Somet

"So does that mean we are heading out tomorrow or later this evening?" Stephen asked with a slight shiver. He was hoping to at least get a day to rest from all the flying they'd done within the past couple of days. Checking out the snow mobiles, he grimaced inwardly at the thought of piloting it with little experience. "And will we also have the time to try our hand at these vehicles? Because i'm not all that familiar with how they operate."

Zipping his jacket even further up, Phantasmal squinted at Priya in a mix of bewilderment and amazement. He was wearing multiple layers as it was and he could barely keep from shivering. Once it was revealed that she had some form of power though, he stopped thinking of her as strange and focused more upon what should could do offensively with her powers. Moving along with the other group he sighed and shivered again as a gust of frigid air blew threw. "Just wait till we get inside." He thought to himself whilst pulling his hands closer to his chest. "Then we can talk and warm up all we want." He started to scan the area around them, trying to see if there was anything unusual sticking out, even though that term would probably apply to the entire camp since it was in the middle of the artic.

Phantasmal: Edge of the World

Looking at Dr. Jefferson's eyes made Stephen pause for a short bit as Dr. Deoxy and Mammoth continued to converse, and then he nodded his head and mimicked the Doctors action of pushing his glass to the bar tender. "Alright then, I'm in." He says whilst standing up. "Hopefully this will go well." Turning to her and nodding his head. "Lead the way Doc, cause as i see it you're the only one who can at this point."

"...Catbird?" Stephen said whilst squinting his eyes at the large Metahuman. He almost missed the entire one sided conversation from him and in fact was still process what he said. "How old is this guy?" Was his thoughts as he absentmindedly lifted up the lower half of his hood so he could sip his drink. The burning drink helped him focus more on the tasks at hand, and helped him edge out the chattering Mammoth. "Dr. Jefferson, are we the only ones our employer has hired so far?" He asks once his drink is downed, quickly and quietly pulling out a disposable towelette and wiping down the rim and inside of the glass. "Because if we are going after this history changing discovery then I'd doubt that she'd rely on only one group, metahuman's or not." After setting down the glass, the towelette disappears from his hand as he stores it in his dimensional pocket. "Just figured I'd ask now in case you knew before hand." Tugging his mask back down over his face he readjusted his seat in order to make eye contact with the good Doctor. "Also, given your history with expeditions like this, what's the possibility that we'll be racing against another team of tomb raiders?" "Because I really want to know if someone else is walking in on my job before I actually start it this time." He thought bitterly, causing his two index fingers to twitch.

Stephen didn't exactly feel at ease as he came through the front door of the building that housed their rendezvous point, only perking up slightly at the sight of the sign that implied that a bar was up ahead. Maybe it was the idea of working alongside a few hero's for the first time, instead of running through the nearest wall in order to get away from them. Either that or the Chinese food he had last night was starting to come back up on him. Making his way to the bar he noticed the group of three... perhaps only two people and one small giant standing near the bar. He recognized the woman with the bow on her back as the archaeologist they were supposed to confer with and took a deep breath. He took this job figuring it would be a good transition from how he used to work most of the time, figuring that archaeology was just another form of taking things that belonged to other people and handing it over to someone who would pay for it. The money also wouldn't hurt that much, as did the possibility of establishing a decent rep with a few of the local superheros around here before he started talking about signing up with Project Freedom or another group. So with only slight hesitation he walked up to the bar with his mask on and asked the bartender for a rum and coke before turning the the others to listen in on their conversation.

Are we coming already dressed up in our superhero gear?

Alright, that sounds fine. And I think i fixed the signature line.

Sorry for the long wait. Sure i'd love to try it out. Just hope you guys don't mind the whole learning curve thing.

Hi, any room for a newbie? I've got a ex-thief who can walk through walls and can pack a punch.

Thanks so much. Is there any thread or discussion on Project Freedom so i can read up on it?

Alright, so i removed Autofire and accurate from the pistol description. And due to how i calculated those add on's up, i had two power points left over. On your advice i put one into another rank in specialization and the other into four more ranks of the notice skill.

Alright, so i updated his attack for his pistols to plus eight, and updated the DC to 27 for the save. I gave up one rank in weapon specialization and put it into dodge roll, and took another point from defensive roll and put that point into dodge roll as well. So his DEF should be 11, and his toughness should be 8. And i'm pretty sure that it meets cap. I also changed the auto fire and accurate feat onto the pistol blast instead of on the device. And i'd love to try to play with that concept of joining project freedom.

Alright, so I edited it to where the ranks are showing, and i took a point off of the defensive roll feat so to where he has a +6 to toughness with it instead of +8 like he was before. Sorry i guess i skipped over that house rule. So now his toughness and defense should be 10+9=19. 19/2=9.5. So that should meet cap if i'm doing this correctly. Also, i took that one power point from decreasing defensive roll and bout four more ranks in gather information, as story wise he would need a lot of information about any of the places he was going to go into before he broke into them. And on the attack and damage, do auto fire and sneak attack factor into that cap, or am i doing it wrong? Cause if they don't count, I think i meet it since +10 to attack plus 10 from blast damage equals 20. So after dividing it i should be at the cap limit. Also thanks about the backstory comment, took me a bit to figure it out.

I'm rather new to this, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Player name: Somet Character Name: Phantasmal Power Level: PL 10 (150/150PP) Trade offs: -3 Attack/+3 Damage, -4 Defense/+4 Toughness Unspent power points: 0 In brief: This former thief and amateur disguise artist is looking forward to playing a hero. With the ability to walk through walls or just blow through them with his custom(stolen) pistols, maybe this won’t end terribly. Residence: Freedom City Catchphrase: “Hopefully this will go well!” Theme: You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac Alternate Identity: Stephen “Stevie” Nicks Identity: Johnathan Sila(secret) Occupation: Former Thief. Affiliation: Anyone that’ll take him. Family: Carrie, Lilah and Sarah Sila(Siblings: Alive). Description: Often seen wearing a baggy light green jacket over an even larger brown shirt and wearing grey gloves, the outfit makes him appear larger than he actually is. With the help of some black boots and some baggy dark grey cargo pants, to the untrained eye he appears to be a few inches taller and of a larger frame. Without this disguise, he has a rather bland look about him and seems to have a swimmers build. Covering his face with a tight silver hood designed to allow full visibility from the inside whilst showing nothing outside, most people can’t tell what his face really looks look. His custom pistols look like a pair of bulkier cobalt blue .45’s. Age: 26 (D.O.B, 1990) Apparent age: 19 without mask on Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian Height: 5’7” Weight: 180 Ib Eyes: Green Hair: Brown Power Descriptions: “I’m able to walk through just about anything; walls, ceilings, floors, a car barreling at me doing 60, made my old job really easy, especially when something was small enough to fit in my back pocket. Crate with a small statue weighing 90 pounds? Back pocket and no one can see it as I walk through the side. Same goes for most of my equipment, disguise kits, bullets and guns, I can hide them all there and no ones the wiser. And when I need to, I can always pull out the girls.” Said whilst pulling out a twin pair of pistols from seemingly nowhere. “These can blast through just about anything after a couple of rounds. But I try to not use them on people as a general rule, doubt they’d be able take a hit.” History: Born as Johnathan Sila to Morris and Betty Sila, he was the 2nd of five children and the only boy in the bunch. Growing up he and his older sister Carrie would look after the other three siblings as they’re parents scrounged to find money and jobs to keep their tiny and dilapidated apartment. Whilst the style of parenting by Morris and Betty could at best described as tough love, the family where extremely close knit. The parents made sure that their children behaved at any and all times, but that they were indeed equally loved. Without access to television in their home, the two older siblings would often act out scenes from books borrowed from the local library in order to entertain their three younger sisters. The two discovered the knack for impressions, either being able to talk like a man or woman after years of effort and practice. They would often do these performances from memory for their parents on the occasions they had more than just a few hours of work, taking enjoyment in their smiles and laughter when they performed. They both eventually learned to impersonate the voices of their parents favorite singers, often slightly off key, but none the less they used their skills in order to keep their family happy and entertained. But one night a few months after Johnathan turned eleven, a fire occurred on the fourth floor of their ten floor apartment complex. The fire investigator claimed the flame started because a rat chewed through the wires of someone’s electric heater, whereas others claimed it to be the be the fault of the drunken smoker in room 414 who was always seen with a lit cigarette on his person and Jack on his breathe. As it stands though, most people above the fourth floor didn’t stand much of a chance. Due to years of neglect and decay, the fire escape was falling apart and only stayed attached to the building by what could be best described as hope and prayer. It fell off and onto the street below after 12 people managed to safely make it down, throwing eight more down onto the street in a heap of metal and screams. Johnathan and his family never managed to make it onto that fire escape, as none of the sprinklers, fire alarms or CO2 detectors worked on any of the floors past the seventh. By the time any of them knew what was going on, the fire had consumed the stairwell inside the building and the fire escape was starting to groan. Eventually the family congregated into the bathroom and into the shower in hopes that the water would at least in some way protect them from the flame. As the water pressure slowly died and the smoke started to trail into the apartment, it was then when Johnathan’s power to walk through walls developed. As he was holding onto his sisters Carrie, Lilah and Sarah, he felt a sudden weightlessness and began to sink through the floor. The only thing that differs from that effect now as it did back then was that for the first and only time, he managed to bring his family members touching them with him. In shock, they four fell six stories in a few blinks of an eye, their last image was their mother slowly turning in horror as they fell. On the third floor, Carrie somehow managed to distract him enough to where they no longer could all pass through. Within the next few minutes of frightful screaming and yelling, firemen rushed onto the floor and found the four of them coughing and yelling at each other. As the others ran upward or scattered in order to find more survivors, two were left behind the corral the children downstairs and into blankets. But Johnathan wouldn’t go, instead brashly thinking he could go back and save his parents as he saved his sisters. Somehow he managed to break free of the group and attempted to up the stairs, but was soon met with roaring flames and smoke almost too thick to see. Crouching down, he managed to climb the stairs two more flights before a landing fell down with him on top of it. He reached out in a last ditch effort to grab a railing, and soon found his hand stuck within the burning wall itself. Quickly he kicked his foot into the stained and rotting dry wall and found that it too stuck. Within a short bit, he was soon climbing the walls in the stairwell upwards towards his parents and his youngest sister Mary, and he would save them. But as he climbed higher and higher, he found himself being able to breathe less and less. The smoke became too much to see through, and halfway between the 7th and 8th floor he passed out. By some miracle, a fireman found him on the 7th floor landing and carried him back down as the blaze consumed the top two floors along with what remained of their inhabitants. Waking up in the back of an ambulance four hours later with bandages and burns, he saw his sisters standing around him looking scared and horrified. The fire was put out three hours ago with the help of a passing superhero, but not before claiming the lives of their parents and neighbors. They would all later be told that a man and a woman holding a young girl were found dead in the middle of the hall, running towards the flame as if running after or away something else. It was in the hospital when they were told this, and where later Carrie would usher her other sisters out of the room in order to punch her brother, proclaiming his fault in their parent’s death. The following five years saw the siblings be broken up and placed into multiple foster homes, and all but Johnathan managed to adjust to some degree. He took his parents death the hardest, and seemed to lash out at the world, whereas Carrie and the others internalized their grief and sorrow in order to survive. After starting many fights and eventually being caught with stolen items he managed to gather by using his powers to walk into stores and take them from the back room. Johnathan landed himself in juvenile detention on a plea bargain and eventually in solitary confinement. It was in that silent room where he found himself having a crisis, and it was then a janitor walked past his door singing loudly at the top of his lungs some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits. Listening as closely as he could, he finally realized that he was wasting his life and need to do something with it. Something that would benefit others as well as himself and walked out of his cell and right out the gates during the middle of the night, and took up the name Stephen Nicks. Unfortunately, his idea of benefiting others and himself meant stealing whatever he could and depositing the funds made from fencing them into accounts in his sisters names. After getting in contact with a few people more skilled in the criminal method than he, soon he began to make a name for himself amongst a small crowd of people. Impressing others with his ability to disguise himself and walk right into large stores and office and then walk out with nearly anything not bolted down, he was getting increasingly higher paying jobs. Within four years he had made a good name for himself and developed another useful power, the capability of storing things in his own interdimensional pocket. This allowed him to hide more objects on him and be able to walk out with a larger payload. It was then when he started to wear his silver hood, in order to disguise his face from cameras and future clients alike. As time went on, his jobs got bigger and bigger and soon he started to run across a major problem. For the most part his jobs where as simple as walk into a backroom or closed office and take whatever was needed. But now a lot of his jobs had narrow margins of limited time and required him to start needing peoples passcodes and biometric scans. The first was doable with a bit of casing, but the last couldn’t be fooled by some latex rubber and make up. No he’d have to involved innocent people with those schemes, and that didn’t sit well with him. So he started carrying a toy pistol with the cap knocked off in order to intimidate people into cooperating. But after a few close calls where the potential hostages realized it was a fake, he knew that he was going to need a real one. The problem with a real gun was that it was always lethal and could seriously kill someone, which was further away from anything he wanted. He knew that he was going to end up emotionally and psychologically scarring the people he ended up using in his heist, and he wasn’t looking to do anything further than that. It would also be rather pricey to pay someone to create a gun that could pack a big nonlethal punch and still be compact and fired repeatedly. But then one day, fate smiled on him. On his 21st birthday he took a job that involved breaking into a corporate lab in order to steal a few weapons design for another rival company. It was there he found his two trusty Diamondback pistols, so called because the creator had an acute interest in the snakes of a similar name. Looking like bulkier versions of .45 caliber colts, they were originally designed to be a non-lethal alternative for police and military alike as it came with a stunning capability as well as a lethal blast. Due to their expensive nature, no one really took the idea or the weapons, until Stephen came along that is. Giddily he took them and retrieved the package, and since then they have been inseparable. As the years went on, he started to gain more and more recognition for his work and was eventually dubbed Phantasm by a news broadcaster. He decided to take that name after a bit of tweaking and decided to become Phantasmal, not that he ever really left a calling card at any of his crime scenes telling the authorities that that was his name. Nearly five years after obtaining his pistols, often lovingly referring to them as the ‘girls’, was when he ran into his biggest complication on any of his jobs. Being hired to walk into some private think tank with medium security measures and steal some information, he came disguised as inspector and planned on only holding up a small number of people in order to obtain the goods. Apparently another rival group thought of the same idea, but settled on hiring a less than subtle group of thugs and two minor supervillains whose ideas on hostages leaned towards readily disposable at a moment’s notice to break in whilst everyone was there. With a large explosion accompanied by many explosions and burst of gunfire, Stephen considered his options. He could either continue his objective of retrieving the information and let many people die, or he could attempt at stopping them, thus allowing for people to escape and superhero’s to come and deal with them. He wasted only one second on deciding to fight off the group, and immediately started to fight back. Eventually a force of hero’s arrived in time to keep him from being killed by the few remaining thugs and supervillain, but it was obvious to them that he wasn’t just some vigilante who happened to be in the same building as an attack happened. That and the video camera footage of him taking off his disguise and pulling out his guns didn’t help his case at all. So they made a deal, find a group of hero’s and they’ll convince whomever needs convincing that he won’t be a problem. If not, they’d throw him in a cell that would specially designed to counteract his powers. It didn’t take him a second to make his decision. So now he’s here in Freedom City, trying to shape up into a superhero and fight crime. Hopefully someone will take him. Personality and Motivation: Nowadays putting on the face of a cheerful and upbeat person, even whilst pointing a gun at someone’s face, Phantasmal always tries to be courteous to the people he’s talking to. He doesn’t truly want to hurt anyway, and if someone were to pay attention they’d see that a majority of the time he had his finger off the trigger and the barrel pointed somewhere in the vicinity to their upper left. Just because he’s a thief doesn’t make him a rude person, and above all else he will attempt to keep an innocent person from being hurt. He steals information and other products, or at least he did, in order to sell it and give it to his sisters in order to make up for not being able to save the rest of his family. He knows, or at least assumes, that they don’t want to see him, or know who truly is secretly supporting all of them as they make their way in life, he just wants them to be happy and well off. Hopefully the money will last them as he waits for the heat to die down and he can resume supporting them, or until he gets a change of heart. Powers and Tactics: Often hiding inside a wall, he waits for a target to pass before calmly stepping out and shooting him, he’s better off sneaking about than direct melee combat. If push comes to shove, he is quite a good shot, but he’ll more than likely fall through the floor and quickly disguise himself in order to avoid further confrontations. Complications: Family: Though they don’t speak nor know about his current activities and location, Stephen still loves and cares about his family. He hides this secret at all cost in order to avoid causing any more harm in their lives. Enemy: A number of years as a thief haven’t exactly left Stephen with many friends. Ranging from lovely level thugs and corporate executives and maybe even a few mad scientist, a large number of people would love to get their hands on him. Not to mention possibly even his family for what might be an even greater sin. Reputation: Again, having a long list of crimes attached to your name isn’t exactly the best thing to have when working with superhero’s. Although they may not know the true extent to his misdeeds, a search on the internet will leave a bad reputation with nearly anyone. Secret: As stated, making sure no one knows of his family is one of his top priorities. Almost as much of a priority as keeping his family away from his secret. Abilities: 4+10+8+8+4+8=42PP Strength: 14(+2) Dexterity: 20(+5) Constitution: 18(+4) Intelligence: 18(+4) Wisdom: 14(+2) Charisma: 18(+4) Combat: 6+8=14PP Initiative: +9 (Dex+5, +4 improved initiative) Attack: base: +3, Melee: +3, Ranged: +4, With Diamondback pistols +8 (base +3, Ranged +1, Specialization +4) Def: +11(Base: +4, Dodge: +7), Flat footed: +4 Grapple: +5 Knockback: -4/-2 Saving throws: 4+4+5=13pp Toughness: +8(Con: +4, +4 from defensive roll) Fortitude: +8 (Con: +8, +4) Reflex: +9(Dex:+5, +4) Will: +7(Wis: +2, +5) Skills: 84R=21PP Acrobatics: 4 (+9) Bluff: 8 (+12)Skill Mastery Computer: 4 (+8) Disable Device: 4 (+8) Disguise:8 (+12)Skill Mastery Escape Artist: 4 (+9) Gather Information: 8 (+12) Craft(Forgery): 4 (+8) Investigate: 4 (+8) Notice: 8 (+10)Skill Mastery Perform: 4 (+8) Search: 4 (+8) Sense Motive: 4 (+6) Sleight of Hand: 8 (+13) Stealth: 8 (+13)Skill Mastery Feats: 1+2+1+1+1+2+7+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=26PP Ambidexterity 1 Attack Focus(Ranged) 1 Attack Specialization: 2 (Diamondback Pistols) Benefit: Option 1(Alternate identity) Contacts: 1 Defensive roll: 2 (+4 to Toughness) Dodge Roll: 7 (+7 to Defense) Evasion: 1 Hide in plain sight: 1 Improved Critical: 1(Pistol) Improved Initiative: 1 Precise Shot: 1 Quick Change:1 Sneak Attack: 1 Skill Master 1: Disguise, Bluff, Stealth, Notice Uncanny Dodge: 1 (Sight) Well Informed: 1 Equipment: 1PP=5EP Commlink=1 Digital Audio Recorder=1 Lock Release gun=1 Mini Tracer=1 Night Vision Goggles=1 Powers: 16+2+1+5+10= 34PP Device 4 (Diamondback Pistols, 20PP, Flaw: hard to lose) [16PP] (Weaponry) Diamondback Pistols: Blast 10 Dimensional Pocket 1 (hammer space) [2PP] Immunity 1(Suffocation whilst passing through objects) [1PP] Super Senses 4 X-ray vision 4(4PP), Feat [Extended 1(1PP)] = [5PP] Super movement 5 (Permeate 3, Swinging, Wall-Crawling 1) [10PP] DC Block: Attack Range Save Effect Melee: Touch DC 17 Toughness Damage Diamondback Pistols Ranged DC 27 Toughness Damage Totals: 42+14+13+21+26+34= 150PP