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My sodalis and I have come across a most curious breed of man, and I would like to present our studies of this man for you to enjoy: His name is Guillaume, and he was born in the year 1422 to a farmer and wife outside Paris, in France. All of this information about him has come from our explorations of his mind and body, for despite his incredible powers he is but a man, albeit a very special kind of man. Through his mind, we saw his death and rebirth: unlike the mummies of the southern lands, however, he does not travel to a spirit realm and beg to return, but rather his internal power somehow regenerates his form, no matter how damaged it has become. This natural healing is rapid, causing him to return from the most grievous of wounds to his full health in scant hours. We tested his mind's visions, and in fact his wounds heal remarkably quickly. He cannot be drowned, for somehow his lungs draw air from the water itself. He can be burned, or shot, but he heals so quickly that the most heinous of wounds are little more than an annoyance to him. Through his mind, we likewise learned of others of his kind. A teacher, who came to him and taught him the Rules, and others, who came to steal his power for themselves. Their kind have Rules, built up through centuries of conflict. The only way to kill them is to remove their head from their shoulders, separating their head from their heart (the two sources of life, as we ourselves know). If this is done by another of their kind, the power within them (which they refer to as their Quickening, or life) flows into their killer, making him even more powerful. Their legends speak of the Gathering, a time when all of their kind will battle, until only one remains. That one, with all of their power as his own, will be like unto a god. How do we explain these beings? Quite easily, in fact. Their power is nothing less than raw Quintessence, somehow drawn to them from reality itself. As all living things have some faint spark of Quintessence in them, these beings have a raging flame, which gives them strength and power. This raw power is similar to that of our own Avatars, yet in many ways different. Those of us who study the Prime have recognized this in our subject, and in fact can sense the power flowing through him. At the same time, he does not seem to have the Gift, and we have been unable to Awaken him. We have not yet endeavored to remove his head ourselves, until we are certain we have learned all we can from him. Another Rule of their kind deals with Holy Ground, and the fact that they cannot fight there. According to Guillaume, he can sense this ground, much as he senses others of his kind when they draw near. Through studying him and his memories, we have gained some information as to this sensation. It seems our Chantry is also considered Holy Ground to him, as it seems all Nodes are. These connections to Quintessence are off limits to them? Why is that? The answer lies in understanding their battles. When two of their kind fight, the Quintessence within them begins to flow, empowering them and their weapons, and literally filling the air around them. When one loses, the winner draws his own Quintessence back into himself, as well as some of that belonging to his opponent... the rest, with nowhere to go, wreaks havoc on the environment around them. This Quintessence he absorbs from his opponent carries with it a shadow of the man's memories, indeed his very life... and in some cases, can overshadow the life of the victor. On a Node site, the Quintessence from the loser flows not into the victor, but into the Node itself. In this way, the victor not only gains nothing, but in fact loses that Quintessence of his which had mingled with that of his opponent... a very pragmatic reason for the Rule they follow. There are many things about these beings still to be learned. They seem as closely tied to Quintessence as we ourselves, but at the same time seem to be able to contain and harness this "Quickening" of theirs in other ways. In some ways, they seem a living Node: a constant amount of Quickening within them, unused by their healing and powers, and always the capacity for more. We will experiment more with this subject, including channeling Quintessence into him, to further explore our theories. Thank you for your patience, and good night. Chapter One: The Quickening In the end, there can be only one. - Ramirez The parallel between Quickening and Quintessence is too powerful to ignore: Quickening is the life force of an Immortal, that force which is transferred between them when they battle. Quintessence is defined in Mage as "the very basis of reality". Living beings have a spark of Quintessence within them, Magi have an Avatar which gives them a reservoir of Quintessence to draw from. What then, is the Quickening? The Immortals depicted in Highlander use their Quickening for a variety of effects, which are closely related to various Spheres (Forces, Life, and Prime specifically). Their Quickening isn't a resource, however, which needs recharging... it is an innate force, which neither increases nor diminishes. In a way, an Immortal behaves much as a Node, with an inherent magick which is never depleted. Quickening as Magick The sensation you feel is known as the Quickening. -Ramirez Immortals battle for each other's Quickening: a mystical force which empowers them. In game terms, an Immortal is like a Mage with one sphere, called Quickening, and has powers related to his level. A starting Immortal has a Quickening of 1: they have died and been reborn, and now are more than human. The only way for this to increase is through the deaths of other Immortals... Quickening may be increased with Freebie points, as long as there is appropriate justification in the Prelude (increasing Quickening points costs 7 freebie points). The maximum Quickening is 5. Quickening, much like a rating in a Sphere, conveys mystical abilities to the Immortal. These are closely related to traditional magick, but are innate abilities of the Immortal, and depend only on his rating in Quickening. These powers are discussed in Chapter 3. Gaining Quickening Don't lose your head. - Queen Whenever two Immortals battle, their Quickening is mingled into an electrical lightshow around them, and is absorbed by the winner when the loser's head is taken from his shoulders (removing a head from one's shoulders requires three successes on the attack, and one must do three health levels after the soak). The winner gets 2x his opponent's Quickening in "Study points" of a sort... once he has Current Levelx6 in these points, he may spend them to increase his Quickening by one. He also receives one level in any ability in which his opponent has a higher score than him, for each point of Quickening his opponent had. Thus, if a person with Quickening 1 defeats someone with Quickening 4, he immediately gets 8 "study points", which raises him to Quickening 2 (at a cost of 6 of the 8 points). He also gets to raise four of his attributes by one each, four in which his opponent had higher scores than he did. If the Quickening 4 person had won, he would only get 2 study points of the 24 needed to go to level 5, but would still pick up one point in some ability that the loser was proficient in. If the winner is better (or as good as) the loser in every ability, he gets no increase in abilities. The Rules Holy ground, Highlander! Remember what Ramirez taught you... - The Kurgan Immortals have two main rules. They always fight one on one, and they never fight on Holy Ground. Both of these rules are rooted in the Quickening, and what happens when they fight. If two are fighting one, and the one loses, his Quickening will go to one of the two involved in the battle. This flow will happen because of the mixing... and when it's over, one will come out ahead. In addition to the normal "study point" award, the victor gets two additional points, and the other "victor" loses 1 Quickening (this of course is only if the victor has more than 1: they cannot lose their final point of Quickening except by losing their head). Note that if another Immortal steps in and beheads one of two combatants, the Quickening still goes to the one who had been fighting, because his Quickening is so intertwined with the loser's. In the case of Holy Ground, the Node itself is the "victor" of the contest. The Node gets "study points" of 2xloser's Quickening+2 toward increasing its own power, and the victor of the two Immortals loses 1 point of Quickening (again, unless he only has 1). The Gathering Struggling to reach the time of the Gathering, when the few who remain will battle to the last. - Ramirez The Gathering is the draw that Immortals feel, once enough of them have gotten close (or to) 5 in Quickening, to head for New York and lop one another's heads off. The rules for gaining Quickening will work fine until 5. They explain why killing powerful Immortals is good, but also why the Kurgan went all the way to Scotland to kill Connor (an Immortal who hasn't been Awakened still has one point for purposes of "study"). But what about the Prize? Once an Immortal has gotten to 5, they gain no more Quickening... once they are the only Immortal left, then they get the Prize. The movie and TV series are both deliberately vague about the Prize; it lets Connor read minds, but what else? It would plunge the world into an eternity of darkness, if it fell into the wrong hands... A suggestion: leave the Prize vague, unless it becomes necessary (there is an end, and one remains). Since Quickening allows Immortals to exhibit powers similar to several spheres, the Prize could be 5 in all the Spheres... that's close enough to godhood for the immortal, and powerful enough to endanger the entire world. Note also that the lightshow and transfer of Quickening has never attracted Paradox... maybe the Highlanders are so closely tied to reality (like the Garou) that they're immune? Makes the 5 in all spheres even more disgusting... Chapter Two: Character Creation We are the same, MacLeod! We are brothers! - Ramirez Immortals are often ancient beings, powerful not just because of their Quickening, but because of their knowledges and talents. This power of theirs is balanced by the fact that they have one Sphere, and thus start with fewer "powers" than their Mage counterparts. For character creation, Immortals start with 7/6/5 for attributes, instead of the normal 7/5/3 (in general, they appear to be more perceptive, more attractive, and more physically able than normal humans, or even Magi). For abilities, judge their points from their age, and use Storyteller discretion: if an Immortal is 2000 years old, then they will have a lot of skills. It makes sense... so don't try and deny it, just don't allow 2000 year old PCs if you think it's a problem. Some suggestions: 13/9/5 0-100 years 18/13/8 100-250 years 23/17/11 250-500 years 28/21/14 500-1000 years and so on. Immortals get 1 point in Quickening, 5 points for backgrounds (chosen from Vampire or Mage, whatever is appropriate). Acceptable backgrounds include Allies, Arcane, Contacts, Fame, Influence, Mentor, and Resources. Note that all of these are available to humans except Arcane, which was added after watching enough episodes of the series (why isn't Duncan locked up just because?) Immortals have a starting value of 5 for Willpower, just as Mages do, and have no traits for Conscience, Self Control or Courage. Much like Mages, Immortals develop an immunity to instincts like these. Start them out with 18 freebie points. Again, this will give them more points in attributes and abilities than other starting characters; this is weighed out by the fact that they have only one Sphere, have other Immortals who want them dead, and the normal Mage enemies who don't like them much (the Technocracy has a dislike for Immortals, go figure). Healing You cannot die, MacLeod... accept it! - Ramirez Immortals use the following chart to heal normal wounds; in addition, they may use the Quickening to help them, see Chapter Three for more information. Health Level Time Bruised One Round Hurt One Minute Injured Five Minutes Wounded 30 Minutes Mauled One Hour Crippled One Hour Incapacitated One Hour Chapter Three: Powers of the Immortals It's a Kind of Magic. - Queen The powers exhibited by the Immortals in the Highlander movie and TV series are fairly simple to gauge and to mimic in Mage. Here are some of them, along with the levels of Quickening needed to attain them. 1 Sense Quickening - With this, much like the level 1 Prime spell Sense Quintessence, the Immortal may sense other Immortals. They can also sense Nodes, and others with Free Quintessence within them (which includes Magi and various Talismans). A perception roll may be required. 1 Breathe Water - With this, Immortals may survive indefinitely underwater, drawing oxygen from the water. 2 Empower Weapon - At this level, the Immortal can use any edged melee weapon (knife, sword, axe) to do aggravated damage. One additional damage success (above that of the weapon), aggravated, is dealt per success rolled (like any Sphere, dice in Quickening is rolled, against difficulty six). Example: Duncan swings his trusty katana (which is difficulty 6, Str +5) and hits. He rolls Str 3 + 5 = 8 dice for damage, plus an additional 4 dice (4 Quickening). Any damage done by the 4 dice is treated as aggravated. 2 Heal Self - At level 2 in Quickening, an Immortal may heal himself, in much the same way as the level 3 Life spell Ho Tien Chi works. Taking a round, Quickening is rolled (3 dice for 3 Quickening, for example) against a difficulty of six. Each success heals one health level. Aggravated damage may not be healed in this way, but must heal over hours (using the chart in Chapter Two). One cannot treat the same wound in this way twice... the rest must heal using the Immortal Healing Chart. Note: Immortals who are somehow taken to incapacitated are not dead. If their head doesn't leave their shoulders, they will recover. Let them heal up one level according to the chart, then they may use Heal Self to heal part of the rest. 3 Empower Self - At this level, much like the Life spell Better Body, the Immortal may increase his physical attributes by one for every success rolled. This increase lasts for the entire scene, and is usually done during challenges. 4 Speed of the Zephyr - With this level of Quickening, the Immortal may take extra actions in a round, one per success rolled. 5 Ignore Wounds - At this level, the Immortal's powers of recuperation have become so potent that they can heal effortlessly. Normal damage can be healed 1 wound per round, without a roll (or an action taken). Aggravated damage may now be healed as normal damage is healed in Heal Self, above.