Post by Disparagingtheboot on Nov 17, 2016 15:31:16 GMT -5
1. Prometheans are rare and scattered, and this has prevented them from developing any sort of society among them. While humans have surmounted challenges like this using the Internet and allowed even small groups to becom surviving communities, you can't exactly create a society of the Created by starting a forum. Instead, a cabal of alchemists and Prometheans are working on something that would bring all of the Created together: a sort of mental relay that would essentially create a collective conscious of the Created, that would allow Prometheans across the world to communicate psychically. Sound good? Well, how about the fact that no matter how secure the "network" was, there would be plenty of ways to use it for nefarious purposes. Stalking, hunting, assassination...the rarity and scattered nature of Prometheans is as much a protection as anything else, and the relay could shatter it. And if a sufficiently powerful psychic entity were to access it...they'd have a back door into the minds of every Created. Maybe that's why the team of alchemists is trying to invent it, no matter altruistic they claim their motives are. It's up to your Throng to stop them. The fate of all Created could be resting in your hands.
2. There's a rippling, piercing Azothic disturbance than can be felt for miles around, and when your Throng breaches it you come across a scarred, wounded, and desperate Hunter. He looks at you with fear, suspicion, and distrust...but he swallows his pride and tells you that he needs you to stop the monsters he unleashed. See, a Promethean in the area was close to completing an ambitious Pilgrimage: splitting his consciousness and self between a whole swarm of beings created from his flesh, regulating the fire within him by spreading it out. The problem is, the Redeemers tracked him down, and attacked while he was on the cusp of completion. Things happened, explosions exploded, and the Promethean ended up splitting into a swarm of unusually Pandorans, which have an even nastier temperament than usual. So they're running wild across the countryside, and the Hunter you met is the only survivor. It seems like a straightforward elimination mission- except the Throng starts picking up hints that the original Promethean's consciousness might still exist somewhere in the swarm of Pandorans. Is the only solution to wipe them out? Or might they find a way to make contact?
3. An isolated community has been wracked by some sort of natural disaster or plague, and there doesn't seem to be any official help coming. There's an alchemist living in the area, however, and she thinks she can help the injured...all she needs is some Pyros and Vitriol from the players. The real problems start when the Azothic disturbances from her experiments attract a group of Promethean-chasing hunters, who don't take kindly to alchemists, or Prometheans working with them.
4. The factory calls to you. When your Throng stops for a rest in town, they start getting strange dreams, getting stronger the closer they are to the old, but still working, factory in town. Turns out the factory is the final rest for a Promethean who earned his New Dawn long ago, and managed to embed his essence and consciousness inside of it, becoming a Genius Loci and protector of the town. What he didn't count on was a Progeny with a grudge against him managing to track him down...and wrangle a nest of Pandorans, which they plan to release inside the factory, where they'll wreak havoc, chewing and gnawing the Pyros from its very girders until the building and its soul are no more- which would also destroy the town's primary livelihood.
5. An Unfleshed (perhaps even one of the players) looking for a way to exist as disembodied data managed to find a way to reverse the process that gave them a body in the first place, creating an "Azothic downloader" that can suck the consciousness out of a Created and into a computer. Of course, the test goes wrong, and the Throng are now stuck as data phantoms inside the grid while their bodies are elsewhere. They must make their way across the digital landscape to reunite with their bodies before it's too late. Destruction is the least of their worries: a Promethean body left without a consciousness to stabilize it is a horrific alchemical time bomb, and the best case scenario is that it just explodes. That, at least, would probably be better than the character's own bodies becoming Pandorans.
6. Contrary to what most people believe, it's actually possible for a human consciousness to be moved into a Promethean body, rather than a new emergent one created with it. Sometimes it happens with an attempt to bring someone back to life. Sometimes an alchemist turns themself into one. That's right, actual resurrection. Sort of. See, the chaotic whorls of Pyros inside a Promethean body have a way of wearing away at a consciousness, especially one that isn't as fluid as a Prometheans. If Identity is important for normal Prometheans, it's absolutely crucial when there's a shard of a soul in there, because when the Promethean's sense of self gets distorted, the consciousness gets permanently damaged.
7. It's technically possible for a Promethean to open up some space and "carry" a soul for a short time, as well, but this tends to be very harmful to the soul in question. Supposedly one Stannum even used it as a torture method. It might be possible to attain the ability to act as a stable carrier of souls through a New Dawn, however.
8. An Aes has taken the whole "carrier" thing in another direction, and is looking for ways to merge Prometheans together into one being. He believes that this is an even better alternative to the New Dawn, because it pools the combined strength of multiple beings into one, while the New Dawn is more of an exchange.
9. Speaking of New Dawns, one Ulgan turned himself into a disembodied Pyros entity, capable of jumping between bodies and possessing them, like a spirit Claiming a person. She's worked up quite the rap sheet, and a number of Hunter groups- and one Werewolf pack- are after her. She's a cunning criminal, though, and taking her down seems impossible- until her protege steps up to help. Turns out another Promethean followed her path and attained a similar New Dawn, but they've become disgusted with their mentor's actions, and dissatisfied with their new existence. So they enlist the Throng to help them take down the body-jumper and help them transition to a new state.
10. A group of God-Machine cultists left without a patron after a Ring of Demons razed the Infrastructure complex they were worshipping. They've latched onto a Qashmallim as the new object of their worship, though following its erratic whims hasn't exactly been easy for them. Unfortunately for the player's Throng, the cultists have developed a rudimentary Pyros detection apparatus, and they've picked up the players. They know that the Throng has some connection to Pyros, but they aren't quite sure how it works- still, a nice dissection should clear things up.
11. A Redeemer, frustrated by the lack of progress they've made on their goal, has developed a radical, horrific procedure designed to expedite the "redemption" of Prometheans. The Procedure is an incredibly painful and dangerous extended alchemical surgery that drains as much Pyros as possible from the Promethean, and rips apart and rebuilds their body in an attempt to remove as much of their power as possible, combined with hypnotic conditioning with the goal of forcibly converting them to the Redeemer perspective, all with the goal of essentially forcing the Promethean through a New Dawn to become human. It doesn't quite work (to say the least), but it's creator is certain it has potential...they just need more test subjects.
12. Most Prometheans have picked up that "Frankenstein" had its roots in truth, but what most of them don't know is that The Island of Doctor Moreau drew inspiration from similar experiences. The Moreaus can barely be considered a Lineage, especially since most were wiped out over the course of the twentieth century. But a few remain, and if they start creating Progeny...one in particular is determined to find Moreau's island, convinced it has the key to attaining the New Dawn, and is willing to enlist anyone who could conceivably help.
13. The Throng is approached by a member of a local mafia family. Turns out that their rivals have been dabbling in alchemy, and the gangsters are looking to recruit some muscle to deal with them. It might not be the most heroic job, but it pays a lot better than most of the work a Throng can find.
14. Giant John is unfortunate even by Created standards. See, the Divine Fire is usually gracious enough to bring newly Created beings into a roughly human-sized form, give or take, but Johnny, due to some fluke of the creation process, is the size of a small building, and there's not much he can do to hide it. His only choice to is to hide our deep in the jungle, as far from humanity as possible, but without any other ways to hide the "Bigfoot" sightings are already racking up. Giant John can't go on like this, and he's desperate for a solution. He's heard that some Prometheans can change shape or create powerful illusions, and he'd give anything to learn that skill for himself.
15. Sure, you can theoretically make a Promethean out of anything, but corpses do seem to work the best. That means that human remains are a hot commodity among anyone who wants to go down that road...and for that matter, a lot of sinister occult workings make use of them. A professor at a local med school who's clued in to the occult underground has been running a lucrative black market for dead bodies, but he's attracting the attention of even more powerful forces who want his loyalty. One or more of the players might even have been created using "material" he sold, thus leading them back to him.
16. An alchemist or sorcerer believes that they've worked out a ritual that will create a sort of universal Pyros anti-rejection serum, that can shield anyone or anything from the ravages of the Fire. The problem? The ritual requires the practitioner to bind and kill a qashmal, something beyond the inventor's capabilities. Is the throng willing to attempt something so dangerous, if the reward could be so useful to them?
17. A traveling circus passes by the Throng, and it turns out that one of its members is a Promethean. He's found that performing in a carnival sideshow is a great way to study humanity- shocking and entertaining them at the same time, letting out just enough Disquiet to make things interesting. Problem is, there's a group of hunters who have been tracking the circus for months, and the players are almost certain to get caught in the crossfire.
And here are some crossover hooks!
18. A Sangiovanni necromancer was able to work together with an alchemist to create a Promethean, but said alchemist double-crossed them and sold them out to a rival group of vampires...and then set off explosives around the exits of their underground lair once the rivals had entered. So you've got two groups of vampires trapped underground with a Promethean, and Disquiet and the Wasteland are going to make the situation even worse.
19. The Throng realizes they're being stalked by pack of werewolves. Turns out that the werewolves are on the trail of an Ulgan who's been deliberately letting spirits Claim bodies, then killing them to harvest the mutated flesh.
20. Promethean managed to figure out a way into the Astral Realms, and he discovered that the Wasteland and Disquiet only apply there if you clash with the realm's dominant themes. So he thought he'd found a place to settle down...until he got dreamnapped by a Cabal of Mages out to experiment on him to figure out how to bring Astral beings into reality.
21. A Changeling Motley has discovered how effective Prometheans can be against the Fae, and they're recruiting a team of them for a deep Hedge strike. Complications arise when one unscrupulous member wants to deliberately destabilize the Throng and leave them trapped in Arcadia for maximum damage.
22. An OSI cell (a Hunter compact that targets "supervillains" and attempts to limit their damage by providing them with nemeses) is after a powerful enemy who's pretty far along the Luthor-Domashev Constellation, and they need to lure him into an ambush. Turns out that Prometheans, being angsty adventure robots, fit the "hero" role well, and can be supremely useful in taking down Dr. Maleficus.
23. A confrontation in a laboratory takes a turn for the worse when its desperate owner activates a mysterious device in an effort to stop the Throng. The device creates an unstable portal that leaves the players stuck deep in the Underworld- and the mad scientist had another invention as well, one which allows them to control ghosts and send them after the players.
24. The Throng is invited to state at the estate of a wealthy Osiran who seems to be doing improbably well- wealth, influence, and a whole staff of loyal minions. As they learn more, however, the real story unfolds: the cult once served a Mummy, but after their patron vanished the Osiran showed up and convinced them that he was their leader reborn. And unfortunately for him, the Mummy finally managed to escape the sorcerer who imprjsomed him, and is going to be pissed when he finds out what happened.
25. Prometheans aren't the only artificial beings seeking the mysteries of their own creation. They might have a lot separating them from Demons, but a Ring of them thinks they're a close enough starting point to use to study the processes that allow the Machine to create Angels.
26. The Throng must deal with a dangerous opponent: a Beast who's convinced that Pandorans are the "true" Prometheans, and the others have just been "corrupted" by humanity. They're looking for a way to forcibly turn Prometheans into Pandorans, but in the mean time they settle for using their powers and minions to stalk Created and push them to give in to Torment.
27. The Throng is approached by a knowledgeable and seemingly sympathetic mortal who warns them about a dangerous alchemist on the loose, who has augmented her body to frightening extremes. But they're not getting the real story. The mad scientist isn't a Pyros alchemist at all, but a Deviant, and their benefactor is actually an agent of the conspiracy hunting her who wants to manipulate the Throng into doing their dirty work.
28. Extremist Prometheans have been known to deliberately cause Wastelands as a terror tactic, but the problem with that is that someone usually notices before they can reach their final stage. That's why it's such a threat when a mad Stannum develops a device that can store up the excess Pyros that creates wastelands before releasing it in one burst.
29. An organization of mad scientists invites the Throng to their annual conference, but they're caught in the middle when a schism tears the organization apart and both sides prepare for war.
30. A twisted psychic targets the Throng, with an experiment in mind: they want to see if it's possibly to influence a Promethean's development and brainwash them so thoroughly that they become a perfect copy of the imprinter.
31. An alchemist has created a facility designed to mass-produce clones/homunculi.
32. A mad scientist is planning an ambitious and incredibly dangerous task: they've gathered the materials and a large quantity of stored Pyros, and want to see if it's possible to mass-create Prometheans.
33. The Throng track another Created to a town where people are behaving strangely. It turns out that the other Promethean has been secretly dosing them with various drugs to study their reactions.
34. An ally of the Throng, a former Promethean who complete her pilgrimage and became human but now regrets it and seeks to return to her former state appears suddenly different: she can only sing the praises of humanity, and her perception seems dulled. Something or someone did a number on her mind, but who or what? And what's their goal?
35. The Throng travels to a sparsely populated area for safety or other reasons, and finds that a dangerous supernatural predator inhabits it and is the reason why it's so vacant.