Supercape

GM "Ummm...yeah...ah...sure...." muttered Ratchet, glum and miserable. "I mean...I can. I don't want to. But I suppose its better than a lungful of arsenic or having my knees shattered by Hettie" he conceded. "I'll just hang back. Have a smoke. Don't you worry, I'll come if you run into problems!" he smiled, trying to infuse some enthusiasm back into his bones. And so... The mysterious building was full of dust and the bones of a building. The walls and ceiling where largely there, but it was easy enough to walk through, what with door frames without doors, and incomplete walls. The materials used certainly looked odd. Perhaps not such a fragrant rip off derived from Mannequins own ceramics, but pretty close. There was the occasional creak, or groan, as if the house was actually moving... Which, in fact...it was!!!! From the walls around, a tumble of masonry and ceramic material cascaded onto Mannequin. "Intruder...Anomaly....Rebuild..." came a hissing voice, which reminded Mannequin very much of the hissing voice at Vision Inc, from the face on the box. Virtually the same, really....

GM The Many Mind is superior to your feeble intellect. Together, the Many Mind is strong. Together, the Many Mind is stronger than any beast. We bow to now King, be it king of rats or king of beasts. The Many Mind will be the only. Lobisomen felt an encroaching dominating psychic force in his head. The mutated rats looked at him, as one, black beady eyes completely hard. "See? They are a blight on this earth..." hissed Vermin, who, with alarming speed, scuttled up the walls and ceiling, coming down the other side of the sewer tunnel. He succeeded in biting the head off one of the Many mind. "Pfah! To resort to violence! Mah! I shall call my army! A King needs soldiers!" hissed the rat. "I've got you, buddy!" shouted Filth, drawing courage from his friends (if the rat was indeed a friends) actions. He shot bang bang bang! the bullet noise echoing down the tunnel. And another mutant rat bit the dust....

So their will is being eaten away by numbers depletion, but still high. Will Save: Will Save vs Fear: 1d20+11 16 which, I think despite being a bad roll, makes it? (I have it down as Fearsome Presence 3) On a positive note, Vermin now feels you are on his side, and will thus act accordingly: With an attack bonus of +15 he can auto hit a rat, but only inflicts a damage 2 result. : 1d20 2 and another many mind rat bites the dust. In addition you may make a hearing notice roll DC 5, but 100' away (so -10 to roll unless you have extended hearing). ROUND 2 29 - Many Mind Rats [18 left] Unharmed. 8 Are on the floor, 10 more in the pipes. 25 - Filth - Unharmed 21 - Lob- Bruised, Fatigued, 3 HP (NB: Lopping off one bruise with the various time passed since the ant fight etc) 21 - Arc - Injured, 4 HP 15 - Vermin, Unhamred Note the Mind Rats have a Defence of +5 (15) and are minions. Many Mind Rats psionic powers are now depleted. They will fire off a mind control on Lobisomem, DC 19 Will Save Filth, now emboldened and ordered by Vermin, will fire off a shot, taking 10 and hitting one. Tough Save vs Bullet: 1d20 2 this hits and kills another Mind Rat. Which incidentally lowers the Mind Control to DC 18, which means that if Lob got an "18" save" he will briefly fall under the mind control but snap out of it straight away when Filth kills a rat. Which means Lob is up again.

GM "Man, can't even murder someone slightly these days. And who said it was manslaughter anyway? You know, you are driving a fully loaded truck. Maybe the breaks fail. Maybe you have to swerve several times to hit, I mean avoid, the target?" he grinned. "No?..well I guess that means..." And a moment later, very nearby...... Round the back, the wire fence was there but pretty easy to cut through. Ratchet even had some cutters in the Ratchetmobile he had brought along (alongside a spanner and a swiss army knife). The control centre...the little prefrab building in the centre of the complex, was some way away. There were various half finished buildings dotted around in various states of completion, although none were complete by any measure. "Look, there..." pointed Ratchet at one precisely half built building. "That's where I found that blue cube thing...damn....I swear the building has built itself...." he muttered. "Its bigger than yesterday...and look..." he added, noting the "KEEP OUT! HAZARDOUS MATERIALS!" Signs and tape all around it. "They put that up too..." "We could go through that building. Ain't nobody going to bother us there" he pondered. "Although we are probably going to breathe in some arsenic or something. Otherwise, we can pick our way through the other buildings, under cover of darkness..." he grinned. Then looked at the clear sky and bright sun. "Well, maybe not so much darkness. But this place is half deserted. Probably won't be spotted. Probably...."

Rev "Cool. Party time. Hey, you know what? I'm pretty sure 2018 is a pretty special year. Santa has decided only to give presents to naughty boys this year. Pretty wild, right? So, that means, Larry, that if you want any presents you better be really naughty, ok?" she explained with a wink at Zhu. "But first things first. And that means eat as much as you like Pizza. Did I say eat as much as you like?. I mean eat as much as you can. And then eat a little bit more" she grinned. She didn't actually get that hungry these days. At least, not for food. She did have the urge to drink petroleum every few days. "And meanwhile, Auntie Zhu has really mean party tricks. Magic! You believe in magic, right?"

Rev "Pizza great! I'll have a golden Pizza please. You know, the one topped with gold bars. That's real tasty, although the gold bars do get stuck in my teeth. And when I pick them out they sometimes fall into my wallet" smiled Rev. "Hey, kiddo. Your mum didn't tell me how handsome you are! Wow! How come your head doesn't explode with all that handsome stuffed in it?" she asked. "That must be real hard for you to live with. Hey, you know what? The only way to sort that out is to eat lots of candy and play lots of video games. And, as an added bonus, its good for you teeth and eyes if you do that!" she grinned. "Well, one night only!"

GM "Yeah, sure. They, err...they might have fired me for being you know, a little bit crazy, and maybe a little bit going to whistleblow on the whole thing" said Ratchet, wringing his hands. "When I found that stuff, I took it to the boss. He set Hettie on me. Hettie the hammer, she is called. I swear she is eight feet tall and could bend steel with her ass cheeks. And she is pretty good and swinging that hammer. At bricks and stuff, sure. But also onto kneecaps" he explained. "But I do still know this place well. I can get us in round the back. If you can snip the wires, or something. Or I could hotwire one of the trucks and just drive over everything. And everybody. that would be cool, right?" "The Boss, he is a slimy toad. Mister Brick. Expert in setting up cheaply built housing at expensive prices, if you know what I mean...."

Lament "I ain't much for sleepin'" agreed Luther, sitting down and taking a spoonfull of pie. He found it rather tasty. "Please to meet you, ma'am. I guess Kendra told you about tonight. Right now, feels like a chilly world, and I think the whole world could do with a mother, even if you don't reckon you are up to the job" he explained, with a toothy smile. "How the patient?" she asked Kendra. "I'm guessin' she ain't been the talkin' type. Damn, she must have been spooked real good" he sad, sadly. And with a little dash of anger. How he would like to set the void loose on the violators who had spooked her. "She should probably see a doctor. Or a shrink" he offered, although it hardly seemed the time, or the place, to get one.

GM "She probably won't" agreed Ratchet. "A Sense prevention haze seems pretty darn awesome. What does that do? Is it....like a haze? which prevents senses?" he asked. "Sound pretty spooky, if you ask me. In a good way, man. A good way. And, after all, this is some seriously spooky stuff. Man, did I tell you about this cube that grew a face and started speaking, man..." He slapped his forehead. "...wait, wow, that was with you, yeah? Man, my memory is fried sometimes, man!" he muttered. "This haze thing. Wouldn't that just blind the guard? I mean, she couldn't see us, but she couldn't see anything. Going blind might like freak her out or something..."

The Red Rat "Witness? Witness? That isn't good" said the Rat, thinking aloud. "And it also sounds pretty incriminating. The law like to protect witnesses. Not shoot them" That helped make sense of it. A little bit. But on the other hand, she didn't like those robot things looking ready to rip flesh from bone and throats from necks. These guys were thugs, but she didn't want a pile of corpses just yet. She vaulted over a work station and ducked behind it. Ammunition: High Explosive Round... She ordered one of her smart guns. With barely a look, she fired the round into a pack of thugs and robots, and bore witness to the booming explosion that ripped through the building...

Thank you! Well they are all a bunch of thugs as far as the Rat is concerned, so... Move action: Take cover (I guess partial cover?) Standard action: Fire High Ex Round into a bunch of them. (Area effect Damage 5) At the moment she considers Op2 relatively benign so trying to avoid him for now, but with a bit of luck thinning the herd, so to speak.

GM The rusted and ancient pipe, that was probably at least a hundred years old, parted like paper under the mighty claw of Lobisomem. And from the shattered ends, a tumble of rats poured. They were of average size. Perhaps even slightly smaller than your average sewer rat. But they had pulsating heads of at least twice normal volume, pink and bald. You attack the many mind! You will suffer! Lobisomems teeth closed around one of the many mind rats in a pipe, and flesh and bone parted with great satisfaction, leaving a bloody taste in her mouth...

Ok so I am going to have to play a bit fast and loose with the rules here as the many mind is...odd. So that surge action will count for something (and fatigue Lob, although of course he can HP out of it). The swipe and bite will smash open the pipes and several Many mind rats will fall out of it. The bit action will tear one asunder (its toughness is zero so unless you are pulling punches or using accurate attacks, I will simply waive that tough roll on the grounds of common sense). That makes Arc up. NOTE: I have taken a bit of licence here with Lob's action, and it is slightly "edgy" as you have killed a rat (a mutant evil overlord gestalt mind rat, but still). If you have any objections, please let me know and I will rewind. To my mind this felt reasonable and tried to do honour to intention and personality, but its your call. And you could always add in a new complication regarding rats.... if you want to roleplay taste, the many mind rat tastes of mutant brains and might even have a non-mechanical effect on mood/thinking/brain (or, if you want to spend an HP for inspiration, we could allow eating that brain gives you insight into the many mind).

Starshot Starshot took careful inventory of the Pirates wares. It was a good haul, by his measure, although he was no mechanic. More food and water was always handy. He looked at the grenades carefully. Whilst he used smoke and gas grenades himself, and found them of use, he did not like the explosive variety. He didn't like explosions at all. He felt his scars itch with distant memories. He decided to toss the grenades to Laark, with a "be careful" warning. A thought struck him, and he went to address Phalen. "Did you know these men? Pirates? Where you one of them? Or running from them?"

Rev "Oh yeah, I had to cancel a few hot dates. My third boyfriend got a bit grumpy about it, but my fifth one was really sweet about the whole thing" replied Rev, breezily with a smile. "But, you know, its cool. Too commercial these days. Say, did you know the actual St. Valentine got clubbed to death. A fitting end!" she declared as she snooped around the house looking this way and that. She was neither intimidated by, or in awe of, beautiful people. As far as Rev was concerned, you could only look good after working on an engine for two hours and glowing with sweat, oil, and dirt. She had made sure her sneakers were clean though. Didn't want to trudge in some dirt. "So where's the rascal?" she asked.

Starshot Crash on Volturnus Vignette [+1/2 PP] Red Rat Hijacked Soviet Kitsch Vignette [+1/2 PP] Mr Murk Formatting Error Codex Immortus: Voin (5 Posts) Vignette [+1/2 PP] Rev Superpowered Babysitters [18 Posts] Pitching in Far From Home Vignette [+1/2 PP] Lord Steam Long Way Down Lament The Room Where It Happens Vignette [+1/2 PP] Bloody Mess (Maxed) Shaking the Branches Vignette [+1/2 PP] Flux (Maxed) Cape No More Vignette [+1/+2 PP] Rene (Maxed) Vignette [+1/+2 PP] Pitch (Maxed) Vignette [+1/+2 PP] Synth (Maxed) Vignette [+1/+2 PP] Ronin Ronin [+1/+2 PP] GM Deeper Underground Block Head The Butcher Lunar London High Note Hot Shot Notes Mess and Flux Maxed posts to rollover to Flintlock Guide point to Starshot GM Posts to increase (if needed) Starshot to 50 Posts / 4 PP, Red Rat 50 Posts / 4 PP, Flintlock 25 Posts / 3 PP (Maxing out), Lord Steam 15 Posts / 2 PP (Maxing), Murk 50 Posts / 4 PP, Rev (Who I think has reached 50 anyway so wont need boosting) 50 Posts / 4 PP, Lament to 25 Posts / 3 PP, and Ronin to 25 Posts / 3 PP If there is any mileage left afterwards, Boost Lament to 50 Posts / 4 PP and then Ronin to 50 Posts / 4 PP Vignettes: Done a lot this month. By my post count they all are 1200 words + so I guess makes them 2 PP at discretion of counter. In any case, can you use the "rollover" ones (Synth, Flux, Bloody Mess, Rene, and Pitch) to give PP to the Red Rat and Starshot (should be easily enough to boost them up to 250 PP this month), and any spare to assign to Mr Murk.

GM "Never!" whispered the Many Mind back in Arcturus' head. We/I are the future. We/I have ascended. We/I will rule this domain. The Many Mind is master. You will obey or be destroyed. And you have forced us/me!.... A blast of psychic energy unfolded in Arcturus' head. An exploding nova of pain that felt like every blood vessel in his head had just exploded. "See! See! The Many Mind seeks nothing but breeding....expansion....it will roll over the world....!" hissed Vermin. "This ain't right! Ain't right at all!" came the hoarse voice of Vermin, pulling out his pistol and backing off. Vermin clung to his shoulder smirking as Filth, full of fear, walked backwards through the sludge of the forgotton tunnel, his pistol gripped in a sweaty palm...

With the DEX tie that makes 29 - Many Mind - Unharmed (Scuttling in pipes around you) 25 - Filth - Unharmed 21 - Lob- Bruised, 3 HP (NB: Lopping off one bruise with the various time passed since the ant fight etc) 21 - Arc - Injured, 4 HP 15 - Vermin, Unhamred Many Mind will start off with a Mental Blast 10 against Arcturus (Will Save DC 25) Filth will pull out his pistol as a move action and back off (moving) Lobisomem is up.

GM And so...a little later.... Ratchet drove the "Ratchetmobile", which miraculously started after a few false starts. It seemed to be made of rust, held together by dirt. One had the distinct impression that if you looked at it too hard, the engine would fall out. Out of town, "Autolife Residential Homes" was the destination. It was a somewhat dusty affair, on dusty roads, off the beaten track. Full of dirt and all the machines one would expect in a construction site. Several lorries stood parked. Ratchet stopped outside. There was a wire fence around, and one bored security guard reading a trashy magazine at the gate, waving the odd lorry in and out. There wasn't to be honest, much activity. Some construction was taking place, but the buildings were only half built, and everyone looked tired and slow. The only building completed seemed to be the hub of the operation, a small office, with some fancy cars parked outside. "Here ya go, dude" whispered Ratchet, although they were well out of earshot. "Careful, they have a security guard!" he whispered even more quietly. The security guard continued reading her magazine in a bored manner.

GM "You can shove that up your other mouth. You know, the one between your legs...err....maybe not. I guess you don't have the other mouth any more, do you? Damn. That's neat. I mean, that's literally neat. Clean, you know?" he garbled. "Anyway, I ain't going nowhere, nohow, noway" he said defiantly. "I mean, I worked on this site, you see? I may not be an architect no more, but I gotta earn money. And construction is where I am at these days. Waste of my goddamn talents but nobody else wants to hire a crazy" he explained. "So I am invested in this, ya see? Besides which, this is the most freaky ass trip I have had since '98. And let me tell ya, I dropped some crazy in '98. So I ain't gonna walk away from this. Ya can go without me, but I'm going anyhow. Or Ill drive ya. My pick up truck starts at least two times in three. At least. Maybe three times in four...!"

Taking 10 on medicine rolls (16) for the various diagnose treat and provide care actions of Medical skill, if appropriate.

Starshot "Yes I am. From sky. But not like these" replied Starshot, relieved that the Kurabanda could speak at least some Gal Standard. Or at least one of them could, Presumably they had had some contact with the Galaxy. He hoped it had, if not been positive, at least not been malign. "Let me help your wounded" he offered, bringing out his medical kit which was still reasonably stocked (although getting thinner). "I can try to...heal?" he explained. He hoped that the offer of intent to try was not interpreted as an oath to succeed. Carefully, so as not to alarm, he opened the med kit and went to look at the Kurabanda. It was never easily treating aliens, and he was no doctor, but he could at least see what, if anything, he could do.

GM "Hey hey man, no problem!" agreed Earl. "And call me Ratchet. Everyone else does. On account of, you know, me knowing stuff and all..." he grinned happily, and picked his nose. "...Do you think..." repeated the face on the block of material, a bit stronger this time. "Think...think...think....think....BUILD! BUILD!" it concluded, louder, before entering into a rapid stream of muttering. "Assemble assemble construct foundations walls roof reorganise repeat end die" it spewed, before the face crumbled away and the whole block of ceramics appeared to disintegrate. "Wow! That was intense!" spluttered Ratchet. "Like, you didn't spike my tea with mushrooms, did you? I heard there is some really freaky mushrooms growing in the subway..." he said, pressing his temple. "Is this a flashback?" he asked, concerned.

GM Vic took the sandwiches greedily. "Thankyou! God, I am as hungry as a snake!" she said through stuffing her face with bite after bite. The pictures were of pretty good quality, by and large. Vic could take a good shot. For the most part the pictures were unremarkable, of people entering and leaving the shop. It was not, it seemed, a busy place, but it did do business. Vic had got a couple of shots of the owner; a balding man who was a bout five feet tall and five feet wide with a few missing teeth who looked strong enough to rip and ox in two. He was not obviously aggressive but had a huge grin that wasn't very pleasant. His name, predictably, was Morgan. Various thugs seemed to be going in and out for meat. Or at least something. But one woman stood out. A tall, thin, flame haired woman with a kind of orange flavour to her skin. She looked sunburnt, maybe. Or just someone with a bad tanning spray. But too Jessica, it looked very much like she was a devil woman...

Ok so Manneq can recognise this as similar in nature to some of his initial experiments on ceramic armour. Feel free to narrate this however you wish, ideally with a bit of vague super science involved. He can tell it is highly impact resistant, and otherwise pretty strong, but is a little vulnerable to cold and sonic effects.