What Would Your Character Do #24

[zakueins]

You've captured the chief Henchbeing of your Campaign Master Villan (CMV). The CMV is planning to set off a bomb so powerful that it will vaporize the entire city (easily a 200D6 EB RKA Explosive), and the timer is set for exactly six hours. Your team can make to where the bomb is in at least one hour, and there is no time to evacuate enough people out of range to make any difference in the body count.

 

The problem is, only the Henchbeing knows where the bomb is, and he isn't talking. And doesn't care if he/she/it gets blown to bits. And there is NO time to find it by any other means (i.e. the location has Invisible to Sight/Sound/Mental Effects). What means would your characters use on this Henchbeing to get the information you need, in time?

[Solomon]

Ombra's Fear Inducing Gas shoud scare the Henchbeing enough that a simple PRE attack will make him talk. At least, let's hope so. Before trying that, however, Ombra would likely try to get at the Henchbeing's motives. Why isn't he talking? Why he's not afraid of death?

[farik]

Husky would use his 35 PRE to intimidate an answer 1st of all if that didn't work he would probably get frustrated and start beating the henchbeing unless he realized by changing back into Kenneth he could build a bomb detector built with a high-tech detect or maybe even a psychic truth serum or a mind altering drug to make the henchmen switch sides temporarily. But odds are he won't change unless someone else convinces him it's the right thing to do which means he'll probably beat the henchmen into a coma.

[Blue]

I'm going to assume that my players' team are nowhere around (because telepaths make this too easy).

 

Uncle Slam: Huge government contacts would enable him to find out all kinds of information about the man's past. He'd looke for any hook, any reason for him to live. If this fails, he'll move on to invasive techniques employed by secret agencies of the federal government. He'd hate it, and he'd end up owing a favor to one of the may groups he despises, but he'd do it if it was necessary.

 

Anthem's only recourse would be to bargain with him. She'd actually try and make friends. She'd keep chattering in a friendly way until she managed to get him to talk about anything. She'd try and get him to relate, to understand, and with any luck she'd manage to get some clues about places he's been recently by getting him to compare experiences.

[Brandi]

In Irving's case, one of his colleagues has sensitivity to the entire EM spectrum, so unless the concealment is *really* unusual they should be able to track it down.

 

Irving himself, for all his size and capability of breaking things, is really too sweet-tempered to do the intimidation thing well, and his Psychology skills aren't really there to have him try to break the hold the master villain has on the henchbeing.

[Lord Mhoram]

Blackcat would use her ch'i based dimmak kinda drains and drain his ego into negative numbers and just question him.

 

Ballistic would cast a will deadening spell that would drain his ego into negative numbers and just question him.

 

 

Yeah sorta basic, and just a little similar there.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Flippant, assuming no one else could help... go back to the dimension that healed him and *hope* they have some kind of portable psy-device, 'cause otherwise, he's screwed. Well, I suppose he could try and beat it out of him... but he's willing to die, so not likely to work.

 

Now, assuming it's my revised version, he takes the henchie on an extended tour of the more hellish dimensions available. (revised version can take passengers)

 

Henchie might not mind being blown up or tortured, but how about a dimension in which he can't A) die, or do anything at all.

 

Wraith would just get a ghost to possess the henchie. If need be, he'd supercharge the ghost with excess life force. (VPP character; he'll break him like a twig)

 

Arcane isn't in a campaign (and might never be, but...), but he's an immortal sorceror with a bad temper. He'll find it out. One way or another.

 

All of them would avoid going to these measures if there was another way... but there doesn't seem to be one.

[Stormraven]

While, granted, the character is in a really high-powered campaign, Control would simply blanket the entire city in a neutron-damping field (given that a bomb that powerful could only be atomic) so that the bomb could not achieve a chain reaction.

 

That taking most of his power, he would be forced to let his teammates try to figure out where the bomb is.

 

Checkmate, on the other hand, would ask the Henchbeing a series of innocuous sounding questions - "Can you tell me how to get to the Coral Building", "What's your favourite part of the city?" - look over the henchbeing's belongings, sit for a few moments, then give the team the address of the bomb.

(City Knowledge to tell him where the Henchbeing has spent most of its time in the last few days, 'Telepathy' defined as super-conversation, basically, and Precognition based on following logic chains and deductive leaps.)

[Ghost who Walks]

Well, here is what some of my campaign NPCs would do...

 

 

Dr. Grondicus (villain): Would immediately flee the city in his personal Star Flier. He would get into a geosynchronous orbit above the city, and use his ships sensors to record all the damage done to the fair city. 30 minutes after the city is destroyed, he would reach a deal with a major (surviving) metropolitan newspaper/TV station to sell the video for 10 million dollars. The 10 million dollars would be invested into real estate, in the destroyed city (values should be quite low by now). His legion of Grondbots would assist in clearing away the rubble, and building that shining beacon of world tyranny, the Fortress of Gronditude.

 

Mister Fabulous (Hero): Would accuse the Henchbeing of criminally abusing the laws of Science (which Mister Fabulous is sword to protect). This accusation would be followed by a long statement about the costs of modern society versus the needs of the environment, and whether the city should be destroyed, to create a new habitat for the endangered space rat. While Mister Fabulous is still getting talking, his butler will beat the truth out of the Henchbeing, find out where the bomb is, and call the city bomb squad to disarm it. The butler will then return to ironing Mister Fabulous's spandex tights.

[Chuckg]

Baron von Darien -- 1000+ year-old master vampires don't let little things like this stop them. Whether it be via his hynpotic gaze or his advanced postgraduate knowledge in the sciences of applied pain, that thug is gonna talk.

 

Dr. Pain -- well, ex-pro-wrestler bricks are pretty much limited to the PRE attack and the arm twisting. But he's a good guy, so the arm-twisting won't get much above... well, arm-twisting.

 

Starguard -- would so intensely concentrate on very politely and nicely asking the henchmen to speak up and save innocent life that she'd unconsciously manifest a +80 PRE effect from her Cosmic Power Pool, aka "The Belldandy Effect". The henchbeing would then be overcome with weepy remorse at his life of evil, tell the location, save the city, and enter a monastery.

[gewing]

Stalker would probably fail his "enraged when innocenst harmed or endangered" and start pounding. Not very practical, it is why he kicked the Demonologist off of the COlumbia tower after he dropped the "volshoth" on Redmond.

[Farkling]

Lightning: With a team to call on, Lightning will turn the henchman over for THEM to interrrogate and try searching the city with a radiation detector in hand. He runs at just under the speed of sound and has 100xspeed on his sight and hearing. He CAN search the city in under six hours, and has detective skills to boot.

Without the team to call on, Lightning would break the computer files on this guy and see if the reason he's not talking and unafraid to die is relevant. If Lighting couldn't find the bomb in the city, he'd retreat to a safe distance outside the city with the henchman, watch the explosion, and then batter most of the henchman's skeleton into powder (SuperSpeed Transform). This guy needs to live with what he's done.

 

FlameJet:: With the difficulty he has controlling his "innocents endangered" psychology, the victim is likely to be ashes or severely burned. FlameJet will call all his contacts and mobilize his construcion crews. The normal crews will be sent out of town, except for the demolition squad. They know more about bombs than anyone, and would help search. Jet will buy, rent, and even steal any technolgy in the area tat will help find the bomb, and publicly offer paid legal defense funds for any villains who can help find the bomb. He would go on television immediately. Panic and Death will result with the public release, but at least SOME people will be saved. Jet will die in the city searching for the bomb unless his plasma powers cause him to survive.

[Eyendasky80]

Last campaign I played in (I run mostly now) I had a character named Janizary who was an amnesiac government killer type. You know, that old song. So I guess he'd probably try some pretty gruesome torture techniques without a more "gentle" person around to reign him in. He had a pretty good persuasion skill. Barring that, I suppose he'd get out of town because he had a slight amoral streak. "If I can't find the bomb I better get the ef out of here." The other gamers would probably say Janizary would beat it out of the guy and promptly forget on his way there. The amnesia jokes were never ending with that crew.

[zornwil]

Blazing Arrow is convinced he has mystical powers. He does have a small (like 20 point) VPP that is Uncontrolled that is related to the fact that what he actually has is misunderstood/untapped mental or possibly truly mystical powers (since he doesn't have a clue I leave all that to the GM) that fire off however the GM declares. So Blazing Arrow would cast a spell with the help of the spirits to find the information.

 

Most likely the GM would give him something useful but in a roundabout way if this were a life-and-death situation. But given this is in part a disad, often it isn't really useful at all (normally, in fact Blazing Arrow blows a phase in combat completely).

 

So whatever clue he got, he'd follow, however wrong it might be. Most likely it'd be close enough to give another teammate an idea - or it'd simply be a red herring while his teammates solved the actual problem. It happens.

[Mayday]

Mayday: *looks up at American Valor*. "Get me a Court Order to Search this man. Do it NOW." Then the second the ink dries use her mental abilities to get the information, or try her darnedest. Working for Psiona, he probably has superior defenses so she's the only one who CAN get through, but it will take time so we'll be doing this on the plane. Mayday has never violated anyones mind before, but she would if the stakes were so high.

 

Chances are the team if we came that close we just missed getting Psiona, and we would go straight for her to get the information directly. He may not care about dying, but she would. But, Psiona would know this ahead of time both because she's smarter than we are and because Omen would tell her if she hadnt already thought it out.

 

Then we would charge right into her next layered death trap and bungle it, resulting in much injury to ourselves. With us where she wants us, Psiona then turns off the bomb if there even was one, Night Warden rescues Prime Directive who is stapled to a wall of our base again, and they come rescue us (NW sneaks in while Prime ignores the plan and does a bull in the china shop routine). Mayday lands in the hospital for 4 more months.