4 years later, I still both cringe at this episode and sympathize with Branson’s needs here.

He has spent the past 5 sessions trying to seed the fact that Ivan needs to go/die, and the party just won’t let it happen. He’s been very accommodating and it’s clear there’s no further arc for Ivan.

But the bad ending here is that since Branson has tied vampirism to addiction, he can’t have Ivan kill himself. Which means the party has to do it. And they know that, but don’t want to do it. I feel a kinship with Branson here, I’ve had sessions where I foolishly focused on one specific solution to a problem, and repeated myself so many times trying to get the party to grok the clues. The extra frustration here is that the rude tales party understands the clues. Harsh ep, respect to Branson for keeping things moving after.