Wormhole

First some background:

Toymaker is a gadgeteer and a major outfitter for both heroes and villians in the campaign city. Other than the fact that he won't sell anything significantly lethal to someone who is obviously psycho, he plays no favorites and will not leak anyone's secret identity (he doesn't even ask, it's bad for business).

The senerio:

Toymaker has approached you and several other supers in the area for help. He explains that a plucky young woman with a large sum of cash and aspirations to be a superheroine hired him to build her a suit of powered armor. He built the suit and had her trying it on as he was making some important adjustments to the neural interface system when she became impatient and ran out of his workshop before he could finish.

He goes on to explain that if he doesn't find the girl, who is now calling herself Artemis, and complete the aforementioned adjustments properly, she will start suffering a form of psychosis that will make her a danger to herself and others. He has asked you and the others to help him track her down. What do you do?

Genre Convention #15

The heroes will never encounter competent, attentive guards at the villain's headquarters. Guards at the front gate will be encountered sleeping, playing poker, drinking, and/or looking at the latest issue of Hot Babes®.

Originally posted by Klytus

Q: But wont a good, solid, chomp! on the shin make him forget all about his Alzheimers..?

 

A: The Whizzo Quality Assortment

Q: What's the new nick name for the 9 democratic canidates?

A: Mr. Trent from "Demon With A Glass Hand"

Always handy:

Analyze Technology Skill. Buy it with a good enough roll and PRIMUS may invite you to become one of those "top men" they're always talking about.

Another good one might be an INT Aid modeled as a meditation technique.

Considering how sharks get when they smell blood, that took balls.

A longtime adversary appears to have switched over to the side of the angels. In the course of two days, he has thwarted a bank robbery, saved a small child from being run over by a city bus, and rescued a group of people trapped in an elevator during a power outage. When interviewed by the local press, he claims to have had an epiphany about his life during a visit with The Deacon at Sanctuary and seeks to make amends for his past misdeeds. How does your character react to this?

I feel compelled to do both.

During a raid on a VIPER nest that went sideways, you and your teammates were knocked into "GM Option" (evil snicker) and wake up in holding cells equiped to contain "Metas" (supers), plus any obvious foci have been taken away. During a shift change, a guard does a double take after looking into your cell- like you seem familiar to him. Later, when he returns for another shift, he's carrying a covered tray. He waits until he's sure no one else is around to see and raises his visor. You're shocked when you recognize him as an old friend of yours from high school/college/whatever that you haven't heard from in years. He slips the tray into your cell via the little slot in the door. When you open it up you find the code key to your cell and floor plans of the facility. He then makes a rather startling request of you: "Knock me out before you leave. Considering what the organization does to traitors, I'd rather have my bosses think you got the better of me than find out I aided you in escape."

Chuck:

re: Analyze Skill Roll-- Didn't see that until just now (sorry, it's been a long day) so I'll throw you a bone on that: From the mean right hook he gave the mugger earlier, you get the impression that he has a background in professional boxing, heavy weight to be specific. He has a definate Apollo Creed (sp?) vibe to him, like he's mopped the floor with practically everyone he's been in the ring with. Assuming your character has any other Analyze Skills and some mystical senses (very likely since you brought an elder vampire to the table), you also get the feeling he's no mere mortal despite his physical appearance.

Hardware: "Cute, kind of reminds me of my Ex."

Air Raider: Raider wouldn't willingly cheat on Bridget, he would suspect he has been drugged or mind controlled.

Tiger Shark (smoking a cigarette): "Who says Stingray's a cold fish."

The Enigma: Sneak off while she's still asleep, taking any weapons or other obvious Foci with him...

Originally posted by Chuckg

Unless this guy's a precog, exactly how does he know the cops are coming?

He could actually be a precog, especially when you consider how he handed the mugger (Here he comes; one, two, three, Whammo!). In which case, he may even know he was followed home, unless elder vampires have ways of hiding from precogs. Even if he wasn't he could have a police scanner (available at practically any Radio Shack nationwide).

And what 'meatgrinder' will they walk into? Even granting that this guy is the combat equivalent of (edit) Frank Castle, he's still dealing with his door suddenly imploding and large guys with tactical body armor, incapacitator grenades, tangle guns, blasters and stunners introducing themselves unexpectedly... and all of his guns are in the closet. He *might* possibly be able to jump out the window and get away, but he's not going to be single-handedly wiping out the side.

That's rub, this guy is still more or less an unknown. What ever abilities he possesses, he's been playing things close to his vest. I've heard friends of mine who used be cops tell horror stories about busts that didn't go down quite the way they were expected to; real eye openers.

I phoned in a tip about a probable metahuman/TPO with 300 guns in the closet. The cops *know* what they're going up against, and about the mugger, and all of it. If this doesn't get a "no-knock" warrant service with the MARs unit, what will?

 

(Not to mention that thanks to vampiric hypnosis, the cop I drop the tip on will *really believe* me.)

You got me there. So, vampiric hypnosis works over the phone too, huh?

Originally posted by Chuckg

Baron von Darien -- drops a tip to the police about a guy with a huge weapons stash at apartment such-and-such.

 

(The Baron would love to go search the place himself, but he's a *vampire* -- he can't go in the guy's apartment without an invitation. Hiring a normal PI to do it would be foolhardy, as this target's obviously got something weird going on. So option #3 is 'drop a dime to the cops'. If the guy's not doing anything illegal, he should get off, right?)

True, though option #3 might not go so well either if this guy is not on the side of the angels. Best case senerio, the guy stashes the weapons elsewhere, does some fast talking, and convinces the cops the "tip" was probably just a crank call. Worst case senerio, the officers who get sent to the apartment could walk right into a proverbal meatgrinder.

Senerio Continued (for those who chose to follow the guy):

The stranger walks a few blocks to an old apartment building (i.e. a flop house). He enters the building, takes the stairs up a couple of floors, and produces a set of keys from his pocket. He enters a small apartment, locks the door behind him, and puts his keys and the gun down on the kitchen counter. The stranger opens the closest, puts his coat on a hanger, hangs it up, and drags out a big navy blue duffle bag. He puts the gun in the duffle with what looks like a vast assortment of other weapons and puts them all back in the closet.

After all this, the stranger goes to the refrigerator, gets himself a beer, and then takes a seat on the couch. He picks up the remote and turns on the TV, Letterman is on.

For those who have the means to run a check on his apartment number (or shake down the owner), it's registered to a "John Smith" and he pays his rent in cash.

Originally posted by Tim

Q: Hermit's costume for Hoalloween was awesome. You say he got the Cousin It look by taking a bath in Rogaine?

 

A: I'm on a misson from FREd.

Q: What did Foxbat say when he raided the Guardians Of Order offices?

A: Smithers, release the hounds.

You're out on patrol at night, watching the streets through binoculars (or your own supersenses if you have them) from a roof top, when you see a mugger in an alley pull out a gun and acost a passerby. Just as you're about to go down and intervene, the would be victim surprises the mugger and knocks him cold with a mean right hook to the jaw. As the mugger is sprawled on the ground unconscious, the guy picks up the gun, slips it into his coat, says something along the lines of "Thanks for the gun, pinhead", and then walks away, surprisingly nonchalant about the whole thing. How would you (or your character) react to seeing this play out?

Lost-and-found

Lost: Key Component Of Solar Deathray Cannon

Last seen in the possession of lecherous british secret agent. Reward for return negotiable provided that the item is undamaged. Contact Mr. Scaramonga on Scraramonga Island.

Imagine being a Brick in a world of comparably fragile people and objects. Unless you're a total creep, you'd be constantly worrying about accidently breaking things or hurting someone with your level of strength.

Here's one right up Teleios' alley:

Garenteed To Drive The Ladies Wild: A company that makes men's hygene products has started marketing a new deodorant body spray for men called "Incubus", which is allegedly enhanced with highly potent "human alpha-male pheremones". Incubus becomes infamous after the company makes outlandish and highly contraversial product claims in their ads that infuriate femenist groups and net them record-breaking sales. As it turns out, the product actually works as advertised....alittle too well, infact. As more and more men buy and use the spray, the streets are soon overrun with lust-crazed "beast women".

Some questions:

About when did the robbery take place? Did Talisman and crew do this in the dead of night like they should have or were they gauche enough to attempt a daylight robbery with a large number of patrons inside?

Are the members of GRAB going to remember anything after the MC spell wears off?

Originally posted by Tim

Q: What did the gay swimmer say after hearing about the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy?

 

A: Don't miss another chance to change his face.

Q: I was thinking of selling my Mr. Potatohead at the garage sale, but do you think I should play with him one more time for oldtime's sake?

A: Jessica Simpson's IQ, Jake 2.0's chances of staying on the air passed one year, and the number of honest politicians worldwide.

Calf-fire?

LOL. Yeah, I'll bet Cory'll appreciate the humor of that one...

As someone who has gone through and done the math, about the only real error I've found in the weapon's section was the cost of the M-16 rifle, which is easily correctable.

Kudos to Hermit, now THAT'S what I was looking for.

Considering that there is little honnor among thieves, it may be in character (YMMV). Just don't let things get too out of hand if you can help it.

That's "pull your punches" as in avoid roughing him up anymore that you have to.

And I would agree with you on the spouse aspect of this, BTW. This is purely a hypothetical senerio and may or may not apply to your character.