Amelia

Edited - durf Persephone: 6PP to spend. ABILITIES: +6 Wisdom, from 14 (+2) to 20 (+5) [6PP] +2 Charisma, from 22 (+6) to 24 (+7) [2PP] SAVING THROWS: -3 Will, from 8 (+13) to 5 (+10) [-3PP] SKILLS: No change in total cost. -3 Concentration, from 8 (+13) to 5 (+10) +4 Gather Information, from 9 (+16) to 13 (+20) -3 Medicine, from 6 (+11) to 3 (+8) -1 Perform (Dance), from 4 (+11) to 3 (+10) +3 Perform (Oratory), from 0 (+7) to 3 (+10) FEATS: Remove Contacts [-1PP] POWERS: +1 Flight, from rank 1 to rank 2 [2PP] Flight 2 (25MPH, 250ft per Move Action, Extras: Affects Others, Flaws: Platform) [4PP] No change in cost, but I forgot to include the area size on the Environment Control power. Please copy/paste: Environment Control 1 (Light [Level 1], Area: 5ft radius, Extras: Action [Move], Flaws: Range [Touch]) [1PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Bioluminescence, Plant Body, Shapeshifting) No change in cost here, but please replace the Transform effect in the Plant Control array with this version: Transform 10 (Plants, Extras: Duration [Continuous, Lasting], Flaws: Action [Full], Distracting, Range [Touch], Feats: Accurate 3 [+6 Attack], Extended Reach [10ft], Indirect, Progression [Mass] 3 [5 tons]) [28PP] Please also swap in this updated DC chart: ATTACK RANGE SAVING THROW EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC15 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Create Object Ranged DC20 Reflex Trapped Dropped Object Ranged/Area DC20 Reflex Avoided DC25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Emotion Control Ranged DC20 Will (Staged) Calm: Removes all Emotion Control conditions Despair: Shaken/Helpless Fear: Shaken/Frightened/Panicked Hate: Attitude = Hostile Hope: Removes Despair and Fear Love: Attitude = Friendly/Helpful/Fanatical Fatigue Ranged DC20 Fortitude (Staged) Fatigued/Exhausted/Unconscious Healing Touch DC19 Fortitude (Harmless) Healing Move Object Ranged Grapple vs +20 Pinned/Bound Thrown Object Throwing (Str 50) DC25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Snare Ranged DC20 Reflex (Staged) Entangled/Bound Transform Touch +5ft DC20 Fortitude Transformed

Educated - durf Octoman: 9PP to spend. ABILITIES: +2 Intelligence, from 16 (+3) to 18 (+4) [2PP] +2 Charisma, from 16 (+3) to 18 (+4) [2PP] SKILLS: +8 Skill ranks: [2PP] +4 Knowledge (Pop Culture), from 7 (+11) to 11 (+15) +4 Knowledge (Technology), from 2 (+6) to 6 (+10) +1 Knowledge (Theology & Philosophy), from 0 (+4) to 1 (+5) -1 Search, from 2 (+6) to 1 (+5) FEATS: Second Chance (Computers) [1PP] POWERS: +8 Enhanced Skills [2PP] +3 Notice, from 7 to 10 +5 Search, from 5 to 10 This changes his Notice and Search to read as follows: Notice 5 (+15/+5) Search 1 (+15/+5)

Yeah, I see that now that I read the IC thread like I shoulda before saying anything.

Octoman is ready to rumble. That's the sort of topic that might have personal significance for Ben.

Wait, is Torque attacking the zombie horde, or the giant zombie croc? The power stunt I'd designed was assuming he was mowing through the horde, which is why it was a General Area attack that wouldn't need an attack roll. Is Heritage not still using that?

That should be a -5, which would be an 18, which would still hit. Toughness save (DC20): 26.

Speed-Demon has Move-By Action, so if he doesn't escort the others too far away, he could split his move action to be both before and after his standard action, evacuating the trapped guy too.

Octoman ? OHHHHH OHHH SOMTIIIMES ? ? I GETTA GOOD FEELINNNG, YEAHHH ? ? GET A FEELING THAT I NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER HAD BEFORE, NO NO ? ? I GET A GOOD FEELING, YEAH ? At first, it sounded to the people in the dorm like the electronic dance music was coming from a P.A. system. But it grew noticeably louder when Ben Wang walked around the corner into the hallway. His hands were both full, carrying a double-stack of large plastic tubs. His shirt was lined on both sides with a series of metal-grommeted holes trailing under his arms to his waist, and four tentacles, in the same shade of brown as his skin, were poking out through some of the holes. Two of the tentacles each carried a portable speaker. Despite their size, just a few inches, the speakers were surprisingly powerful. He wore a smartwatch on his left wrist, which vibrated and flashed its notification light along with the music, as did the smartphone in his pocket. While his tentacles swayed back and forth and his head nodded in time to the music, he danced (badly) in a series of circles down the halls, spreading his movement more or less evenly between the floor, each wall, and the ceiling. He mostly seemed oblivious to the people around him, but as he passed by each person, the two free tentacles would momentarily take up the burden of his stack of plastic tubs, freeing up his hands to make a double "finger guns" gesture at them with an accompanying smile, whether he was upside-down at the time or not.

I found the archived version of the old Champions Online wiki, which was much more robust than either of the current replacements. https://web.archive.org/web/20130825234710/http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Main_Page After cross-referencing the Vibora Bay book with the info in that wiki, I saw several changes and retcons: Guy Sweetland brought the Dogz gang into his organization, giving them a leg up and bolstering his syndicate with extra muscle. Sweetland was infected with lycanthropy, and he spread it among the Dogz, who are mostly werewolves now. Clark Robinson isn't a vampire himself, but he's being mind-controlled by one ("Vladic Drakul", the father of Vlad Tepes), who's been steadily turning members of the New Shadows into vampires. The Sovereign Sons aren't just a bunch of Caribbean gangsters. Their bokors, mambos and houngans toss around real magic, command real zombies, and transform into real were-alligators. The Baron isn't secretly one of Mister Gemini's duplicates. He really is being ridden by the loa Cimetiere. The Trey Kings aren't a normal gang either. They're Therakiel cultists, the lowliest foot-soldiers in his hierarchy, and they have actual black magic and demonic powers thanks to that allegiance. Their new aesthetic is basically "The Cenobites from Hellraiser". The High Apostolic Church is, at its very highest level, another arm of Therakiel's cult. There is a main headquarters for the church, at the far north end of High Street, and it doubles as Therakiel's secret headquarters. Are we using any of this?

Peresphone's Initiative: 6.

GM Olivia Lenkiewicz held her children tightly against her body, then tenderly handed them off to her mother and walked a few meters away to speak with the uniformed sergeant in charge of the crime scene that used to be her family's home. "Honestly, how long is he going away for? Be straight with me, please." she inquired about her ex-husband as the ambulance drove him away. The sergeant took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and glanced over at her children. Despite the distance, he kept his voice low. "Honestly? Bein' straight with you? The paramedics don't think he'll survive long enough to see the inside of the hospital. That was the mother of all powerballs he shot himself up with. I don't think he realized how pure it was when he got his hands on it. But if by some miracle he pulls through, he's looking at multiple felony assault counts, and the second those drugs hit his system, they all got upgraded to aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon." The sergeant started counting on his fingers. "Then there's breaking and entering...the destruction of both private and public property's probably gonna get pinned on him...he'd probably never see daylight again, even if he wasn't also looking at a separate kidnapping charge for each and every one of you in that apartment. Every single one of those could be a life sentence by itself. The D.A. would get a conviction with their eyes closed even if this was his first offense, and it ain't. His priors won't do him any favors. As a general rule, Freedom City juries aren't big fans of philandering junkie wife-beaters even before they start tearing up city blocks and holding women and children at gunpoint. He's going away, and he's not gettin' out again unless some 'supervillain' breaks him out."

Mister Strix Mister Strix sighed as he continued to retrieve the fallen books. "Don't think of it as an alarm. Think of it as a poorly-trained guard dog. Only instead of living with the dog, you live inside it." Strix sighed some more. "The time you're spending indulging your boundless optimism is time better spent writing your future self notes." The man in red-splattered white dropped the stack of retrieved tomes back onto his desk and slumped back down into his plush leather chair. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "If I were treating this like a mortal disease, quarantining the known infected would only be the first step. The next one would be tracing the infection back to its source, retracing everybody's steps. The two we have downstairs were infected by Maria Delgado when she turned. The kid said that her husband, Javier, infected her. How was he infected? The kid had some idea about that, didn't he? And what about the one you found in the morgue? Did those two have anything in common? Were they coworkers? Cousins?"

Persephone will keep maintaining her Flight and Environment Control (Light) effects, and she will use either her Move Object or Create Object effect to lift up the rubble so she can make sure no one was inside the church when it collapsed. If she can treat the rubble (or at least part of it) as one "object", then she can use Move Object to move a weight of 12 tons five feet per round, with each halving of weight resulting in a doubling of speed. If she can't treat the rubble as a single object, then she can use Create Object to make a thing that rises up from underneath the rubble, and that thing can support up to 12 tons of weight (same lifting strength as the Move Object effect), though it can't move once it's done coming into existence and filling the space it's gonna fill (up to 10 50ft cubes worth of volume). Both effects have Indirect 3, so she can come at it from any direction she needs to.

Persephone Persephone raised a hand to cover her mouth as she stared at the unfolding scene with wide, softly glowing violet eyes full of sadness. Earlier in the day, Camellia had left her usual pearls at home in favor of a simple gold cross, worn discreetly under her shirt since she preferred not to advertise, even when it would be socially advantageous. Now it hung openly around Persephone's neck. Her hand fell from her mouth to clutch the pendant while she mouthed a silent prayer. Lord, please watch over your children tonight, as we try to watch over each other. As you have forgiven our sins, so please forgive them this desecration, so that those who wrought it might learn forgiveness. Please extend to them the mercy that they would not show us, so that they might learn to be merciful. Please help us to ease whatever pain drove them to this horror. Still hovering above the ground, held aloft by the stretched branch of a nearby sycamore, her nearly two yards of glowing purple hair still illuminating the night sky around her, Persephone glanced back and forth between the ruined church, the corpses digging out of their own graves, and the enormous crocodile. I reckon that church was probably empty. The monsters, they're the immediate threat. It doesn't look like anyone lived there. The monsters need to be contained. There probably wasn't anyone taking shelter inside. That croc isn't gonna stop with the church...No. No, no, NO! Good gravy, Girl, what're you thinking?! Probably's as useless as a screen door on a submarine! We need to make sure. Would you want anyone else gambling with your life like that? With your family's lives? Persephone took a deep breath. Her arms drifted in a fluid upward arc toward the church ruins, one of them fully extended, the other bent closer to her body. Vines from several different directions slithered across the ground toward the rubble, while dozens of roots burst up from the dirt under and around it. Each one inflated to several times its normal size, until they ranged in diameter from an inch to a foot or more. She rotated her arms so that her open palms, which had been facing the ground, now pointed skyward. Then she slowly lifted both hands. The swollen plant pseudopods slid under and wrapped around the chunks of fallen masonry, and hefted it up off the ground, exposing what was left of the church interior. She shouted into the church ruins. "HEYYY! IS ANYONE IN THERE?! HOLLER IF YOU'RE STUCK!"

Will save (DC15): 19. Initiative: 14.

Mister Strix The man in white crouched over the skylight. His black eyes widened when he spotted the tattoos peeking out from the man's sleeves. "Yakuza," he whispered. "They're finally making a play for Bedlam. If you profit from human misery, this city is a gold mine. He knows we're coming, and he thinks he can take us." He let his gaze fall to his feet for a few moments. "He wants his people to see him take us. A blitz attack from stealth, taking him down before he can react, that's the smart move. But it isn't enough for them just to leave my city. They need to leave and never return. He needs to see it coming. He needs to know who beat him. His people need to know." Too high for either of them to jump down without assistance. They're trapped up here without me. They're safe up here. "And I've put you two in too much danger for one night already." Mister Strix let himself fall head-first down through the skylight, evaporating into a cloud of mist in the fraction of a second after he cleared it. He solidified back into a man near the end of his fall, about ten feet above the ground, his massive cape spread above and behind him. His feet touched down without a sound in front of the wooden chair and the man sitting in it.

Grim Diddle's Toughness save (DC19): 19. He makes it exactly. Grim Diddle's Grapple check (DC30): 27. He fails, but not by 5+, so he's only Pinned, not Bound. Some weird luck he's having there. Grim Diddle: Move Action: He tries to Escape the grapple. Grim Diddle's Grapple check (at -4 because of Dead Head's Improved Pin): 17. Dead Head can match that on a roll of "1". Standard Action: He tries to use his Drain Constitution power on Dead Head. Dead Head is Immune to Fortitude effects (though Grim Diddle doesn't know that yet), so it automatically fails. End of round. Initiative & Conditions Summary Woodchuck Man: 27, Pinned, Sickened, Nauseated, Helpless Ethan Pfeffner, Fratboy #1: 20, Bruised, Injured, Shaken, Drained Constitution (10 > 1) Fratboy #2: 20, Bruised, Injured, Staggered, Disabled, Unconscious, Shaken, Prone Fratboy #3: 20, Bruised x2, Injured x2, Staggered, Disabled, Unconscious, Dying, Shaken, Prone Fratboy #4: 20, Bruised x3, Injured x3, Staggered, Disabled, Unconscious, Shaken, Frightened, Prone Fratboy #5: 20, Shaken, Frightened, Panicked Fratboy #6: 20, Shaken, Frightened, Panicked [Other]: 19, Unharmed Mister Strix: 12, 0HP, Fatigued, Grappling Dead Head: 11, 0HP, Exhausted Fire: Out Grim Diddle: 4, Pinned Homeless Man: -, Helpless, Bruised, Injured Woodchuck Man: Still Helpless. Ethan Pfeffner: Two more move actions to run the hell away. The Drain Con has Slow Fade on it, so he's not getting any back anytime soon. Fratboys #2-4: Still Unconscious. [Other]: Free Action: Use Communication. Mister Strix: Free Action: Maintain the grapple. Free Action: Extra Effort to Mind Read again. He'll be Exhausted on his next turn. Standard Action: Mind Read + Nauseate again. Mind Reading check: 26. Woodchuck Man's Will save: 5. He fails against both effects by 15+, so the counter on Helpless resets, and Strix gets another question. "Who set the homeless people on fire?" Free Action: Release the grapple. Move Action: Move to Dead Head. Free Action: Talk. Dead Head is up.

Mister Strix The man in white took another sip from the Woodchuck Man's vein and focused on pushing his mind through the layers of psychic resonance built up in the creature's blood, straining and grasping for the right information. Who set the fires? Who burned those people? Who?! WHO?! At last, he found the right set of memories, things the Woodchuck Man didn't want to know, things he'd tried to forget. He smelled the burning flesh but not this night's offerings. He bit his tongue, forced a drop of his dark blood to the surface, and licked it onto the Woodchuck Man's throat, instantly closing the punctures his fangs had left. Then he gently laid the creature down onto the concrete, and dashed out of the alley to Dead Head's side. "Dee, STOP! We had this all wrong!"

GM "GUUUHHHHHHHHHH!!! NNNNNNNGGGGG!!!" The blue glowing man was tough. Dead Head's teeth didn't quite break his skin. But his jaw got a firm grip on the man's arm, and he stopped moving, hovering in place while frantically waving his arms around trying to dislodge the severed head. He stared with wide white eyes which lit up again like twin magnesium flares, just like they had right before Ethan Pfeffner was instantly emaciated. Nothing happened. Pfeffner continued to scream in terror as he half-ran, half-stumbled down the empty street. Dead Head and Mister Strix both heard a voice in their minds. It felt like the same hands which had tried to pry open his mind now just knocked on the door. Please don't hurt him. I'm sorry. Please stop.

Oh, and she's got Affects Others, but she doesn't have any Progression feats on that. It looks like Cheval took her up on her offer, so if Sagrado wants to be the third wheel, then she'll have to use Extra Effort to get a temporary Progression rank.

Mister Strix Mister Strix continued to glare at Wadjet. "Have you been seeing things since you got here? Feel like someone's breathing down your neck, but nothing's there when you turn around? Furniture moving around when you're not looking? That's the house. You're not a member of the club, and you're not an employee, so, despite my best efforts..." He turned his black-eyed stare up at the ceiling. "...Despite my specific instructions, it considers you fair game. It knows it can't get away with hurting you, but it's going to mess with you, because like everything else here, it's an evil thing being forced to do good, but unlike everything else, it's also a spoiled toddler throwing a twenty-four/seven tantrum. And it's shy, so, since you're not part of 'the family', the second you leave, it's going to reach into your mind and try its best to rip your memories of this place out by the roots." He pulled open a desk drawer, retrieved a notepad with a pen clipped to it, and tossed it at Wadjet. "So write things down. Starting with that. I don't want to have to repeat everything back to you later, or explain to Horus where the nightmares are coming from." "Good. I don't know how safe he is, even with both of his parents dead. I don't know if the others who infected them know about him, or if they'd have any reason to come after him. We should assume he's in danger until they're all ashes and they all fall down." "It's true, these things bear no more than a superficial resemblance to my condition. Things that just slow me down will kill them outright. And I'm not...contagious. The bastard didn't turn me into this by accident. He had to work at it. Make a project out of me." "I've already pumped the two guests downstairs full of every kind of post-exposure prophylaxis known to human science. If they'd just been stuck with a hepatitis needle, they'd probably be fine. But a plague that's at least as much sorcery as virus? I don't know if it'll make any difference. I'm not holding my breath...That wasn't a joke. Sorry. Old habits." "...Johann..." Mister Strix muttered to himself as he sullenly walked around the office retrieving the books he'd sent flying around the room. "I have an idea of where they came from. The piece of garbage walking around in the shape of a man who murdered me...he likes to pay me a visit once in a while. Celebrate what he calls 'my birthday'. Usually it's just a beating. I don't know yet how he keeps finding me. He wants me to become part of his twisted little 'family' after he breaks me in." He turned to Dead Head. "He's the one who showed me what the inside of my own throat looks like the other day. He said something about 'teaching me a lesson', 'showing me how good I have it, how much worse it could've been'. There's no way this is a coincidence. Maybe he created these things? Maybe he sent them here? Or maybe he just knew they were coming, and wanted to rub my nose in it. I don't know, and I doubt it matters. Unleashing something like this just to make a point is perfectly consistent with what little I know about him."

GM: 3 posts = 6 IC posts Everyone Is From Somewhere (1) Octoman: Close To Home (1) Siren Song of The Void (1) 1 to Dirge 2 to Mister Strix 1 to Persephone 2 unused Dirge: 0 IC posts + 1 GM post = 1 IC post = 1PP [None] Mister Strix: 8 IC posts + 2 GM posts = 10 IC posts = 2PP Bedlam Burning: Beauty & The Beasts (1) Everyone is From Somewhere (2) Golgotha Tenement Blues (2) Red Death Redemption (3) Octoman: 19 IC posts = 2PP Dagon The King (3) Freaky Fraternity (2) It's Moving Day (8) Rat Patrol (5) Tech Compliance (1) Persephone: 9 IC posts + 1 GM post = 10 IC posts = 2PP, +1PP Guide Bonus = 3PP Storm of The Century (9) Guide Bonus (1PP)

Persephone's Flight is only rank 1, 10MPH, so even with her ability to effectively bypass terrain, it might take her a while to reach the big guy.

Persephone "Well it dills my pickle to hear that you're alright!" Persephone swung closer to the young man and gently rested a hand on his shoulder. "But Honey, you won't be alright for much longer out in this dam-buster. And other people could get hurt if they come out looking for you. But you're in luck, 'cause there's a shelter at St. Paul's right near here, not two blocks that way." She pointed in the general direction of the church. Which you darn well know already, because you were just there. So what the heck are you doing out here? Persephone heard (and felt) over half a ton of giant metal man stomping and splashing down the street before she saw him. She was alarmed for a brief moment, assuming a defensive posture and getting halfway through the mental command for the tree's fronds to expand into tentacles. But she relaxed when he smiled and waved, so the tree only got as far as stretching its fronds to about twice their normal length and waving them against the wind vaguely in Cheval's direction, before shrinking back down and hanging limply once more. Persephone turned back to the younger man and placed an open hand on her chest. "Well aren't you sweet as cherry pie? Thank you. But as you can see, I'm doing just fine, so you can skedaddle over to that shelter with a clean conscience." She gave his shoulder a quick pat before turning her attention toward the new arrival. Well hush my mouth, a literal knight in shining armor, riding to the rescue. Goodness gracious, he even speaks French. Or close enough. ¡Quel beau gosse! The tree swung around, hanging Persephone a little closer than arms reach to Cheval. She reached in and shook his hand, flashing him a wide smile while her other hand smoothed some of her hair behind her ear. "Je m'appelle 'Persephone'. Enchanté." Her eyes and hand both lingered on his for longer than they needed to, so the flash of light caught her completely by surprise. Alright, just how long was I staring at Lancelot here for? Did that kid just turn into a superhero, or did a superhero appear after that kid took my advice and ran off? Forget it, I'm too embarrassed to ask. "Well butter my bottom and call me a biscuit, another shepherd in sheep's clothing! I reckon we could use all the help we can get." Persephone pointed at roughly a 45-degree angle upward. "While I was up there, I saw something way over yonder coming out of the swamp. I couldn't get a good look at it with all this hooplah," She waved a hand in circles spiraling up toward the sky. "But whatever it was, it was HUGE, like Union Station woke up from a nap and started moseying over to the frigidaire for a snack. I'm fixin' to get a closer look." She gave the tree trunk two quick slaps. "Hop aboard if you want a lift. Not the fastest way to travel, but they're a lot stronger than they look." The palm tree swung back up into the air, taking Persephone (and anyone who took her up on her offer) with it. The tree then stretched and curved up over the Weston buildings until it found another tree, this one an oak. The oak extended several branches toward the palm, and the palm deposited its cargo upon them. The oak branches grew and stretched and swung as the palm trunk before them, ferrying its charge to another tree, who in turn passed it on to another, an arboreal relay race across the city.

In case it wasn't obvious, the tree was the descriptor for Persephone activating her Flight effect. She'll maintain that, and she'll also activate her Morph effect, Quick Change feat, and Environment Control (Light) effect. Now she's bright enough to turn total darkness-based concealment adjacent to her into partial, and partial into none. But more importantly, she can probably be seen from pretty far away now.