[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Magic: Hellfire

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Magic: Hellfire

"Since before the Breaking of the World, the use of balefire has been forbidden. The White Tower forbids us even to learn it. In the War of Power, the Forsaken and the Shadowsworn themselves used it only reluctantly."  — Moiraine Damodred (Wheel of Time)

Mentioned only as flavor text of a Dark Numen and a Vestiment in the World of Darkness: Inferno sourcebook, our Chronicle has been using a version of Hellfire based on the Dresden Files since 2011.  Why?  Because its awesome, that is why!  Since then it hasn't been used much since the defeat of the Denarians (in our case, Possessed Archdemons) when the Horsmen saved the world from the rising of the Hellmenth in 2012.  It has yet to be used in our current Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen!

It's most important use is that it is the only destructive force capable of destroying the coins of the Denarians and annihilating the demons inside them.  It also has the distinguished power of being able to destroy objects created to be indestructible. It can destroy any known patterns of reality but has horrible costs and drawbacks.  Truly, only an insane, possessed or completely desperate mage would try to use this stuff... so of course, its going to get used.

Sources & Inspiration:

1. World of Darkness: The Inferno source book

2. The Denarians and Hellfire from Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files book series and RPG

3. Balefire from the Wheel of Time book series

4. Chronicles of Darkness: The Hurt Locker 

5. All adapted for Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition.

Musings on Hellfire by LoreKeeper Casstiel

Hellfire is utter destruction and ruin. It is a horrible umaking. But "the will of the Infernal" is required to create Hellfire. So usually only a mage possessed by a demon or some other entity of the Lower depths can create it.  Hellfire draws on the infernal powers of down below. This is the power source that Infernals are only are only too happy to provide to their their hosts, and loyal practitioners. But Infernal demons are a very flexible lot when it comes to offering power—it’s entirely possible sorcerers exist out there that are making use of the power of hellfire simply by way of a standard soul pact. When employed, hellfire (really, hellanything, but “hellwater,” “hellspirit,” etc., don’t sound as good) is especially vicious, inflicting an extra helping of pain whenever possible. Hellfire is especially useful for someone using evocation spells and throwing around a lot of Forces. Hellfire likes to inflict pain and harm, but isn’t particularly concerned about being controlled; making it difficult to maintain in a stable working.   

Hellfire

The Ultimate Destructive Magic.

Nicknames: Baelfire, Fires of the Hellforge, Balefire, Brimstone Fire,

Hellfire is the quintessential entropic power of the Lower Depths, distilled to its most terrible form.  While other Akathartoi are theoretically able to tap into similar powers, beings of the Inferno (Infernals), are the only ones known to use this power in the Fallen World.  The power is sponsored by an entity of the Lower Depths and requires their will to call upon it.

Recap: Lower Depths - also called Abaddon, are a sphere of reality that is distanced from the Fallen World in the same manner the Fallen World is distanced from the Realms Supernal. Mages use the term to describe any realm that is neither Supernal nor Phenomenal, but is instead defined by a lack of something.  The light of magic is barely existing within its barren wastes and the ten Arcana are somewhat diminished when it comes to influence the Depths. The inhabitants of the Lower Depths, called collectively akarthartoi, are envious of those in the higher realms and feed upon Mana and souls in order to survive when unlucky fortune drives them higher.  Many Akarthartoi are extremely dangerous, able to cause instant death at the touch as they instantly consume the aspect of existence they lack.  

Recap: Infernals - come from the enigmatic domain of Hell, a place of horror and indescribable evil that even the native demons hate to exist within. This leads them to constantly attempt at escaping, while also trying to damn the souls of the living and alter the material world to fit their idea of paradise. They are representative of the Seven Deadly Sin and the vices of mankind taken to the most perverse extreme.  They serve Archdemons and the Maeljin, a court of seven Demon Lords. Infernals can also appear in the form of corrupted Goetics, Shadow spirits and Ghosts.

Recap: The Inferno - Also called Hell, is believed to be a fallen version of Pandemonium but its true form is impossible to define. No one who has traveled into Hell has ever left, and demons usually tell exactly that what their summoner wants to hear. What can be known is that it is a realm of sin and lack, seeking to possess and to take in without giving back. While Hell is distanced from this world, its influence can reach up in the form Desecrations and Malus Loci.  Hell is a place unrelated to the other realms of existence and laws that govern these realms seem to not apply to it.  It does seem to be universally ruled by vice taken to all extremes. Its inhabitants.

The Fires of Wrath

Infernal demons of Wrath burns so brightly that they seem to have the greatest affinity with fire (and hellfire). Of course every demon has the theoretical ability to summon up hellfire, but demons of Wrath do so with the greatest ease and verve. Upon taking refuge in a human soul (possession), demons of Wrath slowly extend their influence over the host body, tempering it with rage until the Possessed can withstand the heat of brimstone flames.  With preparation of the host complete, the possessing demon calls out to the Inferno’s flames and draws them to the material realm. The Possessed may then summon and command hellfire. 

The flames can be shaped according to the desires of the Possessed, taking the form of a wall of fire, a wave of rolling flames or handfuls of blazing death. Hellfire burns hotter and fiercer than any regular or naturally occurring fire and its flames are notoriously hard to extinguish.

Hellfire burns with bright greens, dark reds and creates noxious black smoke.  It smells, naturally, 

Requirements & Costs:

• Requires Forces 3 and Death 5, uses the Practice of Unmaking.  Hellfire can be nothing less than the total destruction of the patterns it is used on.  Hellfire can be used without the requisite Arcana, but it can only be drawn by a Infernal and that means that in almost every case you would need to be Possessed and have the Hellfire Vestment.

• This part is tricky.  In order to use Hellfire, you need to expend an Infernal willpower point to invoke sympathy with the Lower Depths.  Infernal Willpower is only used and collected by Infernals and those of the Possessed (by Infernals).  This means you either need to be possessed or you need to have a demon spend the Infernal Willpower Point on your behalf.  Such a thing would require a pact, item or some other form of entanglement with dark forces for it to work.  It may be possible to create acts of such horrid desecration that a mage could harvest Infernal Willpower from the act (requiring a Wisdom/Integrity breaking act and Mind 4).

Does this mean there is Holy Willpower attuned to the seven Heavenly Virtues?

• Costs a mana to combine the aspects and fuel the combination of both gross and subtle powers.

• It hurts like hell (heh).  While casting using Hellfire all other actions suffer -3 for the Agony of calling up Hellfire. (This is only for the time you are casting. If you instant cast its just until your next turn. Or as much time as you cast, making extended rituals very powerful)

• The act of wielding Hellfire is the handling of some of the most awful stuff in creation.  It has all the utter vileness of The Inferno, combined with the raw lack of anything natural from the bowels of the Lower Depths.   As such, it is a Wisdom sin for anyone who uses it (at the level of Falling).  After a wisdom loss a mage can become Inured to using Hellfire in the usual way (if you'd want to you already need help)  However, after the mage is Inured, the first time they use Hellfire in a Scene they make an Integrity check at a -5.  On a failure they gain the Rampant or Megalomaniac Condition, to represent the fact they are now okay with wielding the powers of Hell indiscriminately.

Condition: Rampant (edited) - Your character is reckless and forceful with her magic. She will not hesitate to use it to solve any minor problem. If your character has a reasonable magical solution to a problem, to use a mundane solution requires a point of Willpower. This Willpower does not add to the dice roll. As well, she gains a “Wield Magic Indiscriminately” Obsession that replaces one of her current Obsessions so long as she maintains this Condition. Resolution: Suffer a Paradox. Beat: n/a

Condition: Megalomanical (edited) - Your character is consumed by her own aptitude. She sees greatness in her every action, and that sense of greatness breeds righteousness. She cannot see her behavior as hubris, and she refuses to acknowledge any failings. After all, she’s mastered the forces of the universe, right?  Your character automatically fails any actions using the Empathy Skill. As well, she gains an additional “Selfish” Vice and a “Dominate Others” Obsession that replaces one of her current Obsessions so long as she maintains this Condition. Resolution: Hurt someone important to you in such a way as to gain the Guilty Condition. Beat: N/A

• Using Hellfire, pulling up a material that is actually antithetical to the Supernal Realms and the Fallen World alike, means that it makes big ripples to call down.  Mechanically, using Hellfire always risks Paradox, however the Paradox has special rules that have more to do with pulling power from the Lower Depths than dealing with the attention of the Abyss.  Absorbed Paradox (as Backlash) is instead instead taken as Burnout!

System: Burnout (Edited)

The human body was never designed to hold the kind of power wielded by the demonic entities of the Inferno. Whether humans were created by God or evolution, eventually flesh and blood begins to crumble under the onslaught of Infernal power: this is called Burnout. Rather than the slow and steady corruption of body and soul, Burnout is the direct consequence of pushing  Hellfire too hard or for too long, resulting in pain and obvious signs of demonic influence.  

If Paradox from using Hellfire is absorbed as as Backlash, it instead causes Burnout.  Tapping your pattern directly into that dark well of power is a very different experience than is focusing your will to gather it. It’s the difference between sipping a fine whiskey and chugging raw moonshine.  Eventually there comes a breaking point and his flesh begins to crack like splintered marble. Steaming blood seeps out of the cracks and runs down his body in thin lines as he screams. This causes Resistant Lethal Damage instead of the normal resistant Bashing Damage from regular paradox.

The Infernalist is paying the price in Burnout for pushing the limitations of his mortal shell too far. Most of the time, Burnout affects only the body. It manifests in painful displays flavored by the Vice shared by demon or caster. The skin of the slothful might erupt in rancid sores filled with squirming maggots. The envious might weep a bright green viscous fluid that burns like acid and the lustful might moan with pain and pleasure as unseen whips flay flesh from bone.

Burnout can also affect the will of the Infernalist.  Instead of an outward display, the Infernal power corrupts internally, eating away at the very tenacity that keeps them alive. These wounds are just as deep and painful as physical torments and the mental scars never quite heal. 

Any Paradox not successfully taken as Burnout damage (Resistant Lethal) instead inflicts nasty derangement or deformity Conditions (follow rules for Branding and Bedlam with an Infernal and extreme Vice flavor.  If released, it creates similar Paradox effects as before but flavored by the demonic.  See the risks and costs for more on what bad stuff happens...

Yantras for calling Hellfire: Invoking the Malapraxis on the demon patron providing the Infernal Willpower of the Vice of the Infernalist.  Acts and Yantras associated with Wrath always work as good Yantras for Hellfire.

System: Malapraxis

From the lowliest Whisperer to the greatest Dominion, every demon has at least one Malapraxis: a manifestation of a Vice that is the core of its corrupt being. Demons feed upon human evil, but their own Malapraxes are particular delicacies. Mystics postulate that every action and object in the world has its own secret flavor, a “resonance” that is the food of all

spirit-beings. The object of a Malapraxis is the subtle vibration that cleaves closest to the demon’s true essence. A Malapraxis has two elements: the Vice and the Key.

Vice: Choose one Vice, usually these are aligned to flavors (sub-vices) of the Seven Deadly Sins:  Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth or Wrath.

Key: The Key is an additional condition that mandates how the Vice is expressed. It can be a social situation, a type of object—almost anything a sinner could use, or experience when he acts upon the Vice. Examples: An Element, a chosen social construct, a common material or technology, a natural phenomena, etc.

Benefits:

• Damage: Can hit all entities in Twilight as well as physical beings. It inflicts Aggravated damage to everything.  Everything.  Which means it also ignores Armor and Durability with equal in discrimination.  As with all Aggravated damage, this has the potential to inflict long-term conditions and ailments such as the loss of senses or limbs.

• Bane: Counts as a Bane to Supernal Beings and the Qashmallim

• Infusion: Hellfire, despite its omnipotent ability to destroy, can be used to "supercharge" phenomenon derived from them.  Constructs, spells and beings infused with Hellfire take an a ashen color with the texture of baked clay, with painful cracks.  The potency of the spell applies Resistant Lethal damage to the subject but also provides a dice bonus of the same amount.  With spells this means it reduces the potency of the spell (for dispelling purposes) while boosting its effectiveness (effective potency).  The target can also be made to suffer the Burnout the caster may invoke.

• Thaumaturgy: Hellfire in inherently unstable and using it for extended castings thaumatological workings is extremely difficult and suffer a penalty equal to their targeted potency. 

• The fire counts as a unholy or desecrated  (per The Inferno).  It is supernatural destruction, not Fraying or Unraveling but the obliteration of the Patterns of the things it touches.

Reach Options:

• +1 Reach: On a successful cast/hit it inflicted Condition: If the potency of the spell exceeds the Stamina or Rank of the target, the caster can inflict a number of Personal Tilts equal to the remaining Potency.  Alternatively, the caster can inflict Environmental Tilts on the area such as Extreme Heat and Burning.  With another Reach and a Mana the Personal Tilts become Persistent Conditions (Injuries that never heal right, limbs, eyes and ears that never heal back) as per the Hurt Locker pg 57.  

• +1 Reach: For the cost of an additional Mana, the damage done is Resistant Aggravated, having to be healed naturally.

• +1 Reach: The Hell will also ignite flammable objects in the scene.  Things lit by Hellfire cannot be extinguished through mundane means until the spell's duration expires.  The fire spreads out of control in a short amount of time.

Tip: A common use for this spell is to advance the duration of the spell so that the entity continues to burn and take damage every round.  Hellfire is extremely difficult to extinguish without magical means so the target continues to burn.  Given a little bit of time anything can be reduced to fine powder and black shadows against concrete.

• +1 Reach: The fire also burns up whatever the supernatural fuel source the target uses, destroying the reserve of power equal to the potency of the spell.

• +1 Reach: Hellfire Infusion is used on a subject, the subject is stoked with hatred and fueled by cruelty, Wrath takes on a life of its own, becoming implacable. Rage begins to feed upon itself, creating an unstoppable force that sneers at injury, slowed only by death. While this spell is active, the caster chooses one type of damage (bashing, lethal, aggravated) and becomes immune to that damage type from mundane sources.  The host also never suffers Wound Penalties.

• +1 Reach: The spell also inflicts incredible agony on the Target and they suffer wound penalties equal to the potency of the spell to a maximum of -6.  For another reach, the caster can feed on this pain, restoring Mana for each penalty die inflicted.

• +2 Reach: For a Mana, the Hellfire can be pushed to extremes in order to unmake things that are supposed to be invincible.  Damage inflicted to objects is absolute and use the Structure exceeded with Aggravated damage the item is destroyed absolutely.  What is more, its impossible to repair or recover any part of the item that was unmade. 
Indestructible Artifacts, specifically weapons that were created in the Hellforge of the Inferno like the Shadowfang, can only be destroyed in this way. This also includes the the Denars that that were blacked by Hellfire to infuse them with the Archdemons. The Nameless Order known as the Order of Judas, specifically the Knights of the Blackened Denarius, bear thirty pieces of silver each possessed by these Archdemons. Supposedly these are the same coins that Judas received for betraying Jesus.  Most were lost in the battle in Sheol between the Horsemen Cabal and most of their active membership.

Risks:

• Released Paradox causes Anomalies in the form of Malus Loci, a site of Desecration (see WoD: The Inferno), as part of the Burnout rules described above.

• If Paradox is absorbed by Backlash causes Burnout (as covered above).  What cannot be taken as Resistant Lethal Damage applies a Bedlam or Branding Condition and inflicts the Open Condition on the caster instead of just the subject/target.  Manifestations will summon Infernals (Dominions) instead of Abyssals.

• If used on or witnessed by someone who uses the Integrity advantage, they suffer an immediate Breaking Point with a penalty equal to the potency of the spell.  If someone loses Integrity this is like chum for demons, and they gain the Open Condition for Infernals.

• The area where Hellfire is used and the caster gain the Resonant Condition with Infernal beings.  The target of the spell gains the Open Condition, making them susceptible to attack and possession by Infernal beings. 

• Locations where Hellfire are used are considered a Malus Locus for the rest of the day.  Each time Hellfire is used in the same general area during that time the power increasing by one (they range 1-5 dots) and the duration of the Desecration site doubles.   It is very common for Infernal Whisperers to slip into Twilight from Hell and start searching for nearby hosts.  Ghosts, Spirits and Goetia active in this location are under increased risk of becoming corrupted and becoming Infernal Diaboli themselves, creating Larvals (ghosts), Immundi (shadow spirits) and Deceptors (Geotia).

Mix & Match:
It is possible to carefully deconstruct elements of Soulfire and Hellfire.  With Storyteller approval it may be possible to reduce a risk or cost in exchange for offering up a benefit or taking on different, more restrictive rules for limited uses of these deconstructed elements of Soulfire.  Without this, the costs of using both get very steep very fast.

Balefire

By Adding the Temporal Sympathy Attainment to the spell (Time 2), Hellfire is made into a nastier version: Balefire.  Balefire not only destroys the Pattern of a target but also its imprint on the world. When a target is struck with balefire, its thread in the Pattern is destroyed to include its recent history, in an amount proportional to the power of the balefire strike. This translates to both the target's existence, and actions up to a certain point, being retroactively erased.  In addition to the normal rules for Hellfire, anything destroyed by it, any action taken for the spell's duration don't happen and the past is rewritten.  In order for this to work the spell must successfully destroy the target: Agg damage filling all Health or Structure.