Three Takes: Carthian Problem Solving
Trying to pinpoint how a “Carthian” would solve a particular problem is futile, because The Carthian Movement doesn’t have a binding philosophy that provides any kind of easy road map to problem solving. Likewise, since an individual Carthian’s culture, mission and position are so much more definitive of his approach to the Requiem than his choice of covenant, when discussing how the Carthians approach issues within their domains it is helpful to look at more than one Carthian.
Therefore, consider the following scenario. The city isn’t named because the specific location isn’t critical. All that’s important is that the city boasts a significant mortal population (between 500,000 and a million or more) and good representation by The Carthian Movement.
Most of these Ghouls found other Kindred masters within a few nights of the vampire’s demise (whether they wanted to or not). One, however, a man named Hugh Grauer, decided that he had enough servitude to the undead, and decided to shake his Addiction. He checked into an anonymous clinic and tried to prevent his lust for Kindred blood from overtaking him. He might have succeeded, too, had not a young Mekhet been using that clinic as a Herd for months. (A junkie in life, the Shadow enjoyed the slight buzz he got from feeding from addicts.) The ghoul still retained his strength, and when the vampire attacked him, the ghoul flew into frenzy and fought back. He managed to shove a chair leg into the vampire’s chest and paralyze him, and, unable to control himself, glutted himself on the Kindred’s blood. The ghoul then set the body on fire and fled the clinic, resolving that he could be both a ghoul and a free man.
Since that night, Hugh has ambushed five vampires, attacking by surprise and incapacitating them before they could react. He knows Kindred weaknesses and culture much better than most Ghouls, and has used traps, knives and even a bow to achieve his ends. While Hugh is still mortal, he is driven by the strength of his Addiction and his hatred for all Kindred, but never lets either one blind him. Hugh is an extremely dangerous opponent for the vampires of the city.
Aside from the obvious Masquerade problem that a rogue ghoul presents, the Kindred of the city can’t have the possibility of being ambushed, staked and drained hanging over their heads (though the irony of the situation doesn’t escape some of the older Kindred). Plus, what if other Ghouls got the same idea? Something must be done, and three Kindred from The Carthian Movement have stepped forward with ideas about how to do it.
“This guy’s a ghoul. That’s not an easy position to be in — believe me, I know. He’s going to drum up sympathy among other Ghouls in the city, and don’t try and tell me they don’t know. They’ll hear. I always did.
“So I think we need to involve them. They’re better at long-term hunts than we are anyway, and they can go places we can’t. And if they’re on our side, if we keep them in the loop and try to make them understand what a danger this guy is to them as well as to us, then we lessen the chance of them turning or helping Hugh covertly.
“And, hell, while we’re at it, let’s get the mortals in on this. Let’s slap Hugh’s picture on the news, get him wanted for murder or something. Nothing big enough to drag the Feds in or anything, but just local so that cops and citizens’ groups are keeping an eye out. I don’t want him dead, necessarily, but if he’s arrested, then we’ve got some room to maneuver.”
Roger’s theories are sound, but he doesn’t tell the whole story. In addition to keeping the Ghouls of the city “involved,” he wants a chance to see who works for whom and how they are being treated. He’s not above fomenting dissent among blood-slaves if doing so can give him spies or leverage against future rivals.
Roger is also curious whether Ghouls, similar to vampires, become noticeably inhuman as their behavior deviates from that of Humanity. He wishes to capture Hugh alive to discover this, but Roger also doesn’t wish to risk Final Death or the deaths of any hunters he brings with him. He views Hugh as a curiosity, potentially with much to teach the Kindred, but isn’t willing to risk too many lives or unlives to gain this information (and certainly not Roger’s own).
Roger’s position and mission, as might be inferred, revolve around relations between Ghouls and vampires. In particular, he believes that with slow introduction to the state of being a ghoul, a mortal could learn to manage The Vinculum gradually and not become a complete emotional servant to the Kindred. (To which other vampires have replied, “Possibly, but why the hell would we want that?” Roger is sickened by the number of times he hears that response.)
“This man hurts people and is going to get hurt himself. Ghouls possess some of our Healing capabilities, but they can’t just shrug off gunshot wounds. That means we should watch the medical community, the anonymous clinics, the hospitals in the poorer sections of town and any back-alley doctors who specialize in pulling bullets out of criminals. There are only a few people, when weighed against the whole population, capable of providing medical care, and sooner or later Hugh will need one of them.
“I suggest that a qualified coterie made up of Kindred who had medical experience in life, headed by myself, make it their mission to find Hugh. I further suggest that this coterie be given as much autonomy as possible — we’ll never find him if we have to report our methods and positions. “Finally, I think it’s a good idea if Kindred who keep Ghouls keep them isolated for a while, so that no talk of an ‘underground resistance’ starts up.”
Elena wishes to rid the city of any other Kindred like herself (that is, with knowledge and influence of the medical community). Knowing who they are and having some authority over them would be a good start. In particular, she would love to find her sire again, since she never forgave him for taking her away from her beloved profession. She doesn’t much care about Hugh, believing her skills in stealth to be honed enough to avoid his detection, but is happy to use him.
Elena is primarily interested in expanding her own power base in the city, but isn’t doing so for entirely selfish reasons. She would love to see the vampiric leadership forbid Kindred from feeding on sick or injured mortals under hospital care, because she knows what kind of chaos one mysterious death can cause for healthcare workers. She has watched lawsuits, firings and misery ensue because some careless vampire took too much blood from a patient, and thinking of a vampire attempting to feed in the maternity wing fills her with revulsion. She views the hunt for the rogue ghoul as a way to raise Kindred awareness about her own causes; she just needs to be subtle about it. To that end, if Hugh doesn’t provide her with a way to showcase her issues, she might have to stage something.
Elena’s position is that Kindred should hunt only from healthy mortals, believing that taking in sickness only makes the body vampiric sick.
“This is simple. Leave me alone. I’ll find the little cockroach, but I can’t do that with five other Kindred hanging around me. If I need help, I’ll want it on deck, but I’m a better tracker than anybody else in this city, and too many cooks will definitely spoil the soup.”
Melanie enjoys the hunt and doesn’t want anyone else involved. This is partially for the reasons she states, but also because she doesn’t want anyone around when she finds Hugh. She believes that he could be useful, either as a ghoul (and she knows his last Vinculum is gone) or as a source of information about the “dead zones” in the city where vampires don’t have eyes and ears. She doesn’t want the other Kindred to have this knowledge, of course.
Only a part of mortal society in her youth, and locked away from mortals (except those her sire brought her to feed upon) for so long, Melanie doesn’t much care what kind of threat Hugh might pose to the city or to the mortals therein. Likewise, she isn’t really concerned about collateral damage caused during the hunt. She is simply thrilled to be an active predator rather than a spider sitting lazily in a Web, and, therefore, she wants to drag the hunt out as long as possible. In her mind, she is already forming a notion of Hugh as her adversary, dodging her machinations and killing other Kindred to spite her. She occasionally fantasizes about Embracing him and letting him go, just to even the odds a little, but, of course, she has to catch him first.
Melanie is an enthusiastic Carthian, and her mission and position are bound up in the notion of “vampires as hunters.” She vociferously objects to Kindred being called “parasites” and lately has been studying evolution theory to see how Kindred might have developed as a check to mortal population explosion. Hunting is her Requiem, and hunting down Hugh threatens to become an obsession.
Of course, nothing is ever so simple. The three Kindred’s paths intersect occasionally, and they act as their own deterrent. Consider the following problems:
Also, the three Kindred and their pawns might meet up in more direct ways. For instance:
“Look, all I know is that I found three Ghouls sniffing around that alley off Broad where that Savage was attacked last week. I don’t even know that it was Hugh that attacked him, but suddenly I’ve got three heavily armed blood-slaves hanging around, and that, to me, looks suspicious. None of them are dead — this time — but if your boys get in my way again I make no promises.”
“I Haven’t conducted extensive studies into the psychology of blood-slaves, and, honestly, psychology isn’t my area anyway. But my colleagues inform me that under a severe enough stress, mortals can abandon just about any moral or emotional tie. They might feel bad later — but if, by abandoning something, they’re setting you on fire, does that really matter? Again, I don’t have conclusive data, but I’m sure not going to be making any Ghouls anytime soon.”
“We need to take him alive. Who knows how many Kindred he’s killed? We can’t just have people disappearing with no trace, and then kill the only one who can identify them. It isn’t like we’ll ever find corpses, after all. The good news is, though, that since he’s a ghoul we can shoot him and beat him without worrying too much about him dying. Just have to make sure he’s transported here quickly, so he doesn’t die En route. No, here. Not to a hospital, for the love of God.”
Therefore, consider the following scenario. The city isn’t named because the specific location isn’t critical. All that’s important is that the city boasts a significant mortal population (between 500,000 and a million or more) and good representation by The Carthian Movement.
The Problem
One of the city’s oldest and most well-connected Kindred recently met Final Death. The circumstances of his demise were tragic, but unforeseeable. On his way home one morning before sunrise, his car was struck by a drunk driver and rendered inoperable. The driver of the other vehicle was killed, and before the vampire’s driver recovered from the accident, the sun had already begun to rise. Caught without shelter, the unfortunate Kindred perished in flames. He left behind, however, several Ghouls who were now without master and without sustenance.Most of these Ghouls found other Kindred masters within a few nights of the vampire’s demise (whether they wanted to or not). One, however, a man named Hugh Grauer, decided that he had enough servitude to the undead, and decided to shake his Addiction. He checked into an anonymous clinic and tried to prevent his lust for Kindred blood from overtaking him. He might have succeeded, too, had not a young Mekhet been using that clinic as a Herd for months. (A junkie in life, the Shadow enjoyed the slight buzz he got from feeding from addicts.) The ghoul still retained his strength, and when the vampire attacked him, the ghoul flew into frenzy and fought back. He managed to shove a chair leg into the vampire’s chest and paralyze him, and, unable to control himself, glutted himself on the Kindred’s blood. The ghoul then set the body on fire and fled the clinic, resolving that he could be both a ghoul and a free man.
Since that night, Hugh has ambushed five vampires, attacking by surprise and incapacitating them before they could react. He knows Kindred weaknesses and culture much better than most Ghouls, and has used traps, knives and even a bow to achieve his ends. While Hugh is still mortal, he is driven by the strength of his Addiction and his hatred for all Kindred, but never lets either one blind him. Hugh is an extremely dangerous opponent for the vampires of the city.
Aside from the obvious Masquerade problem that a rogue ghoul presents, the Kindred of the city can’t have the possibility of being ambushed, staked and drained hanging over their heads (though the irony of the situation doesn’t escape some of the older Kindred). Plus, what if other Ghouls got the same idea? Something must be done, and three Kindred from The Carthian Movement have stepped forward with ideas about how to do it.
The Solutions
Each of these Kindred has an idea how to find Hugh, and what to do with him once he is caught. Although any of these ideas could conceivably work, the Carthians also have agendas that their methods would further, and as such are not interested in sharing the duty or modifying their approaches.Roger's Solution
Sound Bite: Roger
“This guy’s a ghoul. That’s not an easy position to be in — believe me, I know. He’s going to drum up sympathy among other Ghouls in the city, and don’t try and tell me they don’t know. They’ll hear. I always did.“So I think we need to involve them. They’re better at long-term hunts than we are anyway, and they can go places we can’t. And if they’re on our side, if we keep them in the loop and try to make them understand what a danger this guy is to them as well as to us, then we lessen the chance of them turning or helping Hugh covertly.
“And, hell, while we’re at it, let’s get the mortals in on this. Let’s slap Hugh’s picture on the news, get him wanted for murder or something. Nothing big enough to drag the Feds in or anything, but just local so that cops and citizens’ groups are keeping an eye out. I don’t want him dead, necessarily, but if he’s arrested, then we’ve got some room to maneuver.”
Roger’s theories are sound, but he doesn’t tell the whole story. In addition to keeping the Ghouls of the city “involved,” he wants a chance to see who works for whom and how they are being treated. He’s not above fomenting dissent among blood-slaves if doing so can give him spies or leverage against future rivals.
Roger is also curious whether Ghouls, similar to vampires, become noticeably inhuman as their behavior deviates from that of Humanity. He wishes to capture Hugh alive to discover this, but Roger also doesn’t wish to risk Final Death or the deaths of any hunters he brings with him. He views Hugh as a curiosity, potentially with much to teach the Kindred, but isn’t willing to risk too many lives or unlives to gain this information (and certainly not Roger’s own).
Roger’s position and mission, as might be inferred, revolve around relations between Ghouls and vampires. In particular, he believes that with slow introduction to the state of being a ghoul, a mortal could learn to manage The Vinculum gradually and not become a complete emotional servant to the Kindred. (To which other vampires have replied, “Possibly, but why the hell would we want that?” Roger is sickened by the number of times he hears that response.)
Elena's Solution
Sound Bite: Elena
“This man hurts people and is going to get hurt himself. Ghouls possess some of our Healing capabilities, but they can’t just shrug off gunshot wounds. That means we should watch the medical community, the anonymous clinics, the hospitals in the poorer sections of town and any back-alley doctors who specialize in pulling bullets out of criminals. There are only a few people, when weighed against the whole population, capable of providing medical care, and sooner or later Hugh will need one of them.“I suggest that a qualified coterie made up of Kindred who had medical experience in life, headed by myself, make it their mission to find Hugh. I further suggest that this coterie be given as much autonomy as possible — we’ll never find him if we have to report our methods and positions. “Finally, I think it’s a good idea if Kindred who keep Ghouls keep them isolated for a while, so that no talk of an ‘underground resistance’ starts up.”
Elena wishes to rid the city of any other Kindred like herself (that is, with knowledge and influence of the medical community). Knowing who they are and having some authority over them would be a good start. In particular, she would love to find her sire again, since she never forgave him for taking her away from her beloved profession. She doesn’t much care about Hugh, believing her skills in stealth to be honed enough to avoid his detection, but is happy to use him.
Elena is primarily interested in expanding her own power base in the city, but isn’t doing so for entirely selfish reasons. She would love to see the vampiric leadership forbid Kindred from feeding on sick or injured mortals under hospital care, because she knows what kind of chaos one mysterious death can cause for healthcare workers. She has watched lawsuits, firings and misery ensue because some careless vampire took too much blood from a patient, and thinking of a vampire attempting to feed in the maternity wing fills her with revulsion. She views the hunt for the rogue ghoul as a way to raise Kindred awareness about her own causes; she just needs to be subtle about it. To that end, if Hugh doesn’t provide her with a way to showcase her issues, she might have to stage something.
Elena’s position is that Kindred should hunt only from healthy mortals, believing that taking in sickness only makes the body vampiric sick.
Melanie's Solutions
Sound Bite: Melanie
“This is simple. Leave me alone. I’ll find the little cockroach, but I can’t do that with five other Kindred hanging around me. If I need help, I’ll want it on deck, but I’m a better tracker than anybody else in this city, and too many cooks will definitely spoil the soup.”
Melanie enjoys the hunt and doesn’t want anyone else involved. This is partially for the reasons she states, but also because she doesn’t want anyone around when she finds Hugh. She believes that he could be useful, either as a ghoul (and she knows his last Vinculum is gone) or as a source of information about the “dead zones” in the city where vampires don’t have eyes and ears. She doesn’t want the other Kindred to have this knowledge, of course.
Only a part of mortal society in her youth, and locked away from mortals (except those her sire brought her to feed upon) for so long, Melanie doesn’t much care what kind of threat Hugh might pose to the city or to the mortals therein. Likewise, she isn’t really concerned about collateral damage caused during the hunt. She is simply thrilled to be an active predator rather than a spider sitting lazily in a Web, and, therefore, she wants to drag the hunt out as long as possible. In her mind, she is already forming a notion of Hugh as her adversary, dodging her machinations and killing other Kindred to spite her. She occasionally fantasizes about Embracing him and letting him go, just to even the odds a little, but, of course, she has to catch him first.
Melanie is an enthusiastic Carthian, and her mission and position are bound up in the notion of “vampires as hunters.” She vociferously objects to Kindred being called “parasites” and lately has been studying evolution theory to see how Kindred might have developed as a check to mortal population explosion. Hunting is her Requiem, and hunting down Hugh threatens to become an obsession.
Stumbling Blocks
The city’s undead leadership are happy to have as many pairs of eyes looking for Hugh as possible, and have given these Kindred (and possibly others) leave to search for him. They provided Elena with the coterie she sought, allowed Roger access to many (but not all) of their Ghouls and encouraged others to do the same and agreed to stay out of Melanie’s way.Of course, nothing is ever so simple. The three Kindred’s paths intersect occasionally, and they act as their own deterrent. Consider the following problems:
On the Hunt
The actual hunt for Hugh means that several dangerous supernatural forces are out on the streets at the same time looking over the same evidence. If three factions interview the same bum on the same night, he’s likely to crack and start inventing details, or just refuse to answer (and he might give information about the people who have interviewed him previously).Also, the three Kindred and their pawns might meet up in more direct ways. For instance:
- Melanie meets up with a band of Ghouls in Roger’s employ. She can recognize the scent of a ghoul’s blood, and stalks them for the better part of night before realizing that they are looking for the same target she is. Will she kill one just to make a point (that is, “stay away from my prey”) or confront Roger about it?
Sound Bite: Melanie
“Look, all I know is that I found three Ghouls sniffing around that alley off Broad where that Savage was attacked last week. I don’t even know that it was Hugh that attacked him, but suddenly I’ve got three heavily armed blood-slaves hanging around, and that, to me, looks suspicious. None of them are dead — this time — but if your boys get in my way again I make no promises.”
- Elena’s coterie includes a few Kindred who still hold down jobs in the medical community, and therefore have access to information that others don’t. Melanie might stalk these Kindred in order to learn what they know, but doesn’t wish to be detected. If one of these vampires spots her, she might destroy him to keep herself hidden, or simply bribe or threaten him to stay quiet.
- As Roger’s Ghouls patrol the neighborhoods where Hugh has been spotted, injuries are inevitable. Victims brought into hospitals in the poor sections of town distract Elena and her coterie, which might lead her to confront Roger and tell him to either be more careful or provide his own medical care for these Ghouls.
Kicking up Dust
As the hunt wears on, the effects become noticeable, and the three Carthians find that their “comrades” are actually hindering their efforts. The question becomes, of course, whether or not the other Kindred are actively making the hunt more difficult. But out of devotion to their own agendas, desire to be the first to catch Hugh or simple spite, the possibility of sabotage is never something to discount.- Roger’s Ghouls skirt close to the edge of breaking the Masquerade. Only a few nights later, Hugh attacks and kills a young Daeva in the same neighborhood. The repeated gunfire and violence draws police attention and the neighborhood watch, and Melanie finds hunting there a lost cause, even though the area assuredly would yield more information.
- Elena and her coterie spread rumors among the Kindred of the city that perhaps The Vinculum isn’t as sure as was once believed. Some Kindred take the opportunity to feed their Ghouls more frequently, reinforcing The Vinculum (and making the Ghouls stronger, to boot), but others, to Roger’s horror, simply kill their servants rather than take the risk.
Sound Bite: Elena
“I Haven’t conducted extensive studies into the psychology of blood-slaves, and, honestly, psychology isn’t my area anyway. But my colleagues inform me that under a severe enough stress, mortals can abandon just about any moral or emotional tie. They might feel bad later — but if, by abandoning something, they’re setting you on fire, does that really matter? Again, I don’t have conclusive data, but I’m sure not going to be making any Ghouls anytime soon.”
- Melanie uses a great deal of Vitae during her hunts, and she revels in feeding anyway. She tries not to kill mortals often, but, even so, her predators often involve beating someone senseless to feed upon them. (She detests hunting by Seduction, because anyone who would be seduced by a 13-year-old girl doesn’t deserve to live, in her opinion.) The increased number of mortals injured and babbling about being bitten on the neck makes more work for Elena’s coterie (which, naturally, often takes responsibility for covering up such carelessness).
Crossed Agendas
What if one of these Kindred actually finds Hugh? They each have radically different ideas about what to do with him. Indeed, the ideas about Hugh’s disposition that the Kindred make public might not even coincide with what the Kindred actually plan. If someone finds Hugh, will the Kindred make it public, or simply let the hunt go on?- Melanie wishes to find Hugh and either Embrace him or kill him. She loves the notion of a competing hunter, lurking in the streets vying for the same prey as her, but she has to admit that giving him the power of a vampire might be a dangerous move (since he’s already proven adept at killing Kindred). On the other hand, that might just make the thrill that much more intense. Publicly, Melanie claims that she will kill Hugh on sight.
- Roger insists that his ghoul servants capture Hugh alive, and has pulled every string possible to ensure that if the mortal authorities find Hugh, they do likewise. Roger really hopes that the police capture Hugh — catching him, after all, is the hard part, and Roger would rather see a bunch of cops die than his precious Ghouls. If the cops do catch Hugh, Roger believes that he can engineer a “transfer” and then remove Hugh from custody. In any case, Roger wishes to talk with Hugh and recruit him, letting him become a sort of exemplar for Ghouls in the city. Of course, this will require putting Hugh under a Vinculum, but Roger believes that he can Dominate Hugh into accepting Roger’s terms. And besides, having the once-notorious Hugh Grauer as a manservant would do wonders for Roger’s Status.
Sound Bite: Roger
“We need to take him alive. Who knows how many Kindred he’s killed? We can’t just have people disappearing with no trace, and then kill the only one who can identify them. It isn’t like we’ll ever find corpses, after all. The good news is, though, that since he’s a ghoul we can shoot him and beat him without worrying too much about him dying. Just have to make sure he’s transported here quickly, so he doesn’t die En route. No, here. Not to a hospital, for the love of God.”
- Elena is only peripherally interested in Hugh, but he gives her an excuse to further her own goals. Thus, should she actually find him, she will try to kill him and keep his death secret. She’s also not above using scare tactics (such as claiming she’s found a list of known Kindred that Hugh supposedly composed) to find other Kindred in the medical community. Her ultimate goal is to rid the medical community of all Kindred but herself, and so she intends to do away with her coterie as soon as the opportune moment arrives. It is possible, however unlikely, that she might actually choose to work with Hugh, feeding him victims while protecting him from retribution.