ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Mission 1: The Fortune Sanction

Incoming Message from SCOff (Sanction Control Office)

Your target is an adult Caucasian male, age 34, black hair, unknown eyes. He is a serial killer and reality criminal. He sends notes to law enforcement personnel one to two years before he strikes, in an act of supreme arrogance. He has proceeded to elude capture for 14 known successful kills and perhaps as many as twice that number in unknown kills. He has no pattern as far as selection of his victims are concerned, but seems to enjoy collecting eyes and ears with his teeth (see attached file photos).

The Master Analysis Program shows that the subject is responsible for temporal disturbances in every single killing. There is a 78.7% probability that he suffers a paradox effect that moves him to the site of his murders through time. It is also suggested that he believes he is "destined" to commit these crimes and has prior knowledge of all events surrounding his crimes (so he doesn't "really" want to kill, and he knows you're coming).

When you kill him, I want his eyes and ears. Tell him this if you talk to him.

Mission 2: Disciples of the Mask

The Masker is absent without leave from the HUMINT Infiltration School. He was last seen two weeks ago visiting the Redhamond Proving Grounds training agency. This facility trains beginning technicians in the use of espionage technology.

The Chaperone reports that several of the Masker's top students have been reported missing during the same time period.

Has the Masker gone rogue? Is someone killing his old students? Is it one of his old students? An old enemy? The Masker himself? Did they all defect with the Masker? Is the Masker working on a super secret mission? Why didn't he tell the Chaperone, his most trusted student? Is she in on it?

Masker is the finest disguise artist and infiltrator the world has ever seen. Finding him when he does not want to be found would be next to impossible, even with the resources of the NWO behind the players. Contacting him through some of his old students would be a good lead, but many of them don't know that they were trained by the Master of Disguise. Complicating matters is the involvement of the Chaperone, who's mission in life revolves around tailing people (like the players).

The players could be involved in a number of ways, they could be staff or students at the Redhamond Proving Grounds, they could be assigned to the case by their superiors or they could be Tradition mages helping the Masker to defect. In any case, interaction with the Masker and all his students coming to look for him should prove very interesting.

Mission 3: Escape from M.E.C.H.A.

A small party of Tradition mages who have never met each other before have been captured and placed into protective custody at M.E.C.H.A. While suffering imprisonment, they all manage to find security loopholes and combine their knowledge (during meals or break periods), to discover a means of escape. They manage to free themselves from MECHA in record time, easily. Much too easily.

Any intelligent PC (player character) will smell a set up, and begin to wonder about the other PC's — and any NPC's (non player characters) will definitely fall under suspicion. A good twist is to have all the PC's be Technomancer spies from different Conventions/bureaus (so they don't know that they are all plants) and have the NPC's be the innocent dupes. Be sure to play up the sympathetic qualities of the NPC's so your PC's feel like the heels they are.

For example: "Here's my food, you'll need your strength for the breakout." or: "Take my shoes. They'll help you run faster and I'm no good in combat." or even: "Hey guys, we can all hide at my Chantry."

Mission 4: No Compromise

Someone has destroyed a NWO safehouse (a good choice is the Divesdero safe house in Technocracy: NWO). Evidence of an inside job abounds: Corpses shot in the back, key files missing and altered, valuable equipment stolen, etc. High-ranking officials in the sector are quite concerned. Who is the traitor and why did they betray the NWO?

The files missing and altered all relate to a certain Project: Windchime, but no one seems to know exactly what that might be. Is this project being shutdown, or just "reallocated" and why is the Amalgam (PC group) suddenly being followed everywhere they go?

Mission 5: Anthem of Despair

The Virtual Adepts have seized a large list of contact data for NWO agents. Now personnel on this list are being killed off faster than warnings can reach them. When the PC's track down the Virtual Adepts responsible, they discover that they too have been killed.

The PC's names are on this list. Their lives are in jeopardy.

Can the PC's survive this murderous rampage while tracking down a relentless killer of mages? A possible twist is to have the case solved and the killer(s) put away for good, and have the killings begin all over again. Another good twist is to have the whole thing be a NWO purge, and the PC's caught up in the middle, of course.

Mission 6: Storms of War

A large shipment of tomes for the Order of Hermes is being delivered to a Chantry in the Caribbean. This shipment has been compromised by the NWO. In order to remove a valuable resource from the Hermetics, the PC's have been assigned to steal the entire collection. As they prepare to strike, a powerful group of Nephandi attack and flee into the Deep Umbra with all the tomes.

Surviving Order of Hermes members relate a tale of the father of all storms: a self-perpetuating Force-6 hurricane that could remain stable — a permanent storm. The Nephandi now have the knowledge to create such a storm. The OoH also believes that the storm would create a powerful node and gateway into a shard realm of Forces.

Before too long, a series of hurricanes and tropical storms begin to hit the east coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean. These storms rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise, in an unnatural sequence. Are the Nephandi trying to open a gate into the Qlippoth of Forces? If they are, then someone must stop them while there's still time.

Mission 7: Perfect Genesis

The Progenitors claim to have created the ultimate assassin, code-named The Sword of Order and invite the PC's down to the Rushington Research Facility to have a looksee. When the PC's arrive, they find the lab (secreted high up in the Appalachian Mountains) to be deserted. As they enter the main building they find wreckage and destruction, but the only corpse is lying in a ruined clone tank, apparently the Sword Of Order — sans head.

Gibbering about the lab is a Dreamspeaker last seen in 1957, when he was carted off by Nephandi into the Deep Umbra, muttering about unspeakable horrors. He curls up into a fetal ball if attacked or approached in any way.

Just when they least expect it, automated Biohazard alerts go off and seal the entire facility off into the Horizon complete with slamming pressure doors and flashing lights. The PC's are trapped in a shattered Progenitor facility with an insane mage and something else that has killed the Technocracy's ultimate assassin.

Technological malfunctions start to occur with frightening regularity. The air supply begins to run out, doors don't work properly and, of course, the lights go out. The facility itself appears to have turned against them. The PC's must root out the source of contamination and eliminate it. All the while on short ammo.

This can be turned into a DOOM!-like scenario with PC's blasting away at horrible Progenitor bio-zombies and other nasties, or it could be a more "Alien" type scenario with the Construct becoming more and more Nephandi with each passing moment and something relentlessly hunting them down, one by one.

Mission 8: A Strain on Loyalty

Somehow, the PC's loyalties have come under question. Someone may have marked them for an internal purge, or maybe they just screwed up one too many missions. They also might actually be disloyal. In any case, the Questioneer has been called in to "ask them a few things".

The Questioneer begins the interrogation in a normal fashion, but quickly escalates into the bizarre mindgames for which the NWO is so famous. The opportunity for flashbacks into previous adventures should definitely not be overlooked. This adventure is also a excellent way for the characters to gain Arete.

Mission 9: Memory Fades

Efficiency has recently taken a nose-dive in the characters' sector. Mistakes are on the rise and they all relate to common forgetfulness and the unlikely carelessness of NWO agents. Rumors of a covert cover-up begins to spread in the sector. Things get a little weird when surveillance teams remember to report that Tradition mages in the area are having problems with their memory as well.

In order to resolve this issue, the Cookie Cutter has been called in. Unfortunately, his learjet crashes in the wilderness and his body is not recovered. A search and rescue operation mounted to get him disappears without a trace. Now the PC's are called in (someone actually recalled their phone number!) to go and get the Cookie Cutter (who's probably telling anti-Tradition stories to werewolf cubs by now) out of the Garou-infested wilderness.

NOTE: It could be a new manifestation of Paradox (i.e. mindstorm) causing the disturbance, or a rampaging Paradox spirit.

Mission 10: Bearers of the Flesh

A circle of serial killers once met at an old abandoned summer camp, to discuss "business." They were eliminated by Iteration X after several locals disappeared. That was ten years ago.

Yesterday, the NWO reported that a circle of serial killers is meeting at an old lonely motel, to discuss "business." The case histories of this new group is identical in M.O. to the previous bunch. Iteration X has decided that it's merely a coincidence and is going in with a squad of HIT Marks to eliminate them. The NWO wants to find out just what the connection really is before the killers are all exterminated again.

Meanwhile, guests at the motel are being killed off in a variety of ways and soon, the killers themselves are turning up dead. It is in this situation that the PC's find themselves when assigned to Bearers of the Flesh.

Mission 11: Affairs of State

A prominent politician is found murdered in bed with a local prostitute (also dead). The Progenitors come forward and announce that the actual politician has been missing for several months and it was a clone that was killed. They refuse to discuss the circumstances of the original replacement, but are certain that the real politician is not responsible for this killing.

NWO agents and the Progenitors' Damage Control Division must now work together to unravel this mystery. Along the way they discover that the politician has connections with vampires, Tradition mages and Garou kinfolk, any of whom might be responsible. All are looking in on the murder investigation. Local law enforcement is getting extremely paranoid about this case and is understandably uncooperative.

Mission 12: The Mind Game

An Order of Hermes magus, who just happens to be a chess grandmaster, is willing to defect to the NWO. The NWO wants to keep him on the other side for now, but needs to set up good channels of communication.

The PC's are assigned to attend an International Chess Federation tournament in Munich, Germany. During the competition, the Hermetic defector will turn over an encrypted codebook containing the contact cypher in the form of chess games and openings (with fancy names like King's Gambit, Sicilian Dragon, Four Knights' Game etc.). The tournament is heavily infiltrated by Hermetics, NWO and Iteration X (whose company, Intel, is sponsoring the event).

Inevitably, the book is stolen and everyone must scramble to find the thief and recover the codes before the codebook is deciphered. A few interesting options: have the thief be a Ravnos Elder, or working for a Sleeper intelligence agency, or (to be cute) a mischievous Changeling.

Mission 13: Syndicate Country

Las Vegas, Nevada. City of the desert, drawing power and water from the tallest hydroelectric dam in the world: Hoover. A city of the night, a city of Elvis impersonators and high pageantry. The city with the most light bulbs, the longest lengths of neon and more hookers than you can count. A city of cold hard cash and soft spoken gamblers willing to risk it all for just one more chance at the big time. A city dominated by organized crime. The Syndicate Capital Capitol of the world.

Here one billion dollars in laundered money is being prepared for delivery to the North American OverSector Regional Headquarters (NAOS HQ) of the New World Order. There to be cleansed of most Quintessence and transferred to the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles, California. The NWO has chosen the PC's to guard this shipment until it reaches NAOS HQ along with the Syndicate enforcers who are seeing it all the way to LaLaLand.

Before the plane being used to transport the cash can exit Las Vegas airspace and get on its way to NAOS HQ, the shipment is attacked in midair by the Syndicate enforcers supposed to be protecting the cargo and a squadron of strangely familiar black helicopter gunships. All attackers, including the supposed Syndicate enforcers, dissipate into vapor when killed — just like the Men in Black. When the attack is halted by brave action from the PC's and the plane crashes in the desert near the airport, the money is safe inside its armored containers, but the Quintessence is missing!

The Syndicate is not happy, and blames the PC's (and the NWO) for the theft of the missing Quintessence. Now all the PC's have to do is dodge Syndicate hitmen, find the true thief who set them up and escape Syndicate Country with their lives.

Mission 14: Dangerous Star

The Void Engineers are launching a new communications satellite for the NWO. Tradition mage terrorists disrupt the launch causing the satellite to enter an unstable orbit where a powerful Nephandi creature has merged with the satellite and is guiding it down to a heavily populated area — a major city near the PC's.

Void Engine fighters have scrambled and launched a devastating attack upon it, but to no avail. Iteration X and NWO experts sadly conclude that a sub-orbital nuclear detonation will be required to destroy the satellite and save the city. However, this may be just what the creature wants. NWO agents are now going to have to board the Nephandi Star with the the chief project designer of the satellite and his crack team of elite Void Engineer "ghostbusters".

Mission 15: Consequences of Truth

A World War II Cache of microfilm and precious ingots of platinum and gold have turned up in the chaotic battlefields of the Balkan states. The microfilm contains evidence of mages (both Tradition and Technomancer) involved in Nazi war crimes — the death camp experiments of the Third Reich. The ingots are engraved with Minoan Linear A and Linear B writings that compose an Order of Hermes spell over fifty years in the making.

The Syndicate has sent in the Russian mafia to get the goods on these mages so they can blackmail them. The Order of Hermes has sent one man, Wolfgang Krause (a master of Forces who likes to challenge mages to certamen and fight them in his golden suit of full platemail, all to the accompaniment of his personal orchestra) to uncover evidence of Nephandi within the Order of Hermes. The NWO has sent in (you guessed it) the PC's.

Pulling the strings behind all this are the mages who are implicated on the microfilm who are desperate to avoid being incriminated by the evidence. They are sending agents of their own to make sure their crimes are forever hidden from justice. And don't forget about the mage who inscribed the mysterious ingots.