Caedis
Aralyn
- Original BP: 2522
Current BP: 1461
- Original BP: 1096
Lowest BP: 0
Current BP: 58
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 4459
Current BP: 3698
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 6996
Current BP: 3194
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 1551
Current BP: 1210
(Lost in Shadow)
de Bouillon
Dea di Luna
- Original BP: 888
Current BP: 2568
Necroed: from 1045 to 2866
- Original BP: 37446
Current BP: 37695
- Original BP: 29,367
Current BP: 28403
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: Unknown
Current BP: 2507
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 20,788
Current BP: 19,277
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 10,515
Current BP: 10,515
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 23,265
Current BP: 23,557
din Kolesi
CrimsonClover
- Original BP: 15,392
Current BP: 8886
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 1274
Current BP: 973
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 2374
Current BP: 3329
Necroed: from 1464 to 4464
- Original BP: 15,978
Current BP: 15,188
- Original BP: 33,053
Current BP: 26,053
St. John
Josephine
- Original BP: 25,156
Current BP: 22,836
- Original BP: Unknown
Current BP: 23,028
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 10,890
Current BP: 7159
- Original BP: 18,818
Current BP: 18,077
- Original BP: 3242
Current BP: 5172
Necroed: from 205 to 1205, from 1195 to 2998, then from 2315 to 5344
- Original BP: 7225
Current BP: 5688
(Lost in Shadow)
- Original BP: 10,949
Current BP: 4727
Necroed: from 3291 to 7291
- Original BP: 6503
Current BP: 6138
(Lost in Shadow)
NightWatch
Aida
- Original BP: 21,218
Current BP: 19,702
Alain
AlexAyres
DeathByMe
Jessie_Love
Sisillia
What started as a simple ‘fuck you’ vial has evolved beyond the scope anyone could have imagined and tonight, we sit down to try and unblur the lines that have been drawn in the sand.
It’s a complicated situation to assess from any perspective; multiple people are only targeting certain individuals and absolutely no one is considering any of this to be an actual war - which is, perhaps, the root cause of all the wasted resources. With nobody treating this like an organized, unified and efficient conflict, every side involved seems content to funnel coin into pot shots and wasteful necro. It breaks down to something like this:
- The de Bouillon lineage is hitting only ladypeacek and Pulse in retaliation for their attacks against Dea di Luna and Michiru.
- ladypeacek is hitting only Dea di Luna and Michiru.
- Caedis is hitting absolutely everyone without discrimination, even people who aren’t directly involved.
The first: that it is all a vicious cycle.
The second: that absolutely everyone involved is playing a massive game of chicken and daring the other side to put the effort in first.
St. John won’t outright attack de Bouillon, but will try to provoke them by attacking the extensions of their lineage. De Bouillon won’t attack St. John outright except to “retaliate for hits made." As quoted by Michiru -
Vetras, fighting on the side of de Bouillon, went on to add that [she]:”Michiru” wrote:There is only one position I have on this matter.
Pea hit me. She has hit me four times. I have retaliated two hits in return. My childer have hit her once.
Pulse has hit me once. Kiki has hit me once.
Pulse has hit Dea twice now, the first hit he received retaliation for, additionally Pea hit her twice and NiteNurse once.
I have reached out to NiteNurse as a clan leader and not a St John with a single agenda, to find out if her stance on if this was a family related fight or if her clan would become involved. That is both my responsibility to my blood and my right to do- regardless of what anyone has to say.
NiteNurse has informed me this is a family only issue and she is simply following orders. I wished her accuracy with her vials and that she continues to carry herself with dignity and grace.
Those are the only hits on my side so far.
De Bouillon has stepped in to defend me as part of their blood.
”Vetras” wrote: wouldn't necessarily say it's a versus scenario, honestly. The only reason de Bouillon is becoming involved is because despite din Kolesi being it's own separate lineage, they do still share our blood. So we're not going out all willy nilly to attack St. John but to retaliate. [...] I don't see it as a war effort. I think this city is so geared towards what the definition of war is that they choose to see it in the most minor of instances. Had it been a true 'war effort,' I highly doubt that it would have been just Pulse that my lineage would have attacked. If it's a war effort, I'd certainly say it's one-sided from St. John seeing as their lineage members are attacking Dea without real reason.
This is their stated stance, despite a very vocal post from Tiergan stating any further attacks would result in zeroing efforts. Meanwhile, the individual members of din Kolesi are focusing their fire on Seyda and the St. John bloodline seems to be more concerned with dragging in whoever else they can than with making concentrated retaliation efforts. And in the forefront of it all, The House of Caedis has declared open season on whoever they want and is doing their absolute best to fuck up anybody in their path.
And round and round the carousel goes.
The most recent and notable event, beyond the swapping of random vials, was the attempted zeroing of the vampire Pulse. On the night of November 26, the House of Caedis and the de Bouillon lineage combined their efforts and ran a wave against Pulse. Beginning the night at 2295 pints of blood, he was struck down to 1165 and subsequently brought to 205 pints via a series of Scrolls of Turning before finally chugging a Blood Potion and bringing himself back to a more viable 1205 pints, denying them the kill with a rather impressive limbo performance. During this scene, Pulse managed a number of hits against his enemies as he was Turned into them.
Multiple mistakes were made here:
- It is unclear whether the organized forces were attempting a scroll web or not. A scroll web, for those of you not in the know, is when a number of individuals attempt to surround a target and play a proverbial game of soccer with them - the idea being that when the target is bounced in a random direction by a Scroll of Turning, they will land next to someone else who will then bounce them again, and then again. Lather, rinse, repeat, with the hope of expending less energy than with a typical Scrolling effort. In reality, the level of coordination required for a successful scroll web has yet to be accomplished as there is simply no way of knowing where the target will land and the amount of time a proper setting up takes is unrealistic. If they were not attempting a scroll web, then their proximity to Pulse - in that he was able to land hits on his enemies as he was being turned - was an amateur mistake.
- Pulse was known to be awake and aware of his impending zeroing. In a standard warring setting, when this becomes the case, Scrolling efforts typically tend to immediately cease. From there, a Sighter - an individual whose job it is to Second Sight targets in a war conference - will keep an eye on the target and ensure they do not attempt to necro. If no such attempt is made, Scrolling efforts will resume several hours later when the target is known to not be alert.
- If constrained by time and Scrolling can not wait, then another solution presents itself. Knowing the target intends to play limbo, then Scrolling efforts should cease at approximately 250-300 pints of blood with hitters on standby to quickly and in unison strike the target to Stake range with Double Garlic Spray and a subsequent Stake.
To top the night off, Aziza Laredo was drained of blood the next morning. A loss in its own right as the first meaningful zero of this conflict - non-combatants aside - but doubly so due to its easy prevention. The night prior to her zeroing, Aziza was sitting at only 686 pints of blood and chose to not necro or utilize a Blood Potion herself. This would have been an avoidable casualty if Aziza had chosen to reserve some energy outside of the Turning efforts made against Pulse or had necroed during those same efforts.
From Pulse’s blood counts, we can calculate the total expenditure on Scrolls of Turning this night. 96 hits from a Scroll of Turning were required to bring Pulse to his limbo point. At a generous average of one in four successful hits, which is the universal standard, at least 384 Scrolls were used. At the cost of 315 coins per, this results in 120,960 coins down the drain between the two lineages - not including resources to route to the target or the thirteen Holy Water attacks made against him prior to being Turned.
But when discussing wasted coin, Pulse’s necroing habits themselves must also be taken into account. On the night of the Turning efforts, November 26, scrolling efforts against Pulse ceased as he reached 1195 pints of blood (following a final ‘fuck you’ Scroll of Turning from Aziza). The final sighting of that evening places him at 2998 pints. The safest bet here is to assume he necroed between 1800 to 2000 pints of blood.
On the night of the 27th, our sighters place him at 2315 pints. The next day he was spotted instead at a whopping 5344 pints. Funny thing about that though, is it is known he did not actually move to necro between the 27th and the 28th, as the vampire Daly’s weapons are landing against him with a resounding no effect, which occurs only when you try to strike a target who has not moved since your last attack on them. For his blood to rise this way, he had to have consumed at least three Blood Potions - the math doesn’t quite stack between 2315 and 5344, as Blood Potions restore exactly one thousand pints. It is possible he bit his way up to 2344 after our final recorded sighting of him.
Between Blood Potions and the minimum possible necro prior to that, Pulse has spent 135,000 coins in resources - easily bridging the mistakes made by his enemies earlier in the week. Seyda, meanwhile, was spotted necroing another 4000 pints as she dropped to what must have been an uncomfortable blood range for her - her last and only zeroing being ten years ago as the result of a contract from the Splinters of Dusk - and resulting in the spending of another 100,000 coins.
In comparison, the only necroing performed by any other parties has been from Daly, which was covered in our last article, and resulted in 75,000 coins spent. However, while we can not outright accurately track movements, rumor has it that the combined forces of de Bouillon, din Kolesi, and the House of Caedis are failing time and again to make proper, warring waves against the St. John forces and are not utilizing their succour chains. The amount of resources being drained into routing or teleporting for potshots cannot even begin to be guessed at.
FUN FACT: A ‘wave’ is the tactic in which a number of individuals strike a target or series of targets in unison. The most cost-efficient method of waving is to utilize a succour chain, which is where the head of a lineage will teleport to a target and all lineage members connected to them will then follow via Scrolls of Succour.
Another notable facet of this conflict, though beaten to a dead horse in various threads already, is the choice of the House of Caedis to attack without discrimination anyone they believe will get a reaction. Few mourned the zeroing of AlexAyres’ misogyny and, unfair as it may be, fewer still were upset or even surprised at the zeroing of Jessie_Love. Involving Josephine in the conflict was certainly a calculated decision - despite proclaiming to be a non-combatant, the matriarch of the St. John lineage has been known to agree with the sentiment ”talk shit, get hit,” which is likely also why Jessie was attacked, though no evidence has been provided to back that claim. However, a line was crossed most recently when the vampire Aida came under attack. Aida has been a popular standby of this community for a number of years, rarely raising either word or weapon, and is not only not St. John, but is also a leading member of the NightWatch, an organization whose sole duty it is to help others.
The House of Caedis has proclaimed many times that they just wish to stir the pot, hitting whoever they want simply because they have the resources to do so. If this is the case, then they can chalk this up as a victory for their own egos. Any other motive no longer holds weight, as they have proven to have no moral high ground to stand on going forward.
If any one thing has been made clear over the last week, it is that there is no determining a winner yet because nobody is taking this conflict seriously. With multiple individuals declaring proudly “this is not a war effort” while at the same time dropping thousands of coin into necro, scrolling, and various weapons, the end result is just a sloppy showing from all.
CORRECTIONS
Due to no effect vials, it was initially thought Pulse had consumed Blood Potions on the nights of the 26th and 27th. Various readers have corrected us on this, but have not provided the exact blood he necroed from on the morning of the 28th. His necroing tally thus stands as -
November 26
Dropped to 205 via SoTurns, consumed 1 Blood Potion, then struck with a SoTurn once more
Day's End Blood: 1195
Morning Blood: 2998
1800~ pints necroed
Cost: 75,000 coins (necro + blood potion cost)
November 27
Exact blood counts have not been provided by readers, so we will continue to use our original numbers
Day's End Blood: 2315
Morning Blood: 5344
3000~ pints necroed
Cost: 75,000 coins
Total New Cost: 150,000
We also apologize, for our original quoted expenditure tally was off the mark. We did not include the cost of the Blood Potion consumed during the 'limbo' performance. Original calculations were for 135,000 coins but should have been for 165,000 coins.
Dea di Luna's necroing was noted in the combatant breakdown, but was not included in the narrative, rendering our statement of "the only necroing performed by any other parties has been from Daly" incorrect. As for hits made, without solid proof of each individual hit, blood counts are how the Thunderdome series will continue to track spending costs. On a final note, DeathByMe has been added to the list of non-combatants. AlexAyres will also remain in the non-combatant/unaffiliated grouping due to being struck down mid-conflict by parties involved in the conflict.
As always, we thank the readers for their assistance with clerical accuracy.
