For Future Reference

Though the CoM games have ended over a year ago, I felt the need to record the last remaining six games, if only to have it on file here on our blog. In my experience we often think back of our RPG campaigns and try to collect pieces of information from our memory. So here is a basic layout of how City of Myst has built up and eventually resolved its first (and to this date only) season.

Enter, Pyroclast.

In 'Production Line' the heroes infiltrate a CoT spirits facility and save the girl missing from the first issue and David, Soildream's romantic rival. But now events from the 'Disembarkment' saga catch up with them, as the Truth send an assassin to take out Solidream and his untold powers which break the balance. But upon discovering that the assassin is Brittle Silence, Solidream avoids a fight and convinces her to listen. But Brittle Silence is bound by a magical contract to the Truth, a contract that, when broken, calls upon the Truth most lethal servant - Pyroclast. Essentially a walking volcano, Pyroclast steals the contract and then clashes with the characters in a music concert, after they deal with Simon Crey's army of native-American undead (which claims he never summoned; this was later called the Megadeath concert). Arriving at a stalemate - no one can defeat the other side - Mr. Burns appears and decides to allow Brittle Silence to live if Solidream puts on a bracelet which will subdue his powers.
Solidream accepts.


The Gambit

After the Megadeath concert the city is in turmoil over the astounding mystical powers which were brought to the lime light. In a big city hall emergency tribunal the heroes are requested to describe to the public what they know about what's happening to the city. For this DeLight chooses Richard Hughes, who produces a striking speech bringing the impending Riot to the public awareness and causing a great stir.
The heroes also meet up for a Thanksgiving dinner and later get involved in some romantic affairs as a wave of unchecked repressed sexual desire takes over the city.
At this point Armand, the all-powerful occultist, has had enough with DeLight and his crew and he brews a terrible trap for them. The heroes are alerted by a phone call to come to DeLight's loft - where Fran Drake, DeLight's genius partner, is shattered after discovering his son has been kidnapped. Armand sends out a ransom demand asking that the Tome will be brought to him in exchange of the child.

Without The Light

The team plans a daring rescue attempt, enrolling for the task the assistance of Brittle Silence and Fire Salamander, who can get them in through the city waterworks. Unfortunately, Armand's mansion is guarded by not only his vile Undying Marshals, but also his vicious Disciples and a host of horrifying creatures summoned especially to deal with each one of the heroes.
At the critical moment in the battle the Tome is thrown out of a large electric gate and onto the ramp leading outside. As DeLight leaps over to get it, he is suddenly hit by a multitude of energy beams from every direction. His innate light bursts forth and protects him, but the beams hold him in place from every direction... unable to control the Light, he is essentially trapped in a frame of energy beams, boxed. A VTOL chopper then arrives to collect the helpless DeLight, while the team fights off the remaining Armand forces. But when the Watcher attempts to free DeLight someone unexpected emerges from the chopper - Mr. Burns. Now the team understand the scale of betrayal, but it is too late. Mr. Burns, who was a suspected teleporter but was never seen actually doing it before, grabs the DeLight 'crate' and vanishes with it into thin air.


The Only Thing Better Than Perfect...

With DeLight gone the team has to deal with the city's mystical threats on their own. On this issue Simon Crey returns with a horrifying new construct - a walking graveyard. More and more signs of the Riot appear, the most prominent one being the Harbinger - one of the Truth's mystic who tried to peer into the Riot using the probe the team helped place on 'Production Line'. He has gone completely mad and is now on the run. During all this the heroes attempt to locate DeLight but can only figure out he is buried deep deep within the ground. Tezcatlipoca, the useless Aztec god of wrath makes another pathetic appearance. But worst of all - someone kidnaps Tal - Solidream's love interests. As the party delves into the matter they discover David is missing. And indeed it seems a special CoT spirit has chosen David's body and mind for a home - the spirit of Perfection. Caught in a battle that trashed the city Aquarium and moved on the streets, Perfection is only defeated at last by one power alone - Solidream's broken heart.

A Carnival Of Machines

With the signs of the city's impending doom everyone's attention is now aimed at the Riot. Armand sends a pack of Undying Marshals led by a Disciple to seize the Harbinger, the only one who knows anything about the Riot. This time they have a special toy - a Chinese dragon lantern which they threaten to unleash upon the city. But the real threat lies in where the Harbinger flees to - the city's new theme park. As they run around the park seeking the Harbinger, the heroes reveal a confoundedly genius plan to get rid of the city's mystics, themselves at the top of the list! The mastermind behind this plan, who calls himself the Mechanist, has prepared and army of robotic minions to tackle the group's powers, while implanting some of them with chips that make it hard for them to employ their mystic powers. Meanwhile, an undead assassin - Post Mortem - is sent by the Truth to slay the Harbinger. The group eventually flees the deadly carnival but is Brittle Silence eggs on to discover the identity of the the Mechanist - he is Fran Drake, DeLight's genius partner, gone mad with his plans to lock away every once of magic in CoM. But by that time the Harbinger makes it clear that DeLight's burial was the final straw. The Riot is here.

In the final instalment of the City of Myst series the impending threat that loomed over the city finally reveals itself. With a complete black-out all over the city all of its once buried fears, desires, emotions, and old hatred rises to the surface, driven by the personified power of all buried things - the Riot. As the dead swarm the city and massacre its frenzied citizens, the heroes have worse things to worry about. Tezcatlipoca, who was up until now a feeble excuse of a wrath god, has regained his full powers and is amassing followers in his now resurfaced Aztec pyramid temple at the centre of the city. Hardly impervious to buried emotion and desires, the heroes are washed by their own hatred, fear, anger, despair, frustration and sadness causing them to fight amongst them as they struggle to understand the Riot.
Finally as they begin to realize it is their own repressed baggage that powers it they each decide to let go of their most torturing and deeply-buried emotion. The three heroes who started it all combine their powers to set it all free and end the Riot - the Watcher as the all-pervading entity, Solidream as the cracked vessel and Richard Hughes as the master of the Myst. The Riot has come to its end, but the city is ruined.
Guided by a green light they find DeLight's cage wrecked where he was buried.

To be continued...?