Compromise and Conceit

Infernal adventuring…

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An Australian statistician and role-player living in Japan, interested in the theory and practice of role-playing…

  • Compromise and Conceit 4: Bloodied

    For the first time in a month, we join our heroes with their hands free of blood, in the New French town of Quebec. Having discovered by foul means the evil plans of the French to destroy the Mohican tribes, our heroes were summarily dispatched by ship from Fort Stanwix to Albany, and thence around the coast to the kingdom of their enemy in New France. Their mission is simple: to break into the castle where the Mohican’s totem pole is stored, and to steal it back. Once stolen, they are to march overland with it to the Mohican lands, and present it as a wedding gift to the Mohican people.

    With them to Quebec came the Iroquois priestess, “She comes with Shadows” and her 4 bodyguards. These are the only 5 people who can touch the totem pole, and so they are essential to return it. The characters’ charge was to keep these 5 alive at all costs, and return with them and the pole to Mohican lands. 

    Having been given not even an hours’ rest, and with winter closing in, the characters found themselves put aboard ship and rushed off to Quebec. Without even taking a night to orient themselves on their arrival, our heroes surveyed the lay of the land. Their target was a small, converted lighthouse called La Malbaie, on the Northern side of the Bay of St. Lawrence. It could be reached by sea or overland, but the overland journey promised another 5 days of walking through the freezing cold. Instead, and sensing much danger, the characters arranged a different approach. They hired a pair of ships, one to take them to La Malbaie and one to act as a decoy from La Malbaie heading back towards Quebec. The Dervish, Umit, would take this latter ship and serve to distract any French pursuit by taking a different ship from Quebec to New York. On the second ship, the characters would lay to at night just offshore from la Malbaie, and find a way into the converted lighthouse. 

    Having made these arrangements, our heroes set out in the Dutch ship Set Your Confustors to Stun, sailing for 8 hours up the sound until, in the last glow of twilight, they heaved to offshore from la Malbaie lighthouse. From here they could see the hills of New France as silhouettes against the fading twilight. Light flurries of snow fell from a steel-grey ceiling of low clouds, scudding along the water surface and swirling about the boat in a stiff, freezing breeze that blew down from the open waters to their East. The last light reflected on the iron-black sand of a small beach, which stretched into darkness penetrated only by the distant lights of the lower windows of la Malbaie’s ground floor. Behind the boat, distant lights of the evening’s river traffic inched by in the darkness, or bobbed on the water where they were moored for the night. 

    The characters decided to eschew the frontal assault and instead move through the hills and take a small coastal path to the lighthouse. Two boats were dropped, and they rowed to the shore some distance from the lighthouse. From there it was a 1 hour walk through the freezing darkness, their path lit only by a tiny hooded lantern, before they arrived at the end of the path. Here a culvert cut into the hills, dropping through impenetrable darkness to the beach, from whence they could hear a faint lapping of surf. Trying to move carefully, they descended the culvert, their path lit only by a faint light of infernal essence, Russell Ganymede to the fore.

    As they neared the bottom of the culvert, however, Russell’s light and the rousing alarm of his clumsy passage alerted those below to his presence. Two guards opened fire with long rifles, fortunately missing any in the party and forcing them to scatter for cover. Anna laBrousse yelled at  them to cease and drop their weapons, her voice taking such a tone of command that in fact one of the soldiers did just that, and began remonstrating with his colleague to do the same. Russell opened fire on the other, while Dave Black and Lord Merton crept along the gully to do their dirty work. Unfortunately the remaining soldier was blowing a whistle, and by the time the party could get to the base of the culvert and finish off the two soldiers the alarm had been raised. 

    From the culvert the beach stretched for 50m to a low line of dunes, which formed a kind of low plateau on which, 50 metres further along, the lighthouse was built. The lighthouse was dimly visible in the glow of its own lights as a kind of horseshoe-shaped building with a low tower at the side furthest from the characters. The opening of the horseshoe was a narrow, 5m wide open gate facing the characters, with two lighted windows on its right side and a dark, windowless wall on its left. From our heroes’ vantage point the cliffs loomed over the lighthouse on their left, and to their right the beach sloped down to the shore, where the surf whispered in the darkness.

    Fearing themselves exposed, the characters set off immediately for the lighthouse, but had barely moved 10 metres before they heard the distant boom of two cannon firing. Moments later infernal shot landed just metres ahead of them, exploding in puffs of faded purple light and a rain of harmless shrapnel. Realising now that battle was on, the characters turned their determined walk into a sprint, and reached the cover of the dunes just as the guards at the lighthouse began firing their rifles. From the flash and retort, it was clear that there were 4 guards hidden in the cover of the entryway, firing from cover at the distant dunes. These hopeful shots had little chance of hitting the characters, but now they found themselves in battle in earnest.

    Anna laBrousse had summoned a monster, composed of sand and shadow, to kill the guards at the  culvert, and this she sent ahead to attack the guards at the gateway. Dave Black the Torturer and Lord Merton, thinking themselves unseen, continued their slow and stealthy advance. Father David Cantrus and Anna, seeing little else they could do, went over the top of the dune and ran towards the gateway, while Russell Ganymede fired into its cloaking darkness. As David and Anna ran across the open ground, two more shells landed, one exploding amongst them in a plume of sand, shrapnel and purple infernal energy, knocking them both to the ground and injuring Anna laBrousse badly. David Cantrus took the time to heal her with a prayer, but the pair of them found themselves briefly given respite, for the riflemen at the gate had seen David Black, and opened fire on him in concert. One hit but did no serious damage, and Lord Merton opened fire in return, hitting one. Now battle was joined for real. David Cantrus charged in to the attack, as did David Black and Lord Merton, while Anna laBrousse hid against the cover of the wall. Russell summoned a Demon to aid the characters, causing it to appear amongst the soldiers at the gate as a wrathful, spindle-legged figure of shadow and fog. They killed the 4 guards at the gate quickly, but inside the gate found a small compound, in which the remainder of the lighthouse’s guards were clustered. Five guards had clustered together to form a line, and 4 more were running towards the front of that line from two small cannon which they had been operating; and from a door at the rear of the courtyard came two more, a big man in breastplate and the soldiers’ leader, a captain to judge by his insignia.

    David Cantrus, seeing death in the eyes of the men of the line, stepped to the fore and revealed unto them the spirit of the lord, striking 6 of them dumb with awe. Anna laBrousse cast paralysis on another. One remained standing, and one who had been tardy to run forward was unaffected by the spell, while the others fell to their knees in amazement at the glory of the Spirit revealed. Lord Merton, seeing his chance, shot dead 2 of these humbled men immediately, and the group’s summoned beasts surged in to kill another one each. Dave Black moved up to one other and killed him so horribly – with such a combination of eye-gouging and choking – that those watching could not help but be so sickened that they were weakened with terror.

    Now the tide turned, so that only 2 soldiers and their leaders remained standing. Unfortunately, they had failed to see the lighthouse scout, who crept up behind Dave Black and dealt him a vicious blow to the kidneys. Black, frightened and badly injured, immediately rendered himself invisible and ducked out of the battle. Russell Ganymede charged forward to attack the breastplate-wearing sergeant, but fell over in his haste and was stabbed viciously by his more competent opponent. Lord Merton fired at the Captain, hitting him, and behind them their conjured demons did more of their evil work, killing more of the paralysed soldiers. But now the battle had turned desperate, with Ganymede humbled by the sergeant and the captain surging forward to attack Anna laBrousse’s demon. 

    Dave Black emerged from the shadows to ambush the man who had ambushed him, and Ganymede regained his feet to attack the sergeant. Lord Merton fired into battle, helping to break down the sergeant, who soon fell under the ferocity of their combined attack. However, by now everyone was severely injured – Russell Ganymede at the very edge of his strength, Dave Black stabbed with the Corporal’s rapier so many times that he could no longer move, and Father Cantrus and Anna laBrousse both badly hurt. However, with only the Captain and one soldier still standing, the battle turned in the characters’ favour when the Iroquois appeared from the shadows to cut the Captain down. The remaining soldier fled into the castle, and silence descended upon the battlefield. 

    The characters had noticed that the courtyard had windows overlooking it from one side, so now they opted to dash to cover. Staggering after the remaining soldier, they caught him in the entry chamber to the building.  He offered no resistance to them, and under Dave Black’s tender ministrations he confirmed their suspicions – that they had slaughtered all the soldiers in the building. However, he also told them two other disturbing facts:

    • There remained 3 wizards in the building, who used to work here before the lighthouse was converted into a military base, and who might prove dangerous though they were generally weak and not fond of fighting; and
    • The totem pole had been put in the North wing of the building, under the cliffs. This wing also housed “The Remade”, whose moans and hissings could be heard through the door, and who the soldier had never seen. The Remade are fed once a day with coal and raw flesh…
    Thus does our adventure come to a close, with David Cantrus moving amongst the exhausted and huddled ranks of our heroes, healing them of their wounds, while the injured soldier whimpers in the corner and the wizards and Remade of la Malbaie plan their next move…

  • Compromise and Conceit 3: Without Mercy

    Once again we join our heroes bathed up to their elbows in blood, this time standing at the edge of Lake Oneiga amongst the bodies of a thousand slaughtered Frenchmen. Around them their Iroquois allies move quietly about their business, butchering the wounded and nearly-dead remnants of the French force, while on the hill overlooking the battlefield the signal fire burns slowly to ash, the charred corpse of the Iroquois spy sinking slowly into the embers.

    The characters were presented with the single battered survivor, Lt Colonel Jacques Fouroux, and told that this poor unfortunate would be ransomed to the British, or burnt alive. They searched the body of the French rogue and spy, Misericorde and, having taken what little of value he possessed, handed the French colours over to the Iroquois tribe and left the area for Fort Stanwix.

    At Fort Stanwix they were greeted as heroes, feted about the complex, and given Officers’ accomodation in which to wait for Governor deLauncey, who arrived on an exhausted mount after a few days to deliver the characters their reward, and to apprise them of the consequences of their actions:

    • 1000 French soldiers were captured in the lowlands between Fort Stanwix and Fort Oswego, though the cloaked ships which delivered them managed to escape
    • Several spies at Fort Niagara were captured and executed, preventing a surprise attack and general incursion from beyond Niagara Falls
    • The Iroquois have been offered full aid against the French, the Covenant Chain restored, and the Western borders of the Iroquois lands bolstered against French incursion
    • French military activity on the edge of Pennsylvania has come to a temporary halt as French forces are relocated to the Northeast to bolster the newly weakened French force there
    The French plan has in the space of one night degenerated from a bold master plan of treacherous genius to a massive defeat. Manoeuvring forces to protect their now-exposed frontline will take at least 6 weeks, by which time winter will have set in properly, delaying any serious French incursion into British lands until Spring. This gives the British time to prepare themselves for the inevitable border war.
    Unfortunately, there are insufficient soldiers in the territory to defend it against a serious French incursion without further good luck, and the French undoubtedly know this. Their most likely attack plan will be to move in force directly from the North, bringing their Huron allies through  Mohican lands to lay siege to Albany. The British, having insufficient forces to prevent an assault from the West and the North, will be forced to choose between losing Pennsylvania and Ohio or New York. Their only hope is the Mohican tribes which lie between Albany and New France; but these Mohican tribes present a significant problem.
    The Mohican lost a major battle with the French and Huron some 5 years ago, and in the settlement that followed signed a treaty of non-aggression and disarmament. Since then they have been set upon ferociously by the Delaware and, in observing the exact terms of their treaty, have been decimated. Another winter of such conflict will render them too weak to present any threat to the Huron, even if they were willing to break their original agreement. There is also some suspicion that the Delaware have been receiving aid in arms from the French, enabling them to overpower the Mohican; or that perhaps there is a secret clause in the Mohican treaty which weakens them more than the British have been led to believe.
    This is a dire situation for both the Mohican and the British. Fortunately, a solution presents itself. An Iroquois princess is being sent to marry a  Mohican chief, securing an alliance between the Mohican and the Iroquois. This will undoubtedly cause the Delaware to cease their attacks, since they will be afraid of stoking war against both the Iroquois and their British allies. The characters are required to escort this Princess to the Mohican tribes, protecting her against French and Huron aggression, in order to ensure that the alliance of Iroquois and Mohican can be completed.
    Once they reach the Mohican lands, the characters are to find out why the Mohican are so fatally weakened; is it enchantment, a secret clause in the treaty? Are the Delaware being given secret French aid? If the characters find a conspiracy by the French to arm the Delaware, they are to kill any traders involved, and destroy Delaware arms. Further, any other perfidy or treachery – be it English, Iroquois or French – which might be causing the Mohican to be weakened or disadvantaged, is to be dealt with in any way necessary.
    However, the characters are to avoid sparking a border war before winter, so they must be discreet.
    Easy! The characters agreed, and set off the following day in the company of 4 Iroquois braves, 4 Mohicans, the Princess “She comes with shadows” and their hastily hired interpeter and guide, an Iroquois named  “Speaks with Three Tongues”. Their journey would take a little more than 2 weeks, leading them through Fort William Henry and East of Lake Ticonderoga deep into the Iroquois forest.
    Within 3 days, of course,  disaster had struck. They were ambushed near midday by a force of 10 French soldiers, who lay in wait by the roadside. Fortunately our heroes saw them first and unleashed the full force of their magic upon them, paralysing or putting to sleep 6 of them before the fight began. The remaining 4 fired upon the Princess, knocking her off her horse and nearly killing her, before they were overwhelmed by the Braves. Father Cantrus ran to aid the Princess while the characters checked for other dangers, and found themselves facing a sneaking, spying Frenchwoman, who attempted to cast a powerful destructive spell on the King’s Torturer before Anna laBrousse was able to react. Anna cast Grendel’s Demise, tearing off the Frenchwoman’s arm, and livid with rage the King’s Torturer used the dismembered limb to choke her assistant to death before her very eyes. This, and the Torturer’s unique ability to extract confessions, quickly caused this woman to reveal everything she knew…
    This woman was la Belle dame sans Merci, a spy famous throughout North America for her ruthlessness and efficiency, as well as her secrecy. She had been charged with abducting the princess, or killing her. Had she succeeded in abducting the Princess she would have taken her downstream along the Mohawk river, using a boat moored nearby on that same river. After a day’s travel her plan had been to land on the far banks of the Mohawk, from where a force of 10 more French soldiers would lay a decoy trail, with the assistance of a camp follower who would pretend to be the princess. La Belle Dame would then drift further downriver, alighting north of Albany and heading in disguise into the North, dragging the Princess with her to her masters in the French army. This woman would then be used as a bargaining piece in the game of politics, to force the Iroquois to break the Covenant chain. 
    Having stopped all of this, and with la Belle Dame cowering at his mercy, David Black asked her another question: how had the French weakened the Mohican? She answered truthfully immediately: she, personally, had stolen the Mohicans’ totem pole. The characters, flabbergasted, wanted to know how she could even touch such a holy relic, let alone carry it. The carrying was easy, she said – she has a power for such things. And the touching? An offhand comment she remembered years ago – that Indian magic has no power over a woman when she is menstruating. la Belle Dame had tried it, and found the rumour true. One night she slipped into the camp and simply walked off with the pole, and thus did the Mohicans’ gods leave them…
    The characters now hatched a new plan to throw the French off their path. Anna laBrousse, disguised as la Belle Dame, floated downriver with the Princess in the boat, with Lord Merton and David Black disguised as French guards. At the appointed meeting spot she tricked the French soldiers into leaving on their pre-planned path, as if the plan were working; thus did the characters trick the French into thinking the Princess captured. While Anna, Merton and David Black did this, Father Cantrus and Russell Ganymede escorted la Belle Dame back to Fort Stanwix, to be handed over to the British and properly questioned.
    The characters rejoined after 5 days at Fort Stanwix, having successfully outwitted the French again, and with only one task remaining – to smuggle the Princess past that most frightful of Indian tribes, the Huron, and deliver her safely unto her waiting husband.

  • It’s got everything!

    A whole bunch of RPG bloggers have recently pointed to this post which compares the obsession with game mechanics in RPGs with the obsession on certain mechanical details in pornography (hereafter referred to as pr0n to escape the spammers). 

    I think they are getting way too hung up on the pr0n=D&D thing. The argument is clever, and I like it, but it simply consists of observing that the mechanics of a product can overwhelm the underlying purpose during the drive to market the product. Pr0n is just the most obvious representation of this phenomenon, which I think it’s reasonable to say occurs in many areas of commerce etc. But I think its too simplistic, and over-simplifies the dynamics of modern pr0n and RPGs.

    The most obvious way in which this can be seen is the article’s claims about splatbooks. They just don’t serve the role Wax Banks claims. The article ignores the importance players put on the imprimatur of game authors over products, i.e. we buy expansion packs because we trust our game company to develop the ideas which interest us in such a way that they work within the game rules. Good expansion packs are the very opposite of the “splat” which Wax Banks claims. Anyone who has tried designing their own character classes or systems should know that doing so in a balanced way is extremely difficult, and because game designers are often better than us at this we prefer to buy their version than use our own. An obvious example of this is the classic fantasy character of the warrior mage – there is no starting class of this form in AD&D, so if one wants to have such a class one needs to design it oneself or buy a book containing such a design. Chances are, the game designers’ version will be better than your own. Anyone who doubts this need only look at the example of the monk, a triumph of balance in designing a character which threatens to be either really weak or way too powerful.

    On this kind of evidence, I would contend that the drive in modern games is not towards mechanics for the sake of it, but towards the use of mechanics to balance simulationism and playability in a game which appeals to people who want to imagine fantasy worlds. Mechanics are important for this, just like body parts and methods are important in good sex. And just as pr0n-o-graphic styles and emphasis change over time – as fashion changes, as relations between the sexes change, and as our relationship with ourselves changes – so role-playing styles change under the influence of the customers, the parallel geek worlds of computers and fandom, the literary and cinematic worlds which influence us. AD&D 3.5 may be much more mechanical than AD&D 2, but it’s better, it gives a better balance of high fantasy and realism, and the characters are more interesting and better balanced. The AD&D 3.5 ranger is a lot of fun, because of rather than despite the rules.

    Similarly modern developments in pr0n don’t necessarily always represent the victory of mechanics over feeling. There is not “always a money shot”, which is in fact a reasonably modern innovation in pr0n. Modern mechanics in that film genre at least partially represent the increasing diversity and vibrancy of modern human sex lives, and may actually continue to reflect the fantasies and desires of ordinary people. It’s not as if the study of this genre is exactly unbiassed enough to provide clear answers as to what the viewer “wants”, which makes comparisons with it pretty dangerous unless, like Wax Banks, you’ve watched an awful lot of it. Who is to say that the money shot or gonzo stuff represents a focus on mechanics over fantasy, rather than the predominance of a particular fantasy among the viewers? Maybe the modern focus on mechanics serves to aid the viewers’ fantasies, rather than to overwhelm them in grotty detail? If 80s pr0n is like AD&D 2, then maybe pr0n 3.5 just represents a better way of showing people what they want?

    (Interestingly, I tend to think that modern internet pr0n is much nastier and more sexist than earlier stuff, and particularly the predominance of really humiliating nastiness in American internet pr0n is quite disturbing. I recommend anyone who wants to investigate this compare any of the major purveyors of internet stuff from America and Japan. The Japanese stuff – famously sexist – strikes me as much more gentle, and much less degrading (in general) than the American stuff. Wax Banks had some things to say about the American national character and the focus on mechanics which are interesting in light of this comparison)

    (But, it’s dangerous to compare internet pr0n with anything. Nobody pays for that stuff (what a shocking idea!). And as with all things, if you want to get your kicks for free you have to compromise, and the compromise with American internet pr0n seems to be that you have to suffer through the misogyny to get your excitement. bitTorrent notwithstanding, one usually pays for role-playing books, so one tends to have some consumer power as regards what goes into them…)

    (And in closing, can I just say that Wax Banks’ blog is excellent!)

  • Current reading: I am a Cat

    I am currently reading <i>I am a cat</i> by Soseki Natsume, who is apparently a much-loved author from Meiji era Japan. The book is set in Japan in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese war, and is told entirely from the point of view of an apparently omniscient cat, who is nameless. The cat lives with a dyspeptic, penny-pinching English Teacher and his unfortunate wife, and comments on the trivial comings and goings of their daily life in a highly critical, extremely sarcastic and scathing tone. 

    The central conceit of the book appears to be that the cat is himself a complete wanker, in exactly the way one would expect of a cat. The author manages to maintain this perspective with singular devotion and skill through many pages of sneering commentary on the very ordinary people with whom the cat lives. The book alternates between sublime descriptive passages (as when the nameless cat foolishly attempts to catch rats), hilarious interactions between the humans, slapstick, and scornful monologues on the nature of humans – usually all at once. Yet despite the constant criticism, the tone of the book is light-hearted and cheerful. It is mostly a delight to read – cutting presentation of the foibles of everyday people was never so sugar-coated. 

    Plus it makes me think of my own cat, who is probably engaging in just such a feline monologue right now, in the home of my partner’s parents in far away Australia (where, no doubt, it is warmer than London!)

  • MMORPGs and the infection of the mundane

    I have complained previously about the injection of banal meat-world activities into computer games which occurs in MMORPGs, particularly the need to “work” to make money and items. I play computer games to escape from my ordinary reality, not to go to work after I have finished work, so the importance of “grinding” and trading in games like World of Warcraft gives me the shits (a little). Obviously it’s good from a technical point of view that the designers have set up whole functioning economies, and it’s good that you can make and buy specialist stuff. I also accept that trade in one’s creative efforts is a fundamental part of human interaction, and that is largely what MMORPGs are all about. But it also seems like a kind of seedy under-achievement, that the best these teams of super-creative designers could come up with was real life.

    So it doesn’t come as a surprise to me that another of the real world’s great mundanities – sexism – has crept into these games. via Terra Nova, I discovered this claim that Age of Conan has penalised the combat ability of female characters (“by accident” of course). Discussion of this sexism at Terra Nova, incidentally, has been strangely muted, with a wierd example of men giving birth as some kind of counter-factual. The topic reminded me of an experience my good friend Ms. B (in Amsterdam) had while playing WoW. Her Warlock went on a quest to gain a new and powerful demon pet, and came back with this stupid succubus in high heels and a bikini. Ms. B’s reaction to this creature was quite visceral – she almost physically shuddered every time it cracked its whip and snickered. If a game could sexually harass a female player without actually pinching her arse, this is the way a game would do it. Sure, we know most players of these games are probably men but that doesn’t mean we have to reproduce the boys’ club rules quite so explicitly, do we? 

    In real role-playing, of course, this stuff doesn’t happen so much. Sure the artwork in the games is universally pretty seedy, but generally (Tunnels and Trolls perhaps being a notable exception) there is no representation of inequality in the game rules, which in fact go out of their way to state that there is no barrier to women playing any role. In all my years of playing I have only ever seen one or two instances where the players try to recreate sexist ideas within the game, even though pulp and high fantasy are essentially very sexist milieux. And to the best of my knowledge I’ve never seen any sexual harassment of players, or attempts at belittling sexualisation. 

    It’s another one of the great achievements of MMORPGs, I suppose, that they have created this kind of rush to the bottom, as if the only way the designers could envisage an online community is if it reproduces the basic structures of our real lives. I suppose it’s inevitable, but as always I would have hoped for better.

    (Terra Nova also has an interesting discussion of whether or not the MMORPG EVE is going to be affected by the credit crunch currently enveloping its real-world company, which is Icelandic).

  • Compromise and Conceit Session 2: Ambush at Wood Creek

    We rejoin our brave heroes on the first floor of the only tavern in Schuyler, soaked to their elbows in the blood of their villainous foes, 6 Frenchies who had (until their rapid and brutal demise) cloaked themselves in the disguise of good English Soldiers. Oh, how the good people of that fair green land would tremble to see the honour of their finest young men so besmirched by French interlopers!

    But these 6 would sully no more reputations, for they had been gutted horribly in their sleep by our fine adventurers, who now began planning the defeat of the army from whence these vile Frenchmen had come. First they gathered up the soldiers’ swords and coats, dumped the bodies, and set off for the nearby Iroquois village which they had so narrowly saved from a fate worse than death.

    The journey took perhaps an hour at a brisk pace, and involved mostly walking along a narrow goat trail heavily encompassed by the silent, dripping forest. Constantly troubled by a feeling of being watched, our heroes nonetheless maintained their bold poise, and emerged after an  hour and a bit into a large clearing in the forest. The North end of the clearing was topped by a low hill, beyond which lay the waters of the lake in which the French army lay hidden. Between them and that hill lay the Iroquois village, consisting of rough tents pitched around a long, low building made of solid logs and thatch. Between the characters and the tent stood some hundred or so Indians, a huge crowd composed of every brave the village had, silently waiting for them.

    The characters emerged with their agreed spokesman, the inconstant sybarite Lord Merton, to their fore. In his left hand he carried the coat of a slaughtered soldier, while in his right he brandished the coup belt earlier given to the group as a gift by Iroquois tribesmen. Seeing him the braves began whooping and yelling, brandishing axes and knives; but seeing the coup belt and his respectful greeting, they parted sufficiently to open a narrow pathway through the crowd. At the end of this pathway stood their warchief, a tall and proud brave wearing a coup belt that carried the emblems of many dead.

    Troubled but firm in their resolve to aid the Crown, our heroes marched forward into the breach. As they passed amongst the savage throng, many an Indian warrior would step forward, thrusting out his breast and yelling his challenge; but a mere eyeballing of the brute, and a strong back, were enough to forestall further threat. So doing, the characters emerged at the far side of the crowd, standing now face to face with the warchief, his entire clan arrayed about them in native splendour.

    Lord Merton had noticed a particular slimy, sly looking Indian, much unloved by his fellows, following their passage attentively through the crowd. Was this perhaps the spy who had aimed to aid the French? But how could one so lowly in the regard of his tribe convince them all to drink alcohol and light fires? Surely he was not the one… but now Lord Merton watched wide-eyed as this inconsequential chap emerged cautiously from the crowd and walked over to his warchief to whisper in his ear. After a moment the weedy fellow turned and returned to the crowd, soon disappearing from sight. Fearing the worst, Merton cast his spell of hindsight to try and identify this spy’s earlier movements and discovered that, sure enough, this was the Indian who had followed them here, giving them such chills in the dark of the forest…

    Lord Merton greeted the warchief respectfully, reminding him of the antecedent bravery which the coup belt represented, and of the strong relations between their nations until this juncture. He gave brief warning of the war to come, and begged leave to ask the assistance of the tribe. The warchief merely grunted, and gesturing to some of his fellows, turned away. These other braves ran to the large wooden hall and disappeared inside, and a hush fell over the crowd.

    This was too much risk for Russell Ganymede, who invoked his demonic sight so as to look inside the hall. By means of his Infernal scrying he was able to see three ancient, wizened men inside. The hall was wreathed in smoke, penetrated only by the ruddy glow of a few dying fires. Coughing and spluttering, a small gang of braves picked up the platform on which the three wizened men sat, and carried it slowly into the light.

    Once the three old men had been set down before the characters, they explained the situation, turning to Mr. duPlessis to prove their point. Having outlined the evil plans of the French, they requested the tribe’s aid – in lighting the signal fire, and ambushing the French army after it had landed. The Indian elders were not convinced until one of their number had laboriously climbed the hill at the rear of the village. There, overlooking the lake, he summoned a gentle rain, and in the pattern of this shower could be seen the 30 French boats, cloaked against prying eyes but not against the trickery of Indian magic. Turning to the other elders, he nodded assent, and the tribe immediately set about preparing the ambush.

    While the preparations continued the characters noticed that the warchief refused to talk to them, and wondering at the earlier behaviour of the warchief’s slimy comrade, asked after him until they came to his tent, which was pitched as close to the latrines as a man of his dubious physiognomy ought to be. When they arrived this Indian scout was just sidling off into the forest, carrying a small bag. Lord Merton went invisible and followed him, leaving a trail for Russell Ganymede to follow. They pursued the Iroquois to the edge of the forest overlooking the lake, where they found him attempting to signal the French with a helioscope. They attacked, grabbed him and the helioscope, and bundled him back to the camp.

    Upon discovering this treachery the Indians were incensed, and immediately they tied the unfortunate spy to a stake and erected it above the growing woodpile of the signal fire. He began blubbering and wailing, and desperately tried to bargain for his life, but the elders would not listen. During his pathetic begging pleas, he revealed the following information:

    • He was recruited by a spy called Misericorde who deals with natives of three nations (Iroquois, Delaware, Susquehanna)
    • There is a spy amongst the Iroquois near Niagara who may be recruiting Iroquois bandits to infiltrate fort Niagara itself
    • The French invasion fleet is using riverboats with little space for cannon. No cannon will be offloaded at the disembarkation point, the French aiming to use instead the cannon from the capture of Fort Stanwix in their ongoing campaign
    • 10 of the ships on the lake will be departing to land troops inland of Fort Oswego once the signal fire is seen, so as to prevent any retreat from one fort to the other.

    Having revealed these things, the spy was left on the stake, with a small group of Iroquois women sharpening their knives nearby, just in case he should be allowed down.

    So the scene was set, and everyone drifted down to the forest as the signal fire was lit. Against the backdrop of its glowing fury – and the dying screams of the captured traitor – the characters and their new allies took up positions on the edge of the forest, facing a 100m stretch of open ground to the water. In all there were 100 braves. Their elders had set about summoning the spirits of the forest, in the form of great, shadow-enshrouded treemen, who stood sentinel near the edge of the forest. All  went silent as the river ships approached and disgorged a cloud of longboats. As the longboats approached the shore, still visible in the last light of dusk, it was clear that the Iroquois were horribly outnumbered, perhaps 12 to 1. How could they prevail?

    The French landed and gathered with admirable silence on the shore, as yet unprepared for battle. After the majority of the  Frenchies had settled onto land, and were lounging or standing about waiting for orders, a single brave burst from the trees. He ran screaming down to the shore, brandishing his axe and wailing fit to wake the dead. A French soldier raised his rifle to shoot the brave down but his sergeant, thinking the brave friendly, ordered the gun lowered. Moments later this lone Iroquois crashed into the mass of huddled troops, smashing the first couple with his axe and hurtling into the interior of the squad. By the time they had reacted enough to cut him down, he had killed 3 or 4 and injured as many more.

    A deathly silence then fell over the scene as all French eyes turned outward to the darkness of the waiting forest. And then, as one, screaming and yelling their barbaric warcries, the Iroquois burst from the shadows of the Forest and charged forward, the great dark forms of their forest spirits running alongside them (and the characters just a little way behind). They hit the unprepared French in a wall of death, hacking and gouging and slaying as they came. The first lines of French, hastily formed with neither powder ready nor bayonets fixed, fell like the wheat before the scythe, and as the Iroquois penetrated the main force of French they hacked about them with gleeful abandon. Here and there an Indian stopped in his tracks to gut one of the fallen where he lay, tearing out his heart or other vitals and holding it up to his fellows in tribute before returning to the slaughter. To the rear, French soldiers began assembling in lines and loading their weapons, but to the fore all was red rage and rivers of blood.

    The characters saw now their main goal, for at the rear of the battle stood a Lt. Colonel, his colour sergeant, and the French flag. A potent magic item, the colours grant benefit to the allies of whomsoever hold them, and their possession can turn the tide of battle. Seeing their chance, the characters went to action. David Cantrus summoned the Angel of Death and sent it to slay a Sergeant Major who was attempting to direct fire; Lord Merton assumed his invisible form and slipped through the battle to the distant colours, while his batman fired upon the Lt. Colonel’s signalman, who was attempting to send warning to the retreating ships with a helioscope. Umit the Dervish set about healing fallen Indians, moving slowly forward to remain in range of battle. 

    As the Indians marched forward, Lord Merton siezed the colours from the colour sergeant. Russell Ganymede fired on the sergeant, dislodging his grip, and Lord Merton resumed his invisible state. Unfortunately for Merton, a shadowy figure emerged from nowhere and, seeing through his magic, attempted to stab him from the rear. It missed but, guessing it must be Misericorde the assassin, Merton attempted to flee. Seeing the colours retreating, the Lt Colonel, his colour sergeant and 5 soldiers pursued the bobbing flag. Russell Ganymede finished off the Lt Colonel with another blast from his infernal rifle, but Misericorde let out a supernatural screech which staggered Merton and slowed his flight. Still invisible, he staggered about, unable to fight. Misericorde then cast a spell to surround himself with mulitple mirror images. David Cantrus lost concentation on his Angel of Death, dispelling it, and instead cast his spell Suffer Not a Witch, whose righteousness stripped away Misericorde’s protections. Umit the Dervish streaked forward into the battle and, in a sudden whirling attack, injured 3 of the soldiers. Russell summoned a Demon, which came in the form of a shadowy Indian brave, and battle was joined in earnest.

    Meanwhile the Iroquois charged down the last lines of French soldiers, who had formed three ranks and were ready with massed gunfire. Panicking, all three lines of soldiers – some  300 men – opened fire on the thinly spread Iroquois, but remarkably barely a brave fell. Then they hit the line of soldiers, and the last pitched battle of the engagement began. Against the backdrop of the screams of the wounded and the dying, and the triumphant whooping of  Iroquois warriors, the characters pressed their attack against the Lt. Colonel and his men. Eventually seeing that the battle was up, Misericorde fled to a small boat, leaving the Lt. Colonel and his men to die. He screamed for some nearby fleeing soldiers to help, and together they pushed the boat into the water. The Lt. Colonel made his last stand on the beach, where his men were quickly cut down by a horde of savages, who left him alive on the request of Lord Merton. Besides  the Lt Colonel, the only soldiers still alive were the 5 who had taken to the boat with Misericorde.

    Seeing their spy escaping, David Cantrus summoned  a storm of ice and snow over the boat. Huge chunks of hail fell on it, scuttling it and slowing its progress sufficiently for the braves to take to the water and catch up with it. They turned it  over and slaughtered the soldiers as they fell in the water. Again Merton called for them to preserve the life of the spy, but they heeded him not; in their frenzy they butchered him in the water like a stranded Manatee.

    So did 1200 men of the French frontier forces fall to a vastly inferior barbarian army. Some might say that in this battle lies a lesson for those who lay claim to the superiority of Infernal technology and modern military planning; but most would merely point out that, as some Oriental strategists have long advised, the key to every success is surprise, and planning.

    And on this single event’s outcome rests the fate of the French incursion into the territory of the British Crown. Perhaps this single action will stall the war to come – or have the characters’ actions inflamed a border skirmish into total war?

  • On Japan

    Further to my post on role-playing in Japan, I thought I would put up a few links and vague details about my time in Japan. 

    My partner had always wanted to live in Japan, and she moved there in August 2005, living in Hiroshima for a year and a half and working for the now-defunct English language  conversation school, Nova, before she moved to Matsue and became a University lecturer. My partner’s blog is here, though perhaps now mostly defunct on account of our having left Japan.

    Hiroshima is a wonderful city, and some sense of how cool it is can be obtained from a visit to the get hiroshima website. I strongly recommend that town to anyone who visits.

    I spent a year in Australia after my partner moved to Japan, scoring myself a Japan Government Scholarship to study a PhD in statistics. (This scholarship is available for nationals of every country; I got mine in Australia, hence the Australian website). The Japan Government scholarship is worth its weight in gold, because it provides a 4 month full-time Japanese language course before you start studies, and follows this with lots of exposure to Japanese people in the study environment. I had never studied Japanese before so this was a boon for me and my partner. 

    I studied Japanese in the small rural town of Tottori, where I made some very good friends, before moving to Matsue to take up my studies. Unfortunately, after a year and a half I gave up on my PhD, for a variety of reasons – mostly to do with being too old to study, being in a backward rural university, and having a few … differences of opinion … with my supervisor, who was (amongst other things) a bully. My adventures in these towns are described on my other blog, which is now mostly in Japanese (but the earlier entries are in English), and some photos are attached here (this is a slideshow).

    I left to come to England and work in a damn fine job in London, and my partner followed in August to look for a damn fine job. This means I was in Japan for 2 full years and my partner for 3. I came to London with a whole bunch of misconceptions about how easy readjustment to the West would be, and I think my view of the West has been permanently changed. We both miss Japan horribly and there is at least some chance we will return there for the long term, particularly if we can improve our Japanese. It is a cruel irony of life in Japan, but it is actually really difficult to  study Japanese properly in Japan, and we had hoped to improve our Japanese through formal study after we returned to the West, which is what we are doing now.

    About Japan itself I can only say that it is a wonderful place, and everything you have heard about it is, most likely, not true. To me it is a world of forests and mountains and kind, friendly, welcoming people, with an ease of lifestyle that one cannot imagine living in the West (and certainly not in London!) Japanese people are less sexist, less racist, less kooky and less heirarchically inclined than you have been led to believe; Japan itself is cleaner, less polluted, more environmentally friendly and much cheaper than you have heard (and than the West, or at least those parts of the West which I know). Japanese people are very much closer to nature than most people in Australia or England, and Japan has retained its essential uniqueness very well. In many ways Japanese society provides a model for how we should behave and interact in our daily lives. Of course, Japan has many problems, social, economic and political, but it is no more beset by these than we are, and its social cohesion and calm are admirable.

    And, of course, Japan is the only remaining Western society which is spiritually pagan on a national and practical level. It is a terrible shame to me that most westerners know it only through the few unpleasant stereotypes the Western media allow to filter through, and I recommend everyone visit it to find out the joys of the place for themselves.

  • Fantasy role-playing in Japan

    I am not really in a position to say too much about role-playing in Japan because I didn’t get much chance to do any. This is because, like in Australia, role-playing just isn’t a very well-known phenomenon there. The Japanese computer game market is heavily crowded with some very role-playing-oriented computer games (like the Final Fantasy series) and there really is a lot to keep a young nerd occupied just with them.

    Of course most of the foreign games would have to be translated, which is also something of a problem. D&D has been, and there is a native game called Sword World which is popular with players, but there isn’t actually a big role-playing scene. Since I lived in the country I wasn’t exactly in a position to pursue it. I wanted to play in a Japanese group before I left, in the Japanese language, but since I left 2 years before I was meant to, I wasn’t quite ready for the experience language wise and I never got a chance to meet anyone. I certainly knew lots of nerds, but many of them had never heard of fantasy role-playing (even using the Japanese name, “Table talk role-playing” they still hadn’t heard of  it).

    When she was teaching my partner occasionally mentioned my hobby to some of her more mature, more nerdy students, but she reported that most of them hadn’t heard of it either. Those that had thought it sounded too difficult, but none of them reported any kind of disapproval. The general level of shyness Japanese people have, and their unwillingness to draw attention to themselves or their ideas, means that they don’t respond warmly to the kind of environment role-playing represents – in that sense I think it’s a very western kind of activity. However, there are a lot of stereotypes about Japanese people’s lack of initiative  and imagination which get bandied about in connection with their unwillingness to present ideas publicly, and I think those stereotypes are quite shallow and untrue, so one shouldn’t confuse a Japanese person’s unwillingness to join such a group environment with any such stereotype.

    Certainly, though, I do think that the traits of diffidence and humility are strongly admired and treasured in Japanese society, and they aren’t compatible with a gaming environment where drunk nerds yell their actions in an imaginary world before an audience of their peers.

    Given these combined factors – console game dominance, translation costs and shyness – it’s no surprise that role-playing is not so popular here. But if I go back (not such a big if) I will go to a major city, and then I shall have a better chance of finding out what Japanese RPGs and their players are all about.

  • Role-playing for schoolchildren

    The Chatty DM recently had a post about planning adventures for children, and his post reminded me that, while I was teaching English part-time at Matsue College of Technology in Matsue, Japan, I ran a short role-playing adventure in my Special English Class, as a kind of English practice task.

    For completeness and because it was a fun adventure I thought I’d give a brief outline here. 

    The setting was Matsue College of Technology, and our 4 characters were:

     

     

     

     

    • kenichi, a Ninja, an 18 year old boy, member of the Kendo club
    • midori, an 18 year old girl who is a witch, member of the shooting club
    • shouhei, an 18 year old boy who is a type of high-school Shugenja, a member of the baseball club 
    • yuki, an 18 year old girl, who is a thief, and a member of the Kenpo club

    All four characters were also members of the magic club, whose senior member is an 18 year old girl called Sayako (pictured at the top of this post). 

    (By way of background: I had 8 students in this class, all 16 years old; they played 2 to a character so as to avoid embarrassment when they couldn’t think what to do, or got confused about the English; club life is a very important part of Japanese school life; the drinking age in Japan is 20 years old; Matsue is one of only a small number of Japanese towns to have its original castle still intact, and also has a very fine old section of town, and a lake. Also, to ensure no confusion about the task and the goals, all background material was handed out in Japanese as well as English).

    So, the adventure began at Matsue College of Technology, after Midori and Sayako had an argument about black magic. Midori gathered her companions and they burst into the magic club rooms, which were empty, but contained these two notes:

     

    Fellow members!

    This is the moment we have waited a year for! Tonight we will go to Matsue Castle and summon a Demon on the top floor! Once we have summoned the Demon, we can take control of Matsue, and people will give us everything we want! 

    To summon the Demon we need to collect some things: 

    •       The bones of a Samurai child
    •       10 people to feed to the Demon
    •       A lot of sake 

    If we go now, we can have everything ready before midnight. It is best to summon the Demon at midnight on Halloween! Meet me at Matsue Castle when you have collected these things! We have planned for this for a whole year, so please do it correctly!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Your evil master

     Sayako

    The second note they found gave more detail about what had to be done:

  • Samurai House
  • Naked Space bar
  • Bar EAD

    •  

    was all it said.

    So the characters rushed off to rescue Matsue from the Demon-summoning boss of their school magic club. Amusingly, there  was some debate about the best way to get into town (the College is a way out of town) and eventually they settled on… the bus!

    Unfortunately, as they were running down the hallways towards the main gate, they heard a gunshot behind them. Turning around, they saw the head of the English Department, Professor Takahashi, shambling towards them, clearly enchanted, waving a gun. (At this point my students worked out how to say “A spell has been cast on him” in English, clearly an essential part of their education!)

    Because Takahashi Sensei is very popular at Matsue College of Technology, they did not want to hurt him. So Midori cast a sleep spell on him and stole his gun, and they ran off to the bus.

    The bus goes directly past the Samurai house, so they hopped off at the bus stop and wandered over to the house. Yuki crept in ahead, and found an undead Samurai warrior in the courtyard. They attacked this warrior and, after some difficulty, managed to defeat him. Scouting some more around the courtyard, they found to their horror that the Samurai had been buried in the garden with his child many centuries ago, and now his child’s body had been disinterred and stolen! (I didn’t bother teaching my students “disinterred”). So, they realised, they had missed the first stage of Sayako’s plan and must rush to Naked Space!

    Fortunately, Naked Space and Bar EAD are only a short distance from the Samurai House, and all Japanese school students can run a marathon, so off they jogged. They reached Naked Space quickly, but were disappointed to discover, when they walked up the stairs and through the little foyer into the nightclub proper, that the club was empty. Shohei heard the sound of sobbing and, wandering through to the bathroom, found Sayako’s boyfriend (who owns naked space) sobbing in the toilet. There was some initial confusion in which Shohei tried to kill him, but then everyone calmed down and learnt that Sayako and her acolytes had burst into the Naked Space bar, and abducted all 10 of its customers (Naked Space is very small), who were guests at a halloween party. So, the characters had failed again!

    Despairing of their speed (perhaps a cab would have been a good idea), the characters dashed around the corner to Bar EAD and charged up to the third floor, to find it in a state of disarray. The door had been smashed in, chairs torn apart, all of the pretty ornaments scattered around the room, and the collage of French movie posters torn and wrecked. Behind the rubbish-scattered counter, the waitress sat hunched over, trying to hide. Upon interrogation, she revealed that Sayako had charged into the bar, trashed it with her magical powers, and then run away with all the sake, liquour bottles and wine to be found in the building.

    So, again the characters were late! (Perhaps they shouldn’t have jogged). There was only one place left to go – Matsue Castle! Off they went, back the way they had come from the bars by the lake and over to the car park at the front of the castle. However, as they approached the Castle they were attacked by a group of Kappa, of whom they made fantastically short (and gruesome) work. From there it was in through the broad swathe of gardens inside the main gate, and up into the inner citadel. The castle was strangely empty and a strange, evil light was glowing above its keep as thick stormclouds gathered.

    Once inside the Keep, the characters found themselves facing a strange sight.  A couple of goblins, a witch, a Harry Potter, a Football player, a Hobbit, a soldier, an Oni, Yuki Onna, and 2 maids, all stood in a circle on the ground floor. After a moment’s confusion they realised these were the halloween party guests from Naked Space, still in their costumes, and held in stasis within columns of light stretching up to the ceiling of the room. As Midori considered how to break this magic, Sayako’s acolytes attacked them, and the characters had to do battle again, this time against wizards.

    They survived this battle too, but not quickly enough to prevent the entrapped halloween guests from dying. “Oh well”, said Kenichi, and I taught them the phrase “If you want to make an omelette…” They ran up the stairs to attack Sayako, but found a demon between them and her. Battle was joined, but they realised that Sayako had to concentrate hard to control the demon – she had conjured more than she could control! Yuki ambushed Sayako, breaking her concentration, and the demon ate her whole. Then it thanked them all for aiding it, and disappeared with a loud bang.

    I ran this game in a kind of simplified AD&D 3.5, with very few skills, a few simple attack and magic rules, and limited magic items – these guys were playing this out of their own language, so bewildering character sheets and extensive language for rules were definitely out. It worked though, and I recommend it as a fun way to pass two lessons. I’m not so sure that it actually helped anyone learn any English. But then, none of my other classes did either…

  • The history of the Essential Compromise

    As the Age of Enlightment drew to a close the Great Houses and Monarchies of Europe had begun to stifle under the pall of their own histories. A small circle of authors and scientists, many  of great repute in the salons of Europe, had begun to plot a revolutionary and terrifying new path for European history. In 1588,  amidst much debate about the rectitude of their vision, Cristopher Marlowe wrote his famous Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. Marlowe intended this as a warning to his friends and colleagues about the danger of their proud new ideas, but it was taken across Europe as a balanced description of the power and the dangers of his friends’ new vision. For he and his friends had raised Infernal Powers to Earth, and from them had begun to gain great powers. Their vision for the future was a Europe whose power waxed upon the strengths of Demonic magic.

     The people of England, Marlowe’s home nation, looked across the Ocean to the New World of the Americas, where their brave vision of a new land from which they could plunder their way to greatness had been stymied by a frightening and sinister local shamanism, which the Native American peoples practised freely. In Europe the Austrian Empire looked nervously Southward, to the growing Ottoman Empire whose Djinn and Alchemists gave the Ottoman army incomparable power. The great power which Marlowe’s circle of friends offered the Europeans promised not just a renewal of their stagnating culture, but an opportunity to hold back the seemingly inexorable march of the Turks towards Southern Europe, perhaps the only way of ensuring the survival of a free Europe into the 17th Century.

     In the 10 years following Marlowe’s publication many more scientists and philosophers across Europe flocked to the homes of his friends to study the Infernal powers they had discovered. The group became known informally as The Hamburg Circle, from the city at which they were based. As they continued to develop new and more exciting branches of the Science of Infernalism, Marlowe led debate on its dangers, holding forth his great play as a warning of the inevitable end to which such Conjuring would surely lead it’s practitioners. However, in 1600 his English contemporary, William Shakespeare, published his great play Hamlet, and with it a Deliberation upon the Tragedy of the Flaw’d Conjuror. In this essay Shakespeare discussed the Tragedies he had already written, noting that the heroes in many of his texts were undone by their own fatal flaws. He compared his latest tragic protagonist, Hamlet, with Dr. Faustus, and observed that neither would have come undone had they not surrendered to their fatal character flaws. In Dr. Faustus’s case, Shakespeare argued, his flaws were arrogance, greed and deceptiveness. Had he been able to practise his Infernal arts openly, and had he been less bent on worldly gain and self-aggrandisement he would have been able to control Mephistopheles and use the Infernal powers he was offered for good. In short, Shakespeare concluded, had Faustus been a good Christian summoning under the supervision of the Christian church he would have been able to avoid the apparently inevitable trap so eloquently described at the end of the play. Shakespeare recommended that Infernalism and the Hamburg Circle be placed under the supervision of the Church, and suggested that good Christian men from the ruling classes would surely only be able to use their powers for good under these conditions.

    The salons of Europe were set aflame by this argument, and the following year an anonymous pamphlet was distributed throughout Europe. This pamphlet, The Divine Puropses of Hell, described a Europe transformed by Demonic power. These Demonic powers, the pamphlet argued, could be easily controlled by good Christians and would have many benefits. In four chapters devoted separately to Civic Life, the Arts, War and Industry, the anonymous author described the transformative and liberating effects of harnessing Infernal powers. The people of Europe were captivated by the images contained therein, and for the next 50 years the Hamburg Circle developed their skills and powers, teaching novices from all over Europe. Shakespeare’s initial admonition that Infernalists should be supervised by the Church was forgotten in the rush to spread their teachings, and the original meaning of Marlowe’s text was reinterpreted as a warning against allowing ones own desires and flaws to interfere with the pure task of conjuring Demons for the good of Christendom.

    The military academies of Europe and England, and both Churches, were at the forefront of development of Infernalism as a tool for everyday life. In 1681 the Ottomans were stalemated in a mighty battle at Saloniki, the first victory against the Turkish forces for nearly 100 years. With the signing of the temporary Constantinople Peace in 1682 the people of Europe realised the importance of Infernal forces in battle, and the final objections to their use in everyday life were swept away on a tide of euphoria. There might be no peace in Europe herself, and Demons might have transformed Europe’s internal conflicts to a new state of bloodthirstiness, but Europe herself would survive, and there was hope that perhaps the infidel would be defeated in the future.

    The science of infernalism continued to spread across Europe through the rest of the 17th Century and the first half of the 18th Century. However, in 1739 a bizarre series of horrific murders, and the destruction of the entire village of Collona in Northern Lombardy at the hands of a mad conjuror, led the people of Europe to question their decision to so freely embrace their new science. In 1751 the first Convocation of Thaumaturges met in Hamburg, and under the auspices of both Churches, the Emperor of Prussia and the Kings of England, the Netherlands and France, it was decided that only practitioners from several strict schools of magic would be able to conjure Demons. These schools were the Hamburg, the Regency, the Trajectors, and the Order of Hermes, and only the most powerful and skilled of the Hamburg School’s practitioners would be able to conjure great Demons. Over the next 100 years the Inquisition worked throughout Europe to hunt down Demonologists and offer them a stark choice: the School or the Stake. The Hamburg School led the way to the formalisation of magic in schools, and it also coined the great phrase which described the rule of Infernalism in modern Europe: the Essential Compromise.