People arrive by shuttle, personal starships and in the cramped cargo bays of industrial freighters. There is no shortage of contestants, who all are considered by the mysterious Overseers of the contest. Only the luckiest and most interesting are chosen and guided to the station bar, while the rest either leave, disappointed, or stay in the spartan conditions in the hallways and lobbies, just hoping for a backup spot.
The effort and money spent on getting broadcast rights are immense. Most worlds have local entertainment networks more than willing to show the contest, some have to suffice for low-quality broadcasts from ships hidden at the far reaches of the system. But everyone wants to see this, and most governments care more about the money than the lawfulness and ethics of the contest.
The first two days go on, fillled with interviews of the contestants and the contest rules. On the third day, the cameras recede and they're left to mingle with eachother in the bar. There are boasts and tales of past experiences. Most of the contestants are experienced body-surfers, and cannot stop talking about that. The only exception is Wayne Goldberg, a local celebrity with little to no body-jump tries. His interview lasts twice as long as everyone else's, which he ends with a charming smile for the audience.
Finally, the six contestants are herded into a darkened, sphere-like chamber shown endless times on promotional shots and ads. The body-jumpers used here are of the highest quality, attached to simple beds with restraints. They settle down on their respective beds. A countdown begins. The contestants go silent, waiting for the brief pain of mind projection.
The Countdown reaches zero.
---
DermThere is a white flash, and you feel something being imprinted into your memory.
[1] - Stay in the same body for the entire world.
[5] - Kill someone without being seen.
[2] - Find and meet with atleast three other contestants.
[5] - You spiral back into consciousness with a gasp, your mind shuddering as your entire essence changes in the span of a second. [2] You feel the mind of the host pushing against your will in a maddened frenzy. It shifts and moves, attempting to dislodge the foreign invader from itself. You doubt the host even knows what he's doing, but it hurts like hell. You continue to push, and slowly but surely, you tuck the mind safely inside a mental prison. You still have a nagging feeling it hasn't given up yet.
[5+1=6] You take your time placing yourself inside every single aspect of the host's mind. You know this is careful work, and take no shortcuts. When you're finished, you are the host. In this state, someone less experienced than you might lose himself in the host's body and never return.
You settle in and fully open your consciousness. Senses come flooding in first, your mind swirling with new smells, tastes and sounds, the feel of your new body, the feel of your new memories and personality. Your new body is a robust, middle-aged man, quite healthy but not without vices - alcohol and cigars being the foremost of them - leaning against the side of a small motor boat leisurely crusing in dirty water. His name is Solomon Ayers, and he's come here with his co-workers to hunt some Greens. Rusted skyscrapers rise all around you, long-since retaken by vegetation and the water. The surface of the water is covered in light debris, the junk of a dead metropolis. Small islets of concrete and metal stick out from the depths, the boat being careful to avoid them.
Digging through Solomon's mind, you find that the year is 2002. The name of the city means nothing to you, and the mental images of it show nothing but the ruined mess it is now.
[2] You're not alone in the boat. Aside from the tanned youth at the wheel, there are three other men on the boat with you, dressed and looking quite alike to you. You look through your new mind for their names - Solomon's co-workers Foster, Black and Cobb. Solomon and his friends seem to view the boy at the wheel with disdain, seeing him as little better than the savages in these ruins.
'Yeh alright?' Cobb, a balding, overweight man, asks. His dialect of English is almost incomprehensible - thankfully, you have the info from Solomon's mind to rely on. 'Yeh not getting cold feet now, are yeh?'
You can assume the form of Solomon perfectly due to your success at opening his mind.
Name: Solomon Ayers
Mind: Rebellious/Fully Known
HP: 40/40
Traits: UnathleticEquipment: Rusty Hunting Rifle
[4/6], First Aid Kit [1/1]
There is a white flash, and you feel something being imprinted into your memory.
[1] - Convince ten people to follow and work for you.
[6] - Take control of atleast two different bodies.
[2] - Manipulate someone to kill atleast three people
[6] - The first Jump is never pleasant, and this time doesn't prove to be an expection. Your entire being burns. [4] After a while of struggling, you're able to lock the host into the depths of his own mind. There's little danger of it interfering later on. [6+1=6] You access every nook and cranny of your new mind with ease, digging into every bit of information to completely assume the form of Enn Reh, tribal chieftain of the Forsaken in this area of the ruins. It's a primitive, degraded mind, but it should do.
Your body sits leaned forward in a damp underground chamber on a throne made out of scrap metal. It is a muscled, horribly mutated body, with a sickly green skin. Enn Reh's vision is blurry and unclear, but he's long since learned to adjust for that, and is a master combatant. This place seems to be the home of these mutants. You gather from mental images that the city above has been taken over by the sea and grass.
Enn Reh has no idea about the year or the old name for the city.
[6] You're alone in the throne room.
Name: Enn Reh
Mind: Subdued/Fully Known
HP: 60/60
Traits: Skilled Combatant,
Voice of AuthorityEquipment: Junk Spear There is a white flash, and you feel something being imprinted into your memory.
[1] - Kill ten people without changing bodies.
[5] - Convince someone to follow and work for you.
[3] - Have someone else tell you the exact location, date and recent history of this world.
[4+1=5] - You fall into your new host with a sharp pain, [6] crush the conscious part of it against a mental wall before it can react (most likely killing it entirely in the process) and [2] realize too late you squashed much of the knowledge and essence of the host in the process as well. Let's hope you're with strangers.
Your body almost falls over as you settle in, making its way up a path of wet rubble. It seems to be a lean youth clad in thick layers of clothing and carrying a rusty old rifle. You let out a yelp of surprise.
[6] There's nobody to see it, though. You have no idea why the youth has ventured out to this rubble-strewn wasteland alone. Half-collapsed skyscrapers rise up to the skies, looking dangerously unstable. You're standing in a large inner court, rust and vegetation-covered buildings guarding the edges of the area. Puddles of dirty water are everywhere. It's eerily quiet, and you feel like you're being watched.
Name: Unknown
Mind: Destroyed
HP: 40/40
Traits: None
Equipment: Rusty Hunting Rifle
[?/?], Automatic Pistol
[?/?] There is a white flash, and you feel something being imprinted into your memory.
[6] - Successfully sudbue a mind.
[5] - Find and meet another contestant.
[5] - Kill someone without being seen.
[4] - You're not really used to this, and begin mentally screaming when you Jump. You find yourself sharing a body with the previous owner. You do know what to do, [4] and admirably force it to back down after a few moments. You don't have to worry about it anymore, you think. And that's already one objective completed!
[4] You somewhat hesitantly begin to intrude upon the host's mind, and open up most areas of its brain. You should have access to enough knowledge to survive.
You open your eyes with your new body. She's a tanned young woman who calls herself Scarlet, dressed lightly in this heat. She appears to be working as a guide of somekind for [3] the two sweating, rifle-carrying men coming up the path behind her. You dig through her mind a bit more, and find out they're hunters. She's been working as a guide for three years now, and absolutely hates the job.
Before you took over, she was standing on top of a pile of rubble, listening to the two hunters fire away with their rifles at the Greens on the lower level below. She'd been leading them up the city, sticking close to the ruined buildings. These were the first Greens they'd come across today. She lives down the coast and brings rich tourists like them up to the ruins for a living.
You can't seem to find more than vague mental images related to the state of the city and these 'Greens'. The year is 2002, though, and the ruins of a city with the grandiose name of Judgement. You don't remember any large metropolises named that on your Earth, but that's not really surprising.
The men continue firing away at the trapped mutants below, cheering and laughing whenever they hit.
Name: Scarlet
Mind: Subdued/Mostly Known
HP: 30/30
Traits: Experienced TrackerEquipment: Pistol
[4/4], Machete
There is a white flash, and you feel something being imprinted into your memory.
[3] - Kill five people.
[6] - Find another person.
[1] - Destroy the mind of a host you're in and escape to another
[5+1=6] - Breaking into a host is always exciting. You'll never know for sure who it is. [4] Subduing this one takes some time, but you know what you're doing. He's unlikely to trouble you much. [4] Digging into their minds is also fun. On this occasion, unfortunately, you slip a few times and parts of the brain lock off from you. You should be fine with the ones you have, but deeper knowledge will have to wait.
Your new body - a young man named Christopher - is laying on his stomach at a window inside a dusty, half-collapsed building. The roof behind you has caved in and sunlight now shines through. The building seems relatively stable, though you have a vague mental image of the lower levels being overrun by water. In your hands is a scoped rifle, which your host has been using to survey the wide boulevard outside. Many of the buildings have collapsed onto the street and been taken over by vegetation. It looks very pretty, but is also a hiding place for the Greens he's come here to hunt.
[1] He's far from alone, though. There's half a dozen others in the building as well, speaking quietly or looking through the windows like him. They all look familiar, and you're able to connect some of their faces to names in this guy's brain. They seem to be his 'gang'.
It's early 2002, a city on the North American coast. You can't see much more.
Name: Christopher Short
Mind: Subdued/Mostly Known
HP: 40/40
Traits: Marksman Skills,
In Good ShapeEquipment: Scoped Hunting Rifle
[6/6], Pistol
[2/4], Machete
There is a white flash, and you feel something being imprinted into your memory.
[6] - Kill someone.
[1] - Be in the area you started in at round end.
[1] - Manipulate someone to kill atleast eight people.
[2+1=3] - You feel life surging back into your mind, sweet sentience arising once more. [4] You immediately get to work suppressing the host's mind, and, after a while, lock it away safely. It's unlikely it will try anything anymore. [4] You make some frustrating mistakes, but eventually open most of this fellow's brain. It will have to suffice.
You experience a brief moment of panic when you realize your body is underwater, but quickly look through the mind for help and swim to the surface. Your body is a short young man with strange, green skin and oddly-shaped arms. It seems you're stuck with a mutant of some sort. You're swimming in a flooded building, which it takes you a while to recognize as a 21st Century shopping mall. Your spear waits on a little island of junk a few metres away.
His mind contains little information. He is one of the Forsaken, though he wasn't even born yet when the cataclysm struck. No year, no location except for 'home'. His name is Domnikh.
[1] The mall is filled with people like you, laughing and letting out wild shrieks of joy. Every generation seems to be represented, all with mutations of some kind. They seem to be enjoying themselves a great deal.
One of them, a lean-faced female with odd, spike-like hair swims up to you. She speaks in what you recognize as horribly mangled English after a while. You look through this boy's mind to translate the words, while the girl waits patiently. She appears to have asked if you'd like to explore 'the up', presumably the upper levels, with her.
Name: Domnikh
Mind: Subdued/Mostly Known
HP: 20/20
Traits: Malformed ArmsEquipment: Junk Spear ---
This took a while. Whew. About Traits; blue ones are Physical Traits, which you will always have. Red ones are Mental Traits, which you will only get if you succeed in your Knowledge roll.
And Darvi, wow, have you been bribing the Overseers? I mean, come on, 6, 5, 5!
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Topic: Roll To Body Jump - Turn Four - World 1 (Read 6288 times)