in_nomine-digest Tuesday, October 9 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2406 In this digest: Re: IN> In WoD: The Hunters part 1 Re: IN> Michael (variant) IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams IN> Re: Memo concerning Lilim of Fire Re: IN> In WoD: The Hunters part 1 Re: IN> Sundry matters Re: IN>The Eternal Nightmare Re: IN> In WoD: Benedict RE: IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams Re: IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams Re: IN> In WoD: The Hunters part 1 Re: IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams IN> (Horror) New Relic ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 22:46:26 -0500 From: "Prodigal" Subject: Re: IN> In WoD: The Hunters part 1 From: "Charles Phipps" > > To: The Most Righteous Archangel of Judgement, Lord Dominic > From: Your ever faithful Angel of Double Agents, Benedict > Re: The Imbued > My conclusion I fear is inescapable.... > > An Archangel has gone Rogue. Another possibility is that an Archangel has made his way back down Jacob's Ladder in secret, and is acting to purify the human race of the supernatural forces that have entangled themselves to it... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 22:14:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Michael (variant) - --- Manny Nepomuceno wrote: > Hey, > > Now me, I blame Moe for this one. Huh? What did _I_ do... oh, yeah, those two Heretics earlier. > > Michael > Elohite Archangel of War Interesting choice. I liked this one and the Lilim Vapula.* Moe "Thanks for the Cookie, BTW" Lane *Have a Cookie. :) ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 09/28/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 15:19:16 +1100 From: "james walker" Subject: IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams There are a LOT of people who want to escape from Hell. If you don't have a Vessel, the only convenient way out is through Beleth's Tower - not an ideal choice. What makes it particularly unpleasant is the Hall of Screams. Those caught trying to use the Tower Tether without permission are not handed over to The Game - instead, they decorate this Hall. They aren't actively tortured (often) -there's no need. Repeated use of Beleth's Balseraph attunement and NC:Tongue have left the victims with hideous amounts of Discord. There are no walls or shackles - the prisoners are too afraid to leave. They're also afraid of staying, of course; just not quite as afraid. They're incredibly afraid of demons of Nightmares, of angels, of each other... Any change in the Hall - any at all - will result in the prisoners going into screaming fits until the guards correct the situation. There are angels in the Hall of Screams; every now and again an angel attempts to sneak through and is caught. Most end up Falling, of course; some Malakim and angels of Purity remain, twisted by dissonance and Discord. Most have been reduced to one or two Forces; all Malakim have Fear(Demons) at a high level. Damned Souls also seek to escape through the Tether. As they cannot use it, little needs to be done to make their eternal torment worse. Each is given Fear(Hell)/5 and Fear(Demons of Nightmares)/6. They circle the Locus, wailing desperate to pass; and then scatter when Beleth's Servitors wish to pass. If anyone else seeks to use the Tether they will rush up, begging to be taken through, and clinging onto their target with all their might. Each Damned Soul clinging on gives a -1 penalty for using the Tether (normally using the tether is automatic, of course, but dozens of the Damned can hang on). Even if their target is successful, they cannot follow him through, and are doomed to remain here. The prisoners in the Hall are not wasted by Beleth, of course. She finds the Hall a convenient way of storing Forces until needed, and the prisoners are harvested for essence by her Impudites. They are also an excellent early warning system. Many of the demon(lings) in the Hall were hoping to seek Redemption, of course. All though still theoretically possible, this is no longer practical. With several hundred levels of Discord each, no Archangel would look at Redeeming one of these demons; they'd Fall again almost immediately, and no Archangel has the resources necessary to remove all of that Discord while there is a War going on. These would be penitents are well aware of this, and weep to themselves in the corners of the Hall. James. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 15:34:04 +1100 From: "james walker" Subject: IN> Re: Memo concerning Lilim of Fire > Yich. Truly foul. (That's a compliment.) Thanks, Janet! > But if the homeless person fought the Geas, and therefore froze to death > rather than accept warmth, then why would he still have a Geas on him? (Or > did the Lilim just kill him when she couldn't hook him?) Neither; they accept the warmth, the Geas is set - and then they baulked at the cost. If a human delays fulfilling a geas, they don't get dissonance, they take body hits - and this doesn't eliminate the Geas. And that damage cannot be healed until the Geas is fulfilled. Given that Ruby can use her Lilim of Fire attunement, it would be impossible for most ordinary mortals to resist the Geas - their choice is, ultimately, obey or die. James. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 08:29:21 +0100 From: "I. Inayat" Subject: Re: IN> In WoD: The Hunters part 1 - ----- Original Message ----- From: Charles Phipps To: Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 3:48 AM Subject: IN> In WoD: The Hunters part 1 > In my opinion as I will show later the only person that could be > rensponsible for this mass "Great Awakening" (to corrupt a term for > religeous revivals of the 19th century) is one of our own gone insane. > Hmm. One - well, two - groups seem to be in almost permanent contact with the Ministers (the imbuers)... The Hermits have a direct mental connection to the Ministers - the side-effect is a) that they develop a derangement making them withdrawn, and b) the messages get /worse/ around the supernatural. The Waywards have permanent second sight - always on. The side-effect is... they end up with a derangement that makes them violent and desensitised to suffering. Something about 'not remembering how to bless humanity with their gifts' - that it's been a /long/ time since the Ministers actually interacted with humanity. Someone who was around a long time ago, who saw what happened with the first 'imbued', and decided to avoid that trap by empowering the modern day ones with a fraction of their power. Not commanding them, or instructing them... alerting them, and letting their reactions shape what happens next. Unfortunately, there's a catch: as their power increases, they slowly go insane - a limit break, taking the dangerous ones out of the loop, but also taking the /experienced/ ones out of the loop... Someone who's very aware of what celestials do to the Symphony - and so doesn't manifest on this plane. Someone who knows Apocalypse is coming, and so has decided to imbue certain people to mitigate it. It's a cycle... from order to chaos to order to... Someone who has, however reluctantly, decided to 'allow' certain humans to be driven insane as part of the greater strategy - to take out those forces 'ordinary' imbued cannot, to maintain contact with the Ministers. /Balance/. Two sides, two factions. Yin and Yang, Order and Chaos, Mercy and Zeal... Nine different responses. Vengeance against that which has hurt them. Defending something important. Judgment of the supernatural - deciding on the 'lesser' evil. Innocence - reaching out to the supernatural. Martyrdom - personal sacrifice in the name of a greater good. Redemption - saving those who can be saved. Wayward - /genocide/ of the supernatural. Hermit - forced to retreat from the supernatural, forced to /communicate/ what they learn... The key is responding when faced with the supernatural. And those who can't, don't, respond in the face of it... but who /remember/ their encounter. The bystanders. The catch is that this is a world the supernatural seek to rule. In the end, it's about human free will - about humanity choosing their destiny, free from supernatural influence. But are the imbued human anymore? One of the reasons for the Rebellion. Earth was declared hands-off, and Lucifer argued that humanity should be overseen, that celestials would remain superior to them... and if Hell wins, they will have proven their point. The demons /were/ superior to humanity. No interference in their free will. The humans are shown the supernatural - and left to decide what they do next. That's the point. No interference in their free will /at all/. The directive's been taken to a whole new level. Everything the imbued do, they /choose/ to do. So... ambiguous directions and messages, no direct statement of their mission, no direct interference. Global. Repeated. Most Soldiers are six-forces - they have the potential to develop another force. An Archangel working on the scale required of the imbuing would be one who would be able to sacrifice - and recover - a large number of Forces. Hmm. Personally, I'm inclined to say the Ministers - perhaps Archangels, perhaps other entities - are from the Higher Heavens... Imran ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 06:04:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> Sundry matters - --- Manny Nepomuceno wrote: > Re: the Songs of Blood > > Thanks for the feedback (and praise). Thanks to Michael > Walton for the > heads-up about the Songs of Blood already existing in > canon...to be quite > honest, though, I'm stumped as to what to call the Song. Songs of Gore? Songs of Bleeding? Songs of Sanguinity? Where's a thesaurus when you need one? 0:> ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 "The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer." - -- Fremen saying __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 06:16:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN>The Eternal Nightmare Oh, yeah, PC's will want to kill this guy personally. Thanks for the target! ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 "The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer." - -- Fremen saying __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 06:29:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> In WoD: Benedict - --- Charles Phipps wrote: > Benedict > Master of Law/Baron of Justice > Elohim of Judgement/Habbalah of the Game > Angel of Double Agents/Demon of Double Agents This guy is thoroughly messed up. Should be fun using him in a game. ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 "The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer." - -- Fremen saying __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 10:19:00 -0400 From: "Adams, David" Subject: RE: IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams Oh jeez, that was quite disturbing. I love it, but wouldn't DP's want their servitors back at some point in time? Dave ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 11:55:06 -0400 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: Re: IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams Wow. That was *nasty*, and definitely something Beleth would think up. An excellent setting for a Horror game. Must remember it... William ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 10:22:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> In WoD: The Hunters part 1 - --- Prodigal wrote: > > An Archangel has gone Rogue. > > Another possibility is that an Archangel has made his way > back down Jacob's > Ladder in secret, and is acting to purify the human race > of the supernatural > forces that have entangled themselves to it... Oooo... I like "B." Either way, this is a really good Innominating of Hunter: the Reckoning. Thanks, Charles! ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 "The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer." - -- Fremen saying __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 10:25:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> Horror Month location: The Hall of Screams This is EVIL. Must use, must use... ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 "The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer." - -- Fremen saying __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 22:06:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> (Horror) New Relic There is nothing Bright about this concept. There is. NOTHING. Bright. About this concept. Enjoy. Moe "Feedback welcome" Lane The Book of Recalling One's Love This charming tome was first crafted by Hastur, a now-deceased Calabite Captain of the Infernal Hourglass and lieutenant of Hatiphas. Designed to ease individuals into Sorcery, these relics can ease someone down the path of Fate s u b tly - and for the best of motives. After all, what could be more selfless than to attempt to bring someone back to life? Needless to say, there are catches. The text of the Book can be interpreted on several levels: a cursory reading will reveal only a somewhat longwinded and baroque discussion on how remembering the dead fondly is psychologically healthy. Most people who attempt to read it will simply shrug and put it aside after a while: the thesis rambles and the language is somewhat overblown. There's too much verbiage for such a simple argument. The odd handwritten scrawls in the back of the Book are faintly disturbing, too, although one couldn't exactly explain why. However, if the right sort of reader - intelligent, curious, fond of puzzles, suffering from the loss of a loved one and fairly ruthless - picks up the Book, he or she will find themselves drawn to read it several times. Every time that they do, the s u b ject may roll against (Perception +4): if he succeeds, he will begin to realize that certain passages are actually s u b tly encoded. Those passages, when looked at in the right manner, will suggest that there are ways to recreate a ghostly image of a loved one. In fact, when looked at in the right manner those passages will tell a person how to go about doing just that: all one needs are some live plants and a few fairly common s u b stances. Sometimes someone will even try the experiment ... and be shocked to find that the method works. Now, this is not the lost loved one (he or she will have nothing to do with the matter at all, actually). What happens is that the relic will scan the reader's mind and turn a Corporeal Force (that's what the plant's for) into a pseudo-ghost that looks like the lost beloved. It won't be perfect ... but it hardly has to be at this point. The smiling apparition will last for a variable length of time (never more than four or five minutes), then fade. If everything has gone properly, the reader will be happy to get another plant and try again. The reader will also be taking 1D6 Mind Hits as a result of the process. She will usually interpret this as simple fatigue and loneliness. Eventually, the reader will take enough Mind Hits to trigger unconsciousness and Ethereal Discord - in this case, a unique (and temporary) one known as Obsession. Those suffering from this Discord will begin to focus unhealthily on a particular concept or action (in this case, the memory of the lost beloved), and must make a Will Roll to do anything that might harm or trivialize the Obsession. At higher levels (4 or above), this becomes 'anything that does not further the pursuit of the Obsession'. Worse, the apparition will stop smiling: it will instead start to look worried and, later, frightened. Eventually it will begin pleading silently ... then begin to look wracked with pain. At this point, the reader will almost certainly begin looking through the Book again for clues - and suddenly come to a revelation about a previously obscure passage. Obviously, the reader's actions have drawn the spirit back from the beyond ... but spirits are too light and airy to thrive on Earth without a body. Clearly, one must be made for the beloved, and the Book can provide the necessary clues - and list of ingredients. Well, its not like house pets are precisely rare, is it? At this stage, the Book will 'explain' how to create a small simulacrum of the beloved: the ritual involves using the mass and life force of a living creature. The pages will very, very carefully explain that the only safe way to go about doing this is to use a non-sentient creature: indeed, it will make it extremely clear that sacrificing a human ru n s terrible risks - and is usually unnecessary, to boot. Most readers, at this point, will probably sigh in faintly guilty relief and go looking for a cat or two. When finally done, the ritual works, apparently stabilizing the 'spirit' in the corporeal plane. It also does another 1d6 Mind Hits to the reader, but that's another story. Unfortunately, the beloved's new form is so ... limited. The Book warns against adding more life force, but by now the reader should be ever so slightly contemptuous of whoever wrote this thing in the first place. It's all becoming so clear, and yet the author felt the need to cover such useful, such necessary, such beneficial wisdom from the rest of humanity. True, many couldn't understand it anyway, but that's no excuse. Adding another cat or two does nothing harmful to the simulacrum: indeed, it simply makes it bigger and gives the beloved some of his or her memories back. Needless to say, what's actually happening is that the relic is telling the reader exactly what she wants to hear: the 'spirit' has no more sentience than a computer program ... but to an Obsessive, that's close enough. There comes a limit, though, beyond which no more life force can be added - well, no more from a perfectly safe source. Anyone who has gotten this far will of course know what the next step would be; the Book's clues are only superficially obscure. Yes, it warns specifically against just this sort of thing, but ... they're so close to being reunited again, forever. There are six billion people outside the reader's door: surely one of them doesn't really deserve to keep breathing. It would be right about now that the aforementioned handwritten scrawls suddenly become quite clear. It would seem that there was at least one previous reader out there that understood what the current one was contemplating, and had worked out a proper methodology to facilitate matters. Very, very good: now, all one needs are the right raw materials... All in all, the Book is quite good at spawning Sorcerers with necromantic aptitude: the 'ritual' is actually a combination of an Infernal Pact and Sorcerous Initiation. When the demon shows up to make a deal, the reader is usually so wracked with Obsession that he will shrug off such trivia as eternal damnation. Besides, the 'ritual' only works after you've ... used up ... a human victim: intent is pretty clear, here. Once the bargain is made, the demon collects the Book, drops off a volume or two of mainstream Sorcerous materials and animates the victim as a zombie with the beloved's face and features. Once the Book is gone, the Discord will quickly fade away, but the new Hellsworn Sorcerer probably won't notice. After all, they're together again. Forever and ever and ever... As a system for allowing someone to voluntarily damn him or herself, the Book is stellar: after all, you can always put it down (any Discord resulting from its use disappears within 24 hours after renunciation of the Book and its works). Hastur rode the acclaim from his work all the way to a Distinction: it was a real shame that he didn't survive to see it become part of Fate's standard arsenal. You see, the Calabite decided to expand the idea. Adult Sorcerers were all very well, but everyone knows that the best time to teach humans is when they're young. Unfortunately, Hastur's Heart shattered within 12 hours of his ascension to the Corporeal Plane with a prototype Sorcery grimoire for children. Any doubts about what happened to him were dispelled with the discovery of his savaged vessel found nailed to the door of Kronos' primary Tether. The prototype was presumably neutralized as well, judging from the smoke coming from the vessel's mouth and the distended nature of its throat. Kronos just shrugged. It was probably too early for that innovation anyway: besides, knowing an Archangel's reaction time was useful data, in and of itself... ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 09/28/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2406 ********************************