OFFICIAL VEKN TRUE BRUJAH NEWSLETTER VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1, 2001 ANNO DOMINI, DECEMBER, EIGHTH DAY, TWENTY-FIRST HOUR, FIFTY-FIFTH MINUTE, THIRD SECOND, THIRTY-SIXTH NANOSECOND IN THIS ISSUE: i. Introduction ii. Fiction: Egypt, 2000 BC iii. Vampire of the Month: Krassimir iv. Action of the Month: Clotho's Gift v. Action Modifier of the Month: Domain of Evernight vi. Deck of the Month: My Familia (Krassimir/ Giovanni toolbox) vii. Disclaimer i. Introduction Welcome to the first True Brujah newsletter! The Temporis discipline translated into several powerful cards that I hope to discuss over the next few issues. In addition to card game strategy, I hope to entertain you with mind- warping fiction and enlightening epistemological discussions on the metaphysics of time. Finally, I'd like to apologize before hand for this issue's gratuitous fiction which is based on my online persona. Next issue I will have fiction for our canon vampires such as happy Synesios and androgynous Krassimir. Until next time! - Jason Liang Janus, the Judgment Childe of Chronus 5th Generation True Brujah True Brujah Newsletter Editor ii. Fiction Egypt, 2000 BC Janus retraced the familiar steps as if it were yesterday, and as always Hapy- nu- feh, the Goose God was there before him, meditating by the bank of the Nile underneath the pale eye of Khonsu. As he had learned to do thousands of nights ago, Janus approached Hapy slowly and sat down in front of the ancient vampire, touching his forehead to the earth. "Honored elder," the memorized words came reflexively to Janus, "permit me meditate here with you this night so that a thousand nights from now, perhaps some aspect of your divine wisdom will protect my ka from the Un- naming Devourer. My father's stories of his father's stories led me here seeking the wisdom you alone possess. I have traveled far from my origins to find you." As he had a thousand times before, Hapy- nu- feh accepted Janus' request. "How could I refuse a request from the progeny of Thoth, my long- departed friend?" But unlike a thousand times before, an understanding sparkled in Hapy's eye. "But before I continue my meditation, a question." The unexpected comment alarmed Janus, shattering his calm. "Your question, elder?" "Why do you come to me now, in my time, if you could have saved yourself the strain of the journey and visited me, in your time?" Janus knew he could not change the past. The reason why he had come back here, to this time and place so often was the hope that, although the past could not be changed, that which existed only in the past would be able to change the future. "Have you always known that I am not of this time?" Hapy chuckled. "As you come to learn from me, so I left the Nile when the world was still young and learned the intricacies of time and fate from your father's sire. Although I have never met you before, I have always known that now is not the true now and I exist only as a shadow trapped in your memory. Although the magic of Kayyim's blood has reconstructed this memory unto perfection, ones such as you and I who can discern the hand of the Fates can sense that this scene is not animated by the workings of the Great Loom, that right now we are outside the pattern of all that is, an illusion within the great illusion. But now your question is answered, and I will have my answers as well. What has befallen the children of Osiris that would force you to come to now?" Janus paused before his reply. "The first time I came here was real. Four thousand years ago I left Anatolia and crossed the Endless Desert to find you, who was more myth than real even at that time. I spent five days with you in meditation and the memory of that time is forever etched into who I am. The Trues have spies and infiltrators among all the children of Kayyim, but we never saw the attack of the Setites on the Children until it was too late. By the time we reacted, the wisdom of your people was forever lost in time. You were devoured by the vipers' fangs thirty years from now. But those of my blood have always struggled to master the eddies of time, and after years of searching I found you again, hidden behind a memory. Since then I have visited you a thousand nights taking within me the wisdom of Bardo that was lost when your people were lost. I could not save you, but I swear by the ancient gods that you will one day be avenged." Hapy's gaze turned to sorrow. "I that you could meditate with me, tonight, in the past, but now I must revoke my word. I spoke today because I sensed that your time with me is at an end. I can no longer teach you further the enlightenment of Bardo, not as long as your anger at past injustices still controls your free will. Be free of the injustice of my end, and the injustice of the end of your father's sire, and only then can you return to me." Hapy then spoke a Word that Janus had never heard before, a true name for All that Exists, that as soon as he heard it, erased itself from his memory. Janus had no time to react to the loss. Immediately he was ejected screaming and raging from his own unraveling memory. As he entered torpor, his last, frenzied thought was the anguish of the knowledge that he could no longer find the way back. iii. Vampire of the Month: Krassimir 7 capacity True Brujah TEM POT pre nec dom Independent: Once each turn, when blocked, Krassimir can untap and cancel the current action and combat (do not tap the blocking minion). Krassimir cannot use cards that require Celerity. Scarce. With POT, nec and dom, Krassimir shines when she is complementing the Giovanni, but more imaginative players should entertain the possibility of using her along with Synesios in a Setite elders deck as nec, dom and pot are all fairly common out of clan disciplines for the most powerful of Set's childer, such as Nefertiti, Keminitiri, Khay' tall, Intisar, Kephamos, Danny Larkshill, Sarrasine, Dedefra and Sutekh himself. With selection of cards from presence, necromancy and dominate in addition to temporis, Krassimir has access to a large number of powerful actions and action modifiers such as Govern the Unaligned, Baleful Doll, Shambling Hordes, Jar the Soul, Mind Numb, Daemonic Possession, Summon Soul, Seduction, Awe and Voter Captivation. Although many of the most powerful actions are blood intensive, one way to recover blood on her is the Awe/ Bewitching Oration/ Voter Captivation combo once she has acquired superior presence. Along with the multiple actions she is gaining from temporis, the best way to use Krassimir is to have her act every turn as often as possible. With so many action- oriented disciplines at her disposal she should have no end of different actions which hurt your prey. Krassimir's "change of target" ability is strongest against a dominate heavy prey who is deflecting your bleeds to another Methuselah. By not tapping the defender your deflected bleed will not open up your grandprey to your prey's bleeds. One way to enhance Krassimir's ability is to first use Jar the Soul or Mind Numb to tap your prey's deflector. In order to avoid your simple bleed, your prey will now have to burn a Wake in addition to the Deflection. If nothing else, Krassimir's ability can cycle excess actions out of your hand, even if they will certainly be blocked. Decks using Krassimir should have liberal copies of Domain of Evernight. Liberal use of the inferior temporis ability, in combination with Lapse or Thrown Gates will leave your prey hesitant to block. With great effects whether an action is blocked or not blocked, Domain of Evernight will never sit in your hand. Krassimir is mentioned in the White Wolf sourcebook, Nights of Prophecy, where she is introduced as Synesios' progeny. How can I tell Krassimir is female? She colors her fingernails. iv. Action of the Month: Clotho's Gift 1 blood cost +1 stealth action. obf: Move the top vampire from your crypt to your uncontrolled region. tem: Move 2 blood from the blood bank to a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region. TEM: Put this card on this acting vampire. Beginning with your next turn, once during each of your minion phases, this vampire can burn 1 blood to untap. Clotho's Gift is the backbone of temporis decks and True Brujah. A True Brujah's first action once influenced out will almost always be to use the superior temporis ability to gain extra actions. The inferior temporis ability provide bloating for excess copies. Clotho's Gift, being usable every turn is also the most blood intensive of the temporis actions. Players will almost certainly need to use Hunting Grounds, Tabriz Assembly and Blood Dolls to keep their True Brujah active and healthy. The inferior obfuscate ability is important in allowing you to hunt for your True Brujah in case he or she doesn't show up in your opening Crypt draw. This issue's Deck of the Month features 5 Krassimir and 3 vampires with obfuscate as insurance that your Clotho's Gift will always be immediately useful and Krassimir is sure to appear early on. A final use of the inferior temporis ability is in a True Brujah voting deck using Synesios or Nu, the Pillar. Calling Honor the Elders can result in effective bloating when your excess copies of True Brujah are sitting in your uncontrolled region, accumulating pool for you. v. Action Modifier of the Month: Domain of Evernight obf: +1 stealth. tem: If this action is blocked, all damage done to vampires in the resulting combat is aggravated. TEM: Only usable when an action is successful. Untap this acting vampire. A vampire can play only one Domain of Evernight each turn. Providing a powerful action modifier effect for every situation, Domain of Evernight is simply amazing and another backbone of temporis decks. The superior temporis effect contributes to temporis' signature effect of taking multiple actions, allowing all the True Brujah to take 3 actions a turn. The Dawn Operation at inferior temporis provides the True Brujah aggravated damage at no blood cost. Combine Domain of Evernight with either Lapse at superior temporis, a ranged attack or the free action Leather Jacket to avoid the aggravated damage from the blocking minion. Indeed, of all the temporis cards Domain of Evernight is possibly the most under costed. Even combined with a simple action such as hunting Domain of Evernight nets a blood with no actions taken. The inferior obfuscate effect allows the True Brujah to easily complement any of the obfuscate clans, as the Domain of Evernights easily replace Lost in the Crowd or Cloak the Gathering. Along with Clotho's Gift, the multiple actions that True Brujah make them the most viable bloodline for a Clan Impersonation/ Sanguineous Instruction strategy. For an initial investment of 3 actions, soon all of your vampires can be taking three actions a turn. However, one must be careful with providing adequate blood recovery lest the actions be wasted on hunting. Having access to multiple actions has a profound effect on strategy. Equipment and retainer actions are not only more viable, but investing in permanent stealth effects such as Marijava Ghoul pays off much more in the long run. vi. Deck of the Month: This Giovanni/ True Brujah toolbox deck uses Storage Annexes to manage its many different actions. Spiritual Interventions protect Krassimir from unexpected assassination attempts although one must be wary of Immortal Grapple. As a last resort, Burning Wrath will hopefully allow you to take your attacker with you to torpor. Immortal Grapple and Lapse allow Krassimir to torporize your prey's vampires in spite of dodges or combat ends. Fortitude is a major thorn and will require recycled Baleful Dolls and Free States Rants to solve. The two political actions, KRC and FSR, should pass easily despite a lack of votes with some negotiation. Once you are ready to finish off your prey, first use Cull the Herd to check for Deflections, Telepathic Counters and Archon Investigations. While many players prefer the powerful Conditioning as opposed to Threats, I find Giovanni and True Brujah both to be highly blood intensive, so a little savings will eventually go a long way. One alternative is to use the Daughter of Cacophany, Angela Preston, to untap Krassimir so she can use her powerful temporis reactions on defense, although Stefano and Augustus can use the inferior presence on both Rewind Time and Internal Recursion effectively. Tabriz Assembly, Morgue Hunting Ground and Jake Washington are all important to keep Krassimir healthy. Don't be hesitant to bloat if your prey's defense is too tough: Pochtli insures your end game. My Familia Crypt (12) 5 Krassimir 1 Augustus Giovanni 1 Pochtli 2 Carlotta Giovanni 1 Stefano Giovanni 1 Isabel Giovanni 1 Gloria Giovanni Library (90) Master (20) 1 Tabriz Assembly 1 The Path of Bone 1 Morgue Hunting Ground 1 The Mausoleum: Venice 1 Acquired Ventrue Assets 1 Creepshow Casino 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Jake Washington (Hunter) 5 Storage Annex 1 Deal with the Devil 2 Blood Doll 1 Vulnerability 1 Necromancy 2 Dominate Equipment (3) 1 Sargon Fragment 1 Baleful Doll 1 Leather Jacket Allies (4) 1 Ambrosius, the Ferryman (Wraith) 1 Brigitte Gebauer (Wraith) 1 Felix "Fix" Hessian (Wraith) 1 Leonardo, Mortician Actions (20) 7 Clotho's Gift 1 Clio's Kiss 1 Hand of Lachesis 2 Jar the Soul 1 Compel the Spirit 1 Daemonic Possession 3 Govern the Unaligned 1 Summon Soul 1 Arson 1 Bum's Rush 1 Cull the Herd Action Modifiers (16) 8 Domain of Evernight 2 Seduction 2 Call of the Hungry Dead 2 Spectral Divination 2 Threats Reactions (11) 6 Deflection 2 Rewind Time 3 Internal Recursion Combat (14) 1 Burning Wrath 1 Immortal Grapple 5 Thrown Gate 5 Spiritual Intervention 2 Lapse Poltical Actions (2) 1 Free States Rant 1 Kine Resources Contested vii. Disclaimer True Brujah, Temporis, Children of Osiris, Krassimir, Synesios, Nu, the Pillar, Bardo, Setites and many many other things found in this newsletter are the intellectual property of White Wolf Publishing and their authors. VEKN is the property of the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network.