Avenger Assembled

12 Blagah, I'll spend the HP and pass that automatically. Is Orion within flight distance for me?

Get rid of the Mighty Blasts.

Vampire Sonic Controller PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 12 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 20 (+5) CON - (-) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+10 Sonic Control, +15 Melee) DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +5 Grapple: +20 Saves: 7 pp TOU +6 (+4 Protection, +2 Defensive Roll) FORT - (-) REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 52 r=13 pp Acrobatics 10 (+15) Bluff 10 (+11/+15) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 2 (+3) Knowledge (Streetwise) 4 (+5) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 10 (+15) Feats: 9 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee, Attractive, Defensive Roll, Dodge Focus, Evasion, Power Attack, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 87 pp Device 2 (Costume; Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [Acrobatics +10]) [9 pp] Feature 7 (Buys Off Sunlight Drawback) [7dp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1dp] Super-Movement 1 (Wall-Crawling) [2dp] Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1 pp] Enhanced Feats 12 (Attack Focus [Melee] 6, Dodge Focus 6) [12 pp] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Regeneration 5 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: [source] Blood) [3 pp] Protection 4 (Extra: Impervious, Flaw: Not Vs. Magic/Silver/Holy) [4 pp] Sonic Control Array 10 (PFs: Accurate, Alternate Powers 2) [23 pp] Blast 10 AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [Cone]) AP: Stun 10 (Extra: Ranged, Flaw: Action [Full]) Super-Senses 5 (Accurate Ultrasonic Hearing, Darkvision) [5 pp] Drawbacks: -10 pp Weakness (Repelled By Crossed; dazed by Charisma checks from holy symbols) [-3 pp] Weakness (Sunlight; destroyed after 1 minute) [-7 pp] costs abilities 12 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 13/52 + feats 9+ powers 87 + drawbacks 10= 150 pts Design Notes: So there you were, living on your own away from other superheroes for the first time, with just your boyfriend for company. Things were grim and gritty, sure, but it seemed like you could do anything: he with his incredible combat skills and you with your powerful sonic scream. Until the gangsters you were fighting caught you by surprise one day at home, pinning you down and gagging you, delivering you into the hands of a torturer they’d hired at great expense, a specialist from Eastern Europe. He forced himself on you, doing more, and less, than you’d expected, and then he took the gag off afterwards. You weren’t breathing anymore, what was the point? When you screamed, and his body exploded to ash, he looked so very.._surprised_. What did he think, that you were just going to be there, half-naked and covered in your own blood, when your boyfriend kicked down the door to rescue you? For pity’s sake, you’re a superhero! Something you have to remind yourself of now every night that you hear blood swishing in the veins of helpless citizens, every time your screams leave a criminal bloody and helpless at your feet. You’re not just a canary anymore; you’re a bird of prey. All right, here’s a streetwise sonic controlling vampire in the vein of DC’s Black Canary. (Those of you familiar with Mike Grell’s run on Green Arrow will recognize the awful story I’ve tweaked a bit to explain the character’s creation) In a Freedom City setting, she’s probably a Claremont graduate, a Golden Age legacy brutally attacked some years after moving out of town. I figure she’s moved back to Freedom City to get some help for her supernatural condition, subliminating her predatory drives into heroism, taking a serum to suppress her hunger for blood. She's got a costume as a hard to lose device that keeps sunlight off her skin and buys off the drawback. (Perhaps one that gives her more bluff-related feats, its implausible cut distracting onlookers (especially male ones) from noticing just how much the costume actually covers.) Her old boyfriend, assuming he didn’t accept her transformation, is a good potential nemesis, especially since he’s carrying around all those pointy sticks! (Look, I’m not a Green Arrow/Black Canary shipper) She’s a PL 10 hand to hand fighter and great at bluffing and tricking, as befits a beautiful femme fatale vampire, but she’s likely to fall back on her blasts in combat, where she can either seriously hurt individual major threats or just shout her way through a room of thugs if necessary. She can’t be gagged to stop her powers anymore, after all, she doesn’t need to inhale to talk! Mix up her powers as necessary; this could be a vampire with a built-in fireworks display if you prefer, perhaps in the vein (ha-ha) of my Vampire Sidekick build upthread.

Powerhouse Shaman PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 20 pp STR 30 [14] (+10/+2) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 [14] (+10/+2) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +18 Saves: 9 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 52 r=13 pp Diplomacy 3 (+5) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 15 (+15) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 5 (+5) Languages 2 (Cree, French) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 11 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Dodge Focus 4 Power Attack Ritualist Second Chance (Ritualist checks) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 72 pp Enhanced CON 16 [16 pp] Enhanced STR 16 [16 pp] Impervious TOU 10 (Flaw: Limited [Physical Only]) [5 pp] Gadgets 3 (Hard to Lose) (Extra: Action [Free] to Change) [27 pp] Speed 2 (25 MPH) [2+1=3 pp] AP: Leaping 2 (x5) Super-Senses 1 (Acute Scent) [1 pp] Super-Strength 2 (Heavy Load: 3 tons) [4 pp] abilities 20+combat 24 +saves 9 + skills 13/52 + feats 11 + powers 72 =150 pp ------------ Design Notes: From the pages of Exiles, here’s John Proudstar as Shaman II, the mystic support of Alpha Flight in a universe where the Canadian national super-team is the most prominent super-team on Earth. (The local Wolverine, the field commander of Alpha Flight, is surprised to hear there are universes where he joined the X-Men). The idea is that Proudstar, a mutant powerhouse who grew up facing prejudice as a Native Canadian and mutant both, was recruited to Alpha Flight by the first Shaman during a joint mission between the X-Men and Alpha Flight. (Though it’s not stated outright, I like to think it’s set in the same universe where Wolverine took Cyclops aside and said “Listen, kid, you’ve got a good thing going with that Jean Grey. Don’t blow it.”) Learning magic helped him calm his anger at the world, and now he’s a respected, valuable member of his team and a much-loved man. (Note that in the mainstream universe, John Proudstar died in his first mission with the X-Men as a way of proving that the Giant-Size X-Men were going to be a whole lot more serious than their SIlver-Early Bronze Age counterparts!) The challenge here was building someone who can function plausibly as both a magical consultant and a team brick; he’s something of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, but he does have a lot of versatility. He’s fast, bulletproof, strong enough to throw a small car in a pinch, and he can reach into his medicine bag and pull out any 15-pp magical effect as a free action: if he needs a really sophisticated Detect Magic power-set, he’s got it, if he needs a ranged attack or something to heal injured allies, he’s got that too. He won’t ever take the place of a real mystic, but he’s certainly extremely valuable to have around. His dual descriptors are a nice bonus too: if he’s put in a mutant-nullifying field he can plausibly whip out a respectable magic effect (perhaps a Touch-Range Technological Nullify) and even if his magic bag is taken away he can still punch people in the face. One possible idea for him is to use his Gadgets to supplement his already impressive melee abilities, transforming him into a mighty, near-unstoppable powerhouse. In the Freedom City universe, this could work just fine as a generic powerhouse who’s undergone a mid-story career change. Maybe he hooked up with a mystic who taught him some magic tricks, or maybe he’s a street mystic who was exposed to gamma radiation and gained mutant powers from all the fallout. Perhaps he was a hero investigating the Labyrinth who was captured and subjected to the DNAscendant process! You could combine the two origins easily enough if you don’t like the idea of someone with magic and mutant powers: perhaps his gadgets are a utility belt and he’s a skilled mechanic in addition o being so strong, or maybe he’s purely magical. Sticking with the Labyrinth theme, this guy works just fine as a minotaur (perhaps a mini-Taurus) who has left behind his bulling days and has decided to fight with cleverness (and magical artifacts he’s manufactured) as much as physical strength!

Dr. Shark PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 40 pp STR 30 [20] (+10/+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 [20] (+10/+5) INT 20 (+5) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed) DEF: +10 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +20 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 68 r=17 pp Craft (Chemical) 10 (+15) Craft (Electronic) 5 (+10) Craft (Mechanical) 5 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 10 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 10 (+15) Medicine 12 (+15) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Survival 1 (+4) Swim 1 (+6/+11) Feats: 13 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Dodge Focus 6 Eidetic Memory Inventor Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 52 pp Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Feature 1 (Iron Stomach) [1 pp] Immunity 4 (aging, drowning, environmental cold, high pressure) [4 pp] Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp] Super-Senses 6 (Accurate Acute Extended Tracking 2 [half-speed] Olfactory) [6 pp] Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) [8 pp] Swimming 4 (25 MPH) [4+1=5 pp] AP: Leaping 2 (x5) and Speed 2 (25 MPH) costs abilities 40 + combat 20 + saves 8 + skills 17/68 + feats 13 + powers 52 = 150 pts ------------ Design Notes: Here’s Dr. Shark, one of the more appealing members of Wonderella’s supporting cast. Once a respected scientist (and Wonderella’s 10th grade biology teacher), a laboratory accident mutated Dr. Tiberius Shark into a shark-hominid, driving him to the brink of madness and prompting him to declare a mutagenic crusade on the world. Luckily he and Wonderella go way back, though, so she talked him down with just a few casualties that were never referenced again thanks to the series’ usual Negative Continuity. He generally fulfills the role of a happier Curt Conners in Wonderella’s life, acting as her science consultant, occasional ally, and semi-occasional antagonist when he gets bored and slips back into old habits. I’ve tried to build him here as a brilliant, though not super-brilliant, scientist, with a speciality in medicine and the life sciences to set him apart from other gadgeteers; his shark abilities (only occasionally referenced in the strip) make him a decently competent underwater powerhouse. Despite his sharky nature, he doesn’t seem that scary, so while he’s decently intimidating he’s not particularly scary: he’s also no larger than the rest of the cast, so he doesn’t get any ranks in Growth. I’ve got with a humanoid version of the character, but not necessarily one who can pass for human like my Mako build upthread: in my mind he looks more like a Street Shark than his (slightly cartoony) strip appearance: if nothing else, having hands makes it a lot easier to justify a continued career as a scientist! Comprehend Sharks or Aquatic Life would be a valid ability to pick up with earned PP, as would the ability to transform completely into a shark to get around better underwater! (Or, for that matter, all the way into human so he can get around on land without any issues) He's got the feats to be competent in most areas of science and knowledge, and with a little tweaking could have any kind of "smart powerhouse" theme you wanted. He’d fit just fine into a superheroic setting, particularly in Freedom Ciy where the shark-man Megalodon is the local Lizard expy: a scientist constantly tormented by the beast he’s unlocked inside him. Perhaps this is a heroic Megalodon who has finally mastered the dark impulses inside him, or maybe this is another scientist forcibly mutated by the mad Doctor Langstrom to help him in his dark work! (Another possibility, if you want a degree of separation, is perhaps he was trying to recreate the lab accident that made the first Megaladon again, perhaps looking for a cure or to further study the first transformation, before another accident exposed him to the shark serum all over again!) An inner predatory drive is a good complication, as is a mistrust from the community given that they already have dire experience with a shark mad scientist!

Totally Legit Mage PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 40 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 16 (+3) CON 20 (+5) INT 20 (+5) WIS 18 (+4) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+8 Staff Array) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +3 Grapple: +6/+20 Saves: 10 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +6 (+3 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+4 Wis, +4) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Bluff 12 (+15) Craft (Electronic) 10 (+15) Craft (Mechanical) 10 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 10 (+15) Notice 6 (+10) Sense Motive 6 (+10) Feats: 7 pp Distract (Bluff) Eidetic Memory Equipment 2 Luck Inventor Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 60 pp Device 2 (Armor of Ages) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Subtle) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6dp] Impervious TOU 4 [4dp] Device 3(Mystic Robes) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted, Subtle) [15 pp] Protection 5 (Extra: Impervious 4; PF: Subtle) [10dp] Shield 4 (PF: Subtle) [5dp] Device 6 (Staff of Power) (Hard to Lose) (PFs: Restricted 2, Subtle) [27 pp] Staff Array [27+3=30dp] Blast 12 (PFs: Accurate, Improved Crit, Precise) AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [Cone]; PFs: Reduced Progression on Area 7) AP: Move Object 12 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (PFs: Accurate, Indirect, Subtle) AP: Stun 12 (Extra: Range [Ranged]; Flaw: Action [Full]; PFs: Accurate, Improved Crit 2) Gadgets 1 (Hard to Lose; Standard Action to switch) (PF: Subtle) [8 pp] costs abilities 40 + combat 24 + saves 10 + skills 14/56 + feats 8 + powers 60 = 150 pts ---------- Design Notes: A man, a plan, an amazing knowledge of science. You were going to be a superhero! But you needed something to differentiate you from those other gadgeteer guys, something that would make you stand out in a forest of scientific geniuses in lab coats with funny accents. Then, one day, it came to you: magic-type heroes really seemed to be in lately, so you’d style yourself after a wizard of ancient lore. You were sure that magic was just something that ignorant people called superpowers and that mystics were either deluding themselves about the way their powers worked or trying to fool everyone else; you’d always been very good at letting people believe whatever you wanted them to believe (which was great for fund-raising), so why not go on doing it as a hero? Sure, maybe it was a little unethical, but you’d be saving lives and doing good, and if people thought you were just some magic guy they’d never try and steal your dangerous high-tech devices. So you put a tiny portable generator in an impervium-cored rod, mounted a daka crystal at the tip, and you had yourself a ‘Staff of Power’ that let you blast people with lightning or move things around with cunningly-placed diamagnetic waves that just happened to look like magic hands; you took an old flight harness and modified it to look like a magic breastplate, and you ran impervium fibers through a Kevlar robe, charged them with power, and got yourself a bulletproof coat to wear into battle! Now you are, by all appearances, a mighty wizard, if one who doesn’t socialize with his putative peers much, so sit back and enjoy yourself. What could go wrong? Well, obviously a lot, since there is such a thing as magic out there, as you are no doubt going to get an up-close-and-personal demonstration of as soon as someone out there figures out what you’re about. For real fun (as long as everyone’s on board with it), see if you can get yourself on a mystic superteam where you persuade your allies that your magic is just that subtle that you can hide it from mystic probes, and just that powerful that you can blast your way right through nullifying wards. But that’s what complications and the HP that come with them are for; given your massive persuasive abilities you can probably talk yourself out of most bad situations, or at least talk bad guys down until help can arrive. Electricity’s a pretty broad descriptor: check out Doc’s Electricity page on his thread for a good idea of some of the many effects you can power-stunt, at least as long as you can plausibly sell it as some sort of crazy magical effect. Note that with your good INT and Beginner’s Luck, you can roll +5 on any Knowledge, including Arcane Lore, so you’ll have at least an idea of what that demon-looking creature (obviously some resident of a weird parallel dimension) is jabbering about while it throws balls of flaming death at you. Note that ideally this guy will eventually confess his secret to at least his teammates, hopefully before (rather than after) his deception has led them to make a serious mistake in dealing with a magical threat, or even being targeted by same. He’s on the naughty side of heroism, but liar or not, he’s still out there fighting the bad guys and being there for his friends and the world when they need him, and that covers a lot of scars. This build is obviously inspired by Doc’s Electrokinetic Gadgeteer and his Poseur Mage build, whose picture (and very loose concept) I used for the above build. If you change the fluff and feats around, he makes a perfectly fine “mystic with magic artifacts” build, or “gadgeteer with a battlesuit and lightning gun”, for that matter.

Murdock mused that this made one gadgeteer (besides Miss Americana) who was almost certainly not interested in analyzing his staff and armor. "Showing the power of what you have built is not a promise of sold weapons; neither is a demonstration of the consequences of attempting to inflict violence on those under your care," he suggested. "Showing your power is showing your power, nothing more and nothing less. If you can strike a nerve with your enemies, you can chase them away, or induce them to expose themselves to your retaliation."

"Hmm," said Sharl, not minding the dismissal of his technical abilities for once at the prospect of going out with Koshiro sometime and getting some action. "Eve is rich so I don't think she'll have an interest in going anywhere secretly, and Corbin seems like the kind of guy who might tattle on us..." He ticked points off on his fingers. "On the other hand, Kimber seems like she'd like the adventure, and Indira's species likes exotic metals so we could use her for cleanup afterwards. I'd stay away from those other kids, the Irregulars, the headmaster is already keeping an eye on them."

Suddenly in the sky overhead, a grey-skinned face of metal and snakes appeared in a torrent of light: for a half a second, the heroes thought the Gorgon had arrived early. Instead, her image was simply projected overhead, hovering above the street at some minuscule fraction of her actual size. At the sight of Willow in Jack's arms, she gave a great cry of terrible grief so loud it rang across the West End. "Sister, in the name of those that made us, I beg you not to abandon your charge! In uncounted eons of time and unmapped vastness of space, I have met only one of us who still remembers our ancient and mighty cause." They'd spoken of sending Willow's child along as the Gorgon's herald, out there in the vastness of space, but that seemed not to be on her mind at all. "Sister-daughter. Do not abandon all that we have been. All that we can be. Together."

Murdock nodded, listening attentively to all that Dragonfly said. Cautiously, now that he was hired, he asked carefully, "What would you describe as minimum violence?" From all he'd seen of Wander, he doubted she'd countenance working as a pacifist, but on the other hand one could never be sure of what someone else might be willing to do for money. "What if a certain amount of violence was done publicly, so as better to impress criminals on the danger of robbing your facility? Could also function as an advertisement for the power of your wares."

With the others liberating any remaining prisoners, Freedom Angel went about flying the other prisoners: the ones who had actually sinned, off to jail so they could receive a fair and just earthly punishment for their transgressions. While he was disappointed they hadn't caught the one in the big armored suit, they'd driven him off peacefully and won the day, thus doing good even to the bad. He gave some sympathetic talks about mercy and justice to the goons who woke up on the way, most of them at least momentarily getting the wrong idea about waking up in the company of an angel after being punched, blasted, or sworded across the head. It had been a good morning's work. Even if it was going to be hard getting those doughnuts now.

I'm still not hearing why the Blasts are mighty. It's not as if you're describing it as him summoning sonic arrows or anything: he's firing regular sonic blasts that have no visible connection to how strong he is.

"I have..." Murdock hesitated, then changed the subject, evidently thinking better of it. "Thank you, Mara," he said. "I will endeavor to protect your facility and all within it from all threats, and obey all the rules you establish." He looked gratified and profoundly relieved all at once. "I will give my notice at Champions, and allow them to hire another busboy." He studied Mara and asked, "I have questions, if I may ask them." When she gave assent, he went on, "Will you be providing uniforms? Are there particular threats to your facility about which you are particularly concerned?"

"If I become more active than I am now as a hero, in my own face instead of the disguise I often wear, eventually I will probably overcome the terror on the faces of the innocent and they will come to accept me. I do not deserve the acceptance of others," replied Murdock. "Nor should I have it, lest they mistake my fate for what might befall other Omegadrones." He fell silent for a moment, then admitted, "My great fear has been that someone will take my example, or the example of those children we rescued on the Moon, and take that as an example that Omegadrones can be rehabilitated. That they should be not be destroyed. That they can be trusted." He fell silent again, then added, "I can never be like normal people. But I want to have some things that a normal man would have. A job. A home. A life."

Murdock listened with patient impassiveness as Mara explained why frightening people was a bad idea. He was glad when she changed the subject, not sure if he could have responded readily to what she'd said. "To better serve my fellow human beings," he replied, "as well as to work alongside the inventor of..." He described, somewhat awkwardly, some of Mara's public inventions. He had evidently done his research, even if he wasn't smooth enough to keep it from sounding rehearsed. "I want...I want to matter. I want the things I do in my life to have meaning and to be worthwhile. I have a limited set of skills. Guarding those who cannot defend themselves is one of them."

"Murdock." When she didn't offer to shake, Murdock didn't either: probably for the best, given how people seemed to react to the touch of his bare flesh as it hung on Terminus steel. "My born first-name is Stephen." He folded his hands in front of him, processing her words, and made a confession. "I have not been part of a group since my arrival on Earth-Prime. I am unused to considering the needs of others beyond their physical safety." He had the idea you were supposed to admit weaknesses during an interview, and even if not he was ultimately too honest to sugar-coat himself, eager for the the job though he was. He felt no shame over Mara not wanting it known to the world she had an Omegadrone in her employ; who would ever want that broadcast? "I will protect the reputation of your business as well as its personal and physical assets. Destroying the agents of Omega and ensuring no one wears the dark colors of the Terminus is, however, valuable for all in this dimension."

"My armor is cast to absorb multiple light drone attacks. They will not be able to impede me. Most will likely flee at my approach. Assuming all are in the air, I will shoot them down with a focused entropic beam. Destroying the fuel reservoir of a light drone will detonate the entropic infusion in the fuel, without breaching the armor itself. They will crash to the ground, helpless to escape. I will then find whichever one spoke the most during the initial battle and rip the armor from his flesh with my armored hands. I will then put my hand on his naked face," he went on, extending his hand, "and ask them if this is truly the fate they want for themselves. If I do so where all can witness the act, they will surrender. And remember. The Terminus is not a frightening mask for them to wear. It is their death." He cocked his head, studying the robot she was working on impassively, and waited for her reply.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Murdock stared up at the source of the dialogue, placing Dragonfly's voice from their trip to the Moon some months earlier. "Whether raid or invasion, evacuate the staff and any other civilians in the area at any cost," he said, his voice flat and metallic even without the speaker. "The Terminus has access to the technology of a near-infinite number of parallel dimensions. There is nothing here they cannot find elsewhere save particular human victims." His hands tightened into fists, then relaxed. "If not an invasion, most likely human criminals using Omegadrone disguise to strike fear. Convince them of their mistake."

With the heavy footfalls of a man much denser than he looked, Murdock strode into the room and sized up the mechanical security. "Formidable," he finally said aloud, staring unblinkingly into the drone's robotic eye with a flat gaze of his own. "But insufficiently armed." He resisted the temptation to destroy the robot as a demonstration of power; he knew that wasn't how job interviews worked and he badly wanted to get the job on his own merits, not because of the Terminus enhancements in his body. But still: Destroy the eyepiece and fire an entropic charge through the opening. Likely to disable. May destroy higher functions It was easier to think that way about robots than it would have been about people. Much easier. Leaving the robot alone, he turned and headed into the elevator.

Late October, 2011 Dragonfly's New Building Having walked from his Lincoln apartment, Murdock stared up at Dragonfly's headquarters, assessing the building that Wander had described to him. High technology. No surprise there. Little sign of activity beyond the menial workers outside. Hm. He walked through the construction castoffs without looking right or left, judging the scene carefully, before he found the front door. He stood in front of it for several minutes, staring flatly and blankly at the closed door, before he turned and hit the buzzer. No greeting. And no alarms. Hm. If someone who'd recognized him had been watching, they'd have come down; if they hadn't, surely they'd have done something about the grim-faced man at their door. When he'd held the buzzer down, he released it and resumed his stance at the door, waiting for Dragonfly or one of her lackeys, er, employees, to come down and let him in or open the door. I must make sure I get the terminology correct. In his Goodwill suit and tie, he bulked large, his scarred skin slightly misshapen where it hung on his massive body.

It could be worse; he's just dazed thanks to our house rules revisions. And thanks to the way staggered works, he only picked up the one bruise, because he got hit so hard he didn't get that badly hurt. Which makes sense, somehow. All right, we're back in normal initiative. Cosmicstar is as bruised as he ever was, but is no longer dazed or bound.

There was a lot to talk about after that; however, the headmaster's private office wasn't really the spot for a particularly intimate tete a tete. Though Summers had prepared the paperwork for Blake's 'return' ahead of time, he made sure the boy was aware of all of it, even following him out into the front office to make sure he was set up with all the forms he'd be signing to get back into his old room. With a nod to Corbin and Quo-Dis, Summers left Blake to the work, heading back into his office and closing the door with a snap.

Spider-Monkey Abilities: 46 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 24 (+7) CON 20 (+5) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+11 Melee/+15 Unarmed) DEF: +15 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +20 Saves: 10 pp TOU +5 (+5 Con) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +10 (+7 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Acrobatics 13 (+20)* Bluff 8 (+10) Climb 10 (+15)* Knowledge (Life Sciences) 8 (+10) Language 1 (Swahili) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10)* Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Stealth 13 (+20)* Feats: 26 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 3 Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Challenge 2 (Accelerated Climb, Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Dodge Focus 7 Evasion 2 Grappling Finesse Improved Initiative Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Climb, Notice, Stealth) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 18 pp Leaping 2 (x5) [2 pp] Speed 2 (25 MPH) [2 pp] Super-Movement 2 (Swinging, Wall-Crawling) [4 pp] Super-Senses 6 (Accurate Acute Tracking 2 [half-speed] Olfactory, Low-Light Vision) [6 pp] Super-Strength 2 (Heavy Load: 1500 lbs) [4 pp] costs abilities 46 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 18/72 + feats 26 + powers 18 = 150 pts -------------- Design Notes: Here's Spider-Monkey, an obvious Spider-Man expy from the pages of Randy Milholland's excellent Super Stupor. He's basically a simian Peter Parker, a fast, acrobatic guy with a quick wit, the proportional strength of a monkey (which is a lot; monkeys are strong as) and a keen simian nose. I made him a biology guy rather than a technical expert like Peter, with the idea that he was a lab tech bitten by an irradiated monkey during a test. We see him swinging on a vine in the comic, but there's no evidence he can produce that kind of effect, so my assumption is that there was just a convenient vine hanging somewhere in the picture we see. (It's no crazier than all those comics where Batman's grapple gun is extending off into the middle of nowhere.) He's equally at home swinging on lamp-posts and water towers as well as trees and jungle vines, and like most of my animal builds could do just fine living in the wild. He doesn't hit quite as hard as most Spidey-types, but since he can basically Power Attack all the time (given his mobility, his Acrobatics, and his Stealth, he should take people flat-footed basically all the time) you should still be satisfied with his capacity at kicking butt: he's certainly an excellent goonsweeper versus thugs and low-level bad guys. In the comics he looks like a person, but you could make this an animal-looking guy like Marvel's Gibbon just fine if you wanted. If you shuffled the points around a bit, upping the Strength and Intelligence, probably at the expense of powers, and dropped the physical skills for more mental ones, this could be a perfectly fine Beast build. In the Super Stupor, he's happily married (eventually, probably; his fate is left ambigious after the fanboy retconner who ruined his life is decisively disposed of) so why not run with that here? There's nothing wrong with a story about a boy becoming a man, about learning that his greatest power and his greatest responsibility is being a husband and a father. (And that balancing that relationship with the need to defend the innocent is part of the _Big Leagues_ of being a superhero.) If he's in his thirties now, he was probably an up-and-coming young hero of the 2000s, just the sort of mature statesman who might be about to move on to bigger and better things!

The psionic attack struck the cosmically-warped paragon in the head. Cosmicstar blinked, twitched, and suddenly gave Changeling a truly malevolent leer. "You just put the human to sleep." it informed her in the Gorgon's voice before snapping its bonds with contemptuous ease. With blinding speed, he casually reached up and grabbed Myrmidon by the face and hurled the super-soldier at Changeling so fast she felt part of her costume torn away as Myrmidon blasted past her and slammed into the side of the gymnasium with a sickening boom and hideous crunch. "Megas is quiet too. There is only me. Now fight," Cosmicstar informed the others, grinning wickedly.

MOD NOTE Actually, Raveled, since Cosmic Star has a damage 17 more than the most generous possible interpretation of that Snare's rank, even with +1 from Myrmidon layering it on (what with Super-Strength providing that bonus towards inanimate objects), there's actually no reason why this NPC should be in this situation. With that in mind, I'm going to step in and make a quick GM post. Everyone take an HP for the Fiat. I'll have all of his damage conditions stay intact, since changing that would be a nightmare of book-keeping. (And since at this late date, we don't want the thread Cosmicstar Free Action: Cosmicstar switches his Cosmic Array to Super-Strength 14 and breaks the snare. Standard Action: Cosmicstar grabs Myrmidon. 24 That hits. Myrmidon is not capable of beating a +44 Grapple check, so I will not bother to roll. Move Action He will throw Myrmidon at Changeling, continuing to All-Out Power Attack. (I will call this a ranged attack) 17 Good news for Changeling; the attack misses. Bad news for Myrmidon, he will hit the nearest wall at Mach 3. That'll be a DC 38 Tou save, and then a DC 25 Tou save; one for the grab, and one for the sudden stop. After this, normal Initiative will resume.