OFFICIAL VEKN GANGREL-ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER VOLUME 4 NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2001 IN THIS BUDDING-OUT-ALL-OVER ISSUE ..... MOVEMENT OF THE SLOW LEGBITER [GENERAL APOLOGY FOR TARDINESS] FICTION: ARMS OF THE ABYSS [Romantic Vampy fiction. It is Valentine's day, near enough] DECK: MATTHEW GREEN'S BAHARI BACKSTABBERS MOVEMENT OF THE SLOW LEGBITER [GENERAL APOLOGY FOR TARDINESS] Sorry about the lateness of this month's offering - work hell is the best pull-down excuse I can come up with right now. I know that lots of people are tapping their virtual feet waiting for me to Do Vampy Things and I will do them eventually, promise. FICTION: ARMS OF THE ABYSS She sits in the pre-arranged café and lights a cigarette while she waits. It is cold, a dank late afternoon in February and she pulls her fur coat closer around her. The lights come on and there he is, predatory eyes scanning the shadows. Her heart thumps violently and her head spins as he spies her and drifts over towards her. "My dear, you look divine! Another coffee?" She replies, or possibly just gibbers a bit. How can a mere Man have such an effect on me? I ought to go. I ought to get out of this relationship. I absolutely positively Must Have Him Now. She smells her own sweat and the slightly-unpleasant odour of her companion .... A combination of garlic, old roses, beeswax and something else, unnameable. The minutes pass like hours and then they are walking back through the gathering night to her little flat. Her hands shake so much she can scarcely put the key into the lock, but she does. She wonders if she will have to make the first move but once in the door he gathers her into his incredibly strong arms and caresses her. She molds her body against him as her lips and nipples swell. She has the strangest feeling of being part of a machine .... Can any of this be real? What am I doing? Am I, in fact, doing anything at all? And some time later she is half sleeping while he plays with her ear-lobe and smokes a cigarette. She holds his cool body and is simultaneously deliriously happy and deeply sad. "Can I ask you something?" "Ask." "Are you a Magician?" "No. I'm a vampire." She thinks about that for a bit. "I thought you sucked blood?" "Life. I live on life. Jewish vampires and Christian ones suck blood because of the text in the bible. But it's a bit like choosing chopsticks or forks - the medium through which you take life can be different for cultural reasons but the life you take is the same." "Will I die?" "Yes." "I mean will I die and become a vampire too?" He holds her closer and kisses her eyelids. She has beautiful eyes. "No, darling. Not by my actions. I really do love you, I really do know me, and I would never make you like me." Her eyes fill with tears and he holds her again. The motions of their bodies have the inevitable effect and this time she passes out completely afterwards. When she awakes he is gone, and she doesn't see him again. Much later, she does indeed die. DECK: MATTHEW GREEN'S BAHARI BACKSTABBERS This is a genuine !Gangrel deck from Matthew Green which for me was the highlight of January's tourney in Southampton. It didn't get any VPs in that very strong and very peculiar event but it is better than that result would suggest, I venture to opine. And as usual with Matthew's decks it is very fresh and creative. Crypt: 1 Sasha 2 Wren 1 Darrell Boyce, Consul 1 Dylan 2 Kallista - Master Sculpter 1 Zachary 1 Ellen Fence, the tracker 1 Marcellus 2 Miller Delmardigan, Teacher of Bahari Library: 2 Direct Intervention 1 Sudden Reversal 1 KRCG News Radio 3 Gangrel Conspiracy 1 Twisted Forest 1 Path of the Feral Heart 1 Rumor Mill 3 Blood Doll 1 Minion Tap 2 Campground Hunting ground 1 Powerbase Montreal 2 Heidelburg Castle 1 The Rack 2 Dreams ot sphinx 1 Auspex 9 Backstab 4 Psyche! 8 Claws of the Dead 2 Body Flare 4 Quick Meld 4 Earth Control 5 Flesh of Marble 6 Telepathic Misdirection 5 Enhanced Senses 3 Eagle's Sight 2 Cloak the Gathering 4 Forced Awakening 2 WWEF 3 Taste of Vitae 1 JS Simmons 1 Mr Winthrop 1 Tasha Morgan 1 Ivory Bow 1 Sengir Dagger 2 Sports bike 1 Delaying tactics Matthew's comments: it should have 2 less masters and include a Fame and possibly some Leather jackets. I think though, that i should probably play James' deck [editor's note: he means Malkavian Out of Turn Rush-combat] because it beats this every time i should think and is just plain better. Still, playing with Backstab when other people are playing with IGs was a good laugh. It dies to OOT combat, prevention and S:CE though, so maybe it's a lost cause, who knows? Alright, that's enough non-Diablo II action for one month, I think. Actually I have been having a pretty good run with VTES this month though I didn't win the tourney [still got the most VPs]. But I've formed a Chinese New Year resolution to rebuild my main decks from the bottom up, and now that I've got this NL and my marking out of the way maybe I will actually have time to do that and all my other tasks. Sigh. See you in March!