Mage - The Awakening - Demo - 8

Mage - The Awakening - Demo - 8, World of Darkness, Mage The Awakening

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Written by Matthew McFarland.
Playtesters: Matt Karafa, Jeffrey Kreider, Fred Martin-Shultz, Matthew McFarland, Keith McMillin, Dawn
Wiatrowski
© 2005 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or reposting without the written
permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the downloading of one copy for personal use
from www.white-wolf.com. White Wolf and World of Darkness are registered trademarks of White Wolf
Publishing, Inc. Mage the Awakening, Storytelling System, Gloria Mundi, Gazing into You, Driving Angry,
A Nest of Vipers, Siren’s Song, Made Men, The Feast, Descent, and Finals Week are trademarks of White
Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places, and text herein are copyrighted by
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The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark
or copyright concerned.
This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters, and themes.
All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for
entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content.
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2
Finals Week
Welcome to “Finals Week,” the eighth and final installment
of the
Gloria Mundi
chronicle for
Mage: The Awakening
.
In it, the characters become involved in the search for a magi-
cal artifact stolen during a break-in on the Harvard campus.
The artifact, a mask of Hecate, was stolen by a young mage
named Clint Zellner, who has only just awakened. Shortly
after the theft, though, the mask ends up in the hands of one
Dr. Benjamin Imes, a reluctant Seer of the Throne. How the
characters react to this theft and the subsequent discovery
of who has it drives the action of “Finals Week.”
This story can serve one of two purposes, depending
upon whether the characters banished the Pride-spirit in
“Descent.” If they did not, then this story provides closure
to the matter of the Vice-spirits. If they already destroyed
this spirit, then “Finals Week” opens the chronicle to new
enemies, new dangers and new possibilities—to
Gloria Mundi
,
the glory of the world.
S
TORYTELLING
T
ECHNIQUE
:
O
NGOING
C
HRONICLES
With “Finals Week,” the
Gloria Mundi
chronicle ends.
More correctly, there won’t be any more published chapters
to the chronicle, but that doesn’t stop you from continuing
to use the characters and events portrayed in this chronicle
in whatever capacity you wish for your own stories.
A brief word on the design of
Gloria Mundi
: The frame-
work of the chronicle gives the Storyteller and players an
easily understandable, plot-driven story through which to
discover and learn
Mage: The Awakening
. It also gives
the players access to fleshed-out characters with enough
flexibility in their backgrounds to allow for customization.
For instance, we never nailed down what occupation, if any
Niamh holds. We never explained why Ogma chose to work
with
the police rather than becoming a cop himself. Jack’s
destiny isn’t fully detailed, and Tyrrhenus’ first exposure
to the Consilium isn’t described. Those nuances make the
characters richer and more “real,” and they’re also entirely
up to you. In a game that the Storyteller designs from the
ground up, the stories would incorporate those sorts of
details, hopefully making them personal and important to
the characters involved. Since we cannot know how you are
choosing to portray these characters, and since we’d rather
let you make as many decisions about them as possible,
Gloria Mundi
centers around the events put in motion by
Adam. This outside influence allows the players to become
involved no matter who they are. (And yes, that means that
if you’ve waited until all chapters of the chronicle and the
Mage: The Awakening
book have become available before
starting your game, you could ignore the characters put forth
here and allow the players to create their own.)
Now that the chronicle is over, though, we want to en-
courage you to continue telling stories about the Awakened.
This is, in part, why the final chapter of
Gloria Mundi
can take place with or without the presence of the Pride-
OOD
The theme of “Finals
Week” is
discovery
. The characters
are on the verge of finding out what waits for them beyond
their long quest. (Remember, this chronicle began in April,
and this story takes place in December, so they’ve been at
this for about eight months now.) Clint Zellner is just begin-
ning his voyage of discovery into the world of the Awakened,
and he needs the characters’ help. Dr. Imes is also about
to make a chilling discovery—that death isn’t necessarily
quiet, private, or final for mages. Discovery is an overarch-
ing theme of
Mage: The Awakening
, and it can be a very
uplifting one. But remember that discovery is invasive, and
that by observing something one also changes it. Discovery
is a responsibility, especially when magic is involved.
The mood of this story is
frantic
. During finals week, the
students waver between intense concentration, manic activ-
ity, and brain-dead decompression. The mood of this story
should focus more on the first two possibilities. Characters
the mages meet should be nervous and speak quickly or be
disturbingly focused and brusque.
AND
M
3
T
HEME
spirit. Whether or not the characters have resolved their
initial task, the World of Darkness is a dangerous and
complex place. If the characters are willing to take up the
challenge of exploring it (and they should be, since pas-
sivity does not suit the Awakened), they will never want
for new frontiers.
That in mind, the following are a few possible story hooks
based on the characters and the events of the chronicle so
far. Use them at your pleasure, and happy gaming!
• Consilium:
The characters are now free of their magical
quarantine, and this means they are, ostensibly, welcome at
the Consilium again. If they venture back, however, they find
that things haven’t improved. The Nemean, the Hierarch
of the Consilium, is un-ambitious and unnecessarily brutal
when he acts, and the plots among the local cabals are thick
and Byzantine. Can the characters improve things?
• Waltman’s Neck:
Years of murder and cannibalism
have made the spiritscape of this little town unpleasant and
dangerous, and who knows what secrets Wendigo’s house
holds? Maybe the characters would like to go back and assist
Sisyphus in his exploration of the town.
• Bloody Mysteries:
Was the creature that the charac-
ters saw on the
Sir Stephen
back in “Siren’s Song” actually
a vampire? If the Storyteller has a copy of
Vampire: The
Requiem
and would like to involve these mysterious preda-
tors, perhaps the characters could run afoul of that undead
creature again. Maybe it has been following them since the
ship, trying to figure out who and what they are. Maybe
it has marked Niamh as its next victim, or Morrigan as a
potential convert.
• Hallows in the City:
The characters know about two
Hallows in the Boston area—their own, and the one that
housed the Sloth-spirit. Can they claim both Hallows and
keep spirits and other mages away? Are there other Hallows
with deeper secrets that they could discover?
• Atlantean Temple:
Of course, the most obvious
lingering plot point is probably the Obsidian Palace. With
the information presented in
Mage: The Awakening
, you
could expand that locale out to a number of stories. Consider
the history behind it—who really designed it, and to what
purpose? What secrets does it hold, secrets that perhaps
even the Guardians don’t know about? What would the
Consilium do if the temple became common knowledge?
disparate mages attempt to re-create the world in their own
image, fighting for a reality that accepts the lost magic of
the past, the secret ways nearly annihilated during the
Fall of Atlantis.
If any of these modern orders could gather enough power,
they could attempt to dethrone the gods themselves, but
would the world be better off if they succeeded? Instead
of a world where magic was hidden, would humanity fear
open demonstrations of their power? Or would young
mages merely take the place of their elders, changing one
set of secret masters for another? With so many unknowns,
the Seers of the Throne often prefer the status quo to all
alternatives. Many believe that if other magical orders grow
in strength, those rivals will seize the heavens and soon
become corrupt with power. Chaos and madness are the
risks of revolution.
The Seers interpret the will of the Exarchs, the over-
lords of the Fallen World. In nearly every city, in every
country, Seers organize in secret societies and occult
orders. Each society believes that its interpretation of
the masters’ will is correct. In hidden gatherings, cabals
scry for guidance and marching orders from the heavens,
seeking any confirmation that their One True Way will
guide them to the Throne, where they will sit at the right
hand of kings. Most believe they work for a world in which
the Exarchs’ rule will be absolute and all rival orders will
be destroyed. Working to dethrone the gods is futile. By
working
for
them, the Seers prove they are worthy enough
to ascend and join them. All evidence they find of failed
magic, the corruption of power, and magical catastrophes
proves that they are more worthy of enlightenment than
their rivals.
Like all mages, Seers Awaken by means of a Watchtower
in one of the five known Supernal Realms. It is theorized
that the Exarchs initially wanted to banish all lesser mages
from the Fallen World, but since they could not break the
Watchtowers, they decided to suborn them to their own
purposes. In this way, they set an example of turning their
rivals’ work to their own ends. Each cabal of Seers firmly
believes it has found the one true path to ascension, united
with others in a larger society called a “pylon” (a word
that not only refers to a quasi-religious order, but also to a
metaphorical marker along a spiritual journey). Every Seer
is certain that his path is correct, believing his pylon has
interpreted the omens correctly.
The Exarchs do not always speak directly to their ser-
vants, of course, but Seers sometimes experience visions
or inklings in dreams that they attribute to the Exarchs.
These are often cryptic or highly metaphorical, no doubt
as a test of servants’ wisdom. Through varied means of
divination—casting tarot cards, creating mandalas of sand,
N
EW
S
YSTEMS
—S
EERS
HRONE
From the heavens, the Exarchs rule all. Humans are blind
to the power of their magic, save for the few Awakened
souls who glimpse the truth behind the façade. Now those
THE
T
4
OF
and reading the entrails of sacrifices—Seers gain insights
into where to act and what to do to further the Exarchs’
power. Guidance inevitably leads them to rival orders of
mages, enemies who must be suborned or destroyed on
the path to power. Just as the Exarchs are believed to
direct Seers’ actions from afar, Seers direct minions of
their own in campaigns of surveillance, investigation,
and intervention.
Legend says that the Seers formed after the Fall of
Atlantis, led by Atlantean mages who had sided with the
Exarchs. They had not been exiled from the Awakened
City, but the shattering of the Ladder and the sinking of
the isle forced them into a diaspora like the rest of their
kind. Formed by members from the four Atlantean orders,
the Seers claim the strengths of each order (and, some
say, their weaknesses). They have the fighting prowess
of the Adamantine Arrow, the spycraft of the Guardians
of the Veil, the lore of the Mysterium, and the ruthless
will to power of the Silver Ladder. They have grown into
their own over the millennia, at times fragmenting into
many parts, and reuniting at others to form a unique
new whole.
Seers can come from all walks of life, as long as their
ways lead to the secret ceremonies that unite their order. In
carefully guided sanctums, visionaries perform divinations.
Using the Time Arcanum, they read portents to interpret
what the gods would have them do. Using the Space Arca-
num, they search for those who would defy the deities. Before
a cabal of Seers moves openly against its rivals, members
use scrying, shadowing, and surveillance to learn all they
can. Initiates lay the groundwork for these crusades—spy-
ing on suspected rivals, shadowing them, and breaking
into their homes and sanctums. Initiates steal objects that
have sympathetic significance to enemies—objects that are
seemingly innocuous or rarely missed—so others can use
them in scrying rituals. Watchful opponents often become
paranoid when this harassment begins. A beleaguered mage
might even sever ties to people and places he knows (using
magic to cut sympathetic threads) if he thinks Seers will
use his own allies and resources against him.
PIRITS
Now that Niamh is a Disciple of Spirit (meaning she has
reached Spirit 3), the player might wish for her to try to
summon the Pride-spirit. This is fine, but summoning an
unwilling spirit is difficult. Niamh can’t quite manage to
summon the spirit, though she can, perhaps, pick up some
information about its current location (that is, Harvard).
Likewise, if Ogma tries to use Space to scry for the spirit
(with the help of Niamh to bestow the ability to
see
spirits,
of course), he also sees images of the school. This informa-
tion can provide a reason for why news of the break-in is
of interest to the characters, if you like.
It is also possible to ignore news of the break-in entirely
and simply let efforts to find the spirit lead to Harvard, and
then involve the characters in the theft of the mask once
they arrive. This is up to you and depends largely on how
proactive your players want to be. In general, though, if the
players express interest in a course of action, it’s best to let
them follow it through and link their plans to the ongoing
chronicle, rather than force them to abandon said plans
in favor of the chronicle.
IAMH
AND
S
UMMONING
S
ANA
The characters’ Mana level fluctuates during the course
of the downtime. Use any of the methods presented in “A
Nest of Vipers” to determine their Mana levels at the start
of this story. If the Pride-spirit escaped and weakened their
Hallow at the end of the last session, however, consider
making them starting with a slightly lower Mana pool.
Perhaps you could stipulate that no one can start with
more than seven Mana, or subtract two from a die roll to
determine starting Mana.
S
CENE
O
NE
:
S
CHOOL
’
S
IN
S
ESSION
In this scene, the characters hear about a strange break-in
at Harvard University. If the Pride-spirit is still at large, they
find evidence linking this break-in to Morrigan (and thus
the spirit). If not, the break-in simply piques their interest
because it involves a possibly magical artifact.
How the characters hear about the break-in is up to you,
depending largely on their daily routines. The break-in gets
reported in the
Boston Globe
and gets some buzz on Harvard
newsgroups, but since it was a mythology professor’s office
and not anything truly headline-worthy, the characters
have to be paying attention to see it. That said, if they are
still looking for the Pride-spirit, they might be combing
the media fairly carefully. If not, they can just happen to
INALS
W
EEK
This story begins in the second week of December, six
weeks after the events of “Descent.” During that time, the
characters have probably either been returning to life as
usual before Adam and the Vice-spirits ever entered their
lives, or they are searching for the Pride-spirit so as to
finish this quest. As they have no doubt noticed by now,
though, finding one of the Vice-spirits that doesn’t want
to be found is difficult.
5
N
M
F
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