Walspurgisnacht. The traditional witch's holiday:
since the neo-pagan revival of the 1960s, it's also
been a favorite holiday for those exploring the
blackest aspects of esoterica. Most of the major
Sorcerous Circles have special rituals for that
particular night, and it seems that somebody always
chooses Walspurgisnacht for their first-ever demon
Summoning.
Needless to say, the younger generation of Hell hates
this holiday.
First of all, there are the humans. Have you ever
considered how pathetic the average modern
demonologist is, these days? All they seem to want is
money (as if they couldn't get it on their own, if
they bothered to work for it), sex (dude, a little
soap and water would do wonders there) or to have
somebody killed. OK, the last one is usually kind of
fun, but even then the demonologist never seems to see
the pleasures inherent in a simple drive-by shooting.
No, it always has to be some weird esoteric killing,
complete with goat heads and a smell of brimstone. As
if the Host doesn't have people whose only job is to
watch for that sort of thing...
Second, they all call at once. Any demon unfortunate
enough to have his, her or its True Name listed in the
books is going to have lunatics calling him all night.
This is an especial trial for Servitors of Lust:
sure, they're being called in for carnal pleasures
beyond mortal ken, but think for a second about how
desperate a human has to be before he or she will
resort to Summoning a demon in order to get laid.
Andrealphus' Servitors may not have morals, but they
do have standards.
Third (and most importantly) it's all so ... tacky.
The old-style demonologists at least knew how to
decorate: this new crop of poseurs thinks three black
candles and some rancid sheep blood is sufficient to
make their guest feel at home. There's never a
comfortable chair or a light snack, and most assuredly
never any beer (wine sometimes, but never beer).
The last thing a demon wants to do (even if he doesn't
have anything else to do) is to waste valuable
corporeal time squatting in a smelly abandoned house
while a bunch of humorless talking monkeys pontificate
at him. I mean, these guys have heard of dance clubs,
right? Movie theaters? All night diners, at least?
Can't they ever Summon a demon somewhere interesting?
Apparently not ... and the Word is that casually
slaughtering these twerps isn't to be done
frivolously, mores the pity. Still, the temptation is
strong to cull the herd a bit. Against the rules, of
course, but since when did that ever stop a demon who
thought that he could get away with it?
Having a demon who finally snaps and guts a bunch of
would-be Fausts can be an interesting scenario to
investigate. There'll be the agents of Fate, who will
want to find out who slaughtered such promising
humans, for a start. If the demon with Poor Impulse
Control is otherwise on good terms with his/her Prince
(or the original Summoning had just bollixed up that
Prince's plans), there'll probably also be a cleanup
squad - or a blame-somebody-else squad. Actually,
blame-somebody-else squads from other Princes might
also show up. No sense to wasting a good atrocity,
after all.
Then, of course, there's the Host. Some Archangels
will want to terminate the demon, too (makes the
incident report nice and neat, you understand); others
will - probably erroneously - figure that the demon
might be Redemption material, and showing it the only
way that he knows how. There'll also be
blame-somebody-else squads on this side, too:
Archangels love starting grudge matches between
Princes. And, of course, there'll be the PCs, who may
start doing one of the above, but will probably go off
and handle the situation in their own inimitable
style.
Well, as long as they're having fun.
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