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House Rules
- Prone people are +2 to hit hand-to-hand, absent cover.
- Regeneration with an advantage gives back Strength levels.
- You can use Fast Attack with all your powers, though it costs an Advantage to switch between modes. (That is, you can punch twice, but it’s an Advantage to punch and blast.)
Credit for the story goes to Victory RPG’s Flying Solo, which I presume is written by Fran Vaughan as an M&M Superlink module for Mutants & Masterminds 2nd edition. When I converted characters, I used the same artwork as in the module, but I don’t see attribution on them. Anyway: no intent to infringe or take money; if it’s an issue, please contact me at jhmcmullen@gmail.com and I’ll remove the artwork.
A Day At The Museum
At work at the museum, Emily Morgan invited Tara Kleine to lunch. Tara’s first inclination was to refuse—and then she remembered that both Flip-Flop and The Reach had told her that she needed to get out more, and needed to meet more people.
Maybe they were right.
And it wasn’t like Emily was brainless: Emily also restored artwork, with a focus on Egyptian Middle Kingdom funerary statuary. Yes, Tara would not enjoy the food (Tara never enjoyed food) but the company might be tolerable.
After surviving the rocket explosion, how bad could it be?
Tara went for lunch with Emily with the same attitude as she would approach a supervillain made of knives and spikes: unpleasant, but bearable.
It turned out to be fun: Emily had also done undergraduate work on Athenian statuary, and she had a delightfully frank opinion of their supervisor, whom she called “Mort the Wart.”
“You know, you’d look good with earrings,” Emily said. “You should get your ears pierced.”
“They got infected,” Tara lied. “When I had them pierced as a child. I had many health problems as a child.” She had tried to have them pierced when she was ten, but they healed too fast.
After lunch, the women found that the museum was blocked off by the police. People clutching museum handouts were standing out front. There was a female reporter standing there with Peter, the elderly man who acted as greeter and ticket taker. Tara remembered the reporter’s name: Jessica Auger, who mostly did man-in-the-street and human-interest pieces. Flip-Flop disliked her.
Emily edged them close to Ms Auger to hear what she was saying.
“—News, reporting live from outside the Museum of History where pandemonium has broken loose. People are running from the museum in a panic. As you can see behind me, police have a perimeter set up. The museum seems to have been the target of some strange attack.” She turned to face Peter. “Excuse me sir. Can you tell us what you saw?”
“It was terrible,” said Peter. “Some strange woman — a supervillain, from the costume — was touching the exhibits and bringing them to life. In the Hall of Centuries.”
“Bringing them to life?”
Peter said sharply, “Yes, that’s what I said.” Emily clapped a hand over her own mouth to keep from cheering. Jessica Auger looked annoyed, but the camera wasn’t on her. Peter continued, “She touched some World War II soldier mannequins. They came to life and started shooting at people. I don’t know if anyone was hurt; I was trying to get people out.”
The camera moved back to Jessica Auger again. “There you have it folks. A woman is bringing exhibits to life in the Hall of Centuries with horrific and deadly results. Will the police be any match for that kind of powerful brutality? More as it develops.”
Emily said, “Good for Peter. She has the brain of a sea-cucumber.” Tara nodded. Emily added, “I’m taking the afternoon off.”
“The whole afternoon?”
“You should, too. You’ve been sick. Look, even if they catch this woman right now, there will be hours of crime scene investigation and interviews. We won’t be allowed in until tonight.” Emily sighed. “Excitement, and we missed it.”
“You go; I’ll text Mort the Wart and let him know we’re safe, and working from home.”
“Very wise, not facing him. I’ll text him too, and then I shall research the alcoholic beverages of the twenty-first century. Better than that fourth century Celtic funerary urn I have to clean.”
“I didn’t realize we had anything fourth century Celtic.”
“Borrowed; that’s the restoration I told you about. Toodles! I’m off to indulge.”
“I grant you the indulgence,” said Tara. Emily laughed and waved good-bye.
Tara checked that she had her costume. Her Succubus wig had suffered from being packed in her bag; she had to find a better solution. She texted Mort, sent a brief one-liner to the superhero group chat and then easily ’ported into the museum loading dock so that no one saw her. [1]
The blind teleport[2] stung like a cut, and she paused to change and heal[3] and think.[4]
The three reasons to break into a museum were money, to get a person, or an artifact. This woman had bypassed the money (it was at the front door and the gift shop, well before the Hall of Centuries). A person seemed unlikely; there were lots of ways to get a person that didn’t involve the museum.
So Madame Criminal wanted an artifact. Probably not something on display, or she’d walk to it and take it, while using the animated statues to cover her escape. Artifacts not on display were kept in the warehouse off premises, in the restoration lab (where she worked) or in the vault (if valuable).
They had a bunch of pieces for the World O’ Dirt room they were opening next week, but those weren’t valuable. Emily had the pot sherds she was working on. Tara herself had a fourteenth century tapestry, but it wasn’t valuable-valuable. That left the vault.
Succubus thought, Madame Criminal needs the distraction while she opens the vault.
Going to the vault first would catch the criminal, but The Reach was always reminding them that heroes worked for the people. Therefore, Succubus chose first to check the Hall of Centuries for injured or trapped people. Besides, Mort The Wart kept bragging about the vault’s security. Let’s see if he’s correct.
From inside somewhere she could hear a loud animal roar.
She ’ported to the end of the hall, and then to the front hall. Lights from the police cars shone through the front door: all of the foyer doors were open. There were no victims here.
A human policeman was outside, peering from one corner of the door. She waved and he gave her a thumbs-up. She nodded and crept to the entrance of the Hall of Centuries.[5]
If Madame Criminal was heading for the vault, the straightest route was down the Hall of Art and through the back doors. But the woman had animated statues, so she probably headed down the Hall of Centuries, animating statues for maximum distraction and then went through the back doors and into the vault area.
’Porting would be faster and safer…and skip over possible victims. If the woman were animating statues, which rooms would that be?[6] Peter had mentioned WWII soldiers, so the twentieth century room, also with mobsters and policemen. Nineteenth century had working devices but no statues. Eighteenth century had a Revolutionary War tableau with redcoats threatening Americans; the seventeenth century room had a statue Emily had done showing clothes and textiles, but no weapons. Greek and Roman had that gormless “who’d win?” pair of mannequins, with a Roman centurion and a Spartan hoplite. The Room Before Time had an assortment of dinosaurs. The China room had a pair of stone lions.
In the greenhouse garden were a couple of statues, but that wasn’t on the line to the vault. The arts side of the museum had other statues, but again: no weapons.
Succubus checked the cinema room. There were no seats there but a wall bench and some trash bins.[7] She spotted a thin brown leg behind one of the bins, mostly hidden. She crept over and checked.
Thin brown leg belonged to a small girl in hiding. Succubus held her finger up to her mouth for quiet, and picked the girl up. The girl weighed nothing. Succubus looked around but couldn’t see her parents.
Succubus carried the girl into the foyer and saw a shadow outside for destination.[8] She concentrated for a long moment, because she wasn’t used to carrying passengers, but the girl was small and maybe….
The afternoon heat hit her after the air-conditioned interior of the museum. She set the girl down. “You will be fine,” she told the girl, who refused to let go. Succubus repeated, “You will be fine,” as she waited for a police officer to pry her off.
The girl finally spoke. “But my sister!”
“I will look for her. What’s her name?”
“Alicia.”
“Alicia.” Succubus spotted a place inside and she ’ported back inside.
There was no one in the projection booth.
Before going down the Hall of Centuries, she broke into the electrical room and flipped all the light breakers. She could see in the dark, and she needed darkness to teleport.
Now: where would Alicia be?
The twentieth century room? Statues were animated there, so victims might be trapped there. Blind ’ports hurt, but if she were on the far side of the room she’d be out of view of the “men” in the room, who would be looking at the door.[9]
She appeared behind a display case,[10] but no one noticed her. She looked around. There were two mobsters, but she didn’t see any soldiers. Are the animated mannequins “he” or “it”? They present as male, so “he.”
She ’ported between the mobsters [11] and back-handed each of them. Between the surprise and her strength, they were out…or un-animated. Whatever.
Peter said there were soldiers. Peter wouldn’t lie. Where are the soldiers?
They weren’t in the room. The animal roared again, off somewhere else. Succubus cautiously peeked out of the room and found the soldiers there, behind sandbags.
They didn’t seem to notice her.
She teleported behind the sandbags.[12] Two quick punches put one down before either soldier had time to react.[13]
She was pretty sure there was no energy to drain out of them — they were animated by magic or something, so there was no life force.[14] Her hand smarted from the punches. We need to make the mannequins out of softer stuff.
She had forgotten about the soldier she hadn’t hit yet. He backed up[15] and stabbed her with his bayonet; she twisted, but he grazed her and made a shallow cut.
She moved inside his range[16] and hit him twice; that put him down. She touched her side; her hand came away red with blood. Getting hurt is a bad habit to adopt. She was going to get better (of course) but this was a bad time for it. That young girl’s sister was still in here, somewhere.
Succubus moved on stealthily. She could hear stone grating on stone distantly, probably in the sculpture garden. She could also hear herself, which meant that she was not being as silent as she hoped. Perhaps she wasn’t quite recovered from the rocket blast.[17] She rounded the corner—
And found herself staring straight into a lit cannon, flanked by two red-coated soldiers[18] in British uniforms. She spotted a shadowy corner in the eighteenth-century room and ’ported immediately to it.
The cannon went off, with a tremendous roar and clouds of smoke. The cannonball went through the far wall, and it opened the electrical room. The soldiers peered through the smoke, looking for her.
She didn’t bother with banter; witticisms were more Flip-Flop’s line. She moved up beside one of the redcoats[19] and grabbed away his musket. He grabbed[20] for his musket but missed. The other soldier backed and fired.[21] The musket ball shot past her and into the wall of the nineteenth century room. The stone-on-stone sound came closer. Probably one of the sculptures from the garden.
She swung the musket up so she was using the stock as a club[22] and hit the belly of the redcoat who owned the gun, knocking him out. The other redcoat stabbed at her[23] and grazed her, slicing along her upper back.
But I just got better! Succubus arched in pain, and swung at him with the pointed end of the musket.[24] She gored him but there was no evidence: he was a statue, after all.
He missed[25] and she stepped inside his reach and “clocked him,” as The Reach would say. It stopped whatever force was animating the mannequin, and it fell to the ground, motionless.
She needed to find the other girl or woman before the animated sculpture caught up.
I hope the statue isn’t Medusa, she thought, and ’ported into the Greek & Roman room.
Nothing moved in the dim emergency lighting. She saw a woman hiding in a corner, hidden from anyone who couldn’t see in the dark.
The woman screamed and Succubus twisted: the Roman centurion statue was moving, charging at her.
The Roman centurion [26] missed, his spear stabbing over her shoulder. She tripped him[27] just at the point where an arrow grazed her thigh.[28] The Spartan warrior had also moved, and she made a disgusted sound.
While I’m getting stuck and shot, the woman might be getting into the vault! She kicked the fallen centurion[29] and spun to face the Spartan.
The Spartan raised his spear, shook it, and charged.[30]
She ducked under the charge,[31] grabbed the fallen centurion’s spear, and brought it to bear, aiming at the Spartan.
The Spartan looked at her warily while the centurion was trying to get up. The Spartan is stalling for time. Why?
Succubus[32] hit[33] the Spartan with the butt of the spear, then the prone centurion. They froze as the animating magic left them. She looked at the leg wound, frowning at the wound. Gustav had insisted no one would care about the period-inaccurate barbs. I care about the barbs. Oh, that hurts. She hobbled over to the woman’s hiding place.
“Alicia? Take my hand. I’m here to rescue you.”
“I can’t stand up,” the woman said. “We need someone to rescue both of us.”
“We are lucky I don’t need to walk,,” said Succubus. She squatted next to the woman and took her hand. “Close your eyes; this will be dizzying otherwise.” She took a deep breath and remembered how to carry another person.[34]
The problem wasn’t that she couldn’t teleport far enough, it was that she couldn’t teleport to places that weren’t shadowed, and she couldn’t teleport to places she couldn’t see. Those two limitations meant her ’ports were short range, only as far as she could see: across the room or down the hall.
She got out of the room, then into the ruined electrical room, where she paused long enough to turn off all the lights, and then into the foyer. Once in the foyer, she looked back and saw the retreating back of one of the statues. The reproduction of Apollo, it looked like.
Glad I’m not there. The reproduction carried a dory and a shield.
Another moment took the woman outside to the shadow of an ambulance. “You’ll be okay,” Succubus told the woman and let go of her hand. She disappeared back into the foyer.
Maybe that was all the victims and maybe it wasn’t, but even a good vault wouldn’t hold up forever.
If I capture her, the statues de-animate.
…Probably.
It was a single ’port to the large doors they used to bring exhibits from reconstruction into the display area. She quietly pushed one door open and went back into the reconstruction area.
Because she was looking for it, this time it was easy to see that Madame Criminal had erected some kind of transparent force barrier across the entrance to the vault. Behind it was a woman in a green outfit, clearly trying combinations, with a glowing ball conjured beside her in the darkness to provide light.
Succubus smiled, and ’ported to just behind the woman, to hit her[35] and steal some of her energy.
This woman was real and not an animated statue. The energy flooded in and healed Succubus. The other woman gasped and suddenly eldritch energy appeared around her body.
“Do not touch the Animator!” she said. The eldritch energy pulsed,[36] and hit Succubus, hard, knocking the wind from the hero. “You deserve the T. rex!” said the Animator, and the barrier disappeared to let in the dinosaur.
Succubus couldn’t breathe, and all she could imagine was to try and drain her again.[37] She was only as successful as the first time. Fortunately the eldritch shield didn’t protect the woman’s life force.
There was another roar behind them. The tyrannosaur had arrived. The staff called it “Doozy, the giant killer chicken” because it was feathered, and there had been protests that the feathers made it less scary. Doozy dove its giant head at Succubus[38] but missed.
Memo: Tell Dr. Arain that when Doozy is attacking you, the feathers do not make it less scary.
“Not me, idiot!” screamed the Animator. “Attack her!” The woman tried to push Succubus away.[39]
Succubus teleported behind Animator so the criminal was between her and Doozy. “Feed me,” Succubus said, in the creepiest way she could manage. She tried one more time to drain the woman’s life energy.[40]
Doozy hovered its head, looking for the best place to attack without attacking the Animator, as it had been told. It darted its head in,[41] but missed.
“Out. Of. My. Way!” said the Animator and she flew into the air, giving Doozy a clear path to Succubus.
Succubus moved first, ’porting up in the air and grabbing the Animator.[42] If I’m hanging off the Animator, maybe the Animator will always be in the way. She made sucking noises to try and unnerve the villain.[43]
Doozy paused, apparently uncertain.
“Off me!” screamed the Animator, having forgotten that she could create a blast that would knock Succubus out.
Succubus drained more life energy from the Animator.[44]
The Animator’s eldritch field disappeared, and they both plummeted from the ceiling. Doozy became still. Succubus landed on her hip but Animator was unconscious.
She lay on the floor, recovering. In a bit, Succubus texted the group chat. The Animator is defeated. I hurt.
There were five texts from the rest of the team telling her not to be an idiot and wait for them.
But: The vault had not been opened.
Succubus got to her feet and walked to the large doors. From there, she could see outside and was outside in one ’port. The Reach and Flip-Flop had just arrived.
“She calls herself the Animator. She is unconscious near the vault in the back.”
“You’re bleeding,” Flip-Flop said.
“I am but I will be fine.”
“Home,” The Reach said. “Rest. We’ll do the search.”
She stepped into the shadow of a tree and ’ported away.
At home, Tara put a bag of ice cubes on her hip, and then took a nap. When she woke up, she was healed.[45] She brushed her teeth and checked the news. After Flip-Flop and The Reach delivered her to the police station and left, the woman escaped from custody.
Tara sighed and put the ice pack back in the freezer. Then she put a note on the group chat, and headed back to the museum.
- To previous chapter (Sewer Kings)
- To previous chapter of Flying Solo
- To extra chapter of Flying Solo
- To next chapter of Sewer Kings
Cast
Succubus (Tara Kleine)
Animator
Apollo (Construct)
| PRW | 4 | Specialties | Spear | Qualities |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRD | 5 | ||||
| STR | 7 | ||||
| INT | - | Powers |
|
||
| AWR | 3 | ||||
| WIL | - | ||||
| Stamina | 14 | ||||
Tyrannosaurus rex (Construct)
| PRW | 5 | Specialties | Bite (+1), Running (+1) | Qualities |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRD | 3 | ||||
| STR | 8 | ||||
| INT | — | Powers |
|
||
| AWR | 4 | ||||
| WIL | — | ||||
| Stamina | 16 | ||||
Soldiers/Warriors (Constructs)
| PRW | 3 | Specialties | Weapon (+1) | Qualities |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRD | 3 | ||||
| STR | 3 | ||||
| INT | — | Powers |
|
||
| AWR | 3 | ||||
| WIL | — | ||||
| Stamina | 6 | ||||
Game Mechanics (Footnotes)
[1] Does she notice the wall across the vault? 5-4<2. Well, crap. No.
[2] Stunting Accurate for her teleport, but she takes the limit Tiring to pay that off
[3] She pauses halfway, and by the time she gets to the first encounter she’ll be fully healed.
[4] Intellect roll as a maneuver for Advantage, difficulty 3: 5-1>3. Spent on GM insight.
[5] Stealth roll: 5+0>3, so they don’t notice her.
[6] Technically, Intellect test for a Maneuver that gives her the advantage to pay for GM insight, but really: Intellect test, difficulty 4. 5+4>4. She’s got it.
[7] Alertness: 5+0=5. She spots something and has to check.
[8] Tactics: We’re going to trade lost panel for the extra Passengers.
[9] This will be the last page with these stunted extras, because we enter combat time now.
[10] Do they notice? 3-2<3. No.
[11] Calling this surprise, so they don’t get to act on this page. She uses a Coordination Maneuver to stunt Fast Attack from her Energy Drain (That’s 5+2>5), just punches each of them once because they’re minions (5+4>3, massive successes).
[12] Stealth roll for surprise: 5+0>3, so yes. That’s the only way she hits these guys: they’re CRD 0 from her point of view: 5-3>0. But she punches both of them, and they are down. In retrospect, I think making them minions was a mistake, so the centurion, the Spartan, Doozy and the Apollo statue will not beI think we’ll declare that the people animated statues are minions, but the Apollo statue or Doozy are not.
[13] Initiatives Succubus 8 Soldier 7
[14] She actually misses, but I’m going to rule that she doesn’t realize that. 5-4<3
[15] 3+2=5, so marginal hit with a Slashing 4 weapon: 2 Don’t check for killing on a marginal hit.
[16] Creating the Quality, “Too close to stab”, Prowess maneuver, difficulty 3, she rolls 5-1>3, so one activation. Then she punches twice: 5-2=3, 5+0>3, for total of 7 Stamina, and he’s down.
[17] Well, no; that’s the diegetic reason, but in game mechanical terms, she was perfectly sound.
[18] Initiatives: Succubus 7 Soldiers 6
[19] We’ve switched time scales, so she doesn’t have Fast Attack stunted any more. 5+2>3+2: she gets the musket. First soldier fails (3-3<5), so does the second (3-2<5).
[20] 3+1<5+2, so he misses by a lot. Major failure.
[21] 3+1<5 Moderate fail.
[22] Strike: 5+5>3, major success and 5+1 damage.
[23] Slash: 3+1 for weapon skill+1=5, 2 damage. Again, no killing roll on a moderate hit.
[24] 5+1>3; damage is 4
[25] 3+1-2<5, damage is 6.
[26] 3+1-3<5
[27] Prowess maneuver to create a “tripped” quality: 5+5>3, three activations, one of which is now.
[28] 3+1+1=5, so marginal hit: 1 stamina.
[29] 5+0+2>3
[30] And does poorly: 3+1-2<5. Other soldiers are down to 1 stamina.
[31] Does she grab the spear? She activates “tripped” again to indicate the centurion doesn’t have the spear any more. 5-1>0, so she’s got it.
[32] Is going to stunt Fast Attack again, spending a DP & activating Trying to be a hero
[33] 5+2>3, 5+3+2>3, with spear butt, so both knocked out.
[34] She stunts Extra: passenger, tries a Willpower roll, difficulty 3, and activates “Trying to be a hero.” Roll is 5+1>3, so she has the extra until she enters combat time.
[35] Just manages to hit her (5-1>3), but the power works well: 5+4>6, so 3 Stamina transferred .
[36] 6+0>5, so moderate hit for 8 stamina.
[37] Prowess tactic to try and get an advantage: she’s going to feint, and then hit. Feint is successful (5+2>3), hit is successful (5+0), and advantage is spent on +2 for effect. 5+2+2>6, for 3 effect.
[38] Prowess 5+1 skill -3<5, so Doozy misses
[39] 3-2<5, major failure.
[40] 5+1>3, so major hit; 5+2>6, so 1 effect.
[41] She gets +2 to defense because of Animator in the way. 5-3<5+2
[42] 5+4>3, massive success, so Animator is completely held. Energy drain is next turn, if she stays conscious.
[43] This is trying to create the Quality “creeped out.” I’ll be nice and give +1 for the voice and noises and dark, and +2 because the Animator is new at this. Willpower vs Willpower: 5+1+2+0>6. She can use this once, and she’ll activate it so that Animator does not remember her blast (creating a disability of a kind).
[44] We’re activating “Must feed with Energy Drain,” disabling regeneration as a Disability to get an advantage and spending it for +2 effect: 5+2+3>6, or 4 Stamina.
[45] She’s got her Regeneration back.
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