((I have a car?))
Invite him to stay the night in exchange for doing some chores, also make some vague promises of giving him more work if he does a good job. Then head back to the university basement and have my new unexpected guest clean it up, make sure that the orb is well hidden from him, and procure sedatives from one of my contacts.
Name: Richard Reed
Appearance: A well dressed man in his mid-twenties, he sports short brown hair and a well kempt mustache.
Backstory: Richard discovered the cult when one of his less prestigious connections informed him about otherwordly beings and of the knowledge these beings possess. Intent to learn this secret knowledge, he set out to join the cult.
Physical stats:
Strength: d4
Dexterity: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Awareness: d8
Guile: d12
Knowledge: d10
Willpower: d8
Occult stats:
Corruption: 0
Madness: 0
Favor: d8
World Stats:
Connections: d12
Possessions: d4
Money: d6
Standing: d8
Inventory:
Notebook
Pen
Drawing of the sigil and the visions
Borrowed anatomy and medical books
$809
[9]
You get the hobo to hang around and do some cleaning in the university basement, somehow without anyone stepping in and questioning why he's there when you lead him in. You then go get some sedatives from a nurse who owes you a favor.
Read it. What information and knowledge can I get from the now translated book? Were my efforts worth the time lost?
Name: Micolash Cage
Appearance: A man with messy curly black hair and an eternal grin on his face.
Backstory: He used to work as a librarian, in which he found a book about the occult, and decided to join a cult for fun and knowledge. Fascinated in learning and gaining insight of the world and the cosmos.
Physical stats:
Strength: d4
Dexterity: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Awareness: d8
Guile: d8
Knowledge: d12
Willpower: d10
Occult stats:
Corruption: 0
Madness: 0
Favor: 0
World Stats:
Connections: d10
Possessions: d12
Money: d4
Standing: d4
Inventory:
$197
Notebook (Contains part of the german book "Geschichten des roten Gelehrten". Fully translated.)
Pen
Flashlight
"Necromancer" Book
Many partly read Books
Effectively, what the text says is this.
The Scholar is one of many beings that are called "Ideals" by the author. He connects them to the Metaphor of the Cave. In short, the metaphor of the cave sets up a story about prisoners. These prisoners have been chained facing the wall of a cave. On this wall are shadows of people and things. To the prisoners, this is their world. However, one of them gets free and sees that the shadows are actually being cast by puppets, and that only beyond these things and outside the cave is the real world. The author states that what we call the Scholar and his kind are nothing but the shadows cast onto their world by beings from a higher plane. These beings are the ideal form of things that exist within our world. Again referring to Plato, he mentions how plato envisioned "Forms" which were the perfect representation of an idea. When humans imagined something like a sphere, they imagined towards that perfect form. When then imagined friendship, they imagined towards that form. That Form is perfect in all ways in terms of its representation of the idea, and any who saw it would know and be unable to find any flaw.
Canis is the ideal of Canine, and would we see it, we would be unable to say otherwise. But what we see in our world is merely the shadow it casts down from that loftly platonic realm of perfect ideals to this world. Whether or not humans create that realm via combined thought or if it exists outside of us and shapes the world, the author is unable to say. According to him, he believes the Scholar might be the ideal of Scholar, or Teacher, or perhaps Curiosity. Perhaps it might even be the ideal of something similar to those things but larger; a concept that has no word.
Information he has found shows that the Scholar prefers to know things that are generally forbidden or secret, the more so the better. Most cults associated with it inevitably began dissecting humans and performing other kinds of experimentation, though he theorizes that while this might be an easy method of gaining favor, there might be equally good ways that are not so inhumane.
"There's only one word to describe this sort of success: Bulk ace! ... Wait, maybe those are two words."
Helen waved her hand dismissively.
"Anyway, I'd call this mission beyond successful! I've got footage I can sell to the detective that hired me, I got footage I can sell to the news stations, I've got footage that could be useful to the cult, I saved another life and I thwarted an Evil plan... With the help of the brave men and women of our police force, of course. So! I'm gonna go pay up and then tail the ambulance to see what I can learn from that guy, see if there's anything I can do to help. Us cultists got to stick together, am I right? Wanna come with? They said she knows about Flux and the wave that hit last night. Or are you going to tail those guys to the police station? I mean, if you find out where they take them, maybe we could go there tomorrow and... I dunno, like, pretend we're their lawyers or something? Or maybe you could take the tape from this camera and make a few copies for me? Take one of them to the temple to show the rest?"
Pay the hotel and thank them for their wonderful accommodations. Then tail the ambulance to find out where they take the hostage. He probably won't be allowed any visitors for the time being but I could follow him in and then stick close to the officer accompanying him to learn the hostage's name. Then I could use that to pretend I'm a worried acquaintance and learn more about his health and when I could visit him.
((Let's see if my luck continues!
Might edit action based on Sir Elventide.))
Name: Helen Hywater, though she insists on calling herself "The Recorder" during cult related activities
Appearance: A young girl (that looks more like she's in her late 20s) with short dark hair and green eyes. Tends to wear a dark brown trenchcoat and fedora during cult related activities to avoid suspicion.
Backstory: Has a fascination with recording stuff for posterity and specifically cameras. Makes her way through life doing odd jobs and videotaping things, sometimes things she probably shouldn't record. She's even managed to make some short films. She's a bit weird and she knows it but she doesn't care. As for why she's with the cult, she mostly just wants to record stuff and then sell them for fame and loads of momey. Maybe she can make the world's first real found footage film.
Physical stats:
Strength: d4
Dexterity: d6
Speed: d10
Endurance: d8
Awareness: d12
Guile: d8
Knowledge: d6
Willpower: d6
Occult stats:
Corruption: 0
Madness: 0
Favor: d4 (The Scholar in Red)
World Stats:
Connections: d10
Possessions: d4
Money: d4
Standing: d8
Inventory:
Clothes
A high-end handheld camcorder with flashlight and infrared nightvision capability
Rented grey sedan (6 days left)
80$
Meet up with Helen and the others in the park to determine what the group should do next.
Name: Alexis Ledbetter Cromwald
Appearance: Early thirties. Comely appearance and figure. Back-length curly blond hair. Coppery eyes. Wears an apron with pockets on the front.
Backstory: A former teacher who is the housewife of a domineering businessman, Alexis oftentimes fantasized about dealing with her husband Michael in brutal but creative ways. However, murder is social suicide in the age of improved forensics and profiling and divorce is out of the question as her husband provides her 'income' in the form of allowances. However, her chance encounter with the darkest mysteries of the world may very well give Alexis the power she craves... or it could send her plunging into a fate much worse than slaving to her idiotic brute of a husband.
Physical stats:
Strength: d4
Dexterity: d8
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Awareness: d8
Guile: d12
Knowledge: d10
Willpower: d6
Occult stats:
Corruption: 0
Madness: 0
Favor: 2
World Stats:
Connections: d10
Possessions: d6
Money: d4
Standing: d8
Inventory:
$349
Purse
You pay for the hotel room and then follow the ambulance. They take the guy up into the forested hills to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, better known as CHOMP. You try to follow him in but can't. You do however overhear them say his name. M. Santana.
Buy the head for 200. Ask Bobby if he doesn't have anything to transport it in so it doesn't stand out so much.
If he gives me a bag or something to put to head in, take it to our Scholar Orb and show it to it, hopefully gleaning what the Scholar would like me to do with it.
Name: Walton J. Murphy
Appearance: A man of 64 years old. Walton sports a bald head and a grey beard. Not as fit as he used to be. His body is marked with a variety of scars.
Backstory: Walton joined the military when he was 18 years old in 1939, just in time for WWII to ramp up. He has since served in the pacific theater in WWII, the Korean war, and the Vietnam war. It was in 'Nam where he was gravely wounded for the last time, effectively ending his military career. He currently works a desk job for the local government, a fact that does not particularely please him.
He's been in a world war, a cold war, a drug war and a gang war. Now, seeing the appalling amount of respect veterans get from younger generations, he's decided that he wants to add a holy war onto his résumé.
Physical stats: (list in order)
Strength: d4
Dexterity: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Awareness: d8
Guile: d10
Knowledge: d8
Willpower: d12
Occult stats:
Corruption: 0
Madness: 0
Favor: 2
World Stats:
Connections: d8
Possessions: d8
Money: d4
Standing: d8
Inventory:
99$
Leatherman multitool
Notebook&Pen
Bicycle
Duct Tape
Flashlight
A bible
unlabeled black leather bound book, some kind of diary
a pencil
a crucifix
about a dozen Morgan Dollar coins
You buy the head and get a cardboard box to put it in. You take it back to the lab but find a strange homeless man there mopping the floor and decide that...maybe whipping out the severed head and talking to the eyeball marble might be a bad idea in mixed company.
So does this mean that any other cultists can find our temple the same way? Uh oh.
See if I can find another cultist to join up with before exploring that park. (If nobody's available, just go anyway.) It's too late in the day for a good exploration, but just get the general feel for it. I might want to explore here with the orb while we've got workmen coming in, in any case.
Name: Sean O'Malley, Phd.
Appearance: A trim, short man in his mid-40s, with a jovial expression and short reddish-brown hair.
Backstory: After completing his doctorate in Philosophy, he found his life unexpectedly limited after promoting some rather nonstandard views, after discovering and investigating some minor secrets. His position was since removed, and he no longer commands the respect he once had among his peers.
Physical stats: (list in order)
Strength: d4
Dexterity: d6
Speed: d8
Endurance: d8
Awareness: d10
Guile: d6
Knowledge: d12
Willpower: d6
Occult stats:
Corruption: 0
Madness: 0
Favor: 2
World Stats:
Connections: d6
Possessions: d6
Money: d6
Standing: d6
Inventory:
$1400
Bicycle
Drafting Board
Datsun Maxima
Metal Rod
Green Moth.
Park seems interesting. I'll go there with Sean.
Name: Ailn
Appearance: Wrinkly, frail, and raggedy. She's actually not very old, and much faster than she looks, but certainly has an unhealthy look about her. Dark hair and eyes.
Backstory: Child of wealth, persistent illness, oddly unbreakable will. She left, of course. She doesn't see much use in money, though her family makes sure she has plenty of it. She'd like to be able to cure her illness, and maybe make some sense of this crazy world. Maybe going a little crazy will help, if that's what it takes.
Physical stats:
Strength: d6
Dexterity: d8
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Awareness: d6
Guile: d10
Knowledge: d6
Willpower: d12
Occult stats:
Corruption: 0
Madness: 0
Favor: d6
World Stats:
Connections: d4
Possessions: d6
Money: d12
Standing: d4
Inventory:
old messenger bag
coffee mug
pair of dice
key ring
notebook
pen
tools (v. sharp and professional!)
trash bags
$294
You hop in your car and drive down towards Big Sur. The area is actually a state park and a section of coast so exploring it fully would be impossible. However, as you drive along route 1, you get a tingle as you pass a service road that heads off into the mountains and the woods.
If memory serves, isn't a book shop lady coming to see you this evening?
Author
Topic: CULT (Read 72939 times)