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Contagion (a group for the roleplaying game In Nomine)

Contagion

This group has its origins in the aftereffects of the death of Prince Makatiel in 1348 AD, and has grimly held on ever since. Its members were Servitors of Disease who traded most of their freedom and dignity to Saminga in exchange for their continued existence; each one of them bitterly resents the trade. Even their Word-Bound are distinctly considered second-class servants in the hierarchy of Death. It was, perhaps, inevitable that they would form a society dedicated around recovering their former glory.

It is not entirely clear that Saminga is unaware of this group, or that he would particularly care about them even if he did.

The 2009 Phantom Corsair (In Nomine)

(The In Nomine core rulebook is available here)

The 2009 Phantom Corsair
Primal Spirit

Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 6 Agility: 6
Ethereal Forces: 2 Intelligence: 4 Perception: 4
Celestial Forces: 2 Will: 4 Perception: 4
Charisma/2

Element: Tech (Vehicles)

Affinities: Speed (Primal)

Skills: Area Knowledge/1 (the Marches), Dodge/6, Dream-Shaping/1, Driving/6, Language (English/3, German/1), Savoir-Faire/2

Songs: Dreams (All/1), Motion (All/2), Draining/1 (Celestial)

Dread: Loss of Mobility/2

Image: This.

Harry Cooper, Soldier of Destiny, True Prophet (In Nomine)

Harry Cooper
Soldier of Destiny
True Prophet

Corporeal Forces: 2 Strength: 3 Agility: 5
Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 6 Precision: 6
Celestial Forces: 3 Will: 6 Perception: 6
Status/4, Charisma +1

Skills: Area Knowledge (local area/3), Artistry/6 (painting), Climbing/3, Knowledge (History/3, Kabbalah/6, Linguistics/3, Research/3), Languages (French/1, Greek/1, Hebrew/3, Latin/1), Move Silently/6, Savoir-Faire/1, Seduction/2

Songs: Form (Ethereal/6)

Attunements: Library Card

Snarky (Ethereal for In Nomine)

Happy birthday, Eric Burns-White. Next time, remind us ahead of time, huh? I only really noticed an hour or so ago.

Snarky

Corporeal Forces: 2 Strength: 4 Agility: 4
Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 8 Precision: 4
Celestial Forces: 4 Will: 4 Perception: 12
Vessel: None

Skills: Area Knowledge (The Marches), Artistry/1 (webcomics), Dream-Shaping/3, Emote/2, Knowledge (History of the Marches/3, Omens/3, Psychology/2, Webcomics/6), Move Silently/1, Survival/3 (Marches)

Songs: Dreams (All/4), Healing (Ethereal/2, Celestial/1), Light (Corporeal/1), Projection (Ethereal/1), Shields (All/3), Tongues (Ethereal/1)

Elements: Information: Wisdom (Primary); Emotions: Laziness (Secondary)

Affinities: Divination (strong); Books (moderate); Obscurement (moderate)

Dread: Updating (Uncommon/3)

Cryptozoological Entry: Wolpertinger (In Nomine)

Name: Wolpertinger
Also Known As: Skvader
Type: Naturally-Occurring Zoological Oddity

Corporeal Forces: 1 Strength: 1 Agility: 3 Body Hits: 1
Ethereal Forces: 0 Intelligence: 2 Precision: 1 Mind Hits: 0
Celestial Forces: 0 Will: 1 Perception: 2 Soul Hits: 0

Skills: Fighting/6, Dodge/6, Flying/6, Move Silently/6
Songs: None Esoteric Abilities: Flight; -6 to hit due to unusually tough feathers on wings
Primary Attack: [Antlers/7/7/+3/-]
Secondary Attack: [Teeth/7/12/+3/-]

Appearance: A rabbit with wings, fangs, antlers, and duck feet.

Favored Habitat: Forest
Number Typically Encountered: 2-12
General Classification: Ethereals: Neutral; Heaven: Neutral; Hell: Neutral; Humanity: Neutral

Liar's Shout (and Liar's Shout Royale) (In Nomine)

Liar's Shout (and Liar's Shout Royale)
Alchemical Ritual

This alchemical talisman always comes as a brooch or necklace; when activated, it uses the Corporeal Song of Cacophony to give the false aural impression of mortality. Someone wearing an activated Shout will generate pseudo-disturbance as if he, she or it was actually a regular human: in practical terms, this means that any damage dealt to the user will seem generate the usual one point of disturbance per Body Hit. Note that this is not really disturbance: it can be detected as false with a (Perception - skill level of the Song) roll, and it will not affect the formation of Tethers at all.

This alchemical ritual can come in handy in a wide range of covert operations, so many sorcerers learn it; they can usually find a buyer, or in a pinch, somebody who'd take it as a bribe. Those relatively few Gamesters with both knowledge of enchantment/alchemy and the Humanity attunement have taken this ritual a step further; their version of Liar's Shout can be used to create an illusion that a mortal is actually a celestial. Duration and detection is as for the Corporeal Song of Cacophony, except that the skill roll to detect is actually (Perception - Celestial Forces of the alchemist); any disturbance being masked by a Liar's Shout Royale will be merely delayed until the talisman ceases to work.

The Right Worshipful Brothers of the Venerable and Arcane Order of St. Bickerstaff

The Brothers like to play games, and their pieces are other sentient creatures.  Once you have gotten their attention, you will be subjected to an endless stream of humiliation and public scorn.  You will suffer embarrassment, deliberate degradation of everything that you value, loss of property, friends, social status, dignity.  And it will not stop until you are dead or fled the corporeal plane; the Brothers in fact pride themselves on the number of individuals that they have driven to suicide, and treasure those incidents where they can get to the corpse first for one final jape.  They are unencumbered by mercy, and not particularly restricted by the bounds of good taste.  In short, they are vicious, sadistic bastards.

The Seraphim Council sometimes wishes that they had never approved this group's charter.

Special Project #45-B

Special Project #45-B

Armor: a complex combination of frankly improbable metallic alloys, some of which do not, strictly speaking, really exist (Protection +6, Modifier -5, Armor takes first 80 Body Hits).

Weapons: Twin Miniguns (use the Heavy Machine Gun stats from the CPG, with an additional +1 to Accuracy); four rocket launchers

Systems:
Armored exoskeleton (+4 Strength)
Reflex Booster (+4 Agility)
Metaphysical Interference Generator (+6 Will)
Dedicated HUD (+2 Perception)

Skill bonuses: Climbing/4, Dodge/2, Ranged Weapon/6 (miniguns) Running/4

Yes, it's a battlesuit designed for a baby.

Note that it is not a battlesuit designed for a baby vessel. This should be made quite clear: the feedback systems are explicitly designed for an infant's reflexes and reaction speed. Anyone who is not an infant (being defined as a human child under the age of eighteen months) will be at a minus for all systems and skill equivalent to the original bonuses. This cannot be really compensated for or adjusted., although several people have made a game try at doing it.

OK, this is the worst Month of Content so far...

...I am clearly falling behind. I should blame Hawaii for this, except that I shouldn't blame things on geographical locations.

Ach, well. On the other hand, I have come up with a couple of concepts for the game that an enforced plane ride should let me develop quite nicely.

Lava Rock

Lava Rock

It is, of course, incorrect to suggest that taking lava rock from Hawaii is somehow mystically bad luck. It's rock: it has all of the supernatural capacity of holding a charge of misfortune as any other piece of rock - in other words, none. This has been tested, many times, by some of the best esoteric engineers on both sides of the War. The results are always the same: lava rock does not cause bad luck. Unfortunately, having more than an ounce of it within ten feet does double the amount of disturbance generated (one reason why Hawaii and Iceland have relatively few Tethers, by the way), so you might understand why that legend got started.

Generally speaking, the celestials most likely to do something about a lava rock possessor are Servitors of Divine Fire, Dark Humor, Judgment, and Factions - but anybody can play, really. It all depends on who notices the human carrying around the disturbance bomb, and whether or not that person is naughty or nice. If they're on the wrong metaphysical side, the celestial pretty much enjoys the option of being able to go out and make that person's life miserable until the human finally mails the lava rock back to Hawaii. Traditionally, that ends the game with that particular human - most demons will actually go along with that, in any but the most high-contrast campaigns; it keeps the angels from getting too worked up on the subject - and the subsequent boost in superstition helps keep disturbance bombs rare, which is nice.

As for whether this somehow boosts the Hawaiian goddess Pele... well, both Jean and Vapula find the question of some interest as a research problem.