Description: This is a standard Hemmi slide rule, a bam-
boo core faced with white celluloid and worn smooth by years of use. It feels like an old and beloved employee, skilled at its task but now happily retired with a story to tell. The feeling is strong enough that one can almost see the elderly owner, satisfi ed with his term of employment, giving up his keys to the store after coming to terms with his transition from cutting edge to obsolete. The slide rule is still in excellent condition and very legible. There is a small chip on one outside edge that harms its value as an antique, but not its usefulness.
Background: Daniel’s slide rule is a relic completely
out of the public eye. No cults worship it, no collector seeks it and no one fears it. But someone does love it. Daniel Vin- son paid for it out of his own pocket on the day he received his acceptance to MIT. He still had it when he joined the Army as an engineer, turning down the standard military- issue slide rule. (Daniel used specialty rules when necessary, of course, but his Hemmi was always at hand.)
Daniel’s work in the military was not top secret or revolutionary; it did not turn the course of the World War II, which America joined during Daniel’s employment. He (and his slide rule) helped design the M101 Howitzer that America fi elded in the war. Daniel was a small cog in a large machine, but he found the work rewarding.
Even though he was satisfi ed with his mundane life, Daniel earned honors in one exciting moment. Military police cornered a German spy in the workshop Daniel and his team occupied. In one preternaturally slow moment, he saw the traitor draw a hidden semi-automatic pistol from its holster and pull the slide. Before he could think, hands of someone more ambitious than its previous owner,
and chances are he is carving a swath of natural-seeming deaths through his opposition. When one of the players’ char- acters’ contacts or allies dies but the police can fi nd nothing, it’s up to the characters to dig up the truth. The Crystal Skull can be absolutely terrifying in players’ characters’ hands — if they are willing to use it. Many will try to resist, although the pervasive power of potential is obvious to any who touch its seamless and perfect surface.
Regardless of who controls the skull, rumors of its presence attract the attention of occult “authorities” and other believers who are scared enough to put their lives on the line to get the skull out of a madman’s hands.
Effects
Potent Success, Any (•••••): The magic of the
Crystal Skull allows a character to virtually assure himself of success in a given endeavor – but at quite a cost. The skull can only ensure success by causing deaths. A rival competing for the promotion the Skull’s owner wants might be distraught by his beloved pet’s death and loses the boss’ favor – or the rival himself might die outright. An unknown relative might leave the relic’s owner an inheritance – or the bequeathment may come from a beloved parent who is struck with an unexpected heart attack. A friend might rush to the owner’s side, anxious to share the fi rst news of her winning lottery ticket, only to drop dead on the owner’s doorstep, winning ticket clutched conveniently where the owner can access it.
It can aid any Skill: A member of the review committee might mourn a recent loss at the university and accept the character’s less-than-perfect thesis without argument (Aca- demics), or one’s opponent in the boxing ring might have been up all night consoling a friend’s widow (Brawl). Deaths always seem natural or entirely accidental. An animal might die in its sleep and turn out to have a weak heart or undiscovered cancer; a human slips on spilled coffee and fall down the stairs. A vehicle malfunctions at exactly the wrong moment.
The character must sacrifi ce a living creature and place his hand, wet with warm blood, on the crown of the skull to an- nounce the endeavor. The skull’s eyes glow softly, and a person looking into them feels cold; the glow remains until the skull has expended its power or the goal is reached, and no new goal can be declared until this occurs. A minor sacrifi ce (of a fowl or small mammal) provides enough power for the death of a few animals. Sacrifi cing a larger animal, such as a large dog, a bull, a goat or a horse, gives the skull enough power to cause the death of many animals or one human. Finally, spilling a human’s blood over the skull empowers it to kill anything in order to see the named endeavor successful. This is a severe ritual cost.
A minor sacrifi ce empowers the skull to provide the 9-again quality in a number of scenes equal to successes rolled on Resolve + Occult during the sacrifi ce. Sacrifi ce of a larger animal enables the 9-again quality in twice that number of scenes, or the 8-again quality in one scene. A hu- man sacrifi ce enables the 8-again quality in any number of
55
Daniel’s slide rule was in his hand and jammed into the gun’s mechanism, preventing the slide from closing and the gun from fi ring upon the American MPs, who then were able to apprehend their target without casualty. Daniel was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his decisive actions which potentially saved the lives of his team and the MPs present.
The end of the war saw the end of Daniel’s employment by the United States Military. He joined the fl ourishing IBM Company and worked on some of the projects contracted out by the government. His work for the company was excellent but not noteworthy, and he retired in 1969 at the age of 59. His slide rule occupied a place of honor over the mantle for a short time before Daniel bequeathed it to his grandson, preferring to see it in use. Although Daniel’s grandson soon replaced it with an electronic calculator, he kept it near him as he followed in his grandfather’s footsteps through MIT. He says he worked faster keeping his grandfather near, and it made him feel safe. He was always happy to tell the story of how his grandfather disarmed a spy.
Few outside of Vinson’s family line (or those who have heard Daniel’s stories over the years) know anything about this specifi c item or its history. A person of Science certainly knows what a slide rule is; likewise a person in- volved in Crafts, especially any which require precision. Older characters, especially those studying math, physics or engineering before the ‘70s, know how to use one, as might a younger character that has had
some reason to study the tools of previous eras. Those who take a particular interest in the development of calculators or computing, in the history of engineering or in science ap- plied to military pursuits will also know a thing or two about them, and those with an in- terest in obscure anecdotes from World War II may have even heard of an engineer capturing a dangerous spy with nothing but a slide rule.
• A distant relative of Vinson was nominated for the Nobel Prize for physics, and car- ried the slide rule with him to the ceremony. • In the late 1960s, the ruler’s
current owner reportedly used the slide rule to disarm a looter who was trying to pillage the store he was work- ing at, protecting the store owner’s family from loot- ing and possible racially- targeted violence.
• No word of the ruler’s whereabouts has surfaced since the late 1990s.
Storytelling Hints: This is a family relic – no one’s likely
to recognize it outside of the Vinson family, if any of them are still around. Daniel’s descendants valued it for its history, and one might still be carrying it around for good luck, especially if she works as a scientist or engineer. Someone who does so may well attract attention from the players’ characters for the slight supernatural edges it brings, especially if using it repeatedly. A character that is Daniel’s descendant and pos- sesses the slide rule might also bear the motivation to seek out her family history in an effort to discover exactly why the slide rule is special. Daniel’s slide rule is an example of a relic a player might build for her character using the creation rules for the Relic Merit in Chapter 3.
Effects
Potent Success, Engineering (•••••): Even after
years of distinguished service, Daniel’s slide rule doesn’t really want to retire. A character that uses the slide rule to calculate at least one value for a project gets the feeling that things are going to go well – and they do. This requires a few turns to activate unless the character has a lot of experience with slide rules; the necessary calculation takes no less than one instant action.
56
chapter two-a million little things
This power functions for both Craft and Science as they apply to mechanical engineering. A character cannot use it to create an amazing violin or understand biology, but most tasks that involve applied physics calculations, complicated numerical formulas or mathematic functions for Science or complex interacting parts for Craft qualify.
(Unique) Surprising Weapon (•): Disarming the
German spy is the one moment Daniel was most proud of in his life, and his relatives have told the story hundreds of times since then. Some of that pride remains in the slide rule, making it accurate for an improvised weapon (+2 equipment bonus after improvised weapon penalty). At- tacks with the slide rule easily disarm opponents but never infl ict more than superfi cial damage. It’s also just damn fast: a character who has the slide rule at hand gains a +3 Initiative bonus as long as he uses it.
Function: A slide rule allows someone versed in its use
to calculate various mathematical results faster than it could be done without any tool. Digital calculators are faster and more accurate today for fl at out number crunching, but a slide rule is still often better than nothing.