N/A

Knew I shoulda saved that Hero Point for a reroll and sucked up the Fatigue.

I'll go ahead and get Kingsnake's turn up then, since he's next. Reaction: Burn that last Hero Point to stave off the Fatigue from last round's Surge. Move Action: Use Acrobatic Bluff to feint Backup #3 as a move action at -5. Take 10 with Skill Mastery. DC20 Sense Motive check or he's flat-footed (and if he fails, then his Total Defense doesn't matter, because that adds to his Dodge bonus). Standard Action: Unarmed attack against Backup #3. All-Out Attack for +2 Attack / -2 Defense and Power Attack for -2 Attack / +2 Damage. Kingsnake's Defense is +10 (DC20) until his next turn. Attack check: 21. That will only hit if the feint worked. If it did hit, that's a DC25 Toughness save.

Kingsnake cracked a smile beneath his mask. Not a good liar. He's sweating through his armor. His pulse is as loud and discordant as a death metal ballad. She, on the other hand, is far too calm for someone with a gun to their head. "Small men with big guns don't get to be in charge here. Doesn't matter who you kill," Kingsnake growled. "You walk out of here in handcuffs or you get dragged out in a bodybag." He flipped to a half-handstand, one hand flat on the ground, holding him up as his legs spun around in the air at the height of the armored mercenary's head and vaguely in his direction. But then he dropped to a crouch, and lunged at so-called kidnapper, throwing all his weight forward, driving his fist at the man's stomach.

"I assume you can help track them and narrow down our search area, or does that pinging serve no purpose other than to annoy dogs and cats?" Malice's new armor can pick up ultrasonics. I'll have to remember that. "Speaking of, we should know each others' abilities if we're going to be working together." Give my vital stats to Malice? Is he joking? Or are other costumes stupid enough to volunteer that kind of intel just because he asks nicely? "Other than that, I've got some bizzare pixie powers; shapeshifting, stealth, glamour, heightened senses. I'm decent in a fight, but there are better." Kingsnake shook his head as he sniffed at the ground. Stupid...or overconfident...or just supremely naive. He's a rabid dog. Don't rub his nose in your scent just because they have him on a leash for now. "She's right." He stood up and faced Bastion. The suit's what matters, not the hired guns. The suit, and the person who hired them to take it. I'll ride with you." All the better to get a closer look at your new hardware, see if I can find a weakness. And if someone's getting left alone with you, better me than someone stupid enough to trust you.

Chris?

Clarification: 1) The brainstorming idea was that the "larva," for lack of a better term, would cannibalize each other at that stage, not that cannibalism would be a part of their adult lives or society. 2) Dark Is Not Evil. Y'know who else takes stereotypically evil motifs and uses them for good? Batman. If I played this guy, then playing with the Creepy Good trope would kinda be the whole point. 3) Real-life octopuses are deaf. When I said "That would be a pain in the @$$," what I meant was "If I played this guy, I wouldn't make them deaf." I'd make them capable of normal speech. I just meant that their native language would incorporate more visual elements than spoken.

I'm thinking an alien race of humanoid cephalopods, from a world where they rose to become the apex predators. That isn't too far off from reality. Octopuses are deaf. I think that would be a pain in the @$$. But I could see this race's language incorporating a lot of tentacle movements and skin-color changes that would be impossible for most other races to mimic. Real octopuses do change color in response to their emotional state as well as to blend in with their surroundings. Male octopuses die shortly after mating, while the females lay hundreds of thousands of eggs, protect them until they hatch, and then die because they haven't been eating during their vigil. I'm thinking this race could still lay a clutch of eggs, but the parents could stay together and share the vigil. The young could hatch as octopuses and then go through a tadpole-to-frog metamorphosis. Other predators cull the numbers of real-life newborn octopuses, but since these would probably be raised in an enclosed tank, and since octopuses will eat just about any other creature, including other cephalopods, I could see the young cannibalizing one another until only the few strongest remain. Octopuses have blue blood. That's cool. Keep that. Octopuses have tongues, but they can also smell and taste with the suction cups on their tentacles. I imagine a race of anthropomorphic octopuses would place a great importance on the culinary arts, and eating would take on a whole new dimension when you simultaneously feel and taste your food before you eat it. Octopuses can squeeze through very narrow openings because they have no bones, just a beak made of chitin. I'd keep that, only they'd have teeth instead of a beak. But no bones, just lots of muscle. Octopus tentacles can stretch and contract significantly, so the length of this guy's tentacles could vary greatly. Haven't decided just how anthropomorphic to make them, if at all, hence the multiple inspiration pics. Critical hit resistance can be justified not only by the regeneration, but by the fact that octopuses have multiple redundant organs. Octopuses can swim fast by expelling jets of water through their bodies. I imagine these guys could do the same with jets of air, for a Leaping or Flight effect. I can imagine how terrifying it would be to turn around and see the filing cabinet in the corner morph into a tentacled monstrosity. That mental image tickles me.

Posts edited to include a Surge action.

Possible new alien PC for next veteran reward? Power Level: 12 (10) Power Points: 194/180 Abilities 40PP Strength 30 (+10), 50 Lifting Constitution 30 (+10) Combat 16PP Initiative +0 Attack +4, +10 Melee Damage +10 Unarmed Grapple +24, +28 Elongation or Additional Limbs, +32 Elongation + Additional Limbs Defense +4, +2 Flat-Footed, +10 Dodge Knockback 10 Saving Throws 20PP Fortitude +10 [0PP] Reflex +10 [10PP] Will +10 [10PP] Skills 48R = 12PP Disguise 0 (+0, +20 Morph) Intimidate 15 (+15) Knowledge (Galactic) 2 (+2) Languages 1 (Galstandard) Notice 10 (+10) Search 10 (+10) Sense Motive 10 (+10) Feats 20PP Attack Focus (Melee) 6 Chokehold Dodge Focus 6 Improved Disarm Improved Pin Improved Trip Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge 2 (Olfactory, Visual) Powers 86PP Additional Limbs 4 (10 Extra Limbs) [4PP] (Tentacles...lots of tentacles) Array 6 (12PP, Feats: Alternate Power 4) [16PP] Concealment 4 (All Visual Senses, Flaws: Blending) [4PP] Dazzle 10 (Olfactory + Visual Senses, Flaws: Action [Full], Range [Touch], Feats: Extended Reach) [11PP] (Targeted Ink Spray) Morph 4 (Any Form, +20 Disguise) [12PP] Obscure 4 (50ft radius, Olfactory + Visual Senses, Extras: Independent, Total Fade, Flaws: Range [Touch]) [12PP] (Ink/Mist Cloud) Paralyze 10 (Flaws: Requires Grapple) [10PP] (Venomous Bite) Elongation 4 (50ft) [4PP] Immunity 3 (Environmental [Cold, Pressure], Suffocation [Limited: Water]) [3PP] Immunity 7 (Disease, Environmental [Heat, Radiation, Vacuum], Poison, Suffocation, Flaws: Limited [1/2 Effect]) [4PP] Immunity 2 (Critical Hits, Flaws: Unreliable [50%]) [1PP] Insubstantial 1 [5PP] (No Bones) Impervious Toughness 10 [10PP] (Regeneration) Leaping 6 (x100) [6PP] AP: Swimming 6 (100MPH) [6PP] Regeneration 9 (Recovery Rate: Bruised 3 [1/round, No Rest], Injured 6 [1/round, No Rest], Feats: Regrowth) [10PP] Super-Movement 3 (Swinging, Wall-Crawling 2) [6PP] Super-Senses 4 (Normal Vision, Extras: Counters Concealment [Descriptor: "Darkness"], Extended [100ft Notice Increments], Microscopic [Dust-Sized Objects]) [4PP] Super-Senses 4 (Normal Smell/Taste, Extras: Acute, Extended [100ft Notice Increments], Tracking 2 [Normal Speed]) [4PP] Super-Strength 4 [8PP]

As for Thrude, way I see it, the easiest way to get her into a crossover with the Praetorians is to have some alien menace attack Earth in some way, then she beats it, and when it flees, she follows it all the way into deep space, because "Leaving is good, but never coming back is better."

*crickets chirping*

Think I can manage that. Move Action: Take 10 with Skill Mastery to make the DC25 Acrobat check to jump from the disabled jet back into the train car. Standard Action: Take 10 with Skill Mastery to Demoralize Backup #3, the one "grappling" the Mystery Lady. DC25 Intimidate, Sense Motive, or Will check to avoid being Shaken for 1 round. Free Action: Use Extra Effort to Surge. Standard Action: Attack Backup #3. Attack check (DC19): 20. Just barely. That's a DC23 Toughness save (and if he's Shaken, he's got -2 to all his checks, including saves).

When the disabled jet lurched and sent Kingsnake sliding toward the open door, he let himself fall, using the momentum to push him into a dive and then a somersault through the hole in the train's roof. He rolled to his feet in a crouch next to the mystery woman and her supposed captor. His gravelly voice seemed almost to carve grooves in the walls as he slowly rose to a standing position. "You didn't just pick the wrong train for this..." He cracked the knuckles on each meaty fist, visibly flexing mountains of muscle through his skintight jumpsuit, then turned his head back and forth, producing another pair of audible snaps. "...You picked the wrong town." All the while, his gaze seemed fixed on the armored miscreant. "Now it's handcuffs or a toe-tag. I don't care which. And you..." he snarled as he turned his head slightly to face the woman, "...aren't fooling anyone." Between eye blinks, Kingsnake's foot shot straight up, over his head, barely missing the mercenary's helmet. It was a feint. The mercenary's reflexive tilt of his head created just enough of an opening for Kingsnake's heel to come smashing down into the crevice between the mercenary's helmet and shoulder plate, at the base of his neck, directly on top of his collar bone.

Kingsnake's senses are all Extended, and few, if any, of them would consider the intervening obstacles as "concealment," so in his case, I should hope so. Kingsnake can use Skill Mastery to take 10 and hit that DC25 Acrobatics check.

Reaction: Kingsnake burns a Hero Point to avoid the Fatigue he would have gotten from Surging last round. Move Action: Kingsnake uses Leaping and/or Swinging as necessary to ascend through the hole in the roof of the train into the VTOL jet. Reaction: Kingsnake burns a Hero Point to double his Dodge bonus for a round, increasing his Defense to +20 (DC30). Standard Action: Kingsnake uses Acrobatic Bluff to Trick one of the power-armored mercs into attacking him while he's standing directly in front of the controls to the jet. If the attack against Kingsnake misses, it'll hit the controls instead. Kingsnake uses Skill Mastery to get 25 on the opposed Acrobatics vs better-of-Acrobatics-or-Sense-Motive check. (See page 42 of the core book for details on the "Trick" maneuver.)

That's some heavy artillery they're wearing...probably too heavy for a direct assault. Kingsnake's mind briefly flashed back to the time he spent with the monks of Shambala Vale. When your enemy is strong, turn their strength against them. The howling air rushing through the hole in the roof of the train snapped his attention back to the present. He dropped to a squat, then jumped up through the hole, out of the train, past the armor-clad mercenaries who cut the hole, and into the jet, right in the middle of the trio waiting in reserve. Once inside, he began lashing out at the armored figures. There was no power behind the strikes; they were meant merely to distract and antagonize. He slid between them, attacking from side angles, gradually guiding them toward the jet's controls and the pilot operating them.

Features 1 (Internal Compartment) [1PP] from Ultimate Power. The very fact that the inspiration for this character came from a relatively optimistic science fiction TV show makes it pretty likely that, yeah, it's appropriate. I'm not sure I'd go full Fortitude Immunity like Geez3r did, since, for example, I could see Disintegrate/Corrosion effects working on them, and the Drain Toughness component of that is Fort-based. And Odo needed to sleep. But at the very least, I could see full Life Support, Aging, Starvation/Thirst, and Critical Hits (since the body is homogenous). And he could take some serious punishment, so I'm not sure I'd rely on Defensive Roll for toughness. You could justify some serious Protection and/or Constitution, possibly even with Impervious. I like taking Impervious on regenerating/shapeshifting creatures with the descriptor being that they heal so fast the damage was barely noticeable. And you could justify some actual Regen, too. And, of course, you'll want Morph if you can do the shapeshifting thing.

Kingsnake has Tracking on his enhanced smell, so if the water isn't cutting off the bad guy's scent, he should be able to follow. Lemme know if you want any more Search checks for the area, or any other rolls.

Kingsnake didn't respond to any further inquiries. As soon as Brandish mentioned the footprints and Bastion responded in the negative regarding his underworld contacts, Kingsnake dropped to a crouch and then leapt up into the air in their direction. He tucked his legs up under him and rolled head-over-feet several times on his descent, rolling one final time when he hit the ground. The momentum from his fall carried him into a sprint along the ground. For the observing heroes, it was difficult to tell whether his speed and jumping distance were truly "superhuman," or just matching (or slightly exceeding) the feats of all-time record-setting human athletes. When he reached the footprints, he knelt down, sniffed at them, and ran his fingers along the impressions in the mud, gently enough to avoid disturbing them while just firmly enough for his hypersensitive touch to paint a picture in his mind.

If necessary: Will save (DC15): 13.

To expand upon my previous comments, re: Attractive: My character Thrude has Charisma 26 (+8), Intimidate +20, and 3 ranks of Attractive, giving her a total Bluff and Diplomacy bonus of +20 each, but only against heterosexual men and lesbians. She isn't particularly charming or smooth. She isn't a good negotiator. She's "just" an inhumanly beautiful literal goddess. She doesn't even lean into it. She isn't flirty. I just bought them as a defensive measure. It's difficult for most men to lie to her or try to manipulate her, because they're too busy picking their tongues back off the floor. Heterosexual women and gay men aren't as impressed, because her appearance doesn't grab them on an instinctual level. On the other hand, she's universally intimidating, because she practically radiates power and violence with every movement and facial expression, and has no "indoor voice."

Welp, he wouldn't be Daredevil if he was careful with his secret identity. Standard Action: Brian will drop a smoke pellet, which will instantly plunge a 20ft x 20ft section of the train car around him in opaque black smoke for the next 2 rounds. That should cover at least half the car. Free Action: Then he'll use his Quick Change feat to rip off the clothes over his costume and pull up his mask. Move Action: Kingsnake moves to within touch-range of the trio of mob enforcers on the opposite end of the train from Phalanx. Free Action: Kingsnake will use Extra Effort to Surge for an additional standard action. Standard Action: Kingsnake will attack one of the mobsters. Assuming they're flat-footed on account of being in the smoke cloud, Kingsnake will Power Attack for -2 Attack / +2 Damage and Defensive Attack for -2 Attack / +2 Defense. That leaves him at +8 Attack, +10 Damage (DC25), and +14 Defense for the round. If they're Minions, then he'll take 10 on the attack rolls, hitting DC18 / Defense +8, and their Toughness save DC is 25 (so if they have +4 or lower Toughness, they auto-fail), and if they fail, they're KO'd. If he hits, and they go down, then he'll use Takedown Attack to attack the second one, and if that one goes down, the third. (It sounds like they're all within 5ft of each other.) If they're not Minions, let me know and I'll make attack rolls.

Brian heard the large young man's words to the scared family loud and clear. So the femme fatale isn't the only one who's more than she appears. Maybe a soldier or police officer...doesn't matter. He cleared the innocent bystanders and bought me time...I'd best not waste it. He squeezed the trigger on the smoke pellet and dropped it under his seat. Opaque black smoke rushed up in the blink of an eye to fill the train car. Were it not for the burning smell or the rush of air, Brian wouldn't have noticed. The smoke had no effect on the line-drawing sketched in his brain by the waves of high-frequency sound and vibration bouncing off of the surrounding area into his altered brain tissue. A couple of tugs on the hidden snaps and zippers built into his street clothes left them discarded in an instant alongside his sunglasses on the seat beside him. By the time they landed, he'd already pulled his mask up and forward over his head while darting over to the opposite side of the train car from the young bodybuilder. He used his momentum to power a lightning-fast barrage of vicious punches, kicks, head-butts and and elbow strikes against the trio of sinister armed men.

Brian relaxed a bit as the man with the bodybuilder physique walked away from the harried woman. Fratboy got shot down. He's not with her. That makes things a little less complicated. Then the scent of gun oil rushed up into his nose as the doors to both adjacent train cars opened. Two three-man teams, all barely making an effort to hide the guns under their coats. Either they're here with her, or they're here for her. Reminds me of Dad's "bodyguards." How was I so blind back then? Brian glared at the floor, his nose and lips bent into a sneer as he thought about his father. He was already pulling a smoke pellet out of his pocket when he heard the rush of air past the grinding and scraping of metal on metal through the engines of the plane descending to intercept the train. Here's hoping when the wiseguys can't see, they'll decide to shoot nothing instead of everything.

Initiative: 18. Skill Mastery on Notice gets him double the result needed to act during any surprise round with Danger Sense, and with Uncanny Dodge he's not flat-footed before his first action (unless someone's got Concealment vs Auditory, Olfactory, AND Tactile type senses).