Hotlines
On one of those days in Tartarus, Vapula was flipping through the sheaves of notes which litter his lab. The pages were covered in scores; terrible, twisted scores drawn in ink and blood and other things; scores drawn in a tiny, crabby style; scores which would tear out the eardrums on anyone forced to listen to them. The Princes eyes skimmed down the pages, then raised a second in thought. And in doing so, they cought sight of a loose diagram scrawled across a notepad, flickered back to the sheet clutched in the demons claw, and back to the diagram again. A tiny, telltale spark crawled across the back of his tortured eyeballs, and Sparky, catching sight of this, groaned softly...
"brr..brr....brr..brr... Hello, you have reached Hell. No-one can take your call at the moment, but please hold while we try to connect you. Your call is important, and will be answered in rotation..."
The labs of Technology have a lot to answer for, not least of which is the creation of the Cel Phone. However, when Vapula got hold of one of these, and ... adapted ... it, things got a lot worse.
The Hotlines come in pairs; one a Corporeal Artifact, one Celestial. They appear as generic cel phones, of no distinct design or brand, though no two sets of Hotlines are exactly alike either. Both of these are woven through with a variation of the Song of Projection which allows them to be used to call one another across Planes. Vapula created only a few of these before going off to work on something else, and so they are understandably rare and valuable. A few Servitors of Technology have attempted to recreate them using Vapula's (inconcise) notes, but only one out of a hundred pairs made actually work.
The Corporeal Hotline is usually given to a specific favoured Servitor of Technology* before their dispatchment to Earth, while the Celestial counterpart remains lying somewhere in Vapula's labs**. Once in the Corporeal realm, the demon can use the phone as a regular mobile anywhere on earth, with unlimited free calls. But by spending a point of Essence to fuel the Song and calling a certain, very secret, number, the phone will connect to it's other half, and the ringing will start in Hell. Then the demon will be able to report or receive instructions directly from her superiors, and possibly even call for backup. Or so it goes. But this is a tool of Technology...
The problem is not in the hardware; the phones work 100% of the time, without a hitch (weirder things have happened in Vapula's ranks). The problem, as any techie will tell you, lies in the lowest common denomenator: Personel.
The Celestial Hotlines are not kept in the same place as the Corporeal versions are when in Hell. The general lack of order in Tartarus, combined with the phones special power (see ** below) has resulted in them being scattered about the labs pretty much at random; lost under piles of paper, briefly eaten by Gremlins or even dropped into furnaces. The Corporeal versions are all kept on a shelf in a certain room, deep inside the Principality: when one is assigned to a Servitor, they simply get handed whichever is nearest. Where the other end of it is can be anybodies guess.
Because of this, when a Hotline is used from Earth, the GM needs to roll the check die to find out who takes the call. Use the following table for guidance, but feel free to change it to meet your needs or views.
| CD | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Phone is totally lost for the moment, and rings out. Try again later. |
| 2 | Useless/Petulant Underling - the phone is answered by a dim-witted Imp, or possibly by a demon with a grudge against the character. They may or may not be capable/willing to be of much use. |
| 3 | A grunt researcher picks up the phone, and does whatever it can. This can include general information, or possibly getting someone who knows what they're doing, if buttered up right. |
| 4 | A direct superior of the player, who knows what your current assignment is, and can provide relevant information (including locations of nearby Servitors of Technology) without too much hassle. |
| 5 | One of the high-up lab assistants gets the phone. This demon knows everything the CD 4 demon would, and can also offer rather more substantial aid if the situation merits it. |
| 6 | Dr. V himself happens to be beside the phone when it goes off, and decides to check how his invention is working. |
The GM should be careful about how much the player can get out of this call. If a character is using this every minute of the day as a personal tether, they'll get chewed out next time they reach anyone of any importance for wasting time. Similarly this cannot be used as an easy solution to any problem ("We've got a problem involving the water mains. Put on the Demon of Plumbing"), for similar reasons.
If the call reaches Vapula you may want to roll the CD again to determine his mood, as with an Invocation. But that's the only way that this is like an Invocation - Vapula will be far less inclined to present the kind of aid he would if he were there in the flesh (or whatever medium he chooses). Demons who overuse this one will simply draw Vapula's attention back to his invention, and of possible tests to preform on it. Tests running along the lines of "I wonder if I can get the other end of this to autodial Heaven with it's GPS code..."
* And only Servitors of Technology can use a Hotline, even if another being steals one and learns the right number to call.
** A Celestial Hotline cannot be removed from the centre of Tartarus. Any attempt to do so results in the phone exploding in a flash of scorching Essence, and then reforming somewhere in the Labs.
Cost: I tentativly price the Hotline at 18 CP, broken down thusly:
| Relic/6 (Song of Projection - sort of) | 18 |
| Can only be Servitors of Technology | +3 |
| Easily hidden | +3 |
| Does not store Essence | -3 |
| Requires Essence to Power | -3 |
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