Filling details on DEMON

[SirViss]

Hello everybody,

 

I don't know how I did it but i managed to rope myself into using a villain organization that I'm not ready to use. So I send this S.O.S. out to HEROdom.

 

I'm sure some of you have used DEMON. I was just wondering how you guys used this org. Are they just VIPER with wands?

 

Mainly, what would a typical DEMON Initiate would be like. CU was nice enough to give the "typical" stats for a Brother and a Morbane, but all it say about Initiates is that they are usually the field-commanders, and that they have a Golden Wand that can harm those that it touches.

 

P.S.: I have really only started playing HERO since the FRed came out, so I don't have any references from the previous editions, and my funds are limited, so I don't plan on buying supplements form the previous editions either.

 

Edit notres: DOH! I really should read the rest of the DEMON entry. They give the stats for the membership of a typical Demonhame at the bottom of the page!

[SirViss]

* BUMP *

 

I guess nobody uses DEMON after all...

 

Oh well, I guess I should find that grind stone...

[Armitage]

When "Classic Organizations" came out, it revealed that the commonly encountered Demon organization is a decoy. The real Demon created it as an "occult-themed Viper" to keep heroes and government agencies distracted while the real Demon (a purely occult and much more covert organization) went about its plans in the background.

The leaders of the real Demon (the Inner Circle Morbanes) consisted of a sorcerer with grafted demonic body parts, a voodoo priestess, an undead knight, a corrupted wood sprite, and Baba Yaga (yes THE Baba Yaga).

[Lord Liaden]

Sorry, SirViss, I was kinda busy earlier today. I'm surprised that nobody else pursued this already, though.

 

In both its 4th Edition and 5th Edition incarnations, DEMON is (at least as far as its rank and file is concerned) a Satanist or pseudo-Satanist cult, worshipping the Infernal Powers in exchange for boons from them. In my own games I've run the bulk of the membership similar to the pop concept of the "world-wide Satanist conspiracy": apparently normal people who might be your neighbors, who are actually conducting secret black magic rituals. Summoning demons to grant favors or attack enemies, brainwashing new indoctrinees into the cult through magic, children raised to be sacrifices or hosts for demons... the whole schtick. Members may be drawn from any social stratum, from street gangsters up to powerful politicians and businessmen. This sort of background also lends itself well to a paranoia-inducing campaign; you can never be sure who is controlled by DEMON or actually a member.

 

DEMON's goals and methods were generally less overt and obvious than other villainous organizations. Rather than stealing money or technology or developing super weapons, DEMON would seek out rare artifacts, magical tomes or sites of power, or try to recruit or kidnap people with magical potential. Often these objectives are more easily achieved through research or simple theft than through armed assaults. If you like to run mysteries you can have the heroes attempt to piece together the connection between the theft of inscribed stone tablets from the ruins of ancient Harappa, and the kidnapping of their friend the Sanskrit scholar. This generally leads the heroes to a climactic assault in an attempt to stop the World Threatening Ritual from being completed.

 

In my campaigns DEMON did not often oppose superheroes through direct force, at least not if they were just making a nuisance of themselves. Heroes who interfered with DEMON operations were more likely to have curses inflicted upon them (usually in the form of Physical or Psychological Limitations, Vulnerabilities or the like), or be subjected to magical scrying to learn their secrets to use against them. Socially powerful members of the cult could also use their influence to make life difficult for the heroes. One exception would be mystic PCs who have knowledge or items of power that DEMON wants, but even then they preferred ambush to open assault.

 

Demon worship is generally depicted as being evil and depraved, drawing the most corrupt of individuals or corrupting them after they've been pulled in. The membership of DEMON have figuratively sold their souls, and in the case of the higher ups probably literally. These are people whom you can portray as vile and despicable as you want - no act is too evil for them if it advances their goals, and they may commit wickedness for the sheer pleasure of it. They can be enemies your heroes have no compunction about stomping on. OTOH the cult may have lured in some misguided DNPC of a hero, who is now actively working for DEMON. Scenarios may involve rescuing the innocent victim, or being betrayed to DEMON by him. He or she might even be the host for a possessing demon, creating a new supervillain to be specifically used against the heroes.

 

One classic element of using DEMON is the "summoning that goes wrong" scenario: something that they attempt to call up gets loose and goes on a rampage. The heroes may have to try to contain the monster while fighting DEMON who want it back, or perhaps the creature is now out to destroy the local Demonhame for its presumption and DEMON offers to help the heroes stop it. Ah, but do the heroes trust them?

 

I hope you find some useful ideas there.

[Chuckg]

Three words as to how I plan to use my (highly customized and definitely non-canon) version of DEMON.

 

Wolfram and Hart.

 

 

Demon-robed cultists are a dime a dozen. Powerful, wealthy, fanatical worshippers of the Elder Gods who use their powers and otherworldly resources to act as one of the most respected, feared, and bulletproof law firms in existence? Who use black magic combined with genius-level legal talent to perform 'services' for their valued clients, and gain mucho influence at every level, while repeatedly twisting the law to hide behind?

 

That's something else again entirely.

 

("Angel" reference.)

[SirViss]

Thanks Chuckg! I had a (very) fleeting though that went along the same line, but your suggestion has made it gel a lot better.

 

LL: Many thanks to you for your suggestions. Quite a few things that made sense, but the players I have are new to the system and the genre, so I don't want to hit them with curses yet. Don't want them to get discouraged this early in the campaign. They haven't even got inflated egoes yet! Once they get to big for their britches, THEN the curses and NCI can enter the campaign.

 

But keep the ideas coming. I am sure that there are more good ideas and suggestion out there...

[winterhawk]

Lord L is his usual brilliant self in his explanation. I run DEMON pretty much the same way.

 

My DEMON also brokers in souls. One of their agents in my campaign is Gift, created by GM mentor. Its a play off the word gift in english (a present) and german (poison). He does the usual 'soul for great power with the ironic twist' per Twilight Zone, but I've had him do some pretty cruel variants of that, like having junkies sell thier souls for the best high ever. "All I have to do is sign this paper and I get a free fix?....where do I sign?"

[Lord Liaden]

Plot Seeds for DEMON

 

Here are a few ideas for scenarios using DEMON that I posted on the great "Plot Seeds" thread. Maybe there's something here you could use.

 

------------------------------------------

 

I have seen the Dark!

A DNPC or other close acquaintance of one of the heroes has become involved in a cult, and the PC becomes concerned over his or her changed behavior. If the PC attempts to remove the convert from the cult headquarters by force, he is suddenly confronted by a host of hostile DEMON Brothers, including his DNPC. Alternatively, in a battle with DEMON the PC recognizes his friend among the forces opposing the heroes. The convert may even be possessed by a demon and have super-powers of his own.

 

The heroes will doubtless try to rescue the convert without actually harming him. Even if they succeed, they will still have to deprogram him or exorcise the possessing demon. They may think they've succeeded, but the DNPC could have actually been a willing participant in DEMON activities and is just waiting for the chance to betray the heroes to his masters.

 

It followed me home, honest.

After an attack by the heroes on a Demonhame, they're surprised to discover a small, adorably cute creature has hitched a ride back with them on their super vehicle, under a hero's cape, or the like. The creature ingratiates itself with the PCs who may decide to adopt it as a mascot.

 

Some time after bringing the creature to their base of operations, the heroes start to experience a string of non-damaging but bizarre failures of their facilities and equipment: blaster pistols shoot soap bubbles, the base computer won't stop singing "Daisy, Daisy," gravity-defying costumes stop defying gravity at inopportune times, etc.

 

The heroes begin to suspect that their new mascot is responsible. (It is in fact one of the infamous Gremlins, mischievous fouler of gadgets and machinery.) Trying to find and remove the elusive creature from their headquarters may prove difficult, though, since the gremlin doesn't want to leave.

 

As a further complication, DEMON may have planted the gremlin on the heroes, waiting for their base security to be impaired and the PCs distracted by their gremlin-hunt before launching an attack.

 

A Night at the Museum

The PCs break up a raid by DEMON on a museum, library, or other facility hosting a collection of rare books or mystic artifacts. The administrators of the collection ask the heroes to remain at the facility overnight to guard the collection until it can be removed, or to take the artifacts back to their base for temporary safe-keeping.

 

However, the attack by DEMON was a ruse. Their goal may have been to steal another, more closely guarded item, or to assassinate the heroes. One of the items now in the PC's care has been switched with a vessel containing a powerful demon, which is released that night. The PCs find themselves being stalked through the shadowed halls by a powerful and cunning monster.

 

Who would miss them?

A social or charity worker or street contact of the heroes comes to them asking for help: over the past month a large number of homeless people have disappeared off the streets. Investigation by the PCs will reveal the number to be nearly a hundred. They may find a common connection among several cases - a medical or similar facility offering to pay for volunteers for medical research.

 

When the PCs visit the facility they stumble across a DEMON operation. DEMON may be using the homeless people as sacrifices for a summoning ritual, or to create a host of undead monsters under their control, or simply as food for some horror. Whatever the heroes discover, all signs indicate that this facility was only using a handful of victims; DEMON must have much bigger plans for the scores more in their possession.

[Derek Hiemforth]

A cool touch you can add to DEMON if you want is an acronym for their name. Bryant Berggren came up with a great one on the Hero mailing list several years ago: "Deus Est Mortem, Omnes Nox." The Latin may be questionable, but the meaning would be, "God Is Dead, All is Darkness."

[Lord Liaden]

Derek, that's beautiful. Gives an elegantly poetic twist to what always seemed to me to be a rather obvious moniker. You must remember to send that to whoever ends up writing the DEMON sourcebook.

[GestaltBennie]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth

A cool touch you can add to DEMON if you want is an acronym for their name. Bryant Berggren came up with a great one on the Hero mailing list several years ago: "Deus Est Mortem, Omnes Nox." The Latin may be questionable, but the meaning would be, "God Is Dead, All is Darkness."

 

That *was* cool. I play DEMON as an ancient apocalyptic cult, very much in the "mighty Cthulhu shall rise" mode.

 

Scott Bennie

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by GestaltBennie

That *was* cool. I play DEMON as an ancient apocalyptic cult, very much in the "mighty Cthulhu shall rise" mode.

 

Scott Bennie

 

Given the new DEMON's association with the Kings of Edom, that would be eminently appropriate as well.

[Mavnn]

I always liked the approach of Morden in Babylon 5.

 

"What do you want?"

 

You'd be surprised by player responses sometimes, and how unsharp they can be on occassion. I once played an NPC in a larps session who offered PCs what they _really_ wanted. In exchange for a unspecified favour of his choice, at the time of his chosing. The oath would then be mystically bond.

 

Out of the 20-30 people there, 3 took up the offer with qualification or haggling. I was, to say the least, shocked. Especially given that the guy was a) willing to deal fairly if asked (he struck genuinely mutually beneficial deals with several people), and fairly obviously a demon worshipping evil vampire had they bothered to think about things for even a moment.

 

Rather fortunately for the three characters involved, someone else ambushed the guy and killed him on the way home, having realised who he was.

 

Michael

[Shikarr]

I like the acronym. I run DEMON about the same as a Cthulu motif myself although I actually have 2 seperate DEMON groups now after I ran a civil war within DEMON as a background plot. The Inner Circle acually almost summoned an Elder God to Earth but it turned out to not be as benevolent to them as they had supposed and scared them straight in a way. The 4 members of the Inner Circle tried to change the focus of DEMON away from the Elder Gods and toward Hell, Hades, and Satan but the other members of the Inner Circle denied them that way. So DEMON to the world at large's benefit had a Civil war over the issue and basically became DEMON and ELDER DEMON in my world. With DEMON going the way of Damnation and ELDER DEMON going for the gods of Edom(Cthulu Mythos basically in my world) Running that in the background also caused lots of adventure seeds for me to use in the game of what to do for my Heros. Sometimes they would stay out of it completely when no innocents were in harms way and observe some battle between the divergent forces of DEMON, and others they would interfere on one side or the other to save the civilians, and other times would become a target for both. Much good role playing was had by all during it.

[Darren Watts]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

You must remember to send that to whoever ends up writing the DEMON sourcebook.

 

I think that'll be me, later this year. Sometime this spring I plan to start inflicting the group on my playtesters to try out some new twists. I'll probably start a "What You Want to See" thread around the same time. dw

[Eosin]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth

Bryant Berggren came up with a great one on the Hero mailing list several years ago: "Deus Est Mortem, Omnes Nox." The Latin may be questionable, but the meaning would be, "God Is Dead, All is Darkness."

 

 

That is SO stolen for my games.

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Darren Watts

I think that'll be me, later this year. Sometime this spring I plan to start inflicting the group on my playtesters to try out some new twists. I'll probably start a "What You Want to See" thread around the same time. dw

 

[Monty Burns]

Eeexcellent!

[/Monty Burns]

 

BTW Darren, have you and Steve decided when and where we're likely to get more information about the CU's other main gaggle of evil mystics, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon? The Ultimate Mystic, The Mystic World, Vibora Bay? Maybe Digital Hero?

 

I'm also curious about the Ouroboros cult that Dean Shomshak introduced in The Ultimate Super Mage. Their resident supervillain team, the Chosen of Abraxas, were written up in DH - will Ouroboros be an official part of the Champions Universe?

[Darren Watts]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

 

BTW Darren, have you and Steve decided when and where we're likely to get more information about the CU's other main gaggle of evil mystics, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon? The Ultimate Mystic, The Mystic World, Vibora Bay? Maybe Digital Hero?

 

Dunno yet, though if I had to bet I'd guess Mystic World. While Vibora Bay has lots of magic in it, it's pretty site-specific and will actually have a fair amount of mundane information and characters, and Ultimate Mystic probably isn't the place for deep analysis of a CU-setting character. MW will probably reveal more about the CSM, the Trismegistus gang, and specific mystics like Eldritch and Dweomer.

 

I'm also curious about the Ouroboros cult that Dean Shomshak introduced in The Ultimate Super Mage. Their resident supervillain team, the Chosen of Abraxas, were written up in DH - will Ouroboros be an official part of the Champions Universe?

 

Also too soon to tell, as none of this has been written anywhere but notes yet. I'd guess yes, but that'll primarily be up to Dean and Steve. dw

[FenrisUlf]

Some questions/remarks here.

 

1) Where does DEMON get recruits? One can understand how VIPER and ARGENT rope people in (they want to get rich now), but DEMON offers most recruits nothing but miserable servitude in this life and and eternity of the same in the next. I can only suppose DEMON uses something like the Temple of Set line (i.e., "serve us, and when the Kings of Edom return, they will make you a GOD!")

 

Also, where did the idea for the Kings of Edom come from? I thought they'd been invented for the game, but I recently read soemthing in an encyclopedia of occultism about the 'Kings of Edom' being the qlippothic 'Lords of Unbalanced Force', ancient survivals from a now-extinct universe. Did they come out of modern occultism or are they something just in the game?

[GestaltBennie]

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

Some questions/remarks here.

 

1)

 

Also, where did the idea for the Kings of Edom come from? I thought they'd been invented for the game, but I recently read soemthing in an encyclopedia of occultism about the 'Kings of Edom' being the qlippothic 'Lords of Unbalanced Force', ancient survivals from a now-extinct universe. Did they come out of modern occultism or are they something just in the game?

 

The "Edom" reference probably originally derives from the Biblical Edom, the mountainous and rather desolate region southeast of the Dead Sea that was given to Jacob's brother Esau in Genesis, and which has been turned into something wacky by mad prophets, conspiracy theorists. game designers, and overly cloistered monks. :-)

 

Scott Bennie

[misterdeath]

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

Some questions/remarks here.

Also, where did the idea for the Kings of Edom come from? I thought they'd been invented for the game, but I recently read soemthing in an encyclopedia of occultism about the 'Kings of Edom' being the qlippothic 'Lords of Unbalanced Force', ancient survivals from a now-extinct universe. Did they come out of modern occultism or are they something just in the game?

 

I believe the information in Ultimate Supermage was pulled and altered to some degree from the Kabbalah, a very ancient book of Jewish mysticism.

 

D-man would know more, I've the barest of understandings of the Kabbalah, and most of that's probably wrong.

 

D

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

Some questions/remarks here.

 

1) Where does DEMON get recruits? One can understand how VIPER and ARGENT rope people in (they want to get rich now), but DEMON offers most recruits nothing but miserable servitude in this life and and eternity of the same in the next. I can only suppose DEMON uses something like the Temple of Set line (i.e., "serve us, and when the Kings of Edom return, they will make you a GOD!")

 

Also, where did the idea for the Kings of Edom come from? I thought they'd been invented for the game, but I recently read soemthing in an encyclopedia of occultism about the 'Kings of Edom' being the qlippothic 'Lords of Unbalanced Force', ancient survivals from a now-extinct universe. Did they come out of modern occultism or are they something just in the game?

 

Your description of the Kings of Edom is almost exactly the same as the one Dean Shomshak used in The Ultimate Mystic, so it's probably derived from similar sources. The origin of these concepts is likely just as Scott Bennie described in his post above, but in-game the Kings are described as Lovecraftian horrors like H.P.'s Great Old Ones, and play a similar role. Other Edomites who serve the Kings are explicitly inspired by some of Lovecraft's works.

 

As for recruitment: DEMON has long maintained contacts with various fringe/crackpot mystical cults, such as "pop-culture" Satanists, new-age dabblers, and others who experiment in the occult as a hobby. DEMON seeks out people from these groups with the talent, ambition and ruthlessness to become full members of the cult. Note that in the new Champions Universe the rank and file believe DEMON to be simply a more powerful and better organized Satanist organization; only the Morbanes and their masters know of the group's ambitions to free the Kings of Edom. And only they possess both the evil to want to do so, and the ego to believe that they can control the Kings once they're loose.

[Prometheus]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

As for recruitment: DEMON has long maintained contacts with various fringe/crackpot mystical cults, such as "pop-culture" Satanists, new-age dabblers, and others who experiment in the occult as a hobby. DEMON seeks out people from these groups with the talent, ambition and ruthlessness to become full members of the cult.

 

And let's not forget anyone who might be press ganged onto servitude. The homeless, drug addicted, and anyone with a tenuous grip on reality ripe for a little brainwashing is prime fodder material when a morbane needs to put some bodies between himself and the heat. If any of them believe enought to contribute a little "background juju" to the next summoning, hey, bonus.

 

Anytime Nighthawk chases a morbane down a dark alley, he may run into a horde of rabid, homeless believers armed with daggers, chanting, "Deux est mortem, omnes nox!" as they swamp him.

[FenrisUlf]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

As for recruitment: DEMON has long maintained contacts with various fringe/crackpot mystical cults, such as "pop-culture" Satanists, new-age dabblers, and others who experiment in the occult as a hobby. DEMON seeks out people from these groups with the talent, ambition and ruthlessness to become full members of the cult. Note that in the new Champions Universe the rank and file believe DEMON to be simply a more powerful and better organized Satanist organization; only the Morbanes and their masters know of the group's ambitions to free the Kings of Edom. And only they possess both the evil to want to do so, and the ego to believe that they can control the Kings once they're loose.

 

That kind-of reminds me of a description I read of the typical worshipper of Lovecraft's Old Ones in the book _The Necronomicon Files_: 'the perfect combination of nihilism ("When I awaken the Old Ones, they will destroy the Earth...") and stupidity ("... and then they'll make me a GOD!")'

 

What's worse is, according to the above tome, there are indeed people who have committed murder because of the 'Simon' Necronomicon (i.e., 'kill seven people with the magic sword, and the Old Ones will give you dominion over all life!').

 

And people tell me I'm nuts because I'm a furry (or a superhero fan, or whatever).

[Mark Rand]

I came up with a different idea for DEMON once. The DEMON everyone knows is a decoy operation. The Morbanes use magic to communicate with the leaders of the decoy DEMON. However, they aren't the real bosses.

They get their orders from "The Board". Said board members, all demons, are also the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart. Even their orders come from someone higher up. Who is it? I haven't decided. It might be Morgan LaFey.

Of course, if you accept the Mists of Avalon version of Camelot as the true one, it wouldn't be her.

By the way, according to a program on the Discovery Channel, King Arthur and Queen Guinevere's tomb and the site of Camelot Castle have been found.