Overview
This section will help guide new players in selecting a Protocol of magic that will best compliment their preferred style of play. In the following section there will be a series of questions structured in the following format:
- A scenario that a Cipher may encounter on their journey.
- A subsequent list of possible responses that a character could do in reaction, which when selected will unfold into a link to the Protocol of magic that would best align with that action.
Please select the reaction that would be the most appealing to either yourself or the character that you will be playing. Take note of the revealed Protocol and continue answering the remaining questions, while keeping count of each revealed Protocol.
Once all the questions have been answered, count up the occurrences of each Protocol. While not required, it is recommended that players begin with spells that match the Protocols that appeared the most from selected responses to the questions in this guide.
Data Miner
The neon glow of a sprawling metropolis diffuses through an early morning fog and stirs you from slumber. As you rise from bed you notice a blinking light emanating from your communicator across the room, informing you of a missed message.
The communicator flairs to life once activated and the missed message is automatically displayed:
REQUEST: "Data Profile",
DATA: ebd-content-uncrack.ath
The attached data appears to be protected from unauthorized viewing by complex encryption and is additionally shrouded in a mysterious enchantment. This is the payment for an exhausting reconnaissance gig, and hopefully will give you insight into the schemes of the eternal Stiffs.
How do you proceed?
Give a snap of the fingers and place a vex upon the data, slowly killing each process woven into the enchantment and corroding the encryption to reveal the hidden data.
With a moment of focus you sap the enchantment of its power and into a boon of protection for use in the future and giving you easy access to the data within.
Converting the enchantment into a harmless and malleable substance takes no time at all and provides the matter needed to manifest the secret information into a handful of easily distributable data chips.
Splinter the data into itself, crashing the security and enchantment against the void, gleaning the insight of the data in the brief moments before the entire entity is unmade in a series of cataclysmic failures.
Cast a mental net around you and stealthily harness the knowledge and abilities held within the mind of an information security expert in an adjacent apartment to allow you easy access to the data.
Scatter the security programs across a near infinity of failed attempts to unravel the correct combination of inputs required to successfully access the data.
With a slight flourish of the hand the data is transported from the confines of its encrypted vessel and folded into your mind, bypassing the need to touch the layers of protection surrounding the valuable information.
Lay a spell of inversion which weakens the integrity of the security layers surrounding the data. The knowledge within then flows freely into your mind as the enchantment transmutes into particles of soft ambient light and humming sounds around you.
Prized Possession
Intel has come in that an important individual in the resistance has become possessed by a rogue spirit. It is unknown what the spirit’s origin and intent are, but their sudden intrusion has disrupted several planned operations against the Stiffs and now threatens to unleash destruction against Dreamer and Awakened alike in its frenzy.
The last recording of the agent indicated intent to use bio-imprinted codes to unleash a deadly virus cache ahead of its installation within a corporate target. In its current location the virus will infect several hundred unsuspecting dreamers and several allied mages in the immediate blast radius. Something must be done immediately to prevent this spirit from causing this devastation.
How do you proceed?
Envelope the space between you and the possessed and seek to convince the spirit to relinquish control by limiting its ability to leave the temporal pocket between you both.
Shift the past to prevent the current situation by altering a series of small events to ultimately divert the two from ever encountering each other on the date of the possession.
Attempt to reason with the spirit to release control by summoning a sanctum of twilight, bridging the realms of the living and the dead and easing the spirit's passage into the Wired.
Send out the intention to obtain a relic of banishment to free the possessed and through a series of strange and improbable events you quickly obtain the necessary instrument to sever the connection between the two.
Manipulate the structural composition of the viruses within the caches into a harmless motes of dust in an effort to buy time to safely detain the agent and better understand the spirit's motivations.
Disrupt the link the spirit has upon the possessed by creating a tear in the fabric of magic that binds them together and cause the connection between both recipients to become unstable.
Establish a neural link to the slumbering consciousness of the possessed to walk them through the steps needed to regain the use of their body without expelling the spirit at all.
Mesmerize the spirit into a slumber with an improvised lullaby and separate the two entities without the risk of harming either.