[VtR][Mature] Born into Darkness: Preludes and Nocturnes

[Graf]

This is the Prelude Thread for the Vampire: the Requiem: Born into Darkness Game.

The Mature tag means that some stuff here may include mature themes.
(It's a game about Vampires... I dunno what to say about that really but.... Reader Discretion is advised I suppose.)

Disclaimer
Some horrible characters with probably show up in this game. I've made an effort to make them realistic; so some of them are appalling people with positive characteristics. Please don't take anything a character does or says as something that I endorse.

[sblock=Prelude Disclaimer (for the players)]
Preludes: relatively little control over the content of the preludes. It's an opportunity for me to 1) help round out your character motivation 2) introduce you to the tone of the game 3) introduce major npcs (at least the ones who will appear in the first arc) 4) provide you with useful information (some of it will be useful in the form of "actionable intelligence" most of it is just background detail).
I'm sure someone will turn what I thought was a background detail into actionable intelligence.

Some people will have tougher preludes than other people. I've given some thought to it, but, there's no way to really address that beyond to day that some people aren't as lucky as other are. However I assure you that everyone will start the game off at roughly the same position as everyone else.
Some preludes will have a degree of interactivity. Some people will have some combat, some won't. Of course some people won't get preludes at all. I apologize for the lapses that you may feel occur, and simply must assure you that, however flawed you feel the process is, I assure you that I'm trying to do the best to get the game up and runnings as quickly and as smoothly as possible.

I do want to stress something about the preludes
Stuff you don't expect to happen could happen
The degree of interactively will be low in many cases
Some people will have no choices
Some people may have lots of choices but they all suck
Some people may have lots of fun choices
You may run into (be inflicted with) NPCs abusively using powers backed by buckets of dice to abuse you*
You may run into (be inflicted with) aggravating and/or inescapable situations
You may be trapped with scenery chewing NPCs in situations where you don't have center stage

I assure you that this is not indicative of the way the game will work -once- it's started. The PCs will be center stage, you will given a degree of freedom (which will increase relatively quickly), etc. etc.
You may run into some cut scenes as NPCs interact as the game evolves but I will try to keep them breif and non-intrusive.


*=to a certain degree, of course, powerful NPCs will always be around. And running afoul with them is always a possibility. Having a few experiences like that in the prelude (where I have more command of the action) seems like a fair way to let you see what that's like.[/sblock]

 

[Graf]

[sblock=Blood's Request]
- Running combat would be fun since I have no idea how to do it.
- No autopilot and No glossing
[/sblock]

 

[Graf]

Cole's Prelude 1

Everything comes back in a rush of pain and fire. You're drinking lava, it runs through your veins, scouring your body. In the wake of scouring pain comes a return of awareness. You can feel your body again. You bring your hands to your face, they're withered. Your skin is pale, like marble; your whole body seems to be made of wrinkled pale marble.

[sblock=Condition]
You've got 4 blood points; you're hungry. You've used the rest to reflexively heal. You still have 4 boxes filled with lethal damage: reflecting your body's withered state.
You have 2 Willpower points.

Your memories prior to the embrace are very blurry, and what can dredge up is unclear, muddled and bafflingly contradictory. You remember your sire and some details of your embrace but after that things get weird. You remember being in Egypt, in Cairo; adjusting to your unlife; trying to protect some business interests; meeting with your partners (in daylight!); an attack, first by a man with a gun and then by some kind of bazaar dog-men with knives.[/sblock]

You are in a small windowless room, like an office. The room is dimly lit, with wooden walls on all sides, showing no hint of the time of night (or day). It's cool, the room is dry. You know you're not in Egypt anymore. Egypt's never this cool.

Your lying on your back on a long low wooden table. Your eyes are drawn to a distinguished looking white man with receding blond hair sitting behind a desk. You feel a sense of affection for him (Vinculum 1). He's also a vampire, and your beast roars feebly in your breast.
Other than the man behind the desk you see two other people. An attractive, pale skinned woman in a long green dress regards you. Your eyes lock, your beast snarls again. There is a pudgy Indian man is sitting in a chair by the door. His hands are clasped. As his eyes meet yours he smiles warmly, revealing fangs.

None of the three people say anything, they just watch you. You can taste blood on your lips, and smell it around you. Next to you, on the table is a large silver dish, filled with blood. The sight of the blood overcomes you, heedless of anything else you pull it to your face.

The sound of your frenzied slurping fills the otherwise silent room.

Eventually the bowl is emptied, with an act of will you manage to control yourself and set the disk down without giving in to the desire to lick it clean.

[sblock=Frenzy Checks]
Invisible Castle is acting up. I gave you the three predator's frenzy checks, so you didn't fly into Rötschreck and run around the room like a spaz when you saw the other three vampires. But I had Cole flub your Wassail (hunger frenzy) check, you were forced to immediately drink all the blood (your Vice makes it more justifiable -- and four successful rolls was a bit improbable). Since you're pretty savvy we'll say you managed to get control of the frenzy when you finished off most of the blood.[/slbock]

[sblock=Condition]
You've got 6 blood points; you're no longer hungry. You've used one to heal another lethal wound. You still have 3 boxes filled with lethal damage reflecting your body's withered state.[/sblock]

The big man stands by the desk now he's tall with oversized hands; his face is dominated by a huge nose giving him a birdlike mien. His voice is deep, and agreeable "Ah have to admit, you're the first mummy Ah've met. And a white fellow at that. Didn't know they made white mummies." The man's presence is overwhelming, for a moment it seems as if the room almost bends, like he's the central figure in some religious painting lines in the room point directly at the saint's head.

[sblock=LB Awe v Cole]
You've been awed by the man. With his four successes he's going to be rolling a total of 15 dice against you in social checks. Just so you know.[/sblock]

His paw like hands punctuate his speech. "Ah'm Lucias, Lucias Bancroft. You can call me LB," He has a strong southern accent, he draws out his initials so that it sounds like he's saying "eell bee". He sweeps out a big arm catching you by the shoulder and guiding you toward one wood-paneled wall. "Ah suppose we could try to do this slow. But ah figure that it's better to just give it to you straight." He taps something on the wall, with a thrumming sound the wall rises. Beyond the wall is a window.

You've seen pictures of the future; futurists tossing improbable visions about. You've known people who sneered about the improbably of the photos shown at the Brazilian expo around the 1900s. In front of you what can only be buildings shoot up like pillars. You realize you must be in one of those pillars, starting out over a canyon made entirely by the hands of man. Across from you, something, an oval body under whirring blades takes off, floating lazily through the sky.

"Welcome, sir, to the ____ing future."

When you manage to tear your gaze away from the window you find LB smiling genially at you his long arm encircling your shoulders, "So, tell me a bit about yourself, mah friend."

 

[Bloodweaver1]

Cole Braddock

Jesus Mary Ann Flipping Christ! You really did it this time buddy! What in the nine hells happened?? I’m not dreaming again.. am I?

It takes quite a few minutes for Cole to finally let everything sink in, and even then he still does not believe it. He passes his wrinkled hand through his shaggy hair and gives his excavators a scruffy grin. His eyes linger on the female vampire bit longer than normal before returning his attention back to LB. In a dry and horse voice he says, “Well I would tell you my name, but I would imagine you already know that. I would also tell you what my profession is and what I ‘think’ I was doing in Cairo, but again you probably already know that too.” He gives a small pause before continuing. “Don’t get me wrong I am quite grateful for the excavation and I would be tell’n you anything that you want to know. But it would be a wee bit quicker if you just asked me directly.”

 

[Graf]

Cole's Prelude 2

LB's voice remains strong, and profoundly persuasive. His thick accented cadence rolls over the room. The arm around your shoulders is somewhere between a friendly hug and a headlock.
"Mah Friend, ah am afraid that ah don't know you from Adam. Mah normal policy regarding uninvited visitors in mah city involves torpah and concrete. Howevah," the big man's genial smile reveals very long fangs "given that you might notta come heah under your own powah I have decided to wake you up an' give you an oppahtunity to explain youh self."

"Ah'd be obliged if you got started with that so's Ah don't have to make some sort of unpleasant decision."[sblock=LB Revelation v Cole]
LB has used revelation against you generating an exceptional success (6 successes). You feel compelled to be amazingly honest with him, revealing everything about yourself. It's a supernatural compulsion, with his exceptional success you can't spend Willpower to resist.[/sblock]

 

[Graf]

Beth's Prelude 1

Beth's walking down the street, it's cool for summer. Brisk enough that that she's got your long sweater on. It's a bit too late to be out, but things have been particularly bad at home. She's approaching a corner when one of those cheap rentals, where the name of the car rental company is plastered all over the side, rolls to a stop in front of her. Just stopped on the crosswalk.

The guy driving catches your eye, stop he says.

[sblock=WJ's Command]
Beth is compelled to [http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1418890]remain in place[/url] (a reasonably obvious interpretation of the word stop. WJ got only one success, but Beth got zero, which is enough for him to enforce his command[/url]. [/sblock]

Beth does, reflexively, without thinking about it. The guy is older than she is, but still young, maybe in his 20s. White. Close cropped hair. He's got to be some sort of urban primitive, beads and bones, probably a dozen or more are pierced through different parts of his face. He's holding some sort of hollow tube, like a reed.

stand there. don't do anything. don't speak or make any sound, unless I ask you a question. answer normally. when I open the car door you get in and sit quietly. His voice has a funny cadence to it. He doesn't begin or end his sentences properly. is anyone waiting for you?

"Nnnn," Beth hears herself say. She feels herself pushing back, like there's some weight pushing against on her forehead and she's pushing against it.

[sblock=WJ's Mesmerize]
Beth has some success resisting the WJ's Mesmerize but not enough.[/sblock]

"No," Beth hears herself say.

The man seems satisfied about something.will anyone miss you if you disappear for a few hours?

"No," Beth hears her own, voice, dominated by fear. She'd like very much to scream. But she can't.

He nods and pushes the car door open.

[sblock=Beth's Moral Code]
Per Mesmerize (a power from the Dominate Discipline) a character who is ordered to violate their own moral code can reflexively try to resist. Would getting into the car violate Beth's moral code?[/sblock]

 

[industrygothica]

[sblock=Beth's Moral Code]
Per Mesmerize (a power from the Dominate Discipline) a character who is ordered to violate their own moral code can reflexively try to resist. Would getting into the car violate Beth's moral code?[/sblock]

[sblock=re: moral code]Not only would getting into the car not violate her moral code, but it would most assuredly satisfy her vice (lust) for thrill-seeking behavior. I think that instinctively she'd know better, but through force-of-will she'd blow off the common sense factor and go for it.[/sblock]

 

[Bloodweaver1]

Cole Braddock

“Hmm well since you put it that way….” Says Cole in a delightful but yet sarcastic tone. Running his hand through his hair he tries his best to sort through the chaotic mess that is now his memory. With a deep breath and a slow exhale he says, “The names Braddock, Cole Braddock. And as far as what I am doing here, well that’s a good question. I’m still trying to figure that part out.

Lets see, I think it was Janurary of 1943 and German intelligence had just intercepted a transmission mentioning something about ‘Fortitude and Body Guard’. Can’t remember exactly what it was but I do know that it got all the Generals in a frenzy screaming for supplies. Which for me, meant good business.” He says before filling his lungs with a rejected small sigh. “Rather, was good business.” He leans his back against his tomb and lets his eyes dance across his audience. “Everything seemed business as usual. Was contacted on the usual channels with everything happening the way it should. Except for the order. Whatever the Generals were expecting, it was big. I mean really big. This order was the kind order that you could retire from, that is if you got the nuts to pull it off. So I did what any good business man would do. I pulled in all my favors, spent almost my entire cash flow and I filled the order. I managed to get over 100K tons of raw munitions and supplies. That wasn’t easy you know. You have no idea what I had to do in order to acquire and then hide that kind of merchandise. We’re not just talking about rifles and ammo here. We had two dozen soviet tanks with gas, 10 tons in allied weapons alone plus enough explosives to level half of Paris. And that’s just the tip of it.” A Small confident smirk scrolls across his face as he lays out the foundations of his little operation. He is not the type of man to brag or even give away his secrets, but hell he’s 70 years in the future and it is not that often he has the opportunity to tell such a grand story. “Well anyway, we secured transportation on three large cargo ships, heading from Ciaro to a port in France. Later they were going to be convoyed to beach head in the North West of France. A place called Normandy, I think.” He instinctively scratches his chin as he pauses in his story. After a few seconds pass before he moves his hand back down to his waist and continues with his tale. “Not sure why though, all of the coded transmissions where talking about places to the North East or to the South. But hey I’m no tactician. On the night that the ships were suppose leave port my mentor and I were double checking the merchandise when I think we were attack. The next thing I remember is dragging my wrinkled corpse out of this here box.”

 

[Graf]

Cole's Prelude 3

LB's eyes burrow into Cole as he continues his story. Claw-like fingers dig into his shoulder.

When Cole comes to the part about the box he glances back at the box on the floor. "Nothing else huh? Since Dubya Dubya Two?" He shifts his gaze back to the two other people in the room.

[sblock=Cole's Read]Cole can't seem to get a decent read on the situation.[/sblock]

"Well. Well. We got ahselves a genuine Rip Van Winkle type situation then. You've given it to me straight an' ah appreciate that sort of candor. Ain't a whole lotta folks'd admit they was buddies with Hitler. You got guts. Ah can appreciate a vampiah with some grit."

LB suddenly releases you and walks back to his desk. Flopping down in his chair he brings his big cowboy boots down on the desk with a resounding boom.

"Let me fill you in on what you've missed. We beat up the Germans. No thanks to youh," he gives you a conspiratorial wink. "Then the Japs jumped us and we beat them up too. The Ruskies got a bit uppity but Reagan took care of them. So America's still number one."

The woman in the silk dress makes an irritated "tch" sound, as she looks at her long, claw-like nails. She's caucasian but the flawless pale skin, bright red hair and the long green dress combine to give her an exotic air.

LB looks at her "Broad strokes, baby, broad strokes. ah'm just giving him the essential parts. He ain't no idjut. He knows more stuff's happened."

 

[Graf]

Beth's Prelude 2

[sblock=re: moral code]Not only would getting into the car not violate her moral code, but it would most assuredly satisfy her vice (lust) for thrill-seeking behavior. I think that instinctively she'd know better, but through force-of-will she'd blow off the common sense factor and go for it.[/sblock]

Beth slides into the car. On the sidewalk behind her she sees an old woman looking at her disapprovingly.

The man shifts into gear and the car eases away from the curb.

very lucky. you'll be experiencing something special tonight

Beth wants to say something but realizes she can't. The words sit quietly writhe in her mind like a snake.

<<End Beth's Prelude>>​