1000 Mage Plots

[Bluecho]

145) The PC Amalgam has been assigned to the escort detail for a corporate big wig, who is a major bankroller for the Technocratic Union. The unEnlightened business man expects assault from Reality Deviants, though he's tight-lipped about the details. Nonetheless, the Union needs his continued contributions, so high-ranking Syndicate men have insisted on the extra security. Moreover, for whatever reason, the big wig required Enlightened agents to be part of the escort, not just Extraordinary Citizens.

What the PCs won't discover until they're staring the Reality Deviants in the face is that said RDs are angry werewolves. A whole pack of them. What the PCs may or may not discover is that the corporate big wig they have been assigned to guard is a Pentex executive. Hence why werewolves want him dead. Enlightened personnel were requested to combat the Delirium factor, which would render most mundane security and even Extraordinary Citizens useless in the fight to come.

Normally the big wig in question would just have a specially trained Pentex First Team defending him. Perhaps because of some internal Pentex politics, the big wig is currently without the full backing and protection of his Wyrmish masters. So he called in favors from his contacts in the Technocratic Union. The PCs - lucky them - get the honor of carrying out this assignment.

[Bluecho]

146) The PCs wake up in a random (trashed) house, with vague memories of how they got there. Worse, one or more each of the Instruments they keep on them are missing. They have to scramble to locate and retrieve their personnel effects - Instruments included - by retracing their steps. Some items might be scattered around the immediate vicinity. Others might be discarded in various locations or stowed on the persons of random strangers, many of whom are totally unaware of what they carry. To top it off, the Technocracy is aware of shenanigans the PCs got up to the previous night, and are now on the prowl to catch them or claim their gear (and thus extort hefty concessions from the PCs to ransom them back). Lastly, a random animal was there when they woke up, apparently possessed by an animal spirit. No, the beastie is not aware of what happened either, except in bits and pieces.

Some party, huh?

[Froggo]

147) You come across a strange machine in an Etherite's laboratory, and turn it on.

[Muad'Dib]

148) A pair of lovers who are Mages of the Cult of Ecstasy have been running an Entropy and Time Magicks - driven illegal gambling place. They did so only to attract the attention of Technocrat Mages - both members the New World Order and, of course, Technocrats from the Syndicate. ( And of course the Ecstatics organized the place also because it seemed like a fun and interesting activity to engage in. )
A few days ago, as the Tradition Mages planned for and predicted, Technocrat Mages specifically from these two Conventions have decided to intervene and to investigate what they have identified as suspicious and unusual activity at and around the place organized and run by the two Ecstatic Mages.

[Segev]

149) Through your network of contacts not influenced by the Technocracy (which is obviously running a massive information-control campaign), you've learned that Great Britain is calling itself the British Empire once more, and that Hermetic magic is openly practiced as somebody claiming to be King Arthur had "returned" to the throne and taken over. Is this a powerful marauder covering the whole of the isle with his distorted paradigm? Is this a genuine shift in the beliefs of all Britons? Should you help, hinder, or ignore the Technocracy's efforts to keep people from learning about the shift in paradigm in a major Western nation? Will this cause ripples of Paradox that can cause you problems? And, if you're a Hermetic mage, how badly would you like to get over there?

[Muad'Dib]

149) Through your network of contacts not influenced by the Technocracy (which is obviously running a massive information-control campaign), you've learned that Great Britain is calling itself the British Empire once more, and that Hermetic magic is openly practiced as somebody claiming to be King Arthur had "returned" to the throne and taken over. Is this a powerful marauder covering the whole of the isle with his distorted paradigm? Is this a genuine shift in the beliefs of all Britons? Should you help, hinder, or ignore the Technocracy's efforts to keep people from learning about the shift in paradigm in a major Western nation? Will this cause ripples of Paradox that can cause you problems? And, if you're a Hermetic mage, how badly would you like to get over there?

Maybe this information got fabricated, falsified and planted by a person or by a group to draw one, two, or a whole Cabal of elder, powerful Order of Hermes Mages into the open ?

[Segev]

Maybe this information got fabricated, falsified and planted by a person or a group to draw one, two, or a whole Cabal of elder, powerful Order of Hermes Mages into the open ?

Possible! It could be played straight, or under any number of layers of subterfuge and misinformation.

[Muad'Dib]

Possible! It could be played straight, or under any number of layers of subterfuge and misinformation.

It also could be a kind of rally-call for Mages ( Are the Technocrats included, then ? Maybe this is a a question for Technocrats rather than for others to answer. ) and other supernatural creatures to come to the British Isles.

[Bluecho]

150) A series of urban fantasy novels have hit the market. No one notices - fantasy novels are a dime a dozen - except some mages have noticed the events depicted therein bear striking resemblance to actual Ascension War activity. The names have been changed, but the similarities are too numerous to be coincidence. Both Tradition and Technocracy mages are concerned about this, as it could potentially reveal secrets that could compromise the security of individual Chantries and Constructs, and their members. As such, both sides in relevant areas have sent individuals to investigate the author. Is the author a traitor within either organization? A double agent in both? An unrelated mage or sleeper with unusual prescience? Are they even human, or rather some sort of Umbrood or Night Folk?

And most important: can their staggeringly accurate knowledge be exploited to get a leg up in the Ascension War?

[Bluecho]

151) One senior member of the local Chantry has a "normal" public life, and she is currently running for political office. Lately, however, the mage has been followed by a private detective, working for parties unknown. She's under too much scrutiny to afford to deal with the problem herself, and is too busy with the campaign in any event. So she calls upon the PCs to investigate her investigator, get him off her back, and find out who he's working for and why. Is the detective on the clock for the mage's political opponents? Is he working for a journalist, looking for any scoop about the reclusive candidate? Could the mage's own political party be investigating her for some reason? Or is something more unusual and/or sinister going on?

Naturally, with the amount of scrutiny the mage is under, the PCs will also need to be careful how much of their magick is displayed. Lest they attract the attention of the Technocracy and more reactionary members of the public.

[Muad'Dib]

152) Technocrats of the New World Order Convention have contacted the primary Traditions Chantry in the city, and have asked - almost demanded - that they are given custody of a man who is an Acolyte of a Tradition Mage. They explain that they have developed an experimental Mind 5 Procedure that can literally make a person - who must not have any major preassumptions, and thus can't be a Mage - into an ideal Reinassance Man. Not only will this Procedure - which involves lectures, being mentored, psychological torture, set-up ordeals and lessons, pill regimes, long film sessions, tutelage, and more - give a person inclinations and discipline to be a polymath in regards to multiple sciences and humanities...this Reinassance Man will also suceed where polymaths of the past have clearly failed, as he will be naturally heroic, altruistic, optimistic, proud, and will also have a charming inclination and desire to better and train his body.
Or at least this is what the involved NWO members think can definitely happen if everything will happen according to their theories, plans, and predictions.

Apparently Extraordinary Citizens of Technocracy have too many preassumptions for this Procedure to work on them, according to the involved Technocrats. It comes with working within the Technocracy and for the Technocracy, at least for the Extraordinary Citizens. And of course the New World Order Technocrats planning this would rather not carry out the Procedure on an uninvolved person. Hence the need for a man who is a Traditions Acolyte, so that a true Reinassance Man can come into existence.

[Bluecho]

153) A new synthetic cannabinoid product - marketed in cigarette form - has hit the market in the local area (assume the particular locale has not legalized marijuana). As such, many people are using the product to get high. The results have often been...intense, leading to deep highs. However, many users report vivid hallucinations, and of feelings of being attacked. What has not been widely reported - obviously - is that the hallucinatory creatures that attack users don't always fade from existence when the users come down. Sometimes, the creatures persist, and wander out into the environment. The Technocratic Union has dutifully kept such sightings out of the news, and chalking incidents up to bad trips. But even sober people sometimes catch glimpses of unnatural beings around town, that seem wreathed in thick, colorful smoke.

Ecstasy Cultists have examined the product, and discerned that it possesses not merely psychoactive properties, but spiritually psychoactive properties. Does this mean the product produces such beings? Or does it turn a user's trip into a gateway for spirits to cross over? Whether the PCs are Technocrats or Traditionalists, it's probably a good idea to investigate the company producing these cigarettes, and put a stop to it. Any shaman can describe what sort of harm a spirit - if spirits they indeed are - could do to the material world, if left unchecked.

[Muad'Dib]

154) The calculations, divinations, and ruminations of a Mage of the Order of Hermes have revealed and proved that an area - actually, a building - has great potential in regards to a wonderous Node being able to be created there. The Mage has also made and demonstrated calculations, divinations, deductions, and evidence that the building can be used to establish a Chantry, or at least a starting point for a Chantry.
The problem in this situation is that the building is a newly built and opened over-twenty-floors high skyscraper, with the rooms and facilities rented to multiple persons and companies ; only mundane humans are involved, or at least this is the conclusion Tradition Mages reached with their means. If Tradition Mages decide to do so, it would be a monumental task to clear the building of it's current users and then acquire long-term sole use of the building itself, while maintaining subtlety and secrecy ( including from other Nightfolk ) . Whether this is too difficult and risky to do is not the main question for the Tradition Mages - in this case it will be either this, or that, depending on whether they will feel that they can accomplish the tasks needed, and after this try to create the Node and establish a Chantry.


The question is whether such an extensive depopulation of an area linked to so many persons - including ones who never entered nor will enter they building, like families of workers or members of involved companies - won't result in Spells, Rotes, and mundane actions of Mages and others members of Traditions ( Acolytes and Consors ) ruining the lives of many persons and groups of person. With an older building ( or one of different type ) there wouldn't be such a problem, because it would be easier to find varied excuses and create reasons for persons to abandon their vocations in regards to the building, and new persons and groups would be more easily convinced and dissuaded from involving themselves in regards to an older building.

Have the Tradition Mages lost perspective, restraint, and empathy ? Is it so for them in their lives, that just because it is possible and can ultimately be easy due to their Magick, it somehow makes them view the Spells they would use - including many Mind, Entropy, and Correspondence Spells - as merely a neutral tool ? When considering what they can do and whether to do it, can the Traditions Mages judge and notice, for example, whether they would in the end be surgically robbing persons of their livehood with Mind Spells ; or whether they would be exposing families of mundane humans affected by Entropy Spells to the results and consequences of what would most likely be curses ( if not in intent then in practice ) . The answers to those and similar questions is uncertain...and this fact further causes many persons involved - Mages, Acolytes, and Consors - to think whether the Tradition Mages should reconsider both how they think and consider this situation, and what they do as Mages overall. It seems that maybe it is true - at least to an extent, if not completely - that the Tradition Mages in this situation ( and possibly others, in the past and the future ? ) would act similarly and comparably to the most ruthless Nephandi Mages, or the most serious and cruel Technocrats.
.
And anyway, how often it is that a whole skyscraper is depopulated and seized by the Traditions ? Are there no alternatives, like creating and maintaining the Node and establishing a Chantry without seizing the building wholly ; are there no other locations in the city where Nodes can come into existence and where a Chantry could be established ? Have the possibilities allowed by wisdom, Magick, skill, and influence caused Tradition members to suffer from hubris ?
Or should this building be depopulated, and then seized ; so that the occasion to create the Node and establish a Chantry is used ? Is this how it should be ; is this how members of the Traditions should and want to act ?

[Muad'Dib]

155) A grizzled Master visits the player characters' Cabal, offering them training and tutelage in regards to the Sphere of Correspondence, and associated skills. The tutelage would take take form of a short meetings separated by the Master trying to avoid, flee, and hide from the other Mages. The Cabal would have to use their empathy, interpersonal skills, Magick, occult understanding, and deduction abilities to continually find and interact with the Master ; until he would start revealing his knowledge of Correspondence to them.

What the Cabal doesn't know - and what the Master isn't telling, at least not until it is time - is that he is extremely skilled in both Mind and Entropy Magicks, and intends to use them without limiting himself while submitting the Cabal to his trials. And he intends to use them - on the Cabal, on himself, and on mundane humans - to simulate possible dangers and serious complications that might arise in a person's life. Through his use of Entropy and Mind, the Master can create impressions, simulate feelings, and fake evidence of those situations ( and others ) : a Technocracy manhunt, being checked and recruited by the Technocracy, Order of Hermes coming to haul a person to a Traditions Tribunal, a Cabal of Ecstatics having a very personal problem, the Verbenae singling out someone for punishment for breaking ancient laws, or Virtual Adepts investigating a person or a group in regards to possible cooperation with the Nephandi or the Technocracy.

What those groups whose involvement would be faked would think of this does not matter to the Master ; he thinks that through feelings of urgency, danger, being out of place, and paranoia a Cabal of Mages can rise beyond their limits in their understanding and knowledge of Correspondence - in addition to what he would be teaching them about Correspondence Magick in other ways.

[Bluecho]

156) One of the PCs gains the ire of a spirit of Bureaucracy, which proceeds to negatively impact the PC's life. The IRS starts an audit, records for voting registration get lost or purged, property regulations change in a way inconvenient to their home or business, banks slap additional charges on accounts, etc. In general, the apparatus of government and business turn against the mage, while embroiling every attempt to resolve them in a dense clump of red tape. If the mage wants to avoid their public life being dragged into a bureaucratic quagmire, they'll have to find out what spirit vexes them and settle matters. If the PC is particularly unlucky - or the spirit is a stickler (which it is) - they may need to travel all the way to the High Umbra, in order to untangle the mess there. If the PC thinks human bureaucracy is onerous, they haven't seen what spirits devoted to the concept of Bureaucracy get up to in the astral reaches.