Supplicium

As a character becomes entangled in infernal intrigues, her soul becomes tainted and weighed down with sin. This is indicated within the chronicle by the character's growing reliance on demonic aid for even simple tasks. Contact with the infernal, whether directly or through the learning of corrupt powers, gradually wears away a character's personality until there is very little of the original person left when the demons finally claim her. Indeed, an infernalist may welcome Final Death, as it at least promises an end to life's constant struggle and pain.

The idea behind a Supplicium (which means both "entreaty" and 'sacrifice) is that contact with infernal forces gradually turns a character from her chosen Road toward the Via Diabolis. The character's soul becomes a battleground between her old Road and her growing infernal taint. Eventually, even the most hardened and stoic individual succumbs to the temptations offered by Hell and becomes irrevocably damned. A Supplicium is a journey within the character's soul, directed by his infernal tempter. The following section presents a system by which one can measure a character's fall into damnation. It is hoped that the process is roleplayed the only good thing that can came out of dealing with the infernal powers is the drama of a character's destruction - but this system allows the descent to be quantified.

The Downward Spiral

A character falls into a Supplicium whenever he makes a pact with a demon, increases his power in Dark Thaumaturgy, gains an infernal investment or otherwise opens himself to the influence of Hell and its minions. Another, as the tormenting demon, runs a personal passion play for the victim of the Supplicium. This play confronts the victim with his sins and forces him into further damnation. This passion play should involve a direct attack on the character's weaknesses. (Note: We said the character's weaknesses. This should NEVER be an attack on a player's personality. Supplicii are always roleplaying experiences, never excuses for psychological bullying.)

When a character is forced into a Supplicium, she becomes the center of a perverse drama acted out by demons intent on breaking her personality. Within the Supplicium, nightmare logic rules. The character is confronted with past mistakes, previous victims and personal failings. The character's reality becomes warped by the demons: Objects appear and disappear people turn into nightmarish versions of themselves, escape is held up before the character and then snatched away. Often the Supplicium revolves around a single event, probably one that caused a degeneration check. For example, if the character frenzied and killed an innocent in a previous game session, the demon might appear as that innocent and demand restitution for his death.

Whatever form the Supplicium takes, it should urge the character toward a previous poor or immoral decision. This choice should revolve around a roleplaying event in which the tormented character gets a chance to atone (the character in the previous example could swear to find the bystander's family and help them in some way). If the character fails to accept this penance, the demon has won, and the character must accept the Supplicium's consequences.

Consequences

If the demon successfully enacts the Supplicium, the character automatically loses a Viapoint. (There is no remorse roll for this degeneration.) Should the character's Via rating drop to zero, he automatically switches to the Via Diabolis (rating of 1) rather than be overcome by his Beast. Once on the Via Diabolis, the infernalist is unable to change his destiny unless he decides to break entirely with the forces of Hell. The consequences are slightly different if the character is already on the Via Diabolis. The aim of the Supplicium in this case is to reduce the infernalist's control of himself by such a degree that the demon can take possession of his body. An infernalist who fails a Supplicium still loses a Via point, but if his Road rating reaches zero, he is plunged into one final Supplicium for his very existence. If he fails this last test, his soul is plunged into the Pit and the demon takes up residence in the empty shell of his body. Should the infernalist succeed, he regains one point in the Via Diabolis, leaving him shaken and barely in control of himself.

Shattering the Chains of Insanity

As far as a warlock is concerned, mortals walk in a soothing haze that obscures the Abyss yawning at their feet. The Infernalist refuses to remain blind, and he opens his eyes to Creation’s Great and Secret Truth. The insight drives him insane by human standards, but it frees him from petty considerations like “morality” or “remorse.” Whenever he invokes the adversary within, a diabolist enters a Supplicium and plunges himself into the Void. In an ecstasy of torment, he reaffirms his Path and sheds another level of that trifle called “humanity.”

Roughly translated, Supplicium means “a sacrifice to the gods,” “a punishment” and “torment.” It’s all these things and more. During this self-inflicted torture, an Infernalist voluntarily cuts away a portion of his consciousness and sacrifices it to Hell in exchange for insight and power. It’s a dangerous thing, this demented Seeking; some Infernalists snap completely and become gibbering Marauds. Others focus on their inner hells and learn disturbing secrets from the folds of madness; returning to a semblance of sanity, they unlock Pandora’s Boxes full of powers from the Underworld within. If and when an Infernalist recovers from the Supplicium, he commands a greater understanding of the darker Mysteries and leaves another part of his old life behind. The call of that Abyss has a way of shattering one’s mind. Confronted with the horrors behind Creation’s comforting illusion, human consciousness fades and deeper instincts take over. During Supplicium, an Infernalist becomes a screaming lunatic or withdraws into catatonia. Locked within her own nightmares, she suffers exquisite agonies for the sake of enlightenment. Even after she "returns" to sanity, a noticeable part of her old self remains behind in the Void. The specter of Hell forever dances in her eyes.

In game terms, a Supplicium is a particularly vile Seeking, often directed by the Patronus, that throws the Infernalist into a pit with her deepest terrors. In this nightmarish world, she becomes the center of a savage shadow-play; tempter spirits and demonic creatures drive the seeker back and forth between vice and virtue. She might return to a painful moment of her past, or confront a choice she had hoped never to make. Naturally, the Infernalist is encouraged to choose evil over goodness (goodness, after all, is for the weak), and to renounce everything she once revered; love, gods, even self-preservation. After she endures a series of debilitating challenges, the seeker returns to the “real world,” somewhat the worse for wear.

Two forms of Supplicium exist: voluntary ritual and involuntary madness. In the first, the seeker goes on a binge of perversion and self-destruction; some folk drug themselves with savage hallucinogens, others submit to appalling tortures, still others embark on carnal excursions of exquisite degradation, and many do all three at once. Calling upon her inner Darkness, a supplicant essentially chains herself in Hell until some revelation comes. The binge heralds a trance-state, and in this trance the Supplicium begins.

An involuntary Supplicium begins when the Patronus (or some other demonic manifestation) rips through the quester’s sanity and forces her to confront the primordial Void. Although this often occurs during Investiture, such madness can also strike when a person suddenly encounters the magnitude of Oblivion. Many an Explorator or Celestial Master has Fallen when his illusions of Reason have been blasted away by some alien horror; in their wake, Infernal enlightenment takes hold and begins to grow.... Night-folk have slightly different views of this pilgrimage. To Cainite devil-worshippers, hellish enlightenment translates to the Via Diabolis, the Devil’s Road that provides a vampiric parallel to the mystick Path of Screams. Worshippers of the primal Wyrm call this journey “dancing the Black Spiral,” and unseelie fae consider it a trip to the darkest corner of the Dreaming. Even ghosts have their nightmare quests or Harrowings that place a soul on the edge of the Abyss and see which way it jumps. In game terms, the character enters a Seeking until she either conquers her old morality or drags her battered soul back from the brink of Hell. In this case, acceptance means choosing evil over virtue, and denial means holding onto humanity in spite of the Supplicium. If the Infernalist forsakes the Light, her bond with Darkness deepens and she gains some degree of mystical insight. If she clings to some shred of virtue, she manages to drag her soul back from the edge of the Abyss, at least for the moment but does so at the cost of true revelation. Either way, the diabolist suffers. Suffering, after all, is what life is all about.