Avenger Assembled

Dark Star had a pretty clear view of the demonic smoke inside as it creeps its way up and out of the ventilation system, the gravitic disturbances curving through space-time as it heads away from the library entirely. It was a disturbing experience, really; gravity simply shouldn't operate that way. It seemed that the demonic was as alien and antithetical to the laws of gravity as it was to the other basic, foundational laws of the universe. The important thing, though, was that the demon's flight (and it certainly seemed a demon, especially to Scarab's keen perceptions, who'd fought her share of fiends in previous lives) was by no means a subtle one: the 'damn'd' thing was gone, and in a hurry.

It was a frustrating day for Avenger. As if dealing with the constant, blistering heat of the sun, painfully hot in thick black clothes, isn't enough, complete professional blockade was a deeply irritating experience. In the cool, protective shadow of a rooftop TV antenna, Avenger looked back on the day and his investigation, thinking hard. If that is a real demon in the sky around Riverside, it seems likely he's connected to our murderer. 'Ve no idea how obvious demonic genders are; might be the same. If demons are anything like vampires, even if he's 'innocent', he'll be very interested in dealing with an intrusion on his territory. Hope the others had better luck.

"Good. Starting to worry there." There was a moment of hesitation in Avenger's voice as he spoke, as if he actually had been worried about Nightrival's reaction. In that moment of hesitation, the street sentinel came to a realization about the dark, gritty vigilante standing before him: he was a phony. Oh, it wasn't necessarily that he was a bad guy or actually out to do Nightrival or anyone else on the street harm. But Nightrival's met plenty of people from the street. Avenger is many things, but he isn't one of them. With Nightrival on his team, Avenger took this opportunity to take Spaleni by the collar. "One chance. Give us your supplier, and you walk home tonight." The words were dark and disturbing, and they were evidently enough for Spaleni. The man began spilling out a tale of how his crew was supplied by the Jamacian Invincible Ya-Ya Posse operating out of Kingston Trucking. The posse kept some gunmen on the premises at all times; there were bound to be thugs there even tonight guarding the latest shipments.

And Scarab can make a Notice check too, or a Search one if she's using her ESP. You looky-loo, you. :D

Hmm. Yuki's trying so hard, I feel bad. It does strike me that Ned is not immune to, say, knockback damage...

Sense Motive to not be fooled by Spaleni. And a DC 16 Sense Motive to figure out something interesting about Avenger. ;)

Avenger stared at Nightrival, honest, befuddled incomprehension in his eyes before the hard, cold look returned. "Didn't kill anyone. Don't kill." The look he gave Spaleni suggested he wasn't above seriously considering it, however. "Gave them pain instead. Can't stand on a corner if you can't stand." "C'mon, Nightrival," Spaleni tried to weasel, "you gonna let this crazy SOB take me in? Or you gonna let a real hero do it?"

Okay, I'm going to compress things a bit. I need another Stealth check from Belphegor and another Notice check from Dark Star.

Avenger turned and looked back at the piled bodies behind him, smelled the blood sweet and crisp in the air. He could have killed them all so easily..."Of course I stopped them. I'm Avenger." He slipped the magic knife into his belt as he heard the noise from upstairs, his eyes burning blue balls of pure ice. "Better attend to that. Take the papers. Do what you need to do." His arm is cut, but the folds of his costume as they fall and the blood on his arm hide the fact that the blood isn't his. The dead don't bleed.

"I like his show," Jack admitted under his breath. He strode through the tunnel fearlessly after the fallen host, water sloshing beneath his feet as if he'd been born there. "If anything jumps out at me, I'm trusting you two to take care of it. We need to get him out of here."

We wound up not doing this thread, though some of its content wound up in later ones.

Avenger stared balefully into the hole, Jack thinking irritably about how easy it would be to go in after the thing inside. "Hard to catch him in the tunnel without a flamethrower." Avenger said calmly. "Wouldn't be running if he wasn't scared. Suggest we leave the place and find Lockpick. Hit the alarm on the way out."

Avenger went hunting during the day, staking out the lowest of the low in the Fens before finding a likely-looking drug dealer. Hungry and distracted, he dispensed with the preliminaries: he found a quiet, secluded spot in a dark alley, beat the man into unconsciousness, pulled him even _deeper_ into the alley to feed, and then left him unconscious and battered for his friends to find. That'll keep his friends out of this neighborhood for a while! After that he stakes out Riverside, finding dark alleys even in the brightest of day as he keeps an eye out for his 'friend' the flying demon-guy. The more information he can get before meeting with Scarab, the better.

Aw.... :D

Jack swore suddenly, explosively, his voice tearing through the obscenities of multiple languages as easily as his fists through paper. He shone the light in the direction of the running figure and called, "Roman Michaels! We're here to help you! Run this way!" Jack settled onto the balls of his feet, bending in a predator's crouch as he watched further down the tunnel with the eagerness of a hunting cat.

Hm, that is true. Okay, I'll post in the thread tonight. Could you PM me what the monster looks like?

Hey guys, I think we should wait for Doctor Archeville on this. Keep in mind that Jack can actually see clearly down in the tunnel with his Darkvision, he's just carrying the flashlight so no one can tell he can see in the dark.

You did see which way the smoke cloud was going; we just need to see what Belphegor does.

Jack grabbed the now-unconscious mercenary by the throat and slammed him up against the wall, the burning pain in his arm lengthening his fangs behind his mask. KILL HIM! The urge was there in rich, palpable detail, the exquisite knowledge of how his flesh would feel as it tore beneath his fangs, the deliriously overwhelming taste of his blood as it poured down his throat, the look of shock as he fed and killed..."NO!" Avenger flung the man across the room one-handed, a huge crash echoing as the downed Wolfe fell to join his unconscious, battered associates. Avenger turned on the door and flung it open, a vision of brutality with his blood-stained hands and fractured, bloody mask. "You'd better still be out here!"

"I'll tell you what," replied Jack, "I'll put in a good word for you." He peered down into the hole, raising his flashlight to cast a glow deep down the shaft. "I'm surprised so much of the body is intact," he muttered, barely audible to the other two. "Unless this is a larder for when hunting runs dry. It can't always make kills like that; it'd have the whole city down on it."

Avenger's kick broke away the grate as if he'd hit it with a cannon, sending the fragile screen back into the duct itself with a screech. Avenger peered into the duct, trying to spot wherever that black cloud of smoke had gone.And I didn't even get a chance to see if that was anyone I know, dang it! "Dark Star. Saw in here when lights were off. Night vision?" He pointed to the duct, looking at Dark Star.

Hmm. While I might actually be comfortable letting TK affect Insubstantial 3 or 4 (depending on descriptors), I don't think it would work on Insubstantial 2. Catching something like smoke would be something you'd do by, say, creating an airtight Force Construct. So until Dark Star power-stunts Affects Insubstantial, no good with catching the smoke guy. (After all, even if your fingers are psychic, they still can't catch smoke. )

As much as I am tempted to invent an imaginary camera, I cannot tell a lie. Fortunately, I did OK on the Intelligence roll!

Hmm, OTOH, there's also the fact that Insubstantial 2 is still affected by mental effects, which seems like a pretty safe descriptor of many TK effects. Either way, since we're still striving to give Shaen time, I'll post a ruling and move things further along tonight.

"Professionally. You're...not her type," Jack replied flatly. "Not that way, anyway. She appreciates a powerful man who can take care of business. Don't you think a sponsor would work to your advantage?" He gazed into the eyes of the dead woman, a hard-to-read look on his own face as the wet at the bottom of the tunnel pooled against his shiny black leather shoes. "We'll talk about that later."