Cascade City: a Mutants and Masterminds Campaign.

[Teflon Billy]

Back up on the third floor of the Warehouse's offices, where The Cosmic Commissar was squaring off against The Fat Maniac, a third participant made his presence felt.

Stepping from behind the Maniac's enormous bulk, came a diminutive man in a grey nehru suit. Pencil-sized veins criscrossed his gargantuan, bald, head. The veins, throbbed to a diameter approaching that of garden hoses as The Cranium narrowed his eyes at The Cosmic Commissar...

"Freeze", The Cranium calmly intoned; and at this suggestion, The Commissar found himself unable to move.

"Who the devil are you?" The mental Leviathan asked suspiciously, his head pulsing in a steady rhythm.

"I am here to put a stop to your plan, blackguard! Now Surrender!" Magnetik countered.

A wry grin crossed the features of the psionic, "No, I think not. Tell me how many allies you have brought with you...."

"Never!" that paralyzed hero growled through clenched teeth.

"...you just did," was his near-simultaneous reply.

(OOC: The Cosmic Commissar can't catch a break with Will saves tonight, blowing both his save vs. The Cranium's Mind Control as well as his Telepathy. The Cranium now has the entire roster laid out before him in his head)

The Fat Maniac, all 2000 pound red-spandexed girth of him in a mouth frothing rage at having been attacked (Berserk disadvantage...he is after all The Fat Maniac, not just The Fat...Guy), charged the inert Commissar as The Cranium moved toward the stairs down to the second floor. His punch, while of incredible power, failed to penetrate The Commissar's force field. His rage grew to a near unimaginable pitch.

(OOC:On a related note, a lot of talking got done there for a six second round don't you think? It's because we use the very super-hero appropriate Soliloquy rules. If anyone wants to talk at length, they can do so, and all action stops to accommodate it.

It was taken from my favorite panel of an Avengers comic. Captain America is being attacked by Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil. One of the baddies throws something at Cap, who proceeds to say aloud....

"Oh no, Zemo has thrown a piece of the machinery at me...no time to get out of the ...*ooof!*"

....as he is hit by the missile. Behold! The magic of the comic-book soliloquy)

Back out on the street, Kronus took action. Hurtling forward at a speed unimaginable to humanity he, at the last possible moment, turned ninety degrees and ran straight up the three story wall and through the window destroyed by The Cosmic Commissar.

Not able to see The Cranium exiting the room (the sight line, like many sight lines in the room, was blocked by The Fat Maniac), The Gorilla King, faster than the eye could follow, unleashed a barrage of punches at the spandexed behemoth. His arms sinking nearly to the elbow with each hit.

Though his punches connected with alarming ease, The Fat Maniac's layers of blubber absorbed the punishment with equal ease. If the corpulent crimelord even felt the punches hitting him, he gave no reaction (save the "ripples in a pond" effect from the points of impact across his whole body)

Back down on the ground floor...

As Tephra and The Fakir sped toward the door from the warehouse and street (respectively), a small crack had appeared in the floor of the street level offices. scant feet away from The Mumbler.

The Mormodillo, surveying the entire room from below ground with the magical sight provided by the Seerstones of Zahra-Hemla found his attention drawn to the shadowy figure within the glass cylinder atop the brass machine.

(OOC: One of the many traits of the Seerstone Sunglasses is penetrating vision)

As his vision pentrated the smoke within the tube, he gasped with shock. Inside the tube was none other than, Prince Sato Kobayashi, renegade heir to the throne of Earth: Nippon; otherwise known as...The Bionic Ninja!

The Mormodillo had spent many hours at the court of doddering old Ito Kobayashi, before the current machinations of the court of Earth: Nippon had drenched the world in blood.

Young Sato he had not crossed paths with since delivering his mangled body to the mysterious Roku cult of his home dimension, masters of nonu-se disciplines and cybernetics.

But Sato's legend had grown, and The Bionic Ninja was a frightening force for good in any world on which he set foot.

But what was he doing here? In the company of such as The Big Lummox and The Mumbler?

He decided it was past time he found out, and pushed himself through the flooring and into the first floor offices....


More to come when I have time to write it.

 

[Bonehoard Taffer]

::BUMP:: for posterity, and because I like superheroes.


BTW, It's coming along very nicely Billy. Stan Lee and Bob Kane would be proud.

 

[Caliber]

Hehehe. Bionic Ninja! I can't read that without doing the Bionic Man thing. Sounds great.

The story is defintely starting to get good, and it reads just like a comic (without, you know, the pictures)

I'm waiting for some more Super-Hero whupping.

 

[Windman]

I just wanted to pop in and say how glad i am this thread is here. Not only does this thread read like a great comic book, Billy's Games really play like a great comic book!

I can say this with authority as I am the Original Windman of the Justice Hurricane. When we traveled between locations fighting crime, I was our chief form of transportation, Picking up most of the other members with the wind and whipping and swirling them around me as we sailed en mass through the air, sometimes riding the jets streams to cross the continent. Hense the "Justice Hurricane" monkier. Great fun. I wonder what the new team will call themselves, for that matter I wonder what all my non-comatose former team-mates are up to and will they appear as NPCs or guest playersin this campaign?

I have played in a number of T.B.'s games over the past few years, from d&d to champions and more, I gotta say the man is the real deal, the best Gm I have ever played under. Period. Amoungst his many skills he is fantastic at bringing NPCs to life, and is incredibly good at add-libbing to cover any character unpredictability. And our old group of regulars in Vancouver (amoungst which Mormidillo and the Cosmic Commissar were regular players [of different characters though]) were definitely eratic enough to keep him on his toes.

I esepcially remember an episode of a vampire game where my character critically fumbled a listen roll and mistook some overheard conversation to think that a nother vampire gang were going to have us killed, so the entire night's episode was an unprepared raid by us that never seemed to be anything but the planned adventure.

Anways, I wax nostolgic because I am, well Windman man is still in a coma, and I am far from Vancouver, workin in Japan until mid 2004 or so, and as much as I really like my life here, ... there is no regular roleplaying group for me. So I check in from the computers at work regulary durring my breaks see what kind of trouble the new group will get into. Thanx again so much for putting this up on the boards Je... er, Teflon Billy. You rock.


I did order a copy of Mutants and Masterminds from Amazon.com though, just to read for now. It looks great!

 

[Teflon Billy]

Fodor's Cascade Ciy: The Justice Hurricane (and a reply to WindMan)

...I wonder what the new team will call themselves, for that matter I wonder what all my non-comatose former team-mates are up to and will they appear as NPCs or guest players in this campaign?

Heh, ask and ye shall recieve.

• Battery: Kinetic Energy-absorbing two-fisted brawler. After a much publicized breakup with Super! magazine's editor, Heather Hunter, Battery left the team. It remains unknown whether he was asked to leave by the magazine or not.
  
  He is presently known to be teaming with his current paramour, Assault.
  
• Brown Bear: After years of bumbling around with very little idea of how to interact with a world he baely understood, Brown Bear has finally found his footing. He currently leads The Justice Hurricane, owing to his immense popularity with the public at large, and with other high-profile heroes (he counts Professor Atlas, Lumber Jack and Space Hawk amongst his friends, and has lately been seen in the romantic company of the indigo enchatress, Ultra Violet).
  
• Kinetica, Mistress of Motion: Her telekinetic powers are equal to those of near anyone on the planet, but Kinetica's true power comes from her endorsement deals. As she is far and away considered the best looking woman on the planet, and has been very careful about which products she lends her image to, Kinetica has become an extremely wealthy woman. Her very presence lends an air of credibility to The Justice Hurricane it might otherwise lack. Though it was not well reported, Kinetica and Graham Stern (the JH's business manager) were married this past fall. Rumours to this effect abound.
  
• Mirror Image: The once insanely popular Mirror Image found himself in somewhat of a crisis of image following the Hoon invasion. The "Hero Swap" arranged by Super! magazine between Japan's Zen Team and The Justice Hurricane resulted in Zen Team's leader Zen Lion, being sent to team with the JH, while Mirror Image was sent to fight at the side of Zen Team. It was meant to be, essentialyy, a photo op for both teams.
  
  The Hoon invasion came during that time, and while Zen Lion fought admirably at the side of his new teammates, Zen Team was destroyed over an erupting Mt. Fuji at the hand of none other than Apocalypso. Mirror Image escaped the battle unscathed.
  
  Rumours abound to this day that he abandoned Zen Team, that he didn't fight well, that he was secretly a traitor, and a hundred others.
  
  He left The Justice Hurricane under a cloud shortly after returning to Cascade City, and is still somewhat active on the late-night talk show circuit, and in certain superheroic circles.
  
• Blackwing and Tyler Bane: Blackwing, in a fierce battle aboard the cruise ship Pacific Princess in Cascade City's harbour, was slain by his own sidekick, Tyler Bane.
  
  Though he was arrested by the police following the incident, no charges were ever laid against Bane, and no statement ever given to the press.
  
  Bane is currently for hire as a Metahuman Bounty Hunter.
  
• Windman: Comatose.
  
• Zen Lion: Current leader of the Japanese Team Crisis Ninja XDO (the newly formed Japanese national super-team formed to replace Zen Team)
  

I have played in a number of T.B.'s games over the past few years, from d&d to champions and more, I gotta say the man is the real deal, the best Gm I have ever played under. Period.

Awww shucks

Amoungst his many skills he is fantastic at bringing NPCs to life, and is incredibly good at add-libbing to cover any character unpredictability. And our old group of regulars in Vancouver (amoungst which Mormidillo and the Cosmic Commissar were regular players [of different characters though]) were definitely eratic enough to keep him on his toes.

I often wondered why I bothered to prepare adventures

I esepcially remember an episode of a vampire game where my character critically fumbled a listen roll and mistook some overheard conversation to think that a nother vampire gang were going to have us killed, so the entire night's episode was an unprepared raid by us that never seemed to be anything but the planned adventure.

Ahh yes. "They almost died tonight" overheard as "They all must die tonight".

[

 

[Teflon Billy]

It seemed like days since Bionic Ninja had, barely ahead of his Irridium Clan pursuers, finally located the Wu-Jen Morimoto and concvinced him to effect magical transfer from his homeland to the alternate Earth: Image dimension.

Morimoto had warned (though the transfer would ,in fact, be instantaneous) that his sense of time would most likely be warped during the travel.

He had expected many things from interdimensional travel. Boredom was not amongst them.

There had been virtually no other sensation than that of forward movement since he stepped through the portal. It was as if...

Suddenly, he felt a distinct and unpleasant sideways lurch.

He was suddenly reformed, surrounded by a greyish/green smoke (which strangely did not choke him). As the feeling returned to his fingers, he found them touching a smooth cool surface surrounding him. Some kind of "tube".

He looked out at an enormously, hideously muscled blue-skinned man with a steel helmet and yellow accoutrements (Big Lummox) and a smaller troll-like bespectacled man in a black leather jump suit (The Mumbler). Before them were a battery of scholarly types in lab coats, one of them turned to the troll man and said "well, that isn't him"...

The dwarf replied something unintelligible, despite seeming to believe he was speaking normally.

(OOC: The Mumbler has the Mute disadvantage, he can make noise...but simply cannot make himself understood. His only verbal communication is an indistinct, medium-volume mumble))

He surveyed the room and saw a crack forming in the floor, a brasss spear came through the crack, follwoed closely by a face he recognized!

It was none other than The Mormodillo, his father's old friend and confidant!

Beneath his mask, his face broke into a wide grin; perhaps these strange folk were The Mormodillo's allies...

But as he saw the armor plated form of his old friend come into view, he also saw the leather-clad dwarf follow his glance and notice Earth: Ballam's greatest hero...seemingly for the first time.

 

[Caliber]

Nothing like an aborted planar hop to ruin your day.

 

[Teflon Billy]

The Mumbler pointed at the emerging figure of The Mormodillo and raised the alarm; or rather, gave his version of raising the alarm: pointing excitedly and making a low, senseless noise to which no one paid any attention.

(OOC: As The Mumbler and Bionic Ninja were the only ones to make their spot rolls to notice The Mormodillo, I decided that Mumbler would spend the round "raising the alarm". One of the players mentioned that he was mute...when you got me, you got me )

With a growing mix of alarm and dread, The Mumbler watched the The Mormodillo pull back his arm and hurl the legendary Javelin of Teancum, at the last possible second he left off poking at the side of Big Lummox and combined a sidewise lurch with a reflexive and ultra short-distance teleport, narrowly avoiding the hurtling brass relic.

His elation was as short lived as it was unintelligible. Unaware as he was that the Javlin of Teancum returned to it's owner's hand after every cast, he was unprepared for it to pierce his back and emerge, point first, from his shoulder as it traced it's line back to the Armor-Plated Avenger. He was confused until the moment he hit the ground, unconscious.

(OOC: Though The Mumbler used his Blink Extra to increase his defense by 5, The Mormodillo still rolled well enough to hit. I debated using a villain point to re-roll his crappy damage save, but decided against it as The Mumber was more of a scout than a fornt line fighter, and frankly the jig was up for Damage Incorporated and their employer.)

Bionic Ninja seeing that he had dropped into the middle of battle, immediately shifted to his Roku Clan-trained Komori, or shadow, form.

Passing effortlessly through the glass tube that was mere moments before his prison, he slid up the wall of the offices into a corner of the ceiling, unseen.

At that moment, Tephra and The Fakir crashed through the door, joing The Mormodillo as he clambered out of his tunnel and snatched his returning Javelin out of mid air.

All three of the heroes confronted the awesome might of Big Lummox who turned his attention to the trio and growled "puny imbeciles...I WILL DESTROY YOU", and started toward them.

Tephra met the charge full on, asking the Lummox aloud "I wonder...do you melt?", and unleashing a blast of white hot Scoria stones from her outstretched palm.

The stones and flame washed over the lunging form of Big Lummox, blistering his blue skin to black in spots and, unexpectedly, causing his muscles to enlarge, his height to increase, and his mass to expand.

(OOC: Big Lummox has the Absorption power feeding to Growth)

His enormous blue fist came thundering toward the Volcano Elemental like a ball from a cannon....


More to come....

 

[Teflon Billy]

Big Lummox's blue fist connected with the volcano elemental like a wrecking ball; cracking her glossy obsidian surface and releasing a fine sray of glowing orange magma as she slid several yards away from point of impact.

A thin, reedy tune began to waft through the air as the Lummox moved to follow up his brutal assault. All heads swung to the source of the music...

The Fakir had his Pungi Flute pressed to his lips, his cheeks billowed as he used the repetitve tune to weave a hypnotic, serpentine, net around Big Lummox's mind.

(OOC: The Fakir must play his flute like a snake charmer to make use of his Mind Control power. He rolls well, and Big Lummox's will save is simply not up to the task)

Big Lummox's eyes glazed over, his feral snarl turned to a slack-jawed loll, and his charge evapoated into a gentle side-to-side swaying in time with The Fakir's whining tune.

Clinging to the ceiling in his Shadow Form, Bionic Ninja saw the opportunity to strike. Bracing himself in the ceiling's corner, he launched his cyborged bulk across the room, drawing his titanium Ninja-To in mid flight and executing a letter perfect Monkey Insults The Emperor maneuver on The Blue Behemoth.

(OOC: Bionic Ninja uses his "All-Out Attack" and "Power Attack" feats in tandem, resulting in total of +5 to his Damage, and -5 to his defense. He asks his GM if Big Lummox is aware of his presence. Lummox is not. He adds his "Surprise Strike" feat to the mix. The resulting total is high enough that Big Lummox needs a natural 19 or a 20 to not be knocked out cold. The GM (me--never much of a dice hand) burns 3 villain points trying to get that roll, and fails.

The Fakir watched as a shapeless black form hurtled away from the ceiling and took a recognizable humanoid shape moments before slapping a scabbarded sword deep into the crease where the Big Lummox's tree-trunk neck met his freight-train shoulders.

Big Lummox collapsed like a house of cards.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Back up on the third floor...

Kronus and The Fat Maniac continued to unleash rapid-fire fustigation and berserk sledgehammer blows (respectively) at one another proximate to a motionless Cosmic Commissar

Though both were bruised and bloodied, neither could be said to be carrying the day; The Monarch's speed and agility caused most of the Maniac's powerful blows to glance, and The Fat Maniac's enormous mass cushioned all but the most thunderous of Kronus's strikes.

Slowly the tide turned in favor of the Monarch, The Fat Maniac's punches getting slower and less accurate, his rage becoming more labored.

As Kronus's mighty blows sunk nearly to his elbows with each jackhammer strike, The Corpulent Crimelord's towering form began to slowly topple. As The Fat Maniac lost consciousness and his immense mass fell to one side, a spray of sticky web flew at all three costumed metahumans from the opposite end of the room.

(OOC: The Insectoid (pictured below) had--at The Cranium's command--come up the staircase from the second floor to reinforce The Fat Maniac's position. Seeing that The Maniac had already fallen to Kronus's onslaught, (and unaware that The Cosmic Commissar was inert) The Insectoid elected to spend a villain point to add the "area" extra to his Snare power)