This is a summary of a game I ran at Conflagration in Glasgow on the 22nd of Feb 2009. The players were Keith Fyans (Bran), Alex McGivern (Tom Warrington), David Talbot (Aesclepius Jones), Jonathon Underhill (Rachael Nelson) and Max Morrice (Jacob Swatch).
You can find a more general write-up of the session here
Characters
The Characters were :
Jim "Bran" Baxter, a new-age hippie who dreamed of being the eternal Druid high-priest of a technology free celtic society
Tom Warrington, an avant-garde artist who wanted to control the emotions of everyone, himself included, through his masterpieces.
Aesclepius Jones, a Greek philosopher who wanted the world to admire him for his perfect wisdom and rationality.
Rachael Nelson, a wanna-be Dianna Rigg, a sophisticate robot assassin seeking to overturn the rule of the Solar-Powered Pope in a world of pulp.
Jacob Swatch, an accountant seeking a perfectly organized technological society where he controlled the operation of the world.
I had 35 Shadow Tokens, and each character started with 3 Tears and 5 Infestation
The Shadow Appears
The story began with the Solipsists meeting together in a trendy bar in the center of Glasgow. They were not looking for the Shadow, but it quickly found them. Strange office blocks began to spring up all around, another one appearing each time they glanced out of the window. With Aesclepius leading they went to investigate one of these buildings. A security guard was visible through the glass doors, but before Aesclepius could speak to him Bran Changed Reality to make the guard into a devilish Formori from Celtic legend, and the buildings into Formori towers.
The towers were clearly the central mystery here, and were made into a 6 token thread
Alone with the Formori
Challenged by the Formori guard Aesclepius Changed Reality so that they were expecting him, recognizing him as an esteemed philosopher. The Formori offered to take them directly to his King, Balor but they opted for a tour of the building first. While the rest of the group were being shown the floors of desks where miserable humans would be milked for their tears Rachael slipped off to explore the empty upper floors. Here she discovered a strange black cube, hovering above the floor, covered in an aura of cold. She Changed Reality to give herself blasters, but they made no impression on it. Rachael concluded that the black substance was not only vitally important, but that it was the work of her enemy, the Solar-powered Pope and that one of the others was surely his minion!
The black substance was made into a 4 token thread, while 6 tokens were assigned to uncovering the minion of the pope, and 6 were assigned to Balor.
Downstairs Jacob decided that this office was for him and tried to rent space from the Formori supervisor. When he was resistant he Changed Reality to get more respect and ended up overshooting reality into one where accountants had become Government, Law enforcement, Judge and Jury all in one. Faced with an accountant the supervisor quickly agreed, but pointed out that the forms would take 666 days to fill in unless they went and talked to Balor. Accordingly they picked up their five cost effective guards and headed to Balor's throne room.
Back where the bar had been was now a giant pit leading to Balor's kingdom. There was a lift, but it was more cost-effective to take the 3 and a half day long footpath down into the water that filled the pit. To use the lift they needed at least 20 people and, of course, to fill in some monstrous forms!
To avoid the forms Aesclepius and Jacob Changed Reality to create an omniscient form filling computer that could predict all their answers from a central database, so that filling in the form would be instant. This was despite Bran and Tom's objections (it violated Bran's vision but he wasn't strong enough to stop them). This gave them instant forms, but they still didn't have 20 people, so they were denied. Tom, meanwhile, Changed Reality to create the perfect anti-form. One look at this form would convince anyone who saw it that all forms were useless. He then fed it into the computer, which instantly displayed it to the whole world! After that they didn't need the form and took the lift.
Into Balor's Kingdom
The lift plunged into the pit and down into freezing water. Luckily Bran was able to use a ritual to let them breathe underwater, although he (and Aesclepius) were rapidly accumulating Tears. At the bottom they followed a massive tunnel strewn with useless forms, until they were confronted by giant super Formori in armour made of the same black substance as the cube. Aesclepius tried to sweet talk them only to discover they had been ordered to kill him or make him weep, and they proceeded to attempt to do both. A fight ensued (against a Shadow strength of 40) and by working together Bran, Tom, Rachael and Jacob were able to overcome them with spells, stun beams and poetry.
Afterwards they wondered why they wanted Aesclepius to cry and made that mystery a 4 token thread
With the guards defeated Rachael changed reality to get one of her robot doubles to come in an underwater airship and take some of the armour to her lab for analysis. Then they entered the throne room to find it empty but for the giant Balor of the one eye, chained to a throne with chains of the same black substance! Speaking to Balor they learn that he has been enslaved and forced to harvest human misery for his captor. He cannot free himself, but agrees (in a magical deal with Bran) to help them find his captor if they free him.
Learning that the chains are made from some sort of absence of matter Aesclepius rationalizes them away, and Balor gives them a magical black cube that will summon his master, who always appears cloaked in black but for his glowing rings (Rachael presumes this is the Solar-Pope). He also answers various questions, resolving the black substance and Balor threads. They then used the cube, summoning the Solar-Powered pope through a portal. The Pope recognized Rachael and fled, but they were able to follow to the Pope's flying Cathedral.
Showdown with the Solar-Powered Pope
In the flying Cathedral the Solipsists were close on the Pope's heels till he called on his minion to save him. The Shadow un-changes Jacob into being the minion and he drops the others through a trapdoor and flees. Rachael manages to save the others however and pursues the Pope up a bell tower as shotgun wielding robot Jesuits storm the Cathedral.
With Racheal and Jacob chasing the Pope the others consider the mystery at hand. Aesclepius decides the whole point was to ruin his philosophical detachment by making him cry and Changes Reality to be unable to do so (solving the thread centered on him). Bran then Changes Reality to make people rise up and destroy the towers, now that Balor no longer supports them, and Ascends in the process to his new tower and society-less world, leaving Aesclepius as the chosen King (solving the tower thread)
Finally in the belfry Rachael, Jacob and the Pope fight. The Pope is trapped under a bell but escapes, shooting galactic rays from his rings. Jacob gets in the way and Rachael hits the Pope with him, but the Pope's armour freezes Jacob and he flies out the window! Desperate to kill no one Rachael has a robot bi-plane save Jacob while he captures the Pope and the Shadow is finally driven out.