Okay, thanks for weighing in, folks. I am glad we cleared up the effect of the boon from Cesarina.
SuperT: Can I go ahead and reroll that attack roll where I rolled a 1. It was always my intention to spend a hero point if needed, I had just forgotten I didn't have any. ;_;
She also, being immune to fatigue, would then leap her full 60 ft back to a fence or rooftop.
I know Gwyn could close that distance and am still figuring he succeeds in disarming her (though he needs to be empty handed to actually grab the weapon; I believe otherwise it clatters to the ground).
Am going to go ahead and post but we can discuss any further retcon issues as needed.
Thanks for your patience folks. IRL I've been helping my 80 y.o. dad the last several months with various health struggles alongside other external issues, and I admit I am not focused on things like roleplay and tactics the way I usually am. At the same time I appreciate having these games here as a reasonably healthy escape. Let's plays this out properly; at the same time I admit I am eager for a resolution soon to have less performance pressure on me.
Gwyn can definitely switch weapons or switch to no weapon as a free action. I had him sheath his hunting knife so his hands would be free for the disarm.
All and especially Caesarina, from a comics perspective how would you want that luck to be flavored. I was thinking it would be cool if panels were divided or fuzzy or something, somehow showing both what would initially have happened and then what happened with divine intervention. Or maybe side by side panels. If we went with that, we would narrate both story strands, resolving the better one. I'm not sure exactly what that would look like? Is it tiny angels, a holy glow, a halo for the enhanced character?
Maybe I'm making too much of it, but it's a pretty big buff.
My idea was more subtle, but powerful. Divine providence; everything just seems to contrive to go her way. It's not any kind of mortal reality or timeline manipulation with gross, obvious lingering marks, this is a sliver of the omnipotent reaching down and ensuring that not only are negative effects undone they never happen in the first place.
If you've ever read the Xanth novels, think of the contrivances that happen to protect Bink from magical attacks. It's never anything as overt as "the spell bounces off"; a man fires a ray at him, and a mote of dust happens to get in his eye and throws off his aim. He tries again, and a butterfly crosses his path in time to intercept, and so on.
For what its worth I'm immensely enjoying the scenes of late . Great story telling and plot interplay :)
Sorry for the disappearing act. Problems at work turned a leisurely end of the year into an extra pile of work. Still going to be tied up for a couple of days. Should get better on Tuesday.
End of the year?
Ah, sorry. I'm a teacher, so my years move differently. We are a strange people.
Both my parents were teachers and I work for a university. Amazing what always seems to pop up at the end of term to complicate things. Hope you get through this unscathed.
Do we want to play through the rituals (claiming the Nexus and giving Sandstone some flesh) or should we fast forward that? I think we could just do it in two posts. You post your parts and I'll post the results?
I'm not against fast forwarding through the rituals
Sounds good.
Yep, sounds good to me.
Sorry for the walls of words. I wanted to get those things done while I had a chance.
just to clear things up, the ritual we had in mind I believe was Sandstones, so timeline would be Binding, Sandstone, Magic Porch so that she may have her first meal with us.
Seems like we are probably ready to move on.
Chapter 2 of the Netherwar: The Pentagram Peril.
This chapter will begin weeks after Halloween, the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Sallah has been working with The Hunter Museum of Natural History to create an exhibit celebrating the life and career of Adrian Eldrich, Master Mage. Things have moved quickly. Sallah has had 7 years stuck in the Nexus to ponder and organize Eldrich's legacy, so there isn't that much work to do. He plans to include in the exhibit some authentic items Eldrich recovered or worked with during his time as Master Mage, including his Flying Cloak and the remaining Bloodstone of Vhoka among other trinkets. The exhibit will also feature Sallah's journals, some vintage comics and magazines, and other non-magical artifacts.
This is a place where you must indulge me (and comic tropes) to some degree. Some of this doesn't seem like a great idea, but that's the setup.
The good news is that this will connect us back to Professor Langellow.
If anyone wants to lean in and contribute in some way to helping Sallah plan the exhibit, that would also be great, but your heroes have the own lives (and possibly solo comics or limited series) to deal with.
I imagine that Max still has a relationship with the museum from his internship, probably technically works part-time there to give his secret ID a "real" job.
He would work as hard or harder than Sallah on the exhibit. So, he would be intimate with all its details. And it would give him time to get know Sallah better.
In his downtime, he would be trying to detect any magic usage from the Hellqueen within the city, and advancing any other side investigations.
Yes, Max, that is perfect.
No sign of HellQueen at the moment.
Gracie, can you give me some references for Win's voice? For some reason I'm very trepidatious to write her.
I can't remember what the Marvel Raft-equivalent is in Freedom City. Should Devil Ray go there? Or does he need some magical ritual to return him to a truer form?
Gracie, can you give me some references for Win's voice? For some reason I'm very trepidatious to write her.
Hmmm. Win's a computer nerd, but isn't going to speak in Whedonian nerd bafflegab the way say, another Winifred, might (Fred from Angel) (and I adore Fred, but she isn't what I was thinking of for this character). She tends to be very to the point, with a dry sense of humor. She has a good sense of humor about her own tendency to get into trouble.
In terms of actual sound-voice she's a Londoner with a medium female tone and she speaks probably a little more formally than Grace on the day to day, though is more prone to cussing when angry.
Best example I could think of for formal but not too posh British tech nerd, sometimes hapless often brave, is Toshiko Sato from Torchwood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgodKI9GnIk
I didn't have her in mind when I came up with Win, mind, but trying to think of some references for mannerism she occurred to me.
I can't remember what the Marvel Raft-equivalent is in Freedom City. Should Devil Ray go there? Or does he need some magical ritual to return him to a truer form?
The three big American super prisons are Blackstone Penitentiary, which is the first (built in 1964). It is on an island off the coast of near Freedom City.
Then there is Lockdown, officially the Buckner Ridge Penitentiary, which is in Tennessee. Recently the Deep Six facility opened in Emerald City (which is on the West Coast).
Studying Devil Ray would reveal that he is suffering from a curse. Disentangling him from that is more the scope of an adventure than a ritual.
Studying Devil Ray would reveal that he is suffering from a curse. Disentangling him from that is more the scope of an adventure than a ritual.
Got it. So, investigating the curse of Devil Ray to reverse it, would be in Max's downtime between comics. His starting position would be Medea's anti-man curses and work from there
cheers
I agree with trying to help remove Devil Ray's curse. But if it will take some time/concerted effort, I think we should probably turn him over to the authorities until such time as we can find a solution.
If the next thing to do is NOT an adventure to decurse Devil Ray, I am not sure otherwise what to do next. Gwyn I assume is not someone who can easily be found, moving between here and Arcadia, so is more likely to be dealt with next time he turns up. (Though honestly I am regretting taking a Nemesis at all, it seems more of a personal distraction than a building block to team storytelling.)
Medea and getting whatever she wanted out of the Nexus is probably the primary concern, but again, I've no idea how we might track her down.
GM is this something where you are just going to transition us to the next adventure or do we need to initiate something with you first? And if we're not sure what to do next, does someone have a hero point they are willing to burn on an insight?
I think this is the end of one book and he'll be transitioning us into the next book.
Ok.
That's right. I'm just going to roll out the next adventure. I would have done that already, but I just cannot get my mental feet underneath me at the moment.
And don't fret about having enemies. I know it has been fragmented thus far with all of the villains acting independently, but imagine how awesome it will be when they realize the only way to beat your team is to team up!
Starting a big new project at work ate away my time last few days. Will get a post up tomorrow.
Transform 4 (Transform any 12 lb. of material into anything else), (20)
Can Max use this to change the actual Bloodstone into one of the decoys?
Is there a place where Max can cast a spell to affect the Bloodstone without being seen or heard?
Or is it just better to do it while speaking to Oz and laugh about it?
cheers
The Bloodstones aren't actually given stats, but they are sort of PL X items. They aren't at the level of Infinity Stones or anything, but they have a profound capacity to affect anything related to blood.
You could certainly Transform something else into a fake Bloodstone and move the real one somewhere else, but I don't think you can Transform the Bloodstones themselves into something else.
Max, did you want to get up to any Bloodstone hiding shenanigans?
Max, did you want to get up to any Bloodstone hiding shenanigans?
I do. But I thought the Bloodstones were behind glass or at least out of reach AND Max's power is NOT ranged. So, I was planning ahead, to potentially create a comedy scene when there appears to be multiple Bloodstones
cheers
Yes, they would be in a cool transparent box on a pedestal.
FYI traveling for the next few days, for a much needed break. I plan to be able to get online but I may not as often as I'd normally like. Your patience is appreciated; please bot me if needed.
Enjoy the travelling and break from the grind DQ :)
Apologies all - slammed at work again - weekly rusher. Should be back on track by Friday.
yeah i'm gonna need to save my points for defenses.
Did you spend your 4 power points from the end of the last adventure?
Abilities 10 + Powers 114 + Advantages 1 + Skills 6 (12 ranks) + Defenses 22 = 153
I guess I left one point unspent. Are we supposed to be at 154?
Edit: Oh! Last point went towards HQ
Hi, English Major here. The defenses conversation is what finally helped me realize 12+6 does not actually equal 20. Please remind me to boost Grace's Dodge/Parry next time she gets XP (I honestly thought I had maxed out her defenses and didn't realize I hadn't). I was thinking I could add a Parry bonus to when her blade array is activated but I'm not sure how to work that into the array.
Oz, were we in a real comic book adventure where we would get to occasionally fight mooks in balaclavas robbing banks to remind the readers how awesome we were, I would advise keeping the Impervious ranks to your Toughness, so we can occasionally see some idiot try to punch you and have it do nothing.
Since we're in an adventure designed by devs used to writing for a more grueling, challenging genre of adventures, who forget that superhero stories should involve a little power fantasy in between the deadly challenges, I advise that you shift the two points you spent into Imperviousness into just two more points of Toughness for a bonus of 10.
<rant>Green Ronin (and I want to be clear I am ranting about Green Ronin, not SuperT, who is doing a great job) needs to realize they are writing for superheroes, not grim and gritty fantasy warriors. Ever noticed how most comic book stories and movies involve scenes where the superheroes just walk through an area, punching mooks and throwing them through walls and windows left and right? That's because in part comic books are power fantasies. Often stories start with scenes like this to help establish the hero's badassery in the face of "normal" danger, or at least danger that is normal to humans but a cinch for the hero, before raising the stakes with a higher powered entity introduced part way through (not my favorite example, but Age of Ultron is a good one for this--we are reminded of how awesome the Avengers are by seeing them just utterly kack a HYDRA facility, BEFORE the danger of Ultron is established). Think all the various stereotypical scenes where a hero stops a bank robbery in act 1; or to pull from the most recent superhero movie to come out, the mall scene in Wonder Woman 1984 (which whatever you might think about that movie, that scene was super fun). But if game devs were writing Wonder Woman 1984, Cheetah would somehow already be fully empowered at the start of the movie, attack Wonder Woman at the mall and nearly kill her, and the story would have nowhere to go from there. Here we're at the start of a new chapter--if it were a movie, it'd be Team Eldritch III: The Revenge of Medea; we'd be attacked by lower powered, nameless mooks with only a hint a greater danger is behind it (the glowing eyes), to remind the heroes, the bystanders, and the audience, how awesome they are. Instead we're getting attacked by one of the most famous supervillain teams in Freedom City and are as likely to die and get bystanders killed as we are to save the day, and it's only the beginning of this story. There's nowhere to go but down, and it's a bit disheartening. Yes, RPG adventures should contain real challenges, but that doesn't mean EVERY SINGLE ENCOUNTER should be a life or death scenario. Even in a different genre of RPG, I think better RPG adventures are designed to have varied levels of challenges, some to help bolster the heroes' confidence and get them some easy loot and others to make the heroes fear a TPK is happening any moment. But if you're always in near-TPK mode, you're at risk of frustrating if not entirely jading the players and they stop caring about what happens because they know they are always one bad die roll away from failure--so why get invested at all? </rant>
I think there are opportunities for such badassery in this adventure, but this scene is not so much one of them. They seem to think in these adventures that they have to lead with the big threat to get the heroes hooked, and then they throw some smaller threats out, though they aren't fans of minions for some reason. I mean, they used Dracula as an almost random encounter in the last adventure.
Yeah, it's pretty weird. It makes anyone who tries to play a character with Takedown feel really bad.
Are the civilians still inside the bubble or have they managed to get away somehow?
There are some civilians sheltering in your bubble, some in the triceratops room who are exiting or are caught in Fathom's engulf, and a few who are still filing through Oz's portal, with him and you providing cover for them. That will take this round and the next if they are moving under their own power.
For Father's Day, I gave myself a year of a Marvel Unlimited subscription. I've read up on Immortal Hulk, which ties into Eoten/Aethelward's general theme (and is also a great comic that I highly recommend). I've been reading up on various Dr. Strange comics just for general feel. Also some old Defender comics. We aren't too far from having our own Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie situation. I always had a soft spot for that non-team.
The point being that if there are any other Marvel Comics you think would be useful as inspiration for your character, let me know. I'd be happy to read them.
Gotcha. Cesarina is going to just keep maintaining the bubble until they're safe.
Sorry for my absence, work has been leaving me completely wiped out. Gonna try to catch up now
Should we take a break, folks? It seems like Gracie and Eldritch are able to keep up at the moment. I suppose it is fine if those two push forward, but I don't want to leave behind folks who want to be here and just don't have the bandwidth right now.
Regarding Scrying:
I can't find a solid way to create a power that works like scrying in the sense of targeting an object or person. Remote Sensing by RAW only works to sense a location at a distance based on rank. You can use that Remote Sensing to use the investigate skill to search for things, but unless you paired it with some super-speed, searching a large area for that person would be time intensive.
My Google-fu has failed me trying to find something like this pre-built. I even thought to look for something like Cerebro. Cerebro can search the world for mutants and find particular mutants. It is easy enough to have Remote Sensing that covers the whole globe. That is just Rank 21. But the other stuff seems to require searching.
For the purposes of plot, however, I'm going to choose to believe I'll figure it out.
I was thinking of Remote Sensing that targets only a particular focus. Or maybe equipment.
I'd prefer not to pause. Can we provide an excuse for the others to work another angle and meet back up with Max and Grace when they return?
I don't want to leave anyone behind, though I also don't want to lose momentum after the big fight. I'm fine with a sidequest with Max, but let's see if the others check in.
And if other folks are here, I'd like to gently remind fellow players--if you're checking in but have nothing to contribute and it's been a couple days since you last posted, please pop in and say that so we don't think you're not around. :)