Silicon & Sorcery - A Cyberpunk/Fantasy RP

[Unionhack]

"Not like Riley to knock on her own office." Arthas observed as he turned around.

[Kerr]

The knock was at the front door, not the door to the office. Whoever was knocking appeared to be impatient as they knocked again.

[Unionhack]

Spoiler:

Derp. Still, it's her frakkin' safehouse.

"I guess I'll get it?" Arthas said aloud as he proceeded to go get the door.

[Kerr]

Arthas opened the door and there was a male Asian human child who looked like he was around 12 on the other side. He was wearing a red t-shirt, blue jeans, black trainers and had short black hair. He was holding a brown cardboard box that was about the size of a toaster. Arthas could see in black marker on the top of the box was written 'From Riley.' "Hey, some lady gave me 50 Chits to bring this here." said the child. He held out the box offering it to Arthas.

[Unionhack]

Arthas tilted his head and shrugged, taking the box. "Thanks, lad. You earned your chits." He said, smiling. "Now run home. You'll be safer inside."

[Kerr]

The child nodded and ran off.

[Unionhack]

Arthas smiled and head back upstairs with the box.

"Package from Riley." He announced to everyone as he placed the box on Riley's desk and opened it.

[Justice knight]

"This seem strange to anyone?" Rosalie asked rhetorically.

[The SheoDovah]

Náheia had returned from the bathroom after the box had been brought into the office. She had thrown up several times today because of the bodies and had barely slept . "What's with the box?" She asked the others. She was just wearing a long sleeved white shirt with a pair of black trousers and a pair of brown boots. She had no make up on and hadn't bothered to wash her hair.

[Kerr]

Inside the box was a tabletop audio player. It had speakers so everyone in the room would be able to hear it, it was what these things were designed for after all. However it only had a single audio file on it which was labelled 'Play Me.'

[The SheoDovah]

"She's probably [&@%!] at us for not preventing this." Náheia remarked as she walked towards the box and pressed play. She just wanted to get the bollucking over with. At least, that is what she believed it would be.

[Unionhack]

"I doubt it. She would know there was no way to prevent what happened with the resources we had." Arthas reasoned.

[The SheoDovah]

"I don't know. She seems like the type to be pretty [&@%!] when things don't go her way and i won't be surprised if she doesn't pay any of us for this." Náheia said to Arthas as she sat down against the wall and rested her head in her arms.

[Unionhack]

"Pessimist." Arthas shot back simply.

[Dirty Spaceman]

"[&@%!] or not, I can't imagine that she would just up and leave without paying us," said Melvin. He then listened to hear what the audio file had to say.

[Kerr]

Hidden:

I've never seen Bollocks spelt that way before..

The audio file began to play, it was Riley talking.

"If you're listening to this then that means one of two things. Either you're my team or you're that kid and I seriously regret paying you up front. I'm going to keep going assuming the former. I'm sure you heard that a war's started. Anyway there is no easy way to put this so I'm going to come right out, you aren't getting paid. It isn't personal and for what it's worth I'm sorry." said Riley with clear regret in her voice. "Some of you don't deserve to be paid, Náheia for example. I'm surprised she survived childhood let alone all this. You didn't prevent the attack but you did stop it after it started, wasn't for you it would have been a lot worse. But we can't afford to throw around money at a time like this. No doubt Bhaal would have paid you anyway, but unlike him I don't let my feelings cloud my judgement. Paying you doesn't make sense from a strategic stand point. I imagine you'll be angry about all this, might even want to kill me over it, but you won't find me. Even if you did see me again, you wouldn't recognise me. Changing my appearance after this." Riley added returning to her professional tone. "I'm going to wrap this up. You can try telling people you saved the city but you don't have any proof. If people found out we knew this attack was going to happen and that all these people died, I don't think they'd care that we ended up saving the majority of the city. I think we'd all rather avoid that outrage. Goodbye and good luck. And oh yeah, this file is set to delete once it stops playing.

Once the message stopped playing it was erased.

Epilogue

The Great Red War
A huge war waged with the MAA and FEA on one side and the Dominion on the other. The war raged on for 4 years. Millions died on each side. While the forces of the Dominion didn't push into the allied countries, civilians on both sides were killed in bombings. Kergu the Blue Dragon was praised by many for allying with the MAA and joining in on the fighting. Eventually the Dominion forces were overcome and Rahu fled, departing for parts unknown. The remaining Dominion forces surrendered shortly afterwards.

Aftermath of The Great Red War
The victorious forces established a democratic government in the Dominion but continued to have great influence over the running of the country. The country was renamed Central Eurasian Free State. Back in the MAA the Dorsten Democratic Party lost a lot of support following the war. In contrast the Carthian party gained a lot of support, this was greatly aided by Kergu the Blue Dragon joining the party. They got into power as the majority partner in a coalition with the Unification Party. Kergu was elected president. They brought about mass economic reform with social welfare, free healthcare, generous grants for third level education and more. While things were far from perfect in the MAA, and the 4 MegaCorps still dominated the economy, standard of living had improved. The FEA however remained largely unchanged following the war, as did the Collective and the Kingdom of the Green Dragon.

Bhaal and Nic
Bhaal and Nic headed to Barcelona after leaving Rockpine. They laid low for a while. Bhaal heard about the attack and was fairly confident it was his team that had managed to save it. He was ready in case Arthas decided to become a G-Man. He'd take him on as a protégé of sorts, having him as a partner until he was ready to do things on his own. It wouldn't be strange working with somebody else anyway, sometimes G-Men worked alone, sometimes in groups. Eventually Bhaal brought the situation with Nic to his superiors and in time the case was brought to court. Daryl Walker, the CEO of the Rockpine branch of ProtoGen and Helen, the head researcher and the one from which Nic and Orga were cloned were left out to dry by the corporation. They were both fired and arrested and Nic was given a C100 Million settlement. Nic was overjoyed, finally free and able to live his own life. He settled down in Paris and even wrote a best selling book 'More than my Genes' about his experiences. Bhaal however continued on as G-Man, his job taking him all over the world. Some would consider it modest, but Bhaal wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

Riley
Riley message had at least one fact contained in it. Nobody in the group came across her, not that they knew of anyway. She changed her appearance and moved to the FEA, carrying on her work as a G-Man.

Sam, Adam and Elizabeth
Sam took over the bar in Old Town that he had his eyes on, changing it's name to "Sam's". His father was somewhat upset that he didn't follow him his footsteps but at the end of the day was just happy his son was okay, the two kept in touch. Adam got a job in Arcane Studies at Rockpine University College. Elizabeth never revealed her nature as The Protector, she wanted to do without the constant questioning she knew she would receive. However try as she might she would never forget the experience. While the world she found herself in was strange and she never truly learned understand it, she was able to cope with it. See kept living with Sam and Adam and in time she and Adam became romantically involved.

Nancy Redwater
Nancy plead guilty to her multiple murders and was sentenced to life in prison. She knew it would be the only thing that would stop her, that if she got out that she would probably just kill again. However one murder that was left out of all records was that of Valsha Réváin, Black Sun didn't want people to know about the Freelancer's involvement. Instead as far as the world was concerned Valsha for some reason headed to Low Town where she found herself the unfortunate victim of a mugging and was killed.

Ashling Vanloth
Ashling served 5 years in prison for her role in the kidnapping at the train station. The lack of civilian casualties and good behaviour played a part in reducing her sentence. When she got out of prison she moved to Milan and took up a job in an Arkose Cyberware Clinic.

Dan and Emily
Emily was in fact Avariss's daughter. The pair joined the army not long after the outbreak of the war. They both managed to survive it and rose up through the ranks ending up as part of a Special Ops team. They had considered becoming Freelancers working odd jobs for corporations but the military offered longer term employment. The pair got married a couple of years after the war.

Celria Telind
Celria rallied the community to stick together following the attack. She proved to be a popular mayor and was re-elected once her term was up. She considered running for parliament but decided to stay on as mayor, she believed it was the best way to serve her people. Her controversial policy of unemployment benefit was put on the back burner for the duration of the war and afterward unemployment benefit was introduced at a national scale after the Carthian Party and Unification Party got into power.

Pavel
Pavel left the car somewhere Náheia could find it and sent her a message about it's location. After that Pavel was never heard of again. There is however a Drow who tends a bar in Glasgow that swears he played in a role in saving the city of Rockpine.

Azazel
Azazel kept up his job as a getaway driver for a time. However eventually he went legitimate, becoming quite successful as a professional race driver.

MegaCorps
Arkose - Arkose continued to do well during and after the war as computers and cyberware were still in high demand. More and more people gained cyberware, the minority of the population without any grew smaller and smaller by the year. Technology continued to improve over time. Kyle Chalk remained happy in his job as the CEO of the Rockpine Branch of Arkose, he was somewhat upset that his son didn't want to join the company but the end of the day was just happy he was still alive.

Black Sun - Black Sun was booming during the war. Demand for their weapons and services as a PMC were at an all time high. Some called it immoral, but Black Sun made a lot of money off the war. During and after the war they continued to run the police force and prisons. Holmge and Culsu kept their jobs in Rockpine.

ProtoGen - Nic's story and the revelation of what happened to him was very damaging to ProtoGen. They ended up giving him C100 million in compensation. The entire corporation saw a drop in stock prices and fell on hard times. Daryl Walker and Helen were both fired by the corporation and arrested for the role they played in the cloning scandal. At the same time their truce of sorts with the Ripper's fell apart and they saw attacks on their stores, ambulances and storage facilities in which their product was stolen and resold in a less reputable place. While the corporation didn't collapse it did suffer a blow that it hard a hard time recovering from.

Rendo-Clarke - Relosa Davor continued on as CEO of the Rockpine branch of Rendo-Clarke. The superb rescue of hostages at one of their train stations reassured people that the corporation had things covered and they were safe travelling with them. Not only that but it also discouraged such acts in future. Not only that but increased focus on education after the war saw greater profits the corporation in the time of peace.

Rippers and Mobbers
Both organisations remained strong during and after the war.

Rippers - The Ripper's remained strong in Rockpine and Snat and his husband remained in control. Their arena in Low Town became even more popular as did their bootleg cyberware and bioware. As their truce with ProtoGen fell apart they started targeting them to steal supplies and make even more money. They became the dominant gang in Rockpine. One thing of note was a certain female drow who left the criminal organisation and became quite successful as a Freelancer working for MegaCorps.

Mobbers - While not as powerful as the Rippers, the Mobbers led by Isaac Alan still did well in Rockpine. The majority of their interests remained in bootleg Cyberware and Bioware.

In all life got better in some ways, worse in others all the while technology and the world moved ever onward. The final death toll for the attack on Rockpine was 26,432. Bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse. And while they may not have gotten riches, or pardons, or fame or appreciation for their deeds, the team Bhaal had started saved the city. They did their job.

Hidden:

That took a while, think it was about 2000 words. I know there are probably tonnes of typos. Still I'm sure I left somebody who should have got an epilogue out. If you know anyone who should have gotten one and didn't tell me and I'll make one. So yeah, MAA has gone from Cyberpunk to Post-Cyberpunk. Yay!

Anyway you can go ahead and make your own epilogues now for your player characters and the people down under relationship. I didn't really go much further than 10 years with my epilogues and I'd appreciate if you did the same.

Finally I would just like to thank all of you. The people who stuck around to the end and those who departed early. I really liked GMing this and I hope you liked playing it. I don't know if I'll use the setting again, if I made another Cyberpunk thing I could just go pure Cyberpunk. However Winter is planning to make a S&S adapation for Shadowrun Returns (Shadowrun was an influence on this RP, even have Shadowrun music for the epilogue.) and possibly fiction set in the S&S verse, so check that out if you want.

But yeah, thank you all, it's been great.

-Kerr

[Unionhack]

Arthas Othrenil



Infuriated by the lack of payment for all they had done, Arthas pushed all thought of being a G-Man from his mind. He called Bhaal once, apologized for not taking him up on his offer, and hung up. He would continue to oppose working for the government ever again for the rest of his life.

Exhausted from the whole mission and upset about not getting recognition, Arthas decided to once again distance himself. He never cut ties with those that he had grown close to over the course of the mission, but he did his best to avoid talking about it and his involvement in it, preferring to get back on with his normal life. He was proud of what he had done to help save the city, but he still counted the time spent performing the mission as one of the most unpleasant times of his life.

Despite this, he did count it as quite reformative. He not only repaired his relationship with Nyria, but with his parents as well. His first move was to get himself and Nyria away from Rockpine.

Arthas spoke to his father first, who revealed that they had expected both of the boys had died in Rockpine during the invasion. Though bitter feelings were still present from their initial departure, Armadias said that Arthas was welcome to come home with Nyria. Arthas also informed his father of Velas' death; the conversation was one of the first times that Arthas had cried in over a year.

Arthas met up with Nyria and traveled to London with her, stopping at many diversions on the way. Over the course of their brief road trip, Arthas and Nyria were able to rekindle their relationship that they had shared as young adults. All it took was one night in the backseat over a rented vehicle under the stars to coax an "I love you" out of either of the pair. When they reached London, it was with renewed vigor and joy in their hearts. Over the last eight years, Armadias and Meidia did in fact have another child; a daughter named Eden, who was six years of age when she met her remaining big brother.

Arthas and Nyria spent the next two years building up funds and using the meager amount of money to establish themselves in London and buy their own place. Once they were independent, they called over Vaughan and Adolen. Nyria had, in fact, learned to be more than a competent drummer during her life as a socialite, and Arthas finally brought his dream to reunite his band. Neon Pyramid was brought together under the new name 'Pseudo Rhapsody'. A departure from the original anti-establishment rap/rock style of Neon Pyramid, Pseudo Rhapsody took on a funk/pop sound with heavy emphasis on Arthas' bass skills. The sound of Pseudo Rhapsody caught on quickly in the London indie scene, with their songs focusing on anti-war sentiments and aiding those misplaced by the Great Red War.

Three years after the mission in Rockpine, Arthas proposed to Nyria, who gladly became Mrs. Nyria Othrenil. Their status as a couple helped launch the group into further popularity, and as the war ended, Pseudo Rhapsody had become a mainstream hit.

Four years after the mission in Rockpine, Adolen committed suicide via self-inflicted gunshot wound in his own flat in London. Pseudo Rhapsody took a short hiatus after the release of their first album to grieve the loss of their friend. Arthas took over the role as lead singer in addition to his role as the bassist. Pseudo Rhapsody's first album ("Grand Hack Virtua") never broke the charts, but their second album ("Songs for Velas") went gold and their third album ("State of the Union") went triple platinum. Because of Pseudo Rhapsody's success and following, the scarcely produced original Neon Pyramid album, which only printed 1,000 copies, has become an extremely rare collector's item.

As the years passed, Pseudo Rhapsody grew from less of a small-time hit band into a famed trio of musicians. Popular especially with the youth of the MAA and FEA, their fanbase grew each year. Arthas had finally achieved his dream; he had finally made it big. Pseudo Rhapsody records using rather primitive recording technology; fans swear by their methods, claiming that it produces loseless sound quality despite the detriment of longer time between records.

Arthas and Nyria together have four children; Eldest son Velas, twin son and daughter Silas and Bethany (Short for 'Elizabeth'), and youngest daughter Winter. The Othrenils like to keep their personal lives as far away from the press and the media as possible.

Arthas never played any instrument that didn't have his tattoo for Velas printed on it. He never removed his arm blades, feeling lost without their familiar presence.

When asked about his supposed involvement in the Rockpine invasion, Arthas has the following to say;

I've been part of a lot of groups in my life, and each time there's never a measure of control. Things just happen and you have to roll along with it. You might feel like you've got no control because there's chaos everywhere. But funnily enough, complete and utter chaos can be the one thing that can keep a hopeless situation together.

Nyria Torulo-Othrenil

Nyria, as the drummer of Pseudo Rhapsody, garnered much media recognition when the press learned of Velas and his role in the original Neon Pyramid. When asked about her being a replacement for Velas, Nyria merely responds that she is "not a replacement, I'm just standing in for a while".

Nyria currently holds the record for most times flipping off press photographers. Her and Arthas' children have picked up on this habit, much to the chagrin of their parents.

Vaughan Harlan

Vaughan had difficulty putting down the drugs that he had gotten into after the dissolution of Neon Pyramid. Arthas eventually had him go cold turkey as his dependency was interfering with his performance in the band. This caused a rift between the two friends, and nearly caused a breakup, but eventually the rough patch passed and Vaughan adjusted to life without his dependency. Vaughan became known as an immensely talented guitarist, particularly famous for his lack of cyberware that enhance his playing ability.

Vaughan is married to an elf woman named Etra, and has two children. Arthas is the godfather of both of them.

Adolen Enharel

Adolen was the hardest to convince to come back to the band. In the end he was persuaded, and he showed a vibrancy for life that was previously unseen in the elf. His alcoholism persisted throughout the remainder of his life.

Adolen killed himself via shotgun in the early stages of Pseudo Rhapsody's run. Theories vary on why he did this, but many sources agree on the death of his then-boyfriend Erik in a car accident. Adolen's death is a popular conversation topic in the media world, and he has become a sort of a postmortem media icon. Many insightful quotes and sayings are falsely attributed to him in order to make him out as more of a martyr or a misunderstood soul in the harsh music industry.

Velas Othrenil

Arthas sought out for years an idea on how to properly commend his brother for his heroism and the things he had taught him. In the end, he decided upon three things; the first was naming his firstborn son after his long-lost brother. The second was naming the second Pseudo Rhapsody studio album after him: "Songs For Velas". Lastly, Arthas funded a statue to be built on the place where their apartment complex had burnt down. His statue is often cited as 'unnecessary', but each time it is called upon to be demolished, Arthas throws a few more chits at the owners of the land to keep the statue where it stood.

Armadias, Meidia, and Eden Othrenil

It was difficult to accept their wayward son back into their home, and the bitter feelings between Arthas and his parents remained for over a year as he and Nyria lived in their house. Velas' death only reinforced their belief that they were in the right with how they treated their boys. In the end, they settled their differences and accepted their son as he was and grew to love him again. After Pseudo Rhapsody's third album brought in massive royalties to the family, Arthas ensured that the pair could retire. Arthas and Nyria's children delight in visits to their grandparents' home, where they can be assured to be spoiled with gifts and affection.

Eden displayed a remarkable aptitude with computer interfaces at a young age. By age 9 she had programmed her own mini-applications. At age 16 she was accepted as a prodigy to study at a university, majoring in computer science. She regularly asks Arthas about his life with Velas in Rockpine, and wishes she could have met him. She, like her parents, spoils her nieces and nephews to no end. She is currently dating a girl she met at her university.

__

Spoiler:

I might edit this a bit, but I think this is a fitting epilogue for Arthas. Congratulations on the wonderful, wonderful RP, Kerr. It was a beautiful setting and I wish we could have used it more. Definitely my favorite RP to date. I'm gonna miss Arthas.

And of course, thanks to everyone else for being wonderful to roleplay with. This was all great and I hope to do more stuff in the future with you guys. See you in WoD!

[The SheoDovah]

Náheia Déros

Náheia Déros retrieved her car once Pavel informed her about it's location later that day and immediatly went to Elwen Déros. She spent the rest of the week with her mother and mourned the loss of her father.

She returned to Rockpine to aid with the recovery effort the following monday after giving her mother 100k chits to help her start a new life despite Elwen's protests. She held charity shows in the city of Rockpine and helped to raise funds for the city. She suffered from night terrors for the rest of the year and was very surprised when her father's friends had protected Rólit's house from potential looters. She attended his funeral along with her mother.


Náheia Déros was very surprised to discover that her former girlfriend, Valsha réváin had left her the theatre after the entertainer's will had been dealt with along with all of the rights to her show and other assets. She renamed the theatre to Réváin as a tribute to Valsha and preformed the show by herself. At first, she struggled to get enough people for it to be worth doing but over time, people liked her and the dangerous stunts she pulled.

Náheia had moved into Valsha's place after getting it repaired because of the damage sustained to it and enjoyed the high life. Critics loved her, her fans loved her. She donated a lot of her income to charity over the next few years. She still wore the revealing outfits because she felt it added a bit of flavour to the show and the Black Sun offered to run protection for the threatre. She refused at first because of their activities during the war but after failing to find another source of protection, she gave in and allowed them to station their men at the threatre.

She knew it would be foolishly not to have some security at the threatre and the Black Sun helped to stop hostile rivals from trying to kill her out of desperation or vandalise the threatre. The group of magicians that had sabotaged Valsha a few years ago, attempted to sabotage Náheia but were arrested after getting caught by one of her father's friends. Her father's friends were stationed at the threatre and always got free tickets to the show whenever they asked. The group was heavily fined and never worked again due to the strong fanbase of Náheia Déros.

4 years after the attack and Rockpine's recovery, Náheia was approached to star in a film and she accepted. It was based on a fantasy book that was written in the 20th century. After it's success at the cinemas, she returned to the Réváin and continued her show. She created the Valsha Réváin school of magic after using her funds to set up a small magician's school. It enjoyed moderate success and helped many new entertainers by training them in the art of stage magic. Náheia always offered the students a chance to shine during her shows and many ended up working at the theatre with their own shows. She starred in the two sequels when she was asked to and became very famous.

She fell in love with one of the students, a 28 year old elven woman and the pair got married. Náheia kept in touch with the people she worked with and always offered those that she got along with free tickets to her show along with a place for them to stay. She never forgot what happened to the city and never forgave Riley. She banned protogen from her shows because of the cloning incident and always offered Nic free tickets to her shows.


Elwen Déros

Elwen started her new life in the city that Pavel had dropped her off at and only visited Rockpine for Náheia. She quit the Black Sun and gained employment at Rendo-Clark at one of their train stations a few months later. She was promoted to manager 7 years later and retired at the age of 70. She was very proud of her daughter and glad that she was enjoying success. She never remarried but did spend time with her friends and spoke to her daughter every week via her pc. Náheia always visited her every few months and always took her on holiday every year to a nice sunny spot. When Náheia introduced her lover to her, she was pleased that she found love again and liked the woman.

The Réváins

Sadly, the Réváins perished during the attack. Náheia was devestated and attended their funerals. The theatre was a tribute to their daughter. Náheia never forgot about them and knew that the creators were looking after them.

Hidden:

I enjoyed this, Kerr and would love to see a sequel in this world. It was an excellent world and i enjoyed everyone's characters apart from Fredrich. Thank you for not killing off Náheia whenever you had the chance and I shall see you in World of Darkness. May edit this if the others want to be involved with the same stuff as Náheia or work for her and so forth. But as i've said, i've enjoyed this. Look forward to seeing the other epilogues for the rest of the cast.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Melvin Lafayette

Melvin was admittedly quite [&@%!] that Riley had gone and done the exact thing he'd said she wouldn't, but even more so at the fact that he wasn't getting paid the money they'd been promised. He tried to make himself look on the bright side - at least he'd gotten some money out of it, more than he'd usually get from a typical hacking job - but it was hard not to be upset.

Either way, he knew there was no point stewing about it now. He returned to his hacking business, continuing for another six months in Rockpine, then leaving the city as was his custom after each year. But while he normally would just move on to the next big city and start up again, something stopped him this time. He realized that the main reason he was so disappointed about not getting paid six months ago was not just about the money - he'd wanted a way out, a reason to retire from hacking and settle down somewhere.

With this realization, he returned to Rockpine, and approached Sam at his bar. He asked him to put in a good word with his father, to try and arrange a brief meeting with the man for whom Melvin had done his first assignment with the team. To Mr. Chalk, Melvin explained his plight, and expressed his desire for a job at Arkose. Nothing fancy, just an ordinary position if there were any openings in the computer programming department. A simple request such as this, especially with Melvin's previous illegitimate experience in the field, was easily granted.

Now a legitimate member of the computer industry, Melvin by no means had it as easy as he would have if the team had gotten their payment, but it felt good to live without the stress of doing illegal work. He began to visit his parents more often, and even got into a few romantic relationships. He ended up getting married to a Drow woman employed by Rendo-Clarke, and adopted two children (a Human girl and a Drow boy) to raise with her. Melvin's life after the invasion was ordinary and unspectacular, and he told only the people closest to him about his involvement in the events that went down in Rockpine. However, the experience would stay with him for the rest of his life.

Hidden:

Thanks for another great RP, Kerr! I've got no complaints about anything, save for a few things on my own end. I didn't know how unhelpful Melvin's character build would be when I first made him. I still really enjoyed the RP, though, and I have nothing bad to say about your part. I'm looking forward to your Fallout RP after you're done with WoD!