Re: [HOE] marshalls only

[Jim Burzelic <zombi_bobb@yahoo.com>]

--- Martin Woodard <reply@mwoodard.com> wrote:
> At 02:18 PM 10/2/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> >i personally dont think the grail would negate
> mutations as they alter you
> >dna make up, even his mutation that is a mental one
> is still an effect of dna
> >alteration.
> 
> But, and correct me if I'm wrong here, mutations in
> HOE are NOT the result 
> of genetic mutation.  Gross amounts of traditional
> radiation in the HOE 
> universe do pretty much the same thing they do in
> ours: horrible, painful 
> death.  We're talking about the effects of
> irradiated ghost rock here, 
> which warps not the body, but the _soul_.  After
> all, if it were an issue 
> with genetics, why would 'borgs or traditional
> deaders be affected?
> 
>   - Martin

Well,from the sound of it the player would have a
sound argument in my group. Yes, GR mutations alter
your dna, yes, they also warp your soul. But that
power of god blah blah blah that you mentioned is
still considered a part of Deadlands. If you want to
rule that God is gone and he's taken his powers with
him, well the player's SOL. But if there's blessed,
such as Ol' Prosperi, then there is still the forces
of good. If he somehow managed to get his hands on the
holy grail, I'd rule he could heal it. Just as the
Reckoners can warp his soul, so can the forces of good
twist it back. Hell, play with it, they go too far.
Sudden;y he has some 'thing' going on where he can't
fire on the mislead. Suddenly psycho-killer won't
shoot Black Hats. Only true abominations or if you
really wanna be mean, Servitors. If bones from Templar
saints do such good stuff, why wouldn't the
christian-believed holiest man's cup that represented
his spilled blood as sacrifice for the world's sins do
something on scale?

Now what I want to know is where he is "buying" this.
If it is a relic, I'd say that's way too expensive for
character purchase, and why would western monster have
it? But even then, you can have fun with it. Here's my
take:
Holy Grail/ 5pt-Belongin': Well, it's come to be known
as such. There are actually twenty to fifty of these
elaborate cups floating around the west and all of
them originated from LA. Used as communion wine cups
before the war, they were scavenged out of the depths
of the city's bloody water and sold and passed and
picked up to the farthest reaches of the wastes. Few
know of their origin and most believe on sight that it
MUST have been the ancient cup of Christ. It even has
awesome healing powers as are commonly associated with
such holy things. It can heal ANY ailment,
automatically. It has even been known to bolster
completely healthy individuals to nigh-supernatural
levels. However, you can only drink from it and feel
it's power once*. After that, the healing doesn't
work. You CAN drink and be healed again by a separate
cup, however.
Unfortunately, it has a taint. Most don't know it, but
whenever anyone drinks from the chalise, they must
make a Hard(7) Spirit roll. If they fail, they pick up
a Hankerin' level 1 (blood). Every drink after the
first suffers a penalty equal to the Hankerin' level.
Once it reaches a maximum of five, the poor bastitch
starts accumulating Corruption points, and we all know
what happens with those. Normally, the desire is
associated with the grail specifically as people don't
generally know what blood tastes like. They just
continue to drink from that, but the chalise isn't
always available, especially when they need it so
regularly or the priest isn't around anymore.
Eventually however, they will realize their craving is
blood and seek it however they can and nobody likes
wanna-be vampires.
* - If one drinks blood from a chalise they can feel
the healing affects more than once. However, this
power cannot be used to remove the Hankerin' that it
causes.

I hope my words were useful.

Jim

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