EcoTerrorism in the Astral

GM: Scurry
Players: Blackheart
Synopsis: An astral quest for Blackheart.
Date: 1/26/2076


R4 AQ for Blackheart to assist in learning Create Food.

«Plot» Scurry says, "This is an AQ for Blackheart!"

«Plot» Scurry says, "Blackheart, please state the purpose and rating of the AQ."

«Plot» Blackheart says, "Blackheart wishes to AQ R4 for her Create Food spell"

«Plot» Scurry says, "Fabulous. Please pose setting up, projecting, and let me know to which metaplane you are headed."

Blackheart sets her candles and incense up in her room. With whalesongs playing on the stereo, she grins and rubs her hands together, looking down at her recipe book, a notebook with taped in recipes and hand written ideas which she's been piecing together for the past few years. Kneeling on a pillow, the Mage begins her meditations, projecting into the metaplanes of earth, responsible for the domain of her creation spells.

"Excuse me. Do you have an appointment?" The secretary asks. She glances at Blackheart from behind her desk, her gaze carrying the emotional boredom of someone who has seen a billion people and just wishes her phone would stop ringing. The harsh light of the corporate office gives an impeccable shine to everything. Immaculate windows circle the ovaline floor. The exit closes behind Blackheart, becoming just another window. Here, the secretary is queen, as they tend to be in all office spaces. Her gaze rests on Blackheart, and her appearance is… hard to pin down. Female, brunette… Maybe pretty… perhaps dressed well… The details do not emerge easily, and seem to shift if one tries to pin them down. The only constant is her piercing gaze.

«Plot» Scurry says, "Please roll Fringe Cults vs 4."

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Fringe Cults vs TN 4:
1 2 2 5 = 1 Success

Blackheart looks over the secretary, and steps forward, holding her gaze, her chrome eyes appearing like black pools on the Astral Plane, and she stops just short of the Secretary's desk, "I do have a reservation, yes," she says, pointing to the appointment book on her desk, "Eight thirty," she clarifies.

"Mmm," The Secretary says. The light through the windows focuses on her, their ovaline pattern illuminating her to near-blindness. "Carry on, little one." It is almost imperceptible, but the sudden spiderwebbing of cracks in the windows gives the impression of heavy pressure, as though the room were being squeezed from outside. To the left of the Secretary, a door appears.

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 1:
1

«Plot» Scurry says, "Place of Battle."

Blackheart inclines her head to the spirit and looks over as the door appears. "Thank-you," she syas, wondering if there is some soft of currency to drop an astral tip for the help. She opens the door and strides through it on her way to the first place in her quest.

Behind Blackheart, the room explodes into a thousand shards of glass. Light, sound, all senses are overloaded with the blinding bright light, leaving Blackheart momentarily dazed. When she comes to, she is ankle-deep in mud. Fields of crops stretch for miles without an end in sight.
"GET THE FUCK DOWN," Someone behind Blackheart yells. A man in military camo slams himself to the ground as in the distance, a frag mine explodes. "Erica!" The man whispers harshly from where he lies in the mud. "Are you OK? Status report."

Blackheart ducks as she hears the yelling and dives for cover into the muck on the ground as an explosion goes off nearby. "Who's Erica?!" she asks, looking about frantically as she crawls towards some sort of cover, the mud squishing between her fingers and beneath her knees. She approaches the man as he lays in the mud, "I'm fine, are you hit?" she wonders, searching his body for wounds.

A buzz of noise and voices arises in Blackheart's comm. She finds herself dressed as the man is. The people reporting in are doing so under code names, and instantly it becomes clear without knowing exactly why it is so: this man is your commander, a high-ranking member of the Locusts. An eco-terrorist group. "I'm fine. We just lost three people. Squad six is on the move and we're being flanked from the east by Aggro Corp. We have to move—" He is cut off suddenly by the sound of rustling on the other side of the thick rows of plants. Putting a finger to his lips, he readies his assault rifle.

"Circle around and hit them from behind. I'll take them from the front. Only one round of fire from me. Burst through this row when I stop." Without saying another word, the man moves through the mud until he slips through the rows of plants and opens fire.

«Plot» Scurry says, "Pose, then roll any melee combat skill TN 4."

Blackheart gets quiet and nods her head as the commander gives her the plan. she crawls around the other side quiet as can be and lays in ambush, finding a stick in the mud to heft as a club. Biding her time until she hears the shot, as soon as it goes off, she splashes to her feet and breaks through the plants, swinging at the Aggrocorp goons, ready to take them down!

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Clubs + 2 vs TN 4 for "Astral pool:2":
1 2 5 5 7 7 = 4 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 4 vs TN 5 for "Soldier, element of surprise":
1 3 4 5 = 1 Success

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 4 - 1 vs TN 5 for "KP1":
3 3 3 = 0 Successes

The man who was distracted goes down, succumbing to Blackheart's surprise attack from behind. The commander gives Blackheart a thumbs up. "Okay, I've gotten you this far. You're on your own from here on out, Erica. We won't be able to reach you on comm. But you know your duty. I have to circle back to the team. You should be clear. This rests on you." He tosses a small bag for Blackheart to catch. "All C4. When you get to the compound, do as we planned." Saluting, he disappears back into the foliage, the slight tremble the only thing to indicate he was there.

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 2:
3 7

«Plot» Scurry says, "The Place of Fear."

The map in Blackheart's visor indicates where she is to go next. A red blotch beeps on and off.

Blackheart catches the bag of C4 and looks at the explosives for a moment, gulping. She's seen the movies and how they just stick the bomb somewhere and push a button, but she's pretty sure it's more complicated than that. She gives the commander a quick salute, and heads on out towards the red blotch with a quick pace, the mud and p uddles splashing beneath her boots as she leaves the scene of the attack to see where she has to put the bomb.

After emerging from the mud-strewn fields, Blackheart comes upon another obstacle between her and the path to this "compound". It would seem that terrorism has taken its roll: a fence lies between the path to the compound and the edge of the rice paddies. Electricity from downed power lines and gates sparks periodically. The gate to be climbed is the only way across, and it is intermittently set alight with a blaze of electricity. It is easy to clear; it is just a matter now of timing it correctly. Sparks fly, and the smell of the chemical-poisoned soil is replaced by the heady scent of ozone.

«Plot» Scurry says, "Please roll Willpower vs 4. Remember also that you can use your astral pool for all of these rolls :)"

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Willpower + 2 vs TN 4 for "AstralPool2":
1 2 3 3 4 5 9 16 = 4 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Willpower + 2 - 4 vs TN 4 for "KP1":
1 5 5 5 = 3 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Willpower + 2 - 7 vs TN 4 for "KP3":
5 = 1 Success

Blackheart grimaces as she sees the sparking fence. With her wet bag of C4 slung over her shoulder, it will get really messy if she catches any of the current while the fence is on. Taking a steadying breath, the mage tries to recognize a pattern, her pulse picking up as she watches the cascades of sparks raining off of the chain links. She can hear footsteps behind her, the Aggrocorps are on their way! Casting a glance over her shoulder, she runs towards the fence as soon as the latest charge seems to fade. Ignoring the ozone, she leaps up to the chain fencing and begins to scale it, dripping water and mud behind her, she hurries as fast as she can, throwing one leg, then the other over the top as she pushes off with her arms to fall down on the other side just as the deadly current electrifies the fence once more. With a shakey breath, she closes her eyes and feels the adrenaline dump, making her hands shake as she turns around to run before the Aggrocorps spots her.

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 2:
3 22

«Plot» Scurry says, "The Place of Knowledge."

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 1 for "Lucky?":
4

The bright, hot sun beats down mercilessly. The red dot never looked farther away. Fortunately, the fighting seems to have left soldiers without their post. But they are coming back. A military-grade motorbike sits propped against one of the inactive streetlights.

«Plot» Scurry says, "Roll Bikes vs 4, resisting M stun."

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Bike + 2 vs TN 4:
3 4 4 5 5 8 16 = 6 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 2:
1 5

«Plot» Scurry says, "The Place of Destiny."

As the mud bakes to her body under the blistering sun, Blackheart shields her eyes and looks about, seeing the guardpost abandoned for the moment. With the blip so far away, and with this heat—she must be near the plane of fire or something, it'd be best to catch a ride. Cinching her bag of C4 tightly against her body, she dashes to the bike, and quickly hotwires it before the guards come back. With a loud kickstart, Blackheart leaves a peel of rubber on the ground as she zooms out from the guardpost. "Adios, suckers!" she chuckles as she she makes her getaway from the battlezone, heading towards the ominous blip.

Hitting the road, it curls around and around in a dizzying ascent. These trails were not made to be easy, that much is clear; the terrain was chosen to be accessible. Blackheart/Erica soon comes across a checkpoint. The guardhouse is empty. A contractor of Aggro Corp lies slumped over in the booth. He isn't yet dead, but it's clear the eco group did their work: he was sniped from a distance, and the wound in his chest bleeds over the control. And yet, in the distance, the sound of helicopters.

The earth here is sick. Yet from this vantage point, Blackheart cannot distinguish between who is killing whom. All combat from this angle looks the same. The body slumped over suddenly sits upright, staring at Blackheart with a jerky motion. Its face splits apart, and something rends the body from within. SKin splits like a zipper, and Blackheart is left staring at herself. Viscera covers its flesh in a grotesque imitation of the sweat and mud covering Blackheart.

"Does the land die, or does mankind die?" It asks her, grimacing with a Glasgow grin. "I choose you."

«Plot» Scurry says, "Sorcery TN 4, por favor."

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 7 vs TN 4 for "Erica's Conscience":
1 1 2 3 5 5 10 = 3 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Sorcery + 2 vs TN 4:
1 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 7 = 5 Successes

"Fuck mankind," Blackheart says, unslunging her C4, she hits the button on the package and tosses it into the booth where Zombie Blackheart is grimacing at her. "The Earth will live just fine without us," she says.

«Auto-Judge[]» Blackheart (#12120) rolls Sorcery + 2 - 5 vs TN 4 for "KP4":
4 5 5 5 = 4 Successes

"As you will," a voice says. This is not the same Doppleganger, but rather, another vision of Blackheart/Erica in the opposite guardhouse. It presses a button, and the gate pulls back for Blackheart to pass.

«Auto-Judge[]» Scurry (#1304) rolls 2:
1 4

«Plot» Scurry says, "Straight to the Citadel!"

«Plot» Scurry says, "Just pose riding off into the sunset and entering the citadel :)"

As Blackheart passes, the C4 hits the side of the mountain. Its detonation causes an explosion unlike any other, and the steel beams propping up the foundation of the compound give way. It explodes and a landslide is triggered, the detritus spilling destruction untold onto the fields below.
Blackheart pulls away from the gatehouse, and rides through the gate, letting the guardhouse, and her doppleganger explode to bits behind her. She pops a wheelie and rides into the citadel, screetching to a halt within the vault of secrets.

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