Gadodel

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 10: The Team's discussion was interrupted by a text message that was sent to each member..... 'Come to Rose. For the first meet and greet. No tricks this time.' Tricks. It's what we've been chasing, working our way through and trying figure out what in the hell they meant this whole time. Why would anyone want to level the playing field now, when they had us chasing our tail so well-for so long? Maybe, they know when we talk about a killing spree, one where the bad guys get out done; scares them beyond the norm. It was as if they were listening in on us and they realized that their own plans were about to run afoul. They actually wanted to meet us. It sounded like a trick to me.

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 9: Father Murphy spoke for hours. He recounted a secret history. He unveiled a tangible reason for crime, war and general human weakness. A secret, if revealed to the masses; might unravel humanity as we knew it. None of us could fully grasp it as quickly as he spoke about it. We sat there, silent and in awe. It was, well; earth shattering news. 2012 wasn't too far away, but unlike most of the masses we had time to prepare. Well, maybe not to prepare; but to accept the situation. Well, maybe not to accept it; but rather not be surprised by it. Lincoln: A killing spree. Callous, malicious; but the right answer? Niobrara: Wow. Why not? Hastings: Chemo for Earth? Platte: The problem is: where do we start? Chadron: And how do we make sure our actions don't start a world war and make the killing spree go out of control? Dodge: There was only two nuclear weapons in play the last time someone had the idea. The corporate world we live in now, who knows how many would be in play this time. Scottsbluff: Nevermind the ease of getting a Bio or Chem weapon into where ever a small twin engine plane can reach. Omaha: Information, rumors; we'd have no control over that either. Internet driven propaganda would cause an unprecedented amount of paranoia. Father Murphy: Find and eliminate the leadership. Quietly. Think: small picture. Lincoln: That could take us out of our territory, but yeah; that makes the most sense. But, can we do that in less than three years? In three years it's likely the leadership won't matter. Will it stop the momentum?

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 8: The Girl was taken to the Team's hospital. She wouldn't talk, not even to Hastings. The under-ground complex was swarmed by The Nebraskan's support personnel. All kinds of folks. Historians and investigators. GIS led K-9 Units. Engineers and craftsmen. Soldiers. Lots of soldiers. With lots of bullets. A call was made to Father Murphy. He agreed to come to the hospital. When he arrived, he was absolutely silent. Worse, he looked pale; maybe even frightened. Father Murphy: I thought...I thought we had until 2012!? The Girl: The Light Bringer's minions have grown restless. They are starting to emerge from their slumber in higher numbers than usual. Father Murphy: What are Michael's orders? The Girl: Gather the forces of your choosing. Inform them of the truth. Train them in our ways. Father Murphy: I must pick them? I was hoping that destiny would identify the ones. The Girl: Everyone wrestles with time...

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 7: Lincoln: Get a stretcher assembled, get her on it and let's get out of here. Hastings: I can't believe it. I'll know more once we get her on the table, but it appears that she's been stabbed all the way through. Her heart, lungs and spine somehow avoided damage. Niobrara: I've heard of bullets doing that, but swords? Keya Paha and Springview gently placed the girl on a stretcher and began carrying her as ordered. Lincoln: What is your name? He asked the girl. The Girl: Get me to Father Murphy's house and I'll tell you everything.... The Team looked at one another with stunned looks on their faces. Their bizarre travels seemed to be headed towards a full circle. Father Murphy didn't mention anything about what they might find and he certainly did not mention anything about a 13 year old swordsman...

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 6: The Team made its way to the arena field. Broken weapons from all eras, dried blood, remains in various stages of decomposition and a strange silence coated the field. Lincoln: Hastings, check the bodies; see if you can determine when the field was last used. Niobrara stick with him, Chadron you stick with Platte. Keya Paha and Springview, perimeter. Hastings: I'll see if my speak with dead spell works boss. Niobrara: Linc, there's a body here that has bullet holes in it and a viking styled axe lodged in its head! Platte: I'm filming this whole thing. Damn! I think that katana is the real the deal! Hastings: Is its former user wearing a black leather trench-coat? Platte: No..., but! Platte almost missed the joke. The Team tried to restrain their laughter. Keya Paha: JESUS!!! I've got a live one....Hastings! The Team made its way towards Keya Paha. The individual's appearance startled the Team. It was a young girl, maybe 13. She was covered in blood and dirt and had a couple of wounds of her own. She was still grasping a classic English longsword by its hilt..... The Girl: Like, can; any of you dudes help me?

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 5: Niobrara led the way for another half hour before coming to a complete stop. He waved the rest of the Team over to his location. It appeared that Niobrara had stopped at the beginning of a descent. Niobrara: You've gotta check this out! Niobrara exclaimed with a bit of surprise in his voice. Hastings: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?!? Hastings exclaimed as he joined Niobrara and saw what he was seeing. Lincoln: Platte, get as many pictures you can. Dear lord! Platte: On it. Damn. How the hell did this get here? Chadron and Keya Paha finally joined the Team. Keya Paha: What the Frak!?!? Springview: This...this is bigger than us...we're going to need more people! The Team was overlooking a set a of stairs that led to an enormous cave. A cave large enough to hold an arena the size of any NFL Stadium. And that was precisely what the Team had found: an arena. Akin to Rome's. Similar in size and style. Lincoln: Let's shed some more light on the subject and work our way down to the field. Stay alert. Load up a tracer clip. Watch for any movement. The Team made its way down over 100 rows of seating...

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 4: You know the problem with moving in complete darkness? It's not whether one can see anything or not-goggles take of that, but rather whether or not one can move quietly. A group of people, each carrying a lot of gear; is even less likely to move quietly. Lincoln: OK, I think stealth is no longer an option. Platte: I agree. The pitter patter of my typing can't be helped let alone the pitter patter of our feet. Hastings: A rogue! I knew we were forgetting something!!! Niobrara: Yeah, I think if there is anyone down here; they've got the same problem. Hastings: Not having a rogue? Everyone tried to laugh quietly. Niobrara: No! Having difficulty not giving their location or presence away. Chadron: I'd feel a lot better if we spread out more. Lumped together makes us easy fodder. Keya Paha: I'll fall back a bit further... Niobrara: I'll move a little further ahead. The facility was cold, drab and somewhat haunting. Someone put a lot of effort into making this place. It had to buzz with activity at one time, but now was akin to a ghost town. There was no sign of life other than the vehicle tracks in the corridor that seemed to stretch either direction indefinitely. The tread indicated that the vehicle headed south, so the Team proceeded in that direction. Niobrara took a lead of 50 yards.....

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 3: The Team spent the next day lowering gear down into the 'dungeon'. Lots of gear. Explosives, weapons and bullets. Lots of bullets. Plus, food and drink, medical supplies, computer and communication gear...etcetera, etcetera. And lots of bullets. Everyone hoped that the answers about the place would be forthcoming faster than the order to destroy it. The Team had 24 hours to learn whether a threat existed or not. Not a lot of time and no one knew why a time table was suddenly ordered. Guesses. Perhaps, the discovery was a piece in a larger puzzle. Perhaps, it was an attempt to control or stop the information flow. Perhaps, Command hoped to have an element of surprise. Perhaps, it was all of these things. The Team began the adventure bright and early the next day...

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 2: Lincoln: Hastings? You're in on this one after all? Hastings: Yeah, Command doesn't want to lose anyone so having an MD tag along isn't such a bad idea. Hey! I am this adventuring group's cleric!!! thump. Niobrara drops his bag full of gear nearby and walks over. Niobrara: I'm staying boss. Hastings: Well, at least we have a fighter in the group! Lincoln finally catches on and chuckles. Keya Paha: As am I. Hastings: As long as you don't try to be some sort of Drizzt wannabe, sure you can stay. Springview: I'm starting to think that you're the Bard! Springview looked over at Hastings. Niobrara: Besides Hastings, who else is rejoining us? 'We are!' Platte: I guess I'm here to help map out the place. Chadron: And I guess I am here to plant C-4 if things go from bad to worse and Command decides to just destroy the structure. Lincoln: Yeah, I meant to tell you all that if we run into anything that the world can't handle or shouldn't see...BOOM! The laughing and smiles stopped...

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Part 1: Lincoln: Are you serious? The roster has to be changed again? Now? Command: Yeah. I don't like it either, but that's how it works sometimes. Lincoln: Well, who's coming to the site? Command: You'll find out when they get there.... It's funny, though really not; how people come and go and come back again. It's hard to plan, but I guess everyone enjoys surprises from time to time. Well, as long as they have enough bullets. Somehow, the idea of going into a underground structure that no one knows anything about makes me think it will be all about surprises and bullets....

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans No one was expecting the building to implode. Why would they blow themselves up? They were holding us off...easily. Seeing the debris, we started to figure out their motive. They wanted us to not find what we were looking for. It took weeks to dig through the rubble. We didn't find the computer, but we did find something very interesting below the vault. Once we opened the reinforced steel door, we were able to get a glimpse down a long shaft. We climbed at least 100 feet. We found a corridor large enough to drive a vehicle through. And by the looks of it, a vehicle had been driven through; recently. We inquired with the Feds, but even they were unable to tell who had built the complex, when or why. It was up to us to do the dungeon crawl and find out. After setting up a base camp in the vault above...we started going from room to room...

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans More to come...real life happens, you know? Though, I am excited about posting the details of what The Nebraskans find. A cold war bunker...that has even the Pentagon puzzled?

Re: Do you have any "deal breakers" when it comes 6th edition? Honestly? It's out of my hands. My players have already said that once D&D 4E comes out, they'll be busy converting their various D&D worlds to it. They obviously will want to play D&D for quite awhile. They are essentially going to drop all of the other games they are playing to do this-even the Mutants and Masterminds campaign I've talked them into playing in. In short, they won't be too interested in even playing HERO 5E after June. 6E is a ways off, but I don't see any of my players getting tired of D&D for atleast awhile...two or three years maybe. If or when that happens, two of my players have said that they will definitely check out HERO 6E... The 'deal-breaker' for HERO 6E is D&D 4E. For now. Though, I might be able to bring some of them back into the fold. Essentially, the timing of all this has been problematic.

Re: What would the character sheet for typical MMA competitor look like?

Re: [Campaign] The Nebraskans Urban Warfare. Not an easy task. Too much terrain. Too many buildings, too many doors, too many windows. Too many bystanders.... A curtain flapping in the breeze might makes you look one way, while shots start coming from another. Echoes and shadows throw off your senses. Booby traps, dead-ends and old maps can make getting from one place to another a nightmare. One can't tell friend from foe when one factors in bystanders. Thank God that there are few truly urban environments in Nebraska...but sure enough, he decided to put us right in the middle of one. It was just the three of us and we were outnumbered. Maybe we were not even in the same league as those raining bullets down on us. The SUV we were using as a shield was slowing being shredded away. We needed either an escape route or a miracle. Redundant, perhaps. We didn't think that we were going to get that computer that day. However, we decided to call in reinforcements and close down a part of Omaha. Holed up bank robbers. That story would work for a few days. Though, none of us wanted the siege to go on that long....