Christopher

In the campaign I'm in, one would be:
 
"If a villain finds out a hero's secret identity, the villain will die eventually."
 
Not planned that way. It's just sort of how things have worked out.

Had an absolutely amazing Star Wars session last week, which mostly consisted of an extended crash sequence. There's no way I can do the whole thing justice, but here are a few highlights.
 
Our ship was smuggling Princess Leia (who in this continuity has become a Jedi) and a platoon of Rebels onto Endor so they can blow up a certain shield generator protecting a certain Death Star under construction. But our heavily jury-rigged systems gave out right as we hit atmo, causing a cascading systems failure throught the ship.
 
As our YT-1300 makes like a particularly-unbalanced falling rock, our Rhodian Navigator tries to make his way back to engineering to help with repairs. But despite having the best Athletics roll of any of us, he manages to fail literally every Athletics check and plays slapstick comic relief for a few turns.
 
Meanwhile my Protocol Droid PC manages to make his way to the bridge and climbs into the co-pilot seat to try and help our Captain/pilot regain control.
GM: "You realize one of the things making the ship so unbalanced and non-aerodynamic is your massively oversized sensor dish. You think cutting it loose would help balance the ship out."
Captain and Navigator: "Noooo! That dish is awesome!"
GM: "Fortunately/unfortunately the only opinion that counts in the person with their fingers on that switch."
Droid: "Would those be my fingers?"
GM: "Yep."
Droid: "Oh yeah, I don't even hesitate - cut it loose."
GM: "Great! The dish spins out ahead of you like a massive metal frizbee, eventually plowing into the trees below..."
Droid: "Wait wait!" [flips over a Destiny Point]* "How many Ewoks does the dish kill on the ground?!"
GM: "Oh yeah, it totally slices through two of those ginormous tree cities. Dead teddy bears everywhere!"
 
* Like spending a Hero Point or Bennie or whatever.
 
Meanwhile in the cargo bay...
GM: "Leia is using Force Suggestion to try and keep the other Rebels from freaking out. "Remain calm....All is well...""
Player 1: "If the cabin loses pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. Put your own mask on first because screw that guy...."
 
Back in the cockpit, my Droid co-pilot has managed to fail every single Piloting Roll; not badly enough to screw us, but nothing to help out the Captain.
Droid: [pounds his console in frustration] "Is this thing even on?!"
Captain: [leans over, throws a toggle switch]
Droid: "...Ah. Thank you." [proceeds to make every subsequent Piloting check]
 
As we near the ground, the Navigator tries to find us a clearing to land in.
Navigator: "Gee, you know what would really help would be if we had a Big Ol' Sensor Dish or something!"
Droid: "Hey, at least the ship is right-side up now."
Navigator: "Not my department!"
GM: "OK, you think you've managed to find a clearing that might be bit enough...
Droid: "Wait wait!" [flips over another Destiny Point] "Is it the clearing made by the falling sensor dish?!"
GM: "Awesome! Yes, the dish has cut a perfect landing strip for you!"
 
Our Engineer has managed to repair enough fuel lines to restart the main engines in the nick of time. The Captain opens up a full burn to decelerate us as much as possible, pulling enough Gs to black out most of the crew but softening the crash enough that we all survive. (Tho our ship is probably damaged beyond repair.)
Captain: "As soon as I wake up, I unbuckle, pull myself over to the Navigator's console, shake him awake and yell "Tell me you got all that on camera!!""
We had briefly had a TV camera crew onboard and had kept their camera drones. So yes, we did get it!

"The developer of 'fool-proof' systems underestimate the ingenuity of the fools."

"The developer of 'fool-proof' systems underestimate the ingenuity of the fools."

Ladytron
 
Old Marty Wicks felt that the world had degenerated since the end of the War. Sure some things had got better but others had gotten so bad it was no longer safe to go outside let alone leave your doors unlocked. People needed hope or a symbol. But Marty's son was not going to be any help in that department. Marty felt that something could and should be done.
It was not until the late 90s and the early 2000s that the opportunity started to appear and crystallise. Marty helped in the clean ups after hurricanes and tornadoes and these sometimes gave up unexpected bounty. Sure Marty found cash occasionally and jewelry and would hand these in. Stumbling onto hidden underground bases or caches were quite another thing. From these he began to design and construct a battlesuit. He knew he would never wear it but someone would. And that person turned out to be his granddaughter who felt she could do something to make things better. Over a period of a few months as she came of age, Marty tested her to see if she had the moral fibre and will required to serve the public interest as good police officers, paramedics and the fire department are wont to do. When he was satisfied that she had 'the right stuff' he showed her the suit. She helped him complete it and became the hero known as Ladytron. She thinks it is after the film with the light cycles. She does not know that it is after a Roxy Music record. Helena Wicks is continuing to inspire people today after the passing of old Marty.   

I dunno, were-bunny can be pretty cool if you know kickboxing or learn it:
http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2205

Our cast of characters, in the freeport of Magnimar : Gillert, a student wizard who fell in with a bad crowd - i.e. the rest of the party. Ys, Elven pirate and freelance assassin. Harshal, Shoanti tribesman making a comfortable living as an extremely bent lawyer. And Zin, kobold trapsmith and wannabe Underlord. And speaking of Underlord business, the problem of searching the sewers, and the goblins nests within.  
   
 
Gillert: I'm smart, I'm sure I can invent a pump and big pipe from the sea.  
 
Harshal: Really. I can see the problem already.  
 
Gillert: Oh? What?  
 
Harshal: The moment the sewers back up far enough you'll be flooding people' homes with rotting sewage and angry goblins. Now, I live in an upstairs apartment, but the rest of you...  
 
   
 
What can we do about that Kitsune vigilante? She's too clever to be caught easily, and regardless of how many people she kills she can rationalise it under a Good Alignment.  
 
   
 
Ys: I don't see why we should stop her - I think she's hilarious.  
 
   
 
Harshal: The thing is that it's the Nightscales who are investigating the theft, and it's the Nightscales who were importing all that flamethrowing equipment. So somebody out there is going out their way to deny the Nightscales a supply of incendiary material, and stop their plan to burn Magnimar to the ground.  
 
Ys: Again, I'm not seeing any reason to interfere.  
 
Zin: Why do the Nightscales want to burn the city to the ground anyway? They live here.  
 
Harshal: Because their new leader is a devotee of a pyromaniac god.  
 
   
 
GM: I'm still amused that it was Colon who said that the vigilante must be buying from the elven merchants.  
 
Harshal: Well, even Gillert does so much cockscrew thinking these days that the obvious escaped us.  
 
GM: That IS the purpose of the Fool - to innocently stumble on the obvious.  
 
   
 
Gillert: How did this group not consider 'insurance scam' when we heard about the Keros Oil?  
 
Ys: I was thinking of insurance scam the moment I heard 'Keros Oil' - admittedly, I was mostly thinking 'life insurance'.  
 
   
 
Gillert: Stealing stuff from the docks to load it back onto an outgoing ship and sell it elsewhere is a victimless crime.  
 
Ys: Why do you care?  
 
Gillert: I'm good aligned, I'm trying to find a motivation.  
 
Ys: Profit is it's own motivation! And how good can you be if you hang out with me?  
 
Gillert OoC: I can still be Good if I don't help you.  
 
Ys OoC: 'The only thing evils needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing.'  
 
Gillert OoC: Hey, I don't know how evil you are - I just think you're a bit stab-happy.  
 
   
 
Harshal: It's entirely possible that the theft of the Keros Oil was a crime of opportunity, and completely unrelated to the Disco Inferno the Nightscales have planned.  
 
GM: Would I do that?  
 
   
 
GM: While the brothel madam is called Riley of the Silks, no-one knows why. She doesn't wear silk.   
 
Harshal: Imagine getting the stains out.  
 
GM: No. But she IS almost always oiled, which is odd, given her pale complexion. But then, maybe it just keeps her skin looking young.  
 
   
 
She certainly has plenty of skin to show off - the amount of cloth she's wearing would make a small handkerchief.  
 
   
 
GM: But for formal occasions she quintuples the amount of cloth.  
 
Ys: Ah - she she covers her breasts as well then.  
 
GM: Barely. That and a small wrap around her hips.  
 
Zin: She must have the magical woman's armour save.  
 
Harshal: 'Mystic power of the uterus'.  
 
   
 
Ys: Madam Riley - Ys Danar. *proffers hand*  
 
Riley of the Silks: I suspect you're not here for custom.  
 
Ys: You would be correct. It has come to the attention of associates of mine that you have been making inquiries, and my associates are in a position to offer services including investigation. It would be our pleasure to offer these services.  
 
   
 
The late nobleman had an item that Riley of the Silks wants - she's confident that the item will be bequeathed, rather than passed down to the firstborn. But she won't tell us anything more about the noble or the item without magical enforcement of certain aspects of the contract - but these aspects don't include success or failure.  
 
   
 
Harshal: I suspect the aspect in question is confidentiality.  
 
Ys: I suspect you are right.  
 
   
 
GM: Draconic is the most common sorcerer bloodline among kobolds, after the kobold bloodline itself. And the dragon bloodline is more common among kobolds than among any other race other than dragons themselves.  
 
Harshal: But then, given how many part-dragon races there are, apparently dragons will stick their dicks in anything.  
 
Gillert: 'I got drunk, and made a species - oops'.  
 
   
 
We agree to a meeting with Riley and some of her associates, after applying suitable disguises.  
 
   
 
Harshal: Can Zin give us all pointy ears so they'll think we're all elves?  
 
   
 
GM: Hmm, I forget to get a random prostitute generator.  
 
Harshal OoC: Oh god, not the Gygax one.  
 
Zin OoC: wait, what?  
 
GM: The Random Harlot Table from the first edition Dungeonmaster's Guide.  
 
   
 
Riley's associates all have heavy gauze over their eyes, and heavy hoods. Despite this, Ys and Zin recognise them as a cabal of deliberately anonymous wizards, who wear the get-up to protect their client's anonymity too.  
 
   
 
Harshal: I was wondering if their presence meant this was connected to the death of that other wizard - in which case, pay up.  
 
   
 
GM: They're going to be putting a Lesser Geas on you.  
 
Harshal: That'd be the way I'd do it.  
 
GM: The Geas is to prevent you talking to anybody else about the item, and against investigating the contents of the item in any way.  
 
Zin OoC: So, it's Marcellus Wallace's briefcase.  
 
GM: Pretty much.  
 
   
 
The item is a diary, but not one of the ones written by the recently dead wizard. It's actually much older than that, and rebound in bronze, and belonged to a noblemen, one Avis Scelani, killed by the recent plague that we're all so completely not complicit in.  
 
   
 
Harshal: Do we need to take any special precaution against contamination? He didn't die clutching it to his chest or anything?  
 
Riley of the Silks: I sincerely doubt it. In fact, I doubt that the executor herself knows where the item is held - the locale of the diary will be bequeathed in a sealed envelope.  
 
Ys: So the executor has the envelope? That makes things MUCH easier.  
 
   
 
The Scelani family are not an old family, and got most of their money through 'trade'. Riley got most of her information from the executor, who is a regular at her establishment.  
 
   
 
Zin: So what are getting paid for this?  
 
Harshal: I'm assuming NOT three months credit at the brothel.  
 
   
 
Riley offers 800 GP for the item, which is a fraction of what she must have paid for the Geases. On the other hand, she'll through in a 200 GP bonus if we don't kill anybody. Or even fight anybody.  
 
   
 
Zin: We shall be as shadows.  
 
GM: She isn't ruling out looting - she's commissioning you to preform a burglary, and is pre-paying you for one of the items. It's generally assumed you'll help yourself to everything else while you're there.  
 
   
 
Zin, the reptilian in the party, notices that it's quite cold in here. But Riley has been seen in daylight and didn't burst into flames, which rules out the obvious.  
 
   
 
Harshal: But no gooseflesh, or the other obvious reaction to cold either.  
 
GM: And don't say you didn't look.  
 
Ys: I was looking the whole time.  
 
Zin: All you humans look the same anyway.  
 
Gillert: Yes, we all have boots, at the appropriate height for kicking mouthy kobolds.  
 
   
 
The executor Domillia Pacia works out her top-floor apartment in Keystone, an essentially middle-class section of Magnimar.  
 
   
 
GM: Prostitution is considered a valuable social service.  
 
Ys: I'm desperately trying to not say social lubricant.  
 
   
 
We wait until she heads out, and Gillert and Harshal head upstairs with Zin in a bag.  
 
   
 
All: *singing the Mission Impossible theme*  
 
Ys: Must be an orc Skald in one of the apartments, playing the drums.  
 
Gillert: We'll slip him a few silver to play louder.  
 
   
 
Gillert picks the lock and gets to work on her filing cabinet and desk, while Harshal searches the rest of the room and browses her book shelves. There's not much of interest, apart from a scholarly treatise on kobolds that doesn't answer the question on why they're all little communistic f**ks. The letter itself is simple enough to open, despite the wax seal, but all it says is that the diary - of a well-connected woman who died many years ago - is in the late man's study, and 'your uncle is keeping watch on it'. Of course, if Gillert had remembered to prep the Mending cantrip, we could have resealed the envelope without Harshal having to break out all the forgery equipment.  
 
   
 
Ys: You know, I think I know what that letter actually means, and it's not what Harshal thinks.  
 
GM: Well, there's only so many plots put there.  
 
Harshal OoC: Let me guess, the late woman was actually Tom Riddle.  
 
GM: No. It's not a horcrux.  
 
   
 
GM: So, you're going to break into the place without doing the legwork first? Actually, which of you are actual thieves.  
 
Harshal: None of us.  
 
GM: Yeah - you're an investigator, Gillert is an Eldritch Scoundrel...  
 
Gillert: Well, somebody has to write the Necronomicon.  
 
GM: It's already been written. Or wrote itself.  
 
Harshal: Just write the Book of Erotic Fantasy - it'll sell better.  
 
   
 
GM: Do any of you have personal theme tune? I find it helps with character, sometimes.  
 
Harshal OoC: Is the there a song called "March of the Morons"?  
 
Zin OoC: With Alchemical Rope I could be Spiderman.  
 
GM: Easily.  
 
Harshal OoC: Spiderkobold.  
 
GM: Spiderkobold, spiderkobold, does whatever, a spiderkobold can.  
 
Gillert OoC: 'What's that noise?' 'Spiderkobold. He'll be here later. Once the theme tune finishes'  
 
   
 
The house we intend to burgle has been extensively renovated and added to over the years, which makes for a rather eccentric floorplan. Some faces have no windows, other windows are too small to squeeze through, and there's a third storey tower that's mostly windows.   
 
   
 
Zin: Well, if I know my rich people with big houses...  
 
Harshal: Do you?  
 
Zin: I don't.  
 
   
 
The estate also has a number of guards and rotating patrols of the ground.  
 
   
 
Harshal: So, the bare minimum to keep thieves out. Hopeful insufficient to keep US out.  
 
GM: We'll see.  
 
   
 
Something that might be to our advantage, when it arrives - towering cumulonimbus clouds approaching rapidly.  
 
   
 
Harshal: It WILL make the ropes slippery if we need to get out fast.  
 
Gillert: It's only two storeys.  
 
GM: You're still low enough level that that can kill you.  
 
Harshal: We'll make Zin go down first - if he falls, we'll use him to break our fall.  
 
Zin: *grumble*  
 
GM: Welcome to being of a race that sucks.  
 
Ys: Welcome to a party of Not Good People.  
 
   
 
Ys cuts the window open while the rest of us wait to scramble in. Of course, that leaves a disc of broken glass that the patrol might notice.  
 
   
 
Harshal: So, Gillert, did you remember to prepare the Mending spell today?  
 
Gillert: ..... I asked everybody what spells I should take earlier!  
 
Harshal: I'll take that as a 'no', then.  
 
   
 
Indeed, the house is so fancy it has at least two indoor toilets.  
 
   
 
Harshal: Fancy.  
 
Gillert: They've got the 'I want to read a magazine' one, and the 'I want to take a shit' one.  
 
   
 
Zin notices that the internal dimensions at this end of the house don't match the outside, and soon discovers the secret alcove beyond. Which is a secret wardrobe.   
 
   
 
GM: This wasn't that uncommon, given the cost of high-quality outfits.  
 
Harshal OoC: So this is wear they'd keep their fursuits, if they had any.  
 
GM: Yeah. There's also armour and weapons.   
 
   
 
And gladiatorial gear, which is weird for Magnimar, and provokes a long discussion of styles of gladiator, and the origin of the family we're robbing.  
 
   
 
GM: Basically it was a bunch of Chellaxians who got tired of all the eyeshadow.  
 
   
 
It eventually turns out that searching the top floor first was a complete waste of time - it's all bedrooms, and no study.  
 
   
 
GM: You have no idea how difficult it was to keep a straight face when you said 'the study must be upstairs'.  
 
   
 
We also find yet more indoor toilets.  
 
   
 
Harshal: I have questions about this family's diet.  
 
   
 
The study also turns out to be the very last room it could be.  
 
   
 
Gillert: F**k me.  
 
GM: Look at the floorplan - the study would also be the office, and be where visitors could go to it without going through the rest of the house.  
 
   
 
Ys: OK, now we've found the study, I'm looking around for a bust or portrait of a man.  
 
Harshal: Oh. OOOOHHHHH! So THAT's what 'your uncle is keeping watch on it' meant.  
 
GM: It's a classic misdirection.  
 
   
 
And then Harshal and Zin blunder straight into the magical trap, and Harshal falls victim to the Haunt.  
 
   
 
GM: You flee the source of the terror.  
 
Ys: Oh dear.   
 
GM: Straight out the atrium, and past the guards. At least Ys and Gillert felt uneasy enough to pause near the door, and get attacks of opportunity.  
 
   
 
Ys gets a certain amount of satisfaction from kicking Harshal's feet out from under him as he runs past. Gillert hurries to slap a hand over Harshal's mouth to stop the screams.  
 
   
 
Harshal OoC: Maybe the uncle really is watching over the book, and he's a ghost.  
 
GM: Eh. Not saying.  
 
Gillert: Brilliant.  
 
   
 
Ys sends Zin back in to search.  
 
   
 
Ys: Fear me more than the ghost.  
 
   
 
And the bust on one shelf is very obviously facing towards the chimney, which indeed contains a small wallsafe set into the stonework halfway up, and a sigil of one of the gods of the afterlife, which probably explains the haunting. Which kicks back in just as Zin is passing the book to Ys. We hurry to leave before the profound unease emanating from the book overwhelms us. It's not like the geas we're under will allow us to figure out HOW the book is haunted.  
 
   
 
Gillert OoC: So, which of us has a will save of +1 or better.  
 
Harshal OoC: Not me.  
 
Gillert OoC: Well, we'll leave the book with Zin. If nothing else he's easier to catch.  
 
   
 
We exit, stage left, collecting the more valuable accoutrements from the house we leave. That's mostly the outfits and armour from upstairs - even the silverware is only so much precious metal.  
 
   
 
Harshal: And keeping a close eye on Zin, in case he suddenly runs off screaming and dumps the book somewhere.  
 
GM: Wailing about how it's all your fault that he's going to die alone.  

Champions - Edge City : Loud
Hero Shrew: If they're being hunted by canine Moreaus riding a kraken VIPER, AND us, I don't blame them at all for wanting to stay on the down-low.
Fireflash: Especially that last one.
Hero Shrew: Yeah - I mean, just being associated with us in the press will do they social standing no good at all.

Hero Shrew: Can we put up LOST notices on all the lampposts?
Hardlight: That's a terrible idea.
Fireflash: It's a terrible idea, but it still might work.
GM: And it's not just three groups looking for them - so are Wild Kingdom, and Cecil the Springbok Mobster.
Hero Shrew: I'm surprised he's not named Jack.
Hardlight: Hmm?
Hero Shrew: Spring-heeled Jack.

Hardlight: I'm suddenly wondering what catnip costs around here.
Hero Shrew: $50 for a dime bag.

Hero Shrew: So, how do we let this pair of sympathisers know that we're here to protect them? I mean, they have some pretty dangerous people after them, if they didn't already know. I mean, Cecil the Springbok is nearly as dangerous as Cornelius Snarlington, Business Deer.

Hardlight: We need to set up a working relationship with the Edge City infobrokers.
Hero Shrew: Sorry, what were you talking about? I was thinking about Sally again. You think I should tell her Steiner never gave me superspeed? Girls are reassured by things like that, right? I mean, they like it when guys don't go too fast.

Hero Shrew: Maybe, if can track Steiner down, I can get him to give me stretching powers.

Hardlight: Maybe we should put a watch on Max the Doberman, in case he gets recruited by these canine Moreaus.
GM: I'm sure Scooter will love that - he has Max as a 5pt Romantic Rival
Hero Shrew: I wouldn't mind putting 24hr surveillance on Sally.
GM: Yes, Sally, the only Moreau in Edge City that could drop you with little difficulty. Oh, you've got all these defences? Biomanipulation - one touch and down you go.
Hero Shrew: Hey, I might be into that, if it was her.

Hero Shrew: *mutters* I don't know what she see in Max... not all of us can have fist-sized knots.

GM: It's not common, but some Moreaus are built wide. And that's why they call a 6ft2 580lb wombat Brick.
Hero Shrew: That, and the shape of his poop.

We go see one of The Zoo's community pillars, a self-taught lawyer and gray tabby by the name of Simon who has been carefully establishing the legal rights of Moreaus. His assistant is skeptical that our business is of a delicate nature, since Hero Shrew is in the vicinity, and delicacy is not a word that one associates with him.

Simon's Assistant: Mr Simon sir? The three more public members of Quadrant are here to see you. Yes, most amusing sir, I'll send them in.
Hero Shrew: I bet he's assuming the worst already. "So, Scooter, who did you get pregnant?"
GM: That's not the worst news, that would be great news! The Moreau birthrate is still lower than it should be.

Simon: I've had enough trouble today as it is, answering questions about the 'new Moreau gang in Edge City'.

Simon is reluctant to tell us much, but agrees that the possibility of a resurgent Genesys is important enough to make an 'educated guess', and suggests we search for the hippie sympathisers in Moss Park.

Hero Shrew: Should be easy enough to find them - Moss Park is mostly lake.

Simon: Just remember - keep them safe.
Fireflash: That's the plan.

One oddity about Moss Lake - the footbridge that runs along its long axis. True, it pre-dates the fusion plant going boom, back when the city architects were mad with cash, but it was still a waste of effort and material.

Hardlight: They must be on the north shore - it's the only place on the lakefront that has room for people.
Hero Shrew: True, but I'll still look over the lake for any pedalboats with a pair of nervous hippies in it.

There is one vehicle parked by the lack that stands out like a sore thumb - a Nakajima Roamer, a luxury RV.

Hero Shrew: Roamer or Roma?
GM: Roam, like the B52 song.
Fireflash: Oh, so THAT'S what the song was about!

Fireflash lands next to the RV and knocks on the door.

Hero Shrew: Lets hope it isn't an RV full of Canine Moreaus trying to be slightly less conspicuous than a giant squid.
Fireflash: It's harder to be MORE conspicuous than riding a giant squid.

Blacked out Vis-screen on the RV door: Yes, can I hel- OH CRAP!
Fireflash: Well, thanks for confirming who you are.

Fireflash: I need to ask you about some large ophidian eggs.
Young Hippie Lady: Ophdians, haha, oh, nothing to do with us, what's Ophidian even mean?
GM: She's a really bad liar - Buffy, Season One and Two Willow level of bad.
Fireflash: You need to improve at that.

Outside, Hardlight and Hero Shrew hear something. It's difficult not to hear it. Fireflash can't hear a thing through the RV's soundproofing, and the sound of the RV's shower running.

GM: The end of the world is coming - that, or 5 Kundalini Rochin motorcycles approaching at speed.

Hero Shrew: Still less conspicuous than the giant squid.

Hippie: We can't go to PRIMUS! I mean, think about it. I mean, how do two college kids break into a secret lab and out again?
Fireflash: You got hired?
Hippie: No, I mean Wrecking Ball - we're unregistered supers!

The hippie guy gets out of the shower - he looks like an ordinary human, apart from the greenish-blue skin.

Hippie Guy: .... Ah.
Fireflash: This might be an indelicate question, but are you an Atlantean?
Hippie Guy: You're right, that is an indelicate question. *slips on his disguise bracelet*
Fireflash: Sorry, but you're in a lot of trouble.
Hippie: *hears the approaching motorbikes* What's that noise?
Fireflash: Trouble.

Hero Shrew is suddenly keenly aware that the Keep Them Safe line was actually a delayed psychic trigger that Simon planted in his mind, because he's moving to grab the hippies and run them to safety, rather than getting in an punch-up with the approaching wolfpack. He picks up the entire RV and starts running off with it.

Hero Shrew: It would have made more sense to tuck one of the hippies under each arm and start super-leaping, but I can do this too.
GM: You can still superleap with the RV.
Hero Shrew: It might be a luxury RV, but I don't think the suspension would survive that.
GM: What suspension?
Fireflash: You're underneath it, YOU'RE the suspension.
Hero Shrew: Good point!
Fireflash: Spine. Of!
Hero Shrew: HERO SHREW!

Hardlight gets clotheslined by a pair of dog soldiers leaping off their bikes at full speed.

Hippie Girl: Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!!!
Hippie Guy: *pushing her towards the cabin* I'm useless out the water, and she needs a run-up!
Hero Shrew: There's a lake right there.
GM: Which only helps him if they go into the lake after him.
Hardlight: Is the RV amphibious?!
GM: Any vehicle is amphibious. Once.

Hero Shrew superleaps north into the residential suburb of Hockabout, and shakes off the implanted command.

Hero Shrew: dafuq?
GM: Oh no, the command was still your idea. But now you can have other ones.
Hero Shrew: Well, headed into an area with plenty of obstacles and potential for property damage was a good idea before, so it still is now.

The dog soldiers have the unenviable choice of stopping for a better shot at Scooter, leaving them open to Fioreflash's attack, or shooting Fireflash instead, who they probably can't hurt. One of them pulls out a shockrod, and discovers just what a hairtrigger throttle the motorbikes have when it zooms out from underneath him at several hundred kilometres an hour. Fireflash lays on some hurt.

Fireflash: You guys are FUCKED.

The dog soldiers are having real difficulty hurting Fireflash, despite their high-tech weapons.

GM: In fact, they're on the verge of questioning the entire report the last team made about you.

Hardlight recovers enough to put a bubble around one of the dog soldiers, who discovers he can't shoot his way out.

Dog Soldier: Ruh-roh.

Two of them, still conscious, salute the trapped canine and run off.

Hardlight: Bwahaha
GM: This is not a laughing moment.
Hardlight: *who is remembering what happened the last time one of the dog-soldiers got caught* Oh, right. Just as well I'm at minimum safe distance.

The trapped Moreau drops his gun and goes into violent seizures, and then up in flames.

Fireflash, over the comms: Scooter, bring the RV back here.
Hero Shrew: Nope, gotta keep them safe.
Fireflash: But they're gone now.
Hero Shrew: Maybe, but knowing our luck you probably have a gun to your head and they're making you say that.
Fireflash: But I don't.
Hero Shrew: But that's just what you'd say if you did!
Fireflash: But I don't.
Hero Shrew: But that's just what you'd say if you did!
Fireflash: But I don't.
Hero Shrew: But that's just what you'd say if you did!
Fireflash: Scooter, just get back here.
Hero Shrew: OK.

Fireflash starts making some calls, to explain the damage Hero Shrew has down to the roads, and try and keep the two targets out of custody - for one thing PRIMUS has them listed as ecoterrorists. Her handler is quite impressed that Scooter got the targets out of harm's way right away.

Handler: He averted a possible hostage situation? That's one quick-thinking brick.
Fireflash: Yeah, well, he's surprisingly difficult to pigeonhole.

The Hippy Girl has been throwing up in the RV.

Jack the Atlantean Hippy: She's used to the Pacific, not all this bouncing around.

Jack explains everything about how he discovered the Genesys lab, how he and his girlfriend trashed the place, and why he's sure everybody and all the evidence must be long-gone by now. But he does give us the co-ordinates, just in case.

Fireflash OoC: We're just not very good at investigating things.
GM: I warned you at the start of the campaign-
Fireflash OoC: No no no, we the PLAYERS are no good at investigating - the characters are fine.
GM: Well, I'm not sure what I can do about that.

Hardlight: I bubbled one and he melted. All over my nice new bubble

At least whatever suicide switch that was is unlikely to be a biohazard.

GM: High temperatures. It makes them kinda... crispy.

Hero Shrew: I do fell bad about that.
GM: That just proves you still have a soul.
Hero Shrew: Yeah, but it's kinda vestigial by this point.

Hero Shrew: -and then the dog-soldier went WHOOF, which was an appropriate sound effect at least.
GM: Don't say that in front of any recording device - it wouldn't go down well.
GM: Actually the footage of the dog-soldier immolating isn't playing too badly - some of the supertalk forums are already using the term bio-roid.
Hero Shrew: ... I'm not sure sure I like that.
Flux: It should make the Moreaus happy at least.
Hero Shrew: Oh no it fucking won't. We're people, thank you very much.
Hardlight: Hey, I use the word sophont in every speech about Moreaus!
GM: That's why I'm describing it as sophistry. I'm glad I can drop the term 'sophistry' at a table and not have the players go 'guh?'
Hero Shrew: And sophont, for that matter.

GM : So the 'players were clever'.. no, 'inventive' ahhh, 'subtle', NO 'or roleplayed well'. Well, OK
Hero Shrew OoC: Subtle we ain't.

Hero Shrew OoC: I'm probably going to be a bit subdued when I show up to work at the club tonight - if anybody notices, it'll be Sally, and I'll probably unload at her.
GM: Yeah, I think people are going to notice that you only bounce people on their heads twice tonight before throwing them out. And you're not even throwing them in the dumpster.
Sally: His heart really isn't in it, is it.

Fireflash: Party!
Hero Shrew: Don't you have exams? And what are the rules for postponing exams in the event of alien invasion?
Flux: Same as for other 'natural' disasters.
GM: But the aliens have to actually invade.
Hero Shrew: So if you're actually *preventing* the invasion, you're shit outta luck.

Fireflash: I want to get us a team vehicle - The Quadraphibious Quandrant Cruiser.
Hero Shrew: Just call it the Qruiser - it'll save time.
Fireflash: I think it used to belong to a supervillian.
Flux: Well yes, the spider theme, it's black and silver, and the horn goes BEWARE, BEWARE

Flux: If there are any hamster Moreaus in the Zoo, they're probably staying out of sight. 'We need a bagman!'
GM: 'I'm not sticking that in my cheek'. Oh god, now I'm imagining hamster prostitutes.

Hero Shrew: We should tell Simon that his place is bugged. I mean, the dog-soldiers turning up when they did may have been a plot convenience, but there's no way it was a co-incidence.
GM: I'm not that bad a GM - I won't use a plot convenience when I can use plot contrivance.

Flux: Did they leave any of those bikes behind?
GM: Sure - they arrived on 5, and left on 2.
Flux: Nice. But we already have a team vehicle *wistful sigh*
GM: Eh, they'll be up for police auction soon. The Kundalini Rochin-
Hero Shrew OoC: Of COURSE they're called that. What better name for a crotch rocket.

GM: If you want to screw with directional mikes all you need a popular adult device.
Flux: ?
GM: A vibrator. You hold it against the window and the vibration wrecks any attempt at eavesdropping.
Hardlight: As long as you don't use a Magic Wand - that would break the window.
Flux: 'So, why does Fireflash take a Rabbit everywhere?' 'It's not why you think!'

Hero Shrew: Maybe I should some appearances at Children's Hospitals. I'm a hero now, we do that kind of thing, don't we?
Flux and Hardlight: uhhhhhhhhh.
Flux: I'm not sure how to say this tactfully... that's more Fireflash's kinda thing?
Hardlight: Maybe you should go with her!

Fireflash graduates, but misses out on class Valedictorian to one Brent Mandler, Uber-nerd.

Hero Shrew: Well, there's a good name for a superhero.
Hardlight: Quiet - or he might have a 'lab accident'

GM: The school also refused to print the diplomas on vellum.
Hero Shrew: Nice.
GM: Yes, they actually gave Studio City (the Zoo) as the reason they wouldn't use lambskin.

GM: You know Scooter, you have one big problem with having Max as your romantic rival for Sally the Setter's affection. 'You're a dog, I'm a dog'
Flux: 'Let's have some spaghetti'

Hero Shrew: So, ah, Sally, you know that I kinda, really, really, uh-
Max: Hey Sally. We still good for tonight?
Hero Shrew: *grits teeth* Hi Max.
Max: Hey Scooter.
Max and Sally: *suddenly twitching* Can you hear that?

Going outside, so can Scooter, and soon enough, everybody else in Edge City. It sounds like long flowing notes on a Chinese flute, coming from nowhere.

GM: Even Max got cockblocked, this time.

Hero Shrew: Is there somebody that teaches Chinese music at the college?
Flux: How should I know? I don't go to the college.
Hero Shrew: You're our info expert, hit the googles or something.

The sound is pervasive, but can be blocked by earphones and even window glass.

Hardlight: Hey, you guys, are you all hearing this?
Hero Shrew: Sure.
Hardlight: We should meet up and figure it out.
Hero Shrew: Well, whatever it is I'm in favour. It cockblocked Max.

The media blimps are having real problems with the noise, since it's making their gondolas resonate.

Hero Shrew: Hey Flux, is it magic?
Flux: er...
Hardlight: You still have that magic detector, don't you?
GM: No - that was adventures ago.
Flux: I'd need to remake it. It'll take an hour.
Hero Shrew: Hey, if the sound goes away in the next hour, there wasn't a problem.

It IS magical. It's a rather big bit of magic too.

Flux: I've barely switched the detector on!

The enchantment is simple enough - it's diffusing the sound to conceal the source. And since we're standing in the effect, Flux should be able to dispel it, and localise the source of the noise - like taking a lampshade off a lamp, so we can look at the bulb directly. And the nearest source is the rebar sticking out of the never-finished monorail towers. It's been twisted into very specific configurations to resonate in the rising wind. The same thing has been done to the rest of the towers too.

GM: Yes, I went PatLabor on you.

Flux: Scooter, get up here and bend these things apart.
Hero Shrew: *fingers in his ears* Ow. OW. OWWWWWWW.
GM: Scooter has mild super-hearing - and he's standing next to one of these things now.
Hero Shrew: OOWWWWWWWWWW.
Flux: What? Scooter, I can't hear you over the noise.

Flux: The question is who would do this.
Hero Shrew: The question is WHY would anybody do this.
Flux: I'm going to be pissed off if this was somebody's school science project. 'Except with Magic!'

Hardlight: We really are the Great Lakes Avengers.
GM: Nah, not really - West Coast maybe. Actually, Fantastic Four is an even better match *pointing at Hardlight, Fireflash, Flux and Hero Shrew in that order* Susan Storm, Johnny, Reed Richards, and the Thing.
Hero Shrew: *picking his ear and scratching his balls* Eh?

Flux: How did they set them all off on one day? *pokes around and finds scraps of foam rubber noodle that had no doubt insulated the rebar from the wind, until they were ready*

Hardlight: If this was all some viral marketing thing I'm going to be pissed.

We're just announcing to the onlookers that the problem is under control, and how awesome we are, when SOMETHING blasts the top off the tower we're standing on. The something is a caped superhuman, and the particular superwoman known as Howler.

Hero Shrew: And exactly how alarmed should we be by this development?
GM: She IS one of the heavy hitters.
Hero Shrew: So - very.
 

The Gold Scorpion. Serkets Fist.
 
Serket is a old Egyptian Godess. As usual for a member of the Egyptian Pantheon, she is a Godess of contradictions. Indeed her name can be read both as "(she who) tightens the throat" and "(she who) causes the throat to breathe" - wich associates her both with the deadliness of Scorpions and protection against them.
The Gold Scorpion armor, is the defining trait of her champion. It was lost and forgotten in a ancient egyptian tomb for milennia but recently unearthed.
It is unknown who the wearer is, but he or she seems a devout follower of Seket. If this is due to pre-existing believe, brainwashing from the armor or if it is the armor itself that came to live is unknown - nobody has seen the wearer.
 
While Serkets Fist is Predominantly neutral, there are two peculiar groups the Gold Scorpion is opposed to:
The Fellowship of Isis. This is largely due to Isis Ursuping Serkets role (reducing Serket as low as a mere aspect of isis).
The Pharmaceutical Industry. This is largely due to them using Skorpion Poision in many medicinces (even aside from Scropion Andidotes) and thus agressively harvesting them.
That later part is what makes the Gold Scorpion a villain, as it targets Pharamceutical plants using Scorpions. Aside from the issues of releasing highly poisionous Scorpions during it's raids, the Golden Scorpion is not in paticulary choosy wich part of the plants it destroys after it saw to the safety of the animals. As such the result of it's action could cause millions to suffer and even die. It also gave rise to a theory that the wearer (if there is one) might be a fanatical animal rights activist.
 
Powerset:
The Armor is Solar Powered, wich explains the golden color sheme. While that does not lends itself to stealth, the Golden Scorpion seems to be able to travel in a sort of "Light Form", wich can move scarily fast to start a raid or escape afterwards before the heroes can respond.
Suprising the Gold Scorpion is near impossible: The black sphere like parts functions as "eyes" for the Armor without being vulnerable spots, giving the wearer 720° vision. A tremorsense protects it agaisnt tunneling attacks and most invisible foes as well.
The Tail is highly atriculated and shoots a paralising beam with short range. As it has several eyes, it can fire into every direction, but due to the orientation of the "eyes" the most likely use is for forward facing targets. It is not used as the primary weapon, but only to escape or deal with irrelevant targets (like normal Guards).
True to the animal, the Gold Scorpions primary means of combats is it's strenght and it prefers to grab it's targets

The Gold Scorpion. Serkets Fist.
 
Serket is a old Egyptian Godess. As usual for a member of the Egyptian Pantheon, she is a Godess of contradictions. Indeed her name can be read both as "(she who) tightens the throat" and "(she who) causes the throat to breathe" - wich associates her both with the deadliness of Scorpions and protection against them.
The Gold Scorpion armor, is the defining trait of her champion. It was lost and forgotten in a ancient egyptian tomb for milennia but recently unearthed.
It is unknown who the wearer is, but he or she seems a devout follower of Seket. If this is due to pre-existing believe, brainwashing from the armor or if it is the armor itself that came to live is unknown - nobody has seen the wearer.
 
While Serkets Fist is Predominantly neutral, there are two peculiar groups the Gold Scorpion is opposed to:
The Fellowship of Isis. This is largely due to Isis Ursuping Serkets role (reducing Serket as low as a mere aspect of isis).
The Pharmaceutical Industry. This is largely due to them using Skorpion Poision in many medicinces (even aside from Scropion Andidotes) and thus agressively harvesting them.
That later part is what makes the Gold Scorpion a villain, as it targets Pharamceutical plants using Scorpions. Aside from the issues of releasing highly poisionous Scorpions during it's raids, the Golden Scorpion is not in paticulary choosy wich part of the plants it destroys after it saw to the safety of the animals. As such the result of it's action could cause millions to suffer and even die. It also gave rise to a theory that the wearer (if there is one) might be a fanatical animal rights activist.
 
Powerset:
The Armor is Solar Powered, wich explains the golden color sheme. While that does not lends itself to stealth, the Golden Scorpion seems to be able to travel in a sort of "Light Form", wich can move scarily fast to start a raid or escape afterwards before the heroes can respond.
Suprising the Gold Scorpion is near impossible: The black sphere like parts functions as "eyes" for the Armor without being vulnerable spots, giving the wearer 720° vision. A tremorsense protects it agaisnt tunneling attacks and most invisible foes as well.
The Tail is highly atriculated and shoots a paralising beam with short range. As it has several eyes, it can fire into every direction, but due to the orientation of the "eyes" the most likely use is for forward facing targets. It is not used as the primary weapon, but only to escape or deal with irrelevant targets (like normal Guards).
True to the animal, the Gold Scorpions primary means of combats is it's strenght and it prefers to grab it's targets

The Gold Scorpion. Serkets Fist.
 
Serket is a old Egyptian Godess. As usual for a member of the Egyptian Pantheon, she is a Godess of contradictions. Indeed her name can be read both as "(she who) tightens the throat" and "(she who) causes the throat to breathe" - wich associates her both with the deadliness of Scorpions and protection against them.
The Gold Scorpion armor, is the defining trait of her champion. It was lost and forgotten in a ancient egyptian tomb for milennia but recently unearthed.
It is unknown who the wearer is, but he or she seems a devout follower of Seket. If this is due to pre-existing believe, brainwashing from the armor or if it is the armor itself that came to live is unknown - nobody has seen the wearer.
 
While Serkets Fist is Predominantly neutral, there are two peculiar groups the Gold Scorpion is opposed to:
The Fellowship of Isis. This is largely due to Isis Ursuping Serkets role (reducing Serket as low as a mere aspect of isis).
The Pharmaceutical Industry. This is largely due to them using Skorpion Poision in many medicinces (even aside from Scropion Andidotes) and thus agressively harvesting them.
That later part is what makes the Gold Scorpion a villain, as it targets Pharamceutical plants using Scorpions. Aside from the issues of releasing highly poisionous Scorpions during it's raids, the Golden Scorpion is not in paticulary choosy wich part of the plants it destroys after it saw to the safety of the animals. As such the result of it's action could cause millions to suffer and even die. It also gave rise to a theory that the wearer (if there is one) might be a fanatical animal rights activist.
 
Powerset:
The Armor is Solar Powered, wich explains the golden color sheme. While that does not lends itself to stealth, the Golden Scorpion seems to be able to travel in a sort of "Light Form", wich can move scarily fast to start a raid or escape afterwards before the heroes can respond.
Suprising the Gold Scorpion is near impossible: The black sphere like parts functions as "eyes" for the Armor without being vulnerable spots, giving the wearer 720° vision. A tremorsense protects it agaisnt tunneling attacks and most invisible foes as well.
The Tail is highly atriculated and shoots a paralising beam with short range. As it has several eyes, it can fire into every direction, but due to the orientation of the "eyes" the most likely use is for forward facing targets. It is not used as the primary weapon, but only to escape or deal with irrelevant targets (like normal Guards).
True to the animal, the Gold Scorpions primary means of combats is it's strenght and it prefers to grab it's targets

The Gold Scorpion. Serkets Fist.
 
Serket is a old Egyptian Godess. As usual for a member of the Egyptian Pantheon, she is a Godess of contradictions. Indeed her name can be read both as "(she who) tightens the throat" and "(she who) causes the throat to breathe" - wich associates her both with the deadliness of Scorpions and protection against them.
The Gold Scorpion armor, is the defining trait of her champion. It was lost and forgotten in a ancient egyptian tomb for milennia but recently unearthed.
It is unknown who the wearer is, but he or she seems a devout follower of Seket. If this is due to pre-existing believe, brainwashing from the armor or if it is the armor itself that came to live is unknown - nobody has seen the wearer.
 
While Serkets Fist is Predominantly neutral, there are two peculiar groups the Gold Scorpion is opposed to:
The Fellowship of Isis. This is largely due to Isis Ursuping Serkets role (reducing Serket as low as a mere aspect of isis).
The Pharmaceutical Industry. This is largely due to them using Skorpion Poision in many medicinces (even aside from Scropion Andidotes) and thus agressively harvesting them.
That later part is what makes the Gold Scorpion a villain, as it targets Pharamceutical plants using Scorpions. Aside from the issues of releasing highly poisionous Scorpions during it's raids, the Golden Scorpion is not in paticulary choosy wich part of the plants it destroys after it saw to the safety of the animals. As such the result of it's action could cause millions to suffer and even die. It also gave rise to a theory that the wearer (if there is one) might be a fanatical animal rights activist.
 
Powerset:
The Armor is Solar Powered, wich explains the golden color sheme. While that does not lends itself to stealth, the Golden Scorpion seems to be able to travel in a sort of "Light Form", wich can move scarily fast to start a raid or escape afterwards before the heroes can respond.
Suprising the Gold Scorpion is near impossible: The black sphere like parts functions as "eyes" for the Armor without being vulnerable spots, giving the wearer 720° vision. A tremorsense protects it agaisnt tunneling attacks and most invisible foes as well.
The Tail is highly atriculated and shoots a paralising beam with short range. As it has several eyes, it can fire into every direction, but due to the orientation of the "eyes" the most likely use is for forward facing targets. It is not used as the primary weapon, but only to escape or deal with irrelevant targets (like normal Guards).
True to the animal, the Gold Scorpions primary means of combats is it's strenght and it prefers to grab it's targets

How about this one?
 

A cyborg. That is what most people see. A "vader mask". A "Saiyan Scouter". "Robot Arms".
As a result they miss prehaps the most important parts: The Tatoos.
 
He is the 3rd Sign. One of the signs of the possible end of earth and all reality. He is however not a willing sign. He fights the looming appocalypse.

Will Smith (no relation to the actor) was President of the Conservative Students Union at UC Davis.  While escorting a controversial speaker onto campus to speak at an open forum on immigration, an "Antifa" "protester" doused Will with a highly flammable acid eating away the left side of his face including his left eye.  Fleeing head long into the crowd he collided with another "protester" in the process of lighting a Molotov cocktail causing both to burst into flames.  The UC Davis campus police had been ordered by the University president to stand down and it was nearly half an hour before the Davis County Sheriff's Deputies and Fire Department arrived on scene and began to establish order.  
 
Will was still crawling away when they found him an hour later.  The EMT's triaged him as moribundus and transported him last, expecting it to be a morgue run, but Will simply refused to die.  He spent 9 months in the burn ward after they amputated his leg and arm and replaced the left side of his face with a plastic prosthetic. 
 
He became a minor Youtube celebrity in conservative circles dubbed "Iron Will" for his incredible will to survive.  Students from the Union established a Go Fund Me campaign, "Iron for Iron Will" to help pay for manipulative prosthetics raising almost $200,000.
 
The experience and the prosthetics changed Will.  There are the obvious changes to his appearance and the prosthetics, but the more profound, if subtle, changes were to his mind.  His will became both stronger and more focused;  honed like a blade.  Where before he had a measure of charisma, now he had an almost palpable aura of power about him.  He is calm, focused, still.  Inhumanly so.  Though limited to the one eye, he became terrifically observant, able to read the clues of appearance and body language that even detectives and interrogators miss.  He developed a near photographic memory and uncanny discipline.  
 
And yet the masks always bring him to that dark placing in his soul where he is still burning, gobs of flesh slipping from his face and down his throat burning all the way.  
 
He campaigns vehemently against masks whether worn by terrorists or vigilantes.  The tattoos on his chest are inscriptions in Sanskrit to remind himself that he is still human despite the chrome.  
 
Today he practices law in a small civil rights firm in Alexandria, VA just outside the District, specializing in private prosecution.  He carries a shotgun everywhere as is his right under the 2nd Amendment, attends free speech rallies, and if he tries to engineer circumstances in which he might be entitled to use that shotgun in defense of self or others, well it's perfectly legal.
 
He is "Iron Will" 
 
Powers:  damage reduction to represent the replacement parts and the nerve damage, resistant protection, exceptionally high Presence, Telepathy based on observation and deduction.

Heard this week on the radio, and read about in The Economist: LIGO has detected a third pulse of gravity waves. As The Economist notes, gravitational wave detection is transitioning from physics experiment -- just proving that the waves exist -- to astronomy, as a technique to observe events not observable in other ways.
 
Dean Shomshak

In the June issue of Scientific American, theoretical physicist Yasunori Nomura discusses an idea he's had to resolve one of the big problems with the Cosmological Inflation theory. I hope that I understand him well enough to adequately summarize his argument.
 
The starting point is that a fraction of a second after the Big Bang singularity, the nascent universe experiences a moment of incredibly fast expansion that flattens out space-time, accounting for the near-perfect flatness of space seen today. The problem is that the phase change from the inflation phase to normal expansion can't be perfect: Parts of space keep inflating, almost instantly becoming bigger than the "normal" universe. Bits of space-time keep bubbling out of the perpetual inflation, creating new universes in a "multiverse."
 
Unfortunately, it follows that in such an endlessly multiplying Multiverse, anything imaginable -- no matter how improbable it may seem -- not only happens, it happens an infinite number of times. This makes the whole notions of probability and prediction meaningless.
 
Nomura, however, tries to link inflation with another theory that seems to predict everything: the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this interpretation, every possible outcome of a quantum mechanical event actually happens, in an endlessly splitting "tree" of diverging universes. The math works; it's just hard to imagine the universe actually functioning this way.
 
Nomura also draws on a similarity he sees between the event horizon of a black hole and the "event horizon" of the observable universe. Just as no matter or energy can pass from the interior of a black hole to the outside (but information possibly can), nothing beyond a particular distance can ever affect us because it's receding faster than the speed of light.
 
Nomura thinks the bubbling multiple universes of inflation theory do not exist in a super-energetic but otherwise ordinary, larger space-time. Rather, he thinks they exist in the probability "space" of Many Worlds quantum mechanics. Even if every possible outcome in some sense occurs, they still have different mathematical probabilities. (How, I don't know. I just take mathematicians' word for it.)
 
Now, I tend to roll my eyes when another theoretical physicist says his Great Idea will Revolutionize Everything if the math pans out. Nomura, however, says his theory has produced a testable prediction: The universe should include observable areas of negatively curved space. (He doesn't spell out how one detects negatively curved space, but I presume the effect would resemble that of a negative gravitational field. Perhaps "gravitational" lensing, but the lens is concave instead of convex?) If the "conventional" inflation theory is correct and all the multiple universes exist in a wider space, any instances of negative special curvature can still exist, but the curvature should be much less -- so much less that Nomura doubts they could be detected at all.
 
So, that's one more thing for the deep-space astronomers to look for. Kudos to Nomura for producing a theory that can be tested.
 
Also, unrelated: I just heard that LIGO detected another pulse of gravitational waves.
 
Dean Shomshak

Two weeks worth of quotes from my Fantasy Hero game:
 
Father Edmondo is introducing the party to Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard. But the Alchemist can’t live down a teensy fumble she made last week:
Edmondo: “…and this is Abida from the far-off city of Cordova.”
Thyri: “Aka Abida the Pyro.”
Abida: “Y’know, you build a dozen defensive walls and you’re not Abida the Builder. Heal a hundred wounds and no one calls you Abida the Healer. Spin lead into gold on a frickin’ weekly basis and you’re not Abida the Walking Wallet. But accidentally burn down one ship, and Hey it’s Abida the Pyro!”
Geralt: “We were on it at the time.”
Abida: “ONE TIME!”
 
Edmondo is thrilled to learn a well-known Icelandic bard has stolen copied one of his stories:
Edmondo: “That’s how you achieve immortality!”
Abida: (calmly) “No it’s not.”
A moment of I Don’t Get It-itis, followed by uproarious laughter as the players all remember that Abida the alchemist has created a potion that literally makes her immortal!
 
One of our players is moving away, so her PC Thyri got poisoned and is “mostly dead.” Edmondo, who had a will-they-won’t-they thing going with Thyri, is in mourning.
Thyri’s Player: “I picture Edmondo as ugly-crying through this whole episode.
Edmondo’s Player: “He’s not ugly-crying. Not in public.”
 
They arrive in Wales, Aeddan’s homeland:
Aeddan: “Welcome to Cymru, which outsiders call Wales! Everyone who has ever visited it, Bishop or Viking alike, has called it a Horse’s Ass. But we like to say, it is OUR Horses’s Ass!” [drops down and kisses the soil]
Edmondo: “Seriously, what is wrong with you people?!”
Thyri’s player: “Thyri’s actually glad she’s in a coma.”
 
Parenthetical:
GM: “By the way I will never complain about Irish history again, after spending the last two weeks cramming Welsh history, which is every bit as confusing except with no vowels.”
Aeddan’s Player: “Right?!”
 
Later:
Player 1: “Edmondo may need to bury his grief in some Welsh bosom.”
Edmondo’s Player: [shakes his head] “Too soon. Besides after being with a Viking, who here is going to satisfy him?”
GM: “Once you go Viking, you never go…hiking?”
Player 2: [ala Firefly] “Have you ever been with a warrior woman?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you never go worse?”
GM: “That…almost rhymes.”
Player 1: “Maybe it sounds better in Welsh?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you gwythdd iffn hwpthg ppppppppfffft!”
(No those aren’t actual Welsh words, but it feels that way a little.)
 
And finally, that moment when the GM's half asleep, everyone's getting punchy, and you should probably have called it ten minutes ago, but the GM's trying to get to the Big Cliffhanger:
GM: "You arrive at the King's Hall, which has been decorated for the wedding with, uh...boughs of...holly?"
Player 2: "So, they decked the hall with boughs of holly?"
GM: "...You might say that."
Player 2: "I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in August here."
GM: "Y'know, I got halfway through that sentence and realized where is was going, but by that time it was too late. The road's only this wide; there's no turning around."

Karswell, named after the Satanist that summoned him in the Film noir Classic "Night of the Demon."  Among Karswell's amazing attributes is a continuing area of effect change environment which renders everything within 30 meters decolorized, i.e. Black and White complete with creepy monster music heavy on the subsonics. 

So, this is the "Vat Bat"?

At this point I'm more worried about who she is going to take with her

Another new one up!
 
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1072.html

No word that comes to mind.
 
However, Schlock Mercenary has a answer for you:

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-03-20

New one
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1071.html

Rich's Twitter status...
 
https://twitter.com/RichBurlew/status/864294232667942912