[UA] The Paranoid Ascends

[Shultz, Andrew]

The PCs in my game last night participated in the ascension of a new
archetype.  By various signs they knew one was coming and were able to guess
who it might be... one Clive Stubbins, paranoid conspiracy theorist.  

This is a new archetype (The Paranoid is probably a good name for it), so I
was trying to think of channels for later.  The Paranoid epitomizes the
person who believes that the government, big business, the UN, and most
people are all involved in some fantastic conspiracy.  The Paranoid may or
may not believe that the conspiracy is focused on him, but certainly
believes that They keep Their eye on him because he Knows Too Much.  I think
that actually having a huge organization out to get you is a break with the
archetype, because it symbolizes paranoia, not justified suspicion.

Also, the PCs were the ones who pushed him over the edge.  They work for
TNI, and upon hearing about their suspicions TNI's avatar expert (such as
she is, TNI is pretty clueless in my game) decided that it would be most
worthwhile to try to provoke his ascension somewhere that they could
observe.  They set about making his life a little weirder - mailing him
marked up newspapers, observing him with strange glasses while wearing dark
suits, and repeatedly cutting him phone line.

Eventually they were able to raise his paranoia to the next level (perhaps
because while they behaved like they were out to get him, they really
weren't) and he ascended.  Several of them were present, one watching the
event through aura-goggles (mechanomantic device).  I'm thinking that as the
people who pushed the Paranoid over the edge, they might suffer some
metaphysical backlash.  I was considering giving them a mystical compulsion
to dress in black suits, for example, but that seems somewhat corny.

Also present was a pyramid-puzzlebox that they had hidden cameras in and
given to him (in case he ascended away from him, they hoped he would be
examining the box at the time and thus get captured on tape).  This will
become an artifact, and it has strong "eye-in-the-pyramid" symbolism, having
a camera pointing out each face.  I'm unclear what it would actually do,
however.

I want the mystic changes and the artifact to be more disturbing than
advantageous, although they shouldn't be terrible handicaps either.

-Andy Shultz

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