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... Being a page consisting of musings related to the Vampire campaign...
May 9th:
The current campaign I'm participating in, is set in contemporary Paris. As we're all uncouth Norwegians, it is obviously what we (or, in this case, the Storyteller) consider contemporary Paris to be like. As we've all got just passing experience (at best) with Paris, this means that it is only loosely based on reality.
I don't consider this to be a problem at all, actually. As long as the city of Paris is largely consistent internally, and doesn't change too much between gaming sessions, I think that the precept necessary for a campaign is fulfilled: a believable campaign world with a certain amount of persistence, yet not immutable. What we do, will hopefully have something to say in how the gaming world is presented.
The premise of the campaign is actually similar to - at least superficially - the concept of the Bloodpack, introduced in Blade II. Controlled by the Prince of Paris, our gaming group represents an inquisition of sorts - our job is to quell the activities of or, if necessary, eliminate vampires that have given in to the Beast, and thus are in violation of the Masquerade. Or so the Prince has told us.
We've been quite well equipped, with a slew of gadgets again very similar to those presented in Blade II - UV grenades (sunlight-burst grenades), phosphor-based rounds for small arms (similar to tracers), as well as UV flashlights. All the various characters are more or less suited to a combat environment, with all but one vampire possessing Celerity, and three out of five possessing Ambidexterity. We've come to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and it's difficult to chew bubblegum with fangs.
There's at least two plots afoot at the same time, as I suspect them. One is rooted in the group's residing Toreador - as the owner/inheritor of a rather large and strange castle placed about an hour's train ride from Paris, he's become the automatic target of a faction calling itself Corpus X. Or so we believe. What their interest in the castle really is, is as yet undetermined. They have succeeded in eliminating previous (and, presumably, more powerful) vampire owners of the castle, which doesn't really bode well for the group leader's projected unlife span.
The castle itself has a long and mysterious history. Built some time during the 11th Century, there are myths about the founder and first owner of the castle that indicates he was turned to vampirism after he comissioned the castle. What clan, if any, he belonged to, is so far unknown. What happened to this founding father of the castle, is also at this point unknown.
A magical ward / summoning circle / prison was discovered during last night's session. It was hidden beneath the castle, behind a classic sliding-wall-pull-on-the-right-wine-bottle setup. Its true purpose is likewise unknown.
In a confrontation with armed mortals seemlingly expecting to see vampires - or at least supernatural creatures - though not very well equipped with dealing with supernatural creatures, one faction is so far dubbed Corpus X. One faction, however, is still unidentified.
During the stand-off with Corpus X operatives, the mortals suddenly started exchanging shots with the one that wasn't marked with the Corpus X tattoo. Whether they believed he was a part of our group or not, is as of yet undetermined. It is, however, unlikely that they believed that he was part of our merry little band of blood suckers. It is also unlikely that they decided to eliminate a potential witness in the middle of the firefight - they had nothing even remotely approaching control of the situation, and the unidentified faction operative hadn't displayed any intentions towards fleeing.
It is likely that two things occured during the firefight - one: that the operatives were caught partially off-guard due to an unexpected plot development, and therefore wasn't optimally prepared for tangling with superhuman opponents, and two: the rivalry between the two factions, one being Corpus X and the other one being unidentified as of now is of such a character that it was actually more important for the Corpus X operatives to terminate the rivaling operative before he could interfere with their plans regarding our residing Toreador or, obviously, that they sought to prevent him from revealing information to us that would blow the whistle on their game, or at least severely impede their plans towards us.
What I found more disturbing, however, was the way our unconscious captives - bruised, and probably about to be drained for blood, but mostly unharmed - was silenced forever by a sniper placed in a classic, silent, black helicopter that arrived at the scene. Why he didn't provide fire support for what would probably be his teammates is something I don't understand. Instead, he spent a double action double-tapping the two living captives we had, way before we had a chance of interrogating them.
And that sniper killed both, one being a Corpus X member and the other one belonging to the second faction. It might be that there are three interested parties, but that would probably be to push the paranoia too far. Two groups, and at least one of them having good logistical support - I mean, silenced helicopters, for crying out loud! - and the silence of their operatives seems to be more important to them than accomplishing what we believed to be their objective - killing or capturing the Toreador. This is serious information management we're seeing, of that I'm sure. But information about what?