[fitd]: FREEDOM CITY! [Issue #1: Let's get Kraken!]

[SuperMuldoon]

Initiative - (1d20+5)[6]

Apex looks around, seeing that their plan was off to a good start. Only 4 up here to deal with...not bad Apex thinks, lifting his hand and taking aim at a thug before firing a line of crackling energy from his wrist blasters at one of the pirates in front of him (presumably different ones then Soul was going for).

Blast Attack - (1d20+10)[12] (blast rank 12)

[Nerd-o-rama]

Initiative (1d20 6=21)

Fireblade
Initiative: 21
Defense: 20 (13 Flatfooted)
Toughness: +10 (+5 Flatfooted)
Hero Points: 1

"Welcome to Earth," Fireblade quips as he moves toward the nearest pirate, drawing his sword and cleaving upward through his torso in one fluid motion.

Attack Roll (1d20 10=24)
Damage +10 (Penetrating 7)

((Note Fireblade's Takedown Attack 2. This means I can attack an additional enemy after the first one drops, and I can take a five-foot-step to reach that additional enemy (like Supreme Cleave in D&D). If these guys are Minions, I can do this an unlimited number of times per round, until I run out of movement speed (30' total) or run out of enemies within reach.

If these guys are minions, I'll take 10 on all my follow-up attacks for a result of 20. If not, go ahead and roll my one follow-up attack for me. I think that covers everything.))

[Da Beast]

initiative - (1d20+1)[2]

If I can put at least forty feet between myself and Tempo I'm going to fly off a little ways and use thunder clap (40 ft radius, DC 18 reflex save or suffer auditory dazzle). If not, I guess I'll just punch one of them (take ten, attack roll of 18, damage save DC 27 (or are they all down all ready?)).

[fireinthedust]

brennus 2
apex 6
fireblade 21
soul 9
tempo... 60?! ((ooc: okay, gm veto: you can't have +45 to initiative. I don't care how you justify it within the rules! ;) ))

Pirates: 15


Below:
Tempo bursts into action, zipping about the room and slamming his fists into every single pirate. One mighty blow goes through the accordian and into the frogman's face.
Brennus manages to set up his mighty thunderclap... but the pirates are, for the most part, down already.

Now the undership is silent enough that you can hear other rooms, and more pirates in them going about their work. There seems not to be any alarm for you, that you can hear. There are two doors, one through which you can hear strange noises.



Above:
Fireblade wades into the nearest pirate, cleaving through him with ease. The blade opens the pirate up, spewing blood all over every other Freedom League hopeful on deck; intestines and gore follow, not only out of the wound but also up through his throat and out his mouth, making it impossible to tell the difference between organs ad his distended tongue. The smell of charred flesh is overwhelmed only by the stench of entrails and their half-digested contents.

((You monster! Opening up on pirates with lethal damage... shameful. What is this world coming to, I ask you? Anyway, I'm going to promote them to more-than-minions-minions for this one shot, to give them a chance... which, seeing my rolls, isn't working. Oh well!))

The other pirates are next, though they all fail to strike the most obvious threat (fireblade) with their ray guns. Perhaps it was the long years of drinking space-ahol, or perhaps it was the horror of seeing their comrade in arms opened like a sack of tangerines on Christmas morning that made them soil themselves (sorry, space-soil themselves) thus throwing off their aim. Really, we'll never know, as Apex and Soul's follow-up attacks knock them out.

The deck of the ship is quiet (excepting the space-gulls now pecking away at that dead pirate), leaving the heroes above alone with the device... until:

Why, a crew of stow aways aboard the Stellar Buccaneer! Avast, lubbers, for here there be monsters! It is that tentacled pirate, obviously the captain. He seems more horrible in person, holding a beam-cutlass and a ray gun.

[sun_tzu]

Oh dear...OK, switching to less violent methods.
"All right, you...whatever you are." Soul tries to sound confident. "You're in a bad situation. Even if you have dozens more crew members, odds are we can take them all. I'd suggest you avoid doing anything stupid."

Spoiler

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Readying a Paralyze in case tentacle-face attacks us.

[Green Bean]

"Yeah! Too slow, you space-swabbies! Who fast? I'm fast! Who's fast? I'm fast! Who's..." As Tempo remembered he had an audience, he trailed off and his face turned bright red. "Err...can we pretend that never happened?"

Without waiting for a reply, Tempo headed toward the door emitting strange noises. After a moment's hesitation, he knocked.

[fireinthedust]

"All right, you...whatever you are."

Space pirate!

Soul tries to sound confident. "You're in a bad situation. Even if you have dozens more crew members, odds are we can take them all. I'd suggest you avoid doing anything stupid."

har. Stupid... like attack Captain Kraken on his own ship? Aye, lass, ye'll have to forgive me, but I don't think so. You've beaten me crew, that be true. But the captain's a different school of fish, yar, and Kraken be the worst of the lot! Throw yerselves in the brig now, and I'll spare ye the horror of a grisly death!

[sun_tzu]

Space pirate!



har. Stupid... like attack Captain Kraken on his own ship? Aye, lass, ye'll have to forgive me, but I don't think so. You've beaten me crew, that be true. But the captain's a different school of fish, yar, and Kraken be the worst of the lot! Throw yerselves in the brig now, and I'll spare ye the horror of a grisly death!

For a moment there, Soul just makes a weird face. Then she speaks up:
"All right, you have got to be kidding me.
First of all...Captain Kraken? Seriously? Like dressing up a space ship to make it look like it belongs to a different century wasn't corny enough...And don't get me started with the accent.
And you're telling us to throw ourselves in the brig? Is that wishful thinking, a desperate bluff, or are you really that stupid? You're outnumbered, outpowered, and soon enough you'll be running out of time once the rest of the Earth's heroes figure out a way to get past the shield around the city.
This way or another, you're going down. Spare yourself the injuries now and surrender while you still can."

And let's really, really hope he's not actually powerful enough to take us.

((Since you hasn't answered whether we're supposed to have heard of this guy, I'm taking the safe route and assuming that we haven't. Which makes absolutely no sense, since his identity is listed as "Public" in the Freedom City sourcebook, but...))

[fireinthedust]

For a moment there, Soul just makes a weird face. Then she speaks up:
[COLOR="DimGray"]"All right, you have got to be kidding me.
First of all...Captain Kraken? Seriously? Like dressing up a space ship to make it look like it belongs to a different century wasn't corny enough...And don't get me started with the accent.
And you're telling us to throw ourselves in the brig? Is that wishful thinking, a desperate bluff, or are you really that stupid? You're outnumbered, outpowered, and soon enough you'll be running out of time once the rest of the Earth's heroes figure out a way to get past the shield around the city.
This way or another, you're going down. Spare yourself the injuries now and surrender while you still can."

The Captain presses a button on the edge of his cutlass.

Then, lass, it be lucky fer me that we're not *on* Earth where yer heroes can get me!

The force field surrounding the city goes clear. Beyond it you see the starry night sky, the bright orb of the moon... and the Earth floating away from the city!
The entire city has been taken up into space inside a giant force field!!!

One wrong word from the rest o' ye, and ye'll all be sucking space! The cutlass be in the other flipper now, Earth lass. What say ye now?

Spoiler

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((Since you hasn't answered whether we're supposed to have heard of this guy, I'm taking the safe route and assuming that we haven't. Which makes absolutely no sense, since his identity is listed as "Public" in the Freedom City sourcebook, but...))

meh. I'm taking liberties. For example, as you may have guessed, this isn't a holodeck simulation like in the Core book. This be the real MacKraken!
I'll throw in some of them as background, but I want the focus to be on you guys. Think origin stories. There are still "villains" out there, and a bunch of them would be in the book. Omega, the foundry, etc. Some I'll hold back.

[sun_tzu]

((Ah, I see. Hm...))

Soul's eyes widen and her jaw drops as the truth of the situation dawns upon her.
Oh my God. This is crazy. This is completely crazy. The whole city is NOT being held hostage in space by a tentacle-faced alien with a Holywoodian pirate schtick.
OK, pull yourself together...For now, gotta stall for time. We'll have better odds of pulling through once Tempo and Aesir get here.

"Very impressive, but, I don't think your situation is as good as you think. I mean, sure, you can destroy the city. But if you do that, we will destroy you. It's a standoff, at best." I hope.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Fireblade, for his part, has spent most of the conversation staring at his sword and the remains of the pirate.

You...you told me you weren't going to do that!

*

What do you mean I have to ask you to go nonlethal? Living things don't get sliced. I mean...God damn, look at the guy.

*

Okay, you and me are having a long, long talk later. Ugh, that's disgusting.

Eventually, Fireblade shakes off his internal monologue (dialog?) when he realizes the enemy captain has shown up, shakes the blood off his sword, and addresses him, looking the horrible-looking dude staright in his cephalopod-esque eye. "You're the captain? Look, I could make all manner of snappy comments on your ugliness and unoriginal shtick...but I'm not in the mood any more. You've kidnapped our city? Fine. I challenge to a duel for possession of it. You and me, one on one, swords, right now. I win, you put the city down and turn yourself in to whatever law enforcement wants you; AEGIS or Star Knight I guess. You win, you can do what you like with me." Through all this, Fireblade maintains a deadly serious and level voice, contrary to his previous attitude.

((If you judge it necessary, here is a Bluff (Trick) check to convince Kraken to accept the duel.
Bluff (Trick) (1d20 12=13)
**** it, Hero Point re-roll:
Hero Point reroll (minimum die result: 11) (1d20 12=32)

Okay, now I think InvisibleCastle is screwing with me.))

[SuperMuldoon]

Well...I guess now we know what that device was for... Apex thinks to himself as he stares out into the void of space, a sight he has seen so many times before.

"You're not goi..." Apex begins to say before Fireblade speaks up and challenges Captain Kraken to a duel. Kids got guts, I'll give him that. This just may give me the opening I am looking for...

((Apex will wait and see if the duel begins. If it does he will then sneak over to the device and see if he can reverse the whole situation and bring Freedom City back to Earth! If the duel doesn't happen, I'll get ready to fight.


[Roll=Knowledge(Technology)]1d20+12[/roll]))

((well apparently it doesn't like my rolling again...))

---

* post roll count doesn't match database

[SuperMuldoon]

((trying it again...))

[Roll=Knowledge(Technology)]1d20+12[/roll]

*((Why isn't this working?))

---

* post roll count doesn't match database

[Green Bean]

((Incidentally, fitd, do I hear pirate noises coming from the strange noise door? It'd be kind of silly to knock when no one's home. ))

[Da Beast]

I don't really want to just barge through that door, but knocking will just give any enemies time to prepare.

Aesir walks up to the door with the strange noises emanating from within.

"Stand behind me. I'll have a better chance of standing up to whatever's behind here."

Aesir opens the door, attempting to rip it off in the process to use as a shield (cover bonus?).

strength check - (1d20+12)[18]

[SuperMuldoon]

[roll=Knowledge(Technology)]1d20+12[/roll]

(here goes nothing...)

*(guhh what the eff?!)

---

* post roll count doesn't match database

[SuperMuldoon]

Knowledge Technology - (1d20+12)[23]

(trying without parenthesis...if this doesn't work I'm off to find a new roller...)

[fireinthedust]

ooc: so soul and fireblade are reasoning with Kraken (well, hero-type reasoning); apex is going to sneak over to the machine and do stuff to it; Tempo and Aesir are going to check out the strange noises below deck.

Temp and Aesir: Listening, Tempo can hear strange noises from the other side of the doorway. Animal noises! growels and clicks and squawks. At the same time, Aesir tears himself a new shield and walks into the room.

There are a dozen pirates, but they're wrestling with the chains of a giant alien insect! The room is a sort of stable for weird alien bugs, giant long-legged thigs with chitinous shells that look like this!

As the heroes enter the room, the pirates look up in shock... long enough for the one bug they were wrangling (who is out of his stable) to yank free of his chains and charging towards the doorway!


Soul, Fireblade, Apex:
A duel, ye say? Aye, I could risk it... or I could just turn off the machine and kill every human in the city! Stand down, ye'll never risk the lives of an entire city! I call yer bluff, lad, ya-harr!

Apex: looking at the machine, you see it would be easy to disable. Like any electronic device there's an on switch and an off-switch. ...and a third switch you're just not sure what it does. Other than that, it's a really high-tech way of having a force field, but it only has on, off, and whatever the third button does.

[sun_tzu]

All right...So much for that. We need to get his cutlass away from him. Giving it some thought, an idea flashes in Soul's mind. That could work...but if it fails, he'll destroy the city. Millions...Millions of people will die because I did something stupid. She then gave the city below them a look. [COLOR="DimGray"]But...If I do NOTHING...That's no less of a risk. I don't think the rest of the team is just going to stand by, either - so either I take a chance and try to beat him, or something even worse might happen. Oh, I hope I know what I'm doing...
Discreetly, Soul walked behind Fireblade. Can't let him see what I'm doing. Then, focusing all her efforts on a silent telekinesis spell, she tried to create a distraction behind the alien...then blast the cutlass away from him.

Spoiler

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Soul is using Extra Effort to give her Telekinesis power the Subtle feat, and hiding behind Fireblade for extra measure. She's using her power to loudly wreck a part of the ship situated behind Captain Kraken - break the mast if it's there, rip up some part of the deck otherwise. The objective is to get him to turn around, so she can then catch him flat-footed. As soon as he's distracted, she moves aside so Fireblade isn't between them any longer, and tries to blast the cutlass. Hero Point for the attack roll.
Attack Roll - (1d20+7)[23], add 10 if I roll below 11.
And, apologies if I just destroyed Freedom City... ...Seemed like our best bet. I think.

[Green Bean]

Tempo was expecting trouble on the other side of the door, and therefore acted almost instantly as the giant space-bug broke free of its space-chains.

"I'll distract it!" The speedster blurs in place, then zips through Aesir, stopping at the other side of the room.

Tempo jumps up and down, waving his arms and generally trying to attract as much attention as possible. "Hey! Space-bug! Over here! I'm filled with delicious meat! Come and get it!"

((I'll try to attract the bug's attention while (hopefully) remaining safe from giant space-bug reprisal))

[Da Beast]

Aesir almost trips backwards as the speedster erupts through his chest.

"WHAT THE... Please, never do that again!"

Aesir takes to the air and charges forward, smashing the bug with all his might.

Charge attack attack roll - (1d20+10)[21] Damage save DC: 27

((My only big minion buster move fatigues me so I'll just take the bug for now.

Is that one of the bugs from Star Ship Troopers?))

[fireinthedust]

Below:

Tempo distracts the insect (and Aesir) by bursting through his comrade and taunting the alien beast. A moment later Aesir follows up with a devastating slam, knocking the creature out as well as across the room into a pile of the pirates.


Above:

Kraken seems to reconsider Fireblade's offer. I'll tell ye what I'll do, lad. Ye want a fight, the wager bein' the lives o'the city. Ye accept me challenge t'fight my champion t'the death, no cheating, no holding back, and I'll return yer city t' the Earth. What say ye?

Soul: are you going to try the telekinesis while he says all this?

[Green Bean]

((Did Aesir take out all of the pirates, or are we still fighting?))

[fireinthedust]

Whether unconscious or not, they've been knocked over by the spider. A few groans from underneath it.

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Going to wait for the results of Soul's actions before I respond. Assuming she does it while the Cap'n's talking, of course.))

[sun_tzu]

Soul: are you going to try the telekinesis while he says all this?

((Guess so. Please note - she's going to try the blast after he's distracted by the telekinesis, in the hope of catching him off-guard.))

[Da Beast]

I look around the room for some sort of release switch to open the pens.

"What do you say we let these poor little critters out for some fresh air."

((If there's some sort of release, my plan is to have Tempo hit it right before I teleport topside and let the bugs rip up the ship))

((Edit: I plan on taking Tempo with me when I port. Probably should have mentioned that in the first place))

[SuperMuldoon]

"...or I could just turn off the machine and kill every human in the city!"

Well...guess I better not hit the "off" button. I wonder what this third button does? Better not press it until we figure out whats going on here...or we have no other options...

Apex turns to watch the events taking place between his teammates and the mighty Captain Kraken, keeping an eye out to make sure no more cronies come out to back their Captain up.

[Green Bean]

"Hang on a sec. I just want to check that other room."

Still intangible, Tempo speeds out of the room (carefully stepping around Aesir this time) and through the second door. If there are any pirates, he'll double back to let Aesir know, then triple back to hit one of the pirates ((So I'd be switching off my Insubstantial to do so)). Otherwise, he'll just let Aesir do his thing.

[fireinthedust]

EDIT:
Kraken chuckles to himself as he awaits Fireblade's counter-response (to his response). A moment later the deck is ripped open by Soul's telekinesis (however subtly this is done; really subtle, in fact).
Kraken spins at the sound What? What trickery be this?
A moment later, his arm is struck by the sorceresses blast. The cutlass flies from his grasp as his slimey green hand fails to retain hold of it. Avast! Me cutlass!

below:
Tempo speeds through the wall, and find on the other side steps going up tot he deck above.
Brennus easily finds the release button: it's large and red and on the wall.

You two port up to the deck easily enough, and behind you come the screechings of the giant space-insects.
Once on the deck, you see Kraken lunging to grab his cutlass.


EVERYONE: please roll initiative... this time for sure!