Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 00:39:02 -0500 From: Daiajo Tibdixious MACS <"svs::svist070"@svs6pub.svh.unsw.EDU.AU> To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [TORG:1793] Cosm of Pain [This is far from complete, and contains some known inconsistencies, however I would appreciate comments on this V0.1] Intundivel - the Cosm of Pain ========== Intundivel is a main cosm called "Hell", plus numerous fringe realities that are dominated by the main cosm. They are linked by all having Hells Magic and Spirit axioms and Hell is the hell of every religion in the fringe realities. Each fringe reality is a single world cosm, with their own creation myths, Tech levels, and Social culture. Hell is an infinite sized underground cavern. The main point of this cosm is that pain is interchangable with possibility energy, so that pain is good (but still painful). This only occurs in Hell, however. There is little relevance to the pwars, but it does have a special place where you can deposit persons you want out of the way, but don't want to kill. Also the 'education' process can convert them into a better person (upon graduation, the people in this area are released). If you are dead, its not a bad place to go to gain pe and maybe return. I use "devil" and "demon" interchangeably. Both are long term denizens of Hell that have used the copious & freely available PE to build their skills and characteristics up to munchkin levels. Devils are civilised (power mad tyrants) while Demons are barbaric (roving destruction). Food isn't required in Hell, due to the lack of time and the high amount of free PE. The dead from the worlds don't automatically go to this hell, but EVERY relgion on these worlds has this place as its hell (devils & other undead can be summoned, making the place verifiable, and living persons can visit and leave much more easily than the dead. Anyone with any Faith in any of these religions will end up in hell. I havn't worked out the mechanism for the dead getting to hell, but I'm thinking of demon burrowing teams that go around plucking bodies out of the ground (based on the body's faith connection). I might use a WL to allow one way dimthread style things to pluck bodies into the main cosm. None of the religions use cremation as body disposal, because the person would then have to 'live' out hell as a pile of ash. (Which is workable, but very limiting.) Magic 16 -------- Magic is allowed, but not heavily used in Hell itself. Primarily, magic requires training, wishes don't work at all, impressed spells are possible (but I didn't want to make it axiom 17, even if its not the Spirit axiom!) for experienced mages. Summoning works well, but fancy magic items are unknown in Hell (possible but finding suitable materials is difficult). Social 6 Hell only, pocket cosms vary -------- The more powerful dictate over persons less powerful, and stake out an area of Hell to call their own. Most are followers of these rulers, but there are some individuals, and some tolerated individuals that travel about and spread news about who is ruling where. Family groups, teams, villages, etc aren't possible. Measurement of time is meaningless. Spirit 22 --------- There are many aspects of the 1 mythos. Priests can do invocations more or less once a week if sufficiently enraged. Just about everyone has Faith, but using miracles tends to invite trips to hell, so only priests and the mad attempt them. In game mechanical terms, the successful RPs are used as a DN to beat for someone in Hell to notice the miracle. The demon can then attempt to beat their Focus, and if successful pulls them into the living area of hell for RP days. Tech 4 Hell only, pocket cosms vary ------ There is a lack of raw materials except flesh and dirt, which severly limits the Tech axiom. Only once living materials can be brought into hell, so wooden spears, clubs, shields are possible but uncommon. Flesh tends to become very tough after some time in Hell, so equipment is generally spurned. Law of Pain ----------- Damage to the living is normal, but damage to the dead is merely theorectical and painful. The damage tables are reversed: ords use the prated column, prateds use the ord column. This is because "pain is good", and being more easily damaged is beneficial (in a perverted way). Damage can't be reduced by p-point expenditure, however unconsiousness can be averted. If enough damage can be reduced to prevent unconsiousness, then the person gains the full benefit of the damage in pain terms, other wise there is no benefit. The living heal normally, but the undead regenerate based on their "pain level". Living pain benefit: gradually the person learns to control pain, and can ignore K,O, and shock effects (as they gain pain levels) while in this reality. On leaving, they retain the resistance to pain, but it has no game mechanical effect. Each 5 wounds gives 1 p-point & 1 pain level. Pain Level 1 ignore K results and 1 shock 2 as for 1 plus ignore O, results and 1 more shock 2 as for 2 plus ignore KO, results and 1 more shock 3 as for 3 plus ignore knockdown results and 1 more shock N only Wound results have any effect, and shock is reduced by N Dead Pain benefit: 'eggs' grow in the dead, 1 point for each 5 wounds taken. When it is complete, it has Reality/Spirit possibilities, which can be released in a single explosion, or tapped 1 at a time in addition to personal possibilities (so a prated with 2 eggs, can spend up to 3 possibities at once, 1 personal, and 1 per egg). The egg can only be drained (not recharged), and drained or not, remains within the character. A new egg will form in the meantime. The up side of the explosion, is that if enough are exploded at once, the persons Spirit or Reality skill will increase by 1 (reducing the magnitude of the explosion). Each completed egg grants 1 pain level regardles of how it is subsequently used). This is deducted from damage result points for figuring actual damage caused, the person still gets the pain benefit of the original damage amount. A secret part of this is the drained eggs (even partially) have a corrupting effect on the character. Their Mind will decrease (with each drained egg), and their Toughness will increase, consuming/releasing pe to maintain the balance. (A Min 10 to 9 frees 10*3 = 30 poss, a Tou 7 to 8, consumes 8*3=24, leaving 6 personal poss gained.) Their attitude becomes more and more 'demoniac', and they eventually become mindless slaves of some powerful demon. The ideal (still secret) is to physically remove the egg from your body (pain), throw it at someone, and remote detonate it (a mental link is maintained thru any distance). Then duck and avoid the explosion completely. Someone hit by their own explosion will re-absorb some of the energy, which will go towards corrupting them. However avoided energy will still return, eventually imbuing the person with the entire PE total of the explosion, but in a non-corrupting form. This PE can only be used to build skills or characteristics, and is kept in a separate pool for each buildable item (the PE is spread 1 per skill, then 1 per characteristic). Buildable items automatically increase when sufficient PE is accumulated in its pool. If personal poss are spent towards building, the accumlated pool is used first. Remote detonated eggs don't build things, so the explosion is at full power. It is possible to detonate someone else's egg by physically ripping them open and touching it. Once someone else's egg has been detonated, the others in them can be set off remotely (in a chain reaction) by beating the others Reality (or Spirit) total for each one. Once all have been checked the remote detonation is blocked until another contact is made. Others egg explosions aren't harmful corruption wise. The PE count in the egg is the DV of the explosion, with an area effect. Eggs exploded internally ignore TOU for figuring RPs. Law of Life ----------- Sort of a funny name for a hell law, but it deals with the relationship between life force and body. This distinction is what allows the dead to regenerate quickly, and for both living and dead, the pe effects. Many in hell discover than life force can be easily be moved around, separated from matter, and rejoined. This leads to vampirism and healing. Each person carries roughly 1 unit of life force, but this is modified by the person's Spirit characteristic (above or below 10). A spirit of 15 allows 5/10-ths more to be stored, while an 8 gives a normal level 2/10-ths below normal. Those below normal can temporarily store up to 1 unit, but it gradually leaks back to their normal level. Those with more than 1 unit can store up to 2 units of energy, and only leak very slowly, also they absorb loose life force to maintain at least 1 unit. Spirits over 20 count as 20. Vampires generally are those of low spirit that drain others to boost themselves to a normal or greater than normal level. Each 1/10th can be used like 1 p-point worth of healing on transfer (as in packages of damage avoided). Vampires continually leak down to their normal value, and the alien life force gradually reduces their Spirit still further. At 0 they 'die'. Loosing all life force is the only way to 'die' in hell (actually you don't die, little bits of you become parts of the cosm, giving it a partially living character, all evil). The mechanism for loosing Spirit is if you can keep above your normal level by continually draining, you are ok, the moment it hits normal or below, 1 point of Spirit is converted back into possibilities, less the total number of life units drained in the last bout, leading to further loss of Spirit if there weren't enough poss generated. Healers transfer life force to the other person. People currently at less than 1 unit heal very slowly. The influx up to 1 allows them to heal normally, and further life allows them to use it for direct healing. Healing has the reverse effect of vampirism, it protects Spirit from declining. It also allows draining of others in a way that doesn't corrupt, by sorting out the pure life force from the personal parts. This sorting drain is very slow, the corrupting drain is result points (in 10ths) versus the others Spirit total. A failed roll may allow the drained to drain back their own life force. Possibilities awards are hard to come by in Hell. It is required to defeat and destroy (draining doesn't count) a more powerful character. The value of the difference of the largest skill difference is the reward. This makes it hard for vampires to build back up the lost Spirit. Characters that have survived draining gain the Life skill at (Spirit)+0. The Life skill can be used to attack anothers Life/Spirit, draining RP worth of 10th life units heal another, up to Life adds + bonus number 10ths per round defend against draining attack (allows an active defense) drain someone that tried to drain you, without any corrupting effects Law of Unescapability --------------------- Trying to leave by whatever means compells the denizens of Hell to try to stop you. The process of leaving takes a long time, plenty of time for many denizens to reach you. Leaving a fringe reality puts you in Hell every time. It is only from Hell that the Intundivel cosm can be left. Leaving basically means 1) having the means to escape (to the fringe realities is easier, but there is a problem if you are dead) 2) being tough enough to fight off the opposition, 3) being fast enough to avoid most of the opposition. Transfer to a pocket cosm takes a whole 'day' (each time there is combat, a 'turn' passes, each time the character is damaged out of combat, an 'hour' passes, once enough have been accumulated, the 'day' is up), while transfer out of the cosm takes 5 'days'. A character can hasten the time passing by throwing themselves off cliffs, under rolling boulders, etc, but is open to attack while injured. It is possible to burn a lot of possibilities (or use Magic or Miracles) to Ressurect dead characters back into a fringe reality (part of the escape mechanism). If using possibilities, it requires enough to completely rebuild the character, starting from all characteristics 1, and all skills +0.It is not possible to partially ressurrect, its all or nothing. The dead can function in the pocket cosms, but don't advance in any way. The priests of the pocket cosms can control the undead, or easily banish them back to Hell. These undead are a contradiction below Spirit axiom 20. (Summoned undead use the normal support axiom level.) Living Space ------------ This is a physically separate area of Hell created to satisfy a need for a 'punishment' zone for the living. Its is easy to get in & out of Intundivel from a special (earth) platform about 30m long at one end of this area. To the left of this platform is a reception area, being a transparent tunnel leading past an inspection station to a set of stairs into the main pit. All this stuff is over Hell's Tech and Social axioms, so the operator has to be prated. There is a magically imbedded Miracle at the inspection station that gives the operator a picture of the subjects soul. Anyone already 'educated' is rejected back to the starting platform. Anyone else proceeds down the stairs to the main pit (by whips if necessary). The main pit is a shallow rectanglar pit no more than 1m deep near the entrance. It is about 100m wide, and 200m deep, with a walkway around both sides and the front. This area has a visible roof about 50m up, but getting higher towards the back. The back has a huge hole across the back of the pit, opening up into a GIANT cave. Within the pit are small mounds and pits containing a single subject. A single demon (the 'waiter') makes the rounds of these 'tables' to service the 'customers'. This involves asking them some simple questions to roughly evaluate them, followed by enough damage to take them to mortally-wounded-but-conscious-and-not-dying if they give wrong answers. They are then left to heal. If they get the answers right, they get a new set of questions. Once right beyond the questions, they get to walk up the stairs and are retested. It is quite possible to walk down the embankment straight into the pit, and communicate with the inmates. Getting out may mean a fight with the local demon tho (on a whim). Customers who try to leave (that's a bit hard with what the demons do to you) are just tossed back in. Throwing someone in the pit has no effect, they can just leave, duress can only be used to get people into the inspection area. The 'education' is simply to teach people to deal with pain, to accept their situation, things like that. Once the customer stops blaming anyone for their predicament, accepts the upcoming pain without it being a big deal, can talk rationally despite pain & circumstance, etc, they are set free. Those that go insave are merely moved further back into the cave, where they get rougher treatment and less frequent checking. Anyone who dies goes to the main part of Hell via the normal mechanism. This whole environment was setup by a conclave of wizards, but the demons took over and perverted it to their own ends. Any Banishment type of spell sends people directly to the inspection chamber.