The Terrain of the Mind

Paolo Marcucci - 15 June 1994 in collaboration with Bryan Prince (WALAB@thmrba.hh.vanderbilt.edu) translated by Bill Lee (galahad@u.washington.edu) inspired by the novel “Queen of Angels” by Greg Bear

SYNOPSIS

Emmanuel Goldsmith is a very famous poet as well a former scientist at IPR, an institute for research into the brain. During a recent private party, he killed eight young guests, among which was a girl named Betty-Ann. Betty-Ann was the daughter of Thomas Albigoni, former director of IPR and a very rich and influential man. Albigoni captured Goldsmith soon after the murders, before the police arrived at the scene. Albigoni puts Goldsmith through intense questioning and psychoanalysis. During questioning Goldsmith admits to the murders, but gives no explanation. He then collapses into a coma from which there is little hope that he will awaken. This event highly upsets Albigoni, as he and Goldsmith were once friends and he is intensely curious as to the reason for the slayings. Without his daughter, life has very little meaning, and so he concentrates a great deal of energy and money in solving this problem. Which brings us to the runners. Through Lascal, one of his flunkies, Albigoni contacts the team to extract one Martin Burke from the Renraku Arcology. Burke will be able to use a device he worked on at IPR, the SIM-9000 Neuroscanner, to enter Goldsmith’s brain through his datajack and discover exactly why Goldsmith killed eight people. Burke cannot enter the brain alone, at least three people are needed for the operation. Two will actually ‘jack in’ to the brain, and one will oversee the operation. As Albigoni is hiding Goldsmith from the long arm of the law, he will ask the team to stay on and assist in the operation. He will wave a lot of money around to ensure the team’s cooperation. After they agree, Burke will train them on how to use the Scanner, and then they’re in. Two party members will jack into Goldsmith’s brain. After jacking in, Burke ‘gives’ them a toolbox, including a button for instant disconnexion and a computer with Burke’s personality and knowledge on the brain. The terrain of the mind is composed of symbolic processes that exist independently of Goldsmith’s mind. It appears as a city, at the centre of which they find the highest level mental processes. As they approach the centre, they meet only powerful symbols as well as signs that could represent a split personality: The symbols fight amongst themselves, often involving the players. During the first fight, their toolbox gets stolen. Now the team is isolated in the mind of Goldsmith (mwahahahahahah).

CONTACT

Contact is made by Daniel Lascal, who invites the team to dinner at Chez Roger, a very classy restaurant downtown. The entrance to Chez Roger is a French colonnade, painted in white. At the sides stand two orcs who are elegantly dressed, and very big. Inside, they find Lascal and Albigoni waiting. Lascal is a human, about 30 years old, tall and well dressed, and he projects a somewhat servile air. Albigoni looks about 50 years old and everything about him scrams “Lot’s o’ money here!”. His suit is sober, yet elegant, and it seems painted on him. He is black, with blond hair and blue-grey eyes. Lascal will say the following to the players while Albigoni, after coldly greeting the players, begins to eat.

“The daughter of Mr. Albigoni, Betty-Ann, was recently a homicide victim. You’ve probably heard the story on the trid or in the faxnews. She was one of eight young people that were found in the apartment of Emmanuel Goldsmith. Mr. Albigoni” who continues to eat with an absent air “was convinced that Goldsmith was responsible, an opinion he shared with Lone Star. Goldsmith knew Betty-Ann, was her therapist, and was also a good friend of Mr. Albigoni. He had never given any signs of mental instability and was rather well-known for his poetry; far more than for the important work that he carried out at IPR, a institute for brain research headed by Mr. Albigoni. Now my boss” who continues to eat “would like to discover the reasons that brought Emmanuel to carry out this foul deed. To do this, he needs your help. Lone Star is on the trail of Goldsmith, and they want him NOW. Emmanuel has met Mr. Albigoni, who has offered him temporary protection in a secure place.

“Your presence is requested for two reasons: First, Lone Star, as I have said, is actively searching for Goldsmith, so any operation of any kind, cannot be traced to myself or Mr. Albigoni. Secondly, we have reason to believe that an uncommon ability will be needed to complete the type of operation that will be necessary.

“We also need one man, Martin Burke, who worked for Mr. Albigoni at IPR. Indeed, he was one of the founders of the institute. Unfortunately, after IPR closed down, we had to yield the rights to one of our inventions to Renraku. Along with the rights went the creator of the machine, Mr. Burke

“And now we would like Burke to return to work with us.”

MARTIN BURKE

Martin Burke is currently working at Renraku. He has stayed in contact with Lascal thorugh encrypted communication in a crossword. He agrees with the return to work for IPR, but he doesn’t want to lose his job at Renraku. There will be two possibilities: The job can be completed in a small amount of time (a couple of days) and his job is taken by a double, or he will have to fake his death to prevent reperccussions from Renraku being visited upon his family. The device, the SIM-9000, is small and Burke will have no trouble carrying outside the Arcology.

RENRAKU

Burke’s office and laboratory are on the 253rd floor, in the south-west corner.

Entrance

Entrance to the arcology is through the floors open to the public, containing shopping areas and restaurants. On the SW side there are six freight elevators, on piers 54 and 55, as well as 20 entrances for people. These 20 entrances are watched by ten guards. All entrances are patrolled by watchers, with fire elementals (force 5) arriving as backup after a minute.

253rd Floor

The 252nd and 253rd floors of the Renraku Arcology are classified Top Secret. It is on these floors where study and realize the most advanced products of Renraku. The four sides of the arcology are physically separated for structual reasons. Entrance to the SW corner is supplied through two regular elevators (SW8P & SW9P), and one freight elevator (SW3M). All three are watched by security cameras and guards on each floor. The air ducts are just large enough for people to crawl through them. The corridors have ID scanners hidden in the walls. Surveillance during the day is light but constant. During the night, they decrease the frequency but increase the intensity (a patrol of four guards cover the entire floor every half hour).

If the team is discovered, a team of 5 guards and one mage in astral space arrive after a minute. The mage will attack using a force 6 Fireball grounded through an active spell lock/focus if there is one. If the team manages not to get caught, the entire floor is inundated with gas. After five minutes, two drones (Microskimmer) under a rigger’s controll arrive to check the bodies. If there is still someone conscious (Rigger INT TN#8, two successes to notice), the gassing process is repeated. When the situation has calmed down (Everybody unconscious or the rigger fails his test) 5 guards come to get the bodies.

If the team is captured, they get tossed in Lone Star’s lap.

Ventilation Corridors

The ventilation corridors are found in the security system computer and studying the architecture of the Renraku Arcology. The easiest entrances are in the B3 level garage (re Seattle Sourcebook).

Defence

There are air vents at every change in level (QCK TN#12 to make it in). Control of the vents is foud in a control room on level B1. Every three levels there some ionization machines to purify the air. These devices unload excess tension into the air at predetermined periods (1 on 1D6) and cause a 10D Stun.

By chance, at every change in level (1 on 1D6), surveillance drones could pass. 1-3: Condor LDSD-23 with an SMG loaded with narcojet projectiles (6D Stun). 4-5: Microskimmer with doses of MAO. 6: a dart with Gamma-Anthrax.

IPR

IPR’s building is an upside-down pyramid made of blue glass. It is composed of 5 floors: In the basement is the operating room with devices for the exploration of the mind. All the floors are balconies with a big space in the middle illuminated from above. Two elevators run on the east and west sides of the central space. Inside the elevators there are only buttons for the top five floors; a key is needed to access the basement.

Once the team has obtained Burke, they will take him to IPR. Here they meet Goldsmith, who is absolutely calm. A nurse is questioning Goldsmith when the team arrives:

“…have you ever had recurring dreams?”

“You mean the same dream?”

“Yes”

“No. Usually my dreams are quite diverse.”

“What do you mean ‘usually’?”

“There are some places that I often go to in my dreams. They’re not exactly the same, but they are similar.”

“Could you describe one of these places to me?”

“Sometimes I return to the street of my birth, in Brooklyn. But I never arrive there. No, that’s not right. Once I made it back. Usually I find I can’t go back…..”

At this point Goldsmith collapses and falls into a coma. The nurse calls a doctor who states that the coma is irreversible with possible brain damage. After this pronouncement, Burke proposes using the neuroscanner. At least three people will be needed, but, as the machine is still experimental, Burke asks Albigoni to pay the team to be his assistants/guinea pigs.

Operating Room

The operating room is in the basement. The access corridors are unfinished cement with industrial lighting. The room contains six cots attached to a central cyliner. Every cot is circled by bio-monitors and life-sustaining equipment.

“In the central cylinder there should be a temporary buffer. We used it to store the structure of the subject’s mind. Unfortunately, there isn’t one, and accquiring another one would require too much time. We’ll have to do without it; there shouldn’t be any problems. Goldsmith’s mind is practicallly frozen, stopping at a precise point in time. We shouldn’t have to evolve to model or track movement inside….”

The team settles into the cots and are connected together. The nurse that was questioning Goldsmith administers an anesthetic injection. After a few minutes, everything fades to black….

THE BRAIN

10:35 pm

At the entrance of the team into Goldsmith’s brain, they confirm the prblem of synchronization: The PC’s begin to see brilliant green flashes in their peripheral vision.

“Those are visual inteference patterns emitting from the back of the head: it’s normal. Now I have found a very clear signal….I’m amplifying it”

It is a group of brilliantly coloured serpents twisting wildly, tails at the side and heads in the middle, with yellow eyes and pearly bodies. Every scale is perfectly rendered.

“It is a border symbol, from the far regions of the mind”

Clouds. An infinite course of clouds and rain in a group, a storm that runs a circle about a wheel of lightening. The spokes of the wheel light up their transformation into serpents.

“Layers of border symbols, symbols that tranfer between the autonomous system of the brain and the higher level personality layers”

A cubic room with filthy brick walls, humid, water on the floor, streams that drip along the walls like something alive. In the midst of the water, a young boy with yellow skin or perhaps golden, with only one tuft of hair on his bald head, sits on a desert island playing cards under the sun. The child looks up and smiles. On his turn he quickly shows the muzzle of a sneering, bearded chimp with stretched lips and dark eyes full of animalistic calm.

“A profound symbol but without doubt belonging to Goldsmith. You are in a closed room, let’s see if you can open it” (Wil TN#5).

On the floor, the water changes colour. It becomes a grey ocean agitated by a storm, a wine-red lake, a muddy bog on which fall drops of rain. In spite of this the desert isle remains and the boy continues to play cards, looking up and appearing to have a chimp’s face.

“This is a particular case of the Terrain of the Mind: a symbol assigned to a certain intermediate personal layer, structured on characteristics not extrapolated from genetic heritage but from an experience from Goldsmith’s infancy. There are no doors or openings. It seems to me to be a closed circle, that sustains itself on itself……

“I have another strong signal, tuned on a different channel, like this in the groups of profound symbols.”

An impression of immensity.

The perception of three infinte streets that run parallel across a desert inundated by the sun. It is a huge expanse of stripped of sand.

“This is something undoutedly acquired after the formation of the personality; perhaps it is an adolescent experience”

The PC’s begin to see spectres around them, they are the other members of the team.

“Good. You’re beginning to see each other? This seems to me to be convincing enough: It will be possible for us to use this as the channel of entry. Now I’m tune in to this location and isolating the channel, you can remerge while I fix the coordinates of entry”

The PCs emerge from the experience easily, merely opening their eyes.

“Now we’ll prepare for the entry procedure. I’ll give you a virtual toolbox, a strong mental symbol, with which you will be able to perform many operations such as: communicate with me, teleport to the interior of the Mind, control your position and condition, and disconnect from the experience. But remember that without the buffer, immediate exit from the Mind is extremely difficult. The switch is limited to interrupting the connexion and the latent experiences to interpret, continuing to process those from both minds.”

The box is red, with a pull-switch on the outside and a video camera.

If the PC’s have no questions, Burke advises them to get to bed, they will begin the process the next morning at eight.

LEVEL 1 (Force 1) - HORIZON

8:00 am

The connexion is made with the same formality as the preceding night. The PCs without datajacks suffer a +2 to all Target Numbers and a -2 to their Reaction. All damage is Stun, staging up to Physical if needed.

The Terrain is a neutral grey, the other players in the team are formed out of heat nearby. At the horizon they see a type of forest (INT TN#6).

“Those aren’t trees, they are potential components of a large quantity of images, residue from the back portion of the brain. Now I’m going to find the channel from yesterday, when I have completed that, you will be inside the mind of Goldsmith. You shouldn’t be in any danger, but if you even have the impression that things aren’t going right, disconnect using the pull-switch; before you risk any damage. Questions?”

Burke enters the entrance coordinates and presses the return key…..

LEVEL 2 (Force 3) - THE THREE STREETS

The shock is total. One instant before they found themselves in total grey, an environment devoid of characteristics, and then they find themselves on foot in the desert, on of the streets. It’s hot, but not unbearably so.

“This is the Mind of Goldsmith. It is adapting itself to our presence. Good. Let’s see if you can proceed. Can you fly?”

“Enough wishing for it, like almost everything in the Mind. Run and arch your neck.”

Quickness Test TN#6. Every success adds ten metres in height.

“Let’s move along the street you have chosen.”

The images of the PCs assume a violet colour.

“We are moving at a high velocity along a group of peripheral neurons”

Time passes.

“It’s strange. It’s as if Goldsmith’s Mind has contracted. I’ve never seen anything so desolate. We are leaving behind a great deal of mental territory, I can’t understand why, but a considerable expanse of potentially useful territory has been left an empty desert.”

Something happens in front of the team. The sky changes from a dusty blue to black with a lower edge of orange and grey. The other two streets diverge and continue to the side a of canyon in which the road they’re following finishes.

“Stop here.”

The canyon is not composed of rock, but rather black crystal, broken, with towering buildings that make up an enormous city which occupies the bottom of the canyon for about 100 klicks, rendered in extraordinary detail and containing many diverse creations. It is a magnum opus of mental complexity. Incessant noise, thundering and drumming from the machines of the city.

“This is not the product of a society from the real world, rather it is the base of thought and a concrete being: a whole of the symbols and communications of the same.”

When someone appears over the edge of the canyon, a hand seizes them by the neck and drags them down. (Loa of Agua force 3). If the loa survives (ending at S), he escapes, inciting a violent storm.

For combat, the PCs must make a willpower test (TN# 12-concealibility). With at least one success, a weapon appears in the hands of the PC. At this point the PCs can fight as normal (given skill and availability of weapons). The team goes down into the canyon along the road, which steadily becomes worse, full of cracks and holes, ending in broken black gravel. Scattered in the gravel are white fragments, bones and pieces of skulls. The skulls are not sneering, they are melancholy.

LEVEL 3 (Force 5) - THE CITY

The team arrives at the exterior of the city. They see a dirty brick building with shattered windows. The entire building is covered in designs made with something that resemble flour or white dust: serpents with forked tongues, birds with very large heads, dogs with flattened bodies and cats with X’s for eyes. The sidewalk is covered with the same designs; with sad, merry, and malicious people within the squares.

“Personal messages. They tend to be ephemeral symbols, but positive and endowed with a slight vitality

“There is no action here. It seems like an abandoned area. Possibly there was a battle or war here. We’ll probably have to look more toward the centre when there is higher definition. Activating Overdrive”

A draining of static and the team unexpectedly finds itself in the centre of town.

Peaceful people walk along the street, everything seems perfectly normal. At a stretch of road, the scene dissolves into minuscule coloured spheres (Lawnmower Man effect) and after an instant of grey, they find themselves in a deserted shop. Without the toolbox.

LEVEL 4 (Force 7) - THE SHOP

It could have been a grocery store. Shelves, a counter, a cash register that seems made of corroded granite. There is a door that leads into the back.

Beyond the door there is an immense pit dug into a cave full of human remains. On top of the bodies is a boy who seems asleep.

The boy is Goldsmith at about 12 years of age. The team cannot exit the cave as the only exit is blocked by 5 ghouls (B7 Q5 C1 I4 W5 R4 INI14+1D6) who attack the players.

At the exit to the shop is the Loa of Maitre Carrefour (force 7). It manifests as a thin, arrogant man arrayed in a suit of scintillating colours. He begins with a malevolent laugh:

“Here’s the squad of salvation….. how nice… Welcome to Guinee’. To find the house of Marassa, the sacred twins, go to the end of this road.

“But you will find only their mother, Regina Erzulie, and their father, the Colonel Sir.

“Colonel Sir is the father of Marassa, he is the great white conductor, who has brought new lifeblood to Guinee’

“Regina Erzulie is the mother of Marassa. She is the queen of all the men and women.

“Now only one Marassa is free. He, Devout Sir, possesses the way for you to leave Guinee’”

If the team doesn’t attack him, the Loa leaves.

LEVEL 5 (Force 9) - THE HOUSE

Goldsmith’s house is at the end of the street. It is made of wood and straw, with decrepit windows. Inside are Goldsmith’s parents:

The father, Colonel Sir and the mother, Regina Erzulie, who is in a wooden cage and looks hopefully at the team when they enter. The Colonel has a whip in his hand [(Str+3)S Stun, reach+2]

Colonel Sir

Force:9 B:18 S:12 Q:18
        I: 4 C: 9 W: 4
        Rxn:9 E:18 Ini:9+2D6
Powers: Fear, Accident, Pain, Guilt

The Colonel is whipping the mother and the whip doesn’t seem stopped by the bars of the cage. The mother is suffering and at every blow Goldsmith becomes younger.

If the team kills the father, Goldsmith returns to his normal age (35) and seems quite pissed (Ed Note: American usage).

At the back of the house is a door which opens upon a small cemetery. To enter, one must cross a small rusty gate.

LEVEL 6 (Force 11) - THE CEMETERY

The cemetery behind the house is filthy. It is darkest night, and light is given by orange flashes of lightening in the black sky. A light rain is falling through a thick mist. There are about ten ruined tombs, sunken in mud. There are no names on the tombs, only images, drawn in blood, of terrified people.

Perched upon the top of a tomb near the back of the cemetery is a clone of Goldsmith. Half of his face is painted in white. A top hat sits on his head and a spiral stick is in his hand. On top of the club is a small, sad skull.

At his neck he has a key and near him is the toolbox. He doesn’t seem happy to see the team, although he doesn’t have a hostile attitude.

He continually looks at a small pocket watch. When somebody comes near him, he takes the club in two hands and swings it at them, always without descending from the tomb.

Loa of Samedi (Devout Sir - “Evil” Goldsmith)

Force:11 B:22 S:14 Q:33
         I: 5 C:11 W: 5
         Rxn:11 E:22 Ini:11+2D6
Powers:Fear, Accident, Alienation, Concealment, Confusion, Guard, Search
Attack:Armed Combat (13) with the club (+2 reach, electric discharge 8D)

If a PC dies (all wounds through Stun), he must make a Will. Test (TN#11-Cha). If he doesn’t make it, he becomes possessed by the Loa (GM: you’ll need to decide how to treat this).

If the team manages to defeat the Loa, they can press the escape button on the toolbox and reenter the real world.

Goldsmith returns to normal and tells the team everything.

In the meantime the terrain of the mind returns to normal configuration, with people and positive symbols. The sky returns to blue.

THE REVELATIONS OF GOLDSMITH

“I used to work at IPR and, in my spare time, continued to write as I did when I was young. Understand, that I was ok with computers. My boss, Mr. Albigoni, asked me for a particular program: a series of themes that could be inserted into the phone network. At the moment I didn’t understand what purpose it could serve, until I overheard a conversation between him and Lascal. They were discussing hypnotic schema and that something I had recently discovered as well as elements of voodoo.

“I conducted some experiments with my program and found I could use it to induce hypnotic suggestions. The format of the information then was exactly that which was suitable for the vidphone network. At this point I went forward alone: I researched voodoo in a public library and from what I found, I knew that I had to find a way to stop Albigoni.

“I modified the program in such a manner that it is not possible to launch it without a particular password., which was obviously only in my possession. I then loaded it into the main IPR computer. I passed this code to a collaborator of mine that Albigoni didn’t know about. I then found a shaman in the sprawl who removed my conscious memory of the password in such a manner that it was not possible to recover it by magic. But evidently someone has found a way to get it. My collaborator was found dead two days later in an alley. It seemed that he committed suicide.

“At that point I believe that Albigoni lost patience and one night, while I was throwing a party at my house, I felt a malignant presence in my mind. Then nothing more.

“I believe I understand now. Albigoni, or someone for him, took possession of my mind to recover the password. Probably something didn’t go as planned and the password remained blocked here. You’ll need to go get it”

The software is in IPR’s computer, behind Albigoni’s office.

THOMAS ALBIGONI

They don’t get up immediately. They find themselves nude inside a sensory-deprivation tank. They have masks on which cover their eyes and ears. They are breathing a solution of oxygenated fluorocarbons (Abyss) full of bacteria. The mages cannot cast spells nor can they summon anything. After removing the masks they see the body of Burke dragging along with Albigoni’s daughter and her seven friends.

Ghouls

    B:7 S:6 Q:5x4
    I:4 C:1 W:5
    Rxn:4 E:5 Ini:14+1D6
Powers:Enhanced senses (smell, hearing)
Attack:Unarmed Combat (6) 7M

As Burke passes by the tank, he vomits up a green fluid. The PCs hear Albigoni’s voice in their heads:

“I am content to see that we are united….now”

“Prepare to join my army of the living dead!” (evil laugh)

At the bottom of the tank a green fluid begins to seep up. It paralyzes anybody who touches it. To exit the tank the team must break the glass (Unarmed vs. 4).

Once they have exited the tank, they can find their guns and equipment in the room to the left. For the time begin, Albigoni has left Burke in the hallway. Burke is seriously wounded and his suit drips with the green fluid.

“Albigoni tried to turn me into a zombie but Goldsmith returned to stop him.

At the entrance they find Goldsmith’s body, hacked into pieces. If they didn’t stop to get their guns they find Albigoni inside the entrance.

Thomas Albigoni: (Hougan state)

Force:11 B:22 S:14 Q:33
         I:5 C:11 W:5
         Rxn:11 E:22 Ini:11+2D6
Powers:Fear, Accident, Alienation, Concealment, Confusion, Guard, Search
Attack:Armed Combat (13) with a club (reach +2, electric discharge 8D)

else they will see him and his zombies escaping in a helicopter as they reach the entrance.

COMPUTER

IPR’s computer contains Goldsmith’s program. With a simple analysis at the terminal (Computer TN#5) one can find out that the ICE is extreme (Red-9). In another part of the computer (INT TN#6) is the program, the connexion to the matrix, and all sorts of other goodies………