!Mission
Keep an ablative shield of dolls in front of you while you retreat. That will work, certainly. There's nothing wrong with that plan.
You slowly walk back, keeping your eyes to the top of the stairs until you reach the point where the stairs turn around. It's at that moment that the blurry white thing jumps into the light again. Its way of moving is disturbing, it doesn't move like a normal human, it alternates between pausing for a few seconds and then suddenly 'changing' into another stance. In this case into a white blur facing you and then jumping straight at you.
You order your dolls to get between you and it as quickly as they can while you retreat further down the stairs. It smashes into one, making the doll land on its back and then grabs the other by its neck and lifts it off the air.
It flickers like an image on an old TV, one moment facing the doll, the next facing you. It's hard to make out, but you somehow know that this is the doll you left in the room with the display cases. It's not unscathed from its attack on your doll, one of its arms having been broken and hanging limply on its side. For a moment you find it strange that you can't feel it. The next you immediately regret those thoughts, as you sense it reconnecting to your hive mind, but as something more than mere sights and sounds. It flickers and turns its attention back to the struggling doll in its grip. You feel its cold alien presence spreading through your network, reaching towards you like whispers in the back of your mind. The doll in its grip stops struggling, no longer responding to your commands. It serves a new master now.
Looks like this is one problem you can't beat merely by throwing dolls at it and hoping they eventually bury it.
It's at the middle of the stairs with your two dolls. You're at the bottom with your other doll. What do you do?
(I chose the 'Insane in the membrane' vote for Alan first! Need I explain? Also, @ ATHATH: Unless Secundus is comfortable with moving more than a handful of dolls via a hive mind, usually simultaneously, he would find the experience disconcerting. Not that the haughty Napoleon would object to having a second baser around...)
Never in his entire life had Napoleon felt so hopeless. He was so confident that his superior intellect would win the day, that no one was a match for him. Now he was confronted with a terrifying enemy that he cannot hope to defeat, at least as easily as he'd hoped, and the cruel irony of it involved one of his dolls not only changing into such a being but stealing control of one of his dolls. Whatever horrible being that can use his own power against him must have a twisted sense of poetic justice. No doubt that it seeks to punish him for taking the sword by twisting his doll into an abomination and could still be within this museum. However, the former doll's broken arm and the sword he still held reminded Napoleon that the fight wasn't over yet and he composed himself slightly.
"Ah... look how much you grown..." Napoleon muttered, his voice faltering. Clearing his throat, he continued as steadily as he can. "As God as my witness, I truly didn't expect this... turn of events. I expected myself to enjoy a peaceful evening with a bottle of Pinot Noir and steak, not being chased throughout a haunted museum or whatnot by my own twisted creation."
As Napoleon stealthily took steps backward toward the door he thought of the twisted doll's alien presence in his hive mind. He can still hear the whispers in his psyche. However, this presents a possibility: if it can reconnect itself into his hive mind, perhaps he can reestablish control? It was a slim possibility but a possibility nevertheless. So many variables are arraigned around him and Napoleon have't not deemed them to be wasted.
"Of course, as I would say," Napoleon continued with a flesh-eating smile. "Even when chipped, a sword can still kill."
Before the twisted doll could figure out what he's up to, Napoleon will control the doll lying on its back to get up and cut it to pieces, starting with its legs. While it's distracted, Napoleon will use all of his willpower to reassume direct control over the twisted doll long enough to banish it. If all else fails, Napoleon and the doll at his side will open the door behind them and enter the room. They will quickly close the door and attempt to barricade it. Throughout the execution of his plan, Napoleon will defend himself with his sword and the candle he is still holding if necessary, using the doll as a last resort.
((Have I mentioned I really like the effort you put in your character's reactions?))
Your doll gets up and tries to attack the twisted doll. The strike connects but the twisted doll immediately flickers back out of the way. It sports a gash now, but it doesn't look like it's in any way impeding it. It's only making it angrier. It suddenly rushes forward and tries to grab your doll. The two struggle for a bit, each trying to overpower the other.
While the two fight, you try to overpower the presence through sheer willpower. For a moment it feels like it's working, like you're reaching into the doll, your mind overpowering the presence and regaining control of the doll. But then you feel something shift, like the presence suddenly gained twice the mental strength it had. It easily overwhelms you, rendering all efforts to regain control useless. Did it really grow stronger? Or was it holding back, conserving its strength, toying with you, trying to torture you? Whatever the answer may be, one thing is certain: going head to head with this thing will most likely not go well for you.
With no other option left, you leave the still fighting doll to its doom and run along with your one remaining doll into the nearest door. You get inside and slam the door behind you. That should buy you a few seconds.
Beyond the door is a service area, a large kitchen from the looks of it. You bet that when this place had people living in it (if it ever did), this place would had been full of servants carrying platters and trays and chefs with tall white hats standing over fiery ovens ands huge bubbling pots, stirring their contents with big wooden ladles while their assistants sliced vegetables and chopped large stakes. However, at the moment, it is as empty and lifeless as the rest of this place, all the cooking implements and protective clothing neatly arranged on hangers and shelves and inside various cupboards. The only light comes from a lamp sitting on a wooden table, surrounded by 3 wooden chairs. You can't see the entire room from here, but for the sake of expediency, if you go further in, you'll find a flight of stairs leading down and another hallway with two doors, one leading into the large dining room (you don't know where the other one leads).
The alien presence recedes from your mind but its aura remains in the form of the two of your dolls it now controls, still connected to you but obeying the thoughts of their new master. You see through their eyes as they approach the door you've hidden behind, you hear their approach. You can't see the twisted doll but you know it can't be far.
Stephano Falcone
"I'll keep you informed." Stephano spoke coldly before returning the radio back to its proper place.
She doesn't seem like she'll be much help, but I'll have to make do with the resources I have available. With the cameras scattered around, staying hidden will be difficult. I'll prioritize acting casual instead. If I move quickly, it might be possible to escape before anyone realizes I'm no longer contained.
Taking out the security card labeled "Marco Antilles", Stephano examined it and contemplated why Mantis had it in his possession.
Mantis had both a security card and a matching fake ID. Iris told me that there was a security office containing a guard between this location and the exit stairwell. Mantis would have needed to bypass this guard to reach me, which is probably what he needed the security card and ID for. I can conclude that I'm currently located in a section of the building that requires special clearance to access. Therefore, it's safe to assume that if I try to walk past the security office, the guard will stop me and ask to see my identification and clearance. If I can't provide any valid identification, then he'll likely detain me, possibly alerting the rest of the security team while doing so. Hmm...I don't have any suitable weapons on me, so fighting him isn't practical. I'll need to develop a strategy to avoid confrontation with him.
Check if my face looks similar to the face shown on the security card. If so, proceed with Plan A. Otherwise, Plan B.
Plan A
Return to Mantis' body, take his hat, and wear it and the sunglasses. If I have my own hat, then leave it on the body's head, covering its face. If it looks like Mantis' clothes can fit me, exchange clothing with him as well. Then walk through the door at the end of the hallway and casually proceed toward the security office. When I reach the office, show the guard my ID and my security card. If everything goes alright, then proceed toward the stairwell.
Plan B
Walk through the door at the end of the hallway and investigate my surroundings. Check if there is an alternate path to the office with cubicles that allows me to skip the security office. Regardless of whether there is or not, return back through the door I came through. Contact Iris. Ask her for additional details regarding the building's security protocols and what I need in order to proceed past the guards.
Well, it's not a very high quality photo and you're somewhat similar. Someone giving it a quick look or a good excuse from you could let you get away with using it.
You exchange clothes with Mantis and leave him handcuffed to your seat, making sure he is facing down so that it's harder for the camera to make out the details. That done, you approach the door leading away from the interrogation rooms. You stand in front of it and take a deep breath to prepare. Then you open it and start walking like a man with somewhere to go, briskly but not too quickly (you hope).
You start walking towards the door on the other end of the corridor. The faintly glowing red exit sign above it is a pretty clear indicator of where the fastest way to the exit is, assuming the building follows any sort of safety regulations in a sane manner. There are other doors nearby (possibly leading to other interrogation rooms or cells), but none of them show any indication of being an exit. You don't look too closely, not wanting to draw too much attention to yourself.
Between you and the door is the security station, a room hidden behind wire mesh glass, hiding behind it a bored-looking security guard reading a newspaper. From beneath the armoured glass of the security office extends a row of metal turnstiles, each with a symbol beside it indicating you should touch your security card to them. The only other way through the hallway is an emergency door and you're pretty sure that's rigged to trigger an alarm the moment you open it. You approach the turnstiles and do exactly as they request, trying to play it cool while mentally rehearsing how you could jump over the obstacle and run towards the door. It takes less than a second for the security system to analyze the RFID signal and respond with a beep and a green arrow pointing towards the turnstile you should use. It takes you about as much time to realize what that means and make your way through the metal bars.
Another obstacle cleared, you continue walking towards the exit. All you have to do is reach it. ... And then confront whatever's hiding behind it. ... Nobody said it would be easy.
: Hey! You there! Hold up! : you hear a voice coming from the speakers of the security station.
The Maximus
Did I mention this mission isn't easy? I think I did.
((Oh, Alan.))
John, on the Maximus
"Whoever's making progress, good job. I'm going to try to get inside now, because I came up empty stopping it out here."
Okay, what about summoning a small magnetic light, just something to mark a path? And making a copy of it? Is that too painful? If it's not crippling, make a few copies and start leaving a trail behind myself. I need to find a way in.
It stings and makes your interface beep, but you can do it no problem.
You could walk around and use your remote senses to find a maintenance access port to make your way under the ship's armour and into some sort of maintenance area, sure, but I'm starting to feel bad because you never use the damn thing, so let me give you a quick and simple way to solve this situation: Use the spear. Make a hole. You have this thing that can stab through almost every armour and you've only used it once.
((I had considered it, but I've been operating under the impression that putting more holes in the Maximus is a Bad Thing. I take it one or two more small ones is okay, then.))
"Everyone, I'm going to try to cut a hole inward. Screwing around outside is going to get us killed. I've dropped some lights; if you see them, come that way."
Make sure my "work area" has several of those lights.
Sense an area where I'm probably not going to cut through anything important and also not hitting a support beam or extra-thick spot. Lengthen the spear to around a meter, then use that to start poking through the armor. Lengthen it if I'm not getting all the way through. Just start poking a hole until I've opened it enough for any of us to get in.
((You are correct, it's better to keep the inside of the ship free of this liquid (if for no other reason than it would get in the way), but right now you'd only be using the spear to reach the maintenance area for the turret cover, so it should be fine. Even if you kept digging with it and made it further into the ship, right now you're on the outside of one of those transport tubes that are surrounded by storage areas, so you'd just flood one of the expendable outer storage areas (that double as spaced armour). I understand the
map might not be the most readable (I think it's mostly because it's trying to draw a 3d object in 2d) which is why I'm explaining. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.
Also, the faster you resolve this, the less chances Beirus' char permadies, so, you know, thought I'd help up his odds a bit.))
The armour of the Maximus actually offers some resistance, requiring you to push to get your rod through it. 1 meter is not enough to reach anything, so you extend your poking stick further. Looks like they made the armour around the turret quite thick. Your spear is getting hotter than usual, you can feel it through the heat-dissipating gloves of your suit. Even the liquid around it appears to be bubbling slightly, although its hard to tell with this strong current.
You continue this way, extending and pushing for about a minute, occasionally jerking forward whenever you cut your way through one of the small tubes that seem to occasionally run through the armour. After a certain point you reach the other side. You can tell by the small burst of water rushing in through the hole you created, threatening to pull your spear away from you, but it stops half a second later. You can also tell through your ability, as the hole appears to have created a gap in whatever anti-magical protection it had, making it easier for you to feel what's on the other side.
From what you can tell, there are several cramped compartments housing the motors that move the covers located right below them. Following the now-unshielded wiring, you can reach most of the system. It looks like they didn't expect anyone who made it into the room to sabotage it (or maybe they just thought it didn't matter at that point). Parts of it (like doors and door control panels) are still shielded, though you're certain you could get through to them if you focused.
You can also see the power source meant to activate the motors, a few arrays of batteries spread around the area. On one side they are connected to a control system, alternating between direct power and battery power. On the opposite direction they are connected to what you guess is some protective equipment and then to wires leading away from the system, some separate power supply system probably. There are generally a few wires (and other thin things whose structure reminds you of carbon-fibers) worming their way away from the maintenance area and further down the hull, but at that point you lose track of them. You'd have to focus more to follow them further. You guess they're probably used to transmit power and some basic information, this system seems quite simple and self-contained. Now that you can see the entire system, you can tell that if the cover closes in the "does not crush the turret" configuration, it reveals an opening beneath the turret, possibly a way to resupply it, though you don't waste the effort to go through the shielding protecting that part at the moment.
If you were to keep digging this way, you'd probably need the help of your teammates, as you're not certain you could pull your entire spear out of the hole and then push it back in, it has such a large surface area at the moment that if you tried using your strength alone the current would definitely carry it away. That or maybe shrink and extend it again, although you're quite certain that would take several minutes and risk melting the more mundane parts of your spear. Or you could just find some other way to do this. Or maybe if you deal with the turret the Phoenix can unlock some door or at least blast the hull open for you so you can avoid this problem entirely. Or maybe it could just grab your spear and start stabbing the hull.
Is this the place where we put character sheets if we want to join?
((I have so many ideas I can PM you...))
~~~
Kosak Durar:
"Everyone, I'm going to try to cut a hole inward. Screwing around outside is going to get us killed. I've dropped some lights; if you see them, come that way."
"Excellent!"
Report to this guy's position.
It's not easy, but you manage to get out from under the turret and get to John.
<Svajoklis, Maximus, next to the turret>
"If only all the potential lackeys hadn't been scattered all over"
Swim up to the sensors and shoot them.
It's not easy going against the stream but you manage to swim up to where the sensor clusters are while avoiding the swinging barrel of the turret. I mean, you could use the stream to go towards the turret but risking slamming on the fast moving thing would probably be worse than getting carried away and having to walk back to the others. You use your legs to desperately push forward while waiting for an opportunity to shoot a sensor cluster. It doesn't take more than a few seconds for one to swing by you and you easily manage to shoot towards it. You see the pellets managed to scratch some lenses and bending some antennas. The turret stops moving. Sensing what is to come, you stop struggling and let the stream carry you away. Moments later, you are blinded by the light and pain. You drift away half-conscious, with a faint understanding that your left arm and a good part of your torso is gone.
Rolls:
str->5
dex->1+1+2-1
turret point defence dex->4+5-1-1
rflx->1+2+1
end->3
injury-> left top torso
Brian Hoss, hull of the Maximus
Still staying still.
You try to keep your 'eyes' on the sensors but your concentration slips, the distortions weakening, shrinking and slipping away from the sensors. Luckily it doesn't look like it's focusing on the Phoenix, so your mistake isn't too costly for- Oh, shit, it's focusing on Svajoklis. You try to catch up to the sensors but in mere seconds the turret has shot an energy lance through him, sending his body drifting away and painting the liquid red like a
bloody comet. Crap.
The only bright side to all this is the fact that the energy lance seems to have cauterized his wounds, reducing how much he bleeds.
: Oh, no! Can someone get him? I don't want to risk getting close to him right now, I might accidentally hurt him. I will help him as soon as I can. :The turret has stopped moving and firing for the moment.
((Hey Toaster, small holes might be insignificant in a few turns. My character might be putting a giant hole in the ship if he lives long enough. Kind of backed myself into a corner.))
WMD, Space Mission
Welp, looks like I'm out of options. Do the Thing. Weapons and Walker, and get charging. See what new toys I got, and start charging. If anything I have is melee, try to break through the wall to breach another hallway or empty space where I can hopefully get some air. Otherwise, try to walk further down the hallway, looking for a door or something I can use to block off the water from following me. Use my Willpower to stay conscious and not drown myself, and to control any RMEs to save my ass in some way, like making the water breathable or making an air bubble that the water can't penetrate or something.
You begin your transformation, shards of bone and tendrils of flesh ripping through the synthetic materials of your spacesuit, leaving pieces of it trapped inside your newly grown fleshy bits. This liquid feels cold and viscous like water. It's all tingly against your skin, like it's boiling. You notice there's a dampening effect here, slightly reducing the speed with which you charge and quite likely weakening your
RMEs. Your weapons come in the form of ultra-sharp blades at the tip of your tendrils that you can use to stab or slash things. You can imbue them with energy to make them even more devastating. The light you and your shield give off is enough for you to see where you are. The hallway you were in has melted and collapsed around you, trapping you in it. Your tendrils have wormed their way around the broken pipes and bent support beams, trying to find space to expand in this cramped tomb-like pocket you've found yourself in.
You wildly slash your tendrils around. With each slash you can feel the metal giving way, letting you move more freely. Now you have enough space to wind up for the strikes, making them even more devastating, letting you tear through the walls and rip them apart like pieces of aluminum foil, breaking support beams and pipes like they're twigs. You break through a wall on your right and find another hallway, running parallel to the one you were in... and then you break through the wall to your left and find an exact replica of that hallway but inverse. They're all filled with this liquid though, so this doesn't exactly solve your eventual 'running out of air' problem. Even if you weren't a weapon of mass destruction but something more versatily, something that had some means of pumping water out of one hallway, that would still leave you in the void, not much better than drowning.
Seeing no other way out of this, you slither through the hallways like a fat shiv-wielding octopus, trying find a door that could lead you to safety. So far you've had no luck with the door, but you could keep searching. Maybe it's just down the next turn of the hallway.
You glow faintly, the glow shrinking and then concentrating on part of your skin, forming a great light-emitting pustule. Out of it comes a dwarf dressed like a stereotypical business man, with a suit and a red tie. Over his suit, he is wearing what looks like a medieval suit of armour made entirely out of transparent glass. He says something to you but the sound never raches you. You try to convey your inability to understand him as best as a giant tentacle monster can. After looking puzzled for a few seconds, he repeats what he said, this time pointing towards the left. You still can't read his lips, you think it's the accent. He shrugs and remains next to you.
Campaign
((You might find more success following the people trail - if I recall correctly, I pissed off/attracted the notice of a lot of people in the last few days, from that mob of people who were chasing Brad and I for some shenanigans we did, to everyone who saw my firehose-propelled cart flight over the settlement walls, to the various conspicuous distractions I enacted when we snuck into the temple, to the guy I pizza-bluffed my way past, to Brad himself if he ever pops up again. There’s plenty of room there for y’all to find some sort of connection.))
Well, you might have pissed several people during the day, but you didn't actually meet anybody during the evening. The guard didn't actually see you and he was not the brightest guard around. Plus, some of the objects you summon tend to disappear after a while, which means that not all the evidence will still be there.
Campaign, Ike!
"Are you seriously telling me that Alan of all people has left no trace from his passing whatsoever from wherever it was that we originally left him? I'm sorry, but that's just not something my rational mind is prepared to accept."
There have to be some clues, surely? Search until we find some, because Alan definitely isn't responsible enough to be left alone for longer than maybe a day.
Well, you can find a few witnesses that attest that he used some sort of water-powered flying machine to escape the city in the company of a known ne'er-do-well after pissing of enough people to form an angry mob. He is also most likely responsible for summoning a giant boombox and causing an impromptu dance party to engulf half the city. There was a raid to the walled garden during soon after, but only food was stolen so you don't see how Alan fits into that. None of the guards on duty that night saw him participate in the raid. Maybe his new criminal friend convinced him to work for him and whatever gang he is running. You find hints of his scent around the temple, but it doesn't lead you any closer to his location. It's like someone went flying around, spraying Alan's bodily fluids over the Walled Garden.
San and River were able to explain why she was there though, about how Irine was waiting and guarding a group injured refugees.
((Is it silly that I thought River tried to explain first by stuff like: "Woof. Bark, bark! Woof!" 
))
(("Woof woof!"
"What's that boy? Little Timmy fell down a well?"
"Arf!"))
"A have an idea for something that might help us find Alan."
First thing first, modify my crossbow a bit. Give it some sort of makeshift bipod so I can actually use it like a ballista when tsared. Also give it a strap so I can wear it when not in use.
Second thing second, boring inventory management.
-Monster hunter light armour
-Water armour
-Bandana
-A backpack
-Quiver of normal bolts
-Bandolier of special bolts
-Ice sword, short curved knife, 2 signallers in protective sheaths, and cranequin on my belt
-Wear 2 slings as additional belts
-Tie commwire around left ankle
-Protective case of war crime bolts
-Methuselah's Marbled Montage
-the magitowel
-a pair of scissors
-1 general purpose healing potion
-and a few high quality slinging rocks in pockets/backpack.
-Strap shield to back
-Wield crossbow
-Spear
-Short rogue sword
-Kitchen knife
-Glass shiv
-Bottles of water and red bull
-Most of my slinging rocks
-Rope
-Book and writing supplies
You give your crossbow a tripod out of some spare parts but you think you made it a bit too big and bulky. The irony does not escape you.
You also tie a strap on it so you can carry it by your side, underneath your arm. It's not the most comfortable spot but it's better than carrying it in your hands. It also helps to ease the burden on your arms when aiming. You make a mental note to make sure to remove the strap before tsaring the crossbow.
You spend about an hour reorganizing your inventory, making sure all the objects on you and in your backpack are placed exactly as you want them and trying to fit them in the limited space you have.
A recruit passes by and looks at you curiously.
"Are you sure you can't just give some of-"
"Dude, I need all of these!" you say and stomp away angrily, huffing and puffing as you try to lift all of your various crap.
Well, assuming you drop your backpack before going going to fight, all that stuff you're carrying shouldn't be too much of a hindrance.
"Does any one have any little thing with order element? I am thinking to attach that to the end of a chaos bolt and float it in water. It might act like compass and point to the closest strongest chaos or order magic. Which is probably Alan."
Chaos is not not necessarily attracted to Chaos nor is Order necessarily repelled by it, so that wouldn't work. Prompted by your explanation of what you are trying to do, the master alchemist attempts to use ground Twisty Tetherleaves to try to visualize the magical flow of chaos, but is unable to gather anything concrete. There is an increased concentration of Chaos energy in and around Chizra, but it does not appear to be coming from anywhere in particular or at least the flows do not remain stable enough to be easy to figure out where they're coming from or going to.
((AHAHAHAHAHA! Man, if I end up permadying from this it's gonna have to be enshrined on the front page or something, because 'elemental dissolution during an out-of-body experience caused by injecting a mixture of magic water and kool-aid into his eyes' would be by far the most out there death I've put a character through.
However, don't count me out just yet! Alan's in a situation where he's totally out of his element.
This means he's completely in his element!))
Alan, Ocean Man (take me by the hand)
Alan's no stranger to trippy experiences. When a disembodied voice that is the embodiment of everything and also himself starts speaking to him about going with the flow, his instinctual response is merely to grin (as much as one can while being spread out throughout the elemental plane of water, which this looks to be) and put on a particular music track in his head (again, metaphorically).
"Sorry, Miss Me, can't do that right now," he merrily exclaims. "I've got an alien and a Pepto Bismol plant to go check up on! Surf's up, dude!"
Summon surfboard (or make the attempt, at least). Use my oddball's intuition to ride the wave through to reality!
In a metaphorical sense, that is. My course of action doesn't make any sense for the reason that being sensible wasn't how I got here in the first place, so I won't get out by being sensible and grounded.
((My vote goes to Groovy, by the by.))
Why go away? You are with them right now. he corrects you.
He has a point. You can see them right now. Some of them are looking for you. Even the alien is flying around, looking around you worriedly. So silly of them. You are with them right now. You are with everyone. You don't need to look for them and they don't need to look for you.
You are all right here.
OOCSummary of which mission? Campaign is kinda beyond what you can impact due to how extremely far into the mission we are, and the ship mission frankly I'm only vaguely skimming at most, and can't really tell you what's happening there very well. However generally new players are added at the Staging Area, which generally doesn't have a lot of activity during missions though it sometimes has some interesting moments in the aftermath of missions. Odds on as a new character you'll end up having some one-on-one time with your sponsor entity, during which your introductions to what is going on will be handled in-character.
I tried to make things more interesting for our two new contestants and gave them little adventures instead of a straight intro. This helps in three ways:
1) It lets both me and them test their abilities and get a feel for them.
2) It lets me test their playstyle and their character's... character and see if the entity I chose for them is a fun match.
3) It keeps them occupied with something more interesting than talking and dicking around in the staging area while saving me effort since I don't have to plan as much as a regular mission. Also, I don't know if I can run a good mission with just two people. If we get three now, I might just run a small one with smaller rewards, maybe just 1 Upgrade Point for victory.
4) I find it fun. The fact that they have interesting abilities and put some effort in their backstories helped, of course. I hope they find it fun too.
Also, there's a main thread for this? Shoot, I should have posted my sheet there (see, this is why I asked if I should post my sheet here before posting it).
Everything is posted here. IC, OOC, on mission, off mission, everything. When I started having multiple missions I asked if people would prefer to have multiple threads. People at the time said no, so we've been doing it this way since then. At this point we've been doing it this way for so long I don't think I'll split the missions unless more than a few people really want to.
I have two concepts; tell me which one you'd like to see me play.
Name: Secundus
Ability: Always second-best (or so his own slang for his power goes). To explain, Secundus can do anything that his allies (that let him use/apply his power on/to them) can do, but worse. In effect, whenever Secundus would need to roll for something, he gets to use the modifier of whatever teammate is best suited for/would have the best modifier for the task he's doing. In exchange for this power, Secundus takes a -1 (or a -2, if you feel like this ability is overpowered) penalty to all of his rolls, so if all of his teammates have only an average or sub-average skill with cooking, Secundus is gonna have a hard time taking care of himself (and if he has no allies, he's probably screwed). Note that anyone can deny or allow Secundus the ability to use his power on them/cause him to stop/start using his power on them at-will, and Secundus can't turn his power off.
Appearance: A generic humanoid with lessened versions of the distinguishing features of his allies (that let him use his power on them, of course). Theoretically, this ability could be used to be notified when one of Secundus's allies has died (since his power stops working on destroyed allies).
Bio/Personality info: An amalgamation of less dramatic versions of his allies' (that let him use his power on them) backstories. Should Secundus have no (not-destroyed) allies, his backstory becomes "doesn't remember his backstory". Secundus's personality is likewise an amalgamation of his allies' (that let him use his power on them) personalities, with "bland/generic" as his default personality. Better hope that some drug-addict doesn't start to consider Secundus his "friend"...
Other: Ideally, Secundus would eventually branch out to forcing enemies to let him use his power on them or denying others the ability to let him use his power on them.
Name: (Slightly Above) Average Joe
Ability: Is slightly above average in every field/ability/stat compared to other humans, so he technically qualifies for the competition.
Appearance: Imagine an average person. Joe probably looks slightly better than that.
Bio/Personality info: Joe was born in a slightly above average neighborhood, went to a slightly above average school, got a slightly above average job, and eventually married a slightly above average wife. Then he ended up here, surrounded by superhumans(?) who are completely out of his league.
Other: Due to the pity that they take on him, the cosmic powers will only charge 2 (or 1, if you feel like this character is too underpowered) points for every random given power instead of 3. For some reason, this ability/predisposition will still stick around after Joe inevitably becomes a being of near-godlike power (maybe receiving pity is a hidden power of his or something?). Oh, and yeah, italicizing every instance of the word "slightly" will be a thing with this character, because I feel like it.
Also, can someone give me a summary of what's going on right now?
To tell you the truth, I don't find the first to be too interesting, but maybe that's just because I can't see how you would play that character. The second is more interesting to me because you end up with a character with a smattering of different abilities that do not necessarily fit with each other and for his first mission has to survive while being more or less a normal, average human being.
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14 (41.2%)
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1072249 times)