Vampire: Bloodlines part 1: Ashe to Ashe.
Nov. 28th, 2013 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xyzzysqrlSo the people (...that's you all) have spoken and by what I count via IMs, emails, and here there was a 7/5/0 split. The results are: Adam "Authoritarian Dance Machine" Jensen scores a flat zero, Nancy Drew style earned five votes, and Ashe style earns a full seven points. Truly she is the ruler you voted for.
Let's lay out some of the character concept here: I am not going to be writing like straight-up Final Fantasy/Vampire Crossover Fanfic here because I am not a goddamn crazy person. (Okay. I am. But I am not that KIND of goddamn crazy person.) What I am doing is using Ashe's basic drives and goals as a roleplay template.
What is Ashe, in this case? Ashe is:
A ventrue. Which is like Vampire Nobility, or just fancypantses. She won't do "low" things like nomming down on rats for extra blood, she tries to avoid feeding on the lower class in general. She will conduct herself with a degree of propriety when she can manage it. However!
Ashe does not have a lot of patience for bullshit. She has a low tolerance for being screwed around with, and if you attempt to hurt her or anyone she thinks of as hers, you are in serious trouble. She has something of a saviour complex: Her People are going to be PROTECTED.
Ashe is also power-hungry. She's a social climber, a status-junkie. Aside from that, she desires strength of arms, strength of will... This is a woman whose main objection to using the fantasy version of a nuclear weapon was "Someone else is trying to manipulate me into using this and I WON'T STAND FOR IT".
Finally, she is a crowbar. Ashe is not terribly subtle. Negotiations are a good start, and she can persuade people with her royal bearing, but if they start to fall apart she does not particularly -mind- leaping into battle. And if the situation was broken before she got there... well, these things happen.
Ashe also is primarily a melee fighter but thanks to my roll of "Hunter" for her class back when I played Final Fantasy 12 Interactional Bacon Pancakes Edition she will eventually know a bit about guns too. For the most part, though, things like "stealth", "lockpicking" and "computer hacking" are right out. This is going to be ... interesting, because those are my heavy-lean skills on a usual game run. Ahaha. Aha. Oh god.
With no further ado, let's get started. The game starts with... death. Passionate sex. A scream. A heartbeat slows and stops. Ashe awakens in a bed with two rapidly-healing holes in her neck and no pulse. A man lounges provocatively in an armchair across the way. Surely he will fill us in o--
Two guys kick the door down and ram stakes in our hearts. Cut to black.
WELL, that was a short game and I'd like to thank you all oh it's not over. Now Ashe is on stage along with That Guy, and there's a short dude in a short speechifying. The subtitles refer to this as "Prince", and he is basically The Boss of LA. He makes a long speech, the gist of which is this:
Ashe is a new vampire.
That Guy created her.
All requests to make new vampires have to go through The Prince.
This one did not.
Which makes him sad.
He expresses his degree of sadness by having a bald man the size of Mount Kilimanjaro swing his enormous replica Buster Sword through That Guy's neck. That Guy explodes into dust. Er, bye dad. Then his attention and speech turn to Ashe, but not before someone from the audience attempts to call BULLSHIT on the whole proceedings.
This appears to give The Prince some pause, like he's reconsidering things. Like maybe he's just realized that morale is low and killing two dumbass noobs on stage is a bad idea for his approval rating. So... he declares he'll let Ashe live. The audience leaves, and Prince starts speeching it up some more. About how now that he's let Ashe live, he's RESPONSIBLE for what she does. About loyalty and how it needs to be proven, and about an assignment: Go to Santa Monica, meet someone named Mercurio, get further instructions. Do not waste the Prince's time. Ashe is still expendable.
We stroll out the door and straight into a hobo. The hobo is named Jack, he is also a vampire, and he is a tutorial. He teaches Ashe to bite people, to fight, to gunfight, and a little about the world. We're technically immortal, but can be killed with enough violence. There's that whole "need for blood" thing. Daylight bad. Etc.
More specific and useful, we meet (from a great distance), the Sabbat. These guys are "dumb bloodthirsty muderous bastards" and the Bad Guys. According to Jack, anyway. Maybe they just have a bad reputation! Of course they also kill the hell out of a bunch of people (well, vampires) so probably they are not Captain Friendly of the Nice Patrol.
As Jack explains, this is a good example of how NOT to act. The faction I'm arguably "with", the Camarilla, is all about Not Showing Off. Specifically, not being a vampire in public. You gotta hide your power level or you'll freak the mundanes. Is this why this game is so popular in fandom? Anyway, if you screw up too hard vampire hunters will stalk you and if you do it five times it's just a GAME OVER as presumably your handlers decide you're too dumb to live and end you.
Also don't do things that are... inhuman too much, or you'll UNLEASH THE BEAST, which is bad. Not that Jack really wants to explain "bad". Still... resist. Humanity demands it. Resist! Of course it's not inhuman to shoot the face off someone attacking you. Self-preservation is totally humanistic.
Anyway, that's the first night: A semi-panicked run through a warehouse, creeping and sneaking around far more powerful vampires, followed by beating the everloving crud out of some gang-banging humans with a tire iron and baseball bat. It's not quite a ninja sword, but we're early in yet. Ashe will get a proper blade, I'm sure.
Speaking of stuff like that, let's check out her stats!
As you can see, we have a long way to go. If we're going to be Melee Focused, we should really bump Fortitude for the extra armor and such, we're going to want a little more in the way of Wits, Stamina, Perception, and Firearms. Stamina and Wits will both give us a defense bump, Perception and Firearms will help in shooting things which is KIND OF important later in the game because you cannot reasonably face-tank everything. Aside from that, Research will help us learn new skills from books and other people, which translates directly to saving experience points elsewhere.
Ashe will never be exactly a genius, but she's going to survive this somehow.
(I'm told that being able to just leaps-and-bounds your way up the experience system here is the biggest departure from the tabletop game. Ask me how much I'm bothered by this.)
Anyway, we arrive in the safehouse we've been granted use of, and it's kind of a ... well, a squalid dump. Still, raiding the place for supplies nets us the following: Three blood packs of finest quality. A wristwatch, cheap. And some estrogen pills. Hopefully I can get those to the right people.
Hanging out in a crappy safehouse room is boring, so I turn on the TV for a bit.
- An actor crashed his car into the river, escaped unharmed. This is the second time he's done that this year.
- A massive wad of jelly or octopus or something washed up on shore in Rhode Island. Science doesn't know what the fuck.
- A boat, the Elizabeth Dane, was found with nobody on it and was towed into harbor because somebody thought this was a good idea. Haven't you morons read "Dracula"?
- A serial killer ripped a bunch of people up in Santa Monica. Oh goodie, that's where I am. They haven't caught him yet. Oh double goodie.
I'm giving good odds to every single one of these things being plot-critical at some point in the future.
I also check out the radio, which is playing a cheeseball "up all night" call-in show. I flip it on while I'm looting the place. Caller #1 to "Deb", the hostess, is a guy called Vigo. Vigo is down at the yacht club! What kind of yacht does he have? Uhhh you wouldn't know it, he bought it in Italy. Deb switches to speaking Italian to ask Vigo a follow-up, and when Vigo can only muster a flustered "Uhm. Yes?" in reply, she hangs up on him. Good move, Deb. I turn the radio off again, but if you want to listen in on Deb of Night, here's the first episode of that.
Finally I get around to checking out my desk. $100 in an envelope, which is nice starter money. An invitation to come visit "M. Strauss" written in terrible poetry ("DARK BLOOD! OUR CURSE! A LIGHT! THIS VERSE!") which talks about finding him "where the mystical sun burns", so I'm... probably just gonna have to ask people what that even means. Finally, with the aide of a password written on some paper Ashe manages to fumble through checking her email.
Penis enlargement spam. (What happens if you take this stuff and estrogen at the same time?) Bail bond spam. Reminder from "LaCroix" not to fuck about. I assume that's Prince. Bit from Mercurio, telling me he's getting some explosives and we should chat, along with his address. And "From A Friend", a cryptic note about the game beginning as a pawn is moved. Did I sign up for email chess? Did Ashe?
After some thought, Ashe decides this is probably just Balthier being melodramatic about going out for milk or something. Balthier, I am not in the mood for you right now. Although if you could come pick locks for me that would seriously help.
Ashe strolls out the door and is instantly hit up for change by a bum. She passes him ten bucks and he shuffles off. Subjects are the lifeblood of a kingdom, after all. All right, to Mercurio's place... Building 24. let's see. Along the way, there's a cutscene of a gasping, bleeding man limping into a building. But surely that -- building 24. Big pool of blood. ...leads to Mercurio's room.
Well damn.
Sure enough, Mercurio is bleeding to death on a couch. He begs Ashe not to tell anyone (particularly the Prince or an ambulance). He got down to the beach to pick up the explosives, but five guys jumped him and beat him bloody. Could she go ... well, kill them or whatever, and get it? Also some medicine? Because he's bleeding?
I will be your SWORD OF VENGENCE, Mercurio. Hang tight and don't... uh, fall to bits or anything.
Step one: Charge the tank. Ashe finds some upper-class fellow waiting for a tow truck and persuades him that what he REALLY wants to do is take a long stroll down a dark alley. The blood reserves get bumped to about 75%. Good enough.
Step two: Find the beach. This is a simple matter of following street signs. As I arrive, a nice lady points me where I need to be. Ashe thanks her politely.
Step three: Unleash. Ashe talks her way past the guard, then circles the house and cuts the power at the junction box. She lies in wait and briskly knocks the hell out of the guy who comes to fix it, the guy who comes to check on that guy, and the gate guard with a baseball bat. Then it's into the house where, hey, free gun. All she had to do was clobber it off one of the drug dealers. It's a profitable evening.
Once they're disposed of, it's just a quick pick-up of the explosive and a steady trot back to ... Hm. We can't go back yet. Need some medication, and I don't think Mercurio wants estrogen. To the hospital! On the way in, someone very loud starts yelling at me. It's okay! He's a ghoul! That means he's totally like vampires! And he can see them and stuff! YEAH! HE'S ON A SECRET MISSION! FROM HIS MASTER! OH WAIT HE SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT! OKAY BYE!
... what the hell, people. This is your secret underground secret messenger? Facepalm.
I tell the nice lady at the desk that there's some personal stuff for a friend I have to do, and she lets be on past. ... Not technically a lie. Apparently the morphine is kept upstairs in the restricted area, as I learn from hacking a PC. How can I do that? I found a book next to the PC. "Computers for Grandma". Now Ashe knows all about "Chip", the magic computer fairy.
This makes so much more sense than what actually happens with computers.
On her way upstairs, Ashe is spotted by a guard, who suddenly for no reason (yay domination) becomes friendly and gives her his keys so she can let herself out. Okay, mental domination is awesome and I am going to abuse the -hell- out of that this run, I know it. I'm picturing Ashe doing the Royal Canterlot voice now and I need to stop.
Unfortunately, that's as far as I can get for a while, as I tromp all over the damned hospital looking for the morphine. I eventually find it in one of the doctor's offices, thank goodness. On the way out, I pass by a patient on a bed. She's screaming and whimpering, and... well. One thing leads to another, and before I realize it, Ashe is feeding her out of her wrist.
Oops. I think she just made a ghoulfriend.
... that's probably bad. The joke AND the ghoulification. Time to leave. Now. In a hurry.
Back to Mercurio, who is still in pain (until Ashe gives him his morphine) and who is depressed (until Ashe gives him his money back and that big supply of explosive). The mission, as it turns out, is to bomb a Sabbat warehouse off the map. We'll need some weapons and supplies. There's a pawn shop down the street, so Ashe rolls out to stock up before the mission... wow, this DOES feel like Final Fantasy.
At this point I spend some XP to stick a point in Perception and a second in Wits. Mmm, stat buffs.
Ashe hits the pawn shop, sells off her various bits and bobs (estrogen, watch, etc) and picks up some ammo for that cruddy gun and a big sharp knife. It's not exactly a Main Gauche, but surely THIS is enough to wipe out a warehouse full of Sabbat. And SURELY pigs can fly, too.
Anyway, Mercurio said that I'm going to have to find a "Tracer Tong"... er, a "Bertram Tung" who is in hiding because of an argument of some kind with the girls who run the Asylum, a local dance club. Next time, we'll hike out there and see what their deal is.
I BET IT LEADS TO SIDEQUESTS~.
Let's lay out some of the character concept here: I am not going to be writing like straight-up Final Fantasy/Vampire Crossover Fanfic here because I am not a goddamn crazy person. (Okay. I am. But I am not that KIND of goddamn crazy person.) What I am doing is using Ashe's basic drives and goals as a roleplay template.
What is Ashe, in this case? Ashe is:
A ventrue. Which is like Vampire Nobility, or just fancypantses. She won't do "low" things like nomming down on rats for extra blood, she tries to avoid feeding on the lower class in general. She will conduct herself with a degree of propriety when she can manage it. However!
Ashe does not have a lot of patience for bullshit. She has a low tolerance for being screwed around with, and if you attempt to hurt her or anyone she thinks of as hers, you are in serious trouble. She has something of a saviour complex: Her People are going to be PROTECTED.
Ashe is also power-hungry. She's a social climber, a status-junkie. Aside from that, she desires strength of arms, strength of will... This is a woman whose main objection to using the fantasy version of a nuclear weapon was "Someone else is trying to manipulate me into using this and I WON'T STAND FOR IT".
Finally, she is a crowbar. Ashe is not terribly subtle. Negotiations are a good start, and she can persuade people with her royal bearing, but if they start to fall apart she does not particularly -mind- leaping into battle. And if the situation was broken before she got there... well, these things happen.
Ashe also is primarily a melee fighter but thanks to my roll of "Hunter" for her class back when I played Final Fantasy 12 Interactional Bacon Pancakes Edition she will eventually know a bit about guns too. For the most part, though, things like "stealth", "lockpicking" and "computer hacking" are right out. This is going to be ... interesting, because those are my heavy-lean skills on a usual game run. Ahaha. Aha. Oh god.
With no further ado, let's get started. The game starts with... death. Passionate sex. A scream. A heartbeat slows and stops. Ashe awakens in a bed with two rapidly-healing holes in her neck and no pulse. A man lounges provocatively in an armchair across the way. Surely he will fill us in o--
Two guys kick the door down and ram stakes in our hearts. Cut to black.
WELL, that was a short game and I'd like to thank you all oh it's not over. Now Ashe is on stage along with That Guy, and there's a short dude in a short speechifying. The subtitles refer to this as "Prince", and he is basically The Boss of LA. He makes a long speech, the gist of which is this:
Ashe is a new vampire.
That Guy created her.
All requests to make new vampires have to go through The Prince.
This one did not.
Which makes him sad.
He expresses his degree of sadness by having a bald man the size of Mount Kilimanjaro swing his enormous replica Buster Sword through That Guy's neck. That Guy explodes into dust. Er, bye dad. Then his attention and speech turn to Ashe, but not before someone from the audience attempts to call BULLSHIT on the whole proceedings.
This appears to give The Prince some pause, like he's reconsidering things. Like maybe he's just realized that morale is low and killing two dumbass noobs on stage is a bad idea for his approval rating. So... he declares he'll let Ashe live. The audience leaves, and Prince starts speeching it up some more. About how now that he's let Ashe live, he's RESPONSIBLE for what she does. About loyalty and how it needs to be proven, and about an assignment: Go to Santa Monica, meet someone named Mercurio, get further instructions. Do not waste the Prince's time. Ashe is still expendable.
We stroll out the door and straight into a hobo. The hobo is named Jack, he is also a vampire, and he is a tutorial. He teaches Ashe to bite people, to fight, to gunfight, and a little about the world. We're technically immortal, but can be killed with enough violence. There's that whole "need for blood" thing. Daylight bad. Etc.
More specific and useful, we meet (from a great distance), the Sabbat. These guys are "dumb bloodthirsty muderous bastards" and the Bad Guys. According to Jack, anyway. Maybe they just have a bad reputation! Of course they also kill the hell out of a bunch of people (well, vampires) so probably they are not Captain Friendly of the Nice Patrol.
As Jack explains, this is a good example of how NOT to act. The faction I'm arguably "with", the Camarilla, is all about Not Showing Off. Specifically, not being a vampire in public. You gotta hide your power level or you'll freak the mundanes. Is this why this game is so popular in fandom? Anyway, if you screw up too hard vampire hunters will stalk you and if you do it five times it's just a GAME OVER as presumably your handlers decide you're too dumb to live and end you.
Also don't do things that are... inhuman too much, or you'll UNLEASH THE BEAST, which is bad. Not that Jack really wants to explain "bad". Still... resist. Humanity demands it. Resist! Of course it's not inhuman to shoot the face off someone attacking you. Self-preservation is totally humanistic.
Anyway, that's the first night: A semi-panicked run through a warehouse, creeping and sneaking around far more powerful vampires, followed by beating the everloving crud out of some gang-banging humans with a tire iron and baseball bat. It's not quite a ninja sword, but we're early in yet. Ashe will get a proper blade, I'm sure.
Speaking of stuff like that, let's check out her stats!
As you can see, we have a long way to go. If we're going to be Melee Focused, we should really bump Fortitude for the extra armor and such, we're going to want a little more in the way of Wits, Stamina, Perception, and Firearms. Stamina and Wits will both give us a defense bump, Perception and Firearms will help in shooting things which is KIND OF important later in the game because you cannot reasonably face-tank everything. Aside from that, Research will help us learn new skills from books and other people, which translates directly to saving experience points elsewhere.
Ashe will never be exactly a genius, but she's going to survive this somehow.
(I'm told that being able to just leaps-and-bounds your way up the experience system here is the biggest departure from the tabletop game. Ask me how much I'm bothered by this.)
Anyway, we arrive in the safehouse we've been granted use of, and it's kind of a ... well, a squalid dump. Still, raiding the place for supplies nets us the following: Three blood packs of finest quality. A wristwatch, cheap. And some estrogen pills. Hopefully I can get those to the right people.
Hanging out in a crappy safehouse room is boring, so I turn on the TV for a bit.
- An actor crashed his car into the river, escaped unharmed. This is the second time he's done that this year.
- A massive wad of jelly or octopus or something washed up on shore in Rhode Island. Science doesn't know what the fuck.
- A boat, the Elizabeth Dane, was found with nobody on it and was towed into harbor because somebody thought this was a good idea. Haven't you morons read "Dracula"?
- A serial killer ripped a bunch of people up in Santa Monica. Oh goodie, that's where I am. They haven't caught him yet. Oh double goodie.
I'm giving good odds to every single one of these things being plot-critical at some point in the future.
I also check out the radio, which is playing a cheeseball "up all night" call-in show. I flip it on while I'm looting the place. Caller #1 to "Deb", the hostess, is a guy called Vigo. Vigo is down at the yacht club! What kind of yacht does he have? Uhhh you wouldn't know it, he bought it in Italy. Deb switches to speaking Italian to ask Vigo a follow-up, and when Vigo can only muster a flustered "Uhm. Yes?" in reply, she hangs up on him. Good move, Deb. I turn the radio off again, but if you want to listen in on Deb of Night, here's the first episode of that.
Finally I get around to checking out my desk. $100 in an envelope, which is nice starter money. An invitation to come visit "M. Strauss" written in terrible poetry ("DARK BLOOD! OUR CURSE! A LIGHT! THIS VERSE!") which talks about finding him "where the mystical sun burns", so I'm... probably just gonna have to ask people what that even means. Finally, with the aide of a password written on some paper Ashe manages to fumble through checking her email.
Penis enlargement spam. (What happens if you take this stuff and estrogen at the same time?) Bail bond spam. Reminder from "LaCroix" not to fuck about. I assume that's Prince. Bit from Mercurio, telling me he's getting some explosives and we should chat, along with his address. And "From A Friend", a cryptic note about the game beginning as a pawn is moved. Did I sign up for email chess? Did Ashe?
After some thought, Ashe decides this is probably just Balthier being melodramatic about going out for milk or something. Balthier, I am not in the mood for you right now. Although if you could come pick locks for me that would seriously help.
Ashe strolls out the door and is instantly hit up for change by a bum. She passes him ten bucks and he shuffles off. Subjects are the lifeblood of a kingdom, after all. All right, to Mercurio's place... Building 24. let's see. Along the way, there's a cutscene of a gasping, bleeding man limping into a building. But surely that -- building 24. Big pool of blood. ...leads to Mercurio's room.
Well damn.
Sure enough, Mercurio is bleeding to death on a couch. He begs Ashe not to tell anyone (particularly the Prince or an ambulance). He got down to the beach to pick up the explosives, but five guys jumped him and beat him bloody. Could she go ... well, kill them or whatever, and get it? Also some medicine? Because he's bleeding?
I will be your SWORD OF VENGENCE, Mercurio. Hang tight and don't... uh, fall to bits or anything.
Step one: Charge the tank. Ashe finds some upper-class fellow waiting for a tow truck and persuades him that what he REALLY wants to do is take a long stroll down a dark alley. The blood reserves get bumped to about 75%. Good enough.
Step two: Find the beach. This is a simple matter of following street signs. As I arrive, a nice lady points me where I need to be. Ashe thanks her politely.
Step three: Unleash. Ashe talks her way past the guard, then circles the house and cuts the power at the junction box. She lies in wait and briskly knocks the hell out of the guy who comes to fix it, the guy who comes to check on that guy, and the gate guard with a baseball bat. Then it's into the house where, hey, free gun. All she had to do was clobber it off one of the drug dealers. It's a profitable evening.
Once they're disposed of, it's just a quick pick-up of the explosive and a steady trot back to ... Hm. We can't go back yet. Need some medication, and I don't think Mercurio wants estrogen. To the hospital! On the way in, someone very loud starts yelling at me. It's okay! He's a ghoul! That means he's totally like vampires! And he can see them and stuff! YEAH! HE'S ON A SECRET MISSION! FROM HIS MASTER! OH WAIT HE SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT! OKAY BYE!
... what the hell, people. This is your secret underground secret messenger? Facepalm.
I tell the nice lady at the desk that there's some personal stuff for a friend I have to do, and she lets be on past. ... Not technically a lie. Apparently the morphine is kept upstairs in the restricted area, as I learn from hacking a PC. How can I do that? I found a book next to the PC. "Computers for Grandma". Now Ashe knows all about "Chip", the magic computer fairy.
This makes so much more sense than what actually happens with computers.
On her way upstairs, Ashe is spotted by a guard, who suddenly for no reason (yay domination) becomes friendly and gives her his keys so she can let herself out. Okay, mental domination is awesome and I am going to abuse the -hell- out of that this run, I know it. I'm picturing Ashe doing the Royal Canterlot voice now and I need to stop.
Unfortunately, that's as far as I can get for a while, as I tromp all over the damned hospital looking for the morphine. I eventually find it in one of the doctor's offices, thank goodness. On the way out, I pass by a patient on a bed. She's screaming and whimpering, and... well. One thing leads to another, and before I realize it, Ashe is feeding her out of her wrist.
Oops. I think she just made a ghoulfriend.
... that's probably bad. The joke AND the ghoulification. Time to leave. Now. In a hurry.
Back to Mercurio, who is still in pain (until Ashe gives him his morphine) and who is depressed (until Ashe gives him his money back and that big supply of explosive). The mission, as it turns out, is to bomb a Sabbat warehouse off the map. We'll need some weapons and supplies. There's a pawn shop down the street, so Ashe rolls out to stock up before the mission... wow, this DOES feel like Final Fantasy.
At this point I spend some XP to stick a point in Perception and a second in Wits. Mmm, stat buffs.
Ashe hits the pawn shop, sells off her various bits and bobs (estrogen, watch, etc) and picks up some ammo for that cruddy gun and a big sharp knife. It's not exactly a Main Gauche, but surely THIS is enough to wipe out a warehouse full of Sabbat. And SURELY pigs can fly, too.
Anyway, Mercurio said that I'm going to have to find a "Tracer Tong"... er, a "Bertram Tung" who is in hiding because of an argument of some kind with the girls who run the Asylum, a local dance club. Next time, we'll hike out there and see what their deal is.
I BET IT LEADS TO SIDEQUESTS~.
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Date: 2013-11-29 09:20 pm (UTC)