From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Thu Feb 19 05:25:39 1998 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by pyramid.sjgames.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id FAA28692 for ; Thu, 19 Feb 1998 05:25:39 -0600 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) id FAA09832 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Thu, 19 Feb 1998 05:26:20 -0600 Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 05:26:20 -0600 Message-Id: <199802191126.FAA09832@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 #634 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 Thursday, February 19 1998 Volume 01 : Number 634 In this digest: IN> Feast of Blades Re: IN> Governing Metaphors for IN Re: IN> APG Angels IN> Mobile Malakim Re: IN> Re: IN- Is there and In Nomine APA? IN> A Brief Lecture : Angels and How to Deal with Them Re: IN> Mobile Malakim IN> ordering info/ rick page Re: IN> Feast of Blades Re: IN> ordering info/ rick page Re: IN> Mobile Malakim Re: IN> Re: IN- Re: IN- The Bigger Hammer, a silly adventure Re: IN> Mobile Malakim Re: IN> Mobile Malakim IN> Re: IN- Feast of Blades IN> Re: IN- Re: IN- Is there and In Nomine APA? IN> Slipgash, Renegade Shedim IN> Words or names? Re: IN> Mobile Malakim Re: IN> The Bigger Hammer, a silly adventure IN> Portrait of an Elohite, reflective. Re: IN> Portrait of an Elohite, reflective. IN> Satire ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 14:49:06 -0500 From: Sean Michael Whipkey Subject: IN> Feast of Blades No, Dan! Bad Dan!:) Well, I'm about to run Feast of Blades for my group, starting this Saturday. Are there any suggestions y'all have on the actual running of the scenario? Typical snags, fiendish PC ploys (I have a Merc of Marc, an Of of Jean, a Malak of Eli, and a Cherub of Janus), etc? I've even found the perfect soundtrack for it - the _Lost Highway_ soundtrack. The beginning and end tracks just talk about hidden secrets... SeanMike - -- Sean Michael Whipkey, smw4s@virginia.edu Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Publications Div. 804/924-4185 (or -4188) voicenet, 804/982-5536 fax http://www.virginia.edu/~cpserv/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:11:52 -0500 From: "Kirt A. Dankmyer -- aka Loki" Subject: Re: IN> Governing Metaphors for IN >God is a poet, and all of reality is a sheet of paper on His desk. >Each individual is like a letter of a word in the poem He is writing, >but since unlike characters on a page people have intelligence and >memory, God gifted each letter with the ability to choose whether >or not it would conform with His design. > >If each letter -- each soul -- chooses to obey, a poem is formed. >But if each letter chooses whatever it likes best, the result will be >nonsense. Further, since the reason for a letter's existence is to >facilitate communication, it follows that a letter can be at its best >only when it is obedient to God's will; and so exactly with human >and angelic souls. From Hell's perspective, they want to go their own way, but as a unified group (Hell's armies and all). They don't want to create nonsense -- they want to change the meter. This is why Demon Princes don't like rebellion (i.e. Renegades) -- they don't want nonsense any more than God does. Lucifer is not just a letter who wants to be God, but a pivotal letter than can determine the meaning of a word (the difference between "poem" and "poet", for example). -Loki - -- Kirt A. Dankmyer --- Academic Computing Specialist http://www.wfu.edu/~dankmyka/ -- (910) 759-4202 -- PGP public key available. For the Snark _was_ a Boojum, you see. --Lewis Carroll ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:18:34 -0500 From: "Kirt A. Dankmyer -- aka Loki" Subject: Re: IN> APG Angels At 11:08 AM 2/16/98 -0500, you wrote: > >> Just a couple of questions that have aroused my curiosity... >> >> In the APG, Metatron, a seraph, is listed as the first Archangel to be >> killed by Lucifer. Any clue as to his _canon_ Word? > >Wow. Lucifer killed God. He didn't even wait for Niestzche to do it. >I'm impressed. I thought Metatron was the Voice of God, not God Himself. Actually, this would go a long way toward explaining why the IN is so quiet... -Loki - -- Kirt A. Dankmyer --- Academic Computing Specialist http://www.wfu.edu/~dankmyka/ -- (910) 759-4202 -- PGP public key available. For the Snark _was_ a Boojum, you see. --Lewis Carroll ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 13:57:06 -0600 (CST) From: Martin Leslie Leuschen Subject: IN> Mobile Malakim From: Nathaniel Eliot > >The demons obviously ripped up a *big* chunck of concrete (or rock, or > >whatever) to move him, then. Nothing is immovable. Some things just > >require a lot more motivation. > > Why do you accept that Angels and Demons are in a battle for the > souls of humanity but can not accept that Malakim of David in their > hardened form CAN NOT BE MOVED. Movement is relative. They "can't be moved" with respect to *what*? I can see two easy ways to slide here: 1. The center of the Earth. (Or planet the Mal is standing on.) To move the Mal, move the planet, or destroy it. 2. Some large chunk of local bedrock. Fits in with David's word. (How big of a chunk is errata of GM call - I might consider 1 ton/force.) To move the Mal, move the rock, or exert enough force on the Mal to sever and move that much rock. In either case moving the Mal is difficult, but not impossible. To make moving the Mal impossible, you have to throw out a lot of physics and common sense... Regards, Martin Leuschen martinl@rice.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 14:12:10 -0600 From: "S. Dickie" Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN- Is there and In Nomine APA? >OK, what the devil is an APA? > APA stands for Amateur Press Association. Basically its a fanzine where the members write articles, stories, new rules, adventures, adventure seed or whatever else they want that relates to the general topic. In the case of All of the Above the topic is GURPS (check http://www.io.com/~rgilson/AOTA.htm). A couple members of AotA have put their zines on the net: http://http2.sils.umich.edu/~superman/JPK/jpkinst.html http://www.io.com/~slocum/enzo.html It is also typical to comment on the other members submissions. You could compare it to what is typically done on a mailing list; the main difference, however, is that it's usually a printed work, so you end up with a well organized hard copy. I was proposing the possibility of doing this in PDF format so that we could save on the printing and mailing expenses. Everyone would be able to simply print out (or not print out) their own copy and bind it in whatever fasion they like. steve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 20:22:24 GMT From: maya@tcp.co.uk (GR Cogman) Subject: IN> A Brief Lecture : Angels and How to Deal with Them My dear young Lilim, I have been obtained - at some expense, I might add - by a Sister of yours to whom I was unfortunate enough to owe a slight favour. Still, all's done and paid for after this, and I trust that you will have no cause for complaint. I understand that she wishes me to give you the benefit of my experience of dealing with angels? Yes, that was what I thought. Very well. I would like to think that a century or so of life has given me some experience in handling them, and certainly the Beautiful Prince has never had cause to complain in that area. I will discuss the more societal and physical aspects first, then the celestial. First of all, _know your enemy_. No angel is a cardboard cutout, however much the propaganda spouts it: they all have their own wishes, desires, needs and habits. If five minutes of reconnaissance is enough to show you their favourite coffee-shop, this is time very well spent. Informers and servants can be used to get a full picture of their movements and tastes. Even if you end up deciding not to move against the angel personally, a full report containing the information is always appreciated by your superior or Prince, and can frequently be sold to other demons who might have a minor grudge to settle, or a taste to indulge. I am sure that you know that my Prince's servants are extremely interested in the whereabouts of any Servitors of Creation? No? Well, you do now. Secondly, _target their Roles_. If they are societally important, then raise a scandal: if they need to be publicly virtuous, then arrange subscriptions to pornographic magazines in their name and have them publicly discovered: if they are fiscally known for their probity, see about putting some cracks in that reputation. A Balseraph such as myself finds this easiest, as we can easily arrange hordes of convinced witnesses who will testify faithfully to what they believe they saw or heard. However, and bear this in mind: save the damage for when it will be most useful. Don't waste your time smashing one Role when it is not important to them. Wait until they're busy arranging the crucial deal with it, or making the political or police-orientated move, and _then_ present your evidence and let the howling mobs tear them apart. Remember, the best time for you is the worst time for them. Thirdly, _take out their servants_. They exhibit some traces of intelligence in using humans as their hands and eyes, as do we. However, their "servants" work for faith and love, mainly. Give them some pressing reasons to do otherwise. On the more violent scale, bomb their houses, make threatening phone calls, scare their families - how many husbands are going to keep on working for an angel if their terrified wives beg them not to? - frame them with some of the spare corpses you are bound to accumulate, blackmail them, and so on. If you want a more peaceful tack, arrange a college scholarship for them on the other side of the country, or a better job, and watch the cursing angel be unable to hold onto them when it is clearly so much better for them to leave town. Reputations. Ah, what fragile things. Smear the angels with the tar of public opinion, and cripple them with it. Damage their standing with their fellow mortals, _and_ with their fellow angels, and best of all, with their Superiors. An angel bearing a grudge for his Archangel's reproving words is an angel who might some day join us here, and is _also_ an angel who probably won't be able to call on those awkward squads of Malakim for a short while. As to how to do it, well, that is a more difficult point, but those squads of spies may prove useful yet. Many angels will disapprove of their fellows for purely corporeal activities, in a most bigoted way. Take advantage of this, get some film or witnesses of those awkward little moments, and use it, either to damage them or in blackmail. The latter should not be tried unless you are quite certain of your ground, but if it _does_ come off, then you have yet more ammunition in that they _agreed_ to it (you will, of course, have evidence of this). Some points on their character may be gained by observing their Vessels. Very few angels choose an attractive Vessel merely in order to grease the social wheels or because they were ordered to: most do so due to some spark of vanity, and hopes of using the Vessel in a more physical context. Assist them in this. The fact that the Vessels are attractive is pure icing on the cake. Also, bear in mind that vanity which shows itself in body or clothing may also show itself elsewhere, and watch out for angels who may spend ten minutes agonising while holding a sword over your head in a theatrical way. I am sure you can think of several ideas... yes, precisely. Violent solutions. Much as I deprecate killing and the like, there are times when there is simply no other way to resolve a situation. Let me make one matter clear to you: if you are in a position where you _must_ take down the angel - or several angels - then don't ration your forces, but deal with them fast. Use your allies, especially more warlike demons or Hellsworn, your information, and even your own hands if necessary. You shake your head. Yes, dear, I know all about the evils of Symphonic disturbance. It is a very awkward thing to explain. But I have also seen a number of cases where people failed to act with their full potential, out of a desire to try and be quiet about it or to use the minimum resources, and ended up in Trauma or soul-killed. Basically, if an angel must be _dead_, then make it _dead_ by any means necessary, and blame somebody else afterwards if you must. Sometimes you need to keep the angels occupied while you or others are busy elsewhere, or escaping. I have found a rather useful trick is the one referred to as the "Dead Man's Handle", or, in the tacky parlance of Star Wars, the "detonator thing". Inform them that if they kill you, some detonator or device will go off and kill a number of innocent humans. If they number Seraphs among them, then ensure that such a device exists, and be sparing with your words. The only flaw with this little trick is that you tend to get a reputation among the more insane angels as cruel, and end up being hunted by maniacs with flaming hands. Ah well, c'est la vie. Finally, bear in mind that a dead angel is a soldier lost to the other side, but a Fallen angel is a soldier gained to our side as well. All Princes are most appreciative of new converts - especially those from their particular foes, or those with strategic information. Yes, I have done my share of recruiting, arduous task and enthusiastic as it was. Use what information you have to get a grasp on their personality, develop a friendship with them, make evident to them how the flaws in Heaven's views equal their personal dislikes and the strong points here echo their own morals, and try and arrange a few situations to show Heaven in a bad light. Come now, use your imagination. Walk the Servitor of Michael past a courthouse and some abusive cops a few times, and listen to that mental abacus tipping towards "HYENA SCUM". It's all in the delivery. I believe that is about it. Of course, if you would care to discuss these matters further... dear me, how flattering. Yes, I do have the names and files on some angels currently in that city, and I am sure that we can come to some arrangement. Just let me contact the clerk, and extend our booking on this room... - --- Maya, Elohite of Eli in service to Blandine maya@tcp.co.uk - -- "There are those who say that wizards are subject to temptations and addictions beyond the understanding of ordinary men: the addiction to shape-changing, or to meditation under the influence of certain herbs and conditions of the stars; the obsession with knowledge, and the development of power. Yet this is not so. Temptation is temptation, obsession is obsession, and choice is choice." - Isar Chelladan, Precepts of Wizardry. -- "Dog Wizard", Barbara Hambly. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 15:59:19 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Ozdowski Subject: Re: IN> Mobile Malakim Here's a compromise that might keep everybody happy: Malakim of David can become immobile in reference to a single object of their choosing - in their line of sight. This means that they only stay immobile relevant to one specific thing, but finding it'll probably be a bitch!! For instance, the malakite could say to himself, "I'll be immobile to that telephone pole 100 yards away", and the demons will be Damn lucky if they can figure it out. If they do, however, then they just take the telephone pole with the Malakite and BINGO, we can run this great scenario! The myriad of objects that a Malkite could choose (down to blades of grass!) makes him basically immobile - but - it's not impossible that the demons in this particular case lucked out and got him to move! PROBLEMS I CAN SEE: Becoming immobile relevant to a moving object. *Mental image of a Malakite attuning to a squirrel and being dragged around a field by the squirrel - grin* Becoming immobile in an environment with limited choices for objects..... There a bunch of other holes, and I welcome anyone to start poking them into this suggestion, but this works and - hey, it gives us a way for everybody to play! Dan Ozdowski - -- I shall henceforth be referred to as: Lord of Chaos ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 16:22:27 -0500 From: Charity Davis Subject: IN> ordering info/ rick page your stuff looks really cool. can you give me an adress where i can get the books from, thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 98 16:30 EST From: Walter Milliken Subject: Re: IN> Feast of Blades >Are there any suggestions y'all have on the actual running of the scenario? >Typical snags, fiendish PC ploys (I have a Merc of Marc, an Of of Jean, a >Malak of Eli, and a Cherub of Janus), etc? At least you don't have any Kyrios.... I had an Ofanite and a Kyrio of Jean, a Seraph of Destiny, a Mercurian of Wind, and a Free Lilim in the PC group. The early parts of the game went well for me, if rather quickly (Kyrios are good for detective-type stuff). The biggest problem I had was at the end -- the PCs got to the house early (during the party), and it was a bit hard keeping them from charging in and trashing the place. I had to stall them, which was hard, considering what's going on at the party. I didn't want to mess with the timeline at that point, thinking that midnight was a much more reasonable time for the ceremony than 7pm. I had various people show up and then entered the house after the party died down (the PCs, Amanda, Huzzy & friends, Kadris, etc.) The Kyrio of Lightning was especially annoying, but the Ofanite was a problem too, since he could zap into the inside of the house via the wiring. I had to invent a lot of stuff for them to play with inside the house; I gave them a safe to poke into, filled with an assortment of good blackmail material (the VHS tape marked "Clinton" was a source of some amusement), counterfeit money, a couple of relics (one was a special remote phone-tapping gadget), etc. I had a Tether of Wind on top of Mt. Washington, and the house was set on Martha's Vineyard, and I had a Windy in the PC group. When the PCs first arrived, found out what was going on, and discovered the fact that the place was Symphonically shielded, the Windy called up the Tether and told them about the party and the shielding. A few hours later, I had a bunch of stolen National Guard aircraft show up and bomb the Hell out of the place. Malakim of Wind are fun.... Fortunately, I figured that even Windies would take a while to show up and appropriate the necessary gear, so I could have them arrive at a dramatically-appropriate moment. I.e., after the PCs did their thing to Save the World, they heard the incoming helicopters and F-15s and scrammed out of the place through a smuggler's tunnel I'd put there earlier (made sense, given the location and the nature of the place). The brat pack (who arrived at the house with Huzzy, and were told to secure the upstairs) even had fun shooting at the planes with their toys. (Huzzy scrammed, too, but didn't bother to pick them up on the way out....) Dealing with the probable fight at the end of the scenario is tricky -- if you don't have really good combat-types in the group (and we didn't), Hamon may be a bit much (though there are some suggestions how to handle that). Fortunately (or unfortunately) the Kyrio came up with his now-famous "Acid-spitting Pants Trick". That won't work for anyone but a Kyrio of Jean, though, and it probably shouldn't work even for them -- I'd previously ruled that Numinous Corpus could be applied to inanimate hosts, and that was a grave mistake that I'm now pretty much stuck with, at least for that campaign. - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 17:46:42 -0500 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> ordering info/ rick page At 4:22 PM -0500 2/18/98, Charity Davis wrote: >your stuff looks really cool. can you give me an adress where i can get >the books from, thanks. http://www.sjgames.com/catalog/ is nice... - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor GURPS, Roleplayers, In Nomine stuff; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 98 17:40 EST From: Walter Milliken Subject: Re: IN> Mobile Malakim >Malakim of David can become immobile in reference to a >single object of their choosing - in their line of sight. This >means that they only stay immobile relevant to one specific >thing, but finding it'll probably be a bitch!! I don't think that really makes sense, with regard to the Word they serve -- it makes sense that they become immobile with respect to the Earth itself. (Which does leave open the question of what an earthquake would do to them....) I think I'd allow the possibility that the part of the Earth's surface they are standing on can be dug up and thus they could be moved that way. Otherwise you could get silly Wile E. Coyote-esque things where the Malakite is standing on a cliff edge and it falls away beneath him, leaving him standing on air. Uh-uh, not in *my* games.... - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 17:58:24 -0500 From: Chris Smith Subject: Re: IN> Re: IN- Re: IN- The Bigger Hammer, a silly adventure Nathaniel Eliot wrote: > > >The demons obviously ripped up a *big* chunck of concrete (or rock, or > > >whatever) to move him, then. Nothing is immovable. Some things just > > >require a lot more motivation. > > > > Why do you accept that Angels and Demons are in a battle for the > > souls of humanity but can not accept that Malakim of David in their > > hardened form CAN NOT BE MOVED. > > Because the first makes the plot work, and the second doesn't. The > law of dramatic necessity takes precidence, especially in cinematic > adventures. > I have to agree with that. Sometimes the plot is more important than a few details. If someone HAS to have an answer to how the Mal was moved then just say that David allowed it to teach the Mal lesson. After all, the second oath that all Mal's have to take is that they cannot ever allow themselves to be captured by the forces of hell. Really, after his friends were safe, the Mal should have changed back and fought to the death. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 18:17:18 -0500 From: Jesse Subject: Re: IN> Mobile Malakim >In either case moving the Mal is difficult, but not impossible. To make >moving the Mal impossible, you have to throw out a lot of physics and >common sense... Some people might make the arguement that when you admit the existence of angels, demons, and fae you have already done that. - -Jesse ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 17:17:21 -0800 From: Armand Subject: Re: IN> Mobile Malakim >>Malakim of David can become immobile in reference to a >>single object of their choosing - in their line of sight. This >>means that they only stay immobile relevant to one specific >>thing, but finding it'll probably be a bitch!! > >I don't think that really makes sense, with regard to the Word they >serve -- it makes sense that they become immobile with respect to the >Earth itself. (Which does leave open the question of what an earthquake >would do to them....) > >I think I'd allow the possibility that the part of the Earth's surface >they are standing on can be dug up and thus they could be moved that >way. Otherwise you could get silly Wile E. Coyote-esque things where >the Malakite is standing on a cliff edge and it falls away beneath him, >leaving him standing on air. Uh-uh, not in *my* games.... Sorry, I have to interject a thought. The plot seed that this line of argument comes from was kind of "silly". (You get 4 character points if you cause at least 10 million points of disonance?) I think that this is a point that you have to let a few rules fly out the window. I'm going to be running it on Friday with three people that have never wanted to play IN before. Let's just have fun...rules, take a holiday:) Armand ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 17:32:58 PST From: "David Streeter" Subject: IN> Re: IN- Feast of Blades >Well, I'm about to run Feast of Blades for my group, starting this Saturday. > >Are there any suggestions y'all have on the actual running of the scenario? >Typical snags, fiendish PC ploys (I have a Merc of Marc, an Of of Jean, a >Malak of Eli, and a Cherub of Janus), etc? I haven't run FoB yet, but I stole the impudites for use in "No Dinero" - - I found their dodge skill extraordinarily high - 10! Makes them quite difficult to damage unless you're using pretty meaty weapons. The Merc of Stone in my campaign had a bit of trouble polishing just one of them off by himself in HTH combat. SurturZ Dissonant Elohite of Stone BTW, are angels described by Archangel or Word. Eg. is "Mercurian of Stone" or "Mercurian of David" more correct? Or doesn't it matter? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 17:38:12 PST From: "David Streeter" Subject: IN> Re: IN- Re: IN- Is there and In Nomine APA? >APA stands for Amateur Press Association. Basically its a fanzine where the >members write articles, stories, new rules, adventures, adventure seed or >I was proposing the possibility of doing this in PDF format so that we >could save on the printing and mailing expenses. Everyone would be able to >simply print out (or not print out) their own copy and bind it in whatever >fasion they like. Good idea. Personally, I prefer to see it published on the Web somewhere. Geocities would be an option. David ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 20:39:31 -0500 From: Neel Krishnaswami Subject: IN> Slipgash, Renegade Shedim I got an idea from the list; what can I say? - ---- The fire was hot on his back, and the smoke was sour with the scent of curdling plastics. Jason wondered numbly if the heat shimmer and the tears in his eyes were canceling out so that he could see, because he could clearly tell that the man in front of him was a paramedic, and that there were ambulances and fire trucks all down the street. He was pretty sure they had to be fire trucks, anyway, since only fire fighters would wear raincoats on a day this sunny, and they had come in the trucks. The paramedic was placing a blanket around him, and Jason wanted to tell him that he didn't need it, because it was a summer day and there was a fire besides. The blanket will help keep you from shock, Jason, so don't fight the medics. They will take care of you. With an effort, he opened his mouth and forced out a syllable, his voice roughened and blackened from the smoke. "What?" he croaked. For some reason, saying the word made him feel clearer, and the world came into sharper focus. There was Mrs. Rodriguez, coming up to him, and crying. Why should she be crying, he thought, I'm the one who lost the building and she hasn't paid rent in three months. "Oh God, oh God, thank you, Mr. Hortense, oh god, oh thank you..." Her voice was hoarse, too, but there was joy in it and what the hell was the hag babbling about? His memory came like a stab in the gut. He had come with the eviction notice, ready to throw out the old woman, only to find the building in flames and her sobbing on the sidewalk that her grandsom was inside. And he remembered the deadly calm he had used to still her, telling her to call the fire department, telling her that he would go inside for the boy. And he remembered the orange dance of the flames and the cries of the child and the terrible courage that had driven him to take the boy and bring him out, safely. Jason Hortense let the blanket fall from his shoulders and stared at his shaking hands, hearing neither the cries of concern from the medics nor the exclamations of joy from the old woman. He stared at his shaking hands, seeing the hands of a hero and faced the realization that he would have to live up the standard those hands had set, today and for every day of the rest of his life. And a spirit of darkness lifted from his shoulders and spiraled into the blue sky with the billowing black smoke, cackling with glee for the soul it had saved from the clutches of the Pit. *-*-*-*-* Slipgash Renegade Shedim of the War "Long is the way,/and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light." -- John Milton, _Paradise Lost_ (Book II) Corporeal Forces 2 -- Strength 5 Agility 3 Ethereal Forces 3 -- Intelligence 8 Precision 4 Celestial Forces 4 -- Will 9 Perception 7 Vessel: N/A Skills: Emote/3, Lying/5, Detect Lies/4, Dodge/6, Fighting/5 Tactics/2 Songs: Corporeal Healing/3, Corporeal Shields/6, Celestial Motion/4 Discord: Merciful/4 Attunements: Shedim of War, State of Ophis History: The Shedim are supposed to corrupt their hosts, feeding the darkness in the human soul with the darkness in the infernal spirit. Slipgash was very good at this, possessing humans and turning their honor into pride, strength of purpose to obsession, good to evil. But one day Slipgash discovered that very occasionally it works the other way -- it possessed a human only to discover that the purity and honesty of the human soul had found the tiny sparks of decency that lingered within it and fanned that spark until it ignited into the fires of glory. Slipgash went renegade at once, of course. Though its many eyes were diseased and pus-filled, they had been opened, and it could not simply close them and return to doing the devil's work. It was opposed to Hell, but could not return to the Host -- too few angels would believe that one of the Shedim could redeem, and it did not care to risk destruction before it had done something to atone for the crimes it had perpetrated. So Slipgash skips from one human to another, never staying as much as a single day in a single human -- partly to avoid the Game and the Host, but mostly to avoid staying in a single human long enough that it would be forced to corrupt them. When it comes into a human, it will try to go over their thoughts and memories and try to find something to set them on the right path. If a PC manages to corner Slipgash long enough to have a conversation, they will discover that it has an astonishingly fatalistic attitude; Slipgash is certain that someone will find it and destroy it, sooner or later, but it means to live long enough to have done something to set the scales aright before it goes. Trying to track down Slipgash can be an extraordinarily difficult task - -- it switches hosts with astonishing frequency, and the transfers are perfectly silent since it makes no noise assuming celestial form. - ---- Neel Krishnaswami neelk@alum.mit.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 13:24:21 GMT+10 From: "Leath." <938269@wrpc.riv.csu.edu.au> Subject: IN> Words or names? SurturZ wrote: > BTW, are angels described by Archangel or Word. Eg. is "Mercurian of > Stone" or "Mercurian of David" more correct? Or doesn't it matter? No idea what canon prefers, but personally I use the Words. Often I have characters refer to their Superiors as if their Word and Names are inter-changeable. Depending on the Superior of course. But it's not uncommon for a servitor to say "Yes, Judgement," etc. Leath. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 21:19:05 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Ozdowski Subject: Re: IN> Mobile Malakim According to Armand: > Sorry, I have to interject a thought. The plot seed that this line of > argument comes from was kind of "silly". (You get 4 character points if > you cause at least 10 million points of disonance?) I think that this is a > point that you have to let a few rules fly out the window. I'm going to be > running it on Friday with three people that have never wanted to play IN > before. Let's just have fun...rules, take a holiday:) > > Armand WOOHOO! This was the (almost) exact conversation that Seanmike and I had last weekend...we loved the idea. I was just throwing out some possibilities so the rules-lawyers would be happy. Now that they've officially shot the idea down completely and totally, I'm with you. Screw the rules - run the campaign because it's fun. Dan Ozdowski Angel of Trying-to-make-rules-lawyers-happy-but-not-caring- if-you-don't-succeed-because-hey,-who-cares-about- the-rules-anyways. Now there's a title!!!! - -- I shall henceforth be referred to as: Lord of Chaos ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 22:20:14 -0500 From: "Ehrbar" Subject: Re: IN> The Bigger Hammer, a silly adventure >From: "Andrew Frades" >>The demons obviously ripped up a *big* chunck of concrete (or rock, or >>whatever) to move him, then. Nothing is immovable. Some things just >>require a lot more motivation. > >Why do you accept that Angels and Demons are in a battle for the souls >of humanity but can not accept that Malakim of David in their hardened >form CAN NOT BE MOVED. There could be many arguments that would allow >you to move them and many that wouldn't. Why can you accept that they >are indestructable (another impossible thing), but not immobile. But they can be moved. The rotation of the Earth moves them, the orbit of the Earth moves them, the tidal forces of the Moon bending the Earth's crust moves them, the orbit of the Solar System around the center of the Galaxy moves them, the gravity of our Galactic Cluster moves them, the motion of our Galaxy away from the center of the Universe moves them, etc. In short, there is plenty of precedent for Malakim of David to be moved if a "large enough" part of the earth they are attached to is moved, unless you want to rule the Earth stops rotating every time a Malakim of David uses his attunement (and how big a disruption of the Symphony would that be?). If the GM needs that "large enough" amount to be only a ton or two of the earth in order to create a specific scenario, there's nothing in canon to gainsay him, because canon doesn't define the "sufficient amount". Steven Ehrbar, Duke of Paperback Books, Calabite of Haagenti ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 00:13:02 -0500 (EST) From: Doubting Eric Subject: IN> Portrait of an Elohite, reflective. It's wet this morning, the sky bluish black in the hours before dawn. It always rains here during the winter, here in the city that just celebrated the election of a new leader, one the people hope will be the lesser evil. It's a sad statement, but an accurate one. Here, my name is Pat. Here, I am not an angel. Here, I am a man. We are shaped by their expectations, you know. Their imaginations, fed by the media and their society, set the guidelines we must follow to blend in. When I was assigned to this city, I wore polyester suits and gold chains under an open-necked shirt. Ten years ago, I went days without shaving and coordinated my pastel polo shirts with my crew socks. Even now, with the lack of a popular archetype, I still must conform. The rumpled raincoat and half-empty bottle of Scotch mark a return to the old images, the pulp of Hammet and Spencer. I am not one of them by my birth, but I must be more human than many have hoped to be. Here, I am not an angel. Here, I am a detective. I look out the window, holding the blinds out of the way with one hand as ice rattles in the glass my other holds. In twenty years, you can begin to know a place, to become familiar with it. And in twenty years, you can start to forget Heaven. You remember the hymns as memories only, the notes lost to time. And you forget just how very far away it is, how far down we have come to be here. Until you see something so clearly that it terrifies you, and reminds you why we came. I have seen the others here. They are the ones who are sent here to accomplish something, safe in the knowledge of a mission, of the security of Heaven when they have finished. And I have seen the ones who come here to hide, losing themselves in the bustling humanity, hoping to avoid the consequences of their defiance. They do not have that security, that hope. They know that they will have to pay, eventually. And eventually, they do. They always pay. My cheeks are wet, I realize, for reasons I cannot name. My door opens. I turn, wiping my face as I do. She is blond, tall and thin, the black evening gown a perfectly predictable part of the persona they have fit me into. She looks like trouble. "Mazpatiel," she says, in my mind as well as my ears. I know her. Her name is Dominique, and she is why I am here, the cause of decades of vigilance. She is my Superior, and it is time to make a report. - ----------------------------------------------------------------- See Pat and the gang in Fiat Justitia, Ruit Caelum. Available at http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~maya/nomine/fiat.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 11:09:19 +0000 From: Kevin Walsh Subject: Re: IN> Portrait of an Elohite, reflective. > > We are shaped by their expectations, you know. Their imaginations, > fed by the media and their society, set the guidelines we must follow to > blend in. When I was assigned to this city, I wore polyester suits and > gold chains under an open-necked shirt. Oh, the Horror! :) Ten years ago, I went days without > shaving and coordinated my pastel polo shirts with my crew socks. Even > now, with the lack of a popular archetype, I still must conform. The > rumpled raincoat and half-empty bottle of Scotch mark a return to the old > images, the pulp of Hammet and Spencer. I am not one of them by my birth, > but I must be more human than many have hoped to be. > My congratulations. I am (briefly) humbled. I now proclaim you to be a moving writer. May your character suffer an equally moving fate, and may that fate be reported in an equally moving fashion. (And while I'm doing these messages, Maya's Balseraph bit was scary. And effective. Very effective indeed.) Kevin Walsh, Balseraph of Nitpicking, Demon of Off-Topic Trivia. - -- "as for their relations with others, that is a long story, but it can be expressed shortly and clearly by saying that of all people we know the Spartans are most conspicuous for believing that what they like doing is honourable and what suits their interests is just." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 11:13:35 -0000 From: "Hart, Joanna" Subject: IN> Satire (NB. I'd still quite like ot see Peter's angel of laughter ;-) In the meantime here is another...) Three men were sitting around a large polished table. The sheen on the veneer glowed a warm rich brown, reflecting the last bloody rays of the dying sun which smeared through half-closed blinds to stain the room red and ochre. "I'm trying to understand, Ash. I'm trying very hard, but maybe my pitiful mental capacity isn't capable of keeping up with your brilliance." The speaker pressed his lips together with uncharacteristic bitterness. In the light of the setting sun, his hair shone with gold highlights. "Tomorrow you may have to speak to the triad formally," he continued and then sighed. The man he was addressing just watched him with starved, dark eyes that mirrored not a glimmer of pity or regret. It was like addressing a trained hawk. "They are going to ask you why you let the balseraph go. I'd just like to think that you might have an answer for them. And then there is the matter of this play..." The third man's lips twitched as he hid a smile. "That's the real reason they are worried, isn't it, Sam?" Ash waved him to silence thoughtfully. "That demon will die, don't concern yourself. But not until I am ready." "Is that what you intend to tell the triad?" "Yes." This time Ash displayed the faintest trace of temper. "I know perfectly well what I am doing and I am hardly responsible if I look more to the long term than you would like." He looked from one face to the other, eyes dark with suppressed feeling. "If I give them enough rope, will they hang themselves?" The third man cleared his throat. "Who? The media demons or the triad?" This time he had to cover his mouth with his hand to maintain a straight face. Ash rewarded him with the very faintest of nods, for picking up the line. Sam winced visibly. "I just don't think cutting comments and subtle but pointed allegories will go down too well. Not all angels of judgement have as .. ahh ... deep an appreciation of that kind of humour as I do myself. Believe it or not, I admire you and I don't want to see you keel-hauled over a misunderstanding." "I am here to punish the cruel," Ash said softly. "Sometimes death isn't enough, if it is the idea or the institution which is the offender. Is that unsubtle enough? The play presents a cruel and unfair system of justice which corrupts and destroys the people who serve it. It could be seen as a parody of mortal politics. Surely that wouldn't apply to you?" "Joy. More of the same. No, I don't think it does but other people might." "If the cap fits," said the Malakite, "Then wear it." - --- Esh-Zimra, Malakite of Fire, Angel of Satire 'The pen is mightier than the sword' This angel has become one of heaven's most dangerous character assassins. Since fledging, it had felt continually concerned that destroying the odd demon was hardly even brushing the surface as far as cruelty amongst mortals was concerned and it won permission from its mistress to lengthen its missions in order to destroy its enemies' reputations as well as their corporeal forms. Satire is one of the traditional ways in which an underground movement can be free to criticise and attack the status quo and after the previous holder of the word fell, Esh petitioned successfully to replace it. It is definitely near the top of Kobal's hit-list, and the feeling is mutual -- dark humour is solidly based around cruelty and the angel delights in nothing more than turning its biting wit on Kobal's servitors, before dismembering them. NB. It is sworn to help 'worthy' authors via criticism. The criticism is usually accurate but biting, and it tends to write to them anonymously rather than turn up in person. It is an excellent critic. Vows: (In addition to the usual two, it has taken the following oaths) I will use the weapons of my enemies to strike them down. I will help at least one author per month who is combatting a cruel system to improve their written skills via constructive criti ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #634 ******************************* The material here is (C) 1997 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.