The Price of Power

[Certified]

Across the country a high profile super-villain is slain mysteriously; their cut open and left in a ring of blood. Although you've never dealt with this villain the grisly nature of his death rocks the metahuman community as a whole. Weeks later another villainess is killed in the same fashion. Over the next few days you begin to notice small changes in your powers. Powers you've had seem to be more effective and new powers seem to be developing.

 

In the same week as the last killing a hero in Canada is murdered again with no leads but in the same brutal manner. This time the effect is more noticeable, you can feel the change almost immediately. Two days later there is another slaying, this time a villain. Before it is even announced you can feel your body grow stronger. It is apparent that the new powers you are developing were possessed by the dead villains and hero.

 

Things are moving faster, the killings, the escalation of power. However, to date only one hero has been slain. The rest were all known criminals, some wanted for murder themselves. What would your character do?

[Blue]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Anthem would go to the data expert, Audra Blue, and have her analyze the choices, see if she can extrapolate why these people were selected and possibly even determine who would be next. Then she'd go head them off. A death is a death, to her, and all deaths are worthy of prevention.

[Vulcan]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Vigil would be creeped out by this. I mean, like, totally creeped out (and being from Chicago, you can see how this has affected his speech pattens...). Because he couldn't be sure that he didn't actually do it himself in his sleep...

 

He is a reformed villian, after all...

 

The deaths in and of themselves would matter less to him, unless the people in question were really undeserving of that fate. Even a hero could be a deadly enemy (see most 'Iron Age' comic books for what I mean - Vigil lives in an Iron Age world, after all.)

[hfergus]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Volt would see this as very weird and try to consult a mystice as to what is going on. This would need to stop, especially since a hero has died.

 

Olorin - see Volt's reaction, except he is a mystic. He'd check to see if the hero was really a hero. He'd dp mystic searches to see who did this and why. He'd figure it was another mystic, probably a necromancer who gets power from death, and the power is bleeding over to Olorin as an unintented side effect. Yes, he'd stop it, especially if it is a necromancer, even if only villians are killed.

 

Black Tiger - Consult a mystic. Suspect the hero was not so heroic. If not heroic, find the guy and congratulate him. If heroic, stop him. Period.

 

Futurian - "Aw crud! In order to stop a murderer, I have to lose potential power? Bummer." He'd consult a mystic and try to have it stopped.

 

Leadman. Go to confession immediatly. He'd at first think he did it, even though he is not the type. He'd seek a mystic - Olorin if available- to confirm he was not the cause. Then he'd work to stop it.

[Narratio]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Nighthawk, being a loner, would find the most powerful high profile group whose ranks are composed of the worlds finest (where's the classic JLA when you need them?) and turn himself in to them for testing and security. Let the big brains figure out what's going on.

[The Weapon]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Nighthawk' date=' being a loner, would find the most powerful high profile group whose ranks are composed of the worlds finest (where's the classic JLA when you need them?) and turn himself in to them for testing and security. Let the big brains figure out what's going on.[/quote']

 

Version One ditto, and he'd suggest it might be his creator somehow trying to get him to work for him. That creeps him out more than anything. He'd insist on being along for the apprehension of the pyscho who's doing this, both to ask why and to pound the living jesus out of him. There's an armour-piercing kick to the head with this guy's name on it. And next phase there's another one. Repeat as needed.

[assault]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Any character: This sounds like mystic territory. Time to consult any available experts.

 

Map the distribution of incidents. Spot that big pentagram, or whatever it is. Do regular investigative work at the crime sites, especially any "fresh" ones.

 

Also: check to see if the power changes are effecting any other heroes (the existence of other heroes is implied by the situation), or if it is just my character.

 

Assuming that it's just my character, the cause is either an existing member of his rogue's gallery, or someone new. There probably won't be many candidates in the first group, and it would probably be a bit bloodier than most of them are into, so identifying possibilities there shouldn't be too hard.

 

If it's someone new things would be a bit more difficult. Still, if my character is being specifically targeted, there's a reasonable chance that the Bad Guy is someone relatively close. After all, they'll eventually want to take all the powers themselves, won't they?

 

If lots of heroes are gaining a power boost, it's clear that something else is going on. See the first two paragraphs for further details.

 

EDIT: it's pretty unlikely that my character would be doing it, even if there is evidence suggesting that he is guilty. He'd get a bit angsty about it, but the main thrust of his activity would be to clear his name.

 

AND ANOTHER EDIT: Aside from the "regular investigative work at the crime sites", my character would also be doing the normal investigative things like trying to identify connections between the victims (and himself), and so on.

 

If his own investigative skills weren't up to scratch, he would have to call in favours from someone whose were.

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Sir Johnstone might finally get a power since this is apparently a mystical effect and he has been made immortal by the power of an ancient Magic Being (He refuses to call it a god). He would most likely get some improvement to his health, since he can, with enough time, heal any wound or illness.

 

The problem is, he would have been behind this if it hadn't a) required the deaths of people, targeted a hero, and c) been found out. As it is, the murders probably mysteriously stop and the powers gained fade. He is responsible for that, but few ever realise it.

 

White Knight, the power armoured hero, would not get powers because his powers come from cybernetics and then a power armour suit on top. He would ask his team mystic for orders, since the mystic is in command when matters of the mystical occur. He will not kill the culprits.

[Mendou]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Pyrie would panic once she figured out the connection. When (literally) cooler heads prevailed and got her to the point of rationality, she'd ask them to find out what was happening and WHY it was happening to her. If possible, she'd want them to stop whatever was causing the power transfer before another super was killed. She's already traumatized by the lives lost when she gained her powers; being responsible for (or even benefitting from) more death is really going to freak her out.

[Lucius]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Stormwalker:

Is going to assume that it is either some misguided person deliberately worshipping Him and making sacrifice to Him, or an equally misguided worshipper of His Divine Father, the Thunder God. He would recruit the help of His allies, possibly inluding official government or law enforcement contacts, and use His own powers to the utmost to put a stop to it. He would feel a very keen sense of personal responsibility for apprehending the villain. Since He suspects the effect is deliberate and meant to "help" Him, He may just go public with the situation and warn whoever is responsible to stop and turn themselves in, "before I find you."

 

Amphibian:

Would start asking around to see if it's happening to anyone else/everyone else. Knows some magi and would make a beeline for one of them when he figures out what's going on. Might also contact a certain scientist who is an expert on "superpowers" and may have some theoretical understanding of how this is even possible. Would probably be even more disturbed than Stormwalker at the idea of benefiting in this way from a violent death.

 

Quetzlcoatl:

Would assume it's happening to others, and wonder who and how many, and be quite baffled if it's just him because despite the name and a carefully cultivated public image as a Mesoamerican myth come to life, his most obvious "powers" are actually technological in nature and his more subtle powers are mostly derived from assiduous cultivation of yoga, meditation, and martial arts. He's also built as a super detective and he would be working hard to find the hidden connections in the situation. He'd also consider the possibility that the heroic victim was not as virtuous as he seemed. And he's too paranoid not to consider the possibility that he is being used as a "repository" on a temporary basis and that he is slated to be the last victim when whoever is doing it is ready to harvest all that power. HOWEVER, if he's convinced the so called hero wasn't, and finds the party or parties responsible and becomes convinced they are only dangerous to truly evil villains (i.e. known murderers or violent criminals, not glorified smash and grab thugs in spandex) he might just try to ally with them (admittedly partly to keep an eye on them.) His personal benefit doesn't enter into it; either the killings are justifiable or they're not. Mostly likely of course they're NOT (the ritualism implies that this is sacrifice, not execution) and he'd happily use the extra powers to try to subdue and capture the villain or villains, and with the faintest twinge of regret say goodbye to the power boost afterwards (assuming, of course, that it does fade away without regular sacrifices.)

 

Okay. Maybe not so faint a twinge, but he'd do the right thing.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

What would a palindromedary do?

[Badger]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Badger- consult the resident mystic. He wouldnt care so much about the killings (except the hero) as much as why he is gaining the powers. He doesnt want them (he wants to "earn" any and all of his powers, due to his pride, he doesnt want some "3rd party" meddling with it all, ) This also means whoever is doing the killing and/or power transferring is liable to be eliminated with extreme prejudice once they are known.

[Certified]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Since this originally came to me as more of a purist concept with no real background in mind I'm going to post a few options to see what people gravitate to.

 

Story Seed options:

 

The Agency: A quasi-government group has been monitoring metahumans and superpowers for years. In turn each of the victims has had a run in with the agency, so has the player character. During this encounter they were exposed to a kind of chemical. As these targeted metahumans become a threat the chemical has been activated. The ring of blood and power bleed have just been side effects. However, this means at some point your character was exposed. As they have killed a hero who has no obvious villainous tendencies this could be bad...

 

Children of the Atom: Research reveals that each of the victims contained a matching genetic marker. Although, it is unclear what the gene is for.The killer is a mutant with this same marker. The only power he knew abut was being able to detect others with this same mutation, which has been slowly driving him mad. The killings began to snuff out the sounds of the others but with each killing he absorbed some fraction of their power carried by this marker. The first killings were not as ritualized as he's grown stronger a sense of purpose has begun to emerge that he was given his senses to purge this flaw from the world.

 

Spellbound: A powerful mystic, possibly a supernatural entity such as a demon or cosmic vampire has build a cult around themselves. Teaching their followers a single rote that allows them funnel off the life essence of those who have been slain. Not wanting to endanger themselves the mystic has used the cultists to enact the slayings but their inexperience has released fractions of this spirit energy to all those of a like nature. This has tied the character to the mystic, the bond between them growing stronger with each killing. As the slayings continue mystic begins to appear in the character's dreams. Worse, his personality begins to bleed over, injecting rouge thoughts on how to react to the world around them. It is unclear if the mystic is suffering the same psychic bleed over.

[DocMan]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Each of the following characters is in a different campaign, set in a common world...

 

Psi Lord - Mutant Mentalist.

Psi Lord would consult his teammates to see if they were experiencing a similar power boost. The group would investigate the killings and try to put a stop to them. He would suspect that the power transfer was due to him being either a mutant or a mentalist. He would work as quickly as possible on the principle that his boosts are the result of "residual" energy being absorbed and that the killer was getting a LOT more power. And then we'd defeat Devastator. Again.

 

Black Tigre - Mutant Martial Artist

Again, he'd consult his teammates to determine if others were getting power boosts. He would rely on Silver Moon (the mystic) to help track down the source of the power and determine if it was linked to the killings. He would try to stop the killing, but I'm not sure if Captain Alpha would go along...

 

Flicker - Mutant Speedster

After an exhaustive cursing jag that would last all of 1.73 seconds, he would begin his own investigation independent of his teammates. He would teach himself how to hack, hack into every known intelligence agency's computers, teach himself how to program, implant sniffer viruses that would send information about the killings back to the Protector's computer, and amass and analyze the information, stopping only to order and prepare massive amounts of food and consume same. He would hopelessly spam his teammates mailboxes with notes on what he is doing and what he has found out. He would try to get his teammates to help stop the murderer, but he'd set out on his own if he gets too impatient.

Flicker lives at an accelerated rate. And has to consume extra food to fuel his body at this rate. Giving him more power would speed up this rate. Since he cannot slow down his body (he gives new meaning to the term fidget in staff briefings), he would be DESPERATE to put a stop to these killings.

 

Moleculon - Altered Human Shape Shifter

Moleculon would be concerned that some kind of energy released from the killings is interfering with his bio-molecular matrix. He would study the problem as a science problem, most likely spending many hours in his original, unimpressive form. He would ask his teammates to assist in the investigation of the crimes, but would not expect them to understand the science behind what was going on. He would definitely try to stop the killings, as murder is wrong, and the power increases could potentially de-stabilize his matrix and disperse him.

 

Rampart - Normal Human Martial Artist

Rampart would report the incident to PATRIOT, and would be rather alarmed as he never had any powers before. He would consult Electrum, the alien robot on his team, for scientific explanations. He would also consult Silhouette, as she has had prior run-ins with mystics and magical powers. He would not expect any help from Foxfire or The Medalist, as they tend to be very self-centered and they never listened to him anyway. The Medalist would probably think it was about time he got some REAL powers. Rampart, as an officer of the law, would have to find the killer and put a stop to the killings.

 

Inferno - Mutant Energy Blaster

Inferno would report the incident to his superiors in AEGIS. At first he would be more concerned that this was part of some "eager beaver's" attempt to consolidate powers. He wouldn't want to have any part of that kind of experimentation as that kind of brutal exploitation isn't what made this country great. He would want to hunt down his connection to the killer and stop the killings. Power isn't worth the price. Rogue elements that do this type of thing are a danger to all citizens.

 

Interesting that there is a whole Highlander "there can be only ONE!" flavor to this scenario. What if super powers were a limited resource and you could have ultimate power by killing off all the other supers?

 

Doc

[Cygnia]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Interesting that there is a whole Highlander "there can be only ONE!" flavor to this scenario. What if super powers were a limited resource and you could have ultimate power by killing off all the other supers?

 

Wasn't that part of the set up of JMS's "Rising Stars"?

[DocMan]

Re: The Price of Power

 

Wasn't that part of the set up of JMS's "Rising Stars"?

 

Possibly. I never heard of "Rising Stars".

 

Doc