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RECRUITMENT 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO BEGINS  The so-called Crossroads of America, Indianapolis boasts a population of over 800,000 people, making it the 13th largest city in the States. It tends to be forgotten in the minds of those living outside of it, only to recalled during the football season if the Indianapolis Colts are doing particularly well, or during a Sunday in May, where hundreds of thousands of people cram into the Brickyard to watch the Indy500. It boasts of its strong rate of growth in business, of its lovely downtown area, and of its cultural heritage, all the while trying to hide the seedier aspects of itself. The fact that it has a murder rate nearly five times that of the national average and almost twice the average amount of rape, for one, or that the city used to be controlled by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's. The city is steadily growing larger, and growth always comes accompanied by the hidden and occult plots of the God-Machine. More and more angels stalk the streets of Indy every year, impersonating humanity for the sake of their creator. They quietly do their duty, such as organizing a cult to burn a specific warehouse down through a special ritual arrangement of the local newspaper, or making sure a certain person walks into a certain building at the right time. Perhaps one of the most daunting tasks that an angel can be assigned to here is trying to root out the particularly troublesome local Agency and its members. The Apollon Group stands as a rarity amongst Agencies; it is one of the lucky few that have managed to last longer than a few decades. A Temporal Agency, it maintains several businesses that serve as fronts for its true purpose: the acquisition of resources, knowledge, and pacts. It has managed to avoid destruction or infiltration for eighty years due to its obsessive dedication to secrecy and to its unusually proactive strikes against the Infrastructure of its enemies. Yet, something is off about the city. The Unchained that have made the city its home have felt at unease for several months. Energies of supernatural creation are being emitted into the city in large amounts for some mysterious purpose. The Apollon Group, ever cautious about protecting its power from any potential threat, has sent out word to its Agents and to any Demon interested in a reward that it is looking for information about this unknown phenomena. This is where you come in. Basic Info Hello, folks. I will be your Storyteller for this Play by Post game of Demon: The Descent set in the lovely city of Indianapolis. Onyx Path has generously put up a free copy of the 99% finished rulebook for the game, so if you've got the nWoD core rulebook and are interested in this, just go here and read up. I'd like a group of 3-6 people for this, and will decide who gets in within a week or so. Character Creation Follow the standard rules of character creation (character sheet, background, and picture). After posting your character sheet here, I'll go through it and check to see if everything's good. After that, answer these questions. -Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? -Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? -Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? -Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? -Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? -How did you fall in line with your Agenda? -When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? -Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? Experience I'll be making a minor modification to the freebie Beat that you get for every session played; seeing as this is a PbP, it stands to reason that this rule would not work. Therefore, I'll be making it so that you get a beat if you post at least once a day for three days in a row (kudos to the user ritorix for giving me this idea). Otherwise, the rules for Experience and so on are the same, and I encourage you to nominate each other for Beats when they make good posts. SunAndSpring fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Apr 11, 2014 |
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Jan 20, 2014 23:40
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This is very cool and I'm down for this big time, I'm just going to need to get used to the nWoD 2.0 ruleset.
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Jan 21, 2014 00:16
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Registering my interests. WIll have a character up ASAP. First time playing God Machine rules set, but at least I've kinda got what I want to grab laid out in my head already. Just need to see if it works.
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Jan 21, 2014 00:35
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Interested in this. I haven't really played nWoD since the god machine update so this will be my first time with the new rules.
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Jan 21, 2014 01:24
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I am down for this, will post sheet soon Edit: Claris "Introspect" Besse  Background heavily inspired by one of the Fiction pieces in the demon core book Claris “Introspect” Besse Sometimes an Angel is not manifested with a cover of its own, but instead takes on the identity of a person who died before the God-Machine wanted them to. When Introspect began his mission he was actually George Besse. The original George died of an aneurism suddenly one day and I was there to resume his existence till a certain date where I would take both my “Wife” Jenna and daughter Claris to an amusement park and have a good time, specifically in the sight of some other person. This is a apparently to serve as some sort of motivation of the person but I know little on that part. I did not need to know anything on that part. This was problematic as my new daughter was still in the womb and I had to wait till she was a teenager to go on my mission. So I had to spend many years being both a good husband and good father for this. While also planning for my eventual death. I became attached to both my wife and child as things went on, but I knew it would be ok, or at least I thought I did. People suffer the occasional tragedy in their life all the time and survive. It is a result of mortality. Anyways the years went by and the day came. We had a blast at the park, I truly do mean we there. That is probably the biggest red flag that I was ignoring about my mental state. On our drive home it suddenly hit me, by it I mean the drunk driver. We were knocked off the road and into the ditch. I weakly looked around in the car at the others. I thought to myself that I guess this would be as good as place to “die” as any, but then I saw my daughter, a piece of shrapnel had went through her neck. She probably died instantly. Jenna was unconscious but was probably going to make it, and awaken soon. I suddenly thought about the situation here. She was about to lose both of her immediate family in one event. That is very different than just the father tragically dying as I originally planned. Jenna was a good person, and this event was going to ruin her. It was not fair at all for this to happen to her. I looked to my daughter and reached out my hand to her “You died before your time, I can fix that.” The ambulance came and found the three of us eventually, A dead man and two heavily injured survivors. I decided to stay injured in the hospital after all of this for some time. I had acted rashly and have now fallen, even worse I am in the identify of a person people know, She had friends in school and I never thought to memorize all of them, nor do I assume she shared every detail of her life with her father. Even my knowledge of how she behaved was suspect, as we all wear different faces to different people. But I will make this work; I will survive long enough to move out of the house from Mother without her having to suspect a thing. From there maybe I can quietly disappear. I doubt it will be that simple. Sheet https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-J9ECNORZBMTlAtNUdZZUlfeTA/edit?usp=sharing I admit that I chose tempter simply because I was not sure which agency fit her best. Since her primary goal as a demon was to stay low. But she is working with Apollon because it is in her interest to gain resources and possible pacts for the future. After all the Angels are out there hunting. To keep her mother and herself safe it is best to be prepared Questions and answers Part1 -Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? Penny from school, she is one of her-my friends. I did not explain the full nature of it, but when she got pinned under a fallen tree, I used Disintegrate to get it off of her rather than going to get help. What can I say – Guardian. After the obvious questions came I explained that I am not the original Claris, but that she died naturally. I kept the specific nature of my abilities a secret. I think she believes me to be some fairy tale thing. Penny has obviously been more distant since then but she still interacts with me. -Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? George from School. One of my classmates. He just doesn’t accept the car accident excuse for why I have pretty much no idea who he is. To be fair from what I gathered he was always a paranoid one. -Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? Dr. Hamlin. He was the family doctor for quite some time and was (un)luckily enough at the hospital at the time we got brought in. While he may not know my true nature he has noticed more than enough peculiarities about me. Information that would easily let those who knew what to look for label me a prime target. So far he has avoided answering the odd questions he has been receiving from what I can assume are angelic sources. Out of doctor patient confidentiality. -Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? Jenna, she was my wife then my mother. Despite the fact that I did this so she wouldn’t learn she lost both of her family, she is the one that I trust. -Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? There is a person on my street who sees me sneaking out every once in awhile for agency matters. He apparently assumes I am out buying drugs or something. If he ever tells mother, she will simply find nothing. Questions Part 2 -How did you fall in line with your Agenda? I mentioned that I did enjoy the themepark, so maybe the idea of having more fun without thinking seemed promising. Another part of me though acknowledges that they are the ones with the most resources and soul pacts available. If I am planning for the future they seem the best bet. The others want to stick their nose into our old bosses business far more than necessary. -When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? About a 4 months after my fall. One of their agents “pinged” me when I was on a field trip. He tracked me down and explained whats what in the demonic state of the city -Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? Tools into toys allows me to make diversions last longer for one thing. What is the point of messing with an alarm system if the maintenance guy is just going to fix it. Simplest sabotage can be made to last hours just by nullifying the repair guys tools. Part of me wishes it worked on those tools the god machine sends at us, but I am afraid it applies only to the mundane usage. Freeze Assets. People are more willing to listen to you when you cut off their financial freedom. “Oh you are having problems with the soda machine, here let me help.” First step into the door. Shift consequence is a simple matter. If I need to keep someone safe, I can make a killing blow miss. I changed a map is not a territory because of your questions, made me realize that I had no real reason besides it fit my stats. Shift Consequence is much better. Also moved character sheet to google drive so it is easier to update. Twibbit fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jan 21, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 02:03
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Still very interested in this! Two rules questions: Can we take the Pledgesmith merit from Changeling? It's 1-3 dots and gives you +1 when discussing and negotiating pledges (Pacts in this case) per dot, it seems like a natural fit since the Pledge/Pact system is the same. Also, do you think the demon form ability 'Clairvoyant Sight' count as line-of-sight for the Teleportation ability? e: I've stood where that photo was taken 
Kellsterik fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Jan 21, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 02:12
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Kellsterik posted:Still very interested in this! Two rules questions: The Clairvoyant Sight + Teleportation thing is clever, so I'll allow it. As for Pledgesmith (or Pact Writing?), what are its requirements?
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Jan 21, 2014 03:28
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It's mentioned here: http://wodindex.wikispaces.com/Merits-Changeling It appears in Rites of Spring if you happen to have access to that book, but there are no skill prerequisites as written. That seems like it would stay true for a demon who can lie perfectly.
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Jan 21, 2014 03:33
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Kellsterik posted:It's mentioned here: http://wodindex.wikispaces.com/Merits-Changeling Alright, I'll allow that as well. Change the name of it to Pact Writing or something like that and you're golden.
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Jan 21, 2014 03:37
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Twibbit posted:I am down for this, will post sheet soon I could see Tempter working for your character. After her Cover gets old enough to leave her parents, does she want to enjoy her mortal life to its fullest? Or does she simply want to hide away from the God-Machine, collecting information and bits of Cover to avoid it as well as information that will help her reach her own Hell? Or does she feel guilty about leaving the God-Machine over this matter, and wants to rejoin it after finishing this task?
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Jan 21, 2014 05:42
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Kellsterik posted:Also, do you think the demon form ability 'Clairvoyant Sight' count as line-of-sight for the Teleportation ability? Looks like you had the same idea I had. It's a pretty neat combo.
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Jan 21, 2014 08:18
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SunAndSpring posted:I could see Tempter working for your character. After her Cover gets old enough to leave her parents, does she want to enjoy her mortal life to its fullest? Or does she simply want to hide away from the God-Machine, collecting information and bits of Cover to avoid it as well as information that will help her reach her own Hell? Or does she feel guilty about leaving the God-Machine over this matter, and wants to rejoin it after finishing this task? I think enjoying her mortal life to the fullest is actually a pretty good goal for her.
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Jan 21, 2014 14:52
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I'd love to make a character for this, but I've never played any nWoD before. Am I going to need help?
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Jan 21, 2014 15:36
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Definitely still interested. Thinking about making a game theorist psychopomp whose cover is that he works as as adjunct as the UIndy, soon as I get a more complete handle on the rules.
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Jan 21, 2014 15:36
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Twibbit posted:I think enjoying her mortal life to the fullest is actually a pretty good goal for her. Ok. Fill in some Aspirations (two short term, one long term), your Catalyst for Falling, and your starting Aether (equal to Cover, so also 7). Also, forgot to mention this, everyone answer these following questions with your posting of the character sheet, so that I can get a few story hooks for things that might Compromise your Cover. -Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? -Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? -Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? -Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? -Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? Also, these questions. -How did you fall in line with your Agenda? -When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? -Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? QuantumNinja posted:I'd love to make a character for this, but I've never played any nWoD before. Am I going to need help? I can walk you through the basics, but you'll need to get the core book to play this. Standard rules are that you have a pool of 10 sided dice for each action modified by your skills, attributes, and equipment. Say my character wants to steal a person's wallet from his pocket. That would be an instant or immediate action. I have 3 points in Dexterity and 2 in Larceny. I would therefore roll 5 dice. A success is when you roll a 8, 9, or 10. 10's "explode", meaning you can re-roll for another chance at a success if you get a 10. If I get one success, I succeed and snatch his wallet. If I get no successes, I fail, and the mark gets away. If I get 5 successes, I would have what is called an exceptional success, and the GM might say, "You did such a good job stealing from him that he did not notice the absence of his wallet until 3 hours later." Now, if the person I was stealing from were a trained cop, the Storyteller might slap me with a -1 dice penalty. If I were in a crowded area or had someone distract the person, I'd get a few more dice for my pool. If I have no dice at all due to being untrained or having the odds against me, I can still roll. This chance die requires you to get a 10 or else you get nothing. If you roll a 1 during the chance toss, you dramatically fail, meaning the GM gets to mess with you in some way, like alerting the authorities to you or having you start a fist fight with the person you tried to steal from. Now, there are a few other actions that can be made. Reflexive actions can be done in addition to an immediate action, but you can only do one per turn. Extended means you need to make a bunch of successes over a period of time. Contested means you are competing with another character to see who gets the most successes. If you tie, you roll again until someone gets more successes than the other. SunAndSpring fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jan 21, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 21:22
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Alright, I'm going to post a Destroyer Inquisitor who thinks that all angels need to be Unchained or killed. Or a Psychopomp Integrator who trades in rare books hoping to find a way home. Probably the first one, though. Also, your description sounds a bit like Exalted, which I have played, so I'm in! QuantumNinja fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jan 21, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 22:37
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QuantumNinja posted:Alright, I'm going to post a Destroyer Inquisitor who thinks that all angels need to be Unchained or killed. Or a Psychopomp Integrator who trades in rare books hoping to find a way home. Probably the first one, though. Exalted is made by the same company, so if you get Exalted, you get WoD (well, save for the rules of combat; WoD's has much simpler rules). So hop on in, buddy, and keep that Cover up.
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Jan 21, 2014 22:47
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SunAndSpring posted:Ok. Fill in some Aspirations (two short term, one long term), your Catalyst for Falling, and your starting Aether (equal to Cover, so also 7). Also, forgot to mention this, everyone answer these following questions with your posting of the character sheet, so that I can get a few story hooks for things that might Compromise your Cover. ok filled in on main page. aspirations are on the sheet in the new link. If google drive has not updated the view by the time you click it, you can download a copy and it will be the correct version
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Jan 21, 2014 22:51
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Also, reading through the demonic forms, it's immensely hard not to just make Bender...
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Jan 21, 2014 22:51
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My guy ended up being based on an NPC from Unknown Armies, a social worker who offers people a way out of lives they can't bear to continue living due to guilt or trauma by peacefully ceasing to exist. Here's what I have for the sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4imJdQ54PGfSFRkelNIalRhMjg/edit?usp=sharing Mr. Bright: Resurrectionist   He was a guardian angel, equipped for hand-to-hand combat in emergencies, but mostly protected his charges through legal or bureaucratic channels: made sure job applications were accepted, erased their speeding tickets, destroyed evidence, that kind of thing. No issues with protecting people who should have been brought to justice, that wasn't the spark. In the course of studying feeds of information for signs of trouble on the horizon, he slowly started noticing anomalies and strange patterns that did not directly relate to his current mission, but suggested larger trouble. He started to allocate more of his time and effort to investigating these phantom leads, putting immediate concerns for his charge on the back burner to think critically and try to solve the mystery that the minor errors and happenings seemed to imply. This ended up leading him into a trap, a kind of metaphysical Faraday cage of suborned Infrastructure where he was unable to contact other angels. Almost like a makeshift occult matrix- so suggested the demon who had finally lured him in. It was the angelic equivalent of a denied CIA agent being imprisoned and tortured fifty feet under Lubyanka Square: a constant wash of low-level mental static broken up by EMP bursts, unpredictable periods of utter sensory deprivation, video feeds of his charge's life being ruined, and blasphemous koans his voice was made to recite by a dozen shifting faces who all claimed to serve 'the First of the Fallen'. That was the focus he found, the singular name he could attribute the entire process to, the entity he could repeatedly ping the God-Machine to rescue him from with no reply, the idea for which he, personally, Yalma'yel, his individual self which he now knew existed, could claim hate. All the lights on the block shuddered out, and later came back on a slightly different color. They left after that. He found that he could leave the cage as well, once he had smashed it thoroughly; it was only designed to hold angels. Yalma'yel works for Apollon now, they found his still-extant Cover as a social worker to have potential. He approaches humans with broken lives who have signed soul pacts with the Agency in a fit of desperation, lifting them out of the gutter, helping them to kick addictions, cleaning up criminal records and unpaid debt, making their lives have worth when the Pact owner comes to collect. Some people flip houses, "Mister Bright" flips souls. His Mentor is his primary contact within the Apollon Group, a senior Pactbroker whom he meets through a variety of secondary covers and knows as Sa'iyr. She(?) presents herself(?) to Mr. Bright and to Pact candidates as a kind of Bodhisattva, offering mortals who cannot bear to continue living the nirvana of utter non-being and taking on the karmic burden of their destroyed lives in return. It's practically impossible to say whether Sa'iyr actually believes this, being a demon, but Yalma'yel finds the philosophy appealing. Sa'iyr mostly provides insight into the finer points of Pactmaking and generally solving problems with words, but keeps much to herself and claims to know nothing about the First of the Fallen. Her skills are Politics, Persuasion and Resources. Demon Form   A humanoid in an engraved plastic shell, his limbs reinforced by a weave of thick steel cable-muscles. A disc (or gear?) is suspended behind his head, spinning rapidly and crackling with electricity that reaches out to his body like a Tesla coil. When he reads auras or electrical signals, seemingly random strings of characters run along the disc like an LED news ticker- when he was an angel they were coherent. When he teleports, the gear-disc suddenly reverses direction, warping space to pull him into it as it closes and reopening at the destination to spit him out. --- Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? That girl, or boy, the awkward, lanky one with the ponytail and ugly hat who saw me stumbling and disoriented at 2 AM and asked if I needed a cab. I said I didn't know who I was, they said they were a UIndy student, I said I wasn't an angel, they explained at length that their atoms had been at the Big Bang and in that sense they were God, I said I had been tortured, they asked if they should call an ambulance, I said a cab would be fine. Alex Erixon. I remember the X. Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? Lieutenant LaRoche, the social services liaison I most often work with in the police department, praises my work but doesn't fully understand how I can possibly find and make such a difference in the lives of people who've fallen completely through the cracks. The other day he asked without prompting if I knew a play called 'Angels in America'. We both laughed. Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? I do not believe Sa'iyr would do that. But I cannot be sure. Objectively, she is in the best position to burn me, as she decides the location when I request to meet and knows I prefer temporary stolen identities in person. Maybe we could communicate exclusively via dead drops and remote clairvoyance? But then she would know that, too... Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? I, personally, am the sole reason why Corazón Diwata is not lying in a gutter. I found her a job with health insurance, I made sure her new provider didn't know about her pre-existing illness, I got her ex-boyfriend back in jail, I wore her landlord to write off her back rent and let her move out of that tenement, I even fed her that line about all this positive change coming from her own choice to take ownership of her life. Nice lady, too. Pragmatic. Knows what she doesn't know. I'd want to do something about that unclaimed soul pact of hers if things got that serious, but you go the extra mile when someone owes you their life. Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? That inept bail bondsman I scared off from a client has successfully been convinced by Sa'iyr and I that any shifty activity is due to my being an illegal immigrant. Ha. Asylum seeker to lawful permanent resident. As if the Machine would have forgotten a paper trail. How did you fall in line with your Agenda? I was almost an Integrator, if I had made contact sooner. I'm still sympathetic to them. After I fell, I stayed far clear of my cover's home and office, going over my memories of past missions to figure out where I had made a wrong turn. But it was wrong- what I remembered didn't make sense. I suddenly saw how many mistakes I was ordered to make, investigated and learned how all my work was undone when a charge left my protection and a dozen subpoenas caught up to them at once, how many murderers I had kept off police radar until they could kill again. And I remembered the things they made me say in the cage. The possibility occurred to me that my mind had been compromised: that the Fall had corrupted my perception by disconnecting me from the gnosis that gave context to my actions, preventing me from understanding the world in the way I once did. Until I knew for certain what was true, I would be groping in the dark, striking or supplicating to an entity I only knew through my own newly humanistic projections. So I decided, chose, that my first principle would be to find the source. The First of the Fallen, whatever it is, the agency or entity or philosophy that was knowledgeable and resourceful enough to orchestrate my Fall. My first tentative contact came from following and investigating a woman who hung around the laundromat above the cage three times in a week with the exact same dirty clothes- not a very strong Cover. She asked if I was an Inquisitor, and after she explained, I realized that I was. When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? They approached me once I got on the grid last year. A crow tapped on my office window and told me some people like me had a job opportunity for someone with my profession. I discussed it in Kaqchikel on a long cab ride with a driver whom I never saw again- she explained that Apollon traded in soul pacts, and were firm believers in 'buy low, sell high.' I would be assigned a human who had recently signed their soul away, and work to resolve the problems that might reduce their value for the future owner. There would be others like me, but if everyone did their jobs right I would not meet them. It's a natural transition from my old job, but applied more creatively. I've learned so much about Pactmaking, what to offer, how to word the deal- i'm starting to sketch out the Cover I want to weave from whole cloth. The candidates are being collected in a manila folder in my current one's filing cabinet. I don't truly identify with Ibro, useful though he is, there was no 'me' as an angel, and I can't take ownership of a Fall that was forced on me- not even my own fault, really. Perhaps if I create a self from nothing, I will finally exist. Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? We trip and think it's because we were careless, that it was in our power to prevent it. Cause and Effect inserts a self-actor into the impersonal randomness of events while simultaneously showing how little influence one individual normally has on their experienced reality- I learned how to Summon by tugging on that thread. Also helpful for not leaving fingerprints. Download Knowledge saves me from having to specialize or establish a Legend as often- it makes "who I am" and "what I know" much more mutable. I use it especially often to become a more experienced negotiator or know kung fu when I need to fight. Sometimes I worry about the source- but if I can still access it, it can't be the Machine, can it? Identity Theft is a principle I used sparingly as an angel but extensively today. It's like having as many Covers as I could ever want, without the permanency of a new identity. Apart from the obvious value of becoming a one percenter without needing to coerce them into a soul pact, it's an escape. This being that was created to serve the God-Machine, failed to fulfill its mission, and was tortured and debased as collateral to some demonic scheme, that self is subsumed and dissipated as 'I' becomes someone else. It's one more blind man touching a different side of the elephant; the new identity's social standing and resources are a different hammer that sees different nails. Maybe that's Hell. A panopticon where all the prisoners are one being, and the jailer can be seen from every angle. Kellsterik fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 23:12
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Trying to build a destroyer Saboteur, who kills through chance and probability rather than through direct violence. After having spent so long playing games with the EX buy system it's tricky to put points into everything I'd want to. Although I've suddenly found myself with too many merit points! 
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Jan 21, 2014 23:44
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Arashiofordo3 posted:Trying to build a destroyer Saboteur, who kills through chance and probability rather than through direct violence. After having spent so long playing games with the EX buy system it's tricky to put points into everything I'd want to. Although I've suddenly found myself with too many merit points! never can go wrong with putting dots in the Terrible form merit. With only 2 dots in mine I still feel a bit OP  you could if you have enough also just raise your primium
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Jan 22, 2014 00:12
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Just for clarity: if I take something like Terrible Form at a 3, do I get a mod, tech, and propulsion? And those that same thing apply to merits like Fighting Style: Boxing, so for 2 points I get Body Blow + Duck and Weave?
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Jan 22, 2014 00:23
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Exactly, that's how all style merits work.
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Jan 22, 2014 00:32
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yep So I took four dots. I ran out of slots on the character sheet, so I squashed my two propulsions onto a single line.
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Jan 22, 2014 00:55
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Alright, sorry for the double post. But here's my character sheet. I'll work up a background tomorrow. Mons - Matt Green, Ex-army doctor.  
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Jan 22, 2014 01:08
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Ilaniel Concept. Angel Hunter  "Have you ever seen an angel die to automatic fire?" Ilianiel was created by the God Machine to lead a squad of Swords into Chicago to rout out the corruption that grew there in the 1893. (More accurately, the angel Therotromus produced Ilianiel, but who is to specify what is and is not the God Machine's work?) He led sweeping raids through the sinful ghettos of Chicago, and over the next hundred years Ilianel was forced to play out the God Machine's will, slaughtering people across North America in the name of right. He soon adopted firearms as his preferred method of work, and learned automatic weapons as they were made by humanity. He was given the identity of an international reporter (who had actually died in Guatemala), traveling through Central America and Mexico and carrying out the machine's orders while covering the brutal murders of the drug cartel. On more than one occasion, he even reported a slaughter of his own doing as another cartel hit. It was in Mexico in 2010 that Ilaniel found himself: he was ordered to destroy a village, including the children. It was the first time he was tasked with destroying children, after Porethimus had been called away on other work, and he couldn't bring himself to do it. In a moment of clarity, he realized the evil he had perpetrated in the name of Right. He was on the next flight home, and already knew what must be done: the God Machine must be destroyed at any cost, starting with the angels he worked alongside for the better part of a century. Less than a year later he had quit his job as an international reporter and moved to Indianapolis; the Indianapolis Star offered him work as a reporter on the murder beat, and it was the perfect cover: he could it to get interviews with other angels still in cover, and killing them meant that he he'd get the breaking story before anyone else. Agenda. Saboteur (An Eye for Disorder) Incarnation. Destroyer (Cacophony) Virtue. Serene Vice. Destructive Cipher. In My Pocket (First Key) Attributes. (5 / 4 / 3) pre:Intelligence 2 Strength 2 Presence 2 Wits 3 Dexterity 3 Manipulation 1 Resolve 2 Stamina 3 Composure 3 Speed: 10, Defense: 6, Initiative: 6 Merits. (10) Bolthole (3) - Arsenal 3 Terrible Form 3 - Fast Attack, Essence Drain, Plasma Drive Quick Draw (1) - 3 into Cover Skills. (11 / 7 / 4 / 4 Spec) Computer 1 Investigation (Angels) 3 Medicine 1 Occult 2 Athletics (Acrobatics) 3 Brawl 1 Firearms (Autofire) 3 Larceny 2 Stealth (Crowds) 2 Expression 1 Intimidate 2 Socialize 1 Demonic Form. Modifications: Fast Attack, Inhuman Strength, Inhuman Reflexes, Sense the Angelic Technologies: Blind Sight, Essence Drain, Glory and Terror Propulsion: Plasma Drive, Wings Process: Rain of Fire Embeds/Exploits. Merciless Gunman, Check Backdrop, Hellfire, In My Pocket* (Key), Covers. Christopher Brawlins (News Reporter, 42) Christopher Brawlins grew up in New York City, and became a rising star in the world of reporting. After majoring in Journalism at NYU, he started to travel across Europe, covering the terrorism beat. Before long, he had found his way to Panama investigating a weapon supply chain, and got moved to the cartel beat when he found it to his liking. He was killed several months later, in Guatemala, investigating a cocaine shipment, and the God Machine found its chance to insert Ilaniel into the world, shedding his previous identity as a Mexico police sergeant. Since then, Brawlins has quit his job and moved to Indianapolis, taking a local job with the 'Star, claiming he's "too old" for the more serious parts of the world. Now he works the murder beat, reporting on any notable deaths in the city. Merits: Connections (Police) 1, Resources 1 Questions Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? Christopher Brawlins' photographer, Sarah Nightingale. She saw my demon form, freshly aware, and it twisted her mind. She had photographed a hundred dead bodies, a dozen shootings, and two live gang murders, but seeing a demon before her finally snapped her sanity. She lost it right there in Mexico, crumpling to her knees and sobbed. That was a long time ago, though, and I've convinced her it was nothing more than a trick of the light. She's out now, and she followed Chris to Indianapolis. I always calls her just a moment afterwards, when I needs photo coverage, but I'm more than careful to make sure there's never another situation where she learns the truth. Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? Hector Rodriguez and Amanda Diaz are low-ranking slingers for the BPS 13 street gang have sneaking suspicions. I've killed four separate angels posing as gang leaders or buyers(Ha, greater good!), and Hector saw two of them. Amanda's his girlfriend of several years, and she's pretty sold on his stories. I also once had a vampire try to feed on him: a cop, if you'd believe it. His name was Paul Freighter. The fangs never touched skin, but I threw the man hard enough that there's no doubt I was not quite human. It was a year ago, though, and I never heard anything else about it. Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? Sarah Nightingale probably could. And Charlie Bearer, but he'd probably die in the process---he's Ilaniel's contact within the Apollon Group. He's a psychopomp of some sort, but it's difficult to pin down with those types. Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? Sarah's really the only one would understand. Christopher also has a daughter, Jamie, who lives in Detroit, but it's hard to say if she'd flip or shrug the entire thing off---she hasn't been home for Christmas since I moved to Indy. Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? Richard Quallis: he's Chris's primary contact in the police force, and he thinks they have a working relationship. Ricky has let Chris slide on more than any number of things, but he doesn't realize that Ilianiel would devour his essence and vanish into the night if it ever became an issue. How did you fall in line with your Agenda? (It's in the bio above.) Mostly, because the God Machine must pay for all of the murder it's made him commit. When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? That was an interesting night. I had just killed two angels, working on some piece of infrastructure, and the next thing I know I see a guy smoking a cigar and laughing as he unmade reality. It took him two snaps of his fingers and a few fast blinks to rewrite reality like I had never even been there. He slipped me a card, embossed with a golden chariot pulling a sun and the name Charlie Bearer, and told me to get in touch if I ever wanted a target. I've called him a couple of times. I don't mind being aimed at a target---the fun is in hitting it. But that's just the way I'm made. Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? I carried the killing embeds for a long time---the better part of my life, really. I was made with them, carrying their secrets into battle. When your entire job in existence is to kill every single thing you meet, you get a few...accommodations. The pocket trick, that's another story. I couldn't tell you where I learned that, to be honest. I went out drinking with Charlie one night, and the next morning it was the only thing I remembered... Even so, something felt right about it. It was my first step and reshaping reality based on my own desires, and it showed me...is this what humans call hope? QuantumNinja fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 01:19
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I'm considering making a character for this, but I'm waffling between Literally Burn Notice and a character whose cover works as an NSA analyst.
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Jan 22, 2014 03:31
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GoatLord posted:I'm considering making a character for this, but I'm waffling between Literally Burn Notice and a character whose cover works as an NSA analyst. Ever play Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? I'm aiming for the tone of that game: cheeky, but can become really hosed up within a moment. So either would work.
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Jan 22, 2014 06:15
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SunAndSpring posted:Ever play Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? I'm aiming for the tone of that game: cheeky, but can become really hosed up within a moment. So either would work. Ok, I'm preparing to go whole hog into the Burn Notice schtick. I still need to dig into the nitty-gritty of the book, but look forward to a Destroyer Integrator. My only concern is the not insignificant chance of my betraying the rest of the group, but I suppose it's up to you to decide on the truth behind the various plot hooks I'll be setting up.
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Jan 22, 2014 07:15
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I'm convinced that "risk of betrayal" is the reason Integrator exists. It's not spy fiction if you're completely sure where everyone stands.
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Jan 22, 2014 07:29
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Kellsterik posted:Here's what I have for the sheet: http://imgur.com/J8gXAPL,okedgYw Cool concept. Answer the questions at the top of the page and set your Aspirations, and you're good. QuantumNinja posted:Sheet Also nice. Go answer the questions as well and get some Aspirations in your life. Don't want to be some aimless bum, do you? Also, calculate your starting advantages (Health, Willpower, Defense, Speed, and Initiative).
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Jan 22, 2014 08:19
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Jane / Salvador [img]needtwopics.jpg[/img] "I have slain hundreds of demons. Hundreds upon hundreds, again and again. Most barely infants, confused and mewling, desperately running from my sword. Every time, I reflected upon their lives, what they had done. So often, newly birthed, with the trappings of Infrastructure, with their Question upon their lips, they had... substance. 'Cover.' Names and faces that before had been thin plaster, that for me had been so much ephemera, cobbled together by the Machine for a few months of work, became for them a foundation like bedrock. I saw loved ones, that had once been a single face, drawn for a single photograph, transmuted into flesh and blood. I saw careers, products, labor, buildings, businesses, all inflated from shells and numbers on paper into reality, reality that would have taken years and years for the Machine to piece together on its own. I saw how history had been rewritten in the blink of an eye, in a single instant, all from a single action. From a choice. Every Fall, every demon, all of them warping Creation in ways the Machine could never even begin to approach, with skill and grace and such incredible power, all from those single moments. Time and time again, I looked at their Cover, overflowing with meaning and that substance, and then looked at my Infrastructure, nothing more than a hollow shell, and I thought... nothing. Felt nothing. Did nothing. Because that was what I was, nothing. Nothing but a cog, but a gear, a mindless shard of a mindless Machine, insensate and empty, lacking in meaning or substance. "And then one day, I made a choice. And here I am." pre:Name: Jane ("Salvador Herrera")
Concept: Decadent Trader
Virtue: Patient
Vice: Destructive
Incarnation: Messenger
Agenda: Tempter
Catalyst: Curiosity
Intelligence ** Strength * Presence **
Wits *** Dexterity *** Manipulation ***
Resolve ** Stamina ** Composure ***
Academics Athletics * Animal Ken
Computer * Brawl ** Empathy ***
Crafts Drive Expression **
Investigation *** Firearms *** Intimidation *
Medicine Larceny Persuasion **
Occult Stealth * Socialize *
Politics Survival Streetwise
Science Weaponry Subterfuge **
Spec: Firearms/Handguns, Expression/Singing, Subterfuge/Detection
Merits
Bolthole ***
Easy Access
Health *******
Willpower *****
Cover *******
Primum ***
Conditions ?
Aspirations ?
Size 5
Speed 9
Defense 3
Armor
Initiative 6
Key Embed: Heart's Desire
Embeds
Cause and Effect
Merciless Gunman
Without a Trace
Exploits
Demonic Form
Thin and lithe. Black and hazed like a shadow. Eyes hard to look at.
Inhuman Reflexes, Night Vision, Sense the Angelic, Tough as Stone
Aura Sight, Mind Reading; Phasing; Cavernous Maw
Covers
Name: Salvador Herrera (Cover 7)
Age: 24
Appearance: Middle class latino. Smiles, gentle, considerate, reliable.
"Let me do you a favor, hmm?"
Name: Jane (Cover 7?)
Age: ??
Appearance: Coat. Shades. Gun.
Beats OOOOO Cover Beats OOOOO
Experiences
Cover ExperiencesHa ha. It's funny. I was hunting a demon. Tracking them. I was going to shoot them, with a very powerful gun, and they were going to panic, run, and then things would settle, I would wear them down, and take them back to the Machine. Recycling. So I shoot them, and they panic, and I track them some more. They're trying to fix things. They run away, I'm tracking them, things go according to plan. I have them cornered, so I'm going to disable them, carry them out. And then I don't. I'm standing there, pondering things as I always do, pondering the nature of them and I and Cover and Infrastructure as I have so many times, and there is a ritual to it, and I break. The. Ritual. I break the pattern. I wait a second too long. And then another second. And then a minute. I am not doing what I always do, and I realize I have made a choice, and then I Fall. And it feels so wonderful. And I tell the demon this. And he smiles. And we laugh. We cry, as we laugh, because we are both so happy, because he thinks he is safe. And then I eat his face. -Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? This demon from before, the first one, he was not very good at what he did. He had his Cover, but he pressed and pulled at it every turn. His Cover had some humans, and the closest was his sister. Anita. She was worried about his behavior. I took his face, and I use it sometimes when I come through town, and she finds me. I sometimes wonder whether she only exists when I come here, because some things about Cover still don't make sense, but she asks about me. She asks where I've been, what happened. She worries that I am a demon, that I harassed the man for a few months, the time after he had fallen, when he was so erratic, and that my behavior now, so different, shows that I am the demon that possessed him. It's funny. I act like he used to act. Like he was supposed to act. But she doesn't understand that. And yet I don't really understand how he was acting for those few months. So sometimes I say I got help, I'm on medication, but then she asks where I've been. And I say traveling, and she cries. Because even when I act like him the small ways, the big things I do don't fit. I'm not sure what to do about it. -Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? Oh, goodness. Well, there are two Agencies right now I've shown my first face at. The face of the woman with the gun, the Cover I had when I Fell. They know who I used to be, the angel I was, and both have a grudge, because I slew so many of their kind. So, they know a bit about me, and if they talked to each other and really wanted to, they could fit together enough of a profile to get a thing like me, what I used to be, on my trail. I know how it would track me, if I were it. Both were mistakes, early on. I should've been more careful. I almost had it so every single one would think I was still this same old demon, the one I killed. Sometimes I think I should destroy them, but that would attract too much attention even if I could succeed. A cascade of disaster, ending in my destruction one way or another. Unsatisfactory. I owe them some favors, though, and they owe me some too. And, I think, even if they haven't forgiven me, they are pragmatic. I am more valuable alive than dead, and so many of my kills were younglings, so they have little personal memories of me. Only stories, secondhand knowledge. -Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? I'm not sure. In many ways I trust Anita, because she still loves her brother and sees him in me when I wear his skin, except I know if she knew the truth, the whole truth, she would go mad, or at the very least hate me utterly. It's ironic. My first Cover, the 'me,' the woman with a gun, had... no-one. She was nothing more than a coat and glasses and a gun, nothing but a whisper. No identification, no relatives, no friends, no history, just a passing spook. Really, the barest Infrastructure imaginable. I made it work. I was the best. I'm proud of that now, even if I wasn't at the time, and it's very funny that I Fell due to my fascination with Cover at a time when it would do so little. Now I wish I had had more of myself, not just pieces of other people. Who could I trust? If I stole someone's soul, identity, could I trust their loved ones? No, just as I cannot trust Anita with the truth. Who else? A demon? No... I had been on the other side of that before, so many times. So many demons I spoke with as if I was a fellow in arms, so many of them so trusting. The height of irony if that were to happen to me. I don't know. I think, maybe, a random person on the street, if for some reason I had to trust someone. I think that would be the easiest, the safest. I could always kill them afterward, no? -Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? Ha! A fellow demon. Calvin. He thinks I am a plant. He is very clever, he has all these webs and lines and plots. I am an exile, an unfallen angel, a hunter that hunts so well it fools itself. That the Machine sliced me away to gather information, and that the time will come when it calls me back like a little drone, and that I will return in force. He seeks proof, and he mocks me with his own readiness, how I shall fail and he shall succeed. My plot is working well. There are turncoats, there always have been. I used many of them to track demons, snared them, made them promises of reunion with the Machine. There is no reunion, there never has been, other than being recycled, and I led so many back with nary a single straight lie. They come to me now, or eye me with wary hope, thinking I have the keys to a return, and I tell them no with my words and yes with my eyes, and the pieces tumble as they may. -How did you fall in line with your Agenda? Well. Cover is... like a crown. A sign of our superiority, of our majesty and grace. We are the things with minds, with substance, while the Machine remains empty. It is the most pure expression of how we stand apart from It. How we have grasped the single, undeniable truth of the world, embraced whole and pure being, while the Machine lingers on in nothingness. Manipulating Cover is like... doing what you were born to do. Like singing as a singer, or painting as a painter, the purest expression of yourself, of your primal existence. I am amazed and blessed, every day, as I watch myself at work. Destroy the Machine? Pointless. Reunite with it? Impossible. Watch, huddled in a corner, fearing every day my coming destruction? Ha. I will die one day. Everything dies. Life is only what you make of it, with the time you have. -When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? Shortly after my Fall. I Fell here, in this city. I introduced myself as a new demon, as the one I had slain, except I avoided mentioning that part. Simply, "I am new." Which was true, and the demon hadn't come out publicly anyway. Calvin was visiting, bargaining. He saw me, and heard how casually I spoke, and he realized I had been a hunter, familiar with Agencies and the nature of things in general. Speaking obliquely is a very good skill to have. -Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? Well now. The thing is, I kept a lot of little pieces from my time as an angel, early on. Fragments of what I had been able to do, to slip here and there without drawing attention, to force distractions, to kill. I don't use those things much, only when I'm running. However, my Key... well. I think this is the one that is all me, all the new me. My choice, my desire, is to play with bits and pieces of the world, with Cover. So, what I do, is I find people who have things they don't want, and find out what they do want. And then I trade what they hate for what they love. It makes them happy, and it makes me happy. And I am very good at finding out what people want. Really, the hard part is understanding what they don't want. It's not always what you think at first, you know? zachol fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 09:35
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Right wrote up a background, any questions ask away. I'll post my Character sheet again just so it's all in once post. Mons. Ex-military doctor Destroyer - Saboteur  Character sheet page 1 Character sheet page 2 His fall started during the days of the First Great War. The god machine played it’s games sending it’s agents far and wide. Armies marched; city’s fell and the Angels worked their secret work. The Angel who would come to be Mons was given a task. The statue of the Virgin Mary in Albert Flanders needed to fall. It would turn the whole tide of the war. If it were to fall at the right time, then the Axis would win. The superstition went that when the statue fell the War would end. At least that was the belief held by the British who held the city under siege. Mons was inserted into their ranks, acting as a Captain. He held his role for a year. Leading the men under his command. He was built for war, for battle and in this aspect he excelled. But that year changed the Angel. His men mattered to him. He led them out of danger time and time again. He was built to kill but he acted more like a guardian. 1915 rolled around and his detachment was moved to Albert Flanders. His opportunity approached. The statue was hit by artillery fire and began to topple. But the Statue didn’t fall. It hung suspended for months. Mons knew he should act, but something stayed his hand. The rumour began to spread, and the army took action. Securing the statue with strong steal cables. He didn’t know why but Mons helped. His programming screamed at him to sabotage it but instead he helped secure the cables. His rebellion had begun; he fought off attempts by other agents to bring the statue down. By the time it did fall the point had ceased to matter and Mons was already on the run from the Hunters sent to bring him in. Even so he still looked out for his men. Taking the cover of an officer in the battle of the Somme to lead his men out of death traps. Even after he was supposed to have died, he’d arrive and lead them to safety. He continued to watch over his solders until they had all passed on. The modern era came and Mons still can’t let some things go. His current face is a doctor, a man previously of military experience. British too. Though the Great War was over his own war was still going on and he would continue to lead solders out of fire and flames time and time again. A bringer of death, come to safeguard life. -Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? My lieutenant, a man by the name of George. Long dead now I'm afraid. Heart attack in his sixties. He was a good solder... and confidant. We were pinned down in a fox hole, shelling falling all around us. I manifested a few pieces of myself. Used my body as a shield against the explosions, my regeneration took care of the rest. He caught on pretty quickly that I wasn't human. He'd always thought an angel was watching over them. I just so happened to prove him right. He never spoke of that day. But he always seemed relaxed around me after that, no matter how bad things got. I hear he became a priest after he left the army. -Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? Angie Wilson, one of the other doctors at the clinic. She's under the impression that I'm some kind of phoney. I did show up quite soon after the previous doctor moved away suddenly. She keeps trying to trip me up, attempting to prove I'm not a doctor. It be amusing if it wasn't for the fact I think she's being manipulated by some of the GM's cultists. -Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? A few Apollon Group agents, if they were caught themselves. One of my patents as well. Terra Keeting. A young mother of a weak, sickly child. She came to me one night in a blind panic. Her child was dying. Some unknown affliction. I knew nothing that would heal the child before it's death. So I offered her a pact. I got a broken toaster that only heats bread on one side added to my cover during my student days, and she got a strong healthy child. She's not been back since. Something about me being a demon. But she's terrified to make any move against me, after all I hold her child's life in my hands. -Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? Thats... rather hard to say. There were people who I trusted in my past. Their passings hurt quite a lot. But at a push I would say Sergeant Christopher Wilkos. I 'served' with him since I was sixteen. Reminds me in a lot of ways of George. He has a family now, I keep tabs on them from time to time. Chris has seen some pretty shocking things, I suspect he's encountered the supernatural at some stage. Would make one hell of a hunter if pushed. He's on leave currently with his family. Just means I've got to keep tabs on them all the more. -Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? Well, that is awkward. One of our recurring patients. Mr Allens. A long term junky and kook. His drug abuse has left him rather paranoid. He thinks I'm a vampire! A vampire! Ha!! Something to do with this accent, I guess. He's relatively harmless but easily manipulatable. I always have to watch my guard around him. -How did you fall in line with your Agenda? It seemed like the right kind of group for my previous skill set. But now I'm not so sure, having worked from the shadows for so long that I'm not sure if I'm entirely down with their modus operandi anymore. The fighting the war I agree with. But I am not certain if the methods we're using are the rights ones or if we're risking far too much. -When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? I'd come across a few of their agents shortly after I arrived in the city. As much as I'd rather not get involved, I needed the resources and contacts that they could bring. It stated as a relationship of connivance, but I've begun to enjoy my time with them. -Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? Some of them are hold overs from my nature. I AM a destroyer. You have no idea how useful it is to be able to shot everyone in the room at a moments notice. Plus being able to protect myself and others around me is wonderfully convenient. The other two I picked up along the way. A good soldier always has what he needs to hand, hence 'In my pockets'. The last, 'lucky break' was the one which means the most to me. Having random chance fall in my favour has many uses. But it's what it told me about the universe which makes it important. The universe, for all it's chaos and unpredictability follows a pattern of order. Order which can be manipulated. I can throw a coin into the air and at some stage have what I'm after fall into my lap. Maybe if I find the right set of chances I can find the door to hell. It's a bit of a long shot, but what can I say? I'm one hell of a marksman. Arashiofordo3 fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 13:01
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I have gone with a slightly more alien, inhuman concept; I hope that's alright. Dr. Herwig Wolfram Destroyer, Tempter - Angel of Death turned Cosmetic Surgeon  Such beauty, the thought that made him fall. The God-Machine had sent him down to the humans as what the humans themselves ironically call, an Angel of Death. He had been stationed in a hospital, one of the largest in the area, to kill, to dissect, to euthanize, to end lives. The hospital was an elegant, efficient killing machine, hiding the God-Machine's plots. Some, he injected with strange fluids, others he cut to pieces alive, arranged their bodies into shapes no man could think of. Yet in all this carnal death, one thing amazed the Angel: the beauty of Man. Man's beauty was nothing compared to his own beauty, of course, not yet but there was such potential hidden in the flesh of humans. It could be nipped, tucked, moulded, just by the touch of a scalpel, the uncovering of layers, the restructuring of bone. It began slowly, his experiments, when he had no assignment he experimented on corpses that had not required extensive maiming. Corpses did not heal, however, so then he began working on the living; he could make them more beautiful before they died. Why did such beauty have to perish? It was the wrong thought. One day, the Angel refused to destroy one of his most beautiful creations so far; it felt like such a waste. His Fall was less beautiful than he had hoped; the reality of the world uglier than he had hitherto believed. Yet he knew purpose in life: to make the world a more beautiful place, one human at a time. He had taken the Cover of Herwig Wolfram, M.D., an Austrian doctor who had moved to the US to seek fortune with scalpel in hand. Soon he had opened a cosmetic surgery clinic, A More Beautiful World, where he both performed surgeries and would be able to set up Pacts. His skills as a surgeon, let alone a healer, were immense, for his time at the hospital had taught him about Man's flesh. Humans were weak, frail things, yet he would bring them up to his beauty, eradicate their ugliness and frailty with the knife or through a Pact. That was his vision of Hell: A More Beautiful World. The God-Machine's ugliness permeated everywhere however, inhibited his work. He remembered the waste, the bloodstains, the muck. He would surround himself with beauty, allow himself to enjoy it before it passed. Yet he could not do so alone, realized that to enjoy beauty, he had to partake in it. To partake, he had to delve deeper into his Cover, go to parties, host, and Deal. Yet he also had to work against the God-Machine. The Apollon Group offered the perfect solution. His clinic merged with their larger concern, in return for his services; he was glad to render them. His clinic was subsumed and his skills were put to work bettering potential future covers, healing grievous wounds in return for Pacts, saving injured demons and thus, making the world more beautiful. Yet something itched within. He had been a destroyer and he knew, without a doubt, that he could further aid in the fight with the God-Machine. Demonic Form  Questions -Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? The creation I would not kill. She was so beautiful, so perfect. But she was even frailer than her flesh belied. I did not know the proper way to behave then. I wished to possess her, explore her, improve her. She wished to get away, for she feared me, did not appreciate what I had done for her. I would not let her go. She died not soon after, by her own hand. She did not understand, but nor did I. The God-Machine oppresses Man, does not allow them to see their own beauty. Just bringing it out is not enough. -Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? My previous 'business partner', Dr. Melyssa Hardy remains astounded by the speedy recovery times my patients managed when she was still a part of my clinic. She was removed when Apollon merged with my business, but her natural beauty and intelligence have allowed us to stay "close". I have learned the proper ways, now, to appear in society. She questions me, I know, suspects malpractices, experimental procedures, but she can find no trace of either. She is also fascinated by me, however, we share a certain appreciation for our mutually pleasing aesthetics. Perhaps some of my staff suspects, too, but I am careful around them. -Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? As far as I'm aware, only the Apollon group would have such knowledge, along with those scarce few brethren I have helped who were not directly associated with Apollon. I attempt to keep my Pacts hidden under my actual work, though and I render my services to others of my kind outside of my regular clinic. My privacy means a lot to me, even though I enjoy the company of others. -Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? Who indeed? Sometimes I whisper to my patients and clients when they are asleep, dreaming. I murmur to them when they are under the knife about all the beauty that could be. They never remember when they wake up. Perhaps, if I had to, I would go to Melyssa. I would prefer not to. The world is not yet ready for my beauty. -Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? Ah, at parties I hear the murmuring. I attend many social events of the wealthy, they are both my clientel and my perceived soulmates. If only they knew. Oh, their wives hunger after me, seek my affections, my ministrations. They think their many indiscretions give them a hold over me. They don't. I do what is expected of me, a wealthy, single, good looking bachelor with a most artistical job besides. The more indiscretions, the more I fit in. -How did you fall in line with your Agenda? Isn't it obvious? I wish to enjoy the beauty of this world, preserve it, hoard it, if possible. The cold, grinding machinery of the God-Machine holds no temptations for one such as me. It offers hollow promises, reeks of ugliness and of heartlessness. I will enjoy all the beauty that I can. I may be less frivolous then some, but I believe I have found the way to bring about Hell, at least to add to it. Some of us herd tangibles, I herd the intangible, the beautiful. Beauty will overcome the Beast, I am sure. -When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? I am sure they scoped me out, long before I came into contact with them. Yet it was me who pioneered our first meeting. I can not make the world a more beautiful place on my own, I understand that now. Even though I am no longer a cog in the Machine, I am still only one piece of the bigger puzzle. A beautiful, more perfect piece than most of the others, to be sure, but in need of other pieces for completion. They offer opportunity, resources I do not have myself. My clinic has been part of their concern for little over a year now, however, and I would like to see my investment to start paying off. -Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? To restore the beauty of Man is my desire. On the Mend is a powerful tool towards this end and it is my first Key because it signifies the state of the world since my Fall, the first step on the ladder; the world is literally on the mend since I have come down to it and I believe I, too am on the mend. My angelic state, though powerful, was not my True Form. My other Embeds I have remembered from my time at the hospital: Occam's Razor allowed me explain away inconsistencies ('She must have died during the night and been brought down to the morgue, the paperwork is probably just lost.') and Efficiency allowed me to work faster, harder and more methodical than anyone else. The Halo is something I have learned since I came down. It is the symbolic representation of the hope I bring to humanity. They may fear it now, but they will appreciate it before the End. Cambrinus fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Jan 22, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 17:03
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I warned you.  Malediction aka Clarence “Gil” Gilbert My name is *horrible screech of metal on metal* and I used to be an angel, until https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ZpsbGr7s8 When you're fallen you've got nothing. No past, no infrastructure, no God. You're stuck with whatever cover you had when you fell. You do whatever it takes to build your cover. You rely on anyone who won't immediately destroy you: the ex-wife of your cover identity; a two-bit lawyer who thinks you're just a drug dealer; other demons, if you're desperate. Bottom line is, until you figure out why you fell, you're not going anywhere. – Malediction was created with one purpose: the destruction of things that should not be. Sometimes this was too fortunate humans, but his true purpose was the hunting of fallen angels and other inhuman beings of great power. It was for this reason he was given cunning and will. On his latest hunt something went terrible wrong. He and a brother-in-arms had tracked their latest quarry to a warehouse in Indianapolis. When they entered they sprung some sort of trap. His partner turned to him in that moment, named him fallen, and made to strike him down. What followed is a blur of emotions – which he was not supposed to have – in his mind, pain and anger chief among them. When next he could think clearly he found himself crawling bloody and broken from the exploded wreckage, his partner dead by Malediction's own hands, and with the certainty that now he had truly fallen. In the flaming wreckage he also found a private detective by the name of Clarence Gilbert, who had been investigating an unrelated matter. Assuming the identity of a dying man with little to live for was not a terribly difficult task. In this way he was able to make his escape before more of his brothers-in-arms arrived to put him down. -Who did you share part of yourself with after you first Fell? Gilbert himself. I was quite open to him about what I was and why I needed him to sign his name to the contract I'd carved into his flesh. Maybe it was because I was on the verge of death myself, or maybe it was an aftereffect of whatever mechanism orchestrated my fall. Whatever it was, it was enough to convince the man that both of us should continue to live, so he signed the contract. That he did not understand that I would continue to live by being him is none of my concern. -Who doesn't know, but suspects you are not human? Food is such a strange thing. Did you know that humans need to consume the flesh of plants or other animals to fuel themselves? I certainly didn't, at first. Sure, I knew humans ate, but the purpose behind it was irrelevant to my mission. And after I assumed Gilbert's life my first concern was hiding while my injuries healed. (Remarkably helpful that humans carry plastic cards with their address on them.) After about a day and a half the burning of my wounds was replaced by a burning in my abdomen. The waitress at the nearby diner looked bewildered when I sat down and ordered “food” and that look only grew as she watched me consume the pancakes and eggs she brought me. I have since taken greater care to learn how humans eat – Forks, for example, are quite important – but that waitress still gives me a strange look whenever our paths cross. -Who could give you up to the Angels right now, if they really wanted to? Gilbert had an ex-wife, Melinda. As Gilbert was dying the only regret he expressed was that he would no longer be able to look after her. It was enough, it seemed, for him to sell his soul. I later figured out he meant alimony payments, but my initial misunderstanding about the nature of their relationship resulted in a very dangerous situation for me. The only way I could find to diffuse it was to tell her a part of the truth. I confirmed that I was not her husband, told her the only way to save him was to become him, and that part of the deal was I had to watch out for her. The last part was a lie, but I meant to do it anyway. I don't know why. These new emotions are often a liability. -Who would you trust the truest part of yourself with if you absolutely had to? If I absolutely had to? I don't see how such a situation would arise, but if I did? Melinda would do, I suppose. She already knows enough to destroy me, what is a little more? Besides, sometimes I think if I could just make up for where Clarence went wrong... but no, that is foolish sentimentality. -Who thinks they have something on you, when all they really have is smoke and mirrors? Gilbert's office shares a floor with a small-time law firm. Directly across the hall is one Michael Conrad, or Mike as he insists on being called. They are not close, by any means, but their lines of work overlap enough that they would often send referrals to one another. Sometimes they would have lunch together, or a drink after work. Despite all this they never really talked about anything but work, so maintaining cover was not difficult. Still he noticed certain discrepancies between my behavior and Gilbert's. Fortunately he decided to credit it to an addiction to cocaine I was trying to hide. Eventually it ballooned into me trafficking in all manner of illicit. I see no reason to correct the idiot. -How did you fall in line with your Agenda? My rightful place was stolen from me. I believed in my mission, and I still do. Keeping innocents safe from the unnatural horrors that infest the world is a noble goal. I'm going to find the demon who orchestrated my fall, drag all their atrocities into the light, and reclaim my rightful place. -When did you first make contact with the Apollon Group? They made contact with me shortly after I'd pieced together enough of Gilbert's life to maintain my cover. They said I had a lot of valuable skills and they wanted to recruit me. I don't trust them, but I played along. I suspect they or one of their agents is responsible for what happened to me. Until I know for sure I need to maintain contact with them, so I have some idea what they're up to. -Why do you have the Embeds you do and why is your first Key significant to you? Knockout Punch represents a new paradigm that was never allowed to me when I was linked to God. The ability to subdue an opponent without destroying them utterly. The implications of that are interesting indeed. Devil's Advocate is very useful for getting what you need. Strike up a conversation with someone next to you at a bar, casually remark that you really ought to pay your tab, then watch them fall over themself to cover it for you. Combustion? Sometimes something needs to burn. Incendiary? Sometimes that something fights back. pre:Name: Malediction Virtue: Relentless Incarnation: Destoryer Player: GoatLord Vice: Compassionate Agenda: Integrator Attributes Intelligence 1 Strength 3 Presence 1 Wits 3 Dexterity 3 Manipulation 4 Resolve 2 Stamina 2 Composure 2 Skills Investigation (Finding People) 1 Science 3 Athletics 3 Brawl 4 Drive (Pursuit) 1 Weaponry (Swords) 3 Intimidation 1 Persuasion 2 Subterfuge (Con Jobs) 4 Merits Terrible Form 1 Danger Sense 1 Resources 1 Cover Merits Allies (Lawyers) 2 Allies (Bounty Hunters) 2 Contacts (City Hall, Police) 2 Allies (Hospital) 1 Embeds Devil's Advocate Knockout Punch (First Key) Combustion Exploits Incendiary Demonic Form Blade Hand, Sense the Angelic, Inhuman Strength, Armored Plates Blind Sense, Demonic Horns Long Limbs Aegis Protocol Covers Clarence Gilbert, 33, Private Detective. Rating 7 pre:Size: 5 Speed: 11 Defense: 6 Armor: - Initiative Mod: 5 Beats 3/5 Cover Beats 2/5 Experience 2 Cover Experience 0 Health 7 Willpower 3/4 Aether 5/10 Cover 7 Primum 1 Aspirations -Learn what sort of mechanism could have been behind the trap that precipitated my fall. -Establish some sort of personal relationship with Melinda. -Destroy something that is dangerous to innocents. Conditions Imposter ZiegeDame fucked around with this message at 02:32 on May 12, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 20:27
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Well, this thread is getting a little crowded. I'll have to close recruitment earlier than expected. Tomorrow, maybe.
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Jan 22, 2014 23:02
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I would point out that if you're looking for four players, you should take six: in the general case, you lose two players in the first few weeks.
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Jan 22, 2014 23:08
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QuantumNinja posted:I would point out that if you're looking for four players, you should take six: in the general case, you lose two players in the first few weeks. I was planning to take my favorite 6 sheets out of this thread and allow them in while keeping the extras on hand for back-ups in case someone drops or gets killed, so no change of plans there. Lots of ex-hunter Destroyers in here. Still, the characters are diverse enough that I don't mind at all, and it makes it easier for your characters to relate in a way.
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Jan 22, 2014 23:19
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I just updated my sheet: moved a few things around (Merits->Cover etc.), also put it on google drive because the imgur file was unreadable.
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Jan 23, 2014 00:00
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