Ace - Agent of Change's page

ALLCON -

First - rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. I'm not dead - simply being eaten alive by new job and new commute. Please accept my sincerest apologies for the dead air, I really hadn't anticipated the impact of the changes on my free time.

The good news is... I believe once the initial shock and awe have subsided, I'll be able to achieve a better balance, and get back up to my prior posting rate. I currently plan to do initial catch up to all my groups this Sunday (2/9). Thereafter, I'll be back up to speed.

cheers!
utopia27

"Senor Corkin, due to current circumstances, we will need to see you in person to facilitate your request. As I'm sure that you are aware, we're in a bit of a... situation at the moment. Perhaps if you were to stop by..."

"Yes, I'm on my way. I should probably warn you that it's in relation to your, ah, situation. Dr. Hall has asked me, since I'm in country, speak the language, and have the field skills, to collect and return to him some samples. I was hoping your head of surgery might be familiar with Dr. Hall's work, and some of the unique insights he might lend in this unusual circumstances. I called ahead to see if there was some way to keep this at an academic, professional level, and avoid la paperazia."

and here i'm.. a bit stuck. I'd like to make a 'persuasion' check with my +2 modifier. I'm going to tack it onto a d20 roll, but I'm not entirely sure that's the right mechanic here. But here goes nothing - GM, please course correct as needed...
persuasion: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Ace checks his plane schedule, ensuring he's got all the timing down. He checks his substantive luggage in advance, retaining only his field kit and sample collection kit. First he checks his phone, ensuring it's operating on the local network. He rents a car, grabs a couple of local newspapers, and heads off to Coasta del Sol.

He calls ahead to the hospital, "Hello! This is Paul Corkrin, from Tulane University, working with Dr. Hall. I'm hoping to find your head of surgery. I realize it's a bit late, but I just stepped off a plane. Can you please connect me?"

ALLCON - I apologize for arbitrarily picking Tulane as 'Campaign College'. Is OK?

Do androids dream of electric sheep? or subconsciously process ecological models of probabilistic outcomes of information gathering?

Ace is deep asleep... almost as though switched off.

images of dynamic equilibria excursing - ecosystems disrupted and dominated by a single hominid species - that hominid species fragmenting, with offshoots - greater in diversity than the protohominids radiating from the the Rift Valley - thrown into new configurations - seeking new equilibria.
A poorly articulated but portentious question looms over the vision of radiating species, 'Are these fragments in competition, will they find symbiosis, or will new niches become available to these versions of the naked ape?'

Far beneath the bio-mimetic transport device (species envy - naked apes overcompensating for a lack of wings), moonlight glints off rough seas, topped by faintly phosphorescent plankton colonies signaling their disruption by the sea swells.

woot woot.

That evening, Ace is traveling tonight on a Plane. I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain. You all can see Ace waving goodbye.

Ace works hard to get some sleep on the red eye overnight, preparing to make as good an impression as possible in the morning, and track down the mysterious 'miracle doctor'.

"Yeah, weird innit? Usually these 'miracles' are a cry for attention - look at me, I'm special - come to our town and spend your dollars while you see the weeping statue - bathe in our healing waters and stay at our hostel. But these folks seem to be turtling down. Again, weird. Weird enough to stop through and take a look."

As Ace works through the day, prepping for his upcoming expedition to Costa Rica, he finds the story of this 'miracle healing' in Spain growing in his consciousness. Without fully forming an intention, he picks up the phone, and discerns who in the university is most likely to have some measure of insight into such a thing.

In the early afternoon, he makes a call to Dr. Hail, "Hello, Doctor Hail? Yah, this is Paul Corkran - I'm doing some work with the Anthropology department. I was wondering - I know this is a little out of the blue - but this 'miracle healing' in Spain - it seems pretty unusual. --- yah, I realize the media reports are pretty sparse. --- yah, a bit tough to pin down with what we know about it. It's pretty unusual though, the lady at the center of it doesn't seem to be looking for press coverage, and the hospital seems to be playing it down. Some of these things I've seen in the past, image of Jesus on toast, weeping statues, things like that, they've all been motivated by a need for attention. These folks don't seem to be looking for exposure, it seems to be beating down their door. --- what? oh, my interest? Well, I'm about to head out of country, but I have a window of a few days. I was thinking about checking it out. I was wondering if there was any real data gathering I could do over there. Anything that might put a more solid basis under this thing. Seems you're the man that might have an interest. --- when? Oh, I was thinking about catching a red-eye. Be there tomorrow morning."

~~~~

Although Ace hadn't really thought through what he might do about this - acting purely on impulse and instinct - he discovered he'd formulated a kind of plan of action.
'Why am I so drawn to this? I disparaged the 'Jesus-in-Toast' scenario, but why is this really different? I must be losing it, but this just seems... so compelling.'
In the latter part of the afternoon, Ace finished his review of the Costa Rica materials, and sealed everything to ship directly to Costa Rica. 'See you on the far side, little shipping containers.'

He made his way to gather instruments and materials for his impromptu visit to Spain, changed his tickets from early the following week to Costa Rica, to that night on a red-eye to Spain, laying over a few days, then onward to Costa Rica.

In the car park, he saw Dr. Mulheer again. "Hey Doc - hope the traffic treated you well today. I'm going to be out for a while, so you'll have to mind the traffic reports before you hit the roads. I have a gig with the Anthro department for a while, but I'm actually swinging over to Spain first. I know it's all over the news, and it's a little loco, but I'm going to check in on this Isabella Rivera thing. Cost me a couple long flights, but I'll still wind up in Costa Rica to support the Anthro crew. Have you given any thought to this crazy news out of Espana?"

~~~~~

As he dug around in his apartment, hastily (but carefully) finishing his packing, he thought, 'There may be crazier impulses, but this one's near the head of the list. At least I'll sound sophisticated in Costa Rica, with a few days of High Spanish burnishing my accent.'

Instruments, camera, and other sundries in tow, he started to the airport.

I'm taking this as a complication, and inviting Ace's compulsive need to gather data on major environmental issues to drive some unusual behavior. If this deus ex machina is driving the storyline in a squirrely direction, then someone talk me out of it.. :)

@cirle - in M&M there's a presumption of a ceiling on powers/attacks/capabilities. The three points you spent on hth takes your attack bonus over that ceiling for PL2. PL2 is strictly a 'trained norm' level. I think your Fight also gets added to that as a base, so your total bonus, so at +7 you'll be regularly tagging mike tyson. DM didn't mention it, but I think the same may be true on your ranged combat as well.

Power level is a value set by the Gamemaster for the series as a whole. It places certain limits on where and how players can spend power points when creating or improving their heroes. Power level imposes the following limits:

• Skill Modifier: Your hero’s total modifier with any skill (ability rank + skill rank + advantage modifiers) cannot exceed the series power level +10. This includes untrained skill modifiers using only ability rank, and so sets an effective limit on all abilities associated with skills.
  
• Attack & Effect: The total of your hero’s attack bonus and effect rank with that attack cannot exceed twice the series power level. If an effect allows a resistance check, but does not require an attack check, its effect rank cannot exceed the series power level.
  
• Dodge & Toughness: The total of your hero’s Dodge and Toughness defenses cannot exceed twice the series power level.
  
• Parry & Toughness: The total of your hero’s Parry and Toughness defenses cannot exceed twice the series power level.
  
• Fortitude & Will: The total of your hero’s Fortitude and Will defenses cannot exceed twice the series power level.
  

...and no, i didn't see that in the srd either.

@Kelsey - any thought on Kelsey working part-time with Ace outfitting expeditions? Maybe after lunch Kelsey comes around and helps with the prep for the anthropology folks headed to Costa Rica?

Paul finalized his maintenance, stepped out for a quick wash-up, changed shirts, then set off to the university. The social anthropology department was considering an expedition to Bolivia, and had set a logistics meeting at 11:00. Paul maneuvers deftly through traffic, pays for parking (pocketing the receipt for expensing...) and makes his way into a solid, hulking brick building - the conference room on the 4th floor. Through the meeting Paul doesn't have much to say, mostly making notes about the interactions between expedition participants, expedition payers, and self-important 'reviewers'. After the meeting, Paul takes a few moments to discuss the outcomes with several of the players - gathering their thoughts, pushing their impressions and take-aways.

After a brief lunch with a client in the biology department, Paul makes his way back to anthropology - this time via the loading dock. He takes much of the afternoon sifting through several crates of stored travel gear - reviewing, evaluating, checking fastenings and weak points, and when finished, packing them in a series of field-grade shipping cases. He diligently ensured each case was packed and labeled, with a manifest secured inside the lid.

'Just like clockwork. All the non-perishables, at least, should be good to go with time to spare.' Paul looked again, and briefly patted, his own pelican case - video camera, extra storage, extra batteries, a few dozen specimen jars, and a ruggedized GPS for geo-tagging. Anthropology wasn't his preferred kind of field study, but the time the anthros spent talking to the locals was time he could spend scoping the local flora and fauna. Anthropoligists at least had a strong desire to get away from the urban centers and mono-culture farm communities. And it was that 'off-the-beaten-track' kind of place that allowed a decent field observer to find some extraordinary biological sites. Paul had had more than one repeat-location from biology groups that saw interesting biology and ecology in the background of slide-shows the anthros brought back.

"You need to know about transportation, you just ask me. Next time I needed a tachyon last week, I'll look you up." Paul quirks an eyebrow a bit at Dr. Mulheer to see if he'll bite on the bad physics pun.

'He's not a bad one to know - maybe someday he can get me a meeting with a high-tone professor that won't take my call.'

I'm pretty low overhead. On a sublet. The heating and AC bills are pretty small - I keep forgetting to turn them on. But for some reason my electric bill is FANTASTICALLY high.

I also keep the lawnmowers and trimmers working well, so the HOA puts up with me. :)

But I get the impression the dapper Dr. Warren Mulheer pays full freight on the top end unit, and has an interior decorator to boot :)

I hope Dr. Mulheer doesn't mind sharing a parking garage with a low-life non-phD field biologist?

Ace will have a separate discussion with the home owner association about doing vehicle maintenance in the parking garage... :)

'Que? Un milagro de sanación? I wonder how long before Central America has a rash of hospital healings?" muses Paul Corkran, as the spanish-language channel playing on his small radio resumes its entertaining mix of salsa and pop music. He continues to meticulously check the timing on his pickup truck, then the gear packed into it. Paul casts a sloppy salute at the dapper Professor passing through the parking garage of the complex.

"Good morning Dr. Mulheer - looking good! Oh hey - you want to avoid the Boulevard - big crash. It'll make you late. er." Paul taps the portable radio with his timing wrench. "Enchufado... news of the world."

@WhtKnt - just a note, in writing up for an alias profile, I broadened out Ace's origins and possible intention/programming. I originally had explicitly considered him an environmental probe/recording device, dropped off at earth for investigation, but never subsequently retrieved. Other possibilities occur to me as well, and I leave them at your discretion (based on the intent of the campaign):
- Whether by intent or accident, Ace was sent "Back from the Future" as a data collection device, and possibly an environmental disaster mitigator/circuit breaker. (ever seen 12 Monkeys? Excellent movie..)
- Predecessor species - Atlanteans, smart Neanderthals, Great Old Ones, Lizard People (under the North Pole!), etc. - any technologically capable predecessor race could've designed Ace, and just left him kicking around. nothing saying Ace always looked human. Also nothing particularly indicating environmental management was his primary function, it could've been, "Tend the egg chamber, feed the triceratops, change the young 'uns diapers. Oh - and maintain the yard when you're not otherwise busy." Well, what with the decline in Saurian egg chambers, young saurians, and the sad lack of Triceratopses these days, "tend the yard" has risen in his priority list...
- Nicolai Tesla was concerned about Edison ruining the landscape with all those AC power lines, and knocked together a little something to tend to the environmental damage. Tesla was an extremely talented, if somewhat erratic, superscientist - but Edison had better press. Maybe Ace isn't as ancient and alien as might be imagined... But Ace sure doesn't know one way or another.
- Ace is much more 'golem' than 'cyborg'. As the Romans encroached on the sacred groves of Albion, the druids conjured up a great spirit of the world, and bound it into a statue of lightning-shorn oak as a protector of the land. They imbued their guardian with powers of change to adapt to changing conditions, and an urgency to defend against depradations of the fields and forests. It never occurred to them that the role of the picts and druids would not be essential to the spirit they conjured. Or that the spirit would adapt itself even to a technological 21st century. But for some reason, Ace still doesn't get on well with Italians.

Oh - oh my. it just occurred to me why Ace would actually latch into the fist group of superheroes around... Supers are a major ecological and biological inflection point. Any opportunity to observe/participate in such a pivotal change in the ecosystems would compel Ace to observe at the closest available range. Particularly if it represented an upcoming extinction event for the dominant species.

Ace checking in!

New Orleans is good. Quite sufficiently cosmopolitan. Lots of work for a field guide and helper-to-biologists. Carribean handy. Access to Central America and northern South America. American Gulf Coast. Oil disasters. All kindsa good reasons to be in New Orleans. In fact, I'll bet Ace went to grad school at LSU, and just forgot to leave the state after floating down the river.

And beignets. Coffee and beignets. Can we make headquarters at Cafe du Monde? Please?