X-Corps: Breaking the World

PHASE 1

Breaking the World
Dates run:	October 9-14, 2012
Run By:	Kate
Read the logs:	Breaking the World

I saw the future. I have seen a wild fire spreading rapidly among the lands, engulfing everything in its path.

X-Corps goes on it's first project in the field to find out what happened with dissappearing mutant children. But things never go as planned and Angelo ends up facing a dangerous woman.

Cast

Angelo Espinosa, Sooraya Qadir, Jean-Phillipe Colbert, Fred Dukes - Phase 1, John Allerdyce, Yvette Petrovic

William Bastion, Aghanne, Malcolm Ord, Abadu Bemba

Timing

October 9-14, 2012

Plot Summary

X-Corps received their first possible job with the help of Elpis. A Scottish minister contacted Elpis regarding his small ministry in the Mbomou region of the CAR. Supported by an American group called the African Salvation Fund, Minister Ord has set up a school, water and irrigation projects, and a church supporting a dozen local communities.

The reason that Ord contacted Elpis was that the region seems to put forward an odd number of mutant children and they have recently been disappearing into the jungle. He's concerned that Congolese groups might be targeting them for child soldiers. Ord recalled Angelo from the Erfurt International Symposium on Mutation and Elpis agreed to pass it along to him.

When X-Corps arrived in the CAR, they find a placid scene; the relief mission is of mixed success, but there are certainly advances. The locals talk about groups of soldiers sometimes using the jungles to take young man and force them to fight alongside them. In the East Congo, they had the chance to speak with Senatorial nominee William Bastion, who is in the country observing the US Special Forces trainers that have been sent to help the border nations combat the LRA. He confirmed that the rural north is often used as a way to move men and supplies with relative secrecy, due to the sparse population and lack of development. Forced enlistments are also not uncommon, although usually there is someone local involved.

Back at the camp, Ord mentioned that one of the locals, Abadu Bemba, had recently come into the money to purchase a used truck. He claimed it was from an unspecified 'uncle' but Ord was very suspicious. Bemba was employed as a guide from time to time, and grew up in the jungles of the area. He often goes on 'gathering' trips into the woods, felling valuable trees and selling the wood on an intermittent basis. As several of the team went to follow Bemba on one of his trips, Ord asked Angelo to stay behind. A local leader wanted to speak with him one on one.

Ord took Angelo into the jungle, to an old building that has been hewn into the rock face of a cliff. The symbols are Christian, but hundreds of years old, and Ord claims it was once a monastery. Entering, he introduces him to Aghanne, the mistress of the 'church'. The woman bills herself as a prophet, and speaks with surprising insight into Angelo's life. As she speaks, he notices young teens coming to join them; the missing mutant, and Ord being unsurprised. She sketches a vision of a future in which fire engulfs her and her people, and the central architect of the disaster is Angelo. Realizing that he's under psionic assault, Angelo attempts to break free, but Ord traps him inside.

In the mean time, the team found Bemba grave robbing. He admitted that the money for the truck came from a badly wounded LRA soldier who was carrying a shipment of illegally mined diamonds back for sale. He killed the man and had followed his remarks back to where he claimed the miners were buried, hoping for more valuables. He confessed to them that Ord is part of the Aghanne cult, who believe that it is there duty to discover those destined to 'break' the world and sacrifice them so all can live.

Bemba guided them to the temple, where Angelo has been subdued and is about to be burned to death. Aghanne directs her controlled minions at the, but the team managed to free Angelo and push back Aghanne. Her defeat snaps her control over the others, and Aghanne fades into the darkness, promising a reckoning. Unlike the younger mutants, Malcolm Ord became unbalanced as a result of the control, and was treated for a full nervous breakdown.

Related Links

Elpis

X-Corps

External Links

Breaking the World

x_corps posts

Trivia and Meta

Trivia

There were two minor NPCs introduced in this plot:

Malcolm Ord - Scottish Presbyterian minister, baseline human. He came to the CAR with the genuine intention of helping people, and he is doing that, but he also got drawn into Aghanne's cult because he believes they, too, are acting to save the world even if it's at the expense of individual lives. When Aghanne's hold was broken, it damaged his mind and he is now in psychiatric care back in Scotland. Socked by Jeff.

Abadu Bemba - Native to Mbomou, part of Aghanne's cult since shortly after it started. He scrapes by in whatever ways he can, not all of them legal, but he's more unscrupulous than actively evil. Baseline human. He disappeared during the confusion when the cult was broken. Socked by Frito.

Meta

Plotrunner: Kate

The idea for this plot came from Dex.