Part 47: XLVII - Ecce Machina, Part I
So, last time we got another lead in the case of the kidnapped Barabus. Will this one finally be the one that brings some concrete answers? We'll have to see.
Here, we find one entrance to Glaze, the club we've been pointed towards. The other entrance is the main one, we're taking the back door because we want to be stealthy.
Now that we have the code, we can enter. And I know what you're thinking - "Wait, they put plot progression behind a password? What's stopping you from sequence-breaking this by looking the code up?". The answer to that is that the keypads are broken before you learn the code. Convenient!
Since we came in through the back door, we can just skip past this guard...
...and make our way up the stairs to where Johnny is hiding out. You wouldn't know this, but I do, because I played this game before. IIRC, you can convince that guy to let you through, but this is easier.
Up on the second floor, there's a bit of basic sneaking, and then we're right in front of the door leading to Johnny's office of sorts.
Now, Johnny is behind those doors. In the actual canon run, I just snuck in and shanked the motherfucker while his back was turned, because stealth killing him gives bonus XP. That's not as fun as what happens when you just walk in, though, so I'm going to show you what happens there instead.
I'm looking for someone and you're going to tell me where they are.
[Listen] You got somethin' to say to me, bitch? Who let you into Chinatown anyway? You here for your mother? Ha, yeah, well we'll give her back after she's done with the last twenty guys. My patience is waning... Where's Barabus? I know you have him. Who told you that? Ho-how-how would you know about that? Who are you? Answer me! You don't know who you're dealing with, Johnny.
Suddenly, this guy pops up on the TV and fucks up our perfectly working intimidation.
You told me that guy was a nobody! Just what the hell did you get us involved in?
Shoot it. You'll find out.
Johnny obliges, and as expected, it barely fazes us.
What the fuck? I shot you! You're dead! That's exactly it, Johnny... it IS dead. It's quite difficult to kill something that's already dead. And I assure you, it's not wearing a vest, the bullet entered cleanly through the lower abdomen. Don't listen to him, Johnny. I'm wearing a vest. [Listen] Normally, a bullet of that caliber would likely ricochet and tear up the small intestine, but as you can see, it exited cleanly through the back with little external bleeding... the reason being: Its internal organs have atrophied. I'm afraid he's right. And now that you know that, I have to kill you.
Poor bastard never had a chance. And with him dispatched of, our attention is drawn to the man on the TV. This is where the conversation starts when you stealth-kill Johnny.
You have no idea what you're dealing with. I do, actually. If at all anyone here is in the dark, so to speak, it is you. You have no idea who I am or how I know what I do, but I have been observing you since you entered Chinatown. Then you also know that I'm going to kill you. If you'd like to make an attempt, you'll find me at the Fu Syndicate. I'm a very busy individual, please do not keep me waiting long. Who are you? I must also protect my true identity. You may refer to me as "The Mandarin". You are searching for one of your kind, I understand. I have him at my facility. Come to the Fu Syndicate building... we'll discuss terms of release. I'm coming.Of course, while the Mandarin might have known he was dealing with vampires, he didn't know he was dealing with a vamp that gave her last fuck to give somewhere back during the sewers. He's SO getting sucked dry.
On the way out, I kill all the Tong. Just because. Enjoy this picture of Melissa backstabbing the first guy, while the second guy freaks out and empties his gun into the first guy because Melissa is behind him.
And since it's a combat zone, there's no problem with chowing down on the DJ to fill up on health and blood. I like this liberal definition of just what an "innocent" is. Also, with that last batch of experience, we ended up with 15 points, enough for the fourth dot in Fortitude. I'm really becoming a fan of this discipline - makes you feel like a god damn tank.
Anyway, we finally have a proper destination - the Fu Syndicate. Let's hope this doesn't turn into some Shadowrun shit with mass amounts of corporate security and fighting in cubicles and shit. And then a dragon coming down and nuking you because it's Chinatown, gotta have a dragon. Are dragons even a thing in the World of Darkness?
But before that, some odds and ends. First off, here's a little tidbit - you can haggle with the prostitutes and get a better price if you put points in Haggle. I think with enough Haggle and Appearance (which I believe impacts the original discount you get) you can snack on them for free. Not that we'll be doing that because noblesse oblige and all that jazz, but still, it's nice to know the option's there.
Secondly, Samuel Clemens in the thread asked if I was going to show what happens if I attack Mr. Ox. Personally, that never crossed my mind, since I simply assumed it would end with me getting nuked from orbit with magic shit, but hey, let's see what happens.
When you first strike him, he laughs, a bunch of light forms around him, and...
...shazam! He's gone! I still have no idea what the fuck he exactly is, but be it demon or mage, I'm still very intimidated.
Now, the Fu Syndicate. Only one door is open, so let's see what's happening.
Man, this guy just has TVs everywhere. Smug prick thinking he's safe.
Think you scare me? No. I'm coming.
We step inside this weird, small room...
...and as the doors close, the room's ceiling opens and the floor rises up to bring us into another room. The Mandarin pipes up again.
Good. I am told you are a rather resourceful individual. This should make you a most intriguing specimen. You and your kind may play mortals for weaklings and fools, and that may be fitting for some, but you underestimate me. Subject is female, appearance suggests early to late twenties, true age unknown.
As with the other, there are no vital signs... no heartbeat, no body heat - test chamber air sample is 97 percent carbon monoxide, normal respiration cannot take place. Subject is by all definition... clinically dead.
Hello in there. I'm going to run some tests on you. I'm interested in how you work, but only because it's my task to find the most efficient way to kill your kind. Please give me everything you've got! Begin the experiment.
Test chamber has been filled with ultraviolet light, releasing moderate UV radiation. Does that burn at all? Subject exhibits no sign of pain or even physical discomfort. Shut down the lights. Conclusion: UV radiation does not produce the desired effect. Please, move on to the next chamber.
If you cooperate, I will give you a dog for your good behavior. I find my subjects prefer dog blood over the rats I normally give them. Your kind is resourceful. Your survival instinct borders on animalistic. I'm curious about your innate abilities. Let us see what you can do. The walls are reinforced concrete, several feet thick. There is no other exit, believe me, it is my design.You can probably dodge these lasers if you take your time. I said "fuck that" and just jumped through the mess, taking moderate damage in the process.
Only the most simple creatures can survive dismemberment. I am told you can regenerate parts of your body; I'd much like to see this. I wonder, how many limbs can you lose before you cease to function?
The trick behind this room is shooting those boxes in the back - shooting them causes the blades to stop, and once you shoot all three, you can move on.
You've shown great resilience so far. Let's see how you do against some live targets. Proceed to the next room. Sometimes myths are constructed around legitimate observations. Let us find out if there's any truth in an old superstition. Initiate Van Helsing experiment.
Does that hurt?Not really. Sadly, we can't do as Jack says and shove the cross up this guy's ass. A bullet from the Anaconda will have to suffice.
Still, Jack actually got the whole cross thing a bit wrong, as this could have worked, had the Mandarin understood the concept of True Faith. Should have called upon the Society of Leopold, pal, they could have shown you a thing or two about how to use True Faith. However, it could just as well be that just like with the Rötschreck and most disciplines, True Faith is downplayed.
Van Helsing hypothesis tests false. Well, when God fails, put your faith in the gun... proceed, commander.
And then a bunch of dudes file out of the doors at the top. They're fairly tough and supposedly have incendiary rounds, but it's nothing Fortitude and some slashing can't deal with. Sadly, these guys seem immune to feeding. Too much armor, I guess.
Subject has eliminated Belmont team. You are turning out to be a very useful guinea pig. But we have a conflict of interest: You continue to endure even though it's my instruction to incapacitate you. This calls for a more... drastic approach. Continue to the next room... I'm very enthusiastic about this next test.
Many regimes use electricity to torture information out of their captives. It would be useful if this applies to your kind as well, or will the voltage have results similar to fire? Let's find out.
No, it's not similar to fire - fire deals aggravated damage, electricity does not. QED. Anyway, the trick here is to shoot the things zapping you. I love how many problems in this experiment survival course boil down to "just shoot the thing". So unscientific.
You have demonstrated considerable mental and physical acumen. And I'm quite perplexed how something that should be dead can display such strong survival skills. Let's begin the final test. Step into the next room.
Standby... run a check on the extinguishers one more time. I've already determined fire is a weakness of your kind; I would like to know more about the psychological effect it has on you and how it may be exploited.
So now we've got a room full of flamethrowers. Thankfully, the game doesn't simulate the Rötschreck (the instinctual fear of fire), so we can actually do something specific and not just frenzy our ass off, which would probably not go well. Guess Melissa spent a whole lot of points in Courage. The solution here is obvious:
Just shoot the thing.
KABOOM!
Turns out the glass may have been bullet-proof, but it was not explosion-proof. The guards are easily dealt with, and we can then just hop out through the window.
Why hello there, weaponless intern? Hey, come over here for a second, I want to show you something...
CHOMP.
Now, there was one more room after the fire room - presumably they figured Rötschreck was going to set in, they'd be able to incapacitate Melissa, then do some autopsy shit to further find out how to most efficiently kill vampires. However, that backfired a bit. A bit explosively. We can break the windows here - I guess they didn't figure they needed it, since ideally the subject would be restrained at that point.
And inside, what a surprise, we find a squashed Odious Chalice! Just what Gary was looking for, even though the two of us have absolutely no idea just what the fuck one could do with it. But I'm not going to question that, I'm getting paid in pin-up posters, which I guess is acceptable payment for just finding stuff in places we had to go anyway.
Oh, hey, what are you doing here? I'm not sure whether his AI bugged out or something, but he's not noticing anything. I don't even have to sneak, and...
CHOMP. All the scientific talk in the world and he didn't think of some sort of neck protection system. On his body, we find a cell key.
And in the next room over - some sort of warehouse complex where we were supposed to fight the Mandarin in - we find a cell that fits the key!
Barabus, I presume. Gary sent me to come get you. Let's get out of here.
Wait. We can't go yet. There are servers here. We need to hack in and delete all of their research. Should be a mainframe on this floor. Leave it to me. Not a computer made I can't crack. [Listen] Let's check the computers. Anything on Kindred needs to get wiped. Anyone interferes, you leave 'em to me... If I tore the lungs out of everyone in this place, it still wouldn't feel like revenge. Alright, let's go delete those files.
But before we do that, there's another room on the upper level I would like to point out.
There's two rooms inside them, and both have these weird... gravesites? I honestly don't know what these are supposed to be, and as far as I can tell, they don't do anything.
Anyway, we make our way out of the warehouse area and out to the offices. The only enemies here are regular security guards, who wouldn't be a problem even if we didn't have Barabus storming on them, drawing their fire and murdering them.
All the doors in this area are locked. One is locked with a difficulty 10 lock, one needs a keycard (which one of the guards had) and one is opened through a computer in the second door. Let's start with the regular locked one.
There's a book in here that boosts our Melee (from 4 to 5, which is big), but we don't have enough Research to read it. I'll boost that later.
The computer has two emails, locked behind the password "elimination".
quote:
<Subject> Status
<From> Priestess
What is the current status of the project? A new subject was delivered to you last week. If I do not see results by the end of this month, you understand the consequences.
quote:
<Subject> RE: Progress Report
<From> Priestess
Article 2, the elimination of Wong Ho, is imminent. Kiki, his daughter, will also be eliminated as per Article 2a.
Hm, looks like the Kindred extermination research is being headed by a certain "Priestess"... hmm...
The second room has only a computer that controls the door to the third room, locked behind the password "Freedom".
Some more guards showed up, but, you know, they're just guards. You'd need to get like ten of them for them to start getting dangerous.
Anyway, another computer to deal with. The door code is hidden behind the password "Crane", and it's 7337. For what door is the code? We'll figure that out later, I guess. The Species-X data is hidden behind the password "autopsy", and provides a very handy "purge" command for us to just delete fucking everything. Very shoddy network security going on here. No backups or anything.
Call Gary as soon as you leave. I need info and you were the payment. Will do. And... thanks.
Then more guards bust in. The obvious happens.
Also, apparently the code was supposed to open this door, but Barabus is just all "fuck this shit" and just breaks the door off. Works for me. There's nothing much left to do here, so let's just leave.
As soon as we leave the building, our attention is drawn to a ringing public phone. I wonder who that could be?
[Altered voice] Do you have Prince Albert in a can? [Normal voice] Well, better let 'im go, boss. You done real well, bringin' our boy back home. I got your info, hero. Yes? The same information I gave your prince, I also traded to the Giovanni for a bit of juicy gossip. You both had an equal opportunity to take it, they just had a bit more... initiative. The Giovanni? If you're going to play Jyhad, you need to do your homework. Knowledge is power and power has a price. But seeing as how I've already got what I want from them, I'll give you a freebie. Oh, you're going to love this - they've got skeletons in their closet... literally! I should have played the Catskills. Incest, organized crime, death cults - that's the Giovanni. Spaghetti and corpses, boss. Tell me a secret about the Giovanni. The Ankaran Sarcophagus isn't the only occult item they're hoarding. I hear they've got a collection that'd make Aleister Crowley come back from the dead - that is, assuming he isn't already sitting on a shelf somewhere over there. Tell me where to find the Giovanni. Oh, I'll tell you. And if you're foolish enough to go there, well, don't say I didn't warn you, boss. They have a mansion in the city. I'll draw you a map. They're having a reunion. Anyone who isn't a Giovanni shouldn't get within fifty yards. I'll take my chances. Thanks for the info. Am I the only one who saw this coming a million miles away? It seems so. You get 'em, boss. You give 'em one for Gary! If you should survive and ever need any information, come back and see me. I'm always here. And everywhere. I'll remember that. Goodbye.There is, of course, more to the Giovanni than what Gary lets on. Let's see what the thread has to say about them...
citybeatnik posted:
They're a horrible, horrible walking racist joke and seem to exist for sheer shock value.
Also, their founder is referred to as "Uncle Auggie" by most neonates and gets absolutely no respect from any methuselah, since they remember a time when he and his entire family were just a bunch of perverted merchant bankers.
brb on fire posted:
The Giovanni are basically a mix of Italian mobsters and death worshippers. They are generally quite social and often have rather wealthy tastes, but they're also kind of assholes. Big surprise, I know, but the Giovanni have their own problems. For one, when they feed from someone it's like what someone sinking their teeth into your shoulder would actually feel like. In other words, painful and distressing as SHIT. It's like the euphoria or sedative effect feeding normally has simply isn't there. So the Giovanni have to groom their food sources carefully (or just drain them dry) otherwise they sure as hell aren't going to forget about it.
That's all I know off the top of my head sadly.
citybeatnik posted:
There's also multiple smaller families that have been brought in to their ranks, ranging from cannibalistic Scottish bankers (based off of a real life, all-be-it destitute, bandit clan) to Aztec priests to Jewish kabbalists to Nazi deathcultists (the last two do not get along) to African slave traders and Chinese crime families.
The problem with the Giovanni is that each time they do something Really Cool, they end up fucking up something terribly. They're the clan that had been feeding information to the Kuei-Jin for decades if not centuries about the Kindred, whether it was back story or literal kidnapped Kindred, in exchange for a few extra souls. And when the Keui-Jin had all the information they needed from the clan, they launched the assault on California and started systematically killing off all of the Giovanni envoys.
OAquinas posted:
The Giovanni can be summarized as "Necromantic Tremere bankers, but even more prone to fuckups."
They're the youngest Clan, with Augustus having eaten his way to 3rd in the late middle ages/early renaissance. They managed to systematically wipe out the Cappadocians...but missed a few very powerful ones that have returned as the Harbingers of Skulls. They prefer to Embrace within their (extended!) family, but outside groups are occasionally brought into the fold. Their interests are split between the spiritual (literally, death and the wraiths of the afterlife) and the material, primarily markets and banking.
If they have one advantage, it's that no one actively hates them (outside of the Harbingers). But respect is also something they generally lack--the Ventrue sneer at their financial dealings, the Tremere steer clear of them in terms of necromantic pursuits but otherwise look down on their abilities.
Their Final Nights endgame is basically getting crushed like bugs--possibly by player characters--since Augustus is only a few centuries old and never got Ashur's soul in the diablerie.
citybeatnik posted:
OAquinas posted:
If they have one advantage, it's that no one actively hates them (outside of the Harbingers). But respect is also something they generally lack--the Ventrue sneer at their financial dealings, the Tremere steer clear of them in terms of necromantic pursuits but otherwise look down on their abilities.
Giovanni players tend to overlook the whole lack of respect thing - the clanbook is written from the point of view of a stuck up, spoiled neonate that's been coddled by the family. It's all about how badass and powerful the Giovanni are.
And then there's the ancillae in there that occasionally goes "NOPE NOPE NOPE!" but no one pays any attention to him. This isn't even touching on the other issues that the clan has, such as the literal corpse humping ritual. For reasons.
About the only good thing about the Giovanni is the old cat lady from the Children of the Night book. She's always seen with a cat. It's a well fed and apparently well cared for cat.
It's just a different cat every evening.
Tehan posted:
Did somebody call for some? Because I thought I heard someone calling for some
The Giovanni were, I admit, problematic as fuck during first edition, but so was everything back then - it's hard to read first edition books without flinching constantly, since everything's either a stereotype or an offensive stereotype. But their Revised clanbook was much, much better, and written by Greg Stolze to boot - here's a thread over in Traditional Games raving about him. It's nicely interweaved with the history of the real world and the World of Darkness, so it combines two of my favourite things - nattering about history and nattering about the oWoD.
According to the Giovanni themselves, their original roots were in the Jovian merchants and war profiteers that dabbled in weaponizing Roman ancestor worship - the spirit of the founder of the Jovian line is known as Dis Pater and is the family's biggest ally in the spirit world. The vampires in the family respect him, and even those in the family that know none of the dark secrets venerate him as the patron saint of the family. Apart from the spirit thing they were one of the first to jump aboard Christianity, and in their own twisted way are 'devout' Christians to this day. They grew with the Empire and became one of the most influential families in Rome, culminating with Emperor Jovian.
But, of course, Rome was doomed in the long run, and just as the family needed their spirit buddies most, the First Great Maelstrom sent the spirit world into as much chaos as the fall of the Western Roman Empire did the material world. The decline of the Roman Empire gave rise to way too many malevolent ghosts (known as Spectres) who slipped into the material world to joyride in the Germanic 'barbarians' pillaging the declining Empire, and when the barbarians died they continued their partnership with the spectres by attacking the great ghost city of Stygia. So with the material world in chaos and the ghost buddies AWOL, the Jovian family decided en masse 'fuck this noise' and fucked off to the incredibly defensible island chain that would one day be known as Venice to ride out the chaos. This is the root of Clan Giovanni's heavy-handed relationship with spirits - they tried playing nice once and the spirits abandoned them in their time of need, so they don't ask nicely any more, except with family spirits. Because, y'know, family.
The rise of Venice was the rise of Giovanni, with the Jovians sitting on the ruling council from day one and renaming themselves to the Giovanni we all know and loathe as part of political maneuvering during the Iconoclastic controversy of the eight century (because 'Jovian' comes from the Latin 'Jove', another name for the Roman God Jupiter). Shortly after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Franks, Doge Obelerio, who had managed to outmaneuver the Giovanni to seize power, called for Charlemagne to send forces to occupy Venice to prop him up, the Giovanni organized a rebellion against him and held off the Frankish army, lead by King Pippin, son of Charlemagne, for six months until Pippin had enough of mosquitoes and swamp diseases and went back home.
'King Pippin's Army Trying to Reach Venice' by Andrea Vicentino, painted ~1590
Over the next couple hundred years, the Giovanni re-established themselves, reaching the wealth and influence that they held as the Jovians before the fall of Rome. Around the year 1000, they caught the eye of the Cappadocians - one of the original 13 clans, with power over corpses and death, they were interested in Giovanni's ancestral knowledge of spirits. They tried to sweet-talk Augustus Giovanni, the patriarch of the family at the time, into the deal, not realizing that entering into negotiations with the head of a thousand-year-old merchant empire was akin to entering an arse-kicking contest with a centipede. The Giovanni clan knew something of vampires from previous offers of patronship from the Ventrue and Toreador, so he knew all the downsides of being a vampire that the Cappadocian Antediluvian 'forgot' to mention. The family debated it for a year and eventually decided to go for the deal with the devil, and even the family spirits and Dis Pater approved. They hammered out the logistics of having a family be both an actual functioning family as well as a vampire bloodline and accepted the Cappadocian's deal. Augustus was embraced by Cappadocius himself, and went on to embrace a number of members of his own family. An unknown number of these OG Giovanni, embraced by Augustus before he backstabbed the Cappadocians and became the new Antediluvian, are still technically of the clan Cappadocian rather than Giovanni, and mostly live under Venice, technically separate but still tenuous allies to the modern Giovanni.
The Giovanni were, of course, Up To Something, but that plan was on the slow boil. The mortal wing of the family became heavily engaged with the Crusades, ostensibly out of faith but likely heavily influenced by the insane amount of profit they made out of the deal and the opportunity to get in tight with the Papacy. They got super, super rich. And, with unlimited wealth, and probably related to the fact that it was actually run by immortal vampire assholes, they got weird. Incest, already fashionable due to a desire to keep their insanely old bloodline 'pure', became the kink du jure, and a few of the clan necromancers discovered it was easier to compel an angry spirit and not much got a spirit angrier than fucking their corpse. They also dabbled in every other weird fetish under the sun, enabled by their insane wealth, influence, and political favour.
In 1444, Giovanni diablerized Cappadocius. Anticlimactic, huh? The Revised Clanbook skims over it. The first edition one does too. The Cappadocian Clanbook's history ends with Giovanni as 'loyal' subclan of Cappadocian. I suspect it's covered in a series of books called the Giovanni Chronicles, but I don't have them - if anyone else has any insight, please chime in. There's repercussions, of course - Cappadocian was decapitated but not exterminated, and it takes three hundred years for the last of the known Cappadocians to be stamped out (apart from the Giovanni OGs under Venice), and even then they reappeared as the Harbingers of Skulls in modern times. The Camarilla make disapproving noises, but they're dealing with the then-newly founded Sabbat and the Anarchs, so in the Promise of 1528 the Giovanni swore to stay out of Kindred politics and the Camarilla swore to let them, thus stopping the Ventrue from having direct competition in business and Toreador in the Church in exchange for tacit approval of the Cappadocian extermination.
After the Cappadocian were finally stamped out, Giovanni started branching. There was once a Scottish banking clan called the Dunsirn, who discovered one of their family had a taste for human flesh. They banished him to the swamp, where he founded his own family of cannibals, giving rise to the Legend of Sawney Bean. One day, the cannibal tribe returned from the swamp and killed and ate the family that banished their founder, and - shockingly - smoothly took their place in society. A couple hundred years later the cannibal bankers were still doing damn well for themselves, dominating trade with the Americas, and when Giovanni discovered their dirty little secret they decided they could appreciate a secret well kept and brought them into the fold. As a sidenote, the Garou have a weird interest in the Dunsirn.
Speaking of the Americas, the Conquest of the Americas sparked off the Third Great Maelstrom. The Giovanni who had gone over there to spread business interests were experienced from the Second Great Maelstrom of the Black Plague, so they were able to ride it out. The Aztec Priests, though quite skilled at their own brand of necromancy, were utterly unprepared and on the brink of extinction - so the Giovanni at Tenochtitlan got on the ghost phone to home and asked and received permission before making an offer to the leader of the Priesthood, called Pochtli. Things went well, since Pochtli to this day rules the Pisanob family. There is, however, a rumour that Pochtli and his subclan are descended from the Cappadocians rather than the Giovanni.
The third familial acquisition were the Milliners in the early 20th century. The Milliners had a huge rivalry going with the Kennedies (yes, those Kennedies) and in exchange for help with the feud, gave the Giovanni a huge foundation to work with in the USA. What exactly was done is a closely-kept secret, but all of the woes of the Kennedies, up to and including the assassination of JFK, have been blamed on the Milliners at some point. Whatever they actually did, the Giovannis were impressed, and the Milliners were made family in the 50s.
There's also minor families, including:
The della Passaglia, who traded with the east in the Renaissance and in modern times are experts on Kuei-Jin necromancy.
The Ghiberti, slave traders during the Triangle Trade and a PMC now, with their own brand of West African necromancy.
The Putanesca, skimmed from Sicilian Mafia families, used as street-level thugs, dealers and middle-men and pretty much the stereotype of mobster Giovanni.
The Rosselini, Roman mirrors of the Giovanni.
And a few others that are married into the family and may be brought into the fold proper:
St John, English Masons.
Li Wing, Chinese-American geomancers in San Francisco.
Beryn, Luxembourgian merchants similar to the Ghiberti.
Rothstein, Jewish-American Kabbalists and Las Vegas moguls.
Koenig, German death cultists and arms manufacturers.
Those last two don't really get along.
That brings us up to date. VtM players largely overlook the Giovanni - between their horrendous first edition and their staying out of Kindred politics, they seem like a one-trick pony who don't really do anything. But that's because they're not playing Vampire: The Masquerade. They're playing Wraith: The Oblivion, and it's a game most other vampires aren't even aware exists. And right up until the Sixth Maelstrom ate everyone's lunch they were playing it damn well - plus the veil between life and death is even thinner now, so they'd find it easier than ever before to rebuild. If it weren't for the fact that VtM doesn't give a single solitary fuck that they're not playing it and is on track to ruin all of their shit forever, they'd be in a prime position to carve out an even larger empire out of the turmoil - and possibly enter the vampiric political game as a major player in their own right.
The Merry Marauder posted:
Tehan posted:
In 1444, Giovanni diablerized Cappadocius. Anticlimactic, huh? The Revised Clanbook skims over it. The first edition one does too. The Cappadocian Clanbook's history ends with Giovanni as 'loyal' subclan of Cappadocian. I suspect it's covered in a series of books called the Giovanni Chronicles, but I don't have them - if anyone else has any insight, please chime in.
Yeah, they're just awful, since it took a long time for WW to approach competence with regard to writing adventures.
The first one starts with your mortal PCs being tapped like kegs, shovelheaded into strong-blooded roadblocks, abused by the Founders of the Cam, and so on, and winds up with you being largely passive observers to Augie's unsuccessful bite on the Big Cap (he couldn't fully absorb the soul because Occult Reasons). The second and third have your (probably 6th gen) vampires chasing "Imbroglio" Giovanni around to thwart his quest for apotheosis, meeting the leading lights of the Sabbat (who have Humanity 0 because they're in seclusion "working on the Paths," and yet don't tear you and each other apart), and being toyed with by a Setite (as 450 year old 6th gen vampires, btw). And then (the unabsorbed chunk of) Cappadocious comes back as a wraith.
So yeah.
Zeroisanumber posted:
The fourth Giovanni Chronicle was actually really good, partly because it was Goodfellas with fangs. The players start off as a pack of mortals in the 1920's who are ghouled by the head of the Giovanni family in Boston in an effort to bring a diverse group of talents together to help him dominate the burgeoning liquor trade. There's a whole build-up where the PCs are given various tasks to complete with star performers being embraced earlier than others. It wraps up in the 1970's with the PCs trying to fight off a powerful group of vampires who mean them harm (who are actually the PCs from the previous three Giovanni Chronicles) and simultaneously beat a federal indictment for racketeering and organized crime.
Well, that was a lot of interesting stuff. Then the thread started talking about vampire mobster movies, which is also interesting, but not as far as this update is concerned. Since the Giovanni information took up a lot of space, I suppose I'll be splitting this update here. In the next part, we'll take a look at the last sidequest of the game!