THE DEPARTMENT OF PAIN

A RIVAL COMPANY/MOVEMENT/GROUP INSANITY BY KEITH TOVEY

CONTENT

• Mood Speeches
• Introduction
• History & The Master
• Departmental Specifics

MOOD SPEECHES

A few little mood snippets (in the great tradition of non-official SLA supplements every where)

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PART OF A TRANSCRIPTION OF AN SHIVER DECTECTIVE ON-LINE WITH HQ

"It's bad this time chief, three men, two women and a couple of KIDDIES for fucks sake!!"
"What's the cause of death Bob?"
"Oh Christ, it's sick chief - they've been cut, bits have been - well how can i say - - burst !! and there's blood and guts everywhere. It took me thirty minutes to work out how many bodies were in the room ........."

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COMMENT OVERHEARD, ONE DEPARTMENT OPERATIVE TO ANOTHER

"Kill the bastards, no-one leaves alive."
"Mutilate the corpses ?"
"Of course, make it pretty this time! - remember boys, we're professionals! ".

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GRAFFITI ON A WALL IN DOWNTOWN (Outside an apartment hit by the Department)

One word from the Master and you're all going to die.
Cross the Master and you're ashes !!
Watch the Shadows - We're not going anywhere

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INTRODUCTION

No they're not subtle like Darkknight and they haven't got access to the sort of heavy duty tech that gives Thresher the edge that they use so well. No, the Department are just plain violent - not violent for profit, the Department seem to use violence and mutilation as a tool of preference, purely for it's own sake. They kill and kill, with no mercy and cause as much pain and suffering to their victims as it is possible for them to cause and - thanks their complete disregard to the possibility that being caught means death - they do it very, very well.

The human mind is an involved and complex thing. The serial killer for example dances to a strange tune that the rest of the "normal" population find very difficult to comprehend. It's from this strange theme that the Department emerges. It's like a corporation of killers all dancing to the magic of their very own corporate master.

HISTORY & THE MASTER

500 years ago the first references to the Department appear in the history books. Basically there were unexplained sporadic bursts of what a friend of mine refers to as "ultra violence" - not a strange event on Mort, but these violent events were all working towards anti SLA Industries goals. This soon became apparent to groups such as Cloak and IA who hold positions in the SLA structure that lets them see any continuity in the day to day violent madness of the serial killers, murderers and cognates that frequent the scores of BPN halls. The operations of the Department appear to be based solely on Mort - no proven Departmental activity has ever taken place off planet.

Quite what's behind the Department must of course (in the continuing tradition of SLA) maintain a unknown. Fill in the Lord of the Department in accordance with your own interpretation of what's really going on behind the scenes at SLA Industries.

A cop out, I know - but it does make the Department usable in and WOP and get me out of having to be tell you who the leader of the Department is - don't think that I haven't done it people, just that not one bugger would agree with me - so my bothers & sisters - let's get generic !!!!!!! (how I hate to get generic)

What can I say about the Master of the Department

1. Well he's obviously a powerful being(s) of some sort.
2. He's got some type of mental powers, he seems able to communicate with any member of the department at any time. Either individually or as a group.
3. He can kill any member of the department at any time. When they die, they and their equipment get rendered down to a white smelly (and I mean smelly) powder that gets quickly washed away in the rain. It's a spontaneous combustion thing - oh yeah, when you are SLAMaster-ing this make sure that you don't let the equipment combust until the players think that they have got their hands on the gear.
4. He knows things about SLA that are NOT common knowledge - not necessarily truthy stuff (that all depends on how you play the game - me I tend to ignore the truth unless it gives something extra to what's going down & hey - what is truth anyway ?) - but big commercial type secrets - this worries SLA as it impacts it's profits and has the happy coincidence of keeping The Department off Stigmatyr's hit list.

OK - I'm feeling guilty now, so here's a few of my ideas.

Probably occurred to you that The Master could be Mr. Slayer (don't like that one myself, but it's an obvious one never the less)

The Master is a survivor form one of the Conflict Wars Races - A pan dimensional being of some sort who actually exists in the mind of each of the Departments operatives. Or may be each of the Departments operatives is actually possessed by a member of this race and the Master is their supreme leader. This option gives you the chance to give the Department some strange kit and get away with it - no danger of letting the gear get into OPS's hands because it's all going to turn into ashes before the OPS get a chance to use it.

DEPARTMENTAL SPECIFICS

Well the main advantage that Department Ops have is that they have no terror of any of the creature of the WOP. OK they're not going to want to go toe to toe with HJ, but if the master says go and attack HJ then these guys are going to do it - certainly, they know that they are going to end up dead (they are not stupid - never get the idea that these guys are stupid) it's just that the master holds the key to the continued survival of the DOPS. Cross the master and you're ash.

It's virtually compulsory to give Department operatives interesting and violent unique items of non SLA manufacture .

Back to the other responses.