[UA] A quick question about demons.

[David M Jacobs]

At 06:34 AM 25/05/02 -0700, Chris Cooper wrote:

>I think the demon should come with a preset
>"personality habits" that describe what its going to
>do when it arrives. I might just sod off or scream at
>the summoner or gather unto a magic carpet-like cloud
>of flies and go sail the updrafts.
>
>I kind of think that a demon must always possess the
>first available host is dimishing the great stories
>that can come out of them.

I agree, FWIW; a demon's choice in hosts should reflect its 
motivations.  The "first available" thing should only apply in 
emergencies.  Take Azazel, from Fallen, forex (he was a demon in the 
classical sense, but would work equally as well as a UA demon).  He leapt 
from host to host to cause confusion, mayhem and murder; only when he had 
no options left at the end did he possess the cat.

A satyriatic demon who could never physically keep up with his desires 
might decide to possess an attractive woman, so that he could fulfill his 
desires through nymphomania (by the common, not clinical, definition).

OTOH, a demon who was formerly a social worker might decide that she wants 
to find out what it's really like to be a black man.

A demon whose goal in life was immortality might possess family members and 
descendants, a la Ephraim Waite from HPL's "The Thing on the Doorstep".

One who (for whatever reasons) enjoyed doing his tax return might choose to 
possess only accountants, forex.  OTOH, if he was an Exorcist fan as well, 
he might occasionally possess pubescent girls and make them 
projectile-vomit pea soup.

I can just imagine the PCs bursting into a bedroom to find a young lass, 
swaying from side to side, chanting, 
"Next-week-he-comes-find-more-deductions-audit-soon-must-balance-chequebook-HWOOOOOOAAARK!!" 
#%o)

Of course, the demon doesn't have to possess a person; it could possess a 
building, for example, as in this scenario:

The PCs get a call from a friend working at IceForge, a medium-size 
computer games company.  Last Monday morning, their friend says, someone 
found the two halves of the body of a janitor on the 4th floor, in the 
corridor of the Marketing Department.  The janitor was crushed through the 
middle.  (Imagine taking to a Jelly Baby with a pair of needlenose pliers.)

Security footage doesn't show what happened (the janitor died in a blind 
spot), but it does show that the cameras on the 4th floor were apparently 
suddenly, simultaneously dropped 5' for about 10 minutes, late on the 
previous Friday night; they then apparently returned to their original 
positions, with equal speed.

External footage shows three drunk men playing baseball with a rotten 
orange and an umbrella in the parking lot next door during this time.  Upon 
investigation, these three men turn out to be IceForge programmers who 
decided to stop at a nearby bar for a drink after work.  It had been 
raining earlier that day, so one took his umbrella with him; they found the 
orange sitting in a gutter.

The IceForge Building was constructed in the mid-1980s by a Japanese 
investment company, owned by a businessman by the name of Date 
Tokaji.  Date also purchased the adjacent lot and turned it into a baseball 
diamond; he sponsored a company team, which played against other amateur 
teams in the area.  When Japan entered recession, Date's company went 
belly-up and he committed suicide.  IceForge purchased the building and a 
property developer purchased the baseball field, which was paved over and 
turned into the parking lot.

In late 19th-century American buildings, it's not unknown for floor 
numbering to skip the 13th floor; however, in Japan, the number 4 is 
considered unlucky (and linked with death).  Consequently, many Japanese 
buildings lack a 4th floor.  This was the case with this building, too, at 
least until IceForge bought it; the CEO of the time thought this silly and 
renumbered the floors above 3rd.

Date still inhabits the building, residing on the phantom, "real" 4th 
floor, which exists between the 3rd and old 5th (now 4th) floors of the 
building.  Normally, this floor remains dormant and does not penetrate into 
our reality; however, when Date has the opportunity to indulge his love of 
baseball, the floor materialises, so he can watch from the windows.  The 
fateful Friday night just happened to be the first time that anyone played 
baseball in the adjacent lot since he died.

Furthermore, however, when the floor appears, it doesn't just add an extra 
level; it splits the old 5th (now 4th) floor in half, a la Being John 
Malkovich.  The Janitor just happened to be cleaning this floor at the 
time.  The cameras weren't dropped 5' -- they picked up the new 5th floor 
materialising halfway up the old walls.

During the PCs' investigation, it transpires that one of the three 
programmers was a chronic alcoholic (perhaps even a Dipsomancer if you want 
to throw the PCs into a spin); he's killed in a car accident on the way 
home from work.  All of his co-workers commemorate his loss with a minute's 
silence, and many attend his funeral.

Meanwhile, the PCs may get the idea to play a baseball game in the carpark 
and see what happens.  The phantom 4th floor materialises, and the PCs can 
enter (with a bit of tampering with the lifts); should they be standing 
upright on the floor when this happens -- SQUICK!  Inside, they notice an 
animated vacuum cleaner patrolling the halls, no doubt propelled by the 
janitor's invisible spirit.  The floor layout is the same as the rest of 
the building, save that all but three offices are empty.

The largest office is bedecked in Japanese memorabilia and Seibu Lions 
souvenirs; this is Date's.  Another appears identical to the dead 
programmer's office, as it was when he was alive.  The third one has a desk 
covered in financial statements, with a large, spool-printer calculator and 
a framed photo of a man and a woman; the identity of the office's owner is 
a mystery.  All evidence disappears once the baseball game ends and the 
floor dematerialises.  At no time do the PCs see any occupants (they're all 
invisible).

If the PCs try to follow up the man or the woman in the photo, it turns out 
that the woman worked in the accounting department.  She died from a heart 
attack in her sleep, at home, about 2 years ago.  Should the PCs interview 
her family (the man in the photo turns out to be her husband), they 
discover that she coached her son's Little League team.

By now, even the dumbest PCs should start to see the baseball link.  The 
janitor died on-site, but the only things linking the programmer and the 
accountant are that they worked in the same building, and that they both 
participated in baseball.  They didn't even die at work.

Date wants to recruit another baseball team, and he's willing to trap the 
souls of IceForge's dead baseball fans to do it.  This might not be a huge 
problem, as the company could covertly fire/refuse to hire baseball fans.

There's a minor spanner in the works, though: IceForge's new baseball sim, 
HardBall, is about to enter alpha-testing.  During the initial run, 
everyone in the building hears the discordant notes of one of those trumpet 
things that spectators have at sports matches.  To make matters worse, 
anyone in the building (even if they're not IceForge employees) who's 
suitably impressed by HardBall becomes a potential victim.  IceForge can't 
simply can HardBall, or the investors will get stroppy.

How can they stop Date?  What happens if he manages to capture a full team?



David M Jacobs
dmjacobs at zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~dmjacobs/
ICQ UIN: 17027598

"'Kevin,' David interrupted, 'what the Germans should have done
was show the Russians a dead cat and ask them to explain it.'

"'That would have stopped the Soviet offensive right there,' I said.
"Zhukov would still be trying to account for the cat's death.'"

— from Valis, by Philip K Dick


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