olopi

okay, for superheating, would I just attack it with a fire-based attack? Or do the whole enviromental control business?

Greetings! Now, when exploring settings with a lot of history, I’ve always been a fan of Relationship Charts. They’re a nice way to learn more about a character at just a glance. And, since I’m also a fan of projects that are more than I can reliably handle, I’ve decided to try working on one for FcPbP. But, I’m not just interested in romatic relationships. Platonic’s where it’s at! So, what I’m planning, and obviously feedback is appreciated, is having a more complete version. Platonic relationships, romantic ones, others too. Since archive-diving is a lot more difficult than just asking, that is where other players come in! You all probably have a better idea who your character knows, has worked with, is friends with, and so on. I decided to whip up a quick template, if anybody else can think of more relationships to add onto there, feel free to suggest them, I’m striving for completion here! Otherwise, just fill out the template and post it here/send it to me per PM, and I'll get around to adding things in. Character Name: Friends: (Character and Player Names, i.e. : Mr. Blue (Elohdon), Ruby Voxx (Darksider42), The Primal Spirit (Zen Gypsy) ) Close Friends: Former Friends: Teammates: Former Teammates: Lovers: Relationship: Serious Relationship: Married: Broke up/Divorced: Related: Rivals: Enemies: (Focus is on PCs here so hopefully not too many!) Now, this is all voluntary, no need to feel forced to do it. If you have time to and feel like doing it, I obviously appreciate it, but if you don’t, then don’t do it. This will take a while either way, and thanks to the nature of relationships there will be some degree of completion even if one player doesn’t have time to do it for their own characters. Also, before adding anything into the file I will make I will ask everybody who’s characters would be involved in it, so I don’t step on anybody’s toes. Which is why I’m also asking everybody that ends up filling in the template to add in everybody’s player names. I can still look for the players otherwise, but it makes it easier. I added in links to the character sheets into my example, but that's not so much necessary, just appreciated. Refs, if you feel this is better suited for the news forum feel free to move it there.

A glancing hit. A glancing hit doing no damage. And now they no longer had the advantage of numbers. Foreign Legion unfortunately did not mean perfect willpower. Also, it was getting rather hot in here. Really, really hot. Considering everybody but ..Karl, was it? Was protected, not too big of a worry. He’d be fine for a while, and the same probably applied for the other people in here. Well, it was time to do more damage. A lot of it, hopefully. No need to just fire a single shot. There was enough heat in this room for Bonfire to amass a good amount of fire. Enough for a volley. It was time to release the last safety, time to fire. And so, where Bonfire’s head would have been, a glowing orb, like a miniature sun appeared. Flaming, bright, and flickering. And then, various fireballs, much like before, shot out, at both of the robots. This would probably have further increased the heat in here, if it hadn’t been for the reactor overloading either way. One was pretty solid, the other got a bit dragged by the amount of shots fired.

2#1d20 + 6 = 19, 12 Autofire attac. I'm imagining both of them are stnading enxt to each other, but feel free to further reduce the bonus if they're further apart. It's a Blast 12 again, adn it's a full action.

Commence Violence indeed. This wasn’t some small fight. This was about the fate of this entire thing. And he was up against robots. No need to hold back. The two soldiers could hopefully handle the heat, and Marie was safe. It was time to ignite. The hands, floating in mid-air disconnected from any body, started to glow. And then, fire. Suddenly, there was a flame, barely in the form of hands. And it moved upwards the arm, slowly more and more fire appearing. Until there was a flame, about the size of a human, flickering on its edges. Barely resembling a human anymore, only the arms still noticeable. Playtime was over. There was a lot of valuable stuff in here, but this was too important. And before his body was fully ignited, Bonfire had gathered enough flames to act. It had been a while since he’d last used it. His aim probably wasn’t too great. Good thing these robots were pretty bulky. He held out his hand, and pointed at the robot forming a finger-gun. Then, a Ball of Fire, around the size of a head, emerged from it, heading directly for the robot at high speed. He realized his aim wasn’t perfect, this would be a close one….

1d20 + 8 = 13 That's an attack roll, aiming at the robot that's still unharmed. Essentially: Full action to Fire-Form Extra Effort to surge + hero point to avoid fatigue The a Damage 12 blast

1d20 + 5 = 8 Well, same as the robots. Do I act before/after them?

Robots. This was both good, and bad. On one hand, no need to hold back. On the other, good luck trying to talk with a robot. Ain’t gonna go down too well. No time to wait, time to act. What was the best thing to do now? They probably had heat-vision. They could probably see him. They probably were strong enough to run him over. No time to think, time to act. C’mon Cass, quick. Quick. … And then, without really thinking about it too much, he took a quick step towards the robots, into their way. He thrust his arms forward, turning off the invisibility from his elbows downwards, and also turning them into flesh again. The robots could still stop if they needed to, but it was in their way, so they would, if nothing else, have to walk around them. And at the same time, with the most booming voice possible, and a low tone, he shouted. “Halt, Evildoers!” Okay, that was pretty loud. He’d underestimated what having all the smoke in his lungs leave at once could cause. Maybe it’d do something, maybe not. He made sure to be ready for combat still, it would probably get a bit messy. Protecting somebody wasn’t exactly something Bonfire was good at either.

This lab was quite fancy. High-tech. All the stuff in here was probably worth more than anything Cass had ever owned. Combined. And there he was, hoping this stuff wouldn’t all get blown to bits. Not getting sued for destruction would be nice. And then, a faint noise. Oh why. Why did this have to happen now. Whoever this was, this was bad. A few seconds later and it would’ve been fine. But why now. Somebody was moving in. And they’d notice the suit missing even if Bonfire and Marie went invisible. But, it probably still was the best shot. Setting off the fire alarm would probably back-fire quite a bit. Well, there was no time to waste. They’d notice them, but maybe it would at least offer Cass a better position to fight, should it come down to that. He gulped, before whispering, hoping it would reach through the suit his ally was wearing. “Somebody’s coming. We’ll go invis again, they’ll probably notice us but still, better position. “ And then, a flick of the hand later, there was a small cloud of smoke, not enough to set off any alarms, and both …intruders… were invisible. This was what it had come down for. Breaking and entering. And hiding. Hopefully, once this was done, that would no longer be necessary. He could go back to working with police and security, no against.

Now this was some serious craftsmanship. These people certainly knew how to carve a tunnel. Must’ve taken a while. And must’ve meant that all the plans also were in the files he’d downloaded. Might come in useful in the future? Doubtful, but who knew? At this point his phone might already have reception again, who knew? First course of action, a look around the room. This wasn’t just a bar-entering ritual, but something to always to when entering a room where adversity might be expected. Well, in this case, there was nothing. Best to stay away from all the green glowing things though. Well, apart from Marie, even if she wasn’t glowing right now. The way onwards seemed simple enough. Hopefully there were no people around right now. Would make things easier. Doors randomly opening were quite suspicious, and the metal balcony didn’t help. The rest of the plan was simple enough. Get in, empty the briefcase, work some not-magic, get out. Without alarms, if possible. He turned his head toward the French woman and her friends, hopefully nobody would enter the room while he wasn’t looking. “As hot as ever. Ready? Are we expecting anybody to be in there?” Then the smoky body, still holding the briefcase moved on ahead, carefully floating at ground level.

1d20 + 10 = 24 Notice check to be used when appropriate.

It appeared her former, and hopefully soon to again be present, comrades were important. The headquarters being located amongst embassies and governmental buildings spoke of such. Being part of an important organization again, like two-thousand years ago. Kresh was uncertain about whether or not this was something to look forward to or not. While she had always enjoyed the respect and appreciation that came with being part of the praetorians, she never was fond of the attention that also came with it. Often, she had retreated and spent days in deep meditation, with the goal of escaping the attention brought onto the praetorians. When called upon, she acted, but as soon as her presence was not further required, she enjoyed having others take the attention. But now, where not many praetorians remained, this would no longer be possible. She would have to be more active. And just as she was moving away from the merchant’s stand, ready to head to the upper levels, her stomach grumbled. The noise startled a few people around her, already wary of her. It was true, Kresh hadn’t eaten in a few days, ever since she’d started her journey to CoVic. Maybe now was time to do so. A few more minutes would hardly matter. And she already was at a marketplace, finding edibles here would be easy and quick. And so, she slowly moved along the crowd in search of a food stall, where she would spend the last bit of money on her.

A few clicks later, and all the data was stored on the Bonfire-Phone. Cass knew there was a good reason he’d bought one with this much free space, and he’d found it! Even if anything were to happen to it, as soon as his phone had any reception, this stuff would be uploaded onto the cloud, and from there onto his laptop at home. He didn’t check it closely, but this should at least be enough to not worry about explaining himself afterwards. This was a pretty big thing, corporations turning out to be unclean – or even experimenting around their employees, wasn’t something that happened too often. And chances are it would send out high waves around the industry, both that of nuclear science, which Cass didn’t really care about, and that of superheroes, which Cass did in fact care about a fair bit. And now, for the big action part. It was time to deal with the evil corporation of mad scientists. It was time to smoke out some villains. Bonfire stretched, cracked his knuckles. He quickly made sure he still had enough fuel left, and chances were that unless there was a massive fight, he’d be fine. The briefcase was still in his hands, it was still full. He was as ready as he’d ever be. He looked over to Marie and nodded. It was time to get this started. “Ready to go whenever you are! “

Ooof, that was bad enough. Yes. There certainly was a reason to go after these people now. Still not quite convinced, but enough to go ahead with the plan. Cass didn’t really understand what had caused her eyes to become nuclear flames, nor did he feel like wanting to learn so. Some things were better left unknown. Either way, if she was speaking anything close to the truth, these people were a gathering of mad scientists. Villainous ones. The best and at the same time worst kind. One last thing to establish, then it was time to move. Marie wouldn’t like him for the delay, but these last few seconds would hardly change the fate of the world. But they could change his personal fate. And that was something he’d prefer to avoid. Less of the whole “unwillingly become a supervillain” thing. “Okay, one last thing, then I’m ready to move. This is primarily for myself. I need to make sure I can talk my way out of the consequences that could come from this. Do you have any kind of evidence on the PC? Just a single bit so I have something on me. I understand I’m delaying the mission, but I’d rather not run into serious trouble once this is over. After that I'm immediately ready to move, no further delays. I promise. “

“Yeah, I think I might be able to help with that.” “But first, a small question. What are they going to do beyond just creating a dangerous bit of uranium? I like to have some information before charging in. It’s saved my hide a few times before. “ This was all nice and good, and there definitely was a plan, but it all moved a bit too quickly. This was urgent, yes, but not too urgent for some basic information. At least knowing who he’d be up against beyond “they’re bad”. Especially when it came to destroying an entire company. If this wasn’t properly planned out, and there was enough evidence, getting back on the law’s good side would be difficult. Besides, it was probably around later afternoon, maybe early evening. Chances are there still were people in there. And from the sound of it, this included dismantling a reactor. This could go really bad if anything went wrong. Cass wasn’t exactly planning to go down in history books as “The guy who caused all of Hanover to become a nuclear wasteland”. He didn’t really understand nuclear physics, but from what he knew, reactors were something you did not want to mess with.

Club Ice? That didn’t sound good. Whoever this boss was probably had some less-than nice ice powers. Or it was just a bluff. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with this Boss of theirs at all, and was just a meetup point. Well, the next station on this journey of crime-fighting had been established. Now it was just a matter of handing these people over to the police. With or without the gauntlets? That Cass was unsure about. On one hand, it was evidence, on the other this would probably be fairly interesting tech, at worst useless, at best worth some money. There definitely were people looking for this kind of tech out there, and some of them even followed the law. And the martial artist that had been fighting alongside Bonfire for the entire fight was now Van-Surfing. Good enough, they were probably headed to Club Ice too. Now a way to contact him would’ve been useful. But considering they didn’t even know each other’s names, that wouldn’t be possible. They’d probably meet again sooner than later, so it was time to exchange names, numbers or something then. As for now it was time to determine what to do with these gauntlets before the police arrived on the scene again. Considering they still were around and had only retreated shortly, that would be pretty soon. In fact, they were already moving in. So it was time to talk to the third hero on scene. “Hey, do you have any use for these gauntlets? Think they’re worth anything? Or should we just leave them for the police to pick up together with these guys?” “Also, before I forget it, name’s Bonfire. Freedom’s HOTTEST newcomer. Nice to meet you.” At this point he extended a hand towards the smaller man, while watching the police drawing closer.

Now this was a hideout! As luxurious as it would get, considering it was right in the sewers of Freedom city, where all kinds of nasty things resided. Running water, a TV running the news, and even a computer. Internet access too, probably. The rooms themselves were really nice too, cosy. Stone and all that, but hey, cosy. And it was really well hidden. Now it made some sense why this place was right where everything would go down. It was hidden well enough for Neutron to not find it. And even if they did, it was well protected. The two men definitely knew what they were doing. French soldiers, made sense. No idea why they knew Marie, or what their connection was, but there was time to figure that one out later. Their guns certainly looked powerful too. Moments like these, being more or less immune to bullets was really comforting. The amount of explosives however, was disconcerting. If Cass’ basic knowledge was anything to go by, this was enough to level a building. Well, was a plan, sure. Not the best, but certainly one. He’d object if it’d come to that. “Oh, right, French. I totally forgot, sorry. I’m fluent, so why not.“ “[Hey. So, plans? I’m ready to move whenever …. But if you have anything flammable you don’t need down here, refuelling might not be a bad idea.]” The French classes he was forced to take at art school finally paid off. French was a nice language, but hardly ever useful. Well, this was the one time it was, and being pretty much fluent was a good thing!

It was time to push onwards. If these rats were anything to go by, it was just a matter of time until something bad happened to humans. If it hadn’t yet, and everybody just kept quiet. Before moving onwards, Bonfire took a picture of the biggest rat on the ground using his phone. If nothing else at least he’d have proof something was going on down here. One of the journalists he knew would certainly enjoy it. “Agreed. No time to waste here. Let’s move. You lead the way!” And onwards the journey went. By now it shouldn’t be too far off. Hopefully. The weight of the briefcase was starting to get more noticeable, starting to strain the arm a bit. Not bad yet, but if this went on for too much longer it’d start to be a problem.

And then, rats. Lots of ‘em. All sizes, from itty-bitty rats you’d see out on the street, to reaching up to somebody’s neck – and everything in between. All of them running, stampeding even. And pretty much no space to dodge. Fortunately enough, Bonfire had a smoking hot body. With some quick manipulation he could make sure the rats would not run into his actual, human and fleshy body. A bit more smoke there, a bit less there, some shifting around, a bit of movement. All the while making sure Marie could still hold on safely. A few scrapes, but no actual injuries. The rats kept coming. For around half a minute, even if it felt much longer. Then, the stream started to slow down. Still a lot, but no longer a full-on stampede. It was safe again. Unless these rats were running from something. Well, no need to worry about that for now. A quick injury check was needed. Pretty much only Cass’s Arm, from what he could tell. And a few minor scrapes on his midsection. Good enough, nothing serious. Would all heal up in a few seconds thanks to all the smoke anyways. Hopefully Marie had fared about the same. Bonfire quickly dropped the smoke making the two of them invisible, and then turned his head to look at her. “Hey, you fine? That was a whole lot of rats. “

1d20 + 6 + 2 + 2 = 17 And he manages to dodge!

Okay, invisibility again. Bonfire's turning his legs and his head insubstantial, the rest is still there so Marie can hold onto something.

Well, was about time some rats had shown up. Considering this was the sewers, the fact there were basically no rats seemed suspicious. Well, now everyone knew why. They had all gathered up here, to bask in the radiation and become more mutated. At least that was what it felt like. They might have ended up there for some other reason, but “bask in radiation” felt like a good explanation for now. It was time to act. Fight? Maybe if it was necessary. For now, hiding probably was a better option, considering the sheer amount of rats. “We’re gonna go invisible. Hold onto me so both of us know where we are. And make no sounds so they can’t hear us. Maybe try to stand firm too so they don't overrun you. “ A second later a burst of smoke emerged from Bonfire, covering most of the surrounding areas in smoke. Bonfire and Marie had already disappeared, hiding inside the smoke, invisible to the naked eye. The smoke slowly faded. Now it was just a matter of them not noticing the smell, or the fact that Marie was still standing there. Probably not the best idea, but blasting out some more damaging smoke always was an option. Mixing the smells of the sewers with the smells of burning fur and heat in general wasn’t something Cass was looking forward to.

At least there was somewhere to stay at. All in all, this wasn’t too bad of a situation. Bonfire’s Ally knew her way around the sewers, had a small base set up, and seemed like nice enough of a person. Having to walk through all of the city’s sewer system was more annoying. The price of heroics. Considering that at this point Cass saw pretty much nothing thanks to the darkness, he had no idea about the way here. He wouldn’t need to go back considering any manhole, even closed, was big enough to fit through, but being completely dependent on Marie to no get lost wasn’t the nicest feeling out there. He still didn’t quite understand why she had chosen to set up right next to the lion’s den, but maybe he’d understand once they got there. There had to be some reason, maybe it was as simple as that not being a place where they’d look? At this point Bonfire decided to stop running and start floating, turning all but his hands into smoke. Marie was essentially just dragging the briefcase and the weight of two additional hands, which would probably be more comfortable for her. It also meant Cass didn’t have to actually run, instead being dragged along together with the briefcase, only having to put in a bit of effort to keep his form insubstantial. He responded, more whispering than talking. In the sewers any noise spread a lot, so keeping it quiet was usually the best idea. “Makes sense. We should talk about the details once we’re there so I also have more of an idea what’s going on. “

This was starting to sound more and more like a novel. A pretty good one at that. Maybe once this was over Cass would have to alter some details and then write that novel! He wasn’t a great writer, but there already was a story being written. And he was right in there! Then again, there probably were better writers out there. Maybe offer the story to somebody and collect royalties off of that? Less effort and higher chances of it working. Marie’s Plan was simple enough. Not dying and not getting caught both were things that, so far, Bonfire had exceeded at. Neutron Industries. A name to note, maybe to look up if there was spare time. And internet connection in the sewers. Considering what Marie had said about arrangements, these weren’t some small time pen-handlers, this was a big, bad corporation. An interesting foe, for sure. Hopefully one not too apt at dealing with local crime-fighters slightly south of the law. The gunshot that even had the possibility to kill Bonfire first had to be invented! Then again, considering Elemental Gauntlets, Magic, and other things, Bonfire was all but invulnerable. And that wasn’t even going into specific weaknesses like being attacked with a squirt gun! Running wasn’t easy carrying this much Uranium around, so being dragged did help escaping. Bonfire didn’t complain, and quietly let himself get dragged while running along as best he could. The smell was starting to push through the smoke, so that wasn't too pleasant.

Sure. Didn’t quite make sense, but at least she had a story to go with what was going on. Good enough on that part. Not the best story, and still a few too many coincidences, but there was something. She certainly was honest about parts of it. And apparently, this thing wasn’t just highly radioactive, it also managed to cause unpredictable mutations. There Cass was, hoping he’d stay mutation free, and hoping that once this thing would be over, somebody would pay for a hospital stay. He'd probably need it to de-radiate. Unless Bonfire had some radiation protection, but that was doubtful. For now, it sounded like it was time to figure out what Marie knew. After that it would probably be getting into more trouble with the law (once again, not something Bonfire had expected to have to think about), indirectly save a few lives, get into danger, and maybe fight somebody. Three months spent planning meant Marie definitely had some sort of plan. “Okay then. What’s the plan?”