Raveled

Power Level 10 (138 pp) Abilities: STR: 10 (+0), DEX: 20 (+5), CON: N/A (--), INT: 16 (+3), WIS: 14 (+2), CHA: 20 (+4) [17 PP] Skills: Knowledge (Tactics) 12 (+15), Notice 6 (+8), Sense Motive 10 (+13), Stealth 0 (+26) [7 PP] Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Defensive Attack, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Master Plan 2, Move-By Action [8PP] Powers: [83PP] Blast 2 Communication 3 (Radio, Extra: Area, Feat: Selective, Subtle) Immunity 42 (Critical Hits, Fortitude Effects, Mental Effects) Protection 8 Shrinking 20 (Feats: Innate, Permanent) Combat: Attack +4 (+16 Shrinking), Defense 16 (8 flat-footed), Initiative +5, Grapple -20, Knockback -4 [16PP] Saves: Toughness +8, Fortitude N/A, Reflex +12, Will +6 [11PP] Drawbacks: [-4PP] Vulnerability (Fire Effects, Frequency: Common, Intensity: Major) Abilities 17 + Skills 7 + Feats 8 + Powers 83 + Combat 16 + Saves 11 - Drawbacks 4 = 138

Brian hadn't been expecting a flying hug, but he was big enough to absorb the blow without a problem. He put on arm around Gwen's back almost automatically, feeling a warm tingle spread out from where she kissed him. He cupped her chin with his free hand and bent his neck, kissing her full on the lips for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a minute or so by the ticking of the clock. When he pulled back his face was flushed and the tingling had spread to his toes and fingers; he shook out his hands, trying to get rid of it. "I really missed you, too," he said, his voice quiet. "There were times when... when I wasn't sure if I was going to see you again."

Then go ahead and start making the attack rolls. Glowstar'll switch to Focused Blast to get through that nasty Impervious. Glowstar's ranged attack roll w/ full All-Out Attack and Power Attack, vs Cosmicstar's Def. DC 31 (1d20+12=14) That... Doesn't hit. Ugh. Well, the boy's full-up on HP so I'll just reroll it; and with the lowest result being 11, he cannot miss. His part hits!

I'll give another day for Archeville to post, then carry on. The fight's effective over, anyway.

Glowstar, Wisp, and Crow can all combine their attacks on Cosmicstar. Unfortunately there's the Impervious 12 to get over, first. Glowstar and Wisp can do that no problem, but what about Crow?

Steelshanks' Reflex save, vs DC 20 Snare. (1d20+5=11) Bound and Helpless. Go to town.

Ironclad pursed her lips and leaned forward in her chair, using all the tips for social speaking she'd read up on. "The man we're looking for seems to be some kind of mind-controller," she told the other woman. "He seems to hate -- well, quite a lot of things, really. Loud music, roleplaying games, liberal political parties -- pretty much anything that wasn't on Leave It to Beaver. Have you noticed anyone else disappearing from the, uh, scene?" The heroine took in the whole of the club with a wave of her hand. "Bands, singers, regular customers, promoters, agents, anyone like that?"

GM Steelshanks let out a yelp as the smoke pellet popped and began filling the room, and soon the entire office building, with thick smoke that quickly obscured anything farther away than the end of one's nose. The metal woman swung the chair in wide, scything arcs, but didn't come anywhere close to hitting the yellow-suited heroine. She did manage to smash the glass out of one of the windows, though, letting the smoke pour down the side of the building and envelope the sidewalk. Most of the suits began moving away from the building, leaving plenty of room for Flora to dash between them.

Initiative 27 Catalyst -- Uninjured -- HPx2 14 Flora -- Uninjured -- HPx4 13 Steelshanks -- Bruise x6 -- GM Oh, look who hasn't got a chance to get fixed up from the last fight! Steelshanks' melee attack check w/ full All-Out attack, vs Catalyst's Def. DC 30 (1d20+10=21) That actually hits. 50% miss chance, though; rolling high will hit. Steelshanks' miss chance. (1d2=1) Nope! Catalyst is up. And just as a note, that Obscure is for all Visual senses; those thermal goggles aren't going to help Flora see though it.

Brian stood there for a moment, taking in the sight of Gwen in her ruffled dress and loose hair. The butterflies in his stomach did an extra lap and he swallowed hard. "You... look absolutely beautiful, Gwen. And, um, I'm not just saying that because I thought I might never see you again, either." He stood in the doorway awkwardly for a moment, then thrust the wrapped package at her. "Here. I, um, bought you a present while you were... away." He peered past her and noticed that her roommate was apparently out. "Are you all ready to go?"

GM Des was driving a dingy white pick-up truck. He belted into the driver's seat and Wail managed to squeeze into the passenger side, even if he did cause the vehicle to list to one side. The young man concentrated on pulling out of a parking lot containing several police cruisers and a quantity of broken glass, but before long they were on the road. Des drove steadily east, heading towards the Southside neighborhood; the streets were almost deserted, and either the quiet or the audience was intimidating him because it was a long minute until he spoke. "Listen," he said finally, "I don't think I ever thanked you for actually, you know, stopping those guys from robbing the store. So, yeah. Thanks for that." He pressed his lips together and swallowed, hard. "Also, if we're lucky? Only Mom's up." The young man pulled up in front of an apartment building right on the border of Southside and dug out a parking tag from under the dash, hanging it from the rear-view mirror. Stepping out of the truck, he glanced upwards and winced. "All the lights are on," he said. "Must mean everyone's up." He glanced at Wail and shrugged, helpless. "Oh well. Come on up and meet the family, Mr. L." After a moment's thought Des declined to call the elevator for himself and the super-dense hero, instead leading the older man up four flights of stairs. He was panting slightly at the top, but still lead the way at a brisk pace. Stopping before a battered door with the brass numbers 429 on it, he dug out a key and opened the door cautiously. Inside was a small space, the entryway leading directly into a kitchen space. On the right was a sitting area and a hallway that lead deeper into the apartment. Wail could see a handful of doors leading off the hallway, and at least one small face peeking shyly around a doorjamb. Immediately in front of him, though, was a round table with Des' parents sitting around it. Jacob Desmaris was a tall man, even taller than Wail, but thin and gangly, with a pronounced bone structure. The hero recalled something about him teaching history at Freedom University, and the pile of test and half-graded papers in front of him reinforced the notion. Cathy Desmaris was of average height (which still made her look short next to her husband) and nicely rounded; she was holding a baby that couldn't have been more than a few months old in one arm and trying to feed him a bottle with the other. They both stood up when their son walked through the door, Cathy moving a little slower and more carefully than her husband. She rushed forward and pulled her son into a one-armed hug, with Jacob only a step behind her. After a moment Cathy pulled Lamont over to a green couch that could've come off the set of That 70s Show and sat him down, talking to him in a low voice. Jacob stepped up to Wail and offered the older man his hand. "Jacob Desmaris. You're Keith LaMarr, right? Lamont's manager called, said you stopped some hoodlums from robbing the store."

Brian clenched his teeth over Etain's comment that it was 'nothing to worry about,.' It seemed like everything hinged on this, that the fate of the world hung on what kind of a present he bought his not-girlfriend. Instead he faced resolutely forward, steering their path towards a strip of jewelry stores. "I don't know what she thinks her best feature is," Brian admitted, "but for what it's worth I really like her hair. Maybe some clips or hair decs, something like that?"

The OOC for this thread. Flora's back in Freedom and Glowstar takes her out to a nice dinner to celebrate! And that's all that happens!

Ironclad Public Anomie Shock the Monkey Final Frontier A Friend in Need Power Struggle Pass the Plate 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 6 = 17 Glowstar Welcome Back Playing With Toys Animal Control: Breakout Legacy Heroes Just In for a Check-Up Shopping Spree Freedom City Renaissance Faire 20 + 16 + 3 + 4 + 7 + 1 + 1 = 52 Starlight Not My Best Side Light Lunch Playing to a Packed House 4 + 7 + 2 = 13 GM Science Shenanigans Green Fire Playing to a Packed House Pass the Plate 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 = 10

Sunday October 2nd, 2011 Claremont Academy Rita Kord Dormitory Brian Harris stood in his dorm room and slicked his hair back one last time, looking at himself in the mirror above the bureau he shared with Morgan Crowe. He'd dressed up in some of his best clothes tonight; a well-spun wine-red turtleneck, pressed khakis, and he's even strung new laces in his white tennis shoes. He'd even dug out the suit he'd brought from Little Rock, pulling it out of the dry cleaning bag it had lived in for the last three years, but he'd been forced to face just how much he'd grown. He had shaved that morning and even used some kind of gel on his hair to make it stand up in spikes, but now he was regretting that decision. Brian glanced at Morgan's empty bed; he would've loved the chance to ask his friend how he looked, but the other boy was spending a few days in Boston with his dad, in the aftermath of the Gorgon. So he sighed and walked out of the room, locking the door behind himself. After a moment he opened it again and grabbed the wrapped package at the edge of the dressed, a box roughly the size of a necklace box covered in mint-green paper. Locking the door again, Brian climbed the two flights of stairs to Gwen's floor, then walked over to her door. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and knocked on the door.

If Gwen's there, so'll be Glowstar.

Very nice find!

October 12th, 2011 Riverside, Freedom City Despite the intentional illiteracy, the back room of Inkz looked more like a doctor's office than Jessica Parker had been expecting. Granted, a doctor who favored pictures of flaming skulls, hearts encircled by barbed wires, and strings of kanji; but the bench/bed she was perched on, with its synthetic leather cover and roll of butcher paper, was a comforting familiarity. Since this was something she'd never done before, the young woman was happy for any comfort she could grab ahold of. Jessica sat up as the door opened and a tall man wearing a tight-shirt that showed off his impressively-muscled arms, slipped in. He gave her a bright smile, which she returned with interest. "So," he said, pulling up a stool from where it rested near the wall, "you want a tattoo, miss?" "Jessica. And yes." She dug out her smartphone and called up an image, a single still from a World War II newsreel. It showed a ludicrously over-sized broadcast tower, perched on a globe barely big enough to support its width. Electrical bolts the size of continents radiated out from the top of the tower in a circle. "I want those," she said, pointing at the bolts, "around here." She dropped the phone onto the butcher paper and lifted her shirt half-way, leaning back slightly to stretch her stomach. With her free hand she pointed to her belly-button and fanned her hand out around it. "In a circle, just like around the transmitter. Can you do it?" The artist bit the tip of his tongue and reached out, brushing his hand over her stomach; Jessica started and he glanced up, a quick look passing between them that made the young woman blush. He returned to examining her stomach and after a moment, nodded. "Yeah, that shouldn't be too much of a problem." He went a cupboard on the wall and removed some sketching supplied, including some thin paper and dark pencils. He had her lay down on the table and quickly sketched out several designs, comparing them to the image Jessica had shown her. "So if I can ask, why the lightning bolts?" Jessica shifted slightly on her back, the butcher paper crinkling underneath her. "It's a personal thing." The man nodded and bent over his work again. "Understood. Sorry I asked." He fell silent again and the quiet was punctuated by the scratching of his pencil on the paper, lending an almost meditative stillness to the room and helping Jessica's mind drift off. It had been ten months ago that she and her friend Mara, in their superheroic personas as Ironclad and Dragonfly, had waited in a Dawes Tech warehouse for a burglar to steal some sensitive equipment. The theft had gone off and they had chased the man into the sewers, following a tracking device on the stolen goods. It had lead them to an unfinished subway station and a madman mixing up a neurotoxin, with which he intended to hold the entire city hostage. Jessica, by incredibly bad luck, had inhaled a concentrated dose of the toxin and had to be rushed to the ER. Her life had been saved by the quick attention and advanced science of the medical staff, but her life had been changed forever when the poison rewired her brain. She found herself able to 'hear' radio and other EM waves. With a little practice, she was even able to project such things and manipulate electronics remotely. She had reacted negatively at first, which hadn't won her any brownie points when Mara revealed that she herself already had such powers. But over the past year Jessica had learned to control and utilize her new powers in her everyday life. Still, she felt guilty anytime she thought of how she'd first reacted to her changed circumstances. She had been under a lot of stress, but she'd hurt her best friend's feelings. She felt the need to rectify it, to show that her technopathic abilities were a central part of her life now. So here she was, feeling the tattoo artist wipe her midrif with an antiseptic lotion, preparing to feel the bite of the needle.

Brian Harris started and spun, his loose green tee-shirt flaring with the sudden motion. Apparently he was jumpier than he seemed; the young hero was a breath away from summoning his energies when he recognized his teammate and classmate. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down, the unseen energies dissipating into the world. "Right. Okay. Sorry to call you up all sudden-like, but I don't know anyone else who could help. I want to get a present for Gwen," he explained, moving off into the mall, automatically checking his strides so he didn't outpace the smaller woman. "Something special, something to show I missed her while she was gone. You know what I mean?" The young man wrung his hands and kept throwing almost-panicked glances at Etain. It was odd to see someone who usually approached combat with an easy joie de vivre get so nervous about purchasing a gift.

The OOC for this thread. A nice, simple gift run. Or is it?

September 18th, 2011 Sunday, 4:56 PM Millennium Mall, Freedom City Millennium Mall was a huge place. Brian Harris had been wandering around it for a good twenty minutes and hadn't seen the same store twice. There were lots of other shoppers out and about, some singly and some in groups. He saw lots of family groups, usually one parent or the other riding herd on a passel of kids. He swerved in his path to avoid one tow-headed tot who was bawling that his mother wouldn't buy him some plastic Army men, loose shirt-tail swinging; he swerved the other way to avoid a group of teenagers hanging out around a free-standing stall and trying on sunglasses. It wasn't just the red-on-black eyes that was causing him to keep away from everyone. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts just now. It was just a week after Gwen had left for Sanctuary, but he found his thoughts turning more and more to her than the looming threat of the Gorgon. Which was ridiculous on the surface, she was probably a lot safer than he was, but he kept going over the mundane disasters that could befall her, out in an untamed wilderness: allergies and disease, broken bones, attacks by wild animals. Brian didn't even know if someone would tell him if something did happen to her. Not that there was any reason to, of course. He wasn't part of her family, they weren't even -- officially -- a couple. Regardless, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about her. Brian wasn't one to simply sit and stew, though. He had decided to buy Gwen a present for when she returned. He wanted to get her something special and memorable. He didn't trust himself to picking something good enough, though, and so he had asked Etain Maher to help him. As he passed by a fountain he paused to check his watch. She should be arriving any time now, in fact.

I really got call foul on how that Drain Fortitude is set up. If it's supposed to be a single pellet shot into the midst of a group, it should be Area/General, not Area/Targeted. I'd recommend making it Rank 8 and Area/General. Either that or make it single-target and put Secondary Effect on it. Maaaaybe the better route overall, given how powerful Drain Fort can be.

Well if you want to run a thread about beating up bad guys, I can promise you there'll be lots of interest.

Steelshanks' Ini. (1d20+2=13) Yeah, didn't expect that to go well.

Starlight nodded. "I am not very adept at moving quietly," she admitted. "I will stay back here, where I can be -- what do you call it? The cavalry, if you need it." With that she moved back to the door separating the lobby from the theater area, standing almost motionless there. Arcturus poked around behind the counter until he found an employee-only door that lead deeper into the building. After a few false starts, he managed to find his way backstage. He crouched on stage left, considering how far he had to dash to take the necromancer down, when he noticed several more zombies on the opposite side of the stage! It seemed that this sorcerer wasn't in the mood to leave much to chance...