Hellbound

Could Donar have had a son while working with the Reich?

Or it's leading us into a trap... Hellbound thought to himself. The concern wasn't spoken aloud, though. If the other two started thinking along those lines then they might decide to call off the hunt. That was the last thing he wanted at this point. Something was down here shredding human beings and, apparently, keeping the tastier parts for itself. There was no way O'Ren was going to pass up a chance to knock the teeth out of a mouth that had hobbies like that.

"That was probably a pretty big score, last night." He admitted, stepping down the tunnel a few paces while the other two examined the body. The light was still poor enough that he couldn't see very far, just a few dim bulbs in their cages glowing against the ceiling, but if anything was coming back to check on the body he wanted to be the first to say hello.

"I figure it had to be a couple hours before dawn, after most of the party had gone home and only a few stragglers were still cleaning up. 'Could be wrong, though. It didn't look like a ton of kids got killed out there, but that would probably depend on how fast this thing eats. I can't imagine it gets many opportunities to find a good half dozen snacks in one place at one time so it sounds reasonable that it'd stash some of the leftovers somewhere."

Hellbound knew that some of the capes out there could have taken one look at the death scene and pulled all sorts of details out of the tracks. They probably would have estimated a time for the attack as well as the number of victims and what have you, but he just wasn't that observant. It'd looked like a chaotic mess to him and, frankly, he'd rather not take his training to where he was forced to stare at messes like that.

"What ever happened to the good old days when bad guys put on green derbies and held up banks with laughing gas? I don't remember ever reading about The Raven finding a bunch of slaughtered bodies first thing in the morning."

Hellbound turned back to look towards Jack, remembering what he'd started his last piece of the conversation with.

"And by the way, I thought you were supposed to be putting a good word in for her? She's the one trying to get me on her side, not the other way..."

He was cut off at that point by the sound of a single, echoing splash further down the tunnel and the harshly hissed words "Oh crap!", as someone or something moved in the darkness ahead.

Sorry to step in (hope you don't mind the intrusion), but what about two insubstantial characters who's powers share related Descriptors? For example, could two ghosts touch each other without having to resort to Affects Insubstantial? What about two speedsters who've shifted their vibrational harmonic-whatsis? Two mages who have cast the same spell to take themselves out of phase with reality?

I'm typically used to rulings where related methods of Insubstantiality can affect each other by default, but I'd like to know if that doesn't carry here.

I vant to suck your... OH HOLY CRAP!

"You're...not her type,"

Yes, I suppose someone who's blood bursts into flame would be off the menu for most vampires. Outside of a decent chili competition, that is. :clap:

"I dunno, man. 'Seems to me like this is about to turn into one hell of an audition."

Hellbound didn't really want to think about what'd happened to the girl. In his mind, this isn't what violence was about. Beating on people was supposed to be fun, lighthearted and something the whole family could enjoy. It wasn't until something sick and twisted like this came along that he really felt the desire to snap someone's neck.

"I guess we should look on the bright side. There's not a lot of directions this bastard could have gone. Anything on the other side of the body?"

He was looking towards the hole as best he could, but with the lighting conditions and not being at the actual corpse it was a wasted effort. Jack might be able to get a better look beyond the dead girl, however.

"How're you holding up?" Hellbound asked Moira. This might have been more than she bargained for. As adamant as his own nerves were, this was starting to get to him. Someone without a lot of experience with the rough stuff might not be faring quite as well.

Looks like Arcane Lore is just a specialty of the Knowledge skill covering:

• Arcane Lore: The occult, magic and the supernatural, astrology,

numerology, and similar topics.

Right now might be a bit premature to ask for check results. The good Dr. won't be ready to jump in until he closes out Creeping Killers.

"Yeah, I wish." Hellbound answered him, gesturing in the weak glow of the utility lights. "I can barely see in this dump as it is. 'Might be nice if I spontaneously gained the ability to sniff out monsters or even see in the dark, but you know what they say about wishin' in one hand and crappin' in the other."

He wondered, for a moment, what he'd call such a power if he did develop some sort of extra-sensory perception. The term 'Hellavision' came to mind, but he shook his head and dismissed it as just silly.

"Wants me how, exactly?" Hellbound returned to the business portion of the discussion. "I might be Freedom City's number one super-hunk, but that don't mean I'm anybody's high-priced boy-toy."

Right now he wasn't sure if Jack's boss wanted to represent him professionally, needed him to do enforcement work for some criminal organization or even just wanted to decorate her bedroom in a new shade of studly. He was willing to listen to offers, though, and had a few terms of his own to present if the deal was honest.

This could tie nicely to an adventure I'm running now, and which should be wrapping up semi-soon.

Would you mind letting me know which one so I can familiarize myself with the backstory?

And would you have any problems with us continuing the thread for now as long as we don't schedule any encounters which would require GM'ic intervention? With this being the only thread I've successfully gotten Hellbound involved in so far, I'd hate to kill my opportunities to continue posting for him.

Would YOU believe... your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate?

................. You're not my father!

1) Hellbound, Avenger and Divine

2) Hunting mutants in the sewers beneath Freedom City. Having started with a mass murder on a nearby beach, Hellbound, Avenger and Divine have tracked the killer to a service tunnel which leads into the sewer system. Once there, they will discover the presence of a number of lower-powered, animalistic and bloodthirsty mutants are preying on humans. These mutants are the result of an escaped experiment radiating an energy field which transforms non-sentient creatures into monsters. The progression of mutants should grow ever more fierce until the final encounter with the mindless monster responsible for the whole arc is revealed. This creature could potentially have a recurring role and lead to larger storylines if players elect to track down the lab/mystic responsible for the creature's creation.

3) Potentially room for 1-2 additional PCs (making 4-5 tops). We can adventure with the three of us as is, or if one or two chars overhear the fighting and decide to drop in, that should be fine. Any more than that might be crowding the storm drains a bit.

4) Hellbound is in only one thread, which will close if/when this thread opens.

Careful, he's Scottish. He could to toss a caber at ya.

Hey, I like pickled, salty, Mediterranean garnishes. But if he lives in the Montgomeryshire... tell that young punk to get ooff mah' lawn!

That's what Hellbound wanted to see, noticing the change in Jack's attitude. So the guy was deliberately holding himself back, maybe even trying to maintain one of those secret-identities that capes seemed to be so in love with. The man could easily turn out to be just about anyone in disguise, it's not like O'ren knew enough about the super-world to figure out who.

Personally, Hellbound never seemed to have time or the inclination to maintain a private life. He quite simply was who he was, and anyone meaning to target the people around him would have to get through his own fists first. But it wasn't like the young fighter had anyone particularly close to him, or at least he didnt think that he did...

Watching the delightfully swaying form of Moira move carefully through the service tunnel, he's not as sure of that this morning as he'd been earlier yesterday evening.

"So what's this deal your boss lady wants to lay on me?" He asked, trying to get his mind onto more professional matters. Now wasn't exactly the time to go scooping Moira up for a quick rendevous in the shadows, which was more along the lines of what he wanted to do at the moment.

Feh. I live in Iowa -- I don't think it's physically possible for you to hurt me any more than that :P

And Hellbound, I wouldn't outright say 'start simple', but rather say to go away...

You'd be amazed at how often I hear that :mrgreen:

Since Jen's intended to be (most likely), just an NPC adversary of Hellbound's, I can always focus on writeups for the Gestalt entities before revealing the mastermind herself (which seems to be the one with the most complicated power construction). Work a few bugs out before finalizing a sheet, even if that requires a bit of minor ret-con'ing.

Yeah, that's why there's the five different classes, Doc. Otherwise I'd push for a single alternate form that could do anything it wanted, which should never get past even the most liberal restrictions.

But this way I can build a warrior that fights with a spear, a warrior that fights with a sword or a warrior that fights with its claws. All three use the same general build, but the special effects change in each case.

Then there's the Flame Sniper (Blast: Heat), and Lightning Sniper (Blast: Electricity), etc... Cover all of the general bases that Jen might want to hit with five appilcations of the Alternate Power and vary the Descriptors on each.

Where that might fall down is in the Transporter build since Flight and Teleportation aren't the same effect. Some variation might be built through creative use of the Super Movement effect, but I haven't even gotten that far yet.

Aw, man, so instead of having trouble building one complicated NPC, now I'm shooting for building six? I must be nuts... I should just go back to building Spider Monkey-Bat and work my way up like Sneerg suggests.

Not entirely -- if the Variable Descriptor feat were to be applied only to the total cost of the array, then it'd only be counted once (1 application of the Variable Descriptor = 1pp).

If it were applied to each Alternate Power, then it'd be applied 5 times -- once for each planned class of demonic entitiy (Spirit, Sniper, Warrior, Stealth and Transporter).

Further, since each Alternate Power can't be built on more power points than the Array itself, that would seem to indicate each Alternate Form would only be built on 19pp for a 20pp array.

Of course, if the Variable Descriptor was expected to be applied to individual powers within each of the alternate forms themselves, then the cost to Jen Wu herself would, logistically, be greatly reduced as opposed to applying it directly to powers listed on her sheet.

Man, questions like this never came up in Champions. Well, not until the introduced Power Pools, anyway :(

Ecal, I apologize, I hit Edit instead of Quote and erased the bit you'd directed to Hellbound re: Variable Descriptors. Sorry.

That's okay -- I'd already caught that bit and was still wondering at exactly which point the Variable Descriptor and/or Complication should be applied.

There's the overall array cost (the cost of the primary power + all of the Alternate Powers + the Varibale Descriptor power feat), the individual Alternate Powers (each built under its own set of effects, descriptors and modifiers including the Variable Descriptor power feat), or the powers listed out on the Alternate Form itself (Damage, for example, being bought with the Variable Descriptor to represent a variety of attack possibilities).

'Not sure where on the sheet it should be listed, or where the additional cost for the Power Feat should be applied.

That said, Refs are completely within their rights to veto something like the following:

Aw, man, there goes my surprise NPC for next month. Now I have to start all over.

Say, here's an actual question... it's been suggested that I use the Variable Descriptor power feat to represent her ability to draw her summons from a vast host of demonic entities. While each Sniper Class summons, for example, all have the same stats, they each grant their powers under a differing descriptor.

Lightning breath, fireballs, shooting spikes, laser beam nipples... and so on, are each granted by summoning and merging with a different demonic spirit.

In such a case, should the Variable Descriptor power feat be purchased and applied to the Array itself, each Alternate Power in the Array or should it be applied to powers on the individual builds of each alternate form?

Further, should the following Complication be applied at any point:

Variable Descriptor must be set when each summining ritual is completed and the choosen Alternate Form is taken, and may not be changed until a new summoning ritual is completed and a new Alternate Form is choosen.

Or is that simply the way existing game mechanics work in regards to applying Variable Descriptors to Alternate Forms?

But, let's avoid derailing the thread.

Don't see why not -- most of my builds apparently end up as train wrecks anyway

Is there a maximum number of power points that a character can spend on any single power based on PL caps? I didn't see anything mentioned under the Power Level charts in the Core rules book or in FCPbP's house rules section. Skill levels are limited, yes, so it surprises me that they wouldn't make a similar ruling in regards to powers.

That could certainly work. One of the advantages of handling this as Summoning is that Jen could shift all damage that the gestalt entity takes to the demonic spirit, thus leaving her body whole. Alternate Form doesn't seem to have that advantage without associating a healing effect for when the power's shut down.

But that's fine -- summoning involves contracts all the time. I'm sure one of the stipulations the demonic spirits insist on is that Jen's soul takes the brunt of punishment.

I'll check out some sample builds on AF and see how that works out.

Hellbound eyed Jack in mild surprise. He remembered the grip that the man had, there was more strength than he was showing. How much, though? Enough to go chasing after monsters? It was a tough call.

"I think we can handle it." He said at last.

There was a glimpse of Moira's shapely bottom going up and over the edge of the ladder. Beyond was the utility tunnel, pipes and tubes running down the walls off into the gloom, and that's where their quarry had apparently fled.

"Now, c'mon, before we lose our scenery."

With a few quick, sure movements, Hellbound was up the ladder and in pursuit of the divine figure disappearing before him.

...Ref Irritation...

D'oh! :shock:

Hellbound turned, quickly, at the intrusion and prepared himself for a fight. Adrenaline raced through his system but he quickly got himself under control when he saw who it was. That Jack guy, from last night and this morning's phone call. Moira had asked him to show up, ad he sure as hell didn't waste any time about it.

"Not a fragging clue." Hellbound admitted. "We woke up this morning and found... that."

His hand gestured randomly towards the bloodshed. Even as stalwart as the fighter seemed, even he was shaken by how violent the scene had been.

"Whatever it was, we think it went through here."