Title: City Council of Darkness
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Emily Axford (she/her) as Vesper Childers (she/her). Zac Oyama (he/him) as Zaeth Bondana (he/him). Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as La Contesse Madelaine (she/her). Lou Wilson (he/him) as LaVonte Worthy (he/him). Ally Beardsley (they/them) as HJ Wingstreet (he/him). Brian Murphy (he/him) as Mitch Frederick(he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you haven’t checked them out already, you can catch up on our reviews of prior episodes – one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten!

Our chaotic coterie gathers after the conflict with the primogens, debating their next moves. The group continues their front-forward madness. Ally definitely generated the most off the wall ridiculousness, sidelining the progress despite the actually rather plot-wise opening from Emily and Murph.

Though the rest of the group expresses doubt about their assignment, Madelaine panics, insisting they adhere to the norms of vampire society. Similarly, LaVonte is exhausted by the chaos, but he’s less interested in diminishing himself for those more powerful who can’t seem to see his vision. The pair have a heart-to-heart, and Madelaine admits she would leave the second it was offered. Despite having an offer on the table, LaVonte tells no one.

Madelaine pleads with her sire to save her. During the conversation, her sire reveals that Europe isn’t safe for her. Instead, he offers Australia. Her disgust at the idea pales in comparison to her fear of death.

While these two plot in the background, the whole coterie votes, electing Zaeth the prince and revamping their list of tasks even though it goes against the will of the Camarilla.

LaVonte is still stuck on Bingo and Patty. In a last desperate attempt to get them involved, wanting the dog to run for mayor, he pushes forward with a free skate non-profit. He also goes to corrupt the clergy, introducing himself to Sister Agnes. His flirtation goes far better than anyone could’ve predicted.

Meanwhile, Madelaine aims to take out Nancy out by targeting her husband. Unfortunately, she fumbles. Unable to find his number, she can’t even get started. Nancy continues undaunted, publishing on the Whittakers.

As his perspective still evolves, HJ helps his allies, bonding with Vesper in the coterie and meeting with Maya and her spouse. He also does the bookkeeping for Helena. When they meet Amelia, the group debates shifting from Helena to Amelia as the candidate for city council. However, she keeps them at arm’s length. Additionally, the group considers having Amelia meet Herbert and having two young folks joining the council.

Maya and Cody reveal that Jack of the Pines is an invasive entity brought over by the Douglas family and originating likely in Europe.

As the episode has come to the end, the coterie discovers there are three groups going after Nancy. Vesper blocks the Camarilla. Mitch’s work blocks the Whittakers too. However, Maya interceded, refocusing Nancy’s article onto the Credit Union rather than to the city council. The fallout will be dealt with in next week’s episode.

Highlights

Though I loved the conversation that Madelaine had with her sire, this episode was a myriad of mediocre movements of minute progress, painful reaches by one player interrupted or outright undermined by the chaos of others, and just plain purposeless riffing. Half this episode could’ve been cut, and nothing would’ve been lost to the story, and there would’ve been a strong boost in the pacing even if they wanted to avoid more traditional momentum builds for those terse quiet moments that Brennan has expressed loving.

Final Score (3 out of 5 Stars)

While we haven’t slipped into outright player versus player, the season has flirted with that reality of the vampire social world. Half of our coterie longs for power, and while Zaeth and Vesper may be better categorized as wanting freedom, a hierarchy like the Camarilla requires power to provide their goals. With Mitch aching to be perceived as a superhero, the whole group longs for external validation, forcing an underlining tension.

There is an illusion of choice between individualism and collectivism; however, the structural brutality rewards those willing to throw others under the bus to save themselves, so whether they work together to maintain the laws of the Camarilla or sabotage their fellows to get ahead as a single individual within the hierarchy, the result remains the same. The wheel keeps turning, and those crushed beneath it drag whoever they can under the wheel alongside them.

Hopefully, they’ll get things back on track or swerve into the player versus player side fully, but I don’t have much faith there. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Let us know what you thought in comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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