Supercape

"So, Mr. Supercape, Russia would very much appreciate the help of the Lab in this most... unfortunate matter. We are the understandink that you are an expert in such matters, and that the Lab is also possessed of similar find scientists. We hope we can count on your discretions and much expertise". The Russian ambassador signed off. Supercape scratched his chin and pondered the matter. Some Russian Nuclear facility in Siberia was having intermittent power failures. Minor leaks had occurred - nothing to serious, but still. And the Russians could find absolutely nothing wrong with the facility. The Russians had some of the best nuclear physicists in the world - heck, they could teach him a thing or two. So if they couldn't find something wrong, something was very very wrong. He should go of course - it was part of the remit of the Lab. Precisely the remit, in fact. His expertise in the science behind this was no better than their top men, but he had uncanny senses that could be extremely useful. What he did need was someone who had more of an angle on the technical side of things. And who could speak Russian. He opened up the Lab commlink. "Dragonfly, are you there?"

Maitre Carrefour (from Books of Magic p113) is behind this little caper. Doctor Singh met him a few months ago, in Mexico, and the evil wizard ensnared his soul in the artifact that Singh himself had discovered. Singh was not entirely innocent, thinking he could get some arcane power himself from the device. Hence his guilt and departure to the afterlife. Carrefour is still at large however... Search / Investigate rolls may be handy here, to look through Singh's diary, briefcase, and notes. Alternatively, Gather Information to find out whats going on. DC 15 for a vague clue, DC 20 For a strong clue, DC 25 for the above to be revealed in detail, DC 30 and you can get everything!

"There was something Sentient controlling the statue. Whether it was the Statue, or was in the Statue... hmmm. I am not so sure..." He looked over at Mr. Singh, and started ruffling around his pockets. "I think perhaps some detective work, of the more mundane variety, is in order. We should track where our friend here has been, and what he has been up to..."

Rene and Marcus investigate the Beast Rune and some Medieval capers OOC for this thread.

4th February Rene turned over another dusty tome. His books on magic were not very complete, and he swore to himself that he really must start setting up a proper base at home. As it was, it was only really good for living in and painting in. The house was luxurious. A listed building full of "character" with a sea view. It was also disorganised and full of junk, but that was the way he liked it. Perhaps he should get a butler or something. Right now, what he really needed was a well stocked library full of arcane tomes. Marcus' beast rune was painted on to a canvas for him to peruse. Almost without thinking, yet gazing at the hypnotic rune all the time, he started painting. It was a scene of mayhem and violence, not easy to discern, but it appeared that some beast was being slain by a medieval knight. For some reason, Freedom City was in the background, and it was not hard to see the forest the battle was taking place in was none other than Wharton Forest. Rene picked up his phone and dialed for Marcus. "'Allo, it iz Rene. Do you fancy, 'ow you say... a Picnic?"

That Evening... All over the TV, the media was screaming about the exploits of Jubatus outing that day. He had squeezed a week of heroics into a whole day. The Feline Fantastic! shouted out one reporter. A whole library of other names were being used, including, predictably, Whizz-Cat. But eventually, the name Jubatus had perculated through the reporters and it was the one they had settled on. Jubatus had made quite an impression, and was the toast of Freedom City, for today at least. One thing was certain, everybody now knew of the newest, and fastest, cat hero in town!

Cheers hope my GMing was to your taste etc etc! Doing one wrap up GM post to give Whizz - Ca... errr... Jubatus some celebrity!

I think its a wrap myself!

GM Post The readouts greeting Herr Doktor were not at all encouraging. After compensating for the gravity wells of the gas giants and Mars, it looked almost certain that the mysterious asteroid would collide directly with earth, landing in the middle of the Atlantic. There was little cause for relief at its oceanic landing. Its mass and speed would release devastating megatsunami's across the globe and cover the world in ash for years. It was, in short, an extinction event on the scale that had wiped the dinosaurs from the face of the Earth millions of years ago. There was a vague hope that as the meteor crossed the path of the asteroid belt, it might get deflected slightly. It was hard to calculate the odds, but they were slim at best. And only a half chance of being slim at best.

Supercape had no intention of being swatted away like a fly. He would fully admit he wasn't the skilled combatant like many heroes, but even he could manage to float above the lazy tendril and evade it. Still, that showed some low level of intellect. Maybe not intellect, but reflex, or co-ordination. It was like a snail, or a worm, it appeared. Not that he could rule out some higher level of sentience as yet - especially as it had just been "birthed". It seemed to be feeding matter it rolled over into the core rock in its centre. Interesting. Potentially worrying too. Still, this was no time to rush into things. He was a scientist, and he wanted to know what he was dealing with. The creature seemed to emit some kind of throbbing radiation, like a heart beat. He cracked his knuckles. Reaching out to a few atoms in the blob, he effected the slightest of nudges, just enough to release the faintest pulse of radiation. He continued nudging this way and that, seeing how it responded to everything he could think of on the EM spectrum.

Ok I don't quite know how this is going to work, but Supercape will try releasing tiny amounts of various EM radiation into the beast (From his radiation array with variable descriptor). This is still in the "experiment" type of activity rather than damage. I'll leave mechanics up to you - if it has to be a damage it will be at lowest possible level non lethal (damage 1), but he isn't out to hurt the creature.

"...so far. Not particularly reassuring, Monsieur. But honest. " His mind turned over the rune and half-remembered Runic lore, but he couldn't untangle the issue. "And, I shall reciprocate the honesty. It is not something I can profess expertise in. But perhaps we should explore this further in the future, non? For now, we appear to have run out of park, and you would appear to need some new clothes rather than my humble illusions". He gestured at the edge of the park they here fast approaching. "It has been a pleasure meeting you, Monsieur. I shall see you shortly!"

Rene had managed to crawl back to his knees... oh my aching knees... I'm not young anymore... which was enough to get a grip on the wild and frenzied fight around him. Whilst the circus performers were certainly dreadful, and dangerous, he couldn't help but ponder what the threat behind them was... But no matter, first of all he must disable that crushing performer, the juggler, that had floored him. With full concentration, he mustered a spinning wisp of white lightning that corkscrewed its way to the Juggler, its erratic path unfortunately missing him. The wild stroke paused and hung in mid-air, before bending back and returning to its target.

Ok The Juggler is still Rene's biggest concern, as he was blasted to the floor by him. So, this round, he will use a full action for a Stun 8 Power. 1d20+8=10 thats almost certainly going to be a miss, but I will let it Lie... it will hopefully home in next round.

"Well, its all a matter of mnemomics, really. And maximising your studying potential. For instance, do not study for longer than an hour without a break, and dont study for more than four hours a day - at least outside of last minute cramming... which we have all done!" he winked, remembering late nights at his school and at university. "Repetition is the key, and consolidation... the studies have shown..." he started drawing some fairly simple diagrams on memory decay and recall and how to maximise long term memory usage.

Zero Gravity! As per rules, DC 15 Fortitude Check to avoid space sickness: Sickened (It says Shaken in the rules but everyone knows thats a misprint!) fail by 5 or more nauseated.

All good to me! post away.

Supercape could not help but give a round of applause as Marcus braved the biting cold wind and snow to reach the beeping Beacon. "Excellent work! I can see you are at home in the polar wastes. You must be a polar bear at heart, eh?" he commented, thumbing through the dusty training manual. Where had they got this from... the 1970's? not that it did not contain some wisdom but it all seemed rather antiquated. It looked like a discarded AEGIS manual someone had left here from a few decades ago. "Next up, zero gravity! You never know if you might be called into some outer space adventure. You know, like in that film..." he struggled to recall "... battle planets!" he said with false conviction. With that, he pressed another button, and the room went dark, bar the illumination of stars and a distant sun, and Marcus floated off the floor in simulated zero gravity.

"Ah yes, fond memories. Taught there for a while till they booted me out, the back stabbing crusty academics at the top. I was merely proposing the quantum relationship between fractal observation due to parabolic psychic entanglement at m-dimensional level. If you take the Planck constant and trans-differentiate the pi-metrics of the..." He looked at the blank faces (not) following his speech. "*Ahem* Anyway, I had some radical idea's they didn't like. So here I am in Freedom City, where I enjoy much more...errr... Freedom!" he beamed.

Supercape scratched its head, flying along side it. The thing didn't appear sentient. Well, it couldn't communicate anyway. That wasn't proof of sentience or lack of it, at least for sure. Its behaviour wasn't exactly intelligent either. What was more worrying was that it was growing in size and, perhaps, energy, with everything it devoured. Potentially, that could mean it could consume the earth... He floated ahead of it, warning citizens to take cover, whilst scrutinising the blob as minutely and in as fine detail as possible... perhaps there would be some clue?

OK, I'll give it the full whack of supersenses, scrutinising it as best I am able! Taking 10 on these: Notice 20 Physical Sciences 26 Life Sciences 20 [behavioural Sciences if its appropriate 20]

Rene started to answer some of the crowds questions, blending obscurity, evasiveness and reassurance as well as he could manage. It worked well enough. Apparently a little bit of hypnotism, hysteria, and "I don't know but its all better now" was enough to stop a widespread panic, if not provide robust answers. He came over to Nick after divesting himself of one of the more anxious ladies grasping hands, and peered at Singh. "How is he? Still alive? Physically and spiritually, I mean".

Id say anybody with reasonable INT could check for a pulse, so thats not worth rolling for (unless it was reaaaaaly faint or the situations was reaaaly disadvantageous!). Postcognition roll is good to go! Singh Soul was (partly) trapped in the Artifact too, and got released - which begs the question what exactly was controlling him? Something that could still access his thoughts and expertise at least. When Papa appeared Dr Singh's Soul was so "guilty" he begged Papa for release.

Quentin blinked hard, and took Marcus' hand almost in a daze. "Well I never..." he muttered, before shaking his head from the cobwebs. Of course, whilst he knew Marcus pretty well from his training session in the Lab, that was as Supercape. Now, he was just plain old Professor Quill. "Err.. yes... well, delighted to meet you, my dear fellow. And Etain here is really the whizz at Latin. As far as I can tell, the best in the world, eh?" he smiled at Etain "I'm a bit rusty, haven't used it since my days in Cambridge, but Etain here keeps me on my toes. She only called me in because I have a bit more experience in the teaching game."

"Oooopsie Dasey!" said Supercape over the come, although he was pretty sure that phrase wasn't in the instruction manual. In fact, Marcus looked like he was doing extremely well. Right direction, careful, and persistent. "You are doing great! Keep your cool! errr... pardon the pun!" The flashing beacon was only metres away, although in the snowstorm, it was hard for him to know how visible it was to Marcus. "Nearly there!" he said, passing on as much as encouragement as the manual p 13 para 7 subclause 6 would allow.