in_nomine-digest Wednesday, August 29 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2350 In this digest: IN> Fantasy Month - Magic Wands. IN> Re: Magic Rings Re: IN> The First Church of Purgatory Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons IN> One reason why Dominic's life is hard Re: IN> One reason why Dominic's life is hard IN> Fwd: Book of Antioch Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons IN> Re: Valefor's Daughter Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Re: IN> Valefor's Daughter Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons IN> Next Month's Theme Re: IN> Fantasy Month - Magical Rings IN> This post will self-destruct in 5 seconds... IN> John the Baptist, he ain't. (But he *is* Cadre, among other things.) IN> Do As Thou Wilt (an exercise in Habbalogic) Re: IN> Next Month's Theme Re: IN> Do As Thou Wilt (an exercise in Habbalogic) Re:IN> [Fantasy] Outside, looking in (part of the other stuff I'm doing) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 22:25:24 +1100 From: "james walker" Subject: IN> Fantasy Month - Magic Wands. Whether you're a Fairy Godmother, budding sorcerer or elven queen, your magic wand is an essential piece of equipment. Here a few that can turn up in In Nomine: Glass Wands - these having been turning up over the last century. The wands have unpredictable effects, but if waved in the general direction of a problem something helpful will happen. Each Wand is linked to a Habbalite of The Media, and the Habbalite may use Songs, attunements and his resonance through the wand; as the wand 'tapes' the last five minutes or so and 'plays back' this information instantaneously when the wand is called on, the habbalite normally knows how to respond. The Habbalites' actions through the wand cause no disturbance if the wand has been called on, (this is a unique twist of the Habbalite of The Media attunement). The Habbalite can use his Songs, attunements and resonance through the wand without being invoked, but doing so causes disturbance as normal - at both the location of the wand and the Habbalite's location. Invoking a glass wand costs the wielder a point of temporary Will; lost points are regained at a rate of a one point per week. If the wielder of the wand drops to zero Will, he becomes a Servant (level/1) of the Habbalite. These wands cost 10 points for a Habbalite of the Media; possession of one costs nothing except your soul. (Cheap at twice the price!) Flesh Wands - the ultimate phallic symbol, these wands are created by Soldiers of Lust using a selection of Andre's 'special' Numinous Corpus. Although very useful for enhancing the targets sexual characteristics, the wands have a second, secret use: the target's gender can be changed, making it very useful for spies or anyone trying to shake a pursuer. As this is a modified NC, the target can turn the effect on or off at will. Enhancements cost one essence, gender change costs two essence; the effect lasts for CD hours. Cost is 4 points/level, and they can be used by any Symphonically Aware being in human form. Wand of Fire - created by Gabrielites, Ignes and Belialites, these iron rods are pretty common. They are also very essence intensive, and require a Will roll to use. Invoking the wand causes a fireball; each point of essence spend increases damage by 3 points (base damage is zero) or increases the number of targets who can be effected by one (a base one target is affected). If the Will roll is failed, the essence is lost; if the CD of a failed Will roll is lower than the number of people affected the fireball goes off, burning the wielder of the wand. The cost of a Wand of Fire is 3*the maximum amount of essence which can be spent on damage. Crystal Wand - these appear as copper tubes (about as thick as your thumb) with a large crystal glued into each end. They are Living Artifacts, created from captured angels/Remnants of Stone; the victim no longer has any Ethereal or Celestial Forces and will use the Cold Touch attunement if feed the necessary essence - the wand will affect a target within 12 yards (the wand extends a tendril of existence out that far, allowing it to 'touch' the target). Even if the Artifact possesses other attunements, it lack the intelligence necessary to understand how to use them. Possession of one of these wands is considered 'striking the first blow' by the Trogs, as you have started the fight by capturing/crippling their comrade. Wand of Sleep: Created by Blandine, and granted to her Soldiers and ethereal allies for exception service (anything that would earn an angel a Distinction), these wands are Living Artifacts, containing a single Ethereal Force with the Vassal of Dreams attunement. The wand draws the target into the Marches; the wands wielder is unaffected unless he is the target. The wand can only be used on one individual at a time, reactivating when the target leaves Blandine's half of the Vale. The Wand knows it's owner and will not function for anyone else unless told to do so by Blandine. It will also cease functioning if its' owner kills anyone who is asleep/unconscious. Wishing Wand: These wands can do almost anything; they are Superior level relics created by Lilith, and contain part of her presence. Failing to successfully invoke Lilith when offering a Geas/6 as part of the invocation will usually result in one of these turning up. The wielder of the wand can fulfil wishes using the wand; making a wish results in the beneficiary owing a Geas to Lilith. The wand cannot be used unless a wish is made, and must be used to be kept; the wand will remain with it's 'owner' for a year, plus one day for every wish fulfilled - it then vanishes. It will also vanish if the wielder attempts to give it to a member of the Host. James. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 22:38:42 +1100 From: "james walker" Subject: IN> Re: Magic Rings > And let's not forget the poem; [snip] > (With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien) Owwww........ :-) "Nine for Samingans sworn to die" did give me the idea of rings containing a canon version of Moe's Malakite of Resistance attunement....a simple way for a dissonant servitor of Death to prove his loyalty to the cause. James. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 09:22:53 -0400 From: "Jason F. McBrayer" Subject: Re: IN> The First Church of Purgatory On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 02:26:47AM -0400, Charles Phipps wrote: > Temper > Malakim of Judgement [...] > Oaths: [...] > Destroy myself should I ever suffer dissonance Ooh, that's a Dark (if not Fallen) Malakite waiting to happen. If for some reason he fails to, or is unwilling to destroy himself after that first note of dissonance, he takes a note of dissonance, which should he fail to destroy himself, will give him a note of dissonance.... - -- +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Jason F. McBrayer jmcbray@carcosa.net | | The scalloped tatters of the King in Yellow must hide Yhtill | | forever. R.W. Chambers _The King in Yellow_ | ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 10:32:58 -0400 From: "Jeffery Watkins" Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons That was fantastic. The loss of the dragons was always a downer for me and a couple of players. This gives a nice way to re-introduce them into the IN universe. It was also a very nice and enjoyable story on its own. Thank you. Jeffery _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 10:42:29 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Having dragons wandering about in human guise has a couple of nice resonnances: - It's what they do a lot in "Castle Falkenstein." (And wouldn't CF/IN make an interesting crossover, after a suitable re-write of the Purity Crusade?) - It's something dragons do in several myths. Nagas do pass as human in Hindu myth, and, in Wagner's Ring Cycle, Fafnir, most famous as a dragon, was really humanoid, being a giant. Earl ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 13:46:58 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons At 6:45 AM +0000 8/28/01, Jo Hart wrote: [...] >As yet, Heaven doesn't know. But however innocent or harmless these young >dragons may seem now, who can say whether they could potentially become as >deadly and as malicious as their terrible forbears. What about hydras? (Yes, yes, I am an inveterate crossover fan...) - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 20:08 +0100 (BST) From: jgd@cix.co.uk (John Dallman) Subject: IN> One reason why Dominic's life is hard Etherals aren't all "people". Some of them are things or places. Since distance isn't really a concept in the Marches, they can be very /large/ places. The Culture is a fictional place: a post-economic interstellar utopia, created by an SF writer in the eighties. No one believes in it, but there's a whole load of SF fans, many of them strong-willed and imaginative types, who would like it to exist. It's a pretty moral place, in many ways. It isn't much into Roman Catholic styles of morality, or a whole lot of laws, but it has some very clear ideas about human rights, and alien rights, and machine rights, and it "does" something that's never been possible on Earth: it tries its level best to help all its billions of citizens realise all their potential. Or reach their destiny, as it's sometimes known. Dominic is very suspicious that Eli has something to do with this one. Very suspicious indeed. - --- John Dallman jgd@cix.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 15:26:05 -0400 From: "Jeffery Watkins" Subject: Re: IN> One reason why Dominic's life is hard >Dominic is very suspicious that Eli has something to do with this one. >Very suspicious indeed. Oh, I like THIS concept. The whole SF universes are well done, but the above is a wonderful notion and plotline. It fits perfectly with the ethereals-as-parallel-universes concept I have working on for my IN game. Thanks as always, all of these concepts that all of you present on the list and notions presented on the list is a great help, fun reading and many times inspirational. Jeffery _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 15:46:34 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Fwd: Book of Antioch >From: "Harvey Mills" >Subject: Book of Antioch >Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 02:03:15 +0100 > >Just a few thought on the Holy Hand Grenade while I couldn't sleep :) > >The Book of Antioch details a simple ritual that enables a team of two >Soldiers (the chanter and the bearer) to convert a censer or censor like >object to an explosive device, similar to a grenade. >The chanter recites from the Book of Antioch while the bearer swings the >'grenade'. Either the chanter or the bearer transfers Essence the grenade, >between 0 and 6 points. This takes a round to complete. Each point of >Essence +1 to the power of the grenade. >The bearer then has three rounds to release the grenade, before it self >destructs, using Throwing skill. If a censer, burning incense, has been used >the bearer gets +2 to his skill. >Ambitious teams may create two grenades simultaneously with the bearer and >the chanter providing essence for each. >The grenades cause a disturbance of 2+Essence when they detonate. > >Harvey ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 13:09:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Nice. I really enjoyed the description of Madhari in her natural form. The only thing I would've added is the frantic attempts of a third DP to recruit dragons into his service. After all, Mammon would think that these guys are naturals. ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 What came first -- the orange, or the color? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 13:28:21 -0700 From: Charles E Smith Subject: IN> Re: Valefor's Daughter My only nit pick - shouldn't Valerie have been 'stolen'; even if it's just a case of her Forces being stolen before being assembled by Valefor? Fun write-up.<<< Thank you! ^_^ You have a good point. It might be interesting if Valefor used stolen Forces from Genubath to create Valerie, don't you think? >>>What I'm getting at is that she sounds more like a PC type than an NPC to me. I'm sure it'd be fun to *play* a character who was the daughter/son of one of the superiors -- and possibly defected to the other side -- I got the sense in the writeup that she was a character you'd like to play.<<< Well, I was trying to make Valerie capable of going either way. With reduced Forces and points, she could be a valid starting character, but she could also be a potent NPC (especially when used against those more militant angels who disdain the "weaker" Words like Protection). After all, part of testing security systems is knowing how to get around them... >>>The requirements for NPCs are a bit different. And I am saying here that I think it'd work better as an NPC if either she was still a dangerous thief-type (ie. slinky opponent for the PCs with more backing from "daddy" than they were expecting), or else they were somehow involved in the capture/redemption. Truth is that backstories often don't come into play on their own, as players often aren't interested enough to care about minor NPCs, so if you really want some aspect of a backstory to hit them between the eyes, have them meet the NPC at a more dramatic time in its life.<<< It could be fun to have the PCs involved in Valerie's capture or, even better (if they serve Protection), being assigned to help Valerie get accustomed to life as a Seraph. For the former, how does one snare the cat-burglar daughter of Theft personified? If the GM wanted to modify things, perhaps the PCs have to bring her in, alive, without invoking their Archangels. I can see PCs of Judgment, the Wind, War, and the Sword all wanting her in one piece for questioning and/or conversion (and in Michael and Laurence's cases, for tactical value as well). PCs of Flowers and Destiny (and possibly Dreams and Creation) might well be ordered to attempt to Redeem her, and PCs of Divine Fire might be commanded to simply Smite her for her crimes. All sorts of fun for PCs of all Words. ^_^ ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 13:44:02 -0700 From: Charles E Smith Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons Beautiful, Jo! I wonder at what controversy would be unleashed if Heaven learned of the dragons' existence. I'd imagine that Blandine, Jordi, Jean, Novalis, and maybe Yves and Zadkiel would want to safeguard these dragons, out of some desire to make up for the Purity Crusade. Laurence would probably want to finish the job his old master started, Dominic would want to put the dragons on trial, and Michael would want to win them over for the strategic value they bring. As I see it, Eli, Khalid, Litheroy, Christopher, Marc, Janus, and David would all be swing votes on this one. ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 13:39:40 -0700 From: Charles E Smith Subject: Re: IN> Valefor's Daughter Why not have both? Instead of being captured by Heaven, Valerie (with the help of her father) captured a powerful Seraph of the Wind, brainwashed it into thinking it was her, gave it a duplicate vessel, and set it up to get captured. So, you've still got the penitent 'Valerie' being good, while the real one has an excellent cover. After all, the demon which went and stole the big MacGuffin that Heaven needs *can't* be Valerie, because she's in Heaven and doesn't have a vessel... Especially not one wearing a black, slinky, leather catsuit. 'Valerie' won't touch those anymore. Only flowing white robes, or some other such outfit.<<< I like this idea. :D Incidentally, what's a MacGuffin? :) >>>Maybe she's got a younger sister... ("Psst -- I'm looking for some... information. You can help me out, or you can find yourself with three copies of the Mona Lisa under your bed and the cops at your front door.")<<< Hehe. She's a Balseraph of Theft. Who says she can't steal a Lilim M.O.? Give her or the sister the Celestial Song of Form at level 6 and watch the mayhem ensue. Calabim would have nothing on them. :P >>>*But she really needs an inappropriate boyfriend. She should be dating ... hmmm ... David.<<< LOL! Nybbas would still like her then. Can you *imagine* what the ratings on the NNN would be if news of that little scandal got out? >>>That was awesome! Here's your six points of essence. Don't spend it all on one song. :) <<< Why thank you. I promise to use this Essence wisely. ^_^ ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 04:51:32 -0400 From: "Rolland Therrien" Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons - -----Original Message----- From: in_nomine-digest To: in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 2:53 AM Subject: in_nomine-digest V1 #2349 >Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 06:45:24 +0000 >From: "Jo Hart" >Subject: IN> (fantasy) On dragons >Like Valentin, the firedrake, they have no elders to teach them the ways of >the past, or how to best use their powers. So destruction tends to follow >them quite closely. Some have been seduced into Hell's maw with the promise >of power and protection. Beleth and Baal have privately come to blows >already over who can best use the new recruits, and how best to produce an >army of the creatures. I'd assume Belial would be publicly challenging either Prince's claim on the control of Dragons, since they're Obviously destructive Fire-based creatures, and so are under HIS dominion. Maybe he's planning on dissecting a few of the less controllable Dragons, so as to give some of his better Servitors Dragon-shaped Vessels. >As yet, Heaven doesn't know. But however innocent or harmless these young >dragons may seem now, who can say whether they could potentially become as >deadly and as malicious as their terrible forbears. Here, reactions might vary, depending on the Superior: Laurence will immediatly demand a new Dragon Hunt to finish off these Purity Crusade Leftovers, only to find himself challenged by Blandine (wanting to preserve these Dreams), Novalis (preaching peace and harmony), Michael (wanting to recruit the Dragons) and Jordi (who wants to protect the only non-human sentiant race on Earth. And there's no telling how Gabriel will react to the Dragons, either positive or Negative. How to handle the Return of the Dragons could be Laurence's biggest challenge as Commander of the Host yet. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 16:48:26 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons - --- Michael Walton wrote: > Nice. I really enjoyed the description of Madhari > in her > natural form. > The only thing I would've added is the frantic > attempts > of a third DP to recruit dragons into his service. > After > all, Mammon would think that these guys are > naturals. So would Yves (and AA Beth): "OK, let me get this straight. You want me to move in here and eat anybody that tries to steal anything. I get three square meals a month, a suitably-photogenic hoard to sleep on and a whole staff of human servants to catalogue the stuff, keep everything clean, maintain the lighting and run the gift shop (which I get a piece of). You'll even throw in a seat on the Acquisitions Committee. "In exchange for all of this, I let people come in, go ooh and ahh, take pictures and then run out to tell everyone just how kickass my hoard is. And, if anybody _does_ steal something, those lunatic hotheaded tincans out there have to go _and_ _get_ _it_ _back_ for me. "I'm still waiting to hear the downside to all of this..." Moe "With apologies to Technomancer" Lane PS: Cool concept, Jo. :) ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 07/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 21:37:01 -0400 From: Daniel Sauve Subject: Re: IN> (fantasy) On dragons On Tue, 28 Aug 2001 06:45:24 +0000, "Jo Hart" wrote: >On dragons OH! Here's your 8 esscence! And a Kookie, made by Haggie-- Moe's OOPS! version! Archangel of Gusto, you make good cookies! - -- Your GM Daniel Sauve (in nomine, shadowrun, earthdawn, hero unlimited) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 19:15:05 -0700 From: Charles E Smith Subject: IN> Next Month's Theme So everyone, what's next month's theme? Are we going with the idea of new Superiors after all the current ones have perished? ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 19:13:10 -0700 From: Charles E Smith Subject: Re: IN> Fantasy Month - Magical Rings And let's not forget the poem; Three rings for the Novalans under the sky, Seven for the Davidians in their halls of Stone, Nine for Samingans sworn to die, One for the Lightbringer on his dark throne In the deep inferno where the shadows lie.<<< LOL! Loved it. :) ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 20:57:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> This post will self-destruct in 5 seconds... Yet another salvo in my ongoing quest to make sure that it's _obvious_ that Marc should be Grand Master Spy-Guy when it comes time for his eventual writeup. :) "My name is Lane. _Moe_ Lane." Dirty Tricks You think that _demons_ are the experts at character assassination? Please: those guys have no inter-Word cohesion. Sure, you can get individual experts, and certain demonic organizations are very good, in a limited arena, but if you want breadth and flexibility, go talk to the Host. To be fair, it's only been in the last century or so that Heaven started using their inherent advantages. Like a lot of other nastily fun activities, it was all due to Marc's gradual assumption of Heaven's intelligence agencies: his Collators uncover a lot of useful scraps of information in the course of their duties. Amass enough of them about someone, and a particularly bright celestial and/or blessed soul can gather enough evidence of secret Hellsworn status (or at least general nastiness) to justify a investigation. Once that happens, the Adjustment Department comes out to play. The Adjustment Department is mostly comprised of Servitors of Trade, Protection and Revelation, but anyone willing to participate (and able to get permission to do so from their Archangel) is welcome. Mercurians are always welcome for their insights into human psychology (although few if any can actually actively participate), Kyriotates usually end up performing preliminary investigations - or inciting the obligatory angry mob afterwards - and Elohim/Malakim make excellent bait (albeit for completely different reasons). Other Choirs are less represented, but not unknown. The Department's targets are mostly Hellsworn and/or demons who have been found out without - and this is the important part - actually realizing that they have been found out. Suitable candidates are then s u b jected to a very careful and quiet investigation of his or her particular weaknesses, with special emphasis on ferreting out any secret perversions or antisocial behaviors. Once one has been found (or evidence of same has been faked), a scenario to exploit it is crafted with loving care. After that, all that remains to place the temptation in the target's path while making sure that there's a camera crew in the vicinity. Such a scenario usually avoids the death of the target, at least directly. The problem is that simply killing someone may not actually solve a particular problem: there's always someone ready to take the tragically-slain leader's place. Thoroughly smearing a person's reputation, on the other hand, will also neutralize a target's influence - and the muck can often be counted upon to splatter onto the target's public causes. More than one would-be political movement has been shut down cold before it starts by a judicious Adjustment. It didn't take long for Heaven to realize that Hell would always kill a servant with a blown cover, if the alternative was to let the Host destroy his or her reputation. Adjustment missions thus tend to combine very stealthy preparations with a fairly dramatic, and public, revelation. There are many in the Host that criticize the Adjustment Department work for just this reason: the argument that this sort of thing just feeds Nybbas' Word has a lot of force behind it. The Department's stock response to this is that this sort of thing also encourages the rest of Hell to think that the Media would cheerfully let them go down in flames if it would mean better ratings, thus eroding demonic trust levels even further. The essential Truth of this position has kept the Department a going concern for now. What makes all of this truly obnoxious is the fact that there are very few corporeal situations that will discommode a 'victim' who has a backup body and a strong dose of righteous indignation. The actual level of outrageousness (in every sense of the word) of a typical Adjustment should be carefully tailored to fit the campaign... ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 07/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 21:02:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> John the Baptist, he ain't. (But he *is* Cadre, among other things.) Or, Reason #23.6 of "Why Net.books are _fun_, and everybody should play in them." Hey, it's more fun if you give people fair warning before you start blowing up campaign worlds... ;) Moe Horace Mercurian of [White Noise] IST War Corporeal Forces: 5 Strength: 10 Agility: 10 Ethereal Forces: 4 Intelligence:8 Precision: 8 Celestial Forces: 6 Will: 12 Perception: 12 Vessel: older male/4 Skills: Artistry/4 (Writing), Dodge/4, Emote/2, Fighting/4, Knowledge (History/6, Literature/4, Psychology/4, Warfare/6), Languages (Quite a few at /2 and /1), Lying/4, Move Silently/4, Ranged Weapons (pistol/3, rifle/4), Savoir-Faire/3, Small Weapon/4 (knife), Survival/4 (Ethereal), Tactics/4 Songs: Dreams (All/2-), Entropy (Corporeal/6), Might (Corporeal/4, Celestial/2), Shields (All/3), Symphony (All/1), Tongues (All/2) Attunements: Mercurian of War, Ofanite of War, Howl, Proficiency (Sword). Horace also seems to have two unique abilities: first, he can look into a person's eyes and know what act or event will simply be too much for him or her to bear without trying to strike back. Also, in the ethereal plane, he fades into the surroundings, automatically taking on the appearance of what would be normal for the area (-4 to all rolls to detect their presence while not actively in combat). Just why Michael would feel it necessary to gift him with these abilities is unknown. For the longest time, Horace didn't exactly know who - or what - he was. As far as he could tell, he was just like any other human: some of his earliest memories were hazy, but he could remember growing up normally. But he wasn't normal - and the older he got, the more incongruous things seemed. Everything seemed to be s u b tly wrong about the universe that he was in, and soon the reason for that became clear. He wasn't from this universe in the first place. He came from ... somewhere else. If he was a character in a book, that would have been enough to overcome his amnesia. It wasn't; the revelation that he belonged to another timeline was an oddly sterile one. It wasn't the whole story, apparently: there was something else about Horace's plight that he hadn't figured out yet. There seemed little to do except wait, and hope that all would eventually be revealed. While all of this was going on, Horace had drifted into the field of writing - and, surprisingly (even to him), turned out to be extremely good at it. He took to the genre of science fiction as if it were designed expressly for him, turning out all sorts of adventures and stories. It was a shame that he never noticed that possibly his s u b conscious knew more about his plight than he did. Horace's books were full of travelers to and from alternate timelines, a certain distaste for established religion ... and a deep, abiding belief that all societies and situations eventually fall. A properly trained psychologist would have discovered the answer - except that there weren't any capable of handling Horace's unique problem. However, Horace's mundane difficulties were what eventually caused his death: a combination of growing depression, poor luck and acute financial difficulties came to a head, causing him to decide to simply end it, once and for all. For some reason, this resonated inside him: it felt ... right. It was correct for him to kill himself, if it would fix things. So, he did. And, when he 'stood' above his rapidly cooling corpse, strange devices quietly ticking and beeping away on this strange new winged form of his, the shock was finally enough to jog his memory loose ... and the Mercurian cursed himself for a fool. Everyone was in deadly danger, and Horace was supposed to warn them, rather than lollygag around on this particular corporeal plane for half a century or so. But... everything was still /wrong/. Even more so than before. It even took a couple of tries for him to go in the right direction - and he wasn't sure that he was doing so until he saw Michael and Yves. Michael. Yves. And then things started getting quietly panicky. These days, Horace would be prime conspiracy fodder among the Host, if it weren't for the minor fact that his True Name, nature, abilities and history prior to his corporeal existence are now ineffable - through the direct intervention of both major Seraph Archangels and Yves himself. Litheroy knows what Horace is, too - it was simpler to just tell him - but the only individuals that could comprehend his explanation already know, or are Demon Princes. The level of obscurity is so great that it takes Superior-level abilities to even notice anything unusual about this angel. He doesn't seem to be worth this kind of attention, but that's probably the point. Horace spends most of his time in Heaven. For odd reasons, he has strong issues with most of the War Faction - David makes him sneer, Laurence makes him spit and he had to be physically restrained from attacking Janus - and his attitudes towards the Peace Faction aren't much better. It's odd that Michael tolerates a Servitor that's only truly s u b ordinate to him, Dominic, Novalis and Yves - but Horace is never called to task for it. Also oddly, Horace's corporeal missions are severely curtailed, again by direct order, so for a while the Mercurian spent a lot of time sitting firmly in the middle of Michael's part of the Groves and occasionally shivering. It wasn't until the Cadre was formed that he started acquiring anything resembling a social life. He qualifies for membership, of course, but does not really belong to what passes for an Inner Circle among them. Still, it's a seeming comfort to him ... and probably even more useful for his mental health. You see, when not with the Cadre (or training in the Groves), the Mercurian spends much of his time on the very outskirts of Heaven, staring out into the absolutely indescribable vista. He's not watching and hoping that something will never happen, though. He's just watching and hoping that Something Will Not Happen Today... ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 07/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 00:26:14 -0400 From: adamiani@umich.edu Subject: IN> Do As Thou Wilt (an exercise in Habbalogic) The South Pacific: "Do as thou wilt," Eli had said, "but be Cool." Egziel remembered this very well. That was the day his life changed from the better: he got to quit his job trying to inspire some sad, bored little housewife with the Wonders of Paper Mache, and got to start livin' the high-life sipping banana daquris on a gorgeous tropical beach in the south Pacific. Single Elohim, no attachments. Sure, there was a twinge of guilt now and then for the fist couple months, but, hey, orders are orders, and soon enough he'd gotten over it. Life was good. He was, however, having a really awful day. "DIE, Hellspawn!" screamed the waiter. "Er... excuse me, sir, but I'm afraid you have a mistake." The waiter also had an Uzi, and availed himself of both. "Ow. That /hurt/," said Egziel, singing the corporeal song of tongues, and clutching the bullet wounds in his side. "But I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding." "Then let's let God sort it out!" The waiter dropped the weapon and dove for Egziel's daquri, palming something as he fell. Egziel knew this implied two things: the first, his assailant was evidently a very confused Malakim of Eli, and second, he was in for a world of hurt. "Ahhh! No! Not the little paper umbrella! I'm an angel, honest! Watch!" He assumed Celestial form, first to convince the Malakim, and second, because there's no use wasting a perfectly good vessel by standing in the way of one of /those/. As the little paper umbrella flew harmlessly through his celestial form, burying itself in the tree behind him, the waiter screamed "You betrayed Eli, Habbalah!" "For the last time, I'm not a... hey, where'd all those ritual tatoos come from? Man, you leave a vessel on for fourty, fifty years it goes all to seed. Huh. Look, I'll just ascend to Heaven, and then we can have a nice talk about this in front of, I dunno. Dominic or someone, OK?" The Malakim opened his mouth and screached the dischordant tones of the Ethereal song of entropy. Egziel clutched his head in pain. "Hmm. I don't actually seem to be able to get through to Heaven right now old boy. Let's end this, shall we?" Egziel's song of motion grabbed the fallen Uzi and sprayed the Malakim's vessel through with lead. It hurt him to do so, but his assailant wasn't listening to reason, and, well, it's not like he'd be in Trauma very long or anything. Something was wrong. Why couldn't he get through to Heaven? Was it possible something had gone wrong? Had he missed some dissonance in the middle of one of the parties? Was he now outcast? Eli did not respond to his summons, and he knew, with a sinking feeling, that he was now a Habbalah. Which left the question of how to get back into Heaven's good graces-- and more precisely what he'd done to get out of them in the first place: afterall, he was only following orders from his Archangel. He sat down for a long while to think, before coming to what should have been obvious in the first place. He had followed the first part of Eli's instructions to the letter-- "Do as thou wilt"-- but he had forgotten the all important second part-- "but be Cool." There was, therefore, only one solution: Egziel had to be Cool, at all costs. Unfortunately, the Seraphim council didn't grant words to Habbalah, so the first thing Egziel had to do was get rid of Rex... Heaven: A rather annoyed Malakim woke from microtrauma with a start, and shook his head as he looked around. "Tough Demon?" said a kindly Cherub of Destiny, handing him a Celestial Asprin. "Egziel. Habbalah. Used to be one of Eli's" Grunted the Malakim. "No kidding, tall guy, hung out with Vediel, Fated to become Demon of Wannabes?" "That's the one." "Tsk. Such a shame..." -ALD (Who has been away from proper net access for a large part of the month) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 21:27:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Next Month's Theme - --- Charles E Smith wrote: > So everyone, what's next month's theme? Are we going > with the idea of new > Superiors after all the current ones have perished? Err, OK. I was actually doing just a normal Heretical Superior, but I guess that I can let it go for a month or so... Moe ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 07/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 21:37:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Do As Thou Wilt (an exercise in Habbalogic) - --- adamiani@umich.edu wrote: > The South Pacific: > Well, _that_ was weird. It made me laugh, though. A laid-back Habbalah. The mind reels... ;) Moe ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 07/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 22:17:52 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re:IN> [Fantasy] Outside, looking in (part of the other stuff I'm doing) - --- james walker wrote: > > > Great take on Orcs, Moe. Thanks: I appreciate the praise. Just bear it mind when you read below, 'kay? ;) > Of course, most of the traits of Orcs - black blood, > bandy legs, hatred of sunlight etc - occur in humans >as the result of (correctable) medical problems. A >Virtuoso with the Corporeal Song of Healing might >well be able to rebuild an Orc into an elf, and if >not, a Superior should be able to by removing the >Disadvantages. Failing that, a selective >assassination campaign to eliminate the Orcs with the >most 'orcish' traits might eventually breed the race >back to something resembling their original form. Ah. You know, in the Fantasy world that I'm groping towards, some of the more progressive members of the Host suggest the first half as a course of action... and yet they wonder why the Orcs hate them even more than the rest of Heaven. Well, it's not too surprising: I mean, the Reconstructionalists don't really consider themselves as being just as genocidial as the War Faction. They just want to _help_, right? Only an unreasonable entity would read the s u b text as "everything that you and yours have ever been was unclean, everything that you and yours are now is disgusting, and nothing that you and yours will be in the future will be worthwhile - unless, of course, we condescend to warp your progeny into a form more pleasing to our sensibilities". Corporeal beings can be so _touchy_, no? :) Moe ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 07/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2350 ********************************