Had a bit of a dillema while I've been writting a new campaign out. There's a character that I've had in the game for a while that's come and gone, doing the occassional cameo. He's a catholic priest in Seattle, Order of St. Sylvester, who occassionally helps out runners in exchane for assistance. Most of what he does is magical healing, providing wards, that sort of thing, along with occassionally roviding sanctuary. In exchange, he asks for little things, like "Hood-ing" type runs. An example of one was smuggling a priest on a Mission and a bunch of bibles in Aztlan. This guys been in Seattle for years (in game time years and RL), and has become a bit of an icon. He gives "sage advice", and a bit of a humanity check for some of the hardened runners in the game.

But now for the new game I'm working on, I'm looking to change the landscape a bit, which also includes bringing out some of the older, forgottne NPCs, and killing off some as well. I'm planning on taking a different line on the Universal Brotherhood, because my players know about Bug spirits, and wouldn't get the same thrill out of running the UB games. What I'm planning on doing is having a bug infestation in the diocese in Seattle. What I'm trying to decide is, should this priest that they're all so comfortble with become a bug? I'm considering it for sheer shock value, and because they'll never see it coming. On the flip side, would it ruin an otherwise great character? Can't decide, so I'm looking for some other opinions.

Bugs in a Catholic diocese would be -terrifying-, IMHO. Nobody would believe you. Unless the Vatican does thaumaturgical audits of candidates for episcopacy, even the bishop (or Archbishop, in Seattle's case...Hell, might even be a Cardinal-Archbishop) could be a bug.

In this specific character's case...I personally would think it more effective if he be the "lone voice in the Wilderness" trying to gather evidence. The Vatican will gladly send magical shock troops in to cleanse the diocese of Bugs...But first they have to be convinced the Bug Spirits have really infiltrated the Church. He fails, he fails..,.Then the infestation becomes undeniable, and the question becomes: Can the shock troops, even, take out the hive?

Keep in mind that even the badass Church of SR...Is still the Church. There'll be no nukes, here. The Vatican has taught for well over 100 years (by the time of SR) that nuclear use is basically immoral, period. There'll be shock troops of (quite possibly immense) magical power, there might be literal shock troops...But no nukes. The most immediately-effective weapon against the Bugs is off-limits.

Oh, and at the same time, lest everybody think the *whole Church* has become a billion-member Bug Hive, you have to do all this without alerting the UCAS.

Maybe the priest is the devil in disguise.

That's totally what I thought this was going to be about at first too. Is he really actually evil and doing all these things for some round-about evil purpose? Or perhaps just gaining trust and loyalty until he can ask them to do something really bad 'in the name of the greater good'.

Anyway, I think the initial shock factor of him being made a bug isn't going to be as worth it in the long run as having this NPC continue to interact with in a meaningful not lead filled way. Either way I'm sure he will be remembered for a long long time to come, but like I said, I kinda figure that the long term for him is better than getting a nice short term shock out of the party.

Personally I've have him start as a saint, and either become jaded on his own as he sees the hopelessness of his mission or become a bug at some point in the future.


Or perhaps he was always "evil" but was replaced by the bugs which are actually the lesser of the two evils...

It's better to keep a post to lean on, and when they start getting too comfortable with him, having him killed or kidnapped so he can be turned into a bug. This should really happen at the end of the campaign.

But I still think having him as the devil, knowing with supreme irony he is doing God's work, he's doing good.

If you do the "him as the lone voice" thing, after, you can make him the bishop. At which point your PCs will have a very powerful friend. You'd have to be careful with this though. I could turn around and bite you on your ass later when they call in a favor that blows some other senario into teeny tiny peices before you're ready for it to be blown into teeny tiny peices. But, if they're fairly powerful and don't yet have any high-muckity friends this could be a golden opportunity. Just a thought.

Or, he gets napped, gets rescued just in time, catholics clean house, he becomes Bishop. Turns out they weren't in time. = High-muckity-bug chasing them all over the world to silence the only ones who know the truth... Now, to survive, they must convince the Vatican...

I voted saint. Anchor, post, whatever you want to call his role, there should be someone like that around, still. I say this, even after the news item today of the Catholic bishop returning to Canada who was caught in a random check at the border with child porn on his computer.

They can't all be like that... can they?

I've been careful to keep the character close to the streets. Some of his "choices" are a little too out of line with main stream thought to make it to being a bishop. This isn't exactly a Touchy Feely church, but making deals with criminals isn't exactly something a bishop should be doing.

If he doesn't become a bug, I'm thinking of keeping him in his role, and still being part of the investigation of "what's going on here". The PCs would find out through various inroads about something going on with the church. Then there's the question of "Can we still trust this guy." It will start as little things like "Hate Crimes against Priests" in the news, as a priest is gunned down by gangers (who turn out to be of the Spiders gang). Another would be a church set on fire (resulting from a priest with some mojo being attacked/silenced by the bugs, defending himself with "holy fire"). So we still get to have the question of whether or not he's a bug, but in the second case, it's asked sooner, and turns out that he's still whole.

Well, in that case...

If he dosen't smoke, drink, and box... turn him into a bug. I have no use for a priest who doesn't smoke, drink (sacremental wine, sacremental vodka, sacrememntal scotch, sacremental rum, etc.) and throw a mean punch.

All the others are boring.

Bible in one hand and pistol in the other = my kind of priest. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

As he's a mage, it's more bible in one hand, flaming sword in the other. And he does drink. I loosely base his morals off of my uncle who is a priest. He's a heavy drinker, and gambles more than just about anyone else I know when he has the oppurtunity. While this priest isn't a gambler, he is very pragmatic.

Ahh. Praise the Lord and pass the banishing foci. Works. I say he should stay human.

On one condition... At some point he needs to say, "Lord forgive me for what I am about to do, but these bastards must die!"

^^Got that out of Barrett's (the rifle guys) 2008 Annual magazine (p. 59). It was scratched into the camo paint on the inside of the rear lense cover of an XM107 the U.S. Army sent back from Iraq for servicing, it was their favorite 'artistic' personalization from all those that came back.

This, of course, is just begging for a picture! Please either give us a link or a scan of the picture so that we can see this!

I voted saint but I'm gonna give you a different angle:

I think you should go with something along the lines of St Paul but first, read up on Geschwind Syndrome and temporal lobe epilepsy. Basically there is this theory that St Paul actually had a seizure disorder that caused him to hallucinate his vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus and subsequently made him hyper-religious, hyper-graphic (imagine writing letters to every major church in the world admonishing them for not being chaste enough), rigidly moralistic, etc.

Now, give your priest Divination metamagic. Have him plagued by seizures/visions about the bugs taking over. Has he been given a mission from God or is he crazy? A more compelling question: How far would he go to stamp out this heresy? What evils would he be willing to commit (via the runners of course) in his self-righteousness? Keep the players strung along, wondering if there really is a bug conspiracy or if their "anchor" is really loosing it. Then spring your plot twist- Father So-and-so bites the big one or is institutionalized as a mad man just as they start to find proof that he is right.

Sorry, the Pic is grainy and sux. My cell only has a 1.3 megapixel and I have no other digital camera. I'll try to get a scan of both pages at the college tomorrow.

Caption: Many of the M107s that return to Barrett's headquarters are 'personalized' by the warriors on the front lines.

Edit: Oct 1, 1850hrs
Ok, got scans on campus.
The whole article.
Page 58
Page 59

hi hi

If I may make a suggestion: perhaps you should leave it up to the players? I don't mean ask them and take a vote, I mean have the priest get into trouble with the bug spirits and give the player characters the chance to rescue him. It could be very obvious or you could throw hints at them and see if anyone picks up on it and saves the day.

I'm voting for saint, for a lot of reasons.

First, the friendliest character turning into a bug is too cliché.
Second, it's more interesting if they wonder if he's a bug than if he just is one.
Third, such a character is useful for character development. A bug is just an enemy, and you can add plenty of these without any problem. A good guy the PC trust is far more difficult to come by.

You really want to throw a moral quandray? Have the priest become a bug but something happened during the merge and now the priest's original personality has overridden the bug's... so the priest *IS* a bug but still a good guy.

Do the runners off him because he's a bug or do they spare him because he was graced by God with an opportunity to overcome the bug that invaded his body & spirit?

Naw, have him infested by a third party hostile to the bugs, perhaps a Matrid or something else that just doesn't like the Bugs on "it's" turf...

Option C just to be different. Convince the players he is a bug and just before the final act they find they can trust him or they just blew a buddies brains out. ~Angelic intervention is a possiblity with the paradigm.

SR thrives on contrast and it is to easily to put so much black that you lose the greys. There should be good people in the world, abiet with a laundry list of flaws but still doing their best in an imperfect world. With out hope nothing can be accomplished for 'good'. Only when you dare to hope can that hope be taken from you.

Thanks for all the suggestions and votes. Looks like he's staying a saint. Although I do think that I'll run a bit with Ice Katze's suggestion and put him in a little peril. Maybe showing him exhibiting a bit of "paranoia" that turns out to be true could be fun as well. Showing a bit of the strain of all those years...