Ms. Fury Versus The Alpha

Dahlia Drake was heading for bed, rattling around the manse of her late grandmother alone, when her Fury phone chimed. A message from a contact; @devinegoil. It gave a name, the architect Spirit Deborah Planque, and an address, somewhere downtown. "White Knights hired to hit," it read "Tonight. Hurry." Dahlia sighed. Sleep would have to wait. The catsuit had wrapped itself around her like a shadow, before she'd even reached the garage. The Vincent Black Shadow throbbed into life between her thighs and she roared off into the night. 

Yes I know. Ms. Fury is having her second Versus battle. Belladonna has had two too. Yes they are my favourite characters. Sorry; not sorry.

Well I am bereft of inspiration for this fight. So let's have a look at the random inspiration tables from page 73 of Heroes Unlimited Games Master Guide.

My first roll is for villains and gives me a 6 pack of two bit thugs. A whole dozen bits! I quickly generate them and add them to The Alpha's side. They are, by age and alphabet; Leo Duchamp (level 4 Thug, 35), Murray Adair (level 5 Thug, 35), Osbourne Sweeney (level 5 Thug, 28), Eveline Gallo (level 5 Thug, 28), Ivy Wynne (level 3 Thug, 20), and Topher Platt (level 1 Thug, 17). Then there's the 5 dogs/wolves... Uh; Adolf, Badulf, Cuan, Eadwulf, and Ylva.

The second roll is for the crime at hand and I get Murder/Killing. Yikes!

Third roll gives me the villain's reasons why the villains are up to no good. I get "Hired". So someone is paying him to do this.

Fourth roll is for Complications. I get Underground. Which is... okay I guess. The complication table is a bit swingy; there's as much chance of the authorities interfering as there is of being hurled into outer space.

I need a potential victim. A few rolls later I have Spirit Deborah Planque, a Master Gizmoteer. 

This all seems a but much for Dahlia so I decide to keep Gargoyle in reserve. Just in case. And if things go too easy in the other direction I might be able to kill off use the Iron Goth as backup for the fash.

The address wasn't some swanky office building or posh store but a building site. Ms Fury stalked through the concrete pillars and slabs. Keen hearing picked up voices deep within the bowels of the unfinished structure. Fury descended down towards what would one day be a subbasement. 

The dark room was lit by sweeping beams from about half a dozen flashlights. In them she could see a metal table that had been overturned, and blueprints scattered over the bare concrete floor. Most of the beams illuminated a concrete pillar behind which she was sure their intended victim was hiding.

She counted seven criminals, one of whom had shoulders wide enough to deserve their own postcode; no way that was natural. All armed with cricket bats. And 5 dogs; Dobermans. A clowder of cats, of equal numbers, had gathered themselves around her as they always seemed to when she was patrolling the night. Stray domestic cats were hardly a match one on one for a dog of that size, but she could get them to distract and confuse. She was wildly outnumbered, but if she kept moving and focused on the big guy she should be able to demoralise and break the group. All she needed to do was take him down fast. She stepped off the beam on which she was crouched and plunged towards her foes.

Round 0: Fury burns all her actions for the round to slam Alpha for 32 damage. He rolls 3 to dodge, so fails.

Alpha staggers under the impact, dropping his cricket bat, but doesn't fall. 

Round 1: Initiative for the round: Alpha 14, Fury 22, Spirit 14, Mook #1 13, Mook #2 19, Mook #3 20, Mook #4 11, Mook #5 18, Mook #6 3. Dogs are out of play; waiting for instructions. Cats are weighting for the dogs to act.

First Action: Fury unleashes her claws and goes for Alpha's face.
She rolls 24 (18+6) and does 30 points of damage. Alpha fails to dodge again, with a roll of 1.

Meanwhile Mooks #1 through #3 moves left to get eyes on their target. Mooks#4 through Mook#6 move right. 

Their target, Spirit Planque, is dressed in what look like motorcycle leathers and remains in the shadows.

Alpha finally gets to punch his opponent.

He rolls 20 (18+2) for 13 damage. Fury uses her claws to parry with a 25 (17+8).

Second Action: Ms Fury goes for another slash.
17 (11+6) for 22 damage, 11(8+3) for a barehanded parry, followed by a Roll with Blow to reduce the impact; 21 (15+6) for half damage.

Mook#3 points their pistol at Spirit and lets off a shot.
8 (4+4), which in this system is enough to hits, for 10 damage. Oddly there's the sound of a ricochet. 

Mook#2 is undeterred and rushes forward with their cricket bat raised.

Mooks #1 and #2

Spirit finger guns and a bolt of energy blasts out at Mook#3 from the tip of her right index finger and...

22 (18+4), hits for 12 damage. Ouch.

Mooks #4, #5, and #6 are closing in from Spirit's left. Mook#1 hangs back behind #3. 

Alpha is trying to back away towards his bat. Taking his action as movement.
"Will someone get this bitch off of me!" he growls, and then whistles to bring the dogs into play. 

Third Action: Ms Fury stays with him. Slashing again.
15 (9+6) for 20 damage vs. 14 (11+3) for barehanded parry. Rolling with blow for 13 (7+6). He takes every point. He's at 94 SDC remaining, which is basically the mid point for him. He hasn't touched her.

Mook#3 pokes at his scorched clothes and the burned skin beneath before deciding to respond to his boss, and runs towards where he and Ms Fury are duking it out. He's hurting, but he's had worse. Cat#4 attacks Dog#4 before it can act.
15 (12+3) strike vs 20 (16+4) dodge. A miss. 

Mooks #4 and #5

Mook#2 reaches Spirit and swings. Clunk.
10 (9+1) vs 5(1+4) parry for 5 damage.

Spirit responds by punching her. 
18(16+2) vs 18(16+2) parry.
But Mook#2 deflects her with the bat.

Mook#5 has come in from Spirit's left and swings.
23(20+3) vs 17(13+4) parry. For 8 damage
Spirit reacts to the attack which should have blindsided her. Almost like she has some sort of enhanced perception. Or something.

Mooks #3 and #6

Dog#1 rushes forward and grabs Alpha's bat in it's jaws. Ready to deliver it. Dog#5 leaps at Ms Fury.
9(5+4) vs 13(5+8). Only to be pushed away.
Dog#4 follows suit.
15(11+4) vs 15(7+8). To same effect.

Alpha grabs his bat from Dog#1 without so much as a "Good Dog".

Mook#1 reaches Ms Fury and takes a swing.
9(6+3) vs 9(1+8). More by instinct than skill her bat is deflected by the catsuit clad crimefighter.

Cat#2 lashes out at Dog#2
18(15+3) vs 8(6+2) for 5 damage.

Mook#4 goes for Spirit, but is parried.
16(15+1) vs 16(12+4). 

Cat#5 follows after Dog#5 and Cat#1 follows after Dog#1. Dog#2 pounces at Ms Fury and grabs her arm in its jaws.
23(19+4) vs 18(10+8) for 7 damage. 
Dog#3 tries likewise. But is knocked aside.
12(8+4) vs 23(15+8). 
Cat#3 pounces at Dog#3.
22(18+4) vs 7(5+2), for 6 damage.

Finally Mook#6 draws a bead with his gun and gets a good look at his target. Suddenly he wishes he had a bigger gun than a Glock, as he gets a good look at his armoured opponent. He lets off a shot on spec. 
7(3+4), a flat out miss (as ranged attacks need 8+ to hit). 

Action 4: Ms. Fury... holy shit... 

Look I'm down to... well action 3 took me a day to work through. I've already wasted two weeks when I forgot how many characters (at this stage 19) are involved in this fight and focused just on Fury and Alpha. 

This system doesn't work well when it's just one person carrying the load.

And now Blogger's formatting has f-d up. I'm done with this for now. Palladium needs to be revised and I don't have the spoons or brain cycles spar to do it right now. I need a better system.

So join me next time when I look at other superhero systems.