WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

[Hermit]

Your character is taking down a supervillain in a pretty straight up fight. As your foe goes down, a beam strikes him, and he vanishes.

 

"You serve the law well," says an alien woman, that your character may or may not recognize as Nebula (from CKC). If your hero asks where the villain went, she explains that he was sent to a sub pocket known dimension as Duress, where he shall be punished for his crimes by containment and torture for a duration as is appropraite to the laws she serves.

 

She then explains her new strategy, "You 'superheroes' are effective in your defeating of lawbreakers, but lack truly effecient means of punishment. I will therefore accompany you on your patrols. When you defeat the criminals, I shall 'put them away'. Your compliance in this is appreciated, but not required. Should you attempt to stop me from fufilling this task, I will be forced to send YOU to Duress for interfering with an officer."

 

She does look ready to banish you in a heart beat if you try anything. Knowing that...What Would Your Character Do?

[David Johnston]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Tien Lung would do nothing. Quite literally. He'll simply meditate until she leaves him alone.

 

Hellfire would attack.

 

Riptide would point out that she is placing him in an awkward position since under the laws which apply to him he would be committing a criminal offense by subduing criminals so she can banish them. Therefore he'd take it as professional courtesy if she were to go off and do her own fighting.

[Haerandir]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

I forget, does she have Personal Immunity on her "Send People Into Duress" power? If not, then my strategy for all of my characters is to argue with her till she gets to the bit where she enforces her local jurisdiction's laws wherever she is, and ignores all other governments, then I beat her up and chuck her into her own dimension of pain.

 

Duh, just after I posted that, I glanced to my left and realized that CKC was less than 6 feet away from me. She doesn't have PI, and it is a gadget... Nebula problem solved!

 

Note: This is my response to Nebula in pretty much all circumstances.

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Zl'f would point out that Earth is not this woman's jurisdiction, she's in violation of our laws, and then take her down. Nebula is too slow and clumsy comparatively to be a real threat with that EDM attack; and a few judiciously (if you'll pardon the pun) applied 7d6 AP attacks should easily put Nebula down within 3 or 4 Phases (for Zl'f, that's only 5 or 6 seconds). Then she'd remove Nebula's Duress Gauntlets, turn her over to the authorities, and see if her supergenius friend Dr. Sarah Richmond can figure out how to release the prisoners in Duress.

 

Of course if Nebula somehow gets in a lucky hit with that EDM then I guess we'll have the basis for a "Rescue Zl'f" scenario...

[jkwleisemann]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Do they know what being banished to Duress means (probable torture, and life-terms if they've attacked a 'duly authorized member of the Guard,' which could theoretically include the character now that they've been 'deputized')?

 

I'm going to assume 'yes' and not that they think 'Duress just means she's shifting them off to their branch of Stronghold, they'll be back pretty soon, probably.' It has a major shift in the reactions of some of them. Void, for example, who would normally be okay with it if it weren't for what Duress *is*.

 

Now, I would like to put my personal 2 cents into the character of Nebula. I don't like her one bit. Not so much because of what she does, as because of the fact that, as designed, there's no way to fight her. You argue with her, she storms off and banishes more supervillains to eternal torture. You try to stop her, she banishes *you* to eternal torture. No defense but avoiding her Banishment, at least by her write-up (I'd argue that EDM should make you immune, by the rules for UAA abilities, but that still leaves you with no way to rescue her other victims and, frankly, not every member of the team should have to have EDM in order to confront her). You can't even reason with her, since the fact that we have any problems with this whatsoever is simply more proof of how desperately we need the Andromedan brand of justice she enforces.

 

End result: Many of them would refuse, when she heads off to try and stop other supervillains, they'd follow and end up banished to Duress for trying to stop her. They'd avoid it as long as they could, but eventually she'd hit 'em with it and off they go. The main point of the adventure would probably then be their attempts to survive in Duress until they can take over and find a way out.

 

However, for two in particular, things would be a bit more interesting.

 

Darkchild: After seeing most of the team (including her boyfriend) get Banished to Duress, she'd probably end up being next. Things get a bit more interesting, however, once she tries calling on any of a number of gods of travel, speed, or worlds, and Invokes them to send her back home - and finds that it works (unless, of course, the GM would rule that her VPP wouldn't work that far from Earth....) Then it's time to go back, get her friends, and go for a rematch.

 

Galaxy Girl: Would, first, very quickly spend some XP repairing her Dimensional Gateway ability of the D-Suit. Then, after returning to the dimension she'd just come from, she'd have some fun.

 

Figure out every possible way to get herself put on top priority for being banished to Duress, that didn't involve seriously hurting anybody (besides Nebula). Taking swings at her would probably be the easiest one.

 

And then make Nebula's life a living Hell. Show up, do something that warrants being Banished... and then come back, and do it again. Keep her so busy she doesn't have time to do anything else... and then, once the opportunity presents itself (and Nebula's taking a few Recoveries to get up the juice to banish her again), point out that there are a few options. Either (A), she can spend the rest of her stay on Earth banishing and re-banishing Galaxy Girl to Duress, to no effect. GG can do this all day - literally.

 

Or ( accept that she's outside of her jurisdiction and has no right to enforce Andromedan law in a place that doesn't even know there *is* Andromedan law. If she wants to change that, fine, we've got a process for it, but I doubt that we're going to establish a treaty with a single Andromedan officer without hearing from somebody that she's authorized to make agreements for her government. We have our own laws. She might think they're not as good as hers, but that's what sucks about being an officer of the law outside of your jurisdiction, isn't it?

 

Try to convince her to release the various people she's wrongfully banished to Duress (if she can), then have her turn over her Focus (if any, I don't have CKC right with me) and point out that she *could* fight crime under *our* system if she wants, nobody's likely to turn down her other abilities.

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Now' date=' I would like to put my personal 2 cents into the character of Nebula. I don't like her one bit. Not so much because of what she does, as because of the fact that, as designed, there's no way to fight her. You argue with her, she storms off and banishes more supervillains to eternal torture. You try to stop her, she banishes *you* to eternal torture. No defense but avoiding her Banishment, at least by her write-up (I'd argue that EDM should make you immune, by the rules for UAA abilities, but that still leaves you with no way to rescue her other victims and, frankly, not every member of the team should have to have EDM in order to confront her). You can't even reason with her, since the fact that we have any problems with this whatsoever is simply more proof of how desperately we need the Andromedan brand of justice she enforces.[/quote']Nebula's primary weakness is that she's entirely focus-based. She only needs to be beaten once in order to remove her as a threat because taking her foci leaves her as nothing but a 30 STR has-been without any plausible means of replacing them. While she's not defenseless, her defenses and Stun are low enough that most PC's I've seen have a good chance of beating her if they can avoid the EDM attack just two or three times. Once she's Stunned or unconscious, it's all over because the majority of her defenses come from her FF. Our team's brick could take her out with one punch; probably our heavy EB could as well (and far more safely since he can attack from very long range to lessen the probability of getting hit with that EDM attack).

 

As a GM, I view Nebula as a non-player character primarily intended as a plot hook (like Captain Chronos). She's there so the heroes can look good fighting an over-the-top "hero" and maybe get a chance to do some extradimensional adventuring.

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Vitus - "suits me. Know where Eurostar hang out? Altho I'ld apreciate 30 minutes alone with Scorpia and a cheesegrater, if you've got the time."

[Lord Liaden]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Nebula's primary weakness is that she's entirely focus-based. She only needs to be beaten once in order to remove her as a threat because taking her foci leaves her as nothing but a 30 STR has-been without any plausible means of replacing them. While she's not defenseless, her defenses and Stun are low enough that most PC's I've seen have a good chance of beating her if they can avoid the EDM attack just two or three times. Once she's Stunned or unconscious, it's all over because the majority of her defenses come from her FF. Our team's brick could take her out with one punch; probably our heavy EB could as well (and far more safely since he can attack from very long range to lessen the probability of getting hit with that EDM attack).

 

As a GM, I view Nebula as a non-player character primarily intended as a plot hook (like Captain Chronos). She's there so the heroes can look good fighting an over-the-top "hero" and maybe get a chance to do some extradimensional adventuring.

 

I should point out that Nebula is not entirely Focussed-based. Her "Thrombalic Energy Manipulation" Multipower is innate to her and fairly formidable, so she's still someone to be taken seriously even without her gadgetry. I do agree with you, though, as to the readily-available means to take her out, and her status as a plot hook.

 

I think that Nebula has potential for intriguing interactions with certain other supervillains, though. For example, her Mental Defenses are not terribly large. Although it would take a lot of Mind Control to get her to stop sentencing "criminals" against her powerful Psych Lims, a competent mentalist could easily direct her to focus her efforts on targets that he wants banished to the Duress dimension.

 

A capable gadgeteering villain who gets his hands on Nebula's Duress Gauntlets and can figure out how they work may be only a step away from master-villain status. Not only would he gain a powerful attack, but if he can reverse the direction of dimensional transport there's a potential army of alien "supervillains" in Duress that he could recruit.

 

It could be interesting to have Nebula attempt to banish Tesseract (also from Conquerors, Killers And Crooks) to Duress. The interaction of a dimension-warping attack with a being whose entire powerset involves warping dimensions could justify all manner of pan-dimensional mayhem!

[ghost-angel]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

It could be interesting to have Nebula attempt to banish Tesseract (also from Conquerors' date=' Killers And Crooks[/i']) to Duress. The interaction of a dimension-warping attack with a being whose entire powerset involves warping dimensions could justify all manner of pan-dimensional mayhem!

 

that would be a catfight to see for sure

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Soulbarb doesn't have any problem with the truly depraved being sent off to Duress, but she's not going to be willing to surrender her own judgement on just who merits that sort of punishment and who doesn't. Moreover, Soulbarb's world doesn't have a revolving-door prison system, so Nebula really has no case to make about the efficacy of Duress versus Stronghold. Consequently, Soulbarb won't be willing to work with Nebula. She'll just tell Nebula to go find her own criminals to put away... and keep an eye on her. If Soulbarb finds that Nebula isn't being sufficiently discriminating in her use of her interdimensional prison, Soulbarb will arrange to ambush her and have *her* put away in Stronghold.

 

Sylph would be horrified, but also terrified about the possibility of being 'put away.' She would try to reason with Nebula. Of course Nebula wouldn't listen, but Sylph would be so persistent in her attempts to persuade Nebula of the injustice of her actions (to the exclusion of actually doing any crimefighting) that Nebula would eventually realize that hanging around with Sylph will get her nowhere.

[Hermit]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Yes, I'm assuming your character would know about the nature of Duress because Nebula, in typical comic book fashion, would explain it to your character

 

And I admit picking her precisely because not many WWYCD sceneroes that I'd seen had mentioned a specific villain (Though Dr. Destroyer gets a few nods) probably because not everyone uses the CU5th AND because i know she's a pretty controversial character among the GMs and players that do know her.

 

Frankly, I think that while they aren't listed, as per the rules for Usable as an Attack, there MUST be a reasonable set of defenses that protect against Nebulas banishment. What they are would be up to the GM it seems (I think Extra Dimensional Movement, Teleport, and perhaps Power Defense would be a good trio) so as long as the GM is fairhanded, at least one PC might be unbanishable by her. That changes any fight a lot.

[Twilight]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Yes, I'm assuming your character would know about the nature of Duress because Nebula, in typical comic book fashion, would explain it to your character

 

And I admit picking her precisely because not many WWYCD sceneroes that I'd seen had mentioned a specific villain (Though Dr. Destroyer gets a few nods) probably because not everyone uses the CU5th AND because i know she's a pretty controversial character among the GMs and players that do know her.

 

Frankly, I think that while they aren't listed, as per the rules for Usable as an Attack, there MUST be a reasonable set of defenses that protect against Nebulas banishment. What they are would be up to the GM it seems (I think Extra Dimensional Movement, Teleport, and perhaps Power Defense would be a good trio) so as long as the GM is fairhanded, at least one PC might be unbanishable by her. That changes any fight a lot.

 

If the SFX of her Banishment attack is a beam then it seems fair that it could be reflected by a hero with a missle deflection/reflection power capable of deflecting beam attacks.

 

All the hero would need is one good role to turn the tables on Nebula but good.

[Zeropoint]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Special Agent Trent:

 

" 'Law?' How dare you invoke the sacred name of the Law to justify your actions! You are operating out of your jurisdiction. You routinely ignore due process. You violate our laws at every turn. You claim to serve the Law, but you have placed yourself above it. You believe that the Law exists to serve you.

 

"The Law says that I have the duty to protect prisoners in my custody. If you attempt to send them away, I will stop you. Yes, I know what that means. But you see, that's the difference between you and me. You're willing to sacrifice everyone around you to your vision of "the law.""

 

Trent removes his sunglasses and leans toward her slightly.

 

"I'm willing to put myself on the line."

[Springald Jack]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Hexslinger would smile beckon her over closer and say, "Child, I don't recognize the authority of the Angels, yet your claim is much weaker. And don't bother sending me to your toy Hell, I've seen the real one, and it holds no terrors for me."

 

If sent to Duress he'll EDM himself out with "Passage of Hermes"

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

I should point out that Nebula is not entirely Focussed-based. Her "Thrombalic Energy Manipulation" Multipower is innate to her and fairly formidable' date=' so she's still someone to be taken seriously even without her gadgetry. I do agree with you, though, as to the readily-available means to take her out, and her status as a plot hook.[/quote']Ah. I stand corrected. I missed her "Thrombaric Energy" being inate.

 

None the less, without her foci she become a considerably less daunting opponent- She loses her single most dangerous attack, almost 2/3 of her defenses (+15 FF), her Flight, and a couple of minor Powers. She's left with an ordinary 12d6 EB and the defenses of a lightweight MA without the matching DEX. Easy meat for most heroes or villains.

[DEFCON Clown]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Gregory Cauldron: Gregory would ask her to send him to Duress as he would see it as a point of honor to rescue the villian she just sent there. And if the only way he can get her to send him there is if he tries to attack her then thats what he'll do.

 

Jack O' Daggers: Jack would readily let her tag along as he went after villians, he's a vigilante and thinks that criminals need to suffer so he'd have no problem with what she's doing.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

War Wolf would remind her that the laws in the United States require due process, as well as the fact that the torture of Duress violates the punishment-must-fit-the-crime principle that is also part of US Law. On a non-legal but philosophical note, he'd bring up the fact that mercy is an integral part of justice and that by torturing prisoners, Nebula is every bit the villain, if not moreso, than the person she just banished. Followed up with an accusation that she's derelict in her duties and using her powers and equipment irresponsibly.

 

This should give him sufficient time to analyze the Banisher, metalmorph a defense, and then start opening a significant can of butt-whoop.

 

Quantum Kitsune would simply stick her tongue out, say "Good luck, creep", then turn invisible and teleport away.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

The Taveler would look at her and then proceed to beat her down and then take her back to her bosses and report her actions. He is a primere E-D traveler, with fully indirect attacks and a 105 pt VPP of magic. He's normal attacks are built on 105 active points, I don't think that she'd have a chance.

[Marcus Impudite]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Devilfire: Would probably be among the villains Nebula sends to Duress, though he would not be as impressed by it, seeing how he's a quasi-demonic being. Assuming he can find a viable means of escape, and can rally enough of his fellow prisoners behind him, Nebula may have just bit off more than she can chew.

[Sundog]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Terminus would point out that her laws hold no jurisdiction on earth. If she replied that she did not accept that argument (as I have no doubt she would), Terminus would request the presence of the other members of The Edge, and ask Zero to mindlink them all.

 

After explaining the situation, Terminus would then ask the team to aid him in taking Nebula down. I'm pretty certain we could nail her without getting hit (Miss Chaos slaps on her "flash everything" attack, Terminus uses his Light Lance, and Trawler haymakers - end of fight).

[Pyre-Archer]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

She does look ready to banish you in a heart beat if you try anything. Knowing that...What Would Your Character Do?

 

Pyre-Archer would quietly inform her that she is operating on sovereign territory without consent. Therefore, what she is doing could be considered ,at best, kidnapping, and at worst, an act of war, and could she wait there whilst I called up the other Champions of Vancouver, plus any other heroic minded individuals?

 

Not to mention cuing up the 'Missile Deflect' on my Multipower...

 

Richard Chambers, OTOH..."What the (bleep) are you on, you (bleep)? You (bleep) think you can (bleep) come down and grab people? WHERE THE (BLEEP) were you when the WHOLE (BLEEP) WORLD went up? HUH?"

 

In other words...yeah, he'd get beamed right quick. Not a pleasant lad, that, and his absence might be welcomed by some...

 

Pyre Archer

'Nebula beamed me twice last night....It was wonderful...'

[mikesama]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Jaguar Pequino "So whats the penalty for you interfering with an officer of the law? because thats what I am." She wouldn't start a fight with Nebula, but would tell her exactly what her actions entail on the game world she's on. "You keep trying to interfere with our laws and our planet will consider it an act of war and will most likely capture you, try you and execute you or kill you where you stand."

 

Corona "Lady if you need my help, you're F&^%ing pathetic"

 

Quantum "Try to dimensionally send me somewhere and you'll find you can't." Quantum has the power set to nullify her EDM making her a less than stellar energy projector. Then it's goodnight for nebula and a long stay in a prison for her.

[Great Beyond]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

She does look ready to banish you in a heart beat if you try anything. Knowing that...What Would Your Character Do?

 

Natasha would make a couple of calls to the Time Cops - the extradimensional time/space patrol agency of her campagn (her Father was drafted by them for numourous temporal . . . um how shall we say offences, and her stepmom is a full on Time Agent). If they indeed have authority, then - well Natasha would probably tell her to go away anwyay. If she DIDNT have authority, then she'd probably put togther a anti-banishing field (which shouldnt be too hard with her Super Genius level skils in temporal physics) and then apply the beatdown.

 

Or, if she was in a bored mood, Natasha would put together a dimensional recall translocator - a widget deigned to send her home when zapped to a galaxy far, far away. If she gets banished, she'll pop right back again. Wash, rinse, repeat until the cows came home.

 

Great Beyond - would probably go "fine, we can patrol my couch then." and go sit things out until she got bored and wandered away to pester someone else.

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Jake the Troll - "Um....ok." Then he'd go to English class with some super-powered chick following him around. Then to social studies. Then lunch. Then PE, in which he sits on the sidelines and watches everyone else play football. Then Math. "Um, I'm going home now. If you're gonna follow me home, I've got to get permission from my mom. You're a girl, and all." Goes home, does his homework, plays some video games. "G'night, wierd psycho-hose beast alien woman." Wash, rinse, and repeat for the next month.

 

Shinji Miromoto - probably one of the 'villians' she would be trying to send to an alternate dimension. If he knew about it, he'd probably be able to whip up an dimensional stabilizer (40 point dark psychic dimensional energy VPP) to keep her from doing anything, then get the rest of the Outsiders to help administer a beat-down.

 

Icon - Emma would do a similar "stare at the freaky alien in disbelief", then call up the Special Cases squad of the Argus City PD. They'd probably try to contact the Argonauts (the premire supergroup team - Emma's in the minor leagues) while Emma just hung around.

[Hypnotoad, the]

Re: WWYCD: The Nebula Affair

 

Polaris: The big guy would simply shrug and say "Y'know...Ah've bin needin' a break from all this superheroin', and y'all just gave me the best reason t'do so."

 

Then he'd go tell the rest of his teammates, and together we'd "convince" her that her brand of "Law enforcement" is neither required nor desired in this jurisdiction.

 

Dr. Kam:i She'd simply summon up 20 or so moai (her special attack robots that look like heads from Easter Islands) from one of her pocket dimensions and ask "I'm sorry...were you saying something to...DOCTOR KAMI?!?"

 

She's a bit of a showoff and drama queen, after all.

 

Darkling: As my oldest and most experienced (and retired) character, the experienced dimension-hopper would look her up and down...and dismiss her to a random far off dimension without another word. Then he'd get back to his fishing, complaining about all the interruptions that supervillains and wannabe incarceration specialists cause.