A horological demon from Jules Verne

There’s an odd little demon in Master Zacharius by Jules Verne. He’s a little too technologically sophisticated for 1220, but a similar idea may be used for any mastercrafter, or for a Verditus magus.

The horological demon has sent a plague against the master clockmaker’s works so that, in defiance of physical laws, the springs not longer have elasticity. People return the clocks and watches he has made, which drives him into penury. He also becomes obsessed with the idea that his life is tied to his clocks, and that so long as one of them remains ticking, he is immortal, but if the last one is silenced, he will pass away.

The last clock, his masterpiece, has been purchased an corrupted by the demon. It offers to show Zacharius how to preserve his clocks in exchange for the hand of his daughter Gerande, who is engaged to Zacharius’s apprentice, Aubert. The demon is stoking Zacharius’s sin of Pride the whole time, and his daughter is merely the culmination of that seduction. IN the end Gerande escapes, but Zacharius is likely damned anyway, because he compares himself to God, in his mastery of mechanisms, and his supposedly eternal life. He also claims one of his clocks is a sure guide to salvation of the soul.

A quote from the book – stats at the end:

So, though Gerande and Aubert were ignorant of it, all Geneva was soon talking of their speedy union. But it happened also that, while the worthy folk were gossiping, a strange chuckle was often heard, and a voice saying, “Gerande will not wed Aubert.”

If the talkers turned round, they found themselves facing a little old man who was quite a stranger to them.

How old was this singular being? No one could have told. People conjectured that he must have existed for several centuries, and that was all. His big flat head rested upon shoulders the width of which was equal to the height of his body; this was not above three feet. This personage would have made a good figure to support a pendulum, for the dial would have naturally been placed on his face, and the balance-wheel would have oscillated at its ease in his chest. His nose might readily have been taken for the style of a sun-dial, for it was narrow and sharp; his teeth, far apart, resembled the cogs of a wheel, and ground themselves between his lips; his voice had the metallic sound of a bell, and you could hear his heart beat like the tick of a clock. This little man, whose arms moved like the hands on a dial, walked with jerks, without ever turning round. If any one followed him, it was found that he walked a league an hour, and that his course was nearly circular.

This strange being had not long been seen wandering, or rather circulating, around the town; but it had already been observed that, every day, at the moment when the sun passed the meridian, he stopped before the Cathedral of Saint Pierre, and resumed his course after the twelve strokes of noon had sounded. Excepting at this precise moment, he seemed to become a part of all the conversations in which the old watchmaker was talked of; and people asked each other, in terror, what relation could exist between him and Master Zacharius. It was remarked, too, that he never lost sight of the old man and his daughter while they were taking their promenades.

One day Gerande perceived this monster looking at her with a hideous smile. She clung to her father with a frightened motion.

“What is the matter, my Gerande?” asked Master Zacharius.

“I do not know,” replied the young girl.

“But thou art changed, my child. Art thou going to fall ill in thy turn? Ah, well,” he added, with a sad smile, “then I must take care of thee, and I will do it tenderly.”

“O father, it will be nothing. I am cold, and I imagine that it is–“

“What, Gerande?”

“The presence of that man, who always follows us,” she replied in a low tone.

Master Zacharius turned towards the little old man.

“Faith, he goes well,” said he, with a satisfied air, “for it is just four o’clock. Fear nothing, my child; it is not a man, it is a clock!”

Gerande looked at her father in terror. How could Master Zacharius read the hour on this strange creature’s visage?

“By-the-bye,” continued the old watchmaker, paying no further attention to the matter, “I have not seen Aubert for several days.”

We will leave the story there, with thanks to the recorder from Librivox, Zachary Katz-Stein.

The horological demon

Order: Spirit of Deceit

Infernal Might: 10 {Terram)

Characteristics: Int +2, Per 0, Pre -1, Com +2, Str +1, Sta tireless, Dex +3, Qik 0

Size: -2, about three feet tall. .

Virtues and Flaws: Many. Effectively it has Dwarf and has sufficient riches to pretend to nobility.

Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Personality Traits: Merciless +3, Methodical +2*
*Technically, the creature isn’t methodical, it’s an obsessive completist, which makes it act as if it had the virtue of patience.

Reputations: Spirit of Deceit 1 (Infernal)

Combat:

Sword: Initiative +1, Attack +13, Defense +7, Damage +6
Brawl*: Initiative +0, Attack +9, Defense +6, Damage +3
* Hands are metallic, and so they do damage as though the demon were wearing guntlets.

Soak: +4. Oddly metallic skin.

Fatigue Levels: Does not to suffer fatigue

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–3), –3 (4–6), –5 (7–9), Incapacitated (10–13), Dead (14+)

Abilities: As required for story, but these statistics assume Brawl (fists) 3, Single weapon (short sword) 3.

Powers:

Coagulation, 0 points, Init 0, Terram: The creature can manifest in a single human shape, as described in the story

Hound: 1 point, Init +3, Corpus. This power allows the demon to always know his victim’s location.

Envisioning, 1 point, Init  0, Mentem: For 1 point, allows the demon to enter and twist dreams. If used to terrify, the victim can ignore it with a Brave Personality trait roll against an Ease factor of 9 or more. Failure to resist leads to a profound physical reaction. In Master Zacharius’s case, he develops depression, which is represented as long term Fatigue levels, then Wound levels, which he believes, wrongly, are being caused by the failure of the mechanisms in his clocks.

Obsession: 1-3 points, Init -5, Mentem: May force characters to make Personality Trait rolls to resist a temporary trait, Prideful, 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.

Command the works of man to fail: 1 point, Init -1, Terram/Herbam/Animal: This minor power destroys an essential piece of a single item. Master Zacharius makes use of this power easy for the demon by having a comprehensive list of every clock he has ever made, who owns it, and where it is.

Trust of the Innocent: 1 point, Init -1, Mentem: The target believes a single lie for as long as possible, until presented evidence to the contrary.  An Int roll against Ease factor 6 allows a character to resist this effect. This power is also used to appear to change the religious guidance in Zacharius’s masterwork clock.

Weakness: .Cannot act on saint’s days, holy feasts, or Sundays, which gives characters a respite from him about one-third of the time.

Vis: 2 pawns, Terram.

Appearance: As per story and illustration.