Someone stole the heart of Saint Laurence O'Toole, patron saint of Dublin, from a church in Dublin. You can't sell something like that easily. Any bets the theft was done on commission for a collector?

Linkage

The article mentions other thefts of relics recently. A millenarian Christian sect collecting artifacts of power to immanentize the Eschaton? Sixth World, here we come.

Also, keeping a preserved heart around? Ew. Those wacky Catholics, man.

Morbid thought:

Jawbone; pieces of the True Cross; a Heart - with the Awakening just around the corner (or passed, depending on which date we use), maybe they are trying to collect enough pieces to nail together a Franken-saint using pieces of the cross?

or they just want to build really good power foci

Like.

Hehe, could totally see that, a deranged (ex(?))-Opus Dei agent wielding his Super Relic Force 6 Power focus....

I love the smell of Papalm in the morning.

(Needs bang-head-wall or facepalm emoticon...)

Wouldn't be the first time someone stole a saint's heart: Link

Montreal's Saint André had his stolen back in the 70s. But as was said, I'm guessing it was hard to fence. It was retrieved a year later.

It would probably only work for the Christian Theurgy tradition, though.

That was what i had in mind - a christian sect that collects mighty artifacts to battle "the devils"

Great, extremist Christians that are insane enough to go after "supernatural" forces. Just what we need.

*Sighs* Sorry folks, but I'm feeling more and more cynical for the world all the time.

Are you insinuating that we don't have that already?

Not in the least.

You've obviously never visited the United States. Ours is a country where Christian extremists deface monuments because they think they're Satanic, despite said monument containing no Satanic messages. Apparently anything that doesn't start with "Praise God" is the work of the Antichrist.

I've been to Alberta, close enough. And Canada is actually a Christian Country (By way of the Church of England.).

It was a Christian country by way of the Roman Catholic church first.

"No it wasn't!"

"Oh, yeah?"

*sounds of a scuffle*

It was a run by a rival parish that wanted the relic themselves.

Actually, I have a few ideas for a story.

See if I ever get to it now.

Yes, but the Canadians are nice about it. Or so I assume; I'm stereotyping wildly, there. American fundies wield their Christianity like a hammer.

Ooooo...ouch!

Depends on where you go. Some are polite about their bigotry, some use it more like a sledge hammer.Best thing about Canadians, a sense of humour.

If I were to try and make Texan or Arizona jokes like that... Or worse, Montana...

For what it's worth, you can make New Jersey jokes all you like. Nobody gets uptight and full of state pride for this state.


[e]Someone I knew in college sent a joking suggestion in to the state board convened to pick a state motto and suggested "New Jersey: You can leave for only $1.50." (Most of the ways out of Jersey are via toll bridge.) The board wrote back, reminding him that the tolls into New York City were at $4.00.

Meh. I'm Jewish; I grew up in a community of Jewish fundies, and I've been harassed by Baptist fundies (apparently there's this belief among the Baptist missionaries that a score is kept for converting people that determines your own place in heaven, and Jews are apparently worth alot of points...); at this point, fundies of all stripes and types scare and disturb me.

Actually, there's a thought for an antagonist; a fundie with magic, who is so sure that he's right, and, look, god has given him the power to set things in accordance with His Plan (really, the fundie's twisted version of any such thing, which is demonstrably wrong, even by his own religion's standards). Anyone ever run such an NPC as antagonist? (hmm... social adept speaker's way mystic adept with mental manipulation spells... this has potential...)

Worst I had to deal with were the Witnesses. Now, I can't fault people for trying to save souls, but there's a point where it seems like selling religion door-to-door like encyclopedias.

They also made the mistake of waking up my Stepfather after 3-days on the road. (He was a long-haul truck driver.). Honestly, the scary ass Transport Truck in the front yard with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on the hood should have been a big enough hint to "just pass this house..."

They were probably encouraged by the portrayal of something biblical

"Ha ha, COMBO-JEW! Double salvation points!"

There was a PC mage in my campaign - a catholic who helped fund the shelter he was living in - who was drawn in by the Tutor spirit from Threats. Eventually he started his own church, promoting the abstinence of using and abusing spirits; equality for all beings etc, helping Tutor punish the heretics and drawn in more mages. He's an NPC now - does that count?

They never knew a guy that was 5'5", max, could tower over anyone so effectively...

Youch. You have my sympathies.



Hrm... I'm going to have to put that one on the back-burner... One Run idea I had long ago in the mists of time was that an upset Awakened grandparent wanted her grandchild extracted (rescued) from a 'beat the (gay/magic/atheism/liberalism/satan/whatever's ungodly) out of your child camp.' I figured on making the camp so reprehensible (you know, like the real ones) that the Runners would have to be seriously tempted to go all-out and rescue all the kids.

Add in the face-morphing adept powers and substract the fundie stuff and you have described my next char ^^

We had a game convention in the NE a few years ago that managed to be booked alongside a religious group event.

So, yeah. Things got interesting.

The funniest thing I saw was a lady from that group with some kids get into an elevator that was already occupied by a fellow dressed in full Franciscan monk gear. After exclaiming how nice it was not to have to ride with "those devil worshipers" for once that weekend, she asked what denomination the monk was.

"Oh, Odin!"

Turns out the 'monk' was on his way to a LARP. He proceeded to regale the lady with tales of the glories of Odin and the Norse pantheon. I swear, she was pressing into the far corner of the elevator away from the monk so hard that she might've gone through the wall if the trip to the lobby had been any longer. The moment the door open she just about ran out dragging her kids with her.

The rest of us didn't exit the elevator for a couple of minutes because we were too helpless with laughter.

The irony was that the only people that got in trouble with the hotel that weekend were folks from the religious group, for harassing the other guests. Their kids also apparently caused damage in some of their hotel rooms. The religious group was not welcome back. The game convention was held at that hotel for a good number of years.



-k

Yeah, pretty much, except I think that the multiplier is much higher than "double".


Danke. Although, it was kinda funny on some occasions; the Baptist fundies don't know their own bible well, I gotta say. One confronted me in the hallway at college a number of years back and started to regale me with how, if I didn't accept God's Salvation (you could hear the capital letters) I'd be going to hell.

This was the second or third time for this particular joker, so I turned, smiled with all of my teeth at him and set my trap. "Okay, fine. I'll listen to you. But, first, I have a question for you." (A crowd of people between classes are watching this, and I know that this guy is of the "If the King James was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me" persuasion). He smiles, delighted that I'm finally showing chinks in my heathen armor. "Okay, when Jesus first appears to Paul, he says, 'Do you love me?' three times; why does he do that? Is he insecure or something?" And the guy starts in on some long-winded explanation about the Trinity and so forth, all based on purely English arguments. I let him dig himself a hole for about, oh, half a minute or so, and then "Bzz, Wrong! That passage was originally written in Greek! There are three ways to say 'Do you love me?' in Greek; for me, for my cause, for what I stand for. I know that, and you don't. So, if I know your own holy texts better than you do, why, exactly, should I be listening to you?" I've never seen anyone turn that deep a shade of purple... as the crowd of people clapped.


*yoink* I'll see what I can come up with with that plot seed and let you know how it goes.

also,
@KarmaInferno: yeah, that sounds just about right; amazing how often "self" is added before the "righteous" for alot of these people, ain't it?

Texas Jokes are fine CanRay, after all, it is the home of the Aggies.

Use Wiccan paraphanalia, We do. Only 1 Jehovah's Witness (and No Mormons) has ever approached our house. And since we are across the street from a large Mormon Community Church, and down the road from the Jehova's Witness Church, it is quite odd. They do go to all our neighbor's houses though. Not that I am complaining.

We have a PC Mage following that Creed currently. It is interesting to see the byplay.

That is just..... Classic. I Love it.

This makes me think of an Easter-Themed run involving a cyberzombie. You just might need to find the right players to avoid offending anyone.

Ty J, do you know what the Multiquote function is for, or do you just pad your post-count that way?


That said, I like the idea of using paraphernalia... What did the Jehovah's Witness have the stones to talk to you about?

I do, and it has never worked for me... Not sure why. That said, I reply as I see them, and do not read through an entire thread before posting. *shrug*

He wanted to give us the Magazine/Flyer (The Lighthouse?) that the Church was giving out in the neighborhood, and then discuss religion. Once he actually realized that My wife was Wiccan (Not sure how he missed it) he politely excused himself and left. I was actually shocked he came up to the door. Most of them never make it past the Mailbox.

Critical glitch on his Academic Knowledge (Religion) test.

Yeah, it was pretty entertaining.
Even more so is to sit on the couch in the living room, and watch them make their rounds. They hit every house but ours. Some of them look like they want to come to the front door, but they don't. They get to the Mail box and then just "move along." Some of them almost against their will, and you can see it on their faces. It is fun to watch sometimes.

I like to try and swap conversions. "Sure, I'll go to temple with you ... if you come to my worship services." It just seems like the polite thing to do, frankly, since they're nice enough to share their beliefs with me. No one has been willing to take me up on it yet.

Heh... I bet.

I have an interesting story. I have a waitress acquaintance/gamer who I haven’t run into for a few years now, but she had this situation come up enough times that she decided to have a bit of fun with it. After some Halloween shopping, she had some a scary-looking black robe ready by the door the next time religious solicitors came by. At that time, she slipped on the robe and tried to sound serious when she said, “Oh! You’re here for the sacrifice? We’re still setting up in the back yard, but we’ll be ready by the time it’s full dark and the moon is out.” They apparently could *not* get off her porch fast enough.

There were some consequences, though. Something like an hour or two later, there was another knock at her door – it was the police. Apparently they were following up on a frantic call about some Satanic cult doing human sacrifices at her house. However, the restaurant where she was working at the time was also a favorite cop hangout, and they recognized her. As soon as she opened the door, they said, “Oh, it’s you. Ok, what did you do?” They knew her as someone with a reputation as a practical joker and immediately figured out she must have been pulling *something* over on these religious guys. Anyhow, she told them what happened, and they were fairly amused, but said not to do that again. I still laugh about that story.

My grandfather, an atheist who'd done more much bible study than your average priest, invited the Witnesses in for coffee and a chat once, and then proceeded to politely correct them on pretty much every bible quote and interpretation of scripture they decided to talk about, while refilling their cups and offering them more cookies - the poor things tried to excuse themselves for over an hour before they managed to build up enough courage to actually leave.

He never got another visit from them, and he lived for over 20 years after that incident...

Not hard to do that on a one.

Oh consider that one stolen. If it's a beat the Magic out of them sort of place imagine the story's that might come from the PC's trying to place/care for a dozen or so traumatized awakened adolescents.

A friend of mine got a Witness to give up being so and start going to a United Church through the same means.

Very nice!

Just hope they (the guys doing the beat-the-magic-out-of-them-camp) don't realize you can inflict enough Essence loss to take someone's Essence below 1 and create a guaranteed burnout. Otherwise they'll be installing all kinds of secondhand cyberware in the poor kids, or just shooting them full of drugs.

I like that last option.

A 'beat-the-magic-out-of-them-camp' that brings back mundane drug addict burn-outs to the families - under the guise of it being 'anti-magic medicine'