Amelia

Mister Strix will burn a Hero Point to get rid of the Fatigue from the Extra Effort. Then he will attempt to use his Mind Control power on all nine thugs. Mind Control checks (opposed by Will saves): 26, 18, 25, 22, 18, 27, 19, 9, 19. I rolled raw dice and added his power rank manually after the fact, because I needed (1d20+8)x9, not (9d20)+8. The effect has a duration of Sustained (Lasting), so it persists even if he swaps to another AP in the same array, and anyone who fails the save gets a new save for every interval that passes on the Time Table, with a cumulative +1 bonus. So the next save happens in 1 minute, then again in 5 minutes, then in 20, then in an hour, and so on. Depending on their Will save and how they roll, it's entirely possible that they'll be following his last command for weeks or months to come. The effect is Distracting, so if any of them successfully save and decide to attack him, he won't have his dodge bonus. Mister Strix will also attempt to Intimidate the thugs as a group. Intimidate check: 25.

When Arrowhawk and the Tattered Man completed a circle around the Camaro, they realized that the man in white was no longer laying on the pavement. Before they had a chance to react, they heard the unearthly reverberation of his voice behind them. "I don't...eat people." Don't I? Is it a distinction without a difference? His previously shattered face was completely intact. Only the marks on his mask gave any indication of the injuries Arrowhawk had inflicted. "I don't know what a 'draugr' is. But I'm not what you think I am. I didn't kill these people." He brought his knuckles up to his mouth, and licked a drop of Arrowhawk's blood off his fingerless glove. His tongue, like his mouth and his fangs, was also two or three times as long as it should have been. When the blood hit his tongue, he shuddered and closed his black eyes for a moment. "And neither...did you. You were...hunting them." He walked slowly around the car. His boots didn't make a sound or leave a print, even when he stepped through a puddle in the gutter, breaking the thin layer of ice that had formed on top of it and freeing the liquid beneath. He traced a bare finger along the broken glass of the passenger window, then along the blood spatter on the driver side. Then he placed the finger in his mouth and sucked the blood off of it. He shuddered again. "It was a cop. A cop...and something else." As the man in white spoke, both Arrowhawk and the Tattered Man realized that, not only was the air around the Camaro noticeably colder than anywhere else in the city they'd been this night, because of that they could each see their own breath, and each others...but neither of them could see any mist coming from the unnaturally large mouth of the man in white.

GM The forensic evidence the Tattered Man saw matched the more coherent details of his vision. Arrowhawk didn't find much of it on her own, but she noticed most of it on a second look over the Tattered Man's shoulder. The man in the passenger seat of the Camaro had a hole with approximately the same diameter as the Tattered Man's thumb in the middle of his forehead. When he walked around to the passenger side of the car, he could see that the entire back of the man's skull, and the passenger window behind him, had both been reduced to bloody, jagged holes. The sidewalk was covered in blood and chunks of broken glass and human brain and bone. The bullet had probably been a high-caliber magnum round with a hollow point. The driver was curled into a fetal ball on the ground, behind the driver door. His hands were still cuffed behind his back. His body was covered in so much blood and so many bruises, and so many of the man's bones were broken, that he was almost unrecognizable as human. The shape of the bruises were intimately familiar to the Tattered Man, the kind made with a police issue wooden baton. He could even see a couple of wood splinters stuck in the dead man's skin, pained black on one side. The driver side of the car was covered with tiny dots of blood spray. Strangely, while a great deal of the man's blood had leaked out onto the pavement beneath him, the person who beat him to death managed to avoid leaving a single footprint in it. Nothing had been stolen. Both of the dead men still had their wallets and jewelry. The driver licenses identified the driver as "Michael Donaghy", and his passenger as "John Doyle". On close inspection, Arrowhawk immediately recognized Jimmy Doyle, Donaghy's right-hand man. Both wallets were still filled nearly to bursting with cash, several thousand dollars each in hundreds and twenties, and Donaghy also had a separate money clip in his pocket with a few thousand more. The most subtle clue the Tattered Man found, but also the most striking, were the tire tracks. A second car had been parked immediately behind the Camaro recently, possibly the police cruiser he saw in his vision. The recent rain had dredged oil up from the pavement and turned dirt into mud, and the second car's tires had picked up both, along with spots of blood and bits of broken glass. Along with the occasional stain of burnt rubber, it all mixed together and formed a broken, but consistent trail. But that trail didn't make sense. It didn't go around the Camaro, but through it. There was a T-junction a couple blocks ahead, and the trail led up to it, and through it. The tracks continued onto the sidewalk, right up to the (intact) outer wall of a boarded-up empty storefront.

Nevermind, that last IC post from TK works well enough. Search check for Mister Strix: 6. John's definitely taking the lead here.

And Ecal provided enough of a boost to make it an even 30. Cool. Go ahead and do an IC post, TK, and then I'll get an IC and GM post up.

Amd there's Ecal's post, so go ahead TK.

@Thunder King If you're planning to examine the scene after the precog trance, feel free to post the Search check here in advance. Let's get an IC post from Ecal ending the fight he started and describing his own investigative efforts, inept though they may be, and an IC post from TK describing his reaction to his vision and his examination of the scene. I'll skip Strix's "turn" and do an IC post for him getting back up after those, and then I'll do a GM post describing your findings.

There's a quick GM post about the Tattered Man's postcognitive vision. No reason to screw myself out of an IC GM post.

GM When the Tattered Man closed his eyes, his mind was flooded with a series of vague, semi-coherent images, like a waking dream. He sat in the driver seat of the yellow Camaro, where he saw the flashing lights of a police cruiser in the rear-view mirror. He pulled over. The uniform worn by the police officer didn't look right, not like any uniform John Smith had ever worn. It looked more like a Halloween costume or something out of an old movie. He couldn't get a good look at the officer's face. The brim of his cap cast a shadow the streetlights couldn't pierce. John heard the driver offer a bribe. "Is there a fine? Can we just take care of it right now?" He heard the cop's reply, detached but oddly upbeat. "Step out of the car, please." He heard the driver threaten the cop. "Do you know who I work for?" He saw the cop handcuff the driver. The passenger muttered an obscenity, then reached into his jacket for the 9MM semiautomatic pistol John somehow knew was in there. In the blink of an eye, the cop drew a massive revolver - magnum, it must be - and put a bullet between the passenger's eyes before the 9MM cleared its holster. Then John saw the cop go to work on the driver with his baton. The passenger died instantly, but with the driver, the cop made it last. The driver died, eventually, but first, he suffered. He pleaded with the cop, and the cop talked, but the cop didn't really reply to anything the man was saying. He talked past the man, rather than to him. The cop never raised his voice. He never even used profane language. He seemed almost cheerful as he beat the man to death. The last thing either the driver or the passenger of the Camaro saw before he died was the blurry image of an inhumanly pale white face. John couldn't tell whether the white man was the cop, or a second person. He couldn't make out any facial features, except for a big smile. Too big to be human. Almost too big to fit on his face...

John gets a series of vague, dreamlike images. The men in the car were pulled over by a cop. His uniform didn't look right, not like any uniform John had ever seen when he was a cop. It might've been a cop costume from Halloween or an old movie, or it might've been a real uniform, but anachronistically old. The brim of the cop's hat casts a shadow over his face that obscures it throughout the vision. The driver tried to bribe the cop, then threatened him. When the cop cuffed him, the man in the passenger seat went for the pistol in his jacket. The cop drew a magnum revolver and put a bullet between the passenger's eyes before the passenger could even pull his own gun free from its holster. Then the cop went to work on the driver, beating him with a baton. He didn't make it quick. He made it last. He never raised his voice. He never even used profane language. The man pleaded, and the cop spoke, but it didn't seem like anything the cop said was actually a reply to the man he was beating. The last thing either man saw before he died was an inhumanly pale white face. The image is blurry. It's not even clear whether the white man is the cop, or a second person. It doesn't seem like they could make out any facial features, other than the big smile. Too big to be human. Almost too big to fit on his face.

Sounds good to me! Thanks.

GM When Arrowhawk kicked the man in white, it felt like kicking a stone statue. There didn't seem to be any give to his abdominal muscles, and the kick definitely didn't seem to throw him off-balance. Her words, however, momentarily stunned him. He stopped flailing at her, and opened his mouth to speak, but she didn't have time to consider his reaction before the bow-strike combination she'd spun her body into connected. Her palm didn't just shove the side of her bow against his face. She shoved the enchanted wood into his face, carving a gash diagonally across his skull, several centimeters deep. She had to pry her bow free, and when she did, he collapsed onto the pavement. His mask couldn't hide the fact that there was now a concave pit filled with shards of bone, teeth, and cartilage where his face used to be. He didn't move or make a sound, and he didn't bleed.

He gets a 10 on his Toughness save. That's a fail by 13, so he's Injured, Dazed, and Disabled (no Con means all damage is lethal). I think we can step out of combat rounds now. The damage isn't from one of his weaknesses, so assuming someone doesn't keep hitting him, he'll be back up after a round of rest and a recovery check.

Drained - TA Mister Strix Please spend 1PP to add a new base power for the "Vampiric Power" array: Base Power: [16PP] Drain Constitution 8 (Extras: Linked [Nauseate], Flaws: Limited [Can only drain 1 rank per round], Requires Grapple, Feats: Insidious, Slow Fade 4 [1 hour], Subtle, Drawbacks: Power Loss [Daylight]) [8PP] (Blood Drain) Nauseate 8 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Linked [Drain], Flaws: Requires Grapple) [8PP] (Euphoria) (That "Limited" flaw was ripped directly from the vampire templates in the 3E Supernatural Handbook.) Then please change the former base power (the Mind Reading + Nauseate + Postcog) to a new, separate alternate power, and retool it like so: Alternate Power: [14PP] Mind Reading 8 (Extras: Action [Standard], Linked [Nauseate], Flaws: Duration [Instant, Lasting], Range 2 [Touch], Requires Grapple, Feats: Insidious, Subtle, Drawbacks: Power Loss [Daylight]) [3PP] (Blood Divination) Nauseate 8 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Linked [Mind Reading], Flaws: Requires Grapple) [8PP] (Euphoria) Super-Senses 4 (Postcognition, Extras: Simultaneous, Flaws: Source [Blood], Drawbacks: Power Loss [Daylight]) [3PP] (Blood Divination)

Strix switches to the AP slot with the Autofire on his Strength. He's All-Out Attacking for 2/2. Attack roll (DC20): 23. That's +1 damage from Autofire. DC24 Toughness save from Arrowhawk, then it's her turn. You can go ahead and make an IC post for her immediately, since my last one works for Strix's combat action (just not its result). Strix has -2 Defense (DC16) until his next action.

The man in white glared into Thorne's eyes. "These filth don't get to murder children in my city. I'm seeing this through to the end." He turned back to the girl. "But I don't have any safe places where you could hide out. If they do, I'll help you get there. Otherwise, you'll have to come with us." Then he addressed Thorne and Judex. "Once she's safe, I'm stopping by that flop-house in Hardwick Park. I'm going to squeeze the middle-man to see what leaks out. And then I'm going to that warehouse, to inform the occupants that they are no longer welcome in my city."

Everybody roll Initiative. Strix gets 17.

As the man in white spoke, his mouth suddenly seemed to double in size, while the rest of his head remained the same. There almost didn't seem to be enough room for it on his face. All four of his canine teeth elongated into fangs, and his eyes turned completely black. "I thought it would take longer for me to show up on their radar. I underestimated how well The Family knows their city. Hiring talent from out of town to set a trap for me, that was a smart move. Murdering two people, just to bait that trap, that wasn't smart at all. Even for the Bedlam Mob, that was low. Whatever they paid you, it was too much." The man in white roared exactly like a lion or a tiger as he lunged at Arrowhawk. He moved so fast he was a blur. His fists seemed to be in two or three places at once as they swung at her.

GM The man in white didn't move a muscle as Arrowhawk loosed the shaft at his leg. Her arrow hit the man's kneecap with a loud *THUNK* and then bounced backward, flipping halfway over itself in the air before clattering onto the pavement a few feet away. At first, it seemed as though he might be wearing some kind of armor. The arrow hadn't drawn a single drop of blood. But it had torn the fabric over his knee, revealing that there was nothing between it and the man's unnaturally pale flesh. The arrow had broken his skin, but the that skin mended itself so quickly that the observers thought they might have imagined seeing it cut at all. The arrowhead was deformed, crushed like an empty aluminium can. It looked as though it had been fired at a brick wall.

The sad part is, without that crit, she wouldn't have cracked his Imperviousness. Toughness save (DC24): 27. Hey, it's all good.

Ecal, as far as I'm concerned, Arrowhawk had a Ready action to put an arrow into Mister Strix, so anytime you want to take that action, feel free.

The man in white flinched when he heard the archer's voice behind him and the pull of her bowstring. When the man in the trenchcoat followed up with a greeting, the man in white gritted his teeth and cringed. I'm relying too much on the hypnotism. Most people's minds are weak. But too many of them aren't. I'm already getting complacent. Sloppy. While the man in white still had his back turned to the other two vigilantes, a noise echoed from his throat that sounded exactly like the growl of a tiger, the type of noise a human shouldn't be able to make. He slowly turned around to face Arrowhawk. His skin was so pale, she had to concentrate to see the seams where the mask ended and his face began. It didn't look like he moved from the spot where he stood, but it was difficult to tell with the massive white cape flowing around him. His voice had the same deep echo as the growl. "It doesn't look like these men were killed with arrows. That buys you three seconds to point the bow somewhere else."

GM Once they got closer to the car, Arrowhawk and the Tattered Man could both clearly see the two dead bodies. The man in the passenger seat wore a leather jacket over a polo shirt and dark khakis. His right hand was shoved under the left breast of his jacket, and he had a hole in his forehead about the right size for a person to stick their finger into. Most of the top half of the passenger side window was broken. The man curled up on the ground behind the driver side door wore a dark blue tracksuit. He had his hands pulled tightly behind his back, and he was covered in blood and bruises. Arrowhawk recognized them both immediately. The man on the ground was Mike Donaghy, and the man in the car was his "business associate," Jimmy Burke. It wasn't raining at the moment, but it had rained on and off throughout the day. Both Arrowhawk and the Tattered Man could tell that it hadn't rained since before these men were killed, because the blood pooled on the ground hadn't washed away. But it had rained recently enough that the ground was still wet, and every gutter and pothole still contained a puddle. When they approached the car, they both felt a chill, and they could see that all the puddles near the car were frozen solid, unlike their counterparts even a block away in any direction. The windows and windshield of the car were completely fogged up.

Let's just assume mutual ignorance and move on so we can finally get a first IC post out of Tattered Man.

I haven't made a rep table for Strix yet, and he doesn't have much of a rep. I just checked the rep thread, and it doesn't look like Ecal's made one for the new Arrowhawk either. So...