Reginald Burke (1421)

Reginald Burke
9th Generation Venture

20 years ago, Sarra Brennan, a Tremere slew your sire and the ‘prince’ of the city. For the last 20 years, you have had to keep quite and lay low. But to your eternal delight times are a changing. A plague has struck the peasants of Dublin, causing massive death tolls. While at the same time a famine has struck the Irish in the countryside. There is a jousting tournament being held by Cormac O’Reilly, (leader of the Irish Clans), Gauwyn Moyglare (the supposed Lord of Dublin). You know Gauwyn is really the ghoul of a Cappadocian vampire by the name of Guy Le Blanc.

You have it from a good source (Adam Smith) that the plague and the famine are of a mystical creation. You have a good suspicion that Guy is behind it. Fortunately, this joust provides the perfect cover to search out the local Irish vampires to find some allies to get rid of first the Cappadocian death freaks, and then eliminate the Tremere that slew your sire.

Coming with you to the joust is Nicholas Burke, your childe. He will be your entourage’s jousting champion. If Nicholas wins, it will provide the perfect cover to start branching out to other parts of Ireland.

Also traveling with you is Adam Smith. He is a priest that can do the occasional parlor trick. He has his uses at times, but if he bothers you too much you can always use another loyal followers.

Bernard Smith will also be traveling with you. Bernard showed up about 15 years ago fleeing some trouble in London. Not about to turn away some muscle, you made him take a blood bond (1st level) with him so you could trust him. Bernard will be good to have along cause there is always strength in numbers, if you can’t win through guile, there is always a forceful takeover. Bernard can help you there.

Lastly your ghoul, David Walsh will be there to take care of your needs as befits your station. David has been a good loyal servant, if he keeps on serving well you might think about rewarding his loyalty.

The joust and surrounding events will provide you with the perfect cover to reclaim Dublin for its rightful Lords, the Venture.

What is this?

All Things Must End

I was browsing the Official SLUGS Forums and found a post that hinted at the possible setting for this year's LARP,

"When the living dead triumph, the world degenerates into chaos.

All social order evaporates.

Those in power, along with their families and associates, hole up in bunkers and secure areas around the country. Secure in these shelters, originally built for the Cold War, they survive. Perhaps they continue the facade of a government command structure. Perhaps the technology is available to communicate with other agencies or even other protected world leaders. For all practical purposes, however, they are nothing more than a government-in-exile.

With the total collapse of law and order, small bands of individuals emerge to assert their authority. Looters, bandits, and common thugs prey on the survivors, taking what they want and indulging in whatever pleasure they can find. It is common at the end of any civilization to have one last massive party. As perverse as it sounds, orgies of people believing that this day is their last spring up all around the nation.

What police and military forces are left serve as protection for the government in hiding, desert in an attempt to save their families, or degenerate into bandits themselves. A total collapse in communication and transportation sweeps the globe. Isolated cities become open battlegrounds, with scattered groups of citizens fighting to defend barricaded areas from both undead and mortal renegdes.

Neglected machines eventually break down or, in some cases, blow up. Reactor meltdowns and other industrial accidents are common, polluting the landscape with toxic chemical by-products. With cities picked clean of humans, the undead fan out in search of prey. Country homes and suburban neighborhoods are torn to shreds as citizens flee, attempt to stand and fight, or wait helplessly for the monsters to devour them. The carnage is not limited to humans: The air is thick with the shrieks of farm animals trapped in pens, or even family pets trying bravely to defend their masters.

As time passes, the fires die, the explosions cease, the screams fade. Fortified areas begin to run low on supplies, forcing the occupants to face their undead attackers during foraging missions, evacuations, or battles driven by desperate insanity. Casualties will continue to mount as many well-protected and well-supplied but weak-willed humans take their own lives out of sheer despair.

The looters previously mentioned fare no better than any other human. These modern-day barbarians became such because of their disrespect for law, their hatred of organization, their choice of destruction over creation. Their nihilistic, parasitic existence feeds off the riches of others instead of producing their own. This mentality prevents them from settling down and building a new life. They are always on the run, fighting off the monsters no matter where they stop.

Even if they succeed in fending off this external threat, their need for anarchy eventually leads them to turn on each other. Many of these societies will be held together by the strong personality of a chieftain. Once he or she is gone, there will be nothing to hold the group together. A disbanded gang of thugs, wandering aimlessly through hostile ground, cannot survive forever. After several years, little will be left of these ruthless human predators.

This post-apocalyptic world will appear as a devasted landscape: burned-out cities, silent roads, crumbling homes, abandoned ships rusting offshore, gnawed and bleached bones scattered over a world now ruled by monsters. Fortunately, you will not see this, because before it happens, you will be nowhere near."

Well, that could be interesing, and bloody. Every group you meet could be out to eat, kill, maim, ect you.

Gerard Wilson (1421)

Gerard Wilson
Squire to Olyver Moore

You are the squire to Olyver Moore. Olyver has trained you for the last two years to be a knight. To bad he’s a pompous windbag with a dick the size of a thimble, literally. Over the years you have heard the story of how the current Lady of Dublin, Isabella Moyglare, slept with Olyver then spread a viscous rumor that his dick was the too small to do the job adequately. To your eternal amusement, the rumors are right on. One of the most glaring problems you see with Olyver’s story is that a woman as classy as Isabella would never go whoring herself out to the likes of Olyver.

That leads you to your problem. Olyver is going to make a fool of himself if he wins the joust by denouncing Lady Isabella. This would damage your future as well as his. You need to stop Olyver from winning the joust, or jousting at all. If he doesn’t joust, you will take his place and allow you to win all the glory.

The other problem you have is that you are infatuated with Beatrix Fitzgerald. Ever since Olyver sent you on a spying mission to follow her to see if she was ‘hooking’ up with Isabella you have been smitten. If you can get into the jousting tournament, maybe you can make a good showing and impress her with your skill with a ‘lance’.

Lastly, keep an eye out. You never know what dirt you can dig up at this big of a gathering to later use to improve your social standing. Rumor’s have been floating around that the Irish are the cause of the plaque that has hit the town. Luckily no-one that you are close to has died yet, but if you can find proof that the Irish are the cause you would surely be noticed by those in power.

What is this?

ISS Photo of the Site of Ancient Carthage

I ran across this photo of the site of ancient Carthage on the Earth Observatory's web site.

Site of Carthage, Tunisia