After completing the tutorial quest in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 and choosing your clan, one of your first tasks will be to introduce yourself to Lou Graham. The former prince of Seattle, Lou is a rare kindred ruler who voluntarily left her post, handing over control of the city to her childe.
Now living in seclusion in her penthouse suite in the Glacier Hotel, Lou nevertheless remains an extremely influential figure in Seattle kindred politics, and one whom the Nomad would do well to impress. Schmoozing Lou sufficiently can lead her to offer an introduction to Seattle’s new prince, Ryong, which certainly makes Phyre’s unlife a little bit easier.
This is one of the first major conversations in the game, and you might be wondering just how significant your choices are – not to mention, how badly you might mess things up if you pick the wrong dialogue options. To ease your worries and help you along, below we’ve outlined every dialogue choice and consequence in the conversation with Lou during the In Chains of Lead and Gold quest in VTMB2.
Prince Lou dialogue choices in VTMB2
Below are all of the major branching and optional dialogue choices when speaking to Lou during In Chains of Lead and Gold. In bold is each statement Lou makes that you can reply to, followed by your options and the outcomes of choosing each.
“Well? Or would you prefer to wash first? You positively reek, my dear.”
It’s best to start as you mean to go on here and be respectful towards Lou. Either of the following dialogue options from the Nomad will please her:
- “I am new to your place and time.”
- “I am known as the Nomad.”
You can also have some fun with the cheeky answer “If washing is an option…” – this will earn a snarky comeback from Lou but won’t actually trigger any changes to her opinion of you, and you’ll then be prompted to try again and pick one of the other three.
Just don’t pick “Do not insult me”, unless you’re committed to playing the Nomad as an antisocial jerk who won’t be making any easy alliances in this playthrough.
“Such an honor.”
Again, common sense dictates this one: your best choice is to pick “The pleasure is all mine”, although Lou will also be satisfied with “You flatter me”. Either works fine, so if you don’t want to play the Nomad as a total toady, choosing that second option represents an acceptable amount of harmless pushback against Lou’s self-aggrandisement.
On the other hand, “Are you always so fickle?” or “Wish I could say the same” clearly won’t earn you any brownie points with Lou.
“After all, you’re an interesting person. And this is a most interesting time.”
This third and final dialogue choice opens up a whole tree of options if you pick correctly, so it’s worth tackling bit-by-bit.
To begin with, you have three choices:
- “Interesting times?”
- “I would meet your Prince.”
- “I am ‘interesting’? Such disrespect.”
Calling Lou disrespectful is obviously not the play, and demanding to meet Prince Ryong without further preamble is less obnoxious but still not exactly diplomatic. Instead, choose “Interesting times?” if you want to begin the work of getting Lou firmly on-side – at least as much as she’s going to get.
This choice unlocks two follow-up questions: “What happened to Campbell?” and “You mentioned a killing spree?”
- Asking about Campbell unlocks two further questions: “Who slew Campbell?” and “Tell me about Ryong”.
- Asking about the killing spree unlocks one more question: “Have mortals noticed the murders?”
- Asking either question unlocks the option to end the conversation early with “I must see the Prince.”
Just don’t pick that third option! Instead, exhaust the lines of enquiry about Campbell and the killing spree to unlock a new, more polite way to exit this conversation: “Will you introduce me to your childe?” This is, obviously, the best choice, as it will net you Lou’s formal blessing to introduce yourself to Ryong, along with a commission to request she deploys more bodyguards to protect Lou.
Follow-up questions
If Lou likes you at this point, before you leave you’ll have the option to ask her some general follow-up questions that can fill in some blanks in your Codex.
You can choose to ask everything or refrain from touching on risky topics, although as you’ll see, there’s a payoff for exhausting every dialogue option even if your relationship with Lou takes a couple of small hits along the way.
- “What is the political landscape?”: Exploring this branch will unlock the optional follow-up question, “Was it you who branded me then?” Asking this will disappoint Lou slightly. Unsurprisingly she denies being responsible for the Nomad’s branded hand, and while she’s likely telling the truth, it’s not exactly reliable information.
- “Tell me about yourself”: Asking this will please Lou and unlock the optional follow-up question “Why are you no longer Prince?” Asking this will annoy Lou, but will unlock one further option: “You had a sister”, which will irritate Lou. However, you do gain some valuable information by pursuing this branch.
- “Which clans call Seattle home?”: Asking this will net you some useful background information about Seattle’s Camarilla, Thinblood, and Anarch factions. You’ll learn that Ventrue, Toreador, Nosferatu, and Brujah are the predominant clans of the city; that Malkavians are on the outs due to Lou’s distaste for them; and that Tremere are a rare enough sight that the city has no chantry.
- After exhausting one line of inquiry, you’ll unlock one more question: “What can you tell me about Seattle itself?” This doesn’t add much, but Lou will give you a surprisingly heartfelt guidebook spiel about the city, along with a hint that she’s purged the werewolf population from the surrounding forests.
At any point during this conversation, you can choose to say “I will take my leave” to bring it to an end. However, if you exhaust every single dialogue you’ll unlock the more polite “Thank you for your indulgence” which pleases Lou, essentially offsetting the negative approval you accumulated getting there.
Eager to sink your teeth into what BL2 has to offer? Be sure to check out our guide to the best abilities in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2.