[V5] [WIR] The Chicago Folios - Completed 9/19/2020

[Ruthven]

This one is a significant plotline. I'd call it one of the major plotlines in the the the V5 version of Chicago By Night. The note on page 67 (I don't want to spoil) has a truth to it and I think its very easy to provide a common source.

[CTPhipps]

This one is a significant plotline. I'd call it one of the major plotlines in the the the V5 version of Chicago By Night. The note on page 67 (I don't want to spoil) has a truth to it and I think its very easy to provide a common source.

That's the Shejana plotline, right?

Which plot are you referring to?

[Ruthven]

CT, The "Lester Knife"The Black Water, Auguries, Snatch and Slash plotines- see page 67, the artifact note from Edith to Lester.

[CTPhipps]

CT, The "Lester Knife"The Black Water, Auguries, Snatch and Slash plotines- see page 67, the artifact note from Edith to Lester.

Thank you! Just checking. 67 is a different page on my version.

[Ruthven]

I'm a doofus. I should clarify, check page 67 of Chicago By Night, not the fplios-- the two connect though and hint at what might be in Lester's care.

[CTPhipps]

I'm a doofus. I should clarify, check page 67 of Chicago By Night, not the fplios-- the two connect though and hint at what might be in Lester's care.

Ah!

That makes more sense.

[CTPhipps]

I'm a doofus. I should clarify, check page 67 of Chicago By Night, not the fplios-- the two connect though and hint at what might be in Lester's care.

Got it.

Dear Lester,

Your masters are not mine. Yours are within the
earth and mine are within the water. Are they of the
same brood, the same family, perhaps? I do not know.
But kindly refrain from casting aspersions against the
Cultivars. We have nothing to do with your feeding problem.
Mother’s blessings,

Edith

I think they probably are still Drowned. It's Edith is being snooty.

[Ruthven]

I agree, they're all probably drowned, and the artifact hints at that with the "same brood, the same family".

[CTPhipps]

The Ashfinders, The Most Dangerous Game, The Little Village Inferno, Reign of Ashe

Cast: Kevin Jackson, Amelia Locke, Adze, Erzulie

Synopsis: Thin Bloods have begun spreading Ash as a drug across the city.

Analysis: I'm a big fan of the Ashfinders. They're such a twist on the typical Thin Bloods that they create an entirely new stereotype for the weakest of Caine's childer. Thin Bloods do not have much in the way of power compared to other Cainites but they DO have the advantage of being able to move in human circles much easier. This means that, in some cases, there are going to be some REALLY RICH Thin Bloods.

(Peter Thiel is a Thin Blood in my games)

The Ashfinders are a bunch of drug-addicted Wolf of Wallstreet and Tech Bro kind of people that are buying the ash of dead vampires from the Middle East. Honestly, I'm not sure who they've made contact with to ship these piles of ashes. That feels like it deserves to be its own story. Is there a Merry and Pippin pair of Hobbits following the wars and Fed-exing the results of apocalyptic battles against Antediluvians?

Fun fact: Blade: The Series on Starz television was a show I own the one and only season of. While it had it's problems, one of the more interesting plotlines of that show was the fact that humans had begun murdering vampires to sell their ash as a street drug. It's apparently got some wonky side-effects but briefly gives you a vampire's strength and power. I wonder if anyone was thinking of this series when they created the vampire ash plotline.

Either way, it's apparently spread to the Chicago club scene and Blood Disco where Thin Bloods are enjoying the high life. My inclination is the snorting of 5th and 6th generation vampire ash will have the effect of making them briefly strong enough to do some serious damage to "real" vampires. Kevin Jackson wants it stopped and Amelia Locke is the person he hires to investigate--even thgough she wants nothing to do with such a dangerous plot.

So far, no Thin Bloods are murdering Kindred for their ashes but it's only a matter of time.

One thing that's also interesting is the fact that Kevin Jackson would very much like the "necromantic" ritual that allows vampire ash to be turned into Ash the Drug. He presumably thinks this is created with Thin Blooded Alchemy. Cults of the Blood Gods, however, illustrated that it was the creation of THE INSIDIOUS MORTIUS (Da dummm!). I applaud Matthew Dawkins for restoring this Milwaukee By Night character to importance. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be the guy who created Thin Blood Alchemy as a whole.

[CTPhipps]

I'm going to forgo the formality of the articles now and just talk about them as we're coming to the point when LET THE STREETS RUN RED is going to be released.

The Seven Fires

The Seven Fires is probably the most important part of the book, IMHO, since it is something that has been desperately wanted by the fans of V:TM since 5th Edition came out. It is only a tiny bit of information but it is the first official information for using the Sabbat outside of "they all fucked off to the Middle East." Okay, this isn't entirely true but aside from this and some bits about the Lasombra, this is the only canon bit.

The Seven Fires is a great idea for those people who are missing their Sabbat stories of sieges, terrorism, and other fun. The Seven Fires are a "mini-Sabbat" that are doing all of these things and attempting to get revenge on the Lasombra for their defection. They exist on the edges of Camarilla and Anarch territory, doing the same they always did.

Except CRAZIER.

The Seven Fires are basically the Imperial Remnant/First Order of the Sabbat. They're in hiding and working to rebuild the Sabbat. While the section doesn't explain how big the Seven Fires are, they could be as large as the Storyteller wants and be used as the basis for carrying on a fight against the Sabbat in all but name.

This section also contains some genuinely disturbing stuff about humans who get to witness just what inhuman evil monsters the Sabbat really are. I think people kind of immunized themselves to how BAD the Sabbat are and forgot that they're horrifying as well as terrifying.

One thing that V5 has been criticized for is the fact that it works too much to Humanity and not real sense of Paths. This underscores nicely a decent argument that this is reasonable. The Seven Fires are not "cool" evil, they are Dahlmer and Ed Gein evil. They're sick twisted bastards who regularly eviscerate families and eat babies. That may be what makes them effective and why gamers might not want to play them in V5 that takes its violence all the more seriously. It's why I always said, "Baali are pretty much too disgusting for any sane person to want to play."

YMMV.

Victor, a somewhat stupid roid-rage meathead from CHICAGO BY NIGHT 2nd Edition, is also reimagined here as a Sabbat soldier on a suicide mission of serial murder and Masquerade breaking throughout Chicago. They made a disposable character like Carlyle or Vickie into a genuinely scary one. There's no reasoning with him, not because he's one dimensional, but because he's a monster.

I am surprised they don't say he's close to wightdom, though.

[CTPhipps]

The Bahari

This opens up with a funny storyline about, of all people, Ted Bundy. Basically, the story pokes a hole in the myth of him being a genius master criminal and brilliant seducer of women. The story proceeds to talk about how the biggest advantage that Ted Bundy had was the fact that he was a well-groomed white man that lured women in because society said that was nonthreatening. It's actually something similar that happened with Jeffrey Dahlmer (though that's not brought up here). In RL, Jeffrey moved into a predominately black neighborhood and the police were quite friendly with him because they assumed he was the LEAST dangerous person there.

The Bahari member then goes into a lengthy spiel about Lilith, which I wonder about being ironic. What I loved about CULTS OF THE BLOOD GODS is that it did have someone point out that Lilith is not a feminist figure so much as a demon co-opted as a feminist figure. They even mention that the legend of Lilith is an incredibly misogynist one and it's kind of weird so many people gravitate to her legend.

Eve is a feminist figure, taking supernatural knowledge for herself and sharing it with her husband so that he would not remain ignorant (making her both the giver of sin as well as the person who bestows knowledge) but Lilith is a demon who hunts pregnant women down among other delightful things. I've always felt that the Bahari should be a religion with a hefty dose of misogyny in it. They're the ultimate, "I'm not like THOSE girls" people who consider whatever tortures and evils they do to other women justified because they're weak. IN effect, a female specific version of fascism.

The adventure is a kind of funny one as the PCs are hired by a Ventrue stereotype to join the Bahari on his behalf. He's an idiot and misses that the Cult of Mamuwalde is not the only Lilith worshipers in the city.

[CTPhipps]

The Cult of Mithras

I've always been a fan of the Cult of Mithras and while I'm not quite as deep into the lore of it as Matthew Dawkins, I have appreciated his efforts to increase the importance of the 4th generation vampire and his storyline. Part of this is my love of the actual cult from Ancient Rome and seeing so much effort to turn what was probably just a name drop into something that is a fascinatingly complex Kindred heresy.

I recommend people check out THE FALL OF LONDON because it really is a fantastic chronicle. It also is, bluntly, a bit more V20 in its handling of V5's plots than other work. Mithras is the architect of the Fall of London not those pesky humans and Queen Anne Bowesley is retconned as dying in a much more dignified way (or surviving with the PC's help). The adventure is mostly about Arjun Shah, a Mithras worshiping Ventrue who has expanded into Milkwaukee and found it quite comfortable to his liking. If nothing else, Decker and his coterie are hardened badasses who have a warrior cult in need of a spiritual focus beyond baseball. They're the kind of people who would honestly benefit from Mithraism in a way that might make them better(ish) people.

I mean, not increase their humanity, but maybe protect them from the Beast and more honorable. My one regret from the lack of the Path System is that we don't have a Path of Mithras, which I imagine would have been the inspiration for the Road of Chivalry.

One thing I liked about this entry is the fact that Arjun thinks the Ventrue of Chicago are pretty much all worthless and he's not wrong. I suspect he MIGHT think Kevin Jackson worthy of joining the cult but I think of KJ as an atheist who would soundly reject anything resembling spiritualism. He's simply too much of the 20th and 21st centuries to find anything interesting within the ancient sect.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

This section also contains some genuinely disturbing stuff about humans who get to witness just what inhuman evil monsters the Sabbat really are.

I wonder how the hardcore Sabbat fans and apologists feel about this situation.

The BahariWhat I loved about CULTS OF THE BLOOD GODS is that it did have someone point out that Lilith is not a feminist figure so much as a demon co-opted as a feminist figure.

Is Cults still due next year? Also, the nature of Lilith will probably be a surprise for some characters - which can provide interesting story fodder.

The Cult of MithrasPart of this is my love of the actual cult from Ancient Rome...

The ruins of an underground Mithras temple was found in London - this probably inspired the writer who made Mithras as a character and prince of London.

[CTPhipps]

I wonder how the hardcore Sabbat fans and apologists feel about this situation.

My general interpretation of things is that Sabbat fans are pretty confused about the situation with the Sabbat or assume that the organization is effectively destroyed. Having a "mini-Sabbat" tucked away in THE CHICAGO FOLIOS is something that requires a pretty big amount of dedication to find and if you're a hardcore Sabbat fan, you're probably already someone who has made their own Sabbat survivors or made up your opinion on the subject.

I do admit that making the Sabbat utterly repulsive in their evil is something I think will be controversial yet is not at all inappropriate for them. There's a certain cool 90s edge to the Sabbat but the truth is they are a bunch of theocratic fascists, terrorists, and serial killers. Not exactly people who radiate the cool rebelliousness they're often stuck with.

Is Cults still due next year? Also, the nature of Lilith will probably be a surprise for some characters - which can provide interesting story fodder.

I think so, yeah. I really liked the section on the Bahari by the woman who is confused at just how messed up orthodox Lilith worship is.

The ruins of an underground Mithras temple was found in London - this probably inspired the writer who made Mithras as a character and prince of London.

Cool catch.

[CTPhipps]

The Cult of Shalim

Strangely, the Cult of Shalim doesn't get an adventure here and it just has a few bits of fiction describing it. I have mixed feelings about the Cult of Shalim due to the fact that I both like it and feel like it could be very easy to get it wrong. The story behind that is one of my favorite Forgotten Realms cults is the cult of Shar.

Shar basically teaches that life is meaningless, life is pointless, and the universe would be better if we all went extinct. However, rather than genocidal, this gives its members an essential "contentment" that comes form embracing the nihilism and depression that leaves you numb rather than looking for something better in life. I had a similar feeling regarding Planescape's Dustmen.

In part this is because both Shar and the Dustmen take from real life philosophical stances that in the face of an absurd universe, the best solution is not existentialism but to essentially opt out. There's strains of Buddhism, nihilism, and other religious-philosophical thought that teach this isn't a bad form of life. After all, if you want nothing and feel nothing then you lose nothing.

The Cult of Shalim could be just another Nephandus cult or, more likely, worshiping Lasombra in that they want to END REALITY and return to OBLIVION! However, you could also simply argue that it is cult that has a genuine appeal in the World of Darkness on an individual level. Rabbi Bashara is probably serving a Antediluvian who is insane and no more moral than Darkseid but weirdly, probably has much more philosophical insight as well as enlightenment than his god.

Or maybe I'm way overthinking it.

Oddities

Some Lovecraftian and weird magical item cults here. Not much to say but I enjoyed them.

With that, we finish the adventure portion of the book.

Woot!