Modal (Celestial Discord)

By Moe Lane

**Flaming
Feather**

... in the Tom Lehrer sense (i.e., "Every now and then I play a wrong note").

This highly obnoxious Discord causes the sufferer to be perpetually out of tune with the Symphony. Every time a Modal celestial wishes to use his, her or its base resonance, it must first make a successful Perception and/or Will roll, minus the level of the Discord. If this roll is failed, the celestial will instead get access to a limited version of some other Choir/Band resonance. This is often dangerous, and always frustrating.

The new resonance is determined as follows: take the CD of the failed roll and count down (or up) the hierarchy. The two hierarchies are reproduced for your convenience:

Seraph: Detects truth at the equivalent of CD 1.

Cherub: Knows location of the target for the next five minutes, but can't hurt him or her.

Ofanite: Suddenly accelerates at the greater of (2x current speed) or 30 mph.

Elohite: Knows the primary emotional state of the target, but unfortunately the volume control is broken. The sudden shock will give a -3 to all other actions that round.

Malakite: Sees the most dishonorable act done by the target in the last day. Also gets the first Malakite oath for five minutes.

Kyriotate: Takes possession of the target for (Will) rounds before succumbing to extreme sensory shock (3D6 Mind Hits).

Mercurian: Gets the Mercurian resonance at CD 1 for five rounds.

Balseraph: Can resonate one person automatically (CD of 1): that person gets a +2 to resist.

Djinn: Same as the Cherub resonance, really.

Calabite: Does (Modal Level) Body Hits to the target.

Habbalite: Projects the demon's current emotional state onto the target (CD of 1)

Lilim: Detects a single level/1 Need... but no Geas if fulfilled.

Shedite: Same as the Kyriotate resonance, except that the Mind Hit damage is 4D6.

Impudite: Can Charm, but not Drain Essence: the maximum CD for the former is 1.

Note that Grigori and Skulkers are not on this list; also, jump to the top (and/or the bottom, as appropriate) of the list as necessary.

For example: a Malakite with Modal fails her Perception roll, with a CD of 4. She will count down four spots (Kyriotate, Mercurian, Seraph, Cherub): now, instead of confirming someone's dishonor, she instead detects their location and is prohibited from hurting them. An Impudite that failed his Will roll with the same CD will count up (Shedite, Lilim, Habbalite, Calabite): so, instead of Charming someone, he's just caused them Body Hits.

As for unfavorable Interventions, well, the poor unfortunate will suddenly develop access to the resonance of their opposite numbers (Malakite get the Lilim resonance, and vice versa). This will always be dissonant!

As a general rule, Superiors seriously dislike seeing their Servitors go Modal: most will immediately remove or replace it (or just destroy the Servitor in question). Thus, most celestials suffering from it are Outcasts and/or Renegades.

**Flaming
Feather**

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