Supercape

Marcus is fairly confident that Sir Thomas is not deceiving him, and also appears not to recognise you.

"Well, I think that's ze end of that. All ends that end well" said Rene, pocketing the Ivory Statuette. He wasn't somebody who could bear to see good art go to waste. It was art! "I suppose we should now call ze 'cops' as you Americans say, oui?" he chuckled, to the groans of the acolytes, most of who had realised the futility of struggle. "And an undertaker, or perhaps an archeologist..." he added, looking at the two dozen civil war corpses that littered the ground. They deserved some kind of formal burial after being abused.

Ok so Supercape is now fatigued. -2 STR and DEX (not going to matter much although I suppose he drops 1 init) -1 to attack: Will make no difference to perception attacks (And given how easy they are to hits...) -1 to defence: Well, I hope they stay blind! Anyway, the Gamma burst is directed at the Lead Blob. He is going to stick with Gamma burst now until encounter over I think. So poison attack kicks in 10 rounds from now. Which, given the rate we are going, may be one of the few occassions poison is actually worth it!

"Well, if we can hurt them enough..." speculated Supercape, and speculation it was. He baulked at doing it, but needs must. With a deep furrow in his brow, and his body actually contorting with effort, he mentally reached down into the belly of the largest beast, and shifted a few atoms. A bright green haze enveloped the Blob momentarily, a haze that at points leapt out in green bolts of light. "Gamma radiation..." he said, his brow dotted with sweat. His head hurt all over, but he had managed it. "...I have no idea what it will do, but its toxic to most life, and I suppose our friend can be loosely defined as life..."

"Maths and science, well I never" remarked Quentin, genuinely rather surprised. "Anyway, I imagine learning the classics like Latin and Greek will help you in your field. And of course you will have access to the finest philosophy and mythology in the original language. You could read Plato, or Catalus, in the original language! fancy that eh? To my shame I never learned ancient Greek myself" he sighed, looking genuinely ashamed. "Too much else to learn, you know how it is, biochemistry one week, ancient anthropology the next, always learning!" he chuckled. "But Latin is a good language, lots of fine literature in Latin, and good for biology. Those zoologists and botanists love naming stuff don't they?"

GM "I am Hiroshima Shadow, gaijin!" replied the incandescent figure who glowed and continued to emit pulsating blue white sparks and radiation. "And this is my feast. I have grown more powerful than you can..." His face writhed in pain as his body convulsed with a wave of powerful electricity and flared even brighter for a second. "...possibly...imagine" he groaned before continuing "and the West will feel my wrath, a terrible wrath like a thousand suns!"

Rene sighed. It was a sad story, although he was glad that Nick had once again stepped into his role as the guardian of the dead and rescued them. "A tragic story, Madame. I can understand your grief. " He scrutinised the ghosts carefully and closed his eyes, using his mind's eye to see them more clearly than his failing eyesight could. He was uncertain about their presence. They were certainly not malign, but on the other hand things could get... complicated, with ghosts around. Etain had hit upon one conundrum already.

Rene felt the souls explode out of the statuette. His senses on the matter were dim compared to his friends, but he could feel the pressure of spirits around him. Released! Free! they cried. If Carrefour had unleashed these souls, under his command, into the ground below them, he would have had an army of civil war corpses to command. It was a good thing Nick had knocked him out. He looked around, seeing with his mind's eye the wisps of the souls circling around them, roaring their joy as the chains of servitude fell of them. He had no idea how ancient some may have been. Centuries? Millennia? Long enough to relish the broken chains, for sure.

Given enough time, you nullify...

Sense Motive roll may be appropriate 1d20+8=11 Not much from Rene. DC 15 for a feel for the guy.

GM "Sir Thomas" replied the Knight, looking Marcus straight in the eye, and then at his sword several feet away. He edged towards it but soon saw that Marcus was circling to cut him off from his weapon. He cast around for a club or a makeshift weapon... "I am trying to kill a beast that has ravaged our fair lands for many moons. A beast that shows no mercy, killing womenfolk and children, and lifestock too. A beast that is more than tooth and claw, but forged from sorcery too. And it seems, a beast who has a tounge!"

Ok I think with the Knight disarmed we are moving out of combat back into social - although wrong words or slip ups could move us back into it and feel free to continue wailing on him at any point.

"And now?" replied Rene, turning over the statuette in his hands and remaining oblivious to the groans, pleas and desperation of the acolytes who strained uselessly against the power of Cimitiere. It was magical, that was for sure, and he could recognise the mythology it symbolised, but that was about it. "If there are still souls in here... then we should release them should we not? send them on their way? and then... the statuette itself. Useless without its twin, I would imagine. What to do with it? It is a rather lovely piece of art, after all. "

Gaelic? wondered Rene. He was fluent in nearly dozen dialects, some of them quiet cryptic, but he couldn't count that amongst them. Ah well, the more languages they had between them, the better. Mystic texts turned up in all sorts of languages. "Oui, oui, pleasure to meet you, Monsieur and Madame. We wish you know harm, peace be with you. " He bowed slightly, and doffed his beret. "A beautiful house it is too. I understand why you... linger... if that is correct?"

"Good throw!" exclaimed Rene. "Maybe your American game baseball is worth something after all, eh?" he chuckled. The zombies collapsed, lifeless, to the ground, and the remaining acolytes, realising they were totally outmatched, were using all their energy (without success) in trying to free themselves from the grasping hands Nick had summoned. Rene walked over to Carrefour and picked up the sister statuette. It was of Kali, but Ivory rather than Obsidian. It had a few small hairline cracks from Nicks assault but it looked like it would hold together. "What do you make of this?"

GM The poor cultist flew through air and straight into the struggling Carrefour's body. The two of the collided heavily and ended up in a rolling sprawl. For all his mental fortitude, Carrefour was no longer blessed with a young body, the impact drew the wind from him, and as he knocked heads with one of his acolytes, his eyes rolled to the top of is head, and he sank to his knees. "So close... so close..." he whispered, almost nonsensical to the world, before giving Nick a last glare. "You will pay for this, I swear by the seven oaths of Ah..." But alas, he could not complete even one oath. The light went from his eyes, and he collapsed face down into the floor.

It certainly hits, although Carrefour has a Deflect 9 power... which he has used already. So Bish bash bosh! 1d20+2=6 and thats a KO!!!! Damn, your cosh could have KO'd the old man. EDIT: Not that we need it at this point, but that was sufficiently cool for an HP in my opinion!

Ok Extra Effort for a power stunt: GAMMA BLAST! Damage 10 Extras Range Perception [+2] Alternate Save Fortitude [+1] Poison [+1], Feats: Incurable, Affect Insubstantial 2, Subtle, Sedation (Keep on glowin'), Precise [56 PP] Is that ok?

He's not quite finished yet! Got to bump up those saves, attacks, and defence, and I may even throw in a few Luck ranks (Rage at luck!) But I'm not sure I want him any more than PL 14 tops to be honest. There are few enough published threats at that PL let alone PL 15. And in my mind INT 18 (and WIS 18) is still a genius! he may not be the smartest man in the country, but there is more than one genius in a country!

That is a little bit of fluff related to plot device. Hiroshima is a bit "transformed" shall we say. Not much mechanical difference, but potentially exploitable.

Coudn't find any rules explicitly answering this question: Supercape is now PL13, approaching 14. Whilst he needs some PPs to bring up his attack and defence to PL and raise up his exotic saves (I have a lot of unspent points and guess where they are going!) he can now do basically everything I would want him too. I am reluctant (but not obstinately against) to push him to PL 15 (or even 14). Part of this is because there is a terrible paucity of robust threats at that PL. Is it possible to just keep earning PPs but not spend them? I know the answer is probably technically yes, but it seems that your PL is based on unspent points rather than spent ones, which makes thing somewhat complicated. At the end of the day PL is fundamentally a guide to what threats to throw at the character and if he was at say 190 PP spent (PL 13) but had earned 220 (PL 15) that would throw things a little out of kink. One option would be just to refuse the rewards I guess? although I would kind of like them for the sake of Silver/Gold status etc.

Rene realised he had little chance of overcoming Carrefour's ferocious mind and steely will with spells of sleep or enchantment. Perhaps a more direct approach? "All this darkness. One cannot paint it! It needs a little spark!" he laughed, as a lightning bolt shot from the sky and hurtled towards the voodoo priest. Only too split and bounce of him heading skywards again, without Carrefour so much as raising an eyebrow. "I prefer the dark" he muttered, his concentration still on Nick.

I'll let you roll for the Bone SNare when the time comes. For now, Rene is going to whip off a Lightning Bolt at Carrefour. 1d20+8=21 easily hits. And then: Deflect power... 1d20+9=21 versus 1d20+8=14 Zing!

GM Living or dead, it did not matter. Nick proved himself no slouch in brawling if the need came to it. With its ancient cranium crushed by the cosh, it toppled over, inanimate to the world. A few black necromantic blasts strayed Nicks way from the scared acolytes, and although Nick was now a sitting duck, they could do nothing whilst he was protected by his Jacket that was bathed in the power of the Styx itself. They may as well have been using pea shooters on a tank. Carrefour still roared defiance but it was a roar tempered with respect and even a note of fear as he recognised the power that oozed from Nick. Again, he flung a cobweb of bones at his foe, without speaking this time. He recognised his adversary was very dangerous, and was using all of his concentration for the battle.

Ok the Zombies are either grapples with no hope of escape, or - in one case, dispatched from Nick's cosh. The three Pinned (not helpless Mystics) now see Nick as more of a threat and will blast him. 1d20+4=9, 1d20+4=20, 1d20+4=19 2 hit (as NIck is flat footed) Impervious 12 armour - no chance. As for Carrefour, he is still immobilised - but again more of a threat: he will throw more bones at Nick: 1d20+9=19 should hit - at least when you are flat footed. Its a DC 19 Reflex check. Any failure means you are bound / helpless. You can still maintain your grapple of course, or choose to regrapple people as standard action.