Dr Archeville

"Well, there is not much to say about me, really," he replied, smiling as he shook her hand and making sure to meet her blue eyes with his. "Peril of being a public figure!" "A drink?," he repeated, eyebrows raising a bit. "Ah, no, thank you; I believe I can hold out until we sit down for that delectable meal. I do hope it has not been too much trouble!" He took another look around the room again before moving towards the couch, but stopped himself before sitting, "is there anything I may do to help out with the meal? The culinary sciences are not outside my areas of interest!"

"Don't rightly know, Jake," he said as he released Gorsky from his cold, vise-like grip, "but I'm pretty sure it'd put a hurt on 'im if'n ya needed to use-" The appearance of the little girl stopped the revenant mid-sentence. Who the heck is... waitasec -- pickin' up bits o' necromancy off her, not that different from what was on Gorsky here, jes' a lot fainter. Speakin' of, now that I got a good, close look at 'im, I don't think that's his mojo, per se -- looks more like he's some kinda conduit. Maybe fer whatever's in the clock he was babblin' 'bout. But this girl, she's gotta be the kid of those two folks who was in Gorsky's office; what's he done to her? "Hey there, lil 'girl," he greeted, waving at her. Half a second later he realized he was waving his de-handed stump; he quickly put that behind his back and ,waved with his other, still-attached hand, while the separated one scurried up the back o his leg to reattach to the stump. "How'd you get down here, hrm? Yer bed must be a long way from here -- let's see if we can get the nice policemen to take ya back, okay?"

So like a ritual had been started on her, but was a good ways from being completed?

The "recently-ish dabbled in Necromantic Rituals" type of ping? If so, what type of Rituals? DH's been thinking that Gorsky's plan was to kill the girl and bring her back as a zombie-esque being, one about as bright as Mr. Brown/Dr. Cartwright. Is that what it looks like was being worked on her? (Ar was already worked on her, and she's now already a zombie?!)

Do Dead Head's senses -- Magic Awareness & Mental Awareness, and Acute & Analytical for same if Necromancy is involved -- pick up anything off of the Littlest Cancer Patient? (Or anything/anyone else?)

Anyone familiar with Trend Micro OfficeScan? My university recently started offering it for free to all students, faculty, and staff, for work and home use.

Gladly! And done.

"'Noxy here can do all sorts of elemental stuff!," Dead Head exclaimed, "fire, ice, lightnin', whirlwinds, you name it! Like I said, she's great t'have yer back in a fight." "Hunh... come t'think of it," he continued, turning slowly to each of the others, "there's probably a lot we could all teach ya, if yer willin'. I've been learnin' tons from Nick here, an' I know he could teach you a thing or two 'bout spirits an' such. 'Noxy could maybe help you with yer cold stuff, an' me... well, I can show ya how to do this!" He held his hands up and did the "magic separating thumb" trick, actually separating his thumb while doing so.

"Yeah, yeah, burn it all, only way t'be sure," Dead Head drawled, rolling his eyes. "Hoenstly, ya'd think a doctor'd know something about precision -- ya don't treat a brain tumor by choppin' off the head!" "I got 'im, Jake," he nodded to his friend, "ya can send the cops on in to cuff 'im. I don't think he'll be harmin' anyone. But there may be a few loose ends I gotta tie up." Gotta get back to his office an' see if there's anythin' bad there, an' get to his home. That clock he was talkin' 'bout's gotta be in one of those. Dead Head uncurled one arm from around Gorsky's chest and reached out for the gun on the floor, but could not quite reach. Giving a small shrug, he concentrated on his wrist, the bones and tendons and sinews and muscles, and had them separate. The hand fells to the ground, landing on its fingertips, and scuttled over to the gun. It nudged the weapon over to Jake, "mind holdin' this on 'im while we wait fer the cops? I got places t'check!"

Quick, quick thoughts, based solely on the crunch/stats: A] CON should be listed as ---, not 0 B] Why 1 ranks in so many skills, instead of Jack of All Trades? And why Skill Mastery in all those 1r skills? C] Alt Save [Reflex] Blast will not be allowed. D] Boost is a very problematic power, especially in an Array and with Slow Fade (since it means you get the effect of that big Boost and can use some other slot in the Array). Using Enhanced [Trait] instead will work better (i.e., would have a chance of being accepted). E] Drain Defense & Drain Reflex are very hinky; why not go with Paralyze (which would take only one AP, not two)? F] Why is it Vulnerable to Mental Effects?

How to Build the Perfect Human (from io9)

Right, the Cosmic Coil is a series of paths through the dimensions, the Doom Coil is the thing in the center of the Terminus that sucks up universes. I've always seen Terminus Radiation as one of two things (if I could reconcile them into one, all the better!). Either it's the "anti-matter counterpart" to Cosmic Energy (like how The Opposing Force is the Negative Zone's version of the Power Cosmic, which has been described as "the life force of the Universe"), or it's a blend of the remnants of all the other energies from all the other universes the Doom Coil has devoured (electromagnetic, quantum, magical, psionic, etc., even bits of energies found in no other place but those devoured universes, including their unique Cosmic/Dimensional energies). (Started out as the first, became the second as it consumed more and more universes?) (Anti-T-Baby cuffs work by separating out all those energies into their component bits, but they won't work on other Cosmic-empowered beings because their energies are "pure," nothing to separate; Cosmic-Cuffs designed to power down Cosmically-enhanced beings suppress their specific Cosmic energy, but can't work on the bouillabaisse of Cosmic & other energies in a Terminus-empowered being.)

"More power!," Archeville yelled behind him, though his voice did not carry far. Even if they cannot hear me, they can at least see my lips moving. And it should be obvious that more energy should be funneled in. I just hope any disruptions we cause, to the building's or the city's power grid, are not too serious! "Come on, Mona, you can do it!," he yelled back into the crack in the weird crystal. He raised one foot and planted it against what remained of the cocoon, giving him a better anchor on which Fulcrum could pull herself out. "I know you are in there... you have to be in there... Fatima and Afareen are waiting to see you!" Have to fight the urge to pull her out, have to let her do this on her own. Just have to stay conscious enough to be here for her...

Freedom City is a nexus for superpowered beings, both heoric and villainous; it seems most countries have fewer metahumans than Freedom City does. Why? There are a number of reasons, but there's one few have considered: there are so many there because Freedom City is where it is easiest to be a metahuman, not just socially but physically as well. Freedom City sits on a dimensional axis point: it's the spot where Centurion's life pod entered (and that rift is now housed in the Atom Familiy's home), and it's where Omega has chosen to attack because that's the point where it would be easiest to send the entire universe into the gaping maw of the Terminus. Exposure to Terminus energies is known to cause superpowered mutations (an idea originally posited by Kitt at the ATT, which we've taken up as canon), but a low level "background Terminus radiation" could be enough to warp the local laws of reality such that it's more likely that chemical accidents and radiation exposures and so on would grant superpowers (rather than slow agonizing death from cancer). (Terminus energies are of course not the only reason for superpowers: metahumans existed long before the earliest Terminus Invasion [though T-Rays can probably travel through time], and not everyone exposed to T-radiation gains powers, so there are other factors at work.) There's less of this background radiation elsewhere on Earth, so there are fewer metahumans there; the laws of reality there are less mutable, less conducive to superpowered mutations. And there's even less when you go off-Earth or out of the Sol system, so extraterrestrials are less likely to develop atypical superpowers (apart from whatever is standard for their species). That's one reason so many aliens want Earth: to find out why it has so many metahumans, or because they know exactly why there are so many and want the T-Ray-soaked realty for themselves.

That would fit better, yes. But why won't any woman "give him the time of day"? (Is he hideously ugly? A "Nice Guy" that's walked over? Is is that his Magical powers come with the Side Effect of "forever alone, repulsive to all of the opposite sex"? [something created by a stodgy Hermetic to do away with distractions so he could focus on his studies?]) Why must he resort to summoning a being from another dimension to go out on a date? And, why would this servant of Anteros agree to dating him? Again, does the summoning compel it?

I see several issues here that will need firming up: A] Mages powerful enough to physically summon deities generally don't do so for a one-night date. How was this guy able to pull it off? Why is he using this mojo for this? Why not summon something lower on the power scale, like a succubus (or some non-evil version of one), or use his magic to get a date with a local gal (either by impressing her with displays of power, or more nefarious means, i.e., emotion or mind control)? B] Why does Aphrodite agree to date this mortal? Did the summoning compel her to agree? (If so, that would indicate even more power on the mage's side, and the questions of "why use it for one date" and "why has no one heard of him before" comes up again. Also, if this is the case, he's effectively roofied her -- would the heroes condone that?) C] If said mage is potent enough to summon gods, why does he need mortal heroes to guard them/make sure things go smoothly?

So... what was the Sense Motive check for? Does DH believe Gorsky's telling the truth re: there being some other being around? Or was it the "DC 20 to sense something is 'off' in the scene" check?

Maybe! Sense Motive roll (1d20+4=19) I think he's out of HPs, and he's already Fatigued, so no Extra Effort, so I'll leave it as-is. Peraps it shall lead to something exciting?!

"Jes' get yerself scarce, Jake," the revenant hissed, trying to keep his voice low and maintain some element of surprise against Gorsky. "Get upstairs!" The undead avenger crept into the morgue, shrouded by the Stygian darkness he had set off. Alright, I can see, he cain't... well, he might see the glow from the one eyeball in my skull, but that should still gimme enough wriggle-room t'avoid any shots he might fire my way... [bg=#000000]"Gorsky!,"[/bg] he shouted, using a hint of his supernaturally terrifying voice -- not enough to send him running (and into someone else he could take hostage), but enough to keep him on his toes. [bg=#000000]"It's over, Gorsky! Yer gonna face th'authorities fer what ya done! But first... you'll answer to me!"[/bg] He had position himself so he could get a clear path between him & Gorsky, and took off down it, leaping up and latching onto him with both arms, even wrapping one leg around the madman.

Tackling Gorsky! I.e., grappling Gorsky; All-Out Attack; charging if there's room to do so Melee attack for Grapple; All-Out Attack (-5 Defense/+5 attack), possible Charging (+2 Attk/-2 Def) (1d20+14=18) 18, 20 if he can charge. Grapple check; All-Out Attack (-5 Defense/+5 attack), possible Charging (+2 Attk/-2 Def) (1d20+21=33) 33, 35 if he could Charge Remember that, per our House Rules, if Dead Head's Grapple check is better than Gorsky's, Gorsky is Pinned, and if DH's totla is 5+ more than Gorsky's, Gorsky is Bound and Helpless.

"Yes, the Level 5 meeting room would seem adequate for this meeting," the robot announced flatly, waving to the screens. "I look forward to seeing you all soon." It followed Supercape out.

Dead Head skittered to a stop when he heard Jake & Gorsky's voices, and crept in just enough to see the scene. Shoot! Think, man, think -- spookin' 'im might get him t'go trigger-happy, an' the ricochet may hit Jake or set off a spark t'ignite the gas. But the way that fridge's sparkin', it might set it off any second. Oh, duh, am I braindead! Dead Head reached up and plucked out an eye, set it on the floor, and flicked it into the morgue. After it rolled for a bit, its optic nerves writhed and pushed it into position so it could view the two men. As it did, the revenant ran, stumbling a bit due to the double visual feeds going through his mind, down the halls, to the power junctions for the basement floor. "It's around here somewhere... ah!" He bashed the wooden door in and ran to the fuse boxes, "'kay, lemme see... ah, there! That's the one fer the Morgue. Okay, Jake once told me the hospital's got its own backup generators that kick in after a bit, so the power won't stay out long... jes' hope it's long enough!" He grabbed the power cable with both hands and pulled, hard, tearing it free from the box, plunging the morgue and surrounding hallways into darkness and sending a few hundred volts of electricity through his undead form. "Whoo! Now let's see if I can get back to the Morgue and tackle Gorsky 'fore the lights come back on!" He ran back to the two men, the red of the emergency exit signs and the green flames of his one eye the only light in the darkness.

"Friend-Dragonfly," the golden robot's quickly (but still flatly) said, "it would make me uncomfortable to know a fellow mechanoid is caged. May I try to communicate with it and attempt to 'talk it down'? If successful, you would not need to construct a cage, which means you could come down here sooner, and thus return to your work sooner."

"Sonuva-" Dead Head spat. The revenant was pretty easygoing, but when it came to Samedi, he showed he had a temper. "Well, figured it was high time his name popped up again t'trouble us. Though... I'd think Kriminel'd be more after Hades -- he was the one tryin' t'act like a loa. Seems t'me like his plans would've been an even bigger breach o' the Pact." He looked to Equinox and Nick, and Mutt; Mutt just gave the spirit canine equivalent of a shrug. "Don't worry, 'Nox," he said as he held out a dried hand to her, and the other to Nick, smiling his rictus smile, "if yer body does get ripped a new one, I can hold on t'yer spirit in time fer Nick to get a replacement. Teamwork!," he added, his smile broadening more than it should for a living human.

The morgue? Oh, sure, gotta go to the lowest part of the building 'cuz fire rises, and it has to be the morgue! Dead Head raced down the hall, past the police, and flung himself down the stairs Gorsky had headed down, landing with a bone-breaking THUD. In no time he sprang back up, bones and flesh re-knitting as the cops reached the top of the stairs, and continued on to the morgue. "It's over, Gorsky!" he called out. "Best t'just stop this foolishness an' come along quietly -- y'ain't hurt no one yet, worse you'll face is arsony charges fer the hotel, an' that won't be much since everyone got out in time." Dangit, where'd he get to? He cain't've gone far... Heeey ghosties! Anyone aroun'? Got a wild one on the loose, lookin' to burn the place down. Any of y'all catch sight of 'im?