Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

Alrighty then, lets go again!

Fab, DP and FJ are signed up for this, but if anyone does want to join now is your last opportunity to do so for this adventure. Give me a shout if you do and I will take you through character generation (although they have vastly improved things since the original release so most of you would be just fine by yourself really.) Don't worry about being behind on XP, this isn't D&D, it really doesn't matter at all.

Its been just over a couple of weeks since you arrived back from the previous mission and were given the all clear from the clinic (on, in the case of Unlabelled, resleeved) and Firewall has left you all entirely alone to get on with your day to day lives in that time. Then, the Prof sends you all a message. To the casual observer it looks like a casual invitation to a small lecture on an obscure but dull topic, but you pick up the Firewall keywords he has used to give you the true message: He needs to meet you all for another mission, travel funding is limited but he can cover you egocasting yourself or a fork to Titan if you cannot get proper transport sorted for yourself. Once there either the whole thing can be done virtually in simulspace or, being Titan, you can use one of the publicly provided morphs. Of course, publicly provided morphs tend to be about as good as you would expect. Don't think you will get anything more snazzy than a basic case (shit synthmorph). You can always try and organise a better morph for yourself if you so wish.

So, your starter questions:

Do you even need transport (if you chose to hang out on Titan after the last mission you can get to the meeting on public transport easily)?
Are you going to try and organise your own transport?
Or are you going for Egocasting?
If you are Egocasting, do you want to fork?
If you are Egocasting, do you want to stay as an infomorph at the other end, sleeve into a public morph or get your own organised?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

I'm happy being an infomorph at the other end. God knows I've spent enough time as one.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Dog Pants wrote:I'm happy being an infomorph at the other end. God knows I've spent enough time as one.
Full Egocast or Fork?

In case anyone is not sure what this is:

Full Egocast is uploading your ego (your current morph gets put into a secure storage for the duration) and sending yourself through. Its the full you that gets to the other end, with all your skills and knowledge intact.

Forking is taking a copy of your ego and sending that instead. The fork can be "pruned", removing knowledge and skills that are not required for the job at hand.

The advantage of the full egocast is obvious: its you that goes there so you are prepared for any situation (as much as you ever would be).

The advantage of Forking is twofold: Sending a copy means that the original you can carry on with their day to day life whilst the fork goes off for the boring meeting, but the fact you can prune a fork makes it less of a target. Crims like to kidnap people using egocasting, sometimes to steal useful information from their minds, sometimes to sell them into slavery, usually both. Pruning your fork makes it a less valuable target. If you don't need your bank details and the military secrets your ego knows for a small business meeting, prune them. Pruning your combat skills means your ego would be less likely to be sold for gladiatorial combat, and so on. If you just send a copy of your mind with the skills and information it needs for the job its doing it means it only has value to forknappers who want someone who can do the exact job you set it up for.

Forknapping isnt massively common, but it happens. The big scary for people in the EP world is of course that you might not even know it has happened: they can take a copy of your transmitted ego and let the original carry on as planned.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by fabyak »

Pretty sure I stayed put so I'm happy with public transport
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

I'll go myself. It's not like it's a trivial meeting.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by FatherJack »

Will attend in person, don't remember doing anything which would cause me to have left. Not sure if I've done and gotten the things I talked about doing and getting in the downtime, other than spending points. Did we get paid anything? If not I won't have gotten anything.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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FatherJack wrote:Did we get paid anything? If not I won't have gotten anything.
Nope. You don't tend to get paid in cash for Firewall stuff: partly because in the majority of the solar system rep is worth more than money anyway, and partly because firewall agents tend to be in it because they feel it is the right thing to do, or because it opens up opportunities for them. Its not really something you do for personal profit (most of the time).

Right, so Usagi (FJ) and Unlabelled (Fab) were on Titan anyway, so for them its just a matter of hopping on public transport to get to Prof Mings garden based meeting place. DCOM (Pants) needs to cast in from Locus (I think. Is that right Pants?), but being a synth thats a piece of cake. You go to the Egocasting company the Prof gives you the details of, they plug you in to their server, download your Ego and transmit it. The process takes a few hours to complete, but once on the other end you are an informorph floating about Titans mesh network. As you are not sleeving into a morph at the other end, there are no tests you need to make.

When you arrive (physically or virtually), the Prof invites you all to a simulspace environment for the meeting itself. The environment has been made to look like an amphitheatre built into the side of a Mediterranean cliff. The sky is locked in a permanent sunset and you can hear the distant crashing of waves and the call of seabirds. The Profs avatar is sat on one of the stone seats, and he gestures for you to join him.
Prof Ming wrote:Welcome, welcome! I have invited along a colleague of mine and fellow Firewall proxy named Pyrrhos to brief you. The situation involves an unpleasant bunch called the Nine Lives gang, and he is quite the expert on the subject. He will be here any moment, please take a seat.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

Yeah, I was in Locus. DCOM's avatar looks just on the male side of asexual, slightly oriental, and no more emotive than his synth shell.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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There is a loud thunder clap and an avatar rises up over the side of the cliff. He looks like an older man, with a long white beard, dressed in an ancient greek style toga. His clothes are flapping around him in a sudden gust of wind that accompanies his arrival. After a couple of seconds it dies down and he gives you an imperious look.

Its all a bit over the top.
Pyrrhos wrote:Greetings agents. I am Pyrrhos, I will be giving you your briefing and answering any questions you may have. Lets waste no time.

Your focus shall be on the gang known as the Nine Lives. The Nine Lives gangs main criminal interest is in soul trafficking, also known as ego theft. They use any method available to them to capture individuals egos, be that forknapping, forced upload or illegal recovery of stacks and then trade the enslaved egos to interested parties for a variety of uses. Abhorrent though this is it does not constitute an existential threat and so is low on the list of Firewall priorities, however we do keep an eye on such organisations. On occasion they find themselves in possession of an ego with information about our organisation and in such cases we need to act to preserve our secrets. As such we have an agent working undercover within the Nine Lives organisation, within their base of operations in a habitat known as Legba.

This agent, Amaru Timoti, has sent word of something disturbing. It seems the cartel have acquired a new psychosurgery technology. This technology is so fast and effective that we have not seen its like outside of an exsurgent virus outbreak. Clearly, this elevates the cartels standing in our threat prioritisation. A gang as large and influential as Nine Lives becoming a carrier of an exsurgent virus, especially considering the nature of their business, is extremely concerning and must be dealt with immediately.

Your assignment is to find and debrief Timoti, investigate the situation on Legba and respond accordingly. To this end I have arranged for you a cover story in order to get you on to the station without requiring a risky egocast. I have aquired a shuttle, the Dasmos, registered out of the Ultimates habitat Aspis. You will impersonate a team of Ultimates mercenaries that will request docking at Legba for emergency repairs. Understand that Legba operates on prison rules: the strong take what they desire. With luck, they are more likely to leave you in peace if they believe you are all Ultimates. This also provides for our exit strategy: I have acquired the services of a real team of Ultimates mercenaries that will arrive to extract you when you signal that the mission is completed. They will arrive in the guise of a recovery team. Not too far from the truth.

A few words of warning. If you find yourself likely to be captured or killed I would advise ensuring the destruction of your cortical stacks. Being restored from backup is infinitely preferable to becoming stock for them to trade. Also, our operational funding for this mission is tight and arranging for your cover and extraction has all but tapped our available resources. I am afraid that other than information there is little more help we can provide you. I believe Professor Ming provided you with a QE communicator for your last mission. I recommend you hold on to that in order to signal your extraction. Communication out of Legba undetected will be difficult by other means.

I recommend you make use of my knowledge of the gang. Is there anything specific you need to know?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by fabyak »

Unlabelled sits down just before the arrival of Pyrrhos without saying anything or acknowledging the presence of anyone else. When he does appear Unlabelled just blinks and unsubtly stiffles a yawn
Unlabelled, when Pyrrhos has finished talking wrote:Sok soko aku wis am? Inspirasi.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Pyrrhos looks at Unlabelled, expressionless.
Pyrrhos wrote:Indeed.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Any questions from anyone? Anyone? Beuller?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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DCOM wrote:I am already somewhat familiar with the Nine Lives. I can think of nothing more I need to know of them other than how to best avoid them. Do the Ultimates know we are impersonating them? Do we know where, specifically, Timoti might be? Are there any other friendlies on Legba?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Joose wrote:Any questions from anyone?
Out of character, yes a few. In a world where your soul is a bunch of data, how horrifying is ego theft?
The idea that somewhere there's something that thinks it's you being forced to do something is bad, but given that you may well have sent versions of yourself to die horribly on multiple occasions, do people tend to only think about their immediate existence as the "real" one and try not to worry about what any potential duplicates might be up to?

How easy/likely is Ego Theft? Are digital copies of people splatting all over the place like wi-fi, or is there a tightly-controlled dedicated network where source and destination are verified by official third parties and stuff?

In character I'll ask Ramu what Unlabelled said.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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FatherJack wrote:Out of character, yes a few. In a world where your soul is a bunch of data, how horrifying is ego theft?
The idea that somewhere there's something that thinks it's you being forced to do something is bad, but given that you may well have sent versions of yourself to die horribly on multiple occasions, do people tend to only think about their immediate existence as the "real" one and try not to worry about what any potential duplicates might be up to?
Something to bear in mind is that the average person absolutely has not sent versions of themselves out to die. You guys as Firewall agents might, and military types certainly do, but its not the norm. Think of it as similar to people in the real world going in to life threatening situations (soldiers, firefighters etc). They dont want to do it, they are not necessarily OK with doing it, but they feel that it needs to be done so they suck it up. And some of them come out the other side with psychological issues due to putting themselves through these intensely stressful situations.

Its kind of the same with sending copies of yourself out to die. You wouldn't want to do it, but some people do it because it needs to be done. And some people find the whole thing too stressful and their minds break as a result.

The real answer to your question here is a distressingly vague "depends". Some people absolutely do treat copies of themselves as completely separate people and dont worry too much if they disappear or are put in horrible situations. Thats not the norm though, most people still feel some connection to their other selves and don't want anything bad to happen to them. Most people risk psychological issues by being too cavalier with their Egos, and those people that don't it could be argued already have psychological issues.

Dont forget also that Ego theft doesn't just present a philosophical problem. Theres practical issues to be worried about too. If someone has an up to date copy of your ego then they have, through psychosurgery or old fashioned interrogation/torture, access to everything you know. Including personal secrets, bank details, access codes, military protocols or whatever else you have locked away in your brain. Potentially more worrying is that they might use your ego to do something illegal, and in a lot of places you can end up with a devil of a job proving that your stolen Ego isn't you.

Short version: In a world where death isn't permanent any more, something horrible happening to some version of you is pretty much the next worst thing.
How easy/likely is Ego Theft? Are digital copies of people splatting all over the place like wi-fi, or is there a tightly-controlled dedicated network where source and destination are verified by official third parties and stuff?
The specifics depend on what method is used to steal your ego, but its not a super common problem. Theres basically two ways it could happen:

1) Stealing your stack from your corpse. Pretty much everyone has a stack, which keeps a near live backup of your Ego at all times. Normally, if you die this stack is recovered and used to restore your Ego rather than backups you keep on file somewhere, just because it will be more up to date. If your body isn't recovered by official, trusted people your stack can be thieved by less scrupulous types, your ego downloaded from it and boom, slavery. Of course, some Ego thieves might be inclined to encourage you into a state where they can pop your stack.

2) Forknapping (although this term is also applied when the ego being stolen isn't actually a fork. The principle is the same). This is where you have egocasted and somewhere along the line some criminal types have intercepted it. Sometimes they just intercept it and you never turn up where you should have done, but most of the time they take a copy and send you on your way leaving you none the wiser that anything has gone wrong. Egocasting works by using entangled quantum particles for FTL communication, which means there is no signal to intercept as such. Because of that there are only two places Forknapping can occur: The place where you uploaded your Ego and sent it off and the place where your ego was received and downloaded again into a new morph (or turned into an infomorph).

The first kind can be avoided by ... well, not dying would be the ideal. If you do die, make sure your stack is either recovered or destroyed. The second kind is a bit trickier, and it all comes down to how reputable the company you use to egocast you is. A big, thriving business run out of Locus is probably perfectly safe. A government run egocasting terminal run by the Jovian republic is... well, depends on how much you trust the government. Some smelly dude on a scum barge with gear he has built himself out of scraps? You better really *really* need that egocasting.

Its broadly similar to kidnapping in the real world. You are unlikely to get kidnapped on the 4:15 to Bristol. You are more likely to get kidnapped wandering about by yourself down a Venezuelan back street.

Short version: It's neither easy nor likely for most people. Egocasting is, generally speaking, quite tightly controlled and, where such a thing exists, tends to have official verification and the like.
In character I'll ask Ramu what Unlabelled said.
He was pointing out how he would be pretending to be something he is. There was a degree of sarcasm.
Pyrrhos, to DCOM wrote:The Ultimates have been informed of the basics of the plan, although obviously details such as the why of it were left out. They are Ultimates, if they are being paid to not ask questions, then no questions are asked.

Timoti is working as a resleeving technician in the gangs resleeving and egocasting facility, known as Psychopomp. As long as you don't make too much of a fuss, getting into and out of the facility should not be difficult. Locating him once there should not be difficult, he is expecting you.

Timoti is the only asset we have currently on Legba. No one in the gang should be considered a friendly, but you may be able to ingratiate yourself with some of the smaller factions by performing small services or similar. The gang is not adverse to making use of passing mercenaries.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

So we just need to go see him huh? Piece of cake. I feel a point-and-click style quest chain coming on.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Well, see him and then "act accordingly".
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Any more questions, or shall we move on?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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DCOM wrote:From your knowledge of Legba, do you have any suggestions as to where we should start out if we were to try to sell our assistance to one of the more approachable factions? Do you see us having an opportunity to seek the approval of one of the Nanchons, maybe the Petro? This would surely reduce the risk of travelling within the hab.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Pyhrros wrote:Although the Petros are possibly the most approachable, they are a small and close knit group. They may be the most valuable if you could attach yourself to them, but they are also probably the hardest group to please.

You could possibly convince the Ghede you are a member, not only of Nine Lives but one of them. You probably wouldn't want to though, their practises are vile and they would most likely require you to perform something they call the Rite to prove your allegiance. This involves torturing an innocent.

I would recommend looking for opportunities with the Rada Nanchion. They make up the bulk of the organisation, and frequently make use of externally hired muscle.
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