From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Sat Jul 28 18:33:27 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 SAA17797 for ; Sat, 28 Jul 2001 18:33:26 -0500 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.3/8.9.1a) id SAA23867 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Sat, 28 Jul 2001 18:31:17 -0500 Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 18:31:17 -0500 Message-Id: <200107282331.SAA23867@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 #2320 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 Saturday, July 28 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2320 In this digest: Re: IN> Need a little help Re: IN> Interesting Documentary on BBC 1 Re: IN> Interesting Documentary on BBC 1 IN> "And I Feel Fine" - Part 13: The Chimera Riders Re: IN> Re: Cephalopod Vessels Re: IN> [OT] My time, at hand IN> Re: A cute little Belial IN> A tether to secrets. IN> House of a Thousand Samingas IN> Re: Time-Travel Re: IN> House of a Thousand Samingas Re: IN> A tether to secrets. Re: IN> A tether to secrets. Re: IN> A tether to secrets. Re: IN> Banzai Kitten's ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 13:21:55 -0400 From: Big Cheeze Subject: Re: IN> Need a little help On Wed, 25 Jul 2001 14:43:50 -0400, "Adams, David" wrote: > I was wondering if there is a good resource to get celestial > type names. I have access to Hitchcock's Bible Names > Dictionary, but I need something that allows me to do a reverse > look-up. I always have an idea as to what the name should > mean, just no way to find out names along those lines. Any > help would be appreciated. In addition to the resources already mentioned/discovered, you might want to use Google to search the Onomastikon You can go to the 'advanced' search to limit the search to that domain, or just paste 'site:http://www.flick.com/' after the words you want to lookup from the standard search. - -Garrett Taylor Macintosh Specialist / Perl Pounder / Web Wrangler / SQL Stooge Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University -- Daytona Beach, FL USA Information Technology -- Portal Services -- Administrative "SCSI is *NOT* magic. There are *fundamental technical reasons* why it is necessary to sacrifice a young goat to your SCSI chain now and then." - --John Woods ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 10:19:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> Interesting Documentary on BBC 1 - --- Fallen Seraph wrote: > It's called Ancient Apocalypse, at 21:00 GMT. It details > the fall of four > great civilisations, all of which can be easily tied to > IN Canon [titters with glee] I don't get BBC 1, but I'm sure it'll be out on videocasette soon enough. ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 13:22:50 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: IN> Interesting Documentary on BBC 1 Michael Walton wrote: > I don't get BBC 1, but I'm sure it'll be out on > videocasette soon enough. It may also appear on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, or The Learning Channel, all of which belong to the same entity and all of which buy material from the BBC a lot. I think I've seen Ancient Apocalypse mentioned somewhere in that melange. Earl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 13:49:18 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: IN> "And I Feel Fine" - Part 13: The Chimera Riders "The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood--idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts." - -- Revelation 9:13-21 * * * * * * * There's a minor Tether in Iraq, not far from Bagdad, near the ruins of Babylon. Years ago, longer ago than an archeologist would believe, people tried to build a tower to Heaven there. Something happened, and they failed. The Something was a Divine Intervention, which did not in itself create a Tether. Rather, the Tether was created by the great human effort just prior to the Intervention. It would have made a good Tether to Technology, but that Word was not held by anyone yet. Instead, it became a Tether to Lightning. Jean was displeased, since the humans had been trying for just the kind of peek-at-the-back-of-the-book hubris he discourages. He was able to shuffle it off to Raphael, and the place became a minor Tether to Knowledge. The renowned scholarship of Babylonian astrologer-priests helped stablize it. Yves inherited it when Raphael died and Destiny took over large parts of the territory of Knowledge. Yves let it stay a minor Tether, but he sent four angels to keep the Senechal company, and he gave those angels very special powers and responsibilities. Using Songs and tricks discovered by the Grigori and anonymously forwarded to him by Semyaza, Yves set the four angels to dancing in and out of Limbo, performing rites to harvest Essence and generating vessels. Very strange vessels. Two hundred million of them. Eli dropped by from time to time... Centuries passed. The Tribulations began. The War heated up and the world divided into a patchwork of territories, some held by the Antichrist, some held by his foes. Early on, Therrian made sure to capture Jerusalem, Mecca, Antioch, Medina, and as much of the Holy Lands in general as he could. It didn't help. Sometime in the latter half of the Tribulation, a Heavenly cavalry erupts from the Lost Tether of the Tower of Babel. Of course, Lucifer and Therrian are expecting the cavalry, but each and every lion-headed horse has all the Corporeal and Celestial Songs of Motion built into it, in addition to their breath-weapons and venomous tails. And each one carries a warrior saint or avenging angel on its back. Soon, the cavalry of chimerae is dispersed all over the globe. Soon, the Holy Lands are held by Heaven's forces, and people begin flying and teleporting into them from all over the globe. Therrian forms a similar concentration in Italy, centering on Rome. * * * * * * * The horse/lion chimerae are all level 6 vessels. Each has the Corporeal and Celestial Songs of Motion built in, so they can fly and teleport. The vessels act as artifacts, so the chimera can teleport the rider to any place the rider has been. The fire breath acts like Gabriel's Smite attunement, and the snake-headed tail does 2d6 body hits with its bite. The chimera vessel is capable of speech, but the soul animating it may not be, since, most often, it is a blessed animal souls. Next commonest are Ethereals aligned with Heaven. Third come relievers, often in the role of familiar to the rider. Blessed human souls, Saints, and angels are also possibilities. The riders themselves are usually angels, but may be Saints. PCs could wind up as either chimerae or riders, if they wish. * * * * * * * Roleplaying seed: Demonic Detection Lucifer has read Revelation; he is virtually certain that a fifth of a billion Heavenly cavalry will show up, sometime soon, somewhere in the Euphrates area. He has Baal send some spies (demonic PCs) to try to pin down exactly where and when. Laurence sends counter-intelligence agents (angelic PCs) to make sure they don't stumble upon the Lost Tether of Babel, or, if they do, that they don't recognize it as the cavalry launch point, or don't live to report it. * * * * * * * Roleplaying seed: Holding Action As soon as the chimerical cavalry starts bursting out of the Euphrates Tether, the forces of Hell will converge on them. How well-prepared Hell is depends on how successful Baal's agents were in the preceeding adventure. If PCs are interested in being, or fighting, chimera-riders, this is the place to start. Since the chimerae can teleport, Song combat is going to be very important, as the only practical way of pinning them down. Since there are *200,000,000* chimerae, this will be a long-drawn-out conflict, lasting days or weeks. It is also likely that, having come to the Euphrates Tether to collect their chimera, angels will then go to some *other* Heavenly Tether to actually descend. So chimerae will leak out all over the globe, eventually. * * * * * * * Roleplaying seed: Chimerae on the Battlefield Soon, there are 200 million flying, teleporting chimerae (minus casualties) flitting around the many battlefields of Tribulation Earth, carrying avenging angels. Cavalry may sound old-fashioned, but not with those tricks at its command. And the angels on their backs are packing anything from firey swords to Lightning-Labs ultra-tech zap-guns. Of course, the demons and Hellsworn they're up against are packing Vapu-tech zap-guns, and riding mecha, Ogres, and so forth, so the battle isn't entirely one-sided. The battle becomes still less one-sided when Baal and the other warlike princes begin manufacturing the Hellish equivalents of Heaven's chimerae. These beast-vessels are quite varied in appearance, though variations on the classic dragon are commonest. Since Hell has not spent millenia stockpiling them, they have far fewer monster vessels, but they make them even more loaded with tricks. These dragon cavalry can be animated by demons (including PC volunteers or draftees), but demonlings are commoner, and commonest are Force-stripped damned souls that have been degraded to bestial levels, Hell's nearest equivalent to animals. * * * * * * * Note again the huge number of chimerae. A fifth of a billion. That's one chimera for every thirty humans alive now; after all the losses of the Tribulation and the Rapture, the ratio gets even larger. So it isn't surprising that the chimera cavalry can kill off a third of the remaining human population. The other thing the chimera cavalry does is move people around. Soon, almost nobody is in Therrian-held territory unless they want to be. The battle lines of Heaven and Hell used to run through every house and every human heart, infinitely crinkly, like a fractal curve; now they are becoming plainer and plainer. Earl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 11:06:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> Re: Cephalopod Vessels - --- james walker wrote: > care to > whip up some vessel descriptions for Technologists using > cephalopod Vessel to construct Vappy's latest Super > Weapon? Here's what I can do off the top of my head. Advantages 1) Highly complex central nervous system incorporating both an incredibly acute sense of touch, independently controlled suckers on each tentacle and the second best all-around optical system in the animal kingdom -- the best all-around being that of Humans (suggested game mechanic: bonuses to either the Attribute ratings or rolls involving Perception or Precision; +2-3 sounds right to me). 2) Octopi have poisonous bites, but not all of them have venom that is dangerous to Humans. The venom is corrosive; it doubles as a digestive enzyme. Their method of eating is actually quite similar to that of spiders (suggested game mechanic: victim of an octopus bite takes an additional Body Hit every turn for a number of turns equal to the CD of the successful attack roll, but only if the target is of a species that is susceptible to the venom). 3) Cephalopods -- especially octopi -- have soft, compressible bodies. The smaller ones can squeeze themselves through a hole the size of a quarter; any of them can fit through a hole half the diameter of its head. 4) Cephalopods convert food into body mass more efficiently than almost any other animals -- some have food conversion rates of up to 80%! A well-fed cephalopod can regenerate lost limbs, and they probably heal lesser wounds very quickly (suggested game mechanic: cephalopods heal at twice the normal healing rate unless they are currently regrowing a limb, in which case they heal at the normal rate; reducing the animal's food supply can negate this ability, and Celestials in cephalopod Vessels have to eat in order to benefit from it). 5) Specialized skin cells called chromatophores give them innate color changing ability. Some species (mostly octopi) also have specialized muscles which allow them to alter skin _texture_ as well. Certain deep-water species have photophores (cells that emit light). Cuttlefish have so much control over their color changes that they can flash hypnotic patterns across their skin -- they appear to use this to mesmerize prey. Cephalopod color changing has been observed as camouflage, but they may also use it for communication (suggested game mechanic: +3 to TN of stealth rolls, and may use color changes as a form of extremely rapid silent speech; Celestials in cuttlefish Vessels may get a +1 to the TN of Hypnosis rolls). Disadvantages 1) As invertebrates, cephalopods have no bones and thus less leverage for their muscles. They tend to be weaker than vertebrates of similar body weight (suggested game mechanic: maximum Strength = 7 as opposed to the 10 that Humans get, and smaller species don't even get that; Giant Squid might max at 10). 2) Cephalopod blood pigment is based on copper rather than iron. Because hemocyanin is less efficient than hemoglobin at carrying oxygen, cephalopods tire quickly from exertion -- they can exert themselves just as strenously as creatures with iron-based blood, but can't keep it up for as long. Note that all cephalopods are carnivores; most are scavengers, but some are predators and can be very aggressive. Here are suggested stats for a couple of species (those marked with [*] indicate Attributes bought up independently of Forces): Common Octopus The most frequently seen cephalopod. They grow to have arms spans of up to 8' and will confront Humans if their territory is invaded. These extremely clever animals have been known to escape from aquariums and fishing nets. CorF: 2 (Str 4, Agi 4) EthF: 1 (Int 2, Per 5)* CelF: 1 (Per 5, Will 1)* Humboldt Squid These animals are about 10' long when full grown. They are among the most aggressive of squids and have been known to attack Humans. CorF: 3 (Str 7, Agi 5) EthF: 1 (Int 1, Pre 5)* CelF: 1 (Per 3, Will 2)* ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 14:37:13 -0700 From: Charles E Smith Subject: Re: IN> [OT] My time, at hand Thanks, and I'll see you all next year.<<< Have fun! ^_^ ________________________________________________________________ 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: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 10:37:45 +1100 From: "james walker" Subject: IN> Re: A cute little Belial > Turns out God didn't actually want Belial to replace Gabriel. The new > Calabite Prince of Fire found himself ruler of his own "mountain of flame" > in Sheol, creating the infamous burning fires of Hell ("lit the Pit"), and > it was all because of Lucifer. Truth be told, he's still recovering from > the shock of being so completely wrong. > > *apologies to the RHCP. > > Later. > Jonathan Wrong? the War's not over yet! After all, Gabriels' on the brink of Falling, and once she does, the two of them can be reconciled and lead the hordes of Hell back into Heaven, ending this meaningless War.... Very Nice. Very Nice Indeed. James ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 20:54:29 -0400 From: "Daniel Gallagher" Subject: IN> A tether to secrets. Just wondering but thas anyone doe the NSA headquarters in Maryland as a tether to Secrets? It would make sense. Daniel Demon Prince of Lurkers "Ouch, ouch, the dissonance." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 00:17:55 -0400 From: "Charles Phipps" Subject: IN> House of a Thousand Samingas Saminga, Demon Prince of Death killed 1945 Saminga, Demon Prince of Death killed 1865 Saminga, Demon Prince of Death killed 1777... and the littany goes all the way back to the original elevation of the Kyriotate Saminga so many centuries ago to the status of Demon Prince. What is a closely gaurded secret in the land of Abaddon is that the position of Saminga, Demon Prince of Death has changed hands many times. Some Demon Princes already know this secret about Saminga most noticibly Kobal, Kronos, and Baal but for the most part the forces of Hell would be horrofied by the price that being lord of Hellish word enacts. Effectively it all started not long after the original Saminga was elevated to the status of Demon Prince he noticed that hsi vast intellect and occult knowledge while still present was being squandered because of his increased fascination with the simple joys of human beings commiting murder. The acts were so frequent as opposed to events which required complexity and forethought however and often so MINDLESSLY numbing (much like Lust) that his great wisdom was rapidly twindling away. In effect he was becoming a crack addict on his own word..... Saminga immediately started grafting ethereal, celestial, and finally simple physical forces (to hearten his spirit) onto himself of great dealers of death from his word in an attempt to preserve his sanity but nothing seemed to work as his servants gradually became to realize that they worked for a gibbeirng idiot prone to ranting and obscene plans to get his fix for death. Finally only Shedim could truly stand his presence for an exceptional long time and even then Saminga revolted them with his stupidity that finally one attacked him.... he didn't fight back.... and killed Saminga the Demon Prince of death. The Shedim in question then recieved a visit by Lucifer who congradulated him on his efforts and proceeded to make him the new Demon Prince of Death....and the situation has been repeating itself with varying degrees of success and failure for the past few thousand years. Rumors of Saminga the Djinn (Saminga meaning in Angelic "Death") and Saminga the Balseraph are rife but they ultimately meet the exact same fate as their patron before anyone can really notice. It's even rumored one particular Saminga managed to seperate all of his desire to destroy and implant it in another Shedim in hopes of staying sane...and Lucifer crowned that Shedim the Demon prince of corruption. So if you ever complain about Saminga being a stupid prince don't be surprised if he says "You think you can do better...go ahead. KILL ME!" - -Charlemagne ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 08:03:26 -0400 From: Jonathan Walton Subject: IN> Re: Time-Travel >Does this mean we might see the Kronos DP of Paradox write-up you mentioned >if there was enough interest? Heck, _any_ interest is enough for me. I'll see what I can do. Hmm ... something like ... "The world is what they made it to be. Unmake that, and then make it your own." Oooh, I like ... Later. Jonathan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 05:39:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> House of a Thousand Samingas The subject line alone was scary enough -- but the theory is awesome. The line about Legion is a really nice touch. ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 15:53:10 From: "Michael Cleveland" Subject: Re: IN> A tether to secrets. >Just wondering but thas anyone doe the NSA headquarters in Maryland as >a >tether to Secrets? It would make sense. If memory serves, it's a Tether to The Game. At least, that's what it is in my campaign. Thinking about surveillance, wiretaps, spies and intelligence gathering, it fits the profile better. Michael _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 11:11:38 -0500 From: David Edelstein Subject: Re: IN> A tether to secrets. Michael Cleveland wrote: > If memory serves, it's a Tether to The Game. At least, that's what it is in> my campaign. Thinking about surveillance, wiretaps, spies and intelligence> gathering, it fits the profile better. I believe in the Liber Castellorum, it's officially a Tether to Lightning. - -David ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 11:17:06 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Dresner-Thornber Subject: Re: IN> A tether to secrets. > If memory serves, it's a Tether to The Game. At least, that's what it is in > my campaign. Thinking about surveillance, wiretaps, spies and intelligence > gathering, it fits the profile better. Although it's officially a tether to Lightning, it would be a cool tether to Technology. :) The NSA guys are hard-core geeks. ********** Emily K. Dresner-Thornber Freelance Writer zenith@evilkitten.org "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 16:25:18 -0700 From: "Phillip Des Jardins" Subject: Re: IN> Banzai Kitten's > Maurice Lane wrote: > > I liked this (I'm possibly the only human being I know > > that is allergic to cats but likes them anyway). > > Nope. Me too. > Throw me on the list, too. Hmm. Recieving inspiration for the Demon of Allergies. I'm thinking a Servitor of Technology, meself. ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2320 ******************************** The material here is (C) 2001 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.