Huckleberry
-
Posts
404 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Huckleberry
-
"Uh, yeah I guess kinda break and reduce like, uh, all the forces . . . .?" Consuelo seems pretty unsure about her claim regarding how her disintegration works, and she makes a little grimace. But then she perks up. "Oh hey, maybe we could do, like, a science experiment together to figure out how my disintegration works! I could really use some extra credit in Earth Science . . . Or would that technically be space science if you helped? Hmm. Well, whatever." Consuelo listens as Vueriz talks about her dietary needs. "Hmm. Okay. Well my first piece of Planet Earth advice is: DO NOT eat the school pizza! It's . . . not natural . . . " Somehow, through the semi-garbled jumble coming through Vieriz's universal translator, Consuelo manages to pick up on the sour note surfacing when the blue extraterrestrial talks about her brother. "You've got a brother? That's cool. Can you, like, call him on the space phone or whatever?"
-
"O chália!" And the starch seems to go out of the old woman. "Ba! There's no way I could have caught them all anyway. My knees! You would not believe the pain in my knees!" The old lady puts her hand to her forehead and sighs. Then she turns and starts shambling back toward the grocery, stopping short and turning to look back at the teens with an irritated expression. "Well, are you girls coming in or not? It's a total mess in here." Consuelo looks at Rosalind quizzically. "Uh, yeah, but, uh, like, what's going on here?" The old lady sighs. "You just come in. Then you'll see."
-
The Albright security team isn't letting go of the idea that Bernadette and Consuelo could be hostile metahumans easily. After all, they have all this cool gear, and they hardly ever get to use it! They continue to keep their weapons trained on the pair. Exasperated, Carnelia steps in front of their guns and tells them they are being ridiculous. It seems almost as if they are about to move to restrain her . . . Things appear to be on the brink of getting ugly. Then the fire department arrives and recognizes the guards for the meat heads that they are. They literally talk them down by pretending to need their help sweeping the building to declare it clear of fire danger. Carnelia, Consuelo, and Bernadette are checked by firefighter paramedics with the director present. The story of what actually happened gradually comes out, and a couple of the scientists are called in to postulate what may have occurred, resulting in the visit from Ruin. The most plausible conjecture that comes out of the process is that Dr. Adamu took Bernadette and Consuelo to the old sample media room ratherthan the video/media room, which has since been remodeled to house the power duplication equipment, and the two got caught up in the system calibration process, somehow resulting in everything that subsequently transpired. Since the event seems to have a parallel reality component, Dr. Adamu actually takes interest and asks Consuelo to come back the following week for some tests. The event caused enough of a disruption that the rest of the field trip was canceled, and all the other students returned on the bus. The vice principle came over from Claremont, for Bernadette and Consuelo, and attended the debrief for them with the institute director. Sitting behind his desk, the director looked exhausted as he peered over his reading glasses at the two teens. "Again, please accept the Institute's sincerest apologies for the inconvenience and danger you have been subjected to. I know you both have had a very long day and are probably eager to leave. Do you have any more questions before you go?"
-
Like a nightmare, La Puma Negra pounces out of the shadow. An instinct deep within her target's primitive mind paralyzes him with fear at the sight of her yellow, luminous eyes. Like a close up in a king fu action thriller, her kick connects artistically with the gunman's face, and he is unconscious before he hits the ground. Shadows wrap around the assault rifle of the other guard as Rot exercises her disintegration powers at range. The weapon reduces to a useless lump - no barrel, no trigger, no gun. The last conscious guard drops the useless thing and falls to his knees, begging La Puma Negra for his life. "Please, don't hurt me! They're all in there, everyone." He gestures towards the door he came through, then lies down on his belly, face down, and continues to whimper.
-
That sneak attack will KO the guard. Rot will try to disintegrate their guns. Guard gets a DC 18 Reflex save for half effect. The jerk rolls a 23 somehow, which means the gun loses only 4 Toughness before having to make a DC 23 Toughness save. Taking 10 for the object is 16, which fails by 7, so the gun is unusable. Seeing his pal KOed and his gun destroyed, this guy is going to surrender. Which I will post shortly.
-
Alrighty then, problem solved. Technically, Rot's power is reversible, so she could put the crystal back together before the skeksis come out. But that doesn't sound as fun as purging someone's influence from a gemstone, whatever that means. I know with engagement rings, you can just take them to the pawn shop. Not sure about umbra stars, though.
-
Rot Mercury must be like, in retrograde or something. Truth be told, Consuelo had no idea what Mercury being in retrograde technically meant. What's the deal this year with evil power duplicates of me? Consuelo politely waited for Eclipse to finish her monologue. "So . . . You want my powers, huh? I can't really recommend it, but you seem determined." Consuelo puts her hand on Eclipse's shoulder. "You don't care for that stone either? Don't worry. I got you." Spinning away from the newly-formed power-stealing villain, Rot hurls herself at the blazing Umbral Star. The energy it gives off sears at her, but shadows well up around her body to protect her from harm and she pushes through the dazzling waves of energy until her hands contact the surface of the huge gem. "Alright. Time to take care of this problem once and for all." Dark disintegration shadows fly out of Rot's hands and through the crystal, splitting the thing in half. Holy smokes - that actually worked!
-
Alright, I seem to be getting away with making posts and even links for the moment, so I'll roll with it. After managing to retain her powers (even though Eclipse copied them), Rot is going to go back to her original plan of attacking the Umbral Star itself. I don't know if she can attack it, or if she'll take damage from all the energy that's coming out of it or whatever. If she can't try to disintegrate the gem itself, she would default to trying to disintegrate the energy coming out of it and empowering Ashley. So, I'll roll . . . If this ends up being a melee attack on an inanimate object, Rot would charge if she could, or all out attack failing that. In that case, her to hit roll is 3+9= 12. I'd spend a hero point to up her effect rank to 15. If this instead turns out to be a power check for her area disintegration effect to try to counter the outflow of energy it would be a 3+8=11, which is fairly awful, so I'd spend a hero point to reroll, getting even worse, but with the +10, it gets up to 20.
-
Ok. Rot rolled a 22 on the Fortitude save. So, I'll spend a hero point to reroll, which automatically succeeds a DC 24 Fortitude save with her +13 Fortitude.
-
The lights continue to flash and the soothing voice repeatedly instructs everyone to calmly exit the building. Bernadette, Carnelia, and Consuelo try to make sense of what just happened. But they don't get very far before they hear a platoon of hard boots stomping down the hallway. "Everyone, freeze!" Four Albright Institute security guards in high tech armor arrange themselves about the door and gaping hole in the wall and point energy rifles authoritatively at the occupants of the room. Apparently, the director elected to tap in-house security rather than contact the Freedom League, as Carnelia had pleaded. Speaking of Carnelia, one of the armed guards was now addressing her. "Albright employee, please identify or locate the hostile metahuman." Consuelo blanches and starts slowly hovering back away from the guards. "Freeze!" repeat three of the guards and train their weapons on her. "Alright, alright, the hostile metahuman isn't here anymore." says Carnelia, but it doesn't seem to do much to ease the tension.
-
Rot "Oh, Lawrence," Consuelo shakes her head sadly, "the cosmic entities, your dad, Collapse, Collapse's dad - they're all just splinter elements of the same doomsday cult. Some day you'll see it. It's just too soon for you now." She watches the mummy mayhem with a mix of disbelief and morbid curiosity. "Uh, yeah, this is nonsense. With all this alternate time line business, it's hard to believe any of this is real, or even matters. I mean, a giant mummy? Where do giant mummies come from? Did New Jersey, like, used to be inhabited by giants? Has Freedom City, like, desecrated their burial ground or something? So this mummy needs to attack something and it's better that it attack superheros than civilians . . . . . But, like, why does it have to attack something in the first place?" Consuelo scratches her head. "I'm sitting this one out until something makes some sense."
-
For the last couple days and for the next two weeks, I'm at a place with really bad connectivity. Posting success rate is low, and linking to rolls has been 100% failure rate. Ironically, I have a lot of time in my hands, but posting may continue to be spotty for me for a bit.
-
Rot is going to encourage people to leave the area and ready an action to counter anything threatening bystanders with her disintegration power
-
"Yeah, I mean, like the clientele would be there, like, especially in FC. But really who am I kidding? There's no way a freak like me with my revulsion aura could have a business like that. I mean, you almost monstered-out when I first came in here, you know? What do you think would happen the first time I accidentally yank a dragon's whiskers? Just, like, imagine the insurance I would have to carry . . . . It's nice to dream, though." Consuelo looks around the room as Winifred works on the colors, then regains focus and inspects what has been applied. "Ooh, yeah, that looks badass! Hey, uh . . . ," and she suddenly becomes bashful, "Uh, if it would help you get started, I could tear off my nails with, you know, my teeth. I know it's kind gross, but . . . "
-
The squeaking gets closer and then the teens hear Carnelia's voice close to the hall in the wall. "Wait! Let me check!" Carnelia's green head popped briefly into view, then retreats, and her voice can be heard on the other side. "Uh . . . She's . . . gone?" "Hmm." Dr. Adamu sounds bored and slightly annoyed. She wheels into view pushing a cart full of bizarre and incomprehensible scientific equipment. She looks in on Bernadette and Consuelo. "This some kind of prank? Why you break the wall?" Without waiting for any type of answer, she puts on an expensive-looking set of headphones, starts bobbing her head to whatever music is playing out of them, and begins pushing her cart back to wherever she came from. "No really, there were more of them. Good ones and evil ones. They were all fighting and destroying the building." Carnelia insists, a twinge of desperation in her voice. "You need a vacation, Carnelia." Is Dr. Adamu's only response as she continues down the hall. Carnelia pops back in the room, looking very flustered. "You girls okay?"
-
So the guards can't find Carmen and Consuelo at this point. Lots of options. Could sneak attack, or try to sneak over to the door they came out of, or try to draw them further off, or talk to them, or anything, really.
-
La Puma Negra and Rot melt back into the shadows as the two armed men come into the room. One plays his light about, but Carmen is well hidden behind a large steel column and Consuelo had hidden behind a rusty old forklift. "Jeez, would ya take a look at this?" The other one asks as he finds his other partner smashed under a steel drum. "Holy cow! Raymond! Man! I think he's breathing. . . " "What a mess! . . . Hey, uh, isn't that one of those magneto-whatevers the squids were using to balance the, uh, big machine?" "Yeah, I mean, I guess. But look man, the scaffolding is down, and this drum too." The gunman flashes his light up into the girders above, picking up a line of drums on a palet above. He drops his voice to a whisper, but Carmen can still easily hear. "Look, there's no way the scaffold falling and the drum can be from the same thing. That drum was pushed. We have an intruder. . . " He stands up and starts working his light from place to place. "Hello. We know you're in here. Let's just talk, okay?"
-
Actually, I'll roll Investigation for the other guy to see if they figure out the drum was pushed or if the guy just had an accident. Let's say it's DC 13 and the get .... a 19, so they will suspect foul play.
-
Let's add a +2 circumstance modifier for all the great places to hide in this warehouse, making Puma's roll an even 30 Meanwhile, Consuelo rolls a 17 One of the guards will gawk at the guy Carmen donkey konged. The other will get a notice check as he looks around, but at -2 in the dark. Rolls horribly, getting a 4. So neither hero is noticed, and can observe the guards, I'll get a post up about what they see and hear soon.
-
Consuelo offers out both hands. "Either wood be fine. Oh yeah!" Consuelo gives voice to her appreciation for Winnie's color choices. "Like sometimes, not all the time, but like, sometimes, bringing in the colors of my hair and costume would be awesome. But, like, more toned-down options would be killer too!" She seems really excited. "I am so pumped! If this works, I will spend, like, my whole whole allowance on this. Just you watch!" She bobs her head around and hums a tune to herself as she watches the alchemist work. "This is, like, a good idea to have a makeup clinic for super-powered people. Hmm. I wonder if I could like, figure out how to do like micro-disintegration skin treatments or something. You're opening my eyes here, Winifred."
-
It's pandemonium in the parking lot as the the two teens fly toward the front doors of Georgio's. Curses thrown about in English and Greek both as shoppers frantically struggle against their doom to cram into their cars. One of lady with an enormous rope of smoked sausages draped across her trunk like a bandolier spots the two descending supers and yells: "She's in there!" Before slamming the door on her aged Tercel and revving up the engine. Rosalind and Consuelo are close enough to see the person frozen mid-escape in the parking lot is just that. The perhaps-sixty-year-old man in jeans and a green plaid flannel appears flash-frozen, with a thin rime of frost all around. "Arrhgh!" A yell of frustration rumbles out of the grocery followed by another pale blue beam, which paralyzes a panicked-looking lady gradually exiting the store with the aid of a walker. The doors open again and an agitated matron with an unapologetically out-of-date hairdo and corrective lense frames steps through. She is also covered in frost, but quite able to move. She gets a surprised look as she spots Rosalind and Consuelo coming to a landing. "Eh? You kids just scram! Please? I got enough trouble already!" Little motes of frost swirl around both hands of the old lady as she sizes up the two teens. She seems hesitant, not quite sure what to do next.
-
As Ruin struggles and squirms under the combined grasp of Multi-Girl and Rot, shadowy disintegration waves surging all around, Bernadette's double calmly stalks up to deliver the knockout blow. Ruin suddenly stops her wriggling. "Hey, I feel kinda funny. Whoa. . . Look at all the colors!" Her face takes on a strange, childlike curiosity right as Multi-Girl's fist sweeps down in a merciless arc to connect with her temple. The pinned teen's disintegration aura seems to turn in on her, and, within an instant, there's absolutely nothing in the place where she just was. Bernadette and Consuelo slump into the floor in their enemy's absence. It suddenly seems very, very quiet. "Um, what the heck was that?" the remaining Consuelo asks rhetorically. Outside the room, a squeaky wheel can be heard gradually making its way down the hallway, accompanied by an exhausted sounding voice with a thick accent . . . Dr. Adamu? "Alright, Carnelia - keep your pants on!"
-
Out of morbid curiosity, what's the DC 20 Fortitude save for?
-
Rot Flying through the hole in the theater ceiling and hugging close to the beam of light (or was it a beam of darkness . .. . . who can really say?) Consuelo had a plan. I'm gonna go straight at that Umber Star thing and just disintegrate it! But then she made an observation. Um, wait . . . . Looks like Parker has Ashley totally restrained. Maybe I should just go for her. Veering off from her original course towards the pan-dimensional gem of reckoning, Rot instead steaks towards the big purple dragon girl, shadows trailing behind her. With Parker "holding" her the way he was, she actually manages to smash right into Ashley-dragon's center of mass in a dark burst of disintegration. The Draconic form of purple light maybe . . . maybe loses a little substance. Dang, not quite the dramatic finish I was going for. Maybe I should've stayed with my first plan of just attacking the crystal. Oh well.
-
Okay. If she's helpless, Rot will just charge her with her Poof! Attack. Including the +4 against an helpless opponent with defense 5 + size modifiers, she gets an 18 to hit. Assuming that hits, will spend a HP to increase effect by 2 ranks. Tbh, I don't know if that applies to Drain and damage both, or just one. If one, prioritize damage. The base power is 13 Toughness Drain, 13 damage.
