This is the latest gadget from Vaputech's Division
of Metaphysical Engineering (motto: "Our stuff doesn't blow up as
much. More or less.") and has
been getting favorable responses from the Horde. That is to say, it was deemed worthwhile to actually include
comment cards with this one; some of them actually come back minus scorch marks
/ non-radioactive / free of various byproducts of corporeal bodily functions /
without scrawled obscenities in various languages both dead and alive. That's impressive, for Vaputech.
What the Angelotron does is perfectly (no, really)
simulate the celestial appearance and ineffable 'signature' of the angelic
counterpart of the wearer. This works
everywhere, even in Heaven, costs no Essence, causes no disturbance and will
fool everyone - including, yes, Superiors who aren't making the effort to
look. You'd be surprised at how often
that happens. It's safe to operate,
too: as far as anyone can tell, there are no hidden pitfalls to using an
Angelotron.
Not that an Angelotron is some sort of perfect
disguise, of course. There are a few
drawbacks. First off, it doesn't give
the user access to the appropriate angelic resonance, or allow him, her or it
to use Songs and relics that are only accessible to members of the Host. The guys at DME are working on it, but
nobody's promising anything. Also, the
demon's dissonance conditions are emphatically still in effect, which makes
using this thing to infiltrate groups of angels or Soldiers of God risky in the
long term. The guys at DME are not allowed
to work on that problem... um, 'feature' ... as most of the Princes have made
it clear that those conditions exist for a reason. There's also the small issue that anybody caught using an
Angelotron is going to be in serious trouble with both Heaven (for obvious
reasons) and Fate (Kronos doesn't approve of competition when it comes
to fielding angel impersonators).
Still, it's a popular item, especially since it's one of the few items
that Shedim can automatically take with them whomever they go. The downsides are sufficiently mild to make
an Angelotron worth it.
(Pause)
OK, there is one, small, practically meaningless
problem. The Angelotron has been known
to have, shall we say, existential issues sometimes. If its owner rolls an Intervention (either
Infernal or Divine), the relic is faced with the problem of working out how to
react to it. Unfortunately, despite the
best efforts of the guys at DME its standard method of dealing with such an
insoluble problem is to explode. This
will cause 4d6 damage of the same type as the current plane (in the case of a
Divine Intervention), which is usually bad, and always immediately break the
illusion, which is sometimes worse.
This makes infiltration of Heaven problematical, as Divine Interventions
tend to show up quite often up there: worse, a demon suddenly exposed to the
Light of Heaven because of the disintegration of an Angelotron takes damage for
the next ten rounds as if he, she or it were in the locus of a Heavenly
Tether. Yes, this would look exactly
like someone 'burning with goodness' because, well, it's essentially what's
happening.
Still, worth it, right?
Relic Cost: 8 points