SNAFU Part One
about 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 30, 2019 at 05:15:24 AM

SNAFU Part One

Searchlights pierced the thick darkness of the polar night. Fierce winds blasted across the Antarctic plains, but the helicopter speeding towards Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station flew steady. A bubble of calm, stable air enveloped the machine as it approached its destination. This little eye of the storm had been with the helicopter from the moment it left McMurdo Station. It was nothing less than a miracle. 

For Aliento, it was no miracle, just a simple spell. She sat in silence, her eyes closed. Mender-of-Ways sat next to her, chanting prayers under her breath. Agma was across from them, watching the two with a bemused smile. Walker moved the searchlights over the snow below. 

Luca, the pilot, said, “We’re clear to land. Cut the magic crap.”

“Are you sure about that?” Agma asked. Not all of us have easy access to our resources, should we crash and need to repair our bodies. We’re not like you, Mr. Santori. We can’t simply ‘top off’ before we leave.”

The Beast inside Luca stirred for a moment. “We can’t afford any unnecessary questions. I can land this thing.”

Aliento opened her eyes. The helicopter lurched as the winds slammed against the machine. 

*** 

“This is Luca Santori,” the Prince of Milan said to the room. “He is my childe’s childe, and one of the best pilots I know.”

There were four other people in the room besides the two of them. The man was an American. With him were three women, one Guatemalan, one Iranian, and one Italian. They weren’t Kindred. Luca could hear their heartbeats, some slower than others. 

The American extended a hand. “Good to meet you,” he said, “Jeremy Walker, Zero Hour. I’ll be leading this mission.”

Luca did not take his hand. “Mission? Nonna, you said you had a job for me. What is this?”

Walker looked to the Prince. “He doesn’t know?”

The Prince shook his head. “I hoped I would never need to tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Luca took a step back towards the door. “What’s happening here?”

“When my bureau received the call,” the Prince continued, “we agreed that it wouldn’t be safe for any one of us to go. So, I chose to offer someone precious to me, as a sign of the Cryptocracy’s good faith.”

Luca reached for the doorknob. The Guatemalan woman shot a glance at the door, and the knob burned his hand. He turned and saw the Iranian — taller now, somehow, stronger — snarling in the face of the Prince. He stared at the woman, stone-faced.

“Do you believe you can wash your hands of this?” she growled. “That you can ignore the wages of sin for one last time?”

Walker put a hand on her back. “Stand down, Mender. We can argue over morality on the way. We’ll take him.”

Mender-of-Ways locked eyes with Luca. The bestial fury in her gaze had lessened, but it still made the Beast within him scream to flee. 

“Then, if our business is concluded,” the Prince said, “I must ask you all to leave us for now.”

They left. The Prince motioned for Luca to close the door behind them. After a moment of hesitation, he did so. The doorknob was cool to the touch. 

“My little sparrow,” the Prince said, “I must teach you of the Contagion.”

*** 

Luca leaned back in his seat, taking in full breaths as the power of his blood forced his lungs into action. “Told you I could.”

“Didn’t doubt you,” Walker said. He unstrapped himself. “All right, everyone. The mission hasn’t changed. We’re still only looking for evidence. Recon, not reaction.”

He looked at each passenger, stopping on Aliento. “Understood?”

“There’s more to gathering evidence than observation,” Aliento said. “An experiment isn’t reaction.”

“I don’t want an ‘experiment’ getting us killed. Or worse.” Walker unlocked the helicopter door. “Agma, you ready?”

A man’s voice said, “Ready, lieutenant.”

Luca frowned and turned to look where Agma sat. The woman who chatted with him about Tuscany was gone. A large, Korean man had taken her place.”

Agma smiled at him. “Are you sorry you missed the show, Luca?”

Walker said, “Agma, you can flirt later. Take point, they’re expecting to meet with Dr. Eun first. Santori, you’re staying right here. If we’re not back in forty-five, you fly. No waiting.”

“Wait,” Luca said, hands still on his restraints, “What about those…?”

Walker reached into his coat and pulled out a flare gun. “Keep the searchlight on. Stay on comms. If you see one, you tell us and get a flare off. Then you fly. Aliento can put us on the bird if she has to.”

“Okay.” Luca took the flare gun. He glanced at the plains around him, at the flurry of snow whirling around the helicopter. “I’ll just keep an eye out.”

Walker nodded. “Let’s move.”

*** 

The team walked down McMurdo’s abandoned roads, accompanied by Sheila, one of the station’s supervisors. 

“We started seeing them two weeks ago,” she said to them. “At first, we thought they were lost. They were just hanging around our perimeter.”

They approached a small building, one of the places where the winter crew called home. Its windows were boarded and its door handles taped shut. 

Sheila cut the tape. “We get one of the marshals to talk to them. The marshal comes back swearing up and down that they work here and they need somewhere to stay. So they stayed.”

“When did you realize they weren’t human?” Aliento asked.

For a moment, the only sound came from the buzz of the generators. Walker shot her a heated glance. Aliento pretended not to notice. 

“It took a week.” Sheila opened the door. An acrid, moist smell wafted from the building. Aliento felt her stomach tumble. 

The supervisor motioned for them to keep moving. She closed the door behind them. “We’re always in our own little circles but they only kept to themselves. Just them and the marshal. And then Frank thought he heard one of them chittering.” 

The building was quiet. Aluminum foil covered computer and television screens. The bookshelves were empty. Aliento felt the lingering death energies in the room before seeing the bloodstains spattered on the walls. 

“Me, I knew something was wrong when the marshal had this gash down his face. He said it was a shaving accident.” Sheila scoffed. “Pus doesn’t come out of cuts that fast.” 

They came to a room at the end of the building, taped off like the entrance. Sheila cut the door free and opened it. Three charred bodies were sprawled on a bed. The body on top, wearing the tattered remains of a US Marshal uniform, stared at the ceiling with an expression of horror, rows of fangs peeking from its gums and tongue.

“So Frank and I got together, and we did something about it.”

Backers Only - Contagion Setting Preview # 1 - Edinburgh
about 5 years ago – Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 02:58:20 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Preview: Edinburgh - Contagion of Blood
about 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 06:48:09 AM

Hello Plague-bearers and Symptom-sufferers,

Today, we've got another preview - a small taste of what's coming tomorrow. Our first glimpse at a setting section from the book, here's a brief excerpt from the Edinburgh section. Backers will receive the full preview tomorrow!

Edinburgh: Contagion of Blood

Edinburgh sits on the south end of the Firth of Forth, a hub port to the world and capital city to the rather odd nation of Scotland. A clash between the medieval, renaissance and modern, it is an international city of many cultures and languages set against a history that is quintessentially Scottish and British in turn.

Edinburgh has long been a center of art and heritage, boasting museums both historical and aesthetic. It is a city with its own sense of mysticism and not a little darkness. Represented in stark images of shadows spreading out under the steep and arched alleyways off the Royal Mile, a brightly lit, tourist littered cobblestone street with the iconic Edinburgh Castle atop its craggy perch at its height on the aptly named Castle Hill. Down to Holyrood, where lies the modern built Scottish Parliament building, with the natural swell of Arthur’s Seat looming in the near distance.

The streets are full of charming cafes and designer chains, one-off bistros and novelty Scottish tat peddlers. Tourists come by the busload from across the world looking to indulge their sense of wonderment and mystery amid a setting steeped in history from pages of famous books and the silver screen alike.

However, that is only one take on the city. Delve beneath the tourist traps, the quaint civility of life in upmarket Coates and Morningside, the drug fueled haze of Trainspotting’s Leith and the consumerist bustle of Princes Street and George Street and look deeper. Look beyond.

The hallowed halls of the National Museum of Scotland have been showcasing a number of new exhibits in recent days, and now, its vaulted chambers ring with the footsteps of a new exhibit, one which has never been seen before in this world. As it walks, it takes with it the memory meant for others of its kind, taking it for its own and fulfilling the purpose it swore to fulfil the dreams of a Mad God.

Two forms of Contagion exist in Edinburgh, one carried on the fangs of vampires and other beings who might sap the life from mortals. This blight wears a hole into the fabric of Edinburgh, allowing another Contagion to enter in the wake of the mummy Iufenamun’s arrival. The God-Machine’s response is a widespread antivirus, though it may do more harm than good.

Theme and Mood

While the Contagion can express itself in obvious ways, it always leads some to question whether it is an illness or an evolution of reality. Many mummies have sought for the return of the Nameless Empire. Have those Deathless finally found redemption, stepping across the veil of life and death? Or is this the dawn of a new and darker empire? One which, if unchecked, could reign over the world, ushering in a new epoch in the cycle of life and death.

The National Museum of Scotland: A proud old building, standing proudly between Greyfriar’s Kirk and the Edinburgh Law School. The National Museum is one of the most popular and well visited buildings in the city. Its vast interiors are home to thousands of artifacts and hundreds of academics working to explain just what is so interesting about each of them. It is here, where the hum and buzz of life can be felt so keenly alongside the musty air of history by those beyond the Twilight, that the first tentacles of the Contagion penetrate. Articles appear in the pages of the Edinburgh Evening News and the Scotsman, telling of rare discoveries brought for study. Those artifacts are believed to have emerged from an unknown dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs or cult of priests. Their unusual relics show a reliance on biological matter, perfectly preserved through time. A scepter, intricately carved in weird hieroglyphs from some sort of melding of bone is first; an ankh of pure gold captures the attention of the world with its luster and value, with a gold-plated skull sitting atop its crest; and a crown of blackened flesh, encased in an obsidian-like resin, appears in the vaults. At first, they seem to be little more than curious of the sort donated by those over-rich loonies from the Amen-Ra Temple. Rumors of Illuminati and the Speculative Society fly, and as they do, a mummy joins the list of new exhibits in town.

Iufenamun’s arrival in the museum changes it quickly. Within days of his rising, almost all of the staff have been subdued in a feast of mortal memory. Many of those security guards and academics unfortunate enough to have been around when he first strode through from his Ashen Kingdom beyond the Twilight are reduced to little more than gibbering children, stripped of all but the most basic memories. The museum’s exhibits close and then the museum itself closes for “renovations” as it is converted into a bizarre palace / temple to the new Necrarch. Monsters who previously called the museum home warn their compatriots and rouse the attention of the Sworn.

The façade of the museum remains untouched, but within there is a den of vice and spiritual corruption. The Emperor of the Ashen Lands caters to all desires and his gleaming eyes penetrate the very soul of those who petition for his favor. A writhing sea of bodies flanks the pathway to his throne in an ever growing, ever cavorting party. Exotic foods and wines are consumed with vigor, song and music fills the halls. The beautiful lie with the vulgar in an endless, blind bacchanal. Every thirst is quenched, every hunger satisfied. But as he provides, Iufenamun extracts. Guards wearing dark robes and black, veiled helms lead the revelers off to the vaults sporadically to join the ranks of their mindless brethren, the first stage of their conversion to the Dead-Swarms, shades bound to Iufenamun’s will.

#CofDContagion

#SpreadTheSickness

#LetsGoViral

Contagion Chronicle - Actual Play
about 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 07:33:02 AM

Hello Afflicted & Infected,

We had a pretty solid start to our campaign yesterday, and as of this morning - this moment, anyway - we're over 700+ Backers and just over 70% of the way to our funding goal! Outstanding! That's a really, really solid start that'll hopefully continue through the next 29 days as we spread this Contagion...

Backers had a chance to review the first major section of the manuscript yesterday - if you haven't looked it over, go back to Update #1 and download the Sworn and the False section of the book.

For those still on the fence, or those who want to know a little more about how the whole Contagion Chronicle will work, crossing between Chronicles of Darkness lines, I present the first three Actual Play segments from developer Matthew Dawkins and his crew, as they create characters and explore the chronicle's setting of Odense, Denmark.

There's a lot here - each episode is a pretty long listen, so set aside some time - but it's great to hear how the chronicle they're putting together can accommodate the themes around four different character types and incorporate a structure to handle a changeling, a beast, a promethean, and a werewolf.

I'll add, it's also never a bad thing to listen to Matthew, who's a master of this system, game, and setting, work as a Storyteller. For someone like me, who's rookie-level at best, it's great to listen to an expert and pick up little tips along the way.

As I said, lots to listen to hear, but certainly if you're wondering how the Contagion Chronicle can work to unite different creatures into one chronicle, a great living and breathing example of how it works.

So, let's keep spreading our contagion! Don't forget to share information about this campaign on your social media and in your social circle! This book touches on every title within the Chronicles of Darkness framework so we should be able to cast a pretty wide net and find those who are interested.

And, as I always see whenever a campaign ends - there are TONS of fans out there who haven't heard about this book yet, and won't until you tell them about it! So, spread the word - spread the Contagion - and let's get funded!

#ContagionChronicle

#CoDContagion

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING
about 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 12:40:35 PM

Greetings, Afflicted & Infected!

The Contagion may travel quickly, infecting areas around the globe, but unfortunately these books are a little more difficult to send around the world.

The cost of producing these Chronicles of Darkness rulebooks has already gone up a bit, but the real impact will be felt by backers like myself – non-US residents that fall under the umbrella of “International Shipping.”

For the past few years, Onyx Path has tried to keep shipping charges as affordable as possible, including subsidizing the shipping charges using the margin from the books that were being created and shipped! But that way is untenable, and will lead to disaster.

So, with the cost of shipping going up, again, Onyx Path has unfortunately had to follow suit and increase the additional shipping costs on the kickstarter rewards sent to International backers.

For some, this may prove a difficult hurdle to overcome. To that end, I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware up front and early in the process, and to provide a list of alternative ideas and considerations.

PDF ONLY – I’m an old-school, physical book fan to the point that I picked up the Chronicles of Darkness core book from a convention last year, so that my Changeling: The Lost book wouldn't be lonely. (I’ve also re-bought all the George R.R. Martin books when the last one came out with new trade dress, so you know, it can be a problem.) I like physical books.

But, I’m also running out of shelf space. And, though I often own the physical book, I end up using the PDF version as my go-to reference, especially when most of my gaming lately has been online and I’ve got two screens already up and running for the game. Going digital not only saves shelf space – and trees! – but also saves shipping charges with instant download delivery. If you’ve been thinking about going digital only, perhaps this project is the tipping point for that direction.

MULTI-BUY – acting as the point person with a partner or for your whole gaming group will allow you to pledge to the Epidemic or Pandemic reward tiers, and have multiple copies sent in a single shipment. While it’s still expensive to ship, dividing the cost between 2 or 5 books may bring it down to a manageable level.

RETAIL ORDER – If you have a friendly local gaming store, perhaps you can pre-order a copy and get them to back at the Bio Response Unit reward tier, which provides retailers with 5 copies to sell to their customers.

ORDER THE HARDCOVER LATER – You could hold off on getting the hardcover version now, hoping that your local store will carry the book. The goal for this campaign is to fund at least one print run and get it into the game & hobby trade so that retailers not participating in the kickstarter will still be able to order it as part of their regular business. You may have to remind the store owners and get them to order it for you, but if you've got a solid store that you regularly visit, it could be an option.

PRINT-ON-DEMAND -  Onyx Path’s partners at DrivethruRPG.com use various PoD companies to create their Print-on-Demand versions, and these companies may have locations closer to your home and charge less for shipping. Right now, the Chronicles of Darkness core rulebook is available as a PoD item, as are most of the other CoD lines. Eventually, Contagion Chronicle will be as well. You could back at the Host reward tier level and wait for the eventual PoD release to order a physical book, which will possibly have lower shipping costs depending on your location.

FREIGHT FORWARDING – Another option is to join up with a freight forwarder or global shopping company. If you join up with a company like ARAMEX, for example, they provide you with a US address for Onyx Path to ship to. Once they receive your package, they provide different options to ship from their facility to you. I believe you can even combine a few shipments from different vendors, so this may be an idea for someone looking to purchase multiple items from the US.

YOU HAVE TIME TO DECIDE – This campaign has just started and will run for 30 days. Backing now allows you to follow along with our updates and manuscript previews, but you don’t have to make your final backing decision now – you can click on any reward tier and change your options up until the campaign ends. 

Additionally, we will be running a post-campaign pledge manager with BackerKit after the campaign has ended, which will allow kickstarter backers to shift their pledges to a higher tier (and pay for the adjustment) up until the books are ready to ship, allowing you to contemplate all options before committing any further dollars.

While none of these solutions is ideal – personally, I can’t wait for teleportation technology! – there are more options than a simple binary choice. And there’s time to think it through. And know that I’m right there with you – shipping to Canada is TEN TIMES the cost of shipping within the US, and likely to get more expensive in time. 

Good luck, fellow International Backers, and please share any other ideas you may have in the comments.