Ecalsneerg

Right, Noxy is now Fatigued. Screw it, she can suck it up. She's also got 3HP left to burn. So I'm going to spend one on clearing that Stun, and point out that her ban on mind altering only goes into effect on humans. Hehehehehe. Another power stunt! Mind Reading 11 (Extras: Mental, Penetrating) [22PP] Opposed power check: In my head, I see you all over me in my head! (1d20+11=20)

DC37... poor Acid Demon Bob. DC37 save! (1d20+8=17) Poor Bob Initiatives! Demon 2 - 20 - NPC- flaming, Bruised x1 Keter - 16 - NPC - Uninjured Jack - 13 - 5HP - Uninjured Equinox - 12 - 2HP- Fatigued, Bruised x2, Injured x1, Prone Demon 3 - 5 - NPC - spines, uninjured Demon 4 - 1 - NPC - metal chains, uninjured

DC31 Taunt resist (1d20+20=21) DC22 Drain toughness, DC30 stabbing (1d20+8=23, 1d20+10=29) The demon takes a second Bruise, and isn't dead yet! Woohoo! Initiatives! Demon 2 - 20 - NPC- flaming, Bruised x1 Keter - 16 - NPC - Uninjured Jack - 13 - 5HP - Uninjured Equinox - 12 - 2HP- Fatigued, Bruised x2, Injured x1, Prone Demon 1 - 5 - NPC - acidic, Bruised x2, Staggered, Prone Demon 3 - 5 - NPC - spines, uninjured Demon 4 - 1 - NPC - metal chains, uninjured

As Equinox struggled to push herself up off the ground, visibly wincing in pain from the impact with the tree and taxed by the task of actually spurring herself to move and not leave herself defenceless, the acid demon did the same, its dripping membrane burning a trail in the forest floor. The fiery demon, knowing it was going to get beaten up, took wing, and began soaring off backwards into the woods... past two more new arrivals, one a spiny horror looking like the offspring of a Rottweiler, a porcupine and a bat. The other was nothing more than a somehow levitating mass of chains, two long spools of metal chain flapping as if they were wings. And the ground beneath Jack's feet erupted, first with six foot long spines of razor sharpness, hissing as they sliced the air, then with even longer lengths of lashing, orange-rust chains, barbed, spiked and coated in mud and blood.

Initiatives! Demon 2 - 20 - NPC- flaming, Bruised x1 Keter - 16 - NPC - Uninjured Jack - 13 - 6HP - Uninjured, Extra Effort Equinox - 12 - 2HP- Fatigued, Bruised x2, Injured x1, Prone Demon 1 - 5 - NPC - acidic, Bruised x1, Staggered, Prone Demon 3 - 5 - NPC - spines, uninjured Demon 4 - 1 - NPC - metal chains, uninjured Equinox and acid demon are both stunned and on the floor, so screw them. Demons 3+4 fly up and use their Area Blasts. DC 20 Reflex Area save, followed by DC 25 Blast. Demon 2 attempts to fly away, going a good 2000' back into the woods...

"Alright," said Siobhan, clasping Nick and Jack's hands tightly. "Let's do this." "Hermes runs across the world in a blink, Bounds across nations before you can blink, Lend me a portion of that agility and speed, Spirit us there in our hour of need!" The group disappeared in a flash of white light. They reappeared in the middle of a field, surrounded by cows. By sheer coincidence, a chicken was in the middle of the circle they'd formed, clucking away bemused. Siobhan shrugged. "I said it'd take a couple of trips," she said as they faded into white light again... The hilltop they arrived on was covered in trees, and around them... more trees, as far as the eye could see. At the foot of the hill, a small town was visible, consisting of maybe 30-40 buildings, most of them small cottages and bungalows. The village looked quiet as the grave, with very few people on the streets as twilight began to descend upon the area. And the air stunk, flaring up the Jack and Equinox's magic senses with the stench of rotting carcasses and spilled blood. Nick didn't quite get the same impression from his more specialized senses but somewhere in the woods behind them was a nagging sense of death, tinged by the hateful screams of violence and misery.

"Well, exactly as you say, magic use should perhaps be tracked because of its wide range. The authorities have no way of knowing what any individual magic user can do, whereas a man who can shoot lightning is generally only able to shoot lightning," replied Yoltsin calmly. "And yet there is still a wide range of effects one can perform with lightning control, with the sufficient scientific knowledge," said Dr Golding, ending her silence. "The ability to create magnetic forces or shut down machinery have been documented in my studies, and many other 'narrow' superpowers can actually be incredibly versatile in the hands of an experienced metahuman. Which ties neatly into Gabriel's point here, in that there are various ranges in skill in any field, be it magic, martial arts, or shooting lasers from one's eyes." Talon quickly moved in, flicking over another card. "Alright," he said, in an exaggerated accent, nodding and winking for the camera. "Good points all round, but I think perhaps we're getting a little bogged down here. New question... why isn't everyone doing magic? If it can be so useful, and is allegedly a trained skill... why don't we all know it?" Siobhan sighed. "A slang term often used in the community for having magic is "talent". And that works, to an extent, literally. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I have a lot of it, which is why I can do a lot of magic. But your average person just doesn't. It's not like learning guitar in that anyone can do it. It'd be more analogous to the only people able to play guitar being those highly skilled heavy metal musicians." Yoltsin asked, without having the slightest hint of malice or sarcasm in his voice. "So it's a trait you're born with? Like, say, the Terminus Baby phenomenon? A malicious, unnatural external force, if you will?"

DC24 Toughness save (1d20+11=16) Eh, I'll suck up a round of being stunned... Keep up the Force Field... DC21 Concentration (1d20+16=22)

Siobhan smiled wryly. "Oh, I know we could easily do it, it just makes me very uneasy. Last time we did it, we ended up fighting a demon that was first bound by Solomon. It's always necessary to fight even if you don't have any idea of what you're walking into, but it's still far from ideal to do so. Even if we do have much more versatility in what he can hit things with than just a sword..." She gestured to Hayley, and the raccoon reluctantly pulled away from the petting to bound over and leap up onto the couch, then her arm and then her shoulder, giving a slightly peeved jab to the witch's ear. "[colour=#000040]Ouch. Anyway, we're not going to make any progress in finding out what it is sitting here talking about how I haven't found out anything. Could everyone hold hands, please?[/colour]"

Equinox winced, but carried on through the scream, raising her wand high. "You know, I've never thought it was possible to cause trouble in a library," she mused. "I've always been somewhat scared of librarians." She began weaving her wand in a complex gesture, cold blue light gathering at the tip even as she swung it down and pointed it at the floor. Absent mindedly, as she tried to visualise, aim and project several attacks at once, she kept talking. "All those icy glares..." Several trails of frost erupted from her wand, slithering alone the floor crackling like a frozen pond being stepped on, and burst up from the ground in shards of jagged, hard edged ice at each demon's feet.

You know, Equinox doesn't use ice magic enough... Extra Effort to roll out an Area Burst near-exactly like her current one... only Targeted, and Power Attacking for 2. Strike 11 (ice dagger snakes!; Extras: Area - Targeted Burst [+1], Selective Attack) [33PP] DC28, when Power Attacking for 2 (1d20+9=15)

"If I might interject," said Yoltsin politely, smiling. "They're not quite the same thing, are they? To drive a car, someone has to sit a driving test and get a license, pay for insurance, and when held accountable, can be tracked though these details. How would that work for magic users? No one is tracking them." "I don't know," smiled Siobhan falsely, to hide her annoyance at this... person... annoying her quite so much. "The whole flying around glowing with a bright white light makes going incognito somewhat of a chore." The crowd gave a polite titter at this. "And frankly, we're not the only people around with dangerous powers. Look at, say, the entire superhuman population of Freedom City. Yes, there are villains, those who use their powers and skills for criminal ends. But..." She threw up her hands. "Well, I don't think I should have to point out the good the Freedom League and the myriad other capes in this city do. Unless you want to advocate a new Moore Act, that is?" She raised an eyebrow at Yoltsin, but not before glancing behind her so the cameras wouldn't see and winking at Gabriel.

"I've never heard anything about Devils attacking people, and never over so long a period," sighed Siobhan, shaking her head. Then she suddenly smiled. "And you're right about the miasma, it just doesn't seem right. The Barrens are old, though. There's no guarantee it's even a creature recent enough for us to have heard of." Siobhan rubbed at her forehead. "But we're leaving tonight. I've burned too much energy teleporting in the past, so I've put all my practice time recently into learning how to do it without burning myself out at an unnecessary rate. I should be able to get us there in a couple of jumps." Hayley, glad of the attention, began snuggling up to Jill and making happy squeaking noises, rearing up on her hind legs to pull at her trousers to try and get even more fussing over. <Do you have cookies? Or hugs? You smell funny, but do you have cookies?> Rolling her eyes at her familiar's continual lack of professionalism, Siobhan smiled. "Don't these festivals always revolve around corn? And flannel shirts? But I'd not get your hopes up on that working. It could just be one nasty that can be beaten up. Or it could be something a lot worse. Not every magical problem can be hit until it falls down, or we wouldn't really need to do so much reading." She grimaced. "And even after assaulting my notes, I've still got nothing."

DC19 Reflex, followed by Will save. (1d20+6=16, 1d20+12=16) ... I hate you all. Blowing a Hero Point on the Will save, meaning there's no way to fail it (cos the minimum I can get is 23. You hear that, IC!?)

Initiative (1d20+1=17)

Kirk Talon faltered slightly as the white-clad superhero stole the spotlight from him, but rallied admirably. Cutting off the fading off his smile by redoubling his efforts, widening his grin to show his pearly whites, he once again gestured at the curtains. "Ahem. Our next guest is Sven Yoltsin, the founder and president of The Movement For Youth Values. You may know him for his huge charity bash last week, which was covered here... on SuperVision!" Yoltsin appeared at the top of the stairs, a tall man of obvious Russian descent, with high cheekbones and pale blond hair. His black eyes seemed to stare straight out from his face menacingly, but were offset by an effortless, disarming smile, which the man flashed before bowing politely at the mention of his charity work. Shaking Talon's hand, he walked to his seat casually, to the right of Gabriel, his entire demeanour charming and composed. "Now, for our final guest. This woman has recently made the decision to go public with her secret identity in order to champion her cause, and has agreed to join us here tonight to bring her point of view to this discussion... Siobhan Drake, or as you may know her better, Equinox!" Siobhan appeared at the top of the stairs, smiling nervously. Unsteadily, she made her way down the stairs, and sat down on the far right of the seating arrangement. Talon grinned at the crowd. "That's all our guests, so let's get down to the real business of the show! First question, and a simple one, I think..." He pulled several cue cards from his pocket, and read from the top one. "Do you think magic is dangerous? Simple question, Gabriel, would you care to start?" One could barely notice him grit his teeth as he addressed the clearly more charismatic superhero.

(23:23:04) ChatBot: Ecalsneerg rolls 1d20 and gets 5. (23:23:08) ChatBot: Ecalsneerg rolls 1d20 and gets 2. So Equinox gets 6, and just in case I need one or Hayley despite leaving her in the back, she gets 6 also. Convenient!

As Equinox cleared some space on her couch for her guests, the window unlatched itself and was shoved open by a grunting, straining Hayley, to let the brother-sister duo into the apartment. "We have doors," commented Siobhan wryly, opening up her laptop to reveal the email she'd been sent. "Right, as you know, I've been trying to offer a source of support to the magical community lately, and have an email address set up for it," she said gravely. "A lot of them are cranks, but this one seems to be very genuine, especially after I took some time to Google the subject matter." She whirled the laptop round to show Nick, Jack and Jill. Ms Drake, I hope you get this soon, because something strange has been going on in my town for months. A lot of people are acting strangely. People have disappeared. This has been going on ever since winter. I've known for a while that I can do magic. Nothing major, just a couple of small household spells. But, this isn't just suspicious. I don't know what you can do or sense, but my town feels wrong. Even without the disappearances and people acting odd, there's a bad smell, but no one I've spoken to seems to notice it, and I think it must be some form of magic. I've enclosed links to some news articles, and a map of the town. Please help me, Christine Smith. The email ended with maps of a town in the south of New Jersey called Haymarket, and articles on the website of a small local paper, and a couple of larger state-wide ones, listing several disappearances dated back to winter. There were even a couple of articles on assorted dogs and cattle being found dead, their internal organs stripped out and missing. "I called you to help, because... well, this looks bad, and I'm not sure I want to just walk in there alone," explained Equinox.

"Gooooooooood evening, and welcome to the Kirk Talon show!" smiled the clean cut, blond man, blue eyes twinkling as he waved to the audience in his clearly expensive suit. "Tonight, we're going to tackle the topic of magic, and its role in modern society" He gestured up at a blue carpeted set of steps to the left of the stage, leading up to a pair of unnecessarily showy red curtains. "Allow me to introduce our first guests... Dr Karen Golding!" A blond bespectacled woman appeared from behind the curtains, clad in a navy blue pant suit, her hair tied up in a tight bun. Smiling, she walked down the steps and shook Talon's hand, taking a seat on one of two couches on the right hand side of the sound stage as the audience applauded politely. "A professor of metahuman physics at Freedom City University, Dr Golding is here to represent a scientific view on our topic," continued Talon. "Our next guest is Gabriel, one of our city's respected superheroes and protectors. Give him a big hand everyone!" he shouted as the crowd began cheering and clapping loudly, looking at the curtain in anticipation.

John shielded his eyes from the sudden glare, scowling at the huge ankh. <Could have. But I prefer windows, personally.> Sighing deeply, he pushed himself off the side of the building and rolled through the mid-air portal, coming up in a practiced crouch. His eyes scanned every corner of the room, ears straining for any sound as he instinctively took a chair in the corner to avoid being snuck up on, and so he could survey the room more fully. Rather than getting a drink, he instead chose to merely sit with both hands folded atop his still extended metal cane.

Hayley went nuts, jumping up and down and pulling books off of shelves. <Bad smell! Bad smell! One big smell, lots of little ones coming out of it!> She bounded over and started shaking Equinox's leg. <OK, OK,> grimaced the witch, straightening up and facing east. "She says there's a large source of magic somewhere down there, with smaller sources coming out of it. So, likely several demons." The witch lifted her wand with two hands, pointing it like a pistol towards the children's section. "Let's go." <Stay here, you don't want to get into this fight, Hayls.>

Siobhan nodded, and forced a small smile. "Thanks. You're right." She went to walk past Gabriel towards the set, patting him on the shoulder, then turned and actually gave a genuine smile. "But, please, don't use the English accent, even to compliment people. Just... don't." Then she kept walking towards the bright light of the set. "Better hurry up, we've only got a few minutes before I have to show you up on national television." She tried to keep the grin from this fixed to her face as the sound technician fitted her up with a microphone.

"This is a bad time," said Siobhan's voice wryly. "But I need your help. There's a town in the next county, and something is festering there. Can you get to my apartment soon, or do you need to me to come teleport you?" "Damn, no recorded sightings in North America," she muttered. "Who's that voice in the background anyway, and why are they... well, turning the air blue by the sounds of it?"

With her back to the door, Siobhan clenched her teeth. "Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know." She grimaced, and spun, opening the door. She was clad in a knee length black dress and black pumps, her pentacle hanging on the usual silver chain around her neck. She also had small, unobtrusive studs in either ear, and a bare minimum of make-up besides a little blusher and eyeshadow. "This looks alright? Because I told the wardrobe people I could just click my fingers and do it, but then I realised I wasn't sure what I was doing, and..." She caught herself and forced a bit of composure. "Let's just say, as a rule the mystic superhero community haven't got much experience with the media."

2pm, Thursday 2nd June 2011, GBN Tower Siobhan's hands shook in the small dressing room she'd been assigned, the glass of water in her hand shaking enough to splatter wet droplets all over the couch she was hunched over on. Oh why, oh why, did I agree to be on the Kirk Talon show? she lamented, trying to keep her composure. Nonetheless, she got up and paced back and forward nervously. Vampires? Fine. Werewolves? Great. Television debate? Nonononono. She put the glass down on the table, and her head in her hands. "Well, wasn't this a bright idea," she sighed. Glancing at her watch and realizing she was on in fifteen minutes, she let loose a string of swear words and sat in front of the mirror, clicking her fingers over and over again to find an outfit she was happy with.