Essays and Evildoers: Claremont Academy IC [M&M2e]

[EdroGrimshell]

"It healed fine, it was a minor burn, like being scalded by hot water, a little painful but no lasting damage," Angelica replies, "speaking of powers, what are yours? I know you said they're from your Goddess, but we don't share a pantheon so I don't know what that would entail. And I'm pretty sure not being human has some perks too."

[Mekboy]

"The Goddess gave me Light. It sort of makes my emotions more physical. If I use them right I can levitate off of the ground or heal or create bolts of destructive light. It is a little hard to control sometimes, but I think I mostly understand it now. And from what I have heard, I have a more accurate sense of smell than most humans, and can hear higher pitched noises. It can be quite annoying."

[EdroGrimshell]

Angelica gives a slight smile, "Sounds interesting, to say the least. I think this will be an interesting year, in the good way," she says.

[Mekboy]

"It will certainly be something new."

[betafin]

And so the new heroes talk into the night, each falling asleep at their own pace.

The next day brings them to their first class -- homeroom, in classroom 302-A (third building, second floor, first room). Walking in, you see that the room is just an average classroom at first glance: there are desks seperated into groups of four, a large dry erase board, a heavy teacher's desk in the front corner, large windows that reveal the Freedom City skyline in the distance, etc. A closer look would reveal some out-of-place details, such as some sturdy-looking metallic white framing above the windows and the ceiling and floors being made up of rather large square panels. A large seating arrangement diagram is taped to the dry erase board at the front of the class, and people have already begun sorting themselves into their respective groups of four.

Walking to your seat, you see three other people heading to the same place. You recognize that one of them is your new roommate, but the other two are unfamiliar. You give a wave, or perhaps a nod, to your roommate, but as you are about to introduce yourselves to the others the surrounding noise dies down as the teacher enters the room.

You see a black sweater, tan pants, smooth brown shoes and a pair of glasses. Then you look again and notice there's someone wearing them. He's... well, "average" describes him. Average build, average height, average looks, his skin is an average semi-tan, his hair is an average black, even his glasses somehow seem average. It's really quite amazing how unremarkable he looks, to the point where he's just a face in the crowd despite being by himself. He glances across the room then closes the door, locks it and flips a switch to lower shutters that completely cover the windows. All attention is now on him.

"Good morning, class," he says cheerily, with a voice you could hear anywhere, "I hope you slept well? I am your homeroom teacher, Mr. Smith. This class will be the "base of your operations," so to speak. Today is your first step towards becoming a hero, and I trust you will all do your very best." He is constantly pacing around the front center of the room as he talks.

"As you have probably guessed, the individuals you are currently grouped with will serve as your companions for the remainder of the school year. We hope you will get along, we have really tried our best to match you with suitable teammates, and being part of a good team dynamic is so incredibly important for new heroes." He paces back to the very center front, leaving an expectant pause in his speech.

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Ask any questions about the why's/what's/how's of teams here, if you have any. Not required.

[BluesEclipse]

Jacob takes a moment to look at his apparent teammates before turning his attention back to the teacher, waiting for him to continue.

[EdroGrimshell]

"So this class is essentially team dynamics training, right?" Angelica asks, "I can imagine where that would be useful."

[betafin]

"Yes, you are mostly correct, Miss..." He steps to his desk to check the seating chart for her name. "...Eisendiel. It is an important aspect to being a hero, and is quite necessary even if the hero prefers working alone. We also have found, through much trial and tribulation, that young, gifted people have drastically fewer chances of... 'accidents' occuring if there is a positive team dynamic around to support them early on." As he says this, looking very closely you might see his cheery demeanor very briefly shift to a softer look before reverting back.

"But do not be mistaken that homeroom's jurisdiction is restricted to team activity. Your results from other curriculum will have a bearing here, and vice versa, which may affect both you and your teammates."

[Mekboy]

Avari spends most of Mr. Smith's speech examining the two newcomers while listening. It was still interesting to see how people looked, how they acted, how they dressed.

[betafin]

Avari:

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You notice that another classmate isn't paying full attention to his introduction -- a girl with long greyish-silver hair that seems to stick unnaturally close to her clothing (light blue shirt over dark blue pants, looks like it's high quality). She's staring in the general vicinity of your group with a very flat, almost tense expression.

Mr. Smith's head suddenly jerks up. He puts a hand to his ear, and nods once. "Oh! It's about time for the first one."

He turns to the group farthest to his front right, you and your new teammates. "I should probably mention that in the past we had many complaints of 'real opportunities' and 'circumstances to prove ourselves' because of unfavorable results in our initial proficiency test. Well, we agreed that there was some validity to that, so we came up with this to try and settle the issue. You all signed your responsibility waivers when you were accepted to the Academy, right?" He smiles.

The large floor panel beneath you suddenly drops down and to the side, dumping all of you onto a rooftop several feet below and possibly scaring you half to death. You now see that the entire room is being carried by a large, blackbird-looking aircraft with reversed-shape wings hovering over this building. It is incredibly silent, you can only barely hear and feel the engine vibrations. The room itself has mechanical 'arms' of some sort attached to the bottom panels, the one you dropped through being held off to the side, the desks and chairs mysteriously nowhere in sight.

The sounds of the city are very audible, so that room must have had amazing soundproofing. There are many sirens nearby, and a brief glance around reveals that you are on top of a bank, right by the roof access (the door is ajar). From the sound of the sirens, you can safely assume that the bank is in the process being robbed.

Mr. Smith's smiling face pops into view from the hovering room. "You all should be fine, so don't worry too much. Just be natural and I'm sure you'll do great! Oh, remember, heroes are people of Justice who protect the innocent! We do not look kindly on unnecessary force or any lethalities! Just enough power to handle the situation! This will be graded, I look forward to your resuuuuullts!" As he delivers that line, the panel closes back up and the aircraft (and classroom) quickly and quietly zoom off.

You are now alone on the rooftop of a bank being robbed, with the roof access door very conveniently ajar for you. A note is pinned to it with an arrow pointing inside and "Good Luck!" scribbled in the corner. Truly the most subtle message you have ever seen.

[EdroGrimshell]

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Angelica exclaims as the class is dropped into the bank, "at least I thought to put this thing on," she says as the helmet for her power harness flips up and onto her head, charging up as her eyes glow brightly underneath.

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I have blindsense based on sensing electrical impulses like a shark and I have radio sense so I can sense people nearby and hear any conversations over radios.

[Mekboy]

Avari takes the opportunity to introduce herself. "We are a team, yes? My name is Avari. This is Angelica. I think we are going to need to work out a plan. And do so quite quickly."

[EdroGrimshell]

"Conduit when in costume," Angelica says as she looks for an external power source, even a code box or alarm would work since she could drain the electricity from the circuit, "electric powers, can temprarily shut down the electric systems in the bank, might not be a good idea though since it can shut down the electric lock on the vault if they have one."

[BluesEclipse]

"Call me Warp," Jacob says. "I can teleport things around. Doesn't work on people, though."

[betafin]

Curio introduces himself, saying something about "I just animate objects to move around, it's not much of a deal..."

You all quietly move into the bank, arriving on a second floor landing. Despite the noise filtering in from outside, it is almost devoid of activity. Two large, smashed-in holes are visible in the area to the left side, one into a teller's window and the other into the banking room's windows, probably the answer to a failed attempt to lock the robbers out. The tellers' area is filled with computers and individual filing cabinets, office supplies scattered everywhere. The middle of the bank has a huge table with cash strewn across it, and nearby are a few smaller tables for brochures (one is on its' side). There are six ornate pillars all the way down the center, they seem fairly sturdy.

On the right side of the bank are cheap, expensive-looking bungalow-style walls dividing the area into small "rooms" for discussing contracts. You notice that you can see directly into them from the landing as they have no ceilings; nobody is inside them. Behind those there is a small seating area with some chairs and magazines.

You can immediately identify that there are four robbers in sight/earshot, all on the first floor, the nearest loitering near the door leading to the Vault entrance (door circled red), which goes underneath the second floor landing and probably into a basement. The second is very focused on hurriedly sorting cash on a large table, while the final two have pushed one of the huge, thick tables on its' side as a shield and are looking outside at what looks like a solid police barricade-wall that was just set up in front of the bank. None of them have any radio signals coming from them, and there doesn't seem to be any large weaponry -- you can see handguns, and that is about it. They're surprisingly poorly equipped for a standoff situation like this...?

Conduit whispers to inform the rest of you that she can clearly sense a fifth robber doing something to the Vault door (in the door circled with red), and she can also vaguely sense that there are a few more people inside the Vault but the material is blocking her from clearly identifying their numbers. She can't sense anyone on the second floor, aside from all of you. The other room below the landing (door to the right of the one leading to the Vault, circled with blue) seems to have several restrained people on the floor in a corner, probably hostages, but no signs of movement or robbers.

You can overhear the louder snippets of conversation between the nearest robber and the one in front of the Vault, but they seem tense and are speaking in hushed voices.

"...was supposed to be a quick job......oads of trouble..."
"...'s not my fault th......autolock trigger...trapped them..."
"...utup and get them out then..."
"...orking on it..."
"......eroes...so move it!"

Bank Layout:

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Key:

• Colored Circle: PC position
• Red Circle: Robber
• Gold Line/Curve: Door
• Blue Object: Movable object (file cabinets, desks, chairs, computers, etc. Green dot = potted plant; very breakable, makes noise)
• Black Line: Wall
• Thin Gray Line: Thin Covering (breakable)

Everyone:

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You have one post (let's say about 20-30 seconds) to safely quietly arrange yourselves before you risk being spotted, then roll initiative. After that I'll be making notice and listen checks. Feel free to spoiler the graph coordinates for movements (horizontal,vertical) (ie a robber is at 16,20) or just describe how many 'squares' up/over. I was going to update positions as things moved anyway, for my own reference.

There are a lot of approaches to this. Stealth means they won't notice you and won't be positioned for combat, but spend too much time and they'll be able to free the others from the vault's lock.

You may want to decide on a strategy. This should be rather easy, though.

Warp:

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Anything in blue can be moved. You make up whatever it is (computer, chair, filing cabinet, whatever), just point out which it is (horizontal,vertical) and what you're doing with it so I can move it. Green dots in blue = potted plant, those break easily and make noise.

Conduit:

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You can quickly duck into one of the side rooms on the second landing to charge a little, but if you do try not to position yourself very far away, due to lack of time. Unless you don't pace yourself and really suck away the electricity there shouldn't be any noticeable sign of it.

Curio:

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I'm taking control of him while you're not here, if you don't show up for a while I'll have to find someone to replace him.

[EdroGrimshell]

"I need to charge quickly, be back in a moment," Conduit whispers before quickly ducking into a room, faster than normal for a human, and finds an outlet to drain, preferably draining the power from the computer systems so it wouldn't be noticed unless the robbers were on a computer themselves, and quickly starts draining. She does make sure it's not enough to cause flickering lights, but otherwise drains as quickly as she can until she has enough to have a max power lightning blast plus a little extra just in case.

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Ducking into the nearest room and draining until I have 25 points in reserve minimum. Then use 16 to boost Electricity Control to 8 ranks with another point for an AP of Stun 8 to link to the Strike from Conduit's Power Harness.

[BluesEclipse]

Warp surveys the area, before nodding. Quietly, he says, "I think I can distract them by dropping one of these potted plants on the far side of the bank... in fact, I can probably stay back here and provide support fire for you guys."

[Rook.Gamer]

I can, for a lack of a better word, possess one of the object across the room and get a look inside that vault before we move. Also if I can get in the midst of a group of them I might be able to stun a good number of them at the same time before things escalate too much.

Curio identifies the best object for focusing his power and prepares to jump into one of the objects that will serve his purposes.

[Mekboy]

"Powers. I can levitate, heal people and create blasts of energy." Avari explains before the group moves into the bank.

Avari glances around the room. "I think I may have a plan. If Warp can provide enough of a distraction to allow Curio to get into their middle, then Ange... Conduit and I attack them from the front while Warp provides support. We can take them from surpise and attack them from within simultaneously."

[betafin]

The robbers haven't looked away from their various spots and activities, but that probably won't last long. The nearby one by the stairs loitering at the entrance to the Vault area seems like he's getting bored.

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Finish off anything in your conversation you need to, roll initiative and declare your current coordinates so I can move the markers.

If you're nearby someone you can whisper to them, otherwise miming signals would work well (aka I won't penalize you for discussing a strategy in ooc or pm and acting like they understood all that implicitly or from a few gestures).

[BluesEclipse]

Warp nods, and whispers, "Sounds good... I'll get in position, signal me when ready. Also, Curio, how many objects can you animate at once?" Warp slips through the shadows, moving closer to the stairs so that he's ready to act.

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Warp: Move to 3, 4(x, y)
Initiative: (1d20+8)[14]
Stealth(if needed): (1d20+8)[20]

[Rook.Gamer]

Curio looks at warp for a moment, Quite a few I've done a couple dozen before, though I can cause everything in the room to stand up and jump around and what not if I don't care what they do. That is messy though. Curio focuses on a filing cabinet, a few office chairs and a desk and directs his powers to work.

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Curio will animate those objects while using his linked possession effect to join his the objects. Initially he won't move anything and just try to get a handle on where everyone is and what they're doing.

[Rook.Gamer]

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Con check (1d20+14)[17]

[Mekboy]

Avari moves down the stairs, keeping an eye out for the theif near the vault

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Move to 1, 6. Initiative: (1d20+8)[18]

[betafin]

The nearby robber begins to walk toward the door to the foyer, saying "Hey, you done with the bagging?" in a somewhat louder voice than last time.

Avari and Warp edge out further, still hidden behind the solid banister covering. From there they can hear the slight tinkering noises of the robber inside that door fiddling with the Vault door.

Bank Layout:

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Key:

• Colored Circle: PC position
• Red Circle: Robber
• Gold Line/Curve: Door
• Blue Object: Movable object (file cabinets, desks, chairs, computers, etc. Green dot = potted plant; very breakable, makes noise)
• Black Line: Wall
• Thin Gray Line: Thin covering (breakable)
• Door with red circle: leads to Vault Entrance
• Door with blue circle: leads to... hostages?

Everyone:

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If you move further downstairs roll a stealth check if you want to avoid being noticed. Remember that there's someone inside that door, so ducking in there to hide is a bad idea.

Curio:

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Nothing happens. This is your first actual mission, and you're feeling too distracted trying to keep your eye on the robbers to focus like you need to. Vaguely remembering something your parents told you while trying to drag out signs of potential, "you can never go wrong with taking a deep breath and trying one more time..." Not all that helpful in practice, but you remember it.

[EdroGrimshell]

Conduit continues charging.

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Not sure how long that will take, just let me know

[Mekboy]

Avari keeps low, waiting for the rest of the team.

[BluesEclipse]

Warp glances around, making sure everyone is ready, before pointing his hand at the nearest potted plant. Once he's confirmed everyone is in position, he fires a bolt of iridescent blue power at it, his other hand pointed at the destination - above the middle cubicle on the right-hand side of the bank.

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Warp is attempting to use his Teleport Attack on the potted plant at (11, 1), teleporting it to (26, 12). Attack roll if needed: (1d20+3)[23]

[betafin]

Curio takes a deep breath and tries to focus his power again, muttering "I'll wait for the signal and attack them from the side." as he stares at several cabinets and a desk.

You see a planter briefly fall from up high into one of the cubicle-like sections, quickly followed by a loud shattering sound. The robbers all stop what they're doing to look over. One of the robbers at the front, bigger and rougher-looking than the others, yells to the rest.

"Keep working!" He shouts, probably to the man at the table sorting the money and the one at the Vault. "You two-" He gestures towards the other robber at the front and the one walking around in the back, "-deal with it." He then shifts himself so that he can keep watch on the entrance but also easily turn to the rooms if needed. The two indicated quickly move towards the middle room with the pot, drawing their guns.

They are all very clearly distracted.

Bank Layout

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Key:

• Colored Circle: PC position
• Red Circle: Robber
• Gold Line/Curve: Door
• Blue Object: Movable object (file cabinets, desks, chairs, computers, etc. Green dot = potted plant; very breakable, makes noise)
• Black Line: Wall
• Thin Gray Line: Thin covering (breakable)
• Door with red circle: leads to Vault Entrance
• Door with blue circle: leads to... hostages?

Curio:

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Concentration check: (1d20+14)[18]

[EdroGrimshell]

Conduit sucks a little extra juice, causing a brief flicker in the lights near the thugs, but little else. She quickly distributes the energy, then makes her way back to the others, "any ideas? Only thing I can think of is getting into the volt room and taking the one in there out and pick the rest of them off one by one, or to focus fire on the boss down there and break morale."