Symphonic Connection Amplifier

No one is sure where it came from. Jean denies making it. After all, it's not his style. A lot of people suspect Eli, but he's not around to confirm or deny it. Of course, it could be Vapula's, but why in the Hell would he make something like this? Then again, why in the Hell does he make anything?

Dubbed the Symphonic Connection Amplifier by the Lightning team which is testing it, this artifact looks like a ray gun from a 50's sci-fi movie. It's very simple to use. Just point the Inverter at a being and pull the trigger. With a loud Zap!, the target is hit with a ray of pure white light. He may then try to resist with a Will roll. If the target is a demon, the Will roll is penalized by the total levels of discord it has. If an angel, any levels of discord act as a bonus should it wish to resist. If they fail to resist, the being must endure the effects of the ray for its Celestial Forces in hours.

Researchers theorize that the ray actually a transmission of a variant Celestial Song of Faith. Of course, this is only conjecture. No one is sure what it actually does. Another popular theory that there's actually a Tear of God inside the mechanism, and the inverter merely projects a minute portion of its power. Unfortunately, since the inverter is unbreakable, they haven't been able to open it up and check.

What the ray seems to do is open up or strengthen a connection between a being and the Symphony. Angels become totally partially subsumed by their divine nature, sort of like a weaker version of the Celestial Song of Faith. They must make a Will roll penalized by their Celestial Forces + the CD of a failed resistance roll to act in any way contrary to their choir and Word.

Ethereals, when they fail to resist, are drawn instantly back to their domain in the Marches, where they must stay for the duration of the effect. Unless, of course, they are summoned by a sorcerer. When that occurs, the ethereal suffers a penalty equal to the sorcerer's Celestial Forces in any attempts to resist him in a Will War, or any sorcerous powers.

Humans who are affected by the beam become Symphonically aware for the duration. For those who already are Symphonically Aware, such as Soldiers, they instead gain the Ethereal and Celestial Connections for that time period, and sometimes the instinctive ability to use Songs they do not know as well. Sorcerers receive a bonus equal to their Celestial Forces in any sorcerous skill and rituals. Undead become fully living human beings for the duration. Some say if they died in such a state, their souls would again be caught up by the Wheel of Destiny and Fate, but no one knows if any have chanced it.

It's what it does to demons which caused some Creationers to dub it the Bizzaro Ray. Those in Lighting described it more accurately as a Symphonic Polarity Inversion Effect. What the ray seems to do to demons is somehow create a temporary link to the Symphony. Simply stated, an affected demon is the subject of a pseudo-Redemption which lasts for the duration of the effect. Symphonically, for all intents and purposes, for those few hours he's flipped to the choir counterpart of his band. He has its resonance and dissonance conditions. He loses access to any infernal attunements, Rites and distinction abilities, though they will return when the effect ends. On the plus side, for the duration of the effect he's no longer subject to the dissonance conditions of either his band or his Word. Alas, as this is not a real Redemption; he keeps any dissonance he's accumulated.

The basic personality of the demon remains the same, though there have been reports of an affected demon's attitude being somewhat affected by the nature of his new state of being. What's really interesting is what happens if attempts to convert dissonance into discord. Unlike "real" angels, it can accumulate the Selfless discord. In fact, any dissonance it attempts to convert in this state tends to become the Selfless discord (any random roll which sends one to the celestial discord table instead automatically inflicts the Selfless discord). Any Selfless discord accumulated does not interfere with its gaining Essence as long as it remains an "angel." Of course, once it's reverted back to its demonic state, this discord will interfere with gaining Essence just like any other Celestial Discord.

For a potential Redemption candidate, being zapped might be the shock which convinces them to seek the real thing. For those who are basically unrepentant, this usually sends them in a descending spiral into discordant madness.

As you can probably guess, the princes are not happy that this thing is around. They're grateful for the fact that there is only one. Unfortunately for them, Vapula's attempts to produce an infernal counterpart utilizing the Celestial Song of Self has so far met with failure.

Of course, it doesn't help that they first tried to test it on was a malak, which only seemed to make it more powerful and adamant about slaying evil. At least that's what one reported in their last transmission.

## Doing the Math

Oh, in case you're wondering how hideously expensive it is, here's a breakdown.

* **Relic/6** (Song of Faith Variant?)...........48pts
* **Reliquary/6** (only usable with Relic).......12pts
* **Activation Time**: 1 Round...................+1pt
* **Disturbance**: Creates none (it merely amplifies the Symphony to the target).....+15pts
* **Fragility**: Totally Unbreakable............+10pts
* **Use Enhancement**: Anyone can use Relic......+6pts
* **Use Enhancement**: Anyone can use Reliquary..+3pts
* **Visibility**: Automatically detectable.......-3pts
* Total Cost: 92 points