GURPS superheroes - session 4
The death of a giant! As Our Heroes (tm) are still reeling from the death of Earth’s foremost metahuman, the Paragon, the meet some of their superhero counterparts and start investigating a jewelry theft that may not be as mundane as it seems…
[Our Heroes (tm) attend the funeral for the Paragon.]
Vector; “Why are we here again? We don’t belong with these guys.”
[The funeral is full of superheroes from throughout America and the world.]
Stuart the GM: “Everyone’s on good behaviour. If a fight breaks out here…”
Julie: “The building’s destroyed, the block’s destroyed, probably the city’s destroyed…”
[The Paragon’s great-grandson, Breakdown, starts the eulogy.]
Breakdown: “Thank you all for being here. It’s not every day you get so many heroes together without punching each other.”
[At the reception after the funeral, the PCs mingle with some of the other heroes. Daisy speaks with Raven, a Native American serving on the New Legion team.]
Raven: “My grandfather died many, many years ago.”
Daisy: “I’m sorry.”
Raven: “It didn’t stop him from helping to raise me.”
[Meanwhile, Fortunate Son speaks with the Legion of Awesome, a woman who can create replicas of herself.]
Legion of Awesome: “When you’re facing off against cyborg-velociprators…”
Fortunate Son: “We had that just last week.”
Legion of Awesome: (dismayed) “I thought we stopped them!”
Fortunate Son: “…I was joking.”
Legion of Awesome: *relieved look*
[Cortex finds herself speaking with Starlight, leader of Project Tomorrow, who we met in a previous session. Starlight tries to get her to comment on some wild theories about the other members of Spectrum.]
Cortext: “I think at this solemn occasion, it would be best not to speculate on conspiracy theories, don’t you?”
Starlight: “…You’re absolutely right. Thank you for the reminder.”
Julie: “Yeah, she’s totally recording this.”
[Vector is approached by 947-B, a robot who serves on the Protectors, to ask whether Vector’s force-fields could control the weather over the whole planet. 947-B was originally designed by a supervillain and reprogrammed. It… kinda shows.]
947-B: “All of humanity must be saved.”
Robert: “From the weather?”
Eric: “From everything, apparently.”
[More of the same.]
947-B: “We must save humanity from itself, by any means necessary.”
Robert: “Well, that’s not alarming.”
[The PCs leave the reception and discuss their impressions.]
Vector: “These people are weird.”
Daisy: “I met some really nice people!”
Fortunate Son: “That doesn’t mean they’re not weird.”
[Our Heroes (tm) investigate a nearby alarm at an antiques store.]
Antiques Store Owner: “We have security cameras all over this whole place! We’ll see who did this!”
Eric: “I wonder if you can record explosive runes.”
[Fortunate Son is fortunate enough to capture a split-second screenshot on an otherwise unremarkable video feed, revealing that the thief was a supervillain called Speed-Thing.]
Stuart the GM: “The Speed-Thing’s powers are…”
Julie: “Speed?
Stuart: “Yes! And…?”
Julie: “Things?”
Stuart: “Yes! Exactly!”
[Speed-Thing has apparently stolen two of three pieces in a set: one from the shop and one from one of its customers. Another customer has a final piece. We try to decide whether to rush to the scene of the potentially-impending crime, and ultimately decide not to.]
Eric: “The irony of super-fast people is you’re rarely in a rush when you’re fighting them.”
[Cortex reaches out to the Seer again to try to figure out if there is anything special about the jewelry pieces, which used to be owned by a known occultist. We are teleported to the headquarters of the New Legion to discuss the situation.]
Stuart the GM: “There’s an odd sensation…”
Julie: “How horrible is it?”
Stuart the GM: “It’s not.”
[Discussing various superpowers of the team’s members.]
Sabina: “When you can decapitate someone, you don’t need fire powers.”
[As we’re discussing, the New Legion is distracted by their alarm going off.]
Ifreet: “Dragonheart, what’s happening?”
Dragonheart: “Doomling infestation.”
Fortunate Son: “Little dooms?”
Dragonheart: “No, pretty big dooms.”
[We return to New York and go see the customer who has the final piece of jewelry.]
John Montgomery: (thinking) “Don’t ask to see it, don’t ask to see it, don’t ask to see it…”
Cortex: “May we see it?”
[We continue to press to see the final piece of jewelry, a cloak clasp, to no avail. Cortex is still reading his mind, as we have had some mixed signals about whether the Montgomerys are working with a supervillain.]
Stuart the GM: “All he’s thinking is, ‘stop bothering me, you annoying woman, and get out.’”
Julie: “I’m okay with that.”
[Cortex reports on the results of her mind-reading.]
Julie: “I’ve determined he is… mostly harmless.”
[Vector sums up what we know so far.]
Vector: “The supervillain wanted one item, the other is ambiguous, and the third is… in the Montgomerys’ dungeon.”
[We head over to the home of the other customer, the Smiths. We are not supposed to know who they are, but Cortext read the mind of the antique shop owner.]
Robert: “We’ll tell them we have access to certain records because of our superhero status. Memories are a kind of record.”
[We are greeted by the doorman of the Smiths’ building. He initially does not let us in.]
Martin: “Let’s wait a few minutes, ask once more politely, and then decrease the level of politeness.”
[We meet the Smiths. Pleasantries are exchanged.]
Mrs. Smith: “Can I offer you some tea?”
Fortunate Son: “Thank you.”
Stuart the GM: “What does your character generally drink?”
Robert: “Coffee.”
Stuart the GM: “She comes out a few minutes later and says, ‘We seem to have run out of tea. Can I offer you coffee?’”
[We realize that the Speed-Thing has likely stolen the Smiths’ jewelry item as well, though the Montgomerys still seem to have theirs. But for how long…?]
Daisy: “If you were gonna steal it, how would you do it?”
Julie: “I do not mention my background in petty crime.”
[We take a break for dinner. When we reconvene…]
Stuart the GM: “So, a plan had formed…”
Julie: “I don’t think that’s true.”
[We get some advice from Zipper, a speed-based superhero.]
Zipper: “Fourth option: wait for him to go in, boom.”
Robert: “How much do we like these people?”
Julie: “Not enough to blow them up!”
[We put a tracker on the Montgomerys’ clasp, and then there’s nothing to do but wait.]
Julie: “We do unrelated things.”
Robert: “I have some girls to call!”
[The Montgomerys have been hesitant to let us see their cape clasp because - we have surreptitiously found out - they keep it in their dungeon.]
Vector: “Do we want to know what’s in the dungeon?”
Cortex: “If you’d asked me three years ago, my answer would have been different.”
[Indeed, the Speed-Thing steals the Montgomerys’ cape clasp. We are on the chase! But first, some words of warning from our sponsor.]
Richard Harvest: “Be careful! This thing isn’t worth your…”
Neon Knight: “It may be worth our lives.”
Daisy: “It’s not worth mine.”
[We get to the general neighbourhood where the clasp has been taken, a run-down warehouse district. Neon Knight does some sleuthing.]
Cortex: “Why’d you ask about the shoes?”
Neon Knight: “Supervillains never think to put on fake shoes. They just get the jacket and the hat.”
[Having narrowed down our search to the building where Speed-Thing is presumably hiding, our priorities shift to the next matter at hand.]
Daisy: “I guess the question is how to get to punch him before he punches us.”
Neon Knight: “I intend to ignore that he’s punching me.”
[We confront the Speed-Thing on his home turf. Surprisingly, he does not run away.]
Speed-Thing: “Okay, I’ve been here before. Let’s go.” *cracks knuckles*
[Combat ensues.]
Stuart the GM: “Initiatives?”
Eric and Julie: “Six.”
Robert: “What’s his initiative?”
Stuart the GM: “…Higher.”
[Combat continues to ensue.]
Daisy: *smashes Speed-Thing with her boxing-glove baton*
Martin: “He didn’t see that coming.”
Stuart the GM: “He really didn’t. No one ever does.”
[The good news is we’ve taken out our first supervillain. The bad news is he had friends.]
The Nefarious Mr. E: “I see the Spectrum is onto my associate.”
Eric: “Can I attack him while he’s monologuing?”
Stuart the GM: “No.”
[Just before the Nefarious Mr. E disappears with Speed-Thing, Cortex reads his mind to realize he’s working with or for ‘the Society of Evil Intent.’]
Eric: “I’m vaguely disappointed the evil society’s name doesn’t spell out a clever acronym.”
[Our Heroes (tm) attend the funeral for the Paragon.]
Vector; “Why are we here again? We don’t belong with these guys.”
[The funeral is full of superheroes from throughout America and the world.]
Stuart the GM: “Everyone’s on good behaviour. If a fight breaks out here…”
Julie: “The building’s destroyed, the block’s destroyed, probably the city’s destroyed…”
[The Paragon’s great-grandson, Breakdown, starts the eulogy.]
Breakdown: “Thank you all for being here. It’s not every day you get so many heroes together without punching each other.”
[At the reception after the funeral, the PCs mingle with some of the other heroes. Daisy speaks with Raven, a Native American serving on the New Legion team.]
Raven: “My grandfather died many, many years ago.”
Daisy: “I’m sorry.”
Raven: “It didn’t stop him from helping to raise me.”
[Meanwhile, Fortunate Son speaks with the Legion of Awesome, a woman who can create replicas of herself.]
Legion of Awesome: “When you’re facing off against cyborg-velociprators…”
Fortunate Son: “We had that just last week.”
Legion of Awesome: (dismayed) “I thought we stopped them!”
Fortunate Son: “…I was joking.”
Legion of Awesome: *relieved look*
[Cortex finds herself speaking with Starlight, leader of Project Tomorrow, who we met in a previous session. Starlight tries to get her to comment on some wild theories about the other members of Spectrum.]
Cortext: “I think at this solemn occasion, it would be best not to speculate on conspiracy theories, don’t you?”
Starlight: “…You’re absolutely right. Thank you for the reminder.”
Julie: “Yeah, she’s totally recording this.”
[Vector is approached by 947-B, a robot who serves on the Protectors, to ask whether Vector’s force-fields could control the weather over the whole planet. 947-B was originally designed by a supervillain and reprogrammed. It… kinda shows.]
947-B: “All of humanity must be saved.”
Robert: “From the weather?”
Eric: “From everything, apparently.”
[More of the same.]
947-B: “We must save humanity from itself, by any means necessary.”
Robert: “Well, that’s not alarming.”
[The PCs leave the reception and discuss their impressions.]
Vector: “These people are weird.”
Daisy: “I met some really nice people!”
Fortunate Son: “That doesn’t mean they’re not weird.”
[Our Heroes (tm) investigate a nearby alarm at an antiques store.]
Antiques Store Owner: “We have security cameras all over this whole place! We’ll see who did this!”
Eric: “I wonder if you can record explosive runes.”
[Fortunate Son is fortunate enough to capture a split-second screenshot on an otherwise unremarkable video feed, revealing that the thief was a supervillain called Speed-Thing.]
Stuart the GM: “The Speed-Thing’s powers are…”
Julie: “Speed?
Stuart: “Yes! And…?”
Julie: “Things?”
Stuart: “Yes! Exactly!”
[Speed-Thing has apparently stolen two of three pieces in a set: one from the shop and one from one of its customers. Another customer has a final piece. We try to decide whether to rush to the scene of the potentially-impending crime, and ultimately decide not to.]
Eric: “The irony of super-fast people is you’re rarely in a rush when you’re fighting them.”
[Cortex reaches out to the Seer again to try to figure out if there is anything special about the jewelry pieces, which used to be owned by a known occultist. We are teleported to the headquarters of the New Legion to discuss the situation.]
Stuart the GM: “There’s an odd sensation…”
Julie: “How horrible is it?”
Stuart the GM: “It’s not.”
[Discussing various superpowers of the team’s members.]
Sabina: “When you can decapitate someone, you don’t need fire powers.”
[As we’re discussing, the New Legion is distracted by their alarm going off.]
Ifreet: “Dragonheart, what’s happening?”
Dragonheart: “Doomling infestation.”
Fortunate Son: “Little dooms?”
Dragonheart: “No, pretty big dooms.”
[We return to New York and go see the customer who has the final piece of jewelry.]
John Montgomery: (thinking) “Don’t ask to see it, don’t ask to see it, don’t ask to see it…”
Cortex: “May we see it?”
[We continue to press to see the final piece of jewelry, a cloak clasp, to no avail. Cortex is still reading his mind, as we have had some mixed signals about whether the Montgomerys are working with a supervillain.]
Stuart the GM: “All he’s thinking is, ‘stop bothering me, you annoying woman, and get out.’”
Julie: “I’m okay with that.”
[Cortex reports on the results of her mind-reading.]
Julie: “I’ve determined he is… mostly harmless.”
[Vector sums up what we know so far.]
Vector: “The supervillain wanted one item, the other is ambiguous, and the third is… in the Montgomerys’ dungeon.”
[We head over to the home of the other customer, the Smiths. We are not supposed to know who they are, but Cortext read the mind of the antique shop owner.]
Robert: “We’ll tell them we have access to certain records because of our superhero status. Memories are a kind of record.”
[We are greeted by the doorman of the Smiths’ building. He initially does not let us in.]
Martin: “Let’s wait a few minutes, ask once more politely, and then decrease the level of politeness.”
[We meet the Smiths. Pleasantries are exchanged.]
Mrs. Smith: “Can I offer you some tea?”
Fortunate Son: “Thank you.”
Stuart the GM: “What does your character generally drink?”
Robert: “Coffee.”
Stuart the GM: “She comes out a few minutes later and says, ‘We seem to have run out of tea. Can I offer you coffee?’”
[We realize that the Speed-Thing has likely stolen the Smiths’ jewelry item as well, though the Montgomerys still seem to have theirs. But for how long…?]
Daisy: “If you were gonna steal it, how would you do it?”
Julie: “I do not mention my background in petty crime.”
[We take a break for dinner. When we reconvene…]
Stuart the GM: “So, a plan had formed…”
Julie: “I don’t think that’s true.”
[We get some advice from Zipper, a speed-based superhero.]
Zipper: “Fourth option: wait for him to go in, boom.”
Robert: “How much do we like these people?”
Julie: “Not enough to blow them up!”
[We put a tracker on the Montgomerys’ clasp, and then there’s nothing to do but wait.]
Julie: “We do unrelated things.”
Robert: “I have some girls to call!”
[The Montgomerys have been hesitant to let us see their cape clasp because - we have surreptitiously found out - they keep it in their dungeon.]
Vector: “Do we want to know what’s in the dungeon?”
Cortex: “If you’d asked me three years ago, my answer would have been different.”
[Indeed, the Speed-Thing steals the Montgomerys’ cape clasp. We are on the chase! But first, some words of warning from our sponsor.]
Richard Harvest: “Be careful! This thing isn’t worth your…”
Neon Knight: “It may be worth our lives.”
Daisy: “It’s not worth mine.”
[We get to the general neighbourhood where the clasp has been taken, a run-down warehouse district. Neon Knight does some sleuthing.]
Cortex: “Why’d you ask about the shoes?”
Neon Knight: “Supervillains never think to put on fake shoes. They just get the jacket and the hat.”
[Having narrowed down our search to the building where Speed-Thing is presumably hiding, our priorities shift to the next matter at hand.]
Daisy: “I guess the question is how to get to punch him before he punches us.”
Neon Knight: “I intend to ignore that he’s punching me.”
[We confront the Speed-Thing on his home turf. Surprisingly, he does not run away.]
Speed-Thing: “Okay, I’ve been here before. Let’s go.” *cracks knuckles*
[Combat ensues.]
Stuart the GM: “Initiatives?”
Eric and Julie: “Six.”
Robert: “What’s his initiative?”
Stuart the GM: “…Higher.”
[Combat continues to ensue.]
Daisy: *smashes Speed-Thing with her boxing-glove baton*
Martin: “He didn’t see that coming.”
Stuart the GM: “He really didn’t. No one ever does.”
[The good news is we’ve taken out our first supervillain. The bad news is he had friends.]
The Nefarious Mr. E: “I see the Spectrum is onto my associate.”
Eric: “Can I attack him while he’s monologuing?”
Stuart the GM: “No.”
[Just before the Nefarious Mr. E disappears with Speed-Thing, Cortex reads his mind to realize he’s working with or for ‘the Society of Evil Intent.’]
Eric: “I’m vaguely disappointed the evil society’s name doesn’t spell out a clever acronym.”