Avenger Assembled

Infernalist PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 20 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 14 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 26 [16] (+8/+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Hellfire Control) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +6 Saves: 11 pp TOU +8 (+3 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3) REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Bluff 12 (+20) Intimidate 12 (+20) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 4 (+4) Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+4) Languages 2 (Italian, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Feats: 11 pp Distract (Bluff) Dodge Focus 6 Power Attack Precise Shot Startle Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 80 pp Enhanced CHA 10 [10 pp] Hellfire Control Array [22+2=24 pp] Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Targeted Area [Cone) (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Teleport 7 (700 ft/200 miles) (Extra: Accurate) (PF: Progression [250 lbs]) Immunity 5 (aging, disease, environmental heat, poison, suffocation [heat]) [5 pp] Immunity 40 (all lethal damage) (Flaw: Converts to Non-Lethal) [20 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Regeneration 16 (Recovery Bonus +9 [6], Bruised 3 [no action], Staggered 6 [no action], Resurrection 1/week [1]) [16 pp] Drawbacks: -6 pp Vulnerable (holy) (uncommon, major) [-3 pp] Weakness (holy symbols; dazed by failed CHA check) [-3 pp] costs abilities 20 + combat 24 + saves 11 + skills 10/40 + feats 11 + powers 80 -drawbacks 6= 150 pts --- Design Notes: Once upon a time the daughter of a powerful Mob boss witnessed the gruesome demise of her family at the hands of her father's business rivals. She ran to a church for help only to find that the local priest was in the pocket of her father's rivals and was shipped to a grim penal convent somewhere remote as a way of getting her out of the way. (It would be too obvious if she was simply murdered, after all) Alone one night in that miserable place, she cursed the universe and the God that had done so many horrible things to her and her family, and vowed that she would do anything, anything to get revenge on those who'd destroyed her family. As it happened, there are beings who listen to that sort of thing, and this lady's career as a dark avenger of evil began with a very personal meeting with a very evil being indeed. Now she travels the country by means of a gout of hellfire, a beautiful, cunning temptress and destroyer of evil. If she'd damned, well, she'll have company. Okay, obviously this concept is more suitable for an Iron Age game than ours. She's not a bad choice for the 'hot' (you see what I did there?) bad girl who your hero has to deal with, and maybe flirt with, while trying to handle the worse monsters down the lane. But I think you could still make it work: perhaps very early in her career as an infernal avenger, this lady realized that incinerating human beings, even foul mobsters, was more than she could do, and has become a fugitive from Hell even as she was once a fugitive from the Mob. She's a skilled social player and manipulator, and very good at wrapping people around her little finger. She doesn't need a lot of Investigate when she can just schmooze and scare her way through any given investigation. Her Immunity bears some explanation: I figure that a Flawed Immunity to Lethal Damage and Regeneration makes more sense for Hell-sent immortality. She can wade through hails of gunfire and not worry about it, but she'll feel every bullet and take every hit. I think that works even if she's broken with the forces of Hell and become a hero in her own right: after all, the Devil still has plans for her, even if she may have taken her career in a path very differently than he was expecting. His machinations have a way of turning around to bite even the most cunning of his enemies; and honestly if the Infernalist was really that cunning, she wouldn't have sold her soul to the Devil in the first place.

Init time 25 Bad guy's sheet Heyzel goes on 10

"Yes, yes, I believe I could," said the Bee-Keeper thoughtfully. "In fact, he looked a great deal like-" Suddenly, from a corner of the room, there came a blur of motion as that manacled prisoner broke from his restraints and snatched up a pen. "Snitches get stitches, Barry!" he spat before hurling a sharpened pencil at the Bee-Keeper's naked, unprotected torso! The missile flew with unerring accuracy, but one hero's heart turned out to be stronger than murder. Well, depending on your perspective: the impromptu weapon missed the Bee-Keeper because it plunged into the chest of the angel of Freedom! "Well, bless my soul," said Heyzel, looking down with some surprise as shining red blood leaked out from around the injury in his chest. "That's quite deep." His face turning pale, he added, "Please don't be alarmed. I will be fine." "Aw, damn it! Stupid angel! That's what you get for coming into jail!" His attempted assassin hurled something in a fast, whirling blur that resolved into a set of prison-issue eyeglasses as they smashed into the metal hull of one of the robotic bees, who had flown in quickly to take the hit for both Bee-Keeper and the angel who'd taken one through the chest defending him. "Not on my watch, maggot! Ahahaha! laughed the bee tinnily.

As DJ Breakdown slipped into unconsciousness, voiding his bowels and bladder as his body collapsed into immobility and imbecility thanks to the savage beating he'd taken at the hands of Young Freedom, Radio Freedom began rising to their feet, shaking off the effects of the former hero's mind control, they began to realize what had been going on. "Oh Eddie, man, Eddie baby..." Rubbing his head, Disco Edge looked up at the fallen former hero. "Time to send you to school." He fired a blast of energy at Breakdown that brought about quite a change in him, transforming Breakdown's battered flesh into something with the consistency of a shiny, sparkly disco ball in the shape of a man. "By the time that wears off, they'll have pulled all the power out of him and dropped him in the deepest, darkest pighole they can find. Thanks, Young Freedom. You guys are pretty groovy."

"Oh, I think we will start with the gymnasium." Quo-Dis winked at him. "I have heard that you are very athletic, and we have a lot of good equipment for that." She led the way outside, looking like the offspring of a bikini model's marriage to an Olympic weightlifter and talking amiably about the school. "What is Australia like?" she asked him as they headed into what did indeed look like a very well-equipped gym. Darwin had just gotten a glimpse of the place on his first walkthrough: while it was very high-end, it wasn't clear how you'd do powers-training in here. "I have been many places on Earth, but I have never gone south of the Equator."

He is flat-footed He fails by 18 Wander'd! Go ahead and post IC and we'll be out of rounds. Edited for clarity (and because with all the time that's been elapsing I'd forgotten about the Obscure effect): Breakdown's last speech was delivered via harmonic vibrations rather than normal speech.

Breakdown took Cobalt Templar's hit and sneered at him, empowered by his sheer malignant hate even against Corbin's righteous wrath. Just as he was pulling himself away from the wall, Corbin distinctly heard "Cobalt Templar, get down!" seconds before a blast of energy came sparking up from the panels around them, searing their way across Breakdown's costume and further singing the wicked hero-turned-villain: the distinct odor of burning chest air stunk up the room as Breakdown pushed his way out of the cables that Edge had tried to entangle him in. "You think you can stop me, Lucas?" he spat, floating above the catwalk and the ground where some of his friends were beginning to regain consciousness. His words didn't come through the air, rather they seemed to vibrate through the very harmonies of the universe like a needle scratching across the record of everyone's skin, or maybe just fingers reaching out to feel very unpleasant. "My master is ready for you and yours! I have the music of the Terminus inside me, and I AM INVINCIBLE! Ahaha!"

Round 2 Everybody gets Edge's +5 Inspire bonus this round. Radio Freedom's saves to shake off being stunned by Mind Control: Disco Edge, Nightlife, and Disco Sage shake it off this round; the others aren't fighting but aren't moving...yet On his turn, Edge doesn't horse around: he blasts Breakdown in his fat face. That's a DC 30 TOU save: 31 That's a good roll. Too good. He's bruised All right, Wander is up

Absorber PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 40 [20] (+15/+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +15/+25 Saves: 10 pp TOU +15 (+5 Con, +10 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 64 r=16 pp Bluff 13 (+15) Diplomacy 8 (+10) Intimidate 13 (+15) Knowledge (Civics) 2 (+3) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 4 (+5) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+5) Languages 4 (German, Latin, Russian, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 12 pp All-Out Attack Connected Benefit (Wealthy) Challenge (Improved Trick) Distract (Bluff) Improved Initiative Fearless Leadership Power Attack Startle Taunt Ultimate Save (TOU) Powers: 58 pp Absorption Array [32+3=35 pp] Blast 15 (PFs: Precise, Variable Descriptor 1 [absorbed]) AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Selective) (PFs: Progression on Area, Variable Descriptor 1 [absorbed]) AP: Drain Energy 15 (Flaw: Action [Full]) (PFs: Slow Fade 2 [5 minutes]) AP: Enhanced STR 20 and Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 96 tons) (PF: Groundstrike) Immunity 3 (aging, environmental heat, radiation) [3 pp] Protection 10 (Extra: Impervious) [20 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 16/64 + feats 12 + powers 58 = 150 pts -- Design Notes: Here's Sebastian Shaw, the antagonist of the X-Men: First Class movie, as a PL 10 starting character. Shaw's power in the comics is Absorption, but as usual I opted not to build that here: it's a crummy points deal, and it doesn't do much for powerhouses like Shaw since Enhanced STR and Super-STR aren't the same power. Instead he's just a fully Toughness-shifted powerhouse who can shrug off bazookas, grenades, and go toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful mutants on the planet until (and I don't think this really counts as a spoiler) he gets a hard lesson in why you should invest in exotic saves at the film's climax. Treat his necessity to absorb energy as a Complication: one possible use for the HP you get from that is to power the Improved Trick that gets people to keep wailing on him even though he's obviously invulnerable. With his +15 TOU, Impervious at +10, and Ultimate Toughness, he should be able to take a massive punishment and keep on going. This is toned down a bit from the film version, who is probably a PL 12-14 in a world of PL 6-8s. Part of that, though, is that the movie's Shaw was in a world with almost no superhumans, where his powers made him an unstoppable juggernaut capable of cleaving through conventional military forces and destroying all that stood in his way until finally our heroes came up with a good plan involving some well-placed teamwork. I figure his Fearless is a natural leap because of just how affable he is in the movie: no one has ever seriously hurt him, so why would he ever be afraid of them? He can walk around in nuclear reactors and raging infernos all he wants, and as promised his absorbed powers keep him young, but he has a lot of human frailities otherwise: in his shoes, I'd invest in upgrading my exotic saves as soon as reasonably possible. (in fact, that may have been the movie character's problem, since he never really grappled with people close to his own weight before the events of the movie.) He's an OK scientist but he's mostly powerful thanks to his tremendous social connections, and should have no trouble setting up an ally network that stretches from Russia to Argentina and back again. Ex-world conquerors are not too likely to be redeemable in a game like this; don't think you can change up his story and just have him be all hunky-dory in the aftermath. Find a different backstory to go with these very impressive abilities. I think this build works just fine as a low-level scientist and businessman who has stumbled his way into some very powerful self-granted abilities, or maybe a powerful mutant who has used his abilities to accumulate great wealth. He'd be a decent build for a retired hero who has gone into business for himself, or maybe a businessman who has just gone into heroing after years of using his abilities in other areas. As for whether or not he's the member of a gentleman's club with some really weird personal practices...well. He's a natural team-up for the Femme Fatale upthread, though perhaps he should invest in higher saves if he chooses to go that route...

Under the sheer power of Midnight's sonic assault, the disco heroes were freed from the enchanting waves of DJ Breakdown's wicked guitar riffs. They collapsed to the ground, all of them, looking as dazed as Wonder had after her pummeling at her counterpart's hands: they weren't back in the fight on the side of right, but Midnight's blast had cut the puppeteer's strings most effectively. That wasn't the only thing Breakdown was suffering for, though. Standing in the middle of the field of sonic disruption, he put his hands to his ears and screamed silently as Midnight's sonic eruption blasted his eardrums into irrelevance, blood leaking out from between his ears as his def beats became just deaf.

Thank goodness for Penetrating! He passes it, with the Devil's luck! Go ahead and post IC, KD.

Flatfooted 24 Hits 19 Deaf! I'll have Edge spend an HP to add Selective to Midnight's Obscure.

The car smashed into Breakdown in a moment of sweet cosmic justice, smashing the vile disco Annihilist back against the concrete wall behind him and briefly knocking the wind out of him. Only through the sheer devil's luck did he stay in the air at all, or perhaps the baleful influence of the mind-warped Mark Lucas on this world was keeping his puppeteer afloat. For her part, the native Sage targeted her counterpart who had done so much to her the man controlling her body. "Smash The. Pigs! Smash The. Pigs!" Her blade swung close to Sage's midsection, and would have bit deep into her tender flesh had Wander not leapt high and blocked the blow intended for her, the telekinetic slice doing more damage to Wander's seared costume but not harming the flesh underneath in the least. For his part, Nightlife did a few lazy cartwheels, looking as if all his acrobatic energy had been sucked out of him by the mind control whammy. And maybe it had been! "Fight the. Power! Fight the. Power!" He pulled a sizzling sticky bomb from his belt and hurled it right at Edge! To Mark's horror, the bomb actually hit, sticking to his cape as its fuse hissed its way down to nothing! Luckily, Edge thought fast. Ripping away his cape and hurling it down past a concrete corridor, he ducked as he felt a flash of heat and heard the loud concussion: he was damn lucky he'd gotten that thing off when he could!

Disco Sage's first attack misses, but Disco Edge spends another HP to have it hit I'll say that's just with the blade, so that's a DC 27 Tou save, Sorus. But Wander is there with the Interpose! Disco Edge's HP is waaasted. The Edges are running low... Nightlife switches his Gadget array to Damage 15 (PFs: Accurate 3, Extended Reach 3) (Flaws: Full-Round Action) (the allocation is inefficient, but he has been mind-controlled!) and throws a bomb at Edge. Regular Edge spends an HP on Ultimate TOU, and is okay. Midnight is up.

Bowles looked away for a moment, composing himself. "I...the syringe?" Faced with the prospect of staying here, the Bee-Keeper looked a little shaken. It didn't look like he'd so much as considered the possibility of this not working. "I...yes, the syringe! I remember...they accused me of using a particular syringe found inside my cell, one laden with the apitoxin that killed that poor innocent girl! But it was no syringe of mine, no, I use all-American medical equipment in my work, because I respect this great nation. The syringe that killed Emma Twill came from Archetech Medical Supplies! Which means it could only have been...any number of people, of course." He looked away, adding under his breath, "Anyone who didn't respect the hard-working American worker, that is."

The car thing is so freaking sweet, I'm going to not have Disco Edge interpose. 32 vs 27 Edge spends an HP to force a reroll! Bruised and stunned. Nice!

Breakdown's sheet, with the Device ranks swapped out for actual powers Wonder Interposes for Breakdown! (have an HP, Electra) I'll say she does not pass the Acrobatics check as a result of her Mind Control A 27 hits her (since she's at DC 15 to hit). That gives Wander the full +10 bonus to her damage. DC 45 save (Disco Edge spends an HP to activate Wonder's Ultimate TOU) Wonder is staggered and stunned! 12 Not quite enough to break Breakdown's control, this time. I'll let Wonder stay stunned. Sage is up after Electra posts in-character.

Divine Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 32 pp STR 30 [20] (+10/+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 14 (+2) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed/+12 Blast) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Grapple: +11/+21 Init: +6 Saves: 16 pp TOU +8 (+2 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +7 (+2 Con, +5) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Climb 1 (+6/+11) Bluff 10 (+15) Disguise 0 (+5/+35) Intimidate 10 (+15) Knowledge: Tactics 10 (+10) Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 10 (+10) Language 1 (Greek) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Ride 1 (+3) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 1 (+3) Feats: 10 pp All-Out Attack Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Master Plan 2 Improved Initiative Startle Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 49 pp Divine Array 10 (20 pp powers; PFs: Alternate Power 3) [20+3=23 pp] BE: Blast 8 (PFs: Accurate 3, Precise) AP: Emotion Control 10 AP: Enhanced STR 10 (to 30/+10) and Super-Strength 5 (effective Str 55, Heavy Load: 24 tons) AP: Morph 6 (+30 Disguise, any form; PFs: Covers Scent, Precise) Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) [3 pp] Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp] Protection 6 [6 pp] Regeneration 1 (1/week) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [3 pp] Shield 4 [4 pp] abilities 32+combat 28+saves 16+skills 15/60+ feats 10 +powers 49 --- Design Notes: Divine, aka Moira Morley, was a good concept not terribly well-executed. But that's okay. Here's the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite as she should have been; a beautiful woman, a fantastic warrior, a godling skilled in all ways of contending. I figure she can summon and dismiss Olympian armor to her as a free action, but with the exception of her shield those things are mostly special effects. She's bulletproof, agile, and has a host of divine powers ranging from hurling fireballs (I get a lot of my iconic imagery for Olympian gods from Xena: Warrior Princess, the best live-action TV show with a superheroine as the lead ever made) to shifting her shape (a stock character ability for Olympian gods), to inspiring love and fear in mortals to just raising sword and fist and ripping the hell out of her enemies. She's also a skilled social manipulator (as any Olympian should be) and a very good strategist and planner. What's that, Olympian gods were often jerks and didn't act like superheroes? Well, we've got a Norse goddess and a Christian angel, so I think you can edit that. Perhaps she's more upstanding than her rather layabout parents, or maybe a trip to Earth through a summoning convinces he that these lands have merit. Or maybe you can stick with the idea that she was raised a mortal, her divine parents choosing to let her grow up outside the petty politics of her relatives. (Or maybe that's just what they told her, and she's a catspaw for Olympian conquest!) I've talked a lot about playing divine heroes in the Freedom City setting, and I think this one is in many ways no different: the Olympian pantheon hasn't had a lot to do in Freedom City one way or the other, possibly because they're so heavily used in DC and Marvel. The nice thing is, this does free you up a perfectly fine niche to play. A natural antagonist is Hades, Divine's uncle and the ruler of Hell, who has staged many an attempt on Earth in the past few decades. Why has he broken with the old ways so thoroughly, and what turned the being who was once one of the more cordial Olympians into one of the most threatening? Perhaps it's the result of the changes in death itself that have made so many of the old death gods such terrible threats to everyone else in the Freedom City setting. In fact, the changes in Hades may be why Divine was raised among mortals rather than gods. If such corruption could afflict among the most powerful of Olympians, surely escaping its taint and learning what lies behind is a task worthy for the daughter of gods.

"Wow!" said Edge, thoroughly impressed. "I can't believe we're on another planet watching Earth. That's totally awesome." He hmmed and added, a little in awe, "I can't believe I sent us to another planet...wow!" He shot Supercape a look through the helmet. "What's the nicest planet you've ever visited?" he asked Supercape. "Are we in range of it?" He didn't look that bothered even now to be on the desolate frozen desert, and while they talked he bent down and ran his fingers through the white power beneath his feet.

"Must Bend. The Squares. Must Bend. The Squares!" The other Edge spoke first, sending a cascade of falling wires from the ceiling down on Wander that sizzled and sparked, scorching her costume without actually doing any serious damage. Either he was pulling his punches so as not to hurt a copy of his friend, or maybe Wander was just tougher than her disco counterpart. He didn't try and follow up on his attack in any way, or do anything to support the mind-controlled members of Radio Freedom, further reinforcing the theory that the local team was not fighting at their best. For his part, the Edge from out of town needed only a few moments to think. "Eddie, I'm sorry," he said suddenly, looking up at Breakdown. "I'm sorry about what happened to your world. I'm sorry about what happened to your life." His jaw set, energy began to spark around his fingers. "But you've betrayed your friends, you've sold out your world, and you've turned into an Annihilist! Don't play in the big leagues if you're not prepared to get struck out! Young Freedom! Take out the disco dopplegangers and bastard Breakdown, hard and fast!"

Being a better strategist than his mind-controlled disco doppleganger, Edge spends an HP to Inspire the others. (He's currently down to 7 HP) Wander is up.

The Edges Seize Initiative: Disco Mark goes first So we have: Disco Edge: Seized Edge: Seized (9 HP) Wander: 29 (6 HP) Wonder: 27 Sage: 21 (2 HP) Disco Sage: 19 Nightlife: 17 Midnight: 12 (5 HP) Cobalt Templar: 13 (3 HP) Breakdown: 12 Cobalt Ranger: 8 Disco Edge is not going to do this particularly strategically soundly. Is it because he's fighting the effects of the mind control, or because it's Mark? Well... He'll go ahead and blast Wander. DC 30 Tou save. (If you fail, regular Mark will spend one of his to help you out.)

"Let our differences unite us, rather than divide us," agreed the angel. When their solemnities seemed finished, he shook Victory's hand. "Thank you for spending time with me, my friend. It's good to be reminded of the struggles for virtue in which all men are engaged...and that the wars between men need not be fought inside the human heart. Good evening." And with that he was off, wending his way up into the sky as the evening sun glinted off his wings.

On the screen, the people outside could see Sharl talking to the little girl as he showed her how to navigate her world. She'd been a little unnerved at the first sight of her body in her bedroom mirror, but the novelty of having a working body at all was far superior to worries about what her body happened to look like at the moment. Sharl treated this like teaching a little kid art, a lesson that seemed to pay off nicely when Eira cheerfully turned her outfit into the kind of fluffy pink dress that little girls on Earth (at least in European cultures) generally wore to parties. And this was a party; with chocolate and toys, and with Eira rapidly summoning up toys and games and pictures from the memories that were all she'd had of the old world. "" suggested Sharl, "" He certainly had, anyway. He'd worried she would freak out with her parents gone, but much to his relief she was too focused on all that was happening to be scared. "" She hmmed and looked up at him. " The question surprised Sharl; Eira knew he'd always been a digital program and had never had a body like what she'd once had, but she'd never had any reason to go further. Sitting there on the soft carpeted floor with her, its touch realer beneath his fingers than his holographic body could ever have felt on the outside, Sharl gave the most honest answer he could. ""

Everybody take an HP for the Fiat.