1994 Dread Possibility - help requested

[MadStepDad]

On September 13th 1994, READY to DIE by Biggie Smalls is released (his first album).

Exactly two years later to the date, 2PAC dies.

Can anybody draw some kind of spooky correlation between the two? Divinations? Curses? Karmic numericals? Anything?

[Lord_Pruitt]

You'll have to forgive my ignorance about the hip/hop & rap world, but where the two in anyway involved with each others work? i'd need a liitle background info ...

[MadStepDad]

You'll have to forgive my ignorance about the hip/hop & rap world, but where the two in anyway involved with each others work? i'd need a liitle background info ...

Oh, SNAP! LP you're my boy for sure, and I guess I must apologize for the lack of information given here. I just assumed... you know... ahem... forget it.

Yes, they are involved. Very involved. To the point of death for the both of them. Here's MY backstory (remixed a little to add that RAVENLOFT touch).

* 2PAC was in the game as a solo artist in the early 90's, repping West Coast.

* Biggie Smalls was signed by Puffy and was just making his way into the game at the same time (on the East Coast).

* 2Pac and Biggie were "boys" IE: industry acquaintences. One time, Biggie even saw Pac at a party in NYC surrounded by known NY hoodlums (IE: the Black Mafia I keep talking about) and warned Pac to stay away from them.

* September 13th 1994 Biggie's first album (ready to die) is released. Instant classic.

* November 30th 1994 happens - that was the studio set-up, attempted murder of 2pac that left him riddled with bullets and missing $40k worth of jewelry (including the little "psionic tracking device" I threw in there during Episode #2). This is the "big event" I want to culminate with during EPISODE #5 - somehow throwing Black Mafia, the High Master and Lyssa von Zarovich as satellite members in the plot.

* Same time, 2PAC is sentenced to jail and bottoms out. Becomes industry joke. Big Bad West Coast record label owner (aka "SIMON" as referenced in our earlier episodes) bails him out and fills him with rage and anger.

* 2PAC goes on a media crusade blaming Biggie and Puffy for the set up at the studio.

* 2Pac goes on the most vicious tirade in rap history, dissing Biggie, Puffy, Bad Boy, Black Mafia and everyone in between.

* 2Pac gets shot in Vegas.

* 7 days later - September 13th 1996 - 2PAC dies in the hospital from the Vegas gunshot wounds.

I'm just asking if anybody here - with their infinite knowledge of D&D monsters and powers - can draw some kind of spooky correlation between those two dates. I just find it very odd, and beyond coincidence, that these two seminal events (bigs first album - 2pacs last day) fall upon the EXACT SAME DATE. Any takers on this one?

* EDIT by the way Big dies on March 9th 1997 in LA.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I tried, buddy, I tried.

I thought wouldn't it be cool if "ready" and "2pac" worked out to the same number in numerology? then the title of Biggie's album effectively translates to:
2PAC 2 die -- 2PAC [is going] to die. or -- 2PAC [in] 2 [years will] die.

but i tried adding up the letter/number value directly. I tried using the mod 9 (mispar katan) system from the kabbalah's gematria system. I tried some apocalyptic nutjob on the internet's english gematria system based on 666. I tried "tupac" "pac" "2pac" "tupac shakur" "shakur" "makaveli" ... got nothing.

this is the closest I can get. it's stretching, but it's something:
in mispar katan, you count the letters modulo 9 (a=1,b=2,...i=9, j=1, k=2...) then add them up.

So... (using english letters instead of hebrew, of course)
READY is 9+5+1+4+7=26
T.SHAKUR is 2+1+8+1+2+3+9=26!

oh my god, it's so spooky! Can you believe it's only coincidence?!?!?!?

[MadStepDad]

You slay me, man.

I guess we need to leave this job up to the REAL Shadow Hunters - of which we know nothing about and whos research they will probably never share with us! Thanks for the help though, man! For real!

[Lord_Pruitt]

Well .....

An idea, if you'd want to go into a lot of backstory - perhaps the two were born in the same hospital just within a day or two of each other, somewhere in the midwest. At a very young age, both ended up being moved to separate coasts - perhaps to try and distance themselves from each other. Who knows what may have happened if they had grown up together??

Then, the feud between them could have been manipulated by some one from the shadows. Perhaps LYSSA or her powerful uncle that she is trying to overthrow.

This might be stretching it a bit, but perhaps this could have been one of hexad occurrences. Mayhaps it has happened out of sequence because some other shadow player is trying to manipulate the whole blood martyr thing.

OR - with the first part of the above, at the re-acquaintance meeting, maybe one discovered that the other was a doppleganger like creature, which led to all the hub-bub that occurred betwix them & their labels.

*shrug* don't know if any of that will help, but there it is in a nutshell.

If I think of anything later, I'll either edit or make another post

[Manofevil]

I may be crossing a line here. You never know what's gonna set people off but I'm gonns throw this out anyway.

After the recent death of Michael Jackson, I joked with a coworker that given the way he looked at the end, there might have been something to those old enquirer stories about him being abdusted and replaced by aliens. Perhaps you might include Mr. Jackson in your little scenario.

[DocBeard]

Hi.

To me, the reaction sounds more like a failed cover up that got re-covered up via ultra violence. Maybe SIMON was trying to recruit 2pac to a hunting organization, and found himself with a guy in the know that wasn't going to keep quiet about it-thus the angry rant, and 2pac becoming a target.

As far as the date goes, maybe the 13th represents the day Biggie entered his pact with the fell forces(such as Lyssa) for success. It would fit the principles of sympathetic magic-Biggie's star rises as his friend 2pac falls-to siphon that success and fame from someone. Biggie had no idea how badly this would affect 2pac's life, and tried to warn him before the feud that September 13th had become, mystically speaking, his Worst Day-the day when, if something horrible can happen to you, it will.

2pac's death-ensured by the same unlucky curse that Biggie unknowingly set on 2pac's head when he made his deal with Lyssa-was the turning point for Smalls, who could not take the horror of being responsible for the ruining of his friend's life, and the time between that fateful day in '96 and '97 was spent desperately channeling information to the forces of righteousness in the hopes of being able to understand how these success vampires were manipulating the music industry.

Heck, you could have THAT be part of America's horrific history-musicians die young and in eerie coincidences because the Dark Masters only have a given amount of win juice and just suck it back up from artists when they've furthered the Cause, and let luck do the rest. There are numerous schools of sympathetic magic that would be good tools for conveying this; Chinese rituals to 'divine' auspiciousness-a sinister horrorscope written in blood that never dries!-Native American spiritual rituals, stuff like that.

[MadStepDad]

New Episode coming September 13th 2009!

Thanks for all the great ideas and inputs, now check this out.

So this is how I break it down. I've already concluded there are many different "Pures". In its essence, "Pure" is another phrase for "magic". Magic through belief, magic through technology, whatever. D&D magic in D20 Modern.

In the use of magic, there are two primary classes. The Mage (or Wizard) and The Sorcerer. The Mage is a fan and high practicioner of the art. It may not be native to him but through meticulous study and observation he can cast spells from a book or something.

The Sorcerer on the other hand, is born of the Pure. Their bloodlines - however rare or mysterious - are innate magic. They don't need to practice or hone their craft, they run on pure potential. They may go through life never fully realizing that potential, so unless they (or someone around them) can harness that energy - that "Pure" - they may never exceed the more disicplined and well-practiced mage. So one practices the Pure, the other Lives it.

In this genre of the Pure, some of these sorcerers are referred to as the Chosen Ones (aka "the Focus Child"). While actual Sorcerer-types are rare, those who recognize the Shadow may also be able to recognize the potential in one of these people. Even if the "Focus Child" themself is not fully aware. Anybody that's down with the Shadow wants to be down with the Pure. For better or for worse.

One of these Chosen Ones is TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR, the "Focus Child". Combined BLP and (unknown) bloodlines (Gentleman Caller perhaps???) combine in mysterious ways to form a seemingly blessed Charismatic Hero (d20 Modern base class). But much like all Heroes of Light, we are under constant attack by the forces of the Red Death (and his minions of Sex, Drugs & Money). So while becoming a boiling cauldron of unfilled potential, verging on self-destruction, the Pure within remains untapped.

Meanwhile, in Roswell New Mexico, another burgeoning Pure is blossoming. The Alien-age, digital, cellular revolution. Birthed by the GOD BRAIN. His right hand servant, the HIGH MASTER, is commissioned three space age technological marvels in the form of amulets that are designed to locate and track magic (the "Pure"). Essentially, he was given 3 "Detect Magic" devices.

One is still in his possession.
One was stolen when he first went to Brooklyn.
One was successfully used to corral a potential subject of the "Pure".

So coming up from NM, he's going through places like Texas and Oklahoma, at the time in the throes of their own West Coast influenced lifestyles (spread cross state lines through a medium called radio). Enter TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR. High Master sets his sights on him, and waits for just the perfect moment to strike. This time comes in NYC, where the High Master feels the residual affects of this particular Pure are most dominant. He has his minions approach 2PAC on the set of his movie in NYC and bestow upon him the "detect magic" amulet, thus marking him for destruction. The HIGH MASTER is keenly aware of his every move. So begins the events to THOUGHTS of DARKNESS (coming September 13th 2009, the 13th Anniversary of 2Pac's demise!!!)

Ultimately, the source of the adventure resides within the construction of the Apparatus, but the pursuit of the Focus Child (in this case 2PAC) is also a main theme. In this case (through the High Masters own research) LYSSA VON ZAROVICH learns also of this potential source of magic power. So while the main mission and collaberative effort of the two involves constructing this nucleur device, they are both planning on betraying the other and stealing the Pure along the way. HIGH MASTER wants to keep it, harnass it and use it, keeping him alive to drain him forver. LYSSA wants the same thing, but needs him dead to steal that essence. Then November 30th 1994 happens and nobody is right. 2PAC gets shot 5 times, but the $40k worth of stolen jewelry was secondary to the "detect magic" amulet stolen from around his neck that night. But unfortunately, 2PAC didn't die. Fate, karma, Dark Powers whatever.

Thing is, 2PAC could have been protected. Especially in NYC where the Temple of Hip Hop is deeply entrenched. But these guys, for all their wonderful advances in the art, are East Coast blind. Their bias is so innate they hardly even realize a world exists beyond the Boroughs. So when they hear a potential Focus Child, but of West Coast descent, may be caught up in some really gangsta izh they hardly even register that as a concern (soon that will lead to their own ego-filled downfall, but that's a story for another day). Besides, the Temple of Hip Hop already has it's OWN Focus Child they are watching, monitering and protecting. And he hails from the Queensbridge Projects (NAS).

So 2PAC gets shot, defeated, humilated, betrayed and imprisoned. He attempts to revoke his current self-destructive lifestyle, but he already lost that war when he had "Thug Life" branded in his skin. Forsaken since that day. In prison, that Pure threatened to be exstinguised. But as we learned from JANDER SUNSTAR, the Dark Powers don't let go of their favorite playthings that easily. 2PAC was visited in jail. By an Angel and a Devil.

In the end, it is the Devil that wins the war for 2PAC's soul when he unwittingly signs his life over to Death Row Records. Once released, the Pure is directed in the most negative and powerfully unsettling way, targeting entire Coasts of people. In the end, much like LYSSA VON ZAROVICH had wanted to do, the Devil of Death Row Records has 2PAC assassinated on the grandest stage possible - thus "stealing" the Pure forever.

But here's the RAVENLOFT twist.

2PAC planned it that way.

It was the Angel that spoke the loudest to 2Pac, and set about his final course of events. In order to defeat the Devil he must sacrifice himself. By faking his death he can finally become an Arch-Lich... and steal the opportunity to create a Blood Martyr from all the bad guys trying to work the same angle. Once elevated to that status, he brings about the demise of the Devil and his Death Row Records (culminating in bankruptucys and humilating KOs in the street of the once infallible Devil). All the while the Pure is left to evolve to the next highest state of conciousness.

So that's my RAVENLOFT/Masque of the Red Death/D20 Modern/ADVENTURES in ELYSIAN FIELDS slant on the 2PAC SHAKUR storyline. As you may know, we are currently in early 1994 and this is where I'd like to solicit a little more help, if I may.

You saw what I did with 2PAC here, but I lack the same knowledge or enthusiasm to expand that to other genres. But 1994 was also the year of another momentous death (Blood Martyr perhaps?) in music history, when KURT COBAIN was found dead. It won't be a major part of the story, but I would like to use that event to portray the race to create Blood Martyrs and capture the Pure from a slightly different perspective.

So does anybody have any kind of weird little RAVENLOFT twist you could throw in regarding KURT COBAIN?

[Lord_Pruitt]

I'm not quite that knowledgeable on the history of grunge rock, but I can throw out some key words that you might want to focus on - grunge rock (of course), Seattle, Courtney Love, Teen Spirit, heroin.

[Manofevil]

For some flavor, You might have all the players behind the scenes ranting about the 'Pures' who slipped through their fingers, i.e. Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Ice T, Public Enemy, their almost successes, i.e. Ozzy Ozborne, Motley Crue, N.W.A, 2 Live Crew, and their failed experiment, Sid Viscious and the Sex Pistols.

[MadStepDad]

For some flavor, You might have all the players behind the scenes ranting about the 'Pures' who slipped through their fingers, i.e. Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, John Lennon...

I don't think these guys slipped through the fingers of the Dark Powers after all. As for the demise of NWA - in particular EAZY-E - look no further than CIRCLE of DARKNESS (coming soon) featuring none other than NOSTALIA ROMAINE. I know this game may be easy to mock, but at least it comes with a bomb soundtrack!