It was just a little too much to hope for that Cosmic Girl's wide-angle blast would take them all out, Goodwill supposed. But at least she actually hit them all (for a change). It wasn't the most charitable thought, but he was feeling strangely angry. Best to put that anger to good use, he supposed, as he turned and attacked the nearer of the two remaining critters.

Goodwill rolled 7 using 2d6+3 ((1,3)).
--Hit hard

Goodwill puts down the second of the remaining Bad Things, turning it, like the other defeated one, into a Bad Inert Blob.

The remaining one leaps at him, though...

(GM rolls dice)

Ow. (Goodwill takes 1 new stress.)

In addition to the odd sensations he was already having, Goodwill feels a sort of itchy feeling all over-- including in his mouth and throat. This probably isn't good...

Cosmic Girl got REALLY upset, and raged against... well, everything generally, but the remaining monster in particular. So she shot out an especially searing bolt of cosmic fire from her eyes!

OOC:

18:11, Today: Cosmic Girl rolled 14 using 2d6+3 ((5,6)).

WOW!!!

Clobberin' Time:

Hits hard for +1 stun

Avoids collateral damage. For a change.

The final Bad Thing is destroyed. It feels good to be so destructive... very good...

...But, for now, Cosmic Girl is able to calm herself down, since the immediate threat of the Bad Things has ended.

Well, she's mostly able to calm herself down. Her heart's still racing fast. But that's just to be expected, after such a scary battle, right?

...Right...?

The alarm bells are still going off... overhead, and in the room the heroes are in... and one can also be heard in the area beyond, through the hole in the wall that the Bad Things emerged from...
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:20, Sat 05 Sept 2020.

It was dark behind the hole in the wall, but Goodwill glowed when he used his powers. Instead of walking through the opening, he lifted off the ground and flew through, carefully.

It was taking all his strength not to scratch at his skin, his throat, his eyes. Something was happening to him. He felt like he was having a Lon Chaney Jr. moment. Those creatures had poisoned him with something, and it was getting worse. He felt angry, so angry.

So very, very angry.

The last room had looked like a chemistry lab that someone had mostly moved out of, but not finished.

This new area is much larger-- it's about 100 feet square-- and the ceilings are high, too, a good 15 feet high, because there's a ramp that leads down to the floor from the hole Goodwill enters. (There's also one light switch, by the hole at the top of the ramp.)

This new area looks like a mad science lab that someone has only halfway moved out of. Various equipment is still around, and there are many books and papers lying around on counters, shelves, and desks, too.

Cosmic Girl followed Goodwill immediately, and once in the room that resembled a lab, she whirled around rapidly, wired on adrenaline - and maybe more. When she saw the alarm box, still making that incessant and highly intrusive noise, she shot another blast out of her eyes, doing her level best to melt the darned thing to make it shut the hell up!

And why weren't there more monsters? She was just in the mood to burn some more things to the ground!

The bell stops ringing.

Forever.

In fact, the other bells stop ringing, too-- she must have overloaded the alarm system.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:47, Sat 05 Sept 2020.

Following along behind the two fliers, Lynx looked around cautiously, waiting for something to jump them. It had been misfortune after misfortune up ‘till now, but maybe things were looking up. If three weird guard dogs were all Dr. Norwood had protecting his base, then they would have an easy time looking around the place.

Yeah, there had to be something more. That man brought at least four just-add-water soldiers that could absorb superpowers. There was something else to this whole deal, she just had to puzzle it out. But either it wasn’t plainly visible or the pain in her arm was distracting her more than she thought. Briefly, she switched gears and focused on the arm a little bit more. She’d almost used it in that last battle and that gave the weird thing a chance to bite her. Should she tie it behind her back? But while it wouldn’t get in the way anymore, it would probably wreck her balance or up the pain she was already feeling. Maybe she co-

“Yah!”

Startled by Cosmic Girl’s eye blast, Lynx ducked over to the left, losing her balance and landing on her side. Clutching the stinging appendage, Lynx muttered various obscenities as she picked herself up.

“Sorry about that, Cosmos. You just kind of surprised me there with that. Uh, thanks for getting rid of the alarm though. Those make me rather paranoid.”

Ch’rava wasn’t really a fan of alarms, especially when there wasn’t an obvious danger. Sure, in a building, it could mean someone was trying to steal something or that you were in grave danger, but you could still leave. In a ship though, your fate was at the mercy of that danger. If there were a fire or an overload or there was someone attacking the ship, it might just go down. And in space, abandoning ship was never a good option. Up there, an alarm meant you would be lucky if someone found your body. She still remembered the deafening ring as she plummeted toward this little blue planet.

Shivering, she decided to try and put that behind her and actually take a look around the lab, catching a look at her fellow heroes. They seemed...off...

“Hey, are you two feeling alright? You look very...upset.”

"It's the bites," Goodwill replied, speaking both of himself and Cosmic Girl. His own was burning, and he was invulnerable. He couldn't imagine what it was like for Cosmic Girl, but he supposed it was much worse. He was itching and trying very hard not to peel his own skin off in large strips. "Those things did something."

And yeah, he was seething with a barely suppressed rage. He was angry at himself for screwing up a fancy maneuver when a simple one would have sufficed. He was angry at Cosmic Girl for having lousy aim. He was angry at White Lynx for not being bitten.

And he was so angry at Doctor Norwood, it was a good thing the man wasn't actually there. Because Goodwill might not be able to restrain himself from murder right about now.

"Look around for something that might be an antidote," he said, feeling stupid at even suggesting such a thing. "I don't know. Look for anything useful."

“Ah,” Lynx spoke flatly, “The...bites.” Suddenly very aware of the bite mark on her leg, Lynx began walking over to the more sciencey-looking tables, careful to hide the mark from view. “Don’t worry, friends. I’ll take a look. There’s...gotta be something around here. I’m not going to let this get worse.”

Carefully, Lynx began to scan the tables and shelves, searching for something, anything that might help. She wasn’t entirely sure what was happening to the two of them, but maybe she could figure something out. She felt rather scared about how long they had left before her comrades got...worse. But if she didn’t look carefully, she’d have wasted time. Besides, if anything jumped them beforehand, the aggressive people would take care of it. Probably.

White Lynx rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,5.  Figure Things* Out. * A cure. Insightful.
--How can I protect other people? (I think this one works best for what I want to look for? Looking for something to help friends.)

"I hate those things!" Cosmos replied, and then took several deep breaths, trying to keep her cool. The bites had infected them? Well, that was inconvenient! Technically, her energy was a form of cosmic radiation, which could probably zap away germs and the like, but it might also kill everyone in the room if she tried it. So that plan was a non-starter.

SO, there she was, hunting in cupboards and the like, looking for a nice big bottle marked "Mutant Dog Monster Drool Antidote."

This was not her forté.

OOC:

Figure things out: 12:13, Today: Cosmic Girl rolled 6 using 2d6-1 ((2,5)).

This is not a surprise. Cosmos is powerful. But not especially bright!

White Lynx finds a large journal that's filled with scientific notes of experiments that seems promising... One page reads IF BITTEN, DO THIS.

If bitten, it will get hard to think, says the handwritten notes. So these instructions are simple.

It says to mix certain liquids with one another in a certain order, and then drink (and that three tablespoons' worth should be enough) right away (the antidote apparently loses its efficacy fast, which is why there's not a bottle of it already made up just sitting around in case of emergency).

White Lynx finds the bottle of red stuff right where the instructions say it's supposed to be (and it's been very helpfully labeled THE RED STUFF), and the bottle of yellow stuff, and the jar of green stuff (each appropriately labeled)...

But...

The bottle of blue stuff doesn't seem to be where it's supposed to be.

Could Norwood have taken it with him when he abandoned this place?

Or did it just get misplaced when he took some of his stuff with him...?

White Lynx feels her heart starting to race... she feels just a little panicky... Are the bites starting to affect her, too, or is this normal panic?



Meanwhile, Cosmic Girl is getting even more frustrated. She and her friends need that missing ingredient! Where is it?

The others notice that Cosmic Girl's eyes are starting to glow red...

Is she on the verge of losing her powers?

Or are her eyes just going to glow like this all the time now...? (Are ALL their eyes going to start glowing...?)

(Cosmic Girl gets 1 new xp, but her eyes are glowing red and she can't make them stop.)

“Okay, alright, okay, alright, okay, alright, blue stuff, blue stuff. It’s either here, somewhere upstairs, or with Dr. Norwood. If you three think you’re alright enough to look around in here, I’m going to see if there’s any indication as to where our good doctor friend went. Look around a little bit more in here, but if it’s just not here, take a look upstairs. And stay together. None of you should be alone with your thoughts right now. This is all going to turn out alright and things aren’t going to go bad or worse or whatever.” Of course, she was planning on going it alone, but she had to. No one else had super speed. She could look around faster and then get to Dr. Norwood as soon as possible.

White Lynx rolled 13 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,6.  Inspire the Team to cool off and chill and stop panicking I’m not panicking you are. Confident.
--No one got distracted and missed something important
--Everyone else on your team takes +1 Forward

Then she got to work. Maybe there was some other note around here or upstairs or something. A horrifying thought occurred to her that maybe he had actually lost it in here, maybe even dropped and broke it. Perhaps the note was easy to find because he had already gotten it out. Maybe it would turn her friends and maybe her into those things and maybe one of the ones they fought was Norwood and maybe it was too late and they should be looking into how to recreate the blue stuff, whatever it was. Whatever. She needed to look.

White Lynx rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,1.  Figure Things Out, again, but this time to look for Norwood. Insightful.
--What haven’t they taken account of? (This seems like clues to someone’s whereabouts would fall under it? I dunno.)

Scraps had, of course, followed the team into this second underground room.

And as he always did, he immediately began sniffing around with his Enhanced Senses to find anything of interest ...
- rolled 11 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 3,5.  Figure things out
Which includes the 2x +1 forwards from Lynx in msg218 and 233.
--What pieces of the plan am I missing?
--How can I protect other people?
--What haven’t they taken account of?  (If the GM/Editor can’t answer this you are allowed to make anything up you like)

He could smell that something bad was going on with them ... even without getting close enough to smell their bottoms.  They were all suddenly becoming very sick, and that bothered the pup immensely.
And so he was determined to find something to help them out.

As super-speedy woman seemed most distressed about something (a vial) NOT being on a shelf next to some other ones, he immediately focused on trying to follow any scent trail from that location ... to wherever the 'missing thing' had gone.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:24, Mon 07 Sept 2020.

Looking around furiously, Goodwill begins rifling through all remaining notes, vials, and what-have-you's, looking for some clue to the missing ingredient. His ability to restrain his anger was wearing thin, but he was keeping enough of a leash on it so that he wasn't breaking and throwing things... yes.

Insightful, +1 bonus
Goodwill rolled 7 using 2d6 ((3,4)).

Goodwill and White Lynx each independently came up with a good idea-- the same idea: watch to see whatever Scraps did next.

Scraps understood that the situation was still tense-- even though the Bad Things were all destroyed, he still really wanted to bite something... or claw at something...

But he followed his nose. His human friends were very upset about something in one spot. They stood near the spot, pointed to the spot, but there was nothing there. They looked elsewhere, read from a book, but kept looking at that same spot, more than once.

Scraps understood: they got colored liquids and put them by the book, but the last one they wanted was missing.

Scraps sniffed around the lab... No... no... y... ye... yes... Up the ramp. Back to the smaller room where the Bad Things got destroyed.

He followed his nose to a cabinet near the ground... In there! He barked and whined to show his friends where to find what they wanted.


(When the cabinet is opened, there will be a corked beaker labeled THE BLUE STUFF. It must have gotten moved at some point...)


(It's getting harder to think. Whoever attempts to mix the formula will have to roll an Insightful roll. (No extra penalty... having to roll for it is enough.))

Goodwill ripped the door off the cabinet, as much by accident as intent. He was starting to lose it. When he saw THE BLUE STUFF, he nearly jumped for joy.

"You'd better do the mixing," he said, handing it to White Lynx. "You're the only one here not losing her mind.

"I have total faith in you. You can do this." At the moment he didn't really have faith in anyone or anything, but the lie was an important one to tell.

Inspire the Team
Goodwill rolled 6 using 2d6+1 ((2,3)).

Unfortunately, he didn't tell it very well.

“Thanks Goodwill. Don’t worry. I got this.” She didn’t, but much like his faith in her, there was no harm in the lie. She couldn’t really say she trusted them either. If they found out who she was, she assumed they would consider her an enemy as well.

With a gulp, she accepted the blue stuff and brought it back to the table. She hadn’t been great at chemistry back in the placement assessments, but this had to be simple enough if angry-fied people were supposed to be able to mix it, right?

White Lynx rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,5.  Mixing the stuff. Insightful.

So, she just had to mix this with this? Then mix them together for this long before slowly mixing in that stuff? Okay, steady, steady...

Cosmic Girl was more or less useless when it came to hunting the bottles. Besides, she had other problems to deal with. She rubbed her eyes and ground her teeth. Something did not really feel great. Why was everything going a funny colour?

Even as Goodwill speaks, his body starts to change, and a reddish haze comes over his mind...

(Goodwill gets 1 new xp... But also, his teeth and nails grow longer and sharper, and it's hard to think... he gets -1 ongoing to all Insightful or Charming rolls...)


White Lynx does her best to follow the instructions, which seem much more complicated than they did just five minutes ago... Still, she does her best...

The different chemicals, added in, as far as she can tell, just the right amounts and just the right order, fizz and hiss and bubble... and when she's done, the resulting liquid is a sort of amethyst purple, just like the instructions said it would be...

...But there's not MUCH of the resulting purple liquid. A lot of it seems to have vaporized in the process...

According to the notes, there's only enough to dose two people (or one person and a dog)!

There IS enough of the four colored liquids to try one more time... But maybe two people (or one person and a dog?) should take the antidote first...? But whom...?

Taking a quick look around, Ch’rava knew someone had to take the concoction. They would need someone with a clear head to make the other batch, but there was the question of who. Goodwill and Cosmic Girl seemed the furthest along, with Scraps and herself only starting to show early symptoms recently. So maybe those two should take their new medicine. But, on the other hand, she had been essentially hiding her own injury and so what if they didn’t make enough for her? She couldn’t really hide how much she was panicking anymore, but, especially in their more addled state, if she took one of the potions now, she could just keep pretending that nothing happened to her. Besides, why would they want anyone else to make the stuff? She’d already succeeded once. It would simply be best if she took one of them. But what if they caught her? Why would someone that wasn’t bitten have to take it? Maybe she could just come clean, make up some nonsense about how the excess electricity that wore her out so completely had also slowed down the process of whatever poison was coursing through their veins.

No. No. Goodwill and Cosmic Girl needed it most. Taking it for herself would be too selfish and noticeable. She could handle herself a little longer.

“Hhhere. I’ve managed to make two. There should be enough left to make some more. It looks like Scraps is feeling something too and maybe we should make some more. Just so we don’t screw up the recipe or anything! In any case, in any case, here you are, Goodwill, drink up. And here’s yours, Cosmos. Just drink. Yes, now. Quickly.”

Yup, things were going great.

Goodwill took one of the two test tubes that Lynx was holding out. The liquid inside seemed to be fizzing slightly, and it smelled foul. Of course it did. Nothing that Norwood did was pleasant. The man needed to be caught and killed.

Wait. Killed?

That wasn't right. Since when did he think about killing people? He was in bad shape if he was thinking about murder. There was no time to play the chivalry card and let Lynx go first. He needed this stuff now.

Ignoring the stench coming out of the test tube, Goodwill slammed the liquid back and swallowed hard.

It tasted about as bad as it smelled.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:15, Mon 07 Sept 2020.

Cosmic Girl did not waste time. She was not really firing on a logical cylinder at the moment, she was increasingly losing her grip, and sooner or later, instinct would take over. No a good thing. Not for her, and probably not for any nearby occupied buildings, either. She was destructive enough as it was. Without her rationaliy to keep ehr in check, the end result might be distinctly expensive.

And so, as instructed, she drank. Quickly. It was not what one might call appetising fare, but medicine was never meant to taste nice, was it?

Still whining and scratching at the ground, Scraps had never felt like this.
He wanted to go crazy, and he was wanting to do things to the world around him that made him both sad, and even more agitated.

He even thought of biting Goodwill for one moment.
But he knew, deep in his pup-heart, who he really wanted to bite, and so he went about trying to find Norwood's scent ... that he could follow it to where the horrid man had gone.  Then, then he could bite the blighter.
- rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,1.  Insight, with Enhanced Senses.