Thing to throw into game: New Spring Correction Facility

Omegonthesane · 07-03-2015, 05:27 AM

This was a thing that I added to a Diabolical campaign, because one of the players wanted to be a Death Calabite who had escaped from such a place, so I worked out the required mechanics, fleshed it out, and found a way to tie it in to the actual plot. (The camp commander occasionally decided that one of her Shedite prisoners was a lost cause, so sold them to a contact who paid good dollar/Essence/relic for them who she didn't know was part of a group planning to use them in a ritual to restore Legion to power.)

Included in the below Wall-o-Text are the technically-homebrew Themes of Plagues and Suppression; and the technically-homebrew Djinn Lamps, which are Discord Bracelets of "Bound to item" that I advise be costed as for Will Shackles if allowed for PCs.

~~~

The New Spring Correction Facility is a brainwashing camp masquerading as a wilderness retreat. It takes in Hellsworn in order that they might be Saved, and it captures demons so that they might be brainwashed until there isn't enough evil left in them to refuse Redemption. Not coincidentally, the whole scheme is run by an Elohite of Flowers of no formal rank, who used to be a Habbalite Captain of the Game running a more obviously evil brainwashing camp for the other side.

In order to partially subsidise operations and maintain their cover, the staff running the scheme rent their spare spaces to actual humans, on contracts not long enough for the negative effects of New Spring's various defences to kick in.

The main defence of New Spring is a relatively large number of Relievers who ring it in hidden locations and plausibly deniable Vessels, singing four Themes between them:

The Theme of Suppression, which I can't remember what Song it's based on but is designed to reduce the impact of all the Disturbance the other Themes kick out - not to mention escape attempts. Any Disturbance that hits the edge of the Theme of Suppression stops there and becomes a hum of 1 Disturbance emanating from wherever it was stopped, for 5 minutes per point of the original disturbance that caused the hum. If any new Disturbance arrives while the boundary is already humming, it increases the duration instead of the intensity, since that's the whole point of the Theme.

The Theme of Ethereal Harmony, which works just like the Song of Ethereal Harmony applied to a large area.

The Theme of Celestial Seals, which works just like the Song of Celestial Seals.

The Theme of Ethereal Plagues, which makes the prisoners more receptive to brainwashing. In order to compensate for how much more powerful this becomes by being able to be sustained, the Theme of Ethereal Plagues has all durations measured in weeks instead of days, and everyone subtracts their Celestial Forces from the Will penalty rather than just celestials. (This is also an important part of why the facility operator has no problem subjecting human customers to the effect - if they're out within a week or two, no lasting harm.) In addition, instead of merely only applying when you're in the area, the penalty wears off at 1 point per day that is spent outside the Theme's area; once it hits zero, each day spent outside refreshes one week in the (Celestial Forces) weeks before the penalty applies the next time the person goes inside.

In addition to the Themes, the New Spring Correction Facility forcibly equips their prisoners with Discord Bracelets in the form of locking collars, so that removing them risks injury to the neck - thus, even a Game squad will hesitate to simply behead the person they have come to "rescue" rather than carefully remove the items. The versions given to Hellsworn are level-1 Essence Blockers, while the versions given to demons are level-2 due to being both an Essence Blocker/1 and a Corporeal Anchor/1. The site also has a smaller stash of level 1 Will Shackles used when capturing new prisoners, and one (1) level 6 Will Shackle in the form of a large heavy restraint that I never worked out the details of which has to be carried in the back of a van, used on particularly wilful prisoners - both when capturing and to keep them imprisoned until their Will has been sufficiently eroded by the Theme of Plagues

None of this works very well on Shedim due to their not having a physical form, so New Spring makes use of a set of more specialised artefacts informally known as Djinn Lamps, which imposes the Bound Discord in the form that binds you to an object. These do not have to have the corporeal form of restraints, lamps, or even physically hollow vessels of any kind; instead, the restraint exists and must be applied celestially, while the corporeal form is simply the object to which the "wearer" is Bound. For metaphysical reasons that are not fully understood in-character, a Djinn Lamp is as hard to construct as an equal-level set of Will Shackles - because for balance reasons they are as hard to buy as Will Shackles, being nearly the same thing when used properly.

As you can imagine, the rampant use of Themes is very, very Essence-intensive - so New Spring has a lot of reliquaries. If these were kept on-site they'd be found by raiders; instead, they are kept in the Ethereal Realm, in the endless dream of a human kept in a drugged sleep beneath the office where the camp's paperwork is kept. They are maintained and guarded by an Elohite of Dreams who has no Vessel, instead dwelling within the facility and using Celestial Tongues to forward Essence to the Relievers as necessary.

In terms of mundane operations, New Spring runs like a Norwegian prison - the will-crushing Theme of Plagues and the various restriction relics are the only strict punishment that most prisoners receive, and they are kept in small cabins distributed over the area so that they cannot easily collude in large numbers. Generally, any prisoners with Will-affecting resonances or Songs are kept separately from all the others; the staff is large enough that any members who would need to spend weeks at a time inside the area of the Theme of Plagues are not allowed to remain there for more than three weeks in every four, lest their own Wills become unacceptably diminished. The primary guards of the site are a pair of Kyriotates, who can distribute their will across a large enough area to watch all the cabins, who work in overlapping three-week shifts with a week off at different times of the month so that between them the watch never ends. The Shedim get their own special cell as well, simply because they require subtly different - and often more intense - counselling sessions to overcome their various issues.

Statlines available if there is demand - they're not formatted in a way that lends itself to being posted in a forum, and others may disagree with me about how many people would need to man a facility of this size. (And to be honest, I did most of the statlines somewhat on-the-fly!)

robkelk · 07-03-2015, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omegonthesane

...
The Theme of Suppression, which I can't remember what Song it's based on but is designed to reduce the impact of all the Disturbance the other Themes kick out - not to mention escape attempts. Any Disturbance that hits the edge of the Theme of Suppression stops there and becomes a hum of 1 Disturbance emanating from wherever it was stopped, for 5 minutes per point of the original disturbance that caused the hum. If any new Disturbance arrives while the boundary is already humming, it increases the duration instead of the intensity, since that's the whole point of the Theme.
...

I don't have time to look it up, but I think this is one of the Songs of Shields. I think.

Omegonthesane · 07-03-2015, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robkelk

I don't have time to look it up, but I think this is one of the Songs of Shields. I think.

Celestial Shields - my memory jogged when I got back.

07-03-2015, 05:27 AM	#1
Omegonthesane Join Date: Aug 2010	Thing to throw into game: New Spring Correction Facility This was a thing that I added to a Diabolical campaign, because one of the players wanted to be a Death Calabite who had escaped from such a place, so I worked out the required mechanics, fleshed it out, and found a way to tie it in to the actual plot. (The camp commander occasionally decided that one of her Shedite prisoners was a lost cause, so sold them to a contact who paid good dollar/Essence/relic for them who she didn't know was part of a group planning to use them in a ritual to restore Legion to power.) Included in the below Wall-o-Text are the technically-homebrew Themes of Plagues and Suppression; and the technically-homebrew Djinn Lamps, which are Discord Bracelets of "Bound to item" that I advise be costed as for Will Shackles if allowed for PCs. ~~~ The New Spring Correction Facility is a brainwashing camp masquerading as a wilderness retreat. It takes in Hellsworn in order that they might be Saved, and it captures demons so that they might be brainwashed until there isn't enough evil left in them to refuse Redemption. Not coincidentally, the whole scheme is run by an Elohite of Flowers of no formal rank, who used to be a Habbalite Captain of the Game running a more obviously evil brainwashing camp for the other side. In order to partially subsidise operations and maintain their cover, the staff running the scheme rent their spare spaces to actual humans, on contracts not long enough for the negative effects of New Spring's various defences to kick in. The main defence of New Spring is a relatively large number of Relievers who ring it in hidden locations and plausibly deniable Vessels, singing four Themes between them: The Theme of Suppression, which I can't remember what Song it's based on but is designed to reduce the impact of all the Disturbance the other Themes kick out - not to mention escape attempts. Any Disturbance that hits the edge of the Theme of Suppression stops there and becomes a hum of 1 Disturbance emanating from wherever it was stopped, for 5 minutes per point of the original disturbance that caused the hum. If any new Disturbance arrives while the boundary is already humming, it increases the duration instead of the intensity, since that's the whole point of the Theme. The Theme of Ethereal Harmony, which works just like the Song of Ethereal Harmony applied to a large area. The Theme of Celestial Seals, which works just like the Song of Celestial Seals. The Theme of Ethereal Plagues, which makes the prisoners more receptive to brainwashing. In order to compensate for how much more powerful this becomes by being able to be sustained, the Theme of Ethereal Plagues has all durations measured in weeks instead of days, and everyone subtracts their Celestial Forces from the Will penalty rather than just celestials. (This is also an important part of why the facility operator has no problem subjecting human customers to the effect - if they're out within a week or two, no lasting harm.) In addition, instead of merely only applying when you're in the area, the penalty wears off at 1 point per day that is spent outside the Theme's area; once it hits zero, each day spent outside refreshes one week in the (Celestial Forces) weeks before the penalty applies the next time the person goes inside. In addition to the Themes, the New Spring Correction Facility forcibly equips their prisoners with Discord Bracelets in the form of locking collars, so that removing them risks injury to the neck - thus, even a Game squad will hesitate to simply behead the person they have come to "rescue" rather than carefully remove the items. The versions given to Hellsworn are level-1 Essence Blockers, while the versions given to demons are level-2 due to being both an Essence Blocker/1 and a Corporeal Anchor/1. The site also has a smaller stash of level 1 Will Shackles used when capturing new prisoners, and one (1) level 6 Will Shackle in the form of a large heavy restraint that I never worked out the details of which has to be carried in the back of a van, used on particularly wilful prisoners - both when capturing and to keep them imprisoned until their Will has been sufficiently eroded by the Theme of Plagues None of this works very well on Shedim due to their not having a physical form, so New Spring makes use of a set of more specialised artefacts informally known as Djinn Lamps, which imposes the Bound Discord in the form that binds you to an object. These do not have to have the corporeal form of restraints, lamps, or even physically hollow vessels of any kind; instead, the restraint exists and must be applied celestially, while the corporeal form is simply the object to which the "wearer" is Bound. For metaphysical reasons that are not fully understood in-character, a Djinn Lamp is as hard to construct as an equal-level set of Will Shackles - because for balance reasons they are as hard to buy as Will Shackles, being nearly the same thing when used properly. As you can imagine, the rampant use of Themes is very, very Essence-intensive - so New Spring has a lot of reliquaries. If these were kept on-site they'd be found by raiders; instead, they are kept in the Ethereal Realm, in the endless dream of a human kept in a drugged sleep beneath the office where the camp's paperwork is kept. They are maintained and guarded by an Elohite of Dreams who has no Vessel, instead dwelling within the facility and using Celestial Tongues to forward Essence to the Relievers as necessary. In terms of mundane operations, New Spring runs like a Norwegian prison - the will-crushing Theme of Plagues and the various restriction relics are the only strict punishment that most prisoners receive, and they are kept in small cabins distributed over the area so that they cannot easily collude in large numbers. Generally, any prisoners with Will-affecting resonances or Songs are kept separately from all the others; the staff is large enough that any members who would need to spend weeks at a time inside the area of the Theme of Plagues are not allowed to remain there for more than three weeks in every four, lest their own Wills become unacceptably diminished. The primary guards of the site are a pair of Kyriotates, who can distribute their will across a large enough area to watch all the cabins, who work in overlapping three-week shifts with a week off at different times of the month so that between them the watch never ends. The Shedim get their own special cell as well, simply because they require subtly different - and often more intense - counselling sessions to overcome their various issues. Statlines available if there is demand - they're not formatted in a way that lends itself to being posted in a forum, and others may disagree with me about how many people would need to man a facility of this size. (And to be honest, I did most of the statlines somewhat on-the-fly!)