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Church mace

The church mace is a canister issued to Andrew Howard by his church, which looks like a can of pepper spray but sprays a "nothing" that passes through matter, erasing or severing whatever is in its path and leaving its victims in a violent seizure.
Type Item (weapon)
Aliases Andrew's pepper spray; the absence; Andrew's mace; the mace; the nothing; the void; Andrew's holy weapon; the absence beam
Holder Andrew Howard
Origin Given to Andrew by his church, the Aetherius Society
First appearance Radford Horror 08

Description

In Radford Horror 08 Andre rules that the "mace" was given to Andrew by his church, and Rita adds that it has been his self-defense weapon for years and that he has never used it before. It is a canister rather than a club, and its contents are not a chemical: Zack remarks that ordinary pepper spray "is made of stuff", while Andre says Andrew's "is void". What comes out is called "nothing" or "nothingness" (Radford Horror 08).

Andrew carries it with his usual gear, alongside his camera, pistol and satchel (Walkers 07). He treats it as ordinary pepper spray and tends to forget in the moment that it is not: "Shit, I forgot this wasn't pepper spray," Rita says in Summer Service 05 (Summer Service 05).

Properties

  • Erases matter, then restores it. When the nothing passes through a body, the matter in its path vanishes, so onlookers can see sinus cavity, brain, pulsing blood vessels and cross-sections of skull. As the nothing exits the back of the skull, the face returns around it (Radford Horror 08). In Walkers 07 a man's head is erased for a fraction of a second, showing cross-sections of colors that do not belong in a human head and leaving the bits of his face that remain looking "extremely surprised" (Walkers 07).
  • Causes seizures. The men hit in the head in Radford Horror 08 and Walkers 07 both drop into a grand mal seizure once the matter returns (Radford Horror 08, Walkers 07).
  • Severs. In Summer Service 05 Andre rules it a three-harm weapon; it takes a dog's head off and passes through Kurt's hand (Summer Service 05). In Appalachia 09 it cleanly cuts off an ape-man's arm (Appalachia 09).
  • Resembles the crack in the air. When the team studies the crack in the air, Rita asks how similar it is to "my pepper spray, where it's just, like, an absence?" and Andre describes metal visible through it with a hard edge (Appalachia 09).
  • Unexplained. Nobody at the table learns how it works. In Radford Horror 08 Ezra and Dante first wonder whether the man's reaction was a side effect of his cloaking gear, and conclude only that the canister itself is strange (Radford Horror 08). In Walkers 07 Dante says that the table does not know what is going on with the pepper spray but has "seen it melt through a man" (Walkers 07).

History

The Radford Horror

After the church fight in Radford Horror 08, the team hides in the woods from men in camouflage and "volcanologist" gear. Kurt sets himself up as hidden bait under bloody leaves and kicks the searcher in the groin to bring his head down into range. Andrew, who had been planning to pepper spray him, shouts "Did you know Jesus is one of the Masters?" as a distraction, a line Rita proposes as the kind of weirdness Andrew would use, and fires the mace. The man is left convulsing; the team ties him up and takes his flashlight and a "shadow poncho" (Radford Horror 08). See Flashlight weapon.

The Summer Service

In Summer Service 05 Andrew goes for his pepper spray against the worm-ridden Doberman in Arnold Weathers' house after it has savaged Huell and Kurt, shouting "Hold it away from you!" He rolls a 6 on Kick Some Ass and then a 2 to avoid hitting Kurt, so both are caught in the spray. The nothing takes the dog's head off, but also goes through Kurt's hand, costing him about ten percent of his blood volume and three harm (Summer Service 05). The dog's head stays alive, with open eyes and a moving jaw, and the team bags it for McManley's RV; see Puddles.

The Things in Appalachia

In Appalachia 09 the team, some of them in bear suits, is pursued through the Dahlonega mines by Big Bob, a huge, fast ape-man that survives shotgun fire. It picks Huell up and holds him over its head. Rita rolls a 10 on Kick Some Ass and uses the spray's "absence" to cut off the arm holding Huell. The beam passes through, Huell drops onto Andrew for one harm, and the ape looks at its spurting stump before toppling backwards, ending the fight. Andrew pries the severed hand off Huell and keeps it as a trophy (Appalachia 09).

The Walkers in Skin

Early in Walkers 07, when a monster is choking Kurt and Huell in a hallway with Andrew on its back, Rita asks whether Andrew has an angle to "pepper spray, sever the arm". The table jokes that the spray is deadlier than a gun, but Rita instead rolls Cast Out Evil and the spray is not used (Walkers 07).

Later in the episode Andrew, led into a gym by people who want to replace him, asks what "the hard way" is. The man who has been talking tries to kiss him with tendrils coming out of his throat, and Andrew sprays him in the face as he would a mugger (Kick Some Ass, 9). The man's head is erased for a moment and he drops into a seizure, but the fight goes badly for Andrew, who is kicked by a horse and shot with a shotgun (Walkers 07). See Andrew Howard (duplicate).

The Radford Horrors

In Radford Horrors 02, as the others plan what to tell a contact, Rita jokes that Howard, if he overheard, would say, "Oh, I guess I should warn you guys, I did bring that weird pepper spray" (Radford Horrors 02).

Trivia

  • The canister goes by several names at the table. In Radford Horror 08 the players use "mace" and "pepper spray" interchangeably; in Summer Service 05 Andre calls it Andrew's "holy weapon", which the table had just re-themed on his sheet, while Rita calls it his pepper spray; and from Appalachia 09 onward the table speaks only of his pepper spray and its "absence". Its effects are the same under every name (Radford Horror 08, Summer Service 05, Appalachia 09).
  • The bear-suited gang in Appalachia 09 also carries ordinary pepper spray among its gear (Appalachia 09).
  • Dante jokes in Walkers 02 that "you can't even pepper spray" geese, since they are "immune to capsaicin" (Walkers 02).

Appearances