World on fire [M&M 2e]

[Evil DM Mark3]

OK we can finish the EP spending as we go I think. Characters involved are underlined at the start of the passage. Instruction to players will be bolded.
Granite, Ranger, Shockwave, SOLID

Who's idea was it go after this guy? 1:That was embarrassing, he whooped you without a shot being fired. 2:Being captured by this guy is bad news. Unless you get out or are rescued this is going to be a very bad week for you.

You are currently floating, in the dark. You cannot feel anything restraining you but no matter how much effort you put into moving it is immediately countered. You can move maybe a centimetre (2/5ths of an inch), no matter how fast you move, before you get pushed back at the same speed you moved.

The lights come on. Florescent tubes in the ceiling flicker into life and you can see that you are in a large windowless metal room, suspended in the air by an unseen force. In front of you, dividing the room in half, is a solid transparent barrier with a door in it. To your surprise the oriental person you saw earlier is standing next to the opposite wall, next to several large mechanics trolleys. You are hanging, form left to right, SOLID, Shockwave, Ranger then Granite

Then your host enters and it does you no good to realise that he isn't wearing his signature mask. It is said that anyone who sees his face, dies. Nothing mystical about it by the way, he kills them. (You also may notice that all the oriental gentleman sees is his back) He is carrying a super-special sub-machine gun. A "super-special" is a weapon custom built for a super, often with recoil that would remove a normal persons arm.

"Well, look at y'all like rats up a tree."

Could you all make a Notice check please.

John Bullock
You are onboard the IJ transport jet you have been lent with Rick your pilot. You have also been given a grav chute (a belt like device that slows your decent to the equivalent of a 2ft drop), a signal beacon for the jet and half a dozen grape sized charges of The Professor's latest bunker busting explosive, for use only in emergencies and NEVER more than one at once.

Your target is detention deck of The Iron Talon's Battleship HQ, currently moored to a medium sized Atlantic island.

[Vampiric]

Notice check

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+9)[18]

"Ah, the Iron Talon. What a... pleasure to meet you. I don't care what you have planned. It won't work."

[HardboiledJJ]

Notice Check:

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+10)[30]

"Aw hell no! Bad nuff' I gots to be chained up, but now I has to listen to this Nazi lookin' mutha f****? Tell you what, how bouts you put Mr. Sweet and Sour on the mike, cuz your face gots to be a violation of the Geneva Convention and sh*t."

[Kyeudo]

"So, he went through all that trouble to capture us, and now he's just going to shoot us. Brilliant. I'd applaud his genius, but these restraints make that somewhat difficult."

Spoiler

Show

Notice:(1d20+12)[28]

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

"Under their rader, please, Rick."

John braces himself a moment before speaking, and sure enough, Rick banks and loses altitude before the words have left his lip. Bullock smiles, and fingers the grav chute around his waist, the charges bandoleer'd around his chest.

"Soon. You'll know when I need you."

A quick motion of hands and fingers; a cross across the torso, brief and automatic. John finds the small part of himself that longs for concealment...

He leaps.
Moments later, invisible, inaudible, unnoticed. His hands find the wall of a cheap pasteboard building, as does a grape-sized charge. He sets the timer; steps back, walks away, towards the docks.

Towards the target.
A few minutes later, he feels the heat of a blast wave....

Spoiler

Show

This is, of course, assuming nobody manages to detect and (somehow) disarm the explosives, and that there are no countermeasures in place able to detect someone with total concealment. The bomb would likely be chucked onto a building roof, since those rarely merit camera coverage.

John will be moving at his top noncombat speed towards the docks, hopefully allowing sufficient time for his distraction to work.

[jerichodrumm]

Ranger spit like he had a bad taste in his mouth. "No death trap? No grandiose speech about yer Master Plan? That's whats wrong with super villains these days. No appreciation for the craft! Why in my day Evil Mastermind's took pride in their work. So what's the plan Sunshine? Ya gonna shoot us or bore us ta death!"

[jerichodrumm]

Notice (1d20+10)[24]

[Evil DM Mark3]

Granite, Ranger, Shockwave, SOLID

"Shoot you? Why would I, oh, I see." He opens the nearest trolley and place his gun in a padded holder in the top of the trolley. "Naw, I just had to deal with a sloppy little sergeant. I would never shoot you, I aint gonna be long now John. Sorry ta keep ya." He presses a button and the trolleys all open up to reveal every kind of knife, power tool and strange wiggly pokey thing you can imagine, and several you never would have. He pulls on a metal glove and hooks it up to cable then picks up a remote control. He then opens a door in the transparent separating wall.
"Who wants ta go first?" He moves along the line, starting at the far right. "Mr Cliché? But should that be with or without his recommended daily allowance of washin'machine? Lemme think 'bout that. The Old War Dog? Ah, but would I do him more by letting him watch? The Crashing Octogenarian? Nah, I got a special lil' thing for him." He is now standing in front of SOLID. He presses a button on the remote and SOLID is rotated forward through 45 degrees and lowered, still held in place, his head tilted up so that his face is no more than a few millimetres away from your captor's.
"You are going to regret comparing me to a Nazi. I may even teach you to speak English properly."

John Bullock
That was a bigger bang than you expected. Flakes of plasterboard rain down as several trees smoulder. Something feels wrong though. No alarms.

You can see however that there is a lot of movement around the docks, especially what seems to be a bomb shelter. There are several vessels in the dock which, you can now see, also has an air strip with coming tower. Unless you miss your guess there is also at least one Sub just below the surface a little way out.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

Right; transports, security; silent alarm? Getaway vehicle. Primary target.

Silent as a cloud, John makes his way into the bomb shelter. He palms one of the grapes; sets the timer. Fifteen seconds.

He leaves the bomb shelter again. No-one is likely to see something so small in a place so large...he marks the location of the sub and heads for the ship.

[Evil DM Mark3]

The bomb shelter has a sealed steel door (so you can't go in without making a stealth check to avoid bumping into people as you squeeze through the door at the same time as them), soldiers of various nationalities and (Oddly enough) in various uniforms are moving around.

Notice check please Shiny.

[Kyeudo]

"Ooh, pointless torture. Bonus points for origonality there, Iron Talon. Or should I say Jack."

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

(1d20+15)[26] Notice

Hmm...no, not much chance there...
John turns back, plants a bomb on the outer shell of the shelter, then pauses, musing...

(1d20+17)[20] Investigate [Analyze Situation]

[Evil DM Mark3]

SOLID, Granite, Shockwave and Ranger
"So you do remember me. I wonder," He places his hand on SOLID's face, almost casually. Electricity dances over SOLID Make a toughness save.
"But this is not mindless, no this is an experiment, I want to see if what happened to me is a function of me, or the environment. Plus it does the reputation no harm. Why don't you enlighten your friends as to who I am, I want to see John's face when he realises."

John Francis Bullock
There is an invisible energy field over the bunker, you can see it when it goes on and off. Also two things strike you, one there seem to be at least 3 different military organisations here. Two, the bunker is the real base, given the number of people in and out and the protection. The buildings where a decoy.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

John sprints for the conning tower, footfalls silent and swift. He reaches the door, mounts the stairs...drops his field of banality and licks outwards at the minds of everyone inside.

His language center stirs; his voice grows quiet, with a slight stutter.

(1d20+19)[21] Bluff
"E-engineering corps...h-he sent me. The..you know. Him. There's an infiltrator, somewhere, blew up the decoys- thinks this might be the next target, stop our t-transport lines. Got to get you out- one at a time, to the s-sentries; could be a s-sniper."

He shudders slightly at the last word, and begins ushering the personnel out...one at a time.

Spoiler

Show

Now that John's visible, everyone who can see him should make a save vs. his Agape field. Failure means friendly, by 5 or more helpful, by 10 or more fanatical, DC is 20, just for quick reference.

[Evil DM Mark3]

The crew consists of a woman in sleek armour and a tanned man in DPMs smoking a rollup cigarette. Anyone with eyes can tell that he is getting on her nerves. He does not wear a name badge, she has her name on her uniform. It reads NATSUKO 夏子.

He gets up to move but she holds out her hand, looks you in the eye and simply barks "Orders? Papers?"

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

(1d20+19)[27] Bluff

John looks about to burst into tears, frantically patting at his pockets before dropping his hands to his sides.

"They just s-sent me out! I don't know, everyone's so...hurried, something's going wrong. I never wanted to work here, I don't know what's going on...they just told me to tell you, I never got any papers! It's all wrong, it's not procedure at all but they were going to s-shoot me if I didn't run...they're just ignoring the rules down there, it's not right at all!"

Behind the scenes, John is quite ready to open fire if it doesn't work this time, and has his hand on the butt of his gun behind his back.

[Evil DM Mark3]

"I have orders too. This post is to remain manned." She turns to her companion. "You are to leave this post in five minutes. Do so now. I will remain. We have important aircraft arriving in ten minutes. Okami must not be made to wait."Sense motive please.

Prehaps because he has no desire to stay he does not complain. In this room are several instrumentation panels, radios and stacks of paper work. She moves over to you, and slaps you hard on the face. "Cry and I will report you to your master. He always has spare time for cowards."

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

(1d20+15)[16] sense motive

"Y-yes, ma'am."
Johns straightens his spine and does his best to look tremendously bucked-up.

[Evil DM Mark3]

She really wants to be alone with you right now.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

John salutes the gentleman on what one hopes is his way out.

"Was...there something else, ma'am?"
He brushes his hair back, slowly, from his temple.

[Evil DM Mark3]

She places her hand on your shoulder, firmly.

"Where are your quarters? I may require, conformation of these orders. At a later time. When I compile my report for instance, this evening."

You get the distinct impression that this woman has only ever heard of subtlety as a word somewhere after sub sandwich and before sub variety in the dictionary.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

"I haven't been assigned any yet, ma'am..I've just been bunking wherever I could. Only arrived a few days ago..."

(1d20+19)[35] bluff

"They didn't even give me a uniform yet...I don't suppose you have any spares here, do you?"
He briefly flashes a charming, lopsided grin.

"...or I could always borrow yours..."
The grin returns, just as briefly as before, but this time it reaches the eyes.

[Kyeudo]

"Everyone thought you dead after Three Mile Island, but apparently you just went rogue. Did being a hero not pay well enough for you? Or are you just that much of an honorless traitor?"

[Evil DM Mark3]

SOLID, Granite, Shockwave and Ranger
"I never even went to The Mile Island. They lined up Joanne for that one. Remember her, poor little Joanne? Such a sweet little girl, and she actually believed all that patriotic garbage too. Wore red white and blue ribbons in her hair! I was already de-commissioned, writhing in pain in a hospital ward! She didn't die either, though they say she got shot stopping a robbery. Her face was burnt off! She was in the room next door to me! Still is if you fancy going to see her, well, moot point really, seeing as you are not getting out of here." He slaps Shockwave with the glove.Toughness save

"Feel that? Imagine living with that, every day. Did you ever wonder how the US scientist managed to get their patient zero so quickly? Their one stable rinezine human that they could base their treatments on? When it took the Nazis years and thousands of failures? They tested on dying soldiers! Offered them money for their families! I got lucky. I lived. For ten years, it was golden and even then, for years I could bite it down, fistfuls of painkillers. You remember those days? What about you John? Me, you, Crash here, Dunkan, Leaping Badger, heroes of the United States! But then, it started to hurt. All over. They kept upping the pain killers, but it didn't help. But this?" He jabs the glove into Ranger's chest Toughness save

"THIS HELPS!"

John Bullock
She smiles and turns back to the controls.

[Kyeudo]

Toughness Save: (1d20+10)[16]

Shockwave grits his teeth against the pain. "So you got dealt a bad hand. Big whoop-dee-do. You got a better deal than most. You were dying in some army hospital and they gave you a second chance. If this is how you show your thanks to a country that gave you your life back, leave me off your Christmas list."

[HardboiledJJ]

Toughness Save (Fair to assume his electricity is over rank 12 and cuts through impervious.): (1d20+12)[28]

"Shee-it! You wanna dress the part an' talk like some pig headed fool, SOLID's just gonna call it how it looks. And don't bring yo' crybaby bull**** my way. People been used an abused round here before yo great granpappy thought to squirt out yo lineage. But go on, make it worse you thick headed mutha ****ah!"

Following, SOLID does his solid best to spit in his captor's face.

[Vampiric]

"'Mr. Cliché? Imagination was your dump stat, huh?

And washing machine? Very funny. Maybe if I get hold of one, I'll let you know how it feels...

Done thinking yet? Or is that thought still on the express train from one cell to the other?"

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

John carefully pulls his pistol out, places it just behind the woman's head, and begins to pull the trigger.

"It's a shame you aren't more impatient. If it's any consolation, this was necessary."

Spoiler

Show

Hopefully, this qualifies as either 'something unexpected' or 'interaction skill' for Surprise Attack. Regardless, attack roll(s) follow:

(1d20+5)[8]
Damage 4.
Unreliability roll: (1d20)[7]

[Evil DM Mark3]

SOLID, Granite, Shockwave and Ranger
Shockwave is bruised. SOLID is unharmed, but still it hurt. Waiting on Ranger.

John Bullock
She spins round and sees your weapon, and it not firing (Unreliable...). "What was that?" Her hand shoots to her side arm. "Put the weapon down."

If you wish to attack, include an initiative roll.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

John ***** his head to one side, but does not lower his weapon.

"I am afraid I am not at liberty to discuss my real orders; only know that if you are still concious when Okami arrives, you will never be conscious again."
(1d20+19)[39] Bluff

His expression softens, briefly, even as his eyes flicker around the tower.
(1d20+17)[21] Investigate

"If I did not care for you, this would be loaded with more than tranquilizer. Please, do not resist."

(1d20+19)[39] Bluff

(1d20+2)[3] Initiative (because you can never be too careful.