Zeitgeist Blue

Knowledge (Physical Science): 1d20+12 = 31 Computer (With the Online Research feat): 1d20+15 = 31 Pretty high rolls. That's past the Heroic threshold but she wasn't trying very much there; her version of skimming.

Can I roll for knowledge on the cutting edge of nanomachines and their current problems (to have an idea what's this breakthrough) and getting to know who Rita Lang is in her professional work?

Salvo It had been a couple of days since Nicole's flight had touched down on the tarmac in one of Emerald City's airports. She hadn't slept a wink the whole flight, instead, with only the soft humming of the plane's engines to keep her company, she refreshed herself on the latest findings on nanotech. She had some limited access to ArcheTech's files and read through that, notes and latest breakthroughs that a journalist could have picked up on. And on her breaks she scrolled through the professional social media sites to see just who this Doctor Lang was about. She had landed, said hello to the Leons, freshened up and set to driving through familiar streets. Emerald City had an old world charm about it, quite unlike the breakneck speed of Freedom City. It was merely one Nicole Whitfield-Hall who sat down to continue her work in a quaint coffee shop in Bridgepoint, coffee beside her laptop. For all intents, Salvo was all the way across the US. That was yesterday. "Hi Rita," Nicole said, reaching up to shake the Doctor's hand today. Nicole wore a nice blouse and comfortable leggings that reached to her midcalves, baby blue on black, and a open lace shirt of leaves over that. She looked up at the pyramid that was ArcheTech West, blinking back the glare from the sun. " I can imagine all the things they say. Maybe because I've already heard all of them." Then, smiling, she glanced back at Rita. "What I haven't heard of is this nanomachine project of yours. It's like Pandora's box locked behind an invisible firewall where I can only read the cliffnotes of the cliffnotes. Is it that classified?"

Initiative: 1d20-1 = 19 And that's actually a Nat 20.

Salvo = 10 posts + 2 GM posts = 12 posts = 1PP Happiness in Slavery (7) Mud Pack (1) Sky-Pirates! (1) Through the Mirrored Glass and Back Again (1) GM = 1 post = 2 GM posts (2 to Salvo) Through the Mirrored Glass and Back Again (1)

"Well, yes-- but-- you know," Nicole said, looking everywhere but at Davyd as she formulated a reply. Finally she shook her head and brought out her homework file, typing as she spoke to Davyd. "That's all in the past now and Archeville got his comeuppance and more. It's got the best science and powered research. Mister Tulink, that's Citizen for most people, showed me around on my first few days." The subject after all was an awkward one for her and she waved her hand as if Archetech's science excused its history. Then she stopped typing and leaned towards Davyd, her lips upturned in a smirk. "And I'm not going to work there. I already do, have been for three years. Only difference is when I get paid. It's great doing what I'm best at and what I love. You're a movie buff, right?" "Y'know, Hitchcock and artful-ness." Her hands formed quotation marks as she said the words. "Maybe you can start by helping me with my paper and I could trade with whatever science subject you're banging your head against. But looks like I won't be taking much of your time." Behind him, Davyd's ad-hoc posse stood and Nicole gestured to them impatiently. When Davyd indicated his desire to go to the dormitories left, she returned to her schoolwork, holding back a yawn that threatened to escape her lips.

Hmm... And with Ouroboros' assist, it seems Veronica has an open way through to the other side. The Sorcerer is busy reeling, and neither the Mist or the Golem can get there in time, leaving a portal in front of and behind the Limbs which, as established, isn't very mobile. Bravo on the team play! @Thevshi, mind writing Veronica scoring the goal with the Salvo's helmet? I'll put up a GM post after that. Combat Mechanics

Salvo "I wouldn't say no to one," Nicole said in response to Corinne, driving back to her laptop. "Hair, saliva. I wager they morph just as easily as your skin and bones. You wouldn't be a very effective shapeshifter if you couldn't now, would you?" "Well, yeah, that's all you cared about." She coughed awkwardly into her hand as Leroy finished what could only be described as a glowing recommendation. She turned from the Prince in a certain state of undress to face Davyd. "So relax and move, you're blocking my laptop. I know a couple who responded to your incident. Word gets around in scientific circles and human info security needs sprucing up, but trust me when I say your power's mechanics and its applications will be safe with me. I can understand why you'd want to keep it a secret." Her jaw was set, as if that would convince him she was dead serious, and she pushed at his arm to get a better view of her laptop. Now her thoughts shifted on how Davyd's DNA was eerily similar to dogs, particularly of the Chihuahua breed, and that tangent led her to shapeshifting Chihuahuas, and though the transformation process would probably be horrific to witness, she could imagine owning a pet that could disfigure itself to be whatever breed she wanted. She could see why Davyd would be embarrassed about that particular aspect of his power but, whatever, she's seen worse. She shook her head to rid the thoughts before she could go down that rabbit hole. "Science is great but what isn't is this assignment," she muttered darkly as she stared at the paused movie. "How am I supposed to connect this to the anti-affirmative and labor laws of Cahill and his yes-men? Pure torture." She clapped her hands together. "Anyway, satisfied, Davyd?"

The Golem didn't actually do a Throw action. I guess it wasn't clear but it was just a Standard Action to damage as stated in the house rules.

The A-V center was empty of people save a girl on a wheelchair at one of the corner tables. One of her ears was covered by the headset she had plugged into her laptop and the other was left unattended. She stifled a yawn as she continued to watch but as the teenagers moved into the room she took the chance to look away from her laptop and up to the students who had just entered. It wasn't exactly a winning group of people, Nicole noted. She would have brought her headphones down on both ears and ignore all of them but there was a student she had not yet seen. "Davyd? You mean, Davyd Ocheret Palahniuk?" She called from the corner of the room before hitting pause on what looked to be some old film that looked to be Psycho. Then she drove forward, her curiosity winning over her aversion. She extended a hand towards Davy, waved at Lulu, and pointedly ignored the other students besides them. "I've heard about you in the FCU campus incident and some bits afterwards. You're an interesting case study really, your genetic structure bondi--..." She trailed off then shook her head as if getting rid of a nasty thought. "Nevermind, I never get to say any of the fun stuff." Her eyes strayed towards Leroy but she sheepishly moved them back when he caught her looking. "In any case," she said, managing to only slightly grimace. "Welcome to Claremont, even if the year's ending. What're you looking for here? Everything's really dry, mostly Nat Geo documentaries about bird migration and some old movies."

That hits and... 1d20+11 = 23. One Bruise + Injured.

Right, Teleport uses a Movement action by default. Though I believe Ouroboros' Long Range Flaw brings it up to a Full Action for him. *** Sense Motive: 1d20+6 = 18. Failed. The Sorcerer is Flat-footed. However, that attack missed. You can roll spend HP, see what happens. *** @angrydurf, you're up! Note that you are still grappled (or wait, I still need to roll a Grapple Opposed check for the round, yes? Well, looks like Ouroboros has a slim chance to start his turn un-grappled.) Opposed Grapple Roll: 1d20+25 = 27 Combat Mechanics

And here is a map of what's happening right now. Really not to scale. Claremonters Blue dots - Masques Red dot - Ouroboros Green dot - Veronica Enemies Gray circle - The Golem Pink thing - The Limbs Yellow spray - The Mist Brown dot - The Sorcerer Distances from Veronica and the Sun-Core The Mist - One move action Masque - One use of the Teleport action (which I believe takes a full round). Ouroboros - One full action for his Teleport too I believe. It'd take moving all-out (if you run) for two turns to get there without the use of movement powers.

GM Masque, Ouroboros Wrapped up in their own fights as they are, the Masques and Ouroboros might catch a shadowed glimpse of Veronica ripping her hair from hands of the many limbed creature. Then she is free and off to a running start, her feet thudding on nothing but air and the sand that swirls around her. Up and around the mass of arms and feet and away from the both of you and your individual battles. Her figure quickly recedes into the sandstorm until she is nothing more than a hazy form amid the sand and magic, and then not even that. Your opponents see what you do too. There is a lull between Masque and The Sorcerer's fight and they hover mid-air in place for a moment. Masque could feel a trickle of blood dribble into her lips, salt and heat mixing from the continual hammering her mind had received. She looks up to see The Sorcerer looming over her but instead of delivering the coup-de-grace it turns towards the silhouettes of the many limbs hanging in the air and gestures. They disappear with nary a flash of light in front of Masque's eyes, then The Sorcerer turns its eyeless face back to her... Unnoticed by anyone, claws penetrate the edges of the sandstorm at numerous points around the Claremont students, slowly opening tears into this dimension. *** Veronica You run, as fast as your legs can take you, deeper and deeper into the sandstorm until the sounds of battle is drowned out by whirling winds and sand brushing against your skin. Her friends disappear until she can perceive almost nothing save the faint light of the sun, the core itself branded into her mind's eye through her magical senses. It burns bright and acts as an anchor in her race against her enemies for she need only run towards it and nowhere else. Closer and closer she gets and even the sand parts as she nears so that she may look at it with her physical sight. The helmet on her belt begins to tug harder, towards the sun, until you suspect that if you were to release it then it would fly straight towards the core. A sun in miniature, barely larger than her head. It hangs in the middle of the storm, untouched and burning an electric blue. This close and the heat would have been all but unbearable, scorching clothes and skin until the flames took you, but your spell wards off this extreme. Instead, you feel warm, like taking a jaunty trek into the desert. You are about a dozen meters or so from reaching your destination when limbs, arms and legs and reaching hands, appear between you and the miniature sun. They form a wall, looming over you and surrounding the sun in a half circle. It seems the creature seeks to bar entry and when you look behind you see the shifting sand, moving towards your position with an uncanny intelligence. Hearing nothing but the sand whistling in your ears you find yourself between two inhuman beings, intent on you and you alone. It seems you were followed.

Sorry for the delay. The weekend was busier than I expected. Let's see. The Mist Move Action: It's going to trail right behind Veronica, trying to catch her from behind. The Limbs Move Action: Teleport between Veronica and the miniature sun, blocking her path. IC post in a bit. Basically, The Mist and The Limbs are going to try and stop Veronica, leaving The Sorcerer and The Golem with the Masques and Ouroboros behind. @Fox, Duplicate Masque is up! And so is Original Masque if you're removing the Daze. Mechanically, The Mist would still be around Duplicate Masque if you can think of doing something.

Well, enjoyable things first. I like how your GM posts are seen from the perspective of the characters, oftentimes the antagonists. It allows us a look into their minds and show there is a level of attention given to NPC characterization. That’s great and adds flavor to the thread and I can easily see how their POVs can be manipulated to bring about the mood of a scene or the thread if one were so inclined. I like the “puzzle” sections, problem-solving and all. It’s always fun to think of how to go about things and how the characters would be able to solve them given their aptitudes. Plus you were able to lean into different PCs strengths with the two puzzle sections. Nicole when they got lost and her magic abilities and Pan with his negotiation skills. That whole bit with Baal was I think the most supernatural horror part of the thread as there was that implied power gap between Baal and the PCs that stopped us from just blasting it away. Plus there were souls on the line. Still, I think it could have been better pulled off and it’s the scenes prior to the climax that we should be looking at. You said you wanted supernatural horror but what we got instead was more like an supernatural thriller-action movie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great curb-stomping demons in one round while firing off one-liners and taunting Baal, but yeah, the thread I think the whole horror aspect was taken down by the two curb-stomps the PCs brought to the antagonists. So if you want horror I say take away the curbstomps. Take away Nicole’s battlesuit, shred the optimism Pan wears like a cape, make them suffer and want to not face the monster head-on. The whole race-against-the-clock thing where the PCs had to move to the problem made it seem like a supernatural thriller to be honest. Instead, keep up the suspense where they’re only just able to beat or run away from the threat while they figure a way to solve the whole thread. Fights seem too swingy for it or hard to balance between the PCs getting curb-stomped or the antagonists getting curb-stomped. Maybe, treat the encounters like "puzzles" or problem-solving sections where the PCs can’t touch the antagonists but there’s something ramping up the pressure. Baal was something like that, but what undercut the pressure in the climax was that we knew how badly off he was. Nicole and Pan had him on the ropes and we as the players knew that. He was getting frustrated and shown as fallible and in a weak position. Same with all the other antagonists, making the players have the sense of superiority the whole time. Perhaps put in your POVs more the sense of power, of knowing that the PCs can run or delay but you don’t care cause you have all the time and control. Put in malevolence and something alien and predatory there. Also, Nicole doesn’t need to know everything. She wouldn’t have all the facts in place so she couldn’t get the right answers or she knows what’s happening but doesn’t have the solution or can’t perform it right now without the proper tools. And maybe that divide between knowing what to do but not being able to act on that knowledge because of some limitation can be a conflict or even the whole thread's problem itself. Here's my two cents.

"You heard your boss," Nicole replied to Vegas as she held the Horologium tightly to her chest. "I'll be taking this to study its insides stat and the whole thing is going to be so much fun." She was grinning from ear to ear as she drove herself over beside Pan. What was that?! She could see it in her mind's eye, trace its every feature. The Crocodile? The mythic beast of Neverland's tales who was foretold to be the creature to defeat the Hooked Man. Like stories within stories it seemed so outlandish as to be nothing but a faerie tale, something told to bring hope to the children of Neverland. But Nicole knew that everything was possible in this and every reality. She would not discount the possibility for all the magic in the world. Her hand found Pan's arm and she pulled him down to where she could whisper in his ear, deadly serious. "If you're instincts are right and it's the Hooked Man that triggered the alarms then you need to know what is inside the Horologium and what he's looking for. The Crocodile's image is branded here like a mason's mark. It ate you and it ate the Hooked Man and I've watched Peter Pan enough times to know the tick-tock's a good sign something bad and scaly is involved." She released him and gave him a smile, pushing the Horologium under his nose. "Now help me figure this out. We should follow Vegas to the safe rooms to get this as far away from pirate hands as possible."

Belated thanks, RL. It went well enough I suppose.

So what happens is that the two of you are fighting and teleporting around but the mental/brain assault slowly gets to you with the whole trickle of blood running down the nostril thing. Your duplicate feels this too but is able to resist, maybe because there's a buffer between her and the assault (aka. You).

Oops. Sorry, that's a Damage as your brain does funky things.

Your honesty is appreciated! Roll for Original and Duplicate Masque... Will Saving Throw DC 16. Confuse Fortitude Saving Throw 16. Fortitude And get an HP as I poke at Communication Issues. Both Masque's share an empathetic link and that includes them experiencing whatever crazy thing is happening to the other's mind/brain through feedback. Duplicate Masque also rolls.

GM Masque's shepherd's crook smashes into the sorcerer's face and it tumbles backwards into the air. Chunks of sand and stone fly outwards from where her crook had landed. A solid hit but when the sorcerer-thing turns to face her she sees the torn, sandy fragments of its face fill up again. It isn't human, doesn't even have flesh or eyes but a growl escapes from its lips nonetheless. It has no eyes but the runes on its head burn a little brighter, angrily. Masque gives it little space to act as she teleports again, her crook mid-swing into its stomach. She hits open air as it teleports away at the last second, a dozen feet above and behind her, a mere shadow within the sandstorm. It pushes a hand forward to rip at Masque's mind but she closes the distance with a short teleport, swinging her crook again. Soon, the illusionist and the sorcerer find themselves in a dance of teleports and counter-teleports, moving through the air as easily as running through an open park. It is dizzying as they arc through the battle, one moment they are at each others' throats the next they are elsewhere. In the corner of her vision, Veronica sees the two appear and Masque jab at the sorcerer with her crook before the two disappear a second later. She is too busy with her own troubles to track her friend's fight. A mass of limbs surround her. So dense is the cluster of limbs that she could barely make out the sandstorm and numerous hands grab pull at her legs and clothing. They pull at the trinkets Veronica wears on her person and they threaten to tear free, especially the amulet artifact. They grab at the helmet free from her belt but she fights away from them with nothing but her own strength, pushing against the tide of unbodied flesh. She bursts out of the mass when she feels her ponytail pull taut, hands tugging her back into the waiting limbs. Meanwhile, Masque and the sorcerer fly low through the ground, stumbling on the sand and rocks as much as teleporting through the air as they make their mad dash towards Ouroboros and the Golem. Sand billows from the impact they had made, crashing into the ground, but the golem is not sluggish and it whips the hand holding Ouroboros up into the air. The golem's fingers crush Ouroboros inside a hand harder than stone. It chafes the dhampir's skin, rough and serrated. Then the golem smashes his fist into the ground, sending more sand up around them. Ouroboros heard something crack but he is raised up once again. Then smashed into the ground. Then again. And again. And again. The golem is eerily silent as it does its work.

Time to get back to the groove. The Mist Standard Action: Targeted Area Attack (Veronica and Duplicate Masque) 1d20+9 = 19. Both Miss. The Sorcerer Move Action: Teleporting Standard Action: Attack Original Masque 1d20+12 = 16. Miss. Reroll. 1d20+12 = 18. Still a Miss. Masque gets an HP. Welllllp, so much for the Surprise Round doing anything. New Round The Golem Standard Attack: Grapple Attack. Auto-pass Roll a Toughness Saving Throw DC 30, @angrydurf And you're up, @Thevshi! Though feel free to write Ouroboros' reaction to what's happening to him if you want, AD. Combat Mechanics

GM Through the Mirrored Glass and Back Again (2) Salvo Mud Pack (2) Sky-Pirates! (2)

Salvo "Always in the possession of someone mighty. How mighty are we talking about here?" Nicole asked as she touched her eyeglasses, turning on the built-in magic sight. Then she looked at the Horologium as its ticking became louder and louder. "Because you might want to start there if you're looking for someone to blame, Astrid." In truth, Nicole wasn't so much worried as she was entranced by the Horologium. She squinted to look at the tiny, un-analog clock tick even as the alarms blared around her, sending her fellow students on edge. Her ears rushed with a sound much louder than the alarms but her thoughts were the clearest they had ever been. Free of distraction and time. Free of anything in the periphery, she only had eyes for one item. What had Pan said they were capable? Healing, mass transportation, prophecies and impossible treasures. She wondered what this Horologium held within its clock hands. She found herself closer, having seemingly driven her wheelchair up to the nearest she could get to the table and the Horologium. If she could, she would reach out and take it into her hands and look at it closer, try to understand what made it tick in as much time as she could with her magic sight turned on. The attention of Vegas and the researcher and the other students on this field trip were split between the Horologium and the alarms, and if only she could...