Vegas by Night: The Chain

Introduction

The Chain is an ongoing Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition campaign ran by Kim Godwin on Discord. This material is provided as a reference for other Storytellers if they wish to include it for their game or could benefit from it. Please let her know if you use it.

Disclaimers:

Vampire: the Masquerade and the World of Darkness do not belong to me. All real locations are used fictitiously and their use does not constitute endorsement or the permission of the places involved. Images are used under various licenses for non-commercial use. The World of Darkness is a horror setting, some topics can be particularly distressing or problematic. Please use your best judgement when using my material for your game.

Concept

A Tremere Neonate has disappeared inside a Family owned casino in Vegas. In efforts to leverage future business agreements with the Chantry in a largely Anarch controlled Vegas, the Giovanni have graciously offered their cherished daughter, Lucia’s expertise in this matter. You have been contacted by Marco Giovanni to assist his wife, Lucia in completing this task.

Word on the street is that the Neonate stole a tome and is now in hiding. Tonight will be your hiring interview. You know your worth and can set your price.

Night 1 introduces Lucia, Marco and starts the investigation into Katyrn’s disappearance. The overarching theme of this campaign is “liberation”.

Night 1

Meeting Marco

One of the Family’s contacts has reached out to you through your network about a job. Or perhaps, you heard that Marco Giovanni is looking to hire a handful of people for a job. Characters with a strong reputation for being professional, reliable body guards or holding a measure of occult knowledge are the type of people that Marco is looking for.

Marco is a jealous man so any attractive male will need to be paired with a female chaperone, at least that’s what your friend of a friend insinuates.

If you accept the job or want to talk to Marco about it, you are to meet your future employer at his office at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino: 3600 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109.

The Bellagio

Located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, the Bellagio Resort is a luxury casino resort that illustrates the victory of man over nature. An 8 acre lake with an extravagant fountain dances with a brilliant light show throughout the day in the middle of a desert. The Bellagio itself is a massive complex of glass and stone renowned for the amenities it provides to its guests. Be it the AAA diamond hotel or the gourmet dining of its restaurants.

Finding the Bellagio is easy. You can easily walk there, get a cab, or even reach it by using one of Vegas’s underground tunnels. It’s hard to miss such a massive building that is across from the iconic Vegas Eiffel Tower.

However you reach the Bellagio, it’s easy to get lost in the massive lobby that branches into the casino. The easiest way to find your potential employer is to ask the Concierge where to find Mr. Giovanni or to find the elevator to the business offices.

Any mention of Mr. Giovanni prompts a conversation into an earpiece reporting that there are guests for Mr. Giovanni on the way up. You are directed to an elevator bank at a white and gold flecked marble center column of the lobby bordered by 2 larger elevator banks. The garishness of the elevator catches you attention as does the red and gold coated attendant.

He smiles politely and turns a key that allows access to the Penthouse once you state that you want to reach Mr. Giovanni for a meeting. Small talk with the attendant is polite though he will be uncomfortable with more monstrous looking kindred.

Marco’s Office

Beginning the Investigation

Monitor Room

Finding Max

Cowabunga Park

Haven Under a Dog Park

Finding Tony

Tony’s House

Backyard Graveyard?

Tunnels

Non-Player Characters

Lucia Giovanni

Clan: Hecata – Giovanni
Generation: 13th
Sire: Marco Giovanni
Epitaph: The Bound Woman
Character Sheet

Mortal Life: Darkest Day
Born during the peak of a solar eclipse, Lucia was destined for great and wondrous things. An adorable and intelligent child, she rapidly learned languages and easily recalled large amounts of information. This aptitude was utilized by the Family for corporate espionage. Most of her childhood was spent accompanying doting Aunties and Uncles on business trips in pretty dresses to smile sweetly and feign ignorance. She learned the value of being underestimated as powerful adults revealed important information in the presence of an adorable child that couldn’t “possibly understand” the language nor the concepts they discussed when her relatives were out of the room.

When Lucia wasn’t spying for the Family business, she occupied her time by reading whatever she could get her hands on and found herself drawn to hidden spaces. Frequently hearing voices or sensing things she shouldn’t be aware of. Uncovering hidden things was a puzzle she enjoyed solving and it often got her into trouble.

There is nothing more infuriating in a family that values secrecy than a child gifted at uncovering things and truths. When confronted, she blamed an invisible friend but it was later confirmed that she had the Gift for talking with spirits.

As Lucia matured, her presence alongside her relatives changed. She became the clumsy personal assistant or a lovely vapid doll hanging from an arm during high visibility social events. She grew frustrated with this mask and yearned for the day she would be allowed to engage their rivals as an intellectual equal. Lucia petitioned her elders to allow her to act as a translator and eventually permitted it.

Under a Blood Moon

It was only a matter of time before the thunderbolt struck and Lucia fell in love. Marco Giovanni with his windblown hair and his motorcycle captured her attention. She never questioned why he came to visit at night or was so pale. She loved the way his eyes sparkled mischievously and longed for the day she could be alone with him. Her parents forbid it but never told her why.

Providence placed her in Marco’s path during a translation job and it sparked a passionate (mostly chaste) romance. His schedule was explained away by busy working hours. She felt something at the back of her mind nagging at her that something was wrong but she ignored it. In her mind, everything was perfect.

Lucia met death on the night of a full lunar eclipse. The truth of her husband and her family become clearer in the strange light of a red moon. Her translation work continues but she finds herself shut into musty libraries among ancient tomes under the watchful gaze of bodyguards. She is never alone but she is allowed more freedom when she is sent out to locate a lost artifact or find an elusive collector.

After three years, Lucia realized that she doesn’t love Marco that much. She suspects her feelings were manipulated by his kindred nature more than her own desires. Her increased knowledge of the power of blood bonds has confirmed some of her suspicions.

Lucia has discovered a way to break the chains that binds her soul to Marco and others that would seek to control her in the future. She just needs to find someone that will help her perform the ritual or somehow find this infamous book, if it really exists.

Whispers

Harlot: Lucia is a popular fixture in the Vegas social circles and parties. She is beautiful, charming and readily sought out for company. People whisper as she gets overly friendly with other men in front of her glaring husband. Some think she is deliberately trying to make Marco jealous.
Capture the Queen: Lucia is often requested as a translator for important guests but job offers are carefully vetted. If she goes, she is heavily chaperoned with armed guards. People believe that someone has made threats against Marco and might be targeting Lucia to get back at him.
Trapped in the Cycle: Quieter murmurs among Marco’s staff indicate that Lucia and Marco frequently fight. Raised voices, broken objects and the sight of Lucia retreating with blood on her clothes are near nightly occurrences. No matter what happens, Lucia always goes back to Marco.

Ambitions:

Lucia seeks to free herself of the blood bond and regain her independence. She doesn’t know that the tome she seeks is in the possession of the person she was sent to find. She has seen a reference to the Book of the Grave War in her occult research as well as some vague mention of a Blood Sorcery Ritual that will sever a blood bond. But as a Hecata, she doesn’t readily have access to powerful Tremere nor access to a tome that the Tremere seek to destroy. She thinks it’s providence that she is seeking a Tremere but she’ll think it’s a sign from the beyond if she discovers that her target has the Book of the Grave War.

Interactions with the PCs:

Lucia is soft spoken and reserved when she is first introduced to the PCs. She will never outwardly recoil away from the most repulsive Kindred. She is polite and kind, after all, if she has to be in the PCs’ care, it does her no good to be rude. In the presence of her husband, she will only show mild professional courtesy and will generally refrain from physical contact with anyone, even Marco, if she can avoid it.

She will answer their questions but will not say anything bad about Marco. She has no idea who the PCs are and will not reveal more information about her turbulent relationship with her husband. She will only state that he is overly protective of her.

She will not seek a personal relationship until she gets an idea of the type of people they are and even then, she will not overtly ask for help to escape. Lucia will only state that she has no idea how long the job may take and will be as through as possible in her investigation.

Marco Giovanni

Clan: Hecata – Giovanni
Generation: 12th
Sire: Lorenzo Giovanni
Epitaph: Protective Husband
Character Sheet:

Ambitions/ Motivations:

Marco assumes that Lucia is going through a rebellious phase that will abruptly end once she experiences the harsher truths of Kindred society. He is allowing her the illusion of freedom by hiring outsiders to protect her while sending his men to monitor her from shadows. He sends Lucia on a snipe hunt to keep her busy and out of the way while he deals with an event he cannot refuse to host. He refuses to acknowledge that Lucia might hate him. He does not know nor care why the Tremere are looking for Kathyrn. Nor does he suspect that Lucia is seeking to break their blood bond.

Kathyrn Burgandy – Tremere – Missing Librarian

Jackie Puttanesca – Hecata

Max Karras – Nosferatu

Tony Mills – Last person seen with Kathyrn

Adam Knight – Human

Locations

The Bellagio

The Bellagio is a luxury hotel, casino and resort. For actual reference for what the hotel rooms look like: Visit the Bellagio’s Site.

Cowabunga Bay

Tony Mills’s House

Graveyard Tunnels

Vegas Tunnels

Items of Note

The Book of the Grave War

Das Buch won der Grabkneg is said to have been written by a German Malkavian transcribing what the voices were telling him about Gehenna. Written in a form of Linear A, German, and a rare dialect of Greek, the book varies between prose and non-prose formatting but it is divided into 7 cantos.

Despite the book being translated into different languages since its discovery, it is said that the original author’s madness has seeped into its pages and infects any that partake of its knowledge. Prolonged possession of the book makes the owner increasingly paranoid but liberates you from the bonds of blood so long as you follow its mad teachings and never lose it. It’s just too bad that the Tremere seek to destroy all copies of the book, and any that know of its contents. Perhaps, it isn’t madness but clarity of a universal truth.

References: V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary; Carna Lore Sheet in V5 Core p. 385; Bloody Hearts: Diablerie: Britain p. 57-60 and Diablerie

The Court of the Immortals

Sitting on the bookshelves of Marco’s office amongst his finance and legal books are a series of hardcover romance novels labeled the “Court of the Immortals” in Italian and English. This series of 5 books are well annotated with post its and notes in the margins in Italian. The sections that are highlighted are particularly smutty scenes of varying degrees of kink. Reading more of the book, you realize that the series genre is vampire BDSM erotica written by a Roussanna Lebedev.

The author portrait on the back cover looks like it has been heavily photoshopped to cast the female figure in shadows with only her bemused dark blue eyes visible. Talking to the employees about the books results in flushed faces and mention of the author doing signings at the hotel with a rather frightening man they call her “agent”.

Bonus Materials

Campaign Playlist.

Copyright

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