SpicyWaffle

GM Whatever elaborate and convoluted lie Snakebite had rattling around in her skull, the man didn't even seem to understand it as the poison crept its way to his body from the second dart. First, there was nothing. Then suddenly he just collapsed, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he fell to the cold ground, his baton clattering away as he slipped into sweet, ignorant slumber. Ritterton, for his part, let out a hushed (but nevertheless rousing!) "Yes!" as Cassie finished the fracas between their assailants. The aged explorer crept back out from behind the creaky shed, clutching his cane as if he might strike one of the men for their bamboozelry. "Well then. I thought I'd need to come galloping in to assist you, Miss Crowe, but once again your reputation precedes you. That was done quite handily, if I do say so!"

Bee-Boy'll Take 10 on that Notice for a solid +20. Hopefully Tabitha's slipping in her desperation!

The Bee-Keeper III Oh, no, No, no, no. This was bad -- real bad. it was great they'd stopped the speedster from whirling the people and their cars down the ravine and towards that Terminus stronghold, but with their freedom came a wave of desperate panic. If everyone sped off, they'd be too scattered to protect from the drones all over the city! "Pleazze! You can't try and ezzcape on your own!" pleaded the Bee-Keeper over the loudspeaker in his helmet, his modulated voice an odd mix of robotized buzzing shouts and heartfelt concern. "If you try to drive off, you'll get picked off by the Terminuzz! We know you're zzcared; we are, too. But we can protect you. We will protect you," urged the weary bee-themed avenger. He was tired. He was sore. But most importantly, he didn't want to lose anyone else to this nightmare. Not one. More. Person. "You juzzt have to beelieve in uzz." "You juzzt have to beelieve," he repeated softly, his tone now hushed almost to the point of silence as he waited, the anticipation literally draining him as he looked on towards the fleeing flock of vehicles and the people within. All he could hope was that his message reached them, and there was still a measure of faith left in the city's defenders during Freedom City's darkest hour.

Baxter'll shoot for that DC25 Diplomacy Check and hope he can stop those fleeing pedestrians before they make a terrible mistake. He'll even use Extra Effort to increase his Diplomacy by +2, because this feels like a very all-or-nothing sort of deal. Extra Effort Diplomacy +14 vs. DC25 Diplomacy Check to Avert a Convoy Disaster = 1d20+14: 19 [1d20=5] Spending a Hero Point to use Improve Roll for that, so worse case scenario is he gets exactly 25: HP Reroll Extra Effort Diplomacy +14 vs. DC25 to Avert a Convoy Disaster = 1d20+14: 16 [1d20=2] Since you can't get lower than an 11 on an Improve Roll, this becomes a 26 and the Bee-Keeper's Fatigued until he blows an HP to remove it.

Since all the cool kids are doing it, Baxter'll use Extra Effort (and a Hero Point to ignore the strain ) to stunt ESP off of his Bee-Keeper Armor Array as such: ESP 5 (5 Miles, Audio & Visual Senses; Feats: Enhanced Skill 4 [Search +12], Subtle) + Quickness 5 (x50) [20PP] - Hundreds of Itty-Bitty Bee Drones! He'll also go ahead and make that Search check to comb the area of Tabitha via wherever the most chocolate is missing: ESP Search Check +14 to Find Tabitha 1d20+14 = 22 [1d20=8]

The Bee-Keeper III "Geez. Thankzz for the warning there, H.P. Grumpcraft," quipped the Bee-Keeper, also now nervous about what that could potentially mean. They needed to find Tabitha fast, lest the desperate keyamajig get really uppity and open a portal to some unknowable horror beyond the scope of madness. Like Bedlam City, or whatever. "Faczz izz right. You juzzt hang tight and try not to zzmazzh anything until Tabitha comezz running out. We need thizz plazze as un-zzmazzhed as pozzible," he added, though whether he was talking to Grumpy or at Grumpy was a matter of some debate, as the ten-foot-tall giant was still concealed by Pixie's potent magics. "Hang in there, Pix. You're doing great. Zzoon azz we nab Tabitha, we're in the home zztretch." Giving his wrist-mounted computer a few tactical taps, the Bee-Keeper lived up to his namesake. No sooner than he'd finished, a small swarm of tiny robo-bees emerged from the armor. As a group they certainly stood out, but with a few more well-placed keystrokes the swarm dispersed, each individual bee on its own teeny-tiny mission. "Looking for zzignzz of our rogue key," assured armored hero, still frantically tapping his PC, looking totally zonked out as he focused on the display in his helmet. "If Tabitha'zz in here, I'll find her. My bet izz that zzhe'll bee wherever the chocolate'zz disappearing. We find the zzhortage, we find our key."

GM Ker-pow! One well-placed kick later, and the goon accosting Cassie crashed into the wooden domicile, crashing through its rickety walls and into sweet, sweet slumber. One down, one to go. His compatriot was looking much worse, and more than a little green around the gills. Despite the man's well-toned physique and clearly militant stance, his hands were shaking - quivering, even! - from fatigue. He was unsteady, and as he swung the baton towards Snakebite, between the darkness and illness, the strike didn't even come close. "Whatever you did to me," he barked back, rubbing the growing sweat from his brow to clear his vision, "I'll never tell you where the doctor is!" If ever there as a confession to be had, Snakebite couldn't have gotten anything better.

Ker-Pow! That's (just barely!) a hit! Agent #2 Toughness +5 vs. DC21 = 8 Whomp! Agent #2 is very unconscious. Agent #1, still, woozy, takes a whack at Snakebite! Agent #1 Baton Attack +5 vs. Snakebite = 14 - whiff! Snakebite (Uninjured, 1 HP) <-- Currently Up! Agent #2 (Unconscious) Agent #1 (Fatigued)

Black Rabbit Claremont was big. Bigger than the incognito AEGIS escort had lead Tom to believe when they'd dropped him off outside the gate. Thankfully, that same brochure applied a decent enough map to guide him to the dormitories where he would be staying for the foreseeable future. He must have been quite the sight, wandering the quad in clothes that only just fit and shoes that looked like they'd seen more action than an 80's action flick, dollar store sunglasses the kid's only accessory and his normally wavy and unruly dark hair bound into a ponytail. The only luggage he possessed was what the tanned young boy carried over his shoulder, a duffel bag stuffed to the brim with equally unappealing outfits for the semester ahead. This was exciting! A chance to really live like an American teenager, which in itself was an adventure worth going on as he stepped into the dormitories. The halls were alive with the sounds of children, all milling about in their endeavors to meet and greet their fellow classmates. It was so different, seeing everyone smiling and laughing. Back home, knowing the members in your unit was the closest Tom had really gotten to something similar. "One-oh-four, one-oh-five, one-oh-six..." Tom counted aloud, stopping in front of Room 107. "Here we go." Inside, Tom was surprised to see someone else already there! This must be the roommate he was told he'd have. Compared to the kid with the rabbit totem, the teenage guy standing inside the dormitory easily dwarfed him in every dimension, both in height and musculature. Even from the entrance Rabbit had to bend his neck just slightly to get to eye level with the burly mountain he'd be sharing his domicile with -- his new squad mate. His roommate. His friend, he hoped. "Hey. What's up," Tom greeted with a smooth richness in his voice, maneuvering his way over to set his bag down beside the other free bed. "You must be my roommate. I'm Tom. What's your name?" he inquired, peeling off his laughably cheap shades and giving Adam a friendly wave.

Agent #1's Fortitude +3 Save vs. Snakebite's Poison DC17 = 1d20+3: 16 [1d20=13] - Fatigued! Agent #1's Initiative +0 = 8 / Agent #2's Initiative +1 = 11 ROUND #1 Snakebite (Uninjured, 1 HP) <-- Currently Up! Agent #2 (Uninjured) Agent #1 (Fatigued)

GM With a quick, hurried nod, Ritterton took Cassie's suggestion from the corner she'd pulled him down, though the look on his face suggested he would have rather stood and fought. But honor her wishes he did, dipping into a nearby shack from where he could look on silently through the window, the building's roof half-collapsed and its door utterly missing as he disappeared into the shadowed room within. Cassie didn't have to wait long for her would-be ambushees to fall into her trap. Having taken the bait, the two men rounded the corner into the dimly lit alley. Though it might have been hard for his colleague to see it, Cassie was blessed by a good look on the would-be thug's face as a dart found its mark. "Hrk!" he grunted, peeling the offending obstruction from his tee-shirt, the dart striking home square on the "" portion of his Mongoli-themed tourist garb. It took only a moment before the first signs of weariness took hold, the man shaking his head to clear it before reaching behind his back to reveal a heavy, collapsible baton! "You stupid little girl! Give us the journal! Now!" his uninjured partner barked, revealing an equally menacing baton.

Looked like Pixie had more surprises up her sleeve than he'd thought as they, then he and grumpy, vanished into the either. Never in his life had the Bee-Keeper been invisible. So far, the day had been completely weird, and it only seemed to be getting weirder with each new challenge, let alone mentioning the fact he could no longer see himself which was mildly discomforting. Even so, he had to admit that this was super cool. As Facsimile laid down some icy cover, it was time to seize the opportunity. A mile didn't seem terribly far, but a lot can happen in those few seconds between here and there, especially when you were about to do something crazy and reckless. "Hang on tight," urged the Bee-Keeper. Pixie was a light load as he scooped her up by the mid section with a single arm; a little thing compared to his next feat. With a little extra gusto from his wings, he swooped upwards then down at a sharp angle, using the momentum and his free arm to delicately balance the hefty ten-foot tall giant along the small of his back and up into the air. Keeping stride with the flow of the storm, the Bee-Keeper flew himself and his two passengers as quick as he could muster without breaking cover -- the sooner they got to the chocolate factory, the sooner he could drop off this semi-mythical man and continue the hunt for the equally magical (and so far aggravating!) keys!

I think Cape and I are in agreement that we're ready to move on when you're ready, Avenger!

"Let'zz hope luck'll bee a lady tonight," shrugged the Bee-Keeper as he lead the way into swingin' den of sixties swag, careful to walk briskly but not too briskly so Zoss could keep up with the flashlight. He really hoped he hadn't just jinxed himself. "But I don't get it. There'zz zzuppozzed to be zzomething wrong with thizz plazze. It juzzt lookzz old and dilapidated."

Ducking into a low-lit alley is perfectly viable! You can go ahead and give me an Attack Roll, too, Cape. As it's an ambush, Cassie's free to make the first strike. If they're still kicking afterwards, we'll move on to proper initiative

GM There was a sort of elegance to Cassie's lack of elegance. Whether it was dumb luck, gullibility, or some sort of blind fixation on some unknown objective, if the two trained men watching her were any indication that they'd taken an interest in the subtly dropped cues, then they might as well be salivating like dogs at the sight of a fresh bone. While it caused more than a few heads to turn and observed the young archaeologist and her elderly counterpart with equal parts skepticism and questioning her sanity, the trap was laid. And just like a house of cards tumbling down in the game of checkers, it all fell into place perfectly. Checkmate. Stepping outside into the midday sun again, the shade of the nearby trees providing a measurable degree of protection from the sweltering heat, it wasn't long before the two oddly dressed goons sauntered out grimly behind Cassie and Ritterton. As long as she and Ritterton could were moving at a brisk pace and in relative public, it was a safe bet that the men would follow along like sheep following a shepherd. Now all Snakebite had to do was orchestrate the final masterstroke of her strategem...

So! Cassie's obviously perfect plan has borne fruit. There's lots of dockside alleyways and easily identifiable slummed-out buildings if she's looking for a more discreet brawl to drag the two guys tailing her and the doctor into. Since I got a hoot out of her cunning ruse, she's in a solid position with Ritterton to launch an ambush if she's keen on doing so. Feel free to start rolling whenever she's ready to launch her devilish surprise if you decide to go that route!

"Pleazze keep your armzz in the upright pozzition," replied the Bee-Keeper. It wasn't so much a scooping motion as it was a solid, confident hoist as the bee-clad man picked Zoss up from beneath his arms, carrying the sterling gentleman down into that dank, dark hole with all the ease one might pick up a cupcake or a tablet. Alas, the buzzing of wings was hardly quiet, frantically flapping metal echoing through the halls of the original Bee-Keeper's last mysteriously masterminded caper. Thankfully, Zoss had his handy flashlight to lead the way, making the decent much more bearable. "I hear you on the whole trap deal, but if thizz izz zzo old, I'd me zzuprizzed if any kind of booby trap even zztill worked," continued the armored avenger, face silently taking in the sights with wondrous bemusement. He'd known Brian Nisbet was a clever man, but this was on much grander scale than he'd even considered. In another life, the man could have made a killing as a magician instead of a bee-themed super-villain. "Then again, I think it'zz zzafe to zzay weirder thingzz have happened; like finding an underground time capzzule that'zz preserved the zzixtiezz for the lazzt fifty yearzz. But hey! Gotta think pozzitive. I mean, azzide from zzomething already being wrong with the hive itzzelf, what'zz the worzzt that could really happen?" Immediately after saying that, Baxter wished he hadn't. There were three big rules to being an effective superhero in his book: always do the right thing, always put the innocent first, and never - NEVER - say that things couldn't get any worse.

"Famous last words," echoed Baxter. This was typically the part where he stepped inside and something exploded, or came crashing through a wall, or was just generally weirdly catastrophic -- not specifically in Melissa's case, but just in general these days. But step through the portal he did into Melissa's room, following his niece into the Inner Sanctum that was her small portion of the house. "Huh. I'm honestly surprised. Would have thought you'd have about a kajillion more to pack," admitted the incognito Bee-Keeper, astounded that all but the last few remnants of Bee's own belongings weren't already set to go. "Maybe we really will have time to snag that couch!" Scouring the room for anything that might still need to be stuffed into the lone remaining box, the apiary avenger added with a jovial wave of his hand, "Let me give you a hand, Mel. You point, I pack. Also, if we do take the couch, please don't accidentally blow it up with Dyne particles, Mel. Everyone needs a good couch in their dorm, but it's hard to explain a partially-blown-up couch to your roommates," he added, half in jest, half serious. He knew Mel could do it - she was a Bowles, after all! - and while he had the utmost faith in her, Baxter knew first hand that superpowers sometimes caused things go wrong; explodey, energy convex-y things being some of the chief offenders.

Pixie's little remark warranted a fair, but admittedly playful, rolling of the eyes. She wasn't wrong, that was for sure. Today was starting to become the sweetest day ever in an ironically literal way. "No, I think you're right. Grumpy can't juzzt go zztomping through the zztreetzz," confessed Baxter. He might have been a decent scientist, but even invisibility was beyond his skill set. Getting over to the chocolate factory with Grumpy in-tow was going to be a challenge -- one, it seemed, the Bee-Keeper was ill-equipped for. The streets were just too densely crowded for a ten-foot-tall green guy in a loin-cloth to blend in while going unnoticed. "Unlezz our lovely lady hazz a trick up her zzleeve, I think you might juzzt have to zzit thizz part out, Grumpo," conceded the battlesuit-clad bee-man, before shifting his gaze back to Pixie before dismissing the idea entirely. "Do you have a trick up your zzleeve, Pix?"

GM Ritterton, previously deep in conversation with one of the locals, grew first pale then flushed with a vivid crimson as Cassie filled the good doctor in on her findings. "Those scoundrels!" he snarled, anger rife even in his hushed whisper to his younger counterpart as they stepped away from the tables. All the while the two men who clearly weren't tourists watched; even if they couldn't see it, the eerie sensation of someone just watching was acutely obvious now. "They must have discovered Tate had found something of significance and deduced he'd shared that information. The poor doctor wouldn't hurt a fly; he likely never saw it coming. If you're certain these blokes are behind this... this... felonious kidnapping, then I say we give them what-for! But how are we to draw them from this den of debauchery, Miss Crow?"

Let's go with that! Sure!

"Real clever," the Bee-Keeper chortled under his breath as Grumpy uttered the literal 'magicword' necessary to transmogrify Sam back into the centerpiece of the key contraption they were looking for. Truth be told, it was almost like making the password for your email simply the word 'password' - completely stupid, but also astoundingly clever. Who would even think to guess that? But back to the task at hand! "They couldn't have gotten far," assured Baxter, secretly wagered the odds of finding marshmallows or chocolate here in the apiary were practically zilch. Really he didn't know for sure, as he was just banking on the hope that as a single, solitary unit broken into three pieces, it would seem a mite strange for them to wander so far from one another. At least that's how he hoped magical key fragments that could open anything and be anything operated. "Hang tight, Grumpy. We'll zzee if we can't zzcope out the zzcene. Beetween the four of uzz, Harry and Tabzz won't bee lozzt for long."

Well, shucks. It looked like Zoss had beat him to the punch in at least partially exploring the underground heist-slash-time capsule. Then again, from the looks of things, the guy was either a higher-up or outright owned the place, so it was mildly unsurprising that someone of his position wouldn't know about the massive hole and the Bee-Keeper's secret treasure within. At least that meant he wouldn't be going in alone (or blind!), so that was a definite plus. "No time like the prezzent, I guezz," agreed the third of the Bee-Keeper line, casting a longing glance towards the deep depressing that would inevitably lead to the last of the Bee-Keeper's legacy. "Let'zz do the time warp and zzee what we find back in Zixxtiezzville."

I like the idea of the Scouts of America camping trip and helping them earn their "Capture a Magical Talking Key Badge." Maybe Richard's a camper, and this presents him with an opportunity to one-up his super-powered brother - either by snagging the key himself, or playing devil's advocate and stirring the pot by secretly (or not so secretly!) supporting it in its sweet-toothed pursuits!