A Hot Dead World

In this session of Mutants and Masterminds, we're still working on getting that shipment for Lux.

We're preparing for retrieving Lux's shipment. We'll be going with Pierre and Oscar.

Oscar tells us that a lot of things don't work well on the planet, including comms and mind links. Captain X really hates the place, and won't be coming along. I think I might hate it too. There are convicts on the planet, as it is a sort of prison colony. Roger is Oscar's contact, and he has a collection of medical supplies, and that's what Lux is after.

After an hour, we set down at the spaceport using the dropship. This planet is a hot desert planet, and the smell of rotting decay is present. Oscar tells us this isn't normal, and I can detect no minds other than our own. A thin layer of dust envelopes everything.

Oscar suggests that we check the central room of the spaceport, as we might find someone there. The entire space port is set up like a gear, with the spokes usually being ports.

In the central room, the smell is worse. It appears the central room was once a cafeteria, but now it's just a rotted room. At the center, there are three bodies sitting around a temple. They're sitting almost as if posed, one is holding a fancy wine glass with some liquid in it, another with its eyes covered by its desiccated hands, and the last was writing something.

Pierre pokes one of them.

Shroud examines the writing, and it says "Coming".

The lights flicker, and Harry Gruerkoven tells us that he hears some metal clanking, like pots or pans.

We check out the garage. All the ATVs except for one have been destroyed, and the one remaining needs repairs. The far wall where the garage door should be is mostly missing, and there are some booted foot prints leading out.

A few of us, including Oscar return to the ship. It's secure, but with the situation so dire here, it'd be best to put the ship into stealth mode. We check out some of the rooms on our way. Jack McCoy finds a strange toy in one supply room (and I stop detecting the minds of those still in the garage), and some notes in the infirmary, that in the last entry mentions some travelers.

Harry hears more strange noises, but none of us hear anything. I do, for a brief instance, slip into some shadowy realm, and the others notice me flicker out of existence.

We turn the ship stealth on, and go back to the supply room to pick up supplies needed to repair the ship.

Meanwhile, Michael Schroeder, Shroud and Pierre are attacked in the garage. Something large slams Michael across the room into some debris. Shroud is able to feel the attacker, and telekinetically punches it. He sees briefly, it has black charcoal like rings, with dripping barbed claws.

I briefly sense their attacker's mind. Michael Schroeder's drone, which has been following us, starts freaking out.

The creature charges Shroud, knocking him over and stunning him. It stabs him with its fingers, sucking his essence out through them.

Michael Schroeder blasts out of the rubble and tackles the creature knocking it off Shroud, and pinning it.

Jack McCoy and I arrive, in time to see it vanish.

After a few minutes, I return to the storage room, and Harry Gruerkoven tells me Oscar has disappeared somewhere. We return to the garage, and Pierre suggests we search where Oscar disappeared, so Jack McCoy and I return to the storage room.

Jack gets there first, and electrifies the room, turning it to slag. I investigate the room, and Jack says he was attacked and retaliated. I look around the room, and don't find much that hasn't been damage. Jack leaves.

I feel a mind appear next to me, the world turns gray, and I am impaled by claws. It leans in and screams at me, and vanishes. Horribly wounded and unable to take any actions, I retreat into a wall, and wait forever.

Harry hears dripping outside of the garage, and he follows the tracks.

Michael repairs the vehicle, and Jack returns.

Jack returns to the garage, but he can't see me, so he electrifies the room. Harry comes back to the storage room too, and he suddenly disappears from Jack's sight.

Jack blasts the room, and then investigates the medic's journal some more, confusing Pierre. The journal talks about a starbound plague that gives hallucinations and imsomnia and slowly turns the infected insane.

I can feel the wall pulsing with electricity, and I can feel Jack's presence too. I tell him I'm in real trouble, but I'm not able to read his thoughts.

Michael Schroeder finishes repairing the vehicle. Michael, Shroud, Jack and Pierre follow the tracks. At first Michael is carrying the vehicle using his suit, but he is attacked by a tentacled creature hiding in the sand, so he drops it.

Michael's suit is damaged by the creature, so he flies up. Jack electrifies it, and thenShroud telekinetically punches it into the air at Michael, causing sand to go everywhere and knocking the vehicle on its side.

The creature lands on the ground, and Michael seems to think Shroud is glowing with red fire, but Jack doesn't notice anything. Jack finishes killing the creature.

Shroud pulls the barbs out of Michael's legs, and Jack laughs maniacally.

I can feel a voice vibrating through the walls.

They continue on, this time driving the buggy, with Michael flying above. Jack sees some flying creatures behind them around where the tentacle creature was killed. Eventually they leave and fly off.

They reach a cliff, where it looks like something with big nasty feet launched off of it.

I hear a beeping alarm, but it stops after a minute.

Michael Schroeder flies the vehicle off the cliff.

His drone has flown ahead, and it found a small squat building. The drone is knocked down, and he gets three images from it, something big and clawed carrying Harry Gruerkoven and Oscar, before it rolls around showing the building electrified and then small crystalline flying creatures as before flying at the bunker.

They arrive a few hundred feet away. The crystalline flying creatures are swarming around the building and there are thousands of them, but they are unaffected by the electricity. Shroud thinks the electricity is specifically what attracts the creatures. Michael thinks he can see where is drone is hidden in the sand, and he tries pinging it, but it barely responds.

Harry mystically appears next to crystalline creatures, and Jack creates an electrical storm above, in an attempt to draw them away. It succeeds long enough for Shroud to destroy most of them.

As they destroy the rest of the creatures, there is a loud rending noise as the electricity turns off. Michael regains control of his drone.

There's a large whole in the bunker, similar to the hole in the garage. The large charcoal monster is attacking a spindly creature. It looks like it's Oscar's contact, Roger. He has four arms, semitransparent skin, and small spectacles.

Shroud creates a portal that rogers falls through. Shroud catches him, and sets him down gently. Jack teleports to the creature and electrifies it. It tries to impale Jack with its claws, but fails to get a grip.

Rogers says that the monster needs to be stabbed in its neck with a syringe that he has in his bunker. Jack finds it, teleports up to its neck (it's tall) and manages to get it in its shoulder. The creature doesn't seem to notice immediately, but Michael and Jack are now able to take it down, with Michael's drone getting the final blow.

Harry Gruerkoven is still unconscious, but Oscar has woken up. He talks to Roger. Roger opens a lock, and he mentions that he gave something to the monsters and thought it might be back.

They return, collect me and we're off.

And that's that.