frp

Date: January 2, 2015\\
Characters in attendance: 99, Quantum, Shimmer, Hex, Super Star\\
Experience awarded: 2

With the heroes successful in gaining the trust of the Cabalist's analogue, the Tinker, they consider what to do next. The Tinker informs them that they won't be able to switch the places back until after they disable a soon-to-be- activated device. Once it is activated, nobody will be able to do any powerful magics in the area. When the heroes ask the Tinker where the device is, he points up to the top of the nearby Space Needle, and says that it is on the top. It is well protected, but if he is given some time, the Tinker will be able to shut it off.

A plan is made. The member of the Seattle Six, Super Star, is contacted and asked to help. With her help, the RC5 and the Tinker are flown to the top of the Space Needle, after Super Star leads away the green dragon that is flying around the top of the tower. On top of the Needle, the team encounter Ishkur, a powerful weather mage, and Joladi, a dark elf barbarian, in addition to the green dragon. While the Tinker starts work disabling the large device on the top level of the Space Needle, Lady Paladin takes up a position to defend him, and the others lead the attack against the two dark elves.

Super Star's flash attacks appear to be effective against the green dragon, blinding it, but its sense of smell appears to make up for its loss of sight. Meanwhile, the barbarian Joladi is effective in his attacks, nearly knocking 99 off of the Needle. Ishkur's spells are powerful, and finally Quantum is hit by a magical attack that nearly knocks him out. Ishkur is knocked off of the tower, but the group discovers that he has the ability to teleport. Just as the dragon's tracking scent locates the good guys, somebody notices that there is a natural gas line at the top of the Needle, breaks it open, and causes a temporary smell flash attack that forces the dragon back.

The fight continues for almost fifteen seconds, the dark elves are unconscious, and the Tinker is just finished with his work, but the green dragon releases his breath weapon, a cone of acid that hits several people, including the Tinker. Luckily Super Star has some healing powers and fixes him, and the heroes retreat before the dragon gets them again.

Back on the ground, the group makes plans. They discover that all of the orcs in the area are heading back to the construction site, the center of the magical swap, and surmise that the villains are expecting them to go there to swap things back. The Tinker is able to communicate with the Cabalist in the normal world via the magical block of wood that he had given all the teams previously, and the two of them arrange to start their work as soon as the Tinker gets to the Nexus. The heroes also learn that the U.S. military has stepped in and had been defending the heroes while they waited.

The group knows that there will be hundreds of orcs and drow defending the construction site, but see no alternative but to head straight in. They are then contacted by Ford, the other member of the Seattle Six, who tells them that they are ready to defend the area. He has found a few dozen Seattle citizens that are ready to attack the orcs at the site with stolen weapons. To the surprise of the RC5, they also hear from their fantasy analogues, including Shade and Thrall, who survived their last fight. The whole group is there, and they will also attack the orcs. In addition, their magician, Chaos, has a spell ready to help the heroes.

The attacks begin. The heroes descend directly down to the Nexus from above, and as soon as they reach the ground, a huge wall of mystical force surrounds the immediate area, thanks to Chaos' spell. The Tinker goes to work on the small dais at the Nexus, telling the team that he will give everyone ten seconds or so of warning before the swap, then goes to work on the Nexus, pulling out technological gadgets out of his backpack. Lady Paladin takes up her defensive position to protect the Tinker as he goes to work. The mystical shield keeps out all of the enemies except for two Steam Knights and four orcs (who are wearing helmets and holding high-tech blaster rifles), plus the two main heavies: Marta Dansik, and a mean-looking dark elf, Rikos. Marta is wearing the slimmest, sexiest powered suit imaginable, and now goes by the name Technomancer, successfully combining technology and magic.

The fight begins. The heroes' attacks against the orcs and the steam knights are quite effective. Shimmer does a slick manuever where he dodges and an orc ends up shooting another orc. Super Star discovers that one of the orcs isn't fighting them, but just standing back with a goofy grin on his face. Several of the heroes attack Technomancer and Rikos, and when Technomancer notices that the Tinker is working on the Nexus, she approaches him, but 99 attempts a ploy by proclaiming that the Tinker is attacking him, then falls to the ground, apparently dead (“feign death”). The ploy is effective.

Super Star starts targeting the Technomancer's powered suit, and successfully breaks her helmet. Both the Technomancer and Rikos are weakened, and Rikos casts a spell on himself, causing him to grow to a huge size (just barely fitting in the walled area). Most of the orcs and Steam Knights are out, and the Tinker gives his warning that the switch will occur shortly. The warning goes to the local heroes, and they quickly teleport away, causing the protective wall to fall. The message also goes to the real world, giving those heroes time to flee. Rikos also realizes the impending swap, tells the Technomancer that he will exact his revenge on her someday, and teleports to an undisclosed location. The mass of orcs outside the barrier don't know what to do, since the communication they had with the Technomancer ended when her helmet was broken, so they flee. A few more seconds pass, and the magic is done: the places are swapped back to their regular location, and the heroes are back in their own world. But the Tinker is nowhere to be seen, and nobody can get in touch with the Cabalist. The military and the local superheroes come back into the area, rescuing the citizens and “dealing with” the orcs and dark elves. Marta Dansik, the Technomancer, lays helpless at the heroes' feet.

But Marta isn't done yet. In a typical supervillain plan, she tells the group that she had planned for this contingency, and has a method to destroy everything. As she talked, a horizontal opaque column of mystical force appeared in the air behind her, about eight feet off the ground, twenty feet long, and about two feet in diameter. She monologued about researching the spells to make the tube, evacuate the air inside it, and cause the two half-spheres at each end of the tube to accelerate towards each other. The heroes realize what it is: the half spheres are uranium, and the whole device is a magical atomic bomb. Her gloating done, she disappears.

The heroes try to figure out what to do. Super Star grabs some of them and escapes. Other plans are not effective. But Shimmer knows what to do. He can phase inside the tube, and stop the two half spheres from hitting each other. When they hit him, he is injured by their force, and the radiation from them changes him in an usual way. The mystical tube dissipates, and Shimmer and the half spheres fall to the ground. Quantum uses his TK to move the uranium away, and they all check on Shimmer.

Shimmer is semi phasing, and one can almost see through him. They can see something embedded inside his body, and someone pulls it out: it is a USB flash drive. Quantum uses his abilities to read and analyze the data on the flash drive. It is records on Shimmer and others like him. He was part of an experiment in a secluded Lithuanian military compound to create super-powered beings. But more than that, it was to create human weapons, and Shimmer was the one success: a human bomb. One that appeared to be about to go off.

Luckily, the Seattle hero Super Star had some powers that could help. She could absorb energy, and also had a healing ray. She used both on Shimmer, and was able to absorb the explosive energy from him and heal him. But there were changes; he is definitely different than he was before.

The other change was that the strain of absorbing the energy caused Super Star to go unconscious, and she changed from her superhero form to that of a normal person: a fifteen-year-old boy. 99 and Hex worked to hide her/his secret identity until he regained consciousness. Meanwhile, the heroes are contacted by the other heroes and by Olivia, commending them on their success.

Here ends the multi-part epic world-changing storyline that started a month and a half ago. My original goal was to have: * a world-changing event * a multi-part adventure, where the heroes would be mostly on their own for the whole time * lots of past characters show up and get involved

I picked the Nexus/fantasy world storyline because that brought back the Fantasy Five and Marta Dansik, and added to the mythology of the Nexus of Power.

As a side benefit, I was able to involve some subplots involving other heroes, and give Shimmer a radiation accident that Dave had asked for. I also got to use the Space Needle in a fight.

I liked the combination of magic and technology, but didn't get too much of a chance to combine them until the end, with orcs using rifles and Marta's magic/tech suit. As for the atomic bomb at the end, I must admit that I stole that from one of Ted's campaigns. But I must say that Ted did it much better, and the game that involved it was the best RPG that I have ever played in.

More notes to follow.