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Bobbin Threadbare posted:I'm pretty sure they were set to trigger as soon as the lid moved. There are other endings in which the sarcophagus isn't opened and it never explodes. There's clearly a timer though. I always saw the alternate endings as being one of those super annoying things where the truth actually depends on what the player picks so they can have their cake and eat it too.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:30
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My only guess for the down votes is the massive amounts of WoD commentary, but for my end I found it interesting even though I've never played it. I certainly don't think it was you McD. Thanks for picking up where the OP left off.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:32
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I'm not a voter, I'm an American! But for you, I'll make an exception.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:35
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Tiggum posted:There's clearly a timer though. I always saw the alternate endings as being one of those super annoying things where the truth actually depends on what the player picks so they can have their cake and eat it too. A timer set to begin counting down once the lid moves, yes. Jack wanted to make sure whoever opened the sarcophagus would get a chance to read his note.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:38
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The first time I fought the Sheriff I frenzied during the cutscene somehow when he grabbed me in bat form to move to the new arena. This caused the game to freak out and have me slam into the wall while the Sheriff clipped out of the room, leaving me trapped in the first phase arena with no way to progress.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:41
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Granted, given LaCroix, he was pretty much in the middle of a mental breakdown so he's not even in the mindset to flee
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Jan 31, 2015 06:55
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Honestly, I was tempted to rate the thread a one the moment you slaughtered Chunk. In seriousness, though, it's hard to make the last leg of this game all that compelling. While I consider this ending to probably be one of my favorites in any video game, all of the actual gameplay is really agonizing. You're either yawning at how ineffectual everyone is or cowering under the combined weight of five vampires with assault rifles murderizing your social-butterfly form. But yeah, I love this ending. It's just perfect. LaCroix's voice work is great, and Jack just oozes smugness. It really nails the whole punk aspect of the gothic-punk theme of VTM; you don't get into a showdown with the Prince, you fill a coffin full of loving bombs and watch as he tries his damnedest to kill himself with it. To anyone curious, here's the credits, complete with gothic butt-rock (which is also very much in the style of VTM's punk atmosphere, I think, but it's still gothic butt-rock). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhhwtJZjOKI
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Jan 31, 2015 08:17
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Man, that last encounter with LaCroix is a real showcase of one of the things that makes the game memorable and neat, the facial emoting everyone can do.
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Jan 31, 2015 09:19
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Erwin the German posted:To anyone curious, here's the credits, complete with gothic butt-rock (which is also very much in the style of VTM's punk atmosphere, I think, but it's still gothic butt-rock). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhhwtJZjOKI Oh my God, is that Lacuna Coil? That takes me back to my high school days...
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Jan 31, 2015 09:33
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Yep, that is indeed Lacuna Coil. An easy solution is a simple light-sensitive diode kicking off a short timer. Lid opens, light hits the diode, you get to read the note and kiss your butt goodbye. Can't wait for the other ending vids!
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Jan 31, 2015 09:48
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I thought you did a great job spinning a sloggy fight sequence into an entertaining LP. Those last stretches are always a pain to get through so kudos for pushing on and keeping it a fun ride for the rest of us. I'm always saddened to watch LaCroix go, even if he royally had it coming. The talent of the voice actor makes him so fun to listen to, even though the character is such a smug, incompetent rear end in a top hat. This game does a great job making even the most irritating characters endearing through the emotive animations and the great voice acting. Vandal is repellent but still manages to be one of my favourite characters in the game (and I think the only (?) male character with whom a female character will always fail a seduction attempt - he has some great lines if you try) because the VA conveys his madness and bloodlust so delightfully. I even look forward to chatting with Patty - her delusional smugness is just so irritating that it wraps right around to being entertaining. Despite its many flaws, this game still has some of the best voice acting and characterisation I've ever seen in a video game and will always remain one of my favourites. I am, uh, very curious to see what WESP's Sabbat ending entails.
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Jan 31, 2015 11:53
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Now that Jack's big gambit* has been revealed, remember that Beckett warned us not to open the sarcophagus? How did he know? Had he realized there was explosives in it, he'd have told the prince (and us) outright. Did Jack call a favour in? "Yo Beckett, this is my plan, warn the kid 'cause I like her, but no details." *a gambit that is like throwing a bunch of bloody meat in a piranha tank
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Jan 31, 2015 12:25
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LoonShia posted:Oh my God, is that Lacuna Coil? That takes me back to my high school days...  quote:
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Jan 31, 2015 12:31
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Tiggum posted:I don't think it's you, like you say, the later parts of the game are just not very good. Uneven is the most charitable way I can think of to describe Bloodlines. I imagine they ran out of steam many times over before ship.
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Jan 31, 2015 12:43
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Is the taxi driver Satan or something? Because nothing normal should put out that kinda black smoke, even for OWoD/NWoD.
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Jan 31, 2015 13:14
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Gideon020 posted:Is the taxi driver Satan or something? Because nothing normal should put out that kinda black smoke, even for OWoD/NWoD. Almost 100% sure it's never made explicit but the most commonly accepted fan theory is that he's Caine.
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Jan 31, 2015 14:16
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The question is why would he bother with low-hanging fruit like Lacroix? The only thing that happened was that Giovanni, Camarilla and Sabbat (with a side dish of quei-jinn) went to war with one another.
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Jan 31, 2015 14:27
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double nine posted:The question is why would he bother with low-hanging fruit like Lacroix? The only thing that happened was that Giovanni, Camarilla and Sabbat (with a side dish of quei-jinn) went to war with one another. Cuz he bored as hell.
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Jan 31, 2015 14:30
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Omobono posted:Now that Jack's big gambit* has been revealed, remember that Beckett warned us not to open the sarcophagus? How did he know? I think he didn't know what was in it. The whole thing just didnt make any sense to him if I remember the dialogue with him right. He probably just realised it was bullshit and ran away.
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Jan 31, 2015 14:35
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Wonderful LP, wonderful thread. I got the game on Steam a while ago thanks to this LP, in fact! On a related note, the long-delayed Antitribu mod drops next week.
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Jan 31, 2015 14:46
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ThisIsNoZaku posted:Almost 100% sure it's never made explicit but the most commonly accepted fan theory is that he's Caine. Apparently that was what Troika intended, but that raised up a shitstorm on WW forums where superspergs started complaining about how it didn't fit the metaplot or somesuch. That may have prompted the Caine hosed off to a cave, Beckett found him, blablala "canon" of Gehenna. And the Methuselah theory has been posted here already.
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Jan 31, 2015 16:44
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Holy fuckballs, the number of votes on this thread just doubled overnight! Guess all it takes to get votes from all the lurkers is to just mention it once. Interesting trick, I'll have to remember that. Anyway, what I was thinking was that I was heading straight down the LP burnout road and wasn't noticing it beyond a general tiredness (which I attributed to finals season and winter being poo poo), which would definitely cause a quality drop. That, and I can't really judge my own material, so I'm relying on what others tell me to see whether or not something's up. All my previous LPs never went long enough or had enough readers to get the ratings to show, which is why I've kind of been obsessively checking them now that I have them. The thing with this chapter in particular was that I was constantly thinking about throwing everything out and going with a narrative chapter just because there's literally nothing left in gameplay to talk about (well, the Sheriff boss fight, but even that is self-explanatory from the video), but in the end, I realized that that probably would have ended really badly. When I go narrative eventually, it'll have to be much better prepared. That, and writing a low-humanity character is the exact difference of what I had planned (a high-humanity thinblood Toreador that got his blood potency boosted by Caine because LOLCAINE, which would have allowed me to be far more "human" with my character as opposed to the hidden monster the regular vampire is). Tiggum posted:Speaking of the game turning poo poo, it really annoys me that neither LaCroix nor Melissa do anything to try to save themselves when they see the explosives. Run for the stairs or even jump out the window or something for god's sake. Also, the timer on those explosives makes no sense. How could Jack have any idea where the sarcophagus would be at this point? Or did he just want to blow up literally anyone? Seems like it was intended for Lacroix, but there was no guarantee Lacroix would have the sarcophagus. And someone could easily have opened it before now, seen the explosives and the timer with plenty of warning and ruined everything. That was something I also thought about during my brainstorming sessions for the narrative LP. I would have had my Toreador pop Celerity 5 and jump out the window, because ten seconds with Celerity 5 is like an eternity. Then he'd end up with some sappy ending where he becomes a co-host on Deb of Night (Deb would have become a one-sided love interest over the course of the LP) because it's as good an ending as any when Gehenna happens like a few weeks from that point anyway. Again, there is a reason why I've canned that idea. The first draft had the PC being a bookie in with the mob that dabbled in the occult and really liked mobster movies (to the point where people called him "Bugsy"), which would have led to him becoming a Tremere. I wasn't looking forward to watching hours upon hours of mobster movies for reference material anyway. LaCroix was just too awestruck by how much he've just been had to think sensibly, and I think that something similar happens in the ending where Melissa opens it. Look at her facial expression right before the explosion. That's the kind of expression that just says "I suddenly realized the gravitas of this situation, but the fact of the matter is that I've only got about a second to do something about it, so I might as well accept it". Omobono posted:Now that Jack's big gambit* has been revealed, remember that Beckett warned us not to open the sarcophagus? How did he know? Once again, I think the answer to that is LOLCAINE - his involvement in the situation caused multiple Kindred to realize that something's up, they just don't know what. There's an aura surrounding the whole situation that leaves two options open: 1) You're desperate for power. You get the feeling something big's in there, but you're strong enough to control it (at least you think you are, because you're an egotist), so you open it. 2) You're not desperate for power. You get the feeling something big's in there, and you're not going to risk it. Beckett might have taken longer to really acknowledge it (though you might remember the part after Melissa blew up the warehouse and Beckett mentioned something being in the air), but eventually he realized that this is beyond Kindred science, this is something bad. Gideon020 posted:Is the taxi driver Satan or something? Because nothing normal should put out that kinda black smoke, even for OWoD/NWoD. While we'll go over it in more detail, it is Caine. The only thing arguing against it is that White Wolf said that it's not Caine because Caine is doing something else during the time of Bloodlines, but there you apply DM Fiat and say Troika's word trumps White Wolf's. As far as the game is concerned, the taxi driver is Caine, and it explains a lot of things (of course it does, even if the answer is just LOLCAINE). double nine posted:The question is why would he bother with low-hanging fruit like Lacroix? The only thing that happened was that Giovanni, Camarilla and Sabbat (with a side dish of quei-jinn) went to war with one another. Once again, the answer is LOLCAINE. It really is that simple from what I can tell. Caine doesn't need to be explained, he just is. Whatever the gently caress he does, he does because he can. Why would Caine be a taxi driver to begin with? Well, that actually kind of comes from the biblical thing about Cain being cursed to wander eternally: quote:The narrative of the curse of Cain is in the text of Genesis 4:11-16. The curse was a result of Cain murdering his brother Abel and lying about the murder to God.[2] When Cain spilled his brother's blood, the earth became cursed as soon as the blood hit the ground. In a sense, the earth was left "drinking Abel's blood".[3] Genesis 4:12 gives a two part sentencing for Cain's curse. The first concerns the earth that was cursed by Abel's blood.[4] Should Cain attempt to farm the land, the earth would not yield produce for him. This may imply why he went on to build cities,[5] namely the City of Enoch.[6] The second part of the curse marks Cain as a fugitive (Hebrew: נע ) and wanderer (Hebrew: נד ). The combination of these Hebrew words נע ונד, "fugitive" and "wanderer", is unique in the Hebrew Bible. Modern interpretation of the Hebrew verse 12 suggest that Cain went on to live a nomadic lifestyle as well as being excluded from the family unit.[7] So being a taxi driver that has no home and is constantly on the move kind of works, but still, it's another thing that just is because Caine just is. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Jan 31, 2015 |
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Jan 31, 2015 16:47
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Cuz he bored as hell. I'd imagine that loving around with the Camarilla and Sabbat is how he passes the time for his own amusement.
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Jan 31, 2015 16:47
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Cythereal posted:I'd imagine that loving around with the Camarilla and Sabbat is how he passes the time for his own amusement. Caine flicks a battered, worn coin into the air. It disappears into the horizon. He goes to where it lands: Heads he fucks over the local camarilla, tails, the sabbat. With a caveat: No power use.
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Jan 31, 2015 17:14
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Caine flicks a battered, worn coin into the air. It disappears into the horizon. If it lands on its side he ruins everyone which is apparently what happened. Caine just wanted you to realize player choice in games is an illusion.
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Jan 31, 2015 18:21
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This poster loves police brutality, but only when its against minorities!
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TheMcD posted:Holy fuckballs, the number of votes on this thread just doubled overnight! Guess all it takes to get votes from all the lurkers is to just mention it once. Interesting trick, I'll have to remember that That's how it works on Youtube.
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Feb 1, 2015 00:23
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I keep forgetting that there even is a vote function.  ThisIsNoZaku posted:That's how it works on Youtube. 
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Feb 1, 2015 00:50
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Since we've gotten to the end, I might as well throw in my two cents on the matter of the Sheriff. I don't think he's anything as exotic as a Nagloper. I think he's just a vanilla Tzimisce masquerading ( ) as a Gangrel. If you're careful, Vicissitude can be used to mimic Protean forms. Both clans also have Animalism, so the summoned wolf-things are covered. Gangrel do have Fortitude like Melissa, but if he's done enough flesh and bonecrafting on himself, he might be hardy enough to simply tank any damage that comes at him.My guess is that LaCroix is just a puppet of the Sabbat, given nominal power in exchange for his cooperation. The Sheriff is in place to the 'Prince' in his. Even discounting his ability to Dominate you earlier in the game (which, really, might not ever come up unless you're willfully stupid :p ), he can't do so at the end. This leads me to think that he's a fairly high generation and unlikely to ever get any sort of power without serious backing. LaCroix also comes across as a bit of a prat, so that support is unlikely to ever show up. So someone from the Sabbat makes him an offer, he accepts and gets a right hand man for his obedience. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time a Prince turned out to be working for the Sabbat, would it? 
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Feb 1, 2015 01:45
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Actually, it is quite probable, given his appearance, that he is Nagloper. The Laibon (African vampire lines) have this weird dual morality system with some interesting quirks. They have Aye, which is how well they relate to people, and the higher they are on that the more human they look. They also have Orun, which is the same but for supernatural. They look much more powerful and obviously supernatural if that is high. Given the fact that he looks like he is built like a truck and has glowing eyes he is likely a low aye, high Orun Nagloper. I think someone mentions that LaCroix picked up the Sheriff in Africa, but for the life of me I can't remember where I heard that.
Pickled Tink fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Feb 1, 2015 |
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Feb 1, 2015 02:10
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Vicissitude posted:Since we've gotten to the end, I might as well throw in my two cents on the matter of the Sheriff. That's a really convoluted theory when the much simpler explanation is some dev read about Naglopers, found them cool, and decided to put one in the game. LaCroix working for the Sabbat has all sorts of problems considering he used you to single handedly exterminate them throughout the story. Unless you are also claiming he backstabbed Sabbat and at that point we are in fanfiction territory.
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Feb 1, 2015 02:35
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What does a Laibon look like if he has both high Aye and high Orun?
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Feb 1, 2015 02:42
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Siegkrow posted:What does a Laibon look like if he has both high Aye and high Orun? I'm pretty I never bought "Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom", but wikipedia claims "Those few Laibon who can maintain high Aye and high Orun simultaneously appear angelic, possibly transcendent." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_of_the_Ebony_Kingdom
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Feb 1, 2015 02:52
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fspades posted:That's a really convoluted theory when the much simpler explanation is some dev read about Naglopers, found them cool, and decided to put one in the game. LaCroix working for the Sabbat has all sorts of problems considering he used you to single handedly exterminate them throughout the story. Unless you are also claiming he backstabbed Sabbat and at that point we are in fanfiction territory. You think LaCroix isn't bigheaded enough to try and backstab his Sabbat patron? :p
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Feb 1, 2015 03:30
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So if LaCroix or the PC did jump out the window before the bomb exploded, could they survive the fall?
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Feb 1, 2015 04:17
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Toningly posted:So if LaCroix or the PC did jump out the window before the bomb exploded, could they survive the fall? Almost certainly. In the tabletop variant of Vampire, falling damage caps at a maximum of 10 dice of lethal damage when you fall 100+ feet, which is about 10 stories. That can be soaked with Stamina + Fortitude, so the PC (at this point) would be rolling 10 dice + 1/2 armor to resist. So, on average, the PC would walk away unscathed from jumping off the Empire State Building. ...also, no matter what, as a vampire, anything other than staking, separating the head from the body, or aggravated damage (fire, magical claws, vampire teeth, etc.) would only send them into a state of torpor, revivable with blood.
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Feb 1, 2015 04:31
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And vampire halve bashing damage. Because a broken bone is easier to resist than just being stabbed in the gut. Somehow. And staking them just puts them in torpor.
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Feb 1, 2015 04:39
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ulmont posted:Almost certainly. In the tabletop variant of Vampire, falling damage caps at a maximum of 10 dice of lethal damage when you fall 100+ feet, which is about 10 stories. That can be soaked with Stamina + Fortitude, so the PC (at this point) would be rolling 10 dice + 1/2 armor to resist. So, on average, the PC would walk away unscathed from jumping off the Empire State Building. citybeatnik posted:And vampire halve bashing damage. Because a broken bone is easier to resist than just being stabbed in the gut. Somehow. Basically, there's no reason why Melissa wouldn't have jumped out the window beyond "it wouldn't make as poignant an ending, we're trying to make a point here you guys!". LaCroix, on the other hand, was not only psychologically broken (just imagine what happens in his brain the moment the realization hits that he's been outwitted by Jack of all people) but probably too injured as well - otherwise he wouldn't have had to crawl across the floor, shoving the key along with him. Vicissitude posted:You think LaCroix isn't bigheaded enough to try and backstab his Sabbat patron? :p I would have figured he would be too bigheaded to serve that Sabbat scum under any circumstances. Then again, I also believe him when he says that he didn't ally with the Kuei-jin (Ming-Xiao is just as manipulative a bitch, so it's liar against liar, making siding with the Kindred the standard response), so eh.
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Feb 1, 2015 04:47
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You can get him to admit the kuei Jin alliance though. If you try to blackmail him over it he starts to order the sheriff to kill you and you hastily back down.
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Feb 1, 2015 04:53
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I always just sort of assumed the Sheriff isn't Lacroix's, he's working for whoever is above Lacroix on the food chain, and is just his hired muscle. He's nice enough (or has been ordered) to pretend, or not explicitly contradict, the idea that he works for Lacroix directly. I assume Lacroix is under someone's thumb, since that seems to be the theme of vampire "society".
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Feb 1, 2015 04:56
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Pickled Tink posted:You can get him to admit the kuei Jin alliance though. If you try to blackmail him over it he starts to order the sheriff to kill you and you hastily back down. Hrm, right. I just assumed that was some sort of "well, if you want to spread these lies and ruin my image like that, then I'll have to have you dealt with", since it was already obvious that nobody else was going to believe LaCroix over Melissa for obvious reasons. I guess I just have a problem with Ming-Xiao being honest. All things considered, I'd never trust a single thing she says regarding anything - basically the very first thing she did was end up leading me into a deathtrap she ran with the Syndicate (through several different hoops, but that's basically the result). MarquiseMindfang posted:I always just sort of assumed the Sheriff isn't Lacroix's, he's working for whoever is above Lacroix on the food chain, and is just his hired muscle. He's nice enough (or has been ordered) to pretend, or not explicitly contradict, the idea that he works for Lacroix directly. I assume Lacroix is under someone's thumb, since that seems to be the theme of vampire "society". If that's the case, wouldn't open revolt against him draw the one LaCroix works for out of the shadows? LA is a crucial city, and losing it to the Kuei-jin or Anarchs would be crippling.
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Feb 1, 2015 05:00
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