• Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines Patch

Vampire; the MasqueradeAs undead, vampires have little fear of conventional poisons. However, they may succumb to poisons or drugs contained within the bloodstream of their victims. Indeed, certain vampires, known as 'lushes' or 'heads,' actively seek out victims under the influence of alcohol or drugs, that they might receive a vicarious buzz.Obviously, we cannot present the effects of every drug and poison in a work of this size. Following are some examples of what might happen if a vampire drinks the blood of a poisoned or drugged victim.

A vampire with low Willpower (4 or less) and/or an appropriate Nature (Bon Vivant, Child) might risk addiction to a certain substance, but this is unlikely. In general, the effects of most drugs on vampires are far less than their effects on the humans in whose bloodstreams the substances run.

Let's Play Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines by Pesmerga - Part 7. The Let's Play Archive Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines by Pesmerga ‹ Part #6 Part #8 › Return to LP Index. Part 7 Chapter III: Morphine for Mercurio I made my way back down the rusted walkway from the beach-house, intent on getting a closer look at the pier.

Alcohol: The vampire subtracts one from Dexterity and Intelligence dice pools for every two drinks' worth of alcohol in his victims' blood. This effect fades at the rate of one die per hour, as the alcohol purges itself from the bloodstream. Marijuana: The vampire experiences slightly altered perception of time, as well as a one-die reduction to Perception dice pools. Difficulties of frenzy rolls are decreased by one, due to the calming effect of the drug. The effects last for about an hour. Hallucinogens: The vampire lowers all dice pools by one to three (inability to concentrate).

• » Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines » VTMBup80.exe As part of E3 2019 we had the chance to go hands on with DOOM Eternal and witness the evolution of the id Software's re-imagining of the iconic series.
• One of the first things you may notice in the title is that the 'B' is missing from VTMB, this is not an accident. The Final Nights is an expansion to an otherwise flawless video game built upon the success of the Camarilla Edition series of mods.

He suffers effects similar to the Level Two Dementation power The Haunting. Depending on the precise nature of the 'trip,' he may gain extra dice in one particular Ability or find his Auspex Discipline raised by a dot or more. The effects last for (8 minus Stamina) hours. Cocaine/crack/speed: Vampires with the Celerity Discipline gain an extra level of the Discipline for (10 minus Stamina) minutes after drinking. Difficulties to resist frenzy are increased by one.

Heroin/morphine/barbiturates: The vampire subtracts two from Dexterity and all Ability dice pools for (10 minus Stamina) minutes, and experiences a dreamlike state for (12 minus Stamina) hours. Difficulties of frenzy rolls are decreased by one. Salmonella (food poisoning): The vampire becomes nauseated, unable to consume more blood (roll Stamina, difficulty 6, to overcome), and suffers one health level of bashing damage. The effects last about a day. Poison: The vampire subtracts one from all dice pools and takes from one to three levels of normal damage per scene or even turn, depending on the intensity of the poison. Few poisons have any real effect on the undead, and most inflict a fixed maximum amount of damage before wearing off.

The vampire may purge the blood at a normal expenditure rate, and the effects heal automatically within minutes to hours after purging the blood.Hunter; the Reckoning (System may be applied to mortals)A poisonous or intoxicating substance introduced into the body limits your character's ability to perform — at best. At worst, it kills him. It's impossible to discuss every poison or drug that your character might be exposed to, but the list below offers ddirection on how to handle various types.Hunters are human and can easily become addicted to a drug or might even develop and immunity to a poison. The terrible burden of recognizing evil personified is enough to drive anyone to pleasure wherever they can find it, no matter how self-destructive. Some Hunters convince themselves that they can do their job only when drunk or high. Others are so disciplined, so focused, that they believed repeated exposure to drugs and poisons — among other abuses — makes them stronger for the resultant resistance.

Alcohol: You subtract one die from any Dexterity, Perception, Intelligence or Wits dice pool for every drink your character consumes within an hour. This effect fades at the rate of one die per hour until all the alcohol is purged from your character's system.

Marijuana: You lose one die from any Dexterity, Perception, Intelligence or Wits dice pool for every hit your character takes within an hour. This effect fades completely an hour after the last toke, unless your character continues to 'medicate' himself. Hallucinogens: All dice pools lose one to three dice depending on the strength of the hallucinogen. Your character may experience confusing, frightening or enraging hallucinations, although he may manage to realize that they exist in his druged mind only (Intelligence + Streetwise/Empathy, difficulty of 6, with the one to three dice penalty in place). Depending upon the nature of your character's 'trip', you may actually gain dice in a pool relevant Trait that's enhanced by the experience. The effects last for (8 minus Stamina) hours.

Cocaine/crack/speed: Your character may experience a +1 increase in Strength or Stamina, though he also may become edgy and paranoid. The Storyteller bases the effects of the drug on the volume tha your character takes, how pure it is and your character's state of mind.

Heroin/morphine/barbiturates: Pain subsides, but your character enters a dreamy state for (8 minus Stamina) hours. All dice pools are reduced by two during this time.

Salmonella (food poisoning): Your character becomes nauseated within an hour of eating and suffers one health level of bashing damage. He loses one die from all Dexterity and Strength dice pools for (8 minus Stamina) hours. Poison: The nature and strength of the poison determines how much damage your character suffers. As a general rule, your character takes from one to three levels of bashing damage per scene or even turn (depending on the intensity of the poison). The effects last and damage continues to accrue until the poison wears off or an antidote is provided. Some poisons such as acids and chemicals may deliver lethal damage if they burn the mouth, stomach or esophagus.

Click to expand.The Malkavian outfits are really something - the Malkavian PC really plays to a lot of the 'wacky' stereotypes of the clan. The male one starts out relatively normalish, considering what's to come, then by the end has become the Cat in the Hat if the Cat were a pimp. Meanwhile the female Malkavian flips between wearing different cartoonish stripper outfits. Then there's the Nosferatu, who seem to be inexplicably wearing different bondage gear before at some point graduating to a full on gimp suit.You gotta wonder, like, is that what they wore out before the Embrace? Or upon seeing their body distorted by the Curse of Caine, did they look into the mirror and decide firmly, 'Now is my chance.'

All right, so the vote's final count was:Brujah 1Gangrel 3Malkavian 2NosferatuToreador 3Tremere 3Ventrue 3So, pretty much a multi-way tie. I'm going to go with Tremere, but for those of you who wanted a social focus, I promise to be doing a bunch of social stuff. Depending on how this goes, I may play other clans and post interesting stuff from that.My initial character sheet.

As you can see, one doesn't get a whole lot of dots at the beginning of the game.There's a lot to unpack from this intro cutscene. Unfortunately, you never really get a chance to know your sire, and while there are some dialogue options that imply you're angry about their deaths, I never really saw a reason to care. He's some guy I had a one-night stand with who turned me into a vampire without asking.We'll talk more about Prince LaCroix and Nines later, when they get more involved in the story; both of them disappear from the game for the entire first section. But LaCroix probably didn't make a good impression on players; he's grandiose in a faux-humble sort of way and is willing to very swiftly kill people-determining guilt and sentence in rather less time than he took to pontificate about it-for breaking the Camarilla's laws. Which, as prince, are his laws.

Nines, on the other hand, is willing to stand up for a complete stranger for the sake of principle alone, and likely comes off a lot better.Something I like about this cutscene is that, while some of the NPCs are just using models of PCs you aren't playing, several others are vampires you meet later on in the game. VV blows a kiss to Strauss, Isaac looks at his watch, Therese looks pissed. We'll get to all of these people, but it's a good way to set up the idea of a vampire community at the beginning of the game, albeit a very tense one. And despite being prince, LaCroix definitely can't control the room outright.So, then, LaCroix gives you your mission and more or less tosses you out onto the street outside the theater. Luckily, we have a new friend waiting for us.Meet Smiling Jack.

Actually a canon character from the tabletop, he's a sort of anarch agent provocateur who wanders around, spreading chaos, and is one of the oldest anarchs around, at over 400. Luckily, he's taken a liking to you.

Jack: What a scene, man! Then they just plop ya out here like a naked baby in the woods, how about that? Look, kiddo, this is probably a lot for you to take in, so, uh, why don't you let me show you the ropes? What do you say?Serena: Who are you?Jack: I'm Jack. What's important is, I'm offering help.

You make it back from Santa Monica with your hide, and we'll trade life stories, m'kay? 'Till then, I got about. This much time. You in or out?Serena: What happened in there?Jack: Don't worry, kiddo, you'll adjust.

I'd love to explain it all, but time's a-wastin'-you want some help or what?Serena: Okay, I could use the help.Jack: Alright. Uh, why don't we, uh, step out back here.Serena: I like where I am. At least I'm out of that theatre.Jack: Christ, it's stuffy in there, huh? This is much better. Now, we ain't got much time, but I figure someone should fill you in on the bare-bones stuff at least, you know?

Could save your hide. You look wobbly; you even had a drink yet?Serena: Drink of what?Jack: Oh, man, we're poppin' a cherry here!

Ah, you're gonna love this! Alright, check it out.

Blood: it's your new rack o' lamb, your new champagne-blood's your new fuckin' heroin, kid! Get ready though, cuz, hey, it's never as sweet as the first time.Serena: What do I do?Jack: Well, down around the corner there, I saw this human. Can't find his car.

Hehehehe.Serena: So. I mean, uh.Jack: Alright, ya go down there-casual like-ya creep up on him, then bare those little fangs and feed. And don't worry if you weren't captain of the wrestling team or somethin', cuz it'll come so naturally you'll think you'd done it a thousand times already.Serena: Won't he become a vampire then?Jack: Forget that comic book crap, kid.

It don't work that way. Now go for it. Be sure though-and this is important, so listen up-be sure not to drain 'em dry, okay? It might be hard to resist, but don't kill 'em.Serena: Alright. Hell, yeah, you're feelin' it. Feelin' that blood bubblin' inside you, liftin' you up. That's it kid, that's what it's all about, right there.Serena: I don't know how I feel about it, but it does feel good.Jack: Alright now, you've got the blood, you're feelin' all kickass, feelin' better than your best day livin'-but wait!

It gets better! Kindred, that's, uh, our word for vampire. All Kindred have a few things in common, things that set them right square above humans on the food chain.Serena: Yeah? Like what?Jack: Like sharper senses, a body that can take a beating, and if you play your cards right, eternal life. That's no sure bet, but still, a chance at immortality's not a bad deal.

And that's just for starters; fringe benefits for joinin' the club.Serena: So I'm going to live forever?Jack: Well, you can still be destroyed, but forget the books and the movies. It's worthless.

Shove it right up their ass. Only if it catches you in the heart, and then it just paralyzes you. Runnin' water? Ah, that's no problem. Eh, occasionally. Now, a shotgun blast to the head: oh, that's trouble, boy.

That's real trouble. Well, you catch a sunrise, and it's all over, kiddo, get it?Serena: Got it. Jack: Oh, it's a Sabbat raid. The Sabbat, they're, uh. Eh, Christ, I was hoping to spare you this shit 'till later. Uh, the Sabbat, well. Eh, they're mostly mindless bloodthirsty assholes-that's all you need to know for now, alright?Serena: So what's up?Jack: The Sabbat got wind of the gathering here, so they figured they'd raise a little hell and put a little heat on the new 'prince.'

Serena: What's the prince a prince of?Jack: No time for political rundown. Get outta here alive. Sabbat might be mindless, but they hit like a Mack truck, like raging savages-nothing a fledgling like you wants to mess with. Click to expand.Almost immediately after this, we get to see the giant-the sheriff-fight some Sabbat.We don't know much about the sheriff now, and we won't really learn much more about him ever, but we do get to see him use some high-level Animalism powers to dispatch the Sabbat.

This points to Gangrel or Nosferatu heritage, but he doesn't seem to quite look like either to me, or at least not enough like either to make a final judgment. Note the Sabbat lead's howl that sounds halfway between a wolf howl and a human scream; we'll hear it again in other places where the Sabbat is ready for combat, which I think is a neat touch.After this, we get some simple lockpicking and hacking tutorials, and Jack will also give us the basic idea of the Masquerade and why it shouldn't be violated. Basically, don't let humans see you feed or use your powers willy-nilly in public, and you can keep vampire society secret. Once you get out of the room you were locked in, you head into an alley and are immediately filled with holes by Sabbat gunfire. Luckily, Jack quickly kills the shooters, but your health has still been drained by half. This kicks off the feeding-healing tutorial, where feeding rapidly increases your health regeneration.Note: vampires didn't naturally heal at all in the tabletop game. You have to spend blood.

And you can do so here; everyone has a power called Blood Heal, which spends blood to rapidly increase your health regeneration, but it just goes back up on its own as well. Even aggravated damage, though it's much slower.You go down and feed on a homeless guy downstairs, but he has a much smaller blood pool than your first target. This game has a really odd conceit where 'healthy, well-bred' humans have larger blood pools, which wasn't in the tabletop game at all. I think it was just put in to add a bit more variety to hunting, but it's a bizarre instance of classism. This is also the section where Jack explains Humanity and the Beast.You're also taught how to feed on rats, unless you're Ventrue, and you can't.After this, you get a sneaking tutorial, where you have to get past one Sabbat grunt. Who's also the focus of the combat tutorial; you go back down and fight him, beating him to Final Death with your fists and taking his tire iron.

Vampires suffer from critical existence failure when they lose all their health, just like mortals; it's not like the tabletop at all, where you go into torpor and such first. Of course, that would have been much too complicated to include, but vampires do feel surprisingly fragile when compared to the rest of the Masquerade media.You then descend into the building and are taught about stealth kills (sneaking up behind someone lets you immediately kill them) and how to use your Disciplines. The most noteworthy thing here is that passing the Obfuscate tutorial is nearly impossible if you only have level 1 Obfuscate and can't move while invisible; if you're Malkavian or Nosferatu, definitely buy Obfuscate 2. Shortly after that, you get a tutorial on picking up objects and throwing them to lure guards away, something that I've literally never used outside the tutorial.Finally, Jack gives you a gun-the game's worst gun, practically worthless in general-and you get the ranged combat tutorial. First, you have to shoot down a bottle on a crate (and you literally can't move on until you do this), and then take an elevator up to fight a couple of mortal thugs. But you don't need the gun, really; just beat one to death and devour the other's sweet life juices.And that's that for the tutorial.

Next time, we move onto Santa Monica and the beginning of the game proper.Anything you liked/hated about this? Do you want more or fewer transcriptions? A lot of the dialogue in this game is great, but they're pretty lengthy to write, so updates may be slower with more of them. Well, most people think that the Sheriff is a Nagloper.

An African offshoot of the Tzimisce.They seem to have a few traits of the Gangrel mixed in. Mostly in their closeness to the Beast. Oh, and the have a lesser form of the Tzimisce weakness. They still need to rest once a day with at least two handfuls of soil surrounding them, but it doesn't have to be soil from a place that was important to them in life.

Naglopers can just use any soil.I suppose, then, that the question is how La Croix managed to secure the loyalty of a Nagloper. Well, I suppose one really can't expect an emergency haven like this to be the lap of luxury, can one? Note the boards lying on the floor; I don't know if it's really enough coverage to block out all sunlight, so it might be safer to sleep in the bathroom.Luckily, you don't actually have to go back to your haven and sleep in this game. There's no day-night cycle, you're just assumed to have time passing at some point. The main thing that is in your haven is your computer, which is where you get emails. New emails can give you quests and hints, or sometimes they're just spam. You get some of both here, including Mercurio confirming the mission and a mysterious 'friend' who claims that 'The game begins.

A pawn is moved.' You also have three blood packs in the refrigerator and money in the desk, as well as a note. Click to expand.So someone extremely obtuse but more polite than LaCroix wants to make our acquaintance. Unfortunately, we can't make it downtown until we finish everything in Santa Monica.There are a couple of other tidbits in the haven. You have a TV, which gives news reports. Some of them comment on events in the game, while others are just flavor for the World of Darkness in general.

Can be neat, particularly if you're a Malkavian, in which the newscaster gets a little more. You also have a radio, which plays the Deb of Night program: a sexy (or at least sexy-voiced) talk radio host who fields calls from exactly the kind of people you'd expect to call late-night shows like this.

You also get a bunch of parody commercials. On the whole, this is always fun, and I recommend checking on it after you finish each 'act.' So, once you actually leave your haven, you can pick up a newspaper to get a quest to check out the Santa Monica Pier: the 'Southland Slasher,' an extremely violent serial killer, has extremely violently killed a guy at the pier, and you apparently get the urge to check it out. Possibly you know you're a video game protagonist.When you emerge from the apartments (note that your mailbox is downstairs; once in a while, you get a quest item or a reward), you'll encounter a homeless guy who asks you for change. You can give him ten bucks for a point of Humanity, or be a dick or try to feed on him for no particular reason. I've never found being evil to be particularly attractive in any game, and this game doesn't change that much.Unfortunately, once you walk out of the alley, you can see someone (Mercurio) bleeding copiously and staggering into a building. It's an invitation to follow, but the first time I played this game, I got really sidetracked by the clinic.Welcome to Santa Monica, Main Street.

The environment of the game is very nicely done; it's just the right shade of stylized moodiness. The one problem I have is that it can sometimes feel kind of empty, particularly with the completely empty streets on which the only cars you ever see are parked, and those are quite rare. Of course, even approaching LA's car culture would have been a huge hassle for the developers for no real reason, so I don't blame them for it. Maybe something like this will be in the next game.It also rains in Santa Monica periodically, something that doesn't happen anywhere else. When it happens, it really enhances the mood.So, let's follow the bleeding guy and head into the Santa Monica Suites.Note the stylized E in the corner there, above the health meter. This denotes Elysium. In the tabletop game, Elysium refers to a neutral ground in a Camarilla city where violence is strictly forbidden.

In this game, it's more generally used to refer to any zone where you can't attack or use Disciplines. The game doesn't use 'essential' character flags, so anyone the game really doesn't want to let you kill is placed in an Elysium zone.Meet Mercurio, LaCroix's ghoul and your Santa Monica point of contact. Apparently, he was supposed to meet a 'chemist' for explosives for the operation LaCroix wants you to complete, but the meeting went south and they just beat him nearly to death and robbed him. Luckily, his ghouldom lets him heal quickly (and he might have Fortitude, being a Ventrue ghoul, but I'm not sure), so he's still alive, albeit not going anywhere anytime soon. Your job, now, is to go get the explosives-Astrolite-by any means necessary.Mercurio's a decent guy. He seems to be a New York or New Jersey gangster, judging by the accent (and he mentions having a record there), but he's one of the most consistently helpful people in the game.

Of course, he's not in much condition to do anything right now, but you can help him, both by scoring him some painkillers and by not reporting the Astrolite screwup to LaCroix.So, painkillers are probably going to be in the clinic, right? Head there, but before you head inside, you'll be stopped.Knox Harrington. An extremely hyper guy (with the verbal tic of 'Aw, man!' ), he nonetheless is perceptive enough to spot that you're a vampire.

You can try to warn him off, but he'll just clarify that he himself is a ghoul, and you can ask a few questions about it. He's apparently on a 'secret mission' for his master, whom he describes as a 'nasty dude.' You can also be pointlessly rude to him if you want, but. Well, it's pointless. He's kind of obnoxious, but basically a nice guy. Also, his ghoul information will be important in a moment.For those who don't know, ghouls are mortal minions of vampires.

They're empowered by drinking vampire blood, letting them heal quickly, enhance their strength, and sometimes gain other Disciplines, but they also develop a blood bond to their domitor, the one who feeds them their blood, and are therefore mystically compelled to love them. In the tabletop game, it takes three drinks for the full bond to develop. Remember that.The clinic. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's in a crappy area, and as far as I can tell, it's above-board.

Except for one thing, which we'll get to later.You'll need to get past the front desk first. You don't have to have a terribly high Persuasion score (I think just 2 or 3) to convince the receptionist that you're just bringing a friend of yours some personal items, but it needs to be 4 to convince her that you're here to work on the network upstairs.

This'll get you a key and the ability to more easily deal with the guard upstairs. You can also just try to force your way past by leaving the conversation and trying to walk past her three times, but that gets security to come down on your head. So, beginning our quest for painkillers.We find a dying girl.Unfortunately, there's only one doctor in the building right now and he's busy dealing with some guy with a bullet in his head, so he just asks you to talk to her and keep her awake until the next doctor arrives.

Which should be shortly, but not shortly enough, because she's dying quite quickly. However, another solution is open to you.Feed her your blood and she'll live. Also, you get another point of Humanity. She's still out of it, but coherent enough to ask a few questions, and says that she feels like she knows you. If you're a dumbass and tell her you're a vampire, she'll freak out and call for security, but if you don't, then she'll just fall asleep.

Then you can leave, having done your good deed for the evening, and be sure of this never coming up again.Anyway, you've got a couple of locked doors back here. The one that leads upstairs is easy, but even if you can't pick it, you can just leave the clinic and go around to the side entrance to get past it.

The one on Dr. Martin's office is harder, but not impossible, particularly not if you use Blood Buff (a pseudo-Discipline that you can't put more dots in, that just boosts all of your physical attributes for several seconds) to make yourself better at lockpicking. But say you can't pick that.The unlocked Administration door back here has a skill book, Computers for Grandma, which will give you a Hacking feat of 2 even if you put no points in Wits or Computer, which will let you hack the computer in here.

Reading the emails will let you find the location of some morphine, in Malcolm St. Martin's office. But if you can't get past the lock here, what do you do? Head upstairs.Note: crouch when you pick the lock here, since if the guard is in front of the door, he may attack you if he sees you.The guard here was added in the Unofficial Patch, I believe, and he can be a nuisance.

You might be able to intimidate him, though I've never had my feat high enough to do that, but I don't think you can persuade him. Seduction lets you feed on him, but doesn't make him get off your back; he'll still bother you once he wakes up from the feeding trance, and if he confronts you three times, he'll start shooting. You have to either kill him, which costs you Humanity; hide from him altogether, which can be tricky; or pretend to be a technician and he'll unlock one door for you and not immediately confront you if he sees you, but you'll have to deal with the other doors yourself and he'll attack you if he sees you picking any locks up here.Or you can just Dominate or Dementate him if you have one of those Disciplines, in which case he'll give you his keys and leave you alone.There are a bunch of rooms up here, but for now, only a couple are important. The break room has a note with Malcolm's password on it, and the security room (which is unlocked, amusingly) has the key to the maintenance room. Go inside there, and you can crawl into the open ventilation duct in the ceiling.

Turn right and drop down into another room on the first floor, where you can get Malcolm's office key, and also get yourself on the other side of the unpickable glass doors you may have seen earlier. Now you can just walk out, and the doors'll stay unlocked.So, go to Malcolm's office, grab the morphine bottles, and leave. You can hack his computer and read his email to learn about some sexual indiscretions that you can blackmail him with for money, but I've never bothered doing so. Then you can just go back to Mercurio's and give him the morphine for experience and another Humanity point. And now you're maxed-out.

See why there's really no reason to bother buying it with experience points?Next time: Beach time! Click to expand.Do you think he leaves all his notes like this, I wonder? You stumble across his shopping list one day, and it's just a limerick or a haiku. I guess the official reason is that Strauss doesn't want to leave the Tremere Chantry's location overtly stated on some random piece of paper that could fall into the wrong hands, but I find it a little funny. I'm probably like most people in that I didn't, uh, actually remember the riddle - I just sort of stumbled into the Chantry while waltzing into every building I could.

The guard here was added in the Unofficial Patch, I believe, and he can be a nuisance. You might be able to intimidate him, though I've never had my feat high enough to do that, but I don't think you can persuade him. Seduction lets you feed on him, but doesn't make him get off your back; he'll still bother you once he wakes up from the feeding trance, and if he confronts you three times, he'll start shooting. You have to either kill him, which costs you Humanity; hide from him altogether, which can be tricky; or pretend to be a technician and he'll unlock one door for you and not immediately confront you if he sees you, but you'll have to deal with the other doors yourself and he'll attack you if he sees you picking any locks up here.Or you can just Dominate or Dementate him if you have one of those Disciplines, in which case he'll give you his keys and leave you alone. Click to expand.There is one extra thing here unlocked with Persuasion: if you talk to the guard again while pretending to be a technician, you can Persuade him to also unlock the Controlled Substances door with the right dialogue options. And of course, not to give anything away now, that'll be a little useful later.

Of course, the last time I played through the game, the guard shot me on sight even though I Persuaded my way past the nurse! I had to sneak up on him to get close enough and manually activate his dialogue, wherein the usual options popped up. Bloodlines, eh?The Deb of Night stuff is one of my favourite bits in the game. It adds a lot of atmosphere (and is pretty funny if you actually stop to listen in). Do you think he leaves all his notes like this, I wonder? You stumble across his shopping list one day, and it's just a limerick or a haiku.

I guess the official reason is that Strauss doesn't want to leave the Tremere Chantry's location overtly stated on some random piece of paper that could fall into the wrong hands, but I find it a little funny. I'm probably like most people in that I didn't, uh, actually remember the riddle - I just sort of stumbled into the Chantry while waltzing into every building I could. There is one extra thing here unlocked with Persuasion: if you talk to the guard again while pretending to be a technician, you can Persuade him to also unlock the Controlled Substances door with the right dialogue options. And of course, not to give anything away now, that'll be a little useful later.

Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines Patch

Of course, the last time I played through the game, the guard shot me on sight even though I Persuaded my way past the nurse! I had to sneak up on him to get close enough and manually activate his dialogue, wherein the usual options popped up. Bloodlines, eh?