Again, welcome and good evening. Direct correspondence to me at xian@waste.org , as I wrote all of this stuff. It may be complete junk, but it's *my* complete junk. Short Fiction With the pounding bass of "Paninero," Ulugh Beg glided though the club, effortlessly parting the crowd. More than a few of the dancers were openly admiring of his exotic looks complemented by his Victorian dress. Crossing the floor to a dark, secluded table, Ulugh's piercing gaze detected the hideously warped Nosferatu lurking in the shadows. At last. After much searching, another piece of lore was about to be reclaimed for his master. The Nosferatu licked what remained of its lips with its long, scabarous tongue. Its right eye lolled horrifically in its socket, a sight so grotesque that it would have caused a lesser being to flinch. "Do you have the text," Ulugh queried? Reaching slowly toward a pocket, the Nosferatu hissed in the affirmative. "However, first, my price...I require information on the Council of Seven." "Most daring," Ulugh replied. "I would like to examine the merchandise first." The need to comply with this order overwhelmed the Nosferatu. Its hand retrieved and offered the packet as quickly as a used car salesman offers a handshake. Staring down at its suddenly traitorous hand, the Nosferatu grumbled, "Now, about my price..." "I'm afraid you won't be learning anything new today, slimy. But I think I'll keep the book," Ulugh responded. "Why you rackafracka..." As the Nosferatu leaped at Ulugh Beg, he suddenly stopped in mid-air and reversed direction, crashing through the thin wall, into the back room. A number of drug-hazed inhabitants were surprised but not terrified of this interesting new development. Ulugh strode through the hole in the wall as his foe writhed in the torment inflicted by his mighty magics. Moments later, merely paces apart, the Nosferatu leapt up and struck Ulugh square on the chin with all of his formidable strength. Unmoved, Ulugh grabbed the Nosferatu's other hand, stared into his eyes, and laughed a cold laugh. As he strode away from the pile of ashes, Ulugh Beg was heard to mutter, "You lose your money and your honey..." A Brief Listing of Important European Tremere Blythe Candelaria aus THA 3 Blythe gets -1 hand damage when in combat with a Malkavian --The smallest Tremere with THA, her special disability isn't nearly as awful as it sounds. 1) When was the last time you intended to use hand strikes in combat with the Tremere? 2) When have you ever been worried by the average Malkavian in combat? Goofy weapons aside, they aren't exactly berserkers. Etrius AUS DOM OBF pro THA 11 Inner Circle +2 bleed; As a D action, Etrius may steal up to 3 blood from another Tremere at +1 stealth. --Unusually, Etrius has no physical disciplines. One of two Tremere with obfuscate. Interesting with Malkavians or some weird protean-dominate deck (or the old evil Etrius RTI-Horrific Countenance-Soul Gem deck that no longer works), but he's not nearly as exciting as some of the other Inner Circle members. Javier Montoya ani AUS cel pre THA 9 Prince of Barcelona +1 bleed; When rescuing a vampire from torpor, Javier burns 1 less blood --Often maligned as one of the few big guns that lacks dominate, Javier is rather useful, or at least I'm trying to prove it in JOL76. See the deck in this issue for my ideas. And +1 bleed never hurts. Rebekka, Chantry Elder of Munich AUS pot PRE THA 8 +1 stealth on all actions; If your prey has a ready Malkavian, +1 bleed --I'd bet that many of you lament Rebekka's lack of dominate about as often as I do. Somehow, auspex, presence, and thaumaturgy just isn't an exciting combination, though I may have to consider this further. Also...she and Klaus van der Veken would make an interesting pair. And of course, +1 stealth is *very* good... Elisabetta Romano dom pro qui that 6 Primogen If your prey has a ready Follower of Set, Elisabetta gets +1 bleed --Elisabetta and Patrizia Giovanni would make quite the tag-team, wouldn't they? Throw in Parnassus, Al-Ashrad and Thetmes, and you have one scary concept. That's about all it is...a concept. Try it one of these days and see why it should remain theoretical unless you have at least 15-20 Apportations to blow. Muaziz, Archon of Ulugh Beg aus dom for THA 7 Blood hunts cannot be called on Muaziz; +1 stealth on all actions --Does anyone else wonder why the Tremere claim half of the vampires with +1 permanent stealth, and not the Nosferatu? Their loss, I suppose. I would love to see more Archons in a hypothetical expansion. Mmm...Toreador archon. Anyway, she's a natural for a fortitude-thaumaturgy deck along with Cardano. Mustafa Rahman dom 2 --Eh. Okay, I suppose. Inferior auspex would be more interesting. Isn't he basically a clone of O'hanna and maybe some Ventrue/Giovanni/Lasombra? My hat is off to anyone who can think of a practical use for him save in a weenie or Malkavian bleed deck. Spiridonas DOM pot pre THA 9 Prince of Athens Once per turn, Spiridonas can burn X + 2 blood to get +X bleed --No auspex kinda hurts. His disciplines just aren't that great, but his special ability isn't half bad, now is it? The *best* use I can think of is as a heavy-hitter in a Ventrue dominate-presence deck or in my previously posted potence-thaumaturgy deck. Focus on a card Since last month's newsletter provoked some discussion fot he matter, I thought I'd try to find something nice to say about Cauldron of Blood. Hmm...tough one. Okay... 1) Unlike the steal blood strikes, it does actual damage. 2) It does a lot of damage. 3) Useful as a follow-up or a precursor strike in a celerity-thaumaturgy deck. Especially with Shotgun Ritual. Mmm...Shotgun Ritual, Theft of Vitae, Blur, Theft of Vitae, Cauldron of Blood. Beyond that, maybe Joshua is right. It's not *that* cool. Although 5 damage is pretty good, all in all. Deck to Fool Around With "Bestial Bosoms Believe in Burning" (or something...just came up with this on the fly...) Crypt 2x Cardano 9 ani aus cel DOM FOR THA Prince 2x Javier Montoya 9 ani cel AUS pre THA Prince +1 bleed, pays 1 less to rescue 2x Thomas Thorne 6 ani aus cel DOM tha Samantha !Gangrel 10 ani CEL OBF PRO tha Bishop aggravated hand damage 2x Andrei Puxon Ravnos 5 ani cel chi for 2x Tiberius Nosferatu 5 ani cel obf pot Blaise !Gangrel 7 ANI CEL obf vic +1 hand damage Total: 85 Avg: 7.08, Worst: 37, Best: 20 (though this would be the worst possible draw for your game...) Library 90 Master (20 - a little high...) 2x Arcane Library 3x Minion Tap 2x Blood Doll 2x Tremere Convocation 3x Thaumaturgy Skill Card 2x Animalism Skill Card 2x Celerity Skill Card 4x Haven Uncovered Action (11) 10x Bum's Rush (could replace some with Ambush) 1x Arson Combat (32) 10x Theft of Vitae 2x Drain Essence 6x Walk of Flame 3x Blood to Water 5x Drawing out the Beast 5x Terror Frenzy (could replace these with DotB, or vice versa...) 9x Flash 4x Sideslip 3x Sidestrike 5x Blur 3x Psyche Reaction (4) 4x Cat's Guidance Notes: Obviously this deck is not solely Tremere, but I found it hard to put any others in. You could do it with 4 each of Cardano, Javier, and Thomas Thorne. The beautiful thing about this deck ist aht for the most part, you only need the inferior levels of each discipline for it to operate effectively. Superior thaumaturgy is the most important discipline to have, then celerity. You don't really need animalism at superior, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I think it's pretty apparent, but I saw that the three Tremere also had Animalism in addition to the Tha/Cel, and I wanted to see what I could do with that. I also enjoyed the DotB/Terror Frenzy combo. Admittedly, it's not the greatest that you still generally want to maneuver to range, but you should be able to tailor your combat to what range you want, by picking who you attack and then using the appropriate Ani card. This could do without the Cat's Guidance, I suppose. More Psyches would be useful, as would more Walk of Flame. Unfortunately, I have used the kitties quite effectively in JOL76, and couldn't bear to part with them, even though I know I generally tap out with either a lot of attacks or bleeds. (Note: this is not the exact deck I'm playing in JOL76, as that one has 105 cards in the library...) The kitties were in the original incarnation of the deck, have proven exceedingly handy, and it's hard to get rid of them. The basic combat combo for this deck is DotB/Terror Frenzy (or both!) + (maneuver if necessary) + Theft of Vitae + Flash to press + (Blood to Water) + Walk of Flame. Throw in additional strikes for spice. The deck does poorly (I imagine...haven't run up against one yet...) against well-designed combat decks, with the exception of Gangrel combat decks, which it was specifically engineered to defeat. It does fairly well against them. Celerity almost always gets you more maneuvers than Protean. Well, that's about it for this month. I hope everyone enjoys all of this, and I promise to post a non-rush deck next month. It might still be combat-oriented, but... Xian