Ari

Girder Power Level: 10 (150/150PP) Unspent Power Points: 0 Trade-Offs: None In Brief: Metalbending messiah. Catchphrase: "One must listen to know, know to understand, understand to judge. And judge I shall." Theme: It Seemed The Better Way - Leonard Cohen Alternate Identity: Oluremilikun Ransome-Kuti / "Remi" Birthplace: Abeotuka, Nigeria Residence: Freedom City, USA Base of Operations: Claremont Academy Occupation: Messianic trainee, political activist, superhero Affiliations: Theosophic Western Order, Family: Amatuken Ransome-Kuti(mother), Eiyowuawi Ajayi(father(deceased)), thirteen elder sisters, Oloroo Ransome-Kuti(younger sister) Description: Age: (DoB: 2002 (April 5th) Apparent Age: Mid-teens Gender: Masculine Ethnicity: Yoruban Height: 5'9" Weight: 150lbs Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Remi is a strong, sturdy young man whose crisp minimalism encompasses almost every aspect of his life, from his monochromatic clothes to a curt growl of a voice. He wears his hair long in an unruly mane of long curls that covers his shoulders and frames his solemn face. The only concessions to personal flavor are a platinum necklace and a steel armband around his left bicep stamped with a glyph recognizable as the Atlantean word for "student". The necklace bears the insignia of the Theosophic Society, interlocked religious symbols surrounded by an ouroboros engraved with the words "There Is No Religion Higher Than Truth". On-campus at Claremont Academy he always wears the school uniform, modified to resemble the original private school's uniform two-piece suit. If his skin is broken his true nature is revealed, as thick, smoking-hot black ichor seeps from the wound. Girder wears bulky clothes in road-sign orange and yellow, with a featureless steel mask concealing his face, thick gloves with metal-tipped fingers and truly terrifying steel-toed boots. In costume, he never speaks if he can help it. History: Many throughout history have killed a dragon, but Amatuken Ransome-Kuti is the only living soul on Earth known as the Dragonslayer. The skulls of a thousand such decorate her fortress-like home in Nigeria, along with those of countless other, lesser creatures. Amatuken is master of a thousand spells, the elements tremble at a glance of her golden eyes, spirits bow before her and through force of will and spirit she commands many of Atlantis' deepest secrets. The recreation of Atlantis, which she sees as necessary to save "this Fallen world", has consumed her life since she learned of her family's ancient heritage there. Seizing on the fanciful myths of the island-nation's founding, its heroes having "dragon's blood", Amatuken made a very simple plan: she would capture infant dragons, replace their hearts with those of her children and vice versa, and this new generation would be born with the magical gifts necessary to save the world. In addition, the possession of a human heart would link these worms to her children as guides and protectors, ensuring their survival and direction in life. All would be born with the fire of a dragon's ambition, a thirst for power and glory, tempered by human cunning and restraint. As well, they would have the very literal power to create and control fire. Ransacking dragon hoards and other monster lairs leaves you pretty well-off financially, and with the Ransome-Kuti estate in Abeokuta at her disposal she had a perfect place to start her new, better family. Thirteen daughters were born to her, all brimming with the fire alongside mighty dragons. Her fourteenth child, a son, lacked even a spark, and so did his companion drake. Oluremilikun never had much chance to forget this. Compared to even his younger sister, born years after him, he was weak and fragile. He couldn't summon fire or fly on his own. His studies into the mystical dimensions of the Earth and the higher realities were lackluster too, from an early age science and changing the physical world itself captured his dreams. Personality & Motivation: Powers & Tactics: Girder Power Descriptions: Complications: Name: Description Abilities: 6 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 8 + 6 = 32 PP Strength 16 (+3) Dexterity 14 (+2) Constitution 14 (+2) Intelligence 14 (+2) Wisdom 18 (+4) Charisma 16 (+3) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16 PP Attack: +4 (+10 Metallurgy) Defense: +10 (+4 Base, + 6 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Initiative: +2 Grapple: +13/+9 Knockback: -10/-5/-1 Saving Throws: 6 + 6 + 5 = 17 PP Toughness: +10/+2 (+2 CON, +8/+0 Defensive Roll) Fortitude: +8 (+2 CON, +6) Reflex: +8 (+2 DEX, +6) Will: +9 (+4 WIS, +5) Skills: 104r = 26 PP Acrobatics 8 (+10) Skill Mastery Computers 8 (+10) Craft (mechanical) 8 (+10) Skill Mastery Craft (structural) 8 (+10) Skill Mastery Disable Device 13 (+15) Skill Mastery Intimidate 12(+15) Skill Mastery Knowledge(arcane Lore) 6 (+8) Knowledge (physical sciences) 8 (+10) Knowledge (technology) 8 (+10) Skill Mastery Knowledge(theology & philosophy) 5 (+7) Language 8 (Yoruban(Native), Atlantean, Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Igbo, Lemurian, Mandarin) Notice 6 (+10) Skill Mastery Sense Motive 6 (+10) Skill Mastery Feats: 21 PP Acrobatic Bluff Artificer Challenge (Fast Startle) Defensive Roll 4 Dodge Focus 6 Improvised Tools Inventor Quick Change Ritualist Sidekick 30 ( Skill Mastery 2 (Acrobatics Craft [Mechanical], Craft [Structural], Disable Device, Intimidate, Technology, Notice, Sense Motive) Startle Uncanny Dodge (tactile) Powers: 2 + 5 + 30 + 8 = 45 PP All powers have the Magic , Metal and Training descriptors Comprehend 2(Languages, understand all, read all, speak one at a time; Flaws: Unreliable(DC12 Intelligence check); Drawbacks: Earth languages only)[2PP] Immunity 10(All effects with the Metal descriptor; Flaws: Duration(Sustained))[5PP] Metallurgy (21 PP Array (Power Feats: Accurate 3, Alternate Power 6) [30 PP] Base: Ironhide 6 (30PP Container; Action(Free Action); Duration(Sustained); Flaws: Medium(metal); Feats: Reversible)[21PP][ Damage 7(Extras: Penetrating 3[DMG10]; Feats: Extended 4 [20ft], Improved Critical 2 [18-20])[16PP] Flight 4 (100MPH, Extras: Affects Others; Flaws: Limited(towards surfaces only), Medium(metal; Feats: Move-By-Action)[5PP] Impervious Toughness 10(Flaws: Ablative) [5PP] Super-Movement 4 (Permeate 2, Swinging, Wall-Crawling 1; Flaws: Limited(metal))[ 4PP] AP: Blast 10 (Extras: Penetrating 6[DMG16]; Flaws: Medium(metal); Power Feats: Improved Critical(19-20), Indirect 3, Variable Descriptor 1(Bludgeoning/Piercing/Slashing) [21PP] AP: Transform 10 (1000 pounds, any metal into any metal; Extras: Duration [Continuous], Flaws: Check Required (DC20 Physical Sciences), Range [Touch] Reshape Only; Power Feats: Precise) [21 PP] AP: Move Object 10 (Extras: Range(Perception); Flaws: Medium(metal); Feats: Precise)[21PP] AP: Snare 10 (Extras: Area (Targeted Shapeable); Flaws: Medium(metal); Power Feats: Obscures Sense(Visual))[21PP] AP: Transform 5 (25 pounds, unrefined substance into metal; Extras: Area(burst), Duration(Continuous); Flaws: Action(Full-Round), Limited(solids only), Range(Touch); Feats: AP Trip 10 (Extras: Area(Targeted Shapeable), Linked(Damage); Flaws: Medium(metal); Feats: Improved Trip)[11PP] + Damage 10 (Extras: Area(Targeted Shapeable), Linked(Trip), Range(ranged); Flaws: Additional Save(Reflex, DC20), Medium(metal))[10PP] Super-Senses 8 ((Tactile) Accurate, Analytical, Extended 3 [1000 feet], Radius, Ranged) [8 PP] Drawbacks -3 - 4 = -7 Vulnerability(Air Damage/ Effects, Frequency: Common(-2); Intensity: Moderate(x1.5 DC; -1))[-3] Vulnerability(Electricity Damage/Effects, Frequency: Common(-2); Intensity: Major(x2 DC; -2))[-4] Abilities (32) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (17) + Skills (26) + Feats (21) + Powers (45) - Disadvantages (-7) = 150/150 PP

Hope you have a good time and some peace and quiet, Ex!

This is the first Jessica has ever heard of a prior demonic visitor and it's the kind of thing she's pretty sure she'd know about.

DC20 Reflex: 14. Failed. DC25 Toughness save(had to reroll this one because I forgot the Bruises): 17. Failed by 8 so Dazed, Injured and Bruised. Round 3. Dr. Saunders: Bruised(x3), Injured(x2), Dazed, Entangled -GM Emerald Spider: Unharmed, 1HP Mr. Murk: Staggered, Unconscious, 2HP Salvo: Unharmed, 1HP @Tiffany KortaEmerald Spider is up once more.

Bah sorry Tiff that hits: DC22 Toughness save: 19. Bruised again. Salvo is up.

The Innate Super-Strength is Flawed to the Sustained Duration, though, halving the cost. Was missing a PP to account for the Groundstrike, though. Added that from the phantom Skills point. Re-taiiled the costs and found I was overspent by 2PP. Put 1 into Immunity(Poison) and 1 into 4 ranks of Survival. Otherwise, edits completed.

Notice roll is 1, not, sadly, a natural 1, but a one.

Squire B'Ka Power Level: 9 (135/140PP) Unspent Power Points: 5 Trade-Offs: -2 Attack / +2 Damage(energy sword), -1 Attack / +1 Damage(energy blast), -2 Defense / +2 Toughness In Brief: A brazen bull in a cosmic china-shop. Catchphrase: "I'll surrender when I'm dead!" Theme: Alternate Identity: B'Ka (Public) Birthplace: Netypayatet Residence: The Citadel of the Star Knights Base of Operations: Coalition Space Occupation: Star Knight(in training) Affiliations: Star Knights Family: Monti (Mother), Apisi (Father), dozens of siblings and extended family Description: Age: Born on the 12th day of the 8th week of the 47th Year of the Scouring Storm(November 4th, 1999) Apparent Age: To other khered of his kind: late teens. Gender: Man Ethnicity: Bronze Bulls Height: 6ft 5in/1.95m Weight: 300lbs/136kg Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Squire B'Ka is a powerfully-built minotaur-like creature, with dull golden skin similar to a Red Dexter and fierce eyes. His horns are mutilated stumps, broken off when he was a child. He keeps his hair shorn on his head, and his coarse red fur bristles when he's angry, which is most of the time. In his armor Squire B'Ka is a towering pillar of bronze, the channeling cores for his weapon systems set on either side of his head. History: Until recently, the Hapisians had been slowly developing on a semi-arid world of steppes, small seas and clustered bands of jungle. Today they occupy every planet of their system and are turning themselves into the Coalition's chief agricultural exporters. Called the 'khered' or 'children' among themselves, they are known to the wider universe for their incredibly rich and fertile home system of the stars known as Ha, Pi and Si. The stars orbit each other at intervals that have helped to create multiple 'garden' worlds in the golden zone where the suns are neither too hot or too cold. B'Ka was born amid a time of turmoil for the people of his planet. A great storm had been circling the planet every year, with no sign of abating, and the lives of Netypayatet's inhabitants had been made into miserable toil. This was a time for everyone to band together, for personality and independence to be subsumed under the necessity of focusing on daily survival. Their world hadn't yet made contact with the worlds of the Republic, so they had nobody to look to but themselves. Even their prayers to Hathor, the Horned Queen of Heaven, could only temporarily ease the storm's fury. In this time, B'Ka was more a hindrance than a help. He was caught several times stealing from the food and water stores, fought other children for their shares and used his size and strength ruthlessly to his advantage. He made others do his work and took their discoveries and produce into town faster than they could catch him. At last, when he was 15, it was decided to banish him. His horns were broken off, he was driven to the edge of inhabited territory and left in the very teeth of the storm with hardly a day's food and water. It was fervently hoped that he would die. Instead, over a course of weeks B'Ka fought his way into the storm's eye, determined to prove himself finally superior to everyone else. At last, surviving off patches of grass and pools formed by the bullet-like rainfall, he found the storm's source: a low-flying Republic probe that had malfunctioned during atmospheric entry, its electromagnetic field warping the planet's weather into the neverending hurricane. Managing to leap aboard, B'Ka had the khered's first meeting with aliens when he found the long-dead corpse of the Lor pilot. The craft's AI implanted Galstandard into his brain, requesting orders in the voice of his father. B'Ka was tempted sorely by the power all around him. If he wanted, he could become like a god, gentling or empowering the storm at will. He could make the planet his fiefdom, the rest of his people his slaves. But the voice had touched something else in the boy's heart, reminding him of when he was younger, before the endless misery and fear had taken hold, when he'd been looked at with pride and love instead of hatred. B'Ka dispatched a distress signal to the nearby exploration fleet and sent the machine crashing into the ground. The storm took days to disperse, but when it did, the Barque shone like never before. The return trip was even worse than the walk out, Without the shielding cloud cover and frequent rains, it was only by luck that he was found in the wastelands before he died. He recovered in hospital while watching news of his race's entry into the Republic. Their relatively low-tech society was far outweighed, in the expedition's eyes, by their willingness to cooperate and their dedication to equality of all. There hadn't even been a war in living memory, even the misery of the Scouring Storm only sparking brief skirmishes that quickly dispersed. When he got out of hospital at age 16, the Incursion War had begun. Still too weak to fight, he had to watch it play out at home, while he trained and worked to make up for who he used to be. After the war was over, in the search for more Star Knights, Mentor sent word for the young bull who had saved his world to be brought to the Citadel for training. Personality & Motivation: B'Ka does not, as a rule, think. Largely, that's because he's still a child by his people's standards. He's all blustering ego and blind determination. His heart is both the worst and best part of him. It sends him doggedly up against impossible odds and out to serve the weak wherever and whenever he can. It also pushes him into schemes and strategies that defy all reason based largely off of gut instinct and a now-unyielding moral compass. Squire B'Ka is here to do his people proud and justify Mentor's choice to make him a Star Knight, and he has a country boy's prickly pride for his rustic homecontinent with its magnetically-powered tractors and roaming herds of hyper-apes. Continually on the back foot from his new alien surroundings, B'Ka's herd instincts lead him to seek out comrades and possible friendships wherever he can, but he's hampered by a coarse, blunt and anti-diplomatic nature. Powers & Tactics: Squire B'Ka flings himself into the fray, goading more powerful opponents into dropping their guard or striking fear into the hearts of weaker opponents with roars and snarls. He frequently attacks without regard for his own safety, to make sure he can get every erg from his blaster array and every nanogram of power out of his arc-horns. Power Descriptions: The Star Knight's armor is a thing of legend, and even the lower-powered models that come out of the Citadel are not to be underestimated. Squire B'Ka's is more or less standard-issue, channeling the power of the Star Stone to protect its wearer, give him high-powered weapons, let him travel at great speeds and translating the universe's vast spectrum of meaning. The weapons systems are the most notable of changes, centered on the helmet. Instead of forming energy-expulsion tubes they create a sun-disk like construct dominated by two great curving horns of plasma. It emits concentrated beams from the disk and the horns are quasi-solid. Complications: A Little Mooncalf: B'Ka, despite learning to be a paramilitary officer in a star-spanning police force, still has a lot of maturing and learning to do. He knows this, is very self-conscious about it, and it makes him easy to manipulate. Bully For You: B'Ka has improved immensely, but it can still be tricky for him to let go of using his great strength and size to get his way and to empathize with other people. Bull-Headed: B'Ka is impulsive and prone to charging into things. Herd Mentality: B'Ka follows trends and the whims of the crowd by a powerful survivor instinct. Rangesick: Chances to be around or even speak his own people or family are precious to B"Ka, he would never turn it down. Red Bull, Blue Face: B'Ka is driven to live up to an unrealistic and frankly insultingly unsophisticated ideal of what a Star Knight should be. Off the Farm: B'Ka has no idea how any of this place works or why, but is sure that everyone else doesn't know he doesn't know that. Shame about the Horns: B'Ka is very sensitive about his lost horns and would do a lot to get them back. Abilities: 8 - 2 + 4 - 2 + 4 + 8 = 20PP Strength: 18/30 (+4/+10) Dexterity: 8 (-1) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 8 (-1) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 18 (+4) Combat: 6 + 6 = 12PP Initiative: -1 Attack: +3 Melee, +4 Ranged, +7 Energy Sword, +8 Energy Blast Defense: +7 (+3 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +1 Flat-Footed Grapple: +9/+22 with Star Knight Armor Knockback: -1/-11(with Star Knight armor) Saving Throws: 5 + 4 + 4 = 13PP Toughness: +2/+11 (+2 Con, +9 Protection(Star Knight Armor) [+0/+9 Impervious(Star Knight Armor)]) Fortitude: +7 (+2 Con, +5) Reflex: +3 (-1 Dex, +4) Will: +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 24R = 6PP Bluff 6 (+10) Skill Mastery Intimidate 6 (+10) Skill Mastery Language 1 (Galstandard, Kheredet [Native]) Notice 3 (+5) Skill Mastery Sense Motive 3 (+5) Skill Mastery Survival 5 (+8) Feats: 8PP All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Ranged) 1 Dodge Bonus 4 Power Attack Skill Mastery (Bluff, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive) Powers: 68 + 8 = 76PP Star Knight Armor Device 17 (85 DP; Hard to Lose) [68 PP] Offensive Capabilities 20 PP Array (Power Feats: Accurate 2; Alternate Power 3) {25 DP} BP: Blast 10 {20/20 PP} (energy blast) AP: Enhanced Strength 12 + Enhanced Super-Strength 3(to Super-Strength 5 (+25 to Effective Strength, Groundstrike [Area (Burst, 50ft), DC1d20+15]) + Strike 1 (Feats: Mighty [DMG11]) (energy sword) {20/20 PP} AP: Snare 10 {20/20 PP} AP: Nullify Technology 10 (Flaw: Full Action) {20/20 PP} Comprehend 2 (speak one language at a time and understand all; read all languages) {4 DP} Enhanced Feat 1 (Quick Change) {1 DP} Immovable 1 (+4 to Push, Rush, Trip or Throw Attacks, +4 to Knockback) {1PP} Immunity 10 (life support; starvation and thirst) {10 DP} Flight 8 (2,500 mph) {16 DP} Protection 9 (Extras: Impervious 9) {18 DP} Super-Senses 2 (Communication Link [Mentor]; Radio; Low-light vision; Direction Sense) {4 DP} Super Movement (Space Travel) 3 ({6 DP} Hapisian Physiology 1.2(7PP Container, Action: None; Duration: Permanent; Feats: Innate)[8PP] Immunity 1 (Poison) {1PP} Super-Strength 2 (+10 to Effective Strength; Flaws: Duration [Sustained]; Feats: Groundstrike (Area [Burst, 20ft], DC1d20+12) {3PP} Super-Senses 3 (Acute Normal Olfactory, Tracking [Normal Olfactory], Direction Sense) {3PP} Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 19 Toughness Damage(Physical) E. Blast Ranged DC 25 Toughness Damage(Physical) E. Sword Touch DC 26 Toughness Damage(Physical) Gr.Strike Area DC 1d20+12/15 Ref. Tripped Totals: Abilities (20) + Combat (12) + Saving Throws (13) + Skills (6) + Feats (8) + Powers (76) - Drawbacks (0) = 135/140 Power Points

All but two fail! Ruling they can't very well make the Reflex save what with being Descending Bears. They all shoot at Scarab, but only two have a prayer of hitting you: one misses, one hits. DC20 TOU, as before. Meanwhile, one of the Bears' ropes snaps, sending them hurtling to the ground!

You fall into the quicksand. Make any roll you wish that might help out. I personally suspect something that gets the panther to come closer would be best. or you could try to pull yourself out with another vine, or something else. You could always activate your armor. So long as you don't mind the potential hazards.

Okay, you are not Bruised already AND you've managed to pull ahead of the killer kitty. And Nathan sees a patch of quicksand ahead he could lure the panther into. Requires an Acrobatics/Reflex save to grab a vine and swing across successfully, DC15.

AA that's a very good idea. M'Balla as basically Lighter and Softer Haile Selassie Jr. Red Hyena could have opposed his reforms increasing the power of the non-nobility of the kingdom.

I mean more Thevshi that making the 'clan' thing more in the style of political parties and/or philosophical movements doesn't seem to me like such a problem, while making it about Power Families gets weird real fast.

African history spans thousands of years, no reason the White Lions had to have always been in charge. And the whole implicit nature of them being more 'advanced' ties into Western expectations already so I don't see how following the examples of quasi-mythical founding leaders is any worse a step.

Well considering they're a very advanced civilization shouldn't the clans thing be mostly a formality, not to mention a very vague distinction given the relatively little intro of outsiders and such to the land meaning everyone must have a pretty tangled family tree? Maybe it's more like political parties with them forming their policy in more or less accord to some ancient hero who obtained the power of Animal X and had such and such focus during their rule of Dakana. Like, currently the White Lions are in charge and they traditionally were about protecting the borders and pushing for the security and power of Dakana over other concerns?

Tesla knows more, but she's reluctant to say. About what, exactly, might take some digging. Weather machines don't work like this, so far as Torpedo Lass knows.

Okay, since I've let this lie fallow for a while @Exaccus Give me a Constitution save and an Intelligence save! @Sailor Give me a Sense Motive and a Knowledge: Technology roll.

GM Torpedo Lass Tesla wrinkled her nose "Yah, it's real muggy 'cause the old boss wanted people to be miserable. This whole island used to belong to a guy from another dimension, Edison told me about him. Got kicked out of his home with all his minions and ended up here thanks to the Lor...the locals. Let him grab an old weather machine they got from the Russians, kept him supplied and more or less happy. Died about 20 years ago when the folks from his Earth came calling to tie up loose ends." Dropping down gracelessly to the ship's hull, Tesla patted a spot next to her, pointing up at a dimly-detectable peak off in the distance "That used to be the base, they stored all sorts of crazy stuff. The locals picked that clean years ago, but there's all sorts of other stuff, like this!" She gestured expansively to the Oklahoma "And there's lots of animals and plants, so it's nice to come out and just feel all the nature trying to crawl into your ears. S'great." "They're gonna start using this as a base, according to Edison. Don't like them messing with my vay-cay spot, but what am I gonna do? Can't fight 'em all." Doctor Deoxy Meanwhile, Deoxy was being chased by a panther.

GM On the other side of the door was a nervous-looking young woman with thick brown hair wearing what could be broadly described as business casual. She was fiddling with a pair of golden spectacles with one hand and glancing hurriedly over a sheaf of papers on a clipboard held in the other. Starting at the voice, the woman yelped and dropped the clipboard. At the same time a finger caught under glasses, sending them winging away into the street. The woman stared blankly at where they had gone for a second...and winced as a car drove by. "Don't need that to do my jobHey Ms. Witchblood!" she spun on her heel to beam at Jessica, all professional cheer "So glad to see you! Let's get all this out of the way." Reaching out a hand that very suddenly had a pair of bolt cutters, she snipped the chain and slid right past Jessica into the living room. Her hands on her hips, she surveyed the mess with an approving eye, nodding thoughtfully "Yeah, I can work with this. Okay!" She clapped her hands crisply "So, this is my first assignment to a human, and I hope I can meet your doubtless unrealistic and frankly unfair hopes, Ms. Witchblood! After your last demon met that...unfortunate accident," the woman's eyes flicked briefly to the closet door "Lower Management decided they needed a fresh set of eyes on your case." "You can call me Jay!" She marched up and offered her hand, grinning from ear to ear.

OOC thread for this thread. Jessica meets her personal devil!

GM One of the Week Days? Maybe? Probably March 4th 2018? Evening? Definitely Jessica Witchblood's apartment The first thing that happened was the knock at the door. It was firm, insistent, and worst of all woke Jessica up out of an extremely pleasant dream. One involving a beach, a soft-eyed lover and one of her old teachers burning on a stake for all to see. "Are you there, Ms. Witchblood?" A muffled voice hollered through the door "It's me, your demon! I'm...well I'm here for the orientation!" This week had been one of the worst in Jessica's entire life. If she tried to focus on any one of the miserable things that had been going on, it caused her a severe migraine and summoned several other phantoms for the problems stacked on top of them. Which started hitting her head with large iron mallets. That might have been the ill-fated all-nighter coming back to haunt her. Greek wine was sweet, delicious, deadly. Sweet, like the lips of- The voice burst in again "Um....is this the right place? Should I come back? I need to see a Ms. Witchblood right away! Otherwise they'll throw me in the lake of fire! Again!"

Ishmael shrugged it off. "No worries." "I don't think that's a good idea, to just zap in all of us at once. If we take it slow we can get an idea of what we're going to see and have to get around, while if we just go into the summit we could just as easily fall right into a giant grid of invisible tripwire lasers or sensory nanoclouds or something. Besides, can't have just stuck everything worth looking into at the top, got to be something lower down for everyday use." "Are we just looking for evil science, recordings of him and suspicious people, falsified tax forms? Him being a dick? I think we should stick with the first and maybe the second, that's at least easy to verify." Paris said it lightly, but he was thankful that the suit had a high collar. He'd know in a glance if he was seeing one of the city's underworld figures talking with Mars, and if there wasn't some way to prove it outside of his say so, there'd be some pretty serious questions. None of which he could afford to answer. I begged out of a meeting between the Mafiya and Old Hawk's people for this...

GM With a sickening sensation the treasury rushed past them, depositing the two of them on the doorstep at the head of the stairs. The doorway was oddly-hard to make out, even in the unlight it didn't seem quite distinct enough, and swirling, inchoate shapes flowed about it like some bizarre soup. From behind it, Lord Steam could hear voices. "Are you sure it's wise, Princess?" Envoy Lina's voice murmured, seeping like ocean waves "They seem peaceful enough, why not let them dream here?" Thetis' voice was sharp as a whip, all her earlier giddiness and cheer nowhere in evidence "I can't very well pretend the two most distinctive envoys have just vanished. We need them. Give me that light." A glare like the sun blazed through the cracks around the door, blinding in the unlight and leaving great colored smears of after-images on Lucien's eyes. "A twitch!" Thetis said joyfully "Now, get Lockwood's eyes open!" The light began to build even further, painfully, agonizingly. The door began to rattle and shake off its hinges and the floor itself began to tremble. But even so, Lucien found himself drawn, step by step to the handle...

GM Waving the thing in the air produced nothing but a low, groaning note of music that looped back on itself to create a singularly-discouraging drone. During another geometric exercise, Lucien's thumb happened to depress the button on the handle. Most luckily, this happened while he happened to be pointing the device directly at the Speaker of Dotrae. A ray of clear teal light shot from the wand's squared tip, encasing the alien emissary in a sheathe of singing power. The light strengthened and before the detective's eyes Dol-Druth began to levitate into the air, until at last he lay, as if on a table, on level with Lord Steam's wand-bearing arm. A moment's experimentation revealed how to keep him at that elevation without sacrificing any of his limbs to staying on the air while walking the gargantuan hall.

GM Dol-Druth was unresponsive, his channeling the psionic power of billions of beings having taken its final toll on the lumpen alien. He breathed, but shallowly, and the wound on his head had opened from the strain and his second collapse as it struck the floor. The incalculable riches piled about the pair glimmered in the not-light, magnificent and useless. The door to freedom winkled in the distance, mocking in its perfectly inaccessible presence. "Well, hop to it." A brawny man in splendid armor was standing beside him. He looked like an ocean-themed knight, his armor decorated with etchings of waves and his helmet crested with a winged hippocampus. But it looked more like the retro high-tech of the Atlantean guards Lucien had seen than anything a knight would wear, and the air tingled with energy. "Door's right there, don't dally, if you can't lift the slug, use this. We don't let visitors through here." He tossed the lord of detectives a slender wand with a button at thumb-level on the handle, then marched out of sight. When Lucien turned to follow him, he found himself staring at a mural on the floor, showing a knight identical to the one he had just seen battling hordes of serpentine monsters, great titans with eyes of fire grappling with watery beasts in the background. The wand was still in his hand.