From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Mon Jan 29 19:59:26 2001 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (majordom@lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by pyramid.sjgames.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA24756 for ; Mon, 29 Jan 2001 19:59:26 -0600 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.3/8.9.1a) id UAA14450 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Mon, 29 Jan 2001 20:01:21 -0600 Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 20:01:21 -0600 Message-Id: <200101300201.UAA14450@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 #2038 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, January 29 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2038 In this digest: Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? IN> Archangelic dining habits... IN> Re: IN: Lucifer's pad Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? Re: IN> Re: IN: Lucifer's pad Re: IN> Re: IN: Lucifer's pad IN> Marc's World IN> Force-moving Re: IN> Hello from a lurker, and some questions Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? Re: IN> Lucifer's pad IN> Going back to that infiltration idea... IN> A Victory for Christopher Seed: The Ethereal Slavers (was IN> Force-moving) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 10:58:49 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? Brunch, lunch, coffee, tea, dinner... How fat *are* Marc's vessels? Or does he just toy with his food and keep talking? Or rotate vessels between restaurants and health clubs (since he can be multiple places at once, after all). Earl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 16:31:06 From: "Charles Glasgow" Subject: IN> Archangelic dining habits... >From: Earl Wajenberg >Reply-To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com >To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com >Subject: Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the >Sword? >Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 10:58:49 -0500 > >Brunch, lunch, coffee, tea, dinner... How fat *are* Marc's >vessels? Or does he just toy with his food and keep talking? >Or rotate vessels between restaurants and health clubs (since >he can be multiple places at once, after all). Hey, when you get to make your own Vessel, you get to make it any way you want. I suppose that Marc makes his 'business-lunch-optimized' vessel with a *very* high metabolism. - -- Chuckg _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 09:36:00 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Re: IN: Lucifer's pad Heh. A nice, quiet little apartment with elegantly understated furnishings, a wide selection of books, some very nice artwork and a lot of comfy chairs. Make sure that the big L absolutely refuses to let anyone sit in the comfiest chair: "That's reserved for... an old friend." Add a nice selection of drinks from the bar, and a comfortable fireplace, and your PCs should be freaking out within minutes. :) Moe ===== In Nomine stuff: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 11/25/00 (this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices. http://auctions.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 12:56:40 -0500 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? >Brunch, lunch, coffee, tea, dinner... How fat *are* Marc's >vessels? Or does he just toy with his food and keep talking? >Or rotate vessels between restaurants and health clubs (since >he can be multiple places at once, after all). > >Earl Well, it could be all in those really expensive kinds of restaurants where $200 gets you maybe 500 kCal of food anyway, and he's pretty active otherwise. Actually, other than non-food products deliberately consumed(Haagenti's Consume attunement, angel swallowing the key to the handcuffs), I'd just shove the whole question under a miraculous 0-point version of Sanitized Metabolism(food products turned into micro-disturbance, +0%; doesn't gain any nutritional value from food anyway, -100%) and somebody gets Fat then it's really more of a psychological problem (at least, a celestial's version of a psychological problem) unless the vessel was created that way to begin with. William ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 13:31:05 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? William J. Keith wrote: > Well, it could be all in those really expensive kinds of > restaurants where $200 gets you maybe 500 kCal of food anyway, > and he's pretty active otherwise. In which case he's likely to run into Dr. Black, from "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman -- one of the seminal sources in the IN mainbook bibliography. Dr. Black is the inventor of that form of nouvelle cuisine consisting of three raw vegetables artistically arranged on a bare plate, and of those popular foods made from the finest petroleum distillates. Also the author of best-selling diet books and booster of the whole anoerxic fashion look. He is best known for his appearance early in Revelation, chapter 6. (If you haven't read "Good Omens," do. It's a great guide to lighter-toned In Nomine.) Earl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 13:32:41 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN: Lucifer's pad Maurice Lane wrote: > Heh. A nice, quiet little apartment with elegantly > understated furnishings, a wide selection of books, > some very nice artwork and a lot of comfy chairs. While I'm recommending "Good Omens," see its description of the London apartment owned by the demon Crowley, with the glossiest and most terrified houseplants in the city. Earl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 13:07:08 -0500 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN: Lucifer's pad Canon does refer to the Lower Hells as "icy," although that might be just a part of it. I like the idea of the Cathedral of Light. However, I'd have only one light source: the crack in the rainbow dome, casting a harsh burning white glow over everything, with freezing sharp-edged shadows everywhere else. And feel free to have the landscape itself alter at Lucifer's whim. He's a Balseraph, after all. William ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 14:02:39 -0500 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: IN> Marc's World Hell wasn't defeated. It was bought out. The World of Marc History It began quietly enough. Mammon, a secondary Prince anyway, was finally undercut far enough by his fellow Princes to fall. Baal being delayed for funds one too many times is generally in no mood to be reasonable about contracts, so off went his head. (He got his funding -- that time.) Mammon's organization scattered like dust, every demon looking for the Prince that would give them the best deal -- Haagenti, most of them. Control of Hell's finances went to the other deal-maker on campus, and everyone expected she'd do a damn good job. Marc, always one to look for what his opponent wanted out of the deal, started tailoring his points of attack, seeking optimizations of Trade that Lilith would have had to sacrifice Freedom to fight. In other words, it was time for free trade, free markets, and low-regulatory environments to start defining the financial areas. Caught in a cleft stick, Lilith defaulted to preserving her own Word, instead taking advantage of the climate Marc was creating to strike up some deals of her own among the less-scrupulous of the new profiteers. At first, this seemed sound policy to most of Hell. Unfortunately, this was playing to Marc's strengths. He was making moves that strengthened not only Heaven's financial empire, but also the ethical underpinnings of Trade, by carefully crafting free-market legislation (which went unopposed by Hell) and picking free-trade advisors and businessmen (whose opposition from Lilith was sporadic) with ideals to complement their ideas. Gradually, they grew in power and influence, unfettered by government but driven by principle, weaving a shining structure of power and money used for the advancement of the common good. With them, Marc grew in influence in Heaven. As an Archangel with a distinct strategical advantage over his direct opponent, other Archangels began to support him as the point man. His inroads solidified, reached out, and solidified again, until nearly every battle in the War was either the subtle kind, over economic recources, or if blatant over control of the interest of the economic powers involved. With Heaven's corporeal resources growing, the Trade Servitor and Soldier corps started attack on unrelated Words as well. As economic struggles became the norm, Baal tried to shift tactics, but increasingly found himself out of his element. Lilith, now under heavy fire, deliberately attempted weakening her own Word in order to impose regulatory restrictions on Marc's bases of power, but found herself blocked by vested financial interests, even those unassociated with Heaven, who liked their new markets. Valefor and Fleurity found their usual human support weakening in good economic times, as people needed less and less extra-legal activities to get by. Belial and Saminga, never very bright to begin with, were completely unprepared for the murder and arson rates to drop drastically worldwide -- when you've got a job and a roof over your head, you're a lot less likely to hack someone to death with a machete or burn down their house because you don't like their political views. People were still *scared* of these things, but it was much less of a worry for most of one's life. Even Asmodeus saw people begin to worry about restrictive legislation less and less. For a while, some demonic Words were boosted by the new environment. If you can consume, why not consume? But conspicuous consumption became less affecting as more people could do it; so Haagenti and Andrealphus started weakening. Malphas reveled in the air of new-forming alliances and conglomerates, competing hard against each other... but then the alliances *held*, and the factions started congealing into interest groups, and eventually into institutions of like-minded people, with hardly any internal factions at all. Nybbas covered the financial news with everything else, and Hollywood's spending grew to stratospheric heights, taking the Media to new levels, and Vapula's front companies got the funding they'd wanted to do just about *anything*. Then Nybbas found out that an educated, leisurely populace wants educated, leisurely movies. It was less about mindless consumption and more about literal recreation; not something his writers could cope with. Plus, with Heaven offering the ethereals such a great new deal, material was drying up, and Marc's media outlets were gaining in popularity. Beleth was furious about the intrusion on her domain, but her support from the other Princes was melting, and Blandine began making headway. As for Vapula, it was just a matter of time. His companies might have been well-financed, but Jean's were favored by Marc's people in the banks. Eventually, he started losing his corporeal bases, with some of his Tethers even switching to Jean as the workers got caught up in the new "economy of principle." Ultimately, Lilith Redeemed. The world finally got through to her -- this was Freedom, done *right*, and look what it was accomplishing. As for the rest of the Princes, it was do or die, and Lucifer seemed noticeably unhappy about losing his human pet, so die was definitely an option. But, to put it simply, when the Archangel of Creation isn't on your side and you can't buy what you need to actually do the job, and your local Technologist is running short on factory space, and Soldiers are less likely to need you, or to give up their personal funds once they do... ...well, wars can be fought with sticks and determination. But they don't generally win when the other guy has tanks and popular political support. Demons started defecting in mass quantities. Heaven would offer a decent deal for it, plus training courses on how not to want the deal so you weren't Redeeming for selfish reasons(thus being able to survive). It was confusing, but it worked surprisingly often. A couple of Princes tried it too. The rest, though, went down with the ship. Armageddon? Yeah, Armageddon got fought. But it wasn't Baal's last desperate stand in Iraq. Oh no. Armageddon was fought in two hours on the virtual trading floor of the Comp-Central New York Stock Exchange. Humans would remember this day only for the record trading volume, bizarrely-timed incoming news reports, hyperactive price fluctuations, and several traders later reporting crises of ethics and faith, such as whether to take advantage of sudden odd news. They would also remember two traders roaming the floor; one Lucy F. Reading, stockbroker for a well-known and respected Wall Street brokerage, and one Marc Angelos, a young Turk at a Japanese conglomerate. Later, Todd Winston, then an old man, would recount the event to a historian of the period, in the apocalyptic terms many traders found themselves using often. "It was insane. Lucy was kicking some major can. I must've seen two dozen firms get flattened by one alpha-base take she put over. Men were standing on the floor screaming. One guy tried to slit his wrists before he even took the virtua cuffs off. That was sickening, let me tell you. And those guys were major players. I was gonna see the world market crumble all to Hell, I just knew it. Global chaos. You know, it was weird. I never really saw how important these particular firms were until then, and I mean, what're the odds they all have a set ready with this one girl? "Anyway. Marc, man, Marc swoops in like Jesus on a stallion and whips out a take restrict in this hundred-year-old contract his firm has with Lucy's that practically nobody knew about. He's got the judge standing right there, of all things, and half the board of the SEC! Enough for a quorum, at any rate. The trade gets rescinded, and people start going nuts. He's got enough goodwill going that Lucy has to turn her attention elsewhere. She comes over to my sector while he's still organizing people into safety, and she starts putting out bids like there's no tomorrow. I don't know what she had against Marc, but she was ready to drive her firm into the ground to get at this guy. Everyone could tell she was going after his personal holdings, not to mention setting something else up, but nobody could tell what, and she was offering some really fantastic deals. And people were selling, too. They didn't seem to care what harm it did him. Me, I was hesitating. I wasn't ready to ruin a man for profit, and there was still this other thing that I couldn't quite see out of the corner of my eye. "Then it happened. There I was, holding onto this puny little 1 share of this company with five whole shares of stock, when the guy who owns it calls me and tells me to sell it. Hell, he orders me to sell it, and -- get this -- right at the price Lucy's standing there offering me, which is, may I say, a commission that would leave me richer than Creosote. Hell of a coincidence, that. And Marc comes up to me, and asks me not to sell. I say I can't sell it to him, I have to sell when I'm told to sell, and at the price I'm being given, to the first to order. And Lucy's looking at me, and for some reason that commission keeps bouncing around in my head -- what I could do with it, all my dreams, all my life goals. "Marc gets quiet for a second. Then he casually mentions that my ex-girlfriend's daughter lives right outside the company's Norfolk plant -- how he knows that I have no clue, but that gets me to remember what it is they make. I look at all the other stuff Lucy's been buying, and I'm like: 'Holy sh*t. She gets 20% of this company and there are going to be *so* *many* people completely f*cked over.' Lucy hauls up the judge and, criminy, the other half of the SEC, the ones with the shady connections, where everybody knows that 'pink slip' could actually mean the tag on your toe at the morgue. Then she tells the judge to order me to carry out the trade, and I see him about to do it. After that I wouldn't even have a choice, the SEC could carry it out automatically if I refused. "Right then and there, I quit. Hey, it's a free job market. I tell my client he has to find another agent, I tell my firm they may have to hire me again later. And dude, my client is apparently on the phone with my firm, and they've got another guy ready to take over my accounts standing right there. He wants my records, and I tell him to screw off. The judge takes all of ten minutes to set up court and find me guilty of witholding a free information transfer, but by this time Marc has built up some kind of defense. I don't know what, but Lucy hears him making this one trade and screams like he's killed her firstborn. Then he turns to her, and he says something in some language I've never heard before, a language I didn't even know the 'Net could transmit. It meant something like, 'By your own words from this day, either I own you, or you are dead, and if I own you you are nothing. Go forth into oblivion.' And she just... went." Present Capitalism? Communism? It hardly matters anymore. The difference between the international mega-conglomerates and some central planning committee is barely a matter of a memo concerning projections and company strategies. Elections for Chairman of the Board of this company or that receive as much attention, and have as much international influence, as the chiefs of state(several of which they are anyway). Monopolies are no longer a problem, as long as they don't abuse their position, and none of them these days do. A balance of power has been acheived among the major corporations which is beneficial for all involved, and there are no incentives to disturb the status quo. Even expansion into space or other realms would be undertaken with an eye towards civilized competition in the name of a new, mutually-beneficial balance. The CEOs are well aware that gaining an unfair advantage over another company would only lead to difficult times that would hamper or upset any number of strands in a careful web of alliances and support networks. To the foresightful, evil is simply no longer worth the cost. The flow of goods, services, funds, information, jobs, and anything else you can name has been maximized. With the advent of better market-projection and transportation techniques, and the investment of nations in their economic and physical infrastructure, the time between need and fulfillment is practically nil. If there's a need, *someone* will be in a position to profit from fulfilling it. Quality goods and services are available in countries where before clean water was a luxury. The global standard of living is way up, on the way further up, and shows no signs of slowing. Nearly everyone on the planet is an employee of one of the mega-corporations. Human lives have purpose and stability, and most people feel good about being part of something bigger than themselves, something they can contribute to in a concrete way. Those industrialites who aren't working for one of the corporations are freelancers or small self-owned businesses, no threat to the status quo but rather people who are satisfied with a quiet, quality job personalized to a small market. Academia is integrated with the R&D divisions; every discipline, from chemistry to English to philosophy, has value to someone, somewhere, whether it is creating a new product to sell, aiding internal employee communication, or directing corporate strategy. No restrictions are placed on the universities, since that would be blatantly self-contradictory -- the corporations believe (with considerable personal evidence) that the best work is done in an environment of free expression without excessive regulatory restrictions. Likewise, government knows where its interests lie, and companies with hundred-year advance plans do take into account the future costs of a couple decades of landfills, or employees who lose a beloved wildlife preserve. "Enlightened self-interest" has mutated into the concept of "group interest," the good of the whole because one is part of it, the good of the part so that the whole of which it is part does not suffer. The future holds all the promise of an energized, educated, idealistic populace armed with sustainable resources ready to produce real value for the world and themselves. People are dreaming, creating, studying, laboring, loving, living, and planning for the times they will make for themsleves and their children. Their Destiny is in their hands. William ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 17:27:17 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Force-moving At 8:28 PM +0000 1/28/01, Pak Chan wrote: >ObIN: Is there any way (in canon) for a Superior to strip forces from an >arbitrary being to graft them onto another? I seem to remember a >(non-canonical?) story by someone on the list (AA Beth?) suggesting that >Lilith can do this. It depends on whether or not the GM considers that a being which is generally not celestial can be Force-stripped. If you can get it celestial (which presumably includes the Marches, as celestial combat can be performed there, even on unsuspecting humans in their dreamscapes, IIRC), then a Superior could probably bring its Superior-powers to bear and strip a Force or however many off the being. Once the Superior has the Force, it can then graft it on pretty much however it feels. (Well, humans have to agree, when they're made into Soldiers; presumably a celestial would either have to agree or be totally within the Superior's power.) This is, If I Recall Correctly again, implicit in the stuff about Forces and Superiors from the Game Master's Guide. - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 17:30:28 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Hello from a lurker, and some questions At 1:08 AM -0500 1/29/01, Mike Bruner wrote: >1. I'm a little unclear about how the whole Kyriotate possession thing >works. Is the Forces thing merely a guideline to how many hosts they can >actually possess (i.e. a 10 Force Kyrio could possess 2 humans, but could >act in either as a 10 Force being) Yes. >2. Could a Renegade Lilim use Lilith's Rites since they don't require >having a Heart with Lilith, just accepting her dissonance conditions? Yes. Lilith usually shrugs, if bugged about it, and explains that the paperwork claiming a Lilim was Renegade got lost somewhere, and she'll have to beat the secretary again. Ah, well. >And on a similar note, are Lilith's Rites >restricted to Lilim Nope. >3. Does performing a Rite create any sort of disturbance, or is the Essence >gain undetectable? The latter. >4. Do Renegades/Outcasts have to have one level 3 Discord, or is it 3 >levels total of different Discords? GM's option. _Most_ Discords have to max out at level 6 before new Discord types get acquired, but the GM can change that if it wants. > And does a Fallen angel keep their >Discord? Yes. >5. What would a Fallen Grigori become as a demon? A Fallen Grigori; their 'common name' is the Skulkers. (Just as the 'common name' of the Grigori is the Watchers.) - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 22:19:55 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: IN> Re: The Crusade of the Sword - The Pen, Mightier Than the Sword? >Brunch, lunch, coffee, tea, dinner... How fat *are* Marc's >vessels? Or does he just toy with his food and keep talking? >Or rotate vessels between restaurants and health clubs (since >he can be multiple places at once, after all). It's *all* about manipulating the vessel's metabolism, Earl. Even a mundane human with an abnormally high metabolism could eat nothing but fried chicken all day and not gain an ounce. - -Perry, kfc perrylloyd@hotmail.com pl312993@oak.cats.ohiou.edu http://www.geocities.com/llloyd.geo "And that's the hardest thing for a human being to do - be wrong. Do you know that people would rather die than be wrong?" - --from A Matter For Men by David Gerrold _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 17:33:39 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Lucifer's pad At 4:21 PM -0500 1/27/01, Charles Phipps wrote: >Hey guys I'm describing Lucifer's palace in the Lower Hells (Where in my >game the infamous throne of Black Iron rests) I was curious if anyone had >any suggestions on how to describe this place for the suitable creepy, >horrofic, and/or understated evil of the Prince of Darkness. If it's for players, and there's going to be more than one viewing this, describe it differently for each one. (Me, I wouldn't describe it at all. But then, the PCs wouldn't _be_ down there in the first place...) - --Beth, typing w/a uncoopertive baby (iolanthe) causing typos. "I'm nursing a TROUT! With legs!" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 19:20:14 -0500 From: damienw@juno.com Subject: IN> Going back to that infiltration idea... ... I was mulling over methods and means that angels and demons could infiltrate Heaven/Hell, or at least fake a celestial form on other planes. The mainly mentioned methods of tattooing an Elohite and so forth wouldn't work IMG, since my take is you see what a being *is* in celestial form; a Balseraph may be a winged snake, but compared to a Seraph it is obviously *wrong*. Ditto with other variations; an Elohite scarred and tattooed looks like a scarred and tattooed Elohite, not a Habbalah. So I was fiddling around with ideas, and I never could resist a pun. Comments would be helpful. The Emperor's Clothes This celestial artifact takes the form of a simple, non-descript item of clothing - often a bracelet or necklace. It inflicts a variant form of the Aura Discord on a celestial causing their celestial form to look like another. It confers no other benefits, so resonance, dissonance, and other things related to the being's essential nature remain unchanged. Any given set of Emperor's Clothes can only emulate ONE celestial form, set at creation. Strangely, all attempts to create a set that mimics a Lilim have failed, with varying degrees of mayhem following the attempt. After expending a point of Essence and making a d666 roll, the celestial wearing the Clothes appears to be of another Choir or Band for CD hours. On a hostile Intervention, the Clothes either self-destruct, inflict the Aura permanently, or (in cases where the assumed form is the counterpart of the wearer's) instantly cause the wearer to Fall or Redeem. On a friendly one, the effects last for an entire day. Only fools and the especially observant cannot see the Emperor's Clothes: Any observers roll their Perception, with a bonus equal to the level of the Clothes. If they /succeed/, the viewer is fooled. If it fails, or succeeds with a CD of 6, then the ruse is seen through. Naturally, if a Superior is paying the slightest attention, the illusion is easily seen for what it is, although they must be paying specific attention to that celestial. These relics are very rare, although Janus uses them often as a part of intelligence operations in Hell; any given operative stays in Hell for but a few days, and is debriefed and cleansed in Heaven for at /least/ a month afterward. While there, they make Damned sure to keep to light-traffic areas and in the shadows. A few have cropped up in the hands of demons, used by Renegades who are evading the Game ("This is not the Djinn you're looking for.") or just by loyal demons who've made some enemies. Balseraphs who have gotten a hold of a set enjoy it for its own sake, naturally. Most suits made have been of various Band forms as demons cannot enter Heaven and angels don't usually need such deception. Angelic sets of Clothing have been observed now and again, most notably when a small squad of demons dressed as Malakim made a preemptive strike against a rival demonic operation on Earth, one making sure to assume celestial form in plain view of the enemy... - --- damienw[et]juno.com "To kill a man between panels is to condemn him to a thousand deaths." - Scott McCloud ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 20:36:04 -0500 From: "Aaron Medwin" Subject: IN> A Victory for Christopher "I was born nobility, oddly enough. Why are you looking at me like that? I was once just like you, human just as you are this instant. Ah, you want to know how I transubstantiated? .that, my friend, is a path that none should ever follow. It's only by God's graces that I yet exist. Very well, then. If you really want to know, I suppose there are no secrets here. "I was born the son of a Senator in Rome. My mother died when I was young, and I was raised by a slave, as was common in those times. I had the run of my father's villa, but I was a terrible child. Everything needed to be exactly as I wished it, else I would call my father's wrath upon the poor slave that displeased me. "I was eight when *he* arrived. It's been so long, I forget the name he went by at the time. He was my playmate, and we had such wicked fun together. We would play at swordfighting, and robbing from people we didn't like. We harrassed the slaves and would occasionally tear up parts of the house just for fun. Like I said, kid. I was a nasty child. "*He* made a suggestion that seemed to make sense at the time, though had I known what I was doing, I probably wouldn't have. All the slaves were scared of Father's wrath, and they all did what I said to do, even the guards. On my friend's suggestion, I had the guard execute an innocent slave woman working in the fields. "Yeah. I was really bad. But really, the worst was yet to come. I don't know for sure, but I think she went to Heaven. "As soon as the guard's sword plunged into the young woman, and she stopped breathing, my friend turned to me with an impossibly wide, terrifying grin on his face. 'The joke's on you,' he said, and reached out and broke my little neck. "The next thing I know, I'm standing in Hell. My friend was standing next to me, and he was laughing at me, mockingly and derisively. I asked him to tell me what was so funny, and where we were. He said something about my meeting Fate, and that I was in Hell for eternity - eternal suffering. Even though I had never heard that word 'hell' before, I knew what it was. "Man, kids cry when you tell that to them and it *isn't* true. Imagine how I felt. "I was shipped off with the other souls to an empty wasteland - Abaddon, if you know what that is, and pray you never do. I spent a long, long time in Abaddon. I joined together with some other damned souls, and we carved out shelter from that idiot Saminga, hidden in the rocks. More time passed than I had words for, and my soul became as black and bitter as any demon. I lost my Corporeal Force to Saminga's demons, and one of my Celestials, but I was lucky and escaped with my mind intact. "My 'friend' came back one day, and even though it had been centuries, I recognized him for who - and what - he was. He was a Baron, now, of Dark Humor. He took me to see his Jester Prince, and I thought that somehow, someway, my suffering had gotten even worse. "I was offered a chance to elevate myself to the status of demon if I chose. Probably, it would have been done without my will, but I sold out my fellows in an instant for the chance to become a demon. Finally, I could inflict the suffering instead of receive it. "I was granted a *lot* of Forces, and more Attunements than I knew what to do with. It took me a long while to get used to it, and even longer to train for corporeal service, but I emerged from the process as a powerful Impudite, easily able to boss around even some of the weaker demons. "I returned to Earth after nearly nineteen hundred years in Hell. There was a new Archangel in town, Christopher. I was supposed to go torture his servants, and wreck their plans. 'Have fun', Prince Kobal told me. 'And don' t forget to tell them who you are - make sure it's a Seraph.' He grinned at that. "Children was setting up some operation in Britain, a homeless shelter for lost and orphaned children. I walked in wearing my child-vessel, identical to my body from my human days. Of all the luck, I ran into the one being who I really *didn't* want to see - the Archangel Christopher himself. "Chris is a relatively weak Archangel even now, and this was just after his investiture, so he was even weaker. Still, he was several orders of magnitude more powerful than I was, and he saw me for what I was, and trapped me before I even got a word in edgewise. "He interrogated me personally with a fury that most people don't expect from a peaceful Archangel - I was the first demon to interrupt one of his operations, and he wanted to know everything. "Yeah, I cracked under the pressure. I spilled it all, who I was, what I was doing. but once he found out who I was, his eyes took on a pitying look. I swear he almost cried when I told him I was sent to Hell before my tenth birthday. "When I looked into those eyes, though, I felt no fear. I felt more like I had a real friend. He told me to stay put, and even if the dozen or so Malakim I hadn't noticed up until that point weren't surrounding me, I would have. "He returned in a flash of Heavenly light, with Archangel Yves in tow. Yves looked at me with a sad face, and then looked to Chris. 'He can be Redeemed, Christopher. I will show you how, when he is ready.' Yves then turned to leave. "Something inside me cracked, and I don't know what it was. The Light of God is truly miraculous, kid. It can melt a demon's heart, and not just literally. Granted, I wasn't your average demon, but it's worked on others before me. I really *wanted* to Redeem, to get forgiveness for my sins so long ago. "It took longer than I wanted, and hurt more than just about anything else I 've ever done, but the Archangel of Children Redeemed me. When it was done, I felt *free*. I spread my angelic wings and soared through the perfection of Heaven. It took me five years to get down from that ecstasy, but I managed to ground myself. I still like to fly sometimes. It's such a rush. "Nowadays, I work for Chris. sorry, 'Archangel Christopher'. I'm also on both Kobal's and Asmodeus' Most Wanted list. I think I'm the one thing that they agree on. To avoid the occasional packs of demons that have come after me, I work near Tethers mostly, in a program. I guess you could sorta call it a 'Scared Straight' from Heaven. It's good work, and I can see the twinkle in their eyes when they really get to know what can happen to them if they do bad things. "And one last thing, because anyone you talk to after me will bring it up about me - they say that I never was a human, that everything I remember before my transformation was memories from a human who 'donated' his Ethereal Forces to me, so I remember his life. I've done a lot of thinking upon that, and nobody I've talked to - not anyone serving Destiny, Dreams, Creation, Faith, or Children - has been able to explain to me what the difference between a human soul and an angelic soul with human experiences and memories. I know I think like a human, and that was God's gift to humanity. "Kobal made me as a joke to play on Christopher, but the joke's on him." Oliverius Mercurian Vassal of Kids, "Former Human" Corporeal Forces - 3 Strength 6 Agility 7* Ethereal Forces - 2 Intelligence 6* Precision 4 Celestial Forces - 6 Will 12 Perception 12 *Oliverius has raised his Agility and Intelligence independantly of Force-gaining. Indeed, Oliverius has refused to accept any further Ethereal Forces, claiming that it would destroy his ability to connect with humanity. Vessel: Teenage human boy(his Vessel from Kobal, slightly aged)/4 Skills: Emote/4, Fighting/4, Language(English/3, Latin/3), Lying/4, Move Silently/3, Survival(Abaddon Wasteland/6) Songs: Form(Corporeal/5, Celestial/2), Laughter(Celestial/2), Sensation(Ethereal/4), Truth(Celestial/2) Attunements: Mercurian of Children, Memories of Youth, Vassal of Kids - ------- Thoughts, anyone? - -Aaron Medwin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 02:01:29 +0000 From: Pak Chan Subject: Seed: The Ethereal Slavers (was IN> Force-moving) At 17:27 29/01/2001 -0500, AA Beth wrote: >At 8:28 PM +0000 1/28/01, Pak Chan wrote: > >ObIN: Is there any way (in canon) for a Superior to strip forces from an > >arbitrary being to graft them onto another? I seem to remember a > >(non-canonical?) story by someone on the list (AA Beth?) suggesting that > >Lilith can do this. > >It depends on whether or not the GM considers that a being which is >generally not celestial can be Force-stripped. If you can get it celestial >(which presumably includes the Marches, as celestial combat can be performed >there, even on unsuspecting humans in their dreamscapes, IIRC), then a >Superior could probably bring its Superior-powers to bear and strip a >Force or however many off the being. Once the Superior has the Force, it >can then graft it on pretty much however it feels. (Well, humans have to >agree, when they're made into Soldiers; presumably a celestial would either >have to agree or be totally within the Superior's power.) This is, If I >Recall Correctly again, implicit in the stuff about Forces and Superiors >from the Game Master's Guide. Ah. This makes possible an idea that I've been thinking about for the last few days... The Ethereal Slavers There are many "low-grade" concepts that give rise to weak but persistent ethereals, such as "Just missed the bus" and "A moment of epiphany". These concepts are either frequent and weak (like the former), or rare and powerful (like the latter). In either case, the ethereals that arise are not particularly powerful. As part of the deal made by the Unseelie Court with Beleth during the Purity Crusade, a quantity of forces had to be paid in tribute every month. These forces become part of Beleth's personal supply, to be used as she wishes. Now, the Unseelie are proud, but not stupid. They realised that they could not actually harvest the forces directly themselves, but they could supply the beings for Beleth to harvest herself. This would give the Demon Princess something to do in her spare time, a hobby of sorts. Furthermore, they can supply extra beings for favours, such as grafting an extra force from the harvest. As a result, several teams of powerful Unseelie fae wander the Marches, looking for low-grade ethereals to round up. These victims have much to recommend them to the Unseelie; they're weak and unable to put up much of a fight, they are rapidly replaced when Beleth strips their last force, and they're naive. Most of the victims tend to be "repeat business"; if an ethereal has been harvested once, its next incarnation will not know enough to avoid being harvested again. Some of these teams make quite a good living from this, managing to gain significant favours from demons of Nightmares, and even from the Dark Lady herself. These slaving teams don't have it all their own way; some of the ethereals have banded together for safety. In numbers, they can make an Unseelie slaving team think twice about attacking them. It is not a guarantee of survival though; the slavers simply retaliate by leaving information for the Tsayadim to find these bands (using the pseudonym "Eyes and Ears"). The Tsayadim have always found this information reliable. Low-grade ethereals, of course, include near-forgotten gods, kept alive perhaps by the worship of a few people. These gods are weak but with a great deal of knowledge (and Songs). These tend to be flushed out for the Tsayadim to deal with; after all, the next incarnation of the god will not have access to the same songs. Times are looking bleak for those on the bottom of the ethereal food chain... Seeds: The PCs could run across an injured ethereal on the run from Beleth's demons, having escaped from the holding pens. This should clue them into the existence of this operation. If they're angelic PCs, they could launch sting operations against the Unseelie slavers. If demonic, they could see about getting a piece of the action themselves. The PCs could find some information left by the "Eyes and Ears" intended for the Tsayadim, describing the location and disposition of a band of ethereals. It is up to them whether they pass on the information, try to find the ethereals themselves, or try to discover the identity of "Eyes and Ears". Comments and polite flames (an oxymoron :) welcome. Pak ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2038 ******************************** The material here is (C) 2001 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.