Thevshi

Paradigm could understand Sitara's frustration with just watching the execution that was getting likely to take place soon. Like many developing worlds, Kolast still had a long way to go before it could be said to possess a truly fair and balanced justice system where an accused was fully afforded an opportunity to defend themselves. But Cavalier was correct that interfering would be difficult to do for a variety of reasons. They were not here to interfere in this world’s internal governance, as much as they might wish to. "Well, the question is how much information any of these people here have on this Anointer of Olaya. While the city is likely within the path of the Anointer's movements, if anyone here has information it is likely to be the ruling elite and military leaders, who are not likely to be inclined to talk freely with unknown individuals. If there are any who have fled to here from past locations the Anointer has been, they might at least have some information about where the Anointer might be."

GM Her attention not now diverted by Magnatar's message, Paradigm added her own glare at Corona and Mater Vyrdna for their outbursts. Of course the Praetorian Imperatrix remained silent, so she did not interrupt Senator Th’emme, instead she simply signaled for the two Praetorians to step further off to the side in the chamber, to leave the focus on the senate and Ambassador Raal. The Khanate ambassador meanwhile gave a slight bow at Th'emme's apologizes for the interruption, and then focused back on the senator as she made the position of the council abundantly clear. "So, I see that the Lor Republic has been able to return to its former size and, through the guise of this 'Coalition,' add numerous new client states." Ambassador Raal began, his gaze focused initial on Th'emme before slowly looking out over more of the assembly. "But the Khanate will not be afforded the opportunity to return to its former size. Instead it must accept the independence of worlds that have been part of it for decades. Tell me, has this council imposed similar conditions on the Grue Unity following the defeat of the Communion?"

OOC for this thread, as we are sure to need it at some point.

Giang had quietly been watching Zhu as she continued to try and balance on the beam, offering some additional encouragement at times. When the teen asked her questions, Giang seemed hesitant for a moment, as if she was deciding how to answer. "At the time, it was just one of a number of harsh training regimes I went through." She finally answered. "Growing up in a remote village, I did not go to school with the other children from the village. Instead, from as early as I can remember I led a very regimented life. I was given private lessons that covered the normal subjects, with great focus on Chinese classics, the teachings of Confucius, the works of Sun Tuz, the I Ching. I also had regular training sessions, where in addition things like having to learn to meditate balancing on a fence post, I studied Vovinam and Wushu as well as gymnastics. All of it was structured so I would be ready when my powers manifested."

Giang gave Zhu a small smile in return. "It took me some time before I was able to stay on the fence post more than a few seconds. But I imagine you will make a bit quicker progress." The young woman hopped down off the balance beam as Zhu climbed back to her feet. "We will not go too long for today, but we can make the fall a bit easier." She walked over to one side and pulled over one of the thicker, softer mats along one side of the beam. "The beam should also be softer than the fence I would occasionally hit when I would fall."

GM The trample grass proved easy to gather, the passage of the massive creatures having smashed the glass sheath around the blades of grass. Soon there was a good sized pile toward the middle of the trampled path, with a second pile nearby to feed the fire over the night. After having a dinner from the supplies provided by the Ul-Mor, the watch shifts began as those not on watch settled down to try to get some sleep on patches of ground that had been cleared of all the shard grass and the broken glass sheaths. When Starshot laid down and listed to the sounds round him, he heard very little other than the occasional stirring of the nearby grass by the wind. The night passed without incident, and eventually the morning came, Soreen being on last watch as the sky began to brighten as the sun rose up over the horizon the group could not see among the tall shard grass.

Giang gave Zhu a small smile as the other girl hesitated at the thought of trying to balance on the beam. "I want you to try." She said calmly in reply, lowering her arms down to her side. "It will not be easy, but that is the point of the exercise. To provide a sufficient challenge to your focus and take you outside your comfort zone." "Be prepared to fall, but do not let that fear control you. Start by just focusing on maintaining your balance, then you can start trying to meditate."

GM Soreen was the first to speak up. "If we were able to continue following a path I would be willing to press on for awhile longer, or if we had some idea of how much further we have to go, but we could be days away from getting out of this nightmare grass, I am pretty sure I won’t last near that long. Given we have to start hacking our way again, at least until we come across another of these paths, it will be slow and tiring work again." "I would image those big things sleep during the night as well, seeing as they were active in the day, so we likely will be safe from any stampedes, assuming there is anything out here that hunts then." She glanced around the darkening clearing. "There is enough trampled on grass in the area that we can gather it up and use it to start a fire in a cleared area. That should help discourage anything that might think about bothering us." Laark had been a bit quiet as he considered the situation. "There will be a greater chance of injuring ourselves on this grass in the dark." He stated.

GM "As long as we keep our distance they are likely not to care much about us." Laark commented as he watched the two large creatures that ate a bit more of the shard grass and then started back off in the way they had gone. "Particularly if they have any young with them." He added as the group carefully moved forward to look around the corner. Up ahead a few dozen meters were about ten of the large creatures, although there were two that were considerably smaller, more the size of cows. The herd still seemed unperturbed by the presence of Starshot and his crew, but they kept their distance, allowing the heard to continue a good ways ahead before they started to follow after it. They only followed the heard for about another half a kilometer, before it turned south, away from the direction they wanted to go. With the sky starting to darken, this clearing seemed a good enough place to camp for the night before starting out once again in the morning.

GM Bloody Mess' quickly jabs with his tiny fists landed on Malcom's calf, but the Battle Brother did not even seem to notice the blows, his attention still focused on Foreshadow and Synapse. But while he did not notice the small Mess shaped mass of blood, Jack did. "What the hell are you?" He asked as he moved over and brought his foot up to try to smash Mess underfoot. But Mess was too quick for the Battle Brother, darting to one side as Jack's foot slammed into pavement, sending chunks of concrete flying in several directions as he created a small crater where Mess had just been.

Okay, Jack will move over and try to step on Mess, but misses with a 21. So, Round Three 32 Foreshadow (bruised 1 HP) 29 Synapse (unharmed 2 HP) 26 Hound (unharmed) 21 Malcom (unharmed) 17 Bloody Mess (unharmed, 2 HP) [3d round of Boost] 14 Jack (unharmed) Foreshadow is up HGM!

Unfortunately, that will bounce right off of his Impervious toughness.

So, what I said about the equipment was just a suggestion, we would not force you to drop the equipment (other than things like how you originally had the stun gun that TA brought up). The main thing about that suggestion was it just seemed a bit at odds with your concept (someone who has been provided powers by nanobots). I would think with that origin you could have the character have a variety of things the naonbots do, such as enhanced strength, dexterity and constitution, just to name a few. Again not to say you have to. The other thing to remember about equipment is that a GM can always say that it fails or breaks at any time, and not have to give you a hero point for that set back (where they would if they were to do the same thing with your stun gun device). So relying on equipment too much can turn out to be a problem for your character if a GM wants to have it fail. So back to the mechanics and discussing caps: First, as I said before your character’s Toughness is currently zero. He has no Con bonus and no powers that provide any bonus to toughness (such as Protection or Forcefield). So, taking that example, your character has +8 defense and 0 for Toughness. That is not good for a PL 10 character. At PL 10 you should have +10 Defense and +10 Toughness (which can be from Con, the above mentioned powers, the feat Defensive Roll (which adds +2) or a combination of all of that). As you can see, you are currently nowhere near that. For you attack PL cap you are slightly better, with the Blaster Pistol, having +10 attack/+5 damage. Again, a PL 10 should have +10/+10, although you could have tradeoffs to shift it so it was say +15 attack/+5 damage or some variation. You are even worse off with your Stun gun, as it is a melee (tough power) it uses your Melee attack bonus, which is +7 and with only 2 ranks (see below) you are at +7 attack/ +2 rank, well off the +10/+10 cap. So you need to put some thought into how you want to achieve these caps. One potential option would be to make the character PL 8, while still using 150 power points, lowering your caps to allow more points for other things. Some people choose to do this, but there is no reason one cannot make a fully capped PL 10 with 150 pp either. In regard to your Stun gun, I am not sure why you are buying it the way you have? You have 10 power points to use for the device, yet you spent only 2 for Stun 2? (you mistakenly list 3, but with that flaw and only 2 ranks, it is only 2). Because this is a device, you could have that flaw and made it Stun 10, or you could make it ranged (a +1 extra) and be Stun 5. There are some other things that you need to go back and clarify, such as Uncanny Dodge is tied to a particular sense type (such as Visual or Hearing) so with 2 ranks of that feat you need to select two sense types that are used. I hope this helps give you some direction.

<"Bring happiness to others is a wonderful calling, and one to be proud of."> Giang replied once the two were alone in the gymnastics studio. <"And there is no reason you still cannot follow that calling, as well as be a hero."> Walking over to a water fountain on the wall, the Asian young woman filled two cups of water and then walked over towards one of the balance beams, motioning for Zhu to follow. Giang sat the two cups of water down on the mats under the balance beam and then took off her windbreaker, revealing a UCSD T-shirt underneath, and then removed her shoes. <"What I want to try to work on for you is some meditation techniques, learning to focus on your thoughts and emotions, without distraction from outside influences."> Moving over next to the beam, Giang easily hopped up onto it, smoothly standing up into a Virksasana or tree pose, her eyes closing as she did. <"When I was a young girl growing up in Vietnam, I used to have to practice meditating like this everyday, balancing on a fence post. To be sure I fell quite often, but eventually, I learned to focus my thoughts and mind, while still maintaining my balance. And that focus is what we want to achieve for you, controlling your inventions, without allowing external distractions to hamper that control.>" As Giang spoke, the water inside the two cups she sat down rose up into the air where it began to circle around the young woman, eventually stretching out to form two rings of water that continued to spin. After a few moments Giang open her eyes and looked over at Zhu, as the water rings pulled away before lowering back into the cups they had originally been in. <"So, are you ready to begin?">

GM The Praetorian that had spoken to Bliss side stepped as well, staying in front of her. "Well that is the thing, it is not our authority that is of import. The moment you set foot on this station you fell within the authority of the Coalition, and the Coalition has provided us the authority to enforce its laws." He stated, frowning slightly as he seemed to tense. "Easy Pulsar." Stated Magnetar, looking at Bliss and then over at Roulette. "Unless I am mistaken, these are the Voidrunners. They played their parts against the Communion, so we can afford to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment and at least ask for their cooperation as we work to determine what happened." Pulsar hesitated a moment and the relaxed ever so slightly as he stepped back from Bliss. Looking around he scowled. "What I want to know is why the security drones have not responded." "Technicians are investigating that Praetorian." Stated a station peacekeeper that had moved nearby. "There appears to have been some sort of tampering, but they have not yet determined how it was done."

GM With the large herbivore not showing any particularly aggressive signs, Laark and Soreen (with Phalen in tow) made their way back out to the beaten path to join Starshot. "It could be difficult to tame." Laark commented as he studied the creature for a moment. "Even if we could I am not sure how safe it would be to ride." Soreen added. "We do not really have any materials with which to build any sort of platform on its back, or even a saddle. So, with our legs handing down, there is a good chance any of this grass that it makes its way through could end up cutting our feet and lower legs to ribbons." The large beast continued using its odd shaped organ to smash down some more shard grass, which it then consumed. As it did so, a second one meandered into view as well, pushing its way through some of the shard grass with ease before smashing down a few stalks to eat as well.

<"Unfortunately I cannot provide any shot cuts to conquering fear. Increased self-confidence, in yourself and your inventions, is the best way to help reduce your fear when you find yourself facing a superpowered villain. And that comes with time and experience. As for dealing with what fear remains, there are many ways to learn to control and focus past that emotion. Some of the techniques I learned when I was young may be should help with the latter, which in turn can help with the former."> Giang replied as she started toward the gym once more. The gym was considerably warmer than the grounds, if not quite as warm as the regular classrooms and other common areas of the school. While a class of students were using the basketball courts, Giang led Xhu off to one of the smaller sections of the building, the one filled with gymnastics equipment.

Okay Cape, Mess is up!

GM Despite having found the Caddy inside the smoke cloud, the Battle Brother known as Malcom turned away from the vehicle, moving back outside of the smoke and over near where Foreshadow and Synapse had engaged Jack. If he heard Harry’s attempts at being a distraction, he paid them little heed, focusing on the two costumed heroes instead. "Looks like our little tip was right that some others might show up." He commented aloud. Taking a step to one side, the large man brought both arms up to his side and then swung forward to bring both hands together in front of him with a loud *WHAM.* This created a wave of concussive force that swept out in a cone shape, catching both Foreshadow and Synapse in its path. Foreshadow was closest, and felt the shockwave hit him like a sledgehammer, but he remained on his feet as dust and debris was blown up around him. Synapse just manage to put her hands up over her face as the shockwave slammed into her glowing forcefield, which flickered slightly but remained in place, protecting her. Windows on a couple of parked cars and nearby by buildings shattered as the shockwave continued onward before finally sputtering out.

GM Laark began cutting a side path into the shard grass, going as quickly as he could manage. Soreen moved over to follow, pulling Phalen with her, who stumbled wordlessly along, in something of a daze. As Laark was working, Starshot heard some closer crashing noise and up ahead at the turn in the path, a larger creature moved slowly into view. It was a four legged beast, larger than an elephant, with a thick, tough hide that brushed aside shard grass with ease. The beast’s large head slightly resembled that of an elephant, with large, floppy ears. But the most unusual feature of the beast was located where an elephant’s trunk would be. On either side of its jaws, there were two protrusions that were covered in the same thick hide as the rest of the beast. Between these two protrusions, positions right over where the creature’s mouth would be, was a huge, cylindrical shaped organ that was similarly covered with the same thick hide. As Starshot watched, the large beast used the unusual organ to literally rollover several stalks of shard grass, smashing them down and crushing the outer sheath, allowing it to chew on the grass underneath. The beast turned its head slightly toward Starshot and let out something like a snort, and then turned back towards the shard grass, smashing down more of grass as it continued to feed.

GM "We have *tik* never seen any weapons *tik* such as are being used." Inspector T'r'ik replied to discussion about how the criminals might be getting their super-tech. "If it was found *tik* then it is likely from *tik* somewhere else and not from *tik* any local system." When Barrier and Traveller asked for the data on the thefts, the inspector gave a small nod. "Of course *tik* Praetorians. The data would *tik* be quite lengthy to *tik* recite. I will have *tik* a dataslate with the *tik* information prepared and assign a *tik* officer to assist you as *tik* liaison." The dataslate was quickly provided to Traveller, and Inspector T'r'ik introduced the Praetorians to Officer Dressa, a female Signaian law enforcement officer who would act at their guide and liaison. "Well, it would appear everything has been arranged for your investigation." Counselor Farrin stated as they were gathered down in the entrance hall of the law enforcement building. "Unless you have something else you might need of me Praetorians, I should be getting back to my office. I of course can be reached should you have need of anything."

Okay, Malcom will move back out of the smoke cloud and then use shockwave to catch Foreshadow and Synapse in the cone. DC 21 reflex save for Foreshadow to completely avoid, otherwise a DC 20 toughness save if he fails. Synapse gets a 13 on her reflex save, so takes the full brunt of the shockwave. She gets a 21, so I think I will use a HP to reroll for a 34 so she is just fine.

Bibi, there are few big things I see at the moment still, some are mechanics, the other is more concept. First, on the mechanical side, your combat attack bonuses are not purchased correctly. You are purchasing you melee and ranged attack bonuses separately, that is not how you buy them. For 2 PP you buy a Base Attack Bonus (BAB) which applies to BOTH melee and ranged attacks. So you probably want a +7 BAB (for 14 PP). To increase the Ranged bonus separate, buy the feat Attack Focus: Ranged (so 3 ranks of that would give you +10 attack at range). That will save you 17 pp, after purchasing the ranks of attack focus). The other major issue is you still do not mean any PL 10 caps (offensive or defensive). Right now your toughness is actually zero, as you have no Con bonus and no powers or anything else that would provide toughness. With you Defense only +8, you are effectively PL 4 in terms of defensive caps. None of your attacks put you at PL 10 caps either. You really need to restructure things to meet these caps. This sort of ties to the concept issue I see. Given the source of your characters “powers” is the nanobots, why is the only thing they provide a Teleport power? Why are the nanobots not providing other abilities? I would consider dropping the equipment and the device and have the nanobots provide some sort of offensive power (or array of powers) that will allow you to easily meet PL caps. You might also consider having the nanobots provide a Forcefield or just Protection to get you where you need to be for defensive caps.

Like we discussed in chat yesterday Ex, Moon-Moth can use his TK to slingshot the shuttle forward, speeding it up a fair bit.

Giang came to a stop when Zhu did, waiting patiently as the younger girl began to explain what was troubling her. When Zhu had finished, Giang calmly replied, <"why would any of that make me not want to work with you? Whether or not you choose to become a hero does not make you any less worth of respect, from me or anyone else."> The young woman's tone was still friendly and encouraging. <"There is no reason to be ashamed of being afraid. Fear is healthy and it takes wisdom to truly recognize ones fear. What matters is how you react to that fear. I know it is easy to look at some of those about you and be in awe of the power they possess, but I believe if you look closer, you will see all of them are dealing with their own fears, even if they may differ."> <"I think a good first step is to help you ensure that when you need it your technology is there and you can use it effectively. Then you can more objectively consider you place here and what road you may wish to take.">