Hideouts & Hoodlums: Justice Society of America

Game Master Scottenkainen

"I know who you are," General Shimoyama said as Dr. Fate leapt up onto the table. "You are Doctor Fate, enemy to all virrains' 'rike me!" And with that, he leapt onto a nearby chair so he could reach Dr. Fate with his sword... More to come

Flash zips in and (once again :) attempts to snatch their weapons before they have time to react further.

"We've got you surrounded. Give up now and it'll go much easier for you."

Aw . . . I was trying to be sneaky.
"Sure, I surrender . . . "

The Sandman, slowly raises his hands, attempting–once again–to discreetly set off and drop one of his gas grenades. As soon as he drops the grenade, he will attempt to leap into one of the unoccupied stalls.

Sandman got the drop on the German soldiers aboard the dirigible. The resulting cloud of sleep gas took down the soldier closest to him, but the soldiers further back seemed unaffected.

"Go! Inform der sergeant! Schnell!" one of them said to the other before firing on Sandman. Sandman tried to duck for cover, but was winged.

The third guard fled to a door at the fore end of the hallway and opened it.

Meanwhile, Flash knew he could snatch the rifles from those two muggs -- but why hurry? He toyed with them, zipping back and forth in front of them, maybe hoping to scare some information out of them.

"The Flash? That's it, I'm quittin' crime!" the bigger of the two mobsters shouted. He tossed down his gun, put up his hands, and turned around the corner to face the police outside.

"You turncoat!" the other mobster shouted at his ex-comrade-in-arms, then tried to club the Flash with the butt of his gun, but missed the speedster by a good six inches.

Hey look, I have less than half my hit points. Just like in all the games I play in!

Hoping to catch up to the fleeing solider, the Sandman grits his teeth and leaps at the remaining soldier, trying to pummel him into unconsciousness before taking off after his other foe.

"Your buddy has the right idea, you simply can't compete with me!", Flash laughs as he quickly darts out of range of the mobster's clumsy swing before moving back in again.

The soldier furthest back slipped through the door and the soldier facing Sandman backed up to the door while shouting, "Nein! Get back!" He also shot at the Sandman, but the Sandman batted the gun to the side and gave the soldier a solid punch to the jaw that seriously injured him.

Meanwhile, in the building below, Flash managed to snatch the mobster's gun in one hand, but the mobster held on tight. "Hey, stop that!" he yelled, embarrassed, as Flash spun him around and around while he held on tight.

"Hey, careful, you could put someone's eye out with that thing!" Flash admonishes the foolhardy hoodlum.

Flash spun the mobster around until centrifugal force won out. The mobster tumbled across the floor before rising to one knee, moderately injured. His gun was still in Flash's hands.

"Now get out there, the police will be happy to show you to your new digs."

The remaining mobster facing the Flash, either out of anger at having been humiliated, or perhaps because he felt he had nothing more to lose, threw himself at the Flash in a desperate attack. But you won initiative

Flash brings his free hand around in a fast and powerful blow.

"I know who you are," General Shimoyama said as Dr. Fate leapt up onto the table. "You are Doctor Fate, enemy to all virrains' 'rike me!" And with that, he leapt onto a nearby chair so he could reach Dr. Fate with his sword... More to come

Not sure how to read that 'More to come'. Should I wait for the others to catch up? Or should I continue with the Swords and Wizardy in the boardroom? Assuming continue.

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Current effects, Protection from Normal Missiles, 1d4 ⇒ 4Mirror image duplicates. Spells remaining as of end of action i2 ii0 iii1 iv2 v2.

Cast last round
With a bit of base theactracality more suited to the chairbound hack than a true arcane like the Doctor the general is startled by a blast of felt green smoke. When it clears moments later the swordwielder sees not one foe before him but five!

"I have given you the option of a honerable surrender. I have even shown how you could serve you emperor by doing so. Now I tire of this game. You enjoy playing the samauri? Best do it in a proper costume!"

Dr. Fate utters a few harsh words in an old Okinowan dialect and General Shimoyama fings his clothes stiffening. His hands are tightly bound in decorated tekko. His arms wrapped in iron reinforced sode and kote. A fine dou forms itself across his chest. A kusazuri and haidate both finely decorated cover his waist. Finely crafted tateage, suneate, and kōgake shield him from thigh to toe. Sode-jirushi and yodare-kake shield his shoulders and throat the fine silk underlayers sliding across his skin. A strong shikoro, fukikaeshi, kasa-jirushi, kabuto and finally a dark laquered mabisashi rise like a metal wave over his head.

The General now faces Dr. Fate clad not in the uniform he wore moments before but in a nearly perfect suit of Heian style samauri armor. the general smiles perhaps thinking the spirits of his homland have come to his aid against this weatern mystic.

"I learned this bit of magic from a very old woman in your homeland. Her people found it helpful in resisting the more rapacious of your countrymen. But I think there is something missing? Ah yes..."

Doctor Fate speaks a single word and closes his fist. Instantly the mempo falls into place the chin plate and headstrap tighten locking the generals jaw closed. All over the armor iron plates lock together, silk and leather straps tighten. Where seconds before stood a fighting officer of Imperial Japan there now stood a perfect and perfectly immoble suit of armor. The mempo, or face plate bearing a striking resemblance to the mask of Nabu.

Cast hold person on General. Single target so save at -2 please.

I don't know if our editor will let all that happen–I suppose that General Shimoyama gets a saving throw–but that is one fine bit of fluff, Dr. Fate. Though being trapped in ceremonial armor seems like a fate meted out by the Spectre. I'll imagine the scene drawn by Jim Aparo.

Meanwhile, if the Sandman has pummeled his first foe into unconsciousness, he will continue his pursuit of the fleeing soldier. If not, he will give his opponent one more contemptuous jab, knowing that his mighty blows will overwhelm any mere soldier.

I don't know if our editor will let all that happen–I suppose that General Shimoyama gets a saving throw–but that is one fine bit of fluff, Dr. Fate. Though being trapped in ceremonial armor seems like a fate meted out by the Spectre. I'll imagine the scene drawn by Jim Aparo.

Well he's only trapped for a dozen rounds or so. Like the folks in the wallpaper. I just have fun with fluff sometimes.

Sandman raised his fist and the German soldier blanched, fell backwards, and crawled into the corner, shouting, "Nein, do not be hittink' me again, Sandman! Your American muscles are too much for my weak Nazi body to handle!"

With the obstacle out of his way, Sandman was able to open the next door in his path and found himself facing the main cabin of the dirigible. The man in the brown suit was there, along with two more soldiers, and two pilots.

"Der Sandman!" the man in the suit exclaimed. "S-stay back, 've are on a diplomatic mission. I am Hans Thomsen, ambassador from Germany, and you have no authority here!"

Flash's fist lanced out -- and missed! For a moment he thought the mobster was some sort of super-gymnast after all, but then realized that the mobster had only tripped and had fallen forward. Flash waited, mildly amused, as the mobster slowly started to get up, and then socked him into la-la land.

Down below, General Shimoyama shouted "Haii!" and sliced through the false Dr. Fate on the real Dr. Fate's left and dispelled it.

Dr. Fate cast a spell that was diabolical in its simplicity. The armor was about to close up around the general when Shimoyama squinted his eyes shut and shouted, "I reject my honorable past!" He flexed and the armor cracked off of him. Then he growled in anger and slashed through another Dr. Fate -- again, just off to the left of the real Dr. Fate, leaving him with two false images.

"Oh, a diplomatic mission. With the US government I assume? You do know that those folks are quartered in Washington DC. That's a bit south of here." The Sandman eyes his opponents warily, knowing that–with the wounds he's taken in recent days, these German soldiers could actually do him a fair bit of harm. "Or perhaps you are engaging in diplomatic talks with someone other than the US government? Say, Mr. X? You'd better spill your plans right now, Herr Thomsen. The Justice Society is already busting up the meeting below and I imagine Hawkman will smash in here at any moment. He's the feathery one. With the Mace. He's got a bad attitude and a lack of understanding of technology. He's liable to bring this blimp down on top of all of us."

As the Sandman makes his threatening speech, he keeps watch on the guards and Thomsen. At any sign of hostility, he will launch a gas grenade.

Flash quickly escorts the unconscious hoodlum outside to the waiting police, who he informs that the lobby is now clear. He then zips back to the meeting room to try the north door therefrom.

Beginning to become exhasperated at the difficulity of subduing one man Dr. Fate allows some of his annoyance to manifest in his voice.

"Don't you realize it would be far easier to simply kill you? Now sit down soldier and cooperate!"

These final words slam into the Japanese general's mind. They trigger his loyality to his emperor and his nation. They ride the obedience beaten into him by officers and drill sargents, by professors and teachers and even his parents. Shimoyama sees the world as does a powerless child again. A child fearing the dissapointment of a distant and all powerful father.

Charm person.

Up in the sky, Hans Thomsen speedily produced a Luger -- but then turned and pointed it at one of the pilots. "Dumbkoffs!" he yelled at them. "How could you have us so off course? Wait until der Fuhrer learns of your incompetence!" Turning back and speaking more calmly, he said to the Sandman, "I apologize for this appearance of impropriety, herr Sandman. This was supposed to be the beginning of a good will tour of the United States, but I fear we have gotten off to a bad first impression and will...abort our plans."

Down below, Flash zipped out front with his prisoner and dropped him off to the police, who had just stepped inside to arrest the mobster who surrendered minutes ago. Without pausing for explanation, Flash ran back through the back rooms and found the door from the meeting room also connected to the back of the gallery. But, from this angle, he was able to see a crack in the door that looked a lot like a secret door.

Down below, Dr. Fate's spell seemed to be working and Shimoyama, despite heavy perspiration and groans of pain, was having a hard time resisting the flood of memories Dr. Fate drove into his mind. But, just then, Dr. Fate heard a noise on the side of the room and turned to see General Reynard had escaped from the webbing and was trying to sneak along the wall towards the far alcove, opposite the alcove Dr. Fate had used to come in.

Shimoyama took advantage of the distraction and used his sword to sweep the chair out from underneath him before he sat. "You fail again, Dr. Fate!" he said. "Before siding with evil, I was trained as samurai, and trained to resist the mystic arts!" He jumped back up on the table and struck again with his sword -- but once again hit and dispelled one of Dr. Fate's illusionary doubles, leaving him with only one left.

Glancing over his shoulder Dr. Fate speaks a single word.
With a great crash the alcove the german general was slinking towards collapses in a gout of broken concrete and mud. One by one the other alcoves collapse and the walls buckle and groan as the concrete liquifies.

"Sorry mien Herr, no one will be leaving just yet."

Cast Transform 1 turning the concrete to mud. Now we get to find out how well built this place is. The spell effecs a 3oo by 3oo foot area. Centered on Fate that should close all the doors, and perhaps bring the building down but you have to take the roughs with the smooth.

"Oh . . . Some of that vaunted German technological excellence. I guess the master race are not master navigators. However, that still leaves the matter of why one of your German soldiers is down below meeting with a criminal mastermind." Inside his mask, the Sandman smiles at Thomsen's clever excuse, worrying that he'll have trouble getting straight answers out of the Germans without bringing the blimp down on top of the city.

Flash dashes for the secret door... after all, where else would a secret meeting be held?

"I am aware of no soldier being missing from his post," Hans lied to the Sandman. "We shall do a headcount at once...after we drop you off somewhere...?"

"Herr Thomsen!" one of the pilots shouted. "Look! Der building!"

Down below, Flash opened the secret door and found a secret hallway. And at the end of the secret hallway, a secret staircase. He sped down the stairs and came to a room with an open door and the familiar voice of Dr. Fate coming from inside.

In the secret conference chamber, before General Shimoyama could swing his sword again, Dr. Fate unleashed his most powerful spell yet. With a terrible rumbling, the walls and ceiling began to melt around them. Everyone looked around, nervous and apprehensive, at the ceiling as it buckled lower and lower, until --

The debris came pouring down like from a multi-ton pinata. Everyone might have been crushed flat had girders not fallen down at angles and deflected some of the debris. The air filled up with dust and the crashing cacophony of destruction made it impossible to hear if there were survivors.

That came a minute later, when the collapse ended and the dust cleared enough to see.

At least four people were still conscious in the room. One of the hoodlums who had been trapped in the web-stripes was freaking out because he was half-buried and still stuck in the web-like mesh. Flash was hurt and one of his legs was stuck in debris. Dr. Fate was injured, but standing in a clear space. And General Shimoyama, like a cat with nine lives, was still there -- albeit badly banged up -- as well.

Flash reaches over and begins digging/lifting debris away to free his trapped leg. He's frantic to get loose, it seems to him like someone set off a bomb, and there may be survivors in need of rescuing.

Sandman was shocked to see the whole building had shifted and sunk in like a fallen cake. Windows on all three floors had shattered as the entire frame went out-of-whack.

Down below, Flash managed to free his leg, but someone else was freeing himself from some debris nearby at the same time. A chunk of drywall was pushed aside and Flash came to face with General Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich's uniform was torn and Heydrich himself looked bruised and bloodied, but only moderately so.

"Zo! Another super-Amerikanner!" Heydrich growled. He was unarmed, but he moved in to attack regardless...

Heydrich is 15' from Flash and closing. There is a wall of debris blocking the two heroes' combats from each other, but each hero can hear what is going on with the other.

Flash quickly dashes forward and strikes the General with a flurry of punches, hopefully catching the man off-guard with his superior speed.

Beneath his mask, the Sandman's eyes widen as the building collapses. "Let's stop playing, Thomsen. Whoever is down there is in a lot of trouble. My guess is that he outranks you. How will look to your Furhrer if, in addition to creating a major diplomatic incident, you let one of his more important aides die. How about you and your men help me see who survived that collapse."

As an afterthought the Sandman adds: "And boy does it look like Mr. X has betrayed all of you. It looks like he lured your boss into a building and then blew it up."

Oops... Current spells i1 ii0 iii1 iv1 v2.

Fate turns his back on the swordsman checking to see if the other mobsters and the magician are alive. The wizard's movements are slow and uneven as he makes his way through the clowing mud. He is clearly hurt.

"Strike if youi will general but I am your only way out of here."

"There is nowhere near here we can land this blimp," Hans explained to the Sandman with unconcealed frustration. "Our only way to help is our auto-gyro. I would...like to make a gift of it to you, Herr Sandman."

Down below, Flash charged into the Nazi general and his momentum knocked them both over, rolling in the dirt and dust, punching and kicking each other. General Heydrich briefly had the upper hand, with a hand literally on Flash's throat, but Flash delivered a rapid series of jabs to the gut that forced Heydrich to let go. Both men were on their last legs, badly bruised all over, their uniforms torn and bloodied.

On the other side of the chamber, Dr. Fate found that, miraculously, no one was dead. At least not yet. General Shimoyama was not attacking him, but calmly kneeling on the floor in the rubble. "I dishonored my emperor twice," he said. "First, choosing a path of evil, and two 'rosing to you, Doctor Fate. For these, I must die," he said as he took up his sword.

"Well, General, care to give up yet?" Flash asks with more confidence than he feels.

"Nein! The Master Race must never fall to...to a man with wings on his hat!" General Heydrich roared semi-coherently as he picked up a broken length of pipe, lunged for the Flash, and delivered a glancing blow that brought the speedster even closer to being out on his feet...

Flash shrugs, then zips around the General, appearing to be in many different places at once as he attacks from all sides. ((Mirror Image))

"Going for three?"

With a seemingly negligent wave of his hand Dr. Fate sends five small pastel orbs slamming into the Generals sword.

Casting Magic missle in an attempt to knock the sword from his grasp or shatter it.

"Of course," The Sandman begins, "there is a place to land. We just call down to the police–radio for help–and they could clear a place to land. I believe there would be room for your less than august ship in central park. The police should be here any minute, anyway. It might look a bit better if you Germans are trying to help. As it is, it rather looks like you just blew up a building." The Sandman still keeps a wary eye on the German soldiers, waiting for an excuse to douse them in sleeping gas.

Hans exchanged looks with the pilots of the dirigible. "Very well," he said at last. "We shall land as you request, but do not expect it to be a swift landing. If there are any survivors in that building, they will have to wait for your rescue."

Down below, Flash zipped all around General Heydrich so much that the German thought he saw two of the Flash. "Gotten himmel!" he roared. "I 'vill smash you both!" Either with a good eye or sheer luck, he picked the right Flash and missed by mere inches with his club. Flash dodged out of the way and tried to counterattack, but his hurt leg was bothering him at this speed and he stumbled and fell back into the debris while a mere inches from landing his own blow.

Only Dr. Fate's missiles struck unerringly, all five of them combined breaking the sword.

"My ancestral sword!" General Shimoyama cried. Then he cried for real, throwing himself on the floor and throwing a temper tantrum like a big baby.

Flash gets up to his feet and renews his attack.

Flash put everything he had into one last super-fast punch -- and connected with Heydrich so hard that he knocked the Nazi clean out of his boots!

At last, Flash and Dr. Fate stood triumphant in each half of the ruined basement!

"Stand back Flash, I am opening the way."

At these words a shin silver thread bedan to extend from the helm of Nabu. This fragile whisp floated to the collapsed doorway and as if carried by an errant breeze found a way through the rubble.

Once the thread extended through the ruin it became still. It began to grow. First coilling into a corkscrew shape it boubled its thickness, brushing aside a few flecks of paint and a severed wire as it it did. Then with a writhe it doubled again, and again, and again. The rubble groaned as the thread opened a tunnel between the two heroes. The silver thread now an iron hard tunnel easily supported the rubble.

Cast Passwall. (Sigh I am using up all my juice! Must get staff!) If ten feet is not enough I will cast it again. That fixed 10 foot limit on passwall seems a bit limiting for a fifth level spell. Perhaps relate it to level or allow it to pass through either 10 feet or any one wall. With wall being defined as anything created to support the ceiling of, or seperate into smaller areas, or to bar entry to a larger space. This would allow a even a 30' thick fortress wall to be breached while two tunnels that happened to pass within 11 feet of each other could not be connected.

"Hello Flash, I see you met General Heydrich. I could use a hand with these others."

The Doctors voice is calm and steady. Though you can see he is far from unscathed.

Turning towards the center of the room he notices the table now sunk flush with the floor and the radio set sitting upon it. Still powered/funstioning? Has the good Mr. X been enjoying some action radio?

Assuming no suprises we will bind the prisoners using electical wire from the rubble. If there is nothing to keep us here I expect the authorities should know about our new national visitors.

"What was that, some kind of bomb? Did Mr X decide to finish everyone off before he got found out?"

Flash helps Dr Fate secure the prisoners.

"We will discuss it later. Mr.X may still be with us."

Fate indicates the radio if it is still functional or makes a general 'walls have ears' gesture if not.

As the blimp slowly lands, the Sandman continues to eye his opponents warily. "If only I was Superman, or the Flash, or someone else," the costumed avenger thinks to himself. "I'll likely be blamed for starting another war with the Germans. Even though it is evident that they are up to no good! I hope that Fate and the Flash have had better luck than I have."

Though it was the middle of the night, there were still people around at Central Park when a dirigible came in for a landing – most of them being police. Having been radioed ahead about the need for an emergency landing, they grabbed onto the lowered mooring cables and tied them around trees. When they saw the Sandman being lowered from the dirigible, they thought the Germans were actually turning over a prisoner! But the Sandman swung the rope ladder he was coming down enough to leap well clear of the police waiting for him and sprinted out of the park before he could be captured. He had no time for explanations now anyway, for he was quite a few blocks from Pullman’s Jewelry and an awful lot of time had passed since the building collapse. Luck was with him again, though, when a firetruck went past him in the right direction and he was able to hop onto the back next to the fireman there.

By the time the Sandman arrived, Dr. Fate’s Passwall spell had already helped him and the Flash escape the ruined building and free all their prisoners from the secret cellar. The Germans, Japenese, and Americans were all being loaded into ambulances. Indeed, Flash and Dr. Fate both looked like they could use an ambulance trip as well!

There were fires breaking out in the collapsed structure that firemen on the scene were getting under control. The police, who had been the first responders, had stayed to direct traffic. Even past midnight, the streets of Manhattan were not deserted and there was even some foot traffic to monitor. Sandman almost knocked over a passing man in a blue suit and bowler hat as he rushed to the side of his comrades-in-arms.

Dr. Fate had felt free to discuss matters with Flash already, since the radio equipment Mr. X had been listening on was wrecked in the building collapse. But now he had the chance to repeat it for Sandman’s benefit.

Before reaching his compatriots, the Sandman glances at the gentleman who ran into him, surprised that someone would both be out this late and that someone would just now be fleeing the scene of a collapsed building. He tries to see if the man has any identifying features, something that the Sandman might be able to recall if he runs into the fellow again, or if the fellow turns out to be of import.

But paranoia has its limits and the Sandman is eager to discover if his friends survived the wreck of the jewelry store.

Seeing the two heroes, the Sandman shrugs: "That was a German blimp. They were dropping off someone big. I got them to land the thing in the city. Hopefully that will cause some sort of diplomatic headache for the Germans, but I fear that the NYPD will simply blame masked vigilantes for whatever went down tonight. Or at least, they will just blame me."

Flash nods. "There was a Nazi general down there, we've got him prisoner now. I only hope there is enough evidence to keep him, although I'm not hopeful."

There was certain to be plenty of international fallout over what happened here tonight; all three heroes could be sure of that. They had no new leads as to Mr. X's whereabouts -- yet -- but they had a ruined building to search and plenty of prisoners to question. Not to mention the rest of the Justice League to contact and ask what they had turned up.

But they were also, all three, tired and injured. The search for Mr. X might look more appealing after a good night's sleep. But first, they had a doppelganger waiting for them at Time's Square who had been promised a trip home...

What is this Justice League? Has there been a Crisis when we weren't looking?

"How long do you think we have until the cops show up? the Sandman asks as he quickly glances around at the rubble, looking for any obvious sources of information. "It looks like we made a glorious mess tonight, but got no closer to Mr. X. And we also need to deal with our shape-shifting friend."

"Plus," the Sandman thinks to himself, "My shoulder is killing me. I might've opened some of those lizard's love bites while flying over the city."

There was, of course, no such thing as a Justice League. Just some random misfire of thought in a tired man's brain.

And there was no shortage of tired men to go around. The Sandman, tired and a little punchy as he was, made a silly joke about cops showing up when in fact there were quite a few at the scene already See five posts earlier. As it was, the heroes only had a little more time to stand here and chit-chat before some cops managed to approach them and start asking some serious questions.

"Yes and I am afraid much if it is my fault. On my advice the bomb was allowed to explode and this building was damaged through my negligence. A spell proved difficult to control during my fight with the Generals."
"Thank you for your timely arrival Flash, otherwise our german friend might have avoided our hospitality."

"Now we have an errand to run. The shapeshifter needs to be sent on. I will take care of that, and if you two would be so kind as to meet me at the conference room in the morning I will tend to your injuries."

To the police, holding their attention away from the Sandman.
"Hello oficers. These men, indicating the three mobsters, are associates of the well known mister X. The Japanese Gentleman is General Shimoyama, Imperial Japanese Military. The Blond man is General Heydrich, head of the Third Reich's internal police. Hold them gently but firmly and contact Washington immediately. I expect they will be quite interested in why such distinguished guests to our country were associating with criminals."

Giving the other players a chance to chime in before I head off to dispell the Shapeshifter.