Icons
Continuing the various solo plays I have done in the last year.
Jailbreak!
A League One solo play
I have updated the adventure’s characters to the Assembled edition. I did this before there was a version for the Assembled edition, so if you see differences in the NPC abilities, it’s because the character updates are not identical.
Chapter 1: Cell-Blocked
League One had just taken off from Alaska to head home when a scrambled call came in. Penultimate acknowledged and listened.
“Guardian Four-Oh-Oh, this is SHARD-Alaska requesting your assistance.”
“This is Guardian Four-Oh-Oh. What’s the problem?”
“We need the Guardians’ assistance here. Sending you co-ordinates now.”
“Received and course locked in. In the spirit of honesty, we aren’t the Guardians. The Guardians loaned us their plane while they’re off-planet.”
“Not the Guardians? Who are you?”
“League One.”
“Never heard— Oh. Then thanks anyway.”
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry to take up your time. We need real superheroes for this.”
“We are— ” She cut herself off. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.” [1]
#
“Nice to meet you, but you’re a bit under-powered; we need top-shelf help for this.” The woman — Lt. Joanna Mars was her name — hadn’t even let them in farther than the foyer, but at least they were out of the winter weather.
Penultimate struggled to maintain her composure. “We are top-shelf help. We just stopped an international weather blackmail scheme.”
“Is it on the news?”
“Of course not. We just now did it.”
“Riiight,” said Mars slowly.
Skyblaze stepped in. “Look, what do you need? Nobody knows when the Guardian Society will be back, and they trusted us enough to let us have their plane. If we help you with whatever, it’s a win. If we fail, we’re not as top-shelf as we think, and you can still get the Guardians to help.”
“Well,” murmured Doc Golem, “there are situations where trying to help just makes things worse.”
“You can be quiet now,” said Penultimate.
“I was going to add, you have to try.”
Mars looked at them. “Okay. Into the briefing room then.”
The briefing was mercifully brief.
“This facility, codenamed ‘Icebox,’ is to be our supervillain jail. It is self-contained, self-powered, designed by Dr. Bertram Lucky to neutralize most or all of someone’s powers. But how can we know it works before we put supervillains in it? Supervillains who are for the most part cunning and powerful.”
“You have heroes test it. Heroes who are more cunning or powerful,” said Doc Golem.
“Exactly.” She beamed. “Because the Guardian Society are off-planet, we’re wiling to accept your help. We’ll treat you like regular prisoners with the exception of providing you hoods to hide any secret identities. We’re not trying to penetrate secrets here; we’re trying to expose problems with the prison.”
“How long?”
“We think that 24 hours should be a sufficient shakedown. Any problems you find in the first 24 hours will be addressed, and we’ll go on. We have enough time before the opening to do three rounds of this.”
“Only three?” said Skyblaze.
“Three should be enough.”
Skyblaze shrugged.
Penultimate said, “I’m the only one here with gear. Will it be on the premises or will I just have to do without?”
“For this test, any gear you have will be put in a bin outside your cell. You escape, you get it back. The only other thing we’ve changed is that we’ll provide masked hoods for those of you with headgear. Those will be in the bins, too. We’ll let you keep your regular outfits, sans equipment, of course.”
“We’ll leave our communicators on the plane,” said Penultimate.
“Once you walk through the front door, we’ll be treating you as if you were convicted prisoners.”
“That’s all? Anything else?”
“Up to your guards.”
She gave them coordinates and a call sign that let them enter the airspace unmolested.. “I’ll let them know that Project Freon is a go.”
“‘Project Freon’?”
“All ice and cold related code names.”
#
On the plane Penultimate [2] said, “We’ve got less than half an hour. The designer’s name is suspicious. Get me evidence that he exists. That’s Bertram Lucky, or B. Lucky.”
“Well, now that you put it that way…” said Menagerie.
“Skyblaze, I want to know if any of the Guardians’ foes is a chance-meister, someone who controls luck or probabilities.” [3]
“I found him, and pretty standard supporting stuff. No big projects, like the kind of guy they’d give this sort of job.”
“Jury’s out?”
“Sorry.”
“Menagerie, Palimpsest, apologies, but I think we need to keep Pal a secret for a while. That means Men doesn’t even talk to Pal until we know what’s going on.”
“So we shouldn’t try to escape?”
“Sure, try. I don’t expect standard prison gear, though, not from a guy with a name like that. I’m guessing chance-meister of some kind.” She stopped. “If I’m wrong, and I could be wrong, it’s exactly what we agreed to. Or it could be a trap geared to the Guardians.” [4]
Skyblaze said, “A couple, but all accounted for. None of them are dead, though, which is our favor.”
Menagerie said darkly, “Nobody but Pal stays dead.”
Penultimate looked around. “Sorry, Palimpsest. I guess we like you too much. Anyone with a secret ID should change into the jumpsuit and hood.” She spread boxes on the table. “And do your best to hide one of these on your person.” They looked at her. “What? They want crooks, we’ll give them crooks.”
#
The building was a shack in the wilderness. If the plane’s sensors hadn’t warned Penultimate that they were being scanned, she wouldn’t have known it. There was a quick trip to the shack; inside it was comfortable, with a fire burning in the corner. Penultimate noticed it was a gas fireplace, not wood.
“You get a moment of privacy to put on the hoods. We have six here; how many do we need?” Penultimate, Starplace, and Doc Golem each held up a hand.
A section of wall swung in, revealing a shining brushed stainless steel corridor. The three of them took turns going in and putting on the hoods. Doc Golem had to go human to get his on, but he figured that would have happened with the null collar anyway.
The guards fitted everyone with null collars. “These will neutralize your powers,” explained the head guard.
“Now, one you’ll be searched. One of you will be randomly chosen for a cavity search. He flipped a coin twice and pointed at Menagerie. “Cavity search. You.” A male guard took him into a change room beyond the corridor.
“Normally we’d have you change jumpsuits, but as our first test, we’re apparently letting you keep your clothes, after a search.”
“Of course not. We might have hidden something in them,” said Penultimate.
The guards were professional; they searched everyone thoroughly. They found something on everyone but Skyblaze. Penultimate shrugged. “You wanted a real-world kind of test. Now you’ve tested your search protocol, too.” [5]
Two guards escorted Penultimate first. The female guard took pride in pointing out checkpoints and gates. Penultimate noted they were on the third level down, which she was told was for high-threat levels. “And if everything fails, there’s a self-destruct mechanism. So don’t be too rough with the prison.”
The guard filled the bin with Penultimate’s mask, lockpicks, utility belt, wristbands, and communicator. “Yours if you escape.” She smiled. “Have fun.”
The cell was spartan. The bed was a raised rectangle of flooring with a mattress on it.
There was an illuminated screen on the wall; it showed a poster of Rita Hayworth. Penultimate smiled. It was a touch screen; she ignored the entertainment options. When Penultimate moved to the back of the cell, a toilet and sink appeared. When all of her left that area, the toilet and sink disappeared. The toilet disappeared after sixty seconds if it wasn’t being used. She slipped off a shoe and set it on the toilet.
It stayed there. So maybe weight activated.
No vents for air flow, but there were two grilles of sorts, one for air coming in, near the ceiling, and one for air going out, near the floor.
Penultimate tried her second experiment: Flooding the sink and then the cell.
By leaving the shoe on the toilet, she could keep it present. The overflow drain for the sink was difficult to find, but eventually she plugged it with some sodden fabric (her sleeve was sacrificed).
She was able to make the sink overflow, but the water ran to the outgoing air vent and then water stopped pouring out of the sink. Then her shoe fell to the floor as the sink and toilet disappeared and there was a splash as water hit the floor.
She had a big puddle on her floor. Nothing appeared to clean it up.
“Innnteresting,” she said, and started searching for the cameras. When she was satisfied there weren’t any, she got out the equipment that she had smuggled in and picked the lock on the null collar. [6]
Icons:
She dropped it to one side.
The puddle of water was a little smaller. It was drying.
She concentrated for a moment and then hit the touchscreen as hard as she could, beside Rita Hayworth’s foot.
The screen displayed, “This screen is unbreakable” on it and then switched to showing a section of wall.
The smuggled kit had the lockpicks and a few bits of gear but the majority of it was a tiny computer with a holographic display. She needed to hack into the software that controlled the locks and unlock her door. Ideally she would just unlock her oor, but if she did every door, that would be acceptable. [7]
An hour after being locked in, her cell door slid open. She stepped outside and on the floor found the other gear she had tried to smuggle.
There were four cells with bins and seven motionless guards, and a blue Chihuaua. Menagerie. She had a moment of pique that she wasn’t the first, but hid it by putting all her equipment back on, and left the display showing which prison subroutines were being called.
#
In his cell, Menagerie did his best to transform. He was able to manage slightly: he could change into animals about his size, but without anything in the way of weapons.
He tried to become an electric eel. He became an eel-like humanoid, and he placed his hand on the null collar. [8]
He pulled on it as he sent a surge of electricity through it and it popped off.
He wasn’t sure how to define it, but he could feel the power coming back.
As a housefly, he checked out the air system, but it turned out that the air was filtered.
He went human and looked over at Palimpsest, who shrugged, stepped through the wall for a moment, and then came back. “Nobody there,” she said.
Menagerie went over and looked at the door. It slid into a pocket, and there was no gasket around it, but the filters on the air system argued that the door was air-tight.
He shrugged and became a gorilla. He placed his palms flat against the door for the best adhesion, and pulled. [9]
The door slid open wide enough for the chihuahua version of him to slip out. His communicator was in a bin by the door.
There were seven guards, too, but with a metallic smell. Robots. Each guard wore a vest with a letter on it. He memorized them: C-D-I-L-O-T-Z.
#
Doc Golem was in human form, had been since they put the null collar on him. If he got a chance to go to the sickbay, he might be able to do something, but right now there was nothing he could do.
So he heeded advice that had served him well since his residency.
He took a nap.
#
Skyblaze examined the cell and realized it was bigger than her apartment, though she had a better bathroom.
“I wonder if you can change that picture? And I’d want a dresser, but aside from that…”
She fingered the null collar. Maybe with powers she could do something, but without….
She unpacked the gear that she had smuggled in. A flat box that she recognized as a computer of some kind; a flashlight; and, ooh, lockpicks.
She was familiar with them from her Before Time. [10]
Eventually the null collar came off. “Okay, hiding that stuff was worthwhile,” she said to herself. “Now, how to get out?”
The lights started to flash red and the door slid open.
“Doubt that’s part of the test.”
She held her hand out to make sure that the open door wasn’t an illusion, and flew out, quickly.
Penultimate and Menagerie were already in the hall. Last to join was Doc Golem. Penultimate went to him and freed him of the null collar; in changing to rock form, he split the mask. Penultimate handed him his communicator. Skyblaze swapped masks and put her communicator on.
“Guards are robots,” said Menagerie casually.
“Circle facing out,” said Penultimate. “Let’s see what they’ll do.”
The guards began to move, each one pulling out its null ray gun.
The robot guards could not touch them. Penultimate glanced at her display. The last thing launched was KILLERGUARDS.EXE [13]
She used the same program she had used to open the doors and just killed all instances of KILLERGUARDS.EXE. They stopped moving and stood like statues.
“Are they—? ”
“No, they can be re-booted.”
Skyblaze took the opportunity to remove and melt their null ray rods.
Every cell had a video screen beside it, and every screen lit up. A man, age hard to judge because he was bald, a dark goatee, and red goggles. Beneath that, some kind of power armor.
Chapter 2: Troubled Waters
The intercom came to life. There was little in the way of crackle and the sound quality was surprisingly good.
“Welcome to your doom, do-gooders! I am the Killer Gamemaster, and tonight we will play a game called ‘Judge, Jury, and Executioner’...and I will be all three!”
Doc clapped. “Ah! My first deathtrap!”
Skyblaze muttered, “They get old fast.”
“You’ve guessed that it’s a deathtrap!”
Penultimate muttered, “He can hear us” to the others.
“Of course I can hear you! Masquerading as Bertram Lucky, I built this prison and modified it to my own needs!”
“Any of you know this guy?”
Skyblaze said, “He was in the files as a foe for one of the Guardians, but not the whole team. And it didn’t say anything about technological genius.”
“I have been hiding my light under a bushel! I am sorry that the Guardian Society is not here — I intended to defeat all of them with this — but you will do as a warm up to establish my bona fides.”
“The Brown Spider defeated him six times. Even the Lamprey has beaten him.”
Doc Golem made a tsk-ing sound and shook his head.
“He’s probably been hired for this half-assed assassination attempt. He has a website,” Skyblaze said.
“You know about my website?” The Killer Gamemaster looked ready to preen.
“Web 1.0, my friend. Anyway, this is probably an assassination attempt but we’re not the team you’re looking for. So give it up. You already have a rep as a loser,” said Penultimate. “Don’t make it an imprisoned loser.”
“Then die,” said the Killer Gamemaster. “Here’s your riddle. A prisoner was going to be sentenced, but the judge decided to give him one last chance to redeem himself. The judge said, ‘You can make one final factual statement before this court. If your statement is true, I’ll sentence you to four years in prison. If it’s false, however, I’ll sentence you to twenty years.’ The prisoner thought about it for a moment, and made his statement. After hearing the statement, the judge was forced to let him go free. What did the prisoner say?”
Menagerie said, “Let me go because I have a bomb, maybe?” He listened for a moment and then laughed. “I can’t repeat that.”
Skyblaze said, “Even now my agents have kidnapped your wife and daughter:”
Doc Golem said, “No, go with something that can’t be provably true or false.The statement was ‘Why?’”
“That’s three wrong answers.” The seven guards stirred to movement again.
“They weren’t real answers, KG, and you know it,” said Penultimate. “We’re going to have to dismantle them, team.” [14]
They each destroyed one in the first round, and none of them were hit. [15]
“Do you have a real answer? I have an underground prison full of robotic guards if you don’t feel like playing these games.”
“It’s an old chestnut,” said Penultimate. “You will sentence me to twenty years. If the judge sentences him to twenty years, he makes it true, which means the prisoner should get six years, but if he sentences him to six, it’s false and the prisoner should get twenty.”
“Excellent! That starts the timer. You have one hour to solve my puzzles and escape, or I activate the self-destruct mechanism, and you die along with any other people still in this facility.”
“These people have done nothing to deserve—”
“Collateral damage, I'm afraid. Now, can you get the elevator to work?”
At the end of the hallway, beside the elevator, the original keycard reader retracted into the wall. A touchscreen appeared with a qwerty keyboard displayed below seven boxes.
“So we need to find a seven-letter word that lets us in? Someone think of a seven letter word,” said Menagerie. “No, I doubt it’s ‘penitent’ because that’s eight letters.”
The keyboard disappeared for a moment, replaced by the Killer Gamemaster. “Tick-tock! The clock is ticking!”
“It’s a fair puzzle?” asked Penultimate.
“I never present unfair puzzles. Difficult but never unfair.”
Penultimate nodded. “Men, look around for writing. If it’s fair, we’ve seen these seven letters.”
Menagerie said, “There were letters on the guards.” He repeated them.
“A &lsqo;Z.’ That lowers the number of possibilities by a lot.” [16]
“Couple of possible themes for the answer. Cold, Alaska, and prisons come to mind. Alcatraz is eight letters. I saw Fritz Creek on the map while we were plotting our course here. We can rule out those, blizzard and frozen, too, because they have the wrong number of letters.” She smacked herself in the head. “Of course! There was a pair of world wars here, right?”
“Sure,” said Doc Golem.
“Then I know the answer.” She walked over to the keyboard and hit the first letter. A small picture of the Killer Gamemaster appeared in the corner as the letters moved on the keyboard.
“Someone’s typing! How much time have they wasted? Tick-tock-tick-tock! And remember, spelling counts!”
“Can someone shut him up?” murmured Penultimate as she searched for the next letter.
Doc Golem lumbered over to a section of the wall and punched the speaker. It shattered and the Killer Gamemaster’s voice was quieter.
“There’s got to be a tympanum in the speaker,” he explained. “Not as tough as the rest.”
“I appreciate the thought,” said Penultimate. She typed in the last letter: COLDITZ.
The doors slid open. [17]
“Bets on the next trap?” said Menagerie.
Chapter 3: Our Fate In The Stars
“Stuck between floors,” said Doc Golem.
“With the lights out,” suggested Penultimate..
“Pal says there might be poison gas. I think she’s probably right.”
“Maybe you’re all right,” said Skyblaze sardonically.
That was the moment the lights chose to flicker and go out, and the elevator shuddered to a stop. [18]
Penultimate put a gas mask over her mouth and nostrils. She handed small flashlights to Skyblaze and Doc Golem.
“Told you,” Doc Golem said.
“Doc, do you think you can get those doors apart?” [19]
With his muscles bulging, he forced the doors open. “I’ll just hold them while everyone else gets out.”
“If you break them, that renders the warranty null and void,” came the Killer Gamemaster’s cheerful voice.
Menagerie had already flitted out in bat form, followed by Skyblaze. Penultimate jumped out easily, and Doc Golem kept a hand in the way so the doors couldn’t close all the way.
While Doc Golem hoisted himself out, Penultimate flicked the beam along the length of the hall. Broken robots were scattered along the floor, and the cells had people in them. “Men, Skyblaze, go from end to end. I don’t put it past him to have someone faking it. I’ll bet the people in cells are the real guards.”
“Let them out?” asked Doc Golem.
“Before we leave the floor, sure. Right now, they’re probably safer in the cells.”
“Pal says that the robots are going to do a Power-Rangers sentai thing and combine,” said Menagerie.
“Nice idea,” said Penultimate. “Ceiling is too low, though.”
Skyblaze said, “Other elevators at the other end, and one of the downed robots is different.”
“Back!” shouted Penultimate. “Regroup!”
“It’s just—”
“If it’s nothing, we’ve only lost a moment. If it’s something we need to be together! Move!”
The odd guard surged to his feet and pointed at Skyblaze. [20] [21]
“Watch out behind you!” shouted Skyblaze. [22]
Penultimate rolled to one side and dodged Void’s hand.
He’s reaching out but that wasn’t a punch. Some kind of touch-based attack. Be careful! thought Penultimate. [23]
Penultimate tried a solid kick first. [24]
The man staggered backward, but having just turned solid couldn’t get phased in time, hit the wall and knocked himself out.
The other man started to run toward them.
“Doc? Throw the unconscious one so they’re together.”
Doc Golem scooped up the man’s unconscious form and threw him. [25]
“Menagerie, check them for gadgets. That one avoided the robots while running. So either they have night vision goggles or they can see in the dark. If it’s night vision goggles, I’d rather one of us had them.”
“Goggles in the masks,” reported Menagerie. “Plus a whole collection of gadgets.”
“I’ll take that,” said Penultimate. “There’s got to be some stuff there that’s specific to this building, like pass cards.”
The lights got brighter, moving from darkness to nightlight levels to full.
“Oh, my poor partners. Well, games are just a mirror to life, and sometimes the mirror gets broken.” As he was talking, the card reader for this elevator retracted and was replaced by a slot machine handle and a display.
“You could just press the button and call for the elevator, but it’s a terribly slow elevator, especially since I geared it down. Or you could pull the lever and test your luck. Maybe it will give you back the time you’ve already lost. Or maybe it will make the self-destruct imminent. How do you feel?”
“Don’t touch the lever,” Penultimate said. “Doc, pry open the elevator doors and see if the elevator is above us or below us.” [26]
“Below,” Doc Golem reported.
“Good.” She kept her voice down in the hope that the Killer Gamemaster wouldn’t hear everything. “Menagerie, owl your way up there and see if you can spot the mechanism for slowing it down. If we can, we’ll fix it. We need to be faster, and we need to be able to get guards out. Skyblaze, while he’s doing that, get one guard out of a cell. That guard can free the others.”
“What if we can’t fix it?”
“We go up the hard way. I mean, face it, you and I are the only ones who can’t fly, Doc, and once everyone else gets up, we can lower a sling for you in human form.”
Doc looked at her. “I don’t trust him to have left the elevator untampered.”
“Agreed, but let’s lock that handle so that it doesn’t get pulled.”
“On it,” said Skyblaze. The pull switch was not made of the same material as the rest of the prison; one blaze destroyed it. But that was enough: the dials on the screen spun and stopped. The clock paused, and then continued. “Sorry.”
“Elevator’s moving,” said Doc.
“Then we’ll take the elevator,” said Penultimate. The freed guard shouted at her in a panic. She reassured him: “We’ll send it back down.” [27]
“Okay, bets on the next puzzle?” said Menagerie. “Pal, no peeking.”
“No, go ahead and look. Forewarned and all that,” said Penultimate.
“I’m betting chessboard. They can’t resist a chessboard,” said Skyblaze.
“Really?” said Doc Golem. “Sure, it would delay us, but…” He shook his stony head. “I’m thinking deathtrap. ‘No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.’”
“Both wrong,” said Menagerie. “Pal says it’s robot duplicates.”
The speakers in the elevator. “Interesting. I don’t know this Pal person. Nevertheless, you were scanned all along your path down to your cells, and I now know all your powers. These duplicates have then, all of your powers and more. If you really want a chessboard, we can pretend that they are all queens to your pawns.”
“I’m good, thanks,” said Skyblaze.
“If they’re all better than we are, we better mix it up. I’ll take Menbot,” said Penultimate. She started rummaging in her bag of gadgets. “Men, you can fly. Take fake Sky — yes, Skyfake — to the end of the corridor so this won’t get you. Skyblaze, see if you can get the Doc Robot down there, too.” [28]
Menagerie said, “You just keep a weapon there in case we run into robot duplicates?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“We have got to talk.”
The doors slid open and they rushed out so they wouldn’t be caught inside the elevator. The Killer Gamemaster said, “I have to be going, but I think the Critical Hit Squad here will manage to delay you enough. Critical Hit Squad—Attack!” [29]
Chapter 4: Double Down
Penultimate did a somersault to flip beyond and behind the fake Menagerie, then turned around and fired. [30]
The fake Skyblaze flew forward and fired at Menagerie, who shrank to a peregrine falcon and escaped, heading past the last checkpoint. [31]
Doc knew none of the rest of the team could hurt him, so he tried to grab the robot Doc in a wrestling move. [32]
He shifted just a bit. If this version was his strength, then he could hold— [33]
As a peregrine falcon, Menagerie dove at Skyfake and tried to rake her face with his claws. He was faster than the regular Skyblaze in this form, but didn’t know whether he was faster than Skyfake. [34]
Faux Penultimate found or made a net, and was obviously standing ready to throw it on Skyblaze or Menagerie. [35]
The real Skyblaze fired as hard as hard as she could at Doc Robot. [36]
“Thought you said these were better, KGM.” Then, in a lower voice, “Pal, find him. Stop him or Men will die.” She didn’t know exactly why the ghost hung around Menagerie, but him dying couldn’t be part of the resolution. The tough one was going to be Doc Robot. She looked through the gadgets they’d taken from the unconscious “partner.” [37]
Skyfake fired again at Menagerie again. [38]
Doc kept his grip, but it was like iron squeezing diamond: it did no damage. Doc Robot squirmed in his grip, managed to get his feet under him and tried to run Doc Golem into the wall. He hit, hard, but Doc Golem was hard, too. Doc, said, “Stronger...than me! Get...going!”
Skyblaze said, “Enh, we got ten seconds yet.” She fired from both hands, hoping that this Doc was only as tough as their version. [39]
But she noticed Doc Robot glitch and freeze for just a moment. “You guys! I attacked him, and he glitched!”
Penultimate said, “Let’s see how he likes this!” and pressed the button on the deactivation gadget. Doc Robot froze and then, off-balance with Doc Golem’s additional weight, toppled over. He stayed immobile. [40]
Doc rolled the immobile robot duplicate off his body and stood up.
Menagerie circled back to attack Skyfake again, as Skyblaze shouted, “Let’s both attack her, front and rear!” [41]
Palimpsest spotted the Killer Gamemaster, and tried to take over his body. [42]
Both Menagerie and Skyblaze attacked. [43]
...And Skyfake arced down to the floor, tumbling like a broken doll.
“Are you programmed to give up?” asked Penultimate. “Because this would be a good time to give up.” She hit the button and activated the gadget again. [44]
“I didn’t actually give her a chance,” said Pen when Faux Pen froze, and dashed for the elevator. [45] [46]
“I can’t find the remote!” cried Palimpsest in the Killer Gamemaster’s voice. Pen rushed over to the villain and began searching. [47] [48]
“I’m too strong in stone form to search him,” said Doc Golem, “But we need that remote. Skyblaze, cover him.” [49]
“So we’ll get him to tell us,” said Pen. “Pal, let him free.” Menagerie became an octopus and was all over his arms and legs.
“You’ll never and where did you come from?”
“We move fast when we need to. Where’s the remote?”
“Timer a little close, is it?” He grinned. “Let me go or have the place destroyed.”
Pen thinks about it for a minute. “We’ll be a pal, and let you go.”
“Then accompany me to the roof and I’ll take my escape plane.”
“Of course you have an escape plane,” said Skyblaze.
“I should. You brought it for me.” He lifted one tentacle up and said, “Let go.” Menagerie did so, dropping to the ground and becoming a husky.
“The Guardians plane?” asked Menagerie.
“None other. I wanted to get the Guardians, and that meant their plane—” he patted Menagerie, who growed. “But I’ll settle for their plane and their little dog, too.” [50]
“Doc, better stone up, because we’re going outside. Blaze, grab those coats for you and me. It’s cold out there.”
“And I have a coat as well.”
“You’ll have to get your own,” Pen told him. “We’ll walk you to the plane, and let you leave. We are heroes of our word.”
“As am I.”
“You’re not planning on turning it off, are you?” Skyblaze said.
“You can do it. If you figure it out in time. I’ll radio you a hint once I’m in the air.”’ He suddenly looked suspicious, seeing Pen’s placid expression. “You haven’t boobytrapped it, have you?”
“Not my plane. I’m sure you’ve worked out ways past all the safeguards. That’s just your style.”
Mollified, he entered the plane. As soon as the door was closing, Pen said to Skyblaze and Doc Golem, “The self-destruct is activated by the plane’s call sign. That fir over there is actually the tower. Keep it from getting information.”
“But he’s getting away!”
“I doubt it….I figured out how to work the remote controls, remember?”
Epilogue
The Killer Gamemaster escaped on his way to the trial. A series of lucky breaks, the article said.
“I hate chance-meisters,” said Penultimate.
Characters of League One
Penultimate (Rae Summers)
Origin Trained
Great (6) Prowess Great (6) Coordination Good (5) Strength Good (5) Intellect Good (5) Awareness Good (5) Willpower
Determination 5 Stamina 10
Specialties Athletics, Investigation, Leadership, Medicine, Pilot, Science, Technology
Powers
- Great (6) Gadgets
Qualities
- From an alternate dimension
- Trained in everything
- Sensitive that she’s second-best
Doc Golem (Jacob Meyrink)
Origin Transformed
Great (6) Prowess Good (5) Coordination Fair (4) Strength Great (6) Intellect Fair (4) Awareness Great (6) Willpower
Determination 4 Stamina 10
Specialties Medicine Expert (+2), Wrestling (+1)
Powers
- Amazing (8) Alternate Form Stone
- Fair (4) Regeneration
Qualities
- We do what we can, and a little bit more
- Doctor, sworn to help, not harm
- Paying a debt
Menagerie (Charlie Davenport)
Origin Transformed
Great (6) Prowess Great (6) Coordination Fair (4) Strength Fair (4) Intellect Fair (4) Awareness Great (6) Willpower
Determination 4 Stamina 10
Specialties Aerial Combat (+1), Performance (+1), Underwater Combat (+1)
Powers
- Animal senses: Weak (1) detect ghosts
- Supreme (10) Transformation (animals)
- Extra: Instant
- Limit: Tell
Qualities
- Shapeshift master
- Insecure showboat
- Sonics! My weakness! (+degree effect)
Palimpsest (Andi Noll)
Origin Transformed
Fair (4) Prowess Fair (4) Coordination Poor (2) Strength Average (3) Intellect Good (5) Awareness Incredible (7) Willpower
Determination 2 Stamina 9
Specialties —
Powers
-
Ghost
- Weak (1) Phasing Constant
- Weak (1) Flight
- Supreme (10) Life Support
- Incredible (7) Possession Limit: Close
Qualities
- Ghost
- Haunting her murderer
- Any unholy symbol! My weakness!
Skyblaze (Deanna Sult)
Origin Transformed
Great (6) Prowess Great (6) Coordination Incredible (7) Strength Fair (4) Intellect Average (3) Awareness Good (5) Willpower
Determination Stamina 12
Specialties Aerial Combat (+1)
Powers
- Amazing (8) Blast
- Weak (1) Super-senses [Languages]
- Fair (4) Flight
Qualities
- Secret ID [Deanna Sult]
- Varied mysterious history
- Making up for the past
Critical Hit Squad
Faux Penultimate (Critical Hit)
Great (6) Prowess Great (6) Coordination Good (5) Strength Good (5) Intellect Good (5) Awareness Good (5) Willpower
Stamina 10
Specialties Athletics, Investigation, Leadership, Medicine, Pilot, Science, Technology Expert (+2)
Powers
- Supreme (10) Gadgets
Qualities
- Can’t deal with multiple attacks
- Trained in everything
- Robot
Doc Robot (Critical Hit)
Amazing (8) Prowess
Good (5) Coordination
Fair (4) Strength
Great (6) Intellect
Fair (4) Awareness
Great (6)
Stamina
10
Specialties
Medicine Expert (+2), Wrestling (+1)
Powers
Qualities
Great (6) Prowess
Stamina
10
Specialties
Aerial Combat Master (+3), Performance (+1), Underwater Combat Master (+3)
Powers
Qualities
Great (6) Prowess
Great (6) Coordination
Incredible (7) Strength
Fair (4) Intellect
Average (3) Awareness
Good (5) Willpower
Stamina 12
Specialties
Aerial Combat (+1)
Powers
Qualities
Menbot (Critical Hit)
Great (6) Coordination
Fair (4) Strength
Fair (4) Intellect
Great (4) Awareness
Great (6) Willpower
Skyfake (Critical Hit)
[1] We are compelling Penultimate’s “Touchy about being second-best” quality to get them involved. She accepts, so she has an extra Determination: her pool is at 6 points.
[2] Penultimate spends that determination point for inspiration from the GM. DP: 5.
[3] Doc Golem gets a marginal success on his; Difficulty 6.
[4] Her task is only Difficulty 4, but she gets a Marginal success.
[5] In fact, everyone hid something and Penultimate hid two things. Penultimate still has one and Skyblaze has one.
[6] The adventure doesn’t say, but let’s say the security difficulty is the same as its Strength, 7. Rather than spend a Determination Point, we’re going to use Tactics, trading time (a lost page or two) for an Advantage, which will then be spent as +2 on the Coordination+Technology test of lockpicking. 6+1+2 vs 7+6: Moderate success.
[7] This is Interface with her Gadgets, and a pyramid test to go through the code and figure out how to open the doors. We’ll do this as a balanced pyramid test, difficulty 7, with her Technology and intellect totalling 6. Moderate success. Moderate failure. Major failure. Marginal success. Massive success, but she’s still down by one. Moderate failure. She activates “Trained in everything” for a +2 on the next one. 12 vs 9, major success. (Only 4 DP now.) She does it again: Moderate success; that makes two moderates and one major ahead, which count as a Major success.
[8] He’s going to try to create a Quality of “Unlocked” for the collar by activating his quality “Shapeshift master.” His GM (me) is leery of this, so he has to provide a really good rationale. His argument is that the electric shock either deactivates the electric lock or magnetizes the pins if it’s a mechanical lock. I’ll accept that.
[9] As a gorilla, he’s strength 6 and the door is strength 7. He’s got all night, so I’m going to run this as a pyramid test, with the consequence that if he ever gets a massive failure, the alarm goes off. Moderate failure. Moderate success, plus major success, plus major success. Good rolling, and he’s out.
[10] She’s going to activate her “Varied mysterious history” quality for +2, and try to pick the lock. As before, the difficulty is 7. Her base is Coordination+2, or 8+5 vs 7+5. Moderate success.
[11] Not gonna do Initiative for this one; guards are after heroes. Skyblaze gets 9 vs 6 to shoot it out of his hand; a heat blast of 8 renders it inoperable. Let’s say that was the Z. Doc Golem reaches for a hand but has a moderate failure. Menagerie gets a marginal success but (as a gorilla) grabs the robot’s hand. Penultimate gets a moderate success, and strength 9 destroys the null ray. So C-D-I-L-O still have null rays.
[12] Now the robots fire. They have coordination 3, so less likely to hit. Pen - miss. Doc: miss. Men: miss. Skyblaze: miss. The other two try a martial attack, but both miss.
[13] Penultimate goes to the center of the circle and starts hacking. That’s Technology+Intellect vs Voyt’s Intellect + Technology (because he’s the one who really designed this). That’s her 6+5 vs 7+3. She manages.
[14] Results of hero hits: Doc Golem: Moderate success. Penultimate: Major success. Menagerie: Massive success. Skyblaze: Moderate success. Four robots destroyed. Three robots left; two manage moderate misses; one a major miss.
[15] Icons: Doc Golem hits, Penultimate hits, Skyblaze hits. Three down.
[16] I know the answer, so I’m going to leave this as a roll. I’m going to compel Penultimate’s “From another dimension” quality and give her -2 on this Intellect test. We’ll call it a difficulty 5 test. She has Intellect 5, and -2; she gets 5+3-2, or 6 vs the 5.
[17] We stroke “Tick tick tick” off the list.
[18] Does that utility belt have Life Support [Breathing]? Let’s see: Intellect 5+5 vs 1; you bet it does.
[19] Strength check: his 8 vs difficulty 5. He gets a -1, but that still gives him 7 to 5.
[20] He rolls 3+1-2, which misses Skyblaze’s 7.
[21] Both Men and Skyblaze are facing the same direction where Voyt is coming in. Let’s say Men won’t find him by echolocation this turn (he’s Phased) but will see him after he attacks. Skyblaze manages a 5-1 (for the darkness) versus the difficulty of 3.
[22] Because of the yell, Penultimate gets her full defense of 7. Void’s attack is 3+2+1, which isn’t enough.
[23] Let’s do some Initiatives, which I’ll rearrange into descending order. Penultimate: 6+5, Void: 5+6, Doc Golem: 5+6, Menagerie: 6+5, Null: 3+3, Palimpsest: 3+3
[24] She gets a solid hit in with 6 vs 3. That earns a slam, which is 5+5 vs 2+5, which knocks Void into the wall for an additional 5 damage. Void is knocked out.
[25] That’s a 5+5 vs Null’s 3, so there’s the chance of a stun. Certainly there’s the 8 stamina damage. That takes Null to -1 Stamina, so the stun doesn’t matter.
[26] Doc gets the doors open because he’s strength 8. Random roll: Odd is above, even below. Rolled a 4.
[27] We stroke off the next challenge, “Running out of time.”
[28] She wants a rank 5 sonic blast. Difficulty 5. She’s Intellect plus Technology 6+0 vs 5. So she manages.
[29] Initiative time! Again, rolled and reorganized: Pen: 12 Skyfake: 11 Doc: 11 Doc Robot: 10 Men: 10 Faux Pen: 9 Menbot: 9 Pal: 8 Skyblaze: 7
[30] She gets 6+1 versus its 6, so moderate success. He takes an extra degree of damage from sonics, so we roll for slam. That’s 5+1 vs 4, which knocks him down. She’s defense 7 because of her Athletics.
[31] Menagerie spends a Determination Point and activates “Master Animal Forms” to stunt the Extra Defensive for the duration of this fight. Skyfake gets 6-3 versus his 10, so it misses.
[32] He rolls a 6+4+1 for 10 vs the robot’s 9, for a moderate success. That’s a partial hold: Doc Robot’s actions are at +2 difficulty. Seeing that, the GM offers him a Determination point at a cost of striking something off the countdown. Doc Golem accepts, and the countdown moves from “Halfway to Destruction” to “Can We Make It In Time?” Doc immediately spends the determination point on increased effort, activating “All you have and a bit more.” Now it’s a full grip.
[33] Doc Robot attempts to escape, and gets a marginal success, which isn’t enough.
[34] Good roll! He gets 6+5, versus Skyfakes 6+1, so a major success! And it was a slashing attack, so there’s a chance of a stun, though it’s low, because she has Strength 7—no; 3+0 vs 7. Nope. But at least Skyfake is down three (Stamina now 9).
[35] Gadgets roll, which she succeeded.
[36] He’s -2 because he’s being held, his defense is currently 3.
[37] She wants the deactivation gadget, but the GM tells her she has to create a Quality instead. She gets to activate “Inventor of Icebox Tech” for a Determination point, and she’ll spend another point. The roll is a Gadgets roll vs Voyt’s intelligence, so she spends another DP for +2 on the roll. She has DP 2 left. Gadgets roll is 5+1+2+4 vs 6+2, a major success: She can activate this quality twice. If she survives.
[38] Bad roll: 6+1 vs 6+1+6. She misses by a lot.
[39] It’s more cost-effective to stunt Fast Attack off her Blast, so she does, activating her “Making up” quality, so she has 1 DP left. Then she fires three times: 6+6 vs 3+1, 6+1 vs 3+3, and 2+5 vs 3+1, for three hits, which is +2 to damage for 10. The first has a possibility of a Stun, the second a possibility of a slam. The 10 Stamina doesn’t actually matter, because he has 10 Damage Resistance. However… 8+3 vs 10+4 doesn’t stun, and 8+2 vs 10+3 doesn’t slam.
[40] And that was her first free activation of the Quality.
[41] Menagerie delays until Skyblaze can act, but this gives Faux Pen a chance to act. She decides to take on real Penultimate. She gets 6+2 vs 6+1, so a moderate success. Real Pen wants to activate the Quality “Trained for everything” and have a recovery, described as “Rolled with that one”. She’s DP 1 now.
[42] Man, 7+1 vs 6+6. She fails. I suppose that’s good; you want some tension. Sheesh.
[43] They were combining attacks, and the robot’s “Can’t handle multiple attacks” quality comes in here; the robot is now defense 7-2=5; both manage major hits (6+4 vs 5+3, and 6+5 vs 5+4) combined, that’s 9 additional damage. Not combining would have been better tactically, but she’s at 0 anyway.
[44] Faux Pen is the second activation of the Quality.
[45] Pal tries again. She manages a moderate success, but he has already put away the detonator so he can take the elevator out. She fails at finding it. While the team is in the elevator, she has to maintain control. Another moderate success. She fails to find it again. She goes for control again and gets a major success (7+6 vs 6+3). Now she has control for 7 pages.
[46] As the GM, I want a little more tension, so I offer her a determination point to fail to find the remote. Mindful that the character is the ghost of a tween girl, the player accepts. I then offer Penultimate a determination point (her abilities are largely DP based), to stroke off that second-last timing challenge for a determination point. She agrees, so now everyone is together, Pal has only one more panel before needing to make a control roll, and the PCs have arrived.
[47] Pen’s awareness +2 (activating Trained in Everything for the +2, spending that Determination point she just got) versus Killer Gamemaster’s Intellect: 7 vs 8. 7+5 vs 8+4. Pen fails. Fortunately, Doc Golem is holding him in case Pal’s control slips.
[48] Pal tries again. Moderate hold: controlled for one more panel.
[49] Doc Golem’s search fails worse than Pen’s (6+3 vs 8+6).
[50] Penultimate has one Determination left, which she was going to use to retcon a tracking device planted on him. Instead, she spends a point and activates “Trained in Everything” and asks the GM whether her hunch is correct. Since the player is the GM, it is. She has no DP left (except for the one she can grant to a team member with Leadership.)
No comments:
Post a Comment