Christopher

G.A.I.A. (Genetic Alteration Imitation Adenovirus)- a self aware virus designed by Greenpeace to terraform the world and infect those humans not immune to the virus (like Greenpeace of course) by turning them into plant/tree hybrids.
 
Of course G.A.I.A. has other plans...

Does it?

Some heroes fight Crime for a sense of Justice. To protect the innocents. To avenge a past wrong. Because they think that with great power comes great responsibility.
Reeda Gianta, aka the Crimson Women, always fights villains with a smile. Because she just loves a good fight more then anything else.
 
She has the competetive, outgoing and challenge seeking mindset of a martial Artist with Red Energy blaster powers.
A lot of people think she is a bit too agressive towards villains and she seems bored with fighting any mooks (unless they proove challenging). Some people even think she is close to becomming an Anti-Hero, but so far all those predictions prooved wrong. While civilians are not the first thing on her mind, she still tries to keep fights away from them. If only so she can cut loose more, wich might result in more property damage.
Her powers also include a more then healthy appetite and aside from combat she seems a bit dense and naive at times, wich gave her the moinker of a "female Son Goku". It sticks around. She just ignores all request to make the "Kame-Hame-Wave" using her powers.
 
This is largely based on these two interpretations of power girl:
 
 

Star Trek: The Tennis Generation
 
When Q sends them across the galaxy, Picard and crew face a new threat: the Bjorn Borg.

How about this young lady?
 

Some heroes fight Crime for a sense of Justice. To protect the innocents. To avenge a past wrong. Because they think that with great power comes great responsibility.
Reeda Gianta, aka the Crimson Women, always fights villains with a smile. Because she just loves a good fight more then anything else.
 
She has the competetive, outgoing and challenge seeking mindset of a martial Artist with Red Energy blaster powers.
A lot of people think she is a bit too agressive towards villains and she seems bored with fighting any mooks (unless they proove challenging). Some people even think she is close to becomming an Anti-Hero, but so far all those predictions prooved wrong. While civilians are not the first thing on her mind, she still tries to keep fights away from them. If only so she can cut loose more, wich might result in more property damage.
Her powers also include a more then healthy appetite and aside from combat she seems a bit dense and naive at times, wich gave her the moinker of a "female Son Goku". It sticks around. She just ignores all request to make the "Kame-Hame-Wave" using her powers.
 
This is largely based on these two interpretations of power girl:
 
 

In an Indiana Jones-esque pulp hero game, this:
 
Peter (aristocrat and amateur historian): We're in a maze and you want to take on the Minotaur?!  Wasn't that thing kind of like a demigod?
 
Riley (great white hunter and adventurer):  Just imagine how good it's head would look on my trophy wall!
 
Peter: You're missing the point!  What happens if you can't kill it with mundane weapons?
 
Pongo (intelligent gorilla and... porter, actually):  There are many legends regarding the Minotaur, but there's only one that brings a Greek god into it...
 
(The Minotaur appears and Riley - with some help from the rest of the group - guns it down)
 
Riley:  Help me cut off its head, would ya?
 
Peter:  *sigh*  So I guess THIS one didn't come by way of divine intervention.
 
Pongo:  Doesn't mean the next one WON'T, though...
 
Peter:  Next one?

Corruption Comes Calling, Part 2:
 
Actually one other thing prior to the main adventure.  Shadowboxer had inherited a house (left to him by Paddy McGinty prior to his disappearance in the 1920s), and has uncovered evidence that the past owner wasn't above dabbling in things magical and occasionally best left not-dabbled-in.  Being tired after a day of moving his stuff in, he ordered a pizza.  A while later, the pizza delivery guy calls to say he can't find the house, and Shadowboxer steps outside to see the driver two doors down, looking confused, so SB flags him down.
Delivery driver:  Where the heck is your house?!
Shadowboxer:  Right there.  (points)
Delivery driver:  Oh!  Geez, yeah, the number's right there.  Don't know how I missed it.
 
After discovering that his mail also hasn't been delivered for the past few days...
 
Shadowboxer:  Looks like I'm going to need a PO box.  Is anybody on the team having trouble finding the house?
GM:  Nope.  Of course, you had actually invited each of them there.
Shadowboxer:  So the only people that know about the house are myself and the other superheroes...
GM:  And possibly the lawyer, since he was technically in charge of the house for years...
Malarky:  And Bob, the pizza guy.
 
Maker finally gets some info on the battlesuit and learns that key components were provided by DT Enterprises. 
 
Maker:  Wait, wasn't there something about DT Enterprises in the news?  (grabs the printout)  Yeah, Gerald Donner, the retired CEO of DT Enterprises was with that missionary group whose bodies were found in Nicaragua! 
Honey Badger:  Donner, party of four, your table is ready.  (pause) Donner, party of three, your table is ready.
 
Meanwhile, PI Jack Black (Shadowboxer's secret ID) is hired by a woman who came home from visiting family in Phoenix to find that her home was trashed (though no valuables were taken) and she can't locate her husband.  He pursues the normal angles, checking into possible marital or financial problems (and learns the guy's dad and grandfather both had gambling problems but thus far the missing guy hasn't).  While walking through the house with the case file, the picture he was given of the guy drops to the floor, and Nexus picks it up, triggering a vision. 
 
GM:  You're in what looks to be a meat locker, with a line of hooks hanging from a track on the ceiling.  Side of beef, side of beef, dead body, side of beef...
 
The body is of the butcher.  She also sees the guy in the picture cuffed to a chair, getting questioned by members of the Corrupted.
 
Anti-Pope:  Now, Howard, my son, surely you know something about the things your grandfather stole from the Rondale estate.  Think hard - a small copper bowl and a black-handled knife?
Howard:  Noooo... Don't know anything about them... (whimpers)  Please, don't hurt me...
Anti-Pope:  Oh, don't worry about me, Howard.  When I get frustrated, I don't get angry.  (nods toward Father Hook and Inquisition)  My friends get angry for me.
Inquisition:  (sits down facing of Howard)  You know, confession is good for the soul.  Why don't you step into my office?  (stares at Howard for a bit, and then Howard starts to scream)
 
Nexus learns that the group is also looking for a mask and a book.
Archbishop:  I've tried to locate the book, without success.  It must be magically shielded, otherwise I'd at least get a general direction.
Anti-Pope:  We must have the book.  If necessary, we can make a new knife, new bowl, even a new mask.  But without the sigils and incantations, we can't perform the ritual.
Archbishop:  Couldn't we just ask the Masters to give us the sigils and incantations?
Anti-Pope:  Do you want to go to them and say we've failed at our task?
Archbishop:  No, Anti-Pope, of course not.
Inquistion:  (stops staring at Howard and looks up at Anti-Pope)  He really doesn't know what happened to the knife and bowl. 
Anti-Pope:  (shrugs) Then go ahead and have fun with him.  But make sure he's still alive when we leave.  (Reaches into a pocket and pulls out a small device)  I'll just leave a little calling card for our playmates.  (The device disappears, and Howard twitches)
 
Triptych (a freaky-looking guy with three faces on one head) runs in to say that he's located the mask, in a small art gallery on Newbury Street, and the Corrupted leave.  After the vision ends...
 
Pops:  (OOC)  Anti-Pope?!
GM:  (OOC)  That was the name on the picture.  I was initially going to change it, but then I gave him teleportation powers.  So he's kinda like the Anti-Pops, and I figured Anti-Pope was close enough.
 
Nexus gathers the rest of the heroes and describes her vision.  With Nexus' permission, Circe uses Telepathy to replay and view the vision in Nexus' mind to see what details she can find.
 
Pops:  That's gotta be a lot of fun for Nexus.  Bad enough to sit through it the first time, but now she gets to watch it again.
Shadowboxer:  You can even rewind and replay individual bits over and over.  Or do a slow-motion replay.  (imitates a long, drawn-out scream of terror from Howard)
 
Having seen the butcher shop name on the butcher's apron, they go there first to try and rescue Howard and maybe catch the Corrupted before they leave.  (Nexus doesn't know if the vision was past, present, or future.)  Unfortunately, the Corrupted have already left, but Howard is still there, thrashing in pain.  As they watch, the palm of his right hand begins to blister. 
 
Honey Badger:  Didn't his mom tell him that would happen if he didn't stop playing with himself?
 
Maker quickly rewires her x-ray goggles so Pops can use them to locate and then teleport out the device that Anti-Pope had teleported into Howard's head.  (As soon as it appears on the floor, the tiny device explodes with a loud "POP!")  Circe then establishes telepathic contact with Howard.  In his mind, he's in a medieval torture chamber.  It takes a while (and pretty much all of Circe's cumulative Mental Illusions), but she eventually breaks the illusion.
 
GM:  I think Circe owes Maker a beer.
Circe:  Why?
GM:  If she hadn't thought to get that device out first... well, it was set to go off as soon as the Mental Illusion was broken.  You've never been inside someone else's mind at the moment they died.  No telling what would happen to you.
 
The team decides that Inquisition really needs to get taken down hard.
 
Pops:  I'm telling you, mentalists are evil.  They need to be put down, every last one of them.
Circe:  Wait, what about me?  Am I going to end up in a car trunk?
Pops:  Both you and Inquisition.  Gonna get a little cramped in there.
 
After doing what they can for Howard, the heroes rush to the art gallery to confront the Corrupted.  Using Shadowboxer's ability to see and listen through shadows, they determine that there are 7 villains there:  Anti-Pope, Archbishop, Inquisition, Father Hook, Triptych, Unholy Warrior, and Warnun.  Unholy Warrior has a bladed chain wrapped around the neck of the gallery owner as the others search the gallery for the mask.  The heroes start making their plans, and as they're doing so Shadowboxer notices that Father Hook has stopped searching and is looking around like something is wrong.  Realizing that they're losing the element of surprise, the team teleports in.
 
Before Maker can use her EMP to shut down Warnun's battlesuit, the villainess blasts Nexus unconscious (to -1 STUN) with her autoblaster.
 
GM:  (OOC)  Huh, I didn't think an 8d6 energy blast would be that rough.
Pops:  (OOC) I think it was the AP and Autofire that did it.
 
Honey Badger:  Did I see that? (rolls) That ***** is gonna die, because she just triggered my Enraged.
 
Honey Badger proceeds to beat Warnun unconscious, while the other heroes discuss getting him back with the battle plan.
 
Pops:  You know, Maker pretty much took her out of the fight.  There are more important fish to fry.
GM:  And hence why Enraged is a Disadvantage.  Or a Complication, or whatever you want to call it.
 
As the heroes and villains battle, the Archbishop's turn comes up.  He looks at the fight unfolding... then chuckles and goes back to searching for the mask.
 
Circe:  (OOC)  Really?!  He figures we're that small of a threat?!  (IC) Listen, mister, you're facing the Boston Area Super-Heroes, and you're about to get BASHED!
Honey Badger:  I thought it was the Boston Union of Super Heroes.  Then we're BUSH, and we can say Mission Accomplished.
Malarky:  I kinda liked New England Super Team.
Nexus:  No, then we'd be NEST.  People might think we're related to VIPER.
Anti-Pope:  Excuse me?  Is this really the appropriate time to pick a team name?  I thought we were having a battle here.
Honey Badger:  You shut up!  We're get to you in a minute.
Anti-Pope:  (smirks)  Very well, carry on.
 
Shadowboxer grabs Inquisition with his shadow, which puts the hero just in front of Anti-Pope.
 
Anti-Pope:  I must say, I'm surprised that you so-called superheroes would go around killing innocents.
Shadowboxer:  What innocents?  And who said anything about killing anybody?
Anti-Pope:  (nods at Honey Badger)  Him, for one.  As to the innocents...
(His eyes roll back slightly, and suddenly the villain's face looks like that of a terrified person.)
Anti-Pope:  Please, dear God, you've got to get us free!  The things they're making us do!  They're trying to...
(his eyes roll back again, and his face once again takes on its self-assured look)
Anti-Pope:  That's enough, Gerald.  Don't want to give them too much information, do we?
Shadowboxer:  Wait, you're Gerald Donner?  (looks at the other villains)  And they're the rest of the missionaries?
Anti-Pope:  (smiles malevolently)  In the flesh, so to speak.  But by all means, kill us all.  As the commercial says:  Go ahead, we'll make more.
 
Anti-Pope teleports Circe away, and she finds herself in a darkened clothing store.
 
Circe:  So, how much do I owe Anti-Pope for getting me out of there?  Would a money transfer be okay?
Pops:  Too bad he didn't teleport you in the other direction, the store next door is Cartiers.  You could have picked up some jewelry while the rest of us are getting our butts kicked!
 
Circe makes her way outside and starts flying over the building so she can get back into the art gallery through the smashed front door.  Meanwhile, Father Hook goes all-out, boosting his STR to 70 and punching Pops through a wall, into the clothing store. 
 
Pops:  (to Circe)  If you'd just waited, you could have come back through this handy door I just made.
 
On his second try, Malarky manages to use his Wee Bit Pissed spell to make Anti-Pope drunk.  Since the spell uses a small bottle of alcohol as a spell component:
 
Malarky:  (mimes chugging the tiny bottle, then rolls enough to finish the Transform)  (IC)  Ha!  You shouldn't be hitting the sacrificial wine so hard!  (OOC) Then I chuck the bottle at him. (IC) Take that, you bastard!
 
The villain's judgement impaired and seeing just as many villains down as heroes, Anti-Pope decides to teleport his teammates away.  But the alcohol makes him overlook Inquistion in the rush to leave.

Corruption Comes Calling, Part 1:
 
I forgot to bring my dice to the Champions game I ran last night, so I had to borrow a set of lesser-used dice from a player. 
 
GM (to dice):  Now, you're going to be good to me, right?  (listens to dice)  Yes, that's good, but remember, if you kill more than one of their characters, the players get ever so cross...
 
The player for Circe was out last time I ran, so I had stated that Circe was out of town for most of the adventure, including the big battle with the New Gods.  Unfortunately, I forgot that when I wrote up the news articles and needed a quote to reporters from one of the heroes.
 
Circe (reading aloud from article):  "According to Circe, speaking on behalf of the superhero team, the New Gods were apparently being directed by a scientist who blamed PRIMUS for his sibling’s death."  I must have rushed back from the island just to make that press conference!
Pops:  Well, you do like being in the spotlight.
Circe (continues reading)  "Circe refused to name the scientist or provide further details to the press."  Yeah, because I really didn't know his name or any other details, since I wasn't even there!
 
The heroes subscribe to the Heronet Herald, an (obviously) superhero-centric weekly news sheet, which shows up each Monday morning somewhere near wherever a subscriber happens to be and is generally tailored for that subscriber.  Nobody has seen it actually appear or get delivered.  (I use it to recap the prior adventure, often provide some background on the current adventure, and sometimes foreshadow coming events.) 
 
GM:  It's rumored that they have a precog on staff.  Used to work for the Psychic Friends Network, but he left just before they went under.  He's the only one who saw that coming.
 
After the players have finished reading the news:
 
Dr. Reuel (Malarky's mentor and magic instructor, texting to Malarky):  Thanks for the paper.  Quite interesting.  And kudos on an excellent Veil.  I never even knew you were there.
Malarky:  Ummmm... What paper?  I never sent him a paper, did I?  (GM shakes his head)  I text him back:  "Caution!"
 
Last adventure, the heroes visited the volcano lair island base of a hero team (the Millennium City Protectors, who all went missing in the Cross-Rip) to borrow a piece of unique equipment.  Maker and Pops go back there to return it, and Maker notices that MCP hero Pack Rat had left three different blaster weapons and a grenade each disassembled on a workbench.  For some reason, Pack Rat had listed various MCP members' names next to each weapon.
 
Maker:  (looking at character sheet)  I have "Cannot Resist Tinkering With Machines", so I start putting them back together.
GM:  (after Maker makes a near-critical-success roll on Electronics)  After you finish the first one, you probably say, "I'm gonna do the next one blindfolded!"
 
While Maker is doing that (and noticing that despite the weapons being from different criminal groups and of different designs, all had the same beam focusing mechanism), Pops is rolling his eyes and walking around Pack Rat's lab.  He notices that for some reason, there's a huge (2m tall, 1.5m wide) solid chunk of basalt standing in room, and a glass-fronted wardrobe-style cabinet contains another such chunk of basalt.
 
Maker:  Why would he put a huge chunk of basalt in a cabinet?
Pops:  I don't think he put it there.  I think it... appeared there.
 
Maker quickly builds an x-ray viewer and verifies that nobody / nothing is trapped within the basalt.  Since much of the rock around the MCP underground volcano lair is also basalt, she compared the chunks to the rock surrounding the lab and notices that not only is it basically the same; she sees veins of material in the surrounding basalt that basically skip the intervening open space to run through the basalt chunks in the lab.
 
Pops:  So these chunks were probably pulled to this dimension from another dimension during the Cross-Rip.
Maker:  But why the one in the cabinet?
GM:  (to Shadowboxer's character, who also played Pack Rat in the prior campaign)  Pack Rat had a battlesuit, didn't he?  (player nods)  And when he's working in the lab, he's probably not wearing the battlesuit all the time, right?  He's probably have someplace to hang it...
Shadowboxer:  (OOC)  Like a glass-fronted wardrobe...  (the coin drops)  Oh, crap!  And the other chunk is probably where Pack Rat was!  He appeared in the other dimension underground, not in his battlesuit!
GM:  But Argent is a teleporter, and Possum could tunnel through the rock.  One way or another, they probably got him out.
 
A quick tour of the rest of the MCP base reveals a similar chunk of basalt replaced most of Argent's bed, and another chunk is in the middle of the kitchen.

Malarky, Shadowboxer, and Nexus:  (almost simultaneously at hearing about the chunk in the kitchen)  Possum!
Honey Badger:  (who was Possum's player)  Well, I did love me some snacks...
 
Maker:  (who played Mosquito)  Are there any teeny-tiny chunks of basalt lying around in the base?
Shadowboxer:  I wouldn't worry too much.  If Seal and Mosquito were on the island at the time, you can be pretty sure they were sunning themselves on the beach.
 
On to the meat of the adventure.  One news item was a joint PRIMUS / UNTIL alert about a new and particularly murderous villain group known as the Corrupted.  Their latest activity was attacking a US Army base and stealing a prototype battlesuit being tested there.
 
Pops:  Why does the military even bother making battlesuits?  All they're really doing is providing supervillain origins anyway.
 
Maker:  I want the schematics on the battlesuit they stole.
GM:  Suuuure.  You just call up the Army and say, "That top-secret project of yours -- can I have the specs and schematics?  Y'know, just in case I happen to run across it...
Honey Badger:  Well, the cat's out of the bag now.  They might as well make all the details public knowledge, just to mess with the supervillains who took it.
 
Maker tries getting info about the battlesuit from the internet, and makes a really bad Research roll.
GM:  The general consensus is that it's built using alien tech, allows the user to mind control the masses, and occasionally causes peoples' clothing to teleport three meters to the right.
Honey Badger:  That's not a bug, that's a feature.  Honey Badger wants one of those.
GM:  It also makes the wearer impotent.
Honey Badger:  Never mind.

From my 13 year old daughter during an introductory game - She's playing a Supergirl-lite character vs a bunch of agent level thugs.
 
"But Papa, they're being silly. Why don't we just sing them a song and become friends?"
 
Next stop, Napoleonic figure gaming... Maybe I'll have more luck.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!
 
Fancy superpowers: a few million US $ for your local mad scientist
Sexy female villian costume: 500 $ per version.
"Buisiness Cards" with your vilanious ID on it: 50$
 
The Headline you get because you didn't notice that the printer misheard "Villanious Waitress" and instead wrote Villian Mattress: One membership in the Rough Sects.

(my first thoughts were french, violet and steampunk-ish; so that is what I went on from)
 
 
Le Violaceous Femme (french. The Violet Women)
Real Identity: Comtess Maria of house Valois-Orléans‎ (not secret)
 
This heroine of the last heroic age (a steampunk age) was french noblewomen and renowned inventor, centuries ahead of her time. Unfortunately she was also quite terrible at keeping any form of notes or documentation and she had hardly could "dumb down" her ideas for the other scientists of her time.
Since she was also a women she was subject to quite some redicule in her time. In order to proof her theories she donned a costume in the noble color violet and started to fight crime in paris.
The only real result was that she was now also ostracised by the other women of her time, for such an "unwomanly" pursiut as a noble woman.
Her arch foe was the Alchemist calling himself Wise Stone (he could not convert stuff into gold, but still had a high opinion of himself).
She eventually died together with Wise Stone in an explosion when preventing an experiment, however neithers corpse was ever found.
 
Then in the current age Wise Stone returned, in a new metal body form that was practically invulnerable to all conventional attacks, and attacked a coastal town in america.
What little documentation there was of her mentioned her having seen plans for that form but considered them inpractical due to an "obvious and abundant weakness". However she had not written down what exactly said weakness was and the heroes ran out of ideas.
 
Faced with a enemy agaisnt wich conventional attacks prooved ineffective the heroes decided a drastic measure:
They would rip the Comtess from the second of her presumed death into the current age, wich succeeded. Communication prooved rather easy since she of course spoke English (albeit the old version used back then).
She quickly helped defeat Wise Stones Metal Form, using Bronze (wich was indeed much more common back in her time). Upon learning how the world had changed she decided to rather stay then go back and die.
 
Minor stuff:
- yes her travel into the future, wise Stone returning and neithers corpse being found is part of a stable time loop/skip.
- when asked about her coice of color she points out that of course Violet is a noble color. As evidenced by so few people wearing it.
- she still has her intelligence and quickly caught up on the scientific discoveries. However she does not trust computers, wich hinders her ability to do stuff in the modern world.
- I picked the name based on what sounded nice. no deeper meaning

When everything is in chaos,
when the world is going to pot,
a city calls out for salvation,
for order.
Now is the time for a hero,
now is the time for
 
THE LIBRARIAN !
 
Now things will be indexed, catagorised and the whole world will be better for it.

Check out http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0987.html (scroll down a bit)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
I was just told of this story and there is no real Quote in it (or that one would violate the profanity rules).
 
Picture a high level Cleric/Magican in a LARP. In that specific LARP they use BreakableFoki to store spells: When broken, spell is cast.
 
So, said player larp's around, trips and breaks every single one of the BreakableFoki. Right in front of a GM. And the rules state, that he is the target of his own stored spells now.
There is a lot of them both healing/restoring and damaging/hindering, so the sequence in wich they take effect is realy important.
 
The gm deceides to use a random number generator (rolling some dice) which of the spell takes effect next. The sequence was somewhere like that, written as the coresponding d&d spells:
 
Inflict Serious Wound
Poison
Cure Serious Wound
Cure Poison
 
....
 
That goes on for some time, each spell either canceling the other or being canceled by one of the following.
Well, at least until....
 
Flesh to Stone
Stone to Dust
Gust of Wind

man tries to steal an AK47, by stuffing it down his pants...
 
http://bit.ly/1QhPVWm 

This image once inspired me to some character concepts. We will see what you can think of:


 
I highly doubt it is an established character. She appears as the "mascot" of a german Roleplaying convention on all the fliers:
 
 

The Phantom Geisha
Despite what her name would imply she is neither a ghost, nor comes from Japanese (as she points out regulary, she still has feet*). She is an american of Japani-German origin.
Her unique dance style - invented partially after traditional dances - makes here very hard to hit (high DCV) and to top it off she can enter a intagible smoke form.
She can also use her smoke to attack, quenching light powers and taking out foes alike.
 
*In japanese folklore ghosts have no feet.

The Phantom Geisha
Despite what her name would imply she is neither a ghost, nor comes from Japanese (as she points out regulary, she still has feet*). She is an american of Japani-German origin.
Her unique dance style - invented partially after traditional dances - makes here very hard to hit (high DCV) and to top it off she can enter a intagible smoke form.
She can also use her smoke to attack, quenching light powers and taking out foes alike.
 
*In japanese folklore ghosts have no feet.

Beautiful heroine in secret Id is on the beach eating a snack. A guy walks up to her (actually Foxbat in his civvies) and says: "Hey there, wanna go out with me? I'm gonna... take over the world someday."
 
(much laughter at the table, while the heroine looks at this guy with unbelieving look.) She can finally only say, "Noooooo."

Our Sunday night gaming group alternates games (I run Champions and a friend runs D&D 4.0), and the other GM asked me to run a second week in a row.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really ready and didn't come up with a solid idea until sometime Saturday.  So the villains and adventure were a bit rushed and slapped together at the last minute.  I decided to update a villain group that I hadn't used since 2004:  the New Gods (artificial bioforms based on the Greek pantheon).
 
Also, the player with the mentalist character (Circe) wasn't able to attend.
 
Pops:  I've got Circe's character sheet.
Malarky:  So, since Andy's not here, what embarrassing stuff should we put Circe through this week?
GM:  Actually, other than maybe some stuff at the very beginning of the adventure, Circe's going to be unavailable for most of the adventure.  (pause)  But I think she'll enjoy her new career as a stripper.
 
GM:  So, Dr. Stevens has been asked to give the keynote address at a science and technology symposium in Philadelphia. (looks pointedly at Pops' player)
Pops:  Who the heck is Dr. Stevens?
GM:  (confused pause)  Isn't that Pops' secret identity?
Pops:  (looks at character sheet)  Oh!  So it is!
 
Stevens is talking to another scientist (Dr. McCormick) that he hasn't seen for a while.  Rumor has it the scientist was working on a top-secret government project.  As they're talking, Dr. Stevens notices some odd light-warping effect on the wall a half-dozen meters away.  He quickly realizes that someone is moving along the wall using a chameleon form of invisibility.
 
GM:  I assume you're trying to be subtle and not let on that you've seen them.
Pops:  That's correct.  (to Dr. McCormick)  Do you know of anybody trying to attack or kidnap you?
McCormick:  (confused)  Noooo...
Pops:  Because there's somebody trying to sneak up on us invisible.
GM:  (rolls some dice, getting a not-so-good result)  Dr. McCormick spins around, saying "Where?!"
Pops:  (facepalms)
 
As Pops drags McCormick away, the foes become visible.  They appear to be military types, but without insignia of any sort.  The two scientists are trying to get lost in the crowd and make their way out of the convention center.
Pops: What have you been working on that would make somebody come after you?
McCormick:  You don't know they're after me.  They might be after you.
Pops:  You don't want to mess with me.  I took out someone with a f--king toaster.
 
Meanwhile, back in Boston, Maker (in her secret identity as Li Jenkins, a NASA astronaut who worked on UNTIL's Gateway space station) is contacted by UNTIL for debriefing about her recent run-in with Wight, who is a Russian cosmonaut (Andrei Vyelov) that everybody thought died after an incident outside Gateway that caused his body to re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
 
UNTIL Capt. Roe:  You'll be contacted shortly by an UNTIL investigator, Lt. Ingrid Bruckert.
Honey Badger:  (OOC) Frau Bruckert!  (horses' whinny)
 
GM:  (to Maker)  You know that random name booklet you got for me from GenCon way back when?  I just opened it to a page and pointed to a name on that page, figuring that would be the country of origin and name for the UNTIL person.  When I saw Bruckert, I pretty much knew how this was going to go down.
 
Lt. Bruckert:  Prior to the incident of May 17, what contact have you had with Andrei Vyelov?
Maker:  The last time I saw him was the day he supposedly died.
Bruckert:  Vyelov arranged specifically to go on that spacewalk with you.  Why was that?
Maker:  You'd have to ask him.  Maybe because he was a lecherous jerk. 
Bruckert:  Other individuals have said that you and he were... involved, that you were in a relationship.
Maker:  They would be wrong.  (pause)  Who said that, by the way?
Brucker:  (thin, humorless smile; doesn't answer)
Maker:  (OOC)  When I find out which joker thought telling her that would be a fun joke, I'm going to pull a prank on them...
 
Malarky:  (OOC)  Admit it, when Vyelov's maneuvering jets fired and he started spinning out of control, you grabbed the tether just long enough to make sure he was headed for atmospheric re-entry...
 
Bruckert:  Those are all the questions I have.  For now.
Maker:  Well, have a nice trip... Frau Bruckert.
Honey Badger:  (OOC horse's whinny)
Bruckert:  Please ask your friend to stop doing that.  It is very irritating.
 
We briefly discussed the superhero team's ongoing lack of a name.
 
GM:  If you don't come up with a name, you'll end up with something like Boston Area Super-Heroes, or BASH.
Maker:  I'm good with that.
GM:  Or maybe it'll be Massachusetts United Super-Heroes.  How does MUSH sound?
Honey Badger:  Name us what you want.  Honey Badger don't care.
 
Back to the main plot.  Pops researches and finds out the attackers at the symposium match the troopers employed by Project: Cadmus and their New Gods.  Note that the MC Protectors was a prior PC hero team, who had a small base in Millennium City but their real base was a volcano lair in the South Pacific, accessed by teleportation.
 
GM:  Cadmus was taken down by the Millennium City Protectors about ten years ago.  According to media reports all the New Gods, being artificial bioforms, were shut down and... dismantled.. for study.  Unfortunately, the Protectors were one of the teams that disappeared in the Cross-Rip a few months back, so you can't get any other info from them.
Shadowboxer:  What about the Champions?  They were based in Millennium City.  I'd bet the Protectors shared info with them.
GM:  You contact Jaguar, who came out of retirement to rebuild the Champions after his former teammates disappeared in the Cross-Rip.  He can give you some info on Project: Cadmus' use of broadcast electricity to help power the New Gods, but the Champions don't have schematics or anything.  He says he heard a rumor that the Protectors had a secret base somewhere, so anything they had on it is probably there.  (pause)  I don't recall if the Champions ever visited your former team's volcano lair.
Shadowboxer:  I'd hope so.  They were our guests at a luau there.
 
The team visits the mothballed Protectors base in Millennium City to use the teleporter to get to the volcano lair.
 
Malarky:  Does anybody know how to use a teleporter?
Honey Badger:  Well, there's three sliders.  Just make sure you move them all up or down at the same time, and you're good to go.
Shadowboxer:  (to Pops)  Do you know how to operate a teleporter?
Pops:  Given that all my powers are based on teleportation, I sure hope so.
 
While researching the New Gods, Shadowboxer realized that he had seen Apollo (in civilian clothing) near the PRIMUS base in Boston.  So after borrowing the former Cadmus broadcast energy equipment from the Protectors' base and building a tracking/homing device, Shadowboxer is driving around the city in secret ID in his cab hoping to locate a broadcast power truck.  The rest of the team is discussing whether they're all riding along with him.
 
GM:  There's six of you, so there's not really room inside the cab for all of you.
Honey Badger:  Do I have to ride in the trunk again?
Maker:  Honey Badger don't care - what does it matter?
 
They locate the truck, and using Shadowboxer's shadow-sight/hearing to eavesdrop inside, the heroes discover that the New Gods are gearing up to attack the PRIMUS base.  So Shadowboxer (in his cab) and Maker (flying overhead cloaked) are preparing to take down the broadcast power truck while the rest of the team heads toward the PRIMUS base to stop the New Gods.  Unfortunately for the heroes, Apollo is near the broadcast power truck and can detect Invisibility to Sight, so he spots Maker and calls the rest of the New Gods back to the truck, and the battle goes down there.
 
More to follow

Mysterious space plane blasts off for secretive US air force mission
Source: Guardian Web
Publication date: 2015-05-20
 
 
A mysterious robotic space plane launched its secretive mission for the US
air force on Wednesday, its fourth long orbital flight in five years.
 
 
The X-37B launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida , for the reusable
spacecraft's fourth mission. Its third mission lasted a record-breaking 675
day s in space, and ended when it landed at an air force base in California
in October 2014 .
 
The spacecraft's mission, including the technology on board and what its
objectives are, are secret, but the air force has revealed at least one
detail. In a statement, the air force said the X-37B will test a new
electric engine called a Hall thruster, described as an "electric propulsion
device that produces thrust by ionizing and accelerating a noble gas,
usually xenon".
 
Major General Tom Masiello , the commander of the air force research
laboratory, space and missile systems center, said the X-37B mission would
test a wide range of technologies. The higher-powered electric thruster
could improve the efficiency of those technologies.
 
"Secure comms, [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance], missile
warning, weather prediction, precision navigation and timing all rely on
[space science], and the domain is increasingly contested," Masiello said in
a statement . "Less fuel burn lowers the cost to get up there, plus it
enhances spacecraft operational flexibility, survivability and longevity."
 
 
Captain Christopher Hoyler , an air force spokesman, said that the vehicle's
mission "cannot be specified" but that it will enhance "the development of
the concept of operations for reusable space vehicles".
 
In a statement, the director of the air force rapid capabilities office,
Randy Walden , said: "With the demonstrated success of the first three
missions, we're able to shift our focus from initial checkouts of the
vehicle to testing of experimental payloads."
 
The Pentagon has consistently denied over the years that X-37B missions test
space weapon capabilities.
 
Built by Boeing's Phantom Works division, the spacecraft resembles Nasa's
classic space shuttle design in miniature; it is a fourth of the size of the
original shuttles, at about 9.5ft tall and 29ft long, and is operated
robotically. It runs partially on solar power, and probably tests a wide
range of avionics, advanced spacecraft design technology and experimental
spy sensors.
 
Nasa has also joined the X-37B experiment, sending dozens of material
samples, including thermal coatings, ink and window substitutes, up in the
shuttle's payload. The Nasa experiment will test how those materials
withstand the hazards of space, such as radiation and extreme temperatures.
The original X-37A shuttle was of Nasa's design, but the program was
cancelled in 2006, at which point the air force and the military
technologists at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) adopted
the program.
 
Also launched into space are 10 small satellites called CubeSats, including
one known as the LightSail , developed by the nonprofit Planetary Society .
The tiny satellite will unfurl four solar-powered Mylar sails after a month
in space, for a first short test of solar sailing near Earth. Other CubeSats
will perform propulsion and communication experiments for the US Naval
Academy , California Polytechnic State University and the Aerospace
Industries Association .
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Palindromedary Enterprises denies all knowledge of alleged experiments involving spaceborne palindromedaries

Heck, V's the inverse -- V's mate & kids have issues with him/her.

"Ursine Steel? Signs of early contact between Kulrathi and the Space Apes found." - GNN, Star Drive 2:
http://i1.wp.com/www.spacegamejunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/NewGame.png

Dr. Helena St. Thomas was a volcanologist working in Italy when she got a little too close to a steaming-hot caldera, slipped, and fell in.  Her horrified colleagues tried to save her, but were unable to even retrieve her body.  Their theory was that her body must have gotten pulled under a rocky outcropping, but the truth was that Dr. St. Thomas was literally boiled alive and her life energy absorbed into the volcano. 
 
She emerged months later, but she was unrecognizable.  Calling herself Pyroclast, she takes the form of a pyroclastic flow - a fast-moving cloud of hot gas and rock that can reach temperatures up to 1,000 degrees C.  She can also take a more diffuse, larger form (pictured) that, while not nearly as hot as her more compact form, is still plenty dangerous.  The agony of her ordeal has driven her insane, and she seems intent on causing widespread death and destruction wherever she can.