Blood of Heroes - A 3rd Edition Mutants and Masterminds Campaign Setting
Earth, 2021. An alien race known as the Skree has ruled over the planet for the past 20 years, subjecting the local populace to the sadistic whims of their most brutal reign. True heroes have been all but eradicated during the Skree Invasion of 1999-2001. That or they have fallen prey to the Skree's corruptive influence and mind-altering technology. Those heroes that still survive, do so either in reclusive hiding or by battling one another in gladiator-like fashion as the Skree's amusement. Now after twenty years of servitude, a new breed of heroes are slowly starting to emerge. Fed up with the decadence that now surrounds them and fueled by their own personal desires, these young heroes have decided to try and make a stand for humanity, once and for all.
Does this new breed of heroes have what it takes to rise up against the Skree and take back their homeworld? Are they capable of breaking the shackles of oppression that bind them to a life of unwavering servitude? Time shall tell True Believers, to see whether or not these few elite individuals truly possess...the Blood of Heroes.
To speed things up, I'll adapt to your intentions. Assume (since the total area affected is half your power rank) that the force fields depicted in the map below are roughly 6 inches thick, Toughness 8 base, failure of 12 or more to disable, 17 or more to destroy.
About the laundry room...
If the buildings were larger then yeah, there'd be more than one entrance. As is, there is only one stairwell leading down into the basement. Several windows line the walls of the laundry room up near the ceiling (i.e. ground level) but are generally nothing more than small rectangular view ports showing the feet of random passersby and general tend to be concealed behind the buildings surrounding shrubberies, etc.
These windows are toughly 3-5 ft. wide and no more than 2 ft. high.
Tough Luck frowns, nearly to the point of scowling. The bald-headed black man seems to grasp the logic behind Pilgrim's comments, but also appears to value his own sense of self-preservation. Much more so over that of simply placing his fate into the hands of another. Reluctantly, the man eventually calls for his goons to come inside of the laundry room and for a moment, a cease fire is held. Peering down into the stairwell, Remnant glares down at the two thugs beneath him, ready to deal with either should the need arise to do so. Breathing a sigh of relief, the man then witnesses their departure into the laundry room and even seems grateful that the pair have obediently chosen to heed their master's call. When the possessed man's curiosity is almost to the point of no return, he cautiously makes his way down the stairwell.
Remnant and Pilgrim exchange words and prepare themselves to deal with one another's arrival. Both men appear to be civil enough and the conversation quite sincere. Crystal cringes as the gangstas enter the doorway. The poor frantic woman doesn't like the idea of Tough Luck and his lackeys being inside the laundry room one bit but doesn't protest, having already witnessed nothing short of a miracle thus far. She merely places her faith in Pilgrim and allows him the chance to do what he must. Tough Luck and his cronies show similar disinterest with their current predicament and immediately start to fidget about and argue with one another; their guns in hand and tempers foul.
When Remnant finally arrives at the doorway, both he and Pilgrim are immediately taken back in surprised wonder at the realization that the two of them are neighbors in the same apartment complex! It truly is, such a small small world.
Check HERE if you want to see the living arrangements, but in a nutshell you two are on the same floor as one another but on opposite sides of the courtyard. One could easily assume that you have seen each other through the window, walking down below, or in the apartments in general.
When Life Hands You Razorblades. You Make A Baseball Bat Covered In Razorblades!
Seeing the young woman in the corner, shaky and frightened but not damaged, Remnant gazes over all present, hellish blue fire roiling over his eyes.
"You asked what my trouble is here? These men have chosen to abuse their fellow humans in an attempt to gain power and wealth. They mercilessly hurt their fellows, choosing to worsen the state of the world rather than better it.
"The laws of our world have been circumvented by our alien taskmasters, and thus punishment of the wicked largely falls on us. We would punish these men, that they no would no longer harm the innocent. We care not what form this punishment takes. If they choose violence, then violence shall be bestowed, but other options are always preferable."
Pilgrim nods sympathetically as the burning man in front of him speaks. "I hear you, man. But look, I've kept Crystal here," he gestures at the terrified woman, "safe from these thugs. And I would be glad to use your help in getting her and her kids to safety, though I think Tough Luck doesn't want to do them any harm right now." He glances at Tough Luck, as if looking for confirmation from the emotionally controlled gang lord. "I don't doubt some these guys deserve to get beaten down for all the beatings they've given others. But you know what? I used to be no better than them, till I found God and had a change of heart. They've got that same potential to become good men in them. So I'd ask you to help me help Crystal out here. We can let these men be in the hope they find a change of heart someday. I think you've probably already helped to begin putting the fear of God in them." He closes with a smile. He's been careful not to try to condemn the burning man's desire to punish these guys. Some punishment probably isn't out of order, like jail time, but not the deadly violence this fellow seems to want.
Remnant shifts his gaze to Crystal and speaks with a sympathetic tone:
"She is, of course, free to leave. She is the victim here. To my knowledge, her children are still safe. They are actually the reason I came looking for her."
But then he turns back to the crew in the corner and his voice becomes much harsher.
"I am open to suggestions as to a fitting punishment for murderers and drug runners, but I have no intention of simply letting them free to harrass others. No doubt this woman would be dead if you had not intervened. I refuse to allow the same thing to happen to someone else."
Crystal's eyes widen. "My babies!?" the woman cries out in horror. "What about my babies!? Are they alright!? OMFG! Warren! Pierce!" The woman is clearly lost in panic. Turning towards Pilgrim she quickly begins to plead and beg. "Oh please hon! You got to let me go to my children! Do what you want to these f-r's, but please let me make sure that they're are alright!"
"Mommy...?" a feeble voice suddenly cries out from behind Remnant. "Mommy are you down there...?"
Tough Luck and his goons are not handling this situation well at all. They look like they might be trying to plan a breakout. This combined with the fact that Remnant just heard the calm little boy with the nosebleed's voice coming from behind him most likely means something bad is about to happen.
But what do I know, I'm just the GM
When Life Hands You Razorblades. You Make A Baseball Bat Covered In Razorblades!
"Don't worry, Crystal," says Pilgrim. "I'll take you to your children and make sure you're safe." Which, he thinks, means getting you out of this housing complex, where these thugs know to find you, but he doesn't say that out loud. To the burning man, he asks, "What kind of punishment do you have in mind? Maybe it's just the fire, but it looks like you're looking to kill those men. If you do that, their homeboys will just come back looking for revenge--and they're not likely to take it on someone like you or me who can defend themselves. And then nobody will be any better off than before." Pilgrim isn't one for vigilante justice, but he recognizes that there isn't likely to be any other kind in this neighborhood--and if he can keep the burning man from killing these guys that may be quite an accomplishment.
As Pilgrim talks, he keeps an eye on the gang members. If any of them tries getting out of their prison, he is prepared to try to stun them.
Can my stun power pass through one of my own barriers?
Fun Time! The goons finally decided to try something stupid.
Sadly, Stun is a Full-round action and you can only Ready a single Standard or Move action.
Initiative time!
Thugs 10, Tough Luck 10, Remnant 9, Pilgrim 8
LMAO @ rolling 9,8,7 in that order...Countdown to destruction?
Tough Luck's cronies don't appear to be enjoying the notion of having two complete strangers discuss the outcome of what seems to be their ultimate fate. It quickly shows. "F- this!" one of the goons cries out loud, desperately fumbling beneath his jacket for a sawed-off shotgun. "I'm outta here!"
*WADOOM!!!*
The barrels of the thug's shotgun erupt violently, showering the divine wall with a cascade of buckshot. Still however, the barrier remains intact. "J-Dawg's right!" another goon shouts, equally as ready to depart the laundry room as his companion is. "This is bullsh-t!"
*BLAM! BLAM!*
In a frantic attempt to try and escape the thugs begin to shower the laundry room with gunfire. Tough Luck doesn't seem to mind his minion's actions, though his face soon grows greatly concerned as the bullets inside of their "cage" start to bounce around and ricochet. "Yo mutherf---rs!" the gang-leader then bellows, "Cut that sh-t out already! Don't you muthaf--rs see all the bullets and shi-...."
*KACKK!*
Already amidst squeezing the trigger to his tech-nine, one of Tough Luck's crew fires off a burst from his gun. The semi-automatic fire sprays the wall in front of the thug, and starts to ricochet. Unable to finish his sentence, Tough Luck is immediately struck in the side of his throat by one of the bouncing bullets, his bald-headed form collapsing to the ground in a pool of red.
Activating a GM Fiat so each of you get 1 Hero Point (2 each as total current, Remnant's previous extra HP faded when he started sniffing evil tracks). GM Fiats are usually used when the GM wants a bad guy to get away or make their save to avoid being taken out the first round, etc. This case, I'm using it to advance the plot.
Gangsta's attacks weakened the wall by a total of -2 Toughness (heavy pistol/shotgun damaged, light pistol didn't). The last gangsta (machine pistol) is the one I'm using to activate the GM Fiat (Fudging results).
Tough Luck is Dying!
When Life Hands You Razorblades. You Make A Baseball Bat Covered In Razorblades!
Remnant ignores the pacifist behind the wall of light long enough to turn to the child behind him.
"I told you to hide and I meant it! This is dangerous, now go! Run!"
With that, he turns back to Pilgrim:
"Can you erect a barrier behind me to protect the children?"
Delay until the thugs break a hole in the force field. When that happens, I want to use a hero point to create an area effect Hellfire Blast at the thugs, through the breach, confined within the barrier.
Last edited by veritas on Sat Apr 14, 2012 2:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
