Considering how huge energy bills all genAI have, I wonder if this isn't a Syndicate/Pentex joint venture. NFTs and crypto are TOTALLY Pentex, tho, especially NFTs.
English college engineering students on holiday discover a secret lab in a sub-basement belonging to a physicist only known as "Mr. Cavor" and within, find the formula to Cavorite, a material that negates the force of gravity. Studying Cavor's notes cause their Avatars to Awaken, and they are able to not only produce the stuff, but create an aircraft, in strict defiance of the Technocracy's paradigm.
The students whereabouts are unknown, but sightings of their airship persist around the globe. Meanwhile, they published their notes on the internet, and Iteration X is having a devil of a time trying to erase all the evidence (no doubt thanks to Virtual Adept interference, perhaps with the help of Glass Walker Monkeywrenchers). Naturally, the Sons of Ether want to bring these Orphans into the fold- Cavor was one of their order, after all, who landed on the Moon long before the Void Engineers- or did he?
Players could take on the role of the pursuers or the pursued, who may find themselves traveling to Luna and discovering the true origins of the Selenites, who or whatever they were/are. Or maybe they end up in the Dreaming, as Cavorite was actually stolen from a group of Nockers!
I ran a MtA game set near a college campus, in an old house with numerous tenants of different ages, which draws no attention in that part of town.
The plot was a pastiche of published adventures i strung together, the main one is MTAs Chaos Factor, except removing the worst character.
I used 2 NPCs to help massage things in place before Chaos Factor. I ran 3ish arcs prior to establish backstory and relationships.
The first is Merlin, the historic Merlin...sort of. Merlin is a mage who Awakened moments before the end of the universe, as Time itself was broken. He has the ability to travel backwards in time, changing the path of history, shifting the End of All. He does it again, and again, moving the End, his own personal timeline shifting around, but he's always right there, Awakening just as the Wyrm breaks the Weave.
But...he can't be in the same place twice, so he pops in, gives advice, and vanishes. Occasionally he drags people around in time. He can't teach time travel...but a Mage who accrues a large amount of Paradox while time-shifted can be blasted to near the time they left.
He pops in with information he collected from the future to get the PCs to do whatever needs doing to shift the apocalypse.
The other one has to be used sparingly. It is Cain. Yes, that Cain, cursed by Jehova to suffer forever. Cain is burned by the sun, running water washes away his flesh, the touch of his feet to soil is like iron spikes. Except he can never die and doesn't even get to sleep. A mark on his forehead causes all to forget him. If he harms anyone, he feels twenty times their pain.*
But in my cosmology, Cain didn't create vampires on purpose. A demon pretending to be an angel convinced a group of priests (great-great-grand neices & nephews) that Cain was still alive only because Jehova was waiting for the righteous to smite him. When they fell on Cain, the curse of Jehova struck them, the demon possessed them and they became vampires. This happened waaaaaaaay back in time.
He ran across Jesus. He couldn't forgive Cain, Jehova's wrath and all, but if Cain can get all the demon-possessed vampires off Earth before the Apocalypse then Cain would be allowed into Heaven at the end times.
So the PCs will get odd bits of advice regarding vampires from random people they never meet again. Or rather, one person they can never correctly remember and keep misattributing.
Except when it's the last time you're going to use him, and they remember all those past instances were Cain.
Yes, those two cosmologies in direct conflict, but I'm a-ok with it.
ChaosFactor changes
there is no Haigt. It's a person who wants to be turned into a powerful vampire by Huitzilopoctoli in the temple underground.
Cain wants the methuselah to come out and get killed. See the * on Cain hurting people doesn't apply to demons or demon-possessed corpses, so he can only get out all his aggression & frustration while beating on vampires.
Merlin is trying to keep the methuselah from going on a blood-frenzy, creating hundreds of low-generation vampires which is the Apocalypse trigger du jour.
So Cain can tank, taking all the methuselah's abuse, while the PCs whittle him down. Use the various other characters in the adventure as needed to give the PCs a real chance.
I recommend having Merlin time shift them forward a month at the start, so if a Pac winds up bursting with Paradox, the PCs can be punted back in time to heal up and prep.
Just remember, they can't exist in the same time twice, so once they reach the moment where Merlin landed them, they skip forward to the fight with Huitzilopoctoli.
Do not know if I'd use Cain but I like your alterations to the adventure and general concept, will need to track it down and see how it is constructed first.
Do not know if I'd use Cain but I like your alterations to the adventure and general concept, will need to track it down and see how it is constructed first.
I ran Loom of Fate as a precursor story. Make one of the senior technos be an actual person, not just a techno caricature, trying to convince the "damsel" to become a "hero" rather than force her to obey in some amoral concept of "greater good". Have a bit of visible strife between the techno-do-gooders and the techno-zealots.
Its easy to make the case the Wyld node is super dangerous. I had it be responsible for the Great Flood of 1862 that dumped 10ft of rain on California and caused flooding from San Diego to Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Oregon. It was also responsible for the San Francisco quakes of 1906 & 1989.
The Technos were damming it up for safety, trying to carefully manage the pressure. They were able to channel raw creativity into art, film, music, etc without letting it explode but but their "dam" is getting old and weak. If the wld is unconstrained it could kill millions.
This creates an opportunity for a reasoned discussion between factions, at least the members who aren't already convinced of their own infallibility or the other sides inherent wrongness.
This can work out later in Chaos Factor as non-crazed techno should be bothered by the way the Mexico City faction is behaving and give the PCs a warning if and when the technos target the PCs. Even if the PCs avoid that, its possible the PCs get help from Loom's "damsel", who could justifiably be aware of things for no real reason.
Several groups fed up with the Sons of Ether having a grip on the US manipulate the votes to get an anti-Tech type into the white house...
PCs have to go and adjust ballots for the recount... and can be on either side. a free-for-all of disenfranchisement by the wizardly class.
I ran Loom of Fate as a precursor story. Make one of the senior technos be an actual person, not just a techno caricature, trying to convince the "damsel" to become a "hero" rather than force her to obey in some amoral concept of "greater good". Have a bit of visible strife between the techno-do-gooders and the techno-zealots.
Its easy to make the case the Wyld node is super dangerous. I had it be responsible for the Great Flood of 1862 that dumped 10ft of rain on California and caused flooding from San Diego to Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Oregon. It was also responsible for the San Francisco quakes of 1906 & 1989.
The Technos were damming it up for safety, trying to carefully manage the pressure. They were able to channel raw creativity into art, film, music, etc without letting it explode but but their "dam" is getting old and weak. If the wld is unconstrained it could kill millions.
This creates an opportunity for a reasoned discussion between factions, at least the members who aren't already convinced of their own infallibility or the other sides inherent wrongness.
This can work out later in Chaos Factor as non-crazed techno should be bothered by the way the Mexico City faction is behaving and give the PCs a warning if and when the technos target the PCs. Even if the PCs avoid that, its possible the PCs get help from Loom's "damsel", who could justifiably be aware of things for no real reason.
I had taken a look into Chaos Factor and I actually consider to instead run a modern day sequel to it based of your ideas.
So in late 90's, maybe even around the Week of Nightmares, the Ultimate Mary Sue Sam Haight woke up Huitzilopochtl (from now refered to as Shaitan in New Mexico, trying to get more powerful by drinking his blood. He got killed, but managed to stake Shaitan with branch/Seed of World Tree he stole in Book of Chantries. Shaitan's cultists snuck him out and transported to city I want to place the game in, but they cannot get the damn thing out. This gives a lot of potential antagonists and fractions for PCs to interact with: Tremera, who want that seed, since if it gave Arete to some random prick, imagine what they could do with it. Sabbath being manipulated by Melinda Galbraith to try and wake Shaitan up, likely few groups in Traditions and Nephandi that really like the idea of building something out of such powerful symbol as a "New World Tree growing out of Satan's corpse".
Also, Merlin is trying to stop Time of Judgment scenario that occured when Shaitan awoke with the branch in hand, and Technocracy had to nuke the area to stop a powerful Vampire, again, except this time they failed to cover it up and caused World War III.
I could also tie Cavorite idea above, since if PC's search for Cavorite-powered ship leads them to Dreaming, they may encounter World Tree in Kingdom of Dan, and then I could connect them somehow, I need to research both World Trees more. I like how this is shaping.
