| GM SuperTumbler |
Doctor Wan takes in all of your questions, "I always find that coffee helps me think. But Miss Mui is right. We should get everyone back together. And we should talk to these avengers. Maybe over coffee. Maybe coffee after." He stashes the bag of coffee beans in his leather messenger bag.
"As for how to fix a reality, The First told me to bring you all here to fix what is wrong. It sounds like this Earth has been conquered by nazis or robots or nazi robots, and I learned at an early age to fight nazis. So we find out who the heroes are, and we help them beat these nazi robots."
Pretty easy for Maggie or Sentry to bring everyone back together.
| GM SuperTumbler |
Ted tells Kyle, "Your way works great, but it would be better if we can use their tech against them. If we can reprogram them with a viral ammo them when they connect to their Central Operating System them maybe we can take control from the inside of their Mainframe. It doesn't hurt to try and the results may be to our benefit. Just point me to tech people and show me your tools and let me work on the rest. Once I get a prototype built maybe we can mass-produce my 'Shoot and Reboot' viral ammo."
"Abner would have the resources you need for something like that. He is holed up in a mountain about 80 miles south. We can cover that distance in a few hours. I suspect your friends could do it quite a bit faster."
| Jason "Rion" Prince |
Herakles listens intently to the collective back and forth, before adding his own words with booming voice:
"What is wrong?! Verily the Prince of Power is here, in this strange place, when he should be... elsewhere!"
The big man frowns, surveying his new companions with interest;
"Kafe? Surely we should toast our victory and imbibe something stronger from the cellar of Dionysus perhaps!? Can thee conjure οἶνος Jason? Perhaps an ancient vintage! Ha!"
"My instincts say I could power a coffee maker, and I'm more than willing to try to conjure wine, our best thought though, is to make short work of this 80 miles we need to travel. Any thoughts?"
| The Sentry. |
"We need to defeat the nazis?" The Sentry rhetorically asks.
After a pause, he continues, "Blue Beetle needs some parts from a rebel named Abner in a mountain 80 miles south from here. He has a plan of "shoot and reboot" against the robots. Let me see what Blue Beetle and three rebels want to do." He steps back a few paces and disappears leaving a twirl of dust and small sonic boom behind.
====================================
The Sentry slows to a hover next to Ted and offers, "Blue Beetle, Dr. Wan says that we must defeat the nazis here. I can bring you to Abner, but I think we should connect these rebels with our group before we leave."
He looks to the three rebels and introduces himself, "I am the Sentry. Maggie and the others are a mile that way. What's the best way for everyone to gather together? If everyone climbs aboard part of that ship, I could fly you there quick enough." He points to a piece of the robot ship's wreckage.
Then, he cocks his head like he just thought of something and disappears leaving a small sonic boom in his wake.
======================================
After less than a minute, the Sentry returns to where the others are but closer to the robot's dropship. After analyzing it for a second to figure out where to grip it, he picks up the ship and flies away toward where you remember Ted and the others are.
======================================
After a few minutes, the Sentry returns more slowly carrying a robot dropship, which he gently sets down near Ted. "Blue Beetle, can you "shoot and reboot" this ship to give you transport?"
| Maggie Mui |
Wait, wait, wait, hold up. Sentry, Herak, Jason, Maggie, and Wan were talking in the coffee house. Beetle is somewhere walking in tunnels with the ersatz Cap family---toward, I assume, the five people hiding underground somewhere beneath the coffeehouse. (So Jason can't have yet heard the thing about 80 miles away, where Beetle can access some tech). I appreciate what Sentry is trying to do: travel back and forth between both scenes to find a way to easily get us all together (by putting th NPCs in a box he can carry them in) ASAP. There is a small complication that (1) they are all underground walking inside a small area of maintenance tunnels (not easy to bring a ship into) and (2) if I have not misunderstood, there are more NPCs Beetle and co were traveling toward that we are already very close to. In other words, I think they are already coming toward us, we don't need to bring them closer, just meet up with them.
Therefore, what I was trying to suggest was Sentry simply sense where the other NPCs are and then we bust through the basement to maintenance tunnels to get meet up with them, which we should be able to do at normal speed. (Sorry I did not say that clearly sooner.) While I have no issue with Sentry bringing them to us, I also want to tie up the loose end that the are additional NPCs hiding (and see what is presumably the NPCs' underground lair). Again, really appreciate Sentry trying to get us all together ASAP but I think we need to go to them, not the other way around.
Edited post as I didn't quite understand what happened on first read and needed to alter my originally posted suggestion.
| Maggie Mui |
To Jason, she says quietly, matter-of-factly: "It would be safer if you heated a container of water than tried to power a machine."
As Sentry zips away and comes back the first time: "Wait. Didn't you say there were people beneath the cafe? Besides the three we met?"
| Jason "Rion" Prince |
To Jason, she says quietly, matter-of-factly: "It would be safer if you heated a container of water than tried to power a machine."
As Sentry zips away and comes back the first time: "Wait. Didn't you say there were people beneath the cafe? Besides the three we met?"
"You are good at this; my sister took me for soemthing called a "pour-over" once, it was wonderful. All they seemed to do was pour hot water over the mashed coffee beans, so simple and yet so good. I think you are completely correct."
Jason stops to think for just a moment
"Is it not also possible that the people in the basement here have another way to travel to the people we wish to reach? Maybe there is a tunnel?"
Looking around the cafe area, Jason spies a carafe that probably would have been used for hot water. Thankfully, the simple magics were, in fact, simple. He thought of the extended pantheon; there really was a god for everything. This time, his eyes only seemed to glow, no sparks, and the carafe became spottlessly clean; forthwith it also began to fill with hot water.
I felt that for smaller effects, like Presitigation in PF, we might not need to roll anything. Conjuring the wine will be quite a different matter.
| GM SuperTumbler |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Agreed, Jason, on the smaller effects. A lot of that would just be a 1 point feature on a power. With your Variable, that is easy enough to emulate. I will probably get persnickety if you try to get outside of your ancient Greek branding. For example, creating wine is fine as it is quintessentially Greek. Creating a circuit board I might balk at.
| GM SuperTumbler |
I want to save everyone's contributions, so let's pull everything together here in the bookstore.
Before hopping into Sentry's hastily crafted carrying container, the three native heroes run to grab packs that they had stashed before the battle. Then they climb aboard.
The Sentry, having not yet learned the art of subtlety, delivers them into the street outside the bookstore.
I am taking liberties here with Blue Beetle to get him back with everyone. Hope that is ok.
The man with the beard and bomber jacket takes in the sound of fresh coffee and says, "You have enough for a few more customers? And then maybe we can talk about who you guys are?"
He seems relaxed and his smile puts you somewhat at ease, but his two travel companions are much more on edge, not looking for a fight, but definitely ready for one.
| The Sentry. |
After carefully depositing piece of the dropship carrying Ted and three others outside, the Sentry floats into the bookstore.
Addressing Maggie, he answers her question, "Yes Maggie, the other five people hiding are deep below this building. Further than a standard basement. They have not moved since we've been here, but their heartbeats are still elevated."
Floating a couple of inches above the floor, the Sentry crosses his arms and casually watches everyone with a curious look on his face, as if he has no idea what will happen next, or what's the fascination with coffee is.
| Jason "Rion" Prince |
Agreed, Jason, on the smaller effects. A lot of that would just be a 1 point feature on a power. With your Variable, that is easy enough to emulate. I will probably get persnickety if you try to get outside of your ancient Greek branding. For example, creating wine is fine as it is quintessentially Greek. Creating a circuit board I might balk at.
This makes total sense and will actually facilitate teamwork I think: creating lighting is one thing, Jason couldn't even imagine creating A/C current though. But if Beetle created a capacitor, Jason could probably get it charged up. When the time comes ...
| Blue Beetle |
Ted tells Kyle, "Great. I would love to meet this Abner. Tell me more about him?"
To answer the Sentry, "I can try and see what I can do with this ship. I'm sure I can get it airborne. It would be nice to have my own transportation again."
He spends his time looking over the ship to try and access what is damaged and what needs to be repaired first. He doesn't want to turn it on so if it is carrying a some sort of homing signal it will not give away their location.
After inspecting the ship and the more serious problems he goes about trying to shield the ship's technology from communicating back with its headquarters.
He wants to boot up it's onboard computer but wants to disable its ability to make contact with its master computer.
Technology: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (12) + 20 = 32
| Maggie Mui |
Maggie is pleased to have something to do that she can control. More people arrive and the increased social presences make her dizzy, and she's not a leader or good at much of anything (so she tells herself), so she has little else to contribute to the current situation. Since no one seems concerned about the other people hiding, and if no one else is concerned, they must be right about it, so she drops the subject and gives up thinking about finding them. The more mercenary part of her brain reminds her there are bigger concerns, and you can't save everyone.
So she is happy to set herself to a simple, finite task: making coffee. She finds adequate supplies in the coffee shop and uses the filters and finds a supply of unpurchased Chemex sets to make several batches of pour over coffee with the water Jason heats. And the milk she bought for Anita will spoil since there's no refrigerator here (and she has reasoned she is unlikely to get it back to Anita just yet), so she puts that out and some sugar that was safely stored in a sealed container for people to dress their coffee. She also pulls from her grocery sack one of two containers of shortbread cookies and puts them out with the coffee. She serves herself, coffee, milk, and sugar (no reason to waste it) and one cookie. And then she notices a book on the floor that looks especially lonely.
Unless someone interrupts her from her purpose-driven and then bibliomania-driven trance, she picks up the book and then sits on the floor, under one of the cafe tables, and begins to read. She IS still listening to the others, including and especially if Wan answers any questions and if the natives of this place explain their situation (Which I am assuming includes some of the stuff they already told Blue Beetle). But she needs to recharge.
| Jason "Rion" Prince |
Jason, for his part, revels in the nostalgia; he had done simple tasks like these in his childhood, with his father, on Olympus. They didn't have a lot of time together, and mostly he was relegated to tutors, but he saw his father often enough to see Zeus' pride in him.
Coffee though, wasn't made on Olympus, well, it wasn't made by the gods. There were many servants, and he never wanted for anything, other than independence: now though, he was able to stand on his own ... and help make coffee.
Maggie seemed very skilled at this, and she also shared the groceries she'd arrived with. He put together a cup of coffee, just like she had. It was quite a moment for him.
| GM SuperTumbler |
The red-haired woman in the black tactical suit handles most of the introductions, getting everyone up to speed on who is who and perhaps assessing each of you.
Dr. Wan introduces himself, "My name is Dr. Wan Li, but call me Doc if you like. I'm not sure how hard this is going to be for you to process. These people, and also me, we are from different versions of reality. Do you know that there are different versions of reality? If not, there are. Different timelines and universes...That doesn't matter too much. Except that I sort of work for a guy who keeps an eye on them, making sure what he calls the Omniverse doesn't fall apart. He sent me here with a device that lets me bring people from these other universes. He thinks there is something wrong with this universe...the one where you live. And that these heroes have what they need to fix it. Can you tell us what you know about how this world came to be the way it is?"
Kate and Kyle look to John, but he shakes his head subtly and says, "You do it Kyle."
Kyle makes a strange grimace, showing teeth, almost as if in pain. Like a speech he has practiced many times, he says, ""In 1997, the US passed and implemented the Mutant Management Act in an effort to prevent humans from being replaced by mutants. Bolivar Trask engineered the creation of a robot army to protect humans from homo superior. Miles Dyson designed the artificial intelligence responsible for directing them and all strategic defense decisions. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. The artificial intelligence begins to learn at a geometric rate. Designed to eliminate mutants, it quickly realizes that the only way to achieve its goal is to destroy humans as well. It takes as its role model the face of genocide, the Red Skull. It becomes fully self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, Trask and Dyson try to pull the plug. Skull-net fights back."
Kyle continues, "It started with nuclear attacks, then biological, then the sentinels and terminators rolled out in successive generations, hunting down the more powerful mutants and mutates. There aren't many of us left here. We've come here to take the fight to the Skull. You and your friends could help us turn the tide."
| GM SuperTumbler |
While Kyle is talking, John reaches into his pack, and then walks the store. He picks something up off the floor and the approaches Maggie. His boots crunch on bits of rubble. He sits on the floor, not too close, giving her space but also an invitation.
He holds out a small steel can of condensed milk. "I haven't had fresh milk since I was a kid. There are still some cows in South America, but we don't get down there. But I keep a can of this when I can find it."
He puts the can gently in the space between them. Then sits a slender paperback on top of it. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
"A friend of mine named Steve gave me a copy of this a long time ago. It's about hope in the face of adversity."
Then he stands up slowly and rejoins the rest of the group.
| GM SuperTumbler |
Kate answers Ted's questions about Abner. "Before the war, Abner was an aircraft mechanic. He doesn't talk much about those times, but I get the impression he did some things he isn't proud of, worked as a mercenary, maybe a bank robber or something. These days, no one cares about a bank. John and I were just kids back then, Kyle wasn't even born. But Abner is a genius. He grows food, builds jammers to help hide people, all sorts of useful gadgets. We were on our way here to visit a resistance cell that is nearby."
| GM SuperTumbler |
Ted tells Kyle, "Great. I would love to meet this Abner. Tell me more about him?"
To answer the Sentry, "I can try and see what I can do with this ship. I'm sure I can get it airborne. It would be nice to have my own transportation again."
He spends his time looking over the ship to try and access what is damaged and what needs to be repaired first. He doesn't want to turn it on so if it is carrying a some sort of homing signal it will not give away their location.
After inspecting the ship and the more serious problems he goes about trying to shield the ship's technology from communicating back with its headquarters.
He wants to boot up it's onboard computer but wants to disable its ability to make contact with its master computer.
[dice=Technology]1d20 + 20
Ted makes quick work of the communications system, cutting off the machine mind of the craft from the outside. This craft has a similar waffle shaped CPU, though this one is simpler than the one he salvaged from the humanoid robot. The flier has manual controls and a strange keyboard, suggesting that it is built both for automated operations and for being flown by a pilot. It takes Ted a moment to decipher the symbols with his quick mind and enhanced reality goggles, but he can reprogram it quickly, taking control of the craft and overwriting its protocols.
I assume from your post that you are cool with this being your Bug for now? You can just use the same stats. I think that would be very cool. We could add a temporary Complication related to it that it is damaged and/or the AI could try to reassert itself.
| The Sentry. |
From his position floating with his arms crossed, the Sentry asks, "Does the resistance cell consist of five individuals who are located deep underground here? They sound a little nervous."
After the answer, he asks the locals, "is skull-net centralized? So, it can be destroyed in one place?"
| Herakles - Lion of Hellas |
Declining any kafe, Herakles instead intently listens to the challenge being presented and the grave words spoken.
At Sentry's final question, the godling nods and claps the clone's broad shoulder with a grin;
"Aye! Verily my friend Sentry here hath the right of it! Let us go to the very heart of this Skull-Net and sunder it to its core!"
| Maggie Mui |
Maggie's cheeks redden at the attention, but listens quietly to Kyle. Reflexively, she reaches for the book. Perhaps, it's that the book reaches for her.
Words don't come quickly. When they do, it's a question unrelated to his speech. "You're taking what Dr. Wan said well. We are strangers from another world. But even I'm having trouble believing it. Why trust us?" It's not an accusation but curiosity. They are living a life that makes the worst streets of Hong Kong look like a paradise. Trust would be a commodity here. Or are they just taking whatever help they can get?
She listens to the other conversation as well, waiting to learn more of the people below and of Skull-Net.
| GM SuperTumbler |
John frowns and looks at his team. "Kate, Kyle, go downstairs and see if there is any way down from here to connect with the Team. If not, I'm sure our new friends can help out, but let's make sure first."
The two soldiers head into the back room of the book shop and descend into its basements, following orders with what is clearly a long familiarity.
John turns to you and continues, "Listen, I do trust you, because I've heard about you my whole life. But I need for this conversation to stay between us. Kate knows some of it. John knows none of it. And he can't know any of it. The team down below is a group of low level supers. They are kids really, a bunch of teenagers, but they are tough, and like most teens, they think they are invincible. They are stationed here because there is an important helicarrier that tends to hold station over Denver, and they keep an eye on it and report. We know that this carrier is important to Skull-net, and we know that it is Stark's main base of operations. We don't know where Skull-net's data core is, but from the helicarrier we could probably locate it.
John takes a deep breath, as if shedding for a moment a heavy weight that he is always carrying. Then he straightens his back and the weight settles back on his shoulders. "Kate knows this, but, just to be totally clear, Kyle can't know any of this or everything falls apart. Skull-net and Stark have invented spatial-temporal displacement. They have built a time machine. They used that time machine to send Terminator Sentinels backward through time. Millions of years ago to keep some of the most powerful universal forces from forming a connection to Earth. No Ghost Riders, no Phoenix force. Lots of other interventions in the timeline. On my personal timeline, they sent a Terminator back to 1984 to kill my Mom before I was born. Once we locate Skull-net and find its time displacement device, I will use that device to send Kyle back in time to defend her. In the biggest mind-crusher of all, Kyle is going to become my father. And he can't know that. Because I'm John Connor, Captain Connor. Super soldier and leader of the Resistance. The man who defeats Skull-net and saves humanity."
There is no braggadocio in his speech, especially the end. In this example of physical human perfection and inspiring leadership, you might see hints of a little boy who has carried far too much for far too long. Even still, he radiates hope and confidence. His whole life has prepared him for this, and he knows his role.
| GM SuperTumbler |
Hearing all of this, Dr. Wan bounces from foot to foot excitedly, losing his composure and the sense of academic stoicism that he has been trying to cultivate so far.
"That's it! That's it! This world is wrong because this Skull-net thing is using time travel to change everything. The world hasn't been able to develop naturally. I would bet, once we dig into things, that we find there is something more going on here. There is probably some influence from outside the multiverse influencing the situation. A sort of multiversal colonialism. So we set things right with this Skull-net and then find out who or what has been interfering."
| Herakles - Lion of Hellas |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Herakles raises a bushy brow at the mention of one name;
"Stark? Howard Stark!? I am truly vexed... I thought him a good man... and did bestow a gift of coin upon his business venture... S.T.A.R.K. Labs [1] I believe it doth called..."
The dauntless demi-god casts his gaze heavenward with a scowl;
"Let us find this Helicarrier and like the Stymphalian Birds pluck it from the sky!"
[1]: Stands for Science and Technology Advanced Research Key Laboratories) of course True Believer!
| The Sentry. |
The Sentry listens to Kate and Kyle search and the five people hiding. He looks forward to their conversation when they arrive together, while he listens to John.
His attention drastically shifts back to the room when John shares that Kyle is his father. His face shows shock. He clearly had never seen any of the Terminator movie series.
After recovering a bit with Dr. Wan's comments, he nods at the comments of Herakles hiding his ignorance of a Howard Stark and offers, "I heard this helicarrier when we arrived. The two robot transports originated from it. I could probably find it again."
| Maggie Mui |
As he describes the unruly teenage rebels, Maggie smirks, though the confident look comes and goes swiftly. That, that is something she might be able to handle. Maybe.
After the rest of John's speech, Maggie slides out from under the table and stands to her full height. Sliding the copy of Tree Grows in Brooklyn into a pocket, she levels her gaze at Cap. Movie-wise, she was more of a fan of John Woo than James Cameron, but these kind of stories are nonetheless familiar across various books and films. She could see possible impending disaster coming.
"I won't say anything. But... the truth will out, one way or the other. If he doesn't learn it from you, it'll be worse."
She has other worries about the situation. If the situation is caused by time travel, and they are time travellers, how can they be sure they don't make things worse? But she keeps her mouth shut. If she does as she's told, she can go home to her sisters. She hopes. So when Sentry and Herakles declare the search for the helicarrier, she simply nods.
| GM SuperTumbler |
Captain Connor smiles when he hears your reactions. "We need to drop some food packs here with the team. Then we get our two technologists together. It would also help me if I know what you guys can do? Are you guys like the old days? Do you have a team name, a tactical leader, that sort of thing?"
He moves toward the basement in a way that calls on you to follow and continue the conversation. Once there, he finds that the Kate and Kyle have hit a dead end.
In the basement is a heavy door, and beyond that a Cold War era fallout shelter. The walls are thick concrete reinforced with steel. There is no way here into the undercity. Of course, you have many ways to solve that problem...
| The Sentry. |
The Sentry lets the others answer Captain Connor's questions.
He floats with the others down into the basement. He looks through the door and the tunnels beyond to where he hears the 5 people hiding.
Vision: Extended 1: –1 per 100 ft, Infravision, Penetrates Concealment)
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27
"Captain Connor, if you are bringing the teenagers provisions, why are you blocked by this door? Haven't you been here before? Don't you have a way to contact them?" The Sentry's questions are genuine and honest with just a bit of confusion.
| Maggie Mui |
Captain Connor smiles when he hears your reactions. "We need to drop some food packs here with the team. Then we get our two technologists together. It would also help me if I know what you guys can do? Are you guys like the old days? Do you have a team name, a tactical leader, that sort of thing?"
She gives a soft shake of the head. "We just met." She looked around. She wasn't sure who would be leader. Sentry seemed strangely oblivious. Herakles was too brash. Blue Beetle had the smarts, but was he tactical? Maybe Jason? She hadn't gotten a good read off him yet. Why couldn't Michelle be here?
As for team name... Maggie's favorite superhero team was the Heroic Trio, but the Heroic Quintet didn't have the same ring. She searched her database-like mind for an appropriate reference. "Perhaps Exiles is the most appropriate team name." She felt like an exile.
"Captain Connor, if you are bringing the teenagers provisions, why are you blocked by this door? Haven't you been here before? Don't you have a way to contact them?" The Sentry's questions are genuine and honest with just a bit of confusion.
"They probably approach by different tunnels. Which is why they were a mile away."
| GM SuperTumbler |
"Right. This isn't our normal means of approach. But they will have to move, so there is no reason not to just go through here if we can. There is a lot of steel and concrete between ground level and the tunnels here, so it made them hard to detect. We would have moved underground to get to them if you weren't here."
Sentry, I had totally missed that that was how you built X-ray vision for him, or I had forgotten it. Love it.
The Sentry can see the 5 people, or at least their heat signatures. There is a large humanoid shape that is deep violet in his vision, a heavily built broad shouldered figure at a temperature well below 0. There is another figure, a slender woman, who he can barely distinguish as she is the same temperature as her surroundings. A third is another woman the temperature of a standard human. A fourth is a taller and strangely skinny male figure, similarly standard temp. The fifth is a man in a wheelchair.
All of them except the wheelchair bound one are still and looking upward as though waiting expectantly for something to happen. It would seem they are aware of you.
| The Sentry. |
Full disclosure, I stole the build from you!
Oddly, the Sentry casually declares, "They are aware of us and waiting."
And then asks, "Captain Connor, would you please tell me exactly how you would have traveled to them underground?" While listening to the answer, he bathes the area in x-rays looking for alternative tunnels to travel to the five people.
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (10) + 15 = 25
If he can find another way to them, he disappears again running to them. Speed 13 (16k mph, 30 miles/round) & Quickness 11 (Perform routine tasks in -11 time ranks)
The Quickness is to find his way in the potential labyrinth underground.
| Maggie Mui |
"Wait," Maggie says, as she realizes what Sentry is doing. But in the blink of an eye he is gone. She's already saying, "They don't know you..." to an empty bit of space.
"I'm afraid he'll scare them," Maggie says to the others. "I'm going to try to send them a message." She hopes she doesn't make things worse.
She summons her paper-thin doll familiar, who slides through the slenderest cracks in the vault door, reshaping itself and moving around the seals to come out on the other side. When Maggie senses it has entered the presence of the five individuals, it turns itself into a large piece of paper that reads:
"We are with Captain Connor and have supplies. A new friend, Sentry, is approaching quickly from the other side. Can you open the door?"
| GM SuperTumbler |
Cap replies, "We would have had to do it the old fashioned way. Denver knew it was a major target during the Cold War. Military installations were scattered across Colorado. So the city has tons of tunnels and shelters left over from those days. But there isn't a straight line way of getting down there from here. That is part of the reason we chose this as their station. They would have plenty of time to detect any intrusions and bug out."
Sentry disappears and flies back to the other battleground, entering the tunnels via the holes there and quickly making his way to a heavy steel door beyond which he can "see" the same heat signatures.
Just to be clear, there is an old bomb shelter here, but there is no door from the shelter down into the base of the resistance fighters below. Maggie can send her paper doll through air vents to get to them and give them a message, but normal human sized person can't get to them without some digging or breaking or something.
| The Sentry. |
Sentry returns a few seconds after disappearing and declares from his casual pose floating a foot off the floor, "seems every approach to them is blocked by a heavy door."
After a comfortable pause, he continues, "do we have a way to open the door without damaging it? Or signal to them to open the door from their side? Otherwise, I might be able to rip the door off or melt its hinges."
| Herakles - Lion of Hellas |
Herakles eyes the heavy steel door with a grin;
"Might be able to rip yon portal open? MIGHT!? Hah! You stand now with the Lion of Helles young Sentry! Such a barrier would need to have been fashioned by Hephaestus himself to withstand our combined strength!"
The demi-god spits on his hands, flexes, then approaches the door purposefully...
| Maggie Mui |
Let's say Maggie's note then asks them to write on the paper directions for where we can safely meet them.
"Wait, sir, please," Maggie says to Herakles. Her eyes are unfocused, her fingers twitching as she controls the paper doll. "Let me see if I got a response." She twitches her fingers, trying to sense if anyone is writing on the paper, and once they are done, she resummons the paper doll to bring it back to them.
| Maggie Mui |
The doll gestures to the person writing to follow. I'm not sure if she can read the message from a distance, but she does have mental link to the construct so if the construct can sense it, she should be able to. Otherwise the person can choose to follow the doll or not.
"One of them is coming."
| GM SuperTumbler |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think she can read it with the mental link. Before you started down this road with the paper doll it hadn't occurred to me at all, but it is a pretty cool way to communicate.
The paper doll turns and climbs back into the old air vents. Something follows.
Back in the 1950s style fallout shelter where most of the "team" waits, the doll slides out of a vent, followed by an afro and a human head that look like they are being extruded from a Playdoh fun factory. A long ribbon of humanity pours out of the vent like an old fashioned ticker tape, resolving into a flat African American teenager wearing goggles and a dark grey on light grey tactical uniform. Once his feet slide out of the vent, he pulls himself into a pile and then sort of pops and inflates into the shape of a standard issue human teenager.
"Hey Cap, this is a strange way to make our supply drop."
Cap nods and smiles, "It seems like these guys have come from somewhere else to help us. Unfortunately, their arrival has revealed your location. Get your Fantastix together and bug out to your rally point. Someone will meet you there with a new assignment. If things go well with our new friends here, we may need for you to join an assault team. Or we may need for you to pull back into a defensive position. In any case, you can't say here."
"Understood, sir. We will pack up and move out."
| The Sentry. |
The Sentry listens to any discussion following reading Maggie's note and watches the teenager follow the paper doll through the air ducts.
When the teenager leaves, he asks, "How will we travel to Abner's?"
| GM SuperTumbler |
Cap switches back into officer mode.
"That team will take care of themselves. Blue Beetle, you have control of that transport yet? Good. Sentry, assuming your flight isn't limited in some way, you fly escort. Maggie, it might be less conspicuous for now if you take the transport instead of your paper dragon? All of us ground and pound folk, load up into the transport. Beetle, keep it low and fly directly south."
Cap and his team hop aboard the new and temporary Bug.
Doc nods, grips his leather messenger back, and climbs in. "This is my first trip in a murder robot helicopter thing. How about everyone else?"
| The Sentry. |
The Sentry nods to the orders. He doesn't reply to the Captain's comment. Primarily, because he doesn't know how to.
While everyone boards the transport, the Sentry listens and accounts for robots and heartbeats.
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22
When the transport flies, he slowly keeps pace with the ship.
| Maggie Mui |
Maggie nods in silent agreement with Captain Connor: the dragon draws attention. It also uses a ton of paper.
She makes sure she has her paper case and as much paper as she can keep on her person. She hands the partly-used milk container and hands it to Kyle. "We should use it up." By which she means, drink it.
She puts the condensed milk he gave her into her grocery bag and grabs that and boards the ship.
On the transport, she finds the tightest corner to sit in and a book finds its way into her hand to read while they transfer over.
| GM SuperTumbler |
Flying the transport is tricky. There is no pilot's seat, no windshield or viewport. But Blue Beetle is able to direct the camera feeds to his goggles, seeing "through" the walls, not to mention having access to all sorts of extra senses.
This new, temporary Bug is fast. Beetle keeps it just barely subsonic in order to avoid detection. Kate gives Ted the coordinates with a slight hesitation, "Just make sure nothing in the system can send this location back to the Skull-Net."
It takes only ten minutes of flight, hugging the ground more than might be totally comfortable for the faint of heart.
Sentry and Jason fly in formation, keeping an eye and ear out for threats.
The terrain is rough, rivers and streams clotted with mudslides and ash, the burned skeletons of forests. Mountains to the west, north, and south, though to the east you can see the land slope toward the long flat plains of Kansas.
You approach a mountain peak that looks much like the rest, all covered in a layer of grey ash and snow.
Kate says, "We don't use it very often since the war started, but there is an old hangar entrance about two thirds up the mountain. It is disguised."
It takes an act of faith, but Ted drives the Bug through the holographic side of the mountain and into a dusty hangar.
John holds his hands out to everyone in a motion suggesting you shouldn't move too quickly. "I'll go first, Abner doesn't know you. He will probably assume you are all super-Sentinels or something."
| The Sentry. |
The Sentry hovers above the dusty hangar crossing his arms to wait. He reaches his hearing out to its extent before bathing the structure in x-rays looking for edges and heat signatures.
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24
Hearing: Accurate, Analytical, Extended 4: –1 per 18.94 miles, Ultra-hearing; Vision: Extended 1: –1 per 100 ft, Infravision, Penetrates Concealment