Triple Murder in Riderside, Rebooted [OOC]

[N/A]

I don't think I need to retcon my last in-character post, however. We can reasonably assume that Scarab made her introduction as soon as she entered the room. Avenger had ample time to do his disappearing act, and now the ball is in his court.

[N/A]

OK, leaving plenty of room for interruption here, and trying not to plan too far ahead this time. Sorry, I'm still new to this whole play-by-post thing. I tried to lay things out a little in advance so as to keep things moving if my posting was delayed. Live and learn.

Since the whole Mind Probe scenario didn't happen, Scarab will keep Telekinesis as her active Array slot. Move Action to enter the master bedroom, and Standard Action to TK the mysterious plotlocker up within melee range of herself. Basically acting as though Avenger isn't there, treating him like a cat. He's shown that, if I chase him, he'll run and hide. So instead, I'm luring him to me.

[Razorback]

If I need to make a notice check to hear what's going on upstairs, hereit is.

If I'm not in a position to hear, don't have the opportunity or miss my roll, Slamdance will continue to seach for around the house.

[Avenger Assembled]

Okay, now that we know what Slamdance is doing, one way or another, I'm just waiting to know if I can recognize Scarab before I post.

[Dr Archeville]

Did Avenger ever turn on any lights in the house while he's been searching?

Avenger's examination of the knife (Know/Arcane check)... tells him nothing particularly useful, just that knives are used in a wide variety of rituals.

Avenger's Know/Streetwise checks tells him... that this is evidently some sort of superhero, one that's helped bust up cults and other mystical stuff, but that's all he knows.

Slamdance (with a 27!) does hear someone talking upstairs in the house, and heard well enough to clearly hear what was said ("I am The Scarab. Who are you, and what are you doing here?").

He also finds that the windows are locked.

The mysteeerious locker floats towards Scarab. ;)

[Avenger Assembled]

Did Avenger ever turn on any lights in the house while he's been searching?

Nope. No reason to. :)

[Dr Archeville]

Nope. No reason to.

That's what I thought, what with his darkvision.

Shaen, downstairs looked really creepy, since the only light was what was coming from the streetlights.

[Avenger Assembled]

While Avenger might have been able to guess Scarab's gender from the voice, I'm just going to run with the idea that he made a false assumption given that Scarab's not in the stereotypical girl superhero costume. (And that, despite his Batman-like imposture, Avenger is not a particularly great detective. )

[N/A]

Scarab maintains the TK effect on the plotlocker, flies downstairs, and "greets" the other intruder.

While Avenger might have been able to guess Scarab's gender from the voice, I'm just going to run with the idea that he made a false assumption given that Scarab's not in the stereotypical girl superhero costume.

That's basically the effect I was going for. Thanks for playing along.

[Avenger Assembled]

Hmm. I was going to quibble about Scarab being able to know how Avenger was dressed, given how dark the house is, but then again Avenger wasn't actually trying to be sneaky in there until he realized he was being watched. So she probably saw him in the streetlight coming through the window or something. :)

[N/A]

Hmm. I was going to quibble about Scarab being able to know how Avenger was dressed, given how dark the house is, but then again Avenger wasn't actually trying to be sneaky in there until he realized he was being watched. So she probably saw him in the streetlight coming through the window or something.

That, and my 25 Notice and Search results while I was scrying with ESP beat everybody's initial Stealth rolls. And since Doc Ark told me that my Search check revealed everything that yours did, I can assume I had enough ambient light to see by.

I'm not trying to godmode you, I swear. There's a method to my madness.

[Avenger Assembled]

Heh. Here's an idea: Avenger wanders downstairs to the ritual murder scene while the other two are talking, and they look in the door to see a guy dressed in black and wearing a hockey mask standing over a ritual murder scene holding a bloody knife. "OK, fellas, I know what you're thinking..."

[Dr Archeville]

:rotfl:

[Razorback]

Since Slamdance overheard the name Scarab could I roll a kn:Current Events (8) or Kn:Pop Culture (if I used the same roll the total would be 10... or I could "roll" again) to have heard of The Scarab?

Also, can I make a notice check (24) to see if Slamdance can figure out if the figure floating down is scanning around trying to find him?

[Dr Archeville]

Since Slamdance overheard the name Scarab could I roll a kn:Current Events (8) or Kn:Pop Culture (if I used the same roll the total would be 10... or I could "roll" again) to have heard of The Scarab?

Roll again for Know/Pop Culture. The Know/Current Events check tells you zip.

Also, can I make a notice check (24) to see if Slamdance can figure out if the figure floating down is scanning around trying to find him?

I'm gonna say that'd need Sense Motive, not Notice, (and opposed by Scarab's Bluff check) to try and figure that out.

[Razorback]

Ok.

Pop culture 20 and 7 (ouch) on the sense motive check.

So, based on this (it may take a while to get the hang with the delay of PBPosting), if he makes the pop culture but pass/fails the sense motive he will talk to Scarab but ready an action to move to the middle of the street ( assuming the pop culture was high enough to know that Scarab is a hero but not high enough to know his powers/background).

If he fails the pop culture but makes the sense motive, he continues to hide.

If he fails both, he moves to the middle of the street and runs down the street until he is blocked by the house, then moves stealthily around the back of the house 30 with his 250ft movement and, if he has time, pops his head around the corner to see what Scarab is doing 9.

So, I have a question for the Doctor (since I'm a noob). The last roll was a 1. How are 'natural' 1's and 20's handled?

Also, in a situation of 'if this, then this but if this, then this' do you want us making 1 roll and add the bonus based on the outcome or did you want us to roll each separately?

[N/A]

I thought Scarab was making it pretty bloody obvious that she's looking for Slamdance by turning her head back and forth as she calls him out. I'll voluntarily "fail" the Bluff check. She isn't scrying with ESP again.

[Razorback]

^^ That's the reason I thought it would be a notice check. Slamdance doesn't have any super-senses and, with the only light from a street lamp, I figured he'd have to spot him first and, in the process, notice the swiveling head.

[N/A]

The Scarab is currently speaking loud enough for you both to hear, standing (well, hovering) in full view, wearing gleaming gold-and-red armor. Unless the GM really wants to force the issue, neither PC needs to make Notice or Sense Motive checks to see her, hear her, or understand her intentions. She's being pretty straightforward about calling out both of you, and heavily implying that at some point, she's seen both of you and knows you're here.

In other words, I voluntarily decided to be the one to make the first move and sacrifice "looking cool" in an attempt to get the party interacting with each other so we can actually start getting stuff done. The whole "dealing with skittish cats" plan/analogy is a rationalization to that end. The fact that such a maneuver is in-character for her, I consider a bonus. If we just keep posturing and hiding from each other and trying to one-up each other, this story is never gonna move forward.

I'm trying to strike a balance between "good roleplaying" and narrative pragmatism here.

[Razorback]

Nice. It's hard to get a feel for people's motivation over the interwebs, especially being a noob around here.

That being said, I have a quick meeting and then I'll post my reply.

[Dr Archeville]

A natural 1 is only an auto-fail for attack rolls.

A natural 20 is only an auto-hit for attack rolls.

20 on Know/Pop Culture tells him that Scarab was the name of a hero from the 60s and 70s, a member of the original Freedom League (before it disbanded). A telepath & telekinetic, he seems to spend much of his time opposing cults and other mystical threats (despite not being a mage himself... but maybe all his powers were really magical?). He had an Egyptian motif going on, but died sometime in the late 70s/early 80s fighting some Egyptian mystical nasties. This guy/gal/thing looks a lot like that Scarab, and appears at the very least to have the telekinesis thing goin' for him/her/it.

As Shaen says, Slamdance can easily tell Scarab doesn't actually see him.

In regards to "if A + B then C, but if A but not B then D, but if B but not A then E, but if neither A nor B then F" type things... my advice would be to just keep such plans to yourself until you actually know what the results of your initial actions are (i.e, I have time to respond). Otherwise you'll be making long posts of things that either can't or won't happen, which tends just to clutter things and confuse folks as to what you're truly doing. ;)

[Dr Archeville]

Avenger, what are those last two check your posted for?

[Razorback]

Ok, Slamdance replies to Scarab. He takes up a defensive stance but does not hostile action.

He's assuming, dealing with an Egyptian hero, that he's somehow been reincarnated, someone has taken up his mantle or someone is using his name to commit crimes.

[Avenger Assembled]

Arcane and Streetwise were to see if he recognizes anything down in the murder room. Stealth was probably unnecessary, given that the other two are busy, but I thought it was worth a shot.

[Dr Archeville]

Know/Arcane of 10 tells Avenger.... nothing, really, other than that these certainly look like mystical runes. Like an odd jumble of mystical symbols, actually, that they're not from any one particular mystical tradition, but from several, predominantly Western traditions.

Know/Street of 20 tells Avenger... that there are several gangs and underworld organizations with mystical/supernatural ties (some fake, some real), but this doesn't seem to match any one particular group. Some of the symbols he recognizes as being used by 4S (Satan's Sadistic Skull Smashers, a fairly typical American punk gang which uses lots of stereotypical Evil imagery [skulls, pentagrams, snakes, classic horned devils, etc.], with an oddly high percentage of what could be be described as "redneck hillbillys" in their roster), some by Death Road Ministry (a thrill-kill gang made up mostly of jaded yuppies & overprivileged teens, operating throughout the East coast and leaving random Western occult symbols carved on their victims; they also cut/brand themselves with such imagery; think "Manson Family"), some by Il Diavoli Neri (an largely Italian gang which goes heavy on Catholic imagery, heavily frowned upon by the "respectable" Italian mafiosi), and some by Los Diablos Rojos (a gang coming up from Mexico which goes very heavy on inverted Catholic & Satanic imagery; they and Il Diavoli Neri are bitter, bitter rivals).