Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

We’re not exactly the most well regarded of the teams under the leadership of Stitch. We’re normally assigned jobs to deal with gangs and other small time troubles as low men on the totem pole. We don’t have the right sort of presence for social media, not that it stops the internet fan bases.

Stop! Or My Ghost Will Shoot

Bone Daddy, N0va, Stitch, Terra, The Ghost
Abandoned Chemical Factory
Thursday, June 2016, 2016, 1:00 pm (EST)
Brooklyn, NY 11232

We’re sent out to investigate a case for stolen transistors and other electrical parts. While the others a bit more stealthy, Terra comes in for a dynamic entry through her earth surfing powers alerting everyone. They go for weapons and a standoff ensues. Stitch and Finn recognize that there’s two supers there, Deluge and Viper. The former is a water manipulator and the latter has acidic spit. They’re essentially powered thugs for hire.

While Stitch moves around back, Finn sends out a ping to find signals that are working around and finds that in addition to there being radios on the men, there’s a strange signal coming out from the back of the vans, along with the fact that the van radios are working. A bit more analysis and he realizes that whatever is in the back is broadcasting on multiple wavelengths, far beyond just radio.

Viper calls off that they need to get the rest of the stuff off the van while Deluge draws water up, ignoring Terra’s attempts to read them their rights. Stitch breaks cover to take out one of the men, but her limb just sweeps past the man. Bone Daddy gets closer to the van. Not a combatant of any kind, Finn causes one of the vans to have its horn play Dixie. The men respond by staring at the van looking confused while one man gets into the driver’s side while another attempts to punch Stitch. Another fires off a shot at Terra, just barely making the hit with some solid blunt trauma which Terra decides to shield from using her power to control earth to summon a stone wall.

Viper moves forwards to spit on Stitch, through the hired thug, dosing them with acidic venom getting absolutely corroded. The henchperson was very badly burned but will probably be ok if they call an ambulance. Deluge targets Terra by throwing a huge ball of water at her, stopped by the wall, this does not amuse Deluge. Stitch hops a small wall and moves to strike at the acid spitting Viper, sweeping the leg right off of the rather violent super. Bone Daddy heroically charges forwards and thrusts his boney spear into the man, knocking him unconscious.

The Ghost, having taken his time, aims for Viper to take him down, not even seeing it coming Viper is knocked out with a shot to his torso. Finn, not having much else to do, broadcasts on a broad radio range telling them to surrender and then blowing the speakers. The men lay down their guns and Deluge raises his hands. The vans start to vibrate rather violently and from the south comes an explosion. From the back of the van, Stitch sees a black fog explode from the back of the vans, almost like a negative version with a white lining.

Interrogating Viper, Stitch is informed that they were stealing from Brubaker Street and they weren’t informed what was going on as the black fog is dissolving one of the men. The men between the vans are unable to move, Bone Daddy is barely able to pull the man impaled upon his bone spear to get out of the radius. Some men are grabbed out by using earth manipulation as the top of the vans smash together and start spinning around. Finn attempts to isolate frequencies that he can understand from the fog, scaring himself. He tries to speak with the frequencies out there as another man gets sucked into the van problem. The Ghost fires at nearby hydrants to give Deluge some water to work with. Bone Daddy tries to use his bone manipulation abilities to pull more men out.

Finn is able to determine that it’s not actually grey goo, which is good news. The bad news is that they still don’t know what they’re dealing with here. Unable to physically help with the rescue, he instead memorizes frequencies that are being given off. Stitch runs into the van to grab a man, nearly getting stuck within but managing to grab Deluge to get him to safety. Bone Daddy attempts to pull a man closer, but the hench is stuck where they’re at. Finn continues to memorize the frequencies that he’s hearing.

Deluge and another man gets pulled to safety when the vans fully contact each other smashing the last henchperson between them. Everyone starts to float up slightly and then there’s an explosion.

The fog starts to roll out covering everyone in the area. They’ve covered in darkness but not dead. In the darkness, they hear skittering and a man screaming that there’s things in the darkness. The fog continues on indefinitely upwards as The Ghost provides medical aid. Bone Daddy feels things brush past him and Terra dodges something in the darkness, catching sight of what looks like a rather large featherless goose with a lot more teeth and three sets of black leathery wings. Stepping back in shock, Terra attempts to launch it upwards but misses. Stitch sees what appears to be little wisps of cotton candy walking up Viper’s leg. Spiders, but none they’d ever seen. Letting go of Deluge, Stitch tries to swipe the spiders off of Viper to find that they stick to him instead causing injury to his hand, smashing them causes them to bleed black.

The Ghost moves forwards when something the size of a labrador jumps into his face. Ten legs, spider mandibles, general unease. The Ghost sprays it with his firearm, killing it as it rolls over and curls up. A closer look makes it seem like someone combined the worst parts of a porcupine, people, and crabs. Bone Daddy is able to determine that there are bones nearby, strange bones. Finn, cowering behind the concrete barricade, attempts to send for help via sending out The Police’s Message in a Bottle to hear it come back to his through the fog, trying to keep from freaking out as a slug-like creature crawls over his hand, seemingly oblivious to Finn’s presence.

The rest congregate behind the vans a moment only for them to fall down and the fog dissipates. The skittering feet disappears with the fog, with a blood trail leading away. Bone Daddy decides that he wants those bones for himself and drags an arm back. While Bone Daddy attempts to heal the injured. Finn desperately tries to find signals out there, finding only short range radios with one playing a song about fifteen miles away towards the north. They’re trying to figure out what to do next with the air still and no radio signals around.

Rising up in the middle of the parking lot to look over the city. Run down and somewhat destroyed, fires and crumbling buildings, and a rather large 15-16 story tall tree in the middle of Central Park. Riker’s island looks run down with the super-powered wing completely gone.

Viper tells them that they got them from Van Dorn Industries. One of the largest conglomerates on the planet. They were to steal two transistors, bring them to the parking lot, wait a day, and then move them elsewhere. They still manage to notice people walking around in the park locations. Deciding to move out, they look at the cars, but they’re strange makes and models. Terra manages to figure out that it’s from 2024, but the batteries are all flat.

That’s a Big Tree

Bone Daddy, N0va, Stitch, Terra, The Ghost
Abandoned Chemical Factory
Unknown, 8:00 pm
Central Park, NY

They move out with prisoners towards Brooklyn as the sun starts to set. Taking three hours to walk/float, the city is now dark and there’s a lot of long shadows. Making it to the park, they find there’s a lot of makeshift walls made from wood, scrap, and chain link fences with torches every ten feet or so. Stitch heads for the door and knocks, but is told that they don’t let in anyone after dark. Terra creates her own bunker causing the people inside some distress about the fact that they’re powered individuals. The Ghost investigates that the insides where there’s actually better fortification within with multiple walls.

Checking out the guard’s conversation about the people, he overhears them talking about Terra and that there are vampires around during the night time. Everyone else sits down inside the stone bunker she built. Several humanoid figures start wandering towards them, covered in blood, when Terra closes the doorway on them.

Aftermath

When the morning comes, they locals establish their displeasure at the situation with the metahumans. Stitch attempts to speak with them, asking what year it was and what sort of thing happened. Apparently the world cracked decades ago. The Ghost, having grown weary of all the chat, decides to pants the guard that they were speaking with. Trying to ignore the shenanigans, the guard explains that they were surprised that there were so many vampires around the last night and that they normally aren’t around at this time, normally migrating to Mexico. The group discusses what to do next, and Finn suggests checking out the short-range that’s playing a song on a loop, leaving Viper and the humans prisoners alone in Terra’s bunker while doing so.

After Action Report (GM)

The inaugural session for an experimental team for AEON. Basically, I wanted a game my players could drop in and out of since some of them are having (temporarily) conflicting schedules. Luckily, everyone was there for this session. This was a “bait and switch” campaign. Specifically, I had the players build characters for my superhero world and of a lower caliber (~300 to ~400 points in points, another 100 in other stuff). Basically “street level” supers. I started the PCs out on a job that seemed easy – they were recovering stolen tech and were going to deal with the thieves. It started changing rapidly and soon the PCs were swallowed by Dark Fog (an in-world phenomena that can transport those inside it elsewhere, kill them, or any other number of things). Surviving it they found themselves in the dark future of AEON. Now we’ll see how they react as they come to grips with everything they’re seeing and try to survive in a world that is not their own and is in some ways outright hostile to them.

Other Notes

None.

Soundtrack

“Message in a Bottle” by the Police (Opening Song)
“Sundown” by Nightwish
“I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” by the Ink Spots (Closing Song)