The Pains of Prosperity
GM: Adam
Players: Adam, Green
Synopsis: Adam and Green head to the Metaplane of Prosperity to obtain a 'gift' from the realm to use in a focus. The trial is lengthy with many dangerous trials— but the two emerge victorious at the Citadel.
Date: 10/17/2070

During a recent status update with Green's focus, Adam informs him that it is going to require a trip to the metaplanes. Both the creator and the intended owner of the focus are going to need to head to the Plane of Prosperity to obtain a 'gift' of the plane. Just the fact of bringing a single item from one plane to the next is a very demanding request.

Pleasantries aside, Adam schedules out some time in the evening for the two to meet at Haven, along with Roosevelt to open a portal for Green. Notably there is a more karmic currency involved for that transaction. When it is all said and done the two are taken out of body and sent into the endless space between (or so one theory goes).

Here it is very dark. Only the luminescent forms of the astral essense exists for the two shadowrunners. There they wait on the threshold— awaiting for the Dweller to greet them.

Adam's form— being one of white-blue color and temperance— notes, "This could either be very long or very brief— and you can abandon any 'laws' of the physical world in there. They follow their own laws— abstract as they will be to us."

Green shows up at appointed time and place, after taking two days to meditate and focus to prepare himself for the ordeal. He spends the available time eating, sleeping and communicating via matrix link with Japan (his brother) and the magical group, getting any advice that he can from them.

The adept follows Adam's lead and lets Roosevelt do his thing. The prime emotions are fear and/or caution and curiosity. His automatically masked aura, riddled with black and brown spots to represent the intrusion of cyberware and bioware into the body, follows Adam. He stays quiet and observant, continuing to mentally prepare for anything that may come his way… and to think outside of the box, outside mundane law.

The sound of wind fills the room. The sound of wind chimes enters into the symphany. Metals sound particular against each other— and the chimes match those of precious metals.

Soon the ground beneath the two takes form as a giant gold coin to which holds a giant face. The minted face moves in a yawn. "Ah— peddlers and plunderers. Petty pretenders of previous positions— Renraku and Shiawise both. Prey ye parley, pests— partially with pain."

With the amount of P's said and done— the coin creeps liquid metal over their forms— gold plating them live.

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Green freezes for the moment and then panics, trying to escape. But his astral form is stuck, the paint covers his feet and climbs up his legs like live vines, strangling his body and climbing higher and higher. He tries to scream, but there is no sound here, not for him. As the mouth remains open, the gold reaches the neck, rolls inside and turns the astral form into a complete gold-live statue, dressed in the birthday suit. And then he can move again and he is more relaxed, alert and absorbing the sensory input once again.

Adam looks down— the pain of metal covering his astal body making him wince. He looks around for a moment and decides that this test is one of endurance. Does he know for certain? No. One thing he does do is maintain his calm as the metal covers him— determining each centimeter of the way if this is the right course of action. In time he is completely covered— as if submerged in water made of precious metal. He takes a deep breath— he can breathe; he can move.

"Very well," says the coin as it becomes a door— slowly opening, "may the coin guide your hands."

Blinding light fills the room for the two— overriding thier senses…

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When the light stops— the two are found in Roman times. An icon of the times is the colleseum— tall with many members of the crowd within it. The two are not standing within the crowds, but instead their bare feet— no longer mired by gold— feel the hot afternoon sand of the colleseum floor. They are armed with familiar weaponry as a loud shout rings from the distance to begin the games.

Large golden gates on both directions slowly open as mythical creatures emerge. On Adam's side, a Chimera. On Green's side, a Naga.

Adam pops out his hand blade— a much more mundane weapon than it once was as he says, "Most of these trials— they must be done alone, save one. Good luck." With that he nods to his companion— heading off the Chimera that he appears is the 'harder' of the two trials. The consequences are far more… brutal… otherwise.

Green feels the warm sand and reaches down to test its texture as the gates open and Adam addresses him. His suit and weapons are one of a Retiarius, a fisherman's net and a trident. Which is a bit in theme with Naga probably, or just a coincidence. It would be easy to focus and pay attention, but due to the first experiences, a place of such magic and distance, the Snake adept reflectively circles to the left around his opponent, but his attention is captured by the surrounding amphitheatre, the crowd, the beauty.

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The Chimera roars from it's lion head as the small mage makes his way towards him with such a small weapon. Adam, unfortunately, is not a physical adept or a magical adept. His prowess is on the control and manipulation of the mana around him as a Hermetic— not sending it through his own body. Still, he is far from weak. The creature lashes out at the blue-white haired mage— taking it's serpentine head at him. He pulls to the side— avoiding the attack and going to the dirt and dust. Holding one hand onto the ground he stands— stabbing the scaley body as his dagger rips into it.

The Chimera roars! It flails— taking Adam with it. It does not look good and the crowds cheer— the mage being thrown in a monster rodeo and holding on to the tentacle for his life. Using his best weapon available to him— he waits and times it just right. The creature flails again and when it does, he releases— being sent up into the air. The crowd roars— feeling the fight is over the second Adam lands and goes squish.

Adam does no such thing. He goes up into the air— and descends back down— riding the wind straight to the Lion head of the Chimera. He lands— dagger-fist first and pins it straight to the ground like weaver's needle to a swatch of cloth.

The crowd is silent.

Green approaches the mystical creature who in turn strikes out. He manages to dodge the teeth, but the massive head knocks him over and makes him slide over 10 feet in the sand, leaving a drag impression. Retiarius jumps back to his feet and follows behind the snake, trying to strike it with the trident from behind while the Naga recovers from the attack. The Naga turns and coils up, delivering another counter attack and coiling around the gladiators feet, trapping him in the snake body grip and preparing to deliver the fatal bite.

Green uses the trident to strike at the snake, but the Nada's jaw snaps the weapon into two. At this critical moment, the gladiator strikes the Naga's eye with a short sharp remains of the trident spear left in his hand. The Naga eases up and releases the gladiator. As the power of Green's focus infuses the net, turning it into something of a monofilament net, the gladiator jumps forward at the thrashing creature, winds up the net and releases it at the Naga's head.

The enhanced net slices the creatures head into small chunks, like a hot knife going through butter.

Green lands on his feet and rolls down to his knees, slowly standing up and holding both his fists into the air. Victory!

The two contestants finds themselves alive after the first test. The crowd roars at the victory they have achieved!

The crowd begins to die as a man states from his balcony, "Ye contestants. Come. Harvest the medicinal glans from this beasts and come to my quarters." With that— he turns and leaves.

The first problem now is— what glans?

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Adam looks down at the dead Chimera— the creature still twitching from a violent death. This is more his speed. He goes to the snake-like tail and finds the poison glans— a rare and careful item often sought for in the 'normal' world. Carefully he cuts it out and carries it with his metallic hand. Here is hoping they meant poison.

Green walks to the creature looking and the "mosaic" of scattered pieces. He notices the remains of the eye with a broken trident shaft still stuck in it. After further examination he pulls the shaft out and extracts the eye with it. Behind the eye, he finds something warm and slightly glowing. This is it, it's the Harderian gland. "Got it!" he notifies Adam with zeal of a 6 year old.

Adam gives a thumbs up over to Green with his bloody hands. He begins to head on over when the true hazard of harvesting the organs is made known to them. The defeated creatures haze in a redish-blue vapor. The angered spirits of the creatures one one final blow to both of them— with all the tenacity of a rogue spell to the face.

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The 'hit' Adam takes catches him offguard. The nature of the attack is familiar to him as a Hermetic, however, and it feels more like the strain of casting a spell. Taking it with a grain of salt, he handles the situation the same as drain— focusing himself until the stress on his body passes through. Like the tests before this one— he manages to come out unscathed.

The magic binds Green, bringing him down to his knees, then on all fours and finally face down into the sand. It is as if gravity is affecting his body tenfold and he is about to suffocate. He struggles in each stage, but is helpless against the power of the creature's spirit. Finally he is prone and his face is buried in the sand. He tries to push up, but the force is pushing him into the sand. Finally, he manages to extend one hand and this allows him to roll over on his back.

Spitting sand and gasping for air he is still unable to move and is sinking into the sand, but he catches glimpse of Adam and his aura. He is no spellcaster and never cast a spell in his life, but somehow naturally, he understands what Adam is doing and although Adam does it with grace and experience, Green manages to brute it out. He relaxes for the first time here in this place of magic and the magic infuses him, in terms soaking through him and releasing him from this tremendous pressure.

Green slowly rises, exhausted, but still alive.

Adam looks over towards Green and nods his head once. The trials are being particularly difficult for them today, it would appear. He looks around as the background begins to blur. Perhaps that 'spell' was not resisted after all.

The two of them are faced with golden duplicates of themselves— appearing to form on to one another from the redish vapor that has since turned gold. Part of the vapor still clings to their bodies— attempting to wrest control like parasites infesting a new host— drawing out life force in order to make thier own anew.

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The white-blue haired mage rests control of his essense. It is not the first or last time he has had to contend with things wanting to consume his soul. Using focus and fury he absorbs the golden fiend— taking back what is rightfully his. Adam is left a little out of breath on that one— looking over to Green to make sure he had similar luck.

Green's mind races trying to find the understanding of this new challenge. He tries to attack and sever the link, but that does not seem to work. He tries to attack the doppelganger and the also does not yield any success. Finally, he tries to remain still, as he did before and let the magic infuse and pass through him. This also does not hold any success.

Then Adam's words run through his head, like an iPod stuck on replay "you can abandon any 'laws' of the physical world in there. They follow their own laws".

Green demands not to give up and perish, he demands that this is his life, his soul his energy and slowly the tables turn, slowly his life force (even though polluted by cyberware and weak due to a missing limb) stops flowing to his opponent and returns to him, weakening the "shadow" with every passing moment.

Although the 'world' should return from its hazy form it does not. A form of anxiety clouds over the two of them— growing deeper in intensity as the seconds feel like minutes and soon hours.

Adam takes a deep breath and notes, "Fear. I had wondered which— and if— we would have this one." Being of psychological mind, the tests of 'Fear' always interested the magical analyst, "Hold fast to your sanity— this one is one of the deepest cuts the planes like to delve."

For Adam— the fear becomes a sweeping cold— making his body shiver despite the temperate climate.

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Green fear has not faced him for a while. Just like a reptile snake in the eagle's claws, the Snake path adept is suddenly in another dimension or state of him. The "ground" falls from under his feat and he is high up in the sky, watching down. The moment freezes in time and then, he loses velocity to go up.

He begins to curse, pray, kick, scream and run. But his speed drops and finally he stops and begins to fall, slowly at first, but accelerating more and more. Soon the speed is neck breaking and the ground is getting closer and closer. And this is all stuck in his head, in his soul, in a never ending loop.

Somehow, be it luck or coincidence, the spirit of the Snake calls to him, it's not a message or a conversation or a revelation, it's just a soothing hissing that slows down his fall and he safely lands back on his feat. In reality, he never moved an inch.

The shakes take over Adam for a time— the man doing what he can to simply breathe and let it pass through him. The mage is a soul of temperance— moderate and calm— despite the violent shaking. In time they pass— as predicted— as his blue eyes slowly open to confirm both himself and his companion are safe and sound. All he does is nod.

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When the fear subsides the two are found within a large treasure chamber. The Cave of Wonders would be an apt description— but the decor is more Roman than Arabian. Great pictures of angels, scales, and battles decorate the entire place.

Adam says with a faint smile, "We have arrived."

Green joins Adam by his side, admiring the new place. "What is this place?" he asks, trying to soak in every detail.

Adam motions to the room and it's splendor, "This is the 'Citadel'. It can be a place of great learning for most. However in our case— we are seeking something more tangible." He walks around— looking for something suitable. "At the end of each Astral Quest— a Citadel is the final 'Place' in which the worthy are given the reward for the hard work. It can come in as many forms as the planes themselves, but for us…" he reaches out to a statue of an angel— plucking a single golden feature from the statue and showing it to Green, "…we seek only this." The 'feather' is remarkable. The metal is as soft as a true feather— but as hard as any alloy. It has a subtle shine to it that could draw in any artisan.

Green examines the feather and moves on to the statue, taking nothing, but observing and noting the difference in mana, so to speak.

The statue itself practically appears alive as far as it looks in astral. The world itself begins to fade— everything but Adam, Green, and the feather. Slowly they are returned to their bodies— victorious.
page revision: 2, last edited: 19 Oct 2010 21:27
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