Mini-Triad

[Moe Lane]

http://moeticae.typepad.com/weblog_l...ini-triad.html

Mini-Triad
Seraph of Judgment
Living Artifact

Corporeal Forces: 1 Strength: 1 Agility: 3
Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 6 Precision: 6
Celestial Forces: 5 Will: 8 Perception: 12

Skills: Detect Lies/3

Attunements: Seraph of Judgment, Ofanite of Judgment, Malakite of Judgment

Songs: None to start with


A Mini-Triad ostensibly looks like a scanning device from a 1980s science fiction movie: it features a variety of flashing lights, cryptic LCD readouts, and an attached wand on a flexible plastic cord. It is usually enchanted to be Unbreakable, and sometimes to be Summonable; further enchantments are rarer. Mini-Triads actually do live up to the name: with a little training a user can detect Discord, dissonance, and deliberate falsehoods in others. Interestingly, the older models will have more features - or perhaps it is simply that the longer that one uses one, the more one learns to tease data out of the system. There is no manual for a Mini-Triad; mastery of its secondary functions is strictly a matter of experience. Most users soon discover that Mini-Triads can download their data to any standard computer system; fewer discover that their artifacts also have an internal radio transmitter.

...

No, the Host is not collectively that stupid: they're well aware that they're dealing with a Seraph of Judgment that has been bound into a vessel. They just don't like to think about it, much - or talk about it, at all. It helps that, as far as anyone knows, Dominic strictly encases volunteers into Mini-Triads (although in Darker campaigns this may not be as true; on the other hand, sullen tools are dangerous tools). It helps more that he eventually lets them out. And, of course, angels are often highly indifferent to service positions that humans would find unbearably onerous. Still, this sort of thing pushes the envelope of the average angel's comfort level, so they just... let it go.

Which is probably for the best, given that these items are specifically given out by Dominic himself - which means that anyone who has one is going to be under the personal (if not always obvious) attention of the Archangel of Judgment at least once a week. It's amazing how quickly missions involving Mini-Triads can get resolved...

[tylrlsaa]

Onw wonders why this situation would be necessary. It is an odd situation. Perhaps it is an object lesson for the angel in question? Or it is to let the angel heal from a grevious injury?

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by tylrlsaa

Onw wonders why this situation would be necessary. It is an odd situation. Perhaps it is an object lesson for the angel in question? Or it is to let the angel heal from a grevious injury?

Or, perhaps, a Seraph was seen to have a Need to seek out Discordant angels, and Dominic saw fit to fulfill it in this manner so that a Lilim couldn't get a Geas on that Seraph...

Or possibly a Seraph lost so many Forces that this was the only way it could still be of service to Heaven... (although that's a pretty Dark reason to do this)

[William]

There's no particular reason for this to be an unpleasant situation for the angel. Judgment can't be sending triads everywhere they might be useful, so a specially-empowered Seraph with a simulatory range of attunements is more resource-conservative. And an existence as a useful tool is probably quite fulfilling to a certain flavor of selfless angel. Finally, for an angel of Judgment, there is the added benefit that being an inanimate object is blessedly free of all those distracting glandular quirks that come with a Vessel patterned after the human template.

If the user isn't aware the Mini-Triad is a sentient being, that can be mildly off-putting at first but, should the need arise to break cover, it has communication devices with which to do so. If it is aware that the Mini-Triad is a sentient being, then naturally the Mini-Triad will expect to be treated with the respect due an assigned partner with a clear role to play. That's about the only worry the artifact would have regarding such matters, at least in a reasonably forward campaign where the angels would be volunteers or at least psychologically filtered before assignment.

[tylrlsaa]

The thought occurs to me that a mini-triad may be given (in a Humorous campaign) to a neophite Angel as his advisor/supervisor.

[Archangel Beth]

And if it should happen to fall into the hands of demons who don't realize its true (even True!) nature, it could find quite a lot of interesting tidbits before it radioed down the Malakite Squad...