angrydurf

"Oh no." Sharon shook her head, "No no, I'm in classes," she volunteered eagerly, "but pay the bills as a paralegal for Chatham and Howe." she murmured the last bit as while the ostentatious mob lawyers paid well the firms ties to organized crime were deep enough to embarrass or worry the rare honest citizen in Bedlam. She blinked rapidly and blushed at the vague insinuation about her and the much older Xavier, "Oh uhm." she stammered slightly and shrugged, "I was worried when he missed our breakfast meeting." she explained and glanced to Xavier, "And don't think this gets you out of accepting this months payment." she scolded good naturedly. Xavier watched the interactions with much the same keen detachment he had the reactions of his cellmates inside. He did however offer explanation, "Her father was being framed and I was able to prove his innocence." he offered and looked over to her, "While recovering the stolen items for my actual client Ms. Presley." he pointed and added in an tone that told much about this being an old argument, "for which I was generously compensated by said client." Sharon shook her head ruefully at Xaviers explanation, "He was the only one who didn't think my father took that statuette." she countered, "No telling what those Gor..." she trailed off as she realized badmouthing even teh weaker ofht eremaining crime families in front of what may well have been actual criminals may not be a good plan and shook off her fit of impotent fury. "It's no trouble." she explained easily to Sophia, "I was worried when Xavier was late, he's never late, so I went up to his office and his neighbors told me about the police." she explained simply. "So I knew there had ot be a mistake and when I got here they mentioned they were holding all of you." she demurred slightly and offered a quiet explanation, "I have legal filing rights on behalf of the firm here, it's not cost to file a writ and I guess they really had nothing to hold you all on." she offered with a weak smile to lou's question, "They probably won't even know they were ever filed really, just go in a box in that warehouse on rook island." she shrugged. Xavier stepped forward, "I do appreciate it Ms. Presley." he offered with a hint of a smile, "However unless I miss my guess you'll be late for work if you don't leave directly and I'd hate to be responsible for that." he said with what might have been genuine concern though his dry affect made it somewhat difficult to pin down. Sharon cursed quietly and checked her watch before taking a step back, "Oh he's right, sorry to run but you're all free and clear," she paused as she started to turn to hustle to the nearest bus stop, "Well you're all persons of interest but I'm sure they'll find the real thieves in no time." she said almost as if she mostly believed it then turned to rapidly make her exit.

Mike chuckled knowingly at the rather lax oversight of student antics at claremont and was distracted by the rather bombastic entrance for a long moment briefly losing track of the conversation. As he took not of the exchange he quirked a brow with concern and glanced at her hand to ensure no significant damage had been inadvertently done. "Pick-up-sticks, and that jenga block game." he suggested to Gargoyle with a friendly smile, "Control can be hard at first but they're good exercises." he advised with a laugh, "Still work on them myself occasionally." he admitted and now that it looked as if all had settled in comfortably he offered a small bow, "I should get back but it was a pleasure certainly." He offered and continued to make his way about the room mingling as best he was able.

"What luck we have perhaps a benefactor." Xavier concluded crisply and regarded Lous response with a slight shrug, "Perhaps." he agreed though seemed as unconcerned as before with what fire they may have escaped the frying pan into. He shook his head to Sophias concerns of billing to explain, "They actually can't bill if they were not contracted." he pointed out though Lous point still held, there were other ways to be made to pay than billing. "Really it's grossly unfair, most of these matters are not even handled by the partners or junior associates even but some poor paralegal burdened with the filing tasks for the firm." he expounded with pedantic zeal. Moments later the door at hte end of the short hall swung open and a rather sour looking sergeant Boyle led a waifish young blond in as he, "See not a hair on his head harmed." he sneered and opened the door to the cell grimacing as the jerk on the door sent his phone skittering across the floor. "The hell?" he grumbled having a worse day than usual now he sighed and fetched it back to a pocket. Upon getting a better look at the young woman it was clear she was not the expected high powered lawyer waiting to take the police to task. She tried, certainly but to eyes as trained as those in the cell to detect, and when the mood struck abscond with, wealth her clothes were not quite up to style and while quality had the fit of someone who took in by hand the best clothes from a charity drop box. "And you had best see to it none of his personal effects have gone missing." she scolded in her best imitation of power. Boyle rolled his eyes, "Don't push yer luck." he grumbled as he jerked his head toward the exit, "Alright you lot you're free to go but don't even think of skipping town we got our eyes on you." he growled and shooed them out of the cell. "You too lubrano, I figure I don't need whatever goomba holds yer leash breathing down my neck if you're late." he added with a grimace and saw too it they all were ushered through to retrieve their belongings mostly intact if clearly not handled with care and unceremoniously dumped out a side gate of the precinct building. To her credit the young woman held it together showing only strain that might be mistaken for impatience until they were out of the door. She let out a breath she'd held through the last several steps and stepped in to hug Xavier, the older man awkwardly patting her back, "Sorry I missed our breakfast appointment Sharon." he rumbled with a patient smile before extracting himself, "And after I had to reschedule on you already." he lamented with a sigh. Sharon stepped back looking uncomfortably at the others for a long moment, "Oh uhm, yes." she replied and shook her head, "Nothing you could have done clearly." she murmured wilting under the weight of the small groups combined gaze. She thrust a hand at Alice, "I'm Sharon... Presley." she introduced awkwardly.

High above Mike pondered joining the game that had been offered on the heronet, with no small cajoling from his diminutive fiance of course. While he was uncertain his participation would be sporting, that in the end was easily enough justified by the 'duty' among more experienced heroes to welcome those new to the city, or so he had been told. Plus how often would he really get a chance to try his hand at such endeavors? Swooping out of the clear skies above Phalanx came to hover only a short distance off the ground for a moment before slowly touching down as he spoke, "Dol-Druth is an observer from the Lor Republic." He offered and extended a hand to alien and man each in turn. "They call me Phalanx." he offered humbly with a smile, "I admit I've never played but always had some interest." he said with a nod to the equipment. "I expect a certain degree of bureaucracy is vital to a government spanning so vast and varied a segment of space." he offered as vague speculation on the extensive survey, "And Dol-Druth has particular interest in our, enhanced individuals, in particular if I've heard correctly." he suggested with a raised brow toward the alien for confirmation. He turned with a wide smile to Kwame, "Oh and Welcome to Freedom." he offered genially.

1d20+12=15 Welp. That's about how that goes yup...

Phalanx A Friendly Game Bright Lights and Good Cheer Ace Danger Ouroboros Sandman Kanunu Savant Knock on the door job GM

I tend to agree a bit with tiff on that. Might be better than having Callie left broken by being beaten have her responsibilities stack up until she can't do it all. Perhaps have her duties riding herd on the latest batch of claremont students distract her too much from the 'big picture' and Sin et. al. (in line with your original plan) grab some of the students (PC's or NPCs) as leverage against her. She does hte noble sacrifice thing and turns herself over tot he Sin for in exchange for hte students, Nevermore figures out what's going on independently (proving he's keeping a better tab on the streets than her now) and launches a rescue of callie with the help of the PCs. So it might be a few students maybe midnight II, teaming up with Nevermore, for the rescue and at the end Callie hands over hte mantle because he earned it and proved himself rather than because he's the only option now that she's been beaten down. Also leads to a good two thread breakdown with one being the initial capture of Claremont students and the "rescue" by Callie while Nevermore figures it out on the outside and the second being the triumph when they go in to save her. Makes it all very generational as well and lets her still be the goddamn batman with regards to claremont as headmistress but having narrowed her focus being able to leave the streets of Freedom to the New Raven.

It's a DC 15 drive check for him to retain control of the vehicle by the book. Dunno if there are mods on that given the speeds involved but Vehicular combat is not M&M's strong suit so probably mostly up to you.

Xavier merely shrugged noncommittally about his past which like as not confirmed more than it refuted of their speculations, "It has been said the best revenge is to be not like your enemy." he posited quietly moving on quickly to more relevant matters to their present predicament, "I don't suppose your efforts turned up what they plan to charge us with?" he inquired softly. Looking pointedly to the phone he frowned, "It occurs that contacting counsel might ave been more in our favor for the use of his mobile." Sighing softly he leaned back against the wall to await whatever fate was theirs it seemed. The faint sounds of the police going about the day to day abuses of power in central booking could be faintly heard through the doors though it seemed for the time being at least they were left to their own devices.

Mike smiled wide, "You're right of course." he agreed with the others that Travis and Erin deserved a night of rest where they could find it. At Alexs nudge he looked over at the imposing frame of the 'gargoyle' that had arrived and blinked once or twice as he filed that away under the firm middle of strange things he'd seen in his lifetime. He made a quiet excuse about refreshing drinks and took the long way round to do what mingling he could manage eventually drifting past the newcomer to offer a friendly smile and a hand as he balanced his and Alexs cups in the other. "Pleasure to meet you Gargoyle." he greeted in a friendly tone and took in the telltale colors of his high school alma mater, "Mike Harris." he introduced in kind and leaned in conspiratorially, "And don't let the RA's catch you sneaking back in after the shindig they'll plop you in detention for a week no matter how good your reason." He added a calm collective "hello" to the others in the small circle and a quick wave, "Hows everyones evening?" he was going to have to master small talk eventually might as well do it with training wheels at a supers gala.

Xavier met the clear examination of his false identity with a small shrug, "It has served admirably this long." he said neither admitting nor denying it's pedigree. Leaning back he let out a small sigh, "They claim it was two and a driver, Used the skylight short and exploited the clock exploit on the tanhouser." He shook his head, "That's been patched for six months but they still don't have the rfid terminal keys that came with the update, makes it obvious it's unpatched." he let out a slow breath, "Also would have taken at least three inside and a driver just to carry the goods out in one trip." he shrugged slightly, "Unless they were metas, no one his size and build would fit through the light." he pointed out with a small smirk ans stood slowly to approach the bars hands tucked behind his back as the phone in sophias hand alerted her that all three of them had just had writs of habeas corpus filed. The cops had run out of time to stall, then needed charges or to let them go. It was however much faster than the overworked public defenders office would manage such a feat. With a smile to lou he nodded agreement, "Perhaps sooner." he noted and his smile fell slightly, "No that would be vengeful." he noted, "Which is a trait common enough among the police to make it a fools errand to try and strike back at them for such minor indignities."

Boyle merely sneered in disgust at the suggestion and turned away unaware of the lift grumbling barely intelligible slurs about all of them but was bothered enough at the insinuations against his manhood to glance over his shoulder well out of Lou's reach to call out, "Nora's got no complaints." before a little too quickly ducking back into the guardpost and slamming the door behind him with force that revealed perhaps more than intended how little he wanted to have a reinforced steel door between himself and Lou after that particular dig. Taking a step back Xavier looked at the retreating officer with a small shake of his head, "Antagonizing him will do little good." he warned as he sat once more on a bench as Sophia retreated out of camera view to review what he phone might grant her access too. "Reckless." he surmised though with little more than the implicit judgment in his tone and he did offer a nod of respect at the skill with which the exchange had been carried out. For a woman of sophia's skill surreptitiously entering the BCPD network from a device already connected to the network was trivial and after a few moments effort she had access to at least as much as a beat cop and probably more than many. Her own record along with that of Alice was flagged by an alphabet soup of agencies though no charges were were in process they were officially here for 'questioning' as 'persons of interest'. Lou had already had hsi fines paid on a drunk and disorderly and was awaiting processing supposedly. More likely having paperwork move at a snails pace due to his less than stirling rep with his former employers. Xavier was the only real outlier, he like alice and sophia was a person of interest, but had no rap sheet and no flags she recognized on his record, in fact he seemed a bit too mundane and well behaved. No one grew up black in Bedlam without at least one or two trumped up loitering, resisting arrest, or disorderly conduct charges slapped on. Clearly it was manufactured, skillfully, nothing to make it stand out at all, but that very blandness was a red flag to one who looked at peoples secrets as often as Sophia. The robbery itself as easy to dig up basic information on. There was a late night break in at the Saving and Loan, the thieves left a burner smart phone in the cushions of a lobby chair that slowly was used to access the internal network. al security footage back a week had been purged and the vault was tricked into thinking it was opening time. Entry appeared to be through a skylight in need of repair that continually sent false alarm codes due to a short when it was wet out. Alarms were tripped on the way out as they walked the haul right out through the front doors into an unmarked delivery van still being sought by the police as their most solid lead. The entire case had the personal attention of the city manager which explained some of hte fire lit under the PD to bring in anyone and perhaps everyone that could have pulled the job just to look productive while every traffic and beat cop went looking for another run down delivery truck in Bedlam.

"Oh not cool." Ace declared as screeching fireworks careened about the Danger!mobile scoring deep scorch marks along one side and catching briefly in the undercarriage, "I just had this thing detailed!" He hollered in feigned distress as he maneuvered in behind the the evasive ferrari. 'On it kid.' Came his crisp reply across the mental bridge thoughtspeed had crafted. "Reminds me of that paris to dakar in seventy seven." he murmured to himself and glanced in the rearview mirror, "less sand though." he acknowledged as he put the pedal down and with a roar the Danger!mobile lept forward. deftly maneuvering behind the ferrari he swerved up onto an empty stretch of sidewalk to surge in front of the thief and let out a small laugh, "Didn't have this back then though." he snickered, "There was an oil shortage on." toggling a switch on the console a hatch on the rear of the danger mobile opened up and unleashed a long stream of slick oil across the roadbed. "Ferrari is alway the faster vehicle my aunt fanny."

Ouroboros regarded the would be thief and his own compatriot alike with a dubious shake of his head. "She hardly did it to escape our clutches, whoever sent her and and the thrift store sorcerer here probably put her up to it." he surmised blandly, "With your shield or on it and all that." He paced over to the unconscious one and began rifling through the the pockets and pouches pulling out this and that then discarding it if not interesting as he scanned for familiar magic in in the scrolls or gear the mystically inclined one carried. "Which is really just saying your skills are worth less to us than this fancy board with a handle." he pointed out absently continuing his search having moved on from mystery poison and keeping a wary eye for signs of stirring from the downed interloper.

Alice had a only a few moments to reply before Boyle rounded the corner to stare Lou down for a long moment before looking away with a sigh, "You know how it is Lubrano." he finally broke down, "Heat fromt eh city manager comes down after a job like that." he acknowledged weakly, "We gotta look like we're doing something till a real lead shows up so we round up whoevers hot on the latest watchlist and see what falls out." he shrugged it was business as usual in Bedlam after all. He approached the bars however growing just a bit of a spine in the face of being cowed in front of prisoners. Looking up at Lou he narrowed his eyes, "Some paralegals flashing her bosses stationery trying to get em out already anyway, so you can be the only freak in the cage till whatever goombas holding your leash these days picks you up." he growled prodding Lou with the butt of his baton. Xavier smiled slightly at the reveal and stepped up to narrow his eyes at the cop, "Do you really think your pathetic taunts are going to get him to hit you on camera?" he asked with a smirk, "You're dumber than you look." it was perhaps little more than a mild warning that Lou didn't need an Assault on an officer charge added to the bill for getting him out but a show of some solidarity with the cause at the least.

If it is a drain save you'd lower the save by one for every point they fail the save by. It would apply only to the save (So lower reflex save but they would retain dex bonus to initiative, skills, trip etc in your example.) The source of the save bonus doesn't matter. The Ability drain would lower the characters ability (dex in the example) by one per point they fail by which will reduce the ability bonus to saves, skills, etc based on the new ability modifier after the reduction. So drain(save) would affect both targets the same way, and Drain(ability) would also affect both targets the same way but drain(save) and drain(ability) would not each have the same effect as the other.

Xavier watched their assorted reactions with almost clinical calm. "Well escape would hardly be worthwhile that only gives them more time to build a case and our help with the jury in the long run." he surmised with a sigh though watched with interest what Lou's bellowing would elicit. "However contacting legal aid would certainly be in our best interests." he noted with a nod. The aptly named Boyle stuck his head around the corner to snicker at lou and his complaints, "Only stooge down there is you Lubrano." he taunted merrily, "Just a normal roundup of scum to keep you company, hey maybe the chief'll give you yer job back if you get em to crack." he added with a scoff that clearly said the cops had little to no interest in building a case but were simply reacting to look effective in the face of the basic incompetence endemic of law enforcement in Bedlam. Xavier looked to Lou then to Sophia with a shake of his head, "I have a feeling we'll be here until they have a better lead." he noted heavily. "Clearly someone needs to be appeased. Someone with sufficient pull to bring in all the busy work but not actual results." he shrugged as if it didn't particularly matter smirking slightly, "Even with fabricated evidence they'd have to prove all of us were there, the job couldn't have been done solo."

"Your jest may not be entirely without merit." Xavier agreed with a small nod, "Entrapping those with known whereabouts and the requisite skills may be easier than ensnaring the actual perpetrators." he proposed with a beleaguered sigh. "Which of course means they intend to hold us until they fabricate sufficient evidence." he added heavily, "Unless perchance one of you is actually guilty?" he asked rhetorically shaking his head. "I know I know you're hardly going to admit it to strangers." he waved off the burgeoning protest with a slight smile, "Just pointing out possibilities, the authorities clearly believe each of us capable of the crime in question, it would not be out of hte question that one here was involved in some capacity." he however let that line of thought lie for the time being. He looked with a wan smile to Lou and shook his head, "I have not had the prior pleasure no." he answered dryly and glanced with all too attentive a gaze at the others as he spoke carefully gauging reactions to his words. A genuine smile creased his lips at the young woman's furious threat, "Yes that would be quite the ancient history." he replied with an edge of mirth to his tone. "As to your other dilemma." he considered with care, "We were all brought in at once but for one." he eyed Lou for a long moment, "Either they intended him to arrive first or he is perhaps not her for the same reason whatsoever." Xavier opined with a raised brow, "Regardless I'd wager they took less care with divesting him of his effects than the rest of us."

Rising to cross to the now more ambulatory Alice Xavier leaned in as he introduced himself as well, "Xavier Steadman." he nodded to Sophia, "I believe you may be correct." he agreed as he reached out gingerly to examine the knot on the back of Alices head and make a rudimentary check for concussion. "You will likely have a headache for some time but it looks as if you escaped serious injury." he finally assessed. Standing once more he looked to each of them, "From what the rather boisterous detective intimated that seems to be their suspicion." he opined and looked down as he sunk once more to one of the benches, "I pointed out a likely security hole to the security firm contracted with the Savings and Loan a week or two ago." he revealed, "Uncovered whilst investigating the managers affair with a comely young teller." he sighed murmuring under his breath, "No good deed goes unpunished." "So I would assume the police have at least somewhat credible reasons to suspect all of your involvement as well though no proof else we'd be booked already." Xavier explained in clipped tones and spared a final glance for Sophia, "And they were exceedingly thorough." and he was not incorrect, her assorted tools of the trade were hopefully in evidence already. Otherwise an officer had a phone far above his pay grade.

So HP to Gremlin for the railroading but teleporting kinda wrecks this whole set up Alice will be coming too without more than minor bruising whenever Fox wants to post. At most Gremlin, L0vel@ce and Savant might have heard something about Bedlam Savings and Loan getting hit last night by an organized crew. Obviously you all are in some way suspects. Lou knows nothing about the bank job but does know he's supposed to be scouting for a crew to pull a delicate heist for the Scarpia family that can't use their usual guys without risking tipping off the other families to what they are pulling. Lots of delicate physical and computer security to get past among other issues. Government building important records that sort of thing.

*CN: Violence, Police Brutality, Racism, Sexism* *Bang Bang BANG* "Bedlam PD!" preceded the shattering of door and frame as the boys in blue spilled into three apartments across Bedlam. *** In Wolverton the office door declaring Excelsior Investigations shattered under the blow the police spilling in with full tactical loadout weapons raised as if the middle aged resident kneeling in the center of the room next to a half empty cup of coffee was the greatest threat to public safety the city had known. Xavier Steadman was slammed to the ground bloodying his nose as he was cuffed and taken into custody. He knew better than to antagonize them with questions about his rights or the charges and patiently accepted the abuse as each badge number and face was committed to a memory more refined than most artificial data stores. *** Not far away in Hardwick park the sizzle of some kind of heavily spiced breakfast meats sizzled as Abuela Orellana called not for the first time to her school age grandchildren to dress and pack for school. The Garage downstairs was already open with her son hard at work for hte day when the police came. Only the elderly woman's rapid fire demands of "What did you do?!" threatened to drown out the SWAT teams demands the residents of hte crowded apartment get on the ground. When the family was all restrained and no few of the struggling families meager belongings shattered the apparent lead detective stomped up and down the line of hispanic faces glaring at each, "Somebody shut her UP!" he bellowed as Abuela Orellana continued her lamentations in non-stop spanish. "Sophia Orellana!" he demanded as he tried to place his quarry which seemed to finally silence the old woman just in time given the raised rifle butt one officer had aimed her direction. All eyes turned in shock to Sophia removing any chance of hiding who she was from the police and the young woman was quickly hauled to her feet and shoved toward the door and a waiting cruiser to snickers behind masked faces as to her upcoming popularity. *** The secluded Downtown apartment Alice currently called home should not have been a thing the police could find even if they did have reason to look for her. So it came as quite the shock when she found herself surrounded with eagle eyed tactical officers with guns leveled at her before she had the opportunity to even consider fleeing. The beefy detective that followed the officers in barely even looked at her before nodding to an officer behind her. There was a sharp pain on the back of her skull then everything went black. *** Lou sat in the lockup sleeping off last nights drunk, his continued presence in dry out a sign that someone wanted him here, maybe he made a pass at a wise guys arm candy, or maybe someone had a reason for him to be here. He woke to the door slamming open as an unlikely trio of perps were thrust into his cell the smallest in a barely stirring heap on the ground. The middle aged African American man made his way to the sink to begin to clear some of the blood from his face as the young hispanic woman was thrust into the cell behind him. Even by Bedlam PDs lax standards for inmate safety this was far from regulation. Xavier looked up at the others warily as he settled in to carefully dab at his nose and check it for a break, "I don't suppose they were more forthcoming with any of you as to why we are here?" he inquired with unusual calm for an honest man thrust amongst what one could only assume were hardened criminals.

We've begun to implement a more automated system for post counting to take some of the strain off our staff. The full implementation of how this will be used is still being worked out as we test the system further to ensure it's accuracy. What we need from you all however is to ensure that the ITEM PREFIX for all IC threads is "IC". This is what the post count script uses to tell that a thread is eligible for counting. For those not aware the item prefix is set as follows. In the first post make the IC tag by entering IC in the Tags input field followed by a comma. Directly below the Tags field is the Item Prefix drop down which lets you select a tag to be the item prefix, select the IC tag from that menu. Continue to complete your initial post as normal. *If you have an IC thread without the prefix the person who made the thread can edit the first post and follow the above steps to add it. If there are any questions feel free to ask here.

Phalanx More Bright Lights and Good Cheer Ace Danger Ben Hur Invitational: Five Stars Ouroboros Kick Off: Dark Horse Sandman Kanunu Savant Knock on the Door Job GM

Mike took Corbins hand with a friendly smile, "Good to see you away from a catastrophe." he greeted warmly, "Yea they might be a little high profile to show up to this kinda event without blowing the lid on the whole secret ID thing." he noted with a shrug of agreement. Not that his paper thin secret ID was much safer given circumstances. Turning as Joe and Asli arrived he warmly welcomed them as well following Marks lead in the socializing if a bit less gracefully. "Glad you could make it." he agreed only pausing slightly at the semi-inadvertent repetition of Marks greeting. "Looks to be quite the turnout." the last he spared only a quick nervous look to Alex over, crowds were not the easiest for baseless as his fears might be in this room more than most.

Ok I'll set Aces VP to 8 ranks drive[2PP], skill mastery drive[1PP], one-hand-on-the-wheel[1PP], and quickness 2[2PP] Then try and pass mr.speedy there. 1d20+12=21 HP! 1d20+12=21 ... again... Ah well +10 for HP brings it to 31.