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[Dusksage]

The Root of All Evil

When a mortal environmental activist and ally to the player's Ring turns up dead in what was supposed to be a non-violent protest the player's soon discover that the forest the activists were trying to protect is in fact a large Concealment Infrastructure. The God Machine has stored something powerful beneath that forest and now it appears that it's finally time to retrieve and use it. Worse still is that the players weren't the only Demons to realize this and now several rival Rings all converge upon the Infrastructure to claim whatever lies beneath for their own. How will the players handle the situation they find themselves in? What of the ignorant humans who just want to preserve nature for future generation? What of their rivals, what would happen if they got their hands on a powerful weapon of the God Machine? And finally what is buried beneath the forest, and what other defenses did the God Machine put in place to keep out trespassers?

[Craig Oxbrow]

(Borrowing from Neil Gaiman...) You wake up one morning and find that your Cover has no backstory. Your office is being used by someone else, your credit cards don't work, your phone will only connect with other Demons. You're sure you haven't done anything to get deleted, so...?

(Borrowing from Changeling: The Lost...) The "someone else" using your office is your Cover.

[FallenEco]

27) There is a massive Atheric burst in what was once thought to be an ordinary location. While it has revealed a previously unknown Infrastructure, that was not the cause. In fact the number of Hunter Angels heading to the area leads to the theory that some one Fell...

[atamajakki]

28) Blackout. The city goes dark for an evening, and the flow of Aether stops with it, leaving the local Unchained with no way to refuel themselves. That's when the hunter-killer Angels come out to play, pushing you into public areas. As mortal looters start tearing everything apart, you're faced with a question; are you willing to Go Loud to survive?

[Xenesis]

29) There's this one apartment block where mathematics just doesn't work right. Doesn't matter what you do, any sum is off by 1. The local homeless population has been sharing tales that it's the best place to spend money, because if you spend a dollar, you'll always get a dollar in change! Of course, a prominent law firm has been making contracts that aren't quite right, taking advantage. Somehow all the computers still work, though. Weird.

[FallenEco]

30) It is known that there are some odd stigmatics used by the enemy, but one has gone missing; the circumstances indicate one of the local rings is responible. The reason this has become a concern is now there are a lot more of these 'tattooed' stigmatics, working for several rings and the enemy. Apparently a Tempter is offering to 'upgrade' the locals, provided they pay. Unfortunately due to both the nature of the Unchained you can't be certain that this is a new 'player' or just a new name.
Who is this Hedonist? Did zhe really work out how to recreate the process? Or is zhe simply a really clever turncoat? And what will happen when the original 'cult' comes looking for their fallen?

[Agentwestmer]

(in honor of the upcoming translation guide)

31.) Your Ring has penetrated the final defenses of the Infrastructure set in Centralia and you are now preparing to rupture the Occult Matrix. There are... Things trapped in perfect fractal crystals. Nascent angels, perhaps? You ignore them, moving in perfect sync with the operation timetable, setting up the breaching charges. As the explosions roar through he caves, you make the mistake of looking back at your handy work, the entities have emerged from the crystal... they're glorious to behold, not angels, not unchained. And they are upon you!

"What the hell are you?!" you say.

"I am Zereul! Of the Fifth house of the Fallen! What the hell are you?!"

[atamajakki]

EDIT: Shit, wrong thread. Give me a second.

32) One of the Machine's current projects relies on a commercial airline flight, and a local Saboteur has taken it upon himself to destroy it in midair. He views the passengers as unfortunate collateral damage, but that's a price he's willing to pay. Due to plot shenanigans, the ring cannot stop him from getting on the plane; they must find a way to stop him in the air.

33) One of the local Unchained believes information must be free, and has found a group of mortals that share his views. They've taken a local news outlet by force (taking hostages as they go), and intend to have him reveal his Demonic Form during a live broadcast to 'make the sheeple wake up.'

[Agentwestmer]

32) One of the Machine's current projects relies on a commercial airline flight, and a local Saboteur has taken it upon himself to destroy it in midair. He views the passengers as unfortunate collateral damage, but that's a price he's willing to pay. Due to plot shenanigans, the ring cannot stop him from getting on the plane; they must find a way to stop him during the flight.
'

Creepy, very apropo of the modern era. Possible plot shenanigans:

• the Saboteur is using a 'clean', never before used, cover, not the one the Ring was expecting, they have no idea who he is, and will need to investigate onboard the plane.
• The Saboteur has a cover as an FBI Special Agent, a Federal marshal, or the pilot, something that has the authority to detain, delay, or ignore the ring.
• The Saboteur is acting with the blessing (and support) of his Agency, one that has far more resources, power, and sway then the players' ring
• The airport is an infrastructure that the Saboteur has subverted and controls
• The Saboteur has placed the characters of the no-fly/ interpol black list, delaying them at a critical point

[atamajakki]

34) Luminous Labs has fucked up, and fucked up hard: something has broken out of one of their facilities, and it's throwing a wrench into the plans of the Machine and the local Agencies alike.

34a) It's an engineered bacterium that hungers for Aether. While largely harmless, it grows on the walls of any Infrastructure and makes Covers look visibly sick.

34b) It's a cryptid that seems to be obsessed with one purpose: being witnessed by as many people as possible. It has an uncanny knack for ending up on camera.

34c) It's a man, driven mad by the revelation of the secret world around him, blessed with the ability to see through Covers, and armed to the teeth.

35) Adds on to another plot hook. Either an Exile or a Messenger Angel approaches the ring and asks to pool resources in order to stop the threat. If it's a trap, it's the most blind, blatant one in the world; if not, then what the hell does this mean for the future?

36) A local orphanage is full of Demon-Blooded. Somehow, the ring discovers that they're the children of Demons who had to burn the Covers that spawned them. Their parents literally no longer exist, and they're all being raised by... who, exactly?

[Xenesis]

Clearly my PhD thesis has been drowning in my mind and making me go mad. So without further ado:

• The God Machine has been constructing a new piece of infrastructure. Comparable to the principles of chromatography, the God Machine has designed this piece of infrastructure to perform 'occult separations' - Those of a non-psychic nature find that various parts of the city feel uncomfortable or hostile. Whenever they take the bus, they always get stuck next to the person who reeks of stale sweat. Those who go to the bank find that their tellers are exceptionally rude or their cards get disabled for no real reason. Small objects get thieved relentlessly. There's nothing overtly horrible, but just enough to make regular people instinctively resist going to the part of city because it's so frustrating for no quantifiable reason. Stigmatics, Psychics, Demon-blooded and various supernaturals encounter no such resistance. Within a few months, the entire block is mostly inhabited by those of humanity who have a gift. The separation process is very nearly complete. Is the entire city block being set up as a method of purifying out the ever so elusive demon-bloods from the population? Is it a honey pot for overly curious demons? Is the God-Machine trying to harvest new cults?

• "Humanity is the element bread is made from". This curious phrase has been popping up in bakeries all around town. What seems to be a strange, philosophical statement of people's desire to tame the world around them through hard work is accompanied by strange happenings. Any demons who have eaten any bread in the past week find that they cannot divest themselves from their cover in any way - Changing covers, going loud, nothing happens and it hurts at the worst possible time. Rumours abound that a Demon has found a way to mass produce one-shot Gadgets with the Embed "Wave Function Collapse", but the scale here is enormous. Others think that it's part of a sophisticated attempt to control the Werewolf population of the city by notorious Hunter Angels. Either way, you're stuck in your cover and you have a mystery on hand....

[darthcoffee]

I posted this in the "Flora Cryptids" thread but it's a good hook for a first Demon game:

---You Are What You Eat---

Plot: A struggling local community, much to their delight, cannot figure out why all their trees and flowers are growing at such a high rate.
Flowers bloom early (sometimes in winter) and look much larger and with colors much more vivid.
Fruit trees give 7-10 times the amount of fruit, and the fruit's taste is sweet and delicious, but strangely enough, they contain no seeds or pits.
When examining the root structure, scientists find curious patterns and shapes -- almost like a circuit diagram.

These flora changes have resulted in a much needed boost of tourism to the town (whose former glory as a Route 66 stop is nothing but a ghost). Local businesses are 'sprouting' up to accommodate the influx of people wanting to see the "New Garden of Eden"

Reality: a new flower, planted by an angel produces a type of pollen that, when pollinated, changes the bee to be a crypto. The bee then goes onto 'pollinate' other plants and so on. It's curious that the bees and pollen will revert back to normal if taken outside the town.

Questions: No one knows what the God-Machine's plan is for this is, and it's up to the Demons to find out. If the plan is harmful, can they sacrifice dying town's 'last chance at renewal'? Without the local tourism and growing agro-business, the town will surely fail and go back to it's pattern of depression and alcoholism.

And what happens to the people that eat these cryptofruits and cryptoveggies? Are they affected? Can they be saved? Do they have to be routed out and 'pulled like weeds in a garden'?

[darthcoffee]

-- Risk management --

Plot: Strange fluctuations in the stock market have been observed by several analysts. Collating data and marking trends, it appears many high-frequency trading systems are executing large purchases of certain 'useless' stocks at 1:11:11.1111 followed by a large sell at 1:11:11:1112 and later a large sell at 5:55:55.5555, followed by a large buy at 5:55:5556. The computers used for high-frequency trading are shrouded in secrecy and companies, fearful of their algorithms being leaked, refuse to disclose any details about their implementations. But behind the scenes these companies are scrambling trying to debug the glitches and determine the cause. Most software trading experts are utterly baffled, as there's nothing in their rules-engine implementation that would lead to these types of purchases, but these systems are so complex their execution is almost non-deterministic.

Questions: These buys and sells range in the millions of dollars and seem to be placed hy multiple disparate agencies. What does this mean? Are these simply computer glitches, or is the God-Machine setting up a large collapse of the stock market? These purchases and sells do not make or lose any money -- they always perfectly break even, so what is the end-goal? Is the God-machine trying setting up a global economic boom? Is this a large occult matrix and is the God-Machine laying the groundwork of a major change of reality?

[darthcoffee]

There's rumors among the homeless about a strange man in the sewers. He will exchange money for any piece of broken machinery you give him.

It has to be broken...it cannot be in any way functional. Furthermore, the device must not be deliberately broken; he somehow can tell the difference. The homeless are plummeting garbage dumps and trash cans in order to find tradable materials.

[darthcoffee]

A classic 'whodunit' story.

This will require at least 2 players (4-6 is best). One of the demons in your ring have been murdered by another demon.

The murdered is one of players and the storyteller will inform them ahead of time (unbeknownst to the other players).

The players are tasked with trying to find the killer and the reasons why. The 'murder player' will do their best to try to thwart the other players or lead them down the wrong path.

The reasons are yours or the players to come up with -- they can be sympathetic or malicious.