LostKnightsRPG.org

Information on the company and its progress can be found here

Establishing our storage and a viable name for the business front should be our primary concern at this point. I would like to get the actual store off the ground in a legitamite manner before we start using it as a distribution point. In short, I don't want to mix the business with pleasure at this point. The Wine Shop must remain a seperate and "clean" business until we have the other aspects of the operation established.

There are several phases that must be completed before we can even begin distribution. While simple in and of themselves, these may take some time to fully implement. I refuse to procede through the project until I am satisfied that each phase has been completed.

Phase 1: Aquire Secure locations. These include distribution points across our target areas as well as (and more importantly) our storage and production centers. A storage facility/primary distribution center has been located and simply awaits modification to fit our needs. The timetable on that project now rests entirely on Denton's shoulders. I've tasked him with the modifications, but also with doing it descretely. In this case, patience is a virtue I can ill afford to neglect.

Valerie has kindly offered to aquire three remote distribution locations across the areas of interest in the city. These can be used as soon as we are comfortable and upgraded in security as Valerie and Denton work out a mutual trade (which I will be augmenting in order to speed things up and improve on mundane alterations).

Phase 2: Perfect production and transport. This is a simpler concept, but may end up being the biggest single hurdle in the entire plan. I have no pull within any circle other than our own within the City at this time. I am also unaware of what may be available to the rest of the Coterie and whether it can be utalized until I can establish my own system (covered briefly in Phase 3). The reason this is such a touchy subject is because of the nature of what is being transported. Should the wrong people find out what it is, Very Bad Things could happen to anyone that can be linked to the operation. This means that I'll need to remove myself from the aquisition and control of transport, and preferably, be able keep it away from any affiliation of ours whatsoever. To put it simply, I will need to have a patsy or cat's paw set up for this section of the project that can be compitent yet disposable. Most likely this will be a very nebulous area until we are established and I have some influence and control to have a third party make arrangements. Dangerous...but required.

Phase 3: Personel. I currently have Gregory (My retainer) hitting the streets and making some friends. As soon as we complete Phase 1, I can start adding my own insurance to the equation to ensure an added bit of loyalty and start building from there. Personel will represent a key factor in the continued success of this business model. Right now there is no organized presence within the majority of our target areas. Between the product itself and the organization of the Project, however, I hope to change that and unify these areas under one set of rules. This will hinge on competent and loyal personel. Recruitment will be highly selective.

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The Long Term
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Logistically speaking, one vampire can sustain only so many people in this system under normal circumstances. That number can be greatly enhanced through the use of the Ritual being employed for this Project, but the simple fact is that the supportive number is finite unless I want to start racking up a serious body count....or get very, very creative.

This section will be, largely, theorycraft. Issac (Andrew) will be privy to most of these ideas, and while I will discuss it with any other member of the Coterie, one should approach this topic with extreme caution in relation to one's humanity.

I will also be broaching some other Long-Term goals and ideas...starting with a basic (and highly simplified) outline of what I am trying to do. This, like my short-term, can be broken down into several phases.


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Phase 1: Control the People. Kindred are too often caught up in their own games of power and come to believe that the only real Power comes from those of their own kind. This thinking while not really false, is highly limited and ultimately a weakness. Power comes in many forms, and even those considered useless or beneath notice alone, can be a Force when properly utalized. That is where the heart of my Project lies. Gain control of the Kine, a control that has, as far as I am aware, never been attempted before. If such control can be gained and mastered, the implications are mind-boggling.

Phase 2: Unite the People. Even the most awesome power can be crushed if the user lacks control. Power itself is no garuntee of victory. This is another point of thought that I believe seperates myself from other Kindred. Most seek Power for the sake of Power alone. They fail to grasp that even a small amount of power (in many forms) can be wielded to devastating effect if properly utalized. To that end, I have no intention of squandering control of the masses as I gain it. I will not have people running rampant and wild when I have the means and the inclination to do something about it. By uniting the Kine to a common goal and cause, and appealing to that which they all secretly or openly desire (Order and purpose), I can command a loyalty and dedication that allows me opprotunities that brute force simply cannot achieve. When the people look to you as a leader and savior, their loyalty approaches fanatasism.

Phase 3: Improve the world. This sounds a bit more grand than it actually is. I'm not trying to save the world, far from it. However, I refuse to work in a sty. When you improve the areas that are under your control (once you actually control them), you earn the respect and admiration of those people.

Phase 4: Eliminate Competition. When you have a good thing going, everyone will want a piece of the pie. Competition is natural, even healthy...as long as it doesnt' get out of hand. I don't intend to ever let that happen. Once I have control established, I plan on eliminating in the most efficient manner any competition that arises or exists. I don't have pride, I don't need them to know who did it. I have no problems planting a car bomb and reading about it in the paper the next day. I frankly don't have the romantic delusion that I need to look in your eyes when I kill you (if it comes to that). However you (read: the competition) are delt with, as long as you ARE delt with, I am happy.

Note: The first tactic will always be to assimilate any competition. Why waste useful people? Failing that, strategy will favor a brutal, efficient, and quick elimination of the threat while inflicting as little collateral damage as possible.

Phase 5: Expand. Probably the most nebulous of the phases. Expansion can and will occure whenever opprotunity and resources allow it. If either of those is insufficient, however, the situation will be weighed carefully before any action is taken. Spreading too thin or attracting attention from the wrong people at the wrong time can end even a well-planned endeavor when a little patience will make it stronger.
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That's the generic aspect....now....back to the original issue of logicstics. To simplify the plan here to the point of sounding silly; I plan to have a blood farm.

The facilities in play and the setup allow for this with a great deal of ease. From establishing a blood bank (cliche but effective) to basically capturing and retaining a supply that can be managed, replenished, and rotated as need dictates; the raw resources and facilities already exist. This is not something that will need to be addressed immediatly, but planning for the long term is vital. To that end; I would like you (Issac) to consider options that would be easiest for you and provide the least risk, in your eyes. Obviously both the mentioned methods above have their own benefits and drawbacks, but I do not know how you might approach such a thing. I urge you to consider the massive volume that we may be dealing with in the future, along with the transportation factor and the issue of the Ritual.

Given the nature of the problem, I would recommend a hybrid of the two mentioned. A legitamite Blood Bank supplimented by our own in-house supply would help on several fronts.

Firstly, it gives you a -reason- for having facilities in-house to deal with the blood itself as well as a reason to have your own transportation for such things. Again, I do not know what would be easiest for you, so I leave it up to your judgement.

Transportation and distribution will be the next largest issues. These can be solved by more conventional means (as discussed previously) though, so they don't warrant an immediate need, but do fall very high on the list of things to do.


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That's as brief and simple a summary as I can give, while outlining my goals for this particular plan. It is a simple concept applied to a large scale with some unique aspects tied to it. Combine all that and we are left with a complex system that will take time to mature, but ultimately become self-perpetuating (except for the actual production which will always require direct input on my behalf).

If anyone has any questions.....start firing away!

We need a collection service or collection location for the mass blood used to be imbibed so we will have enough for both the medium and the blood needed to power the ritual.

We also need equipment to extract the blood from a kindred in a more efficient manner than simply slicing them and waiting for it to slowly be forced to drip out.

We need a transportation system to move the completed product, protected from sunlight, to the ultimate storage location and the various distribution points.

If all that is correct I think we can use a part of my facility to acquire the blood for the collection part, however that is not a good location to store said quantities due to the facilities intimately mundane nature. Second, the equipment for the extraction is easily gotten and transported so not an issue there. Third, the system of transport for the finished product should be separate from any system for the raw blood itself. The final transportation can be simply linked to a facade (shell) company that sells wine as they use dark glass bottles or bags surrounded in boxes as a way to protect them from sunlight. The distribution locations could belong officially to the same company and it would appear that the company simply receives a shipment of completed wine from ??? location and then transports it to their distribution locations.

Ultimately, we need to decide what location and/or where the location of the raw storage is and the location and possible transport from the ritual location to the pick-up location for the distribution centers.

sounds interesting. i look forward to seeing how it goes, how players respond when they don't know what is going on, and how you guys respond to the inevitable curve balls that will get thrown your way.

Curve balls are just slower pitches to hit home runs off of.


Collection for "donor" blood can be set up through the 24-hr clinic. Just open up an actual Blood donation section...or use the ZLB approach and pay like $20 per donation. That should provide more than enough of a supply. Be sure and do all the proper screening, though, so you can keep up the actual process of shipping and registering the blood to actual hostpital use. We'll just skim off the top. If you're actually PAYING for blood, it'll roll in. (And you might make a profit anyway, depending on who you start shipping to.)

Incidently, this can also take care of our initial transport to the storage/creation center. Once the cold storage is established, we can set up an area for the Ritual and have a conversion right there. The plans already call for a "clean room" to set up an extraction system to pull Vitae from a Kindred. That can be shipped in with the first "donor shipment" without any problem.

As long as our shipping uses unmarked vehicles from the Center to the Storage, we can use a Marked vehicle to ship from storage to the Store Front (The wine shop) for actual distribution. Given a dose of this will be something along the lines of 20cc, any individual distribution location should never need more than about two Gallons at one time (and re-order when down to 1 gallon). They can just come in and get the nice "Wine in a Box" from the Store and move it to the sub-centers; turning in their profit when picking up the supply.

The storage center can be converted into an actual Wine storage center excepting the Cold storage that will be seperate, but enclosed. This will be a perfect cover for converting the entire building into a Light-proof and climate-controled center and enforcing strict security. That can be heavily reinforced once revenue starts returning as well and we will have a massive safe-house complete with a ready supply of blood in case we ever need to fall back and hole up somewhere.


Transportation will be reduced to two basic trucks (about the size of the small U-haul trucks) with climate-control. One marked with the logo of the Wine shop, the other remaining a simple white, unmarked vehicle (but it will carry records and liscences to transport bio-hazardous material, required for the transport of raw blood products).

The Marked truck will have a false wall at the front for the "Product" delivery, and the majority of the inside will be converted to carry Wine bottles and boxes. The unmarked will be modified to carry raw blood products en masse.