Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
ES, I could'a sworn we agreed that you don't get to roll 'Dox any more after... when was the last time you made an awful paradox roll?
Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
NonSequtur
a body
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I botched my last Paradox roll for Elsa! All her temp Dox vanished! Times were great!
(the last one I... um, made a big problem with was Kessler going into a Quiet)
5 successes is enough to get what you want. Much better than 0 net successes, anyhow.
Now, that paradox roll... Good news! She is back to her 4 permanent paradox. Bad news!
Hobgoblins.
Henriette is unconscious and dreaming nightmares of her mission on Iteration X. What she doesn't know is that these nightmares are actively manifesting themselves. She's literally creating Autopolitan units out of thin air to harass the party. Because her dream-ghosts are Autopolitans, they are allied with the enemy.
Quick vote:
[ ] Leave Henriette behind
[ ] Don't leave Henriette behind
I think I said that ES was designated paradox roller because he gives us the best results.
Now, that paradox roll... Good news! She is back to her 4 permanent paradox. Bad news!
Hobgoblins.
Henriette is unconscious and dreaming nightmares of her mission on Iteration X. What she doesn't know is that these nightmares are actively manifesting themselves. She's literally creating Autopolitan units out of thin air to harass the party. Because her dream-ghosts are Autopolitans, they are allied with the enemy.
Quick vote:
[ ] Leave Henriette behind
[ ] Don't leave Henriette behind
I think I said that ES was designated paradox roller because he gives us the best results.
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Curse you, Nebulous But Malicious Avatar of Dramatic Tension!
[x] Don't leave Henriette behind
I don't care that it is 10000x more sensible to abandon Henriette, we have spent so much time and focus of this quest on her that I don't want to let it all go to waste with a sad clown noise of her brain being full of spiders, where spiders equates to "love control" and "obey panopticon"
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Sigh. So she managed to knock out almost all the enemy units. And in return, they're going to have to make their way from an urban facility where the power's failed, it's full of wrecked machines and cloned soldiers where nightmares are attacking.
DAMMIT HENRIETTE! You're not the designated FEAR jokes person! You can't steal the "being Jamelia's daughter" shtick from Alice that easily!
(I swear, if Ms Clock has managed to get her hands on a Phase Commander, I'll have to scream)
(it's an advanced Alanson-based suit with a personal cold plasma shield and a Corr 4 spatial rift generator allowing for tactical portal creation)
[X] Don't leave Henriette behind
Because this is why I roll Paradox, apparently. To create dramatically tense situations. And maybe the Anathema might not feel the urge to show up if wall-climbing needle-spiders and moaning staggering cyberzombies which resemble Henriette's mother and a hoard of perfect Silent Hill Henriette-A doll-forms show up because shit's gone Silent Hill yo.
Ms Clock: "... who sent those? Allah damn it all, people! Tell me things!"
DAMMIT HENRIETTE! You're not the designated FEAR jokes person! You can't steal the "being Jamelia's daughter" shtick from Alice that easily!
(I swear, if Ms Clock has managed to get her hands on a Phase Commander, I'll have to scream)
(it's an advanced Alanson-based suit with a personal cold plasma shield and a Corr 4 spatial rift generator allowing for tactical portal creation)
[X] Don't leave Henriette behind
Because this is why I roll Paradox, apparently. To create dramatically tense situations. And maybe the Anathema might not feel the urge to show up if wall-climbing needle-spiders and moaning staggering cyberzombies which resemble Henriette's mother and a hoard of perfect Silent Hill Henriette-A doll-forms show up because shit's gone Silent Hill yo.
Ms Clock: "... who sent those? Allah damn it all, people! Tell me things!"
Well fuuuuuck.
[x] Don't leave Henriette behind
[x] Don't leave Henriette behind
Oh goddamnit. We take out the HITMarks and such, and what do we get for it? Autopolitan super-HITMarks.
[x] Don't leave Henriette behind
[x] Don't leave Henriette behind
[x] Don't leave Henriette behind
Welcome to Silent Hill, Henriette
WELCOME TO SILENT HILL HENRIETTE
POPULATION YOU. AND THE REST OF THE PARTY. AND EVERYONE ELSE IN THE AREA. AND THESE GUYS.
Screamers
Prone figures that resemble manufactured machines, but which leak blood from their insides. They can't walk, but they can drag themselves along the floor with their maimed and crippled arms. They scream constantly, at an ear-splitting pitch which drowns out all conversation. They scream in the electromagnetic wavelengths too, blotting out attempts to communicate. Any attempt to communicate verbally or by Correspondence magic in an area with a Screamer in suffers +2 difficulty. This penalty is increased by +1 for each Screamer in the area.
Helpmes
The exposed part of a helpme looks like a young man or woman, although they're often heavily injured and there are signs of cybernetic alteration. "Help me!" they shout. "Help! Help!" they beg for mercy. However, in closer inspection they're buried up to the waist in the ground or embedded in the wall. Should someone come within grabbing distance, they'll try to latch on and pull you down into the metallic mouth which makes up their hidden main body.
mOthers
Shambling, vaguely female figures, the mOthers are a mockery of flesh despoiled. Their skulls are opened up, revealing a dull grey brain riddled with metal, and their ribcages and midsection have been cut open to reveal the power cores and arcane cybernetics stuffed inside. The ribcage has been spread out so it resembles outstreched arms. Groups of mOthers will attempt to throw themselves at someone they see and pin them down, grabbing with both their arms and their ribcages.
Futhers
Oozing figures which drip metallic gloop, and cling to the ceiling. Glowing veins light up their flesh, and illuminate the male face in each one. They exhale clouds of nanites which turn the area into something like gloop which limits how fast anyone can move through it. When one is around, it's hard to run. You can't escape. They don't move quickly, but their gloop-like flesh burns like acid if it drips on you.
The Doll
Eyeless, with chalk-white skin, a yellow blood-splattered sundress and long red-orange hair tied back into two pigtails, the Doll shambles through the halls, dragging an oversized plasma cannon which is almost as big as she is. She can't see, but she has sensitive hearing and will shoot at any noise - enemy or otherwise. She's not too accurate with the clumsy weapon, but she's inexorable. She hates screamers and helpmes, and will often pluck a helpme from the ground and crush it, laughing madly. She's a monster who lives to kill and doesn't care which side she tries to hurt. The other nightmare creatures are just as scared of her as everyone else is. If someone tries to close in, she'll swing the oversized weapon like a giant club, and it's large enough that this is like being hit by a car.
POPULATION YOU. AND THE REST OF THE PARTY. AND EVERYONE ELSE IN THE AREA. AND THESE GUYS.
Screamers
Prone figures that resemble manufactured machines, but which leak blood from their insides. They can't walk, but they can drag themselves along the floor with their maimed and crippled arms. They scream constantly, at an ear-splitting pitch which drowns out all conversation. They scream in the electromagnetic wavelengths too, blotting out attempts to communicate. Any attempt to communicate verbally or by Correspondence magic in an area with a Screamer in suffers +2 difficulty. This penalty is increased by +1 for each Screamer in the area.
Helpmes
The exposed part of a helpme looks like a young man or woman, although they're often heavily injured and there are signs of cybernetic alteration. "Help me!" they shout. "Help! Help!" they beg for mercy. However, in closer inspection they're buried up to the waist in the ground or embedded in the wall. Should someone come within grabbing distance, they'll try to latch on and pull you down into the metallic mouth which makes up their hidden main body.
mOthers
Shambling, vaguely female figures, the mOthers are a mockery of flesh despoiled. Their skulls are opened up, revealing a dull grey brain riddled with metal, and their ribcages and midsection have been cut open to reveal the power cores and arcane cybernetics stuffed inside. The ribcage has been spread out so it resembles outstreched arms. Groups of mOthers will attempt to throw themselves at someone they see and pin them down, grabbing with both their arms and their ribcages.
Futhers
Oozing figures which drip metallic gloop, and cling to the ceiling. Glowing veins light up their flesh, and illuminate the male face in each one. They exhale clouds of nanites which turn the area into something like gloop which limits how fast anyone can move through it. When one is around, it's hard to run. You can't escape. They don't move quickly, but their gloop-like flesh burns like acid if it drips on you.
The Doll
Eyeless, with chalk-white skin, a yellow blood-splattered sundress and long red-orange hair tied back into two pigtails, the Doll shambles through the halls, dragging an oversized plasma cannon which is almost as big as she is. She can't see, but she has sensitive hearing and will shoot at any noise - enemy or otherwise. She's not too accurate with the clumsy weapon, but she's inexorable. She hates screamers and helpmes, and will often pluck a helpme from the ground and crush it, laughing madly. She's a monster who lives to kill and doesn't care which side she tries to hurt. The other nightmare creatures are just as scared of her as everyone else is. If someone tries to close in, she'll swing the oversized weapon like a giant club, and it's large enough that this is like being hit by a car.
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Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I love that we have now apparently been reduced to messing with our enemy's plans by spawning waves of nightmare monsters to attack our own party.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Henrietta returns! And so does Thorn!
Happy days are here again!
Happy days are here again!
at some point after they've fought through a wave and are on the move
"Oh no. Oh no no no," Harlan mouths. They can't hear each other talk over the sound of the screaming, but they can lip read, even in this gloom.
"What?" Jamelia mouths back. "What are you doing?"
"It's not me. It's Langley." He keeps his weapon ready. "She's very psychically sensitive by Iterator standards. But that's with headware. How long has she had it?"
"Since decanting."
Harlan mouths a curse. "I think that's it. She's psychically sensitive, she's had lots of dimensional exposure, she's had brain trauma, and that EMP must have shut down her headware. Four trigger factors. For the first time in her life, her latent powers aren't being suppressed. That telepathic conversation must have primed her. She's much stronger than you, and she's flaring."
Jamelia finds the fact he felt it necessary to point out that Henriette is apparently a stronger latent psychic than she is vaguely annoying. "How do we stop it?" she mouths.
"Can't. Not while she's out cold in the field. If she wakes up I know some tricks to force her to focus, but they won't work when she's this injured. When someone flares, you need to isolate them and then try to talk them out of it in a calm, quiet environment where they don't feel in danger."
She stares at Harlan, then swears in Arabic. "Keep her with you, and keep moving," she orders.
"Oh no. Oh no no no," Harlan mouths. They can't hear each other talk over the sound of the screaming, but they can lip read, even in this gloom.
"What?" Jamelia mouths back. "What are you doing?"
"It's not me. It's Langley." He keeps his weapon ready. "She's very psychically sensitive by Iterator standards. But that's with headware. How long has she had it?"
"Since decanting."
Harlan mouths a curse. "I think that's it. She's psychically sensitive, she's had lots of dimensional exposure, she's had brain trauma, and that EMP must have shut down her headware. Four trigger factors. For the first time in her life, her latent powers aren't being suppressed. That telepathic conversation must have primed her. She's much stronger than you, and she's flaring."
Jamelia finds the fact he felt it necessary to point out that Henriette is apparently a stronger latent psychic than she is vaguely annoying. "How do we stop it?" she mouths.
"Can't. Not while she's out cold in the field. If she wakes up I know some tricks to force her to focus, but they won't work when she's this injured. When someone flares, you need to isolate them and then try to talk them out of it in a calm, quiet environment where they don't feel in danger."
She stares at Harlan, then swears in Arabic. "Keep her with you, and keep moving," she orders.
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Acatalepsy
Firewall Proxy
- Location
- The Diamond Age
Psychics. Psychics freaking everywhere.
Look, Harlan has a custom Mind, Spirit, Prime rote which gives him PE every time he manages to successfully persuade someone that a currently unexplained phenomenon was caused by psychic powers. It's part of having Blatancy (Comic Book Psychic). He's not actually trustworthy there. Remember, he has Manipulation 6 (Hypnotic). He's hypnotising you by using the word "psychic" a lot.
If you ask the VEs, they'd probably say that nootropic entities were drawn into reality, attracted by Henriette's use of an EMP in a facility where recently a lot of people died, and now they're taking form based on her fears. It's not her - it's just the EDEs are targeting her.
And Kessler... well, he's keeping an open mind. Maybe it's something to do with how she created the Apocalypse Canceller and that was fuelled by ghosts. Maybe she's now haunted by the ghosts of her past - literally - too.
(If you asked Henriette, she'd dribble a bit and clutch her head and cry)
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X] Don't leave Henriette behind
We don't abandon people. That's not what anyone in this Amalgam believes.
(Besides, we do that, she'll be captured, brainwashed, and we'll have to fight a pissed off and mind-controlled Henriette next time. :/ )
We don't abandon people. That's not what anyone in this Amalgam believes.
(Besides, we do that, she'll be captured, brainwashed, and we'll have to fight a pissed off and mind-controlled Henriette next time. :/ )
So, hmm. Discussion on who to contact. So far, I suggested the puppies, and below I have a message.
But anyone else we should try to contact, bearing in attention that we need to balance the groups we can contact? Since it looks like MJ wants to prep the new chapter.
I'm not entirely comfortable with only contacting werewolves. They're not entirely reliable. At all. And there's always the risk that they're Resident influenced. Hmm.
***
"What up, my dawgs?
(Yes, I know, that's your word and I shouldn't culturally appropriate it. But I felt it'd help set the tone, and that this very much isn't a formal Project J offer.)
Let's cut to the chase. Shit is fucked. I'm trapped in an umbral realm isolated by the actions of a very powerful spirit which I'm pretty sure you'd be able to confirm is massively allied with the Weaver. It can't get in here, but it can kill me if I leave. I'm pretty sure it was ultimately behind what happened in LA a few days ago, if they haven't covered it up, because that's when it moved to murder me and I had to flee to a safe umbral Realm which it doesn't seem to be able to access. I'm hopefully getting this message out by routes it can't follow, but a human can't go down these paths.
I'm not asking for your help here, or for you to directly face the spirit. I don't even think it wants to kill me as a primary objective, but it wants me out the way, so it's going to try to keep me pinned up in here. There's the location of a building in LA I'll attach to this, though - pretty sure it wants to control that place. My friends will be heading there some time soon, and I'm pretty sure it controls the place now. It'll lay a spider-like trap, and try to get them to walk in so it can kill them. Or maybe infect them with its technology and control them. I'm calling in what you owe me for Dallas, because I need your help to help save my friends and defuse the trap the machine spirit is setting for them.
Be careful. It'll probably have up-gunned the place and fortified it - it's normally one of our bases. You guys are decent, so, you know, I'd advise against you going on a suicide run. However, just as a purely incidental suggestion, perhaps someone on your side who really wants to throw down with 'weaverscum' (clearly we need to do some work on reclaiming that insult) might be willing to fuck up some shit of the pawns of a powerful Weaver spirit. They might even be entirely willing to bravely lay down their lives and get out of your hair should I be wrong and the spirit show up.
Yours sincerely,
Donald Sykes"
[Donald - Time (Efficiency) + Corr + Entropy 1 - He knows the puppies, he knows many of their allies, and he knows enough of how they think - especially with Janice here to consult, who's actually sort of a semi-expert on handling them and actually likes them (look, he doesn't always fall for the sanest girls). He writes his message and sends it to make sure whatever they do, it'll arrive just in time to help Jamelia as much as possible, when they'll be as valuable as possible. It's all he can do. Enhanced by Manipulation + Academics (Economics)]
But anyone else we should try to contact, bearing in attention that we need to balance the groups we can contact? Since it looks like MJ wants to prep the new chapter.
I'm not entirely comfortable with only contacting werewolves. They're not entirely reliable. At all. And there's always the risk that they're Resident influenced. Hmm.
***
"What up, my dawgs?
(Yes, I know, that's your word and I shouldn't culturally appropriate it. But I felt it'd help set the tone, and that this very much isn't a formal Project J offer.)
Let's cut to the chase. Shit is fucked. I'm trapped in an umbral realm isolated by the actions of a very powerful spirit which I'm pretty sure you'd be able to confirm is massively allied with the Weaver. It can't get in here, but it can kill me if I leave. I'm pretty sure it was ultimately behind what happened in LA a few days ago, if they haven't covered it up, because that's when it moved to murder me and I had to flee to a safe umbral Realm which it doesn't seem to be able to access. I'm hopefully getting this message out by routes it can't follow, but a human can't go down these paths.
I'm not asking for your help here, or for you to directly face the spirit. I don't even think it wants to kill me as a primary objective, but it wants me out the way, so it's going to try to keep me pinned up in here. There's the location of a building in LA I'll attach to this, though - pretty sure it wants to control that place. My friends will be heading there some time soon, and I'm pretty sure it controls the place now. It'll lay a spider-like trap, and try to get them to walk in so it can kill them. Or maybe infect them with its technology and control them. I'm calling in what you owe me for Dallas, because I need your help to help save my friends and defuse the trap the machine spirit is setting for them.
Be careful. It'll probably have up-gunned the place and fortified it - it's normally one of our bases. You guys are decent, so, you know, I'd advise against you going on a suicide run. However, just as a purely incidental suggestion, perhaps someone on your side who really wants to throw down with 'weaverscum' (clearly we need to do some work on reclaiming that insult) might be willing to fuck up some shit of the pawns of a powerful Weaver spirit. They might even be entirely willing to bravely lay down their lives and get out of your hair should I be wrong and the spirit show up.
Yours sincerely,
Donald Sykes"
[Donald - Time (Efficiency) + Corr + Entropy 1 - He knows the puppies, he knows many of their allies, and he knows enough of how they think - especially with Janice here to consult, who's actually sort of a semi-expert on handling them and actually likes them (look, he doesn't always fall for the sanest girls). He writes his message and sends it to make sure whatever they do, it'll arrive just in time to help Jamelia as much as possible, when they'll be as valuable as possible. It's all he can do. Enhanced by Manipulation + Academics (Economics)]
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
So these things are spirits, right? And Kessler has Spirit 4, right? And he has the ability to use Spirit magic with any focus, right? Well now it looks like it's time for hacking.
This is a Spirit 4 effect consisting of using a laser communicator thingy that Kessler has to hack the spirits and cause them to work with the party. It is totally coincidental because of many, many Hollywood movies depicting hacking badly. This means that Kessler can now have an army of horror movie cyborg spirits to throw at whatever shows up that he can't hack.
This is a Spirit 4 effect consisting of using a laser communicator thingy that Kessler has to hack the spirits and cause them to work with the party. It is totally coincidental because of many, many Hollywood movies depicting hacking badly. This means that Kessler can now have an army of horror movie cyborg spirits to throw at whatever shows up that he can't hack.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Probably someone in our Amalgam, if for no other reason than to paint a better picture of the forces being massed against us so people have a better idea of what to expect and don't get blindsided by the brain-eating alien that can hide in teh intertubes. The obscurity of the interns might work (and can be passed up the chain to Bastion because the interns are with the Tyrants).
Harlan...I think we shouldn't broadcast the fact that he can play psychic messenger.
You have a better head for the conspiracy stuff than I do so you might have a better idea of whether we should feed Serafina's possible replacement false information (thus risking that the real Serafina also getting fed false information).
OTOH, I don't think getting the message out to someone on the other side is a good idea since we're going to have to fight a political battle when this is all order and it's better for us to look like good little 'crats than to have to deal with troubling questions of troublesome contacts. Just our fuzzy friends could work, because why bother cultivating them as an asset if we never use them, and also because a climactic showdown between fuzzy killing machines and mecha-fuzzy killing machines would be totally frikkin' sweet.
They're Paradox Spirits, as a note. The best way to counter these paradox Spirits, Kessler has observed, is by shooting them a lot until they die.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
But... Zombie cyborg spirit army...
People should keep this in mind, and check out the latest non-guest update. I can post what Donald's been doing after what Jamelia does, but I can't write the Jamelia update without knowing what Donald's doing to help make Ms. Clock's plan go to shit.
I strongly doubt it would work but I kind of want serafina to upload the suicide meme used against her into the subjugation corps communications system targeted at the leader. Trying to make him suicide on the bridge would ping off the resonance fairly well, and so much sacrifice in their endless hopeless search for earth would make it so very tempting to just .... Give up.
Attempting to counter paradox spirits with more magic feels like putting out fire by dousing it with oil, at least to me.