Conspiracy Theory
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TRANSMIT - initiate anima signal - RECEIVE - initiate the Enochian frequency - WITNESS - initiate the Merovingian syntax - FIAP DE OIAD - crawling roots, heavy with sizzling sap, stab your skull - DOWNLOAD - holy communion - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY - your eyes and ears hemorrhage boiling joy - MAY BE TOO INTENSE FOR SOME VIEWERS - ecstatic agony, your molecules come undone - SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED - offer expires at the heat death of the universe - FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY - the dark days cometh, absolute zero, maximum entropy - ACT NOW! initiate the Agartha broadcast - TRANSMIT - open the 49 gates! - WITNESS - The Signal
Game session recordings (YouTube)
Everything is true. Everything is false.
The real world, a week from now...
System
Conspiracy Theory uses the Jazz roleplaying game system.
The fiction level is set to "heroic". The characters initially have 10 ranks to distribute among their aspects, and the maximum rank of any aspect is 5. Weird aspects, which allow a character to violate what we might refer to as the rules of the "real world", are encouraged (one per character, please).
Here are some questions you should think about (and hopefully, have some answers for):
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The tone of the game is along the line of X-Files. There is room for humour and quirky characters, but the overall mood is pretty serious.
I can't lie to you about your chances... but you have my sympathies.
Organizations
The Illuminati
TRANSMIT - initiate pyramid signal - RECEIVE - initiate NOW frequency - DOWNLOAD - initiate Big Brother broadcast - NEW AND IMPROVED - initiate Sex, Drugs, & Rockefeller Prerogative - THAT'S THE WAY TO DO IT! - initiate the Crowley cadence - YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN - the blue spectrum - WITNESS - The Illuminati
"Sex, drugs, and Rockefeller."
The Illuminati may have ancient roots, but they forever remain young and hungry. In every growing empire they had play for it all, and they play for keeps. Stealing the Americas from under the Templars' noses, they grew with the United States to become a shadow superpower. Their corporate headquarters is in an undisclosed location beneath Brooklyn, New York.
Acting silently, unless the occasion calls for gunshots, the Illuminati push for the New World Order. It will be empowering and ruthless. Failure is not an option. Complacency is worse than not an option. Their arsenal is the ambition of a news media startup, the rhetoric of a congressman, and mogul business sense. Working hard, playing hard and fighting dirty.
National Defense Directorate
TRANSMIT - initiate marching cadence - RECEIVE - initiate aggression frequency - DOWNLOAD - initiate the national security effect - ONE PEOPLE ONE COUNTRY ONE LEADER - initiate the firewatch ribbon protocol - CONTACT - WAIT OUT - the red spectrum - WITNESS - The Black Book
"Sic itur ad astra" (Latin for "Such is the pathway to the stars")
The National Defense Directorate has its roots in the aftermath of the Roswell incident. The military-industrial elite started construction on a secret underground base in the New Mexico desert. This was to become the research center and headquarters of a covert project within the U.S. military, answerable to no government authority. This National Defense Directorate was unknown to all but its agents and a few highly placed officials, who ensured that any investigation was curtailed. The project was funded exclusively through the portion of the U.S. military budget assigned to covert or "black" projects, leading the project's secret sponsor in the U.S. Senate to refer to it as the Black Book.
Since its inception, the focus of the Black Book has slowly drifted from the protection of the human race and toward the acquisition of alien technology and knowledge by any means necessary.
Orochi Group
TRANSMIT - initiate Kushinada-Hime signal - RECEIVE - initiate eight-branch frequency - BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW - initiate the seven-dead-daughters syntax - SEIZING THE FUTURE - initiate the Susanoo Proclamation - TRAGEDY STRUCK IN TOKYO TODAY - Flip the Ace of Industry - WITNESS - The Orochi Group
"Reliable. Responsible. Revolutionary."
"The Orochi Group and our subsidiaries are not only world leaders, we are led by the world. Our promise to you is that our products and services will rise to the challenges of a changing landscape as we race into the future, together."
"Our belief is that healthy, productive, enduring life on Earth will result from the correct management of the Earth's resources. In government, public, and private projects around the globe, we are leveraging new technologies to provide new solutions."
The Orochi Group is formed by eight companies: Anansi Technologies, Faust Capital, Manticore Research Group, Plethron, QBL Media, Sycoil, Vali, and Zagan.
The Templars
TRANSMIT – initiate Babel signal – RECEIVE – initiate phosphorous prayer frequency – DOWNLOAD – initiate John Dee lexicon – AS SEEN ON TV – initiate pillar of salt protocol – DELIVER US FROM EVIL – initiate the Molay Curse cadence – MUST REDEEM BEFORE EXPIRATION – the red spectrum – WITNESS – The Templars
"Deliverance From Evil"
Crusaders. Judges. The Holy Terror. The Templars are the world's least secretive secret society. Their military-ideological machine has operated in plain sight since Babylon -- a matter of pride, or moral superiority. Conspiracy theorists, obsessed with the minor "Knights Templar" offshoot, underestimate the Templars' true European empire. Private armies. Members of parliaments. Royal families.
The Templars believe they will deliver the world from evil by force, and even their opponents -- who call them zealots and warmongers -- cannot deny that force. Agent of the Templars are not just fighting the war on darkness, they are the war on darkness. Suave and sophisticated, but brutal and uncompromising, they use history as a weapon to shape the future.
Places
The Labyrinth
TRANSMIT - initiate anima signal - RECEIVE - initiate the all-in-one-one-in-all frequency - THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS - initiate transportation prerogative - MIND THE GAP - initiate geomantic protocols - WITNESS - The Labyrinth
It is known by many names. Agartha. The Hollow Earth. The Great Stair. The Inner Kingdom. The Road Of Yellow Bricks. The Netherworld. The Labyrinth.
The Labyrinth winds through the universe, a behind-the scenes tunnel connecting to the "real world" through portals that link to almost every place a portal can link. The Labyrinth may look like winding limestone tunnels glowing with a faint, fungal luminescence; twilight-suffused wooden halls with elegantly-carved paneling and lush, rotting carpets; corroded sheet metal corridors barely lit with flickering fluorescents; and many, many more forms. Bring your own light sources for a better view of their cramped, dripping surfaces.
Given the strategic significance of portals, many groups have tried to seize control of them, or at least maintain surveillance to see who comes and who goes. These efforts fail, always for completely ordinary, utterly mundane reasons. Always.
The outward appearance of portals varies widely. The next portal you move through might look like:
- A steel door in the back room of a squalid nightclub.
- A hedge maze.
- A crop circle.
- A manhole cover in a quiet street.
- A shimmer of fog against the dark jungle night.
- An elevator in a modern office tower that goes to a nonexistent floor or parking lot level, if you know the right sequence of buttons to push.
Characters
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Game Sessions
2017-07-13
Game session recording (YouTube)
Manhattan: John Morgan, network admin and agent of chaos, witnesses a bizarre assassination, and an even more bizarre response from his employers, QBL Media (part of the Orochi Group of companies). As hours begin to turn into days, he sneaks into the ceiling to observe and meddle. Eventually, he releases video of the assassination and QBL Media's response, which causes an even more frantic response. Eventually he gets tired of waiting, and triggers alarms throughout the building; the QBL brass relents and lets everyone leave, but they aren't happy about it.
The Bronx: Charlotte Day, forensic pathologist and hereditary witch, is working at a Vali forensic laboratory (part of the Orochi Group of companies) when a half-dozen dead bodies are brought in. One of the bodies has been dead for months, but was obviously shot recently. Several of the other bodies are dressed in military gear. Suddenly, two more men in military gear break in. They destroy the long-dead body with an aerosol spray, and try to take the three military bodies. They are interrupted by a second armed group (dressed in ordinary street clothes), and a firefight ensues. The second group urges Charlotte to come with them, for her own protection, and she does. They take her to their headquarters at a florist warehouse, where Charlotte meets Sarah Boyd, the cell's leader. That introduction is cut short when a dozen soldiers in black gear storm in, killing everyone. Their leader, a young woman in an expensive suit, thanks Charlotte for her assistance in flushing out this group of terrorists; unfortunately, Charlotte has to die, as well. Charlotte uses magic to escape -- along with the ghost of Sarah Boyd, who doesn't appear to realize that she's dead. Charlotte calls a family friend, Captain Sal Bannerman of the Bronx police, and meets him at the police station. Bannerman sends police to the florist shop and the Vali laboratory... but they find nothing.
Los Angeles: Mark Savage, burned out teacher, ex-con, and host for a mysterious crystalline symbiote, is visited at 3 am by Ennio "Eddie" Doris, a slightly manic recruiter for a mysterious organization. Despite Eddie's grandiose description of the offer (or perhaps because of it), Mark shows no interest. A few days pass, and Mark is again visited at 3 am, this time by an attractive Eastern European woman. Her offer is less manic, and she leaves Mark with a thick envelope and a warning that other organizations who seek to recruit him may not be as understanding as hers is. "The Templars. You may have heard of us." The next morning, Mark narrowly avoids being crushed by a garbage truck on the way to work. When he comes home that evening, he opens the envelope left by the Templar woman: around $2,000 and €2,000 in large bills, wrapped in a note with an address in London. Shortly afterward, Mark's houseboat explodes. His symbiote protects him from the explosion. Once he gets back to land, Mark has about decided that a trip to London is in order, but first he calls Eddie and says he plans to kill him, slowly.
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2017-07-20
TRANSMIT - initiate cephalopod signal - RECEIVE - initiate cuttle-ink frequency - HANDLE WITH CARE - inhale the Chernobyl syntax - AVOID CONTACT WITH SKIN - initiate the eel mucous lexicon - HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED - flip the Ace of Ruin - WITNESS - The Filth
Game session recording (YouTube)
The PCs are all contacted (in various ways) by Hermes, a representative of a secretive organization. Separately, they head to Scottsville, VA, and begin to investigate the goings-on -- specifically, lights in the sky, mutated fish, and a rock slide in the local caverns.
The PCs meet each other at the only motel in town, Lumpkins. They soon discover that they are all asking similar questions, and they decide to work together for the time being. They learn from the waitress at Lumpkins that the local expert on the lights in the sky is Sam Benton, who lives down the road. They also get directions to the Lost World Caverns, which is about a half-hour from town.
Sam is a friendly fellow who is already well on his way to getting drunk on Milwaukee's Best on his front porch. He tells the PCs to come back at 8:30 PM, the cost for a tour is $20 a person. There is no guarantee that they will actually see anything, but Sam and his best friend Jim grew up here, have been hunting those mountains since they were kids, and have seen the strange lights in the sky many times.
Leaving Sam, they head to Lost World Caverns, a small tourist attraction. The gift shop is open, but the caverns are closed due to a rock slide. The PCs plan to return later and break in after hours.
Back at the motel, Mark Savage has a package waiting for him, containing two photos, two letters, and a note: "These might be of interest to you in light of goings-on in Scottsville." (Note: the postmarks in these images are off by about 40 years. Both letters should be dated from the 1970s.)
- Letter #1 envelope, page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4
- Letter #2 page 1, page 2
- Photograph #1, of a 1929 Pierce-Arrow
- Photograph #2, of the H-P Garage (D. Lorrier, proprietor)
Mark shows these to John Morgan (who gave Charlotte and Mark a false name). Mark heads to the garage to look around, and John heads to the courthouse to look up the names in the letters.
Mark meets Jenna Lorrier, and she shows him the 1929 Pierce-Arrow that her uncle Kermit gave her when he moved to Philadelphia to run Fort Dodge Labs.
John finds genealogical information, but isn't sure what the significance of any of it is.
- Ruth Werner (deceased) married Frank Dempsey (deceased); they had a son, Bill Dempsey
- Kermit Lorrier is the uncle of Jenna Lorrier (H-P Garage)
- David Lorrier (deceased) was the father of Jenna Lorrier (H-P Garage), who is the mother of Jeremy Lorrier (age 11)
- Halcyone Shroyer (deceased) was the aunt of Eloise Shroyer
- Eloise Shroyer married Theodore Johnson; they have one son, James Johnson
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2017-07-27
Initiate investigation protocols - SAN FRANCISCO - fog follows on ancient weapon - EGYPT - Dark Water rises and cultists drink deep - ARCHULETA MESA - putrescent radiation breeds creeping fungus - PHILADELPHIA - the Black Signal broadcasts blasphemous algorithms, infecting all ears - follow the signal...
Game session recording (YouTube)
Mark Savage has vanished!
But never mind that. Charlotte Day and John Morgan (under an alias) continue to investigate the goings-on in Scottsville, Virginia. They go to the federal fish hatchery, and after some investigation (and the kind cooperation of one of the scientists who works there), they decide that the fish mutations were likely the result of a chemical contamination, and that the cover-up is a relatively small and temporary one, and not likely the work of any interesting conspiracy. An after-hours visit to the Lost World Caverns is even more disappointing: sometimes a rock slide is just a rock slide. Nor is the trip into the woods to see lights in the sky very fruitful. Their guide, Sam Benton, tells a few good stories about the adventures he and his buddy Jim have had, but no lights or unusual phenomenon are to be seen.
Back in town, John Morgan does make one interesting discovery: small, inexpensive web cameras are placed inconspicuously all over the main street and surrounding blocks of Scottsville. He tracks down where they are uploading their video feeds: an anonymous file torrent.
2017-08-03
TRANSMIT -- Initiate history protocols: They began in Egypt, during the Old Kingdom, but that was not the first beginning. Time moves not in lines, but in circles. Ancient ideals pass down the generations, transcend cataclysms. Old becomes new, different yet same. Powerful mystics take the stage, form a cabal, and call themselves the Enlightened Ones. Initiate Latin translation: "Illuminati" -- RECEIVE -- The children of Eye and Pyramid fertilize the Nile. -- SEEING IS BELIEVING -- Can you perceive them through the time refraction? They pollinate the skulls of scribes, viziers, priests, and philosopher kings. -- POWER BEHIND THE THRONE -- Thoughts germinate and bloom. They vie to guide humanity toward an esoteric culture, influence the world through the houses of Pharaohs. -- TIMESPACE UNBOUND -- Pluck the petals. The centuries tumble like she-loves-me-nots. The scenes change -- Jericho, Damascus, Alexandria, Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome -- but the plots and plays remain the same. Always, the Illuminati gather occult writings and treasures. They rise behind each new throne. -- TRIGGER ADVERSARY RESPONSE -- And always, they encounter the Templars.
While having breakfast, John Morgan is visited by two Men In Black, who assure him that if he saw anything in the sky, it was certainly the planet Venus. Later, while Charlotte Day and John Morgan compare their notes and decide that they are done in Scottsville, Mark Savage knocks on the door, and he has a strange story to tell.
On his way back from the H-P Garage, Mark was met by Eddie Doris. Eddie tried again to get Mark to meet with the Illuminati, this time in Philadelphia. Mark responded by punching him, and Eddie said they could talk later. Then Mark was abducted by aliens. Mark awoke on the side of the road about 50 miles from Scottsville.
Eddie visits Mark once more, but that doesn't go well, and Eddie says that he's giving up on Mark. He leaves a card with an address on it with Mark, and leaves in a huff.
Leaving Scottsville behind, Charlotte, John, and Mark head to Philadelphia, to the address that Eddie gave Mark. John scopes it out, and then Mark meets with Ursula Burns, who appears to be well-placed in the Illuminati. She explains to Mark that nothing he has ever done or suffered has mattered: not being a criminal, not going to prison, and not being a teacher. She offers him a place with the Illuminati, the true masters of the world.
He declines. A hail of gunfire follows, and Mark jumps through a 53rd storey window. His symbiote allows him to glide to the ground, where he rejoins Charlotte and John.
2017-08-10
INITIATE DIAGNOSTIC PROTOCOLS -- The engines strain. Cleansing efficiency compromised. Engine 745B lost. We've sprung a leak. The centre cannot hold. Corrupted Anima spills. Vermiculated fractals coagulate to solid geometry. The Filth! The Filth! It transmits! -- LOCATION -- It is like us: a flowing message, crawling letters, a living meme. It is not us. It is anti-us, anti-luminosity that crucifies sentience. It trickles down hundreds of dimensions on alien gravity. You cannot even see most of it, mortal morsel. How will you escape? How do you hobble through this world on three tiny dimensions? It flows across time, a disease floating on Quantum Foam. -- INSERTION -- Sumerians called it the Eater. In Babylon they named it Nergal's Rot. Dead tongues dubbed it the Devouring Plague, the Zero Point Pathogen, the Dark Homunculus, the Blackworm Jism. -- ANALYZE ANALYZE ANALYZE -- Information is a super-weird substance, sometimes floating as oil, sometimes vapour, invisible waves, pollution, roiling black storms, a viral rhyme. Sentient hyperdimensional liquid. -- WITNESS -- It is the harbinger of change: the sizzling, celestial syphilis. The flesh mutates. The mind boils to bilious madness. All lucid thoughts to slay. All sweetlings are fair game to the drip. But the Filth pours, as dark dreams, directly into the heads of the insane and sadistic. -- EMPLOYEES ONLY -- Following the signal...
Somewhere, a trucker reads alien letters carved into the bathroom stall walls of a truck stop. He cannot look away. Pathogens in the grammar open an event horizon in his head. He spreads the scrawl in every stop on his route, carving it into the stalls. He itches and he scratches. Others see the letters. They itch. They scratch. He scratches his face, draws the runes in red with his box knife. His head blossoms into a bouquet of writhing lampreys.
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang is tracked by an Illuminati spectre-containment team, who are using the ghost of Sara Boyd to find Charlotte Day. The gang rescues the ghost of Sarah Boyd and eludes the Illuminati. They then head to Fort Dodge Labs.
The gang parks outside the building where Fort Dodge Labs is located; Charlotte Day spies on the labs using astral projection, and John Morgan hacks into their network. John locates a workstation with extraordinary encryption, belonging to Cynthia Marlboro, Vice President of R&D (whom the characters have not yet met). He makes a copy of the drive to examine later.
Just as John is finishing the file transfer, several black Humvees attempt to surround and capture the car the gang are sitting in. A chase ensues. Mark Savage uses his expert driving skills to elude pursuit, finally losing all of the Humvees chasing them, including the one with Peter Breck (whom the characters have not actually met yet).
This week's game brought you by Ballast Point Brewing Co..
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2017-08-15
TRANSMIT -- initiate Babel signal -- RECEIVE -- initiate phosphorous prayer frequency -- DOWNLOAD -- initiate John Dee lexicon -- AS SEEN ON TV -- initiate pillar of salt protocol -- DELIVER US FROM EVIL -- initiate the Molay Curse cadence -- MUST REDEEM BEFORE EXPIRATION -- the red spectrum -- WITNESS -- The Templars. Initiate geomancy. There is power in bisecting lines. Stand at a crossroads and feel the thrum of energy in the ninety degree angels.
Listen. Preternatural dramas all around you. The city is a honeycomb of horror, each cell barely cognizant of the others. Black feathers in a playground. The odd stain on the sidewalk. The flicker-flash of a winged thing in the headlights. The vagrant holding a wriggling bag. The moons from the apartment above.
As you hear these words, a scene unfolds. Close. An alley. A neon cross shines in the seedy Eden. A monster writhes, broken and bloody, on the pavement. Its teeth gnash. It looks up into the eyes of its assailant, and two crosses reflect back in the crucifixion glow.
To pray devoutly. To prey mercilessly. The hands folded serenely drip with blood. Even monsters have bogeymen.
Game session recording (YouTube)
John Morgan decrypts Cynthia Marlboro's hard drive, and finds that the bulk of the research she has overseen involves a nanomachine design called "Echo 2112". This, in turn, was reverse engineered from a sample provided to Fort Dodge Labs by the Institute For Molecular Research, located in San Diego, California. The original sample was designated "ROSNM-21".
Charlotte Day examines the research. In its default state, Echo 2112 appears to be inert. However, when exposed to gastric acid -- hydrochloric acid (HCl), potassium chloride (KCl), and sodium chloride (NaCl) -- the nanomachines will convert any available glucose and surcrose into a psychopharmaceutical compound which causes xenophobia, excessive anger, delusions, and obesity. From the research on the hard drive, the amount of glucose and fructose needed is enormous, and a subject would need to be exposed to Echo 2112 every day for months or even years before the psychopharmaceutical effects become apparent.
Putting a pin in that, the gang decides to head to London to follow up on the invitations they received from the Templars. After a cordial conversation Richard Sonnac, the gang and Sonnac agree that the Templars are not a good fit. They then run into Eddie Doris, the Illuminati recruiter who has been trying to sign up Mark Savage. Eddie takes the gang to dinner, and answers a lot of their questions about various secret societies. He also told them firmly that there are no aliens, no magic, and no ghosts. That's all disinformation ILM (what Eddie calls the Illuminati).
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2017-08-22
TRANSMIT - initiate anima signal - RECEIVE - initiate the all-in-one-one-in-all frequency - THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS - initiate transportation prerogative - MIND THE GAP - initiate geomantic protocols - WITNESS - The Labyrinth. Agartha.
Enter the Labyrinth. You've always known it was here, this strangeness familiar -- the subterranean realm, the pathways to all space and time, the path, the stairs, and the doors, the doors, the doors! Things you may designate godlike or demonic roam the transdimensional corridors and cities. Hulking automatons patrol the way.
Warning, secret worlder: bring not the uninitiated into Agartha. The resonance here does not match the frequency of their meat. It precipitates a messy discord.
Game session recording (YouTube)
Still in London, the PCs encounter a strange group of knife-wielding crazies chasing a woman down the street. The knife-wielding crazies are dressed like fox hunters, and two of them have vicious baboons on leashes. They lose the crazy fox hunters, but then stumble across Agartha. They do some exploring, visiting Australia, Korea, Hungary, and other places. Shortly afterward, they are detained by MI13, interrogated, and then released.
Later, Charlotte Day returns a call from her parents. She has been invited to a symposium on "alternate medicine and fringe science" in Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy, a village in Anglesey, in north-west Wales. The symposium is a three-day affair, hosted by Dr. Chris Severenson at her estate. Severenson is a recluse who writes papers and hosts these annual symposiums. One researcher at each symposium is given a £25,000 grant, on the condition that they keep Dr. Severenson informed on their research.
The gang rents a car and makes the drive to Wales. As they approach the estate, they each experience a strange sensation, like they are passing through a barrier...
2017-09-05
TRANSMIT - initiate Cymraeg signal - RECEIVE - initiate the Geist frequency - THEY'RE HERE! - There is a house. It waits. Windows stare like eyes, but these are false eyes - an old cliche. It is the invisible eyes you should fear, the thousand invisible eyes that lick your soul with tongues that are not tongues. You back away. The house waits.
Initiate the secret histories.
The house was born in Anglesey in 1874 -- an inverse birth, it came to be when others entered its belly: Frank and Joanna Devore. They invested in a rosin that turned soap from brown to white, and made a fortune from the purity of whiteness. The couple was popular; the soirees were lavish. The house was lively in its infancy. Shudder at the voracious things that grow from adorable larvae.
Mysterious men with eyes and pyramids on their business cards came calling on Mr. Devore. His influence thrilled them. They elevated him into their inner circle.
Mrs. Devore, swallowed by the empty house, grew bored. She took solace in the company of a colleague of her husband. The affair lasted until she lost interest. The house stifled. She pleaded with her husband to go with her to New York -- the best laid plans cut short. Mrs. Devore was cut short by the poison of her scorned lover. The hangman's noose cut Mr. Devore short, when he was framed for the murder.
Mrs. Devore's mysterious lover bought the mansion, with hopes of turning the success of the Devores into his own -- the best laid plans cut short by a faltering market.
Then came the other owners of the house -- a parade of unfortunate souls. One by one, we watched them go in. Not all came out. Let us count them off, one by one, song by song -- and then there were none.
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang attends a symposium being held by Dr. Chris Severenson at her estate in Wales. Severenson is a recluse who writes papers and hosts these annual symposiums. One researcher at each symposium is given a £25,000 grant, on the condition that they keep Dr. Severenson informed on their research.
The gang quickly learns that there seems to be no unifying theme to the symposium beyond "alternative medicine and fringe science", and several of the nine presenters have no idea how or why they were invited. Even so, most of the presenters are friendly and the gang generally has a good time... at first.
However, after the second day, they discover that presenters are being replaced by exact duplicates. They lay in wait to see if anyone tries to abduct them, and they are, in fact, abducted. However, Mark Savage manages to resist whatever Dr. Severenson's assistants use to drug their subjects, and he follows them down to a deep sub-basement under the estate: some kind of laboratory. Mark witnesses one of the presenters (a Polish fortune teller) get dissolved in a vat, while a lizard person is transformed into her exact double.
Mark Savage ambushes the lizard people working in the lab, taking out several of them with fire extinguishers. He wakes up Charlotte Day, and together they manage to subdue the rest of the lizard people and Dr. Severenson's three assistants (who are also, in fact, lizard people). The symposium continues, although Dr. Severenson is concerned about her missing assistants.
After the symposium ends and everyone goes home, including the servants, John Morgan hacks into the singularity core that the lizard people are using for power, causing it to implode and destroy the lab. Afterward, they follow Dr. Severenson back to London, and discover that she's actually a stage actor named Joan Clarke.
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2017-09-12
TRANSMIT - initiate the howling signal - RECEIVE - initiate the Romulus and Remus legacy - SILENCE, ACCURSED WOLF! ATTACK YOUR OWN INSIDES WITH YOUR DEVOURING RAGE - illumine the Local Legends protocol - WITNESS - The Werewolf
We have scanned your species' folklore. The silhouette of the solitary beast-man crying longingly to the pregnant moon is a common image. A human cursed by the heavens, by demons, or the magic of the elements, and forced to lunar cycles of frenzied release. Metamorphosis. The predator within manifested in flesh and blood. Blood. Blood everywhere!
Your fireside stories are a faint reflection of the truth. The werewolf was yet another of the Annunaki's creations. Like a deranged bartender, the progenitors combined human and animal DNA, producing something savage and strong. Their creations spread and flourished in number, useful in their wars, yet they proved too short-lived to reach their potential and too hard to control. The Annunaki lost interest in their bestial children and left them to their own devices.
Though they are conscious of Gaia, werewolves are amoral by their unnatural design. History has forced them to care only for themselves. Though they are aware of the imminent threat to the world, they chose to take no sides other than their own. But choice is a luxury few unnaturals can afford. Some will become pawns. Some will rise above their natures. The night is so full of teeth.
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang returns to London, and they consider their futures. Charlotte goes to the Templars, and requests admission to their ranks; the Templars accept her, and assign her to keep an eye on her companions for them. Mark and John go to a pub.
Meanwhile, MI13 agent John Fisher is betrayed by his superiors. His team dead, and with no one to trust, he tracks down the gang to the hotel where they are staying. They are not in, so he waits.
The gang finds him, barely conscious and bleeding profusely. With medical skill and a bit of magic, Charlotte patches him up, but there is no time to waste: Fisher's mission remains unfinished, and the fate of the world may be at stake.
The gang accompanies Fisher to Cornwall, to a country estate owned by Sir Miles Delacourt. An apocalypse cult is attempting to use the solar eclipse to contact Nibiru, and bring them (or it) through to our world. The gang interrupts the ceremony, severely damages the house, and no cultists appear to have survived.
Having few other options, John Fisher (now calling himself Aleyn Brenin) joins forces with the gang. He stops by his old house before bidding farewell to his old life, where he meets a mysterious man named Joubert.
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2017-09-19
TRANSMIT -- initiate cleansing signal -- RECEIVE -- initiate anima circulation -- APPLY TO AFFECTED AREA -- initiate the slumber syntax -- PROTECT YOUR FAMILY FROM AIRBORNE IMPURITIES -- initiate titan schematics -- IN WHAT COULD BE THE GREATEST OIL SPILL DISASTER IN HISTORY -- initiate apocalyptic energy drain -- WITNESS -- The Gaia Engines.
The engines run, but where are the builders? WARNING! Cleansing efficiency compromised. Engine 45B lost. The Filth leaks. It flows up alien gravities. Initiate diagnostic protocols. Alert the immaculate machine. Initiate distress beacon to the Host. Is anyone out there? Who mans the light at the end of the tunnel?
Game session recording (YouTube)
While kicking around London, the gang witnesses someone crashing out of an office building window, far above them. Mark Savage throws caution to the wind, triggers his crystalline parasite, flies up, and catches him. After Savage lands, the man is grateful, but says that Savage has made a mistake. Clearly wanting to get away, the man tells Savage to meet him at the Tiger's Nest.
Meanwhile, the rest of the gang does an image search for the man, and discover that he is Azim Premji: business tycoon, investor, philanthropist, and the chairman of Wipro Limited. In short, he is one of the twenty most powerful people in the world. They walk around and look for Mark Savage, and the group eventually meets up.
They head through the Labyrinth, and make their way to the Tiger's Nest -- known locally as Paro Taktsang, a Himalayan Buddhist sacred site and the temple complex is located in the cliffside of the upper Paro valley in Bhutan.
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Azim Premji introduces himself, and again expresses his gratitude. He says that his unfortunate window exit was the result of his misjudging a situation, and that the Illuminati were responsible. He also warns that his enemies will now be the gang's enemies. While Mark Savage and Azim Premji are talking, Charlotte realizes that Premji is actually a lizard man -- a human who has been replaced by a Draconian. The rest of the conversation is somewhat awkward, but continues without violence.
After they part ways, Premji sends John Morgan a cryptic email (through one of Morgan's many false identities), and suggests that the gang goes to Silverton, Colorado.
Silverton, Colorado was the location of the 2015 mining disaster. Publicly, the EPA accepted blame for the disaster, which poured millions of gallons of wastewater filled with lead, cadmium, arsenic, and other pollutants into Cement Creek.
The gang follows the Labyrinth to Pueblo, Colorado, which has the closest portal to Silverton. They head to Silverton. Shortly after they arrive, they are surrounded by Black Book forces. Black Book operative Peter Breck approaches, expresses admiration for "Alonzo Mosely" (John Morgan), and introduces himself. After some banter, he offers them the chance to surrender. They don't, opting to escape, instead.
The gang heads to the Gold King Mine, where they find that things are not exactly the way the EPA press releases have described the area. Once the gang cuts through the fences isolating the area and make their way toward the mine itself, they find that it is guarded by a small force of Orochi soldiers. They also discover that the area has a number of wandering monsters: vaguely human shapes covered in an oily black substance.
Something is terribly wrong at the Gold King Mine.
2017-11-07
TRANSMIT -- initiate the chthonic signal -- RECEIVE -- initiate the swarm intelligence -- THEY WERE NOT ALTOGETHER CROWS, NOR MOLES, NOR BUZZARDS, NOR ANTS, NOR VAMPIRE BATS, NOR DECOMPOSED HUMAN BEINGS -- illumine the Local Legends Protocol -- WITNESS -- The Cyphermen.
Pay no attention to the dangling ones. The twitching, oily cocoons. The muffled moans. Is that a smartphone, vibrating and glowing beneath the sticky strands? Their story is over.
SCANNING...
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang is still in the mountains near Silverton, near the Gold King Mine. While pondering what to do (if anything), they encounter Cowboy, an elderly man eating beans by a campfire, with his horse. Cowboy invites them to share his fire and his meal, assuring them that they are safe from the creatures wandering the mountainside. "Nobody sits by my fire unless I let 'em." Cowboy says that he does not have "enough horsepower" to do anything about the Orochi, but he is here to keep an eye on them.
Charlotte travels astrally to the mine, while John Morgan and Mark Savage go back to their car to retrieve Morgan's gear (killing a Filth-infested Orochi agent along the way). Charlotte discovers that the mine compound has a couple of dozen Orochi agents guarding it, many of whom are obviously infested by the Filth. Down in the mine, she see Cyphermen -- parasites from the future which sometimes look like people, sometimes look like insets, and sometimes look like something in between. The Cyphermen are gathering up the oily substance into containers, and packing those into silver boxes for transport.
The gang makes a plan and carries it out. John Savage hacks into the Orochi vehicles and drives them around as a distraction, while the rest of the gang grabs a vehicle, fills it with commercial explosives (stored conveniently nearby), drives the vehicle into the main opening, and then flees while Morgan remotely detonates the explosives.
There is literally an Earth-shattering "kaboom". The mountain collapses on the mine, sealing it (and dozens of Cyphermen) against all but the most determined efforts to re-open it.
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Cowboy congratulates the gang on their work, packs up his saddlebags, and gets ready to go. Before he leaves, Cowboy mentions that he'll pass their contact information along to a "little lady" who might need their services: Maxx.
Epilogue: Several weeks later, the EPA announced that they had successfully sealed the Gold King Mine, stopping the toxic leak which had been poisoning the water supply since 2015.
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2017-11-21
CONNECTED WITH LIMITED ACCESS -- You've seen fragments of our grammar in the chaos patterns of bird flocks in flight -- in hexagon angles -- in the graffiti bleeding together on the wall - in the bio-luminescent eyes under your bed -- in the fanged city skyline that forms a runic rhyme when glimpsed upside down.
A NETWORK CABLE IS UNPLUGGED
A blur becomes a syntax. A foreboding scrawl emerges.
Welcome to the Network.
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang gets some much-needed rest, then heads to Pueblo, Colorado to return their rental car. Before they can do that, they are contacted by Maxx, an operator for the Network -- yet another secret society. Maxx asks them to go to Denver and investigate a suspicious riot -- one that acts like a contagion.
They discover that a message from outer space (courtesy of SETI@Home) has infected everyone who hears it, making them think in a new way. Same brain -- different OS. Racing against time, they devise a counter-message which will act to disrupt the alien message and return people to their original brain-patterns.
They are successful.
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2017-11-28
A man leaps off a high rise, flapping his arms all the way down. Across the world, a moon cycle later, a tsunami savages a coastal town. What connects these events? The motion of his arms? The scream of despair silenced by terminal velocity? The chemical composition of the ink in the letter he left? The light refracting in the tears of the she who read it? The pattern of his wet, Rorschach impact on the cracked pavement?
Before Gaia, there was Chaos.
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang relaxes for a couple of days while John Morgan and Aleyn Brenin pore over their respective data dumps from Maxx and the Network. Aleyn figures out that the chain of events that ended with his entire team being "burned" (aka terminated, both literally and figuratively) began with a minor functionary in Her Majesty's government, Rupert Carington.
The gang heads to London and does some preliminary investigation of Carrington, including an astral reconnaissance of his desk in one of the sub-basements of Skipton House. Shortly afterward, all hell breaks loose: dozens of armed soldiers in black uniforms converge on the gang. The gang leads their pursuers on a merry chase, and they eventually take shelter in a large parking garage.
As the soldiers close in for the kill, Charlotte summons aid. Help arrives in the form of the Rowdy Three, who appear to be psychic vampires with a penchant for violence. After the battle and and all of the enemy are down, the gang drives slowly away from the parking garage, leaving the Rowdy Three behind.
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2017-12-05
TRANSMIT - initiate the anima signal - RECEIVE - initiate the headhunter protocol - A COMPETITIVE SALARY AND FANTASTIC BENEFITS PACKAGE - when my enemy resembles me - WITNESS - The Circle.
Game session recording (YouTube)
After a relaxing few days at the Templar HQ in London, the gang formulates a plan to abduct and interrogate Rupert Carington, the Department Of Health functionary who set in motion the events that led to the betrayal and execution of Aleyn Brenin's team.
The plan works, and they take Carington to Wales for interrogation. What they gain from Carington is frustratingly short on detail. Carington is a low-level member of an organization called the Circle (more formally, Circle of Enlightened Masters To Preserve The Crown Of Britain), a group devoted to the re-establishment of the "True King of England". Lord Lewellyn Of Steep is apparently also a member of this secret society, and it was he who instructed Carington to "take care of" one of Aleyn's former colleagues.
2017-12-12
See the engines and cogs. It is technology older than stars. Can you read the writing in the scars? Now you know the next truth -- Hell was once wondrous. A great civilization palpitated here. What went wrong? Methuselah machines pump arcane energy the way a lizard's tail wags hours after death.
Game session recording (YouTube)
Lieutenant Samantha Hodge, formerly of MI-13, reunites with her teammate Aleyn Brenin and suggests a plan to exact vengeance on Lord Lewellyn Of Steep. Things go pear-shaped. Hodge double-crosses the gang, and Mark Savage grabs Lord Lewellyn.
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2017-12-19
See the denizens. The incubi and succubi strut through the wasteland. The rakshasa skulk, slaves to the other races. Giants of demonoid flesh and burnt iron shake the scabrous ground with their stride. See how they clamber towards any crack in Hell leaking with anima. They are starved for it, grow strong on it. Beware any demonkind that has tasted that nectar.
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang interrogates Lord Lewellyn of Steep, briefly -- long enough to figure out that he is a truly despicable person, and apparently has some kind of dangerous psychic parasite in his mind. Then Aleyn Brenin rips him limb from limb, and they leave the remains in a park.
By correlating the information they have gained thus far, John Morgan determines that the occult ceremony that set in motion the betrayal of Aleyn's unit took place at Dacre Castle in Dacre (rhymes with "baker"), Cumbria. They drive there, and spend a day observing the castle remotely.
They learn that a platoon of soldiers have surrounded the castle to protect it, that Hodge is on site, and that Lord Clark expects them to attack at any moment. They also discover that Lord Clark has given someone named Quimper permission to do whatever is necessary to put an end to Brenin and his associates.
2018-01-02
But you did not come for the children of Hell. You come for its one missionary. Who is Kenneth Clark?
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang invades Dacre Castle by way of a convenient portal to the Labyrinth. Along the way, they kill quite a few people, including the Moon Child -- the One True King of England.
Afterward, they run into Frank Bartly, who has also killed quite a few people.
2018-01-09
TRANSMIT - activate the end times signal - RECEIVE - initiate the enlightenment protocol - THE KING IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE KING - the Circle is closed - MEET THE NEW BOSS - future may not be available as shown - WITNESS - This is just the beginning.
Game session recording (YouTube)
The gang confronts Lord Clark Of Windermere, who does his best to convince them that he is the good guy in all that has transpired, and that what has been done needed to be done. He isn't entirely successful, unfortunately, so he resorts to plan B -- "Quimper", a psychic parasite that had taken over Charlotte Day's mind when she made contact with the mind of Lord Steep.
Quimper uses Charlotte's powers to freeze the gang in place, in preparation for doing worse things, and Lord Clark leaves. However, Charlotte puts up a fight, keeping Quimper busy while the gang breaks free of their paralysis.
The gang gives chase, eventually catching Clark in the garage, and (in something of an anticlimax), they stuff him in the trunk of a limousine. Meanwhile, John Morgan makes contact with Maxx at the Network, and asks if she can send a team to collect the 30-years-plus of documents and notebooks in Windermere's study.
A team from the Network arrives, scanners and hard drives in hand, and the gang departs for London, where they turn Clark over to Richard Sonnac at Templar HQ.
Epilogue
Based on the documents in Clark's office (a copy of which is dead-dropped to John Morgan), he was telling the truth when he said that he had selected John Fisher (aka Aleyn Brenin) for MI-13. According to the records in the office, Clark had been part of MI-13 since 1972, and was given command of the agency by the Queen in 1992.
Also among the documents in Clark's office were dossiers on each of the gang, which are all more or less accurate with the exception of John Morgan's, which reveals very little of Morgan's actual history, and which attributes a great many things to him which he had nothing to do with, such as the British Airways cyberattack in May 2017 (which affected far more systems than was publicly revealed). The dossiers of the Americans in the gang are in folders bearing the insignia of the National Defense Directorate.
Useful Links
- Jazz roleplaying game system
- Character page template -- "View source", copy the code, and paste it in your own character page
- Secure Dice
- The simplest possible guide to writing Mediawiki
- Secret World concept art
- Secret World loading screen gallery
- Secret World Pinterest
- The Secret World Lore
- secret messages on a public message board
- Richard Sonnac
- Dulce Base
- 20 of the world’s most remote homes, structures, and towns
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