Fraternity of DOOM!!!

Game Master Xabulba

Cosmos waves at the aging cop. "Hi! I'm Zed, Zed Cosmos, Captain of the Astral Zephyr. We spoke on the radio earlier." He smiles and gestures to the assembled heroes, "We aren't really a team, or have a leader as such; we are just friends who met when the bug men attacked the medical center... As to the Bear, we know only slightly more than you do. His name is Vohon, he's not Russian, I don't know if he really is a bear, or a person who looks like a bear. He says he's here to reclaim weapons that were stolen from his boss who goes by the name Doctor Lazarus. Apparently, he means this shipment of S.M.R.T. weapons."

Zed looks over at the bear. "I think he is serious that his team of meta-humans thinks their attack to get the weapons is justified, and getting the S.M.R.T. weapons out of Manhattan where people can be hurt is a really good idea." then with a wry smile, and a thumb over his shoulder, "Jersey is right over there.

"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."

"I can tell you that some of my friends already find that topic interesting..." Cosmos turns back to his friends. "Time for us to go... Cosmos to Zephyr, begin transmatting our friends aboard. This time we have got to get everyone's phone numbers.

Jo bit her lip as Athena spoke, the familiar voice of the ship certainly did a lot to calm Jo as she confirmed that she had in fact transmatted Jo into the ship and more specifically into some sort of healing chamber. "Sure.. Sorry about that Athena I'm not exactly comfortable with confinement especially unexpected confinement. " Jo apologized taking a few more calming breaths before laying back into the vita chamber, Zed and by extension the Athena did not seem the sort to try to trick her to catch her nor did they even seem particularly interested in her history at all either due to lack of knowledge or lack of care. The pain from the fight made the decision to trust that this thing was in fact going to heal her far easier.

When the vita-pod finishes it's cycle, the top opens releasing the heroic burglar. Athena's voice informs her, "Cat. The rest of the group that we met at the medical center is transmatting aboard presently. It appears the combat has ended, and you can join us in the main room.

I'm just putting everyone aboard to move things along. Feel free to ignore this if there was something else you wanted to do before we depart.

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.

1d20 ⇒ 1 Bwahahaha

@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.

"Cat, if you want to take the lead on looking into connections between Veritech and Moldova please do, you are better with computers than I am. ATHENA will be available to assist you... let's start easy: ATHENA, What can you find out about Dr. Lazarus? We will assume he is connected to Moldova or Veritech...
Investigation: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23

Chris will make a few calls to his cohorts in the underground, and see what shakes out. he has the Connected advantage

@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."

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

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.

"Good work Athena, I am willing to bet that Dr. Lazarus wasn't among the bodies found. So we will assume for the moment he's still alive... or back from the dead. Now let's focus on finding connections between Veritech and Moldova... by the way, where is the Proto-Gene HQ?" He falls into the command chair, "We might be able to find something with our sensors that the earthlings missed."

"Captain," ATHENA replies, "You are an earthling."

"I know, don't remind me."

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

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

Chris 114 wrote:

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.

alrighty, i will bring it up when the gang is all together again.

Qnetic will spend some time trying to figure out what happened to him, consulting his other selves to see if anything like this has ever happened before.

Is it ok if I spend the hero points to add the directed inspiration feature from Cosmic Awareness to my dimensional sense- basically each point of the feature allows you to "ask a direct question" once per session, simulating heroes who "just know" stuff. I think it fits in with how I've set Qnetic up pretty well, and he's not really an investigator (although there's probably an investigative him out there somewhere, I'd rather limit my abilities to step on peoples' toes.) so it gives me a way to participate in the in-between battle stuff. I can add an unreliable limit to it if that makes it better for you.

@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.

Jo will once again be making as much of a full usage of her various connections and contacts as possible looking for more information on 'Dr Lazarus' and the various strange company's that have been popping up and seeing if she can find anyone who is presently affiliated with these company's that she might be able to get in contact with(but not yet actually making contact) and of course checking in on the Cradle and making sure everything is still running smoothly there.

Investigation: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26
Expertise: Streetwise: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30
Awwwww yeaaaa now thats what I like to see

If possible there should be time for ATHENA to investigate the connections between Veritech and Moldova as a routine check. That leads to an Investigate check of 22.

When I checked those coordinates, is the location of the HQ was in Kyrgyzstan? Is that where it is in the game?

@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.

"ATHENA, Leave a message with Cat's people, and on the phone of the rest of the group. Tell them that we have found out some information and are planning to investigate. Let's see who is free to join us to check out Proto-Gene explosion site."

Chris will respond to the phone message, meeting up where instructed. Once there, he will also share the information he has uncovered, and see where that piece of the puzzle gets them all.

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?

Cat would only provide a means of contacting herself but the end result is the same

Recieveing the Captains message Jo sends out one of her own informing the group that on top of the possibility of checking out the explosion site that there are additional active threats in the city. Once the group has assembled to some extent Jo provides them with the full extent of what she has gathered on Lazarus and additionally about the problems plaguing the city such as the albino crocodile and the bronze bull, and the less overtly threatening but still potentially a problem 'haunted proto-gene campus'

"I have been working out an idea for how we can get both more information on what is really going on and on top of that potentially do some damage to another lab, I've been looking into finding some people connected to Proto-Gene in hopes that we could get some information out of them and afterwards potentially sneak into one of the labs, if we can then I can potentially get access to there computers and pull any information they have logged into there systems."

"Cat, I'll follow your lead on investigating the Proto-gene people. If you want to hold off on doing that until we have done more downstate investigating, I'm good with that. A little cloak and dagger eh?"

Captain Cosmos stops to carefully pour some more coffee into a clearly overused Starbucks cup from a coffee maker duct-taped next to the food synthesizer.

"My plan was to check out the Proto-gene blast site. See if there were clues... the mysterious lights only make me want to go more. Again with the upstate raids on Veritech shipping. The entire event smells fishy, particularly in light of Vohon's comments."

"Someone I know 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."

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

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.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18

Zed pilots the Astral Zephyr on manual as we get closer to the site. He hits one of the holographic controls and the sensors begin to readout on all the screens in the ship. He hits another switch and opens the cargo door at the stern of the ship.
"Alright folks, I am going to do a couple passes; first with visual sensors, then with radio and see what we can pick up... There are windows in the galley and I just opened the back door in case the ship gets in the way of your exotic dimensional senses Q... Cat, and anyone else who wants to help, see what you can find in the sensor data streams."

We are going to do one pass with these sensors active...
(Alternate; Accurate: Vision, Acute: Vision, Analytical: Vison, Darkvision, Extended: Vision 4: x10k, Infravision, Ultra-hearing, Ultravision)

Then switch to Radar and do another pass with these sensors active:
Accurate (Type): Radio/Radar, Analytical (Type): Radio/Radar, Counters All Concealment: Radio/Radar, Extended: Radio/Radar 4: x10k, Radio; Activation 2: standard action

perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

perception: 1d20 ⇒ 15

@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.

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

@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.

At least someone understands me! :) did I mention I have a spaceship?

"Are those... wolves?" LIberteen asks, noticing the pack moving on the ground below.

"Yeah or... bear-dogs? Who knows, but I bet they'll want to fight. Probably can't avoid 'em either. Unless you can cloak smell."

"Let's zoom in" Zed switches to infra red to get a better look at the pack.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20
Cowl Senses - Accurate (Type): Vision, Accurate (Type): Hearing, Analytical (Type): Vision, Communication Link: Computer, Darkvision, Distance Sense, Infravision, Radio, Ultra-hearing, Ultravision)

Sorry for the delay, yesterday was my birthday

Happy birthday! Mine will be on Turkey Day here in the States.

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.

Happy Birthday Cat! Hope you had an "out of this world" time!

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 Huh? Whu?

I made mine, 20

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.

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

Mmmmn, coffee. Qnetic shivers and the mark shifts on him as various other hims vie for the pot. Finally, internal focus QNetic shifts to the forefront. Back off, Jack. I need it more than me. and pours himself a cup.

Guys, plan of action?

Chris will jump outta this thing and fight them, if that's what we wanna do. Or he could bash a hole in the wall of the complex if we ignore the dogs.

"Those... are not natural...Probably on guard duty. Cat, Do you think you can hack that signal you found and spoof it? We could try to keep them in one place? ATHENA and I will help."

If needed:
Cosmos Technology roll aid another: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28
ATHENA Technology roll aid another: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (8) + 13 = 21

"Then we jump down there and check out the base station, If there is something to find, I bet it's there."