Carpathian Chronicles addon

This is a trilogy of multiplayer story chronicles created by an unknown German author and translated into English by Rumenpi. Mirrored here for archival purposes.

Carpathian Chronicles - a Dark Ages story for Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

Written and scripted by an unknown German author (help is welcomed here)
English translation by rumenpi
additional credits:
Spock for his Chronicle Creator, which was used for creation of the chronicles
TZ, my (rumenpi's) wife, for the help in the translation process
Nihilistic, Activision and White Wolf for the great game

This is the translation of three old chronicles that were done in German long time ago. The author left no readme, other than the installation instructions, and I cannot find his/her name now. I just translated all the conversations and intro texts. Because of my poor German (and English), some parts of the story and some locations didn't seem right, so I reinvented the "junctions". The story seems OK now, though it may differ from the original idea.

The translation took me full six months as I was doing all this in my free time. Had I concentrated a bit it would have been much less. Unfortunately, I couldn't translate the names of the NPCs, so some of them will appear with their German names. I think I figured out how to do it, but it is a lot of work and I prefer to use this time for something more creative, like preparing a new story.

The chronicle is set in the dark ages and consists of three parts, with three to five years gap between first and second, and another seven - eight between second and third parts. The third part leaves the story opened, because other chapters were originally intended.

I tested the game with a Ventrue having 12500 XP, and if you want to play alone, this seems to be the absolute minimum (of course, this depends on the discipline usage and the specifics of the clans). Some of the enemies are quite tough! Even in part three, where the character is well advanced, some bad guys will give a good fight. It would be probably more fun to have a coterie with less XP though.

The story is about the tough unlife of one vampire in Eastern Europe, so it is meant to be played by one character. A coterie will be more difficult to fit storywise, but it is not impossible.

Installation:

Unfortunately this is a bit heavy, but to repair all the inconveniences would require redoing everything from the beginning.

Step 1: Extract the archive in your main vampire directory
Step 2: Move the folders MP21, MP22 and MP23 in the SaveGames folder (if such subfolders are already existing there, rename these appropriately
Step 3: Create three shortcuts of the Vampire exe file (on your desktop)
Step 4: To play Chapter one: a. click one of the shortcuts with the right mouse button
b. click Properties
c. in the Shortcut tab, after the Destination of the Vampire.exe file, write - user celticrealm. For me it looks like this:

"C:\Programme\Vampire The Masquerade - Redemption\Vampire.exe" -user celticrealm

d. Start Vampire, go to multiplayer, LAN, choose Load Save Game, "Chapter1 - The Revenge"
e. Play

The same goes for the other two chapters, just the shortcut addon and the save games are different. Here are all of them:

Chapter Shortcut Save Game File

one -user celticrealm Chapter1 - The Revenge
two -user dermond Chapter2 - The Moon Over Carpathia
three -user inquisition Chapter3 - Dark Roads

* The shortcut for chapter one will not work on the save games for Chapters two and three. The respective is true for the chapter two and three shortcuts.
* Important! In chapter three in the beginning you receive a letter. Read it and drop it, otherwise if you want to play with your character outside this chronicle, it will get corrupted.

!!!Spoilers from here on!!!

Story outline:

Chapter one - The Revenge

Your Sire's castle is attacked and he, you and your ghoul barely manage to escape. Before you reach the friendly territory of the town White River, a pack of werewolves ambushes you and in the battle your Sire dies. You reach White river and meet a Tremere, who knows who stays in the bottom of this. You do a few things for him and eventually destroy the evil mastermind.

Chapter two - The Moon Over Carpathia

You come back to your hometown Hamlet and attempt to take back the lands that belonged to your sire. In the process you uncover more details of the original conspiracy.

Chapter three - Dark Roads

You have ruled Hamlet for several years when you understand that a shadowy force digs deep in the past events. As a result, a massive army, led by the Inquisition, attacks suddenly the town, but warned by your ghoul you manage to escape in time. You lose everything and you are left clueless as to who is pulling the strings.

A few notes:

The story is set in Carpathian mountains and the Tzimisce - Tremere war is raging. The towns are fully fictional (I think). Tremere are the ones that take the advantage having you act on their behalf. The story is unfinished and I suspect the original idea was to have a major plot twist between chapters three and four. The Tremere (presented by Tandarus) might be behind the events in chapter three, taking advantage of your success against the Tzimisce.

It will be good if the player has a weapon (at least a Broadsword) in the beginning. A rapier (which I prefer because of its greater accuracy) can be found in the forest near the harbor, but you have to deal with its owner(s) (one or two very strong Gangrel) first.

As I mentioned, the story is unfinished, but a Storyteller with a good imagination can make the game real fun, and continue it as he/she wishes.

In part one, the garrison of the prince's castle comes from Temesvar. I added this, because I wanted the story to have a link to the other Redemption settings.

(To my knowledge) There are no " White Wolf celebrities" in the story. I thought of adding some, but this requires too much fitting in.

In chapter one, I "raised the IQ" of the Prince and his Childe (I mean I changed the stupid conversations), because it seemed inappropriate considering their position and connections.