In Nomine in China

“Normal” Celestials

Ma Lei, Midwife

Molledet
Mercurian of Creation, IST Children (originally IST Flowers)

Attributes: ST 14 [0], DX 13 [-10], IQ 18 [45], HT 15 [10]

Advantages: Mercurian of Creation “IST” template, Force distribution (2/5/2) [29]; Vessel (aged Chinese woman, Struggling wealth) [20]; Role 4 (Ma Lei, grandmotherly local midwife) [20]; Extended Rite (Eli’s expanded Rite “Deliver a baby.”) [2]; Ally group (small group of fellow Mercurians of Creation, 100 points, appears rarely, 6 or less) [10]

Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Criminal Record) [-5]; IST Christopher [-5]; Code of Honor (Never talk about former clients; no sex selection, ever; don't charge if they can't afford) [-5]; Dependent (Lian, adoptee, 12 years old; 30 point build, loved one, appears on 12 or less (×2) ) [-24]

Skills: Chinese, Wu dialect (native)-19 [1], Angelic (native) [0], Calligraphy (Chinese)-12 [1], Literature (specialization, 20th century Chinese)-16 [1], Diagnosis/TL7-17 [2], Physician/TL7-18 [4], Area Knowledge (poor Shanghai neighborhoods)-18 [1], Streetwise-17 [1], Knife-13 [1]

Songs: Artifacts (Ethereal)-18 [0*]

*Mercurian of Creation Attunement

Equipment: lodgings and spare sundries of a poor Chinese woman supporting a granddaughter alone (80% “settled” portion of wealth); $1500 in surprisingly modern ob/gyn equipment hidden away in a secret room of the house; 2 talismans (Wu Chinese, 1 point each) [1]

Molledet is a balanced GURPS starting character.


“Molly,” about a hundred years old, has spent almost that long in China and is nearing the useful end of her current Role’s plausible lifetime. This is especially true since she is now in the public records, having been arrested multiple times for assisting local women in getting around China’s “one child” policy. The existence of this blasphemy against the Word of Creation is something that infuriates Molledet, as it does most Creationers and the Archangel himself, and since the first moment the People’s Republic instituted it, she has been helping women break it. She is a skilled doctor with a decent stash of equipment, some bought on a black market, some issued through Heaven’s resources, and some traded for from local hospital officials sympathetic to her work.

Molly keeps in touch with a few local Mercurians of Creation that get together to pool Essence on quick talisman projects every now and then, and will vouch for each other’s Roles. If some angels from out of town drop by, she hasn’t picked up English yet, but she has a couple of talismans for Shanghai’s most common dialect. She can also quick-shot a half-point talisman for any of the skills she knows, from medicine to local area knowledge to the art of calligraphy, if she has some way of accessing an additional 6 Essence (she’ll need a big reliquary, or someone else that knows Ethereal Artifacts).

A dozen years ago, she adopted a child that would have been born into particularly dire straits; this is usually frowned on by Heaven, since you can’t adopt them all and kids should be raised by humans, not angels, but generally speaking Heaven is understanding when an angel just can’t do anything else. Lian is a bright girl who has gotten a superb education in more ways than one, from rigorous book-learning to an escapade with a Windie Cherub to seeing her “grandmother” attacked by evil men, rescued by men with magic powers, and regularly interrogated by some strange government officials that seem to dislike her, but whom she treats with utmost respect. She is still a child, however, and Molledet will go to great lengths to protect her. Demons who get a whiff of that factoid would doubtless make trouble.

Shun, Renegade (Tolerated) Habbalite of Factions

Shun
Renegade Habbalite of Factions

Attributes: ST 14 [0], DX 16 [20], IQ 16 [20], HT 14 [0]

Secondary attributes of note: Will 19 [24]

Advantages: Habbalite of Factions template(Renegade version, see Disadvantages), Force distribution (2/3/4) [0]; not being hunted (buys off Enemy from Renegade template) [15]; Vessel (obese middle-aged Han Chinese man) [30]; Role 3 (Father Jing Shanxi, priest with Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, Ecclesiastical Rank 1) [20]

Disadvantages: Renegade [-30]; Corporeal Discord 1 (Fat) [-15]; Fanaticism (CPCA) [-15]; Secret Identity (Father Shun, underground priest, faces social disgrace and possible imprisonment) [-10]

(105 points)

Skills: Chinese, Mandarin dialect (native)-16 [0], Chinese, Cantonese dialect-16 [2], English-16 [2], Helltongue (native)-16 [0], Bard-17 [4], Writing-17 [4], Guns/TL7 (Rifle, familiar with AK-47)-19 [2]; Karate-15 [2]; Theology (specialization, CPCA)-21/15 [4], Fast-Talk-16 [2], Politics-15 [1], Stealth-16 [2], Philosophy (Mao Zedong Thought)-14 [1]

Songs: Charm (Celestial)-14 [4], Possession-13 [2], Healing (Corporeal)-12 [4]

* Skill levels listed are effective skills on Earth.

Equipment: AK-47, Corporeal Artifact/5, Summonable [5]; Second Chance Standard Kevlar vest (PD 2, DR 14); sundries of a settled bachelor civil servant (80% Average wealth), remaining cash


This is it, you see. This is the means whereby God will shatter the Papist Antichristian power structure, throw the Pope’s puppet Archangel from his post as Commander of the Host, and manifest fully on Earth as an embodied, immediate ruler of the living world, enforcing His will upon the infinitesimal specks of His Creation. The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is His Vessel, as surely as this body is Shun’s. First, though, we must break free of foreign influences: the Church must be moved to declare the CPCA’s believers in schism, true heretics, and its followers exhorted to abandon the (un)Holy See as any moral guide. Shun realized himself that in order to more closely bind the CPCA to its corporeal manifestations, he himself had to disavow his Demon Prince, despite the risk to his own skin, in order to devote himself completely to the People’s authority. This he did, spitting in one of Malphas’ eyes, shattering his Heart and daring the Game to come after him.

To his astonishment, they didn’t. Malphas examined Shun’s work – ministering secretly to the underground Chinese Church, encouraging them to see themselves as true Catholics and to hate the followers of the CPCA, propagandizing among his legal followers to regard underground Catholics as agents of a foreign power – and decided that, for the moment, the demon continues to serves Malphas quite well. The Habbalite’s delusion of independence spurs his activities, and as long as he is fomenting tensions Malphas is quite willing to ask the Game to let him work. Eventually, there will probably be some sort of resolution to the matter, at which point Malphas intends to let the Game collect Shun and have some torturers explain a few things about having loyalty to human governments, but that will be in the future.

As might be surmised from this history, Shun is considerably more strong-willed than smart. He is fairly bright – nobody survives this game for very long without being able to juggle identities and move smoothly from one line of snake-oil to another – but by far more supernaturally capable than strategically foresighted.

(As an unrepentant demon priest who maintains his associations with the CPCA, Shun is formally excommunicate in the Catholic hierarchy and his sacraments are invalid for supernatural purposes that require them, such as Khalid’s Rites of Faith Attunement.)

Shun has -55 points in Disadvantages once the reduced value of Renegade is taken into account. He is otherwise a balanced, 100-point GURPS starting character.


The material presented here is the creation of William Keith, and is intended for use with the In Nomine and GURPS systems from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.


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