in_nomine-digest Wednesday, December 12 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2479 In this digest: Re: IN> A New Soul in Heaven 2 Re: IN> Resisting and Contests IN> Admin: Testing, Testing Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing IN> Retribution, illumination, relocation IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing IN> The saga begins... Re: IN> The saga begins... Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing Re: IN> The saga begins... Re: IN> The saga begins... Re: IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) Re: IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) Re: IN> The saga begins... Re: IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing IN> Yeah, I'd like to own this. How could you tell? IN> introducing and saying Hi! Re: IN> Yeah, I'd like to own this. How could you tell? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 17:04:53 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> A New Soul in Heaven 2 At 12:27 AM -0800 12/9/01, Vaughn Romero wrote: >P.S. Anyone else notice that plot and a 10k limit do necessarily go hand in >hand? Ah, but an elegant brevity of style is good practice! Really! (For those who want to go above 10K, there are web-pages and URLs. And probably back-alley deals with the INC maintainer for chocolate and a smile... O;> ) (Fun stuff, though. ) - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 16:53:29 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Resisting and Contests At 2:27 PM +0000 12/8/01, Stephen McIlvenna wrote: >Apologies is there is a published answer somewhere, but I haven't been able >to find it. > >When a resistance roll is allowed to avoid a celestial power is their a >standard rule for deciding if is a Contest is invoked or the target simply >has to make their resistance roll? No -- the descriptions in the resonances are there. In GURPS IN, I tried to use the LCant terminology of negate/contest, but the main book doesn't do that. So you can negate a Balseraph's resonance, but must Contest with a Habbalite's. >check digit (p. 147). But what about others - particularly Calabim and >Impudites? I think both of those are Negation -- the phrasing is suggestive, as is the fact that Habbalah were _specifically_ stated to need to beat the check digit too. - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:44:42 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing Haven't seen any email today, let's see if we're all quiet or if something's wrong... - --Beth, List Admin http://www.sjgames.com/in-nomine/listrules.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:42:14 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing Well, *I* got the test message. Earl ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:19:27 -0500 From: EDG Subject: IN> Retribution, illumination, relocation Gates Relic Nobody really knows who invented these; there are arguments for angels of Stone, angels of the Wind, and a very lazy Eli. Whoever built them, they're extremely useful - if you know how they work. A Gate is a set of two large concentric rings - on the order of fifteen feet in outer diameter, and twelve feet in inner diameter - with seven small locking devices around the circumference and a small, sturdy base. Gates are typically made of thick, rugged stone, although two are known to be of a silvery metal, and at least one is crystalline. The operation of a Gate is fairly simple: stand it upright (very important - otherwise it's impossible to calibrate), make sure that the locking devices are calibrated properly (which will cause the interior of the Gate to shift from transparent to a view of the scene you'd see if you were looking out of the target Gate), activate the Gate with one Essence (per use of the Gate, not per person using it), and step through. The process of transportation is completely painless and instantaneous, regardless of distance - and there's no known distance limitation. Of course, to return, you have to find a Gate that's calibrated to the one you just stepped through. (Which is easy enough to tell: just lay your hand on an inactive Gate and concentrate, and you'll receive an image of the general location of the target Gate. This doesn't work with active Gates, though.) One further note: you can't link more than one origin Gate to a single target Gate. There are a few limitations to Gates. First, only living, organic matter will go through by default; anything inorganic or nonliving will simply go straight through as if the Gate were not active. This can be avoided if the inorganic matter is carried by a creature, who must spend 1 additional Essence per five cubic feet of inorganic matter he wishes to carry through. Second, any given Gate can only target one other Gate, which target is determined when the Gate is created. Third, a Gate requires 10 Essence to stay open for one minute, after which it shuts down and cannot be opened again until it has replenished its power (at the rate of 1 per day, into the 10-capacity Reliquary built into the base); it can, however, be manually recharged by pumping Essence into it. Fourth, a Gate creates a disturbance equal to the number of Forces that are passed through it, at the moment that the Gate closes. Fortunate, then, that Gates are unbreakable. There are seven known Gates in existence. Two of them are linked to each other, and are located in Uluru (in Western Australia) and the ruined city of Timbuktu. The other five are linked in a cycle (which is to say, each Gate is linked to the next in the sequence, and the last links back to the first), of which the locations of only three Gates are commonly known: atop the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan (which demonstrates that Gates can be *moved*, if only with great difficulty - its original location was at an oasis in the Mexican desert), at the (flattened) pinnacle of a Chinese mountain, and the rarely-discovered Gate Pavilion in the Eternal City itself (which serves to demonstrate that it is possible for a Gate to span realms), hidden away among the many storefronts and apartments of Marc's Bazaar. Proceeding through this Gate leads to a cave in southern France; it takes only a light source and a Perception check to notice the crude replica of a Gate on the wall, as though the people who lived here were trying to invoke the power of a Gate. (With a successful Gate Lore check (see below), a perceptive character will realize that the crude replica actually represents the outline of the inactive Gate built into the wall; successfully aligning the seventh locking device leads to an underwater Gate in the drowned city of Atlantis, which itself leads back to the Pyramid of the Sun.) (An interesting fact to note is that the Gate in China forbids *anything* physical; only celestials in celestial form can pass through. Likewise, the Gate in the Eternal City will not allow anyone without a vessel in potentiality to pass.) (Gates are large and powerful relics, and given some of their properties should only be creatable by Superiors. While knowledge of them might be a reward from a Superior, a Gate should never be given out.) Gate Lore (Intelligence, defaults to -6) Gate Lore is exactly what it sounds like - knowledge of the location and operation of Gates. Gate Lore is necessary for divining the existence of the cave-Gate in southern France (if a character does not have this skill, no default roll is allowed in this instance); an additional application is that if the character makes a successful Gate Lore roll at -2 while touching a Gate, he can determine the last person to pass through the Gate. (This allows non-skilled checks, but the default is reduced to -8.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 17:55:42 From: "Michael Cleveland" Subject: IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) "WOOHOO! Damn, it feels good to be a gangster!" Muriel looked over at Laris, who was taking their newly 'acquired' car for a 'test drive'. "Laris, although I share the sentiment, I don't think those are quite the words I would have used. Remember, _we_ are the good guys after all. Gangster implies -" "That we're bad little mothers who bust people up, which is precisely what we did. You need to relax, Muri. Just lay back, enjoy the scenery, and leave your troubles behind. We've done our assigned duty for Heaven -" From the back seat, "Wiped out a Tether of The Game, got a download of their data files, stole -" Laris turned his head to look back at the lounging cherub as he whipped around a corner. "Redistributed is a better way of thinking about it, Jack. They weren't meant to have all that stuff, and their vessels were dead, so..." "So we gave it all to the Wind for them to worry about. It's still theft, but in this case it furthers an Archangelic Word, so I think we can forgo mentioning this to Dominic when he shows up in... let me think..." The seraph cracked a smile. "Four days. Four _whole_ days of peace and quiet." Laris beamed. "I told you this plan would work. There's nothing to it. Dominic can't possibly get upset with us this time." He frowned for a minute. "At least, I don't think he can. Let's go over the checklist again one more time." Jack pulled out a notepad. "Which do we go over first - things we needed to do, or things we were told not to do? I'm thinking we go with the 'Thou shalt not' list first. Muriel?" Muriel nodded. "I'm relatively confident that we either followed it or have extenuating circumstances for everything, but let's be sure. Rattle them off, Jack." "Ok... 'Thou shalt not shoot at the Game Tether'." "The Habbalite did that, not us. Check." "All right... 'Thou shalt not pick fights with the Tether Staff'." "They attacked us first. It may have been after the bomb exploded, but they threw the first punch." "Right - check. 'Thou shalt not strap a bomb to your vessel'. We may get in..." Laris chuckled. "I gave all the dynamite to the Habbalite. Those were just road flares." Muriel glared at the Ofanite beside her. "You mean to tell me that you lied to us? Why you..." "You didn't ask. You just assumed, and therefore that's one less thing we have to worry about." Jack shook his head. "All right, all right. 'Thou shall not flirt with the local demons'. Muriel, I think that you're going to have a serious problem with that one. That's pretty straightforward, and you broke that one right out. We'd better -" Muriel smiled as she leaned back in the chair. "I didn't flirt with him. Swear to God." "Then how do you plan to explain that you ran off with that Balseraph of Lust and didn't come back for six hours? That speaks for itself, Muri." Muriel closed her eyes, still smiling. "I didn't flirt with him." Laris reached into his pocket and pulled out a tape recorder. "'Please, be gentle. I've never done anything like this before.' Now Muri, you can't tell me that you weren't lying on that one. I know you too well, and you're dead to rights on this one..." Muriel smiled a bit more. "I've never convinced a Balseraph of Lust into giving me the address and recognition passcode to the Tether of Lust in Birmingham. That's what I said I'd never done before. You took it the same way he did, and it worked." The three chuckled as they raced over a hill. "All right, cool. Next on the list is that we weren't to gamble with Judgment funds. Laris, you're gonna get fried on that one, unless you've got a good way to explain how you came up with that ten grand from operating expenses." The Ofanite yawned as he blazed throught several red lights. "There's fifty thousand dollars in the briefcase on your left, Jack. I needed the ten grand to hire someone to follow that Lilim to her house. Thursday night I went and told her that if she didn't pay up, I was going to tell the Malakite in the car that she wasn't a Mercurian I knew." Muriel shook her head. "Let me guess - she didn't know that you didn't have a Malakite with you. That's cold. I like it, mind you, but you still lied to her." She blinked a few times, then -"But that means that we weren't gambling with Judgment funds, so we can cross that one off. Good." Jack spoke up. "All the rest of the stuff on this list we didn't break, so we should be fine. As for the list of accomplishments, I think we should hold off on that for a few minutes." The seraph looked back at the cherub. "Jack, is there something I'm missing here? We should be having fun, for crying out loud. We've got a souped-up cherry red convertible, we've got spending money to last us until Dominic comes calling, we've got enough essence and ammunition to fend off any demons we come across, and we've just destroyed a Tether of The Game and strengthened the Word of Judgment. What could possibly be wrong here?" "Well, you know how I'm attuned to the two of you all, right? Well, my resonance is telling me that we're under active surveillance. Right this very second. Now, I'm not sure about you all, but this puts a minor damper on my spirits." Laris spoke up, "Man, you've got to be mistaken. The folks at the Wind Tether gave us this car, so there's no way that we're bugged. They swept the car, so there shouldn't be any bugs on us or anything. That's just got to be..." Jack shook his head. "No, it's not a bug. It's an attunement. I'm not sure of the source yet, but I've got a bad feeling about this. What was it you were saying a minute ago, Muriel?" Muriel frowned. "We've got a car, we've got money, we've got guns, and we've..." She paused for a moment, the color draining from her face. "And we've just destroyed something that had deep personal significance to a very strong, very ornery, and very possessive Djinn. Oh, _bless_. And it's going to be four days until we can make contact with Dominic. Oh, this is bad. This is... how far to the closest Tether?" Laris thought for a second. "About 60 miles behind us. It'd be the Wind Tether we just came from." Jack shook his head. "Whoever's attuned to us is about 50 miles behind us. We don't want to go back to that one. Where's the next one that we can get to?" "About 3 hours from here - it's a small Tether of War. It'd be an unpleasant trip, but they'd probably help us if we could get there. But I don't think we're going to pull it off that easily. We've only got about 20, maybe 30 more miles before we'll have to stop for gas. Once that happens, the fellow that's following us will start catching up to us." "Laris, didn't I tell you to put more that five bucks worth in?!" "I tried. They couldn't change a hundred. Sorry." (to be continued) Michael Cleveland Gulf Coast Geotech _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 19:49:42 From: "Charles Glasgow" Subject: Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing >From: Elizabeth McCoy >Subject: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing >Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:44:42 -0500 >Haven't seen any email today, let's see if we're all quiet or if >something's wrong... I haven't seen any either, and barely any yesterday, but I read you five by five. - -- Chuckg _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 11:54:41 -0800 From: Daiv Subject: IN> The saga begins... As many of you know, back in May (remember May? theres a song about May...) I got victimized by the Demon of Layoffs (or possibly the angel of a better freaking job!) Well, as Posted some time ago, I got a gig with the local county, temporarily working for the elections department. Yay. But now, I am also working, from home, as Tech Support, for a company that does software and hardware for Palmtop Computers. My commute consists of going from the bed to my computer. My uniform is a kimono. On cold days. On warm days, i wear... less. The official department motto to be "Yes, My Master." I am Darth Bob*, Sith Tech. -Daiv, Wondering if Tech Support is a Superior Level word (and if so, what do Malakites get?) *Read the Newsgroup alt.tech-support.recovery FAQ to understand why all Tech Support are called Bob (or Bobette) - -- hammer and anvil fire sweat iron and breath forging destiny ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 15:09:41 -0500 From: EDG Subject: Re: IN> The saga begins... Bobiel Elohite Archangel of Customer Relations "The world needs a minor upgrade. Please hold while I transfer you to our technicians." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 15:41:48 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing At 7:49 PM -0500 12/11/01, Charles Glasgow wrote: >>From: Elizabeth McCoy >>Haven't seen any email today, let's see if we're all quiet or if >>something's wrong... > >I haven't seen any either, and barely any yesterday, but I read you five by >five. I guess that my scrutiny caused it to stop sitting on messages... - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 16:04:54 -0500 From: EDG Subject: Re: IN> The saga begins... Sorry 'bout that, folks. - -EDG Bobiel Elohite Archangel of Customer Relations "The world needs a minor upgrade. Please hold while I transfer you to our technicians." You'd be surprised how old Bobiel is. Ever since the first angel had a complaint about anything, the Word of Customer Relations has existed - and Bobiel stepped in to take charge almost from the outset. He's the embodiment of dispassionate, impartial customer service, always making sure that the customer gets what they want without undue stress on the company - be it a store, a corporation, or Heaven itself. It helps that his main ally, Marc, is a Mercurian. DISSONANCE Servitors of Customer Relations are tenacious. Letting go of a problem before it's fully solved inflicts a note of dissonance; this can be removed by following that problem until it *is* fully solved. CHOIR ATTUNEMENTS Seraphim: Seraphim of Customer Relations automatically know the full support history of anyone to whom they are talking about a problem. Cherubim (restricted): Cherubim serving Customer Relations get an add-on to their resonance; they don't need to make a check to see if they can attune to someone, but the only information they can get is how far along the person is in the customer service/tech support process, and the attunement disappears as soon as the person's issue is resolved. Use of this attunement is optional (the Cherub may employ his normal resonance as normal). Ofanim: Ofanim serving Bobiel are his technicians. Simply by touching a mechanical or electronic device, they can determine one problem per Ethereal Force (going down in scale, starting with the most serious first), including software issues, and the nature of its solution. Malakim: Malakim of Bobiel, always detectors of honor, can tell the reason for any customer support issue they hear or read (whether the customer genuinely wants a repair, desires to get money out of the situation, or wants to sully the company's reputation, among other things). For this reason, they gain a +2 on all reaction rolls in a customer relations situation. Elohim: Bobiel's Elohim fairly radiate peace, much like Novalis's Seraphim. Nobody speaking to these Elohim through any medium (including letters and email) will get angry about a customer service or tech support issue, unless they make a Will roll with a penalty of the Elohite's Intelligence. Kyriotates (restricted): Kyriotates of Customer Relations can possess any mechanical or electronic device which they know has a hardware problem. While doing so, they can use the Corporeal Song of Healing on their host in order to solve hardware issues (but not software issues); the number of healed hits required to solve a problem is at the GM's discretion. Mercurians: Bobiel's Mercurians know what any customer they come into contact with (personally, over the phone, or through written communications) is willing to do in order to solve their current issue. SERVITOR ATTUNEMENTS Mr. Fix-It: This attunement allows its user access to the Solutions Database, containing the solution to every problem a servitor of Customer Relations has fixed, in the form of a laptop computer. This computer can do nothing but access the Solutions Database, and is a corporeal item; if it is destroyed, the angel must pay for this attunement again in order to replace it. All angels of Customer Relations must take this attunement at creation. Hear No Evil: An angel with this attunement is never misunderstood, so long as he is speaking in a language that the listener understands. Essentially, the listener hears what the speaker *intends*, rather than what he actually *says*. For three Essence, an angel with this attunement can grant this clarity of speech to another person, for a number of days equal to the angel's Ethereal Forces. (Note that this is not always a good thing.) RELATIONS Allied: Eli, Marc Associated: Jean, Yves Neutral: All others RITES: - - Bring a customer service or tech support issue to final resolution - - Receive the message that someone is a satisfied customer as the direct result of your actions CHANCE OF INVOCATION: 5 Bobiel is always ready to hear one of his angels out, although it is possible for him to get stretched very thin. Invocation modifiers: +1: A laptop connected to the main Solutions Database +2: A human customer service or tech support agent (other than the invoker) +3: A satisfied customer +4: A room full of active customer service or tech support agents +5: A rool full of satisfied customers +6: In the physical presence of the main Solutions Database ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 13:13:41 -0800 From: Daiv Subject: Re: IN> The saga begins... >Sorry 'bout that, folks. > >-EDG > >Bobiel >Elohite Archangel of Customer Relations >"The world needs a minor upgrade. Please hold while I transfer you >to our technicians." > >CHOIR ATTUNEMENTS > >Seraphim: Seraphim of Customer Relations automatically know the full >support history of anyone to whom they are talking about a problem. ROTFLMAO! I love it. Some suggested alternatives. Seraphim (Restricted) Seraphim of Customer Relations automatically get a Check Digit of 6 when talking to a customer, but only with regards to the problem. Thus, when they ask him "have you rebooted the computer?" and the customer says yes, the Most Holy will know that what the customer has actually done was to turn the monitor off and on. Ofanim (restricted): Ofanim serving Bobiel are his technicians. By touching a malfunctioning object, they can use their Choir resonance to find the shortest solution to the problem that they are facing. Note, they will not automatically know what the solution is, until they get to where it is. Thus, it may lead them to the Fix it books section the the nearest bookstore, or to the hardware section of the local radio shack, or to the ammunition section of a local gun shop (for malfunctioning weapons) - -- hammer and anvil fire sweat iron and breath forging destiny ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 21:21:27 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) >"WOOHOO! Damn, it feels good to be a gangster!" Sorry." > >(to be continued) > >Michael Cleveland >Gulf Coast Geotech _bless_ that was good. :) I'll count that as a Happy Birthday present for me, intential or not, because it worthy of it. :P - -Perry perrylloyd@hotmail.com pl312993@oak.cats.ohiou.edu http://www.geocities.com/perrylloyd/ "And that's the hardest thing for a human being to do - be wrong. Do you know that people would rather die than be wrong?" - --from A Matter For Men by David Gerrold _________________________________________________________________ Rejoignez le plus grand service de messagerie au monde avec MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com/fr ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 16:14:11 -0600 From: "Prodigal" Subject: Re: IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) From: "Michael Cleveland" I can't wait to see how this turns out... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 16:16:18 -0600 From: "Prodigal" Subject: Re: IN> The saga begins... From: "Daiv" > > -Daiv, Wondering if Tech Support is a Superior Level word > (and if so, what do Malakites get?) On the angelic side, it's one of Jean's favored servitors. On the demonic side, it's filled by whatever poor bastard helped out Vapula at the wrong moment. Must develop this further when I have the time... Prodigal Demon of Calling in to Tech Support Without the Product Nearby ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 22:54:15 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: IN> Triad 314 - Crescendo (Pt 1) >From: "Michael Cleveland" > > > >I can't wait to see how this turns out... > Tell me about it! :) Thanks, Michael! I suspect I -will- enjoy the rest of it! - -Perry perrylloyd@hotmail.com pl312993@oak.cats.ohiou.edu http://www.geocities.com/perrylloyd/ "And that's the hardest thing for a human being to do - be wrong. Do you know that people would rather die than be wrong?" - --from A Matter For Men by David Gerrold _________________________________________________________________ Rejoignez le plus grand service de messagerie au monde avec MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com/fr ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 23:30:52 +0000 From: "Janet Anderson" Subject: Re: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing I don't know about anyone else, but I'm just quiet. Janet Anderson _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 15:53:28 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Yeah, I'd like to own this. How could you tell? - --- Charles Glasgow wrote: > >From: Elizabeth McCoy > >Subject: IN> Admin: Testing, Testing > >Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:44:42 -0500 > > >Haven't seen any email today, let's see if we're > all quiet or if > >something's wrong... > > I haven't seen any either, and barely any yesterday, > but I read you five by > five. I guess that I'd better repost yesterday's offering, then. Moe Demon Hunt Both Heaven and Hell have always worried that, someday, some sort of unambiguous evidence would appear that would reveal the War to the mass of humanity. It's just that nobody ever expected that it would be shrink-wrapped - or available in any computer store with any pretensions towards coolness, for that matter. This unlikely camel's straw is a new video game called Demon Hunt. The premise is fairly straightforward: the protagonist plays a human that goes off on missions to take down an escaped denizen of Hell. Simple enough, and harmless ... theoretically. Unfortunately, the problems with Demon Hunt (from the average celestial's point of view) are convoluted, dangerous and all too concrete. The first problem is that the types of demons involved are instantly obvious to anyone with a fragment of knowledge about the War. It doesn't go so far to use the names Calabim, Habbalah and/or Shedim... but calling them 'Entropies', 'Whippers' and 'Slavers' isn't fooling anybody in the know. Worse and worse, they act like their inspirations. Whoever wrote the code for this one either had extensive experience with all three types of Infernals or else managed to grab the War Faction's training manuals on the recognition of same, or possibly both. The second problem? This game is sharp. The code is clean, elegant, with no bugs. The soundtrack kicks serious ass, you'd swear that the AI engine is actually thinking, the various boards are well designed and tricky and the action is fast and furious - - and that's just the freeware version. The full game offers a multi-player option and a plethora of missions, ranging from standard 'shoot everything that moves' to 'search and contain the one Slaver in an airport without anyone else noticing'. In other words, it's almost physically addictive. With the above two problems in mind, the third one almost pales in comparison. Almost. It would seem that the designer apparently had managed to 'borrow' some reference materials from Jean, as well as from Michael or Laurence. There's a lot of gadgets available that can detect, kill and/or capture demons, and most of them have direct analogues to items that Lightning has been quietly sitting on for the last few decades 'until the time is right'. The revelation of this has notably increased the noise level in Council meetings lately: the War Faction has been not quite politely inquiring why they weren't told about these fun new toys, at least, and they haven't been liking the answers. In short, Demon Hunt, despite the soundtrack (which has not yet revealed any sort of hidden metaphysical meaning, despite constant playing by dedicated researchers), has the potential to be one of the most useful demon-hunting tools Heaven's ever seen - and it retails for $39.95. Unfortunately, eventually someone's going to put two and two together and come up with 'Hey! These buggers are actually wandering around!' - then proceed to post this epiphany on every computer board that he or she can access. This will be bad. The last thing anybody needs is even a distorted version of the Truth out there. Hell doesn't want to be shot at and too many of Heaven's defense strategies require a human populace that won't joggle their collective elbows. This, of course, will explain neatly why the PCs get involved. A little back-story seems appropriate, here. Obviously, either disaffected Servitors of Lightning or Technology are up to their eyebrows in this problem: astoundingly, the obvious answer is perfectly correct. In fact, it's the fault of disaffected Servitors of Lightning and Technology. You see, once upon a time there was a certain Outcast Ofanite of Lightning (Camiel) who got that way from arguing one too many times that the Archangel of Lightning's policy of suppressing anti-demonic devices among humans, well, sucked. Normally, Jean probably would have just reassigned the Servitor, but it really isn't a good idea to give even an Elohite Superior the finger. At any rate, while wandering around Camiel ran into Mariel (no relation), Renegade Lilim of Technology. Mariel's own revolt against the system wasn't nearly as ideologically based as Camiel's: she just liked being Queen of the Geeks too much to want to bother with corrupting any of them. Her innate ability to epitomize the sleepless nighttime fantasies of every computer nerd out there wired to like girls was netting her a much more fulfilling life than working in some stupid Infernal lab would, after all. Alas, Vapula disagreed. The Lilim was trying to quietly gather enough cash to decamp to greener pastures when she ran into (literally) the Ofanite. It was a match made in somewhere: both Camiel and Mariel are wizard computer programmers, and they more or less hit it off from the start. Camiel wanted to get humanity to be prepared for the inevitable day that the War went public, Mariel wanted lots and lots of cash - and both were in agreement that anything that screwed over Calabim, Habbalah and Shedim was a meritorious act in and of itself. Demon Hunt was the eventual result. A mass posting of the freeware version (coupled with the successful pitching of the product - via an otherwise worthless cutout - to one of the few software companies not even slightly influenced by the Media) followed. Then the two packed their laptops and got the Hell out of Dodge. Finding the authors of this little unfolding disaster may be somewhat difficult: they both know damn well that people will be looking for them, and they have no intention of making the exercise easy. Tracking the cash will end at the cutout: from there, it will take a certain amount of digging, legwork and judicious resonance use to follow the trail, 'aided' no doubt by the various other entities looking for the pair. Bear in mind, of course, that the other teams may not have the same aim in mind as the party. Eventually, dedicated searchers will find the pair comfortably ensconced on a very nice tropical beach, sipping tropical drinks and idly watching the horizon like a couple of paranoid-yet-contented hawks. It all depends on who catches up with them first, you see. Michael would be optimal, followed by Nybbas, Janus and, oddly enough, Furfur - though the last that might just because of the secret levels. You see, there's a boss level where you get to go up against (and eventually extinguish) a really ugly Entropy covered in flames... ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 11/13/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 19:14:54 EST From: MiaSeraph@aol.com Subject: IN> introducing and saying Hi! - --part1_42.1edcd85a.2947fb7e_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Just wanting to say hello and welcome myself to this free flow of Ideas...((hope this doesn't cause any discord hahaha)) - --part1_42.1edcd85a.2947fb7e_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Just wanting to say hello and welcome myself to this free flow of Ideas...((hope this doesn't cause any discord hahaha)) - --part1_42.1edcd85a.2947fb7e_boundary-- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 21:39:21 -0500 From: "Josh Moger" Subject: Re: IN> Yeah, I'd like to own this. How could you tell? You see, there's a >boss level where you get to go up against (and >eventually extinguish) a really ugly Entropy covered >in flames... > Snip Ooooo.... will the sequel have the Malakite power-up? Josh Moger "If man can make a little mustachioed Italian plumber spit fire balls... man can do anything." ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2479 ********************************