[IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

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UmbralDagger13
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:16 pm

Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by UmbralDagger13 »

Snowdrift
HP: 2
Status: Normal

Snowdrift, after processing Madame Zero's words, burst into motion by calling up friends and getting a group together to work on figuring out where the Gelid Engine could be located.
Calculating position of Gelid Engine DC 20: 1D20+6 = [18]+6 = 24
Well that's a rather solid degree of success.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Snowdrift

Snow drift had been vaguely familiar with Madame zero being a villainous who was well known for attacking while encased in a cryogenic suit. Not having personally encountered her, he hadn't known much else. However, and speaking to his colleagues, he learns that she was the result of a tragic accident at a cryonics facility, where after learning about her husband's infidelity, she fell, or was pushed, into a batch of chemicals, which has left her unable to experience normal temperatures without suffering from it. The most salient technical facts he picks up from his colleagues are that she usually employs more personal effects that only affect the immediate area around her, and that something with the scope of the Gelid Engine would likely have to be very large, likely to be somewhere in the center of the effect, immobile, and quite possibly built in a high place. Some of his colleagues opine that this might be a hoax of sorts, that Madam Zero maybe making use of someone with ice powers, or even using magic, and calling it her science.
TheMadDadder
Posts: 21
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by TheMadDadder »


Mirror Maiden
HP: 4
Status: Normal



Disturbed by Madame Zero's broadcast, Mirror Maiden, along with Snowdrift, began to dig up as much information as she could on the villain. She spent some time analyzing the broadcast and the data that they had compiled to profile Madame Zero. Where would she hide? Did she truly want to destroy Freedom City or were her actions a plea for help?

FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Mirror Maiden

Reflecting on her psychology studies, Mirror Maiden recalls that Madame Zero had indeed come up as a case study. Victoria Leonard was a medical researcher in the ‘50s who was doused in her own cryogenic chemicals. She survived, but her body could no longer endure temperatures above freezing. She became a villain and fought the first Raven for years, with many of her schemes involving searching for a cure. She is a scientific genius and possesses extensive cold-control powers.

Except, the thing is that Leonard wasn’t accidentally doused. She attempted to kill herself when her philandering husband walked out on her and threatened to use his law firm to destroy her in the divorce. After she gained her powers, he was found entombed in a block of ice. Her transformation seems to have left her merciless and petty. While she's been known to work with others, it's seldom for long, as she inevitably turns on them, unable to trust another human being for long, seemingly "frozen" in her moment of betrayal.

Doing a deeper dive on the actual cases involved, including news stories, it becomes clear that Madame Zero, when acting alone, likes to be front and center, the target of the drama. When it comes to working with others, she prefers to mastermind the scheme, and will use the others as catspaws, sacrificing them as necessary to make her own escape. Nevertheless, she either pays well, or has her own cold charm, because she often finds new allies... just not ones she's worked with before, who are wise to her ways. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any firm ideas as to what sort of headquarters Madame Zero might pick, other than that she tends to focus on facilities that can be made extremely cold so that she can enjoy time outside of her suit.
OOC wrote:The initial judgment of Madame Zero is pretty immediate, recalled information, but the tracking down of the details of her cases takes a half hour, putting her at the same time of completion of efforts as Snowdrift.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Samaritan
HP: 2
Status: Normal


Although the sun's rays didn't harm Mary, she still found that her natural rhythms lent themselves well to the night. When her bar announced closing time, it often took another hour to get everyone out the place cleaned up, so it wasn't uncommon for her to awake from her slumber in the later morning to the early afternoon. Waking up in the middle of a massive blizzard in June was more unusual. She'd seen snow in summer before — in a century of living, you were bound to see all sorts of meteorological oddities — but this one was clearly unusual. Her initial actions had been to tend to those around her, heading out to fetch bread and toilet paper (and why did everyone always feel the sudden need to stock up on that in a crisis? Didn't most houses have a dozen extra rolls tucked away in a closet somewhere?), as well as the inevitable beer and cigarettes from those looking to stave off their addiction, and as the storm worsened, she began ranged further afield, rescuing stranded motorists and conveying supplies, the cold not touching her one iota.

Then, the broadcast from Madame Zero happened, and she had a clearer target for her frustrations.
OOC wrote:There's a variety of things that can be done here to pinpoint the broadcast (including a general Investigation check) or to just try to figure out what is happening now (again, Investigate works where for gathering information, which can be done untrained as long as you're not trying to operate as a crime-scene tech). If you want to describe your rescue actions in greater detail, that might net you an additional Hero Point.
TheMadDadder
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun May 29, 2022 6:46 am

Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by TheMadDadder »


Mirror Maiden
HP: 3
Status: Normal




Once her psych eval was complete, Mirror Maiden took a more proactive approach and reached out to the local PD from the auditorium shelter. It took some time to get in contact but hopefully it didn't affect her and Snowdrift's efforts on locating Madame Zero's whereabouts.


Investigation Check: 1D20 = [2] = 2


cries

Could I use a hero point to modify this to my favor? c:


My Reroll
Hero Point Investigation Reroll: 1D10+10 = [9]+10 = 19

FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Mirror Maiden

The process of finding information takes longer than Mirror Maiden expected. She keeps getting messages saying that the network can't handle her request, or that the call can't be connected, and the police are currently busy with recovery efforts, but eventually she's left with two disturbing tidbits. One is that there's at least one gang of people in uniform grey winter gear who seem to be looting and rounding people up before disappearing into the storm. The other is that several supervillains have been spotted. She hears mention of a blue-skinned giant walking the streets, encasing abandoned cars in ice, as well of a dark-skinned young woman in a blue leotard skating along tracks of ice forming under her with what looks like a snowman in similarly colored, but fur-trimmed, garb moving rapidly below her. One sergeant mentions, in a hushed tone, that he had heard the Mad Maple, infamous Canadian terrorist, had been spotted with rumors that he's enraged by recent U.S. tariffs on poutine imports.

She also gets an earload of complaints about the difficulty of keeping the warming centers running, with the city's electrical grid not having been weatherized for the current extremes.
OOC wrote:That's two successes. For the sake of this challenge, any results by Snowdrift (and other working with you) will pool.

As per my comment on the Discord, I'd like to get a few of the new people to chime in because there's an event that happens in a bit and I want to give them a chance to act before that. If they don't respond tomorrow, I'll just keep moving forward and we'll work them in later.
Corrigon
Posts: 463
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by Corrigon »

Protector

HP 2

A June day, a day off work and best of all, a day free that corresponded with his family. A trip to the beach was on the cards, but then the snow began to fall.

"You have got to be kidding," came Miles' exasperated response. Mid June and snowing. That can't be normal. A pained expression crossed his faith as he realised this was another day away from them. A quick look at his wife and she nodded at him, giving him her consent to go.

The armour formed up around him and took to the sky. Within seconds, he spotted a car skidding in the ice. He swooped down and lifted the out of control car before it careened into any pedestrians. His radio began picking up distress signals; some were people just trapped, others more serious. When he caught the signal from the ferry, that became his main priority. Kicking in the boot jets into high gear, he shot over the suburbs towards the docks and the river. He could see the ferry attempting to slow before it collided with

Luckily, destroying things like this had been part of the suit's original function. The mini missile launcher slid out of its housing on his back and began peppering the iceberg, breaking off chunks. Before the ferry could reach the iceberg, he had broken down the ice to the point that the remaining chunks were no danger to it.



With Madame Zero's transmission, he now had something to focus on.

Now we have something to work with. No idea who she is, but as she's transmitting, I can use the suit to try and triangulate her position if she hasn't masked it. Sensors aren't really designed for this, but see what we can do

Investigate to find Madame Zero: 1d20+15 17
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Protector

Flying up into the driving snow, and rapidly losing sight of anything through the snow, Protector begins recording data of the direction from which the signal is strongest in an attempt to triangulate the broad cast. Unfortunately, the answers don't make sense, not providing a single point of transmission, but rather several, in a shifting pattern. Triangulation was notoriously inefficient for tracking a moving source, but this is far too chaotic... then the answer hits you. If the transmission was coming off of multiple sources, then you'd be getting a variety of signals at different strengths... and the math gets considerably more difficult.
OOC wrote:That's one success, which is enough for you to find, through your sensors, that the signal was apparently bounced through multiple antennas, which suggests a fair amount of planning. Do you want to make another skill check so that you're in the same timeframe as Snowdrift and Mirror Maiden?
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

GM

About an hour after Madame Zero's broadcast went out, it effectively goes off the air. Unfortunately, that happens alongside the rest of the electricity in the city. Those outside among the storm notice the skyline going dark, although the details are, of course, hidden behind the snow, and the sun is still providing dim light. Within the shelter, Mirror Maiden and Snowdrift see the lights flicker and go out and the background hum of ventilation fans ceasing. One of the scouts goes to the fusebox for the shelter and checks the breakers, and relays that none of them are tripped. He then goes to Mirror Maiden and confides in her that he's more than a bit worried about this... they have enough wood to keep reasonably warm for now, with all of the entrances blocked with blankets, but they'd been relying on the ventilation system to prevent a build-up of noxious gases or carbon dioxide.
OOC wrote:If you hadn't posted actions for check results before this, you'll just have to work them in afterwards, which may be more difficult without electricity.
Corrigon
Posts: 463
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by Corrigon »

Protector
HP 2
Condition Okay

As the power goes out, Protector's low light vision activates as he realises quite the serious level of mess this entire situation was turning into.

She still has to power this effect somehow. Now we know she was bouncing the signal off multiple location. The fact that the message is not still broadcasting means it was affected by the power outage as well. Let's try and narrow those down to suitable locations for what she needs.

He sets down on the roof of somewhere with an antenna and tries to jury rig something to power it up before trying to use it to help track down Madame Zero.
Expertise Science: 1d20+19 20
Investigation: 1d20+15 34
Okay, I don't think I can do this on my own. If I set a repeater signal along the same frequency Madame Zero was using, I can hopefully get anybody else investigating in contact with me and we can sort out this situation
Technology: 1d20+19 25
"This is Protector. Anybody out there investigating Madame Zero, meet me here."
Hopefully that won't lead to a load of people trying to kill me
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Protector

The low light vision helps some in navigating through the dim filtered sunlight, but the driving snow still creates greatly reduced visibility with your built-in lights just increasing the opacity until you switch them off. Still, you have data, and that's always something that's been comforting to you. Based on the multiple signals, you can estimate where antennas might be. Cross-referencing that with a map of the city, you eventually land on the roof of WKYO, on 36th and Liberty. You're fairly certain that there's another antenna further south-east, towards the Pramas Bridge, but this one is more likely to have actual transmission equipment that you can break into.

At the antenna, you find the local power completely dead. Hooking your suit power to it causes a dip in a system functions as the draw increases, but you're able to broadcast your message a good half a dozen times before your suit starts popping up inidicators that system drain is greater than the power supply, and that continuing could lead to a more severe drain.

You do notice an echo of signal from the south-east, and a little bit of maneuvering confirms that it might be the bridge. As a repeater station, and using the bridge's structure to increase the antenna size, it seems it might still be operating on emergency power. That also suggests it might be part of how Madame Zero is bouncing the signal.
OOC wrote:WKYO advertises itself as "Whacko Radio" and has a reputation for being a rock-and-roll station that plays some of the more out-there music. You vaguely remember a colleague trying to get you to listen to a GNAR marathon they were running a few years ago. The Pramas Bridge is in the South-Eastern section of the city, and connects Riverside to Bayview, running along Route 4. You recall that the bridge does have an antenna, but it's a repeater station.

Continuing to broadcast will give your suit the Fatigued condition, giving it a -2 on checks.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Snowdrift and Mirror Maiden

After about a half hour of tending to the shelter and the people within, to one side, a radio, previously humming with the chatter of emergency services as they try to shuttle people to emergency shelters that still have power, suddenly breaks in with an electronically modulated voice.

"This is Protector. Anybody out there investigating Madame Zero, meet me here, on the rooftop of WKYO, at 36th and Liberty." The message repeats itself five times, each time pausing briefly, allowing the normal radio chatter and occasional irate complaint about breaking into the feed, and then it falls silent, and the radio chatter builds back up again.

"It could be a trap," Avian says, as he walks towards the entrance, "I should check it out. Follow me if you want." With that, he pushes his way out the door, and his wingbeats are soon lost in the sound of the storm.
OOC wrote:Just getting Avian out of the way. He won't be there when you arrive, but the situation is good for him to get looped back in the the player is available.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by FuzzyBoots »

V
HP: 2
Status: Normal


At the time off the storm, V had been working a case involving shutting down yet another source of Zoom in the city. Isaac was known enough that infiltration would have been difficult, but as Max... V had adapted a female human form and has spent months building up an identity and a reputation as a tough woman who was quietly competent in a pinch. And today, it had looked to be bearing fruit, as Max was to meet up with one of the suppliers. V stood by a pool table in the bar, contemplating their shot, covertly rummaging through the mind of the man who was playing against her. V was well aware that the man felt that he was suckering her into a loss that would lead to him demanding a forfeit of her. As she lined up a shot that would sink one of her balls, and set her up for the next shot, someone burst through the door.
"Dude! It's snowing!" he said. Someone off to the back grumbled about the Mad Maple and handed a set of bills to his partner. V attempted to resume the game, but the moment was lost.

V never did meet up with the supplier. As the winter weather got worse, the residents of the bar hunkered down. Much to V's surprise, several people that they knew to be hardened criminals, killers even, start participating in rescue efforts, bringing people from bogged down cars into the relative safety of the bar. When Madame Zero's broadcast came on on the bar's TV, there was more muttered grumbling among residents of the bar about that particular supervillain. V quickly learned that she'd been around for some time, and had a reputation for hiring thugs who could handle a bit of cold, providing sufficient clothing to protect them, but that she also had a reputation for abandoning her henchmen to make her escape, something that some of the residents of the bar seem to take in stride.

When the power goes off, the residents of the bar seem unpanicked, as an emergency generator kicks in.
"Doc Otaku owed us a favor," a man who looks like a biker says to Max, "Not gonna be powering up the entire block with it, but we won't get cold so easy."

It was at that time that a man pushed his way through the door, stumbling to his knees.
"Help... I think those men are after me," he says, panting with effort. Behind him a figure in grey winter gear, and holding a futuristic looking rifle shouldered through the door. Half-raising his weapon, he says in faintly Slavic-sounding English.
"I am sorry to bother you. I do not want any trouble, but this man has an appointment with my boss. I promise we will take good care of him."
ooc wrote:Batgirl III didn't expand on it, but your Alternate Identity Benefit allows you to have an established identity complete with background details that will withstand some investigation and you have three ranks in it. I won't take up one of your slots with Max, but consider who else V might be masquerading as. And it's something that you can bring up in the future to give a +5 to Deception checks by picking a persona that makes sense with the person V is deceiving. Of course, your Morph ability allows you to appear as any humanoid you wish, although note that it can be resisted with a Will check, or an appropriate check against the Deception roll.

Incidentally, Zoom is a drug in the Freedom City universe, rumored to be created from adrenaline extracted from speedsters, that gives the target Superspeed for a time, but also leads to exhaustion and heart failure in many subjects as the drug wears off.

You have a +2 bonus you can employ on a future Expertise or Investigation check related to criminal efforts based on your eavesdropping. If you want to start combat, you can roll initiative. Note that maintaining your appearance of Max is taking up 12 points of your Evoke Thoughtform Memory Array.
NecroDrake
Posts: 37
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:59 am

Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - A Cold Day in Midtown

Post by NecroDrake »

V

HP: 3
Status: Normal


Max strides up to the guy on the floor and helps him to his feet, whispering to him "Don't panic and stay with me." Keeping a firm, but casual grip on his shoulder, she turns to the intruders, "I'm sorry to say I don't take kindly to people brandishing weapons in my direction," she tilts her head back to the others in the bar, "And I'm very sure that they don't either, do ya?"
ooc wrote:I guess Max attempts to get the crowd to back her.

Persuasion: 1d20+5 = 21
Approval or no, she focuses her attention on the guy who spoke, "Now, I don't exactly care why your boss wants this guy, but I don't think I can trust your word either way. Now, whats it going to be? If YOU don't want trouble, you can slink back where you came from... or you can try to take him," with her growling those last words she clenches her fist in his direction.
ooc wrote:Trying to intimidate him and his men if I can.

Intimidation: 1d20+5 = 24

Lastly I will hold a free action to reduce the density of myself and my compatriot here should they try violent action against us. I think I can do that, unless I'm doing too many things. Density Decrease Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal; E: Affects Others)

(just in case I'm not quick enough) If successful she tries to get that guy away from the fight, and (assuming they get violent) will try to engage them after switching to density increase and busting some heads. Density Increase Protection 8 (E: Impervious [8], Sustained); Enhanced Attribute 4 (+4 STR)
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