Dramatis Personae
Alexander Griffith aka Singularity (played by +Natiel Leealexander): a starving college student who moonlights as a private detective and a “failed” superhero (he was one of the first back in 2000). After his partner died he burned his costume
Aysella Shinjitai aka Marionette (played by +Ann LS): a telekinetic who can detect Kyberian Energy, use telepathy, and boost or dampen other metahuman powers.
Hobs Ini-Herit aka The Alchemist (played by +Christian Gelacio): a straight-up matter controller with super-strength and devastating good looks.
Roth Reynard aka Red Zone (played by +Troy Loy): a super-genius with flame powers and a fear of heights.Samuel Donick aka RePlay (played by +Curtis Johnston): A telepath who can do your standard mind-tricks, but is exceptionally good at altering memories.
Jacob C. Wikvaya aka Shaman (played by +Thomas Phelps): A plant, animal, and weather-controller. Also a criminal-mastermind (but not by choice).
Severus U. “Sue” Edgeworth (NPC Ally): Young angry man. “Super-normal” who’s insanely good at hand-to-hand combat, infiltration, and other spy/military skills. What kind of name is Sue? It’s the one he gave himself. Mock it at your own risk.
Sarah “Ras” Rasmussen aka Suicide Girl (NPC Ally): Girl with a deathwish. Gained superhuman powers after Aysella tried to save her from her wounds. This awakened her dormant abilities. Superhumanly strong, tough, and capable of extreme regeneration.
Meanwhile…
Alexander, Aysella, Hobs, Roth, and Jacob
Fort Tilden 81°F, Clear skies
Wednesday, July 15th, 2005, 1:00 pm
Somewhere on the Hudson
While on a normal patrol the PCs are alerted by Suicide Girl to some sort of crazy battle going on over the Hudson Bay by two individuals with powers (something the team has noticed is becoming more and more common. (Note: this is the famous “Battle of the Hudson” which is thought to be the first example of powers used in a very public, non-deniable way.) One of the figures is covered in reflective, mirror-like surface (the Mirror) and the other is hurling rocks at him (Artillery). Artillery is knocked to the ground and Singularity demartilizies him and the rest of the team as the Mirror blasts Artillery with his own powers.
When the Mirror tries to blast the area again Marionettes focuses her TK into a force shield to protect them (using God-Like Extra Effort and a Power Block she critically succeeds on both rolls for a whooping DR 420 shield). The Mirror slams into the shield trying to break it ends up dazed and on the ground. When the Alchemist tells him to stop the Mirror replies: “This man is a monster and you are a monster for protecting him.”
Singularity decks the mirror as hard as he can (with a ST of 80 this is not a small amount!), but only succeeds in getting his attention. Redzone releases a fire ball onto the scene engulfing the Mirror in flames, but he seems mostly unaffected. Coming up with a quick plan, Marionette gets Sue to get into hand to hand combat with the Mirror and boosts his strength. Sue bounces off of Singularity’s hands and using his momentum grapples the Mirror’s head and slams him face first into the sand (despite the Mirror’s higher ST rating Sue critically succeeded his to hit and ST roll by burning Karma Points to get this to happen). Next, the Alchemist and Redzone work together to turn the sand to glass and bind the Mirror to it (this results in a massive Binding ST of 8,200 since both used God-Like Extra Effort, added Super-Binding to their powers temporarily, and were boosted by Marionette).
The Mirror simply borrows Singularity’s abilities and phases right through it. The Mirror starts screaming about everyone being against him and the voices being too loud. Shaman deduces that the Mirror is a power mimic and they might be able to overload him if they “feed” enough powers into him. They trick him into using their abilities and eventually he passes out from the strain.
After removing the improvised mask he has on they find out that Artillery is actually Arthur Keye – someone they went to highschool with. AEGIS is called and the two are taken into custody with Arthur being let go – as long as his story checks out. AEGIS asks for the team’s help with an unusual problem in Colorado: it seems three blocks of Denver’s suburbia has been turned into some glass-like substance. AEGIS flies the team out there and they begin investigating.
Crystal City
Alexander, Aysella, Hobs, Roth, and Jacob
Fort Tilden 51°F, Clear skies
Wednesday, July 15th, 2005, 7:00 pm
Denver, Colorado, Unknown
AEGIS has found the culprit before the team lands – a woman named Caitlin Baker who appears to possess the ability to manipulate and transmutate things to glass. The Alchemist soothes her and manages to calm her down (natural 18 on a reaction roll) and after a few hours they realize that she’s a newly manifested metahuman (and a powerful one at that) as she’s turned three blocks into one solid piece of a glass – a monocrystal.
The Alchemist helps “walk her through” using her abilities to turn everything back to normal and then she tells the PCs that this happened when her ex-husband called her and threatened to take their son from her. THis caused her to manifest in a rather spectacular manner.
Aftermath
Taking her back to New York Marionette sent Sue and Singularity to deal with Baker’s ex-husband…Justice will be done. Singularity watches as Sue seemingly “listens” to something he can’t hear and somehow knows things he can’t. Spooked out by it he lets Sue deal with Baker’s ex- and in extreme display of retribution for his crimes (he’d killed his own mother for insurance money).
Redzone also sets up a way for others to contact Sentry via the Deep Web and an untraceable website.
My brother missed yet another session. D< Not. Happy. Likely I’ll end up dropping him because I don’t have time juggling FOUR campaigns to cater to someone who’s not interested in playing. I have a waiting line for my games and I can afford to be picky for who plays.
Other than that I rather liked the bit of “history” playing out in game like that. Most folks think the Artillery was the metahuman who stopped the Mirror – but in reality it was something else. I like how the A-Team is threading through the history of Aeon (even though it’s not uber-glorious – though that’s gonna change at some point).
Pondering Neutralize with Power Theft some – that ability is ludicrously broken in some situations. It’s effectively an infinite points against the right target. There needs to be a way to fix that. I might adopt some of the rules I posited in this post.
Session Soundtrack
“Mirror, Mirror” by Helloween (during the fight with the Mirror)
“Eye” by The Smashing Pumpkins
“Arsonist’s Lullaby” by Hozier (during the aftermath when Sue and Alexander investigate Caitlin’s ex-)
“Over My Head (Cable Car)” by the Fray