BEING CHARMING IN VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - BLOODLINES PART 5

The violent world of LA's vampires is no place for a silver-tongued popinjay.

- Ian Evenden

Ugh. Sewers. When Cyprian Maggard was embraced into the vampire lifestyle, he was wearing a fetching red outfit, and for a long time saw no reason to change it having become part of Clan Toreador, a bunch of manipulators, party schmoozers, and all-round aesthetes. Being up to his finely clad ankles (he's wearing a heavier suit of clothes now, but they're probably still Italian) in the waste products of his prey species isn't at all what he expected.

He's on the trail of the Nosferatu, the most damned and disfigured of the vampire clans, who are hiding down here... somewhere. It's one of the least liked parts of a game that's generally considered to be pretty good, filled as it is with dead ends, apparently infinite monsters, and only one tricky way through that's easy to miss. The sewers are also huge, built by a public sanitation company that clearly intended for them to be used as thoroughfares, why else would they have convenient paths either side of the channel, high ceilings, and full lighting. Perhaps the Nosferatu built them.

There's a convoluted system of reservoirs and flood controls, but once the monsters are dealt with there's a neat section involving a pump that requires the vampire Celerity skill - the ability to move at great speed that you can't use in public - to get past. But then there's just more swimming through pipes and punching things, though eventually a new enemy type, a big fat guy with claws who can also throw green energy balls, appears. He's basically a miniboss and can take a lot of punishment.

THE HORROR, THE HORROR