VEKN Official Clan Tremere Newsletter July 1999 Volume 1, Issue 6 June 1, 1999 Please direct all correspondence and commentary to Xian. [Insert legal babble regarding copyright in my name, etc.] Short Fiction As she listened to Mr. Pinkerton, the link connecting Sarah to her master throbbed ethereally with information coursing into her mind. Sharing some of the secrets it considered most useful, the White Worm bolstered Sarah's already formidable command of weak minds. Sensing that Sarah was now prepared to undertake any sort of mission that it might assign, the pale, hideous creature reached out to some of its lesser servants, to determine what the most profitable course of action might be. New data gushed like a deluge into the sinuous form's mind. With unearthly rapidity, the obscene brain processed the input and chose an irregular, but possibly useful course of action. Commanding its lesser servants to put the plans into motion, the White Worm threw out a net of hideous mental energy, entangling a number of powerful, but otherwise distracted minds. Before there was time to react, the snare had erased the memory of the initial psychic trauma, and coerced an adequate number of the appropriate parties into agreement. "...and so I, Ulugh Beg, do hereby announce my intention to step down from my position as Justicar, and hand over authority to another of my clan. I regret that the suddenness of my decision will require that the new Justicar be named in absentia, but I am sure that in our modern age, this should not be an extreme difficulty. The Inner Circle must now vote upon the replacement." Arika spoke first, "I suggest Lazarus, currently a Primogen of Clan Tremere. I have heard much of his prowess and pursuit of justice from my advisor Bindusara..." Gwendolyn interrupted, "And by electing him, you gain further boons from the Tremere! I say no, Arika...this is an obvious attempt to curry favor with your warlock companions. I nominate Rebekka, an elder of Munich. Many of you may not have heard of her, but I believe that Etrius here can assure that this is not due to a lack of worthy deeds...she is simply forward-thinking and subtle." A slight nod from Etrius. From the back of the room, out of the shadows, a misshapen form lurched. In a low whisper, "I believe that the most appropriate choice would be Sarah Cobbler, a promising companion of Ulugh's archon Muaziz." "I object." Etrius' low rumble cut across the room. "You are obviously trying to weaken Clan and House Tremere's position by suggesting a weak candidate. Anyone here can see that this jest is in poor taste and should not be considered seriously. Now, I suggest we bring this to a close quickly. Clan and House Tremere has already made its wishes known to me, and I only await your deliberation..." Stanislava excused herself and went to see the tall dark-skinned man that had asked for a moment of her time. When she returned she seemed to have formed an opinion on the Tremere Justicar matter, "I agree with Etrius. I believe that it is wrong to give one so young this position." As the council prepared to deadlock, the will of Clan and House Tremere gathered behind Sarah Cobbler. Elsewhere, a cellular phone rang, and Mr. Pinkerton reached into his jacket, pulled out the phone, and handed it to Sarah in one fluid motion. "It's for you," he said, without even listening at the earpiece once. "I hope it's good news..." Ulugh Beg intoned formally, "Sarah Cobbler, I have abdicated the position of Tremere Justicar, and I am informing you that you have been selected to take my place. Congratulations." Sarah looked at the phone with a mixture of horror, fear, and exultation. The White Worm began to twitch slightly, in time to the astral manipulations it began to perform on its unaware tools... * * * In New York, a young Sabbat magus looked up from the arcane and obscure tome which he was studying. This work on bizarre otherworldly creatures had been a fascinating study ever since it was placed in his hands by a non-descript servitor. Written in tortured Arabic, as if the author had been struggling to hold on to his sanity, it proved a wealth of grotesque and useful information. Looking into the mirror across the room, Thelonius locked eyes with his reflection, and for an instant, could not tear his gaze away. Half a world away, a slick, gelatinous form subtly put its otherworldly tentacle-tip into the seat of the magus ' seat of reason. Standing up and closing the book, Thelonius made his way out the door. As he shrugged on his jacket, the servitor who had given him the book was carrying a suitcase. "Shall we depart sir," the obsequious man asked? "I believe so, Mr. Pinkerton. Am I to understand that the arrangements have already been made?" "They have sir. We board the flight out of LaGuardia in 3 hours..." Focus on a Card Cryptic Mission Action Thaumaturgy Inferior: +1 stealth. (D) Remove 1 blood from any vampire or do 1 damage to any ally or retainer. Superior: As above, but the acting vampire gains 1 blood from the blood bank. This month, since the two decks are built around this card, it might be useful to take a look at Cryptic Mission. I've never been overly fond of the card myself, but (to refer once again to a painful time in my Jyhad-playing-history) as I mention often, the Gangrel toolbox decks that my initial playgroup used would have demolished this concept pretty regularly. In low intercept environments, I'm sure it's much more viable. It is better than hunting at superior, though it's always been hard for me to justify space in a deck for a glorified hunt. Used in quantity, though, I have seen it operate effectively. Depriving a vampire of one point of blood at a critical time can have drastic effects on a game, as I'm sure you are all aware, having had a vampire burn for the lack of one blood, or having to hunt at the most inopportune time. This month, I thought I'd compare and contrast two examples of the Cryptic Mission deck first posted (according to my sources) by Robert Goudie. Neither of these is his, but that's okay. Robert's is archived at Martin Ralya's collection of Clan Newsletters. At any rate, the two presented are Mike Eichler's (writer of the Clan Lasombra newsletter) version and Josh Duffin's (rampant muckracker and general hooligan) take on the concept. I have yet to play one of these myself, as I'm not sure I have 30 or so Cryptic Missions (probably have nearly that many, but I've had a lot of other decks floating around in my head recently). And James, I've actually got a plan for the "Intercept Deck that Wins" but I need to test it before I post it. Really. Referring once again to Robert Goudie, his analysis of pool vs. blood is one of the basic building blocks for understanding this deck. Take a look at this article if you're unfamiliar with it, as it may prove slightly surprising. For the core strategy of this deck, I suspect that in the beginning, mass use of Cryptic Mission is required, followed by more judicious usage later in the game, focusing on vampires that are already low on blood. Sample Deck Title: Josh's Cryptic Mission deck which probably has a name... Cryptic Mission your prey to death with Tremere weenies. Author: Josh Duffin Crypt Jing Wei Brooke Roreca Quaid Heinrick Schlempt 2x Sarah Cobbler 2x Magdalena Schaefer 2x Blythe Candelaria Dr. John Casey Merill Molitor Average: 3, Worst: 16, Best: 8 Library (80) Master(24) 3x Thaumaturgy skill card 2x Parthenon 1x Chantry 1x Academic Hunting Ground 2x Arcane Library 2x Sudden Reversal 3x Unnatural Disaster 7x Society of Leopold 3x Blood Doll Action(23) 23x Cryptic Mission Reaction(13) 3x Wake with Evening's Freshness 1x Forced Awakening 3x Eagle's Sight 2x Spirit's Touch 4x Deflection Combat(16) 13x Theft of Vitae 3x Weather Control Equipment(3) 3x Bomb Retainer(1) 1x Mr. Winthrop Comments: The Unnatural Disasters are meant to take out opposing hunting grounds, and most of the rest of it is obvious. Get out a pile of vampires, Cryptic your preys' vampires a lot, and your predator as necessary. Use Society to burn depleted vampires. Second sample deck Title: Mike Eichler's Anti-Predator/Prey Deck Cryptic Mission your prey to death with Tremere weenies, using a few other cards. Author: Mike Eichler Crypt Richard Tauber Thelonius Brooke Heinrick Schlempt Samson Violette Prentiss Courtland Leighton Jing Wei Ignatius Sarah Cobbler Blythe Candelaria Dr. John Casey Roreca Quaid Mustafa Rahman Magdelena Schaefer Average: 3.07, Worst: 16, Best: 8 Library (80) Master(20) 6x Thaumaturgy skill card 2x Metro Underground 4x Effective Management 2x Information Highway 2x The Parthenon 4x Blood Doll Action(35) 25x Cryptic Mission 10x Computer Hacking Political Action(5) 3x Rumors of Gehenna 2x Autarkis Persecution Action Modifier(3) 3x Clan Loyalty Reaction(9) 3x Deflection 2x Delaying Tactics 4x Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat(10) 5x Lucky Blow 5x Dodge Equpment(8) 4x Gas-Powered Chainsaw 4x Laptop Computer Comments: The Ventrue are mainly in for contestation, as they were highly popular in Mike's playgroup. Xian's comments: Okay, these two decks are fairly similar, functionally. Both plan to suck away as much blood from their prey's vampires as possible, and hope to avoid combat while having some defense to stay alive. Personally, I like the Computer Hacking in Mike's deck, and Josh's deck could possibly use some bleed actions or modifiers...there is space to go up to 90. With Josh's crypt, Govern the Unaligned might work as well, but then a master or two might be required as well. Josh's crypt selection is obviously more tightly focused, but both are pretty good. I would recommend taking out the Ventrue from Mike's deck, but I suspect their contestation power was very high in order to have included them. I don't have a lot to add, really. If I were building the deck, I'd probably switch the combat cards (and equipment) to be about 8 to 10 Theft of Vitae, and fill the rest of the space with Movement of the Mind, in order to run away from big scary combat decks. I do like the general utility added by the reaction cards included in each. My big new lesson is to never ever depend on lots and lots of Deflections...it's been getting me hammered in a number of games. Ah well. That's it for now!