| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

History

Page history last edited by Hal! 1 week, 6 days ago Saved with comment

History


 

The Story So Far

This Chronicle is a sort of spinoff/continuation of a now discontinued crossover Mage chronicle called Project: Overwatch (which ran from 6/9/2010 to 8/27/2011 real time of its official end, while this one had its first scene run on 8/20/2011). It is considered an alternate universe where certain things went slightly differently during that former chronicle's course, though the usual assumption will be that, unless stated otherwise, events will have unfolded exactly as they did in play. The main divergence is that things have gone a bit differently for the main PC-operated Chantry and their primary antagonists, thus ending the main conflict of the previous Chronicle and opening the way to go a different direction and initially delve deeper into the world of Werewolf: the Apocalypse rather than Mage: the Ascension. More details on the former chronicle are also provided here.

 

A detailed timeline of these two Chronicles' backstory can be found here.

 

Prelude - The Rise and Fall of Overwatch

Overwatch was a heavily equipped Chantry led by the charismatic and highly connected Virtual Adept Devin Knight. The Chantry's stated purpose was ferreting out Nephandi in both the Traditions and the Technocracy and putting a stop to their corrupt plans. They believed in direct action to aggressively prosecute this aspect of the Ascension War, and maintained a team of operatives with which to strike out at their enemies as well as a number of lone investigators, and they carefully maintained a series of alliances with other Chantries as well. Their base of operations was in the remote desert hills near Death Valley in California, but they made extensive use of teleportation technology to engage in actions in Oregon, Georgia, Colorado, Los Angeles and more.

 

In process of time they became aware of a series of technocratic containment devices that had been converted into weapons of mass destruction by the Nephandi and moved to put a stop to to the nefarious Fallen mages' plots. A web of ploys, deceptions and manipulations ensued as they fenced with the machinations of a wily and cunning nameless adversary shrouded in a deep hooded cloak (known as HBG or 'Hooded Bad guy' by some of the players). They went through a series of skirmishes and misdirections, including a jaunt to protect the Cleansing Path Sept in Oregon who were under attack and a battle atop US Bank Tower to stop that city's destruction and call off the Technocratic Shockwave Protocol.

 

Though Los Angeles itself was spared the Shockwave Protocol, it was ravaged and badly damaged. The Sleeper world thinks it was a series of unusually intense riots and firebombings that spiraled out of control and killed hundreds of people. In actuality, the death toll was well into the thousands, and it had the similarity to a riot that Resident Evil has to playing house. There was a series of explosions that shattered windows and some buildings across significant portions of the city, and the walking dead, fomori and similarly horrible things rampaged unchecked for about two days. The epicenter of it all was the US Bank tower in downtown LA. Damage was staggering, and many of the damaged portions of the city remain abandoned or are still under construction, or are pending construction. It ended with an explosion that destroyed the top ten or so storeys of that building, and the most massive Technocracy coverup since the Week of Nightmares and Czar Vargo's zeppelin invasion of Europe was undertaken. The Los Angeles mage community refers to this event as "the Harrowing" and the Garou call it "the Fall of LA". The Technocracy designation for this incident is highly classified, but some of their agents have taken to calling it "the Non Event" with reference to the absurdly vast and exhausting coverup that followed.

 

A few weeks after this event, a powerful Fallen strike force attacked and severely damaged the Overwatch Chantry itself. Though the Chantry's defenders destroyed the attacking force, the Chantry had to be abandoned and its membership dissolved. The few survivors scattered and several made their way to the Lassen area where the Awakening Chronicle began.

 

The timeline of the Lassen-oriented phase of the Chronicle, stories 1-3, is here.

 

Story I - The Boiling Earth

(For details, see the Story 1 History Archive Page)

The action of the Chronicle itself began on Sunday, 3/6/2011 (game time, not real time), a day of the crescent moon, when Linda dropped Steve off in the vicinity of the Boiling Earth Caern so that he could deliver news to them, planning to stick around for only a day or so before moving on to The Cleansing Path. Upon his arrival at the Caern, he delivered news of recent events in Los Angeles and was asked to investigate a strange Blight in the Prospect Peak area. He would join an ad hoc pack of other Anruth in the area for the trip. Linda, meanwhile, went down into the nearby town of Chester to find accommodations for herself and encountered Amrita, almost immediately recognizing that she was something new and special, and establishing contact with her. Linda offered to help introduce Amrita to the Garou, and arranged a meeting with Steve. Linda met up with Amrita again and took her to see Steve, and all together they journeyed up to meet up with Marcus, Guillermo and Maria at the Prospect Peak area. Enroute, Linda established contact with Odysseus and Ashton, who had been looking for them, and arranged to rendezvous at their target point.

 

After a night's scouting out the area and getting to know one another a little, the whole group set forth for the blight on the morning of Monday 3/7/2011. Things rapidly went south, with Banes attacking the team on both sides of the Gauntlet, and a mysterious hiker fleeing from the scene. They found that some sort of pretanic ritual had taken part on the mountainside, creating an artificial blight... (more to come)

 

 

Story II - The Enemy of My Enemy

(For details, see the Story 2 History Archive Page)

This story began immediately after the ending of Story 1, with the group arranging to split up in order to go in two different directions as they tried to work the Garou and Mage angles on the threat that both faced, hoping to arrange some cooperation between the two: The Garou and Possessed characters heading back up to the Caern and the Mages gathering at the Verbena Grove for a Tribunal. This story's main action took place entirely within the span of one day: Friday 3/11/2012 (which was a half moon day). However, its ending paved the way for days and days worth of side scenes and created the need for story III, as detailed here.

 

Story III - Unfinished Business

(For full details, see the Story 3 Archive Page.)

“I’ve had more moral and ethical challenges in the last two weeks than I’ve had in my entire life, to date.” - Amrita, in Regrets & Sincerity

 

This story began on Tuesday, March 15th, a day of the gibbous moon, innocuously enough with a housewarming party. It was mostly concerned with picking up the pieces of the characters' lives in the aftermath of stories 1 & 2, and asking themselves that eternally vexing question: "what now?" A major portion of the forward movement an action in this particular story took place within side scenes and blue books, with different characters' lives disparately taking them into a collision course with one another and having to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves in various ways.

 

Blue Books were a major, major part of the development of characters and the narrative in this story, and several significant changes in the group took place. Amrita prevailed upon Linda to turn herself over to the Sept of the Boiling Earth and beg forgiveness and healing. Amrita had to learn some very difficult truths about herself and privately dealt with a major stumbling block in her relationship with Ashton. The Garou members of the group formally formed into a pack, and the Mages informally gathered themselves into a tight-knit cabal as well. The Sept of the Boiling Earth held a highly eventful moot, and very unusually the group's mages were there as honored guests. As new characters joined the main cast, others departed. This was very much a story about change and transition.

 

A timeline of the next 5 stories, the Los Angeles based phase of the game, is here.

 

Story IV - The City of Angels

(For full details, see the Story 4 Archive Page.)

This story began on March 29th, 2011 (played on May 6th, 2012 of course ;) ) and ran through the following day. The group reunited in Los Angeles and set about getting down to the work that they had come there for, but swiftly found that the best laid plans of mice and men so often go awry...

 

Just after having a preliminary meeting with the Glass Walker pack The United Front, the troupe picked up a pair of MIBs tailing them and engaged in a successful low speed car chase, and then began meetings with the House of the Setting sun Chantry. In the middle of that meeting, word came in of a "developing situation" involving Odysseus' older brother Stavros, and things went steadily downhill from there.

 

Story V - To Catch A Wolf

(For full details: see the Story 5 Archive Page)

This story ran from the 3rd to the 4th of April, and was primarily concerned with the troupe's search for the missing Downtowners pack. They contact the Mictlan Chantry, who are believed to have engaged in battle against the pack more than once recently, and follow up a lead regarding the Downtowners' recent three-way conflict between the Chantry and a vampire nest in the ghetto. Things get more complex upon their arrival in the neighborhood of said vampire nest.

 

Story VI - Toad in the Hole

(For full details: see the Story 6 Archive Page)

This story began on April 7th, 2011, and involved the group trying to finally run Miles Cortin, their long standing and elusive adversary, to ground. Our protagonists were hardly the only parties (including Agent Wilt Jackson of the Syndicate and the mysterious "Them") interested in the disposition of Mr. Cortin. Between this and his own unwillingness to sit still and cooperate while everybody else came after him, this proved to be rather more messy, and more tricky, than they had hoped.

 

Story VII - Rumors of War

(For full details: see the Story 7 Archive Page)

This story began on April 10th, 2011 and ran through April 22nd. Though this story is broken into chapters, we list its archive more as a group of four scene groups, which might be thought of as a play or film in three acts and with a fourth that is more of an extensive addendum or bridge as anything else. Many of these scenes focused on part of the group at any one time rather than all of them. Scene Group I dealt with a mix of preexisting threads, establishing a few new threads for later and working out which to prioritize. Scene Group II was where the story's main action kicked in with the city's Mage and werewolf populations on the edge of breaking out into warfare with one another over the gruesome murder of a prominent Ecstatic member of the Four Winds Chantry. Scene Group III deals with the investigation of this murder butting right into the deteriorating situation within the Glittering Dreams Sept as outside parties try to blow the whole thing wide open. Scene Group 4 focused on The End Times Ball and All Star Revue, a major step in the Eye of the Storm's diplomatic efforts, once more wrapping up many threads and bringing in further plot hooks.

 

Story VIII - Reality Checks

(For full details: see the Story 8 Archive Page)

This story began on April 24-26th, 2011, and begins with the Eye of the Storm split into two groups and not only riding the End Times Ball triumph but trying to make good on its promises, one of which has departed temporarily into Mexico and into a different story genre, while the Mage contingent (minus Linda) pursued some personal and Council related threads while the wolves are away. This story began with parallel chapters, as the group split up to handle separate priorities and cover more ground, but disaster struck and nearly derailed the once-ascendant Eye of the Storm for good. This Story left a humbled yet wiser Eye picking up the pieces and trying to move on. The Chronicle went into a long (several years, real time) hiatus after Chapter 4, but picked up with several new players and thus a new vibe.

 

Story IX - New Horizons

ACWoD 9 logo

(For full details, see the Story 9 Archive Page)

This story begins on Monday 5/9/21, at the Seat of the Nine, with the Eye finding that some doors have been closed, but opening some new ones themselves. New allies appear, powerful enemies come into focus, and a long-deferred reunion between Linda and her long-lost daughter causes so very much turmoil both within and without the Eye. Like so many other good stories, this one's climax centers around a dance-off. The Story ends on 5/23/2011.

 

 

Story X - Cleansing a Path

ACWoD 10 logo

This story begins on May 26th, 2011. 

Cleansing a Path, Chapter I: Let's All Visit Murphy Ranch

This chapter begins on May 26, 2011.

Chapter I - The Eye collects their allies and heads out to visit the Malibu area to go see about a supposed führerbunker in the hills in search of... an evil Chinese martial artist? The plot thickens when things start going boom.

 

Chapter I Blue Books and Scenes

  •  (None)

 

Cleansing a Path, Chapter II: I Hate California Nazis

This chapter begins on May 26, 2011, immediately after Chapter I. 

Chapter II - The plot becomes unpleasantly sticky when lots and lots of things start going boom.

 

Chapter II Blue Books and Scenes

  • Pre-Postmortem - late night, May 26, 2011.  Adriene returns home, spends time with her family, and confronts her own mortality, as well as her place in the Eye and the war(s).
  •  Considerations - The morning of May 27, 2011. Anna goes to talk to Joseph and Eel, and then the whole pack, about joining St. Elmo's Fire.
  • Tell Me a Story -  Shortly after Considerations, above.  Anna has some questions for Eel.
  • The Dethklok Home for Wayward Kitties -  Afternoon of May 27, 2011. The Mages, having some time on their hands, follow one of Candace and Eel's leads to investigate "The graffiti pit" across from LA City Hall. They meet a Red Talon, and find signs that this place is worthy of further interest.

 

Cleansing a Path, Chapter III: The Beneficent Emerald Temple

This chapter begins on the afternoon of May 27, 2011.

Chapter III - A promise kept and a spear returned, the Eye pays a visit to the Bianxing Zhe.

 

Chapter III Blue Books and Scenes

  • Handoff - Saturday, May 28th, 2011. Ro and Eel head to Malibu to meet a Chorister envoy, and an angelic and innocent young man attaches himself to the Eye. Oh, and a new challenge at Cleansing Path?
  • The Lost -  Saturday, May 28th. Rain, Gabriel and Joseph take lunch with the Beast Court's Regent, and pick her brain about the Lost Breeds and the Fera more generally. 
  • Inspection -  Saturday, May 28th. Morton gets his first ride in a Garou Umbraship. (ongoing)
  • Touching Bases -  Saturday May 28th to the morning of Sunday May 30th. Ro connecting with her mom at home, then her aunt and cousin up in the Lassen area to discuss using the Mcintyre Apple Farm as a possible fall-back point in case things go badly in Oregon - and the complexities that come with Purewater's presence at Cleansing Path. Then, in a somewhat lighter note, the next morning she talks to Linda and Krissy about having a double wedding. dun dun dun! 
  • Parallels - Sunday, May 29th, 2011. Early morning. Krissy comes to Linda vista for some Klaive practice, and her mentor Anna finds herself looking in a mirror darkly. 

 

Cleansing a Path, Chapter IV: Ross Bridge

This chapter began at midday on Monday, May 30th, 2011, a day of the Waning Crescent Moon.

Chapter IV, Part 1 - The Eye gathers at Linda Vista to plan and enact their mission to Oregon, and discovers that things up north are progressing quicker, and harder, than they had expected.

Chapter IV, Part 2 - The Eye, now split into two groups, one on the ground and one aboard Umbraships, engages Sovereign Citizen militants in Ross Bridge, and Pentex forces that are moving in on the Cleansing Path Caern.

 

Chapter IV Blue Books and Scenes

  • Family Secrets -  Anna, Eel, & Krissy discover that the Abercorns have something to hide.

 

Cleansing a Path, Chapter V: Barbarians at the Gates

This chapter began on the afternoon of Monday, May 30th, 2011, a day of the Waning Crescent Moon.

Chapter V - Barbarians at the Gates. Afternoon of Monday, May 30th, 2011, a day of the Waning Crescent Moon. Just after the Traveler's strafing run, things go decidedly sideways. The Cleansing Path storyline finally comes to its conclusion.

 

Chapter V/Story End Blue Books and Scenes

  • Purewater -  Monday, May 30th. While waiting for Cleansing Path's survivors to return, Ro has a heart to heart with Purewater about her aunt Joyce.
  • Angelus Dolor - Monday, May 30th. Andrew has a mini-breakdown on returning to LA after all the carnage of chapter 5. Things get more awkward from there.

Comments (9)

Mike L said

at 11:50 am on Aug 29, 2011

Oh thank you MERCY for actually drawing on the map! Seriously - while my character may have an excellent sense of direction, I do not and I was reallly having a hard time visualizing our approach. I likes me some drawed up mapage!! Thank you.

Mike L said

at 8:01 pm on Aug 29, 2011

Mike L said

at 7:50 am on Aug 30, 2011

Slightly longer and more humorous version here, but lower quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqfOxm_1BE0&feature=related

Hal! said

at 7:27 am on Sep 28, 2011

After each game I collect the log and massage it a little to make it somewhat easier to read and follow, fixing some of the typos and formatting wierdnesses and trimming some of the OOC chatter. So I've got a question for folks: would you be interested in me trying to see about hosting somewhat cleaned-up versions of our logs here on the wiki or on some other webspace for easier access than what is available through the chatzy links? Or would you rather that I just hang on to them myself? In the latter case, I am of course perfectly happy to send them you you individually upon request. Anyhow, lemme know what you think.

Alesia said

at 8:12 am on Sep 28, 2011

Which option is easier on you? Emailing them to us individually, or putting a centralized version up on the web someplace? I'd very much like access to them - my memory is not so good these days.

Hal! said

at 4:27 pm on Sep 28, 2011

Hm, now that I look at it we've got 2 GB. That should be enough to store lots of logs. I'll put 'em here.

Hal! said

at 5:34 am on Apr 23, 2014

Daniel updated the story 8, chapter 2 file on the original google doc after I posted it here, so I've updated this file too. Thanks Daniel!

Hal! said

at 7:55 pm on Apr 29, 2015

I finally added Chapters 3-4 of Story 8. I thought I had done that almost a year ago. Oy. Also added a Ro/Christi side scene. Prepping to get this thing starting to move again.

Hal! said

at 8:38 pm on May 13, 2015

Yay! A totally new scene, posted! Feels good to be getting back in that saddle.

You don't have permission to comment on this page.