by: maya@tcp.co.uk (GR Cogman)
I got the idea for this one while walking to work, and for some reason remembering playing skipping games as a kid, with two girls turning the rope, and the rest of us running in, skipping a few steps, then out again, to some sort of rhyme.
So...
There is some sort of superheroine in the city, for want of a better word. Some female in a tight spandex suit, with wings, has been showing up at crack houses (3 so far) or brothels (1 so far), storming in, trashing the place, though carefully not injuring any teenagers or children present, then vanishing at high speed. The newspapers are having a field day with rumours, though have no actual photos or anything like that yet.
While walking down the street, one of the characters sees some children playing a skipping game. The rhyme that they jump to is:
If the PC starts taking an undue interest in them, the children are likely to scatter and run for it, being sensibly scared of strangers.
Sara, a Cherub of Christopher, is slipping towards a Fall. She was stationed to watch over the homeless children and teenagers in the area, and has come to think that violent action and better religious education are the keys to success. Half-remembered stories of hers are the source of such rhymes as the skipping rhyme heard by the PCs, and (with judicious use of the Song of Form and Wings: Numinous Corpus) she is the Angel-vigilante.
Trouble is on the horizon, though: a few Servitors of Andrealphus and Fleurity have grown very unhappy about their outposts being destroyed, and though they have not as yet managed to trace Sara, it is likely to be only a matter of time: either through spotting her use of Essence, or getting a Djinn in to try tracking her, or by hearing one of the childrens' songs and investigating.
Sara's cover identity is that of a second-hand-clothes seller in the local market: in the evenings she helps at an unofficial shelter for homeless children and young people, in a large cellar beneath some disused warehouses near the market. (When not sneaking off in spandex.) She is widely loved, and generally considered to be one of _the_ most reliable people around, if prone to telling the children odd versions of religious stories.
Sara can be traced through the children who made up the rhyme from her stories: they will be reluctant to talk to strangers, or to confess who told them the (garbled by repetition) stories, but if the PCs do some checking around, they can find that all the kids who knew the rhyme were regularly staying at the shelter for the homeless where Sara works: once there, Sara is fairly obviously the person who tells the kids stories and looks after them.
The "Angel" can be stalked, if spotted: PCs can try to attune to her, or track her use of Essence, or whatever, if they can catch her out on a raid. Sara will try to lose them in the alleys around the market, then change back as fast as possible to her normal self, and head for the shelter to resume her cover identity.
Sara is aware that Christopher would not approve of her current activities, and is studiously avoiding thinking about it.
Sara has managed to annoy several Servitors of Fleurity and Andrealphus (organise to fit your PCs), who are working on tracking this "Angel". One in particular, Aleki ("call me Lucky"), an Impudite of Fleurity (and dealer) is likely to notice the children's rhyme about the same time as the PCs, or slightly after, and make some investigations himself, which may in turn lead him to Sara.
If they manage to identify her, the Bad Guys will be torn between
Corporeal: 4 Str: 10 Agi: 6 Ethereal: 2 Int: 4 Pre: 4 Celestial: 4 Wil: 11 Per: 5
Vessel: Sarah Dutton (Role/4), middle-aged old clothes vendor
Skills: Detect Lies/3, Dodge/2, Driving/1, Emote/2, Fighting/4 (Karate), Knowledge (Social Work System/3), Large Weapon/2, Medicine/2, Move Silently/1
Songs: Entropy (Corporeal/3), Form (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/1, Celestial/2), Harmony (Corporeal/1, Ethereal/3), Healing (Corporeal/2, Ethereal/3, Celestial/2), Motion (Corporeal/3), Thunder (Corporeal/2)
Attunements/Distinctions: Luck, Cherub of Christopher
Discord : Angry/3
Sara was almost the ideal Cherub of Christopher till she began to grow impatient and angry with the circumstances around her. Possibly she had been left too long alone and in a hard front-line area, but then she was doing her job well: so well that nobody considered she might begin having problems.
While Sara will _never_ lose her temper with a child (as yet) she is growing more and more furious on the subject of drug-dealers and teenage prostitutes. This has driven her to attempting to attract or scare her charges back to faith, with stories of the angels and devils, and to taking violent physical action against what she sees as "outposts of hell in this mortal world". She uses Songs of Form and Numinous Corpus to lower the apparent age of her Vessel and change the build, before dressing up in spandex and going out to smite some Soldiers of Hell personally.
Sooner or later, Sara is going to end up striking a child during one of her outbursts of rage: or worse, actually killing an innocent or child during her raids as the "Angel". Should this happen, there is a very real chance of her Falling, if she refuses to recognise that it is to some degree her own fault.
Corporeal: 3 Str: 4 Agi: 8 Ethereal: 3 Int: 8 Pre: 4 Celestial: 3 Wil: 5 Per: 7
Vessel: Young male (Role/2) Drug-dealer
Skills: Chemistry/3, Computer Operation/2, Dodge/4, Driving/2, Fast-Talk/4, Lying/2, Medicine/1, Ranged Weapon/3, Seduction/1, Tactics/2 Songs: Charm (Corporeal/1, Ethereal/2), Entropy (Celestial/2), Light (Celestial/3), Shields (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/2, Celestial/2), Tongues (Celestial/1)
Attunements/Distinctions: Impudite of Fleurity, Djinn of Fleurity, Score
Aleki is an up-and-coming young Impudite, recently assigned to this city by Fleurity. He realises that if the drug dens keep on being hit, it is going to result in a permanent blot on his record, and he is therefore very eager to solve the problem.
Aleki is intelligent, and more sensible than to try following Sara round directly if he gets on her track. A tactic that he might well use is to pass a packet of drugs to one of the children who seems attached to her, and use his Djinn of Fleurity attunement to track the packet to the shelter. He will quite happily corrupt the children in her care, and attempt to get her addicted to some drug himself, if he sees a reasonable chance of Tripping her. Stimulants, perhaps, amphetamines, something to keep that righteous rage burning...
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