Halcyon Rising

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Halcyon Rising is a PbP game using the RPG Masks.

Setup[edit]

Initial Hook[edit]

A time-space anomaly appear over the sky of Halcyon City, 19 months ago. It slowly grew to dominate the entire sky. During that time, the Heroes of Halcyon City discovered that it was created by Dr Vorhees when his research on wormhole technology went horribly wrong. It was possible it could have been handled safely, but it was taken over by Vortex, who was able to integrate their own time-space powers with the rending energies of The Turning. He became very powerful, hiring misinformed mercenaries to keep the heroes at bay as he mastered its power. By the time the heroes arrived at his lair, he was able to summon monstrosities from beyond. Vortex was now quite mad, and was convinced he must conquer all of earth, beginning with Halcyon City.

Destruction rained down on the city, and heroes from across the globe joined the fight. Then, suddenly, the Turning collapsed in on itself and disappeared. Vortex, his key followers, and many of the heroes vanished within the Turning. Most assume the heroes sacrificed themselves to save the city, but few know the details of what happened within the Humetech Towers that night.

Now, Halcyon must rebuild. Old heroes must find new ways. New heroes must renew old paths. And the city... the city knows both hope and fear.

Plot Points from Chargen[edit]

  • Halcyon City is rebuilding after a (big summer crossover) event called The Turning, where the Exemplars saved the city and reality from a dimensional rift and the villain Vortex, who became unimaginably more powerful and deranged as the rift grew.
  • The Exemplars main members have disappeared. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to The Conundrum, Blade Queen, Rook, The Muskateer, Black Shogun, and the Flying Fox. Many of these heroes had mentored the PCs to some degree.
  • The team came together when they all independently began trying to contain a gang war that erupted during the climax of the Turning.
  • The villain Solace was masterminding the gang violence for their personal gain.
  • One of the teen metahumans who was involved in that fight, Starlight, died, in part because Reboot chose to save innocents.
  • The team formed more or less officially after the conflict was over, an ambulance was saved, and Starlight was pronounced dead. They were all at the hospital at the time.
  • Sonic energy manipulator and hero Bang was impressed by the heroes, and tried to help them deal as a team with what had happened.
  • In the aftermath of the Turning, the executor of Rook's will, Mr. Scale, helped bankroll the creation of a new school near the blighted areas of Halcyon. This is theGuidewell School.
  • Some of the PCs were able to attend because of their academic excellence, and others because of living nearby. Either way, however, guidance counselor (and former Exemplar associate) Ibrahim Aboubacar made sure they all were attending the school.
  • Guidewell is run under the rigid but academically focused administration of Principal Dr Lauren Frost and Vice Principle Moreau.

Player Characters[edit]

Amaterasu[edit]

Real Name: Naomi Ikaru

Look: woman Asian comfortable clothing Predecessor costume: a red and golden kimono with the kanji of the godness Amaterasu in the back and a white mask only covering her eyes.


Abilities: Kusanagi, the magical flaming sword wich can cut through most material Legendary speed God-like beauty

Locked until later: Divine Armor and Mysthic Might


Labels: Danger -1; Freak 0; Savior +2; Superior 0; Mundane +2

Moves

Never give up, never surrender: When you take a powerful blow from someone with far greater power than you, use this move instead of the basic move. Roll + Savior. On a hit, you stand strong and choose one. On a 7-9, mark a condition. - you get an opportunity or opening against your attacker - you rally from the hit, and it inspires the team; add 1 Team to the pool - you keep your attacker’s attention On a miss, you go down hard but leave your opponent off balance and vulnerable.

Words of the past: When you seek the guidance of one of your elders or a member of your legacy, tell them a problem you face, and ask them a question about the problem. They will answer it honestly, and tell you what to do. Take +1 ongoing if you listen. If you go your own way, mark potential.


Backstory

Naomi Ikaru is the last scion of a legacy going as far as the beginning of civilisation in japan. Naomi's ancestors were chosen by the godness Amaterasu to protect the emperor and the land of japan against its many enemies, including the minion of her brother, Susanoo. When the time arrive for the previous Amaterasu to retire, Kusanagi, the legendary sword and all the power that come with it, is pass down to the next daughter of the family so that the tradition could continue from mother to daughter.

When did you officially become a part of your legacy?

When her parents disapeared in the Turning with the rest of their team, Naomi Ikaru became, too soon for certains people, the next Amaterasu of Halcyon city


What’s the greatest accomplishment of your legacy?

During World War II, Naomi's great grandmother betrayed emperor Hirohito, side up with the americans and helped them beat japan and ending the pacific war. Her heroic action also prevent the american to launch the nuclear attack they had planned against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is why Naomi family live in America today.


How does the public perceive your legacy?

The public perception of Amaterasu is good. She is a war hero and she always protect the innocents and bystanders before running after a bad guy.


• How does your legacy tie into your reasons for being a hero?

Since her young age, Naomi is preparing herself to take up the mantle of Amaterasu. Being a superhero has never been a choice. It is her destiny.


Why do you care about the team?

One of the thing Naomi's parents had the time to teach her before disapearing was the power of teamwork. Plus there is a couple of nice people in it that Naomi appreciate.


The Legacy:

Kasunagi, the mystical katana is still active: Kasunagi is more than a simple sword, it is sentient and it has been part of the legacy since the day the goddess Amaterasu gift it to Naomi ancestor. Object of great wisdom, Kasunagi have council each Amaterasu, giving them advices in their most difficult time.

Hinata Momoshi, Naomi's granmother, is the silver generation Amaterasu. She is now retired and have raise both Naomi and her brother since the "death" of her daughter. She is harsh, stubborn and she likes to criticize her granddaughter's actions when she can. Naomi has a love-Hate relation with her grandmother. Even if she is her last family and she has been a precious mentor with lot of advices, Naomi dreams about the day she would be free of the old woman.

Honda Ikaru: Naomi's little brother and the next possible member of the Legacy. Amaterasu powers have always been pass down to a girl in the family but, with Naomi, it's the first time Amaterasu is so young and inexperienced and Honda secretly wish that his big sister will one day fail so hard that their grandmother will have no choice but to give him Kusanagi. Until that time, he likes to tell his sister snarky comments about how great he is compared to her.


Susanoo, the greatest enemy of your legacy. Amaterasu and Susanoo have been enemy in the sky since the beginning and it was only normal to continue the fighting on earth. Like her sister, the trisker god gave up powers over elements such as water and lightning to a mortal, creating a legacy of bad guys with the sole purpose of fighting the scion of his sister and creating chaos on earth

Reboot[edit]

Ronin[edit]

Seed[edit]

Stellar[edit]

Real Name: Chris Ravenel / Amari

Player: Wyzard

Look[edit]

  • Shifting sex/gender
  • Neon Body
  • Metallic Eyes
  • Practical

Abilities[edit]

  • Flying
  • Durable
  • Radical Shapeshifting
  • Telepathy & Mind blasts

Labels[edit]

  • Danger -1
  • Freak +2
  • Savior 0
  • Superior +2
  • Mundane 0

Moves[edit]

  • Alien tech:
    • When you alter a human device with your alien technology, roll + Freak. On a hit, you create a device that can do something impossible once and then fzzle. When you roll a 10+, choose one:
      • It works exceptionally well
      • You get an additional use out of it
    • On a miss, the device works, but it has a completely unintended side effect that the GM will reveal when you use it
  • Kirby-craft:
    • You have a vehicle, something from your home. Detail its look, and choose two strengths and two weaknesses. When you are flying your ship, you can use it to unleash your powers, directly engage a threat, or defend someone using Superior.
    • Strengths
      • Chameleon plating
      • Dimension-shifting
    • Weaknesses
      • Unarmed
      • Diffcult to repair
  • Not so different after all:
    • When you talk about your home, roll + Freak. On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one. During the conversation, you:
      • confess a flaw of your home; add 1 Team to the pool
      • mislead them about your home; take Influence over them
      • describe the glories of your home; clear a condition
    • On a miss, you inadvertently reveal more about yourself than you planned; tell them a secret or vulnerability you haven’t shared with Earthlings before no

Backstory[edit]

  • Where do you come from?
    • A highly advanced civilization called the Cynosure, near the galactic core
  • Why did you come to Earth?
    • My Tarriance, a rite of passage and attempt to develop / intensify my persona.
    • The Tarriance works as such. The person is forked into 20-or-so identical copies. Like, twenty clones with identical memories and personalities. They might mod themselves to have different powers or whatever. They all pick places to go. When the Tarriance is over, the forks are merged back into one personality. The strongest personality* dominates and survives as the "real" version, but they gain the memories and experiences of the loser. Therefore, the Tarriance is a way for each shard or fork to try and become a stronger and more intense personality, by having the most exciting experiences, experiences and memories that hone themselves. If a fork spends their time taking naps, then their personality will die and even their individual memories might be too boring to be preserved in the eventual merged super-personality.
    • It's relatively freeform [how one selects the location of one's Tarriance]. Individuals might pick a bunch of candidates before forking, or after. Or they might wander around and stop someplace that looks interesting, or wander the galaxy doing stuff and seeing lots of places instead of staying anywhere. Your Tarriance is your own responsibility, and if yours is lame then some of your other forks will do better. Sucks to be you. Briefly. 
    • Earth was this fork's first choice, once it made one. This fork didn't know where to go, and was working its way down to trading stations owned by lower-tech civs in search of a plot hook (Go into a space-tavern! Get a quest from a space-wizard!) Stellar met a prophet that predicted (in a way that is wholly cryptic and only really interpretable after the fact) the Turning and pointed out Earth. Stellar couldn't find any ships going that way that it could hitch a ride on (see below), so it traded a bauble for the Runabout and made the trip itself.
  • What is Earth's Reputation?
    • "What the fuck is Earth? They named their planet after dirt?" Total backwater. There are an unlimited quantity of weird, violent, uncontacted civs out there. Earth is a weird outlier in terms of producing unpatterned super-beings, but that's not yet caught the attention of much of anyone in the wider galaxy. Like, take Captain America. Most civs around Earth's tech level might have developed the super-soldier syrum, but then they'd have thousands of them and almost no other types. OR they'd have a mystical martial arts tradition or mighty psychic potential or something. But the point is the vast majority of their superbeings would be according to a pattern. Earth doesn't have profoundly more supers than any other civ, but it has a freakishly broad assortment.
  • Why do you want to stay here (for now at least)?
    • Developing civs are chaotic! It's healthy for me to be here.
  • As a member of an extremely advanced race of extreme shapeshifters, human customs must seem absolutely bizarre to Stellar. Which ones do they understand, which ones do they not get at all, and which are in between (either they forget them half the time, or they almost get them)?

(Telepathy, and to a lesser degree Shapeshifting, are somewhat inherent to Stellar's race, but this fork of Stellar has developed and weaponized those abilities to an unusual degree. Like, in their culture, Stellar's telepathic skills are viewed sort of like a Beacon's martial arts & acrobatics skills would be viewed on Earth. Other versions of Stellar might be relying on gadgets or cosmic forces or who-knows-what.)

    • The Cynosure is passionate about names. Stellar probably actually had over a dozen before forking, and by now each of the forks has a few of their own. Names are context-dependent and also there are unspoken rules about who can use them. Stellar is often upset that its friends expect it to use the same name that any classmate does, the one their parents do, the one they sign on papers. It makes it both too intimate and not intimate enough at the same time, or contextually weird, et cetera. However, Stellar hasn't been able to get humans to follow its name-rules in a way that isn't patronizing or confused. At least super-people have super-names separate from their everyday names, so that's somewhat comforting. Nicknames, street names, fake names on facebook, pseudonyms for writing...Stellar likes that because they remind it of home a little.
    • Stellar can be cruel, but it's intentional. It doesn't understand unintentional cruelty, or cruelty towards loved ones. Abusive family or romantic relationships are crazy to Stellar, but being polite or considerate to one's enemies is equally bizarre. 
    • The Cynosure isn't a post-scarcity utopia. There are social hierarchies, social capital/reputation economies, and different forms of rationing of intentionally or unintentionally scarce resources. However, money as practiced by humans is nonsensical and confusing, and so is the fact that you can actually own big chunks of real estate. In the Cynosure you can own yourself, own modded-in-powers, own all kinds of personalty, own slaves (other species or manufactured), own a ship, own a rep, be owed favors...but owning a house on big grounds, or owning "stock" in a "company," or own a huge quantity of universal credits? That's weird.
    • Reputation economies make perfect sense to Stellar, and it's casually proficient in them to a degree borderline unnatural to humans. As such, it could probably be a groundbreaking genius marketing executive if it gave a fuck about the job and somebody gave it the position. Like, "Double Apple's sales within a year" genius.
    • Human attitudes towards death and each other (particularly as to "othering" different races/cultures/genders) are both bizarre and hilarious to Stellar. Its tendencies to treat these as jokes is going to cause trouble eventually.
    • Stellar enthusiastically participates in human sexual behavior without really understanding or respecting human conventions terrifically well. 
  • Why do your people want you to come home?
    • When I'm done adventuring, I have to merge.
  • Why do you care about the team?
    • I'm highly social in this phase of my life, and they're my friends.
  • Did any other members of the Cynosure have any contact with Earth before Cynosure arrived? With Halcyon City or any of its denizens? Was Cynosure around for the Event, and if so, what did she experience?
    • Maybe, probably? I'll let you decide whichever is more interesting. Stellar doesn't *know* of any Cynosure people who have been to Earth. 
    • Stellar was there for the Event, lost the Earth mentor it had acquired, and basically thought it was pretty awesome. The prophecy was real! Lots of exciting things happened! Stellar lived and racked up intense experiences!
  • How does "family life" work as far as the school and other human officials perceive things? Is she a foreign exchange student? Does she have holographic parents?
    • See above re robot parents. They're less shitty than Zim's, but not a LOT less shitty. They're good enough to fool the people at a PTA meeting mostly.

Voight-Kampf[edit]

Relationships[edit]

Social[edit]

  • Amateratsu once got caught doing something that shames her legacy with Ronin
  • Amateratsu trust Stellar and told her an important secret of her legacy
  • Reboot told Seed about her doom
  • Ronin loves Amaterasu
  • Ronin is a rival of v-k
  • Stellar comforted Seed when they were at their lowest
  • v-k knew Seed before they changed

Influence[edit]

  • Ameratsu and Reboot have influence over each other.
  • Ronin has influence over Amaterasu.
  • Ronin loves Amaterasu.
  • Ronin has influence over Stellar
  • Ronin views V-K as a rival.
  • Seed has influence over Amaterasu
  • Seed and Stellar have Influence over each other
  • Stellar and Reboot have influence over each other.
  • V-K has influence over Amaterasu.
  • V-K has influence over Stellar.

NPCs[edit]

Adult NPCs[edit]

  • Ibrahim Aboubacar
  • Admin
  • Bast / Raven Reynolds
  • Black Shogun
  • Blade Queen
  • Kane Boer
  • Mark Boer
  • Eric Campbell
  • Karina Contreras
  • Conundrum
  • David’s Parents
  • Dr Demeter
  • Elder
  • Grandmother of Ameratasu
  • Mackenzie Byron
  • Shoaib & Priya Chandrasekar
  • Fist of Liberty
  • Flying Fox
  • Coach Josiah Frank
  • Dr Lauren Frost
  • Miss Le
  • Mother of Ameratasu
  • Senator Mayweather
  • The Musketeer
  • Vice President Moreau
  • Rook
  • Walter Scale
  • Seeker
  • Wang Shu-fen
  • Susanoo
  • USE

Non-Adult NPCs[edit]

  • Greg & Brad Boer
  • Nancy Boer
  • Alexander Fossati
  • Lakshmi Chandrasekar
  • Prasad Chandrasekar
  • Honda
  • Thao Nguyen
  • Albert Reynolds

Organizations and Locations[edit]

  • Beef Noodle #1
  • Binary Panopticon
  • The Cynosure
  • The Gorgons
  • The Guidewell School
  • Humetech Towers
  • HCPD
  • The Skid
  • SOldier's Rest

Relationship Map[edit]

Halcyon Rising Relationship Map.gif