Dr Archeville

"Eh, don't worry 'bout it none," he casually replied, right before letting out a horrendous roar and charging towards the offended tree, with a speed that took Breakdown by surprise. Holding his shovel like a pro at bat, he raised it high above his head, then swung it down against the tree in a diagonal arc; the edges weren't as shar as those of an axe, but with enough force and momentum, he figured he could take a decent bite out of it.

Quote speaks truth. Dead Head charges the distracted tree, power attacking with his mighty shovel for all he's worth; since it's flat-footed, DH's sneak attack comes into play (assuming it's not immune to critical hits). That'll put DH at +8 to attack, and dealing +16 damage (DC 31; +14/DC 29 if it is immune to the extra sneak attack damage), and lowers his defense to 16. Attack vs. Distracted Tree (1d20+8=14) I choose to believe that hits :)

Well, maybe just two, since Quark's player is reportedly quite ill (and was having some computer problems). Maybe just one, if Doctor Science never gets around to posting ;)

Taking 20 on a Gather Information check (using all his bells & whistles) gets Doktor Archeville a 33. I'm going to assume he finds the same two tidbits Carbon finds. If that lets him find more, I can edit.

Doktor Archeville, Genius of Science!, had been following up on the recent string of thefts ever since he'd first heard of them. Crime of any sort was to be opposed, of course, but when said crimes involved high technology, he took a more personal interest. And these crooks were taking some high-end stuff. From a researcher at Star Island, he learned that components from a recently downed alien spacecraft had been taken. The components may have been part of the warp drive, or of some sort of emergency teleport system, but the eggheads weren't certain. A FCPD officer who owed Archeville a few favors (the Doktor had saved her niece while she'd been backpacking through France and was abducted by a madman attempting to build a cyborg army) let him in on something even more interesting. Confiscated gear from a secured evidence locker -- samples of Fear Master's gases and of Luna Moth's pheromones -- had been taken, but that was not the oddest part. The oddest part was that it had been taken by one of the District Attorneys... while he was simultaneously in court! "Vell, dis is all I can do from here," he said as he got up from the chair in his sub-basement laboratory and fetched his Gravimetric Belt from the recharging station. "Time to get out dere und do some footvork!"

"I ain't talkin' 'bout aristocracy, ya dour doofus," he retorted, "I'm talkin' 'bout not trompin' about on people's eternal homes! An whether they're in a gold-chased marble crypt, or an unmarked hole in a potter's field, th' dead are all equal, an' all equally deservin' of a modicum respect." Dead Head was on edge, and Avenger's words had sparked him off. But the real source of the problem was the reason they were there: the Necro-Kings, and those who would replace them. Dead Head could feel the spirits of the dead getting antsy, agitated by these kids' tamperings, or dragged back from Beyond against their will to serve those who had no real clue as to the full impact of what they were doing. "I've dealt with th' kind before. Got any specifics on these kids? Jaded trust fund brats lookin' fer a new thrill? Punks lookin' t'raise some hell? Goths lookin' fer answers Beyond th' Veil? Aliens lookin' to use our dead as an army? ... yeah, okay, that last one's a bit of a stretch."

Technically, what he did would require a Perception-range Animate Object/Corpses with the Horde extra, coupled with some way to accurately detect the presence of said corpses in the morgue drawers. Both of which he could get with some power stunting off his existing effects. And I believe he has 1 Hero Point left, so he could do all that and just be fatigued afterwards. And "marco... marco... marco..." is a reference to this Physicus is one of the forty-some that have sat up.

"Al's probably upstairs, chattin' up th' nurses," Dead Head said as he slid out of the wheelchair and put his jacket back on. "Nice guy, but somethin' of a horny ol' goat." Dead Head walked over and peered into the windows in each of the three sets of doors, propping them open after peering in. "Yer right, it would take us a looong time t'search all them drawers... but, lucky for you, ya got me here." He then walked back to the middle of the room, pushing the broken wheelchair off to one side. He turned to face the open door in the middle, and held his arms outstretched so that each palm was pointing towards one of the other rooms. He was mumbling something; if Jack stepped closer, he could see the creature's eyes were closed, and just make out the words "Marco... Marco... Marco..." [bg=#000000]Polo... Polo... Polo...[/bg] Then his eyes flicked open, and the green flames around them flared briefly. "Alright, kids, the spaceman here's lookin' fer a friend, so everyone outta th' pool!" he called out. What happened next defied all natural laws Zakitaj knew. Approximately a tenth of the morgue drawers opened, almost all simultaneously, and cold gray hands reached out to grasp the edge of the openings. The hands then pulled, dragging the the sliding drawers -- and the cadavers upon them -- out into full view. Though they were still lying prone, Zak could see a wide variety of fatal injuries represented here amongst the forty-some bodies. "C'mon, kiddies, sit up, let the nice spaceman get a good look at ya!" The cadavers obeyed, sitting up and turning as needed to face the hallway where Zak & his bizarre guide were standing. Zak saw a fine assortment of mortal injuries; most also showed the Y-incision of their autopsy. He also saw the dead staring out, blankly. "So, Zak -- any'a these yer man?" Dead Head asked in a completely nonchalant manner.

The Doktor nodded, then recited something he'd read once, years ago. "Now dis is de law of de jungle - As old und as true as de sky; And de volf dat keep it may prosper, But de volf dat shall break it may die. As de creeper dat girdles de tree trunk, The law runneth forward und back - Und de strength of de pack is de volf Und de strength of de volf is de pack." "Oh, now dat is a good qvestion," he responded, and he meant it. "Ignorance vould be de main von, vhich is vhat has driven me to dis projekt. De tendency of people to go through life mitout know vhat is around dem, knowing how dings vork -- it boggles de mind! Und I do not mean ignorance of dings like 'how does de tv remote vork,' I mean even basic dings like 'oh, how did I get pregnant' or 'oh, I hear I can cure dis STD by having sex mit a virgin und passing it on to dem'! Human civilization is over five thousand years old, yet it is still stuck on dis von vorld because it is plagued by its own stupidity!" The Doktor placed his right hand over his chest, as if forcing his heart to slow down. He took a few deep breaths, "I apologize for dat outburst. I... I am usually better able to control meinself." "Und speaking of control," he slipped back into his calm interviewer's tone, "you said earlier dat 'Volf' tends to take over vhen you change. So, Volf does not alvays take over? Sometimes you are in control vhen you are transformed?"

Need any rolls from me before The Shovening?

"Fascinating..." he replied, "but how do yo- oh, forgive me, I must answer your query first before I pose mein next qvestion." "Organized group of vampires..." he began. "Vell, dat is in fact von of de dings I vas hoping to find out. I haff heard rumors of such, ja, a rudimentary hierarchy mit de oldest und most powerful ruling de younger, veaker vons de vay Medieval kings vould rule over deir vassals. I had also heard dat de city's 'Vampire Qveen' vas destroyed not too very long ago, by von of her own childer, und now he rules de city's vampires, but not all vere villing to transfer deir loyalties to him, so some broke off, either forming deir own courts of just acting independently." All largely true, as far as he knew, based on the snippets he'd gleaned from Avenger during their time together with the Knights, and their later meetings. "As I said, dough," he continued, "dese are all merely rumors I haff heard, und von part of mein projekt is seeking to verify de social structure of de city's vampires." "Now, mein next qvestion..." He paused a moment, appearing to think on the matter; in truth he already knew every question he was going to ask, but he liked to draw things out for theatricality. "Are verevolves typically organized into packs, like regular volves, or are dey loners by nature?"

I'm pointing this out in the interests of fairness : So 1d20+12 for his Force Field, and 1d20+18 for his Magnetic Control array, vs. the 32 I got on my Nullify check. For the Force Field, he needs a 20 to succeed; for the Magnetic Control, he needs a 14+ to succeed.

Idea: Up to a certain point, Fulcrum's body does do as the Doktor just described, re-absorbing its own heat to fuel itself. But past a certain point -- like when she uses Extra Effort -- the cycle goes FUBAR and she start spewing Terminus Energies everywhere.

"You haff tangled mit de Vhite Knight, too?," he replied, appearing mildly intrigued. "He vas de first 'big name' supervillain I ever fought here in Freedom!" Beaming as he was, both at reminiscing about past exploits and at the commonality Fulcrum & he shared, it honestly was not one of his better moments. Then he was back to the science, "you say you feel varm? Dat is a common reaction amongst most energy manipulators, de body trying to keep up mit de fluctations...." He glanced at another bit of machinery on the wall, then back to Fulcrum, then did a double take back to the wall. "Curioser und curioser..." he said udner his breath, before turning back to Fulcrum, "de thermal imager is not picking up any increase in your temperature! It... it is as if de extra heat your body gives off during physical exertion is immediately absorbed back into you to further fuel your metabolism!"

Don't forget this one, too, Alder! :D

She's still got presents to open ;)

Archeville pulled the trigger on the rifle-like object in his hand, and at first nothing happened. Given the circumstances, and due to the Doktor's lightning-fast mind, that split second felt like an eternity, and he glared at the device in his hand for daring to be so impudent. The device complied, and twin pulsating beams of blue-white light lanced out from the tuning fork-shaped barrel, striking Emperor and enveloping him in the same pulsing light. Due to Archeville's cloaking field, it appeared to everyone else that twin beams of energy lanced out from a spot in space, not far from the main entrance to the facility, and struck Emperor. The space was soon filled with the form of Doktor Archeville, appearing in full view, surrounded by his own blue-gray protective energy field. "Jack! Phalanx! Moira! I know dis von, und de last time I saw him, he was mit Kapitan Knieval!"

In that case, I won't need to move to her side to help her up Emperor is Stunned, eh? Full round action to use Magnetic Nullifier on Emperor. Since he's Stunned, and assuming he's not been tweaked from his existing char sheet, his Defense should be a mighty 12. Unreliable check for Magnetic Nullifier; 1-10, no function, 11-20, works fine (1d20=7) Spend an HP (3 left) to re-roll. Minimum I can get is 11, so it does function. Attack vs. stunned Emperor (1d20+8=19) A hit! Since Emperor's stunned (and Doc's concealed), Doc's Sneak Attack comes into play... except it says Sneak Attack increases the "attack's damage bonus," so according to the RAW (and Kenson's words) it only improves Damage, not any attack effect. I'll leave it up to you whether or not Doc's Sneak Attack feat applies to his Nullify effect (Kenson said a GM could allow it). Nullify means I make a Nullify check vs. the target's Will save or power rank, whichever's higher. Nullify vs. stunned Emperor (1d20+16=32) (34 if his Sneak Attack helps) If I've beat him, the Sustained-duration Nullify will keep all his magnetic powers off until either I stop sustaining it (such as if I am stunned, and fail a Concentration check to keep it going), or he uses Extra Effort to gain another chance to break out. Free Action to switch from Cloaking Field to Primary Force Field. Free Action to give dire warnings!

29 March 2010 At the beginning of the month I had meant to go on a vampire hunt -- well, vampire reconnaissance mission, really -- but that wound up turning into an interview with a werewolf. While this was still quite fruitful, it made evident some holes in my plans to studyexterminate! all things "supernatural." As well as some redundancies in some of my existing technology, which could be repurposed for better effect. First, my Gravimetric Belt. I have been pretty happy with it these past several months, but I have come to realize I could streamline it a bit more. The space travel functions -- which I had worked so hard on implementing -- will be removed from the Belt itself, as well as some of the gravitic compensators. If I need to go into space, I can use one of my many other devices; if I am abruptly flung into space with no immediately obvious way back, I can rig something up. After removing those components, I re-wired the movement systems so they were more efficient -- lots of old and twisted wiring in there! Once that was done, I installed several new features. First, my primary force field will now incorporate a variable amplitude energy matrix, to provide defense against exotic attacks. This should provide some defense against a number of metahuman attacks, including some types of "magic"... hypothetically, at least. The field is not very strong, but with further tinkering I am sure I can make it an efficacious bulwark. Second, I improved the cloaking field with a back-up system, one incorporating a broader range of electromagnetic spectrum distorters and acoustic mufflers. Third, an entirely new feature, an Intangibility Field. This focuses the gravity manipulation capabilities of the suit inward, decreasing my density to the point where I become so diffuse as to be intangible. Gravitic and magnetic attacks (as well as one of "pure force") still affect me in this state, though -- they disrupt the field and can cause parts of me to either become more diffuse and separate, floating off from me, or inverts a section of the field so that part of me becomes so dense it tears away from the rest of me! Fourth (and finally), a second entirely new feature, a Shrinking Field. Yes, it would have been easier to go with a Density Increase setting, flipping the Intangibility field so that I become more dense (and thus stronger & tougher) instead of less, but being able to shrink down to the size of an blood cell is far, far more useful to me. Most of my excess mass is shunted into another dimension, though some is converted into energy, in the form of a protective force field, quite handy to ward off antagonistic leukocytes. Better yet, I was able to fit in sufficient components to shrink down past the cell limit, to a size where I can directly manipulate molecules and atoms! After all this, I still had the old components from my belt laying on the table, as well as several others I had been going through when working to improve the Belt. Ever since my Electromagnetic Screwdriver was destroyed by "gremlins", back last September, I had been considering making some considerable improvements to it. At the time I merely rebuilt it as it was, but in the past six months, I have made several advances in both miniaturization and energy manipulation (as well as electrical engineering in general), so I set to work on upgrading my "wondrous techno-wand" (as one reporter put it). Now instead of one focusing chamber, it has three. Today has been a fine day for Science! Device 12 (Gravimetric Belt v1.1.4.a; hard to lose; 60 points; PF: Restricted - Only usable by those with a +14 or better Knowledge/Technology modifier) [49pp] Gadgets 3 (Elektromagnetischer Schraubenzieher/Electromagnetic Screwdriver; 15 "Device Points", easy to lose; PF: Restricted - Only usable by those with a +14 or better Knowledge/Technology modifier) [19pp]

:clap: :clap: :clap:

Important note! The one at the entrance, and the two by the banks o' machines, are treated as Minions (which means you can Take 10 on attacking them, and they fall if they fail a Toughness save even by 1). The one kneeling, the leader, is a full heroic (er, villainous) character.

You should also ask whether or not these are Minions; if so, you can Take 10 on the attack roll ;)

[bg=#000000]Well, it's about time, child![/bg] a voice burned in her head. [bg=#000000]Used to be that when we sent an omen, people would jump at the chance to interact with it. Oh, you kids today...[/bg] She recognized that voice: it was her uncle, Apollo, god of (among other things) light. Well, half-uncle... the Olympian family tree was complicated. [bg=#000000]Can't say much, kiddo, but I've got a warning for you: your grand-uncle Hades is up to something. But we don't know exactly what -- he's playing his cards real close to his chest this time. We do know it involves the dead, and the un-dead, so you should find someone wise in their ways to help.[/bg]

Avenger's ears picked up the approach of his contact first, for he was whistling a vaguely familiar tune. Not long after, he saw the source of the whistle, the Friendly Neighborhood Zombie known as Dead Head. "Hey, hey! Watch th' bootmarks on th' tomb there, man," he admonished, glaring up with his flaming green eyes. "How'd you like it if someone were walkin' over yer grave?" He looked around the immediate area, nodded to himself, then leaned against the corner of the tomb. "So, remind me again why we're here an' not at yer place finishin' th' Hammer Horror film collection?"

As Moira wound her way through the crowds, a flare of light caught her eye. A light bulb in one of the wall fixtures was glowing brighter than usual. Being vaguely familiar with the basics of fire codes and fire hazards, she thought the light in question might be about ready to burn out, flaring up for a few moments before burning out forever. Moira makes a mental note to fix it later, and continues acting as the Hostess with the Most-est. Bu then she notices another one... and another... and another. If anyone else notices them, though, she sees no sign of such in the crowd's faces.