Episode Transcript
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0:08
Welcome, Dumbheads, to MDC, the Mega Dumbcast. In
0:10
this In this series, we're
0:12
examining every single page page of
0:14
of God, an God, story -time story
0:16
from the scenario book, to to
0:18
determine what is the dumbest
0:20
thing on each page. page.
0:22
Every episode is one page, page,
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every episode is short. is short.
0:26
The Crucible of God was
0:29
published in 2003 2003 by White Wolf. Tonight
0:34
we're discussing page page 191 of of we in
0:36
We are in the Crucible of God scenario,
0:38
and we're covering just a little bit
0:40
of bit of for Vampire Drama Club tonight.
0:42
As As mentioned last time, got
0:44
a got a couple of months to
0:46
kill between plot points. They've just retaken
0:48
the throne throne of the city of Denver.
0:50
Sir Sir has has just an
0:52
antediluvian. absumiliar, the founder of the
0:55
of the which has skyrocketed him
0:57
to him generation, still not on
0:59
the level of an antediluvian, for
1:01
sure. for a fair in not
1:03
a dumb fight, like the one we the
1:05
one we had with but firmly but firmly elder level. given
1:07
the XP, can now raise his stats
1:10
to to seven dots. That's That's huge. The role-playing game
1:12
game runs on the same basic system
1:14
as Vampire, and and in that game,
1:16
Vega's appearance is seven dots, and he's the
1:18
most handsome man in the world. man in
1:20
Sir Bloodworth now, in theory, now, grow
1:22
to be as strong as as fast, or
1:25
indeed as handsome as Vega is handsome,
1:27
So his so his potential is through the
1:29
roof. However, ... potential potential for
1:31
personal growth via unholy power. the
1:33
many is only one of the many options
1:35
opening up in front of Club at Club at
1:37
this stage of the apocalypse, as we will
1:39
discuss today, because a few things happen over
1:41
this couple of months of months of downtime. So, First
1:43
of all, immediate cleanup where we
1:45
left we Drama Club. What happened with
1:48
Godzilla? with was very sick, remember,
1:50
because Godzilla got sprayed with because bat
1:52
spray. sprayed with diet Jaguar by Science
1:54
threw up and threw and Flash and
1:56
Flash Well, following the demise. the
1:58
demise of Absimiliar, blood bond on Godzilla
2:00
was broken. So Godzilla is out of control, quite sick,
2:03
and in need of a source of vitae. As indeed,
2:05
I am in need of a place to put Godzilla,
2:07
now that this story is done with him. I mean,
2:09
this is a me problem, not a scenario problem, because
2:11
in the scenario, I think you're either meant to destroy
2:13
Godzilla or upon the demise of Absimiliard. your Godzilla problem
2:15
is supposed to work itself out because without Vite to
2:17
sustain Godzilla, he will rapidly age to death. So this
2:19
isn't a plot hole, I just don't want Godzilla to
2:21
die, and they need to do something about it. So
2:23
I'm going to invoke the special hand-waivey rules for what
2:25
happens after you deablerize a powerful vampire. It's in the
2:27
rules that not only might you reduce your generation by
2:29
multiple steps if you deablerize a very powerful vampire, but
2:31
for a scene. your disciplines may temporarily rise, multiple dots.
2:33
I'm going to assume that given that Absimiliard had a
2:35
special bond to the monster and Animalism 10, And Sir
2:37
Bloodworth also has animalism. Sir Bloodworth's animalism rises high enough
2:39
for one scene after deablerizing Absimiliard, that he can command
2:41
Godzilla to return whence he came, and Godzilla will trudge
2:44
off and do that. Will we ever see him again?
2:46
Who knows? The nose for our two elders set up
2:48
lots of pools of his vitae everywhere around the world
2:50
to sustain his many monstrous minions during his slumber. Presumably,
2:52
Godzilla knows where one or more of those are. So
2:54
who knows? But anyway, he's out of Denver and out
2:56
of the story for the time being. That only leaves
2:58
one giant monster to dispose of the demon-possessed statue of
3:00
Blucifer that Vampire Drama Club animated to fight off Godzilla.
3:02
Fortunately for reasons, we needn't get into here. Dealing with
3:04
the demonic vessel is not a Godzilla-sized problem, as so
3:06
few things are. Fairly easy to get Blusifer back where
3:08
it belongs at the Denver International Airport. There to remain
3:10
immobile but impressive until the next time Denver needs a
3:12
defender against enemy Kiyju. After that, after Science Jaguar and
3:14
Jody have managed to get Vampire Drama Club out of
3:16
the sun back to Bloodworth Manor, happens over
3:18
the next couple of months?
3:20
Well, first of all, surprising
3:22
news comes from the Setide
3:25
Temple outside Las Vegas. You'll
3:27
recall that when the baby
3:29
vendor came around and tried
3:31
to sell a daycare class
3:33
of children embraced and staked
3:35
as Diablery fodder to Vampire
3:37
Drama Club, they instead diabolized
3:39
the baby vendor and set
3:41
up a little vampire daycare
3:43
in the Setide Temple. They
3:45
left the vampire children in
3:47
charge of/in care of the
3:49
human servants at the temple
3:51
so that the servants would
3:53
have a source of Vite,
3:55
the children would have caretakers,
3:57
a terrible plan, so many
3:59
ways it could have gone
4:01
wrong, but no one could
4:03
have expected this particular way
4:06
of it going wrong, which
4:08
is that Vampire Drama Club
4:10
gets a call via Thaumaturgy,
4:12
which is how they're communicating
4:14
with people now since telecommunication
4:16
networks have broken down and
4:18
everything. But Marcus knows rituals
4:20
for this, they're good. They
4:22
get a call from the
4:24
temple saying, the children have
4:26
turned human. Gradually, they've just
4:28
they've all transformed back into
4:30
humans. They're no longer producing
4:32
Vite. They're just regular kids
4:34
now that the Setide servants
4:36
have to take care of.
4:38
So the Setide servants need
4:40
another source of Vite and
4:42
they're not blood bound to
4:44
the kids. So maybe Vampire
4:47
Drama Club should get on
4:49
top of that. Although the
4:51
Setide servants are pretty well
4:53
trained, they're going to take
4:55
care of the kids for
4:57
now. I don't know why
4:59
the fuck I even allowed
5:01
these children to enter the
5:03
plot. Now I got to
5:05
fucking take care of them
5:07
all the time. So I
5:09
don't upset the listeners. First
5:11
Godzilla, now this. But anyway,
5:13
the kids are fine. Godzilla
5:15
is fine. Don't worry about
5:17
it. The interesting thing here
5:19
is that the kids turned
5:21
human and nobody knows why.
5:24
However, Vampire Drama Club does not have
5:26
time to just look into this
5:28
at their leisure because, and this is
5:30
the main thing described on today's
5:32
page, they are being overrun by Asomites.
5:34
All the vampires everywhere are already
5:36
turning to Diablory to fight off the
5:38
withering. But the Asomites are something
5:40
different. They were into cannibalism before it
5:42
was cool. They are an absolute
5:44
feeding frenzy, unified, operating in packs. Elders
5:46
are going down left and right
5:49
to coderies of Asomites, operating with some
5:51
kind of infrastructure. I mean, it
5:53
says here, quote, Alamute, that's the headquarters
5:55
of the Asomites, reveals that it
5:57
has built its own fleet of Lear
5:59
Jets with - cash is positioned around the
6:01
world. world. Now it says the only lasts
6:03
a few months, a but months, but nonetheless,
6:05
got coteries of assassin vampires flying
6:07
around this broken around this world in
6:09
leer jets, world making attacks on making attacks
6:12
on with a combination of
6:14
vampiric power, technological prowess, prowess,
6:16
elite military training. and strategy.
6:18
This is a huge This is a huge
6:20
threat to vampires Within weeks, Within weeks,
6:22
the biggest problem facing vampires is what the
6:24
is what the fuck we're gonna do about these these
6:26
asymites. Now, vampire drama club have grown in
6:29
all sorts of power Asomites were were never very
6:31
common in this part of the world, world.
6:33
in in Denver, I mean. I So they
6:35
don't suffer as badly as some others do.
6:37
However, while they are are unaging and in In
6:39
command of great secular supernatural power. power,
6:41
they They're not immune to all of life's
6:43
indignities. They do suffer a visit a missionaries.
6:46
A coterie of asymites show up up
6:48
to Manor. Quote, following directive the directive
6:50
from these asamites Asimites preach
6:52
before they kill. and now,
6:54
the characters and their players are probably
6:56
all too accustomed to trying to trying
6:58
to drink their blood. These assomites, however,
7:00
present themselves as missionaries with an
7:03
alternative to the to the chaos. chaos.
7:05
The do not need to kill each other for power. each other
7:07
The blood of their blood of them, but the
7:09
blood of but the can redeem Hakim can redeem them. The
7:11
I don't know how this is pronounced, know
7:13
it's this -L -A -Q -I. it's It's
7:15
the name for Asymite coderies serving their anteriluvian Hakim.
7:17
Anyway, includes a canine or two from
7:19
other clans to provide testimonials. Asamite blood
7:22
the of hakeem have freed
7:24
them from the weakness and hunger
7:26
that afflicts other kindred. Vampires
7:28
need only need only grace, Hakim's spread
7:30
the word, the word, and and drink three
7:32
times from one of of faithful childer. And
7:34
they demand a quick decision. This is
7:36
high pressure salesmanship. Missionaries show up
7:38
at your door, door. It's some Asamites and then a
7:40
few few kindred of other clans. other They're here to
7:42
spread the word of spread let you know. Hakim and
7:45
The world does not need to be all
7:47
death and chaos and misery. and There is
7:49
another way way just need to submit all
7:51
of yourself and all of your life
7:53
to your life extremely concrete terms, concrete terms, like get blood
7:55
now. now, And and do need a decision right
7:57
now. Like we are on the porch. You
7:59
You know, this is. if missionaries from your
8:01
local Baptist church or whatever came to
8:03
your door with paperwork and we're like
8:05
Jesus sent us he wants you to
8:07
give away all of your worldly possessions
8:09
to the Baptist church and we don't
8:11
have time to take any questions just
8:13
sign this. Now in the likely event
8:16
that none of the player characters want
8:18
to submit to a full blood bond
8:20
to an assassin clan of zealot vampires,
8:22
the missionaries leave, and then sneak back
8:24
up a few nights later and try
8:26
to kill everyone. Of course, this is
8:28
what happens with Vampire Drama Club. Vampire
8:30
Drama Club says, you know, we're actually
8:32
doing okay this apocalypse, thank you, things
8:34
are pretty good here, relatively speaking. We
8:36
actually just ate an antediluvian. So in
8:38
light of that, swearing undying loyalty to
8:41
one for protection doesn't seem necessary or
8:43
prudent. We'll take your brochure, thank you,
8:45
goodbye. Then the missionaries come back a
8:47
few nights later, try to take out
8:49
Vampire Drama Club, but of course they
8:51
can't, because look, they've killed Godzilla. Marcus
8:53
has enough aspects to see through virtually
8:55
anyone's off the skate and rituals to
8:57
protect the haven. I'm not saying vampire
8:59
are going to be able to take
9:01
them down. That outcome is not what's
9:03
interesting. Like, Vampire Drama Club was never
9:06
going to say yes to this, and
9:08
Asylmite missionaries were never going to take
9:10
down Vampire Drama Club. What's interesting is
9:12
that the missionaries aren't completely full of
9:14
shit. As the interduluvians are rising, they
9:16
are attempting to consume not just the
9:18
souls, but also the wills of their
9:20
childer. One way to become immune to
9:22
this is to blood bond yourself to
9:24
a Methusela or antedelubian of a different
9:26
plan of you, directly. as it could
9:28
its other progeny. So if you blood
9:31
bond yourself to Hakim or an asymite
9:33
Methuselah, then yes it is true your
9:35
antediluvian won't be able to take over
9:37
your mind. And in theory this does
9:39
mean that you are not going to
9:41
then be turned into a pond to
9:43
go destroy an enslave and cannibalize other
9:45
vampires for your antediluvian. Although you are
9:47
going to be bloodbound to Hakim who
9:49
will then ask you to do the
9:51
same thing so I don't know. distant
9:53
vampire boss, like having an operation focused
9:56
in the Middle East, and then your
9:58
agent in Denver or wherever, probably the
10:00
best use Hakim can make of you
10:02
is just having you engage in a
10:04
little diablery where you live and send
10:06
the proceeds home to Alomat. You kind
10:08
of get to cannibalize from home. which
10:10
I guess is nice compared to, you
10:12
know, being mentally dominated by Malcab and
10:14
having to like join a roving band
10:16
walking across the country to attend whatever
10:18
Malcavian flash mob takes Malcab's fancy. But
10:21
in reality, it's just, it's such a
10:23
bad option. And we don't really know
10:25
what Hakim wants. We're pretty far from...
10:27
him in like the core of his
10:29
operation, so especially if there are no
10:31
asymites in the group, which will generally
10:33
be the case. It's not like one
10:35
of the most popular or popular clans.
10:37
All we know is there's an antediluvian
10:39
somewhere who sends out a bunch of
10:41
assassins, sends out missionaries to try to
10:43
convince people to join the ranks. It
10:46
becomes the talk of the vampire world.
10:48
Much like that flesh beast that rose
10:50
and killed everyone in Manhattan. So how
10:52
does this resolve? It doesn't. Quote, does
10:54
Hakim believe that he guides the kindred
10:56
to redemption? Or is he just thinning
10:58
out the competition before he turns on
11:00
his own clan? Who knows? The reign
11:02
of Hakim decimates the kindred, but mightier
11:04
powers destroy Hakim before he can complete
11:06
his war. The characters are far from
11:08
Alamut when it happens, though, so they
11:11
never know who or what slew the
11:13
first Asamide. This is the dumbest thing
11:15
in this page. I cannot believe this
11:17
shit happened again. Follow the action of
11:19
Gehenna from the week of nightmares, from
11:21
the perspective of a player character, not
11:23
from the perspective of someone listening to
11:25
a podcast or reading a source book.
11:27
You're vampire drama club. Weird shit starts
11:29
happening in the world in the week
11:31
when you're trying to put a play
11:33
on, and then suddenly stops. What happened?
11:36
Well, the Ravnos Antidiluvian woke up, and
11:38
then Ravnos got killed within a matter
11:40
of days, and you never knew or
11:42
could do anything about it. Then the
11:44
events of Ghana start. One night we
11:46
realized there are no more followers of
11:48
set around. What happened? Well, set awake
11:50
and tried to escape the underworld, failed,
11:52
and then the whole clan self-destructed, off
11:54
screen, without our knowledge or involvement. Then
11:56
a huge mysterious flesh monster rose up
11:58
and killed everybody in Manhattan and then
12:01
died in the sun basically at the
12:03
same time we found out about those
12:05
before we could learn or do anything
12:07
about it. Then, Absimiliard rose up into
12:09
Godzilla and came to fight us. That
12:11
was pretty cool. But by this point,
12:13
we've already completely missed the rise and
12:15
fall of like three Antidoluvians. Then we
12:17
get jumped by a bunch of Asamites
12:19
for like, I don't know, a couple
12:21
of weeks, a couple of months, a
12:23
couple of months, we finally latch on
12:26
to this plot hook. Like, is this
12:28
what the storyteller's finally gonna let us
12:30
participate in? The reign of Hakim? The
12:32
reign of Hakkim? The rain. It's just
12:34
that this scenario is kind of about
12:36
the rise of the Antidoluvians, and it's
12:38
frustrating that we're now five Antidoluvians into
12:40
Gehenna, Ravnos, Set, the one from Manhattan,
12:42
Absimiliard, and now Hakim, and four out
12:44
of those five have occurred start to
12:46
finish off-screen. We're lucky to have even
12:48
heard that they occurred, let alone gotten
12:51
involved in any way. And that would
12:53
be fine if these were like background
12:55
events and our story was something smaller
12:57
and more local and more personal, but
12:59
that's not really offered in the scenario
13:01
here. There's nothing to do with this
13:03
thing about the asymites if you're not
13:05
an asymite other than fight some asymites
13:07
and then idly wonder one night what
13:09
happened to them all when they stop
13:11
attacking. Unless, bizarrely, you take them up
13:13
on their offer to derail your whole
13:16
unlife and give your life to Hakim.
13:18
Join me next time as we take
13:20
another night for a counterfactual, just like
13:22
we did with Absimiliard, considering what would
13:24
have happened if he were just passing
13:26
by Denver instead of making a concentrated
13:28
attack on it. Join me tomorrow when
13:30
we discuss what happens if we all
13:32
looked at each other and thought, you
13:34
know, these cannibal missionaries are making a
13:36
lot of sense. Let's all become Middle
13:38
Eastern assassins for no reason, on MDC,
13:41
the Megadon cast. This
13:44
has been Megadumcast. New episodes drop every
13:46
day except for Sundays when all the
13:48
week's previous episodes drop in one big
13:50
megasode on the patron's only RSS speed.
13:52
If you'd like to access that feed
13:54
and support the show, visit patreon.com/Megadumcast. episode's
13:56
theme song is Santiago
13:58
Yeti Music, whose
14:00
work you can find
14:02
at you .io. That's
14:04
U -P -P -B -A -T
14:06
dot I -O. I will
14:08
I will catch you
14:10
next time. time.
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