From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Fri Mar 9 05:28:57 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 FAA19466 for ; Fri, 9 Mar 2001 05:28:57 -0600 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.3/8.9.1a) id FAA31717 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Fri, 9 Mar 2001 05:33:30 -0600 Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 05:33:30 -0600 Message-Id: <200103091133.FAA31717@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 #2101 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, March 9 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2101 In this digest: IN> Playing with Lightning, part I Re: IN> No Feng Shui-In Nomine, please IN> Playing With Lightning, Part II Re: IN> Please, no bashing! IN> In Nomine-Paranoid Re: IN> Cleaning out the Unfinished Stuff Directory Re: IN> In Nomine-Paranoid Re: IN> Characters, Props & Vessels IN> The Bolts ("Not Science. Lightning.") In Nomine TORG was Re: IN> My "Munchkin Magnet" theory IN> Deadlands In Nomine Part 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 19:49:04 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Playing with Lightning, part I New 'Attunement' - sorta. :) Moe Beta Test (Variable Cost) This Attunement doesn't directly give any special abilities: it's merely a formal indication that Jean thinks that you can be trusted to play with his gadgets. Every Tether of Lightning will have, somewhere, a list of the latest devices that need testing: those with this Attunement may sign up for one. The Beta Tester will be expected to turn it in before he or she can get a new one, of course, and there'll be a lot of paperwork to fill out documenting the device's performance, but it's still a good deal. Most devices offered for Beta Testing aren't going to be unique, and Jean recognizes that occasionally a prototype won't stand up under field conditions, so breaking a gadget acquired via this Attunement isn't a real problem unless one makes a habit of it. Those with this Attunement can also get access to Lightning's regular issue equipment (not quite as easily as a Servitor of Jean, of course). Cost is normally 10 points: celestial characters, Saints or those formally working for Lightning subtract 5 points. Thus, Servitors of Lightning have this Attunement for free, Soldiers of Jean, Saints and/or other angels may buy it for 5 points, and everybody else pays the full price. ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 03/04/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 22:49:44 -0500 From: "Eric Bertish" Subject: Re: IN> No Feng Shui-In Nomine, please From: "Sean McCarthy" > > Or...perhaps these sites are ETHEREAL tethers. Not fueled by belief or > any Word, just a natural occurence. Perhaps humans hold them now, or > Beleth, or Blandine ... or else they may be a dirty little secret certain > ethereals and David are sharing. We know David has some geomancy going on > from his Superiors book writeup, unless I'm totally losing my mind... I'm gonna be weird here and suggest that Feng Shui sites are Corporeal Tethers. Huh, you say? Well, look at it this way: Essence flows up to Heaven, or down to Hell, from the Corporeal. *Where* does it come from? Tethers don't generate Essence from nowhere, as that goes against everything we as players have observed about the system -- Essence has to extracted somehow, through rites or Word-association and such, which involve some form of work. For it to *be* work, the Essence needs to come from somewhere. I posit that it comes from the Corporeal Plane. Feng Shui sites, then, are places that either absorb spent Essence and somehow filter/process it into usable form again, or they are "reverse tethers" that draw energy from the Upper Heavens, i.e. God, in order to maintain the fabric of the Universe. If you're inclined to get meta-ecological, you could assume a closed system: Essence flows from Upper Heavens to Earth, from Earth to humans, from humans to Tethers, from Tethers to Heaven/Archangels, and from Heaven back up Jacob's Ladder to God. Or something. - -- Casca "...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: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 19:54:34 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Playing With Lightning, Part II I've been thinking about these for the last few days. I mean, we've got the AA of UltraTech ... sorry, 'Lightning' ... so where's the cool toys? Anyway, thanks to Earl for "Revelations and Development". I will be gleefully stealing this one from now on. :) Moe *I _can't_ use Sparky/Sparkies. I've got a Vapulan Sidekick with that name. :) Gadgets These aren't relics, just items more technologically advanced than the current corporeal state of the art. They have no cost in character points, per se, but only Servitors of Jean and/or those with the Beta Test 'Attunement' may get one permanently assigned to them. One or more _might_ get temporarily assigned, if circumstances are sufficiently dire. Obviously, the list below is not exhaustive. Needless to say, letting this stuff get into the clutches of either Hell or humanity isn't a good idea. Servitors of Lightning and Beta Testers will get in a lot of trouble if they're careless about losing any of the below, or even too blatantly using them. Blaster Everybody wants one of these: Jean actually will hand them out fairly freely. Considering that the weapon has a Power of +12, Accuracy of +4, Range of 150 and 5 shots per battery, this might be a little surprising. It isn't: you see, the _battery_ for it isn't rechargeable, doesn't precisely come on the open market, and is in fact only available from Tethers of Lightning. Actually, the batteries are kept in Heaven: the Tether is just the place where you call up the supply clerk on the holophone and negotiate for one to be sent down. This requires a Fast-Talk roll at -4 (-1 for doing it over the phone, and -3 because the clerk won't just give them out to anybody), per battery. Multiple requests at one time are at a further -3. However, add 1 to the roll for every week it's been since you last requested a recharge. Needless to say, if the Tether is actually being attacked by overwhelming forces (or the Seneschal asks personally), a couple of boxes will be sent right down. Body Armor For the most part, this is built into a coat or hat: don't bother asking for full armor unless you have a legitimate reason to walk around in what looks like full plate (yet another reason why so many Malakim like medieval recreation societies). Modifier to hit is at -5, and Protection is at +6: weight is negligible. Due to the unobtrusiveness of this gadget, Revelations and Development is somewhat less annoyed when it gets given away (especially if it's being used to protect someone important to Lightning in particular, or Heaven in general). Computer These things are also in hot demand, partially because you can take them anywhere. The computer usually looks like a standard-size towel: the circuits are actually woven into the cloth. Part of the 'towel' is actually a screen, and you can type directly into the area designated as the keyboard (which comes in both Angelic and most corporeal alphabets). One corner is the mouse, and there's a few unobtrusive holes where you can plug in a phone line, printer and/or external drive (the hard drive on this thing is amazingly large, though). Use of the gadget gives a +2 to Computer Programming rolls. It runs off of solar power: an hour in direct sunlight will power it for about a day. Body heat will work too. Plus, it's washer and dryer safe, provided that you don't overdo the bleach. Medical Nanobots Getting this one is hard, even for Servitors of Lightning (a Fast-Talk roll at -4 to just get on the waiting list). It's worth it, though: one dose can pretty much cure anything, from the common cold to reattaching a spine (needless to say, the pieces must be touching). As celestials don't usually get sick, it tends to be given to Cherubim or Kyriotates who really, really need to keep their charges alive. Once the dose is used, the robots will last about an hour before they irrevocably shut down and self-destruct. Sonic Screwdriver No, not really: it's actually a sophisticated lock-pick. Just place it over the keyhole and its tendrils (made out of memory plastic) will stream in and disengage the locking mechanism. The user can unlock most doors without even slowing down much. Revelations and Development has recently started providing models that can fox most electronic security systems: this does require an Electronics roll, but at +2 - and the user can ignore inherent penalties from the sophistication of the lock. Needless to say, Jean's own security systems are immune to a Sonic Screwdriver. ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 03/04/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 16:55:29 +1300 From: "Alex Liddell" Subject: Re: IN> Please, no bashing! > > Only if those games are ready to stand on their own merits. > >Subjective. Of course it is Mr Elohite. But it is also true is it not Mr Seraph? > > > A little debate> on system comparrision is well worth it I think. >Why? Because not every debate needs to turn into a crap flinging match. Cages full of monkeys are for that. I learn quite a bit about RPG's and Gming and other such things from comparrisons with other systems. > > Flame wars only> precipitate if you have a die hard fanatic whose ego is >thinner than rice> paper on the list. > >No, they precipitate whenever one person says "X sucks" and someone else >happens to like X. Yes that is right, but person Y who likes X to death may very well have the fortitude to argue sensibly and rationally. If his ego or his temper gets the better of him then it becomes a war of "yes it is, no it isn't" with several expletives inserted. I have defended IN before to my friends who are all WOD fans. They have come out with some of the big guns against SJG and I have stoically and reasonably defended my position. I certainly didn't have "admin" at any stage breathing down my neck for fear of turning an arguement into a flaming. >It's one thing to criticize settings in the context of discussing what >you like and don't like (i.e., "I prefer In Nomine to the World of >Darkness because I don't like a setting where humans are irrelevant and >supernatural beings really control everything and there's no good reason >why they even stay hidden...."), or mechanics likewise. But just saying >"I hate Feng Shui; don't do an In Nomine conversion because Feng Shui >sucks" is nothing more than flamebait. That I have no answer to. You are totally, 100% right. Alex _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 23:10:36 -0500 From: "Charles Phipps" Subject: IN> In Nomine-Paranoid Now this is a fun game indeed. Setting Well here's how it happened....the demons figured out a way to infiltrate Heaven with the help of the Grigori or maybe it was Lilith or the Ethereals or ALL OF THEM and Dominic was replaced or was it Janus or...maybe YVES who started creating demons who could pass as angels....they then were found out by Jean who was replaced by Vapula who however was certain he was an angel and passed the process along to fill Hell with angels who could pass as demons to which the ethereals reverse engineered and allowed them to do the same. of course you realize this is just a lie from the system. Basically angels infiltrated Hell with the help of Asmodeus who was working on Kronos's orders who had killed Lucifer and replaced him with a clone of Uriel who used the song of celestial form to look like Andrephalus whom did all the dirty work for him. Kobal found this out which caused Haagenti to eat him and regurgitate him as Lucifer who had long ago replaced Kobal and Song the Archangel of anything BUT music worked to help technology advance to a level of unparrelled proporti... no that's not right. Okay let me sum it up. Trust no one, especially the French. Especially me which means you can probably trust the French unless... Oh hell. DIE MUTANT *blast* For the ST Everyone is out to get each other because there are so many conspiracies within conspiracies that there probably is a point where everything will be true preceeding the entire system breaking down into it's most paranoid state yet. Archangels work to kill, replace, brainwash other Archangels because they've been killed, replaced, and brainwashed by other Archangels and there is no such thing as the Fall because it's all an illusion perpetuated by Yves who is a human sorceror and your really a human inside a prison for the crimminally insane in the Shadowrun until you die and you discover he was actually a clone of you. but the french thing is correct and STEVE JACKSON IS OUT TO GET YOU! Angels should be well equipped with vessels and never trusting each other because the main villian of the campaign will always be EVERY LAST MEMBER OF THEIR GROUP at some point in time. Come on, Gabriel isn't insane and neither is Saminga...why...BECAUSE THEY'RE THE SAME PERSON! Forget that whole Janus is Valefor rubbish, that's only what THEY want you to think. It's all a smokescreen to cover up the love that never dies that is Michael and Novalis who long ago imprisoned God in a ashtray that has passed from napoleon to Thomas Edison to Hitler to Bill Gates to...yes....a baby named Iolanthe somewhere in the region of Texas....however it appears to be a rattle. If a storyline makes sense, your doing something wrong. For the Players The first thing to remember is...DITCH ALL BACKGROUND. It's all a pack of lies you've made up and if your story is consistant then definately the other players will know you've set it up beforehand. Remember the object of the game is to fool them long enough to get them before they get you BUT if you don't work together you'll just end up killing a clone which will kill your clone and you'll have to activate your secret weapon that will destroy the universe and force you to start all over again. Still a few facts you should definately set up such as skills, choir, and artifacts.....they're lies too but they APPEAR to be true and you should always make sure the other players believe them until the point that you reveal you are NOT a Malakim and thus the only ally the Hell alligned forces have against the sinister forces of the Nybbas puppet Baal who has been replaced every year since 1921 by a soul dressed up by Nybbas but actually NYBBAS HIMSELF usurped by Novalis who seduced you. Attempt to screw your ST over as much as possible as well but beware that he's an insider in all of this and while he may not have as much influence as the Church of Latter Day saints controlled by Elvis who long ago took over the Lower Hells and Higher Heavens in preparation for the day they could slaughter all celestials he has enough influence that you may want to wait until you can trick him until YOU CAN ST and he will play...hahaha... unless he planned it all along. Game Mechanics 111 and 666 dices are purely arbitrary as at any point they can be affected by something completely madcap by the ST and players with original ideas (The ST should be leniant for the greater and odder the conspiracy but hard on using this as a cop-out) but for the most part they'll be mainly waiting for 111, 666 which represent divine and infernal interventions and 333 which represent Earthly conspiracies interventions which are just as powerful, more powerful, or completely insignificant to the Celestials but still through some manner effect just as bad as God, Lucifer (or whoever is CLAIMING to be them). Every so often a ST should roll a 1d6 and on a 1, 3, or 6 the players randomly (or NOT so randomly depending on the secret plots of the players against you) stmble upon some secret conspiracy which is out to get them or suddenly NOW out to get them. Attunements should be supsiciously awarded every so often for weird things as often as good acomplishments, the weirder the better, and STs should feel pleasant to reward big time for failure and punish heavily for sucess...but make sure the players arn't slighted and they can explore and crack the conpsiracy....or foster it so much further they can have their sweet revenge when Haagenti eats himself because he's sure his stomach is out to kill him. Thus the fun of In Nomine> Paranoid - -Charlemagne ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 20:12:39 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Cleaning out the Unfinished Stuff Directory Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 22:57:29 From: "Janet Anderson" Subject: Re: IN> Cleaning out the Unfinished Stuff Directory >>He's just this guy. No, really. >Actually, he's a pretty powerful angel, and a >remarkably good fighter for a Mercurian. It's all relative. Francis gets frantically bored at those Superior dinner parties, too. :) >>thanks to Eli's walkabout, he and the >>few other Servitors of Creation that weren't assigned >>other Superiors have their hands full keeping the >>remnants of their organization running smoothly. >I'll bet the Triads of Judgement don't mess with >*him* Oh, they would... except Jaymiel's part of the New Crusade Cycle (I really must finish up that Cycle ... and Oops, too, now that I think about it. Busy, busy, busy...). >>She's also madesure that the word on the street is, >>"Touch him, and you'll think that The Order of The >>Eternal Sword are wimps by the time I'm done with >>you." >And she should add to this that the demons in >question would have not only her, but Jean and >possibly Eli to deal with. >(I guess even celestials have challenging in-laws.) Good God, yes. He'll just give that _look_... and the worst bit is, I know that he _likes_ me. He just enjoys watching me squirm... Ah. Err. Umm. Pretty much what you said. :) Moe ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 03/04/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 00:24:24 -0500 From: "Rolland Therrien" Subject: Re: IN> In Nomine-Paranoid - -----Original Message----- From: Charles Phipps To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com Date: Thursday, March 08, 2001 11:14 PM Subject: IN> In Nomine-Paranoid [snip] >Thus the fun of In Nomine> Paranoid > >-Charlemagne I think we have a good candidate for the first victim of Abalam, Demon Prince of Madness right here, folks. - -Exit the LoneWolf ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 02:46:37 -0500 (EST) From: "Rev. Pee Kitty" Subject: Re: IN> Characters, Props & Vessels On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Earl Wajenberg wrote: > Elizabeth mentions "My Favorite Pistol, Judy, and My Favorite Rifle, > Phil." I recall that published canon includes at least two > examples of celestials "bound" into objects. Anyone ever use > sentient objects in their campaigns, beyond the transient instances > of Kyrios of Lighnting or Shedim of Technology? Had a Calabite of Death in my game who had an old car with an Imp bound into it. A jealous, insane imp who was in love with the Calabite. (They can't all be original, no...) - -- Rev. Pee Kitty, of the order Malkavian-Dobbsian, Q4B4L! Meow! There will be no taxes. Everyone will be rich without working. We will germ-warfare all other nations out of existence so that our Armed Forces can be disbanded, and there can finally be World Peace. -- Ivan Stang (for President) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 00:53:01 -0500 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: IN> The Bolts ("Not Science. Lightning.") He wasn't always the techno-geek, you know. It's just that his Word has been practically taken over by the taming and application of "lightning" as a servant of Man. This is fine, since like the other elemental Words, it's not the physical aspect that needs support so much as the divine connotations, and the advent of electricity pretty much has most of it down pat. However, there are places in the world that aren't quite as wired as Austin or San Francisco. Heck, there are places in the world that aren't as electrically powered as Antalaha, Madagascar. In these places, the technology and the electricity fall back, and nature creeps closer. Here, the lightning is more than a caged tool. It is one of the most fearsome and dangerous reminders of the power of Nature. Here a small society in Jean's ranks, the Bolts, venture where their brothers rarely tread. Angels assigned to the Bolts are always volunteers. Few wish to take on such isolated tasks so different from the focus of most of their companions, but every now and then an angel gets a hankering, and has (or earns) the qualifications to serve Lightning in a manner reminiscent of the older ways. The qualifications are fairly straightforward. The angel should express an interest in joining the Bolts and supporting the elemental nature of Jean's Word. He should have the Generator and Ofanite of Lightning Attunements definitely, and at least one of the Songs of Lightning, preferably the Celestial. Since these are Secret, having them is a reasonable indication of Jean's trust and hence the angel's personal fortitude. Angels who don't already have it are given the Celestial Song of Lightning upon entrance. (An otherwise promising candidate without any of the Songs can get this one upon entrance and thus fulfill the remaining requirement.) The purposes of the Bolts are many-fold: 1.) The Bolts provide support (which is needed, albeit minimally) for the elemental nature of Jean's Word. 2.) The Bolts extend Lightning's organization into areas its standard operations would normally be rather blind to. 3.) The Bolts support Lightning in physical areas and mental connotations that Jean's common opponent, Technology, is ill-equipped to deal with, and can thus provide support from unexpected directions. 4.) The Bolts are fearsome fighters, always a solid plus in the War. 5.) The Bolts monitor and study natural lightning activity, a worthwhile academic endeavor in its own right. In line with these purposes, the Bolts have a number of standard jobs. Serving the elemental portion of Jean's Word means that the Bolts work well with Archangels that typically have less use for gadgets, such as Jordi and Novalis. They also have a knack for working with the other elements, and get along *very* well with Fire, to whom they are similar both in elemental nature and connotations of inspiration. The Bolts keep an eye on ethereal activity, looking for worship of gods of thunder and lightning and making sure that such gods don't get too active on the corporeal plane. Others, if noticeably disruptive, may also confront them. When Lightning deems it time to introduce a new technology to an undeveloped area, the Bolts are often the ones who "pioneer" for the organization, getting infrastructure like a power grid set up and helping with basic education of the populace. (This duty was much more common in the early years of the century when power grids were just being developed; these days, even the remotest of nations has at least some access to power and knowledge of power grid maintenance.) In addition, since even relatively low-tech items can have substantially disruptive effects on isolated low-tech areas, the Bolts are especially watchful for demons of Technology who may be looking for some easy marks. When you're a demon of Technology, it's often hard to imagine why anyone would want to flee to a powerless shack in a remote corner of a third-world nation, and it's even harder to track them on their way there, which makes the Bolts a perfect refuge when somebody seriously needs to stay on Earth, but away from Technologists. And if the demons do find someone or something the Bolts are protecting, said demons tend to twitch when they talk about the experience after they get out of Trauma -- as if they can still feel the shocks. Lastly, and this is where the Bolts still share some common ground with the rest of Lightning's organization, they do undertake the academic study of lightning in nature. They can offer tips on making a vehicle or building well-insulated and protected against lightning strikes, identify dangerous or mild lightning weather, and discuss natural electrical phenomena(tune an AM radio to an empty station during a rainstorm sometime, and then ask a physicist or a meteorologist about "whistling"). Other jobs are certainly possible. Any servant of Lightning will tell you that he understands what a Bolt feels and why he does his job; the Bolts merely take their inherent nature and have decided to express this particular portion of it strongly. William ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 16:12:54 -0600 From: "John Walter Biles" Subject: In Nomine TORG was Re: IN> My "Munchkin Magnet" theory On 8 Mar 01, at 22:34, Janet Anderson wrote: > If the idea is to take In Nomine and move it into a different world, this > I would find amusing. Take the aforementioned Shadowrun, for example. > Consider the complications of that world. Then add angels, demons, and > the War. > I am currently working on an In Nomine TORG project spawned by some comments on here. The URL is at http://www.dkcomm.net/rhea/InNomine/Introduction.htm That page is pretty much all mechanics for adapting the unique aspects of the TORG setting to the In Nomine rules and a modification of TORG and In Nomine Cosmology to make the settings mesh, and is still incomplete. Currently, I'm also working on a Campaign page (how to run an In Nomine TORG campaign and various Resources for such a thing), and on my first Cosm page (Orrorsh) Here's a few excerpts: In the Beginning... In the beginning, there was the Everything and the Nothing. For some unmeasurable amount of time, they co-existed peacefully, in part because the Everything hadn't noticed the Nothing was there. It was, after all, Nothing. In some manner beyond our comprehension, Everything noticed the Nothing, the Void. The act of noticing the Void somehow caused the Void to gain enough sentience to notice the Everything. They hated each other on sight. Everything's response to Nothing was to try to fill it with Something. That Something is the Symphony. Every symphony needs a conductor, so the Everything created Yves to lead the music, and a myriad of Angels, the First Angels, to be the instruments. The first Symphony was not much of a success; they rode forth into the Void to fill it with song and the Nothing ate them. Only Yves got out alive to report the disaster. The Everything decided to try a different tact. Instead of a direct assault on the Void, it would just start making things. It would fill all available space with an infinite number of Symphonies. Even if the Nothing ate some of the Symphonies, there would still be more, and he would keep creating more and more, and each would have the potential for growth, so that it could expand and further push back the Void. And in the end, all available space would full, and the Nothing would cease to exist. The first step, however, was to create the Concert Hall, within which the Symphonies would be played (known to mortals as the Cosmverse). Great walls of power were raised to keep out the Void, so that it couldn't devour these Symphonies before they were strong enough. As the Symphonies grew in strength, the walls would be pushed outwards, until finally, all of the Void would be banished, and the Nothing would perish. Each Symphony was in its own Room within the Concert Hall, seperated from the others by walls; the spaces inside the walls formed Limbo, the place which is not a place. And so God spoke through the Metatron, bringing all the Symphonies into existence within the concert hall, setting a copy of Yves, who alone had survived the first battle with the Nothing, to make sure each of the Symphonies played out correctly. And the Void began to be filled. This angered the Nothing, who sought to destroy the Concert Hall. But it could not break the walls. So it took the energies it had devoured during the first war with the Everything, and created servants. The Nothing was too big to slip in through the cracks and crannies in the walls of the Concert Hall, but its servants could slip in. These servants came in many forms. Some were simply mad ravaging beasts of destruction, which sought to smash everything in sight. Some were more subtle, whispering corruption and trying to convince the beings within the Symphony to reject their Destiny, seeking thus to disrupt the Symphony. And some became known as the Darkness Devices...living relics which could bond with mortals, giving those mortals powers over Essence which could eventually enable them to challenge the very power of Heaven itself... Every Symphony began with the Angels working the will of the Everything, shaping a world. Once the world was formed, time passed, and mortals came forth. And in each, this led to a crisis, as the Angels faced the problem that the Everything ultimately viewed these mortals as more important than they were. One day, the mortals (be they humans, lizard men, dog people or whatever) would pass judgement over them. And so, in each world, a Crisis in Heaven resulted. And from the differing resolutions of that crisis, each Symphony developed in its own way. But now, due to the manipulations of the Darkness Devices, the Symphonies make war upon each other, and in the distance, the Nothing draws closer, waiting for a crack to open, through which it can reach and destroy the Concert Hall. And then perhaps it will enjoy the blessed silence it craves... ******* Storm Knights When a Symphony is invaded, one of the ways it fights back is by producing champions to defend itself. Those who show the ability to make heroic (or in some cases villanous, ruthless) decisions are transformed by that Symphony to become Storm Knights, the white blood cells of reality. Storm Knights are 6-Force mortals who, rather than being granted their sixth force by a Superior, awaken to control of their Essence as the result of making a strong moral choice for good or evil during a confrontation with beings from another Symphony. This is more a plot device than a mechanic, though a simple way to simulate the chance of it happening in play would be to have this transformation to a Storm Knight happen as the result of Celestial/Diabolic intervention during such a confrontation. Storm Knights do not serve Heaven or Hell directly, rather they serve their native Symphony. [Stormers are 6 Force mortals who serve a Darkness Device directly] This may include one which is corrupted by a Darkness Device, but so long as they oppose that reality's High Lord, they are Storm Knights, rather than Stormers. They benefit from 111 interventions, and suffer from 666 interventions, though they draw the attention of the Darkness Device on a 666 instead of the Infernal Powers. There are two major differences between a Storm Knight and any other Soldier. First of all, they have no actual boss/Superior. They can potentially be granted attunements by Angelic or Demonic powers, but normally they acquire whatever attunements they possess from Eternity Shards (see below). This also means there's no one to give them any orders. [Storm Knights can buy attunements from their Symphony's attunement list during character creation] Secondly, unlike Celestials, Storm Knights can combine their Essence into any effect which requires Essence (usually Songs). Storm Knights tend to travel in packs, and find greater strength through their unity. John Walter Biles : MA-History, ABD, Ph.D Candidate at U. Kansas ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu http://www.dkcomm.net/rhea/falcon.html rhea@maison-otaku.net http://maison-otaku.net/~rhea/ "That all princes shall kiss the foot of the Pope alone."--Dictatus Papae, 11th century ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 06:04:13 -0800 From: "Glenn Brown" Subject: IN> Deadlands In Nomine Part 1 I've been toying with the idea of combining Deadlands and In Nomine for some time now. Specifically, I like the idea of combining In Nomine with Deadlands: Hell on Earth, to form a dark post Apocalypse game. I don't have the time to write down all my ideas right now, but I'd welcome any feedback, particularly since it's been a while since I read the Deadland books. "Yves believes the Symphony really started shifting towards its Fate in 1347, when Lucifer decided to have a long talk with one of his Demon Princes. He'd noticed that Makatiel, the Demon Prince of Disease, had started to become discordant. To this day, no one exactly knows what Lucifer said to Makatiel, but whatever it was, it made a difference. Makatiel recovered his equilibrium, which is why he has survived to this day. Makatiel was always a member of Hell's War faction. After his talk with Lucifer, he threw himself into weapons research, searching for a way to strengthen Hell's armies. Makatiel had a brilliant mind, and he had already developed diseases which could infect vessels. He became associated with another, much younger Demon called Vapula. The two of them formed a formidable research team. In addition to his alliance with Vapula, Makatiel was also closely allied with Baal, Haagenti, and Saminga. Because of their Words, these four Princes became known in both Heaven and Hell as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Vapula and Makatiel made a number of important discoveries. They found a new way to cause humans to become Undead, by infecting dying humans with imps. An imp was permanently attached to each new Mummy,or Harrowed, as they came to be called. There were a few problems with the new procedure. The Imp could try to control its actions in the same way a Shidite might. But because the imp had fewer forces than a fledged Shedite, so it wasn't always able to exert full control over its host. And it was also discovered that a Harrowed could learn to use some of the Songs and attunements which its Imp possessed. Some Harrowed used their new powers for Good. But overall, Saminga thought this new way of creating Undead a very good idea. Vapula and Makatiel also studied the way Heaven created Saints. They never duplicated Heaven's ability to put human souls into vessels, but they did find a way to fuse damned souls into a form of rock, which they called ghost rock. Vapula was pleased to discover that burning ghost rock made a very powerful fuel. These discoveries greatly strengthened Hell's War faction. In 1863, during the middle of the American Civil War, Baal decided to make his move. Baal was getting a lot of essence from Tethers formed during the battles of the Civil War. He wanted it to continue, so he encouraged Saminga to raise armies of Undead from dying soldiers, and use them to keep the human's war going, by fighting to prevent either the North or South from winning a decisive victory. Baal would manage to keep the Civil War going for decades, and in the end, the North and South would never be reunited. This new strategy caught Laurence by surprise, and was quite effective in gaining a lot of essence for Hell. Heaven (i.e.. Michael) would have regained control of the situation in time, but before Heaven had a chance to do so, Hell sprang its next surprise. Kronos used the essence Hell had gained to cause a massive earthquake in California, one which put much of the state underwater. California became known as the Maze, because the remaining land formed a network of thousands of small islands, each surrounded by the sea. At first, Heaven couldn't explain why Hell would have wasted so much essence on damaging California, but then the humans who were exploring California's new canyons started discovering a strange, wondrous new mineral, which they would be called ghost rock, because when it burned, it made a sound like the howling of damned souls in torment. It would be a long time before many humans realized that this was *literally* true. Mining ghost rock was enormously profitable, and its discovery in California excited humans far more than any 'gold rush' in history. Greedy miners rushed in, trying to find ore as quickly as possible, and ghost rock madness lead many humans to commit violent and depraved acts. The whole affair was enormously beneficial to Hell. Baal was more sure than ever that Hell would win the War. And yet, the events of the next two centuries would prove that Baal had desperately underestimated human beings. Humanity rose to the challenge Hell posed, and human heroes, aided by Heaven, drove back the darkness. By 2094, Hell faced the imminent prospect of total and complete defeat. But Lucifer was not ready to lose, just yet, and he still had tricks up his sleeve the angels did not expect. The Demon Prince Magog had recently been freed from his millennial confinement, in order that Gabriel's horn might be blown. And Lucifer opened a doorway though time itself, and sent Magog back though time to 1863, with orders to kill all of the human heroes who had so effectively defeated Hell's best efforts. And Magog declared that henceforth he would be known as Stone, a name he selected in mockery of the archangel he had once served, and whom he now hated more than anything else in the Symphony. In 1863, Heaven had no idea that Magog had returned from the future, and was free, and so his efforts were frighteningly successful. Magog shifted the balance of power from Heaven to Hell. And Magog was not alone on Earth, for other Demon Princes assumed Roles on Earth in those dark days. Kronos took the Role of a Indian Shaman named Raven. Beleth became a preacher named Grimme, who founded the cannibalistic cult known as the Church of Lost Angels in the City of Los Angeles. And Vapula became known to all humanity as the greatest of the Mad Scientists, the brilliant scientific genius who taught humanity the many uses of ghost rock, Dr. Darius Hellstromme. Of course Heaven was not totally inactive during this time. For instance, Novalis and Zadkiel came to the defense of the Sioux, when the machinations of Hell threatened to totally destroy that people. Zadkiel used a powerful Song to establish a territory for the Sioux in which advanced technology simply did not function. This Song was maintained for centuries by a chorus of her relievers, and it has allowed the Sioux to maintain their independence and their traditional way of life to this day. And Heaven also had some reason during this period to hope that the tide would turn in its favor again. For instance, Vapula, in his Role as Dr. Hellstromme, established a base among the Mormons in Salt Lake City. And Heaven learned that Brigham Young, who was a Prophet of God, had a revelation from the Divine in which he learned that Vapula would one day destroy the world. But it was also revealed to Young that one day Vapula would be Redeemed. And so, although Young recognized Vapula's evil, he allowed Vapula to remain in the Independent State of Deseret, in order that Young might attempt to hasten the day of Vapula's foretold Redemption." ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2101 ******************************** The material here is (C) 2001 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.