Dunsany: Death and the Orange

Two dark young men in a foreign southern land sat at a restaurant table with one woman.

And on the woman’s plate was a small orange which had an evil laughter in its heart.

And both of the men would be looking at the woman all the time, and they ate little and they drank much.

And the woman was smiling equally at each.

Then the small orange that had the laughter in its heart rolled slowly off the plate on to the floor. And the dark young men both sought for it at once, and they met suddenly beneath the table, and soon they were speaking swift words to one another, and a horror and an impotence came over the Reason of each as she sat helpless at the back of the mind, and the heart of the orange laughed and the woman went on smiling; and Death, who was sitting at another table, tête-à-tête with an old man, rose and came over to listen to the quarrel.

The Least of the Furies

Order: Furies

Infernal Might: 5 {Mentem)

Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre +1, Com 0, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0

Size: -5 or larger. The Least of the Furies often takes the shape of a jewel, but in thi story it is an orange.

Virtues and Flaws: Watchful +4, Self-controlled -6.

Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Personality Traits: Enjoys suffering +3

Reputations: Tiny Fury 1 (Infernal)

Combat: Incapable of combat: may use powers to make humans fight.

Soak: Based on form.

Fatigue Levels: Does not to suffer fatigue

Wound Penalties: As per form: usually Dead (1+)

Abilities: Awareness 6 (victims), Folk Lore (victims) 6.

Powers:

Coagulation, 0 points, Init 0, Corpus: The creature can take the shape of a small object. It often eats a pre-existing thing as it forms, so that it replaces a known object. Note that it cannot replace object that are touched by the Divine. This includes gifts of True Love, the physical embodiment of sacraments, the containers of relics, and holy symbols.

Envisioning, 1 point, Init  0, Mentem: For 1 point, allows the demon to enter and twist dreams. This is used to stoke the passions of humans being goaded to murder.

Obsession: 1-3 points, Init -5, Mentem: May force characters to make Personality Trait rolls to resist a temporary trait, Impulsive, which has a score equal to the Might points spent.. If the roll is successful, the trait vanishes. If it fails, they gain the trait permanently at +1, although they can remove it by the usual means of reducing traits.

Waxing Tide of Humors: 3 points, Init +6, Mentem. This power causes passion to overcome sense. A character can resist this effect with a roll against an Ease Factor of 9, modified by Traits like Calm.

Beserk: 0 points, 0 Init. As a Fury, the creature can ignore Wound penalties, except on Defense totals. That being said, its bodies are so weak that the power is generally useless.

Weakness: The Fury’s victims are a narrow slice of society.

Vis: 1 pawn, Mentem.

Appearance: Any small object.