Adventures of The Noble Foundation

[mattingly]

My gaming group's superheroes are collectively known as the Noble Foundation, named for the team's sponsor, Mr. Phineas Noble. When the Champions mysteriously disappeared (along with their base and a good chunk of its land), the independent superheroes who showed up to save the city banded together.

 

Members:

Allegiance, the PRIMUS-sponsored supersoldier with eyebeams,

Anxiety, the mentalist with a constant "forget-me" field,

The Bug, a humanoid swarm of insects, that used to be a man,

Coyote, the astrophysicist bestowed with her grandfather's medicine-man skills,

Diva, controlled of light and sound,

Gunmetal, the solid-metal detective,

Kullervo, the absent-minded chaos mage,

Monsta, the hunchback with a sentient eyeball that walks with him,

Red X, the acrobatic gadgeteer with an "X" theme,

Shaman, street-level mage with an attitude,

Shield Maiden, electromagnetic controller with a dark secret,

Wildcore, the physically indestructible private eye.

 

Last game, after rescuing the Champions from Nebula's dimension of Duress (see CKC), the grateful Champions officially handed the Foundation the key to the city. The Champions agreed to leave protection of Millennium City to the Foundation, and to focus more on the national scene.

 

Afterwards, Witchcraft of the Champions approached Shaman, she was worried about her friend Kullervo, who had astrally projected himself to help rescue them, and whose spirit had not yet returned. With his body hooked up on life support machines to keep him alive, she was afraid that his soul was still trapped in the Duress dimension. The only way that she knew to revive him was through the ancient Book Of Life, which was secured in Kullervo's private library back at Foundation HQ.

 

The library is magically booby-trapped, to prevent any intruders from accessing the powerful stash of magical books that Kullervo's family has guarded for generations.

 

As today's game began, the players of Red X and Monsta were not present, so they stood guard in the library along with Gunmetal (whose player is changing characters to Coyote). The team deduced the secret method to open the magical passage behind the bookcase (pull out books whose first title letters spell Kullervo's name), and stepped through the swirling purple vortex that appeared in the bookcase's stead.

 

Finding themselves in a dark forested area, they were met by several demons, who demanded to know "the password." Attempting to read a demon's mind started combat. Faced with a Dracodemon, Erinyes, Iron Demon, Serpent Demon, Spider Demon, and War Demon (all from MMM), as well as a humanoid in robes. The humanoid turned out to be a Migdalar with a Flying Head (also from MMM) perched atop its shoulders.

 

The battle was brutal, with the Dracodemon's fire breath stunning half the team at its first strike (with a lucky STUN Multiplier), and the Iron Demon's Move Through with his horns (29 BODY from 6d6 Killing), but the heroes made it through. Thank goodness, the newly joined Coyote knew some serious healing magic.

 

After they had defeated the demonic horde and finally read the mind of one of the demons to get the password, they walked through a door that led them to a group of nine Skeletons. Each skeleton posed a riddle to the team, and collapsed into a pile of bones once it had been answered. After the ninth riddle, however, all of the bones combined themselves into a giant "Skeleton Golem" who posed the hardest riddle yet.

 

After much deliberation, the heroes finally answered the last riddle, and found themselves inside a semicircle of stones facing a large four-armed statue with a cubic head (each side showing a different face). Coyote realized that the stones were not arranged haphazardly, but in a precise mathematical formation -- that of a fractal Mandelbrot, the scientific rendition of definition of interdimensional chaos.

 

When each team member approached the statue, named Graven, it spoke a terrible future for them. The Bug would lose the human half of his psyche, and begin to view humans as a source of nutrition. Shaman's teleporting spell would malfunction, teleporting anyone who touched him out of existence. Wildcore's kinetic absorption would begin to "constipate" his energy core until he exploded. Shaman deduced that this was a form of monkey's paw magic, and that until one of them accepted their horrible fate, they would not be able to retrieve the book.

 

The Bug, who refers to himself/themselves in plural form since his/their origin, stepped forward without hesitation and accepted the book from Graven, to the shock of his teammates. Once the book was taken, the team found themselves back in their library. They handed the book over to Witchcraft, who then went to save Kullervo's soul.

 

----

 

Well, that's what's happening in my game at the moment. Since only Kullervo was authorized to get the book, I wanted the team to face a physical, mental, and emotional challenge to retrieve it. The team pulled through quite well.

 

Next time, things get complicated...

[Hermit]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Alright, THAT was cool.

 

Seriously, sounded like one heckuva adventure and some great roleplaying all around.

 

I may just have to steal... uhm.. be inspired by those ideas.

[mattingly]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

I like to GM for big groups. Next game, there's a good chance that 4 new players will join, bringing my player base from 12 to 16. just imagine the joy it brings a GM to have 2400 points of Disadvantages to choose from...

[Eyendasky80]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Keep the updates coming. I am seriously impressed.

[susandwyer]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Not only did you have time to run this game for so many, you had time to write it up? You never sleep do you! Keep 'em coming!

[Southern Cross]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Same here.Kudos.

[aylwin13]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Excellent story, Dave. Sounds like a great game you've got going on. I can't wait to read the next installment.

[The Bug]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

I just imagine the joy it brings a GM to have 2400 points of Disadvantages to choose from...

 

Yeah, but many of the disads are the same. We are all hunted by Viper, I think.

[MitchellS]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Wow! I can't believe I missed this thread. There is some very cool stuff there Dave. I really like the way you managed to mix creatures from MMM into your Champions game. I've even managed to find an idea or two [or three or four] from reading it. Thanks for posting that.

[zornwil]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Thanks for sharing, I like to see others' game/campaign experiences, and this is good stuff.

[The Bug]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

*bump*

 

Bumped it up so hopefully Dave will give us another update since I left the game early to watch the University of Louisville pull a comeback win over West Virginia.

[mattingly]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Last time, our heroes, with a cameo appearance by Witchcraft, had just retrieved the Book of Life to rescue their teammate Kullervo's soul from Nebula's prison dimension, Duress.

 

Using one of their base's many long-distance doors, they exited their own lobby, and emerged from a broom closet in the hospital where Kullervo was being kept on life support. Shaman (the Foundation's assistant mage) and the Champions' Witchcraft entered the ward while the rest of the team stayed out in the hallway, while Coyote masked their presence and glamered the ward to look as if nothing unusual was happening.

 

Inside the room, the nurse was adjusting Kullervo's IV, while the doctor was looking over the chart. When the heroes stepped into the room with the book, the nurse and doctor were revealed to be Talisman and Black Paladin, who immediately vanished, along with Kullervo, Witchcraft, and the book.

 

Quickly probing the city mentally, Coyote determined that the missing foursome was not there. So, the group teleported to Black Paladin's mansion in France, the last place they had encountered the evil pair. Arriving in the wooded lot on the estate's grounds, they were ambushed by -- of all people -- Eurostar!

 

The Foundation was deafened immediately by a sonic boomer planted by Ultrasonique, partly disrupting the team's communication. But, thanks to Coyote's protective mind link, the heroes not only got to communicate, they all got some Mental Defense, largely neutralizing Mentalla.

 

Durak nearly pelted all the heroes with a huge boulder, who had arrived holding hands in a circle due to the way Coyote's spell worked, but the declared tactic of the team before Durak got to act was to teleport dozens of yards away closer to the rest of Eurostar. So, those on the team whose action had not yet come up were able to "dive for cover" onto Shaman, who teleported away with his held action. As it turns out, the only one who got hit by the boulder was Wildcore, who happily absorbed its damage, becoming more powerful.

 

Scorpia's knives, while accurate, were unable to penetrate the team's resistant defenses, so her poisons never took effect.

 

Feueurmacher was the first of Eurostar to fall prey to mental paralysis. Both Coyote and Monsta, the sentient eyeball that detached itself from the hunchback brick (also called Monsta), could paralyze with but a thought. That was a large factor in a surprising PC victory.

 

The other secret weapon that worked in the heroes' favor was Shield Maiden's newly acquired ability to send people to the very Duress that the heroes are attempting to save their friend Kullervo from. "One shot, one hell," the team is calling it. At least there's a preset five-minute round trip on that ticket.

 

Once the team mopped up the rapidly-vanishing membership of Eurostar, and Shield Maiden tried her EMP blast on the cybernetically enhanced Fiacho, slagging his interior components, they mind-read Ultrasonique.

 

They found out that Talisman "hired" the team for this ambush. The only terms were that they deliver Shield Maiden alive. The rest of the team, especially Eurostar's sworn enemy Allegiance, they could handle as they wished. Eurostar's tactics were thrown off since Allegiance, their own primary target, was not present [the player couldn't make it], and Shield Maiden proved very difficult to capture alive.

 

The team contacted Interpol to come and take custody of Eurostar while they waited for Mentalla, Scorpia, and Durak to return from hell.

 

Next time, we'll find out:

• why Talisman really hired the group,
  
• why she kidnapped Kullervo and Witchcraft,
  
• why she needed the Book of Life,
  
• what Talisman and Black Paladin have been doing for the last ten minutes,
  
• what happens to Eurostar,
  
• and why everyone will be out to get Shield Maiden...
  

[The Bug]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Ooooo!

 

I am sorry that I left now, well, did I mention the Cards won?

 

Just curious, Dave, did my manuever to be attacked by either Durak or Scorpia work?

 

Eating dinner and watching the game there was a sudden insight that Wildcore forgot to apply his 50% or 75% Damage Reduction (can't remember which).

 

Thanks for the recap.

[Red Knight]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

I'm really impressed by the write-ups so far. You seem to have a really good story line laid down.

 

You have inspired me in new directions with my campaign. I have an Egyptian Undead Mage, and some of these seem like cool ideas to use. I think I will stea..... I mean borrow them.

 

Keep the stories coming.

[mattingly]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Just curious, Dave, did my manuever to be attacked by either Durak or Scorpia work?

 

No, they both left you to concentrate on their original targets.

 

Wildcore forgot to apply his 50% or 75% Damage Reduction (can't remember which).

 

That makes a little more sense. He can take a haymaker from Grond and not even be stunned. I was susprised that a thrown rock knocked him out.

 

You have inspired me in new directions with my campaign. I have an Egyptian Undead Mage, and some of these seem like cool ideas to use. I think I will stea..... I mean borrow them.

 

One of our first characters was an African God -- Sango, god of storms. We mixed him into all kinds of Egyptian trouble with Anubis and his giant scorpion golem.

[mattingly]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

This weekend, we picked up after the Foundation defeated Eurostar. Within ten minutes, UNTIL showed up with a superpowered paddy wagon to haul them away.

 

Members present:

Allegiance, the PRIMUS-sponsored supersoldier with eyebeams,

Anxiety, the mentalist with a constant "forget-me" field,

The Bug, a humanoid swarm of insects, that used to be a man,

Coyote, the astrophysicist with her grandfather's medicine-man skills,

Diva, controller of light and sound,

Red X, the acrobatic gadgeteer with an "X" theme,

Rook, rehab reject with inherited powered armor,

Shield Maiden, electromagnetic controller with a dark secret.

 

Part of the Foundation (i.e. those whose players were not present) rode along with the paddy wagon to make sure that the unconscious Eurostar "didn't try anything funny."

 

Some more of the Foundation happened to be in Europe, and although they weren't able to catch up with the group in time to battle Eurostar, they got there in time for the aftermath.

 

Allegiance had been in Spain, recovering from eye surgery by one of the best eye doctors in the world. He decided a month ago to quit taking the Cyberline that gave him his superhuman strength and agility, but also interfered with his mutant eyebeams. Waking several days sooner than expected, he removed his eye bandages, and could tell that his eyebeams were stronger than they had been in many years -- since puberty, probably. He got a surprise phone call, from the French UNTIL liaison to PRIMUS, that the Foundation called ahead saying that they were on their way to France in hot pursuit of some superhuman kidnappers, and that Allegiance would "clear everything up." Taking an UNTIL copter to France, explaining as he went, he joined the group.

 

Meanwhile, billionaire playboy Rook had been setting up a software deal in England for his worldwide industrial support centers, and after killing several hours in some British pubs, decided to catch a train to Germany. His team magic ring notified him that a large concentration of foundation members had just appeared in France, as his train was passing through. calling for his luggage, he suited up and skipped out, flying to meet his compatriots.

 

Eurostar was loaded up into the paddy wagon, with the exception of Fiacho, who was zipped in a body bag and headed for a machine shop. He wasn't showing any life signs after his cybernetics were melted from within, but no one had gotten close enough to him the last several years to even know whether he still gave off any life signs normally.

 

As Allegiance joined the team, along with Rook, he explained to the team that they were to leave French soil in one hour... and ticking. Just as the heroes were about to assault Black Paladin's mansion, where the Champions' Witchcraft and their own teammate Kullervo had been kidnapped, along with The Book Of Life, Red X surprised them with some last minute assistance, leaping from the tree where he'd been quietly observing.

 

The team formed their plan, and stormed the castle.

 

While most of the team was invisible or otherwise hidden, Allegiance stood at the iron gate, calling Black Paladin out. Nothing happened, so he blew off the gate and marched in.

 

Arriving at the mansion steps, he once again called Black Paladin a coward, and demanded that he show himself. This time, he did. With friends.

 

Black Paladin (astride his demonic horse Darkling) and Talisman teleported to the scene, with Talisman using the magic phrase "Exala Jabilu Kullervo Ichabod!" As she did so, the demons from Kullervo's pocket dimension library poofed into existence, under her control. (Ichabod was Kullervo's password to control the demons.)

 

To hit some highlights:

 

It seems that Shield Maiden was still Target One, since he charged along the ground, with The Lance Of Unvanquished Pain (see Shades Of Black) readied (the first time the heroes had seen that particular weapon), and teleported mid-charge directly in front of Shield Maiden, who was flying six hexes up at the time! He scored enough of a hit to put her out for the fight. It seems that the earlier confrontation with Eurostar had been monitored, and that Shield Maiden had been identified as the largest threat, now that she was using Nebula's "prison gun." Or maybe it was just Talisman's grudge at having been imprisoned in the Foundation's basement for over a month by Shield Maiden...

 

The Bug had a surprise coming his way, as well. Part of his normal M.O. is to surround a target with biting insects, attacking and blinding him. The bug was attacked by a murder of crows, cawing and darkening the area around him, as well as eating several hundred insects from his "body" in the process.

 

Talisman's next trick was to summon Eurostar! At least, some of them. She probably would have summoned the entire team if Coyote had not been prepared with a Dispel Magic spell. As it was, only Durak and Mentalla showed up, apparently fully healed.

 

Since Coyote's mental link with the team also included mental protection for everyone (which Mentalla had encountered before, and could recognize), her combat role was once again that of deflection support, mostly. She surprised the heroes by grabbing the unconscious Shield Maiden in a headlock, cutting off her air (and recoveries). Here she is, the most powerful mind on the planet, reduced to physical combat with her enemy.

 

The Bug soon came to Shield Maiden's rescue (still pursued by carnivorous birds), trying to wrest his teammate away from Mentalla. It came down to a fistfight between the two; a mentalist and a "blaster" kicking and punching, while holding Shield Maiden; Mentalla flying, and the Bug clinging to her. At one point, the Bug's player asked if Mentalla's mouth was open any. I replied that she was gritting her teeth. So, he sends dozens of insects from his body into her mouth, which I ruled was a Presence Attack. Even though Mentalla's PRE had been drained by Anxiety, her EGO was still in top form, so she looked the bug directly in his multi-faceted eyes... and chewed.

 

Rook's tarry goop entangle put a stop to Talisman's spellcasting (at least, they thought so, still under the impression that she actually needs those Incantations and Gestures she's so often seen throwing). When her goop caught fire, with flames of black, he hit her again, this time with his resonating (double knockback) Checkmate Blaster, the resulting vibratory damage of being trapped inside the hardened goop threw Talisman to the ground, unconscious.

 

Coyote brought forth a handy ally, by "awakening" a large tree (using a spell right out of The Fantasy Grimoire). It was the tree's trunk stomp that finlly took out Black Paladin later on.

 

My favorite quote of the evening came from my 8-year old son, playing Red X, when Allegiance stressed that property damage should be kept to a minimum (since the mansion is probably historical French grounds). "But it's bad guy property!" Which makes sense from an 8-year old's perspective, but also happens to fit perfectly with Red X's not-always-on-the-side-of-the-angels viewpoint!

[mattingly]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

This weekend, we finished the Shades Of Black adventure, although there will be some repercussions. Not wanting to give away the ending of the adventure, I'll only mention a few of the highlights.

 

Members present:

Anxiety, the mentalist with a constant "forget-me" field,

Coyote, the astrophysicist with her grandfather's medicine-man skills,

Diva, controller of light and sound,

Harlequin Crow, a psychic martial artist,

Red X, the acrobatic gadgeteer with an "X" theme,

Rook, rehab reject with inherited powered armor,

Shield Maiden, electromagnetic controller with a dark secret.

 

Having mentally determined that the lifeforms in the castle were gathered in the basement, the heroes decided to teleport there (just barely beating out the suggestion to tunnel there). Unforunately, teleportation was expected, and they were "shunted" into a magic circle that could be attacked into, but not out of.

 

Facing several demon hounds, an ifrit, and the main villains, the heroes were barely able to scrape out a victory, despite the confusion of many spellcasters suppressing, aiding, and dispelling each other's magicks.

 

Afterwards, having defeated the enemy, and recovered The Book Of Life and their former teammate Kullervo, they took his soulless form and the book to the Trismegistus Council to perform the ritual to revive him.

 

Just then, Diva was just as surprised as everyone else when another Diva stepped out of her, and then another, then another. This group of Divas from alternate dimensions explained to her that Kullervo was not supposed to revive. His soul is fated to roam the universe, until the time of the great confrontation. So next time, Diva is going to accompany her other selves into another dimension, where she will work with alternate versions of the rest of her team on the Foundation.

[Death_Jester]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Well Dave you have us just where you want us buddy. We have the fate of the world hanging over our heads with only a dubious source for exposition. Looking forward to seeing what dastardly doings you will throw at us next.

I like the whole “the world will be in danger if you don’t do this†kind of sudden adventure hook. That totally rocked dude sorry I had to leave out early but like I said before I had to hook up with one of the play testers. Looking forward to playing Warren Von Xivon Sr. I see him as being a very Dark Knight kind of guy. In the time line where he lives Warren Jr. died in the unknown villains base and he took the armor and has been waging a one man war for the last 9 or so months trying to find out who is responsible for the death of his son.

I was thinking of tinkering with the points for the suit a bit to make him a little different what the Rook everyone else knows. Post here and let me know what you think

Peace.

[Death_Jester]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

No Offense Dave but I don't care much for the short discription of Rook. I would rather post the whole story to let people get a feel for him as I see him. A guy with big shoes to fill.

 

So without further ado the backgroud for Rook.

 

Warren VonXivon Sr. the owner of the multi-billion dollar Security Systems firm that bore his name took up the costumed identity of the Rook in the mid to late 80's.

 

It all started after several disastrous events where items under the protection his company were stolen, by super powered thieves, he decided the people under his employ needed a super agent to help rectify the situation. He decided that hiring a meta-human might be risky and so decided to build something that could handle a Meta on its own terms. The security firm contacted the best and the most visionary of the new maverick technology firms to design a system to do this job. Out of several suggested projects that came from these talks only a handful made it to the design stage. With all interested parties making a presentation to Warren and his advisors directly making the final decision.

 

Two designs came out of those presentations, both as visionary as they would be costly to produce. The first was a set of battle armor that would make a man the equal of any super thug. The second was to design a mechanical creature with a limited AI that would take over the duties of guarding items of importance. The engineers and personal designing the two separate projects were employed by the company and required to work together to produce the best one design that they could. The mechanical AI was the most ambitions project and drew the most heated and fervent discussion. Many man-hours were spent by both teams deciding how the systems would work and much code written to build the bases of the AI that would run the machine. While the project was far from complete it was on its way to shaping up. The major draw back was that the project would be much more costly than the armored suit and that no one could say with any certainty how effectively the machine AI would work. Ultimately the design for the battle suit got the attention of Warren Sr. with his blessing the construction began on the exoskeleton. The head designer of the mechanical AI disappeared along with a copy of the majority of the technical plans and code written for the prototype. The security firm tried to trace him down but to this day he seems to have just simply vanished without a trace.

 

With the firm’s considerable financial backing and the personal enthusiasm of Warren himself the battle suit project was completed. Despite the fantastic cost over runs and the impracticality of the project it was finished and the proto-type was ready for field-testing. The suit was dubbed the Rook because of the flat-headed design that was necessary to house the various sensory arrays and from Warren Sr’s love of chess. The rest as they say was is history. The Rook armor was deployed on behalf of the VonXivon Security Company to anyone that suspected that a meta-human would be trying to steal something. Of course the cost to keep the suit working in the early days was prohibitively expensive so only the very rich could afford it. With the passing of years and the advance of technology the suit got easier to operate and maintain so the suit began to show up when the call for heroes got desperate.

 

While the company has always maintained that an employee of VonXivon Securities International wears the armor the truth is that Warren Sr has always been the man in the suit. His intervention on the battle of Detroit may have lead to the inspiration of the young Defender By the early 90’s he was a regular part of the superhero community in Millennium city. In late 90’s VonXivon entertained the idea of petitioning for a place on the Champions but with Defender already on the team he decided to he would he redundant. His solo career and the pressures of running a multi billion dollar company finally got the better of him and he decided to take the company public and keep controlling interest. He also hired a board of directors that would oversee the day to day operations along with a chief executive officer to run the day to day operations while he pursued his goal of protecting the normal citizens of Millennium City those the seem to believe they are above the law. While this decision made it easier to pursue his personal goals it also put him at odds with his family. His wife of several years growing more distant he escaped to a world less demanding and easier to deal with emotionally. The separation came as no surprise to him. He came home one day and the mansion was quiet and he knew she had taken the kids and left him. He would miss his son, Warren Jr, and daughter Lisa but there were people that needed him out there. They would understand someday he was sure and come to appreciate what he was doing.

 

While restricted to house rest and waiting for the Rook armor to be repaired, after a battle with Pulsar and Green Dragon Warren Sr., happened upon a TV program that would shape is destiny. Defender of the Champions was being interviewed for a local show dedicated to Superheroes. The interviewer asked he thought about the Rook. The Defender said he thought that Rook was a good guy and that his heart was in the right place but the armor was looking a little long in the tooth and should be retired. He went on to point out how outdated the armor looked and that the same suit may have been “hi-tech†in the 80’s but it could use some reworking now. This off hand comment made Warren Sr. re-thing just patching the old suit back up and instead do an entire redesign. The armor had need updated and the like but this would be a rebuild from the ground up. Ironically the decision to change the armor would be its undoing. He also had the old armor repaired but left it in the labs until needed again.

 

Warren Jr. grew up the media image of his father more then the actual man. He loved his Dad but didn’t really know the man. All he had to base his impressions on were the few times he had spent with him but mostly the impressions his mom shared. In time other things that helped dull the pain a bit replaced the void where his father should have been. Being filthy rich and young led to all kinds of fun but it wears off and soon it takes more and more thrills to make the same impression. Young Warren still saw his father from time to time on the news but the personal visits came less and less frequent until they stopped. Warren Jr. was almost 23 by the time he saw his father again and that would be the last time.

 

Warren Jr was partying, somewhere, but in his mental state he would be hard pressed to tell you where. The new friends he had met the night before had the best stuff and the chicks with them were killer hotties, all of them. They were talking drinking and partying up a storm and after a while everything got weird. He couldn’t move and was drifting off into sleep.

 

Over Rook’s helmet a voice issued a challenge to Warren Sr. calling him by name. He was to come alone or his son would pay the price of in his absence. Warren Sr. came with secure in the knowledge that the suit would protect him form whatever lay in wait. When he arrived guards met him with state of the art weapons but they were no match for him. He managed to find out where they were holding his son and flush with his easy victory he went as fast as the armor could go. Upon arrival at the hideout, guards that seemed to know the new armors weak spots, all to well ambushed him. They weren’t human guards but machines that did sever damage to the suit. He managed to get to his drugged son chained to the floor and through the helmets visual array he could detect the explosives around the area. His armor’s major systems were disabled so breaking the chain or cutting through it was not an option but the protective quality of the armor would still protect the man inside. Quickly stripping off the armor and placing it on his son, he carried out the last act of a hero to give his life so that another may live. Warren Jr. woke from all the jostling but still to weak to respond. He saw his father say good-bye and the regret on his face as the explosions lit the area around them before the flash compensator filtered out the harsh light.

 

Warren Jr. survived the explosion, which took the life of his father, with major injuries but he was able to mend physically. He is still haunted by the regret he saw in his fathers face and had determined that he will make it up to the man he called Dad but barely knew. The new armor was destroyed but the old one was still there in the lab just like it had been when Warren Sr. left it to build the new one. The Rook still lives only now everyone knows that it is Warren VonXivon inside that armored shell. The identity of the person or persons responsible for the death of the Original Rook remains unknown at this time.

 

Warren Jr. joined the Noble Foundation as Rook with the hopes that he can somehow make a difference in someone’s life or make things better.

 

 

Any questions or comments please feel free to let me know.

[mattingly]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

This weekend, we began our alternate dimension adventure.

 

Members present:

Allegiance, the PRIMUS-sponsored supersoldier with eyebeams,

Anxiety, the mentalist with a constant "forget-me" field,

The Bug, the insect-controlling cop,

Coyote, the astrophysicist with her grandfather's medicine-man skills,

Diva, controller of light and sound,

Gunmetal, the solid-metal detective,

Herald, superman with a costume to which he lost the instructions,

Monsta, the hunchback with a sentient eyeball that walks with him,

Nightmare, the shadow-controlling martial artist,

Rook, rehab reject with inherited powered armor,

Shaman, street-level mage with an attitude,

Shield Maiden, electromagnetic controller with a dark secret.

Wildcore, the physically indestructible private eye.

 

Wow, we had a big roster today. Almost all the players showed up.

 

But almost all the characters were different...

 

Last time, Diva got instructions via nanites from her alternate selves that she had to go to another dimension and enter Kullervo's magical library to destroy The Book Of Life so that Kullervo's soul will remain roaming the multiverse as a disembodied guardian spirit.

 

Once Diva agreed to help, her alternate selves merged with her, and she found herself in the team's conference room. Her nanites instinctively reached out to the team's computer (They'd never done anything like that before. Apparently, Diva's nanites learned some new tricks when merging with the nanites from the alternate Diva selves) and called up some interesting records.

 

The team roster was different.

 

Treason, formerly Allegiance had turned traitor. Once he stopped taking cyberline, the superdrug that gave him his enhanced physique, he realized that the government-sponsored drug also was controlling his mind. He left the team and joined Eurostar, shortly after Shield maiden had fried his cybernetic mind with an EMP.

 

Anxiety had been forgotten. He never developed the forget-me-not bracelets that render fellow team members immune to his memory altering powers.

 

The Bug was back in his human insect-controlling form. Here, it seems he never underwent the accident that turned him into a humanoid mass of creepy crawlies.

 

Coyote was not listed in the team archives at all.

 

Gunmetal was still part of this team, instead of The Champions.

 

Herald was a new name to Diva. He'd been on the team a few months, and had super-strength, super-speed, and some kind of clairvoyance that allowed him to track objects.

 

Monsta was now Dr. Monster. He was still a big, strong, and ugly hunchback, but his eyeball was still in his head, and not a "partner" in crimefighting. This Dr. Monster had the combined physical and psychic powers of both the forms that Diva had known.

 

Nightmare was another new name to Diva. She was a world-class martial artist that could animate and control shadows.

 

Rook was different. This was Warren Senior, the father of the Rook she had known. Instead of the young surfer-dude trying to live up to his father's example, Rook was now a grim father avenging his son's death.

 

Shaman now went by Rune Lord. Instead of carrying medallions and other foci that gave him his magical abilities, he had tattooed symbols of power all over his body, so that he could never be disarmed.

 

Shield Maiden was deceased. Found headless in her coma-ward bed.

 

Wildcore's powers were opposite what they were. Now going by Blastarr, he absorbed and controlled energy instead of physical blasts.

 

--

 

Calling a team meeting, Diva related her experiences and instructions. The team must gather all of the people that entered Kullervo's magical library in her dimension, so that they can destroy The Book Of Life, so that Kullervo would wander the multiverse, saving it from total destruction just seven years from now. It was quite a shock to the team, but after Herald verified her story through his psychometric object reading ability, they decided to go along.

 

They had to collect a few team members who were not present. No one had heard of this Coyote Woman, but searching on her real name, Dr. Louis May Twobears, revealed that she was a rocket scientist working at NASA.

 

Anxiety had quit the team out of boredom and depression after always being forgotten by his friends.

 

Treason was going to be the difficult one, of those who remained alive. As the leader of Eurostar, it would be difficult to convince him to join the team for this mission, and even harder to defeat him and drag his unconscious body along for the ride.

 

Shield Maiden's death was a disturbing surprise to Diva. Would she have to carry a corpse along with the team, to enter the library with all the team members present? And where was her missing head?

 

The Bug had investigated her death, and believed that the villain known as Piece Keeper was involved. Piece Keeper stole limbs from super-powered people, and attached them to himself, gaining their powers. At last sighting, he had speedster legs and brick arms. He might also now have Shield Maiden's head, giving him not only electromagnetic powers, but possibly all of her knowledge of team secrets, weaknesses, and tactics.

 

After visiting the grave and object reading it, Herald saw that her head was indeed alive, and atop the shoulders of Piece Keeper, now going by the name The Engineer. What a disgusting visual there -- a woman's head on a hairy-chested man's body. He was holed up in Millennium City at an abandoned body shop. A body shop. Oh, kill me now.

 

Deciding that it would be easier to assault The Engineer at full complement, Rune Lord sent a message through the criminal underworld to Treason, to meet alone under a truce, to talk. They did meet, at a dance club in Barcelona, but both sides ignored the "alone" part. Rune Lord took along Anxiety, since his forget-me field should allow him to keep an eye on the meeting surreptitiously. And The Bug shrunk down to insect size and hid in Rune Lord's pocket.

 

Treason brought along Mentalla and Durak. Mentalla hid on a rooftop across the street so that she could see into the bar through an upper window. Durak was mentally disguised to look like Mentalla. After Treason declined Rune Lord's offer to go after Shield Maiden, the very woman that killed Fiacho, and Rune Lord likewise declined Treason's offer to join Eurostar, a fight broke out. The good guys won, surprisingly, and spent the airplane ride back to the States mentally altering Treason's memories of the last several years, and convincing him to work for The Foundation again.

 

Next time, the battle with The Engineer.

 

Imagine all the scary parts of Mechanon, Grond, Neutron, Vibron, and Nebula wrapped into a single body that can also permanently steal the powers of any superhuman, and you'll get an idea of the terror that the team is about to face.

[rayoman]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

And we are the good guys?

 

*shudder*

 

Now, the altering of Treason's mind was talk. Did Anxiety actually do this to him?

 

I know The Bug will have a serious problem if the group starts giving Treason cyberline again. I think Gunmetal might be with me on this one.

[BengalTiger]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Well, This is Gunmetal. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we really enjoyed Destroying the book of Life so that our Friend Kulervo the Chaotic would stay dead. We actually had to do that to save the multiverse, but it just sounds bad.

[BengalTiger]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

And we are the good guys?

 

*shudder*

 

Now, the altering of Treason's mind was talk. Did Anxiety actually do this to him?

 

I know The Bug will have a serious problem if the group starts giving Treason cyberline again. I think Gunmetal might be with me on this one.

 

Well actually I was never clear on that. As far as I know Anxiety removed the Mind control that Mentalla had put on him returning his mind to its actual state.

I do appose puting him back on Cyberline, but I dont know an alternative since he WANTS to go back on Cyberline.

[rayoman]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

Well actually I was never clear on that. As far as I know Anxiety removed the Mind control that Mentalla had put on him returning his mind to its actual state.

I do appose puting him back on Cyberline, but I dont know an alternative since he WANTS to go back on Cyberline.

 

Well, I guess Anxiety's powers "convinced" him of his evil ways.

 

I had to miss this past weekend because my Little League Baseball team had their team cookout Saturday. The good news was that Batman Begins rocks.

[rdalton]

Re: Adventures of The Noble Foundation

 

This is Anxiety. I don't normally use computers because screen radiation can cause cancer and carpel tunnel has been known to be fatal.

 

I talked to Treason (while she was unconcious in case she got violent) and convinced her it was more important to be afraid of Mentalla, a mentalist who is known to mess with peoples minds rather than the US Government she has loved for years. While the US govenment does have black helicopters and spies everywhere, they (probably) don't drug their fanatic agents. When Treason woke up, he seemed to agree with me.

 

In game terms:

I did use my 1d6 penetrating transformation attack on his Mind and Spirit. I altered his memory so it changes his finding out about the drugs the government gave him to be a mental illution of Mentalla. I also altered his spirit to trust us again.