From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Mon Jun 23 19:11:30 1997 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by pyramid.sjgames.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id TAA32586 for ; Mon, 23 Jun 1997 19:11:30 -0500 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id QAA27916 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Mon, 23 Jun 1997 16:22:47 -0500 Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 16:22:47 -0500 Message-Id: <199706232122.QAA27916@lists.io.com> From: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com (in_nomine-digest) To: in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Subject: in_nomine-digest V1 #225 Reply-To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com Sender: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Errors-To: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Precedence: bulk in_nomine-digest Monday, June 23 1997 Volume 01 : Number 225 In this digest: Re: IN> Charisma IN> Ofanim of Judgement IN> Restraint and Subdual IN> Lucifer's Word(s) IN> Outcasts Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... Re: IN> Character Sheet in PDF IN> The Grigori -- fluff/noise Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... Re: IN> Not exactly a WoD crossover... Re: IN> Character Sheet in PDF Re: IN> Restraint and Subdual Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... IN> Oh JHVH not more about Roles Re: IN> Angels and the Bomb? Re: IN> Screwin' with the Seraphim Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... Re: IN> ...Running a Mixed Troupe. IN> Demographics Re: IN> Calibim of Kronos with Belseraph attunement (Malakim) Re: IN> Screwin' with the Seraphim Re: IN> Ofanim of Judgement [none] Re: IN> Seraphs and roles Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... IN> Rescue: 666 (kinda long seed) Kyriofluff again (Re: IN> Screwin' with the Seraphim) Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 17:12:53 +1000 From: "Patrick O'Duffy" Subject: Re: IN> Charisma Charybdis GreyDragon wrote: > Sex Appeal > >targeted for those-who-like-guys may be harder to figure, but > >likely has things to do with a nice voice, muscles, lots of > >hair/bare, sleaze appeal... > > You left out the most important part-- a really cute butt! Cute butt, good chest and attractive stubble... that's what I look for in a guy... - -- Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia Born of Texas bad blood, and found in mine. Sold to a sideshow when she was nine. It always rained in her life. Cinders and silence: the certainty of grief. Pocket book memories. It always rained in her life. No one knew. THE PARADISE MOTEL, "Thumbelina" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 21:04:25 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Ofanim of Judgement Dear List What does the Ofanim of Judgement attunement do? From the write up on page 114 it seems that they can instantly sense Discord, though the Malakim of Judgement paragraph further down suggests that Ofanim can sense Discord in Humans. What use is this? Any Discord that a Human may have is almost certainly not going to be related to any action that a servitor of Judgement might be interested in. Perhaps some Ethereal Discords might make a Human more likely to commit a "sinful", and therefore punishable, action, but they aren't the badges of prior wrongdoing they are for Angels. Thoughts/comments welcome Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 21:22:08 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Restraint and Subdual Dear List okay I give up, anyone got any ideas how to deal with subdual damage and restraining in In Nomine?? Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 21:04:22 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Lucifer's Word(s) Dear List I hope this isn't just an echo of previous posts, I have been lurking har too much and not paying enough attention, but another thought from a thread of last week. While Lucifer would have had only one Divine Word, and my favourite is Light, it seems he has at least two Diabolic Word's, being Prince of Darkness and Lord of Lies, althought the second could be a distinction. While this seems a problem at first it is also an illustration of the nature of Divine and Diabolic Words. To put it briefly Divine Words may be metaphoric while Diabolic ones are considerably more literal. As someone commented Novalis is not just the Angel of Flowers, but of all vegetation and additionally her influence covers ideas of Peace and Love too. Gabriel's Word covers much more than just Combustion, picking up aspects of Emotion, Passion and Vengence. Diabolic Words sem to be less broad, and so they should, if you give a Demon anything he will us it against you, so while Lucifer finds it useful to give his Servitors some Power he also knows that he must put limits on it. Of course such rules need not apply to the First of the Fallen. So wishing to keep as much influence (though in the opposite direction) in his previous fields of interest, but also wanting to minimise the precedent he might, set it was easier to adopt a number of Words rather than allow the more dangerous precedent of a single more broadly interpreted Word. Hence the double crown of Darkness and Lies sits well on the former Morning Star. Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 21:07:17 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Outcasts Dear Walter, Elizabeth, Christopher. Kingsly (& List). Wouldn't the Outcast's status be partly determined by how they departed? Example 1. Bob (the Archbishop shooting Malakim) fouls up a few more missions and when he next returns to Heaven is summoned to appear before Michael. Mike explains that for his own good Bob is being released from service to find his way back to Heaven and to a Superior he can better serve. Mike strips Bob of everything that connects them - rites, choir attunements, servitor attunements, distinctions and anything else that Bob gained through his service to Mike. Mike gives Bob a new vessel and then gives him a helping hand (or perhaps boot) back to the Corporeal plane. Example 2. Jane, an Cherub of Lawrence, has been having a hard time. A specialist in surveillance she has had several consecutive assignments where her orders have seemed needlessly cruel and merciless. She attempts to gain enlightenment of the situation from her assigned supervisor, the Angel of Sentries, but is not completely satisfied with his answers. Jane has a crisis of faith and, deciding that she can no longer follow the orders of her Superior, goes AWOL. Since she is no longer petitioning Lawrence for aid she can not use his Rites, though she might still be able to use the Rites of other AA's she has gained access to. Until Lawrence decides to remove her attunements and distinctions she might still be able to use them, though she may not wish to for both practical and spiritual reasons. In both these cases the attitude of the Superior is not necessarily negative. Michael might have tried other ways to get Bob to straighten up and fly right and has only been left with this, admittedly drastic, alternative. It is possible that Jane has been getting orders that were reinterpreted as they passed down the chain of command and that her view was right, something that Lawrence will be interested to hear of when Jane's days in the wilderness are over. Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 08:42:10 -0500 (CDT) From: Donald G Bixler Subject: Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... Well, unless you intend to play solely in Hell, you'll need to buy a Vessel. Oops da Ogre, who hasn't checked the math yet. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 08:32:16 -0500 (CDT) From: Donald G Bixler Subject: Re: IN> Character Sheet in PDF Whoops. Sorry, I thought this was a private message to me. I've gotten several over the weekend. Mea culpa. Oops da Ogre, 1. Open mouth. 2. Insert foot. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 08:55:38 -0400 From: "Kirt A. Dankmyer -- aka Loki" Subject: IN> The Grigori -- fluff/noise At 03:46 PM 6/20/97 -0400, you wrote: >>>> (Admit it, if a big, muscular angel was watching you in bed and giving >you good, helpful tips on making love, wouldn't you invite him to join >in?)<<< > >Uh.....no. Well, I suppose it's a matter of taste, then. *flutters eyelashes* -Loki - -- Kirt A. Dankmyer --- Academic Computing Specialist http://www.wfu.edu/~dankmyka/ -- (910) 759-4202 -- PGP public key available. For the Snark _was_ a Boojum, you see. --Lewis Carroll ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 09:29:19 -0400 (EDT) From: "Paul F. Strack" Subject: Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... On Sun, 22 Jun 1997, Alexander Shearer wrote: > Name: Hypaeos [snip] Look's like a balanced starting character to me. Paul Strack | Madness takes its toll. pfstrack@math.unc.edu | Please have exact change. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World of Darkness Page - http://www.math.unc.edu/Grads/pfstrack/wod.html In Nomine Page: INC2 - http://www.math.unc.edu/Grads/pfstrack/innom/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 09:13:27 -0400 From: "Kirt A. Dankmyer -- aka Loki" Subject: Re: IN> Not exactly a WoD crossover... > Where I live, we're about to play an IN LARP campaign, in a way >similar to Camarilla's - you know, based in your own city and with other >groups in other cities playing as well... I'm just finishing some >touches concerning the LARP adaptation of the rules and we'll go for it. >I just can't wait...! Speaking of which, I'm curious as to how you're doing the In Nomine LARP, not rules-wise (tho I'm curious about that as well), but scenario-wise. I mean, with the Two Obvious Sides, things can get real combative real fast (especially with Malakim around)... -Loki - -- Kirt A. Dankmyer --- Academic Computing Specialist http://www.wfu.edu/~dankmyka/ -- (910) 759-4202 -- PGP public key available. For the Snark _was_ a Boojum, you see. --Lewis Carroll ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 08:30:54 -0500 (CDT) From: Donald G Bixler Subject: Re: IN> Character Sheet in PDF > Hi, > I tried to download the two character sheets in the ressourse section of > the In Nomine web site, but the reader sais that there is an unrecognized > token in both files as well as several parsing errors. Thank you for reading. They weren't in PDF. They are both in the picture format called "GIF"; I don't have them in PDF and don't intend to since I don't have a couple hundred dollars to spend on the encoder. Please check to see that you were trying to view them as the image files they are. If that doesn't work, we'll arrane someting else, but PDF is not an option unless you have a copy of the encoder you wish to donate to me. ;'} > Neat web site by the way :) Oops da Ogre, poor college student ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 09:44:06 -0400 (EDT) From: "Paul F. Strack" Subject: Re: IN> Restraint and Subdual On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Peter Frederick wrote: > okay I give up, anyone got any ideas how to deal with subdual damage and > restraining in In Nomine?? The way I typically handle "subduing damage" is to treat it like normal damage that heals very quickly, e.g. 1 hit per minute. Of course, I only allow players to do subduing damage with appropriate weapons - fists and clubs, not guns and swords. As for restraining somebody, you could do an extended Fighting vs Fighting contest to represent a wrestling match. Keep a running total of the Check digits earned on both sides. Once one side's total exceeds the other by their opponent's Strength, the opponent is pinned and helpless. That is, if you are wrestling an opponent with Strength 5, your total must beat his by at least 5. Paul Strack | Madness takes its toll. pfstrack@math.unc.edu | Please have exact change. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World of Darkness Page - http://www.math.unc.edu/Grads/pfstrack/wod.html In Nomine Page: INC2 - http://www.math.unc.edu/Grads/pfstrack/innom/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 08:41:32 -0700 (PDT) From: nightgaunt@earthlink.net (Alexander Shearer) Subject: Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... > Well, unless you intend to play solely in Hell, you'll need to >buy a Vessel. > Doesn't the Balseraph of Fate (Kyriotate) attunement deal with that? I figure if I have the Kyriotate Resonance, I /can't/ have a permanent Vessel, right? Alexander Shearer nightgaunt@earthlink.net gaunt@uclink4.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 08:46:05 -0700 From: zingaro@peak.org Subject: IN> Oh JHVH not more about Roles Two weeks into my first campaign and had some questions: If a celestial has a role and performs actions that might otherwise disturb the symphony but can attribute it to something hir role would do, then the disturbance is avoided. If my Ophanite has a Taxi Driver role and swerves across three lanes of traffic to make a left turn thus causing a seventeen car pile up, is the disturbance avoided? If my CHerub has a role as a liquor store owner and plugs four robbers with a shotgun, is dissonance avoided? - ------- zingaro@peak.org "What sort of stories does he like?" "About himself. Because he's /that/ sort of bear." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 10:36:45 -0500 From: Charybdis GreyDragon Subject: Re: IN> Angels and the Bomb? [Andre Ribeiro] > I think he's right - Afterall, God Himself ordered the fall of >Sodoma & Gomorra, the Flood and all. They're not disturbing the Symphony >- they *are* part of the Symphony. Since the Symphony is conducted by >God, of course... Unless you want to wax philosophical and say that God *is* the Symphony... Peace, Charybdis GreyDragon karydbis@phoenix.net ** "I have a simple rule. I hope you'll follow it too. Never eat anything smarter than you." ** ** from "The Moose Song" ** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 10:33:29 -0500 From: Charybdis GreyDragon Subject: Re: IN> Screwin' with the Seraphim [Alexander Shearer] > This thought came to me as I was working in lab... > > A Seraphim of Yves walks into my lab, grabs one of my eppendorf >tubes and dabs a bit of its contents on his finger. Now, using his >Attunement,does he sense the "true name" of the contents as: > > A.) E. Coli > B.) DH5-alpha competent cells > C.) Transformation efficiency DH5-alpha competent cells > D.) F, [phi]80dlacZ[delta]M15 [delta](lacZYA-argF)U169 deoRrecA1 >endA1 hsdR17(rk-, mk+) phoA supE44[lambda]- thi-1 gyrA96 relA1 > > ...and, of course, since I transformed it, does it become a new >thing with Su(Hw) 340 @EcoR1 in pBR5 (sk+) added to the name? > > Not that I see this ever coming up in a game, but it did occur to me. Hmmmm... I dunno. This is just a guess, but I would suspect the answer is None of the Above. It's True Name is probably not defined by any human language at all. My guess would be that the True Name is probably whatever the word for E. Coli in Angelic script... Peace, Charybdis GreyDragon karydbis@phoenix.net ** "I have a simple rule. I hope you'll follow it too. Never eat anything smarter than you." ** ** from "The Moose Song" ** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 12:02:10 -0400 (EDT) From: "Paul F. Strack" Subject: Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Donald G Bixler wrote: > Well, unless you intend to play solely in Hell, you'll need to > buy a Vessel. Note that as the Balseraph of Kronos, he took the Kyriotate Resonance, so he doesn't need a Vessel. Paul Strack | Madness takes its toll. pfstrack@math.unc.edu | Please have exact change. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World of Darkness Page - http://www.math.unc.edu/Grads/pfstrack/wod.html In Nomine Page: INC2 - http://www.math.unc.edu/Grads/pfstrack/innom/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 10:43:44 -0500 From: Charybdis GreyDragon Subject: Re: IN> ...Running a Mixed Troupe. [Charybdis GreyDragon wrote:] >> I just wondered about the logistics of Roles... With a relationship as >> strong as a father-daughter relationship, without the father knowing, >> does that mean that the Seraph's vessel really was born as an infant, and >> that she's spent 18 years establishing the Role? [Andre Ribeiro] > Yup, that's it!! Actually, she was adopted - but as a baby. She >did it to learn more about the human world - the last (and first) time >she came down here she ended up in an orgy with two demons thanks to her >ingenuity in... you know... things of the flesh... And that's a 6 >level Role - according to Strack's Role Table, she had to live all her >life anyway... I'm gonna have to go check out that Roles chart, I think... [Andre Ribeiro] > Well, you must've already seen how it's going (see 'The First >Troubles') - the players are having fun - and I'm going nuts to keep the >rules in my head (you know, a new system and all...). Yeah, my first few sessions were a bit hectic too... But my players are good, and I have a long history of established divinity with them from years of GMing for them... So any pauses to double check things have been taken in stride, and any "winging it" that called for reversal later when I realized that I'd messed something up was also taken in stride... [Andre Ribeiro] > I'm perceiving now how the IN universe is so full of possibilities - and to make things >harder (C'mon, I like it!) Harder, but lots of fun... Last night I actually got to play cuz I finally got my husband to run a session... And I really discovered how much I like my Malakite of Eli... Deadly ninja love beads, indeed [Andre Ribeiro] > we're planing to make the next session - the 18's birthday party of the Seraph girl - > LIVE!! It will be in the Djinn's nightclub, Trauma, and we'll all go to a real club to do some >live action... It will be fun and it's going to happen maybe this wednesday... Cool... I've never been much into live action, but that could be fun... I assume you cleared it with the RL club staff first... Peace, Charybdis GreyDragon karydbis@phoenix.net ** "I have a simple rule. I hope you'll follow it too. Never eat anything smarter than you." ** ** from "The Moose Song" ** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 97 12:12 EDT From: Walter Milliken Subject: IN> Demographics [Patrick O'Duffy:] > Good point. I tend to extrapolate too much in comparisons between >Australia and the US. It's easy to assume that all American cities are >sprawling metropolises the size of New York, because that's the sort of >media image that we see over here. Our capital cities are actually >pretty damn big, it turns out, but because they're in Australia, they >can't _possibly_ be as big/interesting/important as a US city. > Reverse provincialism. Ain't it great? I don't think you're the only person to think about things this way. Our media is just as guilty of this sort of problem. I just hope that In Nomine doesn't concentrate *exclusively* on large cities. To some extent, cities *are* more important to celestials -- it's much easier to hide the unusual in a city, and cities include concentrations of individuals with power, who can affect the course of the Symphony for good or ill. But I think it's important that celestials be concerned with "ordinary" people, and not just fight over the souls of Senators, corporate execs, and scientific geniuses. Certainly there should be some of that, but I want to see celestials have enough attention to spare for the local mayor, or an influential teacher in the local school, or just a confused 15-year-old kid who's running away from home. - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 12:50:08 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Calibim of Kronos with Belseraph attunement (Malakim) > > Oh, though while we're on the subject - if a Shedite of Kronos > >takes, you'll never guess, the Balseraph Attunement additionally, to get > >the Kyriotate Resonance..do they get access to the memories, per a > >Shedite, of the multiple hosts they can possess simultaneously, per a > >Kyriotate? Canon: The Balseraph of Fate Attunement is not available to any other choir, sorry about that. Though the description only say 'at character creation', I take that to mean that at the moment the Balseraph chooses to serve Kronos, the attunement takes affect. The secondary but more practical reason is that it opens up a can with an infinite number of worms inside of it. BTW, Balseraphs can't take that attunement twice, either. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | | | The power to tax involves the power to destroy. | | -Chief Justice Marshall | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 14:00:09 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> Screwin' with the Seraphim If I were GMing the issue of the seraph with the test tube, I think the "true name" that the seraph gets would be the best name for use in the next conversation about the bacteria in the test tube. So, if the seraph is talking to a non-technical sidekick, the name might be "intestinal bacteria." ("Oh. Ick.") If it is talking to Dr. Shearer, the name might be "the sk+ culture," or however it would be unambiguously referred to by the folk in that lab. If it is talking to a Servitor of Novalis, it might well use the True and Ineffable Name of This Particular Kind of Gunk, whatever that is. (I guess E. coli comes under Novalis's department, unless and until someone brings in an Archangel of Prokaryotes.) Earl Wajenberg (And, no, prokaryotes are not kyriotates that have lost their amateur standing.) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 12:58:44 -0500 From: tom timberlake Subject: Re: IN> Ofanim of Judgement Peter Frederick wrote: > What does the Ofanim of Judgement attunement do? [snippage]... suggests that Ofanim can sense Discord in Humans. > > What use is this? Any Discord that a Human may have is almost certainly not > going to be related to any action that a servitor of Judgement might be > interested in. > Thoughts/comments welcome weellllll, since you asked....I interpret this to me Dominic's Inquisition extends to cover all of Heaven's "hired help", both Angels and human Soldiers, therefore, we have the Ofanim choir's resonance separate from the Malakim's. An Ofanim can handle a human, but might not be up to handling a Outcast Cherub, so the skullcrusher's sense Discord in Angels [and, presumably, _do something_ about it]. James, Stone Malakim, who is the Mandarin's butterfly to tom timberlake ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 12:36:58 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: [none] On Jun 16, 4:17pm, Tony DeGeorge wrote: > Subject: > I'm gearing up to run a huge game and I have a player nagging me > on a ruling for Gabriel's Servitor Attunement, Dance of Atoms, on > pg. 119. How long does the effect last? Could he enact it and do > something else? How specific can it's area be? A single person, an > object, the entire area in the angel's line of sight? Are the effects or > rising temperature culmulative, that is, do they continue to go up by > the angel's Corporeal Forces every round he concentrates? 'Ambient' refers, in general, to the 'air temperature' of an area. You can only change it by up to the 10 degrees times CorpForces maximum. Things in the area heat up or cool down depending on the difference between their current temperature and the ambient temperature. (e.g. You have a pitcher of water in an area and the ambient temperature is raise 40 degrees. Eventually the water will heat up to the 'room temperature'. If the Attunment is released, the ambient temperature will revert immediately, but the heated up stuff in the area will still have to cool off.) If the angel stops concentrating, the ambient temperature reverts immediately. Even casual concentration is probably good enough as long as the angel doesn't get distracted (combat is a distraction!) too badly. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | | | The power to tax involves the power to destroy. | | -Chief Justice Marshall | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 12:58:19 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Seraphs and roles > Huzzah! I think people are forgetting a lot of the corollary > benefits to a good Role. There has to be a good reason why a Status/6 > Level/6 Role is going to cost half your character points, after all, and I > think some of it's because you don't get a lot of the benefits if it's > only Level/1. (For example, a Millionaire/1 gets a nice gold-colored > credit card that he can flash around, but if someone runs it through a > machine, chances are it'll respond back that the company has never heard > of this person. A Millionaire/6 doesn't have to worry about that so > much.) Kind of like they said...if you're a Cop/6, you have a mug at the > station, other police recognize you, etc...even if, to you, you just > stepped down from Heaven yesterday. Not only that, but you know where > your mug is, can recognize the other police, and `remember' what your beat > is... Don't forget that Status determines both wealth and influence. 'Millionaire/1' doesn't exist as a Role. Or Millionaire at any other level, really. Look at the chart on p. 43 for examples of wealth. You seem to be mixing the _Level_ of the Role and the Status. Level determines how integrated you are in society. Status determines influence and all the nice little toys that money can buy. Example 1: Low level, low status. A guy who walked in one day and got a job as a janitor. If he drops out, no one will really miss him. Example 2: Low level, high status. One of those bright young stars you sometimes see heading up corporations. They come out of nowhere, burn out, and are gone before leaving any permanent mark on things. Example 3: High level, low status. Bob the mailman who has been on that route for a good ten years. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. Once when he took some time off to visit a sick relative (so he said), he got many cards and calls wishing him well. Example 4: High level, high status. President and CEO of OmniMegaGigaCorp. Well known throughout the industry as a shrewd man and tough bargainer. Has his fingers in many pies and knows a lot of people. Dropping his name at the right time can get you into certain parties or get you a cold shoulder depending on whether his financial empire has come into conflict with someone else's. Quite a few writeups can be found in various trade journals and Fortune 500. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | | | The power to tax involves the power to destroy. | | -Chief Justice Marshall | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 13:54:19 -0500 (CDT) From: Donald G Bixler Subject: Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... > Doesn't the Balseraph of Fate (Kyriotate) attunement deal with that? > I figure if I have the Kyriotate Resonance, I /can't/ have a permanent > Vessel, right? Do'h. Excuse me, it was a long weekend. I'm going to go lay down and not post again for a few days... Oops da Ogre, making a fool of himself in public... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 13:00:32 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Rescue: 666 (kinda long seed) [This adventure seed makes some assumptions... Be forwarned.] (For demon PCs!) To start this, the PCs are going to have to be in a fight/ambush where Things Are Not Going Well -- either the GM is going to have to have fiated this (in which case, just say "you're in a battle and things are not going well -- please don't get clever yet or I can't run the rest of the adventure;" desperate PCs will try dumb things), or the GM can use this seed to get the PCs out of a hopeless situation that's cropped up in a game... Anyway, when things have just looked bleakest (the players have rolled their second Divine Intervention; the angelic forces have just hit them with an Ethereal Song of Harmony; and/or their strongest fighter has just gone celestial and is about to become a Remnant in the next five seconds...), Something Happens. An Archangel appears, celestially. After everybody's finished reeling from the Disturbance this causes, the Cherub in question coalesces into one of the more obvious forms of Novalis, the Archangel of Flowers. She looks... upset. Desperately worried. Maybe even crying. If the PCs are smart [smart PCs? That'll be the day...], they'll throw themselves at the feet of the peacenik Archangel and beg for their lives. Otherwise, it's time for a battlewide Song of Ethereal Harmony, which is going to affect all sides -- Archangels don't always care how much noise they make. Right afterwards, the Lady of Flowers cries out, "Don't kill those demons! I need to talk to them!" Well, only Servitors of David or Michael are likely to ignore her, but they're going to be in no condition to do violence anyway... Looks like the demons will get to live. [Have I mentioned that they should be looking at each other, thinking, "Hey, she's the softy!" and wailing for mercy? If none of them have thought of it, give them an Intelligence roll or Perception roll or something.] After a moment to compose herself, Novalis approaches the PCs and explains... It seems that she's recently, well, *lost* one of her Servitors: Shelemiah, a very young Seraph of Flowers who was out on its first Earthly mission. The angels who were working with "Shellie" have just shown up in the Glade, in Trauma; that Shelemiah *hasn't* shown up in Trauma, nor contacted anyone, obviously means that it's been kidnapped! No, no, not destroyed -- Novalis is *sure* Shelemiah is still alive. Somewhere. Novalis thinks Shellie's been taken to Hell. That's where the PCs come in. If they'll agree to a teensie little Geas [Assumption: All Superiors can inflict those, if they wish to.], Novalis will call off the rest of these here angels. She might even offer some kind of bribe -- probably an Artifact of some kind (peaceful, of course; no "itty-bitty pistols" from *this* Lady) or removal of dissonance or Discord, though she might be talked into trading her "dancing" Rite, upon successful completion of the mission. (She's unlikely to bestow Attunements or Distinctions, unless she thinks that they'd influence a demon towards the Bright side of the "Force.") If they don't take on this mission, then, well, Novalis will just have to leave everyone where they left off. Though of course she'd heal up the angelic side of the conflict and give them some Essence, since angels have to stick together. The mission? Oh, yes. Go to Hell -- and bring Shelemiah back. Intact, not as a Remnant or a Balseraph. (Well, if that's all the PCs can find, that will have to do -- but she'd rather have at least a Renegade Balseraph...) The rest will depend on the GM's whim -- who kidnapped the Seraph in the first place? There are several people who might do such a thing (especially Malphas, Prince of Factions, who hates lovey-dovey peacenik Novalis even more than he hates most angels), for one very cogent reason. [Here comes another Assumption:] Shelemiah is Novalis' offspring. Direct offspring, not just the usual "sing an angel into existance" kind of angelic-creation that the Archangels usually use. (Who's the other parent? [Gendered terms for parents are unlikely to matter to celestials, even though Novalis does appear as female exclusively.] No telling who "dad" is -- but Novalis is allied to both Eli and Jordi. Could be either of them, or both, or one of Novalis' high-ranking Servitors...) And while celestials don't have quite human standards for raising children, Novalis is quite fond of her promising young child -- to the point of voluntarily using her Cherubic attunement on Shellie. This is how she knows the youngster is alive, and at least part of why she's so desperate to get the Seraph back. (She may also have had her eye on young Shelemiah for some Word or other in the next few centuries, and be loathe to lose the chance at it.) Now, if you'd been able to find out this little detail (the offspring part, at least), wouldn't *you* want to take advantage of it? You would if you were a Demon Prince... Even the least hostile of the Princes would think of ransom; the more-hostile ones might think of a metaphoric spitting in the eye of Archangels by trying to *corrupt* this Seraph-kid. Malphas, in particular, *specializes* in the destruction of bonds. You think the Shedite Prince of Factions wouldn't leap at the chance to try his Word on a Servitor of Flowers? Even if some other Prince's servants got Shellie initially, Malphas may have taken the angel away... If the PCs aren't going to be able to find Shelemiah easily (or if they try and fail), then one of the angels who was with the kid can come out of Trauma and provide some hints -- kinds of Attunements that were used, names shouted during the battle, tactics, etc. The most likely result -- that Malphus has his hands on Shelemiah -- will have the PCs trying to sneak into Stygia and perform a rescue from under the Princes' noses. If the GM wants to be kind, Valefor may be out stealing something; if the GM wants to be *really* kind, then maybe there *is* good reason for other Princes to be suspicious about why he's got a similar theme to the Archangel of Wind, or somehow, a Wind-sympathizer has infiltrated Theft's very Principality; if the GM wants to be really sadistic, then the other Princes are dead wrong about good ol' Val. Well, if they can manage the rescue, maybe they can ascend out of Hell really fast; if not (Shelemiah is bound by some infernal artifact that keeps it from leaving Hell?), maybe they can drop the angel in front of one of the Servitors of Judgment who keep watch outside Hades... Or cut through Beleth's Tower into the Marches... Or sneak into Tartarus in search of infernal bolt-cutters... Or something equally hazardous. Even if they do get out of Hell "easily" -- where do they go from there? Especially if they have guards chasing them. Better hope nobody gets recognized, either... One interesting thing to remember is that Shelemiah *is* a Seraph of Flowers. [Assumption: while angels do not regain Essence, their Attunements and Distinctions still work.] This means that it's got the standard "peace aura" -- anyone wishing to commit mayhem must make a Will roll, minus the total number of Forces of the Seraph, plus 1 for ever yard apart (until back to normal Will; GM decides when the Will roll is no longer necessary; be cruel, make the effect hit at eyesight range...). Other things to remember: * Shelemiah doesn't understand demonic -- which may interfere with using its Resonance on those speaking the infernal tongue (or may not: "He's lying, but I don't know what he said."); fortunately, most demons know Angelic. * Shelemiah may have been out of Essence when found (angels can't regenerate Essence in Hell), but if given some, can use it normally for Songs or to boost skills and such. * Shelemiah is very young -- this was supposed to be its first trip to the *corporeal* realm; Hell just wasn't part of the youngster's briefing. Shellie's going to be pretty upset at what's happened... And, unaware that it's a "special" child, won't be expecting a rescue. * When kidnapped, Shellie lost a Force in the struggle -- take the stats below, but substitute "Corporeal 1 (Strength 1, Agility 3)." This will reduce the target number for corporeal Songs, but most of the action will probably be celestial anyway. Shelemiah, Seraph of Flowers FORCES: Corporeal 2 (Strength 3, Agility 5) Ethereal 3 (Intelligence 7, Precision 5) Celestial 4 (Will 8, Perception 8) Vessel/1 (16-year old human); Role/1 (teenage kid), Status/1 [4 points] Skills [8 points] Artistry/2, Detect Lies/2, Driving/1, Savoir-Faire/1, Singing/2 [Detect Lies is not redundant -- when your Resonance fails, you want to be able to spot stuff in less than hours...] Songs [24 points!] Harmony (Corporeal/1, Ethereal/6, Celestial/2) [+2 to Check Digit] Healing (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/2, Celestial/2) [+2 to Check Digit] Shields (Corporeal/4), Ethereal/2, Celestial/2) [+2 to Check Digit] Shelemiah is very young, quite naive (even for a Seraph), but is also too innocent to realize *entirely* what kind of danger it's in -- Shellie thinks that the worst that will befall is that it gets destroyed utterly (which is depressing enough!), but that its strength of character will keep it from Tripping or Falling. The GM gets to decide if it's been right so far, gotten a little dissonant/Discordant (it would rather be Discordant than Outcast or Fallen), or actually become a baby Balseraph (though probably a thoroughly ticked-off one). If it's still angelic, it will preach Truth, Peace, and Redemption to its rescuers -- though it's also bright enough to realize that there *are* times when Truth, Peace, and Redemption are not useful, and it should keep its mouth shut. (Like when you're trying to convince a demon jailer that "we're fine, we're all fine here, how are you?") But afterwards, it will bemoan the necessity... ("How can you lie so easily? How does this place even exist, with the perversions of truth, with the violence it harbors? How can you bear being here, when forgiveness and Redemption are waiting for those who only ask???") - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 16:04:29 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Kyriofluff again (Re: IN> Screwin' with the Seraphim) At 2:00 PM -0500 6/23/97, Earl Wajenberg wrote: >(I guess E. coli comes under Novalis's department, unless and until >someone brings in an Archangel of Prokaryotes.) [...] >(And, no, prokaryotes are not kyriotates that have lost their >amateur standing.) ..... Darn. So, if Kyriotates sing three-part harmony with themself, does this mean that they like to sing Kyrioke? - --K.K., Lilim of Kobal ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 14:56:42 -0500 (CDT) From: Thany Subject: Re: IN> Humor me, it's a character... On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Alexander Shearer wrote: > Doesn't the Balseraph of Fate (Kyriotate) attunement deal with that? > I figure if I have the Kyriotate Resonance, I /can't/ have a permanent > Vessel, right? Right. On/off-topic: since Balseraphs of Fate get the choir's resonance and dissonance, would that complicate playing this character? IOW, is corrupting a Vessel considered "leaving it in worse shape than when he found it"? (Argh, another Kyrio question!) - -- "Mass genocide our species or we'll maim yer cat!" ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #225 ******************************* The material here is (C) 1997 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.