Mystics

**Keywords:** Explore, Diversify

## Quote

‘Fundamentally, man, on a purely logical level, the philosophical crux of this situation is whether you’re able to self-actualise your id enough to pass me the bloody joint.’

## Pitch

Join the Mystics if you want to:

* Want to expand your mind with a variety of psychoactive drugs.
* Want to experiment on yourself and others with dangerous chemicals.
* Want to free your mind from the tyranny of the Computer’s shackles.
* Enjoy giving up control to the GM as they describe manic drug-trips.

## Bonus

Choose one of the following skills at +2

* Experiment with drugs and survive
* Maintain your composure in a stressful situation
* Play with a wide range of chemicals, most of them psychoactives
* Make sure no-one muscles in on your turf

## Brief

Alpha Complex is a chain around the mind of every clone; every system, very word of propaganda, every colour-coded corridor, every unblinking eye in every vidscreen is designed to wear down the brains of the clones within to make them unthinking, compliant and trapped. The Mystics have found a way out.

Through liberal applications of psychoactive substances, they’ve built a society of free-thinkers, creatives, chemists, dealers and legbreakers who supply Alpha Complex with almost every unofficial drug on the black market, then use said drugs to engage in spirited discourse, experimental thinking and sitting quietly in rooms staring up at the ceiling together. And, of course, as they’re so devoted to the safe use of drugs, rival operations who set up their own (doubtlessly inferior) chemical production facilities are shut down as soon as possible before their product can poison the minds of innocent clones.

Run by a shadowy cabal of tweaked-out weirdos, the Mystics make less sense the further you go up the chain of command. Sure, you start off with a few baggies of SoyWeed and maybe do a couple of shakedowns on a Free Enterprise distribution centre but before long you’re smuggling truckloads of China Ultraviolet through the undercomplex and struggling to maintain contact with your handler and your tulpa, who’s navigating by the way, as you crest the rise of a blistering LSD-Max™ high and finally work out the meaning of existence just as you pull up to the security checkpoint.

Still, man. It’s a hell of a trip, the rewards are great and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

## The Mystics And You

### Missions

Low-ranking mystics (also known as ‘seekers’, ‘wanderers’ or, depending on who their boss is, a numbered test subject), are contacted by a network of shady individuals on street corners and directed to mad-eyed men and women sat on black-market-quality cushions who send them on missions,such as:

* Delivering an unmarked package to a completely legit location, no questions asked.
* Reporting back on the side effects of a new and potentially dangerous drug.
* Freeing the minds of an entire sector by spiking the soy-vats.
* Shaking down a rival drug production or distribution sector.
* Stealing a truckload of prescription drugs from a medical centre.
* Trying out these new Hallucinogen Grenades, which couldn’t possibly go wrong.
* Calming down a higher-up who is FREAKING OUT, MAN.
* Make sure the secret rave/meth lab/poetry reading/pottery workshop stays secret.
* Hiding some corpses and cleaning up the aftermath of a deal gone sour before the authorities show up.
* Orchestrate a deal with some heavily-armed Death Leopard lunatics.
* Smoking this, man, and telling us how it pans out.

### Rewards

In return for these services, in addition to spiritual enlightenment and gradual progression up the layer cake that is the Alpha Complex drug trade, you’ll be rewarded with:

* Uppers, from SoyCaf all the way up to dermal tabs of Dexamphetamine.
* Downers, from an extra dose of Sleepy-tyme to Ultraviolet-grade pristine barbiturates.
* Hallucinogens, extrapolated from a failed experiment to placate clones back in 214.
* Euphorics and enough colour-coded glowsticks to see you through the nightcycle.
* Sedatives in a series of one-shot air-hypos for application to dangerous individuals.
* Combat drugs which amp up your reaction time and strength with only a handful of long-term side effects.
* ‘Truth Serum’
* ‘Lie Serum’
* GREEN Fairy, the only official brand of absinthe in the complex.
* Information on which of your superiors is hooked on what and how to use that information as leverage.