Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong’s first Chapter, The Prince’s Quarters, is shown from ꦓthe perspective of three characters: Emem, Leysha, and Galeb. Each character’s story is woven together into some greater narrative. What you do in one portion of the story could have ramifications in another, so every decision matters.

Each scene within a chapter contains a bunch of side objectives and optional sleuthing that can lead to greater insights into The World Of Darkness, the characters that are vying forꩵ some sort of control, or maybe just some consumables that can help you along the beaten path. We won’t be stressing over the obvious A-B progression. Instead, this will cover all those extra bits that you might miss out on when playing through as Emem.

What you can do in each Chapter is heavily dependent on your Skills and Disciplines. Not every character will be able to do everything - even if you custom-build your perfect class. We have listed skill requirements, but it might not be possible for you to reach that requirement on a first playthrough.

Updated October 26, 2023, by Sean Murray: Every investigation has to start somewhere, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong's first Chapter gives new vampires an excellent introduction to Swansong's mechanics. To make this guide more helpful, we've given it improved formatting, more breakout tips, and links to other Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong topics.

First Conversation With Prince Iverson

Once you have begun the game properly and selected your starting Profile (Investigator, Jack-Of-All-Trades, Veteran, or Free), you will be immediately thrust into a conversation with Prince Iverson.

To get the most information out of this interaction, you will need to have an Education level one or above. This will give you some more information on the Primogen.

Your First Hunt

Your first hunt is more or less scripted, however, you can safely feed twice in this section. Opposite the feeding booth you used during the tutorial, is another safe place to feed. You should feed on a second vessel as this will give you experience towards advancing your Traits.

How To Enter The Archives

Whilst following Journey’s scent, you notice the trail entering and exiting the Archives. The door is locked, but there are two ways you can enter:

• If you have Technology level one, you can bypass the lock entirely and enter without a Keycard. This will require Willpower.
• Use the correct Keycard.

To find the Keycard, enter the main office area. To the left is Lazarus’s Office. Enter the office, and you will be able to pick up a Keycard on the unit to the right of the entrance. Take this ಞback to the Archives and you are free to enter.

How To Open The Safe In The Archives

The Archives is an optional area that contains a few points of interest. One of which is the large safe embedded into the wall of filing cabinets, just to the right of the entrance. To access this safe, you will need the right PIN.

You can find the PIN hidden in a filing cabinet left of the entrance. Alternatively, you could just punch in: 9138.

Finding Out Why Journey Was In The Archive

One of the side activities you can engage in is uncovering why Journey was messing around in the Archives. If you follow her scent, it will take you to a specific filing cabinet. Inside is a document that has a page missing.

You can use your Auspex to track the scent of some Ink that has bled through. Follow this trail into Abigail's office. Inside Abigail's office you. The scent will lead to an ashtray that has a note. You can examine the note to read the text.

If you have Education level one, you can further analyꦿze the paper for addition🐠al information.

Whilst inside Abigail's office you can check her pager and sleuth on her messages. With Technology level one, you can recover deleted messages, which♛ reveal🌃s that Abigail was in communication with Journey.

Before you leave this area, you can go to Journey’s Office (diagonally across from Abigail’s). Here you can check her PC and search her emails to get more information on the Archives. If you have Technology level one, you can recover Journey’s search history and learn more ༺about what she was tr🍌ying to do.

You can also find a missable consumable - a business card - on the unit to the right.

Conversation With April

You can optionally talk with April in an attempt to get some more information on Journey and her whereabouts. This is a fruitless endeavor if you don’t have the right stats as April refuses to divulge anything.

If you have a Psychology level three or above, how𒐪ever, you can convince her to reveal some information.

Conversation With Hilda

You can speak to Hilda to gather more information for your investigation, but similar to April, she isn’t the easiest person to talk to. If you want to “win” this encounter, you will need at least one level in Rhetoric. If you win, you will get some missable dialogue and a +1WP reward.

Finding Journey

Finding Journey is as simple as following her trail. Once you get to her, however, you are forced to make a difficult decision. You can either take her to see the Prince, or you can convince her to run.

Taking her to the Prince will end the Scene, and you will be thrown into the next portion of the game. Convincing her to run will start a Confrontation.

To win this Confrontation, you either need to have high stats in Rhetoric, Intimidation, or Psychology, or pick the correct mundane answers from the lineup. To win, and convince Journey to leave, you need to select two of the following:

• Successfully Persuade Journey. You can accomplish this with one point of Persuasion, although it will be a dice roll if you don’t have enough Willpower.
• Hilda
• The Anarchs will help her

Depending on what you choose when dealing with Journey--and later, Leysha--your choice may come back and bite you.

The immediate consequences, however, are very minor. If you convince her to stay, then you will see her wandering the Prince's Quarters. If you convince her to leave, you will bump into her during a later mission.

Next: Vampire: The Masqu🐟erade - Swansong: Complete Guide And Walkthrough