IN> Angelpunk

[William Keith]

      I scanned the alleyway.  My tracker eye highlighted a half-hidden 
sneakerprint, a trail of dark stuff that checked out as the target's 
blood.  Man, I loved that thing.  Cost me a fortune, but I'd been able 
to nail more bounties than ever before.  That bodymodder had been worth 
every penny, and I'd recommended him to friends; now he was dead, and I 
had half-killed the man who had done it, and I was determined to finish 
the job.

      My target had gone into... huh.  The back door of Brother 
Abdullah's Kung Fu Studio.  I'd seen the Brother around, old Black 
Panther type.  Decent enough guy.  Didn't think he was mixed up with 
cybersnatchers.

      I flexed the arches of my feet and activated the repulsor mods... 
tried to activate them.  They were on the fritz again.  "Cheap pieces 
of junk," I muttered.  I made a jump for the fire escape and barely 
caught hold of it, swinnging myself up clumsily.  Not making enough 
noise for an elephant, no way.  I tensed my biceps and prayed, and 
thankfully the juice flowed into my enhanced dukes.  Subtlety 
abandoned, I broke the fire door's knob off and ran in, fists balled, 
looking for my target.

      And there he was, getting his wounds tended in the middle of what 
looked like a million big black guys in karate outfits.  Crap.  A soft 
padding of feet behind me told me I was surrounded.

      "Corporeal Might at the ready, Corporeal Motion that looks like it 
didn't work, and if I'm not mistaken an eye-talisman for Tracking," 
said a deep voice behind me.  Weirdest names for bio-conversions I'd 
ever heard, but I gathered what he was talking about.  "You must have 
been a loyal customer."  A moment's pause.  "And I see you had no idea 
about the shadier side of the man's business, either.  That's good... I 
think you may want to take a minute to let us explain, and possibly to 
consider an offer of employment."

      I turned around to see Brother Abdullah smiling at me.  He offered 
me a porcelain cup.  "Tea?"

      And ever since that day, the bounties got a little different....

-----

So this idea cropped up in banter on PyraMOO recently.  To turn a 
living being into an artifact, you have to make them a living artifact; 
okay.  But it's perfectly possible to keep a being the same being while 
giving them, say, bionic hands.  So why not be able to turn *part* of a 
living being into an artifact?

Even a human?

Thus was born Angelpunk: the notion of a campaign where rich, 
well-connected, or deeply-indentured humans (or other, the concept is 
perfectly viable for Vessels) could go to a "mumbo-jumbo chop shop" and 
have body parts turned in to usable artifacts.  E.g., eyes that are 
relics of NC: Eyes... or of Cel. Light.

This idea would certainly appeal to Vapula to begin with.  However, 
several sci-fi ethereals might also find it deeply satisfying, not to 
mention quite profitable.  It's easy to simply make relic organs a 
feature of your campaign without changing anything else; simply note 
the cost and figure that the character got in touch with someone who 
could do the work.  To make things interesting, though, relic body 
parts could slip the leash of their innovators.  To do that, you'll 
need these:

Surgeon's Hands: These are conversions of hands to relics which contain 
the Celestial and/or Ethereal Songs of Artifacts, with the Feature 
"Song usable by a being that otherwise couldn't use it."  However, the 
user cannot make all kinds of artifacts; he can only copy artifacts to 
which he has access throughout the item creation process, usually an 
item to which he himself is bonded.  Thus, a "cyber surgeon" is likely 
to either have one specialized, powerful artifact available for sale, 
or a smorgasboard of low-power items.  If Surgeon's Hands become 
sufficiently commonplace, it will become an attractive option for a 
small circle of surgeons with complementary artifacts to incorporate, 
both to provide a larger menu of items and (in regular In Nomine) to 
assist with the final enchantment ceremony.
      The enchantment process itself requires the patient to come in for 
several hours each day during the item creation period -- relics of any 
kind, which can take years, are *expensive* when obtained from human 
enchanters, unless provided by obscure cults who alter their inductees 
(or if Eli is going around handing out his Elohite Choir 
Attunement...).  In order to avoid problems with a mundane not having 
Essence, the Hands come with a built-in reliquary/1 for (in standard In 
Nomine) use with the Song of Artifacts, or (in GURPS In Nomine) the 
daily Essence requirement for the enchantment process.  They also have 
a built-in once-per-day hard use limit, to prevent this capacity being 
exceeded.

Cost (Standard IN):
Songs of Artifacts(var.): 3/level, per Song
Song usable by mundane:   1/level, per Song
Self-powered:             +0
Reliquary/1               +3
Essence mundane-usable:   +3
Preparation: 1 hour       -3
Conv.: 2 hands req.       -1
Frequency: 1/day          -1
Use restriction: roll**   -1
Relic destroyed when
corp. form destroyed:     -4
--------------------------
Total:                    4/level/Song, + 6, -10

* That is to say, the surgeon cannot use his hands for anything else 
while working.
** In standard IN, user must roll vs. Medicine skill; in GURPS, vs. 
Surgery.  This is in addition to the enchantment roll.

A surgeon can pick up a self-powered pair of Hands/3 for the creation 
of both relics and talismans (two Songs at level 3), for 20 points.  
Their innate Songs will work slightly less than half the time; if they 
are in the business of providing cheap relics and talismans, even 
failures will not affect the ceremony time too badly.  They can double 
this skill level with one Song, or distribute the 6 skill levels among 
the two, for the same point cost; a specialty surgeon who picks up 
Surgeon's Hands for just one Song at /3 pays a mere 8 points.  Many 
also come with built-in Enchantment talismans; one with built-in 
Enchantment and Medicine talismans would let an aspiring surgeon get 
into the business instantly, no education required.

Cost (GIN):
Celestial Song of Artifacts, skill 15: 300 Essence *
Ethereal Song of Artifacts, skill 15:  300 Essence *
Reliquary/1:                           100 Essence
Destroyed when corp. form destroyed:   -50% **
Songs usable by mundanes:              +40% ***
Essence usable by mundanes:            +40%
-------------------------------------------
Total:                                 700 +30% = 910 Essence, 
converting to 46 character points.

* Skill listed is effective skill on Earth; triple the normal 100 
Essence cost (1 Essence is needed for a daily enchanting) gives skill 
20 in the celestial realms, but skill 15 on Earth.
** Built from the 4e "Breakable" gadget limitation: no DR (-20%), not 
repairable (-15%), -4 to hit (-15%), total -50%.  The relic is 
destroyed when the surgeon's hands are destroyed, even if he is later 
somehow healed.  (Healable crippling does not destroy the relic.)
*** Priced similarly to the 3e Affects Others enhancement; the relic is 
usable by persons other than those normally permitted to do so.

------------

For both versions, note that "Usable Only By Owner" is not a standard 
feature -- this means that, if a bio-relic can be removed and 
transplanted before it dies, the recipient can probably use it, 
especially if they are willing to pay points to bond with it.  Thus, 
bio-relic theft could give new life to the stolen kidney urban 
legend....