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What Rough Beast
Slouches From Our Past
Continuing the terrible holidays of Uncanny Justice…
Being a solo play with Abraham Cadavra, Honeybee, and Demiangel. I’m having trouble figuring out a New Year’s adventure, so this is an old Champions adventure slotted into the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The (reasonably original) HERO version of the adventure is available at http://www.patric.net/morpheus/hero/beast.
For them as cares, UNTIL = UNLES, SAT and PRIMUS = STAR, Genocide = PURITY88, Minuteman = Vigilant.
Chapter 4: A Ghost of a Chance
Chapter 6: Deafened by the Dead
Chapter 7: Trouble in the Rubble
Chapter 1: Unless a Briefing
Her name was Commander Melanie Nelson and she too was a Plains View native. Now she was with the Sacramento UNLES office, but at this moment she was standing in the kitchen area of the bunkhouse that Uncanny Justice was in for Christmas. She took her coffee black and sweet, and she was currently adding sugar to the mug.
“Are you Plains View people scattered across the country? And if so, why?” asked Demiangel, or Bill.
Lauren (Honeybee) said, “Plains View folk come in two kinds: Never leave, and can’t wait to get out. Right, Abe?”
Abe nodded. “Melanie and I were folk who left.”
Bill said to Lauren, “If you’re so smart, why are you here with us?”
“Work schedules,” said Lauren smugly. “The family Christmas is next week. Mom and dad and the half-sibs and my new niece.”
Melanie said, “After my folks died, there wasn’t much holding me here,” Melanie said. “I joined UNLES and rose to Commander.” Unlike anyone else Bill had ever met, she said “you-en-lez” rather than “unless.” The name stood for United Network Law Enforcement for Superhumans. Once they had handled all superhuman affairs, but the creation of STAR and its later placement in Homeland Security, had ended that. Theoretically, UNLES had only a few PR offices in the USA.
“Can’t be a personal visit,” said Abe. “You were years behind me and we never interacted. I heard about your parents. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” she said. “Years ago, now. No, I’m here on UNLES business.” Abe moved to one side on the bench by the table. She sat down. “Large parts of the north of the state are wooded. In that area is a PURITY88 base.” PURITY88 was an organization dedicated to the “purity” of the human race. It was best known for capturing and killing mutants.
“Wouldn’t that be STAR business?”
"It is, of course. And they’ll learn about it in a day. In the meantime, you should know that UNLES has been involved in a clandestine operation to ferret out and capture PURITY operations. A Task Force of four Agents penetrated the PURITY base that PURITY communications call The Omega Compound. Apparently something big was in the making. They delayed telling STAR about it.”
“Hence the ‘clandestine,’” said Bill.
“More like, why worry them unnecessarily?” offered Lauren.
“We’re all about not worrying STAR. By the way, this is good coffee. Any North American office, the coffee sucks. (Don’t get a swelled head, though; France’s is way better.)” She took a sip. “For days they surveilled the compound and nothing moved. Nothing. So they went in...but they did not come out. We want to deal with this before STAR does. Primary mission is to deal with whatever’s in Omega Compound. Secondary is to find out what happened to our agents. If you can do that, we’ll handle our involvement.”
“Do we have a time limit?”
Commander Nelson nodded. “We expect STAR will notice in a day. We’ll supply a vehicle. The compound is remote.”
“A flying car?” asked Bill.
Melanie looked at him with pity. “A rental van.” She put a thumb drive on the table. “There’s a map and a summary of what we know. It will self-erase after twenty-four hours.”
Abe nodded. “Any clues?”
“Very few. Don’t even know how they got in, because they were maintaining comm silence. We got this one garbled transmission. It’s on the drive.”
“Can we hear it?” asked Abe.
She pulled out her smartphone and played a recording. After a moment of static came a male voice on the edge of hysteria:
It’s hideous—gigantic—glowing poison—it’s....
Solemnly, Commander Nelson looked up from the phone. “It’s yours now.”
Chapter 2: Cabin In The Woods
There was a road from the chain-link fence to a shack, deep in the area. Honeybee checked the path; it was empty of people. Demiangel and Abe walked up as Honeybee checked the area, keeping up a running chatter over their communicators. The closer they got to the cabin, the worse the background static got.
“—haven’t seen one of those woodpeckers in a while; poorly-hidden camera and whoops I bumped it and now it’s pointing at the sky—”
“Come back for a sec,” said Abe. “This static is going to make it more difficult and I’ll bet it’s the base. I’ve got a solution.” While they waited for her, Abe traced out three sigils in the snow in an equilateral triangle. [1] Once she arrived, he had each of them straddle a sigil and he cast the spell.
<There,> he thought. <Minor mind link spell that connects us. Try not to think dirty thoughts.> Then he said, “We’ll use the communicators for as long as we can, though. Honeybee, do you want to check the inside of the shack while we finish walking there?”
From inside, she reported, “It’s a hunting shack. Wood stove, table built into the wall, two chairs. Packed earth floor.”
“Well, we know there’s a way into the secret base. It’s presumably there or the outhouse. Given the size of things they have to bring in, I’m betting there.”
“I don’t see anything it could be. I’ll look again, but there ain’t much to see.” [2] She circled again, this time going under the table and examining it more closely. She grew to full size and tested. There were a set of bumps under the table, supposedly darkened varnish from a slap-dash lacquering job. But there were only one “above” the rest, and it made a perfect right angle between the edge of the table and one other bump. She pressed one; nothing. She pressed the other—
<Holy—>
The central floor slowly rose to reveal an elevator. She told the others how she had done it.
Abe said, “So the GGPT can’t or doesn’t know how to work an elevator.” On the way up, they had taken to calling it the GGPT. Demiangel had pushed for “eggplant,” because of the letters but been talked over.
“Maybe there’s Sudoku on the inside you have to solve,” suggested Demiangel.
“If there’s a Sudoku, you get to solve it,” said Abe.
The doors did not automatically open, and there were no other bumps under the table that seemed likely. Honeybee pushed the first bump instead, and the elevator sank into the floor, leaving no trace.
She brought it back up. Once the elevator returned, she tried a long push on the same bump (or button). The doors opened. The inside of the elevator was not at all rustic.
Demiangel and Abe walked in. “Friggin’ freezing out,” said Demiangel. “Wanted wings but Abe said no.”
“It’s cool out but it’s not cold,” said Abe.
“You lie. I can read your mind,” said Honeybee.
“Question is,” Abe went on, “do we all go down or do we go one at a time? If we call go down and there’s reception, we have numbers but we’re pinned into one location.”
“There’s not going to be reception,” said Honeybee. “The agents looked at this place for days and saw nothing.”
“Until they went in,” said Demiangel. “Presumably by this elevator. Then they saw the eggplant.”
“Not gonna call it that. Honeybee’s right. All at once. Get in.”
Abe punched the down button. The elevator was slow.
Chapter 3: Ashes to Ashes
“Funny if the GGPT were a mutant,” said Honeybee. “These guys, PURITY88, are all eugenics and racial purity and anti-mutant.”
“Have you ever dealt with them?” asked Demiangel.
“Once,” said Honeybee. “One of their big robots came after me but at the last minute it found a bigger mutant threat or something; it took off.” She spat, a gesture ruined by the fact that she was less than a finger-length in height. “PURITY guys are fascists.”
“We claimed to be divine, so I never saw them,” said Demiangel. “But I knew they could show up.”
The doors did not ding as they opened. The corridor outside was lit by emergency lights, and a red light was coming from somewhere down the corridor; just outside the elevator was an empty uniform with ashes trailing from it. A dozen feet from them were guard posts flanking the corridor, but no guards.
Abe bent to look. “UNLES armor.”
“So they lost one here? Already?” asked Demiangel.
“Look at the posture of the clothes. It looks like he or she was trying to escape.”
“And something turned the agent’s body into ashes.”
“This is not a healthy place to stay,” said Honeybee.
“Especially with the GGPT,” said Demiangel.
Abe found a dog tag and read the name “E. Alvarez” into the voice recorder on his phone. “We ought to set up some kind of recording gear on the communicators.”
Demiangel looked at the armor somberly. “Makes it less likely the GGPT is an illusion.”
<Might be an illusion along with something lethal,> thought Honeybee. <Sorry. Too much static on the communicators now.>
“I agree,” said Abe out loud. “Demiangel and I will talk while we can but you’d better move to mindlink.”
<Agreed.>
Beyond the empty guard posts, the corridor was shut off by a giant door. Abe walked over to the guard post with a control panel. “Kinda like a Sudoku. It’s yours, Demiangel. If you can’t get it open, I have some ideas, but really, better if you do.”
“This is nothing like a Sudoku,” said Demiangel.
Abe shrugged. “Potayto, potahto. Still yours.”
“You’re mad because I called you on the temperature thing.” He looked at the panel. “Has to be easy to close, possibly hard to open. Have you got a screwdriver and wirecutters? Sorry I don’t carry them but they cut into the whole ‘angel’ vibe.”
Abe shrugged. “I’m a magic guy, hybrid of Faery and mortal men. I don’t carry wirecutters.”
<Give him your Swiss Army knife, Abe,> thought Honeybee. <Geez,>
Abe grinned and passed it over. Demiangel fiddled for a long time. [3] Finally the door slid up. Abe and Honeybee were watching, but nothing inside moved.
Nothing came out of the corridor. The wide corridor stretched ahead and turned to the right. Before that, off to the left, a smaller corridor branched off.
The corridor was high: everything seemed to be twelve or more feet tall. “If you want to use wings, Demiangel, go ahead. Honeybee, do you want to take a quick peek down the left there?”
The whole place made her itch. <Not going through any closed doors,> she said. <Office, office, office. Lab, looks like biology. [4] Labs. Those bastards: they were experimenting on animals with radiation. Bastard, bastards, bastards. Storage and machine shop and… Oh, crap.> They got the sense of irritation and fear.
<We’ll deal with it, Honeybee, whatever it is. Recon the halls first.>
<Abe…These quarters. They’re for my father. Magnus MacBeth. My birth father.>
<Lauren…it’s a big country. maybe it’s someone else. First we need you to look around first. Then we can check his office.>
<Really? ‘Magnus?’? And insisting on the title…. Right. Ah, right.> In a minute she flew up the wide corridor to them. <There’s a crossroads down here. Left from your POV leads to the labs and quarters and offices for the muckamucks; right leads to barracks of some kind. Uniforms and piles of ash all over.>
“You want to quit?” asked Abe.
She appeared, full size, beside him. “No. Now I have to know.”
Abe nodded. “What’s down the other arm of the corridor?”
“Gotta be GGPT. I didn’t look, though.”
“GGPT might be in one of the closed rooms, too,” said Demiangel.
“Might as well turn off the communicators,” said Abe. “I know you want to search for information about your dad, so we’ll do his quarters first…but whatever killed everyone is still here. We need to be careful. We’re not about investigation so much as finding the menace and containing it.”
“I need to know,” said Honeybee. [5]
“I understand,” said Abe. “That’s why we’ll do his quarters first, because I’d hate for us to have to leave to stay alive, and you not know. But we can’t spend a long time at this.”
“I hate this,” Honeybee said. “Okay.” She shrank down and they began to move forward..
“I know we normally operate in a context-free zone,” Demiangel said, “but can I have backstory? She’s Lauren Twilt, not MacBeth.”
Abe said, “Our lovely Lauren is a mutant.”
Demiangel shrugged. “Me too.”
“A lot of mutations don’t show up until puberty, but Lauren’s showed up at about five.”
<I got lost in a big department store. Trauma enough when you’re five.>
“Her dad didn’t take well to it.”
They could tell Honeybee was snorting. <They divorced. I wasn’t the only reason, but I was the final reason.>
“He fell out of her life. Eventually her mother found someone else, got re-married, and Mr. Twilt adopted Lauren.”
<Gary didn’t care that I was different. I saw my birth father maybe a dozen times between six and twelve. Usually at court; my mom had to keep suing for child support, and I had to keep going. At thirteen I had the choice and I stopped going. He never tried to see me again.>
“That’s all the backstory you’ll get. In forestory, I would imagine the revelation that your father is part of a genocidal anti-mutant organization is very rough.”
<Very,> said Honeybee. <Plus a bit.>
The quarters had name plates. The first one was for Rosalind Ward; the second was for Magnus MacBeth. They opened the door cautiously…
Nothing came out. They quickly moved inside, onto the shag carpeting. Obviously they had the choice of decorating as they wished: the furniture was Danish teak. One one side was a desk with a computer; the other side of the room had a bed.
<Single bed. I’m glad. I think.>
Beside the computer on the desk was a frame that held gold-painted macaroni art, under glass. Demiangel looked at Abe.
<I made that.> Honeybee appeared from nowhere and caressed the frame. <The last Father’s Day he was with us.>
Abe put a hand on her shoulder, just touching silently. Finally, he said, “Dem, you want to look at the computer? If you can get in, great, but that’s not our main goal.”
Demiangel moved around the desk.
“Not even a bookshelf,” said Abe. He went to the bedside table. There was a journal in the drawer. He handed the journal to Honeybee and searched for hidden panels.
She was flipping pages. “Rants, mostly. How he is going to kill the mutants. Mostly. Sometimes thinking about a work problem.” She shook her head. “Nothing about me.”
Abe felt something; he was just about to speak when everyone heard a roar.
“Holy—” said Demiangel. He sprang to the door. Honeybee shrank down; Abe managed to catch the journal and stuffed it in his bag with the hidden item.
“ Now we need to know whatever that is.”
“A killer, probably,” said Demiangel.
“Clearly,” said Honeybee.
“Or it’s someone mutated beyond thought and in constant pain, though the radiation suit stops only enough to keep it alive.” Both of them looked at Abe. “Keep an open mind, is what I’m saying.”
Chapter 4: A Ghost of a Chance
“Honeybee—Lauren! Can you fly down that hall, take a quick look, and tell us what we’re dealing with?”
“I need to find out what happened to my father.”
Abe sighed. When she got like this, he didn’t know how to snap her out of it. “Can we compromise? You and Demiangel check all the rooms but those. Every five to ten minutes, you check back in, and you stay together, no matter what, okay?”
“Okayyyy…”
“I’m going to let my body rest right here and I’m going to explore astrally. Some of the info won’t be quite the same, because the astral realm isn’t the material plane but I should be able to get something.”
Demiangel said, “Why have you never done the astral thing before?”
“It’s not as useful as you would think. You can’t read, signs don’t have useful astral forms, and you can’t hack a computer system. Against magical foes there are countermeasures that can hurt you. But this place is tech, not magic, so I’ll try.”
“Will you be okay?”
“My body will be right here. I’ll check out the north end. As long as nothing harms my body, I’m fine,” he lied. What he did not say was that this was the site of a mass death, which could release a lot of necromantic energy. Things, bad things, fed off that energy.
But Lauren hadn’t said anything about seeing ghosts, and she could see astral forms. So everything should be fine.
Lauren looked around and said, “Astral first so I can see you’re okay. Then we split up.”
Abe laid down on the bed and started the incantation. [6] When it was finished, his astral form rose up, waved to Lauren, and started north, through one wall. He checked the wide corridor — nothing astrally — stuck his head and arm back and gave a thumbs-up to Lauren. Then he took a moment to put up his mystic shield, and then moved across the corridor into the opposing room.
The room was chaos: rubble and technician uniforms lay everywhere, with ashes spilling out of them. [7] Five uniforms, so maybe five technicians had taken refuge in here. He recognized one piece of equipment as a lathe, but nothing else. Presumably this had been a machine shop.
The rubble came from the door and the walls; the wall between this room and the next had been torn down in the fight. He saw an UNLES blaster on the floor in the other room. That made two UNLES agents.
He wasn’t going to take them. Stop the GGPT, sure; take a family memento for Lauren, okay. But he had limits.
The walls were thick with infrastructure and then he was in a big, tall room that was some kind of control room or testing lab. Control panels and equipment of some kind was bolted to the floor — one was bent almost free. The floor was speckled with access panels. Almost two dozen suits cluttered the room, with ashes spilling out of them. Some of the suits were armoured and had blaster rifles associated with them.
Then he saw the…thing.
It was…huge. Maybe it had been an animal, something ursine, but it was bigger than the biggest grizzly, with…five arms. It was huddled against the east wall.
The view of the thing was so startling that he didn’t notice the tenebrae spirits until they attacked him.
Chapter 5: Gathering Threads
Demiangel and Honeybee needed information. They hoped there would be survivors but feared there would not be, so they first headed back through the lab space to the offices.
<Working assumption,> said Honeybee. <Something went wrong with whatever experiment they were running. End result was the GGPT and massive deaths.>
The first office plate said Head Of Security. The middle one said Base Leader. The last, nearest the entrance, said Chief Technician.
<We want an overview,> said Demiangel. <Base leader office.>
It was neat and tidy. Paintings of big Vigilant robots adorned the walls, all ten of them. Honeybee got to full size. “That one is the one I was chased by.” There was a little plaque under each one. “Mark Five,” she read.
The desk held a computer like the one in Dr. MacBeth’s quarters. Presumably all the computers would be like that. Demiangel fiddled with it for a minute [8] and said, “I’m not getting in, and I don’t want to set off any booby traps.”
“Then Chief Technician sounds more likely than Head of Security.”
This office was definitely untidy: the owner had practiced horizontal filing and when every surface was full, had piled papers. Papers were weighted with tools and parts; parts were in and out of boxes that weren’t necessarily the boxes they had come in.
“Before there wasn’t anything and here there might be too much to look at,” said Demiangel. [9] “You take that half and I’ll take this half.”
After five minutes, Honeybee read from a slip of paper. “I have deep reservations about Project Omega. The DNA seems to mutate even more when agitated with high energy fields. This is due to—" She folded the paper and put it in a pocket. “So they were creating mutants to fight mutants.”
Demiangel read another paper. “Memo from Dr. MacBeth, Base Leader, to Dr. Rosalind F. Ward, Chief Technician. Please assign someone to investigate the Bypass System in the reactor pile. Based on recent reports from Tokyo, it is possible for the system to accidentally withdraw the damper rods, causing a spike in radiation. I have the references; see me if you have questions.” Demiangel looked up. “Gee, a mutant that reacts poorly to radiation and a possible situation that could create lots of radiation. Getting a picture?”
“Yeah. But what kind of mutant? Animal or some poor fellow they captured?”
“No idea. The only other thing I found are schematics and plans for one of those big robots. Not useful.”
“Mmm. Take them and we’ll give the info to mutants for the future.”
Demiangel tucked the binder into his bag. “Any use checking head of security?” he asked.
“I don’t think so. It’s time to check in with Abe.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing. “I’m not getting any response.”
“I’ll check his body.” He was gone.
She knew it was unfair and childish, but she hoped her biological father had only the coldest and most distant relationship with this Dr. Ward.
<Nothing,> thought Demiangel. <His body’s just lying here. Like he’s in a coma.>
<He can come back and help us but we can’t follow him there. Let’s just…keep on. If they kept paper records in the labs, we might find something useful.> [10]
The “lab” was actually three labs: one section was just animal care; the largest crate was bigger than a man. Another section was a radiology lab where they induced mutations: there canisters of radioactive materials to charge the four radiation chambers. The third section was for analyzing and editing mutations, including equipment to edit DNA. Like many labs, the record-keeping was decades behind the other equipment. Honeybee found a paper file folder with several pages on Subject L-29. Inside were a series of photos printed on non-photographic paper. They showed the growth of something…bear-like, but with three extra limbs. She showed it to Demiangel.
“Ewww,” he said. “Ugly.”
“The fact they took all these extra photos suggests it’s the one that survived.”
“You think that’s the GGPT?” She nodded. “We should tell Abe.”
“We can try.” She closed her eyes again. Demiangel could hear the echo of her thoughts.
There was no response.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Demiangel said.
“I hope so,” she replied.
She shrank and disappeared [11] ; in a minute she returned with a hand-held device. “Geiger counter. All the dosimeters in the place must be spoiled by now.” She turned on the Geiger counter and read the result. “We’ve got maybe a couple of hours more and then we’ll have a year’s worth of radiation.”
Chapter 6: Deafened by the Dead
There were dozens of them, the Tenebrae or Lemuriae, the spirits of the violently dead, and they swarmed his astral form. [12] Two hands were clamped over his mouth; his arms were pinned. Teeth tried to gnaw on him but couldn’t get through his shields. Fortunately he had the shields up; they protected the soul-thread that connected him to his physical body. Still, the Tenebrae could do things that his shields wouldn’t stop.
<Problem here,> he thought but the presence of so many Tenebrae blocked his thoughts.
A loud noise might startle them but he couldn’t make noise in this form, with his mouth covered. He might be able to goad the beast, but then they’d have an angry beast to deal with. If Honeybee saw these wraiths, she might fire a sonic blast. Could he move to where she was? [13] He started moving, dragging spirits with him.
He noted something like a man but much, much bigger off to one side. A Vigilant robot. More Tenebrae fastened to him.
The wraiths started keening, a wordless cry that would soon hurt him. As he moved up the corridor, other Tenebrae appeared and fastened themselves to him. [14] [15] Though he was moving fast, the extra wraiths slowed him down so that he was barely moving by the intersection. Was Honeybee left or right? [16] He didn’t know how much time had passed; presumably they were on the new wing by now.
If they weren’t in the left wing yet, they would be soon. He inched left, as another Tenebrae fastened on him, and this one covered his eyes.
Chapter 7: Trouble in the Rubble
Honeybee circled around the room quickly, counting the beds. <Twenty. Toilets and urinals in the lavatory. What about you?>
<Twenty also.> He thought a series of obscenities, and then: <My wings set off the fire sprinklers.>
<Maybe that’s why Abe didn’t have you pop wings earlier. >
<The emergency lights are on, so I figured the fire systems wouldn’t work.>
His thoughts were so forlorn that Honeybee stifled her laugh. <If you need them, there are probably clothes in the footlockers. Without remains, I mean.>
<At least now I know my wings are hard to extinguish.> Demiangel walked out of the bunk room, his wings gone. [17]
<You look a sight,> she said. <That room there is a storage area but it’s mostly lavatory supplies. I don’t see anything that will work against GGPT.> She darted into the next room. <Hmmm. Armory of some kind. Empty, but we didn’t see a lot of blaster scorch marks. Just a sec….radiation suit. Don’t know if the inhabitant is alive or dead, but there’s actually a body—> She popped up to full size to check the person. <I think he’s alive but I’m not sure. Not qualified to roll him over and check; there might be spinal injuries.> [18]
<Breathing trumps spinal.>
<If he’s still alive, he’s breathing. Spinal wins. How are you on first aid?>
<No training,> said Demiangel. <Maybe Abe?>
<Abe?>
Still no answer.
<Maybe I’ll just check on his body,> she said. She shrank down and flew into the hall…and then swore.
<What? I don’t see anything.>
<Astral thing, like a feeding frenzy of sharks. I assume Abe’s in there. Somewhere.> She fired, and the high-pitched whining of her sonic blast started and grew to a roar. Demiangel saw nothing but felt her satisfied look. <That scattered them and Abe reeled back to his body quickly.>
<Thanks,> came Abe’s thought.
<De rien,> said Honeybee. <Whole place is radioactive and we might die. Figured you ought to know.>
<GGPT is probably a bear thing, seven limbs,> said Demiangel.
<I’ve seen it,> said Abe. <Sorry. Still recovering from the Tenebrae.> [19]
In Dr. MacBeth’s quarters, Abe took a deep breath and shook his hands, re-inhabiting his body. Normally that was quick but the Tenebrae might have feasted—
Radiation. He knew a spell that might help. Maybe. But its protection was passed by touch; it wasn’t something he could aim at a distance. [20] Still, you work with what you have.
The…thing…came lumbering out of the big radiation room, attracted by the sound of Honeybee’s blast. [21] The beast paused at the intersection, sniffing. [22] It did in fact glow: a sickly blue-green aura that surrounded it.
“You killed my father!” said Honeybee, and fired. [23] Her sound blast hit solidly on the monster, and had no effect. Perhaps it was absorbed by the blow. [24]
Finishing the spell, Abe felt a wave of weakness, and knew that the radiation and the Tenebrae had affected him. But he had to try. He didn’t put up his shields, because he couldn’t pass this along with them up.
<Coming. You have to touch my hand for the protection to take effect.>
He stepped out of the room.
The beast turned to stare at him. [25] It sniffed once again and then cocked its head and sniffed again. It ran to Demiangel, claws out [26] and hit once, leaving a long red trace along Demiangel’s arm.
Honeybee flew to Abe and slapped his hand. [27]
Wings of flame sprouted from Demiangel’s back, and he flew up and almost out of the beast’s range. Demiangel threw a spear of fire, but it splashed harmlessly against the beast. [28]
<Demiangel! Touch me for protection. Honeybee, look for something science-y, lab or reactor room.>
<No need,> said Demiangel.
<I can’t put up my shields until you touch me. That thing will take me apart!>
Abe dashed across the hall to the room of rubble he had seen astrally; the UNLES blasters hadn’t been any use against the beast in the hands of trained agents, but he might be able to use one as a distraction.
The beast roared again, possibly in frustration or maybe pain. It clawed again at Demiangel [29] but missed every time.
Honeybee took the hint. She had seen the science labs, so she headed down to the reactor room.
<Uh, guys? They have a Vigilant robot here.>
<Is it doing anything?> responded Abe.
<No.>
<Not our concern yet. Move!>
Abe moved into the doorway and held his hand up high so that Demiangel could hit him.
Demiangel flew by and smacked Abe on the hand.
The beast sprinted after Demiangel, making a wheezing sound but not winded. It passed by so closely that Abe could smell it, rank and musty.
Honeybee looked at the controls on the eastern wall. She grew to full size and started the process. This was going to take a bit.
Abe cast the spell to put up his mystic shield and then prepared a sleep spell. [30]
In the hall, the fire sprinklers started.
<Great,> thought Demiangel.
Demiangel turned and led the beast back down toward the reactor room. <Those robots are tall,> he said. <I’ll have more height in that silo. Plus if it breaks the robot, there’s one less Vigilant .> He lingered at the intersection so the beast could see him, then flew down toward the robot, down the corridor to the reactor room. He paused at the feet of the robot.
The beast charged for him [31] and scraped him with one set of claws but did no harm against Demiangel’s aluminum-hard skin.
Honeybee looked at another sensor, realized she had to increase pressure in the hydraulic systems that moved the rods. She made the adjustment. She watched carefully to see if the hydraulics were actually working. They were; just very slowly. She heard another roar from the corridor.
Abe crept into the intersection and pointed at the beast. He uttered the last word to trigger the sleep spell. [32] He missed.
Demiangel ducked into the silo and spiraled slowly up around the Vigilant . There were, blessedly, no fire sensors in the silo.
The beast began to climb one of the robot’s legs.
Honeybee spotted a piece of notepaper as the last damper rods sank into position. It read, “Under no circumstances should Subject Omega be exposed to radiation!”
No duh, she thought as she shrank down and flew into the corridor.
Abe cast the spell again. [33] This time the beast closed its eyes for a few seconds.
<That’s not helping, Abe. It can’t follow me if it’s asleep.>
<I was hoping this would be over if it slept.>
<Help the survivor in the room at the corner.> Demiangel thought directions at Abe.
The beast struggled against sleep.
<Done,> said Honeybee to the others. <But the whole place is probably radioactive. No souvenirs.>
Abe entered the armoury and quickly assessed the survivor. A man, he noted. [34] Starvation and dehydration and serious radiation poisoning at a minimum. The room wasn’t destroyed like others he had seen, so he doubted the man was injured…just near death from dehydration.
And he had no water with him. What he had, though, was magic. He could magically heal the man; that might remove any extant radiation damage and it might make him almost uninjured. The first step was to remove the radiation helmet.
<I’m going to cast a healing spell on this man. Maybe we’ll learn more.>
<Yeah, don’t mind us,> said Honeybee. <We’re just fighting a giant mutant up a giant mutant-hunting robot. Just a day in the life for us.>
‘What if we take it to the top of the silo and drop it?’ asked Demiangel.
<I don’t think the silo’s tall enough to affect him. But hey, he’s not glowing now!>
They had delayed too long. With a snarl, the beast began climbing up the leg of the robot to get to Demiangel.
<I’m going in,> said Honeybee. Her sonic blast had no effect; perhaps sonic venom… [35] Hitting the beast was easy, but having an effect? They wouldn’t know for a bit.
Demiangel was ready to fly down and hit it when there was a small sound and the robot’s visual sensors lit up. [36]
<Oh….crap.>
<Double oh crap.> said Honeybee. <Abe, get that survivor to tell us how to turn the robot off!>
Now, while it’s booting up— Demiangel hit the robot’s head as hard as he could. [37]
There was no effect.
<Oh crap oh crap oh crap.>
Abe finished the spell [38] and laid his palm on the back of the man’s head. <After this, I can turn him over.>
“Easy, mister, you’re still weak from everything.”
“Doctor. Not mister.”
“Mutant detected,” said the Vigilant robot. “Neutralize.” The robot’s arm started to move. Because of the close confines of the silo, it couldn’t raise its arm up to Demiangel. Instead a missile fired directly at him. Shrapnel exploded all over him. [39]
Whatever was in those missiles, it was enough to make Demiangel bleed. He was cut all over and blood was starting to seep out.
Honeybee flew in front of the beast’s nose. She wasn’t powerful enough to affect the robot but maybe the beast was— [40]
It smelled her. [41] Maybe it assumed that smell was the robot, maybe not, but it swatted the leg of the Vigilant robot.
Nothing happened.
Demiangel took a defensive flight pattern.
The robot fired a second missile. [42] Demiangel was flying to avoid the missile but was in the radius of the explosion. None of the shrapnel hurt him this time.
“Mutant detected,” said the robot. “Neutralize.”
Abe rolled the man on his side. He already suspected who it was.
“Don’t touch me with your dirty mutie hands!”
“It was nice clean magic, and your daughter is out there trying to save us all, Dr. MacBeth.” [43]
Demiangel dove down to the hand that was about to gather the Beast and pulled on the hand so it couldn’t hit the Beast. [44]
The robot tried to get free, but this time it failed.
“Scanning.”
<Uh oh,> Demiangel said.
Honeybee moved off so nothing could easily hit her and tried to think. <Pretty clear that the radiation was making the GGPT glow and he’s not glowing now, so some of his powers were caused by radiation. Maybe the robot couldn’t start while the emergency system was on?>
Abe said, “Lauren. Your daughter. She’s here.”
“Subject Omega will kill her!”
“The Vigilant robot.”
“They don’t see her.” At Abe’s glance, he said, “Years ago I hacked the source so that Vigilant robots don’t detect her. Her biometrics are coded in. They know there’s a mutant but they can’t see her. I know it was the wrong thing to do but…I was still weak and young and she was my daughter. It was a weakness.”
“My friend is there too. We need to shut down the robot.”
“You can’t. They don’t respond to override signals once started.”
“You were running a base where you created mutants but you couldn’t turn off the device to kill mutants?”
“It wasn’t supposed to be turned on! It was only if we needed to deal with Subject Omega!”
<Excuse me, my biological father is alive?>
<Say goodbye to him properly,> said Demiangel, <because if I survive I’m going to kill him. I heard electricity is what you need to stop them.>
<There’s a nuclear power plant so we’ve got electricity.>
The robot stopped trying to pull free. “Eliminate mutant power. Route neutralizer through left hand.”
“Why does it announce everything?” asked Abe.
“Debug messages,” said Dr. MacBeth. “We made some alterations on that model and needed to know what it was doing.”
Demiangel screamed. “My strength!” He let go of the hand and backed off. <Feel…so weak.>
Honeybee said, <I’m going to try venom but I haven’t hopes.> [45] As she said this, the Beast fell off the robot’s leg, unconscious. <Okay, some hopes.> She zipped behind the robot and slapped it on the back to create the sonic wave. [46]
“What alterations?”
“We got rid of the weakness to electricity.”
Chapter 8: Bigger Trouble
<Forget electricity,> said Abe. <Doesn’t work on this model.>
The robot tried to swat Demiangel [47] and only missed because of the cramped quarters.
Honeybee [48] said, <Demiangel! You have plans. Give them to me!>
<Here!> He threw his bag to the back of the silo. [49]
Abe said to Dr. MacBeth, “How did it change?”
“I’m not telling. You’re a bunch of filthy mutants.” Abe held up a hand. “You’re all three stains on the purity of humanity.”
“You know that Lauren has a half-brother with her stepfather.” Dr. MacBeth eyed him suspiciously. “Not a mutant. That suggests the mutated germ cells come from you, Doctor. Once the robot has Demiangel, and me, who’s to say it won’t come for you next?”
“That won’t happen,” Dr. MacBeth said.
“Are you sure?” asked Abe.
The robot fired another missile at Demiangel. [50] Demiangel narrowly avoided being caught in the blast.
Honeybee carried the binder down into the corridor and popped to full size. <Starting to look.> [51]
<Demiangel, can you keep it busy? The robot can get out of that silo and into the hall if you come out.> [52]
<I…really don’t want to, but yeah.>
<Radiation!> said Honeybee. <Shuts down in the presence of radiation or intense cold. We can’t possibly get the cold, but radiation we got.>
“It’s radiation, isn’t it?” asked Abe.
“It has a self-defense mechanism. It stops any mutant trying to bring radiation to it.”
“We’ll see.” <Demiangel! Carry the beast up to the robot so it can capture it.>
<I’m not strong enough!>
<You have to try! No use stopping the robot if it wakes the Beast!>
Demiangel flew down to the Beast. You wanted to do the right thing, Billy-boy He took a deep breath [53] and lifted the Beast. The Beast growled…but stayed unconscious.
The robot grabbed, and Demiangel scrambled so that he was not in the grip of that huge hand. The thumb closed on Demiangel [54] pinning him next to the Beast.
Honeybee did not see it; she was flying at full speed to the lab. Highest rad count. That’s what I want. She grabbed the container of polonium.
Demiangel struggled against the hand [55] and squeezed free just as the door closed on the Beast. “First mutant contained. Second and third mutant queued.”
<I presume I’m second mutant,> said Demiangel.
<And I’m third because apparently Honeybee is invisible to it,> said Abe.
The robot spoke. “Analysis complete. Sonic disruptors activated.” Demiangel had no choice; it affected an area. [56] The sound overwhelmed him, and Demiangel fell out of the sky, stunned.
“Sonic disruptors successful. Gathering mutant 2.”
Honeybee flew up in an erratic, evasive pattern as the robot started to bend. It bent in ways that no human could, lowering its torso on the legs. [57] “Evasion. Threat detected.” <Need to get to right side of head; detectors are strongest there.>
“That’s your daughter,” said Abe. “She figured out the weakness and she’s dealing with it.”
“She’s a mutant.”
“But she’s smart and brave and my best friend.”
“You’re not…?”
“I’m married. By some laws. Not to her.”
The robot fired a concussion beam [58] but she zigged as it zapped. She had to grow to work the container. [59] She opened the container and placed it against the robot’s radiation detectors.
The hand that was closing in Demiangel stopped.
<Abe…Wake Bill and send him up with something to tie this in place?>
Chapter 9: Impure Thoughts
Commander Nelson said, “Thank you.”
They were back in the bunkhouse. The members of Uncanny Justice had called in STAR and been debriefed multiple times. No one had asked about UNLES. Now it was the last day of the year, and Melanie Nelson dropped by, in civilian dress.
“Everyone recovered from the radiation?”
Abe shrugged. “Magic. It has its uses.”
“You’ll probably get commendations in our records. We can’t give them publicly, I’m afraid.”
Abe shrugged. “No place to put them.”
Commander Nelson slide a card over. “These people need someone to take care of the city while they’re off-planet.” She nodded to the bedroom where Lauren was. “How’s she taking it?”
“She didn’t want to talk to him and then she wanted nothing but to talk to him. He didn’t want to talk to her, though.”
The Cast
Tenebrae
| Tenebrae | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRW | CRD | STR | INT | AWR | WIL | Stamina |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| Specialties Energy Drain Master, Stealth Expert, Wrestling |
Powers
|
|||||
Qualities
|
||||||
(The Tenebrae cannot be destroyed by non-magical or non-religious means, only “knocked out” — the return is described by the Immortality power)
The Beast
| The Beast | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRW | CRD | STR | INT | AWR | WIL | Stamina |
| 6 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
Powers
In Intense Radiation
|
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Qualities
| ||||||
Vigilant Mark IX
Note that I have removed a number of powers in favor of Nemesis (from Great Power.)
| Vigilant Robot | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRW | CRD | STR | INT | AWR | WIL | Stamina |
| 8 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 4 | – | 16 |
| Specialties Tactics (+1) |
Powers
Weapons
|
|||||
Qualities
|
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Game Mechanics & Footnotes
Here's when I adopted the convention of (usually) writing the rolls as ability+modifier+roll < or = or < difficulty, sometimes with modifiers here if it made sense, like if the target is in a partial hold.
[1] Spell for Telepathy 3, rolled 5+2-1.
[2] Spend a Determination Point on determined effort. 3+2+0 vs 4. So she spots the hidden controls. The Technology roll to figure out the controls is 5+1, or 6 vs 5.
[3] Technology roll: 5+2 > 5.
[4] She has science. How much does she realize? 5+1+3 > 4
[5] This whole thing is Trouble and nets her a Determination Point.
[6] Intellect+Occult+5 vs 5 is 3 degrees of success
[7] Awareness roll to detect solid objects clearly while astral: 3+0=3.
[8] Nope. 5-4 < 6.
[9] He gets 4+2 > 3; she gets 3+1 > 3.
[10] Searches: Honeybee: 4+1 > 3; Demiangel: 5+0 > 3
[11] Determination point for a retcon: there have to be Geiger counters or equivalent because they were working with radiation.
[12] Six of them manage to get a good grip on him, for +3 combined effort.
[13] How lucky! He has 5 flight as part of astral, so his attempt to move was 5+5 > 3+3-4. So he drags them
[14] That sounds like Trouble. Have a Determination Point.
[15] A general rule for me: Changing the rules of the encounter, so to speak, like having new foes appear or having villains stunt new powers, is Trouble.
[16] 1D6: 1-3 is left (toward room 8), 4-6 is right. Rolled a 2.
[17] Does she notice? Difficulty 2 because that’s a huge ball of wraiths and astral forms there. 5+0 > 2
[18] Awareness test (5) to see if he’s alive. I’ll let her have Science: 3+1+1 = 5
[19] He can move his left arm. We’re not rolling to give him Trouble.
[20] Resistance (Ability) 3, +2 for the Affects Others extra. So difficulty 5, he rolls Intellect+occult: 5+4-5+2 > 5. He does it.
[21] Does it see her? Awareness 4+0 < her 3+2. No
[22] It gets a 9 for being impressive to look at (4+1 for size +4). Demiangel is stunned for a page. (Moderate and major failures; I’m counting it as being like Stunning.)
[23] She gets 5-2+2 for being shrunk and +1 because it’s big > 5
[24] We’ll count the body drain aura as against the better of Coordination or Prowess, and activated each time the thing is hit. Demiangel and Honeybee are facing 2, and Abe is behind a door, so 1. Abe loses a point of Strength (1+6 >3+3); Demiangel & Honeybee lose nothing (2+3 < 8+1, 2+3 = 3+2). If only she had waited a page!
[25] Initiatives: Beast 10, Honeybee 10, Abe 8, Demiangel 8
[26] It hits once out of three times: 8 > 6, 3 <6, 2 < 6. Demiangel takes 2 from the claws and fortunately nothing from radiation (3+4 < 8)
[27] Okay; now both Abe and Honeybee are considered protected
[28] He can’t hurt it, but
[29] Nope: 6-5 < 7, 6-2 < 7, 2+1 < 7, because Demiangel has Aerial combat up now.
[30] It will take another page to cast, but he’s going to spend a point of Determination on it: Stunning 5 vs Willpower.
[31] He’s got to stay in range in order to get through the door, so… marginal hit (7=7), two misses. Resistance sucks up effect. No slam effect.
[32] Sleep is a Stunning effect; he’s Coordination 5, but 5-2 < 5.
[33] Hits this time: 5+3 > 5. Effect is 5+0 > 3, so stunned for 1 page.
[34] He doesn’t have first aid either, but let’s roll. 5+4 > 5
[35] 6+2+2 > 6-1; Affliction roll is 6+3 > 8, so moderate success: Beast loses 6 Stamina.
[36] Initiative 6+6, or 12.
[37] The robot is effectively Prowess 0 because it’s still booting up. He hits; no need to roll. He does no damage either.
[38] No need to roll; spending a Determination point. Healing 5.
[39] It hits: 5+3 > 7; no stun effect. Demiangel down 4 stamina.
[40] She spends a Determination Point to go ahead of the Beast in initiative.
[41] Should check the Affliction. 6+1 < 8. Will check again next panel.
[42] 5+4 = 6+1+2 because he’s being defensive
[43] We treat him like a Quality. Lauren can activate him for free, but others cost an Advantage.
[44] 8+2 > 8, so he manages for this page. Given the tight circumstances, I’m going to treat the Vigilant robot as generally in a partial hold, but the +2 difficulty will apply to only some things (hitting with his hand, for instance, but not the missiles)
[45] Check Affliction on the Beast: 6+3 > 8. The Beast falls off, unconscious. The fall to the ground isn’t going to hurt it.
[46] She hits easily: 6+2 (shrunk) +2 (robot big) +4 > 8. Affliction even works but not well enough: 6+1<8. Will check on her next panel.
[47] It gets 8+2+0 < 6+1+2+2 (because he’s being defensive)
[48] Affliction test for Honeybee…6+2=8, so the robot is down 3 stamina.
[49] Does she catch it? Let’s say difficulty 5, and it’s small but she’s smaller, so difficulty 4; she’s Coordination 5. 5+2 > 4, she does.
[50] 5+3 < 6+1+2
[51] Affliction test: 6+3 > 8, so robot takes another 6 Stamina.
[52] Honeybee is out of Determination Points, so Abe grants the one from Leadership. She uses it to add +2 to her analysis of the plans. We’re going to do the analysis as Discovering a Quality, difficulty 5. (It would be higher, but she has the plans right there.) 5+2 > 5. Moderate success.
[53] Okay, spend a Determination Point and activated Trying To Do Good for an Advantage, and spends it to undo the effects of the Nullification.
[54] GM providing Trouble; Demiangel takes the Determination Point.
[55] We assume he’s in a partial hold, but Demiangel really has to get out, so he’s going to activate Trying To Do Good again for +2 on Strength vs Strength: 8+2+2 > 8+2 (for size). Moderate success, but only a partial hold so…he’s free!
[56] Oh, it hits: 8+5 > 6+1. Ooookay. Check for Stun: 8+3 > 8…. One page.
[57] Using the Great Freaking Robot quality.
[58] Robot Coordination 6+1 < 5+2+2: moderate failure.
[59] She needs to make a Coordination roll against herself to open it properly. She doesn’t want to mess it up, so she uses Tactics to get an Advantage, and takes power disability: Shrinking will not work, because if this doesn’t work, she hasn’t got a second chance. So: 5+3 > She’s functionally activating the quality “Shuts down in intense radiation” and she had a free activation from discovering the Quality.
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