Holy Roman Empire 1094 Brian's Take
Back again....
I am still surprised that worked.... Sacrificing Oliver Zalinka to the time travel device. **side note...there is now only 5 people who will remember him....ever....** Flee the German hedge mage Himmler (yes that Himmler). We arrive in the ruins of a the fort in the snow. We have enough paradox heaped on our shoulders that everything is difficult. I had planned on this somewhat but the reality is worse than I planned. Two villagers are here on guard, of what I don't know but they are a problem. They are trying to run away, I can only guess that seeing 5 people arrive in a blaze of glory might be seen as.....terrifying.
How Bazaar
So I have gotten 4000 gold pieces, I must be one scary guy that when I get angry I force them to give me double the pay. I mean we only sold a duchess back to her Uncle/Lover. Now what do you do with this much gold? Well to get an idea of how much I really had I went to the marketplace to buy some gem stones and other ritual materials. I need to get back into the habit of having my battle magic's ready to go. In a world that I may actually find and fight Jotuns, it is that much more important. I purchased ~10 gem stone with a purchase prices of a couple of thousand dollars for about 6 gold. This means, I am rich. In todays terms I would have been paid several million dollars. Not enough to quit working forever but enough that I can live a little.
I buy a new tent and wagon to haul it, horse to pull the wagon. Along with some small furniture to go inside I spend 2 more gold.
I look into some magical vendors, including necromantic supplies. I found there is a vendor for such objects but he only sells items once a month and it is very much under the table. Magic is viewed by the locals in a slightly negative way, and of course necromancy has a far more evil connotation. The merchant is selling corpses including newborns, thieves and even a noble women. The prize tonight seems to be a authentic Egyptian mummy. I am interested in the supernatural and historic parts but there are two gentlemen much more interested. The first is a True Mage who is gifted with Forces and not afraid to show it. He bullies the merchant to selling the mummy cheap (4 gold I think). The merchant ends up selling most of his merchandise at a discount because of the show. The other interested party is also a True Mage who likes to show his power. I end buying some simple supplies, tallow for Godiva and myself and some bone for knives.
I decided, like any good Ventrue or Giovanni, that I should invest some. Problem comes in is that the Pageant is mobile, it's not going to help me to buy an inn/tavern or other business in a city because I can't manage it from any kind of distance. I can't even finance some Viking raids, which sounds mildly epic....but again I can't stay to collect when they get back.
So what can I invest in that can travel with me but is not easily stolen or lost? Well for the moment I wanted to take on some employees that could add to the pageant. I can buy slaves or bond servants and profit off their service. I am not to keen on slaves in general but as long as I give them the option of freedom and treat them with respect I think my honor is clean. Odin has no problem with slaves, so I am good there. The last bond servant will owe me a porition of his wages for the 20 years he serves and then depending on his service can stay on with me as a paid retainer.
The auction ended with three premium slaves.
There is a weekly sale, mostly of bond servants (which are socially acceptable) but ends with some slaves. My goal is to find some men and women who make good whores (and want to do such work) or good fighter/hunters.
After arriving at the sale, which takes place about an hour after dark, I notice that the crowd includes a total of 5 kindred. Four of those stand out to anyone who knows what to look for. One is very hard to see and literally cloaked in shadows. The creature is about 8 foot tall and for me screams Kiasyd.
I end up purchasing 2 slaves and 3 bond servants. One of the slaves is a women who will make a good courtesan with some training. I plan to offer her the choice of servant or courtesan. She will earn her freedom much quicker as a courtesan but I will not force her to that. The other four are fighters, a pair of permanent bond servants(isn't that slavery?), 1 slave and 1 20 year bond servant. I plan to hire them out in towns a villages we pass through and take them with us when we leave. Again I plan to allow the 3 slaves/permanent bond servant to purchase their freedom. The price will be high but they do not yet know they won't age. The last will owe me a portion of his wages till the end of his 20 years. I plan to allow all of them to serve after they are free if they wish.
The auction ended with three premium slaves an Indian princess, an African warrior and a blind Seer. This is where the bidding got interesting, the two True Mages from the night before were amoung the parties interested. Both mages were bidding against each other, I was going to bid but the bidding quickly got higher than I was willing to go. Rambert did share my views and ended up winning the bid at ~35 gold. Both mages used magic to look at him and threaten him in turn. Next was the warrior, I bid on this one but again it quickly got higher than I was willing to go, ending ~25 gold.
The last was the Seer, I got a flash of insight, this is what/who they were really here for. They were very much in contention with each other not here together. I decided that it might be a good idea for a third party to win the bidding but planned to mitigate the challenge by promising to not let either of them benefit from the Seer for "as long as each was alive" as I know that at least one of them will be embraced as a Tremere soon. Rambert decided to throw a small wrench in this plan, to prove the abilities of the Seer the auctioneer gave a random person the option to ask one question. Rambert was chosen and decided to poke the beehive and ask about the future Tremere (I wonder if he also recognized him). The auctioneer asked but kept the answer to himself. The bidding was intense, going up to 70 gold. I was willing to go to around 150 gold if needed. Both mages were very angry at me, and I was worried about my well being for the first time in a long time. I stated my oath that I would guard the Seer from myself or anyone else asking him questions about the two mages as long as they were both alive. This stopped them from instantly fireballing me but it did not look like it was going to hold. The Kiasyd, and I mean THE Kiasyd as I recognize Marconius the progenitor of the bloodline. He offers to oversee the oath and bind me to it. I had no problem, I had used Odin's name in the oath and had no intention of breaking it, I did state it carefully but that only follows some of the Kennings involving Odin. The mages accepted the binding, so I now owe Marconius a boon.
Marconius requests an audience to repay the boon, before pageant leaves the city. This seems like a small price to pay and I would like to keep on good terms with such a powerful elder.
I settle all my new employee's in my area of the pageant and secure the Rambert's new princess as a teacher for my courtesan(her choice to earn her freedom quicker).
The Mystery of the Box
So we were alerted to a theft and murder of a merchant that was camped near the fair. ***OOC this was at the end of game too sessions ago*** The merchants family was understandably distraught to find their loved one in a pile of ashes that used to be his body in the middle of their tent. After using my small reputation as a hunter the family allows our small group to investigate a little. Turns out that only one thing was stolen, a black box. It also becomes apparent that the person that killed the man was the soon to be owner of the box and the thief was in the employee of a separate person.
The person who killed the man sounds like our friend, yes I am being sarcastic, Lord Casmir. Which puts the most probable person to have hired the thief to be Master Mordblund. Other than something of great value, no one knows what is in the box. Thru some interesting conversations with the furniture, done by Rambert we find that the thief came through as a cat, became a small women or large girl, took the box and back to a cat, walked out. We are able to track the thief using some skilled mage scrying. Found her preparing to take a couple more marks at a small tavern. We take her away to question her about why she did it and where the box was. She started to burn up from the inside, similar to what we think happened to the merchant. None of the people with me were ready to counter the effect, so I grabbed the girl and moved us both into the shadowlands.
The Eternal Struggle
Well I am doomed to repeat my mistakes again and again. I must have the biggest feet in the world because no matter where I go I step on people's toes. I was trying to convince all of my fellows to take the quick route to completing our goals, this would allow for us to move on through history at our own pace without having an eternal task. I had every intention of beginning a mortal family (including maybe having kids on both sides of the gender line). But instead I stepped into one of the biggest and longest lasting feuds in history. The situation quickly degenerated into the classic epic struggle where I get embraced, again. I end up as a Ventrue, child of Erik the Red. Next to the Giovanni another family where my knowledge of financial management will be well received but I also have the chance of showing myself to be one of the most noble of warriors. I know almost nothing about my sire other than he has a lot of Protean and is a badass. Right after the first battle he left to secure our trip to Rome.
So dreams of a mortal life and a mortal family gone and my fellows want to take the long, monitor and distract, method of keeping the ritual of eternal night from coming. As expected the elders involved Helene, Cybil,Erik and Meneleus. Helene and Meneleus are still taking shots at each other in the age that I came from, so this is going to be a long fight. More for Songül and Cengiz, brother and sister who are now on opposite sides of this struggle even if Cengiz is not planning on supporting his sire. But maybe Erik and Cybil are just more subtle.
In any case after some fighting and some epic fairy magic the pageant is gone, along with Rambert and my wolf wife Sunngifu. I was going to separate from her because of her connection with the pageant but I never finished that plan. No idea what the future will bring on that one, kinda funny that....
I am building out my holdings in Augsburg, almost by reflex, but as a member of the Kindred it is even more important. I have money to burn, and knowledge of how to invest. I have to understand what is important now but that is a subject on research. I was able to secure a manse as a dwelling and have a firm start to begin trade. With the knowledge I am going to Rome soon, have have constructed the first half of a transport circle. I have collect some Men at Arms and the beginnings of some items to trade.
I have agreed to watch Augsburg while my "brother" is scouting out the conflict in Eastern Europe between a bunch of upstarts (the Tremere!) and Elders of Eastern Europe. I have warned him to not underestimate the upstarts, they are fortified and will be hard to remove from their location. I did not tell him how I got my information. With this war centered around Augsburg he is not going to be happy I left but I stayed until I left for Rome, just as I promised. I was not expecting to get to Rome by stepping through the Abyss but magic is like that.
Rome
Ok so, the excrement has hit the spinning wood, the army most likely controlled by Helene lured in most of the nobles and poisoned them after a failed attempt at a coup. Just when we thought everything was stable for at least the short term, everything goes to hell. I am able to escape the kindred ward that the will worker placed on the manor, thank you again to Jamie. I flew off to mitigate what else they had done, and found an army on the march. I disrupted their march and killed their leaders.
The resulting carnage, mostly notebly from a frenzied 4th Gen Brujah, was epic.
