Welch (underworld debt collectors)

Welcome to the Twist

A darker, more sinister version of earth set in the 20th century. In this universe the link between the spiritual plane and earth has never been stronger. Residents of this parallel world can perform ritual and rites to contact the denizens of hell. From these communications, dark roots have taken hold of the earth. Desperation and greed have lead to hell growing ever stronger, feeding off of the vices of earth. Power struggles and ever growing wars have resulted in the most deprived or desperate of individuals making deals with the underworld. But as we all know, all debts must be repaid eventually. The world of twist must face its darkest days yet as unfathomable creatures invade their world like never before, to collect. You are one of the demon collectors sent to the other side, in order to find and exact brutal payments on those that dare to think they can defy hell. Be warned, even though you have supernatural strength and abilities, the species of man has their own devices. Heaven, while being weak still fights back in some ways, blessing specific humans with terrifying divine powers along with providing rare, yet powerful weapons used to exorcise even the most vicious collector. Alongside doing your duty and taking contracts, you can also try and work your way up the mysterious and complicated politics of hell, even going as far as to meet Satan himself.

Classes

Bruiser: huge, usually what a human thinks a stereotypical demon looks like. Carrying some large brutal instrument, you exact payments with painstaking finality. Your favorite jobs are the ones where they put up a fight. Can get most lower jobs done, but In need of assistance for anything that can’t be solved with the business end of a cleaver.

Fixer: charming and devious, the very definition of cunning. You prefer to solve things the easy way, although not above a stab in the back for good measure. Most skilled with delicate targets, able to talk and charm your way through any situation. In a straight fight you are less than proficient, but with your abilities it usually doesn’t come to that.

Tracker: there’s no hiding from your debt. As a tracker you love the thrill of the hunt, whether as a silent sniper or a carnivorous hound. You are an expert at tracking and finding debtors, but the actual process of social interaction is beyond you. You prefer to stick to the shadows, and your demonic powers ensure you can do just that.

Marker: your hands are untainted by blood, you watch and record the events that transpire. No debt is overlooked by you and no Welch is left running free. You act as a sort of manager of your squad, with the ability to open portals to and from the underworld in order to quickly travel. In a pinch you can shield your allies, or curse your enemies.

Welch: well you’ve really done it now. Your pact with Hell has inevitably went bad, and now by one way or another you’re spending the rest of eternity as a slave. Your unnatural powers will be put to the test as they are turned against people just like you. Whatever you payed for, it had better been worth it.

Character Sheet

Name:

Appearance:

Class:

Powers: (demonic abilities, don’t be too OP, maximum of 5)

Weakness: (a weakness specific to you alone, can be related to your past or anything else)

Backstory: (how did you end up in this specific line of work?)

So, do the welch also get five demonic powers and are they actively weaker than the collectors or can it be an even grounds scenario? Since it says they also have unnatural abilities I figured I'd ask before making a character. Oh and you might want to tag the folks that posted in your interest check thread to see if they're up for the game.

So just before I go about crafting a feller I've got a few quick questions.

Do these classes of demon folk share any like base traits? By that I mean like could they all do some shapeshifting for a different guise (as is many a demons wont to do) and share things like inability to enter hallowed/religious grounds, harm from holy artifacts, and other things like that.

Also I figure I'd ask what kind of depiction of Hell looking at here? Is it something in appearance akin to Dante's tellings, something earlier where Hell is essentially frozen over since it is farthest away from God's love? The standard huge fires and flame?

And of course I'd ask about the bureaucracy and power structure of Hell? Would we be looking at something like from the Ars Goetia which Solomon depicts a feudalist structure with a variety of lords of Hell underneath Satan? Or is it really just Satan in full command and not delegating anything?

Jolly it's up. Before making my character I'd like to have even more detail on the setting: 20th century still has a variety of feels to it; it can for instance be a story that picks up during WW1 where mechanization and so on is something very much in progress and we still get a more 'steampunky'vibe. It could be the roaring 20's where we move more towards a Lovecraftian or even bootleg feel. WW2 has a distinctly different feel then again as there is the struggle of alternatives to democracy that the devils can play around in. Or the Cold War, which would pull the whole setting more towards a spy-theme, maybe more occult experimentation between the factions. Hell we could even go into a depiction of Wall Street devils :p

@Wolpertingers so in your reponse to the infrastructure, I drew from a lot of influences. I imagine the Twists version of hell to have many of the steeeotypical parts of it (flames, torture, etc.) but with also a more business like feel. You have your general lower employees that walk around the torture grounds poking people with pitchforks or just general torture, but as you start to go up the ranks there's a more interesting employment opportunities, demons looking at the big picture and actively supporting the worlds inevitable fall. You could say there is a "master plan" of sorts that the devil has in mind, but I plan on that being the main focus of the late gams anyways. There are demons of every type imaginable, like personal imps who carry out the menial fetch and retreival of some higher ups daily needs. The higher up in the company you are the closer the connection to Satan you have, which in turn increases your power and opens gateways for unimaginable power. The lords of hell would actually mostly be the business magnates, running various parts of Hell, like for instance the magnate of debt collection who you will be spending time with as your superior, Big Red. Also yes although every demon can has specific weakness akin to them only, most but only the most powerful suffer extreme wounds and damage upon interacting with any blessed or holy object. I hope that answers some of your questions.

@frapet I imagine this around the rise of the mob era, but the Twists history is very different from our worlds. With the close connection it has to the etherial it has a sort of super powered feel to it. Imagine if hitler had access to unholy powers, imagine if George Washington had used divine powers in his conquest for seperation. Everything is darker, but also more advanced as magical and demonic powers fill in the holes that technology hasn't.

@Zero Hex right, my apologies I forgot. @MetalHead @AtlasRedfox @Rekaigan hello to you all!

@frapet I imagine this around the rise of the mob era, but the Twists history is very different from our worlds. With the close connection it has to the etherial it has a sort of super powered feel to it. Imagine if hitler had access to unholy powers, imagine if George Washington had used divine powers in his conquest for seperation. Everything is darker, but also more advanced as magical and demonic powers fill in the holes that technology hasn't.

Cool, so with that you mean a prohibition era mobsters aka 1920's? that would be so cool xD.

Can Demons appear in the guise of humans?

@Rebirth
Right, so it's a noir style story but with Hell as the major player, sounds pretty damn cool. And I assume its fairly well known that there's supernatural powers at work all throughout society, with demons, rituals satanic cults and the like as common knowledge throughout the Twist? And I gotta ask again if the Welch are on the same level as demon PCs since I take it they're playable.

@Zero Hex basically, but playing as a Welch requires some specific happenings. First of all you have to have been granted something that is worthwhile enough to be on a squadron of debt collectors, so anyone that made deals for anything not mainly combat associated is out. Also you have to consider that the marker in your gang has your souls trapped and can destroy it at will if you become rebellious or unruly. And yes, everything including demonic rituals are common but they are somewhat “taboo” with the divine and heaven still being associated as the good guys. Making a deal with hell is generally considered to be a depraved and desperate thing to do.

@frapet indeed they can, you can put shape shifting as one of your abilities but if need be, and I imagine it as being a stapele of fixers universally.

Ah alright, I figured PC welches (welchi? welchs?) were essentially gonna be playing fugitives but I guess it would make sense for a welch to pay his dues and try to rise in the underworld by hunting others like him. Cool, I'll get to making a character though fair warning it often takes me forever.

@Rebirth
So is this going to be a continuous storyline, or an episodic deal about collecting on the debt-of-the-week?

@Rebirth

Ah, a Corporatized Hell with the atmosphere of the standard fire and brimstone with each demon lord being higher cogs in the machine. Alright. Yeah that's neat. I thank you for answering my questions.

@Menhir continuous storyline, mainly receiving larger and larger contracts with several different ways of going about it.

I think I've got a Tracker in mind for this RP~

Awesome, post your CS on the OOC and I'll review them, once accepted you can move them to the character tab. Also I added a weakness bar to the CS. I feel like everyone should have one weakness besides the usual demon drawbacks.

@Rebirth Do trackers actually kill/confront/incapacitate their targets? Or do they just find and inform for bruisers?

@Rekaigan its based on your powers really. Some trackers stick to the shadows and leave the hands on work to those more suited, but others take a more direct role by trapping or incapacitating the target before the group even arrives. Although most welchers that require the special attention of a group of debt collectors either aren't going down easy, or are almost impossible to find even with demonic insight.

@Rebirth
On that note, each character has five power slots but each class also naturally comes with specific abilities and skillsets listed. So, would a Bruiser have to put down "superior strength" as one of the powers or is that assumed as part of the class on some level? Same with the other classes, would a Fixer automatically have some level of charming charisma, a Tracker camouflage and hunting abilities, a Marker basic spells etc?