GURPS superheroes - session 3
Issue three, and Our Heroes (tm) are off to the frozen arctic in search of their patron’s lost nephew. Sadly, it soon becomes clear that not everything is as it appears. More to the point, not everything is as non-sentient as it appears…
[Stuart the GM fills us in on what happened to the Xect alien we captured at the end of last session.]
Staurt the GM: “He’s under government surveillance and is secure. He’s never getting out.”
Julie: “So… episode nine?”
[More of the same.]
Stuart the GM: “No, he’s really not getting out.”
Sabina: “Well, I’m convinced and not gonna worry at all.”
[As the session opens, Our Heroes (tm) are preparing for their first press conference.]
Stuart the GM: “What prep do you need to do for the press conference?”
Eric: “Armor polish!”
[Our patron, Richard Harvest, gives us some tips on handling the press conference.]
Richard Harvest: “Answer questions, be heroic, be approachable…”
Vector: “Then I guess I shouldn’t speak.”
[We approach the podium for the press conference.]
Stuart the GM: “It’s fine. There’s no snipers, no alien invaders… Everything’s fine.”
Martin: “Stop saying that!”
[First up to the podium is Fortunate Son.]
Stuart the GM: “Do you have acting?”
Robert: “No.”
Stuart the GM: “Public speaking?”
Robert: “No.”
Stuart the GM: “Anything social?”
Robert: “Shyness!”
[We each take our turns answering questions from the reporters.]
Reporter: “Daisy, do you have any powers?”
Daisy: “Yes.”
Reporter: “Are they plant-related?”
Daisy: “No. Should they be?”
[With the press conference over, Harvest sends us on an urgent mission, for which we must get to the airport.]
Vector: “To the Spectrum-mobile!”
Richard Harvest: “There’s a car waiting outside.”
Fortunate Son: “Can we call it the Spectrum-mobile?”
Richard Harvest: “…Sure.”
[We gear up for our mission.]
Stuart the GM: “Just remember the boxing-glove baton is an imprecise weapon.”
[Our mission takes us to a research base in the arctic.]
Sabina: “Where in the arctic are we going exactly?”
Stuart the GM: “One of the northern icy bits.”
[It turns out that there has been no contact from any of the researchers at the base, including Richard Harvest’s nephew. As we approach, we see vehicles with the markings of the Agent of Change have arrived before us.]
Stuart the GM: “You may be facing another hostage situation with the same agents.”
Eric: “Oh, c’mon, what are the odds of that?”
[We move towards the facility. It has already been forcibly broken into.]
Stuart the GM: “You saw what might have been a landmine but is probably just a bump in the snow. Probably.”
[We make time for some idle chit-chat as we approach the base.]
Robert: “Oh, God, I just realized that if we get famous enough, rule 34 will apply to us.”
Eric: “It probably already does.”
Stuart the GM: “You did one press conference. That’s enough.”
[We enter the research facility through its loading bay.]
Stuart the GM: “Everything is very quiet.”
Eric: “Stomp, stomp, stomp…”
[We find a dead body inside a locked room.]
Stuart: “The body isn’t acting as you’d expect.”
Eric: “Well, it’s just lying there, so it’s doing pretty much what we’d expect.”
[As we move further in, we come upon a barricaded door. There are people behind it, but we don’t know yet if they’re friend or foe.]
Voice Behind Door: “Who are you?”
Daisy: “…We’re from the mainland.”
[It turns out the people behind the barricaded door are in fact the Agent of Change and some of his minions.]
Neon Knight: “Just to make it official, you are under arrest, you do have the right to remain silent…”
Stuart the GM: “Which is synonymous with ‘roll initiative.’”
[Neon Knight goes first.]
Staurt the GM: “Go ahead.”
Eric: “I’m going to pump him full of superheated charges. I will shoot him as I have rarely shot things before.”
[Cortex tries mind-reading the Agent of Change. Which works, very briefly, until Neon Knight shoots him.]
Julie: “He’s really dead?”
Martin: “You’re reading a test pattern.”
[Having now taken out the Agent of Change…]
Robert: “How many people are in front of me?”
Stuart the GM: “There are now five.”
[With their leader dead, the tide of combat shifts.]
Minions: *raise hands in surrender*
Daisy: “You’re all arrested. You should have been arrested from the first, and there would have been no shooting.”
[We return to our ship to find the back half sheared off and our pilot missing in the worsening storm.]
Robert: “Does anyone know how to build an igloo?”
[With no easy means of egress, we return to the research facility. Reluctantly.]
Stuart the GM: “Why is the lab scary? It’s just old.”
Robert: “And deadly.”
[We consider our situation.]
Vector: “You don’t feel lucky?”
Fortunate Son: “I feel like certain things that have happened today have not been lucky.”
[We find the staff cafeteria. The glass skylight has been shattered inwards.]
Martin: “Frozen meatloaf, frozen drinks…”
Stuart the GM: “Frozen staff.”
Julie: “Let’s not eat the staff.”
Robert: “You say that now…”
[As we continue onward, we encounter a corpse that doesn’t have the decency to stop moving. Combat ensues.]
Fortunate Son: *shoots it with darts*
Stuart the GM: “There are three darts sticking out of its chest.”
Robert: “I assume it acts like it doesn’t notice?”
Stuart the GM: “Correct!”
[Daisy uses the punch baton.]
Stuart the GM: “The boxing glove hits the head with extreme force. The head bends 90 degrees backwards…”
Eric the GM: “I think we see why the previous team stopped using this thing.”
[Daisy, because of her time-rewinding ability, is able to fix the baton and make it useable again.]
Stuart the GM: “For anyone else, this would be a single-use weapon. For you, it’s effectively unlimited. I did not consider that when I gave it to you.”
[We find the researchers’ rooms. In one, we find a laptop.]
Martin: “Anything interesting on the laptop?”
Robert: “Half-eaten brain?”
Eric the GM: “He wouldn’t eat just half a brain!”
[We find more researchers’ rooms and more laptops.]
Stuart the GM: “This one is a psychologist.”
Martin: “And you know all of them are evil!”
[We spend some time in the psychologist’s room.]
Julie: “The question is, what’s a psychologist doing up here?”
Eric: “Shambling in the corridor.”
[We go to the lab of the supervillain who originally worked in the station, Dr. Mahler. While most of the team investigates the lab, Cortex keeps watch outside. Sadly, she fails her perception roll.]
Stuart the GM: “The good news is there’s not one of the zombie things.”
Julie: “The bad news is there are multiple of the zombie things?”
Stuart the GM: “Yes.”
[The zombie things attack Cortex. The rest of the team is still in the lab.]
Stuart the GM: “Would you like to enter combat or would you like to watch them devour her?”
[Cortext is heavily injured, and the zombies are preparing for another attack.]
Julie: “It was nice knowing you all. Have a great campaign.”
Stuart the GM: “No, no. We’ll just make sure you have an equally interesting character next game.”
Eric: “You could be a ninja ice zombie.”
[While both Cortex and Fortunate Son were injured by the zombie things and beginning to feel some sort of strange effect from their wounds, Daisy is able to rewind time so they are uninjured.]
Eric: “The one downside is we don’t know what would have happened to you.”
Julie: “I’m okay with that.”
[We continue on and discover something we had all suspected and feared.]
Martin: “Holy shit, Cold Fury is the glacier! How fucked are we? Let’s count the ways…”
[Yes, it seems the glacier that’s taken over two-thirds of the building is in fact former superhero Cold Fury, apparently twisted and only barely sentient. And angry.]
Stuart the GM: “What do you want to do?”
Sabina: “Not be on the second floor.”
[We realize that Cold Fury has taken over most of the building in a matter of days or weeks.]
Martin: “Glaciers don’t move that fast.”
Eric: “What if it has a lot of motivation?”
[Cortex tries to mind-read the glacier.]
Vector: “So there’s no communication at all?”
Cortex: “Oh, there’s communication. It’s just all angry.”
[As we run away from the building, we theorize that the way the zombies are formed is by contact with the glacier ice that is Cold Fury.]
Robert: “Okay, this is not an appropriate time to catch snowflakes on your tongue.”
[We come up with an excellent idea for how to proceed.]
Robert: “Run!”
Martin: “Run where?!”
Robert: “The opposite direction!”
[Not all of us are inclined to run.]
Eric: “I have an idea.”
Stuart the GM: “Is it a good idea?”
Eric: “It’s a heroic idea.”
[Eric elaborates on his idea.]
Eric: “Traditionally there’s only one way heroes solve problems. I’m gonna punch this thing.”
[Neon Knight flies up in an attempt to punch the glacier.]
Stuart the GM: “What are you doing as he does this?”
Julie: “Staring dumbfounded?”
Sabina: “Recording it on my phone’s camera.”
[Neon Knight succeeds in punching the glacier and dislocating part of its nose. Of course, now it’s even more angry.]
Stuart the GM: “The giant hands are trying to reach you.”
Eric: “You ever try to catch a mosquito?”
[We finally bring down the glacier, aka Cold Fury. Of course, there are still a few loose ends to tie up. Like the Agent of Change’s minions.]
Robert: “What are we gonna do about the guys in the other flier?”
Sabina: “We should probably arrest them.”
[We return to civilization.]
Stuart the GM: “The video of Neon Knight punching the glacier goes viral.”
Julie: “How many conspiracy theories are there saying it’s fake?”
Stuart the GM: “Surprisingly few!”
[As the session wraps up…]
Martin: “Let’s get a drink.”
Eric: “I think an adventure like this calls for hot cocoa.”
[Stuart the GM fills us in on what happened to the Xect alien we captured at the end of last session.]
Staurt the GM: “He’s under government surveillance and is secure. He’s never getting out.”
Julie: “So… episode nine?”
[More of the same.]
Stuart the GM: “No, he’s really not getting out.”
Sabina: “Well, I’m convinced and not gonna worry at all.”
[As the session opens, Our Heroes (tm) are preparing for their first press conference.]
Stuart the GM: “What prep do you need to do for the press conference?”
Eric: “Armor polish!”
[Our patron, Richard Harvest, gives us some tips on handling the press conference.]
Richard Harvest: “Answer questions, be heroic, be approachable…”
Vector: “Then I guess I shouldn’t speak.”
[We approach the podium for the press conference.]
Stuart the GM: “It’s fine. There’s no snipers, no alien invaders… Everything’s fine.”
Martin: “Stop saying that!”
[First up to the podium is Fortunate Son.]
Stuart the GM: “Do you have acting?”
Robert: “No.”
Stuart the GM: “Public speaking?”
Robert: “No.”
Stuart the GM: “Anything social?”
Robert: “Shyness!”
[We each take our turns answering questions from the reporters.]
Reporter: “Daisy, do you have any powers?”
Daisy: “Yes.”
Reporter: “Are they plant-related?”
Daisy: “No. Should they be?”
[With the press conference over, Harvest sends us on an urgent mission, for which we must get to the airport.]
Vector: “To the Spectrum-mobile!”
Richard Harvest: “There’s a car waiting outside.”
Fortunate Son: “Can we call it the Spectrum-mobile?”
Richard Harvest: “…Sure.”
[We gear up for our mission.]
Stuart the GM: “Just remember the boxing-glove baton is an imprecise weapon.”
[Our mission takes us to a research base in the arctic.]
Sabina: “Where in the arctic are we going exactly?”
Stuart the GM: “One of the northern icy bits.”
[It turns out that there has been no contact from any of the researchers at the base, including Richard Harvest’s nephew. As we approach, we see vehicles with the markings of the Agent of Change have arrived before us.]
Stuart the GM: “You may be facing another hostage situation with the same agents.”
Eric: “Oh, c’mon, what are the odds of that?”
[We move towards the facility. It has already been forcibly broken into.]
Stuart the GM: “You saw what might have been a landmine but is probably just a bump in the snow. Probably.”
[We make time for some idle chit-chat as we approach the base.]
Robert: “Oh, God, I just realized that if we get famous enough, rule 34 will apply to us.”
Eric: “It probably already does.”
Stuart the GM: “You did one press conference. That’s enough.”
[We enter the research facility through its loading bay.]
Stuart the GM: “Everything is very quiet.”
Eric: “Stomp, stomp, stomp…”
[We find a dead body inside a locked room.]
Stuart: “The body isn’t acting as you’d expect.”
Eric: “Well, it’s just lying there, so it’s doing pretty much what we’d expect.”
[As we move further in, we come upon a barricaded door. There are people behind it, but we don’t know yet if they’re friend or foe.]
Voice Behind Door: “Who are you?”
Daisy: “…We’re from the mainland.”
[It turns out the people behind the barricaded door are in fact the Agent of Change and some of his minions.]
Neon Knight: “Just to make it official, you are under arrest, you do have the right to remain silent…”
Stuart the GM: “Which is synonymous with ‘roll initiative.’”
[Neon Knight goes first.]
Staurt the GM: “Go ahead.”
Eric: “I’m going to pump him full of superheated charges. I will shoot him as I have rarely shot things before.”
[Cortex tries mind-reading the Agent of Change. Which works, very briefly, until Neon Knight shoots him.]
Julie: “He’s really dead?”
Martin: “You’re reading a test pattern.”
[Having now taken out the Agent of Change…]
Robert: “How many people are in front of me?”
Stuart the GM: “There are now five.”
[With their leader dead, the tide of combat shifts.]
Minions: *raise hands in surrender*
Daisy: “You’re all arrested. You should have been arrested from the first, and there would have been no shooting.”
[We return to our ship to find the back half sheared off and our pilot missing in the worsening storm.]
Robert: “Does anyone know how to build an igloo?”
[With no easy means of egress, we return to the research facility. Reluctantly.]
Stuart the GM: “Why is the lab scary? It’s just old.”
Robert: “And deadly.”
[We consider our situation.]
Vector: “You don’t feel lucky?”
Fortunate Son: “I feel like certain things that have happened today have not been lucky.”
[We find the staff cafeteria. The glass skylight has been shattered inwards.]
Martin: “Frozen meatloaf, frozen drinks…”
Stuart the GM: “Frozen staff.”
Julie: “Let’s not eat the staff.”
Robert: “You say that now…”
[As we continue onward, we encounter a corpse that doesn’t have the decency to stop moving. Combat ensues.]
Fortunate Son: *shoots it with darts*
Stuart the GM: “There are three darts sticking out of its chest.”
Robert: “I assume it acts like it doesn’t notice?”
Stuart the GM: “Correct!”
[Daisy uses the punch baton.]
Stuart the GM: “The boxing glove hits the head with extreme force. The head bends 90 degrees backwards…”
Eric the GM: “I think we see why the previous team stopped using this thing.”
[Daisy, because of her time-rewinding ability, is able to fix the baton and make it useable again.]
Stuart the GM: “For anyone else, this would be a single-use weapon. For you, it’s effectively unlimited. I did not consider that when I gave it to you.”
[We find the researchers’ rooms. In one, we find a laptop.]
Martin: “Anything interesting on the laptop?”
Robert: “Half-eaten brain?”
Eric the GM: “He wouldn’t eat just half a brain!”
[We find more researchers’ rooms and more laptops.]
Stuart the GM: “This one is a psychologist.”
Martin: “And you know all of them are evil!”
[We spend some time in the psychologist’s room.]
Julie: “The question is, what’s a psychologist doing up here?”
Eric: “Shambling in the corridor.”
[We go to the lab of the supervillain who originally worked in the station, Dr. Mahler. While most of the team investigates the lab, Cortex keeps watch outside. Sadly, she fails her perception roll.]
Stuart the GM: “The good news is there’s not one of the zombie things.”
Julie: “The bad news is there are multiple of the zombie things?”
Stuart the GM: “Yes.”
[The zombie things attack Cortex. The rest of the team is still in the lab.]
Stuart the GM: “Would you like to enter combat or would you like to watch them devour her?”
[Cortext is heavily injured, and the zombies are preparing for another attack.]
Julie: “It was nice knowing you all. Have a great campaign.”
Stuart the GM: “No, no. We’ll just make sure you have an equally interesting character next game.”
Eric: “You could be a ninja ice zombie.”
[While both Cortex and Fortunate Son were injured by the zombie things and beginning to feel some sort of strange effect from their wounds, Daisy is able to rewind time so they are uninjured.]
Eric: “The one downside is we don’t know what would have happened to you.”
Julie: “I’m okay with that.”
[We continue on and discover something we had all suspected and feared.]
Martin: “Holy shit, Cold Fury is the glacier! How fucked are we? Let’s count the ways…”
[Yes, it seems the glacier that’s taken over two-thirds of the building is in fact former superhero Cold Fury, apparently twisted and only barely sentient. And angry.]
Stuart the GM: “What do you want to do?”
Sabina: “Not be on the second floor.”
[We realize that Cold Fury has taken over most of the building in a matter of days or weeks.]
Martin: “Glaciers don’t move that fast.”
Eric: “What if it has a lot of motivation?”
[Cortex tries to mind-read the glacier.]
Vector: “So there’s no communication at all?”
Cortex: “Oh, there’s communication. It’s just all angry.”
[As we run away from the building, we theorize that the way the zombies are formed is by contact with the glacier ice that is Cold Fury.]
Robert: “Okay, this is not an appropriate time to catch snowflakes on your tongue.”
[We come up with an excellent idea for how to proceed.]
Robert: “Run!”
Martin: “Run where?!”
Robert: “The opposite direction!”
[Not all of us are inclined to run.]
Eric: “I have an idea.”
Stuart the GM: “Is it a good idea?”
Eric: “It’s a heroic idea.”
[Eric elaborates on his idea.]
Eric: “Traditionally there’s only one way heroes solve problems. I’m gonna punch this thing.”
[Neon Knight flies up in an attempt to punch the glacier.]
Stuart the GM: “What are you doing as he does this?”
Julie: “Staring dumbfounded?”
Sabina: “Recording it on my phone’s camera.”
[Neon Knight succeeds in punching the glacier and dislocating part of its nose. Of course, now it’s even more angry.]
Stuart the GM: “The giant hands are trying to reach you.”
Eric: “You ever try to catch a mosquito?”
[We finally bring down the glacier, aka Cold Fury. Of course, there are still a few loose ends to tie up. Like the Agent of Change’s minions.]
Robert: “What are we gonna do about the guys in the other flier?”
Sabina: “We should probably arrest them.”
[We return to civilization.]
Stuart the GM: “The video of Neon Knight punching the glacier goes viral.”
Julie: “How many conspiracy theories are there saying it’s fake?”
Stuart the GM: “Surprisingly few!”
[As the session wraps up…]
Martin: “Let’s get a drink.”
Eric: “I think an adventure like this calls for hot cocoa.”