GURPS superheroes - session 6
What’s creepier than a carnival? A haunted carnival, that’s what! Especially one inhabited by plenty of supervillains! Not that that’s ever stopped Our Heroes (tm) before…
[We begin the adventure in media res, having just killed a group of ninjas apparently trying to kidnap the mayor.]
Daisy: “Who would want to kidnap the poor mayor?”
Stuart the GM: “You don’t know.”
[More on the would-be kidnappers.]
Eric: “Ninjas typically work better by being out of the public eye.”
Stuart the GM: “They’re pretty new to this. You get the sense they won’t be around for long.”
[We return to the matter at hand: finding the Society of Evil Intent.]
Cortex: *looking pointedly at Fortunate Son* “What we need now is a lead. It would be really fortunate if we had one.”
[Our Heroes (tm) are called to the wharfs, where a significant portion of a temporary carnival has been blocked out by a globe of preternatural darkness.]
Vector: “This doesn’t happen just by accident.”
Cortex: “Usually.”
[Within the globe of darkness, we discover a bizarre - and bizarrely empty - carnival.]
Neon Knight: “I think we should start at the ticket booth.”
Vector: “That would be the reasonable thing, so why would we do it?”
[Stuart the GM sets the scene.]
Stuart the GM: “One building’s labeled ‘House of Horrors.’ One’s labeled ‘Funhouse’…”
Eric: “That worries me more, honestly.”
[You need to be careful what you say around Stuart the GM.]
Martin: “I’m getting into the creepy carnival frame of mind - kill me now.”
Stuart the GM: “Really?”
Martin: “No.”
[We go to the Midway, where we are approached by the Majestic Master of the Midway.]
Majestic Master of the Midway: “We have a variety of prizes!”
Martin: “I’d like the plot coupon, please.”
[There is a case of prizes, among which is a glowing, golden ticket piece we suspect we will need.]
Eric: “I try to take a prize.”
Stuart the GM: “It’s in a glass case.”
Eric: “Glass isn’t known for its resistance to smashing.”
[The Majestic Master of the Midway tells us that if we win five games, we can have a prize.]
Neon Knight: “How many tries do we get?”
Majestic Master of the Midway: “…I don’t understand.”
[One game is a dance competition.]
Fortunate Son: “How do you judge if we win?”
Majestic Master of the Midway: “I am not a dance critic - I leave that to the dance-o-meter.”
Robert: “The dance-o-meter is a critic of the arts.”
[Fortunate Son attempts to dance well enough for the dance-o-meter. He fails his first attempt.]
Robert: “Do I feel like I’m missing a piece of my soul?”
Stuart the GM: “It’s hard to tell…”
[Daisy also fails her first attempt.]
Sabina: “What am I feeling?”
Stuart the GM: “Not the beat.”
[Another game is a ball-toss at a stack of milk bottles.]
Neon Knight: *throws ball hard enough to embed the ball in the far wall*
Majestic Master of the Midway: “…Have you considered a professional career in baseball, sir?”
[Next, we go to the haunted house. And begin smashing things.]
Daisy: “I dunno, guys, we’re causing a lot of damage to this-”
Neon Knight: “Yes.”
[From the outside, the house of horrors appeared to be 20 x 20. Which is strange, given that we’ve already been through a number of rooms.]
Stuart: “This room is 20 x 20.”
Julie: “So it’s bigger on the inside.”
Eric: “Or smaller on the outside!”
[One room of the house of horrors is a Frankenstein’s lab setup. We rescue a previously-missing police officer from under the sheet draped across the lab table.]
Martin: “Question: if the police officer is under the sheet where the monster should be…”
[The next room contains a row of lockers and a group shower area.]
Sabina: “Evil sauna?”
Robert: “Evil locker room?”
Eric: “High school gym!”
Martin: “Evil high school gym?”
Eric: “No, just normal high school gym.”
[Also in the shower are quite a number of dismembered cheerleaders.]
Daisy: “Is that real?!”
Stuart the GM: “Are you touching a limb to find out?”
Sabina: “No.”
Eric and Martin, in perfect unison: “Yes.”
[It turns out that there is a chainsaw-wielding janitor who appears from a side room. It attacks Neon Knight for quite a lot of damage.]
Stuart the GM: “For anyone else, 9 points of chainsaw damage would be a problem.”
[When one of our characters failed their attack roll, they cut a tear through the lockers and into a dark void beyond. So when the same thing happens to our enemies, fair’s fair.]
Stuart the GM: “The custodian botches.”
Julie: “Does he stumble through the hole in reality?”
Stuart the GM: “…Yes. It’s depressingly anticlimactic.”
[Finally free of the house of horrors, we enter the fun house, where we are faced with our twisted doppelgangers stepping out of the mrirors.]
Stuart the GM: “Eric, how many hit points do you have?”
Eric: “I don’t know - it’s never come up before.”
[When we attack our own doppelgangers, it’s our characters that take the damage. It’s time to improvise!]
Robert: “Julie, punch me in the face!”
[Attacking each other does not appear to hurt the doppelgangers.]
Cortex: “So, running? Running.”
[We run.]
Eric: “I smash mirrors.”
Sabina: “Can you smash a lot of them?”
Eric: “I can hold out my arms and walk in a straight line.”
[We exit the fun house without further incident. We try to decide what to do next.]
Martin: “I’m kind of in the mood for a hot dog, but it’d be an evil hot dog, wouldn’t it?”
Eric: “It’d be a dark twisted version… so, a normal hot dog.”
[We have finally managed to acquire all the pieces of the golden ticket, which should allow us access to the big top. With one small problem.]
Stuart the GM: “The ticket says ‘admit one’.”
Fortunate Son: “Okay, we need a really big trench coat.”
[Inside the big top, we find the Society of Evil Intent, with Mr. E conducting some sort of magical ritual.]
Stuart the GM: “You are noticed by the rest of the Society of Evil Intent.”
Neon Knight: “You are all under arrest.”
[Neon Knight shoots first.]
Fortunate Son: “What are you dong?”
Eric: “If we engage in dialogue, they’ll just keep doing what they’re doing. I suggest we cut to the fight scene.”
[Combat ensues.]
Fortunate Son: *shoots The Mole in the eye*
Martin: “You like pissing off supervillains, don’t you?”
Robert: “Is that not why we’re here?”
[More of the same.]
Stuart the GM: “That’s disgusting!”
Robert: “You’re the one who gave me the sheet that says I can shoot people in the eye.”
[Of course, no good deed goes unpunished.]
Stuart the GM: “Robert, do you wish to dodge the attack?”
Robert: “…Yes?”
[Questions we didn’t think we’d have to answer today, part 1.]
Stuart the GM: (to Sabina) “Arguably, how connected to your head is your body?”
[Neon Knight is engaged with the half-blinded Mole.]
Eric: “I definitely do not successfully dodge.”
Stuart the GM: “That’s okay because he doesn’t successfully hit.”
[Cortex take control of The Butcher’s mind and has him run into Mr. E, disrupting the ritual.]
Stuart the GM: “Mr. E starts glowing, and not in a pleasant way.”
So that’s that! With the Society for Evil Intent destroyed or arrested, it’s time to find out who really killed the Paragon, and we’ve got just the lead to follow up on it… next time!
[We begin the adventure in media res, having just killed a group of ninjas apparently trying to kidnap the mayor.]
Daisy: “Who would want to kidnap the poor mayor?”
Stuart the GM: “You don’t know.”
[More on the would-be kidnappers.]
Eric: “Ninjas typically work better by being out of the public eye.”
Stuart the GM: “They’re pretty new to this. You get the sense they won’t be around for long.”
[We return to the matter at hand: finding the Society of Evil Intent.]
Cortex: *looking pointedly at Fortunate Son* “What we need now is a lead. It would be really fortunate if we had one.”
[Our Heroes (tm) are called to the wharfs, where a significant portion of a temporary carnival has been blocked out by a globe of preternatural darkness.]
Vector: “This doesn’t happen just by accident.”
Cortex: “Usually.”
[Within the globe of darkness, we discover a bizarre - and bizarrely empty - carnival.]
Neon Knight: “I think we should start at the ticket booth.”
Vector: “That would be the reasonable thing, so why would we do it?”
[Stuart the GM sets the scene.]
Stuart the GM: “One building’s labeled ‘House of Horrors.’ One’s labeled ‘Funhouse’…”
Eric: “That worries me more, honestly.”
[You need to be careful what you say around Stuart the GM.]
Martin: “I’m getting into the creepy carnival frame of mind - kill me now.”
Stuart the GM: “Really?”
Martin: “No.”
[We go to the Midway, where we are approached by the Majestic Master of the Midway.]
Majestic Master of the Midway: “We have a variety of prizes!”
Martin: “I’d like the plot coupon, please.”
[There is a case of prizes, among which is a glowing, golden ticket piece we suspect we will need.]
Eric: “I try to take a prize.”
Stuart the GM: “It’s in a glass case.”
Eric: “Glass isn’t known for its resistance to smashing.”
[The Majestic Master of the Midway tells us that if we win five games, we can have a prize.]
Neon Knight: “How many tries do we get?”
Majestic Master of the Midway: “…I don’t understand.”
[One game is a dance competition.]
Fortunate Son: “How do you judge if we win?”
Majestic Master of the Midway: “I am not a dance critic - I leave that to the dance-o-meter.”
Robert: “The dance-o-meter is a critic of the arts.”
[Fortunate Son attempts to dance well enough for the dance-o-meter. He fails his first attempt.]
Robert: “Do I feel like I’m missing a piece of my soul?”
Stuart the GM: “It’s hard to tell…”
[Daisy also fails her first attempt.]
Sabina: “What am I feeling?”
Stuart the GM: “Not the beat.”
[Another game is a ball-toss at a stack of milk bottles.]
Neon Knight: *throws ball hard enough to embed the ball in the far wall*
Majestic Master of the Midway: “…Have you considered a professional career in baseball, sir?”
[Next, we go to the haunted house. And begin smashing things.]
Daisy: “I dunno, guys, we’re causing a lot of damage to this-”
Neon Knight: “Yes.”
[From the outside, the house of horrors appeared to be 20 x 20. Which is strange, given that we’ve already been through a number of rooms.]
Stuart: “This room is 20 x 20.”
Julie: “So it’s bigger on the inside.”
Eric: “Or smaller on the outside!”
[One room of the house of horrors is a Frankenstein’s lab setup. We rescue a previously-missing police officer from under the sheet draped across the lab table.]
Martin: “Question: if the police officer is under the sheet where the monster should be…”
[The next room contains a row of lockers and a group shower area.]
Sabina: “Evil sauna?”
Robert: “Evil locker room?”
Eric: “High school gym!”
Martin: “Evil high school gym?”
Eric: “No, just normal high school gym.”
[Also in the shower are quite a number of dismembered cheerleaders.]
Daisy: “Is that real?!”
Stuart the GM: “Are you touching a limb to find out?”
Sabina: “No.”
Eric and Martin, in perfect unison: “Yes.”
[It turns out that there is a chainsaw-wielding janitor who appears from a side room. It attacks Neon Knight for quite a lot of damage.]
Stuart the GM: “For anyone else, 9 points of chainsaw damage would be a problem.”
[When one of our characters failed their attack roll, they cut a tear through the lockers and into a dark void beyond. So when the same thing happens to our enemies, fair’s fair.]
Stuart the GM: “The custodian botches.”
Julie: “Does he stumble through the hole in reality?”
Stuart the GM: “…Yes. It’s depressingly anticlimactic.”
[Finally free of the house of horrors, we enter the fun house, where we are faced with our twisted doppelgangers stepping out of the mrirors.]
Stuart the GM: “Eric, how many hit points do you have?”
Eric: “I don’t know - it’s never come up before.”
[When we attack our own doppelgangers, it’s our characters that take the damage. It’s time to improvise!]
Robert: “Julie, punch me in the face!”
[Attacking each other does not appear to hurt the doppelgangers.]
Cortex: “So, running? Running.”
[We run.]
Eric: “I smash mirrors.”
Sabina: “Can you smash a lot of them?”
Eric: “I can hold out my arms and walk in a straight line.”
[We exit the fun house without further incident. We try to decide what to do next.]
Martin: “I’m kind of in the mood for a hot dog, but it’d be an evil hot dog, wouldn’t it?”
Eric: “It’d be a dark twisted version… so, a normal hot dog.”
[We have finally managed to acquire all the pieces of the golden ticket, which should allow us access to the big top. With one small problem.]
Stuart the GM: “The ticket says ‘admit one’.”
Fortunate Son: “Okay, we need a really big trench coat.”
[Inside the big top, we find the Society of Evil Intent, with Mr. E conducting some sort of magical ritual.]
Stuart the GM: “You are noticed by the rest of the Society of Evil Intent.”
Neon Knight: “You are all under arrest.”
[Neon Knight shoots first.]
Fortunate Son: “What are you dong?”
Eric: “If we engage in dialogue, they’ll just keep doing what they’re doing. I suggest we cut to the fight scene.”
[Combat ensues.]
Fortunate Son: *shoots The Mole in the eye*
Martin: “You like pissing off supervillains, don’t you?”
Robert: “Is that not why we’re here?”
[More of the same.]
Stuart the GM: “That’s disgusting!”
Robert: “You’re the one who gave me the sheet that says I can shoot people in the eye.”
[Of course, no good deed goes unpunished.]
Stuart the GM: “Robert, do you wish to dodge the attack?”
Robert: “…Yes?”
[Questions we didn’t think we’d have to answer today, part 1.]
Stuart the GM: (to Sabina) “Arguably, how connected to your head is your body?”
[Neon Knight is engaged with the half-blinded Mole.]
Eric: “I definitely do not successfully dodge.”
Stuart the GM: “That’s okay because he doesn’t successfully hit.”
[Cortex take control of The Butcher’s mind and has him run into Mr. E, disrupting the ritual.]
Stuart the GM: “Mr. E starts glowing, and not in a pleasant way.”
So that’s that! With the Society for Evil Intent destroyed or arrested, it’s time to find out who really killed the Paragon, and we’ve got just the lead to follow up on it… next time!