Friday, October 24, 2014

Diverted by Deathbird

Part II of The Prosperity Problem
Featuring: Captain Scrappy, Land Shark, Magi

Upon receiving Magi's message, Scrappy picked up Land Shark and flew across town to help, leaving only some nameless non-player characters to guard the storage facility. Okay, maybe one of them had a name, but nobody remembers it.

As soon as they were within sight of the observatory, Deathbird leaped into the air and flew towards them. A javelin seemed to expand out of nothing in her hand, which she threw it at Scrappy. Scrappy ducked the javelin and used the same motion to get to the street and drop off Land Shark. Magi burst into flames and jumped for Deathbird while Scrappy charged back into the air. Both attacks missed.

Several aerial maneuvers and a few injuries later, Land Shark entered the fray, using his earth control power to hurl an enormous chunk of the street into the air at Deathbird. Even Deathbird's phenomenal maneuvering skill wasn't quite enough this time, and she got clipped by the edge of the meteor as she tried to fly clear. Unfortunately, Scrappy, who was also in the giant street-chunk's path, was not so lucky. He was nailed by it, and his attempt to dodge sent him spinning into a nearby apartment building. The asphalt asteroid, on the other hand, arced a little further and crushed the local Elk's Lodge.


Captain Scrappy clambered free of the rubble and hurled a desk at Deathbird. She continued to dodge furniture and flame-leaps and meteoric real estate for a few more minutes and threw some more javelins, then paused, cocked her head, and looked at something on her wrist. Turning back to the heroes, she said, "It has been a pleasure teaching you the basics of aerial combat, friends, but my job is done here." With that, she flew away.

Later, while rescuing injured bystanders and trying to clear the worst of the rubble, the heroes got word that the storage facility had been raided by armored thugs and, among a lot of other things, Scorpion's gear had been stolen.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Fun with Webware

Had another session last night. I'll get the summary up soon. It was pretty short.

Again, we had problems with people dropping off and getting weird glitches like being able to hear me but not anyone else. We're thinking that, since we've been mostly going with "theater of the mind" stuff and we're not using many of the features that Roll20 offers, it might be better to try just a straight Google Plus hangout instead.

Still had a great time, though. Still loving the game. I was really pleased with the way the mechanics worked out for Deathbird, although I need to do something to make the players more aware of their advantage/stunt options. Also, kind of surprisingly, I'm still jazzed to be running a super-hero campaign.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

The Prosperity Problem

Featuring: Captain Scrappy, Land Shark, Magi

Captain Scrappy got a a call about a break-in on Lightfoot Island. Somebody broke into the old Prosperity Museum on Lightfoot Island. Oddly, although there was a lot of damage done, nothing was missing. They were wondering if Scrappy knew some super-hero types who might be able to look deeper into any supernatural or otherworldly angles.

Apparently not in any particular hurry, Captain Scrappy sent out emails to Magi and Land Shark. Land Shark was on board right away, but, unfortunately, Scrappy addressed Magi as "Magus" which offended the somewhat eccentric hero and kept him from responding. After some poking around at Magi's favorite haunts and bugging his friend Raven at the occult book store, Scrappy located him and convinced him to join the gang.

So, it was actually a few days later when the three heroes finally showed up at the Prosperity Museum. Scrappy had thought it would be a good idea to investigate covertly in civilian clothes, but hadn't told the others this, so they showed up in full super-hero regalia. One quick-change later, they were all in super-hero mode and ready to go. The Prosperity Museum, formerly the Prosperity Social Club, was mostly a repository for old pre-flood Cleveland memorabilia. There was stuff salvaged from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, junk from the old Christmas Story House (which survived the flood, but was destroyed later in a super-hero battle), and other "historical" items.

The store owner told them that nothing was missing, but also mentioned that the intruders had broken into a hidden closet that the owner hadn't even known was there. The heroes discovered evidence that someone with super-strength had been throwing furniture around, and Magi recognized a burn pattern similar to that left by the weapons of ancient enemies from the Dimension Q archives. They not only found nothing in the closet, but found no sign that anything had been in it for a long time. Captain Scrappy, after convincing one of the neighbors that he wasn't going to release his name, found out that the intruders wore armor, had folding mechanical wings, and had weird helmets that covered their eyes.

The owner hadn't known much about the history of the building between the time it was a bar and when he bought it, so, looking into the Hero Corps official database, they found out that it had actually been a storage facility for captured super-villain equipment. It turned out that, in 2007, everything had been moved to a new facility in an unmarked warehouse by the docks. They were able to obtain the address and moved on to check it out.

After getting past a couple of not-very-well hidden checkpoints, they were able to talk to an officer there who told them that the closet had been used to store equipment belonging to a villain called the Scorpion, who was currently incarcerated in the county prison south of Beta City (not having any powers without his equipment, he wasn't sent to the Gladstone Pits supervillain facility in Tripod City). While Scrappy and Land Shark continued to investigate the area, Magi bounded off to the prison with his super-leaping power.

At the prison, Magi spoke with Nick Veccic (Scorpion), who wasn't terribly helpful at first, but did admit that he didn't invent the technology he used, or even understand how it worked. After implying that he might be more helpful with a signed statement from a judge authorizing early release, Veccic clammed up. Magi distracted the clerk, forged a document from "Judge Wopner" and returned. Despite the obviously fake name, Magi was convincing enough in his other details to snow the less than intelligent former super-villain.

Veccic then revealed that "some chick" called Deathbird, who had apparently natural wings and a feathered crest instead of hair, had given him the suit. She had henchmen who fit the description of the museum robbers and only occasionally asked him to help out on a job as payment. The jobs always involved some sort of technology based super-being - including both heroes and villains - and generally ended with the items being packed away. Veccic had never bothered to ask what was going on, but also revealed that their usual meeting place was the old observatory on Chandra Hill in Beta City.

Land Shark, meanwhile, was busy tunneling around and destroying the water pipes at the warehouse. Apparently this was because of some misinterpreted instructions from Scrappy. Once Magi got in touch with them and shared his information, they decided to split up. Magi would go investigate the observatory while Scrappy and Land Shark guarded the warehouse, in case the raiders also found out where their quarry had been moved.

A few blocks from the observatory, Magi stopped leaping and approached on foot. As he closed in, he spotted a winged female figure perched on top, looking off towards the lake. He sent a text message informing Captain Scrappy and Land Shark that he had spotted Deathbird.

And that's all 'til next time.