comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough
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the realm where the source code was found in order to compel<br />
the sprite to create the bond. If the technomancer does not<br />
wish to anger the sprite, he can instead engage in this search in<br />
order to unveil something the sprite wants or needs, so that he<br />
may acquire it and use it bargain for the resonance bond.<br />
Erase Data: Sometimes the goal is not to find information,<br />
but to destroy it. Though this goal is much harder to accomplish, a<br />
technomancer may seek to erase a piece of data permanently from<br />
the Matrix. If successful, the data is eliminated or corrupted beyond<br />
repair, no matter how securely it is protected by encryption,<br />
firewalls, or other means (non-Matrix information, such as hardcopy<br />
or personal memories, remain unaffected). Technomancers<br />
are wise to take note, however, that while this action may remove<br />
such information from the Matrix, it is hinted that the Resonance<br />
never forgets, and that such data may be retrieved through an<br />
Recover Data resonance realm search—albeit one made much<br />
more difficult by this action.<br />
Find Data: A technomancer who knows that a certain<br />
piece of data exists, but doesn’t know where to find it, can ask the<br />
Resonance itself. The gamemaster determines how hard the data’s<br />
location is to find, based on its real world availability. This search<br />
will not necessarily leave the technomancer with the data in hand,<br />
but it will tell the technomancer where to seek it. This search may<br />
also be used to find or trace a data trail, specifically one that was<br />
routed through the resonance realms.<br />
Find Sprite Source Code: If a technomancer wants to register,<br />
track, or decompile a free sprite (see p. 157), or recover a<br />
registered sprite that has been disrupted (p. 159), he must first find<br />
the sprite’s source code.<br />
Glitch a Node: A technomancer can weaken the defenses<br />
of a node in preparation for a hack, or simply seek to disrupt the<br />
node and create complications. In this case, he can undertake a resonance<br />
realm search to find<br />
a way to glitch the node. If<br />
successful, Resonance turbulence<br />
disturbs the node for<br />
Resonance x 2 hours. The effects<br />
of this disturbance is up<br />
to the gamemaster, but may<br />
include a dice pool modifier<br />
for all actions made by the<br />
node and its defences, unexplained<br />
software crashes,<br />
corrupted data, weakened<br />
Signal, and a scrambling<br />
of access privileges that<br />
requires users to make tests<br />
for Matrix actions that they<br />
would normally perform<br />
automatically.<br />
reSonance reaLM:<br />
The Great Connection<br />
Embedded deep within the resonance realms is a<br />
giant tree whose roots are hidden in a lake of data:<br />
The Great Connection. This realm is said to link to<br />
every node in the Matrix, no matter how isolated or<br />
secure. Each leaf reflects a node, with newly connected<br />
nodes represented as sprouts, active nodes<br />
as fully-grown leaves, and the leaves of disconnected<br />
nodes withering and blowing away in the wind. The air<br />
is full of pollen, reflecting the constant flow of data<br />
traffiic. Sprites in the form of birds, bees, squirrels,<br />
and other animals crawl the branches.<br />
Hide a Data Trail: A technomancer can undertake a<br />
resonance realm search to find a way to hide his data trail. If successful,<br />
the technomancer’s data trail through the Matrix after<br />
completing this goal is inexplicably routed through the resonance<br />
realms for Resonance x 2 hours. Anyone that attempts to track<br />
the technomancer’s data trail from that period will find that it<br />
simply disappears without explanation, as if washed away by pure<br />
Unwired<br />
Resonance. Submerged technomancers may ascertain that such a<br />
trail has been hidden, and may attempt to follow it with a resonance<br />
realm search of their own (see Find Data, above).<br />
Learn an Echo: A technomancer seeking to learn a new echo<br />
can undertake a resonance realm search to discover how the echo<br />
works. The technomancer must spend Karma just as he would if<br />
he learned the echo from a teacher or a free sprite (see Learning<br />
Echoes, p. 145).<br />
Recover Data: Every piece of data in the Matrix generates<br />
an echo in the Resonance, meaning that it is possible to still find<br />
such data long after it has been deleted from the Matrix. The<br />
difficulty of finding such erased information depends on how<br />
old and scarce it was. Only data that existed at some point on<br />
the Matrix since the Crash is certain to be found, though some<br />
technomancers suggest that any data that has ever existed on a<br />
computer network or electronic device may be found by visiting<br />
the Endless Archive (p. 173).<br />
Submersion Task: A technomancer undergoing submersion<br />
may complete a resonance realm search in order to lower the cost<br />
of the submersion (see p. 141).<br />
diSSonance<br />
Dissonant technomancers are Emerged individuals whose<br />
sanity and Resonance have been corrupted or warped by some<br />
sort of neurological or mental disorder or anomalous phenomenon.<br />
Whether this is caused by the oft-speculated mutation<br />
in the technomancer genes, biochemical or neurological instability,<br />
cerebral damage, neuro-degeneration (for instance, due<br />
to cancer, neural diseases, or viral infection), or some purely<br />
psychological phenomenon brought on by interaction with the<br />
Matrix is still unknown.<br />
While most technomancer streams emphasize the harmony<br />
of the digital world, revere the<br />
clarity and immaculateness of its<br />
code, and embrace the endless horizons<br />
and possibilities of a virtual<br />
world, dissonant technomancers are<br />
driven by warped ideas and irrational<br />
or even insane thinking. They<br />
revel in digital chaos and absurdism.<br />
Even worse, they seek to infect<br />
the Matrix with their digital blight,<br />
spreading fractal code, the hallmark<br />
of the Dissonance.<br />
disharmony and Madness<br />
Dissonants follow an antithetical<br />
concept of the Matrix that only<br />
few dare to grasp. Dissonance itself<br />
was a new phenomenon some decades<br />
ago, spearheaded by a dissonant otaku known as Pax (probably<br />
the first one warped by her own psychopathic behavior). Her<br />
unleashing of a dissonant worm construct named Jormungand<br />
was one of the factors leading to the Crash 2.0. With the recent<br />
Emergence of technomancers and sprites, it has become clear that<br />
the Dissonance did not disappear with Crash 2.0, but rather has<br />
become more prominent than ever.<br />
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9<br />
175<br />
Matrix phenoMena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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