Avenger Assembled

failed by 16 vs. Drain failed by 14 vs Tou OK, it doesn't actually fall apart, but it is disabled. Good thing he's got layers... Otaku is up. He shoots a 'hellfire' blast at Midnight, as he's the guy who ruined his good suit! And he misses. But that's why we've Fiat: have an HP, Giz 25 DC 27 Tou save, Giz.

Magmin PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 28 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 20 (+5) CON 18 (+4) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 26 pp ATK: +7 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +16 Saves: 9 pp TOU +10 (+4 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +6 (+4 Con, +2) REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 10 pp=40 r Bluff 6 (+6/+10) Intimidate 6 (+6) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 6 (+6) Notice 6 (+8) Sense Motive 6 (+8) Survival 6 (+8 Feats: 16 pp Attack Specialization: Melee (3) Attractive Dodge Focus (4) Fascinate (Bluff) Improved Initiative Luck Power Attack Second Chance (Bluff checks) Uncanny Dodge (tactile) Powers: 65 pp Damage 7 (Extra: Aura) [28 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 14 (Heat Damage, Life Support) [14 pp] Impervious Toughness 8 [8 pp] Insubstantial 1 (PF: Subtle) [6 pp] Protection 6 [6 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Tremorsense) [2 pp] Drawback: -4 pp Vulnerable (Cold) (common, major) [-4 pp] costs abilities 28 + combat 26 + saves 9 + skills 10/40 + feats 16 + powers 65 - drawback 4 = 150 pts -- Design Notes: Her people lived in communities far away from anything else. They hunted wild game and traveled with the tides, building homes and sometimes temples, but always moving on when things grew too uncomfortable where they lived. It was a good life, part of an ancient culture and people with roots stretching back before recorded history. But our heroine wanted more: she wanted more out of life than the casual, easy living of her parents and grandparents. She wanted to follow the legends of the other world. She wanted to visit Outer Space. And so one day, with the help of friends, she built a craft and launched herself high, high, high, and landed in the vast, frozen openness of space. Marveling at how her body could endure the alien, deeply unpleasant conditions there, she stepped out and greeted her first aliens with a hearty handshake. And then the SCREAMING AND SCREAMING AND SCREAMING! Oh, that was a bad day. But contact has been made with the Magmin now, living so far below the surface of the Earth, and once the battle was over it was clear that not all of them had the hostile intent that they’d had in clashes with superheroes. (Those Magmin had a natural fear of the horrible gaseous ice monsters from beyond the lithosphere, naturally!) She’s the ambassador of her people on Earth now, and has even learned some control of her natural powers, enough that she doesn’t instantly set her friends on fire when she touches them. Lava monster turned superhero, hooray! She flies on a column of combustion, has a basically fluid (though not liquid) body, and she burns things. BURNS THINGS. Note that anyone who touches her takes the damage, as well as anyone she touches. Get her shoes, and a costume, at least, if you want her Aura to be Permanent. Shuffle points around to give her a lava blast, maybe with Indirect 2 if you want her to be more directly a lavakinetic. As it is, she’s not a lava _controller_ as such, anymore than human beings are flesh controllers because of what we’re made of. Treat her problems with cold as a complication besides the vulnerability drawback: she'll want that HP if she has to save against paralysis in cold weather!

The smoke had largely cleared by the time Wander, Edge, Phalanx, and Psyche had teleported to the top of the mountain, giving them a good view of the crater formed by first the volcano and then by the newly-impacted meteor. Shards of daka crystals were everywhere, sparkling in the seared-hot crater, a shimmering shower of sparks that highlighted the figure in the middle of the crater. The creature looked like a gigantic suit of armor, seared black by the fall, and as the heroes watched it brought down its great fists and smashed and smashed the ground beneath it, sending showers of sparks and rock up and making the ground shake with every blow. The strange thing was, the thing didn't look like it was digging itself out...rather, it looked like it was digging its way down! Mark stared at the suit of armor without comprehension for a moment, a baffled look on his face. "No, wait, they didn't put it in the mountain. They put it into...space..." His eyes wide, he stared up at the Heavens just as the armor-creature turned to glare at them!

"Can you reach the king's throne room?" asked Fusion, giving Supercape a doubtful look. "It's in the lowermost level of the old palace in Triton City, about fifty miles south of Tristan da Cuhna. It's winter in the Northern Hemisphere, so he'll be in his southernmost palace." In happier times, she'd have reminisced about her times in Atlantis, when she was so alone and frightened by the changes in her body, and when the Atlantean men were so very muscular, and wore such little clothing by surfacer standards...she shook off that brief, unwelcome distraction. "There's a clinic there, and if the king is there, we can give the news straight to him."

"I used to think I could transcend the problems that my family's had," said Mark, staring up at the starry sky overhead, the fires of war having dimmed the lights of the cities all around. "But I don't really believe that's true anymore. I'm part of them, and part of that legacy, as long as I'm wearing a costume and living the same kind of life they were. You know, the funny thing is..." he turned to Cannonade. "A lot more people know me, and my family, outside the costume then in. Maybe there's no escape. Do you think so?" he asked, suddenly looking vulnerable, and young, despite all the Nazis he'd just blown up.

Canadian Champion PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 50 pp STR 24 (+7) DEX 24 (+7) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 24 [14] (+7/+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+10 melee) DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +17 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+7 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +7 (+7 Con) REF +7 (+7 Dex) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +8) Skills: 10 pp=40 r Diplomacy 12 (+14/+19) Knowledge: History 6 (+6) Languages 2 (French, Inukituit) (Base: English) Notice 4 (+6) Sense Motive 12 (+14) Survival 4 (+6) Feats: 13 pp Attack Focus (Melee) (2) Dodge Focus Improved Initiative Inspire 3 Leadership Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 46 pp Canadian Array [20+4=24 pp] Drain Mental Ability Scores 10 ‘Mulroney Madness’ AP: Emotion Control 10 (Extra: Area [burst]) (Flaw: Limited [Calm Only]) ‘Pearson Persuasion’ AP: Illusion 10 (visual and auditory) (Flaw: Feedback) ‘Trudeau Trickery’ AP: Strike 10 (PFs: Improved Crit 2, Knockback 8) ‘Chretien Clobber’ AP: Teleport 9 (anywhere on Earth) (PFs: Easy, Turnabout) ‘Campbell Clip’ Device 1 (Easy to Lose) (Canadian Shield) [3 pp] -Enhanced Feat 1 (Dodge Focus) {1} -Strike 3 (PF: Mighty) {4} Enhanced Charisma 10 [10 pp] ‘King’s Crown’ Leaping 3 (x10) [3 pp] ‘Laurier’s Leap’ Protection 3 [3 pp] ‘Abbot’s Armour’ costs abilities 50 + combat 32 + saves 8 + skills 10/40 + feats 13 + powers 45 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: American superhero comic books have had a strange relationship with Canada ever since writers from Ontario created a Canadian superteam made up of a gay Quebecois with superspeed powers who was literally a fairy, his insane slutty sister, a tiny man named after a hockey instrument, two Natives with Native Powers, some guy from the West, and of course a giant hairy monster. This build is something of a gentle homage to those old stereotypes: he’s the greatest superhero in Canada, equipped with the ancient weapons and powers of previous guardians of Canada’s fortunes in order to protect the motherland against her many enemies. And so many enemies there are! Zombie Louis Riel propelled by evil Metis magic! (It’s no more offensive than evil voodoo sorcerers, but you should probably work in heroic Metis too), the once-heroic Brian Mulroney, corrupted by evil dollars bearing a terrible curse, now determined to plunge his homeland into the dark maw of Yanqui, the corrupt being from beyond reality whose very name invites woe! Work some super-science rivals in there too, like that so and so in Ontario who thinks he’s the only superhero in Canada. That terrible Quebecois serial killer known only as “Le Separationist!” (At least in the English press) Fighting hairy men from the woods is a must, naturally. So you’re a Canadian Captain America, with a few surprises in an array of psionic abilities handed down from generation to generation by those who held your title before. Mix that up as necessary: an immunity to poisons inherited from John A. MacDonald? A sonic burst inherited from John Diefenbaker? Your jaw is jut, your heart is clear, and you’re one of the finest, most competent superheroes in the world: just like the country that gave you birth! O, Canada...

14, then 18 (That's for Fort, then Reflex; I accidentally said Will but the stats are the same for Mark)

Glacia PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 18 (+4) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Ranged) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +9 Saves: 8 pp TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3 Force Field) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +6 (+4 Ref, +2) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 13 pp=52 r Climb 4 (+6) Concentration 4 (+6) Diplomacy 7 (+10) Intimidate 7 (+10) Languages 2 (English, German) (Base: Ice People) Notice 6 (+8) Sense Motive 6 (+8) Survival 8 (+10) Feats: 19 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Ranged 4 Dodge Focus 6 Improved Initiative Improved Throw Improved Trip Luck 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 54 pp Flight 5 (250 MPH) (Extra: Affects Others) (Flaw: Platform) [10 pp] ‘ice slides’ Force Field 3 [3 pp] ‘icy armor’ Glacia Array [30+4=34 pp] Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) ‘icicle shards’ AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Alternate Save [Fortitude]) ‘brain freeze’ AP: Create Object 10 (Extras: Independent [+0], Selective) ‘ice sculptures’ AP: Snare 10 (PF: Reversible) ‘icy bonds’ AP: Trip 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Selective) ‘icy patches’ Immunity 6 (aging, cold damage) [6 pp] Super-Senses 1 (Infravision) [1 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 8 + skills 13/52 + feats 19 + powers 54 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: The People were alone: they’d been travelers once, or explorers, but then they’d gone too far north as the world froze. Only a lucky encounter with an artifact from the heavens had changed them, giving them bodies to survive in and powers to shape their new frozen homeland. But Glacia was different than the others: she wanted to explore where they wanted to build their icy towers ever higher, and one day she left home, traveling far until a storm finally brought her down. Trapped far from home, and injured, in desperation she covered herself in a coating of ice to survive... It was a long time until the frost came. This is a build for one of the ‘Ice People’ of the Arctic, the mysterious civilization in the extreme far north of which the Freedom City supervillain Glacier was the only known survivor. I’ve filled in a few more details of their city, hinting that they were once Vikings, Inuit, or some other primitive people who were transplanted by the Preservers to an unbreachable home far away from any other human beings. But of course that civilization did breach and it did fall, and only Glacier and now this distaff version of him survived attempts at thawing. Glacier’s unstable as it is, the knowledge that a female of his race survived will produce actions that will make him Number 1 on her enemies list. I’ve tried to give her standard cold control powers, with a few good tweaks. Note that she does not actually have the cold control power in her array; Environmental Control is not useful enough in my opinion to justify doing it as something other than a stunt. She also doesn’t have a weakness to hot environmental conditions: if you want, give her that, and use it to buy more feats for her array, or more feats and skills. She’s got the two blasts so she can hurt people immune to cold damage: it doesn’t matter if you’re immune to cold, if you get an icicle through the midsection, the fact that it’s frozen is the least of your problems...

Objectivist Vigilante PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 36 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 16 (+3) CON 18 (+4) INT 16 (+3) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 36 pp ATK: +10 (+13 ranged) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +12 Saves: 11 pp TOU +7 (+4 Con, +3 Vest) FORT +7 (+4 Con, +3) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 22 pp=88 r Acrobatics 4 (+7) Bluff 10 (+13) Disable Device 5 (+8) Drive 5 (+8) Escape Artist 5 (+8) Gather Info 5 (+8) Intimidate 10 (+13) Investigate 5 (+8) Knowledge: Business 5 (+8) Knowledge: Current Events 5 (+8) Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+8) Notice 5 (+8) Search 5 (+8) Sense motive 5 (+8) Stealth 5 (+8) Swim 4 (+6) Feats: 25 pp All-Out Attack, Attack Focus: Ranged 3 Contacts, Defensive Attack, Distract: Bluff, Dodge Focus 5, Elusive Target, Equipment 3, Fascinate: Bluff, Improved Initiative, Luck, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw [Draw], Redirect, Startle, Taunt, Well-Informed Powers: 21 pp Device 5 (pistols) (hard to lose) (PF: Restricted [Family Line]) [21 pp] -Blast 7 (Extra: Autofire) (PFs: Improved Crit 2, Precise) {25} Equipment: 20 ep Grapple Gun [2 ep] Motorcycle [9 ep] Undercover Vest (Protection 3) (PF: Subtle) [4 ep] costs abilities 36 + combat 36 + saves 11 + skills 22/88 + feats 25 + powers 21 = 150 pts -- Design Notes: Ayn Rand. A complicated lady! Like many Russian philosophers and political writers in the 20th century, she attracted a strong, very committed group of followers around her. Among her fans is Steve Ditko, the mad elder statesman of comics who frequently worked Objectivist themes into his work with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Spiderman. Ditko’s more notably Objectivist characters are Charlton heroes like the Question and Mr. A, jut-jawed fedora’d men with heroic hearts but very little compassion. Later writers would soften the first, but the second character remains among the most ringing examples of what Ditko thought a hero should be. So here’s my attempt at one of those grim-visaged Objectivist heroes: a well-armed figure with a determination to stamp out the parasites of crime wherever he finds them. He’s a good fighter, and good at paralyzing the room with a speech about the virtues of John Galt. Why play a character like this in our game, where you definitely can’t shoot bad guys to death and where we tend to look down on missionary PCs? A couple of ways: maybe he’s recently had a change of heart and is no longer the small-hearted man he once was. Maybe he suffered a near-fatal injury on the job, or maybe he’s a new father. Or maybe he’s an emotional adult, and can shut up about his politics when they’re not the subject of conversation. Or maybe the ideology is just a cover, and this is the son or grandson of a brutal Bronze Age vigilante now with his own agenda. Mix up the weapons if you want: drop the ‘stun ammo’ for regular bullets for an Iron Age killer (and antagonist in this game!), or give him a gas gun and a flying sidekick for a 90s take on the character. Some mommy issues are OK, but don’t get all creepy weird about it. He really doesn’t need to know any prostitutes. A rivalry with an Egyptian-themed antihero is a must, as is a murky relationship with a hot, scantily-clad archer vigilante is also a great idea. His favorite food is beans, what else?

Soon enough, several gigantic bees had joined Gaian Knight on the ground, where they eagerly pored over his work, pointing gigantic limbs and offering suggestions. Of course, when that meant four insects the size of Greyhound buses were looming over him, waving man-sized limbs around and snapping their jaws thoughtfully just a few feet from his soft, unprotected fleshy body, it was a difficult working environment. For all that, they were very enthusiastic, calling out suggestions and arguing with each other. "WE NEED MORE SPAZE TO LOOK AT THE GIRLZ!" "ZHUT UP BARRY YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! WE NEED A LIBRARY TO WRITE OUR BOOK OF THE HIVE!" Across the way, Beatrizz was giving her friend the plant controller a curious look. "IZ ANYTHING WRONG?" she asked, even her whisper loud as a jet passing overhead. "YOU ZEEM ZTRANGER THAN YOU UZUALLY DO." It wasn't an unfriendly question, just a curious one. "ARE YOU GOING TO HATCH ZOON?"

The assembled heroes kicked open the door, finding themselves inside the control room of the TV station. Otaku had removed most of the crew, fortunately, but there were several young women there, maybe interns, bound and gagged in a corner, while Otaku himself rose to his feet as they entered. Takashi was dressed in a bizarre mashup of fantasy and high science, his usual gleaming technologically-tuned bodysuit augmented with a bizarre skull helmet and giant hammer that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Japanese video game. "So, you have dared to face me at last!" He shouted, swinging the hammer as his blasters began to glow. "I'll show you who's powerful! You weak pathetic fools! I've come for your souls!"

"I have...aquatic tendencies," replied Fusion. "And I've worked with Atlanteans. Poor kid..." She'd worked with Nereid's father when Thetis wasn't much older than her own daughter was now, and it wasn't easy to see the girl like this. Frowning, she looked out at the depths. "There are some old, old things down in the deepest parts of the Atlantic, and barely 100 million Atlanteans from the colonies in the Azores up to Greenland. They don't have the space to cover everything, and they never have. Something old could be there..." She hmmed, listening to the others talk and was about to speak before Nereid whispered intently, "Have to hit them first, destroy their army while it's still building." She coughed again, but was evidently beginning to stabilize under Midnight's ministrations: going out of shock, at least. "If they fail here, they'll be a threat to the oceans as well. Since the warlords made peace a generation ago, the armies of Atlantis are positioned to defend our cities against surfacers. If the vampire armies attack...we'll be defenseless." Fusion muttered a curse. "Even if Atlantis mobilizes, people will die. If we can figure out a way for all of us to function underwater, it sounds like going into the trenches, with Atlantean backup, is the best thing we can do. If we cut the head off the sea snake, we can stop a war before it starts. Either one here, or below."

OK, this is looking better! Please put in your Leaping distance and your Super-Strength Heavy Load, making sure that your powers are standardized. If you want an example of a build that exactly meets our template, look at Ecal's Archetypes.

Tronik Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 0 pp STR 10 (+2) DEX 16 (+3) CON n/a (-) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+12 melee) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +14 Saves: 7 pp TOU +8 (+8 Protection) FORT n/a REF +6 (+3 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 11 pp=44 r Bluff 6 (+6) Computers 8 (+8) Language 2 (English, Japanese) (Base: Latin) Notice 8 (+10) Knowledge: Technology 8 (+8) Search 4 (+4) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 19 pp Attack Focus: Melee 6, Dodge Focus 6, Fearless, Improved Initiative, Luck, Power Attack, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 94 pp Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 40 (Fortitude Saves, Mental Effects) [40 pp] Insubstantial 3 (Extra: Duration [Default] [+0]) (PFs: Innate, Subtle) [17 pp] Protection 8 [8 pp] Regeneration 5 (Recovery Bonus +0) (PF: Regrowth) [6 pp] Tronik Array [18+4=22 pp] Strike 8 (PFs: Affects Insubstantial 2) (Extra: Affects Corporeal) 'electro-punch' AP: Datalink 9 (anywhere on Earth) (PFs: Rapid 8 (100 million), Subtle) 'networking' AP: ESP 6 (20 miles) (visual and auditory) (Flaw: Medium [Electronics]) (PFs: Rapid 6 (1 million), Subtle) 'scanning'' AP: Teleport 8 (800 ft/2000 miles) (Extra: Accurate) (Flaw: Medium [Electronics]) (PFs: Easy, Turnabout) 'transmission' AP: Super-Movement 2 (Dimensional Movement) (to dimensions with the 'Computer' descriptor) (Flaw: Medium [Electronics]) Drawbacks: -6 pp Weakness (magnetic fields; Uncommon, Major [-1 all physical ability scores], per 1 minute, potentially lethal; -6pp) costs abilities 0 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 11/44 + feats 19 + powers 95 - drawbacks 6 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: This character is from Tronik, the Kandor expy in the Freedom City setting. The difference between Kandor and Tronik, though, is that instead of being shrunk, Tronik was digitized. The people of Tronik believe that their city was the sole survivor of some interstellar catastrophe, and they successfully recolonized a new planet named Neo. But they're wrong: their world is gone, and they were in the custody of the Curator (the Ringworld-controlling artificial intelligence who's the setting's Brainiac expy) when the Centurion found them. Deciding it was kinder not to tell them the truth, he put them in his Sanctum where their program could run safely inside an alien computer the size of a briefcase. It runs there still, occasionally visited by the Freedom League and their allies. This is a powerful character, built with an attempt to capture the feel of a sentient computer program walking around in the real world. He's a construct, but one made of energy (magnetic or electrical) rather than metal and steel or undead power. He's also immune to mental powers, since I don't think a telepath should be able to read a sentient program's mind any more than they can read a regular computer's mind. I might make him save against some similar effect by a technopath: treat a problem like that as a Complication. His Insubstantial is built with the unnamed but suggested +0 extra that makes Insubstantial his default state. He flies (like a Second Life character?), zaps people with his electrified punches, and his computerized nature gives him the ability to email himself, control electronics, or just look through them, all of it far faster than any human mind could. By the same token, magnetic fields erase him. How did he get out? Maybe he followed a doorway left behind by the League or some other hacker when they were visiting Tronik for purposes nefarious or heroic: given the nature of life in Tronik, he'd have seen a door in a blank wall, or simply in mid-air, and stepped through it, only to find it lock shut behind him. Or maybe he was kidnapped by those same visitors, only to claw his way out of the computer and reconstitute himself in the real world. A computer program shouldn't be there in the real world; it requires an uncommon effort of will for him to be there at all. Why does he speak Latin? The people of Tronik were from a world in the Lor Republic; aka, humans transferred by the Preservers millennia ago. I've gone with the idea that they were Latin-speaking humans, and the language they speak (despite many, many changes since) is still recognizable Latin: that gives them a connection to the Centurion to justify being characters in his story! This is a character looking for the meaning in his own story: have fun finding it!

"WE...HAVE HAD TROUBLE LEARNING," admitted the gigantic bee-monster with a slightly guilty look on her massive face. "IT WAZ MANY MANY GENERATIONS AGO THAT OUR MOZERZ MOZERZ MOZERZ LIVED IN REAL HIVEZ...WE HAVE BUILT AS BEZT AS WEE REMEMBER. WE KNOW WE NEED COMBS FOR ALL THE BEES, AND PLACEZ TO PUT OUR HONEY. THICK WALLZ AGAINZT THE WINTER, AND POINT ZOUZ." She sighed. "IF YOU CAN HELP UZ WIZ ZE BUILDING PROCEZZ, THAT WILL HELP TOO. WE CANNOT EAT THIZ WHOLE LAND DRY FOR REZIN!"

The concept is sound, but you need to either A. Play a lone hero of the ant colony or B. Buy up stuff to reflect your fluff: i.e.; this character needs Regeneration or Resurrection, something in the stats, to reflect the fact that it's not the same guy.

Beatrizz led the way to a clear space between the two great hives, where what the two humans at first thought was a new grove of trees turned out to be two massive leaf-fans built over the head of the reclining queen, who was resting on a massive bed of dirt and leaves assembled the other bees: the enormous, oversized queen was half again as large as her already gigantic peers, and she loomed over the heroes as they arrived. Beatrizz quickly made introductions, and the queen bowed her massive head in greeting. The greeting was unusually short for the bees, but then again this was a business call. After the introduction, Beatrizz began the tour. "YOU ZEE," she said, flying up to the top of the hives, each as big as slumping skyscrapers, and gestured to the two heroes: "WE HAVE TRIED TO BUILD UP THE HIVEZ, BUT THEY FALL OVER WHEN ZEY ARE TOO BEEG! NO MATTER WHAT WE DO!" She sounded unhappy about that, as only a giant bee can: this was obviously a sore subject. "TUNNELLING HELPED ZOME, BUT WE ARE NOT ZHAPED RIGHT FOR IT. IF WE DIG TOO DEEP, IT WILL ALL FALL DOWN!" The buzz of the other bees working was obvious as she talked, all the ground hereabouts thrumming with the busy activity of the giant insects.

The battered princess nodded, raising her head with Fusion's support. Joan knew enough not to move an injured person normally, but if the Atlantean was suffering from anything, it was blood loss. "I found them in the depths of the ridge. They chased me back all the way to the city; too fast for me even to find my father in Atlantis." She coughed. "The cultists of the Dark Mother are building an army. Remora and her sons and daughters who do not live...are coming. You need to...you need to warn them..."

Blinded, burning, and seriously injured, the great mother squid gave a terrible, inhuman shriek, massive tentacles tearing at the dock, shattering foot-thick wood and steel before she began sinking back down into the waves. With one last malevolent hiss, delivered with force enough to spray bloody water everywhere, the gigantic thing vanished beneath the dark. Her children were already gone; that last great blast from Supercape having incinerated them all in nuclear fire. From the dockside warehouse roof, well out of melee range even of the giant tentacles, Fusion watched for a moment as the monster sank into the waves before she gently released the slowly-rousing Nereid onto the docks. Nereid had been running from something, and it looked like the princess wanted to talk! With a shout, she got the attention of the others, wincing a little at the feeling of bite marks on her own flesh.

They can't make that save on a nat-20: the surviving squidlings are toast. The mother is fine, as usual But she's still having a hard time...

35, tough break The flat-footed monster is taking a beating. Supercape, can you power-stunt something and take us home?

The monster is currently blinded, injuredx3, and stunned

Injuredx2 and stunned Do you wish to surge?

"THAT WOULD BEE WONDERFUL!" exclaimed the bee in a voice like an aircraft engine backfiring. She turned and peered at Gaian Knight, looming over him as her mouth parts wriggled in glee. "IT HAZ BEEN ZO HARD LIVING WITHOUT A REAL HIVE TO LIVE IN!" The gigantic bee-monster looked...delighted to see him? "COME!" she said, putting a foreleg larger than the Knight's whole body behind him. "COME, YOU MUZT MEET THE QUEEN AND ALL THE OTHERZ ZO YOU CAN BEE INTRODUCED...OR I CAN ZHOW YOU OUR PROBLEMZ DIRECTLY! YEZ, LET UZ DO THAT! CAN YOU FLY?"

Wander was soon in the middle of a hissing, writhing sea of fanged squid monsters, their eyes glowing with preternatural intelligence as they tried to sink their disproportionate fangs into her body. It soon became obvious, though, that the squidlings couldn't penetrate her super-tough skin, nor could they reach the flesh they craved within. As she brought up a bat to destroy another one of the crawling little monsters, she looked into those glowing red eyes and realized where she'd seen that look before: that was exactly how a hungry Jack Jr. looked... Across the way, the shrieks of the dying attracted more of the squids to Midnight, where they wriggled and crawled and writhed as they swarmed towards him. They fought with each other for the pleasure of biting him, a squamous mass of flesh and eyes and fangs, and finally one launched itself out of the mass, trying to sink its fangs into his arm!