Weblog Licentiae Moeticae

Stefan, Impudite of Death

Stefan
Impudite of Death

Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 6 Agility: 6 Body Hits: 36
Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 6 Precision: 6 Mind Hits: 18
Celestial Forces: 3 Will: 6 Perception: 6 Soul Hits: 18
Vessel/3 (male, -2 Charisma)

Skills: Dodge/1, Fighting/3, Lying/1, Move Silently/1, Ranged Weapon/3 (pistol), Small Weapon/1 (Knife)

Songs: Blood (Corporeal/1), Charm (Corporeal/1), Darkness (Ethereal/1), Draining (Corporeal/1), Entropy (Corporeal/1, Celestial/1), Fire (Corporeal/5), Form (Corporeal/1), Healing (Corporeal/1), Motion (Ethereal/1), Shields (Corporeal/3), Tongues (Ethereal/1)

Attunements: Impudite of Death, Zombi

Discord: Discolored/3 (brightly white skin, with black outlines of bones clearly visible)

Placebo (Drugs)

And so ends the latest Month of Content.

Placebo (Drugs)

This attunement allows the demon to convince a human target that a particular powder / liquid / gas is actually a sample of whatever drug the target is currently addicted to. The fake drug will have the same apparent physical or psychological effects, with one exception: the target will suffer withdrawal symptoms as usual, which will often result in him taking larger and larger doses of the fake drug to try to compensate. Fleurity's Servitors often use this to hasten along the development of a particular human's addiction, although the attunement was originally designed to help minimize the effects of distribution network failures...

Ma Sha Allah (Faith)

Ma Sha Allah (Faith)

This attunement is not handed out lightly, as it is decidedly one of those abilities that you can only use once. An angel with it may trade his existence in exchange for any one thing being accomplished - if the angel has sufficient faith. If he does not, the attunement goes away... and the Servitor remains, unhurt but usually despondent. Interestingly, even in his more fanatical days Khalid neither scorned such failures nor permitted them to be persecuted (possibly even then he recognized that there was nothing that he could do to them that they were not already doing to themselves), but a failure usually doesn't last long anyway; they typically die in the process of trying to accomplish the thing that they failed to bring about. The few who have (to date, none have survived their victory) are commemorated by Faith above all others.

The success of NPCs with this attunement is up to the GM, obviously; a PC should not be gifted with Ma Sha Allah without discussion beforehand, as by taking it the player is essentially signing up to perform a heroic sacrifice at what will probably be close to the climax of the campaign. It is suggested that this attunement be used to allow the rest of the party to get to the climax, rather than be the climax itself. All of this suggests a certain collaboration between the GM, the player with the attunement, and possibly the rest of the party.

Logic Bomb (Destiny)

Logic Bomb (Destiny)

For six Essence, an angel (or Soldier: Yves will gift his human servants with this attunement) with Logic Bomb may imbue a written text with the semantic equivalent of a time bomb, which will activate the next time that that text is read by a Balseraph of Fate. The target will immediately take 6d6 worth of Mind Hits, which can only be blocked by the Ethereal Song of Shields (yes, that specific Song). The demon does not get a roll to detect the trap!

Yves is fairly generous with handing out this attunement - or at least wishes to appear as if he is fairly generous with handing out this attunement. As near as anyone can determine, Yves' intent here was simply to make Balseraphs of Fate slightly afraid to read any book that they hadn't already seen any other Balseraph of Fate read first; if this is indeed his aim, he succeeded.

Heart of Oak (Flowers)

Heart of Oak (Flowers)

An angel with this attunement can spend 1 Essence to create a living set of armor out of plant life, with a negative modifier to hit equal to the angel's Ethereal Forces and a Protection equal to double her Celestial Forces (or triple, if the armor is being created for another person). The attunement will last for one hour, or until the wearer (not necessarily the creator) engages in an activity that would violate Novalis's dissonance condition.

The constant attempts by Servitors of War and Stone to acquire this particular attunement suggests that certain other Superiors may not find said dissonance condition quite as onerous as their public position might suggest.

Knight of the Woeful Countenance (War)

Knight of the Woeful Countenance (War)

Because Michael will name his attunements anything he blessed well wants to name them, that's why.

This particular attunement allows an angel to improve the Protection of his armor by the number of his Corporeal Forces, plus an additional 1 for every Essence spent (the latter effect lasts for one hour). If the angel does not actually have armor (street clothing will not count), he may use this attunement to essentially miracle anything of roughly the right shape and size into clumsy-looking, but perfectly serviceable armor (modifier to hit and Protection equal to the angel's Corporeal Forces) for as long as the angel is wearing it.

Incidentally, the ethereal spirit Don Quixote is the only non-Superior in existence that has ever landed a blow on the Archangel of War in an actual, legitimate combat and still survived. As of this date, the Archangel of the Sword has been the only entity with sufficient nerve to ask Michael why; while Michael told him readily enough, Laurence invariably - and smilingly - declines to repeat the reason.

Backfiling (Trade)

Backfiling (Trade)

This attunement permits an angel to retroactively make all the paperwork for a shipment correct. Manifests will be properly filled out, end-user certificates issued to the right individuals, signatures appear on the appropriate lines (in cases where someone might get in actual trouble for signing, the signature will either be conveniently obscured, or that of someone who has since died/disappeared/quit); appropriate copies will appear everywhere that they would have normally appeared. The documents will pass muster with everyone except Superiors and celestials with either the Seraphic resonance, or holding an attunement from Revelations; they are perfect - down to the occasional random misfiling and/or minor (non-invalidating) error.

It is not dissonant to use this attunement to assist shipments that are technically illegal - but God help the angel that uses it to smooth the way for anything unethical. For a baseline: arms shipments may or may not qualify; human trafficking never will, and Marc may not wait for Dominic to come pick up the erring Servitor who abused his trust by abusing this attunement in such a manner.

Assistant (The Sword)

Assistant (The Sword)

This attunement is only given out to human Soldiers of God. It gifts them with what seems to be a not quite sentient advisor (one that was invariably a Soldier of the Sword who achieved his or her Destiny) that can give information on various problems and situations. In general, this means a +3 to the Soldier's Tactics rolls (or Tactics/3, if the Soldier doesn't know that skill), plus two Knowledge/3s (chosen by the GM) and one Language/1. The advisor is not truly sentient - it cannot say what should be done, only what has been done in the past - but the reproduction is sufficiently good that some holders of this attunement seem to forget that.

The above may be incorporated into a Dark campaign with almost no changes.

Maul (Animals)

Maul (Animals)

The angel gains +3 Power to all Fighting rolls involving hand-to-hand combat only; also, any damage done by the angel will appear to have been done via an animal attack. If the angel does not spend Essence, he will also avoid disturbance!

EMP of the Perverse (Lightning)

EMP of the Perverse (Lightning)

No, Lightning finds puns to be acceptable in colloquial names, provided that the puns are not disruptive.

Angels with EMP of the Perverse may booby-trap any electronic or electrical item for 1 Essence. If the item is used or operated by an actual demon (including imps and gremlins) in the next week, the item will immediately short out - and every angel with the Malakite of Lightning attunement within a ten mile radius will hear a distinct ping. An angel who hears this ping will know the direction, which of course means that two or more Servitors of Lightning that hear the ping will find it a trivial exercise to pinpoint the location...