Raveled

The two struggling women were too mobile a target for Warlock; his sleep powder spread itself across Ironclad's metal back. Dragonfly's attack did more, slamming Rave back into the ground and making stars explode before her eyes. The armored heroine relaxed when the criminal stopped fighting back. She reached around to the bit of dust that had spilled on the ground and dribbled a bit over Rave's face; the woman shook once or twice, then fell still. Ironclad sat back on her haunches, not even breathing hard. "Well," she mused aloud, "that was an interesting lunch."

Just barely hits. Since she's Pinned, her Toughness drops to +1 1d20+1=14 And she fails big-time. Stunned + Staggered. Clad goes next and gives her a coup de grace. Toughness vs Coup de Grace (1d20+1=17) Fortitude vs Coup de Grace (1d20+6=21) Against DC 29. Still, two Staggereds puts her down.

Rant's Will Save 1d20+8=26 Oh yeah, she makes. Um, LS, you do realize that the sleep dust isn't Precise? And that Clad and Rant are grappling? You're lucky that she has Life Support. So that mean's Dragonfly gets a chance to so some-- er, take down the bag duy!

Glowstar

The OOC for this thread.

In that case, time to put up Just Another Sunday. Victory, Protectron, Blueshift, Geckoman, Ironclad -- TECH TITANS, ASSEMBLE!

January 30th, 2011 Freedom City! Home of heroes. Freedom City! Center of trade. Freedom City! Stepping off point for adventure. Freedom City! The only place where you could be robber at blaster-point by men wearing jet-packs. These were the thoughts going through the head of Daniel Simms, head of security for this stretch of Majesty Industries' waterfront warehouses. It wouldn't be fair to say that his training as a security guard for one of the city's largest congolomerates hadn't covered super-powered threats, but it had been more along the lines of 'a bunch of gang-bangers with blaster rifles walk in -- what do you do?' For anything else, he was supposed to hit the alarms and let the Freedom League, or and of the dozens of unaffiliated heroes, deal with it. No one had been prepared for the Power Corps' military tactics, or their futuristic weapons and body armor. Now Daniel and a dozen other guards, not to mention the thirty or so Majesty employees who worked inside the warehouses, were trussed up and sitting in groups of five in one of the upper-story office rooms, watched over by a trio of silver-and-blue bodysuited figures with the numbers 5, 6, and 7 stenciled on their chests. other than that the three were identical -- down to their utter silence as they stood over the lot. Not that the Power Corps mercenaries weren't saying anything; there conversing freely over their internal commlinks, but the helmets absorbed all the sound. 7, especially, was getting rather twitchy about the wait. "We should leave," she broadcast over the group's common band. "A cape could come along any minutes, let's just grab the stuff and jet." "Patience," came the calm, smoother tones of their leader. "We have at least five minutes before there's any super-powered response, and we're a match for any one cape. More than a match, with the Foundry's tech. So just relax -- everyone does their job right and we'll leave the heroes sucking on our exhaust fumes this time." 7 tried and failed to follow 1's orders. She dearly wanted to fidget with her weapon, tap her feet, or even take off the helmet and have a smoke, but she didn't dare. Instead she set off an another circuit of the room, being careful keep her steps slow and measured. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time she was quite right to be nervous. Fearless Leader's timetable was off by almost five minutes -- and they wre going to face a lot more than one hero.

Design Journal 12.5. I've been reconsidering my options for dealing with a group of enemies. Cluster munitions don't strike me as particularly media-friendly. I'm looking at other options, and of particular interest are stun guns. I doubt that commercially available stun weapons would work, but I've been working on an idea for something a bit more powerful. The basic design combines a discus and a bolas. It leaves the chamber as a flat piece of metal: it spins through the air, extending several small wires: and when it impacts the target, the wires whip around and dig in. A strong electric pulse from the central unit sets up a current inside the target. It should fry anything mechanical/electronic and knock out anything organic.

And we're out of combat. Feel free to berate him for his less-than-exceptional motivation.

As she was disarming the sorcerer, she noticed a gold band decorated in a similar style to the staff secured around his wrist. The witch could sense the similarity between the two objects, and to be safe and grabbed them both. Thus disarmed, the maroon-robed man seemed to shrink in on himself. Without the awesome force of the staff to reinforce him he was little more than a pudgy geek in a bathrobe; he certainly whined like one as he saw the heroine carrying the magical device out of his reach. As the frost melted off him he slowly sat up and leaned against the wall, his hands in his lap. "I deserve me revenge," he said. "I was getting a 4.0 GPA! I was perfect! I was gonna graduate with my engineering degree, get a big job, and be an important person!" He glanced down the hall, where the old, frazzled-looking professor was sticking his head out of the class room. "And he ruined it!" A touch of his earlier fire came back as the -- engineering student? Really? -- surged to his feet and pointed an angry finger. "Those drawings were in perfect geometric proportion! Who cares if I used a T-square or traced a few over? You didn't have to fail me!"

Glowstar looked around again, this time looking past the sprawled bodies at the property damage. He winced and wrung his hands, suddenly acutely embarrassed at his lack of control. "Yeah, this is kind of my first time doing something like this. But hey, the big Viking guy and the chick in the blue, they weren't worried about how much damage they were gonna do to your store! And I stopped them before they could do much." He was hoping the store owners wouldn't try to figure out how much less damage the three criminals had been likely to cause, if Glowstar had just left them alone. "Um. If you're not hiring, do you know any places that are? I really need a job."

As the energy tendrils dissipated, Glowstar looked around at the mobsters and gangbangers all laid out around him. "Uh, thanks," he said. "This is my first time out, really. I expected it to be a lot harder." He winced at the yells and battlecries coming out of the fog-shrouded street and turned to the restaurant's workers, who were still cowering on the ground. "Hello! Um, I came over here for a job interview! You had an ad in the Classifieds, looking for someone to cook in the kitchen?"

Player Name: Raveled Character Name: The Stranger Power Level: 12 (180/180PP) Trade-Offs: None Unspent Power Points: 0 Progress To Platinum Status: 0/30 In Brief: An inhuman creature bonded to a human shell. A protector of the dreamscape. Alternate Identity Identity: Seth Machan (Secret) Birthplace: The Dreamspace/Atlantis Occupation: Life Emergency Counselor Affiliations: Project Freedom, Freedom City Medical Center Family: None, and innumerable. Description Age: ~16,000 years old (Incarnated during the Pleistocene) Apparent Age: Mid-thirties Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian by default Height: 5’ 8” Weight: 140 lbs Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Seth Machan is not a man who stands out in a crowd. He’s of average height and skinny, with unlined skin and dark hair that grows straight and smooth and thick to the nape of his neck. He favors black Oxford shirts, dark sport coats, slacks and dark brogues. He’s almost never seen in anything more casual. He often wears a silver lapel pin depicting what looks like a leaf or frond. When on patrol, the Stranger does not wear a cape or bright colors. He still wears a black shirt, a black sportcoat, and black slacks. His feet are bare, though, and his hair is wild and tangled. His hair isn’t just black anymore either; it almost looks absent, like it absorbs all light that touches it. His skin becomes pale as china, and his face becomes a smooth expanse of flesh from his brow to his chin with mere slits for his black-on-black eyes. The frond-symbol moves to his forehead and has the same not-quite-there coloration as his hair. In the dream realm, the Stranger looks even less human. Superficially he still appears to be a man in pale skin with messy hair and dark clothes, but his face is a stylized noh mask and he rarely takes his hands out of his pockets. Instead, his sport jacket bulges like there are great, tunneling creature moving underneath it, and either the hems of his slacks cover his feet or his feet meld into the dream terrain. Power Descriptions: The Stranger’s powers come from his otherworldly lineage. His body is not something that grew around him; it’s a thing he constructed. As such he has incredible control over his biological processes, rendering him immune to virtually all the natural toxins that plague humans. In addition he can tap into his eldritch nature to empower himself, either to supercharge his physical body or attack his enemies’ minds in different ways. If he’s injured , he can reach out and absorb the power within a particular person or object to heal himself. Finally, as a creature native to the mindscape, he can enter the minds of sleeping creatures and travel via dreams to any other dreaming creature in this universe. In the realm of dreams, he is much more powerful and much stranger. He can reshape the dreamscape to his will and uses that to create walls and other structures to defend himself or tie up enemies, or to create attacks to overwhelm his enemies. He can even attack the very nature of the dream dimension itself to remove enemies History: The history of the creature most often known as the Stranger goes back to ancient Atlantis. A mage, his name forgotten to all, became aware of the strange beings that prowled on the edges of the dream realms. He enticed one in and captured it, forcing the creature to manifest physically. At first the creature was a formless mass, but as it spent more time around humans the spirit took on a more human form. Eventually the mage created a body for it, for the dream entity to move around the city and see its wonders. The creature survived the mage and was inherited by his family, but it was never regarded as anything but a monster to be studied and contained. The spirit’s body did not age or die, however, and it was around to see the city sink. The spirit escaped to Mesopotamia, settling among the proto-Sumerians in the region and tried to live as just a man. However, there was a suffering that he couldn’t ignore. The dreams and minds of Atlanteans and mages were protected, but out in the wilds there were monsters and demons and worse to prey on people. The spirit had the knowledge of thousands of years of observing the greatest mages in history, and his own nature allowed him to travel to the dreamworld and do battle directly with the predators there. Time passed, and the creature traveled the world. Every place that he found evil preying on innocents he fought against it, often triumphing, sometimes dying, always returning. He’s spent tens of thousands of years this way, observing humanity’s slow climb up it its current state. He settled in Freedom City a few decades ago and eventually found a job with the Freedom Medical Center, helping those who had recently gone through a traumatic life change. He remains a defender of the dreamscape, though, a terror to nightmares and an eerie defender of the waking world. Personality & Motivation: Seth appears rather distant to most people, even cold. Even when he claims to have strong feelings on a subject, he’ll often explain himself in a detached, logical fashion. This can be unsettling when he acts calm and collected in a stressful situation, even carrying on casual conversation in the middle of dangerous fights. The truth is that Seth views humanity as a fascinating mystery, full of questions and inconsistencies. He’s spent tens of thousands of years in and among them, and yet every day there is something that surprises him. He will protect humanity until he can unravel their mysteries. Powers & Tactics: There’s a marked difference between how the Stranger fights in the physical world and how he fights in the dreamworld. In the physical world he’s more or less a straight-up brawler, mixing bone-shattering blows with the occasional psychic dagger. If he’s too injured he can reach out and eat the energies that sustain a certain thing, dissolving it to dust and repairing himself. As a last resort he can drop the illusion of normality that covers him and subject everyone who can see him to his true, unnatural, mind-shattering shape. In the dreamworld fighting the Stranger is like fighting the land itself. He can use the mutable landscape to cause mountains to crash onto an opponent, freeze them solid one moment and boil them alive the next. He’s much less restrained in these fights, since all the damage is metaphorical; it takes a concerted effort to kill someone in the dreamscape, allowing him to fight with much less restraint. Complications Not Meant to Be Seth is a creature not of this dimension, and his very nature is against the rules of this dimension. This means that animals react negatively to his presence, either becoming angry or running away from him. Staring into the Abyss Seth’s magical and psychic nature is a stain on the world. Anyone observing him with Magic Awareness or Mental Awareness will immediately know that he is something weird and dangerous. Constant Observer Seth is fascinated with the actions of humanity and its reasons for such. In the heat of the moment he may stop acting to simply observe, or even to interrogate someone engaged in delicate work. Never Forget In his very first incarnation Seth was essentially a slave of an Atlantean wizard. While that family is long dead, he still doesn’t trust any Atlantean or anyone of Atlantean descent (including Ulti-men and the inhabitants of Ultima Thule). Abilities: 0 + 4 + 0 + 2 + 10 + 6 = 22PP Strength: 30/10 (+10/+0) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 10 (+0) Intelligence: 12 (+1) Wisdom: 20 (+5) Charisma: 16 (+3) Combat: 12 + 12 = 24PP Initiative: +2 Attack: +6 Melee, +6 Ranged, +10 Pseudonatural Dreams Grapple: +6/+16 Defense: +10 (+6 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed Knockback: -10/-5 Saving Throws: 8 + 4 + 5 = 17PP Toughness: +10 (+0 Con, +10 Protection, 10 Impervious) Fortitude: +8 (+0 Con, +8) Reflex: +6 (+2 Dex, +4) Will: +10 (+5 Wis, +5) Skills: 100R = 25PP Diplomacy 7 (+10) Intimidate 17 (+20)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 14 (+15)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Behavioral Sciences) 14 (+15)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Civics) 9 (+10) Knowledge (Current Events) 9 (+10) Knowledge (History) 9 (+10) Medicine 5 (+10) Notice 10 (+15) Sense Motive 6 (+11)Skill Mastery Feats: 8PP Dodge Focus 4 Fearless Ritualist Skill Mastery (Intimidate, Knowledge [Arcane Lore, Behavioral Sciences], Sense Motive) Startle Powers: 4 + 6 + 1 + 28 + 37 + 7 + 1 = 84PP All powers have the pseudonatural and magic descriptors Flight 2 (25 MPH) (Forsake the Earth) [4PP] Morph 2 (Any humanoid, +10 Disguise, Feats: Quick Change 2) (Shape this Shell) [6PP] Morph 0 (+0 Disguise, Feat: Metamorph) (Dream Self) [1PP] Pseudonatural Biology Container [28PP] Immunity 30 (Fortitude, Feat: Trance, Flaw: Half Effect) (Constructed Body) [16PP] Protection 10 [10PP] Immunity 2 (Ageing, Sleep) [2PP] Pseudonatural Dreams Array 15 (30PP, Feats: Accurate 2, Alternate Power 5) [37PP] BE: Enhanced Strength 20 (Extra: Linked [+0] [Impervious]) + Impervious Protection 10 (Extra: Linked [+0] [Enhanced Strength]) (Inhuman Might) [30/30PP] AP: Stun 10 (Extras: Range/Ranged) (Psychic) (You Sleep) [30/30PP] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Range/Ranged, Alternate Save [Will]) (Psychic) (Visit Your Nightmares) [30/30PP] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Range/Ranged, Vampiric) (I Hunger!) [30/30PP] AP: Mind Reading 10 (Extras: Linked [+0] [Drain Will]) + Drain Will 10 (Extra: Range/Perception, Flaw: Limited [Sleeping Targets Only]) (Dream Invasion) [30/30PP] AP: Dreamwalking [13/30PP] Super-Movement 1 (Dimensional 1 [Dream dimension]) [1PP] Teleport 20 (Anywhere in the universe, Feats: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Flaws: Limited [Long-Range Only], Medium [Dreams]) [12PP] Super Senses 5 (Mental sense, +Accurate, +Acute, +Radius, +Ranged, Feat: Extended [100 ft], Uncanny Dodge) (Spatial Awareness) [7PP] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection, 1 week) [1PP] Drawbacks: (-0) = -0PP DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Inhuman Might Touch DC 15/25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) You Sleep Ranged DC 20 Will (Staged) Sleep Visit Your Nightmares Ranged DC 25 Will (Staged) Damage (Psychic) Dream Invasion Perception DC 20 Will Mind Reading/Drain Will I Hunger! Ranged DC 25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Pseudonatural) Totals: Abilities (22) + Combat (24) + Saving Throws (17) + Skills (25) + Feats (8) + Powers (84) - Drawbacks (0) = 180/180 Power Points Powers: 4 + 7 + 28 + 37 + 7 + 1 = 84PP All powers have the pseudonatural and magic descriptors Comprehend 2 (Understand all Language, Speak any One Language) (Dream Speech) [4PP] Morph 2 (Any humanoid, +10 Disguise, Feats: Metamorph, Quick Change 2) (Dream Self) [7PP] Pseudonatural Biology Container [28PP] Immunity 30 (Fortitude, Feat: Trance, Flaw: Limited [Half Effect]) (Constructed Body) [16PP] Protection 10 [10PP] Immunity 2 (Ageing, Sleep) [2PP] Dreamcrafting Array 15 (30PP, Feats: Accurate 2, Alternate Power 5) [37PP] BE: Create Object 10 (Extra: Moveable) (Modeling the Dreamscape) [30/30PP] AP: Damage (Extra: Autofire, Range/Ranged) (Dream Barrage) [30/30PP] AP: ESP 10 (200 000 miles; All senses, Flaw: Feedback) (Spy on Dreams) [30/30PP] AP: Concealment 10 (All senses, Extra: Linked [+0] [Insubstantial]) + Insubstantial 2 (Gaseous, Extra: Linked [+0] [Concealment]) (Fade Into Dreams) [30/30PP] AP: Dimensional Pocket 10 (Extra: Range/Ranged) (Into My Dreams) [30/30PP] AP: Snare 10 (Extra: Contagious) (Dream Quicksand) [30/30PP] Super Senses 5 (Mental sense, +Accurate, +Acute, +Radius, +Ranged, Feat: Extended [100 ft], Uncanny Dodge) (Dream Awareness) [7PP] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection, 1 week) [7PP] Drawbacks: (-0) = -0PP DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Dream Barrage Ranged DC 25+Autofire Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Into My Dreams Ranged DC 20 Reflex Trapped Dream Quicksand Ranged DC 20 Reflex (Staged) Snare

Is the fog still around?

Brian craned his neck, turning his attention from the architecture to the students themselves. More than a few caught his eye without displaying any powers whatsoever; he watched a tall, bubbly blonde hanging on the arm of a figure that seemed to be formed from shining chrome, and found himself wondering how to get into her... classes. He was so intent on the sights that he tripped over his own feet and almost fell on Ms. Harcourt; only a timely spot of levitation saved them both from an embarrassing spill. He landed lightly, blushing at his own mistake, keeping his eyes fixed forward. "Okay, so there's lots of folks with powers around. I was just expecting -- I dunno, a little more structure? Mom used to coach me in self-defense when I was in grade school, and sports was always pretty structured. I'm just surprised to see everyone running around, doing their own thing," he admitted. "What about super-teams and stuff," he asked, suddenly intent. "Is there a school uniform to wear when we're doing stuff like that?"

Most of the action had been wrapped up by the time Dragonfly stuck her head out. Rave squirmed and bucked underneath Ironclad's iron grasp, but she had no leverage and no way to work against the armored heroine's powerful servos. In desperation, she locked her eyes on the heroine's blank mask and sent a pulse of dizzying, nauseating light straight into the young woman's brain. She squeezed her eyes shut to stop the room from spinning, but her grip never slackened.

The supercriminal was too involved with battering down the door to notice when Warlock blew a handful of dust in his direction. He inhaled to take another scream, got a double dose of the sleeping dust, and didn't even wobble once before falling like a tree. He was snoring before he hit the tiled floor. Inside the bathroom, Mara could distinctly hear the sawing away, as well as Rave spitting invectives from back in the eating area.

Rant's Reflex versus DC 19 (1d20+10=12) It hits! Rant's Will save versus 19 (1d20+6=9) And he's down for the count! Rave hits Ironclad with Nauseate 6! Ironclad's Will vs 16 (1d20+7=8) Day-yum. Well, she's not going to be doing much, but at least the Grapple holds! Time for Dragonfly to finish dressing! (Women. Am I right, guys? )

Mara was doublely lucky; the bathroom was a single room, without stalls or any occupant, and the door locked behind her. The last was helpful because of the shout of "Hey! Stop, you!" from Rave. He rushed after her and tugged once on the door handle. Then he stepped back and let out a primal scream, a physical pulse of energy that left the wall on either side of the door indented half an inch or so, but the door itself standing. Rant had turned to watch her brother, and Jessica took the opportunity to act. Reaching over, she touched a button on her wristwatch and armored up in a blaze of light. Ironclad propelled herself across the table and tackled the other woman, the pair going down in a tumble. Rant struggled, but she never had a real chance against Ironclad. For her part the heroine seemed content to hold the villainesse down, pinning her to the floor with a combination of bulk and lifting servos. "Let's just stay right here," she said sweetly, "like well-adjusted young does, while the men sort things out, 'kay?"

Rant moved away from her brother, shrugging out of her backpack. She opened it up and moved from table to table, slowly making her way towards the entrance. "Right, boys and girls, just put it all in the bag," she said, shaking it and shoving it directly into people's faces. "Just put it all in and no one gets hurt." It wasn't long before she was standing in front of the table shared by the three heroes. "Come on, come on! Cash, jewelry, cell phones! Put it all in the bag, and my brother won't have to melt your bones." She gave a shrill laugh and thrust the bag at Mara. Now that the three were closer, they could see the dilated pupils and the shaky hands. It would seem that the super-powered pair had bolstered their courage with street drugs.

Initiative (1d20+3=15) Initiative for both vills (1d20+3=23, 1d20+3=19) Oh, Jesus god! So it's looking like: Rant -- Uninjured -- GM Dragonfly -- Uninjured -- 2 HP Rave -- Uninjured -- GM Ironclad -- Uninjured -- 3 HP Warlock -- Uninjured -- 3 HP

Folks may want to start rolling Init, even if they don't jump into combat.

The waiter nodded over their orders and retreated to the kitchen, while Jessica looked at Blake and gave a frown. "Honey, are you sure about hiring people? I mean, the business might be going good, but you haven't even been open a year. Don't you think you should get your feet under you, maybe get some cash in the bank? They say most small businesses fail in--" The rest of her business advice was cut short as their waiter reemerged walking backward, his attention fixed on a shapely young woman whose finger was in his face. "Don't nobody move," she shouted. "This is a good-old fashioned stick-up!" She laughed shrilly, turning to 'cover' the customers with her finger. Following her out of the kitchen was a thin young man; the family resemblance was unmistakable. "If anyone so much as twitches without us telling you, we're gonna do something like THIS!" She pointed her finger at the ceiling dramatically. Her brother mirrored it, back-to-back, and in a flash of light a large section of the roof vanished, blown into dust. The duo lowered their arms again, pointing them all around. "So don't get any funny ideas, right?"

OOC for this thread.

Glowstar reached out his hands and dark tendrils again ripped through the little restaurant, somehow targetting only the criminals and leaving the citizens (and his fellow hero) untouched. "QUIT IT!" he bellowed, his eyes glowing almost to match the tentacles he was projecting. "Sit down. Wait for the cops. And shut. UP!" His shout sent a surge of power through the energy whips, which burned bright and hot as they speared the criminal hit-men -- er, hit-woman. Hit-people?