Tuesday, August 3, 2010

M.A/C.C - Beta Test - Session 7

So, we were two players down but we still had the seventh session of M.A/C.C last night, and a rather doozy of a session it was. Dioxin and Gadget couldn't make it for personal reasons, Argus, Paladin, and Heimdal ended up in a city wide shoot out/chase that left the next session with an interesting end. This may also be the last session Argus shows up in, the player got a job that will keep him away during the week and so RP time had to go in the face of a source of income. Anyhow, lets get started.



The Cast
Tully Mayhew/Argus - Tully is a gunsmith of moderate reknown, working in a shop that was bought out by someone with a much better head for business. As a child Tully came to the realization that his family wasn't his own, the investigation into his real family brought him into contact with the Gideons who opened his eyes to some of what is really going on. Tully now works to prove that the Supers are running everything for their own ends, using people as sheep to keep them in power.


Max Putherford/Dioxin - A chemist working for the Powered Police Department, Max came into contact with the Gideons after a super hero accidentally killed his kid sister. A member of the Gideons was near by and protected Max from the brain scrambling that happens to clean up the messes caused by the supers on occasion. He now plays a dangerous game, working within the PPD by day while working from the outside at night to try and reveal what is behind the curtain.

Mark Dashel/Paladin - Mark was an orphan trying to get by on the streets when he met her, Miriam Dashel, a kindly older lady who needed help. When Miriam found out the young man who had been helping her with bringing groceries home, and had protected her from muggers, was living on the streets she took him in and gave him a family. The quiet life didn't suit him for long, and Mark talked some friends into trying to help people as costumed heroes. Their first experiment went horribly wrong and the two friends were killed, when the police claimed the two dead teens were in jail for being powered super villains, Mark lost it and went out to get some revenge. Instead he ran into a member of the Gideons and has been preparing since for the day he can expose the secret.

Percival McMann/Gadget - Another person with parents who disappeared under strange circumstances, Percy is a bit of a gadget freak and computer whiz. Also recruited into the Gideons, Percy isn't as sure about what is going on aside from that there is 'something' going on. He is also the most cautious of the group currently.

Max Winesten/Heimdel - A firefighter for the city, when Max was young his class took a fieldtrip that they never came back from. Luck put the Gideons in contact with him before the PPD got him to change his memories of what exactly has happened. Max is devoted to the sword, and intent to use it for the good of those around him. (Player still deciding on a last name)

The Session
The session started with a quick going over of the week after the last session ended. Argus and Paladin broke into the laptop and stole the hard drives from those computers they had been wanting to take. Back at base, Gadget who was grounded with his broken leg, went through them and got the data off. More information as to the air outside the dome and its fairly high levels (if not perfectly clean) of breathable atmosphere.

One of the days in between Argus goes out to hunt Ember. Attacking her from a place of surprise he takes out her legs and drops her to the ground. Approaching, when he puts the gun barrel to her head it promptly melts and he is forced to knock her out with his shot rifle instead. He wants answers, he wants to gloat. He patches up her legs so she doesn't bleed out and waits for her to revive. He doesn't get the answers he wants. Ember denies the supers being in control, she denies the PPD being murderers, denies the existence of the Mind Altering Devices. Denies the PPD shooting into a crowd of civilians that she witnessed personally. Whats more, she believes everything she is saying. Argus things she's been a victim of the MADs as much as anyone, perhaps more so. He gives her some of the data and asks her to get in touch when he's been proven right. She agrees and leaves, but they don't hear from her again.

The next few days passed quietly, though everyone notices that the PPD has really upped their presence. Theories range from the mob guy they took, to other less worrying factors (like the supers the salvatores had, one of which was put onto the streets). Things however take a turn for the worse when on his way back to the base Tully gets a message from Oracle.


Prophet has been compromised. Your IDs are compromised as well. Cutting off all further communication with compromised cells to protect the rest. PPD are moving in on friends and family. Stay safe, run! ~Oracle

Tully reacts immediately, sending a scram code to the rest of the group and goes to check on his brother. Paladin goes to check on his brother, and Heimdal after catching on the news that Gadget is being arrested at his store suits up and goes to help him.


Tully/Argus
On his way to his brothers Tully gets a call from Diane, his girlfriend. The sound of gun fire can be heard, and she's screaming that the PPD came after her because of him. He says he'll go to help, changes direction and goes off to get her. When he gets to her street he finds that her house is on fire, surrounded by PPD, and with Hydron (one of the big bad supers) there. He manages to sneak in to to a neighboring house, and goes from roof in through a second story window. Sneaking down the stairs he helps Diane take out the PPD that are inside the house and brings her with him back up the stairs. They grab his line launcher (a new purchase) and go to race out of the second floor. As their feet leave the ground, Diane strikes and plunges a taser into Argus' neck. The tase doesn't do much, but the force of the blow sends him crashing to the ground. On instinct he elbows Diane in the throat and the two spend a few seconds trying to recover.


Diane recovers first, jumping onto Argus's back and putting him into a sleeper hold. She is switching between giggling maniacally and assuring him that it'll all be ok and he should go to sleep. He tries to get her with his shot rifle, and fails breaking the wrist on his left hand. Instead he tries to use a knife, finding that she likes being stabbed, he does manage to knock her out and start to crawl away. There's only one place he can go, a friend who offered him a place to stay if he ever needed help.

Argus arrives at the home of a lady Doctor friend with time enough for her to treat his wounds. She doesn't watch TV, doesn't know what is going on out there. She finds out quickly when almost as soon as she is done patching Argus' wounds when Hydron breaks in. Argus is tired of running, and decides to fight the supper. His shot rifle is effective, but not as effective as he'd hoped and the super is able to turn into water to avoid being hamstrung with the knife. Hydron slams Argus into the ground, pinning him. Argus gets a desperate plan and slams his knife into the high end power socket for some of the medical equipment. His other hand he stabs into Hydron's water form. The voltage and amperage is too much, killing the super with Argus just barely surviving but being left unconscious. Unable to take the damage done to it by the super's thrashing, the house collapses atop them both.

Paladin
Paladin gets home to find it likewise being surrounded by PPD officers. His brother is on the second floor it sounds like, engaging the PPD with a shotgun that Paladin didn't know he had. The man leading the PPD assault? None other than David Imura, the man who killed Paladin's friends (before game started).

Personal feelings put on hold, Paladin sneaks around and also manages a second floor entrance into the building his brother is at. The noise he makes as he crashes through a window draws his brother's attention and exposes the brother to incoming fire. Paladin reacts quickly and jumps into the way taking multiple shots and going down hard. He manages to get his brother back to the window, puts the line launcher in his brother's hand and gets his brother out of the area while staying behind to buy time.

He takes out the first four PPD officers that come up after him and is going for the fifth when a gun shoots through his left leg. He tries to move and is shot in the right leg. Then the left and right arms. All four shots fired by Imura who grins down at him. Paladin manages a "Fuck you" before it is lights out time.

Heimdal
Heimdal heads over to where Gadget works on a bike. Racing over in costume, he sees Valkyn (another super) and seven of the PPD officers loading gadget into a holding vehicle. Heimdal sees no choice but to swoop in to the rescue, rushing in and taking out four of the PPD with his entrance he tells Gadget to run to the bike. Valkyn and the other three PPD officers go to engage Heimdal. As a parting shot, Gadget drops an EMP grenade which knocks out the PPD weapons and dazes Valkyn for a round but doesn't do much else.

Heimdal takes the opening and drops two of the PPD guards. The third grabs him from behind, but Heimdal manages to turn his back and use the PPD guy as a shield from Valkyn's strike, which works marvelously.

An attempt to disarm Valkyn ends with Heimdal's sword being cut in half. when Valkyn attacks back, Heimdal manages an unarmed disarm before going all out and at least temporarily knocking Valkyn out with his own weapon. He drops the heroes sword (it's heavy and trying to shock him) and meets Gadget on the bike. Heimdal with a broken arm (gained in the fight) and Gadget with the broken leg makes the riding hard to do.

The chase ventures all over town with them barely avoiding being caught for a while. Heimdal loses his helmet during the mix, and realizes that they can't escape. He decides to go big and lead the PPD right through a Salvatore safe house. He gets tagged several times in the cross fire between mobsters and PPD and goes down hard.

Paladin/Heimdal
Paladin and Heimdal awaken an unknown amount of time later to find they've been stuffed into storage containers. Paladin thinks they are on some sort of plane, Heimdal thinks that that is stupid, but doesn't have a counter argument. Shifting his bulk around, Heimdal manages to force the lid off of his crate and free paladin. They confirm that they are in the air. Gadget and Dioxin are also in nearby crates but there is no sign of Argus. A couple guards come in, and Heimdal and Paladin make short work of them. While the two are debating where to go, fate takes matters into its own hands. Something strikes the ship and it starts to crash, where I call the game on them.

Argus
Argus wakes up in a hospital room, he is strapped and chained down to the bed heavily, and it looks like your normal sterile hospital room with the only difference being the mattress is twice as thick and full of feathers instead of the normal mattress. It is quite comfy.

A woman comes in to meet him, her skin is pale like it has never felt the touch of the sun upon it. She has features that speaks of at least one asian parent. Her eyes size him up like she is looking for how to put him in a specimen jar. Her fingers are cool, like her body has no warmth. She talks to him in broken english, like it was her second language. He's to be her experiment, and they're goign to have such fun and make marvelous break throughs together. She admits to being the one in charge, is insulted by being called a super - viewing them as pawns for her machinations. Tully doesn't believe she is the one who is ultimately in charge, but for now he is caught. She gives him to her pet Diane as a gift, when she isn't using him for her experiments he'll be Diane's to care for. She leaves like that.

Game was called here.

Thoughts
while I'm not sure about the players, they seemed to - and I did - have a lot of fun this session. The mechanics held up well, barters flew left and right making things go faster. People went down hard, but they had their moments of heroic awesome before hand which was awesome. I'm looking forward to the next session with them outside of the dome and being able to give them real answers.

I also enjoyed being able to give some meta knowledge via the scene with Tully, while knowing that the player won't be around (most likely) for the next few weeks to the rest of the game.

No comments:

Post a Comment