The concept of "Special Forces" is a
somewhat fuzzy one when considering the Host - or, for that matter, the
Horde. Most individuals formally
involved in the War are either literally supernatural entities or people imbued
with supernatural powers; furthermore, the realities of a millennia-long secret
war to the knife favor a certain emphasis of precise, covert strikes over
overt, mass conflicts. Hence, in a very
real sense every combat-focused member of the Host partakes of the Special
Forces mindset.
This does not mean that the Host does not have
specialists, of course - and Zadkiel trains the best of them, both angelic and
human. Graduates of the School have a
certain reputation about them... one that is completely deserved.
To provide the forces of Heaven in general (and
Zadkiel in particular) with innovative operatives trained in survival
techniques and irregular warfare tactics.
The School itself should be firmly divided between
instructors and students. The
instructors themselves are mostly Servitors, Saints and especially good
Soldiers of Protection; specialists from other Words (overwhelmingly War) are
rotated in and out on a somewhat regular basis. It is considered a fairly respectable honor among the War Faction
to be given the opportunity to teach, especially as Zadkiel has a name for
rewarding good service. The current
Commandant of the School is Reginald, a 13 Force Saint of Protection with
Distinctions from both Protection and the Sword (the latter deemed
necessary by Laurence in order to clarify chain-of-command issues).
The actual number of staff at the School will be
dependent on the number of angels in a particular campaign. At minimum, it will be necessary to have at
least three permanent training facilities - one for each plane - so that
students of the School can be given as wide a range of training conditions as
possible (and so that Zadkiel can train Soldiers!). The larger the War, the more the training facilities and the
larger the staff -but the School is not geared towards churning out endless
numbers of specially-trained angels and Soldiers. This should be taken into consideration when determining the
School's size, as well.
Generally speaking, forces trained by the School
retain their original assignment and Superiors. The bulk of them are evenly divided among Protection, War, the
Sword and the Wind. The other
Archangels have at least one School-trained squad: yes, this includes Flowers.
Novalis needs trained scouts and infiltrators just as badly as anyone else, and
having ones prepared to do things her way is quite refreshing.
Alumni of the School do maintain quasi-formal
contact with each other after graduation, at a level somewhere between 'old boy
network' and 'interdisciplinary working group'. These contacts tend to be largely unaffected by the political and
ideological struggles going on at the Superior level, but generally do not
extend further than the level of information exchanges. However, should the situation call for it,
alumni of the School have been known to discreetly call in favors of a somewhat
more tangible kind. Favors called in
by the School itself are somewhat less common, but much more likely to get a
response. Commandant Reginald's ability
to requisition material aid and troops is legendary, in both senses of the
word.
The training of the School is real, valuable and
varied. All alumni can be assumed to
have undergone the basic course and at least three of the nine advanced schools
(detailed below). It should be noted
that the School does not teach Song use. Zadkiel has no objections to Songs per se, but they have the twin
penalties of being both loud and dependent on a slowly regenerating
resource. If a Song is a viable option
in a given situation, that's fine - but the School is all about what one does
when options are limited.
The Basic course emphasizes tactical awareness,
stealth and a broad spectrum of survival techniques. Note that it is assumed that anyone coming to the School already
knows how to throw a punch and shoot a gun.
Also note that the training regimen is carefully calibrated to equally
push mortals and immortals - less than one might expect, possibly because
students are pretty much kept empty of Essence throughout training. It's amazing how subtle a crutch Essence can
be: almost completely unnoticeable, in fact, until the crutch goes away...
Prerequisites: 10/8/6 Forces
(celestial/Saint/Soldier), minimum stats of 7/5/4 (celestial/Saint/Soldier),
Dodge/2, Fighting/3 and either Ranged Weapon/3 (pistol or rifle) or Large
Weapon/3 (any)
Skills Learned: Driving (2pt), Language (Battle -
see below) (2pt) Move Silently (2pt), Survival (2 pts each in Arctic, Forest,
Jungle, Mountain and Urban), Tactics (3pt)
Total: 20pt
This is a fieldstripped and deliberately mutated
variant of Angelic, enormously simplified for human brains and tongues. Battle Language has an extensive vocabulary
when it comes to military activities, covert operations and general invective,
but is fairly useless for anything else (with, oddly enough, the exception of
the culinary arts). It bears no
relationship to any known human language and is sufficiently jargon-filled that
speakers of regular Angelic cannot readily understand it (-6 to rolls). Despite all of this, its main use is
probably that of building camaraderie among students and alumni of the School:
after all, as a covert group they cannot not get much in the way of public
displays of respect, or even (the quite often underestimated) pleasure of funny
haircuts.
As stated above, all alumni of the School must pass
at least three specialized courses before graduation. Depending on the Archangel, this may either be at the discretion
of the student, or assigned. Alumni may
later take additional courses: permission to do so is usually a formality. Quite a few alumni have eventually checked
out in all of them.
Each course has a type after it (Combative, Social
and Technical): generally, students will take at least two different types of
courses. Each costs 10pt to learn.
Counter-Proliferation (Technical)
This course teaches techniques in dealing with both
regular weapons of mass destruction and Insidious Master Plans: unfortunately,
there are enough 'Renegade' Servitors of Death, Infernal Fire and/or Technology
out there to make this a necessary field of study. Students are taught recognition and disarmament techniques.
Skills taught: Chemistry (2pt), Computer Operation
(1pt), Electronics (2pt), Engineering (2pt) Knowledge (NBC weaponry) (1pt),
Knowledge (Vaputech) (1pt) and Knowledge (Samingan Necromantic Techniques)
(1pt).
Counter-Terrorism (Social)
This course focuses more on the prevention of
terrorist activities than on reacting to them; students are taught how to
assess a given situation for suspicious activities, identify possible threats
and shut down operations before they start.
Skills taught: Detect Lies (2pt), Emote (2pt),
Fast-Talk (2pt), Lying/1, Knowledge (Site Security) (2pt) and Savoir-Faire
(1pt).
Internal Defense (Technical)
A close relative of the Counter-Proliferation
course, this field of study deals with quietly dealing with Tether security,
safe houses and the fine art of equipment requisition. It also covers medical procedures for
dealing with the aftermath when any of the above operations go sour.
Skills taught: Computer Operation (2pt), Electronics
(1pt), Forgery (2pt), Medicine (3pt), and Scrounging (2pt).
In many ways, this is the Artistry (Official
Documents) skill. A successful roll
(with the usual penalties for inferior materials) will provide official-looking
papers that will stand up to a casual scrutiny. Actually having those papers stand up to serious scrutiny
requires a separate Computer Operations roll (or a midnight visit to the
appropriate filing cabinet).
Scrounging (Perception)
Default -0
This skill handles the acquisition of supplies and
materials through nonofficial channels: the CD determines the degree of success
- or, on a failure, the reaction penalty from officials discovering the
attempt.
This course is, simply put, the most dangerous one
of them all: it teaches how to survive in Hell. While the techniques are available to everyone, only angels can
pass the course, as the graduation exam involves actually raiding the Pit
itself and coming back alive. Needless
to say, the former is much easier than the latter: this is the only course
where a student may choose to forego the final examination without prejudice
(although he, she or it must take another course to fulfill the minimum
advanced topics of study needed for final graduation).
Skills taught: Area Knowledge (Hell's Geography)
(2pt), Knowledge (Hell's Political Structure) (2pt) Move Silently (2pt) and
Survival (Hell) (4pt).
Direct Action (Military)
This is otherwise known as Applied Mayhem: it's very
popular, and very, very straightforward.
Skills taught: Dodge (2pt), Fighting (1pt), Ranged
Weapon (2pt each in rifle and pistol) and Small Weapon (knife) (3pt).
Psychological Warfare (Social)
This course is almost as disreputable as Civil
Affairs: it shares a similar ethos in admitting the utility of deceit and
subterfuge in the service of Heaven, but where Civil Affairs teaches how to
insinuate, Psychological Warfare teaches how to disintegrate.
Skills taught: Detect Lies (1pt), Emote (1pt),
Knowledge (Human Psychology) (1pt), Language (3pts in any current human
tongue), Lying (3pt), Savoir-Faire (1pt)
Civil Affairs (Social)
This is has the unofficial name of the Schmoozing
Course: it teaches what computer hackers call 'social engineering'. It is not considered to be a particularly
reputable course, but the Mercurians and Servitors of Flowers swear by it.
Skills taught: Emote (2pt), Knowledge (Human
Psychology) (3pt), Savoir-Faire (3pt) and Seduction (2pt).
Unconventional Warfare (Military)
This course deals with developing insurgency groups
in areas either deemed officially 'neutral' - i.e., the Marches - or actively
under Hell's influence (missions in Hell itself are another school
entirely). The focus is on training
others in the skills needed to harass the Enemy, which implies a certain
knowledge in said skills themselves.
Skills taught: Chemistry (1pt),
Dream-Shaping/Dreaming (2pt), Knowledge (Demolitions) (1pt), Knowledge
(Logistics) (1pt), Knowledge (Teaching) (1pt), Ranged Weapon (any type of
firearm) (1pt), Savoir-Faire (1pt) and Survival: Marches (2pt).
This course is the most energetic of the major
fields of study: it emphasizes physical development and a variety of useful
physical and outdoor skills.
Skills taught: Acrobatics (1pt), Cooking (1pt),
Climbing (1pt), Escape (1pt), Running (2pt), Swimming (1pt), Tracking (2pt) and
Throwing (1pt).
This skill represents the ability to turn assorted
foodstuffs into something edible.
As stated above, alumni of the School can be found
in every Superior's organization (even Jordi and Novalis have some, although
admittedly with somewhat special training).
This has lead to the School enjoying a remarkably good reputation across
the board. Being an alumni generally
defaults to being given a certain amount of respect, which of course may be
modified for specific individuals.
It has been wondered, of course, why neither War nor
the Sword has oversight over the School.
This is actually fairly easily explained: while Michael could certainly
have developed his own training regimen, one of the School's main advantages is
its ability to draw instructors and recruits from across the Host. The Archangel of War currently dislikes
and/or is disliked by his counterpart of Dreams, Judgement, Flowers, Lightning,
Animals and Destiny; this antipathy would undoubtedly spill over into the
School. However, Protection gets along
with just about everyone, which also spills over in the School - but in
a positive manner. Thus, as long as
Michael can pump in enough instructors from War to assure a high quality of
training (which, incidentally, he can, easily) and gets enough training slots
to fill his personal requirements, the actual method by which all this happens
is immaterial.
Laurence is even simpler to explain: he has
oversight - but, like a good commanding officer, he's handed the day-to-day
responsibility over to a trusted subordinate and let her go do her job. End of story, unless Zadkiel starts screwing
it up - and, of all the things that the Commander of the Host has to worry
about, 'Zadkiel seriously screwing anything up' ranks somewhere just
above 'a giant space whale appears out of nowhere and starts eating Mars'.
While Hell has its own types of special combat
operatives, their inherent paranoia prevents them from the extensive cross-Word
interaction typified by the School. As
a result, individual Demon Princes sponsor their own special forces, which
invariably (and typically quite erroneously) compare themselves favorably to
School alumni. Among the rank and file
of the Horde, a School-trained operative is seen as either a figure of terror,
a worthy enemy to count coup upon, or sometimes even both at once.
History
and Use in the Campaign
Generally speaking, the School has only been in
existence for little over an Earth century, and has generally evolved along
with its corporeal counterparts.
Commandant Reginald has been the titular head of the School since the
1940s, and has been instrumental in formalizing and expanding its training
regimen to its current scope.
Being an alumnus of the School's training program
was deliberately designed to be beyond the reach of a beginning angelic PC's
character point budget: the training alone costs a bare minimum of 50 points,
and that's not taking into account the minimum number of Forces required, or
the prerequisite skill set costs. On
the other hand, characters that have demonstrated their suitability may very
well be offered training.
As for human characters... a 6 Force Soldier that
has undergone the full training would be an interesting addition to a party of
beginning angelic PCs. The total
package cost would be 58 points - 14 more than the 'standard' experienced
Soldier total of 44 (24 from Forces and 20 extra): add 2 for very limited
customization, and the Soldier would be ready to go. He or she would have almost no esoteric abilities whatsoever, but
that would be partially compensated for by the extensive skill list, not to
mention the usual human advantage of being able to avoid Disturbance.
Something to consider.