Aeon A-Team S02E04 – Courage in the Crescent City

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.
Jacob C. Wikvaya aka Shaman (played by +Thomas Phelps): A plant, animal, and weather-controller. Also a criminal-mastermind (but not by choice).

Samuel Donick aka RePlay (NPC Ally): A telepath who can do your standard mind-tricks, but is exceptionally good at altering memories.
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…

The PCs took a few days to get everything in order after visiting Colorado and Hobs took a shine to Caitlin so much that he decided to look after her himself. The PCs spent some time before we started discussing MAD and its implications. Once we did begin,the PCs began to talk about what their new partnership with AEGIS actually meant. Sentry receives a post card in the mail depicting 1950s New Orleans along with GPS coordinates and times. Marionette guess its the Postman (a metahuman who can see the future, delivers his prognostications via postcard with cryptic notes, and has been around for hundreds of years). The team then sets out to the Crescent City and make it there just as Hurricane Katrina makes landfall…

Alexander is still unsure of what he wants to do – if he wants to continue to use his abilities or disappear back into the framework. Sue makes him a costume like he’s made other Sentry team members and has it waiting for him in his quarters at the Panopticon with a note:

“With abilities like ours you can only do one of two things: You can choose to be extra ordinary or you can choose to be extraordinary.

Alexander opts to done the mask again and joins the team as they head to New Orleans.

065 110 100 032 087 101 032 087 105 108 108 032 078 111 116 032 070 111 114 115 097 107 101

If It Keeps On Raining…
Alexander, Aysella, Hobs, Roth, and Jacob
Various, 81°F, Muggy and overcast
Wednesday, August 29th, 2005, 8:00 am

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

The PCs are lead to a small holdout on high ground that’s been taking people in and was organized by Honore Bennington – a metahuman with minor precognitive abilities. Honore has been stockpiling supplies for months with no inkling of why. Sentry helps him set up a “dry zone” by Hobs and Singularity using their powers. RePlay and Suicide Girl opt to stay behind at the High Ground (it’s informal name quickly adopted) to protect the people there and supplies as well as to open a Ops center and deploy the rest of the team where they are needed.

Over the next 36 hours the team begins exhausting efforts to minimuze the storm’s damage by…

…helping the Convention Center and the Superdome where people were in need of food and water. They arrange for buses to take people to safety and physically ferry (via powers or other methods) those who couldn’t making sure everyone got to safety. (everyone)

…tirelessly evacuating the stranded, sick, and ill that were left behind by others. (Hobs and Singularity)

…deflecting the worst of the storm and forcing it from its path by using their pyrokinetic and meterokinetic abilities to change the weather patterns. (Redzone and Shaman)

….ensuring that the levee’s pumps keep working no matter what. (the Alchemist and Singularity)

…in a show of mind-shattering power Marionette animates a hospital and hundreds of buildings nearby to get up and move themselves from the flood waters. (Marionette)

…coordinated the heroic efforts of other first responders (not powered but super in their own right) that showed up even though they could have died. Most noteable a man who saved a morbidly obese 850 lbs woman from dying by getting her into an inflatable boat. (Sue)

…helping a group of EMTs find children in a building that had collapsed and buried them underneath (Redzone and Shaman)

…the Levee’s Gonna Break
Alexander, Aysella, Hobs, Roth, and Jacob
Various, 81°F, Muggy and overcast
Friday, August 31st, 2005, 

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

After the storm passes the city becomes utter chaos and Sentry is effectively organizing all civil activities at this point. Other metahumans begin coming out of the woodwork to help their city. Looters become so rampent that the National Guard is sent in and Sentry sends out a team member with every company to help secure an area and bring order back.

Sue and Suicide Girl took a different route and began going after those trying to use the choas to settle scores or (more darkly) kill others. Sue always manages to find the places he’s needed most and rumors of a “avenging angel of the Lord” showing up in New Orleans after Katrina spread rapidly.

The flying team members help rescue those stranded on their roofs and bring them to the High Ground.

The group stays on in New Orleans helping FEMA and the locals to repair and begin the efforts for rebuilding New Orleans. Though is was considerably less than it could have been. (Less loss of life and property than occured in the real world event.) The local treats the group like gods as they help feed them (Shaman), clothe them, give them clean water (Hobs), and give medical care (RePlay, Suicide Girl, and Marionette).

Singularity began to take pictures of the things that was going on. To make use of it for good propaganda and posting for Sentry. When the government finally gets involved and takes notice of the apparent god-like beings Sentry declines to speak with them and instead leaves with a promise and a warning:

We Are Sentry
We Are Everywhere
We Are Watching
And We Will Not Forsake

Aftermath
Once the PCs leave the city in their costumed identities they come back days later as themselves and use Theia Dynamics to help the process of rebuilding. They put anyone to work that wants to and provide free food, medical aid and care, along with shelter and other necessities. Overall their relief efforts cost hundreds of billions and instead of simply repairing the infrastructure damage in some places they completely replace it.

After Sentry’s reveal and the capture of the Combustible Man by the Commander and his Regulator’s later on in September, the United States government is the first of nations to admit that the Transatlantic Pulse has “bestowed amazing powers among [members of the populous].” With the secret out Sentry is uncertain of the future, but refuse to give up their mission to make the world a better place.

After Action Report/Rules Notes
I ejected my brother from the campaign completely. Three no-shows is my limit for face to face gaming.

The planning for this session had been in the works since the inception of the campaign. Hurricane Katrina was one of those events in history that I wanted to game out a better end. Call it catharsis or wish fulfillment, but that whole thing was a [BLEEP] top to bottom.

I ended up creating a framework for “Heroic Events” (think a table you can roll on to determine a crime, accident, disaster, etc. for your heroes to contend with) that I’ll likely put into Pyramid at some point.

Session Soundtrack

“Sirius/Eye in the Sky” by the Alan Parsons Project (closing song)
When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin
Be Yourself” by Audioslave
The House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals

Who’ll Stop The Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival

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