The New Vanguard! The Haunt issue #2: "Even a lion fears the jackal pack"

Gila replies "Hmmm? No. Thissss issss a drug of my own making. Initially to ssssave my life, it gave me enhanced sssstrength and durability... a bigger dose..." he waved a hand to present his reptilian form.

"Ssssstill... sssssplit up and attack from sssseveral frontssss issss good... ssssso long assss you keep moving!"

With a nod Gila scurried up the side of the building, using what appeared to be suckers on his finger ends that weren't there only heartbeats before! With a speed that defied belief he scurried up the side of the building...

Haunt carved his message into the steel and concrete of the outside of the building using a super hard finger! Stepping back to admire his handiwork he shrugged and stepped inside the building, heading towards the stairwell.

=========

Minutes later he had covered hundreds of steps and several dozen floors. Most were legitimate offices on the face of it.

He was also aware of cameras in the stairwell and knew the Arranger might well be tracking his progress.

As he thought that he heard the clatter of a door opening a floor or two up, and shouts from numerous men. "Is he in here?"

"Where'd the fog come from?"

"Who cares? We all amped up?"

"Yeah man! I can punch through a wall!"

"Save it for the super freak!"

"What about the others? And how did Arranger fix whatever had happened to us? Man, I was really *&^(ting myself for a while there!"

"Who cares? The Arranger arranges things. That's what he does! Now get your ass down those stairs and find the intruders!"

Haunt had moments before the goons would cover the steps and round to face him on the stairs. That Arranger might have something to overcome the fear effect he was capable of punting out was disturbing, but perhaps not surprising. The man was a regular box of tricks, and seemingly able to produce whatever he needed when he needed. Was that a super power, a result of amazing scientific skill, or even magic? He heard the clartter of feet on steps... he had only moments!

OOC You're in the stairwell only a few levels from the top you think. The fog will make it very hard to hit you and even if these guys are 'amped up' chances are Haunt can take them. Fore warned is fore armed though, and Haunt might be able to secure information about his mysterious foe if he can keep one of these guys conscious. Go up to them, wait, or do something else?

Haunt had moments before the goons would cover the steps and round to face him on the stairs. That Arranger might have something to overcome the fear effect he was capable of punting out was disturbing, but perhaps not surprising. The man was a regular box of tricks, and seemingly able to produce whatever he needed when he needed. Was that a super power, a result of amazing scientific skill, or even magic? He heard the clatter of feet on steps... he had only moments!

OOC You're in the stairwell only a few levels from the top you think. The fog will make it very hard to hit you and even if these guys are 'amped up' chances are Haunt can take them. Fore warned is fore armed though, and Haunt might be able to secure information about his mysterious foe if he can keep one of these guys conscious. Go up to them, wait, or do something else?

ooc: Just a note, the Haunt also set off a bunch of car alarms on the street before he went back inside in order to draw the police here as quickly as possible.


The Haunt was in no mood to mess with the minor cannon fodder. Not right yet, he had lives to save and the best way to find the kidnapped woman and child was to question the leaders of the various gangs and the Arranger himself as to their whereabouts! He would give them another taste of FEAR and move on to the top and let them follow if they could.

actions: Extend Fog to full range, if it isn't already. Hit them with the Fear power again when they get within sight of him. Keep moving through the Fog and head up the stairs. If they aren't affected by the Fear, they can follow if they want but with the Fog and the turns in the stairway, I figure that they will have a hard time seeing him and catching up to him. Use Self-Manipulation power to increase movement speed - did say I was shifting into some kind of multi-limbed man-sized centipede form to increase my speed and traction up the stairs. set my Speed when in this form to 7 so as to not to outrun the Fog.

The Haunt became a spider-like creature, eerie white limbs and ghostlike albeit lost in dense, impenetrable fog!

He kept his fear aura up...

The corridors were filled with fog so thick that wafting a hand in front of your face yielded nothing to normal sight! He heard shouts, then cries, as drug empowered minds normally incapable of feeling anything except rage were gradually overpowered, the musclebound lunatics succumbing to a certain degrees to Haunts power.

They provided little in the way of obstacle as Haunt was able to move past them up the stairwell at high speed and popped the door open at the top.

Haunt opened the door...

And a wave of heat washed over him! A scene from Dantes' Inferno greeted him, fire, brimstone, columns of screaming writhing people intertwined and reaching up into infinity! Volcanic eruptions of blood from a sea of lava, deafening screams and agonised cries!

He swayed, standing on the edge of a precipice... The door frame... In front, Hell... behind? A quick glance revealed... nothing... blackness. The eternal void of endless space!

Everything felt, sounded, smelled, looked... even tasted real! Brimstone and sulphur on the air could be tasted!

What in the...?

"I AM THE ARRANGER... OVER THE CENTURIES I HAVE BEEN KNOWN BY VARIOUS NAMES... IN THIS TIME AND AGE? NO ONE BELIEVES IN THE HIGHER POWERS OF HEAVEN... OR HELL. TOO BUSY RUSHING ABOUT WITH THEIR ANT LIKE LIVES, OBLIVIOUS AS TO THE TRUE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE, AND THEIR OH SO INCONSEQUENTIAL PLACE IN IT." rasped a disembodied voice, echoing around the endless chamber!

"AND YET EVEN I HAVE TO PLAY BY RULES... INTERFERE TOO MUCH, CROSS A LINE... AND THE GAME CHANGES. CAN'T HAVE THAT... SO I ARRANGE FOR OTHERS TO DO MY BIDDING, TO SOW DESPAIR, PANIC AND TERROR... AND I WILL REAP THE HARVEST!"

"HEHEHEHE... JUST A FEW OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME OF COURSE... WOULDN'T WANT TO MAKE THINGS EASY! SO... 'HERO'... FORWARDS INTO HELL, OR BACKWARDS INTO OBLIVION?"

OOC GM Note... 8RAPs

Everything felt, sounded, smelled, looked... even tasted real! Brimstone and sulphur on the air could be tasted!

What in the...?

"I AM THE ARRANGER... OVER THE CENTURIES I HAVE BEEN KNOWN BY VARIOUS NAMES... IN THIS TIME AND AGE? NO ONE BELIEVES IN THE HIGHER POWERS OF HEAVEN... OR HELL. TOO BUSY RUSHING ABOUT WITH THEIR ANT LIKE LIVES, OBLIVIOUS AS TO THE TRUE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE, AND THEIR OH SO INCONSEQUENTIAL PLACE IN IT." rasped a disembodied voice, echoing around the endless chamber!

"AND YET EVEN I HAVE TO PLAY BY RULES... INTERFERE TOO MUCH, CROSS A LINE... AND THE GAME CHANGES. CAN'T HAVE THAT... SO I ARRANGE FOR OTHERS TO DO MY BIDDING, TO SOW DESPAIR, PANIC AND TERROR... AND I WILL REAP THE HARVEST!"

"HEHEHEHE... JUST A FEW OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME OF COURSE... WOULDN'T WANT TO MAKE THINGS EASY! SO... 'HERO'... FORWARDS INTO HELL, OR BACKWARDS INTO OBLIVION?"

ooc: I roll to disbelieve!!!!  


The Haunt blinked at what he saw.

"Pretty good special effects," he muttered out loud. "And where might your criminal scum be hiding in this hellhole," he asked in a louder voice. "I want some answers about a missing woman and child. Give me those answers and I will let you go ... for now."

actions: Okay, the Haunt doesn't believe he is dealing with a supernatural creature. He thinks the guy is a fake, like he is. He thinks this is special effects - holograms, heat lamps, special blowers putting out the smell, etc. That doesn't mean that its safe to move forward since those things could hide traps or weapons.

Keeping the fog up for protection, he will move into the room, slowly. Not sure on the rules on this but Stretching says it can be used for defense, adding in to reduce or resist certain kinds of damager but you can't do anything else when you do. Does that include walking?

OOC Attempt to disbelieve...

Haunt has Int 7, Will 5. This is going to be an uphill struggle! You have 123 HP available to spend to increase those if you wish. For now (no mention made of spending HP for this check) the roll is: 2+8 (10). Failure (0RAPs achieved).

For Haunt, he can try to disbelieve this all he wants, but for all his mind can figure he has been transported to the gate of hell!

'This is real' says a subconscious voice inside Haunts head. 'Mind your step!'

A staggering sense of vertigo comes over the hero as he apparently steps from the door frame to fall forwards ... towards the searing heat and scorching fire of the lava sea below... where countless screaming people writhe and scream in agony!

OOC You can use stretching as a defensive action meaning it costs your Dice action (your attack in other words) that round. That gives him 20RV against physical force or impact type attacks, but that lava sea below will frazzle him seemingly...

Then Haunt was falling! A part of his mind told him it wasn't real, that he would bump to the floor in moments, that all of this was fancy holographics, smoke and mirrors...

This was all fake. Soon he would be...

HAUNT WAS FALLING TO HIS DEATH!!!!

OOC But will take a short while before he plunges into the lava... Seconds only, but maybe enough time to grab the doorframe, form glider wings, do whatever Haunt does...

This was all fake. Soon he would be...

HAUNT WAS FALLING TO HIS DEATH!!!!

OOC But will take a short while before he plunges into the lava... Seconds only, but maybe enough time to grab the doorframe, form glider wings, do whatever Haunt does...

The Haunt quickly changes into a small human rocket, sort of 1950s rocketship with a human-like face and arms/hands in the shape of the stabilizers. He flies over the obstacles looking for some place safe to land or a wall to run into.

Inhuman laughter rings out in the vast cavern as a white rocketship forms and starts blasting about, a trail of smoke behind him...

Suddenly lava blasted upwards from the sea of searing fire at ground level! Haunt gaped... and his rocketship eyes widened as he realised the lava column was more than wide enough to strike him!

OOC GM Note - Roll 10+4 (14) 8 RAPs of damage. Haunt is struck by the lava and scorching agony racks his spaceship body as he takes 8 Damage. You can either take the damage or absorb it through last ditch defense with Hero Points.

The laughter continues as more columns blast upwards and it gets hard to see for the white rocketship as it weaves around the cavern. In the far distance (looks to be around a mile away) there is seated a huge (probably 30' tall or so) red skinned musclebound man with horns atop his head and a red trident in his hand. He is seated on a writing throne of tortured souls, the people there interlocked and intertwined so as to appear almost solid, even if they are moving. Flying about the throne, in the air, are dozens of women with batlike wings who hover and laugh, beckoning Haunt to them with their dark demonic beauty.

"SO IT COMES TO THIS. A MIGHTY HERO, PERFORMING PARLOUR TRICKS IN THE PRESENCE OF THE MASTER TRICKSTER... FOR MY GREATEST TRICK WAS TO CONVINCE MANKIND I DIDN'T EXIST!" said the giant on the throne in a quietly spoken voice that nonetheless echoed around the cavern...

Behind Haunt the doorway floating in the air vanishes! Heat washes over our hero as another fiery column lances upwards, all too closely!

OOC Fly over to him, attack, or try something else?

Behind Haunt the doorway floating in the air vanishes! Heat washes over our hero as another fiery column lances upwards, all too closely!

OOC Fly over to him, attack, or try something else?

The Haunt is again going to attempt to disbelieve what he is seeing. Will put HP into this, this time. Not sure what attribute I'm using for this. Will? Mind? But I will put the equal of whatever attribute it is into the attempt.

OOC Haunt uses his Intelligence (7, pretty good) and Will (5, ok, but not fantastic). Boost those by 6 points (Int) and 4 (Will) to give you a chance of doing what you want to do - assuming that this isn't real of course...

Roll 8+9 (17) Success, 2RAPs. Well, success in that you start to disbelieve what you are seeing, but are still some way away from being able to trust your own senses... Haunt is on 113 HP and has taken 8 RAPs of damage.

Haunt squinted, strained, grit his teeth and gasped with the effort of fighting what he was sure was some kind of mental power being exerted on him.

For the briefest moment he got a glimpse of an empty partially constructed floor, building materials lying about and polythene wrap dangling from ceilings amidst concrete columns and wires trailing from the ceiling.

Then it was gone as another wave of heat washed over him and the lava exploded upwards, spraying about as a huge red hand grasped out to grab at the hero!

OOC Attack on Haunt... Roll 7+8 (15) This could hurt. Do you want to spend Hero Points to oppose the attack, resist it, or both? On top of that you can use HP to absorb damage or hope that his considerable defence can take the hit? According to what Haunt can see, hear, taste, touch and smell, he is in what seems to be a level of hell. Only his mind thinks otherwise, and it's having a hard time convincing his body to respond appropriately, especially as he's been hurt!

Then it was gone as another wave of heat washed over him and the lava exploded upwards, spraying about as a huge red hand grasped out to grab at the hero!

OOC Attack on Haunt... Roll 7+8 (15) This could hurt. Do you want to spend Hero Points to oppose the attack, resist it, or both? On top of that you can use HP to absorb damage or hope that his considerable defence can take the hit? According to what Haunt can see, hear, taste, touch and smell, he is in what seems to be a level of hell. Only his mind thinks otherwise, and it's having a hard time convincing his body to respond appropriately, especially as he's been hurt!

I am assuming that Stretching doesn't add to the defense of this kind of attack. If that assumption is correct then he will put 11 HP into dodging the attack. If stretching does add to the defense, then no points in.

Will then again add HP to my attempt to break through from Hell [or the mental attack he is under] by disbelieving.  

OOC You can pump up to 9 HP to Boost Dex from 9 to 18 but 7 will do the same job (16-18 column). It's a red hot fiery hand, the mere touch will sizzle the skin, so Stretching not effective

The attack still hits, but is less effective (well, 1 column shift less so saves 1 damage ) Haunt takes 7 RAPs damage and is only on 1 mind, so I assume that you absorb all of this with HP.

Haunt is grappled by the searing hand, and it closes around him! Gritting his teeth he ignores the searing pain as much as he can. Even with his superhuman durability and skin that would normally ignore hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit the pain is agonising.

Haunt can take it, but for how long? More and more this is getting harder to disbelieve!

OOC But he tries anyway. HP 6 in Acting, 4 into effect. Need a very good roll...9+8 (17) Good, but a double really would have been better... 3 RAPs, for a cumulative total of 5.

Haunt grimaces through the agony, knowing he has only seconds before the pain even blacks hi mout! Maybe he is in hell - he'd never encountered a...

Haunt got a brief flash of the darkened floor again with a line of windows along the walls. A silhouetted figure stands against a concrete pillar, casually smoking a cigarette. Was that... a prone figure on the floor. Female? And a smaller figure beside her. Both were tied up.

Then an inhuman vision of a scaled, clawed beast appeared on the window from the outside...

...and Haunt looked at the huge hand encircling him. He could feel his skin starting to cook, the blood in his veins boiling. What in the...?

Looking about he saw countless victims chained with fire to columns, screaming and howling in terror. More eruptions of lava... a waft of sulphur... laughter of succubi as they flew past... The rest of the inhumanly large figure was starting to emerge from the lava... and arm so long it would have spanned a football field, a shoulder big enough to park several cars on...

The figure in the chair laughed as he toyed with a fiery chain to which were attached dozens of screaming people on separate tethers. Through a haze of agony Haunt could see a dark figure rising from the shadows behind the demonic form. Was it friend, or foe, and would it be too late anyway?

OOC More of the same? Try to overcome the illusion, if such it is, or try to escape the grapple?

The figure in the chair laughed as he toyed with a fiery chain to which were attached dozens of screaming people on separate tethers. Through a haze of agony Haunt could see a dark figure rising from the shadows behind the demonic form. Was it friend, or foe, and would it be too late anyway?

OOC More of the same? Try to overcome the illusion, if such it is, or try to escape the grapple?

ooc: Tough choice. This may be the last thing he does or it may buy him time if he can break free. Deep inside, the Haunt now believes he is under a mental attack, not in Hell and not being attacked by special effects - like Mysterio does with Spiderman - like he originally thought. So he is going to use that knowledge or belief to fight back.

actions: Use HP to fight the mental attack, dodge the mental attack and absorb the mental attack. If possible, stretch out a fist in the direction of where he thought he saw the man smoking and try to punch his lights out. Not sure if trying to fight off the mental attack allows him an attack himself or not but if it does, then that is what he is going to do. If not, use HP as above.

Trying to focus his thoughts through waves of searing agony, Haunt desperately tried to convince himself that this wasn't real, that he was in reality on his knees clutching his head on a partially finished floor of a skyscraper...

Pain! Agonising searing unrelenting pain!

OOC Another 10HP to the task of fighting against the situation. Roll 6+7 (13). Not enough to make a dent in the power being used against him! This is a 'subconscious' Dice action as the character rails against the Illusion so is 'free'. This could be curtains for our hero...

Haunt felt another squeeze coming from the hand that grappled him...

OOC I presume HP will be used to escape the grapple. Strength (11 for Haunt) is being used. Will assume another 10HP being used... Roll 4+5 (9) Success.. by the skin of his teeth!

Haunt wriggles his way loose of the hand and swoops towards a lava flecked outcropping of rock. He was convinced none of this was real but as he clung to an obsidian column and glanced at the glowing molten river around him, spitting and spewing fiery rock about. The rest of the colossal figure burst from the lava, a terrifying hellish form of a muscled red skinned giant covered in horns and ... no - the horns were writhing people, screaming and clawing at the air!

The giant turns and swings a huge fist downwards! Haunt moves to get out of the way!

OOC I presume another bunch of HP to avoid the blow? Boost Dex 9 up to 16 for 7HP. Roll 6+2 (8). That does the trick.

Haunt avoids the smashing hand as it crashes into the rock below him, spraying lava upwards and around!

How long can he go on like this?

He swoops through the vast cavern. He can see no way out, indeed the blasting columns of lava seem to track and head him off, and he weaves between deadly lava as it spews upwards!



OOC More of the same until the conclusion? There is yet a twist in the tail, if Haunt can hang on for just a few seconds longer...

How long can he go on like this?

He swoops through the vast cavern. He can see no way out, indeed the blasting columns of lava seem to track and head him off, and he weaves between deadly lava as it spews upwards!

Again he attempts to disbelieve, using HP where he can to help him.

He then attacks the huge figure, aiming for its feet in the belief that the guy causing this to him is there and not up in the air. Use HP to hit.

OOC Disbelief attempt. Using HP as before (10). Roll 7+7 (14, double!) plus 6+5 (10)=24. That's a great roll, but the nature of the power (beast?) means that you must overcome the opposing APs by making cumulative attempts unless you have Green Lantern levels of will of course...

6RAPs. 11RAPs in total. It's good but...

Haunt was almost exhausted. Fighting what he thought was an illusion and being battered by that self same thing was draining him.

Gathering his considerable strength Haunt pulled his fist up to deliver a blow...

OOC 7HP added to Dex (to boost to 16) Roll 4+9 (13) Hit.

With a solid thwack! Haunt landed a blow! How about that then you...

The demonic figure shuddered with the blow, then started laughing! The bellowing laughter rang out in the cavern and the seated figure distant sat there with a smile on his face, though without humour. "There is fight in you. Your strength of will IS considerable. Once you are broken you shall provide fine sport for me and my minions, until you beg me to die, 'Hero'..."

OOC Attack on Haunt. Roll 6+1 (7). Hit, 5RAPs of damage. Absorb those with HPs I assume?

The giant demon crashes a fist towards Haunt. The hero gathers up his might to resist and roll with the blow. How much more can he take?

Just then, barely heard above the din of the screams and spitting lava blasts, a smash of glass and squealed cry...

And the world about Haunt shimmered...

The hero was on his hands and knees kneeling near a concrete pillar that had a huge chunk smashed from it. The room was bare save for polythene sheets draped here and there, concrete pillars, trailing wires and window lined walls. Some distance - 100 feet or so - a man in jeans and t-shirt was wiping blood from his nose and looking fearfully at a shattered window where GILA had entered by shattering it with his tail! The flying glass had presumably struck the man known as the Arranger and disturbed his concentration.

Close to where the man stood wiping blood from his face were a woman and young boy, both tied up and gagged. Haunt stared. The scientists' family! He'd found them!

Gila roared.. then seemed to back off as he advanced towards the man. All of a sudden he started swiping at the air with clawed hands!

The man in jeans and t-shirt turned to where Haunt was...

OOC and it's a race to see who acts first... Haunt. Just.

Close to where the man stood wiping blood from his face were a woman and young boy, both tied up and gagged. Haunt stared. The scientists' family! He'd found them!

Gila roared.. then seemed to back off as he advanced towards the man. All of a sudden he started swiping at the air with clawed hands!

The man in jeans and t-shirt turned to where Haunt was...

"My turn," Growled the Haunt.

actions: Launch a stretching fist to punch the guy out. Put max HP [or whatever gets me into the same column as] into Dex to hit and then into Strength for damage.

OOC Backed up by a nice roll! 2d10 ? [10,6] = (16) 7HP on Acting, 11 on effect to get you into the 16/22 columns. That hits... sort of.

Haunt slams his fist into the side of the mans head, mashing his body through the air and pounding it against a wall!

He sees the fellow slide down the wall, blood pouring from his ruined face and Haunt knows he's finally beaten his man.

Or has he?

"Where's my son?" screams a womans voice.

Haunt turns. The woman and the boy are still restrained and gagged. So how can she talk? He looks at Gila and sees the lizard swinging at air before he glances at Haunt and growls "Don't just stand there cowboy, I've got him on the ropes!" and he continues to swing - at air?

Angry now Haunt looks about then hears "I'm here! He's getting away with my son! Stop him!" except he can't tell where the voice is coming from...

Nor can he tell the direction of the cackling laughter ringing out from somewhere... and when he glances at the 'Arranger' on the floor where he'd punched the man is out for the count!

Still under the effects of the illusion... figured Haunt.

Shaking his head, he looked about. Something was happening. The womans voice... focus... over there? No! There! His hand reached out and touched... nothing that he could see, but he could feel a shoulder. "Help me!" said the woman. "It's like you're all blind or... or somewhere else! I'm here!" she cried. "He's taken my son!"

OOC The illusion has *almost* been broken thanks to Gilas' unintentional strike of the tail shattering the window and wounding the bad guy, plus the womans voice (and shoulder) giving Haunt a grounding in reality. Hero Points for the final attempt to break free of the illusion, or trust to the dice?

Hero Points to break free and do I have enough stretching and shapeshifting to actually blanket the entire room with my body? Dropping down from above like a sheet dropping to the floor. If I can cover the whole floor like a sheet over it, his invisibility or mind control should be less effective as well?

"Must... break... free!" growls Haunt!

OOC HP use (10 points onto Int and Will) 2d10 → [1,9] = (10)... alas, not enough.

The scene didn't waver. Haunt was beaten!

And then the scene shimmered again.

Same half built office block, sparse, trailing wires, fluttering sheets of plastic. Haunt figured the party he'd intruded on was on the floor above. Gila looked about and saw Haunt. With a feral snarl and inhuman rush of speed he sped at Haunt!

"YYYYOU WILL DIEEEE!" he roared "WHATTT HAVE YOU DONE TO MYYY MIIIIND?" Haunt gaped - the huge reptilian hero charged at Haunt!

Behind him a woman gasped, looking on in fear at the oncoming Gila! There was no sign of the Arranger or anyone else, but Haunt could hear distant sirens getting much closer by the second.

The Arranger was gone! And was this real or another image cooked up from the mind of the infuriating villain?

OOC You can stretch out to fill the room to basically perform an area attack, but it won't discriminate between Gila, the woman and/or anyone else the Haunt can't see. Once more you have no idea if what you are seeing is real or otherwise. Arranger has done a proper 'number' on Haunt but his ordeal will soon end ... although it might (or might not!) be at the hands of his ally, Gila!

Go for the area effect attack, trying for an entangle rather than damage. see how many folks I can get with it.

Flowing outwards like an oozing glue Haunt secretes tiny suckers from his skin in order to cling to whatever he can touch!

OOC 2d10 → [6,10] = (16) And he touches everything.

Haunt felt rather than saw the objects in the room. Coils of wire - he presumed. Nails, plaster board, plastic sheeting...

A body - a womans? Yes. unmistakeable. Her struggles against his immovable strength were futile. Another form - Gila, for sure. His strength, savage, yet not the equal of Haunts own. Those talons though... anger the beast and they could shred steel! Haunt was in no doubt his flesh was in danger unless he could get his erstwhile ally under control!

He shifted that fact aside when he closed upon something else. Too big to be one person - unless that person had 5... no... 6...8? limbs?

Someone carrying someone else. Smaller. The Arranger?

OOC The problem is Haunt can't trust his senses with regards attacking - sight, touch, hearing... all are confounded by the illusions' effects on Haunt. Haunt is taking his best guess that the villain is taking the youngster towards the exit, but separating the two might endanger the child. In addition Gila is going to shred his way out of Haunts body!

The Haunt turns himself into an octopus-like creature with multiple limbs. Each limb will warp around the objects he has founds, the moving/living ones, trying to pin their limbs to their sides and lift them all into the air. He will try to hold them, not squeeze them.

Like a mad blind thing from a Lovecraft novel Haunt reaches out and grabs anything that doesn't feel tied down...

With so many objects in the room, including discarded building materials, what he assumes are tools and even the odd chair, it's difficult for his brain to process at first just what he has.

Gila is like a wild animal with his response though!

OOC Gila attacks Haunt... Roll 8+6 (14) Hit. Spend HP on Opposing, Resisting or last ditch defence?

Haunt hears cries out loud though.

One is a mans.

"Ahhh! Get that... get that off me... or the boy dies!" he screams. Haunt is distracted by Gilas' attack, but figures the large object with multiple limbs is the one he's looking for. With superhuman strength he's holding the target but he can't separate the man from the boy thanks to the way his senses are scrambled! Even now he's having a hard time believing he's snagged anything at all!

"Last chance!" bellows the mans voice. "I'll kill him! Take the mother if you want, it's the boy I need!"

Spend hero points to resist.

Time to do something really stupid!!!   

"Why would you kill the boy if you really need him," the Haunt growls.


Can the Haunt see the hole in the side of the building that the Gila made? If so, he is going to throw the man and the boy out that hole, straight up into the air as high as he can throw them. The hope is that they will separate as they fall and he can grab them individually as they come down or at least the Arranger's mental control will go away so he can think straight.

Not actually sure how high he can throw them up into the air under the rules, but I don't want it so high that they wind up in space!   


If not, will have to go with Plan B, smother both man and boy until they are unconscious.

OOC Have assumed the maximum (11 points) into resistance. Doesn't leave you with much but it does the job and Gila inflicts no damage. Had he struck home and damaged Haunt you might have spent another pile on last ditch defence to absorb the damage... especially seeing as Gila has a poisonous attack!

Haunt steeled himself by bunching up iron hard muscles against Gilas' blow

The power of the Reptilian hero was clear, and he wasn't holding back! Another strike like that and Haunt would definitely be looking for the sticking plasters!

The hero looked past the enraged Gila to see the hole he'd made in the wall/windows, then made his decision... calling out his challenge he flung the massed bodies out, up and away!

All of a sudden Gila stopped, looked around and gaped "Wwwwhat?" he growled, wondering why he was surrounded by a stretchy gummy white blanket!

Haunt blinked. His vision blurred and straightened to reveal a near deserted floor save for his body spread out all over, the wife of the dead scientist struggling like a drowning person in the folds of his body and the monstrous Gila looking about, confused...

The boy!

Haunt 'pulls himself together' - literally - and moves as fast as he's able to the gaping hole and looks out and up... into the darkness! Several hundred yards up screams could be heard, one higher pitched than the other, but Haunt couldn't see the boy as yet - it would be a last second stretch to catch the falling youngster, and if Haunt got it wrong...?



OOC You don't have much in the way of Hero Points left - Arranger is a really nasty opponent and he's drained you dry! Do you want to spend what is left on the Dex check to catch the youngster, or take a chance and make a Perception check to spot him (a fail on that will make the catch even harder, but success will mean its much easier) or do something else?