Hey guys,
Mark and Vince did a review of Loom of Fate previously in episode 11. I had been planning on using at least parts of this story in my Mage the Ascension game. And with some of the inspiration gleaned from Ep 11, I threw myself into remaking Loom of Fate for my home players.
I wanted to sketch out my general outline and get some ideas flowing on possible ways for me to improve the story. I have reworked some of the general story concepts, but only planned events into the first part of the story (up to scene 8 in the Loom of fate book).
So the basic idea is Cobb (the pattern spider that is protecting SF from the Wild Things) is dying, and the Technocracy (wanting to prevent SF from being destroyed) are seeking a way to replace him, preferably with one of their subverted agents.
In my game, Cobb was weakened unwittingly by one of the PC's in a previous story, by directing a force of chaos against the forces of order, damaging Cobb (the local incarnation of Stasis), which resulted in small earthquakes. This provokes the Technocracy to take more immediate action, as the timetable for Cobb's death has moved up by several factors.
At the same point, a marauder (currently named Lupa), inclined for shape-shifting and primal forces, felt the disturbance and weakness in the San Fransisco area, and set about to tracking down a way to destroy Cobb and release Cataclysm.
SIDE NOTE:
In the back of the Loom of Fate story, it mentions a course of action that will save SF from being destroyed, a Werewolf pack keeping the other half of primal forces of the bay under-wraps, a spirit known as Cataclysm. I am turning this off hand comment in the conclusion of the written adventure to replace on the antagonist groups. To this end, I am changing some of conclusion conditions. If the marauder wins, the bay area sinks into the Sea by destroying Cobb and releasing Cataclysm.
/SIDE NOTE
The marauder confronts the guardian pack of werewolves and kills some and subverts the others, (wrongly) convincing them that destroying Cobb is the best thing for the Wyld forces of the area, and while the pack is not yet ready to unleash Cataclysm (at least not yet), they are behind they plan to destroy Cobb.
This marauder (and her werewolf pawns) replaces the marauder Biker Gang out of the original story.
Enter the PC's. I linked them into this with a mysterious poem, that's was also a historical cypher during the late 1800's between occult groups. This message was an invitation to a meeting, claiming the fate of SF was on the line.
The real start of the story is when the PC's come across a traffic accident involving Raymond Weaver. In my version, members of the MIB assigned to 'Project Patchwork' orchestrate this accident to get Raymond Weaver to a hospital, fake his death, and perform the transformation (all in one fell swoop). However the force of this spell forces Raymond Awakening, and activates his defensive instincts deflecting the spell. Scared and confused, Raymond runs off into the growing night to try and collect his thoughts.
The PC's can from there pursue Raymond and figure out what is going on, or proceed to their clandestine meeting.
As written the fortune teller is an oracle of time. I rewrote this character to be a Fortunetelling psychic ghost, who is no more aware of the situation than the PC's, but compelled to perform this Foreshadowing. The clues here are more of a loose framework for the rest of the story than actual information, giving them context for later information that they gain.
A Note on NPC's
As written, there are characters that I didn't feel added anything significant to the story. One is a character working as liaison between the mystic world of Cobb and the Technocracy, Merkia Seth. There is also a previous experiment of Himiitsu, Reverend Williams.
I reworked these characters to better fit what I am trying to portray.
Himiitsu’s right hand, and team lead for the MIB taskforce is Agent Trisha Williams; NSA, Domestic Counter Intelligence and Conspiracy Department. She is the field leader and the one who is constantly dogging on the coat tails of both Raymond and eventually the PC’s. She doesn’t much care for field operations, and is currently having doubts about her allegiance (what with the un-humanitarian ethics of Dr. Himiitsu); but she’s good at her job and, for the moment, will do it unquestioningly.
The first person that Raymond runs too after the accident is his friend, Jason Webb, who is a reworking of Reverend Williams. Jason was an inconsequential Virtual Adept, who was captured years ago by the NWO and handed over (after brainwashing) to Dr. Himiitsu for experimentation. Those experiments met with partial success. This was Himiitsu’s first attempt at transforming someone into a being that could work with (and control for the technocracy) the pattern spiders of the city. While the transformation was successful (making him part spirit), Jason’s mind was mostly lost, and now only maintains moderate sanity through indoctrination sessions with NWO psychologists.
Jason Webb has recently been set to the task of scouting for other likely candidates for transformation, and been assigned to win the trust of Raymond Weaver (which he has) to be able to aid in his capture (The Technocracy’s Plan B, if the accident fails). He opens his doors to Raymond when he arrives, and then informs the MIB agents of his presence.
Also at this point, the Werewolf pack has entered the city, attempting to track down agents of Cobb, and have tracked Jason Webb to his apartment (and picked up Raymond's Scent, but as yet they do not know his significance in the story).
This leads to an interesting scene where the PC’s interact with Jason at his apartment trying to get to Raymond, and confrontation ensues. At the end of the confrontation with Jason Webb the MIB are storming into the building at the same time the Werewolf pack is sneaking in through the back entrance. They meet at opposite sides of the hallway leading to Jason's Apartment, and Raymond and the PC’s are caught in the crossfire.
After the get out of that situation; comes the long and short task of trying to make heads and tails of the situation involving Werewolves, MIB, Psychic Ghosts, and Awakened-Were-Spiders.
We then get to where Raymond can no longer deal with the weird and either wants to go home or to visit his father’s grave. These scenes have been retooled, but are more or less as written in the story.
The super creepy homecoming scene involves a clone of Raymond’s Mom, who is trying to subtlety lead him into MIB hands.
And the graveyard scene involves the ghost of Raymond’s father, Dr. Anthony Weaver being concerned with his safety, and the unethical practices of his former associate Dr. Himiitsu, and his unhealthy interest in Raymond.
This ends the first part of my reworked Loom of Fate.
If anyone has comments or questions I would love to hear them.
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:16 pm
Location: Davis, California
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:16 pm
Location: Davis, California
