Poenaplaceunque

Ian Sheridan

The Cenobites, of Clive Barker's making, is something that I am using in my game. They are very interesting to use not to mention the looks on the player's faces when they figure out what there up against, if they have not seen or read any of Barker's stories. In a night of inspiration I have come up with a Discipline for the Cenobite of any power level. I call it...


Poenaplaceunque is the Latin for Pain & Pleasure.

[1] The Tearing: The power manifests itself by impaling the flesh and starts to tear pieces from the body of the victim. This power only inflicts pain. (this will be explained below)

This power inflicts non-aggravated wounds at two points a strike (success). (flesh wounds. [get it, FLESH wounds! <g>]) Each success that is rolled a strike is hit. The difficulty = Dex + Dodge + Celerity (if any) of the target.

Examples of this power are: Hooks on chains (like PinHeads), Circular saws, knives, ice-picks, surgical tools, some organic material like a tongue, a hand, body liquids, sexual organs (sick huh?), hair, fingernails, or a combination of organic and metallic, surgical tools held by or connected to the hands, etc...

[2] The Grabbing: The power that can now manifest itself, now has the ability to hold its victim in place and move them about. (the ice-pick will now be a hook, the knife will gain barbs...)

[3] The Ripping: Now the wounds inflicted are aggravated and cause more damage, four points per strike. The Cenobite is now able to add pleasure to the experience of the strike. The more strikes the more the pleasure. There is also a chance for psychological addiction. The cenobite makes a role with manipulation + empathy to addict. The player roles willpower to resist. This does not have to be rolled every time.

    1 success.  The Vampire has a *bad* habit of hitting her
      head against the wall to feel that which she once felt.
    2 successes.  The Vampire now likes to cut themselves in
      the most inopportune moments.  The Vampire has to spend
      a willpower point to stop themselves.
    3 successes.  Now the vampire has a full blown
      addiction, from now on they will look and act like
      Junkies.  A willpower role will have to be made to stop
      themselves, with a difficulty normally at 8.
    4 successes.  At this point the vampire will not even
      try to escape the clutches of the Cenobite.  They will
      just sit and be torn apart with a smile on their face.

[4] The Pillar: This is the ability to give the more Pain & the most Pleasure there is! This can only be done with a participant *rather* then a victim. It is better for the cenobite to set this up after they have accumulated 4 successes as discussed above.

[5] The Gate: The ability to open a doorway back to the home dimension of the Leviathan. This can only be done if the person who solved the puzzle-box took it passed the point of calling (more will be talked of this after the disciplines).

If it is passed that point then other Cenobites will gather to open it further for the passage of the Leviathan. This would mean the end of the world as we and the super-natural world knows it. This would be something like a Nuclear War. This dimension would become the home of the Leviathan and the Cenobites will go on to other dimensions to prepare it for the coming of the Leviathan. [Oo Oo... I love inspiration.]

[6] The Call of the Elevator: The ability to make more Cenobites. This power is only for those of the FOUR. [Heh he-ah aH AH AHAHAHAH!!!!]

Those that became one of the Cenobites, first find the Puzzle-Box. Then they are found to be depraved enough, either sub-consciously or consciously, to be a Cenobite. The goal of the Cenobites is to search for ways to get the Leviathan to our dimension and for that they use the Puzzle-Box.

The Puzzle-Box, is a calling for the Cenobites. This is the *only* way that a Cenobite can get to this dimension. The Cenobite is connected to the Box. There can be from *one to Four* different Cenobites connected to one box. There are also levels to the puzzle.

These levels are: one way, two way, door way, and gate way.

One way, is when the Cenobite(s) of that box is able to whisper to solver. That Cenobite(s) is making more manipulation + empathy roles every time the solver touches the box. The solver thinks that what the Cenobite(s) is saying is their own thoughts. Willpower of the solver is the difficulty.

Two way, is after three successes are rolled by the Cenobite(s). This is when the solver starts to gain awareness of the Cenobite(s). If the solver wants the cenobite(s) to come, the process go on to the Door way. If the solver starts to resist they are now rolling willpower. Their successes start to subtract from the Cenobite's successes. When the number of successes the Cenobite(s) has collected gets back to zero the puzzle stops and the solver is released. But if the Cenobite(s) get four more successes then the Door way is open.

Door way, This is when the cenobite is able to come to the cite of the solver solving and depending on the Cenobite(s) it/they will grant the wish of the solver or commit the worst night mare upon the solver, which ever is worse. Some of the solvers are able to become a Cenobite, these people are sawt after by the Cenobites because their numbers are small. Others just get to be in Hell.

Gate way, This is when the solver takes the puzzle even further. Only a few are able to do this and these people are most sawt after of all of those who are in our dimension. This level enables other cenobites, namely the Four, to come to the solver cite. It also lets the Cenobite be able to make the Gate large enough for Leviathan to come through.

The Cenobite are ruled by the Four, they are immortal, they *cannot* die or be destroyed, they are granted their powers by the Leviathan, and they have a weakness. Their humanity is zero so, if they gain back any of their former humanity, if they had any, they will become human again, this is when they can be killed if they arn't taken back by the laviathin first. They can be put on a Pillar or something similar though, which essentionally just holds them.

I do have the names of the four, make what you will of them: Pinhead (of cource), ChaterMouth, VoiceBox, HeadShrink.

That was all that I could come up with right now, but I have to do a little more reading of Barker's works. It's just the basics, I have more but that's the stuff that I specialized for my players, so you don't need it. I think its cool. Don't be so literal of all this, change it if you want. Let this be something to build on. Please, build on it.

- Ian "Crazy ST, killer of characters, and destroyer of gameworlds" Sheridan