Nergal in helL.A. (Spoilers)
Robert Scythe
players attended the event held in the yet to be completed 'VTES
Palace' at Mike Courtois' Palatial Estate. With only outer walls, no
ceiling and an unfinished concrete slab of a floor this room was 'LIVE'
(musicians term for too much sound reverberating around). It was like
being in a high school cafeteria at lunch time. Nonetheless it was
great fun! Cannot wait until the walls are covered in all the VTES art
that L.A. has acquired. An Art Gallery catering to the VTES player...
"wow, that's even cooler without the card borders in the way"... "i did
not realize that she was holding that"..."why isn't tortured
confessions worth playing?"..."now that's what i call wallpaper!".
Anyhow, I do not have all the information on what decks were played so
I'll just head into the final in what I believe was seeding order.
Robert Scythe - Lasombra - "The Ascension" Descent w/ CR, Legendary
Vamp and Baubled weapons.
Mike Courtois - Nosferatu - Red List'em and throw junk at'em, Big Junk.
Paul Johnson - Ventrue - Hostile Takeover and other Ventrue
annoyingness further compounded by the player himself.
Matt Wedge - Gangrel - Stanislava does whatever she wants, as many
times as she wants.
Steve Bucy - Tremere - Intercept, Burst, Rotschreck 'What, I already
played one? then I'll just Burst inf and prevent with Precog'.
Well, since Stanislava would have just PTO'd Henri (and since I was
wearing a shirt that stated HATRED) I chose Nergal.
Seating order: Matt-Steve-Paul-Mike-Robert
Nergal's first action is to get a Rutor's Infernal Hand and Steve lets
him since he's still not sure what N can do and wants more data for his
Mentat calculations. A Demonic FD ensues to stand tall and avoid
Infernal costs. Stani is now up and on Mike's turn he flips a mental
coin and goes after her instead of N. He drops her to 1 blood, since
Matt seems to have no combat defense, but doesn't finish the job. Next
round N receives his BD then goes for a Demonic Pulse and still no one
intervenes. At this point his Meth states "Who the hell am I gonna
bleed?" and, for the same reasons that N doesn't bleed for at least 6
rounds, nobody answers (not even jokingly). For N's next trick he pulls
out a Form of Demonic Corruption, but Mike's had it with this Demonic
crap and Murat blocks: N's Meth has but one combat card in his hand and
plays it, a Greater Fear of the Void Below hoping to press out if N
survives as an Increased Gate hits for 4. However a top decked Walk of
Infernal Flame hits Murat for 2 agg and allows a Greater UP to be top
decked next and all 4 damage is prevented. Stani, with a Path of Death
and the Soul in play, gladly walks over and eats Murat gaining his
blood, the path's blood and a Tha Master and now only wants a Soul Gem
to go with it, with Beast Melds and DtDawns Steve blocks nothing. Paul
bides his time and gears up bringing out a 3rd minion having only done
maybe 1 or 2 bleeds for 1. Mike calls a Nos Justicar and passes it on
some little punk whom I forget (Duck?) and bleeds Matt. N wants his
Concordance but Steve won't let him have it, nothing special in combat
(whew!). Not much in this round but N gets his Concordance when Steve
(who is tapped out) decides it won't affect his Rotschreck. Stani does
some little bleed, dances around and searches her Library for something
bigger to do. Paul goes for some Ventrue fun and finds that Steve is
itching and ready to block everything he attempts. Paul ends his turn
with 2 dudes in torpor and a 3rd tapped, but ready (thank something).
Mike decides to just bleed Matt while N sits on a Greater CotE and a
Greater TC and TM. An Infernal Ruins is Suddened then N recruits a
Herald, no block! Now N makes Paul an offer he WON'T refuse: Rescue one
dude and eat the other. Paul uncharacteristically accepts with no
attempt to renegotiate, no other suggestions, and no backtalk! Stani
votes to burn N and N pops back up with a gleam in his beady little
eyes. Stani decides its time to slow N down a bit and calls a PTO, N
plays 1 intercept for card flow ,since I have that GCotE in hand, and
blocks!?! (actually wanted to stay untapped). Paul plays a Hostile
Takeover on the little Nos Justi and takes him for himself, since he's
got lots more pool than anybody else. N and the Herald play a bunch of
Condemnations, that are clogging my hand, with absolutely no affect on
the game. Things are finally starting to unravel as everyone takes some
bleeds (including N). N's Fragment otBoN gets Suddened by Steve and The
Herald comes and pays his only untapped minion a visit, no deflection
for you this round. Mind you that I have not drawn another combat card
in all this time, even though I drew rushes. Stani finally takes out
Steve and is looking strong with another Tha Master and The Soul Gem in
place. Paul is starting to feel a disturbance in the Force even though
he has Deflections, his natural prey is at less then 10 pool and the
damned Tremere blockers are finally gone. N calls The Greater Beast and
puts that Ritual counter on flipping him back to the uncontrolled and
coming right back up (reminding me of the deck I used to get here in
the first place). The table then realizes that Nergal has got to go,
but now I have drawn the combat cards and it is much to late to do
anything about it. Stani bleeds me but it is bounced to Mike. Paul
bleeds me and its all taken. I then bleed out Mike and Stani gets
rushed and put into torpor. Paul diablerizes Stani to set off The Soul
Gem, but she then gets rushed, torpored and eaten. Paul Parity Shifts 3
from me to Matt, but perma rush and a total of 10 inherent bleed =
Game, Set and Match.
Since there were 3 Nergal decks available 2 other tables got to play
with him as well, but they were eventually taken down (and I do mean
EVENTUALLY).
Robert Scythe
d21...@yahoo.com.au
know I'm either running for a Tremere victory or a Nergal one. I know
at least one other player has intentions to see Baali victorious or
Nergal.
The players here are fairly forward foccussed, they don't really
negiotate much as deal-breaking and backstabbing is common. I'm very
curious to see how Nergal performs, because players will be more
concerned about their "natural prey" and will focus efforts on ousting
that player.
Nergal won't really come into contention until it's down to a three
player table and then I'm beginning to think it might be to late to
stop Nergal's victory :o)
Dorrinal Blackmantle
d21_...@yahoo.com.au wrote:
> I'll be very interested to see how Nergal performs in my metagame. I
> know I'm either running for a Tremere victory or a Nergal one. I know
> at least one other player has intentions to see Baali victorious or
> Nergal.
Go Tremere!
> The players here are fairly forward foccussed, they don't really
> negiotate much as deal-breaking and backstabbing is common. I'm very
> curious to see how Nergal performs, because players will be more
> concerned about their "natural prey" and will focus efforts on ousting
> that player.
They're fools if they think they can take Nergal without giving each
other a chance to build up and work on him first.
> Nergal won't really come into contention until it's down to a three
> player table and then I'm beginning to think it might be to late to
> stop Nergal's victory :o)
I wager that you will be proven correct.
Dorrinal Blackmantle
Chronicler of Clan Tremere