Supercape

GM "Yes... Yes!" replied Carrefour with a broad grin of pearly white teeth peppered with the blackness of a few missing gaps. "I will have their bodies as my slaves... and their bones too!" As he spoke, a spiderswebs of bones crawled from the earth around him and leapt at Nick, wrapping themselves around him like a whip. "And when I suck your soul from your body, yes! your flesh and bones will by mine too!" he laughed with his horrible cackle. "Nobody will take this hour of triumph from me! Not Siren, not Samedi, and certainly not you!"

Ok Your grapple is sufficiently strong for nobody to be able to break free (handwavium with good justification, DC 24 vs +2 Grapple). THe three pinned Mystics will try some blasts on you... 1d20+2=20, 1d20+2=10, 1d20+2=16 all failing... they need a natural 20. Carrefour is going to try his own horrible snare on you! 1d20+9=23 which I think Hits, so thats a DC 19 Reflex Save to (Save by 14 and completely snared). In addition for his move action Carrefour will try to intimidate/demoralise you. A -5 penalty but here goes: 1d20+5=8 yah... never mind that, you will automatically pass with a will of +12!

GM "The Beast! if is come!" yelled Thomas, bringing his Sword and Shield to bear, but all too slowly. Arcturus crashed into him, sending the Knight sprawling. To be fair, he rolled as well as he could after the weight of the beast had landed on him, and ended on his knees in a combat position born from decades of practice, but he was clearly shaking the cobwebs from his head. "Wha... beast... you... new...?"

vs DC 24 toughness then 1d20+8=17 Stunned, Bruised. Moving into combat proper. 23 Arcturus - 0 HP - Unharmed 21 Rene - 4 HP - Unharmed 12 Sir Knight - Bruised, Stunned

"Stay out of this!" The blue white lightning arced and bent, and from the ground a blindingly blue light in the shape of a man arose, incandescent with shimmering radiation. "Americans! and an Englishman! Hardly better. I will soon have enough power... to destroy you all muahahaha!" Supercape started to reply "I say.. there is no call for all of tha..." before being interrupted by a brilliant blue white bolt of untold power that struck him squarely in the chest and exploded. There was an awful crackling of electricity and ozone, and the air itself seemed to sizzle. Supercape sunk to his knees, his eyes rolling. "...t..." he concluded, before gazing at Dragonfly. "Sorry, I do appear to be fainting..." he whispered, as his eyes closed and he sunk to the ground.

I'm giving SC a hero point (oh generous me!) for GM Fiat here, saying there is enough EM distrubance he wont have been able to detect our hidden foe... Hiroshima Shadow!!! Who arises from the ground as a blue white insubstantial bolt of lightning and fires an arc right at Supercape! 1d20+13=33 Yoikes! Critical! and his Forcefield not up! DC 31 Tough Save 1d20+6=12 KO. Another Hero Point for Supercape as he gets KO'd. 1d20+5=21 for Shadows Init

"Yes Indeed" replied Supercape observing the site with more than eyes. The area was indeed flooded with radiation, lethal in prolonged exposure. His own costume, and the suits of the Russian clean up team would be more than ample to protect them however. "There is, however, something very odd about the radiation here..." he said. "Odd. Why here? not the kind of spectrum from a reactor either. And electrogmagnetic disturbances are very strange...Look out!" As he and Dragonfly spoke, an arc of eletricity sparked from one machine to another with huge force, connecting one machine to another with blue white lightning.

"They are eating themselves!" shouted Supercape, stating the obvious. He reflected on the matter briefly, despite the pressing fight. "Some primitive reflex maybe? like insects, or lower life forms? we may be able to trick them into consuming themselves... if we can find out what triggers the behaviour..." Meanwhile, he decided, there was no real reason to be punching acidic blobs on the ground. He stood up and soared to the sky again, as his costume lost its plasma charge and he redirected his mind onto exciting a few key particles he left behind on the ground. As he ascended, another small localised nuclear furnace erupted on the ground in his wake.

Ok Supercape is going to fly up again and get out of the way of these swine! I will unleash another nuclear blast explosion on whoever it can hit, switching array back again. As before, its DC 25 Toughness save, although they are damned resilient.

The Armoured Knight turned to Rene and spoke in a confident voice "I am here on a moft noble Quest, venerable peasant..." "Hold on, my good Sir, I am no peasa..." started Rene, but was cut short. "To slay the cursed Beast, who has plauged our lands with his tooth and bloody claw for two score moons. It is said..." he whispered in a hushed tone, his eyes darting left and right "that his power comes from dark and evil magic. A rune of the beast!" he waggled his eyebrows. "I am Sir Thomas Bellowforth, of the Bellowforth Family. A line of noble blood. And I have undertaken to rid our lands of the Beast. My life has been sworn to protect and serve the peasants, from threats both earthly and diabolical..." Rene couldn't helped but Waggle his eyebrows back. THe man was clearly used to the sound of his own voice, but there was no denying his conviction, and he rather suspected, competence.

OK, In which case I can let MArcus have the drop on Sir Knight (Quite literally!) with a Suprise Attack! Do the Surprise round first, but roll initiative. 1d20+2=19 Rene - who may or may not do much! 1d20+5=13 Sir Knight Initiative

If you are happy to run this that sounds good TT, I think a social gathering at first would be good, possibly throwing in the usual arcane (knowledge) rolls etc and reputation threads - a mystic puzzle and ritual for us tops. Combat would get a bit heavy I think. At it stands we have: Etain / Aoiroo - INterested in communal HQ Nick / TrollThumper - Interested in communal HQ Rene / Supercape - Interested in communal HQ Arcturus / GranspearZX - No view on HQ Equinox / Ecal - No view on HQ Mercury / Griffalo - No view on HQ Havent heard anything from Lonestar (re Warlock) so presume he isn't interested at the moment (the other major active mystic PC I know of).

Want to post IC? Incidentally, maintaining the grapple is now a sustained action, so I guess Nick can (from now on) carry on moving and even Giving Carrefour a straight punch in the gob with his regular human fists. Funnily enough, Carrefour only has +2 Toughness.

Ok I really cant do 25 ZOmbie Reflex Rolls, I am going to handwave that and say they fail as they only have -1 Reflex bonus and have just come out of ground. Their Grapple Bonus is only +1 1d20+1 → [6,1] = (7) 1d20+1 → [3,1] = (4) 1d20+1 → [3,1] = (4) 1d20+1 → [18,1] = (19) 1d20+1 → [12,1] = (13) 1d20+1 → [19,1] = (20) 1d20+1 → [14,1] = (15) 1d20+1 → [14,1] = (15) 1d20+1 → [18,1] = (19) 1d20+1 → [8,1] = (9) 1d20+1 → [10,1] = (11) 1d20+1 → [2,1] = (3) 1d20+1 → [7,1] = (8) 1d20+1 → [15,1] = (16) 1d20+1 → [18,1] = (19) 1d20+1 → [18,1] = (19) 1d20+1 → [6,1] = (7) 1d20+1 → [12,1] = (13) 1d20+1 → [20,1] = (21) 1d20+1 → [10,1] = (11) 1d20+1 → [9,1] = (10) 1d20+1 → [8,1] = (9) 1d20+1 → [4,1] = (5) 1d20+1 → [11,1] = (12) 1d20+1 → [13,1] = (14) Just one escapes the grapple and lumbers towards you. 6 are pinned, 18 are bound.

Diplomacy Roll for Rene 1d20+6=21 Pretty Good: was unfriendly, now indifferent. Marcus welcome to interject or just stay hanging in the trees. If he feels Beast Rune -> Aggression thats certainly worth an HP for complication.

The Knight's blade swished through the illusionary Marcus with, predictably, no effect. "Yegad! What witchraft if this?" exclaimed the armoured warrior. He stopped and gave a few experimental thrusts at the illusion with the same effect. "A spell of tomfoolery, methinks! To avert me from my quest!" Whatever was happening, Rene decided staying hidden under the fallen tree was not going to be of much help. He stood up slowly so as not to alarm the Knight. "I bid ye welcome, Sir, and ask of ye from whence ye has come?" His olde Englishe was not that good. He dimly recalled reading some Chaucer and Shakespeare years ago in London.

Rene nodded with appreciation at Nicks power. The young man was clearly stuffed full of arcane power, more than he had let on. "Well done, Monsieur Nick... I confess, I had no idea you had so much strength..." Rene closed his eyes, and painted onto reality. Something artistic, and reflecting his own feelings on the matter. A green cloud of fury, a stench, a nauseating, prickly, poisonous, and soul-destroying wisp of gas that erupted from the ground in front of him like marsh gasp and flew towards Carrefour. Even the immobilised and writhing voodoo master still had some fight left in him, and as he saw the fiendish cloud, he made an almighty effort and briefly wrested free of a few limbs, ducking just under the streaking green gas, which coiled and spun as it flew past him.

Rene is going to fire of a Stun at Carrefour 1d20+8=10 which is going to totally miss, but may home in next round. Nick up.

GM The hands did their work, reaching out and grasping on to the long robes of Carreforre and his acolytes. Despite their own experience of the arcane, many of his cronies screamed with terror at the sight of the horrors that Nick had manifested before them. Most of them succumbed to the countless wiry limbs, which held them helpless and immobile. A few managed to fire of streams of black mystic darkness, one of which struck Rene on the shoulder. "Ouch!" he retorted with indignation, as his eyes momentarily folded in pain. Carrefour struggled against the poltergeist's rage that Nick had unleashed and gave Nick and evil glare. "Very good, very good. But let me go one better, muahahaha!" Raising his arms, he uttered some devilish words in a language neither Rene nor Nick could recognise, let alone understand. At his bidding, the earth erupted, and from the dust, the remains of two dozen or so corpses rose, dressed in the tattered remains of civil war uniforms and rotting equipment.

OK Reflex save DC is 15... 1d20+3=15 Just made by Carrefour 1d20+3=17, 1d20+3=8, 1d20+3=6, 1d20+3=11, 1d20+3=9, 1d20+3=20, 1d20+3=14, 1d20+3=8 and we have numbers 1 and 6 making it from the Goon squad. Opposed Grapples Carrefour 1d20+4=21 so close! but pinned! Goons 1 and 6 1d20+2=18, 1d20+2=6 Goon 1 pinned, Goon 6 Helpless Other Goons 1d20+2=5, 1d20+2=20, 1d20+2=21, 1d20+2=5, 1d20+2=12, 1d20+2=4 2, 7 and 8 also helpless. Goon 3 and 4 Pinned. All in all pretty successful! For book keeping ease I am renaming Goons. 1-3 Pinned, 5-8 are Helpless. In Summary 21 - Nick - 0HP - Unharmed 12 - Voodoo Goons [8] - Pinned x3, Helpless x5 8 - Carrefour 2 HP- Unharmed - Pinned 4 - Rene - 3 HP - Unharmed The Helpless Goons can do squat. The Pinned goons are going to throw some mystic [necromantic] blasts: two at Rene, one at Nick: 1d20+2=3, 1d20+2=18, 1d20+2=10 one hits Rene 1d20+8=15 vs DC 16 is enough for Rene to take a Bruise. Carrefour meanwhile, will respond with his own Magic - Summoning 25 Zombies! INitiative 1d20=13 who are up next round. Incidentally, Carrefour has Luck-2 Feat, so I am adding in 2 HP for him.

Bookeeping Post: 21 - Nick - 0HP - Unharmed 12 - Voodoo Goons [8] - Unharmed 8 - Carrefour - Unharmed 4 - Rene - 3 HP - Unharmed

Carrefour, for it was he, stopped chanting and gazed with hatred as the statuette started to wobble, vibrate, and some cracks appeared. He clutched at the ivory artwork with both hands and his eyes roamed around the circle. His ears seemed to follow. "Who dares! Who dares foul my moment of triumph! I felt the other one go, but there are enough souls stored to raise an army still! But someone is here and they dare try to wrest away my victory. With this, I will be greater than Samedi!" Rene looked at Nick "Well, monsieur, it seems the game is up!" he said, pulling back his hood. "And those souls are not yours for the taking, or the commanding. Souls belong only to themselves, not to some corrupted sorcerer who would put them in chains!" He gave Carrefour a feirce glare, equal to the Voodoo priests own.

IN which case Ill treat this as moving into combat with the Nullify as a Suprise action. 1d20+10=28 Nullify fails unfortunately. INitiatives... CArrefour 1d20+0=8 Voodoo Apprentices [8] 1d20+1=12 Rene 1d20+2=4 Good lord!

Just asking for clarification on what Nick is doing here? A direct nullification of the ritual? is it subtle? corrupting it? I could play it as a direct confrontation, or just subtly throwing a spanner in the ritual from the shadows, screwing it up so to speak. Also, the countering could either be just to make it fizzle out, or the "souls" could do some other effect like whizz around making everyone scared, inhabit corpses which do not follow everyones bidding, or even follow Nicks if he fancies an army of zombies... It depends a bit on your fluff and direction.

1d20+10=11 for LIfe Science. You fail Biology forever. 1d20+10=27 Much better. Freud for the win! Let me know if he has any insight and Ill post IC. By the way, nice touch with the eating!