[IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

[Blazichaos]

Name: Aeon
HP: 2
Status: 0/2 Luck

"Well sorry for being a nuisance, but the fate of this house is at stake." Blasting Medea again with a bolt of solar energy with all his focus. "And quite frankly seeing you stuck fighting the "Hoyden, mageling and jester' must say alot about just how 'divine' you are!"

Solar lance (All-out-attack 2): Toughness DC 25: 1D20+12 = [18]+12 = 30


soooo close to a natural 20, JUST GIMME IT DAMNIT!

[FuzzyBoots]

GM

Aeon's bolt ricochets off of Medea's shield. You think she may have flinched slightly as it strikes, but soon her haughty face is back on again.
"Indeed, the fate of his house is at stake. I wish to keep it as rightful spoils," she says, standing strong and defiant.

Toughness: 25 has Medea just barely avoiding any damage. That would put DeeCee up next.

[Phicksur]

Name: DeeCee
HP: 2
Status: -1 Bruising, 0 Luck available, Impaired entire encounter

Ok, there's a giant rock on top of me.
A giant rock that's also a lady who may or may not be being mind controlled.
How do I get myself into these messes?
Oh, right, thought I could be a hero.
Should have known better.
Not really the hero type, am I?
No, heroes go and fight and stand up against bad things and prevent people from getting hurt.
Well, some do.
Although, a lot of the ones I have met seem to have no issues about collateral damage.
That's not really very heroic of them, really.
So, if they aren't heroes, what is a hero?
I guess it's someone who fights to protect, rather than to win.
That seems a very reasonable definition.
Can I do that?
I guess I can.
Gonna have to do something about this lady, though.
She's heavy.
Maybe I should help her with that.

Rolling a 20 on a Transforming Touch attack on Sandstone, who is on top of him.

She gets to make a Willpower Resistance check of 26 or be Dazed & Entranced and maybe Stunned & Compelled and then maybe Transformed & Controlled. Since Continuous isn't a boost that's normally allowed for Afliction, guess we swap it out for Progressive.

Time to power her down.

[FuzzyBoots]

GM

DeeCee feels Sandstone lock into place where she's half straddling him, fortunately not enough to pin him in place. Above them, Medea looks down and makes a moue of annoyance.
"Well, that's what I get for relying on thralls. Well, more than one way to deal with an infestation of pests..." she says.

Will: 1D20+8 = [11]+8 = 19 puts her at Compelled / Stunned.

Libra has a save to make, and then an action.

[Scyblue]

Libra
HP: 0
Status: Bruised 4, dazed, fatigued, -5 to active defences

For a moment it looked like the blast of fire got to Libra, but the moment the flames dispersed she was flying right before Medea.
"Boo."
Rather than dodging the attack, Libra had flown right into it to get as close to Medea as possible. Catching her off-guard, Libra unleashed a flurry of punches, completely disregarding her own defence. On the outside, Libra looked completely fine; there wasn't a single burn mark on her body. But on the inside her transformation was wavering. A few more of these blows, and she'd transform back into a non-powered human. She had to finish this fight, and fast.

toughness: 1D20 + 12 - 3 = [6]+12-3 = 15 would make me staggered, so I'm using my last hero point to reroll that:
toughness reroll: 1D20 + 12 - 3 = [12]+12-3 = 21 for a bruise and a daze

Then an all-out attack 5, power attack 2 for DC 29:
all out power attack: 1D20 + 10 = [18]+10 = 28
And I'm using extra effort for an additional action to make a second attack. Rather than off-setting that with a hero point I'm taking the fatigue.
second all out power attack: 1D20 + 10 = [14]+10 = 24

[FuzzyBoots]

GM

As Libra slams into Medea's shield, she readies for a second blow, but it's apparently unnecessary, as Medea's shield winks out, and she slides to the edge of her pillar, only stopped going from the edge as a second grinds up into position, just barely getting into place to provide a backstop before it stops. The large book Medea was holding falls limply out of her hands and off the side of the pillar, hitting the ground with a meaty thunk.

In the boat, the stone figure of a woman suddenly starts, and reels back, staring down at DeeCee.
"There'd better be a good explanation for this," she growls, with a voice like two faces of rock scraping up against each other.

Toughness: 10 and Medea is Incapacitated! No need for Extra Effort unless Libra wants to hit her while she's down.

Sandstone rolls a second Will save of Will: 26 and makes the save! (side note, I accidentally rolled twice for both of them, but took the first result each time). This will end combat unless you choose to continue.

[Phicksur]

Name: DeeCee
HP: 2
Status: 0 Luck available

DeeCee looks up at the stone lady before responding, "I think the angry woman up on the pillar up there was mind-controlling you. As my companions have rendered her senseless, I believe you are free now. For the record, you were in the middle of beating the snot out of me and I am hoping you are stopping now. Also, for the record, I never actually hit you back, just did my best to stop you from beating on me. If you are done pretending I am a piece of chicken needing tenderizing, can you please get off me and help me up?" DeeCee's manner is one of hope that the fight is finally over and maybe people can stop hurting each other now. He makes it a point of glancing over at Tom Cypress and making sure he's not going to jump up and start beating on him too. "Oh, can someone bring her down here? I think we should probably restrain her before she wakes up again and make sure she's not dangerously injured."

With or without assistance, and hopefully without being accosted again, DeeCee gets up and walks over to the book that fell down before yelling up at Aeon and Libra, "Hey, should I get rid of this book or does it need to stay? Seems a lot of trouble stems from this book and I am good either way, but we need to make sure this book doesn't get into the wrong hands, like hers, again." DeeCee makes it a point of not touching it, nor letting anyone else touch it before he understands what the hell it is.

[FuzzyBoots]

GM

The stone figure dissolves into a cloud of sand that reforms in a standing position in the boat, reaching down one hand to lift DeeCee.
"I guess I have you to thank for helping me shake it off." She looks up at the pillar, and her eyes narrow.
"And I'm guessing that the 'angry lady' was the contact who told me she'd found out that this building holds a cure. Which means it was probably a lie. Typical." She looks down at Tom Cyprus, and something about the shifting sand of her face suggests narrowed eyes.
"Tom is alive again. Heard someone had reduced him to ashes. Doesn't entirely surprise me that he's back again... he wasn't spitting hellfire around, or sprouting bat wings?"

Not long after asking that question, whether she gets an answer or not, she expands up to a height of about three stories high, and begins a rapid ascent of the pillar holding Medea, her nature as a cloud of sand seemingly indicating that gravity is a bit more of a suggestion than a law, although she doesn't seem to actually be flying upwards, just reaching out with impossibly long arms and using them rapidly pull herself up. At the top, she hisses out Medea's name.

"Well, that does explain a lot." She begins searching Medea's pockets for something.

[Scyblue]

Libra
HP: 0
Status: Bruised 4

Libra let out a sigh of relief when she finally managed to break through Medea's shield.
"Thank god that's over, that's the toughest fight I've been in since. ...Say, I'm part of the big league now, aren't I? This was on a whole other level than beating up purse snatchers and saving cats out of trees."
She looked at DeeCee as he picked up Medea's book, but cocked her head at his question. The book probably was the Alternity Atlas, but she didn't have the first clue about anything magic related. She probably shouldn't be the one to decide what to do with it. Ah, but wait, she knew a Mage that was a Master about this stuff.
"Seven?" Libra called out while searching for the mirror she should still have on her. "We found Medea and defeated her. Just in time too."

[FuzzyBoots]

GM

The mirror resolves an image of Seven, apparently mid-conversation with someone else in the room.
"— keep telling you that the corn will not try to kill you. Oh!" She turns to the mirror, a grimace pulling her face crooked. "Modern agriculture is not taking well here. You fought Medea? And defeated her?" Seven's look is one of mild disbelief. "And you've made sure that she isn't an illusion, a clone, someone else transformed to look like her... as you might guess, she's been slippery in the past. I—" she breaks off, glancing at something to one side of her.

"Well, that's strange... and it shouldn't be possible without the... is the Alternity Atlas there?"

As Seven asks the question, a crackling and clanking sound echoes through the chamber as the entryway transforms into a massive, iron door. It swings wide to reveal a man in red armor, complete with the face of a devil on its mask, over a black bodysuit. Around his neck is a large black key and he has a tactical belt around his waist that has nightsticks and a gun among other paraphernalia. He surveys the scene, his eyes alighting on Tom Cypress and Medea.
"I see the threat has been dealt with," he says, his voice deep but rough with a trace of an inner city accent, "I will secure the prisoner if you are willing to turn them over." His face lifts to Sandstone.
"And... this one, too, should go." His right hand reaches back and rests on his gun, his left hand on the key around his neck. "I assume she has not told you who, and what, she is."

"F*** you, Warden," Sandstone says, her form dissipating to sand again, "I'm the victim here, and I don't feel like dealing with your bulls*** delusions of grandeur." She points to the figure in red armor. "This yahoo hasn't mentioned that he's kidnapped a lot of people to stick into his prison, acting as judge and jury?" She spits a gob of sand to one side, which dissipates into a pool of grains as it hits the floor. "His only saving grace is that he hasn't got the guys to play executioner." Warden stands at the ready by the gate.

"I serve a higher justice, criminal," he says, "Can these heroes substantiate your story?"

"Who just gated in?" Seven asks from the mirror.

[Scyblue]

Libra
HP: 0
Status: Bruised 4

Libra pointed the mirror outwards, facing the room, so Seven could get an idea of the situation. When she mentioned the Atlas she pointed it to the book DeeCee was holding. "I haven't seen the Atlas before, but would this be it? Before we defeated her, Medea was frantically searching through--"
She got cut off by the red figure loudly storming into the room.

Libra stayed silent for a while, shifting her head back and forth between Warden and Sandstone as they threw accusations at each other.
"I'm going to take a gander and say he's not part of the city police." Libra said as she pointed the mirror towards Warden. "Or any official body."

[Phicksur]

IRL: Finally out of the warzone going on in Quito, Ecuador and can post again. It was very Mad Max there for a while.

Name: DeeCee
HP: 2
Status: 0 Luck available

The stone figure dissolves into a cloud of sand that reforms in a standing position in the boat, reaching down one hand to lift DeeCee.
"I guess I have you to thank for helping me shake it off." She looks up at the pillar, and her eyes narrow.
"And I'm guessing that the 'angry lady' was the contact who told me she'd found out that this building holds a cure. Which means it was probably a lie. Typical." She looks down at Tom Cyprus, and something about the shifting sand of her face suggests narrowed eyes.
"Tom is alive again. Heard someone had reduced him to ashes. Doesn't entirely surprise me that he's back again... he wasn't spitting hellfire around, or sprouting bat wings?"

DeeCee stands with the assistance, "Actually, I reckon my pals are responsible for knockin' the angry lady out. My job was keeping you and Tom busy while they dealt with the main threat. Also, no, he didn't spit hellfire or sprout wings, I knocked him out before he could do too much. You were far tougher, for what it is worth." After that, he catches the part about a cure, "Wait, what cure are you looking for? I might be able to help."

"I see the threat has been dealt with," he says, his voice deep but rough with a trace of an inner city accent, "I will secure the prisoner if you are willing to turn them over." His face lifts to Sandstone.
"And... this one, too, should go." His right hand reaches back and rests on his gun, his left hand on the key around his neck. "I assume she has not told you who, and what, she is."

"F*** you, Warden," Sandstone says, her form dissipating to sand again, "I'm the victim here, and I don't feel like dealing with your bulls*** delusions of grandeur." She points to the figure in red armor. "This yahoo hasn't mentioned that he's kidnapped a lot of people to stick into his prison, acting as judge and jury?" She spits a gob of sand to one side, which dissipates into a pool of grains as it hits the floor. "His only saving grace is that he hasn't got the guys to play executioner." Warden stands at the ready by the gate.

"I serve a higher justice, criminal," he says, "Can these heroes substantiate your story?"

"Mr. Warden, sir, I can testify that the moment the lass was freed of Medea's control she was non-hostile and helpful," DeeCee answers. "Also, If she is sick with somethin' that was causing her to agree to do bad things, I believe that would qualify as mitigatin' circumstances. If needs be, I can take responsibility for her and can likely help her without puttin' her over a barrel to perform anythin' illegal. Of course, if she gets outta hand, I have proved I can keep her busy. With regards to what she is, frankly, ain't we all a bit differ'nt? I would think that who we are is more important that what we are, and if she's willin' to be on the right side of the law after this, I would be willing to accept the risk to give her that chance."

Then, after a moment's thought, "Wait, who did call you and who are you? Do you even have the authority to take custody of any criminals here?"

When she mentioned the Atlas she pointed it to the book DeeCee was holding.

OOC: DeeCee never picked up the book, he's standing guard over it until someone tells him it is safe to pick up, and making sure no one else picks it up.

With realizing that there are new people in the room, and the danger potential rising, DeeCee forms a thick dome of osmium steel over the book. "Until we get things straightened out here, I will be keeping this here book under wraps."

[FuzzyBoots]

GM

DeeCee's question to Sandstone about her mention of cures seems ignored as she scales the pillar to Medea, apparently single-minded in her pursuit.

"That's Warden," Seven said to Libra, her voice slightly strained as if she were considering a half a dozen responses before picking one to move through, "Long story short, he helped design Blackgate. I've heard stories that he might have been involved with Buckner Ridge. Brilliant man, helped keep a lot of dangerous people down. Then, he kind of went crazy and decided that the vulnerability in the prisons was the politicians, and he started kidnapping and locking them away... well, he got caught, several times, but how do you keep someone in a prison they designed, or likely consulted on? He disappeared a few years ago, but there were some reports of him showing up at scenes with dangerous artifacts and occult supervillains, and offering to lock them away." In the mirror, Seven's face hardened. "At this point, the way things have been going, I think he's become almost a necessary evil."

DeeCee's proclamation of Sandstone's relative innocence leads to Warden nodding.
"I will let you decide, as she is not an immediate threat, unlike these two." He walks over to the transformed Tom Cypress and begins securing a set of shining silver cuffs on him. "I will simply ensure that the world isn't threatened by him or Medea. As for my authority... it is only that of justice, ensuring that the criminal is properly incarcerated."

"Well, if that's all you want, here!" Sandstone says from the top of the pillar, hefting Medea in the air, and then tossing her off before leaping off in the other direction and transforming into a cloud of sand on the way down, angled toward the floor. Medea's inert body describes a ballistic arc, ragdolling as she begins her descent. DeeCee, close to the ground, sees Warden's eyes widen and hears a growl of frustrating as the erstwhile jailor grasps his key and begins muttering something, a shimmering beginning to form along the floor around him.

Libra will likely recognize the names of Blackgate and Buckner Ridge as a local prison/jail for supervillains, and a supermax one outside of town respectively.

And you guys have a chance to take an action to catch Medea, if you wish, of course. If you don't, Warden's action will take place.

[Phicksur]

Name: DeeCee
HP: 2
Status: 0 Luck available

DeeCee quickly makes a huge air mattress (like they use with suicide folks and stuntmen) to catch Medea. Then he yells up at Sandstone, "You are not helping your situation with that! Kindly refrain from placing anyone else into harms way?"

[Blazichaos]

Name: Aeon
HP: 2
Status: 0/2 Luck

Aeon was simply standing aside, arms crossed, soaking in all of the information. Seven asking about the "Alternity Atlas" (something he's never heard of before but can assume is the book), the so-called "warden" whos appeared to take Medea and Tom Cypress away to a prison (although not exactly a hero) and sandstone possibly getting off lucky due to DeeCee plea.

Aeon then turns around to the mirror to talk to Seven, "is the Wardens prison capable of handling our demigoddess? And what is the 'Alternity Atlas' or the medallion Medea's wearing? For all of the occult study I have never heard of them." Before Looking for a long second at the book, what information and power it might contain, enough for a demigod to find it valuable. Aeon then takes a single step toward the book before getting flash of memory back at the library, the book that glowed with dark power with Bythos and Aethers disappointment looming in the background, but instead of the original book of the vision, it was replaced by the Alternity Atlas. Aeon then looks at the book, standing still for another second before turning his back to seven and saying with a slight groan "whatever the case our little novel here seems to tell a story of disaster, so more importantly, how should we deal with it?

I could make a ruckus with my obsession and try to get a hero point... but sometimes saying "just think of the HP, the HP makes it worth" isn't always the best idea -_-