Avenger Assembled

Electra, Robert, and I are visiting friends this weekend, so access will be spotty.

Koshiro's hasty fiction seemed to soothe the gorilla's suspicions, and soon all three of the travelers from Freedom City were lodged in what was by local standards a lush suite: a big room with wall hangings of heroic gorilla warriors fighting giant dragons, a massive bed big enough for three humans or two gorillas, and even a private bathroom that dumped out right outside the castle walls. Though all three of them were curious about where they were, the internal sensors in the exercise told them they'd been active for hours and were all ready for bed. It was something of a railroad, but violating the internal logic of the scenario would make all this a waste of time. The next morning, at least in theory, the scenario would restart and they'd be taking the scientists out to pick up the fallen spaceplane. Koshiro and Corbin bedded down for the 'night', deciding between the two of them where they'd sleep, while Sharl rolled his eyes and took up space in his emitter. Time rolled by fast as the internal clock sped up in the night, just like a Sims game where the protagonists were sleeping. Suddenly, though, the Moon visible outside the window came to a dead stop, and the heroes heard a noise coming from below: many noises. There were sounds of screaming and blows from the castle and courtyard beneath, hasty orders and shouts to arms , and from the courtyard a steady chant that resolved itself into one word. "REAP! REAP! REAP!" Down below, there was a battle taking place: a small coterie of gorilla knights in half-donned armor were under heavy assault by a large group of black-clad chimpanzees wielding scythes, swords, and other refurbished instruments: the castle gate was down and wedged down by a wagon, the body of the gate guard visible nearby. There were already bodies in the courtyard, gorilla and chimp alike. Suddenly, on a wagon in the courtyard, a simian figure appeared familiar to Koshiro especially. Hannibal waved a broadsword high. "MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!" he called to the fighting chimps. "TODAY IS THE DAY WE TAKE THIS CASTLE AND OUR FREEDOM WITH IT! WE SHALL REAP THE POISONED GRAIN OF MONARCHY AND HARVEST A FUTURE FOR OURSELVES AND OUR CHILDREN AS FREE APES! REAP! REAP! REAP!" The cry went up among the chimps again and the rebellious peasants resumed their attack on the shrinking knot of knights.

Why study public history?

Suitably intimidated by Bishop's arrival, especially with his equipment in a bad way in the wake of Miss Americana's arrival, the Clown Constructor sat back and tried to look like the master of the situation, but the way he flinched at Bishop's every glance more than ruined the impression. "Oh yeah? Well, I'll...I'll get out of jail one day," he dared, "but you'll still have that eye!" Evidently Melvin had gotten his potty mouth from his dad, but what was mildly annoying from a child was downright pathetic from an adult supervillain. Well, villain anyway; Miss A hadn't been exaggerating about the pizza boxes and Cheetos. With sirens sounding distantly, it looked like Melvin's dad hadn't left the place in a while.

"Why don't you two try diplomacy?" suggested Citizen, shooting a glance at the others. "I can come up through the floor and take them by surprise, since I don't make any vibrations coming up through the floor." He'd taken the time on the way down to figure out exactly how it was all the Sub-Terrans saw down there. "If they don't start a fight, I can just come up through the floor like nothing happened." Since Miss A could communicate with him via computer link either way, Citizen went into action, disappearing into the walls and flying down slowly and carefully (since he couldn't see where he was going) to get close to the Sub-Terrans and their anxious king.

Unifier struggled in Cannonade's grip, thrashing and cursing, before suddenly going limp: while the helmeted hero had been meaning to subdue his enemy rather than simply knock him out, evidently Unifier's rage and fury had been enough to knock himself out. Up close, the putative UN 'hero' smelled faintly of cheap liquor and cigarettes. This close, with the man in a headlock, there was something naggingly familiar about the other man, as if it was a ghost of something from Cannonade's own past inside the costume. Inside the smoke, Dog of War rose to his feet on a sharp command from the Flaming Feminist and disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing outside the cloud of midnight mist, visibly shrugging his furry shoulders before reappearing next to the scantily-clad woman who was evidently his master. Screaming a curse that was foul enough to darken the already smoke-filled air around her, she raised her hands and fired a blast of scorching black flame that seemed to ignite the mist around her, pushing the smoke cloud away from the supervillains on stage (and far enough from the heroes that it didn't obscure their vision either). So the hellfire seen earlier had come from her! With the cloud cleared, Hebrew Hammer ignored the others and leapt from the stage, swinging a giant hammer at Edge that just missed his head. He wasn't playing around the way the others were: he'd focused on Wander, Midnight, and then Edge before picking the latter, and the massive blow that nearly took off Mark's head had certainly been in deadly earnest. Letting the bad guy focus on him rather than the now-rallying civilians, Edge sneered as he let a wall of earth rise up from the ground all around him. "Come on, try it again! At least the real Donar could actually fight!" From the stage came a cry from Flaming Feminist. "Where the hell IS she?"

9 Oh, what the hell: the guy's already Staggered and I like the idea of our mostly explictly patriotic hero totally pwning this asshat. Unifier is unconscious. 'Dog of War': Hellhound cannot smell through Obscure, so the Olfactory Concealment is a good strategy. He teleports out of the cloud and finds that he still can't see the heroes! (Normally he'd go out and grab a baby or something, but he's really hoping Fucastrega will get knocked out soon so he can get back to Hell.) He got nothin'. 'Flaming Feminist' Flaming Feminist is going to spend her action countering the mist. 11 Ahahah well I'll fiat that. Have an HP, Giz. All right, so she burns off the Midnight Mist. That leaves 'Hebrew Hammer'. He'll go after Edge, as he's been one of the more outspoken members of the opposition. He'll go ahead and All-Out Attack. 17 A miss, and he drops to DC 10 to hit next round. All right, new round. Edge tricks Hebrew Hammer, making sure he'll be focused on him (and the Create Object effect he's just activated) instead o the crowd. Wander is up, as soon as I post for the NPCs.

Can he beat a 20? It turns out he can, so you're good.

The royal audience with King Fala was easy enough in some levels: the old silverback was eager to be cordial to his 'outlander' allies as well as ask about people he'd once known on the Freedom League. The young heroes and the crash survivors were treated well, feted with good food and wine diluted enough that it evidently passed the standards of what Claremont students were allowed to eat and drink. Sharl opted not to eat or drink, not wanting to deal with the consequences later, and found himself somewhat awkwardly in the company of two scantily-clad chimpanzee women who were very interested in hearing about the 'light-box' he was carrying. What wasn't pleasant to deal with was the continuing racial prejudice they were witnessing: it was increasingly obvious that Sir Connor was among the more humane in his treatment of his chimpanzee servants, and that most of the court was at best cruel and at worst outright brutal. While there were no incidents, it was obvious that things weren't pleasant around here. Sir Connor confessed to Corbin, who he'd recognized as the leader of the outlanders, that "Things are not usually this bad. The king is fearful of rebellion, as are many of his subjects. The poor harvest has made peasant and lord both in the lands beyond more brutal than they should be." As the meal wrapped up and his ladyfriends joined the other ladies of the court in departure, Sharl turned to the others and murmured, "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to 'bunk down' for the fake night they'll be giving us. I don't really relish watching this." As he spoke, though, an armored gorilla approached Koshiro. Without preamble, he said, "Outlander, you spoke to the serf Hannibal before supper. Did he say anything to you about where he planned to go upon his escape?"

"I'd be happy to help," said Citizen without hesitation. The idea of people being altered into monsters, possibly against their will, made grim images of Tronik's mutants dance against the back of his mind. Programming errors of a larger sort? he thought cynically. The talk of magic and mages meant nothing to him, but he understood the thought of a place so warped it bred monsters of its own just fine. No one in Tronik had ever gotten the idea of using mutants as a weapon, and between Leroj's efforts and his own, hopefully no one would. If people had had that idea out here, though, and if they were using it on kids..."I'm sure we all would."

I can put one of Citizen's PP there if needed. He's a sidekick of a member. And that way, he can bring in his teen hooligan friends from Claremont and they can loiter!

APPROVED

Looks good from my once-over. Make sure you bold and underline section headings like Powers, Abilities, Feats, etc. Chokehold's not a good feat (it's not an evil feat, it just doesn't work very well). I'd give her Uncanny Dodge (a very good feat) instead.

Distracting's not a good idea; your character will be denied his Dodge bonus whenever he's mimicking anyone. Requiring a Reflex save (to represent someone wrenching themselves away at the last minute) is what I did in my Power Thief build, and I think it would serve you well here.

His Reflex save is weirdly high, given his origin and archetype. (I like the idea of the niche you're filling here, though.) Since he's an NPC (and an offshoot of a telepathic species, and empowered by cthonic elder gods) why not just give him Comprehend?

Vampire Psychic Investigator PL 10 (150) Abilities: 10 pp STR 26 [18] (+8/+4) DEX 14 (+2) CON n/a INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+12 Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +14 Saves: 10 pp TOU +8 (+6 Protection, +2 Defensive Roll) FORT n/a REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 16 pp=64 r Bluff 8 (+8)* Concentration 3 (+5) Disguise 0 (+2/+22) Gather Information 8 (+8) Investigate 4 (+5) Knowledge (Behavioral Sciences) 4 (+5) Languages 2 (Lor, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10)* Search 9 (+10)* Sense Motive 8 (+10)* Stealth 8 (+10) Feats: 5 pp Evasion Power Attack Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (Mental) Powers: 92 pp Auspex Array [5+1-1=5 pp] (Drawback: Not In Daylight) Communication 2 (100 ft) (mental) (Extra: Two-Way; PF: Subtle) AP: Mind Reading 10 (Flaw: Duration [instant/Lasting]) Dementation Array [10+1-1=10 pp] (Drawback: Not in Daylight) Confuse 10 AP: Mind Control 10 (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [visual]) Enhanced Feats 13 (Attack Specialization (Unarmed) 3, Defensive Roll, Dodge Focus 6, Second Chance (Well-Informed checks), Skill Mastery (Bluff, Notice, Search, Sense Motive), Well-Informed) [13 pp] Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1 pp] Enhanced STR 8 [to STR 26 (+8)] [8 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Impervious TOU 6 (Flaw: Not vs. Wood/Silver/Fire) [3 pp] Obfuscate Array [5+1-1=5 pp] (Drawback: Not in Daylight) Concealment 10 (all senses) (Flaws: Passive, Phantasm) AP: Morph 4 (any humanoid) (Flaw: Phantasm; PF: Covers Scent) Protection 6 [6 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] Super-Senses 8 (Postcognition (Flaw: Source [blood]), Precognition (Flaw: [uncontrolled]) [4 pp] Drawbacks: -9 pp Vulnerability (vs. fire) (common, moderate) (-3 pp) Vulnerability (vs. silver) (uncommon, major) (-3 pp) Weakness (repelled by crosses; dazed by holy symbols via Charisma check) (-3 pp) Design Notes: In another life, she might have grown up to be a superhero. But she came of age in the 1980s, in an era when Freedom City had abandoned its heroes. So instead, after her psychic powers manifested in her teens (during an incident when she accidentally switched bodies with her mother), she became a spook, recruited directly out of Yale to work for AEGIS’ Psi division. Initially brought in to help catch a brutal fleshwarping serial killer, she rose quickly in AEGIS’ ranks, dealing with everything from first contact with a powerful alien species (that proved to be a psionic offshoot of the Lor) to a child who’d disappeared on board an airliner in flight (as part of an OVERTHROW attempt to hijack the plane and detonate it over Freedom City.) The only stain on her record was the brutal serial killer who’d escaped during her very first case, a powerful psychic killer who’d fed on his victims’ innermost fears. When he re-emerged some years ago, she took charge of the investigation. Some people said it was an obsession. But her target was different now, stronger (particularly odd for a man many years her senior, who’d been middle-aged upon his disappearance years earlier), more charismatic, and deadlier, as if the universe itself was bending to his whim. Through dogged policework and a keen study of human behavior, she finally caught her target, only to have him turn on her and her team: he was no human predator now, but an immortal vampire transformed by another killer who’d admired his work! He killed several of her friends, tormented her psychologically, and then finally transformed her into a vampire like him, planning to feed one of her surviving colleagues to her. But she proved to be of sterner stuff than he’d imagined: she overcame his vampiric and psychic brainwashing and slew him, saving her allies from the unholy monster. Afterwards she couldn’t go back to the agency, but instead became her own agent, a creature of the night determined to make sure that no one else falls victim to the other monsters out there. Here’s a Vampire Psychic Investigator, based on the Malkavian clan from Vampire: the Masquerade, the Psychic Investigator build from Instant Superheroes, my own Psilent build, as well as Doc’s Vampire Psychic and Jodie Foster’s star turn from Silence of the Lambs. If she’s obsessed with catching criminals, that’s not an unhealthy obsession for a superhero, though it may give her a reputation as a well-known crackpot: in my mind she’s basically the Helena Bertinelli Huntress with the Question’s style and interest in criminology. (And, you know, with some fangs!) Her psychic powers aren’t enough to catch criminals on their own, but they do give her some powerful heads-up: she can read minds and communicate with allies psychically, as well as turn herself invisible and give people false memories of her appearance. I figure the Mind Control and Confuse are legacies of her vampiric heritage, so she may have a Complication about only using them in a crisis. Her powers also make her a better fighter, letting her predict opponents’ moves in combat (as long as she can see them) and thus hold her own even against more powerful opponents. (She probably carried a gun in her AEGIS days, but doesn’t need to anymore). In life she had Con 12 and was PL 7 without her vampire powers; right now if her psychic abilities are negated she’s still a solid PL 6.5 with her vampiric strength (quite a surprise for the guards who put a psi-nullifying helmet on her and thought that would leave her helpless). She’s got a lot of powers, and a lot of potential ways to expand her repertoire: you can up her sensory powers, make her a better sneak, or a more powerful mentalist: as she is, she’s something of a jack of all trades, but an effective one for all that. As TVTropes says, vampires are natural for private investigator/noir style stories: they have a murky past, hang out in dark alleys with shady characters, usually have a turbulent relationship with the opposite sex, organized religion, and law enforcement: oh yeah, and they usually have a drinking problem! Characters like this are a good way to have a street-level costume that’s still definitely a costume: a fedora, a mask (a full-face mask to conceal fangs and red-rimmed eyes, perhaps?), and a trenchcoat and you have a perfectly serviceable-looking character. It’s a superhero game, you really do need some choices from the costume, codename, and secret identity buffet.

Have at it, TT!

TT is holding his post in reserve, Giz, so go ahead and post as you will.

Edge: Hotsy-Totsy Nazi (and GMing) Harrier: Power Struggle Vanity Project (and GMing) When You're a Stranger Freedom Angel: Plan Bee Citizen: Ethical Dilemmas Space Between Change is Necessary for Growth Box of Peas GMing: Hotsy-Totsy Nazi and IC as Edge Vanity Project (with IC posts for Harrier) Legacy Heroes Swiss Misses Queen of Heaven Friend in Need Put my GM point towards Edge, please.

The chimp briefly looked surprised, but said simply, "Yes." He was a proud ape, but not one to turn down water. When he'd drunk, he said simply, "Yes. Chimps are tied to the land, and gorillas and orangs own the land and thus those that work it. There are kind gorillas and there are vile gorillas, but in the end a master is a master and a serf is a serf. Some of us have risen to office. There are chimp priests, and that Bonda who was one of our finest warriors before he became a squire here." He shrugged, as best his posture and position allowed. "But for most of us, we are but peasants, who reap and sew at our master's command."

"Ready," said Sharl from the cell he'd given Koshiro. When the signal was sent, he didn't stick around: he slipped back into the system and emailed himself to the assistant librarian at the Fens library annex, trusting that his colleagues would make their own way safely to the Fens on their own time. The "flight" to the Fens was easy enough, for all that it seemed to take forever as he squeezed his way through the narrow tunnels in space that were his visualization of the copper wiring that made up most of the local computer network. Once there, the old iMac on the librarian's desk flared to life and in the darkened library, the black-clad figure of Citizen made his appearance. It took Sharl just a couple of minutes to realize he'd forgotten to check the layout of the library annex, but a flipped lightswitch and opened interior door got him into the mailroom, where just as planned his emitter was in the package on top. He made sure to conscientiously turn the lights off again before he left, taking a few moments to look around the small community library with its focus on childrens books and classical Earth literature, before carefully heading out an office window (which he also closed behind him) sent him out into the Freedom City night. Consulting the map of the city in his head, he headed straight for the old mission! It was a cool, damp night like many in Freedom City in October, with the promise of winter snow in the air.

Citizen took the badge and twirled it in his fingers, shooting an awkward glance at his fellow figment. "Uh, I can carry yours too, if you want, Ghost Girl." It seemed rude to tell Eve they could just phase through walls anyway, especially since this was a super-science facility that probably did have the sort of facilities that could hold in a projected image like Sharl as well as a psychic impression like Kimber. "What did the doctors say?" he asked Sage, since this was her facility. "Is he any better?" He couldn't really pin the badge on and have it stick, so instead he attached it to his mobile emitter.

She is bruised. Cannonade is up.

She's got no super-senses, so she's flat-footed. Do you want to keep your current roll?

Unless she's a shapeshifter, Aryan Angel is not one of the four in-costume. (The three dudes are definitely dudes, and the Flaming Feminist is too tall, too raven-haired, and too old)