Memento Mori: a New Secret Society

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Memento Mori: a New Secret Society

Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Those of you who have been watching the Reckonings game may be wondering about Memento Mori, the secret society on Blaustein. It's a little rough, but here are my notes on it:

About ten years back, a company of adventurers was hired by Bluebeard to cleanse his castle of ghosts. They succeeded, but in the process they discovered the hanging room, and Bluebeard dropped them down the pit trap so they would never reveal his secrets.

One member, a wizard with leanings toward alchemy, landed in a monstrous spider's web while protected by stone salve. By a miracle, he managed to find his way to the surface through the honeycombed limestone, whereupon he discovered that all memory of him and his companions had been erased from the minds of the people. He charmed a few of the locals into hiding him, and through persistence and cleverness was able to demonstrate to them that their memories had been repeatedly altered, especially with regards to visitors to their island.

Thus was born "Memento Mori," a secret society devoted to fighting against mind control, especially the memory alteration of Bluebeard and others like him. Bluebeard employed many outlanders and expatriates from the core because their immunity to his abilities allowed them to hunt for people that natives had forgotten. It was simple enough for the wizard to charm his way into this fold of wolves and ingratiate himself to them with his alchemical abilities. He made alchemist's fire, black powder and tanglefoot bags for them, all the while shielding the most innocent victims from their wrath and ensuring escape when they were caught.

Over time, this wizard became an accomplished alchemical philosopher, and agents of Memento Mori began slipping spiritual purgatives to natives in position of authority, to rid them of their altered memories and their fawning devotion to a tyrant. Knowing that Bluebeard could restore this effect at any moment, the society uses memory keys to identify each other and gain trust in those who have forgotten.

The society is small and struggles in solitude on Blaustein, but they are well entrenched and slowly growing powerful and ambitious. In particular, the wizard was Darkonese, and had been familiar with memory alteration in his homeland, but now he's disgusted with how he and his countrymen spoke so blithely (and so little!) about Darkon's ability to uproot people's pasts. Now he dreams of Memento Mori expanding beyond this tiny isle and eventually defeating whatever ancient magic defiles his homeland, but he knows that they are far from ready for that. Perhaps after they've had some practice in Dementlieu....
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Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

heh... and all this time I thought I'd read about them in Darklords and forgetten. :)

I usually asume you know what you're doing, you see .Cool story, though. Always nice to flesh out little-used domains a bit.

What are memory keys?
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Post by Gemathustra »

gonzoron wrote: What are memory keys?
I forget.
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Sorry, memory keys was just a vague reference to whatever methods work best for reminding people of what they've forgotten. As Bluebeard usually causes people to forget their friends and neighbors (and thus isolate them from help), the agents of Memento Mori must always be on the watch for strangers who come up to them and rattle off long strings of private information followed by a request to hide in their basement for a month.

The tricky part is that when Bluebeard erases memory of a person, that would include all conversations, so you can't just choose a secret word that your friend can tell you, because you'll forget you picked it. It would probably have to be a memory of something totally private (and thus unrelated to anyone you might forget) and totally personal (and thus unlikely to be known by a total stranger).

BTW, Ron, I take that as quite the compliment that you thought this group was already part of canon!
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Any ideas for developing this society more? What classes do they favor? If at some point they developed into a prestige class, what would it be? Would anyone be interested in playing a member of Memento Mori?

Adventure idea: MM agents slip an influential native woman a draught of spiritual purgative, but there are some unexpected results that draw the attention of Bluebeard. It turns out he was attracted to her, and in addition to her altered memories and fanatical devotion, this woman coughed up the curse that made her look like one of his dead wives!

Now Memento Mori has learned a whole lot more about their adversary's weakenesses, but the situation is extremely volatile: Bluebeard's agents are investigating the sudden change even as MM agents hastily cover up the evidence of their involvement. The woman--who would have accepted Bluebeard's proposal only yesterday--is now utterly repulsed and horrified by his renewed attentions. As a fledgeling member of MM she is being pressured by the group to use her situation to get close to the DL.

Meanwhile, there's still the spiritual purgative, waiting for a secondary subject. Some MM agents propose "inoculating" Bluebeard's next foreign bride with it, to discourage his attentions and perhaps turn him off marriage altogether. But others contest that this would also give her the slavish devotion and perhaps the altered memories, both of which go against the fundamental beliefs of the order.
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Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

DeepShadow wrote:Sorry, memory keys was just a vague reference to whatever methods work best for reminding people of what they've forgotten. As Bluebeard usually causes people to forget their friends and neighbors (and thus isolate them from help), the agents of Memento Mori must always be on the watch for strangers who come up to them and rattle off long strings of private information followed by a request to hide in their basement for a month.
I see. This brings up the question of just how extensive Bluebeard's powers are. I just re-read the Darklords entry on him. He can make people forget things, he can detect lies, and he can charm people (according to the paragraph about his abilities, but not according to the SA entry in his stat block. ??) But he doesn't seem to be able to read minds. So it seems he can only make people forget things that he's found out by normal means, or can guess, or perhaps refer to abstractly. I guess that means unless he finds out someone is a member, they won't forget that fact specifically, even if they forget everyone they know.

I would guess they'd gravitate toward magical classes, wizard in particular, searching for ways to break the effects of memory alteration. But the feel of paranoia works best with "everyman" sort of classes, I think. Also a wizard is particularly vulnerable to memory loss. Years of training can be erased in a moment by Bluebeard. Perhaps rogue, specializing in bluff, innuendo, slight of hand for passing information.

Here's a plot hook for you: by the nature of the organization, they are ripe for infiltration. All it would take is an outside observer who can divine, research, or overhear enough about a member to pass for a forgotten friend. A man on the inside would have access to the group's resources, alchemical research and the like. Or Bluebeard himself could hire an outlander infiltrator to root out the members for "re-education".

Here's another question: does Bluebeard know who's a native of Blaustein or not? (Aside from his curse regarding native women.) If a non-native man infiltrates Memento Mori, and Bluebeard crosses paths with him, and tries to make him forget, will Bluebeard know it didn't work? Could this non-native fake forgetfulness and obedience well enough to convince him?

If so, he'd be a valuable addition to the group. Even if they found him out as an infiltrator, they might be willing to keep him around and even give him whatever he wants, just to have a member that can't be affected by Bluebeard.
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Great points! You're especially right as to needing specifics on Bluebeard's exact powers. I think before we go any further we'd need to nail down the various players in this struggle:

Bluebeard--As I read the entry in Darklords, Bluebeard's forgetfulness power works on all the locals at once. Think of it as a decree that he gives: "From this day forth, my subjects will not have any recollection of my last wife." I suppose it could be interpreted as affecting an individual, but IMO it's far more gothic to have a PC's memory working just fine, but suddenly no one around him remembers him, and they all start treating him like a lunatic.

Locals--are affected by the memory power EXCEPT when they are the subject to be forgotten; you can't be made to forget yourself. Not wanting to believe that Bluebeard is reponsible for their memory lapses, the locals have their own explanation(s), most of which feature a curse laid by his first wife.

Written notes or even whole journals would be left behind, and would undermine the effects of the mind alteration. Not having Azalin's cleverness or resources, Bluebeard has merely banned reading and writing altogether.

Outlanders--anyone from outside Blaustein is a commodity for either side. Bluebeard wants them working for him (or dead) because he needs people who can keep track of what's really going on while he keeps all the locals oblivious. OTOH MM wants them because outlanders allow them to track Bluebeard's alterations more easily.
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Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

DeepShadow wrote:Bluebeard--As I read the entry in Darklords, Bluebeard's forgetfulness power works on all the locals at once. Think of it as a decree that he gives: "From this day forth, my subjects will not have any recollection of my last wife."

But is it limited to forgetting people? What if he finds out about MM and "decrees" that "my subjects will not have any memory of the group known as Memento Mori, nor their membership thereof, if any."

That would pretty much wipe them out until a journal or something was found, would it now?
I suppose it could be interpreted as affecting an individual, but IMO it's far more gothic to have a PC's memory working just fine, but suddenly no one around him remembers him, and they all start treating him like a lunatic.
Oh yes, that's exactly what I see it as. Have you seen the episodes of Angel called "Shiny Happy People" and "The magic bullet"? That's precisely the sort of body-snatchers feel that should be there.

But I also like the possibility of: the PC reminds an NPC of who he is, showing them a note in their own handwriting with a "memory key" in it. Finally someone is on their side. Together, they storm the castle, and as they confront Bluebeard, the PC's new friend suddenly forgets everything again, following Bluebeard's orders, and shackling the PC to take him to the dungeon.
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

I haven't seen those episodes of Angel, or if I have, I didn't know the titles. Still, I think we're on the same page.

I think you're on the right track with Bluebeard decreeing they forget their secret society, and I'm not sure how MM would handle that, but it stands to reason they would have some sort of contigency plan, if it hasn't already happened.

This actually helps me flesh out MM, to have you suggest ways that Bluebeard would fight against them and then figure out what they'd have to do in response.

In the case of wiping out the group's memories, here's how I think they'd handle that:

1) The founder is a foreigner, and therefore immune to the memory loss. While most other foreigners are killed or recruited into Bluebeard's thugs, it stands to reason that some of the less bloodthirsty ones would look for a third option, which MM provides: be an informant from inside BB's secret police. Thus, I think it's reasonable that about 1 in 10 member of MM is non-native and therefore flat-out immune.

2) They all keep journals. I can see that Bluebeard would make journals illegal for this very reason, and probably did so long before MM came around because they were such a nuisance. So they all have journals which they hide, and other members of MM know the location of the journal, but not the contents. Thus, it becomes a very strong memory key to say: "look under the third brick of your back step, where you and your brother used to hide the plate you broke while playing at 'knights.'"

3) The few who resist this are slipped purgatives to fix their memories. All of them would have signed up for this upon joining, to minimize the "Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?" factor.

Given these three means, I'd say they'd be able to restore full membership within a week of Bluebeard's decree. He could try again, but they'd just do it again, and (not knowing all of what they were doing) BB would probably figure it wasn't working and try something else.
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Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

DeepShadow wrote:I haven't seen those episodes of Angel, or if I have, I didn't know the titles. Still, I think we're on the same page.
In brief, a powerful demon/god thing arrives in the form of a beautiful woman. Anyone who sees her falls under her spell and worships her blindly. The only cure is touching her blood, which lets you see her as she truly is: a hideous, people-eating monster. Most of L.A. is affected, except Fred, who is on the run from her former friends and nearly everyone she meets, having to fake loyalty to "Jasmine" until she can find out how to snap her friends out of it, one-by-one.

Anyway, yeah, the journal thing is a good idea. They would have to take elaborate preventative measures, knowing what they know. To steal a page from Memento: what about tattoos? If I were a member, I might have the location of my journal tattooed on my upper thigh. If ever I'm mindwiped, I don't need another member to get to me. The next time I bathe or change clothes, I'll see it there...
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Great idea! Yeah, I can definitely see the members leaving elaborate systems of clues for themselves to follow, just in case BB figures out a way to be more thorough.

What about something that would lead them to other members, force them to compare notes?
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

gonzoron wrote:In brief, a powerful demon/god thing arrives in the form of a beautiful woman. Anyone who sees her falls under her spell and worships her blindly. The only cure is touching her blood, which lets you see her as she truly is: a hideous, people-eating monster. Most of L.A. is affected, except Fred, who is on the run from her former friends and nearly everyone she meets, having to fake loyalty to "Jasmine" until she can find out how to snap her friends out of it, one-by-one.
Ah yes, Jasmine! Yep, I saw those episodes. Definitely the kind of feel we need. "Everyone adores Bluebeard, except for those wierdos who attack him for absolutely no reason at all! That's all the work of his curse, laid down by his awful first wife Lenor!"

You just keep telling yourself that. :roll:
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

As I said in the opening post, the founder has aspirations of taking Memento Mori back to Darkon after they have cut their teeth in Blaustein. Any thoughts on that? I know it's a long shot, but if it was to succeed, what would it take?
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Yet another thought: what about having the Carnival make a trip to the island, and having the Illuminated Man start off the tattoos for them? I know it sounds like a stretch, but Tindal always says that it seems like the Carnival always has some purpose in where they end up--some wrong that needs righting, someone who needs rescuing--and giving all the inner circle magical tattoos would be especially cool, IMO.

Also, check out my lastest post on the Sea of Sorrows thread dealing with MM: I made one of their bases a tattoo parlor, in tribute to Ron's idea and also because it's a fitting element to a "pirate haven." Also, I like social hubs that are different from the typical tavern.
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Post by Fuzzball »

DeepShadow wrote:Also, check out my lastest post on the Sea of Sorrows thread dealing with MM: I made one of their bases a tattoo parlor...
Did I miss something?
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