off.exe a programme that lives up to its name?
I was in a class last week, usual stuff, management stuff, Maslow’s theory you know? Anyway I’m at my terminal when I find this pink disc in the drive. Sweet I’m thinking, theres a disc I can use and save myself 3 bucks downstairs.
Anyway there’s one file on the disc and its called Off.exe I know your not supposed to run executables on the network but I figured if it was already here it’d been used and I was curious. I thought it might be one of those strippers that appear on your tool bar. Anyway I ran a virus check on the file, no worries.
The first sign there was anything wrong was when the screen went black. I was freaking out. If I crashed the system I’d be screwed assignments were due in 3 days. Then it got worse, the lights went out. People were yelling and cursing. I looked outside and the whole city was blacked out. Suddenly everyone was screaming. I remember it vividly. There was a girl her name was Tracey. She was screaming ‘Something’s biting me’ ‘Help me, Help!’ I tried to get to her but in the dark I could barely see. Then there was a wet noise and something sprayed me. It was sticky I think it was blood.
In the dark there were tearing noises coming from the walls. Plaster was falling on my head in flakes. I huddled under a desk with my binder held out as a crude shield between me and the dark. I think I may have fainted.
When I came to it was still dark, I was still under the desk and nothing had harmed me. I stepped out gingerly and as I walked to where the door should have been the lights came on.
I Held up the binder. If anything wanted me then I was gonna fight it.
There was nothing. The room was empty, just me and forty workstations rebooting. I looked down at the binder and on the front was a single word , Tracey.
Outside the room people walked past. There was no plaster in my hair. There was no blood on my clothes. But somehow 38 class members of the 236 Management Theory paper, my personal belongings and a single pink disc disappeared that day.
Trapped significant blast, on a diskette?
With extra added Psyche-war, yes.
I’ve been playing with the idea of Blasts that do no physical harm to thier target but are designed to force unnatural effects untill your target goes Berko. Insane people tend not to have relatives that go looking for the cause. Not outside of Lovecraft anyway.
Imagine using one of them to set someone up, to put them into prison, a mental health facility, or the streets. A few significant blasts, tied to random objects in their home, work, or lifestyle, and whammo — instant patsy.
“Care to explain why you say this DVD just *flew* into your wife’s head?”
“So, you’re saying, the doll came alive, pulled a gun, which vanished, and shot your psychiatrist, correct?”
“Yes. I am unaware how, why, or for what cause, the fireplace began spitting tea cups and bowls of lemons, hitting the family dog. It’s a mystery.”
i wouldnt even use significant blasts. Minor blasts cause less injury meaning that the subject has more and more explaining to do. Especially if the set off conditions are right. that and you can get 5 targets for the significant charge.
BTW imagine the hell you could cause using a major charge to curse a person with minor blasts keyed at being 1 daily. Why nuke the sucker when you can make them suffer accidents for niegh on 2 months, lose all their friends, send them insane and then maybe kill them from the bloodloss alone. Or worse imagine targetting 50 random people for a random misfortune on friday 13th.
can you say Obsession: Use dark forces to make X’s life as miserable as possible.
THe main problem is that, for some reason — likely game ballance, or just some spaghetti rule — you can’t booby trap with a significant blast. (Unless you’re using WTC dust, of course ;^)
It’s in the the “Special Delivery” section, page 115.
yeah but if you’ve got the sig charge to kill you can do a couple of minors all tied to the same trap. it all really depends how much you want to hurt someone.
I don’t know about multiple booby trapping, but it’s really a GM call, I suppose. I figure if the designers had that in mind, they’d just let you put a significant blast on an item.
Either way, the idea that it was a computer disk confines it to an Infomancer blast, since the item has to be associated with the school.
It’s kind of subjective; one could say a Cryptomancer could likewise rig it, as it could either hold a documented fact, or a digital lie.
Sort of a variant of a car-as-foci theory:
Each of the schools could lay claim to using a car as a foci, within reason.
Thanatomancers could use them as part of a ritual killing (it’s my understanding ‘Highwaymen’ is about a serial killer who uses a black Cadillac).
..But about the disc:
Iconomancers; detailed information on a chosen Icon, for starters…
Thanatomancers could have details on their rituals… hopefully nothing particularly easy to trace to its source…
Urbanomancers might have an essay or book report on it, detailing their favored city…
…the list goes on and on.
Technology is no more owned by the Infomancers than the hammer is owned by a murderer; someone using it to their own ends doesn’t justify complete and intrisic connection. It’s a subjective idea.
Not to mention the fact that it could be a case of demonic ‘Item’ possession, a halucination or an implanted memory.
I say that’s a bullshit cop-out. If it was about the information, than the blast would at least require that the person read the info before it’s released. I prefer a less freeform interpretation of boobytrapping, or else why bother restricting it at all.
If you just had to scrawl a few lines pertaining to your obsession to turn anything into a blast carrier, it’s a cop-out, hands down. Any recording device would then be a blast carrier for any school, and that just rubs me the wrong way.
I might be able to excuse viewing the content, maybe, but sure as hell not the device itself.