R. Bluefish
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Why not - she'll try her luck with trying to grab Jack from him. Although that -6 penalty from being Exhausted ain't doing her any favors... Strength check: 1d20+8-6 16 About as good of a roll as she can hope for, I suppose, given the penalty! This really isn't her day, is it?
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Echo will attempt to bluff him in order to buy time. Echo's Bluff check: 1d20+12 17 (Hey, a whopping 5. Orokos hates me so much.) I suppose that mechanically, there's no reason she couldn't just grab Jack and haul ass now, but it feels more dramatic this way!
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"Sure, sure," wheezed Echo. "Everybody happy. Everybody very happy." She put up a hand, palm out, as if to shield herself from the bullet that she was pretty sure was coming any second now. "But let's talk about this, okay? We're adults, we're reasonable people. We don't need to shoot or gas anybody. Well, okay, it's too late to not gas anybody, but it's never too late to not shoot somebody." As she spoke, she was acutely conscious of the fact that she wasn't wearing her mask, and that the strip of apron made a poor substitute. "That guy there, he's not hurting anybody. He's not a threat to your employers. Not that I know who your employers are," she added hastily. Her eyes flicked up surreptitiously to the rooftop above. Yeah. I can make that leap. "He just came in here for a coffee and a chat. He's not planning to make trouble. Getting, uh, taken to da cleaners last month wised him up - he's learned his lesson." She edged - well, crawled feebly - an inch or two closer to Jack's unconscious form. "So really, all of this is just one big misunderstanding, see?" She wasn't sure if he would buy it or not, but look at the guy - how bright could he be?
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The Stranger can't find any identifiably magical items on the corpses - whatever was used to animate them, it isn't here. He does, however, find a matching mark in the center of each of their chests, resembling a brand. If you squint at it just so, it almost looks like a skull...
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Echo watched Arov slurping at the soda bottle, a sick feeling starting to settle in the pit of her stomach. She was starting to feel bad for calling him Brundle. Since the tall good-looking man seemed to have the police situation in hand, she instead approached Arov slowly, hands raised in a placating gesture. "Okay, look. I'm starting to get the feeling that there's a bit of a misunderstanding going on here." Or maybe he really is just a psycho who got turned into a giant bug, but if that's the case then that'll be easy to deal with. "Who..." she waved a hand feebly at him, "...did this to you? And what can we do to help?" Even as she spoke, she doubted her own words. Was there really anything that could fix...that, whatever it was? The guy was a giant bug. But transformations weren't her area of expertise, so who knew? If it was a spell, there was probably a counterspell, right? And if it really was a Brundle situation, it wasn't as if they were exactly hurting for big-brain scientists. The real problem was probably going to be whoever or whatever turned him into this in the first place.
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Echo paused in mid-recovery, as the grenade hit the ground and the strange green gas began dribbling forth. Before she could even process what was happening, she had already gotten a good lungful. Well, that can't be good. She sniffed. Didn't smell half bad, actually. Was that...pine? "What is that?" she said. "An air freshener grenade? You're going to have to do better than..." she placed one hand to her forehead. Was she feeling a little dizzy? "Oh, shi..." Her legs buckled under her and her knees hit the ground, hard enough to rattle her teeth. All of the energy seemed to have been drained from her in an instant. Her bones felt like they had been filled with lead. She dropped to all fours, the hard concrete painful against her palms, suddenly using all of her much-vaunted strength purely in an attempt to not pass out on the spot. With what felt like Herculean effort, she managed to turn her head to look at Jack. Crap. He was out like a light. Apparently not everybody had her constitution. Actually, apparently not even she had the constitution she thought she had. She reached out one hand weakly towards him, aware all the while of the man in the coat, standing there unaffected. She needed to get him talking, and keep him talking. If she could stall him, even just for a few moments, she might be able to recover enough of her strength to grab Jack and escape. Hopefully the man wouldn't be able to guess quite how fast she was. "Hey," she gasped. "Capone. I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I don't know how may bean burritos you had for lunch, but if you keep cracking those off you're going to chase away all our customers." Seriously, Stein? A fart joke? She was spending so much energy just staying awake, she was having trouble coming up with appropriate jibes.
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Now that they knew Gretchen was safe, Starlight was beginning to turn her attention to the matter of getting the hell back out again. "Then let's get the hell out of here," she said, turning in place as she surveyed her surroundings warily. "Rather not stay here any longer than we need to." Being imprisoned in a crappy hotel for the rest of eternity isn't on my list of things to do. She paused, hesitant, and aware that she was out of her element. "Uh, which way?" She scuffed the carpet with the toe of her boot curiously. Feels real. "Does it even matter?"
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Echo's Fortitude save: 1d20+6 7 Seriously, Orokos? So that's how this thread is going to go, eh?
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Echo was out from behind the door in an eyeblink. "I can't actually beat the crap out of you, but I can...nah, I'm just going to beat the crap out of you." She realized that the moment her improvised mask had touched her face, she had shifted into her usual wisecracking persona. Maybe I should put a kibosh on that for the time being. She lashed out, her fists instantly transforming into a flicker of hyper-accelerated movement. As she struck, her foot hit the scrap of tossed apron she had aside and slid. She slipped, her attack ruined, and clawed at the wall to remain upright. "Gah!" Good. Good one, Stein. If only Erik could see you now.
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Right, taking advantage of the element of surprise and attacking the Gas Man! She'll use 2 points of Power Attack as well. Superfast Fists vs. Gas Man: 1d20+14-2: 13 Oh perfect, a natural 1. Heh.
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ic Gang War - Even Vampires get the Blues (IC)
R. Bluefish replied to Tiffany Korta's topic in West End
Don't miss sleep? Starlight half-chuckled ruefully to herself. That makes one of us. One of the hardest parts of adjusting to her new abilities had been suddenly being incapable of shutting off for that precious eight hours. The only bright side was that it gave her plenty of time to catch up on her reading. The main downside was that she was pretty sure it wasn't good for her mental health. "Works for me," she said. "Meet up with you then, and we'll stake the place out?" And hopefully that was all they would have to stake. -
Buffy cursed under her breath at the sounds coming from within the coffee shop. So much for doing this the quiet-and-easy way. Her mind was racing - the rooftops called to her tantalizingly. She could grab Longwheel and be halfway across the city in the space of a hearbeat if she wanted - but this guy, whoever he was, would still be here, and from the look of him, he wasn't the type who was likely to give up easily. If he didn't find Longwheel here, he might start asking some questions of the staff. Violently. Asking Paul to cover for her was one thing - leaving him behind with some thug was another. That meant it was time to take a more proactive approach. With one hand, she shoved Longwheel behind her, ripping off her Starbase apron with the other. With a single violent motion, she tore a wide strip off it, and tied it quickly around the lower half of her face. It wasn't much of a disguise, but it was all she had at the moment. There are capes who don't even wear masks, so this should be plenty, right? Moving as quickly and quietly as she could, she threw herself against the dirty brick wall beside the back exit, so she would be concealed by the door when it opened. With a glance at Longwheel, she placed one finger to her lips. "It might get pretty violent here in a second," she hissed. "Just let me take care of it."
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All right, Echo will try hiding behind the door to try and get the drop on him. She has Skill Mastery in Stealth and a +15 bonus, so with the +5 you gave me, that's a total Stealth check of 30.
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Buffy's instincts were screaming at her. That guy already has a coffee. Why's he coming in here? She looked at him for a moment more. Also, he's obviously an armed thug. There was no good reason for somebody to wear a trench coat in this weather. Especially a guy with a mug like that. She couldn't confront him here, not in front of her coworkers. She had an identity to protect, and single-handedly taking out a man twice her size was the kind of thing that led to a lot of awkward questions. Which meant they needed to get out of there, stat. Buffy's hand shot out and gripped Jack's wrist with far more strength than a skinny barista had any right to be able to muster. "We're going," she said. "Now." She was already on her feet - half-leading, half-dragging Jack with her, heading for the back exit. She wasn't sure if the man had already seen him or not, but if he hadn't, they might still have a chance to sneak out of here unnoticed. If not...well, hopefully she could at least get somewhere a little less conspicuous before breaking out the pugilism.
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Buffy turned sharply, whipping her head around to look over her shoulder at the van Jack indicated. She squinted at it, trying to remember if she had seen it before or not, but one consequence of using super-speed to get everywhere was that you didn't pay much attention to cars. "I'm not sure," she said. "Should I?" She could feel she was on edge. You didn't see a lot of armored cars around. And you certainly didn't see a lot of them stopped within very convenient surveilling-distance from a Starbase. Being overcautious could hurt. So could be undercautious. Better safe than sorry. Especially when the fate of the world is apparently concerned. "You think it's following you," she said, only half a question. She was already rising from her seat. "There's a back exit, past the restrooms. If you think they're tailing you, then...I mean, we're not supposed to let customers use it. But if we're talking about the fate of the world..." She had a feeling her break might end up being a little longer than she intended. Sorry, Paul.
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Echo Deadbolt Terror Lunch Starlight The Box of Delights Gang War - Even Vampires get the Blues A Performance to Die For GM
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Buffy couldn't help but glance out of the window as he did, scanning the streets for...what, guys in trench coats and fedoras, staring at them and snapping pictures? Well, the good news was that she didn't see any. "Calm down," she said again, looking back at Jack and raising a placating hand. "You said they don't know you know, so why would they be following you?" Her coffee lay on the table, forgotten. She leaned forward across the table, lowering her voice, acutely aware that they weren't alone in the shop. "Okay, look, I mean...what needs to happen? Theoretically? If...somebody," was she being as transparent as she felt she was? "was going to try to stop whatever this is, what would they have to do?" Who would they have to hit, and how hard? "The dimensional thing's gotta go back where it came from, right?"
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Ah, crap, Buffy thought. "Ah, crap," she said. Her misgivings had officially been upgraded to fully-blown unease. If it kept up like this, it might go all the way up to apprehension. "Okay, uh, first thing, breathe." She reached over to pat him awkwardly on the shoulder, unsure of what to do with a guy who looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "Deep breaths. Calm down. Drink your coffee. Or don't." Even as she spoke, she could feel her thoughts drifting towards the blue-and-silver tights wadded up in the bottom of her book bag. "A dimensional anomaly? What kind of dimensional anomaly?" She realized as she asked it that she probably wouldn't understand the answer even if it was given to her, and changed avenues of inquiry. "So it's killed people, and they're going to try to exploit it?" Neutron Industries. Need to look them up and find out who to punch...She made an effort to reassure him. "Whatever it is, I'm sure the city's heroes will be able to deal with it. Er, hypothetically." Or maybe just one hero.
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End of the world? Buffy blinked, slightly taken aback. That wasn't something you expected to hear about working in a coffee shop. Especially from this guy, who had always been one of the good customers rather than one of the jackass customers. A feeling of vague resignation was beginning to worm its way into her gut - this is going to be one of those things, isn't it - but she refused to give in to it just yet. Maybe the guy was just really wasted, right? This hardly required her special attention. She scrubbed at a stubborn spot on the counter for a moment, before sighing. Who was she kidding? Wasted or sober, she was pretty sure capes weren't allowed to walk away from anyone who claimed to know about the end times. Erik would tear up her Interceptors membership card. Actually, she didn't think they had membership cards. He would give her one just so he could tear it up, and that would be even worse. She prodded one of her fellow baristas. "Paul? I'm going on break for a second. Cover for me, will you?" She poured herself a quick espresso - everyone always told her that if there was one thing she needed more of, it was caffeine - and followed Jack. "Okay. I'll bite," she said, dropping into the seat across from him. "Let's hear your mad end of the world warnings, Jack."
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Buffy turned to the glistening array of coffee machines behind her, hands reaching for cups and levers with practiced, almost unconscious ease. "Regular coming up. I think we're fresh out of tickets to Hell, but we might have a few tickets to Purgatory in the back." Her usual banter was audibly halfhearted - today, the heat was getting to her just as much as everyone else. The idea of sailing - or, more likely, running - to Hawaii was a tempting one, but the way these things went, she would be attacked by some kind of huge sea monster the moment she arrived. Either way, for once in her life she wasn't looking forward to getting off work today. Because that meant going out on patrol, and that meant stuffing herself into the tights and putting on the wig, neither of which had exactly been designed with hot-weather environments in mind. If she thought she was hot now, she should wait until she was leaping around the rooftops in a body stocking. Maybe I can do a short patrol today. Just a quick lap or two around the city, then straight home to air conditioning and Netflix. After all, what were the odds of there being anything that would require her attention? "Good advice there. I think I'll cancel my weekend plans and go on a little impromptu Hawaiian vacation instead," she said as she placed Jack's usual in front of him. She studied his face briefly, noting his profuse sweat, of which there seemed to be a lot even given the temperature. "You all right there, big guy? You look a little..." she didn't want to say like a beached whale, that would be rude, "stressed."
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Elohdon: Good roll. From what you can glean, the spirits have been somewhat stirred up lately by necromantic energies emanating from an apartment building in Southside. While ghosts don't typically bother with things like addresses, you think you manage to figure out a location based on their description. I'm not sure how you picture Mr. Blue's ghost-communication working, so I'll leave it up to you to describe how he gets this info! Or, of course, you can just gloss over it if you'd prefer. Raveled: Judging by a few telltale signs, the Stranger thinks that these corpses weren't actually animated through a spell, as would be used by a proper necromancer, but through the use of some sort of enchanted item or artifact. So whoever sent them may or may not be an actual practitioner.
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ic Gang War - Even Vampires get the Blues (IC)
R. Bluefish replied to Tiffany Korta's topic in West End
Starlight snorted. "Well, you suspect wrong. I don't need to sleep any more than you do." Sleep? Man, that takes me back. "So no reason I can't stake the place out along with you if you want. It's not like I have a lot of obligations to work around." If this wound up being one of those all-day-all-night things, she was going to need to call Lynn and tell her she had some vampire-related business to attend to. "But," she added, aware that most heroes didn't exactly jump at the prospect of spending more time with her and her dazzling social skills, "if you'd rather watch the place yourself, you can call me at this number." She jotted down her cell phone number on a scrap of paper and handed it to the other woman. "Do whatever you want. You're the expert, apparently." -
ic Gang War - Even Vampires get the Blues (IC)
R. Bluefish replied to Tiffany Korta's topic in West End
"Well, I suppose that...explains it," said Starlight, still uneasy. She had only had one prior encounter with bloodsuckers, but it was one she was in no hurry to repeat. The prospect of becoming embroiled in some kind of vampire turf war was not one that she was exactly eager about. But she was doing the superhero thing now, and superheroes didn't turn away from these things. For some damn reason. "So we should...what? Just go take out the gang? Thrash them like we would any other bunch of toughs?" That she could do, at least. -
All right Eloh, if you want to ask the city's resident spirits for information (a little soul-searching, as it were?), then go ahead and give me a Gather Information check. I'll let you know what you find out.
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GM Post The police officer was obviously trying not to stare at the Stranger's unearthly visage, but she managed to pull herself together enough to respond. "A dead man walking through the city? I haven't heard any reports of anything like that, and even in this city that would get someone's attention." She pulled her eyes away from his face and pointed outside. "The dispatcher made it sound like the two...zombies, I guess...just walked out of some kind of glowing portal outside, which disappeared a second later. But...graves?" She scratched her chin thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, we did get briefed a week or two ago about corpses disappearing from one of the city's morgues." She looked from one of them to the other. "Could that be it?"