We left off last session with Justice Incorporated about to throw down with Safeguard, the super team sponsored by evil Corp York Industries.
In a nutshell, last game the group saw a truck crash in the Beverly District (high end retail), and fought a "York Industries Life Model Replicant Combat Model" (Killbot) on the street. When they beat it Safeguard appeared and told them to stand down and let them take custody of the broken unit. The party refused (mostly because it appeared to have ripped the head off of one of the lab-coated technicians who were transporting it) and said they would be handing it over to the Science Police.
Well, at the start of this session it was on. When we were ending last week, Nova had created an energy barrier around themselves. I was worried it might be strong and hold off my baddies, but I looked it up during the week and it is actually fairly weak. If an attack hits (against his Ego Defense) and does more than 10 points of damage at the level he bought the power (can be later improved), the barrier goes down.
Mastodon of Safeguard pulled a laser pistol out and blasted it. Extra fun was since he had grown to 25 feet tall, the gun was way bigger since all his items grew with him (but no extra damage). Mastodon is from an ancient race of Mastodon men who live in a high-tech city in the Antarctic. Igneous, being a Titan spawn and thousands of years old, had kind of heard of them. Anyway, besides Grow power, Mighty 3, Sturdy 2, and some hand-to-hand skill (he also gets an Edge on attacks because his trunk counts as a limb), he has some high-tech stuff on his utility belt and the pistol. FYI Mastodon is only working for York since he was sent out into the world to research modern man and cannot exactly walk among humanity easily. At normal size he is 7 feet tall.
With Nova's barrier down, the fight was on. Blackwolf, the Alaskan man who can turn into a big black grizzly bear sized wolf, went right for Paladin.
The armored leader Aegis was clearly communicating into ear receivers of his group, because Mastodon was heard by Paladin to reply to Aegis that "he was not part of the group to kill people," clearly indicating Aegis (who is secretly corporate head Boliver York jr)was telling them to finish anyone they defeated. And also, that not all of his group were down with murder, even during a fight. Blackwolf was up for killing though, and in a random rooftop encounter some sessions ago, he briefly attacked Paladin who was on patrol. At that time there was no kill order, and the big bad wolf took off from that encounter after a couple of attempts to bite the hero.
But in this case, there would be no retreat. Did not matter, because with his fighting skills Paladin is hard to hit. And Paladin was able to lay a couple of high damage hits on the wolf by use of his chain attacks ability. Blackwolf already had a little damage on him from a Nova energy blast, so the shape changer went down like a big sack of coal.
Igneous went at Mastodon. The pachyderm man had grown to 25 feet, but for some reason Iggy remained in normal size. For his size and bulk Mastodon was nimble on his feet. Nova fired an energy blast at him and missed, and Iggy used his flying rocks attack on Mastodon that also missed.
Mastodon swung at Iggy. I count his trunk as an extra limb so he had an edge on the attack (Edge lets you reroll the lowest die). His high roll indicated a Fantastic Success, which meant not just double damage but the attacks special affect came into play. Since it was a blunt attack, that would be knocking him prone. But per the rules someone with Mighty can choose to do knockback instead of the affect. So, he did that and sent Iggy flying down the street and into a car. Still awake, but just a few bit of health left, Iggy described him having some cracks in his face and torso where you could see red flesh.
I like that. In these modern games where wounds don't tend to be a thing, Iggy's player described battle damage on him. Cool. Good player (I poached Will from the first few games I played MMrpg early last year, my first experience with it, and as far as voices on the internet go, I consider him a friend).
Meanwhile Nova was mixing it up with Wind Sorceress who came flying from between nearby building with her crescent wind blade attack.
Paladin was going in for an attack on Mastodon, but Safeguard leader Aegis dropped down from a bridge above and took a swing on him. Aegis had a decent Edge on his attack, but Paladin always seems to have his own Edges due to his combat abilities, so was as usual ducking fists with ease.
OK, so by that second round of turns, Samantha's character Skyler, or "Blink," was speeding in from the nearby multiplex where she saw a late-night movie with her school chum "Moon."
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| Name that early 2000's singer songwriter I used for the Moon image |
OK, so Sky's background is she is the offspring of a Greek God and a human. The god probably being Mercury. Sam loaded her up with lots of "getting around" abilities and powers. She took "Speed Run" 1 and 2. Also "Speed Flying." to top it off she has the "Blink" power which is a short rang teleport. Phasing to go through walls, and two attacks. Both are phasing through people. One is just neurological affect that stuns the target for a round. She can also do a version that does actual damage.
A few sessions ago only the Paladin and Seraph players were available one night, and it was the first time Sam could play on Friday night (like almost everybody she is also in my Sat night DnD). So we had a short session that besides the characters doing some personal life stuff, I had them introduced to Skyler by the British swinging 60's vampire and supernatural investigator "Count Carl." If you have been reading these Haven posts then you know he pops up now and again.
I was actually wondering aloud a few sessions ago that I use a variety of images, some more real, some cartoony like the Count Carl image I have been using (I like it because it reminds me of the art in the cartoon band Gorillaz). Amber took the image and AI'd it and made this awesome real-life version of Carl.
We just figured that since Carl was a supernatural investigator (and vampire hunter, per the mallet he carries), he had found Sky and was trying to get her recruited by Justice Inc, since his own group "The Redeemers" were sort of losers.
It was around then that a flyer with 4 Science Police agents landed down the street.
They fired a flashing, siren wailing device out unto the street to get the attention of the combatants. One loudspeaker they told them to stand down and the fighting stopped. Aegis informed them that the Robotic combat unit that Just Inc took down in the last session was York Industries software and hardware, and they need to take the propriety unit back to York labs. Paladin argued that it needed to go to Sci Pol custody while the nights events were investigated. Agent Salvatori, whom the party met at the end of Manx McAllisters disastrous birthday party some weeks back
Old fave, meta human hating police captain Louie Bannon and regular cops showed up, with Louie ready to read hell to the supers. But Salvatori said that due to the technology involved in the events, the Sci Pol were in charge of the investigation and told him to focus on securing the street. Salvatori agreed with Paladin and decided to take custody of the Killbot. He told the two corporate supported groups that their company attorneys and reps will be contacted, but for now to clear the streets. Aegis and Safeguard took off in their combat vehicle, The Golden Mammoth.
Paladin, who in their last encounter with her told Skylar that their work is too dangerous for a 19-year-old girl, but after this encounter he was actually offering her a job! She had proven herself effective.
So, regarding Samantha. She is a 28-year-old New Zealander. She has played in the DnD campaign but has been wanting to run this character for months in the Haven campaign. Sam is actually fun and comes off in games as enthusiastic. And she admitted last week that this character was based a lot on younger her. A pretty party girl. And on Halloween Sam posted a pic on the Discord of her in a Hannah Montana outfit. And yeah, she looks a lot like the images she has used for Skylar. She was a bundle of fun in this session, reveling in her characters ability to pretty much dash around the map and show up anywhere she wants on her move turn. On the street, on a rooftop, or just flying around. And attacks on her have Trouble due to her "Blur" ability (she is just that damn fast). She obviously had a blast, and I hope she can make it more. Our Friday night is her Saturday mid-day, so being a young Kiwi, she often seems to have things to do during the day. But fingers crossed that we see much more of this character in action scenes and otherwise. Her bubbly character will shake things up a bit.
But there you go. The big knock down drag out (more or less) I have been working towards.
Cheers
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