Die and let live (OOC)

[Supercape]

OOC thread for this

Dead Head investigates what a zombie would want with a dying girl...

Closed solo adventure for Dead Head. Anyone wants to join, ask Dok!

NOTE: Dok, PLOT device here, feel free to have Dead Head sense the Zombie and its interest (as a one off) via some Dead Head Necromantic sense - I leave the fluff to you (or if you have any other hook, let me know).

Are you using PL 13 or 15 version of Dead Head by the way?

[Dr Archeville]

13; the PL 15 one was how he was before a large portion of his power got yanked out. (I didn't delete that sheet b/c at the time it happened I was still using it in a few threads.)

And Dead Head has some Necromantic Senses already!

Super-Senses 7 (Darkvision [Drawbacks: Noticeable], Magic Awareness 3 [Mental], Mental Awareness 2 [Mental]) [6PP]

Enhanced Super-Senses 4 (Acute Analytical Mental Senses [All], Flaws: Limited [Necromantic Effects]) [2PP]

And DH often spends time in morgues, so it's easy enough to have this guy ping on his Necro-Radar.

[Supercape]

Yep, those senses were what I were thinking of!

[Dr Archeville]

Jacob Agopsowicz

Jacob from Jacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman, who starred in Quincy, M.E., an American show about a crime-fighting medical examiner (ran 1976-1983).

Agopsowicz from Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz, birth name of the actor better known as John Vernon, who starred in Wojeck, a Canadian show about a crime-fighting medical examiner (ran 1966-1968); Quincy was largely inspired by Wojeck.

... I may just have to write this guy up as an NPC.

[Supercape]

... I may just have to write this guy up as an NPC.

Sounds excellent! if you do, I'll throw him in more into the thread.

Threadwise, Mr. Brown is leaving the Hospital - feel free for his path to cross Dead Head at any point, or, alternatively, tail him!

I'm not quite clear how well Dead Head "looks normal" and blends in, but I presume being in the Morgue allows him ample oppurtunity to use his Morph ability of dead people! :D

[Dr Archeville]

Do Dead Head's senses (and perhaps some sort of Knowedge check) tell him what type of undead critter Mr. Brown is?

[Supercape]

ZOM-BIE!!!!

Analytical senses? That will do nicely sir.

More particularly, this zombie is a somewhat "souped up" one from regular zombies, not physically, but capable of at least basic intellectual functions independently. It would take quite a skilled necromancer to create the body. The body is also quite recently dead - and fresh. Like it was recently in a morgue, purely for instance.

Heck, on that note, make a DC 10 INT check for Dead Head to see if he remembers the corpse lying around in the morgue where he was hanging around in.

[Dr Archeville]

INT check (1d20+1=6) Stupid mice, rooting around in his brain!

[Supercape]

You know, for once, the +4 bonus of Eidectic Memory would have been actually, like, you know, used...

[Supercape]

Mr. Brown is only a Zombie (As per M&M Corebook) albeit one with a little more...effective... INT and WIS than normal!

I can't see any particular point in rolling this combat, so feel free to just narrate the crushing you give him, unless you are going for some particular result such as grappling him etc.

[Dr Archeville]

Dead Head has Toughness +18 and Impervious 12 (not vs. blessed/magic/silver). Even if Mr. Brown's unarmed strikes counted as magic (which I don't think they should), that's still a minimum of 19 he can get on a Toughness save, enough to ignore any damage of +3 or less. And with his Regen, he'd peel off one Injury a round w/ no rest.

Though, speaking of, something I do feel is worth mentioning: the descriptor for his high Toughness & Impervious isn't "so tough things bounce off him," it's "things go through him as much as they would any Bystander, but he regenerates the damage so fast it's as if he was never injured."

[Supercape]

Incidentally, do you want the big bad revealed? he is either in a book or approved here...

(If you haven't guessed already).

[Dr Archeville]

I leave that entirely up to you, my good man!

[Supercape]

SUrprise then!

[Dr Archeville]

I assume Mr. Brown's corpse weighs less than 233 lbs. (a Light Load for Dead Head's Str of 24)

Dead Head's Speed lets him go 10 mph/100 feet per Move Action. Moving All Out gets him to 40 mph. At that speed, he can cross 4.5 miles (the as-the-crow-flies distance between the hospital and the cemetery, based on the maps on our Wiki) in 0.1125 hours, or 6.75 minutes. Make it 9-10 to cover going down alleyways & around other obstacles.

[Supercape]

Or less, if you are burrowing!

But yes, that sounds good.

[Dr Archeville]

... wallet? Or anything else in his pockets?

[Supercape]

Good question!

Its been a while but morgue bodies would normally have most major personal effects removed. However, lets not be too cold about this. Wallet and ID no, but he could certainly have any other personal effects, like a handkercheif with some embroidered nametag on, or something. And the body's scent alone would be enough for a track back to the Morgue and the Hospital.

Also, it could lead you to Viktor Gorsky's office.

Now, the real trick here, I suppose, is an animated corpse crawling around a hospital - not easy.

Im going to award a hero point here, as that is a definate complication. It might be a little pro-active, but as I see it, that complication is narrowing off Dead Heads options at this point. Hope thats ok!

Looking at IC post, it might be more appropriate for you to do a follow on IC post.

For reference:

Dead Head - 2 Hero Points

[Dr Archeville]

Alrighty, extra effort to try a new stunt off his Necromancy power (one I've been thinking of adding to him for a while):

Teleport 9 (900 feet/anywhere on Earth; Flaw: Limited [only places of death, such as cemeteries, morgues, etc.]; PFs: Easy, Progression [250 lbs. cargo], Turnabout) {12/12}

to 'port back to the morgue at McNider Memorial, then begin work on figuring out what Mr. Brown was up to. Acceptable?

[Supercape]

Absolutely.

Im still giving the hero point!

Dead Head - 2 Hero Points, Fatigued.

[Supercape]

OK, so first off as that nifty manuever kind of cancels out the above complication and also is rather convenient (a security guard !), I'll call for that Hero Point back!

Secondly, at this point I would normally say a fatigue recovery check as its kind of speed of plot inbetween scene kind of thing.

However, I will confess: I have absolutely no idea how things without a CON recover from fatigue! It just struck me... how do they recover? Enlighten me. Rules say it is DC 10 CON check every hour, with normal +1 per failed check previously...

(Otherwise, just say as this is speed of plot fatigue mysteriously evaporates...)

NB: I am presuming you are taking 20 on the disguise (From your description), or at least 10, if not, make a roll.

I am also going to offer the complication of some of the security guards recognising you as a dead guy and getting spooked out / calling security etc. Otherwise I'll call it as you are just somebody on the team they don't know (it's a new guy at the office).

[Dr Archeville]

I will gladly give the HP back, spending it for Inspiration/Scene "Editing" to make there be a conveniently dead guard he can mimic.

(A note for anyone else watching: I fully admit that this -- using HP to Inspire/edit around a Flaw or Drawback -- is a very grey area, and any GM would be perfectly within their rights to disallow it.)

Constructs and Fatigue: Kenson's gone back and forth on this over the years. By the Rules as Written, it's a Con check, not a recovery check (as most other forms of recovery are) to shake off fatigue or exhaustion after an hour of rest, and a full 10 hours rest allows an automatic recovery. (Using an HP to Recover also instantly removes fatigue.) The Core rules says chars without Con can't use Extra Effort, but the FAQ says Constructs can.

The more pressing thing, I think, is that of time: it's an hour's rest between checks, and Dead Head's already antsy to have wasted 10 minutes, not knowing what "Mr. Brown" was up to before spotting him. However, Fatigue isn't really that big an impediment (it effectively knock you down 1 PL offensively for melee only), so I'll keep his one last HP and the Fatigue. For now.

Dead Head's not Taking 10 or 20 on a Disguise check -- Taking 10 would eat up another 10 minutes (since that's the normal time it takes to make a Disguise check), taking 20 would eat up 20x that, or 200 minutes! (Kenson explains it here, and I've tended to agree with his rulings on the matter.) So I'm just rolling his Charisma & Morph bonus, and get

(22:34:09) System: Dr_Archeville rolls 1d20 and gets 15.

+31 = 46! (Which means someone's need a +26 Notice to have a chance to see that it's not really the late security guard.)

I'll gladly take an HP for the Complication of someone recognizing Dead!Guard. Do you want to edit the existing post, or have someone come later that recognizes him?

[Supercape]

OK I'll go with all of the above! And with that Disguise Bonus, I won't be making notice rolls.

Post IC reply to Longwind etc, and then I'll hit you with the complication imminently.

For now:

Dead Head 1 HP - Fatigued

[Supercape]

Ok first things first

Dead Head 2 HP - Fatigued

(extra HP for complication you just got hit with!)

Secondly, you can get a reasonable amount of stuff on Mr. Brown / Dr Cartwright. He was indeed a cardiologist, and a fairly well respected one. The security notes on him note he had a fairly major altercation, bordering on a punch up, with a Dr. Gorsky, a Russian Pathologist who has been working here for two years and, although not particularly popular (a few notes of being a little rude and brusque) had had no problems.

Dr. Cartwright was shot in a hit and run as you know already, but the security here dont have much more on that. No further leads, and Dr. Gorsky was in clinic at the time, so the Police excluded any suspicion there.

[Dr Archeville]

Do the security tapes show anyone/anything weird going in or coming out of the morgue while Dr. Cartwright's corpse is in there? (Someone, say, necromancer-y. Or brain-in-a-jar-y.) Does it show Zombie!Cartwright himself walking out?