Curious Key

That's a DC31 check. Oh boy. Yeah that sounds likely.

Let's give it a go anyway . . .

1d20+12=26

WHERE WAS THIS ROLL LAST TIME? Dazed again. Can he keep flying, though?

1d20+12=32

He'll take all the damage he wants but someone tries to shoot him out of the sky? He says NO!

And, hm, what's this? Someone new in the initiative order this next turn???

1d20+4=5

1: Rainman 10

2: Bonfire 9.5

3: Mooks 5

The rainman had heard how much Cassidy Breur hated rain. Thought himself useless in it. Weakened he might have been, but Bonfire was hardly toothless.

He let his guard down . . . And paid the cost with pain.

The fire that sang from him burst straight through the rainman's shield and scorched his exposed face. He recoiled, putting hands over his eyes in a moment of silent pain. His focus lapsed, and the water that had bound Cassidy in place began to fall. 

Oh wow! That just BARELY hits.

Let's see here.

1d20+13=21

Wow. You've bruised and also dazed him. And therefore, you are now free from his grapple.

Rainman needs to make a concentration roll to see if he can maintain his Flight. He needs to make a DC 16.

1d20+12=24

Yeah he's fine.

The rainman turned his palm around, quirked it upward, toward Bonfire, and action erupted all at once. A bubble of water sprung up around the intruder, meeting the fire that sprang from Bonfire's hands head on. It held its own for a moment, but the flame broke through, leaving only steam behind and slamming into the rainman, burning a hole in his suit and leaving him with a burnt shouldier.

Meanwhile, water rushed inward from Cassidy's room and closed around Bonfire in an instant, trapping his flames within the water. Liquid gathered around rainman's body, engulfing him now completely, leaving only his face open. He turned his face sideways and flew out of the building through the window, carrying Bonfire up! Windows blurred past, then rooftops, then the open sky. 

They floated together over four hundred feet above the ground, the city laid out before them. "Do you understand your place now, Bauer? Freedom is a privileged. A privilege you have lost." The rainman held up a hand and closed it into a fist.

Oof, that's a hit. Let's do a toughness roll. If I'm correct, I need to beat a 26?

1d20+14=22

Ouch. That's a bruise.

Since you readied your action, I think that delays your order in the initiative, so I think it looks something like this now?

Rainman: 10

Bonfire: 9.5

In which case, Rainman is up again. So, he's going to try to maintain his grapple of you to keep pinning you. If he hangs on, then he's going to, uh, drag Bonfire outside for some fresh air.

1d20+17=30

Well, don't want to disappoint, so ranged grapple attack, coming right up!

1d20+10=30

That's a crit! Or . . . It would be a crit, but I don't think grappling gives a special critical effect. Now for the second half of this, the opposed grapple check . . . 

1d20+17=22

Gotta beat a 22, or you're grappled. Either way, you can throw your fireball at this guy's face.

Behind Bonfire, the door to his apartment opened wide.

The heavy-duty protective gear that the rest of the agents had, this man had quite simply done without. He was wearing a plain, black suit, slacks and white gloves. Excepting the infrared goggles, he looked more like someone come out of a high society dinner than anything else. Though he must have come through the window out of the rain, he was completely dry. "Cassidy Bauer." The man said in a familiar voice. "Don't make this more difficult than it has to be."

A CHALLENGER APPROACHES!

Initiative 1d20+4=10

New Order:

Bonfire: 18

?????: 10

I'll do a post where they show up and then it's Bonfire's turn again.

Oh they simply cannot beat that taunt, they have to eat the debuff.

On to the damage;

Spook One

Reflex: 1d20+3 =10

Toughness: 1d20+6=8

Spook Two

Reflex: 1d20+3=11

Toughness: 1d20+6=10

Spook Three

Reflex: 1d20+3=17

Toughness: 1d20+6=17

There are all minions, so they're down unless you want to leave one awake. You can write out how they get blown away or I can, your call. We're not ending initiative just yet, though . . . 

As Bonfire escaped his room and under the door, there was a sound of shattering glass behind him. But by them he was already in the hallway. 

There were three. They were dressed in uniform black armor, with infrared goggles and a long, dark weapon that looked less like a gun and more like a long, insulated tube with a nozzle. One, the first he met, was pressed against the wall by Cassidy's door. Her eyes turned down, grabbed the heft of her weapon and aimed it coolly at Bonfire's burning, angry mass. She pulled the trigger releasing a spray of liquid that hissed, dropping the temperature of the room and slamming full on into his 'body.'

Two others waited at the end of the hall,behind corners. One pointed a thumb toward Bonfire and counted 'one-two-three,' then tossed a flashbang over their partner's head. They managed to glance upward at it and turned their face away before it FLASHED bright in the hall. The two at the end of the hall drew their weapons from behind their backs and turned to look down the corridor. 

Spook One is going to pull out her spray weapon and try to get Bonfire to chill out. It's an area cone effect, with the cold descriptor. I think you probably get full bonuses on the reflex to dodge even though you're weak to it . . . But not the damage.

DC 17 Reflex for the area attack. 

Normal save for damage is 15+7, but because of your vulernability to cold, that goes up to 15+10

DC 25/20 toughness save for damage, depending on whether you succeeded or not, I think?

Spook Two, hidden behind a door in one of the empty apartments, is going to throw a flashbang. Spook one is in range, so she'll have to make a save.

DC17 Reflex for area attack

DC17/13 Reflex or be dazzled

Rolling for Spook One

1d20+3 = 22

They reduce the roll they need to in order to throw off dazzle. Will they make it?

1d20+3= 13

. . . Yes. Apparently they will. Wow.

And Spook Three is gonna take cover behind a door, doing nothing.

Mysterious Spooks:

1d20+4 = 23

Initiative Order

1: Mysterious Spooks - 23

2: Bonfire - 18

They go first.

Let's Roll For Initiative! 

Oh no! It seams that Cassidy's lackadaisical attitude to protecting his secret identity has backfire in a big way, and his enemies have found their way to his home. Take another hero point.

"Terrorist," a voice said through the phone, bored, professional. "You're a surprisingly easy man to find, considering what you have done."

There was a moment of staticy silence through the phone. Dashing footsteps through the wall that led out into the hallway. "The damage that you have done to my employers' interest is incalculable," he said, clipped and toneless. On the other end, Cassidy could hear . . . Rain? "While it is unlikely that you will ever be able repay the damage you have done to our interests, it has been decided that an example must be made. You will make up for what you have done."

"Should you submit, my employeers may show you mercy and allow you to participate as an agent. If you do not, you shall spend the rest of your life in a glass tube as part of a generator."

"Let me make this absolutely clear to you, Cassidy Bauer. From this day forward, you shall become our property. The only choice remaining to you is whether you walk or are dragged."

Holy crap, alright. Cassidy is on the ball today.

Hm. It seems like it's awfully rainy today. That seems like it might be inconvenient for poor Cassidy. Take a hero point. 

GM

Over the past few week, there'd been visitors to the fens, driving in with a sleek, too-nice car, and Cassidy had noticed people he didn't know in the building. Standing alert, aware . . . Aware of him, in fact. Now, they were the only people Cassidy had seen in teh building. And as if that wasn't enough, today it was raining.

The sort of cold, hard January rain that hit the ground and turned to ice. The fens had retreated into itself; no one wanted to step aside for fear of slipping. It made sense, then, that it was a little quiet that night, in Cassidy's apartment. The lack of footfalls above his head, the lack of arguments from next door . . . Maybe it should have comforted him.

At the days' end, the steady pitter-patter of rainfall still audible through the shoddy Fens architecture, Cassidy's phone began to ring.  

For this thread.

How about we start everything out with Bonfire making a Notice check. That sounds about right. 

Warp

Peace On Earth, And Mercy Mild? (4)

Cool Cats (2)

Hardware Hoodlum Heist (2)

HellQ [I wrote one for Warp 4 years ago, but it was four years ago? Filled it in again. Does it count?]

GM Give to Warp Please

Extinquished (12)

Kat had never actually been to Japan, which was really something of a shame, considering that she could go just about anywhere. Language was hard though. "A good school can mean a lot," she said, because that at least she knew from experience.

Outside, Hammer was having his little snowball war . ..  or at least Kat assumed he was from the good-natured shouting and noise outside. Kat ran a hand absently through her hair. "Honestly," she said. "Had its ups and downs. But, altogether . . . not great." She gave a helpless little smile and a shrug. "You have any major hijinks in the last twelve months?" Kat raised an eyebrow.

Kat tugged at her jacket for a moment. It dissolved into thin air, leaving Kat in her bodysuit. The garden variety sort of thing that heroes who weren't quite tough enough all on their own relied on to take a punishment when they didn't have anything else to serve. Kat had tried to listen to someone describe it once, but she could almost feel her brains dripping out of her ears. Supergenius she was not.

"Ah. Um." Kat reached up and scratched the back of her head, remembering one time back in Normal, when she'd tried to shove a snowball in some kid's ear. So she did know. Why had she been such a hellion? "I don't have anything that dramatic," Kat said, pulling out at her bodysuit and letting it snap back against her skin. "I just don't really have any way to keep the cold off."

Cary
Power Level: 8 (135/135PP)
Unspent Power Points: 0 
Trade-Offs: -

Alternate Identity: -
Birthplace: -

Residence: -
Occupation: -
Affiliations: -

Blood Family: Deceased?

Adoptive Family: Cary (Sibling), Avce (Sister), Torys (Brother), Ellie ("Aunt"), Kurrn (Mom)

Apparent Age: -
Gender: -
Ethnicity: -
Height: -
Weight: -
Eyes: -
Hair: -

Describe Character Here

History:

Personality & Motivation:

Powers & Tactics:

Power Descriptions:
 

Complications:

Abilities: -2 + 0 - 10 + 6 + 6 + 4 = 4PP
Strength: 8 (-1)
Dexterity: 10 (+0)
Constitution: - 
Intelligence: 16 (+3)
Wisdom: 16 (+3)
Charisma: 14 (+2)

Combat: 8  + 6  = 14PP
Initiative: +0
Attack: +4 (+8 Shadowhands)
Defense: +7 (+3 Base, +5 Dodge Focus), +1 Flat-Footed

Grapple: +0
Knockback: -4

Saving Throws: 0  + 5 + 4 = 9PP
Toughness: +8 ( - Con, +8  Protection)
Fortitude: -
Reflex: +5 (+0 Dex, +5)
Will: +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Skills: 20R = 5PP

Knowledge (History) 10 (+12)

Knowledge (Streetwise) 10 (+12)

Feats: 6PP

Ambidexterity 

5 Dodge Focus

Equipment: 0PP = 0EP

Powers: 30 + 8 + 5 + 6 + 18 + 28 = 90PP

Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) 30PP 

Protection 8 8PP

Regeneration 5 (Recovery Bonus +0) 5PP

Morph 6 (Human 'Self') 6PP (Human Mien)

Living Shadow (17PP Passive, Permanent Container; Power Feats: Innate) 18PP

Shadowshape (26PP Array, Alternate Power 2) 28PP

Drawbacks: (-3) + (-3) = -3PP 

Vulnerability (Light, Frequency: Uncommon. Intensity: Major [2X DMG]) -3

DC Block

ATTACK              RANGE      SAVE                           EFFECT

Totals: Abilities (4) + Combat (14) + Saving Throws (9) + Skills (5) + Feats (6PP) + Powers (90) - Drawbacks (3) = 125/135 Power Points

Salamander

Quote

 

Power Level: 8 (150/150PP)
Unspent Power Points: 0 
Trade-Offs: -

In Brief: - pfff

Alternate Identity: -
Birthplace: -

Residence: -
Occupation: -
Affiliations: -
Family: -

Apparent Age: Late Teens
Gender: -
Ethnicity:
Height: -
Weight: -
Eyes: -
Hair: -

Describe Character Here 

History:

 

It began with two children playing pretend in the woods, a violet-haired man with a charming smile. "You've been sold," he claimed, "you are mine. Come." And their legs followed him into the dark against their will, because their souls knew that they belonged to him and refused to disobey. The first of these children was Cary, rambunctious, playful and loud, the violet-eyed man looked upon them decided that Cary could be made fit to entertain him.

 

But the mortal body was too clumsy, too bulky and awkward. So they changed them. In their hands, Cary's flesh was as clay. They crafted them into something limber and graceful. And, in an inhuman attempt to give them what they had heard humans describe as a 'fiery spirit,' Cary's heart was ripped out and replaced with a living flame.

 

Stumbling, desperate, the violet-eyed man put Cary immediately to work, turned dance into a lethal game as knives sprung from the floor where Cary stood, or as bees the size of their closed fist darted inward with needles as big if their finger. They grew into it, because their choices were to learn or die. They learned. Many others in the violet-eyed man's entourage died. Surviving marked them to the violet-eyed man as something 'special,' and Cary was used and displayed to his guests like a special piece of furniture, drawn into games of fae bloodsport between their own ensorcelled captives.

Avery was the only light left in Cary's life.

 

On their first days in this new hell before they were dragged apart, they had sworn to look out for each other and help one another. An earnest promise between two innocent children, Faerie magic bound their souls to each other in the fires of friendship, a human thing that the violet-eyed man could not fathom, let alone prepare for. 

 

Cary learned that the violet-eyed man wore the stolen souls of his ensorcelled slaves around his neck at all times, in the form of necklaces, so that he would always have power over them. One day, when Avery said they were ready, Cary left a potent mystical drug in the violet man's drink. Pretending concern, they tried to shake him awake, and before the fae guests pulled them away and beat them with sticks for the hubris of touching their master, Cary managed to pull their souls free.

 

They escaped outside, to where Avery was waiting with a a bowl full of water and the setting sun behind them. They held each other's hand, and when the violet-eyed man came, smiling a broad, cruel smile, as Cary quivered against their friend Avery pointed a hand to the bowl and said something Cary didn't catch.

 

Then they were standing in a strange forest they did not remember, with no fae creatures anywhere in sight. Holding hands, they meandered blindly through the wilderness before wandering into a human settlement. To their alarm, they discovered it had been seven days since they had been taken. 

 

When it became revealed that Cary and Avery's families had raised their children to sell them to the faeries for eternal life, custody was quickly taken from them and the children became wards of the state.

Personality & Motivation:

 

 

Powers & Tactics:

 TCS/U

 

Temporal Control Suit/UNit

Power Descriptions:

 

From what ___ can gather, they were someone with a connection to spirits, who could speak with the world around them. In the beginning, that was all. With Cary's soul grafted onto theirs, they have become a thing that walks the line between the living the a dead.  

  
Complications:

 

Nameless -  They may answer to ___, but they do not have a name. To by more precise, they do not have a name anymore. Everything they were before, everything that they had, all their memories, their relationships, their lives . . . of that belongs to ____. Until their name is returned to them, everything that ___ used to be will be forever lost.  
What . . . ARE You? - With their name ripped from them and their soul grafted onto another's, _____ isn't human and they never remember being human. Anyone and anything with even rudimentary magical senses will immediately recognize ____ as an abomination even if they do not know exactly what kind.  

Twin Natures -  Anything that affects the undead or the living will also affect ____ as though they were completely undead or living.

SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL? -  Someone who spends enough time with ___ may come to understand that while Cary is present, they cannot totally dominate ___. This is incorrect. They simply choose to sit back and watch ___ as they wander through . . . Most of the time.

Complication - Description 


Abilities: 4 + 4 + 4 + 0 + 10 + 0 = 22PP
Strength: 14 (+2)
Dexterity: 14 (+2)
Constitution: 14 (+2)
Intelligence: 10/14 (+0/2)
Wisdom: 20 (+4)
Charisma: 10/14 (+0/2)

Combat: 8  + 6  = 14PP
Initiative: -
Attack: +4 (+8 My Sword)
Defense: +10 (+3 Base, +5 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed

Grapple: +0
Knockback: -0

Saving Throws: 3  + 4 + 4 = 11PP
Toughness: +8 (+2 Con, +6 Your Coat, +8 Impervious Empowered Coat)
Fortitude: +5 (+2 Con, +3)
Reflex: +6 (+2 Dex, +4)
Will: +8 (+4 Wis, +4)

Skills: 0R = 0PP

 

Knowledge (History) 0  (+0, +12 Possessed)

Knowledge (Streetwise) 0 (+0, +12 Possessed)

Feats:
Sidekick 27 (Slyph)

Equipment: 0PP = 0EP

Powers: 2 + 9 + 1 + 8 + 22 + 31 = 90PP 

 

Comprehend 1 (Spirits) 2PP

Immunity 1 (Aging) 1PP

Super Senses 1 (Communication Link: Avery/Slyph) [1PP]

 

Smoldering Soul Medallion 1 (5PP Device; Flaws: Hard To Lose) [4PP]

Protection 6 6PP

 

 

Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP

DC Block

ATTACK              RANGE      SAVE                           EFFECT
Unarmed             Touch      DC 16 Toughness                Damage
Runic Slam          Touch      DC 25 Toughness                Damage
Runic Smash         Touch      DC 20 Fortitude                Daze/Stun/Unconscious

Totals: Abilities (22) + Combat (14) + Saving Throws (11) + Skills (0) + Feats (5) + Powers (90) - Drawbacks (0) = 142/150 Power Points

 

To be honest, the baseliners at Claremont had always confused Kat a little bit. The metahumans, she could understand, because she was one. The aliens, she got. The ghosts and robots and everything else, like, where the heck else would they have gone? Claremont had the facilities to take care of them all that no one else had. But why would any baseliners need to come?

This explained some part of it, at least. A Mali was a legacy hero. Following in her family's footsteps, chasing grandfather's back. "I can't imagine," Kat said, because she couldn't. It was just so strange . . . "For me, I didn't even really mean to go hero, like, ever. I woke up in a dumpster a state away in Chicago one day, and then people from Claremont were coming along to my parents about a school I could learn to control myself. I thought I'd finish up, and that'd be the end of it."

"But I'm kind of easy to influence," she admitted. "And everyone being heroes was just so cool . . ."

She flashed a smile. "Not really the most noble reason right? But I kinda hope you're right. That the reason doesn't matter so much as stepping up at all."

"Yeah," Kat said, raising an eyebrow as she shoved her her hands into her pockets. "This, uh." She bit down on the inside of her lip. "Is . . . Reassuring? How about we go . . . literally anywhere else?" This place . . . well, Kat didn't like the look of those skeletons. Or those bodies. Or those . . . Anything. She wasn't exactly a pushover, but this . . . Made her distinctly uncomfortable. "I know it's supposed to be safe, but . . ."