Here’s a little secret tip. Summoning the armies of Hell isn’t actually a case of ‘good intentions’. You knew what you were getting into.
No Solomon are you, although if you find his ring, you might be his equal, someday.
THE DEMONOLOGIST
+1 Save and +1 Skill per Template. Starting Items: Coil of Silver Wire, Big Knife, 9mm Pistol, Cheap Suit, Notebook, Pack of Belmont Cigarettes.
Starting Skill: 1) Politics 2) Judo 3) Anthropology 4) Cheating at Card Games
A - Sigils, Power
B - Handshake
C - Imps
D - Two at Once
Sigils
You’re familiar with the sigils and methods which will invoke demons to come to this world.
Roll 3d12 on the list below, to see who you know.
You can summon new demons if you find their Sigils out in the world. The list below isn’t exhaustive.
You must inscribe a circle of chalk, salt, gold, silver or blood.
If you summon a demon outside such a circle (or let them out of the circle, which they frequently request you do), they’re free to do what they want, which often (not always, but often) involves tearing you limb from fragile limb, feeding some parts of you into a woodchipper, and then tying your entrails into funny bows on their heads, to make their friends laugh.
Obviously, you’re going to Hell when you die, but so is every player class in a Buckets of Blood game.
Power
You have [templates + 1] points of Power. When you summon a demon, choose how much Power you give to them to bring them into this world. This number is [power]. Each time you use a Demon’s abilities, the value of [power] reduces by 1.
You have this much power, and no more. Demons will keep it until you fulfil something they want. If you piss a demon off, disrespect them, or give them any reason to, they’ll keep it indefinitely, and you’ll be fucked until you propitiate them.
If you wanted friendly spirits you should’ve gone the way of John Dee and become an angelologist, but here we fucking are.
It’s possible, if you seek out powerful Hellish artefacts, read the right books, or sell your soul, that you might gain more Power.
Handshake
When you shake someone’s hand, you can invest a Power in them, charming them until you choose to take the Power back. If they are eerie, fucked up, or openly supernatural, they may save.
Imps
You can transform your Power into facsimiles of people. These eerie, sweaty doppelgangers look like whoever you want, and are completely loyal.
You cannot make them dress normally, and anyone making eye contact with them knows immediately that they’re empty, pallid imitations of humanity which must be destroyed. Shades advised.
Every Imp has 1HD and 6HP.
Imps lack the capability to resist when you reclaim your Power. They splatter into brine, strips of pork and the smell of rotting eggs. The same happens if they reach 0HP.
Two at Once
You can now summon two demons into the same circle. They each have an individual [power] value, which is equal to however much you spent to summon them both.
So, if you spent 5 Power, you have a total of 10 demonic boons! Wow!
They fucking hate this so much, and will definitely dismember you and thoroughly shit out your remains, if they escape. You have to appease both of them to get your Power back.
+
1d12 Demons from Hell
King Bael
A fat man, wearing a wet rubber cat mask, and a bomber jacket, pattered with round shapes one might vaguely interpret as frogs. Underneath that, army fatigues. He breathes very heavily, and smells like vaseline and petrol. Soft-spoken and prying.
Bael will make you or anyone else of your choice invisible, for up to [power] hours.
Bael will make you popular and liked for [power] days.
Bael will change your appearance, or the appearance of someone you smear your blood on in his sight, for [power] hours. He can make you look like any kind of human.
Bael will keep your Power until you produce an artistic representation of him. Don’t worry if it’s shit - you will get better with practice.
Duke Agares
An extremely elderly man, riding a khaki-coloured mobility scooter. He has a Desert Eagle handgun in his right hand, and a bottle of [Branded Carbonated Drink] in the other. He wears a decayed rubber mask of Richard Nixon, a floral shirt, and cargo shorts. Irritable and unkind.
Agares will let you speak any one language for [power] hours, although you’re incapable of being polite when speaking it.
Agares will give you [power] magic bullets, which deal 4 extra damage against a specific creature of your choice.
Agares will cause a Magnitude [power + 2] earthquake centred exactly where you’re standing.
Agares will keep your Power until you ruin an innocent’s day. Most people whose day you might want to ruin (cops, for example) are not innocents.
Marquis Gamigin
A short man, with a plastercast lump over his head vaguely resembling a horse’s head. The eyes are irregular and the teeth are pieces of plastic, set at odd angles. On his body he wears a black USAF jumpsuit stained with blood, with three burnt holes over the heart. He carries a small black book, bulging with added paper. Cheerful and nosy.
Gamigin can conjure [power] shitty fake horses, which, despite the utter emptiness in their eyes, are relatively safe to ride, and move at about 60mph.
Gamigin can answer [power] questions on the subjects of the trivium and quadrivium - that is, grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.
Gamigin can answer [power] questions about the life of anyone who died in Sin, which is 97% of all people, by his estimation.
Gamigin will keep your Power until you are involved in a car crash or other vehicular incident.
President Marbas
A huge man, with weightlifter’s muscles and a prodigious gut. Limbs like tree-trunks, he wears a stained white suit a size too small, and a cream coloured shirt. Over his face, he wears a paper party plate with a crayon drawing of a lion on it. The back of his head is sunburned and bald. Boisterous and fake-stupid.
Marbas will perfectly sterilise (or infect with a bacterial disease) [power] objects you present to him.
Marbas will answer [power] questions on the subjects of the mechanical arts - that is, tailoring, agriculture, architecture, warfare, trade, cooking and blacksmithing.
Marbas will turn you into a seagull, a doberman, or a boa constrictor, for [power] hours.
Marbas will keep your Power until you eat enough to make yourself sick, or drink enough alcohol to pass out. He finds it funnier if you do this where people will witness it.
Duke Valefor
A tall man in a dishevelled and headless fursuit (blue). He wears a cheap plastic mask depicting Emmanuel Macron, cracked around the corners of the mouth. He carries a butcher’s knife and a smartphone on 1% battery. You can hear it in his voice - he’s smiling. Patient and calm.
Valefor will make sure the local criminal elements owe you [power] favours.
Valefor will make sure that nobody can recognise you for [power] hours.
Valefor will allow you to untraceably and anonymously call the phone of anyone of your choice, with a commensurate [power] cost based on how famous they are.
Valefor will keep your Power until you publicly embarrass yourself.
Marquis Amon
A wide, dense man, wearing a bomb disposal suit with a hard plastic wolf’s head affixed over the helmet. Smoke pours out constantly from the hood of the suit - usually, it smells like cigarettes, but sometimes, like burning meat. Anyone that can see him hears Khachaturian’s Masquerade Suite in their head. He constantly says stupid shit for no discernible reason. Smiling and relaxed.
Amon will cause two people or groups to have enmity toward each other for up to [power] days.
Amon will get any song stuck in up to 100 people’s heads for up to [power] days. He would like it if you picked Khachaturian’s Masquerade Suite.
Amon will take $50 of apparently unrelated materials and then hand you an IED, which will deal [power]d6 damage when it explodes. The timer can be set for up to 10 minutes.
Amon will keep your Power until you make a spirited defence of capitalism to a stranger.
Duke Barbatos
A skinny man dressed in a heavy wool greatcoat, a cable-knit jumper, plus fours, argyle socks, and polished black winklepickers. His head, under his tweed flat cap, is tightly wrapped in incident tape. He speaks with an obviously fake English accent, struggling to choke down a voice more reminiscent of Ohio. Bored and coy.
Barbatos will answer [power] questions about the actions of those who hold positions of authority (in public, or in secret).
Barbatos allows you to talk with all mammals for [power] hours. Upsettingly, this triggers on humans, causing you to hear everyone’s voice twice over, and slightly out of time - and irritatingly, this doesn’t allow you to understand people if you don’t speak their language. Still, it’s worth it to talk to dogs, who are exactly as good as you expect.
Barbatos will reveal the methods to overcome [power] enchantments, curses or magical protections.
Barbatos keeps your Power until you listen to the Beatles for six hours straight while doing absolutely nothing else, except that which is necessary for life. He demands you sing along to Hey Jude.
President Caim
A little man, wearing the taxidermied head of a giant blackbird. Beside that, a white shirt, green tie, and blue trousers. He carries a rock and a pen knife, and asks how your parents are doing. Obsessed with drone strikes. Urbane, and sitting atop a barely restrained well of violent insanity.
Caim can use his vast perspective to pick the best option out of two [power] times.
Caim can translate up to [power]*1000 words of text from any language, even dead, obscure, or non-functional ones.
Caim lets you speak with birds for [power] hours. Distressingly, some people give off the double voice effect that happens when you speak to all mammals.
Caim will keep your Power until you piss off or upset a relative. If you have no relatives, he will settle for friends or employees, but only if.
President Malphas
A broad shouldered man, muscles straining against a neoprene wetsuit. He wears a papier-mache bird’s head over his own, without any eyeholes. Over all of that, a grey poncho with the words PLEASE VOTE painted on it. He smells like sushi. Impolite and inexplicably panicked.
Malphas will add [power] rooms or doors to a building you have visited every room of. This can defy Euclidean geometry.
Malphas will let you rifle through the thoughts and memories of someone sleeping on a lower floor of the same building as you, for [power] minutes. This mind-reading is best represented by asking questions and receiving images.
Malphas conjures [power * 2] professional, skilled and diligent craftspeople, who, at least to any test you can apply, are actual people. You can ask for whatever skillset you need. They’re very polite, and greet you with a Hail Satan. They go back to wherever they came from after six hours.
Malphas will keep your Power until you vote. PLEASE VOTE.
Knight Furcas
A pot-bellied man with an immense beard, which comes crawling out from under the burlap sack on his head. He’s always covered in fleas and flies. He wears simple, durable clothing, including a lumberjack-looking flannel shirt and a cowboy hat. He carries a large pitchfork and speaks with a clearly affected southern drawl. Laconic and respectful.
Furcas will read your palm, revealing [power] dangers that are approaching in the coming week. This requires sticking one of your hands into the circle with him.
Furcas will provide you with invisible armour that foils all mundane weapons for the next [power] hours.
Furcas will make [power] objects presented to him flammable. If they were already flammable, they are now lightly explosive.
Furcas will keep your Power until you hunt a wild animal and eat it raw.
President Buer
A huge, snarling lion’s head, crackling with gunpowder hellfire and a brimstone stink, inside a five-pointed star of goat’s legs. His voice is like thunder, and he’s very put upon if you have summoned him when the Sun isn’t in Sagittarius. He’s a traditionalist. Curmudgeonly, and dismissive of the modern world.
Buer will irreparably break [power] things that are brought before him, so long as they were invented after 1909.
Buer will restore [power * 5] HP to creatures brought before him, so long as none of them are wearing the symbols of any major religions.
Buer will answer [power] questions on moral philosophy - from the point of view of Hell, of course.
Buer will keep your Power until you touch nothing that uses electricity for 24 hours.
Duke Gusion
A baboon in a green suit. Somehow manages to look immensely dignified. Wears a pair of black sunglasses and carries a pack of cigarettes. He’d offer you one, if not for this circle keeping you apart. Relaxed and charming.
Gusion will answer [power] questions about your friends, and anyone you might consider a colleague.
Gusion can restore your dignity and honour in the eyes of others [power] times. If you use this more than once, or haven’t suffered any damage to your dignity, then he’ll prevent you from losing it in the first place.
Gusion will repair a damaged friendship, in exchange for 3 Power. This is a charm effect.
Gusion will keep your Power until you buy him 40 packets of Belmont cigarettes.
I was thinking the dismissals were too easy, until I got to Barbatos. Truely a fate worse than death.
ReplyDeleteGiven that the standard setting for Buckets of Blood is mid-1970s, I think that implies that Macron looks like Valefor and not the other way around.
Unclear where I should post this, but the Mad Cartographer link in the blogroll leads to a malware site now. You should probably delete it.
ReplyDeleteDone, thanks for telling me.
Delete