Sam, are your 'illusions' strictly visual, or can they make sound? If they touch someone, do they feel anything?
The dream world is entirely silent, and so are things made from it. At least at game start, it's also totally ethereal and the illusions don't have any effect. I suppose being in direct contact with them could cause a vague feeling of unease, but I don't know that it would be enough to bestow a condition or anything. It could make sense for them to do so when unleashed but that also runs the risk of stepping on Vestige's toes.
And you know what, we've waited long enough, and I think your characters are fairly fleshed out.
You first came together fighting Cauldron, the sorcerers from Nahullad's backstory.
Sepiatone, We totally broke some major rules to win the fight. What rules did we break? Whose rules were they?
Oh no, being first is hard! I'm not confident in it, in part because I don't want to godmod other people's characters into the story, but I also want to tie people together. So... Please provide feedback and consider this final only inasmuch as we can move forward, but still subject to refinement.
Anyway.
IC: Six months ago, the city was attacked by the evil cabal of sorcerers and witches called The Cauldron. They unleashed a great horde of monsters in the city, rampaging creatures that attack indiscriminately. Sam Walters invoked his pallid mask, and got involved from the shadows, leeching power from monsters, but his powers weren't suited to it. There was little he could do. And then he saw one of the cauldron sorcerers do something - it wasn't clear what - to a monster, causing it to roar and grow. And then the sorcerer fled, escaping the AEGIS soldier that was busy engaging the monster. When Sepiatone followed him, the AEGIS soldier shouted to try to take him captive, that he was claiming the captive for AEGIS business and he would need to be turned over. Sam didn't even answer him. The sorcerer rushed down an alleyway, apparently lacking any supernatural method of transport. But Sam knew the area. A great waxen tyrannosaur appeared in front of the fleeing sorcerer, and he saw Sepiatone behind him, which caused the sorcerer to flee down an alley. That was why Sam manifested the illusion. He sent his own ephemeral monstrosity behind the fleeing mage, and took the time to leech the color from the alley. Sam Walters knew that area, had spent nights there, and he had sent the villain into a dead end. Unhurriedly, Sam strode into the field that he had prepared. The sorcerer, cornered, turned to fight, and summoned his powers. But it had taken too long, and his powers didn't come. Sepiatone confidently approached him as he, now panicking, backed against a wall. Sam socked him in the gut, set him on the ground, and informed the sorcerer that he would continue to waste away and eventually die, unless Sepiatone let him go. Then it was time for questions. Sam wanted to know who Cauldron were, why they attacked, but most importantly where he could find their base. The sorcerer wasn't interested in sharing any of those things, but Sam put on the pressure. At one point, a knife came out. He didn't get everything, but he got a location.
OOC again: I'm thinking this is the start of the mission, and we'll run into each other over the course of the event, and converge on the location where we fight sorcerers while the more experienced and famous heroes were fighting the monsters. If someone else wants to alter that though, suggest your alternate narrative or (if it doesn't conflict with what I wrote anyway) just go with it. As for the breaking of rules, I'm taking a captive, not turning them over to AEGIS, and engaging in enhanced interrogation. I'm not sure exactly where the sweet spot is between a cop-out breaking of rules and getting into stuff too dark (and too consequence-laden) to open a game with, so please feel free to say anything on that topic as well.