By: Elizabeth "Archangel Beth" McCoy (emccoy @ nh.ultranet.com)
[What I wouldn't do to have been able to fit stringed instruments into this seed, for Socks and Violins...]
AKA
(A nice silly seed... You don't want to know what sparked it.)
A collection of 7-Force Vapulan demons have concieved of a great plot to make angels destroy the universe. It all relies on Dark Matter, and whether the universe is ultimately expanding (due to the force of the Big Bang, aka the Symphony starting up) or contracting (due to gravity as all the physical bits of matter draw together in the mother of black holes).
The trick, you see, is to get Creationers to keep making matter, ultimately upsetting the balance of the universe. (Having people make vessels and leave them lying around dead is also good, but it's hard to convince people to undergo Trauma willingly.)
And how better a way to get more matter made than to steal little, trivial things, that an angel might not think twice about making a replica of... Such as: socks. Steal one half of a pair, and the Creationer makes more!
Thus, Vapulans have been secretly planting little artifacts in washing machines and dryers. These relics incorporate the Celestial Song of Motion and a reliquary to power it. When a load of laundry is placed within the booby-trapped machinery, the Song is activated as soon as the lid is closed. It's only *supposed* to work on socks, but sometimes it catches undergarments and towels as well.
Often, the items end up at the side of the road somewhere. This contributes to landfills, which suits most Vapulans just fine.
However, Schaaph, a cunning young Impudite of Technology, has a grand theory -- Creationers spend Essence when they use Abracadabra or Transubstantition, right? Well, obviously that Essence is being turned into matter. The trick would be to turn matter into Essence! While this doesn't contribute to the production of "dark matter" (the stuff that scientists know just *has* to be out there in the universe for acceleration of suns to work they way it does, but haven't quite been able to find yet) directly, it *would* make a nice source of energy for a drained demon, right?
So he's been carefully "retuning" some of these relics, so that instead of sending their precious cargo of socks just anywhere at random, the socks get dumped in *his* lab. There, he seeks to find ways to easily release the Essence inside them...
Enter Lucas, Elohite of Creation in service to Lightning, and Zibiah, Cherub of Lightning. After investigating the bursts of Essence coming from a local laundromat, the pair has discovered that there is a sock-thief around. (Well, Lucas was getting tired of losing socks, too...) After much debate, Zibiah has attuned herself to a pair of socks, which is being run through the wash as many times as they can gather quarters.
While she does this, Lucas has gone to fetch some additional help, since such a bizzare plot *has* to have demons at the back of it. Lucas (wrongly) suspects agents of Kobal.
Angelic PCs are obviously those recruited by Lucas (who will probably not be accompanying them, as he is not combat-capable and has a job to maintain; Zibiah will have to be along to lead the PCs to her attuned socks).
Demonic PCs have been recruited by Schaaph to guard his lab -- he thinks that some Soldiers (or enemy Hellsworn, or maybe the Game) were poking around trying to steal his ideas. (He may be right or wrong, depending on what would most add to the general confusion when the angels assault the lab...)
The angel attack will happen, of course, just as Schaaph is starting a test that involves bombarding Zibiah's attuned sock(s) with high-energy particles...in a device that's fragile, cranky, and inadaquately shielded. Random explosions and lots of violence -- what more could be asked for in an adventure?
[I'm in a character designing mood, what can I say?]
Corporeal 1, Strength 2, Agility 2 Ethereal 4, Intelligence 8, Precision 8 Celestial 4, Will 7, Perception 9
Vessel: Human male/3 [9 points]
Role: Lab Assistant/3 (Status 2) [3 points]
Skills: Artistry (Watercolors)/1, Chemistry/1, Computer Operation/1, Detect Lies/1, Driving/1, Electronics/1, Knowledge (General Sciences)/1, Lying/1, Medicine/2, Singing/1, Tactics/1 [12 points]
Songs: Tongues (Corporeal/2) [2 points]
Attunements: Elohite of Creation, Transubstantiation
Combat is *not* Lucas' speciality -- or at least not corporeal combat. On the other hand, he *is* good at his job in a chemical laboratory. His one flaw is that he thinks something so *brain-damaged* as sock-stealing *has* to be a Kobalic plot.
Corporeal 3, Strength 4, Agility 8 Ethereal 2, Intelligence 5, Precision 3 Celestial 4, Will 6, Perception 10
Vessel: Human female/2 [6 points]
Role: Computer Sciences Student/3 (Status 2) [3 points]
Skills: Acrobatics/1, Computer Operation/3, Detect Lies/1, Dodge/2, Electronics/2, Fast-Talk/2, Fighting/2, Knowledge (Math)/1, Move Silently/2 [16 points]
Songs: Tongues (Corporeal/1) [1 point]
Attunements: Cherub of Lightning, Remote Control [10 points]
A young Cherub, Zibiah's previous assignments were mixed between simple "infiltration of the area" (such as her current one) and a few that required a bit of sneaking around. She'd be inclined to see Vapulans behind every telephone pole -- she's excitable, for a Cherub -- but Lucas has convinced her that not even Vapulans would be this... random. She's going to have a lot of fun teasing him about it when she gets back.
She's *not* wild about being attuned to socks. It's undignified, for one, and liable to net her some dissonance for another -- especially since she doesn't have the Corporeal Song of Healing. (Something she intends to fix, real soon now.) She's going to be utterly mortified when her resonance tells her that her socks are in mortal danger...
Corporeal 3, Strength 5, Agility 7 Ethereal 3, Intelligence 7, Precision 5 Celestial 3, Will 9, Perception 3
Vessel: Human Male/2, Charisma +1 [8 points]
Role: Mad Scientist/4 (Status 3) [6 points]
Skills: Chemistry/1, Computer Operation/3, Electronics/3, Engineering/5, Fast-Talk/1, Knowledge (High Energy Physics)/1, Lying/1, Running/1 [16 points]
Songs: Healing (Corporeal/1) [1 point]
Attunements: Impudite of Technology, Balseraph of Technology [5 points]
Schaaph is one of Vapula's more promising researchers -- if he'd only manage to actually make something work. If the group behind the Dark Matter Socks Of Creation plot knew that he was sabotaging it, Schaaph would be in deep trouble. (Schaaph knows about the DMSOC plot, but doesn't think he's doing enough harm for that to matter.) That trouble would all go away if Schaaph were actually able to distill created socks down for their Essence.
He's not a combat type, but given half a chance, he'll surround himself
with people who *are*. If the PCs are angelic, equip Schaaph
with a half-dozen Hellsworn and demons (7-9 Forces), mostly fellow Vapulans,
but a Servitor or two of the War migh be in there as well.
At 5:37 PM +0000 11/18/97, Nathaniel Eliot wrote:
>Walter, what have you been putting in Beth's coffee?
But I don't *drink* coffee...
(Actually, it was a hypothetical picnic. In the Far Marches. With 4 Creationers, Eli, and My Favorite Renegade.
"I can't help it. I'm just *wired* to have this instinct to grovel around Superiors."
"Oh, that would wear off quick enough if you had to put up with him losing his socks. Three times in an hour."
"Why not just create more?"
"*I can't do THAT*! It's a Vapulan plot to make me destroy the universe!"
"Uhhhhh?"
<grabs her by the shoulders> "If I create too much mass, the universe will *implode* in twenty million years!!"
<sad expression> "I suppose that being around since the beginning would give a certain perspective to that statement...")
(Gaming gets strange at night sometimes.)
>I like it. I really do. Using socks to cause the collapse of the universe...Kobal has to be laughing, at least...
Of course.
Hm. Maybe it was a Bal of Dark Humor who gave the original demons the idea...
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Elizabeth McCoy <arcangel@prismnet.com>
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