Dramatis Personae
- Benjamin B. Bailey (Played by Devin): A prodigy at earth science and an avid spelunker, Ben recently gained the power to reshape the same earth and stone that he studies. Naturally optimistic, he sees the best in those around him…even when he probably shouldn’t. Power: Earth Control. Tagline: “With my friends as my foundation, I’ll never crumble.”
- Fiona A. Egan (Played by Chepe): A budding society girl and star athlete who keeps getting distracted by both civil and social engineering; also a hydromancer Scion slowly uncovering her powers. Power: Water Control. Tagline: “Don’t be a drip.”
- Harlowe E. Hobbs (Played by Chris D.): A chess grandmaster, military nerd, and burgeoning flyrokinetic at an early age. Powers: Force Constructs, Hyper-Intelligence, and ???. Tagline: “Anyone who looks on the world as a game of chess deserves to lose.”
- Harvey G. Clarke (Played by Will): A natural genius with hyper-intelligence and a knack for bioengineering, medicine, and gadgeteering with the ability to analyze genomes; loves spending all his free time in a library or research lab.. Powers: Hyper-Intelligence. Tagline: “I’ve read that.”
- Jamie J. Billings (NPC): Nonverbal. Mathematics savant. Communicates via a PDA. Shy. Power: Time Control Tagline: “I Can Show You The Math.”
- Lynne C. Duane (NPC): Holder of Bachler’s degree in neurobiology Daughter of a famed neurosurgeon. Athletically gifted. Arrogant and overconfident. Power: Telepathy. Tagline: “Of course I’m right. I’m smarter than you.”
- Tabitha E. “Tabbs” de Orellana (NPC): Latina from the Bronx. Aptitudes for mechanical engineering, chemistry, and materials science. Speaks her mind. Bossy and cocky, but not arrogant. Powers: Hyper-Intelligence and Kyberic Energy Control. Tagline: “No me respondas.”
- Warren P. Clark (NPC): Computer and electronics nerd. Very tall for his age (almost 6′) and big. Powers: Hyper-Strength and Technopathy. Tagline: “Oh. What does this button do?”
Previously . . .
The group has checked the fire escape and followed it upwards, finding soot prints leading into the dorm levels of the school and then to a doorway with prints on them. Harlowe makes a strong argument about just knocking on the door rather than being all sneaky like about it and when the rest agrees with it the door opens before they can knock revealing a girl with bright orange hair that looks them up and down and says they aren’t interested in anything only for Fiona to ask if that includes Belgian Chocolate and a voice from inside sounds interested for them to see a blonde that looks like she hasn’t slept in quite some time.
So…You Too?
Benjamin, Fiona, Harlowe, and Harvey
Meraki Institute for the Gifted
Monday, September 23rd, 2002 1000 hours
605 E 9th St, New York, NY 10009
These two are recognizable from their time at Camp Nightwatch. Seeing that there’s definitely more than the normal amount of occupants at eight people. Fiona tries to say that they came to figure out what the seven person rooms look like and steps inside while one of them says to just let them inside.
The sleepy looking girl says that she had a dream it would happen and tells Carol, the girl with orange hair, to just let them in. Fiona is intrigued by the wording and attempts to think about for a moment before turning to the girl with orange hair that’s obviously been doused recently and apologizes for dousing her. Apparently, the girls were aware that the group had powers and that Lisa had dreamed of it all after they’d gotten hit by a wave of energy during a nature hike at Camp Nightwatch the same day that the group had gotten stuck in a cave.
Lisa has a good idea of what all of the group can do but hasn’t told the rest. Cody is a density controller, Lisa has prophetic dreams and can occasionally enter others, Ray, with black hair and grey eyes, says that he can build things and showcases it by creating armor from a tube of something, another girl with Japanese ancestry teleports in calling herself Flit while pointing at another called Grudge which black hair and blue eyes who just glares at them and is intimated that she can do things with her mind. Fiona keeps questioning them about what they can do, asking how Flit’s teleportation works. She can only go a few hundred yards and is scared to go further because what if she gets caught in the middle of something. Another girl comes up, Jennifer, and informs them that as far as she knows, she doesn’t have any powers. When asked about their counselor, she’s told that the counselor was killed about a year and a half ago when he was hit by a bus, not that it matters since he wasn’t even there.
Apparently, most of them, don’t even know that they were all around as the other group asks what they can do. Harvey asks them if they’ve ever been to Breakfast at Epiphanies. The group brushes it off and Fiona asks what sort of pranks they can do with their powers and only to hear that they don’t do pranks, they do heists. They don’t need to teleport into a vault when they can just dream up the codes or even just going through the walls as they show the group a video of the heist where Cody was walking through the walls with the bags. Harvey and Warren aren’t quite happy with these things considering how illegal their actions are while they show off ill-gotten gains, saying that they weren’t born with silver spoons like Fiona and Lynn were. When Fiona asks what they’re going to do with the money, one of them jokingly says maybe they’ll go to Cabo.
Harvey quietly asks Warren if he can somehow get the video they were showing off, which he manages to accomplish. Harvey also invites them to Breakfast at Epiphanies while saying that the chef there may know some things about training powers, much to Harlowe’s annoyance, but Jennifer tells them that they already have it all under control. They’d been training together since Lisa brought them together after a dream about a year ago when their powers awakened. Fiona has started questioning them, about when they got together and the fact that their powers only awakened after a year. In the dream, they saw themselves older and using their abilities, but they don’t expound upon it when Fiona pushes further, telling them that they aren’t the only two groups in the world with powers. Apparently flame girl ended up losing control at school and their powers exploded, it’s happened before but they were able to hide it. They introduce their powers where Ray and Harvey have a quick contest of tech skills while Harlowe watches with some interest when Ray outdoes him at first but comes to a draw. Ray shows that his gadget can freeze things and tone down the variance and more technobabble.
Flit can’t really do too much with her teleportation but did do some things with her powers for heists. Saying that they weren’t all born and need the money to deal with things, Harlowe is able to pick up the body language from the group that there’s a bit of a schism where Ray and Flit seem to be less enthused by the heists where everyone else is alright with it but Grudge has something wrong with her, an almost animalistic look in her eyes. Harlowe also keeps evaluating the group using some amateur psychology skills with the help of Lynn. They slowly excuse themselves after Grudge says that sports are for losers when Fiona asks if they play basketball, shaking their hands except for Jennifer, Grudge, and Cody didn’t want to shake hands.
Fiona investigates the grape vines to see if there’s anything that Carol would be upset about but can’t find anything while Harlowe makes a general profile of the group, that they’re twelve years old, there’s narcissism and serious chips on their shoulders and immediately suggests going online to check out Livejournal, asking Warren if he can break in to find if there’s anyone posting from the school’s IP address.
They find their posts easily where Carol makes vague mentions of a boy she likes, Ray says things about how he wants to create things that change the world while Flit seems to be a bit more guilty. Going back to what the group said when the bank heist took place, about four months ago, they find posts celebrating everything. Harlowe asks for Warren to take a site rip of their posts in case they get suspicious and delete or edit things while Harvey investigates the genetic makeup he got from the handshakes and Fiona goes downstairs to grab the melted part of the garden hose that could hold fingerprints or genetic material. They try to discuss other possibilities while Fiona tries to determine the architecture of the bank but fails and so instead cooks the group some dinner.
They get an alert from Warren’s computer while discussing things, Cody posting something about hitting a bank again and meeting some new people. They analyze the footage again to determine if there’s any identifying features of the bank. Benjamin and Harlowe are able to figure out that there’s a bank matching those characteristics to the First Republic Bank on Broadway. The group tries to figure out why they’re hitting another bank.
Aftermath
They decide to visit Harlowe’s grandfather in the morning, a ten-minute walk later they’re there when the place is hopping and Ulrich is there cooking things up. Fiona goes in and starts to help Ulrich get some time to speak with them. Benjamin starts off by talking about the students have powers that woke to them a year ago and that they’ve been using their powers for heists. Warren shows him the video of Cody’s heist using Jamie’s palmtop. Ulrich looks disturbed at the video and the implications. Ulrich gives them a speech that what they are doing is wrong, and that they don’t have anyone to anchor them like their group does. He suggests that they turn the group in. They’re rather scared about things, about whether or not they’re believable, or whether or not they can rehabilitate them. Ulrich suggests just telling their guidance counselor and having them do a room check but they group is worried about them figuring out that it was their fault. He stands up and embraces his grandson and whispers in his ear before going to cooking. He tells them that they’ve seen them in there a few times and have left a few large tips for the waitresses. Harlowe files that away in his psychological profiles as them attempting to act like how they view rich people act with throwing away money and spending it frivolously.
Fiona and Benjamin get into arguments about how to work further with Fiona arguing about how they’re going to be working against the other group. It’s decided that they want to find more information first, in case it’s Jennifer taking control of the group somehow, though it’s unlikely that Grudge is there unwillingly. At the school, they split out to check out information with Warren getting into everyone’s private files and data which he’s uncomfortable with. Harlowe focuses on Lisa’s LiveJournal in case she was using it as a dream journal for a while with Carol as a secondary to determine when she was losing control and if there was any pattern to it.
After Action Report (GM)
This was a good game for exposition and the players had fun asking questions and talking to what they know now are the only superpowered humans other than themselves, the catbirb, and Steve.
I did drop some hints that there might be others and that intrigued the players. Chris D. of course used his personal super power to annoy me and make guesses that were about 80% right in Discord chat. Because of course he does. So now I’m having to revise my plans a bit to both accommodate and not accommodate him because what he came up with is kind of cooler than my original plan.
Other Notes
Had to stop about half way through due to a severe glucose drop.
Soundtrack
“Can’t Stop The Rock” by Apollo 440
“Fade to Black (Instrumental)” by Larissa Liveir
“If You Could Read My Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot