Ari

I'd like to submit the King of Suits for a possible participant.

Marceau looked nervously at the door, knowing that what lay beyond was likely to be in a realm of power far greater than his own. He glanced over his shoulder at the passageway behind him, realizing abruptly that the answer to his problem lay right next to him. He turned to give a long stare at the stranger, turning his situation over in his head. On the one hand, he was in unfamiliar territory with his only known means of escape turned into a small mural on the ceiling. On the other hand, he had someone right next to him who seemed to know this place quite well, and to have some degree of power over it. And how better to learn of how this place than by interrogating this man who knew so much about it? With a bound, Marceau leaped upon the stranger, calling upon his stellar power source as he went, his strength rapidly amassing until the stranger was unable to move an arm. The grinning mask bent over the stranger's face, as Marceau's voice swelled and boomed from the confines of his lungs into the still air: "Tell me the truth, and I will be merciful".

Combat Round One: Initiative. KoS:(19,2) = (21) Stranger:(1) = (1) So, Marceau will Activate his Array and do a basic Grapple Attempt. First the Attack, (16,5)= (21) Stranger's Defence, (5,2) = (7) Marceau Grapple Check, (17,17) = (34) Stranger Opposition Check. (8) = (8) Round One end. Stranger is Bound. Marceau's Intimidate Check: (17,5) = (22) Stranger's Will Save. [16,-2] = (14)

The stranger sniffed, not even bothering to look back. "You'll find out when I choose to. Not a minute before." They passed on for what seemed hours, with tapestry after tapestry tastefully and symbolically displaying the great battles, events and gatherings that Freedom City had endured or payed host to over the centuries. After the eightieth or so, Marceau began to wish their was something else to look at. The light in the distance never seemed to grow any brighter, his footsteps were wearying in the close and oppressive atmosphere, and the weighty purse was tearing a hole in its pocket. When he was wondering if he should just 'cuff the stranger and finish take his chances, the stranger stopped, holding up his left hand sharply. He snapped his pinky and ring finger resoundingly, a sharp blast of air escaping from an unseen source, and a narrow black stone door opened in the air before them. Turning to the King of Suits, he said simply "We've arrived, go in." and waited for Marceau to follow his command.

Marceau had almost begun to spring forward, but checked himself sharply when his opponent started talking. Clearly from what the stranger had said, Marceau had one slight advantage: he had been pegged as not being a threat worthy of fighting. Silently thanking his lousy aim for this unexpected opportunity, Marceau bowed his head quietly and followed in his best sullen silence, his mask with its ferocious grin concealing a slightly smaller smile of amusement and slight anxiety. Thinking it best to play to his enemy's ignorance, Marceau began to attempt a subtle questioning of who and what this mans superiors were. "So, who might these 'Superiors' of yours be, eh?" His voice rumbled like a roll of thunder through the otherwise silent halls, carrying with it nearly every single unspoken question he was trying to figure out at once. "Genius, Marcy my lad, sheer genius!".

KoS's Dip. attempt: (2,5) = (7) WHY DO YOU DESPISE ME SO, DICE? Strangers Sen Mot. Check: (19) = (19) SERIOUSLY, WHY??

Gm (how not)To Catch a Thief (5 Posts) King of Suits (how not)To Catch a Thief (5 IC Posts)

Tense from his narrow escape from death(or at least disfigurement), Marceau's next card was easily batted aside and veered left, striking a wall three rooms away. With a sad, weary smile, the stranger raised his left hand(the other being busy keeping a magic sword corporeal) and snapped his ring finger and thumb together. With a sudden feeling like deflation, Marceau saw the endless hallway rise up around him once more. The change from the starkly and unevenly lit real world to dusty gloom of half-light and murky tapestries proved much more subtle than Souvo had expected. First the walls seemed to slowly slide towards him, gaining height as they went, before dissolving into a dusty haze the dark stairway had kept him from noticing.The haze wasted no time, however, and quickly began reforming the deep rug and brick walls Marceau had seen only seconds earlier. The stranger calmly brushed his coat(he wore, Marceau noticed, a thick wool shirt under a patched and wrinkled trench coat, faded and dirty blue jeans, and light gray dress shoes) to get rid of the dust that had gotten over most of it during his brief scuffle with the KoS. Turning to his foe he said quite briskly, with a light Belgian accent; "Mr. Mask, I have no idea who you are or why you've taken it upon yourself to be such a nuisance to me, but I can tell a new, untrained, untested or out-of-practice fighter when I see one, and you fit nearly all of those to my reckoning. Take my advice and follow me peacefully to my department's meeting hall and I'll make sure you only have to leave a few pieces of gear behind as a peace offering. To answer the obvious question, I'll just say that my superiors are carrying out a divination project and ask you to leave sleeping wyrms lie." Turning towards a far-off green-tinged light, the stranger started walking off, pausing only to mutter a spell that turned the blue orb above their heads into a small mural showing a blue gem carrying a fountain from atop a mountain to a desert village. It was a very descriptive mural. This had the side effect of casting the place into a deeper darkness, only alleviated by the lights at both ends of the hallway.

Marceau's Ranged Pin attempt, (11,5) = (16) Stranger's Defence, (20,2) = (22) Stranger activates the blue orb in the living room(the place with the shunted aside furniture). GM fiat: both teleported back to the Hallway World(no HP awarded because frankly that'd be pointless). end of Round 2.

Marceau dashed upstairs after Mr. Thievery, an incoherent feeling of unease gradually moving to the front of his mind. After around eight minutes of running up single staircase, Marceau turned to look back down it, only to see a dark, long, long, LONG, hallway stretching out for what seemed half a mile, with the only indication of its size being the shadows cast by a blue orb hanging from the ceiling directly above. The King of Suits slowly turned towards the sounds of his quarry's retreating feet, seeing that the hallway appeared to have taken the place of the entire house. Deciding that he could do little now that both he and his prey were caught by some magical force, Suvou began examining his new surroundings. They were not unhandsome. A rich, well-varnished mahogany floor supported his feet, with narrow silver designs of Celtic knots providing endless fascination to an idle eye. The walls were brick, hung with tapestry's depicting valiant lords and daring ladies besting evil creatures of all sorts, with especial care done for two, one of a golden-clad knight driving back a monstrous skeleton clad in red armor, the other of an unclear figure wielding a blazing spear of light striking down what looked for all the world like a mans shadow sprung out of the ground. Shaking himself out of his curiosity, which had become acutely aroused by the clearly semi-symbolic wall-hangings, Marceau turned back to the business at hand. He drew out a razor-edged card, ran halfway up the closest wall and struck out at the blue orb. It connected with a blast of air, dust and a brief vision of a fury-filled brown eye before the world snapped back into being around him. He landed lightly on his left hand and crashed heavily into the suddenly narrowed wall opposite the one he had jumped from. He leapt to his feet, finding himself face-to-face with his adversary, a shortish man with a a dark, brooding air about him, and a curious smell like a burned flower. The man jumped toward Marceau with a wild yell of "You ruined it!", grabbed him by the mask and they went tumbling down the stairs in a heap. The strange man slowly gained his feet, glaring down at Marceau and raised his right hand, a thin blade coalescing into being between his fingers. "Too good for you" The man spat, "But desperate times and all. You'll be a good warning to nail to the door.". A razor card whipped into the wall next to the man's upraised arm, tearing off a few shreds of cloth as he leaped to the side, aiming a blow at his enemy's head. It slid smoothly into the floor vacated only milliseconds before by Marceau, who jumped ungainly to his feet, shaken by the suddenness of the attack,

Marceau's Attempts a Ranged Pin. (11,5) = (16) Stranger's Reflex, (18,1) = (19) Stranger's Attack, (18,2) = (20) Marceau's Defense, (17,4) = (21) End of Round One.

Yes, sorry it took so long to reply, Knowledge(Physical Sciences). Done by Sneerg

For combat purposes, the Foe is a taken from the 'Thug' archetype in the Core Book. Changes: Removed Feat 'Equipment', replaced it with the power Strike 2(Magic Sword), Knowledge(Magic) 4, +5 to INT. Intiative: King of Suits : 17 Stranger : 9 Combat begins.

Marceau moved with utter silence, his feet scarcely disturbing the fallen snow inside the door that had mingled with the welcome mat. His eyes strained in the dark, making out dimly a hallway all but filled with purses, wallets and handbags of such diversity they beggared description. He passed noiselessly from the hall to a room from which a faint light emitted, a pale blue radiance that illuminated exactly nothing. Creeping to the edge of the doorway, Marceau began slipping his gloved hands over the frame, noticing too late which side of the frame the hinges were. The soft whumnk of the door hitting Marceau's gloved fingers seemed to the two who heard it to magnify beyond all reason, filling the house with its quiet, accusatory voice. The muffled curse from within the blue-lighted room was much less restrained, as were the panicky footsteps that followed them in a dead run deeper into the house, raising forlorn echoes as they went. Extricating himself from his embarrassing snare, Marceau slipped into the room his quarry had just left with what speed and dignity he could come up with on such short notice, grumbling to himself about the need to get back into his groove. For the trouble that it had caused, the room was not much to look at. Its dimensions were 12 ft. in width, 8 in height and 9 in length and with a small window placed high on the left-hand wall. Some furniture lay piled in a corner, dusty and long out of use, with pale green wallpaper of some checkered design, a white ceiling and a hardwood floor. The light came from a floating ball in the middle of the aforesaid ceiling. Admittedly, Marceau was rather uncertain as to how accurate his judgments were, due to the ball of lights annoying habit of seeming to draw all light into itself. Scattered across the floor was littered the thief's spoils. A woman's purse, three wallets and a small moneybag. Sweeping them into some of the manifold pockets covering the inside of his cape, the King of Suits sprang back into action, dashing once again off after his quarry, with a vague irritation at the unprofitable direction the day was heading.

Notice Check, DC 18. (1,7) = (8) Dang, well, Marceau closes the door on his fingers(thank Heaven for gloves, eh?), alerting Mr. Larceny of his presence.

Stealth Check to sneak into the house undetected, DC 20, (11,10) = (21) Superb, Marcy isn't noticed.

Notice Check for any routes a moderately athletic human could use to get to higher ground, DC 16. (20+7)=27 Brilliant. He sees the flagpole lacking snow above him.

Marceau sped past deserted diners, movie-houses that you wouldn't want to bring anyone under the age of thirty to, warehouses that had never been owned or operated under any legal reason, soup kitchens and homeless shelters that were always full, and all lit by the blazing, imperious moon. Marceau took a moment by a small chapel to observe a moment of silent prayer. On a and on he ran, for a little under an hour, through alleys and side streets and deserted apartments, until at last he arrived at the place that the footprints stopped. They stopped abruptly, in the middle of a sidewalk halfway along the second block of houses that faced the ancient restaurant 'Nite Wings'. A place well sheltered from the wind. Marceau took a moment to mop his slightly sweating forehead. And his much sweatier hands, clammy with excitement. Then he made a long, careful appraisal of all available escape routes. His attention was arrested by a flagpole, only ten or so feet above his head, with most of the snow brushed off its. Mr. Suvou gave a sigh of relief and slipped into the dark house, hoping fervently that whoever was inside wasn't in a fighting spirit.

His cursory scan of the adjacent alleys being unfruitful, Marceau hopped lightly down into the one running directly behind the bookshop and noticed immediately that a few tracks(all of roughly equal age and weight) lay right against the walls of the alley. Someone had been there, perhaps waiting for the thief? a hand-off of the stolen goods to another person was a common trick, Marceau knew, but it was just as possible that the other person had been a decoy, to provide a merry chase for people operating under just such an assumption. To follow both was impossible, and to follow one left open the chance of escape for the other. Pondering this dilemma, Marceau shook himself out of his indecision by deciding that the thief should be caught first, as they had stolen, and might bring in their accomplice to keep all the blame from falling on themselves. Dashing off after the(he gauged) later footprints, Marceau sped off into the night, his grinning mask gleaming in the moons glare.

Wisdom Check, DC 18. (20+7) = (27) Great! Marceau will track the original thief, rather than the maybe-accomplice, and as the check was successful, his choice will be the right one.

Another Notice check, DC 20. (9+7) = (16) Darn.

Swiveling about sharply, Marceau unfortunately missed seeing the thief in flight, and was instead met with the sight of a huddle of scarves, hats, coats and mittens pointing in a roughly eastern direction. Darting into a side-alley and behind a convenient dumpster, Marceau shed his everyday disguise and emerged onto the street as the masked and hooded King of Suits! A costumed crime-fighter was a common sight, and several of the bystanders around the origin of the theft had already been grumbling about tardy heroes when Marceau leaped onto the scene. His arrival still warranted a cheer from the band, ragged and muted in some places though it was. With a bow, Marceau clambered up the side of a building adjacent to him, and swiftly went looking for a sign of the thief's presence.

Activating Boost. Climb Check, DC 20, (17+7) = (24) Outstanding!

DC20 Notice Check, (6+2) = (8) Eh.

OOC thread for (how not)To Catch a Thief.