The arch-devil Mammon is the lord of greed. He’s boss of the Pluton Family, which keeps the books for the entire Hell Syndicate and sees to the corrupting of mortal souls with avarice. Mammon has his meaty talons in loansharking, real estate schemes, gambling, and counterfeiting.
In this age, Mammon appears as a rotund, horned, oxblood-skinned humanoid in a banker’s suit. His scrawny legs might not be able to support his bulk, if it weren’t for the efforts of his small (yet obviously strong) wings. With them, he's as light on his feet as a ballerina, if the need arises. His flabby jowls are pockmarked. His golden eyes glint like dancing coins in the big score never obtained. He smells like old leather. His shadow is gray, swirling, and pungent as cigar smoke.
Combat: Mammon assiduously avoids combat whenever possible. If necessary, he uses his diabolic abilities below.
Diabolic Abilities: The infernal boss possesses a gilded pocket watch that can stop time in a room or small area for up to 3 minutes or cause a person to age 2-20 years. Turning any unit of currency in his hand, Mammon can fascinate a victim who fails a saving throw with dreams of avarice. He can only use this power once on any given individual. Mammon can tell the complete history of any piece of money he holds, including (in broadstrokes) the desires and goals (particularly sinful ones) of anyone who held it.
Pacts: Summoning Mammon involves heating a coin taken off a person recently dead in a sulfur flame until it burns the summoner’s hand. Mammon can unerring locate any item of monetary value anywhere on the material plane. He can magical alter any financial records to hide fraud or any financial related crime from the agents of Management. The most common reason Mammon is petitioned, however, is the acquire wealth--though this requires a faustian contract.
12 comments:
I like this guy. Well thought out and man did you do a fantastic describing him.
His flabby jowls are pockmarked. His golden eyes glint like dancing coins in the big score never obtained. He smells like old leather. His shadow is gray, swirling, and pungent as cigar smoke.
If there were an award for NPC descriptions this one would be on top of the list.
Mammon would be a nightmare adversary. His ability to ruin the PCs' finances alone would be enough of a deterrent.
And now I'm wishing I wasn't running a Cyberpunk game as I'm not sure how to fit daemons into it. Bugger....
Like Orcus and a Ferengi had a baby. :)
Seriously, this guy is *way* cool. I really like both the gilded pocket watch and the avarice-hypnosis with the coin.
I can only imagine the kind of devastation he could wreak on peoples' lives (or on a society as a whole for that matter).
Thanks guys!
@Christian - He gets 'em where they really hurt.
@paul - He might fit some sorts of Cyberpunk. ;)
Mammon seems the perfect duke of hell for The City - I immediately thought of the Woody Gutherie song "the jolly banker". I wonder about devil's of war like Bael - they'd seem likely to have glutted themselves in Weird Adventures and rather too busy or too big for a 'mere' crime syndicate.
@Gusty L - Good reference. Like other eikones (pagan deities) the devils are both big and small. We'll see what those guys busy these guuys busy themselves with in a relative time of piece in a future post. Of course, I already outlined what Andras was up to last week.
@Trey - Wasn't aware that the devils were eikones - does that mean that there is divine (ok profane?) magic available to their chosen?
Obviously the Devils are opposed to more orderly Eikones like Management, but how do they relate to Old time Religion etc?
@Gustie - Well, I was a bit imprecise. How their nature is viewed depends on one's theological stance maybe, but they certainly have many resemblances to eikones (which include the pagan gods of old). The devils are said by The Good Book and the religions that follow it to be fallen, reprobate angels. Other believers see them differently.
Oh, and as far as "profane" powers go, see Weird Adventures p. 45, (starting with the second paragraph) and the sidebar.
Doc, you outdid yourself with this entry.
Greed, demons, and flavorful text are some of my favorite things.
Thanks Justin!
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