By Nana Yaw Ofori <nofori@pop3.utoledo.edu>
[Note: partly as a result of the can of worms this seed opened, canon decreed that Lilim cannot trade the Geases they gain over others. Only Lilith can trade a Geas she holds over someone. But don't let that stop you if you like the can of worms that this adventure depends on! --arcangel@prismnet.com]
"Are you Jesse Melcer?"
Jesse looked up from his newspaper at the wiry man standing before him. He raised an eyebrow. "Who wants to know?"
The man paused, plucking a name out of thin air. "My name is Denton Hayes. We have a mutual friend by the name of Phoebe Bradley. Do you remember her?"
The power of the Geas settled around Jesse. Yeah, he remembered. "About a year ago, I was walking to work when it started to rain. Real downpour. Ducked under an awning, but I knew I was going to be late, second time that week too. I was all ready to get chewed out by my boss, when a woman walked oout of the coffee shop, and offered to give me a ride. Said her name was Pheobe Bradley. Well, for some reason, I didn't argue, Got to work on time, hell, I was early."
Jesse wondered briefly why he remembered a the chance meeting so vividly, and why he was telling it to a guy he just met. "I remember."
Hayes smiled. "Miss Bradley sent me to you. She needs a favor."
"Well, I guess I can oblige, if it's not too much trouble. What is it?"
"Kill your wife."
Jesse stared at the man in shock. "You're joking, right?"
"No. Miss Bradley requires that you kill your wife. Preferably by this afternoon." Hayes smiled nastily at him. "Miss Bradley expects to be repaid for her favors."
"You're fucking crazy! Both of you! Get the hell away from me!" Jesse leapt to his feet and threw the newspaper down.. And the worst thing was, just for the briefest moment, he considered it. Repulsed and confused, Jesse stormed out of the cafe.
Hayes watched him go,, then looked down. In his hand appeared a green poker chip, with Melcer's face in the center. As he watched, the chip cracked down the middle, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Hayes smiled, and somewhere, hundreds of miles away, a traitorous Bright Lilim screamed.
Well, Here's my first serious adventure seed contribution. It hinges on something that I've seen neither confirmed, nor denied yet. That when Lilim A trades off a Geas on Person C, to Person B, and Person B activates the Geas but Person C resists, Lilim A gets Dissonance.
Asmodeus hates traitors. Well, he hates a lot of people, but he hates those Demons who have managed to successfuly switched sides more than most. So naturally, he tends to keep tabs on those who have made the transition successfully, Especially those who can be induced to trip.
Calvin, a Balseraph of the Game was assigned to watch Phoebe, back when she was a Lilim of Fate. She seemed to be leaning towards the wrong side, and Asmodeus instructed Calvin to keep an eye on her, and stomp her into a reddish paste if she went renegade. Very unfortunately for Calvin, he wasn't watching Phoebe as closely as he thought he was, and she slipped through his fingers and went Renegade, jumped town, and was eventually Redeemed. Asmodeus was not pleased, not pleased at all.
Smarting from being busted down a Distiction and a few Forces , he hatched a plan to take revenge on the one he thought most responsible for his predicament: Pheobe herself. While waiting for another Earth assignment, he busied himself in Hell acquiring Phoebe's Geasa. Not the ones on her, but the ones she'd collected on Humans, and traded away. By the time he got another Earth assignment, he'd collected about twenty of Phoebe's Geasa, most of which were Geas/1's on relatively obscure humans that the current possessors didn't see much need in.
Once he was back on earth, he set about tracking down the Geased. Once he finds one, he claims to be a representative of Phoebe (backing it up with his Resonance if neccessary), and activates the Geas. He then requests of the target something extremely abhorrent, and above the Geas's power to enforce. Naturally, the target resists. And Phoebe gets Dissonance. It's Calvin's plan to keep doing this until Phoebe Falls, or is too Discordant to be of much use to the Other Side. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it werent for that meddling Seraph.
Well if this is so successful at tripping up Lilim, why doesn't it happen all the time? Main reason: Doing this sort of thing really ticks Lilith off. If Lilith gets wind of what Calvin's doing to one of her kids, he's in for a goodly bit of retribution, at the worst possible time. Of course, being an Angel now, Pheobe's not likely to call Lilith up to let her know, unless she's very desperate. Second, he's wasting a lot of perfectly good Geasa, just to trip up one Lilim. It's a testament to his vengefulness that he was able to track down and obtain that many Geasa gathered by Phoebe.
The Triad had been performing a routine investigation of a newly-redeemed Bright Lilim in the area, named Phoebe. Standard operating procedure, checking up on those who had recently defected to the Side of Good, and making sure they're not backsliding. The Malakite noticed that the Lilim had accumulated some Dissonance since their last meeting, and the Seraph inquired about it.
Phoebe had no idea where the Dissonance was coming from, and said so. Malakite and Cherub looked to the Seraph for confirmation, and were surprised when the Seraph responded, "She's telling the truth. And I know the Truth." Fortunately for the Lilim, the Seraph's resonance had discerned the reason she was accumulating the Dissonance.
The Triad of Dominic seeks out the PC's, as the local angels capable of keeping poor Phoebe from Falling. Clearly, Calvin has to be stopped from pushing her. Alas, the Triad can't do it themselves; they aren't autonomous servitors, and they have a schedule to keep. If necessary, they might imply that the PCs own activitiescould use a little scrutiny.
Why doesn't Phoebe go to her archangel and ask to have the Dissonance removed? Yeah, she could do that. In fact, she has. Recently. Got in a bad position a week or two ago, which was mostly her fault, and had to ask for Dissonance removal. She'd rather not do it again for awhile.
Pheobe has a decent memory of who's Geasa she traded away when she was a Demon, and the list of those that are still alive Once one of the victims is found, and if Calvin has been there, it shouldn't be too difficult to get a description of the Vessel he used during the visit. The suggestions Calvin is making are pretty memorable. Of course, there is the problem that most of them still believe that he was acting under Phoebe's orders. Rather inconvenient.
Here's the tricky part. What can you do to stop Phoebe's descent? Here are a few ways it could be done.
1) Kill Calvin. That pops him into Trauma, and keeps him out of the way...For a little while. Unfortunately, he still has the Geasa, and if he makes it back to Earth, he can start the whole buisiness all over again. That is, unless you can get him into Celestial combat and kill him permanently.
2) Persuade Calvin to give up the Geasa. Probably the surest course of action, and the most difficult. He's driven by revenge against Phoebe, and he's not likely to give up his Aces in the Hole anytime soon.
3) Get rid of the Ensuing Dissonance. This can be done by either inducing the Geased to do what Calvin told them to do (not very likely, or nice) or by having Phoebe successfully get and call in Geasa on them. Be creative.
4) Let Lilith know. She'll act to put a stop to this abuse. Of course, then Phoebe will owe her another one, as well as having the problems of summoning up a Demon Princess, should her Archangel find out.
Your players, will, of course, pick none of the above. \|=)
Rather than have this happen to Pheobe, this could be sprung upon a PC Bright Lilim instead.
Eliminate the Triad of Judgement. Phoebe's getting Dissonance, she doesn't know why, and she comes to the PCs on her own for help.
Calvin isn't a Balseraph, he's a Shedite. Makes him that much harder to track down.
Against all odds, a Diabolical Intervention shows up, and one of the targets succumbs to the Geas! The poor guy does exactly what Calvin tells him to, gets caught, and tells the police his reason is "Because Phoebe told me to." Now she's wanted by the cops for questioning, at the very least.
Well, that's the adventure seed. Tell me what you think.
Anyway, it was either this seed or the Jurassic Park-based one, where a Lilim of Vapula with a Geas/6 on an Angel uses it to get her to go to Heaven, visit the Cathedral of Purity, and take a few samples from the Dragon skulls. I hadn't quite decided what Vap would do with cloned Dragons, though.
From: Adam Canning <Dahak@compuserve.com>
Lucifer needs one for the apocalyse to take on Micheal. [ie and Micheall and his angels fought the dragon and its angels: Revelatons]
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Elizabeth McCoy <arcangel@prismnet.com>
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