[UA] House of Renunciation

[Mark Fender]

This is a writeup I wrote for my UA game of a new Room in the House of 
Renunciation. I got the idea for this ass-backwards, however, thinking of 
the Agent first and then coming up with a Room for him. Because of this, 
I'm not sure I'm happy with the Room. It just sounds a little too cheesily 
evil for my tastes. Any comments on how I can make the Room a little less 
overt are welcome, as are general comments on any aspect of this.

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Room of Oblivion
There's meaning behind everything. Nothing is left to chance. God does not 
play dice with the universe. As the world becomes more and more confusing, 
people search for meaning. Some of those people go off the deep end, 
looking for truth where there is none. Conspiracy theorists, religious 
leaders, and scientists continually try to pin down the fluctuating nature 
of reality and attribute meaning behind chaos. All are likely candidates 
for the Room of Oblivion.

Agenda
	The Room was originally designed to target both people who see meaning in 
everything and those who saw meaning in nothing. The current Agent, 
however, has specifically targeted conspiracy theorists and the like, those 
who look for answers in nebulous 'facts', who twist statistics to mean what 
they want them to mean, who make wild conjectures and build a framework of 
information to support their theories. This ranges from scientists with 
crackpot theories to housewives convinced that Jesus keeps their floors 
clean. People who refuse to see the Entropy around them, relying on 'facts' 
to give everything the semblance of sense.

Appearance
	 The Door to the Room is in every building in the world. It's the one door 
that's always locked. People pass it by everyday, occasionally wondering 
why the supply closet is always locked or why the one door in their home 
doesn't fit any of their master keys, but most pay it no mind. Only those 
haunted by mysteries will continually seek out the door, testing to see if 
it has miraculously unlocked itself. Sometimes, for the right person, it 
has.
	Upon entering the Room, the person finds themselves in a long hallway made 
of bare cinderblock walls.  Flickering florescent lights are the only 
illumination. Walking the hallway, one discovers many branching paths 
leading off from the main hallway, similar to the layout of the back 
hallways in a mall. However, these paths lead only to slate gray rooms. 
While the main hallway twists and turns, it always leads forward. When the 
trespasser has exhausted themselves exploring the hallway, a red door 
presents itself at the end.
	Past the red door is the Entropic Stair. This is a giant, twisting 
stairwell that descends and ascends into blackness. The steps themselves 
are wide, but there is no railing. Falling off is a very Bad Idea.  The red 
Door disappears as soon as the victim is out of sight of it. The trespasser 
has two choices, up or down. Down represents the slide into entropy, while 
up covers those who choose meaning. Unfortunately, due to recent 
'renovations,' going up is merely a continuous loop. The same images are 
seen over and over again until the victim gives up and travels down.
	Images flicker in the darkness as a person descends. Voices can be heard 
chanting, "Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left" over and over 
again. Scenes of Templars being snuck out of France in haycarts, grassy 
knolls with Cuban riflemen hiding in the shadows, shadowy men meeting in 
secret lodges in Sweden, all these images and more present themselves the 
further one travels down the Stair. As one descends, however, the images 
become more convoluted. A man neglects to pay his electricity bill, causing 
a temporary employee of the power company to mistype the order to turn off 
the delinquent's power, turning off all the lights in California. A 
butterfly's wings start a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, agitating the 
sharks in the waters, who begin attacking swimmers. Conspiracies and odd 
coincidences continue to show themselves to the viewer, becoming weirder 
and weirder as one descends. A man feeds an entire crowd with just two 
loaves and fishes, dropping the bottom out of the seafood market in 
Galilee, sending many fisherman into less 'above board' work. An innocent 
mammal causes hundreds to panic in the streets, frightened of being visited 
by this fierce beast, causing more damage themselves than a small monkey 
ever could.
	It is only after the trespasser is thoroughly full of the dizzying secret 
history of mankind does he reach the bottom of the stairs. Behind a single 
green door is another gray cinderblock room. When the green door shuts, it 
melds into the wall, leaving nothing in the room but a single sign. The 
sign reads, "There is no meaning. All is Oblivion." Below the sign is a red 
button. Pressing the button sends a powerful electric shock through the 
victim (the sum of two dice damage). Only by refusing to do anything, by 
giving up, is the person freed from the room and reintroduced into the 
world, albeit a changed person. If people choose to not give up, to not 
embrace oblivion, they can simply press the button until they die. The 
remains are whisked away by unseen servants of the Room.

Abilities
	The Room of Oblivion is subtle. Often as not, it will choose to 'prove' 
the visitor's pet theory rather than deride it. However, at the bottom of 
the Stair, even the visitor can spot the flaws in his theory and is 
dissuaded. A lifetime's worth of work can be destroyed in the blink of an 
eye.
	Key of Nothing The Key of Nothing is an artifact used by the Agents of the 
Room. The ritual to create such a key has been lost to antiquity. The Key 
itself resembles an old-fashioned Key that has seen better days. Metal 
shavings and other barbs stick off of it in a haphazard fashion. The Key 
allows the owner to open any abandoned door. No matter how rusted the lock 
the Key will turn effortlessly in the keyhole, allowing an Agent access to 
abandoned buildings. Even rooms that have been locked for at least a month 
can be opened with the Key. The Agent chooses whether the abandoned door 
opens into the Room of Oblivion, or into the room right behind the door 
before he turns the Key. The Key has one additional ability, one that 
requires personal sacrifice to access. The Agent must wound himself with 
the Key (doing Epidormancy minor charge damage to himself), usually by 
cutting himself with the sharp barbs sticking off of the Key. As long as 
the Key is blooded in this manner, an Agent can plunge the Key into a wall, 
opening a mystical doorway through the wall. This only leads to the other 
side of the wall. If objects placed on the other side of the wall would 
prevent easy exit, the Key has no effect. No Agent may permanently leave 
the service of the Room with the Key. Mysteriously, it reappears in the 
keyhole of the red door as soon as a new Agent is chosen.
	Entropic Stair The images the Entropic Stair chooses for its visitors are 
subtle. The visitor's personal pet theory is shown in action, oftentimes 
proving its existence. But as the visitor continues down the Stair, the 
visions get stranger. Soon, actions not even directly related to the theory 
are somehow tied into the visitor's theory. Soon, the visitor begins to 
doubt that his vision could possibly apply to all the situations presented. 
Near the end of the Stair, the truth becomes known; the visitor's theory is 
a sham. Chaos happens and cannot be wrapped up in a pretty package. By the 
end of the Stair, the visitor has seen the lies he has tried to apply to 
his life. There is no Order, only Chaos.

Renunciation
	Life is not necessarily easier for the visitor who steps through the green 
door. In fact, in many ways its harder. Assumptions about life make it 
easier to get through each day. It's comforting to know that, even though 
hardships may come, God has a reasons for personal tragedies. The Big Bang 
Theory may provide scientists with the proof they need to realize there is 
no omniscient being looking our for everyone. But with all of this stripped 
away, the visitor is left with nothing but the ice cold wind of Oblivion. 
Most become hardened to the vagaries of life. So what they're wife died in 
a car wreck at the beauticians? Life is full of impersonal tragedies.
	Sometimes those who emerge commit suicide within a few months of their 
return to ordinary life. Nihilisism is common, as is anarchy. Those who 
have visited the Room are apt to lead protests against international 
organizations designed to control some of the mass chaos in life (such as 
the World Trade Organization).

Agent
Curtis Delmore, Agent of Change
Summary: Curtis Delmore was an ordinary Entropomancer (as ordinary as one 
who thrives on chaos can be). He lived in an ordinary apartment, had an 
ordinary job, and led an otherwise ordinary life. People were unaware of 
his frequent trips to Vegas, his penchant for disabling critical components 
in his automobile, or his secret night life of visiting crack houses and 
offering the skankiest people there money for sex. Perhaps his neighbors 
were surprised when he had a sudden financial windfall. Perhaps they 
thought it odd that a man of Curtis's disposition could get a pilots 
license, or could even afford a private jet. But they were truly shocked 
when he flew straight into that mountain with his estranged wife and child 
in the back of the plane. Curtis spent six months in a coma and had another 
year of physical therapy. His wife and child were not so fortunate.
When Curtis emerged from the hospital, everything was gone. His family was 
dead and buried (he wasn't conscious to attend their funeral), his job was 
long gone, and his home had been foreclosed. But Curtis simply smiled, he 
had enough mojo now, he didn't need any of that. He had power, power enough 
to permanently rewire his brain. Using his major charge, Curtis remade his 
mind to immediately act on any random thought that popped into his head. 
Only by acting on every whim would he truly understand chaos. Curtis was 
transformed. One minute he'd be walking down the street. The next, he'd 
break a window and steal an umbrella, run off down the street, and throw 
himself in front of a passing car, get up, dust himself off, and begin 
writing cryptic messages on newstands. It was then that the House came a 
callin.'
The Room of Oblivion doesn't normally pick Entropomancers. Their personal 
theories actually work (for them), so they don't have some of the 
starry-eyed gullibility that many of the conspiracy nuts have.  But the 
current Agent of the Room of Oblivion felt that Curtis Delmore was taking 
this chaos thing too far. By rewiring his brain, he had taken that crucial 
step off the deep end that signified a very, very obsessed individual.
Curtis didn't take too well to the Room of Oblivion. His mind kept flitting 
from one topic to another, keeping him from every really getting the gist 
of the Room. Something in him was broken too irreparably for the Room to 
work properly. At long last, with Curtis constantly changing directions on 
the stairs, trying to grab the images, or simply chanting, "Back, and to 
the left" over and over, the Agent had to pay a personal visit. Curtis 
tossed him off the Stairs.
It's not a good thing to have a crazy Entropomancer left alone in a room 
with power over chaos. While the Room was slowly draining the effects of 
Curtis's major charge off, Curtis was subtly remaking the Room. By the time 
Curtis was restored to 'normal' sanity, it was already too late for the 
Room. Curtis was its master now and he had a message to spread.
Now, Curtis works for the Room, bringing in those who derive too much 
meaning from life. Petty and small-minded, Curtis wants to reform the world 
in his image, and he'll circumvent all the normal channels to do it. Right 
now, he's starting small, picking people that legitimately the Room would 
have picked anyway. He's never met an Invisible Clergy member, but he's met 
avatars before and knows what they're tapping into. He doesn't want the 
Statosphere on his ass. Not yet, anyhow. Maybe when he has more followers.
Curtis is still tripping on his power-mad fantasies. He's incurred no major 
roadblocks to his quest. The few people he has pissed off have been easily 
dealt with. One unlocked door later and they're either reborn not 
remembering him, or they're dead. The Key of Nothing allows him easy escape 
from any predicaments he does find himself in.
Curtis's plan is to drive the world into chaos. He doesn't see Entropomancy 
as just a way to live. He sees it as the way everybody should live. Order 
and meaning get in the way of truth, blinding the populace to what's really 
out there.
Curtis resembles Tim Roth doing an impression of Armand Assante. He has a 
bizarre fondness for the old Shadow radio dramas and dresses in a black 
fedora and black trenchcoat.
Personality: Curtis is pretty much insane. Besides the curious bent all 
Entropomancers have, Curtis's brain rewiring screwed him up even more. Even 
now that the effect has worn off, Curtis has in insatiable desire for 
Oblivion. He spends way too much time alone, contemplating how to introduce 
more random chance into society. He stays at the edges of society, never 
blending well with people anymore. He holds a grudge quite well, though. It 
is a sad day when a cop attempts to stop him. Chances are, that cop will 
soon be quitting his job upholding law and order and become an anarchist 
punk.
Obsession: Curtis is obsessed with oblivion, chaos, random chance, and the 
pure unalderated joy of never knowing what's coming. He has a habit of 
plotting and planning his next move to the nth degree, but then forgetting 
one important step and having to run for his life. Still, this isn't enough 
for him to change his ways. He likes the fact that people keep surprising 
him. It only proves his own theory again.
Wound Points: 68

Passions
Rage Stimulus: People who think the world makes sense. Curtis will go out 
of his way to prove that it doesn't, even if that requires a quick trip to 
the Room.
Fear Stimulus: (Helplessness) Meeting those even more power-mad than 
himself. Other people's obsessions scare him. He knows the depths he's gone 
to prove his obsession. Who knows to what depths people will sink to have 
an even bigger hard on for their obsession than him?
Noble Stimulus: Curtis has a soft spot for abused women. While he never 
abused his own wife, he certainly didn't treat her right. Not that this 
necessarily stopped him from the course he followed, but he does 
occasionally experience regret over it.

Stats
Body: 68 (Hard Knock Life)
Speed: 73 (S) (Running from the Cops)
Mind: 40 (Crazy Like a Fox)
Soul: 88 (Obsessing nicely, thank you very much)

Skills
Body Skills:  General Athletics 50%, Dirty Fighting 62%, Take a Punch 45%
Speed Skills: Driving 30%, (Get the Hell Out of) Dodge 67%, Cheating at 
Poker 59%, Firearms 52%
Mind Skills: General Education 30%, Notice 38%, Conspiracy Theories 21%
Soul Skills: Lying 78%, Charm 32%, Entropomancy 88%, House of Renuncation 
67%

Madness Meters
Violence	Unnatural	Helplessness	Isolation	Self
6 Hardened	6 Hardened	10 Hardened	10 Hardened	10 Hardened
1 Failed		2 Failed		4 Failed		3 Failed		4 Failed

Possessions
	Curtis keeps a small apartment in Las Vegas and spends most of his time 
there (The Room scares him). He keeps a gun on him at all times, but often 
changes it out with local contacts, especially if he has had to fire it 
recently. He keeps the Key of Nothing on him at all times and bears 
numerous scars from having to use its properties. Curtis generally has 
between 5-6 minor charges and occasionally will have a significant one.


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