OFFICIAL V:EKN TZIMISCE NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 2001 (3)3 ------------------------------------------------ Contents: I.Introduction II.Fiction III.Tech IV.Card of the Month V.Vampire of the Month VI.Deck of the Month VII. Conclusion ------------------------------------------------ I.Introduction This month, Itch has left its place to a Vampire of the Month section. I will come round to describe the ways of dealing with annoying cards a bit later, like next year. For now, you will find that the newsletter is very much geared toward Bloodlines and its potential uses for the Tzimisce clan. Some more fiction (still unrelated to VTES) follows the introduction so feel free to skip it :) II.Fiction Jay was panting...finally in the relative safety of his flat, he was slowly coming to grip with what just happened...Come on! Who would have thought that the old woman was so strong? As countless other times, Jay had run past his victim and grabbed her handbag...not being the modest type, Jay really considered himself the most successful thief of the West End...apart from those few times when he ended up in jail for some time, but still he's much better than anybody else he knows...then again, Jay never had many friends or people who would talk to him at all. Nevermind, Jay has his steady job - you can never run out of tourists not paying too much attention to their belongings - and a roof above his head - that is when the rent is paid on time or at all - so life is good for Jay. Tonight was very different, the old lady looked frail and vulnerable, easy target for a big lad like Jay. Like a lion stalking his prey, Jay had measured the distance between them, waiting for the best moment to strike...now! his muscles propelled him forward, quickly reaching his full speed, extended his arm, opened his hand, his trained eye spotted the best way to grab the bag, in a split second, his fingers closed on the leathery item, and then...yes and then what? What did happen exactly? Jay felt like he had grabbed a lamppost or something...the old woman had clutched the bag with both hands and Jay was using all his strength to try to get that bag...Jay remembered thinking that the contents had to be valuable for the elderly to hold unto it with such determination. At the price of mighty show of strength, Jay finally broke the hold and stumbled backwards, taken by his momentum. If anybody had been around, he could have noticed the obvious look of surprise on each of the protagonists' face. Jay was somehow the quickest to react and started running away with his prize. Half-expecting the old woman to give chase, Jay risked a glance behind him, only to see that she was still standing on the same spot. "Probably in shock" thought Jay "though! that's life". Now, home sweet home, time to admire the spoils of the day. Jay grabbed the bag he had thrown on the table when he rushed through the door. "Strange leather, never saw anything like that" mumbled Jay to himself, slowly opening the brownish bag. "Let's see what the old hag had that was so precious, a gold watch would pay a couple of months rent or some food, hot food would be nice too" said Jay to the emptiness of his flat. "What the f?" blurted Jay when he didn't feel gold or diamonds under his fingers, just a flat rectangular object. Pulling it out of the bag, Jay realised its was only a tape, a simple audio tape, no markings, no title, just a tape. Jay tossed the tape on the table and proceeded to shake the bag upside down. The results of such action brought a bitter smile on Jay's face...a few coins totalling 87p and a couple of sweets wrapped in shiny red paper. Jay pocketed the money and swallowed the sweets before deciding to play the tape...just in case...might be something cool on it... *click* "Dr Netchurch, as per our agreement, here are the results of my latest experiment. I must really congratulate you on the quality of the subject you provided for that other project we talked about. Truly remarkable the way this clanmate of yours is subconsciously using what appears to be vicissitude to alter his body according to the dominant personality of the moment...the implications are mind-blowing, I already identified 13 different personalities, each accompanied with dramatic physical changes...truly amazing...but enough of this, onto my latest update.Here we are, experiment number 3754 (11122001: update 7). If I recall correctly, of special interest to you in your quest to de-bunk the *ahem* magical hocus-pocus-y side of Thaumaturgy...well you fully know my views on the subject so I'll skip to the experiment itself. This project aimed at discovering the fundamentals behind the very gruesome Rutor's Hand. Tremere captives, under no small amount of persuasion, have revealed to our common associate the "secrets" of said ritual. As a follow-up, we then decided to investigate the rate of putrefaction of severed Kindred limbs and removed organs. Using recent "victims" of the Sabbat advance in North America, we were able to try multiple combinations. The experiments were conducted as follows: Throughout the nights of 5, 6 and 7th of December, body parts were freshly removed from the subjects, and subsequently labelled with the precise time of amputation as well as the generation of the "donor". Only high generation subjects were used for this series of test in order to avoid instant decomposition, usually associated with the more venerable Kindred. Appendages and organs were then placed in different solutions prepared using the guidelines we devised during your last visit (please refer to 3754* - chapter 3 - Solutions) My previous updates have revealed that only the solutions containing Kindred Vitae and to a lesser extent human blood had the potential of delaying putrefaction while conserving the flexibility of muscles and tendons. In addition, using the previous owner's vitae has a significant effect on preservation. At the time of this seventh update, only one hand has been preserved, showing a 95% on the preservation scale you provided. The hand is labelled 0612200114; it was placed in a solution of formaldehyde and Kindred vitae (70-30 ratio) to which daily infusions of vitae were added (solution #64). A slight twitch has been recorded during each "feeding" for lack of a better term. The donor has been kept alive but unfortunately was heavily involved in the harvesting of body parts, his psyche is currently extremely chaotic, our auspex specialists (Dr Shepherd and Dr E. Stanescu) have been unable to extract any information at all. With regards to your field of expertise, you should be able to provide some valuable insight, or even grace the laboratory with another of your visits. While I wait for your answer, the subject will be kept alive and sufficiently fed to allow organ regeneration... *click* "What the hell was that!?" mumbled Jay, as he stopped the tape. He had hoped for some valuable information, or at least some good music, any music would have been great, but that...that was just incessant prattle Jay couldn't make any sense at all even if his life depended on it. The voice (male? female?) was totally devoid of any accentuation, it reminded Jay of the computer voice that small guy in the wheelchair is using... ...good results, but no eye was preserved above 75%. Of those which stayed above a 50% level of preservation, only 0.1% could qualify as functional, reaction to different stimuli was observed but... "Damn machine...I thought I stopped that nonsense..." said Jay, pressing once again the stop button. Only to realise that the tape was immobile. ...still to attempt combined eye and hand experiments. It is not unlikely that some form of synergy could occur between the two parts. The Tremere who so kindly volunteered the information about the ritual have been less than clear about the attachment procedure between the eye and the hand. It seems vital that we must convince our "guests" to perform the ritual, allowing for first-hand observations. You did however express some concerns at the prospect of letting the "wizards" perform any kind of ritual. This shall be addressed at our next meeting, we also will be honoured by the presence of our mutual associate. The trip has been most tiring and dangerous but he finally made it to the safe... "G'dmit...what's wrong with this piece of junk!?" shouted Jay, frenetically pressing the stop button until it got stuck. "Why doesn't it stop? I can still hear the damn nonsense!". Jay started shaking the helpless machine "Stop will you!!" ...resurgence of so-called magic. The unforeseen depart of the antitribu unfortunately prevents us from accessing such information without recourse to serious threats and/or bodily harm. Although torturing the odd Tremere is more a pleasure than an obligation. It does take a considerable amount of time if valuable information is to be extracted. Younger vampires, to whom we could delegate this task, are, by far, too eager and invariably terminate the subjects before the information can be... "Eenough!!" shouted Jay, now holding and shaking his head with both hands. "ENOUGH!!!" screamed the big man, tears swelling up under his eyes. But the dementation-enhanced tape kept on mercilessly delivering its contents directly into Jay's brain. It had after been designed by and for the sole use of Dr Netchurch, a renowned Malkavian scientist who found quicker to listen to audio reports while concentrating on some other task. His recent Tzimisce associate had found little ground to refuse such benign eccentricity. ...is no need to remind you of the terms of our agreement. As you yourself put it at the beginning of our co-operation, our *ahem* sects are mortal enemies, but there is no reason why such trivial and, all things considered, very secular problems should impair on the scientific advances we are now spearheading... As the dull voice droned on within Jay's skull, the man slumped to the floor. Feeling rather sick, Jay tried to get up on his feet but couldn't get his body to respond properly. All his joints had started to pain, and the aching was getting worse. Fever, sore throat and a pounding headache were quick to follow...At least the voice in his mind was drowned by the sound of his own heartbeat. Already slipping into coma, Jay barely noticed that he was bleeding from every pore, his organs surrendering one by one, kidneys, bowels, bladder and liver. All expect his heart which was keeping on pumping blood, beating like a deranged drummer on speed, flooding Jay's body cavities with blood, slowly drowning the hapless man in his own fluids. But Jay was smiling, at least the voice had stopped... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Mirela, Mirela, Mirela, what am I going to do with you?" murmured the Tzimisce in the old woman's ear. "After so many years, no, decades of flawless service, you had to disappoint me now, while this work might hold the key to unveiling the mysteries of Thaumaturgy, robbing the hated Tremere of their so-called magic" With fear in her eyes, Mirela was trying to mumble some excuses but when your master has sealed your mouth by merging both lips, it is a rather difficult task to achieve. "Do not worry, dear Mirela, I will not end your life just now, you have been most useful in the past and I shall see that you keep on serving me" cajoled the vampire, a twisted glimmer lighting up behind his cold eyes. "I might have a little task for you during the second part of Dr Netchurch's project..." Mirela knew what this implied, she knew full well the fate of unreliable ghouls and the value her master placed on such individuals. Today she had lost everything, her pride as a servant of a powerful Tzimisce, the trust her master had put in her for decades, the last memento of her late husband Ionel, even if such memento was her husband's skin, flayed and crafted into a bag when poor old Ionel last disappointed his vampiric lord, and soon, if she was lucky, she would loose her life. While she headed to her soon-to-be vancant quarters, she could hear her master muttering... "I just hope the stupid kine you described did not ingest my latest strain of Ebola virus, I needed that..." III.Tech It was my impression that the benefits of Bloodlines for the Tzimisce were going to be pretty low if at all. However I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised and a lot of cards are going to be included in my various decks, at least for experimentation purposes. Due to the number of animalism/auspex cards in Bloodlines and vampires possessing those disciplines, I will highlight a few interesting cards and emphasise their potential use in a Tzimisce deck. Before I start talking about the goodness of Bloodlines and sending countless praises to White-Wolf and the design team, I have to say that I am extremely disappointed at the fact that there is no vicissitude card at all. Every single other discipline got something even the rarer ones like Quietus and Dementation...what's up with that?!... [Archivist's note: Necromancy also received Zero new cards in Bloodlines.] Another move toward the exclusion of the Tzimisce...I better see some cards for the fiends in the upcoming Camarilla set or I'll have no other choice but to send a contingent of War Ghouls across the pond... But enough of this, onto the good stuff: -Le Dinh Tho Nagaraja Capacity: 5 NEC aus dom Independent Tho may look at another Methuselah's hand and discard one card from it as a +1 stealth (D) action (that Methuselah draws back up to his or her hand size). Tho gets -1 stealth when hunting. Scarce. Permanent Revelations? Yes please! Cheap enough to be thrown in a deck without using all his disciplines and cheap enough to sacrifice him to block that Kiss of Ra you know (because you've cheated..or used the more honourable ways of looking at one's hand) your predator is keeping. He might get blocked? No problem, I'm sure you've all stockpiled on those Malleable Visages I was advertising last month...no? nevermind, I won't say "I told you so" but I really should :). Inferior auspex makes Tho at least usable in a standard Tzimisce deck. A more interesting combination would be to merge Harbingers of Skulls and Tzimisce around Auspex, throwing Le Dinh Tho, for added library denial... -The Slaughterhouse Master: location Harbingers of Skulls Burn (discard) 1 pool Common Card Text: Tap to burn up to 2 cards from the top of your prey's library. Broken? Not broken? Weak? No point destroying your prey's library? Maybe, but making your prey bin the cards that could have killed you or your grand-prey is extremely useful. Library-destruction had already been attempted with the Couriers but the inherent fragility of said ally would usually be the deck's downfall. Now it appears to be a much stronger possibility. The accumulation of Slaughterhouses can quickly become much more than an annoyance to present a real threat to your prey's survival. And who better than your friendly Tzimisce to block multiple actions targeted at your nice location(s)...and make them pay for even trying :) -Nose of the Hound +1 stealth action (D) Enter combat with a ready tapped minion controlled by another Methuselah. This acting minion gets an optional maneuver in that combat. As above, with an additional optional maneuver during that combat. As above, but enter combat with any ready minion controlled by another Methuselah. How cool is that? A +1 stealth Ambush! The auspex level is already pretty good but it simply gets better as you access spi and SPI. In addition, all the Ahrimanes have Animalism, hence would fit nicely with some Tzimisce for an Ani/Spi intercept deck into which it seems only natural to add: Muricia's Call +1 stealth action Search your library for a retainer that requires Animalism. This vampire employs that retainer (pay cost as normal). Shuffle your library afterward. As above, and the retainer has an additional life. As above, and untap the acting vampire at the end of the turn. The Summoning (Final Nights) for animalism retainers. Very interesting for Tzimisce deck when you really need that extra intercept (Raven Spy, Raptor), damage (Wolf and Murder of Crows) *coughs* stealth (Jackal if your prey has Assamites or Followers of Set) or even something to feed to a War Ghoul (Owl Companion). A shame it's a rare, otherwise I'd already be playing with it. A lot of the dual disciplines cards with a level of animalism offer some form of intercept making it a real possibility to entirely base your intercept (and your deck) on animalism hence enabling you to play mono-animalism with more efficiency or versatility. Having the possibility of producing +2 (+3 against bleed) of transient intercept with only animalism, while not overly ground-shaking, does force your local sneak bleeder to consider your animalistic vamps (then again, he might just bleed anyway, get caught and destroyed because he fail to take those new cards into account, which is also good) Thomas Steed, The Angry Salubri-Antitribu Capacity: 4 ani aus val Sabbat Ability: Thomas may search your library for a melee weapon and move it to your hand as a +1 stealth action. Discard down to your hand size and shuffle your library afterward. Wendy Wade's big brother. A rather neat ability for us Tzimisce...let's see, a cool melee weapon for the Tzimisce? Aha! The Bone! The most famous Femur of Toomler...the kind of card you'd really like at the beginning of the game (and not toward the end, when you're on 2 pool). Another great weapon would be the Meat Hooks and equip your War Ghouls with those beauties. IV.Card of the Month With the release of Bloodlines, this month I give you the best card a Tzimisce player could dream of: Read the Winds Reaction 1 Blood +1 intercept. This vampire doesn't tap for successfully blocking this action. Usable by a tapped vampire. This vampire untaps and attempts to block with +1 intercept, even if intercept is not yet needed. Can you say Second Traditon? Princes and Justicars, pah! Who needs them, who needs the Camarilla for that matter? But that's another topic altogether, or is it? Ok, I know that Second tradition is free, and it gives +2 intercept, but hey, Tzimisces have auspex (in addition to permanents and other intercept-related cards). I will not go on about the different ways in which RtW could be used. Everything on this particular subject has already been said when talking about Second Tradition. How does Read the Winds change the typical Tzimisce deck? First of all, the basic ability cumulates both basic and superior Cat's Guidance, and this will enable Tzimisce players across the world to save crucial slots in their decks, filling up said slots with more combat, intercept or bounce, depending on the local metagame. Fed up of being stuck with a hand full of Guard Dogs/Rat's Warning when your predator keeps calling votes, Sensory dep'ing your tapped vamps? Well if that's the case, it's your own damn fault! But more constructively, the untap provided by such cards is superior to the "act-as-untapped" clause of WWEF and Forced Awakening however the bleed-only is seriously hampering their usefulness. With superior RtW, you get everything Guard Dogs/Rat's Warning have to offer, minus the bleed-only restriction and with some intercept to boot. All of that for the measly cost of one blood, is that a bargain or what? So what's the catch? Well you need auspex and animalism but that's not really a problem with the fiends (only 3 out of 15 vamps cannot use Read the Winds), so where is the catch? The catch is that you have to attempt to block. No wake and deflect for you, you must attempt to block. Anyway since when a Tzimisce is scared of blocking an action? Kiss of Ra, you say? Oh yeah, well watcha gonna do? when you have to block a killing bleed or vote or whatever, better risk it than die without even trying... As a conclusion for this month's CotM, I'll attract your attention to the flavour text of the card, just in case you had any doubt who Read the Winds belongs to. V.Vampire of the Month Matthias Clan: Salubri Capacity: 7 AUS FOR OBE nec Independent Ability: While Matthias is ready, Baali and Followers of Set get -1 bleed when bleeding you. +1 intercept. Scarce. Why is a Salubri been granted the honour of featuring as vampire of the month in the Tzimisce newsletter? Well, apart from the fact that we do have a common enemy in the most hated Tremere, Matthias has a lot of potential and fits nicely in your regular Auspex Wall deck. +1 intercept and AUS make it rather difficult for sneaky vampires to escape his piercing gaze...or at least make them use their lovely stealth cards until they can be caught and pummelled to death, in the mean time, deflection with Telepathic Misdirection works just great. Granted Matthias' disciplines do not lend themselves to combat prowess and general hurt. Leave that to your other Tzimisce. Fortitude is rarely seen in Tzimisce deck so is unlikely to be used in your standard deck but it does come in handy against the fools who feel safe with their almighty Kiss of Ra (as discussed in the last month newsletter). One of his best feature is his mastery of the exotic discipline Obeah. Of course, the fifth tradition clone, Renewed Vigor, will be a staple card in many decks. Being able to refill Meshenka (tooled up with an Eternal Vigilance) does present some interesting options. But other Obeah cards do show some really interesting uses as well as being easy to include in a Tzimisce. For example, Vitae Block gives a press for ani, and removes blood from the opposing vampire with obe/OBE, just what you needed against a Burning Wrath or the "Majesty-pay-one-to-untap" thing. Yes, scarce could be a problem but Matthias is imnsho worth the additional 3 pool if another Salubri has been played by somebody. You are unlikely to use the other two, as their potential for the Tzimisce is rather limited. The -1 bleed for setites and baali is simply icing on the cake :) just you try that Night Moves/Enticement combo (even so you could bleed somebody else with Night Moves...but hey, everything that makes you save pool is good in my book...). VI.Deck of the Month As promised last month, here is a deck that make use of Kraken's Kiss, a Sabbat War vicissitude card that, for some reasons, has been relegated to the wallpaper drawer...or at least doesn't grace our shores very often. Deck Name: tzim ranged v2.0 Created by: Adam Payn Description: range damage traps Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 16, Max: 31, Avg: 5.83] 2 Caliban (ANI AUS VIC, Tzimisce, 6) 2 Corine Marcón (ani AUS VIC, Tzimisce, 6) 1 Devin Bisley (ANI AUS vic, Tzimisce, 5) 1 Dragos (ANI AUS vic, Tzimisce, 7) 1 Lambach (ANI AUS DOM pre VIC, Tzimisce, 10, Cardinal) 2 Lolita Houston (aus VIC, Tzimisce, 4) 1 Meshenka (ANI AUS VIC, Tzimisce, 8, Priscus) 2 Terrence (ani aus vic, Tzimisce, 4) Library: (90 cards) Master (14 cards) 1 Animalism 1 Haven Uncovered 1 Library Hunting Ground 1 Mob Connections 1 Path of Metamorphosis, The 1 Sudden Reversal 6 Tribute to the Master 2 Vicissitude Minion (76 cards) 2 Breath of the Dragon 1 Bum's Rush 10 Carrion Crows 3 Changeling 10 Chiropteran Marauder 1 Conquer the Beast 2 Drawing Out the Beast 2 Eagle's Sight 2 Enhanced Senses 2 Forced Awakening 1 Guard Dogs 1 Inner Essence 1 IR Goggles 1 Jackie Therman 11 Kraken's Kiss 1 Leather Jacket 1 Living Manse 1 Murder of Crows 1 Rats' Warning 1 Revelations 1 Skin Trap 1 Sniper Rifle 8 Spirit's Touch 1 Telepathic Misdirection 3 Terror Frenzy 6 Trap And his comments: ok...what began as a simple krakens kiss deck turned into a animalism ranged deck which worked ok.but now i have lots of krakens kisses it has taken a turn for the better. naturally the card is not without its risks but if you can utilise it for what it can do a perfect combat would look something like this...imagine a hi cap vamp on low blood going into combat....lay a trap,much to the dismay of the opponent,carrion crows,terror frenzy,long range and steal blood...repeat this and most vamps will be down in three rounds...maybe even finish of the job with a breath of the dragon.its strengths lie in the capacity for range and intercept.it is my personal opinion that no-one prepares their decks to go up against range unless it is actually a range deck.putting a few rotshreks in would help too.the sniper rifle is nice too.i had a game where there was non-stealth close range rush.becuase i was blocking the whole time i set range at long.i once thought that basic kraken's kiss could actually be aggravated 'strike:strength+1 damage'....why can't that strength damage be aggravated a la marauder or lambach?...oh well. naturally the weakness of the deck is if you come up against ranged damage but like i said that is pretty rare.a variation of this deck would be using primal instincts and making it a rush deck.on going to range you play your krakens kiss and find that the oposing minion has a 5 point sewer lid coming at you...so you lay your primal card and change your strike to avoid going into torpor. on another note i am looking for a way to utilise primal instincts since i feel it is a wasted card.i tried a malk-anti coma/disguised white phos deck but it had some obvious flaws...not least by the time you have played your strike,changed it,layed a coma,and taken the opposing minions strike we're talking a blood loss of at least 5. Anyway following are my own (hopefully constructive) comments: As far as I can see, the "get-into-combat" part will be through intercept, along with a couple of rushes. Ideally you'd intercept with superior Spirit's Touch, Trap, maneuver to long, Kraken's Kiss, press with Trap, steal blood, press, steal some more, press, Chiropteran Marauder to long to reset the Trap, maybe finishing off with a Breath of the Dragon to burn the opposing vampire. Pretty cool on paper but it seems the deck has a lot of moving parts and quite a few weaknesses in the current UK metagame. SCE will of course seal the death of the combat part of the deck as you'd have to expend a lot of resources (Trap, maneuver, terror frenzy, etc...) before your opponent declares his strikes and there is absolutely nothing you can do against SCE with this deck (yes Telepathic Tracking would be nice). You just pack your cards nicely and proceed to cry... Blood/pool gain appears quite fragile, the vamps used are mid- to high-cap so Tribute to the Master might not be the best way to go for pool. Some Blood Doll should be better to manage the flow of blood between you and your minions. For blood, the vampires have Kraken's Kiss, which is great but remains risky to rely on too much. There are imho too many prayer cards in this deck. Although some are great and should definitely be kept (i.e. RPG, Living Manse), some should be thrown out. Good God, I just realised that I've been slagging off Adam's deck from the start...errr...feel free to come out of hiding, man, and prove me wrong :) VII. Conclusion Ok, that's enough for this month. When the New Year comes knocking I hope I will have assimilate more of the Bloodlines cards and be able to share some insight about the current situation of the clan as well as a few predictions regarding the future of the Fiends in VTES. As always, deck submissions, comments, threats, spare Bloodlines cards are to be directed to folie@hotmail.com. You all take care and have some fantastic holidays. Azhi Dahaka! TPOTH Koldun