Avenger Assembled

Caradoc is just going to walk up to this thing and Power Attack it as hard as he can.

With Erin and Trevor occupied with their personal concerns, the other heroes debated what to do with the Norse tribute until Edge, still pushing hard, opted to pop it into the Midnight Manor's ample storage facilities so they wouldn't have to load it all into the trunk of the Cruiser. Normally Mark would have asked of Erin what had happened with Donar, he'd fought alongside Wander long enough to know that something amiss had just taken place, but he felt uneasy doing that with Trevor, Ace, Bombshell, and Cannonade there; Erin and Trevor had obviously talked, and though they were all on the same team, he didn't want to make anyone from Young Freedom look bad. "All right, well, I popped the hoard over into the teleport locker." Absently rubbing the coin he'd swiped in hand, he said, "I guess we'd better get going."

"I prefer to walk," said Murdock with a gentle shake of his head in reply to Erin's offer. "Especially now." He took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of a living, breathing industrial city. "The city pulses with life, and the people with happiness in their freedom and their salvation. It is a good day." He shook her hand to seal the deal, his grip still strangely weighted, flesh fastened over the Terminus steel underneath, and then headed off down the street with his head held high. Omega's defeat and the changes in his own life, and the salvation of all mankind, had left the former Omegadrone feeling, for once in his life, happy.

Up on the roof, the kids kicked open the door to reveal Dr. Stratos nearly finished with the process of removing the rooftop-mounted laser from Freedom Hall. At their approach, Stratos shouted a word to Hiroshima Shadow, who simply ducked and flew off the edge of the roof, leaving just the weather controlling mad scientist confronting the team of teen heroes. Still surrounded by a blanket of shadow, the roof of Freedom Hall was lit only by the emergency lights that Stratos himself had assembled and the flashes of the mini-lightning storm he'd thrown up overhead. "Well well well!" shouted Stratos, a look of fascinated glee on his face as he glared at the heroes, his eyes big behind his thick glasses. Though rain was everywhere else on the roof as if from a vigorous fall downpour, Stratos himself was bone-dry. "If isn't the next generation of Young Freedom. I've heard about all of you, you know, such a _unique_ collection of specimens." He grinned malevolently, electricity playing around his fingers. "I was hoping I'd get a chance to see one of you, but instead I have all! Ring-bearer, circus freak, revenant dead and human-raised Kinigosi, magic paper boy...and you." Stratos gave a particularly fascinated look at the animate suit of armor Citizen was occupying. "I wondered if you would survive. Tell me, are all your people so resilient?" There was dead silence on the roof for half a second as lightning rumbled overhead, and then Sharl raised Daedalus' power fist and blasted Dr. Stratos' head off with a wild shot of gravitic power. There was a shower of sparks and mechanical whines, and staggering and sputtering, the Stratos automaton fell backwards and stopped moving like a puppet with its strings cut, the mechanism inactive and dead. With the Stratos-robot down, the darkness that had surrounded them all began to fade, the shadows parting and storm disappearing, revealing overhead the blue sunny day they'd all left behind and a wet rooftop occupied by a damaged laser cannon and a thoroughly inactive robot.

Vampire Mystic PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 12 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 12 (+1) CON n/a (-) INT 20 (+5) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+8 Magic) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed) Grapple: +9/+16 Initiative +1 Saves: 9 pp TOU +12 (+4 Protection, +8 Force Field) FORT n/a REF +5 (+1 Dex, +4) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 12 pp=48 r Concentration 7 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 15 (+20) Knowledge (History) 5 (+10) Languages 2 (English, Latin) (Base: German) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Feats: 9 pp Dodge Focus 4, Move-By Action, Precise Shot, Ritualist, Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 98 pp Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) Flight 2 (25 MPH, 250 ft per round) [4 pp] Force Field 8 (Extra: Impervious 6) [14 pp] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Mystic Array 12 (PFs: Accurate 2, Alternate Powers 4, Precise, Subtle) [31 pp] Blast 12 (fire) AP: Create Object 10 (PFs: Progression 2 [10 25 ft cubes], Selective) (conjuring) AP: Move Object 12 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (telekinesis) AP: Mind Control 10 (Extra: Instant Command, Flaw: Action [Full], PF: Mental Link) (domination) Protection 4 (Extra: Impervious, Flaw: Not Vs. Fire/Magic/Silver) [4 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Super-Senses 11 (Acute Scent, Darkvision, Detect Magic 3 [visual], Postcognition [Flaw: Source [blood], Precognition [Flaw: Uncontrolled] Ultrahearing) [11 pp] Drawbacks: -6 pp Power Loss (Flight, Force Field, and Magic, when unable to speak and gesture to cast spells) [-3 pp] Weakness (dazed by Charisma check vs. holy items) [-3 pp] costs abilities 12 + combat 16 + saves 9 + skills 12/48 + feats 9 + powers 98 -drawbacks 6= 150 pts ------------- Design Notes: When Anschluss meant the German members of the Thule Society assumed dominance over their new “fellow citizens” even as Germany itself was taking over Austria, Viennese-born Kristopher Wiese objected to the change and to the new power of one of the Society’s younger members, Wilhelm Kantor. Lacking the world-conquering ambitions of his fellows, he thought that magic should stay behind the scenes as it is had in the 19th century and earlier, not wanting to attract the kind of attention that had nearly led to its extinction during the Age of Reason. When it became clear that exactly what sort of magic Kantor preferred, Wiese moved from objection to action, attempting to organize resistance to Nazi rule through the Thule Society. He died for his pains after an ambush by Kantor and his followers, drugged and left unable to concentrate on his spells, as he was fed to Nosferatu, the Eastern European vampire ‘recruited’ for the society by Kantor’s dark magic. But Wiese survived his death, his murderer having decided he liked the idea of a pet sorcerer (since perhaps having his own magical expert on hand would help him break the bonds placed on him by Kantor and let him get back to what he really wanted to do: eating Carinthian peasants), and so Wiese awoke in Nosferatu’s castle in 1941, a helpless slave to his vampire master. Luckily for Wiese, Nosferatu perished some years later at the hands of Allied superheroes, freeing the vampire sorcerer to fashion his own destiny. From the protection of an ‘abandoned’ castle that even Allied occupation troops shunned as haunted, he slowly learned to rebuild his magic. While he’d lost his connection to the magic of others (hence no Detect) he still has his wits and his own formidable abilities as a mystic: in fact, his undead state had actually enhanced his mystic power at the cost of permanently limiting him to the magic of undeath and eternal night. Luckily, he still had the ability to craft a mystic protection for himself that let him cautiously venture out into the daylight! He scanned the world with his magic, studying the region, and learned with relief that the world was on the upswing. However, the world wasn’t safe, not with monsters like he’d become out there, not to mention Kantor and the surviving Thule members still out there and doing evil! After making a few cautious appearances to test the waters in the 1970s (in which he had the misfortune to encounter certain Allied vampire hunters who saw a Germanic vampire wizard with ties to the Thule Society, living in the castle of an Ubersoldaten, and came to all the wrong conclusions), Wiese decided that now was the perfect time to take to the skies as a superhero! A pretty straighforward vampire mystic build, with a flavor of German gothic magic to go with him. I wanted to see if I could make a sympathetic character with an unsympathetic background, and I think an undead Thule Society member who belatedly saw the light fits the bill pretty effectively. Ge really needs to be casting spells to function as a sorcerer. As with the psychic upthread, I left his vulnerability to sunlight off the table: if you do hit him with a magical nullify effect, though, give him that HP and make him run for cover under something opaque! (His vampiric nature shouldn’t be set off by that, given how it’s effectively impossible to Nullify a rank 30 power anywhere close to PL 10). Being a vampire helps you explain why he spends so much time avoiding other heroes, and what he’s doing in his mystic brownstone all day. (Or abandoned castle, if you say he had one moved to the setting somewhere) His spells are a bit generic, but that’s just a consequence of the lack of available points: don’t be afraid to make them more specific if you want him to be casting more ‘vampireish’ spells like Weather Control or Ranged Con Drain. (As it is, he's trying to avoid drawing that kind of attention to himself!) Naturally, he makes a fine villain.

Free Action: Willow hovers at a healthy 100 feet in the air, putting her at a bit above rooftop height in the underbuilt West End. Standard Action: Mind Control vs. Geckoman. That'll be a DC 25 Fortitude save. Willow spends her move action issuing her command to Geckoman, whether or not he succeeds on the Mind Control check.

"No, I won't-" In the air, Willow seemed to be struggling with herself, or perhaps against some voice giving her commands that only she could hear. "Not them, they need to grow, for the sapling's sake-" She convulsed then, her plants convulsing with her, as a silvery sheen like the Gorgon's metallic body swarmed over her skin, her hair beginning to whip up over her head into a crown like metallic snakes. From the guardian's lips there burst a mechanical voice that rang with a tone of roaring command: everyone there recognized the voice of the Gorgon. "IF YOU WILL NOT DO YOUR ANCIENT AND ACCUSTOMED WORK, THEN PERHAPS YOUR FRIENDS WILL DO IT FOR YOU! THIS PLANET WILL BE PRESERVED!" Suddenly, a giant flower colored and shaped something like a malignant purple alien daisy erupted on the ground near Geckoman, fast as a bomb going off and quicker than he could react. What he first thought was a spray of pollen erupted from the plant and sprayed over his body in a blast of reddish-green powder, smelling strongly of an acrid mixture of lilacs and burning garbage. When he opened his mouth to gag, he realized what was really happening: that "pollen" was motile and crawling on his skin like a million wriggling ants, working its way into his pores, into his nostrils, and into his mouth: and as it filled him everywhere he realized he could hear the voice of the Gorgon too. "DEFEAT THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO STOP WILLOW."

Caradoc and Miss Americana flew to the house, Miss Americana carrying Melvin, while Bishop teleported into the area to scope out the scenery. Over the noise of the scrapyard across the street, they headed for the screened-off porch of the Thackery house, Melvin hanging close to Miss Americana. He'd evidently really enjoyed the ride, and was a little more subdued now that they were in. Ms. Thackery, Melvin's mom, turned out to be an older woman with blonde hair that was probably dyed and thick red lipstick. At the sight of Miss Americana through the door, she tensed, a worried look on her face. When she spoke, she had a high voice with the trace of a Brooklyn accent, like a dame from a 1940s noir drama. "Miss Americana? What are you-" she looked down and saw Melvin and her eyes went wide with horror. "Melvin! What happened to you, baby?" "I, uh, did some bad stuff again, ma," said Melvin awkwardly, looking away as he gave his mother a somewhat stuttery account of his deeds. His mom looked more and more shocked as he talked, hands going over her mouth as he told her all about his tale of robotic escapades.

They talked for some time about the perspective of street-level crime in Freedom City, something with which Murdock had a great deal of experience. "I do not avoid other people with powers, but I find not having to...explain myself makes things easier." When the talk was done, and the food too, they headed outside, Harrier not raising a single complaint as Wander paid the balance of the bill, though he did make sure to leave some worn ones of his own for the tip, carefully sliding them under the plate when he was sure only Erin was looking. "To make sure it goes to someone who deserves it," he explained as they walked outside. "Thank you for the meal, Erin. It was appreciated. As is the offer of employment. None have done so before."

Consider Blackstar unconscious and out of the fight, Fox.

It took hours of work in the small asteroid base to do their work, the former den of the mad Doktor Archeville eerily silent save for the ever-running sound of the life support machinery that kept most of them alive. After all, they were in the very depths of space, a million miles or more from Earth, with only the technology of Dr. Archeville keeping them alive outside of what they'd brought with them. Though they were all formidable gadgeteers in their own right, remembering how easily poor Archeville's science had been stolen by that evil fish-man conqueror earlier in the summer preyed on everyone's nerves. Finally, after hours of work, the team came up with a solution to the nanite question: the nanites themselves were the weak points of the Gorgon, given that they were after all just small, complex machines programmed to tear things apart and reconstitute them as more of themselves. Previous attempts at battling the Gorgon had been focused on battling the nigh-invincible lady herself, but a focused EMP blast aimed at each serpent head as it fired would most likely disassemble the nanites, scrambling their programming and turning them into so much high-tech snow drifting into the atmosphere. It would require a fast construction project back home, but given the resources of Freedom City and the united world, they could probably do it, perhaps from Archestern or the Lighthouse. The only downside was, even if it _did_ work, there would be a planet-sized, perhaps quite chaffed Preserver entity right there in orbit...

You really, really do not want to be playing a PL 10 character with saves at 5, 5, and 4.

The chest did indeed turn out to be full of real gold, at least as far as anyone assembled there could tell. Bombshell, who had some experience dealing with priceless objects, made a close inspection of the valuables inside and hmmed, taking out a little jeweler's loupe and studying the gold coins inside. "Hmm...looks like Norse pennigar, but cast in gold rather than silver." She bit down curiously on the coin and smiled in satisfaction. "Currency-grade, too!" A quick inspection by the master thief revealed a layer of silver underneath the gold, followed by copper. While there wasn't enough here to break the local economy, there was potentially enough to make everyone there effectively rich! "Why do you think they left it?" asked Edge, shooting Bombshell a curious look. While it made sense to him that a descending magic rainbow would leave gold in its place simply as a fact of how the universe worked, something about this particular encounter had raised his suspicions. In his experience (which was to say, from his considerable readings of the history of World War II) the Aesir tended to do things for a reason, even if that reason was hard for mortals to follow. "A bribe?" Bombshell speculated, casually pocketing the coin she'd been chewing on. "Or, to be more appropriate, darling, weregild. They pay us so we don't go up there looking to return the favor Donar did the park and those houses."

Looks like some math and notation errors have crept in, Paragon. Use our site format for things like Density and Immovable, please, as well as noting the numbers put into his saves.

Not for the first time, Corbin woke up with a voice in his head that sounded remarkably like his girlfriend. "" Quo-Dis had found his sleeping mind and jostled him awake that morning. When he'd had time to realize exactly where he was and what was going on, Ultiteen filled him in on what had happened the night before: maybe she was mad at Blake, but she was still on the side of her friends and especially her boyfriend. ""

Vampire Atlantean PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 24 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON - (+-) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +19 Saves: 12 pp TOU +10 (+10 Protection) FORT REF +8 (+2 Dex, +6) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 15 pp=60 pp Handle Animal 8 (+11) Intimidate 15 (+18) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 8 (+8) Languages 1 (English) (Base: Atlantean) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Swim 1 (+11) Feats: 14 pp Animal Empathy Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Dodge Focus 4 Environmental Adaptation (underwater) Evasion Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge Powers: 71 pp Comprehend 2 (Animals 2 [speak and understand], Limited [only sea life]) (2 pp) Concealment 2 (all auditory) (Extra: Duration [Permanent]) (Flaw: Machines Only) [2 pp] Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1 pp] Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6+1-1=6 pp] (Drawback: Not in Daylight) AP: Swimming 6 (100 MPH) Immunity 30 (Fortitude saves) [30 pp] Impervious TOU 8 (Flaw: Not Vs. Magic/Silver/Holy) [4 pp] Protection 10 [10 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Souce [blood]) 3 pp] Super-Senses 6 (Acute Tracking 3 [full speed] Scent, Darkvision) [6 pp] Super-Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 6 tons) (Drawback: Not in Daylight) [5 pp] Swimming 2 (5 MPH) [2 pp] Drawbacks: -10 pp Weakness (Direct Sunlight; Uncommon, Major [-1 all physical ability scores], per 1 minute; -5pp) Weakness (lack of immersion in water; Very Common, Major [-1 all physical ability scores], per hour, potentially lethal; -5pp) costs abilities 24+ combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 15/60+ feats 14+ powers 71 -10 pp= 150 pts ------- Design Notes: The Atlantean government believes that no one survived the raid by the Dagon cultists on the isolated outpost near the Marianas Trench. And they're right. This brave Atlantean soldier was taken prisoner and made a grim sacrifice to the vampire gods of the ancient deep, rising from her watery grave three days later as a priestess of Hydra. But she escaped her tormentors, rage and predatory fury overriding the cthonic brainwashing, and fled into the watery depths. She hunted as a wild thing for who knows how long in the lightless depths below the photic zone where the sun never shines, devouring lanternfish, anglerfish, and the other bizarre creatures that live down there in the dark. It wasn't until some years ago when she encountered a wandering mystic of her own people that she remembered who she had been and what had been done to her, and what she had to do: the Dagon cultists (many of whom she had devoured) would never stop hunting their rogue, just as her own people would shun her as a monster if she returned to them. Only on the surface could she begin anew and perhaps remove the foul taint from her veins. Up above, she discovered that though her years in ultimate darkness had given her protection against the rays of the sun, it was still potentially a serious threat. OK, here's a vampire Atlantean, following up on my own background stuff written some months back and my thread with the vampire squid. She's something like a shark with legs and fangs, a predatory creature of the deep who's still extremely effective on the surface. (She doesn't show up on sonar, either, much to the horror of aquatic villains!) I figure her Atlantean upbringing protects her against the holy items she's liable to encounter on the surface; the Dagonic vampire are a blasphemy of a very different sort than what we have up here! Unlike her surface cousins, she doesn't simply die in the sunlight immediately: rather she dries out and dessicates like a squid on land. Being caught in the sun on dry land gives her about fifteen minutes to run like hell before the piscine ichor in her veins dries out, leaving her to die slowly beneath the pitiless sun: a serious threat for any Atlantean but doubly so for one such as her! I figure she spends a lot of time in the company of sharks down below, since they're the only ones who really understand her. Even on the surface, she's a spectacular tracker, having learned to hunt and stalk with only the smell of blood in the water to guide her. (Come to think of it, the strange smell of mammalian blood may be a good way for her to suppress her urges on land!) She plays the ferocious Atlantean warrior for surfacers, never minding that there might be very serious reasons why she has such a bloodlust to repress in combat. (Perhaps she tells them her short temper is a result of spending so much time in the air?) Naturally, this build makes for a very powerful potential antagonist, particularly if in large numbers or if jacked up to a higher PL: superheroes who have gone to investigate particularly violent Atlantean eco-terrorism may not realize that those dead polluters or illegal fishermen didn't die for their environmental practices, but rather because they were fool enough to go in the water after dark...

Miniature Vampire Abilities: 0 pp STR 20 [10] (+5/+0) DEX 20 [10] (+5/+0) CON - INT 12 (+1) WIS 18 (+4) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 12 pp ATK: +3 (+15 as Vampire Bat) DEF: +3 (+15 as Vampire Bat) Grapple: +0 vs. Medium Init: +5 Saving Throws: 6 pp TOU: +5 (+5 Protection) FORT: - REF: +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL: +7 (+4 Wis, +3) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Concentration 14 (+15) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 4 (+5) Knowledge: Life Sciences 4 (+5) Language 1 (Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 4 (+8) Sense Motive 4 (+8) Stealth 5 (+10/+35) Survival 4 (+5) Feats: 4 pp Evasion Hide in Plain Sight Power Attack Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers) Powers: 128 pp Alternate Form 10 (Vampire Bat) (Extra: Duration [sustained]) [50 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) (PFs: Move-By Action, Subtle) [4 pp] Shrinking 20 (Extra: Normal Strength; PFs: Normal Movement, Normal Toughness) (Drawback: Full Power) [41 pp] Super-Senses 5 [Accurate Extended Ultrasonic Hearing, Danger Sense (auditory)] ‘sonar’ [5 pp] Device 2 (Costume) (Hard to Lose) [8 pp] Enhanced Feats 3 (Defensive Attack, Takedown Attack 2) [3 pp] Feature 7 (Buys off Sunlight Drawback) [7 pp] Vampiric Physiology Container 14 (Extra: Duration [Permanent]) [70 pp] Drain Con 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1] Enhanced DEX 10 [10] Enhanced STR 10 [10] Immunity 30 (Fortitude saves) [30] Impervious TOU 5 [5] Protection 5 [5] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3] Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2] Drawbacks: -10 pp Weakness (repelled by crosses; stunned by holy symbols via Charisma check) (-3 pp) Weakness (sunlight; destroyed after 1 minute) (-7 pp) Abilities 0 + Skills 10 + Feats 8 + Powers 128 + Combat 12 + Saves 6 -Drawbacks 10= Total 150 -------------- Design Notes: College student Janet Palmer kept her ability to shrink down to a tiny, winged humanoid form a secret from everyone: she wasn't really cut out to be a superhero, or so she thought, and spent most of her time using her powers to commit the sort of low-grade shenanigans (stealing frat beer and snooping on her dormmates) that your average college freshman would think is a great idea. All that changed when she was caught by surprise and attacked by her boyfriend, a scientific genius who had been transformed into a vampire some weeks earlier and was too new to his own hungers to restrain himself. Though he tried to apologize by making her a costume to let her survive in the daytime, she'd seen the monster within and wasn't interested in a relationship with the man wrapped around it. Horrified and disgusted by what she had become, the girl made some hard decisions and decided to use her newfound abilities to _help_ others rather than be a drain on society as she had been her whole life. Taking the name Batwoman to represent her new self, she headed off to Freedom City to become a superhero, living on the sneakily-stolen blood of others while looking for a cure and fighting bad guys to earn some good karma in the world. Yes, it's the Undead Miniature Marvel, a shrinking hero who just happens to be an undead fiend! I've made her a straightforward undead Janet van Dyne, because fleeing a relationship with a predatory, dangerous partner is just about right for the kind of relationship that sees people escaping the domination of 'Vampire Dad'. She's not as strong as her fellow vampires, but her fantastic ability to transform herself down to tiny size merged with her undead state makes her a formidable fighter all the same, swooping along on leathery bat wings to bite and punch at her targets, almost impossible to hit in return thanks to her mobility and small size: she's an almost indetectable sneak, and could easily pull off the vampire bat trick of flying into a cattleyard and feeding on the cows while they sleep. (I built her skills with the idea that she's spent some time living on her own in the woods). She has a bat's keen auditory senses as well, letting her fly full speed in the darkness and easily navigate by sonar. I figure her costume has some tiny metal fangs built into it, making her a better fighter while wearing it. Her biggest weakness is being forced into a grapple, of course, so she's doubly best-served to be mobile in combat as often as she can be. If I were you, I would spend what earned PP I can towards upping her Flight speed and her Concentration, the better to avoid abruptly becoming PL 4 (as she is at full size) if you become stunned or dazed while in combat. (She was about PL 6 before becoming a vampire) If you don't want to give her a Vampire Pym in her backstory, maybe she was just attacked by the same vampire that transformed her boyfriend, and he built her the costume before they went their separate ways, unable to handle the changes that the undead state had brought to their relationship. Like most tiny heroes, she's best served taking advantage of her many ways to catch opponents flat-footed before laying them out with Power Attacks; they will probably not be expecting a tough fight from the team sneak and scout...

Wander's mighty blow finished the god, sending Donar sprawling back to the battered soil of North Bay Park. The storm overhead broke as he fell, and the clouds overheard parted as if in stop motion to reveal the beautiful blue sky overhead. Maybe there was still a much larger threat out there to face, but as a rainbow appeared in the sky, shining colorful and bright, Edge decided he was content with having defeated this one threat. They'd get the Gorgon, just like they'd gotten Donar, and they'd make sure no other cowardly thugs in god's, alien's, or time-travelers clothing would try and take advantage of one crisis for their own evil ends. "Nice hit, Wander. And everybody else! Wow, we stopped a god! You don't do that every day." Donar had knocked Erin around pretty good, which meant he'd had a lot more mojo than Mark had expected. Before he could speak further, that same rainbow came reaching down right out of the sky to scoop up the fallen god. "Hey! Hey, we were going to arrest him!" he yelled as the rainbow rolled up like a carpet, scooping away the fallen thunder god in its rolls as it and he disappeared into the bright blue sky, leaving behind a mysterious black cauldron with the gleam of yellow inside, the wrought-iron bowl so heavy it nearly sank into the earth softened by rain and explosions. "Hey...hey, I think that's gold!"

KTANG! A bullet ricocheted off the angel's flaming sword, and Heyzel whirled to face the last standing gunman, whose hands shook as he fired another shot directly at the advancing angel of Freedom. Freedom Angel swung his blade yet again, slicing the bullet from the air with another KTANG! An implacable force of divine vengeance, the angel advanced on the frightened criminal, pointing his flaming sword directly at his heart. The battle was turning and the heroes and their newfound allies were at the edge of victory; nearly every criminal was laid low, and the two beings might as well have been alone in the world. His halo flaming like a divine torch, the angel said with fervor, "Surrender now, foolish sinner, and divine mercy will be yours." With that, he flew up higher and intercepted the large battlesuit in the air, fearlessly confronting technology with divine power without a qualm. "Your allies have fallen and your lackeys lay at our feet. You have no chance for victory. What lies within your grasp now is the nature of your defeat. Will you surrender with your dignity and your power intact, hmm? Or shall you and your creation appear on the news as so much broken scrap, your genius crushed by the power of heroic resolve and divine justice?"

As a standard action, Freedom Angel is going to Intimidate the last remaining goon into surrendering. That'll be a DC 25 Intimidate check for the goon, given Heyzel's skill mastery. He will then fly up to confront the Battlesuit wearer and do the same thing, spending HP on the Intimidate roll vs. the NPC. (20:38:43) System: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 16. DC 31 save for the guy in the battlesuit.

Bishop: Will Bishop want to teleport himself there, or will he let one of the fliers (probably Caradoc) carry him?

Symbiotic Vigilante PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 22 (+6) DEX 14 (+2) CON 22 (+6) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+8 ranged, +10 Symbiote) DEF: +8 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +12 Saves: 15 pp TOU +10 (+6 Con, +4 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +8 (+2 Dex, +6) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 16 pp=64 pp Climb 4 (+10) Disguise 0 (+1/+26) Drive 2 (+4) Intimidate 14 (+15)* Knowledge (Streetwise) 5 (+5) Knowledge (Tactics) 10 (+10) Notice 13 (+15)* Sense Motive 5 (+7) Stealth 8 (+10)* Survival 3 (+5)* Feats: 16 pp Attack Focus (Ranged) 2 Challenge (Fast Startle) Defensive Attack Dodge Focus 2 Evasion Master Plan 2 Power Attack Precise Shot 2 Skill Mastery (Intimidate, Notice, Stealth, Survival) Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 45 pp Flight 2 (25 MPH) [4 pp] Protection 4 (Extra: Impervious 10) [14 pp] Symbiote Array [21+3=24 pp] Blast 10 (PF: Accurate) AP: Morph 5 (any humanoid) (Extra: Continuous; PF: Precise) AP: Snare 10 (PF: Accurate) AP: Strike 4 (Extra: Autofire; PFs: Accurate 2, Extended Reach, Improved Crit 2, Mighty) Super-Senses 3 (Danger Sense [Mental], Darkvision) [3 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 15 + skills 16/64 + feats 16 + powers 45 = 150 pts --------------- Design Notes: Another build based on a Marvel What-If, here’s my take on a Venom-style symbiote merged with a Gritty Urban Badass like Frank Castle, demonstrating some of the abilities he showed in that comic. He’s a very effective fighter, able to sweep goons in melee combat or blast them away with weapons forged from alien flesh, he’s very scary, very hard to sneak up on, and he’s got the skills of a trained combat veteran conducting his own private war in the middle of a major city. He can fly on symbiote wings, shrug off automatic weapons fire, and disguise himself to get close to his enemies. He hovers around PL 7 if you take his powers away, just about at the level where a suitably deranged man could seriously do some damage if he loaded up with body armor and assault rifles and began taking out street-level thugs and gangsters. He doesn’t carry that sort of equipment these days, though; he certainly doesn’t need it and anyway it doesn’t fit the tone of our site. So how do you take this double-Iron Age concept and make it work here? Well, maybe you say this is a shell-shocked combat veteran who found peace after bonding with an alien symbiote recovered from a meteor strike, learning from his newfound partner that there was a way besides murder and killing to fight for a better world. (Before he went out and busted a cap in anyone, obviously). Perhaps he’s divorced rather than a widower, his wife having moved out and taken the kids rather than deal with his psychological issues, but rather than dwelling on his loss he’s moved on and is looking to be a better man; to be the hero his kids used to see him as before he went off to the war. (i.e., what if American Patriot was a superhero instead of a horrible, horrible thing) You should handle issues like PTSD sensitively, of course, and keep it to a minimum given the tone of our site: think Batman, not the entire cast of Funky Winkerbean. He can show bad guys what _real_ monsters are alike, all while keeping his humanity enough not to give into a killer instinct. You could flesh this build out some (pardon the pun) by giving more stats to the bonded symbiote, probably a Grue or a Grue offshoot given the setting’s local cosmology, perhaps even freeing up some points by making it a hard-to-lose device rather than something permanently bonded to the human being underneath. Enhanced Skills could teach him something about the creature’s homeworld, while Directed Inspiration or Library as a Feature could give him access to alien records somewhere. If you don’t like the street-level badass stuff, maybe this guy was an astronaut who encountered a creature while on a Mars or lunar mission, and they bonded together to save each other’s lives. As it is, while the symbiote may be there in the character’s mind, there’s only one This build would also make a scary antagonist in a low-level story; perhaps a mobster or merc empowered by an evil alien with grim intentions, or even a friend driven mad by possession, who the heroes have to take down before he can hurt any more innocents.

27 Bruised again, that's too easy. 26 Ow. Well, so much for that HP. 24 Staggered again! (thanks to the crit) so Donar is unconscious!

24 -2 from the Taunt give us 22. He is bruisedx2, dazed, and staggered. Wander is up.

Teen Vampire PL: 7 (105) Abilities: 20 pp STR 22 (+6) DEX 20 (+5) CON n/a INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+8 melee) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +5 Grapple: +14 Saves: 7 pp TOU +6 (+6 Protection) FORT n/a REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 36 r=9 pp Bluff 9 (+11/+15) Concentration 3 (+5) Diplomacy 9 (+11/+15) Intimidate 3 (+5) Language 1 (Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Stealth 5 (+10) Feats: 12 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Attractive Dodge Focus 4 Fascinate (Bluff) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 48 pp Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) (Drawback: Not in Daylight) [1 pp] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Impervious TOU 6 (Flaw: Not Vs. Magic/Silver/Holy; Drawback: Not in Daylight) [2 pp] Protection 6 [6 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Super-Senses 5 (Acute Tracking Scent, Darkvision, Ultrahearing) [5 pp] Drawbacks: -7 pp Vulnerabilty (vs. holy) (uncommon, moderate) [-2 pp] Vulnerability (vs. silver) (uncommon, moderate) [-2 pp] Weakness (dazed by holy symbols; requires Charisma check) [-3 pp] costs abilities 20 + combat 16 + saves 7 + skills 9/36 + feats 12 + powers 48 -drawbacks 7= 105 pts ---------------- Design Notes: For my first PL 7 build, here's a hunky teenage vampire ready to woo pretty girls while fighting bad guys with his shirt off. He's strong, he's fast, and he can fly! He's also a really good sneak who can see in the dark and smell you across the school. Yowsa! Note that despite the picture, he's not modeled on Edward Cullen directly: as overpowered as Twilight vamps are, it would be very difficult to wedge them into a PL 7 framework. And anyway, who wants to venerate that stuff? He's significantly weaker in daylight than he is at night, but he's not helpless at high noon by any means either. Confrontation with crosses, holy powers, and silver are really going to mess up his day. At night, though those things are still a threat, he's a bulletproof, he can fly, and he's really in his element. There's something tragic about a teenage vampire when you think about it, someone who's been transformed into an unaging monster and trapped forever at sixteen. In my mind, this guy got really into vampires online, and actually accepted the offer made by a particularly down-on-her-luck vampire to transform him into a creature of the night in return for certain favors. Or perhaps a vampire with some personal problems dallied at his high school, and he's the result of an incredibly foolish teenage romance. That gives you lots of potential angst to deal with, but I think the character is more fun to play if he's basically confident in himself: perhaps he's building his native abilities so he can use his curse to better himself and others, or maybe he's learning how to be a man before he can learn how to be a vampire. Rocky relations with his vampiric progenitor, who may want him to come back to the fold, are a must. Season powers and skills to taste as his abilities develop: ever-increasing his Charisma is always a good decision, as is buying up enough points to afford things like Insubstantial 2 and other abilities key to the vampiric condition in the Freedom City verse. (As it is, powers and skills are both pretty generic, as they pretty much have to be at this low level) Another way to free up some points would be to make this a 'living vampire' or dhampir, perhaps someone whose mother was transformed while she was pregnant, or the son of a male vampire and a human woman: if that's the case, switch his Fort Immunity out for Aging and Life Support, and spend 20 pp to buy his Con up to something superhuman. (You can redistribute his Protection and Regeneration some in the aftermath, as needed)