head. None of it is bad, just being human and things. I hope if Diane noticed that she wasn't offended.
See you.
4/24/01 3XP
I'm going to see about playing a different character because when I created the character I'm playing it was pretty half-hearted and a bit rushed considering the fact I was preoccupied.
This won't stop me from chronicling the game. Maybe I'll get a good idea, maybe not. Diane's cool with that.
The game picked up where we left off, my character vanished, and there was something strange going on (other than the fact vampires and werewolves were working together) in the nearby bog. Something big and toothsome leapt out of the mud followed by another that lurked below and combat ensued. The creatures had acid blood and put up a fierce battle going tooth and nail with the leeches and lupines. The lupine farmer who led the group out to the beaver dam had run off in crinos to get help. Eventually the demons got beat down because they were so tough and constantly regenerated damage. The farmer returned with his rusty pickup and two cannisters full of some chemical that would neutralize the acid before it started destroying the ecology around the area. Charles Fort didn't get a head but he got a mason jar full of demon blood for his collection. The beasties were described as being grimlocks.
Next week, everyone has to report to the prince's place an hour after dusk.
I didn't go to the game.
Tonight's game was a hunt for gremlins. The kind of gremlins that don't like bright light and stuff like that. Big mess in the sewers that left everyone kinda fucked up because of the serious amount of aggravated damage being dealt out to the players.
I'm going to be bringing in one of my characters from a previous Vampire game, Monty Prince. He's a Nosferatu enforcer from Canada who was a medical student before he was embraced by his sire. The only metagaming I will be doing is giving Monty serious shitloads of fortitude. Jesus, that's definitely going to be necessary. At least he'll be able to dish it out just as bad using his 5 potence and his katana which does strength +4 damage, plus he'll get high body armor so he can soak even more aggravated damage than he could in the first place. The reasoning behind playing Monty again is that Tim told me everyone's pretty much playing a character they played before. Brian's playing Malak, Tim's playing Charles Fort, Buddha's playing Hard Drive. What'd be the big deal about bringing in a character I already know? I'm against playing characters again unless it's in a continuation of the same chronicle but I figured this would be easy enough to do.
On the other hand I spent most of the evening doing the web work I slacked off on doing earlier in the day and started writing up a possible campaign for Vampire that takes place in Asbury Park, NJ. Asbury Park was a big tourist spot and everyone went there because of the Stone Pony, to see Palace Amusements and everything else that Bruce Springsteen popularized with his music. Sometime in the early nineties the town gave up the ghost.
I decided that it went to shit because the Sabbat came in and took it over. A few months before the game would start, the Camarilla took back control of Asbury Park and they're beginning to revitalize the community and economy. Also kicking serious Sabbat ass.
The Camarilla installed a Tremere prince who they considered trustworthy and loyal to the Camarilla above his loyalty to the Tremere. Still, he's a Tremere and they're going to be keeping a close eye on him because nobody trusts the Tremere. The characters come together because the Tremere prince will only have the two archons at his disposal for a few more months and he wants to start training his own enforcers to keep the peace in Asbury Park. The job comes with benefits and some of the rewards will be great. The vampires will be chosen because they have had their backgrounds checked by the Nosferatu to show that they never collaborated with or were involved with the Sabbat. Since there are so few Camarilla vampires who would dare live in a contested state like New Jersey the pickings would be slim and the prince would have to work with what he has.
Characterwise, everyone will play a vampire. Only one vampire can be 8th generation and my thinking is that whenever a vampire game is starting up using the basic rules everyone makes a vampire that's 8th gen. That's a smart thing but I think it gets dull after a while because then the people rely a lot on their generation to pump up their stats or to burn ungodly amounts of blood to fuel disciplines to be a serious combat machine. With other characters being 9th and 10th generation that means they can use dominate on each other if necessary and be a little more creative when it comes to combat. The clans will be the seven clans of the Camarilla and caitiff. No Sabbat antitribu and independent clans will be accepted on a case by case basis. The only independent clans that are not allowed are Assamites and Setites.
Outside of playing a vampire, there is room for someone to play a skilled mortal. No werewolves. No magi. No immortals. No faerie.
Mind you these guidelines are still in the rough stage and might be subject to change. I know that I will be dealing with seasoned roleplayers who have impressed me in the past with their style and ingenuity.
Only thing is that I may not end up running this campaign with Buddha, Booner, Brian, Tim, Ronni, Diane and Chuck taking my living situation into consideration. It'll be a relatively short campaign, maybe a year long unless other storylines come up from roleplaying and character backgrounds.
5/15/01 3XP
Tonight my character was introduced to the game, Monty Prince. He heard the battling in the sewers during the gremlin hunt and went to join. He also heard the gremlins carrying something away. The team came across him and he told them about the person being dragged away and said they might have money to steal. We went, fought more gremlins, when Monty tried to pick the woman up her skin burnt where his fingers touched her so Hard Drive, the werewolf, had to carry her out.
For some reason we had to bring her to a grove of old growth trees. When we got to an old growth pocket that had elderly cherry trees we saw that the trees were gone and just stumps. Bad. We got the great idea to go to the amusement park run by the fae because they might know about how to take care of this strange woman. Eventually we learn that she's a dryad. We give them what little info we have and are asked to return the next night.
5/22/01 2XP
Umbra walk to find all the trees that are going to be burned and they still bear magic. The dryads that live in the trees are still alive (that's a big surprise) so we're going to have to save their wee twiggy butts. They're a sacrifice to summon a greater god who is unnameable and the worshippers in the umbra are using the spiritual power of the muslims collected at Mecca and worshipping at that curtained cube to create a gateway to our realm. Charles Fort (Tim), Monty (me) and Christian (Booner) all learned about the umbra being a spirit realm but also that it's highly dangerous for vampires plus we'd be heading towards sunrise putting our skins at risk. We were told not to worry since we'll be working inside even though we're in the umbra. Oookay. The faeries also gave us a bunch of amulets that'll keep us from falling asleep once we hit sunrise because vampires just fall asleep once the sun's rays start creeping across the land from the eastern horizon. It was around then Diane thought to cut the game because she didn't want to start a combat at eleven thirty at night.
5/29/01 4XP
Tonight's game was just hack and slash. I think we saved the dryads but maybe a few trees and dryads burned in the black fire the cultists summoned in the tesseract. Next week we'll find out more.
6/5/01 3XP
We brought the trees from the umbra back to their grove and because they weren't removed from the stumps for too long they were able to reattach the trees and use magic so they were right as rain. In thanks we were given stock in the communications industry (I asked for lupine blood or cash, I got cash) and invited to a ball the faerie held to celebrate the deeds of our team. There's a big secret being passed around, mostly between the Tremere and the Assamite of our group (funny, it's like Al Sharpton being all buddy buddy with the grand dragon of the KKK). Maybe next week things will be revealed and Diane's plot will unfold more.
Also learned something tonight, people who arrive at the game before eight p.m. get an extra experience point. Whee. So keep that in mind when you total your experience totals. I reckon most of you already knew this but I mention it just in case.
For those who are interested, the Vampire story I was going to run was simply having real life vampires in attendance at a Vampire LARP (Live Action Role Playing) which is being held at the hotel in Asbury Park where ShoreCon was held until a few years ago. That hotel happens to be where the prince lives and holds court and the entire building is considered elysium (all vampires must play nice and keep hostilities off the premises).
Tonight's game started out with us hanging around at Malak's place bullshitting and deciding what we were going to do with the night and eventually came to the bright idea of hunting down the dragon that lived in the wetlands outside of Kansas City. We got there and wandered through the wetlands until we came upon a clearing with a still, dead pond in its center. I tried luring the beast out by bleeding into the water but nothing happened. I hopped down from the tree and got swiped thirty feet by something invisible. Everyone leapt into the combat, the dragon stayed invisible on the surface of the lake while her hatchlings attacked us. Bill and Charles got dragonpiled and the rest got a baby dragon or two. Sadly Booner's character wasn't in attendance because he was out clubbing but hopefully next session he'll be around to give us a hand or two. We ended in the midst of combat where four hatchlings were killed and six are still alive along with the mother dragon who is still invisible on the surface of the lake.
6/19/01 4XP
After a hard battle with much leaping and frogging at the dragon who was upon the lake she was finally slain by Booner and Tim followed by the customary "butcher the beast" which every D&D gamer has taken part in with campaigns like that. Fantastic creatures often have fantastic parts. Booner's character was moongated into the swamp and saved us at the nick of time. There was much rejoicing then and after the black beast gasped its final breath.
After my character saw what happened to Tim's character he decided to stay out since he didn't survive this long by dealing with stuff that does unsoakable damage.
We searched the bottom of the lake and only found leeches and frogs, I kissed a few just in case, and Tim took the dragon's head to put over his pool table. I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of everyone posing in front of the fallen beast but Tim's character refused because cameras "steal souls". I took a few pictures and looked at Tim's character and said "You're just silly, cameras don't steal souls. Just watch!" and took a picture of myself and then pretended to fall down as if my soul was stolen. He was upset about that and was pushy about destroying the camera and film. Very funny.
Everyone went back to the truck except Tim and Ronni's characters who were fighting once again. The way they fight you'd think they liked each other in the way a first grader likes that red haired girl in the back of the class. During their little pissing contest where Ronni's character moved Tim's character into the air with the path of Movement of the Mind there was a large shadow which whooshed over the sky. It was the father and husband dragon.
Everyone started running back to the trucks but Tim's character and a few others decided to stay despite the fact it's fucking insane. I decided to get out of there.
As soon as the beastie fell from the skies upon us, Diane decided to end the game for next week.
Finally I think Brian might've noticed but I was taking surreptitious pictures of everyone during the game and here they are. Some of them are better than the pics I took the last time I brought the polaroid, I reckon it's because no flash was used and I lightened the pics using PSP. Yes I know some of them are grainy and I should've lightened them before reducing them but I was being quick and dirty.
6/26/01 4 XP + 1 pt of status
Tonight's game ended with a serious ass whipping on the vengeful, male black dragon. It came down on Booner's character and got its side sliced open something serious. The battle raged on with Tim's character engaging burning wrath like a super saiyan and slapping the beast around while Brian's character proved his martial excellence with his blade. Meanwhile my character Monty did the smart thing and drove away. Ronni's character blasted the infernal beast with a lightning bolt and put herself near frenzy burning blood to heal, celerity and to cast her thaumaturgy. I can't forget to mention that Buddha's dice were exceptionally kind and he dealt out more than ten dice of damage with each swipe on the dragon. At the battle's greatest pitch the prince's twin brother appeared through a moongate with a werewolf and stepped in to help. The wounds inflicted by Brian, Booner and Tim had hurt the dragon so badly when it tried a last gasp to breathe fire on its adversaries the black beast exploded and became inside out. Brian's character was killed but he came back to life because "he's special".
Once everything settled and the smoke cleared, Buddha's character realized that his truck was gone and decided to call it. I answered and said his truck was fine and he'd get it back eventually then hung up. The team tried calling again but Monty threw the cell phone out the window, along with most of Buddha's character's CD collection which he thought was crap.
The story ended with me getting a phone call once I was back at my haven that a coup was about to happen in St. Louis. This baffles me because I know nothing about this and it's coming out of the blue. Maybe there'll be a Prince Prince (since Monty's surname is Prince) in St. Louis.
My last night is a long night because tomorrow is Independence Day. Only Brian has to work but he's staying late and Buddha quit his job and cut out of that responsibility. We were all called over to a meeting held by the Prince at a club where he was discussing the troubles in St. Louis and how he would be planning on taking care of this daddy's boy Prince who rules the vampires in that city. I mentioned there was a coup taking place and we could simply jump into the fray to take care of business. The Prince was pleased and gave us dossiers in regards to that Prince's underlings who need to be taken out. Apparently the St. Louis Prince was sending hundreds of vampires to their death in the fight against demons who were invading now that Kansas City wasn't a toehold anymore.
We packed up and thundered off to Kansas City where we decided to take out the Gangrel who wouldn't be missed unlike members of other clans. Monty lured the ghouled guard dogs to a tree so everyone could get past the perimeter without being nickeled and dimed by the pooches. Once inside the carnage began.
Sadly Tim's character, Charles Fort, almost bought the farm. He died in a live action game at the hands of Gangrel and in this game he died at the hands (claws really) of a Gangrel. After a successful stamina roll, he ended up being at incapacitated with seven fucking levels of aggravated damage.
We killed the Gangrel and the combined efforts of Booner and Ronni's characters were able to ensure the unlife of Charles Fort.
I am very tired but not disinterested in the game. Just staying quiet and doing as little as possible is keeping me feeling cool which is definitely a Good Thing (tm).
We find out that the female Gangrel, upon feeling the death of her boyfriend via bloodbond, frenzied at a Camarilla meeting which means that she might end up doing most of our work which is quite fortuitous. Upon hearing the news we head off to the meeting place where we find her being pinned down by a Brujah and a Ventrue. The game is cut here and will pick up next week.
Read the accompanying personal diary entry.
