From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Fri Aug 7 23:17:56 1998 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by pyramid.sjgames.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id XAA31988 for ; Fri, 7 Aug 1998 23:17:56 -0500 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.0/8.9.0) id XAA04948 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Fri, 7 Aug 1998 23:22:03 -0500 Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 23:22:03 -0500 Message-Id: <199808080422.XAA04948@lists.io.com> X-Authentication-Warning: lists.io.com: majordom set sender to owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com using -f From: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com (in_nomine-digest) To: in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Subject: in_nomine-digest V1 #903 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 Friday, August 7 1998 Volume 01 : Number 903 In this digest: IN> Fall of the Malakim: Problems and Patches IN> Plot seed for Buddhist IN Re: IN> Fall of the Malakim intro, and a problem? (Minor Spoiler) Re: IN> How bad is dissonance? Re: IN> Genesis stories :) Re: IN> Why not take Dissonance to escape Geas? Re: IN> Fall of the Malakim: Problems and Patches IN> Adventure Seed: "Blind Faith" -BIG POST!!- Re: IN> Fall of the Malakim [Spoilers Ahead!] IN> Dissonance IN> Blind Faith IN> Grant Morrison (OT) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 14:26:20 -0500 (CDT) From: Elizabeth Bartley Subject: IN> Fall of the Malakim: Problems and Patches Earlier, I sent a lengthy email detailing the reasons why I thought the Fall of the Malakim adventure was implausible. Now I'd like the suggest changes to that adventure for GMs who want to use it. *Spoiler space* First, the adventure has a videotape of Maximilian screaming that he's Falling. This poses a problem because Dominic ought to be able to resonate while watching the videotape and discover whether or not Maximilian has Fallen. I suggest replacing the videotape with a Kyriotate of Jean with Jean's Seraph attunement. The Kyrio was spying on the demons and got caught in a relic; it is completely helpless and can't do anything but see, hear, and speak -- and it can only speak when the user of the relic allows it to. The demons have been torturing it by alternating sensory deprivation with showing it awful things the Kyrio is powerless to do anything about, and Maximilian is a frequent part of the latter. The relic is destroyed when Maximilian goes berserk, and the Kyrio's evicted and knocked unconscious for hours. It wakes up in Heaven (since it lacked a host on Earth) and tells Jean everything. The Kyrio can use the Seraph attunement to create a reproduction showing what happened *exactly*, but since it's a reproduction rather than a recording, it can't be resonated on. The adventure has "Go to Heaven with an infernal relic, shatter your messed-up friend's Heart, come back and give the relic to a Demon Prince. Tell no one about this." called in as a Geas/5. I think that this is well above a Geas/6. I also think that no Celestial in their right mind would fulfill such a Geas: Dissonance is preferable to destruction. I suggest that the person who broke the Heart did it not because of a Geas but because she had been tricked into putting on a Will-shackle (from the relics book) -- a Will-shackle captured from the Dominicans, designed by them to be inobvious in Heaven. (I have problems with infernal relics functioning in Heaven, since Infernal Interventions don't, and that's Lucifer; furthermore, if Demon Princes could make Will-shackles and have angels operate with them in Heaven, they'd all be doing it. So it's got to be a divine relic being used by Hell.) If there's some reason why the GM wants to use a geas, well, on Malphas's instructions Natalie geased the angel to put on the collar. The adventure has a Bright Lilim of Dreams finding and breaking the Heart. However, David's portion of Heaven is notoriously confusing, and Malphas can't have her asking for directions because it creates suspicion the Heart was broken. (I forgot this in my criticism yesterday.) I also don't believe Heaven would assign one of its dozen or so Bright Lilim to long-term work in one city, and a city behind enemy lines at that. Mira's probably the *only* Bright Lilim of Dream, and certainly one of far too few (two is improbable but plausible, three is implausible); Blandine's _got_ to have tons of special assignments that can only be done by Mira. Furthermore, much of Blandine's work is done in the Marches, and can perfectly well be done by someone far away from their target. Replace Mira with a Stone angel who was responsible for breaking the Heart. If there's some reason a Bright Lilim is important in _The Final Trumpet_, well, then Mira was in the city *covertly*, on a short term basis, meeting a few people in Hollywood so that she can find out their Needs and enter their dreamscapes. (This is a perfectly reasonable thing to try if you have a full briefing on the demons in LA; there's only one Lilim among them, and if you avoid her no one's going to catch you via resonance. Don't use Essence or otherwise make noise, and leave quickly. And if she needs to be caught, well, she had the bad luck to run into Malphas. This pushes coincidence; you could also have Malphas give the geas to Lilith and pay Lilith to find her. Lilith probably wouldn't be happy, but she'd be more likely to charge an outrageous amount than to refuse outright.) David ought to be keeping Maximilian under observation. Changing Mira into a Stonie also helps with that; someone was keeping an eye on him. Any objects were kept in LA for the purpose have disappeared (hey, Malphas has/had a Will-shackle on the poor angel.) Also, he might have a hair sample, or the like, outside of LA, which will lead to the *Vessel* (currently occupied by a demon) rather than to Malphas. Maximilian's Heart should be under observation. A couple of possibilities here. First, the Heart *was* under constant close observation, and the Will-shackled Stonie snuck in and shattered it from a few feet away with the artifact, without ever getting noticed by the reliever on duty. Second, David wanted what was happening to Maximilian to be relatively private; the Heart's being checked up on, but isn't being stared at. Say, it's in a corridor of Hearts which has a reliever patrolling every ten to fifteen minutes or so. When broken, the Heart is discovered promptly, but there aren't any witnesses when it breaks. Why didn't anyone tell Judgement about Maximilian's sentence? Everyone assumed Judgement *knew already*. And maybe Judgement knew that Maximilian was in LA with orders not to attack any demons. Maybe they even knew he was sentenced to serve the demons of LA, and just didn't realize David wasn't cleansing Maximilian's dissonance on occasion. Why didn't anyone tell Judgement about Maximilian's dissonance and discord? Maybe Maximilian still had enough Malakim pride to hide it as best he could, and the angels didn't realize as much as they should? Why didn't Jonathan, who *did* realize that Maximilian's really screwed up, talk to Judgement? Perhaps he did, and perhaps a Triad is planning to be at the Tether during Maximilian's next break? Or if you don't buy that the Triads would let demonic persecution keep them out, Dominic is in the process of assembling the proper Triad. Or perhaps Jonathan is looking for more details before calling in Judgement? After all, if Judgement *does* know anything about Maximilian's punishment, they know he's been there for fifteen years or so; they're probably going to assume this can wait another week, or month, before it blows sky-high. (I think Dominic *would not* concede the territory to Hell: he'd send in a more powerful Triad instead, with an additional three Malakim attached to the Triad with orders to kill the Vessels of any demons who interfere, and he'd give the Triad orders to be quick, so that by the time more powerful demons have been called in, the Triad is gone. Fundamentally, keeping an eye on the morals of angels behind enemy lines is more important to Dominic than keeping occasional Judgement Triads out of LA is important to the Demon Princes, he ought to be able to do this. If the demons of LA make life rough on the angels of LA afterwards, that's unfortunate but not really Dominic's problem. Keeping angels in LA from being corrupted by demons in LA *is* Dominic's problem.) Elizabeth Bartley e-bartley@pobox.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 16:20:50 -0500 From: Uncle Wolf Subject: IN> Plot seed for Buddhist IN An idea that came to me. Been percolating in the basement of my brain for a while; hope the results aren't too offensive -- I'm not the best cook alive! *g* Reincarnation The whole idea of re-incarnation is a basic of Buddhist thought. What may have missed being noticed is that this also extends to the Universe as a whole. The current cosmos is prophesied to be scheduled for destruction by fire and flame, as Shiva the Destroyer and Renewer [Renewal doesn't quite sound like Belial's thing, so Gabriel??] dances [the Nataraj?] among the flames, bringing the Universe to its end and allowing it to be reborn, phoenix-like, from the ashes into new life. Into this set-up comes a cosmic Buddha, seeking to do for the Universe what Siddhartha Gautama [sp?] did for individual mortals -- release it from the wheel of re-incarnation into the Nirvana. But is Cosmic Nirvana an improvement over death-rebirth-life [to improve your soul]-death cycle? Is oblivion better than flaming death and renewal? What about the prophesy that all the devas and demons [IN's Angels and Demons] will also be reborn, though not necessarily in the same identities, maybe as new beings altogether. Is Armageddon to be preferred, if it means loss of my current identity, or is Nirvana better than being reborn with parts of me intermingled with parts of you to create a new being? Hanuman born from mingled Michael, Baal, and Laurence, as one example. Michael and Baal in one being -- "Me mingled with him? you're living in Maya's illusions, friend, if you think that will _ever_ come to be!" Whose side is the Cosmic Buddha on, anyway, and why can't Celestial's get a solid resonance off of him/her? 2 seraphim resonate on the same statement with identical results, dice-rolling wise, but what they get is completely contradictory "yes, he is telling the Truth" "No, he is Lying!" [simultaneously] "you're wrong -- I've _Sensed_ it [the Truth, the Lie] in him!" Similar results occur whenever two Celestials from the same Choir/Band use their resonances on Cosmic Buddha simultaneously. This plot seed is purposely left vague and undeveloped, so that individual GMs can customize it to fit their campaigns. Like "Tar Baby", this seed lacks heavy combat and is better suited to a more cerebral campaign, with mystery-solving at a premium over hack-and-slash brute force solutions. hope y'all have a nice weekend, tom timberlake, cadre Cherub of Heaven ps Want to really throw your players for a loop? Drop the bug in their brains that God [Brahma?] would probably be able to confuse a Deva's perceptions, then let the players worry about if they are fighting God [again]. Then let them worry about going along with God by disobeying their AAs/DPs -- Dissonant behaviour, especially since NOONE can get a solid resonance off the Cosmic Buddha, to confirm the player's claims that CB is actually God/Brahma. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 17:01:58 -0400 From: Nana Yaw Ofori Subject: Re: IN> Fall of the Malakim intro, and a problem? (Minor Spoiler) At 10:07 AM -0400 8/7/98, The blue eyes, the leather, some guys just like leather wrote: >>It won't give the Malakite dissonance, because, and I do quote: "A >>Malakite will never suffer an evil to live when it's his choice." >>David ordered him not to act, so it's not the Malakite's decision. No >>dissonance! > >But what if he feels he needs to act and does so. That would be disobeying >his superiors orders and will cause disonance. On the contrary. Most Supreriors do not make disobeying a direct order Dissonant. Asmodeus is the only one that comes to mind. Other superiors may inflict a Servitor with Dissonance for disobeying orders, but it's not automatic; they have to find out about your disobedience first. As for the Malakite in question, it is indeed his oaths that are tripping him up; he's loaded down with a number of oaths which are most difficult to keep in Demon-infested LA. ===== ><{{"> =================================================== <"}}>< ====== Nana-Yaw "The Fish" Ofori, Freelance Soldier of Heck, presenty serving Trudy, Impudite Captain of Gluttony, the Demon of Popcorn nofori@pop3.utoledo.edu | Homepage: http://members.tripod.com/~maltesh maltesh@usa.net | In Nomine: http://members.tripod.com/~maltesh/T317 ===== ><{{"> ============ "Life's a Fish, then you Fry." ======= <"}}>< ====== ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 19:31:06 -0400 From: Pete Overton Subject: Re: IN> How bad is dissonance? Hello Elizabeth. :) First of all, I really need to re-emphasize this because it is pretty important. I do not use standard the IN setting and have changed a lot of things to suit myself, and I also tend to avoid the mechanics quite rabidly, so PLEASE take what I say with a grain of salt since I tend to look towards setting rather than rules. :) >The Habbalah and the Calabim both take dissonance as an *option*; the >Habbalah can feel the emotions that someone reflected or take dissonance, >and the Calabim can lash out again when someone resisted their resonance >or take dissonance. If dissonance were as bad as you portray, there >wouldn't be any point to having an option to take dissonance; no one ever >would. Well, I never said that Dissonance was totally involuntary. :) I was being a little extreme, true, but I was trying to illustrate why players should not just be "taking a point of Dissonance" like it was a typical game stat and moving on. As I said to Mr. Neal a few moments ago, choosing to take Dissonance should be a lot like asking someone to pick a limb to be cut off. You have to understand that I tend to equate Dissonance with like anti-being, so my views of it are probably influenced unduly by Taint from Precedence's _Immortal_. In that game their Taint is sort of an active, anti-being force, and I suppose I've obliquely imported that sort of feel into my IN setting. Let me again state that this is my mere opinion on how it should be handled born out of the frustration of seeing people fluff off Dissonance. I will freely admit to not knowing the rulebook by heart so I will take your word on all of these. :) >And the Kyriotates and Shedim both take dissonance if a host is killed, >and (with a few exceptions) both are *completely* dependant on hosts in >order to operate on Earth. Dissonance can't be so bad that the fear of it >completely cripples them. Well, ostensibly they do not kill their hosts. :) Very few angels I can think of would take up a host with the thought of killing him in the end. Again, okay, I was being a little melodramatic, it was like 5 AM when I wrote the original letter, but nevertheless I think Dissonance should be a far more feared trait than it is at the moment. Acting against your own nature cuts you off from some of that nature at the same time, but so rarely have I seen this roleplayed properly. >I believe that dissonance is painful, and that it's the sort of pain that >gets worse the longer you anticipate it beforehand. It would *hurt* a >Mercurian had better kill with his first shot because he's going to black >out from the pain. I don't know if anyone else has ever gotten this, but once in awhile I will wake up and just *know* something is wrong with me. That's mortal Dissonance, but celestial Dissonance carries that one step further and *manifests* itself according to its creation. A Mercurian who kills a mortal may be tortured with images of death and violence, a Seraph who lies may be bombarded with doubts about who is telling him the truth, and so on. It's not just physical pain in my opinion but the anguish of a celestial manifesting. This is the part that I rarely see played out and that's why it annoys me when I see lines like "I just took a point of dissonance and that was that." >I don't believe dissonance is so awful it's nearly impossible to take >voluntarily. It *can't* be, there are too many resonances which rely on >voluntarily _risking_ dissonance. Well, as I said, I was being a little melodramatic, but again choosing Dissonance is like asking which limb you want amputated. And hey, you're an angel, risk is part of the game when you sit in that chair. ;) Sorry, bad paraphrase. :) >Not necessarily. The Mercurian has a broken leg, ran out of Essence >Say the Mercurian's a good enough shot to aim for the leg and hope the .45 >impact stuns the Hellsworn. So what's the Mercurian going to do? Okay, well, I'm not going to get into an example war with someone who knows the book far better than I do when we've got two differing concepts of Dissonance on the table. :) >I suppose that's possible, but it really seems likes a bad >rationalization. The Mercurian doesn't realize he's shooting a human? >Possible under some circumstances, but unrealistic under others? In the >heat of battle, the Mercurian forgets that shooting a human is dissonant? >Call Judgement, someone needs a reminder.... Well, I don't literally mean not realize it. You have to be patient with me, I usually need a few drafts to get it out right. ;) For instance, let me use yesterday's example for a moment. Generally speaking the desire for survival is paramount in the human race. However, as is clear, there are a lot of situations where that desire to survive is put aside for a time for whatever reason, and being an open romantic at heart, I will use the example of love. Most of my dear friends know that if someone went to stab them I would leap in front and take it without even a second thought, and then as I lay dying I'd realize that it may not have been the best action for my continued survival. But I'll also die knowing I've done what was best at the time and that in due process will I be dealt with. So with that in mind, a Mercurian who is left with a Soldier of Hell about to kill his friends could conceivably react first and realize later, especially if they are really good friends. It's what is commonly referred to as the "Oh, Shit!" reflex, where good sense and rationality take a backseat to the passion of the moment. "Oh, shit!" says our Mercurian friend, and he pulls out a .45 and blows away the evil Soldier of Hell, who was about to slit the throat of an angel. Shortly thereafter the Mercurian realizes what he has done and collapses to his knees, weeping like a child most likely. True, he has done what could be considered the right thing, but it still goes against his fundamental nature. In later nights, he is tortured by his actions and sometimes sees the world in a blood-dimmed haze. >I think that this is a matter of individual personality, *not* of the >Dissonance. A stereotypical Mercurian of War would probably react along >the lines of "War is ugly. Too bad I had to do that. Now what do I do >about the current situation?" (Current situation being the dissonance.) >A stereotypical Mercurian of Flowers would probably react more along the >lines of "Oh, how *awful*. What could I have done earlier so I didn't >have to do that now?" Well, that's just it, and that's the sort of thing that honks me off, with all due respect. :) I don't see it as that logical, the reaction to the Dissonance, but more of an abstract thing. But anyways, as I said, this is only the way I do things. :) >But I don't think +any+ Mercurian would doubt that personally wounding a >Hellsworn is preferable to having that Hellsworn kill -- oh, say two >angels and five Soldiers of God. (Mercurians of Flowers might feel >otherwise about actually *killing* a Hellsworn, since their Archangel is >likely to be pissed.) Well, absolutely. :) Of course, I think that Mercurians in specific should have a clause which says they try like mad to save the poor Hellsworn and as a last resort assume they are lost to Hell and put them on the hitlist too, but anyways. :) >I'd like to point out that in the example I was talking about, I was >proposing that Mira should and realistically would have taken a point of >Dissonance not to escape the geas (she did, after all, fulfill the geas) >but to (1) avoid breaking the Heart of a friend with tons of Dissonance >and Discord, and (2) save her own skin, since she should have *known* she >would be killed when she returned the artifact. I realize that. The phrasing "Just have taken a point of Dissonance" just sets me off. :) Pete ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 19:31:04 -0400 From: Pete Overton Subject: Re: IN> Genesis stories :) >Actually, that tale isn't in the *Bible* at all. It comes from >a medieval collection of tales with Bible characters, called Actually, I was under the impression that she was lurking about in the Jewish Holy Texts quite openly. I know speaking from a Catholic-centered upbringing that I had never heard of her until I picked up Vampire and I was so fascinated I ran out and looked her up. Apparently during the Biblical editing council they elected to write her out of the story. Pete ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 19:31:03 -0400 From: Pete Overton Subject: Re: IN> Why not take Dissonance to escape Geas? >If I can reconstruct the discussion from posts that are now gone, I think the >situation Ms. Bartley described is a bit more complicated. It essentially >pertains to a Bright Lilim taking dissonance from evading a geas invoked by a >Demon Prince, and a really nasty geas, in fact. Okay, again, I have to say that I really avoid the rules like the plague and used sort of a bastardized setting so obviously take anything I say with a grain of salt. :) >Again, in concept rather than >with game mechanics, this amounts to the Lilim having a choice between two >different ways she can violate her true nature, with the only third option >being to have had the geas stripped by her new Superior. Ah, I see. I may have misread that original post then. That's just good drama. ;) On the other hand, like I said, I sort of avoid geas as a rule. So why am I in this discussion, I'm sure you're asking.. :) >In game mechanics, I >don't know if the specific geas would have resulted in dissonance (not having >managed to pick up FotM yet (hopefully by tonight, honest)), but it easily >might have. Faced with dissonance either way, the Lilim certainly should have >the option to pick the one rather than the other. Well, I don't mean to imply that Dissonance cannot be chosen. :) I just mean that it is a lot harder than "Oh, I'll take a point of Dissonance and get on with life." To me at least, choosing between two forms of Dissonance is like asking someone to decide whether he wants his arm or leg cut off. Pete ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 21:39:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Pee Kitty Subject: Re: IN> Fall of the Malakim: Problems and Patches On Fri, 7 Aug 1998, Elizabeth Bartley wrote: > tells Jean everything. The Kyrio can use the Seraph attunement to create > a reproduction showing what happened *exactly*, but since it's a > reproduction rather than a recording, it can't be resonated on. Sorry, but the APG made it clear; the reproduction can be resonated on at a small penalty. - -- Rev. Pee Kitty, of the order Malkavian-Dobbsian Meow! ::: Official Martyr of X-Day! ::: Thinking about a Tampa Bay Devival in the future - email me! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 18:35:12 -0700 From: "Akira" Subject: IN> Adventure Seed: "Blind Faith" -BIG POST!!- This is an idea I've had for a while, but won't run because it doesn't fit my group of PC's. But here it is for all those fellow frothy Archangels and their Servants. As a precursor here though, my GMing style relies very little on numbers so I'm not gonna include any stats for the NPC's. Just personality descriptions and what they are and who they serve. Please feel free to hack it to bits : ) It's for Angels by the way. WARNING: Deals with interpretations of religious themes. "Blind Faith" History: The adventure revolves around a priest for an RC church and his Parish. The Priest, Father Ian McDouggal is a pious and honest man who firmly believes in his part as a guide and leader to his followers. Unfortunately, Kobal the Demon Prince of Dark Humor likes nothing better than twisting conviction and good heartedness to create an intolerant and hypocritical end. A servant of Kobal has infiltrated the church as a volunteer in the administration of the Parish. David Day, an Impudite, is a friendly, charming person with the Role of a Banker. Father McDouggal has known David Day for about six or seven years now and trusts him as one of his most faithful members. David Day has been mis-allocating funds to some very questionable investments as well as increasing the sinful nature of individual members. Because of this, the Parish had recently come under the investigative eye of one DT. Marlow. His wife, a grade school teacher, overheard one of her students, Jessica Robinson, talking about how she is being beaten by her parents. Mrs. Marlow spoke to Jessica and was told that her father beats her because Father McDouggal said so. Upon telling her husband, Mrs. Marlow pleaded with him to find out if Father McDouggal was advocating child abuse. In DT. Marlows investigation, he discovered that Parish money was being used to fund a prostitution ring of call girls, a drug line into the Parish Sunday school group, and that the followers, in general, were engaged in perverse sex, alcoholism, child abuse and violence at home. It would have seemed to the trained eye that the church had become a church of Sin! So why didn't DT. Marlow blow the whole place open and uncover the evil nature of the faithful locals? One; because his commanding officer is a member of the fold and Two; because he's dead! Hooks: #1- The characters could be investigating the death of what appeared to have been a really good cop. DT. Marlow was killed in a brutal and grotesque way with his own gun. ( Kobal likes irony .) What was he investigating that was so important that it got him killed? How come there's no follow up on his files? #2- Mrs. Marlow has a connection somehow with the characters and asks them to follow up on her husbands investigation. If none of the characters are cop-like roles she may just ask as a friend. #3- Father Ian McDouggal is an honest to goodness pure hearted man. Perhaps his prayers have been heard in heaven and the angels are sent to find out what is troubling the good priest. Why should such a good mans flock be behaving so sinfully? #4- The characters could be investigating any one of "The Sins".( see below ) Their leads take them to a church of all places. Definitely fishy. The Characters: ~Father Ian McDouggal - Roman Catholic Priest A very likable and endearing person who has dedicated his life to creating a parish for the good of his people. He is a very tolerant, approachable fellow and a respected member of the community. He has NO idea that his church is being used to further the causes of evil and his naiveté in the shadowy nature of things leads him a blind eye in the current situation. The Father is a man with a destiny that is being destroyed by the demon in his midst. Notable abilities: Emote, Knowledge ( Roman Catholic Church ), Knowledge (Ceremonies RC ), Language ( Latin ), Singing. ~Mrs. Marlow - Grade School Teacher A woman who has seen better days. With the recent death of her husband she is very distraught and full of questions. She has no idea the extent of her husbands discoveries but she does know that it dealt with some very socially unacceptable actions on behalf of some of the members of her community. She has seen a change of demeanor among her once pleasant neighbors and feels that something 'evil' is about; of course she doesn't express these concerns out loud. The last thing she wants is for people to think she's a crazy widow. She has the potential to be a Soldier of God because of her determination to 'do the good thing' and she's has strong character. Notable abilities: Artistry ( Crafts ), Emote, Knowledge( DT. Marlows Investigations),Knowledge ( Teaching). ~David Day - Impudite of Kobal ( Actual Name: Lazameish ) David Day is the man at church who's always willing to talk to you. He always shakes your hand and calls you buy your name with a peaceful smile on his face. He loves saying " God Bless You" , " Peace be with You ", and " Amen". What a joke! David Day ( no-one just calls him David ) has been a volunteer at the Parish for a few years as chief accountant. He has been using the money for what he calls " The Sins". Nothing better from his perspective than using church money to further the forces of hell on earth! Ha! Ha! Ha! He is ideally setting up "The Sins" to become self sufficient and hopes to administrate them with other demons as his underlings. His hopes for having a power base on earth could happen if this keeps up, so the PC's would be best to put an end to his plans. David Day has an ingenious way of taking essence and making people do evil things, in the name of God. He possesses Father Ian during confession! People, believing that the Father is giving them guidance, serves his command. He also uses his Charm resonance while possessing the Father to Steal Essence, so there's no worry of anyone putting up a fuss. Due to the 'private' nature of confession, none of the Parish members comes forth with what they've been told. Besides, Father Ian is such a nice man that why would he be giving ill-advise? Indeed! Notable abilities: Detect Lies, Emote, Fast-Talk, Knowledge ( Accounting ), Knowledge ( How to Tell a Joke! ), Knowledge ( Psychology ), Knowledge ( Oration ), Lying, Seduction, Savoir-Faire. Songs: Attraction ( Cel. & Ether. ), Harmony ( Ether. ), Possession. Attunements: Impudite of Dark Humor, Knight of Derision, Calabim of Dark Humor ( He destroys families and lives ). Vessels/Roles: Role- Banker, vessel # 2 ( drifter ). Notes: Lazameish ( aka David Day ) should be quite powerful in relation to the PC's. He is working alone and without any help. The group should have a difficult time discovering he exists in fact because all the clues of sin will likely point at Father McDouggal. He does have a point of dissonance though because he did kill DT. Marlow. ( See the Death below ) The Death: David Day had no choice. He possessed DT. Marlow and made him shoot himself by the lake. Just another police suicide! Lazameish hated doing it, but_that_one humans actions were gonna ruin everything. The risk and pain of dissonance was a large price to pay but the Revolution calls for some nasty methods. Yea, whatever. . . he was just gonna mess things up okay. David Day convinced the detectives CO that he was just a troubled man. Doing some legwork,Lazameish also managed to convince the concerned CO that if he took a look at what DT. Marlow was investigating maybe he'd be able to help. The CO bought it ( it's hard to resist an Impudite ) Lazameish switched the files and omitted a ton of stuff. Except he doesn't know that the detective mentioned the investigation to Mrs. Marlow. . . "The Sins": Lazameish has got several things open on his agenda. These are: a) In the role of Father McDouggal he is advising people to follow the 'tough love' approach. Heavy discipline, cold shoulders, sarcastic remarks and plain old meanness are the order of the day. b) He has the children in Sunday school taking LSD in their communion practices. The children are acting very strange and violence, improper conduct, hallucinations, and generally freaky behavior is being displayed. c) He has some of the weakened yet attractive masses performing prostitution. He has preyed on the defenseless teenagers who are the victims of their abusive parents. With no essence and little willpower, these youngsters were just primed for falling into this illegal activity. ( Lazameish has a secondary vessel he uses to interact with the criminal elements.ie. pimps/ madams.) d) He is planning on opening a group called " Parents for Morality". It will promote a hard angle view of all the immoral behaviors in the town. Rock and Roll, baggy pants, suggestive clothing and troubled teens will be the theme. Basically it will reinforce the alcoholism, abuse and violence he has seeded in the Parish. Hopefully David Day will be a strong and powerful member of the groups voice. Summary: Any number of things can happen in the layout of the adventure. Use lots of NPC's and let the PC's dictate what happens in the end. Lazameish and Mrs. Marlow are both good long term characters and hopefully the church and the situation can be plotted into wherever your campaign takes place. Remember, even if the characters trace things back to David Day, the community, Chief of police, and Father of the Parish ALL really like and SUPPORT him. The PC's may end up looking like the non-pious and tarnished members of society. How ironic. Blind Faith written by E. Kumar Akira ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 20:38:55 -0400 From: Nana Yaw Ofori Subject: Re: IN> Fall of the Malakim [Spoilers Ahead!] At 1:13 PM -0400 8/6/98, Elizabeth Bartley wrote: >I'm sorry to say so, but there are just too many things that don't make >sense about this adventure. Some of them can be rationalized; however, >there's really no getting around the "Dominic watches the videotape and >resonates when Maximilian says that he's Falling" problem. And there are >just too many things that need to be rationalized; it breaks the >suspension of disbelief. Hmm. The only way around that one is to make it a self-fulfilling propecy type-thing; Max feels is heart shattering, feels himself gaining Dissonance, and that pushes him over the edge, and makes him Jump. Dominic gets "He thought he was falling, so he actually /did./" And that removes all the amiguity of twhat actually happened, which bites hard, making it harder to use in "Malakim Can't Fall" campaigns. ===== ><{{"> =================================================== <"}}>< ====== Nana-Yaw "The Fish" Ofori, Freelance Soldier of Heck, presenty serving Trudy, Impudite Captain of Gluttony, the Demon of Popcorn nofori@pop3.utoledo.edu | Homepage: http://members.tripod.com/~maltesh maltesh@usa.net | In Nomine: http://members.tripod.com/~maltesh/T317 ===== ><{{"> ============ "Life's a Fish, then you Fry." ======= <"}}>< ====== ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 18:43:34 -0700 From: "Akira" Subject: IN> Dissonance On Dissonance: What doesn't kill you; defines you. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 20:54:56 PDT From: "Doug Muir" Subject: IN> Blind Faith By and large I like this one. A few points: 1) I heartily agree with the "give an outline and let the GMs fill in the numbers" philosophy. In fact (dark secret here) I sometimes *play* this way. Not "this monster has 35 hit points", but "the PCs have given this monster several good whacks, and it's given them about as much trouble as I wanted it to. Okay, one more hit and it's dead." Don't tell my players... 2) Possession during Confession... yuck. That's a nasty one. Didn't the good Father ever notice that he was suffering blackouts, though? 3) I see Kobal as being a little bit like a cosmic version of that second-rate Batman foe, the Riddler. Remember him? He always had to give a clue in the form of a riddle... Well, Kobal's evil more or less has to be _funny_, or at least blackly ironic. One possible clue in this scenario might be that a _lot_ of darkly ironic things are happening. Perhaps clever players should be given a chance to spot this pattern and so adduce a diabolical presence. 4) Having all the evidence pointing to good ol' Father Ian could create an interesting situation. Mortals are likely to be fooled, but celestials probably won't be... the presence of an Elohite or Mercurian, never mind a Seraph, will probably suffice to establish the priest's innocence pretty quickly. This then will set them searching for the real culprit fairly quickly. You may need to give them another red herring or two. 5) I really don't like the Impudite just killing the cop. I tend to be a hard-liner on Dissonance; YMMV. But anyway, let me offer a couple of alternatives: a) The Impudite rang up a friend and asked him to "deal with" the detective. He hoped to avoid Dissonance by offering the other demon a menu of possible alternatives... kill him, _or_ disgrace him, or get him reassigned elsewhere, or whatever. GM's discretion whether this weasel-technique let him avoid the Dissonance, but in any event this might mean there's another demon around. The good news is, it's another way for the PCs to get involved, and another thread for them to pick up. Bad news, the other demon might be fairly tough in his own right... and if the players do catch him, they might think that they've "solved" the adventure and wander off, leaving Lazameish to continue his nefarious plans. b) Alternately -- no other demon, Lazameish _did_ do the killing - -- he's just a crazy risk-taking son of a b*tch. So he probably has some Discord from previous incidents. This could serve as a clue if the players are needing some help; that's a very _strange_ skin condition that the nice banker has... 6) Lazameish is a creepy one, inne. That second vessel could be particularly useful, letting him strike at PCs from a distance. He's probably got a network of informants among the local criminals and street people... *plus* his connections as a Banker. Impudites tend to get underestimated as opponents because their resonances are useless in combat. But an Impudite that's well dug in, like this one, can be a scary foe. His Charm and his Roles let him use _people_ to do his work for him. I would expect Lazameish to figure out that the PCs are investigating long before they get anywhere near him. Then he'd likely test their strength with an attack or two, using human pawns, to find out what he's up against. Then... well, it would be pretty funny if the PCs were framed or at least implicated in some of the Sins, wouldn't it? 7) The presence of a second vessel also means that the PCs can nail Lazameish and "win", but still have him escape to fight another day. If he survives Kobal's displeasure, he could be a formidable long term foe. Doug M. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 21:01:39 PDT From: "Doug Muir" Subject: IN> Grant Morrison (OT) >> The other Morrisson issues (from around #18 up to #50 or so) vary in >> quality, but the good ones are very very good, and include some material >> that could profitably be incorporated into an IN campaign... if you're >> interested, I can dig them up and make some recommendations. > >There is a better way to get this issue, unless you're someone who likes >collecting comics. DC published a compilation of the first nine(?) issues >of Doom Patrol that Morrison wrote, titled "Crawling from the Wreckage". It >retails for something between $15.00 and $20.00 (I'm not near my copy right >at the moment). Well, it's certainly a great collection, and worth the money, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't contain that particular issue. IIRC it had the first five Morrison issues -- the "Crawling" tetralogy plus the "Imaginary Friends" story -- approximately issues 18-22, give or take. The Crazy Jane story came three or four issues later, after the "Painting That Ate Paris" storyline. >There is more material that >could be used with IN (I did it with Call of Cthulhu) than just this one >issue. Oh, definitely. I threw a version of the Painting into a campaign some years ago. Cheers, Doug M. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #903 ******************************* The material here is (C) 1997 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.