The NEW Vanguard! LIONHEART Issue #2

dunecat wrote:((Sorry to cut in, just felt the need to point out how powerful Lionheart is now. I don't have the numbers infront of me but I believe he can get his Telekinesis up to something around 20. That probably means he can just telekinetically beat this thing into submission.. if he can get up to 20 he might even just be able to lift it (or sections of it) - he could handle some 24,000 tons of weight at that point. You might want to go back to your character sheet and look for some options on there! ))

OOC: Oh thanks mate, despite having a copy of the rules, the rules just sort of escape me in some ways.  I guess if we were playing this face to face, I'd get a much clearer feel for the characters.  In any case when Paul starts talking about this huge creature and the things that are going on, I tend to struggle to comprehend how I might deal with it - for instance the idea that I might just 'lift' the whole thing up.  I've never felt (narratively in any case) that Lionheart is that powerful.  What throws me is the way that numbers sort of double, as they go up.  So that though 20 doesn't sound like a lot - its actually a huge deal.

Ok we'll I'll see what Paul comes back with on my last post and then maybe see if I can't 'test' my powers fully against this creature.  Maybe the 'kid gloves' need to come off as it were.

Thx

Sj

OOC Lionheart isn't quite that strong - his Telekinesis can draw on his Power Reserve (8) to boost from 7 to 15, which is 750 tons of lifting. His strength (8) can be boosted to 16 (1500 tons). Impressive, but Submarines are HEAVY. Though the Soviet Submarine on the ocean bottom (with the gaping hole in the side) isn't the biggest they make (that would be the Akula - appeared in 'Hunt for Red October' if I recall) it's still beyond his ability to lift without pushing. The Akula, for example, when submerged weighs up to 48,000 tons, and that's WITHOUT a hole in the side. Due to the compartmentalized nature of subs not all of it would be flooded, but enough to easily bump the weight beyond 50,000 tons...

"I can stay 'invisible' inside this... whatever it is... and keep you updated with what's going on" said Aquanaut over the comm system.

"I can't tell you how big it is though. I've been passing through tubes and pipes for what feels like hours and I'm fast in water. I could..." there was a pause. "I could 'distract' this thing though. Swell to enough of a size that the pipes burst... It would know there was something amiss and where I was, but it would certainly distract."

Nightbird spoke up. "As can I. I can 'blind' our team mates to stop their progress back to that 'Mother Ship' thing."

Lionheart pondered for a moment. Using his telekinesis he could mentally scoop sand and silt up to reveal more of the thing in the chasm, or he could shovel stuff down into the cavern to block access to it. Without knowing exactly how big it was he wasn't sure whether he could lift it or not. It was an option though he'd be effectively scooping with telekinetic hands... and hoping the hands were large enough to grasp the thing.

Meanwhile his Danger Sense kicked off again. Something coming up the trench towards them!

OOC Options...

Lionheart is FAST. That's his thing. Lightning fast reflexes, they make him a peerless hand to hand combat. Hard to hit, can hit you dozens of times in the blink of an eye.

He can divert his psionic power to boost his Strength, Speed, telekinesis, mind blast (mental blast isn't listed on his character sheet even though it's listed on Power Reserve, may need to look at that). He can mentally attack this Squid things - if they have a mind that can be affected his has a powerful attack.

Telekinesis - you can effectively form a bubble of force, a 'hand' if you will to lift/move objects

Mind probe, Empathy - you can try to see if the thing under the ocean floor has a mind you can probe to see what it wants, and where it came from...

Admin wrote:OOC Options...

Lionheart is FAST. That's his thing. Lightning fast reflexes, they make him a peerless hand to hand combat. Hard to hit, can hit you dozens of times in the blink of an eye.

He can divert his psionic power to boost his Strength, Speed, telekinesis, mind blast (mental blast isn't listed on his character sheet even though it's listed on Power Reserve, may need to look at that). He can mentally attack this Squid things - if they have a mind that can be affected his has a powerful attack.

Telekinesis - you can effectively form a bubble of force, a 'hand' if you will to lift/move objects

Mind probe, Empathy - you can try to see if the thing under the ocean floor has a mind you can probe to see what it wants, and where it came from...

Lionheart needed to know what he stood against but with the Squid like creatures hampering his efforts to find out, he also was in need of some space to work. "I suspect that if we take on the squids the hive mind, as it likes to call itself will know.  Chances are at that point anything we do will be monitored.  I need to find out what we can do to stop this thing in its tracks, perhaps confuse it so it attacks itself or something, so you need to keep those squids off me for a moment whilst I probe it.  If I fail you might also need to help me break the link.  Don't want you to have to fight me also.  Besides from what I've seen, this beast isn't big on looks I don't want it messing with my face." Lionheart said, winking at the last comment at Nightbird.

Then he used his telepathic powers, all that he could muster as he concentrated and aimed to understand the full extent of what they faced and how they might deal with it.  Before he could just punch it, here in the depths with the possibility of nuclear disaster and unknown threats to the other heroes, he had to find a way to break this creatures hold.  Some leverage to use against it.  If they couldn't defeat it, could they turn the tables and force it to leave even?

OOC:
Ok whilst Aquanaut lies low, I'll do the whole mind probe, empathy, thing.  If there is a way to win this creature over the smart way then so be it.  Since I can't dodge it or punch it, or lift it - well not yet anyway.  Would be great if I could just launch it at the sun, but I suspect it might have even got here under its own steam so space, like the ocean depths might not stop it.  

Sj

Lionheart concentrated, even as he was shrouded in darkness and Aquanaut continued to 'lie low' in the depths of the ... things... pipework and equivalent of veins...

OOC Empathy, Telepathy, Mind Probe... 2d10 → [3,10] = (13) 2d10 → [8,9] = (17) 2d10 → [6,2] = (8)

Ancient. Thousands of years old, more... hard to measure or fathom... Drifting among the stars to adapt and assimilate organic matter that it came across... Finally sensing something... drifting towards it... Fourth planet from the star in this system... A planet of water, lush red vegetation, teeming sentient life, advanced in their own way and on the cusp of space exploration...

The war had been hard fought. An unsuspecting world had reached out in friendship and the hivemind had delivered  a virus into their populace. Before they knew it, the Martians had been fighting against their own peoples, assimilated and enhanced by mechanical augmentations.

Finally, the war won, the Martians cornered the hivemind and prepared to deliver the final devastating blow to it's immense form... NO! Rather than lose, the Hivemind escaped... and left a final, parting gift...

It had spent an age burrowing to the core of the planet, and when it escaped in a fiery blast of propulsion and violence, the hole it had left opened up... and as calculated, split a fault line that caused a vast rift on the ocean floor...

The water turned to superheated steam, filling the atmosphere, wiping out all life and when it dried, left in it's wake a lifeless red dust covered planet...

MALICE... HATE...BURROWING, ENDLESS BURROWING...

ASSIMILATE THE POPULACE... USE THEM TO HELP REBUILD AND BRING RAW MATERIALS FOR ASSIMILATION... GROW... REFORM... DEVOUR... MOVE ON...

Lionheart shuddered. This... this thing was somewhere between living and mechanical, an alien creature with no concept of cooperation or civil thought... It could not be reasoned with, persuaded or otherwise turned from it's course - such thoughts were simply not part of it's mental vocabulary... In fact it didn't know the meaning of 'Peace'. It had come here, injured and running from a race which had defeated it - the Martians, or at least one of several species that called Mars home - and arrived on Earth thousands of years ago. Wounded, humiliated, determined, vengeful. Vengeance not on those who had beaten it and caused it to flee, but against all free willed life forms.

Lionheart knew then what the Squidborgs were, or had been.

Martians. It was running out of them, now it needed new beings to turn into slaves, to help it...

To help it DESTROY THE EARTH!

Admin wrote:Martians. It was running out of them, now it needed new beings to turn into slaves, to help it...
To help it DESTROY THE EARTH!

Lionheart's visage hardened, his eyes grew cold and a light deep within seemed to glow within. A dark deep red light of rage. Turning Nightbird he said, "This thing is injured, vulnerable. Its a parasite of the worst kind and its kill or be killed. So my dear between you me and our friend within, we've got to find the weakest point and use that to kill it before it becomes to strong to be stopped."

Lionheart chewed on a knuckle as he gave the problem thought. How do you take down a creature so large, within which was potentially a nuclear arsenal it would have no compunction in detonating if it felt it would help it survive? Where might such a creature store its 'mind?'. Such as it was, where might its weakest point be? It was a shame that there was no way to access the information that was once contained on Mars, had they been alive, they'd most likely would want a piece of the action now.

OOC:

Ok so what is the plan? Not sure from what I've seen, heard, or discovered if or where I am to attack and get at it. With Aquanaut inside, but vulnerable should his presence be known, or he materialise into something other than water, it leaves just the two of us to get in, but to where and what? I'm not asking for a map with x marks the spot, but not sure what or where to go from here. So looking for breadcrumbs to find my way home, as it were.

Sj

Admin wrote:OOC Updating later on tonight (have to hit sack now, up at 17.00 for work :S )

OOC:Sure no worries mate, you know I'll wait. Besides some of the stuff you throw up gets me so taxed thinking what to do I often need time to reflect on my actions, anyway.

Sj

OOC So much for my posting plans :S Anyway, Lionheart tries to come up with theories, plans, options...

2d10 → [8,4] = (12) Not great, but could be worse.

Lionheart considered what he knew of the creature he faced...

A great leviathan of a thing, with pipes and tubes running through it. Like... a circulatory system? He considered for a moment - a lifetime for someone as fast as him.

He could attack it physically, but would have to fight off the squidborgs - enslaved martians - and might fall prey to that which had enslaved the other heroes.

Mental attacks against such a thing might make some headway, but the alien nature of its brain meant there might be limited effectiveness, again exposing him to an onslaught by the Squidborg.

Instead, how about... telekinesis, or his strength, to compress and jam as many pipes and tubes as possible? Create a blockage, much like an artery in a heart? Do enough, or for long enough, and that would stop the flow of liquid through the creatures' veins...

The effect of that was unknown, but he knew the longer he delayed the more the creature would consider him and Nightbird a threat, and possibly even find Aquanaut, currently circulating around that thing in hope of finding his own way of attacking it!

Admin wrote:OOC So much for my posting plans :S Anyway, Lionheart tries to come up with theories, plans, options...

2d10 → [8,4] = (12) Not great, but could be worse.

Lionheart considered what he knew of the creature he faced...
The effect of that was unknown, but he knew the longer he delayed the more the creature would consider him and Nightbird a threat, and possibly even find Aquanaut, currently circulating around that thing in hope of finding his own way of attacking it!

Hitting on the idea that seemed to be best suited to his talents, Lionheart explained what he had planned to the others.  Then taking a look at what he could see, hear and discern, given what he knew and how the creatures had behaved, he set out to carry out his plan. Those things are bound to try and defend this thing, once it understands what I am doing.  So I need you to keep them away from me as best you can.  Time, after all, is not on our side.

With that Lionheart switched his powers around, seeking to implement his best efforts toward attack and away from defence.  He had to make this work, or they were all in for a world of hurt.  

OOC:Ok, I don't think of Lionheart as a strong character, so I'd never have thought that a) he had sufficient strength to do this and b) such an attack could work at all - which is why I was rather stumped by the overwhelming nature of this thing.  However now I've got some idea as to what to do, I want to aim toward doing maximum damage I can't imagine its hard to hit!  But I imagine doing damage that matters is slightly harder.  But need to go for damage over accuracy and hope that I can do enough to get it to respond in a way that gives us an opening we can use.

Sj

OOC The absolute maximum damage he can cause? That would be Superspeed. He can't boost it any higher (limited to max of 14APs regardless of pushing) so he can add say 9HP to Attack, 19 to damage, then go for a devastating attack. I'll assume you spend those 28HP, this leaves Lionheart on 72HP.

Roll(2d10)+0:
9,3,+0
Total:12

That'll do it. His power reserve exacts a toll (roll of 16) and Lionheart takes 3RAPs of mental damage leaving him on 6 Mind (from 9).

Using his superspeed and focusing on damaging the object under the ocean floor, he speeds out of the darkness field before Nightbird or Aquanaut have a chance to object!

The Squidborg spin in his wake as he speeds past them and he swims down to the blue hull of the vile alien craft/being before delivering thousands of damaging karate blows!

The water boils from his speed, and the blue turns red then orange then white from the heat!

There's almost a heartbeat of delay, then the thing under the ocean floor convulses, sending out a shockwave that sends Lionheart reeling through the water and spat out of the ocean trench! The rumbling that reverberates reminds him of a huge earthquake, and the cavern collapses in on itself, filling the water with a cloud of silt and dirt, and causing the water to collapse inwards on the trench!

Lionheart can't see, and his Danger Sense is going crazy! Swimming what he thought was up (the underwater earthquake would register high on the Richter Scale), Lionheart instead crashed into the ocean floor and bounced along the bottom...

The quake lasted some moments, and Lionheart looked about. The dirt and silt would muddy the water for hours, maybe longer.

"Lionheart?" questioned a voice. Nightbird! She was alive, at least! "Did you... did you do that? I'm above the water, there was a swell... a wave is heading to the coast, and it's getting bigger!" she called out. The reception was fuzzy, but Lionheart got the meaning clearly enough - coastal villages were about to be hit with a Tsunami unless he could somehow stop it!

Admin wrote:"Lionheart?" questioned a voice. Nightbird! She was alive, at least! "Did you... did you do that? I'm above the water, there was a swell... a wave is heading to the coast, and it's getting bigger!" she called out. The reception was fuzzy, but Lionheart got the meaning clearly enough - coastal villages were about to be hit with a Tsunami unless he could somehow stop it!

Lionheart mentally chided himself for not thinking about the repercussions of such a devastating blow. He'd have to think this over at length later, but now he had to act, get ahead of the wave and somehow use its considerable mounting force to turn back on itself.

Moving ahead, not daring to slow down or speak up, he moved forward ahead of the growing wave, all he could hope to do was to somehow collapse one wave into another. If he could do what he had just managed to do, but so that the wave built up from the shore and 'meet' the incoming Tusnami then, possibly then he might take the worst out of the wave before it had a chance to hit. If he didn't hundred's of lives would be lost, totally unaware of the oncoming danger.

OOC:Oh boy never rains and all that. Right so I want to attempt to do what I've just done but going the opposite way so as to try and force one wave to crash into the oncoming wave and dissipate its energy, if I can. Then once I've got the wave crashing into the other, I use my flight and super speed to try and tornado back the remaining water that gets through, or isn't somehow held back. This is where I could do with some good rolls.

Sj

Using his immense speed, Lionheart 'poured' it on, hoping to cancel out the Tsunami with one of his own!

He sped over the sea, rain lashing his forcefield, then swooped low, saw the oncoming swell, and blasted as low as he could to create an almighty wake that would cause an opposing swell... and either slow or stop the Tsunami in it's tracks!

OOC Lionheart is capped at 14 Speed (a weakness) so he's really hoping to use that in the best way possible by picking the right angle to fly and right altitude, then hoping it will work. This then will be an Intelligence/Will test (to figure it out) against a HERCULEAN task (12 OV/RV). I will assume Lionheart uses HP to boost Int/Will to 16/9 (His Will is 5, so he can only boost it to the 9-10 column, hence spending 4HP to get it to 9). He still needs a roll of 11 to succeed though!

2d10 → [5,6] = (11) Heh, that'll do it.

2 Result APs, which is fine (1 would do)

Lionheart HP Total 60

Streaking low he creates a sonic boom not once, but several times as he races along the Scottish coastline!

Straining, he turns and loops up in the air, through the clouds, then down again into the rain to see the results, hoping, praying...

His heart sinks...

Nothing! He'd fai... wait!

With a huge crash of water into the air, there forms an outwards heading wave that drives towards that coming into shore! Both build up, until...

CRASH!

Smashing nearly a hundred feet upwards, the water clashes and falls back. There is still an outwards wave heading out to sea, but that will soon dissipate a few miles out into the North Sea. As the waves settle, he sees the great white wake of water form a huge circle going across several miles, and finally understands that the thing he faced was immense!

And it was still down there, albeit buried under the ocean floor!

Nightbird soared up, all dark form barely stand out in the night sky. "That was... that was amazing! How... how...?"

Lionheart didn't answer. Looking at the grey swell he knew that there were heroes still down there. The submarines and their crew were lost, the alien spacecraft/creature had been hurt and would recover, and that Aquanaut was still trapped aboard it.

Was this a problem he could tackle on his own... well, with Nightbirds help, or did he need to call in more 'big guns'? The problem was, might they also fall sway to the thing under the ocean, as Stonelord and Captain Valiant had? Could he be making the problem worse by bringing others in? As the rain lashed him as he hovered over the waves, he knew there and then he needed to act... but which path to take?

Admin wrote:Lionheart didn't answer. Looking at the grey swell he knew that there were heroes still down there. The submarines and their crew were lost, the alien spacecraft/creature had been hurt and would recover, and that Aquanaut was still trapped aboard it.

Was this a problem he could tackle on his own... well, with Nightbirds help, or did he need to call in more 'big guns'? The problem was, might they also fall sway to the thing under the ocean, as Stonelord and Captain Valiant had? Could he be making the problem worse by bringing others in? As the rain lashed him as he hovered over the waves, he knew there and then he needed to act... but which path to take?

OOC:I am so glad you mentioned Hero points, I used them up last adventure so fast I thought I'd gone into a negative pool or something. Thank goodness for them, these solo adventures don't allow much of a margin of error, if I get this wrong I feel like I'd could really come unstuck. Having said that its not as if this is like D&D where TPK's can be a regular occurrence.

Lionheart looked stricken for a moment, but the creature was on the ropes. Getting more people down here only gave it the chance to regroup and threaten more heroes. Not that tackling it alone was any easier. After all, if Lionheart had got it backed into a corner it was going to still be a formidable foe to face.

We go on, we've got to finish this before that thing has a chance and whilst we've got it on the back foot. Come on, let see if we can't finish it for good.

And with that Lionheart dove once again beneath the waves, not waiting for a response. He swam at his speed induced rate hoping this time not to cause such collateral damage to the surrounding area. But first he had to get closer. Reaching out, he contacted Aquanaut, "Aquanaut, not much that we can see through this muck, is there anything you can tell us from within. Any clue as to where to strike, now we've given it something to rattle it cage?"

Sj

Lionheart forced his way through the freezing waves, wild currents and impenetrable silt.

His danger sense wailed all the while, but his force field protected him from anything untowards. Near the ocean floor he could only guess which direction to go in. He called up Aquanaut... and got only static!

Pushing on, he got deeper and deeper, hearing rumbling like an earthquake.

"....said something is happ..." said Aquanaut in his earpiece!

Lionheart turned, seeing only darkness and silt! What was...

Something rushed out of the gloom and darkness, something MASSIVE!

A hand, followed by an arm, that would dwarf a house, a boat... the arm longer than a football field! Made of metal, reaching up! In it's wake Lionheart was tossed, swirling, and righted himself, to feel the swell as the rest of the body, having unfurled from the huge mass of the main form, started to rise out of the depths!

OOC We have a giant robot alert! This thing is HEEEEEEEUGE! Lionheart still can't see how big, but think 'Iron Giant' probably twice as big, maybe a bit more

Admin wrote:OOC We have a giant robot alert! This thing is HEEEEEEEUGE! Lionheart still can't see how big, but think 'Iron Giant' probably twice as big, maybe a bit more

Curious more than concerned, Lionheart pondered the wisdom of having a creature made of iron fight beneath the waves. Its blows and its attacks would be somewhat disadvantaged by the depth of water. But did that therefore indicate the true desperation of the alien creature. Lionheart moved in, more cautious but no less agile and speedy as he sought to come at the creature using its bulk against it, whislt he zipped around seeking ways to get at it and or stop it.

Sj

As the muck cleared and the blue glow of the robots 'skin' lit up more of the detail, Lionheart was pretty sure whatever it was made of, this thing was NOT of Earthly origin...

So thoughts and hopes of it rusting in place beneath the ocean waves were soon quashed!

He kept his distance as it kept rising, and broke the surface. With four arms and two legs, a body that extended into a cone like neckless head reaching hundreds of feet high into the air, it was more like a squid that could use some or all of its limbs to attack or propel itself with.

And it started to move towards the mainland of Scotland!

Nightbird called out, the reception crackling in Lionhearts ear "... do we do? There's only us two! Where are the others? I don't..."

She sounded desperate, but determined. That said, whatever she could do against a thing this size, she would.

Lionheart thought the same. How best to take something down that thought of him a gnat?

He looked at a spot on the things back, caved in and dented, sparking and with lightning playing over its surface. A gnat with a sting - even the mightiest creature could be brought down with enough stings! Lionheart looked at his hands and blurred them at super speed, fastest than an ordinary human could see!

It could boil down to him... then he noticed something else. The electricity playing about was not just at the wound, but all over the body - some kind of protective field? And like everything else about this thing, nothing would be weak or subtle about it!

Admin wrote:It could boil down to him... then he noticed something else. The electricity playing about was not just at the wound, but all over the body - some kind of protective field? And like everything else about this thing, nothing would be weak or subtle about it!

OOC:Ok quick question, if i got some ordinance from the ship, would something onboard be sufficiently powerful enough to make a difference to the robot? If not I'll not bother to go down that route, but instead go for the non subtle approach, power up my force field and go for a devastating attack using HP if need be to make sure it counters to the to hit accuracy penalty and try to hit the damage spot you've pointed out as hard as I can, hoping not to set off another Tsunami.

If however I can get ordinance easily that might make a dent, my aim is to get that fly back to the creature and do as planned above, but with the one addition that first I use the ordinance to crack open its shell from that spot.

Sj

OOC Made a mess of that - all that typing (wasting precious posting time - I have only 15 mins left now ) to cross some of Frostbites stuff with Lionheart. DOH! Let's try again.

Lionheart was fairly sure that whilst there may be weapons on the ship that could be used, chances were they were of the conventional variety...

In other words, perhaps enough to put a dent in a tank, but nowhere near lethal enough to scratch something of this size! That made Lionhearts' own attack even more impressive. With his own (force field reinforced) hands he could punch and strike thousands of times every second and pound a hole into this thing!

He was less effective against conventional living organisms unless he wanted to kill them - which was most certainly not his style. Luckily with this thing it seemed to be neither living nor mechanical, but something in between. If he could do enough damage to put the thing off, it might be willing to compromise, or leave.

His danger sense was going off all the time, reminding him that this thing was holding something powerful back...

As Lionheart zoomed over to where he'd struck before, he saw two beings coming towards him - one carrying the other which was far more massive. And stone-like.

Both had glowing blue eyes, and Lionheart didn't need for them to get closer to see that it was the mind controlled Captain Valiant and Stonelord!

If that weren't enough, another swarm of Squidborg - at least three dozen, were following in their wake! The goliath creature/machine continued on towards the mainland ...

OOC Lionheart will have to go round Captain Valiant/Stonelord and the Squidborg, but should he ignore them and attack the big thingy, he will leave his back vulnerable to attack by these guys...

Admin wrote:OOC Made a mess of that - all that typing (wasting precious posting time - I have only 15 mins left now  ) to cross some of Frostbites stuff with Lionheart. DOH! Let's try again.

OOC Lionheart will have to go round Captain Valiant/Stonelord and the Squidborg, but should he ignore them and attack the big thingy, he will leave his back vulnerable to attack by these guys...

OOC:Easily done when you're in a hurry mate.  

Lionheart felt he had no choice, leaving the 'small fish' to attack the big creature might be his preference, but in truth he felt he had no choice but to hamper them so as to be able to tackle the big fish.  He only hoped he had enough time before the 'iron giant' emerged where it could do far more harm.  

"Nightbird, we need to tackle this together." Lionheart said as he speed down, using his considerable force and speed, he'd hoped to both evade the significant attacks whilst seeking to incapacitate or slow down the creatures, so he could get past the starters and onto the main meal - namely this thing.  

OOC:Ok so plan of attack is to try and use my attacks, where possible to disable, so slow down speed rather than do lethal harm.  Moving to get these things out of the way before we get to the creature.  I'll use whatever combination seems most appropriate to avoid being entangled too much so I can stay light on my feet and able to effect a quick in and out striking pattern, hopefully with Nightbirds help.

Sj

Admin wrote:OOC Not sure I made clear what targets were available (sorry) but you currently have:

1) Captain Valiant
2) Stonelord

These guys are mind controlled by the alien hivemind.

3) Squidborg (lots of these) are swimming alongside the two above, forming a barrier of sorts between Lionheart and the main man, which is:

4) The alien vessel/giant/creature which is marching/swimming towards the mainland.

You can go round 1,2 and 3 but they will be attacking you from behind. You can attack a whole bunch of guys but the more you attack the harder it is. Bear in mind with 22 Dex Lionheart is nothing short of an astonishing combatant - he won't normally miss in a one on one, but a couple of the guys you're up against are superhuman and therefore more agile than usual.

Also the attacks/damage you've inflicted against the big beastie thus far assume it is nonliving (a fair assumption). Lionheart can cut loose. The two mind controlled guys are definitely human and therefore trying to kill them is off the menu (well, unless you want to). You will do less damage against them. The squidborg might be considered alive as well, so trying to kill them is a bad idea for Lionhearts heroic status/peace of mind.

When not killing an opponent with martial arts you can attack with 22 Dex and damage on the 9-10 column of Str (using the Battery option of Martial arts) and go for a critical or devastating strike on opponents to up the damage. Hopefully that will get through. That assumes putting your 8 points of power reserve (psychic energy) into Superspeed. Another option is Mind blast which can be boosted to 13 using 6 points of power reserve, and take them down psychically.

Superspeed is your easiest to hit with option
Mental Blast is possibly your best option to take these guys down, as tank types tend to be less resistant to mind attacks than they are to punches, bombs and bullets.

Hope that's a bit clearer.

So, target/s, how you attack, going for critical/devastating attack?

OOC:Yeah much clearer, to be honest I am not sure quiet what to do, as it seems like there is no easy way to take this lot down before the creature/robot gets to the coast. One thing I'd like to clear up though? We were attacking a great monster submerged in muck, that got a devastating attack and this robot emerged? Where is the creature or is part of it within the robot- sorry if I'm being impossible dense, but this had me a bit confused. As for damage non lethal is the way I am going for present and in terms of targets, I think I'll follow your advice and mind blast the heavy hitters to take them down and use martial arts against the squid borgs.

Lionheart moved toward his opponents, the murky silt filled water making it harder to see them so well in the swirling maelstrom of eddying currents. But as soon as he spotted the behemoth Stonelord, he let loose with all he had to try and take down the man. Although he was strong on the outside, he'd been easy prey to mental take down, Lionheart had to hope a critical mindblast now, with resources stretched thin, would be the weak chink in his otherwise impervious armour to taking the man down, safely as one could hope to.

As he moved forward he signalled to Nightbird to take on Valiant or at least keep him away from Lionheart till he could attempt to take him next. Both of them had, however the ongoing concern of the Squidborg creatures. Lionheart accepted that, they may end up taking a hit, to make a hit. Then as the murk momentarily cleared again, he let loose, his mind firmly fixed on Stonelord, hoping he didn't kill the man, as he let loose to incapacitate instead of kill.

Sj

OOC The monster IS the robot, I didn't make that clear, sorry. It's a cyborg type thing. Part organic, part machine, but not alive as a human would normally understand. More like undead, but able to regenerate and think with sentient thought, so like a D&D style bad guy

Right then, Mindblast on Stonelord.

I assume you switch your power to Mind Blast and let the big guy have 13APs worth. using the D&D online dice roller as invisible castle is down. Again.

Roll 6+6 (DOUBLE!) plus 10,8 total 30 (!)

Lionheart let rip with his blast, wondering if it would do enough

When it struck he 'felt' rather than saw some kind of shield, like an overlay that needed breaking through. He smashed through that and punched - hard - into Stonelords mind!

He saw the huge man stiffen, then relax and start to drift to the bottom of the sea floor, unconscious and thus freed from the influence of that great creature/robot leviathan that was even now heading steadily towards the coast of Scotland!

Turning, Lionheart peered through the silt and saw a black silhouette of Captain Valiant, swinging wildly having been rendered utterly senseless by the darkness surrounding him. Not just sight, but hearing and all his other senses had been deprived! Whilst Nightbird had him 'held' like that he was little danger, swinging as he was away from Lionheart or Nightbird.

The Squidborg seemed confused. From being in a position of strength to seeing the powerful captive superhumans rendered useless in a matter of moments, they turned to catch up with the great host form of the robot/creature and form a rearguard against Lionheart should he choose to pursue.

OOC The energy surge Lionheart uses (power reserve) 'attacks' Lionheart as usual... 2+9 (11) not enough to damage him this time round, so no headaches or nosebleeds. The DC heroes system has been kind to LH - rolling 2D10 instead of 1D20 has its advantages I think. Actually as memory serves I think we were rolling 2D10 for GH in the last year of use weren't we? And the more you exceed the hit roll, the more damage you inflict? Will have to dig up the pdf on optional rules. For now carry on with DC Heroes rules so just allocate a Dice action (attack, usually) a move action (in LH case flying) and a non move/attack action (like talking) as usual.

The great beast/robot is now only a mile or so away from the coast. It took a little while to get going but is really shifting now - faster than the fastest speedboat! There's still no way to tell how big this thing is but judging by its wake it's probably bigger than the largest supertanker ever built, and that's saying something! For now LH has taken down Stonelord (drifting to ocean bottom) and Nightbird is 'holding' Valiant in her sensory deprivation but for how long...?

Admin wrote:[color=#0033ff]OOC The monster IS the robot, I didn't make that clear, sorry. It's a cyborg type thing. Part organic, part machine, but not alive as a human would normally understand. More like undead, but able to regenerate and think with sentient thought, so like a D&D style bad guy [color=#0033ff]


OOC The energy surge Lionheart uses (power reserve) 'attacks' Lionheart as usual... 2+9 (11) not enough to damage him this time round, so no headaches or nosebleeds. The DC heroes system has been kind to LH - rolling 2D10 instead of 1D20 has its advantages I think. Actually as memory serves I think we were rolling 2D10 for GH in the last year of use weren't we? And the more you exceed the hit roll, the more damage you inflict? Will have to dig up the pdf on optional rules. For now carry on with DC Heroes rules so just allocate a Dice action (attack, usually) a move action (in LH case flying) and a non move/attack action (like talking) as usual.

OOC: Ugh just wrote a long response and managed to delete it.  Ok so going to have to summarize now:
1.  Didn't appreciate cyborg was the creature, on account of it being submerged but should have guessed with the squidborgs and all etc.
2.  DC rules have favoured Lionheart but not Frostbite.  The idea of rolling 2d10 not 1d20 makes it less swingy.
3.  Something you said in the other thread made me realise how important it is to fall forward.  That even a failure on the dice roll can be interpreted differently.  Not that there isn't any such thing as a miss, but that a miss can actually be a hit, but with unforeseen complications.  
4. Its important especially in an online game where weeks can go between posts, that the actions keep moving forward.  Failure to hit, seldom does anything but create frustration and stagnates the action holding it frozen in place until the next round.  To some degree we've already been offsetting the limitations of a bad roll with HP, either improving consequences (damage) or chances to hit (accuracy) as well as on occasion getting the odd double.  However if we assume that failure is limited or that failure is still falling forward.  You hit, but.... that makes the game more interesting.  Sure we don't want bad guys to go down like cardboard cut outs with glass jaws, we want a GM's villain to be more than a one hit wonder, but a straight hit/miss equation can fail to bring this across.  I wonder therefore if we roll the dice but can allow for ways in which mechanically we fail forward.  We never fail without some opportunity, uncertainty or aspect that opens up actions rather than shuts them down.
5.  I remember playing 4th Ed around a table with its complex and prolonged combat, fine if you got to hit on your round, but if you missed there was little to do and even less reason to stay engaged for the 20 mins it took to get around everyone else's actions until it got back to you.  So much better, to fail forward.  To suggest that you could simply miss, or hit, but...and list a selection of consequences that move things forward in a more interesting way than a simply dice roll might otherwise suggest.

Lionheart shrugged, he hadn't expected Stonelord to go down so 'easily' but then he'd somehow got a break.  It was one sorely needed and it now afforded him the chance to attack the monster itself.  Now he could see what he was up against, he felt little compulsion to preserve the life of the thing when its sole existence was about destruction and assimilation.  Though it was moving fast, Lionheart could move faster still, so setting off, at speed, he decided to move beyond its wake so that he wasn't blindsided by the muck being thrown back and then circle around to come at it from the side, looking for a way to attack its propulsion so as to half its forward movement.  

Sj

OOC I’m having to post from an old laptop that belonged to my mum a few years ago thanks to my desktop being hijacked by one of the kids. It’s like wading through glue, this thing is so slow With that in mind I am ‘pre-posting’ replies in Word and will post them up when I get chance to get near my own computer. Frustrating is a word I would use, perhaps best to leave it there!

Lionheart flew up and around the beast/bot easily catching it despite the leviathans speed. He saw his opportunity when a tiny (relatively speaking) hatch opened for the Squidborg to return to their creator/master…

From above, despite the foul weather and wind blowing, and the fact that the leviathan was still submerged, he could see its whole shape take form. Hundreds of metres long, the main body was shaped like a torpedo, with trailing limbs like a squid trailing behind it. Each of those was even longer than the body, and dozens of metres wide, thick cables rippling behind the thing to provide propulsion with big paddles on the end, like a squid.

It was heading towards the mainland of Scotland, there to presumably rise from the waves and stride about on its limbs, towering over the tallest building and raining death down from above!

Nightbird called out on the comm. Link “I’ve secured Valiant and Stonelord. They are captive within my darkness field! Unfortunately Captain Valiant is VERY strong. It’s taking all I have to keep him restrained, and if Stonelord wakes up…”

“….skrrrzzz… uanaut to any remaining heroes! If you can hear me, I think I’ve discovered a weakness in this thing! It’s a mix of organic matter and machine! It must remain in the sea to keep what passes for a heart – a reactor of some kind – cool! If you can agitate it… work it up… to get the reactor working harder, I may be able to block the flow of water and cause it to heat up… overheat… it will be tricky though as while it’s in the sea it gets all the cooling it needs!” said Aquanaut, his communication breaking up and crackling but just about getting through to the heroes flying above the waves. “My control of water will allow me to slow the flow of coolant to the reactor, it goes into meltdown… then… I’m not sure.”

Lionheart was left with a dilemma. Let the thing come out of the water to allow Aquanaut to try the plan, OR perhaps use his astonishing speed to fly in through the aperture that was admitting the Squidborg? In water this thing had a clear advantage. Indeed, it looked very much like the huge dents Lionheart had left in its hide were already starting to heal!

OOC you raise interesting points about the failure/falling forward. Is that a Fate mechanic ?

You could have a hit, near miss, miss or critical hit. The hit is straight up, hit, as is the miss. The critical hit might give you a bonus to that strike or perhaps put you in a good position for your next strike. The near miss might be converted to a hit by taking a penalty on your next attack, or convert to a miss and give a bonus to your next attack. Just a thought.

I have toyed about with action points in the rare moments of peace over Christmas. You have a Bunch of ‘Acting Values’ – numbers defining how good you are with stats (Strength, Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, Perception, Will) and Powers (Flight, Energy Blast etc). Then every round you roll a number of dice to determine how many energy points you can spend. For an action multiply the Acting Value of the Ability or Power by Action Points you want to spend to get a total. Compare to a target number and exceed to succeed.

Example: Jade Hood (Strength 3 Agility 4, Action points 2D6) attacks a minion of Fu Man Chan, Oriental Villain. He uses Agility to attack, rolls 11 Action Points on his 2D6, and spends 4 on Agility to get a total of Agility 4 x4 =16. The goon he’s attacking only had a total of 8, so he exceeds that by 8 points and hits easily. He spends 3 points on Strength, which gives Strength 3 x3 (from action points) = 9, then adds +5 from his Martial Arts skill (total up to 14) and +2 (+1 for every 3 full points his attack roll succeeds by) for a total of 16. Compare this against the Goons Resistance (Endurance x Action Points) total of 6 (Endurance 3 x2 APs) and Jade Hood inflicts 10 points of damage (16 damage – 6 resistance). As the goon only had 8 Health remaining he goes down!

Doing things this way gives you complete control over what the character is going to do. Do you pile everything into Attack? Defence? Damage? Resistance? Need to go first? Spend some on Initiative. What about your powers? Skills add to your action total in the right circumstances. E.g. Jade Hood tries to pick a lock (Agility use). Agility 4 x Action Points (4 in this case) =16 plus lockpicking skill (+4 for Jade Hood, he’s a pretty handy thief). Total of 20. The GM determined difficulty by rolling 4D6 got a total of … 17! Click! The lock opens.

Later Jade Hood (intelligence 3 - the average human has 2 across the board) tried to figure out the meaning of a cryptic message on a piece of paper, left by and for Nazi spies. Dave figures he needs to really ‘push’ Jade Hoods Intelligence so spends 3 Action Points on the action (up to his Acting Value of Intelligence 3) then to push beyond that (to buy more multipliers) costs 2 Action Points per extra multiplier. Dave rolls 2D6… 10! He spends 3 to buy the first three multipliers (Intelligence 3 x3=9) then buys a further 3 multipliers by spending 2 per multiplier (costs 6 points extra, so he’s spent 9 out of his 10 Action Points that round). His Intelligence is multiplied by 6 (3 action points for the first 3 multipliers then 6 for the next 3) Will his total of 18 be enough? The GM rolls 4D6 for the difficulty number…

You can borrow an Action die from the next round which allows you to roll your standard number of dice (2D6 for Jade Hood) and an extra D6 for the borrowed die, then pick which two dice to use and discard the other. Of course next round he only has 1D6 to roll for APs…

So there is random element (rolling dice for Action Points, possibly 6s exploding to give extra APs) and strategic element (deciding where to spend Action Points plus whether to borrow). I think I mentioned this some time ago, but real life got in the way of anything concrete. Plus I wanted to try the system out in a one off game first that could easily be discarded after, maybe even a fantasy type D&D style game.

Anyway, it’s just a thought, open to suggestions/criticism/ridicule (delete as appropriate).

Argh. Sorry for the war and peace post. That’s what happens when I get started on a subject…

On another note pre posting in Word makes the layout weird...