Science Fiction The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - The Day the Earth Stood Still

Harry Dresden:

Well, we have a couple of soldiers, a tech guy, two magic guys, an adventurer, and, by the look and sound of him, a spy/assassin. Why does it almost feel like I'm playing in a real life version of the tabletop games I play with Butters and the werewolf pack? A wry smile came across my face. The answer was easy. We had all been selected for our special skills for a job that we could only tackle together.​

​

“Well Doctor Jones, the shadow, Todd, Teal’c, Harry it is good to meet all of you, now shall we get down to business? I agree with Doctor Jones none of know exactly where we are, unless someone does. We also have to work together so suffice it to say all of you have my word I will do my utmost to work hard and get the job done. I have an idea though that if we really want to find out what is going on we must start by heading into a nearby populated area. That is of course if everyone agrees.”​

​

"A good look around the area wouldn't hurt. But I don't think we should go too far from this building. I mean, the Doc wouldn't have sent us back to 1898 London without any real information on our contact if that contact were, say, a continent away. More than likely this person is close by and awaiting our arrival. And they will hopefully have answers to the usual questions. This person shouldn't be too hard to spot; Doc said that his agent would stick out like a sore thumb. I think we should start by hitting some of the nearby bars first."​

​

Bars were always a good place to start collecting information, as they were usually abuzz with the latest gossip and rumors of the day. So not only was there a chance at meeting our contact, but we may also get a bit of an idea of what exactly we had gotten ourselves into. Not to mention the fact that I could use a cold beer. This time travel stuff is trippy....​

​

Tag: ALL

 

Entry Two: Friends Like These

The Shadow would've noticed two particularly interesting instances of psychic phenomenon above the usual riffraff: one was a periodic bounce of nearly complete emptiness that seemed to occur without a real pattern or discernible location.

The other, well…

The other was quite odd.

<<A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me? That's right, The Mascara Snake, fast and bulbous.>>

The surroundings were otherwise unremarkable. Those members of the group who had attempted to gleam something of their location were more or less met with shadows, dust, cobwebs, old flooring, and dust. There was a surprising amount of dust, enough so that some of the more astute observers were probably beginning to wonder just where exactly, the Doc had sent them.

I was about to oblige them because that seemed like a perfectly relevant point to address.

"Doc said that his agent would stick out like a sore thumb. I think we should start by hitting some of the nearby bars first."

The doors rather unceremoniously slammed open, and our protagonists were treated to their first really good glimpse of the sort of man Doc Brown considered a field agent.



"Holy Jesus, is this the best they could round up?!"

He staggered a few feet into the doorway. "I mean, good lord, Drake thought Brown had run up a tree when they hired me, but you guys… you are the living end, do you know that? Look at this guy!" He pointed at James Bond. "He. Is. In. A. Goddamn. Suit! Look like a ****ing narc, you know that?" He leaned in towards Case. "Seriously, though, he's a narc." He gestured to his eyeballs, back to Bond, and back to his eyeballs.

"And this guy!" He walked over to Teal'c. "You can't just go wearing that kind of stuff on your forehead around here, man! Leary's not even going to be born for another 22 years, you cannot just walk around like that. These Victorians, man, they are the most-stuck up things I have ever laid eyes on and…"

"Uh…"

He raised an eyebrow.

"You all do realize there's a goddamn vampire right the **** over there, right?" he said, pointing at an empty corner.

TAG: All

 

Harry Dresden:

I chuckled. How could I not? This guy was great! Calling Bond a suit and a narc? Priceless. He kept going by ragging on Teal'c a bit, but then he said something that sucked the humor right out of the room.​

​

"You all do realize there's a goddamn vampire right the **** over there, right?"​

​

The corner the man pointed to was empty, which, to me, could only mean one thing. A Black Court vampire was in the room with us. I've only had one encounter with the Black Court, but hell's bells could I remember it. The Black Court was perhaps the strongest of the three vampire courts due to their ability to wield magic, but in my time there were very few left. Their small population was all due to a guy named Bram Stoker, an author who wrote a little book called Dracula which basically laid out the weaknesses of a Black Court vampire. But here, in 1898 London? They were at their peak.​

​

Oh boy, this could get very bad very quickly....​

​

I gripped my staff, prepped my shield bracelet, and got ready for a fight.​

​

Tag: ALL

 

Teal'c

The man who had entered the room reminded Teal'c of some of the more...unique...members of the SGC. But this man had his own style to use. And apparently it involved the oddest sense of humor the Jaffa had seen in a long time. First he talked about James Bond, and Chase, then he turned to Teal'c himself.

"And this guy!" He walked over to Teal'c. "You can't just go wearing that kind of stuff on your forehead around here, man! Leary's not even going to be born for another 22 years, you cannot just walk around like that. These Victorians, man, they are the most-stuck up things I have ever laid eyes on and…"

The stoic Jaffa simply raised an eyebrow. This was not his first time in the past, and Teal'c had in fact been going to volunteer to stay behind and keep an eye on the room. He was well aware of how much he stuck out, especially with the Staff and P90. But what the man said next was more surprising.

"You all do realize there's a goddamn vampire right the **** over there, right?"

Teal'c looked at the seemingly empty corner, and didn't see anything. But his decades of experience still kicked in, and he raised his Zat'nik'tel towards the offending corner. If there was indeed something hiding there, he would be ready for it...

TAG: All

 

James Bond

The man just came in and looked like he was drunk or possibly on some substance came in James watched every movement he made. After calling him “a suit and “Narc”, he was not exactly thrilled at the prospect of working him… this was….

Then man said ",You all do realize there's a goddamn vampire right the **** over there, right?" Then the man pointed at a seemingly empty corner.

James wondered if this man could be believed at all given his state; however, he may be seeing things James could not.
So James did what came naturally he put away his cigarette, pulled his gun and said, “Hope someone can illuminate the subject because I hate fighting in the dark, and I hate not seeing the competition.”

TAG: ALL

 

Lamont Cranston

Victoria London​

​

Vampire? There was no one else in the room. He would have sensed it. Wouldn't he? And vampires didn't exist, right? Yet this unusual man who did stand out very much like a sore thumb (and probably would have in his own era too, no doubt), claimed there was one. Lamont frowned underneath the scarf and furrowed his brow in displeasure. He did not like being caught off guard by someone. If there was a vampire in the room, the creature's mind was well shielded.​

​

Would his illusions work on it?

Even if they didn't, he would at least get to see if they would work on his companions.​

​

He drew the twin pistols from the shoulder holsters even as he focused on clouding the minds of his companions and whatever else may be in the room. To those he was manipulating, it would look like he vanished into the shadows of the room as he stepped back into the darkest one beside him.​

​

And he searched for it.​

​

TAG: ALL

 

Case

"Yeah, but whatever he's on, I want some."

He took a drag off his smoke, offered one to the newcomer. He cast a glance at Bond.

"And, yeah, he's...I dunno. He's English. And vampires - seriously, I'm in dire need of whatever it is you're selling. Big time. I mean, I've seen some weird **** in my time, but this takes the ******* cake. The Ashpools weren't this crazy. So either this is stranger than fiction, or I'm still in Wintermute's mainframe."

God, I hope not.

"Either way, I need a hit of something."

Tag: All

 

Entry Three: More Freaks for the Freak Kingdom

"Hey, I like the way you think my good man," the contact exclaimed, taking Case up on his offered cigarette. He reached into his pocket and produced a small salt shaker. Most likely its contents were white, granular, but probably not composed of sodium chloride. "Take this, brother. May it serve you well."

"As for the rest of the class I am almost universally tremendously disappointed. That's an empty doorway. I mean, honestly, do you see a goddamn vampire there? No. Because it's an empty doorway. Only Dr. Jones gets marks for noticing that." He made a pointing gesture with his entire hand. "I loved that book you wrote about punching Nazis in the desert, incidentally. Using the Holy Grail as a symbol for… … wait, I don't think you wrote that book yet. You don't yet have the…" The man stroked his cheeks. "****. I didn't say that. Got it?" He looked around the room. "I. Did. Not. Say. Anything. And then the dashing doctor of journalism pulled out his trusty weapon and fired it at the ceiling."

He pulled out his gun, a six chambered magnum, and fired it skyward. There was an inhuman yelping noise and a black, difficult to distinguish mass scrambled across the rafters. "The name is Duke. And that vampire I mentioned 1. was up on the ceiling and 2. is probably going to get its friends to come about…"

The doors slammed open revealing a surprising number of tall, gaunt, fantastically repulsive pale figures with piercing blood red eyes.



"Predictable, really."

Paying little heed to Duke's witticisms, the vampires attacked.

TAG: All

OOC: So we've got ourselves our first fight, and the way we'll be handling things is relatively straightforward - since these are nameless mooks, you're free to dispatch of them and have them move about and react as you see fit to accommodate your actions. Named villains are another matter, but that's not in effect right now.

---

Elsewhere

"So you have word that they've arrived in the area?"

"Yes master. They would appear to match the descriptions you had provided us."

"It really is amazing just how accurate those predictions get. What is you secret?"

"It's nothing special, really."

"Oh, modesty will get you nowhere."

"I've arranged a welcoming reception on their behalf. Nothing they can't handle, just a little personal way of saying hello."

"I can't stress this enough, Orlok, I appreciate all the work you do."



"I simply seek what you seek, Master. It is the least I could do."

"Such efforts will not go unrewarded forever. Isn't that right?"

"Absolutely."

"Thank you, Master."

 

IC: Teal'c

Teal'c observed the strange man out of the corner of his eye. The man accepted a Tau'ri cigarette from the equally strange man named Case. After offering him something Teal'c was fairly certain he had seen on O'Neill's TV once, he turned back to the main group.

"As for the rest of the class I am almost universally tremendously disappointed. That's an empty doorway. I mean, honestly, do you see a goddamn vampire there? No. Because it's an empty doorway. Only Dr. Jones gets marks for noticing that."

Teal'c toned out the rest of what the man said, frowning ever so slightly. He normally wouldn't have fallen for what the strange man had said, but his instincts kicked in, and it wouldn't have been the first time the Jaffa had 'seen' an invisible foe...the Sodan came to mind, in addition to Merlin's devices. He was about to holster his Zat'nik'tel, but the strange man drew his attention once more by pulling out a Tau'ri revolver and firing it into the ceiling.

Looking up, Teal'c's alien eyes noticed an almost invisible black mass move across the rafters. The strange man began to speak again, though the tall Jaffa warrior did not deviate his eyes from watching the mass on the rafters.

"The name is Duke. And that vampire I mentioned 1. was up on the ceiling and 2. is probably going to get its friends to come about…"

Before the man could finish, the door was knocked down as a large group of pale white...things...moved into the room. They were obviously no more human than Teal'c, and arguably even less so. Realizing that these 'vampires' were going to try and kill him and his 'comrades' Teal'c fired his Zat'nik'tel at the one still clinging to the rafters. The blue electric beam knocked the creature down to the ground, its body shaking as it tried to fight off the energy of the weapon. Teal'c fired a second shot, making the beast go still. It seemed like his weapon still worked...but there were too many of these creatures to rely on it. So he quickly holstered the Zat and drew his much larger Staff Weapon, with the practiced ease of nearly a century of training. Teal'c backed up with the rest of the group, aiming his Staff and ready to fire on the 'vampires' crowding into the room...

TAG: All


OOC: What can I say, you hit me at a very bored moment Ramza

 

Lamont Cranston

Somewhere...​

​

So vampires were real and pretty damn good at hiding even from him. Doorway? You @#$% said in the corner! Lamont was certain this Duke was on opium or something equally as powerful and mind inhibiting. Like the monsters of the night, he moved like a shadow, invisible to the eye except to those who focused hard enough to try and see past his illusions. The only thing he couldn't hide was his shadow and that, in whatever light there might be, flanked two of the vampires.​

​

"Vampires are not the only shadows that lurk in the dark," he sneered darkly, his voice seeming to echo in the room just before one of the fowl creatures went flying across the room, arms flaying wildly, before smashing into the wall behind Case. He laughed as he lifted a second one by its collar, the creature struggled in his grip as it's feet left the ground. "I don't like being ambushed any more than I like evil monstrosities."​

​

This one he sent joining the first just as it climbed back to it's feet. They both fell back to the floor in a heavy heap of limbs and flesh.​

​

TAG: ALL

 

Harry Dresden:

"The name is Duke. And that vampire I mentioned 1. was up on the ceiling and 2. is probably going to get its friends to come about…"​

​

I shielded my eyes as the door burst inward and a bunch of....things piled into the room. Vampires. But not like any vampires that I had ever seen. Well, outside the movies at least. Teal'c quickly took one down with his beam weapon and the Shadow accounted for another two by casting some illusions to mask himself.​

​

Impressive.​

​

"Hey, look! Max Schreck fanboys!" I taunted. The vamps tilted their heads at me. I'm pretty sure they were wondering just what exactly was going on. Within seconds three of their number had been dispatched and now one of their prey was taunting them. Probably didn't make too much sense to them. Well, I wasn't about to let them get their bearings. I gathered my magic, channeled it into my staff, and let loose.​

​

"Forzare!"​

​

The invisible blast of energy caught two of the vampires and sent them flying back through the door they came in. The blast didn't kill them, but the impact in the hallway probably gave them a doozy of a headache. Readying my staff, I prepared another spell. Another vamp, having just watched his comrades go flying, came at me with eyes flashing. Just what I was waiting for.​

​

"Fuego!"​

​

A jet of fire burst from the end of my staff and enfulged my attacker. He lit up like a Christmas tree, shrieked in pain for a moment, then turned to ash. Fire and vampires just don't mix well. But he was just one and more vampires were coming into the room, including the first two I had sent flying. And they looked angry.​

​

TAG: All​

 

James Bond
He pulled out his gun, a six chambered magnum, and fired it skyward. There was an inhuman yelping noise and a black, difficult to distinguish mass scrambled across the rafters. "The name is Duke. And that vampire I mentioned 1. was up on the ceiling and 2. is probably going to get its friends to come about…"

Suffice it to say James never really trusted Duke to begin with, but after this bit of fun was over James might have to tell him exactly what he thought of him.

Then in burst a whole horde of “vampires.” James looked at the creatures and they were suffice it say hideous.

James shrugged and got to work and fired one round straight through the head of one of the creatures before it had time react. The thing yelped hit the ground and convulsed. James figured if these were real vampires that would not do much. James saw two of its friend were not thrilled with the idea of being shot and two others were about to head for harry. Who had dispensed with just one of them with fire… Wow.
This gave James one the best ideas if they could set a bunch on fire the rest would head for the hills.
“Hey harry,” James paused and shot another this time right in the center of the body. “Could you make that fire of yours bigger? I’m thinking it might be able to fend them off if we could corral them like cowboys.”
The one he hit was not looking too thrilled and about to attack this was going to be nasty….

TAG: Rampani, All

 

IC: Sgt. Todd

When the man had first indicated a vampire, something which not connect with his training or from the colonists, he took his que from how the others reacted. Mostly combat ready responses toward the corner or motions of confusion. The confused would likely die first. Still nothing was there, no further actions where taken by others in the group and they stood there, aiming with weapons at an empty corner. He half thought of letting loose a pistol round to indicate it was clear or not on principle even if it blew whatever cover relative silence had been giving them.

Then of course the man responded by indicating the ceiling, and that this had been a test. He had failed. It wasn't the first test he had failed, but still it stung deep. Still he stood resolute as he switched from his pistol to his laser rifle, stepping back he observed how the others were treating the threat. Guns. Enviroment manipulations. Energy weapon blasts. Sneak attacks, well he assumed someone was performing sneak attacks as a couple vampires went flying without a visible cause. Shouldering his rifle he took aim away from the area with the believed hidden member of their group and began shooting at those that were scampering up the walls. The last thing any group needed was flanked in a combat situation with unknown allies.

Sighting down the scope with one eye as the other looked down the bore of the rifle he lined up and shot one in the head, unprotected kill zone. Instead of exploding from rapid heating or caved oozing the red laser appeared to induced vaporization. Still he care what it did so long as the enemy dropped from the walls and back to the ground ontop of the other advancing forms. Quickly he set a rapid pace of double burst shots with his rifle never truly stopped moving. Often hitting them in the back and head, sometimes merely the back and part of the wall.

One, two. One, two. One, two. . .three, four!

TAG: ALL

 

Entry Four: Three Times More Exposition

After a few more moments, those vampires that were left or were merely injured, sensing that they were severely outgunned, decided to beat a hasty retreat. "Diseased thralls, really," Duke muttered, holstering his gun. "They observe, they report back, they get attacked, they swarm, prey fights back, they run, rinse, soap, rinse, repeat. Nasty little ****s all around - can't detect them through any means anybody's managed to work out. You sort of just have to look for a rustling spot in the shadows, fire your gun, and hope it makes you look cool."

He dusted off his hat. "Naturally I'm quite lucky at it." He looked around at the various charred, shot up, whipped, and otherwise fatally inconvenienced piles of dead undead on the floor. "And I see the Doc continues to be lucky with his choice of recruits." Duke pulled out a flask of something and took a swig. "We should probably get going - these things rot quickly, and the smell is a bit of an olfactory occasion that one should skip out on whenever possible."

He strolled over to the door, accidentally stepping on a vampire's skull which obliged him with a yielding cave-in. "Like I said, fast rotting. Now let's see if I remember how to do this."

He tapped below the doorknob, above the doorknob, the doorknob, and finally he held both of his arms out, parallel to the floor, and shouted "OPEN!"

Nothing happened.

"Ah good, I haven't lost my touch at all." He turned the knob, opened the door, and there, sprawled out before the new members, was Victorian England in all of its tremendously overhyped… splendor?



"No place like home. That's why I hate it here. Think I'll write a book about it. 'Victorian England is Entirely Not Decadent and Depraved.' Good title for a follow-up piece and ah, Quattro, there you are. Where the **** have you been, man?"

A man in a rather obnoxious red blazer came waltzing up.



"Somebody forgot to pay their bar tab before they left, Raoul."

"Ah yes. Well, there were more important things to worry about. The inter dimensional doohicky was beeping, man. Beeping. You know how serious that is."

"The last time it went off a rat had gotten eaten by a werewolf in Westminster."

"It was a big rat!"

"Yes, and you're justifying it to me while a bunch of new recruits are standing in the doorway of the waypoint surrounded by dead vampires, most likely completely confused and, judging by the number of casualties, utterly underwhelmed by their last fight."

"A really big rat!"

"… You were showboating again."

"Colossal, man!"

And while they were arguing, no one really noticed that up in the rafters the shadows were still rustling in a way that shadows do not usually rustle.

TAG: All

 

James Bond

James was half listening to the banter going on between the two men something still didn't feel right. He felt like something was watching him and it had been the same strange gut feeling he had when the group arived he just didn't want to admit it to himself at the time.

James knew something was wrong......very wrong. He didnot trust his instints to check out his suspicions the first time and he was not about to make another mistake.

Then he say or thought he say something up above or did he?

James cleared his throat and said, "I hate to be bother with the debate and all that, but I don't believe we got all of the opposition or vampires. So would you gentlemen do me favor and be quiet."

James trusted his instincts his gun was still not away so he might as well take a stab at it.

James concentrated and thought the shadows moved....James pointed and shot in that general direction. He hoped he would be lucky.

TAG: ALL

 

Harry Dresden:

"I hate to be bother with the debate and all that, but I don't believe we got all of the opposition or vampires. So would you gentlemen do me favor and be quiet."​

​

I glanced over at James. While listening to Raoul and Quattro bicker, I had gotten a sense that we were being watched. Seems like I wasn't the only one. James was looking up into the shadowy rafters, so I turned my attention there as well. Even as I closed my eyes and reached out with my magic to probe the area, I had a feeling that it wouldn't detect anything. After all, I hadn't been able to sense the vampires when they had attacked. As I expected, I couldn't find a thing. What I wasn't expecting, however, was for James to fire off a round into the blackness. Apparently he had seen more than I had sensed. My eyes flew open.​

​

"You know what might make this easier? A little bit of light. Flicum Bicus."​

​

A small ball of flame formed over my palm. I floated it up in between the rafter beams and the room noticeably brightened. The extra light should help reveal anything that may have been hiding above us....​

​

TAG: All

 

Sgt. Todd

Taking his que he had stood down and congregated in a loose formation with the others once hostilities were over. The fact that their meeting person now had a companion that had joined the situation the chain of command was becoming very disorganized, although by any guess of their interaction the red dressed one with blond hair was the superior, while their initial greeter was a footman below him with strict orders regarding the device that apparently had alerted of their possible arrival.

Then of civilian garbed with ancient gun and another oddly dressed seemed set upon taking the newly given intel on their enemy combatents and performing a second sweep before leaving their present location, a prudent measure that raised his evaluation of them both a notch. As well as the seconds obvious gear holdouts that were discrete, more so then anything the military had to offer. Putting his back to the wall he aimed his rifle straight up and let his eyes scan the ceiling as he awaited what may present to be absolutely nothing, or additional targets that did not flee with the others when able.

TAG: All

 

GM Note: My apologies for leaving the game hanging, I got sort of overwhelmed by my workload over the last two weeks. Hopefully I'll get an update up tomorrow and we should be more or less back to normal around here.

 

Entry Five: Jumping Into White Space

The distinct rapport of James Bond's firearm was echoed by an almost immediate splattering sound, as a strange, dark liquid sprayed out on the wall in keeping with the trajectory of his bullet. This splattering was, in turn, echoed by a soft thud as what was, for lack of a better description, a medium sized black bug landed on the ground immediately below. Duke and Quattro almost immediately ceased their arguing.

"We're compromised."

"I know."

"We need to jump."

"I know."

"... Now, Quattro."

"I can't just jump now, I have to get the coordinates punched in." He was furiously typing on what appeared to be a wrist gauntlet. "You've explained this to them, right? I'm not about to drag a bunch of unsuspecting victims through a jump, right?"

"... Define 'explained.'"

"We never had this problem when Drake was in charge."

"Don't give me that crap, man, I offered to let you lead, and you just gave me that cryptic BS about how it wasn't the right moment for you to lead. Who the **** do you think you are, anyway? Quattro 'Banana,' seriously?"

"Bajeena."

"Right, Banana. Is that jump ready to go? Don't tell me you're accommodating for that metallic hunk of junk."

"Blex expects that back in one piece. I promised him as much."

"Who the **** is Blex? Is he your lawyer?"

"Something like that." His gauntlet beeped. "Jump's ready."

"Right, so, gentlemen, what you should understand is that all of time can actually be modelled like a big fish net and AWWWWWWWW



FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAking ****ing ****!"

There was a sensation of stomach churning turbulence as everything shifted into and out of focus, and by the time it ended, it seemed as if nothing had changed at all. The bug, however, was gone.

"It's like a bad ether binge, ****!" Duke muttered, taking a swig from a flask full of something or other. "There's got to be a better way to dodge those spies, am I right?"

TAG: Skywalker_T-65 HanSolo29 Mitth_Fisto Penguinator Lukes_Apprentice Rampani CmdrMitthrawnuruodo

GM OOC: And we are back, for better or worse.

 

Harry Dresden:

"It's like a bad ether binge, ****!" Duke muttered, taking a swig from a flask full of something or other. "There's got to be a better way to dodge those spies, am I right?"​

​

As the room stopped spinning, I took a moment to gather my thoughts. Those thoughts mostly being about how I really didn't want to lose my lunch. I leaned on my staff so that I could keep myself on my feet. My rep as a stoic wizard may take a little bruising if a simple, albeit large, bit of nausea were to drop me. Everything finally stabilized and I was able to look around. We were in the same room. The bug that James had shot, however, was gone. Not a trace remained. I turned to the two newcomers.​

​

"Alright, I think it time for some explanation as to what exactly is going on here. Doc Brown was pretty vague as to the nature of this mission and, so far, all we've done is get sent back in time with no warning, attacked by some really ******* weird vampires, spied on by a fairly big bug, and then time jumped again! Granted, that last bit is an assumption, but still. And Duke, since you talk to us like we already know whats going on, I think it may be better if mister Spanish Number 4 over there talks for a minute!​

​

TAG: Everyone​

 

The Obligatory Last Post: Annnnnnnnnd I think we're well beyond the point where I prefer to just call it a day.

I'd like to thank everyone for playing, and if you're reading this at some later date for some indecipherable reason, I'd like to thank you for reading. I've always been in the camp that says it's better to try and fail than to not try at all, and this was a really fun try to have.

As for where we were going with all of this, I'd like to leave you with the following: