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Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns

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So... the Xiaolan up in the ship is a write-off. It's dying quickly rather than slowly from various forms of paradox poisoning, and neither of them has the Prime to do anything about that. I suppose the good father could try some sort of Spirit 4 summoning of an angel into the body - it was, after all, in the process of sacrificing itself for the good of others on a mission of Holy Wrath, and that has to have some sort of resonance he can play with - but that could go very badly, or very wastefully - and while the good Father does have an entire paradox track to play with and the motivation to use it, I think he might like to spend himself more efficiently than that.

Really, though, the ship is going down *anyway*. It's lost its reactor, the tubes don't line up right without it - it's going to be springing paradox effects in large numbers while also suffering from terrible resonance. The objectives here are to reduce whatever damage it might still be able to do, to save some of the trapped people, and to save the Father himself.

Those last two, though... they're *tricky*. The only thing I can see that he has that can get people (himself or otherwise) out of this place and safely to the ground involves angel summoning. Given that, and given his established views on paradox...

[X] Use Bond of Blood to sacrifice the Subjugation Corps to the Avatar Storm
-[X] Use that protection to call forth angels of mercy to rescue some of the poor unfortunates trapped in this horrible place (possibly including yourself)

...although, sacrificing the Subjugation Corps to the Avatar Storm *would* count as Violation. Is there any way to get the first part of this under the effects of the ship-field, and the second part mostly after it fails?
 
Aleph said:
Their default approach in the Umbra used to be marching in and making everyone else play their game by their rules, where their game was "plasma cannon target practice" and their rules were "we have the plasma cannons, you lot are the target practice; ready, set, go [1]".
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We have the Agency, faceless, endlessly convoluted, acting seemingly without logic in service of insane schemes which reach out for decades. We have the Residents, corrupt and amoral and obsessed with profit above all other things, coiled up on their hordes of ill-gotten gold. We have the Autopolitans, slaves-and-yet-embodiments of the Computer. We have the Transhumans, beautiful, optimised for a single task, pitiless in their "we're doing it for your own good and you'll thank us" and assimiltatory - yet once they've taken you in, you're just another one of them.

And then we have the Subjugation Corps. Who explore your planet, abduct people and vivisect them in strange senseless experiments which nevertheless benefit them. They steal your technology. They send clones down to investigate your society. They turn you into something for them to use. And when they've set the groundwork, they terraform your planet and wipe out your species, making it fit for beings like them. Because you're just an alien. You're not like them.

Honestly, one Evil Space Convention doesn't fit - and it's the Autopolitans. They're shaped by something else than the expectations of others about them. The Computer guides them. But all the other ESCs? They're all the scars that the Technocracy has left on the Umbra. The Subjugation Corps are the memory of dozens of worlds, pillaged, conquered and stripped of value. Their grey-skinned, dark-eyed aliens with large heads are the twisted memory of grey-uniformed, dark-goggled men.

The Senex would call them "karma".
 
Quantumboost said:
...fuck yes.

[X] Use Bond of Blood to sacrifice the Subjugation Corps to the Avatar Storm
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The two step process to do this would be:

Step 1: God abhors the deceivers who would take the skins of angels to hide their wickedness from the world. The Gauntlet, even as it has been stolen by fools and wicked godless men (or worse, those worshippers of the false God-Machine), was crafted by God to shield innocent man from the dangers of spirit and demon. He knows this. Prime 4, Spirit 4, he effectively uses this wicked spirit-thing as a shield against the Avatar Storm, so it takes damage in his stead. This is vulgar, and he will perform it in a place with Sleepers, so it becomes vulgar with witnesses. He wants the paradox. Osorio will pay 1 WP to delay all paradox backlash until end of scene.

Step 2: Spirit 3-Father Osorio repeatedly shoves his face into the Avatar Storm. This deals Arete + Paradox unsoakable aggravated damage to the UFO every action. Because he's just done two vulgar with witness spells, he'll have something like 9 paradox, plus 4-5 arête, so he's dealing 13-14A per round. I wouldn't vote on it unless you are very sure because it's hugely risky.

I'm suggesting it not because it's a good idea but because it is a thing the other voters wouldn't think of, an option that exists. It's very much showing the raw, infinite fury an Adept-level mage can bring down should they just not give a shit.

EarthScorpion said:
Honestly, one Evil Space Convention doesn't fit - and it's the Autopolitans. They're shaped by something else than the expectations of others about them. The Computer guides them. But all the other ESCs? They're all the scars that the Technocracy has left on the Umbra. The Subjugation Corps are the memory of dozens of worlds, pillaged, conquered and stripped of value. Their grey-skinned, dark-eyed aliens with large heads are the twisted memory of grey-uniformed, dark-goggled men.

The Senex would call them "karma".
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Being effectively backed up by a literal god helps shape you a bit, yes.
 
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MJ12 Commando said:
I'm suggesting it not because it's a good idea but because it is a thing the other voters wouldn't think of, an option that exists. It's very much showing the raw, infinite fury an Adept-level mage can bring down should they just not give a shit.
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... you are horrifyingly creative. I applaud your inventiveness.
 
We have taken out the beast's beating heart. It is dead already - much like our Xiaolan. What would we seek to gain by spending ourself killing it faster, when we could instead be spending ourself potentially achieving actual meaningful objectives?

I mean, it's *awesome*, but....

...oh, and wouldn't "shove your face into the Umbra" also count as Vulgar With Witnesses?

...and I just realized that the display of this would be Osorio beating the ship to pieces with his *face*. That... that does add even a bit more to the awesome factor.
 
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Sirrocco said:
We have taken out the beast's beating heart. It is dead already - much like our Xiaolan. What would we seek to gain by spending ourself killing it faster, when we could instead be spending ourself potentially achieving actual meaningful objectives?

I mean, it's *awesome*, but....

...oh, and wouldn't "shove your face into the Umbra" also count as Vulgar With Witnesses?
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Yes. That is the idea. You want to run a dangerously high level of paradox, then use it to cause very rapid damage.

Also, the Avatar Storm shreds spirits. It's one of the few ways to kill spirits without Spirit 5 or DSci 3.
 
So, if I have this right, summoning an Angel is bad because reaching across the gauntlet in any way gets us hit by the Avatar Storm. However, we can use the ship itself as a shield, forcing it to take damage for us.

Couldn't we, instead of just using it as a shield while we play hopscotch on the Gauntlet, use it as a shield as we summon an angel and THEN begin plan hopscotch if necessary?
 
It would be nice if we could use the ship as a shield as Osorio entreats God and His angels to save as many of the poor wretches in the pods as possible. Unless that's just unfeasible and I'm making a poor suggestion because I'm not intimately familiar with oMage, which could certainly be the case.
 
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Osorio doesn't have Correspondance for a teleport; does this mean that he can't summon an angel to do the teleporting for him? *is somewhat confused about how this works*

Also, vague ranges - how bad can Paradox 9 get?
 
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Expending such a valuable contact and asset to bring down the UFO even faster seems like it may be a waste, especially if broader goals might best be served by flagging the Subjugation Corps incursion as an emergency to the Technocracy as a whole. As it is now I'm not exactly sure what our endgame is supposed to be in regards to Serafina and Alice, and especially in regards to avoiding sanction after the fact for her actions here; but it is possible that getting Serafina to talk to Yingzheng might be useful, which may be more possible if Panopticon is forced by public scrutiny to devote assets to help cleaning up the "alien" survivors.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
I wouldn't vote on it unless you are very sure because it's hugely risky.
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Indeed. He'd rather die than risk recapture, but he's not (directly) suicidal. He would prefer to get off this ship.

Which is... ah, quite distinctly going down at present. Yes. Part of being Evil Space Void Engineers is having ships which crash in the right way. You're not Autopolitans, who tend to just vanish in a large explosion and lots of gamma radiation when antimatter containment fails, or Transhumans who die like the living vessels they are. No, we're talking sirens, emergency lighting, being thrown from side to side whenever they try to adjust the fall, announcements over the PA from the grey Corps member who was originally the attractive female announcer whose job it was to say everything to the ship and repeat everything the ship says... you know, the works. Proper crashing ships. Not lame Autopolitan vanishing.
 
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I say that the Good Father should do his best impression of Karin Murphy around the end of Changes. Carrying a Sword from God. Possessed by an archangel. All that jazz.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
Yes. That is the idea. You want to run a dangerously high level of paradox, then use it to cause very rapid damage.

Also, the Avatar Storm shreds spirits. It's one of the few ways to kill spirits without Spirit 5 or DSci 3.
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Oh - I just meant that it would only be 13-14A for the first one, increasing in damage each step.

Cavalier said:
Expending such a valuable contact and asset to bring down the UFO even faster seems like it may be a waste, especially if broader goals might best be served by flagging the Subjugation Corps incursion as an emergency to the Technocracy as a whole. As it is now I'm not exactly sure what our endgame is supposed to be in regards to Serafina and Alice, and especially in regards to avoiding sanction after the fact for her actions here; but it is possible that getting Serafina to talk to Yingzheng might be useful, which may be more possible if Panopticon is forced by public scrutiny to devote assets to help cleaning up the "alien" survivors.
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So - what he really ought to be doing is summoning an angel or few to help the people inside the ship survive the inevitable crash (while also rescuing them from their pods, and protecting them from their oppressors).

Something like...

God smote the unbelievers and the unrighteous. He did this many, many times, and was known even then for sparing the righteous among their number. The Gauntlet, Osorio knows, was crafted by God to shield innocent man from the dangers of spirit and demon - and though in its sleeping state it is easily misled, and perverted in purpose, here and now it is awake and raging - and he knows, and it know, what the wounded angel that circumscribes the earth is truly enraged *at*. He will reach out through it, but offer guidance as well - so that it may strike at the thing that truly offends it, rather than the fellow servant of God's Will. (Spirit 4, Prime 4 - and acknowledgements to @MJ12 Commando )

Once he has established this detente with the raging Guardian Angel of the Heavens (and my, but the sword is especially fiery-bright here and now) he will call out, beckoning forth angels of succor and protection and salvation - praying that they might aid the poor innocents trapped on this ship (Spirit 2, a fair number of times, without witnesses - and in Mexico's airspace, begging aid from invisible angels in times of desperate need might not even be all that vulgar).

Once he's done a decent bit of that (getting to levels of paradox that might hit "this is going to suck in the morning" but shouldn't be crippling or lethal) he will leave the rest in the hands of the greater Servants of God, and go out to tend to the flock - freeing people from their bondage in the reactor by hand, and leading them in prayer, that God might see them all safely through this time of tribulation (Entropy 2 - because there's a *lot* of random chaos in the process of crashing this ship).

If the enemy starts busting down the door, he will simply call upon the ire of God's Holy Sword In The Heavens more directly (Spirit 3?: banish. Also, a vulgar with witnesses effect that manipulates the gauntlet, meaning that each time he does it, another chunk comes out of the ship. The Angel of the Gauntlet isn't exactly stinting on the collateral damage here). There will be a price to pay - but he can pay it later.
 
Other things that are possible with Spirit 4:

Bind Spirit. Yes, with sufficient time and inclination, Osorio can force the Subjugation Corps to do whatever he wants. Which would be "put everyone back down, then commit suicide." This will probably moderately annoy them. He can also awaken/empower spirits. He's a spirit mage in a place which is entirely spirit-matter. This is a bad thing for this place.

Oh, he can modify spirits as well, like someone with Life 4 can alter other people. Yeah. Start your evil gears.

tzar1990 said:
So, if I have this right, summoning an Angel is bad because reaching across the gauntlet in any way gets us hit by the Avatar Storm. However, we can use the ship itself as a shield, forcing it to take damage for us.

Couldn't we, instead of just using it as a shield while we play hopscotch on the Gauntlet, use it as a shield as we summon an angel and THEN begin plan hopscotch if necessary?
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Yep.
 
I'm not really sure what's happening, but apparently we're using Sodom and Gomorrah as an inspiration? Can we turn this spaceship into salt or something?

All I ask is that there's still something left for the Cephalopod Gunship to smash.
 
Unfortunately, he doesn't have the Correspondence he'd need to Bind them in significant numbers, or particularly far away. Also, I'm not seeing all that much of a way to handle it in-paradigm. (possessing angels, perhaps? Weird thought. Don't know if it fits)

Oh, and if our only objective is to save *him*, then we just pull "use the Subjection Corps as a shield" followed by the classic "escape to the Umbra". Might even be able to bring the Xiaolin with him, and let the UFO take the burn for both of them. Not at all sure that that's a good plan *or* in-character, but it should be available as an option.

vali said:
All I ask is that there's still something left for the Cephalopod Gunship to smash.
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If nothing else, there are the little secondary fliers that we haven't taken out yet. We need someone or something to kill them. Also, we do have the Serafina currently on the ground. She can *probably* find a useful way to take advantage of a flying squid who knows how to pretend to be a helicopter in her attempts to escape from Mexico City with her dear friends.
 
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EarthScorpion said:
Indeed. He'd rather die than risk recapture, but he's not (directly) suicidal. He would prefer to get off this ship.

Which is... ah, quite distinctly going down at present. Yes. Part of being Evil Space Void Engineers is having ships which crash in the right way. You're not Autopolitans, who tend to just vanish in a large explosion and lots of gamma radiation when antimatter containment fails, or Transhumans who die like the living vessels they are. No, we're talking sirens, emergency lighting, being thrown from side to side whenever they try to adjust the fall, announcements over the PA from the grey Corps member who was originally the attractive female announcer whose job it was to say everything to the ship and repeat everything the ship says... you know, the works. Proper crashing ships. Not lame Autopolitan vanishing.
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Ah yes. Whereas the Autopolitans are the nightmare of literary sci-fi-The invisible death that comes at the speed of light, faster than you can react and with unrestrained cosmic fury, the Subjugation Corps are the visual sci-fi aliens who get beaten by plucky humans and have their saucer dramatically explode in slow-mo.

ArchAIngel said:
Dear god, we could pull a fucking Mercer on the guys with him.
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Not quite. It's Spirit 4, not 5. He can't completely reshape it, but he can do the equivalent of giving it a hunchback, asthma, and two bow legs.
 
[x] Bond of blood; Angel Summoner

The wrath of the Lord is manifest! No more shall this mockery of life and light trouble His children! Behold! An angel of the Lord descends as a vessel of his vengeance, and the sinful shall be cleansed in His name! Glory to God in the Highest!

I mean, shiiiiiit. Yeah, the touch of the Father burns his unworthy creations, but this place could use some burning. And I doubt it qualifies as hubris to invoke the Wrath of God against the closest thing he's ever seen to hell itself.
 
Point taken re: Bond of Blood. Had forgotten to consider its vulgarity (though it pairs super good if we're going to summon angels anyway).

ArchAIngel said:
Nah, not enough vampires, and not Mayan/Aztec enough.
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I'm pretty sure that the city that is literally built on the ruins of the Aztec capital has enough Aztecness to go around.
 
Well, this looks like it calls for more bloody stupid actions!

Father Osorio is all too aware of what was being done to him, and is in fact, very very angry. Because whatever was done directly to him, it was worse knowing that he was used to fuel the ship by means of involuntary ritual sacrifice. Fortunately, he's in the center of a stupidly large amount of Prime energy, and there are the echoes of those countless sacrifices, staining the very fabric of the ship. (In some places literally. Ew.) And while he's certainly not going to use it directly, (again, ew) he does know just barely enough to call upon Someone who has the authority to manage this soul-slurpee[1], and the power to chastise those responsible. In the past, Father Osorio has just called upon the Archangel Uriel as a caretaker of souls already passed, but in this case he feels confident that a more active role will be approved of.

(Using the UFO as a shield against the Avatar Storm as detailed above, because the Subjugation Corps deserves all of that and more, he's then going to call to the most powerful psychopomp who fits into an angelic archetype. Because oh dear god, that's a lot of death-energy that just came unbound, which just has to be calling out to spirits of a certain type. And if one of Uriel's servants can cleanse/claim that energy, that keeps it out of the hands of the Nephandic types that would also love to have it.)

[1] I totally did not write up this as an excuse to use the term 'soul-slurpee'. Really. Well, not just as an excuse. :evil:
 
Okay... the idea of summoning a single stupidly powerful spirit to nom all the quintessence and Do Awesome Things is interesting. It seems potentially kind of expensive paradox-wise, but Father Osorio might survive that if he just does the Bond of Blood and the summoning (especially if he does them without witnesses). It does mean unleashing a stupidly powerful EDE who's all hopped up on quintessence and hoping everything turns out okay, but... well, Father Osorio really doesn't have a problem with that one. Archangel of Purity is a solid pick, too.

Not sure of the mechanics, though. My guess is "summon stupidly powerful angel" is one of those things that takes a lot of successes. Could someone who *is* sure of the mechanics opine on this one?
 
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