Vanguard Roll Call!

Vanguard Roll Call!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Issue 69: Fighting Tooth and Claw!

25,000 feet above Athens! The mysterious circular craft of the Primate! Night!

The battle between Vanguard and Primate’s Ani-Men, to decide the fate of the world, raged on!

Web turned from the helpless Kairos and took aim at Forester! Still upside-down and clinging to the ceiling, the sleek, spidery supervillain fired wet grey webbing at Forester’s quiver, looking to foul all his trick arrows! BLORPF!... SPLAGT! Web’s web missed! A thick puddle of sticky chrysalis coated the wall and floor behind the amazing archer.

Kairos was blind and suffocating under Web’s sticky webbing! The warrior borne tried to pull the super-adhesive mass from his head and his hand became stuck tight in it! He lost his balance, fell over and writhed toward, as luck would have it, the coolant puddle! (OOC: Luck Point expended, but coolant does eight points of damage to Kairos’ power points) The coolant froze the deadly webbing, making it rigid and brittle. The fortunate fighter pulled his hand out, shattering the dried mass into bits. Kairos was free! He quickly pounced toward the floor airlock and crouched down to retrieve the silver sword!

Forester fired an Impact Arrow at Gator, hoping to take down one of the opponents that had Sentinel surrounded. POW! Forester’s aim was true! The scary, scaly scoundrel stumbled back from the impact and fell over Kairos who was crouched with sword in hand!

Gator fell through the open floor-airlock, flailing desperately, trying to grab onto anything to stop his descent to certain doom, and took hold of Kairos’ ankle! Both of them went out the hole in a tangle of limbs, sword and tail! Gator roared fear and hatred through rows of knife-like teeth!

Kairos grabbed the edge of the airlock hole with his left hand as his entire body hung outside the saucer ship, beyond the protection of the pressurized atmosphere of the cargo bay! Freezing cold. Wind. No air. Kairos' breath mask was at his belt. His sword was in his right hand. Europe lay miles below him! Gator hung from Kairos’ left ankle, his grip like an iron vise, and the avatar of antiquity felt the dull heavy pull of Gator’s 300 lbs. trying to drag him down. Gator’s tail was thrashing wildly, seeking to grab something, anything. Gator couldn’t attack Kairos. He needed him alive long enough to climb up him, to safety! The icy cold cut to the bone! (Kairos: 7 points off power points!)

Meanwhile, inside the ships’ cargo bay…

Hyena laughed at Kairos’ and Gator’s fate. Forester said to Hyena, "If I do turn into a werewhatever, you won't be around to see it." As the feral furry freak approached, the whimsical woodman exclaimed,
"Sit, boy. Heel. Play dead!"Hyena moved with alarming speed and wrested Forester’s bow from his hands! “Fishface said you’re useless without this. Not that you’ll be needin’ it once you start sprouting hair and claws. Why you tryin’ so hard to fight yer true nature? Vanguard’ll throw you out once they see you for what you really are. Join the winning team while you still can.” Forester’s bow was tight in the jovial jackal’s clutches!

Symbiote’s Harper Harness had deactivated after the senses-shattering slam by the crustacean criminal. The ingenious inventor needed to examine the Harness systems for his own safety. If Hal tried to use the Harness and it wasn't working properly, there's no telling what it could do to his DNA. Accessing the mini-tool kit on his belt, Hal crouched down and began a quick system diagnostic. Crab Man smiled at the sitting duck!

Cockroach smashed his claws into Sentinel’s shields again, chuckling at his own beautiful, greasy magnificence. “A rigid and unadaptable form of defense,” he chided. KRAASH! (OOC: 13 points off shields!) Viper might have been slowed by the cold, or maybe he was just waiting for Cockroach to soften up Sentinel. The human snake suddenly pounced forward with alarming speed and threw a roundhouse at the heir of heroism! KRA-POW! Viper got through the energy shields and hit Sentinel hard!

(OOC: 11 points! Your power points are so precious due to your energy powers. Please let me know if you want to take up to 4 points off power (your Power Points were 41 at the moment of impact), or if you want it all off hits. Thanks)

Sentinel selflessly thought of his teammates over his own dire situation with Viper! A tendril of solid energy, an embodiment of Sentinel’s will made concrete, tore loose a power cable from the ceiling and dropped it into the coolant puddle, sending shocks to Viper, Jellyfish, Crab Man, Slingshot and Lightning Strike! Viper cursed. Crab Man didn’t notice. Jellyfish didn’t appear to awaken. Web avoided the attack, since he was on the ceiling!

Then Sentinel extended another solid energy tendril and pulled Kairos back into the cargo bay, with Gator still outside, hanging onto Kairos’ leg! Another tendril created a shield between Symbiote and Crab Man! Finally, Sentinel backed out of the cargo bay into the hall. It was futuristic, steel and empty.

Lightning Strike awoke with sparking fury. The crackling crimefighter arose and faced Viper. "We have stood together and faced villainy as wicked as this and we triumphed. For you to betray us now truly shows how little faith you possess. It is time to face my wrath and retribution!"
Strike fired a blast of lightning and said, "Let's turn this snake into an electric eel." KRAKA-THOOOOM!
Viper was hit hard!

Slingshot felt the numbness waning from his alien physiognomy! Then he saw Symbiote still needed help against Crab Man! The rubbery roughhouse flowed eerily into a standing position; reorganizing his form rather than moving it. With two enlarged elastic ebony hands, Slingshot grabbed Crab Man, lifted him effortlessly over his head and hurtled him at Web! SA-LAAMMMM! Web was knocked clean off the ceiling and smashed against the wall by Crab Man’s monumental mass! The cunning spider hybrid was hurt, but Crab Man seemed no worse for wear. Slingy then expanded his form to further protect the duplicating defender. "Symbiote. Get your harness working! We’re losing guys faster than they are."

Crab Man pulled his grumbling girth up off of the battered Web. He might have smiled and then he thundered toward Slingshot, a giant runaway train! KRA-BOW! POW!!! Two massive armored claws crashed down on the malleable man of might! (32 points of damage! 8 to invuln., 8 to power, 16 off hits!) The armored goliath chuckled and the two big bruisers squared off for a brawl of the titans!

Symbiote crouched behind Slingshot, working feverishly. The Harness hummed to life! Hal dashed to Lightning Strike’s side and, crossing his gloved fingers, tagged the electric avenger. The Harness activated! All seemed normal, and the following abilities were replicated:

1) Transformation: May transform into Sentient Electricity: Costs 8 power points and one action. Changing back costs nothing. Bestows: a) Near-instantaneous travel, almost like Teleportation. Can only travel via wires. Strike will burn out devices not meant to receive electricity.b) Non-Corporealness defense while in transit.

2) Lightning Control: May control electricity. As an attack: Range: 36” (180 feet), 2d8 damage, PR=4. Electrical defense costs one action and no PP to activate. May attempt to control or short out electrical machinery, circuitry, etc. Costs 4 PP and one action per attempt.

3) Heightened Intelligence: +15 to Intelligence.

W1) Special Requirement: Due to his altered physiognomy, Lightning Strike can’t heal power points or hit points normally. Must “recharge” from an electrical power source instead, at a rate equal to his healing rate. Side Effect: Lightning Strike doesn’t need to eat.

W2) Minor Low Self Control: When Transformed into Electricity, Archer assumes some of the detrimental effects of electricity: grounding, loss of control in water, conductive, etc.

To be continued!

OOC: Actions?
Current Conditions:
Forester: Hit Points: 18 Power Points: 67
Kairos: Hit Points: 27 Power Points: 64
Lightning Strike: Hit Points: 18 Power Points: 51
Sentinel: Hit Points: 14 Power Points: 36 Energy: 72 Shields: 37
Slingshot: Hit Points: 39 Power Points: 78 Invulnerability: 0 until issue 71
Symbiote: Hit Points: 43 Power Points: 89 Charges: 10

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Forester:
"Useless," Forester cried out to Hyena. "Completely useless."

As a meditative marksman, Forester understood the Middle Path of his prowess. In a case like this, his bow was not essential.

For the first time in his superheroic career, the archer picked up an arrow and threw it at an opponent.

Forester took aim at Web, hurling an Extinguisher Arrow at the adhesive adversary. Perhaps the cool goo might interfere with Web's ability to cling to the ceiling, causing him to fall, in pain, to the ground.

At the very least, it was worth a shot.

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Symbiote:
(IC): Whew, that was close, Hal thought to himself. I'll have to figure out a way to shield the harness better in the future. Right now, though, I think I see a score to settle.

Hal figured the best tactic at this point is pure attrition, wearing down the other side's numbers. And he could think of nobody he'd rather "attrit" than the Mocking Murderer he'd traded blows with in New York.

"Hey Chuckles, remember me?" Hal roars at Hyena, unleashing a lightning bolt at the Befanged Badman. "I've got a new trick or two," he snarls, whether to the still-standing Hyena or his unconscious body after the bolt hits him.
(OOC: I considered going with the quip "You know what happens to a Hyena when it's hit by lightning?" but decided against it. I'm not Halle Berry. If I were, I'd take one look at my naked body in the morning and never leave the house).

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Kairos:
Kairos will attempt to hang on to whatever he can and try and let Gator get some purchase inside the ship so that he doesn't have to cut at his arm and cause him to fall and die. He will, however, be prepared to attack Gator once the reptilian rogue is securely in the ship.
OOC: I guess this is appropriate behavior for the campaign? Or should it be darker? I've been involved in D&D way too much 'cause I just want to get rid of him by cutting at the arm and letting him fall...
If Gator gets back inside and shows signs of NOT attacking, then Kairos will go for Hyena, hopefully catching him by surprise so he can't roll with the damage of an attack.
If Gator shows signs of attacking, then Kairos will attack Gator.

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Sentinel:
Wow!
(1) Re: Your explanation of Kirk's movement: Hey, it was cooler when everyone thought I was just special and beyond the rules! (and ... so that's how I could do it)

(2) How freaking smart at this point is Symbiote borrowing Strike's powers? Since you got me looking at character sheets for decisions on my damage ... at this point Symbiote has an intelligence of 40! That sounds incredibly high to me. I've got to think that's "Hey Reed ... what took you so long to figure that out? ... smart.

(3) I checked my character sheet (yes, I know everyone thought the wall street financial crisis was a sign of impending doom, but me checking the character sheet is much more!), and it would seem your giving me the choice regarding damage because if I drop below 39 points then my damage amount, accuracy, movement (gulp) start to fall.

Here's the question, if I don't reform my shields this round, and roll with one point, then that would leave me with 39 PPS to start the next round which would get me 'full' stats for one more turn - I want to be sure that there isn't any other game rules that I don't know about that would prevent that if I go that way.

Also, are power points automatically extended each action turn in combat for each character? (ie even if Kirk just manipulates his current creation at the current level and doesn't roll with further damage, being in action in a combat turn itself costs power)?

Given that PP return with rest and HP are slow and take days, I'm trying to figure out how long the advantage will last and if its worth it for another round (or two depending on the rules) - especially since at this point I'm still assuming that we've got another leg of this journey for the final confrontation ... unless

(4) Now that Kirk is in the hall, does his energy senses give him a sense of anything more in the rest of the craft? Any other beings sensed elsewhere? Any other greater sources of energy?

Thanks.
Seth

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Symbiote:
(2) How freaking smart at this point is Symbiote borrowing Strike's powers? Since you got me looking at character sheets for decisions on my damage ... at this point Symbiote has an intelligence of 40! That sounds incredibly high to me. I've got to think that's "Hey Reed ... what took you so long to figure that out? ... smart.

Yes, I'll be revealing the formula for cold fusion, the final number of Pi and the secret of whether or not the light stays on in your refrigerator when you close the door shortly...

In the meantime, found this in my inbox this morning...gentlemen, I give you...Slingshot's OTHER secret identity!

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GM Replies:
Kairos wrote: Kairos will attempt to hang on to whatever he can and try and let Gator get some purchase inside the ship so that he doesn't have to cut at his arm and cause him to fall and die. He will, however, be
prepared to attack Gator once the reptilian rogue is securely in the ship.
OOC: I guess this is appropriate behavior for the campaign? Or should it be darker? I've been involved in D&D way too much 'cause I just want to get rid of him by cutting at the arm and letting him fall...Now!

GM Reply: Not pushing him to his death might be more appropriate behavior for the campaign. BUT this episode has been darker than the others, what with the world ending and all.
ALSO, Kairos has some mysterious questions surrounding his past and ultimately his identity! Is he the avatar of War or of Luck?! Will Kairos begin down a darker path, and where will it lead him, dear readers? The answer of course is up to you. Mostly. ;)

Sentinel wrote:
... at this point Symbiote has an intelligence of 40! That sounds incredibly high to me. I've got to think that's "Hey Reed ... what took you so long to figure that out? ... smart.

GM Reply: In the 1980's, I once played a game with the V&V author, Jeff Dee, involving the Marvel heroes. I remember that Reed Richards had a 40 Intelligence. Dr. Doom had a 39! Iron Man around a 30. Peter Parker around a 23. Symbiote is scary smart right now.

Sentinel wrote:
Here's the question, if I don't reform my shields this round, and roll with one point, then that would leave me with 39 PPS to start the next round which would get me 'full' stats for one more turn...
Also, are power points automatically extended each action turn in combat for each character? (ie even if Kirk just manipulates his current creation at the current level and doesn't roll with further
damage, being in action in a combat turn itself costs power)?

GM Reply: Yes and yes.

Sentinel wrote:
Now that Kirk is in the hall, does his energy senses give him a sense of anything more in the rest of the craft? Any other beings sensed elsewhere? Any other greater sources of energy?

GM Reply: You've exhausted your "1/3 movement actions" (like using Heightened Senses) for this issue. Next action you can scan and act accordingly. So, let me know what you're looking for, priority-wise. Example: engines, central computer, etc. And give me some if-then actions. Since you act late in the turn, that flexibility of the if-then orders helps you, I think. Thanks.

Re: Symbiote's video: Hey, Slingy's gotta make rent somehow!

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Sentinel:
Hi everyone. Tough work week here, hope yours went better.
Wish I had some cool stuff for Kirk to do this time around, but haven't thought of any.

On the damage situation, in thinking about it, its fair and fitting that I don't get info on the hall to make the decision since the damage occurred prior. That being the case, I'll roll with it and take the damage off power points since I'd only have one more action at full level the other way and I've got nothing critical to do where I see if making a huge difference and in the long run based on what I know, the hit points would keep me going longer at this point.

I do want a further energy reading from his new vantage point for energy sources and other living beings; we need to know if we've got more company coming and if this is the big battle or if this is another leg of the journey and we're going to have time to regroup.

Kirk is torn because this battle is taking time and the world is still dying out there while its going on and they need to stop the source, not waste time with the henchmen -- that being said, we have to take these guys out so we can get on to the source of the problems. So although Kirk wants to move on to other areas of the ship for the bigger picture, he doesn't feel like he can abandon his teammates since the battle can still go either way.

That being said, unless Kirk's energy sense picks up something drastic, he'll continue to help his teammates in the battle.

Kirk will use his action in an attack. At this point, if Viper is still up by the time of Kirk's action since he's taken multiple attacks, he'd focus on him, and if he could once again use the cold/coolant to make it more effective he would do so.

If Viper has been taken out already, then Kirk would focus on whoever appeared to be the most vulnerable or wherever his attack would seemingly work best. (perhaps a secondary attack against Hyena who has taken other damage and will hopefully take some more at Symbiote's hands this round or Web if Forrester's attack appears to have softened him up). Since Slingshot is lending 'a helping hand' to Kairos who is currently in the most desperate situation, if Kirk has some movement left to assist anyone with anything that develops, he'd go for it (say, perhaps Forester's bow is released from Hyena's hands in his attack or something along those lines).

To the degree possible, in Kirk's battle strategy, at his current power levels, he will try to avoid taking damage (ie, with full power levels, he can be a 'shield' for damage to his teammates and buy them time, he no longer has that luxury) since for attacks against him two out of three will get past his shields currently and with the damage some of these bruisers are doing there's a good chance one more blow takes him out and at best two blows puts him down for the count.

Even after 'recharging' his shields, he'd only have a fifty/fifty shot of them deflecting an attack at his current levels. So given his power level, Kirk would forego recharging his shields this round and hope that if attacked the dice will go his way (against the odds) and his shields take it, or the damage taken isn't enough to knock him out (fairly good chance of this).

If I missed anything or anything is unclear, or if you want to give me more 'if then' stuff, let me know.

For the Kairos/Gator situation; if it makes you feel any better, last round, when I was surrounded by the two bruisers by the airlock with half the team out of action, my first inclination was to look for away to have the two of them sucked out the airlock, but I couldn't figure a way to do it without losing the rest of Vanguard and since we weren't even above water where they might survive the fall (and now realizing just how high up we are even that might not have helped) I knew Kirk couldn't take that action (his weakness and too far out of character). Guess as Jeff said, you get to decide now the character path that Kairos will take. However, I feel your pain in not wanting to 'rescue' Gator to attack us further.

As a suggestion (and feel free to ignore it with no hard feelings naturally) and depending on where you want to go with Kairos' character, and the nature of Gator and how accommodating Jeff wants to be, you could do your best to set up the scenario so that if Gator does try to attack you he falls to his doom of his own acord. (you know, the typical hero extends a helping hand to the villain falling off the roof and villain tries to bite the hand ensuring his own doom). Given Gator's bestial nature, with proper baiting, he might not be able to control himself from making the wrong decision.

A good week to all ... go Vanguard! Hey, think we can handle the financial collapse of the world next
Best,
Seth

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Slingshot:
Well then, Scott will be doing the following:He'll send a tendril of elasticity to Kairos. I know that Gator's down there and I might be helping him as well. I'll have to deal with that when it happens.All the while, I'll be slugging it out with CrabMan. Let's hope his carapace runs out before I run out of hit points!"Crabgrass, your girlfriend's waking up!" He looks down and KAPOW!Yes, Slingshot can fight dirty.

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Lightning Strike:
OK, better late than never.
Lightning Strike looked around and didn't like the odds he was seeing.
They were wearing down Vanguard at an alarming pace. Although he wanted to continue to take the fight to Viper, he realized that without that bow, Forester was at a real disadvantage. Therefore without saying a word he turned and let loose an electrical blast at Hyena.

Short but hopefully sweet,
Tony

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Forester:
Forester gives Lightning Strike a bow of gratitude.

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Symbiote:
Uh...hmmm...OK.
From what I remember of playing tabletop V & V, characters move in "phases" of a turn, and this means, among other things, it's possible for one character to move at the beginning of a turn and another to move several seconds later. Perhaps enough seconds later to change his mind.

Both me and Tony attacking Hyena is certainly God's work (mangy S.O.B. needs to go down hard), and if we both hit him at more or less the same time, so be it. I'm under the impression that he's low on hit and power points, our dual attacks will probably, hopefully be sufficient to knock him out. I'm imagining all of his fur standing up from twin lightning bolts, gives me a warm fuzzy.

But if Lightning Strike hits him considerably before I do (I don't remember who has the higher Agility, but I know we're both within human parameters so I suppose it's entirely up to the dice) and Hyena goes down well before my phase...well, I'm not going to zap him while he's down. It's not that dark a campaign (yet), so at that point I'll hit Viper instead (all of this assuming Jeff allows it at this point). Viva Vangaurd!

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Lightning Strike:
Well I probably would hit Hyena when he is down, being the resident hardass of the group :)!!!

Later:
If Hyena is already down, then I will resume my attack on Viper.