Avenger Assembled

Electra and I will be traveling extensively over the next two weeks (and not together, either!) While we'll have access almost all the time, our posting times and access will be unpredictable.

A wartime picture

"It's the perfect place," said Sharl, ticking points off on his fingers. "You have a reputation as a troublemaker, so teachers will buy that you come here to get centered, plus there's the ethnocultural thing which will help with idiots, Indira's known to be religious, and I'm a laptop somebody forgot under the bench." He grinned a little, then added seriously, "I know it's too early for us to go out yet, but we'd be crazy to go out into the city without making some kind of plan. Now, I've been to several different areas around the city with Miss A, so I've got a pretty good grasp of local geography." As he talked, little maps showing the Fens, Lincoln, and the Waterfront popped up on the screen around his talking head. "These are the three most promising areas for, uh, adventuring I've found. I did some checking, and we want to avoid Greenbank. There are a surprising number of tech-savvy people there, and the last thing we want to do is trigger a supervillain alarm or something."

Famine Abilities: 22 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 14 pp ATK: +3 (+5 Swarm) DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +3/+20 Saves: 13 pp TOU +15 (+7 Con, +8 Protection) FORT +7 (+7 Con) REF +5 (+0 Ref, +5) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +8) Skills: 13 pp=52 r Concentration 13 (+15) Intimidate 12 (+14) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 10 (+10) Language 1 (Swahili) (Base: English) Medicine 8 (+10) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Feats: 11 pp All-Out Attack Dodge Focus Fearless Improved Initiative Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot Startle Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 79 pp Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 10 (aging, anything consumed, critical hits, disease, poison) [10 pp] Insubstantial 2 (swarm form) [10 pp] Obscure 1 (5 feet) (all senses) (Extra: Selective; Flaw: Range [Touch]) [4 pp] 'swarm' Protection 8 [8 pp] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection 1/week) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [3 pp] Super-Senses 7 (Acute Scent, Darkvision, Radius Sight, Tremorsense) [7 pp] Swarm Array [32+3=35 pp] Damage 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective; PFs: Progression on Area 2) ‘famine’ AP: Damage 15 (Extra: Ranged; PFs: Accurate, Precise) ‘swarmblast’ AP: ESP 6 (20 miles) (all senses) (Extra: Simultaneous; PFs: Rapid (x10), Subtle) ‘ten billion eyes’ AP: Move Object 15 (Heavy Load: 180 tons) (Extra: Affects Corporeal; Flaw: Feedback; PFs: Accurate, Precise) ‘swarmgrapple’ costs abilities 22+ combat 14 + saves 13 + skills 13/52 + feats 9 + powers 79= 150 pts -------------- Design Notes: Here’s Famine, the rider on the black horse, as a PL 10 starting character. My idea is that he’s a living swarm of mystic locusts (note that actual locusts are no more dangerous to people than any other grasshoppers, i.e., the only real risk is getting buried under or blinded by them) with the abilities you’d expect: he can scour an area of living and unliving matter or target his swarm to lift heavy objects (requiring enough focus that he can be attacked through them) or simply rip them apart with a billion tiny pincers. He’s also partially obscured by the billions of insects surrounding him, making it tougher to target him with attacks, and can send out smaller swarms to scout the surrounding area. Since so much of him is made up of bugs, and he always has a few around him, he’s very difficult to sneak up on. He’s got no Impervious, but with Insubstantial 2 he can take just about any one-on-one physical punishment that can be dished out on him. His only real weakness is area attacks (which destroy millions of insects at once) as well as energy attacks that do the same thing; that said, with his massive toughness he’s going to take a lot of those okay. He can eat _anything_, and is fully capable of devouring a nuclear bomb, payload and all, or chemical waste and any other poison heroes might try throwing at him to try and slow him down. (Though a nuke will hurt him as much as it wold any other character). He can’t be permanently killed, however, since my assumption is that at least one locust always escapes to reconstitute the swarm. Locusts are an embodiment of famine across many cultures, that swarm from the skies having spelled doom for millions over the centuries. I’ve gone with the idea that this fellow was once a missionary doctor working in Africa before being forcibly transformed into an embodiment of everything he’d spent his life fighting. (Ah, angst!) The most famous Horsemen of the Apocalypse in superhero comics are those mutants kidnapped and altered by Apocalypse in the Marvel universe; Angel the most famous in the core universe, Wolverine from some terrible What Ifs, and Thunderbird from the excellent Exiles. In Freedom City, things are different; Mastermind, the local Apocalypse expy, doesn’t use a lot of religious imagery in his work. So how do you explain this guy? Well, maybe he was caught by some local warlords (or multinational mercenaries) while investigating the source of illegal dumping and was fed to some radioactive locusts, only to have his mind dominate theirs and embody the swarm itself: or maybe he was a victim of a foolish deal with Mr. Infamy. “Sign on the dotted line, and superheroes will be able to fight famine directly. Don’t worry, you’ll get power out of the deal too!” In any event, he had the self-will to not be a monster and instead to use his new powers for good! It’s up to you whether or not he’s always a swarm of insects; if he’s scientifically based, it probably makes more sense to have him like Marvel’s Swarm and forever be a man of bugs; if he’s mystically based, it makes more sense to have him able to turn off the all-devouring insects all around him. (Yes, I know, it’s a little weird to get into what’s believable when you’re talking about a guy made of locusts, but bear with me.) Note that he is quite deliberately not immune to starvation; he’s got to eat something. He’s pretty slow in the air, since locusts aren’t terribly fast fliers. His immunity is a reskinned version of Matter Eater. I would rule that he does need the Feedback flaw on that Move Object to afford it as written, since he needs Affects Corporeal to have any effective STR with Insubstantial 2. If you’re interested in building a team of four, my Death and Doc’s Pestilence will serve you pretty well. As for War, well, watch this space in the future!

"The Crime League attacked," said Citizen, sounding scared even through the armor as he helped Miss Americana set the ball down in a safe spot where it wouldn't roll onto the citizenry below. "Blackstar, Hiroshima Shadow, and Dr. Stratos. We caught Blackstar, and chased off Hiroshima Shadow, but..." He leaned close to Miss Americana and whispered as much as his mechanical body allowed. "Stratos took out the computer systems with an EMP charge. I just managed to jump into the suit. When we fought with him, he seemed to recognize us. All of us. And in the end, in the end it wasn't Stratos! It was a Curator drone!"

Nice job! OK: Bishop: 23 (1 HP) Caradoc: 21 (3 HP) Robot C: 18 Miss Americana: 16 (5 HP) Robot A: 16 Robot D: 16 Robot B: 12 Bishop is up.

She's back, baby

They all made their own individual way up to the party, where what started out as a cheerful society ball in the Germanic tradition soon turned sour. While Trevor and Erin and Ace and Talya both had time to get in a couple of dances, it was increasingly obvious that their Germanic hosts were getting angrier and angrier, and it didn't take long to figure out why. Dr. Sin had shown up, conferred with his aides in their room, and then (as a stealthy reconaissance found) simply left, probably with the help of one of the psionic teleporters known to be in his employ: whether he'd made one of the heroes or simply betrayed his putative allies, the deedwasdone. The Nazis had been stood up, and they didn't look very happy about it. Like the cowards they were, they slipped out too, leaving the Liberty League with the field, the hotel, and a very fine ski slope.

The Gorgon gave a brief, terrible cry and vanished at Ferros' and Miss Americana's attack; both heroes could tell it hadn't been in response to their approach, but rather a reply to Willow's silence. As the Gorgon vanished, the last of the animated plants crumbled away to ash, leaving the heroes with a very disordered square that had taken significant property damage. Thanks to their fast work and their direct engagement of Willow and her minions, they'd avoided deaths, though there were certainly plenty of injured to attend to. As for Willow herself, the Gorgon's final disappearance banished the last of her metal shell: the decaying "Gorgon-look" on her fell apart like so much decaying metal, leaving behind beneath a battered but very much Willow dryad. As Miss Americana took stock of the situation, an armored figure that looked like Daedalus flew down to assist her, but it was Sharl's voice that came from the machine. "Miss Americana! Miss Americana...what happened?" he asked her, his own fears displaced by the tremendous battle he'd missed, bigger even than the fight with the Crime League. "Where can I help?"

So that'd be Subtle 1, not Subtle 2. (Subtle 2 doesn't really make sense for a movement power anyway, as people can see you in motion!)

Trained to target the weak and helpless, Caradoc charged the already-wounded robot, scoring his blade's tip off the armored torso before slicing deep along one of the joints. Better to take it out now and prevent an enemy in their rear than to risk leaving the job unfinished, better to strike fear into any sentient observers taking in the fight. He didn't speak or banter as he had before; combat was for him a time of deadly earnest, and he treated it as such as he engaged the mechanical man. There'd be time for the others. Oh yes.

Citizen demands your smooth jazz!

Looking good. One last question from me: how are you justifying Subtle 2 on his movement?

For a moment, Indira thought she was alone in the garden on her arrival: she could hear no human breathing or footsteps, and sense no such vibrations. All she saw was a laptop computer sitting by itself underneath a park bench, its screen dimmed to avoid casting any glow in the darkened garden. At her approach, the computer snapped to life, Sharl's face filling the screen. He started a bit at the sight of her, but had seen enough of Indira's true form that her face didn't freak him out. "Hey!" he said, his voice a low electronic whisper. "Glad you could make it." He grinned. "Our third will be here in a minute."

Was there anything else you guys wanted to accomplish on the space station?

Does an 18 hit the injured robot? If not, I'll spend an HP to reroll. DC 28 Tou save for it, depending on how much Autofire he hits.

It was, Murdock decided, for the best that Dragonfly would not be his immediate superior. Evidently he still had much to learn about this place and its ways. "In any event, Mara, thank you again for this opportunity," he promised her, his face sober and still. "This is much more than a job for me. This is a chance for me to have a life, and a future that is more than just...existing." He gave her a firm, solid handshake, steeling himself for rejection since he'd already seen she didn't like to be touched: if she did, she found his skin loose on his too-hard bones, as if it had been taken off and reapplied inartfully. "I will not fail you."

Initiative time! Harrier goes on 21 Clown Robot A: 16, Clown Robot B: 12, Clown Robot C: 18, Clown Robot D, 16 The four clown robots have these stats and look like this, there are two at the front door (which Bishop can see if he looks out Melvin's bedroom window, since everyone could hear Caradoc's shout, and two more behind them at the curb.

Genius though he was, Melvin was putty in Bishop's hands at those words. Here was an adult praising his intellect and asking what all his science gadgets did. He was only too happy to show Bishop everything he'd built, all the way from a few simple AIs powering little Tinkertoy dogs that could woof electronically and sniff Bishop's hand, to the homemade computer that was comparable to anything a college kid could make in a collegiate computer lab: and this was a preteen working in secret! As far as Bishop could tell, Melvin had a strong intuitive grasp of computer science and electrical engineering, ranging from parroting words he'd obviously learned off the Internet to casually demonstrating how he'd made his own soldering kit! Melvin's computer wound up being the only downside; much to Melvin's chagrin, his internet connection wasn't working. "It looks like something's blocking the signal!" he exclaimed with a boy's wide-eyed excitement. Downstairs, Arleen frowned at Miss Americana, but she was obviously being won over. "Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to try him there for a coupla weeks. I mean, he's already moved around so much, going to another school isn't going to hurt him any. And being at a school where he can learn science and isn't going to drive him crazy _would_ be good..." Without much to add to the conversation, Caradoc was on his feet and listening when he heard footsteps on the porch. He took a few steps, peered through the bars, and exclaimed "CLOWNS!" A moment before a red rubber ball erupted through the barred window and hit him in the chest in a flare of electricity! Though it exploded over his body, the cyberknight looked unhurt by the attack.

"We'll be very careful," Sharl promised Indira, delighted to hear her cautious assent. The prospect of adventuring in the city, particularly alongside his new teammates, was a very exciting one. He wasn't sure exactly where Koshiro had in mind for them to go, but now that they had a team it was just a matter of taking the journey. He was always one up for exploration himself. "Why don't we meet in the, ah, zen garden, they call it, sometime around eleven? They're still rebuilding that, and all the shadows will make it easier for us to sneak around. Once we're all there, we can figure out exactly where we're going."

"Actually, I was hoping we could talk," said Sharl, keeping close company alongside his fellow alien. Her homeworld was much further away than Tronik's new home, but on the other hand the metal shapeshifter was far more of this world than the boy of impulses and programs ever could be. Looking around, he leaned close to Indira and said, "So, hypothetically speaking...would you be interested in doing something more interesting than our homework tonight?" At her look, he said, "You're from far away, I'm from far away. There's a lot to see in this city that's a lot more interesting than our books, if you don't mind bending the rules a little. A lot of students get out and patrol as a group."

Gun-Toting Mutant Vampire From The Future PL 10 (150) Abilities: 22 pp STR 26 (+8) DEX 18 (+4) CON n/a INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+12 Blaster/Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+6 Dodge, +3 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +14 Saves: 8 pp TOU +8 (+8 Protection) FORT n/a REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 13 pp=52 r Bluff 6 (+8/+12) Diplomacy 6 (+8/+12) Intimidate 10 (+12) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 5 (+5) Knowledge: History 5 (+5) Languages 1 (Romanian) (Base: English) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Stealth 11 (+15) Feats: 17 pp Attack Specialization: Blaster 3 Attack Specialization: Unarmed 3 Attractive Dodge Focus (6) Evasion Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge: Auditory Powers: 72 pp Device 4 (Blaster) (Easy to Lose) [12 pp] -Blast 8 (PFs: Precise 2, Variable Descriptor 2 [any energy]) [20dp] Feature 1 (Temporal Inertia) [1 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) (PF: Subtle) [3 pp] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Impervious TOU 8 (Flaw: Not vs. Wood/Silver/Fire) [4 pp] Mind Reading 10 (Flaw: Duration [instant/Lasting]) [5 pp] Protection 8 [8 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Super-Senses 6 (Darkvision, Precognition [Flaw: Unreliable]) [4 pp] Drawbacks: -6 pp Vulnerability (vs. fire) (common, moderate) (-3 pp) Vulnerability (vs. silver) (uncommon, major) (-3 pp) ------------- Design Notes: The vampire plague started small, with a single patient transformed into an undead mockery of life by viral infection, but spread like wildfire: within a few years of its initial appearance, human and metahuman alike had fallen beneath the talons and fangs of the new age. Many went mad from the change and became no better than wild beasts, but others of the newly-dead retained their humanity and realized the danger they were all in: vampire civilization was a corpse bleeding the planet dry, and very soon there would be no human race left, living or dead. Though a blood serum was eventually made, it came much too late and was only a stopgap measure as the last sentient scientists on Earth formed a final, desperate plan as blood ran in the streets all around them. With the clock to human extinction ticking down, you were selected among a group of volunteers, armed with an experimental weapon, and sent back using one of the world’s last time machines (most of the rest having been destroyed to keep the vampires from spreading their taint) to destroy the underground laboratory where the infection had begun. You expected to die in the process; you’d seen enough horrors as the vampire plague spread (and lived long enough with the Hunger) that you had no problem with that. But much to your surprise, you lived! In fact, there was no evidence of the synthetic vampire plague here at all, just research into vampirism that had reached a dead end. But the night was saved, and you weren’t destroyed by the process of saving our future from the plague that killed yours. You’ve even started acting as a hero now, the serum easily manufactured in contemporary labs, and you rest easy most nights. But one thing still bothers you. After all, the fact that you still exist, and that your memories of this era still hold true, suggests maybe you didn’t change as much about the future as you thought. No one knew for sure where the first plague-vampire came from, anyway. They just know it started with a single infected superhero. For double-Iron Age action, here’s a telepathic vampire with a big gun from the future. Woo! He’s an okay shot with his big gun, though less handy with our old-fashioned clunky firearms. He can’t do the big magic tricks of supernatural vampires, but he’s a more realistic (well, sort of) take on vampire powers. That’s why he’s not particularly vulnerable to holy items or magic; while his undead body can be pierced by wood or burned by fire, or poisoned by silver, he has no particular issues with the Almighty. He’s got no Drain Con; he shouldn’t be running around biting people and risking the spread of his infection! (But ever the urge is there, the hunger that only the serum can stave off!) His Precognition is something of a plot device, but his Mind Reading is a solid ace in the hole power that gives him an advantage in investigation and reconnaissance. Feel free to stunt a low-level ESP or some other power off it as necessary, or to sink in power points to make him an effective telepath. For a more realistic yet (again, loosely) take on vampirism, make him more like my Living Vampire build upthread. He’s not really any kind of a leader, but that’s something you could pick up with XP, buying up his Charisma and adding feats like Leadership and Master Plan. You could give him a team of hard-nosed young heroes as his allies if you did that! Note that while this is, well, a pretty Iron Age concept, it’s salvageable here: we’ve had characters with post-apocalyptic backgrounds before and we’ve had vampires before, it’s just a matter of how you finesse it. You don’t need to take this as a grim and gritty time traveler determined to save the world whatever the consequences. If you take this as a man delivered from a world of darkness to a bright and shining world of heroes, a world he is sworn to protect to make sure no dire fate ever befalls them, you get a much better idea of how to play him!

"I'll talk to her tomorrow," said Sharl. He knew Indira didn't sleep, but he didn't want to risk endangering the whole enterprise by wandering onto the girls' floor afterhours. "We're in American Civilization 101 together." Most of the alien students shared that class, along with a smattering of visitors from other places on this gigantic, underpopulated planet, which gave them plenty of chances to talk. Once they'd finished their chat, Sharl let his roommate get some sleep before retreating back to his computer for some actual rest, for all that sleep was tough: finally, some real action, on patrol and more besides! The next morning, as civics class was running out, the electronic teenager scooped up his pen and paper (he'd decided to try and be as much like the locals as possible, even if it meant writing with chemical dyes on wood pulp) and floated after Indira as they headed out onto the leaf-dappled lawn, the fall breeze whistling through his holographic body. "Hey, Indira!" he said. "Where are you going next?" he asked her sociably.

Citizen: Free Action Drop Possession and leave the suit, where Sharl is no longer dazed or staggered Free Action Switch to Affects Corporeal slot in array Move Action Fly into the apartment where Orion in Standard Action Punch him in the face! A crit! DC 28 Tou save, you filthy savage.

"Wait, don't-" At Bastion's punch, Sharl's world went white as he felt his borrowed electronic body shatter and crack beneath the sheer force of the other teenager's mighty blow. He'd never taken a hit like that before while jacking someone's system, and for a moment he expected to wake up back in Miss Americana's laboratory after being fixed up. But when he could perceive again, he could hear Devil Ray cursing and fighting against his own hijacked suit, and hear the sparks and hisses inside from the suit's damaged systems. "I'm in here!" he yelled at Bastion, a moment before a bullet slammed into the other teenager's shoulder. When he didn't look more than scratched, Sharl hesitated a moment before he stepped right out of the armor, his vision clearing once he was out of the suit. "Listen, you fight this jerk, I'm taking it to the sniper." And with that, he turned and flew soundlessly into the air, clipping his way through the apartment wall and confronting Orion directly. "You're shooting superheroes with bullets? Please." And with that, he slugged Orion right in the jaw. "You might as well have a freaking bow and arrow!"