Gorethiel, Demon of Big F**king Guns

Several centuries ago, Vapula was briefly interested in the idea of creating some less unstable Calabim, in the hope of harnessing their destructive tendencies. Despite the inclusion of Forces from servitors of Novalis, the experiment was a failure. The only subject of any great note was 'No. 0054', or Gorethiel.

Gorethiel showed a certain amount of promise: he quickly grasped the basics of laboratory procedure, and within months was able to assist experiments without always destroying anything. Well, anything valuable. Okay, anthing *essential*. His tastes still lay in the traditional direction of his Band: he wanted to Blow Stuff Up. However, he had sufficient control that his entropy field was not a major problem.

Which is not to say he didn't resent having to hold back, but more of that later.

Gorethiel became interested in ways of applying maximum force with maximum efficiency. After a few more decades, he reached the point where he no longer just Blew Stuff Up. He Blew Up the right Stuff, he Blew it Up fast, and he Blew it Up at great range. With Vapula's support, he petitioned Lucifer for the word of Heavy Ordinance. He received the word of Big F**king Guns, which was good enough for him.

Gorethiel has been active ever since. In addition to his obvious work in collaboration with Nybbas (supplying props and special effects for 'Men in Black'), he has been responsible for many innovative developments in machine guns, bazookas, mortars, the 'Iraqi Supergun' and, most recently, the 'Metal Storm' automatic weapon.

However, he is not entirely happy. Ever since the early days, Gorethiel's main passion has been for the whine of capacitors, the crackle of ionising energy, and the 'BOOM!' of a ball of plasma reducing its target to vapour. The Powers That Be, and most directly Vapula, have always refused him permission to introduce human scientists to his 'toys'. He suspects that Saminga would not be so squeamish, but he knows Vapula would never approve a transfer.

So, Gorethiel has taken his plans for the prototype Spiritualizer Mk II, and gone renegade. Unfortunateley for the players, he has gone rengade in their direction...

Personality

Gorethiel has a boundless enthusiasm for destruction. He constantly crushes things in his hands, picks the petals off flowers, bounces his servants' heads off the walls, anything that makes a satisfying crunching noise. This applies to his conversation too: he is not stupid, and will demolish any argument put to him, regardless of whether he thinks it has any merit. He doesn't use his resonance as often as one might expect: once he gets that close, he would far rather get physical.

Gorethiel's aims are currently to complete the Spiritualizer II, and either get Saminga's patronage, establish himself as an independent power if possible or, as a last resort, go to Furfur. He considers Furfur to be a bit beneath his dignity, however, especially considering that barely five minutes ago they were roughly equal in power.

Plot Seed - Gorethiel hits Oxford

Gorethiel wants to give Saminga something pretty impressive as a sweetner when he asks to be admitted into his service. The Spiritualizer II will be a unique weapon, affecting the body and soul of its targets equally [In game terms, all damage done is split equally between Body and Soul hits. Yes this does affect Celestials in vessels, and yes it can strip Forces].

Unfortunately, the SII doesn't work. Yet. It lacks only two things: firstly the Celestial power source, and secondly the means to deliver this through a Corporeal medium. Some would say that in fact the gun is currently no more than a half-baked pipe dream. Gorethiel would chuckle, and throw them through a wall...

Gorethiel arrives in town, along with his entourage. His objectives are:

1) The work of a scientist, Professor Arthur Stanton, working in the High Energy Physics Department. Stanton is into new laser techniques, and it just so happens that he has developed a new high-power, light-weight system. It is still nothing like powerful enough for use alone as a weapon, but Stanton has been approached by the military, who want an ultra-long range, smoke penetrating targeting system.

Linus, a Balseraph in Gorethiel's service, has been assigned to 'persuade' Stanton to sell the goods. He has drawn up a contract: all he needs to do is get Stanton alone long enough for him to sign it and hand over the blueprints. Linus will then kill him, to ensure the rights are kept exclusive.

Meanwhile, Laurence-Michael Industries (a front company for a Soldier organisation) have independently got wind of the lasers, and are also interested. Depending on the player group, this may or may not become known.

Stanton is an experimental physicist. He hasn't a clue how his inventions might be applied, but will witter on about targeting, since he liked the idea. He also loves debating the ethics of science, and will talk for hours on the Manhatten Project, anthrax, and the invention of the crossbow. His opinion is that scientists are *not* responsible for the uses of their inventions, which might rub angels the wrong way. He is, however, harmless.

2) 'A Treatise on the Music of the Divine Spheres, with Practical Applications': an anonymous 17th century manuscript in the Bodleian library. This is a book about the Symphony, including some pretty deep stuff (GM discretion). Gorethiel is interested in the bit about converting between the Realms: he reckons he can use this information to build the SII. He is right. He will send a Soldier of Hell, Rob Matthews, an ex-undergraduate at Oxford, to retrieve the book.

Note: The Bod is not a lending library, and stealing books isn't exactly easy, especially when there is a Malakite of Yves working there.

Complications

a) There is a Sorcerer who has already replaced the book with a fake. When Gorethiel finds out, he will go ballistic. Research will reveal that Justin Farquar, of All Souls college, was the only person to use the book in living memory. Berek (a failed 'stable' Calabite, who is utterly unhinged, and acts like Gorethiel without the intelligence) will be dispatched to deal with him, and the book (noisily) recovered.

b) The book is a load of old rubbish. Gorethiel is, basically, stuffed, and will have to present Saminga with some other 'present'. A massacre in the town centre will be the first thing he thinks of, and probably the most likely to work.

Introducing the PCs

1) Berek greases the Sorcerer, Farquar. The PCs hear it or are told to investigate. Berek can be ID'd by the two students who were in a tutorial at the time of the killing, and traced either to Linus or Gorethiel.

2) (Angels only) Stanton is annoying L-M Industries by wavering over contractual details. They ask the PCs to find out why, and the PCs find Linus.

3) Berek, being a bit unhinged, randomly Blows Something Up. The resulting disturbance is heard all over town, and brings PCs (and others) running. [I used this one: they loved the chance to hunt, capture, torture, question and kill a small baddie].

4) (Demons only) The Azzies have tracked Gorethiel down, but need someone with knowledge of the city to actually find him.

Plot Summary

Gorethiel turns up and Does Bad Things. The PCs find him. He is kicked. Note, however, that he is insanely hard, so they might want to call in L-M Industries or the Azzies to do the actual fighting.

Details of Gorethiel's Hideout are left to inventive GMs.

Gorethiel: the Stats

Special Rites:
Destroy a Celestial (or its vessel) with a BFG.
Use a BFG in an amusing and highly destructive fashion.

Gorethiel's attunement: Gorethiel can make BFGs out of practically anything. With a Will roll, and minimal materials (a toaster and a screwdriver), Gorethiel can whip up a BFG in d6 minutes. Its power is the CD of the roll, and it takes 1 Essence to fire. However, if the weapon is over-powered (natural check die of 6, on *any* firing roll), it explodes, utterly destroying it and dealing 6+Power damage to its operator. If Gorethiel is not the operator, he gains one Essence from his rite...

CorF  5      EthF  4     CelF  6
Str   12     Int   6     Will  12
Agi   8      Pre   10    Per   12 
Body  132    Mind  24    Soul  72

Note: Ignoring his Discord, Gorethiel has 72 character points: 60 for his forces, plus 12 because I felt like it.

Damaged Sense (Hearing)/5 [too many explosions...]

Vessel/6 (Grizzled combat veteran, crew cut, wearing kakhis, toting several large guns.) Role/6, Status/1 (Nutter with guns - see Taxi Driver)

Ranged Weapons (BFGs)/6
Fighting/6
Dodge/4
Knowledge (Guns)/6
Engineering (Guns)/3

Celestial Song of Light/4
Song of Thunder/6
Numinous Corpus: Claws/6

Talisman (Spiritualizer I): +5 Ranged Weapons (BFG) skill.

The Spiritualizer I, with which Gorethiel arms his servants (theirs are not talismans) is a Power 10 weapon with a range of 100 yds, accuracy 0. It costs 1 essence to fire, and has no storage ability. It does only Body damage, despite the name.

Summary of Gorethiel: he gets auto hits with his gun, at +9 CD. That means 19+d6 damage per hit. He's not bad in celestial combat either, espicially with those claws. GMs who want to combat-max him can fine-tune quite a bit here and there: Pre 12 and Art of Combat (from Baal) for a start.

Linus, Balseraph of BFGs
Berek, Calabite of BFGs
Assorted Soldiers (according to taste)