Fight the Good Fight

Adventure of Conflict and
Betrayal for The End

Part Three:
Date With an Angel

by Serge Stelmack
Artwork by Mary Lee Bryning


Heading down Highway 3, the characters eventually come across a fearful yet wonderous sight. By the roadside is a large granite boulder, to which an unspeakably beautiful young woman has been crucified upside-down.

This is Dianta, an avenging warrior angel. Her skin is marble white, yet her deep green eyes shine with a supernatural intensity and alertness. She turns to look upon the characters as they approach. The wounds in her ankles and the palms of her hands seem to have healed evenly around the large steel spikes been driven through them, and the characters can clearly see the multitude of faint scars which crisscross her exquisite body.

Upon the rock above her, carved in crude upside down backward script is the message "Eloi, Eloi, lame sabachthani?"

Anyone who has a good grasp of theology will know this phrase from their studies. (They are the words of Christ, spoken at the time of his crucifixion, and they translate as "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?")

If the characters are sinners (i.e. they have committed actions that would have resulted in their being damned before the apocalypse), the angel will not speak with them. She will only address the true meek, speaking in a voice that is at once hauntingly beautiful yet utterly inhuman.

Speaks When Spoken To

Even then she will not speak unless spoken to, and will not discuss how she came to be nailed to the rock. She will only advise them that they should keep their faith.

If asked about "Chip" she will tell the characters the following:

"Charybdis is his name, and all that is of man's invention is drawn into hs darkness. God allowed me to injure him enough so that he could not draw every trace of civilization away from you, but then I was cast down by his fury.

"If you wish to defeat him, do not despair. He is mortal now, and crippled from his fight with me. However, it will still take an angelic weapon to kill him.

"I carried such a weapon into battle against him, but it was knocked from my hands and the demon took it with him. Perhaps the damned of his township know where it is, though I should very much doubt that they would realize its significance."

Attempting to free the angel is a fruitless task. Until the demon who nailed her to the rock is killed, she can never be free, and no amount of force can pry the iron spikes from the boulder without destroying her in the process.

Pious Characters

If any of the characters are particularly pious, and have been struggling to redeem themselves in the eyes of God throughout the campaign, Dianta will offer to grant them a vision of heaven so that their faith should never waver as her own did. She will warn them, however, that the gift will often be as much a torment as a blessing, as there is little hope that God shall ever again open up the Gates of Paradise.

If the pious character accepts Dianta's gift they will gain the following advantages and disadvantages for as long as they work to prove themselves worthy of God's forgiveness.

Advantages: The character will automatically lose all of their Ennui points, and shall only regain them at half the rate of a normal person. In addition the character will be immune to all demonic powers so long as their Ennui rating stays below 51 points.

Disadvantages: If the character ever gives up on their quat for admittance to heaven, or commits an act that would damn him, he will automatically have their Ennui rating raised to 30. This becomes their new minimum rating, and from that point on they will gain Ennui points at double the normal rate.

This effect lasts for the rest of the character's life; once abandoned, the path of God may not be rejoined.

Special Note: Any such biased character will be free to use any of the technology that has been rendered nonfunctional by the demon's powers. All such equipment will work perfectly for them--so long as they think to try it out. Dianta will provide the vision but explain nothing of its effects beyond what she has stated above.

More Fight

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