KnightDisciple

Strictly speaking, that's not required by board rules anyways. Obviously they need to be non-lethal, but I'm pretty sure we have plenty of characters who only have Damage (and I guess maybe Grapple) for attacks.

Aw, shucks, folks. Yer liable to make a feller blush. :love:

Diplomacy 28 to charm the good Doctor just a bit, make sure she's at ease with the trip, etc. :-)

Baron Katastrof gave her a winning smile. "Excellent! You can brief me more thoroughly on what you detected during our travel, and I'll make sure the site's ready to help unload the equipment when it arrives after us. I'm sure time will fly when we're doing science and inspecting everything." He snapped his fingers, and an aide was quickly at his side. "Let Angelica know I won't be back in the meeting today. Have Helicopter 5 on Pad 3 warming up. I need to get a coat; please make sure the good Doctor has her coat with her before she joins me on the roof. Also have a pair of goggles prepared for her, just in case." He gave Lind an exaggerated wink. "Blowing snow, cold wind, that sort of thing, don't want to mess up those lovely eyes."

Yeah, but the Elves are so "superior" it should be less of an issue, right?

The Baron blinked...and then actually laughed a bit. "My apologies, Doctor. I think there was a bit of confusion on my part, hence my somewhat...territorial...response. I had thought you meant to try and inspect our facility here, which would take a fair bit of time and cause some worry about corporate espionage as a matter of course. But you mean my mountain facility up north in the mountains. Again, I apologize. I think the readings are due to the presence of an unusual artifact brought to me by another individual. We've been running scans, carbon dates, and so on. I'm curious as to how you noticed the energies..." He shrugged. "We could take my company helicopter. I'm fairly confident it's faster." Boys and their toys, after all.

...What readings are "expected" at the Castle? The lab he contacted was *in the Castle* and was scanning *the Castle*, not the mountain lab. That's what the Tower was about, and he said to scan the Castle grounds.

Fair enough point. What about the results from the on-site lab's scans?

Magnus frowned and inspected the papers. "Can you be more specific about the nature of the readings you detected? Wavelength and so forth? What about the time frame? I know we occasionally show up for a split second with some of our nearby tests, and we've always warned you beforehand. If one of my people ran a test without a warning, I'll make sure to chastise them. As for the inspection...You must understand that this is a private company with patents, pending patents, and so on. For the sake of my co-owners, employees, and so forth, I must ask for utmost discretion, as well as for a bit more specificity on what you're needing to look for. I am currently having one of the labs run some scans to see if they can isolate any unusual readings at this particular location. Is this acceptable, ma'am?" Magnus didn't like the idea of some outsider stomping around his labs uninvited. They didn't trumpet their research project over the internet for a reason, after all. He'd seen overinflated hype destroy projects and companies before, and didn't wish for that to happen, never mind the risk of someone actually copying information over to a competitor.

I specified a lab located *in the castle*. And it's legal for someone from the government to just barge into a private research company and poke around everywhere? Good thing his armor lab is located in his private residence! ;-)

Right, I guess the way it was worded it seemed like Anders was saying the meeting was canceled. Which it wasn't. But yes, it has not restarted yet. As for the Inspector: Knowledge: Civics roll: 25 Knowledge: Business roll: 30 Knowledge: Current Events roll: 23 Based on those rolls, how legit is her "we can totes search your whole place just based on this one wacky reading"? Also, any word (call, text, IM, whatever, he's got 2 communication-tied devices tucked away on his person!) from his lab regarding the "odd readings"?

Wait, she can just "inspect the premesis"? That seems kinda shady. Like carte blanche with basically no explanation? Also, Magnus just said the meeting's still going on and someone else will lead it, FYI.

"Indeed." Gabriel starts to reach for the card. "I'm a Freedom League Auxiliary member, yes-" He blinks as the card is withdrawn, before comprehension dawns as another offer is made. He gently takes the more sophisticated card from Victory. "Interesting. So Gaian Knight and Fleur de Joie will be able to use it as well. Which is good, the three of us seem to work together often, and I'm usually the one getting injured. This way they can let you know what went down." He gives a slightly dramatic wink at that, before flipping the card over in his hand, inspecting it. "Um. How would I use it?" He's not exactly Miss Americana, after all.

Magnus blinked as Anders politely interrupted the conversation. "Give me a moment please, Miss Howell.' As Anders spoke, Magnus's expression went from curiosity, to shock, to frustration. "<Did the representative from the Ministry of Energy explain what kind of "anomalous readings" they had? I realize the timing is...odd, but remember that I run a few personal projects and experiments here, and the company has a few small labs scattered about the complex. They've called me about "strange readings" a half-dozen times in the last year.>" He sighed and shook his head. "<Tell the inspector I will need a couple of minutes before I meet with him. Stall him if you have to, the usual. Get Angelica up here to finish the briefing for these people. Have Lab 4C in Tower 5 crank the passive sensors to maximum. The fact that the Ministry of Energy picked up on something before we did is shameful, but if they give me a full report in 15 minutes we'll ignore the whole matter. I will be with you as soon as possible. Thank you for the notice, Anders.>" With a smile and a nod to let his assistant know he wasn't in any trouble, Magnus turned back to Megan. "Unfortunately a minor issue has come up that will require my attention for a short time. I have another assistant coming in to continue the presentation for all of you, though. She's a whiz with the numbers talk, so that should play to this crowd well." He gave her a smile and a wink before stepping to the middle of the room, clearing his throat, and raising his voice a bit. "Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize, but some business requires my attention elsewhere. I will attempt to return to the meeting soon, but in the meantime continue to enjoy the refreshments available, and one of our Senior Executives, one Ms. Angelica Martinez, will continue the presentation in my absence. She's almost as good as I am in basically everything, so feel free to ask questions." With that, the Baron turned and quickly walked from the room, discretely using his palmtop computer to determine the current location of this so-called Inspector.

Righto! 2 Notice Rolls. Roll 1: 11 Roll 2: 22 Soooo...NOPE and Nope.

Just to avoid confusion: The tests are/were being done at a site up in the mountains north of the Castle, probably a 100 or maybe more miles away from The Castle. So is the aide specifically saying the readings are at the Castle and not elsewhere?

GM POST In a location hidden from, well, everyone, a computer terminal blinked to life. In seconds, three other terminals came to life as well. Each of them displayed a metallic face, and if any of the armor-wearing heroes had been present, they would recognize the four Foundry operatives who had stolen tech and tried to make a "death ray" out of it. "That was an unsuccessful experiment. The quick and heavy resistance was unexpected." "The one known as "Ironclad" is the leader of the corporation Dawes Tech. The others are either connected to her, one of our other targets, or both. Their intervention is not surprising." "Fearless leader didn't cover her tracks well enough." Arachne scowled. "Unimportant. What data was salvaged?" "Tch. Not much. Only the information on KST's new alloys, which are useful but not inherently better than our best materials. They stopped us before we recovered anything else." "Regrettable. Our...associate...will be displeased."

And that's it for the PCs! Thanks for playing, folks. Hopefully we can get some juicy drama for post-DOW, and also get some action-y threads rolling in the future!

Fenris nods at Dragonfly's words. "Can't say I'm not a bit sad, but I can respect that, Dragonfly. Is it alright if we pass along relevant or interesting information when we come across it, and perhaps send requests your way if we feel the need for additional help? No "commitment" necessary, but I think we worked well together." He smiled again at Bee-Keeper's eager words. "I'm sure between Ironclad and the rest of us we can work up t-shirts, mugs, and some sort of phone signal or the like. Dragonfly's an honorary member and would be eligible for the shirt and mug. And yes, there will always be a spot open; I don't intend to necessarily "close the doors" at just 3 or 4, either. But this is a very solid start. I'll try to contact both of you in a few days to start trying to coordinate things." He cast one more gaze around the wrecked lab, before tilting his head to one side. "The police and personnel from the Lab are here. I believe it's time to give our statements and let them secure the location. Perhaps in time, this place can be put to better use." The heroes weren't kept long by the authorities, and the robots were quickly carted off to The Lab for initial analysis, before representatives from HAX, Archetech, AEGIS, and other interested parties came by to further inspect them. The complex itself was locked up, the lights soon going out....

I guess the first thing that jumps to my mind is the worry that he'll always be speechifying about how Awesome Communism Is. I'm not accusing you, mind, but as written he seems really intense about this. I bring that up as I have a character with a rather specific worldview that he could speechify about, but that might make him less desirable to thread with (for various reasons); Gabriel's speechifying tends to focus on "you bad guys are going down!". So the big thing I would say is try to think out how he'll approach things. I mean, if the entire thread he's going to be berating Fenris as a "laptop of the Capitalist Oppressor" and so on, I don't think I, as a player, want to really put up with that. I'm not sure I'd want to have an entire thread of him telling Gabriel that religion is the "opiate of the masses" or whatnot. I'm not saying I wouldn't thread with him, but just pointing out that, at least in actual play, some moderation might be in order. I'd point out that Gabriel was peacefully present in at least two threads with Equinox, who definitely doesn't share his philosophical religious point of view, but there wasn't any name-calling going on. The goal is you want a person other Characters would at least be willing to work with, so you have to consider how they'd interact with them.

Hm. -How does he get along with Comrade Frost? -How does he relate to the several heroes in the city who aren't just heroes, but also capitalists? -Does he actively campaign for his politics to be put in power, or merely speechify at every opportunity? -What motivates him to be a hero in Freedom City, rather than in Russia? -What motivates him to be a superhero, rather than trying to be a sort of "secret agent" again? Not trying to pressure or anything, but these are some of the questions that come to mind that seem like they need thought about.

"Excellent, it sounds like we've got our angles covered as much as they can be, Director." He paused in thought before continuing. "I believe I will forgo the waterproof suit, for fear of not being able to utilize my armor properly." He shrugged, and gave the Director of AEGIS a nod of respect as he left the room. He waited a moment before starting to walk toward the door. "Part of me would prefer leaving right away, but I think I will get a small snack. I'm feeling a bit low on energy, and my powers can be draining if I go long enough in their usage. Hopefully we'll be good enough none of us will need to worry about running on empty."

Magnus shook his head. "Not at this building, no. He's at one of my research facilities, north of here in the mountains. It gives him, and us, the privacy needed, while still offering extensive testing capabilities. I didn't stay because of this and other meetings and projects; while the artifact itself is fascinating, I don't have the time to just stand around and watch my lab techs run the tests." He smirked, just a bit. "Lord Harrow seemed disappointed, but while he may have the spare time, I do not."

"He claims the package containing it was sealed approximately a century ago. My labs are working to carbon-date the artifact, picture, and so forth, as well as to scan for various particles and energies that would indicate genuine time-travel. Have you, before today, encountered a time-traveler? Obviously it could be something from the future, but if you already have, that might explain the connection." He paused, frowning. "Though until I see the results, I have only his word of its age, or of him not opening it before that moment. I simply don't know him. Or you, really. I find myself caught up in...something...and unsure of where it leads. I'm truly sorry to trouble you about the whole matter, but I wanted to see what light you could attempt to shed on the situation."

"I'm glad someone finds the business and financial side more interesting than the technical side." The aristocratic blond man gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes, a half-smile now showing on his face. "Don't get me wrong, I'm more than comfortable with the business end of things! But the Science is what I actually enjoy. Such is the curse of being me, I suppose." Said one of the richest, smartest humans on the planet. He kept his response neutral after Megan spoke of her connection to Harrow, and he was able to at least speculate what "very good friends" might mean, not exactly being an old fuddy-duddy himself. "Because he came to me yesterday with an odd...artifact. We don't know each other, other than a few hours worth of acquaintance. Said artifact..." He paused, clearly thinking on how to say this. "The artifact, which he claimed was over a century old, contains a portrait of you. Which I personally find...suspect, but I felt it was something that needed mentioned. Though the "coincidence" makes me...slightly supsicious of someone or something."