Book of Kings was one of my first In Nomine campaigns, which I ran in 1998. The campaign was intended for angelic characters and was set in Houston, Texas. This column presents a game seed as well as notes on the ripples it had in subsequent In Nomine campaigns.
Campaign
Houston, Texas was never ignored by the Host or the Horde, but it also wasn’t a key battleground. It seemed to belong to the humans more than the celestials; despite its population and size it was only home to a handful of tethers. The lack of focus on the city would change in a single November night.
It was a Friday night when the unpredicted thunderstorm broke and every drop of rain, every clap of thunder could be felt in the Symphony. Angels and demons alike tried to pinpoint what it meant, but the cacophony was overwhelming, preventing any celestial from being able to deduce more than that the sky had opened due to a spell cast by mortal will. By Saturday morning, the skies were clear and the Symphony was quiet, but Hell and Heaven both demanded answers. The Player Characters were tapped to investigate.
Book of Kings was intended as an all angelic campaign with multiple side adventures as the PCs narrowed down clues in their probe of the events of that Friday night. They would come to discover a demigod with extraordinary potential and both a Destiny and Fate that could alter the course of the War for both sides. The young man was also being taught sorcery; the storm that began the incident was his first major attempt at magic. Though powerful, this child of man and Ethereal was young, having only turned eighteen, and tended towards goodness. The PCs would be faced with a moral decision: would they report the boy to their superiors who might kill him to prevent his Fate, dedicate themselves to protecting the teen and dispatching the supernatural evils that might use him, or simply remove immediate threats and let the half-human determine his future?
Characters
Solomon “Sol” Green
The eighteen year old child of the human, David Green, and ethereal, Bathsheba, Solomon was a rare 6-Force human who had no mortal limits to his potential. Sol was tall and bronze, a high school football star who was as good-natured as he was good looking. The teenager had no notion of the War or his heritage. He believed his mother had died in childbirth and he grew up with a loving father.
David Green
The birth father of Solomon was completely ignorant of any supernatural happenings around him. David worked as a manager for a local car dealership and did his best to both provide for and support his son. He attended every football game Solomon played and made sure his son had an extracurricular tutor to exceed public school standards.
Bathsheba
While not as powerful as some gods in the Marches, Bathsheba was far from a minor player. She was a dream figure of nudity and beauty, but she wanted more; she wanted a child. Solomon Green was not her first child, but corporealizing and singing the Song of Fruition comes at great risk and peril. Her last child had died a century and a half ago; with not nearly the developing power of Solomon. To protect herself and hide the child’s heritage she faked her death after childbirth but would visit her son in his dreams, offering love and encouragement.
Simon Martinez
A mummy is a dangerous being, as is a sorcerer. A mummy who retains their sorcerous ability is particularly minacious to the Host. Simon Martinez was an earthly servant of Fate who recognized the untapped power in Solomon and secretly watched over the child. When Solomon began high school David sought to hire a tutor to both make up for any education lost during sporting events but to also better prepare his son for college. Simon Martinez became that tutor. For the past three and a half years he has been slowly and subtly been introducing Solomon to magic, in the hopes of setting the powerful teenager on the path of Fate. Simon is the only being who knows that the storm was of Solomon’s making.
Perry Thompson
Almost as if God plays chess, Perry Thompson is the force of Heaven opposite Simon. A resurrected Saint, Perry is the head coach and physical education teacher at Solomon’s high school. He sensed a great Destiny in the teenager and hopes to guide him to it. Just as Simon is unaware of Perry’s influence, so the Saint is unaware of the undead sorcerer.
Thoughts
Book of Kings was my first major In Nomine campaign and most of my notes had been lost in a move. I originally ran it for my group in Houston. In 1998, there were only a few rule books out and some of the characters and story were tweaked when I tried to re-run the campaign as a play-by-post game in 2000.
While it had a thunderous start, the campaign was not as epic or detailed as Daybreak or War in Hell. The original concept was simply, “what would the players as angels do with a powerful, but still mostly good human?”
The play-by-post version of the campaign and the re-working of the characters using books like the Corporeal Player’s Guide helped give life to concepts I would take with me into almost every future In Nomine campaign I ran. Solomon Green discovering the War between Heaven and Hell being fought on earth would give rise to the notion of Soldiers of Humankind who rejected serving celestial masters. Solomon and his Soldiers would later have a small role to play in the afformentioned Daybreak campaign.
I never had lengthy notes for Book of Kings, but it’s a campaign I think about a lot. After 22 years, when I think about In Nomine, I still think about Book of Kings first.
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