V:EKN Clan Newsletter: Tzimisce
July 1999 Volume 1, Issue 1
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Dreams you didn't dare are dead.
Were they ever there? Who said?
You won't remember, you won't remember at all...
The roads you never take
Go through rocky ground, Don't they? The choices that you make
Aren't all that grim.
The worlds you never see
Still will be around, won't they?
The man I'll never be,
Who remembers him?
Stephen Sondheim, "The Road You Didn't Take"
I. In Focus: Lambach
II. Deck of the Month: Fun and Gun
III. Letters to the Editor
I. In Focus with Lambach
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Skill Set and Special Ability
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Name: Lambach
Clan: Tzimisce
Title: Cardinal
Skill Set:
Superior
Animalism
Auspex
Dominate
Vicissitude
Inferior
Presence
Card Text:
Sabbat Cardinal: During combat, Lambach may burn 1 blood to make his
hand damage aggravated for the current round. +1 hand damage.
Backstory
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Excerpt from Children of the Inquisition- by Dan Greenberg
His Life
The Tzimisce clan loomed over the noble families of medieval Hungary
and Roma- nia, casting a long shadow over all their houses. The vampire
clan selected many of its neonates from a pool of powerful young
aristocrats who were raised specifically to be- come undead. This
ensured them a line of noble-born fledglings, bred to wield power.
Unfortunately, it also created a host of spoiled childer with weak
genes and weaker wills Ð childer like Lambach Ruthven.
His Death
Though born to privilege and power, Lambach Ruthven never wielded his
command with much confidence or courage. A weak, indecisive man, he
became a weak, indeci- sive vampire lord, promoted over far worthier
rivals by dint of the accident of his birth. He flourished only by
squandering the great reserve of power his ancestors had stored for
him.
He lived his life in fear of the inevitable Embrace and tried his best
to avoid it. Be- cause he spent so much time dreading the bite, he
suffered greatly when his Tzimisce sire drained his blood. The vampiric
ritual lasted only three hours, but to Lambach it felt like an eternity
of sheer and utter hell. Lambach suffered the torments of the damned
and did not come though the ordeal intact. After the excruciating agony
subsided, he withdrew into him self and became and anxiety-ridden,
desperate, terrified bully.
His Unlife
Lambach lacked the courage and cleverness to rule effectively, but
inherited a large power base to administrate and many loyal followers.
His Tzimisce leaders demanded that he help fight the Tremere, fend off
the rampaging anarchs, and control the ebb and flow of mortal power. He
usually did a poor job and seldom measured up to compli- cated tasks,
which often involved toppling princes from their thrones and installing
weaker monarchs.
But trouble stirred in the Transylvanian highlands. The anarchs, heady
from their success in destroying and committing diablerie upon the
Lasombra Antediluvian, at- tacked the Tzimisce clan in force. The
captured many weaker Tzimisces, demanding that they join the anarchs or
die. Lambach's sire called all his childer to defend him and escaped,
leaving his childer to be slain. Lambach put up a weak fight before the
rene- gades overwhelmed and captured him. Lambach agreed to convert
rather than die.
The anarch leader Lugoj broke Lambach's Blood Bond to the Tzimisces,
but could not instill courage in him. Still, Lugoj needed Lambach's
knowledge to lead his fratri- cidal band to the hiding place of the
Tzimisce founder. Lambach took Lugoj and a mob of anarchs to the
ancient cathedral where the Tzimisce Antediluvian slumbered. The
Tzimisce guardians put up a great fight, but after a wicked battle, the
anarchs won. They dispelled the magical protections and unearthed the
ancient vampire from his tor- por. Lugoj himself greedily consumed the
Antediluvian's blood.
But fear welled up in Lambach when he saw how weak the Antediluvian
seemed Ð as if he were no more powerful than a neonate. He studied the
Antediluvian's body be- fore it crumbled to dust, and sweated blood
when he saw telltale signs of fleshcrafting. Lambach knew well the
power of the Tzimisces to mold the mortal clay, enabling them to
disguise and disfigure themselves and others. The destroyed vampire was
not the Antediluvian, but had been fleshcrafted to look like him.
As the anarchs rejoiced in their triumph, Lambach fearfully studied
the carnage in the cathedral. A wave of terror overcame him, for his
advanced powers of perception showed him something the other anarchs
could not see.
The real anarch leader Lugoj hung behind them, impaled on a massive
wooden hook and hidden with a powerful spell of invisibility. So who
was the Lugoj who stood rejoicing before them?
In a gut-rending flash, Lambach realized what had happened. The
Tzimisce Ante- diluvian was not dead, but had subdued the anarch leader
Lugoj during the fight and taken over his form. The anarchs had killed
and drunk the blood of a fleshcrafted look- alike, not the real
Antediluvian. The real Antediluvian was standing in their midst, pre-
tending to be the anarch leader.
"Lugoj" just smiled at Lambach, as Lambach stared in horror. "Be a
good lad," the Antediluvian warned, as his blazing eyes pierced Lambach
to the core. He then an- nounced to the other anarchs:
"Alas, I must now go into torpor like the very one whom I have just
destroyed. You will now complete the conquest of the hated Tzimisces. I
shall wait for you, On the night of Gehenna, I shall arise and we shall
rule the world together! While the other Antediluvians eat their clans,
I will join with you, my trusted brethren, and destroy the other
Antediluvians! We shall be complete, and we shall prevail! Wait for
Gehenna. Plan for Gehenna. On the night of Gehenna, I shall come for
you."
Lambach tried to flee the castle ahead of the other anarchs, but they
caught him and made sure he stayed in line. He feared telling them that
the Antediluvian lived on. He wondered if the Antediluvian would rise
up against him or reward him on Gehenna. The frightened Lambach went
back to his work controlling mortal affairs of state. Though he now
worked for the anarchs and the newly formed Sabbat, he felt the orders
from the top were similar to his old orders.
For example, he had to continue promoting the members of the Danesti
family in their bid for the Wallachian throne. But upstart rulers gave
him a hard time, and by the time Prince Vlad Dracula ascended the
throne, Lambach struggled for any influence at all. He supported
Dracula's cousins Vladislav II and Dan III in their bits to wrest Drac-
ula's throne from the rightful heir.
Thanks to Lambach's incompetence, Vlad clung to power and even caught
one of Lambach's vampiric spies. The Impaler prince kept the neonate
spy imprisoned in Castle Dracula and drank his powerful blood to gain
inhuman strength.
Lambach's Sabbat leader Lord Tabak punished Lambach for allowing this
flagrant violation of vampiric power, and led a group of vampires to
depose the impudent prince. But before they reached Castle Dracula,
they walked into a trap. A group of Camarilla Justicars ambushed them,
capturing Lambach, forcing Tabak into torpor, and destroying the rest.
Before the Justicars could destroy Lambach, however, the mortal prince
Dracula attacked, slaying the weakened Justicars. Dracula forced
Lambach to turn him into a vampire and then drained the blood of
Lambach's defenseless regent Tabak.
Dracula turned Lambach loose, but not before warning his "sire" never
to challenge him. Lambach fled and returned to the Tzimisces. He feared
they would destroy him if they knew he unleashed a vampire prince upon
the world who had the power of his sire Tabak, but was loyal only to
himself. So he did not reveal what happened to him, and reported only
the Justicar attack. Dracula soon visited the Tzimisces, refusing the
de- scribe his parentage.
His Nature
Lambach's every day is filled with fear and regret. He knows the
anarchs did not kill their founder as the Lasombra anarchs did.
Unfortunately, all the Tzimisce anarchs be- lieve they did. The
Tzimisce Antediluvian lives on, waiting patiently for a rapidly ap-
proaching Gehenna. But what then? Will the unsuspecting clan fall prey
to the wily Antediluvian? Will the ancient vampire reward Lambach's
silence? Or will he have a special torture waiting for his treacherous
descendant?
Lambach regrets not revealing the corpse of the impaled Lugoj, or at
least trying to make the other anarchs see it. He regrets joining the
anarchs. He regrets trying to de- pose Vlad Dracula, a fiasco that
ended in Dracula's existence as an independent Tzimisce. He regrets
much. He has tried confiding his fears in other anarchs, but they scoff
at the through of the Antediluvian's continued existence. So he waits
for Gehenna with growing unease and fear.
II. Deck of the Month: Fun and Gun
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Description:
Intercept Combat
Premise:
Bauble yourself an Assault Rifle and let the killing begin. You'll
normally only be working with 3 minions maybe 4 depending on the crypt
draw. Bauble with the smaller vamps kick ass with the big boys. If
you're in combat with a majesty maniac use the Dragons Breath Rounds
and Rotchreck them into torpor. Also, use Terror Frenzy to insure range
will be at long.
The deck is setup to focus on pounding your prey as hard as possible.
Enjoy!
Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 8, Max: 35, Avg: 5.25]
1 Anton (Tzimisce, 8, AN AU ce ob vi)
2 Christine Boscacci (Pander, 2, do vi)
1 Corine Marcon (Tzimisce, 6, an AU VI)
1 Dragos (Tzimisce, 7, AN AU vi)
2 Horatio (Tzimisce, 2, vi)
1 Lambach (Tzimisce, 10, AN AU DO pr VI, Cardinal)
1 Lolita Houston (Tzimisce, 4, au VI)
1 Meshenka (Tzimisce, 8, AN AU VI, Priscus)
1 Rex, The Necronomist (Pander, 3, po pt vi)
1 Stravinsky (Tzimisce, 9, AN AU po VI, Archbishop)
Library: (90 cards)
Master:
5 Blood Doll
2 Library Hunting Ground
1 Powerbase: Mexico City
4 Rotschreck
Action:
10 Bauble
4 Revelations
Action Modifier:
4 Plasmic Form
Combat:
4 Dragon's Breath Rounds
6 Taste of Vitae
8 Terror Frenzy
Reaction:
11 Eagle's Sight
12 Forced Awakening
6 Melange
5 Precognition
Equipment & Retainers:
2 Assault Rifle
6 Revenant
III. Letters to the Editor
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For ideas on the newsletter, future articles, deck submission, general
discussion, or corrections, please feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
Editor: Joe Churchill
ICQ: 1790701