Ari

Combat over for now.

Marceau had pulled back his black cowl, leaving his hair to spring up as it usually did when it came time to cut it short again, and began to tell Rene the story at once. He omitted nothing from his report, explaining simply and factually what had happened, Adding only a quiet <"You have friends everywhere it seems Rene, at least one policeman is a Halbedier"> to his otherwise dry verbiage. <"...Then i returned here,"> he concluded, laying the Amulet on the table in front of his friend <"and brought you this. What, if anything, of use can we gather from this item?">

"Done" came Archer's voice, all jocularity gone and replaced with grim intensity. In a flash of light that receded in a downright trippy fashion, the lair, Expiostinot, and the crashing boulders all vanished. The Doom Room appeared once again, a hospital trolly rolling up, a pincer of force fields reaching out to place him on the bed. "If you're in a bad way Marcus, plop on down and we'll get you to the infirmary and try to find out what the matter is"

The King of Suits had found something, or rather three somethings: three tubes just about at the ceiling of the vault, on the rear wall from the door. They were neatly set in a row, bore the marks of vaning been carefully drilled in, and filled with a fine red dust. Careful not to disturb it he collected some in a plastic capsule hooked to his utility belt, picking up grains of the dust with a pair of tweezers. That collected, he turned and called to the other three heroes "I've found three tubes with red stuff in them, not sure what they might have done, but definitely not part of the bank's architecture, what have you got?"

GM This easy(they were all easy, but this one especially so)victory obtained should have been the end of it, but unlike most of the previous competitors Isokratos of Aetna was curious(and wealthy) enough to want to see more of this, calling over Martin he asked, raising his voice a touch to account for the strengthening wind from the south "I wish to see more of your pet in action, specifically I wish to test his footwork. The slopes of Etna will suffice for such a test, what with the scattered boulders and treacherous rocks underfoot and all. If you don't wish to do so, no loss to you, but if you DO consider it, know that I will give up another pound of copper to see Jubatus navigate such terrain, if he can go faster than a arrow fired by me" bowing at the conclusion of that speech, Isokratos signaled for his hounds to be shepherded back to his kennels a little northwest of the city, under the eve of his sprawling home. Staring after him in befuddlement for a good three seconds at his retreating back, Martin gave a casual shrug and walked quickly over to Jay, meeting him halfway out of habit(he had gotten quite used to walking a few steps and suddenly having the cheetah appear beside him). "He wants a..rematch? Or something? Says he wants you to race against an arrow on the slope of Mt. Etna, near the base " he nodded over at the ominous igneous rock dispenser miles to the east "I don't see much need for it, we've got a lot already and the next town isn't too far, but it'd be nice to get a little leeway with the construction. No way I want to end up short after getting all this stuff together"

Subito looked at Kristin in puzzlement "Yeah, radio room sounds good to me. Give me a sec and I'll tell them to stick around here, no problem" he turned and called over to the freed captives <"Friends! I and my ally will go for a quick trip to the radio room to call the Coast Guard so they can arrest these fiends that kidnapped you all! I must ask that you remain here, so that she and I can work quieter and not attract attention until we can be sure all who were party to your torment will be brought to justice. We have the element of surprise, and shall be as a strike of lightning through a tree to these brigands!"> he turned back to Glow "Okay, so now we go look for the room I guess. Should we bar the upper deck thing there?" he pointed at the balcony they had come from "Or d'we leave the doors and stuff like they are, so they can escape if things go south?" He felt a sudden creeping sense of dread at the vastness of the ship, and a sudden urge to charge through the decks, breaking them heedlessly to get to a wider space..and shook himself, muttering "Sorry"

Search check DC30: 35. Marcy finds three tubes set at the top of the rear wall in the vault. They clearly aren't part of the place's general construction, and have a fine red dust on them.

GM Marceau nodded and called over to the teller "We'll be right on it Mz.! On our way" and with that he turned with a swirl of his cape that was second-nature by now, and walked confidently into the vault. The scorch marks on the floor and the lightly-burned ninja the only flaws of the otherwise totally sterile metal chamber...which was also completely empty, and showed no sign of either door, holes in the wall, or even a portal. Startled, he answered Voltage's question nonetheless "I'm trained in detective and investigatory techniques..and I will most likely need them, nothing in here that I can see, no money, no doors, nothing. I'll take a gander, maybe there's some clue..." he put the burned ninja across the doorway as a pseudo road-block, and after rolling up his cape began to carefully examine the metal vault, eyes primed for the least disturbance of the smooth metal. The teller smiled at Voltage's request and directed him to the security room, her smile fading a little at the sight of an unconscious man in a grey security uniform slumped against the controls in front of him, nearly falling out of his chair, and a thin trickle of blood sliding from his short red hair from a lump on the back of his head. After he was moved and 911 had been called to collect the captured ninjas and the recently-discovered injured man, perusal of the security camera footage was entirely opened to the lightning computer genius. What the two learned surprised them both: the ninjas had simply appeared in a cloud of red smoke, which had come out through some unseen aperture at the back of the vault.

That totally deserves a result. Spitfire learns that

The King of Suits stared after the van as it disappeared down the Parisian street, questions buzzing in his brain. A Halbedier?! In the police force? This is an even better group for the House to get acquainted with than I had thought! I'll HAVE to tell old Aloysius about this! he thought, turning and grappling to the roofs once again, and setting out at an easy run back to Marcel's house. The excitement of the night had now dimmed, and he felt deeply tired, and not a little sleepy. Only the old woman's words kept him as alert as he usually was: <"The Hands I have just escaped, so now the Eyes, the Bull and the Wings. But what will they be? The Eyes..spies of the demon, maybe? Ah, I can't think clearly right now, have to ask Rene. The Bull will be the brute when he tires of this game and comes out to get his relic back in person, and the wings..Gallu's a demon, maybe he was once an angel?"> he shook his head, this was hopeless right now. He dealt with secular crimes, not the workings of the vast entities that wielded such power as he was never to see or touch in his life. What could HE, Marceau Suvou, do about such a being? Cast him into a spectral prison? He was so far out of his depth that it was a relief, as the cold moon burned down onto him, the chill winds whipping at his armor and cape, and cooling his burning head beneath his cowl, to land on Marcel's doorstep and knock three times.

Marceau watched in awe as the strange woman rocketed past him, demolishing every ninja in her path with a few well=placed strikes and kicks. As the vapor cleared, he recognized Voltage from the unfortunate incident at the warehouse. "Voltage!" he called over merrily "Great to see you again, what luck we all happened to be here, eh?" he looked admiringly at Spitfire and Synth, wondering what else they might be able to do! Approaching each in turn he happily introduced himself "I'm the King of Suits, investigator, a pleasure to meet you both and fight alongside you! May I ask what you call yourselves?" he asked eagerly "I'd like to thank you for your qui-" "E-excuse me!" came the interjecting voice of the teller Voltage had spoken with, rubbing her neck where a red line marked the graze she had gotten from the ninja that had attempted her capture before being introduced to his own special imprint on the wall by Synth "I don't mean to be rude, but could you guys PLEASE look into how the living Hell those people got inside the vault? It'd give all of us in Eastern Seaboard Bank a lot of peace of mind if you found that out and helped us keep if from happening again" she gave a quiet kick to the ribs of the softly groaning ninja behind her before beginning to tie him up with his own ropes. The visitors were a bit more concerned with clamoring for autographs, wanting to know what the heroes were, if they were part of the Freedom League reserve, and if they could deal with this problem that was positively tearing their neighborhood apart? Marceau was as gracious as he could at the moment, moving a little closer to the other two he asked quietly "What do you think? Who wants to look into this? I know I do"

Okay, that hits all of them thems. #9's TOU save: 8, fails. #10: 11, fails. #11: 21, fails. #12: 6,fails. #13: 21, fails. #14: 18, fails. #7: 20, fails. #8: 7, failed. That's all of them! Combat over! Narrate Synth's kicking of tails as you please! HP for all for the speedy cleanup.

Ninja targeted is #6 as decided in Chat, that hits. DC26 TOU save: 20, failed. He's out, narrate their defeat as you wish.

El Heraldo stood still for a short while, to let the newly enthused captives let loose their outburst of passion, and also because being hugged was something he was quite used to. After accepting their jubilant thanks, and encouraging them to look forward and press onto the coming day and other inspiring phrases. At length, he focused on what one of them had said <"A few were taken away? I fear they might be the unfortunate souls who were found in the harbor earlier today, and who alerted I and my doughty ally to your plight. Stay close with I and her, we'll get you to safety, and to Freedom!"> with that he tore off bars from the cage and fashioned them into rude clubs which he handed out to the captives. Coming back to Glow he said grimly "Okay, I've got them from the cages and back on their feet, what do we do now? I can't hear any guard activity, should we make a break to the yacht and get these people away, or should we stick around and apprehend Diamond and the captain?"

That hits, what with him being a PL5 and all. DC26 TOU roll: 17, failed! narrate the dropping of the hostage-taking brute as you please!

The King of Suits gave a sigh of relief, and dropped down to the ground besides the SWAT team. <"Many thanks to you! I was hoping to lead these things to a magician friend of mine, and have him deal with the spirit that animated these priceless works, but I overestimated my marathon-running prowess"> he said, glancing down the road back to the Arc <"and I merely succeeded in leading the things away from potentially smashing structures had I attempted to escape by running across the rooftops"> he shrugged and cleared his throat slightly in embarrassment <"I apologize for this disturbance, and for the damage it has caused. They were chasing after this:"> he took out the Amulet and showed it to the leader of the SWAT team <"It appears to have some connection to this demon, Gallu. It was stolen by a man who was temporarily seduced by the promise of the power this has to steal it from a museum, if you'll allow it I would like to take it to my magician friend and try to discover its secrets, which shouldn't take long and after which I shall gladly return it to its rightful place."> He hoped fervently this was the right thing to do, as he had no intention whatever of trying to hide what was going on from the authorities.

Hearing the shout of the apparent leader of the ninja gang, Marceau started as he caught a glimpse of the man dragging the two captives away, and almost began to chase after him when the sword slammed into his armor, the rigid metal of which turned the blade but did little to cushion to the blow, leaving a reddening welt on the point of impact. With a slight gasp of surprise and shock(the pain hadn't had time to make itself known yet), the red and black King of Suits spun on his heel and launched a kick at the foeman's head, only to find his strike blocked by the flat of the lucky man's curved sword and braced against an upraised forearm. Wish I could get my hands on a sword, Marceau thought dourly to himself as he took his position again, stepping sharply backwards to get some distance between himself and the ninjas I'd find a great deal of use for it at a time like this!

Okay! So new order: 1. King of Suits: Bruised, 3HP 2. Spitfire: Unharmed, 0HP 3. Voltage: Unharmed, 3HP 4. Synth: Unharmed, 1HP 5. Katanarchists 6-15 King of Suits will attack one of the Katanarchists, and hopefully get a ki..-knockout chain. Attack roll: 35. That hits. Against Concealment roll: 17. Hits the right spot and person! DC19 TOU check for Mr. Katanarchist #13(the one that hit him last round): 21. You CANNOT be serious. Spitfire is up!

Swapped Attack Focus for Attack Specialization(Unarmed) as suggested in chat, and fixed an erroneous Fortitude score. Increased Comprehend Languages to rank 3. How's it check out?

Okay then, removing the Damage extra.

Dropping him to seven feet. Yes, amending History to reflect that. Added explanation for why he didn't keep up on his fighting talents(basically the seas aren't nearly as tempestuous a battleground as they used to be). Changed parenthetical of Language Comprehend. Drat. So the Move Object can be Limited to what it can move, but the Damage Extra only damages what it can move?

Synth delayed until before the Katanarchists, so it's KoS> Spitfire> Voltage> Synth> Katanarchists next round.

I recall a saying about honesty being the something something. Whatever it was, it was very profound and catchy. Welcome to the site Shofet! I hope you do well here.

I've no objection to that. From pictures I've seen online the statues on the Arc[ de Triomphe are quite beautiful

Subito breathed a sigh of relief as the guard thudded against the far wall. He was more than a little distressed that he'd had to fight them, and that they'd shown no sign of wanting to negotiate. He wondered if what he'd done was entirely appropriate as he rejoined Kristin. "Great work Kris" he said brightly "Good trick, hitting that guy with the door, I'm gonna see if I can coax any life out of those people" with that, he walked over to the cage and hoisted his Banner. <"Captives from another land,"> he began soothingly in Spanish <"I and my friend have come to rescue you from this place. We have strength far beyond what your captors possess, and we will release you from your misery!"> he cried aloud, raising the Banner as a shaft of light illuminated the area around him and a sound as of a thousand voices echoed his words jubilantly.