Malakim and Vessels

[JCD]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

My take only:

1) Of all angels, I consider the Malakim the most likely to have a spare vessel. Lost your old human suit? Pull a new one out of the wardrobe and jump back in ... though this can create some incongruities. In a prior campaign, we had a Malakite in a burly male vessel who had been killed by a demon and immediately popped back in the form of a 9-year-old girl ......

2) Those that don't have an extra body waiting are going to have to go to the Superior. I envision that every Archangel budgets a certain amount of Essence for Malakim replacement as part of the "cost of doing business"; these are intended as high-risk combat troops and replacing the gear is part of the job. That said, the Superior has a lot on his/her plate; I could see either having a subordinate whose job is to meet incoming Virtues and process "vessel alerts" in a timely manner, or else having the Archangel slot the Malakim in between appointments. If that's the case, it probably won't be days before the vessel gets approved (that would defeat the purpose of "no Trauma") but I could see it being hours in the case of some Superiors. On the other hand, Michael, David and Laurence may have rows of vessels in cold storage, ready to be cracked out and used immediately -- though the specific form may not be quite what the warrior had in mind.

In game terms, I would have no problem with letting a slain Malakite PC immediately spend saved character points on a new Vessel; this is one that was kept in the locker, either by the Superior's middleman or by the angel himself.

Hmm. This seems to split the difference quite nicely. On the one hand, I could not see the Superior being at their beck and call for vessels. They ARE busy.

I really like the immediate use of character points ("Sorry Phil. It's your choice. I know you were saving up for that kick butt flaming sword. You want another vessel, you need to break the bank or leave the others to die. It's your choice...")

This brings to mind a number of things: The Malakim 'Corral' where their Hearts are kept so they can be in one place for a) reinforcements, b) easy vessel storage, and c) to satisfy their arrogance (excuse me: honor)


Adventure Seed: Kobal, Baal, or Belial decides to do a suicide run, following a Malakim up after dead to set off a Celestial explosive, shattering any number of Malakim Hearts. Hilarity abounds...

Dirty GM Trick: Have a set of 3x5 cards made up with vessels. When Phil pops in, without character points and desperate to get back, he gets to pull from the random stack of vessels (Otherwise known as the 'Discard' bin) Somehow, all the dark handsome loners with pecs and washboard abs are gone...but there is a clearance on hausfraus...

And let us not forget 'Roz' the Celestial in charge of actually distributing these spare vessels. An Elohim, she is not particularly prone to the anxieties and issues of the LATEST Malakim emergency. See the character of the same name from Monsters Inc for inspiration.