Quotes (Part 1) from my Champions campaign, Stronghold Corrupted adventure:
The news for the week had an article about members of Just Cause going to Stronghold to observe and assist in the exorcism of Necroma, one of the Corrupted supervillain group. (This was originally a group of a dozen missionaries in Nicaragua who had been kidnapped by cultists who then summoned evil spirits to possess the missionaries' bodies. The heroes know this.) I didn't actually run the exorcism before giving them the news sheets.
Malarky: Did I miss something?
GM: No, I'm going to start with the exorcism itself.
Malarky: Well, at least we know up front that it worked.
Discussing travel plans:
GM: (to Pops) So, you're going to teleport everyone to Stronghold?
Malarky: Even Maker? Pops: That's right. She keeps messing with the teleport.
Maker: What? No, I'm not! That was some villain doing it.
Pops: No, I can tell it's coming from you. You'll have to take a bus to New Mexico.
Malarky: Yeah, you've got Teleport Herpes.
Since they have a few days beforehand, Pops and Maker decide to first try tracking down what is causing Maker to misdirect Pops' long distance teleport. Maker builds a device to scan for energy effects that occur during teleportation, and they test it out.
GM: How far are you teleporting?
Pops: Just a few kilometers.
GM: Okay. (has Maker roll 3d6) Pops, you end up where you targeted. Maker, you have to kick on her flight so you don't fall into the Charles River.
Another test.
GM: Again, Pops ends up where he targeted. Maker finds herself inside a self-storage unit in Cambridge.
Shadowboxer: The important question is, did you pay your monthly rental fee? Maker: It's not my storage unit!
Pops: I think next time I'll try teleporting across the country, see which state she ends up in.
The particular energy signatures pinned down, Maker learns that not only is she kicking out this energy -- so is her costume, gadgets, even her entire lab.
Maker: Is there anything I can do to get rid of this energy?
GM: You can build something to remove the taint, as it were. It'll take about five minutes to scrub you and your costume clean. However, you notice that a little while after doing so, you begin accumulating that energy again, slow but sure.
Pops: All I know is, when I leave her lab, I'm taking a long, hot shower.
After a few days fruitless searching (and some really bad skill rolls), Maker finally determines that the broadcast energy from the bots she stole liberated from VIPER is causing the energy taint.
Malarky: Looks like someone got pissed that you keep stealing their stuff.
Maker: What? I only have two!
GM: More like five.
Maker: No, I have one old flyer bot, and one new one. Remember, the other new flyer bot got trashed by DEMON agents at the mall.
GM: And the flyer bot you sent to the Cross-Rip dimension that never came back.
Shadowboxer: Plus the Johnny Five [roller bot].
GM: And however many lab bots you took from that raid on the VIPER lab.
Maker: (sulks)
After shutting down the broadcast energy and complete scrubbing, they try another teleport test.
GM: (to Maker) Okay, make another 3d6 roll.
Maker: You've got to be kidding me! GM: Yep. Just messing with you. The teleport works fine.
The heroes travel to Stronghold, and I hand them some printed info about the superprison as well as maps copied from the Stronghold sourcebook.
Nexus: (sarcastic) Yeah, nothing's going to go wrong here.
GM: What? The article says everything went fine! (pause) Should I pull out the hexmap of the area where they're doing the exorcism?
Nexus: Did you make one? GM: Maaaaaybe. (grins) So, the deputy warden says that they'll either need to shut off the power negation systems there or do this on the rooftop, since they're not sure if the power suppression would interfere with the exorcism.
Malarky: Shut off power negation throughout the prison?! GM: No, just on Level 6 of Main Security.
Malarky: Well, that's okay then.
Circe's player wasn't there yesterday, so there's some discussion on what the team mentalist will be doing.
GM: Would Circe be using telepathy on Necroma during the exorcism? Y'know, to make sure the spirit really does leave her?
Malarky: (heavy sarcasm) Yeah, be mentally linked to the possessed person when the evil spirit is forced out of that body, with nowhere to go. Can't see how that could go bad.
Shadowboxer: That's the price you pay for not coming to the game.
Despite that, we decide she will only establish telepathy after the exorcism is done. They're introduced to the priest, Father Joseph Bainbridge, who will perform the exorcism.
Maker: Wait, Bainbridge? Don't we know him? GM: If so, it's a complete coincidence, because when I typed my notes for the game earlier today I just opened this random name generator booklet you gave me and (closes eyes, opens booklet to a random page, jabs finger at the page, and opens eyes) ...Joseph... (closes eyes again, jabs finger elsewhere on another page) ... Bainbridge!
Malarky watches the exorcism (ceremony? ritual? not sure what term to use) from the POV of the student of magic he is.
GM: The exorcism itself takes about 20-30 minutes, lots of prayers and statements in Latin, use of holy water and blessed incense, what have you. Malarky notes the various places throughout where he recognizes actual magical elements, with a fair amount of strictly religious elements that he's not sure are absolutely necessary.
Malarky: Could I trim it down if necessary?
GM: You could maybe do a short version in 3-4 minutes.
Honey Badger: (quoting from Spaceballs) Right! The short, SHORT version! Do you? Yes! Do you? Yes! Good, you're married! Kiss her!
Contrary to the players' paranoid expectations, the exorcism goes off without a hitch and is successful. Circe telepathically confirms that the former missionary (Lydia Chavez) is free from possession. However, all is not sunshine and roses...
Circe: (through Mind Link to teammates) That girl is seriously messed up. All the things she was forced to witness and remembers doing while she was possessed... she's extremely depressed, borderline suicidal.
Lydia: (to Circe) Please, is there anything you can do, take away those memories? I'd rather not remember any of that, ever.
Circe: I'm sorry, dear, that's not in my wheelhouse. Yet.
Pops: But she's working on it.
The heroes are discussing finding the other items to allow them to exorcise the rest of the Corrupted, and the staff psychologist at Stronghold has a suggestion.
Dr. Crawford: (to Circe) Is it possible Lydia could provide you information, from her memories of the time she was possessed, to tell you where the items were hidden? Or failing that, info that could help you locate the cultists, so they can tell you where to find the items? Having her actively helping free her fellow missionaries might help her get past the things she did while possessed. And you could telepathically help her come to grips with things along the way. (OOC) This is the GM's heavy-handed way of having Circe not be a direct part of this adventure, but still helping move the plot along.
Pops: Circe, going down to Nicaragua by herself?
GM: Well, the two UNTIL agents that brought the tainted first aid kit needed for Necroma's exorcism will agree to accompany her.
Malarky: Two random UNTIL agents?
GM: No, Lt. Truxillo and Sgt. Ishada. [note: these were GM-supplied characters played by Shadowboxer's and Maker's players the week before].
Malarky: Oh, that's okay then. They're good.
GM: Plus, she'll maintain the Mind Link with the other Just Cause members. If she gets into trouble, you can always "Pops" down there and lend a hand.
Pops: If I'm not too busy with that cellular regeneration project.
After arriving in Nicaragua, Circe reports on her progress.
Circe: We've located where the initial possession ritual was done. (pause) The Nicaraguan federales have a refreshingly accepting view of using mental powers on suspected cultists.
Where did you get these four perfectly round circles?
I can prove to myself that they ARE four circles by forcing my eyes to follow them around each circumference, but I can't make myself SEE them that way.
Lucius Alexander
The amazed palindromedary says this image is so awesome we got a "like" just for REposting it
A priest, a Pentecostal preacher and a Rabbi were chaplains to the students of a Northern
Michigan University and got together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop.
One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard.
A real challenge would be to preach to a bear.
One thing led to another and they decided to do an experiment they would all go out into
the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it.
Seven days later, they're all together to discuss the experience.
Father Flannery, who has his arm in a sling, is on crutches, and has various bandages, goes first.
" Well," he says, "I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him I began to read
to him from the Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me
around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he
became as gentle a lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation."
Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, with an arm and both legs in casts.
In his best fire and brimstone oratory he claimed, "WELL brothers, you KNOW that we don't
sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to my bear from God's
HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we
began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came
to a creek. So I quick DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just like you said,
he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the time praising Jesus."
They both looked down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body
cast and traction with IV's and monitors running in and out of him. He was in bad shape.
The rabbi looks up and says,
"Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start."
This is a little like complaining that Stuart Little doesn't read like Maus.
Redwall is for kids, so what, deal with that fact and if you want something more challenging go find it with my best wishes for your happiness. I am an adult who generally enjoys thoughtful and sometimes thrilling material, but other times I like to power down with something like Redwall or Bone.
It doesn't make any choice wrong, just find something that's a better fit for you.
My second post was supposed to be a continuation of the first, so let me finish that off with...You start seeingHot Chocolate, cookies and Reindeer Chow at the Continental Breakfast Bar.
Seeker's resolution is to stop getting knocked out during combat in front of photographers who keep putting the picture on supplement books so that players will have to find another way to tell the good ones from the bad.
Her: "Oh, I forgot to tell you, they still need to finish their homework."
Me: "What the hell?! You were home with them all day long. You didn't bathe them, or feed them, or do their homework, or get rid of all this crap that's been on the dining table for three months. I put in nine hours on a doomed project, then raced home to feed and bathe the kids for you, and now I have to do a sink full of dishes and take out all the trash, and now I have to wake the kids up early tomorrow morning and force them to do their homework when it's already a struggle to get them to school on time every morning?! F___ ___." "Fantastic."
also at Folsom Street Faire, gathered with the perveratti at Wicked Grounds (SF's new Cafe/Kinky boutique)...
An hour or so earlier, a drunk hippie was running around non-consensually smacking people with a heavy leather belt. K. & myself both shrugged it off as a dumb & stupid, but J. took offense, caught the belt and snarled at him "Not without permission". He started to escalate, so to head things off at the pass, I intervened, which included grabbing his windpipe ever so gently but with the promise of bad things to come if he didn't chill.
While recounting the encounter, I commented...
"When are normal people gonna figure out not to mess with the people who study how to hurt other people as a hobby?"
Val Char Cost
50 STR 40
15 DEX 15
25 CON 30
14 BODY 8
18 INT 8
15 EGO 10
15 PRE 5
18 COM 4
20 PD 10
10 ED 5
4 SPD 15
15 RED 0
50 END 0
52 STUN 0
Total Characteristics Cost: 150 Points
Tjack reacted to BoloOfEarth in Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
Tjack got a reaction from Burrito Boy in Genre-crossover nightmares
Tjack got a reaction from Pariah in NGD Scenes from a Hat
Tjack got a reaction from Cassandra in 5th Edition 250 Points Comic Book Characters
