Avenger Assembled

I did not sign up for a mob. The thought echoes in Avenger's mind over and over again as he peers at the crowd from his rooftop perch, his black-clad body getting harder and harder to make out as night falls all around him. Maybe I should buy a better police scanner. He thinks about leaving before he sees the cops getting pelted by the mob, and then laughs ever-so-quietly. Perfect. Getting the thin blue line on Avenger's side is a perfect plan, just perfect. He slips down off the roof and makes his way via back alleys to as close as he can get to the police cordon around Majestic. Taking shelter behind a dumpster, he disappears into mist and shadow, waiting for the situation to get worse before he takes more direct action.

The Fens, the poorest, most crime-ridden area of Freedom City, has a new superhero: the tough, take-no-prisoners vigilante Avenger. The mysterious black-clad hero has dished out several brutal beatings to the worst of the worst who prey on the weakest and most disadvantaged people in society.

Aw! Well, they'll have a chance to run into each other later. :|

From the description of the feat "Hide in Plain Sight": "You can make Stealth checks even while being observed and even if you do not have cover or concealment. Characters normally must have cover or concealment to hide and cannot make Stealth checks while being observed." Characters with Hide in Plain Sight are specifically exempted from the Vanishing challenge, because they can hide automatically (with a successful roll) anyway.

Okay, I think that's a proper use of the Hide in Plain Sight feat. Refs reading, if you disagree, lemme know. Good interaction; Jack will certainly be seeing out this lovely thing another time. Or she could pursue him inside, depending on her notice check. Either way. :D

Jack took a step towards the sudden vision of loveliness, his teeth lengthening a little behind his mask. She's beautiful! The urges he feels at the sight of this gorgeous young thing are masculine and predatory all at once, even with blood freshly in him. If they were in a club, or anywhere else for that matter, he'd be on that like white on rice. But. Avenger wouldn't do it. Avenger wouldn't stay here and dally with this sweet young thing. Besides, Jack remembered what had happened the last time he'd let a mysteriously beautiful young lady take control of the evening. "Pleasure's all mine, honey. But I think you'd better deal with that, first." He nods his head behind the young lady, even though his heart isn't really in it. When her back is turned, he takes this opportunity to vanish down a ventilation duct into the tenement row house beneath them.

The figure above doesn't reply at first, though the gleam of his eyes fade as he moves back a half-step into darkness. It's human contact, Jack thinks, real human contact. So what if she might be crazy? Giving her some money, letting her do her thing if that's what she wants...those are good things. And I'm a good man. But if she strips down and starts coming up here, I am getting _out_. "No charity, huh? Do it." he assents.

"Name's Avenger." Avenger's voice is growl and purr all at once, rising from the dark shadows of the roof. Jack's been practicing it for weeks, taking advantage of the recent showing of _Raven Begins_ on Channel 4. This time, he lets her see him; a black on black shadow against the dark night above, with only the gleam of his eyes visible in the glow of the light below. "Go get some hot food, Zallaro. It's too cold to be out."

Huh. Okay, maybe the lady down below was crazy. Jack knew to stay away from crazy; you never knew when 'crazy' meant 'psychic.' And encountering a psychic, especially tonight, would be bad. But he'd always had a soft spot for hard luck cases, and if she couldn't see him..."Money's yours,," he hissed down from the shelter of the roof above. "Buy yourself something nice."

"I want to buy your rock!" Getting back on the thread topic, if my intro thread is still going by the time you guys are ready to jump in, good stuff. If not, we'll meet up later.

So how many people were you shooting for, Pandorym? We don't want to overpopulate the eventual thread, I'll wager.

And someone's gotta fight those green blobs! :D

Hurrah! We'll have quite a party.

Well, a choice between breaking into a high-security installation and dealing with an angry crowd is still a choice.

Count me in as interested! Avenger wouldn't care about corporate fraud, but mass riots are bad for everyone. And if he does run into Ned, the more the merrier.

OK, great. And if you're OK with what I did, we can commence to character interaction. If Jane makes her Notice check. ;)

Two hundred dollars, all right! I can afford that XBox now, and maybe some good games to go with it. If I get a couple of those a night, I'll be able to stop doing favors for people and start living on my own money. Though Jack didn't make his money from blood tithes and drug dealing the way some vampires did, the fact remained that very few undead made their money from 'legitimate' sources. He was coming back on his previous circuit when he saw the woman in the alley, bending down and counting a wad of bills that was a lot smaller than his own. Aw, geez. Why on Earth had he looked down just at that particular moment? Another few minutes, thought the allegedly hard-hearted vigilante, and he'd have been on his way with money in his pocket. He thought for only a moment before vaulting down from the rooftop to the alley below, not bothering to be particularly stealthy in his descent. If the woman below saw her rescuer, who was he to take that from her? He tossed a neatly tied roll of hundreds in ones and fives on the ground, waiting to see if he'd been spotted.

Nariek, I'm confused by your post. :? Avenger has already fought with the mugger and left the scene of the crime; in fact, his last post ended a good thirty minutes after his introductory fight. He's currently bounding from rooftop to rooftop, putting tracks between himself and his feeding grounds like a smart vampire should. You should probably revise.

A tech-using enemy would be a good antagonist for Avenger; the better not to raise any suspicions.

Done and done. This is Avenger's first night out, woo!

I've recently started Avenger's debut thread over in the Fens, the sort of place where a hero of his sort is likely to function the best. If anyone else has a character who wants to run into Avenger on his very first night as a superhero (as friend or as foe), by all means, go for it. If you're a ref with a plot, same same! ;)

Because everyone's doing it these days! Folks are welcome.

"I am...the Avenger." Jack shook his head, his furrowed black eyebrows just visible behind his matte-black hockey mask. "No, that's not quite it." It was the last night, or maybe the first night. He'd spent weeks putting this costume together, assembling a "super-suit" from the materials affordable to a man who couldn't exactly go out and hold down a regular job. Black hockey mask over black ski mask for the face, heavy black motorcycle gloves on his hands, black combat boots and short black cape, with the rest of him in black combat fatigues. He was certainly very distinctive, and days of practice had gotten him almost used to moving and walking in the outfit, much less seeing it in the mirror. Concentrating, Jack drew on the inner reserves of deception he'd cultivated for the last three years (or, if he was honest with himself, even longer), changing his voice to match the persona expressed by his menacing appearance. "I am...the Avenger," he hissed, his voice a low, purring growl of pure menace, and then he laughed an evil laugh that anyone would be proud of. He did his breathing exercises a few times, practicing making his shoulders and chest rise and fall underneath the heavy clothes that fortunately would not make him sweat, and then finally concluded he was ready. Proceeding out of the cheap furnished rental by the window, Avenger drifted up the side of the decaying old brick hotel to the rooftop, where his heavy boots crunched against the shingled roof in a way that would have been deeply concerning if not for his faith in his own abilities to avoid a crash. From here he had a great view of the Fens, for all that it was a decidedly less-than-inspiring sight. But then again, that was why he'd picked the Fens to make his debut; the people from his regular life tended to avoid the Fens as being beneath their notice. If he stayed away from the Theater District and parts of the South Side (not to mention, of course, Lantern Hill, where no one like him in their right mind went), he'd do just fine. "And maybe get a bite to eat while I'm at it," he muttered to himself, using Jack's voice rather than the Avenger's with no one else around. His double masks meant that no one could see his mouth when he was hungry; a definite advantage to this elaborate get-up. Drifting from rooftop to rooftop through the cluster of low-hanging bars and adult theaters scattered around his base of operations, Avenger went on the hunt for criminals. It was the Fens, fortunately, and it wasn't long before he found exactly what he was looking for. The thug was young and probably high; he thought nothing of standing over the drunk he'd just rolled in the dark alley off 70th Street, counting the bills in the wallet with a smile on his face and all the time in the world. Avenger indulged himself on this one; drifting in for a perfect landing behind the mugger and tapping him on the shoulder. "Hey, bub." The fight was fast and hard, Avenger methodically beating the other guy into unconsciousness with several massively powerful blows. "Tell your friends that crime's been...AVENGED!" he spat, just before landing one last blow that knocked the mugger cold. There was blood in the air, just enough to make it hard to think. Jack patted the mugger down, relieved to find a lead sap and several other wallets to go with the one in his hand. With the money removed and in Avenger's utility belt, Jack made use of the cell phone tucked away in his target's belt to call the police, letting them know that he'd just seen a brutal beating at the corner of 70th and Moore, making sure a car was on its way before hanging up and crushing the phone in his fist. With that done, Jack dragged the mugger deep into the shadows of the alley, checking again to verify that the guy was out before pulling up his masks and sinking his fangs into the unconscious man's neck. Some thirty minutes later, a full, satisfied Avenger watched from the shadows as the police arrived, giving first aid to both the criminal and his victim alike. The drunk, from the look of him a slumming college kid, would get the help he needed...while the mugger, left tied by his own belt from the burnt-out lightpost overhead, the credit cards and personal items he'd stolen shoved into his pants, would get treatment for his bruises and broken bones that would also deal with his sudden, inexplicable anemia. And I made two hundred bucks! he thought happily, not bad at all! The best part was, the night was still very young. A smile on his face behind his masks, Avenger headed off for further adventure, indulging himself in horseplay by leaping from narrow rooftop to narrow rooftop like he was a little kid watching Archer on television again. It was a lousy neighborhood, but he'd just done his part to make it a little better. It was a good life.

Okay, I've made the suggested changes and added the Hide in Plain Sight feat with the extra point. It made sense, given the character. Am I good to go, boss?

Hm, I'm not sure I understand the math above. Shouldn't needing five Con worth of blood per night be a steeper drawback than 1 Con per night, assuming they have the same penalty and the same risk from starvation? Assuming that that's true, I've gone with the understanding that Jack is drinking 1 Con worth of blood a night; that matches the Dependence drawback for the various vampire NPCs in the book. Hope that helps!