GestaltBennie

Re: Curious People honor the sacred in different ways. Some believe that it has to be incorporated into everything they do, and explored through their artistic gifts. None of us have voices worthy of God, yet we sing songs of praise anyway, and have done so crom the time of the Psalmists, and God, it is said, is not offended by them, but delights in them. It's arguable from a Christian perspective that no artist on Earth is fit to draw Jesus, but many people like to draw Biblical scenes. No Christian criticizes Christmas cards for daring to show the Nativity, or takes Michalangelo to task for his hubris in drawing the image of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We perform dramas such as Dorothy Sayers _The Man Born to Be King_, or Mel Gibson's _Passion of the Christ_, both of which are obviously extrapolations of the text, but are intended to honor God, and they're widely accepted in the Christian community. Despite the fact that they deal with the pain, suffering and death of Christianity's holiest figure. The sacrosanct does not mean untouchable. Why is gaming, if it is done respectfully, seen as dishonoring when other artistic media are not? Because it's fun? Singing is fun. Drawing is fun. Because it's flippant? Yes, many gamers are iconoclastic, even sacrilegious. But should that disqualify the idea? People can have very serious games, very intense, thematically powerful games, just as we can get flippant song lyrics or cartoony art. Motivation is everything. And while the grand history of the Biblical era is written, the personal history of a player character is not, at least until the game is played. Just as in any RPG. There are periods in the Bible which are well-suited to player charactrers making a big impact, just as there are ways (which we used in Testament) to protect the dignity and status of historical characters. In my view though, historical RPGing isn't about making huge impacts on the cultureand displacing the big characters of the era, it's best seen as having interesting adventures within a historical framework. My character in our Pulp hero game, Billy Deighton, is never going to prevent the Nazis from coming to power, or defeat MacKenzie King to become Prime Minister of Canada. However, he still manages to have interesting and fun adventures. Furthermore, when I'm playing Billy, I'm not dishonoring the very real pain, suffering, and death of those who lived in the Dirty 30s - which includes my parents - by role-playing in the time. Rather, I see it as a way of getting to know the times in which they lived a little better and honoring their memory. Which is a way of answering the question of "why not make something else up?". Because whenn you distance yourself from history, you lose a perspective that can be interesting -- and honoring -- to those who lived in them. It should not come as a surprise that idea of RPGing characters in Biblical history falls outside of people's comfort zones. Comfort zones expand through practice and exploration, and a lot of people don't have a practise in the sort of serious games that would be honoring as a form of worship. Indeed, a lot of people don't want to expand into more serious games. And that's fine, people should respect the differences of gamers, rather than impose theme or play style. It's maddeningly hard enough to find a group that will be respectfully serious toward non-Biblical games, so some apprehension aboiut how people will respect your beliefs is, at least as a practical matter, is understandable. However, the idea of enjoying yourself playing a Biblical character is as worthy as any other. What's more, it's okay to have fun with it too. Fun does not disclude respect. People who are uncomfortable with the idea of Biblical RPGing should give some thought to the idea that the limits of their comfort zone are not - and should not be - a test of faith or a universal standard of "sacredness" for all people of their faith.

Re: Champions Worldwide... Everywhere BUT The British Isles? Hero intends to do a revamped Kingdom of Champions when Steve finds the right author. The UK will be covered there.

Re: Help us name our EPIC super-group! The Epic Epidemic!

Re: Old Testament Hero Highmoon is Daniel Perez's company. Daniel's going to be doing a magazine called Targum devoted to Testament and the Mythic Vistas line, with contriubutions from me and Spike (and others, like Chris Heard).

Re: Questions for the Canadian HEROBoard members

Re: Old Testament Hero I can't answer for others, but for me the appeal comes down to two very basic things: Stories about Biblical heroes are fun. They're familiar, yet otherworldly: they're relevant to our lives in that they still influence our culture, yet there's an alienness to the culture, a sense of distance from modern times that the faux-medievalism of D&D and the painful anachronisms of your average fantasy RPG that (after playing in them, off and on, for 30 years now) feels like a breath of fresh air. Late Bronze age and early iron Age history is interesting. We're dealing with a world in desperate times due the migration of the Sea Peoples and the emergence of Israel as a power in this dark age has historical interest that goes beyond religious belief. A collection of 12 squabbling nomad mountain tribes settling down and clawing a kingdom out of a dark age is a genunelly interesting set-up, and the struggle of a monotheistic cult to overturn the old religious order is an interesting element in and of itself. The world of the Bible's the source for much of our culture. How could it not be an interesting place to have an RPG campaign?

Re: Old Testament Hero As mentioned earlier, we did a cool little Hittites sourcebook for Testament. Mythic Egypt (from ICE) and GURPS Egypt are the two big historical books in the same region. Both are good, IMO, and GURPS Egypt has the added bonus of being edited by Spike. Then for minis action, there's Crocodile Games' WarGods of Aegyptus. Necromancer's Ancient Kingdoms: Mesapotamia has a smattering of source material. It's better treated as a d20 adventure campaign with a bronze age flavor than a Babylonian supplement; Necromancer boasts on the 1st edition AD&D feel of its books, and delivers on that promise. For Greece, Trojan war's pretty good, if specialized. Aaron's Mythic Greece is great if you can find it.

Re: Old Testament Hero While it's a good idea, my plate's insanely full at the moment.

Go to http://www.pulpfigures.com/new.php?custID=207341482321151545934 Behold the prototypes for Evil Hooded Minions. Then wipe the drool off your chin.

Re: Superman Returns Score

Re: Superman Returns Score Yes, there are plenty of use of the old hooks, and the title theme is the old Williams piece, re-recorded with a lot of punch.

Here's something that might be a nice fit for people's Champs games. Preview the score for Superman Returns here: http://superherohype.com/news/supermannews.php?id=4412

Re: Billy Deighton Billy takes Jack to the Pharaoh's Club, "Jack, there's something wrong with me," the Rocket Man said, explaining what Archbishop Duke had seen in his soul. "I was alone and unconscious with the Countess. I'm wondering if she didn't get her hooks into me." Jack looked deep into Billy's soul - and Billy was suddenly forced to repress an urge to kill him. Jack looked into Billy's mind and saw the Countess had indeed compromised him. "Can't that Teutonic witch ever die?" the detective muttered. Jack pondered how to cure Billy of his affliction. Billy called for a telephone, phoned Dr. Quellar, and stoically asked him to perform the same surgery he'd done to "cure" Price. Billy calls Crusher, as if he turns on them, he figured that Crusher was the only one who could stop him. Jack, not wanting to see Billy lose his libido, phones the archbishop and (after mentioning that he'd have to return to the services of a rival priest) persuades him to come to Quellar's and perform an exorcism. The archbishop asks about the Countess. "If there was physical representation of the whore of Babylon, it's her," Jack said. Billy was about to be strapped to the chair when the archbishop arrives with a friendly protestant exorcist. When Billy recites a Latin phrase giving glory to Christ, the exorcist concludes he's not possessed. Quellar says the bishop's crazy and the only thing that ever made him consider the existence of the supernatural was Jack. "Sorry," Jack replies. Quellar adds that this was before he concluded that Jack's psychic abilities were actually supergenius deductions made on a subconscious level. Jack rolls his eyes and says nothing. However the archbishop, incensed at Quellar's disbelief and determined to prove the power of the Church, begins phoning contacts. Neither the Vatican nor the Inquisition would be able to help him. Ominously, the bishop from the Inquisition who spoke with Duke says: "Coming, Countess" at the conclusion of the conversation. Billy tries to break free. Crusher tries to stop him, and Billy begins to punch him out. Quellar catches him with a sticky grenade, then hits him with his "bug zapper". The hardy Rocket Man is still conscious, but a woozy Crusher finishes him off with a head butt. Billy, now back to his senses, decides to go through with the surgery. Quellar drills a hole in his skull and inserts a wire into the appropriate spot, lobotomizing his ability to feel passion. The team goes about their business when they receive a distress call from Dunsmuir in Victoria. The head of Baldwin aviation has descended on Dunsmuir's mansion, along with a pack of hired goons. Quellar puts the pen he stole from Baldwin in a safe. Billy uses Quellar's plane to fly the Specialists across Georgia Strait and land at Dunsmuir's. The archbishop, still concerned with Billy's moral state, decides to tag along. They arrive to hear Dunsmuir arguing with a man in another room, a loudmouth with a midwestern vocal; inflection. Dunsmuir's butler is outraged; one of Baldwin's goons is in the drawing room, smoking one of Dunsmuir's cigars. After he's repeatedly told to put it out, Billy grabs at the cigar. The man somehow anticipates Billy's move and Billy ends up fumbling like a stumblebum and crashes into Dunsmuir's furniture. The man puts the cigar out in the palm of his hand. Billy gets up, and despite the man's insults, responds only with an evil stare. This response isn't good enough for the archbishop, who gets into an insult match with the lout. The lout tells him that they'll take it outside. The archbishop agrees to a fight, to the surprise of the Specialists. The archbishop, who was thinking "duel" and not "back alley brawl", takes a sword from Dunsmuir's collection, The lout says he doesn't need a sword and sucker punches the priest in the groin. The archbishop responds by thrusting his blade into the same location on his opponent. The man growls, and smashes him square in the face with his fist. There's a sick cracking sound, and the archbishop goes down like a sack of potatoes. Billy steps between them to stop any further damage, but the archbishop's already out cold. The goon staggers away. Crusher offers to take him to a hospital. "Don't be a dead tough guy." "I'm an American," the man declares proudly. "Don't be a stupid tough guy," Crusher replies unkindly. Roscoe tells a long story on how RCMP frontier officer Sam Steele handled Americans during the time of the Yukon Gold Rush. The stranger is decidedly uninterested in learning about Canadian history. Several men come up to Jack and take the Specialists to task. They show badges that identify them as FBI. They're accompanying Baldwin for his protection. Because of Billy and Price's feats of daring-do in the Aurora Mk-I, Skymaster's stopped raiding Canada and has turned his attention to the United States. Because Canada lost the skyship Balaclava to Skymaster in the first place, they're too incompetent to carry the fight against the air villains, and that's putting America in danger. Baldwin wants Dunsmuir to surrender the Aurora Mk-I to the United States (namely, to his company) so America can defend itself against a Canadian-built threat. "Now calling us incompetent is just an insult," Billy said. "But they're right to be concerned about their security." "Then let them build their damn own rocket planes," Jack rplied. The man who was stabbed by Duke returns, walking as though he was never injured. Roscoe recognizes him as a two-fisted adventurer named Mark Derrrenger, from Hudson City. Derrenger, it seems, has the preternatural ability to anticipate an opponent's moves, and some odd regenerative abilities. He's part of a corps of American adventurers known as the Minutemen, along with a psychic detective from San Francisco known as Shamus, and a scientist named Doc Masterson, and a lot of agents. "Great," Jack moaned. "We're facing the American version of us." Dunsmuir emerges from his meeting with Baldwin with an angry expression on his face. He tells the Specialists they've got to move the planes, as he anticipates Baldwin's boys will make a move against them. The archbishop secretly contacts some Italian mobsters and persuades them to retaliate against the American consulate in Victoria. The men who are sent end up dead, with no apparent wounds on their bodies. The team returns to Vancouver, where they find themselves being tailed by Baldwin's men. The FBI agents are, unsurprisingly, fakes –Baldwin has no scruples about having his men impersonate G-Meen. They discover Derrenger is based in Port Angeles in Washington State; he blows up rumrunners for fun. Billy receives a late night phone call from the Countess. She asks him for the latest news. Thinking on his feet, he tells her that Quellar's working on a secret project and that he hasn't been able to uncover what it is, and that the Americans are interested in it. Hopefully, by keeping as close to the truth as possible, he'll be able to lure her into a trap. Jack gets a call from the morgue. One of Baldwin's agents was brought there, with a crossbow bolt lodged squarely in his back. Obviously, they tried to trail the Wraith. The man's armed with a strange pistol and an undershirt made of a strange material. The undershirt turns out to be something that protects people from the effects of the gun - an experimental death ray…

Re: Billy Deighton Over the skies of British Columbia, Skymaster's troops suffer a serious setback. Flying Quellar's experimental Aurora Mk-I, Billy Deighton and William Price mow down an entire squadron of Skymaster's best pilots as they perform a raid over Vancouver Island. The men land back in Vancouver and bask in their victory. Back at their HQ, Jack Roscoe receives a phone call from their old enemy, Dr. Quon-Loo, the head of the Black Dragon Society in Vancouver, goes on a rant: "My diabolical deeds are going unchecked!†he protests. "I have given you clue after clue as to sinister designs, and still you do nothing! I love to have intellectual challenges, but you are nothing! It is like fighting an unarmed man,†"What do you want?" Jack asked dismissively. "Today is my birthday," the oriental mastermind said. "And I'm bored! So I've poisoned you all! In twenty-four hours, you'll all be dead!" Jack doesn't take the threat seriously until his secretary starts to get sick. He gives a sample of the water to Quellar, who discovers a rare poison in it. He phones Scotland Yard and places a call to a famous inspector who was Quan-Loo's nemesis. He receives confirmation on Quon-Loo's M.O. -- and the deadliness of the poison. The Specialists head for the Yin Trading Company, the Black Dragon's old haunt in Chinatown, but the building's been wired with explosives. Two cops are killed in the resulting blast and several are taken to hospital. At the hospital, they encounter William Duke, Archbishop of Vancouver, who seems to have a gift of healing and insight into people's sins. He sees a blot on Billy's soul and tells him that he's committed "the Sin of Judas", the one unpardonable sin. Billy, confused, tells him that he's a redeemed Christian and that no outside force has the power to rob a person of Christ's gift of redemption. "Protestants!" Duke mutters. Duke learns of the Specialists' plight and asks to accompany them. Jack's psychic abilities have narrowed down the location of Quan-Loo to a place called Pocahontas Bay on Texiana Island, a source of the whiskey trade where Billy's uncle Alan runs a bar called "The Buckets of Blood". With Crusher at the helm, the team takes Price's yacht to the island. The archbishop asks to accompany them. The birthday party just happens to be taking place at a mansion which once belonged to Knuckles Malone. The Archbishop decides to knock on the door first, and is immediately captured. He spots one of his paritioners, a widowed British peer named the Lady Rose, sitting next to Quan-Loo. He chastizes her. “I am attending a birthday party.†Rose says defensively. “In a den of thieves?!†the archbishop asked. “Even thieves have birthdays,†Lady Rose replies. Quan-Loo pulls a lever on his throne and the archbishop falls down a pit that suddenly opens under him. Billy tries to sneak into the complex, gets spotted, and mows down the defenders with his tommy gun. Crusher and Price take out a pair of Vickers guns stationed on the roof. Guards pour out of the house, only to be shot down with ruthless efficiency by Billy and Jack. The Specialists storm the house. Quan-Loo is retreating, Billy hears the Archbishop in the pit and goes to the throne to find a button that releases the pit. The first button floods the room with poison darts, the second button deposits a live, hungry leopard on the floor, which Billy guns down ("I hope Kristina never finds out about this."), and the third button releases the trapdoor, Th archbishop is furious, and threatens to excommunicate everyone. They find a lab where the antidote is located,, and Quan-Loo is waiting for them. He insults Billy, and the Rocket Man stoically accepts the insults and bravado. The archbishop gets bored and throws a grenade, which he'd taken from a guard, at the mastermind. Quan-Loo laughs, pushes a button to lower a barrier between himself and the Specialists, and escapes. The team finds the antidote and successfully administers it. The encounter between Quan-Loo and the Specialists ends in a draw.

Re: [Campaign] Champions of Vancouver This one's always a devil to GM. I hope you get to enjoy your friend's turn in the GM chair. Rotating GMs is a good way to keep a campaign fresh, as long as they're on the same page. :-)

A cool story to inspire bard or friar: http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/05/19/medieval-music.html

Re: why the UNITED NATIONS? (for global super-agency) UNTIL follows in its comic book (and genre film) predecessors. UNCLE UNIT THUNDER All of which had UN sanction (as one might guess from their name). Which befits something that comes from liberal idealistic 1960s roots.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Frim tonight's Champs game, as the PCs meet in a dingy Vancouver diner: Blankshot: "The tea's not supposed to be meaty!"

Re: Billy Deighton San Francisco, a few weeks after the Sky Pirates’ raid on the Vancouver Rocket Plant, the Specialists go to an aviation conference in San Francisco, hoping the high profile conference will draw a Sky Pirate attack It doesn’t, but a disgruntled engineer who was fired from Baldwin engineering (the same firm involved in the attempt to bring down the Dunsmuir financial empire) attacks the gathering by sealing the doors and windows and targeting the delegates with remote control miniature airplanes. “It’s raining bullets!†Jack exclaims. Dr. Quellar shields himself with his bullet-proof umbrella. The other specialists take out the planes. The Master Aviator, (as the engineer calls himself) announces that he is about to detonate a bomb. Rimi finds that a cardboard bomb exhibit conceals a real bomb, which is quickly deactivated. A man from Baldwin Aviation thanks the Specialists and tries to recruit Quellar. Our heroes respond by calling him a thief. “If you change your mind, take this,†the confused PR flack says, handing him a business card. Quellar takes the card and conspicuously places it between his own buttocks. Billy, Jack, and Crusher attend a fight at the Cow Palace between Max Baer and Billy’s old friend Gordie Linehart. Linehart is TKOed in the 11th round. Crusher notices a very wistful expression on Billy’s face during the fight --clearly the Rocket Man misses being in the ring. Determined to do real damage to Baldwin Aviation, Quellar and Rimi fly out to Baldwin Aviation’s Indiana HQ. In the dead of night, Quellar breaks into the office of Alexander Baldwin, the head of the company, and steals his fountain pen. This is Quellar’s idea of “real damageâ€. He also forges an order to return the stolen rocket packs to Canada. The heroes return to Vancouver, where Gilbert Smythe-Godfrey has a special guest on his radio show: Mai, a teenaged psychic girl from Japan. Mai claims that the the psychic masters of the Orient has had thousands of years to hone their psychic talents and that they were masters. “If I were to use my psychic powers to hunt someone down, no one could escape me,†Mai claims. Rimi suddenly decides to take a *much* lower profile. Back at the Specialists’ HQ, Billy is disgusted to discover that Kristina has redecorated his office to have “less clutter†and be “more space friendlyâ€, junking his trophies and boxing equipment. They get into a yelling match. Uncharacteristically, Kristina apologizes and brings Billy a cup of tea to calm his nerves. The Rocket Man sullenly drinks it and heads off into the streets. Kristina is upset that Billy was gone--the tea contains a love potion and Billy was supposed to stay behind and dote over her! Jack asks her where she’d gotten a love potion. “From Billy’s actress friend, Fay Dietrich,†Kristina explains, “She said it’d take the Presbyterian right out of him.†Kristina’s description of the woman matches the description of the Countess’s last known physical form. Quellar analyzes the tea for necrolytic properties, and finds it's derived from the neurochemicals produced by the Countess’s transformation. Mercifully, they’d have only a temporar4y effect, but while Billy is loose, he is vulnerable. Quellar speculates that Billy’s male hormones are probably running at ten times their normal level, furthermore, he’ll be producing pheromones that would accentuate male and female "tendencies". Jack receives a report that Billy has gotten into a fight with five lumberjacks at a bar. By the time they arrive there, Billy's gone, but clearly the Countess’s drug has had its effect. Everyone around Billy was out of control: women wanted to fawn over him, men wanted to fight him. Next, Crusher heard a report that Billy had gotten into a fight with a cop and had been thrown in jail. By the time he gets to the jail, someone has bailed him out. Rimi is working at the Pharaoh’s Club in disguise, when once again Yukio Aiko walked in, complete with entourage. Rimi tries to roll a hand grenade under Rimi’s table and blow her to pieces, but her wily rival notices it and rolls it back. Fortunately, Rimi has already left the area when it explodes. Unfortunately, she runs into a young teenaged girl and five large Japanese men in gangster suits. The young girl opens her mouth, and a dragon flies out of it and claws Rimi’s eyes. Blinded, the young adventurer is no match for the gangsters. Jack discovered that the man who had taken Billy is none other than Dante Lafleur, son of a man that Jack had served with in the Great War who’d been killed by a demon in the trenches. Dante had followed in his father’s footsteps as a mercenary and an adventurer, and Jack feared that he held Jack Deighton and himself responsible for his father’s death. Meanwhile, Crusher is facing “the Masked Bolshevik†in a wrestling match in downtown Vancouver. The Bolshevik deviates from the script by drugging Crusher and uses a wrist strap smothered in chloroform to put him unconscious, masking the sneaky move with a sleeper hold. Rimi wakes up to find herself on a boat. A man plays a phonograph for her: a it's a message from the Countess. The Countess announces that (like everyone else these days), she was going into radio. The first programme on “The Countess’s Mystery Theater†would be.... “The Mystery of the Disappearing Asian Girlâ€. She, not Aoki, had hired Mai, and was now about to ship her enemy to the South Seas, to be sold into slavery. “Not again,†Rimi sighed. “I hate that woman.†Jack receives a call from Dante Lafleur, who wants a showdown. He follows the Frenchmen into a cave. Dante seals the cave entrance with a triggered explosive. He says he’s not sure whether his father’s death was due to negligence or the will of God, so he’s set up as close a recreation as possible, trapping Billy and Jack (along with Crusher, Kristina, and himself as cannon fodder) with a werewolf. They manage to arm themselves and kill the werewolf. Dante declares his father’s death was the will of God, and calls off the vendetta. Billy, still driven by the hormonal brew, is an uncharacteristically bloodthirsty mood, but Jack manages to calm him down and allows Dante to leave. Perhaps now he can find peace (and you never know when a mercenary ally will come in handy. Rimi is rescued by the Wraith, who kills Mai with a crossbow bolt after her psychic powers failed to affect him. Rimi asks the Wraith to keep on the prowl after Aoki.

Re: The difference between a Brick and a Tank A tank *is* a brick. It's what bricks would become if Champions pro-rated STR at +1 per 2 points. :-)

Re: Have You Used Characters from Madmen & Masterminds? They work for me, but it's still early in their storylines; we haven't gone plane to plane or fist to fist with them yet.

Re: Have You Used Characters from Madmen & Masterminds? Oh yeah. Skymaster's being used by Chiba Bob as the big villain of the xurrent arc, and I retrofitted Von Hagen so that he ahot down my PC's dad during the War.

Re: Billy Deighton Episode: 23: “Terror in the Trenches!†At the Vancouver garbage dump, the policemen who had previously been helping Culpepper were now engaged in a search… they’d been ordered to recover every piece from Jack Roscoe’s office, which they’d dumped on Culpepper’s orders. “Can’t seem to find your desk,†one of the cops said. “It’s getting kinda late.†“So’s your career.†Jack replied. Meanwhile, Michael Dunsmuir bought the newly constructed Imperial Building in downtown Vancouver and moved the team’s installations. This recently completed $2.2 million skyscraper would now be a secure home to the Specialists following the Culpepper incident, which demonstrated the vulnerability of separate operations centers. Their acting careers in limbo, Rimi returned to her career as a cigarette girl at the Pharaoh's Club, while Billy tried to find work as a pilot. Crusher went back to work at the Rocket plant, which finally reopened. The day also arrived that Jack dreaded most – his appearance on Gilbert Godfried's "Psychic Radio Hour". “I have a special guest, Mr. Jack Roscoe," Godfried introduced. "Psychic and detective working with the police and Sir Michael Dunsmuir. Let's talk about your abilities. You were born with these abilities?†“Yes," Jack explained. "But I could only do a few parlor tricks – tell people what cards they were holding, and so on– until the war.†“You had a traumatic incident?†"I don't remember it." Godfried introduced Dr. Zimmerman… past life regression, hypnosis and memory loss. "How would you like to remember those events?" he asked. “No thank you," Jack said. "God gave me these abilities.,, I don’t want to mess with them." Dr. Zimmerman smiled sagely. "I understand the delicate balance of the mind… this is a clinical investigation," he said. "But I would be honored to investigate and discover how these events can bring about psychic revelation.†Jack agreed to do it, with reservations. “Just consider this a parlor trick, Just imagine yourself in your favorite chair, even if the police still haven’t found it yet." he said with a smile. A few seconds later. Jack lost consciousness… The year was 1916, and the battle of Ypres, one of the most terrible conflicts of a terrible war, was fully engaged. Jack Roscoe, coughing blood from the effects of German gas attack, was being tended by several soldiers, including a downed pilot named Biscuit Jack Deighton. Deighton, a French soldier named Romeo Lafleur, and several others, caught sight of a German soldier in the trench. Immediately, they went in pursuit of him. Lafleur and Deighton heard the sound of screams as some thing ripped the soldier apart. Investigating, they found pieces of the dead, eviscerated soldier, and a small, soft earthen tunnel in the side of the trench, its walls clawed as if it had been dug by a giant mole. A second scream rang out, as a second soldier was eviscerated. Deighton suggested they regroup in strength, so they headed back to Roscoe. Roscoe, who had command in the situation, decided to investigate the tunnel. On the way, they found the disembowled bodies of Allied soldiers, whose bodies had been partially eaten. Whatever it was, the creature had a taste for human flesh. Deighton speculated that the Germans were breeding some sort of attack wolf –or were engaging in the supernatural. Jack figured the creature could be found down the tunnel. Roscoe managed to make his was to the tunnel, and, ordering them to fix bayonets, they proceeded down the shaft. The tunnel led into a small cavern, located deep under the Allied lines, which was filled with explosives. Hundreds of tons of TNT filled the chamber. “There’s enough here to blow up my wife,†Lafleur said. Daniel, a fourth soldier, checked out a tunnel that led to the German lines. He found partially devoured German bodies –the creature wasn't selective and returned to the cavern, only to be jumped by the creature. He too was eviscerated. Lafleur charged ahead and came face to face with a deformed man, a huge naked canid like a hairless werewolf. He wore a German helmet –whatever it was, it was once a German soldier. With two quick blows from the beast, Lafleur was gutted, dead. Fortunately, the beast had not noticed the approach of Biscuit Jack Deighton, who had a clear shot at its back. The shot wounded the creature enough that it slumped to the ground. Deighton rolled it over, but the sight of its body was so horrifying that he froze. Jack managed to finish it off with a pistol shot. They emerged from the trench as the battle was carried to the forest. Roscoe was still seriously injured from the effects of the gas, and Deighton looked to take him to a medic. They heard a whining sound, and an exploding shell landed near their position. Comes out. Shell knocks out Jack, Roscoe is semi-conscious. He sees a white light. Two men, one with an American accent (an oddity, as the Americans hadn't joined the war yet), came over to him. “He’s seen too much,†one man said. “Should we finish him off?" the other man asked. “No, he’s finished.†The first man affirmed. Jack woke up with a start. Meanwhile, over at the Rocket Plant, Crusher heard what sounded like hay bales landing on the top of the plant. Sneaking his way to the roof, he spotted squads of men jumping from a huge, silent,V-shaped aircraft, using special bubble suits to absorb the impact of the fall. Crusher ran down and placed a call to warn Quellar that the Rocket Plant was under attack. Rimi was working at the Pharaoh's Club when four Asian males and an Asian female walk into the club. She's a very familiar Asian woman. A disguised Rimi is forced to sell a $5 cigar to her archenemy. They announce that the Rocket Plant is under attack, and Rimi slips away before a confrontation takes place. The Sky Pirates crash through a skylight and rappelled down ropes into the factory. Crusher, jumping from a catwalk, tackles two Sky Pirates. Unfortunately, when he hits the ground, another Sky Pirate shoots him in the head, Crusher goes down immediately. Billy's trying (unsuccessfully) to get into another nightclub when he hears the news. The Rocket Man goes to his car and immediately drives to the plant. He spots Quellar's gyrocopter in the distance –being shot down by some sort of missile. Billy grabs his rocket pack from the back of his car and takes off. He finds Quellar barely conscious at the crash site, but a cursory examination shows his life is not in immediate danger. He heads to the Rocket Plant, where he's attacked by the V-shaped craft. Dodging a stream of bullets from its tailgunner, Billy takes a shot at the craft as it departs, but misses wildly. He doesn't have enough fuel to pursue. Entering the plant to refill his tank, he finds a badly injured Crusher. Billy quickly refuels, grabs the wrestler, and flies with him back to the hospital. "VCR-4 to Skymaster," an agent reported as he visually tracked the trail of the retreating Rocket Man. "We've completed our objective." "Excellent," Skymaster replied. "We'll send in the bombers." Jack, having recovered from his psychic flashback, arrived to find Rocket Men pulling survivors from the plant, and treating Dr. Quellar. "Where's Deighton… Price…" the scientist moaned. "We can still stop them, but I need a pilot..." Unfortunately, Jack heard a familiar sound overhead, and shouted at everyone to run from the area. The Sky Pirates were bombarding the plant. In seconds, everything is flamer and rubble, including the second skyship that Dunsmuir was building, the sister ship for the stolen Balaclava. One of the men pulled from the wreckage was a sky pirate, one of the agents Crusher had tackled. Roscoe does a psychic whammy on him and telepathically follows the V-shaped craft as it . They’ve built a shelter on two sides of a west coast valley. A couple of islands are used as fuel points. Beyond that, Roscoe can't identify the location. British Columbia is a big province, and there are many valleys on its 600 miles of coastline, most of which are uninhabited. The Sky Pirates, emboldened by their success, launch a series of raids along the West Coast of North America, from Oregon to Alaska, using the neutrally buoyant delta wings as the vanguard of their force. Woods, metals, fuel, even grain and cattle, are fodder for their thirst for materials –western Canada has become their stockyard. They also raided B.C.'s penitentiary, liberating one prisoner –Ian Taylor, Dunsmuir’s former financial advisor. Despite the cry in the press about the ineffectiveness of the Rocket Men, the gallant sky sentinels soldier on, and so do the Specialists. Billy's astonished when he receives his first pay cheque –$250 for his week's salary. He also discovers that Dunsmuir has relocated his family to a farm in the Fraser Valley. Dunsmuir's also been busy on the political front: he's trying to track down his enemies who enabled the transfer of Rocket Men technology to a foreign power (the States) and pursue charges of treason. Even so, the spirits of the Rocket Brigade are downcast, seeing that they have only a dozen or so rocket packs with which to fight the Sky Pirates. Quellar took the Specialists to a hidden warehouse and unveiled his secret weapon: the Aurora Mk-I, an advanced metal-skinned monowinged rocket plane armed with twin 10-mm cannons and exploding ammunition that could destroy most aircraft in a single hit. Billy's jaw dropped when he heard the craft's capabilities. "So this is the future of aviation," he said.

Re: Billy Deighton I've giot one big assignment to do before I start on CotN5, plus there's the possibility of eye surgery. I won't be starting work on the book until September.

Re: Billy Deighton Another quick update. --- When Titans Fall! Six weeks have passed after having been hospitalized by Knuckles' goons, and Billy finally feels well enough to challenge Crusher to his favorite pastime –wrestling. As Crusher wants a higher quality opponent than "Hunky Bill", the two have a match in which they agree to wrestle until one of them drops. Three grueling hours later, Crusher can't continue, but Billy drags him back to his corner and goads him into pushing himself beyond his limits. Crusher tells him he's made a mistake, but the Rocket Man manhandles him. Fifteen minutes later, Billy pins Crusher, but both men drop from exhaustion. The match is a draw. A couple of Knuckles' old boys sneaks into the gym to finish them off, but with guns pointed at them, the two friends manage to find the strength to pound the gangsters into an unconscious pulp. Billy tells Crusher that he'd heard how he'd been shaken up by his confrontation with Knuckles Malone and was pushing him hard to help him shake off the aftereffects. Crusher didn't particularly notice: he just thought it was a good match. Rimi has a dream of Master Kitano, the Japanese master who committed suicide. Kitano taunts her for her love of death. "What is more beautiful," he asks. "A bird in flight, or a bird who lies dead ipon the ground?" Rimi replies that it depends on how the bird died. What is more lovely, a stagnant pool or a fast moving mountain stream that skips down the hill?" her asks. Again Rimi affirms her love of death. Kitano sighs. Rimi bitterly associates the concept of "life" he's lauding with dreary child-bearing and menial servitude to abusive men. Kitano agrees that Yoshiro Hiro, the Major-General Rimi whom accidentally killed was a pig, but the alternative to being a killer isn't necessarily misogynistic servility. He does give Rimi his blessing to hold onto his sword and points out the irony in the stage name that she selected as an actress. "You have already chosen the flower and the seed, Rose Acorn," he says. "So grow." Rimi just rolls her eyes. A ghost in a dream is bad enough, but a moralizing one is much, much worse, They have a brief conversation about the Fire of Syria, the gem in the crucifix she'd found. He says it was a living heart made by an idol-maker who had empowered it with a demonic pact, but a holy man sanctified it, so now it lets people know the fires of their own heart. Jack hears a report of a shooting at a train station. He goes to the CPR station downtown and discovers that both the shooter and his quarry had escaped. He returns to his office to discover it boarded up and all of the furniture's gone. An obnoxious man named Danny Culpepper, surrounded by four policemen who Jack recognizes as being in Knuckles' pocket. Culpepper's interests bought the building, and threw all of Jack's furniture and files in the Vancouver garbage dump. Jack tells him that he won't get away with it. Culpepper smiles and says he has a lot more work to do today. A few minutes later, at the Rocket Plant, Crusher is shaking off the effects of the previous night's bout when Culpepper comes in and announces that the Rocket Plant is closed and that everyone who works there has to look for a new job. Dunsmuir and Quellar are outraged. Culpepper reveals that when Dunsmuir was kidnapped by Knuckles, control of his empire temporarily went to Dunsmuir's right hand man, a brilliant financier named Ian Taylor. Taylor signed a short-term $120 million loan, using Dunsmuir's properties and industries as collateral. Taylor then embezzled the money for the loan, so there was nothing to pay back. An American syndicate bought the loan, so now they're confiscating all of the Rocket Plant. Quellar points out that the rocket packs are the property of the Canadian Department of Defense. Culpepper smiles and says that because of the Canadian Rocket Brigade's "seemingly endless list of blunders", culminating in the theft of the Balaclava by Skymaster, the Canadian government was glad to shed itself of an "embarrassment". Then he turns to Quellar, and informs him that radio emissions from his house exceed national broadcast standards, and that he won't be allowed on his property until they're "thoroughly investigated". Enraged, Quellar shoots Culpepper and his crooked cop bodyguard and suspends them over a vat of acid. Culpepper threatens that he'll be sharing a cell with Knuckles Malone. Other police storm the plant and release them. Quellar threatens to blow up the rocket plant, then walks away. Dunsmuir still has enough pull to keep Quellar from being arrested. The Specialists converge at Quellar's house and discover that the house has been ransacked, and Mr. Newton's tank has been taken outside and dumped - had they not arrived when they did, Mr. Newton's brain fluid would have been completely drained from the tank and he'd be dead. Then Culpepper shows up and hands Billy a note from the US government; they've charged Billy $10,000 for the US Navy defense boat that Billy sold in Shanghai. Fortunately, Culpepper says, Billy had the means to repay the debt, being co-owner of a large piece of land in Alberta. It was unfortunate, Culpepper smiled, that Billy's mother and brothers had to be kicked off the family farm when they foreclosed on it. For the first time that anyone had ever seen him, Billy went berserk. He grabbed Culpepper by the throat, and began to squeeze the life out of him. Culpepper threatened to do worse things to Billy's family, but the threat didn't seem to register on the berserk Rocket Man. Fortunately, the police and Crusher barely manage to wrench him off the sleazy financier. Examining the contract, Dunsmuir finds a loophole. There's a forty-eight hour grace period after notification by which the loan can be repaid with interest. All Dunsmuir needs to do is to raise $120 million dollars in two days, and the rocket plant (and his fortune) will be returned. Dunsmuir needs to find Taylor to return the embezzled money - and he needs to prevent the Rocket Plant from being dismantled and shipped away to Culpepper's backers. Rimi investigates Culpepper, who's reopened the Bar and the Hotel Europa and is making it his haunts. She infiltrates the casino and finds several known assassins in residence, including the Darques twins, a pair of separated Siamese twins with reputed psychic abilities. She avoids contact with them, and overhears Culpepper talking with someone he calls "Senator", and that the plan "is going perfectly". She follows Culpepper out of the club and tracks him down to the warehouse where the plant equipment is being stored. It's near the US border, and clearly going to be shipped stateside. That evening, the Specialists, a squad of Rocket Men, and a vengeful Mr. Newton in the "Newtonmobile" (a rigged truck with a snowplow) hit the plant to recover as much of the rocket equipment as possible. The plan goes perfectly, and the night shift surrenders without firing a shot, except for a sniper who draws a bead on Quellar - and then collapses with a crossbow bolt in his back. Jack tries to track down Ian Taylor, and discovers he's addicted to the ponies. He didn't have gambling debts - in fact, Taylor was such an intuitive genius at probability schemes that he regularly won big at the track. But he did have a favorite pony: "Willie B. Victorious" and Jack figured he'd show up at the Lansdown Stakes, a big race in which the horse was running. That hunch turned out to be correct. Quellar sat down next to the disguised Taylor, who recognized him and tried to run away. Quellar tripped him, and Taylor fell to the bottom of the grandstand. The Rocket Men scooped him up and escorted him to Red Walker's apartment - as Red's someone who's not associated with the Specialists, they figure it's a safe place. Another sniper tries to take a shot at Taylor but once again the Wraith intervenes and the sniper goes down before he can strike the target. Taylor is not cooperative. Jack determines that months ago, Taylor used his talents at analysis to make a comprehensive study of the world's political situation. According to his calculations, all of Europe's major governments except for Britain would be taken over by Mussolini-style military dictatorships within the next 8-12 years, which would form an alliance with a newly invigorated Japan to take over Russia. A second Great War would be the result of this aggression. He figured the only hope for democracy against this fascist alliance would be America's industrial might producing fleets of Rocket Men - according to Taylor's calculations, Canada was too small to produce enough rocket packs and qualified pilots to save the world. Taylor made alliances with several US banks, Baldwin Aviation (a rising American aeronautics firm), and their patron in the US Senate, Indiana junior senator Wayne Garnett, an American WW1 air ace and father of Billy's old boxing archenemy. Diamond Ted Garnett! Dunsmuir mutters that he can't wait for the Hoover administration to get kcked out of office. Jack is actually sympathetic to Taylor's goal, if not his means –he certainly believes that another Great War should be avoided at all costs–, but Dunsmuir doesn't take betrayal well, and Billy, enraged at what was done to his family, is almost unhinged. He intimidates Taylor into cooperating with the Specialists. Jack sighs, but counts the money he won at the track betting on Willie B. Victorious. Culpepper is outraged by the attack on the warehouse and confronts Dunsmuir. He's not expecting to discover that Billy and Crusher push away the crooked cops while Rimi injects Culpepper with Dr. Quellar's "longevity formula", actually a powerful hallucinogen. When Culpepper begins to act irrationally, Dunsmuir calls men in white coats to have him committed. With Dunsmuir's restored fortune, he can afford to bribe the asylum attendees to keep Culpepper committted –he reckons that Culpepper's dearly earned revenge. Quellar mentions that he'd like to do something similar to a certain Senator from Indiana… The only real loose end is Billy's family, who still ended up losing the family farm. The Deightons move to a mining town north of Vancouver, though not before they pay a visit, and Crusher gets to be terrorized by a pair of Billy-sized 19-year old twins. Skymaster and his newly acquired sky fortress strikes for the first time since the Balaclava was captured, raiding timber stocks from Port Alice, a mill town on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Billy, who once worked there as a lumberjack, tells the group that the archvillain now has the raw materials to build the superstructure of dozens of planes…