ooc [OOC] A Heavy Metal Christmas

[Sophistemon]

This is the Out of Character thread for A Heavy Metal Christmas, which can be found here.

[Sophistemon]

It's neither here nor there but, because Warne can speak Mandarin, let's just assume he can recognize the stranger's accent as having originated in Hong Kong.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

Gonna attempt to catch him by surprise with a psychokinetic attack, Toughness DC25. 

 

Initiative: 1d20+11 30

[Sophistemon]

Please forgive the delay in response; I'm retooling our villain's character sheet.

Edited February 22, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Sophistemon]

I sincerely hope you can forgive me.

 

Toughness Save: 1d20+15 31.

 

Attack Roll; Penetrating Blast; DC27: 1d20+12 19.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

Want to do this guy's Initiative?  I'll be very surprised if he beats Warne, but still.  And I don't think anybody's flat-footed, so that's a miss, yeah? 

 

If so, and it's back to me, then I'm going to step back from my usual one trick and try a mental Grapple instead. 

 

Mental Grapple: 1d20+20 35

 

If that's successful, then can I use the hold to throw the villain off the roof, away from the house?  I'm not sure if you can normally do all that in the same turn, but if necessary, I'm happy to spend a Hero Point to Surge for an extra action. 

[Blarghy]

Is the villain still within eyesight (that is to say, Perception range)?  And we're on the Navy base, right?  Are there any other people around, and how close by would you say that the other homes are?

[Sophistemon]

The way I envision things, which may not be entirely canonical to the site, is that the Stones live in a heavily personalized prefabricated building mass-produced by the handful on the outskirts of the Lonely Point Naval Base facility. It's an artificial neighborhood to house the families of the personnel that live and work on the base. Being the holidays, it's likely that many of Stone's neighbors are off in more accommodating environments, gone to stay with other family. As for whether or not the interloper is in view, I'd say no, but only just barely. The distance he was thrown took him beyond the light cast by the streetlamps -- and remember that it is snowing a bit, further obscuring vision. He'd be within Perception range if you went after him a bit; say, half a standard movement?

[Blarghy]

Sounds good.  Warne will fly after this guy, and when he can see him clearly, hits him with another regular psychokinetic attack (DC25 still). 

[Sophistemon]

Toughness Save: 1d20+15 29.

 

Attack Roll: Penetrating Blast (DC 27): 1d20+12 24.

Edited May 12, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

Toughness: 1d20+10 17

 

Noooope.  I'll HP that; at least I have a few this time around, thanks to the Luck feat.  Probably not enough, but we'll see how it goes.

 

Toughness: 1d20+10 30

 

Well, if you've gotta use a Hero Point, then that's the kind of reroll you want.

 

Now, I'm thinking Adept will get creative here.  He's smart enough to not want to macho his way through this on his own, so I have an idea for how he might stall the villain until Upgrade can fly back and help.  Can I use another HP to Power Stunt his Telekinesis array?  It's got 42PP in it, so that's enough for a big Obscure area, for all senses.  I would explain this as Warne spreading out his mental force to capture and swirl all the snow and wind, turning it into a real storm where not even fancy electronic faculties can see the cyborg through (surely things like radio-based blindsense and darkvision would be covered under the 4-point version of Obscure, right?) and holding it for a few rounds.

 

If you really want to be nice, then even at a 10-rank Obscure effect (which is way, way too big anyway), I'd have enough points left over for the Precise and Selective PFs.  Warne obviously can't keep up this effect and also attack, but if you let him, he'd like to maintain the new storm with such skill that he can fly above the villain in a secret, comfortable "eye", still studying him visually and perhaps talking and being heard in return (although he'd still want to Obscure all other audio, like his position).  We could do a short conversation with some various social skill checks, maybe?  It'd let you get into the villain's background and personality a bit, rolls pending. 

 

Let me know how that sounds, and I'll write up my post. 

[Sophistemon]

I love this idea, and you should feel free to apply whatever Power Feats you'd like to your Power Stunt, provided you have the points to afford them.

[Blarghy]

Alright, then I'll spend another HP for that.  I think I'm down to just one now, right? 

 

 

[Sophistemon]

Yes, you've exhausted the Hero Points granted by your Luck feat, so you're down to the one you get naturally.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

Do you mind making my Sense Motive check for me (so I don't know the result) and saying whether or not Adept thinks he's bluffing?

[Sophistemon]

Not at all.

 

Spoiler

Warne listened to the words, but he also listened to the man behind the words. The pauses, the thoughtful cadence of the rasping, inhuman voice -- and there was Mantis to consider. Mannis had been blown apart and burnt to a crisp before being rebuilt into the cyborg he was now. Was this stranger a similar case, all but destroyed and only capable of some semblance of half-life due to having been restored from the inside out with invasive cybernetic surgeries? If so, surely a man who had already endured so much and lived had no desire to die. Just because the cyborg could detonate his power-core, destroying Lonely Point and everyone in it, would he? Could he bring himself to die, after everything he'd already done so he could live? Did he have that dedication? In the end, Warne didn't think so -- and that gave him an advantage.

 

Edited June 14, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

Alright, I'd like to do a few things here.  First, now that I have a little bit of background info on this guy (even though he hasn't said his name yet), can I use my Well-Informed feat?  I want Adept to throw out some tidbits that may surprise his enemy and keep the conversation going a little longer.

 

And for my second trick, I want Warne to move around in the snowstorm, allowing his voice to reveal his general position, to lead this guy to a better spot.  Warne presumably knows the territory, and hopefully even where Upgrade stores his suit.  I want to arrange a surprise attack so that when Upgrade comes flying back in, Adept can pull back the storm just in time and have the cyborg in perfect position to just get nailed from a surprise action.  I would think that this falls under the Knowledge (Tactics) house rule feats, all of which he has, for using Knowledge (Tactics) to set up an ambush.  Does all that sound reasonable?

[Sophistemon]

It sounds perfect, yes.

[Blarghy]

Alright, let's see if two of my best skills will cooperate.  I won't hold my breath, especially since I'm almost out of Hero Points too.

 

Gather Information: 1d20+20 35

Knowledge (Tactics): 1d20+20 28

 

Hrm.  Kinda wish those were reversed, but still, neither is terrible.  Let me know what Adept knows about this guy or his old organization, and I'll get to posting once I kick this stomach bug. 

[Sophistemon]

Things begin to fit together in Warne's head; half-remembered conversations with other agents, agency-wide alerts, skimmed magazine articles and background news reports. The cyborg currently contained within the psychokinetic snowstorm is called the Pangolin due to the bronze coloration of his overlapped armor plating and the terrible, claw-like blades that he can extend from his forearms. He is wanted by INTERPOL for crimes relating mostly to strategic industrial theft, sabotage and, yes: murder. It had been presumed he was stealing technological secrets to upgrade himself, and killing rival theorists in the field of cybernetic enhancement. But if he was working for someone else, and those people were also responsible for the resurrection of the cyber-monster Mantis, then things were going to get very tangled very quickly. Presuming, of course, that Warne survived to open his presents on Christmas morning.

 

Information became unlocked at the 15, 25, and 30 mark. Nice roll, Blarghy.

[Blarghy]

Like we talked about elsewhere, I want to make a Notice check and see if I can figure out what those noises are.  I'm still a little upset it took me this long to notice, but you did make it quite subtle.

 

Notice: 1d20+10 13

 

Yep, that seems about right.  Definitely not wasting my last Hero Point on this, though. 

[Sophistemon]

No, that won't do.

 

I made a misstep when I didn't ask you to roll a Notice check earlier; that was my failure as a GM to provide you with information. With that in mind, I'm giving you an automatic pass on the check; no Hero Point required.

[Blarghy]

Yeeeurgh.  Almost wish you hadn't done me that little favor. 

 

Do you want a Diplomacy check here?  Obviously he won't give up, but still.

[Sophistemon]

Great, isn't it?

 

And, no. Even if the Pangolin wanted to defect, he doesn't have the option.

[Blarghy]

There's still no sign of Upgrade, correct?  In which case, I think Warne won't risk stalling any longer.  I have a plan anyway.

 

Can I Surge for an extra action, taking on the Fatigued condition, and maintain the storm for another round while also using his Move Object power?  Its non-damaging version has an effective Strength of 100, or a heavy load of 12,500 tons, something I have trouble even really picturing--but surely it's enough to pick up a house.  And Warne knows that the rest of the Stones took shelter in the basement, right?  Sooooo... 

 

That's right: I want to Wizard of Oz this dude.

 

I'm not sure how this should work mechanically, but I would hope that dropping a house (minus its foundation, so Ethan's wife and daughter will still be hidden) on Pangolin would do more damage than Adept's standard Psychokinesis attack.  I'd personally treat this as an Area effect and give him a Reflex save, but if the storm's still going and he can't see that it's coming down on him...well, I leave it up to you.  Either way, I'd like to combine this with the previous plan of setting Pangolin up to be flat-footed for Upgrade's first attack.  How cool would it be if he bursts out of the rubble, dazed and angry, just in time for the big guy to come plummeting out of the sky heels-first right on his head?  Or just rain down a bunch of rockets.