Sami's Quest

Sami's Quest by Smik
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Sami returns to her village ten years after a disaster that's left it abandoned and in ruin. Questors can communicate directly with her or amongst themselves by tagging suggestions (Private), useful as Sami reacts poorly to certain subjects which erodes her trust. Questors can also directly impact probability using "Influence Points" (IP) which are awarded by the mysterious TEN Administrators who are apparently cats.

A successor to Nem's Quest.

Previously on Sami's Quest

• 13 IP
• Programs available: Physical Scan Pro, Detect Network, Port Access, Glamour Personal
• Trust is 55 - Sami now trusts the group and will defer to their judgement when she is at a loss, and may be convinced to go against her judgement.
• Sami's Inventory: Short hunter’s bow and a quiver of 6 arrows, materials for a snare trap, Pied Piper's Flute/Pipe, Sheet music for "On Mount Golgotha” (magical), Faerie paper, Faerie pen, Quill, Hunter’s survival knife, Small kettle for tea, Dried rations (1 meal left), Small stash of Gaelish Dreamtime “tobacco” (marijuana) with smoking pipe, A hip flask of very strong Mericudian whiskey, 54 pennies, Black Tea, Herbal Tea

Sami has found a cache of cursed gold that the Mayor locked away from everyone after the disaster. At the group's request, she picked up the coins with the plan of using them to break the curse. The curse marked her and her 'network' was invaded by cursed spirits, which caused her to be disconnected from the Cat's network on security reasons - causing loss of Wiki, Cat store and the administrator's assistance. The curse implanted two new illegal "programs" -- "PHANTASM" and "DRAW MEMORY". The former allows the group to cause Sami to experience sensations, but each sense needs to be 'hacked' separately and the cost is 1 IP for 'faint' sensation with 5 IP for sensations so realistic her body reacts. After first attempting to make the floor collapse under her (via the same 'influence' mechanic the group uses) and causing Sami to lose her staff, it attempted to drown Sami -- by causing her lungs to close off through the sensation of water in her lungs -- the group thwarted the curse so it then animated The Rook, a powerful siege/anti-siege war weapon to come after Sami. Bursting out of the locked Mayor's mansion, Sami slipped by but fell down the stairs, breaking her inkwell and ruining her paper, although her faerie ink & paper remains intact.

She has since met the spirit of the Mayor, who informed her that only by delivering the coins to the Piper's spirit will she lose the mark. Sami then retrieved the "Siren's Axe" from the mayor's vault. The mayor then swore to protect Sami while she slept.

PROGRAMS

From Sami's perspective, these are spells the player spirits cast, but they look like programs from the group's view point. Some programs cost IP to use.

Standard Programs

INFLUENCE Influence alters the chances of probability and is the most flexible of the programs to use. Anything that could possibly happen can happen through Influence; by spending IP the chances of an event increases or decreases by 5%/pt. While primarily used in combat, Influence can be used to alter anything from character reactions to the chance of floorboards giving away under foot. Influence is always available and thus has no icon on the GUI (quest image).

SPIRIT VISION

A passive program that allows the players to see unmasked spiritual influence. Notable that the angle of the vision and even the 'zoom' CAN be adjusted if requested.

Purchased Programs

These programs were purchased from the Administrators. They offer additional functionality.

SCAN Physical Scan Pro GOLD is the current available version and the highest available scan. Scan detects spiritual elements, network access, and when not blocked from the network due to security reasons (like a curse) it can access the Administrator's Wiki and gain additional insight on people and items. The Gold version will also see through Glamours -- illusions that prevent the true nature of the target from being revealed.

DETECT NETWORK

Detect Network allows the detection of active 'networks' -- leylines from Sami's perspective -- that can be possibly accessed. It's an area effect and will ping automatically when networks are detected.

PORT ACCESS

Port Access allows the group to connect to networks, regardless of the protocol. Normally the group operates on a "TEN" protocol, but Port Access allows access to Faerie, Redeemer and Pantheon networks.

GLAMOUR PERSONAL

A deception program used in hacking a network. Once it obtains an ID, that ID can be impersonated to access information without resorting to brute forcing a hack. Note this only works on networks.

BOTCH

For 10 IP, BOTCH turns failures into Critical Failures. Note that it does not cause a failure itself. The failure will be disastrous within probability.

SPOOF

Version 1.4 is currently available, allowing Sami to hide from network detection and golems' regular 'sight'. Note that golems will run a scan if they lose sight of Sami, but stopping to scan will give Sami some time to run. Spoofing networks allows Sami to evade simple detection from hostile networks (essentially magical traps).

Special Programs

These programs are illegal and were made available when Sami was cursed.

PHANTASM

Makes Sami feel experiences across her five senses. Each sense must be paid for separately. When contested, the party that spends the most influence will win. Experiences range from obviously illusional for 1 pt to so real that her body will react as if the situation was actually happening for 5 pts. Note that sensations like water in the lungs (touch) will cause an involuntary response of her lungs closing as her body will think she's actually drowning.

MEMORY RECALL

Makes a surface thought or memory be recalled vividly. The thought must cross Sami's mind first, but once she's thinking about something on some level, that thought or memory can be intensified so she will re-experience it as if it's happening again. Sami must think about the memory on her own first however -- she can't re-experience her first kiss unless she's thinking about it consciously or unconsciously first.

ITEM: The Siren's Axe

Sami fully recognizes that she is in the possession of a guitar, and even understands the slang of "Axe" applying to the instrument as well as a tool & weapon. The guitar is nothing like she's ever seen however, since acoustic guitars are the norm for her. Supposedly the guitar can control the Rook, but as Sami can't play guitar she can't use any songs with it yet. No, Sami cannot be taught guitar by the group -- she must find a teacher or some *other* way of learning to use the instrument.

Intro Guide

This is Sami. She's the protagonist and can hear everyone's suggestions, image and video links unless marked with "Private". She reacts poorly to metagaming and certain information. She sort of trusts the Questors because they've not lead her into any serious danger that she blames them for yet. She's a capable fighter with a staff (her walking stick has a metal tip) as well as being a hunter, which means she's a decent shot wit her short-bow that is rarely ever visible because it's irritating to draw. She's quick and agile and has unusual resistances to things like alcohol and drugs, which frustrates her because she'd really like to be able to forget a lot of things. She also transformed into a monster and ate the pied piper as a child - and is guilt-ridden for enjoying the experience, so she avoids running water whenever she can.

• The Administrators include Yorick, Audrey, Norton and Puni. They give awards in the form of "Influence Points" (IP) when the Questors do something they like. Sami can never hear what the Administrators say.

• The Questors (players) can alter the probability by spending IP - each point spend alters the chance of a given result by 5%, but each individual Questor can't spend more than 5 IP each. To force a result (such as Sami dodging an attack, noticing something, an enemy noticing Sami, or even convincing someone of something) requires 4 Questors to each spend their maximum.

• Programs can also be bought for IP. Programs allow the Questors to interact with the environment independently of Sami and she is not aware of when they're used.

• The icons visible in the illustrations indicate the programs the Questors have bought, including Detect Network, Physical Scan, Port Access and Glamour.

• Detect Network is used to discover active networks around town. There are various still-running networks left by the faeries and others who have been to the town, only accessible by the Questors. While technological to the Questors, they're magic to people like Sami.

• Port Access allows the networks to be used regardless of their type (Faerie, Pantheon, etc).

• Glamour allows the Questors to impersonate user ID's they discover on the networks, required for networks with security. Instead of passwords, networks simply recognize individuals by a sort of ethereal signature which Glamour impersonates.

• Physical Scan is used to "detect magic" and has been upgraded to also reference the TEN wiki to find out additional information collected on the subject. By Cats.

• Father Nick is a thin, worn priest of Faustia who maintains the church.

• Vermin infest the town: non-aggressive but destructive rollie-pollies, aggressive but easily killed grites, and the disease-carrying, blood-sucking, ambushing leapers. Rollie-pollies are nasty tasting and wreck buildings, grites eat them and are only barely edible, and leapers are like horrid giant cross between a deer tick and a flea.

• Konvi are domestic animals, looking like a cross between an aphid and an armadillo. They suck sap, mulch grasses and produce a high-protein sweet milk in exchange for being protected from their predators. It should be noted that konvi are pretty tasty but are rarely eaten by Rollen due to their more valuable milk production. Wild konvi do not produce nearly as much milk.

The Quest Summary So Far...

Sami was having a smoke in the house she grew up with when some Questors started using metagame elements from Nem's Quest and freaked Sami out. She tried to throw away her connection and then something terrible happened and she woke up the next morning, where the Questors met the Administrators who made fun of them. Then Sami had a minor breakdown and revealed she was the only child survivor of the Pied Piper, who drove the town's children into the river as retribution for being cheated out of his payment. She also revealed that the reason she survived was because she is half-water faerie and bodies of water like rivers cause her to transform - during which time she devoured the piper and took his things. Some exploration happened during which the Admins also revealed that IP could be used to buy programs, at which point the Questors bought a scanning program with access to the TEN wiki and went nuts looking up things, as well as a program to access leftover faerie networks around the town.

Then Sami met Father Nick, who maintains the church alone and they learned a little bit about the goddess Faustia, as well as the fact that Sami has a sheet of music from the piper called "On Mount Golgotha" that has different sections that do different things.

Then Sami went exploring and killed various vermin, and Yorick the admin tempted the Questors into more dangerous exploring for IP rewards, which they turned down.

Sami explored the blacksmith where the cursed spirits -- created by the pain and grief of the town's people -- screwed with Sami's mind. Thanks to the Questors, Sami was able to realize it was an illusion and resist, but the ordeal wore her out and she went back to the house she grew up in to rest.

Night fell, and Sami went out hunting. She found suitable prey near a farmer's field where a Tiller golem was, but when she used the piper's magical pipe to lure it to her, the golem attacked and she had to flee for her life. Puni, one of the Admins, made a deal with the Questors where if Sami could disable the golem she'd give them a reward -- but once locked into the deal she'd make sure Sami would not get any respite until the golem was put down. The Questors accepted, and decided to try to lure it into the Town Hall and let the floor collapse under it -- but on the way Sami discovered the cursed spirits caused other golems to activate. Puni said her deal was to defeat only one golem, not three -- and that they wouldn't be held to the deal until there was just one.

She retreated to the church where the golems stopped following her; she asked Father Nick for advice and he explained that the curse never entered the church except on Fautday. Sami shared some rations with him and rested, then went out and lured the golem into the first floor of the town hall, where the floor collapsed underneath it. She then ascended to the second floor and discovered a cursed gold cache.

Deciding that it was key to resolving the curse, she took the coins to where the mayor killed himself. It then was discovered that holding cursed items allow curse spirits to hack into Sami's system and exert influence against her. After almost falling through the floor and losing her staff, Sami approached the mayor's house where the curse attempted to close her lungs by making her feel like she was drowning, but the players countered the phantasm. So the curse just sent the siege weapon The Rook out to kill her; she slipped past, fell down the stairs and met the Mayor who seemed to regain his senses in close quarters with Sami at his death site. He protected her while she slept. At daybreak, it appears the curse sleeps.

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