X-Champions Issues
Issue #17 - The Big Hotel
Laughton is the first to arrive in New York, fresh on the trail of the Rosicrucians, who prove to be a puzzling distraction. He morphs into his strange "monopole" form, a loose collection of tiny electromagnetically propelled particles, and enters the conference room they're using. The detective thinks it's no coincidence the Rosicrucians are using the same hotel that Kingpin owns. He seems to be undetected as he observes while recording the session. The Rosicrucians speak a strange, ancient-sounding tongue and wear masks during the meeting. The masks are similar to Egyptian mythological visages but more angular, smoother, and slender. Laughton immediately suspects alien involvement. The room is adorned with fixtures bearing what appear to be a sort of proto-Egyptian (pre-hieroglyphic) lettering.
Meanwhile Palmer, Sammy, and Sihn stay overnight at the New School near Boston for more study on Sammy's strange Elvis-prone appearance. It seems unless he concentrates Sammy cannot help but have some part of his body, regardless of its shape, move into an Elvis form. Even at rest his jelly-like body moves into an Elvis bust! Sihn, finding no physical changes, is convinced the problem is psychosomatic. However, given the variety of mental illnesses in the Justice Squad (Sihn's maternal issues/emotional lapses, Laughton's paranoia, and Palmer's "other self"), there's little concern for Sammy's "idiosyncrasy" in the group.
The next morning the rest of the Justice Squad arrives in New York. No one has heard from or can reach the diminutive Sprite, who presumably is laying low in Detroit. Laughton has arranged a couple rooms for the group to share the first night as the hotel is fully booked for the next couple evenings. After that Laughton has several more rooms reserved. In the meantime he also has a few rooms kept secret from everyone else booked under various aliases and he moves about the hotel in a variety of disguises, inhabiting the rooms at intervals intended to throw any casual observations off. As luck would have it, they discover, as Laughton escorts each hero in one at a time to their rooms, that Fisk is also arriving and staying at the hotel during the same time. The group quickly obsesses on ways to get Fisk directly, setting aside their original goal of disrupting his criminal empire in NY.
As Laughton examines the hotel's security systems, the group attempts to blend in and monitor the "charity' gambling ballroom. Sammy, given his Elvis-prone condition, is disguised as a 270 pound woman in a mumu with bright orange hair, with a great big carpet bag for all her slot machine nickels. Suzanne and Eliot are more discreet as casual gamblers. Lefty briefly sneaks an appearance in to volunteer to do some trickery at the gambling tables but they settle on Suzanne/Spectrum telekinetically playing with the wheel of fortune. This gives Laughton, as he taps into the hotel security system while noticing a deeper hidden security later, an opportunity to monitor what happens. As they beat the odds to the point of stretching credibility (as the mighty brains of Laughton and Sihn calculate anything beyond a standard deviation), the house security system scans the gamblers invisibly. When they do so to excess, a scan of the entire room is generated - and Laughton notes a message is sent straight to the mayor's office! The group scampers out of the room just ahead of the scan on Laughton's mental advice as Spectrum provides telepathic communication for all. The scan targets several individuals, apparently mutants as confirmed by Sihn's mutant detector, and shades them as green, yellow, or red. Highly (illegally) armed security agents move into the room, obviously moving towards the "red" target, who at first glance is an older non-descript gentleman but upon shedding some outerwear reveals he is the mutant with the strange energy-discharging arm, Armitron. Sihn recognizes him and the Justice Squad observes as Armitron, a wanted non-registrant, escapes the Kingpin's security.
In further investigation, Suzanne and Laughton in disguise as blonde bimbos work on the inside to infiltrate the top floor. Laughton changes into his Rodin guise, again as the monopole form, and slips into an elevator which Spectrum has sent to every floor by mind-controlling a so-inclined-anyway child. Rodin moves effortlessly through the penthouse suites on the top floor, seeing the apparent Rosicrucian leader in one of the rooms. The architecture and energy systems, as observed by Sihn in particular with his background in architect sciences, points towards the elevator as something more than it seems. But nothing concrete is found. In particular they are interested to find that Kingpin does not appear to be staying in any of the rooms on the top floor, despite the appearance on house videotape that he went to the top floor to go to his room.
The Justice Squad decides to have dinner in the hotel. Laughton flips through the hotel files that are accessible, ignoring for the time the strange but tempting shadow security system, and grabs information on some security staffs' home addresses. As he does so, Laughton finds that another scan is initiating as earlier in the casino, but this one is hotel-wide. The group almost breaks into a run to avoid it as Laughton triggers his electronics-disruption device at the continuously scanned main doors.
The team goes on to security agent Melvin Snodgrass' home, a condo on the east side in a deluxe apartment in the sky, resolving to stay out of the hotel as much as possible. They catch Snodgrass in the shower, terrorizing him. Melvin immediately thinks it's "about the money" and promises to pay up. They play along for a brief time. Sammy plays good cop ("I believe you, we can work this out.") to Laughton's and Sihn's bad cop ("Let's just whack 'im!"). Spectrum intervenes, imploring, "Can we just get down to business?" Melvin is finally mercifully given some skivvies and a robe; he offers to "whack" someone for the team. They ask for information - Sammy adding in, "Like where the good restaurants are!", having just missed a meal at the hotel. Melvin is puzzled. The Troll responds, "We have to do business first - you have to understand, this is very serious to this man," and turns to Melvin and asks, "Would you rather be murdered or mutilated?" Spectrum mentally speaks to the group, attempting to get things back on track.
As it turns out, Melvin doesn't know much. He does mention that his boss is Dean Richards who heads up hotel security, and that, for what it's worth, Dean is involved with a cocktail waitress there, something frowned upon by management. Spectrum looks into Melvin's mind and finds he's not lying, that he's only heard vague rumors about Kingpin and the establishment, nothing useful or credible. It also comes out that Snodgrass owes a bookie (someone operating outside Kingpin's organization) $12,165.
As continued discussion of killing and eating Snodgrass occurs, Melvin finally realizes that this is the Justice Squad. As the Troll indicates he wants Melvin's brain, the poor agent faints. He's then sedated and duct-taped in the bathtub with his feet stuck in cement.
Sammy, having learnt Melvin's voice, calls in sick. Vomiting is simulated as Dean chews out "Melvin", warning him about his job and how he's lost too much time already. The ploy works and Dean seems hesitant and wishes him a quick recovery.
The group decides to temporarily get Melvin out of the way as Sihn concocts a drug that makes him appear insane and they drop Melvin off at a clinic. A quick look into the gambling issue by Laughton yields that Phil Cabot, one of Kingpin's mob leaders in NYC, is apparently running his own side operation. It's unclear if Kingpin knows or cares, but those who do know seem very hush-hush about it. A quick trip near the hotel indicates that the scan is still being conducted.
The group goes to Dean's girlfriend's place - and just in time. She apparently accidentally overdosed on some combination of drugs. They rush her to an emergency room and call Dean, grabbing him as he rushes to the hospital to look in on her. He's taken to a motel for interrogation.
All the while the Justice Squad maintains they're doctors, indicating that Dean has filled out an organ card and it's time to collect. Spectrum attempts to read his mind, only to collect an odd stray bit about the man having been a Green Beret as she otherwise finds out that his brain has been altered in a fashion similar to Volcano's and Dexter's (issue 16). Laughton thinks they should take Dean's head off. Investigation by Sihn reveals that even tampering with the brain to disengage the strange device could easily be fatal. For effect he pulls out a pocket knife and begins drawing on Dean's head. The scared security chief begins dictating a goodbye to the world, including heartfelt messages to his girlfriend and parents, but otherwise reveals nothing. But the uncanny Laughton can read the man's body language and tell he's lying; he's certain a long period of torture will reveal the truth, but he doesn't want to spend the day of trying. Sihn works out a formula to boost the electrochemical signals in Spectrum's brain that fuel her power. While this has the desired effect and Spectrum begins to peel through the unusual mental defenses and reads the man's mind, it has the unintended side effect of liberating Spectrum's dark alter ego. The "other Suzanne" warns the others to stop getting Spectrum in trouble and suddenly reaches out and begins attacking the Troll, inflicting great pain on him - even inflicting physical damage on the Troll's brain. Apparently it's sympathetic to Sammy though, warning him away from the "bad people" as well. Meanwhile Spectrum probes Dean's mind and determines that he reports directly to Kingpin and more so knows that Kingpin ha another security system that is outside his control, as well as that Kingpin somehow goes up beyond the top floor. She gets and passes on to Laughton access codes and details of the hotel security application. Laughton begins rigging up some mental defenses as he's afraid of Spectrum's alter ego, sending Sammy to morph into something fast and get him some aluminum foil. Sammy's familiar with kitchens and quickly lays his hand on some in the motel's dumpy restaurant, bringing it back quickly. Although Laughton quickly rigs up the device to help Sihn, the strange other being invades Laughton's mind and begins siphoning secrets from Laughton, feeding them to Suzanne (more on that in a future issue...). Laughton then quickly turns Suzanne to stone.
Sammy mimics Dean's voice and creates a tape recording of Dean confessing all the details, something to ensure Dean's compliance with the group. With Suzanne still in stone form, they convince Dean he should take a long vacation. It turns out in fact he has 18 weeks accumulated vacation time still owed him! He calls into work, only speaking briefly with whoever answers, indicating that he's distraught over his girlfriend's situation, and books a flight. He convinces the Justice Squad to have some mercy and allow him to see her before he goes.
Laughton begins tampering with the security system, misdirecting the scans and preparing to find out more about the secret entrance Kingpin moves through. From Dean they also find out one last bit of information, about a strange Germanic character, Jochen Kietersling, who is one-eyed and sometimes seen with a raven, that works somehow with Kingpin. They can find little else about this elusive character.
What was for most people, but not the Justice Squad, a weekend ends as Monday arrives. The group gets a little rest (except for Sihn who doesn't need it). Suzanne checks into the girlfriend, one Debbie Houston, and ensure she's financially covered for her misfortunes. Laughton takes some time to make it look like Kingpin is looking into Cabot's gambling operation. Sihn ponders the problems of architecture and physics, energy consumption and the hotel. Sammy discovers the delight that is New York garbage.
Investigation of the top of the hotel eventually leads Sihn to a stunning conclusion - that there is some sort of non-solid floor on top of the hotel. They begin to look into this direction...
[Game Mechanics - Points Awarded...
Winning against a roughly equal opponent for uncovering the important relevant secrets around the hotel - +5.625 RPs for Rodin, Sammy, Troll, +.75 XPs for Rodin, Sammy, Troll; +7.5 RPs for Spectrum, +1.5 XPs for Spectrum (ah but Kingpin picked up a few points too - but don't worry, he has too many points anyway so I don't worry about his points total)
3 hrs Session Play - +2.25 RPs for Rodin, Sammy, Troll, +.75 XP for Rodin, Sammy, Troll; +3 RPs for Spectrum, +1.5 XP for Spectrum
Totals:
Rodin +8.125 RPs, +1.5 XPs
Sammy the Slime +8.125 RPs, +1.5 XPs
Spectrum +10.5 RPs, +3 XPs
Troll +8.125 RPs, +1.5 XPs
Totals to Date:
Rodin 691.625 RPs, 65.125 XPs
Sammy the Slime 662.375 RPs, 62.6625 XPs
Spectrum 439.875 RPs, 48.425 XPs
Sprite 46.5 RPs, 24.75 XPs
Troll 675.875 RPs, 71.35 XPs]