Lacking Natural Simplicity

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:

• M.A.H. — GM

• T.K.B. — playing Raum, a vaguely demonic creature.

• C.A.H. — playing Force Caster.

• B.MC. — playing The Stygian Veil.

Introduction

Actual Play

Our villains pass a couple of uneventful weeks.

We are watching TV in our Secret Lair when a VON (Visori Official News) bulletin erupts onto the screen. “Large Resistance Cell” destroyed in Visori golf club. Digging up golf course to see what else the resistance has been up to.

Also, a new and persistent commercial — Anvil endorsing a superpower enhancing drug (which the players decided was in the style of those late night “male enhancement” drug advertisements) “Super Oh Yes” (SOY) for 3 easy payments of 50K$! Allows you to create new, customized power profile by switching old powers out. Anvil's new name: Mechno-Man!

Drug we found was red, these are green, but same form factor/design. And isn't being super-powered illegal under Vsori rule anyway? We think it is a trap!

We have a remote control for Anvil's lair, but no surveillance cameras.

We go to Anvil's HQ — mud and tracks in office above, otherwise the same. Lots of obvious surveillance cameras. SV goes down invisible and finds a RoboRally-like trap room!.

We find 8 2’ tall robots with blasters running in place. Ceilings are only 7 feet up. (Blue lines outline conveyor belts, blue triangles show direction of travel, purple lines are lasers, red are flames, green circles are crushers on the ceilings, green rectangles are pushers, purple dot is a button on the floor, green dot is a button on the ceiling.)

Raum wounded for 2 wounds on 1st round, but Regenerates 1 wound. Distance attacks from others take out several robots.

When Raum stands on ceiling on 2nd (green) button all the mechanisms stop and the fires die down. When a deactivated robot is placed on the 1st (purple) button a trap door opens that leads to a corridor with a glowing square. The Stygian Veil stands on the glow and teleports. Force Caster follows. Raum turns incorporeal (trapdoor closes and mechanisms and fires start again) and joins the others.

Corridor leads to a 4” cube robot.

(We forgot our shrink ray.)

SV tries new glowing square. Raum sneaks by the doom bot with 4 aces on his roll and gets benny. Teleports to next corridor. SV kills bot. FC kills bot. Raum melee kills bot. 2 new glowing squares.

Scavenged big blasters from bots. Not human operable, but could probably be modified. 2× as good as electro lance, but Range 1. Cosmic Ray Guns. Size medium. Next tunnel 2 bots with Range 2+ CRGs, medium. Raum teleports to SV & melee kills bot. FC telejoins us, wanders around & finds a bot & attacks and kills.

Raum hit for 6 wounds, soaked 1, succeeded at Vigor roll, unconcious, temporarily useless right arm. SV kills bot. SV med stims Raum, restoring 2 wounds. Raum conscious again. Raum and SV and FC scrounge 2 blasters each with Range 2+.

TODO: We need to work out a silent com link signal system for SV when wandering in front, something faster than texting on our com links.

SV teleports, 2 bots.

FC teleports, ends same place as SV. 2 more dead bots.

Everybody has 3 medium 2+ Range CRGs, medium.

We killed 8 little bots in first room, 9 medium bots in the teleporting maze.

Final glowing square takes us to exit, SV opens door, big bot. (4 squares by 4 squares.) It has 4 weapons, and the big room is 24’ tall.

Raum crosses room incorporeally and tries to pass through the door on the other side, but is stopped by a nullifier field just inside the door. Can't see past.

FC knocked out, permanent injury (Strength is down 1 die to d4.)

Take out cameras on big bot-o'-doom and it powers down. We open the door and enter the room and the superhero formerly known as Anvil (now Mecho-Man) is there, spouts some insults, and attacks. We retreat and use ranged attacks.

Raum inflicts the wound that takes Anvil out of the fight (a permanent injury to Anvil results, his agility goes down 1 die), then cuts off Anvil's hands and feet. Anvil's blood is green, he is part man and part machine. He has an antenna fixed to his skull and communications gear attached to it. Raum digs them out and we examine them. Somebody (Raum?) gets a raise on their roll: it's Vsori tech with bio engineering: DNA mods and cyborg mods. Robot weapons are keyed to the same electrical signal — they are Vsori, too!

We leave the headquarters, after cauterizing Anvil's wounds, taking him with us.

TODO: We need to include a medical bay in our Secret Lair!

TODO: Force Caster needs to buy a gun, for times when our super powers don't work!

Aftermath

We'll save Anvil's interrogation for next week.

Each PC each got +3 XP.

C.A.H took the Headquarters Edge from the Super Powers Companion last time. B.MC. might take it this time.

Each time a group member takes the edge we get 5 points to spend on our headquarters.

Reflections

The combat took longer than expected.