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Signalling Gregory to stop the car around the corner, Johnathan checked his belongings and stepped out into the cool evening air. A short walk brought him to one of the many disreputable spots (depending on what you were looking for) sporting exactly what he was, in fact, looking for. A moment was spent studying the scenery, so to speak, and after a moment's consideration, Johnathan approached a scantly clad figure.

"They say creatures of the night are far more fierce than those who embrace the sun," he spoke to the figure, who, upon a close inspection, could be called a great many things that had no relationship (not even that of a distant cousin) with words like "beautiful", "gorgeous", or even "attractive".

The look she turned on him all but chisled in stone a confirmation that, indeed, creatures like this were far more fierce than others. She was exactly what he wanted. Her look changed entirely when it was answered by the quick flash of money and a short nod of the head to a dark ally.

As she rounded the corner, she came face-to-face with Johnathan. He was smiling. She found this alarming for some reason. He was holding a completely ridiculous amount of money for her services. Her alarm was subsequently locked in a far corner of her mind, told to be silent, given a cookie, and left to whimper in a pitiful kind of way.

She should have listened to it. The last thing she remembered was a quiet whisper that simply asked "I don't suppose your name is Mary?" before the sweet embrace of the Kiss consumed her.

Johnathan had his fuel.

Now to start the fire.

(good description. don't think my response was required. did you have anything else you wanted to get done before next game?)

Yes. I'm trying to work out the logistics of it first, though. Basically it's a matter of how to produce, distribute, and collect. How much to put forth on the first wave. A contengincy plan if someone who hasn't taken the drug yet decides to test just what kind of person I am and either skim or split with the product.

Stuff like that.

Oh...and I want to spend 2xp on Gregory. I'll need to make a character sheet for him at some point....

oooh... a retainer...

Just a recap:

Last week (week and a half, actually), I began distribution in earnest; turning roughly 2 gallons of product out on the street through dealers I had already established business with.

I will be sending Gregory around to check up on everyone. Make sure there aren't any problems, collect any earnings, and set up a schedule to maintain a steady supply. Also, he'll be looking for additional dealers or market areas.

In addition to distribution, work has begun on the renovation of the Warehouse itself. The False wall and two rooms have been constructed and the warehouse itself has been insulated and light-proofed. Shelving for the Wine will go in next, followed by reinforcement for the exterior walls and the superstructure for the safe room/storage room. These are contingiant on funds rolling in from the product on the streets.

In the area of the Warehouse, I'll be Having Gregory probing on actually purchasing the building and plot "as-is". Or aquireing the Deed through whatever means required so I can avoid any legal loopholes or weak points in the future.


Also, I'll need to speak with Tony once I have a solid distribution and collection system in place.


Personally, I am looking to utalize the bond of the Blood. I will be exploring uses of Auspex and Cruac to be able to first identify instantly within sensory range anyone under the influence of the Red Lace. I will develope this further to anyone within a certain radius, and finally with an ability to instill an emotional impulse into anyone so linked to me through the Blood.

Ultimately, I hope to be able to use this link as a conduit to Possess (as the Auspex 5 ability) anyone bonded to me through the drug. This would open up a wide variety of very powerful, very interesting possibilities.

the possession would be a high level cruac ritual, or a devotion of it and dominate or auspex (dominate is the discipline that gives the possession power). That will take some time, but is achievable. the biggest difference between a devotion and the possession power will be the ease of slipping on the body. if i remember correctly possession still requires conditioning. with this, the conditioning would be pre-established via the supernatural drug, thus giving you a huge network to work with. but, i would unfortunately expect you to actually have the possession power, and probably cruac 3. you might also be interested in developing a lower level devotion that lets you use their senses or something, in which case you could use either auspex or dominate, and probably cruac 2-3.

You will, after a while circulating, start making a tidy profit off your efforts. After a month or two you will hit resources 3, and assuming no problems, will go up to 4 after the clientele base expands out. you also effectively have 2 in contacts right now, which will only increase.

the only real problem with your resources is that they will be more difficult to use, due to their illicit nature. hard to set up a bank account, buy big stuff, get loans, etc. you many need to give someone else a cut just to do that stuff for you.

the haven thing i don't generally like to put dots on, because the system sucks. but you have a haven. and it has dots. somewhere. as you improve it, the security will go up. the location is low-medium, the size is also low-medium (not necessarily bad, as these are the traits you were looking for when you made the roll to find it). the deed will take a bit more work, due to the above money difficulties, but you might be able to arrange something with someone somehow (<vaguely vague enough?) to get the job done.

Vague enough for me.

As for the other stuff...that's about on par with what I expected. If you look at the potential...it NEEDS to be something that is difficult to attain. It is a vastly powerful thing that requires a lot of preperation and understanding to achieve.

I'd be fine with the full Possession requiring Dominate 5 and Cruac 3.

Minor control (use of sensory abilities and impulse manipulation) could be Auspex 3 (I think that's when you get telepathy?) and Cruac 2 or something of that sort. That might also cover the "sensing" and "locating" aspects I'm looking for.

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As for the other stuff. I'll be keeping an eye on it to monitor its growth. I understand that utalizing it will require a bit more....."imagination" than normal. That's partly why I'll be opening an actual Wine shop at some point (or aquiring an existing one). A successful shop like that can launder quite a bit of money and be established as a reputable ground for things like loans and such. Especially with the fluid nature of value associated with fine wines (no pun intended). Nightclubs serve as great places as well, though I shy away from this unless I could filter the "guests" adequately.

As far as the "Haven" goes....I'll let you handle the developement of that on paper. I'm with you, I hate the way the new system handles it. I'll just tell you what improvements I'd like to make to the structure, and you can adjust it accordingly.

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I think you should know that as this progresses....I'll probably become the primary "villain" in the city. During the Day, I can leave my Body to Sleep and work through my Network. At night I can do the same, or make appearances in Court or in the Vampire social circles.

Do you have any idea how hard it would be to find an enemy who can literally BE anyone? Couple that with the fact that the very same enemy can be sitting in front of you, helping you track down the cause of all the problems, while generating problems for you both to face at the same time.

Assuming I don't make any major mistakes....I believe I could make it nigh impossible.

I forgot how much I love being Evil.

you're not evil, you're just thinking outside the box...


but yeah, the nightclub angle has been done to death. every vamp has a club. and considering there are in fact 3 different niche clubs all ran by vamps in the city (giovanni defector has a club dedicated to vice, durden has his little punk rocker thing, and anita has the high class nightlife), you would be hard pressed to find a good clientele. the wine thing though, there is always opportunity there, especially if you work with some fine dining restaurants to set up a wine tasting event occassionally.

for the disciplines, i think those work.

Johnathan makes "rounds" with Gregory; checking in with his distributors....getting a feel for the "pulse" of the streets as his "product" is starting to filter out to the more experimental and/or hardcore users looking for that next level.

As he moves through the areas (and takes notes on the range of influence his dealers are in control of) he will begin to take notes on problem areas that will need to be cleaned out; whether this means roaming gangs that are not yet part of the program, or general street trash, he will assess each "district" to set a list of priorities to start laying plans on his own personal type of urban renewal.


((Also....how much exp do I actually HAVE now? I've spent 4 on Gregory, and I spent 7 on Cruac....but I have no idea how much is sitting in my pool now. ))

i wasn't keeping track. you have xp from games you attended, plus whatever i've given you for online play. last game was 3.5xp i think, there was a 2.5 you were there for, and the rest were 5's. my guess would be somewhere around 25-35 total xp awarded for the summer for your character, though that is a rough guess.

Ah...well I missed 2 games. So we'll do the 25 exp (I was there for the partial games...meaning I missed out on two helpings of 5 exp).

Spent 11.

Should leave me with 14 then?


Assuming that is correct. Should I allocate any of that to Resources or the Contacts to reflect the growth of my enterprise?

only if you want to grow faster. you are already growing without the xp.

Oh....Oh I SEEEEEEEE.

Well then...that's all kinds of different.


May have to pick up Auspex 2 and get some Aura perception then. Lord knows that would come in handy.

Will have to see how I want to develope myself then. I'm not sure what to do with the exp at this point. I know what my long-term goals are...but mapping out short-term to increase survivability and productivity is something I simply haven't done yet.

cool. you can always just bank it until you find something you want.