Iron Age: Bad Medicine (the story)

[Tinkerbell]

La Belle Dame sans Merci
HP: 1
Condition: Unharmed
Status: suspicious

"You know," she tsks and looks up to the roof, "I'm just going to make sure." She pops away to the top of the roof, putting herself in front of the green mutant. Her voice gets guttural, "You'd better have a damn good excuse to be on this roof. And that excuse better not be 'looking for a hit'."

[Hound]

Voth, King of the Lizards

A tingling in the back of Voth's head told him he had been seen, he cursed. "Those guys down below are more perceptive than I thought." He mused to himself. If they were enemies he had precious little time, to his luck there was no one guarding the roof, nor any traps. To his dismay, there was no entrances. He would have to move fast, maybe a window into any empty office or the washroom.

Voth leaned over the ledge and began his search when the super model in a gothic-Lolilta like outfit, appeared out of no where. Teleportation. Cool. Voth instantly thought, however before he could ask her how she did that, she opened with a foul demeanour, demanding his intentions. Obviously she was expecting the worst. You'd think two years of living on the streets would make Voth use to this treatment, but it never got easy.

The large lizard man sighed, "Judging by the 'hit' comment, I would hazard a guess you're not working for them." Voth bowed from the waist, he knew how this type of person acted. She wanted answers, and if Voth got into a preverbal pissing contest, this whole thing would end in failure. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, if it pleases you, you may call me Voth. To answer your question, I intend to burn this place to the ground. I will leave every drug peddler inside with at least one broken bone, yet all still very much alive with just enough evidence on them for when the police and fire response teams arrive."

He tried to smile in away that would not look like he was glaring his teeth at the woman, "Though they will probably make bail and be on the streets inside of a week, the broken bones will have them out of action for at least a month. Have I answered to your satisfaction? May I request the pleasure of your name?"

[Sakuro]

Inquisitor
HP: 1
Cnd Healthy


Milky white rose to the space where Mercy had been. Inquisitor stared, blinked, and then looked back to the fire as though nothing untoward had occurred. Badly scarred, half gloved fingers wiggled over the flames dancing in the confinement of the trash can.

"Apparently Mercy does not need to blast her way in. Convenient. I can follow Nightbird inside then. Lets see how her encounter fairs before proceeding. Perhaps she will come back with someone to enter with you Kodiak."

Inquisitor's mind voice followed Mercy. And his mental presence lingered with her like a patient eaves dropper waiting for an update.

[Tinkerbell]

La Belle Dame sans Merci
HP: 1
Condition: Unharmed
Status: not suspicious

Beast boy here is talky, she shoots her thoughts to Inquisitor, but it seems he's on our side.

She clears her throat and then curtsies. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Voth. I am La Belle Dame sans Merci." She looks down to the others to see what they are up to. They're still there. She looks back to Voth. "Won't you join us in your quest? Sure, you can try it alone, but I don't think you can handle it if they have an army of super-junkies in there." She smirks and crosses her arms under her chest, "Come! Join our army. Consider it a protection plan. If you don't like it, well, you can sit on the sidelines and watch?"

Made it clear that she was talking to Voth, not shouting off the roof

[Gilliam]

Nightbird
HP: 1
Condition: Eager

It must make life so much easier being able to teleport thought Nightbird as she watched La Belle disappear in front of her. Quickly removing her "great disguise" Nightbird kept an eye open for anything else out of the ordinary.

"Apparently Mercy does not need to blast her way in. Convenient. I can follow Nightbird inside then. Lets see how her encounter fairs before proceeding. Perhaps she will come back with someone to enter with you Kodiak."

"The window sounds like the best plan for me at least" Nightbird said with a smile turning to Kodiak "Have you stopped growing yet as I swear you are bigger than last time. Though 2 of you bashing down the main doors would be a great distraction".

[Hound]

Voth the Lizard King
HP: 1
Condition: So happy he could die.

She was talking to him. Not yelling at Voth, not screaming and running in terror, and she wasn't trying to shoot him. She was just talking normally back, like a real conversation. Voth almost shed a tear from happiness. "My first Super hero team up? Do we get to shout something cool as we attack?" Voth chuckled, "I admit taking on a whole building of super-junkies was not going to be easy, I was planning on the stealth approach. Though I am guessing you and your group would prefer something else?"

Voth nodded and looked around for a minute, he was trying his best not too seem to excited over some real human contact for the first time in two years. "What shall be my roll, Beautiful lady with out pity?"

[XLS]

KODIAK
HP: 1
Condition: normal

Kodiak watched as Nightbird got out of her homeless woman garb, to reveal the costume he was used to.

"The window sounds like the best plan for me at least," Nightbird said, reacting to the proposed plan. Then, she turned to him. "Have you stopped growing yet as I swear you are bigger than last time..."

He smirked. Yes, this might work out alright after all.

Returning to the matter at hand, she agreed that bashing down the doors would work as a good plan, as she tried to leap through one of the windows.

"Hey, Star Lass," he telepathically communicated, using Inquisitor's mental link. "Did you find the green guy? Bring him down so we can chat. And by the way, since when can you teleport?"

[Tinkerbell]

La Belle Dame sans Merci
HP: 1
Condition: Unharmed
Status: taxi

"We'll talk about that once we meet the others," he nods to Voth. "Alright, down we go," she says lightly reaching out for the top of his shoulders. Looking him in the eyes, "I suggest you focus here, these warps of reality don't have the most euclidean of geometry." She pauses and nods her head to see if he understands. Once he does, she begins a quiet countdown, "Three, two, one." Blink. They're gone. Voth gets an awkward feeling of not being in the right place for half a moment, but they both appear in front of Kodiak. "Are you OK," she asks with a smile as she takes her hands off of him.

Of course, she thinks back to Kodiak, Just had to give him the preflight instructions. She smiles and moves a few strands of hair out of her face before crossing her arms under her chest again. Merlin has taught me many things about my powers. He says I haven't learned the full brunt of it either.

[Hound]

Voth The Lizard King
HP: 1
Condition: Green.

Voth stood stiff and uncertain as the young woman placed her hand on his shoulder, he hardly wanted to look like a coward, but the through of him being ripped apart atom by atom and moved to another location only to be reformed atom by atom did not appeal to him. Voth's stomach twisted in a knot as she whisked him away by her powers. Had Voth eaten any time in the last 24 hours, he was certain he would have thrown up. As it were, he maintained his composure.

He smiled as she asked him how he was, "Tres bien, Mademoiselle." He lied, thankful his snake like hide was already green.

Voth looked around, he was not use to being on street level any more, it was weird... Like trying to walk on a water bed. His eyes fell upon the woman in a purple and black super hear costume. He took a sniff of the area and realised she had been the crazy looking woman from earlier. Finally he turned to the large bear like man, the first man Voth had met since his transformation to make him feel small.

Voth attempted to smile up at the big burly man, "I hear you're planning on crashing the party, silly me, I forgot to bring the ice and cola. Name's Voth by the way."

[Gilliam]

Nightbird
HP: 1
Condition: Normal

"I hear you're planning on crashing the party, silly me, I forgot to bring the ice and cola. Name's Voth by the way."

"Throw in a bottle of bourbon and its a date, I'm Nightbird" said Nightbird as she took stock of the "Lizardman" in front of her whom to be honest was far more eloquent than her last date.

As an aside to La Belle Dame sans Merci "We have some big boys here, I am glad that don't have to feed them though" and then to the group in a more serious tone "I guess we are all here to get rid of the META in the warehouse, so lets hit them hard and hit them fast."

[XLS]

KODIAK
HP: 1
Condition: Normal

La Dame teleported back with a strange-looking person-- green scales, big arms. Quite a sight, though, as he reminded himself, he didn't exactly look "normal" himself.

"I hear you're planning on crashing the party," the newcomer said. "Silly me, I forgot to bring the ice and cola," he quipped. "Name's Voth by the way."

"Cola"? Kodiak thought. I don't know what party starts with cola.

"Throw in a bottle of bourbon and its a date," his colleague chimed in.

That's more like it, Kodiak thought.

Nightbird introduced herself and shifted her tone. "I guess we are all here to get rid of the META in the warehouse, so lets hit them hard and hit them fast."

"Agreed," Kodiak nodded. "I think we should try the multiple-entrance approach. I'll take Voth and we'll go for the front door. You two--" he pointed at Inquisitor and La Dame. "You can blast through the loading dock, right? And Nightbird, you think you can clear that window on the far side and crash the party?"

Looking at the map on page one, we can designate squares by coordinates. If we start at the lower left, we can do numbers along the bottom and letters across the top. I count 20 bottom squares, and A-Z takes us up to the "Greenbank Warehouse" label at the top. In this system, the "SCM" designer initials are in A-19, and the word "catwalk" is in M-9 and 10.

Anyhow, I'm assuming we are north of the main loading dock door. I figure Voth and Kodiak can skip down to the other side, and at the designated time attack the door at B-8. I don't know if it's reinforced or what, but I figure a combined effort by the two of us will let us bust it open.

Nightbird can attack through any window she likes. There are issues it leaping and whatnot to consider, but I assume that it shouldn't be hard for her to have success.

Blasting the main loading dock door shouldn't be a problem for the other two.

If there are no objections, I'd say we should just get in position-- making any stealth or other checks as needed. Then, either by watch (?) or some other indicator, we all go at once...

[Sakuro]

Inquisitor
HP: 1
Cnd: Healthy


When Voth appeared he was initially ignored by the badly scarred, milky eyed bum. Outwardly he seemed more intent on the fire than the people talking around him. But after a moment a space opened up in Voth's mind and Inquisitor was there. He showed Voth images of the people around him and names came with them, one at a time. 'Threads' could be felt, linking that part of Voth's mind and for some reason he knew he could think at them and they would hear.

While Kodiak recapped his plan Inquisitor was still warming his hands. But he interjected when the big man talked about Mercy and himself taking out the loading bay doors. A feeling of wasted effort slipped into the minds of the others. it was clear that it wasn't their own feeling, but Inquisitor's.

"Mercy can enter under her own power. I will make Nightbird's entrance easier. Otherwise, I agree. Kodiak will give the signal to move when everyone is in position."

Sensing that Kodiak was debating on how to ascertain that everyone was in position a little mental nudge was given to him that reminded him that Inquisitor could act as a communication's center for the group. They need only check in, when in position, and the signal to move given. Afterwards the bum pulled his hands back from the fire and began to cross the street to get into position. There was no effort at concealment. No one was watching that he had detected, and the windows were boarded up.

Try the door handle before kicking the door in ... it might be possible for one to open and the other attack. That way either Voth or Kodia will get in on an initial (surprise?) strike with Mercy and Nightbird.

[Hound]

Voth, King of the Lizards
Condition: Itching to go.


Voth performed an exaggerated bow and smiled, "A pleasure Ms. Nightbird." He didn't bother to address her bourbon comment, avoiding the fact Voth was underage and had never drank before.

Voth's mind tingled and a chill ran down his spine as an unfamiliar feeling flooded his body. When it was done, he could some how sense the others. "Oh that's weird." He shook himself like a dog shaking water off after a swim.

"Test, test? I think this thing is working." Despite the weird feeling, Voth still thought this was pretty cool. Teleportation, Psychics, a woman dressed up like something straight from the comics, and a super hero team up? Voth was geeking out hard. It was all he could do not to giggle like a child on Christmas. "Ladies, I apologise ahead of time for anything I think. Now, I am going to get into position and think about baseball until we're ready."

Voth walked over to the door the bear man had described and readied himself for the command, his claws ready to rip the door apart.

[Gilliam]

Nightbird
HP: 1
Condition: Focused

Liking the plan that Kodiak and Inquisitor nutted out, Nightbird couldn't believe it when both Inquisitor and Voth started walking towards the warehouse making no attempt to hide or sneak. The last time she had tried something so public some thug wearing a cops uniform had taken potshots at her.

"Okay in for a penny in for a pound" Nightbird remarked to no one in particular and made her way to the window on the west side of the warehouse also making no effort at hiding in the shadows. Feeling exposed she started humming the chorus to one of the current hits on the radio

Wake me up before you go go,
Don’t leave me hanging on like a yo-yo.
Wake me up before you ...

Reaching the window Nightbird waited for the signal to enter

Nightbird is at the window at Q13 on the map

[XLS]

KODIAK
HP: 1
Condition: Normal

Kodiak nods at Inquisitor's suggestions.

"Well, kid, let's head out," he says to Voth. "But let's do it real quiet-like," he adds. "Meet at the front in 10 minutes, Voth. We'll all go in 15. Inquisitor will give a mental heads-up in 14 and then count down with 10 seconds to go. Got it?" He mentally projects.

Assuming everyone is on board, Kodiak leave-- going north, away from the warehouse. He then cuts through an alley and works his way south. After a few blocks, he cuts back and over so that in about 10 minutes' time he's across the street from the front of the warehouse. All the while, he checks to see if he's been followed. Then, he waits for Voth-- or, to catch Voth's scent, at least.

It's hard for a 7' tall guy to be stealthy, but he'll try-- 1d20+8=17. That's for getting to the front of the warehouse (or, across the street from it) and hiding in the shadows, etc.

I'll also look for people around me as I walk, and then again to check for people who might be on watch in the building.

1d20+7=22, 1d20+7=26

Both of those are not bad.

I'll wait for Voth. Then, following Inquisitor's nice idea, one of us should sneak to the door and check it to see if it's unlocked (makes life easier). If so, one will open it while the other attacks. If not, well, one will have to try to break it open. But I'll wait for Voth...