Through the Looking Glass [2075 Game World], Persistent World [SR5] IC Sub-Thread Options

[Aria]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Citadel Gaming Host: Private Game World, Seattle]

Having accepted Silk’s invitation you’ve whisked your virtual selves to this interesting locale. It is certainly more colourful than your usual haunts and you suspect that you collectively raise the age of the personas here by a decade or two.

The matrix architecture is impressive though even for ones as jaded to such things as yourselves. The gothic edifice that forms the outer host towers out of the matrix plane. The burnt bronze doors that open before you would easily accommodate a tallship under full sail. Gargoyles launch themselves from the walls into the blistering winds that howl around you, tugging at your personas, drawing you towards the doors.

Looming in the shadows is a hooded figure about double your persona height. Its voice, issuing from a faceless void seems to bypass your ears and resonate inside your heads

“WELCOME TO THE CITADEL. I AM THE GATEKEEPER. PLEASE FOLLOW ME, I WILL ESCORT YOU TO YOUR DESTINATION”

From the surprised look on the faces of the other gamers thronging in with you that is clearly unusual…

Entering into the great hall you are greeted with the sight of a vast and glittering planar orrery rotating above your heads. Gamers in all shapes (but not sizes thanks to the new protocols) mill through the hall, gossiping, trading code, jumping off into the various game worlds and doing whatever else it is that youth do in full VR. A lot of the conversation you hear talks about a planar conjunction which is supposedly coming which will crash various game worlds into each other…it’s a bit of a mystery to you but they are clearly excited by the prospect…

“THIS WAY…”

You are led to one of the glowering portals and as you are swept into the vortex you have time to briefly wonder whether this is all a good idea…

You are in a cave descending into the earth. In front of you are a set of doors that wouldn’t look out of place on a nuclear bunker where they not carved in a myriad of esoteric mystical symbols that defy the eye to look at for too long. You can see now that the walls and floor also bear these strange, slightly writhing sigils… the Gatekeeper has disappeared leaving only yourselves standing on the brink of this strange place. The doors open ponderously and you find yourselves standing on the lip of a vast cavern lit by a strange diffuse light. In the maw of this place a strange city spreads out below you, one that wouldn’t look out of place on the slopes of ancient Greece. White flat roofed boxes with small window openings spread across nearly vertical slopes with tight winding stepped paths linking everything together. The warm scent of jasmine and honeysuckle wafts up from below bourne on a light breeze that would feel more in keeping with a Grecian idyll than this strange underground site.

Leaning on the parapet of the closest building there is a small girl, seemingly clad only in her impossibly long hair, she winks at you and then disappears…

Despite the fact that gravity clearly applies to your personas in this place, flying across the cavern towards you is a small western dracoform. As it approaches you can see that it is in fact made up of whirling constellations, nebulae and other celestial phenomenon. The deck processing this icon must be bleeding edge, making the Fairlight Excalibur look like a children’s toy!

Landing before you it’s voice reaches you, seemingly without making use of your ears en route…

“Thank you for joining me. I am eTher…”