Africa. Night. The volcanic island.Last issue!... Disguised as AEGIS, Vanguard burst into the volcano’s throat (map area 6)! A steel system of catwalks and ladders branched toward three closed steel doors that had been cut into the rock walls. Sixty feet above them was the mouth of the volcano opening to the starry sky. Twenty feet beneath them was a massive, futuristic geothermic power station that was powered down! (map area 12) Fifty feet below that was live lava whose heat and light filled the tall column of the volcano core!
Suddenly, Vanguard felt ill. Wrong. Their own forms contorted and changed. Arms lengthened, hands blackened and bodies sprouted thick black hair, tearing open the costumes of AEGIS. Their voices died in their throats, replaced by guttural howls and grunts. In horror, they felt their minds dwindle as they recalled Doc Rocket’s briefing, “The Primate has leadership initiative and was scheming to actually devolve all of humanity to a simian state.” (You saw it here fans, in Issue 62! –Ye Expositional Ed)
Vanguard had been transformed into mountain gorillas!
A great silverback appeared at the end of the catwalk, standing within the northwestern door! Vanguard recognized the Primate’s fiercely intelligent eyes and terrible dignity. They were hard pressed to resist his overwhelming intellect and charisma!
He was not alone. Behind him was a strong feline woman of smirking humor. Beside her was a butterfly man, and a ghastly human centipede creature whose countless limbs writhed disgustingly.
The Master of All Beasts laughed. “What ploy is this? I know from your scent that you are not AEGIS.
Is this another trick of Man? …Vanguard, I presume?”
The Primate addressed his comrades with pride that was all too human. “You see? They have succumbed to the most powerful Ani-man of all. An airborne, infectious micro-organism. Soon it will transform all humans into apes by activating their dormant DNA and devolving them back into what they once were. Mankind shall become the very thing it despises most: a member of the animal kingdom! Then shall Man, and this world, know peace at last!”
The Vangorillas did not understand all of that. But they remembered that this mighty ape was their enemy... and that they were about to attack the great engines beneath them. And they remembered that they needed to keep the Sentinel-Simian’s machine-stick near them for some reason.
They could smell Primate and the Ani-Men… Recognize them by their scent.
They could detect the iodine stink of Inhuman, their friend. It was faint... He was not near.
They detected the scent of three others… also not present… also faint.
And they could detect the scent of a dead body somewhere…
Suddenly the Primate snarled, “Something is amiss! These apes are not obeying my mental commands!”
Now!...
Kairos Kong, the large black mountain gorilla that had once been an Olympian demigod, leapt across the catwalk with his steel staff held like a club! KTANG! The Primate was struck across the face!
“No!” the super-intelligent simian snarled in disbelief.
Forest-rilla hurled an arrow at the Primate and it detonated upon his mighty chest – PAFF! – releasing a powerful musk odor! Then the young ape leapt past the Primate, tracking the scent of Inhuman whom he remembered as a friend!
Snow Leopard was near the Primate when he was marked by Forester’s scent arrow. Designed to lure hungry predators, the odor made her give into her base animal instincts. ‘RRRRAAAOOOOWW!”
She leapt at the great ape and slashed him wildly with her claws!
Forest-rilla followed the iodine scent through the darkened halls of the deactivated base. He pried open doors, swung down the elevator shaft off map area 7 and came into a small room with seven other doors (area 14). Red emergency lights cut the darkness but the doors’ security systems were powered down. The heavy doors had mechanical bolts and Forest-rilla solved their puzzle and swung one open to find his friend unconscious on the floor of a concrete cell. The ape’s touch woke him!
Inhuman opened his eyes and saw a great mountain gorilla over him in a darkened prison cell. It took a moment before he realized the ape was not the Primate! This gorilla wore the torn tatters of a superhero costume that Inhuman did not recognize. But the amphibious adventurer noticed that he wore a quiver of arrows and carried a bow! (OOC: Welcome back Alex/Inhuman, at long last!)
Forest-rilla silently helped the weakened water-breather out of the cell and the ape detected the scent of death! It led to another cell. The two opened the door and found a dead man inside, wearing a bird-like costume with artificial wings. Inhuman recognized the Owl. He had been strangled to death and Forest-rilla detected the Primate’s scent on the Owl’s corpse! (OOC: Actions?)
Meanwhile…
The Primate roared in the heart of the volcano! The great silverback threw off Kairos Kong and Snow Leopard and pounded his chest! He growled to show his white fangs and his dominance over all! Savagery overtook him and he bludgeoned the young ape that dared strike him! WHAMM! KRAK!
Kairos Kong was badly hurt from the brutal onslaught!
Symbaboon howled and tried to grab Centipede from a distance, but his arm did not stretch across the distance. No matter. Symbaboon charged on all fours and raised the loathsome, writhing abomination over his head to hurl him from the catwalk into the fiery lava below!
Centipede’s countless arms latched onto Symbaboon and took the ape with him, over the side! The two crashed onto the lower level catwalk that gave access to other doors and the dormant engines that harnessed the geothermic power of the volcano’s heart. CRASH! Symbaboon had managed to get Centipede beneath him. The Lovecraftian horror took the worst of it and was insensate, his limbs twitching.
Symbaboon looked at his hairy black forearm and saw that some of the countless limbs had cut him. He smelled something foul on his arm and it throbbed with pain more severe than any cut!
Lightning Lemur howled and transformed himself into living electricity and disappeared into the control panel near the steel door at the catwalk! The ape had forgotten the strange layout of the base’s cyberspace, the trap he had detected earlier. The sentient simian surge found himself contained. Like the other areas, this locale seemed cut off. He poured himself out the only exit and the geothermic power station at the lower catwalk exploded! KRAKA-BOOOMM!
Lightning Lemur materialized within the flashing explosion and fell onto the lower catwalk near Symbaboon, barely conscious and still an ape!
The engines were now partially powered, and alarms within them blared urgent warnings that even Forest-rilla and Inhuman could hear! The geothermic power engines detonated again! KA-BOOOMM!
Monarch the butterfly man left the catwalk and took to the air. His wingspan was immense! “Get them under control! Oh my god! The lava! It’s rising!” he yelled fearfully as his wings generated a powerful wind that swept the volcano column! Simian Sentinel, Sling-utang and Kairos Kong were thrown from the upper catwalk!
Kairos Kong grabbed hold of the railing and hung on! Even as a primate, the warrior’s luck held!
Simian Sentinel became airborne himself. His energy constructs, now formed by a simian mind, were wild and cascading, only ever partially formed. A giant mirror image of the ape surrounded him, then it had wings as he hurtled toward Monarch! KER-RUNCH! The impact crumpled the Ani-man like a broken butterfly. Monarch crashed onto the upper catwalk with a thud. He was still conscious.
Sling-utang fell and slammed into the lower catwalk, narrowly avoiding certain death in the rising lava. The fall did not harm the super-strong simian. He pounced straight up, back to the upper catwalk and lunged at the Primate with oversized fists! KA-SLAM! POW!
The blow rocked the master of beasts and staggered him back a step.
The Primate was underlit by exploding engines and rising lava. His voice grew more desperate as he commanded, “No, my brothers! I am your master! You are no longer a part of the human race! You are one of us now! Join with me! The world will be at peace!” But the Vangorillas could smell his fear.
Then the superintelligent simian saw Doc Rocket’s Transmission Disruptor on Simian Sentinel’s person and his dark eyes narrowed!
To be continued!
OOC:
Please write your next two actions please.
Replies are due in a week and a half, by end of day Tuesday, February 10.
Welcome back, Alex!
Secret Art Supplemental to follow.
Current Conditions and Locations: (new IQs give vaguer awareness of condition)
Forest-rilla: Hit Points: Injured Power Points: High Prison Sector (map area 14)
Inhuman: Hit Points: 2 Power Points: Full Prison Sector (map area 14)
Kairos Kong: Hit Points: Very Injured Power Points: High Upper Catwalk (map area 6)
Lightning Lemur: Hit Points: Severely Injured Power Points: High Lower Catwalk(map area 12)
Simian Sentinel: Hit Points: Injured Power Points: High Mid Air (map area 6)
Sling-utang: Hit Points: Slightly injured Power Points: High Upper Catwalk (map area 6)
Symbaboon: Hit Points: Injured Power Points: High Lower Catwalk(map area 12)
The Primate: Upper Catwalk (map area 6)
Monarch: Upper Catwalk (map area 6)
Centipede: Lower Catwalk (map area 12)
Snow Leopard: Upper Catwalk (map area 6)
Best,
Ye Ed
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Kairos:
Kairos Kong will swing back up and continue his attack on Primate.
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Slingshot:
Sling-utang will do much the same. Much growling, chest thumping and Alpha-Male dominance posturing.If Primate is down by my action, then:1- Attack snow leopard if she's attacking me.2- Defend the injured or pickup the unconscious.
OOC: I forgot. As I'm off next week, I'll be silent. Have fun.. I sure will. ;)Jeff, you're awesome for posting this turn so fast. It's kind of cool, because it feels like the combat is frenetic because of the heightened posting rate.To everyone else, be the best ape you can be! (Inhuman can surely be the best Aquaman he can be!)Ciao!
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Forester:
Forest-illa happy that fish-friend is back but sad to see dead-bird.
Forest-illa track another scent or two (detected from last ish).
Forest-illa evade.
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Symbiote:
Hoo! Hoo! Love issue! Fast paced! Symbaboon give two opposible digits up!
Symbaboon have questions, though. GM say Bug Man is insense...insenso...insensu...whatever. Does this mean Bug Man sleeping now, or at least looks like? If not, Symbaboon's next action is to raise both arms overhead like mad ape and SMASH BUG MAN!! Action after that will be to gather Lightning Lemur into arm (unless Lightning Lemur turn back into pretty lights and dissapear into wall again) and get both of us back to upper catwalk, either by reaching with long stretchy arm if reach long enough, or scrunch down like big slinky and bounce up there if not.
If Symbaboon still have an action left (because Bug Man turned out to be sleeping.after all), Symbaboon will throw stretchy punch at Primate, or at Cat Woman if Primate already down by time Symbaboon get up there.
Symbaboon have no home computer, probably until middle of next week. Probably mistake for Symbaboon to jump up and down on it while beating chest. Getting fixed, will borrow other computers until done, or Kairos Kong can call Symbaboon if urgent reply needed.
Viva Vanguard,
Gorilla Greg
P.S.: Welcome back, Fish Man!
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Inhuman:
Well.... no one can argue with individuals getting into the spirit of their characters! Or else i'm following the wisdom of the old adage of "what does a 600 lb. gorilla with powers get? Anything it wants!"
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Sentinel:
As Simian Sentinel pounds his chest in victory of his dominance of the airways his attention is drawn back to Primate as he hears his voice and smells his fear. Instinctively he notices Primate notices him.
Then the superintelligent simian saw Doc Rocket’s Transmission Disruptor on Simian Sentinel’s person and his dark eyes narrowed!
Does Kirk see and/or sense any devices on Primate?
Is Primate somewhat near (above) the engines that are now cascading power which Kirk has been wanting to take out since their entry to the area?
Seth
PS Welcome back Alex!
Be sure to let us know when you post what's been going on with Inhuman for all these issues so we can read it!
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GM Replies:
Sentinel wrote: Does Kirk see and/or sense any devices on Primate?
GM Reply: No.
Sentinel wrote: Is Primate somewhat near (above) the engines that are now cascading power which Kirk has been wanting to take out since their entry to the area?
GM Reply: Yes, as is anyone on the upper catwalk (map area 6 is directly above map area 12). Lightning Lemur might have beaten you to taking out the engines, though (see this ish).
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Inhuman:
Jeff Can I sense hydrokinetically the Owl's dead body? Here are the thoughts inhuman has:'I keep on getting my butt whooped.''i need to change this.'
1. action Inhuman will immediately take any nearby water and try to form shields
2. Inhuman will try to work out if he remembers ASL/PSL(American or Primate Sign Languages... which he doesn't).
3. is Forrester wearing his Communicator?
4. Does inhuman think pantomime will be useless also for communication?
"Forrester.. er?" Carl spoke quietly as Inhuman tries to wring every ounce of effectiveness out of the moisture in the air 'What can you tell me about the scenario we are in?"About how much does the Fearsome Forest Ape weigh in his new form?
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Forester:
Forest-illa weighs 304 lbs. (twice his normal weight. Forest-illa hear Fish-Friend. Forest-illa say, "Ee-ee-ah-ah. Oo-oo-oo."
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GM Replies:
Inhuman wrote: Jeff Can I sense hydrokinetically the Owl's dead body?
GM Reply: Yes.
Inhuman wrote:
1. action Inhuman will immediately take any nearby water and try to form shields
2. Inhuman will try to work out if he remembers ASL/PSL(American or Primate Sign Languages... which he doesn't).
3. is Forrester wearing his Communicator?4. Does inhuman think pantomime will be useless also for communication?
GM Reply:
1. There is no water in the cell block, save the water in the Owl's corpse. Inhuman had carefully noted water placement during his time
in the island base, so he knows the nearest water supply is a small restroom northeast of map area 7.
2. The gorilla Forester cannot communicate effectively with Inhuman.
He seems to have the intelligence of a mountain gorilla. His weight is on the the lower end of the spectrum for gorillas, as Forester's weight was on the lower end for American caucasian adult males.
3. Forester is wearing a wrist communicator but it is not a Vanguard communicator!
4. Pantomime might work. Depends on the message. If you waves your fists around, he'll understand you intend aggression. Figure that he is a gorilla.
Best,
Jeff
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Sentinel:
At this point, Kirk is turning his attention to Primate since he sensed Primate was coming for him.
Here's the orders depending on what happens:
(1) If Primate isn't attacking Kirk and Monarch is foolish enough to try to attack him, he will pummel Monarch as he did previously.
(2) Assuming Monarch is staying clear of Kirk, if the Simian Sentinel feels anything attacking his head/thoughts he will quickly swoop in and physically attack and pummel Primate. He would try to knock him off the platform if that were possible in the attack.
(3) If Kirk doesn't feel a mental attack and Primate doesn't try to physically assault him on the first turn (you said to post two); if he had enough smarts to 'evade' still, he'd spend an action doing it first which would help in the physical battle.
If Kirk doesn't have enough smarts to evade, then he'd spend both actions in the attack against Primate.
You said that the team remembers the device Kirk is wearing is important, so Kirk's actions would include protecting it and keeping it out of the reach of Primate even in his reduced mental state (and hopefully his shields still are functioning normal even if his morphing of them isn't (even if he doesn't know it) which should buy Vanguard some time to take Primate out.
I'm assuming from the last issue and from a previous email clarification that the machinery powering the base is in the midst of blowing from Strike's actions (I realized from the issue that this had happened, but didn't realize it was an escalating and continuing damage). If for some reason I misinterpreted that, Kirk had that on his mind and would spend some of his movement adding to that destruction if he had some to spare and wasn't engaged by Primate.
If anything needs to be clarified further, let me know.
Oh, I guess I would add if Kairos or Slingshot or anyone else manage to take out Symbiote before Kirk's actions (which would be great), he'd be happy to tear into any of the other Ani-men that were still being threatening.
Seth
PS Hey, you turned us into Apes just so you wouldn't have to hear Kirk's moral outrage exchange with Primate over his actions against the world including the rest of animal-kind, didn't you?
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Inhuman:
OOC: Can't primates talk to each other (assuming Primate IS a primate still) so then therfore you can morally outrage at Primate (preventing Jeff from dodging the bullet)? or is this an Int Issue (and Jeff Still dodges the bullet so to speak)?
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Sentinel:
OOC: Wow. You're actually encouraging my dialogue???!!! Or maybe you just want to see Jeff suffer and are willing to endure yourself
At this point I was assuming with our current Int we're doing good formulating coherent actions that are in line with our objectives at all; I'm assuming that moral issues are beyond our thoughts right now (we're at 'him bad - hit', 'me good', 'smash machine',)
My original posting for this issue was going to include gorilla 'noises' with translations that correspond to movie one-liners and popular culture sound bits. But I ran out of time and didn't know if anyone would get them anyway.
Here was an example running through my brain:
Simian Sentinel swoops around the battle area beating his chest and shouting:
"Oooga shocka Oooga shocka!" *
*(which when translated means "come on apes, fight like men").
Seth
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Inhuman:
Based upon details given, Inhuman will take the Owls body and get close enough to the restroom to pull out up to 300# of water.
Then activating defenses for Myself, the Owl and 100# extra. The water will mix my scent and the scent of the Owl since I will be 'hobbling' along with the Owl in a buddy hug. I will use the water controlled by me to help move the Owl in a realistic fashion and I will also if possible slightly adjust the water to make the details less clear around myself and the Owl. Then start appraoching the fight I presume. Hydro sense acive and scanning for ambushes. *after picking up body waves arm and hand in a curve over shoulder to Forrester*
OOC: is Rigor Mortis setting in on the Owl? if so, it is joint breaking time. And No, Inhuman refuses to call his allies anything other than by their rightful names.
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Forester:
Forest-illa wave back to Fish-Friend. Forest-illa follow nose to other unidentified scent he detect.
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GM Replies:
Odds and Ends:
Inhuman: Rigor mortis has begun to set in on the Owl, so it's likely
he's been dead more than three hours.
Seth: "Apes, fight like men!" Is that Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes?
The original had much better quotes:
"He never met an ape he didn't like."
"Human see, human do."
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty apes!"
Ah, the mighty Heston.
Inhuman: Primate and the Vangorillas can communicate somewhat, but not abstract concepts like moral outrage. Sorry, Seth. Everyone else, you owe me.
Seriously, the Primate's philosophy is (not surprisingly) similar to the Law of the Jungle: Whoever is the strongest has the right to do what they must in order to survive. This explains his actions against other animals as well as humans. A cruel philosophy, but that's the natural world.
So why does he begrudge humans' their right to exploit other animals? How is Man any different from the Primate? Three ways:
1) Humanity's path is apart from nature, by their own choosing.
2) Humanity's shortsighted actions threaten the entire world and all life. The Primate's does not.
3) What humans do to the ecosystem and animalkind is not necessary for Man's survival.
That's the difference between he and Man, in his mind anyway.
But it's all moot now as the contagious micro-organism will soon turn all Men into apes and then this conflict will be ended with peace and the natural order blanketing the globe once again, as it did in the beginning.
Viva Vangorillas!
Jeff
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Sentinel:
OOC: Nothing beats Heston or the original. Pieces of the original are all I've seen in my adult life and not for many years anyway.
I don't remember any lines from the Burton version. I remember thinking it was unexceptional and that I felt that they set up a sequel rather then finishing the movie. I haven't seen it since the movies and just remember thinking it wasn't worth seeing again. Although if anyone else has strong feelings otherwise perhaps I'd give it a shot again.
Now that you got me thinking about the line I gave, the line and my thoughts about it date back over thirty years, and certainly my memories might be off. I don't think I've seen the movie in that much time, but I believe it comes from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes or Battle for the Planet of the Apes and it was a line to rally the apes by Cornelius to get the apes to rise up. I remember that my friends and I were into the Apes and that was one of our favorite moments for our 'games' back then.
If anyone has seen that scene and can correct my memories or knows which movie for sure it comes from, I'd love to know the info to perhaps see it again at some point (although somehow I doubt it will be less thrilling as a forty plus year old as opposed to an around ten year old.Seth
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GM Reply:
Can't place the quote. Sounds like it's from "Battle for" which was terrible.
Here's another great quote from the original:
“Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil’s pawn. Alone among
God’s primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother’s land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours.
Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death.”
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Lightning Strike:
Hi all,
I am sure you are all waiting on the edge of your seats to see what Lightning Strike can destroy next. Hopefully with this action, I can blow up the entire island. So without further delay here is Strike's action:
Strike howls with rage and pain after the colossal explosion!! He is frustrated with his inability to think straight. Subconsciously he knows there is an intellect somewhere but it is deeply submerged beneath this ape personna. He knows that this is all due to Primate and his only goal is to hurt Primate the same way he has been hurt. Lighting Lemur doesn't care or realize that Primate may be the only one who can cure them from this condition so he blindly blasts away at Primate with a supercharged electrical bolt.
Strike senses the heat from the rising lava and will attempt to move upward from the lower catwalk in the quickest possible manner (without changing to electrical form).
Hopefully nothing else blows up due to this action.
Have a great week all,
Tony
