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TheTome /
Destiny's Reward, Destiny's PriceYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. Destiny's Reward, Destiny's PriceAn Unknown Armies game of frantic action, mind-warping truths and the fight for today.Prologue The rain pelted down from the night sky, chattering like machine-gun fire as it hit the road, the buildings... and the two men. Lightning crashed violently, but they were not distracted - they were very much focused on each other. One seemed calm and in control. The other limped slightly, his left arm hung uselessly at his side. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth, his breathing strained, his rain-slicked hair covering cuts and gashes on his forehead. The calm one stepped up, and viciously pummelled the other man, who tried to fend all the blows off. He could not. A particularly vicious kick to his head spun him around, and he hit the ground. Hard. The falling rain quickly washed the fresh gout of blood away, and it's cold pummelling seemed to help numb the pain that ran though his body. He knew he was losing. He could not lose. He could not. He would not. "Get up. Get up!" one of the spectators said anxiously, worry spread across her wet face. The woman next to her squeezed her cold, drenched shoulder reassuringly: "He'll be OK, I known he will..." Inside, she was starting to doubt the outcome would be as they had predicted and hoped. He had to win... He just had to. He started to get up, slowly. A jolt. Searing pain, washing in an instant wave through his head. The whip-crack sound of wet clothes snapping off clammy skin. The crackling sound of bone shattering. All at once. Then nothing. Inky darkness. Void. Peace. The second man floated briefly through the air, graceful as a ballerina. His head slowly twisted to the right. One last spray of blood left his mouth, and slowly, gently, splashed amidst the rain. He hit the ground, and remained dead still. "Nooooooo!! No! It can't be!" Tears ran down her face as she watched his body lift, hang slightly, and then with a wet thud hit the ground. The rest of the spectators around her all seemed to have been struck dumb. The man to her left stepped forward slowly. His voice stricken with grief and disbelief: "We are lost. They have won..." The calm one straightened his clothes: "You see... I always told you this would be inevitable. You just chose to ignore it. I believe you have paid the price for that choice." The group of spectators right next to the fight began to silently walk away. "No. I'll kill him! I'll fucking kill him!" She rose up from her knees, and started to run forward. His hand leapt onto her wrist, and she was wheeled around to face him. "You can't." he said, in the same wavering voice. "You don't stand a chance. You' be throwing your life away. You know, I know it." "We need you. You can't go off after him. He will kill you. You saw..." the other woman said, gently wrapping her shoulder around the first woman. "But I don't have a life left. None of us do... They've won..." The rain pelted down from the night sky, chattering like machine-gun fire as it hit the road, the buildings... and the body, still lying on the road. Players:
Individual Sessions: The weirdness started, and then abruptly ended when they were visited. Each of them were visited by a different person, who seemed to have some of the answers they needed. Then they found the truth: the world is not as they thought. the world is really just a prison, a prison for one's mind. Session 1: The world is really just The Matrix, plain and simple. They were pulled through it by Agent Smith and the Merovingian, both of whom work against the rule of the Machines. Smith and the Merovingian seemed to show the world as it really was: without Neo, Trinity or Morpheus. The movies were nothing more than pieces of indoctrination and propaganda devised by the Machines to keep those who transsubstantiate happy and in a vague comfort zone. Smith and the Merovingian were the humans' saviours (potentially) and they would stop at nothing to bring down the Machines and The Matrix. That is, until their limousine was ambushed by Trinity herself. Session 2: Trinity, along with Angel, Risk and Binary, led them out of the Matrix, and had them disconnected for real - Smith only made it seem as if they had been disconnected. They were shown the real world of Zion, but then shown it was only a second Matrix, designed to be a buffer and deathbed for any who chose to or somehow escaped the first Matrix. They were then shown the real world: a world where the humans are fighting the Machines, and losing badly; a world where our apartment blocks have become prisons, where rows of seated humans are trapped inside their own minds, inside the Matrix. They were taken to the Resistance's base of operations beneath New York, where they were briefed: Smith and the Merovingian have teamed, and are big players in this war, but only players from inside the Matrix. Their combined abilities make them quite formidable, as does the fact that their followers also seem to have their abilities. Furthermore, Neo and Morpheus did exist, except that both are dead - Neo at the hands of Smith, and Morpheus during the 6th destruction of Zion and their breaking free from the Zion Matrix. They were given their Matrix training, and informed that they were now part of the "family". The test in the virtual dojo proved an eye-opener for all, as they proved to be a match (and in some cases, more than a match) for Angel, the Resistance's best non-commanding (i.e. not Trinity or Niobe) operative. The entire Resistance now views them with wonder and fear. All except Trinity, Niobe and Persephone... Individual sessions: The Oracle's words can be a blessing and very much a curse, as many of them have found out. Each have been told certain things, and few are willing to face up to these words... Some may prove to do exactly that, however. |