Dear List
this is only a little more than half baked, but it wasn't going to get much better sitting around with me, thought someone might be interested.
Regards, Peter
*****
The PCs are travelling somewhere when they come across a fellow Angel in a small town near to the main campaign setting. If they are in trouble, he can give them a guiding hand or maybe they can come to his aid. If they have to travel onwards they will later get a call for assistance. If they aren't on any set timetable you can have fun with them straight away.
The Angel, Phanuel, will explain that he has been in this small town for a few months. Initially he didn't have too much trouble, but recently there has been an explosion in Demonic activity. Phanuel really needs the PCs' help.
Once you've got the PCs involved you can go to town. Incidents break out on a daily basis at the local school, library, youth sports events, under age discos, the shopping mall and video game parlour and other places young people hang out. Hit them with every non-canon thing you've ever wanted to try. Demons that can possess animals or possess multiple people at once. Earthly use or spoken and written Angelic and Demonic tongues (which will be gibberish to the PCs). Demons unable to enter consecrated ground and repelled by holy items. A little bit of Ghostbusters meets John Constantine meets Tales from the Crypt meets The Night Stalker wouldnít be out of line.
Ok, so what's going on here? A few months ago a local youth found an artifact that was a link to a powerful Ethereal Guardian Spirit. The Guardian had been dormant, but as chance would have it the youth was a powerful Dreamer and a wanna-be occultist and woke the Guardian in the belief it was an Angel. Disorientated after it's long sleep, the Guardian took the line of least resistance and adopted the Role the youth had decided on. Initially the youth didn't do much with his new ally, but his seeming success gave him a new confidence and proof that his knowledge of Angels and Demons was correct, after all here was a real Angel who in general terms confirmed what the youth had already learnt from his studies.
As it woke further to its situation the Guardian found that it could gain greater influence in the Corporeal plane if it acted as the youth believed it would. Giving in more and more to the youth's fantasies about Celestial beings, the Guardian was unprepared when the youth first suspected and then insisted on Demonic infiltration of his small town. The Guardian's Ethereal form is a multi headed creature (whatever is appropriate for the local native culture) and he can manifest multiple avatars. If you don't like the multiple avatars thing, give Phanuel a number of assistant Guardian Spirits. Generally these are only used to protect it's tribe, but the developing relationship with the Dreamer youth has changed that. Caught too deeply in playing to the youth's fantasies the Guardian was forced to play both sides, as the Guardian Angel and the infiltrating Demons.
I guess you could string this out for a couple of sessions, presenting a new 'infiltration' each session or you could clean it up fairly quickly. It will depend a little on how fast the Players catch on that something is not as it seems. To an extent they do have Phanuel on their side. He is not happy about the mess he has found himself in; it's his job to guard people against harmful spirits, not to participate in this sort of vaudeville shenanigans. Seraphim will cause Phanuel some problems as he will have to be careful about what he says around them. He can't admit the truth, because of the hold the youth has over him, but knows enough not to lie directly. Phanuel knows a bit about Heaven and Hell, but has been dormant since about 500AD, so his info is a bit old, ie he won't know about Lawrence or Uriel's Crusade or anything else you feel has happened since that time. For the most part he has been operating on the information the youth has asked for conformation about, although he has 'corrected' those things that he didnít think he could pull off.
When the PCs get to the bottom of everything they will still have to do something about the youth and Phanuel, both are too powerful to be just allowed to wander around. Both are basically well intentioned, although the youth is egotistical enough to be headed firmly to his Fate if not taken in hand. Phanuel, not his real name, is as Ethereal Spirits go, not a bad chap, but has no great love of Heaven.
Reply to peterf@wr.com.au May the Goddess shelter you in the palm of her hand until we meet again.
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