BoloOfEarth

Charles Torbin was once a promising engineer, until that fateful day he was struck by a bolt of lightning. He survived the massive surge of electricity but not without consequences. First, his former love of things technical has now turned into a pathological hatred of technology. And second, he has developed the power to absorb electricity (whether from direct electrical attacks, plugging in, or even from proximity to electrical outlets or power lines) and generate electromagnetic beams, blasts, and pulses. Calling himself EMPulse (but pronounced "impulse"), he set out to "shut down the technology that fetters the common man and keeps him separate from his fellow man."

Ah, sorry, different meaning of "vehicle." My bad. I was being too literal. Though I think I may use the B-1 idea myself, just so that during the drop I can tell the players, "Make a CON roll to keep from soiling yourselves."

Logan Custer was a simple farmer, working his fields, when a swarm of locusts arrived. These weren't your garden-variety locusts, either. These had been genetically engineered by a mad supergenius. They could eat anything, including solid wood and human flesh. And when they arrived at Logan's farm, they ate everything they could... including Logan. When they left there was no sign of the farmer except some tattered, bloody clothing. But Logan had the last laugh. He still exists, albeit as the hive mind of the swarm of locusts. He can split off smaller swarms to do his bidding, or combine into a gigantic swarm able to decimate a small town in minutes. He's even learned to direct the locusts to form one giant humanoid-ish creature nearly 20 meters tall. By varying the buzz of various groups of locusts, he discovered he could communicate (though the buzzing is very disconcerting) and announced himself as Locutis (he's a ST:TNG fan and besides, he figures Locust is too simplistic a name).

Eyrthwyrm was once a low-level DEMON initiate (Ethan Wright) who was forced into a ritual to merge him with a low-level demonic creature. Wright managed to maintain control (which should tell you how low-level this demonic creature really is), though he now looks like a man-sized humanoid earthworm, albeit with big gnashing teeth and moderate psionic attacks, including the ability to scan for human minds and attack remotely. He also has the dubiously useful ability to command legions of earthworms, slugs, and other such creatures residing within the soil. He left DEMON (though his brethren repeatedly try to remind him that nobody just leaves DEMON) and joined the Invertebrates, hoping to steal enough money to eventually get a spellcaster to reverse his transformation and return him to normal.

If you're looking for suggestions, I'd say repurposed B-1 bombers would work. You'd want relatively high speed and decent payload. Since many of your flagsuits likely can fly, you probably don't need to worry overmuch about VTOL, so the vehicle would be mainly for dropoff and retrieval and not have to get into the fray (so no real need for defensive weaponry). You could have several rows of seats in the weapons bays, each seat on it's own set of rails to drop field team members individually. Automated rockets to rush the jump seat toward the ground, and then at the right altitude the rockets cut off, spin 180, and kick on again to slow the jump seat to a survivable landing. I'm imagining a not-Resolution hero working with them and getting offered a ride to a hot zone. Briefed beforehand on the actual attack plan, starting with a "standard drop-off." Sees the B-1, with the bomb bay doors open and the high-tech seats hydraulically lowered for load-up. Figures they'll be flying to an airport close to the hot spot, land, and then get other transportation to the actual LZ. But once they're over the LZ, the bomb bay doors open and the seats begin dropping off the rails in pairs, rockets deploying and igniting to speed them toward the ground. Heck of a ride.

No, just a minor thread derailment. Sorry about that.

I'm envisioning the Messengers: a team of US Male (brick), Federal X-Press (speedster), Air Male and his female companion Ups (fliers), and Telegraph (gadgeteer). Past members include Pony Express (speedster/animal multiform), Semaphore (martial artist), and Smoke Signal (native-American shaman).

"Hey, Harp, looks like your boy Dynamo was at it again last night!" Jack Simon listened idly as two other officers poked fun at the rookie cop. Even though Detective Simon couldn't see Rick Harper's face, he could imagine it turning red. Maybe a few years on the beat would cure him of that. If he survived. "He took down four gangbangers, single handed." Harper sounded proud of his hero, despite the ribbing. "That's, what, four more than you brought in, isn't it, Donaldson?" This defiant reply was met with a chorus of "ooooos!" and guffaws from other officers around the room. Simon chuckled. Donaldson was a bit of a loud-mouthed jerk and deserved to be cut down to size every now and then, but he wasn't about to go down quietly. "You may think the Blue Dynamo's a hotshot, Harper, but he's just one more vigilante hiding behind a mask." Harper shook his head. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. In fact, I think he might be a cop." That got some shocked silence from the other officers, as well as Det. Simon's full attention. Does he know...? Simon slowly swiveled around in his chair to look at the rookie. "What makes you say that, Officer Harper?" "Look at how he operates," Harper replied. "He doesn't just beat up the bad guys, he leaves photos and recordings and other evidence behind so we can nail 'em in court." A few of the other officers were nodding slightly. Det. Simon was trying to figure out how to derail this train of thought when the rookie gave him the perfect lead-in. "Besides, he's a boy in blue, just like us." Simon chuckled. "So maybe we should ask Superguy and Spiderdude for their badges? They wear blue, too." That got more laughter from the other officers, and they began to drift off to their own desks or headed out on patrol. Simon breathed a inner sigh of relief as Harper headed his way. "Detective Simon, seriously, what if Blue Dynamo is a cop? I saw him fight once -- some of those moves are what they taught us at the Academy." "They also teach them at self-defense classes all over the city," Simon said. "Listen, kid, I agree, those capes sometimes do good, but that doesn't make what they do right. There's laws for a reason." "And what about when criminals skate by on loopholes? When the laws don't work? Look at the guy that shot your partner, what, two years ago?" Simon's voice was almost a whisper. "Three." You're preaching to the choir, kid, you just don't know it. "That was one of Dynamo's early cases. Everybody knew he'd done it, but nobody could prove it. Then Dynamo got to him. Sure, his confession got thrown out because it was coerced, but it told us where to find the ***head's gun. And that nailed him." "So the end justifies the means?" Simon looked the younger officer in the eye. Don't go down this path, kid. It's not a good one. Trust me. "Look at this guy." He flipped the file around so Harper could read it. "We just got a tip that this Randall Blaine guy is actually Vigilance. You know, the guy who brands criminals' foreheads with a 'V'. Kneecaps people and then dangles 'em off rooftops to get 'em to talk. Most of 'em are bad, he hardly ever cripples an innocent guy, but y'know, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Or legs, as the case may be. Think we should give him a pass?" "No, but..." Harper looked increasingly uncomfortable. "Blue Dynamo doesn't go that far." "Yet. He's skating a very fine line, kid, and one of these days he's going to screw up and go over it." That's why I had to get Blaine's trust and find out his name, because he crossed that line more than once. And I live in constant fear that one day I'll cross that line, and then what will I do? Det. Simon closed the file and patted the officer on the arm. "Listen, kid, I get where you're coming from. Really, I do. But don't let hero worship blind you." He leaned close and lowered his voice. "I'm guessing you're passing him info every now and then." He didn't need the rookie's embarrassed flush to know he was right. "You really want to help him, you'll make sure he stays on the right side of the line. Warn him off when he looks like he's getting too hot under the collar." He chuckled good-naturedly. "Besides, you look like you'd make a good Jiminy Cricket." As the rookie cop left the station-house to go on patrol, Det. Simon sat back and thought long and hard about his shields -- both the one he wore as a detective, and the one he carried as a cape. He wondered if either one was really going to protect him in the end.

For origin / background, I've found several different forms I typically follow. There's the third-person descriptive -- basically, explaining what happened from completely outside the character's POV. This seems to be one of the most common forms used. It doesn't have to be the same-old-same-old -- it could take the form of an UNTIL report on the origin incident and events that followed, or a colleague (or minion) revealing the character's background. Then there's the first-person narrative -- the villain himself tells the story. I kinda like this, because in addition to learning his background, you also get a feel for the character - personality, voice, etc. The downside is it's tough to reveal info that the character himself/herself isn't privy to. Another form is laying out a specific scene. Since it doesn't have to be told from the character's POV, you can put secret stuff in there too. You can even put a succession of scenes together -- Hermit did a great job with this in his background for Stalker (of the Millennium City 8) in Digital Hero #13. The hard part is getting everything into a scene (or a few scenes) without thing feeling forced-in. Forms can be combined (such as laying out an origin scene, then switching to third-person descriptive afterward to fill in other info). Different ones work better for different characters. For me, the hardest part is finding the right form for a character background, followed closely by shoehorning in everything I want in there. Here's an odd idea for Scarlet Spectre. Spell it out from the ring's POV over several scenes. Maybe it's an intelligent item that worked at Griffin's subconscious, corrupting him without Griffin realizing he was being influenced. Start with it sitting in the dark tomb, reflecting back on King Gyges and how the ring helped him come to power, but lamenting how long it's now sat unused. Then John Griffin arrives and is tempted to put the ring it on, and is hooked. Next scene is Griffin telling off his colleagues, who (the ring whispers) never respected his abilities, ending with him leaving academia. Then a scene (or two) of him committing crimes, maybe mentioning other crimes to illustrate his slow but steady corruption by the ring. Another idea could be a third-person descriptive with a "grizzled veteran" minion filling in a new guy on "the Boss." ("Believe it or not, I've been with the boss-man since before he was Scarlet Spectre. I was a gofer on Dr. Griffin's dig in Lydia, looking for the tomb of ol' King Gyges. We found it just as a sandstorm was kicking up...") Anyway, just a few ideas to hopefully get the creative juices flowing.

Greg Lopinsky is a short, pudgy, quiet kid who just wants to be left alone to read, but the Recess Rogues won't let him. As the hero Glop, however, he can create a sticky morass that can even stop Jungle Jim in his tracks, or a slick substance that causes Rundown to slip-and-slide into a wall. If desperate, he can even turn his body into the slick substance (allowing him to get out of a Rogue's grip and avoid the dreaded Noogies).

"Dude! Hey Sam! Duuuuude!" "What is it Sonny? (sigh) Are you high again?" Sonny laughed. "Yeah, man. High as a bird! Hey, dude, check this out!" He picked up a handful of chocolate cereal and crushed it. As the powder leaked out between his fingers, it turned into a cloud of brownish smoke that enveloped both Sunny and his roommate Sam. Sonny just laughed, but Sam began to spaz out and babble incoherently. When Sam finally came back to his senses a few minutes later, he shoved Sonny angrily. "Not cool, man. I told you before to keep your drugs away from me. You want to throw your own life away, that's your choice. But I'm here at college to learn. Loser." He stormed out of the dorm room, slamming the door behind him. "But dude, that wasn't drugs," said Sonny, a bit confused. "I've been able to do this for years..." Shortly afterward, Sonny got kicked out of school for his out-of-control drug use. His parents tried "tough love" and cut him off financially, so he soon found himself desperately in need of cash. Taking the name Cocoa Puff, Sonny used his powers to rob a few convenience stores, which is how he came to the attention of the other Mudroot Menacers. CP can produce clouds of smoke and gasses with various effects, to which he is seemingly immune. (Sonny can actually do this purely on his own, but for some reason he believes he must crush handfuls of different cereals to get the different effects.) His signature effect is, of course, his Cocoa Puff (the hallucinogenic gas that makes people go cuckoo), but he can produce a sticky Honey Cloud (Entangle) using Honey Nut Cheerios, or a strength-draining gas crushing Fruity Pebbles, and so on.

I'm similarly irritated with STAR Labs' "open door" policy. At the start of the season, they even made a point of saying that they beefed up security so people can't just walk in (and then Jay Garrick immediately just walks in). They really need to find that one door that apparently just won't lock, and get the darn thing fixed. I understand that for storytelling purposes they wanted Det. Patty Spivot to shoot Wells-2.0, but a throwaway line ("If you're trying to hide, Dr. Wells, you need to learn to lock doors behind you") would have only taken a few seconds' screen time and easily explains how she got in. (After all, I could see Wells, whose own STAR Labs has staff and security guards to handle petty details like that, not thinking to re-lock the door behind him.)

Or threatening the whole world with Von Doom... Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

Millennium City's got its hustlers, Vibora Bay's got its bums. Campaign City's got Big Jim Walker; He's a lifestealing son-of-a-gun. Yeah, he's big and dumb as a vamp can come But he's stronger than a zombie horse. And when the lesser undead come together at night You know they all call Big Jim "Boss," just because. And they say you don't tug on Dracula's cape, You don't spit into The Blob, You don't pull the mask off the Phantom of the Opera, And you don't mess around with Jim. Big Jim carries around a custom-made two-piece pool cue (aluminum, not wood; he doesn't want to give anybody a handy stake to use) that he knows how to use well in hand-to-hand combat. He dresses well, and usually has a cigarette dangling from his lips. ("They said smoking would be the death of me. Heh.")

The bulk of the adventure started with Pop Tart contacting Honey Badger about something that was most likely beyond Snak Attak!'s capabilities. (Snak Attak! is a group of Boston College students, some with low-level powers and some with no real powers at all, who patrol the BC area to reduce crime and protect other BC students.) Two BC students (Geoff Weaver and Melanie Wong) have been missing for most of a week, both last seen at Great Scott, a bar/club popular with BC students. Whopper and Twizzler asked around and found out Weaver left with a "Goth chick," while Wong was last seen with a "scary Goth guy." Nerds hacked the traffic cameras and saw all four of them leaving the bar in a dark BMW, but the license plate on it that night was registered to an Escalade. He tried tracking it via other traffic cameras but lost it around Beacon and Mass. The teen heroes were having no success getting further on it until this morning when some guy (not matching the Goth guy's description) flagged down an ambulance and handed over Melissa Wong, unconscious and near death. Honey Badger: (to Circe) You're coming with me to the hospital. If she's still unconscious, we may need you to tiptoe through her tulips. (to Malarky) If the hospital doesn't want to cooperate with us, you may need to hack into their records. Malarky: Invasion of mental privacy. Illegally accessing HIPAA records. The offenses just keep racking up, don't they? Honey Badger: What takes this outside your ability? Pop Tart: She was almost completely drained of blood and had a series of puncture wounds on her neck. In pairs. Honey Badger: Ah. Vampires. Got it. Since Honey Badger is the only member of Just Cause who actually went through the official rigamarole needed to work directly with the BPD and PRIMUS, the cop at Wong's room will only let him in, not Circe. Cop: I'm sorry, but those are the rules. Circe: That's okay. I can wait here. (She stands at the doorway, so the officer closes the door to Wong's room) Circe: Humph. (OOC) Fine, I go down the hall and pretend to talk on my cell phone, while I establish a Mind Scan link to the girl. Honey Badger smells something that's mildly familiar but he can't quite place it. Eventually he tracks it to the closet in the room, where they've bagged the clothing that Wong was wearing when she was found. (GM Note: I realized after the fact that these should have been taken by the police. Mea culpa.) GM: It's Sybaris by Antonio Puig. A Spanish cologne. HB: How did the ambulance driver describe the guy that flagged him down and dropped her off? GM: Swarthy complexion. Long dark hair. In the EMT's eloquent words, his accent was "Spanish-ish". HB: By any chance, would I have smelled this cologne before on, say, Jaguar? Circe's read of the girl's mind is not clear due to her being kept drugged most of the time after she was grabbed. However, she does catch glimpses of several vampires feeding on her, and a vague look at the room she's in, plus a brief bit where the swarthy guy leaned over her and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll get you out of here." Not finding a local seller of Sybaris, the heroes have Malarky go into the company's online orders database... Malarky: "Internet crimes - that's an oldie but a goodie" ...but the most recent one they find shipped to the Boston area was before Jaguar's disappearance. They do, however, use the company's shipping records to Millennium City, along with Circe's knowledge from the girl's memory of what the guy looked like, to tease out a likely secret ID for Jaguar. From that, they find his flight into Boston several days ago, as well as his initial flight from Millennium City to Buenos Aires. GM: I didn't even write up notes on any possible ways for you guys to track down the vampires. I figured, no matter what I came up with, you'd find some other way. So why bother? After a few dead ends, they figure out the identity of the Goth guy - a French national named Jean-Paul working at the Consul General for France in Boston. Malarky: Oh, great. A diplomat. GM: Are you hacking into the consulate computers to try and find out more about him? Malarky: Not quite yet. I don't want to add "international incident" to my resume. Eventually, they figure out that Jean-Paul is one of several consulate employees living at a place on Beacon Street. I give them the map and they pull up the Google satellite view. Nexus: That part looks like a tower. What is the place, a mansion? GM: Good guess. It's called the Residences at Hooper Mansion. They live in Unit 4, on this floor. (points to street view on screen) But on your recon, you see that all the curtains are closed. Pops: There's a surprise. Malarky: Yeah, those curtains will be coming down, first thing. They figure out the boss vampire is Danielle du Coudray, a diplomat at the consulate. Finally hacking into the consulate computers, Malarky learns that she came to Boston with 7 other French nationals, several of whom live with her at the Beacon street mansion. Malarky: Seven of them?! What did they need Jaguar for? Honey Badger: Someone has to run errands during the day. The players opt to go in sooner rather than later, planning a late afternoon assault. Shadowboxer does his normal peek-through-shadows recon of the place to find where all the bad guys are located, and they settle on a plan: Honey Badger will bash through the big bay window on the north side with Maker while the rest of the team teleports into the bedroom where Geoff Weaver is currently serving as a snack for a pair of vampires. Malarky: He should be able to open that all up... unless they have something on the other side of those curtains. GM: You mean like a sheet of armored steel, followed by another set of curtains on the inside? (pause) Just, y'know, as an example. Still, HB manages to do enough damage to open a fairly large hole in the armored steel and stands right in the middle of the sunlit area. The two vampires he surprised quickly retreat to the sides of the room still in shadow. HB: What're you gonna do now, boys? Come into the light to get me? Vampires: (pull out blaster pistols and take aim at him) HB: Guns?! What are vampires doing with guns?! The rest of the team teleports into the "feeding room" and begin taking out the two vampires there. Mlle. du Coudray figures out that HB is a distraction and that the other heroes are probably rescuing the innocent, so she heads there, arriving about the same time that Pops teleports one of the lesser vampires outside. GM: With the thick stone walls and steel over the windows, you probably don't hear the vampire scream. (rolls twin 6's on the vampire's 2d6 Susceptibility to direct sunlight) Malarky: I think we might have heard that scream. du Coudray: (in French, pointing at Pops) Kill him! Pops: What?! I'm nothing to worry about! Malarky: I think you just made a whole lot of new friends. Despite Pops being rendered unconscious, the heroes manage to literally take out all the vampires (leaving them in the sun to turn to ash) and render Jaguar unconscious to try and break du Coudray's mind control of him. Circe uses her mental powers. GM: If you don't affect both human and animal minds, subtract 15 points. Circe: Wow, that's a lot! GM: Oh, wait, that's right. He doesn't have any mental defense right now. Circe: Why not? GM: The big bad drained it all away. She has a magical item. Malarky or Nexus can detect it. It's called the Ruby of Rapture. Malarky: That's going to disappear before PRIMUS gets here. GM: Remember, you can't use it regularly unless you pay points for it. Malarky: I'll get the points. After Honey Badger takes a few selfies with a posed Jaguar, they call PRIMUS to sweep up the vampires. Det. Williams: (points to ash piles) So, these are the vampires? Honey Badger: Yep. Det. Williams: (to a pile of ash) Looks like you need a bit higher SPF.

And now for last night's game. The news items included a recap of last week's adventure; information on the disappearance of Jaguar, who had formed a new Champions team after the prior one disappeared in the Cross-Rip; the murder of a Saudi oil billionaire and the theft of his submersible yacht; and CLOWN disrupting the Millennium City Thanksgiving Parade and Black Friday sales. Shadowboxer: (OOC, pointing to a picture of the stolen submersible yacht) That's cool, where did you get that? GM: (OOC) Online; search for "Lover's Deep." It's an actual vehicle. Costs about $300,000 a night to rent, though. (pause) But I thought Lover's Deep didn't really fit for a supervillain vehicle so I changed it to Emerald Deep. CLOWN disrupted the Thanksgiving Parade by dive-bombing it with live turkeys. (Thankfully, each had a tiny parachute.) Circe: Nice to know CLOWN likes WKRP in Cincinnati. The heroes made a perfunctory check into Jaguar's disappearance, since Honey Badger and Jaguar have a Rivarly. But the actual adventure started with Shadowboxer (in his secret ID as PI Jack Black) getting hired to investigate a child's kidnapping, then dealing with some deviltry I had pulled on Nexus. I apologize in advance for the long setup info. Her backstory included her brother Mateus disappearing when he was a kid, and her mage father being unable to locate him. Her father more recently disappeared, right after the Cross-Rip, following a lead on Mateus. I don't know if I posted about it before, but several months ago Nexus (who can see and speak with spirits) being lured by a ghost into going into an apartment, supposedly to save the ghost's daughter but she actually stepped through a portal to another dimension. There, she met Charles Aching, a denizen of Drhoz's Call of Cthulhu campaign who in my campaign was responsible for giving Heavy Metal lyrics that allowed Road Kill to unwittingly summon mythos creatures to Earth. He offered her a deal: procure an item for him, in exchange for which he would bring her brother back home safe and sound. The conditions were that she wasn't allowed to tell anybody about the deal, nor try to steal back the item nor assist in any way in taking it from him. To my extreme surprise, she said yes. Since I had been positive she wouldn't make a deal with a demonstrably evil individual, I had run her encounter with him in front of the other players even though going to another dimension had broken her Mind Link with the rest of the team, since Nexus had allowed Circe to use Telepathy to replay her memories before. So the players all knew she was compromised, but their characters didn't (though her lame reason for the Mind Link getting cut was enough to make Circe suspicious). This was aggravated when Nexus mentioned Charles Aching when they were enroute to meet Paddy McGinty, and expressed way too much interest in McGinty's collection of books. (She was to bring Aching an ancient tome that explained some of how the Great Old Ones were initially exiled from Earth.) After the heroes found McGinty's book collection wrapped in oilskins and hidden behind the stones in the wall of the well behind the house he had left them, Nexus stole the book and returned to the apartment where she again stepped through to the other dimension to complete her deal with Aching. Aching: (sipping tea while jazz music plays on a wind-up Victorla) Ah, Isabela. So good of you to come. I see you've completed your part of the bargain. (She hands him the book, which he passes through a metal hoop causing it to disappear.) Nexus: Now, my brother. Aching: Of course. Would you like some tea? Nexus: No thanks. I don't want to have to pee and miss part of the spell. Aching leads her back to a stone altar and stone slab set up with elements necessary for a powerful spell. Aching: The world Mateus ended up at has powerful barriers to prevent departure. It will require similarly powerful elements to breach those barriers. (claps his hands three times, and a bit later a star vampire floats up carrying a small girl bound with wire and gagged with tape) Nexus: (to both the GM and Aching) You bastard. Nexus rightly objects to the girl's potential sacrifice, so Aching offers some alternatives. Aching: You could simply release me from my part of the deal. I assured you that you would be free to leave unharmed. Of course, I'll keep the book. Nexus: Not really liking that option. I want my brother back. Aching: Instead of the Blood of an Innocent, I could use the Blood of a Hero, Freely Given. Specifically, yours. (grins evilly) Nexus: I repeat. You bastard. Fine, we'll do that. But I want all of my blood back that's not used in the ritual. Aching: (smiling slyly) We'll amend our agreement to specify that the ritual to return your brother will use your blood, and that I will then turn over the cup with your blood to you after the ritual is complete. Are there any other conditions you wish imposed? Nexus: I think that pretty much covers it. Shadowboxer: *cough*the girl*cough* Nexus: Oh, yeah. And I'm taking the girl with me too. Aching: (still smiling smugly) Of course, we'll add that to the agreement. Nexus: Wait, it won't take all my blood, will it? Aching: (laughs) No, a few ounces should suffice. He uses a ritual knife to cut Nexus' arm, collecting several ounces of her blood in a stone cup. ("It is a rather lengthy and involved ritual.") Sheathing that knife, he begins chanting and gesturing. He then pulls out a (second) ritual knife, dipping it into the cup and using her blood to trace runes engraved in the stone slab as well as draw other symbols on the slab. After a minute a portal appears, showing Mateus walking through a forest, and Nexus can sees a web of fine lines across it. As the ritual progresses, lines light up and disappear. Once the last one is gone, Aching gestures strongly and the portal passes over Mateus, causing him to appear on the stone slab (rather confused). Mateus: Izzy! (hugs her) You got me back! I couldn't get past the barriers! How did you do it? Nexus: Wait, how did you recognize me? Mateus: Dad showed me a picture of you. You're even more beautiful in person. (hugs her again) Nexus: (glaring at Aching, who just smiles) Dad was there too? Mateus: Of course. He's still trapped there. Whatever spell you did, let's start a new one so we can get him back. Nexus: I only made a deal to get you back. I didn't know Dad was there. Aching: Perhaps we can make another deal... Nexus: (Expletives deleted) Aching: I'm sure you and your brother have much to catch up on, so I'll send you on your way. (opens a portal for them to go home, with the little girl in tow) After the Nexus re-establishes contact with her teammates and, deal complete, can explain what happened, she allows Circe to read her mind and replay her more recent encounter with Aching. Shadowboxer: Wait, which book did you hand over to him? (to the GM) Did I recognize it as one of the books from the well? GM: Yes. It was the Liber Noctis Aeterae. It explained how the Great Old Ones were exiled from Earth. Circe: Ah. Yeah, for someone to bring them back it would help to know how they got sent away in the first place. Shadowboxer: (to Malarky) We are putting some protections on the remaining books, right the **** now. [Edited to include post-game quotes] After Nexus' player had left, Malarky was thinking about her encounter with Aching. After making a few skill rolls: GM: You realize that Aching very smoothly and carefully changed her demand to have all of her remaining blood returned to her, to specifying that the cup with its contents be turned over to her. Malarky: Crap. The knife... GM: Actually two knives. Thinking back over that memory, you saw him sheath the knife he used to cut her arm on his right side, but during the spell pulled a ritual knife from a sheath on his left side to dip into the cup. Granted, he doesn't have enough blood to do truly evil things to her, but he has enough to make her life miserable when he wants. (to be continued)

I'll edit my post. Sorry. Actually, it works better that way. Thanks for the reminder.

Before I get into last night's game, some quotes from the week before: During some pre-game discussion of the Jessica Jones show on Netfllix, the player of the team's mentalist had this to say: Circe: (OOC) After watching that show, now I know why everyone thinks mentalists are pure evil. The week's Heronet.Herald news had a recap of the prior adventure. News article: "Honey Badger would not give further details, except for one cryptic comment that 'DEMON doesn't have cool hats.'" Honey Badger: (pouting that he hadn't gotten a headgear trophy from the prior adventure) Well, they don't. Another article was about an environmental group's research ship sinking, and the Coast Guard revealing it this was no accident as several bodies recovered from the wreck had been shot. Two of the heroes do some preliminary investigation, including diving on the wreck (with the Coast Guard's okay), and then ask Malarky to hack into the environmental group's computer files. Malarky: The more I hang around with heroes, the more criminal I become. Noting that the shipwreck doesn't include the 3-man submersible that was part of the ship's manifest, Maker and Honey Badger go to the last location where the ship's scientists were in contact with their home base. Maker sends an ROV down and finds an extensive dump site of toxic chemicals and radioactive waste, along with the submersible lying on the seafloor nearby. From the state of the dump site and the submersible, it appears someone also dropped a bunch of depth charges on the site to make it impossible to identify who did the initial dumping. Honey Badger offers to go down and check out the sub first-hand. Maker: But what about all the radioactivity and toxic waste? Oh, never mind, that's right. Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger not only doesn't find any bodies in the sub; it appears that something clawed its way through the hatch, from inside the sub. Malarky: So, what they're looking at is a supervillain group's origin story. The weekly news also included an item on the hero team raiding a warehouse where the New Gods (androids with the appearances and powers of various Greek gods) had taken a kidnapped scientist. This event hadn't happened in-game (yet). The news item included a quote from Circe. Circe: "Hey, Apollo's head was lying there when we popped in!" Yeah, I could see me saying that. The actual adventure started out right after the heroes had raided the warehouse and were investigating. The kidnapped scientist (a 41 year-old expert in nanotechnology at MIT) was found unconscious and, when awoken, insisted he was an 18 year-old freshman at SoCal and that it was 1992. Circe goes into his head and, in his mindscape, discovers all of his memories are badly faded and water-damaged, and the place smells like a not-so-pleasant beach. Circe: I guess what we're looking for is an aquatic mentalist. Pops: Shouldn't be too many of those around. GM: More like, none. Well, other than Aquaman types who can mentally control fish. But the scientist is decidedly not a fish. Since two of the news items featured the Foxbat Force (the cowled crusader's newly-formed supervillain team), the heroes suspect they're somehow involved. Circe: Does Foxbat have a mentalist on his team? GM: Garble. And even though you've never encountered him or any victims of his powers, you're pretty sure from what you know of him that if he were involved, you'd be finding the scientist's memories all jumbled and mixed up instead of faded. Shadowboxer: Garble - the only person to whom Foxbat's Master Plan makes sense. At the warehouse, they also find shattered pieces of glass lying on the floor that appear to have come from a fishbowl. Picking up one of the pieces, Nexus has a vision from the POV inside the fishbowl, apparently being carried into the warehouse though she doesn't see any hands holding it. She sees Apollo, the scientist, and four mercenary soldiers who serve as ground troops for the New Gods, all doing normal things, when suddenly they all clutch their heads in pain. The scientist and soldiers fall unconscious, and then Apollo stops and stands stock still for about a minute, before walking over to the table and begins working at removing his own head. Nexus: Wait, he's cutting off his own head? GM: No, removing it. With tools. Unscrewing and stuff. Remember, he's an android. Nexus: Still, ewwww... Apollo also dumps the contents of the fishbowl into a larger glassteel globe, with the vision's POV likewise changing to inside the globe. Pops: It's a mentalist goldfish, isn't it? We're going to have to fight a mentalist goldfish. Honey Badger: You mean I'm getting sushi? (grins and licks his lips) Malarky: Y'know, I'm not sure about the ethics of eating a hyperintelligent fish. That might actually be okay. Eventually, Apollo resists enough that he's mind-blasted to unconsciousness, and then the tools float up on their own and complete the work. After the detached head falls off, the globe floats up and mounts itself atop Apollo's former body. The body then picks up the fishbowl and chucks it at the floor, shattering it and ending the vision. Maker: Well, at least we know what happened to Apollo's body. Shadowboxer: A mentalist with Apollo's light powers. That's just great. Nexus: You're pretty tough. Shadowboxer: Not against light I'm not. (Note: most of his defenses don't apply against light powers.) Nexus: Oh, yeah. Ouch. Through a fashion model friend, Circe learns that local fashion designer Candice Wu has had a "stroke" with loss of memory similar to the scientist (but only the past year or so). This happened the day after the warehouse incident. A check of her mind reveals the same mental signature - faded and water-damaged memories, fishy smell. GM: Ms. Wu works primarily with 3D-printed clothing. Maker: (who also works with 3D printing) Wait, can we get into her studio and check out her printer? It should have its most recent jobs in memory. Maybe we can find out what was printed. Malarky: So, we're doing some B&E? (shakes his head) The crimes are just piling up. Circe: (waves hand dismissively) I know her professionally. I'm sure she'd give me permission if she still remembered me. What was printed was an aquatic-themed costume, in bright orange and purple, with brass-colored bracers, boots, and abdomen piece. I show them a picture of Dr. Pisces. GM: Hey, he needed a costume. Circe: He stole Candice Wu's skills at fashion design and came up with that? (pause) It's probably a good thing she lost her memories. One of the news items had reported two of Foxbat's minions (Harmonious Fist and Exoskeleton Man) stealing a weapon-capable Predator drone and portable control gear from a USAF base, which seems a bit more hard-core than Foxbat's normal modus operandi. So when Foxbat and Batfox break into a Millennium City University lab and steal a sample of weaponized version of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) taken from one of Dr. Destroyer's labs to try and find a counteragent, the heroes worry that perhaps he's being mind controlled. Perhaps by a hyperintelligent fish riding an android body. It's nice when the players are all on the right page, isn't it? Dr. Ellis: The samples were all kept in a special vault, to which I had the only key. It was built to withstand even Grond. Honey Badger: So how the heck did Foxbat get in? Dr. Ellis: Take a look. (leads heroes into the lab to reveal the vault door has been reduced to powder, and a ping-pong ball lying in the pile) Malarky: (after Maker inspects the ball and figures out it could project vibrations at variable frequencies) Resonance. He found the precise resonant frequency for the vault door. Brilliant. Honey Badger: Brilliant? This is Foxbat we're talking about. Pops: Yeah. Now we know he's being mind-controlled. During the lab breakin, Foxbat insisted he was stealing a mind control drug. Foxbat: With this, I will take my rightful place as President of the United States. Maybe even the world! All will be mine! Perhaps I'll even have enough power to... dare I say it?... get the rights to the Fantastic Four returned to Marvel Studios! After discussing and rejecting various ways they can track down Foxbat, Nexus decides to bite the bullet. Nexus: Okay, I guess there's no other way. I'll send him a message through his fan club, offering to go on a date with him. Circe: Are we really that desperate? Honey Badger: She does go for bad boys. Nexus: (OOC) Hey, Nexus hasn't done that. Honey Badger: (OOC) Yet. All of your prior characters did Nexus: (OOC) Not all of them. That one dated a PRIMUS agent. Honey Badger: (OOC) But didn't Shamrock also get lucky with her? Nexus: (OOC) Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Her posting on his fan club website gets her two responses. Foxbat email: While I'd love to meet you and discuss my many fine qualities, I'm currently rather tied up in another project. Perhaps we can get together for dinner next week? In the meantime, I'll send a signed photograph and a commemorative ping-pong ball. Nexus: That man is all humility. Batfox email: You'd better stay away from my Foxy, you shameless hussy, or I'll use my Batfox Paws to rearrange your face! Circe: Looks like you've acquired a new Hunted, Nexus. When the photo and ball arrive at Just Cause's public office, Maker discovers that the ball is actually a recording device and projector of some sort. Playing the recording, they see various members of Foxbat Force in a large (100m long) room whose metal walls have evenly-spaced indents. There's a slight rocking motion. Exoskeleton Man and Dot are working on the Predator drone, mounting missiles that apparently contain the deadly virus. It is apparent that Foxbat recorded the scene in secret, then palms the ball to turn it off. Maker: The indents in the walls - can I calculate how long and tall they are? Are they roughly as long as a shipping container? GM: They're exactly the same size as a standard shipping container. Good job. The covert recording of Foxbat Force ends, replaced by a scene from the pilot episode of Firefly. Honey Badger: He must have recorded over his favorite episode. The heroes get access to the records of all container ships coming into Boston harbor over the past few weeks, and mention of the SS Nate Fillion catches their eye. They go to the docks and Shadowboxer decides to use his Clairsentience to take a peek and listen from the shadows. I lay out the map and begin placing all the characters on it. Dr. Pisces, Foxbat, Batfox, Dot, Exoskeleton Man, Harmonious Fist, Static Man... and four Foxbots. Pops: Man, that's a lot of guys to fight. GM: Don't worry. The Foxbots serve one main function. (turns to Shadowboxer) You hear the following: Foxbat: Soon, we'll be ready to launch and can disperse the mind control drug over Boston! Foxbot 1 (Froederick): Great plan, boss! Foxbot 2 (Freddo): Couldn't have come up with anything better myself! Foxbot 3 (Frederika): Wow, he's handsome and brilliant! (swoons) Foxbot 4 (Derf): Are you sure that's a good idea, boss? Foxbat: (sighs) Open up, Derf. Foxbot 4's abdomen opens and Foxbat makes some adjustments. Once he's done: Foxbot 4 (Derf): Amazing plan, boss. Where do you come up with them? (rolls eyes once Foxbat's back is turned) The heroes teleport in and the fight is joined. The dice seemed to know that Foxbat Force's heart really wasn't into the fight, because the battle was decidedly one-sided. Nexus stayed invisible the entire time, robbing Batfox of the opportunity to use a stink-paint pellet (3d6 Drain Striking Appearance) on her. Once Dr. Pisces is taken out, Foxbat shoots himself with a ball that boosts his Ego enough to allow him to break free of Dr. Pisces' mind control, then orders Foxbat Force to stand down. The heroes graciously allow Foxbat and his people to leave before calling in PRIMUS. PRIMUS Lt. Det. Williams: Let me get this straight. You guys had Foxbat captured, dead to rights, but you let him go because... he said a goldfish made him do it? Malarky: I think it's more of a puffer fish. Or maybe a beta. (OOC) It's hard to tell from the picture. (IC) It got mutated by radioactivity and toxic waste, so we're not sure what it was originally. Williams: Still... a fish?! Malarky: It's not that much stranger than some of the other stuff we've faced. Williams: (shrugs, turns to his men) Okay, take this... fish into custody. (shakes his head as he walks away) Malarky: (to Williams' partner Melissa Garrett) I'm not kidding. The fish really can do nasty mental stuff. Garrett: Don't worry, I'll make sure we put it under psionic protocols. Honey Badger: Wait, don't I get to eat it?

Young Michael Crossed-Alpines grew up on an Indian reservation in Colorado, rounding up cattle, but he always knew his destiny was elsewhere. After graduating from high school he joined the Navy, but he got seasick too easily and mustered out at the first opportunity. He leveraged his brief military service to become a police officer, but that didn't suit him well either, so he left the force and tried his hand at construction. A year of that was all Young could stand, so he bought a motorcycle and some black leather gear and wandered the US for a while. It was during this time that he had the misfortune to run into Cooper Manson and became a vampire. Shortly afterward, he realized that when he takes a person's lifeforce, he could take on that person's skills and abilities, particularly that person's career skills. He also discovered that, with concentration, he could alter his physical appearance and voice to match that person. However, for some reason he almost always has a mustache (ranging from a subdued thin mustache to a full-out pornstache), the exception being when he takes the lifeforce of any Native American. Since "Young" is an odd first name, his fellow Dark Pantheon members tend to refer to him by his initials (which irritates him quite a bit, to tell the truth, especially when they accompany it with the arm gestures).

Apparently Donald Trump got a new hairpiece... Looks better.

The Twilight series?

For some reason I was reminded of this:

Amusingly, this past week I decided to re-watch the first season of Lois and Clark (a show which I enjoyed back when it was on), with an eye toward comparing the first few episodes of L&C to the first few episodes of Supergirl. And in the pilot of L&C they did the same thing, with his mom whipping up a bunch of costumes for him to try, with "Holding Out For a Hero" as background music for the costume montage. It's actually one of my favorite bits from that episode (my daughter's too -- I called her into the living room when it came up because I knew she'd want to see that scene). In that case, it's quite obvious that not only was that taking place over just a few hours (after he flew from Metropolis to Smallville for dinner), but the various costumes were also wildly different in style and it seemed the costume thing was spur-of-the-moment. Consider that Ma Kent had on hand various sets of lace-up leather boots, belts, masks, leopard-print cloth... y'know, on second thought I'd really rather not consider the implications of that. My point being, it was an amusing and entertaining scene (at least IMO). Unrealistic? Obviously. Do I really care? Not so much. Oh, and the flying wire work in early L&C wasn't all that great either, but I didn't really notice or care at the time. That said, as a whole Supergirl is okay to me, but not "gotta watch" material. I'm not so big on the James/Winn/Kara love triangle, and frankly I really don't like Cat/Callista (neither the character nor the actress) at all, though to be fair I haven't watched the latest episode so it's possible (though unlikely) that they may have made Cat more palatable to me. I'm very much a character-driven TV viewer, and the only ones on Supergirl that really catch my interest are Kara and her sister. So I'll probably still watch episodes, mainly to see if they smooth out the bumps, but they'll need to work hard to bump The Flash as my go-to TV show.

Finishing up the A-Team: While most of the hero and villain teams are trading blows, A-Bomb and Circe are basically standing off to the side, critiquing the battle and chit-chatting. Pops: (to Circe over Mind Link) Last time, you spent the whole battle disguised as a bag lady and doing nothing. Are you going to help us at all? Circe: Hey, I'm keeping A-Bomb busy. You should be thanking me. A-Bomb: So, do you know if Honey Badger is available? Circe: (OOC) Is he gay? GM: (OOC) Are you going to ask him? Circe: (OOC) Sure, why not? (IC) So, A-Bomb, are you gay? A-Bomb: Actually, I'm bisexual. (grins) Although I like to say I'm trisexual, because I'll try anything once. (Looks Major Justice up and down while he's battling Augur) Hmmmm... he looks interesting too. (Circe) Maybe you, me and the Major could have a little fun later on. Malarky had researched Agrippa and found out that he is reportedly a direct descendant of famed 16th century German mystic Heinrich Agrippa and had supposedly found his great-great-etc-grandfather's secret journal listing many powerful magic spells. Last time they fought, Agrippa had made Malarky's life miserable (flitting around the battlefield shrunk, locking Malarky in a mental entangle and then dispelling Malarky's spell giving defenses to his teammates). So when Agrippa finally shows up, Malarky immediately moves up and attacks the mystic, blasting him from behind. Malarky: Well, now, lad, how d'ye like them apples? Agrippa: (CON-stunned and woozy) Madre de dios! Malarky: Interesting German you're speaking there... Circe sees a way of hurting the A-Team while also taking care of a little problem that Just Cause has -- namely, an earnest but destructive hero who is trying to join their team. Circe (to A-Bomb): You know, you're much more the heroic figure. A-Bomb: But every actor wants to play a villain. It's a much better test of your acting chops. Circe: But think of the adulation of millions. The fans, chanting your name and throwing themselves at you. The endorsement deals... I'll bet you could get a multi-movie deal out of it. A-Bomb: Hmmmm... you may be right. Are you suggesting I join Just Cause? Because I'd rather something closer to LA. Circe: No, you want a small team, where you could really shine. Maybe a partnership... say, Major Justice is looking for a team. You two could team up! A-Bomb: That is an idea... Honey Badger: (over Mind Link) You've got to be kidding me. Teaming up Captain Ultra-conservative with Super-Liberal. That should be an... interesting partnership. You are an evil, evil person. Of course, Just Cause won the day, capturing all the members of A-Team (though the New Gods got away without a problem). A few game sessions later, the following article appeared in the Hero.Net Herald: New Heroes In Town LA – A new two-man hero team announced their presence Friday afternoon in a major media event that included flashy demonstrations of their super-powers and in-depth interviews to all major networks. Flying brick Major Justice and energy projector Rad vowed to “bring sanity and safety to southern California.” Members of existing LA hero team Tech Knights could not be reached for comment.

But... time travel isn't impossible. It happens constantly. Heck, we've got that whole moving-forward-in-time down pat. It's the shifting-into-reverse we haven't figured out yet.