[UA] Suicide claims two men who shared one heart

[Niall]

>
>
> A slow but
> > statistical rise in suicides across the
> > neighbourhood beginning with
> > earthworms lying on the ground to be eaten, birds
> > flying into windows, cats
> > running under cars.
>
>
> Nice.
>
> And all the suicide stalkers drifting in like vultures
> around a dying animal.
>
> This demands a write-up Niall. The job is yours.



Here's my attempt. Comments welcome.

The Empty Heart of the twice dead suicide
"There are also a suprising number of rituals with no know connection to any
historical or current culture. Some liken them to 'cheat codes' in computer
games-exploitable variables in the framework of our cosmos." UA 2nd Ed p95

The Empty Heart is the product of one such variable. It is the heart of a
man who committed suicide, that was saved by doctors and then donated to
another man. The recipient struck up a friendship with and then married the
widow of the donor. Nine years later he committed suicide, the same way,
wearing the same type of clothes and thinking the same final thoughts. The
woman it must be said was innocent in this. Instead she, the two men, their
actions and the heart were ingredients in a ritual that has created a highly
toxic magical artifact.

The effects of the heart

In Rituals
For anyone interested in rituals the heart is a powerful ingredient. There
is a ritual known as 'Breaking the Seventh Circle". The ritual has been
generally thought of as a joke or in itself to be a parable. Attempts to
create the heart, by bringing a suicide back from the flatline and then
allowing (or indeed forcing) them to carry out the act again have not
worked. Amongst those who know of these things it is agreed that the
universe knows the person never truly died the first time. A major charge
might conceivably bring someone back who have been dead long enough to fit
the bill but no one has wanted to use that kind of power on a gamble. The
ritual itself if properly conducted (and versions differ on what proper
means) give the caster immunity from the consequences of their actions for a
period of time. Again this period varies. Some fragments say forever, others
limit it for a short time.

For Dukes
For three schools of magic the heart is particularly of interest.

For Amoramancers the heart is pure posion. It symbolises the inability of
love to hold people to life, no matter how strong that love is. Any one
holding it is immune to  amoramancy and can never be used to gain a charge
from.

For Annihilomancers the heart is pure power the ultimate way to destroy your
life and in that moment to know it utterly and to see it free of all
illusions. The heart can be used as a major charge although this consumes
the heart.

For Thanatomancers the heart is more an object of mental focus and
preparation. A Thanatomancer using the Soul Skill the heart gives can
convince a subject to be a willing participant in a sacrifice although such
a process may still take time. The Skill doesn't allow for instant
conversion but rather allows the Thanatomancer to more effectively persuade
the subject. Thanatomancers would also seek this object simply for its
significance within their world view.

For Avatars
The Melancholic Man Archetype of the Clergy has few, if any, genuine avatars
that survive but were any to exist the Heart would act as a skill bonus to
their avatar skill. Given its other effects though it is possible that the
creation of the heart was instigated by this member of the Clergy

In General
Anyone holding the heart gains a Soul skill  Through early morning fog I
see, visions of the things to be

A more worrying effect of the heart is its tendency to infect others with
thoughts of suicide. Anyone who holds it suffers a +30% penalty to Mind
tests when undertaking a stress check. Gaining 5 failed notches in a meter
leads to the development of suicidal depression as the mental aberration. If
3.33 ounces of the the heart are swallowed, the subject must immediately
make a Mind check at rank 10 in either Helplessness, Isolation or Self -
whichever has most failed notches.

Moreover the heart is so powerful that, if placed in the ground and left to
rot, it will start to infect the foodchain. Starting with worms and grass,
there will be a tendency to commit suicide. In essence a permanent effect of
the penalty to stress checks, although the level of the penalty will vary.
Obviously the more concentrated the greater the effect and the greater the
dispersal the greater the effect, but never more than +10%. Burial in a
cemetary probably limits its noticeable effects fo rmany years it takes for
decomposition to take full effect. Dropping it into a MacAttax mincer will
lead to a rash of suicides in the surrounding area (when combined with a
Special Order the effect can be truly horrific)

In terms of longevity, for all its magical power the heart is a piece of
organic material and subject to the same process of decay that any heart
does.

Ritual for Creating the Heart
Recplicating the ritual is pretty much impossible. It was powered by the
sympathetic connection carried by the magical symbolism of the heart as the
seat of love and the woman. Above all the actions of all three were genuine
and without influence. The two men really did love their wife and she loved
them. They committed suicide for the same reason.

Niall


C.
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