GM WhtKnt's Forge of Heroes (Inactive)

Game Master WhtKnt

"Sir, I'd had a report of a disturbance here. Have you seen anything?"

MINOTAR brings the Javelin in for a quiet landing nearby so the group can approach on foot.

"Statement: We should hurry. Straightjacket is already on the scene. If you can move faster than I, please do so. I will meet you all there, once I secure the Javelin."

"Wish being made of water came with the whole 'swift as a coursing river' package, but sadly not. I'll take whatever head start I can get though." Laguna says, then heads off.

Apologies around. My wife has a doctor's appointment down in Tampa and we drove down (about 8 hours). Since Tampa is only about an hour from Orlando, we decided to spend a few days in Walt Disney World! I haven't had a chance to post since last Sunday.

The guard looks at Straightjacket with a puzzled expression. "Nothing is wrong here, sir. I have not seen anything." (Straightjacket, give me an Insight check, please.)

insight: 1d20 ⇒ 9

He appears to be telling the truth.

MINOTAR will arrive much later than the others, but will maintain his distance. A seven foot talking robot could be a distraction if something were happening surreptitiously. He opens his comm antennae and contacts the others over their J-L comm-links.

"Statement and Request: Spread out and keep an eye out for trouble. I will hold back about twenty yards out of direct sight so I may jump in if needed, but not cause a commotion outright on my own. Please affirm my communication."

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

Looking a bit perplexed, SJ is happy to see he teammates arrive.

"I don't understand. This guard here says nothing is happening. "

MINOTAR nods.

"Statement: It could be a false alarm, but it would be best for us to stick around for a few minutes to be sure. Try not to attract notice if you can."

Leon nodded in agreement. ”We should fan out and look around.” He looks back at MINOTAR. ”Does the alert say who reported it? Neighbor or school staff on the grounds?” He asks over the comms, just to test it as he moves to start a sweep of the school grounds with the others.

"Yeah, that's worth a try. " and he bounds up into the air towards the other side of the school to enter there and look around.

MINOTAR nods.

"Statement: I will check the alerts again and see. If I have to, I can contact directly into the police channel...I think...to ask for more information."

Technology: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Reports indicate that a student called it in. They said that the security guard at the school was acting oddly and that there were some brightly costumed characters milling about the grounds earlier. Whoever they were, there is no sign of them now.

"Statement: Reports indicate that a child called in the alert! The report intimated a security guard was 'acting funny' and some 'brightly costumed characters were milling about' earlier. Does anyone see a security guard at least? Otherwise we may have wasted our time."

I was standing there talking to a security guard when you arrived. He's probably still there. He was likely acting funny, but I have the perception of a brick so didn't notice.

Laguna turns to the guard.

"Nothing is happening? You're sure?"

He seems...a little disinterested in a jet full of supers landing in front of him. Something's not right here. she thinks to herself.

Insight: 1d20 ⇒ 16

The guard shrugs. "All is well," he states, as though reading from a script. Laguna immediately notes that he does indeed seem emotionally detached.

MINOTAR would frown if he could.

"Statement: If nothing is happening here, we should report back to base. Five more minutes, then everybody meet back at the Javelin."

Laguna looks puzzles at this statement.

"This is...clearly not right. I'm going inside."

And she does so, passing directly through the chain link fence to investigate.

”Gotcha, MINO.” Leon responded, picking up his pace a little as he continued walking around the outside of the buildings.
The sound of concern in Laguna’s comms caught his attention. ”Stay on your toes. Hey, Straightjacket, you see anything yet?” He asks.

Straightjacket went around to the other side of the building to enter and see if anything was amiss. If you're on the com, then, I don't know what I've seen yet.

Sorry, should have specified he was speaking over comms to SJ as well. I figured we had some kind of ‘open’ comms line just so we could stay in contact with each other at least over short range.

The security guard seems to be completely apathetic to the situation, almost as though he didn't care. Talking to the students yields that there were some costumed characters here earlier in the day and that the security guard is acting strangely.

Straightjacket finds nothing amiss. A few of the students are discussing unrelated subjects (who's dating who, and homework assignments). There are whispers and pointing as Straightjacket makes the rounds. A strange adult wandering the grounds draws attention, even if he isn't in a costume.

Laguna slips inside and finds even more whispering and pointing, and more than a few looks of surprise. Students are leaving their chairs and crowding the doors to get a look at her. Some even make catcalls. The teachers call for order, but it's no use.

Correct guys. We have decent JL communicators, and my natural ability has been 'tuned' in to the JL frequency too.

"Query and Statement: Laguna, what do you have? We don't want to interrupt the students' day more than absolutely necessary. The last thing we need is to have the school call the police to get rid of us."

Seeing nothing amiss, SJ heads out of the building (he is in costume) and then leaps back to where the Javelin is sitting.

"I don't get it. Nobody seems like anything was off. How could this be a false alarm?"

Shaking his head, MINOTAR decides enough is enough.

"Statement: Unless there is some sort of proof of wrong-doing or other nefarious deeds, we should leave. Now. Meet me back at the Javelin, I will prep for take-off. If you decide to stay, please keep a low profile. The justice league hates to bail out its members as I understand."

Sorry, folks. Been locked out of the site for a week and a half.

Unless someone has a reason to remain behind, I will assume that everyone meets at the javelin and returns to base.

I had trouble for a while too.
I don't see a reason for Leon to hang around anymore.
So he'll head back.

SJ will join the team on the Javelin.

Assuming that Laguna likewise rejoins the team.

On the return trip to base, Minotaur notices that the same song is playing on all his radio bands; 'Homo Sapien' by Pete Shelley. The stations seem to be playing it over and over, the DJs saying that it is the only request they are getting.

"What's next on the radio the Twilight Zone theme?"

Locking the Javelin into an autopilot sequence that circles safely at altitude, MINOTAR will apologize to everyone for zoning out for a few minutes and immediately will begin applying his heuristic brain in trying to make sense of the radio signals.

I have Radio Communication, Time Sense, Eidetic memory, and Technology Skill at 2, I'm going to see if I can come up with some source or reason for such a signal in any way. Circling slowly in the javelin may be able to help pin-point a logical or technological reasoning behind it too I'm hoping.

Technology: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

With your Eidetic Memory, you recall that the song has been playing everywhere there is a music output for about the last 24 hours. The song is not even that aesthetically pleasing. Rather it is a cacophony of mismatched tones punctuated by insanely loud screaming at regular intervals.

A minute later, MINOTAR reacts again and seems stymied.

"Statement and query: This song has been playing on every station and transmittable channel... constantly... for the last 24 hours. Is that odd? That seems odd to me. The only reasoning I have for it is that it is purposeful, but for unknown reasons."

"Radio stations exist to make money. Playing this song song for 24 hours a day sure as hell won't do that. "

"Everything we've seen today has been 'odd'. I still don't think we should have left the school. There was something hinky going on with that guard. Shouldn't we have left a watchman?"

MINOTAR disagrees.

"Statement: Anyone we would have left would have stood out in the end. Even if something...'hinky'...was going on, there may well have been no way for any of us to observe it. Remaining any longer would have only increased the percentage of something inadvertent, albeit unintentional, happening by accident by 33%. We must leave some things to the regular authorities from time to time."

Leon absently folded a piece of paper as MINOTAR mentions the song on the radio. ”Are you sure? I know it can seem that way when a song gets popular. That’s why I stopped listen to the radio.” He says off-handedly setting aside his folding for a moment. Turning back to the console he scans through the local radio stations and frowns. ”Okay... that’s some Twilight Zone level weird.” Leon quickly moves to scan stations originating from outside the city to see if the ‘song’ is on them as well.
As he does so, he comments. ”School should let out soon enough. We can check the grounds again after hours if it’ll make you feel better.”

It would seem that the song is only playing on local stations. Flipping through the stations, Leon happens upon a news report.

"...truly odd is going on. I'm with David Porter, a citizen who claims that his grandparents have completely forgotten his existence. David, what exactly has happened?"

"Well, Sheila, it all started yesterday. I went over to their house as I usually do and they didn't even recognize me! When I told them who I was, they claimed not to know me!"

"Could your grandparents be subject to memory loss, perhaps the onset of Alzheimer's?"

"Both of them at once? I don't think so, and grandpa has always been as sharp as a tack."

"And this is not the first such report that we've received, Walter. All over the city, there are reports of people behaving oddly, forgetting those that they have known for years. Senior citizens have been wandering aimlessly, children's parents forgetting that they even have kids.

"We'll have more as the story develops, here on KNZZ news network. I'm Sheila Graves."

MINOTAR ponders for a while, then speaks 'absentmindedly' for a moment...

"Statement: I would give my left lug-bolt for a telepath right now. Let's return to base and try to see if we can come up with a response to this situation. Meet me in the main meeting hall 5 minutes after we get back. We will go over all the strange occurrences lately and see if we can figure out what is going on. IF we don't, we may need to call in a heavy-hitter from the Justice League to help us out."

"Well don't look at me, I'm just a dumb jock. This is way past what I can get. "

Leon stopped as he tuned in the news feed. He listened with the others and gave them a look of of unsure curiosity.
"I swear, first time I see a guy with slicked back hair in a suit start narrating a monologue, I am outta here."

He nodded in agreement with MINOTAR. "Ya, a mind-reader would be handy right about now. I'm with SJ on this, it's outta my wheelhouse." He added, thumbing over at Straightjacket. "We should contact ARGUS when we get back too. They might already have some intel.

Sorry GM. Either we are missing clues, making bad rolls, or are just not equipped to research such a strange bunch of odd-ball crimes.

We lack our baby batman.

Don't worry about it overmuch. Things will make sense soon enough.

That evening, about midnight, Straitjacket is on monitor duty. He is about to wake Leon for his shift when an explosion sounds in the distance, from the direction of town! The others are rocked awake as a second explosion goes off. This is followed by a third, and a fourth.

"Oh Crap!" he exclaims as he hits the alarm klaxon to wake everyone up, though he's pretty sure the noise already did.

After the first explosion, MINOTAR is already moving toward the monitor station calmly. Explosions are the bread and butter of his original programming.

"Query and statement: Any sign of what's causing this? Scan for another alien attack...they may have come back in stealth."

"I've got nothing. "

Explosions are occurring all over town; schools, public buildings, etc. There is no sign of alien activity, but sensors are picking up a man-sized object flying about 1500 feet above the city.