BoloOfEarth

Nazis, with deep-space dirigibles. NT: Why did the space Nazis move from the dark side of the Moon to Pluto?

It will now! (Though info on the Essential Saltes would be greatly appreciated, as I don't see them mentioned in the quotes.) On a side note, I was happy to see that the player whose character inherited the house was paying attention during the telepathic playback of Nexus' vision, and caught the reference to the "Rondale estate". ("Hey, wasn't that somebody mentioned in McGinty's will?") Shadowboxer has been researching McGinty's history and had asked recently for possible Contacts (mostly for his work as a PI). I was thinking to introduce him to Deborah Einstein's great-niece, who inherited her great-aunt's scrapbooks which include articles about the group's activities and the late professor's personal collection of anti-McGinty newspaper clippings (many with handwritten sidebar comments such as "ha! you don't know the half of it!"). Make her an archaeologist with knowledge that would be useful to the PC while also having just enough knowledge to be dangerous to herself and others. Played right, I could turn her into a sidekick or maybe even give her an origin story.

Corruption Comes Calling, Part 2: Actually one other thing prior to the main adventure. Shadowboxer had inherited a house (left to him by Paddy McGinty prior to his disappearance in the 1920s), and has uncovered evidence that the past owner wasn't above dabbling in things magical and occasionally best left not-dabbled-in. Being tired after a day of moving his stuff in, he ordered a pizza. A while later, the pizza delivery guy calls to say he can't find the house, and Shadowboxer steps outside to see the driver two doors down, looking confused, so SB flags him down. Delivery driver: Where the heck is your house?! Shadowboxer: Right there. (points) Delivery driver: Oh! Geez, yeah, the number's right there. Don't know how I missed it. After discovering that his mail also hasn't been delivered for the past few days... Shadowboxer: Looks like I'm going to need a PO box. Is anybody on the team having trouble finding the house? GM: Nope. Of course, you had actually invited each of them there. Shadowboxer: So the only people that know about the house are myself and the other superheroes... GM: And possibly the lawyer, since he was technically in charge of the house for years... Malarky: And Bob, the pizza guy. Maker finally gets some info on the battlesuit and learns that key components were provided by DT Enterprises. Maker: Wait, wasn't there something about DT Enterprises in the news? (grabs the printout) Yeah, Gerald Donner, the retired CEO of DT Enterprises was with that missionary group whose bodies were found in Nicaragua! Honey Badger: Donner, party of four, your table is ready. (pause) Donner, party of three, your table is ready. Meanwhile, PI Jack Black (Shadowboxer's secret ID) is hired by a woman who came home from visiting family in Phoenix to find that her home was trashed (though no valuables were taken) and she can't locate her husband. He pursues the normal angles, checking into possible marital or financial problems (and learns the guy's dad and grandfather both had gambling problems but thus far the missing guy hasn't). While walking through the house with the case file, the picture he was given of the guy drops to the floor, and Nexus picks it up, triggering a vision. GM: You're in what looks to be a meat locker, with a line of hooks hanging from a track on the ceiling. Side of beef, side of beef, dead body, side of beef... The body is of the butcher. She also sees the guy in the picture cuffed to a chair, getting questioned by members of the Corrupted. Anti-Pope: Now, Howard, my son, surely you know something about the things your grandfather stole from the Rondale estate. Think hard - a small copper bowl and a black-handled knife? Howard: Noooo... Don't know anything about them... (whimpers) Please, don't hurt me... Anti-Pope: Oh, don't worry about me, Howard. When I get frustrated, I don't get angry. (nods toward Father Hook and Inquisition) My friends get angry for me. Inquisition: (sits down facing of Howard) You know, confession is good for the soul. Why don't you step into my office? (stares at Howard for a bit, and then Howard starts to scream) Nexus learns that the group is also looking for a mask and a book. Archbishop: I've tried to locate the book, without success. It must be magically shielded, otherwise I'd at least get a general direction. Anti-Pope: We must have the book. If necessary, we can make a new knife, new bowl, even a new mask. But without the sigils and incantations, we can't perform the ritual. Archbishop: Couldn't we just ask the Masters to give us the sigils and incantations? Anti-Pope: Do you want to go to them and say we've failed at our task? Archbishop: No, Anti-Pope, of course not. Inquistion: (stops staring at Howard and looks up at Anti-Pope) He really doesn't know what happened to the knife and bowl. Anti-Pope: (shrugs) Then go ahead and have fun with him. But make sure he's still alive when we leave. (Reaches into a pocket and pulls out a small device) I'll just leave a little calling card for our playmates. (The device disappears, and Howard twitches) Triptych (a freaky-looking guy with three faces on one head) runs in to say that he's located the mask, in a small art gallery on Newbury Street, and the Corrupted leave. After the vision ends... Pops: (OOC) Anti-Pope?! GM: (OOC) That was the name on the picture. I was initially going to change it, but then I gave him teleportation powers. So he's kinda like the Anti-Pops, and I figured Anti-Pope was close enough. Nexus gathers the rest of the heroes and describes her vision. With Nexus' permission, Circe uses Telepathy to replay and view the vision in Nexus' mind to see what details she can find. Pops: That's gotta be a lot of fun for Nexus. Bad enough to sit through it the first time, but now she gets to watch it again. Shadowboxer: You can even rewind and replay individual bits over and over. Or do a slow-motion replay. (imitates a long, drawn-out scream of terror from Howard) Having seen the butcher shop name on the butcher's apron, they go there first to try and rescue Howard and maybe catch the Corrupted before they leave. (Nexus doesn't know if the vision was past, present, or future.) Unfortunately, the Corrupted have already left, but Howard is still there, thrashing in pain. As they watch, the palm of his right hand begins to blister. Honey Badger: Didn't his mom tell him that would happen if he didn't stop playing with himself? Maker quickly rewires her x-ray goggles so Pops can use them to locate and then teleport out the device that Anti-Pope had teleported into Howard's head. (As soon as it appears on the floor, the tiny device explodes with a loud "POP!") Circe then establishes telepathic contact with Howard. In his mind, he's in a medieval torture chamber. It takes a while (and pretty much all of Circe's cumulative Mental Illusions), but she eventually breaks the illusion. GM: I think Circe owes Maker a beer. Circe: Why? GM: If she hadn't thought to get that device out first... well, it was set to go off as soon as the Mental Illusion was broken. You've never been inside someone else's mind at the moment they died. No telling what would happen to you. The team decides that Inquisition really needs to get taken down hard. Pops: I'm telling you, mentalists are evil. They need to be put down, every last one of them. Circe: Wait, what about me? Am I going to end up in a car trunk? Pops: Both you and Inquisition. Gonna get a little cramped in there. After doing what they can for Howard, the heroes rush to the art gallery to confront the Corrupted. Using Shadowboxer's ability to see and listen through shadows, they determine that there are 7 villains there: Anti-Pope, Archbishop, Inquisition, Father Hook, Triptych, Unholy Warrior, and Warnun. Unholy Warrior has a bladed chain wrapped around the neck of the gallery owner as the others search the gallery for the mask. The heroes start making their plans, and as they're doing so Shadowboxer notices that Father Hook has stopped searching and is looking around like something is wrong. Realizing that they're losing the element of surprise, the team teleports in. Before Maker can use her EMP to shut down Warnun's battlesuit, the villainess blasts Nexus unconscious (to -1 STUN) with her autoblaster. GM: (OOC) Huh, I didn't think an 8d6 energy blast would be that rough. Pops: (OOC) I think it was the AP and Autofire that did it. Honey Badger: Did I see that? (rolls) That ***** is gonna die, because she just triggered my Enraged. Honey Badger proceeds to beat Warnun unconscious, while the other heroes discuss getting him back with the battle plan. Pops: You know, Maker pretty much took her out of the fight. There are more important fish to fry. GM: And hence why Enraged is a Disadvantage. Or a Complication, or whatever you want to call it. As the heroes and villains battle, the Archbishop's turn comes up. He looks at the fight unfolding... then chuckles and goes back to searching for the mask. Circe: (OOC) Really?! He figures we're that small of a threat?! (IC) Listen, mister, you're facing the Boston Area Super-Heroes, and you're about to get BASHED! Honey Badger: I thought it was the Boston Union of Super Heroes. Then we're BUSH, and we can say Mission Accomplished. Malarky: I kinda liked New England Super Team. Nexus: No, then we'd be NEST. People might think we're related to VIPER. Anti-Pope: Excuse me? Is this really the appropriate time to pick a team name? I thought we were having a battle here. Honey Badger: You shut up! We're get to you in a minute. Anti-Pope: (smirks) Very well, carry on. Shadowboxer grabs Inquisition with his shadow, which puts the hero just in front of Anti-Pope. Anti-Pope: I must say, I'm surprised that you so-called superheroes would go around killing innocents. Shadowboxer: What innocents? And who said anything about killing anybody? Anti-Pope: (nods at Honey Badger) Him, for one. As to the innocents... (His eyes roll back slightly, and suddenly the villain's face looks like that of a terrified person.) Anti-Pope: Please, dear God, you've got to get us free! The things they're making us do! They're trying to... (his eyes roll back again, and his face once again takes on its self-assured look) Anti-Pope: That's enough, Gerald. Don't want to give them too much information, do we? Shadowboxer: Wait, you're Gerald Donner? (looks at the other villains) And they're the rest of the missionaries? Anti-Pope: (smiles malevolently) In the flesh, so to speak. But by all means, kill us all. As the commercial says: Go ahead, we'll make more. Anti-Pope teleports Circe away, and she finds herself in a darkened clothing store. Circe: So, how much do I owe Anti-Pope for getting me out of there? Would a money transfer be okay? Pops: Too bad he didn't teleport you in the other direction, the store next door is Cartiers. You could have picked up some jewelry while the rest of us are getting our butts kicked! Circe makes her way outside and starts flying over the building so she can get back into the art gallery through the smashed front door. Meanwhile, Father Hook goes all-out, boosting his STR to 70 and punching Pops through a wall, into the clothing store. Pops: (to Circe) If you'd just waited, you could have come back through this handy door I just made. On his second try, Malarky manages to use his Wee Bit Pissed spell to make Anti-Pope drunk. Since the spell uses a small bottle of alcohol as a spell component: Malarky: (mimes chugging the tiny bottle, then rolls enough to finish the Transform) (IC) Ha! You shouldn't be hitting the sacrificial wine so hard! (OOC) Then I chuck the bottle at him. (IC) Take that, you bastard! The villain's judgement impaired and seeing just as many villains down as heroes, Anti-Pope decides to teleport his teammates away. But the alcohol makes him overlook Inquistion in the rush to leave.

Corruption Comes Calling, Part 1: I forgot to bring my dice to the Champions game I ran last night, so I had to borrow a set of lesser-used dice from a player. GM (to dice): Now, you're going to be good to me, right? (listens to dice) Yes, that's good, but remember, if you kill more than one of their characters, the players get ever so cross... The player for Circe was out last time I ran, so I had stated that Circe was out of town for most of the adventure, including the big battle with the New Gods. Unfortunately, I forgot that when I wrote up the news articles and needed a quote to reporters from one of the heroes. Circe (reading aloud from article): "According to Circe, speaking on behalf of the superhero team, the New Gods were apparently being directed by a scientist who blamed PRIMUS for his sibling’s death." I must have rushed back from the island just to make that press conference! Pops: Well, you do like being in the spotlight. Circe (continues reading) "Circe refused to name the scientist or provide further details to the press." Yeah, because I really didn't know his name or any other details, since I wasn't even there! The heroes subscribe to the Heronet Herald, an (obviously) superhero-centric weekly news sheet, which shows up each Monday morning somewhere near wherever a subscriber happens to be and is generally tailored for that subscriber. Nobody has seen it actually appear or get delivered. (I use it to recap the prior adventure, often provide some background on the current adventure, and sometimes foreshadow coming events.) GM: It's rumored that they have a precog on staff. Used to work for the Psychic Friends Network, but he left just before they went under. He's the only one who saw that coming. After the players have finished reading the news: Dr. Reuel (Malarky's mentor and magic instructor, texting to Malarky): Thanks for the paper. Quite interesting. And kudos on an excellent Veil. I never even knew you were there. Malarky: Ummmm... What paper? I never sent him a paper, did I? (GM shakes his head) I text him back: "Caution!" Last adventure, the heroes visited the volcano lair island base of a hero team (the Millennium City Protectors, who all went missing in the Cross-Rip) to borrow a piece of unique equipment. Maker and Pops go back there to return it, and Maker notices that MCP hero Pack Rat had left three different blaster weapons and a grenade each disassembled on a workbench. For some reason, Pack Rat had listed various MCP members' names next to each weapon. Maker: (looking at character sheet) I have "Cannot Resist Tinkering With Machines", so I start putting them back together. GM: (after Maker makes a near-critical-success roll on Electronics) After you finish the first one, you probably say, "I'm gonna do the next one blindfolded!" While Maker is doing that (and noticing that despite the weapons being from different criminal groups and of different designs, all had the same beam focusing mechanism), Pops is rolling his eyes and walking around Pack Rat's lab. He notices that for some reason, there's a huge (2m tall, 1.5m wide) solid chunk of basalt standing in room, and a glass-fronted wardrobe-style cabinet contains another such chunk of basalt. Maker: Why would he put a huge chunk of basalt in a cabinet? Pops: I don't think he put it there. I think it... appeared there. Maker quickly builds an x-ray viewer and verifies that nobody / nothing is trapped within the basalt. Since much of the rock around the MCP underground volcano lair is also basalt, she compared the chunks to the rock surrounding the lab and notices that not only is it basically the same; she sees veins of material in the surrounding basalt that basically skip the intervening open space to run through the basalt chunks in the lab. Pops: So these chunks were probably pulled to this dimension from another dimension during the Cross-Rip. Maker: But why the one in the cabinet? GM: (to Shadowboxer's character, who also played Pack Rat in the prior campaign) Pack Rat had a battlesuit, didn't he? (player nods) And when he's working in the lab, he's probably not wearing the battlesuit all the time, right? He's probably have someplace to hang it... Shadowboxer: (OOC) Like a glass-fronted wardrobe... (the coin drops) Oh, crap! And the other chunk is probably where Pack Rat was! He appeared in the other dimension underground, not in his battlesuit! GM: But Argent is a teleporter, and Possum could tunnel through the rock. One way or another, they probably got him out. A quick tour of the rest of the MCP base reveals a similar chunk of basalt replaced most of Argent's bed, and another chunk is in the middle of the kitchen. Malarky, Shadowboxer, and Nexus: (almost simultaneously at hearing about the chunk in the kitchen) Possum! Honey Badger: (who was Possum's player) Well, I did love me some snacks... Maker: (who played Mosquito) Are there any teeny-tiny chunks of basalt lying around in the base? Shadowboxer: I wouldn't worry too much. If Seal and Mosquito were on the island at the time, you can be pretty sure they were sunning themselves on the beach. On to the meat of the adventure. One news item was a joint PRIMUS / UNTIL alert about a new and particularly murderous villain group known as the Corrupted. Their latest activity was attacking a US Army base and stealing a prototype battlesuit being tested there. Pops: Why does the military even bother making battlesuits? All they're really doing is providing supervillain origins anyway. Maker: I want the schematics on the battlesuit they stole. GM: Suuuure. You just call up the Army and say, "That top-secret project of yours -- can I have the specs and schematics? Y'know, just in case I happen to run across it... Honey Badger: Well, the cat's out of the bag now. They might as well make all the details public knowledge, just to mess with the supervillains who took it. Maker tries getting info about the battlesuit from the internet, and makes a really bad Research roll. GM: The general consensus is that it's built using alien tech, allows the user to mind control the masses, and occasionally causes peoples' clothing to teleport three meters to the right. Honey Badger: That's not a bug, that's a feature. Honey Badger wants one of those. GM: It also makes the wearer impotent. Honey Badger: Never mind.

Still a better name than her former finace, Major Lilywhite.

I like that the Free Press explained the financial repercussions in terms that the common citizen can understand and relate: how such out-of-control police behavior directly affects them, not just the beating victim. The person who sits idly back and thinks, "well, it's not my problem, after all, the guy shouldn't have gotten pulled over in the first place" soon realizes that it *is* his problem, to the tune of a couple hundred dollars in extra property taxes. Hopefully the reaction will be to demand more accountability, to curb such behavior. But I'm not holding my breath.

And can you imagine the mouth on that thing? I'll bet it's quite the oafish oarfish orifice!

If you're talking bad, the correct answer is Quarterback. They're five times as bad as Nickelback.

Elliot Burgess is Denial, the team's teleporter. Elliot got his powers during one of Invidious' thefts; Dr. Burgess was one of the scientists at the lab that Invidious was stealing from, and an argument between him and one of the other researchers caused the premature activation of a prototype device they were working on. Elliott was trying to turn it back off when the device overloaded and exploded, causing strange energy to warp his physiology. He takes his name from his signature move of teleporting things away from foes: weapons, top-secret briefcases, grabbed HIDE teammates, etc. Of course, Denial is also HIDE's ticket out of many dangerous situations, so he is often one of the first of the team targeted by foes. However, they usually find him difficult to target due to his defensive teleport (popping all over the battlefield, often shouting "DENIED!" when a foe's attack passes through the space he had occupied just a split second before).

Absinthe is the team's teleporting mentalist. She specializes in making targets feel drunk despite them not drinking anything (Mental Illusions linked to a Drain on STUN, END, and INT), and making targets fall in love with completely inappropriate people around them. (They do say that Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder...) - - - - - - - - - I guess that's five, so time for a new team: The Vegan Five (their logo is a pair of "V"s) hate the Boston College teen heroes of Snak Attak! for their glorification of empty calories. Who are these five radical vegetarians?

Didn't anybody tell TIC not to hassle the Hoff? (Loved this, by the way)

I don't have Champions Complete on PDF so I can't check it at work, but per 6E2 p. 174, the GM can either consider large objects an AoE attack (equal to the size and shape of the object), or give the attacker an OCV bonus based on the size of the improvised weapon. I've generally used the first option, but can see the benefits to the second option.

I was initially thinking along the same lines, except I didn't think of Grodd as a martial artist. I guess my main point is, with Hero there's more than one way (often a dozen+ ways) to get to Toledo. I'm not going to argue that my interpretation is the only right one. In-game, I would expect an awesome scene like that to occur after somebody rolled either a critical success or failure. (So Flash could have made a critical failure on his Move-Through to-hit roll, or Grodd has a defensive power that requires a roll [extra DCV levels based on telepathic Danger Sense?] or did some defensive maneuver and he rolled a critical success.) At least in my Champions campaign, a scene like that would have been due to GM description of the actual effects as the player is banging his head on the table due to his bad luck.

I thought he was part of Oversight now (albeit in secret ID). Which would put him in the perfect position to make a move against the Rocket Racers.

I think you're combining two different moments during the fight into one. Watch it again (the relevant moment is from 1:37-1:45). Grodd doesn't actually grab and squeeze until later in the fight, at the 2-minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-AidZY6cgo I could see the first moment interpreted as a Grab and immediate Throw. But I could also see it interpreted as the effect of a successful Block.

That's what you get when you try a Noncombat Move-Through, counting on surprise to offset your lower OCV, and your opponent has a Held Action, isn't surprised (a telepathic gorilla might just know what Flash was going to try) and makes a good Block roll.

Hmmm... To represent the speedster "dodge/roll with it at the last second" he could have Damage Reduction 75% normal Physical with Requires a DEX roll, Must be aware of Attack, Side Effect (character takes 2d6 Knockback in random direction and falls down) and maybe Costs Half END. If he spent the END that phase, he's got some protection from automotive flyswatters. If not, well, sucks to be him. Alternately, he could have a short-range Teleportation with a Trigger to get him out of the way (no time to set, automatic reset). But I kinda like the Damage Reduction. It's not a free pass. The speedster takes a small amount of damage and is prone for a bit, putting him at a short-term disadvantage without getting flattened like a pancake.

"This is Tommy Dugan, reporting live for SNN from the Rocket Racers race from Los Angeles to New York City. Many of you may recall my father, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jimmy Dugan, reporting just before his retirement about the so-called Robbery Syndicate's prior race across the country. Nearly all members of the Syndicate were either killed or crippled by American Protector in his efforts to stop the race and the associated thefts. I am currently riding with... um, is it okay to use your name, sir?" The driver shrugged as he drove down the highway at breakneck speeds, grimacing briefly in pain. "Fine by me, Jimmy." He glanced at the camera and gave a brief smile before turning his attention back to driving. "I'm Howard Dagley, but most people call me Hot Dog." Dugan smiled. "And from that name, plus the apparent burn scars on your head and arms, can we assume you have fire powers?" Hot Dog shook his head. "Nope. Not dog powers either. I'm just a reeeeal good driver." He swerved around a semi with a fraction of an inch to spare, causing the reporter to yelp and the semi driver to swerve wildly and blast his horn. "Got burned a few years thanks to some psychopath, but it won't stop me from winning this race. Nor will it stop me from robbing a bank or two along the way." "And are you concerned about American Protector stopping this race as well? Despite his being found innocent of criminal action during the prior race, there are strong but unconfirmed rumors he has used... exceptional force to stop similar attempts at another cross-country race and crime spree." "Captain Jockstrap?" Hot Dog laughed derisively. "I'd like to see him try." "Is that why you invited me to ride along on this race?" The reporter swallowed nervously, but continued on gamely. "Are you hoping American Protector makes a move against you, and want me as a witness to his potentially violent actions?" Hot Dog just smiled without humor in his eyes. "As I said, I'd like to see him try."

No, I really liked Lady Morpheus' concept and everything you put in there. (And as you may know from my own posts, I tend to go overboard myself.) But in the end, the picture just didn't say "psychic vampire" to me.

Of these, I think I liked the Phantom Geisha the most, though the idea for Inkling was intriguing. Christopher, your turn.

Does Ronnie have a different name he uses when he wears the helmet?

Paul Jenkins was the general fetch-it boy for the dig, often overlooked or forgotten unless someone needed something. When Susan Hegland put on the breastplate and was transformed, drawing many of the dig workers' attention, Paul slipped the pauldrons onto his shoulders... and disappeared. He was completely invisible, not even leaving tracks when he walks, and when he speaks his voice comes from a random location up to 8 meters away from him. And if he concentrates, he can also turn intangible, passing through objects as if they didn't exist. At first Paul thought invisibility and intangibility were his only powers. However, he eventually discovered that if he places his left palm on someone or something, and points somewhere with his right hand, the person or thing he was touching would teleport to the location to which he was pointing. (He can teleport himself simply by placing his left palm on his chest and pointing where he wants to go.) He can sometimes teleport things at range, by facing his palm at the person or object he wishes to teleport instead of touching them, but his aim at the ranged individual or object is spotty at best. He carries a bag of ball bearings on his belt, which he often teleports into foes (a rather devastating Penetrating RKA). Taking the name Ghost Porter, he became the scout for the Armor of Krim. Since he spends much of his time invisible, he's still often overlooked by the others... until they need him (often to free them from a grab or entangle).

Hides that greenish tint to last week's leftovers. And the nail-polish-like chemical effects from the spray help hide the mystery meat's smell and taste.

Okay, let's see what people come up with for this instead. (Or is she some established character too?)

Yeah, but I drew two circles on his arms, then a dot inside each circle. And of course said the required: "Circle, circle, dot, dot, now you've had your cooties shot." So he should be immune.