AEON C-Team: Season 4, Session 2 – We Got Fun and Games

Dramatis Personae

  • Henry Young aka Springheel (played by Chris D.): A hyperkinetic with superhuman reflexes that recently left one military to join another. Tagline: “What’s the point of shooting if you’re just going to miss?”
  • Hssh ̚ok-qrra ͜a ͞a’escht ̷iish aka “Hiss” (played by Emily “Bruno” S.): A stranger in a strange land, with strange people, and strange technology. At least the microwave is a good conversationalist. Tagline: “Don’t try to pronounce that with your primitive honk-box.”
  • “N.V.” (played by Josh B.): Diva, darling, shapeshifter, and spy.. Tagline: “I like killer clothes and kicking nerds in the nose”
  • J. Tyler Moody aka Magpie aka VERACITY (played by Travis E.): [REDACTED]. Tagline: “[REDACTED].”
  • Rory Cook aka Boomer (played by Will): An expert scientist and self proclaimed “doctor” with the ability to charge objects so they explode. Tagline: “Where do you want the explosion?”

Previously . . .

When we last left off, the team was heading for the last known location of the rift. When the team arrives at the area, they find a Mayan temple with a large amount of damage to the top of the temple, looking almost like Mount St. Helens with the temple top having been exploded recently with the surrounding vegetation having overgrown everything. The last time Veracity had seen it, the top was still on it and no one is quite certain if the flora was feeding off the kyberic energy directly or if it’s a metahuman.

A Long Walk

Henry, “Hiss”, “N.V.,” VERACITY, Rory.
Somewhere in the Jungle
Monday, March 1st, 2017, 2:00 pm (CST)
Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico

Hiss’s curiosity bones rattle, this is an ancient human structure and she’s just as curious as Rory when it comes down to it. Climbing to the top, if someone has some metahuman traits, it causes a feeling of lassitude, like someone just ate a large meal and they want to lay down and take a nap. At the top, there’s also some stairs leading down within the temple with an occasional rainbow sheen shimmering through the air. Hiss puts the shiny device back together for kyberic energy detection. Hiss manages to operate the device well enough to figure out a method to find the dimensional anomaly. A quick invention coming through allows for her to give everyone a shot at seeing the dimensional hole.

Everyone sees a hand and face try to push its way through the rift while Veracity recognizes it as Marlow. Hiss records the phenomenon but leaves to find a poking stick when a piece of the rift breaks off onto the ground. It really doesn’t look stable while Rory attempts to figure out what’s going on with the rift. He’s getting some of the same energy reading from the Yankee Stadium when they managed to open a rift, fairly certain now that it’s not to an alternate dimension but to a void. Hiss, back with the pokey stick, pokes at the baseball sized rift on the ground and then attempts to lift it on the end of the stick.

Veracity attempts to explain to Rory how he could work it to cause an implosion via kyberic energy while Hiss has placed the small bit into a sample jar and then appears to turn into a liquid before shifting back into a solid. It’s irresistible, and Hiss touches it with a talon, feeling both warm and cold at the same time like menthol, waiting until it turns into a liquid, Hiss attempts to stir it and it then weirdly goes solid and once the talon is removed it turns into a complete solid like glass. Veracity remembers that their task is to just research the chupcabra and the rift and leave. Rory throws a rock into the main rift that comes out a couple seconds later hotter than balls. When placed into the sample jar, the rock cools down immediately and merges with the sample rift.

Springheel suggests throwing the sample jar into the rift and calls back to NV who had stormed off. NV feels that there’s something watching them from the jungle. Looking around, Veracity spots a tree rippling before turning back to normal, the ripple continues through the trees and back into the jungles. Hiss turns the kyberic energy detector into an attention detector, an almost para-radar machine. The party itself lights up, but then so does the jungle causing Hiss to screech and drop the machine. The whole jungle is alive and they team had given it a Brazilian wax. They quickly make the trek through the trees. Hiss sees the plants that they had hacked are growing back faster.

NV attempts to speak with the jungle and a face begins to form in a tree. The tree screams as a branch forms into a hand and points back at the Mayan pyramid before screaming again. NV starts growing a light orange fur as he speaks for the trees. Rory decides that they should become friends with the trees and close the rift.

They gather some items and begin to make the plan to implode the rift. Throwing the charged rock within, it causes a shimmering effect as though a rock has been throwing into an oil slicked pond but it still hasn’t collapsed. With Hiss and Rory doing the science, they understand that they need a larger implosion to destroy the rift. Veracity suggests that NV asks the trees to get some energy from them to fuel the blast. Apparently the trees really like NV as he explains what is needed, but it is unable to help them. Hiss pulls some raptor plastique explosives out and preps it for proper implosion. Rory throws the explosives head on and a few seconds later it starts shrinking until it’s gone. NV speaks back with the trees, pleased with him they give him a seed pod that is immediately placed into a sample container. The meta-detector now only registers a small blip and the trek back through the jungle should be easier now with less bity mosquitoes.

Mission over, they call in and can get an ETA on when they can leave about 8 hours later. Rory takes the time to write out a well done report while Springheel takes the time to cook something for everyone. NV, in the meantime, gets Hiss to look at the seed pod and teaches the raptor about popular culture.

We’re In the Pipe, 5 by 5

Henry, “Hiss”, “N.V.,” VERACITY, Rory.
Somewhere
Monday, March 1st, 2017, 10:00 pm (CST)
20,000 feet

Eight hours in, they get the VTOLs incoming with people packing up their gear and getting them together onto the transport. Instead of heading back to a base, since they don’t actually have one after AEGIS turmoil, they get connected mid-flight with a heavily modified Lockheed C5 Galaxy that keeps going around the world via a fusion reactor along with a rather impressive stealth suite. Once on board, they’re told that after stowing their gear, they get to meet the boss. The General, Legend, doesn’t look like he’s having a good day staring at the living piñata.

A conversation ensues where Legend asks about the raptor, insisting that it’s not a chupacabra and listens to their tale about the retriever being broken with Hiss learning more about the metahuman subspecies. Mentions of Marlow in a rift, a seed pod, and a piece of a hyperspace anomaly in a jar. The fauna and flora samples exhibit hypergrowth, something normal with kybernetics and a florakinetic.  Legend calls in an aide de camp and after speaking with them, the aide comes back with paperwork. Veracity gets pulled to the side while the rest get to hit up the messhall. He argues for the inclusion of Hiss on the team for multiple reasons, including using her as an ambassador in case they get the retriever working again.

They’re sent back to New York to perform some operations against the new Metahuman Intervention Agency to shut them down as well as taking down rogue metahumans. They don’t have a large budget, so assets need to be procured elsewhere. They want high impact, low casualty operations against MIA as there’s not much AEGIS remnants can do. After Yankee stadium, Blue Sky had stacked the deck leaving Legend with mostly just support staff on their payroll anymore. Veracity gets a briefcase with a harddrive, money, easily changed funds, and a phone keyed only to Veracity.

Springheel gets told to keep an eye on the rest since Moody gets a bit moody.

Return to the Subway

Henry, “Hiss”, “N.V.,” VERACITY, Rory.
City Hall Loop aka the Subway
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2017, 2:00 am (EST)
Park Row & City Hall Park, New York, NY

The team gets dropped off a couple miles outside of the city next to a white van with someone waiting inside. Someone gets out the van with shoulder length hair, dark eye, and dark hair. It’s Markus, coming to shake Veracity’s hand. He’s there to help set them up and take them to their new base, going a bit retro. After loading gear, they get driven to the back of City Hall, down a dingy alley and down a staircase that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. A scanning later, they get led down an elevator and into their base, taking a good solid 40 minutes to get everything into an old, abandoned subway.

First things first, Veracity sees if his candy drawer is there (it is), and then there’s a subway train. The new team is shown around, and warned not to go up through city hall and that there’s a sewer exit. The base is powered by a fusion reactor and Springheel calls dibs on the kitchen as they pass through. A science lab and computer lab, the computer lab is hooked into NYC’s system with the access to the surveillance systems include Centry’s feeds too, which means they have the entire US on tap. Marcus already has dossiers set out for the largest targets.

Veracity already questions Markus about the old team. Mikhail is on admin leave despite turning in a resignation. Marsh is looking to get his brother back. Lucas is working an angle in Eastern Europe. Veracity is all that’s left. Marcus warns Veracity to familiarize the team with the train.

As the team is left unloading gear, Henry surveys the kitchen while NV plants the seed pod and Veracity looks over the target dossiers. One of them is a drug dealer – Ruslan Abramowitz – that is “not a nice guy”. Ukrainian in origin, his crew is originally Bratva but broke out. If they have a problem, they kill it as fast as possible. They’re into drugs, elections, and human trafficking. They’re on the table at the moment as they’re seen as a quick grab for extra funds. Veracity compiles everything while Rory and Hiss talk about creating a holo projector. They’ve got a rather vertical command structure, lots of micromanaging and a few lieutenants and a bunch of thugs, no metahumans at all.

The First Of Many

Henry, “Hiss”, “N.V.,” VERACITY, Rory.
Zakir Yefremov’s Stash House
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2017, 6:00 am (EST)
2300 E 69th St #1, Brooklyn, NY 11234

Several plans are put together regarding what they can do, preferring not so much to cause deaths and get arrests instead. Maybe start out by surveilling the guy to make sure that things match up with their information. Suggestion to use NV to approach him as an attractive person and get in close. Everyone manages to infiltrate in close while Henry stays in the car. It would be a cakewalk to kidnap the target, letting them know that he could just walk in and do the deed. NV does his best to copy a guard but NV is spotted before he gets to the door. Distracting the target, NV attacks with an electrolaser, passing right out and vomiting a bit. Springheel drives the car around and they bind him into the seat.

NV asks Veracity what their actual goal is. If it’s just to drain his accounts and drop him at the cops or destroying his organization, or something. Perhaps causing a confession or using the knowledge in his head to make anonymous tips to break up smuggling rings. They frisk him for tracking devices and take his Nokia phone. Speaking with the phone, Hiss hears that the man makes a lot of phone calls. To hookers, pizza places, his mother. Asking nicely, the phone numbers appear back on the screen.  NV doesn’t recognize any of the numbers.

Aftermath

Getting the target back to the base, NV gets deep into his head getting all the information in there. Veracity and NV sit down and start going through the information they have, the pertinent legal arguments, the tradecrafts, the man’s bank account (quickly drained). Their information on the stash house reveals that it’s full of cash in a vault, a small military armory, and a grow light. They suggest just getting NV to convince the guards in the Stash House to load up the armory and vault into a rented uHaul and then they zap everyone, cufftaping everyone together in chairs, tying their shoelaces together to each other, and then slipspray the ground. Leaving one man’s phone behind playing What’s New Pussycat and then It’s Not Unusual on shuffle.

After Action Report (GM)

I made a conscious decision last week to make sure the PCs didn’t bog down in the jungle – an hour at most. I wanted this session to call back to previous ones with C-Team (who were running on about 15 total) and to use those to tie in the new players as much as possible. Overall, I think that worked. I didn’t plan a combat for the second session, but I should of. Mostly so that I can let the PCs get a “shakedown” of what they can do before it really counts. The PCs *did* immediately get into action and stole 2.5 million from a drug dealer, set him up for the police, and took his souped up Yugo. Next session should be more interesting as I’m going to try to plan a combat on multiple levels of map. If you use Roll20 – or any VTT really – you know how difficult that is. We’ll see how it goes.

Other Notes

None.

Soundtrack

“Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns and Roses (Opening Song)
“Believer” by Imagine Dragons
What’s New Pussycat” by Jones (Closing Song)

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