Normally I put the author’s notes at the bottom, but this first post is a bit weird and something new I’m trying so I’m going to give some basic info here. This is my third or second attempt at doing a Worm quest and while I’ll be reusing a lot of my worldbuilding from my prior quests, this will be its own thing.
I won’t overcomplicate things with a cluster trigger and I’m going to keep it simple by making the player character a Tinker (with a minor brute secondary power) that I created using Weaverdice rules. The mechanics will be mostly blackboxed and will be a mixture of M&M, Weaverdice and my own stuff.
The main character is going to be me reusing one of my other superhero quest protagonists or a variant of her that has been changed to fit the setting as a Tinker. I have some …
Normally I put the author’s notes at the bottom, but this first post is a bit weird and something new I’m trying so I’m going to give some basic info here. This is my third or second attempt at doing a Worm quest and while I’ll be reusing a lot of my worldbuilding from my prior quests, this will be its own thing.
I won’t overcomplicate things with a cluster trigger and I’m going to keep it simple by making the player character a Tinker (with a minor brute secondary power) that I created using Weaverdice rules. The mechanics will be mostly blackboxed and will be a mixture of M&M, Weaverdice and my own stuff.
The main character is going to be me reusing one of my other superhero quest protagonists or a variant of her that has been changed to fit the setting as a Tinker. I have some more stuff to say, but I’ll put that in the regular author’s notes.
***
January 1996
You pick up the crucible and pour its contents into the mould. The mould is little more than a baking tray, but you had a budget and it won’t be the final form. Just something to let molten metal settle into a form that you will be able to beat into shape.
Last month, you barely knew the first thing about metallurgy or smithing. Now, you can smelt alloys and craft artefacts beyond anything a normal person is capable of. You know the right combination of temperatures, metals and stirring to whip up an alloy beyond anything seen outside of Tinkertech. You just know the right spots to hammer out the metal, how to turn it into plates of armour for someone to wear.
It should be exciting and in a way it is, but at the same time, it feels little more than a consolidation prize considering the events preceding you gaining your powers.
***
August 1994
College was going to be great. You might be the least physically impressive of your siblings, but you make up for it with a keen mind. You were at the top of your classes during junior school and secondary school and you have no reason to expect that is going to change at college. You might have more competition, but you don’t expect to be too much different from school. That won’t happen until university, where acceptance is far more exclusive and actually takes some effort.
Best of all, Joan will be going to the same college as you and even if she will be taking mostly different courses, you’ll share a maths course together. You aren’t sure why she chose to go to the same college as you when her rich parents offered to get her into a more prestigious one, but you’ll take it.
Maybe succeeding at college will be enough to win the approval of your parents. Probably not, but they might consider it more prestigious than regular school. If they don’t, then you’ll just need to continue on to university. Get a degree or more and then your mother and father will have to acknowledge your genius. Nobody else in the family has graduated university before so even your parents won’t be able to overlook that.
***
February 1995
"I’m thinking of joining the LBGT club," I say to Joan as we eat lunch together, "Since I like girls-"
"Doyouwanttogooutwithme!" exclaims Joan in a rush that I pause, trying to make out the words that have blurred together.
"Pardon?" I say and Joan takes a moment to calm herself.
"I like girls too," says Joan, still speaking quickly, but not so quickly that you can’t understand her, "Specifically, I like you. I’ve been wanting to be your girlfriend for like forever and I want you to be mine."
"That’s…can I have some time to think it over?" you ask as you try to process this unexpected revelation.
Joan has been your friend since infant school, but do you like her this way? You like other girls and unlike you, Joan is physically attractive. Yet that doesn’t mean you want to be romantically involved with her. Even if she does basically tick all the boxes for what you would want in a girlfriend.
"I guess that’s reasonable," concedes Joan and the disappointment in her voice pains you.
***
January 1996
With a cheap hammer you brought at the local hardware store, you hammer away at the sheet of thick metal. Each blow is in exactly the right place to bend the metal without compromising any of its integrity, to beat it into shape. You doubt a normal person could match your skill, precision and strength in this as despite your genius, you know you got this from becoming a Parahuman.
It isn’t normal to just wake up one day with a bunch of knowledge, ideas and skills that you never learnt. It definitely isn’t normal to wake up with a transformed body. To a degree, you are still you. Blonde hair, blue eyes and a female body while most of your facial features seem pretty recognisable to you. But that is about it. You were moderately unfit and overweight before, but now you look and feel like you could compete in the Olympics. Except for the part where you have powers and obviously wouldn’t be disqualified from taking part due to being a Parahuman.
You have muscles, a lot of functional muscles that you can use. Your mind works faster and your body reacts faster too. You gained a few inches in height and at the risk of sounding vain, you got prettied up as well. Most of the changes to your face were to make you more attractive in your opinion while you have gone from being flat with a gut to having a nice bubble butt and an hourglass figure to match.
If it isn’t for your metallurgy and smithing knowledge and the blueprint for an exceptionally capable suit of plate armour, you would have considered your new body to be your power. As things are, you have a suit of plate armour to finish making.
***
July 1995
Your first year of college was a good one. You and Joan did end up as a couple and you haven’t regretted it. If anything, the only thing you’ve regretted is not booking up with her further. Even if both of your families think she can do better than you, you and Joan are very happy with each other.
And as you expected, you are top of your class. Even your teachers are impressed with your knowledge and even Mr Gupta has overlooked the fact that you are a woman to give you praise. You aren’t exactly friends with your class, but all of them respect your knowledge and skill when it comes to computers and coding.
The only downsides are your parents and Principal Malcolm McAllisters. The former disregard your academic success just like they did in junior and secondary school, but you are only disappointed, not surprised by that. Meanwhile the head of your college is an old-school homophobe despite the changing times and rumour around the college is that he hates you and Joan for how blatant and open you are in your relationship.
***
October 1995
"Um, hi Mrs Fowler, I was wondering if you had heard from Joan?" you ask your girlfriend’s mother after she opens the door for you, "She didn’t show up at college today and I haven’t heard from her at all."
The older woman, wearing clothing of such quality you could never hope to afford them, looks down at you with a frown and you hesitate. You get that the wealthy woman was never fond of you or your friendship with her youngest daughter, but you also got the impression that Mrs Fowler’s opinion of you had been improving.
"I’m afraid there is bad news, Leona," says Mrs Fowler after a moment of silence as she stares at you, her voice heavy with sadness.
***
January 1996
Your armour won’t all be pure metal plate, something proven as you work on the helmet. A set of cheap goggles that have been tempered at the right spots at the right temperature to reinforce them to provide eye protection. Parts from the air conditioning of a scrapped car have been repurposed into an air filter to help against gas and smoke.
It won’t be a perfect defence. You can’t protect against everything and even the defences you are putting in place aren’t foolproof. Powerful enough attacks can still bypass them and you don’t know where to begin proofing against actual superpowers. But for the average street criminal? It should be more than enough.
***
October 1995
Damn them! Damn it all! Your girlfriend has been taken by that monster Lifesplicer, one of the more infamous villains in the city and for good reason. Part of the Sterling Firm, the largest villain gang in the city, Lifesplicer is a blight upon Southampton.
Except she isn’t part of the Sterling Firm anymore and that’s why Joan was taken. Lifesplicer and the other Tinker Parahumans of the Sterling Firm have broken away from the Sterling Firm, hiring and creating an army to do so. And that’s why Lifesplicer grabbed Joan and several others off the street, to use them as materials for her creations.
At this point, you don’t hope to get Joan back in one piece. You will be lucky to get her back at all.
You try to get one with your life, but how can you when Joan is in the hands of that monster? You may never see her again and you don’t know what torture is going though, only that she is suffering. You try to pay attention in class and study at home, but it is difficult when your mind keeps straying to Joan’s fate.
***
October 1995
There is a reason why the Paladins are your favourite group of superheroes and isn’t just because they are Southampton’s local team. Thanks to the valiant efforts of Peacebringer, Demonblood and Silver Eagle, the surviving victims of Lifesplicer have been rescued though the villain herself was able to get away.
You don’t care that much. You mean, you definitely want justice or revenge against Lifeslicer, but you have Joan back. And the damage isn’t too bad either. She is still fully human unlike some of the other survivors and while your girlfriend may never fully recover, she might be capable of living a normal albeit crippled life.
***
January 1996
You need more of the alloy to make the boots as your previous batches weren’t enough. Which isn’t surprising as you’ve already gone through eight batches of alloys making the rest of the armour. Even if you’ve gathered up a fair bit of metal to use, the crucible you brought is small and cheap so you can only make so much at once.
The bulk of the alloy is steel. That or iron as I can get the same effect if I mix in a source of carbon like dead plants. You just need the right ratios and heat it at the right temperatures at the right points. One in ten of it needs to be copper while I also need half again of that in aluminium. A touch of stainless steel and a few dead batteries for their zinc is enough to seal the deal once the rest of the alloy has been melted down and mixed together in the crucible.
After that, it is just a matter of keeping the fire at sufficient hotness and using a stick of scrap rebar steel to mix the molten mess. It isn’t ideal, but you need to keep the mixture from turning into a slurry lest you compromise the final result. The slag is already going to be bad enough, but at least that is getting rid of the useless parts.
***
November 1995
"Shouldn’t you be studying?" asks Joan weakly from her bed as this is one of those days where she is too frail to walk and you feel a pang of guilt.
Guilt because Joan is right. You should be studying, but how can you study when you know she is in such pain? Instead of hitting the books, you made your way to her bedside. To provide her with joy and happiness from having her girlfriend visit, who still loves her despite her sickened state.
"I’ll be fine," you lie, deciding not to mention that you have already slipped from the top of the class.
Not by much, but you are not second place in class. Perhaps even third place. You’ll definitely be no higher than third place at the start of next term at this rate, but what can you do? Stuck between a rock and a hard place with no way out.
But you can’t tell Joan that. She won’t be relieved and happy with your visits anymore if you do, instead feeling guilty about taking you away from your study.
***
December 1995
Perhaps you should have studied instead of spending time at Joan’s bedside. You have dropped to fourth place in class and for the first time since starting college, it looks like you are going to fail a module of your coursework. You need to include the latest coding taught in class, but you haven’t exactly been paying attention in any recent lessons.
You can’t afford to fail a module. Your family might not care about your success, but they’ll definitely hold any failures against you. It pains you to even consider this, but perhaps you could cheat off someone else. Find something using the coding that is generic enough that you can argue it is just coincidence it is the same. Heck, you could probably change a few details so it is less obvious. You do know enough about coding to pull it off.
You can do this.
***
January 1996
The battle against the Behemoth was a disaster, you decide as you read the newspaper a few days after the event was over. Perhaps not for South Africa and the rest of the world as they claim it was victory. That Eidolon, the Protectorate and the rest of the gathered heroes were able to fight the monster before it could do too much damage.
For Southampton? There wasn’t much that could have gone worse. The local villains already outnumbered the local heroes two to one even before the fight, but only half of the city’s heroes who went to the battle against Behemoth returned from it alive. Two of the three Paladins were dead, leaving only Silver Eagle as the survivor of her team against the aptly named Herokiller. Turret Knight of the local King’s Men also died at Behemoth’s hands along with Armoursmith, one of the local independent heroes, making a full third of the local heroic capes dead in a single day.
And how Silver Eagle has been temporarily frozen in the middle of the Common by the Partnership. You don’t know what the villainous Tinkers and their minions did, but the sole survivor of the Paladins has been frozen in time. It might wear off or someone might be able to reverse it, but if neither of those things happens, it means that the Paladins are over with no hope of Silver Eagle rebuilding the local hero team.
You hate this. Your favourite team of heroes is gone within a week. And worse of all, that evil, vile Lifesplicer was involved as one of the Partnership’s leadership.
***
January 1996
"What do you mean I’m expelled?" you demand as you glare at that smug little prick of a principal.
"There is significant overlap between portions of the code you submitted and examples of coding on the internet," says Principal Malcolm McAllister with a self-satisfied grin, "A clear case of plagiarism, Miss Geary."
That’s…this is completely unfair. Yes, you did plagiarised your work, but there is no way he should have been able to prove. You have enough leeway to reasonably argue it is just a coincidence, but this homophobic arsehole isn’t giving you that chance. You’re getting expelled not because you got fairly caught, but because this bigoted scum is seizing a flimsy excuse to expel you for being lesbian.
"You can’t prove-"you start angrily only for the scummy man to loudly cut you off.
"This matter has already been decided, Miss Geary," says Principal McAllister loudly, "You got caught cheating, you have been expelled for it and you are no longer a student here. In fact, you are a trespasser and I suggest you leave right now. Unless you want to be dragged out by the police and gain a criminal record. Assuming you don’t already have one, you filthy dyke."
***
January 1996
Your future is ruined. You won’t graduate college, you won’t be able to go to university and this black mark on your academic record will follow you everywhere. Your family will never forget about this and they’ll always hold it against you. You’ll never become successful and rich and everything else.
How can you explain this to Joan? You can stick by your official story. That you didn’t cheat. That the similarities are just coincidence and Principal McAllister was homophobically seizing a jumped up excuse to expel you for being an open and proud lesbian.
Only you know in your heart you did cheat. You chose to be with your girlfriend instead of studying. And even if you got caught for the wrong reasons, you are guilty. You gambled and it didn’t pay off and now you have to deal with the consequences of your actions.
If only Principal McAllister hadn’t gone for the maximum punishment he could get away with and had you expelled. You could have continued with your classes and your coursework and proven you knew your stuff. That the cheating accusation was false. Something you can’t do anymore because you did get expelled.
How can life be so fair and unfair at the same time? You should have been able to weather this, but your life is falling apart around you and-
-Two massive creatures, moving in sync as they shift and expand without ever changing the space they occupy, space that exists in parallel across dimensions. Alive yet not organic, you comprehend them without comprehending them, nothing about them matching your limited knowledge, their existence beyond what a human brain could grasp on its own. The pair of entities formed a double helix as they glided force and-
-and everything changes. For good or ill.
***
January 1996
It is finally done. The Paladin Armour is complete and ready for usage after hours of hard work. You aren’t too sure about the name. The Paladins were only wiped out this month and you don’t really have a connection to any of them beyond being a fan of them.
Is it arrogant or pretentious to take their name? Perhaps, but it isn’t like any of them are around to complain even if you have no doubts that others will. Besides, it isn’t like the Paladins have a monopoly on the name and it is a suitable heroic name that nobody else is currently using. A heroic name that is too generic for it to go unused. You would be surprised if one or more heroes are already using it in other countries.
And you won’t be using it as your superhero name. You aren’t that full of yourself and it would be in bad taste to do that so soon, no two ways about it. No, you’ll be Sentinel. A suitable heroic name that doesn’t give away your powers that happens to be free, A rarity these days, but nobody in the British Isles has been calling themselves Sentinels since the last holder of the name died shortly after the Golden Age of Parahumans ended.
You’ll be Sentinel, wearing the Paladin Armour. And you’ll make your mark on the city of Southampton.
***
Where did you get your initial supplies from? [ ] You stole from your former college. +1 Conflict, ??? [ ] You scavenged various scrapyards around the city. -1 Stress, ???
What are your goals? Pick at least one and no more than three. Will be able to take new goals once prior ones are completed. Completing a goal will give you its Reward Points to spend. [ ] You want to heal your girlfriend of what Lifeslicer did to her. 2 Reward Points. [ ] You want to destroy one of the gangs. Can be taken multiple times, but only once per each gang. -[ ] The Sterling Firm (Top Dog/7 Capes) 3 Reward Points. -[ ] The Partnership (Arms Dealers/7 Capes) (includes Lifeslicer) 3 Reward Points. -[ ] White Lightning (Homegrown Nazis/4 Capes) 2 Reward Points. -[ ] The Dock Lads (Provincial Locals/3 Capes) 1 Reward Point. -[ ] Ying Guo Triad (CUI Refugees/2 Capes) 1 Reward Points. [ ] You want to bring down Lifeslicer. 1 Reward Points. [ ] You want to establish yourself as a true hero to the people of Southampton. 2 Reward Points. [ ] You want to establish and lead your own team of at least three heroes. 2 Reward Points. [ ] You want to free Silver Eagle from her temporal imprisonment. 2 Reward Points. [ ] You want to earn £20,000 in pay as a Parahuman. 2 Reward Points. [ ] You want to get Principal Malcolm McAllister discredited and removed from a position of authority. 1 Reward Point. [ ] You want to figure out your Tinker speciality. 1 Reward Point. [ ] You want to fully equip yourself as a Tinker. 1 Reward Point.
Status: Independent Hero/Vigilante Stress = 5/10 Conflict = 5/10 Maintenance = 2/21 Health: 8 Encumbrance = 6 Funds = £61 Metals = £0.
To be chosen.
Tinker: Unknown Methodology & Unknown Speciality. Likely something to do with metal and/or armour. Brute: Your body has been transformed into the height of humanity, peak human in every way and then some. The only part of your body that hasn’t been enhanced to that degree is your appearance, where your looks have only been moderately improved. That said, apart from the impossibility of reaching the heights you have in every way and the fact you don’t need to maintain your physique, there is nothing especially supernatural about your body. Just an impossibly good body by the standards of non-Parahumans.
Nothing notable.
**Investigation (Int) **= Basic (0/4) **Medical (Int) **= Basic (0/4) **Perception (Awa) **= Basic (0/4) **Technology (Int) **= Professional (0/8) **Vehicle: Car (Agi) **= Amateur (0/2)
An abandoned house in a rundown neighbourhood. Half of the homes here aren’t being legally used and no one will give you a second look. They certainly won’t rat you out to the authorities and likely not to any of the gangs.
You have your forge set up in the basement, built using the cheapest tools you can buy or whatever you could acquire for free.
Designs List A/Paladin Armour [+Pattern] (Heavy Armour) = Costs £1,400 in metals to make and costs four Tinker slots to build. Requires two Maintenance slots. -Description: Provides Armour 3 and Encumbrance 2. Full-Body Plate Armour that grants substantial coverage against a wide range of effects from conventional damage. The alloy composition used in the metal grants an extraordinary degree of resistance, reducing the amount of harm inflicted even after multiple breaches. The armour also has protections against flames, gas, smoke, flashes and a few other minor impediments.
Builds Paladin Armour (No Pattern) = Uses two Maintenance slots.
**Joan Fowler **= Your crippled girlfriend and the love of your life. You are afraid to face her after getting expelled and transformed. The Gearys = Your family. Your parents hold little respect for your intellectual pursuits and don’t see you as being useful except as an extra pair of hands to help look after your sports-inclined younger siblings. Said siblings don’t respect you either, knowing that your parents will always side with you over them. Screw them. You don’t need them anymore. **The Paladins **= Your favourite team of heroes. Currently defunct with two members being killed by Behemoth and the final member being temporarily frozen. Lifeslicer = Villainous biotinker who is currently part of the Partnership and formerly belonged to the Sterling Firm. She was the one who kidnapped, tortured and maimed Joan and for that, you utterly hate her guts. Principal Malcolm McAllister = The head of your former college, this homophobic arsehole seized upon the flimsy excuse to inflict maximum punishment on you, doing his best to destroy life and future career. All because you are lesbian. You want revenge on him.
***
Okay, a mixture of the protagonist’s background leading up to her trigger event and her forging her first piece of Tinkertech. Speaking of which, that is the only piece of Tinkertech that you start off with anything else you need to figure out on your own. If you know your Tinker methodologies, it should be a big hint as to which one Leona has.
Anyway, I’ll be reusing a lot of elements from my first attempt at a Worm quest, but I’ve moved up the timeline to give me more room to play about in without being and to have more freedom from canon. At this point, Earth Bet is starting to get its act together, but it is far from having figured everything out.
For example, the Birdcage hasn’t been built yet, the Endbringer Truce is still in its formative stages, the Suits haven’t been formed yet and the Triumvirate still has all four of its original members. And you’ll have a decade and a half before you’ll need to worry about the Golden Morning.
Moving on, this will be the only post of character creation since I don’t want to get bogged down with that and we already have a pre-made protagonist. The next update will be the beginning of the first turn, the timeframe of which will be a week. That is to say that each turn represents a week in-universe.
The vote is basically setting up the starting storylines. What initial plot Leona has involved herself in and what starter goals you’ll be aiming for. Don’t be afraid to pick easy goals to start off with and get your footing. You can always go for the more ambitious goals once you have established yourself.
Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.