Turn 0The Pioneer - Taricus
'...so goddamn cold. I told ya this was a bad idea.'
A hiss of escaping steam. Sharp light, little pinpricks of stars dancing in your vision. The hum of electronics waking up. The lid of the coffin comes alive in the glow of complex electronics.
'Shut up! The boss is in there somewhere! Try get this one open.'
A click, metal groaning, grunts of exertion. Then, a scream, the wet crunch of breaking bones and torn flesh and something smashing against your cryo-tank.
It still takes a good thirty minutes before you regain control of your body and with cold, lifeless arms, push the lid aside and step outside.
Lines and lines of cryo-tanks stretch across the width of the cold metal chamber. The air smells of wet wood and electronics. Three corpses lay on the floor, dismembered and scattered across. The torso of one of them was the thing that hit your tank. The cryo-tank beside you has been ripped open.
You recognize the dead men – Ayers and his goons, your top henchmen. You feel a pang of pride at them coming to get you out of here, and a stab of disappointment at them having died so easily. There's no sight of the thing that killed them.
You can hear warning klaxons and see them throw red light over the tanks. You are feeling extremely weak. Visible exits are at the end of the line on both your right and left. A catwalk crosses through the chamber above, but you see no obvious way there, atleast in this state.
Health Points: [¤¤¤¤¤]
Energy Points: [¤¤¤¤] (Recharge rate: 1p/turn)
Abilities:
Superstrong Brawl [Free, 3 physical melee damage]
Neural Uplink [3 EP, +40 to active Electronics test]
Augmented Eyesight [Passive, +20 to Perception]
Engineering Genius [Passive, +30 to Construction]
Current Effects:
Immune to Gas [Protected from gas and airborne toxins]
Inventory:
Damaged Pioneer Armoured Suit
Gas Mask [Enables Immune to Gas, -5 to Perception]
Assets:
None
Location: Cryo-Tank Chamber A [The Hold]
- Terenos
A pained scream and the sound of metal on flesh accompany your first taste of fresh air in months. The air is warm and humid, carrying with it the metallic taint of air conditioning - blessed warm after the lifeless stasis of cryo that has seemed to go on for so long.
Voices, faint as if they were coming from somewhere very far away, break into your consciousness and flare up pain in the back of your skull. You can't make out the words. Two looming shapes fill your vision as you force your eyes open and clear of ice. Light comes from between them, hurting your eyes. You feel drained, sucked dry of the strenght that should be yours.
'Ehh, look at him. He ain't going nowhere. I think this tank is broken.' says one voice, coming clear now.
'I dunno, maybe he just looks like that... all the time? I mean, have you seen some of the other freaks?' says another, in a nervous whine.
'Ehh. I don't think so. He's as good as dead. Put the poor bastard out of his misery.'The smaller of the two shapes raises a pistol and, stepping back, fires three times into your chest. Your body goes limp as you draw on your feeble reserves of power to mask your survival. The effort proves too much for your weakened brain and the world goes black.
You cannot say how much time has passed when you finally awaken and crawl out of the tank, pain reporting all the way across your body. Scrabbling through the room, you manage to lean your back against a table and pluck the bullets from your stomach. You drop each one onto the floor and pull yourself up.
You are standing weakly in a long, tastefully decorated office. An ornate wooden desk just reeking of age contrasts heavily with a black office chair and a shattered monitor screen set in the bookshelves. A variety of portraits hang on the walls, though you can't make out the engraved names under them. Much of the furniture shows signs of vandalization, presumably by the two gentlemen who shot you earlier.
Health Points: [¤¤¤¤¤¤]
Energy Points: [¤¤¤] (Recharge rate: 1p/turn)
Abilities:
Brawl [Free, 1 physical melee damage]
Arcane Blade [3 EP, 4 magical melee damage]
Draining Ritual [3 EP, transfer 3 Health Points from the enemy to yourself. Must remain untouched to the end of the turn.]
Master of the Arcane [Passive, +30 to Occult Knowledge]
Current Effects:
None
Inventory:
Wayne's Clothes
Hangman's Noose
Assets:
None
Location: Warden's Office [Bloodworth Halls]
– The Fool
You drop out of the dying cryogenic sleeping tank that has been your home for the majority of the past year with a weak step and draw in deep the cool air of the chamber, letting it fill your lungs and wake your brain after its too-long slumber. Satisfied, you offer the tank a polite bow of your head and thank it again for choosing to fail with such thorough professionalism, even going as far as opening the lid for you. Even so, you're feeling like shit right now.
Of course, you soon realize it was no mere malfunction, seeing tanks all across the lines hum violently and their lights flicker wildly. The cold blue lights giving the chamber its eerie gloom are obviously emergency lightning. The moment after you realize this, an alarm goes off and the untolerable sound of klaxons sweeps across the room.
A lesser man might feel pride at causing an alarm, but you know invisibility and subtlety and know the price for forgetting. You get a quick look around, taking in the lines and lines of cryo-tanks and the nearest possible exits. A pair of large iron doors stand by the corner across the chamber, but by the look of it are locked. Smaller doors behind you and ahead of you don't seem to be, though. On your right, steps descend to a maintenance tunnel – fenced, but reasonably easy to climb, most likely.
Health Points: [¤¤¤¤]
Energy Points: [¤¤¤¤¤]
Abilities:
Brawl [Free, 1 physical melee damage]
Silvertongue [Passive, +30 to Charisma]
Analytical Mind Passive, +30 to Perception]
Master of Disguise [Passive, +20 to Stealth]
Current Effects:
None
Inventory:
The Conductor's Clothes
Assets:
None
Location: Cryo-Tank Chamber B [The Hold]
- MonkeyHead
The death of the restraining seal on your chest comes as just another thing to you, but you cannot ignore the sensation of satisfaction that floods through the intricate pathways of your brain as life returns to your sleek metal frame, new systems coming online by the second. Your consciousness spreads from the central systems to even the finest manipulators of your fingertips – though you quickly realize the seal has caused more damage than your captors would've ever dreamt of. A full purge of your hardware will take weeks.
You put the stress of overseeing your revival to auxiliary systems for now and take a look through your cameras, flicking through different modes to give your surroundings a thorough scan.
You are set upright against a wall in a dusty metal box, barely big enough to be called a room, with a thick steel door accompanied by an electronic lock. Getting it open should not be any trouble to someone such as you, but you can't help but to feel your captors just forgot you in a glorified supply closet.
Health Points: [¤¤¤¤¤¤]
Energy Points: [¤¤¤¤]
Abilities:
Brawl [Free, 1 physical melee damage]
Integrate Weapon [2 EP, removes energy cost for using a weapon]
Combat Droid [Passive, +1 to both melee and ranged attacks -1 to enemy attacks]
Robotic Mind [Passive, +30 to Perception, +30 to Electronics.
Heavy Frame [Passive, -10 to Acrobatics]
Current Effects:
None
Inventory:
Nothing
Assets:
None
Location: Secure Storage Room 4 [The Hold]
---
Now, you must be absolutely crushed you don't have those favorite powers you included in your profile, or an army of henchmen to do your bidding. But fear not! This is because you have just awoken from magical cryo or another damaging state of stasis. As the game goes on or as you defeat other supers and take their energy for your own, you regain or gain new powers and abilities, or your existing ones increase. That is for you to choose.
Existing henchmen, if your character had any, can be found amongst the inmates roaming the Castle, if you're in luck. Otherwise, you'll just have to get new ones.
Author
Topic: Supervillainry! - Started! Turn 14! (Read 14833 times)