Navigating the Noosphere
| Navigating the Noosphere | |||||||||
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| Part of The Metroplex Governor Race of '84 | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Illuminates of the New Dawn Informer | Dawkins Group | ||||||||
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Ashford Astrid Conduit Mara |
Courier Mage Guardian Spirits | ||||||||
| Astrid burned a point of edge to smackdown. | |||||||||
Summary
In which the runners take a trip to the Metaplane of Man and poke around in the collective unconsciousness.
Background
The Illuminates of the New Dawn have become aware that the Dawkins Group have been tampering with the noosphere (the collective unconciousness of metahumanity) for some time, and think this is a swell idea to influence the upcoming election in the favor of the New Century Party. For plausible deniability reasons, they've decided to hire an independent team of mages to intercept a Horizon courier mage and take a certain package from them - a totem from a hyper-metaplane embodying the collective will of the Metroplex residents which can be used for ritual purposes.
The Meet
The runners are contacted individually by their fixers and told that a certain Ms. Johnson is looking for capable magical talent for a metaplanar jaunt, and that they should meet her at the Alabaster Maiden Downtown; everyone manages to make it there, though all but Ashford nearly have their SINs burned at various checkpoints en-route (they manage to talk their way out of things however). At the nightclub, the runners pat the statue outside for good luck, then head inside; Astrid attempts to barter for drinks, and Mara saves her from a potentially compromising situation before linking up with the other two mages.
Telling the bartender they're with the Johnson party, they recieve an RFID tag to let them into one of the private rooms. Inside, Ms. Johnson waits with a white-noise generator, assensing each member of the party as they enter (Mara's 13 hits on masking manage to hold up against this). She tells the runners that she represents a group of mages who have detected disturbances in the noosphere and seek to correct them, and that she has been told by their augurs that a certain party will be carrying a certain package through a city on the Metaplane of Man which she needs them to intercept and convey to her associates, while having another of her comrades pose as the courier to delay discovery until the item is secured. The group ask a few questions, but she remains tight-lipped, and firm on her offer of 14k each (though she does entertain the request for foci to be crafted as part of the payment).
Having accepted the terms of the job, the runners are provided with a commcode for both their employer and her associate - codename "Dawn" - who will be guiding them to the metaplanes. She tells them that the augurs have indicated the next 48 hours to be the critical window to retrieve the package, and advises them to take shade to increase the duration they will be able to project.
The Plan
Astrid procures shade through the Ancients, while Mara simply asks around the club until she finds a dealer; Conduit mooches a dose off of them, while Ashford declines to take any drugs for the journey (everyone else doses up on loco speedballs). Ashford rents a warded room in the club to project from, while Mara returns to her hobbit hole to do so from the comfort of her lodge - meanwhile, Astrid and Conduit bring an offering to Lord Emberrage, who deigns to provide them a small cave near the Puyallup lava flows from which they can project in relative safety.
The Run
At the appointed time, the runners meet up with Dawn outside the club, who proves to be a rather friendly feline shifter. She fills the group in on what she knows - not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, as the IOND likes to keep things compartmentalized, though she does know they're looking for a magician wearing a red face scarf - and guides them in projecting themselves into the metaplanes (with only Mara having been past the Dweller at the Threshold before; Conduit believes he was at one point, but was unconscious for the experience.)
The confrontation with the Dweller is as harrowing as ever, with the being looking into each of their souls and laying bare their inner turmoil in the form of a shared dream-like vision; thankfully no one tries to hide anything or put on airs, and because they are honest with themselves the Dweller allows them to pass the Threshold into the astral sea.
The party appears in Ulthar, a peaceful pastoral town which is home to a preponderance of cats; Dawn tells them that they are a good source of rumors, as they talk to cats (and cat spirits) on the Material Plane (and even have a queen who they report to). She knows that Ulthar is not where the courier will be passing through, but rather a nearby city, and goes to gather some intel. Conduit decides to do the same by attempting to contact his associate Informer, who soon after appears with an accompanying black-and-white aura in a nearby shady allyway, complete with noir PI monologue.
Informer tells the group that they are aware of the interference with the noosphere and suspect metahuman involvement; when told they are looking for a nearby city where a courier is supposed to pass through, they say the closest city is Dylath-Leen and that the best way to reach it would be to take the train (which cuts a journey of two weeks into two hours). Dawn agrees with this course of action, and Informer decides to accompany the party in order to find The Truth of the situation.
The train proves to be a series of enormous but docile creatures linked together with palanquins strapped to their backs; although the party lack tickets to ride, the bird-masked conductor provides them each with one free of charge and invites them to board. On the train, Mara spots a familiar face among the passengers - an dwarven explorer named Jurgen who she has encountered before. The dwarf helpfully explains that Dylath-Leen is considered a wretched hive of scum and villainy among the denizens of the plane, and is the only port where the infamous Black Ships of the Men From Leng are permitted to dock; he advises her to stay outside the city walls and restrict her investigations to the docks, and to watch her back carefully.
The journey goes by quickly, with plenty of cats to pet in the meantime, and before the group knows it the imposing basalt towers of Dylath-Leen are visible in the distance. The train comes to a halt outside the city walls and the mages disembark, deciding on their next move. After putting up a mindnet so that they can remain in contact with one-another, Conduit and Informer decide to scout out the docks and look for information while Astrid, disregarding the warnings, thinks that entering the city and following her gut is the best way to go - Ashford and Mara accompany her in order to keep an eye out for trouble.
At the docks, Conduit is lent some reagents by Informer, which he proceeds to lose in a game of cards with some other travelers. Instead, he offers an exchange of karma with a spirit working as a crewmen on one of the vessels in the harbor for information, learning that many traveling mages come through looking for illicit goods or forbidden knowledge. After describing the person he's looking for, Conduit learns that the courier booked passage on a ship with red sails which is due to leave port in about six hours, and is able to secure passage for the group on the spirit's own ship after learning it is heading to Celephaïs, the group's eventual destination.
Meanwhile, in the city, the trio run into a group of shady-looking ruffians who give them some trouble; a few veiled threats to bind them (complete with a bit too much sincerity on the part of the hermetic) nearly starts a fight, but they manage to diffuse the tension and learn that another traveling mage has evidently been making trouble by binding the locals to their service. They receive directions to nearby Shadow Square, where they find a boarded up house with a large ward around it, and decide to break in instead of spending the time to stake it out. Ashford conceals himself in allyway near the back door while Astrid and Mara wait for a patrol of guards to pass by before knocking on the front door.
A (clearly-bound) spirit answers them, tersely telling them to go away - the two remain obstinate, and know just how to needle a spirit such that the summoner needs to get involved. The mage soon arrives to shoo them away, and no amount of prodding convinces him otherwise, so Mara employs a bit of mind control and uses her compulsion power to make him come outside (via the back door); Astrid notices a curious signature left behind by this, but Mara quickly scrubs it away and tells her to go and ambush the mage. Unfortunately their third eye proves particularly keen and they manage to spot the ambushes laying in wait, while Ashford and Astrid are both caught off-guard by the speed with which they react.
Combat ensues, in which Mara holds the mage off with her weapon focus and engages in a sword duel while the mage brings his bound guardian spirit into play; Ashford plinks away at him with stunbolts, but his spell defense proves tricky to get through. Astrid, taking offense at the binding, attempts to banish the spirit and remove the services owed - she is successful in this thanks to the power of edge, but the intense mana backlash nearly kills her outright and only the timely intervention of Lord Emberrage back on the material plane keeps her essence from disappointing into the astral sea. Instead her astral form is knocked out, meaning that the rest of the team need to get her back to her body before her projection duration is up.
With the spirit freed from binding, it turns on the mage and assists Mara with hitting him with her sword - this successfully knocks him out as well. In thanks, the spirit tells them that the mage was hiding a package upstairs, which Ashford goes to retrieve while Mara tends to Astrid (unfortunately since the damage was from drain healing magic is ineffective, so she can't do very much to help her at the moment). Ashford finds the package - a traveler's suitcase with an intricate arcane lock on it - and brings it back to the others, who call Dawn to take the courier's place using masking (the courier has Astralnaut and is not in danger of fading like Astrid is; they wake up hours later and inform their superiors about the situation, but by that point the IOND has the package secured away safely).
Making their way to the docks, the party board the boat Conduit booked passage for them on, which sails across the Astral Sea towards Celephaïs. A discussion ensues about opening the package, which Conduit is against, but Mara's Oracle-induced curiosity gets the better of her and she supports the notion of opening it after Ashford reveals that he is skilled in artificing and can recreate the lock. Inside is an ephemeral representation of the Space Needle - the totem embodies the collective will of an appreciable portion of the Metroplex population. Ashford is against giving it to the IOND due to the potential it could be misused and thinks it should be destroyed, but Informer advises against that course of action, saying it could have deleterious effects on the psyche of those it serves as a symbolic link to. The others convince him to go along and that the IOND are the most suitable group to safeguard it, playing on the group's good reputation in the Awakened community; while their employer said they only wish to correct the interference which has been done to the noosphere, Ashford is concerned that they may decide to be more proactive with it.
Aftermath
After a tense boat ride during which Ashford is concerned that his projection duration will run out, the group arrives in the timeless city of Celephaïs with moments to spare - due to the time dilation effects of the city and the surrounding environs, their projection time is extended enough to cover the handoff and journey home. They head to one of the colourful minarets to which they were directed, and find a quartet of robed and hooded figures waiting for them in what a prepared hermetic ritual circle. Handing over the package (which the mages do not notice has been tampered with), they are thanked for their efforts and told that their payment will be waiting for them when they return to the material plane.
Back in meatspace the group manages to get Astrid back to her body in time, where they are revealed to find her alive. Contacting Ms. Johnson, they arrange a meetup and procure their payments for a job well done.
Rewards
14k nuyen (7 RVP)
7 karma (7 RVP)
14 CDP (6 RVP)
+3 IOND reputation
Astrid owes a chip to Lord Emberrage for the timely save. Can take Chain Breaker as a story beat for literally breaking spirit chains.
Optional Contact: Informer (C2/L2 Sprit Detective) for 3 RVP or 6 CDP
Optional Contact: Lord Emberrage (C5/L1 Firelord) for 5 RVP or 10 CDP
Optional Contact: Queen Elizabeth XXIII (C6/L1 Queen of Cats) for 6 RVP or 12 CDP
Optional Gear Reward: Foci up to availability 18 made by the INOD
Narrative Consequences: Horizon's psyop to manipulate the Metroplex's noosphere is disrupted, and the NCP's backers obtain the totem instead (-1 to the Democrats score, +1 to the NCP's score from using it to reverse their interference - if this division is untenable, then simply +2 to NCP).