Who Killed the Con-Chair? Bluesheet -- For Your Eyes Only!

The Millennium Group

The fabric of spacetime is both more complex and more fragile than is often supposed. Rather than the single consistent universe that we like to believe in, there are actually a plethora of inter-related realities, each somewhat different. Some are quite similar, differing from our own only in details, or even only in the passage of time (for example, in some, time passes a little more slowly or quickly, so the unfolding of time is at a different point). Some are so different that it is difficult to recognize any similarities at all.

Normally, these realities co-exist peacefully, impinging on each other nary at all. Oh, some people can percieve the alternate realities; they have been called anything from visionaries to lunatics, depending on the culture they came from. But they have always been in the small minority; the great majority of the people in all realities believe that theirs is the only true cosmos, and the rest is simple fiction.

Then there are Vortices.

A Vortex is a place where the fabric of spacetime is, for some reason, particularly weak. It isn't just a location -- it's a particular place at a particular time, where multiple planes impinge on one another. In a Vortex, one or many people can "crossover" into an alternate plane, seeing and interacting with the people there. At one time, Vortices were relatively rare, but recently they have become more and more common. While the theoretical underpinnings of Vortices are still only hazily understood, their effects are quite clear. They are stretches of spacetime where synchronicity becomes the rule, rather than the exception, and where physics become almost "literary" in nature. They generally last until brought to a satisfactory resolution (although not always a happy ending). Once that is achieved, the Vortex closes, and the agents are automatically returned to this universe. (The television series Quantum Leap was based on some of the early theories about how Vortices operate.)

One element of Vortices has gradually become clear: they are occasions where belief affects the universe far more strongly than usual. Experiments have demonstrated that the details of the Vortex that opens tends to depend heavily on what the people near it believe will happen. It has gradually become clear that many of the miracles throughout history have probably been due to well-timed Vortices, interacting with what people want to have happen. And it looks like a sufficiently powerful Vortex can leave after-effects; elements of the crossover can remain permanently.

The presence of the Vortices on Earth led to the creation of the Interactive Literature Foundation a decade or so ago. The ILF acts in secret, tracking each Vortex as it appears, sending in agents to resolve the Vortex, and dealing with it, all under the guise of playing silly games to convince the public that all is well. But all is not well, which is why The Millennium Group was formed. The Group is an offshoot of the ILF; whereas the Foundation is satisfied to simply track and close each Vortex individually, the Group is looking at the bigger picture.

It all began a couple of years ago, when a crack Vortex Mechanic at ILF Central (a secret compound near Washington, DC) noticed a disturbing trend: the number and intensity of the Vortices was increasing quite steadily. He mapped the numbers out carefully, and found the horrifying truth: that if the asymptotic growth continued, the world was heading for a cataclysm, perhaps even a sort of Vortextual Armageddon, in just a few years.

This combined with the desire of several of the Vortex Mechanics to try and understand what was actually causing the Vortices, with the hope of pro-actively preventing them, instead of simply reacting to them. Taking their cue from the fact that the cataclysm appears to be due right around the end of this century (Vortex events have a high synchronicity factor, so it wouldn't be surprising if it proves to come on Millennium Eve), they joined together and formed the Millennium Group.

The Group has become a force comparable in strength to the ILF, and still somewhat related to it, but much lower-profile. Its task is to investigate the strange forces that impinge on the Earth, to determine which (if any) is the cause of the Vortices. Death has become a familiar partner in this game -- until the Group began to take it seriously, no one truly understood just how much death surrounds the average Vortex. And so the Group has become the ILF's dark twin, trying to find the truth before the end.

Characteristically, the latest Vortex looks to be the largest yet; the Mechanics are predicting a huge number of minor sub-Vortices involved, and the ILF has pulled out all the stops, getting every Field Agent they can find to help resolve each one before the next begins. Meanwhile, the Group is investigating the large number of strange groups that have appeared, on the theory that the synchronicity field of this large a Vortex might just draw in its own creators. So far, you know about the following groups:

At least one, and maybe even two, Chaos Vortices seem to be at work here, according the the calculations of the Group's Vortex Mechanics. A Chaos Vortex is semi-permanent, attaching itself to a person, place or thing, and attacting other Vortices to itself. Odds are high that these Vortices are somehow responsible for this larger-than-normal Vortex Event.
Both The Followers of Set and Those in Black are reportedly here in force. The Foundation tries to keep an eye on both, because they have a tendency to be dangerous. The Followers are the worst of the lot -- they insist on interpreting the Vortices as "magic", and think that they are a good thing. That "magic" could well destroy the world, if not carefully controlled, so you regard the Followers warily. Those in Black oppose the Followers, and their magic, but have a tendency to be annoyingly dogmatic; you've heard that they have some history with the negative effects of Vortices, and have turned that into something of a religion. They try to close the Vortices arbitrarily, with no subtlety at all. They've made Vortex Events far worse on more than one occasion, with their heavy-handed tactics.
Rumor has it that there has been at least one, and maybe multiple, alien incursions in the past week -- the Group's reporters from ILF Central say that it has tracked the trails of multiple spaceships landing in this vicinity. The odds are overwhelmingly high that they have been drawn in by the Chaos Vortex. Particularly interesting is the report that one of the ships spotted matches the configuration of the one that sank the rafts supporting the Lenape Indians of the mid-Atlantic some twenty years ago. It would appear that these particular aliens are repeat visitors. What are they seeking?
There are multiple groups present that are less dangerous, but even more irritating. The Church of Elvis and the Luddites have both chosen this weekend to try to spread their respective gospels; it seems like you can't enter a room without hearing someone pretending that they are in a pulpit. And the rantings of the Wieners and Anti-Wieners just drive you a little nuts.
There are persistent reports of heavy vampiric activity in the area, never a good sign.
And then there are your nominal allies, the ILF. The Foundation has its collective heart in the right place, but simply refuses to recognize the reality that the situation is growing gravely dangerous. If they would stop attacking the symptoms, and start looking at the causes of the Vortices, they might be able to get somewhere.

And now, predictable as clockwork, death has made its way into the event. It isn't clear exactly what Jeff Diewald has to do with all of this; you assume that he is an ILF Field Agent, but you and the Foundation aren't sharing that much information right now. The strangest rumors are flying about him -- stories of strange rituals involving large numbers of port bottles and candles, stories that what he really wants is to roll back time so that he can go after younger women, and suchlike. It's all odd and inconsistent, but it's clear that something was significant about him, since he's now dead. The question is, who wanted him dead badly enough to poison him in public? And what is their real agenda?

(And then there are the rumors you've heard in the past couple of days that Stephanie Olmstead-Dean, the Chief of the Group, has been receiving death threats herself recently. Could there be a connection?)

Goals

Keep an eye on all of the groups in play, not least the ILF. They are likely to be underfoot, getting in the way of more serious work. Figure out what the agendas of all of these groups are. In particular, keep an eye on The Followers of Set, who seem to fit the profile of the evils you're looking for particularly well.
Try to identify Jeff Diewald's killer. The ILF doesn't understand these things as well as the Group. It's pretty clear to you that the Vortex is tied into all of this somehow, but it isn't clear how.
Find the other members of the Group. Most are disguised, to interact more smoothly with the Vortex. To enable you to find each other, you have arranged for an identifying passphrase:

Stay low-profile! It is essential that the general public not learn of what is really going on, or there could be mass panic! And it is essential that the Group have secrecy to perform its important work -- if the evils that are out there learn about you, it becomes all that much harder to track them down.
Find Stephanie Olmstead-Dean when she has a spare moment; check in with her, and see if she needs any assistance.
If possible, be at Any Port in a Storm Saturday night; all the projections indicate that that's when the mega-Vortex will be opening, and it's likely that all possible help will be needed to avert a disaster. Just because the Apocalypse isn't expected for a couple of years doesn't mean it can't come early...
Be aware that there may be other forces at work here. It is a dangerous time, and every factor matters. Find out what you can!