From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Wed Mar 11 13:20:48 1998 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 NAA02356 for ; Wed, 11 Mar 1998 13:20:48 -0600 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) id MAA02097 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Wed, 11 Mar 1998 12:53:36 -0600 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 12:53:36 -0600 Message-Id: <199803111853.MAA02097@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 #673 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 Wednesday, March 11 1998 Volume 01 : Number 673 In this digest: IN> In Nomine Flavor Re: IN> Lilith IN> Re: IN- IN> Re: IN- Herding clueless PCs IN> Fate & religion IN> Re: Uriel Re: IN> Old Testament or New Testament Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith Re: IN> Herding clueless PCs Re: IN> In Nomine Over Zero Re: IN> Herding clueless PCs Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith Re: IN> "More, More!" he cries.. (fwd) IN> Seven Players!!!! Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith Re: IN> Herding clueless PCs Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith IN> Film Trailer : Fiat Justitia ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 23:36:48 -0500 From: David Edelstein Subject: IN> In Nomine Flavor >I kinda miss the world view that "Good Omens" gave to the game, that I seem to recall was suggested reading in the main book. A little less of the 'straight' stuff for me please. More fun. More game. More flair. Less 'straight'. Maybe a little 'waviness' or 'curviness' or even 'wobbliness'.< I understand where y'all are coming from. Personally, I feel a little bit the same way, and I am one of the writers. In Nomine was the first RPG rulebook in a long time that made me sit down and read it cover to cover -- no doubt that's how I wound up writing stuff that got me recruited as one of the contributors. But it is hard to capture the same feel as Derek's original masterpiece (badly organized and indifferently inconsistent though it may be), especially when it's now a product of a pool of writers and everything goes through an editorial strainer. The latter is good and bad, good because it weeds out silliness that then has to be errata'd or FAQ'd, bad because yes, it does mean a lot of "flavor" gets watered down. Flavor is a highly subjective thing. I have to admit, though, I remember when Vampire: the Masquerade first came out. It was awesome. I thought it was innovative, suspenseful, and just full of story possibilities. A little too pretentious even then, but it was a groundbreaking RPG. I saw a lot of potential. Having seen where the World of Darkness has gone since then, I can only pray that the same fate does not befall In Nomine. On the other hand, the WoD is still one of the best selling RPG lines of all time. Go figure -- maybe flavor is more important than clarity of writing and internal consistency, when it comes to marketability. - -David ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 07:33:03 +0100 (MET) From: David Skogsberg Subject: Re: IN> Lilith On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, Elizabeth McCoy wrote: > At 8:27 AM -0500 3/10/98, John J Maurer wrote: > > >Speaking of the Biblical thing. There was some suggestion earlier in this > >thread that spoke of Lilith having to go through labor to keep the numbers > >down. Apocraphally speaking, the Lilith of stories gave birth to 100 demons > >every day. I *think* it may have been 200 in some stories (100 Boys and 100 > >Girls). Thats one busy momma. > > Frog eggs. Gotta be. > > No, I am *not* following that mental image to the logical conclusion, > I am NOT. Little green tadpoles? Now I'm getting images from what'sit'sname, _The Legacy of Heorot_ (Niven, Pournelle & Barnes) where all the little fishies sprout legs and grow and grow and _GROW_. And eat people. cd Feeling a bit woozy after three hours of sleep and far too little caffeine and sugar. - -- d97skog@dtek.chalmers.se | cd skogsberg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 23:11:58 PST From: "David Streeter" Subject: IN> Re: IN- Patrick O'Duffy claimed... >I don't think I've made a single change from canon or >the standard rules. Mind you, I don't tend to run long-term campaign, >just longish adventures/ short campaigns, > This doesn't just apply to IN - I usually make no changes in a game >when I run it... which seems to be quite unusual, from what I've > But that's just me. Me too! Must be an Australian thing (is that why the INWO card for Australia is "conservative"?) I have enough trouble tailoring modules for Australia (I ran "No Dinero" set in Redfern, Sydney - it translated quite well). Fortunately, IN lends itself to jetsetting characters (I'm going to leave "Feast of Blades" set in the US). Roles, however, can tie a character to a particular locale - unless they're an "international spy", or their role takes a vacation. SurturZ Dissonant Elohite of Stone (David Streeter, Sydney, Australia) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 00:00:58 PST From: "David Streeter" Subject: IN> Re: IN- Herding clueless PCs >Mine is worse. I told him "Do something -- anything -- or take >dissonance." He couldn't think of anything to do. I slapped him with >dissonance. He seemed surprised. > >What do you folks do when you have players who Just Don't Get It (tm)? In the case of the inactive Ofanim, I would say he has the wrong character. I find making characters for the players a useful way of overcoming these sorts of problems. For experienced roleplayers, you can challenge them with a style of character they wouldn't normally play; for neophyte gamers, you can make characters that match their real world personalities. Here are some common problems & possible solutions PROBLEM: Player is obviously bored - reading a book, not paying attention, or starting to fall asleep. SOLUTION: Wandering Monster attacks player's character. A favourite of my AD&D GM. Gives the player something obvious to do, and gets the adrenaline going. Also an opportunity to reintroduce clues that may have been missed earlier. PROBLEM: Player is dominating the game, at the expense of other players. SOLUTION: Stop player's character in his tracks. Give him a game-time consuming task to perform, and then say "sorry, your character is still doing X - could you make coffee/get beer etc while the rest of the party catches up to you?". PROBLEM: Player(s) have all the clues, but can't make the connections, or decide what to do. SOLUTION: Three steps: 1) Reintroduce vital clues 2) Ask leading questions 3) Tell them the options At the end of No Dinero, the players had worked out that Loki was a player, but had no idea where to go. Since it was late, I went straight to step 2 [WARNING!!!! NO DINERO SPOILERS!!!!] [WARNING!!!! NO DINERO SPOILERS!!!!] [WARNING!!!! NO DINERO SPOILERS!!!!] GM: "How many celestials were actually killed?" PLAYERS: "Two. That cop and our bloke." (angelic party) GM: "Okay, Who killed the Celestials?" P: "Errr. Loki" GM: "Right. Who do the demons think killed the cop?" PLAYERS: "Us" GM: "Who does Malleus and the rest of the angels think killed your bloke?" P: "The Demons" GM: "Your options are 1) Do nothing, in which case Malleus will call in some hard pipe hitting Malakites to go to work on the Demonic tether 2) Help Malleus get mediaeval on some demon arse 3) Try and defuse the situation somehow, and go back to the previous stalemate position. Why did Loki kill those Celestials?". P: "So that we'd fight each other and destroy the tethers?" GM: "Good answer. What are you going to do now?" P: "KICK LOKI'S ARSE!" Okay, it was pretty blatant, but it was late. The free Lilim (masquerading as an Angel of Marc) contacted a Demon of Greed & explained the situation. They found Thor, got his hammer back and whacked Loki. Actually, if they'd stormed the Demonic Tether I would have let them win, at the expense of a more powerful Loki. However, I told them that if they'd have attacked the Tether, both tethers would have been destroyed. Must have a bit of Balseraph essence in me. SurturZ Dissonant Elohite of Stone. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 10:33:00 -0000 From: "Hart, Joanna" Subject: IN> Fate & religion Kevin writes: > Two words, joined by a connective. Balseraphs and religion. This is kinda relevant to something I am planning to work into the next storyline which involves some (mortal) guy who runs a charity suddenly claiming to be able to hear God, gathering loyal 'followers' and PCs getting drawn into investigating. To make it more interesting, the guy will be saying some very sound things [based on a book called 'Ishmael' by Daniel Quinn that I just read and thoroughly enjoyed -- its a philosophy-for-the-masses thing with a nice reinterpretation of the Eden myth] about conservation of the planet and the evils of human culture. Sadly (and as usual) its a demonic plot, a little gift from Kronos to his two allies in the form of a distraction for something else that is going on and a concrete proof that he is buying in to their coup plans. So the protagonist is a balseraph of fate. I don't expect PCs to get as far as that in the first session but... has anyone thought much at all about how you might portray one of those critters? :) jo NB. Re: Thomas Covenant. A dissonant Elohite with very low perception methinks. He lies to himself because he thinks it is the only way to stay sane -- for him, that is the sensible thing to do. He doesn't like those aspects of The Land which seem to be playing on his emotions. Even right at the end, he sacrifices himself for very sensible reasons. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 12:26:52 +0000 From: "Ad." Subject: IN> Re: Uriel > Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 13:28:14 -0400 (EDT) > From: gantr@NKU.EDU > Subject: IN> Uriel, again (long) > > Here you go. Enjoy. (Oh, by the way. If anyone wants to post him on a > web page, I would be more than grateful to have it done. :) ) > Consider it on the web. Well, I'll put it up Saturday night at: http://homepage.tinet.ie/~kellys/In_Nomine/Celestials/Hell/Uriel.html > Rich Gant I'll credit it to: Rich Gant, gantr@nku.edu, yeah? Thanks, Adam, Ofanite of Last Minute Player Recruitment PS: I have 5 megs of web space and I want a big In Nomine page: Send me stuff. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 08:53:21 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Dresner Subject: Re: IN> Old Testament or New Testament > >I HIGHLY recommend the small novella, "Behold the Man" by Michael > >Moorcock. (Yes, the guy who wrote Elric.) If you want to do Jesus > >Christ stuff in your campaign, hop over to amazon.com and order it *NOW*. > >*prodprodprod* It's about 150 pages, not very long, but deep as hell. If > >you don't, you're missing out big-time. > > Hold on a minute. I have here a Sci-Fi anthology (by Don Wollheim, ed.) > from the mid-sixties featuring a longish short story named "Behold the > Man". A most exquisite piece at that. Not the 150 page thing though. > Now, the plot (the constant references to the woman in the present) DOES > lack a bit more development in the background (the present), so I begin to > suspect it was FIRST a novella, and THEN also sold off as a short story to > Wollheim. I wonder. Anyone? > According to the Afterward, the book was originally published as a religious novella in the early 1960's. It was later editted down for size, and added to science fiction collections. Frankly, it's not a very sci-fi book. I own a hardbound copy of the novella, but I have not seen it in stores since. The Novella is about 150 pages. I would suspect that they cut all the scenes with Glogauer's atheist girlfriend in the present, because they have _several_ very long conversations, mostly about her accusing him of being everything from weak to useless. - - Em ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 08:58:46 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Dresner Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith > Mithredath is ignorant of what happened to her boyfriend, an Ofanite of > the Wind. I amn't, because I made the character (Mithredath was actually > a spin-off who I ended up preferring). Since Janus throws a fit every time > she mentions his name, and since he was last seen captured by demons, she > suspects that nothing very nice happened to him. > > I think she'd react differently to Daimon, though, because one of the > things she's worried about is that he (no, not Daimon) might be soul-dead. "Over-react much?" It's one thing when you think about going Bright in the late 1700's because your Seraph boyfriend thinks it's a good career path, get caught, and suffer horribly for him. And then it's another thing to run into him as a grinning Bal of Factions years later. I love icky backgrounds, but even the Jelial stuff makes the hairs on the back of my neck raise. > > > Two? Those are _tiny_ numbers. > > > > Sounds about right. Maybe a dozen at the outside. Honestly, you can't > > get a geas off a dead guy, > > You can get geasa off the people who want him/her dead. > And you can do THAT much better working for someone else. Theft assassins? Fate hired killings? Game Mafia hits? Death is Death. We're talking about zombies, putrification, and demons who think that the epistomology of the physical stages of decay of a human body is interesting dinner time conversation. (Oh, and it is Geasa. I have a new campaign of rightousness!) - - Em ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 09:01:00 -0500 From: Andrew Frades Subject: Re: IN> Herding clueless PCs Casca wrote: > Mine is worse. I told him "Do something -- anything -- or take > dissonance." He couldn't think of anything to do. I slapped him with > dissonance. He seemed surprised. > > What do you folks do when you have players who Just Don't Get It (tm)? I have a similar player at times (he would have fallen by now if he were an Ofanim). Mad Thinkers(tm) need some prodding at times, but it is usually best to guide tham toward a type of character that can act the way they do without generating dissonance. Since you have already got the player with a character that might not be well suited. Personnally I am friends with the gaming group I'm in (not just gaming friends, actual friends) so I would talk to them and explain what my problems were. Don't go into it like an argument, go into it like a negotiation. It is just possible that he has an idea for the character that you might find very interesting. Just remember to keep communication open, the game is more fun and you get a better idea as to what is going on in their heads. Andrew ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 09:09:56 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> In Nomine Over Zero One interesting thing about a reliever/imp based campaign is that, as I understand it, these low-level celestials are not necessarily assigned to a specific Superior yet. I suppose it's unlikely they would be able to acquire vessels, or even get to Earth, without assistance from a Superior, but getting assistance from one is not necessarily the same as being enlisted by one. Also, there's the possibility of campaigning entirely in the celestial or ethereal realms, more or less outside the Superior power structure, as somewhat freelance celestials. Earl ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 09:10:28 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Dresner Subject: Re: IN> Herding clueless PCs > See, this is why many of my adventures turn into rambling, seemingly > unrelated sequences: if the players won't follow the plot, I have to > involve them through RP. This, of course, means a detour, because if I > use it to shove them back along the plot path -immediately-, they'll > recognize it as GM heavy-handedness and rebel. So I have to be > surreptitious about it, which takes time. Eventually, the RP leads them > back to the plot, usually in a manner from which they cannot extricate > themselves cleanly. But it's a pain in the arse because it's more work > for me, effort which would be better spent thinking up ways to involve > the entire party instead of just one PC. This is how I write my notes, and it might help you a bit: I have two kinds of plot points - Event Triggers and Time Triggers. Event Triggers are when a PC does something, or talks to a specific NPC to get specific information. They may NEVER trip an Event Trigger, and get that information, or talk to that person, or get that plot arc. That's not, as a GM, my fault or my problem. Examples like this are police reports from murder scenes, interviewing humans who are in psychatric wards from too many Shedim, that sort of thing. So, for example, talking to the Seneschal of Yves in my last session was an Event Trigger, and several things might have happened behind the scenes because of this. Time Triggers are those based on a timeline. It might be, 'This PC gets lured out to a forest in no man's land, Michigan, and kidnapped by Lust at 8pm on Friday' or 'On Day 5, Gabriel lights the Eternal City on Fire'. (It may or may not actually SAY that in my notes.) Regardless of what happens, those time triggers go off, and the PCs are either there to stop it - usually from getting the above information - or are in the wrong place at the wrong time. So you can feed your PCs information based on what they do. And then you can just go ahead and kill a bunch of friends and relatives because they sat like lumps. Trust me, they'll move their fannies. > > 7 is a /lot/ to my mind. Respect ;) I have enough trouble herding 3 > > (admittedly cool, and very active) players together soemtimes. Yes, I agree. 7 is way to many. 6 is a cap on players. I have two groups. One of 2, one of 4. They both, oddly enough, get roughly the same amount of stuff done. > It's the lumps that are the problems. The Ofanite is a Creationer, so > it's difficult to crack down on him. The only control I have over him is > that during the last adventure, he was foolish with his vessel and lost > his Role due to police scrutiny (never, NEVER kick an Impudite of the > Media in the chest and expect to get away with it if she's seen your > face); to get it fixed, he had to swear to another AA. The Malakite of > the Sword, on the other hand.....well, let us just say that Laurence > learned his Last Lesson quite well, and is about to teach it to his servant. For the Ofanite, Make him FALL............. Andre LOVES Creationers. Trust me. He loves them lots and lots and lots. One long slimy tongue down the throat on a cloudy night, and he'll move his butt. You just have to suck it up and get gross. - - Em ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 14:31:20 -0000 From: "Hart, Joanna" Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith - ---Emily Dresner wrote: > (Oh, and it is Geasa. I have a new campaign of rightousness!) It's doomed. jo (How'm I doing on a scale of 1 to Bal-of-Fate? :) ) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 09:49:02 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Dresner Subject: Re: IN> "More, More!" he cries.. (fwd) Sorry, my response was supposed to go out to the List. This is what I get for answering mail before coffee. - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 08:40:25 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Dresner To: John L Veazey Subject: Re: IN> "More, More!" he cries.. > >one-shots, I think. But I'm just too bitter, too addicted to Nietzsche, > >too into Carl Jung. > > Excuse my ignorance, but who is Nietzsche? I've heard a discussion or two > that mentioned him, but who is he? What did he write? What did he do? Etc? > When I read this last night, I choked on my Coke. :) German Philosopher, 1844-1900. Existentialist philosopher, linked to nihilism, atheism, and in a round about way, Nazis. (Yes, unfortunately, the UberMensch comes right out of _Thus Spake Zarathrustra_.) Wrote endlessly on the death of God, the slave mentality, individuality and the self. A main part of his philosophy was that man must be a part of the world, not outside it, and not spend time clinging to Gods. Died a raving lunatic. He wrote in an extremely spartan style, since theoretically only a fellow 'Superman' would read his works, and hoped that no one would hold him up as a religious figure after he was dead. One of my all around favorite dudes. If you're going to read him, I suggest trying 'Beyond Good and Evil' first. It seems to be the 'easiest' book to try to get a grasp on, but that's not really saying a whole lot. Of course, once you start reading one Existentialist, and you find you like it, then you're doomed. It's all over. You have to read them all. :) Mostly because what one of them says is not what the others say, and everyone has their own take on this whole God thing. I have a book, _Existentalism from Dostoevsky to Sartre_, by Walter Kaufmann. If you aren't ready to sit down and plow your way through _the Brothers Karamazov_, then I recommend this book. It has smallish 20 page selections of the more prominent writings with a little bit of Kaufmann's helpful introduction. [Camus, Dosteovsky, Jaspers, Heidegger, Kafka, Kierkegaard (fav of mine, as well), Nietzsche from 'The Gay Science', Sartre, few others] Also, for a quick overview of the heavy hitters, hit the web site: http://userzweb.lightspeed.net/~tameri/tframes.html I also have a book, _Why I Am Not A Christian_ by Bertrand Russell. But he's not an Existentialist. He's just crass and ornery. :) Russell's God rants are most excellent, there's an essay where he goes off about the 'Deitist' point of view - the whole divine watchmaker bit. That one essay got me turned onto Western Philosophy several years ago. ** Side rant - I did philosophy as my humanities cycle as an undergrad at University of Michigan (we engineers don't get minors, but we have to take 17-20 credits of 'life enriching classes'. Feh.) They wouldn't take my Egyptology classes because, according to the administration, Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphics aren't a language. I disagree, but hey. So I took lots of philosophy. My Introduction to Western Philosophy course sucked. It was awful. For some odd reason, the guy who taught the class believed that modern pop-crap philosophy about artificial intelligence and turing machines combined with some very Classical stuff (and not even the GOOD Aquinas!) makes for a decent background. Not. There is nothing more dull then long 50 page papers on 'are we really seeing the color blue'. Take it from me. Avoid any class that makes you read David Hume, and you don't get the VERY entertaining counterarguments on 'Why Hume Is A Moron'. Luckily I decided to give it another GO after the first poor start, this time with Philosophy of China (300 AD-Present) with Dr. Monroe, and then Philosophy of Space and Time, where Dr. Sklar showed me the way to true enlightment, and biweekly headaches. (Monads? What the hell was Kant THINKING?) - - Em ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 16:28:22 +0000 From: "Ad." Subject: IN> Seven Players!!!! Seven players, somebody has seven players! Arg, I pity them I prefer 3 or 4 as the two perfect group sizes. Five and six tend to get hectic and there is invariably a couple of players left out. Two has problems due to lack of ideas and far less oportunity for inter-playery stuff. I couldn't handle seven. Well, I'm off to finish off preparation for tonight's game... Adam. - -- "The seas boiled and the living envied the dead. All was shattered and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon." - - from: The Breaking of the World, Author Unknown, Fourth Age. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 17:40:39 +0000 From: Kevin Walsh Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith On Wed, Mar 11, 1998 at 08:58:46AM -0500, Emily Dresner wrote: > > I think she'd react differently to Daimon, though, because one of the > > things she's worried about is that he (no, not Daimon) might be soul-dead. > > "Over-react much?" > Where did that quote come from? I never mentioned over-reacting. > It's one thing when you think about going Bright in the late 1700's > because your Seraph boyfriend thinks it's a good career path, get caught, > and suffer horribly for him. And then it's another thing to run into him > as a grinning Bal of Factions years later. > > I love icky backgrounds, but even the Jelial stuff makes the hairs on the > back of my neck raise. > It's very nasty all right. And your part about "even the Jelial stuff" caught my eye. What parts of Daimon's background do you consider worse than that? Mithredath's main feeling, apart from the obvious, is guilt. She thinks she failed her boyfriend by allowing him to be captured in the first place and by not rescuing him, although logic tells her that he was a lot better at fighting than she is, and that when she failed with the assistance of friends, she was hardly going to succeed on her own. Plus the three-day dissonance would have kicked in if she'd hung around longer. > > > > You can get geasa off the people who want him/her dead. > > > > And you can do THAT much better working for someone else. Theft > assassins? Fate hired killings? Game Mafia hits? > I don't know about much better. Servitors of Death don't necessarily have to have such high body counts that they get arrested/hacked to bits by angels within a couple of months. Although certainly they're viable career choices. > Death is Death. We're talking about zombies, putrification, and demons > who think that the epistomology of the physical stages of decay of a human > body is interesting dinner time conversation. > That's Saminga's fault. If a Balseraph were put in charge things would be different. Even a Habbalite would do a lot better. > (Oh, and it is Geasa. I have a new campaign of rightousness!) > The Irish language doesn't capitalise common nouns, so I feel quite sure of myself when I spell it geasa. Kevin Walsh, Balseraph of Nitpicking, Demon of Off-Topic Trivia. - -- "as for their relations with others, that is a long story, but it can be expressed shortly and clearly by saying that of all people we know the Spartans are most conspicuous for believing that what they like doing is honourable and what suits their interests is just." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 12:55:33 -0500 (EST) From: Casca Subject: Re: IN> Herding clueless PCs On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Emily Dresner wrote: > I have two kinds of plot points - Event Triggers and Time Triggers. I hae these, too. The only problem is, the PCs don't seem to get -any- of the Event triggers on their own initiative. If it weren't for Interventions and cards (I've imported Torg Drama Deck cards into the game), they wouldn't get anywhere at all. Let me illustrate what's going on in my campaign. Garrett, go away. I have modified Feast of Blades as a lead-in to Demon Prince of Rock & Roll. The idea is that Kronos, for his own reasons, wants Furfur to become a Prince. He's the one that leaked the information about the summoning song and pointed Furfur in the direction of Lillith so it wouldn't seem like he was engineering it. He also enlisted the help of Nybbas, for reasons which will soon become apparent. Kronos wants Furfur to be powerful, which means pumping the little snit with as many Forces as possible. Now, Kronos knows about the Dagger of Bithynia, all the whys and wherefores (who do you think gave Gebbeleth the idea in the first place?). He leaked the location of the Portugese cabal to a local Ofanite of Yves, who was ambushed when he went investigating. The Ofanite barely escaped with his life, and managed to call in help in the form of an assault team of Destiny Malakim. They, of course, trash the cabal. The only survivor is Rasposo, because Kronos persuaded him to leave before the dung became airborne. Now, since Gebbeleth still has his Word, Aleamon is just a Duke who has managed to take over Secrets' organization. He really wants the Word for himself, and the best way to do that is to get the dagger containing his former master and consume his Forces. Of course, this is not acceptable to Kronos, since he wants Furfur to do this. Enter the PCs. The servant of Yves gets a visit from her boss, who informs her of the destruction of the cabal and the escape of one of their number who has a powerful relic. He tells her that this person is arriving at such a time on such a flight, and would you mind picking it up for me? Of -course- he knows that it contains an insane Demon Prince. Of -course- he doesn't tell her that. It would panic the group and interfere with their ability to carry out their mission. They aren't the only ones waiting for him. Kronos has assigned one of his best agents, a Baron, to wait for Rasposo's plane to arrive and take the dagger from him. The human is, to use drug parlance, a mule; once he gets the dagger into San Francisco, his usefulness ends. Kronos, however, is a prudent demon, and expects trouble, so this local team is assigned to make sure that whatever trouble occurs helps Hell. The Baron, Timetheus, is a Balseraph with the Malakite resonance. His assistants -- Alex, Beth, Chad, and Dana -- are impudites. Eileth is also waiting for him, only she's a loyal servant of Secrets who wants to get the dagger for Aleamon. Secrets being what it is, she's its only servitor in the city. Now, Rasposo may not know he's being stalked by three groups, but the dagger sure does. It may be insane and dying, but it still resonantes with Secrecy. It prompts Rasposo to kill the crew, believing (rightly) that the confusion will mask his getaway. The crash occurs pretty much like the module says. The PC, being good angels, proceed to the crash site to Do Some Good. They help the dying people, see that Eileth is a demon, and get the clues about Rasposo. A search of the passenger compartment results in a Divine Intervention, so I figure that the dagger didn't destroy -all- the evidence -- they find Rasposo's hotel reservation. Some of them meet Timetheus, who passes himself off as a professor with his four grad students. With no seraphim present, they believe him, and he decides to keep an eye on the party, figuring that they'll do all the work, so he can keep a low profile. When the time is right, he'll take the dagger from them. So far so good, right? This is where things go pear-shaped. They decide to stake out the hotel where Rasposo is staying. Not a problem; the malakite covers the parking garage, and the Kyrio inhabits the doorman. A few hours later, a police car pulls up, and Eileth gets out. PCs converge. Malakite gets a sloppy result on a stealth roll. Eileth invokes Captain of Private Chambers and disappears. Confused, they decide to check Rasposo's room to see if she's there. They arrive in time to find it already ransacked (Eileth finds nothing; Rasposo had not yet arrived at the hotel, as the players already knew.) Begin chase sequence. Kyrio inhabits the police car, only to find it booby-trapped against such tampering; attempting to start it detonates the bomb inside. Kyrio gets out in time. PCs converge on the parking garage, since that's where Eileth will go to get away now that her car is gone. The next few moments are rather like the opening sequence of Highlander. Antony, the Seraph of Justice, is nearly run over by Eileth in a hotwired car. Bezekiel, the Kyrio of Jean, inhabits the car to stop it. Eileth invokes Celestial Charm, and convinces Zeke that he really wants to drive her away. Antony doesn't want her to get away, so shoots her with a Holy 9mm bullet. He spends essence to boost the score. The shot is -so- good it immediately kills her by severing the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae, then proceeds through her into the dashboard, engine block, and fuel line, before inbedding into the concrete floor. Needless to say, this makes the car blow up, and Zeke experiences the unique sensation of detonation. They didn't know what to do after this. They had intended to interrogate Eileth, but with her vessel dead that becomes problematic. Investigation into her files reveals that they are similarly booby-trapped; the Kyrio barely avoids taking severe Etheral damage as the files self-destruct. Now they're confused, so they just decide to wander around for a while, hoping something will bite them in the butt. They don't resume the stakeout, they don't do anything involving the Pedroza church other than look inside to see if Rasposo is there..... After much dilly-dallying with a secondary plot involving music-inspired violence (which I will describe only if folks are interested -- this post has gotten much longer than I orginally intended), the Appointed Hour rolls around. Timetheus had had one of his imps staking out the Pedroza church, and so when Rasposo arrives, Tim knowns about it. He takes the dagger from the dying sorceror and proceeds to tap it for his own use! The problem with having competent sevants, you see, is that they are overly ambitious. Tim wants to be a demon prince in his own right, and consuming the Forces of one so conveniently trapped is too much temptation to resist. This, of course, sets off a big-ass disturbance, as the entire Symphony shifts a step towards its fate. Celestial combat with Timetheus ensues when the PCs arrive. He proceeds to trounce them. The Seraph of War decides that the dagger is his source of his power, and using proficiency, rips the dagger from the Bal's coils. She then makes a run for the nearest tether. She tries to ascend, but the dagger prevents it; tapping it woke up Gebbeleth, and he begins to manifest. Panicking, the Seraph summons Yves to get her out of this mess. He arrives, takes the dagger, and flies high into the sky, doing battle with Gebbeleth. Assuming you've read the story my player wrote, you know the rest; Gebbeleth dies, Yves little more than one Celestial Force. I was trying to make a point here, but it escapes me at the moment. :) Hopefully you can see where I was going with this. It's my birthday, I'm allowed to be brain-dead. ;) - -- Casca, Seraph of Archives (bertishg@db.erau.edu) "...I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying...At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke." -- Isaiah 6:2,4 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 13:22:18 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Dresner Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN- Lilith > > > I think she'd react differently to Daimon, though, because one of the > > > things she's worried about is that he (no, not Daimon) might be soul-dead. > > > > "Over-react much?" > > > Where did that quote come from? I never mentioned over-reacting. Jack Keros, I think. Who is still mad at me for making him go off and listen to stories about dead cats. And then drive him raving insane in the game. That's a common reaction to the whole Jelial thing. > > It's one thing when you think about going Bright in the late 1700's > > because your Seraph boyfriend thinks it's a good career path, get caught, > > and suffer horribly for him. And then it's another thing to run into him > > as a grinning Bal of Factions years later. > > > > I love icky backgrounds, but even the Jelial stuff makes the hairs on the > > back of my neck raise. > > > It's very nasty all right. And your part about "even the Jelial stuff" > caught my eye. What parts of Daimon's background do you consider worse > than that? Hmmm.... It's a toss up between 15th-16th century enjoying being a Demon of Lust and being very very good at it, or the punishment that occured after 1794 and lasted for decades. I'm not too sure which is worse. One of these days I'll sit down and just write the entire background up. But I just haven't. > > And you can do THAT much better working for someone else. Theft > > assassins? Fate hired killings? Game Mafia hits? > > > I don't know about much better. Servitors of Death don't necessarily have > to have such high body counts that they get arrested/hacked to bits by > angels within a couple of months. Although certainly they're viable career > choices. Oh, certainly. Serial Killer is probably a popular Role among the Servitors of Death. > > Death is Death. We're talking about zombies, putrification, and demons > > who think that the epistomology of the physical stages of decay of a human > > body is interesting dinner time conversation. > > > That's Saminga's fault. If a Balseraph were put in charge things would be > different. Even a Habbalite would do a lot better. Yes, but you have to get rid of Saminga and replace him with someone new. Hey, Look! An Adventure! > > > (Oh, and it is Geasa. I have a new campaign of rightousness!) > > > The Irish language doesn't capitalise common nouns, so I feel quite sure > of myself when I spell it geasa. I looked it up, it turns out to be guidhe, or 'geta'. That wacky web, always finding proper plurals. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 18:42:29 GMT From: maya@tcp.co.uk (GR Cogman) Subject: IN> Film Trailer : Fiat Justitia (Done by Chephirah/Sarah's player, and shortly going up on the Fiat webpage. http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~maya/nomine/fiat.html) Fiat Justitia Terethel, a smartly dressed young man, blond hair and gray eyes and a briefcase under one arm, sits at a table with a number of people. Among them are Pat, played by Kevin Spacey in a rumpled grey suit with a black fedora, and Liz, Gillian Anderson recognizable despite the fall of red hair half falling over her face. Terethel, "There's a first night for a new opera coming off in a couple of days. Some important people there." Kobal sits on a chair in the middle of a stage, collar undone, sleeves rolled up, encyclopaedias stacked on the floor, and a photo in his lap. Daimon, a young man all in black, stands nearby. Kobal says "We have a minor little problem, Daimon, which I wish to make somebody else's minor little problem." Daimon licks his lips. "My name is Daimon Lightner. And I'm, uh... one of the bad guys." Liz, in Sistine's, "D'you think it's odd for a Demon to profess not to believe in God?" Terethel, to assembled angels, "I really don't want to think about things going wrong in the middle of it." A chorus singing onstage at a rehearsal, dancing in step with one another. One girl, young and innocent-looking, suddenly flings herself into random, incoherent movement, and begins to weave a strange, compelling melody around all the others'. The conductor waves his baton at her frantically; she doesn't appear to notice. A translucent mass of eyes and mouths and slimy organs and unspeakable tentacles comes boiling up out of a beaten and unconscious human body. Daimon turns around and looks at the group of angels - Liz, Sarah, a crawling swarm of bugs, a fruit bat leaning against a radio. "Look, it's a Shedite and a Habbalah. They are definitely going to Prank during the first run of the opera. Without a doubt. They've been there for a month, setting it up. And... and I just know." Daimon says "If they kill everyone in the opera, who will be left to _get_ the joke?" Narrator/Terethel : The opera's called _Fiat Justitia_. It's all about romance and rebellion and family honour and things like that. Liz stares earnestly across table and tea at Sarah, in Sistine's. "He's the oddest demon I've ever even heard of." Daimon stares at himself in a mirror and tries to do something constructive to his hair. A barefoot man confronts Daimon, in a hallway. The barefooted man's voice is done by the same artist who does Ryoko in Tenchi. Hitherby, the barefoot man, sighs. "Listen. You're asking unusual questions outside. You're wandering these halls at odd hours. We can play guessing games for a while, or you can explain why and what you're actually doing here." Daimon looks utterly confused. "I'm sorry. Do I know you?" Terethel/Narrator : Oh, yes. The people rising up against their cruel, despotic, arrogant, vicious, really very unpleasant overlord. Daimon explains to Liz, "Now the Balseraph hunter was calling himself Michael Focals, and he had everyone wrapped around his little schemes. The wood elf is starting to think very seriously indeed about those contract negotiations." Pat, rumpled as ever, discusses with a well-dressed man with Really Good Hair. In the seats of the empty Opera House. Focalor, "We don't have to conflict in matters like this." (F/X ripple, a shiver of a winding six-eyed serpent. Focalor's eyes, then Pat's, shine the same beady dark color as the serpent's for a moment.) Pat, "How may I be of assistance, Mr. Focals?" Daimon, "This is the same Game that we're talking about here, right?" Pat, "You're aware of another?" Daimon, "Yeah. I know a group of guys who drag people off in the middle of the night never to be seen again. I know a group of guys who have torture chambers and arenas and who torture people who look the wrong way for fun. These are who I am talking about. Who are you?" Liz frowns. "Pat didn't answer a single one of my questions about the Game. I really don't want to think about this but... what if the Game and Judgement are working together?" Pat says "There is a reason you are an angel. There is a reason I am an angel. And there is a reason he is a demon." Pat says "Hitherby?" Hitherby, as bug cloud, says "Yes?" Pat says "If I may make a suggestion." Hitherby says "Of course." Pat says "Don't get attached." Terethel/Narrator : And there's a pair of lovers, who unite the people at the end. Daimon watches Liz with interest, across the table at an Italian restaurant. Then he leans over, picks up the salt shaker, and casually shakes a little salt onto the flowers. Liz giggles. Daimon wiggles his eyebrows. He puts down the salt shaker. Daimon leans forward and breaks off one of the flowers. And then, with his eyes never leaving Liz's, he very casually eats it. Daimon and Liz are curled up on a couch, Daimon rubbing Liz's feet. Daimon says "I'm really pretty busy, most of the time." Liz nods. "Especially with the Comedy thing, and searching opera houses for demons and the like." Daimon's face drains of color. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about." Daimon looks upset at Liz. "This can't be right. The Prince is a brilliant man, and people don't get _hurt_. There's got to be something wrong here, with either you... or with me... or something." Daimon says to Liz, getting out of a car, "I was thinking, eventually, you'd put a round in my head just like that other demon's, and I was thinking, but it's worth it, you know?" Daimon says "Okay okay okay! I swear on my nature, for the rest of the night, I'll be a perfect ang- I'll be good." Terethel/Narrator : I really don't want to think about the number of things that could go wrong. A perfectly calm androgynous figure faces the roiling mass that is a Shedite, the shining cloud of a Kyrio and the winged lion visible in the background. The androgyne says in Pat's voice, "That was your one chance. This is your last. What is the Prank?" Daimon holds Liz's hand. "I figure it's better to be scared out of our wits together, then be scared and alone." Sarah staggers toward a wall, hands pressed over her ears and blood trickling from between her fingers. Shannen stares in shock as the woman in beige collapses to the pavement. The Shedite screams, "Rot in Hell, Game-monger!" and launches itself with the last of its strength at the androgyne, lashing out with slimy tentacles. Shannen cowers in a niche in an alleyway, a bird on her shoulder, as a leather-clad thug stalks past. Daimon reaches out to grab a short, bland-looking man's arm. "I'm sorry, but there is no later." The thug swings a fist, and a cellphone, at Liz's head. Liz dodges adroitly. The cellphone shatters against a wall. The androgyne steps back, wiping the gore from luminous limbs. It says in Pat's voice, "You have decided." Daimon, in tux, takes a ringing cellphone from Pat; purrs into it, "Hello, big boy." A woman's voice, from the cellphone, tells Daimon, "Tell Mr. Murphy that Dominique will be coming by shortly." The phone hangs up. Daimon blinks at the phone, says, "Oh shit," and then starts laughing out loud. The initial group, still around their table. Terethel says, towards Pat, "At least the new opera should appeal to you." Pat says "Is that so? What is the theme?" Terethel says "Justice. It's the title of the piece. _Fiat Justitia_." Arcs of electricity leap and dance around a computer room, narrowly missing the dodging Liz. Focalor and the thug hold Liz, Sarah, and Shannen trapped between them in a narrow hallway. Liz lifts a gun toward Focalor. Focalor only lifts a hand. Daimon on his knees in a hallway, head bowed, his hand tightly in Liz's. FIAT JUSTITIA Terethel/Narrator : Let justice be done. - --- Maya, Elohite of Eli in service to Blandine maya@tcp.co.uk - -- "There are those who say that wizards are subject to temptations and addictions beyond the understanding of ordinary men: the addiction to shape-changing, or to meditation under the influence of certain herbs and conditions of the stars; the obsession with knowledge, and the development of power. Yet this is not so. Temptation is temptation, obsession is obsession, and choice is choice." - Isar Chelladan, Precepts of Wizardry. -- "Dog Wizard", Barbara Hambly. ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #673 ******************************* The material here is (C) 1997 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.