Avenger Assembled

18 Woof. A visit from the Fiat fairy renders him bruised Have an HP, Wraith.

"You have great power, boy," came a voice in Cobalt Templar's ear, so close that he could feel the heat of alien breath across his face, as he realized that in the middle of his great raging fury against Hiroshima Shadow he had forgotten about Blackstar! "But you must always beware the unexpected stroke." Blackstar placed his shadowbands directly against the helpless teenager's back, firing a devastating blast of pure darkness that tore open the teenager's armor like so much shattering blue glass and scorched along his skin, only his power ring keeping him from an attack that would surely have killed the already weakened boy. "Now, what have we learned today, hmm?" he asked, spinning in the air to stand between Cobalt Templar and Hiroshima Shadow.

Blackstar All-Out/Power Attacks Cobalt Templar. 30 And that's a crit. Welp. That's a DC 37 Tou save.

Bruised and dazed Blackstar will be up after you post IC.

Eventually Citizen was able to get himself out of the armor, leaving Protector to be arrested without his suit, and rejoin the team with some congratulations for everyone. On the flight home from Detroit, Citizen sat at his laptop, writing a letter home. And that didn't mean Freedom City. He'd already written up a piece for Miss Americana telling her about his school trip, though he planned to talk to her in person about his Claremont classmates and the people he'd be working with besides her this year. This was a letter home to Tronik.

Cobalt Templar is up.

19 All right, Hiroshima Shadow is bruised!

"It's me, it's me!" declared the suit of armor, waving its hands. "It's Citizen! I jumped in here when they fried the main computer. I didn't even have time to jump into my emitter." Sharl had damn near gotten killed by that massive EMP pulse, or at least thoroughly discorporated, and he was not happy about it. He thought of Miss Americana, not for the first time, but knew that he was needed here far more. "Sage, where are they? Let's go!" He took off at that, boot jets roaring, and though his flight was clumsy (and, much to his chagrin, rough on the interior of Freedom Hall), he did make his way there, his noisy, crashing star letting everyone know he was coming and leading the way for the others to get back in the fight. Hiroshima Shadow dodged Ghost Girl's hand, shaking a finger tut-tuttingly. "I am nuclear fire and death made terrible life, yurei. What are you going to do, poison me?" It laughed an evil, hissing laugh and focused its attention on Cobalt Templar. "Let me show you how easily they DIE!" As it turned out, they died pretty tough as the Shadow's burst of radiation sizzled past Corbin's face so close he felt his skin break out like a suntan. "Well, I suppose I deserved that. Never mind. I'll be there to kill your grandchildren, fool!" The Shadow spat at Cobalt Templar with uncanny foresight.

Citizen takes a standard action to explain himself, then heads off in the direction of where he last saw everybody, making a terrible racket in the process. Hiroshima Shadow will go ahead and try and drain Cobalt Templar's Con again. (Not a very imaginative radioactive ghost, is Hiroshima Shadow) 15 And that misses by one. Well, I guess Corbin gets to keep functional gametes...this time! Papercut is up.

"...why will none of you fight me!?!" said the thunder god, suddenly looking equal parts frustrated and furious. "Don't you know that this is Ragnarok, the end of all things? Your very world will soon be naught but cold metal ruin and soulless eternal-life-in-death!" He waved his hammer, lighting and thunder in the sky punctuating his every word. "I have earned my revenge, just as you have earned the honor and glory of battling a god! Is this how you want to spend your last days?" With one last great crack, the downpour above began again, now with gusto drenching not just the heroes but the god himself. "Is there so little fire in you? In ANY of you?"

When the deed was done and the godly Gabriel equipped for holy war, the angel and human returned to the Earth as easily as stepping through a door summoned through the air itself. "I'm afraid the Gates of Pearl are not open to living mortals," replied the angel as they stepped back into his church as if they'd never left it at all, "at least, not open to mortals who come on business as light as ours." He hmmed, studying the newly-minted Gabriel, and said, "Yes, that seems a fine armor for you. You'll need it in the days that are to come." He fluffed his wings, looking for a moment like an unsettled bird with a shiny chest rather than an angel. "There is peril in the world, Gabriel, and those who fight it in His name carry a double legacy. Be mindful that the armor you wear was once a prison."

Xenomorph Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 56 pp STR 26 (+8) DEX 30 (+10) CON 26 (+8) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+12 Acid Vomit/Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +10 Grapple: +18 Saves: 4 pp TOU +8 (+8 Con) FORT +8 (+8 Con) REF +10 (+10 Dex) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 48 r=12 pp Acrobatics 5 (+15) Climb 2 (+10) Intimidate 15 (+15) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Stealth 5 (+15) Swim 2 (+10) Feats: 18 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Specialization: Unarmed 3 Dodge Focus 6 Evasion Fearless Grappling Finesse Hide in Plain Sight Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 35 pp Additional Limbs 2 [2 pp] 'forelimbs' Blast 8 (PFs: Accurate 3, Precise) [20 pp] ‘acid vomit’ Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Speed 2 (25 MPH) [2 pp] Super-Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2) [4 pp] Super-Senses 6 (Accurate Acute Tracking [quarter-speed] Olfactory, Darkvision) [6 pp] costs abilities 56 + combat 24 + saves 4 + skills 12/48 + feats 18 + powers 35 = 150 pts ----------- Design Notes: Back in 1992, after a violent encounter with an unknown alien species killed the government’s only expert on the subject, someone decided the most logical thing to do would be breed an alien/human hybrid. Look, the Cold War was over, people were pretty desperate to keep their funding. And nothing’s scarier than an academic looking for funding. Except maybe an alien human hybrid with acid for internal bodily fluids, predatory instincts, and an insectile body. That’s pretty scary. But eventually she escaped and, after hunting animals for food for a while, she was found by superheroes who got her steered onto the right path: getting an education and using her remarkable abilities to be a superhero. But between the shadowy organization that spawned her (perhaps an Iron Age government lab that now works for the Labyrinth or SHADOW) and her own mysterious predatory species, she’s going to need a lot of friends to get by. OK, this is my attempt at an HR Giger-style Alien-inspired superheroine, with a dash of Species for flavor. She’s a sci-fi twist on the living weapon archetype, a skilled hand-to-hand combatant who can easily sweep her way even through legions of heavily armed soldiers, as well as vomit up an acidic substance to burn her way through prison walls. She’s also a fast hunter, skilled sneak, and has lots of ways of making even powerful opponents flat-footed. (If you’re looking for a more sophisticated modeling of the movie bad guys, I’d drop the PL to 8 or so, thus making them absolutely murder in large numbers against PL 6 space marines, even if those aliens counted as minions: this build would function fine as some kind of ‘junior queen’ with that in mind) Given her appearance and likely age, she’s a natural fit for a Hero High campaign. It’s up to yo whether or not she can pass for human; despite the ganked picture above, my idea is that she can just about pass for normal while wearing bulky sweaters and not concentrating on her native abilities. Her alien physiology may be a source of Complications for her, not just for acid lips and toxic breath (or however you want to showcase her abilities) but Prejudice as well: if her alien species is some sort of dangerous vermin to spacefaring races, she may be about as popular (or maybe as unsettling) with aliens as a Grey-black widow spider hybrid would be with us. It’s up to you whether or not her alien species does make a further appearance on Earth; its last few incursions have not been very popular...

At the confirmation of his words, Harrier simply looked at Archeville. "You can spend your life regretting that loss, and regretting the evil that you have done. Or you can go out into the world and do good in its place. Make no mistake, Viktor, you are the only true judge of yourself, despite what others may say. Your old life is over. The path you embark on within these walls will be the path that begins your new life. You can spend your days caged by memories. Caged by the memory of pain and anguish inflicted by your hands and words. Or you can go and begin anew, and ensure that no one else is made a slave. That no one else is put in a cage." He looked away for a moment. "Mona Teymourian did not like me very much. She looked to me for answers about her soul and the source of her powers that I could not give her truthfully." He fell silent, his lined face tight, before he finally said, "But she would want you to be a free man, Viktor. Whether that freedom was outside these walls, or in here." He touched Archeville's head, his finger cold. "Mourn your losses. Grieve for them. But be inspired by them to be more than the sum of your sins."

"Wretched sinners, thou hast made slaves of ensouled beings and used them for thine own nefarious ends! Your evil ends now!" Flaming sword of pure righteousness in hand, the angel of Freedom swooped down on the soldiers like a bird of prey, slashing and striking them down like the warrior he was. As he sliced a rifle in half and casually smacked aside the man who'd carried it like a cricket batter whacking away a ball, he boomed, "Throw down your weapons, and you will be shown the mercy you did not grant others! If not, your sin will have dire consequences," and as his halo burned with celestial fury, the glowing angel seemed liable to inflict dire consequences indeed on the unrighteous around him.

I'll get an IC post up in jussec

"In my experience, the heroes of Freedom City can overlook any crime. However great." Murdock fell silent, feeling a swell of pity for a man who had done so much less than he had, but who now faced so much more opprobrium from those who had been his fellows. A stranger who has harmed strangers is one thing. A friend who has turned, though, that is very different. "Good. But what can be done, what you must do, is make sure that what has happened matters. The past cannot be changed. The dead cannot be brought back to life. But what has happened can spur you to action. If you spend the remainder of your life in chains, then what has happened will not simply have been a disaster. It will have been a waste." He turned his head and looked at Archeville, his neck swiveling without so much as twitching on his shoulders. "Do not allow what has happened to have been for nothing, Viktor. I have spoken to Mona Teymourian. She would not want that. Nor would she abandon you for what you have done."

Anybody with Comprehend all Languages? If not, it's a DC 25 Technology check to translate if you happen to speak Lor or Grue.

Slowly, they made their way down the impossible vastness of the serpent's face, the sheer scale of the awesome monstrosity of the Gorgon making it necessary for them to use powers and science alike to get where they were going. Even for Victory, as fast in the air as anyone alive, this was a significant trip. Finally, after nearly an hour in flight, they came to the lip of the snake's mouth and began the journey inside a maw large enough to swallow a city and more. Space was supposed to be silent, but as they got closer, they all became conscious of a vibration from somewhere deep inside the snake, a low, deliberate hum that seemed to be a natural product of its function. They were deep in the maw of the snake now, with its mouth between them and any fast escape. As they approached the vast nanite depositer, about where a snake's venom gland should be, static on their respective commlinks turned out to be transmissions: an alien language none of them had heard before coming from the depths of the Gorgon.

Mr. Sensitive Abilities: 46 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 18 (+4) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 24 (+7) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+13 Melee/+15 Unarmed) DEF: +15 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +18 Saves: 10 pp TOU +5 (+5 Con) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +8 (+4 Dex, +4) WILL +10 (+7 Wis, +3) Skills: 80 r=20 pp Acrobatics 11 (+15)* Bluff 9 (+10) Climb 5 (+10) Concentration 1 (+8) Intimidate 9 (+10) Investigate 4 (+5) Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+5) Notice 13 (+20)* Sense Motive 13 (+20)* Stealth 11 (+15)* Feats: 24 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 5 Attack Specialization: Unarmed 1 Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Blind-Fight Dodge Focus 7 Hide in Plain Sight Move-By Action Power Attack Second Chance 2 (Notice checks, Sense Motive checks) Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Notice, Sense Motive, Stealth) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (tactile) Powers: 18 pp Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 17 (Hearing [Extended 2 [x100], Penetrates Concealment], Sonar [Accurate Ultrasonic Hearing], Scent [Acute, Analytical, Tracking], Touch [Analytical], Tremorsense, Vision [Extended 2 [x100]]) [17 pp] costs abilities 46 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 20/80 + feats 24 + powers 18 = 150 pts ------------- Design Notes: Here's Mr. Sensitive, one of the more interesting characters from Peter Milligan's X-Statix (and one of the few characters from that book who would make a viable PC here.) Mr. Sensitive is basically a sighted Daredevil in terms of powers; with mutant-style angst about his abilities: he was born with tremendously enhanced senses that meant he spent most of his childhood in a haze of constant pain and medication. His only salvation was the training and discipline of the martial arts, which taught him self-control and the ability to block out discomfort, letting him find inner peace through meditation: later, Tony Stark came along and built him a numbing costume so he could get around without having to concentrate all the time. (One of the highlights of the book is a fist-fight between Tony Stark out of his armor and Mr. Sensitive with all his senses being triggered at once; it's downright ludicrously tragic.) You could pretty much take Mr. Sensitive here and put him in Freedom City without too many problems. He's a mean mother of a martial artist; he's almost impossible to bluff and fool in combat, and easily capable of laying most foes out with a Fast Acrobatic Bluff. He's also got tremendous super-senses; he can track by scent, detect by touch, and hear right through soundproofing: note that he has 100 times the usual hearing and visual range, giving him Notice increments of 1000 feet rather than 10! That lets you do something dramatic where he poses on the gargoyle like Batman, but can hear and see the crimes of the city below just like Superman: he has to save the people. He can hear them. He's proof of just how much you can get out of reshuffling the points in an existing build! I tried to keep his super-senses within the realm of comic book enhanced human: he can't see through walls and he can't hear radio signals, but senses a normal person could plausibly have he has cranked up about as high as they could plausibly go. He makes a great lie detector too; he's not supernaturally immune to lies but between his Skill Mastery and Second Chance, he's almost impossible to convincingly lie to. He's pretty vulnerable if you do somehow manage to catch him flat-footed, given how dependent he is on Dodge Focus, but on the other hand that's not going to be easy!

Survivor PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 18 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON n/a INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 22 pp ATK: +5 (+7 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +17 Saves: 9 pp TOU +10 (+10 Protection) FORT n/a REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 36 r=9 pp Intimidate 10 (+10) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 2 (+2) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Stealth 5 (+7) Feats: 12 pp Attack Focus: Melee 2 Dodge Focus 4 Fearless Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Track Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 80 pp Device 1 (Easy to Lose) (Machete) [3 pp] Strike 3 (PFs: Critical Strike [undead], Mighty) Immunity 30 (Fortitude saves) [30 pp] Protection 10 [10 pp] Regeneration 32 (Recovery Bonus +9 (14), Recovery Rate: Injured [no action] (6), Disabled [no action] (8), Resurrection 1/hour [4]) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [34 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] costs abilities 18 + combat 22 + saves 9 + skills 9/36 + feats 12 + powers 80 = 150 pts ----- Design Notes: The monster came and it murdered her friends and nearly killed her, but she showed that psychopathic killer that the cursed waters of the swamp didn’t just benefit soulless monstrosities. She rose and defeated the beast for all time, taking its weapon for her own. Now she hunts the night as a creature of destruction, tracking down all the soulless monsters that would kill and maim the innocent and dispatching them before they can do their wicked work. Having created plenty of monster builds before, I decided to try my hand at the “unstoppable slasher movie” monster, this time cast through the lens of heroism: in this case, a Final Girl who has gained the same powers as her former tormentor and who now hunts the night as a predator on her own. (She’s similar to the revenant build in Instant Superheroes, though that one is more like the Crow than Jason). In play, she’ll function like a horror movie monster, stalking her prey in darkness before unleashing devastating attacks from her melee weapon. With her Regeneration, she will not go down in a fight: the only way to stop her is to do enough damage to put her down, do something to Snare or Paralyze her, or use something to take advantage of her relatively low exotic saves. If you assume she has the stats of your typical movie monster, the fact that her typical opponents were about PL 4-6 at the most helps illustrate how incredibly dangerous in a fight she could be. It’s up to you whether or not she still has a family; depending on how long she’s been away from humanity (perhaps having disappeared in the 1970s), they may have completely moved on. Playing this archetype as a superhero may be a little challenging, but I think it could be done if written properly: perhaps she’s put aside her feral years and is trying to learn how to be a superhero and also a human being again, or maybe she’s horrified by her transformation and has come to the city to try and get her old life back. She doesn’t have to be as Iron Age as she looks if she has genuinely stuck to hunting spectral burn victims or freaks in hockey masks. If you don’t see this concept as working for a hero, there’s still plenty you could do with the sheet and the background. If you’re playing a friendly neighborhood monster like Avenger or Dead Head, however, the Survivor makes a great antagonist, an enemy with fanatic determination, a sympathetic motivation enough that the reader can almost root for them, and one who may not see the moral distinction between one kind of monster and another: she’s threatening enough that your hero may be forced to use (or tempted to use, at least) the same kind of brutal tactics she does, thus giving you a lot to think about while you brood on your nearby gargoyle. And whatever her fate, whatever giant explosion she’s caught up in, she _will_ be back.

Harrier sat on the bunk, trying to appear non-threatening. It was something he did very poorly, but he did his best. "You will be visited by others in your time here." He stared blankly at the opposite wall, remembering his own conversations, his own counseling sessions with people who just didn't understand. "They will tell you that you need bear no guilt for what you have done, that your hands and your mind were the instrument of an Other's will, not your own." He turned and looked at Archeville then, and said simply, "They mean well. They have your best interests at heart. But you and I know those easy reassurances make no difference. Those who have not been there can never understand. The guilt is the same. The horror is the same. Viktor..." He fell silent for a moment, then said, "I think it is likely that, with the defenders you have in Freedom City, you will be released from this place when you still have many years to live. What will you do with yourself when you are free?"

The scarred man replied with an eerily flat stare as he closed the door behind him. "Though Miss Americana and I are friends, we did not travel here on the same business," he said in a slow, deliberate monotone as the door locked with an audible click. "I am sorry your memory was erased, Viktor. I had preferred knowledge of my identity remain constant for all of Freedom's superheroes, the better to maintain security, but there was no time to speak to the Scarab and Phantom." He fell silent again, his lined eyes on the doctor. "How much do you recall of your deeds?"

Cat Totem PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 56 pp STR 24 (+7) DEX 24 (+7) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 18 (+4) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+13 melee) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +20 Saves: 8 pp TOU +7 (+7 Con) FORT +8 (+7 Con, +1) REF +10 (+7 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+4 Wis, +4) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Acrobatics 8 (+15) Bluff 1 (+4) Climb 8 (+15) Intimidate 12 (+15) Notice 6 (+10) Language 1 (Spanish) (Base: English) Sense Motive 11 (+15) Survival 6 (+10) Swim 3 (+10) Feats: 19 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 5 Challenge 2 (Accelerated Climb, Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Dodge Focus 5 Evasion Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 21 pp Leaping 2 (x5) [2 pp] Penetrating Unarmed Damage 4 (PFs: Improved Crit 2 [unarmed]) 'claws and teeth' [6 pp] Speed 2 (25 MPH) [2 pp] Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Wall-Crawling 2) [6 pp] Super-Senses 5 (Low-Light Vision, Acute Tracking [quarter-speed] Scent, Tremorsense) [5 pp] costs abilities 56 + combat 32 + saves 8 + skills 14/56 + feats 19 + powers 21 = 150 pts ----------------- Design Notes: In the spirit of the idea that no character concept is totally without redemption, here’s a cat totem in the vein of Marvel’s Tigra or Feral, or Freedom City’s own El Gato. (I’ve always assumed, BTW, that the bad Spanish in El Gato’s name is a deliberate Take That by Freedom City’s writers against inept Iron Age comics writers; that or they just got the Spanish wrong) The existence of otaku and cosplayers has sexualized this concept pretty heavily, so I’ve done my best to downplay it here: she’s much more the feral creature of the jungle, easily able to sustain herself via hunting for meat without equipment or other tools, than the purring kitten in the bikini. Note that despite our image of domestic cats, quite a few big cats are totally comfortable swimming in the water, so I’ve gone with the idea that this lady is quite at home in the water. She’s really quite scary in an urban context, able to run up the sides of buildings like a cat climbing a tree, her claws sharp enough to cut through even superhumanly tough armor, and she has lots of ways of laying opponents out in combat. As is usual for me with ‘clawed’ characters, she’s got Penetrating Unarmed Damage to reflect the fact that she doesn’t have to be slicing up street-level thugs to take them out. The Slow Fall is because she’s a cat, but also because she’s so very fast and athletic and such a good climber in general. Cats don’t have as strong as a scent ability as canines, so I’ve tried to divide up her super-senses based on what cats can actually do: she can see in the dark, but not true darkness, she can navigate by touch (thanks to whiskers) and scent, and even track targets across the city that way. She doesn’t have a lot of skill outside of being a hunter and tracker, but her modifiers are high enough you could easily shuffle her skills around to make her a policewoman, or an uplifted housewife. While catlike behavior is a viable source for complications, it’s really for the best if you don’t play being an obligate carnivore and large predator in human skin for sex appeal, and really shouldn’t be used to make the character look silly, either. While we’re pretty reluctant to engage a lot with Iron Age legacies, I could see someone spinning a potential character out of a successor to the Iron Age El Gato: perhaps her mother left her to be raised by others while she was busy fighting her family’s drug syndicate. There’s a story to be told there, and no reason why the archetype itself can’t work as part of a Modern Age historical legacy. If you don’t want to get involved with that, though, there are plenty of other ways you could get this character feline, whether by genetic engineering, mystic ritual, or some other form of empowerment.

His teeth chattering from the cold, Firehawk put his hands up, wrists together in the gesture of a man who'd been handcuffed before. "Merde, merde, I quit!" He landed, letting the heroes take the last member of the Champions of Crime on his feet and at the scene into custody. And no wonder: with Blitzen down, Protector disabled, and himself taking a savage beating now that he was so badly outnumbered, the nascent Young Freedom had given a savage defeat to the premerie Detroit supercriminals. Not in a bad day's work! For his own part, Citizen had quite a time getting Protector to surrender even without control of his armor, but finally taking the helmet off and letting the guards (who had now piled out of the jail) put guns in the man's face proved a fine and stern message: cursing, the middle-aged mobster took off his armor, shouting an occasional epithet at the heroes as he was taken into custody by the very same people who'd been keeping his target locked up. "You stupid punk! I should have known I couldn't trust a..." A racial epithet was cut off by a guard smacking him on the side of the head. As the team took in their victory, Koshiro could see his mother and sisters standing in the doorway of the jail, eying him uncertainly in the aftermath of his very first super-battle.

"Yes," answered the cyberknight, giving the only sign he'd heard Protectron before he charged forward and slammed his sword into the robot's midsection, driving it deep, the blade sinking past armor and into the steambot's mechanical guts. Once there, he fired off a devastating blast of cosmic energy that erupted through brass and steel like fire in a tinderbox, incinerating the mechanical man's interior in a flash of searing white light. As the robot fell, without hesitation Caradoc brought his sword down on his head, cleaving it in twain with a single devastating swipe. Caradoc was not one to leave an enemy at his rear, especially not a mechanical monstrosity that was a serious threat to three heroes. "Is Ironclad well?"