Weldun

Our Heroes:
Amon-Ra: Archaeologist who found an artifact that is a conduit to an ancient god.
Diamondback: Exposure to a strange crystal gave her immense strength and durability.
Double-Time!: Given incredible running speed during a lab accident.
Faceless: FBI agent with the ability to assume the shape of any person he sees.
Ka-Pow!: 17 year old boxer and mechanic who's a bit more than human.
Professor Polar: Discoverer of "cold energy".
Shard: Exposed to the same crystal as Diamondback, but instead has the ability to grow and control similar crystals.
Tarraingteacht: Agent Carter's skills with Polaris's powers.
Zoltan the Magnificent: Stage magician who also knows real magic.
 
**
 
Diamondback [OOC] -- I don’t play these games for realism.
 
***
 
Zoltan [in reference to hitting someone from behind] -- That would not be honorable. I’d wait until none of you were watching.
 
***
 
Diamondback [while the group was still in New York] -- If you think you need to go through South America to get to the Vatican. . .
 
***
 
Faceless -- This is a plan where our psych lims cannot get in the way.

A theme song for any and every Bard class character. Warning: a bit of foul language here.

Just got home from the inaugural session of a TORG Eternity campaign, in which my character is a hybrid of their canned Realm Runner archetype with a stoner trucker type whose backstory and personality is drawn entirely out of Little Feat's "Willin'" (the besr rendition of which is on the Waiting For Columbus live album).  I'm going to have to buy him a shotgun, but he fits in perfectly in that game, as the truck driver who'll drive through Hell, perhaps literally, for the right reason.  I even went so far as to name him Tonopah Pete.

We've had a couple of campaigns where all the PCs had at least one theme song, and one of the group ripped CDs of the collection.  Great fun.

My daughter's very first character was searching for her lost love.  He had gone on a trading mission and never returned.  She didn't find him until years later after he had been turned into a mindless slave for the big bad guy in the campaign.
 
For her character I used "I will find you" Clannad from the movie The Last of the Mohicans.

My first Champs hero Jack Flash was a Los Angeles based, .357 packing, FBI agent, and was so long ago that when the movie Beverly Hills Cop II came out I stole it's theme song.  Bob Segar's  "Shakedown" was always just perfect.
   "It's a given L.A. law, there's always someone faster on the draw. No matter where you hide, I'm gonna take you down."

I internalise songs for most of my characters or NPCs - and I use them to help keep them 'true' to themselves when faces with a choice.
 
I do tend to reuse them, however, based on archetype.  A few samples:
 
Peaceful Warrior - calm, confident, power at the ready but reluctantly used.  Piccolo's theme - Dragonball Z original dub - Bruce Faulconer 
 
Hidden Power - quiet but with a near perpetual smirk, knowing something that their enemies don't know.  Itching for an excuse to show them what.  Power Tripping - Teenage Monster Magnet
 
Aggressive Warrior - In your face all the time. First to pick a fight, last to leave one .  Brash. Overconfident. Reckless by Judas Priest or Headstrong by Trapt.

One of the things that I tend to do for my characters is keep a theme song in mind. If nothing else, it helps me keep the general mindset/energy of the character in mind and I can play it to quickly get into character.
For the games that I'm currently playing.
Does anyone else do this and, if so, what are your theme songs?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
I was playing the ship’s A.I. in a high-point GURPS Space campaign, when were forced to sabotage and destroy a vessel containing over a thousand crew members. As the rest of the PCs watched the explosion on the screens, this conversation ensued.
Note: All A.I.s have a hardwired destabilization program that specifically destroys their central personality matrix if activated. (Thank you very much, Mr. Gibson.)
 
A.I.: It’s… it’s beautiful.
Doctor: That’s horrible! There where over a thousand men and women aboard that vessel, and you call their deaths beautiful?
Captain: That’s it! Where’s that shotgun code?
A.I.: You can’t see this as I do and I can’t explain it to you. The best I can do is this. Do you know Michaelangelo’s work at the Sistine Chapel, on Holy Terra? Well imagine, if you will, someone shows it to you, but only all the red light. And then only the orange. Then yellow, green, blue, indigo and finally violet. Could you truly comprehend it’s beauty? It’s majesty? No, of course not. Now I see everything around this ship in a multi-layered, 3-dimensional image of electromagnetic wavelengths starting from the low radio to the far gamma, highlighted by neutrinos, shaded by tachyons and accented by gravitic waves. Where I can perceive a wavelength range if 1x10 (to -11) to 1x10 (to -1), you are limited to 4x10 (to -7) to 7x10 (to -7). So trust me when I say, “ooh, pretty!â€
Captain & Doctor in unison: Shotgun.

All that I can say is that I'm having fun running these campaigns. The player for both Gillert and Flux in both cases has made characters whose morals don't exactly mesh with the rest of the table (quite accidentally in the case of Gillert), but it's left him being free to play the foil with a healthy dose of snark.

There are two wonderfull words for that:
Protagonist
Antagonist
 
For a item like this, keeping track of where it is right now is propably more important then securing it against theft in the first place.

Star Wars, Edge of Empire. Our ship, the Gonk-Gonk, is returning to Ryloth, which is sortof our home base; our Captain is a Twi'lek, and her sister is the Planetary Governor. Unlike on our previous visits, this time all the planets orbital defenses are active due to some recent raids. We're given a very narrow & specific flight plan to follow, and warned not to deviate from it. But our Captain/Pilot is overconfident,has authority issues, and is used to getting away with things due to her family connections.
 
Captain: "Fine, I'll follow their flight plan, but I'm going to do it at full throttle just because I can. I'm not sure if it's possible to "drift" a YT-1300 around corners, but let's find out." [fails her roll] "Ah..."
GM: "So as you take the first corner, you slide wide through the turn and out of the window you were given. You detect the small, localized sensor ping right before you slide broadside into the orbital mine." [rolls] "The mine does X damage to the ship and completely blows out your shield generators."
Captain: "...Oops?"
GM: "The comm system is making that annoying chirping noise."
Protocol Droid: [cheerfully] "This is the Gonk-Gonk; how may I assist you?"
Orbital Traffic Control: "What The Hell Do You Think You're Doing?!"
Protocol Droid: "We were just testing the effectiveness of your minefield. Congratulations! It passed!"
OTC: "Do you have any idea how much those things COST?!"
Protocol Droid: "And now we know they're worth it!"
 
Upon landing, we get an urgent message from the Governor's Office:
Planetary Official: "The Governor requests you join her here at the your earliest possible convenience."
Captain: "How soon do they want us there?"
Protocol Droid: "That's Diplomateese for Why Aren't You Here Yet?!"
Captain: "I don't speak Diplomat."
Protocol Droid: "I know." [beat] "Which is why you have a Protocol Droid to translate for you."
GM: "You have another incoming call, this one from the Gand Embassy." (The Gand are the aliens who had hired us for our last mission; they speak only in metaphors.)
Gand Embassy: "When a leaf falls, while it's path cannot be predicted with certainty, the quicker it reaches the ground the sooner all can be at rest."
Protocol Droid: "That is also Diplomateese for Why Aren't You Here Yet?!"
Captain: "Fine. I text my sister I'll be there as soon as I can but I have to go see the Gand first. They're more likely to rip my arms off if I'm late."
Governor: [texting] "And you assume I won't?" (followed by a chainsaw emoji)
Protocol Droid: "That is also Diplomateese for..."
Captain: "I GET IT, THANKS! I text her back "You're mad about that mine, aren't you?"
Governor: [texting] "Do you have any idea how much those things COST?!"
 
Later, we're trying to help a dying Gand religious figure; the medic doesn't make his roll by enough to save him, and the Gand dies.
Player 1: "I start beating on his chest double-fisted; it always works on TV."
Player 2: "Remember to yell "DON'T YOU DIE ON ME!" as you do; it's important."
Player 3: "That's it! Just like last week, I make an Athletics check for I Hit Him Until He Starts Breathing Again!"
GM: "Heh, funny. But yeah, no."

A couple from this week's Star Wars Edge of Empire game:
 
Our ship has two GNK "Gonk" Droids as NPCs. The way our GM plays them is that they have a full & complex language when talking to each other, but to everyone else (including my protocol Droid PC) it all sounds like "Gonk gonk." Early on, they took it upon themselves to christen our ship, so it's now known as The Gonk Gonk.
Recently, we picked up a 3rd Gonk...
Mechanic: "So does that mean our ship is now The Gonk Gonk Gonk?"
GM: "The Gonks all look at you weird and mutter among themselves like you just said something wildly inappropriate. After a few minutes, they file into the cockpit and hand the Captain a piece of paper. It looks like an HR Form for a hostile workforce complaint. But it's hard to be sure because all the blanks are filled in with "Gonk gonk gonk gonk gonk!""
Captain: "What did you say to them?!"
Mechanic: "Apparently I have no idea."
 
We also found an...interesting quirk in the EofE rules while trying to repair some hull damage:
GM: "Anyone who has Mechanics can assist. If you don't have Mechanics, you can use Athletics instead."
Player 1: "Wait, how does that work?"
GM: "It means you're using a more brute-force approach, welding plates in place and so forth."
Player 2: "Are you telling me I can literally buy ranks in I Kick It Until It Works? That's...the most Genre thing ever!"
Player 3: "I am so putting XP into that..."

Hello old thread. 
 
Started a new campaign, tentatively titled Storm Chasers.
Our heroes!
 
Tahlten La'aoriel - half-elf ranger, bearer of adorable kitten named Moxie. 
Donur Tymtumblyr - Dragonborn Cleric of Uryjon the Thunderer, friendly sort. Will hit anyone.
Thirin Salthammer of Clan Riversteel - dwarf bard, from a clan that left the mountains to sail the seas. Stuck in a podunk human village on a pisscreek they call a river. 
 
New Group. Tahlten is a new player and not quite as comfortable with the RP. 
 
Donur and Thirin are old hats though. 
 
Donur Tymtumblyr: BIC: "We have an... accord," He says to Grimslad, then looks to Thirin Salthammer and Tahlten La'ailior "Adventure awaits! As the holy script says 'A righteous clouting is a joy to bring to the sinful'... Book of Claw II, Verse 26."
Donur Tymtumblyr: (Draconic) "Blow it out your snack hole"
Donur Tymtumblyr: BIC: "The Thunderer fill thee with health and may thy eggs be many!" A pause, "It's a very old healing spell. We really should update the orthodoxy."
Donur Tymtumblyr: (In Draconic) A grunt, and then, "My mother's mother hits harder than you and she's venerable."
Donur Tymtumblyr: BIC: "Kill em all and let Urjyon sort em out!" He quotes saint whompscale the blessed martyr!
Donur Tymtumblyr: "Urjyon the Thunderer, Shakaboom be his name, takes no blood sacrifices save that willingly given in battle by the brave and righteous." he coughs, "It maybe... kobolds."
 
 
Thirin Salthammer: Pick on someone yer own size!
after Lizardman picks on much shorter dwarf...
Tahlten La'alior: "Time for a drum solo!"

If anyone is interested, the floorplan of the house that they robbed was based on a house I created for one of my characters.
 

If anyone is interested, the floorplan of the house that they robbed was based on a house I created for one of my characters.
 

We're setting up for the Big Campaign Finale. One PC has a 20-something daughter with superpowers, who is following in Daddy's footsteps. (She's a DNPC, but also bought as a Follower.) Daughter wants to join the PCs on the Final Assault. The player is debating whether to bring her along or not; the player thinks it would be fun and they could use the additional firepower, but in-character the PC would be reluctant to expose his daughter to what is practically a suicide mission. Daughter really doesn't want to be left behind, and is wheedling Daddy to let her come.
 
Another player OOC: "As the father of two daughters, can we just skip ahead to the part where she gets her way? Trust me on this one."

I remember seeing a fan-music-video for Stargate Atlantis using that piece. It cast Zelenka as Sancho Panza to McKay's Don Quixote.

I remember seeing a fan-music-video for Stargate Atlantis using that piece. It cast Zelenka as Sancho Panza to McKay's Don Quixote.

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)

Return to Edge City : Recruiting The Team
Edge City's newest superheroes, getting together a wildly optimistic plan to deal with the conurbation's many problems.

Flux: Techneurge/Cybermage
Hardlight: Industrialist, Philanthropist, Secret superhero.
Hero Shrew: Anthropomorphic Anger Ball "Shake vigorously, point towards enemy"
Fireflash: Flying Energy Projector, who made an unfortunate first public appearance when she escaped from the illegal medical experiments that created her powers. "One of the reporters decided they needed to work 'flash' into her name somehow."

Hero Shrew OoC: I'm detecting a theme here - Flux, Hardlight, Fireflash.... And then there's Hero Shrew.

GM: One of my previous characters would have conference calls during superhero fights. 'So Gerry, what I think we need to do in the third quarter is - just a minute - I TOLD YOU TO STAY DOWN - anyway, the third quarter.'

Hardlight's player: You guys are going to hate me but it will be fun later - I took 'Weirdness Magnet'.
Flux's player: I can see it now. 'And who do we blame for all this? This guy.'

GM: Hardlight is barely harder to hit than the hex he's standing in. He mostly relies on hitting things at range - but he's crap at that too.

Hardlight attempts to recruit a team.

GM: So how do you know each other?
Hardlight OoC: I hired them?
Fireflash OoC: At my age?
Hero Shrew OoC: Intern then.
Fireflash OoC: Probably not - I had a bad experience with my last internship.
GM: That's how she got her powers.

Hero Shrew OoC: You needed a team for a particular job? 'Now who do I know in Edge City? There's that one who was on the news the other day - the one with the perky nipples'
Flux's player: 'I like her.' 'She's under age.' 'Er, I don't LIKE like her, I like her spunk..... Bad choice of words.' That would be an interesting Disad.
GM: Uncontrollable Double Entendre.

Sounds like the notorious Smut Field. How would you stat THAT out in Hero?

On top of all the corporate and supergang shenanigans, there's Edge City's large population of engineered animals, many of whom have there own superhuman abilities. Never has the term 'rats with capes' been more appropriate.

GM: Hero Shrew works as a bouncer at a titty bar in the Zoo.
Hero Shrew: And I always need money because of all the criminal damage cases.
GM: All kind of girls at the bar - squirrel girls, gazelle girls
Hero Shrew: Cat girls.
GM: The Zoo is paradise for furries.
Flux's player: Am I playing Black Crusade again by mistake?
Hero Shrew: For the really adventurous there's hyena girls.

GM: There's a photo and note next to the door. "This bouncer can clean lift 25 tonnes" And the photo is Hero Shrew smiling.
Fireflash's player: Which with shrews is SCARY.

GM: Hardlight's civilian ID is Gareth Lowell, a philanthropist millionaire who actually hires Moreaus. And you've never heard of him.
Hero Shrew: *shrug* Outside my usual social circles.
Hardlight OoC: You wondered why I was being followed by paparazzi.
Flux OoC: Who photographed you going into a titty bar.
GM: A FURRY titty bar. Currently trending #LowellTitFur.

Hero Shrew gets one of the girls to read the card Gareth Lowell / Hardlight left for him. It takes a few attempts for the number $30,000 to sink in.

Hero Shrew: Hey! I can get the door fixed!
Bunni: You broke the door again? I keep telling you, you should get a curtain.
Flux: I keep expecting him to go home to food pellets and an exercise wheel.

Hardlight's attempts to recruit Flux don't go quite so smoothly, especially after Flux sees what is trending on Twitter.

GM: Flux, you think you're being propositioned for a swinger's party.
Flux: I get spam that's more competent than this.
Hardlight: It's my first time out.
GM, Fireflash: *cackling*
Flux: Let's start again - You're a superhero and you want extra muscle for a job? Or is this 'Can I get your number, baby?'

GM: I'm going to make it easy for you - come up with a team name, make a Facebook group, and Invite Fireflash to join it.
Fireflash: I'm an underage teenage girl and I'm being asked to join a group by someone named HARDlight?
GM: I don't even need to steer this into the gutter.
Fireflash: Blocked.

Fireflash: Am I the first one you've tried to recruit?
Hardlight: No, you're the third.
Fireflash: And the first two turned you down?
Hardlight: No, actually.
Fireflash: Well, you must be doing something right.
Hardlight: Actually, I haven't heard back from the first guy yet...
Hero Shrew OoC: 'But he didn't throw me out of the titty bar'.

Bunni: I'll help you get there, Scooter.
Hero Shrew: Thanks, Bunni, I dunno what I'd do without ya.
Bunni: Break everything?
Hero Shrew: Yeah, probably.

Fireflash: *on phone* Hey Nicki, I won't be able to make the game tonight. Sorry. Can you play my cleric for me?

Fireflash's costume is on the skimpy side - her enhanced metabolism runs at a dangerously high temperature.

Flux: She doesn't even have a boob window.
Hardlight: She doesn't need them - she's wearing a bikini.

Hero Shrew's Hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold friend makes sure he gets to the meeting on time.

GM: There's a bunny girl waiting at the meeting place. Long ears, fluffy tail, the whole deal.
Flux: Good feelings.
GM: And then there's the ball of fur, muscle, and teeth next to her.
Flux: Good feelings all gone.

Bunni: Now, Scooter, remember, this is LowellTech. Don't forget to give them the card.
Hero Shrew: Oh yeah. *starts patting pockets* Uh...
Bunni: *sigh* I've got it, remember? *pulls card from cleavage*
Hero Shrew: Oh, right, I remember now.
Bunni: And remember what I said about getting home. Stick to the main roads. If you go into any alleyways you'll have to hurt someone again.
Hero Shrew: Yeah, that happens a lot, dunnit? See ya tomorrow Bunni.
Bunni: *kisses the shrew's cheek*

Hardlight realises he's arranged for everybody to arrive at the same time.

Hardlight: I have made a boo-boo. Quick everybody, get inside.
Fireflash: Hey! Watch it with the hands!
Flux: This guy is a social media disaster. 'Edge City Philanthropist Seen With Teenager, Manimal, and ... Cameraman?'

Hardlight is also unaware that Flux and Fireflash have already figured out his secret identity. This bodes ill for future supervillain revenge schemes. Ill for Hardlight - it bodes great for any villain with half a brain.

Fireflash: Who are you?
Flux: Flux. Don't you read the Facebook group?
Fireflash: No - I blocked him after I though he was a creep.
Flux: Nah, he was like that with me too. Well, he MIGHT be a grabber, he's rich.

Hardlight changes back into his civilian garb and heads out front to meet Hero Shrew.

Hardlight/Gareth Lowell: Mr Shrew, good to see you, mate! Er... Mate?
GM: Aaaaaand three for three. Apparently he wants to breed with you.
Moreau Employee: He means 'Friend'

Hardlight creates a few hologram sofas for his team to sit on.

Hardlight: So let's get into it.
Fireflash: Into what? Because I don't want any orgies.
Hardlight: Superheroics! Not orgies! Truth, Justice, and the American goddamned Way!
Hero Shrew: Will this count as community service?

Hardlight: I'm prepared to pay you all a salary.
Fireflash: I can't do weekdays - I'm not willing to give up school.
Flux: It'll be like a weekend knitting club.

Fireflash: So what do you do?
Hero Shrew: Er... bounce stuff? Demolish buildings?
Fireflash: So you're big and strong? Well, small and strong.
Hero Shrew: Yeah.
Fireflash: And you?
Flux: Florist.

Fireflash: What about you? That suit do anything?
Hardlight: You're sitting on what I can do.... Oh god.
Flux: *slow clap*
GM: New Rule - Hardlight is never allowed to talk to the press.
Flux: Also, Hero Shrew is not flammable but smells bad when wet.

Hardlight does not, in fact, have a job in mind right now.

Hardlight: ... I just wanted to set up the knitting club.
Flux: I WILL re-edit your Facebook page.
GM: Not difficult.
Flux: The threat is real.
Fireflash: If you are up to something that makes my friends think I'm in a knitting club I will re-edit your face.

But Flux IS aware of something suspicious. Somebody has been testing security alarms and response times over in the light industrial suburb of Ditko. Flux weaves a spell that makes us invisible to cameras, so we can stake the suburb out.

Flux: Don't try to take any selfies.

Flux is right - the heist is being planned by the Six Teens, one of Edge City's more notorious supervillain groups. Titania, Lash, Iron Claw, Black Warlock, Viper Girl and Ghost Shadow.

GM: But you can only see 5 of them. 'I can't see the ninja - oh crap'.

Lash is carrying the Iron Claw in one of her energy tendrils, and walking on another four.

Hardlight: Is he injured?
GM: No - it's just faster this way.

They walk up to a storage warehouse and Iron Claw starts tearing off a wall.

Fireflash: These are the guys we're here to stop, right?
Flux: No, they're Girl Scouts delivering cookies.

Hero Shrew starts looking around for things to use as blunt instruments.

GM: There's plenty of options - it's an industrial estate.
Hero Shrew: Dumpsters, forklifts...

Hardlight: Stop, in the name of Justice!
Lash: *has already turned to catch the dumpster Hero Shrew has already thrown*
Hardlight: .... Huh.
Fireflash: Seriously? Hardlight, do you have any idea of the concept of a surprise attack?
GM: There's a reason you can only see five of them
Hero Shrew: Crap. The Ninja is doing Overwatch for them.
Flux: Ninja? What Ninja? I can't see any ninjas.
Hero Shrew OoC: Worse, there's only one Ninja - we're screwed.
GM: True - Ninjitsu has been conserved.
Lash: Seriously? A Dumpster?
Titania: Wow. Well then. This is a thing.

Any bookie would give our team poor odds in the fight - the Six Teens badly outclass us. But we get very lucky - Fireflash blasts them with a dazzling attack, which actually gets them all, and we discover Lash has 360 vision and no flash defence.

Flux: We have discovered a weakness >
Lash: See? This is why I keep saying we need goggles.

Ghost Shadow: Ah, two can play at that game. *blinds Fireflash with Shadow Powder*
Fireflash: Argh, Jesus, that burns! Asshole!

Their leader, Titania, runs through a wall to set up some later move out of our sight.

Hardlight: Hammer of JUSTICE!!!!!
Hero Shrew OoC: You don't have to announce your attacks, you know.
Hardlight: Yes I do.
GM: He took the Disad

Hardlight manages to hit himself with his own hologrammic Hammer of Justice. And Hero Shrew's gets the dumpster back in the face.

GM: *sings* Return, to Sender.

Hardlight: ARMOUR-PIERCING BITCH SLAP!
Flux: ....
Hardlight: Yes, I call it that.
Flux: Suddenly I wish the concealment spell was still up.
Fireflash: We are going to have words later.

GM: Viper Girl is up, and she's not happy. That hurt.
Hero Shrew OoC: And somebody just yelled BITCH SLAP.
GM: And that too.

Iron Claw, still dazzled, finally tears his way through the solid metal slab reinforcing the inner wall of the 'storage warehouse'.

Iron Claw: Finally!... Am I through yet?

Lash lashes away, and Titania re-emerges to lay down her own hurt, orders her team to cover Iron Claw's entrance into the 'warehouse', and gets an enraged Shrew wielding a street-sign in the face.

Hero Shrew: CAPTAIN CAAAAAAAAVVVVEMAAAAN!!!!!!

Lash takes a particular interest in attacking Hardlight.

Lash: Sorry, What *LASH* Did *LASH* You *LASH* Call *LASH* Me?
Fireflash: And he deserves it.

Titania's tactical analysis is spot-on. Flux, for example, has no obvious powers, and she's cautious enough to avoid hand-to-hand with an unknown.

Titania: The skinny ones tend to be tricky *punches the ground so hard that the rebounding turf slaps Flux three stories into the air*

And then Black Warlock mind-controls Hero Shrew into attacking the rest of the knitting circle.

Titania: Hi there. You'd better stay down. *punches Hardlight the rest of the way into unconsciousness*
GM: And now that she's the only one visible, Fireflash knows that the Anger Ball is coming for her.
Fireflash: *runs away*
Titania: Smart girl.

Viper Girl: I'm bored. *fires energy beams at Flux's crotch and singes off his short-and-curlies*
GM: I think that counts as a Presence Attack.

Titania: *grabs Flux by a leg, and flings him a few blocks* Fetch. *Hero Shrew heads off after Flux, who barely avoids the shrews's attack*
Flux: I think the screaming and flailing helped.

Titania: We're here to work, not play.
Black Warlock: She's got a point, sweetie. I'll steal you something nice later.

The Six Teens teleport out with whatever they were after, and we at least learn that the 'warehouse' was full of InfoComp server stacks. InfoComp specialise in data-mining and info-brokering. This is probably bad, but at least we learned how focused and co-ordinated the Six Teens are, and suspect they were hired for the job.

Hero Shrew OoC: And we've learned that Hardlight's biggest power is putting his foot in his own mouth.

So, we're still lost in the wilderness.  Apparently we're on an island with 4 different magical gates, each in extremely hard to get to or well guarded locations.  Also, none of us know how to properly control the gates.  We start out debating which of these gates we want to attempt to reach to try to get back home.
 
*****
 
Nymera [OOC] (after hearing about the 'darkness elementals' guarding the pass to one of the gates): That sounds vague enough to be really awful.
 
*****
 
Nymera (speaking to a friendly Treant about the various gates): Are they all equally hard to control?  'Cause this group is stupid and we need simple.
 
*****
 
Nymeria [OOC]: I have a cat who is made of murder buttons.
 
*****
 
Nymera: Do you want regular drowning or drowning with the upgrade?
 
*****
 
Nymera: If this plan works, we'll be in some other horrendous hell-hole.
 
*****
 
Braddoc [OOC]:  He [the GM] needs the exact steps, in order, of how you're going to fail this.
 
[This was followed, several minutes later, by the player in question rolling a massive success to activate and control the magical gate.  Unfortunately, he had activated the wrong address symbols.]
 
*****
 
Braddoc [OOC] (after another player spends several minutes "auditioning" all of his d20s): Gamers are a superstitious and cowardly lot,.
 
*****
 
Braddoc [OOC] (after another player has a accident involving a bottle of soda and bad judgement): This night shall forever more be known as "The Great Ski Incident of 2016".
 
*****
 
Braddoc (after we've travelled through the gate to the wrong address and have followed a natural cavern up into an area of worked stone): Worked stone means the possibility of traps.
 
Nymera: I was hoping you'd say "possibility of friends".
 
Braddoc: I'm not that optimistic.  I've met us.

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.

Surprisingly, no. I must rectify this. And I'm glad that my retro-kick proved somewhat infectious.
 
But currently, Twisted Sister Frontman Dee Snider rockin' out this rendition of Mack The Knife.
 

Staying with Postmodern Jukebox: