Ted Kennedy was in his Power, Tom Bender's body, escaping from a Japanese bar fight into the night.
Timothy Hague, the Power of Accidents, was about to get beaten up, or worse, by Utah State Police, just outside the elevator in the atrium hotel where everyone was staying. The police followed him from the scene of the accident...
...he caused at the behest of his rival, Barbara Niederlander, the Power of Conspiracy, who said she would help him rig the men's figureskating jury if he would cause Ted Kennedy to get hit by a car. (Which ended up being the ambulance that came when Ted Kennedy collapsed when his soul transmigrated into the body of Tom Benders.)
Analiese Grejbko, skier and sister to Paul Grejbko, the Power of Cold, and Evelyn, Power of Evolution, had just successfully trained skeleton driver Christian Wilcox, of the Caribbean island-nation of Saint Santos, to skate well, using the famous "Bill and Ted maneuver." This maneuver was made possible by Tony Timespawn. Meanwhile, Tony's anchor Valerie, a prostitute, has been having the worst Olympics of anyone, spending disquieting amounts of time in the employ of IOC chairman Abdel Mujahid of the Republic of Bacatya, and Gregor Grigoriev, Bacatya's Pride and the favorite in the men's figureskating competition.
As for Paul Grejbko, he is a little put out by the prospect of the Opening Ceremonies program, and has to wonder if it represents someone's attempt to nettle him.
Everything is in place for Christian Wilcox to take the gold medal in men's figureskating except
- he does not skate better than the other entrants
- the competition favorite is...very close to the head of the IOC, the IOC being a wholly-owned subsidiary of te Cammora, the shadowy organization close to Lord Entropy, ruler of Earth
- the Olympics are crawling with Mormons, who have a special hatred for the Familia of the Imperatrix Claudine, and lastly
- Christian Wilcox is not actually entered in the skating competition.
I've been a little bothered by the portrayal of the Mormans as the Corrupted Mystery Cult of our Imperator... when Jim explained why the Mormons, it was because they opposed a number of the things that the Familia are the powers off, specifically Benders and Evolutions (it's hard to be against what Claudine stands for, since, being soul twisted, no one has a clue what she stands for.) Additionally, Jim states in the summary our first play session, that the Mormons, in fact, _hate_ us.
Yet, that is not how I read the description of Mystery Cult: Corrupted.
"The cult has been corrupted; it no longer serves the Imperator" - since they once served the Imperator, their aims, like, etc. once would have aligned with ours, but have since drifted. Does this necessary mean that they should now be diametrically opposed?
"...basically making them an enormous thorn in the Powers' sides" - being a thorn in our side is a bit different from hating us, stalking us, and attacking us. They get in the way, they're an annoyance, they take up out valuable time to neutralize the effects of their antics in our Imperator's name which isn't really what she wants.
That's not to say that, given enough time of corruption, they couldn't now be opposed to us and hate us, but it just not how I read it.
That's all.
Posted by: Mike on February 22, 2002 12:24 AMIt's a good question, and you make some good points. In this particular case, I think there's an important metagame and an important intragame reason why the Mormons are acting the way they are. The metagame reason is that the tone of this first adventure is... not so rarefied. The Corrupted Mystery Cult's (hereinafter CMC) behavior has been coarse because everybody's been pretty coarse - it's been that kind of adventure. The intragame reason is that the Familia is trespassing on their turf, and messing with their One Shining Moment. That ticks them off. In future adventures, set in other places than Utah, or other times than during the Olympics, they may manage to be more subtle about things. At least, that's my hope. For this particular adventure, they're just the enemy.
Of course, between now and next Wednesday (session two), for all I know someone will come up with a clever idea for coopting them...
Posted by: Jim on February 23, 2002 09:04 PM