Geez3r

Most of the first floor is empty on this side of the manor (at the moment), so getting in is as easy as popping open a window. The guards that were stationed nearby were called away to deal with the obvious threat in the courtyard. From the general hubbub he can overhear, there are more guards axing their patrol patterns and trying to set up a more defensible perimeter. And point of order, following the smell of the armor would put Kingsnake in the main manor.

Initiative Roll: 1d20+3 4 Ok, terrible initiative all around. There are about 6 guards milling around outside and 4 others that are in close enough proximity to be "in the fight", two on the roof and two more in the interior moving to respond. More may or may not join depending on what happens. They are all minions. 28 - Bastion - HP x3 - Unharmed 18 - Kingsnake - HP x1 - Unharmed 15 - Grimalkin - HP x1 - Unharmed 11 - Brandish - HP x3 - Unharmed 4 - Goons (10+) - Unharmed Bastion is going to zap one of the goons, now that I realize I cut the area of effect powers from his array, and currently full allocation to Flight. Attack Roll - Blast - Accurate Attack (+2/-2; DC 27 Tough): 1d20+10 22 which is an impossible save so the minion drops like a sac of potatoes. Rather than tack on another post, I just edited my last one to have Bastion shoot back. Kingsnake is up. 28 - Bastion - HP x3 - Unharmed 18 - Kingsnake - HP x1 - Unharmed 15 - Grimalkin - HP x1 - Unharmed 11 - Brandish - HP x3 - Unharmed 4 - Goons (9+) - Unharmed

Since I've seen no objection raised, I've edited my last IC post to kick off the action. Chris, please roll initiative and we can get started.

And it's time for initiative rolls. Initiative: 1d20+10 28 If no one has anything else to add, I'll tack on the "getting the battle underway" bit onto the last post, but I didn't want to cut anyone off if they had anything else to say in regards to the "plan".

"If we had longer to prepare I could have devised a better stratagem, but as time is of the essence, I feel a two pronged approach will suffice. Grim, follow Kingsnake and gather reconnaissance about the premises and our foes contained within; neutralize if an opportunity presents itself, but priority is identification of key targets inside the compound. Rendezvous with Brandish and myself after you complete your sweep, and the two of us rout the guards, or barring that, leave markers on the inside so we know where to follow. If possible sabotage any means of escape. And if you get a chance, knock some sense into Kingsnake. Brandish, I'm the more durable of the two of us, and I prefer ranged combat. I'll set up an initial distraction and gather as many of the guards as I can in a single place as I can. They'll seek cover and hunker down when I begin my assault; that's your cue to flank them and cut them down from behind when they're forced into close quarters. Get into position and wait for my signal, you'll know it when you see it." relayed Bastion, taking the tactical lead. After a moment and everyone had gotten into position to begin their assault, a giant light lit up the compound. Its source was 50ft tall replica of the Bastion armor, constructed out of the same hardlight that had carried Kingsnake just a few moments ago. Bastion's amplified voice rang out over the grounds “Return what you have stolen from me!” The guards took exception to that. And wait, were they shooting lightning back at Bastion? From their fingertips? Yeah, this just got more complicated. Bastion quickly returned fire, downing one of the guards now that he knew they were not dealing with ordinary individuals and could therefore freely use more robust munitions.

Notice Checks: 1d20+4 12 Welp, turns out nobody can see squat.

Bastion Legacy of Hatred - 9 Posts (mix of IC & GM, all credit to Bastion)

Yes it does. Sorry, got stuck working late last night.

Grim notices that the lights on the eastern side of the main manor are flickering every few moments or so, and you see people pass in front of the windows at one point or another, except for the east wing. Kingsnake unfortunately can't take in the sights, but he does detect that same other worldly smell from the lock up hanging in the air, only now much more concentrated and it permeates EVERYTHING.

Throw up some notice checks to spot additional details. Notice Check: 1d20+10 22

It takes the motley crew of super heroes about 20 minutes of tracking the trail of ozone over the bay before they're back over solid ground. The thieves seemed especially cautious as even while they were airborne they zigzagged their path and even sent stray bolts of lightning in different directions to avoid being followed, but to no avail. Their search brings them to the edge of North Bay, one of the wealthiest districts in Freedom City. The two thieves had made their way to a stately manor on top of a hill. The sprawling grounds, enclosed by a historic wrought iron fence, were well manicured and maintained with decorative topiary adorning many of the walk ways, which were well lit. There were two main buildings on the grounds; the main manor which was four stories of Victorian-era perfection transplanted to America, sat almost in the middle of the estate while the smaller manor sat just to the north, and while only two stories and on a much smaller scale than the main manor, was certainly still quite posh. Most of the lights in both buildings were on. Finally, there were several individuals, likely guards given their identical attire of dark winter gear, patrolling the premises, but they did not appear to be particularly on edge or alert.

Sorry I've been away. Went to my parent's over the holidays and forgot what my password was and left my cheat sheet back home.

"Agreed. The priority is getting my suit out of the hands of criminals and back under lock and key. We can round up the rest of their team after." replied Bastion as he climbed back into his suit. "For the record, my suit's new armaments are focused on energy based ordinance rather than traditional kinetic rounds as was true in the previous model, including the one we're tracking. Standard procedure would be to remove all armaments and dispose of them so even in working order it shouldn't be able to shoot back. New model has a new trick or two." he said proudly, though it was a little difficult to tell through the voice modulation. The suit hummed to life as he pointed his palm to a nearby patch of grass and immediately a light blue wire frame of a hollowed out cube, minus the top, that was large enough to carry a full grown man comfortably sprang into existence, and a moment later it fully solidified, with a cord of energy running back to Bastion's palm. "Bastion tech: a thousand a one uses. Among them, carrying passengers. Patent pending, coming soon to a store near you." he added only half joking.

I forgot how quiet some of the heroes are. mused Bastion to himself as Kingsnake wordlessly jumped off the roof. In Blackstone, you've got all you can do to avoid setting one of them off on a rant about how some hero will rue the day they crossed them, or how their unparalleled genius was never given the respect it deserved. Then again I doubt anyone would have called me subtle. Probably still wouldn't actually. he continued before he followed Kingsnake off the roof, setting down a ways away from both the practically mute hero and the crater he was investigating. It was obvious why when he left rather deep footprints in the ground where he landed; that suit was designed for many things, grace was not one of them. The low hum that emanated from the suit dimmed as its inventor stepped out of the back of the suit, looking substantially less imposing in a white button down shirt and khakis. He knelt down next the crater opposite Kingsnake and proceeded to eyeball the trajectory, doing quite a bit of math in his head. "They probably went about a mile and a quarter that way, so right about at the corner of 140th and 137th, give or take a quarter mile scatter." What Kingsnake (and Grim) picked up however is that while all four of the thieves were indeed here at one point, only the super-strong woman and one of the males went north west. The lightning woman (who could evidently fly) and the other male went north, and they were the ones to bring the suit with them.

Anything to add before I move us along Chris?

"Unfortunately the suit's sensor package is rather bare bones at the moment - I'm integrating a prototype power core and armaments, and all of the systems aren't quite compatible yet. But I should be able to approximate a trajectory given the size of the depression in the soil. I'll be able to determine the amount of force required to create that impression and therefore know how much energy was in the leap. The landing zone won't be particularly precise however - too many variables." replied Bastion as he tried and failed to stroke his chin. Recovering he turned his attention to Kingsnake. "I assume you can help track them and narrow down our search area, or does that pinging serve no purpose other than to annoy dogs and cats? Speaking of, we should know each others' abilities if we're going to be working together. Most immediately is there anyone else here who can cover large distances quickly?"

"You're correct. My old suit had an alarm on it that would notify me if it was being tampered with. Designed it to be nigh-indestructible, still dumb luck it was still operational, but it likely used up the very last drops of reserve power in the suit otherwise I would still be getting pings on its current location. As for contacts, I made most of the components in house custom built. I only contacted other individuals when I needed something especially illicit that I could not obtain through the means of my otherwise legitimate business at that point in time. However as part of the build up to my release I testified in detail about these sources and to my knowledge all of them were rounded up. Likely made more enemies in doing so. But those enemies were smugglers, not scientists, not our target demographic." relayed Bastion truthfully, the mechanical voice reverberating in the night air.

LUCK OF THE NONIRISH'D BY HGM 3pp for Bastion I'll spend 1 point to give him another rank of Luck for a total of 2. I'll spend 2 points to give him: Sense Motive 8 (+10).

It was fairly high profile and rather recent. "Eric Micheals, aka Bastion, aka Malice. A prominent and rather deranged villain active in Freedom some years ago. Hated meta humans, and was a running man with Captain Knieval. He was based in Riverside, and his secret HQ there was blown sky high when he was captured. He was recently released from Blackstone as part of a new initiative they're pushing to rehabilitate supervillains. He has thus far avoided going on a rampage." Or something to the effect of that. But with heroes I would assume they'd keep tabs on reforming villains, so feel free to dig deeper if you'd wish.

"Hey, get back to your posts morons!" shouted Burke as the cops began to split. "Anything with dangerous radiation is impounded on the sublevels. See?" he says as he pulls the Geiger-counter out of the crime scene bag (hey this is Freedom - you never know), which proceeded to spark to life, but barely. "H-He's right. Whew." confirmed one of the CSI officers to those left in the room. "Great, now that we got that settled someone get me the damn chart so we can call it in to dispatch so we know what they're looking for." barked Burke trying to get a handle on the situation again. Just because there were capes on the case didn't mean he got the night off. "Ok, 35B... 35B... here it is, it's... damn - this is going to get complicated." Meanwhile, on the strangely well populated roof as the heroes were trying to determine where each other's loyalties lied, the blue light that had been traveling across the had made its way close enough to the complex that its source could be determined. It was a battle suit approaching at a rather high velocity. Specifically a red, white and blue, tank-like power suit. Bastion set down on the roof with a mechanical *thunk* as the engines shut off a few feet off the ground. He surveyed the heroes for a moment, looking from one to the other. "Who took my suit?"

Point of order: all 4 of the people who broke into the complex were not carrying guns. I was implying that all the guards in the complex carried the whiff of gunpowder and the like while the intruders did not.

Kingsnake finds out quite a bit from his investigation of the area. Firstly, the state of the room was definitely a deliberate effort to conceal the true objective. By tracing the smells you're able to pin down the one object that left the room rather than merely being tossed around it. It smells of slagged metal, radiation, caustic chemicals and something you can only describe as “not of this world”. It was originally in a casket sized crate labeled 38B which is now scattered throughout the room. Brandish meanwhile surveys the exterior of the complex. When the thieves left, they didn't take a straight path, instead darting and zig zagging through the courtyard and walls. You find plenty of evidence of a fighting retreat, with bullets from the guards' guns littering the ground, and you get the impression most were either deflected or bounced off something hard given how much damage they show. Outside of the complex there is a small crater with two foot prints in the center. Judging from the orientation this was how at least one of their thieves made their exit with a super powered leap. The closest destination would peg them in Port Regal, but you don't know how far they could have gone. He can also see a faint glowing light coming across the bay towards the facility. Back at the entrance to the complex, Grim is greeted by more than a few smiles and kind words. A gruff looking detective with a graying handlebar mustache walks up offering his hand “Made pretty good time. Detective Burke. Hey rookie, help the lady with the gift basket. Appreciated by the way.” he adds as an aside. “Follow me and I'll show you what we're dealing with.” he said as he leads her past the police tape. He remains mostly quiet as he makes his way to the main lock up. He doesn't bother trying to keep sight of the pixie as she flies about the room instead focusing on his note pad and reading aloud to the room. “At approximately 10:34pm the security personnel became aware of intruders in the lockup, and moved to detain. Fight broke out as the intruders fought their way out. We have conflicting reports on their numbers and the security systems were comprised due to electrical interference. It was at least 3 assailants, working as a coordinated unit, all confirmed to be meta-human. Electrical projection and super-strength are confirmed capabilities. By 10:40 the subjects had left the scene. We believe they stole something from inside this room. We're cataloging now to determine what it was, but the place got trashed in the meantime, so its slow going.” While Burke gives them the run down, Grim and Kingsnake's senses are both keen enough for them to believe there are four assailants, two men, two women judging by those that didn't smell like they were carrying a gun. Kingsnake can make the jump to conclude that the female intruders are the ones whose powers are mentioned judging by how intermingled one of the perfume smells is with ozone and the size of one of the hand prints in a crumpled vault door.

With Kingsnake's natural athleticism and enhanced senses he is quickly able to make it past the police perimeter. Once inside the task gets more difficult as the building is designed to impede invasion and there are police and guards swarming the area. However, the natural layout of the complex is no longer in play as the signs of a hasty retreat assisted by super-human abilities is evident. Several reinforced walls have been smashed to pieces, scorch marks decorate the walls and floors while the faint smell of ozone permeates the air. You do note that most of the damage leads away from the main evidence lock up, whoever the perpetrators were, they managed to gain entry without being noticed, but were noticed at some point during their heist. Inside the main lock up, the security lightens somewhat as a crime scene has been set up. Most of the personnel are securing the perimeter, while a small number of officers are canvasing the scene. There are dozens of shelving units in the room, stacked to bursting with numbered and lettered crates, or at least that's what it would look like had everything been left orderly rather than ransacked. If you had to guess, the thieves either didn't know which crate they were looking for, or they did and wanted to stall the police from discovering their intent.

I think I'm going to keep the circle small on this one. Brandish, Grimalkin and Kingsnake OOC Thread

OOC for this thread