Christopher

The Menace of the Mi-Go (part 2)
 
The heroes (Just Cause, joined by Jaguar of the Champions) are searching the salt mines for a Gate.  It should be noted that Honey Badger has a Complication of Rivalry (Professional) with Jaguar.
 
Honey Badger:  Oh!  Oh!  Maker!  I need you to make a laser for me!
Maker:  Sure.  You think these creatures are vulnerable to lasers?
HB:  No, not for them!  I'm going to shine it down the mine tunnels for Jaguar to chase!
Maker:  You want me to use my gadget pool to make... a laser pointer?!
HB:  Sure.  It'll be fun!
Maker:  No.  Absolutely not.
HB:  I guess you're not a team player.
 
Eventually, they find the Gate behind a holographic wall of salt.  And the GM made an assumption as to what may have happened in Drhoz's Cthulhu campaign.  (Apologies if I was dead wrong.)
 
Shadowboxer:  Well, at least we didn't have to go to Vermont to find the one McGinty and crew used.
GM:  That's okay.  The cave where that Gate was located is a pile of rubble.  Somebody may have been a little too liberal with their use of dynamite.
 
This Gate has various markings engraved all over the front, as well as along the inside of the Gate's arch.  The heroes figure that touching different sets of symbols in the right sequence would probably activate the Gate to let them follow the Mi-Go.  They also figure out which symbols were touched recently, but have no idea in what order to touch them. 
 
GM:  Why not just touch them in any random order? It's bound to be safe, right?
 
Eventually, they figure out that the symbols combined create a mathematical equation specifying a location in space-time. 
 
Malarky:  So, it can open a gate through time and space?
GM:  Sure.  Engeleins' journal did say that they somehow ended up 11 years in the future when they went back through the Gate.
Shadowboxer:  They must have forgotten to carry the 2.
 
They solve the equation to discover that the creatures went somewhere out around Pluto's orbit.
Malarky:  They went to Pluto?
Honey Badger:  Pfft.  They don't even have a real planet.
Circe:  Maybe that's why they don't like Earth.  "We used to have a full size planet, but you humans turned it into a dwarf planet.  Damn you!"
GM:  Yeah, It's all Neil deGrasse Tyson's fault.
 
Maker gadgeteers some spacesuits for her teammates, and they step through into a chamber with a ring of different Gates (six total) around the periphery, and a raised dias in the center with a metallic column marked with the same symbols as on the Gate they traveled through.  Shadowboxer uses his ability to see and hear through shadows to scope out the tunnels and caverns making up the Mi-Go base (at least, this part of it).  Lots of weird stuff the heroes can't make much sense of, including Mi-Go technology whose purpose and operating principles seem incomprehensible.
 
GM:  (pulls out map)   Here's what you're finding.
Pops:  Hey, that's on paper, not the erasable hexmap.
GM:  I figured you'll all end up visiting here again in the future, so I wanted a more permanent version.
 
SB locates Dr. Ellis.
 
GM:  This chamber has about six chimpanzees and four bonobos in it, as well as Dr. Ellis.  There's some sort of energy barrier blocking the entrance.
Circe:  They locked her up with the chimps?
GM:  (shrug)  To the Mi-Go, they're all lesser life-forms.
Circe:  Bonobos?
Honey Badger:  They're primates, even closer to humans, genetically, than chimpanzees.
GM:  Wow.  I've gotta say, I'm surprised you knew that.
HB:  (offended)  Why wouldn't I?  I'm not an idiot.  I read stuff.
GM:  I never said you were.  But you've gotta admit, it's not exactly common knowledge.
 
Nexus:  Pops, how much can you teleport?
Pops:  1600 kilos.
Nexus:  So how many chimps and bonobos would that be?
Pops:  Zero.  I didn't come here to save a bunch of monkeys.
 
Shadowboxer saw a rather large cavern between them and the room containing Dr. Ellis and the primates.  The large cavern holds dozens of Mi-Go, mostly workers but about ten soldiers and a scientist or two.  Shortly after Malarky gets the Gate re-opened back to Earth, another scientist Mi-Go leaves the room he was in to talk to some of the soldiers in the large cavern.  Soon, the other soldier and scientist Mi-Go begin to gather around him.
 
Pops:  Guys, we need to make our move soon.  I think he's going to be buffing them up to fight us.
Nexus:  How do they know we're here?
GM:  (shrug)  Who knows?  It's not like you did anything like activate a Gate...
 
GM:  Before this gets going, Maker, be aware that 2/3 of your gadget pool is tied up with everybody's spacesuits.
Maker:  Do we need them?  Before we opened the Gate to get here, we were mainly worried about possible vacuum.
GM:  The air is breathable.  A few more trace elements and a different oxygen/nitrogen ratio than you're used to, but nothing dangerous.  It's chilly, but not horribly so, maybe mid-40s Fahrenheit.
Maker: In that case, if nobody minds I'd like my stuff back. 
 
The heroes have one problem -- they can't teleport directly to Dr. Ellis, since they need an area open enough for all of them to arrive.  So they teleport into the tunnel outside that chamber.  And of course the Mi-Go begin swarming their way.  The heroes manage to block one end of the tunnel with Malarky's thorny AoE Entangle, trapping a handful of Mi-Go, but others arrive from the other direction before anybody can block them.  A Mi-Go scientist uses a Mist Gun to cause a sizable area to have a sudden flash-freeze (5d6 NND [LS: cold], Does BODY, AoE).  This leaves over half the party down 5 BODY and about 15 STUN.
 
Pops:  I see what you did there, getting rid of our spacesuits.  Nicely done.
 
Another Mi-Go blasts an area that catches all but two heroes. 
 
GM:  Don't worry, it's only a 10d6 attack.  You guys can probably laugh this off.  (rolls 5 6's and the remaining 5 dice show nothing below 3)  Hmmm.  Maybe not.
 
In one Phase, over half the hero team has only about 6 STUN apiece, they've only taken out two Mi-Go, and there are over a dozen more heading their way.  At the start of Phase 2, Pops runs into the room just outside the one holding Dr. Ellis, and teleports her to his side.
 
Pops:  Okay, guys, change of plan.  I'm leaving next Phase.  If you want to get out of here, you'd better gather around.  Because I'm not sticking around for stragglers.
Nexus:  What about the chimps?
Pops:  F*** the monkeys.
Honey Badger:  (quoting Aliens)  That's it, man!  Game over!  Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked!
 
The heroes get back to the Gate chamber, activate the Gate back to Earth, and rush through, battered and bruised but successful.
 
Pops:  You don't need to keep this map.  We are never coming back here, unless it's with a battalion of space Marines.  Or maybe a nuke.

Last Sunday I introduced the Mi-Go to the campaign.  For those not familiar with them, they're an alien race (fungi from Yoggoth, aka Pluto, although they're actually from another star system who use Pluto as a staging base for mining Earth and stealing people's brains) from Cthulhu mythos.  I've expanded on them somewhat, giving them a caste system (workers, soldiers, scientists, and leaders) each with slightly different physiology, and also have a smaller (poodle-sized) version that are part pet, part pest.  If you've read The Mote In God's Eye, I basically modeled them on Motie culture with the smaller ones as Watchmaker types.
 
In the news were two separate items.  The primary one was about a half-dozen "giant flying bugs" kidnapping a molecular biologist from Millennium City who happens to be working with / occasionally dating one of the PCs.
 
Pops:  Hey, I know her!  We're working on nanocellular regeneration together.  Why did someone grab her?
GM:  When the DNPC roll is 8 or less, and I roll a 5, that pretty much means something bad's gonna happen.
 
Defender (of the Champions) had tried to stop the kidnapping but was trounced by the Mi-Go (though he didn't know what they were).  From the video recorded by Defender's armor, Shadowboxer realizes they look similar to a sketch in a journal he had come across belonging to an associate of McGinty's (Professor Engeleins).
 
Shadowboxer:  Wait, don't I have any of McGinty's journals?
GM:  I don't think so.   Hold on.  (looks at McGinty's will)  Right.  He left them to Agent Landing of the ONI, "so he can finally learn all the things we've been up to and have a proper stroke."
 
Reading through the information where that sketch was made, SB learns that the "other-worldly anthropoids" had kidnapped Col. Lancaster, and McGinty and crew had followed them to a cave, gone through a Gate, and found three of the creatures scooping out his brain into a canister.
 
Nexus:  So we better get moving on finding her before she's a brain-in-a-jar.
Pops:  Yeah, I can't see our relationship working after that.
 
The other item is about somebody killing a guard at a zoo in Massachusetts and stealing a bunch of chimpanzees.  The authorities link this to a theft of a half-dozen bonobos from the Columbus zoo, where two of the zoo employees were also killed in a similar fashion.
 
GM:  They were all partially decapitated...
Malarky:  Wait, what do you mean, partially decapitated?  Did someone cut off just half of the guard's head?
GM:  Kinda, sorta. (evil grin)
 
They eventually find out all three brains were removed from their skulls, so they figure the same creatures are also behind Dr. Ellis' kidnapping. 
 
Shadowboxer:  Can I find out in the journal where the Gate that they found is located? 
GM:  There is a sketch map in the journal, showing a town, next to a river, with a mountain to the southwest.  However, the town is very unhelpfully named "Town", the river is labeled "Fook-Me River", and the mountain is apparently called "Mt. Bug-Shit."  All are in a different handwriting than the rest of the journal.  (pause)  By now, you're probably familiar enough with McGinty's drunken scrawl to recognize it.
 
The heroes head to Millennium City to help the Champions and the MCPD search for the creatures.  They learn that the Millennium City PRIMUS base radar detected the creatures but lost them over the south part of the city.  They eventually figure out they must have gone down into the salt mine under old Detroit.  (This actually exists, BTW.)
 
Maker:  So, we'll search the salt mine.  Shouldn't be that hard.
GM:  It's not quite so easy.  The mine covers 1,500 acres.  They're big enough for full-size trucks to move through.  About 100 miles of road, all at about 1,200 feet underground.
Honey Badger:  And I won't be able to track them, not with all that salt messing with my nose.  Blyech!
 
Talking to one of the mine workers.
 
Shadowboxer:  We think these creatures may be down here somewhere.  (shows screen capture from Defender's video)  Have you seen them?  Or even seen or heard anything weird down here?
Lance:  No, I haven't seen or heard anything like those things.
GM:  (has SB make a Conversation roll)  You get the feeling he isn't being 100% forthcoming.  He doesn't look nervous, like he knows anything directly.  Just that there's something he's not saying.
Circe:  Okay, fine, I read his mind.
Lance:  (thinking)  He couldn't be talking about the elves, could he?  Nah, they'd never do anything like kidnapping...
Circe:  Elves? 
GM:  You see mental images of trucks magically getting fixed overnight, or seats getting remolded to perfectly fit someone's rear.  He's never seen who is doing it, though.
Honey Badger:  You're talking about something more like brownies.
GM:  I don't think Lance is an authority on fantasy creatures.  "Elves" is the closest he's going to get.
 
(more to follow)

I forgot one from the other week. The PCs are mounting an expedition to Hell to rescue some souls trapped there. The twist is the PCs are supervillains going there for not-entirely-noble reasons. So an NPC is explaining the nature of Hell:
 
“Hell literally resonates with the souls of those who have been sent there – the wicked, the damned, the lost. The soul of a Righteous Man stands out like a beacon against such wickedness, obvious to everyone for miles..."
"So we should have no trouble?"
"Yeah, you'll blend right in."

Finally got to get back into gaming regularly a month or so ago (been a rough couple years).  While I realized I missed it, I didn't quite realized how much.  Among the many pluses is that I have game quotes again:
 
In the fantasy game we're playing the group has gotten lost in the wilderness via a 'teleportation accident'.  Braddoc (the halfling thief) isn't handling it well.
 
****
 
Braddoc: It's cold, wet and full of naked people.  I don't like it.
 
****
 
Braddoc: Can't hunt, can't gather, nothin' to steal.  This place sucks.  I throw rocks in the lake.
 
GM: Actually, there's no rocks on the beach.
 
Braddoc: This place really sucks.
 
****
 
GM (after another player attempts to catch some fish): All the other fish find this funny.
 
Nymera (ranger): Fish can be quite petty when you're not listening.
 
****
 
Nymera (speaking of Braddoc): Man, he's really bored.  He might start shanking some people.  We should start carrying around coloring books or something.

Playing Star Wars earlier tonight. My character is a Droid. Myself and another character are meeting with a powerful alien race, that are sortof friendly towards us, but their motives are pretty damn inscrutable. The GM is describing this very isolated location, concrete paths through a lush garden..
 
Me OOC: "Just out of curiosity, there isn't by chance a large floor drain nearby they can use to wash our blood down after they kill us?"
GM: "You don't even have blood."
Me: "I have fluids! Don't be fleshist!"

Bronze - a alloy of copper and various other metals - has been the main crafting material of humanity for millenia. But in the end it was surplanted by Iron, wich gave way to steel. Now nothing but artifcats remain.
 
The Aegis - a shield - might be such an artifact. Or not. It is unlike any other bronze item in that is supernautrally hard. In fact some have called it "indestructible", but that is not even scratching the surface (literally):
While the metal itself might not be as impressive, it's Passivation layer certainly is. Similar to Aluminium and Silicon, Copper tends to create itself a Anti-Oxydation layer by oxydising. Except the case of the Aegis this layer is harder then even questionite or vibranium (wichever universe you are in).
In fact the passivation layer on the aegis is so hard and so quickly reforming, any atempts to identify what it was made of failed. It is literally to hard and energy abosrbing for any analysis technique ever tried.
 
The same passivation layer also makes any atempt at putting markings on it impossible wich resulted in it being entirely blank. Even if it was possible, any atempt would entirely block out the passivation effect on the treated surface making it (potentially) incredibly vulnerable to attack.
Without any cultural markings, natural wear and other telltales it is entirely unclear who made the aegis, when it is was made or even how long ago it was made.
It could be anywhere between 1 years or as old as the universe.
 
The Scarlet Shield is a burglar that first appeared about 1 year ago, brandishing the Aegis. He temporarily lost it (wich resulted in the thorough analysis featured above), but quickly retrieved it. It is unclear from where he has the shield. However since he appears to be mostly a glory hound it seems unlikely he made it himself. His crimes seem more concerned with gathering (media) attention, then actuall accumulation of wealth.
While he is not exactly know for violent burglary, he still has a bronze rapier (made of a more conventional but stell extremely durable bronze alloy), is an expert swordsmans and athlethe and will happily engage any Superhero who dare stop him in a fight. If the heroes even get there, as he tends to stay just below the attention of any bigtimer, while also picking targets that garner enough media attention.
As such he has avoided capture and (except for that time he lost his shield) even leaving much of any traces for now.
 
Many a Superhuman crafter (both hero and villain) and Historian would love to get thier hands on the shield, to crack the "Aegis Conundrum" and maybe replicate the metal for whatever plans they have. But all they can do is live with the realisation that it rests in the hands of a common burglar, who might not even appreciate what a unique item it is and is only a villain for the attention.
 
Note: As one might guess, the Aegis is heavily based on Captain Americas Might Shield. Except it is Bronze Alloy, not a Vibranium/Steel alloy.

By day he is Brick Mason, billionaire playboy and lawyer. But when night comes and evil stirs, he is Captain Swashbuckler! Flying his advanced aircraft, The Jolly Roger, CB ensures that the innocent are kept safe.

"How was lunch? Lunch sucked. No, wait. I know what you're going to say. How could it have sucked? I mean, Good? She's so cheerful and fun, always so nice. And Evil? The way he drops sarcastic lilnes, his cynicism, so refreshing! Yeah. Sounds like fun. If they're at the table. But, oh, maybe they're there for precisely long enough to order and have, like, half their drinks, and then she's winking at him, and they're disappearing into the washroom. And you're left sitting there for two hours while the waitstaff is getting all impatient, and finally the come up to you and ask you if your friends are coming back, and if you mind settling the bill for three entrees, two appetisers, three drinks, and the five coffees you've had while watching ESPN 8 over the crowd at the bar. So you do. And you leave. And you check your messages, and, eventually they admit that they snuck out through the back window and had hate sex in the alley. At least Good volunteered to pay her bill, but now she's ragging on me for not tipping enough."

The steampower connection is obvious, but I somehow lacked any good ideas about that area of fictional material. So I tried to find a way to make Steampunk tech nessesary/feasible for a modern setting.
And just now I remembered the the game "Conflicts" (yes, that is exactly how it is spelled). The premise is that Leonardo Da Vinci found Metamater in his later alchemical experiments. Metamater can be farmed from the common hen's egg. It allows stuff like Antigravity, FTL travel and synthesizing any other mater (except mayonnaise). The end result is Steampunk Space battles between empires fought back in the 1700's.
 
Here is my take on this:
The Egg Timer used to be a normal maker of mechanical clocks, until he stumbeled upon the secret of Total Egg Coversion (short TEC). He was able to harness the power quite well into a set of semingly impossible steampunkt-esque gear. As he process is grounded in alchemical mechanics it defies any understanding of science and has so far prooven impossible to replicate in a laboratory or using more advanced technology. You have to use Steampunk gear and other simple stuff or it just will not work.
The abreviation TEC leads to him being called "The Egg Clock" by people who want to get a rise out of him. He really hates that name, but won't change his official name to something less similar either.

Return to Edge City
The Pathfinder campaign has collapsed, since Heather's player pulled out, and took Flint and Ewen's players with them. Awkward, since Heather had become the linchpin of the game, and Ewen's player was co-GMing and helping the GM learn the system. Still, it's not all bad - Weldun was feeling like GMing again, and wants a return to Champions, and his Edge City setting. Ten years further into its economic decline (although more Detroit than the town of Flint) and even more troubled by gangs of minor superhumans than it was before.

Salazar's player: I'm reminded that one of Satan's titles is 'Lord of All Buggery' - and that there's the phrase 'Get Thee Behind Me, Satan'.

Weldun has been spending the last few years making NPCs whenever one occurs to him. Such as the six teenage villains who are alarmingly genre- and media-savvy.

Weldun: There's the Iron Claw -
Zigg's Player: *snrk*
Weldun: You did not just.... Congratulations, you just got a blast to the face from the Iron Claw. You do NOT snicker at his name.
Zigg's Player: Duly Noted.

Me: So what do they do people who post shipping charts of them?
Weldun: Correct them. They're already in three established relationships.
Me: That's never stopped a shipper.
Weldun: Yes. They correct them. Sometimes they track them down to their homes and 'correct' them in person.

Previous GM: I need to be home by midnight.
Zigg's Player: Or he turns into a pumpkin.

I'll be playing a Moreau - a genetically engineered escapee from a research facility in Edge City, and now part of the ghetto of other Moreaus on the shores of Monterey Bay. To whit, an anthropomorphic Hero Shrew - an actual animal, with a ridiculously robust spine. Spines are a highly conserved anatomical feature, so when an otherwise ordinary shrew has a spine like the one at right...



In fact, it was only in 2013 that anybody came up with a reason why Hero Shrews and Thor's Hero Shrew even need such excessive natural engineering - it's to turn them into living prybars. Like all shrews, he's a bubbling ball of incandescent RAGE.

Previous GM: "What's his name?" "The Shrew." "He turns into an aggressively Assertive woman?" No, he's literally a giant rodent."
Me: Insectivore, thank you very much
Zigg's Player: Sexist
Previous GM: Aaand that goes right to the quotes 

D&D : Batrachian
Off to find that gate to the Shadow Realm, and put some police tape across it. Kavorog looks forward to the combat.

Kavorog: It slices! It dices! It juliennes zombies!

Lamech: I’m going to assume that only creatures with actual intelligence can be turned into Shadows, and that the swamps aren’t swarming with swarms of Shadow-insects? That would be… bad.
GM: At least the main threat in the swamps will already have been killed by the Shadows – the loathsome tribes of – well, there are no UN-loathsome tribes of Bullywugs.

GM: You can see something sneaking through the bushes.
Lamech: Not Shadows then – they’d be drifting right through the bushes. WE CAN SEE YOU, YOU KNOW.
GM: *facepalm*



It’s bullywugs, waving a spiderweb flag of truce. They’re desperate for help. Of course, we already know that Bullywygs are totally untrustworthy, that they aren't aligned to any deities of this plane, and are probably just waiting to stage the sudden and inevitable betrayal.... but we did kinda think that we could ally to stop the plague of Shadows. We soon learn that they actually want us to deal with the swamp's other monsters, while they dig up the tribe's treasures and hop it.

Lamech: You know, I think I met a cousin of yours. In a little seaside town called Innsmouth.

The bullywugs lead us to an island occupied by a Shambling Mound of animated plants, fungi and compost, and an undead troll.

Lamech: I have no idea what a Shambling Mound is. Still *rolls up sleeves* a few lightning bolts will solve the problem, right?

GM: This is hideous – your genuine Charisma 3 specimen.

Lamech, who had been riding on Kavorog’s shoulder so he didn’t have to wade through swamp deeper than him, promptly falls off.

GM: You’re eye-deep in rancid swampwater.
Lamech: That’s not necessarily a bad thing – unless I get stepped on.

The shambling mound gets going only after the skeletal troll is destroyed, and Kavorog badly injured.

Lamech: Makes sense - It’s attracted to the blood and bone.

Kavorog gets engulfed by the carnivorous compost heap.

Urlon: Does Kavorog have a small weapon?
Lamech: Depends who you talk to.

GM: Kavorog is having an encounter with morning wood – but not the kind he enjoys.

Lamech eventually realises that an Enlarged Kavorog can’t be engulfed. Or for that matter a Reduced Mound would be just as useful.

GM: It shrinks and go WIBBLEWIBBLEWHEEEEE. And summons Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men.
Lamech: WHEE-oo, WHHEEE-OOOOO

Lamech: If the bullywugs get killed, they’ll croak XD
GM: The Shadows had already killed the bullywug bard with the banjo.

Lamech scrambles up a tree to snipe at the fleeing mound, and to his surprise his spells cause a few unexpected yelps – that’s because the bullywugs are taking the opportunity to hop it with all the treasure they promised us.

Lamech: Can I see them?
GM: Yes, but they have cover.
Lamech: Doesn’t matter. *casts Web*

They manage to hop free anyway, but since they don’t seem to be carrying anything really valuable the volley of Sleep spells that get flung after them are a bit half-hearted.

GM: They’ve left behind a shrine to one of their disgusting gods. Destroy it! Nobody like bullywugs – not even druids.

Still, we do manage to catch most of them, and after convincing them that we aren’t going to kill them anyway, we get to keep the treasure and their translator, Kremit.

Lamech: Kremit? Really? Not Kemrit?
GM: The tribe leader probably wants to get rid of a rival, so he’s letting you keep their translator.
Kavorog: I’ll hug him and pet him and call him George. I got me a Bullywug concubine.
Lamech: I’m feeling increasingly fortunate that I have hair instead of scales.

Unfortunately no amount of body hair will save the party members that have contracted horrible diseases from the swamp water - the party healer is going to have a busy week. The treasure includes mystery headgear resembling a surf lifesaver’s cap - we later find out that it allows the wearer to breath underwater, which is tactically useful even for Bullywugs.

GM: With the bullywug leading you, you reach a cave that resemble nothing more than an arsehole.
Kavorog: Are there boulders that look like fingers stacked to either side?
GM: No. And you will suffer for that.

The Shadow Gate is there, as is the body of a bronze dragonborn who killed himself rather than fall victim to the Shadows. And as we scramble to build a fire before nightfall, a howling banshee on the far side of the gate who seems very upset about the dead dragonborn, or is confusing Kavorog for same. Luckily for us, Kavorog not only resists her Fear attack, but realises he can use the Mend spell to repair the wards around the Shadow Gate. Unfortunately, the delay as everybody else gets over their unthinking terror means we don’t have the fire ready until the banshee has the Gate open. And the sun is setting.

GM: You’ll be fine as long as you keep throwing faggots on the fire.
Kavorog: …
Lamech: No comment.

Kavorog’s bullywug is close to panic, and has to reach for unfamiliar words.

Kremit: F…friend? Do you want me to Summon Frogs?
Lamech: Knock yourself out, kid.
GM: Bullywugs like summoning giant frogs – they swallow. Unlike Ice Toads, who spit.
Kavorog: You’re giving me ideas.
GM: I know.

Half the party are brutalised by the Banshee’s howl – Kremit in particular is lucky to survive. And that’s after he passed his saving throw.

Kavorog: Let this remind everybody – NEVER PISS OFF AGATHA

Our Aarakokra allies finally converge on our position.

Urlon: Know anything about banshees?
Aarakokra: No?
GM: This is probably an aarokokra’s bemused expression, but it’s difficult to tell when your face is a beak.
Aarakokra: What’s all that screaming? Is somebody trapped in there?
Lamech: It’sabansheetheirsceeamscankillITCAMETHROUGHTHESHADOWGATE.
Aarakokra: Gate????? *guano hits the floor*

Kavorog pulls the sword from the dragonborn’s body – not to use as a weapon, but to offer as a bribe. Thankfully, this banshee is as greedy for beautiful items as Agatha, and accepts.

Kavorog: Don’t forget to lock the Gate as you go! Please?

To our great relief, she does, and the Shadows keep away from the fire. 

[footage of late 19th / early 20th century train chugging down the tracks, but the engine looks higher tech than one would expect]
 
[interior of engine, with similar high-tech look; train engineer is adjusting dials and flipping switches, while speaking into a speaking tube connected to what looks like an early radio transmitter]
 
"BPS arm switches on, here comes the throttle."  The engineer pushes a lever forward, and the engine noticeably increases in speed; he pulls a release lever, and the rest of the rail cars disconnect and the engine pulls quickly away from them.  "We have separation.  Coming forward with the side-stick."  He pulls another lever, and the engine increases in speed yet again.
 
Suddenly, there's a loud BANG! and the engine shakes violently on the tracks as various dials spike into the red.  The engineer looks worried, but is maintaining his composure as he flips switches and adjusts dials.  "We've got a blowout, Amber-3.  Throttle's out, I can't hold the track."  The speeding engine rocks on the tracks, the wheels squealing in protest.  Minor explosions on other parts of the engine send parts flying.  "Ground-comm, I can't hold it.  She's breaking up, she's breaking up!"
 
[footage of train engine derailing and crashing through the trees]
 
[switch scene to early 20th century operating room]
 
(announcer voiceover)  "Steven Astor, engineer.  A man barely alive."
 
[blueprints and diagrams of intricate mechanisms]
 
(Nicola Tesla voiceover)  "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.  We have the technology.  We have the capability to make the world's first Electro-Magnetic man.
 
[more footage of operating room, plus engineers assembling robotic limbs]
 
(Nicola Tesla voiceover)  "Steven Astor will be that man.  Better than he was before.  Better.  Stronger.  Faster."
 
[footage of Astor, his robotic limbs shiny as he runs down a dirt road, passing Model-T cars as if they're standing still]
 
Astor, aka Steamborg, is the $60,000 Man.

New one is UP!
 
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1026.html
 
 
 

Blood Dragon, the title humans have gave him, is a left over, a remnant of primordial race of intelligent reptilian humanoids that were killed off countless millennia ago in a comic mishap. Sanguine Dragon, a monk and spiritualist of his kind was off, in a hidden cave hidden in the moutains in what would one distant day be Asia, lost in a meditative hibernation so profound his students would have to awaken him. 
 
They never came. 
 
Later when disturbed a landslide, Blood Dragon awoke ages later to a world totally unknown to him, his people, their society and works gone. Confusion, despair and unimaginable lose drove the normally peaceful Blood Dragon mad and his rage turned on to the hairless apes that had, to his unbalanced mind, usurped his people's place... perhaps even engineered their fall! He became a true terror, using his might, martial prowess and mystical skills to embark on a reign of terror. Yet some spark of his conscious always held and held back, causing injury and terror but not death not directly except in honorable duels. 
 
Eventually he came to the attention of Yeng-Tao temple who dispatched one of their most powerful fighters, Xian Wu, to deal with draconic terror. The two warriors met in a pitched battle, neither able to gain the desicive upper hand they had time to learn each other their fighting style and spiritual auras. Xian Wu sensed their was good in this strange creature buried in madness born from boundless greif and Blood Dragon saw echoes of his people's teachings, martial and otherwise in the human actions and words. Perhaps somehow they'd survived or were indeed eternal truths waiting to be discovered by the wise and diligent. 
 
So their battle ended in  draw and truce and Xian Wu took Blood Dragon back to Yeng-tao where the healers and teachers were able to restore his balance and bring him some measure of peace. In gratitude, he joined the temple, adding his teaching to theirs. Blood Dragon is now a respected if unusual sifu and scholar and one of the more exotic aspect of the temple. His introspective and scholarly nature have mostly reasserted themselves but he does enjoy some sparring and the temple's superhuman students often offering a rousing challenges and the lesson to be learned in victory and defeat. He also wishes to atone for his misdeeds while in the grip of madness and sometimes ventures out to deal with mystic and martial threats. He accept the name “Blood Dragon”, the name given him by terrified victims as additional penance so he will never forget his shameful behavior. 
 
On one recent journey, Blood Dragon heard rumors of some human “technology” genetic reconstruction. Though he's not sure of the particulars, he believes it may be a way to bring his race back from extinction. And plans to travel to the island he heard off where such experiments are being conducted to ask for their help. 

More AAS Nova links.
 
Quick astrophysics fallout from the gravity-wave detection event
 
Yes, there are systematic differences in luminosity for Type Ia supernovae, probably
 
Disintegrating planets orbiting white dwarf have changed noticeably in the year since discovery

Yes, it is definitely a tradition thing by now. Or as LOSRH puts it, introductions:
http://superredundant.com/?comic=133-introductions

Salazar - Voted Most Likely To Be Carrying A Melon-baller With Intent
Heather - Voted Most Likely To Accidentally Kill Her Own Kidnapper
Ewen - Voted Most Likely To Be Secret Master Of The World
Jurgen - Voted Most Likely To Kill Someone In Cold Blood For No Particular Reason
Dirty Franz - Voted Most Likely To Cry If Someone Steals His My Little Pony Collection
Flint Firebringer - Voted Most Likely To Sit Back Watch The World Burn
Ziggs - Voted Most Likely To Burn The World

That's because Ziggs is a goblinoid alchemist, who was acquired by the party this week.

Salazar: In Sharsmouth you'll have to keep that Holy Water locked. Lest you damage public property.

Ziggs: The dwarves, they dug too deep. Into an aquifer.

Heather: 'Ima gonna get the beehive down!' 'Why?' 'Ima gonna get the beehive down! Dirty Franz, help.' *tree goes up in flame*
Ziggs: And now the bees are unhappy AND homeless.
Heather: And that's how Dirty Frank ruins everything. Or goes in first and makes us all rich.
Salazar: There is no middle ground.

GM: Anyone want to recap?
Dirty Franz OoC: Jurgen bought Heather the Boyfriend Experience and we murdered a family of Orc hippies and their Ogre boyfriend.

Heather: Once upon a time we found a goblin
Salazar: Who was being 'spit roasted' by bugbears.
GM: I just said degraded, YOU people all assumed spit roasted.
Ziggs: I don't want to be the goblin who was being spit-roasted!
Salazar: Actually there were three of them.

Dirty Franz OoC: If Ziggs is a goblin alchemist then no wonder the Orcs were stoned.
Ziggs OoC: None of my flasks are labelled.

Salazar: What the f**k is that?
Ziggs: Annoyed and tied up.
Salazar: Is that a Boggle? What the fuck is a Boggle doing down here?
Ziggs: Being annoyed and tied up. I thought we already established this.

GM: What size are you?
Ziggs: Small, of course.
Flint: Shorter than the table?
Dirty Franz: Bigger than a bread box?

Dirty Franz: *helps myself to some mushroom stew*
GM: Oh god... Roll Fortitude.
Dirty Franz: *11*
GM: Your conversations with your MLP figures become much more animated, but no-one else notices.
Ewen: God help us when he learns Animate Object.

Heather: So you're a Boggle then?
Ziggs: So people keep telling me.
Heather: Are you a prostitute too, then?
Ziggs: ... What?
Heather: Every time we find a small green thing ion a cave it's being used for..
Flint: Relaxation purposes.
Heather: Yeah, that.
Ziggs: Let's start again. I'm Ziggs, I'm a Boggart, I brew potions.
Heather: ... Can you do love potions?
Ziggs: Theoretically.
Heather: Hi! I'm Heather! We're going to be very good friends! And this is -
Ziggs: Your consort?
Flint: *chokes on his drink*

Heather: And that's Dirty Franz. He smells. You might want some cotton to stuff up your nose.
Ziggs: I'm an alchemist - we can't smell ANYTHING.
Heather: You live a charmed life.

Ziggs: If we could milk Franz we'd make a fortune.
Salazar: .... Not touching it.
Ziggs: It's OK, I have acid-prof gloves.

Heather: We're going to go kill stuff.
Ziggs: I feel like some reasonable retribution.
Heather: You'll find we're pretty unreasonable people. Welcome to the party!

Salazar: I need some paralysis bombs.
Ziggs: I've got tanglefoot bags.
Salazar: Nah, I need paralysis bombs - using a melon-baller on someone can be a pain in the arse if they keep wriggling.

Off to the ruins of Cragsmaw Castle.

GM: The castle is obviously not of goblin make.
Heather: Well, obviously. It's not built from rocks, sticks, and shit.
Dirty Franz: Wattle-and-daub is perfectly respectable building technique... Dirty Franz grew up in wattle-and-daub hut.
Heather: Good for you, Franz! By the way - you're not allowed to talk about your childhood anymore.

Dirty Franz is scratching his beard, looking at the keep, and muttering to himself.

Heather: Business as usual then. Right then, if the main door is the only way in -
Dirty Franz: Sally port.
Heather: What?
Dirty Franz: Sally port.
Salazar: What about her?
Heather: Is this going to be another story about shit?

We go over the wall instead, anyway.

GM: There's a bit of canvas over the hole you get in through.
Dirty Franz OoC: And they're painted a nice brick pattern on it?
Ziggs: What a devastatingly effective disguise!
Heather: This actually makes me feel like I'm breaking into somebody's home.
Salazar: Excuse me?
Heather: Oh, just me - I'm not projecting it on the rest of the party.

The usual carnage ensues.

Salazar: You might want to reload your flintlocks.
Flint: Prehensile tail - I reload every round.
Ewen: He just holds the gun near his arse.
Ziggs: How are you doing that?
Salazar: Great arse.

Dirty Franz: Dirty Franz speaks Common, Goblin, and Murder-hobo.
Salazar: Murder-hobo? You mean Common?
Dirty Franz OoC: Grunts punctuated with stabbing.
Ewen: Ah, you mean 'Weapon Proficiency'

Hobgoblin on other side of door: *in Goblin* Right, the distraction is here - send the pets around the back.
Salazar: Oh goody!
Dirty Franz: Dirty Franz doesn't want to hurt these hobgoblins now, they have pets.
Heather: Kill them, and you get to keep their pets.
Ziggs: What she said!
Dirty Franz: *cheers up*
Salazar: *bracing to murder whatever comes in the room* I'm going to disappoint him so bad...

Dirty Franz: *wandering off to other end of room, rattling a carton of dog biscuits* Here, puppy puppy...
All: ...
GM: We'll deal with him later.

Heather: They should have had some guys on the battlements. But now we're in, and much like the clap we're much harder to repel once we're inside.

GM: They weren't expecting seven of you.
Heather: Are you kidding? Adventurers never come in pairs.
Ewen: I believed adventurers function like crows - we come in Murders.

As the others deal with the masses shield wall of Hobgoblins at the main door, Franz meets the pets - a pair of Owlbears.

Dirty Franz: Puppy?
Heather: I think our wizard is not long for this world.

Franz gets mauled and bearhugged.

Dirty Franz: Dirty Franz thinks puppy doesn't deserve dog treats.

Then the other pets arrive - hideous slimy tentacled worm things.

Dirty Franz: Dirty Franz does not think hideous slimy tentacled worm puppies even eat dog treats.

Flint: I thought you said they were drop bears?
Ewen: No, the Owlbears came in through the rear - the Gricks dropped from the ceiling.
Dirty Franz OoC: Should have been the other way around - then they would have been drop bears.

Ewen: To save Dirty Franz from the horrible fate of being eaten by an Owlbear-
Dirty Franz OoC: Well, you're more saving the Owlbear from food poisoning.

Jurgen stabs the Hobgoblin leader with a distinctly unsanitary dagger.

Ewen: Somehow I don't think the infection is going to matter.

GM: And now for the Gricks.
Jurgen: What do they give us?
All: ?
Jurgen: They must be Gricks bearing gifts.
All: *facepalm*
Salazar: My fault, I listened. All damage is self-inflicted. Jurgen has this special tone of voice when he's trying to be funny.
Jurgen: Is this why I'm not getting any help against these hobgoblins?

GM: Right, back to the top-
Dirty Franz's player: Hey! My go! I might be going on 5, but...
GM: Oh, right - what do you do?
Dirty Franz's player: Am I still grappled?
Ewen: No, we killed that one.
Dirty Franz's player: OK then - Arcane Bond (Ring), Magic Missile, 9 points damage on the other Owlbear.
Heather's player: Well done on being succinct in a mass combat. Accolades.

Ewen's player: In the other game we're using the Critical Hit cards the monk severed a troll's spine.
Dirty Franz's player: Don't trolls regenerate?
Salazar's player: Regen doesn't fix ability damage.
Ewen's player: So they left that poor troll a quadriplegic. For the four or five seconds until they finished it off.

Flint's player: Do Fighters get Feats?
Heather's player: Fighters are 'Feats - The Class'

Do you hear music?

True enough, but I think that Digna's catching up there in that category -- otherwise, there probably would've been a
Porn Singularity* when she and Jrska got together a few posts back ( ).
 
(*Porn Singularity: a powerful phenomenon created when two or more Smut Fields come into close proximity to
one another, creating a near-irresistable attractive force. Unless they're very lucky, those who are close enough to
witness the creation of the Singularity either as it's taking shape or shortly afterwards are doomed to be sucked in
to become part of its bacchanalian depravity for the duration of its existence. Note that this is a certain guarantee in
universes where Evil Chaos Entities have a ridiculous amount of influence on certain inhabitants -- Warhammer 40K
GMs being especially susceptible to their influence.)
 
 
Major Tom 2009

The Difference Engineer
 
He comes from a different time line where the first computer was developed by Charles Babbage, the Difference Engine. And he was one of the people who worked on it until the time line was altered by an American who would insist that it never worked and that Americans developed the first computers including preposterously computers in the home. So now The Difference Engineer has come to restore balance and make the timeline what it was. This computer tech can knock out modern tech which renders most battlesuits useless which confirms his theory that his timeline was the correct one and the current one is the right one.

Did you offer him a free sample? 

Played in a Savage Rifts game at Genghis Con where my character informed a Coalition officer that the PCs were "just simple traders." He dubiously noted we didn't look like merchants, at which point I noted "that is because we deal in lead, my friend." 

"Never call anyone a Bastard in this industry. With how things work they will turn out to be your timeclone/parent/child/relative of your loved one/thier own father&mother down the road and that just sets you up for a stupid retort"
- Based on the Skullkickers Villain "Thool" (eldritch horror), who upon being called a bastard remarked "How can I be a bastrad if I am my own father and mother?"

So, finishing off the quotes from Return of Muerte:
 
One I forgot from earlier...  GM was talking about the vision where the heroes learned Muerte was restored to (un)life by Takofanes.
 
Maker:  Taco-face?
GM:  ... (head-desk)  No.  Takofanes.
 
As the heroes free Libertador and prepare to assault the unknown facility to shut Muerte down, they feel a slight tremor in the ground.  Maker uses her flyer bot to take a look outside, and sees a plume of smoke as an ICBM streaks skyward.
 
Maker:  Can my flyer bot chase after it and shoot it down?
GM:  Maker's an astronaut, so she'll easily recognize an Atlas, basically the same thing that launched Mercury astronauts into space.  Your flyer bot has exactly 0 chance of catching up to that.
 
Maker figures out she can gadgeteer a suborbital booster for own flight to allow her to catch up to the missile, plus a boosted clinging strong enough to attach to the Atlas.  After a brief discussion over whether to take anyone else along (other than Maker, only Shadowboxer has the necessary Life Support to survive the missile's suborbital phase, but he's one of the front-line fighters and will be needed against Muerte), Maker takes off alone after the missile. 
 
Meanwhile the rest of the team heads over to the other island, where they figure (correctly) that they can get into that section of the base through the now-open silo.  Maker's player will be running Libertador during the assault while her regular character is chasing the ICBM.
 
Maker:  What does he do?
GM:  (hands her character sheet)  Basically, he's Peru's version of Captain America.
Maker:  So I'm Captain Peru.
 
They quickly dispatch the trio of Hands of Death waiting there while avoiding being touched, and turn their attention to the blast doors leading into the rest of the base. 
 
Honey Badger:  I can try a move-through on them, but if I don't get through on the first try it's gonna hurt.
 
He slams into them at top speed -- and is exactly one BODY shy.
 
Circe:  When we get done here, can we take those blast doors home with us?  They have a pretty impressive Honey Badger-shaped dent in them.
 
HB did enough damage to part the blast doors a crack, through which he sees Gigante waiting.  The rocky brick peeks through the crack.
 
Gigante:  Wow.  Gigante impressed.  Is little man hurt bad?
Honey Badger:  (shaking off the effects of being Stunned)  Nah.  I heal fast.
 
Gigante rips open what remains of the blast doors, and the battle is on.  HB and Gigante trade punches, causing some damage to the rocky one but leaving HB knocked back into the silo - and ending up in the open area where the missile once stood.
HB:  Can't I just grab onto the walkway?
GM:  Sure, on your next Phase.  Of course, you may be a bit farther down the silo by then.
 
Libertador does a full-out shield-bash roundhouse on Gigante.
 
Libertador:  Sixteen dice?!  Maker needs one of those shields!
GM:  (thinking) Sure, if she gets some questionite and about 75 points.
 
After the heroes' concentrated attacks on Gigante take him down, they move into the hall to face Khemset (the metal-wrapped mummy), Espiritu, and a half-dozen Hands of Death.  Shortly afterward, a blast door down the hall opens to reveal Muerte and Mayan sorceress Bruja Balam.
 
Libertador:  MUERTEEEEE!!!!  (charge and shield bash)
 
Shadowboxer grabs and squeezes Bruja Balam.
 
GM:  Drop six dice from your attack.
Pops:  Why does he have to roll six less dice?
GM:  She has Damage Negation.
Pops: What the heck is that?
Shadowboxer:  It's what I have.  It's how I survive so many attacks.
 
Eventually the heroes have most of the villains down, including capturing Muerte.  So we finish with Maker catching up to the missile.
 
Maker:  Can I defuse the nuke?
GM:  If you make your Demolitions roll by enough. 
Maker:  I don't have that skill.
GM:  I'll give you an 8 or less.  I mean, sure, Muerte is a raving paranoid, but that doesn't mean he put any boobytraps or failsafes in.  You'll be fiiiiine.
Maker:  So, can I redirect the missile into orbit, and let UNTIL take care of it?
 
Using her electrical engineering and systems operation skills, she's able to fire the engines and direct it to a higher altitude.  Little knowing that Muerte had a failsafe in case the missile is redirected. 
 
GM:  (to the rest of the hero team, monitoring things from the launch control room in Muerte's base)  Maker's been giving you regular updates via the Mind Link, when suddenly she drops off.
Circe:  What, did Muerte rig some sort of dimensional travel?
GM:  No.  A moment later, you see on the screens that the nuke has gone off.  Looks like Maker just got nuked.
Honey Badger:  She's not dead.  You're smiling way too much.
 
GM:  [Maker's player name], please come with me a moment.  (once away from the other heroes)  One moment, you're clinging to the missile as it moves closer to orbit... and the next, you find yourself standing in a room with white walls.  Then Taurus walks in. 
Taurus:  We noted the launch and have been monitoring the missile's flight.  Our scans indicated the warhead was about to go off, so we pulled you up here.
Maker:  Oh.  Well, thank you.  (awkward pause)  Um, can you send me back to my team now?
Taurus:  Eventually, perhaps.  For now, though, you'll be staying with us.  Don't worry, you'll be made quite comfortable.  Zodiakos Kyklos, please prepare a room for our guest...

Okay, that GM is on a very bad track there. I asume it is actually you so I better tell you that:
I am pretty sure that build is not book legal by any definition. UOO on Defenses were afaik not Allowed, but I might be wrong.
What would be the "reasonably common and obvious defense" against this? Being undead would not be, if none of the PC's (the targets) are undead.
 
Power Defense can apply to Healing and Aid, so the basic idea is sound. Transform might be the cleaner choice here:
It did not realy occur to me until now just now, but "adding or removing X CP worth of Power" could include adding a Power with Negative Effect (Like Power Defense, only vs. Healing Spells). Usually this would be adding a Complication, but I know of no "Resists Healing" Complications.
How about "Major Transform, Into Being with Power Resistance vs Healing and Aid xD6" It could grant up to 10 Character Points worth of "Power". There are special rules for "granting a power via Transform", but since this is granting a harmfull power it would not mater so much.
Season with "Partial Transform", whatever Healing/NND defense condition you had in mind for the UOO variant or Heals Normally (maybe even reduced recovery time).
But either build is a can of worms that you will hope you had not opened before too long.
 
Aside from the legality/danger for long therm balance, there is that part of making a power specifically to counter a players power:
- If it was not a bought power, you could easily rule that some background magic effect blocks it. You never need a power build to block a communicator that the players paid no points for.
- If you don't like the power, you just should not have allowed it in the first place. If you forgot he had it, it would even be time to lower the price a lot (as apparently that player had no use for it for a really long time).
Everyone would propably feel better if you applied proper Campaign Limitations to healing and/or let the player refund the points spend on a useless power instead. There is no fault in later discovering that a power you allowed a player does not work, but few things are as bad as intentionally building the enemies to counter a power (beyond the limitations and normal defenses the player wanted to have/pay for).
 
A complication that is not limiting is not worth any points (even if that is only because the GM has no skill at making it part of the game).
A power that is useless (due to the campaign rules/game conventions/GM decision), should also not cost any point.