The Strange : Ultimate Dream : IC

[The Architect]

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The Realm of Walking Metropolises

The realm in which you walk is a strange place.

To all corners of the disc walk 8 Greater-City-Beasts, each served by 8 Lesser-Town-Tortoises.

All the disk is covered in fields of vegetation and deep clear lakes, from which the walkers sup the sustenance of those living upon them. Upon and within each of these beasts are living people, fae creatures in the similitude of Earth's dominant species. The beast on which the tale focuses is named Norest the Smoke Breather; it is a great brass and brick creature of tower piled upon tower in a style Earth-Originating travelers might call 'Victorian... ish'. The total population of the beast is several thousands within its cramped confines. Within the cauldron heart of the creature a magic forge empowers it and to its from is a large brutish face with a thick set wrought iron jar that billows black smoke periodically.

Here our team resides at this moment and here there attention has been demanded.

Lord Victor Smoke, a wizard-entrepreneur of some renown in this recursion and current master of the city, is secretly an Agent of the Estate, and a former Human originating from Earth called Oliver Novak. His impressive tower-mansion that once stood highest upon the beast's back now billows with grey smoke like a massive chimney stack. The tower had acted as the Estate's secret local outpost for this recursion, even housing a permanent Translation Gate, but it is now for the most part in ruins.

A few hours ago a half dozen elves flew in from the east, used a Cypher to pass through the walls of the tower, and then detonated some sort of magical explosive within the tower. Sadly the group escaped before the detonation and given the Lord-Master's penchant for collecting rare Cyphers and antiquities it would be irresponsible to assume they had left empty handed. It would might not be a coincidence that it was an Estate base that was attacked.

Currently the six Estate team members have just exited the Translation Gate and emerged within the ruins looking up at the smoke filled sky above. In the distance a male elf looking like a thin man in his forties with long silver hair, a top hat, a grey long coat and white wings is picking through the rubble. He looks up as the group appears.

What do you do?


You are all assigned to a Team by the Estate to investigate an attack on a small Estate base in a relatively obscure Recursion.
You know each other but this is the first time working on this team. You may have been reassigned from others teams working for the Estate or this might be your first.
You have just arrived, and so changed to suit the world, see below for Recursion details.
Your mission is to locate the source of the attack, discover the motivation behind it, and prevent future attacks if possible.
Feel free to elaborate on the scenery of the rubble if you like. Right now I'm just giving you guys some breathing space to introduce yourselves.
Feel free to describe how you appear in this recursion.
Any questions?




Recursion Name: The Realm of Walking Metropolises
Physics: Magic, Weird Science
Races: Elves*
Focuses of this Recursion:
Solves Mysteries (D)
Leads (D)
Looks for Trouble (D)
Entertains (D)
Wields Two Weapons at Once (D)
Works Miracles
Conducts Weird Science

Elves*:
Elves are divided into 8 sub-races originating from the 8 cities. You must choose to be one while within this incursion;


Norish (of Norest):
Earth Parallel; Victorian Era Upperclass
Wings: Spectrum of black to white, moth-like.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may create a light source that pierces all forms of sight obscuring hazards that lasts for up to one hour per tier.

Freefae (of Liberty):
Earth Parallel; Revolutionary Era America
Wings: Shades of gold or white, thin and long.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may decrease the difficulty of any one Might based test by one step.

Aumon (of Necropolis):
Earth Parallel; Ancient Egypt
Wings: Scarab like, deep greens and blacks.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may decrease the difficulty of any one Speed based test by one step.

Pikus (of Artha):
Earth Parallel; Ancient Rome
Wings: Many short wings, deep reds and golds.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may summon a Level 1 servant Pixie spirit that serves you for 1 hour per tier.

Ones (of City 01):
Earth Parallel; None, futuristic uniform urban dystopia
Wings: Metallic, two wings, angular, silver, black or light green.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may make an electrical attack, treat it as a heavy weapon you are trained in using.

Skadi (of Vulhall):
Earth Parallel; Viking raiders
Wings: long wings that drag behind them like capes when not in us; dark browns and greens.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may make an sonic attack, treat it as a medium weapon that knocks the target prone if you hit, that you are trained in using.

Rollers (of Neon):
Earth Parallel; Las Vegas
Wings: Pink, blue, green red, wings come in sixes, are dotted, and come to a point.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may roll a d6 after you choose to take an action but before you roll. On a 4 decrease the difficulty by one, on a 5 or 6 decrease it by two steps. On a 3 increase the difficulty by one step. On a 1 or 2 increase the difficulty by two steps.

Jíng (of Pingjíng):
Earth Parallel; Xiaolin temple motif
Wings: White, yellow, cream, light browns. Small oval shaped wings.
Ability: Once per 24 hour period you may decrease the difficulty of any one Speed based test by one step.

[SuperCracker]

Rook

On Earth, Lieutenant James Rook walks up the ramp to the open Translation Gate. He wears what he normally wears when on-duty, a set of black Estate-issue fatigues, with his combat machete strapped to his back, his sidearm holstered at his right hip, and a combat knife sheathed within the web-harness he was wearing. He has bright blue eyes and short blonde hair. Your general all-American ex-soldier, right?

Well once he crosses the threshold and sets foot onto the Realm, he’s completely transformed. His hair now takes on a platinum color, longer and spiked out in the front. His ears are elongated, tapering to sharp points. The clothes he wears are black and gray, a sleek, almost cyberpunk outfit traced with thin red lines every so often, like a meager few circuits on a chip. He carries a pair of single-edged short swords and a strange-looking pistol. On his back, he sports a pair of angular metal wings, the pinions sharp and folded in just such a way that the wings’ edges appear sharp and angular.

Rook pauses for a moment, examining himself. It’s his first time to this recursion, and new skills flood his mind. He takes a moment, purses his lips, and does the classic “Not Bad” nod. He then proceeds ahead towards who he assumes is Mr. Novak – or rather, Lord Smoke. It’s clear he hasn’t been Mr. Novak for a while. “Lord Smoke, I presume?”

[The Architect]

The Realm of Walking Metropolises

Lord Smoke looks up from the rubble and his eyes go wide only for him to glance to the Gate, shake himself off, and offer his hand for a shake "Given the circumstances I doubt I'll be Lord for much longer. Doctor Oliver Novak, formerly of Estate Team SR-7, embedded Agent for this Recursion. Though I'm guessing you knew all that. Sorry about being surprised, you've become a breed of Elf we don't tend to see around here. Who am I speaking to?"

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Rook

The Lt. extends his hand and gives Dr. Novak a solid shake. “Yes, sir. Lieutenant James Rook, Team SR-9. We were briefed on the situation, but Earthside intel on the attack is bare-bones, sir. Six tangos breached the base, most likely stole cyphers and artifacts, then blew the tower on their escape. Is that accurate?”

As for the type of elf he turned into, he craned his neck to look at the wings. “Translation’s a funny thing, sir. Hopefully that won’t impede our progress.” Rook moves on to some questions for Dr. Novak. “Dr. Novak, do you have any idea who the attackers might have been? Did you have any intel on other extra-recursion organizations operating here? Anyone from the recursion itself that might have wished you harm?”

[Shadowy]

Jack stumbles through the gate. Great as this job is, one of the drawbacks of such is the split-second after entering a new world and adjusting to a new form. At least he bothered to read the briefing packet this time around, so he can identify that he's showed up as a Roller.

He spins a few times, trying to examine his new wings. Unfortunately, they're still pink. Very pink. Blindingly pink, with the exception of the black dots. His hair and eyes have gone a similar hue. "Ah, fantastic. I am now the prettiest princess among us." is uttered without the slightest amount of levity.

He begins checking his new outfit. A white shirt and brown vest with no back. "Hmm. Less space, harder to hide the lockpicks, might get cold. Very annoying really."

Finished with his check, he leans against a mostly-intact pillar before pulling forwards, fluttering wings instinctively. "Gah. And you can't lean on things. Gotta remember that."

[GOALentertain]

Robin Goodfellow

"Don't sound so disapointed Jack, I came out all boring," Robin answers, looking over his grey and black wings. "And here I'd hoped that I'd get to be all colorful as an elf."

Robin then turns his attention to Lord Smoke and Rook.

"Call me Puck," Robin says with a smile and a bow towards Smoke. "Mister Lord Smoke, whatever your issue, I'm sure that we can help maintain your Lordhood. Maybe what you need is to put on a play for whoever you lord over. I can help you with that!"

[The Architect]

The Realm of Walking Metropolises

Lord Smoke looks 'Puck' up and don't with a slightly perturbed look before half mumbling "no... um sir... I don't think a 'play' will be needed. Thank you."

With that he turns back Rook and pulls something from within his cloak "we weren't aware of any extra-recursional organisations operating in here, at least not for sure, though some of the other Cities might be willing to attack the Norish. Sadly I'm mostly at a loss for clues except that we believe some our scouts might have traced their escape root and may have a locale for their camp in the low lands. We do have one clue though, an insignia I found in the rubble, I think it must have come off one of their uniforms when they were struggling with my guards when they were robbing the place."

He opens his hand to reveal a small piece of black cloth emblazoned with a crow's face with gold coins for its glaring eyes.

Rook recognizes the symbol.

What do you do?

Going to use a GM Intrusion.

Rook gets one XP and can award an XP to another player.


You recognize the symbol as belonging to a mercenary band of the Recursion of Crows' Hollow. The band is named the Coineyed Crows and in truth is made up of Quickened Recursion minors who use violence, threats, and any means they can acquire to steal the Cyphers they sell. The leader of the Coineyed Crows is one Captain Darefeather. His exact origin is unknown but he is believed to be a non-human originating in an uncatalogued Recursion other than Crows' Hollow.

The Intrusion is this, Rook has a history with Darefeather. Something horrible happened in Rook's past during his early days with the Estate and because of it Rook and Darefeather now reside near the top of each others' respective enemy lists.

You may choose to give your Award XP to a player you want to include in this backstory.

You may elaborate on Darefeather or the event that took place as you like, within the confines of that mentioned above.

[Ladorak]

On earth Agent Steel is a big man with a face made of granite and eyes far older than his years. Wearing a leather trenchcoat that concealed in it's seams a highpower rifle separated into many small parts. The added weight was obvious unless one walked with a certain swagger, giving the tails a swing animated enough to conceal the hang of his unorthodox concealed weapon. On his hip he wears his badge and his other gun, a high power Browning revolver chosen more for it's menacing appearance than it's considerable stopping power. He has dressed to menace, groomed himself toward intimidation all his life, for one reason or another. Now, with the Estate, he had the chance of a lifetime, of pretty much anyone's lifetimes, let alone a lifetime as torrid, brutal and meaningless as his had been. He tried very hard to tone it down, but habits died hard. Often he snarled or glared, then wished he hadn't. His mouth was still faster than his brain. For him a step through a Translation Gate was not an odyssey into the unknown, it was a chance to cut loose.

He stepped through.

On the other side he came out as a reaver and a warrior. He grew larger, abnormally large for an elf. His already long angular face was elongated and distorted into a permanent snarl. He suddenly had a huge bushy black beard to conceal that snarl. Across and beneath his powerful hunched shoulders a long cloak made of flesh conceals the bulk of the Translation changes. Wings like a bat wrapped around him, the wingtips each interlocking about his neck. As the others debrief Novak he stretched them out experimentally. They were very long and surprisingly heavy. He was disappointed with the color, a dull brown green, then he noticed the flash of silver on the wingtips that would normally trail on the floor behind him. On closer inspection he found those wingtips had been pierced, and small blades attached with a silvery thread. Each was only a few inches long, but with the massive power of his wings he suddenly knew he could eviscerate with a well aimed swipe. He tried it now, arced into the air and spinning around, his huge long wings whipped out, the blades cut the air with a metallic whining noise. If anyone had been within 20 feet of him they'd have been in serious danger

He landed with a big smile, 'I like it here already.'

His body had a powerful well fed look, but he was so ill dressed, wearing little more than a threadbare tunic and ill fitting trouser, that he naturally looked like a thug, a man who had all he wanted but no means for himself, a man who took what he wanted. On his hips are two manapistols, remarkable for how out of place they looked on him, presumable stolen for a One at some point.

[SuperCracker]

Rook

The Lieutenant takes the piece of cloth from Dr. Novak. Rook’s orange-and-red flecked eyes looks upon the emblem with a look of recognition… and anger. “Dr. Novak, it appears that we’re dealing with the Coin-Eyed Crows. Mercs. Recursion miners out of Crow Hollow. Vicious, violent. They’d shoot their own mothers for a crack at a Cypher.” Rook passes the patch back to another member of the team, so that everyone can get nice and familiar with the emblem.

“Their leader, ‘Captain’ Darefeather, is a piece of work. Not sure which recursion he’s native to. Sociopath wouldn’t begin to describe him. I was a newbie with Team 5 when we encountered him on Ruk. He detonated a Cypher explosive that killed ten natives and three members of my team. We fought, but he got away,” Rook glances towards Steel for a moment. “Locating and subduing the Crows is our primary objective. We should also attempt to recover the stolen items and ascertain who hired them.”

“Puck, enough with the play,” He chides, “Dr. Novak, can you provide us with a map and the results of your scouts’ recon?”

Giving the xp to Ladorak, just to further tie in his connection with me.

His Licensed to Carry connection is that he accidentally shot Rook once. The backstory for this is now the following:

Rook and Steel were away from the team when it happened. They raced to stop the Coin-Eyed Crows. Steel engaged the lackeys while Rook fought Darefeather in close combat. During the fight, Rook took one of Darefeather’s eyes with a well-placed attack. It looked like Rook might scrape out a win when Agent Steel saw the combat and decided to take the shot. He missed and hit Lt. Rook, allowing Darefeather to escape.

[GOALentertain]

Robin Goodfellow

"Aye, Aye," Robin answered, dramatically bringing his hand around in a circle to his forehead while angling his wings as upward as possible, then bringing both down at the same time, saluting the lieutenant. "Estate's Rook to Crow's King seven. So what else do we know about what trouble these crows are causing? Do we think there's a whole murder of them?"

[The Architect]

The Realm of Walking Metropolises

Lord Smoke nods to Rook and continues "their reports and their maps are already awaiting you aboard the dirigible we've prepared for your needs. We've also supplied a pilot. She's not Estate though ... and um... She's my daughter you see, best pilot we had. Um... Keep her safe and... and all that. Elizabeth Smoke. She'll get you where you need to go."

Rook and Steel, as the only survivors of that iteration of SR-5, remember that due to recruiting only Quickened the Coineyed Crows membership only ever amounted to one or two dozen, though they tended to operate all together.

What do you do?

[LoP]

Q

Late to the show (as usual), Q stumbled through the gate. Experiencing translation to another recursion was always fascinating - conjecturing on the theoretical framework of how the dark energy network was reshaping the reality of her being was very different than actually FEELING it.

She suddenly found it very hard to breathe. Not because of any environmental dangers or physiological stress - she was wearing an actual freaking Victorian-style corset under her stifling layers of lace and brocade, which was actually crushing her ribs. Q could barely move, her legs imprisoned under a mushroom bloom of trailing cloth, all held up by a hidden crinoline cage of wire. She would have been delighted by the delicate black and white moth wings sprouting from between her shoulder blades, but instead Q grew incensed that her pride and joy - her red pixie cut hairdo - had been replaced by a black cascade of shiny, ringleted curls, all topped by some delicate waif of a hat.

On the exterior, Q looked like a beautiful confection of a sophisticated Victorian woman.
Inside, she was a thermonuclear bomb exploding.

As best she could clomp forward in her get up - what she would give for her tattered jeans and pair of Birks (hell, she'd be fine with standard issue Estate fatigues and combat boots!) - she made her way toward the others, her modest bosom heaving against her deathtrap corset for air.

​"I freaking hate this place."

[SuperCracker]

Rook

“Dirigible?” Rook says with a bit of a grin on his face. He’s always wondered what it would be like to fly on one of those. And now, here he can. That was the magic of the Strange and recursions. For all their world-shattering dangers, visiting these places means seeing and doing things that one never dreamed possible. It was the next step from the kid who joined the Army to see the world.

As for the pilot… “Your daughter, sir?” He’s a bit surprised by that, but it makes sense for the society of this particular recursion. “I take it she’s native to this recursion.” No judgment in Rook’s voice. It’s not like he hasn’t had fleeting romances out in the Strange. But it appears Dr. Novak built his life here. Good for him. “We’ll do all we can to keep her safe. You have my word, Doctor.”

Queenie comes through the gate now, and Rook turns to look at her with a teasing grin. “Nice get-up.” He then speaks to the rest of his team. “Alright team, we have between one to two dozen quickened mercs wreaking havoc in this world. As Goodfellow put it, let’s make sure it’s checkmate on Darefeather this time. Dr. Novak, please show us to the dirigible.”

[Ladorak]

Steel grins at Rook 'I'll like another shot at that bastard.' he let that and all it implied settle in the air between them. 'Went native did you Novak?' he said, turning to him now, his grin ever more mocking 'Don't worry, we won't tell her who you really are. Your secrets safe with us, Milord.'

[LoP]

Q perked up quite noticeably at the mention of a dirigible.

"Really? Cool! Does it use anything exotic as the lifting gas? Helium? Something like helium? Nothing reactive, I hope? Finding something to replace our dwindling supplies of helium would be pretty spiffy, I can't believe we let clowns fart away such a useful resource making balloon animals at kids' parties..."

[GOALentertain]

Robin Goodfellow
"Not to play the side of tragedy, but it does seem that this work is dangerous. While I can say we'll all do our best to protect the girl, I'm worried about the risk," Robin/Puck says. "We all signed on to this knowing we could suffer death or worse fates. You too Novak, or do you not remember? What happens if we cannot protect your daughter?"

[The Architect]

The Realm of Walking Metropolises

Lord Smoke looks to 'Puck' with a look of obvious annoyance "God man. I was asking you to keep an eye on the girl, I am fully aware of the dangers of the Estate missions, I was on a decent shot more of them than you have been you whipper-snapper before I was stationed here, but she's just your pilot, she's not going to be doing anything in the field beyond that. Understood?" Lord Smoke grumbles a little annoyed "it seems tact is no longer considered during recruitment."

He turns back to the others "if that's all for the introductions I can bring you down to the Dirigible and you can get a good look at it before you get ready to leave. Shall we?"

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Rook

He gives Steel a wary glare at his words. The guy’s an ***hole, pure and simple. But Rook’s a professional, so he keeps his opinions to himself, at least in front of Dr. Novak. However, Rook’s professionalism is wholly ill-equipped to prevent him from giving Mr. Shakespeare a bewildered look of “what the f***” in response to what he says.

Rook turns his head back to Lord Smoke. “You have my apologies, Dr. Novak. I’ll make her safety a personal priority.” He shakes his head lightly. Where does the Estate get some of these people? “Let’s proceed onto the vehicle.”

[GOALentertain]

Robin Goodfellow

"Alright then, all aboard!" Robin waved his hand in the air once more before bowing again to Smoke. "I'm sure that Ms. Q can't wait to get a look at all the magical science, and Rook and Steel can't wait to make a murder of crows."

[The Architect]

The Realm of Walking Metropolises

Lord Smoke proceeds to lead the group out of the remains of his room into the cramped inter-tower corridors of the city. It takes a few minutes but he leads the group through brick ceilinged streets, passing other Norish who give the group strange looks, to a large warehouse. Once inside it becomes apparent that the warehouse is open to the air on one side. In the large cavernous space a pale brown dirigible hangs, tied tightly to the floor, which could only be described as steampunk.

Suddenly a figure races down the ramp and flies into the air over the group and twists around to look down at them all "So you guys are the mercenaries from back in my dad's old days?"

What do you do?

[GOALentertain]

Robin Goodfellow

Robin bows yet again, this time lower than he has before since arriving in the Realm of Walking Metropolises. "Honest Puck, at your service, m'lady."

[Ladorak]

With one mighty sweep of his wings Steel surges into the air to offer her his hand in greeting 'Steel Wing. I'm sure your dad's told you all about me, we go way back. Good to finally meet you Elizabeth.'

[SuperCracker]

Rook

Rook walks along with the others, checking his weaponry along the way. Twin short swords and a strange device that resembled a handgun. All light weaponry, but he was confident he could make it work – all that experience and knowledge of brandishing two weapons was bubbling up in his mind. Might be a fun thing to bring back to Earth for a while.

As they approached the dirigible, Rook looked upon it with a sense of wonder. He approached it, placing a hand upon its railing right at the point where the pilot whirls into vision.

Rook looks up to her and offers a smile. “You’re right, Miss Elizabeth. My name is Leftenant James Rook,” what can he say? He likes to get away with variations on his own name. “Your father’s a good man. We’d like to do what we can to help him out in this situation.”

[The Architect]

The Realm of Walking Metropolises

The girl replies in a bubbly tone "well we're ready for lift off when you are and we have the map of the scouts' intel inside. I think they might be holding up in a canyon not far from here, in this old gal anyway. If we leave immediately we should be able to catch them before they can move on."

She flies to the top of the stairs "All aboard!"

With that she zips back inside the craft.

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Rook

“Excellent. I’ll want to review everything you have on Darefeather and his crew,” Rook says as he climbs the steps up onto the deck of the dirigible. He takes a moment atop it to look at each detail, admiring the workmanship of this craft. Though with a recursion with such wild laws of physics, who knew what this baby could really do. After his moment of admiration, Rook moved into the craft, getting down to business. Of course, he looked entirely out of place as one of the 01.