GenCon 1993

Saturday

Champions Tournament (Preliminary Round)

Saturday morning was my only scheduled 8:00 am event, the Champions tournament. I knew this was supposed to be the final tournament, and that a big finish was in the offing, so I wanted to be involved in the final, since it would probably be my last chance at winning it. For a character I picked Diamond, who is a female shrinking brick; I played her flirtatious with a phony ‘Southern belle’ accent, but what made my effort (I think) was the body language: I brought my right leg up over my left knee, folded my hands over my right knee, and smiled. I also sat on the shoulder of Challenger, the leader, since Diamond still weighs close to her own normal weight and he was one of the few people strong enough to support her weight naturally. I also did a few other things, like picking up and jumping with a truck to use as a makeshift barrier when a levee ruptured, and visited sick teenaged girls in a field hospital while the others were tracking down information.

The other characters were Challenger, a flying brick, Chicago city cop, and the general leader of the Confederation of Heroes; Fist, a black martial artist; Halo, a Hispanic light elemental; Oak, a sorcerously-animated tree (I got it right this time, didn’t I Sue?); Dakota, a “High Plains drifter” with wind powers; Indigo, a woman with darkness and mental powers; and Necro, Chicago special coroner with a death aura. The team is based in Chicago and has been together for about three years now.

We started by showing up to help strengthen a levee during the flooding in southern Illinois; just as we arrived to help lend a hand and to cheer up the National Guard and volunteers it started to rupture and only by fast action by everyone on the team was disaster averted. That’s when I took the truck (I was later going to apologize for using but never got the chance) and jumped to the levee and placed in the main flow. Oak had already been standing on the levee; he “rooted” and supported the piles of sandbags, preventing them from being further washed away. The rest of the team got everyone out of the way, diverting the water away from the crowd. Once the levee was stable, everyone came back to fill and pile sandbags.

When it was safe, we started investigating a series of reported paranormal occurances that lead us west into Kansas. We commandeered a jet helicopter, without which we’d never have been able to get around as quickly as we needed. Our first stop was to confront a man who had the uncontrollable power of projecting explosive blasts; he had already started a minor earthquake (which had caused the levee rupture) and an apartment house fire. I, Necro, Challenger, Dakota, and Oak helped out with the fire rescuing people: shrunken, I was the safest as I told the GM “The best place in a building fire is closest to the floor.” The others found that could not control his powers, and that they built up a charge several seconds apart that would then fire from his hands. There was very little we could for him; even Indigo could not assist him telepathically. We then got more radio reports of more paranormal occurances further westward.

Aside from the man with the blaster powers, there was a man turned everything the color green within several yards of himself; a woman who began melting uncontrollably, disfiguring her children horribly when they tried to touch her; and a baby who manifested 100′ tall images of Barney and Big Bird. Our research eventually showed a definite pattern to these occurances, which were people with no history of paranormal powers suddenly manifesting them, often without any control, all in a limited area in the Midwest. Eventually we would discover a link between the weather and the occurances.

We finally traced the apparent source of the cause of the powers to a farm in Kansas, which was actually an old Dr. Destroyer deathtrap set up for the Texas Rangers; a glass cage snapped shut around us while rocket engines roared to life, hurtling the cage down a dark shaft in the ground to certain doom. Since it was not set up to account for the powers of the members of the Confederation we were able to escape fairly easily. In its control room we discovered weather maps, indicating several storm fronts in the MidWest. At the center we found a group of paranormals, apparently seeding and directing the storms. Those we took care of fairly quickly: when one made a comment that “You’re all sterile” Diamond almost went berserk (she was sterile, which I felt was part of the trouble she was having with her husband). “What was that about sterile?” I said as I punched his lights out. That’s when we heard the weather report about several storm fronts, all leading out from this area, and one in particular heading directly for Chicago. (To be continued Sunday.)

Mike Mallonee ran the session, and afterwards he left for several minutes making the decision as to who to name as finalist and alternate for the session. I had my own event to run directly afterwards; fortunately, it was only a few booths down, so I was able to get people set up while waiting for Mike to decide. Mike eventually returned at just before noon; I don’t remember who was picked as alternate, but as soon as he made that announcement I could feel that he was going to name me as finalist. Sure enough, he did. I almost jumped for joy. (I eventually did, later.)

I was on a pretty good high starting my event. I only ran one session this year, since I was not able to commit to appearing before Saturday when I submitted the event request. I had pretty good hopes for the event, but I guess I got spoiled with the level of roleplaying from the other tournaments and was faintly dissatisfied with the players. (Or maybe it was my fault having too high of expectations: I don’t know.) Anyway, we did have fun, so I guess that was what counted.

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