Corporeal Forces: 1
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Ethereal Forces: 3
Intelligence: 6
Precision: 6
Celestial Forces: 3
Will: 6
Perception: 6
Vessel: skinny male child/1, +1 Charisma
Skills: Chemistry/3, Detect Lies/1, Dodge/3, Emote/1,
Fighting/1, Ranged Weapon/1 (pistol), Running/1,
Savoir-Faire/2, Seduction/1, Small Weapon/2 (knife),
Survival/1 (Urban)
Songs: Attraction (Ethereal/1), Entropy (Corporeal/1),
Healing (Corporeal/1), Shields (Corporeal/2)
Role: "Joe" (hanger-on to drug dealers/2, Status/1)
Attunements: Balseraph of Drugs
Ertrael isn't an idiot. He may be at the bottom of
the organization of a minor Prince of a revolving door
Word, but he's not an idiot. Ertrael knows that he's
Fated for bigger and worse things - provided that he
keeps his mouth shut and his eyes open for
opportunities. A smart demon that keeps his mouth
shut and his eyes open can always work through things.
The first, most obvious thing is, don't sample the
merchandise. That's so obvious that it shouldn't have
to be said - but most of Fleurity's people won't or
can't figure that simple fact out. That's fine with
the Balseraph, actually: the fewer effective
competitors that he has, the better. It's a good idea
to act stoned or drunk or wasted when advisable, of
course - but some of the stuff that Drugs peddles is
seriously bad news. Better by far to save it for the
humans. That's what they're there for.
The second thing is not to be a damned fool about who
you sell to. Screw this crap about 'getting them
while they're young': that might have been true for
stuff like weed or booze, but crack cocaine doesn't
care how old you are when you start smoking it. More
importantly, selling to kids makes it much more likely
that you'll eventually run into a Servitor of
Christopher's - and what they'll do to you once they
catch you would gag a Shedite. Luckily, there's no
Archangel of Adults, which really should be enough of
a hint to anybody whose brain isn't quite extra-crispy
yet.
However, the most important thing to remember is that
when you work for a minor Prince, you're screwed right
from the start. So, you set things up so that you
don't work for a minor Prince anymore. You have to
network, figure out who's going to be going up the
greasy pole and make sure that they think that you're
useful. It's OK for them to think of you as a useful
idiot: the adjective's more important than the noun.
Don't try to get a taste of whatever clever scam's
going on, though: that just means that you get to
share the blame when it blows up. Nobody except you
is going to care much about maintaining the
cleanliness of your nose, so act accordingly.
Needless to say, you also keep your back to a wall at
all times, never trust anyone as far as you can throw
them and keep at least three eyes peeled for a
legitimate chance to get off the leaky ship that is
Fleurity's organization - but that goes without
saying. It also goes without saying that you'll
probably have to carefully backstab everybody who gave
you a leg up out of their own self-interest - well,
it's not as if they wouldn't do the same to you if
said self-interest dictated it. Just make sure that
the betrayals are dictated by your own timetable, or
at least won't set it back. In other words, it's OK
to be a flunky, as long as that status isn't common
knowledge: plenty of time to eliminate the evidence
later.
As the above suggests, Ertrael has plans. He's
ambitious enough to fuel a ferocious power drive and
clever enough not to show it. Right now, the
Balseraph is too busy trying to navigate through the
minefield that is corporeal duty to worry much about
empire-building - but once he's achieved a reasonably
safe equilibrium, watch out. Even now, he's got his
eyes on the prize. They tell stories about Haagenti's
rise to power: someday, they'll tell the same sort of
stories about Ertrael, if he plays it smart and gets
lucky.
Hah. Winners make their own luck.
(Ertrael is a balanced starting character.)
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