FOLLOWERS OF SET NEWSLETTER Volume 3, Issue 9 December 2003 Author: Andrew 'Wes' Weston ========================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Fiction - A Christmas Esbat in Montreal Card Analysis - Ezekiel, Lord of Montreal Deck Construction - Sibyl's Tongue Module Contest Sign Off ========================================================== INTRODUCTION I had originally intended to use this newsletter to discuss table-balancing issues and how to deal with incompetent grand-predators/prey, but with the new Black Hand cards arriving not too long ago, I changed my mind. There is simply no room in this installment for all that I want to write about. So I will leave those subjects for a future installment of this newsletter. ========================================================== FICTION -- A Christmas Esbat in Montreal It is Montreal, the night of December 24th, 2003. Christmas Eve. In an abandoned warehouse in the worst part of town, dark figures gather. A fire in the centre of the large floor blazes freely, causing flickering shadows on the walls and what remains of the windows. Chained to pillars and old factory machinery, men and women are naked and gagged and frightened. At each of their feet lie old bath-tubs and large empty buckets. Angry punk music blares, lending to the general cacophany of cruel laughter and occasional scream. The police will not show up in this part of town. Not if they know what is good for them. In one corner, a massive and grotesque figure that seems to have several arms and legs more than it should wrestles with what appears to be a teenaged girl in a leather jacket. Oddly, the girl seems to be winning the fight as she pins the massive creature's head to the floor and beats it senseless with a lead pipe. Both appeared to be enjoying themselves, despite many bleeding wounds. In another corner of the warehouse, a bespectacled man in an immaculate three-piece suit lectures sitting figures on the history of their kind, while animated shadows on the wall behind him mirror his passion play exactly. He looks irritated by the deafening noises drowning him out, but the tenebrous shadow play on the walls compensate adequately. Elsewhere, several cloaked figures with deformed faces huddle together exchanging secrets, gossip and unpleasantries. The cloaks regrettably fail to conceal their faces -- faces that look disturbingly alien. One of them lovingly pets a large and mangy rat in its hands while it listens to its hideous associates. Another makes careful notes on a beat up old laptop computer. A young man wearing leather jeans and a wife-beater approaches the fire. The tattoos on his pale arms appear like veins ending in an obscured wing-like image on his back. He would look normal enough in many places, were it not for the odd reflection of the fire in his eyes like a cat's. Matched with the shit-eating grin on his face, he appears as if he were a daemonic Cheshire Cat. He begins to spin and dance to the music, circling around the fire, faster than should be physically possible. Suddenly, claws spring from his fingers and he lets out a supernatural howl as he leaps over the flames. He lands on his feet, completing the image of a cat. Applause and howls of appreciation encourage him to continue his macabre dance. Several other figures approach the fire now, leaping through and over the fire. One unfortunate individual trips and lands in the fire, to the apparent amusement of the others around him. He does not rise, but screams as he is burned. The others seem not to care and instead laugh and point as his body ignites and seconds later becomes ash. An old woman with dark complexion and coloured braids in her hair approaches one of the naked mortals bound to a pillar. She lets out a loud prayer to Legba or Caine... or possibly both. Nobody understands a word of what she says, but cheer her on as she reaches inside her robes, and pulls first a large decorative knife and then a small black snake. She kisses the snake and then casually slices the throat of the naked victim before her. Blood pours out of the poor soul's throat, filling the rusty bath-tub. She kisses bloody lips to the victim's throat and then moves on to the next unlucky supplicant. When the ritual is complete, another prayer to... Baron Samedi? Baby Jesus? The crowd neither hears nor cares. They each grab dixie cups, ornate goblets and tupperware cups. They dip into the bath-tub, toasting each other and then imbibing the blood of the victims. Later that night, a contingent will finish the party by heading to the barrens. Several homeless will find themselves buried alive in a park, and several of those will find themselves rising from the grave, bloosthirsty and not a little insane. Just before the sun rises they will all head back to the catacombs beneath the Cathedral. But until then... It's Christmas time in Montreal and the Sabbat rule the night. ========================================================== CARD ANALYSIS -- Ezekiel, Lord of Montreal Ezekiel, Lord of Montreal: 6/6 Follower of Set: PRE SER obf pot Sabbat Group 3 Black Hand And with the Black Hand expansion, we finally get our very first Serpent of the Light (more or less). For those who are not aware, the Serpents of the Light are vampires of the Setite bloodline, but who are members of the Sabbat. They are not typically created as Followers of Set, but rather embraced into the Sabbat with completely different beliefs and practices. For example, the Serpents do not worship Sutekh/Set. Rather, they consider him to be an abomination, which is basically how the Sabbat view all of the Antedilluveans. They also tend towards voodoo rituals, which is how their Serpentis often manifests itself. Serpents of the Light often perform the role of priests in Sabbat packs. Even so, they are fairly rare in the Sabbat, most Serpents are hunted down by the main Setite clan and vice versa. Both consider the other to be an apostasy. Ezekiel appears in the Montreal by Night sourcebook for Vampire: the Masquerade (which was written, strangely enough, by *actual Canadians*). Although I really like the MbN book, I always found Ezekiel to be a bit of an oddball. How is it that a vampire embraced only a few years before the book takes place is not only a Black Hand operative, but leader of a prominent Black Hand pack, and also a contender for the Archbishopric of Montreal? Talk about your over-achievers! In any case, back to reality. As a vampire, Ezekiel is a welcome addition to our clan (despite his blasphemous sect-ties). Having both [PRE] and [SER] at superior gives him many options, and also fills a hole that the Setites have always had. His inferior [obf] is a drawback, but not a serious one and certainly nothing to complain about in a 6-capacity vampire. He has inferior [pot] which allows him to play Typhonic Beast, making him one of only 11 vampires who can do so without extra cards. Curiously, no vampires at the time of this writing are able to play the superior version of Typhonic Beast without assistance from skill cards or equipment. Potence also gives Ezekiel access to Disarm, which has suddenly become a lot more common of late. It is now a relatively simple matter for a vampire with [SER] to do more damage at close range than his opponent, so being able to commit the coup de grace with a Disarm is very useful. Follow up the torporing with a diablerie by Samat Ramal-Ra or Amam the Devourer and your opponents will be devastated. To make the deal even sweeter, Ezekiel is a member of the Black Hand. This gives him access to 18 special cards in the Black Hand expansion that he comes with. There is no real need to concentrate on this angle, but it is tempting. Cards like Ministry give Ezekiel, and by extension the Followers of Set, access to reliable intercept. Being able to intercept has always been a problem for Setites. Unlike most Setites, Ezekiel is also a little hardier at surviving combats. He has access to Skin of Adder, can use the aforementioned Typhonic Beast.and also has access to Corporal Reservoir. Suffice to say, Ezekiel may not need to rely on Majesty like every other Setite does. If you want to play this angle up, you could even play with Mark of Damnations and Heart of Darkness to make him an absolute tank (at least until someone PTO's him from cross-table *sigh*). Ezekiel has already become the star vampire in a new deck of mine, which I have unfortunately not yet had the chance to try out. But I suspect he will be getting a lot of mileage with me. ========================================================== DECK CONSTRUCTION -- Sibyl's Tongue Module 3 Roger Farnsworth [4 !Malkavian, Black Hand, OBF aus] 6 Cloak the Gathering (Roger can also provide cover for his friends in a pinch) 4 Sibyl's Tongue (Cost 0-3) 2 Art of Memory (To avoid discarding the Sibyl's Tongue) 2 Swallowed by the Night (Doubles as combat defense) 1 Remover (Gives Roger another role, as needed) 1 Sargon Fragment (To fish back the STs or other cards, as needed) This module would require 3 crypt and 16 library card spaces. While this sounds like a lot of space, it should also be remembered that this will provide the ability to free up space in the deck that you would otherwise devote to extra copies of other cards. So rather than seeing this as 16 card spaces wasted, look at it as 74 card spaces that just became a lot more negotiable :) It would obviously work best in a deck that was already focusing on [OBF] as a discipline, but should be able to complement decks that do not. The Cloaks could provide stealth to any deck that might need it. You never know when you might need to stealth a Ventrue's bleed or make sure your rush hits the intended target. However, I think this module will help vote decks the most. Vote decks often suffer from redundancy in that they almost always have similar vote cards to every other vote deck (unles focusing on say, Anathema). Most vote decks for example inlcude at least 4-8 Kine Resources Contested, making them a large chunk of the 14-20 or so vote cards in total that such decks usually field. With this module, you could include vote cards that you don't normally include many of, since they would have more potential for use. That one copy of Snipe Hunt that you were afraid to include in case you didn't face any weenies becomes a card that could potentially be played again and again if needed. It goes from being a prayer card to a card that you can play at your leisure to devastate your weenie opponent. Other examples abound. Depending on the type of deck you are playing, and the type of decks you are facing, other cards may help with this module: --Cards that can only be played once per game (Giant's Blood, Reins of Power) --Obscure prayer cards (Dismemberment of Osiris, Daemonic Possession) --More diverse defense (Delaying Tactics, Deflection, Majesty, etc) --Reinforcements (To keep Sibyl's Tongue costs down) --Unique cards (No need to include multiples anymore) This kind of deck would necessarily be very 'toolboxy', but that need not be a bad thing. The problem with toolboxy decks is that they often do not have the right card at the right time. This strategy ensures that you have what you need at exactly the right time. While the Remover card is not necessary to the module itself, I feel that it will complement Roger well. If you have what you need in hand, instead of fishing for cards, tap your prey's vampire or other essential cards. It gives Roger a secondary role for very little cost. The first action that should be taken is to retrieve the Sargon Fragment from your library (unless it is already in your hand) and equip it, preferrably on Roger. Now you have access to any of your cards that are not already in-play. You can use the Sargon Fragment to either pull the Sibyl's Tongues out of your ash heap to keep their costs down, or to pull back cards from your ash-heap as required. Note that this action does not have inherent stealth, so you may want to make sure you have transient stealth available before you try. As you can see, Roger is fairly fragile, unless you have a plan for combat. I have not tried this yet, and truthfully, I only own three Sibyl's Tongues. But I believe the basic idea behind this is sound. It may require more stealth or other tweaking before making a tight fit in any deck. If anyone else tries this out, I would appreciate you letting me know how well it worked out for you and what changes you made. ========================================================== CONTEST I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10. What number am I thinking of? The winner will receive my entire collection of V:tES cards. I will even pay for shipping. One guess per person please. ========================================================== SIGN OFF I hope you have enjoyed this most recent installment of the Followers of Set newsletter. As always, questions and comments are appreciated. Cheers, WES