Re: [DL] <Spoilers> A background twist (long)

[Dirk <darklord@dark-sky.net>]

"Spence, Roy" wrote:

>
>
> Ok, I (as Marshal) have been messing about with one of my characters'
> "personal development plan" (he deserves it - see later) and I was
> wondering if anyone out there had any thoughts or comments on it,
> however there are spoilers for all you player folks.
>
>
>
> <SPOILERS>
>
>
> The story goes like this...
>
> Once there was a man called Peter Smith, who although being a giant of
> a man (brawny) and having a mechanical arm (which screams blue murder
> due to the ghost rock) and wielding a gattling rifle, decided that it
> was a good idea in the midst of an interrupted Sunday sermon in Lost
> Angels to sneak up behind the Reverend Grimme as he tried to restore
> calm to the area.
>
> The Archangel Gabriel Fannon allowed him to sneak up pretty close out
> of curiosity to see what he did.  Eventually the player bottled it and
> decided not to shoot Grimme and after "sneaking" the whole way -
> tapped him on the shoulder and told him that there was something not
> very nice out there.
>
> Gabriel decided he'd had enough of this idiot and asked him to
> accompany him for questioning.  Not wanting to go the player brought
> out the gattling rifle and opened fire on Gabriel.  Four wounds in the
> guts later the player all of a sudden sees the light, drops his rifle
> and surrenders.
>
> He is then dragged in for questioning at which point the player uses
> every excuse from "having a bad day" to "the way my parents brought me
> up" to try and get out of his predicament.
>
> It ends up with the player agreeing to act on behalf of the church of
> Lost Angels - and signs a contract.  However all to late he realises
> that the pen given to sign the contract has cut his hand, and he's
> signed the contract in his own blood.  The Churches representative
> tells him that this is just an assurance to ensure that he doesn't
> betray them (at which point he illustrates that if the contract itself
> is damaged - the character is damaged, he also shows that they can
> tell if he is betraying his contract (at which point he also feels
> pain).  He is finally told that the contract will run for a year and a
> day (yeah right! - however this has led to the player counting each
> day religiously which seriously freaks out the rest of the group :)  )
>
> Later on the character is knocked unconscious by an Indian.  While
> unconscious he hears a voice (one of his hindrances is that he hears
> voices) that say's if he renounces his current faith (which was
> Mormonism) and believes in this voice then he will be granted a
> portion of this new gods power to save himself.  He agrees (after
> assuring himself that the voice isn't Grimme) and wakes up to find his
> scalp in the process of being removed - at which point a black
> substance flies from his hands and melts the Indian's face.
>
> The player is wanting to use these powers more and more often and
> seems completely committed to his new faith, he is convinced that his
> "god" is not Grimme, but outside that he is not too bothered (the rest
> of the posse think he is Grimme's toady.
>
> My initial plan was that the "new" god was in fact Grimme and the
> blood magic (signing the contract) allows them to contract him -
> however it wasn't Grimme's voice the character heard as Grimme has
> better things to do with his time (had thought about making the voice
> - the Angel of Death).
>
> I've just started the Road to Hell campaign and I thought that
> (assuming the character survives) things could come to ahead during
> the second part of the trilogy in Lost Angels.  As he will gain some
> truths about Lost Angels (I've already given him a glimpse of a
> possible future where he found himself naked and trapped in a chamber
> along with a maniac wielding a butchers knife who kept up the chilling
> call "here chicken chicken...").  The nature of what he will discover
> on The Rock will surely lead to him "praying" which will in turn allow
> the Angel of Death to track down the party - or at least wait for them
> to return to dock after escaping the Rock.
>
> However , I was just wondering of anyone had any thoughts or comments
> on other ways I can develop this?
>
> Roy

Well, if you're familiar with Hell On Earth rules, you could definitely
start him on the road to servitor hood, with a bit of tweaking, it could
be really interesting.  First off, start having the power cast him a
little something, maybe he has to do something that is not downright
evil, but definitely "Not" clean.  If he starts choosing to use the
powers, and paying the price, then he starts picking up some of the
servitor hindrances, have them develop slowly so that he doesn't catch
on right away... maybe not even telling him that he has the hindrances,
but rather telling him that he is having some urges (that relate to the
hindrances of course)... don't' forget to give him chips for roleplaying
them out (so that he keeps at it.)  Eventually it will build to the
point where he will have to knowingly perform an evil act, at which
point you will have a nice new abomination to thwack the posse with.
This could be particularly effective if they go through the whole devil
tower trilogy and go to HOE, where the servitors are supposed to exist.
Check out the stuff on servitors in HOE to see what I'm talking about.

--Dirk