Official V:EKN Lasombra Newsletter for July 2000
By Michael Eichler
- - - - - - - - - - -
Story Time – Benito! Benito!
Minion Call – A discussion of cards
Deck – Lasombra Happy Families Deck
Deck – Lasombra Multifunctional Deck
Deck – Undead Missionaries => Lasombra Political Combat Deck
- - - - - - - - - - -
Benito! Benito!
Angry thoughts flowed through Roberto’s head. Damn and curse Runako!
His assaults on my holdings are growing bolder and more frequent. I
detest having to shift my assets, but if I don’t I shall have to
contend with Sikkim before I am ready to face that rotting lunatic. I
suppose Caceras will have to endure another loss of stature for my
sake. A thin grin crossed Roberto’s face as thoughts of where and how
his minions would unknowing rally for his cause.
At the station platform, the train rolled forward. Car 291 eased
toward Phillip and stopped. The doors all along the train opened as
one and allowed people to start pouring out onto the platform. Phillip
stood silently among the throng of humanity waiting for Caldwell’s
guest, one of his clansmen. Something caught Phillip’s attention, a
movement of someone approaching the car’s door, a sense of familiarity
and death all intermixed together. Phillip gazed up and smiled,
Caldwell’s guest, his clansman stepped off the train and moved toward
Phillip. The two came together and clasped hands. Then both laughed
as they embraced each other in hugs that caused looks of concern when
the sound of bones cracked. Parting, Phillip looked into the eyes of
his brother, smiling.
It is so good to see you again, Benito! How are you fairing these
days? Or should I ask what have you been faring upon these days?,
Phillip questioned with a laugh.
I am doing quite well, my young brother. As for my fare of late, you
know I am unable to relinquish that information., replied Benito with a
smile. I have heard great things about you and your work for the
Prince here. Tell me they are all true and both mother and I will be
overjoyed.
Phillip smiled, “I suppose it depends on what you’ve heard. But we can
talk about that on the way to see Caldwell. Did you have any luggage?”
Letisha had her eyes closed as she took in the scents of the night.
Her prey was again leaving his place of business, locking up for the
evening. He looked around with frightened eyes as he walked rapidly
through the parking lot towards his car. Letisha smiled as she slowly
moved through the shadows in the park across the street. Though she
was assigned to this game of terror upon her prey, it had grown
tiresome. She was finally given the permission to inflict this one
final night of terror. She would then end this chase and finally move
to a new territory. The car pulled out of the parking lot onto the
street, as Letisha changed into her favored form of a silver timberwolf
and gave chase.
Roberto looked and listened through the shadow servant belonging to
Caseras as it gave it’s report. “Lord, your childe, Juan, as delivered
all his knowledge onto us. The individual responsible for the recent
fires is a Toreador named Phillip. This Phillip works directly for the
esteemed Archbishop, Caldwell.”
The shade paused.
“Yes”, inquired Caseras, “what other news do you have to report?”
“Our spies have recently informed us that Phillip has recently met and
escorted another Kindred to meet with Caldwell”, replied the shade.
“This newcomer has a name I presume?”
“Yes, ma’lord. The new arrival is named Benito. He is of the
Toreador…”
“I know the clan that spawned this frilly turd”, snapped Caceras,
cutting off his servant’s report.
“What in the name of the hell is Benito doing here? Here of all
places! I simply can not imagine Benito leaving his cozy trappings in
Los Angeles just for a social visit. Something more is happening here.”
After a moment of silence,“Lord, I am again making a request as to your
disposition of Juan?”, asked the shade. “He has provided all that he
knows to us. Do you wish to release him?”
“Release him?”, laughed Caceras, “I think not. You may do with him as
you will. Destroy him, lose him to the eternal darkness or transform
him, I do not care.”
“It shall be as you wish, ma’lord”, whispered the shade as it moved
through the veil of darkness and stopping to listen to new commands
concerning Juan.
Letisha laughed to herself as her prey’s car swerved around the corner
into the residential area at a high rate of speed. Turning the corner
at a run, Letisha slowed down and changed to her human form. Moving
rapidly to the sidewalk she continued following the car as it came to a
halt halfway down the street. It’s lights went out as the driver
turned to see if he was being followed. Letisha became invisible by
adopting her surroundings colors to herself and continued to close the
distance. The driver, satisfied that he was no longer being “hounded”
parked the car into his driveway and shut the engine off. Letisha
slowly walked up to the side of the car and remained still. The door
opened and the driver stepped out. As Letisha prepared for her final
strike, a word floated through the air like a slight breeze, “No.”
Letisha froze and searched the darkness for the source of her
interruption. The man moved toward his house, oblivious to his close
encounter with death and went inside. Letisha slowly circled as she
opened her senses for the intruder that dared to interrupt her task.
The whisper of a spear moving through the air gaining her notice just
prior to impaling her where she stood. Silent laughter echoed through
the trees before slowly fading away, leaving Letisha paralyzed for the
approaching dawn.
Caldwell was all smiles as Benito entered the room with Phillip.
“Ah my liege,” Benito spoke as he bowed, “I am honored by your personal
request for my presence. I have heard nothing but great things of you
and your city.”
“Benito, Benito. I am delighted you were able to accept my
invitation. I am surprised that you were able to leave New Orleans on
such short notice. Were there any difficulties during the trip?”
Caldwell inquired.
“None my lord.”
“Good. Are your filled or do you have need of refreshment? I have
excellent stocks and can supply you with whatever you desire.”
“Maybe later, my lord. I have recently feed and feel not the need to
do so again this soon.” Replyed Benito.
“As you say, well on to business. I have asked you to here to provide
assistance in dealing with a certain troublesome Kindred. I believe
you have met him once or twice before. His name is Caceras.”
“Caceras! Here? Ah my lord, you must have heard that I have held a
special interest with Caceras from Phillip.” Smiled Benito. “What
manner of assistance do your require, if I may inquire?”
“I wish to have him discredited among his peers. Once that is
accomplished, I can have him removed without any fallout from any of
his sponsors.” Replied Caldwell.
Pondering the situation, Benito finally turned.
“I do believe you have me, sir.” Intoned Benito with a smile. “When
would you require me to start my task?”
“After you have rested, my friend and been introduced. Tomorrow I have
a meeting with the elders of the city and there you shall be
introduced. After that, you will have all the time for yourself. Is
there anything you will require to assist you?” Caldwell asked.
“Why, my lord, all I require are the same resources you would assign
any dignitary within your domain.” Answered Benito.
“My very thoughts, Benito. Tomorrow night you will be introduced as a
new Bishop within the city.” Caldwell stated with a smile.
Upon the completion of the interview, a small corner of the office
stirred slightly as if something moved within. A moment later the
small ripple of darkness faded from within the confines of the office.
“Benito to be named and be used against me!” roared Caseras. “Caldwell
has finally broken creed with me, at last! I can now finally rid
myself of that loathsome prick of an Archbishop and place someone with
the illusion of strength but pliable in their dealings with me.”
“What I need is an for this little drama is someone who is willing to
me a service while taking apart both prissy boy Benito and his
ridiculousness Caldwell.” Brooded Caseras.
“If we may be so bold, my lord. We know of one to whom you might
consider…” whispered the darkness.
“Speak, my pets.” Replied Caseras. “Whom do we know that would be
willing to perform such a small service?”
“Sophia…”
“Sophia?! She has returned?” questioned Caseras.
“She has maintained her duty as you specified and return only 2 nights
ago.” The darkness answered.
“Two nights? And she hasn’t come to visit...? Pay homage...? Contact
her immediately and inform her that I wish to speak with her tonight!”
commanded Caseras.
“By your command…”
- - - - - - - - - - -
A discussion of cards…
In the V:TES world of darkness, there are three methods to victory;
Resource Denial (Bleeding) – Minion Denial (Combat) – Politics. The
Lasombra have strong capabilities with the former two methods through
their disciplines of Dominate and Potence. It is in the Political
arena where they seem to be lacking. This would appear odd as the
Lasombra are the supposed leaders of the Sabbat and therefore to be
strong politically. The following card reveals just how the Lasombra
are able to attain their political prowess, through the strength of
arms!
When you compare the differences between the two sects, Camarilla and
Sabbat, the power of titled political power is clearly within the
Camarilla camp. The Ventrue have the capability of fielding 21 points
of voting power through titles alone, the most of any of the Camarilla
clans. The Toreador come in a very close second with 20 titled points
of political strength. The most the Lasombra can field at any one time
is a paltry 11 points from their title vampires. But it is through the
Lasombra’s special clan cards that the political realm opens for them.
Three of the Lasombra’s clan cards relate politics as a staple of the
Lasombra clan as their titles start with “Political…”. You have
Political Hunting Ground, Political Struggle and Political Seizure. As
the Hunting Ground is no different than any other Hunting Ground, it
will not be discussing it. Our card today is Political Struggle.
Political Struggle – Lasombra Required Action Card
0 Blood or Pool loss.
Text – This is a +1 stealth action.
(D) Put this card on a ready vampire. The acting vampire may enter
combat with the vampire with this card as a +1 stealth (D) action. If
the vampire with this card is burned or sent into torpor, the acting
vampire gains X votes, where X is the number of non-contested votes the
vampire with this card has; burn this card afterwards.
This card has two basic utility functions. It can act as the
Lasombra’s version of a Contract, enabling 1 particular Lasombra to
target some other Methuselah’s minion for destruction. Or it can be
used as a means to gain and consolidating political power for that
minion.
To use this card effectively, the Lasombra have to have some means of
combat built into their deck. It can be through the use of Potence,
Obtenebration, or even (unlikely) weapons. The Lasombra must then look
for a target, preferably one with some title that confers political
strength. This target can be either Camarilla or Sabbat, the Lasombra
do not care. They are only wish to claim that which they believe is
theirs by right. Through the use of Potence, the Lasombra can pound
their victim into submission by way of either torpor or destruction.
Through the use of Obtenebration, the Lasombra can just command their
victim into torpor through the use of Entombment, possibly coupled with
Arms of the Abyss to avoid damage. As most of the title holders within
the game possess Presence, the usual method uses Potence and Immortal
Grapples to ensure their targets do not try to run away from the
beating they probably deserve. Either way, once the intended victim
has been placed into the unready region (torpor) or the ashheap, your
Lasombra will gain the victim’s titled political strength for their
own, even if the victim is later taken from torpor. This augmented
political strength can not be removed so long as the vampire remains
out of torpor (according to LSJ). I am supposing there is some kind of
errata/ruling on this loss of political strength as it is not stated
within the card text. The only method of losing any of the political
points accumulated by card text is if the title becomes contested on
the table.
The real strength of this card comes into play as this political
strength build up is not displaced if the same Lasombra minion should
use another Political Struggle against another titled minion. So, if
Lisette Vizquel (a Lasombra Bishop) were to attack Andreas through a
Political Struggle and place him into torpor. She would now possess 2
points of political power. If later that same game, she attacked
Tatiana Romanova through a Political Struggle and torporized her. She
would now possess 4 points of political power. One point for being a
Bishop, one point from Andreas (Primogen) and two points from Tatiana
(Prince). This power build up capability is a major boon to the
Lasombra as they can now tilt the balance of power away from the
Camarilla and toward themselves. Now the fun begins as you try to
construct a political combat deck that enables both politics and combat
to work without stepping on each other.
Possibilities with this card can mirror some of the Brujah
Political/Combat decks to help in carrying votes, combats, and both
minion and pool blood gain.
As the Lasombra do not have access to the one major method of gaining
blood back into their pool to extend their life on the table as the
Camarilla do. (That being the Camarilla’s “Water Bomb” method of
Minion Tap coupled with 5th Tradition enabling another Minion Tap the
next turn.) The Lasombra player must find other methods of achieving
the same goal. One such method with the Political Struggle involve the
use of Taste of Vitae, Minion Tap, and Anathema. These cards can
provide maximum benefit for the Lasombra as the player can pull back
blood from a large capacity minion via Minion Tap and then fill
themselves back up while gaining political power and pool. First have
an Anathema placed against a minion (preferably a titled vampire) your
drained minion had played a Political Struggle on earlier. Minion Tap
the minion who will be using the Political Struggle. The drained
minion can then attack the victim vampire via the Political Struggle.
Ensure the victim can not escape using Immortal Grapple (for Potence
combat) or Thoughts Betrayed (for either Potence or Obtenebration
combat), the drained minion can then send the victim vampire into
torpor (hopefully). Any damage inflicted can then be recovered back to
the Lasombra minion with a Taste of Vitae (Potence combat only). If
the victim vampire is sent to torpor, the Political Struggle effect
occurs, the Anathema provides blood pool and the Lasombra could be up
to full capacity. What a deal!
- - - - - - - - - - -
Lasombra – Happy Families Deck from Legbiter.
Here is the Lasombra HF deck as promised. I see what Tim means about
the difficulty of constructing one - the Lasombra are AWFULLY good at
all aspects of the game except for damage prevention, and I have a
nasty feeling this deck may not play very well because it is trying to
do too many things.
Thank you Legbiter for your deck. I was glad to identify the missing
HF deck within your collection.
CRYPT [12 vamps]
Angelica
Alvaro
Antonio
Gratiano
Lisette
Aurora
Guido
Ramiro
Ignacio
Cameron
Aaron
Mitchell
LIBRARY [70 cards]
15 DISCIPLINELESS
Camarilla Vitae Slave
2 Conservative Agitation
Dramatic Upheaval
4 Forced Awakening
Leather jacket
Political Flux
Political Struggle
Praxis Solomon
Banishment
Flak jacket
.44 magnum
14 MASTERS
Blood Doll
Dominate
Elysian Fields
Giant's blood
Golconda - Inner Peace
Obtenebration
Political HG
Political Seizure
Sudden reversal
Pentex Loves You!
Potence
Power Structure
2 Minion Tap
13 DOMINATE
3 Conditioning
3 Govern the Unaligned
2 Deflection
2 Graverobbing
2 Slaughtering the Herd
Thanks for the Donation
11 POTENCE
2 Burning Wrath
2 Mighty Grapple
5 Undead Strength
Rampage
Disarm
13 OBTENEBRATION
Shroud of Night
2 Eyes of the Night
2 Entombment
3 Shadow Play
Shade
4 Arms of the Abyss
4 OBFUSCATE
Cloak the gathering
Faceless Night
Lost in Crowds
Spying Mission
- - - - - - - - - - -
Lasombra Multi-Functional Deck (Politics/Combat/Bleed)
This deck was designed around two different stimuli. One was the
introduction of Legbiter and Coupe’s Happy Families web site and
getting my head handed to me at the May Portsmouth tournament. Initial
playtesting of the deck at home has been good. Several players within
my group were convinced that I owned more Entombments as their
frequency in appearance has been surprising high. The deck has a
fairly smooth flow to it, so long as you utilize what is provided, so
card cycling is hardly ever an issue. Forward momentum can be a
problem at times as the deck is not dedicated to just that function.
It does tend have good survivability, even against dedicated bleeders,
so long as you don’t take yourself below 13 pool to pull up a new
minion.
Crypt
Angelica – 10 / OBT DOM POT cel obf
Alvaro – 9 / OBT POT dom pre
2x Antonio – 9 / OBT POT DOM thu
2x Gratiano – 8 / OBT DOM pot obf
Aurora – 6 / OBT dom pot for
Lisette – 6 / POT DOM pro
2x Guido – 5 / OBT dom obf
Ignacio – 4 / pot dom obt
Ramiro – 4 / dom obt vis
Library
Master
Obtenebration
Tribute to the Master
Legendary Vampire
Minion Tap
Inbase Discotek, Frankfurt
Elysian Fields
The Hungry Coyote
Political Hunting Ground
KRGC News Radio
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Power Structure
3x Blood Doll
2x Political Seizure
Political
Political Stranglehold
Disputed Territory
Crusade: Mexico City
Crusade: Detroit
Domain Challenge
2x Conservative Agitation
2x Consaguineous Boon
2x Kine Resources Contested
Obtenebration
4x Eyes of the Night
4x Shadow Play
4x Arms of the Abyss
3x Shroud of Night
4x Entombment
2x Summon the Abyss
Dominate
4x Deflection
4x Govern the Unaligned
2x Foreshadowing Destruction
2x Scouting Mission
2x Bonding
2x Conditioning
Non-Discipline
4x Wake with Evening’s Freshness
2x The Embrace
2x Ritual of the Bitter Rose
2x Bloodbath
2x Creation Rites
2x Computer Hacking
- - - - - - - - - - -
"Undead Missionaries" Lasombra Political Combat Deck
This deck is already posted out on the web. I found it unusual that
out of all the Lasombra decks posted, this is the only one I could find
containing the Political Struggle in numbers greater than 1. I haven’t
heard from Michael Beer for some time now and am starting to wonder if
he still plays or not.
This is a 100 card deck. The strategy behind the deck, according to
Michael, is get at least one Archbishop, Priscus or Cardinal out (to
have some vote power). Then use flexible card play of bleeding, voting
and directed attacks to survive and kill others. Sort of the early pre-
runner of the Happy Families Lasombra deck. Michael Beer classified
the deck as follows:
Bleed Defense: few intercept, Rush
Vote Defense: Debate, Rush, Intimidation, few intercept
Combat Defense: Standard Potence Massive Strike Combat, enhanced by
Obtenebration
Crypt: 13 Minions
Angelica – 10 / POT DOM OBT
Antonio – 9 / POT DOM OBT
Alvaro – 9 / POT dom OBT
Gratiano – 8 / pot DOM OBT
Aurora – 6 / pot dom OBT
Lisette – 6 / POT DOM
Guido – 5 / dom OBT
Ramiro – 4 / dom obt
Ignatio – 4 / pot dom obt
Cameron – 3 / pot dom
Aaron – 2 / obt
Mitchell – 2 / pot obt
Royce – 1 / dom
Library:
Master: 20 Cards
1x Succubus Club
1x The Rack
1x The Hungry Coyote
1x Pentex loves you
1x Communal Haven
2x Obtenebration
3x Potence
2x Blood Doll
3x Tribute to the Master
1x Tomb of Rameses III
1x The Rumor Mill
1x Elysian Fields
1x Political Hunting Ground
1x Power Structure
Actions: 10 Cards
1x Fire Dance
3x Political Struggle
3x War Party
3x Creation Rites
Political Actions: 15 Cards
2x Cardinal Benediction
1x Investitur
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Tithings
1x Rumors of Gehenna
2x Consangineous Boon
1x Ancient Influence
2x Sabbat Inquisitor
4x Sabbat Priest
Action Modifier: 8 Cards
2x Shadow Play
2x Shroud of Night
1x The sleeping Mind
2x Bribes
1x Change of Target
Equipment: 2 Cards
1x Submachine Gun
1x Gas powered Chain Saw
Retainer: 5 Cards
3x Camarilla Vitae Slave
2x Shade
Reactions: 10 Cards
3x Redirection
1x Cardinal Sin: Insubordination
4x Eyes of the Night
1x Obedience
1x Wake of E.F.
Combat Cards: 30 Cards
4x Undead Strength
4x Thrown Gate
1x Entombment
1x Shadow Step
5x Increased Strength
5x Arms of the Abyss
2x Fractured Armament
2x Pushing the Limit
2x Sacrament of Carnage
2x Torn Signpost
2x Immortal Grapple
------------
100 Cards
--
Worry comes from the belief you are powerless.
(So get in there and kick some butt!)