Point of contention, an exhalation is built by a primordial and the higher gods from the ground up to literally do the impossible, so while it might be worse at low ranks due to resource expenditure, it will let you accomplish things the universe says are impossible like say… fix it. Also they're not really from WoD so much as the universe before everything died, from what i understand.
Shrug. Exactly, there is very little tension right now, on chapter 3.
Mia could just buy the holy materia out of ffviii to talk to Gaia right now. Or at least after 5 chapters of xp stockpiling. A gamer power with a freeform shop is absurd.
oh yes that will surely work it's not like Holy is a one-of-a-kind super materia inherently linked to a specific planet and reliant on something that WoD Earth not only doesn't have, but couldn't use anyway because Gaia is just as broken and stupid and incapable as every other Authority in the setting.
oh yes that will surely work it's not like Holy is a one-of-a-kind super materia inherently linked to a specific planet and reliant on something that WoD Earth not only doesn't have, but couldn't use anyway because Gaia is just as broken and stupid and incapable as every other Authority in the setting.
Some musings i had regarding the cosmology of world of darkness and how to make it more cohesive. Just in case it gives anyone any ideas.
In the beginning there was nothing and in that nothing the creator said let their be light. So something existed and it made the nothingness angry as something exist and its hate curdled into the abyss that forever seeks to become nothing again.
Once there was something the creator realised their glory was to magnificent to touch creation without shattering it. So the creator dividied itself into four parts. The wyld of creation, the weaver of preservation and stability and the wyrm of entropy and the angelic hosts that are the instruments of Will or Plan of the creator.
So reality came to be shaped by these aspects of creation. But their was an issue. Weaver could not abide by the destruction of all that she preserved on the hands of the wyrm, for the triat are not divine will of the creator and as such can act contrary to their wishes. Weavers decision was catalysed by the first murder Cain as he ended the potential of until then immortal human life, an ultimate perversion wyrm and weaver trapped it in its web so that it grew mad. The angelic hosts cursed caine and this act caused a split between them that led to the rebellion.
And then the rest of the world of darkness happened as normal.
Just my attempt to streamline the cosmology of wod.
the cosmology is canonically layered if i remember right?
something about an angel talking to someone and describing it as them existing as sound waves, as atoms bouncing along, e.t.c?
Doylistically the setting is a blob made for QM to take whatever parts interest them and make whichever faction and history they're more interested in dominant.
But in setting, no one knows or can know what's truth. Even Caine doesn't know what the hell God(WoD) is, or Gaia for that matter. Even contradictory facts could be both true in the setting of clap to make believe, at different times or places.
Alternate earth? Why not. Prior turn of the wheel? There are precedents. Merging dimensions? Go for it. Umbra realm? There are dozens. Time travel? There is a power for that. God could be Malfeas reborn, Theion that never fell, the Unconquered Sun turned fed up with this shit, Oblivion doing live action roleplaying solitaire or Tinkerbell.
What's a lie and what's truth? Who knows, every other faction has a inner conspiracy or 3 with 'the real truth'.
Trying to make a timeline out of WoD 'history' is subjecting yourself to suffering that not even Naruto\Zelda\SMT timeline creators can envision. And unlike those it's meant to not be possible to solve.
the cosmology is canonically layered if i remember right?
something about an angel talking to someone and describing it as them existing as sound waves, as atoms bouncing along, e.t.c?
It's not really the fault of the Demon gameline, the idea for it (most of them are only escaping NOW) meshes well with any gameline, it's just that it calls attention to a especially awkward part of the setting, the big-G and the 'creation' of earth when Gaia exists and other things.
Maybe I'm not aware of something that the gameline did especially obnoxiously but all individual splats will give primacy to the myths of their monsters, it's just awkward that this myth is too fundamental and shared by vampire (and wraith sort of, they dumped the guilt of the creation of limbo and thus oblivion on a fallen angel with good intentions, because of course they did).
I got my own headcanon that I'm working on rn for the whole cosmological stuff, because almost each splat has their own thing going on, that none of them are right because a lot of them directly contradict each other. Though, Demon did shit on everything.
And like a lot of the rest of WoD, was incredibly racist.
If you wonder what I mean by racist just look at how anything related to eastern civilization's was referenced/portrayed in WoD. Like Kindred of the East or the Hangyoyokai.
T
he whole way that Demon establishes that Abrahamic religions as the 'one true religion' was... beyond bad. And then they made it worse by claiming that all other gods or religions were created by Demons to reap the Faith of their followers, and that the only thing that helped were the Abrahamic faith.
So, that shit isn't happening here. Ever.
So things are going to be changed. Whether any of it is going to actually be relevant to the story remains to be seen, however.
I though they were careful not to name "actual religions" as earthbound cults actually. Is there a case of that?
The august personage in jade being just god in another mask instead, or say a bodhisattva or Buddha or something, was kind of stupid and weird, yes, but white wolf loves its rebels against the man\without a cause, so if there is a supreme big kahuna that is not supposed to be hostile, they just copy paste god.
I give it the benefit of the doubt and think it's because they don't want crossovers to have to handle too differing cosmology at the top level. There are gods and godlike monsters yes, but ultimately one person at the top that has a sign saying 'mistakes were made' over them.
God barely lifts a finger except to make things worse anyway.
Caine, original cursed with AWESOME.
The Yama kings (meant to 'manage the 1000 hells' whatever that means).
Torturing the fallen for ages in reality basement.
Letting the earthbound just stay in earth to make nihilist cults.
Not giving one single thought about warning that one fallen not to make limbo, which directly caused 70% of the setting problems (most of the rest being vampires and the the triune of great spirits going mad).
And the many other things that could have been stopped but weren't. Gaia at least tries.
I think this is part of the reason actually - if they had Buddha as the APiJ, he would have done some serious shady shit for 'balance'. Or at least be chained to a absurd concept of 'free will' while having a firesale of cosmic shotguns in a schoolyard.
They very plainly state that a bunch of earth cultures were basically masterminded by the Earthbound. Norse, Roman, Greek, Assyrian and a number of other cultures. Then they also use names of sacred figures or gods of other cultures for the Seven House names that Demons had before being cast out.
I don't give White Wolf the benefit of the doubt due to all the bungling that the company has done over the years.
Look up Matthew McFarland and all the crap that he did. Or some of the stuff they said about Chechnya that was the straw that broke the camels back and finally made Paradox take the reins of the company. Or the fact that they hired a Neo Nazi for a while.
If anything, if looked at a certain way, Demon is the best splat to do crossovers because they touch on a lot of stuff. I'm going to grab onto the notion that most of their memories are beyond corrupted or at best, misremembered because of how much the Abyss completely destroyed who they used to be.
Mmm, I guess I never minded that they named cultures when the actual religion was left alone and the demons were basically ashtrays anyway.
There is a lot of precedent in the other splats of actual named religions with real gods - or god-like mages at least (Egyptian) and actual impostor cults (whatever the fick Set worships, the fact 'Set' is likely a actual vampire) that I never felt like it was a given that the splat was saying 'yeah definitely the Norse pantheon doesn't exist in the setting'. Just 'in this region, for a while, at this time, this demon insinuated itself into a pantheon until the priests sorted it out'.
There are a lot of historical parallels you can do with this setup, like how Amun-Ra and the pantheon was briefly replaced by the monotheist Aten IRL.
It's been several years since I read that splat so maybe they went too far into Abrahamism and definitely said that, wouldn't be the first time a WW splat decided that the shared setting is not so shared and the setting premisse could dunk on everything else, or they were stupid about real life cultures, still extant or not.
A unquie game magic she could by is the bifrost magic from god of war Ragnarok. It does some wierd kind of damage that isn't reduced by toughness or health level. It enables telelortations and information magic and the entire magic systemis quite fun. Very story book but a lot of tactical uses as well.
Finding the bar wasn't that hard.On her time away the french woman had rented out a car under one of her many aliases'. She still had to cover up and ride shotgun, which left the driving to me.
After all, a lady driving around while wearing a mask was kinda weird, and would get someone's attention. However, if she was riding shotgun most people would just assume that I was driving her to the hospital or something.
Thankfully, I'm mostly an unknown and I'd have to wait about four more years before technology reaches a point where I have to worry about having my photo taken by any rando on the street. Technocracy on the other hand…
God, I wish there was an electrokinetic ability in the shop, but it seemed those were locked behind whatever requirements the shop has. Most greater abilities were locked behind the shop, but some of them were primed and ready for sale. Like that fucking Digistruct Engineering class.
Oh sure, I knew how to make that no problem. Technology that is able to break matter down into data and then reconstruct it based on blueprints and proper matter requirements? I wrote down the ideas in a journal and it leveled by about four points just for that!
It's just too bad that the tech required components and software that was going to take me hours to fucking make! Note to self, make sure to stop and think about buying something in the shop so that I don't buy something that's basically useless to me if I don't have the right skills already! Five thousand points, right down the fucking drain.
Sigh. Whatever.
I still had enough for any last minute purchases that I might need, so no use in whining about it right now.
"Here you go." A faint french voice said, handing me a drink and some tacos from a nearby food truck that had parked a street away. I smiled at Isabelle as she sat next to me, both of us facing the water, but keeping the parked van in the corner of our eyes from where we had parked our own car.
"Thanks. Didn't realize I hadn't eaten anything all day." Work, training, and following the lead had sorta blinded me from my favorite pastime. My Abuela always did say I ate like three viejos(old men) combined.
"It has been the same with me." Isabelle softly said, taking a bite of her own and humming in appreciation of the taste. Then she sucked in a breath when the spice hit her tongue and she began to down her water.
"Not a fan of spicy food?" I asked as she took another reluctant bite, though mainly for the spice instead of the flavor.
"Non, it is not a staple of my cuisine, even after being stranded here in this country." She said as we both finished eating our food.
"Ah, that just means you need to acquire a taste for it!" I bubbled out with a cheer. "Next time we go grocery shopping, I'll make you the best huevos rancheros you'll ever have in your life! It's my grandmothers' recipe, and I'll make sure to go light on the kick at first."
She gave a nervous chuckle and looked away. I could read that she was reluctant to eat anything spicy, but she was probably going to humor me anyway. Now, making the huevos mild was a crime in my family, but if she reacted that way to just these tacos, then I was really going to have to be careful with the peppers.
Conversation evolved from there, first with food, then in culture, her memories of better times, and mine of the soft comfort that my thirties brought me, when she asked me a question. "Were you ever married, Regina?"
I gave off a throaty laugh at that. "No. I mean, I had some relations here and there. Knew a guy or a gal that might have been something, but… well I was always a bit too headstrong for them, or they were too flimsy for me. Or, we just didn't want the same thing. In the end, all I had was my boy, though he wasn't mine by blood, but that doesn't really matter. He was the last thing I saw when I closed my eyes, and for me that was enough."
"I always wanted children. Someday." Isabelle whispered softly, eyes misty and clouded by loss.
"And you will." I promised, grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze. Gorgeous, was in her twenties looks wise and overall had a gentle personality that would fool anyone into thinking that she was a wallflower. You know, until she shot you in the heart from the other side of the block.
There had to be someone in the world crazy enough to be ok with what we're doing.
Silence took over after that, the sun already beginning to set when someone left the bar and got into their van. We waited a couple of seconds before we started up our own car, following a few cars behind.
By the time this happened, it was dark enough that we felt comfortable with Isabelle taking off her mask, both of us focused on the grey of the van as we followed almost an entire street behind him. We almost lost the van a couple of times because of how much space there was between us, but it was preferable to the driver getting spooked because they noticed us.
If we lose them, I'll still be able to scry them no problem.
But if we spooked them then they might wisen up and ditch the vehicle.
After one particular turn I thought I'd lost them or they had taken a different road than I thought when I noticed they were parked in front of an old chop shop. Big old place with plenty of garages, and probably a nice basement. And there were other cars parked nearby as well. Well, that wasn't suspicious at all.
We parked a few streets over, nervousness bubbling in my stomach that I ignored as we quietly exited the car and began to creep towards the building.
SNEAK ACQUIRED
REACHED LEVEL 2…3…4
Maybe it was because my stats were already at a point beyond human, but I swear with each footstep I took, I became as silent as a ghost.
If I was getting better with each step, then Isabelle was a master at stalking the shadows, with nary a sound as we inspected the building and I couldn't see a single camera facing outwards from the building. From here, we couldn't see a single source of light from inside, but I knew that he was inside.
I could try scrying, but I didn't know who we were looking for. It had been too dark to spot the man who had gotten into the van, but even I knew coming here was a weird choice, especially with the sun going down and the entire building looking inert.
"Should we go back?" I whispered towards my friend, Isabelle… wasn't beside me anymore.
Blinking, I choke back the cry of panic that wanted to erupt from my throat, looking around like poacher surrounded by lions, and sigh in relief when I saw her by a door picking a lock.
She had that thing open before I reached her, swinging it open and moving inside with the grace of a ninja.
Well, I wasn't going to let her go in there by herself.
While her steps were those of a legless wraith, mine were that of a clumsy mouse. Quiet, sure, my old pals on the streets didn't distract employees for nothing, but still noticeable to anyone with decent enough hearing and paying attention.
The inside of the shop was drenched in darkness, an eerie ominous tone hovering over the little lobby, and office. As we kept moving through the shop, we passed by workbenches, toolboxes, cars that were kept overnight, and enough parts that some of the engineering knowledge in my head wanted to just start popping stuff into my inventory.
You know what, if it turns out these guys are fuckstains, I was going to loot everything that wasn't nailed down in here. I might already be committing a crime, you know another one on top of breaking and entering, so adding another line to the rap sheet wasn't that big of a deal.
As we approached the stairs, we saw light for the first time since entering the treasure trove of grease hands, stairs leading downstairs well lit, with voices that I could just barely understand.
"Yes, Sam, I'm sure that I wasn't followed! Seriously, what kind of idiot do you take me for?" A male high voice cried out in exasperation. I had a feeling that it was going to be with shame or rage by the end of the night.
"George, you cannot blame me for being extra careful about everything when the entire city feels like the hornets nest has been kicked by a rabbit in heat!" Now, a woman shou- nah, it wasn't really shout. More like a louder whisper, like the owner of the voice couldn't, or hated, yelling so that was the loudest they would go. "You have seen them at night, figures watching from the dark, eager to pounce on anything that might seem to be prey."
I shivered at that.
She wasn't wrong. Even on the drive here, the streets felt… oppressive. People driving, or walking along the streets, but there was something else. A pervading feeling of observation. As if the night itself was waiting for something to happen.
I had killed a Bishop, freeing his ghouls in a single heartbeat, while probably killing a few more that were inside of the building. Though, the XP wasn't attributed to me, I was willing to bet that some were caught in the sun when they were 'rescued' by paramedics and firemen.
Sabbat vamps were probably prowling the night, trying to figure out who had done it, with others no doubt searching through Lumpy's records and paperwork, only to find out that most of his assets were gone now.
Their reach was vast, and the night was long, but there were avenues that they couldn't reach past or walk over. There was a reason why they tended to avoid mages and technocrats. Unlike most other supernaturals, Vampires didn't count against the collective unconscious, so that meant that Mages and Technocrats could unleash everything they had against them without worry of adding witnesses to whatever backlash was coming for them.
Course, that protection didn't apply to their human Ghouls.
"Fuck Sam, what the hell are we going to do about him?" The man asked, voice clearer with each footstep that I took, Isabelle already moving down the steps with the grace of a predator.
"He's not dead yet. Sure, what we did might be a bit of a patch job, but he might pull through." The woman responded back, this time being the one panicked instead of the male voice.
"Even if he doesn't die, that Vamp still bit him! How are we sure that he isn't going to turn into one of them if we don't put him down?" Aw shit.
"And if we are wrong in that?" The woman asked, apprehension thick in her words as Isabelle and I began to creep down the stairs.
SNEAK IS NOW LEVEL 5
"Just because we've hunted some of these Vampires doesn't mean that we know everything about them! If anything, we are more ignorant of them, than they are of us."
"As if, there's no way that they know who we are!" The woman scoffed at this.
"I mean, they understand humans better, know how to hunt us, know what we think and where we go, while we just go on the assumptions based on old myths and superstitions."
"It's gotten us this far at least, five of those Vampires burned to ash after leaving them in a cage out in plain daylight. Anyway, the moment this dude turns into one of them, he's going to eat us like starving man finding a buffet!"
"Again, you make this assumption based on movies and old tales."
"It's all that we got Sam!" The man screamed out, finally in our view as we peeked over the stairs railing. He was a skinny guy, probably taller than I was now, but not really a giant with a scraggly brown beard that screamed of not caring, and bags under his dark eyes. He wore a t-shirt that exposed lean muscle and a tattoo of thorns along his right bicep with the letter "RIP T" underneath them.
The woman was most definitely bigger than all three of us, black hair that reached past her shoulders, which were also wider than mine. Honestly, she looked like a bodybuilder with the way the turtleneck hugged her arms and shoulders. A bent nose and some scars on her cheek screamed of fights and probably a rough childhood, but even with her agitation, there was a gentleness that reminded me of some of the older homeless people I knew in the past.
Those who had made their peace with their lot in life, and tried to help those that they could before the end took them.
With those sad memories, I stared at the third person in the room.
Well, homeboy looked more like a corpse than he did a person, but he was still breathing at least.
Wallace, the missing owner of the wood shop was a big man that obviously kept up his workouts even in his old age. I could see his large muscled arms and barrel chest from his position on the bed that was using an old table as a frame. He was also wearing nothing except for some jeans, because his chest was covered in white bandages, bruises dotting his tanned skin. A tube stretched from his arm to the metal stand next to the bed, a clear IV bag probably the only reason why he hasn't died yet.
Suddenly, the pieces clicked in place, and I knew what had happened back at the shop. From the exasperated look on Isabelle's face, I could tell that she was thinking the same thing.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU COMPLETED THE QUEST MISSING WOODWORKER
REWARDS:
1000XP
1000GP
Well, at least I got that. And Isabelle did too. Neat.
"I leveled up!" She whispered to me, thankfully neither of the people downstairs noticed. I gave her an earnest smile while she inspected her new stats, while I focused on the people downstairs wondering what to do next.
On the one hand, we could just walk out the door and wait till the next day to approach them.
But I was worried about the way that the guy was staring at the barely living form of Wallace. The cost of inaction might result in fear and paranoia getting the best of one of Wallace's would be rescuers.
So, with a sigh, knowing that this was going to be a pain in the ass, I stand up, ignoring Isabelle's stare, and walk down the steps without a care in the world, taking out a mask from my inventory and putting it on.
I knew that the magic of the mask had already done its job and overlaying an illusion in front of my face.
ILLUSION MASK 1250GP
WEAR THE FACE OF SOMEONE ELSE IN A QUICK PINCH!
Scraggly shouts in surprise, fumbling for his belt, while Muscles quickdraws a pistol from behind her and has it pointed at me almost as fast as I can blink.
Ignoring them, I stare at the wounded, and probably dying man, silently casting Libra on him.
NAME: WALLACE JAMES
HP:30/100
CONDITIONS: BROKEN LEG, HIP, ARM, HEALING CUTS, MALNUTRITION, RECOVERING FROM BLOOD SIPHONING, UNCONSCIOUS ETC (CLICK TO VIEW FULL WINDOW)
Well, that checks out, behind me, I hear Isabelle following in my lead, gun already out and pointed at Muscles as the woman shouts for the first time since I'd met her. "Who the hell are you!?"
"I'm the lady that's the answer to all of your questions!" I say with a smile and bow, gesturing towards the injured man. "How's about we start with your friend over there? Can heal him, right here, right now free of charge. No strings attached, promise!"
The gun doesn't move, and the man next to her has his own gun out, a tiny little .38 and has it pointed my way, hand shaking.
Yeah, I expected it to go this way.
"Answer the fucking question!" The man screamed out, hand growing steadier with each passing second, both hands on the gun, finger twitching towards the trigger, though the woman was steely eyed and glaring.
Hm, she was experienced. The man less so, but I wouldn't say that he was afraid. Panic fueled his shaking, not cowardice.
INVESTIGATION HAS REACHED LEVEL 9
"How's about this, my friend behind here is going to put her gun down, and I want you to do the same." The man scoffed.
"Lady, why the hell would we do that when you're the one barging in here!"
"Because if I didn't want to talk, we wouldn't be. You'd be right there, dead on the ground, the last things that you hear a gunshot, and my fist punching through your gut." Was it blunt? Sure. Was it meant to scare them a bit? Also yes.
It worked, even if neither of the two of them showed it. But I saw the slight widening of the eyes, and the quick glances that they shot each other.
I gesture towards Isabelle, and I can feel her stare into my back before reluctantly putting her gun down. They keep their guns trained on both of us, thinking that they can shoot now, but I stare down the barrel of both guns without a single twitch, ready to telekinetically shove their guns to the side.
I was faster than both of them combined by now, even if I couldn't see their equivalent of stats. This body was still out of shape, but I was still fast enough to knock them both out before I ran out of mana.
Thankfully, they both put their guns down. Good. I didn't want to give either of them concussions. It seemed like they were already out of their depth.
"Thank you." I said simply, giving them both a smile, making sure to keep my distance as I sit down on a chair next to me, gesturing at Isabelle to do the same on a step. She doesn't, staying behind me, one hand on her pistol, ready to pop both of them if they did anything.
I don't think that they are, but we'll see about how things go.
"Now, as for who I am, I kinda don't want to say my name, though I do know yours." This only seemed to anger both of them. Before they could say anything, I raise a hand. "If a vampire with the power to brainwash one of you, then they're going to know our identities. Sure, you could tell them what we look like, but I have… tricks at fixing that."
I didn't buy that damn mask because I thought that I…that Regina had been ugly. Looking in a mirror and seeing someone else's face was never not going to be weird.
The answer didn't make them happy. "Don't you think that it's a bit rude to just barge in here and start asking questions like you own the place?"
"My dad always did say I was an ungrateful bitch." I said offhandedly inspecting the wounded man on the table, it was a wonder that he managed to survive as long as he did. "You're lucky that we found you instead of one of the Vampires. If it wasn't for one of their Bishops getting burnt crispy black, you might have gotten a visit from one of them instead."
Like a flash of lightning, fear appeared in both of their faces at that, the woman quickly returning to her stoicism, while the man defaulted to anger.
"What do you mean Bishop?" The man asked, taking a step forward, Isabelle keeping her gun holstered only because I gestured towards her.
"Listen child, did you really think that Vampires were only a small infestation?" The words seemed to drain whatever bravado was left in both of them, faces going as pale as the monsters they hunted, eyes going wide and full of panic. "The world is full of more monsters than either of you would like to know, and the Vampires have been around for a long, long time." I promised both of them, deciding to double back for a bit. "Now, about that healing? The man is fine for now, but he's on the knife's edge."
"What do you mean child? Lady, you look younger than I do!" Muscles ignored her friend, and glared at me without an ounce of fear, hand twitching towards her weapons.
"What would this healing entail? We aren't going to just sell ourselves into slavery for it."
"No strings, no nothing. I just know that this man is a victim of a vampire attack, and given what we heard, you were hunting the vampire that had been stalking him, am I right?" They both nodded.
"He was some prick that liked to hang around the area and intimidate people into giving him stuff. Called himself 'Stringleech' or something." Oh, it was that patsy?
"You're lucky it was him instead of someone higher on the totem pole. Little prick was a weak tenth generation compared to some of the older monsters that are prowling around in the night." They froze and stared.
"What?" Scraggly asked in fear. "He was a weak one?"
I nod. "Yeah. Sure, he could be good in a scrape against humans, but against other Vamps? He'd be one of the first to get downed and staked for a couple of weeks before they take it out and bury him somewhere as punishment."
He always liked to beat on Stringleech whenever the occasion suited him. Stupid sadistic Brujah fuck. Didn't even know that Brujah literally just means 'witch'.
I don't know what Leech had been, but he definitely had strength beyond a normal vampire. Potence then.
"Now, I already heard you mention that you hunted more of these fucks, and we can have our conversation after I heal that guy." I said pointing at the wounded man.
"How do you know he won't turn into one of them?" Scragly asked.
I didn't bother hiding my snort. "Being bitten by a Vamp doesn't turn you into one of them. At least, not just being bit. To turn into one, you need to have been completely drained of blood by a Vamp, after which they will drop some blood into your mouth. Could be a lot, or just a drop, but soon after that is when you wake up as a vampire. A very hungry, rabid, dangerous vampire." To his credit, scraggly went and grabbed a notebook at the back of the shop, scribbling down everything that I said with a feverish ferocity that had me nodding in approval. He knew they didn't know jack shit, and while he didn't trust me, knew that whatever information was better than none of it.
"Fine then." Muscles said with a shift of her head, eyes never leaving me.
I wish I could snap my fingers to have some sort of dramatic gesture, but unfortunately that was one skill that I never quite learned. So, with a wave of my hand, I cast Cure and Esuna on the man, a green glow enveloping him as his eyes fluttered open.
I gave the man a smile, and turned around, walking towards the steps.
"And where do you think you're going?" Scraggly asked with the sound of motion, but I didn't bother turning around to look at him.
"I just came to make contact. That piece of advice that I gave you is free." Now how the fuck was I going to contact them again… damn I wish I had a computer at home to make an Email or something. Or a phone.
Damn there was a list of shit that I needed to do, huh?
"Like I said, the world is full of more monsters than either of you could think. And now that older gentleman over there is going to be dragged into it, because there's not much that I can do about memories. Don't let him go home for a little while. No doubt that the Sabbat are going to be questioning him with whatever plants they have in the police department, so that place isn't safe.
Just lay low for now, promise that I will be in touch. Don't worry, I'll contact you." Before he can get a word in, I cast Haste on both Isabelle and myself, both of us dashing out of the room in a sprint for us, but in a pure blur for the two of them before poor Wallace can wake up.
We don't speak again until we're back in the apartment, having driven around aimlessly for a little while before we finally made our way back, paranoid at just how easily we were able to tail those two.
I sit down on the ratty couch, the French woman next to me, both of us sighing with the same old tired breath. God, I wish that I had bought some beer or whiskey. Now that I'm not dying, I can have whatever I wanted again. No more cigarettes though. Lung cancer took me one time, it wasn't going to take me again.
"Are you sure that was the wisest course of action?" Isabelle asked.
"Not really." I admitted. "They were both pretty green, don't know what they're doing, and probably have no real connections that we can use."
"I do so love it when you try to sell an idea madame." I chuckle at her dry tone.
"They don't know our faces, and even if a Vampire manages to capture them, they'll probably think we're mages or technocrats."
"And those are?" She asked.
"People that we are far better off avoiding. Reality warpers whose very belief changes the world around them. It's confusing, and tends to end in ideological dick measuring contests." And that was mostly just the Traditions and Technocrats dealing with their own internal bullshit. Crap tended to get ugly any time that the groups managed to run into each other.
"Why contact them in the first place?" She asked, curious, but there wasn't any judgement in her voice. I appreciated that.
"Because there are too many things that are happy to eat you or take over your body for us to do it alone. Sure, they're just normal humans, but maybe we can change that. It's just an idea that might one day bring us fruit. For now, information is going to be what we give them, along with support and healing. Lord knows that them going to the hospital with bullets wounds or gouges is going to bring some unwanted attention." And that was just from the mortal side of things and not including the Sabbat, Technocrats, or one of those Pentex pricks.
"Is it truly worth it for us to risk everything for them though?" She asked.
"Isn't it?" I retorted without any venom in my voice. "Most hunters in the world are running on a manual that is more etch a sketch than 'hunters for dummies'. And that's because most of the time they get killed or corrupted before they manage to do anything about it. Sure, there are some organizations out there that have managed to survive, but most of them are rather… problematic, and so stuck in their ways that they don't even know they're working on misinformation. These guys… they're new. You heard them in the basement. They don't know what they're doing."
Realization dawned in her eyes. "So you wish to teach them so that they do work on information that they would be able to use."
I nod. "If I don't they're most likely going to die. Information is a weapon, and most humans are running on either lies or half-truths that have been ingrained in pop culture." And that wasn't even mentioning the newest addition to this cavalcade of fuck ups that were the night folk. God, I was going to have to figure out a way to seal demons, wasn't I? Just killing them was merely permanently putting down the corpses and letting the Demon fly to the next host so they aren't sucked into hell.
"Well then, how about you begin with me, then?" She asked, eyes piercing through my soul, demanding that I tell her.
Sighing, I nod. "First thing in the morning, I swear. For now, I think that we both need to sleep."
And I needed to figure out what I was going to do next.
Alright, so I'm not going to be posting the Sheets every chapter, just every time that something big happens or there is a big change to the stats. Don't worry, I'm making sure to keep an accurate sheet every chapter.
Hmmm, I have an idea about how to seal demons. Imagine Digimon cyber sleuth and Pokemon Go, but with demons, turn it into a game and release it on the wild and BAM, you got yourself a global demon sealing operation.
The amount of demons and their threat level, like everything in the WoD depends on the QM, the only certain thing in the backstory is that originally the fissure in hell the player characters were using to get to the skinlands (🌎) was opened in 1999 in the weeks of nightmares, five years from the current date of 2004 (also the date of Gehenna scenarios and the bloodlines game), and originally only the weakest\amnesiac\smallest in spiritual form could use it to escape. It's possible the fault widened, stayed the same or even was repaired. And hell is basically iirc, the phantom zone, but worse (total sensory deprivation).
The last would take a god that actually gives a shit, so it's kind of doubtful. If anything, history indicates that the metaplot would gleefuly go for the first, for one more simultaneous apocalypse. Presumably the player characters are 'insignificant' foot soldiers of Lucifer's rebellion. Speaking of Lucifer, he's actually free since ever. God specifically didn't put him there. Talk about awkward.
So the most effective thing to do would be to locate the fault, and either dump the demons in another dimension where they can angst alone and build Sandcastles without collateral or just close it up again, possibly leaving a teleport marker inside of 'hell' if you need to dump someone or something there, or out.
Some demons were sealed into objects for whatever reason and grow cults centered on those objects to affect the world. Lucifer pretends they don't exist now, because they're pretty mad, in both senses. These are the cults the op was mentioning.
I think at some time of the design they wanted that crack to be the same thing as oblivion\labyrinth in the shadowlands, but decided otherwise because it would interfere with the wraith\orpheus villain metaplot and wouldn't make much sense if the place of absolute soul destruction was hell too. Too contradictory. What led me to this idea is that a fallen is responsible for oblivion\labyrinth in the demon embellishments to the wraith metaplot (called 'Charon' but not the same Charon as the legendary ghost in charge of the shadowlands for a long time, because of course).
Happy that you enjoyed it! Reading through Old World of Darkness lore for another story inspired me for this one. And then I started reading Project Gamer again which sorta got this little train car in motion.
Going to have a bit of a rough work week since my schedule is changing soon, so expect the next chapter to either get done on Sunday, or it'll be delayed until next week around Sat or Sun.
Going to have a bit of a rough work week since my schedule is changing soon, so expect the next chapter to either get done on Sunday, or it'll be delayed until next week around Sat or Sun.
No worries, life comes first! I'm never going to complain about my free entertainment not coming fast enough.
Oh! Before I forget: How do the stats scale?
It's obviously not WoD style, or those 20s would be more than enough to rip a vampire's head off and shove it up their own ass, but it wouldn't be D&D level since that would mean 20 is "peak human" and she's already well into supernatural levels of physical ability.
And finally, as someone who has been a WoD fan since shortly after the launch of 2nd edition: Will the inevitable Malk be breaking the fourth wall completely, or just way too aware of The System?
It's obviously not WoD style, or those 20s would be more than enough to rip a vampire's head off and shove it up their own ass, but it wouldn't be D&D level since that would mean 20 is "peak human" and she's already well into supernatural levels of physical ability.
And finally, as someone who has been a WoD fan since shortly after the launch of 2nd edition: Will the inevitable Malk be breaking the fourth wall completely, or just way too aware of The System?
Nah, 20's are definitely peak human at this point. Keep in mind that Mia does not have gamers mind or gamers body, and Regina was very much a drug addict whose life spiraled out of control and was barely functioning before she bit it in that gang fight. Her stats help, a lot, but physically she's still kinda shit. Although, her stats didn't reach this level until around after she yeeted Lumpy into sunlight.
Vamps can still kill her though, especially older and earlier generation ones, and while Mia can kill them as they come, the same doesn't go for Ghouls due to them being human.
As for the Malk it's going to depend. Vampire, after Wraith is the splat in Old World of Darkness that I know the least about and have been reading through 20th edition for research while sometimes checking the wiki, though that one is very hit or miss. It also depends on if Mia leaves them alive long enough to even get a word in.
Malks have a horrible combination of disciplines to deal with - Auspex, Obfuscation and Dementation. So they see everything (EVERYTHING! HAHAHA!) and are invisible themselves. Not much direct threat unless they got their hands on explosives or a HMG but a lot of ways to screw people over in indirect ways or drive them mad. And yes, if you are skilled enough you can talk while invisible.
Mia really should invest in Spot, supernatural awareness, mental protections and similar stuff. Else she is going to have a terrible time the moment she runs into someone who is not just a brute or a wizard throwing fireballs around.
This is great! I've been looking for good OC/SI WoD stuff for a while since the Vampire game I was playing in kinda died. Keeping a high Humanity score as a vamp is a pain, but I kinda hope one who tries will show up. From the comments, it seems like you're going with old lore demons (trapped in a seperate dimension except lucifer, escape by kinda fusing with a mortal or being sealed in an object etc) instead of the new ones (something something tech ghosts or something? I haven't really looked into it so idk much of their new lore). Where's your kinda line on prefered lore?
