frp

Date: February 6, 2015
Characters in attendance: Lady Paladin, 99, Quantum, Shimmer
Experience awarded: 1

Hex heads back to his sponsor to get some upgrades to his suit, and the rest of the team spends some time investigating the landing craft and head up to the spaceship in orbit. They don't learn too much more about the ship, but it gives some indication (through a very slow progress bar) that its repairs should be complete in a couple of months. Quantum learns that the spaceship is from an ancient race called the Vilani, an advanced race that disappeared about 100,000 years ago. The only remnants of this race had been a few artifacts and books, but nothing as complete as a spaceship. Quantum learned this information through his nanites, and is pretty sure that they didn't get the info from the internet. The team heads back to Earth, with a stop at a Chinese restaurant for take-out.

Soon after, the group gets a report of a supervillain team in Mt. Tabor park, holding bystanders hostage and assembling some large, dangerous-looking device. At the caldera of the mountain, set up as an amphitheater, they find a group of partygoers held by four villains, the Mountain Men. These villains were setting up some device that would trigger Mt. Tabor to erupt, but it seemed that mostly they came to Portland to throw down with the world-famous Rose City Five. The villains were: * Crag, the leader of the group, who was a large, overconfident brick * Mesa, a stereotypical cowboy with a pair of six-shooters * Caldera, a young man who could open up sinkholes and fumaroles under people's feet * Sierra, a handsome latino with an evil spiked whip and armor

The fight begins, and the heroes have a hard time at first. Sierra has some really nasty spiked armor, and any punch that lands on him draws blood from the attacker. After a while, the heroes start winning. Lady Paladin keeps punching Sierra, even though she takes damage every time she does so. Crag tries to take out Shimmer, but Shimmer is just too quick for him, and Crag is too far away to switch opponents. Sierra gives up on Lady Paladin and grabs one of the civilians, an attractive young woman, with his whip and flings her in the air. Quantum makes an amazing catch and saves her, and she is SO GRATEFUL. So VERY GRATEFUL. Sierra grabs another bystander, an old man (the guest of honor at the party), and attempts to crush him, but strangely has no effect. Eventually all but Mesa are knocked out, and Mesa is convinced to surrender.

Talking with the bystanders, the heroes learn that the old man is Ralph Compton, who looks in his late 70's, but is a retired superhero from the east coast (his ID was Golden Eagle) who came out to Portland to relax. The grateful young woman was Cheryl, his granddaughter. Lady Paladin asked him to give a talk at one of her presentations, and although reluctant, finally relented.

The Rose City Five explore the space ship, making sure that it is secure and discovering that it is about three months away from completing its self-repairs. The Five then head out for Chinese take-out.

Back in Portland, the Mountain Men set up a boring contraption on Mount Tabor. With Hex away on private business, the other four take on: * Sierra. A spike-themed whipmaster. * Mesa. A cowboy gunslinger. * Crag. A brick. * Caldera. A volcanic villain.

99 and Shimmer gang up on Caldera with their ranged attacks. Crag demonstrates a lack of mobility and ends up outmatched trying to tag a dodging Shimmer. Sierra is faster, but he can't absorb Lady Paladin's blows - LP bloodies her fists and feet on his defensive spikes but Sierra is limited to making attacks on civilians. Quantum makes a flashy save on one of Sierra's victims - a woman he whips through the air - and with 99 and Shimmer takes down Crag and captures the fleeing Mesa. It's a tough fight, but the Rose City Five gets the better of the match-ups.

I had so much fun with this game. It was a straightforward fight, and I had some great concepts for the villains. I especially liked Sierra's penetrating killing attack damage shield, that guaranteed that every time somebody punched him, they would take body damage. Plus, they were all straight 400-point villains. I let the players investigate the spaceship, but I'm not ready to give it to them yet. Soon.

Crag

Mesa

Caldera

Characteristics Total: 186 |||||

Sierra

Characteristics Total: 222 |||||