Scale And Prophet

Scale And Prophet
Part of The Arrival
Date 2084-01-27 GM Asmodeus Location Seattle Sprawl Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven West Coast Monolith Hextech Bolt Informer	Monolith	Kalanyr
Delphi	Visions	The man himself.
Initiation ordeal for the explorer.

Summary

Delphi's mentor spirit Oracle wants her to figure things out. Things get bad.

Background

Delphi heard recently of talismongers in Seattle having the same nightmare en masse. Called a 'mass prophetic event' they're rare but often an omen of an impending disaster.

Initial Suspicions

Delphi does plenty of gazoogling to figure out what the hell's been going on. She discovers that someone already went to check this out, Jeanne Hristvilg. She's currently comatose in Seattle Universal Hospital in University Point, Seattle. Shadow Community knowledge reveals that this has been something runners accomplished, saving her from being kidnapped in a Shiawase facility by a third party. Delphi can't quite get a reasonable appointment due to Jeanne's will of treatment denying meetings from any who weren't family. Delphi chooses to project to the room instead and evades the astral security of the hospital to do so. Able to psychometrize and see cellular damage and an odd astral signature sustaining a curse in the aware researcher's heart, Delphi gets a vision of a peculiar coilgun fusing into Jeanne's hand, sucking her into yet another vision of a desert and a tornado of darkness chasing them towards a blinding light. Ukrainian voices whisper into Delphi's ears and Jeanne seems to look directly at Delphi in the Psychometry vision, compelling her to tell 'them' about the vision.

Investigations

Delphi starts approaching the West Coast Monolith first of all, unable to connect immediate ties due to iconography differing but having known Vichnozeleny until the runner's death. Hextech is in the Devil Lake base to meet Delphi and inquire about the elf's visit. When elaborated, Hextech offers to try and ask Bolt for an audience but warns that the boss is high-strung due to potential gang wars breaking out between the Ancients and Crimson Crush. Delphi offers to try and see if she can use her connections to the Ancients to prevent it, so Bolt calms down and tries to help. Vic was cagey and withdrawn about her past, so little was known. Bolt's not all that helpful aside from saying that Vic didn't keep any written records and was adamant that the WCM doesn't repeat the original Monolith's mistakes.

He does mention that Warboss and the Skraacha were Vic's first home in Seattle when she arrived to the sprawl mysteriously, something even the runner herself never figured out. Delphi arranges a meeting with other runners' and contacts' connections and with enough convincing manages Warboss to let her go through the remaining scraps of where Vic used to live. She finds a spent shell casing made into a necklace, an odd Fifth World trinket since everything uses caseless ammo again. This again triggers a psychometric vision of Vic apparently slaughtering a varied group of runners by the CNPP in cold blood, feeling rapturous euphoria each time. Delphi instantly consumes Lael after the vision breaks, wanting to forget it outside of having it recorded on a Dreamlink recording. Using Mona Lisa and a Visualizer to reconstruct the vision's buildings, she gets intel on the location indeed being the CNPP eight or nine years ago. The runners were a team of 12 runners hired by S-K to investigate the Sarcophagus. None returned alive, not even the two prime-level veteran squad leaders. After that, S-K ceased overt expeditions.

Divinations

After this, Delphi returns to her office and begins divining and asking Informer for answers. Informer doesn't arrive, instead sending a message telepathically. After that, Delphi attempts augury and sortilege in order: What is the vision about? What is happening to Jeanne Hristvilg's body? What did Jeanne learn or what is she trying to learn? In order, from Informer's message to these three messages, the divined scryings are written as such:

Nineteen great tragedies emerge from their graves
The folly of the future and the folly of the past merge
Final Star meets its maker and synthesizes anew
Branches split and combine to make many into one once more.
It all begins with The Devourer.

The chosen begin on a march to Nazareth. Lazarus rises from his grave.
The Messiah does not witness the Holy Ghost on his deathbed. The cross is vacant.
Heaven does not answer your prayers. The skies are silent.
Only Man responds, for he has become God of his own world.
All that exists is parted by him and will part once more.

The Devourer locks the door.
Her key is no different than her soul.
Mad prophets bang on the door, hoping for an answer.
The burning light wants to answer.
The tinted glasses shield the gatekeeper from the truth.
The prophet's passion is the Sword of Damocles.

Generosity is the font of madness.
Truth is revealed in the eyes of many, delusion in the eyes of one.
Unknown is the fear, unknown is the temptation.
A darkness beyond the door asks for the key.
The prophet beholds the sword and condemns her folly.
Heaven does not answer her; her canonization is that of desecration.

Oracle helps her only slightly to analyze the deciphered texts. After a hundred years, the Monolith attempts to recreate Chernobyl's nuclear catastrophe in some perverse worship of their deity. 1986 was the first time, 2086 will be the second. The Devourer is one of astral nicknames for insect spirits. Lazarus may be a reference to the dead nuclear core in Glow City and the Monolith's intent to revive it to force a violent meltdown. Divinations all result in the same result, the 'divine' divination, Heaven, being silent and not answering the prayers of seers. All that exists may be a reference to atoms and 'being parted' speaking of fission.

Delphi's understanding that Jeanne may go down in history as the one to see the horror of this premonition is a depressing epitaph on her tombstone. Desperate for more knowledge, she decides to sleep on it to recover and go for one more day of research after several days of anxiety and panic. Informer sends her a brief message: She's awake. Delphi rushes to the hospital, seeing Jeanne recovering from heart surgery where the peculiar growth on her heart was excised. Finally awake, Delphi's able to speak to her and confirm that Jeanne's not aware of what's happened for months due to being in a coma. She's concerned by the passage of time, however, and had intended on meeting with Kalanyr before the kidnapping happened. Delphi takes the meeting instead and arranges for WCM to transport her there with at least a sturdy getaway car -in case- Kalanyr isn't feeling charitable.

The dragon appears mostly curious about Delphi's discoveries and thoughts, almost like an adult viewing an infant's first words. He's naturally condescending, devouring a thief just before Delphi enters the rooftop of his apartment block penthouse in Redmond. Kalanyr is mostly aware of the same points of knowledge, but is surprised by a few details Delphi has that are new. He suggests that Jeanne may have been forcibly made comatose by an Invae, The Devourer mentioned in the divinations, in order to "stall" the prophecy. If Jeanne's curiosity and warnings are the beginning of the prophecy's march, stopping her from telling anyone may buy more time for Seattle to prepare. Delphi bypassed this protection by looking into Jeanne's memories and spreading her word, however, starting the countdown to the arrival of the Monolith once more. If their interpretations of these omens are right, the horrid nuclear deity of Chernobyl aims to make a pilgrimage to Glow City to feed off the radiation of the Glow and cause another gigantic meltdown.

And Delphi feels mildly responsible.

Aftermath

Kalanyr seems interested in using Delphi as the key to solving this, since he claims 'our kind are not the ones permitted to solve this prophecy, but you mortals. You may as well serve as the key now that you're here.' This is mostly because he saw Delphi's latent dracomorphosis and finds a seer drake an interesting potential. He also admits that he has a decent chunk of Glow City's corium but will fight tooth and nail to prevent the Monolith from getting it after he finished sealing it in a well contained safe. A dragon is a mighty guardian to such a potent nuclear power, one will have to see if Kalanyr remains true to his word about this however.

Note: minor details may have been missed from the AAR because the GM was tired when writing the AAR.

Rewards

• 15 Karma (15 RVP)
• 8 CDP (3 RVP)
• + 1 West Coast Monolith Reputation
• Initiation Ordeal Discount
• Optional Contact: Nyon Salaine, 2/3 Himbo Elf Boyfriend (4 RVP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.