The People's Front for the Liberation of Hell

Great booms echo across the plain. In the distance, angry red lightning clashes with streamers of golden light. In full view, the Heavenly Host is awesome in the original biblical sense of the word- Beautiful and terrifying enough to stun one into inaction. But at a distance, the keening squeals of demons, the choired singing of impossibly perfect voices, the light coming from thousands of angels moving in perfect harmony... Is not quite so overwhelming. Even here, though, occasionally a lone angel speeds through Hell, somehow navigating the twisted space without trouble. For most denizens of Hell, going in one direction for five miles, turning around, and walking another five miles- Does not leave you in the same place. But angels seem to completely ignore that. They move in sudden bursts of intense, unhesitating might. They fly at what must be supersonic speeds, yet leave no sonic boom.

Just yesterday you saw an angel fighting a group of Lilith's harpies, who had been harassing some of the stragglers. By the time you registered its presence, one of the harpies was bisected. By the time you understood that it had three pairs of wings, no legs, and a massive shield covered in eyes, another was dead. The remaining eight harpies snarled and swarmed the angel. Blackened claws, flying razor feathers, thrown grenades, belched fire, the red lightning so common to Hellish sorcery, and some sort of noxious green cloud- None of it affected the Angel-Knight in the least. In fifteen seconds, the entire patrol of harpies was dead.

The angel then descended close to the ground and announced in a booming voice: "LO, REJOICE. FOR YOU HAVE JUST WITNESSED THE FURY AND GLORY OF HEAVEN, WHICH SHALL ETERNALLY PUNISH THE ARCH-SINNERS. LUCIFER AND HIS FOLLOWERS CONTINUE TO DEFY THE WILL OF GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE TORMENTED FOR THIS SIN. WE SHALL DRIVE THE DEMONS BEFORE US AND REMIND THEM OF THEIR FOLLY. THOSE OF YOU WHO HAD BEEN SENT HERE NUMBER MANY. REPENT. DO NOT JOIN THE HORDES OF THE DEMONS. LIVE HUMBLY AND HAVE FAITH. ENDURE AND PRAY FOR SALVATION. FOR THE DEMONS ARE THE GREATEST POSSIBLE EVIL. THOSE WHO RESIST TEMPTATION, WHO HAVE FAITH AND VIRTUE, SHALL BE REWARDED AND HAVE THEIR PUNISHMENT LIFTED IN TIME."

And then it flew off again, becoming a speck in the distance before anyone could try to ask questions. And thus was the end of your first official contact with Heaven.

...Things have been hectic. You look out upon the white plains at the mass of souls before you. Most of them are naked, carrying nothing. Material things are hard to acquire here in Hell, and a total lack of food, water, or shelter does not hinder lost souls nearly as much as humans. As you walk through the churning crowd from snow-pit to snow-pit, the mood is watchful. Waiting. Some of them are hopeful, but many others are milling about in confusion or inaction. Some people are building walls out of the snow. Some people are trying to scrape together a quarry crew to start digging up stones to build with. Lots of people are arguing.

The current state of your nascent independent little patch of Hell is more like a large rabble vaguely thinking that Something Ought To Be Done, than an actual state. You have many thousands of lost souls following your lead and gathering to the call of hope- Of a brighter Hell, free from random predation, free from torture and indignity, where the Hellish resources are organized fairly instead of hierarchically. A rebellion against God and the Devil both: No Gods, No Masters. It's an inspiring speech, a great way to get people to at least perk up and listen. But it doesn't really make a nation. Soon, the arguments started about how exactly the PFLH will accomplish such lofty ideals. How it will be structured. Who makes the decisions and gives the orders.

...You don't really remember your past life, on Earth. (How long were you in the soul-sucking mud of the Pit of the Abyss, anyway? Months? Years?) You get the impression that most wandering souls are in a similar state, and only those with great drive recover much of who they used to be. But despite that vast expanse of vague fuzz where your memories are supposed to be, you seem to know things about politics, about running organizations. You have instincts and impressions, about how to delegate and the twisted perversion of unexpected consequences due to incentive structures. (You shudder slightly.) So you have some idea of what you're doing. Whether it's just the basic competence of a middle manager, or the guile of an experienced politician, you're not sure.

From what you can tell the wandering souls currently in the canton of Hell the PFLH has claimed as its own come in six rough types, with some overlap:

• Drifters- Those who are just along for the ride, with no particular expectation or goal. Their will and individuality sapped by the long, miserable existence of Hell. Generally skittish and cautious. These are the greatest bulk of your followers, most of them watching to see if the PFLH has anything to it at all. Drifters are at least 80% of your nascent population.
• Doomers- Those who think the whole thing is going to fail sooner or later, but decided to join anyway because it might offer some temporary respite from torment, abduction, and all the other ravages of Hell. They might be a problem later. A relatively small fraction of people are Doomers, but you get the sense these are the sort of people who engender corruption, foist work on others, lie and cheat, and might even betray the PFLH to demons for favorable treatment since it's 'doomed anyway'...
• Faithful- Those who still have some belief in their old religion. Mostly Christians, thinking that the great host of angels are here to relieve sinners, their punishments finally at an end. They're spending most of their time praying and singing, which creates some amount of resentment from most of the rest. They're pushing strongly for trying to follow the angel's instructions and have humility and faith. Some of them would obediently line up for the demons, because suffering shows virtue, apparently. A small but loud minority.
• Revengers- Those who have decades or centuries of pent-up anger against the demons and are in the PFLH so that they can stick a needle in Lucifer's pride, or get the opportunity to hurt the demons. As long as there is an army to join that might have some hope of reflecting a tiny fraction of their torments back on their captors, they'll be happy. Roughly a quarter of the non-drifter population.
• Liberators- Those who believe in the notion of freedom. No slavery, human rights, open government, that sort of thing. Their actual ideologies come in a hundred-colored rainbow, but that's the category. They're also the ones who are spending a good chunk of their time arguing over how things ought to be done. Roughly a fifth of the non-drifter population.
• Togethers- Those who believe in banding together against the common foe: Demons. The centralist counter to the liberators, in flavors from fascism to idealist Communism to Nordic-style socialist democracy. Most of the people who are trying to actually doing things are Togethers. Roughly half of the non-drifter population.

These are all rough designations rather than explicit political leanings, though.

Your friend Giles- He's lost his memories too, and picked the name essentially at random- Is currently acting as a glorified secretary. He keeps notes in the snow in an arcane secretary's shorthand, makes the rounds with you and talks to people, reminds you of issues you had forgotten, deals with petty complaints, gets local leaders trying to work on things to talk to each other, and overall is a wonderful help in a hundred tiny ways. Giles is bright, driven, and competently uncreative. The best you can ask for in an assistant, really. However you end up organizing things, he'll be crucial to seeing it actually come together.

Regardless, it's clear that, in order to actually get anything solid done, you need to officiate a government. Create a structure that issues orders, makes plans, tracks them, and, well... Organizes basically everything. The big question is what shape, exactly, that government will take.

[] Departmental Councils, Central Control: This milling about doing random things is squandering the opportunity provided by the Host's ravaging of the demons. What matters is getting things moving. We can't afford to spend a month explaining voting systems to everyone, having counts and recounts, deal with people voting multiple times, even getting anyone registered... No, some sort of voting can come later. Action is needed now. You will create departments responsible for individual areas of concern, which will receive their marching orders from a small central body. Only by carefully coordinating action to ensure critical projects are completed can we succeed. (Action Style: Classic Planquest. Multiple departments with projects split up between them, and a small number of free dice that can be allocated to any department.)

[] Pyramid Democracy: The idea is that voting for someone who doesn't care about you specifically is bad. Better to vote within Dunbar's Number, for someone you trust. 100 to 200 people choose a leader, and 100 to 200 of those leaders meet for local issues, and from them, choose a leader for the next level up... With authority flowing upward and orders flowing down. You're not entirely sure how well this will work, particularly with the high concentration of apathetic drifters, but you're pretty sure you'll win the first votes just by being the driving force that brought everyone together. (Action style: Partial Devolution. All projects are in one big pool, and some will be 'auto selected' by lower level groups. 'Auto selected' projects get bonuses, but are out of your control. Changing auto selections is possible but will require using central authority.)

[] Project Mandates and Delegation: The realities of Hell mean there's no paper, no mass communication, and very little way to organize and track things when everything mostly lives in memory instead of hard records. Reducing the burden of central control as much as possible will be necessary. Some things will surely happen outside of your gaze, but it can't be helped and it would be the case anyway. Better to embrace it than try to micro-manage an entire canton. Issuing broad mandates with considerable authority to the people responsible for a project will allow things to proceed faster, and if they abuse the authority they can be replaced. (Action Style: Lock-In Dice. Many projects will require you to 'lock in' dice, making them continue until completed. Removing a locked-in die disables that die for a turn. However, locked in dice roll 3d40 instead of 1d100.)



Personal action: Choose one to do right now.

[] Try to remember who you were, before?

[] Pray and repent in hopes it attracts an angel?

[] Make speeches and draw everyone together?

[] Talk to the Faithfuls and try to reason with them?

[] Scout for other capable leaders in the rabble joining you?

"Thank you for joining me today, ladies and gentlemen."

You stand in a ragged tent, trying and failing to not think about what the cloth is made from. (Hair?) You assume people are listening in, which would bother you a lot more under other circumstances, but you can barely pretend to have a clear idea what you're doing. Before you stand three men, two women, and one skeleton. (You haven't asked about that). Seven people who you hope will be the core of a new Power of Hell.

"We stand on the cusp of a new age in Hell. I know it's going to be difficult. We have a lot that we need to figure out. But we must start somewhere- And we must do it quickly. I don't exaggerate when I say that our success or failure depends on everyone here."

You look around at your new... Ministers? Perhaps.

"Before I begin, I'd like to go around and get everyone's thoughts on what our top priorities should be."

You heft a large brass token that someone made, serving as impromptu Seal of the PFLH. It has a symbol of an Ankh and a few mottos inscribed around it in angular letters. Everyone can read it, for the same reason everyone can understand each other perfectly- Not that you know how Hell's translation effect works, exactly.

You pass it around the circle to the left.

Military - Marten Cambrie, formerly a French cavalry colonel having kept his skills sharp, everyone seems to agree that the 18th century way of thinking about war is more true to Hell than modern military doctrine. Marten is the only prospective military leader who stepped forward with proof of kills on a force of demons, having led a band of pikes and Hellfire-grenadiers to defeat a mixed force of traitor humans and eldritch Chasm Crawlers.

"As the Golden Host is currently kicking the devil's ass from here to China, I don't think we have any urgent need of some sort of military investment. Better to lay down the basics of a government while we can. We need a charter or code of laws, organized structures of command. Not only will this be a great show of legitimacy, but it will allow much more to be actually done. If you asked me to form an army today, I would have little recourse but to go out and shout for volunteers."

He passes the seal on with a smile and a nod.

Infrastructure - Agra, no surname, from an ancient civilization, though it escapes you which one. Maybe Egypt? She was a priestess, which translates to bureaucrat, maintaining irrigation, granaries, craft workshops, and more. While unfamiliar with modern technology, she seems well acquainted with the realities of large quantities of unskilled labor. You found her acting as forewoman to a quarry pit organized on her own recognizance.

"I agree with the soldier," she nods. "When nobody comes to order the work, nothing is accomplished. But rather than a code of laws, we also need people who will implement it. Clerks to read orders and shout them to the masses and count what work is being done. Additionally, we also need a temple for the work of government to take place." She holds up a hand at frowns and murmurs from others. "Or... A 'government building', I suppose, rather than a temple. I can build this."

She passes the seal on with a slight frown.

Production - Katherine Rosa, a woman who can't remember much of her past, but has spent much of her time in Hell making and fixing things for the wasteland 'free souls' camps, as well as organizing workshops. She comes with many a warm recommendation. Her previous constructions apparently include cave elevators powered by air pressure, lightweight sleds and other such vehicles, weapons and clothing, and more.

"The way I see it, lots of people out there are already doing what they can to contribute, whatever they can think of. We need a proper accounting of it all- Materials, skills, ongoing constructions and projects. I could see about all sorts of projects to try and gather resources, make useful things, but why go out of our way when we're not even tapping what people are doing already? So, some sort of census and survey. Also, workshops. Get people working, on basically anything- Not in the conditions the masters imposed, but bored people are troublemakers and practically anything will be useful later."

She crosses her arms as she passes the seal.

Research - Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, or so he claims. Considering the man arrived in the great camp of the PFLH in an honest to- Well, not to God, the bastard- But a working example of a steam-powered car, apparently fueled by eternally burning Hellfire, lubricated by Ichor, and reinforced by elemental Darkness alloyed into the frame of bones and brass. You sincerely hope his Earthly reputation for genius holds up.

"Hellish technology is not wholly unlike our own, from Earth," Leonardo says consideringly. "But the availability of material has always dictated what forms, exactly, industry and development takes. I believe we need to organize gathering of resources as soon as possible, while the demons are cowed. You have seen what I built from stolen scraps- We will have to build much, much more before we have a chance of becoming our own masters in this blasted place. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can build, but we need materials for that."

He passes the seal on to the skeletal figure with an interested look.

Services - "Whitey", a skeletal figure robed in black, missing only the scythe to fulfill the Grim picture. Very taciturn, and when they do speak it is sparse and soft. But they seem to legitimately care to help others- You found them trying to mediate disputes over a makeshift bath on the outskirts, and the people nearby told you that Whitey never sleeps, and is always shuffling around trying to help someone, somewhere.

All that Whitey says on their turn is, "Census, to find people. Clock, for order. Church, for hope."

Central Management - Giles, your trusty assistant ever since you helped each other out of the tarry Pit of the Abyss. He's competent but unexceptional. Shows a modest amount of initiative, but no great leaps of intuition. Most importantly, you trust him implicitly- Both to be a good person, and to have the same interests as you in mind. You hope that if you turn down a dark path, he'll say something.

"I think I agree with all of you. We don't know anything a real government should know right now. We don't know how many people are in the canton. We don't know what materials we have. We don't know what people are making, or what they want and need. We don't know how we're going to deal with criminals or traitors. We don't even know what day it is. Somewhere we can keep records and a bureaucracy to track goals and progress. After that, a constitution. Only once we have something vaguely resembling an organization should we drive for serious industrial work."

And with that the seal returns to you.

"Miss Agra, you're writing down all the suggestions thus far, yes?" A nod. You all heard her scratching at the dirt with a stick, so saying it out loud is just a point of order. "Thank you. We'll use that for planning a bit later. I did want to mention that I have a few people who have been reporting to me- We have nothing to write with, so let's add that to the list of projects. Production of writing materials, in whatever form."

And with that you settle down in a long debate for what needs to be done first. Realistically, each of you will be the driving force behind a project personally, until you have a real bureaucracy set up- Once you're a bit more established, you'll be able to plan things out with a much clearer picture of what you hope to accomplish.

Resources: ???
Population: Roughly 35,000???
Morale: ???
Enemy Forces: Almost nil

Since you don't have an actual government or any kind of organization, there are no progress trackers yet, just quality dice.

Make a Plan Vote for actions below.

2 Free Dice

Military - Marten Cambrie - 1 die

[] Scavenging Run: There are demonic fortresses around that have been obliterated by the angels recently. Their destruction is... Thorough. But there might be useful things to be found in the ruins, as many demons tunnel quite deep and the Host is moving in a hurry. There might be some resistance, but the Bloody Pikes have won against a splinter of a Legion once already.

[] Wave the Banner: Have Marten's troops march around as far as possible, boasting and showing off their trophies of demon corpses, calling for all wandering souls to come to the canton where the PFLH is organizing. Spread the word as far as possible. Lost souls can walk for months on end to reach us, if they are inspired to.

[] Formalize the Bloody Pikes: Marten Cambrie's ragtag personal unit has scored a victory in open combat against Hellish adversaries, even if they were a splinter raiding force already bloodied by the Heavenly Host. Keeping this nascent force together with things like a barracks and official source for gear could provide many dividends later.

[] Militia Recruiting: There are a great many people in the encampment who were drawn here by the prospect of killing demons and fiends. Having Mr. Cambrie open recruitment and begin drilling with whatever sharp objects are available will keep them busy and make us more ready for war, later.

Infrastructure - Agra - 1 die

[] Build a Government Building: A permanent structure where records can be kept, offices can be located, a council can he held, and perhaps also serve as a last stronghold or fortress. Somewhere for the government to exist is critical. Perhaps we can add a small secure vault as well, to store valuable objects in a place that will be guarded anyway?

[] Build a Church: A lot of people are pressing to have a place of worship established, as a way to thank the angels for release from torment and to propitiate them for further aid. Building a Christian style church out of whatever is available would give people something to rally around, and the building itself would be useful for other things too.

[] Build a Clock and Calendar: Hell has no day or night. Even the demons seem to neglect such paltry things as "schedules" under these conditions. Currently people are tracking time approximately based on sleep cycles, but forming an official water clock and calendar is critical for maintaining any kind of actual schedule or organized society.

[] Carve Roads: The encampment is quickly becoming a tangled, twisted mess as people set up temporary and semi-permanent structures wherever suits them. Getting to anywhere specific is already a nightmare, as even on the scale of a few miles the twisted space of Hell can easily get you lost. Marking out roads ought to make everything else easier.

Production - Katherine Rosa - 1 die

[] Skills and Crafts Survey: Not a proper census but rather a detailed survey of who is doing what. There are quarries, gardens, rock-knapping workshops, smithies, weavers, snow-melters, and who knows what other theoretically productive enterprises springing up all over. Getting a coherent list of what's available would be a good idea.

[] Make Writing Tablets: Organizing a group of people to build stone shelves, clay tablets, styluses, kilns, and a lot of them, should be fairly straightforward. Creating anything at all to keep hard records on is a necessary prerequisite to form something at least vaguely resembling a government, so we might as well start as soon as possible.

[] Make Hand Tools: Most of the wandering souls flocking to the banner show up with nothing but their bare bodies. It doesn't matter how hard you try- Bare hands cannot cut stone. Even if some people are making tools already, organizing them properly and optimizing the production would greatly help later.

[] Gather Hellish Resources: The common currencies and trade goods of Hell include ever-burning Hellfire, enigmatic Darkness, super-flexible Ichor, and human souls. You won't be using that last one, but everyone agrees that all three of the others are insanely useful and valuable for magic, industry, and more. Find people who know how to get some, and get some.

Research - Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci - 1 die

[] Survey Available Resources: What does Hell offer that we can use? Snow, stone, fire and ichor and darkness? Scraggly plants here and there? Cloth? Metal ores and gems? What varieties of rocks are available, can any be put into surprising use? Are there ways to gather more, or make better use of what exists?

[] Make Writing Materials: If Leonardo is going to complain about the lack of something to write with so much, he might as well try to resolve the issue himself. Gather whatever is necessary and recruit whoever he can to figure out how to efficiently create and store records. Maybe he can reinvent paper.

[] Hellfire Steam Engines: He's already built one, and powered a small car with it. Taking whatever additional supplies of the noxious substance can be found, tasking him with making more steam engines to use for industrial purposes could provide a great tool for use later. Steam is the backbone of industry, right? Or at least a starting point.

[] Study Magic: His previous 'masters' have never deigned to explain anything, but Leonardo is confident that the strange rituals the demons use on each other are things that can be learned and optimized, without, necessarily, requiring one to be demonic themselves. You're dubious, as are several other council members, but magic could be extremely potent... (Risky?)

Services - "Whitey" - 1 die

[] Issue a Census: Gathering names and occupations or skills of everyone present, or as close as one can get at this level of functionality, which won't be very close. A basic requirement for a government that actually wishes to organize people into work gangs. Probably best paired with a way of getting writing materials.

[] Recruit Clerks and Managers: Orders have to start flowing up and down if anything is going to get done at all. Gathering up people to serve as subordinates to the seven councillors, as well as competent managers that further projects can be delegated to, is something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.

[] Morale and Needs Survey: Lost Souls don't actually die from cold, heat, starvation, overwork, thirst, etc. But it sure fucking hurts. Getting a general overview of the state of things in the encampment, what people desire most, and any clever solutions they have come up with so far, will give us an idea of morale and ways to improve it.

Central - Giles - 1 die

[] Code of Laws: Formalizing the purpose, rules, and structure of the People's Front for the Liberation of Hell is one of the most important steps in creating real legitimacy. There's one hell of a lot to decide... You can start vague and codify more things later, but having it written down at all is the point where you turn from a mob to a state. (Mini-Vote)

[] Start Low-Key Information Gathering: The demons are probably too disorganized to deliberately send spies into the encampment. The Doomers and the Faithful probably aren't planning to throw a wrench into the works yet since you've only recently gathered everyone. But it's never too early to start finding people who are willing to quietly pass along some info... (Rumor Mill)

[] Assist the Others: Convert the Central die into a free die. Giles will be assigned to one of the free die projects and essentially direct it, probably coloring the results.

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Four hours moratorium, please.