Avenger Assembled

Can't make it; not quite comfortable enough with other heroes yet...

Jack couldn't come. But Melinda could, and Jack could come with her. Melinda has a reputation as a famous, mysterious patron of the city's arts...;)

I have not forgotten this thread, and will post here soon. ;)

A lesser man might have hesitated at Dark Star's offer and Scarab's quick reply, but Jack had the advantage of being from a race of unnatural schemers and plotters. If Scarab suspects, give him no reason to doubt you. "Prefer to rely on my own abilities. No offense." Still limping, Avenger made his way outside to where several cultists were stretched out on the asphalt driveway by some tire tracks. "Had a demon. Good shot. Getting tired of demons." Firmly in-character, Avenger picked up a moaning cultist one-handed, slamming him into the wall. With his other hand, he punched him in the stomach. "Where?" "What? Oh, God..." The man vomited. "I dunno!" "WHERE?" Avenger hit him again, cold rage in his blue eyes. If the whole game had been blown because of these sons of... "We gotta a lotta safehouses, man! I dunno! What did you do?" The already-battered cultist was bleeding badly from the face, where it looked like Avenger, or someone, had smashed him teeth-first into the asphalt earlier in the fight. "WHERE DID THEY GO?" "They'll kill you if you go there, man," replied the cultist, shattered but still defiant. "The sacrifice will bring forth the Red King! All will be immortal before-" His voice broke off in a squeak as Avenger lifted him into the air, the genuine disgust in Jack's voice breaking through the persona of Avenger for a moment. "Talk now, or I swear to God they'll find your guts on the roof of this place!" He met the cultist's eyes, and by God the man saw he meant it. "North Bay! They're in the place in North Bay! They'll kill you if you go there! Maybe Sixtus lost the Staff, but we've got powerful friends! The King will Rise!"

Ned's threats struck home, as had his earlier taunts, but once again Avenger was able to shrug them off. He fixed his steely gaze on Ludd, casually backhanding a swordsman who'd been coming at him from the rear. "You know nothing of threats. Of curses. Of pain." He slammed one bloody fist into another. "Will not ask again."

Avenger cared little for the crimes of the man in the demon-suit, if that's all he was. The priority was to take him down, fast and hard, so they could find out exactly what he or his hounds knew about the city's demon problem. Casually disappearing into the darkness as if he'd been born there, Avenger reappeared behind the demon-man, wrapping his arm around the man's neck and lifting him high in the air. "I'll break it," he hissed malevolently.

Though the search below revealed an impressive array of arcane artifacts, some large and some small, there was no sign of either Sister Sixtus or her malevolent arcane staff. The two telekinetics did manage to find the beam that had struck her, though, its distinctive crucifix shape now battered and partially smashed by the weight of further debris landing on it. The beam has been altered by more than just impact, though; the end that struck Sister Sixtus has been cut away by a force sharp enough to leave the stone shining mirror-bright. Some smaller chunks of rock and stone are cut sharp as well, some in half and others in thirds, making for an ominous suggestion indeed. After all the fuss over the thefts from the Beaumont collection, the missing daka crystal proved easy enough for Scarab and Dark Star to find, though there were no signs of the bolt that killed Varney Orloff nor the dagger whose bizarre shadow powers made Nacht-Krieger. Avenger helped briefly with the search, but soon the battered adventurer limped out of the half-ruined church to deal with the people he'd been beating up before the fight all went to Hell. "Prisoners outside. Must speak to them before the police arrive."

13. Meh.

Not the Blade movies? You mean Ron Perlman's not real? Let's go with Old Church Slavonic, otherwise known as Old Bulgarian. Just obscure enough that it would take some enterprising hero some work to dig up what it really meant. And vampires do have something to do with the Balkans...

Attack Focus (Melee) (2) Dodge Focus (1) Power Attack 3 ranks of Stealth [why? Because it's Avenger, that's why. :twisted: ] 4 ranks of Arcane Lore Languages (Vampiric) [the language vampires use for private communication, graffiti, secret messages, etc. Basing that a little bit on the Blade movies.) That looks like six! Done by Sandman XI

Best if we pick up Bel's story in North Bay. :twisted:

Dark Star's blast shattered the roof of the old church, sending huge chunks of stone and wooden beams crumbling down on the heroes inside. Pulled free from Avenger's embrace, Sister Sixtus looked up as as a huge beam came tumbling down from below and plowed into her midsection. She just had time to scream, the sheer force of impact driving a massive black bolt of necromantic energy from the staff straight up into the air. There was no question of restraint now; the whole roof caved in on the three heroes. Sister Sixtus disappeared as the floor gave way beneath her, woman and staff disappearing into the cavernous depths of the church basement as huge chunks of the defaced ceiling followed her town Scarab's quick, creative use of her psychic powers protected both herself and Avenger, the big beams and blocks bouncing off her shield even as the stone floor chipped and powdered beneath them. (Dark Star, naturally, was immune from worries about material objects passing right through him.) With a resounding crash, the last ceiling block fell to the ground, leaving the heroes in a huge cloud of dust and debris, the floor unstable beneath their feet from the fallen timbers. Avenger blinked a few times, Jack surprised and pleased to be saved. "Thank you, Scarab," He blinked against the dust, a tiny bit shell-shocked by the volume of devastation they'd all unleashed. "Good shot."

Though Avenger was naturally startled to suddenly be on the move, he hung on as they made their hasty flight to find the demon dogs. The sooner they got there, the sooner they could deal with the monsters below. "Drop me down there!" he called to Scarab as they approached, "I can roll with it!"

The waves of unimaginable necromantic energy tore their way through Scarab's psychic defenses and reached even to Dark Star's energetic body, pulling and tearing not at their bodies but at the stuff of their very souls. Despite the searing psychic pain ripping through her very essence, though, Scarab was able to observe something bizarre. As Avenger struggled to his feet and ripped off his mask, a black wave of energy clearly passed straight through his body and out the other side. It wasn't that he shrugged off the magical energy or avoided it; he didn't seem to notice the energies at all. Singed and in pain, Avenger certainly noticed the infuriated, very angry cultist he was grappling with. His efforts to wrest the staff from her failed as surely as his efforts to hurt her did, and the energies boiling in the air around him felt very, very bad indeed. "Scarab! Dark Star" Avenger shouted over the noise of Sixtus' screaming and threats. "The roof! Bring down the roof!"

OK, our current stats are Name - Initiative - Health - Hero Points - Location Avenger - 19 - Injured - 1 HP - Grappling with Sister Sixtus Dark Star - 19 - Injured and Stunned - 1 HP* - Inside w/ Sister Sixtus Scarab - 18 - Injured and Stunned - 2 HP - Inside w/ Sister Sixtus Sister Sixtus - 15 - Undamaged - NPC Villain - Inside w/ Heroes Belphegor - 10 - Fatigued** - 1 HP* - Outside w/ Cultists

"Standard," growled Avenger, who seemed unduly angry about something. "Need to find the demons. You, you know demons?" He paced the darkened alley as Scarab did her thing, his voice tight and growling as iron pulled along skin. "Made me angry," he admitted.

Avenger and Nightrival made their way down into a small utility corridor adjoining the main garage, a place that must have been small and cramped even in daylight but was downright disturbing at night. Loud music and chanting from the sealed-off garage permeated the hallway as readily as the stink of oil and blood, thrumming chants and music filling the whole building. There was no sign of any further guards; the only sounds coming through the papered-over windows of the adjoining garage. Avenger nodded at the utility door as he headed for a junction box himself. "Can get the door open. Nightvision?"

OK, having gotten a request about moving the thing on, we'll skip to the character development. ;)

The fight in the sewers was a fast, brutal one that took the three heroes through yard after yard of the darkened tunnels. Together the three were pitted against a terrible monster that used its home to terrible advantage against three less powerful opponents. Eventually, though, the deed was done and the monster left sprawling, bleeding, and unconscious at their feet after a long, brutal fight. Avenger had let Moira and Jack do the heavy hitting, recognizing quickly that they both hit harder than he did, concentrating on distracting the hideous beast while the others pounded it to a bloody pulp. Holding his arm, where he'd taken a slice to the humerus, Avenger asked, "Phone? Suggest we get up and call the League to deal with the thing." Certainly the thing still looked to need dealing with, breathing in a horrible, stentorian rhythm as blood leaked out of its mouth and nose.

I'm aware of the rules you cited; Avenger spent his HP so he could act before Belphegor's action on the next turn. I don't think Will saves came up in the previous conversation. I thought that seemed awfully favorable vis a vis the rules. OK, that's a DC 22 Ref save followed by DC 27 or DC 21. But it looks like that iddn't do much for either of them. Yay Dark Star!

Cy, you roll saves even if you can't pass the check to see how bad the damage is. Remember, if you nat-20, you only suffer a bruised. So go ahead and roll your Fort save.

H'okay, Belphegor hits Avenger. Avenger is blasted through the window and makes his Toughness save for the knockback damage. Avenger is, however, bruised and stunned. Avenger spends his two extra hero points on not being incinerated by a terrible Toughness roll and on shaking off his stun) The Jumped-Up Dabbler automatically passes Dark Star's attack, given her Impervious Toughness of 18. She actually failed her first Will save vs. Scarab by rolling awfully, so I spent one of her Luck points for a reroll. She then tried to hit Avenger with the staff and missed, then spent her second Luck point to surge for another attack. This attack is Strike 12 (Burst Area, Fort Save) "Greater Name of Death." I need a DC 22 Reflex save from Scarab and Dark Star for half-effect, and then a Fort save for either DC 27 (if you fail the reflex save) or DC 13 (if you pass the reflex save.) Also, I need a Notice check at this juncture from Scarab and Dark Star.

Avenger proceeded to burst into flames with a surprising alacrity, the sheer force of Belphegor's infernal blast hurling him off the back of the van and through the boarded-over stained glass window with an explosion of shattered glass and broken wood. The cultists gave a whoop of delight in reply, the cult leader clapping Belphegor manfully on the back. "Come, off to North Bay!" Leaving behind their fallen members, the cultists ran pell-mell for the van. Though Jack had hoped for a triumphant entry into the desecrated church upon defeating the cultists, instead he had to settle for flying through the window on fire, smashing into the far wall with a sickening crunch right at Sister Sixtus' feet. To say the least, it looked very, very bad indeed for the dark avenger of the night. The actions of the still-struggling heroes wiped the smirk off Sister Sixtus' face, for all that it got a little bigger when the flaming Avenger came crashing into the building. She staggered under the onslaught of Scarab's psychic beetles, and as Dark Star blasted her. But the two heroes could see that the damage was illusory; they were knocking her off her completely mortal feet, but not actually injuring her. "Stop it! I hate bugs!" She screamed and drove the staff into the ground, cracking the stone an inch from Avenger's head as waves of black arcane energy came boiling out of the staff. The energy was a cold, damnable thing; the most terrible vacumn of the void, the most monstrous of the energies of the Underworld, doing nothing to the walls around them but reaching hungrily for the souls of two of the heroes! For his part, Jack was a bit more concerned with the fact that he was on fire. He stopped dropped and rolled, something which turned out to work well enough for fires supernatural and regular alike, for all that his nice new cape was so much ash. Cursing violently, he tore off his ruined hockey mask, exposing the now-singed ski mask he wore underneath. He hurt; he'd taken glass shards in places he didn't want to think about, and parts of him were charred. But he was still in the fight, and he wasn't going down that easily. He staggered to his feet and tackled Sister Sixtus! He was no more able to injure her than anyone else, but he did manage to wrap his arms around her midsection as he struggled unsuccessfully for the staff, pinning her in place for a few critical moments.

I will reply as soon as Slamdance gets his post straightened out. :D

Ah, you got me again. That's two hero points for you, buddy. I suggest you spend one on Toughness and another on smacking it really hard this round. OK, we're at a new round and I'm still waiting for that Toughness save from Hellbound, whose turn it is.