frp

Date: September 12, 2014
Characters in attendance: 99, Quantum, Shimmer, Lady Paladin, Hex, Daemon Roy
Experience awarded: 2

There is a letter hand-delivered to the Rose City Five HQ by Sister Marie Simone, asking them to come to Marylhurst to speak with the sisters of the Catholic order there, offering to explain some of the recent happenings. The team heads down there, and is ushered into an audience with the Mother Superior, an ancient woman still in charge of the order in Portland.

She explains to them that their order, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, has been active for over 150 years. It's public mission has been to be representatives of the Catholic church, and to run catholic schools around North America, but their hidden agenda has been to be the defenders of the various Nexus of Power that can be found around the world.

A Nexus of Power is one of several dozen locations throughout the world at which certain energies, often described as “supernatural” or “magical” are at their strongest. It is also the location where the walls between alternate worlds, different planes of existence, are the weakest. Throughout history, certain people have tried to use and exploit these Nexus, usually to disastrous results. The Catholic Church has a secretive arm that works to hide and defend many of these locations. Various orders within the church have been able to effectively defend these locations because their faith has helped them resist the unnatural power.

In Portland, a Nexus was discovered in 1859, and twelve sisters were sent from Montreal to Portland to secure and protect the Nexus, although the cover story was to open a school for frontier children. This school became St. Mary's Academy, and served its purpose as a Catholic school, even as the order protected the Nexus below.

This continued for many years, but the sisters' ability to protect the Nexus had waned over the last few years. That was mostly due to the weakening of the Mother Superior herself, and she reveals to the assembled heroes that she is one of the original twelve that traveled to Portland in 1859. Her time is coming to an end, and until a successor is in place, the Nexus is vulnerable. In addition, the recent opening of a portal in that location has revealed it to those with certain “sensitivities”. That's where the heroes come in.

The Mother Superior asks the team to be extra vigilant around St. Mary's, since this is the perfect time for somebody with power to come in and access the Nexus. She also asks them to work with one of their representatives, a powerful being brought in to help. In walks Daemon Roy.

Daemon Roy is a very charismatic man, but the heroes sense that he is more than just human. He is supremely overconfident, and has an entourage of several young, attractive women dressed in business attire. He treats them respectfully but casually, and calls every one of them “Betty”.

In their investigations, it is Daemon Roy who encounters construction going on at Keller Fountain Park. Surly workmen try to keep him out of the area, and there are mysterious goings on inside a canvas tent atop the fountains. He messes around with the workmen and the tent, and starts engaging unusual powered suits when the RC5 show up.

The villains reveal themselves. The powered suits are Steam Knights, apparently steam-driven bulky suits (although Hex realizes that they can't be truly be steam-powered; there is something else driving them). The seven Steam Knights are led by Baron Dansik, in his own impressive powered armor. During the fight, the Baron reveals that after he learned about the Nexus, he had to tunnel through to it from the fountain.

The fight goes well, especially with the addition of Daemon Roy to the group. The Steam Knights are defeated, but when the Baron is on the ground helpless, it turns out to only be an empty suit of armor. Shimmer surmised that the person in the suit phased through into the ground, and immediately goes to look for him; Hex meanwhile goes down into the newly-dug tunnels to find the Baron as well.

Shimmer locates the villain, but it isn't “Baron Dansik”, but instead, it is a woman they had encountered before, Dark Lilith (Game 10), and she reveals herself as Marta Dansik. Hex can barely see and hear Shimmer and Marta Dansik, and only gets an impression that they knew each other long ago. Marta says something to Shimmer and phases through the ground, and Shimmer appears to be in shock, not pursuing her. He does not reveal everything that she said to him to the group, and they don't press him on it.

Back at HQ, the team learns some other information. They learn that the beast that they subdued in the previous encounter (Game 12) was actually an older superhero named Keith Miller, but they encountered him during their tryouts (Game 1) as Neanderthroid. Now he is incarcerated, but in a mostly catatonic state.

Next, they get a visit from a member of the new Freedom Force. Erg is a young woman speedster, very pleasant, trying to get to know them. She reveals that the recent shakeup in Freedom Force was due to some well-connected government official, and nobody really knows why they chose Portland to do the announcement. She tells them that the new members are all good people, willing to work together, and that the past members are now officially auxiliary members. The RC5 members get the impression that she is sincere in her words.

A lot was going on in this game. I finally revealed the basis of the St. Mary's/magic portal connection, and it was good to have Kurt drop in with his character. I just wasn't expecting him to engage the villains without calling the rest of the team in; what was I thinking?