"The world is in my sights, shoot to kill."
Morphus is one of the newest princes of hell, though by no means the newest. He has many tasks, and Lucifer is still nagging him to give the word of gangs to someone, but he is doing to good a job of it to take it away from him. So right about now your probably wondering where he got two words? No one is sure, except Lucifer, and maybe Kronos and Baal ((Morphus' old superior)). You see Morphus was a little screwed up in the beginning, a minor Impudite of Technology experimented on till he had the persona ((and by that same dissonance standards)) of a Calabite. Baal took interest, and quickly traded for a demon holding the word of "knight killer" ((the first guns)). After a few centuries Morphus actually contested for the word, saying he could prove these weapons called "fire arms" where worth more then making the humans scurry around to make new defenses. Lucifer gave him a chance, and the result was the mass production of muskets, and the American revolutionary war. Within days of the "shot heard round the world", Morphus, with the support of Vapula, Baal, Kronos, and Malphas, along with minor support from Andrealphus and Beleth for helping them with a joint project that had something to do with turning a romantic into a serial rapist via his dreams, was appointed prince of the gun.
Over the years Morphus has by no means slacked off, and is in many respects one of the most powerful princes in all of hell. He also had some great ideas about organized crime, on all levels; in fact, he all but created the street gangs that are starting to plague large cities all over the world, coming about after the military started using soldiers, and thus firearms less. If he weren't a Prince he would get the Word.... He just did such a great job on America Lucifer felt he had no choice, give him the word, and let him give it to one of his. He has yet, however, to pass the word on. But there are a few barons opting to get his attention for it.
((Special note, the "Blood" street gang is not demonic, but run by servitors of David, humans made it such an "evil" organization on their own.))
Morphus is also one of the demons in an order of princes and word bound that is charged with perverting religion. Morphus once again shines here, as he has done everything from simple perversion to small changes to even extremist groups willing to kill for Christ. Some joke that Morphus is trying to be nothing more then a mirror image of Laurence, Archangel of the Sword, which opposes his word of the gun, and both of them having heavy hands in Christian religions. Now this doesn't only piss off Morphus... but it also pisses off Baal, since the next step would be taking over His armies if that's really what he is going for. But Morphus pleads coincidence.
Morphus presently has been assigned security of hell, his demons roaming the streets of Hades and Shal-Mari, sniping off souls that run in Gehenna, and just standing around looking bad in most other principalities. On a day to day basis, in Hell at least, these demons hold close ties to The Game.
Demons of the Gun tend to fall into groups. Some are gang members, some are soldiers; those that aren't earth bound tend to be straight up security demons, but there are even a few extremists and psychos in the group. But mostly, in these recent years, they take on gang personas, Baal is already biting his ass... he doesn't need more soldiers.
Dissonance
Morphus is arrogant, and has no time or tolerance for games. Any of his servitors who do not do what they are told, when they are told, gain Dissonance. The system for this is as follows: if you don't start on a mission within 72 hours of getting it, you gain one note a day. Morphus also does not like being made a fool of; if a demon does not carry out a mission in the spirit of the order, he gains a full four notes, and god help him when Morphus catches up.
Band Attunements
Balseraphs
Morphus doesn't like these guys, he didn't bother to make them a neat little power, so he just says that they may take the Balseraph attunement from another prince which he is not hostile to.
Djinn
Djinn of the Gun MAY kill those under there attunement, they are Morphus' hit squad, they may still not, however, hurt their charges. Even though they may kill their charges, they gain a note of dissonance for any attack they do that is not a killing blow. The death doesn't have to be painless, but Djinn can still not stand to see their charges suffer by their hand.
Calabim
Calabim of the gun may load their resonance into a bullet. To do this the Calabim must spend one essence, and then he may use his resonance on a single bullet already in the gun, making it do the check digit worth of damage, the power bonus of the gun, and anything hit with the bullet also acts as if it had the resonance of the demon used on them. This takes two rounds ((on to load the resonance, the next to fire the gun)) and if the demon does not fire the gun in the second round, the bullet will explode from the entropy and the gun, rather then the target, will take the effects of the resonance at the end of the second round.
Habbalah
These demons may use their resonance to do three new things: "Trigger Happy", which makes the victim throw away his concern for human life, and with a little doing, hopefully pick up a gun and go to town; "Rejection" makes the victim loose his ties with a certain person. Lovers, friends, enemies, parents, all just another person now...; and the most twisted power "Awakening", (nicknamed Heresy) makes a victim suddenly "awaken" to the fact that his religion is wrong. Christians figure out there is no god, Buddhists suddenly think that there is no middle path, Muslims wonder that maybe Allah may be a bit too strict. This may be earth shattering, it may be awe-inspiring, and it may even just be another thought. That all depends on the victim, the demon can only "show them the light".
Lilim
Lilim of the gun may add the ethereal force to the check digit on any resonance roll.
Shedim
Shedim of the gun are in total control of their host body, still roll though for intervention. The down side to this is that the host knows something is wrong, has a feeling he is possessed, and tend to say things like "The devil made me do it" They may also possess mechanical devices, though not high tech once, simple things that require no power source. These Shedim are often found at scenes where "the gun just went off".
Impudites
Impudites of the gun may give essence as well as take, though not in the way you'd think. You see demons of the gun tend to do rather lethal things to people, not good for a Impudite... So they may send essence into say, a bullet, increasing its luck, and almost guaranteeing that the bullet will not make a fatal shot ((target 10, if 11, it doesn't kill, but misses, if 12, it can be lethal, but there is no bonus to body hits it takes off)) for example. This is how they most often use their attunement, however Impudites may tilt the odds in their favor in almost everything if they are clever enough to figure it out.
Servitor Attunements
Morphus' Unholy Bite
At the cost of five Essence a demon with this attunement may charge a gun of any type to do soul hits rather then body hits. Celestials hit by this gun almost always assume celestial form, unless they are somehow stopped ((such as a victim of the "Bind" attunement)), and try to flee or enter celestial combat. The down side of this awesome power however... is every shot makes a level 1 disturbance in the symphony, as the guns bullets assume their unnatural celestial form.
Bind
Used mostly in hell to stop fleeing souls, this power is the ability to stop one victim in his tracks. It costs two Essence and only affects one victim at a time ((a demon can not use Bind again until the first binding has expired for whatever reason)). The demon must stare at his victim for a full turn, doing nothing but concentrating on his forces, which he then binds to whatever the victim is standing on. For humans, souls, shades, and other non-celestials, this effect just makes them unable to move an inch. For celestials, this power will have the same effect if they are in their celestial form, or bind them to their vessel. In the case of the latter, they get a will roll to resist being bound as a human, and unable to move, if they pass, they may still move. To use this power a demon makes a resonance roll, the victim gets a will roll to resist, if the demon makes it, the victim is bound for a number of rounds equal to the check digit plus the victims own forces. ((Note the victim may still fight, he is just no longer mobile in the least)).
Distinctions
Knight of the Infernal Templar
A Knight of the Infernal Templar is awarded Morphus' old attunement from he worked for Baal. Art of Combat. Even when they serve the Gun, Morphus notes, a Knight should not limit himself to only only one form of combat.
Captain of Musketeers
At this rank a Demon of the Gun can, at a glance, tell if someone has the heart to kill. That is, they can tell just how far they are willing to go in any given circumstance involving violence.
Baron of the Eternal Gunfight
A demon of this rank is awarded with three celestial artifacts. The first is a helmet ((or these days more and more bandanas are being made)) that holds 9 Essence and regains one essence every sunset. The second is a pair of gloves: a relic, granting the wearer Ranged Weapons/6: Any Handheld; and the third is something Morphus and Vapula have been working on together - an actual "ray gun". It is a small hand held pistol-looking thing that contains the celestial song of light ((6)). They are still trying to figure out how to make it do celestial damage with ever shot. These artifacts are all bound to the owner. The Baron knows where they are, and they can only be used by servitors of the Gun. Morphus is also considered an owner, and some say that Vapula too has some hand in it...
Relations
Allied - Vapula, Kronos, Baal, Malphas
Associated - Asmodeus, Lilith, Nybbas, Andrealphus
Hostile - Furfur, Haagenti
Enemy - Saminga
Basic Rites
Chance of Invocation: 0-6 (GM makes secret d6 roll, the result being the target)
Morphus is very busy, he may show up, but unless you get 111 on invocation roll he will only consider it. With 111 he will be pissed and want to know what's so important to draw him away in the middle of an escape.
Invocation Modifiers
+12 Completing your mission
New Principality
"The Eternal Gunfight" (AKA Doom)
This principality sits outside of Hades, an "Old City" of sorts. It is bullet ridden and bombed out, and the occasional explosion fills the night with an eerie light. Screams and gunfire come frequently, sometimes in the form of large gunfights, but most often as screams and short bursts of fire and then silence. The buildings are of modern design, mystically changing with the style on earth some of the older souls notice, sky scrapers dominate the skyline, though most buildings are smaller, however anything less then three stories is rare, and such buildings are grouped together. The buildings are old, some even crumbling, and dirty. Guns are scattered around, many on fallen foes, and ammunition is plentiful.
Gangs of Demons and human souls roam the streets, the most common sin being Wrath, constantly seeking out each other and fighting. Ruling from above are the barons, who control the larger sky scrapers, plotting out attacks on the gangs below to train the demons under their control. In the center of this huge maze of buildings stands a dark, decaying stone church. Inside its gates impaled souls being punished for constant refusal to fight twitch, not being able to die, head stones are smashed, and monuments are uprooted and left on their sides to rot. The only way for to stop fighting is to come inside and give one of the "fathers" your due of essence, in which case the soul gets a few hours rest and "peace" while they are forced to worship the defiled holy symbols and listen to sermons for some kind of anti-Christ. After which they awake back on the Streets of Doom, having to find their way out again.
The only true way out of Doom are two gates, one a heavily guarded iron portal back into Hades, the other a dark entrance into the mazes of Stygia which for no apparent reason just seems a lot worse then the hellish life in Doom ((the result are again, mystical)). As you probably have guessed Morphus holds court on the sixth story of the church, but its easier to find him at his "home", a penthouse on the edge of the principality, over looking both the gang ridden streets and the city of Hades.
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Chris Anthony <edg@sjgames.com>
Angel of Information Dissemination