Supercape

GM "I'm doing it to regain my form!" corrected Lorenzo, sticking a finger up in the air to emphasise his point. "And the best way I can do that is fungus! More precisely, the fungus that lives in cheese!" he said, patiently. Penny squirmed her mouth and put finger to lips, thinking on the matter. "Well, if the Puzzle Box brought me here I think there is a puzzle to solved. There always is. Admittedly, its the first time it has directed me to anything related to cheese" she conceded. "Excellent! The first journey is always the most jovial!" commented Lorenzo. "I don't know much about the fae realms. But what he says does kind of make some kind of almost sense" said Penny. "They are bristling with life. They might have the key to restoring his body. They might...."

Lament "Of course! By the morphin' might of power! By the skull of greypower! Thy card I do summon!" He fluttered his fingers in front of the gaurd, to distract him, then with a whip of his hand, pick pocketed the card from his sleeve with a most theatrical flourish. "Your majesty, be this your card?" he asked, bowing the deepest bow that one could bow without cracking one's sacrum, and holding the card in front of his royal Elvishness. It better be...or I'm in real trouble!

Skill mastery for acting (30) and sleight of hand (27).

GM "Cheese!" said Lorenzo, liking his vapourous lips with his vapourous tongue. "More precisely, blue cheese! I confess I am fond of cheese, but more exciting to me is the fungal veins of blue cheese that are so alive! You see, I am convinced that I need something with the same vibrancy to make myself whole again. The Cheese Golem was designed to be my protector, first, in the wild Fae realms, but its secondary purpose was proof of principle!" he said proudly. "And not any fungus will do. I need something positively dripping with life! Sparkling and shining, like a flower. Ah, if only a flower would do. But NO! I need a fungus, to invade my vapourous form and bring it back, fully, to the world of the living!"

Lament Lament got to his feet, initially with despair, then springing to excitement. "But wait!" he said to his audience. The illusionary golems took on startled, dramatic poses. "In fact, such a magnificently elvish cards would not come back to my hands, would they sir! No! I would not insult you so. Instead...." He pointed at the elf who had snaffled the card away. "They return from the NETHER REALM UP YONDER SLEEVE!" he concluded, pointing at the elf and the sleeve in question.

GM "We got attacked by a Cheese Golem" replied Penny, lightly, as if being attacked by a Cheese Golem was an everyday occurence for her, except for the days when she was fighting of zombie ninjas whilst sky diving, of course. "And Oz made a magic compass to find its maker!" she explained, pointing at the magic compass and Lorenzo. The Black Rose gasped. "A compass! Just what I need! To find the finest cheese in the wild fae realms! What a gift!" "Sir!" he said, bowing in a stiff Italian style with imaginary hat in his leather bound glove. "I would be most grateful if you could lend me said compass! Why...I was afill with dread at the thought of wandering this way and that in the wild fae realms in search of cheese. Your artifact would be most useful!"

GM "You...you sure?" whispered Jackson, for once lost for words. There was a limit to his desire for fame, and he had pretty much reached it. "Johns was the snitch was he? Interesting..." nodded Blowfish, mentally locking the name into his head. Further cogitations and contemplations on the matter were now interrupted. The Wall bounded up the stairs, slightly out of breath. He pointed a finger at Justice. "YOU! You get in my way for the last time, piglet!" he snarled, almost frothing at the mouth. "Next time you try to stop me, I throw you outta the window!" And with that, he charged!!!!

GM "I had a sevent foot Lucha Libre about to cave my head in!" screamed Blowfish, exploding in fury. It was fear that drove his fury, but it was fury all the same. His tic was worse than ever, and the fact that Justice had mocked him for it made him fury squared. "He's gotta point" laughed Kidd. "He might just get off. We got enough to tie him up in court though" he said. Then, he turned, making sure his back was faced to Jackson's camera. BLOW HIS HEAD OFF! he mouthed. "Keep that damn camera on, Jackson!" shouted Blowfish at the now sweating reporter. Jackson would give almost anything to keep filming. Almost anything. That didn't include his life, and he was beginning to fear for it. He looked at Justice for guidance... And meanwhile, the lumbering steps of the Wall grew louder...

Snakebite Witches Brew (Your better self) Cassandra Crow was very attractive. Yes indeed. Every curse, hex, or malign spell that even spent a second in her presence found her extremely attractive. They attracted to her. And, whilst in some crumbling half-forgotten library in a dusty part of America, she found some crumbling and half-forgotten book that detailed foul and malign spells and sorcery associated with the Unspeakable one. Written in some obscure mangled amalgamation of Latin and Hebrew, it detailed the Salem Witch Trials, cults devoted to the yellow king, the crawling chaos at the centre of existence, and a certain witch called Megan Crow. And of course, amidst all the barely comprehensible gibberish that had been scrawled in the book (in what looked suspiciously like human blood) was a curse on however so read the book. Cassandra Crow read the book, and the curse jumped on to her with accursed (literally) speed and impact. On the flip side, the Crow blood line were not merely attractors to every hex and curse in the land, but were often blessed (or, arguably, cursed twice over) by strange visions and third eyes. In Cassandra’s case, she could see into the past. And it so happened that Megan Crow could see into the future. And thus they met in some strange place beyond places and time beyond times, where the world around them was still and quiet, with its players frozen, and its form shadowed. The two of them drifted, like ghosts. Around them, Megan was swinging from a rope around her neck. They were in the final moment of Megan’s life. “The Crow blood!” gasped Cassandra. “The blow of Crow!” gasped Megan. But once the abruptness of the situation subsided, ‘twas not so strange to comprehend. The two were linked by blood and fate. And Megan, it seemed, was dead. Or, to more precise, was less than a second away from being so. “So, it seems I get me another moment” she said, hands on hips. She was a stout, flame haired woman with a hearty laugh and a pox-scarred complexion. “Not asked for, not requested, but given to me all the same. The fates do have a wicked sense of humour…” Cassie knew enough history to recognise the echo she stood in. “What are you, a witch?” “That’s what they call me” replied Megan. “Although I’m sure the Crow blood is not so thin that you don’t understand the truth of the matter” “Of course” replied Cassie, a little proudly. Nobody was going to say that her blood was thin! Although sometimes she wished it was. She knew more than an inkling about the Crow family, its cunning, its sorcery, its history. Was there more to know? Of course. Did Megan know it…? “But I’m always keen to know more….” Megan faded, looking at her almost translucent hands, and then reformed. “Looks like I don’t have much time to do the teachin’” she said. “Unless you got some way of pulling me out of the doorway, I’m a hairs breadth or closer from dead. I’m guessin’ the fates brought me to you, or you to me, or bothways, jes’ so I could pass on me heritage…although yer hairs still red as a tomato, so I guess me heritage is still being passed on!” “You can rest easy knowing that” replied Cassandra, a little gloomy. The curses still wandered the crumbling halls and corridors of the Crow Castles and Estates. “Brings me a little comfort going to my unmarked grave” remarked Megan. “I was born in England, father a puritan, mother a Crow” she started. “Great-great-great-something something something-granddaughter of Edwald Crowe” “I know him” replied Cassandra. “Seprens ad Regnum Diablo” “What’s that?” asked Megan. “Book he wrote. Serpent Kingdom of the Devil. But he was mad” “Was he? I wonder why?” “He was too mad too say, I suppose” “Probably saw too much. Like you and me” concluded Megan. “You know how it goes, I suppose. Witches, warlocks, madmen, priests and scholars. Sometimes all together, like Edwald from what I heard” she said. “Me father dragged me off to America to make a new holy life for us here. Didn’t work out so well” she said. “I can’t close me eyes to what I see now, can I?” “Would you if you could?” “No, I don’t think I would. Its like a thread you have to pull, even if ye know it’s jes’ going to unravel the whole garmen” “That it is” said Cassandra, finding a hearty solace in someone who knew – at least a little – how she felt. “And so fer all the bible study and thrashings to get the de’il out of me, I was still seeing what might come, like some pagan oracle. Which, I ‘spose I am. Nothin’ too devilish about it, well, maybe just a whiff of sulphur. Don’t do a girl good to be good. At least, not all the time!” “Or at all” commented Cassandra, who had got into her fair share of juvenile scrapes as a young girl. Or an old girl, come to that. Encouraged by kindred philosophy, Megan pressed on. “Aye, I do not regret me life. Plenty of disasters averted by my sight, plenty of girls and women glad of my witchcraft. But me father never did approve. Got the priest to call a witch hunt. And that, I did not see….” “Why not?” “Can’t see me own fate, only that of others. Even then, it’s a bit…blurred” she answered. “Never did get the hang of doing it totally accurate. Not sure anybody can, really” “Free wills a bitch” “And a lover” said Megan, to which they both agreed. “So that’s me life, girl” summarised Megan, who was beginning to fade again. This time, it had a certain final twang to it. This was it. “Make sure you don’t forget it!” Cassandra nodded, feeling a rising sense of sadness that grew from her feet to her tear ducts. “Don’t shed a tear for me. You got dealt the same hand as me, or near enough. Oh, I can smell the snake in you girl, don’t you worry about that. Some snake in me too. All the way back to ol’ Edwald, I be guessin’ or maybe even further!” Cassandra was not surprised by Megan’s astuteness. And she acknowledged the point. “Shed a tear for us all, if you shed any” continued Megan, almost gone now. “Point is, don’t go lamentin’ the hand yer dealt. Only the way you play yer cards” she explained. “I don’t regret my choices. Leastways, not most of ‘em. Despite all the snake in the blood, despite all the fire in our hair, despite all the black in our soul, we still got heart. I still did good, in me own way, and defied those who stopped me. I’m…proud!” And she was gone. And Cassandra snapped back to the library and the book in her hands, which, appropriately, crumbled to dust in her hands. But never mind, for the memories had been made. And so, some days later, in a dusty and archaic Crow mansion in Scotland somewhere, Cassandra Crow had had some time to ponder the words and life of her ancestor. Proud. It seemed a pride without vanity, for she had not demanded recognition or attention. Cassandra was proud too, but, she realised, it was tainted with vanity. Not of her looks or her intellect, but a desire to be recognised, to be immortalised, or even to be worshipped. She doubted she could change that, and she did not feel she needed to. One had to be true to ones nature, she felt - and Megan had, she thought, been of the same philosophy. But still, she would hold up the mirror that had been offered her and ponder, and wonder, and maybe even grow. She sat by the faint light of early morning dawn, in a shambolic library. The dust shone in the first streams of sunlight. She had a quill, and a tome, and a pot of ink. It seemed the only suitable way to do it. And so, she started, with firm and practiced hand, writing. This be the story of Megan Crow…

GM "That's pretty good work" summarised Lulu, trying to unmuss her hair and wipe the dust from her face. Even with Ether gone, the dust lingered, as a reminder of what he had done, and what he could do. "I had no idea it would play out like that, but then again, it rarely plays out how you think it does. Its a funny type of science, this job, but I wouldn't have it any other way" She surveyed the carnage around them. "I guess Director North will want to keep this quiet and hold it over ASTRO for further favours. He needs their coopreation and they are pretty neat guys most of the time..." "...and when they aren't, thats when W.E.S.T come in. And, if we need you again...." ~ Fin? ~

Lament Lament's eyes were only human (ish) but he could tell the signs of a snatch, a pocketing of a card, when he saw one. "Excellent, you madge!" he said, not missing a beat. He had dealt with all sorts of situations as Zombo! and he knew a thousand tricks and adaptations. And he could use that. "Now then, ladies and gentlemen, lords and ladies! I send this park of cards TO THE UNDERWORLD!!!!!" He held the pack of cards in one hand, then quickly smashed his hands together. Boom! The pack of cards was gone! The illusionary skeletons gasped. In reality, of course, the pack of cards was up his sleeve. But no need to let that show. "Now then! Only a KINGLY card could return from the realms below! Only a KINGLY CARD could possibly have the NOBILITY! THE GRACE! THE---WILL! to return to the land of the living!" he called to the audience. The skeletons shrieked in a terror. Clouds of ethereal vapour rose from the ground like a spectre. He opened his hands. "WHAT!!!? no card!" he gasped, face full of fear and desperation. "My King! My King! Please! I can explain!" he said falling on his knees, and hands together. Of course, he knew exactly where the card was, but let them experience the drama!

GM "It's not a summoning circle!" protested Lorenzo. "Its a portal to summon a gateway to the wild Fae realms. Which...is a summoning circle now I think about it!" he said, unabashed. "Ah, the wild Fae realms! They are so very very silly" "He got that right" muttered Penny. But not loud enough for Lorenzo to hear. "But also teeming with life! Why, they are the very essence of life! The fruit is the fruitest, the trees are the tree-eist, and the flowers! Ah! The flowers are quite the most floweriest! Bellisimo! Bellisimo!" He turned his gas-in-a-bowl head to Oz. "Now then sir, you seem to have some expertise in the matter!" he said. "So nice to speak to an equal! Maybe you spotted some errors in my circle that due to my haste and eagerness - for surely not my inability - I missed?"

GM Penny had more to say (as always) but a Cherrypop! was a Cherrypop! and she stuck one in her mouth. "Hmmm....they not as good as the real ones" she commented, although the words were not articulated very well due to her mouth being full of anti-nutrition. They might not have been as good, but she kept on sucking. "Nonsense! I am as fit as a fiddle!" replied Lorenzo to Oz. "I'm almost used to being an incopreal eldritch vapour, if you must know. But still, it is hardly optimal, is it?" he explained. A touch of melancholia hit him as he continued. "And...ah, I miss my sense of smell. I am a lover of the flower, you see. It is an ache to be unable to smell my flowers..." He could not weep, clearly (due to aforesaid afliction), but he did seem most sad about the matter. "As for my summoning circle. I am sure it worked perfectly! It just needs a bit of modification, that's all!"

Notice: 1d20+12 25 At this point I think its probably just sleight of hand, so taking 10 (skill mastery) for a 27 result. If it comes down to perform, I suppose acting is the best one, so again taking skill mastry for a 30 result.

GM Penny returned the hug, although rolled her eyes when she did so. "Another pixie. Yeah! Awesome! I love my ears, they are so pointy!" she said. "Seriously...you like pixies?" she said in a more curious voice. "I mean, they are pretty annoying. Fun, but annoying" she concluded. "Except for me, of course. I am not annoying at all. Right, Oz?" she said to Oz. She promptly kicked him in the shin as he studied the circle. "I said...Right? I'm not annoying at all!" she demanded. "What does all this mean anyway? Looks like some kind of puzzle!" She took out the puzzle box. "Is this what you wanted us to find?" she asked the inanimate and infinitley powerful sort of cube.

GM The circle was not, as it happened, designed for summoning. At least, as far as Oz could see, and Oz could see pretty far indeed when it came to the Eldritch. It was well crafted, surely. Lornezo was no slouch when it came to the arcane arts. But he was perhaps not so expert as he professed himself to be. An able man, but no genius. Around the circle were various incantations and rituals ritten in ancient languages, as well as Italian, Latin, and French. The circle had multipe references to fae magic and realms. As best as he could tell (and again, Oz could tell with the best) the circle was designed to open a portal to a fae realm. Small errors had crept in, and instead it had grabbed the nearest fae creature (or fae magic) that it could find. Neverboy, who may not (or may have) been fae, but certainly carried fae pixie dust.

The Red Rat Who was master to who? thought the Rat, wondering what a cobweb had been woven between the various players. It seemed it was the exec who was the master. But what was Rojero up to? Termination? that was a loaded term, too. Rojero....any hits? Asked the Rat via her comm system to Akhona. It was a long shot, but you never knew. Akhona seemed a smart one. "You sound scared, Rojero. Very scared. I wonder why that is? I wonder who you are scared of?" she asked, more gently, looking at the executive. "Maybe someone has a knife to your throat?" She half wished she had a knife herself, right now. She would throw it at that creey executive. "Do you need protection?" she asked, oiling her words with more kindness.

GM The man tensed as Caroline worked her charm. He didn't really know how to respond. "Don't make a scene" he growled. His eyes wobbled between Delilah and Caroline, oscillating rapidly. He didn't really know what to do. He wasn't exactly rude, more brusque. Or blunt. Or, arguably, befuddled. He eventually decided he needed to turn to face her. "I couldn't really say about the band" he said, voice deep and low. Now she was near, Caroline could see he had more than a couple of war scars. He had eyes that were older than his age, he twitched a little. Dick had thought he was ex-military, and that looked pretty spot on. "I'm just doing my job" he said, again unclear on what to do. If he had an M-16 and a target, he would be much more comfortable. "Making sure the lady is ok" he said, again, lacking any subtle social skills. He was hardly a covert agent. But if it camed to blunt force, he would probably be more effective. He looked disciplined and fit, anyway, and Caroline was pretty sure he was packing under his jacket.

Rev Rev smeared some of the engine oil on her white t shirt. Only it wasnt white anymore. Full of grease and oil. Just the way she liked it. This was her element...head inside a car engine. She was half tempted to detatched an arm and hand it to Sofia upon her request for a hand. But somehow she resisted...Sofia didn't look like she was in a laughing mood. And for that matter, neither did Dom at the moment. "Maybe the assassin is locked up" she said, positively. But it seemed unlikely. Still, no point in getting on a downer. Besides, she was rather pleased with her engine work. She kind of hoped Dom would have to pull the emergency lever. She would love to see that boost in action!

Sgt Shark "Here they come" said Shark, gruffly. His experience and training were finally starting to win over his olfactory centre. "Three of them, look like squids. Carrying something" he explained, his acute eyes picking up their forms even from a distance, even in the cold dark of the ocean. He could even pick up the exotic sense. His teeth and claws itched. Damn the Sea Devil! She was playing havoc with him! He couldn't think straight. His primal insticts were becoming dangerous. And he loved it! "I hope its a weapon. I want to bite something...someone...."

GM "Self defence" replied Blowfish, confidently. It wasn't the first time he had stared this kind of threat in the face. Blowfish was no supervillain, but here was his strength; gritty experience. The pucker up thread made him twitch. A furious deepening to his brow. "I'll remember this" he said, clamping his jaw shut. "As far as I can see, I have committed no offence" he said, again confidently. "I really don't want to be seen resist arrest. Of course I'll come quietly" he said. Kidd was not pleased. "That's it?" he groaned. Even Jackson seemed dissapointed at the capitulation of Blowfish. But maybe the action was not over yet. From the floors below, came the sound of a Wall charging upwards....

Lament "An excellent choice! A Kingly choice! The great ZOMBO approves. And now! I call upon the spirits of the nethereverweather realms, where the mysterious mysteries of mysterion do mysteriously mysterize!" The illusionary skeletons danced liked puppets on a string to emphasise the point. "Remember that card, Oh King, for it will soon traverse to the realms of the DEAAAAAAD!" he rumbled. He offered the pack of cards to the king, "please shuffle your kingly card into this card!"

GM "I swear I have no intent to harm these two!" said Lorenzo defiantly. "I can't swear no harm will come to them, for that it is a totally different matter and beyond any man's capability to swear!" He was proud. "Huh?" said Penny, eloquently and succinctly summarising her feelings. "Forgive me pedantry, but I am an alchemist! a botanist! a sorcerer! I am not diviner or peddler of gypsy fortunes!" he explained. "I cannot swear what the future will hold, but I have no intent to harm anybody right now. As long as I am released, that is. I may have the desire to knock this fools head once or twice..." he conceded, glaring at Neverboy. "But I am a man of reason rather than passions. Knocking his head would do me no good other than to make adversary, when I suspect I have no need to!" "On the stones and bones and my mother's tomatoes, I do swear no intent! And I can proudly say my mother had most excellent tomatoes!"

GM "Raised by the Pixies of Neverworld! I knew it! You had that smell about you!" said Lorenzo. "Not that I can smell any more, alas!" "Wow, Pixies!" said Penny, tearing off her hat. Her pixie ears showed. "I am the Puzzle Pixie! Mysterious, wise, and awesome!" she said, proudly. "Another one! Oh Cursed day! Will the insanity never stop!" groaned the Black Rose. "Who are you calling insane, buster!" retorted the Puzzle Pixie aka Penny Coin. "I'm not the one with a head that looks like a constipated fish bowl!" Quite what a constipated fish bowl looked like was anyones guess, but it did have a certain ring to it. "Fair point" conceded Lorenzo. "But it is precisly this malady that I seek to rectify! And these pixie chains are not helping matters!"

Starshot "I hope the fates are with you, Phalen. But I fear they are not" That was all he had to say to Phalen. It was not without sourness, for he did find the decision unpalatable. But he was firm and without regret. It was at least an honest decision, and sometimes that was all a man could make. "Lets give him what we can spare" he told Soreen. "He has chosen his path, and although it will be a short and brutish one, it is his to make. I would extend him some charity, but a man has to live with the consequences of his decisions, and so shall he" "I think we should now proceed as planned. We must understand what we face, and how to face it. The flyer may be too big for scouting, but it can at least take us partway..."