[In Nomine] The Little Black Files

[pyrephox]

Deep in the Citadel of Bone, there is a large, windowless room. This room is stacked floor to ceiling with books, scrolls, and parchements, all of them made from human, demon, or angelic skin. These are Saminga's Black Files, and his most closely held secret.

The room is tended by five damned souls, each chosen for having passively witnessed some of the world's worst atrocities. Medical assistants at Tuskegee, note-takers in torture rooms, those who counted out the minutes until the gas chambers finished their dirty works, these are the souls who Saminga covets for this work. Each of them is infected with a celestial disease, its effects staved off by artifacts imbedded in the walls. Leaving the range of the artifacts results in a rapid and painful decay of Forces. Other than that, the souls have the best job of all Abbaddon...they never see demons, they are left entirely alone, with their only tasks being to file whatever appears, fetch whatever is ordered, and alert their Lord immediately if anyone who isn't one of the five is seen.

If one could browse among the files, they'd quickly see why such stringent isolation and security is required. On the shelves are detailed and meticulous accounts and theories of what it takes, or might take, to kill any and every creature of note in the universe...including Lucifer himself. Methods for elimating ethereal gods are here, from straight force-stripping to the slaughter of worshippers, to the twisting of their worship until they starve. Every weakness, wound, or note of dissonance that has been witnessed on Archangel or Demon Prince is jotted down, with suppositions on how to escalate weakness into death. Every recorded death of a Superior is also mentioned here, in as much detail as could be gathered. It's a staggering amount of information, with commentary from the being who knows Death better than any other.

Needless to say, the other Princes would NOT be amused at finding their files, and what Lucifer might say upon reading about speculations on exposing the First Balseraph to the unvarnished Light of Heaven is anyone's guess. Saminga has no desire to find out; especially since he's already used the files to plan and execute several assassinations, mostly of powerful Word-Bound whose Words were just a little too close to Death for his liking. There are also several plots against Princes and Archangels that either never quite came to fruition, or are in progress at this time.

Plot Hooks:

Samingans (Hell)-- The PCs are sent on a mission to gather information for the Black Files, trying to worm their way into Stygia's chaotic violence and discover Malphas' most well-hidden weaknesses. Politics, subterfuge, and the kind of subtlety which isn't the norm among Samingans is required, with Impudites, Balseraphs, and Lilim preferred.

Samingans (Earth)-- The PCs are actually given one of the Black Files, a book of Seraphic skin, and told to assassinate the subject of the file: the Ofanite Angel of Last Minute Rescues. According to the files, he's recently picked up a point of dissonance, but Saminga has no interest in having him Fall. He wants celestial death, messy, brutal, and without his proxies getting caught. Yesterday the Ofanite was sighted in Reno, but who knows where he is /today/...

Other Demons (Hell)-- The PCs' Superiors have begun to hear whispers about the Black Files, and particularly the one whose subject is Lucifer. The mission of the PCs is to infiltrate Abbaddon and find that file, as well as destroying any files on their Superiors.

Angels-- A Black File has been found, detailing the death of a recently destroyed Word-Bound angel. The PCs need to find who has created these files, how many there are, and what kind of threat they pose to Heaven as a whole. Depending on the Angelic Superiors involved, secondary missions may include destroying the Files, or stealing them for the use of Heaven. Either way, it's going to be a Hell of a mission...

Comments

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

Creepy.

I like it!

[aberrantangels]

High praise indeed. And I second it.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Thank you both!

[byzantienne]

Oooh, that's neat.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

And, when you're thinking about what's in those files (How accurate could it be, really?)...

Think about a Superior level Calabite of Death attunement, applied to anything short of a stronger Superior.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

I like this.

I like this better than Saminga wearing a Pharoah's headdress and demanding that Steve Martin's soul be delivered to him so he can perform King Tut for all eternity.

I really like this.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

And in thanks...you have scarred me.

Please, take these images from mine eyes!

[cpip.livejournal.com]

The corpulent Shedite squirmed on his throne. A dozen bleeding mouths chanted along with the singing monkey with an arrow through his head. It was when several mouths began to sing the backup that the remnants of Steve's mind -- what little remained now that his soul resembled that of a monkey's -- truly broke.
"Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia..."

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

His mind and mine both. *CRY*

[cpip.livejournal.com]

Yay! I too can write brainbreaky drabbleness. I am so proud. *pose*

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

*snaps a quick picture*

[radlilim.livejournal.com]

Very cool. And one of the first thoughts that I had was "And this means that Yves' Library and Krono's Archives can get there also." So another plot is the PCs are in one of those places and accidetnly end up there.

*another memory for the Saminga file*

Keep them coming!

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

In my campaigns, I tend to downplay the uber-connectiveness of the Library and the Archives for reasons of balance, but yeah, technically I suppose they could. :)

Thanks.

[radlilim.livejournal.com]

To impose more balance I would just make them only take people where _I_ want them to go. The cannon has them as almost intelligent. I was just thinking it would be another way to get people into his vault.

[archangelbeth]

*applause*