GranspearZX

GM Friday, May 6, 2011 3:45 p.m. Midtown on a Friday was always busy, and this Friday was certainly no exception. With so many people who kept early hours finally getting off work, the streets were filled with the sounds of the city. It was more or less normal for this particular time of day, especially around the Midtown branch of the Eastern Seaboard Bank. Despite rumors of small tremors around Midtown, there didn't seem to be a whole lot going on. The bank itself was a little more crowded than usual; several businesses had likely paid their employees that day, and with the bank closing in an hour, most people were in a hurry to get their finances in order before the weekend. Freedom City's diversity was readily apparent in the bank's lengthy teller lines, and nobody paid much attention to anyone else.

Hoo. More responses than expected. Going with the first 5 responding, I've got Gyro, Griff, Quinn, Troll, and Aoiroo. Also got SC on reserve for the follow-up thread (provided Lord Steam is up when it's over). Willow, Wisp, and KoS also get first dibs on my next run, which is probably going to be a thread completely unrelated to this one. The thread is up here, in Midtown.

Marcus listened to the conversation, sorting through the books to try and figure out what he wanted to take with him. It made him, too, wonder where--and when--Etain was from. He'd never really thought about it before. To him, she was just who she was, and she seemed nice enough that he was willing to accept that at face value. She'd never pried into his past, after all, and he figured the least he could do was offer the same courtesy. Still, the idea that King Arthur was a real figure was an intriguing one. "I think four should do it..." He sat back down, putting his chosen books on top of the one he'd brought with him.

Arcturus paused, concentrating. He could follow them, for sure; there was no fooling his sense of smell in his ursine form, and he'd been practicing enough that he was starting to be able to smell things he couldn't even see. It helped that he'd picked up their scent from knocking them around earlier. He was more concerned about Rene. His own magic was of a purely physical nature, and Rene wasn't as built for long hikes as he was. Still, he was pretty sure that Rene would be safe between himself and Sir Thomas, and Arc occasionally looked back to make sure the knight wasn't going to try to stab him in the back.

Marcus grimaced, not so much from the weight of the books than at the dust coming off them. Even outside his bestial form, his nose had developed an odd sensitivity that made him react a little differently to things other people might not notice. He stifled a sneeze, resisting comment on having the old books thrust into his arms. "Maybe I should've asked for a Cliff's Notes version," he muttered, mostly joking as he headed back to their table. He'd noticed Etain hadn't followed them. "You alright, Etain?" He set the books down as gently as he could, pushing the stack closer to his side of the table, where he'd left his own book as well as his jacket.

Bank heist in Midtown! Aiming for PL7-9 on this one, and it's potentially a multi-thread story. We begin with a bank in Midtown being robbed by a group of hoods!

Arcturus would probably take point, just to be sure that the scent didn't get lost among Rene's and Thomas's.

"I didn't hurt 'em too much," Arcturus muttered, scratching at the back of his broad neck. "They should be able to walk at least. We should probably get out of sight so they don't know they're bein' followed..." Arcturus started to move further away from the three wolfmen, still disturbed at the concept of his rune being responsible for something like that. It wasn't as if he did it, but it bothered him in ways he couldn't fully comprehend. Trying to push the thought to the back of his mind, he looked back at the night. "...and 'we' includes you, tinman."

GM It didn't take more than a few moments of Julia wearing the amulet before the entire room seemed to darken. The lights flickered and the color seemed to drain from the entire room, painting everything in varying shades of blue. The room shook and rattled violently, and when it was over, it seemed like very little had changed. Outside the window, however, Freedom City had vanished. There was very little out there aside from vast, empty space filled with clouds. In fact, it was the only place where the colors seemed normal: the stars were a vast array of pinks and greens and blues--definitely nothing terrestrial about it. "...ugh." Marcus grunted; it was the only sound he could make, physically and mentally disoriented by the dimensional shifting. He looked around the hospital room; it was completely in tact, identical in every possible way. Julia, however, had an unusual distortion about her form. She was lying on the bed but she seemed transparent. The only solid thing on her was the amulet.

"I've seen Mr. DeSaens's artwork; it's actually pretty impressive. I don't like painting though... it's actually harder than it looks." There was also the fact that Rene had several decades of practice, but he certainly wasn't going to say that. "Homer... I think I did a paper on that my freshman year. " He got up to follow Quentin, figuring he might as well tag along. By now he was used to being surrounded by books.

Marcus nods. "Believe it or not... I'm actually a little more interested in science and physics than magic lately. I need to think about what I'm gonna do when I graduate. I always thought I'd just be able to get a sports scholarship or something, but that... might not be a good idea. And since there's plenty of science involved in that kind of magic I study, well... I mean, there's always art, but I really don't think I could make it as a starving artist." He shrugged; it was a practical line of thinking after all, and though learning Greek and Latin wouldn't further that particular goal, it would give him a decent head start.

Arc watched and listened as Rene put on his 'helpless old man' act. Again. For the most part, Arcturus knew better, but it wasn't as if he had never fallen for the ruse before, and even now he couldn't always be sure it was a ruse. "...yeah, I'm definitely not your guy. You're a couple centuries off." It bothered him, however, that the magic was that recognizable across nearly 700 years. Clearly he had no idea what sort of evils had been committed under its influence; he knew, of course, but he didn't really like to think about it. How long would he realistically be able to control it when so many people couldn't? He huffed irritably, folding his arms across his chest. The only way he knew to deal with such heavy issues was not to do so at all, pushing forward to the next task. "Anyway, we need to find this thing so those hikers'll go back to normal. That's all I care about."

Edits! Crusader Done by Ecal 3pp to spend: Saves: +3 to his Will save, bringing it to a total of +4. That'll do it for him. Arcturus: Done by Ecal, but in future include a breakdown as well as a code block 10pp to spend, but with a new PL, well... Complications: Added several. God knows he needed better ones. Skills: Dropped Gather Information entirely, and rearranged his other skills. Powers: Overhauled Arc's alternate form to bring him up to new PL11 caps (moreso than he had been, anyway); upgraded his Alternate Form to rank 11, and I dropped everything other than his Alt form out of the array. Code block under the spoiler.

GM Marcus looked at Evander, confused by the reference. Rather than dwell on it and look silly by asking what that meant, he looked over at Rene, backtracking a bit to the incident at Claremont. "I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. Like I told the others, I think she tried to pull me in to help her. Which isn't all that different from what happened last time..." He coughed. "Try putting the necklace on her. We'll just have to sort of wing it from there."

GM "Actually," Marcus began, slipping his phone back into his pants pocket, "the last time I ended up in a nightmare realm, a friend of mine took an amulet off of the Boogeyman-thing's last would-be victim... I figured it it was trying to get out through that amulet, we could get in the same way." He stood at the window, shaking his head; for several moments, he didn't say anything--and then Rene walked in. "Ah, speaking of. Guys, this is that friend I was talking about... Did you bring it?" He moved back towards the door and poked his head outside for a minute. The halls were quiet and desolate; he shut the door completely and rejoined Etain and the others, cracking his knuckles.

Just a small correction: Arc's PP should be 163, I think (3 from December, 6 from January, 4 from February); as it stands, I think he's short one. o.o Doktor'd

Arcturus Crow Comes Home To Roost Forsooth, to Slay the Beast! Life's Just a Drag(on) Vox Crusader I Have Had It GM/NPC Just Beneath The Surface The Radical Dreamer

I'll assume you're taking 20 for a Notice check; she's sweating and a little on the pale side, however--clearly not in the best condition. If you look close enough, you can see faint eye movement while her eyes are closed, as well.

Arc had read too many books, expecting a stream of fire rather than multiple shots. He skidded to a halt and suddenly switched directions, backfiipping onto the hood of a car as a fireball slammed into the pavement where he would have been standing. "Oh, I'm gonna make a HANDBAG out of you, lizard," Arc muttered, eyes narrowed as he took another prodigious leap, right over the flaming asphalt and into a full sprint for the building, zig-zagging his way around even more ignited debris. He couldn't fly and he certainly wasn't going to climb the building when there were perfectly good stairs to take. The woman's screaming was a definite motivator on top of everything else...

Reflex Save (+9): (1d20+9=27)

Marcus didn't really expect what he was seeing. For a while, he wondered why traffic was so backed up, and then he heard the roar. Even then, he didn't believe it completely until he got out of his car and looked up at the massive dragon. "...you're kidding." With traffic the way it was and people fleeing the scene and abandoning their vehicles, no one would notice the teenager running towards the mayhem instead of away from it, shifting forms mid-stride. Getting around by leaping between cars was something he'd gotten a lot of practice at, eyes up as he bounded from one hood to another. Where the hell did a DRAGON come from?!

GM The book didn't seem dangerous; though nothing was written on the cover, it became apparent what its function was when it was opened. The journal was half-full with dates stretching back to June of last year, each with an entry of varying length--dreams that Julia had over the course of the last six months. They started to get repetitive, however, around late-January. The entries end there--about three days ago. Etched in the margins of that last page were a bunch of random scribbles: '7 chakras, 7 deadly sins, 7 seas?' It seemed like she was really reaching to figure it out before she ended up in the state she was in...

"God, it's been a while since I've even touched paint... sketching and Wacom tablets. That's about all the artwork I've done since I transferred to Claremont." He sounded a little disappointed. He looked over at Warlock and nodded, looking around the place again. "Yeah... I guess this would work for me. I mean, training on campus is a no-go, so might as well find my own place in the world, one way or another, right? Plus, a room with no roommate... I like Eric and all but it'd be nice to have people around who won't look at me weird when I do transmutation experiments and start sayin' stuff in Latin."

Rene was about all that kept Arcturus from flying off the handle again. Most people wouldn't have even approached him in that state. Still, Arcturus backed off, still giving the knight a notably disapproving glare. "Arcturus. That's my name. Not 'beast', tinman. ...er. Thomas. Whatever." It was hard to look non-threatening, and Arc was still irritated. Still, he let Rene do the talking for the moment, eyeballing Sir Thomas the entire time.

"I tell most people that I'm just a shapeshifter. It's usually enough to get them to stop asking questions." Marcus smiled faintly; already he was starting to relax, and the change was visible, like ice melting. "I know that I can, but... I'd rather know what I'm doing instead of slinging around forces I only barely understand... That's really why I need to learn as much as I can. Some of these circles, have Latin words written in them, in fact... I'd have to just spout something and summon some demon by mistake. Goodness knows there's been enough of that lately..."