TEXT: With a mighty voice he shouted:
  “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!
  She has become a home for demons
  and a haunt for every evil spirit,
  a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.”
  Written by Matthew McFarland
  Developed by Eddy Webb
  Edited by Genevieve Podleski
  Layout by Ron Thompson
  Art by Eric Deschamps, Aaron Acevedo, Andrew Hepworth, Mathias Kollros, Pat Loboyko
  Playtested by Lori Karpinecz, Steve Karpinecz, Michelle Lyons, Matthew McFarland, Andrea 
  Steyer and Sybil Wendling
  An adventure for the World of Darkness 
  using the Storytelling Adventure System
  White Wolf 
  Publishing, Inc.
  2075 West 
  Park Place Blvd 
  Suite G
  MENTAL 
  OOOOO
  PHYSICAL 
  OOOOO
  SOCIAL 
  OOOOO
  STORYTELLING ADVENTURE  SYSTEM
  XP LEVEL
  o-34
  SCENES
  8
  
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  Darkness are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Changeling the Lost, Hunter the Vigil, Geist the Sin-Eaters, Storytelling System and Parlor Games are trade-
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  trademark or copyright concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.
  Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com
  Written by Matthew McFarland
  Developed by Eddy Webb
  Edited by Genevieve Podleski
  Layout by Ron Thompson
  Art by Eric Deschamps, Aaron Acevedo, Andrew Hepworth, Mathias Kollros, Pat Loboyko
  Playtested by Lori Karpinecz, Steve Karpinecz, Michelle Lyons, Matthew McFarland, Andrea  
        Steyer and Sybil Wendling
  An adventure for the World of Darkness  
  using the Storytelling Adventure System
  White Wolf 
  Publishing, Inc.
  2075 West 
  Park Place Blvd 
  Suite G
  MENTAL 
  OOOOO
  PHYSICAL 
  OOOOO
  SOCIAL 
  OOOOO
  XP LEVEL
  o-34
  SCENES
  8
  STORYTELLING ADVENTURE  SYSTEM
  With a mighty voice he shouted:
  “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!
  She has become a home for demons
  and a haunt for every evil spirit,
  a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.”
  — Revelation 18:2
  
  1
  Fallen is Babylon
  A demon is nothing but sin given will and power, and a man who makes a deal with 
  a demon is inviting that sin into him. It does more than consume him — it defines him. 
  It wears him. It rots away at the core of his being. Demons can do it to places, too — 
  whole cities, given the chance. They can alter the supernatural landscape, and despite 
  the prevailing rumor that demons can be bound by rules and symbols, the intelligent 
  occultist must always remember that it was the demons themselves who revealed most 
  of these rules in the first place. 
  Here, then, is the result of sin, hubris and impatience, and here is a chance to 
  banish a demon back to Hell and right a great wrong — or to seize power. Which will 
  the characters choose?
  Introduction
  Fallen is Babylon is a story for the World of Darkness inspired by and 
  using systems and material from World of Darkness: Inferno. While having 
  this book would be very helpful in running Fallen is Babylon, it isn’t strictly 
  necessary, as the relevant systems are reprinted herein. 
  This story works best when the characters are members of a supernatural 
  race with a defined social structure — vampires, werewolves, mages and 
  changelings are all superb choices for Fallen is Babylon. Prometheans, Sin-
  Eaters and mortal characters (with or without using the structures in Hunter: 
  The Vigil) can easily be the protagonists of this story; it simply requires a 
  bit more setup from the Storyteller. A brief discussion on how to spin this 
  story for the different game lines can be found below. 
  About the Storytelling Adventure SyStem
  If this is your first Storytelling Adventure System (SAS) product, you’ve 
  chosen a fine place to start. To keep this story kit lean and focused, though, 
  we haven’t included a lot of the core premises and Storyteller suggestions 
  that are at the heart of the SAS. Whether you’re a new Storyteller or an old 
  hand, be sure to read the free SAS Guide, found at the SAS website:
  www.white-wolf.com/sas
  Here are some of the features available in Fallen is Babylon:
  • Interactive links. Clicking on anything in blue will take you directly to 
  the section referenced, or to an appropriate character sheet or prop. It may 
  also take you to an external website that could be useful.
  • Scenes. Clicking on a scene name in the scene flowchart or the page 
  number in the scene card will take you to the full write-up of the scene.
  • Bookmarks. This PDF is fully bookmarked, so you can jump to major 
  sections at any time when the file is open.
  Treatment
  The characters are alone in this city, unable to locate any of “their kind.” 
  They might form any number of theories as to why this is the case, but the 
  truth of the matter is that an ancient pact with a powerful demon makes 
  the city inhospitable. Now, though, the desperation of a man bound into a 
  pact with a lesser demon might undo this older bargain — and set the greater 
  demon free. This might ultimately benefit the characters and their people, 
  but can they truly manipulate the forces of Hell?
  In Fallen is Babylon, the characters arrive in the city in response to ru-
  mors, assignment or curiosity over the fact that none of their people seem 
  to dwell there. While there, they learn of a lecture being given by a noted 
  occultist and demonologist which is drawing protest from religious groups. 
  The occultist, Dr. Eric Rasoletti, collapses during the lecture and is taken 
  to the hospital, and the characters soon learn that something sinister is hap-
  pening. Investigating Rasoletti’s condition, they learn that his malady is of 
  his own making. In trying to cure it, he might release something even worse. 
  The story proper begins on a Tuesday night, when Dr. Rasoletti gives his 
  talk. The characters might go because the subject interests them (the Satanic 
  Panic of the 1980s), or because of Rasoletti’s claims to compare and contrast 
  the purported “Satanism” of that mania with actual demon worship. They 
  might also wind up in the area because of the protesters. Because Rasoletti 
  is claiming to be discussing real-life demon worship, religious groups are 
  picketing the event. News crews, of course, are on hand to document this. 
  The protesters aren’t actually allowed into the university auditorium where 
  the lecture is taking place, so many of them are massed in the shadow of 
  the church across the street. 
  During the lecture, Rasoletti begins speaking in the language of demons 
  (the Dragon’s Tongue) and then collapses. Paramedics determine that he 
  appears to be asleep, and can find nothing physically wrong with him except 
  that he can’t be woken. A note in his pocket leads characters to his apart-
  ment, where they witness the machinations of two demons — one a demon 
  of Sloth to whom Rasoletti is indebted (called Hush), and one a much 
  more powerful demon of Pride (called Ai’tahe) who is trapped beneath the 
  aforementioned church. 
  The characters, at this point, might choose to investigate the church, 
  or might choose to do some research into the demons. Walking into the 
  church prepared is certainly better than the alternative, but in either case 
  the characters meet the priest of the church, who is well aware of what lurks 
  there. He tries to warn them off, but if they persist, they wind up entering 
  into negotiations with the demon. The results of those negotiations might 
  change the spiritual and magical landscape of the city forever, or might 
  simply reverse the curse under which it currently labors. 
  
  2
  Fallen is Babylon
  Themes: Sloth, Pride  
  and Temperance
  Fallen is Babylon has three main themes. The first is sloth. Eric Rasoletti 
  made a deal with a demon because he didn’t want to work for the accolades 
  he felt he deserved. He wanted to skip over the “hard part” and live what 
  he saw as the cushy life of a successful academic. The characters have the 
  temptation at any point to walk away from Rasoletti and the trouble that 
  he’s causing, because any usual society that the characters would have simply 
  isn’t present here. No Prince will tell them what to do, no seasonal King 
  hands down orders, no Hierarch recruits them to look into the matter. If 
  they want to know the truth, they have expend the effort to look for it. 
  And this leads nicely into the second theme — pride. It takes a certain 
  amount of pride to bargain with a demon, because the would-be Faust 
  has to believe that he can succeed in getting the better of a demon where 
  everyone else has failed. Clearly, though, enough of this sort of pride exists 
  that demons continue to whisper their temptations and worm their way 
  into the hearts of susceptible people. Are the characters such people, ready 
  to seize power in exchange for sacrifice? Or do they know when to leave 
  well enough alone?
  The final theme of this story is temperance. Looking at the situation ratio-
  nally and evenly, the truth is that the demonic presence below the church 
  is having a detrimental effect on the city (especially from the characters’ 
  perspective, since none of their kind can remain here). The characters don’t 
  have to sell their souls and become possessed in order to fix this; all they 
  have to do is learn what the demon wants (escape). An attitude of sheer, 
  unwavering refusal to deal with the demon is no better than entering into 
  negotiations with an intent to beat the demon at its own game — unrealistic 
  and more than a little self-important. (Note that if the Storyteller is running 
  this story as a Vampire: The Requiem game, the stakes change a little. The 
  characters have the chance to keep this city free of Kindred, and that might 
  actually appeal to them.)
  Mood: Rebuilding Ruins
  The characters are walking into ruins. Rasoletti’s life is a dismal failure. 
  The distant attempt to render the Demon of Pride powerless failed; all the 
  Church managed to do was imprison it, but its influence has corrupted the 
  area. And the characters should find remnants of their culture in the city, 
  evidence that at one point it housed a thriving population of their people. 
  Can the characters rebuild? Possibly, but not during this story. The best 
  they can do during Fallen is Babylon is resolve the past, and establish some 
  hope for the future.
  A Chapter in Your Chronicle
  One of the best ways to use Fallen is Babylon is as a beginning point for 
  your chronicle. This story assumes that the characters are entering a new 
  city, either on their own or at the behest of a superior. No members of 
  the characters’ supernatural “race” dwell in the city, meaning that they are 
  bereft of the usual comforts and backup they would normally enjoy. But 
  by the same token, the city has no political drama, no bad blood and no 
  entrenched power structure. Once the characters finish this story, banishing 
  Ai’tahe and lifting the curse that keeps their kind from the city, they might 
  open it, inviting other members of their social groups (if any) to join them. 
  They might claim the city for themselves (though enforcing that claim will 
  be difficult — unless they get the demon to help them, of course). Because 
  the end of Fallen is Babylon is potentially a new beginning for the city’s 
  supernatural landscape, this story can make an excellent segue-way into 
  whatever kind of chronicle you wish to present. 
  If this story occurs in the midst of your chronicle, you can simply down-
  play the “new beginning” aspects of the story. Maybe the curse survives the 
  demon’s passage, or maybe the characters simply don’t bother negotiating 
  with Ai’tahe at all. You can also allow the characters to exorcise the demon, 
  but have them return to whatever their base of operations was before begin-
  ning this story. The city remains open (and perhaps a temptation), but now 
  the supernatural beings that were heretofore barred from it can move in and 
  explore. No matter where it falls in your chronicle, Fallen is Babylon allows 
  you to present a city that hasn’t seen any of the characters’ sorts in a long 
  time, and therefore has a wealth of supernatural “buildup” for characters 
  to discover. This is discussed in more detailed below.
  A Story By Itself
  If, on the other hand, you intend to run Fallen is Babylon as a self-
  contained story, we recommend that you focus on the interplay between 
  the demons and on Rasoletti’s plight, rather than the strange absence of 
  supernatural beings. The curse isn’t as immediate a concern as two invisible, 
  warring embodiments of sin in the city, especially if the characters don’t 
  have a strong connection to their respective supernatural societies. Beyond 
  that, however, the story works as presented as a one-shot. 
  
  3
  Fallen is Babylon
  Fallen is Babylon Across  
  the World of Darkness
  This story is designed to be used for any kind of characters that the Story-
  teller wishes to include. The assumptions that Fallen is Babylon makes are:
  • The story takes place in a large American city, with a population of 
  between 250,000 and half a million. Examples include: Cleveland, Ohio; 
  Albuquerque, New Mexico; Kansas City, Missouri; Tampa, Florida and 
  Portland, Oregon. 
  • No members of the character’s “race” of supernatural beings currently 
  reside there. That is, if the Storyteller plans to run Fallen is Babylon as a 
  Mage: The Awakening story, no mages live in the city, no Consilium exists 
  and mages outside the city have probably heard rumors that “no one over 
  in Cleveland ever Awakens.”
  • The city did at one time have a population of such beings, but they 
  vanished or left the city in the earliest part of the 20th century, and were 
  all gone by 1910. 
  • The curse doesn’t actually prevent members of a given supernatural race 
  from entering the city; it merely prevents new ones from being created, and 
  presents as a subtle driving force that urges them out if they do visit. If this 
  doesn’t work for you, you might consider having the race be represented, 
  but only by a very small number of members. For instance, instead of a full 
  freehold, maybe the city only boasts a single motley of changelings. 
  • The city has a large, urban university and a nearby Episcopal church. 
  • Other cities in the area do have supernatural populations, and the char-
  acters probably hail from one of these cities. The characters may or may not 
  be sent to the story’s city to investigate the lack of their kind.
  Below are some brief notes about running Fallen is Babylon using one 
  of the existing World of Darkness games.
  Vampire: The Requiem
  In a Vampire game, the city does not accept new Embraces. Anyone 
  Embraced in the city dies rather than rising as a vampire. The last Prince 
  of the city perished in 1908 (when the church was erected and the demon 
  imprisoned), and no new Kindred have taken up residence since. The curse 
  manifests as a growing sense of unease and inability to control the Beast; all 
  rolls to resist frenzy suffer a cumulative -1 penalty for every full month that 
  a vampire remains in the city. 
  Note, by the way, that running Fallen is Babylon as a Vampire story 
  changes the themes in a subtle but important way. Breaking the curse would 
  allow vampires to kill and Embrace citizens once again, and would end this 
  city’s status as a place devoid of the ravenous undead. A coterie that breaks 
  the curse might well be morally responsible for the actions of any vampire 
  that comes to take up residence here — a heavy burden indeed. 
  Werewolf: The Forsaken
  In a Werewolf game, no First Changes occur within city limits. Packs of 
  werewolves pass through the city occasionally, but loci yield minimal Essence 
  (any attempt gain Essence from a locus receives a -5 modifier), and spirits 
  ignore werewolves as though they have better things to do. The spirit wilds 
  don’t look demonic or contaminated, just somewhat bland. As such, Uratha 
  don’t stay around very long. 
  No werewolf packs have claimed territory in the city since 1908, but the 
  markings and signs that they made at the time might be found in the scene 
  “History Lessons.” Likewise, it might be possible, at the Storyteller’s discre-
  tion, to find an old and powerful spirit that remembers the last resident 
  pack — maybe it was even the pack’s totem, and could shed some light on 
  how the demon was imprisoned in the church. 
  Lunes can explain the truth of the matter, as far as they know it. They 
  refer to the curse as “the Pall,” and state that Luna cannot see the city and 
  therefore cannot choose those within it to become werewolves. They do not 
  know why this has happened, and neither do most other spirits. 
  Mage: The Awakening
  Sleepers do not Awaken within the city, if you are using Fallen is Babylon 
  as a Mage story. Mages gradually lose their heightened perceptions over time 
  in the city. For every full month that an Awakened character spends here, 
  apply a -1 modifier to any Mage Sight or Unseen Sense roll. Given enough 
  time, visiting mages decide that the city simply has nothing to offer them 
  and move on. 
  The Consilium that once existed here, however, left behind notes, records 
  and perhaps even Artifacts. When the characters go looking for data about 
  their people’s past (again, see “History Lessons”), you might consider having 
  the characters discover a treasure trove of information dating back to the turn 
  of the 20th century, all magically protected against decay. The most recent data 
  should refer to the demonic imprisonment (probably in oblique terms, since 
  the mages of the time didn’t know what was happening) and to the gradual 
  “magical death” of the city (actually the simple inability to perceive magic). 
  Promethean: The Created
  The Created lack a social framework, and so finding that a city contains 
  no Prometheans probably isn’t much of a shock. Instead, to make this story 
  work as a Promethean game, the demon’s presence interferes with the 
  
  4
  Fallen is Babylon
  Pilgrimage itself. When a character is about to achieve a minor milestone 
  or otherwise game Vitriol, she feels it welling up inside her… and then slip-
  ping away as though something was siphoning it off. Prometheans cannot 
  gain Vitriol in this city as long as Ai’tahe is imprisoned. If the characters 
  manage to send Ai’tahe back to Hell, any Vitriol they would have gained 
  comes flooding back in a near-orgasmic rush of knowledge and fulfillment. 
  Changeling: The Lost
  The Others do abduct people from this city — even Ai’tahe isn’t powerful 
  enough to prevent that. But escapees from Arcadia don’t find their way here. 
  Memories that should lead people to this city simply lead them around in 
  a circle in the Hedge, usually resulting in their being captured once more, 
  unless the can find new memories to guide them. 
  This in itself wouldn’t stop changelings from coming to the city and 
  forming a freehold, but the secondary effect of the curse is that the Hedge 
  is almost impossible to navigate. The roll to find a gateway out of the Hedge 
  (usually Intelligence + Investigation + Wyrd) is simply the changeling’s Wyrd, 
  meaning that weaker changelings have almost no chance of discovering an 
  exit — unless they leave the city. An old Hollow situated in the Hedge near 
  the center of the city and completely overgrown with briars tells the sad story 
  of a motley that tried to flee the area only to be hounded by hobgoblins and 
  monsters, starved, frozen… and chased right back to where they started. If 
  the characters dig deep enough into this Hollow, they might discover the 
  bones of these unfortunate changelings.
  The World of Darkness & Hunter: The Vigil 
  The player characters might be non-supernatural mortals, investigating the 
  occult or drawn into the events of this story by coincidence or forces outside 
  their comprehension. Such characters might be created using just the World 
  of Darkness Rulebook (possibly in conjunction with such sourcebooks as 
  Second Sight or Asylum) or Hunter: The Vigil. This section applies to both 
  sorts of characters, with the note that mortal characters don’t necessarily 
  have to be driven to find and destroy (or at least curtail) the supernatural in 
  order to participate in Fallen is Babylon. The characters might all be profes-
  sors or other academics at the university, and respond to Eric Rasoletti’s call 
  for help that way. Or Ai’tahe might entice all of them to become involved 
  somehow — maybe they all attend services at Trinity Cathedral. 
  Hunters do sometimes belong to established groups, but they are still 
  human, and therefore the curse doesn’t affect them directly. It’s more likely 
  that hunters might look into why another type of supernatural being is ex-
  cluded — maybe a captured vampire tells them a rumor about a city where 
  the undead fear to tread. In this instance, the cell might look to replicate 
  the effect when they find out that they only reason the city is without a 
  particular supernatural influence is because a powerful demon makes it so. 
  Should they still banish the demon, even though the result might be worse 
  in the long run? Do they think that they could set up operations here and 
  prevent the supernatural from taking root? 
  One group of hunters requires a special consideration, however: The 
  Lucifuge. Since these hunters are supposedly the descendants of Satan, they 
  have a better chance of detecting (and falling prey to) demonic influence. 
  Lucifuge characters all suffer nightmares from the very first night they spend 
  in the city, nightmares in which they are being dragged downwards, scream-
  ing, by flaming chains. If the characters contact their superiors about these 
  dreams, they are told that although other visiting members have reported 
  this effect, the organization has no record of ever investigating the city (and 
  they just volunteered). 
  Geist: The Sin-Eaters
  People die in the city, but they do not merge with geists. Under the curse, 
  while geists can briefly escape the Underworld, they can’t join with human 
  hosts because they slip back into the Great Below too quickly. The Under-
  world has a strange gravity to it in this city, drawing all dead things down 
  toward it, and this prevents people from making the Bargain. 
  It also prevents Sin-Eaters from coming back to life in the city. This isn’t 
  something that you should make the players discover the hard way, of course; 
  their geists should warn them, or else they should see information on the 
  Twilight Network. As motivation, the Network also mentions that anyone 
  who finds the truth as to why this happens and stops it will be handsomely 
  rewarded. 
  If characters enter the Underworld in the city, they might find someone 
  who was present when the demon was imprisoned — a century-old Sin-Eater 
  or geist, for instance — and can give them at least some information about 
  what’s going on. Ghosts, likewise, might be able to help the characters. 
  Crossover
  If you were running this story as a Vampire: The Requiem game, what’s 
  to say that the characters might not run across a pack of werewolves? If 
  you are savvy with multiple game lines and wish to stipulate that the curse 
  affects one “race” but not the others, Fallen is Babylon could make a fine 
  crossover story. Maybe a lone mage meets up with a coterie of curious 
  vampires and they go searching for the truth behind the lack of Awakened 
  in the city. Maybe a motley of changelings decides it needs a guide to the 
  city, but since their kind seem to be absent, they befriend (or bribe) a local 
  Sin-Eater instead. The only major obstacle to running this kind of crossover 
  story is that it requires multiple books and some rules-juggling, but if your 
  troupe can handle that, the themes of Fallen is Babylon stand on their own 
  
  5
  Fallen is Babylon
  regardless of what kinds of character 
  sheets the protagonists use.
  Supernatural Tolerance
  Some of the systems in this story refer 
  to “Supernatural Tolerance.” This is 
  the trait that measures the strength of 
  a character’s otherworldly knowledge, 
  energy or potency, and though it goes 
  by different titles in the various games 
  (and means different things), the trait 
  is often added to contested resistance 
  rolls. A character’s Supernatural Tol-
  erance trait is Blood Potency, Primal 
  Urge, Gnosis, Azoth, Wyrd or Psyche.
  Backstory and 
  Set-up
  Before we get into the story proper, 
  some backstory and introduction to 
  the characters is probably helpful. The 
  Storyteller should pay close attention 
  to the events preceding Fallen is Baby-
  lon, both because it will help him work 
  this story into an existing chronicle (if 
  necessary) and because the players will 
  likely think of avenues of approach not 
  covered by the following scenes. If the 
  Storyteller knows what came before 
  and what the principal characters’ 
  motivations are, he will be much better 
  able to roll with the punches. 
  Backstory
  The foundation for Fallen is Babylon 
  was laid in 1908, when Trinity Cathe-
  dral was built in what would become 
  the downtown area of the city. Trin-
  ity Cathedral, formally Holy Trinity 
  Episcopalian Cathedral, included an 
  uncommon feature for churches of the 
  time. The outside walls had small tunnels, leading from the roof down to the 
  ground. These tunnels, visible even today from the outside of the church, are 
  rectangular, sixteen inches by nine inches. Officially, they were carved as a gutter 
  system for the church, but the head mason, the architect and the first rector of 
  the church knew the truth. The “gutters,” and in fact the entire building, were 
  the prison of a powerful demon. 
  The Summons
  The church has records of who summoned the demon known as Ai’tahe 
  and why, but those archives haven’t seen the light of day in close to a cen-
  tury (the characters might discover them in “A Blessing from Father Stepp,” 
  however). Ai’tahe is a demon of Pride, and more specifically the Pride of 
  Those Who Challenge God. The demon reveled in the hubris and power 
  of supernatural beings, and Ai’tahe answered a summons from the same 
  kinds of supernatural beings as the troupe’s characters. This is why it is 
  important for the characters to have some kind of remnant of their culture 
  to find in the city; those were the last of their people to dwell here before 
  the demon laid its curse. 
  The group that summoned up the demon did so in an attempt to fulfill 
  some comparatively pedestrian goal. One coterie of vampires might have 
  wished to destroy another. A pack of werewolves might have attempted to 
  make Ai’tahe its totem. A cabal of mages wanted to create new Hallows 
  across the city, and so on. But the summons wasn’t executed properly, and 
  Ai’tahe was set free. Fortunately, as a Dominion, it had limited power in 
  the earthly realm, and realizing this limitation, it set about trying to bargain 
  with those that summoned it. 
  At this point, someone stepped in and convinced the demon to “pos-
  sess” the church. The demon did so, enjoying the notion of corrupting the 
  building from the foundation up, but it had been tricked — the grates over 
  the gutters formed a seal that trapped it within the walls. And there it has 
  remained since 1908, waiting for someone to enter into negotiations once 
  again and free it, or at least give it the power to go back to Hell. 
  So who brokered that first deal? The Storyteller needs to make that deci-
  sion based on the needs of the chronicle. Representatives of the Episcopal 
  Church might have done it, which opens the way for a story involving the 
  Church as handing down knowledge of such matters for decades (good for 
  Hunter: The Vigil or Vampire: The Requiem in particular). A mysterious 
  stranger might have accepted a bribe from the church in order to trap the 
  demon; Mage: The Awakening or Changeling: The Dreaming lend them-
  selves to this sort of interpretation. Werewolves don’t usually truck with 
  demons, but demons are subject to many of the same metaphysical laws as 
  spirits, so it’s possible that a pack performed a powerful and forbidden rite 
  to seal Ai’tahe away. Or maybe the beings that summoned the demon real-
  
  6
  Fallen is Babylon
  ized their mistake and tried to put things right — this kind of self-reliance 
  and responsibility goes well with Promethean: The Created and Geist: The 
  Sin-Eaters. If you are running Fallen is Babylon as a World of Darkness 
  story with mortal protagonists, then any of these options might work, or 
  you might simply frame the story in an evocative way with no heed for what 
  game system might be used to emulate it. 
  As part of the negotiations, though, Ai’tahe laid a curse upon the super-
  natural beings of the city. The particulars of this curse, as discussed, depend 
  on the supernatural beings that summoned it, but the curse has remained 
  in place ever since. 
  Set-up
  Jumping forward to the present day, a young would-be academic named 
  Eric Rasoletti calls up a demon of Sloth called Hush. It makes a pact with 
  him, but makes the deal too quickly — it doesn’t command Rasoletti to give 
  it a secret name and thus make it available for summons by other demonolo-
  gists. It anchors itself to Rasoletti’s apartment (though through the terms 
  of their pact, it can affect him at a distance) and waits there, hoping to find 
  a way to influence Rasoletti to give it what wants. As a demon of inertia, 
  though, its efforts on that front are almost nil.
  Rasoletti himself isn’t happy with the arrangement, and schemes to find 
  a way out. He eventually hits on the more-powerful demon at the church, 
  and reasons that if he can call up that demon from its slumber, one can 
  destroy the other and Rasoletti will be left free of any demonic taint. Hush, 
  naturally, isn’t keen to see this happen, but it also can’t kill Rasoletti without 
  losing its own link to the mortal world. And so a strange game of cat and 
  mouse began — Rasoletti would try to get to the church, but Hush would 
  intensify its hold on him, putting him to sleep or making him simply not 
  care. Finally, Rasoletti decided to do something drastic. 
  Knowing that his annual talk on the Satanic Panic draws a crowd of strange 
  individuals, Rasoletti added a new twist this year — a discussion about real 
  demon-summoning. He plans to speak in Dragon’s Tongue, the language 
  of demons, and hope that one of the people in the crowd can recognize it. 
  He knows that Hush won’t let him say much, but he has taken precautions. 
  Anyone who puts forth the effort that he cannot will find out the truth. 
  Rasoletti is taking a large gamble, of course — the person that learns the 
  truth might want to kill him as a demonolater. But he truly feels that his 
  only choice is to rot here, and he doesn’t want to do that anymore.
  Involving the Characters
  Aside from curiosity to investigate once Rasoletti collapses, the characters 
  need a good reason to be at the lecture hall and in the city in the first place. 
  Some suggestions include:
  • One or more of the characters might attend classes at the university 
  and come to the lecture for class credit, or just out of curiosity.
  • The characters might be present in some professional capacity. Police 
  and EMTs are on hand in case the protests turn ugly, or the characters might 
  be reporters for local news, campus papers or underground media. 
  • Rasoletti might know the characters by reputation, if they are well 
  known among occult circles, and have invited them. If he knows that they 
  have a direct connection to the supernatural, he makes eye contact with one 
  of them just before collapsing.
  • If the players are creating characters specifically for Fallen is Babylon, 
  you might consider requiring one of them to take the Dragon’s Tongue 
  Merit (p. 8). In fact, all of the characters might have it, and this might be 
  what unites them at the lecture — they are the only ones who understand 
  what Rasoletti says before falling over. 
  • The characters might be investigating why the city doesn’t contain any 
  of their particular “race.” The lecture might be revealed as a place to start by 
  a Contact, by research (especially if demons come up in the research, which 
  is appropriate) or by a power that allows glimpses of the future. 
  • The characters might simply be in the area of the lecture hall (across 
  the street from Trinity Cathedral) and be drawn in by the protests. Vampires 
  might wish to hunt amongst the angry, sign-bearing folks; changelings could 
  revel in the strong emotions present. Other types of characters might just 
  be curious. 
  At least one of the characters needs to be in the lecture hall for Rasoletti’s 
  speech, so that she can hear him speak in Dragon’s Tongue and witness his 
  collapse. Depending on the nature of your players’ characters, you’ll need 
  to decide if one is enough. 
  New Elements
  A brief discussion on the nature of demons in the World of Darkness 
  is necessary to fully make use of Fallen is Babylon. Some of the material 
  below is reprinted from World of Darkness: Inferno. 
  What Are Demons?
  Demons are otherworldly beings that resemble spirits or ghosts in many 
  ways. In fact, it is possible for spirits (the same sort found in the Shadow and 
  that werewolves and some mages often interact with) or ghosts (as described 
  in the World of Darkness Rulebook) to become demons. The transition 
  between “spirit/ghost” and “demon” is a blurry one — it’s possible for a 
  conceptual spirit to focus on a Vice-like concept or for a ghost to be evil, 
  and yet neither might actually be a demon.
  So where does the break occur? It’s not so easily defined. Once a spirit 
  
  7
  Fallen is Babylon
  or ghost becomes a demon, though, there’s no going back. The demon is a 
  creature of Vice, and it focuses on promoting that Vice to the exclusion of 
  all other activities, so as to increase its own Infernal Rank.
  Demons fall into three classes: Whisperers, Diaboli and Dominions. 
  Whisperers are the weakest demons in terms of influencing this world. 
  Even if one of them is a prince in the Infernal hierarchy, it can extend 
  only the weakest tendril of its essence into the world. Perhaps Whisperers 
  don’t come from Hell at all but dwell in some blackened part of the soul. 
  A Whisperer’s weakness also makes it a subtle creature. There are no shim-
  mering pentagrams or gouts of Hellfire to find — only a feeling, some soft 
  words and ill coincidences. 
  Every Whisperer is connected to a particular victim. Most targets are 
  normal humans, but a supernatural template provides no special protec-
  tion. A vampire or changeling is just as susceptible as an ordinary person. 
  Neither of the demons that play major roles in Fallen is Babylon are 
  Whisperers.
  Diaboli were once “normal” spirits or ghosts, until a demon (a Whisperer, 
  usually) corrupted them, devoured them and twisted their nature into Hell’s 
  service, or so most demonologists believe. They are not much more powerful 
  than the standard versions of such beings. Demonic ghosts (called Larvals) 
  or spirits (called Immundi) have the same Numina and Influences as their 
  non-Hell -born cousins. They are also bound by the same restrictions and 
  weaknesses that other such beings are. That is, Larvals must still stay close 
  to their anchors, and Immundi still have bans. Hush is a Diabolus of the 
  Immundus type. 
  Diaboli can be summoned in the same ways as other ghosts and spirits; 
  in fact, Rasoletti summoned Hush not through his demonic ritual but 
  through sheer laziness. 
  While occultists may debate as to whether Whisperers and Diaboli are 
  “true demons,” no doubt exists as to the Dominions. They are straight-
  forward manifestations of the Infernal — or as straightforward as you can 
  expect from an order of master deceivers. They are the horned things that 
  appear in pentagrams, the razor-toothed frog-things that act as black magi-
  cians’ familiars and the Dukes, Presidents and Ministers of hundreds of 
  occult concordances. 
  A Dominion’s greatest strength is its greatest weakness. It has earned a 
  secret name and a place in demonology’s lore. All Dominions can be sum-
  moned and bound by skilled occultists. This is no comfort, however, because 
  few people summon demons for a truly good cause, and even fewer are wise 
  and trained well enough in the dark arts to control what they call. Dominions 
  may rage against a clever summoner, but for the most part an occultist’s 
  efforts are opportunity. Even demons hate Hell; the realms above are where 
  real power lies. Hell is already corrupt; Dominions can’t thrive there any 
  more than a mortal could if he was forced to eat his own waste to survive. 
  Every Dominion is known to the worlds beyond Hell. Someone has written 
  a Testament to its existence or a set of rituals for summoning it. Someone has 
  heard its secret name in his head and wept, knowing he gave it a foothold 
  in the world. Ai’tahe is an extremely powerful Dominion.
  Systems
  All demons have the following powers:
  Aura of Corruption: Demons leave their mark on everything they touch. 
  It’s impossible to predict the general effects of a demon’s attentions, but 
  in many cases they remain long after it’s either left or been banished. The 
  exact effect depends upon the circumstances behind the demon’s presence 
  and its favored sins. In game terms, this puts the effects of corruption at 
  the Storyteller’s discretion. Hush’s Aura of Corruption is described in “The 
  Desecrated Apartment” and “Freeing Rasoletti.” Ai’tahe’s Aura of Corrup-
  tion doesn’t figure into the mechanics of the story directly; it is prevented 
  from bringing its full power to bear.
  The Dragon’s Tongue: Demons understand all languages, including 
  ancient, dead tongues and languages that are used in supernatural societies. 
  Additionally, demons “speak” their own language. It sounds like tortured 
  glossolalia and cannot be translated or decoded. Strangely enough, it can 
  be taught.
  Soul of Sin: Within their own Vices, demons understand sin to a degree no 
  other being can fathom. When a target shares one of its Vices (see “Traits,” 
  below), the demon immediately knows about every occasion upon which 
  she’s indulged it, even when she has forgotten some or all of them. For 
  instance, if Hush interacts with a character whose Vice is Sloth, the demon 
  immediately knows about all instances in the past when the character has 
  indulged that Vice.
  Lord of Lies: No supernatural power can detect a demon’s lies, half-truths 
  or other deceptions, even when the power does not depend upon reading the 
  demon’s “mind.” For example, powers that search for falsehood according 
  to the threads of destiny (such as Awakened Fate spells) are useless. Anyone 
  using such a power sees whatever the demon wants him to see. Some rituals 
  and powers can command a demon to speak the truth, but their users have 
  no way of knowing whether these are effective. The demon might resist the 
  use of such a power and, playing the part of a cowed, defeated spirit, spout 
  a torrent of lies in a grudging, pained voice.
  Keeper of Secrets: No supernatural power can penetrate a demon’s 
  thoughts. (Perhaps this is for the best.) There are rites and powers capable 
  of commanding a demon to reveal information, but without them, charac-
  ters are limited to their natural guile and the demon’s discretion. Powers 
  
  8
  Fallen is Babylon
  can sense the presence of demons, but can never peer inside their thoughts 
  and motives.
  Traits
  As spirits, Diaboli and Dominions have the Attributes listed for ghosts on 
  p. 208 of the World of Darkness Rulebook, with the following adjustments:
  • Demons do not have a Virtue or Vice, but a Malapraxis. A Malapraxis 
  includes a Vice and a Key, but demons cannot regain Willpower by satisfy-
  ing it. Instead, they regain Willpower when someone else indulges it. The 
  Malapraxis’ Key is an additional condition that mandates how the Vice is 
  expressed. It can be a social situation, a type of object — almost anything 
  a sinner could use or experience when he acts upon the Vice. Hush’s 
  Malapraxis is Sloth through Inertia, laziness expressed by not changing in 
  response to the outside world. 
  • Demons do not have a Morality score because they are utterly immoral.
  • Demons possess an Infernal Rank that governs their total power and 
  supernatural influence upon the world.
  Otherwise, demons use the simplified Power/Finesse/Resistance spread 
  and any derived Traits, including Corpus and Essence, using the same rules. 
  Reducing a demon’s Corpus to 0 sends it back to Hell. It cannot return 
  unless it is summoned, or worms its way into the world once more through 
  a worldly being’s sins.
  New Merit: Dragon’s Tongue (• or ••)
  Effect: Demons have their own tongue, known colloquially as the Dragon’s 
  Tongue. What are the origins of this strange language? Why is it for some a 
  series of hisses and clicks, while for others it is a mad susurration of guttural 
  noises? Frankly, few know; some suggest it is a remnant language cobbled 
  together from the pre-Babel language of angels, of God, and of Adam and 
  Eve. Others say it’s more a conceptual meta-language, a tongue that is as 
  much meaning as it is sound. All demons know it, and those characters 
  who purchase this Merit at one dot find that their minds do understand 
  it and they can shape the words. Those who purchase this at two dots find 
  that they can communicate fluently with all demons: they gain +1 to Social 
  rolls with demons.
  Dragon’s Tongue can be acquired at any point in a character’s life. Some 
  characters have it from birth, while others gain this dubious blessing later, 
  perhaps as the result of a curse or a failed summoning ritual. Dragon’s 
  Tongue can be purchased as part of a demonic pact, though the demon 
  granting it generally works in a clause that prohibits the character from us-
  ing the knowledge to control or take advantage of that particular demon. 
  Any character, including characters with supernatural templates, can 
  purchase this Merit. 
  
  9
  Fallen is Babylon
  The Cast
  Dr. Eric Rasoletti, Indebted Professor
  Quotes: “Have your papers on my desk by the 13th. Or the 16th, if you want to 
  take the weekend. Or by the end of term, at least.”
  “Can’t make the conference, I’m afraid. Schedule conflict.”
  “Tenure? Oh, it’s all right. Not as great as you’d think.”
  Virtue: Charity. Rasoletti is a giving man, though the reason he can afford 
  to be giving is that he can’t actually change his fortunes, even by giving away 
  everything he owns. He makes gifts of money and possessions in the same 
  way someone about to commit suicide would.
  Vice: Sloth. Rasoletti was just lazy at one point, not wanting to do the 
  work of politicking, writing and re-writing papers, and defending his dis-
  sertation. Now, the influence of Hush has made him barely able to wake 
  up long enough to teach his classes.
  Background: Dr. Eric Rasoletti was born in 1974, in the same city he now 
  lives in. During the 1980s, he watched the Satanic Panic with great interest, 
  wondering how on Earth people were fooled into believing in a nationwide 
  cult of baby-killing Devil-worshippers. He became something of an expert on 
  the subject by the time he graduated from high school, reading the papers 
  published in psychological journals and the many books on the topic. He 
  even arranged to interview one of the purported survivors of a “rape camp” 
  for a course he took as a freshman, majoring in Sociology. 
  Rasoletti wasn’t an exceptional student, but he mastered the world of 
  academic bureaucracy almost immediately. He learned which courses would 
  be easy As, which ones he could sleep through and which professors were sus-
  ceptible to excuses or requests 
  for extra credit (for which he 
  used papers he’d written years 
  earlier). He graduated with 
  a Bachelors of Arts degree, 
  and immediately enrolled 
  in graduate school. He kept 
  gaming the system right up 
  until he was on the verge of 
  receiving his Ph.D., when he 
  realized that he would have 
  to stand in front of a panel 
  of professors and explain his 
  dissertation — which he had 
  no interest in actually writing. 
  Over the years, though, Rasoletti had done some work in spite of himself. 
  One of the things he’d learned was that demonology as a field of study 
  was quite real, and people existed who really did believe in demons. He 
  researched demon summoning, reasoning that even if it turned out to be a 
  hoax, he’d have good material for his dissertation. Somewhere in his soul, 
  though, he knew that demons did exist. The night before his dissertation 
  was due, Eric Rasoletti made contact with a demon. 
  He bargained with the demon successfully. He wanted to be wise and 
  incisive of mind, and this was granted (boosting his Intelligence and Aca-
  demics traits to 5). He wanted tenure and a permanent job at the university 
  as a professor, and this was granted (meaning he gained the Status Merit). 
  Finally, he wanted to speak and read all the languages of world, and this, 
  too, came to pass. 
  Of course, demons never do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. 
  This demon demanded four sacrifices from Rasoletti. First, the demon de-
  manded Rasoletti’s resting form — it could force Rasoletti to fall into a deep 
  and immediate sleep at any time. Second, it wanted Rasoletti to dedicate 10 
  minutes out of every hour to it. Rasoletti simply zones out occasionally, and 
  cannot take part in conversation or do anything requiring more than the 
  most basic cognitive functions (Rasoletti did have the presence of mind to 
  insist that the demon not use either of the sacrifices when it might endanger 
  him). Third, Rasoletti agreed never to quit his job or even leave the city. 
  Finally, he had to agree to commit a murder in the demon’s name.
  Rasoletti balked at the last sacrifice, but ultimately agreed to kill someone 
  who had a chance to save himself. He bought a bottle of wine and mixed in 
  a strong but foul-tasting poison, and left it on the corner near the church. A 
  homeless man picked it up and drank it, noticing the unpleasant flavor but 
  choking it down anyway. He was dead in minutes, and the demon sealed 
  the pact with Rasoletti. 
  Description: Eric Rasoletti is in his early 40s. He has thinning red hair 
  and wears a short beard, and sports wire-rimmed glasses a few years out of 
  fashion. He wears jeans and sport coats to class, takes notes for himself with 
  a miniature tape recorder, and has a laconic and easy manner. It seems that 
  he has achieved a kind of Zen, managing to remain unconcerned about any 
  unpleasantness in his life. In truth, he just doesn’t usually have the energy 
  to care much.
  Storytelling Hints: Dr. Rasoletti is thoroughly miserable and completely 
  degraded. He despises himself for what he did — not so much the murder, 
  because he feels the man he killed didn’t have much to live for anyway, but 
  for having cheated to get where he is. He also hates himself for cheating and 
  still losing so spectacularly. He’s had to turn down opportunities to lecture 
  all over the world because he can’t leave his city, thanks to his agreement 
  
  10
  Fallen is Babylon
  with a demon of Sloth. He wants more than anything to get out of the deal, 
  but he knows the demon will never let him go. 
  Rasoletti wants out, but not at any cost. His life is comfortable, and it’s 
  far preferable to death and damnation. That’s one of the reasons he’s never 
  attempted to enlist help in getting out of the city. He isn’t sure that Hush 
  wouldn’t just kill him. This fear paralyzes him, and is ultimately what drove 
  him to research the more powerful demon trapped in Trinity Cathedral.
  When playing Rasoletti, especially from his hospital bed, speak slowly 
  and languidly, as though just waking up. Rasoletti is always a few seconds 
  behind the world, and he’s never certain what comments or revelations are 
  going to cause Hush to put him to sleep again. If he speaks to someone who 
  he thinks can help him, he gives away as much information as he can, but 
  speaks cryptically, hoping to fool the demon. He assumes (correctly) that 
  Hush won’t bother to try and figure out a complex hint, but that does mean 
  that anyone helping him does have to decipher it.
  Notes: All the Tongues of Babel: Rasoletti can speak or read any language, 
  but he does not retain the ability beyond the immediate situation. That is, 
  if he needs to speak to someone in French in order to communicate, he 
  can, but he cannot later show off his ability to speak French to non-native 
  speakers. Likewise, he could read Arabic if it were put in front of him, but 
  he could not compose a poem in Arabic. 
  Notes         
  Name: Dr. Eric Rasoletti Virtue: Charity 
  Faction:
  Concept: Indebted Professor Vice: Sloth 
  Group Name:
  Intelligence 
  Strength 
  Presence
  Wits 
  Dexterity 
  Manipulation
  Resolve 
  Stamina 
  Composure
  ooooo
      Willpower     
       Health           
       Skills              Merits         
  Morality
  Size
  Speed
  Defense
  Initiative Mod
  Armor
       Flaws 
   
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
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  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  ooooo
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  ooooo
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  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
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  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  Academics
  Computer
  Investigation
  Medicine
  Occult (Demons)
  Politics (Academia)
  Drive
  Larceny
  Stealth
  Empathy
  Expression (Oratory)
  Persuasion
  Socialize (Academia)
  Subterfuge
  Contacts (Academic)
  Contacts (Occult)
  Eidetic Memory 
  Fame
  Language (Dragon’s Tongue)
  Status (University)
  4
  5
  9
  2
  4
  None
  Rasoletti can speak or read any language, but he does not retain the 
  ability beyond the immediate situation.
  
  11
  Fallen is Babylon
  Father Ewan Stepp, Guardian Priest
  Quotes: “Soup kitchen’s open, guys. Two blocks up. God bless.”
  “I’d be happy to speak with your daughter, ma’am. No, not here — too formal. 
  Maybe we could all sit down together at the café down the street?”
  “Tell me more about what you saw. I promise, I won’t laugh.”
  Virtue: Faith. Father Stepp fervently believes that God is the greatest good, 
  and that those who do His work have nothing to fear from the shadows. He 
  believes that because the alternative is madness and doubt, and he has seen 
  too many of his fellow priests take that road.
  Vice: Wrath. Father Stepp is aware that monsters exist, and it fills him 
  with an anger that he knows is not righteous. He hates that the unclean 
  creatures of Hell are permitted to kill and infect at will, and he hates even 
  more than he is impotent to do anything significant about it. 
  Background: Father Ewan Stepp joined the Army right out of high 
  school, seeking to follow in his father’s footsteps and defend his country. He 
  found, however, that he wasn’t doing much “defending” of anything other 
  than the rest of his unit — acceptable, but hardly what he’d joined to do. 
  Consulting with the Army chaplain, he confessed how he was feeling — that 
  he was a thug, a paid killer and little more, and the chaplain told him that 
  God needed men with his spirit. Stepp agreed, and after fulfilling his tour 
  of duty, he entered the priesthood. 
  Ewan Stepp is the rector of Holy Trinity now, but he didn’t get the posi-
  tion because he gives a great sermon or for his political acumen. Truth be 
  told, his brusque, no-nonsense approach doesn’t make him friends easily. 
  He got the job because this particular church has its secrets, and the dio-
  cese needed a man they could trust not to break. When he was given the 
  position, Stepp immediately asked his superiors why. When they revealed 
  the demon imprisoned in the 
  church’s walls, he breathed a 
  sigh of relief. God did need 
  men like him, after all. 
  Since then, Stepp has deliv-
  ered sermons (usually written 
  for him by more eloquent 
  men, though he’s improving 
  his abilities in that regard) 
  and helped to straighten out 
  members of his congregation 
  with addictions, pregnancies, 
  abusive households and other 
  troubling issues. He also keeps 
  a sharp eye out for supernatu-
  Notes         
  Name: Father Ewan Stepp Virtue: Faith 
  Faction:
  Concept: Guardian Priest 
  Vice: Wrath 
  Group Name:
  Intelligence 
  Strength 
  Presence
  Wits 
  Dexterity 
  Manipulation
  Resolve 
  Stamina 
  Composure
  ooooo
      Willpower     
       Health           
       Skills              Merits         
  Morality
  Size
  Speed
  Defense
  Initiative Mod
  Armor
       Flaws 
   
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
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  Academics (Religion)
  Computer
  Crafts
  Investigation
  Occult (Demons)
  Politics (Church)
  Athletics
  Brawl
  Firearms
  Stealth
  Weaponry
  Empathy
  Expression (Sermons)
  Intimidation
  Streetwise
  Subterfuge
  Iron Stamina
  Status (Church)
  Unseen Sense
  8
  5
  10
  2
  5
  None
  Father Stepp’s Unseen Sense is specialized toward whatever kinds 
  of characters the players portray.
  11
  
  12
  Fallen is Babylon
  ral activity. He knows that demons have followers, and that they might 
  someday come to free the creature from the walls of the church. On that 
  day, Father Stepp is prepared to give up his life to keep that from happening.
  Description: Now in his early 40s, Father Stepp is tall, muscular and 
  imposing. He wears his graying hair cropped close, and keeps his glasses in 
  his breast pocket, only wearing them to read or watch television. His voice is 
  deep and gentle, but he talks quickly and makes his points succinctly. Father 
  Stepp doesn’t drink or smoke, but he is fond of good coffee, and the scent 
  of espresso often precedes him. 
  Storytelling Hints: Stepp believes in the supernatural whole-heartedly, 
  though he doesn’t have much practical experience with it. He reads church 
  documents that describe encounters with vampires, werewolves and other 
  monsters and wonders what those people really saw — demons? Madmen? 
  Or did they accurately and faithfully record their experiences? In either case, 
  Father Stepp watches everything that happens around his church with jaded 
  and discerning eye. He is under no circumstances willing to let the demon 
  be freed, but he might be open to the possibility that a supernatural being 
  might have a non-demonic origin. Even if he decides a given supernatural 
  creature is evil or Satanic, he knows that the servants of Lucifer often war 
  amongst themselves, and might be inclined to help one against the other. 
  Notes: Father Stepp’s Unseen Sense should be specialized toward whatever 
  kinds of characters the players portray. In a Changeling game, for instance, 
  he should have Unseen Sense (Fae). 
  Hush, Demon of Sloth
  Quotes: “Why not sleep on it?”
  “No need to do anything right now.”
  “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”
  Malapraxis: Like all demons, Hush does not have a Virtue or Vice, but 
  a Malapraxis. Malapraxes are tuned to a Vice and a Key. In Hush’s case, 
  the Vice is Sloth and the Key is Inertia. Hush is a demon of getting stuck, 
  of becoming so mired in a routine, comfortable situation that one never 
  moves forward. 
  Background: Hush was once a spirit of silence (and it retains its disdain for 
  sound even now). It passed up opportunities to consume other such spirits 
  for their power, as it reasoned that expending the effort would ultimately 
  be too much work. A spirit of silence, after all, is nothing but the absence 
  of noise, and absence is a passive notion. How could it be silence if it went 
  around chasing other spirits? That would make it a spirit of quiet, and that 
  just wasn’t acceptable. 
  Over time, Hush stagnated and solidified. It accepted the power of Hell 
  into it, becoming an Immundus rather than just a spirit. It remained in 
  one place until that tiny pocket of silence cracked open and noise and light 
  spilled in. Eric Rasoletti had called it up, using notes meant to summon a 
  more powerful demon of Sloth (which had, characteristically, fobbed the 
  duty off on a lesser creature). Hush used its powers to grant Rasoletti what 
  it wanted, but in its hurry to see Rasoletti’s pact to completion, it neglected 
  to ask him to grant it a secret name. Now it is stuck, just as Rasoletti is stuck, 
  languishing as an Immundus when it could be a Dominion. 
  Description: Hush rarely appears, but when it does, it resembles a two-foot 
  brown and black slug. The markings on its back resemble Eric Rasoletti’s face, 
  if the light hits them right. 
  Hush leaves a trail of slime 
  wherever it goes, and it emits 
  a cloying, sweet odor. Hush 
  does not speak — it is, in 
  fact, incapable of making a 
  sound. It communicates tele-
  pathically when necessary. 
  Storytelling Hints: Hush 
  is a demon of inertia, and as 
  such prefers to avoid move-
  ment, change and any sort 
  of effort. This unfortunately 
  makes advancement in Infer-
  nal Rank difficult, and since 
  12
  
  13
  Fallen is Babylon
  Hush didn’t bother to have Rasoletti give it a secret name when he sum-
  moned it, Hush has been stuck at its present level of power for years (much 
  like Rasoletti himself). In another spirit, this might be cause for frustration, 
  but Hush doesn’t get worked up about it. In fact, the only thing that elicits 
  any sort of anger from the demon is betrayal from its thrall. 
  dArk numinA
  As a demon, Hush exhibits some powers different from the ones found 
  listed for ghosts in the World of Darkness Rulebook. Some of them have 
  already been described in the section on demons, above. The rest are 
  detailed here. 
  • Aura of Corruption: Hush can sap energy from anyone in its immediate 
  area, or in the area of Rasoletti. The systems for this power are given in “The 
  Desecrated Apartment” and “Freeing Rasoletti.”
  • Babel: The demon can make it impossible for its target to speak 
  coherently. Spend one Essence and roll Power + Finesse + Infernal Rank (8 
  dice) - the target’s Resolve. Every success prevents the victim from speaking 
  intelligibly for a minute. Try as she might, she simply spouts random syllables. 
  She may communicate only in the Dragon’s Tongue, as this is not affected 
  by the Numen.
  • Create Pact: This Numen allows Hush to make bargains with living (or 
  unliving) beings, trading services and increased traits for sacrifices. Hush 
  has already made a pact with Rasoletti and is too lazy to do so again, so no 
  system for this Numen is required. 
  Notes         
      Willpower     
      Essence      
       Skills            Numina                  
      Influence 
   
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  Name: Hush 
  Virtue: N/A
  Concept: Demon of Sloth 
  Vice: Sloth - Inertia
       Corpus           
  Dice Pool
  Morality
  Aspect
  Rank
  Size
  Speed
  Defense
  Initiative Mod
  Power 
  Finesse 
  Resistance
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  3
  2
  2 (species factor -3)
  3
  5
  Aura of Corruption
  Babel
  Create Pact
  Dragon’s Tongue
  Keeper of Secrets
  Lord of Lies
  Soul of Sin
  Max Essence: 20
  13
  
  14
  Fallen is Babylon
  Ai’tahe, Archdemon of Pride
  Quotes: “Have you come to free me?”
  “Say the word, and share in my power.”
  “I will never forget your name or your face, infidel!”
  Malapraxis: The Pride of Those Who Challenge God. Ai’tahe is a demon 
  of supernatural power, and draws its strength from any being who has abilities 
  beyond the understanding of humanity and feels even a shred of pride over it. 
  Background: Ai’tahe is an archdemon, and its past is shrouded in a thou-
  sand legends. Was it truly Ai’tahe that raised a dying Wallachian prince as 
  one of the undead? Did this demon really direct a group of crazed, drunken 
  women to rend asunder a heartbroken singer who had just lost the love of 
  his life in the Underworld? Was this the creature that stood by and watched 
  while an ancient pack of wolves slew their progenitor, Father Wolf? Ai’tahe 
  would claim all of these and more are true… but then, it is a demon of Pride. 
  Archdemons are almost impossible to summon, simply because the ritu-
  als to do so are so complicated. Somehow, someone managed to summon 
  Ai’tahe in 1908. Ai’tahe only responds to entreaties from supernatural be-
  ings, and in this instance it appeared — but was almost immediately trapped. 
  Someone had discovered the demon’s seal and locked it into place.
  Description: Ai’tahe never appears in visible form, but its presence is un-
  mistakable. For supernatural beings, Ai’tahe burrows into the seat of their 
  magic. The otherworldly nature of such beings becomes obvious when Ai’tahe 
  is near — a changeling’s Mask falls, a mage’s Nimbus becomes uncloaked. 
  “Don’t hide what you are,” Ai’tahe urges. “Don’t cringe before the mortals!”
  Characters interacting with Ai’tahe see the shadow of the cross move, stretch 
  and grow limbs — far too many limbs for a human being. The dust in the area 
  gives it a face, when it needs one. The scent of blood, brimstone and sweat 
  from the hunt fill the air. To bargain with Ai’tahe is to be in the presence of 
  pure, powerful evil. Even contained, Ai’tahe should feel like a threat.
  Storytelling Hints: Ai’tahe seethes with rage, but as much as it would 
  like to destroy the city and everyone who calls it home, it has had enough 
  time to realize that even Hell is preferable to being entombed in a church. 
  It wants to go free, but failing that, it wants to go home. 
  Ai’tahe is not capable of showing humility, however. It is a demon of Pride, and 
  even trapped in a gutter it acts the part. It makes demands, but it promises godlike 
  power in return. It claims to know the truth about whatever mysteries interest the 
  characters. It will promise anything in exchange for its freedom, and it is capable 
  of delivering (see “The Devil’s Bargain” for more on bargaining with Ai’tahe).
  As an archdemon, Ai’tahe does not possess game traits. It is too power-
  ful to be represented by numbers. The systems necessary for dealing with 
  Ai’tahe are presented in “The Devil’s Bargain.”
  Scene Flowchart
  HISTORY LESSONS
  LECTURE
  THE HOSPITAL
  THE DESECRATED 
  APARTMENT
  A BLESSING FROM 
  FATHER STEPP
  RESEARCHING 
  THE DEMONS
  FREEING RASOLETTI
  THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN
  
  15
  Fallen is Babylon
  15
  The Lecture
  Mental ••     Physical ••    Social ••
   Overview
  In this scene, the characters attend the lecture at the city’s university and witness Rasoletti 
  attempt to betray his demonic master before collapsing. The characters might be able 
  to check his body (and his pockets) before the EMTs take him away, ending the scene. 
  Description
  Outside
  Protesters choke the street corners, carrying signs with various Bible verses (Deuteronomy 32:17, 
  Psalms 106:37, Job 10:11), admonitions to reject sin and embrace Christ, and a huge banner 
  reading “WHAT IS OUR CHILDREN LEARNING IN COLLEGE” The city police are 
  on hand to make sure things don’t get out of control, but just at present it looks like all the crowd 
  wants to do is yell. Across the street from the university’s Main Classroom building sits Trinity 
  Cathedral. Not as large as the university’s building, it still seems to dwarf anything else on the 
  block. Spires and gargoyles loom over the protesters. A dour priest stands at the huge, oaken doors 
  to the building. His expression makes it impossible to tell if he approves of the protests. 
  Inside the lecture hall 
  The auditorium is huge, and the stage is bare but for one podium. No screen is 
  in evidence, implying that tonight’s speaker isn’t going to bother with any sort of 
  multimedia. Listening to the chatter around the room, you hear various points of view:
  “This guy’s a quack. If he’s such an expert, why isn’t he out doing the lecture 
  circuit? Why hasn’t he written a book?
  “It’s not a hoax! My sister’s little cousin was one of the kids abused up in Massachusetts.”
  “‘Real occult practices?’ Please. This is just another attempt by the Christian Reich 
  to make us look like psychos.”
  “Just to warn you, this guy is boring as hell. I took his class last year.”
  Dragon’s Tongue
  You can’t pick out syllables, words or even individual sounds, but whatever language 
  he is speaking, it sends chills up your back. His voice hooks into your flesh like briars, 
  and pulls. It makes your back teeth ache and your ears ring. Yet even if you tried, 
  you couldn’t begin to reproduce it. And for that, you are thankful.
  Storyteller Goals
  You have two main goals in this scene. The first is simply to establish the 
  area. The characters will be returning to this general locale again, when they 
  confront or question Father Stepp and when they negotiate with Ai’tahe (“A 
  Blessing from Father Stepp” and “The Devil’s Bargain,” respectively). It’s 
  important to give a description of the street corner that includes the entrance 
  to the lecture hall and Trinity Cathedral. We recommend that the Storyteller 
  decide on a few other businesses or landmarks in the area to help flesh out the 
  descriptions (this depends on the geographical region in which the story is set). 
  The second goal is to get the characters involved with Rasoletti, and thus 
  hooked into Fallen is Babylon as a whole. The characters need to realize by the 
  end of the scene that Rasoletti collapsed because of supernatural interference. 
  Hopefully, the characters examine Rasoletti so that they can find the note and 
  key in his pocket. If they don’t, they have the option of following him to the 
  hospital and interacting with him there or doing some research into who he is. 
  This scene begins outside among the protesters. Establish the scene by allowing the 
  characters to speak with or push past a few people with signs, and make a point of 
  mentioning Father Stepp (but not by name) standing on the church steps, watching 
  the protest. If the characters speak to him, he tells them that he’s not necessarily op-
  posed to people studying the occult and he’s not a believer in the Satanic Panic, but 
  he is annoyed at how cavalierly demons and the occult are treated in modern media. 
  Remember that Father Stepp’s Unseen Sense Merit might detect the characters, at 
  which point he makes mental notes of their faces and names. 
  After about 20 minutes, the doors open and security guards and police 
  start admitting people into the lecture hall. Getting in requires a ticket, pur-
  chased in advance or at a table just inside the door. Security guards flank the 
  table and will physically restrain anyone who tries to get by without a ticket, 
  but the tickets aren’t expensive. It’s also possible to sneak by (see below). 
  Once the characters are in the lecture hall, Rasoletti takes the stage. For as interest-
  ing a topic as this might have been, Rasoletti manages to make it boring. Due chiefly 
  to Hush’s influence, he is an extremely dull public speaker. However, the facts he 
  presents are shocking enough by themselves to keep people awake for the first half of 
  his presentation, which is a discussion of the Satanic Ritual Abuse hoax of the 1980s. 
  He gives everyone a break before the second half of the presentation, and a 
  good percentage of the people attending leave. This frees up seats just about 
  everywhere in the auditorium, which allows characters to sit up front, near 
  Rasoletti, if they weren’t already. Subtly encourage the players to have their 
  characters do so — maybe they see a Contact or Ally sitting up front, or maybe 
  they see something strange about Rasoletti through magical means. 
  As the second half of the lecture begins, Rasoletti says that demon worshippers are 
  actually fairly rare. Real demonologists, he says, are people who have learned to summon 
  demons and make demands of them. He then proceeds to read what he describes as 
  “part of a demon-summoning ritual,” whereupon he recites a few words in Dragon’s 
  Tongue. He barely gets a sentence out, however, before he collapses, falling off the stage 
  and landing at the feet of any characters that happen to be sitting in the front row.
  
  16
  Fallen is Babylon
  At this point the characters have perhaps 30 seconds before EMTs arrive 
  (since several were already in the area). If any of the characters are EMTs or 
  police officers they should be the first to respond, but any characters in the 
  front row might take the opportunity to search Rasoletti’s body. They might 
  do this out of greed, curiosity or genuine concern, but in any event, they 
  might find his apartment key and a handwritten note (see the prop on p. 35). 
  This scene ends when Rasoletti is taken out of the lecture hall on a gurney. 
  The characters might or might not be with him. 
  Character Goals
  Witness the lecture and learn that Rasoletti is somehow tainted by the supernatural. 
  Sneaking Into the Lecture
  Dice Pool: Dexterity + Stealth vs. Wits + Composure (5 dice for security guard)
  Action: Instant and contested
  Hindrances: Character looks out of place on a college campus — too old, 
  too young, etc. (-1); character is dressed in an extreme manner — obvious 
  piercings, dyed hair, full nun’s habit, etc. (-2); more than one character try-
  ing at once (-1 per extra character, cumulative)
  Help: Other characters create a distraction (use Teamwork rules, p. 134 of 
  the World of Darkness Rulebook); character looks like a college student (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The character is immediately ejected; for whatever 
  reason, the guards see him as a security risk. If this isn’t realistic (character 
  is especially harmless-looking), he is at least asked to pay the entrance fee.
  Failure: Character is called back to the table and asked to pay the entrance 
  fee. Belligerent characters are sent to the end of the line, but if the character 
  can make the case that he “just forgot” to buy a ticket, they’ll take his money 
  right away and let him in.
  Success: The character sneaks in and enters the auditorium undetected.
  Exceptional Success: The character sneaks in and notes Rasoletti by the side door 
  to the auditorium. He is holding a piece of paper. He stares at it and sighs, then folds 
  it up, kisses it, and puts it into his left hip pocket. He doesn’t notice the character. 
  Deciphering Dragon’s Tongue
  Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult
  Action: Instant
  If the character has the Dragon’s Tongue Merit, this roll isn’t necessary. The 
  character understands what Rasoletti said: “Help me rid this city of its curses.”
  Hindrances: Obscurity (-3; all characters suffer this modifier); characters 
  next to the character are talking during the lecture (-1)
  Help: Demonology Specialty in Occult (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The Dragon’s Tongue has a profound effect on the 
  character’s sanity. Have the player roll the character’s Resolve + Composure. 
  If this roll fails, the character develops the vocalization derangement (p. 98 
  of the World of Darkness Rulebook) for the remainder of the night.
  Failure: The character does not understand what Rasoletti says, and has 
  no idea what language it was. 
  Success: The character does not understand what Rasoletti said, but knows that 
  it was in no earthly language. She will recognize the phrase if she hears it again. 
  Exceptional Success: The character knows that the language was Dragon’s 
  Tongue (if the character has a Specialty in Demonology) or some other-
  worldly language based on evil (if not). She remembers the phrase, and 
  believes it to be a plea for help or a warning. 
  Searching Rasoletti’s Body
  Dice Pool: Dexterity + Larceny
  Action: Extended; five successes required, and each roll requires 10 sec-
  onds of searching. The player can make three rolls before the EMTs arrive. 
  Hindrances: No allied characters nearby (-2 as the character must be wary 
  of being seen); character can only use one hand (-3)
  Help: Extra characters involved (can either offset the penalty above or use 
  Teamwork); character saw Rasoletti put note in his pocket (+4)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The character is caught searching the body and has to contend 
  with police inquiry. He can probably come up with a good excuse (“I was looking for 
  a wallet, for an emergency contact number”), but the Storyteller might require a Ma-
  nipulation + Persuasion roll, especially if the character was caught sneaking in earlier.
  Failure: No successes are added to the total. If the player fails to accumu-
  late five successes before the EMTs arrive, he doesn’t find the information.
  Success: The player adds successes to the total. If the player reaches five 
  successes in three rolls, the character finds the note and the key to Rasoletti’s 
  apartment in his left hip pocket.
  Exceptional Success: No effect other than quickly finding the note and key.
  Consequences
  At the end of this scene, the characters are probably watching Raso-
  letti being wheeled away on a gurney. Hopefully, they also have his note 
  and his apartment key. If they follow him to the hospital in hopes of 
  reviving him (perhaps magically), go to “The Hospital.” If they decide 
  to check out his apartment, proceed to “The Desecrated Apartment.” 
  
  17
  Fallen is Babylon
  The Hospital
  Mental •••   Physical •   Social ••
  Overview
  This scene happens whenever the characters go to the hospital to visit, 
  examine or interrogate Rasoletti. Once he is taken to the hospital, he remains 
  there for the rest of the story, or until the characters convince him to get out. 
  Description
  Immediately following the lecture
  The emergency room is a scene of chaos. Patients search fruitlessly for someone to 
  assuage fears about their loved ones. Nurses, doctors and orderlies glide around them, 
  ignoring them, going about their own business. A stretcher disappears behind a set of 
  swinging doors with Rasoletti lying on it, still apparently unconscious. 
  After the first few hours
  Rasoletti has been given a room on the cardiac intensive care floor. Signs on the 
  walls admonish you to turn off cell phones, and nurses look at your strangely. None 
  of them ask you whom you’re here to see, however. You hear a steady stream of beeps, 
  labored breaths, and from one room, a recitation from the Bible: “I will grant peace 
  in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove 
  savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.”
  When Rasoletti collapses at the lecture, the EMTs bring him to the hospital 
  where he is immediately put into intensive care. Once it is determined that 
  he is in no immediate danger, they move him to neurological intensive care. 
  The medical stuff runs a sleep study and an MRI, but only discovers that he 
  drops directly from a wakeful state to delta sleep (the deepest stage of sleep), 
  and never enters REM sleep, meaning he does not dream. 
  Getting to Rasoletti can be as simple as walking purposefully to his room 
  (see below), or as complicated as convincing a nurse that the character is a 
  friend or family member. Intensive care wards are generally stricter about 
  visitors than other areas of a hospital, but if you don’t want to bother with the 
  characters possibly being turned away, just assume that no one stops them. 
  When the characters do speak with Rasoletti, remember that he tries 
  to avoid giving information away directly. Below is a list of information 
  that Rasoletti attempts to impart to the characters, and a quote for how he 
  might do it. 
  • Rasoletti wants the characters to go to his apartment, where they can 
  read his notes (he doesn’t mention that Hush has Desecrated the apartment, 
  however; see “The Desecrated Apartment”). “I got a good deal on my apartment. 
  It’s over on Lakeside Drive. Have you see it? I could give you the address.”
  • Rasoletti would prefer that the characters believe that Hush chose him, 
  rather than the other way around, but he does want them to know that he 
  is demon-plagued. “Ever feel like there’s something attached to you, weighing you 
  down, keeping you  where you are?”
  • One important bit of information that Rasoletti wants the characters 
  to understand is that he can’t leave the city  without violating the terms of 
  his pact. He isn’t sure what will happen if he does leave (he suspects Hush 
  might stop his heart). “I wasn’t born here, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to die 
  here. This city’s like a tar pit, y’know? Sucks you down. It feels impossible to leave. 
  Every time I try, something stops me. You know, a work obligation, or a promise I 
  made, or something.”
  • He doesn’t try to push them toward Trinity Cathedral unless they 
  intimate knowing about Ai’tahe, in which case Rasoletti tries to encourage 
  them to negotiate with the more powerful demon to destroy Hush. “The 
  enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? You’ve just got to know which enemy to back.”
  If Rasoletti gets too specific, Hush puts him to sleep. More specifically, 
  Hush shuts his servant down if any of the following occur:
  • Rasoletti or the characters mention Ai’tahe by name
  • Anyone speaks Dragon’s Tongue
  • The characters make any mention of performing an exorcism (which 
  won’t work, as Rasoletti is not possessed)
  • Any reference is made to destroying Hush (mentioned by name, or 
  anything that indicates the demon that Rasoletti summoned)
  Storyteller Goals
  This is one of several scenes in which the characters gain some insight into 
  what is happening and why. They can speak with Rasoletti and learn a bit 
  of his history, though he isn’t entirely forthcoming with them (not because 
  he doesn’t want to be, but he knows that Hush can put him to sleep again 
  should he say too much). 
  You can also use this scene to steer characters toward other avenues of 
  research that might not have occurred to the players. For instance, if the 
  troupe’s characters are werewolves, and you’ve decided that the cultural 
  artifacts for “History Lessons” are a series of weathered carvings on some 
  stones deep in a nearby forest, Rasoletti might tell the characters to “go take 
  a walk in the woods — start with the blue trail, but don’t bother sticking to 
  it.” He can get more specific, but he should pass out just as he imparts a 
  crucial bit of information. 
  17
  
  18
  Fallen is Babylon
  Character Goals
  Learning about Rasoletti and his pact. Get some direction about what 
  to investigate next, or form a plan for negotiating with Ai’tahe or breaking 
  the pact with Hush, all depending on when in the story the characters play 
  through this scene.
  mentAl CommuniCAtion
  Many supernatural beings have some way to communicate without 
  speaking. The Mind Arcanum or the Auspex Discipline can initiate telepathic 
  contact, a changeling might wish to enter Rasoletti’s dreams, and so on. With 
  direct mind-to-mind contact, a character may be able to gain information 
  more quickly and completely than through simple conversation. Of course, 
  Rasoletti can’t hide anything from Hush, and so this method doesn’t bypass 
  the demon. 
  Using supernatural powers, though, should confer some results for the 
  character. After all, the character has to use the power in an intensive care 
  ward, under the watchful eyes of hospital staff — that’s enough of a challenge 
  to merit a payoff. Maybe the character only gets a few turns of conversation 
  before Hush shuts Rasoletti’s mind down, but that can be enough to see 
  distinct images: his apartment, the church, or anywhere you’d like the 
  players to go. 
  If you want to add an extra challenge to this tactic, perhaps the character 
  runs the risk of getting trapped in Rasoletti’s mind when Hush lowers the 
  proverbial boom. The character might need to terminate the power before 
  Hush puts Rasoletti to sleep — a contested roll of the character’s Wits + 
  Resolve against Hush’s Power + Finesse would be one way to resolve this.
  Actions
  Coaxing Information out of Rasoletti
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion – Rasoletti’s Composure (2 dice)
  Action: Instant
  You can choose to resolve this action solely through role-play, but if you 
  wish to use dice to speed things up, feel free. 
  Hindrances: Character’s questions have a noticeably Christian slant (-1)
  Help: Character is obviously erudite and educated (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The character says something that Hush interprets as 
  threatening to it, and the demon immediately puts Rasoletti to sleep. 
  Failure: Rasoletti isn’t sure how much to trust these people, and doesn’t 
  let anything slip. If the character keeps him talking for another 10 minutes, 
  the player can make another roll.
  Success: Rasoletti reveals some of the information listed above, but de-
  livered cryptically. 
  Exceptional Success: Rasoletti and the character understand each other 
  perfectly. Rasoletti answers the question in a way that the character fully 
  comprehends, so give the player an accurate answer (as far as Rasoletti knows) 
  to whatever question was asked. 
  Consequences
  If Hush puts Rasoletti to sleep, he remains so for eight hours. As such, 
  this scene might be over in moments, or it could take far longer if the char-
  acters are willing to wait around for him to wake up (this could result in a 
  character fulfilling the Virtue of Fortitude). Once the characters have the 
  information they seek, the story could progress to any of the other scenes 
  except “The Lecture,” depending on what the players decide to do next.
  
  19
  Fallen is Babylon
  The Desecrated Apartment
  Mental •••   Physical •   Social •
  Overview
  The characters visit Rasoletti’s apartment and learn most, if not quite all, 
  of the truth behind his pact with Hush and his interest in Trinity Cathedral. 
  Description
  Outside
  The apartment building is definitely for the affluent. You’ve already passed a police 
  car cruising the area, and the cars in the parking lot are high-end, running the gamut 
  from luxury SUVs to prim little hybrids. A middle-aged couple walks out of the building 
  and nods to you in greeting, but their attitude is obvious: “You don’t live here.”
  Inside
  The apartment’s interior is drab. It’s not messy, exactly; it’s just boring. There are no 
  decorations to speak of, no attempt to make the place look lived-in. A trash bag stuffed 
  with pizza boxes and the remnants of microwave dinners sits by the door, waiting to 
  be dragged downstairs to the dumpster. The bookshelves are full, mostly with books 
  of local history, true crime and pop-culture occultism. If Rasoletti has tomes of true 
  demonic power, he must keep them elsewhere.
  Storyteller Goals
  This scene has two goals: To give the characters some solid information 
  on the nature of the foes they face, and to scare the shit out of them. 
  When Hush appeared and agreed to the pact with Rasoletti, it bound 
  itself to his apartment. The apartment was already Desecrated (an area can 
  become Desecrated when an evil act is perpetrated there, and summoning a 
  demon certainly qualifies). Unfortunately for Hush, without a secret name 
  it cannot leave the apartment. It wields power over Rasoletti per the terms 
  of their pact, but beyond that its scope is quite limited. 
  Unfortunately, Rasoletti was busy attempting to contact Ai’tahe as well, 
  and since he’s so lazy, he didn’t leave his apartment to do it. Ai’tahe is 
  therefore capable of wielding some influence here, too (this would not 
  normally be possible for a bound demon, but Ai’tahe is beyond the scope 
  of most such entities). 
  The characters can search the apartment. They find information as 
  described below (“Searching the Apartment”). At some point during the 
  search, Hush makes its presence known. It spreads its influence of apathy and 
  inertia across the apartment (“Resisting Hush”). As they characters attempt 
  to pull themselves out of these doldrums, they hear a voice in their heads. 
  “Yes… rise up. Resist. You are mightier than this. You are strong, beyond mortal ken. 
  You shall not be defeated by a slug. Force it to appear. Destroy it. Do this in my name.”
  The voice they hear in their heads is Ai’tahe, and it should disturb them. 
  Ai’tahe’s voice reminds them of the moment that they became supernatural 
  creatures, which for many such beings is unpleasant. A vampire remembers 
  the moment she lost the last of her life’s blood. A werewolf recalls the sav-
  agery and carnage of the First Change. Mages think back to the Awakening, 
  lost in the Supernal Realms and surrounded by mystery. Changelings relive 
  the frantic run through the Hedge, fleeing the Keeper. Sin-Eaters die again 
  and remember the Bargain, when an ancient ghost-creature melded with 
  them. Hunters and other mortals relive the moment that proved to them 
  that the supernatural exists, and feel that horror and sense of helplessness 
  all over again (which is, admittedly, quite a different sensation that other 
  characters face). Prometheans, since they are “born” to their supernatural 
  state, don’t remember any one instance. Instead, their minds are filled with 
  fire, lightning and pure energy — a vision of the Divine Fire. 
  If the characters wish to initiate a dialog with this voice, or if they focus 
  on it, trying to follow it back, use the “Communicating with Ai’tahe” action. 
  Destroying Hush
  Ai’tahe admonishes the characters to destroy Hush. Is it possible? 
  It is, but it’s not easy. The characters can force Hush to flee the apartment 
  by lowering the Desecration of the place. How they go about doing this de-
  pends on their capabilities, and you will need to make some judgment calls 
  about what the characters are able to do with their supernatural powers in 
  this scenario. Some suggestions: 
  • Altering the apartment beyond recognition forces Hush out. The charac-
  ters might accomplish this by repainting, moving all the furniture out or just 
  setting the place on fire (this last can result in degeneration rolls, of course). 
  • Any supernatural power that can alter the mystical resonance of an area 
  can reduce the Desecration level and force Hush out. 
  • An exorcism (p. 214 of the World of Darkness Rulebook) can cleanse 
  the apartment. The exorcist’s target number of successes is five. Note that 
  only a mortal with Morality 8 or more can perform exorcisms. Father Stepp 
  might be convinced to do it. 
  19
  
  20
  Fallen is Babylon
  • Hush is capable of Materializing, but won’t do so if it feels threatened. 
  If the characters have powers that allow them to injure spirits in Twilight, 
  they can simply inflict enough damage to Hush to reduce its Corpus to 
  zero. This banishes Hush (see below), but leaves the apartment Desecrated. 
  No matter the method, Hush resists with all of its power. It is capable of 
  using its Aura of Corruption to make anyone in the apartment sluggish and 
  lazy, as described below. As such, sustaining the energy to banish it, through 
  whatever method, will be difficult. 
  Once Hush is banished, it disappears from the apartment and reappears 
  on Rasoletti’s body, spread over his back and legs like a layer of brown slime. 
  It can retreat inside his body, if necessary, and retains its ability to make 
  him sleep. Actually destroying (or banishing) the demon requires breaking 
  the pact (“Freeing Rasoletti”). 
  Character Goals
  Learning about Rasoletti and his demonic pact. Banishing Hush.
  Actions
  Searching the Apartment
  Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation
  Action: Extended (10 successes; every roll requires 10 minutes of work)
  This roll is a good candidate for a Teamwork action (p. 134 of the World 
  of Darkness Rulebook).
  Hindrances: Noisy neighbors (-1); power failure (-3); no one activates the 
  computer (-5)
  Help: Players state they are looking in specific places (+1); systematic plan 
  of action (+2); character searching has at least one dot in Computer and 
  mentions checking the computer files (+3)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: A character knocks over a bookcase, which crashes 
  to the floor. The downstairs neighbors immediately call the police, who 
  might well arrest the characters for trespassing unless they can come up 
  with a good cover story. 
  Failure: No successes are added to the total.
  Success: The player adds successes to the total. Unlike most extended 
  action, the characters gain information as they search. 
  Success Total 
  Information Gained
   
  2 
   
  A book on local history with a picture of   
   
   
   
  Trinity Cathedral bookmarked
   
  4 
   
  A journal containing extensive notes on  
   
   
   
   
  Satanic Panic cases. About halfway through,  
   
   
   
  it switches to complaints about the tenure   
   
   
   
  system and specific professors. The last page  
   
   
   
  simply reads, “I did it. He died because he   
   
   
   
  was too lazy and stupid to stop drinking.   
   
   
   
  Now I get my reward.”
   
  6 
   
  A scan of sketch of the seal used to keep  
   
   
   
   
  Ai’tahe imprisoned saved as a computer file.
   
  8 
   
  Map of the city, with the site of the scene   
   
   
   
  “History Lessons,” Trinity Cathedral, and   
   
   
   
  the apartment circle in red. The city limits   
   
   
   
  (Rasoletti’s prison) are marked in thick,  
   
   
   
   
  black grease pencil, and the word FUCK! is  
   
   
   
  written near the site of “History Lessons” — it  
   
   
   
  is outside the area in which Rasoletti can travel.
   
  10 
    
  A rubbing of a Latin phrase. If the characters  
   
   
   
  can translate it (Stepp can; it’s a rubbing from  
   
   
   
  the back wall of the church), it reads “Let   
   
   
   
  the vigilant never lose sight of this place, for  
   
   
   
  in the House of God, the Prideful One lies  
   
   
   
  entombed.”
  Exceptional Success: No result other than acquiring information more 
  quickly.
  Resisting Hush
  Dice Pool: Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance vs. Power + 
  Finesse + Infernal Rank
  Action: Instant and contested 
  This power is Hush’s expression of its Aura of Corruption. Hush can use 
  this power as often as it wishes, but doesn’t make the effort unless a serious 
  threat to its well-being arises.
  Hindrances: Character has the Vice of Sloth (-2); character with the Vice 
  of Sloth has regained Willpower from that Vice during the same day (-5); 
  character is sitting down (-1)
  Help: Character is standing up (+1); character’s Virtue is Fortitude (+1); 
  character is walking or otherwise active (+2)
  
  21
  Fallen is Babylon
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The character falls into a sleep like Rasoletti’s, and 
  cannot wake up unless physically removed from the apartment. 
  Failure: The player rolls fewer successes for the character than the Story-
  teller does for Hush. The character sits down and cannot muster the energy 
  to move. For the character to shake off the effects, the player must spend a 
  Willpower point and roll Resolve + Composure until she accumulates more 
  successes than the Storyteller did for Hush. One roll can be made per turn. 
  Success: The player rolls as many or more successes for the character as the 
  Storyteller does for Hush. The character feels a strong desire to sit down and 
  rest, but is under no compulsion to act on it. If the character does sit down 
  and rest, she cannot get up until the player succeeds on another Resolve + 
  Composure roll (but no Willpower expenditure is necessary). 
  Exceptional Success: The player rolls as many or more successes than the 
  Storyteller, and rolls an exceptional success. The character feels no compul-
  sion to sit or rest, but is aware that something tried to influence her behavior. 
  Communicating with Ai’tahe
  Dice Pool: Composure + Occult 
  Action: Instant
  Hindrances: Character has Morality 8 or more (-1); the character is 
  mortal (-5)
  Help: Presence of another demon (+1); character has used a supernatural 
  power in the last 12 hours (+2); character has Morality 5 or less (+2)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: Ai’tahe takes offense at the character’s clumsy attempt 
  to communicate with it, and decides to teach him a lesson. The character 
  immediately suffers three points of lethal damage. Ashes and shadows pour 
  from his mouth and eyes, and his skin feels as though he had suffered severe 
  frostbite. 
  Failure: The character is beneath Ai’tahe’s notice, and he receives no 
  response. 
  Success: The character gets the archdemon’s attention. Ai’tahe engages 
  in conversation with the character for one turn per success on the roll. 
  Don’t tell the player that time is short; simply respond to the character 
  as Ai’tahe — haughty, prideful and menacing. Shadows in the room come 
  alive as it speaks, and the character’s mystical nature comes to the fore as 
  described on p. 14. 
  During the conversation, Ai’tahe will reveal that Rasoletti made a pact 
  with a minor demon, and was trying to make contact with Ai’tahe for pur-
  poses unknown (it hasn’t occurred to Ai’tahe that Rasoletti wants out of 
  his pact, because it doesn’t understand the notion of giving up supernatural 
  power). It knows about the site of “History Lessons,” and will reveal it if 
  the character asks why no other members of his “race” are present in the 
  city. Any other information that Ai’tahe reveals is at your discretion, but 
  remember that the demon wants to be freed and it is quite happy to lie 
  about its imprisonment. If it feels that telling the character that the grates 
  on the church that imprison it are actually symbols focusing its power in 
  preparation for a Church-led demonic summoning will compel the character 
  to destroy those grates, that’s what it says. Remember that it is impossible 
  to tell if demons are lying. 
  Exceptional Success: Ai’tahe is impressed with the character’s tenacity. 
  It enters into conversation as above, but with the entire group. The apart-
  ment falls away into blackness, and the characters feel movement around 
  them. They cannot see, however. They feel no sense of falling or position of 
  any kind — the sensory deprivation is almost complete, aside from a vague 
  feeling that they are not alone. Any of the characters can ask Ai’tahe ques-
  tions, regardless of who rolled the dice, but the conversation still only lasts 
  one turn per success.
  Consequences
      After this scene, the characters probably have a better sense of what they 
  are up against. From here, they might go to “History Lessons” to learn 
  about their own history, to “A Blessing from Father Stepp” to speak with 
  Father Stepp, or “Researching the Demons” to research demons further. 
  
  22
  Fallen is Babylon
  Researching the Demons
  Mental •—• • • Physical •—• • • Social •—• • • 
  Overview
  This scene occurs whenever the characters decide to research the demons 
  of the city or demons in general, without going to the hospital to talk to 
  Rasoletti, the church or the site out of town. 
  Description
  • The man across the table from you fingers the money in the envelope. “OK. You 
  haven’t bought information, sonny,” he says. “You’ve bought time. You’ve bought 10 
  minutes of my time. I can tell you anything you want to know, but you’ve got to ask 
  the right questions or I can’t help you. Go.”
  • It’s a carnival, a tent revival, a festival! None of the boring, antiseptic religion that 
  you’d find in the suburbs. The people here are alive, and they dance, and they drink 
  and they speak in tongues. But some of them are naked. Some of them are bleeding. 
  And that altar isn’t covered in a red cloth, it’s just covered in red.
  • This is the part of the library where no one ever goes. It isn’t spooky, exactly; it’s 
  just dead. The books on the shelf don’t have titles, just faded bits of gilding where titles 
  used to be. Every now and then a librarian or a page peeks down the stacks at you, 
  but they aren’t sure what to ask. They’ve never been down here, either.
  Storyteller Goals
  The “research” in this scene can take place in any number of ways. As the 
  descriptions indicate, the characters might do it the old-fashioned way, hit-
  ting the books in libraries, rare bookstores, private collections and the like. 
  They might find demon-worshippers and try to play along long enough to 
  gain some insight, or they might contact someone who knows someone who 
  knows someone else and arrange a meeting. The point is that the characters 
  need to learn a little about how demons operate.
  The information that the characters can discover in this scene depends very 
  much on the questions they ask. That isn’t meant to be a dodge; it’s part and parcel 
  to dealing with demons. Demons lie, but they prefer to lie by omission if they can, 
  which means not answering unasked questions. The characters shouldn’t learn 
  knowledge that they don’t seek, so structure the information they gain accordingly. 
  Two basic types of information might result from their investigations: 
  Information about these particular demons, and information about demons 
  in general. Six points of information for each type follow. They are presented 
  as bits of information that the characters could learn or hear directly, fol-
  lowed by some brief explanation for the Storyteller.
  Specific Information
  • Hush is not a true demon. Explanation: Hush is an Immundus, and does 
  not have a secret name. This means that it doesn’t have the power or mobil-
  ity that a Dominion such as Ai’tahe has. Whether that makes Hush any less 
  of a “true” demon is up for debate, but from a certain perspective it’s true. 
  • Hush is bound to the location in which it was summoned. Explanation: This is true; 
  Hush is bound to Rasoletti’s apartment. It’s not because Hush was summoned there, 
  exactly, but because the Sloth-demon was too lazy to anchor itself anywhere else.
  • If Hush’s pact with Rasoletti is broken, Hush will be banished to Hell. 
  Explanation: Provided that the demon is also exorcised from the apartment, this is true.
  • Ai’tahe has been intimately involved with the supernatural through recorded history. 
  Explanation: Almost all reference to Ai’tahe mention it in the context of other 
  supernatural beings, be they vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts or fairies.
  • Ai’tahe is powerful. Explanation: This seems simplistic, but it’s actually an impor-
  tant point for the players to understand. Ai’tahe is so powerful that it doesn’t have 
  game traits. The characters cannot free the demon and survive a straight-up fight.
  • The Episcopal Church knows about Ai’tahe and has imprisoned it. Explana-
  tion: This piece of data should help lead the characters to Father Stepp.
  General Information
  • Demons specialize. Each demon represents a particular sin. Explanation: 
  Knowing how to beat Hush and Ai’tahe requires knowing that they must 
  act in accordance with their given Malapraxes.
  • Demons thrive on evil acts. Explanation: Characters with low Morality 
  might be disquieted to know that selfish and malicious actions have an effect 
  on the spiritual makeup of the world. 
  • Demons do not necessarily cooperate. Explanation: The characters should 
  learn that it is possible to play one demon off another. 
  • Demons require a secret name in order to be summoned — normally. Explanation: 
  Hush was something of a special case; the ritual didn’t summon it so much 
  as Rasoletti’s display of Sloth did. Usually, though, demons require their own 
  particular ritual to be successfully summoned, and Hush doesn’t have one. 
  • Demons have their own language, called the Dragon’s Tongue. Explanation: A 
  character might be able to learn this language, spending two or six experience 
  points for the one- or two-dot version of the Merit, respectively. This allows 
  the character to better deal with Ai’tahe, but it might have consequences 
  down the line, at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  • Ghosts and spirits can become demons, and some distinction exists between such a 
  demon and a simply evil ghost or spirit. Explanation: As mentioned previously, for 
  a spirit or ghost to become a demon it has to become devoted to sin and Vice. 
  22
  
  23
  Fallen is Babylon
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The cultists immediately recognize the character as a spy. Depending 
  on the nature of the cult, this could result in the members attacking the characters, or just 
  ejecting her and breaking up the meeting. Any further attempts to get information about 
  demons (other than by pure research) suffer a -3 modifier, though, as word of the spy spreads.
  Failure: The cultists become suspicious of the character and interrogate her 
  further. If she can’t answer their questions (Wits + Occult vs. seven dice for the 
  cultists’ Intelligence + Occult), treat this as a dramatic failure. Otherwise, the 
  character is allowed to stay, but apply a -2 modifier to any further rolls to blend in.
  Success: The cultists treat the character as one of their own, for the time being.
  Exceptional Success: The cultists see the character as an especially fervent 
  member. No further rolls are necessary to blend in. 
  Finding Rare Books
  Dice Pool: Intelligence + Academics
  Action: Extended (3 successes, every roll requires one day of work)
  This action isn’t so much about research (which is covered on p. 55 of 
  the World of Darkness Rulebook), but about finding the specialized books 
  and resources needed to research demons. 
  Hindrances: Character has no Occult Skill rating (-3)
  Help: Character speaks multiple languages (+1/language); character has 
  an Occult Specialty in Demons (+1); characters has Contacts in Academia 
  or Rare Books (+1), character enlists Rasoletti’s help (+2)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The character finds information that reveals that he’s 
  been on the wrong track up to now. All previously acquired successes are erased.
  Failure: No successes are accumulated toward the total.
  Success: The player accumulates successes toward the total. When she 
  reaches three successes, the character finds a good book on the occult and 
  demonology. This lends a +2 to any research the character wishes to perform 
  (otherwise, the system on p. 55 of the World of Darkness Rulebook applies).
  Exceptional Success: The character achieves the goal with an exceptional success, 
  and finds a source of information written by an actual demonologist. The informa-
  tion is concise and accurate. The +2 bonus stands, and in addition research rolls 
  require only 15 minutes, not 30 as indicated in the World of Darkness Rulebook.
  Consequences
  This scene should give the character a better idea of what they are up against in both 
  general terms (demons) and specific ones (Ai’tahe and Hush). From here, they might choose 
  to investigate the church (“A Blessing from Father Stepp”) or Rasoletti (“The Hospital” or 
  “The Desecrated Apartment”), depending on what they have already done. 
  Character Goals
  Research, forbidden knowledge, planning next move.
  Actions
  Making Contact with an Occult Informant
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Streetwise
  Action: Extended (8 successes; each roll represents a day of work)
  Finding an informant is much like working the black market (see p. 86 of the World 
  of Darkness Rulebook), except that the character is looking for something more exotic 
  than drugs or stolen goods. In a city with demonic activity, though, people who know 
  more than they should are present, hiding the shadows looking to sell what they know.
  Hindrances: Character has no Occult Skill dots (-3); characters aren’t 
  prepared to pay much (-4)
  Help: Characters have access to at least Resources 3 (+3); one character 
  has an Occult Specialty in Demons (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The characters come to the attention of a group that 
  they would rather avoid. Maybe it’s a cell of Christian hunters on the prowl 
  for demon-worshippers, or just some cops looking for evidence of ritual crime. 
  Failure: The player accumulates no successes toward the total.
  Success: The player makes progress toward the goal. When she reaches 
  eight successes, the characters find someone who is willing to talk with 
  them about demons. His rates will be exorbitant, of course, and he makes 
  no guarantees of their safety, but his information is accurate. 
  Exceptional Success: The player makes considerable progress toward the 
  goal. If the player achieves the target with an exceptional success, the characters 
  discover an occultist who is willing to share his considerable store of informa-
  tion for nothing. He doesn’t charge for his time, and seems happy to help 
  (this might worry the characters, of course — why is he being so generous?). 
  Sneaking Into a Demonic Ritual
  Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion
  Action: Instant (but see below)
  If the characters discover a cult meeting or ritual of demon worshippers, 
  they might wish to blend in and try to learn a few things. This requires look-
  ing like they belong. Having each player make this roll every 10 minutes of 
  game time, or whenever the character does something suspicious. 
  Hindrances: Character has no Occult Skill rating (-3); character has Morality 8 or more (-2)
  Help: Character has Morality 5 or less (+2); character once belonged to a cult (+2)
  
  24
  Fallen is Babylon
  History Lessons
  Mental •••   Physical •••   Social •••
  Overview
  This scene takes place when the characters look into the past of the super-
  natural race that the Storyteller has decided was affected by Ai’tahe’s bargain.
  Description
  Vampires 
  The elder stirs. Your blood stains his lips, and his right eye flutters open. His left 
  eye has been gored from the socket, and you realize that his right hand is still smeared 
  with blood from plucking it out — why would he maim himself so? What did he see?
  Werewolves
  The rock carvings tell a story. They’re weathered, faded, but uncompromising, and 
  the weight of history presses down on you as you study them. A century ago, the last of 
  your kind carved these figures, howled his sorrow to the moon, and fled.
  Mages
  The box before you contains memories. The sigils carved in the top make that clear. But 
  they also indicate that opening the box is “Pandora’s Mistake.” The box is heavy out of 
  proportion to its size, and it seems to shift in your hands as though something was alive inside.
  Prometheans 
  “What would you know?” it says. It’s a sublimatus, you’re certain, but it’s been pinned to 
  a huge oak tree with spikes of a metal that you’ve never seen before. It stares at you hungrily, 
  awakened by your Azoth, its three tongues playing over each other like a nest of snakes.
  Changelings
  The leaves turn yellow, orange and brown, and fall from the tree in a matter of seconds. Revealed 
  in the bark is the last testament of the Autumn Court, the final words of the freehold of this city.
  Hunters/Mortals 
  The computer hums to life. It’s old, probably dating to the 1980s, but the data it contains 
  is older. You still aren’t sure who wrote all this down, but now at least you’ll be able to learn 
  what happened here. If the diskette isn’t corrupted by long years in a disused office, that is.
  Sin-Eaters
  The Underworld makes for a superb hiding place. The Avernian Gate yawns open, 
  and you can see writing on the wall. Chalk, maybe, or just scratched there with a 
  chunk of glass. As you start to read, you hear footsteps, slow, ponderous thuds, and 
  then speeding up to a predator’s run. You were afraid there might be a guardian here.
  Storyteller Goals
  This scene is meant to tie the characters’ supernatural race more firmly 
  into the story by explaining the history behind the appearance of Ai’tahe 
  and the curse it placed on the area. The characters, after learning this in-
  formation, should realize that only by banishing the demon (or getting it to 
  rescind the curse, at least) can their people ever inhabit the area safely again. 
  Of course, that doesn’t mean that the characters will do so. It’s reasonable to 
  assume that werewolves (being territorial by nature) or mages (being curious) will 
  work to end the curse. But what about Prometheans? They might feel that this city 
  is better off not having to contend with Wastelands or Disquiet. Vampires, too, 
  might decide that a city without the undead is a city without nightly predation. 
  Fallen is Babylon doesn’t require that the characters feel one way or 
  another about the curse and its long-term effects. If you as Storyteller are 
  planning on expanding the story or using it as an arc in your chronicle, you 
  might wish to spin things so that it seems like a good idea to end the curse. 
  This story doesn’t have enough space to detail a full scene of discovery for 
  each of the supernatural “races.” Instead, this scene simply explains what 
  kind of information should be available in the “time capsule.” 
  Personalized
  You should definitely construct the scene with your troupe’s characters in 
  mind. A pack of werewolves with a martial focus should probably fight for the 
  information, perhaps besting an old knowledge-spirit before they learn the 
  truth. A motley of Winter Court changelings probably has most of its work just 
  finding the information, since their predecessors probably hid it extremely well. 
  Cultural
  After obtaining the information, the characters should know some details about how 
  things used to work. They should know the basic structure of the Consilium (Mage), 
  who was Prince (Vampire) or how a freehold’s oaths were set up (Changeling). They 
  should learn a few names, as well — perhaps of movers and shakers within the city, 
  but definitely of the archivist(s). Seeing this glimpse of the past allows the characters to 
  compare and contrast how their societies work now with how they worked a century 
  ago. Has enough changed? Too much? What lessons can they take from their forebears?
  Summoning Ai’tahe
  The characters should learn why and how their forebears called up Ai’tahe. 
  The demon’s Mythology is included. This is a physical description of the 
  archdemon, as well as an explanation of why it was summoned. 
  24
  
  25
  Fallen is Babylon
  Because these details will necessarily vary based on what game the Sto-
  ryteller is running, the full Mythology isn’t included here. Below is a brief, 
  in-character description of Ai’tahe that can be modified as necessary. 
   
  It has many names, but the greatest 
  power comes from the stories in which 
  it is not named. The steed that carried 
  Bellerophon. The Serpent in the Garden 
  of Eden. The hand that guided Hod’s bow. 
  In every story, the one it guides comes 
  to woe, but through his (or her) own 
  foolishness. Eve eats the apple, but 
  through this gains knowledge and freedom. 
  Bellerophon slays the chimera and becomes 
  a hero, but attempts to climb too high 
  and is struck down. Hod fires his arrow 
  and kills his brother, but never stops to 
  consider that he cannot see his target 
  We, then, call up this guide of our own 
  free will, and we accept its help and its 
  guidance. We shall keep ever watchful for 
  the temptation, the fall, the tragic flaw 
  that doomed these other fools. It is this 
  temperance that shall save us from ruin. 
  Following this is a brief lament, making clear that the Church interfered and 
  bound the demon, and that the resulting curse left the members of this super-
  natural race unable to stay. Depending on how dramatic you want to be about 
  it, all of the members in the city might have turned to black dust in the space of 
  a night, or they might have noticed the effects gradually and left. In any event, 
  the information should point the characters in the direction of the Church. 
  A SuggeStion — FlAShbACk ChApter
  If you’re running this story as part of a larger chronicle, it might be 
  interesting to have the players create characters who were present in the 
  city in 1908, when Ai’tahe was summoned and the curse initially laid. They 
  might even portray the characters that summoned the demon, or they might 
  be a pocket of resistance (i.e., common sense) in the area, but either way, 
  this kind of chapter gives the players some firsthand knowledge that their 
  modern characters can then learn about in this scene. 
  This will, of course, require doing a little light research into the status of 
  the area near the turn of the 20th century, but you don’t need to go too in-
  depth with it, since the flashback should only last a chapter. 
  Character Goals
  Research, learning about the past.
  Actions
  What kinds of actions are required to get to the information depends 
  entirely on what form they take. Some possibilities include:
  • Vampire: Awakening a torpid elder vampire from that time; digging up a 
  coffin full of written archives (and reading them without them disintegrating)
  • Werewolf: Talking with a spirit holding the knowledge; rock carvings 
  with First Tongue glyphs
  • Mage: Artifact holding memories; Mysterium Athaeneum with Atlan-
  tean guardians
  • Promethean: Written ramble from a Promethean of that time; subli-
  matus trapped in a place where Azothic radiance hasn’t reached in decades
  • Changeling: Hollow containing the records locked with a magical 
  riddle; characters must swear an oath of service to a powerful hobgoblin to 
  obtain information
  • Hunter: Records assembled and saved onto now-obsolete computer 
  file by Union members in the 1980s; records are actually in Milan in the 
  hands of the Lucifuge and characters must convince the conspiracy that 
  they need to see them
  • Geist: Carved on the wall in the Underworld, but guarded by a power-
  ful geist; the ghost of the mortal wife of one of the Bound who summoned 
  Ai’tahe is still around, and remembers everything
  Consequences
  The characters should come away from this scene with some solid knowl-
  edge about what their people (or the chosen group of supernatural characters, 
  if you are running this story as a World of Darkness or Hunter: The Vigil 
  story) did and why, as well as some thoughts about what, if anything, they 
  need to do to resolve it. Depending on how they have approached their 
  investigation so far, they might go from here to collect more data (“Research-
  ing the Demons”) or to Father Stepp to find out the Church’s involvement 
  (“A Blessing from Father Stepp”).
  
  26
  Fallen is Babylon
  either. It feels tense, as though everything in the building is wound too tight. 
  The characters should meet Father Stepp shortly after entering. He makes a 
  point of introducing himself and asking if they need anything. Remember 
  that with his Unseen Sense Merit, he can feel that the characters are “off” 
  somehow. He might also remember them from “The Lecture,” and if they 
  behaved themselves then, it might be worth a bonus on Social rolls now.
  Father Stepp is aware of the supernatural, and learning that the characters 
  are paranormal beings doesn’t faze him much. He won’t discuss the church’s 
  occult history (or the supernatural in general) with the characters until 
  he knows they actually have something genuine and useful to contribute 
  to the conversation. They don’t necessarily have to reveal themselves as 
  supernatural beings in order for him to reach that conclusion, though; if a 
  character mentions Ai’tahe by name or lets on that she knows that a demon 
  is imprisoned her, Father Stepp becomes much more willing to converse. 
  He remains guarded until he’s sure of the character’s intentions, however. 
  The Storyteller should steer the characters toward the archives of the 
  church. These are kept in a back storeroom behind a set of complicated 
  locks, and the door is wired to a silent alarm that summons police support 
  inside two minutes (and sends a text message to Father Stepp’s phone to 
  boot). It’s not impossible to beat the security, but the best way to view the 
  archives is to get the priest on the characters’ side. 
  This scene, therefore, can be a game of conversation cat-and-mouse be-
  tween the characters and Father Stepp, a scene of supernatural manipulation 
  (a vampire might use Dominate to force Stepp’s will, for instance) or a scene 
  of stealth and skullduggery. In any event, once the characters do access the 
  archives, they learn how the Church came to be involved with the beings 
  that summoned Ai’tahe. As discussed under Set-Up (p. 5), these details are 
  up to the Storyteller. 
  The other important part of this scene is a manifestation from Ai’tahe. 
  Much as in the apartment in “The Desecrated Apartment,” Ai’tahe appears 
  in a shifting mass of shadows and a change in the pressure of the air. Its 
  voice is deep and resonant, but somehow hollow-sounding, as though the 
  demon were speaking from the bottom of a deep pit. It cannot communi-
  cate with anyone in the church without speaking Dragon’s Tongue (one of 
  the terms of its imprisonment), but if one of the characters understands 
  Dragon’s Tongue or specifically asks it to speak another language, then a 
  dialog can take place. This might result in the action moving direction into 
  “The Devil’s Bargain,” or the characters might just exchange words with 
  the demons and leave. Father Stepp, for his part, admonishes the characters 
  not to respond if he is present when Ai’tahe speaks. Ai’tahe has, after all, 
  spoken to him many, many times, and has he never responded except to 
  say “Get thee behind me.”
  A Blessing from  
  Father Stepp
  Mental ••   Physical •••   Social •••
   
   
   
   
   
   
       Overview
  In this scene, the characters investigate Trinity Cathedral, converse with 
  Father Stepp and learn about the Church’s role in imprisoning and guard-
  ing Ai’tahe. 
  Description
  Outside
  The church’s massive oak doors don’t seem welcoming. You know they aren’t locked 
  — the sign on the door proclaims that the church is always open. And yet, these doors 
  seem to turn you away. They don’t so much prohibit entry as disapprove that you are 
  even on church ground. 
  Father Stepp
  Father Stepp sits across the table and opens a book nearly three feet long. “No one’s 
  opened this book in a long time,” he says. He stares at you, steady blue eyes boring 
  into yours. “You’d better be right about this.”
  Storyteller Goals
  This scene ideally takes place after the characters have learned the history 
  of Rasoletti, Hush, the summoning of Ai’tahe and the fate of the supernatu-
  ral beings of the city’s past. Father Stepp can fill in the rest of the details, 
  provided that the characters treat him well. From here, the characters can 
  enter directly into negotiations with Ai’tahe, or they can return at a later 
  date when they feel they are prepared. 
  This scene should serve to fill in the gaps in the characters’ knowledge. 
  By now they know that Ai’tahe is powerful and responsible for the curse 
  on the city. Here, they learn why and how he was trapped, and what Father 
  Stepp and people like him have done for 100 years to keep the demon from 
  harming anyone. 
  The characters can come to church at any time, day or night. The doors are 
  unlocked, and the pews might be full of worshippers (if the characters come 
  during a service) or utterly empty (if they arrive in the middle of the night). 
  The church doesn’t feel welcoming, but it doesn’t necessarily feel forbidding, 
  26
  
  27
  Fallen is Babylon
  Character Goals
  Putting the last pieces of the puzzle together, meeting Father Stepp and 
  seeing an example of virtue triumphing over temptation. 
  Actions
  Opening the Lock 
  Dice Pool: Dexterity + Larceny
  Action: Extended (20 successes; each roll requires one minute)
  Breaking into the archives actually requires three separate actions. Two 
  mechanical locks require five successes each to pick, and the electronic lock 
  requires 10 successes to disarm. The characters realize this with a successful 
  Wits + Larceny roll (-3 for darkness). If this roll fails, the character starts 
  with the mechanical locks, and misses the electronic one unless the player 
  specifically states the character is checking for such a mechanism.
  Hindrances: Darkened hallway (-3); stopping and starting to dodge church 
  personnel (-3)
  Help: Visit to the church earlier to “case” (+2)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The alarm is activated. Police arrive within two minutes, 
  and Father Stepp arrives even faster. 
  Failure: The player accumulates no successes toward the total. 
  Success: The player adds successes to the total. The character can disable 
  a mechanical lock with five successes or the electronic lock with 10, and can 
  handle them in any order (provided he knows about them).
  Exceptional Success: No effect except for faster success. 
  Convincing Father Stepp to Talk
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Wits + Subterfuge
  Action: Instant
  Father Stepp is susceptible to supernatural coercion, of course, though 
  he resists it as much as he is able.
  Hindrances: Character offers a monetary bribe (-3); character reveals 
  himself to be supernatural in a way that makes him look evil or demonic 
  (-2); character plays coy and doesn’t speak in specifics (-1); more than one 
  character trying to converse with Stepp at once (-1)
  Help: Character reveals that he knows about Ai’tahe (+3); character re-
  veals himself to be supernatural in a way that looks benign or even angelic 
  (+2); character wears a cross or other Christian symbol (+1); character is 
  forthright and direct (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: Father Stepp orders the characters out of the church 
  and calls the diocese’s bishop. This probably doesn’t have any immediate 
  effect, but if you want to introduce the notion of hunters coming after the 
  characters later, this would be a superb reason. 
  Failure: The player rolls fewer successes than the Storyteller. Father Stepp 
  is unconvinced about the character’s motives. The player can try again after 
  another five minutes of conversation, provided the character reveals some-
  thing new and of interest. 
  Success: The player rolls as many or more successes than the Storyteller. 
  Father Stepp is willing to talk to the characters about the church’s history, 
  and will show one character the archives. 
  Exceptional Success: The player rolls more successes than the Storyteller 
  and rolls an exceptional success. Father Stepp is convinced of the characters’ 
  motives, and allows all of them to see the archives. 
  Consequences
  At this point, the characters should have a relatively clear picture of what 
  is going on in the city. They might choose to attempt to free Rasoletti from 
  his pact (“Freeing Rasoletti”), expel Ai’tahe or break the curse (“The Devil’s 
  Bargain”), or just leave the whole mess behind and leave town. 
  
  28
  Fallen is Babylon
  Freeing Rasoletti
  Mental •••   Physical ••   Social ••
  Overview
  The characters attempt to break Rasoletti’s pact with Hush, perhaps to 
  help him, perhaps simply to banish or destroy the demon. 
  Description
  The city limits loom in the distance. In the backseat, Rasoletti’s head lolls to one 
  side, and his breathing slows. You step on the gas, but you feel fatigue start to claim 
  you as well. Your mind goes on autopilot — shouldn’t you be headed back into town? 
  Where were you going, anyway? 
  Storyteller Goals
  This scene begins whenever the characters decide to take on Hush. They 
  might start by ousting him from the apartment (which is discussed in “The 
  Desecrated Apartment”), or by getting Rasoletti to explain the particulars 
  of the pact to them. He can tell them that he is forbidden to leave the city 
  or quit his job, and that he must dedicate 10 minutes out of every hour to 
  the demon. The characters, therefore, can also attempt to break the pact by 
  violating these clauses. 
  • Keeping Rasoletti Awake: The characters can sit with Rasoletti for a 
  full hour, making sure that Hush doesn’t get the ten minutes its due. The 
  system for this is below, but having some magical backing for it would make 
  it easier. A vampire could Dominate Rasoletti to “stay awake,” while a mage 
  might use a Mind spell to make his mind incapable of resting. Any super-
  natural being might simply scare him badly enough that his mind doesn’t 
  slip into the lazy zone that allows Hush to take over. 
  • Getting Rasoletti Out of Town: This is nominally as simple as put-
  ting Rasoletti in a car and getting him out of the city. Unfortunately, Hush 
  expresses its power by attacking the driver, forcing the kind of “driver 
  autopilot” that happens when someone slips into a familiar route while 
  behind the wheel. The character ends up right back where she started. If 
  a character has the ability to teleport Rasoletti out or open a gateway to 
  another plane of existence (the Hedge, the Shadow, the Underworld), this 
  option is much easier.
  • Getting Rasoletti Fired: The characters need to convince the university 
  to fire a tenured professor. This is a monumentally difficult task, as tenured 
  professors are almost impossible to dislodge. It generally takes criminal 
  charges, drug use while on university grounds or an affair with a student to 
  accomplish this, and even then the process takes months. The characters 
  might be able to manufacture something extreme enough to hasten the 
  process (framing Rasoletti for murder, for instance), but he won’t agree to 
  that — he wants to be free, not go from one prison to another. 
  Whatever the method, Hush attempts to kill Rasoletti if it realizes that 
  the characters are going to steal its servant away. It shuts down Rasoletti’s 
  autonomic nervous system, effectively suffocating him. The characters 
  can save him through supernatural means (Life magic, a healing power or 
  something that shuts down the demon’s influence) or through medical 
  means (see below).
  If the characters break the pact without dealing with the apartment, Hush 
  simply retreats to the Desecrated ground. The characters need to deal with 
  the demon there, but that is a much easier prospect when Hush doesn’t have 
  the option of retreating to Rasoletti’s brain. The characters can force the 
  demon out, whereupon it goes to Hell, slipping away into a corner as though 
  sliding downhill. It doesn’t even expend the energy to scream or complain. 
  Character Goals
  Freeing a man from a demon, cleansing the city of demonic influence. 
  28
  
  29
  Fallen is Babylon
  Freeing Rasoletti
  Actions
  Keeping Rasoletti Awake
  Dice Pool: Presence + (a Social Skill)
  Action: Instant
  Which Skill the player rolls depends on the character’s approach. Yelling 
  and smacking Rasoletti around would use Intimidation, while keeping his 
  attention through conversation would involve Persuasion. The player needs 
  to succeed on six such rolls (one for every 10 minutes) in order to break 
  the curse. The characters can trade off, or can use Teamwork (p. 134 of the 
  World of Darkness Rulebook).
  Hindrances: Quiet, dull or familiar environment (-2); Hush has already 
  been expelled from the apartment (-5); every character that previously failed 
  the roll (-1)
  Help: Hush is still in apartment (+1); loud or interesting environment (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: Rasoletti zones out, and the attempt fails. 
  Failure: The character fails to keep Rasoletti’s interest, but another char-
  acter can immediately jump in and make the attempt. 
  Success: The character holds Rasoletti’s interest for 10 minutes. 
  Exceptional Success: The character holds Rasoletti’s interest for 20 min-
  utes (thus reducing the number of successful rolls that need to be made). 
  Resisting Hush’s Influence
  Dice Pool: Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance vs. Power + 
  Finesse + Infernal Rank
  Action: Instant and contested
  This power is Hush’s expression of its Aura of Corruption. 
  Hindrances: Character has the Vice of Sloth (-2); character with the Vice 
  of Sloth has regained Willpower from that Vice during the same day (-5); 
  character is driving his own car (-1)
  Help: Character is driving an unfamiliar car (+1); character’s Virtue is 
  Fortitude (+1); other characters keep the driver’s attention engaged (+2)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The driver goes on “autopilot,” and winds up back at 
  the apartment. None of the other characters in the car notice. 
  Failure: The player rolls fewer successes for the character than the Story-
  teller does for Hush. The character starts to drive back toward the apartment, 
  but other characters can stop her (Presence + Persuasion to get her attention). 
  Success: The player rolls as many or more successes for the character as 
  the Storyteller does for Hush. The character feels fatigue and has to pay at-
  tention a little more to get where she is going, but is under no compulsion 
  to drive anywhere other than out of town. 
  Exceptional Success: The player rolls as many or more successes than the 
  Storyteller, and rolls an exceptional success. The character feels no compul-
  sion to change direction, but is aware that something tried to influence her 
  behavior. 
  Keeping Rasoletti Alive
  Dice Pool: Wits + Medicine
  Action: Instant
  Once it becomes obviously to Hush that the characters are going to try 
  to break the pact, it attempts to kill Rasoletti by shutting off his autonomic 
  functions (heart and lungs). At this point, the attack is a parting shot — 
  Hush knows it is beaten, but in true demonic fashion, it tries to take its 
  servant out with it. 
  Hindrances: In a car or otherwise cramped space (-2); each previously 
  failed roll (-1, cumulative)
  Help: Characters have access to oxygen (+1); characters have access to 
  adrenaline shot (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: Rasoletti suffocates to death, but dies free of Hush’s 
  influence. 
  Failure: Rasoletti starts to suffocate. The characters can continue making 
  this roll once every 30 seconds. They have three minutes (six rolls) before 
  he dies. 
  Success: Rasoletti’s lungs continue to work until Hush loses its influence 
  over him.
  Exceptional Success: Rasoletti never even loses consciousness completely. 
  The characters all regain all spent Willpower as though they had fulfilled 
  their Virtues. 
  Consequences
  Once Rasoletti is free, he tells the characters he is getting out of town. He 
  does, however, offer them use of his apartment and any assistance he can ever 
  offer them as a researcher. He is quite willing to help them deal with Ai’tahe 
  before he leaves, but he will not take part in any pact with the archdemon. 
  
  30
  Fallen is Babylon
  The Devil’s Bargain
  Mental •••  Physical ••   Social ••••
  Overview
  In this scene, the characters deal with Ai’tahe. They might send it back 
  to Hell and free the city from the curse, or they might become Indebted 
  servants of the demon and greet the next dawn (or dusk) as forces for Sin 
  in the World of Darkness. 
  Description
  The lights in the church flicker. The candles burn bright red for a moment, and 
  the shadows pounce inward. You feel them strike you like a strong wind, and then 
  everything is calm — but it is here. Ai’tahe is listening. And you know that it is the 
  stronger bargainer.
  Banishing the demon
  A hole opens in the air. What’s inside that hole… you can’t quite see. You can 
  see images, things that resemble animals but clearly aren’t, and you can hear cries of 
  horrible, unimaginable pain. The shadows in the room flow into this hole like dust 
  into a vacuum, and you know that Ai’tahe is gone — and that it preferred the torments 
  of Hell to be being trapped in this place of Virtue. 
  Becoming Indebted
  You agree, and you feel the demon reach into you. It changes your body, making 
  the alterations you agreed upon, but you feel it reaching beyond your physical form. It 
  touches the tapestry of all reality, pulling threads, changing colors, to accomplish the 
  goals you wanted, to bring your wealth, servants, fame — whatever you desire. And 
  you swell with pride. This is, truly, what it is to challenge God. 
  Storyteller Goals
  In this scene, the characters come face-to-face with true evil and either 
  triumph over it, become it or retreat from it. This scene should tie together 
  all of the events of Fallen is Babylon. That means that the major Storyteller 
  characters (Hush, Ai’tahe, Rasoletti and Father Stepp) should either play 
  a role or be mentioned somewhere. The characters should see the pride of 
  Ai’tahe, a demon so powerful it won’t even acknowledge the existence of 
  “mere mortals,” and they should know that this pride isn’t just posturing. 
  Ai’tahe really is powerful enough to rewrite portions of reality — and they 
  can, if they wish, partake in that power. 
  This scene takes place at 
  the church, and in order for 
  it to happen, something must 
  be done about Father Stepp. 
  The characters might be able 
  to convince him to allow 
  them to have a conversation 
  with the demon, especially if 
  they offer assurance that they 
  intend to banish it. Stepp is 
  not interested in having more 
  supernatural beings in the 
  city, though, so lifting the 
  curse isn’t on his list of priori-
  ties. If the characters frame it 
  in terms of a demonic effect, 
  though, he grudgingly admits 
  that it should be lifted. 
  If the characters don’t want 
  to take the time to convince 
  Stepp of their intentions, they 
  can simply use their powers to 
  subdue him. Ai’tahe draws 
  power from such an act, 
  though. 
  Negotiations
  In order to enter into ne-
  gotiations with Ai’tahe, the 
  characters need to grant it 
  a certain degree of freedom. 
  That means removing one of 
  the grates on the roof; this 
  grants Ai’tahe enough leeway 
  to influence the world, but 
  only with permission. 
  Ai’tahe is a shrewd bargain-
  er. It knows that one word 
  from the characters can set it 
  free to wreak havoc upon the 
  world. It tries to underplay 
  this, but as a demon of Pride, 
  it has difficulty underplaying 
  30
  
  31
  Fallen is Babylon
  anything. It boasts about its might, especially if the characters can get it 
  talking, and it never admits to being imprisoned or being weak in any way. 
  Ideally, the negotiations should be played out as a conversation, with you 
  taking the role of Ai’tahe (and, if necessary, Father Stepp) and the players 
  speaking for their characters. Try to limit the amount of out-of-character 
  chatter between the players, and respond to (or at least take note of) every-
  thing that the characters say. Ai’tahe is perceptive, and it plays upon fears, 
  lusts and sins of the characters. 
  Ai’tahe wants one thing above all: Freedom. It wants to be entirely unfet-
  tered, at which point it can slip between the worlds at its leisure. It might 
  Desecrate the church, turning its prison into a place of demonic power (and 
  it would most certainly call up a weaker demon to possess Father Stepp). 
  If the characters simply let Ai’tahe off its chain, it grants them a free dot 
  of their supernatural power trait (Gnosis, Blood Potency, etc.) in gratitude. 
  If it can’t get true freedom, Ai’tahe is willing to go back to Hell. In Hell, 
  it can be summoned again, and being close to a place of prayer, piety and 
  humility drives it mad. It doesn’t want to admit that it will accept going to 
  Hell, but if it gets the sense that this is the best deal it’s going to get, it’s will-
  ing to lift the curse in order to do so. It cannot grant traits or other rewards 
  from Hell, though (and it tells the characters as much with mock sorrow).
  Finally, Ai’tahe is willing to Indebt the characters but remain trapped, 
  if no other offers are on the table. It can grant any trait that the characters 
  wish, but requires sacrifices of varying severities in order to power such gifts. 
  Sacrifices include: murders committed in its name (it is especially fond of 
  murders that further supernatural causes, such as a vampire draining a vic-
  tim to death or a werewolf eating a human); rituals involving mortal cultists 
  duped by the supernatural, or activities in which supernatural beings use 
  their arcane gifts. Since these might be activities that the characters would 
  be performing anyway, it might seem like a good deal. 
  One potential way for the characters to sweeten whatever deal they make 
  with Ai’tahe is to let the demon get revenge on Father Stepp. Ai’tahe hates 
  the priest with a burning passion — he is a mortal man, and yet consistently 
  defies temptation and sin. If the characters are willing to murder the priest (or 
  let Ai’tahe do it), the demon is much more willing to leave the city in peace. 
  Of course, Ai’tahe tries to spin things in its favor as much as possible. 
  It asks to name one favor from the characters per month, and agrees to all 
  sorts of strictures on the favor. What it wants is to be able to force them to 
  remove the grates. 
  World of Darkness: Inferno has a detailed system for creating pacts with 
  demons. If you have access to that book, feel free to apply the usual balance 
  between Sacrifices and Benefits. Ai’tahe, as an archdemon, is powerful 
  enough to grant anything the characters might wish for, but it cannot perform 
  Services while bound (nor would it, even if it were free). 
  Character Goals
  Banish Ai’tahe. Gain demonic power. Break the curse.
  Actions
  The characters might need to subdue Father Stepp in order to open ne-
  gotiations, which might require combat or use of supernatural powers. If 
  they use supernatural powers to do so, any rolls the players make to notice 
  deception or trickery on the part of Ai’tahe suffer a -3 modifier, as the area 
  becomes more in tune with the demon’s brand of sin. 
  Since Ai’tahe doesn’t have game traits, the negotiations can’t be repre-
  sented with a contested action. Instead, the Storyteller should let the pact or 
  agreement come together organically. If that isn’t palatable to your players, 
  use the following system.
  Bargaining with Ai’tahe
  Dice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge
  Action: Extended (see below; one roll per 20 minutes of negotiations)
  The players should lay out their goals before rolling any dice, and the 
  Storyteller should set a target number of successes based on how close to 
  the demon’s goals they are. A pact in which Ai’tahe agrees to go home and 
  lift the curse might require 15 successes. If the characters allow him to kill 
  Father Stepp first, this total might drop to five. 
  The characters can and probably should use Teamwork for this action. 
  Indeed, any player whose character contributes so much as a single phrase 
  to the negotiations must take part in the teamwork roll. 
  Hindrances: Character has no dots in Occult (-3); character used a super-
  natural power on Father Stepp (-3); character succumbed to Hush’s powers 
  earlier (-1); character’s Vice is Pride (-2); character has regained Willpower 
  from the Vice of Pride in the last day (-1); each hour of negotiations after 
  the first (-1, cumulative)
  Help: Character possesses the Meditative Mind Merit (+1); Father Stepp 
  is present (Storyteller should roll for his participation in the negotiations); 
  character never fell victim to Hush’s powers (+1); character’s Virtue is 
  Charity (+1)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: Ai’tahe “wins” the negotiation. The characters might 
  get what they want, but they have agreed to something terrible. Maybe 
  Ai’tahe is free for one night out of the year (it might not seem like much, 
  but remember how powerful the archdemon is), or maybe the characters 
  agreed to commit one murder in its name periodically. 
  
  32
  Fallen is Babylon
  Failure: The players accumulate no successes toward the total. 
  Success: The players accumulate successes toward the total. Once they 
  reach the goal, the negotiations have finished and they accomplish what 
  they set out to. 
  Exceptional Success: The players accumulate considerable successes. If the 
  players complete the negotiations with an exceptional success, Ai’tahe slips 
  up somewhere, and the characters get what they want without a significant 
  cost to their souls. 
  Consequences
  After this scene, the characters might have saved the city from a demon’s 
  influences, or they might walk out of that church with blood on their hands 
  and a demon in their hearts. In any event, the events of Fallen is Babylon 
  are over. 
  Aftermath
  At the end of the story, the characters might take any number of actions. 
  They might decide to try to rebuild their people’s presence in the city, 
  maybe working with Father Stepp to make sure that the supernatural doesn’t 
  victimize the mortal population. They might report back to any superiors 
  out of town, asking for assistance, or telling them that this city is now a 
  new Consilium/freehold/domain/territory under their protection. They 
  might be Indebted to a powerful demon, which might limit their utility as 
  player-controlled characters, depending on what they’ve agreed to and the 
  sensibilities of the troupe.
  In any case, it’s quite possible that a whole new area has been opened up 
  in your chronicle. How much you and your troupe choose to explore is, of 
  course, up to you. 
  Experience
  Experience points are handed out 
  after each chapter according to the 
  suggestions in the World of Dark-
  ness Rulebook, pp. 216-217. After 
  the story is over, there are a few ad-
  ditional points that can be awarded:
  • Give everyone in the group +1 
  experience for banishing Hush
  • Give everyone in the group +1 
  experience for banishing Ai’tahe
  • If the characters made a friend, 
  or at least a contact, out of Father 
  Stepp, give them +1 experience
  • If the characters figured out 
  what happened to their people back 
  in 1908 (or to the relevant race, 
  depending on what game you are 
  running), give them +1 experience
  
    
   
   
          
   
           
        
    
    
    
   
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  Sneaking into the Lecture: Character 
  looks out of place on a college cam-
  pus — too old, too young, etc. (-1); 
  character is dressed in an extreme 
  manner — obvious piercings, dyed 
  hair, full nun’s habit, etc. -2; more 
  than one character trying at once (-1 
  per extra character, cumulative)
  Deciphering Dragon’s Tongue: 
  Obscurity (-3; all characters suffer 
  this modifier); characters next to 
  the character are talking during the 
  lecture (-1)
  Searching Rasoletti’s Body: No 
  allied characters nearby (-2 as the 
  character must be wary of being 
  seen); character can only use one 
  hand (-3)
  The Lecture
  • •
  • •
  Sneaking into the Lecture: 
  Other characters create a dis-
  traction (use Teamwork rules, p. 
  134 of the World of Darkness 
  Rulebook); character looks like 
  a college student (+1) 
  Deciphering Dragon’s Tongue: 
  Demonology Specialty in Occult 
  (+1)
  Searching Rasoletti’s Body: 
  Extra characters involved (can 
  either offset the penalty above 
  or use Teamwork); character 
  saw Rasoletti put note in his 
  pocket (+4)
  Hook the players, introduce the story
  Witness the lecture and learn that Rasoletti is in some way tainted by the 
  supernatural.
  The Desecrated Apartment
   • • •  
  • 
  •
   •• 
  Coaxing Information out 
  of Rasoletti: Character’s 
  questions have a noticeably 
  Christian slant (-1)
  The Hospital
  Coaxing Information out of 
  Rasoletti: Character is obvi-
  ously erudite and educated 
  (+1)
  Reveal Rasoletti’s history and pact.
  Learning about Rasoletti and his pact, getting some direction about what to investigate next, or forming 
  a plan for negotiating with Ai’tahe/breaking the pact with Hush, all depending on when in the story the 
  characters play through this scene.
  Researching the Demons
  Searching the Apartment: 
  Noisy neighbors (-1); power 
  failure (-3); no one activates 
  the computer (-5)
  Resisting Hush: Character has 
  the Vice of Sloth (-2); charac-
  ter with the Vice of Sloth has 
  regained Willpower from that 
  Vice during the same day (-5); 
  character is sitting down (-1)
  Communicating with Ai’tahe: 
  Character has Morality 8 or 
  more (-1); the character is 
  mortal (-5)
  Searching the Apartment: Players 
  state they are looking in specific 
  places (+1); systematic plan of ac-
  tion (+2); character searching has 
  at least one dot in Computer and 
  mentions checking the computer 
  files (+3)
  Resisting Hush: Character is 
  standing up (+1); character’s 
  Virtue is Fortitude (+1); character 
  is walking or otherwise active (+2)
  Communicating with Ai’tahe: 
  Presence of another demon (+1); 
  character has used a super-
  natural power in the last 12 hours 
  (+2); character has Morality 5 or 
  less (+2)
  To give the characters some solid information on the nature of the foes they face, 
  and to scare the Hell out of them.
  Learning about Rasoletti and his demonic pact. Banishing Hush.
  Making Contact with an 
  Occult Informant: Character 
  has no Occult Skill dots (-3); 
  characters aren’t prepared to 
  pay much (-4)
  Sneaking Into a Demonic 
  Ritual: Character has no Oc-
  cult Skill rating (-3); character 
  has Morality 8 or more (-2)
  Finding Rare Books: Charac-
  ter has no Occult Skill rating 
  (-3)
  Making Contact with an Occult In-
  formant: Characters have access 
  to at least Resources 3 (+3); one 
  character has an Occult Specialty 
  in Demons (+1)
  Sneaking Into a Demonic Ritual: 
  Character has Morality 5 or less 
  (+2); character once belonged to 
  a cult (+2)
  Finding Rare Books: Character 
  speaks multiple languages (+1/
  language); character has an 
  Occult Specialty in Demons (+1); 
  characters has Contacts in Aca-
  demia or Rare Books (+1), charac-
  ter enlists Rasoletti’s help (+2)
  Present information on demons in general and Hush and Ai’tahe in particular.
  Research, forbidden knowledge, planning next move.
   •—• • • 
   •—• • • 
    •—• • •
   ••• 
        • 
  ••
  15
  19
  17
  22
  
    
   
   
          
   
           
        
    
    
    
   
  mentAl 
  phySiCAl 
  SoCiAl 
   
  SCENE:
  PCs
  H I N D R A N C E S
  H E L P
  STs
  OTHER
   
  mentAl 
  phySiCAl 
  SoCiAl 
   
  SCENE:
  PCs
  H I N D R A N C E S
  H E L P
  STs
  OTHER
   
  mentAl 
  phySiCAl 
  SoCiAl 
   
  SCENE:
  PCs
  H I N D R A N C E S
  H E L P
  STs
  OTHER
   
  mentAl 
  phySiCAl 
  SoCiAl 
   
  SCENE:
  PCs
  H I N D R A N C E S
  H E L P
  STs
  OTHER
  Nothing specific
  History Lessons
  •—• • •
  •—• • •
  Nothing specific
  Tie the characters’ supernatural race more firmly into the story by explaining the 
  history behind the appearance of Ai’tahe and the curse it placed on the area.
  Research, learning about the past.
  Freeing Rasoletti
   ••• 
  •• 
  ••
  •—• • •
  Opening the Lock: Darkened 
  hallway (-3); stopping and 
  starting to dodge church 
  personnel (-3)
  Convincing Father Stepp 
  to Talk: Character offers a 
  monetary bribe (-3); character 
  reveals himself to be super-
  natural in a way that makes 
  him look evil or demonic 
  (-2); character plays coy and 
  doesn’t speak in specifics 
  (-1); more than one character 
  trying to converse with Stepp 
  at once (-1)
  A Blessing from Father Stepp
  Opening the Lock: Visit to the 
  church earlier to “case” (+2)
  Convincing Father Stepp to 
  Talk: Character reveals that 
  he knows about Ai’tahe (+3); 
  character reveals himself to 
  be supernatural in a way that 
  looks benign or even angelic 
  (+2); character wears a cross 
  or other Christian symbol 
  (+1); character is forthright 
  and direct (+1)
  Fill in the gaps in the characters’ knowledge.
  Putting the last pieces of the puzzle together, meeting Father Stepp and seeing an 
  example of virtue triumphing over temptation. 
  The Devil’s Bargain
  Keeping Rasoletti Awake: Quiet, 
  dull or familiar environment (-2); 
  Hush has already been expelled 
  from the apartment (-5); every 
  character that previously failed 
  the roll (-1)
  Resisting Hush’s Influence: 
  Character has the Vice of Sloth 
  (-2); character with the Vice of 
  Sloth has regained Willpower from 
  that Vice during the same day 
  (-5); character is driving his own 
  car (-1)
  Keeping Rasoletti Alive: In a car 
  or otherwise cramped space (-2); 
  each previously failed roll (-1, 
  cumulative)
  Keeping Rasoletti Awake: 
  Hush is still in apartment 
  (+1); loud or interesting envi-
  ronment (+1)
  Resisting Hush’s Influence: 
  Character is driving an unfa-
  miliar car (+1); character’s 
  Virtue is Fortitude (+1); other 
  characters keep the driver’s 
  attention engaged (+2)
  Keeping Rasoletti Alive: Char-
  acters have access to oxygen 
  (+1); characters have access 
  to adrenaline shot (+1)
  Letting the characters best one demon and hopefully gain an ally in dealing 
  with the other one.
  Freeing a man from a demon, cleansing the city of demonic influence.
  Bargaining with Ai’tahe: 
  Character has no dots in 
  Occult (-3); character used 
  a supernatural power on 
  Father Stepp (-3); character 
  succumbed to Hush’s pow-
  ers earlier (-1); character’s 
  Vice is Pride (-2); character 
  has regained Willpower 
  from the Vice of Pride in the 
  last day (-1); each hour of 
  negotiations after the first 
  (-1, cumulative)
  Bargaining with Ai’tahe: 
  Character possesses the 
  Meditative Mind Merit (+1); 
  Father Stepp is present 
  (Storyteller should roll for 
  his participation in the ne-
  gotiations); character never 
  fell victim to Hush’s powers 
  (+1); character’s Virtue is 
  Charity (+1)
  Tie story together, defeat evil
  Banish Ai’tahe. Gain demonic power. Break the curse.
   ••• 
       •• 
  ••••
   •• 
        ••• 
  •••
  24
  28
  26
  30
  
  It has many names, but the 
  greatest power comes from 
  the stories in which it is 
  not named. The steed that 
  carried Bellerophon. The 
  Serpent in the Garden of 
  Eden. The hand that guided 
  Hod’s bow. In every story, 
  the one it guides comes to 
  woe, but through his (or her) 
  own foolishness. Eve eats 
  the apple, but through this 
  gains knowledge and freedom. 
  Bellerophon slays the chimera 
  and becomes a hero, but 
  attempts to climb too high 
  and is struck down. Hod 
  fires his arrow and kills his 
  brother, but never stops to 
  consider that he cannot see 
  his target 
  We, then, call up this guide 
  of our own free will, and 
  we accept its help and its 
  guidance. We shall keep ever 
  watchful for the temptation, 
  the fall, the tragic flaw 
  that doomed these other 
  fools. It is this temperance 
  that shall save us from ruin. 
  My name is Eric 
  Rasoletti.
  I live at 4401 
  Lakeview Dr Apt 
  213
  I am trapped 
  there
  If you understood 
  me tonight, 
  *
  l
  l
  please help
  
  Notes         
  Name: Dr. Eric Rasoletti Virtue: Charity 
  Faction:
  Concept: Indebted Professor Vice: Sloth 
  Group Name:
  Intelligence 
  Strength 
  Presence
  Wits 
  Dexterity 
  Manipulation
  Resolve 
  Stamina 
  Composure
  ooooo
      Willpower     
       Health           
       Skills              Merits         
  Morality
  Size
  Speed
  Defense
  Initiative Mod
  Armor
       Flaws 
   
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  Academics
  Computer
  Investigation
  Medicine
  Occult (Demons)
  Politics (Academia)
  Drive
  Larceny
  Stealth
  Empathy
  Expression (Oratory)
  Persuasion
  Socialize (Academia)
  Subterfuge
  Contacts (Academic)
  Contacts (Occult)
  Eidetic Memory 
  Fame
  Language (Dragon’s Tongue)
  Status (University)
  4
  5
  9
  2
  4
  None
  Rasoletti can speak or read any language, but he does not retain the 
  ability beyond the immediate situation.
  Notes         
  Name: Father Ewan Stepp Virtue: Faith 
  Faction:
  Concept: Guardian Priest 
  Vice: Wrath 
  Group Name:
  Intelligence 
  Strength 
  Presence
  Wits 
  Dexterity 
  Manipulation
  Resolve 
  Stamina 
  Composure
  ooooo
      Willpower     
       Health           
       Skills              Merits         
  Morality
  Size
  Speed
  Defense
  Initiative Mod
  Armor
       Flaws 
   
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  Academics (Religion)
  Computer
  Crafts
  Investigation
  Occult (Demons)
  Politics (Church)
  Athletics
  Brawl
  Firearms
  Stealth
  Weaponry
  Empathy
  Expression (Sermons)
  Intimidation
  Streetwise
  Subterfuge
  Iron Stamina
  Status (Church)
  Unseen Sense
  8
  5
  10
  2
  5
  None
  Father Stepp’s Unseen Sense is specialized toward whatever kinds 
  of characters the players portray.
  
  Notes         
      Willpower     
      Essence      
       Skills            Numina                  
      Influence 
   
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  Name: Hush 
  Virtue: N/A
  Concept: Demon of Sloth 
  Vice: Sloth - Inertia
       Corpus           
  Dice Pool
  Morality
  Aspect
  Rank
  Size
  Speed
  Defense
  Initiative Mod
  Power 
  Finesse 
  Resistance
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  ooooo
  o o o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  o o o o o o o o o o
  3
  2
  2 (species factor -3)
  3
  5
  Aura of Corruption
  Babel
  Create Pact
  Dragon’s Tongue
  Keeper of Secrets
  Lord of Lies
  Soul of Sin
  Max Essence: 20
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/World of Darkness (WoD) [multi]/CofD/Chronicles of Darkness/SAS/World of Darkness - SAS - Fallen is Babylon.pdf