[Wild Talents] PROGENITOR: Fourth Tier, Last Chance

[GregStolze]

SESSION #1: THE THREE OF US ARE DYING

Before the session, I asked the three players to each come up with a character who was (1) plausible in 1968 and (2) dying of an incurable disease. Here's what I got.

LEONARD TANNER was a high school P.E. teacher with Olympic hopes, until MS put him in a wheelchair. He's 23 years old.

HUGH HARRISON KANE was born into a highly religious family that went on a number of missionary trips to China, including trips to leper colonies. Believing that he had a genetic resistance, since no one in his family had ever gotten it, Harry didn't worry about it until he was diagnose. Then he found out he was adopted and his folks had never told him. He lost his faith and became an insurance salesman. He's 32. It also emerged during play that he'd been in Vietnam as an adviser, a ROTC lieutenant who served one tour of duty and didn't want to re-up after his first firefight.

THEO HARRIS was a reporter on the political beat. With an inoperable brain tumor, he was getting terrible headaches and losing his memories. Oddly, it wasn't task memory or short term memory that was degrading, but long term emotional memories. So he knew who his mother WAS, but he was losing memories of episodes with her. Everything was becoming distant. (And the short term stuff was starting to go fritzy too.)

I went into this first session with no stats and few plans, starting by diving right in to a therapy session in which I played the (not terribly useful) Dr. Atkins, the therapist leading their encounter group. All kinds of backstory popped out.

-Kane's folks haven't spoken to him since he got diagnosed in '65 and seem to think he's been cursed by God.

-Tanner's living with his sister, her husband and Tanner's two nieces (whom, at one point, he referred to as "the shit machines." They're 3 and 6.) Though he was certain his sister would take care of him "for a hundred years," he could tell that her husband Terry was getting antsy and that money was starting to prey on his mind. Tanner, meanwhile was tormented by inactivity and the betrayal of his own body.

-Theo had an ex-wife who, it turned out, had died in a car crash right about the time he got diagnosed.

So we munched on those issues for a bit, then the group went drinking in the basement bar after. (Theo had always been a drinker and was becoming a heavy drinker -- his player, at one point, said, "When did this turn into 'Leaving Las Vegas'?" As for Tanner and Kane, they were inexperienced boozers -- Tanner because of the 'body is a temple' business and Kane because of the uptight Christianity. But they were both taking to it with gusto.) While they were there, a guy at the bar sent a drink over to Tanner. They asked him to their table and realized he was a veteran who'd seen the wheelchair and jumped to a conclusion. There were some prickly exchanges between him ("Jerry") and Harry over the incompetence of ROTC officers who never went in the shit, and he showed them the scars where a five-foot-tall Vietnamese woman had gotten him with a grenade that, luckily enough, partially malfunctioned and only left him with shrapnel instead of a bad case of death.

Tanner's sister and brother-in-law freaked when he got home late, glared at Theo the smart-alec and, when they realized who Harry was, hustled Tanner inside without inviting them. Harry and Theo went back to Harry's place to drink more, heard his neighbor abusing his wife, and went to see what was going on.

GM: He opens the door and you see this huge, glaring guy in an undershirt. "What?" Behind him you can see his wife crying. Her arm has a new bend in it.
HARRY: Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior
GM: "No!" He slams the door in your face. A few minutes later you see his garage door opening. Looks like he's driving her somewhere.

Theo decided that they ought to pee on the guy's porch and Harry made no real objections. As Theo was doing it, someone drove by and called him a deviant, prompting him to spin around to shout back a hearty "Fuck you!" In the process, Harry got sprayed.

THEO: Sorry, man! That pee was meant for him, not you!

Intent on changing into dry pants, Harry went home only to find an unexpected guest waiting on the steps up to his flat: Mom.

HARRY: Mom? What are you doing here?
MOM: Can we talk inside? I've been waiting here for hours.
HARRY: That just like you, mom. Start with the guilt right away. It's gonna make you mad, but I think there must be some Irish in you, way back. Or I'd say Jewish, but you'd probably slap me right across the face.

He let her in though, and the guilt-wrestle began in earnest. Harry's dad had gotten sick (Mubosis) (yeah, that's totally made up) and she was hoping they could reconcile before he died. It was a pretty good scene -- I'm pleased with the line "He's angry about how much he misses you." And they hugged. Harry said he'd think about it after he talked with his encounter group.

Theo went back to his office to clean out his desk and ran into "Mac," as Violet McIntyre was known in the newsroom. She told him Murphy had been promoted up to the political beat while she was still stuck on society weddings and birth announcements.

MAC: It's weird. Murph went down to DC for a press conference after Johnson got the nomination, and he came back... all bright eyed for the Texan. I mean, you know Murphy, right? All he ever cared about was getting his face in the feed bag and maybe jerking off in the staff washroom. But when he talks about Johnson now, he's... it's like he's lit from within. I think it's affecting his objectivity.

Her tough-gal facade cracked when Theo calmly told her that he was, for real, no shit, totally dying. And one of his close buddies wouldn't meet his eye as he was leaving.

After some more fast forwarding, they got to another therapy session -- this time with Tanner using a walker, to great rejoicing.

TANNER: My grip strength is returning, so at last I have a social life again.

The three of them decided, against Atkins' timorous objections, to road trip down to Houston together for Harry's reunion with his family.

THEO: Hey, I'm not going in their house or anything. Mostly I just wanna smell the roses on the way, enjoy the drive, and nail some Houston hookers. See if they're different from the ones here in Boston.

Dr. Atkins suggested they talk it over before going, but they all wanted to see him after the trip. He was closing up the office after their appointment, when they saw a man, a woman, and a young girl hesitantly waiting in the hallway. Presently, at the man's urging, the girl came in and asked Tanner if he was sick. When he said he was, she touched his arm and said, "Feel better."

...and he did. His strength returned. His pains and exhaustion were forced out of him, chased from his very cells by a flood of what could only be described as "positive energy."

Of course, the skin where she touched bubbled up and turned into a hideous monster made of faces and fingers, which skittered off with him in hot pursuit. (Actually, it paused in the doorway to moan, "Whyyy?") But he didn't need his walker!

LITTLE GIRL: It happened again daddy!
PAW: But he's better, see? He dun't need his frame no more!

Harry immediately fell to his knees and started babbling bible verses. When her dad encouraged her to heal him too, he was initially hesitant (because, hey, he didn't want to expose a child to leprosy) but she did it and, again, a hideous monster was spawned of his lesion-raddled flesh. In fact, here it is. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8735355@N08/3954067547/sizes/l/)

It rather strenuously objected to the pummeling that Harry attempted, then levitated itself up over the transom and fled.

THEO: Got one more in ya?

His was tentacular with eyes in its suckers and it kept asking "What am I? What am I?"

HARRY: We must cast them out.

Then he punted it out the window.

-G.

[Asen_G]

I suspect that was just the intro, and I wonder what's going to happen to them next:D!

[iresprite]

Okay, having read all the Progenitor idea threads that you've spawned, I'm very interested in reading how it is actually executed in play. :)

[Snarky's Machine]

So, you'll keep us updated on this? :)

[GregStolze]

Between sessions 1 & 2 I built up powers for the trio. It was very interesting building mighty Tier Fours, inasmuch as I asked the players what htey wanted, listened, nodded, said, "Okay, and what else?" nodded, "And?" Eventually, they actually petered out. Here's what we ended up with. (This is on top of fairly wimpy 80 point characters.)

TANNER
Body +4d+2HD+WD with No Upward Limit.
Coordination +5d+2HD+WD
Sense +4d
Charm +4d
Command +3d
Extra Tough +3HD
+2d Athletics Hyperskill
Power Mimic +7d with a limit that he can only copy powers he SEES used.

HARRY
Healing +2HD - Works on both injury and illness
Invulnerability +2HD - The really hardcore invulnerability with HAR, hardened LAR and general immunity to freezing and asphyxiation and such. Not that he knows it yet.
Speak in Tongues +2HD - He can't understand what others are saying, but they can understand him.
Hypercharm +8d.
Control: Snakes +8d - They don't talk to him, but they do listen.
Holy Power - This is an extremely versatile power, like Cosmic Power from Wild Talents, only (1) every time he uses it, the skies open and light pours down on him and (2) he can only use it for powers relevant to a cited bible verse.

THEO
Invisibility +10HD
Clairvoyance/audience +10d - He's got a range to .33AU and can not only see and hear what he scans, he can find people or things automatically. But it takes an effort of will and tires him out.
Truthsuasion +2HD - If he's telling the truth, no one will think him a liar.
Control: Memories +5d+5HD - He can rummage around in the panty drawers of others' recollections, alter their memories (with willpower) or force Stability checks with mnemonic douchery.
Perception Hyperskill +7d
Sense +3d
Mind +2d as a natural power Hyperstat
+3 Base Will

# # #

Okay, so having shed their vile illnesses in the form of three hideous and rejected homunculi, the trio bumbled around their psychologist's office for a bit and found out that their healer, twelve-year-old Tina Shaw had previously cured one other person - her brother. He, too, produced a horrible critter.

HARRY: What happened to it.
TINA: (Reluctant) It... popped.
HARRY: Like a balloon?
TINA: ...no.
THEO: More like a tomato?

They also learned the relevant fact that she got healed herself when she was badly ill at St. Anthony's Hospital. The man who healed her was "ordinary looking" -- wearing jeans, a denim jacket, a ball cap and a flannel shirt.

After the Shaw family left to get ice cream ('cause her parents promised her ice cream if she helped people), Tanner said he was feeling better than he ever had and, apropos of nothing, did a handstand on the arms of his wheelchair. As they left the building, his ride (what's the name for people who drive around the wheelchair-bound?) gave him a semi-hard time about not riding back, until Harry told him everything would be OK... using all ten of his Charm dice. Justin the driver immediately acquiesced.

Tanner was amusing himself by bending quarters with his fingers when he and Theo realized one of the homunculi had followed them to the garage. Tanner threw a rock at it, which caused it to vanish -- and the rock left cracks in a concrete wall. Then the thing reappeared. (It was the one that came out of Tanner, a sort of gross tripod made of faces and fingers.)

TRIPOD: You want to take another shot? I wasn't ready last time!
HARRY: What ARE you?
TRIPOD: I have no idea whatsoever. Why don't you tell me?
HARRY: I think you're a demon!
TRIPOD: Ooh, that would explain a lot.

Then it vanished again.

(Okay, I'm going to have to continue this writeup later.)

-G.

[GregStolze]

SESSION #2 - If You Give This Man A Ride, Sweet Memory Will Die, Cont'd.

(Sorry, I forgot the title in the first post.)

Right, so after the abortive confrontation with the tripod critter, they went on to drop Tanner off at his home. At this point, it got established that Tanner (and, presumably, his in-laws) were Jewish. Gina, Tanner's sister, is pleased that Tanner's feeling better but is completely dumbstruck by the idea that he'd actually GO to AUSTIN on some kind of ROAD TRIP. Her husband Terry comes down to see what the commotion is and jumps into the argument as well. Right up to the point that Harry tells him it's a good idea.

TERRY: OH. (Turns to Gina.) Well really, hon, I can see his point. Len's a grown man, why wouldn't he...?

While they go out to the back yard to continue the argument, Tanner packs and his niece, Tracy, comes out to ask why he's not in his wheelchair. She's about 12 and finds Theo condescending. Also, Theo realizes she's watching them before she gets there, by instinctively plotting the differential in air pressure.

When he tells her he's going on a trip, she frowns and asks "Is that wise?" -- something he's heard her mother ask her countless times. He says he's better -- better than he's ever been and, to prove it, goes down to the kitchen and twists a skewer into a heart shape for her. (He also makes a bear for her sister. And pulls the pointy bits off.)

The next stop is Theo's house, where he intuits something in the bushes. After calling out, his monster (the tentacly one) hesitantly emerges.

THEO: What are you doing here?
IT: I don't know. Why do I know this place?
THEO: This is MY place.
IT: Well, I came from you, didn't I?

Assorted existential debate ensued, complete with Harry suspecting it of being diabolical, and using his hypercharm on it.

IT: I don't remember anything before the doctor's office.
HARRY: Tell me the truth! What do you REALLY remember?
IT: I don't remember anything before the doctor's office. Hey, what did you do to me? I didn't like that!

After much discussion, (during which it asked for a name and was dubbed "Moby") Theo invited it to live in his baby grand piano while he was out of town.

MOBY: Can I read your books?
THEO: You read? How much do you know about journalistic shield laws?
GM: It gives a broad overview of them.

Having determined that it had a vague sense of Theo's knowledge (and could fly) the threesome hit the road.

While riding, Theo tried to bend quarters and failed. Tanner found that he could stay awake for twelve hours straight with no effort, and that whiskey had practically no effect on him. The same couldn't be said for the other two, who fell asleep. While sleeping, Theo went invisible. Tanner, understandably, freaked out and slammed on the brakes.

GM: You guys wearing seat belts?
THEO'S PLAYER: In 1968? Please!
GM: So you slam forward into the driver's seat. (To Tanner's player) You feel the impact and realize that the seat was a little depressed.
THEO: Ow! What the HELL, man? I think you blackened my eye.
TANNER: It's not going to show.

Pulling over and experimenting, they found that Theo could go invisible at will and that Tanner, with some effort, could too. (Harry didn't even try.) Tanner drove wildly down the road, unseeable, for about a mile.

GM: Sense rolls, you two. (They easily make them. To Tanner's player) You think you see some tires under the billboard up ahead. (To Theo's player) You see tires under the billboard and you think it's a cop car, since it doesn't have the usual hubcaps.

Tanner went visible and drove responsibly, avoiding cop trouble. But down the road, they saw hitch hikers.

HARRY'S PLAYER: Are they smelly hippies?
GM: In 1969 the serious, hardcore hippie aesthetic is around -- tie-dye, daishiki, beads and headbands and all that. These guys aren't dressed like that. They're pretty normal. One of them has longish hair and a mustache that goes all the bottom of his jawline, the other has some sideburns, but nothing outside the mainstream.
HARRY'S PLAYER: I check their shoes.

(The hitch hiker hijinks continue anon.)

-G.

[GregStolze]

The two hitch-hikers (Jeff and Basil) started picking up their stuff as Theo turned himself invisible. As they got in, Theo started whispering.

THEO: ...death...
JEFF: I'm... sorry, did you say something?
TANNER: No, not a thing. Where you guys headed?
THEO: ...demons...
JEFF: Um... Alabama, we're heading down to Alabama...
BASIL: What's wrong, man?
JEFF: Nothing, um...
TANNER: I should probably warn you, I think the backseat may be haunted.

Jeff made his Stability check when he touched Theo's unseeable thigh and kept his cool as Tanner pulled onto the road... then quickly lunged across Theo's lap, opened the door, and shoved Theo out onto the highway. Theo struggled, and both of them managed to tumble out.

BASIL: What the hell?!?

Tanner turned around and said, "What are you two doing back there?" -- and then vanished himself.

Basil and Jeff COMPLETELY lost their cool and ran away at top speed. The three PCs laughed their asses off right up to the point that Jeff went into the other lane and got clobbered by one of those big late 60s sedans.

It was a beautiful moment, watching my players' faces fall. Then they whisked into action with Harry using his healing powers, Tanner duplicating his healing powers and Theo blithely ripping memories out of Basil's mind. Once they got Jeff fixed, Theo rinsed out his recollections too. The woman who'd hit Jeff popped out, hysterical.

TANNER: He's fine, I think you just, um, tapped him.
GM: She looks at his unmarked skin, then at you, then at the heavy steel bumper of her car, which is deformed a good three or four inches. Then she looks at the fan of blood on the car's hood, back at him, back at you, and gets back in her car.

The PCs rapidly fled the scene with "the two smelly hippies" staring bemusedly from the median.

THEO: They'll be fine.
GM: What, exactly, are you basing that on?
THEO: They don't remember anything, they're physically unchanged, we only moved them maybe 500 yards down the highway. It's a wash.

-G.

[Den of Earth]

Wow! Power trip much?

I like this...

[GregStolze]

Many more hours of driving followed, with our PCs shakenly discussing how, maybe, just maybe, they shouldn't treat people like toys. Then traffic got thick and, as Theo was wondering what was delaying it, he found himself out of body and looking at a tractor that had blown a tire and was blocking one of the lanes.

The three of them pulled over, offered to help, got a friendly eye-roll from the farmer, and amazed the crap out of him by successfully pushing the tractor away over to the side.

TANNER: It's all about teamwork! Take it easy now!

Theo tried clairvoyance again. He wondered what was happening to Moby and immediately snapped to a vision of the creature floating high in the sky above Boston, looking down. While he tried to bawl it out ("You're supposed to be in my piano, dammit!") it showed no signs of hearing him.

Next he looked in on the double-faced creature, which was in the sewers under Boston's Chinatown reading a newspaper.

THEO'S PLAYER: What bothers me is, why is he a Yankees fan?
TANNER'S PLAYER: I want to know how it's turning the pages.

Checking on Tanner's family found Gina in the kitchen, the girls playing in the backyard and Terry down in the basement holding a golden hammer. As Theo watched, Terry pulled a T-square off the pegbord, stared at it... and turned it into silver.

Next he wondered what had happened to the hitch-hikers. Jeff he found in the passenger seat of a semi, looking out the window with a blank and ghastly expression. Basil was lying in a ditch, pale, eyes wide open and covered with leaves. Clearly he was dead as earth.

He looked ahead at Austin (where he'd never been) and then checked in on Tanner's tripod homunculus, which was hiding in some bushes and staring out at Tanner's nieces.

This was what made it so lovely to be in a 1968 setting, when there were no cell phones and long distance was expensive. They rushed to the nearest gas station and, when Tanner called, it just rang and rang. (When were answering machines in common use, anyhow?) They tried his office, debated heading directly back but were already about three-quarters of the way to Austin. They left a message with his service at the office and balled the jack on to the Harrison house. Arriving early Sunday morning, Harry let himself in and was happily greeted by his "sister" Mary. (There's a whole big thing there -- he just found out he's adopted and therefore no real genetic kin to her, remember.) Then she realized he had friends with him and rushed off to change into something more modest.

TANNER: I don't remember you telling us your sister was so sexy.
HARRY: I'm pretty sure I mentioned it.
THEO'S PLAYER: When she comes back down, only my pants are going to be invisible.

But rather than take him at his word, I went with a panicked call to Terry's house (ring ring ring) and more clairvoyance. Theo found Terry and his family in a hotel room, Gina comforting a crying daughter and Terry out on the terrace smoking. Zeroing in on the phone number printed on the phone, he read it out to Tanner.

Tanner then had a very, VERY tense conversation with Tanner in which Tanner wanted to know where the homunculus had come from, what had happened to him and how Tanner had known where to call. He was not happy that Tanner's creepy friend Theo was spying on them. He was not happy that Tanner was responsible for "the monster that attacked Tracy." When Tanner asked what had happened, it emerged that Terry had transformed the creature's foot and that, with its foot off, it fled. As did they.

TANNER: Whatever you do, DO NOT use your powers on anyone in your family!

It got heated, and I can't remember exactly what prompted it, but Terry issued an ultimatum after sending the rest of the family out on to the balcony where they couldn't hear. Oh yeah, Tanner suggested that Tripod might not have been ATTACKING Tracy, just trying to investigate humanity...

TERRY: No, listen carefully. If I see that thing, I will kill it. If I see one of those friends of yours? I'll kill him. And if I see you, I will kill you.

Then he hung up. When Tanner called again, Theo saw Terry getting the family to put their stuff back in their suitcases so they could run again.

Still clairvoying, he checked on Moby (reading a book), Two-Face (resting in a velvet-lined box in somebody's apartment?!?) and Tripod (flying over Chicago).

Meanwhile, Mary and Harry had a long talk. It was good characterization, but I remember it well enough to relate it here. But Harry told her what had happened to him and that he could now heal people, and they discussed whether he should heal his 'dad' or not -- and whether Harrison the elder would want him to.

MARY: Why would you even come here if you weren't going to use... it? To deny it to him right to his face?

The next stop was the hospital, for a tense discussion between Harry and his drug-addled paterfamilias. Harrison Sr.'s (Louis! That was his name!) main objection to dying seemed to be the pain it would cause Mary and his wife, and his undone work. He himself just wanted the hellish pain of mubosis to end. It didn't make things easier that he was not entirely coherent, and both Tanner and Theo were very reluctant to risk handing powers on to someone they considered (basically) a judgmental self-righteous prick who rejected his own son when Harry needed him most.

The nurse came to give him his shot and tried to break it to Harry gently that it was really just a question of trying to ensure that he died of a PAINLESS organ failure instead of losing them in an order that would let him cling to life for months of agony.

They went and discussed the pros and cons of healing him, and Harry suggested that Tanner do it. After all, who had they seen catch super? Terry, who'd been hypercharmed; and Jeff, who'd been healed. But the farmer didn't get it, Basil the mind-wiped didn't get it (as far as they could tell) and Tanner's driver didn't get it. If nothing else, it seemed that Tanner might be LESS contagious. But he can only copy powers he SEES, and can't hold them indefinitely, so they had to break Theo's arm, let Harry heal it in Tanner's sight, and then have Tanner copy the power. In the disarray of people coming to investigate Theo's scream, they heard another shout -- this one from Mary.

Upon arrival at Louis' room, they found Mary sobbing and the nurse drawing the sheet over Louis' face.

MARY: You didn't do it! You denied him and now he's dead!

Seeing Harry start forward, Tanner grabbed him to hold him back.

THEO: Harry, I know what you're thinking and it's a very bad idea. (Remember, Theo has the "people believe me when I tell the truth" mojo.)

Harry, of course, recited the Bible verse referring to "Come forth, Lazarus!"

GM: Roll 'em.
TANNER'S PLAYER: He doesn't have to be touching him?!?
HARRY'S PLAYER: Four tens.
GM: Louis sits bolt upright in bed. His eyes pop open. Then he starts screaming, louder and louder and louder, a look of utter horror on his face. (Pause.) I think that's a good place to end the session.

-G.

[Insect King]

I'm hoping the three rejected homonculi join forces, fight soft crime and get their own animated TV show.

C.

[GregStolze]

SESSION #3: PARRICIDE, SUICIDE AND WITH THREE YOU GET HOMICIDE

When last seen, our heroes (?) were staring aghast as Harry's dad sat up screaming and slipping the surly bonds of death. We picked up at that point as Louis (that's Harry's papa) started un-aging and turning all alabaster and perfect. Then he pointed and Harry and started bellowing.

LOUIS: Who are you, that you transgress God's scheduled time of death?
HARRY: Your son!
LOUIS: You are no son of mine but a stained and ignoble creature, proud and blasphemous in equal proportions! (Turning to Mary, his daughter) And you! A despicable slattern whose whorish ways set filthy thoughts in your half-brother's mind! Sinners! SINNERS ALL!

Then he burst into flames.

GM: What are you all doing?
THEO'S PLAYER: Invisible!
TANNER'S PLAYER: I'm grabbing the nurse and getting her to safety.
HARRY'S PLAYER: I'm staring, slack-jawed.
GM: ...you know, you don't need to make a Stability roll or anything...
HARRY'S PLAYER: No, that's all Harry can do just about now.
GM: Okay. The flames around Louis' right hand are forming a sword and he's trying to plant it in your chest.

It turned out that, though Louis could hit Harry just fine, his Terrible Swift Sword did nothing but set Harry's clothes on fire. Tanner got the nurse out, and Theo decided he was going to sneak up on Louis with a chair. As Tanner returned, Harry reconfigured his powers around "Let him without sin cast the first stone!" and started sandbagging Louis' dice pools. The Terrible Swift Sword missed Tanner (I think) and when Theo tried to hit Louis... he couldn't. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. Louis was too glorious, too mighty. Plus he was pretty sure he'd get Kentucky Fried --as Tanner did when he tried to pummel Louis through the window. He was psychologically unable to hit Louis and, moreover, caught fire rather nastily.

So Theo tried to rip every biblical memory out of Louis head, Louis bent down to say something no one caught to Mary and Tanner tried to duplicate Louis' powers. It didn't work, however: He got a sense that Louis powers were all tied to a new and unreal body, and that if that body was somehow disrupted, or the IDEA of it disrupted, the whole thing would fail.

Louis fought off Theo's mind attack and commanded him to show himself which, rather than face the Willpower drain, Theo did. Louis was going to give him a good poke with the Terrible Swift, but Harry's powers kept him in check. Meanwhile. Tanner realized that while he couldn't bring himself to throw anything at Louis, he felt just fine about closing his eyes and hurtling a fistful of bent quarters towards him. That hit Louis and blew him out the window.

GM: The four of you look out over the Emergency Room parking lot -- lucky you, you're parked on the other side -- and see him plummeting until -- WHOOF! -- two great wings of fire spring forth.
THEO'S PLAYER: I'm making him forget his proprioceptive position.
HARRY: "Judge not lest ye be judged!"
TANNER'S PLAYER: Hey, is there an oxygen tank in this room?
GM: Why yes. Yes there is.
TANNER: Can I throw it at him?
GM: No. But you can throw it near him...

With Harry's interference, Louis was unable to fly away before tanner hit a car with the oxygen tank and, when exposed to Louis' flames, it exploded. Louis had a ton of wound boxes, but with that he went unconscious and I decided that things weren't going to get any cooler if he survived.

GM: The flames flicker and change. He's not a figure of terrible, angelic might any more. He's just a sick old man. And he's on fire.

As they caught their breath, Mary looked up and said, "I wish I was dead." And then she exploded.

After a trio of successful Stability rolls (woot!) and some area damage, they staggered away, clothes smoldering, and fled the hospital. Harry was the only one who missed out on his mother calling for Mary, but the others opted not to call it to his attention.

THEO: So... who wants chicken? There's a Howard Johnson's out by the airport.

After changing clothes, getting a room and showering, they headed down to the restaurant where they were refused beer.

WAITRESS: Sorry hon. Blue laws, can't serve it on Sunday.
HARRY: Okay. Three waters. TEXAS water.
GM: You charming her?
HARRY: Oh yeah.
GM: She comes back quickly with three beers. "These are on the house," she says with a wink. "You boys look like you could use 'em."

After discussion, moping and shock, they decided there were two urgent matters to attend: Jeff (the hitch hiker) and tracking down Patient Zero for the superpower phenomenon. Taking their chicken up to the room, they called Harry's mother (which was heartwrenching as she asked where Mary was and he said he couldn't ever be near his mom again for fear of making everything awful) and Theo went all clairvoyant to check on various persons.

-Tina, the little girl who infected them with powers, was asleep on her mother's lap in church. Her little brother was being squirrelly.

-Terry was at the back of a pawn shop. "We don't normally open on Sundays..." "You'll wanna open for me," Terry replied, and when the pawnbroker saw his paper bag full of golden objects, he agreed.

-Jeff Prentice was in a diner with a woman who was saying, "No, really, I'm sorry. I can't do it, I could lose my job." As she stood to leave, he grabbed her wrist and said, "You could lose a lot more than that." She started convulsing.

So did Theo.

When he came out of it, he had a feeling that Jeff had... put something in him. Some kind of neuro-structural time bomb and that, if he wanted to, Jeff could trigger it and kill him. Thanks to Harry's recollection of Jesus casting demons out into pigs, they went out to try it at a local farm.

HARRY: (To the farmer) See that pig? That one there? You don't sell that one and sure as hell don't eat it. It's got... um... pig mange!
FARMER: Uh...
HARRY: Here's fifty bucks to just kill it now.
FARMER: You're the boss. C'mon Wilbur.
HARRY'S PLAYER: I tried to pick the least adorable pig...

With that dealt with, Tanner stopped by a gun shop to get ear plugs and big can hearing protectors and cotton wadding to stuff in there. He's got hypersenses (though not as keen as Theo) and did not want to hear anything Jeff had to say. Then he set off running across the country and, between his Hyperbody spring speed, his Hyperbody endurance (which let him sprint for up to an hour, I figure) and spending four Willpower on No Upward Limit he was able to hit 900+ miles an hour and get from Austin to Arkansas in about twenty minutes -- leaving mysterious scars across corn fields as he went.

Theo had given Tanner directions to the diner and he set off with Harry in the car. But by the time Tanner arrived, the couple were long gone. With Theo clairvoying, Tanner started asking the counterman what had happened and learned that the woman had eventually recovered from "some kinda fit" and they'd left. Theo found the woman sitting along in the dark in her apartment, and Jeff starting at the ceiling of his hotel room.

Tanner went and stalked Jeff with borrowed invisibility (he'd cloned that power from THeo before starting to run, but he didn't do very well with it. On the other hand, Jeff seemed preoccupied). Jeff went down to a bookstore.

GM: He buys copies of "No Exit" and "The Stranger."
TANNER'S PLAYER: In small town Arkansas? In 1968?
GM: My mistake.
THEO'S PLAYER: "Yeah, I'd like the collected works of French existentialists? No? Okay, make it 'Best of Penthouse Letters.'"

After stopping by the drugstore for dinner, Jeff went back to his hotel room and the other two finally pulled in. After conferring, they left Tanner watching the hotel while they went and spoke to the girl from the diner.

Theo and Harry found out who she was and what Jeff had demanded.

GM: She says, "I work at the DMV and he just walked in, came up to my station and asked me if I could help him track a license plate. I told him it wasn't allowed but he said it was really important and, well, he gave me twenty bucks, asked me to meet him after work so he could explain. And I went there to give him his money back..."
THEO: What license plate?
GM: "A Massachusetts one, here..." She writes it down. It's yours.
THEO: Crap.

Harry was very reassuring (as only someone with Hypercharm can be) and assured her that Jeff wouldn't trouble her further but, if he did come to her office Monday, she should just give him what he wanted.

After conferring further, they decided that Tanner would invisibly put a note under Jeff's door reading "Which do you want? Information? Or revenge?"

Jeff was just getting ready to take a walk when the note came in and he was clearly freaked out that it just appeared. He locked himself in his room, circled "information" and stuck it through the door. Tanner turned off his invisibility, knocked and went in with his hearing protection on.

The conversation that followed involved Tanner apologizing and explaining that he didn't know what was happening either. Jeff had to write his questions for a while until Tanner asked him if he was going to use his power and Jeff shook his head.

It emerged that Jeff and Basil had been heading down south to help with civil rights voter registration and that, after the weirdness on the highway, they'd quarreled over whether to continue, go home, or try to find the PCs.

JEFF: And then I said "Why don't you just shut up forever?" And he did.

They discussed their powers and what was happening, and told Jeff they'd get in touch if they learned anything. He asked for a phone number.

THEO'S PLAYER: Oh yeah. I'd love to put my home phone in the hands of someone who kills with sound.
HARRY: He can have mine.
THEO: Repressed death wish much?
GM: ...aaaand how!

Then Harry called the woman from the DMV and told her her troubles were over. She was so grateful that he regained a Willpower point.

Returning to Boston, they rested and saw (on the news) that the Austin incident was being chalked up to a strange oxygen tank explosion. They saw the nurse Tanner rushed to safety saying, "I don't remember it very clearly. One minute I was deling with some bereaved relatives... then there was a loud noise, I saw flames, and then I was out in the hallway."

They had another session with Dr. Austin, who was still overwhelmed, and they didn't tell him everything. (In fact, Harry made a remark about "If YOU got these powers, you'd be able to do something REAL, not just talk to people and hope they get better themselves," which I'm sure hurt the doctor's feelings on some level.) He wanted to remain as a barrier between them and Tina, "Though," he said, "I suppose you could just suck the memories out of my head, couldn't you?"

They didn't though, and he told them that Tina remembered getting healed at St. Anthony's on February 17th.

When they visited there, that was remembered as "The night the coma girl woke up." A patient who'd been comatose for 18 months had woken up and walked out of the hospital that night and (the orderly confided), she wasn't the only one. A guy who'd come in with (apparently) a smashed pelvis had been good as new only a few hours later. Between Harry's charm and his expertise with insurance, they got a list of names. But Tina Shaw's name was there, nor was Cynthia Carls (the girl from the coma, whose name the orderly recalled very well because he'd seen it for 18 months doing bedsore rolls on her). But there were entries for "Dina Shaels" and "Cynthia Carlsson"...

-G.

[The Scribbler]

This is some good stuff.

[maine75man]

Please sir may we have some more

[GregStolze]

SESSION #4: CLAIRVOYANCE AND FOOT RUBS

The PCs started out with a visit to Tina Shaw, their 'patron' in superpowers. They thanked her and asked if she could remember anything else about the man who healed and empowered her (just as she healed and empowered them). As she did, Theo grabbed the memory out of her head and got a good picture -- jeans, work boots, leathery hands, flannel shirt, jeans jacket with sheepskin collar and a DeKalb hat. They also got a glimpse into the impoverished lives of the Shaw family and talked to her about who to heal or not, accepting money and various other dangerous issues. A call to Dr. Austin assured them that he was looking out for Tina. (If nothing else, he was in a fine position to find dying people.) He talked seriously about the need for counseling people to accept the possibility of health, not to mention the possibility of gaining superpowers!

With a firm mental image of the mystery man in mind, Theo could then psychically track him.

GM: Oh. I forgot Theo could do that. Okay, no, sure, you find him. He's in DC.
THEO: "Hey Harry, this clairvoyance thing has been really taking it out of me... I think it'd help me relax if you could, maybe, give me a foot rub?"
HARRY: "Oh for the love of... fine, if it'll help solve the mystery."
THEO: "Ohhhh yeah, really work the corns."

He was, in fact, sitting in a posh Washington hotel room, doing a crossword as his daughter (roughly Tina's age, but stocky and sullen) got tutored in math. Then the phone rang and Theo heard half a conversation.

GM: "Hello? Speaking." (pause) "No, I don't know anything about a St. Anthony's hospital." (pause) "Wait a minute, Harkness, what are you implying? If you think I'm a liar, come out and..." (pause) "Can't help you. Don't know nothing about it. Now, when d'you think I'm going to see my wife again? Uh huh. Yeah, that's about what I thought. I guess this conversation is over, then. Now."

Checking in on other known sources of concern showed him Jeff Prentiss in class, doodling skulls in his his notebook, and Terry Silverstein driving with the family across the midwest, heading to Chicago and his brother Gerry's house.

Hunting high and low for clues about the mysterious "Mr. DeKalb" (as they began to call him, after his DeKalb ball cap - this logo, only on a meshback (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavesandwaterfalls/3591268607/in/set-72157605299725213/)), the PCs got called back to meet a doctor who'd been on call on the night when Tina had gotten healed and empowered: Dr. Conte.

Conte was a jerk, but he had a keen memory and he could correct two names on their list of St. Anthony patients -- Jason Weeks (instead of Jason Weick) and Deionne Bright (instead of Dion White). He was suspicious about their credentials until Theo put a false memory in -- "Yeah, you checked us out."

Dr. Conte pointed out that all the addresses of the false names were correct -- there really WAS a Jason Weick at the listed address, he just wasn't the guy who'd come in with carbon monoxide poisoning.

After some discussion, they decided that finding Mr. Dekalb would be a quicker way to deal with the superpower infection than trying to track down two more carriers, so they set off for DC, driving all night and getting a room of their own at the Watergate Hotel (where, of course, "Mr. DeKalb" was staying).

THEO'S PLAYER: I have this strange feeling that we just need two Cuban ex-cons to get to the bottom of this...
HARRY'S PLAYER: Don't forget G. Gordon Liddy.

They left him a note after finding out that his name was Sykes, asking him to meet them in their room. Tanner staked out the lobby and caught Sykes as seemed to be internally debating whether to make the meet or not. With Tanner's encouragement, he did and told them about his wife Amanda and the origin story. (Hashed out online here (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=424936).) They asked who Harkness was and Abe (that's Sykes' first name) said that was Brenda Harkness, one of the president's aides who, along with Bryson Maas-Thierry, seemed to be 'handling' him, his daughter and his wife. The last he heard from her, she was headed to St. Anthony's.

Tanner decided to just take the bull by the horns and see who he could talk to at the White House. When he demonstrated his crowbar-bending abilities, he was quickly escorted inside by a jumpy secret service man and, when he asked to see Miss Harkness he was told "She's not here but... oh, er, um... you should come right in."

He found himself sharing the Oval Office with a phalanx of secret service agents and a weathered Texas politician.

GM: "Hello there. I'm Lyndon Johnson and I'm sure we're going to be... great friends." Do you want to feel intense friendship and affection for LBJ? If not, spend nine Willpower.
TANNER'S PLAYER: Ooh. Yeah, I'll pay up, shake his hand and copy that power. I'll also introduce myself and talk to him about the Amanda situation.
GM: "Oh, that's a complicated thing, but she's a good lady, a real patriot, happy to serve her country. You want to help me serve America, don't you?" He's doing it again. It's like driving a rainbow-colored unicorn horn of adoration into your brain with a sledgehammer. It's going to take another nine Willpower to break the spell.
TANNER'S PLAYER: I run.
GM: Right out the window?
TANNER'S PLAYER: Sure.
GM: Looking back over your shoulder you can see a bullet following, but at your speed and with your abilities, there isn't a police force in the world equipped to follow you. You're up and over rooftops, in and out of buildings, and you wind up in the crowd of protesters in front of the White House.

Looking at the first person with a sign, Tanner gave her ten bucks and said, "Whatever you're protesting, I'm with you."
GM: She looks at you with a somewhat glazed grin and you see a button on her blouse saying "We Want More Johnson!" "Oh, I'm a counter-protester!" she chirps. "The president came out and gave a speech yesterday and it was just LIFE CHANGING..."

With his borrowed hypercharm, Tanner told her that, no, the President was lying to her, he was evil and had to be stopped. She looked really confused for a moment, then folded to the ground, sobbing out loud.

While he was gone, the others explained Abe about the contagion. This made him quite agitated, since his wife had gone off to use her powers in Vietnam. He decided to jam the hell out of there with his daughter, but first he let Theo get a memory of Amanda and try to find her. But it failed -- Theo's power just wouldn't lock on. He tried Robert Macnamara, found him in the Situation Room moving a gold star on the map, and then he tried to look at that location in Vietnam. But just as he started to see something flying in from over the horizon, his power got switched off. Then Tanner came back.

(more soon)

-G.

[GregStolze]

TANNER: "He's using mind control... I mean, I don't know if he's aware of it. This is LBJ, the guy who signed the Civil Rights act, the Great Society..."
HARRY: "I just can't imagine a president from Texas being dishonest, especially to a nation at war!"
THEO: "I feel kind of funny saying this out loud but... I think we may have to kill the president."
TANNER: "That's how it always starts..."

They decided instead to call Prentiss from Sykes' hotel room and warn him that the government might want to talk to him. But at the same time, having learned about Abe's ability to turn back the clock on people and things, they suggested that they might be able to remove his powers. Prentiss said he'd have to think about it.

Then there was a thump and they saw smoke rising from the direction of the White House.

When Theo zoomed his vision there, he saw a screaming woman with a "We Want More Johnson!" button waving her arms as the Secret Service opened fire. But the bullets froze in midair at her gesture and she tore through walls and doors, flinging marines aside until Johnson himself came out.

GM: Johnson has his hands up and he says, "It's okay, miss. It's all right. You just have to kill yourself, y'hear?" "No," she moans. "Yes," he says, "It's the only way. You know you have to do it. It's all right. You have to." Theo, you see all the various pistols and shotguns floating up in front of her, aiming straight to her face.
THEO: "He's making her kill herself."
TANNER: "Oh God, the woman from the crowd..."
HARRY: "Get out of there!"

But Theo watched as the girl made all those triggers pull simultaneously. Then they got the hell out of town.

Incidentally, Moby the tentacle monster had been with them (in Theo's briefcase) all this time and they dispatched him ahead of them to Boston to warn the Shaws about Brenda and Bryson.

They started towards Boston but decided their only option was to go public. The scenes of getting to Walter Cronkite were pretty fun to roleplay, but for this writeup what really matters is that they demonstrated invisibility and super-strength on TV and accused the president of using mind control. In the process they found out that five Secret Service agents died after going to talk to someone named Jeff Prentiss. (And the official narrative was that Jeff was in cahoots with Gina Ambrose -- that was the TK girl they saw Johnson kill.)

During the interview, Cronkite got a call that Johnson was coming to discuss the situation live on the air. He calmly told the PCs that a car was waiting for them, while they tried to lay out some anti-mind-control tactics if it turned out Johnson's powers could be broadcast. (It turned out they couldn't.)

They jammed back to Boston, pausing only for a touch of clairvoyance. The results weren't promising: They got in touch with Prentiss at a gas station where he was shaving off his beard and 'stache.

JEFF: "Yeah, you know how you said you might be able to take... this... off me? Well, I'm going to have to give it a pass. But... but I think I've got better control. I think next time I can... stop it... before it goes too far."

Checking Johnson, they saw him talking to J. Edgar Hoover who, before their very eyes, transformed into Tanner, who looked at Johnson with fear and loathing before turning back into Hoover and filling Johnson in on everything Tanner knew about their plans.

They found Theo's house occupied when they arrived, but it was just the Shaws, followed soon after by a hippie at the front door who introduced himself as Jason Weeks. Tina recognized him from the hospital and Theo recognized him from Tina's memories. He also seemed to know things about them right after asking the question about it.

WEEKS: Um, I think I may be the world's smartest man.
THEO: "Great! Just what we need. Let's get moving and find this Deionne Bright guy."

Weeks' story was that he liked to get high and seek enlightenment. Having had good results with peyote and LSD separately, he'd decided to mix them (with some hash to make 'em go down smooth). It was all fine, until he got hungry, went to the garage, put the car in drive instead of reverse, drove into a wall and knocked himself out on the steering wheel. He came to healed, clairvoyant, and a super-genius. He was the guy who'd put up the false records in the hospital, anticipating that eventually SOMEONE would come looking. He warned them about a really dangerous contemporary of his, Jarvis West, and guided them to Deionne Bright's house, where a crowd was gathering to hear the greatest guitar playing of all time.

Harry went up to talk to Deionne.

DEIONNE: "Hey, you're that guy from the TV. Cronkite last night."
HARRY: "That's right."
DEIONNE: "Man, you're all turned around about where this come from. It ain't nothing scientific."
HARRY: "Then what?"
DEIONNE: "I think you know."
HARRY: "Oh, what, the DEVIL? You think you sold your soul to the DEVIL?"
DEIONNE: "Didn't you?"
HARRY: "No. Just no, there's no devil, you just confabulated something so your mind could handle what was happening."
GM: At that moment, a splendidly handsome black man saunters into the room. His clothes are painfully elegant and he says, "You SURE 'bout that?"

That's where we ended.

(Somewhere in there they also saw the waitress from the Howard Johnson's in Austin jump off a building and stop herself inches from the pavement, then fly around laughing delightedly.)

-G.

[Princess Stacey]

Awesome stuff.

[GregStolze]

(Ooh, and while they were going to see Deionne, they experimented with 'what happens when you try to read memories from a hyperbrain?' Turns out you start to think you ARE that person, for a little while.)

-G.

[Princess Stacey]

Clairvoyance/audience +10d - He's got a range to .33AU and can not only see and hear what he scans, he can find people or things automatically. But it takes an effort of will and tires him out.

Say, would you like to unpack this one? I can follow most of the powers, but how do you make Clairvoyance/audience so accurate?

[GregStolze]

Here's the math on Theo's clairvoyance.

Useful (see) (+2), Exhausted (-3), Locational (-1), Willpower Bid (-1) Range Boost (+7)
Useful (hear) (+2), Exhausted (-3), Locational (-1), Willpower Bid (-1) Range Boost (+7)
Useful (find) (+2), Exhausted (-3), Locational (-1), Willpower Bid (-1) Range Boost (+7)

So it's 12 points per die and he has ten dice in it.

-G.

[GregStolze]

Harry's response to Deionne's devil was "Get behind me Satan!" which caused a burning pentagram to encircle him.

DEVIL: Oh, why's it got to be like that? You an' I have a lot to discuss.
HARRY: What's your real name?
DEVIL: I'll answer to Ol' Scratch, Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer...
HARRY: But which one's REAL?
DEVIL: They all are.
HARRY: Show your true form.

This forced the devil into a more 'diabolical' guise - horns, wings, tail, pitchfork and lots of flies.

DEVIL: Got what you want yet? 'Cause anything more's gonna cost you. I think we have plenty of business to transact, seeing as you already killed one angel.
HARRY: No. He was... one of yours.
DEVIL: No. That was all you.

Eventually Harry got fed up and dismissed him and then tried to warn Deionne about spreading his powers to everyone who listened. Deionne wasn't dissuaded.

HARRY: All this talent, all this... it's not real, you know.
DEIONNE: Hell yeah it is!
HARRY: It's not you.
DEIONNE: If this ain't me, I'd rather be this than me. Or you think I should ought to go back to stocking a grocery store at night, instead of getting everything I ever wanted?

After Harry left in disgust, Tanner gave it a try, giving Deionne the name "John Galt" if he ever wanted to contact them. (He was being cagey about his identity for some reason I can't now recall.)

Soon after, Weeks told them he had to bail. "Sorry, but you guys are really well known and that's going to draw some negative attention. With invisibility and bulletproofness and the rest, you're way better equipped to handle that than me. I'd just know exactly the trajectory the bullet was taking before it hit me." They all agreed it might be a good idea for Tina and the Shaws to go with him, and they later discovered that Moby had snuck off with him as well.

Checking in on Dr. Austin got them some bad news: Brenda Harkness had stopped by for a chat and he'd given her all their files and told her everything he knew about the Shaws. He was really upset (of course) about having violated confidentiality, but they told him they understood and that they gave him retroactive permission to release the files.

It also turned out that their demonstration on CBS news pre-empted news of the MLK assassination.

(More soon.)

-G.

[GregStolze]

As April 5th proceeded, they found out that Johnson was denying that he had "mind control powers" but that he was communicating solely through writing to reassure the public. People were freaking out over the MLK news, and there was a strange bank robbery in Tennessee: Someone went into a bank, and then all the people in it collapsed, coming to a while later with bloody noses and bloodshot eyes. All the hallmarks of Jeff Prentiss -- or, as they began calling him, "Death Sentence."

Harry's plan was to find a house out in the middle of nowhere and spend all his money to buy it, thereby fulfilling Matthew 13:44. (We estimated that for a point of Base Will and 8 Willpower, he could permanently transform a hundred pounds of soil into natural looking black pearls.) He settled on a farm outside Mason, Ohio. Meanwhile, Tanner decided to get back in touch with Gina. When Theo scanned her, she was sitting nervously by the phone. He called.

GINA: Hello? Terry, is that you, are you OK?
TANNER: Gina?
GINA: Leonard? What... how did you get this number?
TANNER: I have a friend who can find people, remember?
GINA: Then you haven't found out anything about Terry? Or that... thing?

They quickly established that the tripod monster that had emerged from Tanner during his healing had been tormenting churchgoers in Chicago and had probably killed a priest. Scanning for Tripod, Theo found it in the storm sewers, tricking a pair of cops by using some sort of illusory projection of itself and then, when they were hurt, grabbing a gun off one and shooting them both. Terry was about a mile away, getting ready to head into the sewers himself. Gina explained that he was pretty sure he was the only person who could hurt it.

Tanner and Theo found a phone near Terry (he was in a maintenance access shed, having turned the lock into matzoh or something) and called him. He was somewhat surprised to hear from them and they told him NOT to go after the thing until they got there. They set up a rendezvous by the Buckingham Fountain. He was intensely relieved and apologized to Tanner for threatening him.

They both tried to sneak onto an eastbound flight while invisible, but Tanner had the bad luck to walk right into a stewardess' cloud of cigarette smoke. She freaked, he bailed, and Theo wiped her memory. (Luckily he didn't spread powers to her.) Theo flew into Chicago and stole a cab to get to the fountain, but Tanner beat him there by running at 500 mph in the ditches alongside railroad tracks.

THEO'S PLAYER: Just don't show up with pieces of hobo on your shoes, okay?

Arriving, they tracked Bipod again and found him desecrating a synagogue. (They also ascertained that Terry, in addition to his other powers, could regenerate. He felt a lot more confident after learning THAT.) A brief pursuit later they cornered it (in the storm sewers again) just as the cops rolled up.

THEO'S PLAYER: "You should let us handle this." I've got that power of persuading people when I'm telling the truth, right?
GM: Oh yeah. The cop says, "Hey, weren't you that guy on Cronkite?"

As Terry struggled to keep his face hidden from the police, Tanner descended and easily dodged bullets while waiting for the thing's ammo to run out. Theo pushed a reluctant Terry down as Tanner seized the thing and, after a few rounds with it squirming and swearing as Terry turned chunks of it into gold ("Do it! Kill me! Send me back to hell where I belong!") they finished it. Tanner went up to tell the cops everything was cool while Theo and Terry went underground to a sewer grate, which Terry turned to rubber and then back so they could climb out.

Tanner gave a statement to the cops, neglecting to mention Terry's involvement, but letting slip that Theo could find anybody in the world, any time.

COP: ...So... like... the people on the Ten Most Wanted list?
TANNER: Hey, I'll talk to him about that!

At that point a detective came by and said, "You about done here? 'Cause the FBI want to talk to this guy and, you know, I was about to call them. Tell 'em he's here. After I get some coffee, y'know. Oh, look, I gotta make a fresh pot."

TANNER: Thanks man.

Then he was gone. He reconciled with Terry, who transformed a glass milk bottle into diamond for him and tried to buy them both plane tickets back, but Theo stoutly refused. Tanner flew openly, Theo snuck aboard, and while they were in midair, they saw a distant speck in the sky, keeping pace with the plane. When it banked to land in Boston, they realized the speck was a person.

They got back to Boston in time for a pre-arranged meeting with professional publicists Powers and Wegenkenecht. But first, Harry watched a crowd in front of the Boston courthouse get increasingly antsy. There was a broad cross-section of the population upset about the President's possible powers; blacks incensed over MLK; cops breaking up fights; and then one nutjob jumped up on a fountain and started screaming that he had powers, meriting him a savage beating. Harry found an appropriate Bible verse and hit them all with a stinging rainstorm.

Harry also heard from Dr. Austin, who had caught super from Brenda Harkness. His power spread? Active telepathy; rapid telepathic psychotherapy; and the ability to borrow unused brainpower from those around him. When they met for a ballgame, Austin was a super-genius. He also spoke of forming a psychic gestalt, but assured Harry he wouldn't do it without someone's full consent and understanding.

HARRY: So... I guess my assholishness all turned out OK, huh?

Then on to the publicist meeting. They decided to form some sort of international consulting and research firm to figure out what was going on with the power spread, and to help contain or deal with it. They also got a strong recommendation to put the law firm of Kraus, Schmeisser and Garamond on retainer. They did, and soon heard that the FBI wanted to speak with Tanner about "The White House incident."

On the street after the meeting, they were accosted by a nervous woman named Denise Loveward -- the nurse from the Austin hospital episode. She'd caught super from Tanner. Though cautious, she shared that she had the power to visibly trace lines of descent.

THEO: What the HELL?!?
DENISE: I wanted to understand what was happening.

She could not only see green lines of force leading from each metahuman to his progenitor AND his descendants, she could tell that Tanner had two offspring, Theo had none ("It's like... I can still see that you have seven seeds attached. But yours are really... narrow. Hard to pass on.") and Harry had four.

HARRY: So wait, it's not going to continue indefinitely?!?

From her they learned that she herself had only six seeds.

HARRY: You may be the most important person in the world right now.

(Almost done.)

-G.

[GregStolze]

From Denise they started forming a theory of power descent but, like Weeks, she didn't want to be too close or reveal too much. She set off for DC to check on the dead body of Gina Ambrose (Tanner's other power descendant).

They soon heard from their lawyers that Harry was being sought for questioning about what went down in Austin, but before that they learned about two ongoing super-battles (which they decided to stay out of). One was in New York and ended with heavy casualties, five deaths (including two cops who were forced to shoot each other) and substantial property damage. Apparently, both the metahumans involved survived and escaped.

The second started with eight people dead at a Tennessee truck stop, all showing signs of Prentiss' power. Eventually they heard that he'd been cornered by a massive manhunt who discovered that he was ALSO a regenerator. He held them off until Bryson Maas-Theirry showed up and threw a truck at him. Prentiss killed Maas-Thierry (and about fifty others) but was unable to avoid, survive or recover from the impact.

Their as-yet-unnamed group released their model of power descent to the press and heard it described as "one possible theory" in a press conference held by Amanda Sykes (the very first one ever) and Meg Delarochee (the flying waitress from Austin). Delarochee cited Tanner's actions in Chicago as evidence that the powers could be used for good, before her handlers cut off the questions and the ladies demonstrated flight and some super-strength.

The last thing the PCs heard about was a new sect that had sprung up right there in Boston: The Church of the Burning Visage.

-G.

[GregStolze]

SESSION SIX: FOUNDATION META

This is the group's last session for a while, as half of us are getting slammed with weekend work for most of January.

On April 8th (a Monday), nothing really happened. At least, as GM I didn't have anything planned. The PCs were taking rooms in various Boston flophouses, dodging the press and the cops without, y'know, being all fugitivo about it.

Tanner had an appointment with some people from the Secret Service and his three lawyers (Kraus, Schmeisser and Garamond) all fell in for the meeting. They felt that his assertions of "mind control" were a sticky wicket, since such a thing was not acknowledged to exist unless you went all the way back to witch trials.

SCHMEISSER: I don't think we're going to get the President on a ducking stool.

When the Secret Service guys arrived, it was fairly clear that three of them were armed agents and three of them were pudgy lawyers. They asked Tanner what happened when he visited the White House and he admitted that he ran away at top speed. When pressed, he said he felt an urgent need to depart and, when asked for more details, admitted that he felt uncomfortable with the President. After several hours of legal wrangling ("I don't see the relevance of whether he says he had a 'presentiment' as opposed to an 'intuition'…") they said they'd be back in touch as needed. Tanner's legal team thought the government might just drop it: Dragging their vulnerability into the light wasn't a win for them, and neither was putting more fuel on the "Johnson uses mind control" fire. The suggested that the threat of legal action, as a lever on Tanner, might be more useful to the White House than an actual courtroom showdown.

Meanwhile, Harry called his mom in Texas and checked in on his sister. She was (by mom's report) acting funny: Spending a lot of time out in the desert 'camping.' and generally being antisocial.

The trio spent the next day (Tuesday the 9th) talking with people from the Harvard Law Review, while someone in New York was misidentified as Jarvis West and torn limb from limb. It was emerging that the battle in New York a few days previous was between West (a mind controller) and someone described as "just a blur."

Wednesday the 10th, they had another meeting with Powers and Wegenkenecht, who suggested the names "Trilogy Foundation" and "R.I.S.E. Foundation" for their group (R.I.S.E. standing for "Responsibility, Integrity, Security and Education.") The batted all kinds of ideas back and forth before settling on "Foundation Meta" and putting wheels in process to rent some space in New York City.

As Mr. Wegenkenecht went off to his 2:00 tee time, William Powers suggested to them that he'd be willing to leave the firm and work exclusively for the Foundation--if they exposed him to their energies successfully. He suggested that as a WWII Navy veteran and successful businessman, he'd be a much better candidate for powers than… well… some random nurse or waitress. The PCs said they'd think about it.

Harry got subpoenaed for May 9th by the Texas Rangers (as did Denise Loveward, but they didn't know that). He expounded on his vicious rivalry with Billy Watson, a Ranger from Harry's high school football team. The other characters couldn't figure out why this was bugging Harry so, but (player to players) Harry's player admitted that Billy had dated Mary.

At some point, Tanner visited a bunch of orthodox diamond merchants and showed them his converted milk bottle. They were pretty flummoxed. After discussion, they decided they'd be willing to cut it for him, but they weren't buying it and would appreciate it if he didn't sell it back to them once it was cut.

TANNER: You can't tell it didn't come from the ground! Other than the shape, I mean.
GEMCUTTER: I can't reveal that with a test, but I know it. How do I know you won't change it back?
TANNER: I don't have that power any more.
GEMCUTTER: But you could get it again. You could start turning windows into diamond all over the city… oy.

The deal they settled on was that Tanner would take their contact information to "the guy who can change stuff" and if "the guy" (Terry, of course) wanted to do business with them, they'd cut the gem bottle for free. Otherwise, he'd pay their normal rates.

TANNER: I'm on to a good thing here, I really believe that. I'd rather see you get rich off it than those goyim from DeBeers.

When he called Terry, they chatted a bit and Terry asked how he was doing for money.

TANNER: Actually, if you can give me a short term loan… the Foundation's going to get some money soon, but we haven't…
TERRY: Sure, is $100,000 enough?

Later, Tanner took in a Red Sox game and, as he was walking home, ran into MLK's ghost. Or so it appeared. The figure was indisputably MLK, but cast no shadow and made no sound until, after an effort, it produced a thin and reedy echo. MLK wanted to know what had happened to him and, having seen Tanner on CBS, thought he might know.

TANNER: I… um… someone must have exposed you. Did anyone, recently…?
MLK: No, just the people from the sanitation strike.
THEO'S PLAYER: (aside) Hoover was monitoring him, I bet.

MLK told Tanner that he couldn't move things, that he just passed right through matter ("like a dream") and that it was very difficult for him to hold himself together and project an image of himself. He said he'd visited his family and consoled them, but that he had trouble focusing on one location.

TANNER: When you fade out… where do you go?
MLK: Everywhere.

Tanner then duplicated MLK's power of insubstantiality and tried to stay with him as he faded out, but couldn't do it. Nor could he turn himself substantial again…

Theo and Harry were in the library looking for Theo's old articles because Theo had lost his wallet and was forgetting important things. Like his last name. While there, they heard a phone ring in the distance. Soon a librarian came and asked Theo if he was Theo Harris. "Please don't have people call here any more," she said, "But this gentleman is quite insistent."

THEO: (On the phone) Hello? Who's this?
VOICE: I'd rather not say, but if you direct your attention to Washington DC you can find me.

The voice was Theo's own, and when he went clairvoyant to FBI headquarters, he saw a duplicate of himself sitting in Hoover's office. As he watched, his doppelganger shifted back into Hoover form and said, "I know you don't think much of me and that's all right. You do care about the truth. I'm not someone who likes to ask others to clean up his own messes, but I think I have a problem that only you can solve."

It emerged that Hoover could turn himself into any person he knew of, thereby thinking as they thought and knowing what they knew. When he first got this ability, he went after some people on the Ten Most Wanted list, including Tyler Ford.

HOOVER: Tyler fled California after shooting and killing two police officers. They were there to serve an arrest warrant. Tyler raped and murdered his own grandmother.

He opened a file folder about Ford, but told Theo he probably wouldn't be able to remember anything he saw. "Since I scanned him, I can't find him again and no one who's been present at crimes we think he committed can remember anything helpful." He swallowed and looked a little pale as he said, "Mr. Harris, if you really want to know why Ford has to be stopped, you can read my memories about being him, but I wouldn't recommend it. I wouldn't inflict that on my worst enemy. Being him… it's sickening. What he wants more than anything else is to be unobserved… and to find new ways to violate people."

Hoover said he'd become Theo again in a few days to see what he'd decided, but either way he thanked him for his time and suggested that his gratitude could be very valuable, "especially in light of your friends' problems with the Secret Service and the Texas Rangers."

Theo clairvoyed (is that a word?) Tanner just as the insubstantiality wore off and called him on the nearest pay phone. They filled one another in on the strange new ways they were getting contacted.

At some point in there, I think Harry went to his property in Mason and found his hundred pounds of flawless black pearls. Then the trio went to New York City and started looking around for apartments and a good headquarters for Foundation Meta.

When Wegenkenecht called in for his messages, his secretary said someone had called for Harry -- a Dr. Austin. When she'd confirmed that Harry was in New York, Austin had said "We'll be there soon."

Cautiously setting up a meeting, Harry conferred with Austin and three 'associates' in Powers and Wegenkenecht's offices. It took Theo's elevated senses to realize that the four of them were blinking in unison.

THEO: They're drones! Drones in a hive!
AUSTIN: We prefer the phrase 'gestalt.'

It emerged that the three were Austin's patients, and that he'd inducted them into his psychic gestalt with their permission and acceptance, all hoping to develop healing powers or, at the least, healthy bodies. But while all of them had gotten super-strength and some degree of invulnerability, they were all still sick.

AUSTIN: You don't have to be responsible for giving them powers. That's me. But I will ask you to heal them, as you were healed.

As Harry and Theo were debating this and trying to get a handle on Austin's brave new world of psychic unity, a receptionist knocked on the door and said there was a "Miss Harkness" there asking after them.

Tanner tried to stop Harkness and her three friends (one of whom he recognized as the waitress from Austin, one of Harry's byblows) from coming in but they got there just as Harry healed one of Austin's associates, a young woman.

Well, as you can imagine, things got really tense. Austin clearly held a grudge against his power mama Harkness, his people were locked in his thoughts with him and, before Harry and company could calm things down, one of the woman with Harkness started to turn on a power. Intuiting that the Austin Gestalt was about to act, Harkness pulled a gun and opened fire on the doctor. Harry threw himself between her and him, the gestalted trio tried to clobber her (to no effect). The waitress flew straight into one of the gestaltoids and slammed him partway through a concrete wall without hurting him. Theo, already invisible, hit Harkness with a chair, also to no effect. One of the women with Harkness vanished, and the youngest one (who'd activated the power and set off the whole meltdown) turned red and started moving unbelievably fast.

HARRY'S PLAYER: Oh shit, she's producing RED SHIFT?!?

Harkness probably wouldn't have shot Harry, but Austin said "No, you can't" and didn't give her the chance. So after one round, no one was hurt. Round two changed all that.

Harry threw Harkness out the window with something ridiculous like a 7x10. A scalding flash of light came from nowhere and badly burned Harry's chest and the two male Austinites' arm and leg. The red blur hit one too, but to no effect. (Harry was shifting his powers around frantically while this was all going down.) Austin looked at the flying waitress and said, "Is this really what you wanted?" and suddenly she was floating, dazed, in the middle of the room, failing to interact. The Austinite woman said "Show yourself!" while her two male counterparts double-teamed red-shift to death. One clotheslined her and, in perfect coordination, the other kicked the back of her head hard enough to disintegrate it.

GM: Roll Stability.
HARRY'S PLAYER: If we got a T-shirt made for this campaign, the tag line would be 'Roll Stability.' Hey, I made it!
TANNER'S PLAYER: Me too.
THEO: (blinks) I'd better get to work designing that logo for Foundation Meta.

With that, he left the room, covered with blood and grey matter.

The invisible woman appeared in the doorway, said, "You monsters! She was only seventeen!" and raced away down the hall. No one felt like following her. Looking out the window they saw a big dent in the hood of a parked car, but no sign of Harkness.

Austin apologized and diagnosed Theo as using his own powers to selectively edit his own memories. He said he could help him if Theo asked, but Theo did not seem willing.

The flying waitress came out of it and described several days with Harkness during which "I just agreed with everything she said! All I wanted was to make her happy. What was she doing to me?!?"

It emerged that what she REALLY wanted to do was be a fashion designer. Tanner said that she should just go do that, not join any super team and that if she stumbled across a situation where being bulletproof and a fast flier helped, she could help. He also said that if she wanted to go flying any time at all, he'd go too.

Then came the cops. Austin's people told the truth, and the two who'd dealt the killing blows submitted to handcuffs. So did Tanner because, any way you slice it, defenestration is a crime in New York City.

-G.

[GregStolze]

SESSION SIX: WHO'D HAVE THOUGHT HE HAD SO MUCH BLOOD IN HIM?

I started this session saying we'd skip forward a month (which we'd agreed to do last session and didn't actually DO very smoothly, but whatever). That meant some stuff happened outside the PCs' influence, while other stuff didn't.

Brenda Harkness turned herself in, spoke prettily with a judge and walked out with all charges dropped and arrest warrants issued for Dr. Austin and his three 'drones.' A different judge threw those out when John Blake ("drone #1" if you like) turned himself in and pleaded down to manslaughter. Barb French, formerly of "Team Harkness," gave an interview to the NYT in which she slammed Austin and the PCs indiscriminately, describing Foundation Meta as a conspiracy to exploit powers for gain and self-aggrandizement. She also said that she's going into the police academy.

The big question was... do they go after Tyler Ford like J. Edgar asked.

GM: Okay, GM to players here. Tyler is dangerous. REALLY dangerous. Don't say I didn't warn you.

But they felt compelled, and when they got a call that a woman in upstate New York was showing signs of a sexual assault with missing time, they went.

Oh, but first they staffed Foundation Meta.

GM: Now, you're going to need... what?
THEO'S PLAYER: A geneologist, full time. We have to track the spread of powers as best we're able. Also, a secretary with big cans.

One of their secretarial applicants did not have big cans, but did come with a letter of recommendation from Dr. Austin and (as she described it) "national range teleportation." Her name was Eloise and she took mild exception to being described as a member of a 'hive.'

They consulted their lawyers. Would it look weird, associating with a friend of a confessed manslaugterer when they were witnesses?

LAWYER: Do you want my personal advice, my professional advice, or both?
PC: Are they different? Just tell us which is which.
LAWYER: Legally there's no problem. You and Austin witnessed an ugly death together, you're both persons of interest, but there's no law that people who see a murder have to avoid one another for the rest of their lives. But these... people... are psychically connected, they have powers, you're not entirely sure how they work, right? Anything you do with her is going back to the hive, and the hive has a big fat pipeline into the center of your operation, through which... really ANYTHING could emerge.

With that in mind, they decided to keep Eloise on retainer, but separate. She's starting a transportation company, but Foundation Meta gets first dibs. They found that very useful in the Ford case, as they were able to zip up to New York and get the skinny.

The woman had bruising consistent with assault, but remembered nothing. Moreover, the people around her had gaps in their recollections as well. It was fairly tense and creepy watching Theo negotiate the emotional minefield of "Do you want to remember a horrible experience to keep it from happening again?" But she did.

From this, Theo got a mental image of Tyler -- heavyset, unibrow, pasty complexion, kind of stupid looking.

GM: Even as you get it, it's starting to melt in your mind.
THEO: I find him.
GM: It's something of a race. You're trying to dial in on him before his power can wipe the image out of your head completely. You just keep repeating to yourself 'unibrow, heavyset...'

They located him in Canada, watching a minor league ballgame. They teleported in to the parking lot ("hey, we don't want to pay admission!") and Eloise said she'd be back in half an hour to pick 'em up.

ELOISE: This guy kind of creeps me out.

Theo turned invisible and Tanner cloned the power, and they went in to find him. When they did, Theo snuck up behind him and made to shoot his brains out.

GM: Since when has Theo got a gun?!?
THEO'S PLAYER: No, it was established he had a revolver, remember? He was thinking about suicide. Wouldn't YOU take one if you have no offensive abilities and were going against a rapist who explodes people?

I let him aim and set the die to 10 for a head shot, gave him an extra die for point-blank range but suggested that cold-bloodedly murdering someone at a baseball game when you've never shot at anyone in the past might be easier to contemplate than complete. With that agreed on, he pulled the trigger and failed.

Ford went invisible. People started screaming, Tanner jumped into the empty space and Harry reset his power. I can't remember what bible verse he picked, but its stated intent was "I want to direct his attention to me. He thinks he's choosing freely but he's picking me."

GM: Well, since your power manifests by spotlighting you in a holy aura, that's easily done.

Then he rolled something like six tens to readjust the power. Got Willpower but otherwise just wasted a once-in-a-lifetime roll. Ooops.

There was some debate about whether Tanner could hit the invisible Tyler, which I wanted nailed down because Theo turns invisible and I wanted a clear precedent. So I ruled that Tanner could flail around the area, but any sets he rolled would be applied to bystanders. He wound up knocking out one fan and breaking another's arm, but he hit Tyler hard enough that he could see blood come from nowhere as Tyler coughed it out.

Then Tyler zoomed Harry.

Tyler's primary attack power pulls him directly through space to his target, who explodes while Tyler steals his most treasured memory. In WT language, it's 10HD with Engulfs. On the other hand, he had a -2d penalty from a torso full of Shock damage and another reduction when Theo hit him with the memory whammy.

GM: Oh yeah, this guy's mind... you're spoiled for choice really. He's got all these stolen memories of loving moments with parents, you can just rub those against what he REALLY grew up with, that'll put a wobble in his orbit.

Tanner grabbed Tyler just as he started his power, so he got dragged along as they flew into Harry, but Harry's player spent MUCH Willpower to survive and, having a grip on Tyler, Tanner could hit him with a puny -4d penalty. (When you have +7d+2HD+WD in Body, a -4d penalty is 'puny.') He actually came down on the top of Tyler's head hard enough to force it into the body cavity.

There they stood, gore soaked, with screaming Canadian baseball fans stampeding around them.

GM: Stability rolls! Not you Harry, you're just... you're in no condition to really perceive the horror.

Harry rolled after his healing powers made him good as new and, conveniently, Eloise showed up. With admirable calmness she teleported them (and Tyler's corpse) to a faraway hillside.

PLAYER: Does she need to make a Stability roll?
GM: One of Dr. Austin's powers is "Give everyone in the Gestalt a +10HD Stability bonus."
PLAYER: (muttered curses)

Eventually they got the body to the FBI agent who'd been in New York, using Theo's finding power and Eloise's movement. The Fed was watching TV in his hotel room, chilling out in his boxer shorts.

FED: (in response to Theo's knock) Just a minute, I gotta...
THEO: Put your pants on, I know. Where do you want the package delivered.
FED: Excuse me.
THEO: Um. You know. That thing we were working on? It's... the situation, it's resolved.
FED: Are you asking me where I want Tyler Ford's DEAD BODY?!?
THEO: Well I was TRYING to be subtle about it.
FED: (Grabbing his hand) I can't speak for the people of the US, but personally I want to congratulate you. That guy was a monster and I'll sleep better knowing he's been stopped. You just have no idea...
THEO: Um, I read that girl's memory? I think I actually DO have an idea.
FED: So... um, where is he now?
THEO: I think we left it somewhere in Canada, but I'm not really sure.
FED: I should call my supervisor... no, you know what? Just bring it to... to that parking garage over there. See that brown Ford? That's my car. I've got a tarp in the trunk. I'll deal with it from here.

They passed off the body without Eloise showing herself, and then all four (on her suggestion) went to a secluded beach in the Florida Keys to wash off while she went to get fresh clothes for Tanner and Harry.

ELOISE: It should be harder, shouldn't it? I mean, shouldn't it feel more difficult to blink across a continent like this?
TANNER: (Shrug) You mind picking up some tacos and rum while you're in New York?

In Florida, they asked Eloise to come out of the gestalt briefly to talk to them individually, which she did. She assured them that she wouldn't be sharing details with Dr. Austin about the afternoon's work.

THEO: Yeah, what with all the extrajudicial killings on foreign soil and such. But you have to understand what that guy WAS and what he was DOING...

They explained, Eloise blanched. Then they asked if she would be willing to quit Austin's gestalt to join the Foundation. She gently turned them down.

From there it was back to NYC and more fast forward. They heard an awesome blues-rock song by Deionne Bright on the radio and got a postcard from Quebec that read "Just a line to let you know I'm thinking of you and still think we can get some really great work done together. Sincerely, The Devil." His handwriting was perfect.

They heard that the Church of the Burning Visage was claiming a religious nature to Dark Energy, that Boston had some kind of superman working there for a while before he disappeared, and that another metahuman got recorded during a civil disturbance in Los Angeles. A fierce black man shouting about Johnson's mind control and government involvement in MLK's death was rushed by a cop with a truncheon and he (the black man) casually tossed him across the street...

...then gestured and turned the cop from white to black. Shortly thereafter, his clothes started twitching and tearing under bullet impacts, but they did nothing. Then there was a stampede as everyone white fled at top speed.

Later, the now-black cop was interviewed. It wasn't just his skin tone that had changed: He had all the typical features of a black American. Moreover, he had a parallel set of memories, as if he'd grown up in world where everything was the same except his family was black. These were side-by-side with his 'white self' memories.

Mason Ohio passed a law making it illegal to use Dark Energy powers there.

HARRY'S PLAYER: What?!? How'd they...?
GM: Gosh, it's almost as if you signed your name to a bunch of documents when you bought that house there, then founded a very public organization.

(They also heard from Terry that he was going into business as "Universal Commodities, Ltd.")

Also, Tanner went flying with Meg, then took the flying power back to Boston and deliberately exposed Amanda Hayes, a teacher he'd worked with and liked very much. And they found a bug in the office phone.

THEIR HEAD OF SECURITY: My God, it's so tiny... it's the size of a silver dollar!

Finally, though, it was time to go to Austin, which was like a zoo. Mary was clearly in great psychological distress, so Tanner and Theo left Harry alone with his family. Mary described it like having no sense of who she was, with another person's memories layered on top of it.

HARRY'S PLAYER: So it's like Alien Hand Syndrome for the whole body.

At that point the phone rang. Harry ignored it.

HARRY: Look, I know some people who might be able to help you. What exactly do you... do?
MARY: Well, I can't stay dead.

He suggested Dr. Austin and also proposed that Theo might be able to suppress her memories.

HARRY: I know someone who can take those memories away. He's a good man, he can help you...
THEO'S PLAYER: ...and the camera shifts to Theo in a bar with a bottle of whiskey, fast dancing to a slow song.
MARY: It's not a bad memory, it's what I am, it's ALL THE TIME!

The phone rang again and this time Harry answered. It was their director of security. A buddy had looked at the bug and found Cyrillic writing inside it.

THEO: Ma, Mary, we got to move. The Russkies are after me!

In the bar, Theo and Tanner's super-senses picked up the aromas of tension and gun oil from a man in a large buckled hat. As he got nearer, Theo went through his mind and got an image of him putting his gun AWAY before going out for the evening, but putting a clasp knife in a sheath at the back of his belt. Theo just had time to go invisible before the guy tried to stab Tanner.

Tanner easily grabbed his hand and squeezed until the knife dropped. Then he let go and them man said "Sorry. Misunderstanding," in a Russian accent before leaving.

-G.

[GregStolze]

SESSION EIGHT: "Worst Human Being Ever: Father's Day Edition."

When Theo and Tanner got back to the hotel, Harry was sitting up drinking scotch and reading the Gideon bible. After a brief exchange of angst, he told them about the Cyrillic letters on the bug from their office phone ("It was so TINY! The size of a silver dollar!") and they told him about the Russian in the cowboy hat who'd attacked Tanner. Alarmed, they had Theo find the guy and saw him in his hotel room with a glass of water on a table. With an intent expression, he passed his hand through the glass, leaving it unchanged and the water undisturbed. Then he phased his hand back in, squinted, and the glass exploded.

They decided to call J. Edgar.

J. EDGAR: Dammit Tolson, I told you this line's for emergencies only! This better be...
TANNER: Um, this is Leonard Tanner and I think a Russian spy just got spored.
J.EDGAR: (Beat) All right, that qualifies.

As Tanner started to explain, Theo clairvoyed as J. Edgar transformed INTO Tanner, and Tanner (the original) got to hear his own voice saying, "Yeah, I got it. I'll take care of it."

Theo, well into his cups and feeling macho, didn't want to wait for J. Edgar.

THEO: Let's do it ourselves! He's right nearby, maybe seven miles to the north, he's still experimenting with his powers, come on! We can waste him Canada-style.
HARRY: Canada style...?
THEO: You remember, we extrajudicially murdered an American citizen there the other day?

While they debated what to do, Theo tuned in on the Russian and saw that, in addition to whatever else he could do, he was flying. FAST. Harry recalibrated his powers around the verse of The Return of the Prodigal Son and tried to force the Russian to return to his 'father,' Tanner. Theo saw the flier hesitate, but shake off the influence and continue. And then he started hearing a voice in his head.

VOICE: Mr. Harris? J. Edgar suggested that I contact you about this... situation.
THEO: Who are you?
VOICE: I'm not supposed to tell you that. I'm a psychic in the employ of the US government. Can you show me this individual? I understand you can do that. I'll read his location out of your mind and... go from there.

Theo played along and got an image of the Russian heading due north, already approaching the Canadian border. He also started seeing what he could get from the psychic's memories and dug out that the guy was named Andrew Colt. General Andrew Colt. Theo got his face and a memory of Amanda Sykes demonstrating her powers.

THEO: There's an Army general who's a Tier Two, named Andrew Colt.
TANNER: Great.

With Theo tagging along, Colt tried to use psychic strikes at the Russian. Harry also tried to drag him back, and then Theo began hammering him with memory douchery as well. He got that the guy's name was Sergei Minschk, along with a brief fragment of the girl Sergei loved -- not very pretty, actually. As they watched, Sergei got a nosebleed that was drawing straight back towards his ear as he desperately tried to cross over the pole into the USSR, but between the three of them they wore him down. Theo experienced a tiny bit of Sergei's childhood, and then Colt got inside and went straight for the brainstem functions. Together with the general, Theo co-experienced Sergei's death, then pulled out clairvoyantly to watch the spy plunge into the icy Arctic.

COLT: I'm... so sorry you had to be part of that.
GM: Roll Stability. Take an extra die because you're so drunk everything seems unreal.

He failed.

GM: As it sinks in with Colt, too, you get a sense of this vast, icy discipline in the general's mind, but also this profound regret. "I never would have wanted to fight the Russians like this," he thought, and then the connection ended.

Theo just curled up and started bawling. Eventually, the others tucked him into bed, then stayed up saying nothing. They eventually drifted off not long before it was time for them to wake up and go to the inquest.

(More later.)

-G.

[GregStolze]

Harry managed to drift off just in time to get an hour's sleep, then his loathed high school rival Billy Watson (now a Texas Ranger) called from the lobby. He rolled his eyes as the trio came out of the elevator looking like they'd been up all night drinking. "Try to take this seriously, could you?"

Mary and her mom, June, were with him and Theo made a point of kicking in his hypersenses to watch for trouble. He was not disappointed as a woman with all the physiological signs of excitement came towards the group. With a nod, Tanner interposed himself.

WOMAN: It's OK, I'm with the press! My name's Janelle Spiros, Mr. Harrison! Do you have a reaction to Don Wales getting out on parole?
HARRY: Who?
GM: Theo, you can hear the blood draining out of June's face when she hears the name 'Don Wales.'
TANNER: No comment.
THEO: No comment.
THEO'S PLAYER: I was in the press, I know how to get rid of her, right?
GM: Sure. As Billy hustles the women out towards the waiting cars, he mutters "Parasites."
TANNER: You mean her or us?
BILLY: You heard that?!?

Harry made sure to get in the car with Billy and the ladies. Tanner and Theo followed, watching closely.

HARRY: Mom, who's Don Wales?
JUNE: Harry, do you trust me?
HARRY: Mom, you know, I...
JUNE: No, son, do you trust me?
HARRY: You know I do.
JUNE: Then listen. Listen. I will tell you everything after the trial. All right?

At the courthouse, Harry's legal advisor warned him that the guy conducting the inquest was Peter Wirtz, an ambitious D.A. who loved him some publicity.

LAWYER: Now, he did do a nice job on that serial rapist we had a while back...
HARRY: Your sure he didn't just blow some six-pack seduction out of proportion?
LAWYER: The guy was Mexican.
HARRY: Oh.

(As an aside, Harry's player is as nice a liberal as you'd ever want to meet. He's just staying in character as a Texas Baptist from 1968.)

Denise Loveward, Tanner's power-daughter (the nurse from the hospital) was there too and Tanner mentioned to her that he wanted a chance to talk with her.

TANNER: I mean, I guess in one sense I'm your... father? I keep creating offspring without wanting to, and I know you can perceive how this power moves. I just don't want to be a neglectful parent.
DENISE: Being able to see the moon in a telescope doesn't let me influence the moon.

Wirtz called Harry first and treated him like a hostile witness, badgering him about the day his father died. Harry framed everything that happened in religious terms and presented his resurrection as a miracle of faith, performed because his father felt he had ongoing work to do. He also took Wirtz to task for forcing him to speak ill of his dead father in front of his mother.

WIRTZ: If yoiu want a recess while she leaves the courtroom, I have nothing against it, I just want the truth.

June chose to stay and Harry described how his father's judgmental side had taken over and ended the afternoon in a detonation of tragedy. And speaking of which, Wirtz then called Mary and smelled blood in the water. He redoubled his douchebaggery. Theo decided to pull a traumatic memory out of Mary and jam it into Wirtz just as Mary started to scream, and then Denise rose and shouted "NO!"

Then green lightning shot out of Denise and arced over to Mary.

Harry's player couldn't remember how he'd learned that this was Denise's power-neutralizing effect, but he was quite sure it was in-character knowledge. The bailiffs had no such knowledge, however. They drew guns and made to open fire.

Harry interposed himself between the gun and Denise. Tanner raced around disarming both men (though he only got the second one after he fired a shot into Harry's impervious chest). Theo stood up and used his "Everyone Believes Me If I Speak The Truth" power to declare "No guns are needed! None of the powers being used are harmful."

Denise turned to Harry and said, "I think you can calm her down," which Harry did. Then the judge called a recess and I started rolling to see who, if anyone, spored off Theo's broadcast or Tanner's grabbing.

Billy Watson? Negative.

The judge? Nuh uh.

Peter Wirtz? Oh, that would've been sweet, but no. The only person to catch super that day was bailiff #2, whom I decided (on the spur of the moment) was Stan Holmes. Denise pointed this out to Theo, who called Stan over to welcome him to the family.

THEO: You realize that if you get out of line, it'll be my responsibility to kill you.

-G.

[GregStolze]

Okay, so I did some eyeballing math with the changes the PCs have made on the setting.

SCENARIO ONE: BASELINE

In the bog-standard PROGENITOR timeline, here's how the tiers work out.
1 has 1
2 has 10
3 has 72
4 has 461
5 has 2,582
6 has 12,394
7 has 49,576
8 has 158,643
9 has 380,743
10 has 609,189

That's assuming a pretty generous 80% success rate for production of all progeny.

SCENARIO TWO: JUST WHO WE GOT KILLED

Playing on just the direct effects the PCs have had by killing their own offspring and being involved in other meta-deaths, here's how those numbers dip.

1 has 1
2 has 10
3 has 72
4 has 449
5 has 2,514
6 has 12,047
7 has 48,188
8 has 154,202
9 has 370,085
10 has 592,136

SCENARIO THREE: BIG TRICKLE

But! Thanks to the PCs, Amanda Sykes stops sporing before infecting Ngoc Vo or Dac Kien Trung. What if she just pinches off her powers right there and is left with 8 tier-twos instead of the canonical ten?

1 has 1
2 has 8
3 has 58
4 has 359
5 has 2,010
6 has 9,628
7 has 38,512
8 has 123,238
9 has 295,771
10 has 473,234

In that one, all told, the PCs are responsible for there being 207,852 fewer metahumans in human history.

-G.

[GregStolze]

Stan Holmes turned out to be a bit of a pain in the ass for me, GM-wise, since I didn't immediately think up a perfect power suite for him or, indeed, any at all.

The gang got the good news that the judge had declared a mistrial, so Tanner got his talk with Denise, who remained cagey about what she was doing and where she'd been, but did tell him that Jason Weeks was completely spored out. "Probably happened the first time he tried omniscience." She also let him copy her telekinesis before she flew off. (I really need to figure out what she's up to.)

Tanner had a fine time playing with TK while Harry confronted his mom. I can't remember which bible verse he used, but he adjusted his cosmic power to "Control Passage of DE" and then deliberately used one of his remaining 'lineages' on his mama. (I'd actually prepared for this eventuality: She's got 4d+4HD in Mind, Charm and Command along with +10HD in Hyperdodge, 6d in Gadgeteering and +18 Base Will.) With her newly found composure, she told him she loved him, that she was terribly proud of him, and that he was her child by Don Wales, the guy who just got paroled... for rape.

Yeah.

With his mom's help, he managed his stability check over that reveal, but it was devastating, not just because of Asshole Dad Syndrome relapse but because it meant Mary, the girl he so desperately wanted to marry once he found out he wasn't Louis' son, was his HALF-sister instead of sister or step-sister or adopted sister.

"Mom, you understand why you have to take care of Mary and why I can't be anywhere near her, right?"

Ouch.

So he went out to get his drink on hard with Tanner and Theo. Theo had arranged for Stan to meet them but Stan stood 'em up. When clairvoyed, he was alone in his home with a half-empty six-pack, at which he was attempting a variety of dramatic gestures, to no effect. Theo and Harry got a cab and set off to get him.

Their attempts to discern his powers failed until Theo decided to pull out his faithful revolver and shoot him. THAT got a reaction! Before Theo could complete the action, Stan had disarmed him and was across the room. So at the very least, Hypercoordination. Meeting up with Tanner they found that Stan couldn't RUN fast, but that he could juggle eight quarters by flicking them with his thumbs. They also found that while Tanner could levitate an empty car with his borrowed TK, Stan wouldn't budge.

Then Theo stabbed Stan in the back. Can't recall where he got himself a blade, but for an invisible man that can't be too challenging. He just ran up behind Stan and STUCK him.

STAN: AAAAooooooWWW!
THEO: Oh Jesus, I didn't think that would WORK!
STAN: What the hell is wrong with you?!?
THEO: Harry, heal him up!

But Stan proved as resistant to Theo's healing as he was to Tanner's TK (though not, as it happens, to Theo's clairvoyance. Hm...) But when they got him to the hospital it turned out that the wound wasn't terribly deep.

TANNER: Theo, speaking solely of powers here, you're the worst father ever.

Then they went back to the hotel, where there was a message for Tanner. His sister Gina was in the hospital and he needed to call Terry, urgently.

Turns out Terry had decided to give Gina powers and when some guys tried to grab her daughter, she fought all five of them. But they gave as good as they got and put her in a coma.

-G.