From: thanatos@flowbee.interaccess.com (Timothy Toner) Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf Subject: MAGE: Mr. Jones Date: 17 Sep 1994 06:44:02 GMT Organization: InterAccess Co. Reply-To: thanatos@interaccess.com NNTP-Posting-Host: flowbee.interaccess.com Not only a Mage character, but one with an interesting idea. Feedback welcome, and a cookie to the first person who can tell me where this guy came from. Name: Mr. Jones Tradition: Euthanatos ??barrabi?? Essence: Pattern Nature: Architect Demeanor: Deviant Attributes: Strength: 3 Charisma: 4 Perception: 4 Dexterity: 3 Manipulation: 5 Intelligence: 4 Stamina: 5 Appearance: 3 Wits: 5 Abilities: Talents Skills Knowledges Alertness: 3 Ettiquette 2 Cosmology 4 Athletics: 2 Meditation 5 Law 4 Awareness: 4 Stealth 3 Medicine 5 Intimidation: 4 Survival 4 Occult 5 Intuition: 3 Psychoanalysis 5 Psychology 5 Subterfuge: 4 Research: 3 Artistic Expression (Cooking): 5 Advantages: Spheres: Correspondence: 2 Life: 3 Prime: 5 Entropy: 5 Mind: 3 Spirit: 4 Forces: 3 Matter: 4 Time: 2 Backgrounds: Avatar 3, Arcane 4, Resources 4, Dream 4 Arete: 7 Willpower: 10 Quintessence: 18 (Max. 34, See below) Paradox: 3 Merits: Iron Will, Eidetic Memory Flaws: Overconfident, Hunted History: As the Arcane 4 will clearly indicate, very little if anything is known about "Mr. Jones." He appears to be an American, with black hair, soft brown eyes, a piercing smile, and a self-assured Midwestern accent. For someone of his potentcy, none of his fellow Euthanatos know of him, which leads many to believe that he is indeed a barrabi, a Euthanatos who sold his soul for power and immortality. It is rumored that he has spent much time in meditation, and has only resurfaced recently to put forth his master plan. Until recently, Mr. Jones owned a picturesque estate, lost in the English countryside. He obtained it for a pittance, as the previous owners died under mysterious circumstances, and the inheritor had to sell the property quickly, or face ruination. It was in this house that Mr. Jones conducted his bizarre experiments in life after death. He took on the role of a serial killer, picking off victims he would encounter, seemingly at random. Often, he would being his prey home, where he would then torture them for days, until the precise moment arrived, when he would twist the knife, and end it all. The entire ordeal was recorded for future study on a variety of hidden cameras. He would then bury the victims in a neat row. His predations on the local populace could not go unnoticed, however, but before the Technocracy could strike, a policeman investigating reports that a dead body was found on the grounds blew the case wide open. The NWO moved too slowly, thinking the nosy policeman would be the final victim. Instead, Mr. Jones allowed himself to be captured, and turned his case into a media circus. After convincing the courts that he was insane, he then entered a period of intense meditation. During the next nine years, he was sent from hospital to hospital. Wherever he went, death and madness soon followed. All the while, he never spoke. Instead, he would scratch out ravings about his research, and why it didn't work. Often, he would fixate on a single aspect of a murder, such as the look in the right eye of victim #34, or the color of the tie of Victim #12 as it soaked up his own bile. Finally, after arriving at the Ravenswood Sanitorium, he broke his silence, and spoke to a doctor. He convinced her that he was the Prince of Darkness, and manipulated half the staff to perform various acts of murder, suicide, and torture on themselves and their patients. The last words he scribbled, before he escaped with the good doctor, was a slip of paper that simply read, "The Better Death." When the page was smuggled out of the hands of the technocracy, and into the possession of a group of Euthanatos, the words caused two to go completely mad on the spot. The remainder seemed unable to talk of it, though they have done everything in their power to stop Mr. Jones. Whn one of the Euthanatos who had seen the paper was asked if Jones was barrabi, she replied, "I don't even think the Nephandi would have him." Mr. Jones and Dr. Sevrens are currently being pursued by Detective Detweiler, the only man apparently immune to the Arcane. He will read an article about a murder, and see the marks of Jones all over it, prompting the hunt to continue. The obsession of the Hunt, however, has permanently warped Detweiler's mind, and he truly believes Jones is Satan. Anyone telling him otherwise must face his .44 and his True Faith 7. Quote: (Transcript of a session between Mr. Jones and Dr. M. Wellbey, NWO) Wellby: A Euthanatos barrabi? Isn't that a tad redundant? Jones: No, but you are. Wellby: Hgrrkkk! [Note: M. Wellby terminated 921107. Unable to reclone.] New Rotes: Your Own Private Idaho (Mind 4, Correspondence 2): This rote works primarily on the mentally insane, allowing the mage to reshape their psychosis into something unique and significant. For instance, the mage could induce someone with schizophrenia to manifest a specific delusional state. Repeated applications of this ability in the inmates of an asylum can induce them to create a consensual reality different than the one outside their door. Unlock the Magick (Mind 3, Prime 1, Time 2): Useful primarily to induce Obsessive/compulsive disorders in normally sane people, a mage hooks the Prime 1 Rush effect to the performance of some specific future action. Thus, when someone writes their name, a rush of quintessence is received. A mage can also make the Compulsion go psychotic by linking it to a thought, such as suicide or murder. Rattle (Mind 3, Entropy 2, Time 2): A mage using this rote on an unawakened being can make them greatly uncomfortable by reading their mind, predicting an event, over and over, or causing something generally odd to happen. This rote is intensely useful in the art of Awakening a sleeper, or rattling the cage of a drone working for the Technocracy. The Better Death (???): Not exactly a Rote, but instead a powerful philosophy which permeates the darkest corners of Euthanatos philosophy. Many Euthanatos become aware, as Arete grows, that the Good Death is little more than a cosmic crap- shoot. One is merely ending a life so that new possibilites can be freed up by that death. But what if there was a more efficient means of harvesting? What if one could construct a Device which would ensure that the soul would be properly refined? Enter the Better Death. The Better Death is a belief that the multitude of lives that one must go through before Ascension can be condensed into a single life, a single act. Certain souls, with similar properties, and thus following similar paths, can be condensed into one Oversoul, which then has all impurities burned away in the act of death. The result is simple: a child will be born that is wholly Awakened, and a heartbeat from Ascension. Many Euthanatos who dabble in serial killing strike upon this idea subconsciously. Instead of choosing victims who are not using their lives productively, the Euthanatos picks victims who share common characteristics, and kill them in certain ways, linking each death and each soul. Most, however, do not go beyond this stage. To do so would require a leap of faith, one which often tosses the Euthanatos into a dark abyss. This new notion states that 10 unproductive lives are worth as much as 1 productive one. If one could ensure that 1 productive life could come about by killing and utterly destroying 10 lives, it would be worth it. Thus, the Euthanatos does not "recycle" the souls she kills with the Good Death. Instead, she stores them, or uses them to make a Device known as a Soul Forge, which melts the soul and burns out redundancies of other souls. Thus, the expereinces and possibilities of 10 lifetimes are smelted into 1 soul, which is then reincarnated. Many Euthanatos find the idea repugnant, to say the least. Condemning 10 to die forever to ensure the Ascension of 1 is horrific. They argue that some of the souls which must be harvested have not yet completeled their usefulness. Still, in a world plagued with overpopulation, and caught in a nasty downward spiral, those who adhere to the Better Death find solace in thinking that a few less lives reincarnated might be best, if one could increase the quality of those being born. The Better Death often takes decades to properly cast. Not only must the victims be carefully selected, they must also be harvested in the right way, at the right time. Any flaw in the overall design, and the Soul Forge rejects the soul. The Euthanatos then must figure out what went wrong, and hopes that he gets it right next time. All victims must share some common properties, but at the same time, must offer something new to the mix, without being redundant. The Capstone is the final soul in the Soulforge, the specially selected soul who will be refined, purified, and transformed utterly. The Euthanatos must have this entity in mind when the Rote begins. An application of Time 2 will assist in predicting a future creature's attributes, to make less of a guessing game out of it. Several Euthanatos who have gone truly mad in the application of this believe choose themselves as the Capstone. In that case, they must Awaken a Euthanatos, whose first act of magick, then, is the Good Death on the preparer. This sends the Avatar of the Euthanatos into the Soulforge, where it is supercharged. Somewhere in the world, at that moment, a child of inordinate power is born. There is rumored to exist in the ranks of the Euthanatos a sect which has dedicated its existence to eradicating the spawn of the Better Death, freeing up the stolen energy by seeking children born of power. Like all fanatics, often their judgement becomes clouded. System: For every 10 victims successfully killed and captured, a creature can be born with an automatically Awakened Avatar with a rating of 1. Euthanatos using this power can enhance their own Avatars with the same ratio of 1 for every 10 killed. Thus, a Euthatos with an Avatar of 3 who puts 34 souls into the soulforge, and then inserts himself, will be born with an avatar of _6!_ Possession of a soulforge is critical for the use of A Better Death. These items are talismans which absorb souls and unawakened Avatars (level 5). Each is keyed to certain circumstances which allow a soul to enter. For instance, one may only work on Tuesdays, or to those who are stabbed. The maximum amount of souls a soulforge can carry is 50. For every 10 souls stored, those that carry the Soulforge can extend their Quintessence reserves by 1 point. -- thanatos@interaccess.com / "Want to go to Toner's after this? DeathUrge, Master of Unknown \ I always like it." Time and Space. / - John Constantine, _Hellblazer_ "It's a Zen thing. You wouldn't understand."