Oracle Society: The Devil Pills
Catching up on my Oracle Society Posts, I present the Oracle Society's adventure The Devil Pills.
A few weeks prior a new drug for mental illness started a trial run in a couple of Massachusetts health centers. A few days ago suddenly a small set of those patients turned violent, assaulting the doctors and damaging the facilities before escaping. As the patients showed inhuman strength and other frightening abilities the Oracle Society was quietly called in to investigate.
So did a batch of demonic drugs get dispatched? Or is there more to the story...
As the Society began looking into it they discovered a few odd bits about the drug GRC-12 known as "Grace". One, that it was actually a fairly normal emotional stabilizer and anti-psychotic. But in a very small percentage of the patients it worked incredibly well. Not only that but the ones it worked on were ones that had not responded to any other treatment.
The Society also found out tha the ones that had gone violent were, in fact, part of the ones that seemed to be responding. But they were attacking the doctors and specifically destroying all the Grace they could find.
So if this was contaminated with black magic, why were the demons destroying it?
A little bit of sleuthing found that the drug was actually allowing the patients to fight off a possessing demon. And in a last-ditch effort the demons had tried to go full-possession and succeeded in a few cases. A few murderous rages from the inmates and nobody would want GRC-12 ever again.
The plan didn't work, so they went on to Plan B: Destroying the one and only plant that makes the drug. Here is where the Society got to work their own magic as they also had figured out the plant would be the next target. (turns out the plant was using water from a blessed spring so it was amplifying the effects of the drug).
All in all it wasn't much of a fight for the group, the demons weren't very tough. The challenge was that the group had to hold back: unlike most of their previous fights these were obviously innocent victims being controlled by the demons...so lethal attacks were right out. But holy water still works wonders.
Another fun part is that one of the possessed, the only one that had actually murdered somebody, escaped at the end so the group can look forward to seeing her in the future.
This adventure was mainly based off of the classic devil possession stories like you see in Rosemary's Baby and other devil films. Where the demon gets into a person and then slowly drives them mad until finally they give up and accept the demon, creating a full blown baddie.
Also I kept thinking about how a person would react to that. If you're hearing voices, suffering delusions and nightmares what do you do? Some would check themselves in for treatment.
But if it's a demon the normal drugs at best will only keep it at bay. (again noting in this adventure it was a "very small percentage that didn't respond to other treatments" that were affected)
So give the doctors the tiniest of advantages and suddenly you have desperate demons, which can be awfully fun as antagonists.
Thus the Oracle Society solved the riddle of The Devil Pills, helped save several people, gained a new weapon against the bad guys and got a new enemy. All in a night's work.
A few weeks prior a new drug for mental illness started a trial run in a couple of Massachusetts health centers. A few days ago suddenly a small set of those patients turned violent, assaulting the doctors and damaging the facilities before escaping. As the patients showed inhuman strength and other frightening abilities the Oracle Society was quietly called in to investigate.
So did a batch of demonic drugs get dispatched? Or is there more to the story...
As the Society began looking into it they discovered a few odd bits about the drug GRC-12 known as "Grace". One, that it was actually a fairly normal emotional stabilizer and anti-psychotic. But in a very small percentage of the patients it worked incredibly well. Not only that but the ones it worked on were ones that had not responded to any other treatment.
The Society also found out tha the ones that had gone violent were, in fact, part of the ones that seemed to be responding. But they were attacking the doctors and specifically destroying all the Grace they could find.
So if this was contaminated with black magic, why were the demons destroying it?
A little bit of sleuthing found that the drug was actually allowing the patients to fight off a possessing demon. And in a last-ditch effort the demons had tried to go full-possession and succeeded in a few cases. A few murderous rages from the inmates and nobody would want GRC-12 ever again.
The plan didn't work, so they went on to Plan B: Destroying the one and only plant that makes the drug. Here is where the Society got to work their own magic as they also had figured out the plant would be the next target. (turns out the plant was using water from a blessed spring so it was amplifying the effects of the drug).
All in all it wasn't much of a fight for the group, the demons weren't very tough. The challenge was that the group had to hold back: unlike most of their previous fights these were obviously innocent victims being controlled by the demons...so lethal attacks were right out. But holy water still works wonders.
Another fun part is that one of the possessed, the only one that had actually murdered somebody, escaped at the end so the group can look forward to seeing her in the future.
This adventure was mainly based off of the classic devil possession stories like you see in Rosemary's Baby and other devil films. Where the demon gets into a person and then slowly drives them mad until finally they give up and accept the demon, creating a full blown baddie.
Also I kept thinking about how a person would react to that. If you're hearing voices, suffering delusions and nightmares what do you do? Some would check themselves in for treatment.
But if it's a demon the normal drugs at best will only keep it at bay. (again noting in this adventure it was a "very small percentage that didn't respond to other treatments" that were affected)
So give the doctors the tiniest of advantages and suddenly you have desperate demons, which can be awfully fun as antagonists.
Thus the Oracle Society solved the riddle of The Devil Pills, helped save several people, gained a new weapon against the bad guys and got a new enemy. All in a night's work.