Heritage

I figured I'd give you back that one detail you might have forgotten I mentioned earlier in the thread; one of the advantages of having a Cold War-era computer shoved into your skull

GM In time, the facts became clear; Arkady Dragomirov was found dead in his condo, garroted from behind in his bathroom, a Skorpion machine pistol just out of reach next to the sink. The house on Osgood Avenue burned to the ground the next day, a three alarm fire that the FCFD suspected involved large amounts of accelerant; nothing was recovered from the blaze, and the owner of the name listed on the rental agreement had been dead for seven years. Neighbors could only dimly recall the big man who'd lived there; he wasn't home much, lived quietly, received no mail. The woman across the street thought he worked in sales, or maybe banking. There was however one clue that Slave noted in its memory banks, a quick glance at The Man's gold money clip, engraved with the initials 'WHC'; it wasn't much, but it was something. Noemi was sure one day they would meet again...

Casey shrugged as she gently landed on the ground. "Well, it was my first time punching someone outside of Tae Kwon Do class, so...guess I probably do need a bit more practice." She looked at the unconscious thugs and nodded to herself. "Still, not too bad for my first time." In reference to the older woman's question, she nodded again. "Yeah, I'm just visiting right now, but I'll be coming here for school in the fall." It occurred to the blonde girl that the masked woman hadn't offered her name; maybe she wasn't the sharing type? Then another thought crossed her mind as she studied their captives. "Mmm, I don't like this; give me two seconds." Then there was a blur of motion and a rush of wind, and suddenly the five would-be-thieves where lined up in a row, neatly hogtied and missing their pants; Casey stood over them, grinning with satisfaction as she dusted off her hands. "There, that's better!" But then one of the radio's began to squawk and a woman's angry voice could be heard; Casey looked up at Terrifica in panic and mouthed, 'Should we answer it?'

Hell yeah, I'm down! Reminds me if Excalibur back in the early days.

Oh dear; well, let's see how this goes: Wisdom check: 1d20+2=12 Crap! Probably more realistic, though. Notice check: 1d20+15=21 Hopefully enough!

Once the five burglars made it inside, Casey quietly dropped down to the street, landing just outside the door. Peering into the darkness, she sighed; sneakiness wasn't really her thing, but she would try her best. She hovered in the air and slowly drifted inside, doing her best to use any furniture or doorways as cover, since she was surrounded by golden motes of light when she flew. It didn't take too long to find them; they were starting to raise their voices in frustration. By the look of things, the robbery wasn't going very well, which was actually kind of funny. As Casey tried to figure out her next course of action, a woman in black stepped out of the dark to confront them. Oh wow, a pro! I'd hate to get in her way. In the next few seconds, Casey learned three things: 1. The criminals were not all that smart (shocking!) 2. They all had high-tech energy weapons of some kind. 3. The mysterious newcomer was damn good. Still, even the best sometimes needed help, and Casey was already here, so why not? She flew at the nearest crook, fist extended to smack him in the jaw.

Unarmed Attack roll: 1d20+9=25 Bam! DC 22 Toughness Roll

1d20+9=12 Feh!

(blank)

Ana squeezed her eyes shut and took a breath of stale air. "I am the best chance you have of keeping all the innocent civilians you rescued from suffocating aboard this death trap; this ship was not designed to hold this many passengers, and the air scrubbers need to be adjusted. Plus word is you have no FTL." She opened her eyes again and leveled her ice-blue gaze at the mentat. "My name is Ana Plonsky of Terra, and I'm the best engineer you have on this boat; you just don't know it yet." Finally she acknowledged the reptilian giant next to her with a jerk of her head and a faint smile. "This is Sei; she makes sure I'm not interrupted while I'm working."

Ana rolled her eyes as her employer eagerly sampled the alien fruit. "Do you know what those things might do to your insides...?" She decided to hang back a bit, scanning her immediate surrounding with her eyes as Oskar prepared to do the talking thing; if things went bad, they would have a heck of a time getting back to the Xeno in a hurry! She also decided to keep an eye on Ballus, just in case; if she'd learned one thing from watching all those British TV shows, it was 'never trust the help'!

Grim attacks with her Cricket Bat of Justice! 1d20+12=30 So while Raging, her Strength is 22 and I'm counting her bat as a Club, so 6+2= Damage 8 effect. Add 15 for DC 23 Toughness Save (think that math is all right). Grim has Accurate Hearing and Scent, so she's got him dead to rights, but let me know if she has to make any other saves!

All the Duke's whimpering and feeble apologies just served to make Grim even madder, because he felt he was somehow special, and shouldn't have to grow old and die like everyone else. The way poor Bill was after that last fall, helpless and dying in bed- In a fury, the changeling roared and flung herself at the sparking, pathetic cyberDuke, her conjured cricket bat swinging again and again at him in a wild barrage of blows. "Shut! The Hell up! You Selfish! BASTARD!" She seemed heedless of her own safety in her rage.

From now on, posts from Grim and points from GMing are to be applied to Miracle Girl. Grimalkin (26) A-Haunting We Will Go (3) Double Dutch (7) Grim Demeanor (2) It Was A Graveyard Smash (5) Man vs Nature: Here Comes the Boom (3) Mysterious Circumstances (5) Silberman's Books: Grand Opening (1) Deep Freeze (12) Getting There Is Half The Fun (6) Incursion: Blood in the Water (6) Miracle Girl (11) Brain Drain (9) New Addition (2) GM (4) A-Haunting We Will Go (2) Last Fare of the Night (2)

Was it demeaning to have a giant reptile archer woman assigned by your boss to be your babysitter? Absolutely! Did all that go out the window the minute the whole planet went insane and became a terrfiying hell-pit! Even more so! "I refuse to die on a spaceship with a terrible pun for a name..." Ana muttered to herself; of course, that was about half of all spaceships... When the air started to get dodgy, she slung her gear bag up on her shouder and wormed her way through the packed bodies looking for someone remotely in charge; if someone didn't move, they felt an uncomfortable chill prompting them to let the small blonde Terran in the white armored spacesuit squeeze past. At last she made it to the bridge, where she politely cleared her throat. "Judging by the smell, you could use a Lor-certified engineer on this ship; I offer my services pro bono."

Happy birthday, Veiled Malice, wherever you are! Nightcrawler was Grim's first mentor, and a damn fine one at that!

GM The Rat could barely get her fingers around The Man's massive wrist; he quickly flicked the knife into his other hand, reversed his grip, and trapped her much more slender wrist in his vice-like grip. But though there would be no escaping those calused fingers, he did not crush her arm and barely bruised her skin. "Sorry it had to end this way, lady." And then her vision was eclipsed by a huge fist rushing at her like a frieght train- - - - Suddenly Noemi was awake, on her back, in the park across the street from the Randhurst; several police cars were in front of the building, as well as an ambulance and a local news van. Blood from a split lip trickled into her mouth, and her head felt like it was wrapped in damp cotton.

Whew, what a mouthful! We are getting ready to do a time jump to when the haunted house is open and full of victims...I mean guests! Feel free to do a nice juicy post similar to mine where you describe how your character pitches in during the construction phase!

GM For a moment, Grim thought the trailer would not survive the ape woman's excitement, but thankfully the structure held. She reached out and gently patted her massive arm. "I'm sure you'll do fine, sweetie; help yourself to some donuts!" - - - The next week proved to be an exciting and memorable time for all involved; heroes and civilians working side by side towards a common purpose, and having fun doing it! As Butch had described, the rest of the volunteers were a motley crew. Many were carpenters and electricians who maintained the old family fun parks and amusement piers up and down the Eastern Seaboard, some still working, some long retired but eager to pitch in and maybe pass their disappearing craft on to another generation. Several were veterans from a number of recent wars, frequently disabled in some way but still productive and excited by the project. And finally there were the college students, young and idealistic, in awe of the heroes in their midst but not afraid to get their hands dirty beside them. Early on, Grim and Butch had announced the proceeds of the haunted house were to be split evenly between the Our Lady of Mercy Shelter on the Southside and Freedom's Warriors, a local charity for disabled vets, and all three areas of the house were fully wheelchair accessible as a result. This added a few design challenges, but nothing this talented group couldn't handle. Volunteers set their own hours, but Grim and Butch seemed to be everpresent; the 'Mistress of Mystery' not only supervised, but also encouraged, amused and inspired her 'troops', as well as creating a seemingly endless supply of props, set dressing and various structural elements. She especially loved making someone else's ideas a reality, tweaking the glamoured object as they described it until it was just right. She could also been seen flitting about in pixie form, delivering food, coffee and messages to remote corners of the construction zone as needed. For his part, Butch was a rascal, rolling here and there in his chair, popping up when you least expected it, the consumate kibitzer offering his two cents. In time it became clear that he knew a lot about construction, especially carpentry, and possessed a near-encyclopedic knowledge of dark rides, funhouses and horror films, and his suggestions were frequently invaluable. In time, it became obvious to everyone that the leather-clad heroine and masked carpenter were father and daughter, but no one was rude enough to mention it.

Okay, so I think these two rolls are at play: Stealth check (pixie size!): 1d20+30=34 Search or Notice check (same bonus for both): 1d20+15=17 Let me know if other rolls are needed. Also Cerys' Detect Magic may well go off if Grim flies by her!

Lynn blinked a few times, then smiled and shook her head. "I'm...wow! I'm so sorry; lotta late nights, juggling work and school..." She thumped the side of her head and made a 'crazy' face. "Have a good day!" Once she was off the train, she found a quiet corner to duck into, quickly traced a circle in the air with a finger and muttered to herself. "Great, I just got off the train in Sunnydale! Though why am I surprised; where else would you pick up a magic book?" She tossed her bag inside her Vault, closed the portal, and quickly shrunk down to pixie size; she didn't know how much time she had before the train pulled out of the station, but she had to at least try to see if there were any signs of a struggle. As fast as she could, she flitted about the train, darting from hiding place to hiding place as she sniffed for blood or anything else out of the ordinary.

Lynn's eyes went wide when Tona cursed up a blue streak. <"Wow; you kiss your dad with that mouth?"> Then she sighed and nodded as she swirled her smoothie around. <"No, you're right, I shouldn't have gotten involved; old bad habit."> She sniffed the air tentitively, then shook her head. <"Don't think so; I don't smell her, but then again I don't know the full range of her powers. She any good with disguises?"> Then Lynn noticed Gretchen giving her an odd look. "What? Lots of people speak French!" The snarky bookseller held her hands up, shook her head and looked away. The changeling sighed as she continued in English. "Not that it's still any of my business, but...you wanna talk about it?"

Ana had been intently focused on a blue holographic map of Nocturis hovering above her right wrist, only rarely looking up at their actual surroundings; as such she was completely oblivious to the hand trying to snatch a few items from her carbon mesh storage belt. Her head snapped up at the sound of the confrontation. "Oh, uh, thanks boss.' Her cheeks showed only the slightest hint of pink. However when her employer started boldly striding off in the wrong direction, Ana showed no compunctions against grabbing the back of his coat. "Nope, that's not it." She held up the holo, the light-traced outlines of the buildings to either side of the street cycling forward to show the correct path. "This way."

Grim rolled her eyes at Terrifica's comments about the blueprints. "Well, duh, we're just using those as inspiration; the actual blueprints we're using are just buried under here-" She frowned as she began digging through the pile. "Somewhere..." Butch rolled his chair over to the door, pulled it open, and then just sat there open-mouthed staring up at the Devolved Rat. "Whoaaa." After a few seconds, he regained his composure, and his wits. "Hon, that gorilla you ordered showed up; you want me to sign for it?" "She's a her, Da- uh, Butch. Ah, here they are!" She pulled the roll out in triumph and spread it out on top of the archival plans. "But you're right, Terrifica, they can always be improved. And if you're all up for it, we can start right now." The wheelchair-bound consultant looked from the new arrival to the model, and then to Coiled Lightning. "Actually yeah, we've got a lot of supplies already in the shed; Sandy did a number on amusement piers all up and down the Shore, and we've got tons of perfectly good salvaged lumber and almost half a mile of track." He rolled closer to the model and peered down at it thoughtfully. "Hey hon? Since we got the Whipmeister and Jane the Jungle Girl here, how about we put some extra reinforcements on the catwalks?" He poked a finger into the model. "That way they can swing from 'em if they need to; we can even stick bits of flouro tape on the struts so they can see 'em better in the dark." "I like it, I like it!" Grim finally tore herself away from the plans to face the huge ape woman. "Whoaaa!" She sounded exactly like Butch as she held out a hand in greeting. "Grimalkin; wow, you are amazing!" Butch continued addressing Lightning's earlier question. "We've also got twenty-five junked training room droids from the Freedom League to play with; once we get 'em working again, Grimmie can glamour up some skins to make 'em look like zombies, werewolves or whatever." Then he thrust a finger in the general direction of the shed. "And we're not doing this alone; we've got retired craftsmen, a lot of vets and a crazy pack of college students hoping to score some extra credit, already drinking coffee and wandering amongst the wreckage, ready to go." He grinned and rubbed his hands together with relish. "So, we ready to do something stupid?"