Incident Dissonance vs. Recurring Dissonance

[Orlin]

I wasn't clear. Marisol had sworn the geas to someone else, similar to the situation that Rocket described. And since she had to pay someone for keeping her safe from a teams of Baalites and Belialites, yeah, it was earned. So I don't believe she gets two Will rolls and she's free.

I completely forgot to take that into consideration, given the circumstances. If Marisol geased herself, she would be faced with one of two options: to be where she said she was going to be to deliver her report, or suffer dissonance until she fulfills her promise. She would not get a Will roll to avoid it.

"And if necessary, a Lilim can make a promise of her own, imposing a Geas on herself to ensure that she makes good on her own promises. This gives her dissonance until she fulfills her word, as she may not resist her own Geas."

--In Nomine Core Rulebook, page 148

The time-increment factor for incurring dissonance seems to be what's confusing us (me), particularly given the nature of the example above. In order to clarify it, I took a look at the Core Guide and checked out Geas as a form of discord.

Apparently, the "time allotted to complete the task" helps to determine the level of the Geas. It's worded in such a way as to make it really tricky, but essentially, if you give me a burden and the amount of time it takes me to complete the burden is reasonably about one hour (drive to the library, sign up for a library card and get me this book,") it counts as a Geas/1.

Alternatively, you could give me a task that reasonably takes a day, a week, a month or a year (Geas/2-6.) From my understanding, the increment at which I would accrue "recurring dissonance" would be equal to the increment of time that it takes for my task to complete. If you decide to give me less time to complete a required task, you would also, presumably, reduce the interval at which I'd accrue dissonance.

So, let's say you want me to lay low and gather information on someone. Let's say that the GM decides that getting accurate information on this person would reasonably take about a week; you decide you want your first report within the day. If you refer to the chart (Core Rulebook, pp. 88), that would take a Geas/3 and bump it up to a Geas/4. Presumably, if I self-geased and then didn't report to you on time, I'd suffer 1 dissonance per day until I arrived.

Here's what's weird about this: if I self-geas with, "I promise officially to go to a nearby library and check out the book, Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown, which I will give to you upon my return," I get a rate of dissonance equal to one per hour until you get your book, and that's on a Geas/1! Granted, it all goes away when I give you the book...but still!

Do you suppose that you could spike the level of the Geas to shorten the "interval time" without shortening the time that you've allotted for the task to be complete?

If I self-geased with, "I promise officially that I will have a full report by next Wednesday at 10:00AM -- and not an hour later," and then swore a Geas/5 instead of a Geas/3 (treating the Geas as if you'd only given me an hour to work with for a seven day job), every hour that I kept you waiting would smack me with a point of dissonance, would it not?

Doesn't that work with anyone who is Celestially aware who swears a geas instead of having it inflicted on them?

Very good catch. I didn't see this until I cross-referenced the Infernal Player's Guide (page 50), but what you're referring to -- from a Celestial -- is known as a promise.

If Betharan, Lilim of the Game, decides to spare Curtis, the mewling Impudite of Lust, from a near-eternal existence of suffering, she could spend a moment of concentration and take an unspecified promise. This promise would manifest as the Geas discord (in this case, a Geas/6,) presumably at a level equal to the need(s) that was met in exchange.

In exchange for Curtis' promise, Betharan would get a Geas-token -- completely different from a Geas-hook. This token is a Celestial object that usually manifests as a little heart-shaped gem that, when focused on, will summon up an image of Curtis, as he appeared when he swore his promise. Betharan could change the appearance of the Geas-token if she so desired; she could make it into a broach, an earring, or even a playing card with a gem-encrusted symbol. I think it just has to be gem-like.

The Geas would manifest around Curtis' Celestial form as well, but it would be as a form of bondage. A collar, an armlet with a keyhole, a fancy leg iron...you get the idea.

I don't think the Lassie comparison works for this reason: An Impudite's Dissonance condition doesn't work like a geas. One point per DEATH, not day.

Yes, I agree. Technically an Impudite *can* get dissonance from allowing a mortal to die as a result of inaction (I'd probably change it to "causing the death of a mortal, either directly or indirectly."), but he should only get 1 dissonance as a result, because a mortal can only die once.

Someone else brought up an almost-identical example of this in another thread and stated that they would shell out one point per day, which is why I used it. I think the only difference is that I'd be willing to shell out the dissonance in advance and shave it off if the Impudite went back and saved the human from death.

Edited to add: Marisol has the hook set by agreeing to it. She's sworn the geas. The important thing is that she still is not forced to fly the red eye if she doesn't want to. A geas isn't mind control or action control. Not sure if that is what you are inferring.

Yeah, my bad. It came out wrong because I was actually mistaken.

I was under the impression that if Marisol failed her Will roll, she would have to go -- and given that the Will roll was near impossible to make, I assumed that she'd probably fail.

In fact, failing a Will roll just "sets the hook" and turns a potential Geas into an actual Geas. Once the hook sets, Marisol is affected as if she possessed the Geas discord (which, in fact, she would.) Swearing a promise (specified or unspecified) to a Lilim is basically the equivalent of setting the hook yourself.

...and if that last paragraph is correct (as I'm *almost* sure it is!), the rest of your post is right on the money.

P.S. In an attempt to back up some of my statements, I came across an interesting aside (I actually learned a lot from writing this all out.) Geas, with a capital G, is the noun; geas, with a lowercase g, is a verb. Cool, huh?

P.P.S. Rocket Man, you wouldn't be at all out of line to operate like that. I just feel like Servitors of Gabriel have it way too rough as it is, y'know? I mean, I understand that it's their responsibility to punish the cruel, but they're the only angels I know of who are all but guaranteed to have an attunement that comes with not only a stipulation, but a dissonance condition.