GM Xabulba's page

So...

He's got a "magic card" that looks like whatever viewers expect to see, and his base is bigger on the inside.

o_0

John Constantine is a Timelord!

He's also a a~$$!&$, that makes him a Scottish Timelord.

Cat And Chris sneak up on the hidden trap then spring their own trap, Chris's claws quickly pry the orb from the floor as Cat deftly disables it's sensors.

A Tech check to get a detailed analysis of it's functions.

@Cat, Chris 114 and QNetic, an outright attack will trigger the security. Using stealth you could position yourselves in a way when it is triggered you can act first. Cat could also use stealth to get to the device and then use technology to disable it with out using force.

Sorry for the slow posting I have not been feeling well, no energy and always tired, for the last week or so. When to the Doctor's today and underwent a lot of tests, I will find out in a couple of days if it's anything serious.

Liberteen and Capt. Cosmos's clumsy decent triggers an auto defense system. Only Capt. Cosmos and Cat see an orb pop out of the floor and shoot Liberteen and Capt.Cosmos with a blinding white light. When the rest of you regain your sight Liberteen and Capt. Cosmos are nowhere to be seen.

QNetic a Chris 114, I still need rolls from you two.

** spoiler omitted **

Double negative.

After fifteen minutes of struggling with the transmat coils and another ten of welding, soldering, splicing and a quick bit of coding Cat whips up a quantum door knocker (of sorts).

When Cat turns it on and points it at the lift everyone begins to see a double vision of the pristine lift superimposed over the ruined one. A few adjustments creates a 2 meter "doorway" onto pristine lift allowing entrance to the real base.

As I mentioned the lift is a industrial inclined lift capable of holding 3 semi trucks. Using it will be noticed but the real base has, behind a locked door, a set of stairs running along side the lift.
Cat easily bypasses the security and lock allowing you access down.

At this point I need some stealth and perception checks please. +5 if you have some kind of vision/hearing augmentation. If you're not trying to be stealthy then ignore the rolls.

GM Xabulba wrote:

5) Fear doesn't govern anything in space travel, safety and efficiency governs all decisions but because humans are fallible and subject to hubris even those two primary governors are often overlooked or ignored.

Actually the entire American space program until 1969 was driven by the fear that the Russians would be the first to build an atomic missle base on the moon or perform a manned landing on it, claiming the globe as a Soviet Republic. The pulp literature of the period was full of it, although it was usually hidden "Space Nazis" who would take the place of Russians as the given bad guys.

Given the state of the American rocketry program as opposed to the then current Soviet successes, JFK's pledge to a moon landing was definitely a statement of boldness on his part.

Then why did NASA use animals for the first test flights? Human safety is why. The politics of the space program were fear based but NASA's first rule was safty. Safety first even though it cost them the goal of first man in space, first man in orbit and a few other firsts because it wasn't safe enough for humans.

As your awareness expands to encompass 100's of realities you feel more than see a twisting between our reality and another, everything encompassed by the twisting is inverted to the other reality.
Whatever is down there is hiding an entire base in the ultimate hiding place, an alternate reality.

@Cat - DC20 tech roll to cobble together a phase key.

Unless you change your quantum phase to match the out-of-phase one nothing would happen, you couldn't even interact with the out of phase stuff. The only reason QNetic even noticed it is because he is always a little bit out of phase with this quantum universe.

Cat could whip up a gadget, with equipment from the Zephyr's trans-mat, that would align your phase state with the hidden lift shaft. It would allow you to see and interact with whatever's in the out of phase pocket. Downside is it would temporarily disable the trans-mat.

1) All launch does is get materials and personnel into space. Lack of gravity is the primary obstacle against the majority of space activities. On Earth we have gravity to help us do work, in micro-gravity (space) we have to provide our own counter-force to do proper work. i.e. turning a screwdriver in micro-gravity results in the person and object turning in counter directions and canceling out any work being done.

2) As LazarX said above "Physics isn't opposed to spaceflight. Physics simply doesn't give a damn whether you make it to orbit or explode in a bright fireball."

3) A good rule for rocket experimenters to follow is this: always assume that it will explode. — Astronautics, issue 38, October 1937.

Taking this to heart launch only proves to be an obstacle if you are using a spacecraft that is launched from the ground into space. If you just send materials and assemble in space no single launch failure will result in failure of the spacecraft.

4) "There is never enough time or money to do everything you want before launch." is true but your conclusion is flawed. The only time launch would factor into construction time and cost is if crew training, general safety and construction of the launch platform and/or spacecraft were sacrificed to save time and money.

5) Fear doesn't govern anything in space travel, safety and efficiency governs all decisions but because humans are fallible and subject to hubris even those two primary governors are often overlooked or ignored.

@QNetic - Dr. QNetic feels a bit queasy when you look down the elevator shaft. It as if you are seeing double, you see one shaft suffering from neglect overlaid on another that is in pristine working order. Your consensus is whatever is down there is slightly out of phase of this world.

The team trans-mats down to the ruined facility near the stationary RF transmitter/receiver. What's left of the building is covered in blast and fire damage but the RF unit is new and must have been placed after the original explosions. It also looks like the guard animals make their lair/nest here as well.
Spreading out the team explores the remains of the building casual observation reveals nothing unexpected until perseverance and sharp senses reveals a industrial inclined lift big enough to fit 3 semi's and their trailers hidden behind a 3D holographic projection. There's nothing on the lift now and you estimate the lift goes down at least 180 feet below the surface.

QNetic make a perception check please.

Capt Cosmos messes the RF transmissions to the "guard-dogs" and corrals them to the NE portion of the property away from the main building.

Guys, plan of action?

Also forgot to mention that the animals aren't making any sound at all, not even from footsteps or travel through brush.

...builds himself a suit of powered armor, an army of robots, and a plethora of cutting edge technology,...

That's so Iron Man.

Something weird is going on, I'm not getting all the new posts when I check in.

@Cat - you detect a very low powered and intermittent RF pulse bouncing between the pack members and a central point in the ruined building, most likely it's a communication signal as well as a invisible fence.
Happy B-Day

@QNetic - You notice that someone duct taped a Mr. Coffee to Zephyr's food dispenser.

Zooming in on the pack rewards you with images of the pack, they look somthing like this.

Still need perception checks from Cat and QNetic.

@Chris 114 - You notice the same thing as Liberteen.

Interested.

Also if you didn't notice I added some questions to my above post.

@Liberteen - you see a pack of what must be large dogs in the woods around Proto-Gene. There's something weird in the way they move but they're too big to be anything but dogs, maybe?

@Capt. Cosmos - You're too involved playing with the super-cool toys on your super-cool spaceship to notice anything other than how cool it is to have your own super-cool spaceship with super-cool toys on it.

Moving on to the Proto-Gene facility.

The Zephyr glides silently northeast towards the Proto-Gene facility, the skyscrapers and urban sprawl soon fades into rolling hills and pastoral woodlands. A quote from the great detective echo's in the minds of the more literary types - “It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”, and the firecracker colored autumnal foliage covering the remote area is quite beautiful. Only because you are arriving from the air can you make out the ruins of the former research facility from the dense woods surrounding it, woods too dense and too orderly to natural.

Give me some perception checks please.

Allright, is everyone going upstate to check out the Proto-Gene facility? If not tell me what you're doing.

Unless you have different plans I'm assuming that all of you go to the meet and share what you have learned about Dr. Lazarus, Veri-Tech and Proto-Gene.

How are going to proceed?

Maybe it's just as simple as a way for any lost Kree/Inhuman to always know how to get home.

Misroi wrote:

I totally agree, thejeff, but that seems to be the Alfred we've got here. That might be his arc - he starts by teaching Bruce all the stuff that he learned in the British army (do we know if he's ex-SAS or not?), and at some point he realizes that this was a bad idea. Now he feels responsible for screwing up Bruce even more than he was already.

Only time will tell where we're going with this. And, hey, it's already immeasurably better than Balloon Man.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they've said he's ex military somewhere (can't remember if it said SAS or not). I like the idea of him as Bruce's mentor, and certainly could see it being a case of him softening as he realises that Bruce doesn't just need to learn how to fight. Honestly I felt like there might have been a little of that in Michael Caine's portrayal of Alfred, mostly from the second film when he was talking about his time as a military man, and telling stories about burning down a jungle to stop one man.

Arnwyn wrote:

Last couple of episodes were pretty good.

Barbara is complete idiot, though.

Agreed, she's a frustrating character.

** spoiler omitted **

Barbara's entire purpose is to get kidnaped and used to get to Gordon, in that capacity she is doing great.

@Cat - Dr. Emil Lăzărescu Graduated with top honors from Moscow Medical university in 1970 with a specialization in genetics. He was immediately recruited by the former Soviet Union and disappeared from all records until he suddenly reappeared as an advisor for the Moldova's new government when they broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991. Lăzărescu ran Moldova's medical system until 2001 when he was forced out under accusations of diverting government funds into private medical research and inhumane experimentations. Official Moldavian records say Lăzărescu committed suicide rather than face trial and most certain imprisonment. The same week of Lăzărescu's suicide a Dr. Lazarus arrived in NY and founded Proto-Gene. Aside from some civil lawsuits and protests accusing Proto-Gene of inhumane treatment of test animals not much happened between 2001 and 2013. In 2013 A shell company of Veri-Tech's performed a hostile takeover of Proto-Gene, two months latter the Proto-Gene campus was destroyed in a series of explosions. Locals say the ruins are haunted by strange lights and sounds but every investigation has found nothing.

A couple of doctors who worked for Proto-Gene are now working at the NYC Medical Center, the place where the secret lab the bug-men was found.

Veri-Tech was founded during WWI focusing in weapons and bio-tech research. Since WWI Veri-Teach has become a multi-billion dollar holding company with hundreds of subsidiaries all over the world. It has also become the number one contractor for special weapons worldwide.

Lastly the Cradle has had an influx of homeless who all say they were chased out of their usual places in the sewers by a large brass bull fighting a giant albino alligator.

@ATHENA - I forgot a minus sign, the coordinates should be 41.9641113000 latitude -74.907832100 longitude, Roscoe NY.

The only connection between Veri-Tech and Moldova you can find is a year after Dr. Lăzărescu committed suicide Moldova contracted with Veri-tech to provide weapons to keep Moldova free from Russian/Romanian/foreign domination.

@QNetic - Most of you think that it has to do with the elasticity of the quantum membrane between universes. Suppose that all your forms are connected by stretchy quantum strings and when you shift your current form switches universes with the form your changing into the strings become twisted up storing energy. What you think might have happened is the strings released the stored energy suddenly with enough force to pull you from this universe and swap you with one of your other selves. You're not sure if this is normal or was exacerbated by an outside source.

Actually for your character it's a perfect use of the power simply because each of your different form's universe may have public knowledge of things that are secret in this universe. Ask away.

"The remains of Proto-Gene are at 41.9641113000 latitude 74.907832100 longitude, Capt."

"Working on finding connections between Veri-Tech and Moldova."

So that would leade me to believe that the barge was the lost convoy they spoke of?

Correct, but it doesn't explain why it was covered up. No news or police reports = something fishy.

Yes Osgood was very well liked by most fans.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/osgood

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/531485436905279488

Moffatt must have taken some writing clues from Joss Whedon, need to show how evil or nuts or both a character is have them kill off a fan favorite.

Bastard.

@Chris 114 - Your buddy Turk's girlfriend works at Central Freight's NY distribution hub. She's been talking about how a lot of fright has been picked up by private contractors with east european accents over the last few weeks (40+ trucks worth). A couple of days ago she overheard two them saying they lost almost all of the last convoy heading upstate, she only remembered that because she hadn't heard anything on the truckers or highway patrol grapevines about any accidents or hijackings.

@Capt. Cosmos - After about a day ATHENA reports with an update. "Capt. I have searched through the relevant databases and believe I have found the Dr. Lazarus you are looking for. However the same records say that he died in an industrial accident."
"A Dr. Emil Lăzărescu, or in English Lazarus, was the head of research for Proto-Gene, a medical research company owned by Veri-Tech through several holding companies and blind trusts." The Proto-Gene facility was destroyed by several explosions and subsequent fire a month ago. Dr. Emil Lăzărescu and 20 other researchers and personnel were killed in the event, however not all the bodies have been recovered."

My first thought after the first and second episodes was 'wow, this guy plays Constantine like a smarmy unlikable toad.'

And then I went back to my Swamp Thing comics, and, lo and behold, he's playing the character true. He kind of was a smarmy unlikable toad, at least originally. (I assume he became a bit more likable in his own series, but then, the popularity of unlikable jerk characters like House, MD, might prove me wrong...)

No not really, even in his own comic title he remains a smarmy unlikable toad. Mostly though he acts that way because it's his way to protect others from himself as everyone who ever became close to him either died or worse happened to them. The only time he's not unlikable is when he deals with children which is how he got damned in the first place.

@QNetic - After you finish healing Liberteen you try to shift back to you regular form but you shift into your dimensional phase form instead, you try shifting again and end up in your hybrid form. This goes on for a couple of more attempts until you finally get into your regular form. Even after you get back to your regular form for the next half hour you feel like your other forms are trying to emerge and you have to concentrate to prevent that from happening.

Unless anyone wants to do something different you all get beamed aboard the Zephyr where you take time to congratulate your win and exchange contact info in case something like this happens again.

A few days pass allowing you some time to do some follow-up work or just go about your daily business. For those investigating tell me what you're looking for/into and make the appropriate skill roll.

@Qnetic - Give me a straight d20 roll please.

"Zed I appreciate your help with the wounded so I'll do you a favor in kind, Hubert there is going to come over her and demand your arrests as soon as he's done securing those crates so you might want to plan a quick getaway. Until my men are given orders they're not going to try to stop you."
"I can't suggest it, but if you were going to do it anyway, don't suppose you would mind looking a little deeper into the VeriTech Moldova connection? There's something not right with how fast VeriTech provided weapons for the H-Smart, or how deep they're imbedded."

"Flanagan get your team over here", He yells at a cop in a SWAT outfit, secure the bear and get him ready for transfer."

This Utopia is much better but was still cancled.

EXPERIENCE YAY!!!
3 power points for each of you and 2 Hero points. Cat gets an extra hero point for ingenuity.

The NYPD moves in followed by the remaining S.M.R.T.ies and NYFD.

An average slightly overweight middle aged man approaches along with two uniformed cops in tow. "I'm Capt. Lafferty which one of you heroes is in charge? I'd like to get your statements on what happened before Hubert gets involved." as he says that he indicates a balding man in the background barking orders. Hubert but is generally ignored except for the remaining S.M.R.T.ies who ignore the ongoing fires and general destruction and begin setting up a blockade around the shipping crates that the villains were trying to steal.
You can begin by telling what the hell is going on and why there is a bear looking at me?

@QNetic - Missed the dazed, got it now.
@Chriss 114 - the -5 for attacks disappeared with the snowstorm.

Capt. Cosmos joins in facing down the bear while Chriss 114 begins dismantling the ice barge by breaking free the containers and putting them back on the dock.

Liberteen begins to heal from her injuries. [ooc]Liberteen will be able to act next turn.

Cat finds herself in the Zephyr's vita-chamber, she can either stay put and get healed or move.

Vohon grows in anger and frustration as the subject of his anger was teleported away. After a few moments hesitation the flames he's wreathed in fade to nothing as he sit on his haunches, "YOU HAVE ME, I SURRENDER. DON'T THINK THIS ENDS HERE DR. LAZARUS WILL COME FOR ME AND THE EQUIPMENT STOLEN FROM HIM. NOW TAKE ME TO YOUR JAIL I'M HUNGRY FROM BATTLE.

Alloy and Cold Snap never resurface.

end of combat

GM Xabubla,
So because some women choose to some times in some places pose naked and show themselves off, that means all women in all places at all times are fine with it from all men? You really don't see the problem with that argument?

If so, allow me to point it out: If the behaviour of some people, in some places, at some times means that all people of the same sex will behave the same way at all times, that means that women are perfectly judstified in assuming that all men everywhere are bloody rapists because there are some men somewhere sometimes who are. I expect you'd be outraged if...

No it was more to point out that there are places men can go where women want to or are willing to be objectified so douchebags should go to those places and leave the rest of the women alone.

@QNetic - I'm assuming you're holding your action

ATHENA
QNetic - dazed, -1
Living Lighting - incapacitated, -2
Capt. Cosmos
Chris 114 - -2
Liberteen - incapacitated, -2
Alloy - staggered, -1, (out of combat for 3 rounds)
Cold Snap - incapacitated, -3
Cat - staggered, -2
Ogami -
Vohon - dazed, -3

Capt Cosmos is up.

Liberteen passes out from lack of out as the fireball consumes the oxygen around her.
Cat manages to avoid the worst of the flames and is only slightly singed.
QNetic, Chris 114 and Capt. Cosmos only sweet a little more from the fireballs heat but are otherwise unaffected by it.

ATHENA
QNetic - dazed, -1
Living Lighting - staggered, -2
Capt. Cosmos
Chris 114 - -2
Liberteen - incapacitated, -2
Alloy - staggered, -1, (out of combat for 3 rounds)
Cold Snap - incapacitated, -3
Cat - staggered, -2
Ogami -
Vohon - dazed, -3

Holding Ogami's turn.

ATHENA's trans-mat's the wounded Cat to the Zephyr's vita-camber for some much needed healing.

QNetic is up.

Holding Ogami's action.

Vohon's rage explodes around him engulfing everyone in a fireball and setting fire to the surrounding crates.

Everyone needs to make a dodge check DC20 to avoid the full effects of the fireball.
If you fail make a toughness RC vs PL10.
If you succeed make a toughness RC vs PL5.

Ogami is up.

Oops skipped Ogami and Vohon.

Delaying ATHENA's action.

Ogami is up.

ATHENA is up.

Liberteen's watery missile explode in a shower of sparks and stray strands of electricity when it hits Living Lightning, "IiiI'm MellttInggG, ii'M meLTTinNNg..." Living lightning crackles and pops as it fades away into nothing.

ATHENA
QNetic - dazed, -1
Living Lighting - de-capacitated, -2
Capt. Cosmos
Chris 114 - -2
Liberteen - Staggered, -1
Alloy - staggered, -1, (out of combat for 3 rounds)
Cold Snap - incapacitated, -3
Cat - staggered, -1
Ogami -
Vohon - dazed, -3

All that's left for now is an enraged Vohon.

Cat is up.