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Old 10-05-2011, 06:53 PM   #251
tHEhERETIC
 
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Default Re: In Nomine: the Pacific War (OOC)

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Originally Posted by Andygal View Post
this is just a warning that I'm going to be in transit to Brazil for the next 24 hours, don't expect a response today. Or tomorrow probably. Jet lag is hell.
Amen to that! Plus if you're like me, traveling is a huge adrenaline rush and afterwards your body says, "I got how much sleep? Ate how much food? Brain, you've got some catching up to do!"

But bits on sorcery. Your characters (minus possibly Glen) aren't going to know this kind of detailed stuff--sorcerers are no better than anyone else at keeping secrets, but Ryuki is a Creationer in the end and is doing stuff that certainly isn't done by the traditional crowd. I'd like to explain that what he's doing is not quite as far off the beaten path as he'd have you believe.

First, the anger is part of the equation. He could break glass by getting angry/panicked at it as a kid, and having known RL magick and having studied a bit about shamanism--emotion is definitely a magnifier. Most of mysticism is built on it. In this guy's case it's a very deep-seated self-righteous anger directed at demons (more accurately, at the Celestial War in general, and at Eli for taking away his mother) (see tagline) Emotion is power, and his favorite is fury. So vague positive modifier there.

Then there are the crunchier game mechanics. If I'm reading right, Banishing doesn't cause Disturbance of itself, but no sane sorcerer is going to do it without throwing in some Essence to up the stats. Believe it or not even he won't take that chance. He threw in two Essence each throw, but opened a Spirit Jar after the second. In that box of breath mints he'd stowed some Essence! I figure normally a Spirit Jar (unfortunate name, given the plot with Kingman) would be a pretty terra cotta number, some arcane writing on it, some reverence for the task to get the proper emotional state. He's been making these things for nearly a decade and has gotten flippant and arrogant about them, and can make an Essence container from anything he can seal. And today he's showing that off to his peers.

The third guy he'd simply tried to banish an ordinary human being. Ryuki has no magical way of identifying demons, which is why the joke about skeet shooting. Unless they make a Disturbance, Ryuki can only identify Celestials by their behavior. As you've seen this amuses hell out of him with angels because he has relatively little experience there. Demons are old hat, and he can spot them from the subtlest of cues. This time he misread.

So he's full or near-full on Essence, and a guy starts babbling. He honestly thinks it's an ordinary human being, but just in case he Banishes the guy and sure enough he drops. Whoa.

Another crunchy point is the risk-taking involved in Banishing and why this display is reasonably impressive. Compared to humans, demons tend to have high Wills. The best sorcerer (even a 7-Force, which he is not) is still probably lower before bonuses than your basic (9-Force) demon. So Banish fails happen. And if you fail to Banish it, it just might decide to chain you down i.e. draw the sorcerer into a Will War. Sorcerer loses Will War and he is literally the demon's slave. And Ryuki banishes demons promiscuously. He's got a game-mechanic bonus that he is so sure of, the others don't know how it is he hasn't failed yet. Dennis hinted at it back in MHC.

Plus he's picked easy targets, in this case. No free demon is going to walk into San Francisco, even on another sorcerer's coattails. Which means that any demon in this room has had its Will knocked down by its keeper. Instead of beings with higher Wills than his own, he can safely bet that the ones here are lower. He's not taming tigers--he's kicking kittens.
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Old 10-07-2011, 07:46 PM   #252
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Default Re: In Nomine: the Pacific War (OOC)

Hello all!

I am back (with our GM's blessing). I have a full time job again and life is back to normal. Or at least what it was like before I had to drop out.

I'll post a little prologue over in the IC thread, explaining where Ash has been up till now (short version, he's been up in Heaven). I need to do a bit of catching up on the boards before I can bring him in, that will be my job for this weekend. Hopefully I can bring him into the action by end of the weekend.

I'm looking forward to playing again. Feel free to PM me if you need to tell me/Ash something important.
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Old 10-07-2011, 08:03 PM   #253
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Welcome back!

So is Ash going IST or is he switching Superiors?
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Old 10-08-2011, 10:44 PM   #254
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He'll be switching to Destiny, he's always preferred the inspirational aspects of Fire, but he just kept being pulled into fights.
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Old 10-09-2011, 12:50 PM   #255
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Default Re: In Nomine: the Pacific War (OOC)

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((Forgive me for putting you all on rails a little bit in the next couple of posts--I don't want you offing the, um, main villain of the story just yet.))
Who, Kingman? I figured he was a cats' paw for someone else, otherwise we would never have gotten this close. ;) (A lesson I learned the hard way while GMing a pulp game and letting my mastermind get into SMG range of the players.)

Quote:
"In the upper left drawer," he says evenly. He thinks about telling Kane the rather insulting truth (as he sees it), but he doesn't care to provoke the guy with the flaming sword just now.
Wisdom comes late to some, but it does come, I see. :)
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Old 10-09-2011, 04:14 PM   #256
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Default Re: In Nomine: the Pacific War (OOC)

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Who, Kingman? I figured he was a cats' paw for someone else, otherwise we would never have gotten this close. ;) (A lesson I learned the hard way while GMing a pulp game and letting my mastermind get into SMG range of the players.)
No no, he's not the Big Bad. Sitting on my keyboard fingers trying not to say more than that.

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Wisdom comes late to some, but it does come, I see. :)
---evil laughter---
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Old 10-09-2011, 06:56 PM   #257
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Sorry I didn't get to posting this weekend, we... um... got a new dog. So we've been distracted. Next week, for sure.
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Old 10-10-2011, 06:23 AM   #258
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Default Re: In Nomine: the Pacific War (OOC)

Something I wrote last night, and had to sit on until I posted what I posted just now.
--------------------------------------

Eons ago some people believed that the mark of a god's strength was in his bad temper. This theory was more popular among conquerer tribes, and since they tended to conquer it was their idea that was the fashion for some time, and in this image they created their gods. The more angry, capricious, demanding and bloodthirsty their god was the more effective he or she was in aiding his tribe. Gods that wanted human sacrifice were stronger than those content with mere livestock, those who wanted conquered warriors were probably stronger than those content with mere virgin girls, and those who wanted their victims tortured were of a higher order than those content with a quick kill.

I wish I were making that part up.

The ethereal that survived the wars to be the strongest and cruelest eventually found himself diminished despite his conquests. Still bloodthirsty and cruel he took to wandering. He kept his true name to himself, and it was lost to the human race with the dead languages that supported it.

Not so long ago a wizard passed a cave where he heard a heated argument. It seems the ethereal had encountered a demon, probably one of
Saminga's, and the two were fighting over a scrap of Essence. The wizard, assuming that each combatant had weakened the other, bound them both. He sought to put them safely in a jar where their evil ways would be lost to the world, but the only jar at hand was one a local peasant had been preparing fermented vegetables in. It did the trick, but the evil ones were stronger than the wizard thought and they tore away everything from him that made his life worth living, and he died not long after. He sits at a table in Hell where the snack plate and pitcher of beer are always full when he sits down and empty by the time they come around to him. He's surrounded by minions of Kobal and Hatiphas, and he has eternity to decide whether they're laughing with him or at him.

And the ethereal and demon had some time to tear each other apart, as the smell made them furious. Eventually the ethereal won and cannibalized his opponent, believing as was his nature that eating an enemy gave you his power.

The cheekier among us might call this ethereal Zuul, and that's as good a name as any.
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Old 10-11-2011, 12:15 PM   #259
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BTW, everyone who knows Ash please feel free to yell (maybe after the demon is dealt with) at him for being out of touch for so long, it'll give me an in to explain the transfer.
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Old 10-12-2011, 06:15 AM   #260
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Default Re: In Nomine: the Pacific War (OOC)

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BTW, everyone who knows Ash please feel free to yell (maybe after the demon is dealt with) at him for being out of touch for so long, it'll give me an in to explain the transfer.
Holding off for a couple of days--yeah, partly because I'm tired, but mostly because I want other characters to do this. I'm interested in seeing Ash's reaction to the corpse in the other room.

Meanwhile I'm fleshing out "Zuul" a bit more. Right now he's part Hellraiser, heavy on Apocalypto and thus developing a Meso-American flavor.

Depending on how the next few moves will go, I'll reveal the other Ethereal in play. I've got my notebooks in one folder now so I can keep track of which villain is on which other villain's side, and which ones can be pitted against which.

I should prop my feet on the couch and enjoy my cat.
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