Plot: Web of Horrors

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Information
Plot: Web of Horrors
Storyteller: Vivian Starr
Risk: 2
Spheres: Mage - Mortal+ - Digital Web
Type: Contained
Status: Active
RP Hooks
  • Digital Web: Involved with the Digital Web in some way? Then you've probably noticed the increase in corrupted sectors around Prospect's local webnet. This is definitely concerning and warrants investigating.
  • Medical: The cause of this small group of braindead people is unknown. Tests reveal no known chemical or biological source. While the number of cases are small, this is still worrying; perhaps you need to take it upon yourself to go beyond the strict dictates of medicinal duty and look further into this.
  • Investigation: Are you the type that likes to follow clues, uncover evidence and piece together motives from seemingly unrelated cases? Perhaps you are a reporter or cop who just has a nose for deeper rabbit holes. A group of seemingly unrelated people suddenly going braindead around the same time definitely pings that sense of curiosity.
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Summary

A spate of strange illness has spread throughout the city of Prospect with several people ending up in the hospital, braindead. While local papers have mentioned the occurrences, there doesn't seem to be any realization on the mundane's part that this is anything other than unusual accidents, linked only by the strange circumstances of their affliction. Those in the know would recognize the symptoms: these poor souls seem to have gone Linkdead, their minds trapped in the Digital Web while their meatspace bodies linger.

But surely this is impossible, right? One needs a very specialized VR rig (not to mention Sphere Magick) to be able to go in so deep into the Digital Web that such a thing would happen. Sleepers and Sleeper technology simply could not do it. What is going on?

Meanwhile in the Digital Web, someone has been corrupting unformatted Sectors, turning them into twisted nightmare hellscapes at a breakneck pace. It won't be long before the entirety of the local subnet is filled with these areas of malfeasance and the crawling corruption shows no sign of stopping.

Could these two events be related? If so, how? And what can be done to stop the ever creeping chaos invading the local webspace and save the poor souls trapped there?

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Details


This is a PRP meant primarily for PCs who can access the Digital Web. Though there will be some meatspace investigation, being able to head into the Digital Web is a must. I'd like to keep it to 6 people or less, but anyone who has the capacity to make it into the Digital Web is welcome (including through mundane VR).

This is a PRP that will last throughout the month of October. The first part will be investigation, both in the Digital Web and meatspace. I'm including a long lead-up time for scheduling purposes; not everyone involved needs to be in every scene as there's a lot one can do solo. The final part of the PRP will happen in the Digital Web and take place on the IC date of October 31st, but throughout the last OOC week of October (again, for scheduling purposes).

If you'd like to join in, please @mail Vivian with a list of times you can be available.

Periphery Participants

Unlike normal participants, those on the periphery are given no guarantees that they will be able to affect the plot in any meaningful way or that they will have any scenes related to it. In addition, they will probably not be involved in the climax.

Periphery participants allow the PC in question to interact with and discuss plot details IC with other participating players without breaking Containment, but not necessitate additional work organizing and weaving them into the plot on behalf of the Storyteller.

Types of Access

For the most part, I'll handwave rolls to get into the DW as long as you have the stats and ability. There are four primary ways someone can get access to the Digital Web, each with its own dangers and foibles.

  • Sensory Visitation: So basic a way to enter the Digital Web that even Sleepers can use it. All you need is a computer and a VR setup. It's also awkward as hell. Doing anything in the Web a lot harder; spacial reasoning is not-quite-right and anything you try to do takes extra concentration and effort. You also can't really affect anything in the Web, except through magick (although for the purposes of the plot I'll also allow static technomagic and certain Computer rolls to affect various things). On the plus side, it's also the safest option; physical injury is likely only limited to headaches and eyestrain and you still have some awareness of meatspace while Netrunning. By Storyteller fiat, +3 to all difficulties including magick casting rolls, but a correspondingly better rig will decrease this difficulty[1]. Intelligence = Strength; Wits = Dexterity.
  • Astral Immersion: Your mind leaves your body and floats off to the Realm of the Web. This requires Sphere Magick (Correspondence 2, coincidental) to work and a much more expensive and complex setup than Sensory Visitation. In this state, you have all of your faculties available and can directly interact with everything without having to use magick or complicated Computer rolls. However, this swings both ways; others can now affect you directly as well. You feel pain when injured and those injuries don't go away when you log out -- most of it stays with you as sore muscles, fatigue, headaches and the like. If the injury is bad enough, you get can get brain damage. Worse, some Mages could potentially mess with your physical body through the Web connection, even to the point of killing you. Intelligence = Strength; Wits = Dexterity and your physical body is dead to the world while jacked in.
  • Holistic Immersion: This is the Real Deal, the full Tron experience. Requires Life 4/Forces 2/Correspondence 2 (vulgar) effect and a pretty expensive, technically advanced rig. Holistic Immersion digitizes your body, converts it into pure information, and injects it into the Web. You literally are in the Digital Web. All your physical stats are the same and no one can screw with your physical body. However, being digitized means people can screw with your Icon. Anything that happens to your Icon happens to you. Getting killed here means buying the farm for realzies. By Storyteller fiat, -1 to all difficulties using this method[2].
  • Umbral Maneuvers: This is the brute-force, classical way to get anywhere outside of 'ol Terra. You Step Sideways and then just walk your way to an access point in the Digital Web. It's a bit more difficult than that, of course, and it takes a while to travel to the DW in the first place. As far as access goes, the same dangers and benefits of Hollistic apply but you don't get the -1 to difficulties -- you're not accessing the Digital Web the Right Way. I'm not going to bother with the RAW roll for this (Middle Umbra access followed by Dexterity + Athletics or Cosmology, difficulty 7) and the time length it takes to get to the DW using this method will only apply if it is important.

(See Digital Web 2.0 pp 37-38, 111)



  1. ↑ Digital Web 2.0 has the difficulty at +2, but I figure a higher initial difficulty then allowing better rigs to lower it is a good compromise for modern day. There's a big difference between cheap commodity VR glasses and a full dedicated VR room setup with a haptic feedback bodysuit.
  2. ↑ Digital Web 2.0 doesn't have this but there's not really any benefit to using this much more complicated Rote beyond being able to use your real physical stats. I figure you make things a little easier on yourself by accessing the DW the Way its Meant to be Played.
Known Formats of Corrupted Sectors
  • Sector 1 - Schaffenvolkvania - Rendered in black-and-white (with some notable exceptions), this world seems like a mashup of old Universal Monsters and Hammer Horror from yesteryear. Cheesy special effects and over-exaggerated characters are the order of the day.
    • Status: Quarantined
    • Known Format Rules:
      • Sudden Icon changes and adding new props is Coincidental, but altering those props to include enhancements (like doing Agg damage) is Vulgar.
  • Sector 2 - A ruined cityscape seemingly engulfed in the chaos of a major riot (Scouted via long-distance by Rufus).
    • Status: Active
  • Sector 3 - Reported to be a typical suburban neighborhood which loops back on itself, but mostly abandoned. Only occupied structure is the Everfree Funeral Home. (Info retrieved by High5 from Big_Bird).
    • Status: Active
    • Known Format Rules:
      • Once in, Logging out is not possible; the only way to leave is to die
  • Sector 4 - Not Scouted.
    • Status: Active
  • Sector 5 - Camp Slasher Lake - A Sector Formatted based on Lone Slasher genres, particularly Friday the 13th.
    • Status: Returned to Virgin Sector
    • Known Format Rules:
      • Correspondence/Data Effects (including sensory) are Vulgar; static spacial abilities don't work at all.
      • The Slasher is the only exception to the above rule who can utilize Correspondence Effects at will.
      • Healing Effects are Vulgar; static healing abilities don't work at all.
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Participants
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Updates


2020-10-19
  • Rufus and an3ris head to corrupt Sector 5 (Camp Slasher Lake) to investigate. They manage to shut down the Sector and return it to virgin territory.
2020-10-15
  • Rufus and an3ris investigate the Maxar Technologies VR goggles gained from The Eternal Shi. They discover that they are, indeed, stealing the minds of the Linkdead and that said minds are being sent to the source of corruption in the Digital Web.
2020-10-09
  • The Eternal Shi and an3ris visit Maxar Technologies' factory site, a rezoned warehouse near the harbor. There, they interrogate Charles Redding, the Chief Operations Manager of the company before destroying the facility.
2020-10-06
  • The Eternal Shi uses his contacts and skills to uncover some data about Maxar, its employees, and its holdings.
  • High5 tracks down a Webspinner named Big_Bird who visited Sector 3 and gets some information from him about it.
2020-10-05
  • an3ris and The Eternal Shi meet and exchange information with the promise of further cooperation in the future.
2020-10-03
  • Noire Automata, ThunderStone37, and Rufus investigate one of the Digital Web Sectors on the edge of the growing corruption, deemed Schaffenvolkvania. They manage to quarantine the Sector and slow down the advance of the corruption, but the diseased Sector itself becomes inaccessible.
2020-10-02
  • The Eternal Shi investigates the house of one of the victims (Edna Stein) and discovers slimline VR glasses made by a company called 'Maxar Technologies' based in Prospect.
2020-10-01
  • The Corruption of Sectors in the local Prospect subnet begins...
  • an3ris goes to the hospital where the afflicted people are being kept, examining one (Vincent Rhys) and tracking his lost mind to a selection of corrupt Sectors in the Digital Web.


2020-09-30
  • an3ris makes a note of the strange illness affecting some people of Prospect and decides to investigate.
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