By Eric Alfred Burns
There are many battles across many Words in Heaven and in Hell -- the
most celebrated hardly need mention. One can envision David and
Malphas at one another's throats, or the searing flames between
Gabriel and Belial, all backdropped between the ultimate conflict,
between Destiny and Fate.
Compared to this, the quiet hostilities between the Mercurian Angel
of Manners and the Balseraph Demon of Decorum seem almost quaint.
They seem that way, but the out and out hostility between the pair is
huge. Graham, the Angel of Manners and Servitor of Trade, has always
promoted Manners as the social lubricant that smooths out rough edges
in human relations. Sumtor, the Demon of Decorum and Servitor of
Factions, uses the unwritten (and written) rules of society, business
and interpersonal relations to separate and distance humanity. The
pair have fought a very bitter... but very gracious war over the
centuries.
Today the battlefield is rife -- a Debutante Ball, where the archaic
notion of 'Coming Out' can serve as a genteel reminder of the mores
of another generation and celebrate both the old and the new... or an
outdated social strata can force the wrong ideals onto another
generation of young girls, reinforces class barriers, and kills off
individuality in the name of 'how it's always been done.' At this
particular Debutante Ball, both "Graham Willis" and "Samantha
Haight-Torres" are working their wiles on the crowd, eyeing one
another and trying to figure out how to eliminate the other without
causing a scene.
It is tailor made for Kobal, naturally. Or Kobalites, at least. Four
'up-and-comers' have infiltrated the Debutante Ball, and are actively
trying to cause social disasters (and blame the two Celestials
*least* likely to profit from them in the process). They have decided
the best way to really get the party hopping is the old fashioned way
-- spiking the food and drink. There's rum in the punch, Rohypnol in
the soda, crystal meth in the yogurt-cheese salad dressing and LSD in
the cream brulee. The hopes are that as the night progresses, the
ball will degenerate further and further into chaos, while the
'stodgy' Word-bound in the room desperately fight to preserve order.
The PCs can have one of many roles in this social disaster in the
making. They could be Servitors of Trade or Factions, assigned to
assist the Word-bound in pursuing their own agendas and trying to
both retake control of the ball from the Kobalites and eliminate the
Servitors of the other side. They could *be* the Kobalites, sent in
to keep the confusion at a maximum and the hijinks ensuing. They
could even be incidental participants -- perhaps one of the
debutantes is the attuned of a Cherub, on hand to see her
introduction into high society.
There's only so far the chaos will reign before Graham and Sumtor
will work together (ugh -- that *word,* thinks Sumtor) to restore a
sense of propriety to the proceedings. Of course, the Kobalites may
be expecting this, and hoping that Graham (or *both* Graham and
Sumtor) will end up using up their Essence purging the drugs from the
debutantes, their dates, and their parents. After all, what better
ironic twist than the Angel of Manners dying during a society event?
Of course, Graham *does* have an ace up his sleeve, should things
become violent (*if* he's managed to hold onto that last bit of
Essence). After all, he does know the Celestial Song of Tongues, and
it's only *proper* to call the Malakite Angel of Ettiquette if
circumstances demand....