Raveled

... Setz, Search is a skill where a character closely examines a thing, or an area. I need to know what thing or area he is examining.

What exactly is Vanguard searching?

Well, what science genius girl can say no to a death ray? As for the Neo-Gen thread, I'm fine with GMing it as long as someone can get me some kind of outline.

Forgot to roll for Dr. Marks, actually. Initiative for Dr. Mark's. (1d20=6) That actually works well... Going to allow Goanna a re-roll on that Initiative, actually. Reroll on initiative for Goanna. (1d20+4=18) Hm. Okay, Changeling gets an HP due to fiat. Glow picks up an HP due to his Golden Age Honor complication. Initiative order is: 25 -- Glowstar -- Uninjured -- HP x 5 21 -- Wisp -- Uninjured -- HP x 2 18 -- Goanna -- Uninjured -- GM 8 -- Changeling -- Uninjured -- HP x 2 6 -- Dr. Marks -- Uninjured -- GM

Brian dropped his notebook and pen on the table, standing up fast enough to knock over the chair. He didn't pay it any mind, though, instead touching a ring on his left hand. The simple metal band expanded to cover his hand, then his arm, and soon his entire body. In the blink of an eye he was wearing a loose silver jumpsuit that covered his hands and feet, with a red demi-cape hanging from his shoulders. He stepped away from the table and his force field flickered to crackling light around him as he held up one hand at the lizard, planting himself between the monstrous thing and the scared-rigid research scientist. "I don't the lady's interested," he said in his best authoritative voice. "Why don't you and I go outside, and we can talk about how you're going to pay for that wall?"

The OOC for this thread.

June 3, 2011 A twelve hour flight over the Atlantic hadn't done much to improve Jessica Parker's mood. It wasn't the company -- although half a day in close quarters rarely ever did a relationship good -- but more the constant vigilance. She was paranoid that her technopathic abilities would interfere with the plane's avionics and make it crash. She'd kept a conscious check on her powers for the entire flight, and it had tired her out. On the ground it was a little better. She was surrounded by the constant machine chatter she'd gotten used to over the past few months, and the Gatwick-London airport didn't look very different from any other airport she'd been in. The pound symbol instead of the dollar sign she was used to was a little grating, but Blake was there so she was able to relax while they hired a taxi to take them into the city. A few minutes later they were cruising down a highway, headed for old London town. Jessica amused herself by switching the radio stations remotely and watching the driver fiddle with the radio, trying to figure out what was going on. After a minute or so the smudge on the horizon started resolving itself into a line of tall, glass-faced buildings, the sort of panorama she was used to seeing every day from living in Freedom City. The young woman frowned and turned to Blake. "Is that London? I don't see Big Ben or anything!"

May 14. Very long day that started very early. Morgan woke me up early and told me that some fairies (Morgan's looking over my shoulder and telling me is f-a-e-i-r-i-e, not f-a-i-r-y, but I don't care. You punch them and they fall down, right?) came and grabbed Vicky because he, Morgan, had some history with them. He wanted to go off half-cocked, but I forced him to calm down long enough to pick up John. Morgan took us to this big old building he called Parkhurst. I guess it was haunted,but by the good kind of ghosts, because Morgan said they would help us? Whatever, I didn't see any ghosts while we were there. I did get to see Morgan stare into a pool for awhile, which exploded in his face and made him mad. Magic, whatever. Him and me went off to Parkhurst's library and I used the opportunity to talk some more sense into him. We finally went after Vicky, into some place Morgan called Avalon. I fought some woman with a sword that wanted us to leave right away and Morgan took down her back-up. He and John went off to save Vicky while I stood guard over the portal home. And then... well, the tell the truth I got sucker-punched by this fairy witch who froze me into a black of ice. I could see Morgan, John, and Vicky came back, but I couldn't warn them. Thankfully, I didn't really need to. Morgan and Vicky took down the witch in the time it took John to cut me free. We missed a couple of classes at Claremont, but what the hell? We saved the day and got to be heroes. Go us! May 17. Oh god, Summers wants to talk to us. Oh god, we're gonna die. Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god.

OOC for this thread.

GM July 16, 2011 3:48 PM Freedom City's West End was a melting pot of different ethnicities. Ninety percent of the city's immigrants ended up there. One group most census takers didn't bother with was ninjas. Despite that, a strong of robberies were that part of the city; packages were disappearing from trucks, wallets were disappearing from pockets, and entire stores were getting cleared out while the owners' backs were turned. Nothing was turning up on security footage, and the police had no good leads. This was just the kind of crime spree that needed the intervention of a superhero; luckily, there were two on the job.

GM Dragonfly's flight back was, by necessity, much slower than her flight out. For one the princess took to screaming if she went much more than forty or fifty miles per hour; probably one of the drawbacks to living in a society where a galloping horse was the fastest mode of transport. The upshot was the by the time the castle was in sight again, the sun was touching the western horizon and torches were being put out on the battlements. The heroine reasoned that if she came in high the castle's defenders might respond with a flight of arrows; while that wouldn't affect Dragonfly any, the princess might be hurt, so she swooped in low and slowed as they approached the gatehouse. The soldiers spotted Dragonfly and raised the portcullis quickly. In the courtyard, they crowded around her, cheering to see their princess returned; a group of better-dressed guards filed out of the keep and opened a path through the crowd, letting the king come through and embrace his daughter. In the midst of all the celebration, he managed to grab Dragonfly by the shoulder and shout at her, "Anything in my kingdom! Name it, and it is yours!"

Initiatives, please. Glowstar's Initiative. (1d20+6=25) Goanna's Initiative. (1d20+4=6) Well, he is a reptile.

Dr. Marks shook her head at the questions. "That's a fallacious point of view," she said. "DNA isn't like Lego blocks, you can't unsnap a part from one creature and just transplant it on another. It's more like chemistry. And you don't make cake just by taking a brownie recipe and making everything bigger right? Besides, DNA is a lot more complex than just 'find the bits for the trunk and snip them out.' There's a whole library of chemical interactions all through a fetus' development that allows certain body parts to grow; to make a giraffe with a trunk would be an enormous undertaking, and probably involve quite a lot of failures before it succeeded. Not to say we're not making progress on that field," she added. "Geneticists have made glow-in-the dark animals, you know." Brian scribbled furiously in his notebook, trying to take down the doctor's words one-for-one, but that last comment stopped him cold. "Wait. Glow-in-the-dark? Why?" Dr. Marks smiled at the teen's reaction. "It's easy to see," she said. "Once scientists could produce a batch of test animals with the glow-in-the-dark genes, they knew that their methodology, their techniques for inserting gene sequences, worked. Then they could move on to more complicated mechanisms." Brian returned to his note-taking and glanced over at Victoria, seeing her pen moving quickly as well. He snuck a look at Etain too, and noticed that she was just sitting there, watching the doctor. He decided it wasn't any of his business and turned a page in his notebook, opening his mouth to ask another question. He was interrupted, however, by the sound of smashing glass and turned around to see half of a car imbedded in the front wall of the coffee shop! It was hauled out of the way and a scaly, frilled head with vertically slitted pupils poked in, quickly locating and staring at the group. "Sophia," the creature hissed, a long purple tongue darting out and in rapidly. "I've found you, my love! Come and join me, forever!" Dr. Marks, for her part, had dropped her coffee mug on the floor when the car came through the wall. Now she was staring at the yellow-eyed monster, spine rigid and holding onto her seat. "Coo... Cooper? Is that you?" The monster disappeared from the hole, just long enough to smash a larger one and step into the coffee shop all the way. Now the young heroes could see that it was a thick, man-sized lizard, covered in dark brown scales and with a long, muscular tail trailing behind it. "No, Sophia," it replied. "I'm not Cooper. Cooper is dead. Now, I'm Goanna -- and you shall be my bride!"

Well, Glows part of Neo-Gen, so he's in on this.

Glowstar zipped around in the air, dodging shards of rock shaken loose by Equinox's magic. The hole that opened up in the middle of the cavern wasn't much of a problem for him, but he did let out a cheer when the lion's share of Wyrd's little 'bots fell into it. "Hey! Wyrd-o! Come on out here, we're breaking all your little toys!" The teen hero darted closer to the massive machine, hoping that the turrets would be less likely to shoot at him if he was too close to Wyrd's creation. Of course, the hero himself wasn't going to let up on them; he let loose with another charge off his fist, this one a bit less powerful but much more focused than his alpha strike.

Move Action: Move deeper into the cavern. Free Action: Switch the Terminus Energy Control Array to Focused Entropic Blast. Standard Action: Attacking Turret 1. Full All-Out Attack, full Power attack. Focused Blast with full All-Out and full Power. DC 30 (1d20+10=22)

GM The vampire finally stopped reacting to Dragonfly's blows and just lay there on its side, absorbing them passively. For a moment the heroine thought that she'd won, then noticed that the creature's eyes were still tracking her movements in the sky. It rolled onto its back and stared up at her, laughing. "I shall see you again, heroine," he promised her. "And then you shall beg to join my brides!" The vampire melted away, returning to its mist form again and seeping into the floor and walls. It was frustratingly like Dragonfly's previous encounter with the monster, except now she had the princess with her.

This... This is... There aren't words. Omega-class threat? An honest-to-finagle gray goo scenario, enacted with purpose? This is scary beyond all measure. Okay, have to focus. Don't know how to deal with Gorgon threat, so look at the smaller threats. City-wide panic, how to deal with it. Could ramp up the paralyzing force field I developed for the apartment. Even if the fields stay stable though, the energy cost would be enormous, and the public backlash would be... not good. Something more subtle: chemical deterrent? Nothing so outre as CS gas, but I bet I could develop a sleep gas of some sort. Make it heavier than air, deploy it from the top levels -- might work! If it disperses in the air enough, it should just make folks listless and worn out. Will consider the problem of evacuation a little later. I can't deal with this all at once.

I'm trying to make a Radiant Sorcery my main. Look for me under Moonglow@Raveled

He's also still Staggered. Been so for 2 rounds. I can't believe I'm having to track the Staggered condition because there's a very real chance that he'll be able to heal it before this fight finishes. Ugh.

GM The vampire fell silent as Dragonfly's next volley smashed into it. Hanging from her arm, the princess put the heroine's question to some thought. "It's never destroyed," she finally decided. "It arises from the dark, casts a darkness over the land, and is finally fought back and resealed by a great hero." She thought for a moment and then added, "Maybe you haven't left it for long enough?"

Vampire's Toughness, vs DC 27. (1d20+3=20) Stun + Bruise x6. This is beyond comical. I think Dragonfly needs a Complication about fights dragging on too long...

Player Name: Raveled Character Name: Miras Power Level: 10 (150/150) Trade-Offs: None Unspent PP: 0 In Brief: A hero trained in music and magic protecting those the world may have looked over. Alternate Identities: Asli Safiyyah Sadik, DJ Eclectic, Sophie Identity: Secret Birthplace: San Diego, California Occupation: Superhero, student, DJ, musician. Affiliations: FreeSA, FCU, Stone Soup Musical Group Family: Father, mother, 2 brothers. Age: 30 Gender: Female Ethnicity: Turkish/Djinn Height: 6' 2" Weight: 220 lbs Eyes: Blue Hair: Black Asli is a tall woman, with a solid, curvy frame. Her skin and hair are dark, and her eyes are a deep, unclouded blue. Her features are rounded and her teeth are very white against her skin; it's noticeable because she's usually talking or laughing. She deliberately avoids makeup, and she usually keeps her hair just long enough for a ponytail. Asli's everyday style is an urban-punk asthetic. She favors heavy boots, tight jeans, and layers that usually end in a hoody or a leather jacket. As Miras her clothes transform into an open, hooded robe of rich purple, over a gown of deep green. The robe's cowl manages to hide her features no matter what happens. Power Descriptions: Asli's power comes from two distinct sources. Her magic is rooted in the writings of Lord Deosil, a Master Mage who was skilled in time magic and prophecy. With that she can turn aside attacks, speed up her own passage through time, or freeze others in place. With a great deal of effort, she can even turn back someone or something's personal timeline. These spells are often accompanied by chiming bells, or gold or silver clock faces or meshing gears appearing in the air. Her other source is her own djinni heritage. Combined with her understanding of magic, she can do quite a lot to manipulate the world around her. She can throw bolts of magical fire, change one thing into another (if she concentrates), make illusions to cloud the senses, or take a form as substantial as smoke. Using these powers often results in geometric traceries appearing in the air. History Asli was born in a small Turkish community in California, and her early days were filled with sun and surf and the same group of people she saw every day. She was a talented singer even as a very young child, and when she came of age and started sending out college applications, the Freedom School for the Arts offered her an impressive scholarship chance. She accepted FreeSA's invitation and moved out to Freedom City, studying dance and songwriting professionally for the first time in her life. It was an exciting, exhilarating time. It was also a scarey, stressful time, as the girl was away from her family for the first time in her life. Sophie (she started going by that in college) tried drugs at a party first, and then started self-medicating for stress. Before she knew what had happened she was kicked out of FreeSA and working dead-end jobs, getting wasted during the night, and waking up the next day to start it all over again. Asli might have ended up another burn-out, a cautionary tale for the next generation, if she hadn't gotten caught. She was buying for herself and all her friends and was charged with possession with intent to distribute and time spent in rehab. The potential of a felony conviction scared her straight; she cleaned up her life, went back to school, and rediscovered her faith. She got a degree in Media Communications from FCU and started writing music, taking an apartment in Greenbank. In a corner of the library she found an old cardboard box filled with yellowing journals. Asli began reading them, discovering that they were the writings of a 18th century clockmaker named Hans Lorcano, who became the Master Mage Lord Deosil. She experimented with his style of magic at the same time as she was experimenting with her magic. Her skill in both grew, and when a burglar tried to break into her apartment she froze his personal timeline in place, at least long enough for the police to respond. That emboldened the young woman, and she started venturing out at night in a mask. Around the same time she released her first album, and she hasn't regretted either decision. Personality & Motivation: Asli is a woman of intense passions. When she cares for something, she cares deeply for it, and she isn't likely to back down once she's set her mind on something. She tends to care about people more than ideals, and has little time for those who would sacrifice others for a 'greater good.' Powers & Tactics: Miras doesn't have a lot that could directly stop a fight. She prefers to use her illusions or mobility to tie up opponents, waiting until they make a mistake and let her freeze them in place or trap them behind a quickly-made wall. Complications: Fame Asli may not be a megastar, but she's had enough success that she could be recognized on the street. Prejudice Asli is a Mulsim woman trying to make it as a hip-hop artist. That's plenty of reasons for people to not like even the idea of her. Protector of Greenbank Asli lives in Greenbank, and works hard to make sure her neighborhood is as safe as it can be. Checkered Past Asli was not always on the side of the angels, and even now some of her friends are (minor) criminals. Deosil's Prophecies Asli is the current owner of the Locarno Dairies, which contain a number of enigmatic prophecies. She spends a good deal of time trying to decipher them and avoid any bad fate they predict. Abilities: 0 + 4 + 0 + 6 + 8 + 8 = 26PP Strength: 10 (+0) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 10 (+0) Intelligence: 14 (+2) Wisdom: 18 (+4) Charisma: 18 (+4) Combat: 8 + 12 = 20PP Initiative: +6 Attack: +4, +10 Ranged Grapple: +4 Defense: +10 (+6 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed Knockback: -5 Saving Throws: 6 + 6 + 6 = 18PP Toughness: +10 (+0 Con, +10 Force Field) Fortitude: +6 (+0 Con, +6) Reflex: +8 (+2 Dex, +6) Will: +10 (+4 Wis, +6) Skills: 60R = 15PP Concentration 6 (+10) Diplomacy 6 (+10) Knowledge (Arcana) 7 (+10)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Art) 7 (+10)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Current Events) 2 (+5) Knowledge (Streetwise) 2 (+5) Knowledge (Popular Culture) 2 (+5) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 2 (+5) Language 3 (Arabic, English [Native], Latin, Turkish) Notice 8 (+12)Skill Mastery Perform (Dancing) 1 (+5) Perform (Singing) 6 (+10)Skill Mastery Sense Motive 8 (+12) Feats: 17PP Accurate Attack All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Ranged) 6 Defensive Attack Dodge Focus 4 Move-By Action Power Attack Ritualist Skill Mastery (Knowledge [Art, Arcana], Notice, Perform [singing]) Powers: 1 + 10 + 24 + 6 + 1 + 12 = 54PP All powers have the Magic descriptor Enhanced Feat 1 (Quick Change) (Illusory Robes) [1PP] Force Field 10 (Turn Aside Blows) [10PP] Ruh Kalit 10.5 (21 PP, Feat: Alternate Power 3) [24PP] BE: Insubstantial 4 (Feat: Subtle) (Body of Smokeless Fire) [21/21PP]AP: Blast 10 (Feats: Affects Insubstantial) (Fling the Fires) [21/21PP] AP: Transform 10 (Inanimate to inanimate) (Shape the World [20/21PP] AP: Illusion 7 (Visual & auditory) (Weave the Wind Solid) [21/21PP] Super Senses 6 (Magic Awareness [Tactile], Detect Magic [Visual]) [6PP] Super Senses 1 (+Ranged on Magic Awareness) [1PP] Working of Deosil 5 (10PP, Feat: Alternate Power 2) [12PP] BE: Speed 5 (250 ft, Extra: Linked [Quickness]) + Quickness 5 (x50, Extra: Linked [speed]) (In the Blink of An Eye) [10/10PP]AP: Healing 5 (Extras: Affects Objects [+1], Flaw: Distracting) (Like it Never Happened) [10/10PP] AP: Paralyze 10 (Flaw: Action/Full) (Time Stop) [10/10PP] Drawbacks: (-0) = -0PP DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 15 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Blast Ranged DC 25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Magic, Fire) Paralyze Ranged DC 25 Fortitude(Staged) HelplessAbilities (26) + Combat (20) + Saving Throws (18) + Skills (15) + Feats (17) + Powers (54) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/150 Power Points

Jessica relaxed in the office chair and started assessing how things had gone. They'd need a clean-up crew in here, certainly... "That was the test," she said over the loudspeaker. "You did fine with solid objects, but I wanted to test your abilities on an amorphous mass, and I figured that a quantity of sand would do better than, say, a ton or so of Silly Putty. Besides, we've got a lot of sand to get rid of." The door to the control room opened and Jessica walked out, looking around at the sand drifts in the test chamber. "I think we can move on to recording and testing the hammer now, though."

GM Even as he absorbed blow after blow by the flying heroine, the vampire began laughing. "You cannot kill me," it shouted up at Dragonfly. "I have moved beyond the pale of death itself! Your puny mortal weapons can no more slay me than you can slay the mountains and the sky and the sea!" Its laughter was wild and terrible, and it reverberated around the hall menacingly.