[D20 Modern] Paths of Legend: Shadowgate (IC)
- Thread starter crazy_monkey1956
- Start date
One of the techs sits up and greets Nathan, "Heard you had some questions about how this all works. Well, I'm your guy."
Nathan nods and holds out a hand. "Great. I'm Abrahms, Nathan Abrahms. Actually, more than questions, I'd really like to just see what you have in place here. What kind of interface do you have worked out? How are you transmitting commands from our technology to this...crystal device, and how are you translating what it sends back into usable information?"
Nathan nods and holds out a hand. "Great. I'm Abrahms, Nathan Abrahms. Actually, more than questions, I'd really like to just see what you have in place here. What kind of interface do you have worked out? How are you transmitting commands from our technology to this...crystal device, and how are you translating what it sends back into usable information?"
crazy_monkey1956
First Post
The Control Room: Nathan
The tech gives Nathan a thorough rundown of how the system works.
OOC: I'm not a scientist, so I actually have no idea how a psionically resonant crystal of unknown origin could be made to interact with modern computer technology.
Nathan does get enough of a working knowledge that, with some time to fiddle with it himself, he should be able to operate and eventually program the controls.
Wandering the Facility: Amy
Amy is greeted amicably by many of the US Air Force folks going back and forth from one place to another. She eventually finds herself near the mess hall, which currently smells of chili dogs, where there's about six AF enlisted and civilian techs enjoying a late lunch. The mess hall has a small kitchen with a civilian cook, with vending machines, a small microwave, and a coffee maker on the opposite end of the room.
One of the techs she met briefly earlier, a civilian technician named Paul Wilson, enters the mess hall as Amy is passing by and says to her, "Oh, hey, you're the Australian, right? Have you had lunch, yet? Care to join me?"
R&D: Connor
Janice blinks, apparently a little perplexed, "Well, no, not really. I mean, if their corpse were in contact with the crystal at the time, but they'd still be a corpse where ever they ended up."
She turns her labtop around so Connor can see the screen and brings up a diagram that currently looks like a simple straight line.
"On the other hand, parallel universe theory tells us that for every decision any sentient being makes, a new universe comes into being where that individual makes the other choice."
She clicks the mouse and the line splits in two branches.
"In turn, every choice in both of the alternate realities spawns two, maybe more, alternate realities."
The lines continue to branch in a repetitive pattern until the screen is nearly full of branching lines.
"So, in some realities a person who died could be very much alive. That person may not be the same person as they were in this reality, though. For example, there's probably a reality out there where I didn't come home after two days when I ran away at 15, which means in that reality I'm probably dead, maybe worse."
General Staunton's Office: Howie
Staunton nods, "You have quarters on the barracks level, upstairs. Jameson tells me that you and he made sure some of your stuff was left there, including a video recording you left for yourself. I'd go watch that if I were you."
Staunton's desk phone rings at that point. He holds up a hand for Howie to wait a moment, then answers it.
"This is Staunton."
"What? Does Harvey know?"
"Damn. Well, we can't delay the mission. Get him into treatment."
He hangs up, his face suddenly more somber. He rubs his forehead and says to Howie, "Max evidently has a brain tumor. Get yourself situated and be ready to go at 0600 Thursday morning. Dismissed."
The tech gives Nathan a thorough rundown of how the system works.
OOC: I'm not a scientist, so I actually have no idea how a psionically resonant crystal of unknown origin could be made to interact with modern computer technology.
Nathan does get enough of a working knowledge that, with some time to fiddle with it himself, he should be able to operate and eventually program the controls.Wandering the Facility: Amy
Amy is greeted amicably by many of the US Air Force folks going back and forth from one place to another. She eventually finds herself near the mess hall, which currently smells of chili dogs, where there's about six AF enlisted and civilian techs enjoying a late lunch. The mess hall has a small kitchen with a civilian cook, with vending machines, a small microwave, and a coffee maker on the opposite end of the room.
One of the techs she met briefly earlier, a civilian technician named Paul Wilson, enters the mess hall as Amy is passing by and says to her, "Oh, hey, you're the Australian, right? Have you had lunch, yet? Care to join me?"
R&D: Connor
Janice blinks, apparently a little perplexed, "Well, no, not really. I mean, if their corpse were in contact with the crystal at the time, but they'd still be a corpse where ever they ended up."
She turns her labtop around so Connor can see the screen and brings up a diagram that currently looks like a simple straight line.
"On the other hand, parallel universe theory tells us that for every decision any sentient being makes, a new universe comes into being where that individual makes the other choice."
She clicks the mouse and the line splits in two branches.
"In turn, every choice in both of the alternate realities spawns two, maybe more, alternate realities."
The lines continue to branch in a repetitive pattern until the screen is nearly full of branching lines.
"So, in some realities a person who died could be very much alive. That person may not be the same person as they were in this reality, though. For example, there's probably a reality out there where I didn't come home after two days when I ran away at 15, which means in that reality I'm probably dead, maybe worse."
General Staunton's Office: Howie
Staunton nods, "You have quarters on the barracks level, upstairs. Jameson tells me that you and he made sure some of your stuff was left there, including a video recording you left for yourself. I'd go watch that if I were you."
Staunton's desk phone rings at that point. He holds up a hand for Howie to wait a moment, then answers it.
"This is Staunton."
"What? Does Harvey know?"
"Damn. Well, we can't delay the mission. Get him into treatment."
He hangs up, his face suddenly more somber. He rubs his forehead and says to Howie, "Max evidently has a brain tumor. Get yourself situated and be ready to go at 0600 Thursday morning. Dismissed."
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
"Yes Sir" he stands comes to attention and does an about-face. then he heads straight to the door. once out side the door he heads directly to the the med center where he is there for the requisite health evaluation exam.
"I hate these exams. " he mutters to himself
"I hate these exams. " he mutters to himself
OnlytheStrong
Explorer
Max sat in the examination room for hours now. It was amazing that even in a place like this .... the medical staff took their sweet time.
ooc: Thanks for the patience guys! My comp is back up and running! (motherboard actually melted, woot!)
ooc: Thanks for the patience guys! My comp is back up and running! (motherboard actually melted, woot!)
crazy_monkey1956
First Post
OOC: I had written Max out on a slightly more permanent basis, assuming you wouldn't be back for a while. Max is currently being taken to the major hospital in Dayton (the city next to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio) for diagnosis and possible treatment of a brain tumor. What we can do is have the brain tumor the medical staff at Wright-Pat found be a false positive (something went wrong with their tests) or it might be something other than a tumor (alien implant, psionic potential, etc), or...well, there's several angles to play with here. Let me know which one you want to pursue.
(OOC - Hehe, took me a little while to come up with some technobabble. 
)
The time Nathan had to examine the control systems wasn't nearly enough. When his watch started beeping that he had to go now, he nearly turned it off and ignored it. The interface was two things, he saw right away. It was ad hoc, and rather ingenious. Patchwork though...jury rigged. He already saw places it could be improved. The technicians were probably all being allocated to other projects now though. After all, the interface and control systems 'worked,' and that was all that was important, right?
Typical military thinking. Achieve a minimum level of success, then move on.
He took notes as he worked. As far as he could tell, the crystal was designed to react to, and emit, some kind of energy that was at this point almost impossible to even detect, let alone control. However, whatever process it used to interact with and create this exotic energy had a byproduct of creating electromagnetic fluctuations in its structure. Those fluctuations could be 'read,' via induction. The key seemed to be finding that the crystal reacted to some people, and their mental state. Once the researchers had discovered that, they could start cataloguing the crystal's reactions and creating a list of discrete electromagnetic states associated with each.
It was crude and hodgepodge, but it worked well enough to get basic data. Of course, there were a LOT of states that they still had no explanation for, that didn't seem associated with any measurable effect. Nathan suspected that the crystal had a lot to tell them that they hadn't learned to interpret yet.
He was especially curious about this 'exotic energy,' but there wasn't a lot about it on the engineering side of things. Evidently that information was pretty compartmentalized. But someone would know...somewhere.
Maybe R&D...
(OOC - Are we supposed to turn up for a briefing or checkup, or can Nathan visit R&D before that happens?)
)The time Nathan had to examine the control systems wasn't nearly enough. When his watch started beeping that he had to go now, he nearly turned it off and ignored it. The interface was two things, he saw right away. It was ad hoc, and rather ingenious. Patchwork though...jury rigged. He already saw places it could be improved. The technicians were probably all being allocated to other projects now though. After all, the interface and control systems 'worked,' and that was all that was important, right?
Typical military thinking. Achieve a minimum level of success, then move on.
He took notes as he worked. As far as he could tell, the crystal was designed to react to, and emit, some kind of energy that was at this point almost impossible to even detect, let alone control. However, whatever process it used to interact with and create this exotic energy had a byproduct of creating electromagnetic fluctuations in its structure. Those fluctuations could be 'read,' via induction. The key seemed to be finding that the crystal reacted to some people, and their mental state. Once the researchers had discovered that, they could start cataloguing the crystal's reactions and creating a list of discrete electromagnetic states associated with each.
It was crude and hodgepodge, but it worked well enough to get basic data. Of course, there were a LOT of states that they still had no explanation for, that didn't seem associated with any measurable effect. Nathan suspected that the crystal had a lot to tell them that they hadn't learned to interpret yet.
He was especially curious about this 'exotic energy,' but there wasn't a lot about it on the engineering side of things. Evidently that information was pretty compartmentalized. But someone would know...somewhere.
Maybe R&D...
(OOC - Are we supposed to turn up for a briefing or checkup, or can Nathan visit R&D before that happens?
)
crazy_monkey1956
First Post
R&D
Janice giggles, an oddly girlish noise coming from a middle aged, bookish woman, "Oh, dear, I nearly forgot why I asked you up here. Most of your medical data from your physical will make its way into our eager little hands, especially your MRI. I can't wait to see that."
She hands Connor something that looks like one of the mini-cellphones that attach to a person's ear.
"That is a cleverly disguised radiation monitor. We need you to wear it when you're out and about. It'll measure the amount of psionic radiation you're giving off."
Nathan arrives in R&D and sees Connor there, speaking to a middle aged, bookish looking woman who peeks around Connor to greet Nathan, "Hi there. Can I help you? Oh, you're the MIT DARPA guy, right? Goody! Have a seat."
She turns back to Connor, "So, go get that physical whenever you're ready, ok?"
The Mess Hall
Wilson shrugs, "I'm just a tech. I press buttons and turn knobs when they tell me to." He chuckles a bit. "Seriously, this is all something out of a bad 70s sci-fi movie. But, you know what, I don't complain."
Another tech comes in and light-heartedly thwaps Wilson on the back of the head, "Stop flirting with the exchange student."
Wilson makes a playful grab for the other fellow but misses. He turns back to Amy, "Don't mind Danny, he's the resident D&D geek. Still lives in his mother's basement."
Danny rolls his eyes, "At least I don't use top secret government computers to play WoW, jack***."
Medical
One of the med techs smiles as Howie enters, "Welcome Mr. Blaise. Don't worry, this won't take long."
After an hour of tests and blood samples, Howie gets a clean bill of health.
As Howie is getting dressed, the doctor steps into the exam room and closes the door, "Good afternoon, Howie. Just wanted to let you know that you have an abnormal test result. Nothing too concerning, it doesn't pose a health risk or anything. Its just that, you're body is about two years older than it ought to be."
Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio
Max, accompanied by his father, is taken to the area's largest hospital. Harvey is quiet, uncomfortable with the thought of losing his only son.
Another round of tests ensues at the hospital. A couple of hours later, a doctor comes in to the hospital room as Max is lying on the bed and Harvey is sitting in the corner staring out the window. The doctor smiles, "Well, I have some good news. It looks like we got a false positive. You're perfectly healthy."
Harvey jumps up, "Hot damn, I knew it!" He and the doctor exit the room to let Max get dressed.
As Max is buttoning up his shirt, the door opens again and closes. A man in a black trenchcoat, scruffy and unshaven, is standing there, "Hey, Max. Sorry about the drama, but I had to get you alone so I had my friend on the inside fake your test results. You and I need to talk. I'm Thomas Morgan. And you have a spy in your little top secret facility."
Janice giggles, an oddly girlish noise coming from a middle aged, bookish woman, "Oh, dear, I nearly forgot why I asked you up here. Most of your medical data from your physical will make its way into our eager little hands, especially your MRI. I can't wait to see that."
She hands Connor something that looks like one of the mini-cellphones that attach to a person's ear.
"That is a cleverly disguised radiation monitor. We need you to wear it when you're out and about. It'll measure the amount of psionic radiation you're giving off."
Nathan arrives in R&D and sees Connor there, speaking to a middle aged, bookish looking woman who peeks around Connor to greet Nathan, "Hi there. Can I help you? Oh, you're the MIT DARPA guy, right? Goody! Have a seat."
She turns back to Connor, "So, go get that physical whenever you're ready, ok?"
The Mess Hall
Wilson shrugs, "I'm just a tech. I press buttons and turn knobs when they tell me to." He chuckles a bit. "Seriously, this is all something out of a bad 70s sci-fi movie. But, you know what, I don't complain."
Another tech comes in and light-heartedly thwaps Wilson on the back of the head, "Stop flirting with the exchange student."
Wilson makes a playful grab for the other fellow but misses. He turns back to Amy, "Don't mind Danny, he's the resident D&D geek. Still lives in his mother's basement."
Danny rolls his eyes, "At least I don't use top secret government computers to play WoW, jack***."
Medical
One of the med techs smiles as Howie enters, "Welcome Mr. Blaise. Don't worry, this won't take long."
After an hour of tests and blood samples, Howie gets a clean bill of health.
As Howie is getting dressed, the doctor steps into the exam room and closes the door, "Good afternoon, Howie. Just wanted to let you know that you have an abnormal test result. Nothing too concerning, it doesn't pose a health risk or anything. Its just that, you're body is about two years older than it ought to be."
Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio
Max, accompanied by his father, is taken to the area's largest hospital. Harvey is quiet, uncomfortable with the thought of losing his only son.
Another round of tests ensues at the hospital. A couple of hours later, a doctor comes in to the hospital room as Max is lying on the bed and Harvey is sitting in the corner staring out the window. The doctor smiles, "Well, I have some good news. It looks like we got a false positive. You're perfectly healthy."
Harvey jumps up, "Hot damn, I knew it!" He and the doctor exit the room to let Max get dressed.
As Max is buttoning up his shirt, the door opens again and closes. A man in a black trenchcoat, scruffy and unshaven, is standing there, "Hey, Max. Sorry about the drama, but I had to get you alone so I had my friend on the inside fake your test results. You and I need to talk. I'm Thomas Morgan. And you have a spy in your little top secret facility."
Similar Threads
Spelljammer
Spelljammer Collector’s Guide Revisited
