Fire Starter (RP Thread for Rescuer)

[Papa Bear]

Fire Starter

An individual RP Thread for Rescuer

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The building John Harcourt lived in had several amenities that made it very desirable.  First, there was a good coffee shop that was a kind of cultural hub.  They actually purchased a few paintings from the local artists and regulars to hang on the walls.  The coffee shop sat between a corner market and liquor store.  It was a bit expensive, but it was just so convenient! On the other side of the coffee shop was Gino’s Pizzas.  Gino made a good pie, but he also served several other Italian dishes (the Chicken Parmesan was probably his biggest seller… after the pizza, of course).  Gino also made deli sandwiches, which were also very good and a nice trade-out from the Italian food.  Gino himself was a fat, gregarious, black haired, mustachioed man who didn’t really do any cooking any more as his business was pretty successful but was always in the restaurant greeting customers, asking how their meal is, and telling stories.

On the back side of the building, off of "the Strip" where the cultural elite would hang out sitting outside of the various Cafés drinking their mock-tails and snacking on appetizers and, usually critiquing the passersby, was a laundromat and a Hobby Supply shop that specifically catered to the artiests in the building. It was fairly new. Someone finally realized the types of people that lived in the area and opened a shop to capitalize on them. It was definitely pricey. But sometimes John or any one of his contemporaries would run out of acetone, needed a tube of paint or a specific kind of brush and down to the hobby shop you would go. The biggest problem, moreso than the cost was that the space was small for all of the supplies for all of the different hobbies that they were trying to cater to and so their stock mainly supplied the more common things. But if you needed something less common, you had to go all the way down the street to the college (which was where John could usually find what he needed as a painter) or halfway across town to Blicks.

John had lost track of time painting and needed to unwind before going to bed… and maybe a bite to eat wouldn’t hurt.  He accepted the blueberry muffin and decaffeinated latte from the barista with paint covered hands.  That wasn’t uncommon for the Roasted Bean.  Many of their patrons were also painters and relaxed in the coffee shop before, after, and sometimes during their painting sessions.  Of course, there were many posers.  You could always tell because they had paint on their faces.  Sure, occasionally there would be an itch and you’d wipe it with the back of your wrist and accidentally have paint there, but that was rare.  You didn’t wipe or scratch with your hands because you had a brush or painting knife in one hand and a painter’s pallet in the other.  You had to put them down to do anything and in so doing, were instantly reminded of the paint all over your hands and to not touch your face.  John, like most artists, used the back end of his paint brush to scratch.  Posers who didn’t really paint for a living didn’t usually know that.

Sitting in his favorite, big, comfy chair, John dunks a corner of the muffin into the latte and enjoys the blend of the flavors that the Roasted Bean specifically tailored into their baked goods.  Then John heard it – A Fire Department siren… and getting closer!

[hakootoko]

John was sitting hunched limply over his mug, his loose muffin crumbs falling into the liquid rather than the chair. Yet when the sirens go by he quickly sits up straight, in a way that suggests he's a dog with his ears at full attention. Biting off as much muffin as his mouth can hold, he puts the rest down on the napkin beside him and reaches for his phone. Almost immediately he has the site and the truck showing on a map. He screws the lid on his travel mug and gets up to leave.

His friend Becky has been watching him from across the room, not wanting to interrupt whatever thoughts he was relaxing to. Now she's openly smirking at him, and calls out "Go, go! I'll clean it up!" Town full of heroes, and big guy wants to be one, she thinks. At least he's not out getting knifed in the slums.

John races home, drops his phone into the cradle on his dashboard, and is off. While stopped at the first red light, he sticks his 'authorized personnel' tag on his windshield. It's the best he's got. They're not going to let off-duty firemen take flashing red lights home with them, after all. At the scene, he pulls up far to the side so as not to block any large, official vehicles that might still be on the way, and looks for someone in charge.

[Papa Bear]

As soon as John steps outside he gets a big snoot full of smoke. He knows where it is coming from his alert. That probably wouldn't ev n have been necessary as everyone on the street is heading the same direction. As soon as he gets around the corner, he can see billows of smoke rising above the apartment complex next to his own.

The fire is in the next building back. Where the Smoke Shack was located. On scene, the first truck pulls to a stop and the well trained team of firefighters makes short work of pulling out their hoses and attaching them to the fire hydrants. In less than a minute water begins drenching the building as a second truck pulls up and begins the same business. A couple minutes later, the fire chief arrives and calls out for a quick assessment.

Apparently the fire started in a second floor apartment, got into the walls and has quickly spread through the pine wood. So at the moment it is difficult to tell how far it has spread within the building. Evacuations are still being done.

[hakootoko]

John scans the building with his mental senses, counting up how many people and where they are in the building. He walks up to the chief. "We've got xxx people in there, sir. Can you lend me a suit and tank to get them out?"

 

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OOC: Some sort of roll is in order here, probably just a perception roll for his "See Mind" 14- , unless you've rather have "Mind Scan". I don't know what the roll for mind scan is; it depends on how many people are around.

[Papa Bear]

John can sense 32 people still inside the building (that are not firemen). The fire chief starts to protest, "How would you know..." Then there is recognition in his eyes as he realizes the man standing before him is The Rescuer. "Your him, your... QUICK GET THIS MAN WHATEVER HE NEEDS!"  The chief shouts out and shortly John is provided with whatever gear he likes. Of the 32 people, John can sense about half of them moving through the building as if they are evacuating. Those are probably safe. 12 others are hardly moving, possibly trapped in a room or behind a blazing door. the final three (not exactly half) seem to not be moving, but they are not dead. There are 5 floors with 3 of the 15 people 'trapped' on each floor.

 

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These are all basically normal people, so 8 to 12 Ego for each of them. You've 'connected' to the minds, now to more effectively find them, you'll make your Mind Scan roll. With a 10d6 we can safely assume you will tag each at the Ego +10 level even on a poor roll so let's not worry about that... John will know the direction and distance to each person. If you need or want more information, then we'll have to make the Mind Scan roll.

There are three entrances into the building, one on each of the three street facings (the fourth wall looks into an alley and the next building over). The 'main entrance' is ahead of John and he's seen four firefighters enter, two by two.

[hakootoko]

He hopes those moving through the building will be found by the other firefighters and directed out. It's the trapped ones that may not be found... if it wasn't for him.

Suited up, John heads confidently into the main entrance behind the other. "We've got a dozen trapped people in here," he says to the two firefighters just ahead of him. "Come with me. We need to make them a way out."

He moves to the blocked door on the first floor where the first group is trapped, and leaving one firefighter to break it down and get them out, he then moves up the stairs with the second and repeat. By the third floor he's all alone, and will have to depend on his own fire axe to get the door open.

[Papa Bear]

A blaze has broken out in the hallway in front of the stairwell. A building this size will have several, but he will have to either go back down and around or leap and navigate through the flames and hope the floor doesn't give way. Collapses were death.

The problem right now was that without a greater connection, John gets the sense that this trapped person is a frightened child hiding in a closet not far away.

[hakootoko]

In the stairwell behind the closed firedoor, John brings to mind what he knows about this building, where the next stairwell is. Then he zooms in on the mind of the child, trying to establish a telepathy contact, to calm them and convince them to leave their closet and make for the stairwell he remembers. As he gets a deeper sense of the mind in question, he thinks of what he's going to say to them...

[Papa Bear]

heh, you can probably mind control the kid using telepathy with that roll.

The child follows John's instructions and John can 'see' through the child's eyes as the boy relays everything he sees to John so John can get him safely to the stairwell and keep him calm so he follows the instructions. Then a thought hits the boy's mind, one that he transmits to John that shocks him.

*There's a man.* the boy thinks to John. *He's standing in the fire.*

[hakootoko]

Still standing behind the closed door, John thinks the boy to safety, and then uses his mind sense to see through the door to look for a mind inside the fire he had seen earlier. He quietly wedges his fireman's axe between the door handle and a pipe standing in the stairwell, so the door can't be opened until he removes it.

[Papa Bear]

Let's do another Mind Scan. Now that you *know* the man is there and basically can see him through the boy's eyes, you should be able to find his mind this time.

The boy continues to follow your instructions but the boy begins to freak out as the "burning man is following me and catching everything on fire!"

[hakootoko]

I'm wondering why my Detect isn't good enough for this; it's got penetrative and targeting. It feels like I'm about to get into combat, and then I'm going to need to tally how much END I've used so far. The Detect doesn't cost END, while the Mind Scan does.

[Papa Bear]

Mainly because the kid ran around toward that other stairwell and is no longer near you with several walls between you. Something always blocks Detect and they are 'sort of' based off of your senses (in this case, the mental sense group), mainly things like range... I don't believe we've defined what 'blocks' John's detect. And technically, you have to use your Mind Scanning or Mental Awareness (which I don't think you have) in order to use Detect since you need to use the appropriate sense to detect. You mind scanned the building so I am fine with the detect if the kid were still in range. There are not automatic Mental senses that a character gets (like sight, sound, touch, etc)

As for the END... this isn't combat, you get a recovery every 12 seconds, 5 times a minute... so any END you've used will recover quickly unless you need to recover stun (and of course, you can choose which you recover)

I will say this, the description of Detect and how its used is pretty minimal in Champions Complete. It is fleshed out much better in the 6e books (well, almost everything is)

Edited April 25 by Papa Bear (see edit history)

[hakootoko]

You're right, I forgot to specify on the character sheet what blocks the Detect. I had suggested 'silk' or 'teak', and you were fine with those. So I'll add 'teak' as a substance his See Mind can't see through. That means sometimes a wall of teak will block it.

I do have Mental Awareness. 'See Mind' is an Enhanced Sense built the same way Mental Awareness is, but with a wider scope. Mental Awareness is a Detect with a 'class of things' (psychic powers) for 5cp. My 'See Mind' is a Detect with a 'large class of things' (minds and psychic powers), plus a few Sense Modifiers: 360 degrees, discriminating, penetrating, and targeting.

Overall, I was picturing his Mind Scan in the multipower as a way to find a specific person in a crowd or a building, and his more expensive See Mind as used for as his targeting sense for attacking people. Also, in the rules under Mind Scan, he can't use it to target people for attack because it's in the multipower with his attack. p79: "Mind Scan costs END only when making an MCV Attack Roll. However, even though it doesn’t cost END to maintain, it’s still a Constant Power, and the character must keep it “turned on;” for example, if it’s in a Multipower, he cannot switch the slots."

 

[hakootoko]

I just want to add that I'm sure we can work something out. I don't mind rearranging my powers and costs to something we're both comfortable with.