Masks: Gauntlet Quarterly S1
Date
1/2/2019
System
Masks: A New Generation
GM
Lowell Francis
Players
Steven desJardins, Chris Newton, Steven Watkins,
Session Recap
This was primarily a character creation session. The players settled on a mid-tone game set in Gauntlet City. We established three characters:
Sara Sparks aka Molly Kirby. She’s a smart and athletic third generation superhero. Sparks follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, Flag Waver, who is currently in an induced coma. Her father, once heir to the mantle, took the name Night Terror and is in prison for his vigilante extremism. Sara was raised and trained by her grandfather and uncle. (Legacy)
Gabriel is a lifeform sent by forces further up the timestream. Intended as a probe, Gabriel awoke a couple of millennia late during an alien invasion. Gabriel changes form, appearance, and gender, but always seems a little off. They communicate with a “caretaker” who may be in contact with their hypertime creators. (Newborn)
Overclock found a crashed time observation post that had been landed to assist Tachytron in its role as a slow creeping Empyreonix infection from a dark technopocalypse future/alternate dimension. The craft bonded with him in its malfunctioning state, but Will was infected by the damaged Empyreonix nanocode. (Doomed)
All three characters attend a Gauntlet City Anchor school which has provisions for unusual lifeforms (hence Gabriel’s presence there). The three characters have a mixed knowledge of each other’s secret IDs, with Overclock and Sara attending in their civilian identities. As they ate lunch in the cafeteria, mysterious flames appeared around people—burning the area but not the students.
The team cleared the cafeteria and attempted to extinguish the flames. However this seemed to focus the inferno, which shifted and became a portal out of which a figure emerged. The team confronted him in the courtyard, where they discovered he was Asphyxia, a mercenary villain hired by the Empyreonix to capture Overclock. The team fought, but the villain used his powers to destroy the oxygen in the area, threatening students at the school.
Overclock confronted Asphyxia and landed a solid blow, but the villain took him out. Gabriel and Sara coordinated and tried to remove the villain’s armored suit, only to find it was a containment vessel and opening it sent things haywire. They eventually managed to reseal him and take him out. Overclock took off, embarrassed at his relative inability during the fight.
Dr. Nicholas Alset, leader of an AEON research division, arrived and put pressure on Sparks, but she resisted. The team took off in separate directions and we saw a little of their home life.
Highlight
Overclock's desperation at the end of the fight as he realized he'd endangered everyone and been (as he saw it) useless in the conflict.
Moment of Insight
Lot of time travel elements.
Actual Play