By Mitch Kelly (mitch.kelly@tesco.net) and Al Stuart (ian@ialas.demon.co.uk)
The World of Darkness, Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Wraith etc. is copyright of the White Wolf Game Studio, the X-Men, Gambit, Candra, and other X-related stuff is copyright of Marvel Entertainment Group Inc.
Alternate New Orleans by Night is copyright of Paul Strack and Stacey Lawless.
No infringement of anyone's copyright is intended. We did this for fun. Enjoy it!
I have always thought that with a little work, Marvel's Uncanny X-Men would fit neatly in with the World of Darkness. One of my favourite characters in the X-Men is the Cajun thief, Gambit. Way back, Marvel did a limited series featuring Gambit, who had to return to his home town of New Orleans, to deal with problems between the Guilds, to one of which he had formerly belonged.
None of this is intended to be a precise reflection of the events in the Gambit LS. It merely uses them as an inspiration
The Guilds have been in New Orleans as long as there has been a New Orleans. When the city was first founded by the French, before the Spaniards took it over, or the clearances in Canada drove the Arcadian refugees into the swamps of Louisiana, the Guilds were there.
According to their own stories, they had existed in the Old World, and like a great many of the people who went to America, they left because of persecution. The Guilds had served the noble houses of Europe for many centuries by this stage. The Guilds' own sources suggest they had been doing so since the beginning of the Christian period. Whilst they had primarily been used by the Kings of what is now France, they had acted for the rulers of England, Burgundy, Flanders, the Kingdoms in what is now Spain and the nobles of the Holy Roman Empire.
Of course, this includes the period of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Vampiric Anarch Revolt. The Guilds served all the factions of the time with equal enthusiasm, and as a result, over this time they had made many enemies. After centuries of being beholden to the Guilds to keep their secrets and solve their problems, those enemies banded together in significant numbers to actually destroy the Guilds. The Guilds got wind of the plan, and left for the New World precipitously. They left behind most of their accumulated wealth, and much of their huge archive of information on the Nobles they had served.
The remnants of this archive fell into the hands of the Guilds' pursuers. The information therein kept those pursuers busy killing each other for decades, by which time the Guilds had vanished and no one cared to go looking for them again.
The Guilds are old; that much can be taken as read, but who are they, what are they?
Many people mistake them for being simply another offshoot of the Mafia or the Corsican Union, or perhaps another organised crime group with its roots buried in the middle ages. Many people are wrong.
The Guilds of New Orleans are one of the more dangerous "Semiawakened" groups in the world. Comprising two groups of families, who marry among themselves and into the community outside. Many Guild members marry other Guild members, but many marry outside, bringing new blood into the families and preventing inbreeding and stagnation. Marriages are often arranged to ensure that the blood of the families remains strong, but has a regular inflow of new genes.
Admission into the Guilds is more about ability and drive that who one's grandfather was, and although all the initiated members of the Guilds are members of the main families, the blood runs thicker in some than in others. All members of the families who show promise in the arts that the Guilds use are trained from childhood. Many learn little, and remain no more than normal people. These people are the family members that Guild initiates rely upon for support, succour and aid. The remainder, those who show a greater aptitude or enthusiasm, continue their education. Formal teaching is continued, especially in technology, linguistics and the arts, but the special skills of the Guilds are taught in abundance. Finally, as an aspirant, one petitions for initiation. Initiation into the Guilds is simple: a family member, usually one who is closely related and of good standing, recommends to the Guild that the aspirant is allowed entry. A ceremony is held, at which a number of aspirants are usually inducted together.
During this ceremony, The Benefactress appears and oaths are sworn. This is the first time that an aspirant will have met the mysterious Benefactress, the spiritual "mother" of the Guilds, and the being to which the aspirant will devote her life. Then, the aspirants are sent on a mission, on their own. If the aspirants succeed, they are initiated, and gain their first rank in the Benefit of the Guild, as well as their Tithe Box with its lifetime obligation of service to the Benefactress. If the aspirant fails, it means that she has died.
The Guilds will hire out to those who know about them, and can pay. Payment, to the Guilds, comes in many forms, and money is only one, and perhaps the least one, of all of them. Although the Guilds are fabulously rich, and many members are millionaires, they tend to live in tumble-down old houses, furnished in outdated styles. The only trappings of wealth are the clothes, which even when tattered are of exquisite quality, and the ornamentation in the houses: beautiful jewellery, old master paintings, classical statues and antiques, any of which could grace a national art museum.
The Guilds often take payment in other forms. Influence, control of territory, power in business and politics, all are regarded as fair exchange. As is information. The Guilds have huge records on both the mundane and the supernatural. Indeed, their occult library is one of the most extensive anywhere, and they are not shy about teaching their members what is inside it, or using that knowledge. They have discovered a great deal about Vampires, Garou, Mages, Wraiths and Changelings. Certainly enough to make them a serious threat if such a group were to become a major hazard or inconvenience to the Guilds. Fortunately, at present the Guilds see the Supernatural as a prime source of work, and husband it, rather than threaten it.
The Guilds are a major power in the southern United States. As well as New Orleans, their influence has spread to other cities in Louisiana, and in Texas and Florida. Their power can be felt in the state governments, as well as those of the cities. Beyond this area, the Guilds have agents all along the Eastern seaboard of the United States, and in Western Europe, particularly France, Spain and Italy.
But it is in New Orleans that the Guilds have their great powerbase, and their home. They control three huge areas of the city. In these areas, the Camarilla does not hunt, by mutual agreement, and the Sabbat does not go there. They have lost too many newly embraced Licks to make it worth while.
Contacting the Guilds is simple on the face of it: many small churches in New Orleans are points where messages can be dropped. Later, a Guild member will collect the message, then meet the originator. The Guild will ask what is needed and offer its terms. No negotiation, no haggling. The price is either accepted, or the job does not get done.
The Guilds have had to modify their activities many times over the centuries. There is no longer sufficient work for the Guilds in killing and stealing alone, and so the Guilds have added other fields of expertise to their operations.
The Thieves' Guild will now also undertake security consultancy, counter surveillance, investigation, and research into unusual, occult or simply dangerous matters.
The Assassins' Guild will also perform bodyguarding, couriering, intimidation and investigation work.
The organisation of the Guilds is relatively simple. The Thieves have ten families in their Guild; the Assassins have nine. The heads of each of these families together form the inner council of each of the Guilds. This inner council decides the strategy of the Guilds, what they will do, who will be initiated, who will live and who will die. One family dominates each Guild, and the head of that family is the leader of the Guild or Guildmaster. The current leaders of the Guilds are Jean-Luc LeBeau, of the Thieves, and Marius Boudreaux, of the Assassins. Although both the current leaders are men, there have been numerous female Guildmasters. The position generally passes to the eldest child of the previous Guildmaster, but it is dependent on ability as well as pedigree, and other family members have been elevated to the position before now.
The Guilds can, and will, provided the price is right, undertake to steal almost anything from anyone, and to kill anyone, anywhere. Almost. The Guilds have rules, a set of strict moral principles that they will abide by, and do not break for anyone, or any price.
They will not steal from the poor, or the weak. They will not steal from the starving, or the homeless. If such a person has what the Guilds are asked to recover, they will buy it from the owner.
They will not kill the helpless, or those who cannot defend themselves. Requests to kill people in these positions are met with scorn, and repeated requests have been met with violence.
No member of the Guilds will ever knowingly harm a child. In the past, people have thought to use this rule to keep the Guilds at arm's length. The Guilds have always found a way to overcome this barrier, and they usually extend their contract to take their vengeance against someone who will use a child in such a way.
Thefts, or "Pinches" are performed using skill, daring and guile, not violence and dynamite.
Assassinations, or "Strokes" are performed up close, face to face, where the victim has a chance to fight back. Bodyguards may be eliminated from a distance, but the target is always killed hand to hand, not shot, poisoned or blown up.
The Thieves' Guild is more than capable of blasting open a bank vault, or using the latest in computer chicanery to get what it wants, and the Assassins are experts with guided weapons and poisons, but for a real Pinch or Stroke, it comes down to the skill and daring of the individual Guild members. The Guilds only use these more modern abilities when they hunt for revenge. At that point, beware!
The only other rules the Guilds have are to keep their word. The word of a Thief or Assassin is as good as truth. They will do what they say or die trying, whether it is to complete the task appointed to them, or revenging themselves on those who do not pay.
To an outsider, this seems to be the most important part of Guild life, but again, appearances are deceptive. The most important thing to the Guilds is their relationship with the Benefactress, their mysterious leader, guide, spiritual head and power source. The Guilds tell the story that Candra, the Benefactress, is the Mother of the Guilds. She, so the story goes, created the Guilds, and imbued them with their powers, raising them above the level of the "Gens," and allowing them to make their own way in the world. The Benefactress, in return for the granting of the Benefits, the powers of the Guilds that allow them to compete even with the Awakened, requires two things. First, obedience to her requests. Any mission the Benefactress requires is undertaken immediately, without question or hesitation. To question or hesitate is to be deemed a traitor, and the fate of traitors is harsh. The other requirement is to carry the Tithe Box, and present it to the Tithe Collector once every seven years.
The Guilds are uncertain as to what Candra really is. She keeps her distance from her "Children," cloaking herself in legend and mystery. Those who have investigated her closely have usually met bad ends, but the general consensus among the Guilds is that Candra is a Spirit being of the more powerful sort. The Guilds believe that their powers devolve directly from her, and so do not look too closely into matters Candra has told them to ignore.
The next most important thing is "Family Business", the ongoing feud between the Guilds. The Thieves' and Assassins' hate one another passionately, like two branches of an ancient family locked in a blood feud, the original cause of which is forgotten. The Guilds steal from each other, undermine one another's power and influence, and frequently kill each other. They target one another's houses, assets friends and relatives. Nothing except one's children are safe. Children, in the eyes of the Guilds, are above the dangers of "Family Business" and two Guild members, who abhor each other on sight and would normally cheerfully strangle each other will become not merely polite, but caring if one of the two has his or her children with them.
The Guilds fight each other anywhere in the city. "Family Business" rarely spreads outside New Orleans, since the Guild members outside the city are generally few and occupied with missions. The only place that is safe is the Church of the Lost Heart. The Church of the Lost Heart, an old wooden church close to the Mississippi, is the Guilds' spiritual home. It is here that both Guilds perform their initiation ceremonies, and it is here that the Tithing takes place. Neither side would attack the other here, for fear of arousing the anger of the Benefactress. The church survives because both sides want it to. It allows them a neutral meeting place, and if one knows about it, it is the perfect place to make contact. Others outside the Guilds have tried to destroy the church. Some, like the city environmental department, have simply been bought off or ordered to ignore the structure. Those whose motives are more sinister have a place reserved for them in the crypts: the bleached skulls of the Guilds' worst enemies are displayed on racks, as both a victory monument and a warning. The skulls of traitors to the Guilds rest here also, a reminder to those that would consider betraying their families or their "Mother."
The "Family Business" is another aspect of Candra's power over the Guilds. These rivalries were set up by Candra, and over the centuries she has fanned their flames again and again. She uses the constant feuding to keep her Guilds in good shape, tough and well-practised. Candra also finds the battles exciting, and so continues them for that reason. Her strongest reason for continuing to stir up hatred between her Guilds is to ensure that the Guilds do not have too much time to think about her. Candra knows that if she allows them to, the Guilds might start to investigate her, and she will not allow her "Children" to find out the truth about her.
With all of these contradictions and the ongoing battles, it would appear to an outsider that the Guilds are a ramshackle operation, ripe for destruction. The Guilds take any external threat very seriously indeed, and in the event of such a thing happening, they suspend all "Family Business" until such a time that the threat has receded or been dealt with.
Benefactress: The granter of the Guilds powers, and their ultimate Mistress.
Benefits: The powers of the Guilds, granted by the Benefactress.
Brethren: see Family
Conjourman/woman: A Mage.
Cottonmouth: A Setite.
Family: The Guilds.
Family Business: The ongoing feuds between the Guilds.
Gris-gris: Magic, or Magick. Anything odd, inexplicable or to do with the powers of the Awakened or Semiawakened.
Gaunt: A Wraith.
Gens: The common people, Sleepers. (from the French.)
Connies: The Awakened, those who know what is going on. (from the French Connaitre, to know)
Loopie (or Loupe): A Garou. (from the French, Loupe-Garou) Nightfiend: A Kindred.
Pinch: A theft.
Portunes: Faeries or Changelings
Slasher: Derogatory term used by Thieves of Assassins.
Sneak: Derogatory term used by Assassins of Thieves.
Stroke: An assassination.
Tithing: The act of carrying the Tithe Box, which is passed to the Benefactress, in return for the Benefits.
In general, Thieves have Mental attributes and Talents as primary, whilst Assassins have Physical attributes and Skills as primary. This is far from universal.
For Assassins, Bravo, Gallant, Fanatic or Director are commonest. Visionary or Judge occasionally.
The Natures Curmudgeon, Loner and Survivor are common in both of the Guilds.
Demeanours are extremely variable, and usually change to suit the circumstances.
Other common abilities: Acting, Empathy, disguise, Investigation, Finance, Law, Melee, Firearms, Brawl.
Assassins: Brawl, Melee or Firearms 3 (at least one), Intimidation or Leadership 3 (at least one).
Other common abilities: Demolitions, Repair, Investigation, Acting, Medicine.
Both: Alertness 2, Occult 1.
The following Backgrounds are available, unchanged:
Allies, Alternate Identity, Arcane (no character can start with more than 2 dots in Arcane), Contacts, Fame (although it is strongly discouraged), Influence, Resources.
* | Mentor is a low-ranking member, and is of limited help. |
** | Mentor is of low rank, but well-respected. Can help in certain circumstances. |
*** | Mentor is of moderate rank, and is well-respected. He or she can be of great help. |
**** | Mentor is a high ranking guild member, and can provide most of the help a member could want. |
***** | Mentor is one of the Leaders of the Guilds, and can provide virtually any help -- at a price. |
* | 1 Family member |
** | 3 Family members |
*** | 7 Family members |
**** | 11 Family Members |
***** | 15 Family members |
The most common of these powers are:
Hedge Magick (especially Spirit Thaumaturgy and Path of Voodoo)
Telepathy
Psychometry
Precognition / Fortune Telling
Attributes: | 4 |
Abilities: | 2 |
Willpower: | 2 |
Backgrounds: | 2 |
Benefits: | 9 |
Attributes: | 4 x current rating |
Abilities: | 2 x current rating, 3 per new ability |
Willpower: | 2 x current rating |
Guild Benefits: | 9 x current rating* |
*A service must be performed for the Benefactress (of her choosing, and usually both challenging and extremely dangerous) in order to be allowed to raise a Benefit.
Glib (M3): You are silver-tongued in the extreme, and very few people can see through your veneer of charm. All rolls involving Subterfuge or Seduction are at -1 difficulty.
Master of Disguise (M3): You find taking on the roles of other simple: all attempts at disguise or acting are at -1 difficulty.
Taint of the Hunter (F2): Even by Guild standards, you are predatory. People are uneasy around you, sensing that you see them as prey, something to be exploited. All Social rolls except Intimidation and Subterfuge gain an additional -1 penalty.
Unlucky In Love (F3): You are unlucky in love. Even if you find it easy to begin a relationship, you find it almost impossible to continue one. You seem doomed to a life of one-night stands. Even if you find a real love, who is not driven away by your Guild weakness, you will find the world conspires to separate you. Your true love may be kidnapped, used against you, or even killed, with a terrible effect upon your psyche.
The Guilds' members Arcane ratings help to make such objects less obvious to the general populace.
The Guilds never, ever, mention the Benefits to outsiders. Indeed, they rarely mention them among themselves, thinking it a matter of pride not to mention such things, which are seen as being a deeply personal experience. This secrecy is so profound that many of the younger, less experienced members of each of the Guilds have little idea what the higher powers of their own Benefit can accomplish, much less what powers the other Guild has.
* | 50 Years of Life, +1 Arcane, +1 Awareness |
** | 100 Years of Life, +5 Freebie Points, +1 Arcane. The Thief can now see Auras, on a roll of Per + Occult, D9. |
*** | 200 Years of Life, +5 Freebie Points, +1 Occult, +1 Awareness |
**** | 300 Years of Life, +7 Freebie Points, +1 Awareness. The Thief extends the power of invisibility to cover surveillance equipment. |
***** | 500 Years of Life, +9 Freebie Points, +1 Arcane. The Thief can determine the origin, history, ownership and value of an object at a touch. (Per + Empathy, D9). It can also be used to detect "bad gris-gris" from an object. |
The Freebie Points gained can be spent on anything that could be bought at character creation, including Numina and Backgrounds, but excluding Merits and Flaws.
* | At the cost of 1 WP, all Physical attributes can be increased by one point for one scene, even if this increases them above 5. |
** | By preparing for a round, the Assassin can focus a blow, reducing the difficulty for either the attack or the damage, by 2. |
*** | Arcane +1, Intimidation +1. The Assassin can now become invisible like a Thief, provided he does not move. |
**** | Arcane +1, Awareness +1. The Assassin can now hide just like a Thief. However, surveillance equipment can still detect the Assassin. |
***** | Black Palm. By spending 1 WP and simply touching a target, the user can cause aggravated damage to the target. The amount of damage caused is the result of a Dex + Occult roll, difficulty 6. |
Every seven years, the Tithe Collector comes up out of the swamps around New Orleans, and calls upon the Guilds. Each member of each Guild is required to meet the Tithe Collector, and pass to him the Tithe Box that each Guild member received at the last Tithing. Failure to do so will result in two things: the last dot in the Benefit the Guild member has will be lost, and more seriously, the Guilds will declare the defaulter a Traitor to the Guilds, and hunt him or her down without mercy. This is one of the few times when the Guilds actively help one another. The number who have escaped such a hunt is too small to note. In the event that a Tithe Box is stolen, there are mechanisms to recover it. The Tithe Collector will be unhappy, but at least the Guild member will be alive.
The Guilds have vague ideas about what the Tithing actually involves, but are unsure. It is best, they say, not to enquire too deeply of the Tithe Collector.
Unless contracted to do so, the Guilds do not usually actively seek to harm or antagonise Vampires, but they strike unmercifully if Vampires come after them. Within New Orleans, the Guilds interact regularly with the Kindred mainly to let the Kindred know that the Guilds can find them, any time.
Note that the Guilds are less affected by the Delirium that normal people: treat a Guild member as if her Willpower were two dots higher that it is for the purposes of the Delirium.
The Fog affects the Guilds just as the Delirium does (see above).
Candra the Benefactress is best described the way Winston Churchill described Russia: A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. She is only seen by the gathered Guilds at the ceremonies of initiation, or at the Tithing ceremony. Otherwise, she is seen only by individual Guild members, when they approach her to ask her what she requires in return for the Benefits.
Candra appears as a beautiful woman, in her middle thirties, with waist length blonde hair, a slim figure and a face as hard as death.
And well she might. Candra is a Deathlord, an immensely powerful Wraith who has as her major Fetters the two Guilds.
Long, long ago, Candra was a Mage. Back in the earliest nights of the Roman republic, Candra played politics in the Italian peninsula. She was an immensely powerful being, unhampered by Paradox in the way that modern Mages are, and she competed with the Garou and with the Kindred unceasingly. She always envied these two groups their semiawakened servitors: the Kinfolk of the Garou and the Kindred's Ghouls. Candra wanted her own servitors, so over a century, she worked and researched, until she found two families of crime lords. She used her powers to create a spell that would permanently affect the blood of the two families, granting them unusual traits, and allowing these traits to be passed on to their descendants. The exact nature of this spell is unknown, but a Life 5, Time 5, Prime 3, Forces 3, Spirit 3 might come close. Whatever it was, it worked, and Candra created her servitors. They worshipped her like a mother goddess, and went out into the days and nights to do her bidding. Then, at the beginning of the Christian epoch, someone killed Candra. The Guilds went into hiding, going back to being no more than crime families, some members of which had exceptional powers. No one bothered to pursue them. Over time, Candra became a figure of legend, and fewer and fewer Guild members developed the Benefits. It became the story that only the Benefactress could grant them.
A being like Candra is not easily held, even by death, and after a few centuries, she found her way back to her "children". Candra told them that she had returned, and that in return for the return of the Benefits they had once enjoyed, they must serve her. This state has continued ever since.
The Guilds believe that Candra grants them their Benefits. This belief is so strong that the Benefits are not manifested until an Aspirant succeeds in his first mission, and the last dot in a benefit is lost if the Tithing is not completed. This belief is untrue. The Guilds can develop the Benefits without Candra's help, it is now a right of their blood. What is required is mostly Willpower and a belief that one can develop the Benefits.
Early in her death, Candra discovered a way of collecting Pathos from the members of the Guilds, as they went about their emotionally-charged business. This Pathos was trapped it in tiny boxes, from which Candra could recover it at her leisure. Through this action, which became known as the Tithing, Candra has access to an almost unlimited supply of Pathos, and the ability to use her Arcanos almost without thought. Even so, she carefully husbands the supply from the Tithe Boxes over the seven years, using it only when she has to or cannot obtain Pathos elsewhere.
The Tithe Collector is Candra's chief servant. There has been a Tithe Collector as long as there has been a Tithing, and all the Tithe Collectors look the same. Their appearance has always brought fear to the Guilds, who know that both the Collector and Candra are wilful, capricious beings, and that even full obedience does not guarantee safety.
Nature: | Conniver | Demeanour: | Bravo |
STR | 5 | CHA | 4 | WIT | 3 |
DEX | 3 | MAN | 5 | PER | 4 |
STA | 4 | APP | 5 | INT | 5 |
Talents: Alertness 4, Awareness 4, Intimidation 5, Expression 4, Brawl 3
Skills: Ettiquette 3, Melee 4, Leadership 3, Performance 3
Knowledges: Cosmology 5, Culture 4, Enigmas 4, Investigation 4, Linguistics 4, Occult 5, Politics 5
Arcanos: Argos 2, Castigate 1, Embody 5, Keening 4, Lifeweb 3, Moliate 3, Outrage 5, Pandemonium 5, Puppetry 5, Usury 5
Pathos: 5
Corpus: 10
Willpower: 9
Passions: Control the Guilds (lordship) 5, Gain Temporal Power (greed) 5, Fight the Awakened (control) 5
Fetters: The Guilds (5), the Church of the Lost Heart (4)
Backgrounds: Contacts 3, Eidolon 3, Haunt 5, Memoriam 4, Status 5, Wealth 5 (and then some)
Appearance: A beautiful woman with waist length blonde hair and a skin like alabaster. Candra is breathtakingly lovely, and she knows it. She is also totally without compassion, remorse or pity.
Dark Passions: Fight the Awakened (hatred) 4, Encourage "Family Business" (spite) 4
Thorns: Dark Allies, Shadow Call
Angst: 7/3
Willpower: 6
Nature: | Conniver | Demeanour: | Bravo |
STR | 5 | CHA | 1 | WIT | 3 |
DEX | 3 | MAN | 4 | PER | 4 |
STA | 4 | APP | 1 | INT | 3 |
Talents: Alertness 4, Awareness 4, Intimidation 5, Expression 4, Brawl 3
Skills: Melee 4, Leadership 3
Knowledges: Cosmology 4, Culture 4, Occult 5
Arete: 5
Willpower: 9
Spheres: Correspondence 5, Forces 3, Life 3, Mind 3, Prime 3, Spirit 3
Quintessence: 9
Paradox: 4
Appearance: An old, dark man, with grey hair, and a face like Death. He is tall, thin and seemingly weak, but close inspection or (God help you) combat, reveals that he seems made of steel and wires. His tread is firm and steady, and his gaze is always hard and cold. His face never changes its expression, one of brooding menace. Any Guild member automatically recognises the Tithe Collector.
Paradox Flaws: A permanent fog surrounds the Tithe Collector, and his footsteps echo eerily wherever he goes.