Raveled

I'll throw Chrome into this. It feels like he should have a government job.

Results 10#1d20: 10 # 8 [1d20=8] 20 [1d20=20] 17 [1d20=17] 4 [1d20=4] 8 [1d20=8] 7 [1d20=7] 16 [1d20=16] 10 [1d20=10] 18 [1d20=18] 12 [1d20=12] Gunny gets 8+4 12 Perception. He doesn't see Jay either.

Does this group work directly with AEGIS or what?

The sword man continued his job of cutting through the door locks. Hammer Guy kept blocking Sun Walker in. "Maybe it's mine, maybe it ain't. Just think of it like a really big ATM withdrawal. Stroller." He poked the monkey martial artist in the chest as if he was daring the smaller man to make any kind of move. "Like I said, step back and I won't have to turn you into a rug." The man with the sword let out a cry of triumph as he finished cutting through the locks. He threw open the doors, as a sudden cerulean flash and ear-splitting bang rang out over the street. car alarms started going off as Sword covered his eyes, yelling with surprise and anger. "Who the hell was that? Who just hit me!" Gun and Hammer moved toward the armored van, Gun jumping onto a car roof in order to get better sight lines. "Where did that come from? I don't see anything!" On the roof, hidden by the lip of the decorations, Blue Jay considered her options. If this Sun Walker character continued to just stand around and talk she might have to spread out her shots and try to take down all three of them at once. Otherwise she might be able to focus them down one-by-one.

Blue Jay's going to attack. The action she takes on her surprise round is to use a Stun round on the Sword guy. 8+15 means an attack of 23, enough to beat the guy's flat-footed Def of 12. He has to make a DC 20 Fort save. 13+6 is 19, he is Dazed for one round. Initiative time! Blue Jay 15+18 = 33 Sword 8+9 = 17 Hammer 4+6 = 10 Gun 6+16 = 22 Need Sun Walker's Initiative, please. Oh, and Jay is making her Stealth check again to hide, with the Snipe penalty. That makes it 4+19 = 23. The two guys able to look around have Perception +4, so their rolls of 11 and... need more rolls. Damn. Sun Walker can also make a DC 23 Perception check to spot where Blue Jay is, though.

Ami's gonna Diplomize these guys. +15 and Skill Mastery gives her 25, moves these two up to Indifferent.

The blue-skinned man continued to float forward, but his ramblings seemed somehow confused when Judex failed to flee from him. "The rising flames? The pillars of ash? All to the flames, all the cities!" Ami peeked her head from around the massive, bearded man, waving cheerily. "'Allo! We did not mean to interrupt you. We are looking for, well, we are not quite sure. It is a man, with a lot of fur all over him. He was carrying a woman through these sewers." The older man in the ratty trenchcoat squinted at the pair, suspicion written on his face. He stepped forward, moving past the floating blue-skinned figure, the wall of rats advancing with him. "What're you wantin' him for, then? Looking for a trophy?" "No no no!" The horror was clear in Ami's voice. "We do not want to hurt him. We want to know why he took the woman." The ratty man reached into his coat and pulled out a bottle of anonymous brown liquor. He eyed Judex as his shaky fingers slowly uncapped it. "And you, big guy? What're you gonna do if we show you the Woodchuck?"

Chrome raced towards the edge of the military base, a thrill running through his body as he felt automated guns pinging him with RADAR and not firing. He cleared the fence with a backflip and raced towards the airstrip. When he saw the other superheroes, though, he changed course and landed next to them with a cement-cracking impact. "We need to get them away from the plane," he said, his metal body reflecting the fight raging around them. "We can't let them grab the president!" He quickly pinged the two standing on the roof of the jet. "If someone else wants the gorilla I can take Firestarter. Not much on me that burns anyway!"

Chrome's Initiative is +2, 13+2 puts him at 15.

Man, I'm not going to hold your hand. They're hyper-intelligent dogs! Go wacky.

Initiative yet? Results 10#1d20: 10 # 12 [1d20=12] 13 [1d20=13] 9 [1d20=9] 9 [1d20=9] 11 [1d20=11] 18 [1d20=18] 16 [1d20=16] 8 [1d20=8] 11 [1d20=11] 7 [1d20=7]

A team of villainous Pekinese in a trenchcoat/giant golfing robot.

Warren turned his hands over and over in the sun, feeling the intense warmth of the sun on his skin as he sat on the bench near the white, broad plain of sand. It stretched in every direction, blinding and endless. Nearby, an older gentleman in shorts and a dark shirt was carefully adjusting a camera on a tripod, while Marie Locke fussed around him. "Dad, you shouldn't be out in the sun this long! Are you feeling warm? The older man waved her away while still looking through the viewfinder. "I'll be fine, girl! Just sit yourself down there next to Warren and just wait a bit. I'll figure out the correct lighting on this one. It's hard when there's light being reflected off the gypsum and everything, but don't you worry! I'll get it!" Marie didn't stop fidgeting and fussing over her father though. She continued to flutter around her grandfather while Warren languished in the sun. He glimpsed up in the sky as he felt his ears being tickled by a new radio frequency. He opened his senses to the radio transmission and listene din growing horror as the distress call went out. He glanced north, to the distant military base that he only vaguely knew lay in that direction. "Um. Mom?" The teenager stood and shook out his arms, feeling tense and loose at the same time. "I'm going to find a restroom, Mom. Don't want to be messing about in the photograph!" Marie Locke glanced around at the barren sands all around. "Well. Okay. Just don't go, I don't know, messing the sand up or something." Warren gave a laugh and a small wave and jogged north, away from the family drama going on behind him. Once he had a dune between himself and his grandfather, he touched the holoprojector on his belt and his skin shimmered, turning reflective for a moment before it shone blazing white. Warren grinned, flexed, and pushed himself against the ground as his powerful limbs propelled him forward. He landed and pushed off again, getting in a smooth rhythm as he headed straight towards the base at speed.

There's still NPC magic types around. The UK has a whole passel of them alone! There's still NPCs to turn to if you need them for a story and if you think they're getting too old, then introduce new/younger ones.

I have no problem with Phantom becoming Master Mage. She's one of the longest-running magic types around and IIRC her original concept was "under training to become Master Mage" anyway. It's time to close the loop on that story. My only suggestion for future magic stories would be more stories about space magic. All of our space stuff sort of defaults of SF, perhaps reasonably, but I'd love to see more magical weirdness in deep space.

Results 10#1d20: 10 # 10 [1d20=10] 5 [1d20=5] 8 [1d20=8] 13 [1d20=13] 18 [1d20=18] 9 [1d20=9] 6 [1d20=6] 16 [1d20=16] 19 [1d20=19] 11 [1d20=11] Tona's going to sneak up on the scene, with +24 Stealth she'll get 34 to hide. Hammer-Time will try to Intimidate Sun Walker in order to make him Shaken. 5 + 8 means Sun Walker has to beat a 13 Intimidate or Sense Motive or Will, or else be Shaken.

Tona didn't react the way the rest of the street did when the truck exploded and figures in outlandish masks jumped out. While the rest of the people screamed or yelled she just sighed and set her phone down on the table, then thought better of it after a moment and made sure it was face-down. She stood and allowed the crowd to carry her away until she saw a convenient alleyway to duck down. There, a pair of bracers on either arm and a mask from her pocket was about all the work she did to change herself; if she didn't have her costume, she'd just have to stay hidden. The archer quickly and ably climbed the building and crossed the roof, doing her best to stay low and move quietly. She crept up to the edge of the roofline and peeked over, watching the fuzzy man with a tail confront the men with the ornate weapons. While the one with the sword continued cutting away at the armored truck, the one with the meteor hammer stepped in front of the polite man. "Get out of here, Fuzzy Wuzzy. We're not here to hurt you. Just push off and I won't have to hurt you."

I'm still interested in Corona being active. I want to run a couple of things but I need more time first.

Chrome could be here if it's on Earth, or Corona if it's in space.

Warren wrapped his arms around Mona and tried to listen to her story, but it was very distracting to have a cute girl in his lap. He knew there were plenty of folks around in World War II who didn't join either the League or the Allies. Holly was a new name to him, but he did his best to pay attention while Mona told her story. It was obviously important to her and he didn't want to disappoint her. Afterwards the story turned kind of dark but it was still fun to hear about what good she tried to do after the War. And then suddenly Mona was pulling him along. It was slowly getting through Warren's metal head that if he was going to hang around her things would be happening fast, but he was still surprised to see things going so fast around him that they outpaced RADAR. Before he realized that they had left the museum they were standing in front of a house in... His GPS kicked in a moment later. Queens? New York City? He straightened up as Mona introduced him to the wrinkled woman in front of him. His mouth went dry when she started talking about great-grandchildren and he made the connection, but the one thing a military brat learned was how to talk with respect. "Hello, ma'am. It's very good to meet you. I'd be happy to have some tea with you."

Asli's eyes went wide as the man collapsed, blood pouring from him. Before she could make a move Mark and Nina were tending to him, and Joe was watching from the sidelines. Her eyes flicked down to Aydin sitting right at the front of the stage. She turned briefly to Catherine as the woman stood at the side of the stage. "You need to call 9-1-1, get someone down here right now." Her hands hovered over the turntable for a moment before they dropped, as sh let power flow through her and her words. With the sound system in place, she didn't even need to yell to be heard throughout the building. "Everyone just needs to calm down a bit. EMTs have been called, they'll be here soon and deal with the situation." Her fingers traced geometric patterns over the records as she spoke, but the flashes of light melded seamlessly into the neon LEDs that were casting their light on her face. "The police are going to want to ask some questions. Just keep your answers brief and there won't be any problems."

Miras is going to stunt a power off Ruh Kalit. She'll just eat the Fatigue from this one and be at -1 for awhile. Emotion Control 10 (Feat: Subtle, Extra: Area/General [Perception/Auditory], Flaws: Limited [Only Calm], Range/Touch) [6/24PP] Everyone who can hear her has to make a DC 20 Will check or be all breezy and fine for awhile. Bluff'ing to make it seem like nothing supernatural's going on, roll of 2 + 12 means a Bluff result of 14. Guess I'll just have to take that now.

Asli took Joe's hand and stepped close to him. "I might lose the whole day anyway. Sometimes I need to be in the right kind of mood, you know? I waited to perform that." She didn't add 'for you' but it hung in the air so obvious. "I was just hoping you'd be able to see the whole thing." She squeezed his fingers and put a hand on his shoulder, moving closer in the dark room. "There was sort of a message in it." There was almost no space between the two of them, and in the dark room it was easy to forget they were in the middle of a business. "You might have to --" "This is so weird." Cyril's voice broke the mood and Asli suddenly stepped back, feeling her face flush in the darkness. "It looks like power's out all over. People are geotagging in from Port Royal, West End, the Fens, Bayview. Anyone without a generator is hot and dark." He scrolled at his phone, checking a couple news aggregators. "Channel 3's already calling it a black out, no word on when things'll get up." Asli sighed and stroked Joe's face. "Looks like we have another job waiting for us," she said to him quietly.

Some quick scans confirmed that the dinosaur had not merely cocooned itself inside more crystal. The entire egg was uniform and unchanging -- the dinosaur now was the crystal egg, somehow reverted back during the grip. That explained, at least, why there hadn't been any 'eggshells' in Arthur Campbell's study, but why had it changed back? And how?

We don't use a lot of third edition stuff, but the space sourcebook is a solid buy. Atlas of Freedom, on the other hand, is a little sparse on... anything interesting, frankly.`