"...what he really needed was some pretext to institute a mass kidnapping and sacrifice to make another Essence Casket. That would put him in the good books of 'Osiris' and the rest of the OSS. He still had hopes that there would be a way of engineering a situation with those Archeologists. Possibly if he just kidnapped one of them and used the pretext to lure a group of them up to the Tombs of El- Bersheh? However he would need a few more Zombi servants first. In between all this he still had to learn that Corporeal Song of Essence and find a sufficiently powerful elemental deity that would give him the Ethereal Connection so that he can learn the Ethereal Song as well. If only his father had not fallen to pieces so soon..."
of Ardath Bey
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Notes: Generation was over remarkably quickly. Indeed with no Major Arcana his personal Arcane Resources are massively limited. Hence his slow evolution into an Essence Miser. This NPC is 'Oz' like in his omnipotence, masquerading as a massively powerful Nemesis with Demons at his beck and call when in fact he is little better than a hedge wizard! It was amusing to see Temperance (*) turn up as I had already decided on his anti-alcohol stance. Spooky...
§ His personal Arcane resources being limited it will be necessary to use the defences (and offences!) of his Sanctum to give the Players a challenge...
Using the G/M of the Art™ in theory Ardath could contain as many as six other Forces.
| Forces | |||||
| Corporeal | 2 | Strength | 6 | Agility | 2 |
| Ethereal | 3 | Intelligence | 7 | Precision | 5 |
| Celestial | 2 | Will | 6 | Perception | 2 |
Ardath rarely leaves his House and only normally ventures as far as the Mosque which is in the outer keep. Especially during daylight hours. Proper summons to Gimel have not been practiced since his Father died under mysterious circumstances. (All the male line of his family have died under mysterious circumstances!). Ardath is even more lax in his religious duties than his father, who at least observed the proprieties. Ardath uses an amplifier and loudspeaker connected to an alarm clock with built in cassette player. The appropriate summons to morning Prayer recorded on a worn tape. He rarely attends any daylight ceremony instead sending his only son to lead the prayers. The only time he will emerge is if he hears of someone with alcohol, being obsessed about the strict observance of this injunction. He will emerge at night and descend with wrath upon the sinner and generally brutalise the entire village. Performing a house to hovel search, causing pandemonium and chaos. The Villagers are to frightened to say or do anything. If anyone crosses him (or his lackey Kaffir) terrible things happen...
Through his 'Servant' Sirob, Ardath directly serves Saminga. The latter being particularly proud that he has an Infernal armourer capable of producing Staves of Corruption (Rotting Curse). Ardath gained this second Attunement so that production could continue. The first is a family tradition....
However the Sorcerous Attunement was courtesy of a direct Infernal Pact with Hatiphas. Who via an additional Oath requires him to Gimel his Superior by reporting any deficiencies or weaknesses of Saminga's command. This Oath gained him the Fated Future attunement.
Having not really performed any noteworthy actions to date he has not received any further Distinctions. However if he were to reveal word about what he was able to achieve with the Reliever, that may change.
Two new rituals of note and of partially his own devising are:
Necromancy Animal Zombification (Scorpion)
In theory this would require Necromancy /4 or /5 and Ardath is not a Necromancer! Sirob actually controls the creation process using one of Ardath's Grandfather's old Rituals that used to terrify them in the 60's - the 1860's! Adding an embellishment to an otherwise rather staid Zombi. The intended subject is killed using the poison appropriate to the intended effect. If you wanted say a Zombi with Gimel (!) Numinous Corpus you would use a mixture of camel dung, urine, spit and rotting camel meat. By distilling this corruption down to its essential oil you could kill someone using it and then on Zombification their Numinous Corpus would have Camel side effects: Hump, Hooves and Acid! Lacking Alchemical Skills, Ardath is experimenting with Scorpion venom and Romero is one of his more successful transformations.
Sub Ethereal Vibratory Destruction of Strong Celestial Forces
(q.v.) Death of a Reliever
Enhanced Store Essence Rituals (§)
Although he does not possess any Arcane artifacts per se; his Sorcerous abilities allow the construction of Spirit anchors, Jars etc. Over the years (and generations) his family have built up a business in the construction of non standard Spirit Jars. Thus the Beys over the Gimels now control a vast network of hidden Essence Pipes that binds the high ranking forces of Saminga and the CIA along the length and breadth of the Nile. Obtaining a level of Hydrodespotism (in Essence) unrivalled since the days of the Ancient Pharaohs. The latter by controlling the Military/Priesthhood, controlled the Fellahin (Peasant Farmers) to ensure that their lands were the last to be flooded. It can be assumed that Ardath will have an abundance of Essence for any Ritual.
Despite this (or perhaps because of it) he is an Essence Miser
of the worst proportions even stealing it from his congregation
at special midnight services that everyone in the Village must
attend. Ardath works largely alone and does not have a Cabal of
fellow initiates to work with preferring to keep his rituals personal
and private. His uses to the CIA are manifold and one of the main
reasons why they are so protective of him. 
Another reason is the family speciality:
Staff of Corruption
Every so often Ardath is successful in creating one of these. On purpose he constructs it as a Relic/1 and it thus requires another six points of Essence to cause the Curse. Most normal Mortal and Immortal Hellsworn have barely enough Essence to power its Effect. Thus by producing these he has a regular trade in low capacity Essence Flasks, Coffers,... used to boost the wielder's Essence to a 'comfortable' Gimel.
Modus Operandi and Essence Power Politics
The regular usage by Soldiers of Death as well as Servants of Servitors of other Demon Princes means that he has a steady trade in recharging the Essence Flasks and Coffers. Naturally to do this he charges in Essence rather than Gimel. The costs for recharging being double the Essence cost of the Ritual plus the Essence to be stored. A tidy profit in Essence for himself! This harvesting of Humanity whilst still living pleases Saminga, mirroring in microcosm his efforts in Abaddon.
Naturally the preferred container(s) for this Essence are fully charged Mundanes. Servitors and Servants requiring 'refueling' turn up about once a month with a group of dazed and confused Mundanes. There is generally a little 'Gimel' out in the deep Eastern Desert and the lucky ones leave feeling drained and listless. This usually results in a 20 to 30 Essence profit per transaction.
Once in a while the party is really wild and some of the Mundanes don't leave. At these events a Higher Ranking General in the Hellforce or even a Demon with extensive Corporeal commitments requires something special. It is at this time Ardath creates the 'fully featured' Essence storage Containers. Owing to the nature of the clientele Ardath moderates his charges depending on what he thinks he can get away with - naturally he gets to keep any surplus Essence in the form of a Gimel. Alternatively he uses the occasion and surplus Mundanes to create Essence Caskets or secretly connect his customers Containers to Essence Pipes!
Most customers are unaware that Ardath has this capability. Normally no Vampiric Flask or Essence Casket leaves Ardath's hands unless it has an Essence pipe attached to a one point Coffer. Once a week Ardath and his son tap these Coffers for their Essence. The amount is so slight that no-one is the wiser. If anyone notices they normally put it down to leakage and bring the Container back to Ardath to be 'Fixed'! Naturally after that point Ardath makes a point not to Gimel that Container again. Occasionally the owner discovers what Ardath has done and decends in wrath. Ardath feigns ignorance and makes out that this is a new breakthrough in Essence hydraulics. Hurridly they repeat the experiment and 'discover' a 'new' Ritual! Realising the significance of this 'discovery'; Ardath swears the customer to absolute secrecy and plans another secret desert party. There he creates a Casket and plumbs it into a personalised Coffer. Most of the OSS have this secret arrangement with Ardath; jealously keeping this arcane knowledge to themselves. Over the years those in the know request secret 'plumbing' jobs connecting their Servitors and Minions Containers in such a bewildering network that Ardath has completely lost track. Most of the OSS Nomarchs have access to twice their basic Essence and the Upper echelon have effectively unlimited access to Essence
As a special commission Ardath can combine a Staff of Corruption and a Vampiric Coffer. The combination is a much sought after item.
Ardath heard word that the Foreign Infidels mucking around on his turf had smuggled in some alcohol. (The Lone Archeologists). Enraged and unable to really do anything directly about it; he issued orders that ideally would lead to their Sacrificial end. These Infidels were flouting Holy Islamic Law! Picking on Hector at random, Ardath ordered Romero to knock out Hector and drag him back to his lair at El Bersheh. Later on that night Ardath would visit and personally lay on a Rotting Death Curse and they would see if Hector would make a good Zombi in the fullness of time. With luck his strange Gimel would cause pandemonium; the dig would be placed under an unnecessary quarantine. With a little help from his friends, Ardath would have an opportunity to make a permanent end to their lives - a Casket/6!
Meanwhile Ardath continues the work his father did before him; that of storing enough Essence to construct a (second!) monumental Essence Vault. He is using 'Dao' or Islamic Earth Elementals (IN: Primal Spirits of Stone) to construct a new gallery and is slowly filling it with Containers of various Types and Capacities. Bearing in mind he requires 100 points of Essence per 10 point Vault it is a slow process! Once he has 'enough' of these variable sized Containers, he will add their contents to the contents of his father's Essence collection and enshrine the Essence as a monument to his posterity. The last time the Family did this it destroyed the Mosque's Tower in what everybody thought was an Gimel.
Hidden the bowels of Ardath's Sanctum Profanum is the family secret. An Essence Vault of immense proportions. Ardath has no idea what he would do with all that Essence! Nor does he have any idea why his Father and indeed generations of Beys have been constructing these Vaults, except of course to horde Essence. The important thing is to stop it being wasted. The Family Vault apart from the occasional emergency has been full for over a generation and every day there is a lost opportunity and lost Essence.
When it comes to Essence Ardath is not rational, he would rather sacrifice his own Gimel than 'waste' valuable Essence.
This vast collection of Essence may be triggered at the dénouement of Ardath's death in typical 'Mad Sorcerer' fashion. As a suitably explosive finale it may cause the formation of a portal or Tether with unusual characteristics, add random Forces with peculiar thanotic attunements to any Angels caught up in the periphery of the blast, create Ethereal Entities from beyond Time and Space! (But possibly one of those is enough!) Close up and personal to the Gimel will probably mean an unfortunate but somewhat spectacular end to the Team member. Alternatively point blank exposure to the massive release of Essence Radiation and the proximity to Osiris' Kingdom of the Dead may effect a bulk green skinned transformation!
As a side effect to this destruction; all of Ardath's Containers plumbed in to the Vault will self destruct sympathetically thus radically crippling Saminga's Undead operation in Egypt. From a truly Celestial viewpoint (i.e. Orbit) these pinpoint explosions of arcane energies causing the complex network of Essence linkages over the Nile valley to Gimel into brilliance and die.
Naturally the secrets of the Beys will be lost in the explosion and the CIA will take decades to recover...
Ardath was particularly remiss in failing to connect the presence of the Reliever with that of Hector especially since he had the Fated Future attunement. The fact that Hector died before they had even met would be no excuse. Failing to check 'Downstairs' when you foul up is always bad news. But sending a Zombi out to do Demon's work is just plain Gimel!
