Location: The Hunter and Its Prey Festival on the Refuge Islands at mid-day.
The day started with the festival enjoying its largest attendance. Everyone looked forward to a fun filled day. Unfortunately the Refuge Islands is part of the multi-city governmental entity known as Megalopolis. While it is one of the top 3 metropolitan areas in the United States it has one major distinction that sets it apart from the others. It has the largest Meta population in the world. Meta-human, Superhero, Supervillian, and Cape are all names referring to citizens which are small in size but large in impact.
They lead the way both in advancement and in destruction of civilizations.
David and Tommy thought they were going to the Festival to relax, play, and enjoy the ‘sights’. The ‘sights’ did not include the Meta variety for David but it did for Tommy. Both would agree that the ‘sights’ did not include the largest Cape battle of 2011, but that was what happened. A giant beast called the Star-Devourer was summoned to the waters next to the Island that the festival was held on. This was the spark to the Meta powder keg.
While the Heroes tried to eliminate the threat, David and Tommy tried to survive with the non-meta festival attendees. They saved a girl from drowning, helped contain multiple fires, and attempted to rescue a CHESS Knight that was felled by the Dhole. David had made his way to where the injured Knight was trapped by fire. He was attempting to toss a rope to Tommy when it was blocked.
“Nice try, but I think I inadvertently stopped you”
David knew there were 2 women and 1 man behind him on the ridge of the Festival but they had only been standing there so he had focused on more important things.
David turned to look at the speaker. Are you kidding me? Another one? What in the name of the Celestial Heavens is in the Megalopolis drinking water?
“Sorry,” The man continued, “I have been holding the fire back with my TK field. I can’t put it out because it isn’t airtight but I had been able to stop it from spreading.”
“You have already done the hard part. Let me handle this.”
The end of the rope started to float up. It slowly moved its way above the fire and a few additional feet as well. It floated over the other side right into the hands of Tommy. Tommy peered through the fire. “Cool! Telecom and the Valiants are here! David that is Epsilon who is talking to you! Isn’t that so awesome!”
Epsilon nodded toward Tommy and gave a celebrity styled wave. “I need you to complete your rescue plan. I am stretched to my limit holding the fires in place and keeping the few remaining buildings from falling.”
“Telecom is on the trail of a gang of art thieves. That is what has brought us here. Something about orbs that need to be hidden from the light’ is what she is trying to recover.”
“Serena is maxed out keeping the Festival goers calm and not panicking.”
Having examined the armored warrior for life threatening injuries, David looked up toward the man called Epsilon with a nodding assent and called for Tommy and the others to help him extract the CHESS Knight from the grandstands. “These “heroes” sure do like to talk a lot.”
As everyone set the wounded CHESS Knight down is an open clearing, David removed the Knight’s helmet. “Tommy get someone to grab an EMT fast. I think the armor saved his life, but he’s still going to be pretty messed up from the crash.” The Knight coughed. David thanked the Celestial Ancestors that there wasn’t any blood coughed up.
“Seth Demaris” David didn’t understand why these were the first words the Knight chose to speak. Did the CHESS Knight want him to find this Seth Demais or was he thinking this was the time for introductions?
“My name is Seth Demaris. Please call me Seth. Thank you for assisting me.” Before David could decide how to respond, Seth passed out but his breathing was unlabored and steady. An EMT arrived. He started administrating medical cared to the injured man.
David sensed that foam was applied to the fires near him. The feel of panic from the crowd was lessening then everything stopped. No movement, no chaos, no sound! David looked around to see what had happened.
A purple haze appeared surrounding the giant monster. The Demon shimmered as if being viewed through a heat wave. The Star-Devourer disappeared. An eerie silence filled the festival and bridge areas as everyone collectively held their breath. As if the simple act of inhaling air might bring it back.
*Whoump*
DarkStar teleported a top the Bridge of the Damned, gripping a colossal sword, at the ready. He attempted to activate his electrical defenses, only to have them seemingly short out. Undaunted DarkStar takes position on the bridge ready to defend the civilians and CHESS agents with his life if the Star Demon attempted to once again venture this direction.
“Thou shall not pass”.
A loud cheer arose behind Joshua. The worm was gone and they had been saved. A wave of relief and joy swept from the bridge to the Island.
David turned his attention from the celebrating crowds to find Tommy. It was time to leave. He walked over to his friend. He saw that Tommy was covered in foam. “He must have returned to help with the fires after getting the EMT.” David was a little surprised by the strong smell of lemons. “David, I was creamed by Prankster! Isn’t that fantastic!”
Tommy excitedly described how Pranster and Wonderboy had arrived. How the Caped Comic had put out the fires by throwing massive lemon cream pies on them. Tommy pointed to where a young boy was flying over the festival parking lots.
He appeared to be using a pistol like device to move the cars around. He was lifting them up and moving them to from a pileup and aligned them to create an even traffic flow out of the festival grounds.
“Even with Wonderboy’s help it will take hours to exit. David, let’s leave my car here. My family has a membership with the nearby marina. We can see it from here.”
“Hey! Where is my sail boat?”
It took a long time to leave. The traffic was terrible but finally they arrived at Tommy’s home at about 11pm. Tommy reminded David that he was free to sleep here whenever he wanted to. David thanked his friend but told him that he had to get home. David rode from the mansion but had no intension of going home. He had to speak with the Craftsman.
When he left Soiree Heights he saw three police cars behind him. He drove cautiously through Center City. The patrol cars did not split up and they never turned their lights on. Half way through Center City, the patrol cars passed David. He was a little surprised to see that every car had two officers and the middle car had a passenger in the back. “Must be someone really “wanted” in that car for them to double up their officers.”
WHAM! The last patrol car is hit by a garbage truck. David hit the brakes on his bike. It skidded to the side. He pulled hard on the handle bars, correcting the slide. His actions prevented the bike from crashing. David maneuvered into a nearby alley and came to a stop.
WHAM! The first patrol car is hit by an ice cream truck.
VROOM! The middle patrol car swerved around the first patrol car’s wreck. It sped away into the night.
David was positioned in the alley where he can see both accidents but can hide himself from view. He has his Archer costume and weapons hidden on his bike. He has access to everything he needs to become Archer.
GM Note:
Archer has entered the Crusher Crimewave storyline. He will be able to quickly tell in the next issue that the driver of the garbage truck is a Supervillain (Meta). He appears to be strong and the trash around him is moving on its own. He will not be able to tell if the driver of the Ice Cream truck is a Meta he will see the driver remove a syringe from his coin dispenser (a fake one) and inject it into the neck of one of the policeman. Archer will sense there are more syringes hidden in the fake coin dispenser and two 45s hidden behind his back with concealment holsters.
If Archer decides to fight, I will need to know how he fills his quiver. He has access to all types of his original arrows (no taser arrows yet) and enough to fill his quiver however he wants to.
If Archer decides to leave instead that is fine but be aware this is one of the few opportunities for all the Street Patrol characters to meet each other.
I am making a rule change. I have been looking at what takes the most time for putting these together. What takes the longest is figuring out what the second action for PCs would be that make sense after everyone’s first set of actions as well as how to split up their movement. Most of the time I have been allowing full movement on both actions especially for powers which use movement as their cost.
The remove this problem, I am not shortening the turn to 10 seconds, so everyone gets one action per turn. This will make playing out the turns easier for figuring the action and how to use the movement correctly. I am introducing a new House rule to compensate for the change.
Dual Attacks: Any character with Agility of 15 or higher can attack twice in one action without it counting as a multiple attack. A Dual Attack has a cost of PR=2. This is represented as punches with both hands, firing power blasts from two sources (hands, eyes, etc) or firing at a more accelerated pace than usual (two arrows from a single bow). Movement cannot be used in-between Dual Attacks so the intended targets have to be in range when the Dual Attack is made. A player will have to state in his turn that he is making a Dual Attack otherwise a Single Attack will be assumed.
< Due Date: July 27th, Actions, Goal, Replies>
David turned to look at the speaker.
”Sorry,” The man continued, “I have been holding the fire back with my TK field. I can’t put it out because it isn’t airtight but I had been able to stop it from spreading.”
“You have already done the hard part. Let me handle this.”
The end of the rope started to float up. It slowly moved its way above the fire and a few additional feet as well. It floated over the other side right into the hands of Tommy. Tommy peered through the fire. “Cool! Telecom and the Valiants are here! David that is Epsilon who is talking to you! Isn’t that so awesome!”
< Due Date: June 30th, Actions, Goal, Replies>
ROFLMAO
Awesome fun Tom. David puts together a nifty rescue package and impromptu pole vault in spectacular fashion, only to fail tossing a rope to his pal Tommy. Way to keep a man humble my friend. Interesting how Epsilon took the bad toss on himself. Very hero-ish in that circumstance. I must be getting more comfortable in David's skin because every time a meta-character shows up I get this feeling of wanting to fade back into the shadows. Like the "light" the 4-color characters live in is too bright for someone with his goals.
I'm having a blast with this peek into the "heroes" world but looking forward to working with Craftsman and focusing on the Talons again. I think after the Mar's Mission I might focus more on Archer in the side shots especially after he acquires the warehouse by the docks. Also thinking all this excitement might have inspired David to take a look at the local martial art schools and take a few lessons. I hear there's a new one opening up. Dragon something or another. I'll send a response with David’s Actions Goals and Responses asap with hopes you can give me any clarifications I need prior to your vacation - Hope family has a blast!
I hate to ask but I had to exchange my netbook and lost all the background info on the Talons any chance getting that again? If you could send Archer's updated character sheet too? I know we had to hash out the super sense thing a bit.
PS: What were the three arrow types Craftsman offered to work on? I've been looking at Enforcer, Crossfire and Trickshot as guides to how they might work
Trickshot for Phantom, that's awesome. He should clock the cowboy good. It's Bonesnapper and Od I'm worried about.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hail o' Mighty Wizard of Oz
What's up Tom :) Had a couple questions. I have David's first response/actions taken care of. I was hoping for some more detail on the surrounding "events" in order to decide what his second action might be.
Assuming he can get the Knight out of the grandstands with his first action (hey never know when one of your infamous 20's will show up and he spends the whole Turn on that :) ) I wanted to know if anything else in the vicinity might have caught his attention. Telecom and the Valiants are making an appearance obviously leaving the heavy lifting to Adamas and DarkStar. Thought they might find the fight at the Pavilion interesting though, after all it's only a pole vault away :)
Except for the bikini clad woman with the wand (I was going to make a joke, but really it's not necessary is it?) none of the meta activity is "obvious" enough to make it natural for a "civilian" to step in to help. Maybe he'll go yell at Adamas to quit throwing boats around, people need them to get off the island with the bridge blocked by the big friggin monster (lol)
If it weren't for the fact he's trapped on an island (and with Tommy) I'd have him fade to the shadows and call it an Issue. That and there's probably stuff he can still do to help and in for a penny in for a pound I guess. This has been fun but I'm missing the grittier flavor of the Foundry.
What's interesting to me, is I could have written is up as a Side Shot and it been fun, but I think this is a perfect example of the free flowing storyline nature you said Street Patrol would operate under. It almost makes me wonder if I'm going to be able to really write any more Side Shots for Archer.
Thanks to this though, I've had time to think where I want the Archer threads to go next. They can run together easily enough. I want to get the Warehouse thread started and I want to have David sign up for martial art classes at the Dragon Kai Dojo.
John R
PS: Tazer Arrow definitely a Tazer Arrow. It gives him a non-lethal way to hopefully deal with the likes of Invulnero, and more importantly it easily connects to the redemption process after having killed Marlboro. Even if I wanted it the Explosive Arrow ups his lethality - not what he's looking for right now, and the Acid Arrow - could you imagine if he had used the last of his normal arrows? I can see hitting some villain smack in the kisser and be responsible for creating my own version Two-face for Archer's Rogues gallery
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GM
Actually after successfully moving the Knight out of harm's way it will be pretty natural for David to gather Tommy and the two of them join the rest of the civilians in getting the heck off the Island. He will have several choices: he can take the bridge, he can be ferried across by the CHESS Seacycles, or he could move down the Island to find a different way off.
The reason I say it will be natural for David to leave, if you haven't noticed at the end of every issue, is help is arriving. None of it has been powerful enough to fight the Star-Devourer but they can help free the Arcane Knights to fight the Cultists and Star-Devourer without feeling any guilt about not helping the civilians. So if David leaves he will be replaced by a more public hero to continue helping at the Festival.
Tom
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awesome advise thanks Tom
I had noticed the assistance showing up but attributed that mostly to Kevin's efforts - response time being what it was, but never thought of it from Archer's perspective. This makes his second action much easier to write up
Cool maybe I’ll still get a chance to chastise Adamas for his collateral damages - Tommy's rich right? he probably knows all about sailing a boat - oh wait yeah they have these things called motors these days
Okay Archer's on his way home with DarkStar up to bat - trying to finish these question sessions before your vacation. Hope you guys have great fun
John R
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<David Houyi: Goals> Primary Goal: to get the Knight to medical attention immediately. I think with his Spatial Awareness and Kun Lun’ training he should have a good handle on the extent of the Knight’s injuries. Second
Goal: to get back to the Foundry where he belongs. He has dinner plans with his patriarch tonight.
<David Houyi: First Response Alpha IC> {David turned to look at the speaker} Are you kidding me? Another one? What in the name of the Celestial Heavens is in the Megalopolis drinking water?
<OOC> Yes, David is picking up where Joshua left off. I have no problem with him viewing “Capes” as an obnoxious American affection. I in no way see it as hypocritical. After all David’s “powers” are all based on hard training (as far as he knows) and he doesn't’t wear a costume. Merely the same fighting garb he wore at the temple but made by Craftsman with modern combat fabrics. Most importantly, it’s a way to poke fun at the genre we all love and sometimes take way too seriously. I get a good chuckle every time I hear the argument “… but that’s not realistic” Come on people we’re talking about grown men in Spandex – What a fun hobby we have.
<David Houyi: First Action> Having examined the armored warrior for life threatening injuries, David looks up toward the man called Epsilon with a nodding assent and calls for Tommy and the others to help him extract the CHESS Knight from the grandstands.
<David Houyi: First Response Bravo IC>These “heroes” sure do like to talk a lot. “Tommy have someone grab an EMT fast. I think the armor saved his life, but he’s still going to be pretty messed up from the crash.”
<OOC> If there are complications with extracting the Knight, David will use his second action in a continued attempt to rescue the CHESS operative. Assuming his First Action is successful, David will allow the others to take assist the EMT’s trying to administer medical aid to the Knight , and slip away in the chaos. If David’s “scan” revealed anything important he will pass that information along himself, and slip away in the chaos.
<David Houyi: Second Response IC > Leaving the injured Knight in the hands of the EMT’s. David takes in the chaos of the Festival. These “heroes” need to get organized. CHESS isn’t much better, showing up like a pack of flying monkeys, getting swatted out of the air by something they weren’t prepared to handle. We need to get out of here.
<David Houyi: Second Action> Looking at the two groups of people who helped him save the CHESS Knight and little girl Katie, David will either assist anyone who has already started organizing an evacuation of the general vicinity or call Tommy and any of the others who looked they were handling the emergency with a “cool” demeanor and suggest using various pieces of debris or wreckage as implements to carry those incapacitated due to injury or shock.
He’ll then extend his spatial awareness as far as possible, while moving only as fast as the slowest individual in the two groups. He’ll use his spatial awareness to either guide or lead everyone away from the battles taking place back at the pavilion and bridge. With 70,000 in attendance I’m going to assume chaos with a capital “K”. If there are at least 2 or more “cool” individuals, David will suggest a point team of two to scout ahead for possible transport off the island. If 4 or more, the same but scouting ahead on either flank of the group. At the same time he’ll ask for a volunteer to carry the groups “banner”. A colorful flag or bolt of cloth salvaged from the destruction and tied fixed like a flag to a long pole. With cell phones being jammed, I want the “scouts” to always stay paired up and within visual contact of the banner. If one group or the other finds adequate transport, the banner will be continuously waved until they report back to the group.
<OOC> The low tech signal system is inspired from life at the temple in the mountains. Hopefully this will get everyone away from the battlefield and off the island in a safe a way as possible - and get David to dinner with his family patriarch on time. After which he'll e-mail Craftsman and set up a time to meet and talk about the future.
Have a good vacation
John R
