Heridfel

White Knight looks at Dryad suspiciously. Something's not right here... but he puts his misgivings aside for the moment, filing them away.

"It seems to me like you've got a lot of your power back there, Phyllis," he says, grinning as he says the name. "Do that to any guards that try to rush us. We want to keep moving towards the elevators, and keep the hostages with us. Strip 'em out of their armor, and Gumby, wrap that nurse up. We don't want her screaming a warning if we're sneaking up on someone."

The stretchy man nods and wraps around the nurse. Part of his arm is wrapped around her mouth. She can still breathe, but only through her nose.

White Knight looks at Dr. Archeville. "So what is it you do anyway, Jerry?"

Right now, Captain Wonder and the Norseman can come across one another. If you guys would like to have the classic hero misunderstanding before getting into the real fight, please have at it. I'll adjudicate there as needed.

If you both head in after Medea, then I'll need initiative rolls from you once you enter the main area where the audience is located.

While the flash of light and boom are far enough away from Medea that she doesn't even know that they happened, they're quite noticeable to the Norseman, interrupting his test of the force field's strength. He hadn't yet touched it when the boom went off. It seemed to be coming from the front of the theater, but he'd have to go down and inside to be certain of it.

Icarus looks over to the building as it collapses. "I didn't think I was that strong," he thinks to himself. The cesium's nearly within his grasp, but he ignores it for the moment. It's not like anyone near him could really stop him if he wanted to take it, anyway. Right now, it's more important that he didn't accidentally trap anyone inside. Sure, the heroes there - that big guy and whoever caused the fog - could probably do it, and probably will, but he doesn't kill. That's important. It's what separates him from... from the other villains, who just don't care.

He stares toward the building, trying to see if he can detect any people inside with his regular senses and his enhanced senses built into the suit. That comes first. Almost as an afterthought, he releases his downward pull from the buildings so that they don't collapse (or collapse further, in that one's case).

Busy round there. The first part is just the description of the opposed grapple check. Technically, the leader also needs to make an opposed grapple check after his successful roll to hit me, but I'm pretty sure that he couldn't beat my 28, so I continued with that assumption.

After that, I attempted to demoralize the leader as a move action, taking the -5 penalty. Whether that succeeds or fails, Kevin then tries to disarm. I'm not sure whether a 15 will hit him, but I'm hoping it will. If it does, then we both make Strength checks (which the leader would get a penalty to if he was demoralized successfully), and the winner gets the gun.

Kevin's momentary fear as the boys rush at him passes as he realizes that they've ignored their guns. That was their greatest advantage against him. Now, they're fighting on his terms.

He lets one of the two lackeys grab onto his arm, then grabs the other one's shoulder. As the leader comes up to tackle him, he pushes off the two boys' shoulders and gives the leader a solid two-footed kick in the gut, knocking him back. He couldn't grab a hold of Kevin after that. The one who grabbed onto him loses his grip as they land, and Kevin smiles as he steps toward the leader, seeking to unnerve him further.

He then reaches out for the gun that the leader is still presumably holding. If he can get the gun from him, then he might not want his lackeys to start firing at Kevin. He might get hit himself, and Kevin can tell that the boy's a coward at heart.

I think it depends on the power itself. A mental effect like Mind Control is Subtle, and that means that an onlooker generally can't tell who did it, or that a power was used. With Gravity Control, it just means that the energy that Icarus is manipulating isn't noticeably emanating from him (at least, not without a check). The effect itself is easily seen if it works on a target - they do fall to the ground, or start to bend and buckle.

Now, if he were the only super-villain in an area, dressed in his battlesuit, and everyone in an "X"-foot radius around him fell down to the ground, it'd quickly be obvious that he did it. However, if he were disguised as a normal person, or there were other super-people around, or he only chose some people within that radius, people would have to use deduction to tell that he was the one.

I just figured that in the chaos of battle and other super-powered baddies around, he would have enough figurative cover that a successful Notice check would be needed. It doesn't matter too much - he was planning on making a quick getaway once the building began to crumble anyway.

For part of my action, Icarus is making a Notice check to see if anyone was/is caught inside the building. I think that's a move action since I'm taking time to do it; the rest of my turn will depend on what I see. Unfortunately for Icarus, he only got an 11.

Hub tilts his head in thought as Velocity speaks. He smiles to himself when she mentions "not well known". Sen's new to town, and he certainly didn't know Grimalkin. Heck, the only reason he knew about Nightrival at first was because Master Lee introduced them, though since then, he had seen some things that had Nightrival's fingerprints on them.

"I dunno," he says when she's done, "I wouldn't want to get my own cell phone and that one mixed up. I see what you mean about being able to say more over a phone, though."

He shrugs, then chuckles. "Guess we could use a tech whiz; make us up something smaller than a phone that we could use. If we start recruiting again, put that on your list," he says to Nightrival.

Hey MBCe,

My Gravity Control is Subtle, so I think that the Norseman should have to make a Notice check to determine that I was the cause of the sudden gravity increase. Granted, I am the most likely suspect, but if he can tell automatically, then there's really no reason for me to have bought Subtle.

Sorry about that; it just got lost in the shuffle. I was looking at your request once more, and I'm not going to approve Artificer now. You need to have a Craft skill to use it, and right now, you can't. If you spend some pp on learning a Craft, I'll reconsider it.

I'd probably put weaponsmithing under Craft (mechanical). That's the closest of the major Crafts, so if you want it to be able to remake your sword, that's what I'd suggest.

The Wealth is approved.

I'd like to put in my request for Icarus. With my 1 pp, I'll buy four ranks of skills.

1 rank of Diplomacy

1 rank of Knowledge (streetwise) (which I should have had a while ago and forgot to buy)

2 additional ranks of Notice

Updated by V_M

Thanks for the catch!

I'll simply increase teh force field to rank 5 then. That is the easiest method. I've made the change above.

Yeah. "Hand" equals "handle".

Also, updated.

I've PMed you with the results of the check; feel free to use them in your next post. We aren't yet in initiative unless one of you two decide to change it. Vaalus, I'm still waiting on your Will save.

Your wish is my command!

I'm chary of imposing a penalty to Sense Motive for lacking the Knowledge skill, since the innuedoing (yeah, I know it's not a word) character is already getting a bonus to his or her Bluff check. Instead, I'd give onlookers who have at least 5 ranks of the skill a +2 synergy bonus to their Sense Motive check. It means that the people you're trying to bluff around still have a normal chance of catching you (subject to your improved ability to Bluff), but your target has a slightly better than normal chance of catching what you are implying.

I think that I'd allow Knowledge (arcane lore) to act as a synergy skill on a Bluff check, giving you a +2 bonus if you can use whatever jargon that the skill gives you while trying to pass on a hidden message. This wouldn't require a feat, and would be available to everyone. You could conceivably do this with other skills as well, including Knowledge (history) (allusions to past situations) and Knowledge (technology) ("technobabble").

The idea behind using Knowledge (arcane lore) or any other skills' jargon is to send a hidden message while seemingly saying something innocuous. If you're using too much of it, though, it might as well be a foreign language, and the jig is up. I don't know if I agree with people who are better magicians also being better at making innuendo toward other magicians, and that's the effect that the substitution has. Bluff should still come into it somehow, in my opinion.

First, I need to succeed on a melee attack to hit the demon critter. Everything else that follows assumes that I hit.

The Strength/Super-Strength Drain gets resisted by a regular Fortitude save (a single one, since the powers are Linked). If the demon succeeds, neither of the Drains take effect, and it has its full Strength available against my Gravity Control. If it fails, it loses the corresponding amount of ranks and (hopefully) gets knocked to the ground where it has to make Strength checks to take a move or standard action, with regular movement being limited to crawling.

In terms of description, imagine every muscle in your body being pulled up, down, and side-to-side very quickly. It weakens you, even as the bulk of the power is crushing you into the ground. Heavy's got some energy crackling, and he's centering around his fist, since he's conducting the gravitons needed to pull off the effect.

Shazam, I'll need a Notice check and a Will save from you. Vaalus, I only need the Will save from you. The Will save is against Mind Control, a mental effect, in terms of interaction with some powers and whatnot.

The golden field finishes going around the building. Beyond that, though... nothing. It seems like something wants to keep the people in the theater inside, or keep the people outside the theater outside. It's silent, and is already drawing some small amount of attention from passersby. The Norsemen can still hear them and see them (though they are tinted by the color of the energy between them). There's enough room for him to head down to the ground outside of the building, but he could also presumably smash his way in.

Changes I'd like to make for The Ghost are as follows. The changes will use all of his unspent pps, which is presently 10.

ABILITIES

Spend 2pps to increase his Int from 12 to 14

Int: 14 (+2)

COMBAT

Due to his increase in Force field, his Toughness changes

Toughness:+1[Force Field +7]

SKILLS

Spend 6pps

Increase Disable Device and Search by 4 ranks each. Increase Notice and Stealth by 8 ranks each. Due to the Ability increase, his Int skills all increase by +1

Bluff 4(+4), Computers 5(+7), Concentration 3(+4), Disable Device 12(+14), K: Art 3(+5), K: Current events 2(+4), K: Pop Culture 2(+4), K: Streetwise 3(+5), K: Technology 5(+7), Notice 12(+13), Search 12(+14), Sleight of Hand 5(+6), Stealth 12(+13)

POWERS

Spend 2 pps to increase his Force Field from 4 to 6.

Force Field 6 [Continuous; PF:Subtle] 11pps

DC Block:

ATTACKS: SAVE DC: DAMAGE TYPE:

Damage 5 20/Toughness Varies (Penetrating 5)

Brawling 15/Toughness Unarmed combat

Costs: Abilities (10) + Combat (06) + Saves (08) + Skills (20) + Feats (07)

+ Powers (54) - Drawbacks (00) = Total Cost 105

It would cost 4 pp to increase his Force Field from 4 to 6, since it has the Continuous extra on it. How would you like to hand this?

Dryad's vines snake from above and below, entangling nearly every surface in the infirmary. White Knight steps back from the vines, and the ones that touch him quickly burn away. Similarly, the bendable man near the nurse seems to be incapable of being caught by them.

Unfortunately, only one of the other prisoners is caught up by her attempt to hold them all, but he's incapable of moving. He lets forth a blistering stream of profanity against the green woman.

Cool. I'm posting who got caught by the snare. Unfortunately, I rolled very well for them - two of them rolled natural 20s on the Reflex save to avoid the snare. The link is here.

Nareik, go ahead and post Dryad's reaction to Dr. Archeville's bluff. Your reaction might affect the villains' actions.

Dr. Archeville, just to clarify, the prison is fairly deep underground. They might have a window into the infirmary, but it would be an interior window, and likely wouldn't open. If her vines came through there, they'd be breaking stuff. That's also why I mentioned that some are coming from the ceiling - it's as likely as the floor, and maybe a little more.

That works for me. You've got your second Approved.

I made the explanation above, that she is just getting older and settling into her looks, not so youthfull bur more a young woman.

Why is a 3 too high to justify by just truning 18? It is well within the power caps, and does not overly effect things. IN fact, many PCs just seem to ignore that she has any ranks of Attractive, you included!

Whether it's within the PL caps has no effect whatsoever on whether it's justified. Your reason for becoming more attractive than any other PC or NPC in the Freedom City book (there, I couldn't even find one NPC with Attractive 2, let alone 3) is because she matured over the past year. That isn't enough to convince me that it's even possible.

If you're upset about people ignoring your Attractive, you need to mention it in those threads, and possibly give some idea of what you're looking for. You aren't always assumed to be making use of your Attractive, any more than a character with Fearsome Presense is assumed to be permanently unnerving.

Wesley's over cap on his attack bonus with powers (+2 BAB, +1 Attack Focus, +4 for Accurate, -4 tradeoff).

Take off Attack Focus. Give him 8 ranks in Craft (artistic). Give him a drawback that his Craft is only for tattooing.

I'm glad you pointed out that you're over your PL limits after your tradeoffs, but I don't feel that a drawback on Craft really fits the source material. Skills are supposed to be broad with four-color comics. If you really want to be good at tattooing and only tattooing, that's sort of what the Profession skill is for.