Does this mean that Glare is currently the most experienced player character now? Or is any of the original heroes from before he appeared still active?

John wrote on Feb 13^th, 2011 at 12:06pm:


This should prove to be interesting upon Glare's return 

btw, we never continued that side story with Carter Manning

I thought we were going to do most of it via pm? That's how you started things off

By the way, the title, Explosion at the Bank, is a joke  that Marshal Strong and I have been saying for years.   Every time we sit down to play,  I put up the screen and say," and suddenly, there is an explosion at the  bank..."

So after decades of making that joke, I finally used it as a story idea.

I understand.

OK   I have set up the adventure so  that your thing with Carter Manning is ready to go.   But, of course, I can put it on hold until you are ready.

Part 2  "Madness in Utopia"

Windwake never recovered from her catatonic state, so Dr. Yurt asked Deacon Hammer and Captain Warlock to help him take her to  the Galen Medical Center.
   Using his knowledge of the hidden by ways and tunnes beneath  Science City, the group open a secret door into a closet in the reception area of  the hospital.
   They drop off the poor girl and cause a tiny commotion and sneak off undetected.  Or so they thought.
   The security forces of Manning Enterprises have been looking for Dr. Yurt for months.   They tapped into the camera at the hospital and they spot Dr. Yurt.    They call a emergency meeting.    Ivory Fortress,  a new paranormal who got his powers from the White Event, was brought into this meeting.   The nurse who made this error was fired.
   Dr. Robson, chief of research  and development and his assitant, Dr. Thomas Morrow,  order a group of Black Operation Mercenaries to be on high alert.
    A few hours later, they see via hidden camera that Dr. Yurt has snuck into a forensics lab with what looks like  Captain Warlock and Deacon Hammer.
    Robson orders Glare to suit up ( he was working in the electronics lab on a personal project) and they go to apprehend the intruders.
       Dr. Yurt brings Deacon Hammer and Captain Warlock to a forensics lab where he shows them the "dead frog."
    On a table is a humaoid with frog like features.  It had been autopsied.  Yurt says it came from "out there" and is of non terrestrial origin.   He claims that the imperfect materials used in building his city caused a weakness between words.   That and the White Event attracted the Frogs  to earth.  It is at this point theat Manning's Goons apear.

Chaos ensues!


     Ivory Fortess' paranoia hampers his judgment.   Soon everyone seems to be fighting everyone else.   Deacon Hammer mind controls one of the Black Ops Mercenaries,   Captain Warlock tries to mind link everyone, which causes more panic, and Ivory Fortess lashes out at the voices in his head.
   During all this,  Stormbringer, who was out due to the nightmares disturbing his sleep, sees lazer blasts, and bullets being fired from Manning Enterpises.  Cuirious, he investigats.

   Hero is fighting hero, while friend is fighting friend.   The mental link, instead of helping, is causeing confusion.  Glare uses his light flash to try and stop the chaos.   It works.
     While sorting out the mess, Captain Warlock punches out  Dr. Robson as he was angered by the diminutive scientist figuring out this dark secret.
    Dr. Yurt was knocked out by  Ivory Fortess.

As everyone is calming down,  they hear footsteps.    In the hallway Zomborgs attack.   Half robot half zombie, and programed to kill!

Glare fires a lazer, but missess and ruptures a gas main blowing up the hall.
   Ivory Fortress blows out two more of them with powerblasts.
  More Zomborgs repell down from the floors above.   
   Stormbringer summons a hurricane and blasts them with savage winds.   
  Captain Warlock telepathically gleans that reinforcements are on their way.     Thinking it might be best if they leave, they start to  withdraw.
   Dr Yurt has recovered enough to open the secret door to the hidden tunnels.  As they go to leave, they see the Dead Frog sitting up and removing the pins from his chest. 
   Glare and Ivory Fortess debate for a few seconds on what to do,  Glare wanting to take the Frog with him, but Fortress blasts it into tiny  greasy pieces.
    Everyone runs into the tunnel and they slam the door shut. 

What the hell is going on?

I don't think you need to apologize. I thought it was fun. All the chaos was entertaining (to me). Seeing that most of the characters are new, and they all didn't know each other, it kind of made sense that they'd fight amongst themselves.

I know I was a little off tonight myself. This new medication I'm taking is messing with my sleep cycle, and making me a little sluggish thought wise. I was having trouble deciding what to do with my character a few times.

Plus I need to bring some kind of lumbar cushion, as those folding chairs keep making my lower body slightly numb, which is distracting (and not good for me, as I have poor circulation in my legs as is)

Other than that, I still had fun. It was good to have the whole group there, and the food was delicious!

Being the big wig means you get hurt!   Now, if only you had a defence against fumbles!

The adventure felt like a real departure from the norm and the Chaos was lots of fun. Really, the bad guys probably would have won if they just stayed away and let us kill each other...heheheh 

I think Stormdance and I really liked the zomborgs, because it allowed us to make Richie Sambora jokes during the session. If they only had been carrying guitars that fired bullets instead of actual machine guns....

Stormbringer, Captain Warlock and Anodyne were the only three that woke up after untold hours incapacitated from Dr. Robson’s dimensional transference device.   As it turns out, Stormbringer was following the group invisibly, as he was not sure who was in the right, and who was doing what.   When the spores over came everyone, his invisibility did nothing to protect him.
     They found themselves awake in a world of solid shadows.   It was cold, the air was thin, and even the matter was more crumbly then back home.  They found it hard to believe that they were physically walking in the shadow of the universe.
     They explored, figuring that the rest of their party were safe in the shadow version of Robson’s lab.    The streets were littered with “shadow souls”.  They figure they were the shadows of the real people on earth.    They were teardrop shaped, ghostlike to them, and unearthly silent.   The buildings were elongated and eerie.    
    This cold world had no sound, no weather, and no real life.     After a bit Stormbringer felt a disturbance in the weak air.    One of the Shadow Souls had real substance.   He turned and saw the teardrop shape take on a more definitive form, and stretch over towards him.  Captain Warlock jumped in front of him and made telepathic contact.  The Smee*, as it referred to itself was cold and wanted to absorb their heat.
    Stormbringer altered the ambient temperature with his weather control.  He made the area around him 100 degrees F.  The Smee stopped attacking and just stood there, enjoying the heat.
      They continued to explore when, again, Storm bringer’s enhanced senses noticed a glowing face in one of the buildings.    An 8 foot tall humanoid being with long arms and legs leaped at them.   Warlock put up a telekinetic field, and Stormbringer devitalized it with two blasts.   The creature then winked out of existence.  What it was, and what it wanted, they didn’t know.
     Around this point, they realized that the area of warmth attracted a hoard of  Smees.    They had to tread carefully not to touch one of them, as the slightest touch could drain the body of its heat.   Warlock then mind scanned them and tried to talk to them.  All they said was Warmth, warmth, smee, warmth. 
      He then placed the image of the dead Toad in their minds and they flipped out.   It took a while to decipher their alien thoughts but they figured out that the Smee feared  the toads, as they had no warmth to offer, and could hurt their immaterial bodies.   They also saw images of the Toads climbing down from the shadow version of this world's Science City’s  Colossus.
    They headed toward the Colossus and, true to the image, they saw toad men climbing down.   Stormbringer could see that they were ‘swimming’ in the abyss beyond  the Shadow, where the Colossus penetrated Creation into the Beyond.   They used this as a means to enter the Shadow, and from the Shadow they were somehow, entering the True World.
    They were then jumped by to gray toad men.   Captain Warlock scanned their minds and found that they referred to themselves as Slaad, and that “when we turn blue we can devour their souls”.      
     Warlock telekinetically blasted them while Stormbringer  devitalized them.     They defeated the Toadmen, but not before Stormbringer was slashed across his face.
      At this, Anodyne touched the wound and it healed instantly.   She then displayed the wound herself, and collapsed unconscious.
      Stormbringer then moved the area of warmth away, herding the Smee towards the Colossus.    At this they noticed that someone was aiming at them with a rifle.  Captain Warlock then  scanned his mind and saw that it was  a Soviet Solider that was just using the scope to see what was going on.   Warlock ordered him to stand done, and surprisingly he did.   The Russian said that he never saw others since he came here.   When asked where he thought he was, he responded  “Hell.”
     He then offered to take the heroes to his friends.

Well this story is taking shape nicely......sorry I missed it.

How did you come up with the name Smee for the shadow folk..???

STORMDANCE wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2011 at 10:50am:



I, like many of my ideas,  stole the name from Alan Moore in the comic Promethea.

We have a new telepathic discipline also. How about Telepathic Reflexes???

If telepathic reflexes means you kill shit, then I like it.

Startide, Dr, Yurt, Glare and Kid Nemesis awoke in the shadowy negative version of Dr. Robson’s lab.    They were a bit freaked, and Yurt ran down the hallway trying to figure out exactly where he was.   Startide and Yurt stopped and saw the dark and elongated shadowverse version of the Science City Colossus.
    They went into the streets to explore.   Without warning, Kid Nemesis was attacked by a smee, knocking him out.  Glare took out the smee with a laser attack.   Startide nullified her personal gravity and “fell” upward.   From a distance, Captain Warlock spotted her and he, Anodyne, Pavel, and Stormbringer went to see their friends.   Stormbringer succumbed to the odd atmosphere of this universe and collapsed.
Anodyne healed Kid Nemesis and she then collapsed.
       Kid Nemesis, while tripping out on Anodyne’s euphoric touch, spotted twinkling lights at the top of the Colossus.  Glare flew him up to investigate.   They spotted many gray slaad climbing down the giant statue.
       They went nearly to the top, when they noticed that the sky above the torch on the colossus looked odd.   They halted their accent.    They were then attacked by a gray slaad that leapt from the statue.   A combined attack by Kid Nemesis and Glare sent the monster zooming down.
       They flew back to the ground and told their friend what they had seen when the body of the slaad landed, and smashed apart.   They found some technological device that was hidden in the creature’s stomach.   They figured out that the toad men were crawling down the statue and assembling some machine off in the dessert.    Pavel said they saw them building it, and they avoided that area.
       The group decided to go back to check on Pavel’s fellow soldiers.   After hours of marching through the shadow plains, they found their encampment.   Four solider were left of the original 11.   They said that their captain had gone mad and never left the tent.     The team rested for a few hours, but they were beginning to starve.    They decided that they should visit the Ghost Area and find Ghost Cloth and Ghost Food.   Then they would visit the wrecked Soviet craft, and then check on what the slaad were up to.
     They figured they could fix the soviet craft and go back home.   At this, the captain came out of his tent.  He had a smile that gave everyone the creeps.    He saluted Captain Warlock in a perfect Movian Space Marine Salute.  This especially freaked him out.   Warlock read his surface thoughts and they were those of a schizophrenic.    The Russian captain then said  in Movian, “ Hala is a lie.” 
      Warlock then tried to mind probe the captain and the captain put out his hand.     Warlock could not penetrate the Russian’s mental defenses.    He was seriously wondering if this man was possessed.
        They went off to the Ghost Area.   They found a floating, shimmering, field of ethereal lights.    The Soviets said that anything you wanted could be found here, and Pavel reached in and pulled out an apple.    Startide, probably due to her hunger and confusion, tried to pull out a photo of her brother, but instead pulled out a picture of  Nancy Walker.
          Start tide then ate a Ghost Apple.   It had no taste and barely any sustenance.  Still, it was better than nothing.    Kid Nemesis and Startide pulled out some ghost cloth and through sheer concentration,  turned them into superhero costumes.
         Next they went to the Russian’s aircraft.    Glare examined it and found it to be a Ship that can not fly, but instead folds space.   The Russians were surprised to find this out. 
       They  then headed off to see what the toad men were building.    Enroot  they were attacked by a party of gray slaad and one yellow.    Startide trapped the Yellow Slaad in a gravity warp while  the team beat down the grays.    Kid Nemesis found out the hard way that the slaad are poisonous.  Anodyne healed everyone.   
     When they got to the machine they found a huge metallic circle with many power pods attacked to it, along with control units.  The machine was protected by a huge yellow Slaad.   Captain Warlock read its mind and its only thoughts were “ protect the portal.”   Kid Nemesis charged it and hit it full on.   It barely moved.   It looked at Glare  and he felt a pain in his mind.     It did the same to Captain Warlock.   Startide tried to pin it with a gravity warp, but it was too strong.   Kid Nemesis kept up the pummeling and then Startide tried to rip it apart with opposing gravity fields.  This knocked it out.   Glare disconnected all the power units and removed the control pods.   They took them back to the  Warp Ship and after many hours of working on it,  Glare rigged it to transport them back to Earth.
      As Glare was contacting CHESS, Pavel,  the Russian captain, and Boris all dropped dead.  Alexi fell screaming, and Anodyne rushed to heal him.  Her power didn’t work.
     The group figured that the all the years of eating ghost food had changed them, and attuned their body to the shadow world.     The mystery of the Russian captain had died with him.