I'm having the strength just be a generalization of a special ability without giving it a score or a hard definition of when it can be used. I think the strength adds a level of unwanted complexity otherwise.
[MENTION=40413]GlassEye[/MENTION] : Agreeing with you about the strength/power.
[MENTION=8243]doghead[/MENTION] : See comment above.
[MENTION=386]LostSoul[/MENTION] : I simplified the issue while adding your comment as a strength.
[MENTION=11195]Seonaid[/MENTION] : That's ok. Would like to have you on board anyway. Perhaps as another guest.
This is what I have so far for character sheets once I tried to tie each objective and background to each other. Let me know what you think and we can tweak where needed.
The Soldier
Abilities
-
Covertly: d6
Directly: d8
-
For Myself: d4
For Others: d12
-
With Love: d6
With Violence: d10
-
Objective: Restore the lost fortunes and status of his family. Will try to use the tempter demon and the spirit of Adam Hesse to his advantage.
Strength: Carries and is quite proficient with his sabre and flintlock pistol. Also, can somehow see and communicate with the tempter demon and Adam Hesse's spirit, though others cannot.
A soldier, a decade away from home campaigning in foreign countries, returns to find his family dishonoured, their ancestral home abandoned and haunted, his parents dead and his siblings missing. Bitter at this ill treatment of his family by the country he has sacrificed so much to protect, he heads to Count Rouge's abode in an attempt to make a reversal.
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The Tempter Demon
Abilities
-
Covertly: d12
Directly: d6
-
For Myself: d6
For Others: d10
-
With Love: d8
With Violence: d4
-
Objective: Keep its hold on the spirit of Adam Hesse. Complete its release from being bound by the stone crypt in the garden in which the soldier found it.
Strength: Can appear in the form of what other people want to see. Appears to the soldier as having a similar face and dress as a well-respected family elder, though soldier also knows the tempter is not as it seems.
An it, without gender. Takes on the forms that it thinks other people want to see. Wants to "help" others get what they want but has no empathy or concern for social mores. Genuinely wants to help but all assistance provided is horribly messed up. May or may not have a physical existence outside of the desires of those around it. May have some sort of weakness related to science and/or reason. Was partly freed by bending the will of a now dead monk, though the spirit of Adam Hesse stopped the ritual from being completed.
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Adam Hesse, the Spirit
Abilities
-
Covertly: d10
Directly: d6
-
For Myself: d12
For Others: d6
-
With Love: d4
With Violence: d8
-
Objective: Adam wants revenge on the tempter demon and the return of his body (not necessarily in that order).
Strength: Manifestation of Form; Though bodiless Adam can manifest briefly when experiencing strong emotion and only when acting for others.
Student of modern magics at the College whose interests lay more with dueling than with his studies. Fell madly for a beautifully young and mysterious woman who gave him the gift of a strangely cast silver ring. A dispute with another student over the girl led to a duel at an abbey ruined and rumored to be haunted. Adam was pierced beneath the arm and lost consciousness. Awakening, Adam’s world was shrouded in mist and he found himself in a spirit state trapped between life and death, held in the mansion by the presence of the silver ring and his body stolen by the demonic creature who masqueraded as the beautiful young woman.
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Story:
A veteran soldier of the Thirty Years War heads to the site of an old, supposedly haunted abbey called the Abbe Le Mont Saint Michel. The locals say that the current master, one Count Rouge, is a recluse, conducting strange alchemical experiments in his facilities. Others claim that he has run afoul of an obscure magical order. Stories surround the abbey and the Count, some dealing with contracts made with the devil, the whispered pleas of long lost loved ones carried on the wind during moonless nights, and the disappearances of local villagers. Despite the murmurs of evil acts, the nobility does nothing about Count Rouge as the fortress was too important during the 30 years war and the noble's support steadfast.
But once a year, on the Day of the Dead, the first day of November, Count Rouge throws the doors to his home open to a baker's dozen men or women of his choosing. They are then entertained by Count Rouge, and are there to entertain in kind. These thirteen are given invitations without rhyme or reason, and they all inevitably accept and come from the lands both near and far, for at the end of the night Count Rouge bestows the heart's desire of one of the lucky thirteen. As for the other twelve, not all that come into the abbey leave, and of those that leave, not all come forth sane.
And so the veteran walks to the abbey, invitation in hand. And along the way he stops to rest in an old garden near a monastery, where he is met by two men who ask if they may accompany him. The veteran knows that there is something odd about the men, for he can see and hear them while others cannot. One is in actuality a tempter demon, partially freed back onto the world, but hopeful that he can convince the soldier to free his spirit completely from its prison. Another is the spirit of a young man, hopeful to influence the proceedings in a way to have the alchemist restore his soul to an able body. The veteran has his own wishes. And so the three travel to the Mont Saint Michel, each with his own heart's desire, each having to act through one man, and each ready to face the secrets of the haunted abbey.
