From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Sun Jul 29 22:35:13 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 WAA21111 for ; Sun, 29 Jul 2001 22:35:13 -0500 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.3/8.9.1a) id WAA22517 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Sun, 29 Jul 2001 22:31:21 -0500 Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 22:31:21 -0500 Message-Id: <200107300331.WAA22517@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 #2321 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 Sunday, July 29 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2321 In this digest: Re: IN> A tether to secrets. Re: IN> A tether to secrets. IN> Daemon of allergies was Re:Banzai Kitten's IN> Iron Rev III: The Demon of Yogurt Re: IN> Iron Rev III: The Demon of Yogurt IN> Updated... IN> August is FANTASY MONTH! IN> The Heir of Saminga part 2 IN> The heir of Saminga IN> Question about elderly angels Re: IN> Question about elderly angels IN> The Graveyard of Good Games Re: IN> Question about elderly angels IN> Iron Rev III: Belle of the Ball Re: IN> The Graveyard of Good Games ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 22:32:32 -0700 From: Anthony Damiani Subject: Re: IN> A tether to secrets. 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." > >------------------------------ Book of Tethers has the NSA Headquarters at Fort Meade listed as a Tether to Technology, presumably, due to really, really big computers being used in encryption. I agree it fits secrets better, but as I'd hate to disagree with Holy Cannon, I suggest that it has been contested by both words, and Vapula won out 'cause he, unlike Alaemon, is a major prince. -ALD ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 02:50:04 -0400 From: Mike Bruner 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. > > Book of Tethers has the NSA Headquarters at Fort Meade listed as a >Tether to Technology, presumably, due to really, really big computers being >used in encryption. I agree it fits secrets better, but as I'd hate to >disagree with Holy Cannon, I suggest that it has been contested by both >words, and Vapula won out 'cause he, unlike Alaemon, is a major prince. Actually, one nice twist would be that the Tether has a special... "secret" to its nature (I find it rather appropriate that Vapula is not quite as in control of this Tether as he thinks due to the manipulations of Secrets). Whether there's actually something about the Tether that makes it flow to both Technology and Secrets (the latter being unknown to most...) or maybe Alaemon has merely subverted the Seneschal (can't get the Essence yet that way, but being able to slip in an operative or two and utilize the NSA's mundane resources is certainly useful, and paves the way for a more complete transfer of control later...), either approach could lead to some interesting plot threads. Or it could be an outright lie propagated to the Host; I expect Alaemon does quite a bit of work attempting to conceal his Tethers or make them look like someone else's (Revelations probably regards just determining the existence of a Secrets Tether as a great victory in itself). - -- Mike Bruner-- bruner@delaware.infi.net I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 10:57:14 +0000 From: "cassandra benner" Subject: IN> Daemon of allergies was Re:Banzai Kitten's > Throw me on the list, too. Hmm. Recieving inspiration for the Demon >of >Allergies. I'm thinking a Servitor of Technology, meself. Personally id say servitor of drugs, what with all those remedies that really dont work but folks buy them out of hope none the less. Or a fallen servitor of jordi gone to work for kobal. "oh yes i love animals, animals love me, but my body doesnt like them you see, all this sneezing and snot, its hell you know..." Toodles Cass *where you come from is gone, where you're going was never there, and where you are aint no good unless you can get away from it* http://communities.msn.co.uk/ADD http://www.drunkendwarfinn.co.uk http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ADandD_Stuff _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 09:38:15 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Iron Rev III: The Demon of Yogurt [Haven't had time to read anyone else's, so I hope this doesn't repeat...] The Demon of Yogurt Once upon a time, there were two demons of Gluttony, and -- rather surprising for demons -- they loved each other very much. (And not just for dessert.) Together, they ran a specialty food store, and on their lunch hours, they would go to the nearby park and buy food from the vendors there. They loved discussing their favorite topic: what kinds of food were best. One day, the Lightbringer happened upon them in that park, as one spoke passionately of the beauties of health food, and the other declaimed intensely upon the appeal of junk food. And the First Balseraph listened a while, being somewhat impressed by their zeal and fervor on their topics, until he realized that these two demons cared about each other. So he appeared unto them and granted them each Words. The first should have Health Food, and the second should have Junk Food (both Words which Haagenti had been hoping to acquire for some time now, since a Malakite of Eli had strangled the last Junk Food with a celestial licorice whip). Then he left them. And their new Words did cause them friction. No longer could they think properly about any other kind of foods. They divided their store between them, and stocked it with foods to support their Words. Then they found it: health food/junk food. You've seen those black packages, with sweet potato chips, or chips made from all kinds of tubers? The two demons realized that they had a meeting of Words after all. And in their joy, they went to their Prince, Haagenti, and begged that he would join selected of their Forces together, that they might produce, and raise, a demon to serve him even as they did. And, because he was pleased at all the "healthy junk food" that they were promoting the over-consumption of, he agreed. But when Lucifer heard Haagenti bragging about his young Word-bound and their new imp, the Morning Star was less pleased. These two, who should be driven apart by their Words, had come together instead? It was . . . annoying. So he appeared unto them and their new imp (which was in the vessel of a baby) and gave the "child" a Word that he was sure would split Junk and Health apart, as each tried to warp the imp to serve it, and not it's "mate." That Word was Yogurt. But even the Lightbringer can have an off day, for little "Yogi" (as the imp grew to be called) was a true product of its flexible and clever parents, and sought ways to serve both spheres of the Word-bound whose Forces had created it. No-fat soy "yogurt" for the one, chocolate cheesecake yogurt for the other . . . The possibilities were endless. With glee, the trio promoted Yogurt. Now, it will be Yogi's shining moment: not only does the imp (now 6 Forces, aside from its Word) have control of a small yogurt processing plant, but it is about to launch a flavor which is a true merger of all the low-fat, high nutrition of Health Food, and all the taste ecstasy and affordability of Junk Food. In the honor of the new company, there's been a media event planned. (The "front owners," ignorant humans, have high society pretensions which suit the Word-bound trio just fine.) Naturally, there are enemies who might be waiting to spoil this event somehow: crash the party, destroy the plant, kill the demons, all of the above. Why, this little success story is such that even Lucifer himself might manipulate one last attack to spoil the threesome's happiness. (Are your player characters, angel or demon, suitably manipulable?) Of course, if the three Word-bound rise above this last assault, Lucifer will clearly have no choice. He'll have to make Yogurt a Prince and hope Haagenti eats him. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 08:28:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Iron Rev III: The Demon of Yogurt - --- Elizabeth McCoy wrote: > [Haven't had time to read anyone else's, so I hope > this doesn't repeat...] > > The Demon of Yogurt "We have to do WHAT?" "I know, I know, it sounds insane to me, too. But look at the sigils on the order! First, there's Novalis..." "As if that would make me move faster." "Shut UP, Moroniel. Dominic's sigil is right below hers, which means that he's probably going to assign a Triad to 'help out'. Besides, look at the _other_ sigils. Michael, David, Marc ... Font of Virtue, apparently even Eli managed to put his chop on the blessed thing between the Council Chambers and here." "But they all HATE each other! Well, sort of." "All the more reason to take this deathly seriously: besides, you have no idea how important the tin hats are taking is. See this sigil?" "That's not a sigil, that's a smudge... oh. That's not a smudge, is it? That's a paw print." "Yup. You KNOW how hard it is for them to get Jordi to sign off on _anything_. We are officially on detached 'Don't stop for anything less than Armageddon itself' duty until further notice ... and 'with your shield or on it', to boot." "But why in the 1000 Names of Allah are we protecting a _Yogurt_ factory? And three DIABOLICAL WORD-BOUNDS, to boot? It clearly says here that they're to be fragging protected, at all costs!" "I don't do Council politics - but they apparently want to teach Hell a lesson. Of course, what _Novalis_ considers the lesson is probably different from what the War Faction does..." ;) Moe PS I liked this one, Beth. ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 06/05/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 08:31:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Updated... Normally I don't mention when I update, but the Proceedings papers are up ... finally. Moe PS New Papers still welcome. :) ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 07/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 13:32:22 -0400 From: Daniel Sauve Subject: IN> August is FANTASY MONTH! By the power invested in me by my own penial glad, I declare August IN/ Fantasy cross over month! Celebrate by: Writing up races in IN terms! Establishing your own racial origins, or help expand someone elses-- like, say, Moe's! (Here! http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/fantasy.html ) Add more races! Heck, let's not limit ourselves to Fantasy Folk! Try D&D settings, the GEM and Supplements, ( http://www.protoformproject.com/Scrolls_Of_Virtue/index.htm , particularly People of Magic on this list-- http://www.protoformproject.com/Scrolls_Of_Virtue/Manuals.htm), heck, anything! Magic, Psionics, Clerical powers-- anything that brings The War to a new, fantastic setting! Start posting them on Tuesday, and we'll see if we can't scrouge up some web space for it... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 14:08:47 -0400 From: "Charles Phipps" Subject: IN> The Heir of Saminga part 2 Samiel Duke of Loyalty unto Death Djinn of Lost Causes Corporal Forces-5 Strength-8 Agility-12 Ethereal Forces-6 Intelligence-12 Precision-12 Celestial-6 Will-12 Perception-12 Vessel: Human Male 6/ (+3 Charisma), Cobra 3/ (+2 Charisma) Relics: Usually laden down like Nazi Germany with Celestial weapons Skills: Economics 3/, Emote 3/, Fast Talk 4/, Languages (Ancient Sumerian 3/, Ancient Egyptian 6/, Chaldean 3/, Latin 6/, Hebrew 4/), Necromancy 6/, Occult 6/, Seduction 2/, Saminga's Organization 6/, Thanotology (the study of death and cultural practices thereof) 6/, Tactics 5/ (heavily slated to maximizing casualties rather than preventing them) Songs: Claws 3/, Charm (Ethereal 6/, Celestial 5/) Fangs 2/, Poison 5/, Motion (Celestial 5/), Tongues (Corporeal 3/, Ethereal 4/, Celestial 5/), Wings 2/ Attunements: All of Saminga's band and servitor attunements, Sorcery, Knight of the Dead, Captain of the Infernal Legion, Baron of the Undead Kingdom, Duke of Loyalty unto Death, Maximize Resources, Rally Samiel as a Duke of Saminga is blessed with the power of that form which allows him to answer any summoning for Saminga and instantly teleport that area along with knowing the general circumstances of the call and who is doing the calling. He is under no compulsion to answer and usually does so only when Saminga is not doing so and when the situation requires his attention. He almost never shows up when an Archangel is present, leaving that for his Prince, but has met David on three memorable occasions and had at least one loathsome meeting with Novalis. Samiel gains no specific benefits from being the Duke of Loyalty unto Death but it should be noted that as part of his duties he is fully attuned to Saminga and knows always his whereabouts and general condition. Necromancy Necromancy is a unique Ethereal Sorcery, which Saminga adapted for his mortal priests and demonic servitors and which Samiel is responsible for distributing nowadays. The sorcery roughly works on the same system as summoning does and bears some remarkable similarity. However the difference is that dream shades are summoned from the ethereal plane and the souls of the damned (Heavenly souls are of course immune as are reincarnated spirits). Saminga has taken much flak from his fellow Princes for usage of this attunement. Samiel however routinely teaches this sorcery to particularly talented soldiers and a rare few demons in hopes they will spread it. For general reference of what Samiel can do * Contact Dead This allows a sorcerer to ask a check roll number of questions from a spirit ** Summon Spirit This will bring a soul from the realms of the dead for a very brief time to animate a "vessel" provided (effectively creating a zombie) for roughly an hour per check digit point. *** Compel Spirit This ability allows the caster to command a task per resisted will check with a spirit. Given most spirits from Saminga's realms are completely mindless this is a relatively easy task. **** Summon named Spirit Please note Cleopatra and Helen of Troy have a headache right now and with the decrease in sexism among sorcerers so do Mark Anthony and Prias. ***** Soul Pact This allows a spirit to be transformed into a ghost (in effect a vessel-less wandering spirit) if he agrees to give up his soul to a demon or sorcerer. Maximize Resources: Saminga's organization is generally speaking, a mess. The word of Lost causes however provides Samiel with the power to recognize the weak points in any plan and summarize the best attributes he could find on his own with enough time in an instant. The attunement even provides a small manila folder or if the subject is so inclined large stone tablets, scrolls written in blood, etc. Rally: This ability is a rather disturbing one and one that Samiel uses sparingly for fear that it would cause an uproar amongst Death's servitors. Roughly this ability allows Samiel to with his voice and a resisted willpower check to compel fanatical loyalty to Saminga for the duration of his mission. Unfortunately the ability only works on Samingaites for Saminga and the more a subject despises the Prince the more this ability has the side effect of making them like him (a complete gibbering madman) Word Forces: 10 currently but during events like the immediate aftermath of Civil War and Last days of Nazism and Communism it raises closer to 18-20. During Armageddon his ability word would become Princely, though no one in Hell would want to acknowledge that. Special Rites: * Keep Saminga's operations running smoothly * Convince someone of Saminga's greatness as a Prince (+2) Every Prince it has been noted sometimes has a sidekick or flunkey with Vapula having Sparky, Dominic (he's a Balseraph you know it) having Bronwyn, Baal has Ophis, and Asmodeus having Staciel. In effect there's something about being a nigh omnipotent godlike being which requires an intermediary who understands their innate godlike state but can relate to mortals. Though he much prefers the term "heir", "son", "disciple", or "loyal servant" Samiel is Saminga's numero uno henchman and he by his own admission appears to have no ambitions other than satisfying Saminga's vanity and insane schemes to the best of his ability. He is indeed one of the reasons that Saminga's organization has not come toppling down around him. Samiel whose name is synonymous with evil in Kabbalistic lore is not a very old demon but holds a special place in Saminga's heart because he was the first entity Saminga created when he was elevated to the status of Prince. Some cynical demons mark that it was this ultimate blasphemy-the creation of life-which marked the start of Saminga's fall from sanity but few save among those who were passed over for his immediate crowning as Duke complained thereafter. Samiel's loyal and selfless service have on more than one occasion attracted the attention of Asmodeus who personally is wondering whether or not the Djinn has made the mistake of becoming two attached to something. However Asmodeus recognizes also the man's service to evil is impeccable in the day-to-day spreading of the word of death as a force not to be denied. The political ramifications of destroying him also would be heady indeed. Those who know Samiel intimately believe that his word, presented by Lucifer to him for his faithful defense of Legion as a glorious creation of his Lord before the beaten and battered forms of the Princes assembled in trial of the Lord of Death, mark that Samiel serves Saminga because of a sort of twisted form of Djinn pity. Because Saminga is so helpless someone must do their best to look after his interests and ensure the evil of his word is spread properly. Those who do not fall under the charismatic demons spell have a more sinister take on his loyal service and believe Samiel has from the moment he was born from Saminga's service been gas-lighting his Prince by addicting him to his mindless pleasures and controlling information. Ultimately they believe that Samiel hopes to transform Saminga into a quivering fool before taking the mantle of Prince for himself and perhaps even the iron throne of Hell. Already he has a large and devoted following of servitors in the lower nobility and quite a few Marquises while several of his detractors have met terrible ends. Those who listen solely to Samiel 's take hear "I am his son and he is my father. The ties of spirit can be severed not by word or by deed and thus his dream is mine." - -Charlemagne ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 14:08:45 -0400 From: "Charles Phipps" Subject: IN> The heir of Saminga "This is hands down the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life." The Impudite stared at Saminga's messenger boy. "Ours is not to question the will of our Lord Saminga." The man with the deep serpentine eyes in his otherwise human celestial form said his never breaking monotone. "He wants us to create a carnival..manned by Zombies..with guns." "and knives." Samiel says raising a finger to correct. "And KNIVES to kill people who come to the carnival if I'm not missing anything here." The servitor said. "That is the most fundamental aspect of your mission. Lord Saminga believes that a carnival by it's nature as a traveling attraction will bring large amounts of patrons to meet grizzly demises in suitably flamboyant and memorable ways." The Djinn major dormo held neither distaste nor awe in his voice. "Okay perhaps you should tell his Lordship." the Impudite began before stopping seeing his sarcasm cause the lines in Samiel's face to contort in a look that signaled warning "his awesomeness most Imperial Lord of oblivion, doom, and destruction." The Impudite began to bow and scrape "that it's not exactly memorable if everyone who goes in dies and carnivals where absolutely no patrons survive don't get good word of mouth. Not to mention in today's society killing large groups of people by shambling corpses dressed by clowns tends to attract attention not just by the say..ENTIRE HEAVENLY HOST but mortal authorities as well!" The demon got up his ire "Exactly how is this freak show of horrors supposed to support the damnation of souls anyway as well! It's not like zombies really promote people to follow the glories of murder here!" Samiel took a deep breath and blinked once "You're a former servitor of fate, yes?" Samiel snapped his fingers and conjured up a large manila folder engraved with a skull on the front. "Inside here is the suggested route you should take to maximize the amount of deaths inside small villages while minimizing large scale scrutiny of the events. I've bequeathed roughly twenty gremlins and imps for your purpose to help arrange the proper cover for the events to preserve some sanctity of the war's secrecy as well..see section F for forest fire and section T for Toxic fumes. I've highlighted strategy for convincing survivors to serve the word of Death and made a profile for such likely hellsworn to recruit. In the advent of angelic attack the contingencies have been listed for you and your fellow demons to escape as the Zombies and mortals are left to satisfy the most likely Angelic groups.Laurence 75.45% chance of with a 20.94 percent chance of Michaelites. The ratios for the rest including other demons and the inevitable lust interference are listed as well for this." The Impudite flipped through the three hundred page dissertation "And if me or my boys want to go man-o-a-mano with the angels?" "Then in the words of George Washington, it's your own ass." Samiel said simply. "Contact me however if such is inevitable and I will make sure you are suitably well armed for the occasion appropriate for your abilities. I waste not our relics on the foolish." The Impudite looked up "If I survive this I want my next job to be about Goth chicks." "I'll see what I can do. Serving the Lord of Death you will find is quite rewarding." The Duke of Loyalty unto Death then disappeared. To be continued - -Charlemagne ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 14:38:33 -0700 From: Charles E Smith Subject: IN> Question about elderly angels I have a question, and I don't have the APG to answer it. I have a design in mind for a character. He's a Kyriotate of Destiny, once in service to Knowledge, but he's an elderly angel. By elderly, I mean he witnessed the Fall. However, he still only has 9 Forces, despite having served Raphael (under Mariel, the Angel of Memory) since his creation and then transferring to Yves's service when she died. Is such a character feasible, I mean, in terms of Forces? Would such an old angel still be allowed to serve on Earth after such a long time, or does Heaven retire its' old-timers (not counting Archangels)? ________________________________________________________________ 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: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 18:50:05 -0300 From: pbarkow@is2.dal.ca Subject: Re: IN> Question about elderly angels On 29 Jul 01, at 14:38, Charles E Smith wrote: > I have a question, and I don't have the APG to answer it. > > I have a design in mind for a character. He's a Kyriotate of Destiny, once > in service to Knowledge, but he's an elderly angel. By elderly, I mean he > witnessed the Fall. However, he still only has 9 Forces, despite having > served Raphael (under Mariel, the Angel of Memory) since his creation and > then transferring to Yves's service when she died. Is such a character > feasible, I mean, in terms of Forces? Would such an old angel still be > allowed to serve on Earth after such a long time, or does Heaven retire > its' old-timers (not counting Archangels)? What possible reason would they have to retire such an angel? Angels don't age. Even if he's lost forces he'd skill have an impressive variety of skills and songs. Not to mention aeons of experience. The "Old Guy" from 'Night Music' is the classic example. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 18:18:34 -0400 From: "Charles Phipps" Subject: IN> The Graveyard of Good Games I'm suddenly reminded of the game Changeling the Dreaming... For those who don't know Changeling it was supposed to round off the White Wolf "World of Darkness" series with faeries after Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, and Wraiths but bombed incredibly thanks to Card tie ins which effectively doubled the price of the game and rendered each supplement (the cards and the game) unplayable without the other. There were also significant story issues about the game being incomptabile with the World of Darkness and the fact faeries had no overt seperation of powers. Curiously enough there was (as the rumor goes on the forums at least) a significant desire to see the game continue despite the abyssmal sales figures that resulted in it being dropped. Thus was created a sub-company called Arthaus which began producing the group in interest. On the forums the game continued having it's small but devoted following and actually the linked lists and online community in a surprising truth (to be honest the online community has for the most part I think been peripherial to any real sales figures as opposed to the actuality-it merely seems bigger) suceeded in sustaining the system The community isn't exactly the most HEALTHY one in the world with every few days a straggler comming out asking if the game is dead yet but it survived and has recently acquired the rights to publish Ravenloft (yes an AD&D Game published by a subsidary of White wolf-what an unholy tryst) with the money made off. Why do I bring this up? Just thoughts while I worry about my angels. - -Charlemagne ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 18:18:40 -0500 From: David Edelstein Subject: Re: IN> Question about elderly angels pbarkow@is2.dal.ca wrote: > Is such a character> > feasible, I mean, in terms of Forces? Would such an old angel still be> > allowed to serve on Earth after such a long time, or does Heaven retire> > its' old-timers (not counting Archangels)? Yes. The APG has several possible backgrounds to explain ancient celestials with starting PC-level Forces and skills. Someone badly damaged in celestial combat is one explanation. Someone who's spent most of his career in Heaven or Hell doing "non-adventurous" things (and therefore not having any reason to develop additional Forces) is another. - -David ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 21:26:48 -0400 From: Whistling in the Dark Subject: IN> Iron Rev III: Belle of the Ball IRON REV III -- this time, it's personal! "Belle of the Ball." There are many battles across many Words in Heaven and in Hell -- the most celebrated hardly need mention. One can envision David and Malphas at one another's throats, or the searing flames between Gabriel and Belial, all backdropped between the ultimate conflict, between Destiny and Fate. Compared to this, the quiet hostilities between the Mercurian Angel of Manners and the Balseraph Demon of Decorum seem almost quaint. They seem that way, but the out and out hostility between the pair is huge. Graham, the Angel of Manners and Servitor of Trade, has always promoted Manners as the social lubricant that smooths out rough edges in human relations. Sumtor, the Demon of Decorum and Servitor of Factions, uses the unwritten (and written) rules of society, business and interpersonal relations to separate and distance humanity. The pair have fought a very bitter... but very gracious war over the centuries. Today the battlefield is rife -- a Debutante Ball, where the archaic notion of 'Coming Out' can serve as a genteel reminder of the mores of another generation and celebrate both the old and the new... or an outdated social strata can force the wrong ideals onto another generation of young girls, reinforces class barriers, and kills off individuality in the name of 'how it's always been done.' At this particular Debutante Ball, both "Graham Willis" and "Samantha Haight-Torres" are working their wiles on the crowd, eyeing one another and trying to figure out how to eliminate the other without causing a scene. It is tailor made for Kobal, naturally. Or Kobalites, at least. Four 'up-and-comers' have infiltrated the Debutante Ball, and are actively trying to cause social disasters (and blame the two Celestials *least* likely to profit from them in the process). They have decided the best way to really get the party hopping is the old fashioned way - -- spiking the food and drink. There's rum in the punch, Rohypnol in the soda, crystal meth in the yogurt-cheese salad dressing and LSD in the cream brulee. The hopes are that as the night progresses, the ball will degenerate further and further into chaos, while the 'stodgy' Word-bound in the room desperately fight to preserve order. The PCs can have one of many roles in this social disaster in the making. They could be Servitors of Trade or Factions, assigned to assist the Word-bound in pursuing their own agendas and trying to both retake control of the ball from the Kobalites and eliminate the Servitors of the other side. They could *be* the Kobalites, sent in to keep the confusion at a maximum and the hijinks ensuing. They could even be incidental participants -- perhaps one of the debutantes is the attuned of a Cherub, on hand to see her introduction into high society. There's only so far the chaos will reign before Graham and Sumtor will work together (ugh -- that *word,* thinks Sumtor) to restore a sense of propriety to the proceedings. Of course, the Kobalites may be expecting this, and hoping that Graham (or *both* Graham and Sumtor) will end up using up their Essence purging the drugs from the debutantes, their dates, and their parents. After all, what better ironic twist than the Angel of Manners dying during a society event? Of course, Graham *does* have an ace up his sleeve, should things become violent (*if* he's managed to hold onto that last bit of Essence). After all, he does know the Celestial Song of Tongues, and it's only *proper* to call the Malakite Angel of Ettiquette if circumstances demand.... - -- Eric Alfred Burns - Impudite of Secrets -- or Mercurian of Revelation (candidate for the Word of Obscurity) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 22:19:25 -0500 From: "Prodigal" Subject: Re: IN> The Graveyard of Good Games From: "Charles Phipps" > > Curiously enough there was (as the rumor goes on the forums at least) a > significant desire to see the game continue despite the abyssmal sales > figures that resulted in it being dropped. Thus was created a sub-company > called Arthaus which began producing the group in interest. Not exactly, Charles. Arthaus was created before Changeling was dropped from the regular White Wolf line. Its existence did give the game somewhere to go that would allow for continued publication of material, however, while not requiring the same level of sales that Vampire, Mage and Werewolf maintained. ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2321 ******************************** The material here is (C) 2001 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.