Ari

No problem Ozob! And don't worry, I won't peek.

Alright! James can tell without any doubt that the man is lying about both the object beneath his coat and his opinion on the mist. Additionally, he seems to be keeping a close eye on one of the other fair-goers, similarly-dressed.

Still interested. I'm waiting for Ozob's NPC to be approved and for him to send word he's ready. EDIT 2014: And then it never happened. Ooga-booga.

Paragon, if James would like to try and discern any malicious motives Mike might possess, the check is Sense Motive and the DC is 14.

GM "I think it's just evaporating water from the surface of the lake. The sun's a bit weaker today than usual so the process is just taking longer" said Mike, glancing back out over the water. He seemed fairly at ease overall, at the very least he didn't look particuarly suspicious. Suddenly, as though he realized something, he turned back to James and added "Sorry about the back-brace. Put my back out a week ago, and the brace I got from the hospital is too bulky to wear subtly under my clothes, so I wear this coat so I don't get anyone thinking I've got an arsenal against my skin" he smiled apologetically to James. Hiding places dotted the fair-grounds with great regularity, from places where several booths stood at each others backs to brief groves of willows whose branches and leaves could conceal a regiment if they stood still. If James needed a place to change, he would be practically spoiled for choices.

GM As James strolled along through the growing bustle of the Saturday morning-sized crowd, he bumped suddenly into a tall, powerfully-built man with iron-gray hair, a narrow goatee and a large coat. Something hard-edged and unyielding was inside the coat. Turning around sharply with a look of surprise, the man's initially cold and suspicious gaze quickly warmed, and he smiled genially at James. "Ah, sorry about that, was looking over there" he gestured at the other side of the lake, where a light thread of mist was wafting slowly over the water. "I was watching that, forgot to keep aware. Sorry, again. Name's Mike" he added, thrusting a large gloved hand to the other man. --------------------------------------------------------------------- As might be expected, Amir's arrival caused a noticeable stir, and soon a small crowd had gathered to ask him about what it was like to have powers, throw out theories as to why he obtained them, ask for autographs/advice/displays of affection. In a matter of minutes, Max and Josh were almost swamped with sweatered and becoated people tossing in whatever small bills or largish change they decided to spare into the musician's case, applauding the pyrotheatrics and occcaisionally asking for a tattoo. The dour glances the less flashy merchants cast their way(such as the ironsmith with the tent lined with cunningly-wrought weapons and decorations) can easily be guessed. Though the press of interest did draw customers their way, so the glances were short at least.

Not in the least.

Sure thing! Welcome aboard! EDIT: And that should be the absolute maximum of players. I might well have bitten off too much already. We'll see.

No Paragon, that will be quite..useful... (JKLOL) Anyway yes, evildoers will arise in due time for busting.

OOC thread for The Harvestfair. Get along now, get acquainted! :D

GM October 1st, 2011, mid-morning The bright autumn sun peered down on bustling Freedom City through a sky like a blue lens. It's vast concrete canyons, expanses of wood dwellings, beehives of brick and mortar all teemed with life beneath its studied and impassive gaze. A stream of this life having managed to secure a window of ease was making its way to the district known to common citizen and city planner alike as the Parkside, specifically the rolling lawns and languidly-arranged deciduous trees of Liberty Park. There a transformation had undergone the usually placid and unchanging place: booths selling goods ranging from those vital to the continuation of imperiled life to those one would normally only buy to answer a direct challenge to your buying power. Rugs and bolts of cloth dyed in a multitude of hues vied with ornate glasswork, wrought metal and pottery, medicines and music disks for the money of the passing crowds that moved ceaselessly across the encampment, their sellers calling themselves hoarse to be heard and approached before the others. Besides the various physical goods, one could listen to the dozens of musicians that had come to perform their craft and art before the assembly, watch as gymnasts, fire-breathers and other assorted performers did their acts with a bare minimum of room for error, watch the performing of plays and music contemporary and centuries old on broad stages that floated on the lake itself, go sailing under the eagle's eye of the local masters of the art, or just lie down on the lawn and let the noise and reverberations of the crowd seep into you. It had been partially done to correspond to the Renaissance Faire from last month, the organizers thinking Liberty Park the perfect place for Freedonians to get to without the hassle of trekking into Wharton Forest that could approximate the forest's grandeur. At any rate, their exhaustive search for practically any band, performance group or artisan who would attend had turned up quite a few true gems, leading to the attendance of four particular individuals...

Indeed a good point. I had been trying to think of why Quintessence would be there with no success. Thanks very much. EDIT: Thread's up!

Y'know what I'll just start it up now. If anyone else is interested, they can join in, but waiting for other players to join in is a bad idea. I'll send a PM to you all when the first GM post is up.

Arichamus, at the very least, you need to use the proper tags for this. Ideally, you should provide a new sheet like everyone else. King of Suits :arrow: Buying 2 ranks in Drive. :arrow: Buying 4 ranks in Equipment with which I would like to purchase Handcuffs and increase the rank of the Utility Belt to 10, with the Alt. Powers increased accordingly. With the other 15 EP, I'd like to buy the following vehicle: Restrained Zultarian Grav-Bike Size: Medium, STR: 15, Speed: Flight 4 (250 mph; Feats: Subtle, Drawbacks: Low Ceiling 2, maximum 15 feet) Defence: 10, Toughness: 8, Features: Alarm [Disable DC 20], Navigation System (+5 bonus) Powers: Concealment 5(Visual Senses) [15 ep] EDIT: And only now do I realize that 'increased accordingly' isn't at all helpful. Revised Utility Belt below: Utility Belt 10 (20PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 4) [24EP] Base Power: Blast 7 (10 70ft Range Increments / 700ft Max Range, Feats: Homing, Improved Ranged Disarm, Mighty 4) [20EP] (Boomerangs) Alternate Power: Blast 6 (10 60ft Range Increments / 600ft Max Range, Extras: Penetrating [DMG 10, 12 Sneak Attack], Feats: Mighty) [20EP] (Razor Cards) Alternate Power: Dazzle 6 (Auditory & Visual Senses)(Feats: Reversible, Triggered) [20EP] (Flash-Bang Grenades) Alternate Power: Obscure 6 (Visual Senses, 100ft radius, Extras: Independent, Feats: Selective, Triggered) [20EP] (Smoke Cards) Alternate Power: Snare 10 [20EP] (Bolos) Changes to DC block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC19(21*) Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Boomerang Ranged DC26(28*) Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Dazzle Ranged DC16 Fortitude Dazzled Razor Cards Ranged DC22(24*) Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) *Sneak Attack

El Heraldo's in, if you'll have him. He could use the socializing.

Marceau had staggered to his feet, the throbbing in his head a sickening wave of pain that came with each beat of his heart. His own pain was forgotten however, when he heard the beginning of the commotion, and that jeer of the witch who appeaered to be the mistressmind behind the attack. She apparently was laboring under the idea that the people who had come to make new homes for those who had lost theirs so horrifically would see fighting her as a priority. Marceau couldn't speak for the others there(though he grudgingly acceded that it would be nice if they could apprehend the witch and her comrades to keep them from causing further harm), but he thought keeping the terrified Haitians from accidentally killing anyone to be much more important. With a strangled cry of "Look where you're going, fools!" he fired his grapple gun at the closest of the houses, wincing as he realized how much would need to be redone due to the foolishness of the witch and her allies. Using the momentum from the swing, the King of Suits dove into the crowd, knocking down a heavyset man who was about to collide with a much smaller man and potentially endager them both. Diving here and there through the stampede, Marceau raced from fallen citizen to fallen citizen, snatching them from harm's way and carrying them out of the crowd, stopping for an instant to catch his breath and then returning to the fray. He had to check, elbow, aggressivley intercept and headbutt far more people than he would have wished to, and felt deeply embarresed that the best he could do at the moment was call out in French "<I'm very sorry!>", but he told himself sternly that it was all he really could do at the moment. A yellow-tan blur out of the corner of his eye that he saw intermittently told him that a far more able member of the team was assisting him, his relief at this knowledge being unecessary to spell out. Knowing it was one of the few things he could really do at the time, he kapt at it, racing through the crowd bent low, snatching people from the stampede's hundreds of feet and getting them clear of the crush of bodies. He wondered if they would need to chop more wood, or if there was a surplus. He honestly couldn't recall...

Sure thing! So that would be: Bluesman, Quintessence, Spitfire and Weaver. Not going to put King into this, so I think five would be the max' for now, so if anyone else can find a reason there char. would be at this fair, I'd be happy to hear it.

Alright, I think I've hit on a good setting for Weaver, Bluesman and Sputfire to all be at: an 'old-timey' sort of fair, placed in Liberty Park near the lake. Lots of booths, bargainers with their goods on mats, people milling around, music and street theater, it would be perfectly reasonable for each of your guys to be there to my thinking. I'm going to focus pretty heavily on those three, so I don't think I'll bring King in. That sound good?

I'd be happy to GM it, if that's agreeable to you.

I'd be glad to join in, Airon! My primary char is PL11, and also oriented towards street-level threats.

Hey guys! Sorry to say, but I'm not going to be on nearly as much in the coming days. RL issues that need resolving. I'll keep on top of my posting duties but I won't be on chat at all. EDIT: Actually, not quite so bad as I thought. I'll be able to be on chat intermittently, not regularly, though.

September 2011 Vignette: King of Suits September 20th, 2011 It was a chill summer morning, with the shining star that was the Gorgon gleaming brighter than Venus. The sun hadn't yet fully crested the horizon, meaning that the light fog from the night still remained in thin wisps. The Fens, being right beside the South River, were still veiled in the last shreds on the riverbank. On a rusting billboard above the eastern crossroads between 70th and Broadway, the caped and cowled King of Suits peered down at the rumbles of panic and fearful crime below. He had been extremely busy all the week long, busting attempts by supervillains to capitalize on the chaos, upstarts wanting to make a name for themselves by "...committing the Crime of the Century!!", usually involving shooting time with a glowing gun or something. He really had no clue where all these people were coming from, and sincerely hoped that the other heroes involved had a better handle on what was going on than he did. Marceau watched wearily as the latest band of looters came rampaging down the streets, clutching to their bodies the fruits of their labors. A TV there, a large stack of energy bars there, and sundry items too numerous to categorize fast enough as he swooped down to deal with them. He had no interest in doing battle with the crowd. While he knew perfectly well he could subdue them martially with no risk to himself, he understood that it would be highly counterproductive to treat them with such disdain. If he could convince them that it would be best to stop with their cooperation, he would have a good chance of using that as a springboard for dealing with future looters. First of course he had to talk them down. Landing neatly, his cape flaring behind him dramatically, the King of Suits reared up to his full(and slightly lean) six feet 5 inches, a hand raised in a gesture of rejection and cessation, palm facing parallel to his body, fingers raised in a neat row of digits that showed off the armoring of his gloves. His voice, low and deep as it had been since he had turned 14, declared simply "Please stop your thefts. You'll gain nothing from this if you live or if you die. Please go to the portal leading to Sanctuary, you'll be safe there". The crowd stopped in their tracks and watched him warily, but didn't seem convinced. "How do we know that portal DOES lead to safety?" yelled one of the looters from the packed swarm of angry and frightened people "How do you know it ain't a trap? There could be monsters there!" Marceau opened his mouth to speak but was drowned out by the angry tidal wave of loud affirmations(some of whom had 'totally seen' monstrous beasts wandering in and out of the portal) threats against his person(including accusations of him being a supervillain and trying to get them to go to his secret base) and inane natter such as asking "What's Sanctuary?" after someone else had explained it(with varying accuracy) at least three times. At last he gave a sigh and simply swung himself onto a store sign above the crowd, where he began by shouting "QUIET!" his voice carried quite well, and it cut through the growing din like a scythe through water. The people below simply carried on furiously demanding answers, promises of safety or just for him to leave them alone. But none of them were seriously planning to try and attack him(a few desultory stones were halfheartedly thrown his way though), so there was that, at least. Realizing that this crowd was different from the others he had seen quelled or dispersed earlier, he switched tactics, dropping neatly into the middle of the crowd and tapping one of the looters he recognized n the shoulder. The woman he picked was named Sharon, a middle-aged Chinese-American worker in a steel factory he had struck up a friendship with upon his first arrival, dressed in an all-grey wardrobe. She was one of those hard-headed people that exuded dependability, and he gauged her presence to be a Godsend for the purposes of calming the panic, as she would have the 'One of Us' connection working for her. She frowned at him, asking the obvious question with a mere glance, which he responded to with a whispered "Could we work this out?". After careful deliberation on her part she nodded, a little brusquely, and began pushing her way out of the crowd, beckoning Marceau to follow. Once they were a short distance(no more than a meter or so) from the surly gathering of concerned citizens they almost simultaneously stopped and regarded each other. Sharon spoke first "Speaking for myself, I don't think you can protect us well enough to guarantee our safety. That's why we're doing this, to try and get some things to survive" the King of Suits nodded to the ones checking over their hauls of luxury goods "And them? What's there explanation?" Sharon's eyes narrowed "Nobody's perfect, King. I and the other organizers let people like that join us because for every useless piece of junk they pick up, there are ten vitally useful things you can use their parts for". Leaning back against a storefront, Marceau observed the situation: they were clearly convinced of the rightness of their cause, they hadn't the self-delusion aspect to work with, and to make matters worse they were hitting on a very uncomfortable fact: next to nobody really knew how to fight off the coming monster, and any efforts on that score were by necessity being kept secret from the various unsavory powers too short-sighted to be trusted with knowing about their existence. So, that left the only really viable route: getting them to Sanctuary if he could. Nodding to signal he had heard and understood what Sharon had said, he asked "What if I escorted you and yours to the portal?" the heavyset woman looked uncertain, glancing every now and then at the crowd and back to the lean man. After a minute's thought she replied "I might accept, but the rest would be pretty hard to convince of your ability. Don't misunderstand" she added, when Marceau opened his mouth to protest that "I and they know you're at least marginally competent enough to do what you do, but you can't fly, see to the ends of the Earth or shoot lasers from your mouth, so what you'd be able to defend us from is pretty limited really. If you could manage wrangling us to the portal we'd be grateful, but the general feeling is that you really can't do much for us" Marceau considered that for several minutes, head slightly bowed. All too true, he reflected. At least he said "In that case, let me address the crowd. I've an idea" Sharon nodded her assent and returned to her haul, which had remained conspicuously untouched. Marceau walked closer to the crowd, stretched out his hands once more, and called out sharply "Please! LISTEN!" Sharon, hearing the call, echoed the sentiment "Let's hear it! He might know what's going on!" she hollered over the noise of the crowd's varied demands. The mood slowly shifted, and after a minute's confusion, a pregnant silence reigned. If anything, their obvious expectation was even worse than their previous hostility. Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Marceau began: "I don't know what's going on" the angry cries began again but were quickly hushed by those interested in what he did know "However, what I understand to be the case is that a giant entity from space is coming to encase the world in nanites. That is a danger to every form of life on this planet, and as people like you and I can't fight it, we must try and escape it. The world we can escape to(courtesy of the gallant heroine Fluer de Joie) is Sanctuary, a place safe from this threat which those who choose to go there must only stay a short while until that evil-" he pointed to the distant star of Gorgon "-is ended. And we all know full well that the terror coming here cannot defeat the might of our heroes working to crush it's power: the valiant and brilliant successor of Ironclad, star-spangled Miss Americana, quantum-warping Supercape and the unmatched roboticist Dragonfly, not to mention that electronic citizen. Really, there's nothing to worry about. If you wish to evacuate the city until the threat has been dealt with, the world of Sanctuary will serve as a perfect hiding place. Call everyone you wish to go with you, bring them to the corner of 64th and Broadway, and I'll escort you to the evacuation area. If you choose to stay, let me know and I'll make a point of patrolling around your area more thoroughly. But whatever you choose to do, please don't steal from these businesses. They can barely keep their doors open as it is, and something like this may ruin them" One of the men in the crowd shouted angrily "Oh yeah? How do you know?! You're just like all those guys from North Side, think you can dress up in a costume, beat up some guys down on their luck, be in bed by ten, and that somehow makes you a big hero!" Marceau recognized the face and voice. Seda Mec, a Czech emigrant and part of the cleaning crew for the office complex he worked at himself. He answered with bland simplicity "I live around here" The startled silence was like that heard in the dead of night, when you know you've heard something and are straining your ears to try and make sure you really heard it. He took it as a sign that he could resume. "I live around here, and I have to put up with everything you guys have to as well, and so do the people who run these stores. If you can respect me for doing what little I do, just for the fact that I live here too, please respect them for their work" The crowd was clearly rattled, looking nervously from one to another, the morning sun reflecting on the thin layer of dirt so much of the Fens had over it, turning the thin shreds of mist to nothing before its burning gaze. After a few moments, a lean old man stepped out from the crowd. He had a sack over his right shoulder filled with canned food, a dirty white polo shirt with dark brown shorts. He looked at the King of Suits uncertainly, at last saying in a startlingly warm and strong voice "I have three grandchildren, can you promise me they won't be attacked when we go to the evacuation point?" the cowled figure nodded. At this, most of the crowd tentatively moved forward, all of them asking in turn for his help keeping them and theirs safe as they prepared for evacuation, to fortify themselves, or just for its own sake. As he jotted down addresses, apartment numbers and drew small, neat maps to facilitate the keeping of his promises, Marceau wondered if he had finally hit upon what he should have done in the first place. It would take a few days to get everything straightened out, but he knew he could do it, and he knew they could do it too. The star of the Gorgon twinkled in the heavens, before it was abruptly over-shone by Sol Invictus. The last of the night was banished, and as the last stragglers went about, sheepishly returning the non-essentials they had stolen, a caped figure swung on a grapple line through the open window of a large apartment complex built in the center of the maligned Fens. The man had much to do, and needed help to do it. His friends, the vagrants, the harmlessly insane, the beggars, would all be essential to planning of this magnitude. All was ready, he just had to figure out how to put the pieces in order...

Issue cleared up in chat: Marcy only wakes up just in time to see someone stealing his gear, too late to stop them. The darkness means he has no idea who they were or what they really look like.

MINUTES AGO! Hm? What's with those guys? Better make sure they're on the up-and-up thought Subito glumly. They didn't precisely seem like any of the usual kinds of troublemakers he and Galanta were used to shutting down, and they way they had challenged that blond kid made him uneasy. Turning to Johnny he said brightly "Well, I really wish I could stick around Johnny, but I've gotta go. I was sent here to find some DVDs for my big sis', and I'll be sorry if I don't get back to it. A pleasure to meet you, I hope we see each other soon" shaking his hand eagerly he turned and walked back to the store, apologized to clerk, finished his transaction and approached the men standing 'guard' before the shop door. In a very quiet and firm voice he said flatly "Just to let you guys know, you are doing very badly at keeping yourselves hidden. If you're here for a legal reason you shouldn't act like you don't want people to approach you. How about letting me know what's up so I can tell mall security if you're challenged? Looking like that will just get you in trouble"

Oh yeah, sorry I forgot about that.