Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.storyteller
From: [glea 0015] at [fred.itlabs.umn.edu] (JAMES T GLEASON)
Subject: [VtM] Chicago By Night II: Mortal Ties
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 06:50:59 GMT

        I haven't seen a whole lot of talk in and around the playing and 
running of chronicles lately, so I decided to take out one of the many 
outlines I have laying around here for future use and post it here for 
all to see.  Feel free to reply and discuss.
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *

Chronicle:  Chicago By Night II- Mortal Ties ("Mortal Ties" for short.)
Storyteller:  B.C. Walker
Premise:  Who Shall Be Prince?
Starting Year:  Spring, 1994.  Almost a year after "Under a Blood Red Moon".
Theme:  The Price of Power
Mood:  Intense Suspicion

Player Character Information:
*Clans:  Only the core of the Camarilla- Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, 
Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Venture.
*Generation:  No lower than 13th, no higher than 8th.
*Age Limit:  No more than 50 years living or undead, and no more than 100 
years of total existance.
*Limits:  No one may take any points in any Lore other than their own 
clan, which is then restricted to two points, or take City Secrets 
(Chicago) at all.  Purchases of Masquerade are discouraged, but they will be 
reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
*Assumptions:  All PCs are part of the Camarilla, either as Anarchs or 
pawns of the elders.  All PCs are more-or-less clueless about what is 
going on and why, and they are as weak as they are ignorant.  They are 
clueless about the other power-players in the World of Darkness, such as 
Garou, mages, wraiths, and especially changelings.

Elders and Elysium:
*Government:  The Primogen has assumed direct control until such a time 
as claimant for Prince comes forth and takes the throne.  They operate as 
they always have, with the addition of regular open meetings (at the 
behest of Critias) that all of the city's Kindred "may" attend.
*Contenders:  Those presented in _Chicago By Night, Second Edition_ will 
be present at the start, but soon the field will narrow to the only 
viable candidates- Maxwell, Capone, Ballard, Maldavis, and Juggler.  To 
quote Ramirez, "Those that remain shall fight to the last."
*Backers:  Menele backs Maxwell and Maldavis, while Helena backs 
Juggler.  Both see that Capone and Ballard are lost causes, and prefer to 
use them for other ends.  Helena wants Maxwell, however, for she knows of 
his association with the Seities.
*Wild Cards:  Pariah (see "Under a Blood Red Moon"), Cedric Borzon (see 
below), Sullivan Dane, a pair of Blood Dolls known only as "The Last 
Dancers", the Fanum, Lo Pan, and the Hollow Ones as mentioned in _The 
Book of Chantries_.

Manipulating Methuselas:
*Who Owns Who:  Besides those listed in _CBN2_, Menele controls Cedric 
Borzon and Pariah.  Helena controls Dane, a feat she is both proud and 
cautious of, and is aware of the Blood Doll mages.  Menele is cementing 
his hold over the Garou of the Fanum and their mummy ally, and has just 
become aware of a group of Verbena in town.  Neither are aware of the 
rogue Nephandus in Chinatown, the Restless of the city, or the Kith.
*Who's Winning:  Helena, hands down.  Unless Menele gets his man in the 
Prince's seat, its only a matter of time before her pet Tremere tracks 
him down.  When he does, Helena will finish him off like Tyler finished 
Procet.  Otherwise, only a bad turn of events- like a wild card going 
against her- can keep Helen of Troy from final victory.
*Ace In The Hole:  Menele may lose, but it'll cost Helena big.  While he 
didn't start the last Lupine assault, he'll gladly provoke another if he 
feels it's neccessary.  While a small army of werewolves can't kill her, 
they can destroy her retainers and pawns, thus leaving her alone and 
vulnerable for someone else to pick her off.

Stuff Only I Know:
*Twists and Turns:  Well, both of the moldy oldies don't have the total 
picture.  Helena is right in that she will see the end of her long Jyhad 
against Menele.  What she doesn't know is, like she did so long ago, she 
will trigger her own defeat by making a fatal mistake.  Menele, on the 
other hand, will awaken from his century-plus torpor alright- but when he 
does the first words out of his mouth will shake the very foundation of 
the Camarilla and reverberate all over the Kindred world.
*Last-Minute Upsets:  The fight for the Prince's seat will be vicious, 
resulting the death of countless mortals and the Final Death of scores of 
Kindred.  When the fires burn down, the ash settles to the floor, and the 
storm clouds break to a clear midnight sky then shall the new Prince take 
his throne.  Unlike Menele, this is open for the PCs to influence.
*Who's That Dude In The Makeup?:  The end of the chronicle, and there is 
always an end in my games, will be a slam-bang, rock-'n'-roll adaptation 
of James O'Barr's _The Crow_.  The PCs have the option of siding with 
him, against him, or running like hell.  The target?  Helena.  The 
zombie?  One of the above-mentioned "Last Dancers", brutally murdered by 
Helena a year and a day before.  Unlike all other stories in this 
chronicle, this one has a pre-determined result:  Helena dies, and there 
is nothing she can do to prevent it.

That All-Important NPC Section:
*Cedric Borzon:  This was my character in the original Chicago By Night 
chronicle, which ended with _Under a Blood Red Moon_.  His sire was a 
Moor by the name of Sallen, who was Procet's childe.  Thus, Cedric is 
directly decent from Critias, and thus Menele.  Menele has a heavy 
influence on him, as Cedric has the tiger's tooth necklace mentioned in 
"Ashes to Ashes".  (Menele has the mate, which allows his to use his 
disciplines upon the wearer as if he were standing next to him.)  Cedric 
also has plenty of power in the form of his four cousins, specifically 
his cousins Jacob and Derek- who are a mage and a Lupine respectively.

        Cedric Borzon
        Clan: Brujah
        Generation: 8th
        Nature: Cavalier
        Demeanor: Director
        Embrace:  Chicago, 1988 (Born: Chicago, 1968)
        Appearance: 21
        Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3, Charisma 3, 
Manipulation 3, Appearance 3, Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 3.
        Talents: Acting 2, Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Dodge 3, 
Empathy 2, Intimidation 2, Leadership 2, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 2, 
Masquerade 2, Poetic Expression 4.
        Skills: Drive 3, Etiquette 1, Firearms 3, Melee 3, Repair 1, 
Security 3, Stealth 3, Debate 2, Journalism 4.
        Knowledges: Bureaucracy 1, Computer 2, Finances 2, Investigation 
4, Law 1, Linguistics 3, Medicine 1, Occult 4, Politics 2, Science 1, 
Area Knowledge (Chicago) 4, City Secrets (Chicago) 4, Kindred Lore 2, 
Lupine Lore 2, Brujah Lore 2.
        Backgrounds: Status 1, Herd 1, Clan Prestige 1, Influence 1, 
Allies 2, Resources 3.
        Virtues: Conscience 3, Self-Control 3, Courage 4.
        Humanity: 7
        Willpower: 8
        Merits and Flaws: Iron Will, Eats Food, Werewolf Companion, Mage 
Companion, Coffeehouse("Nightclub"), Enemy(Jugglar), Boon Owed/3pts. 
(opposite of "Boon"), Dark Secret(killed Lodin).
        Disciplines:  Dominate 2, Celerity 3, Potence 3, Presence 4, 
Auspex 4.  (Special Power:  The Scourge of Alecto, taught to him by 
Critias on command of Menele.  You wondered where that Boon Owed came in?)
        Notes:  In his time since he was Embraced and released, this 
young Anarch has made a name for himself in Chicago as the persistant 
thorn in Lodin's side and nagging concious of the Elders.  In life he was 
a promising reporter in the tradition of Geraldo Rivera, and he was 
killed because he came too close to one of Nicolai's many covert 
activities.  His sire, Sallen, decided to Embrace him as he believed 
Cedric "had the fire of the Brujah" and couldn't let him die.  In 
reality, he needed a henchman as he- like his own Sire, Procet- was under 
a Blood Hunt.  Sallen was destroyed, Cedric fled to Gary, and he joined a 
coterie of neonates now rememberd as "The Gary Five".  Since then, he's 
befriend or helped out a lot of anarchs and earned a life boon of Lodin.  
He had a brief affair with Lorraine, and ran afoul of both Neally and 
Sebastian.  He's expanded his influence amongst the weekly papers and the 
college papers to counter Peterson, and all was well until certain 
Kindred started to disappear.  Cedric was blamed, and Lodin called out a 
Blood Hunt upon him.  He managed to find the real culprits, a gang of 
ghouls who kidnapped vampires and shipped them to New Orleans, and bring 
them before the Primogen to clear his name.
        When the Lupines attacked, he met his little cousin Derek.  
Derek, as he learned, was one of the werewolves.  (Glass Walker Theurge, 
Rank Three, Randon Interrupts)  The two of them quickly put two and two 
together and worked to defeat the Sabbat, save the Fanum, and destroy 
Lodin.  He took over Hank Cave's coffeehouse, turning it into a 
profitable business and using it both as a base of operations and one of 
his Havens.  Now, he doesn't know which one to back for Prince.  He's 
drawn to Maldavis, but after meeting Maxwell he isn't so sure she can 
take it.
        Influence:  He has many old classmates from school that now work 
for the weekly papers and have permanent positions on the college 
papers.  He is also influential through his writings, which he writes 
under a psuedonymn, which are well-known on the city's campuses.