Like Butter...

18 November 2010-

When last we left, Kevin was getting beat up, Jeff and Schmitty were on their way to help a poor bystander who got toasted, Craig and Bruce were getting ready to rumble, eMichael was getting ready to involve himself in the situation, Brian was hunkered down out of the line of fire (literally), and Bill was mostly just observing.

Then the bouncers turned into demons.

What had been a brutal bar fight became a much more brutal supers fight- Craig turned into a shadowy samurai, Bruce reappeared as a ghostly werewolf, Kevin manifested his mystic armor to keep himself alive, and everyone got busy on the demons. Bill grabbed one and hurled it through a wall, Craig slashed one into julienne fires, and Bruce did a textbook sidekick that blasted one in half (it reminded me of the Japanese Manga character Hokutonoken that my host-brother used to like). EMichael, now transformed into living ice, blasted a demon off Kevin, who was using lightning to hold them off. Meanwhile, Brian chased the witch into the back room, then summoned a horde of insects to chase her, but lost her trail. The normals in the room panicked, and ran back and forth until they found escape routes.

Once the final demons fell and the normals cleared, there were quick introductions all around, as we all determined that we were the good guys here, and would have to try and work together (a bit contrived, but it beat Craig and Bruce renewing their original fight, etc.). Bruce's Ghost Wolf disposed of the bodies, and we beat feet for Kevin's dojo before the cops arrived.

Eight Supers Walk Into a Bar...

11 November 2010-

No, really! That's how it started!

We started our new GURPS: Supers campaign tonight, with few of our PCs knowing each other, and every reason to be cautious. This supers world is less four-color than we've done in the past, and should feel a lot more like "Mage" or "Buffy," with more supernatural ties and fewer mutants, mutates, or powered armor types- and no governmental sanction.

In any event, all of our PCs are investigating some strange drug/gang activity in Chicago, where people with no history of drug involvement are first seen dealing, then later found decapitated. There are no obvious patterns or connections, and people are starting to worry. For different reasons, we've all been investigating the crimes, and have been led to a particularly seedy bar called "The Bitch's Brew," where some of our PCs were able to detect evil, magical things going on. For the rest of us, it just seemed to be a dive, with drug dealers in the corners and an attractive woman entertaining a number of smitten men near the bar.

Kevin's martial artist tried to get some information on her from Craig's martial artist, who is- unfortunately- one of the smitten, but was rebuffed by the attractive woman's posse, who started to get nasty. Brian, the "verminator," (I don't know his name, but he seems to control vermin), came in to look around, as did Bill's telekinetic, Bruce's werewolf, eMichael's ice-man, Jeff's sorcerer, and Schmitty's "Pokemon" guy. When Kevin's situation turned into a brawl, Bruce tried to intervene to stop the fight, but was stopped by Craig's guy, who started in on Bruce. The two of them went head-to head for a couple of seconds before Bruce had to retreat with a broken arm and a single hit point. By then, the woman (a witch of some sort), was on to at least some of our guys, and tried to incinerate Brian with a flame jet. She missed, but he dehydrated her as the guy next to him was incinerated. eMichael, who had gone to the restroom to change, returned and peered into the room while the fight heated up, and everyone started getting prepared for a more serious fight.

And- that's where we had to leave off. More next week!

From Hunted to Hunter

4 November 2010-

As has become far too typical of late, I have been lax in updating this page, although we have managed to meet- somehow real life keeps imposing itself upon my more fantastic lives, and it cannot long be ignored!

Anyway, we continued down the canyon, finding a tribe of baboons and a pair of druids, among other things. The baboons were easily scared off by one of Bill's illusions (you'll note that he's no longer eBill- at least for now he's here in person every week- yay!), and the druids ended up being friendly, since we'd avoided killing almost any of the innocent creatures of the canyon, and we didn't admit to the one baboon we did kill. They helped us delay the bad guys, though, so we could sleep, and even shaped a boat for us for the next part of our journey- an underground river.

Once we got into the water, things went pretty smoothly. We were not attacked by anything in the water, and even bought some magic items from a friendly water nymph who apparently scavenged things dropped into the river by other travelers. We kept focused on the mission, though, and left a partially-submerged coffin laying where it was, even though there was obviously an undead critter of some sort in there- and our more curious types were awfully tempted to see what it was.

Finally, we found a good spot for an ambush, and dug in to attack our pursuers as they would round a curve and face a small waterfall. Our plans went awry, though, as their yuan-ti leader evidently swam past us in the dark, and then shot Craig's lizard man and Bruce's half-elf when they went to investigate the splash he made going over the waterfall. We pursued him across an underground lake, and eventually battled him and his henchmen at an underground docking area. Kevin's half-giant mage landed there first and set himself up with a force dome, but was then put to sleep by their mage. Their brutes couldn't get through to him under the dome, but they were distracted long enough for us to get close, and after Jeff shot their yuan-ti leader with his musket the rest tried to run. The mage escaped and the human fighter went down easily enough, but they also had a greater orc berserker who went toe-to-toe with Brian's swordsman and Jeff's dwarf before we ganged up and killed him in close action on the rowboat.

Next week we will get the denouement and the loot, and then we'll see. We're all hoping for- dare I say it- Supers!