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  1. - Top - End - #91
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    "Oh, hello." Rene's rather subdued reaction to the new Sarah is largely contrasted by the sudden jerk of his reptilian head. "When did you contact more of... uh, yourself?" Somehow he can't find a better way to put that. How does one willingly contact another of themselves from a different dimension? The lowly reptilian-man has enough trouble keeping track of everyone he knows in his own world.

    However dumbfounded he may be, he's always happy to have a teleporter for emergencies as he's brought back to Gotham, which is...

    "W-What?"

    His coarse voice spews out stuttering words as he sees the absolute debris of glass and puddles on the street. This is a wreck, albeit a strangely specific one. A proper Gotham arson usually involves a lot more stuff burning, sometimes destroyed walls, and often a wounded person or a corpse. The difference this scene gives off makes Rene's cold-blooded stomach twist.

    He'd be more concerned about the street, as well as the magically-protected building (how did he not see it this morning?) were it not for Sarah-27663's sudden remark. "Excuse me?" He raises a hairless, scaly brow; a clear twitch is present in his slits as he sharpens his tone. "Gotham's always been like this. I've lived here most of my human life. I mean it's like a pig's cage of crime, a brooding, messy, ugly city that's dangerous if you stay five feet from a streetlight." For someone who has made his living with Gotham's homeless, the Builder doesn't like to hesitate at criticizing his own city. He's... probably being harsher than he needs to.

    That or he's a bit short-tempered because Katie's captured with no clear way in. That's not really good for his mind.

    Rene is about to go introduce himself to Kitty when he sees the flying winged person coming down... And by instinct, Rene dashes like a blur behind the nearest car thinking it's Batman.

    Coward.

    The reptilian fishes his head out behind the hunk of metal as he sees it's an agent, specifically an Agent of SHIELD. Feels like forever since he's ever seen one of those. It doesn't make sense for one to simply show up by themselves; Fury would raise Hell to any agent that's gone off on their own; Fury couldn't have just authorized this on a whim. She's made quite the suit as well; isn't dressing up like a member of the Batfamily a bad idea?

    ...Wait, she has a scent beneath that heavy perfume. Rene wouldn't normally pick it out but he's been constantly been on edge with everything around him; this scent stands out like a sore thumb. Doesn't... this... belong to-

    Oh snap!

    Rene's glimpse of shock softens after several brief moments as his hunched, reptilian body walks up to Agent Serum. "Thanks," he says, sounding coarse and quiet beneath the seemingly-endless sounds of wailing sirens. "I didn't know Fury would send anyone." A mild pain came to Rene's mind at what he said; he doesn't like to recall any of his time working for Fury way back. Rene's been happier being away from that prison of a base.

    There's also the fact that Rene's following along with what's likely a lie. If this is who he thinks it is, then there's no way she's actually here on Fury's orders. She came entirely of her own volition; and in respect to her identity, there's no point to reveal it. "We're sorta... lost?" The uncertainty in Rene's scaly voice is almost painful to behold. "What do you know about what's going on, agent?"

  2. - Top - End - #92
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    The vision Ronin saw angered him. He said nothing at all about it. His facial expression could have been mistaken for neutral, but Kitty Pryde knew better. She has seen that cold silence before, always preceding bursts of extraordinary violence. His knuckles were white around the grip of Starsoul, who could also tell its wielder’s fury.

    "…Not good, is it, boss?"

    Fred didn’t answer, which was answer enough in itself.

    I’m coming.

    His first strike rebuffed by the deflection field, Ronin readied to strike it again… and again… and again until it shattered and he could instead strike whoever was on the other side.

    His perception of the world returned to the present and he took stock of who had shown up to help. Sarah, Sarah (whose presence he completely no-sold), and the Builder. Lastly, there was a pretty, power-armored swordswoman among them. He liked his odds better now.

    “Your wizard”

    “Our friend is inside, stuck in The Matrix and having her powers siphoned,” he partially answered her and completely answered the Builder.

    “Sarah Saturns,” again with the no-sell, “Same device has rendered Rachel Grey catatonic. We'll need you to deal with the device.”

    “Everyone else,” he said to Builder and Serum, since Kitty was already working on the barrier. “You want to help? Bring down the shield and tear apart everyone inside.”

    “Ready… break!”

    Ronin took another swing at the barrier.

    Spoiler
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    Can do individual attacks or team attacks, however you guys want.
    Power slice with full all-out/power: (1d20+12)[32] Crit. Natural 20. DC 30+Multi dodge

    Magic array will now default to True Sight, particularly for power detection.
    Last edited by SuperCracker; 2018-10-03 at 06:18 PM.
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  3. - Top - End - #93
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    CandyLaser's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Quote Originally Posted by Starsign View Post
    "Oh, hello." Rene's rather subdued reaction to the new Sarah is largely contrasted by the sudden jerk of his reptilian head. "When did you contact more of... uh, yourself?" Somehow he can't find a better way to put that. How does one willingly contact another of themselves from a different dimension? The lowly reptilian-man has enough trouble keeping track of everyone he knows in his own world.
    "Oh, I've been doing it for ages. Sarah Saturns tend to understand each other better than most." There really wasn't much time for conversation, though, so she warped Builder and her counterpart to Gotham without further explanation.

    On arrival, Sarah shared the footage she'd received of the attack on Potence with the rest of the team, and with Serum. Then she turned to Sarah-27663, and was about to explain some of the finer points of interdimensional counterpart theory, beginning with Lewis's On the Plurality of Worlds before delving into the mathematical underpinnings of multidimensional physics. But then Ronin, true to form, took the direct approach. As he smashed through the barrier, she sighed. "All right, I guess we're eschewing subtlety. Now that they know we're here, let's hit them hard and fast."

  4. - Top - End - #94
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Quellian-dyrae's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Fred's true sight didn't detect any indications of actual superpowers in Sarah-27663, not even the augmented intelligence of her 616 counterpart. He could tell that she had a number of cybernetic augmentations. Both physical and mental best he could see, but his power didn't really do much to reveal the specifics of technological devices.

    Agent Serum did have a superpower, which he recognized as genetic in nature, though not from the X-gene. She had a greatly augmented intelligence, not quite at Sarah's level but up there, and substantially hasted speed of thought that lent itself to gadgeteering.

    Spoiler: Fred only, Perception DC 25, can't be routined
    Show
    Come to think of it...it gets kinda drowned out by all the magic, but you've observed a rather similar power in Katie in the past. Not similar in the sense of doing the exact same thing - they're both genetic cognitive enhancements, but Katie's isn't as strong, emphasizes learning ability, and doesn't include any hasted speed of thought, so from a practical standpoint it's a fairly different power - but the pattern of the two powers, the analytical sense of them that you get from your True Sight, is very similar.

    Spoiler: If you beat DC 30
    Show
    You also notice something kinda odd going on with how her mental quickness is working. It's kinda like she's using it to run two completely separate trains of thought simultaneously.

    Spoiler: Insight DC 33
    Show
    And unless you miss your guess, you're pretty sure she's shunting basically all of her emotion into just one of those trains of thought.


    Sarah-27663 got a...bit of a deer-in-headlights look at Rene's reply. "Oh... That's sad..." she replied, rather uncertainly.

    When Rene dove for cover on Serum's arrival...well, Sarah-27663 seemed a bit startled herself. Startled enough, anyway, to point a hand at the newly-arrived agent. Her palm kinda corkscrewed open, revealing what might have been some sort of internal cannon mechanism. Fortunately, Serum introduced herself before she could fire anything, and she closed the cannon port and lowered her hand, a bit sheepishly.

    Serum was opening her mouth to answer Rene when Fred spoke. She gave a simple nod at his correction, acknowledgement without apology. "I see," she said when he elaborated on the situation, her voice professionally neutral as she took in the information.

    ...Not so neutral was Kayla's voice over his commlink. "She's...what!?" Kayla knew she was "attached to some sort of machine", and that...that was bad. But the specifics were worse.

    When Sarah showed the team the footage, Kitty watched it with dangerously narrowed eyes, while Serum looked it over with that same professional neutrality, just reviewing it for tactical information. "Do those weapons seem like they're not operating at full capacity to anyone else?" she asked, before glancing at Fred. "And you say your friend's powers are being siphoned?"

    This time Fred was ready for the deflection field, and more than that - his initial attack had caused some crackling energy to radiate out along the barrier when he hit. It might have looked like just so much sparkly magic, but his reading up on magic barriers paid off, indicating that such displays were indicative of energy flows that helped maintain the barrier's integrity by dispersing waste energy. However, they were a strength that came with a weakness; if you hit them just right, they were something of a fault line.

    Starsoul hit them just right. The magical blade sheared straight through the barrier's hair-thin energy channel, and the entire shield shattered like glass.

    Kitty was looking at Fred just a bit appraisingly. Kitty knew, better than anyone except maybe his Aunt Judith, how strongly Fred actually felt his emotions. And she knew how to read those feelings in the way he covered them up. She knew what that icily neutral look meant. And Fred's stoic silence in response to Starsoul's question told her everything she needed to know about the vision he had received. Its context if not its content.

    She knew he wasn't speaking hyperbolically about tearing apart the people inside.

    As with so many things, the X-Men had their differences of opinion on killing. Pretty much the one thing they agreed on was that it was a matter to take seriously. Not just for the moral question - although that was certainly a factor - but, well, it was like Scott had said when Project Tomorrow had been unveiled. The X-Men are the mutants. When they killed, regardless of the reason, in the eyes of much of the world that was blood on the hands of every mutant on the planet.

    It wasn't right. It certainly wasn't fair. But nonetheless it was so.

    Now, Kitty herself was definitely more on the "absolute last resort" side of that particular debate. Enough so that she had argued with Emma, Betsy, even Logan on the subject, more than once. She had never argued with Fred about it, though. Not to say she always agreed when he felt lethal force was warranted. But she also knew that he would never make that call without reason, and absolutely never because it was the easier path. While she may not have always agreed, she did trust Fred implicitly with that decision.

    But in this particular case, there was more to the question than morality and trust.

    So as the shield went down, Kitty said quietly, "I'm not going to tell you they don't deserve what they get." Hey, Katie was Kitty's friend too, and the lengths Kitty would go to to protect her friends has been well established. "Just...keep in mind that if anybody dies in there, Katie will feel like she's responsible for it. She'll be wrong, but that won't change how she'll feel."

    A second or two after the shield came down, though, a glowing silver hand came ghosting through the front door and floating over to the party. It stopped in front of them, hovering at more-or-less eye level with its palm out, a clear "wait" gesture.

    Kitty eyed it a bit askance. "Katie...?" she asked warily.

    The Helping Hand balled into a fist and dipped down once, like it was nodding, before repeating the wait gesture.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2018-10-07 at 02:49 PM.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

    World of Aranth
    M&M 3e Character Guide

  5. - Top - End - #95
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Sarah took advantage of the delay to gather more information. Her portals had many uses, aside from transport and combat. One of those benefits was the ability to make a sort of peephole - a small portal, in front of her face (not directly; she'd lost eyebrows that way) designed to let her scout an area safely. She quickly reprogrammed her portal projector to create a series of peephole portals and set it to scanning the interior of the building.

    Spoiler: Actions
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    Power stunt! Remote Sensing 6 (Audio and visual senses) with the No Conduit and Simultaneous extras (30 pp) plus Quickness 15 with the Limited 2: Only for Investigation checks flaw (5 pp). That'll give me an 1800 ft range and the ability to make an Investigation check to search 30 square miles in a round thanks to Quickness. Then I'll use Polymath to get 2 ranks in Investigation, a rank in the Second Chance advantage, and then make that Investigation check: (1d20+21)[38]

  6. - Top - End - #96
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Fred didn’t really answer Kayla’s question. “Stay calm. We’re here. We’re going to get her back.” Despite Fred’s aggressively neutral demeanor, there was a softness to his voice as he tried to put her at ease. Of course, the video didn’t help. “Based on the footage, they’re magitek,” he said to Kayla, invoking a video-game corollary he knew she’d understand, “Work on figuring them out.”

    Serum hit upon a point. “They’re draining her to power their armor. This barrier was Katie’s barrier. They’re using her magic, including the Helping Hand. It blocked my attempt to soothsay.”

    Ronin paused before entering when Kitty said something. He was quiet. These armored people were brutally torturing Katie while they drained her dry. The cruelty was unforgivable. He intended to strike to kill. What’s more, swords are lethal. In a heated battle, if you hit someone hard enough with a deadly weapon, they die. It was something Fred was ok with. Kitty’s words didn’t exactly change that intention, but… “I won’t go out of my way to do it – but I won’t hold back if she’s in danger. I wouldn't hold back for any of you.” Even with the shades on he gave her a meaningful glance.

    The Helping Hand came down and gave the gesture. Fred placed his hand on Kitty’s arm. “It’s a trick. They’re using her powers. Let’s go.” Assuming it didn’t take long to view the results of Sarah Saturn’s remote viewing, he would wait for that before going inside. But he did not intend to let the Hand stall them.
    Spoiler
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  7. - Top - End - #97
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    CandyLaser's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Sarah left her portals up - it would help her check for ambushes - and reported back to the others. "All right. Did some recon. They've been in there for a while. Katie's in the center of the museum. She's in the Lotus Breaker Device. It's old Asgardian tech; she's in a dream state that's causing her to attempt to use her powers, then bleeding that off. She might also be being interrogated. She looks to be unconscious, and she's not doing well. I'm seeing Nordic runes. Elevated heart rate. Low blood pressure. Low magic. We won't be able to get her out without shutting things down, and if we damage the machine she'll be at risk. Let's go - and let's move quickly."
    Last edited by CandyLaser; 2018-10-08 at 08:54 PM.

  8. - Top - End - #98
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Watching the footage from Sarah was difficult for Rene. He didn't like watching his friends get hurt when he could do nothing about it. His cold blood especially freezes in horror when he sees a friend horribly outnumbered, beaten down and captured in a long, grueling battle. His thick tail flailed hard enough that its bones cracked just from the sheer bending; the sudden thrust of pain was his only indication of what he was doing to himself.

    The information later provided by Ronin and Sarah does little to ease the reptilian's mind. "Oh god, oh god they're doing THAT to her?! WHY?! Why would they even-" Rene's vocal horror and panic, driven by a sense of unknown and an utter fear of the hell Katie must be going through, is quickly dismissed by Sarah and Ronin's orders.

    They have a plan, Rene thinks to himself. They have a plan. They have a plan! They just need to do it. C'mon c'mon c'mon!

    Impatience overtakes the mad lizard.

    *ZOOM*

    Not that Rene rushes in but he simply can't wait all of ten seconds. So the reptilian dashes like a green blur around the Not!Helping Hand to try and take a closer look at the building. Surely he can help with reconnaissance. Surely he isn't supposed to stay still before fighting like a beast! Surely there's something he can spot that will help out when everyone barges in.
    Last edited by Starsign; 2018-10-18 at 09:26 PM.

  9. - Top - End - #99
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    Quellian-dyrae's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Round 1

    "Oh God, oh God, okay...okay...okay..." Fred could hear Kayla saying over comms. The video of Katie's abduction, and the further information Sarah gave them...yeah, it hit her. Hard. But she was trying to keep her focus, as best she could. If there was any way she could help, she had to be ready.

    Katie would need her to be ready.

    Kitty answered Fred with a minute nod. She would expect nothing less; if it came down to a choice between one of these guys and Katie, well, yeah. That wasn't a choice at all.

    Rene quickly scouted around the building. There were a couple of service entries around the back, both locked. Not that that would provide any particular impediment to him if he wanted to get past them. There were also several windows around the building that were large enough to provide entry.

    It was just as Rene was racing top-speed through the main door to scout inside - with the rest of the group hot on his heels - that the attack came.

    Because see, Fred was right. This wasn't Katie's Helping Hand. However, it wasn't there to delay them.

    It was there to distract them.

    Rene smelled it coming up behind them, ghosting through the wall of one of the buildings across the street and diving down on the group, and Fred felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck even as he and Kitty both heard the soft sound of movement through the air behind them.

    And it turned out, Fred's precognition hadn't been blocked at all. What he had seen was a brief, but perfectly clear future vision; the Hindering Hand flipped the group off as the Harming Hand descended upon them.

    The Hindering Hand was a left hand - the side that absorbed energy, Katie had said a time or two before. It made a gesture as it grew to the size of a person, aiming to drain the group of their strength and vitality.

    The right hand projects energy. It likewise enlarged as it gathered magical power in its palm to unleash upon the heroes. It was a good plan, a well-executed ambush.

    Just one problem. The X-Men reacted first.

    Kitty reached out to snag Fred's hand and took a deep breath - that would be all the warning he needed as she phased them both into the ground. How, exactly, the magical hands tracked their opponents she didn't know for sure - Katie had mentioned being able to navigate by touch using her Helping Hands, but Kitty wasn't exactly clear on the specifics. But she was pretty confident that Katie couldn't feel through solid objects. This should give Fred just enough cover to approach whichever target he chose without giving it time to prepare for a defense. Once he made his initial strike, she'd air-vault over the target and strike from behind in an effort to disrupt the thing's molecules and leave it open to a finishing shot from Fred.

    "Um- uh!" Sarah-27663 stammered. She actually had some cameras in the back of her head, so she saw the Harming Hand coming at them from behind (and her hasted speed of thought have her ample time to process the threat), but she wasn't entirely sure what the best move was here. "Uhh...erhhh...take this!" she shouted, firing an artillery shell from the cybernetic cannon in her hand (well actually it was a portal device embedded in her palm that opened to a trans-dimensionally wireless railgun, but whatever) at the Hindering Hand.

    Serum drew her "sword" which...seemed to be just the hilt. Until she pushed a button and a crackling lightning bolt shot out of it, forming a "blade" of dancing electricity. Serum's nanoglider engaged as she flew at whichever hand the X-Men weren't attacking, executing a quick, hard thrust-and-slash with her lightning blade.

    Spoiler
    Show
    Okay just so everyone's able to post immediately, I'm posting surprise round and first turn actions for all NPCs who have initiative. However, the actions still resolve in initiative order, so they may be retroactively hindered or negated by your own actions where applicable. So this'll be a bit of a mess but it's better than anyone having to wait to post I think.

    Also I noticed Sarah-27663 has Radius Vision on her Cybernetic Combat Cache, so she does get to act in the surprise round (but still after the hands since she lost initiative).

    Shadowcat (Surprise Round):
    Free: Swap to Phase Others.
    Free: Take Fred's hand.
    Free: Phase out.
    Reaction: Phase Fred out.
    Standard: Agile Feint on whichever hand Fred wants to attack at (1d20+20)[39] vs. (1d20+10)[12], using Set Up to pass the benefit to Fred. Feinted

    Ronin gets a surprise round action here.

    Hindering Hand (Surprise Round):
    Free: Enlarge to Size Rank -2.
    Standard: Absorb Energy on the party. Everybody give me Dodge DC 22 for half, Will DC 27/21 vs. Sleep Damage.
    Shadowcat Dodge: (1d20+19)[38]. Will: (1d20+10)[14]. Bruised and Dazed
    Sarah-27663 Dodge: (1d20+6)[7]. Will: (1d20+6)[17]. Bruised and Dazed
    Serum Dodge: (1d20+10)[20]. Will: (1d20+10)[16]. Bruised and Staggered


    Harming Hand (Surprise Round):
    Free: Enlarge to Size Rank -2.
    Standard: Energy Blast on the party. Everybody give me Dodge DC 22 for half, Toughness DC 27/21 vs. Damage, Fortitude DC 22/16 vs. Weaken Toughness. The Damage carries a Secondary Effect if you fail the Fortitude save.
    Shadowcat Dodge: (1d20+15)[33]. Toughness: (1d20+10)[22]. Fortitude: (1d20+10)[18]. Resists
    Sarah-27663 Dodge: (1d20+6)[23]. Toughness: (1d20+14)[24]. Fortitude: (1d20+14)[18]. Resists (actually Impervious to the halved Toughness)
    Serum Dodge: (1d20+10)[27]. Toughness: (1d20+10)[29]. Fortitude: (1d20+10)[30]. Resists

    Sarah-27663 (Surprise Round):
    Move: Be indecisive?
    Standard: Attack Hindering Hand with Hand Cannon at (1d20+6)[13]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+12)[31]) DC 29 vs. Damage, Fortitude ((1d20+12)[28]) DC 24 vs. Vulnerable/Stunned. Miss
    End of Turn: Regenerate a Bruise if she has any by this point.

    The Builder gets a surprise round action here.

    Shadowcat:
    Move: Agile Feint whichever hand they're on at (1d20+20)[39] vs. (1d20+10)[15], using Set Up to pass the benefit to Fred. Close with Harming Hand.
    Standard: Attack with Disruptive Phasing, Power Attack for 2, at (1d20+10)[26]. On a hit, Fortitude ((1d20+12)[23]) DC 20 vs. Cumulative, Secondary Effect Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated. Hit. Resists.

    Ronin gets his first normal turn here.

    Serum:
    Free: Activate Nanoglider.
    Move: Into Close range of whichever hand Shadowcat and Ronin aren't attacking.
    Standard: Attack with Shock Saber at (1d20+10)[30]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+12)[24]) DC 25 vs. Damage, Fortitude ((1d20+12)[13]) DC 20 vs. Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless Linked Weaken Toughness. ...Oh. CRIT! Bruised and Dazed, Stunned+Defenseless, Weakened Toughness 10 (max).

    Hindering Hand:
    Move: Whatever.
    Standard: Absorb Attacks. Hindering Hand and Harming Hand are Deflected at 1d10+22, and deflected attacks can be redirected if Harming Hand is active.


    Harming Hand:
    Move: Solid meh.
    Standard: Attack Roning with Energy Bolts at (1d20+12)[24]. On a hit, Toughness DC 27+Multiattack vs. Secondary Effect damage. Hit

    Stunned.
    End of Turn: Any Secondary Effects from the Energy Blast trigger. Recovers a point of Toughness. Rolled recovery for Affliction in OOC and it failed.

    Sarah and the Builder get their first normal turns here. I'll post Sarah-27663's first normal turn at the top of my next post; CL if you wish to control her you are welcome to post her turn along with your post instead if desired.

    All PCs are on turn. Ronin and Builder you may act twice, but your first action is in a surprise round, so standard and free only.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2018-10-10 at 04:37 PM.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

    World of Aranth
    M&M 3e Character Guide

  10. - Top - End - #100
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Surprise Round
    Fred already thought the “Helping Hand” was a trap. It was hard to really surprise him. The man had been attacked by sentient sandwiches. Overtly suspicious hands for sure set off his danger sense. The two hands began their ambush… and it was a complete disaster for the Hands.

    Whenever Kitty takes Fred’s hand (in this particular context), he knew he was going to be phased. When she sucked in a breath, he knew they were going into something. He took a breath like he was about to jump into a pool. While under with her, Fred lowered his sword in one hand and raised Kitty’s hand to point at where they last saw the Hindering Hand to signal that they should kill the bard first. A squeeze of the hand signaled that it was time to act.

    An interesting thing about him when he’s phased – he can still jump on the currents of magic buried beneath the earth. They sprang out at once. Ronin overshot Shadowcat’s vault, moving much higher into the air. As she phased the Hindering Hand, Ronin came down on it with a crushing downward strike, destroying the Hand in one go.

    “What’s the sound of one hand clapping! Ahahaha!”

    Fred and Kitty acted in perfect unison. The timing of her vault and his jump were clearly well-practiced from time in the Danger Room and in the field. To watch them fight side by side was to watch performance art. Like a ballroom dance ending in people being beaten up.

    What wasn’t so graceful was Fred taking the brunt of a massive blast of magical energy. He was rocked by it, skidding and rolling along the ground and ending on one knee. He was down there for a beat before standing up with a visible tremble in his legs.

    Round 1
    Fred clenched his open fist and cast Elder Form, with a burst of light and sound transforming into his favorite blonde overpowered anime form. He slashed Starsoul and projected an unerring wave of TK at the Harming Hand.

    Spoiler
    Show
    Surprise round: free action, communicate to Kitty; standard action: attack
    Round 1: move: staggered; free action: SSJ1; standard action: TK Swordplay – DC 26 toughness save

    Regenerates his bruised condition on Round 1.
    Last edited by SuperCracker; 2018-10-10 at 11:01 PM.
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  11. - Top - End - #101
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    "I'll take care of the Lotus Breaker. Sarah, run interference for me, and make sure you don't damage the machine." Her peephole portals gave Sarah a good sense of the layout of the museum, so she put that knowledge to good use. First, though, she needed concealment. It was time to improvise. Her old drones had cloaking fields, so she knew how to create one, and her portals meant she wasn't short on parts. A few moments of work sufficed to whip up an improved version. It didn't just render her invisible; it blocked sound, it blocked heat, it even blocked smell. Unless she bumped into one of her enemies, she'd be all but undetectable. Then she warped directly to Katie, relying on her cloak to conceal her as she examined the machine.

    Spoiler: Actions and Rolls
    Show
    QD, you can run the other Sarah. For this round, teleporting in after using a power stunt for Concealment 10 (All Senses) and to put Subtle 2 on her portals. Then I'll go ahead and make a Technology check, if I can.

    * post roll count doesn't match database
    Last edited by CandyLaser; 2018-10-12 at 03:47 PM.

  12. - Top - End - #102
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    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Kayla's horrified voice over the commlink sent more chills down Rene's reptilian hunched back as he slithered up around the roof of the building. Just listening over the commlink makes it clear that Kayla was terrified of what's happening to her sister. How could Rene blame her? He's handled it as badly as her. He wanted nothing, absolutely nothing more tonight than to rescue Katie safe and sound.

    His clawed hands and feet continued searching quietly around the building right up until he ended up back in front of it... just in time to see one of the not-so-Helping Hands unleash a blast of energy at him and the other heroes. The reptilian is knocked back into the building wall, colliding thankfully back-first, letting his heavy plates take the worst of the impact. The scales on the front of his body is brittle by comparison, feeling as if someone had thrown acid on it. All things considered however, he barely appears to register it as he hisses at the Harming Hand.

    ...Whether Rene is getting used to being injured or is going numb over the pitfalls of injury is anyone's guess.

    "Urg," he groans between his lizardy tongue. He can't comprehend how, or why, these power armor people are specifically utilizing Katie's powers. "Gotta get her back," he whispers to himself. "Gotta get her back, gotta get her back, gotta get her back..." The hurried, pained words come with the twitching, inhuman look of his eyes as if trying to find confidence and going crazy in the process.

    He lets out a long hiss before slithering up, leaping and- "Kyaaaaaaassssssssss!" -slashing the Harming Hand with his claws. The hesitation is out of Rene's head. This hand is a threat and a danger to Katie like all those who have captured here. It has to go!

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Alrighty, switching over to Rene's Killer Instinct on his array. Rene will attack the Harming Hand, All-Out Attack and Power Attack +5/-5 here. DC 30 Toughness + Multiattack (since the Hand is Defenseless) and DC 25 Fort vs Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated and Dazed/Stunned/Paralyzed on a hit: (1d20+12)[32]
    Last edited by Starsign; 2018-10-12 at 02:41 PM.

  13. - Top - End - #103
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Free Action Before Round 2

    Two enemies down, six to go. They were doing well so far, but he'd seen the attack on Katie. These guys knew how to work as a team. Taking stock, Fred could see the Builder looking absolutely panicked and alt-Saturn looking kind of lost. He had to organize the team.

    "Good job, Builder - but stay calm! Everyone pair up; don't let them single any of you out. Builder, Serum - you two stay close and work together." He pointed his finger at alt-Sarah. "Teen Saturn," he said with what was going to be her new name, "Do what the older you said. Follow her lead and give a shout if you get in trouble."

    Hey... he'd learned a few things about teamwork since the Misfits had been a thing. That and maybe Katie had rubbed off on him.
    Spoiler
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  14. - Top - End - #104
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    ...Well gee, you guys! It seems like Darkseid might have been mucking with the narrative again! That ol' scamp! You gotta watch him like a hawk or he'll go and make an entire post inaccurate, I tell you. Let me set the record straight here.

    See, first off, there was no absorbing energy whatsoever. Soon as the Hostile Hands tried to spring their ambush, well, Ronin and Shadowcat were on things. A deft maneuver by Shadowcat gave Ronin all the opportunity he needed to cleave the Hindering Hand right in half before it could even enlarge. It's a good thing Katie's Helping Hand is a completely non-sentient magical construct with no capacity for memory either personal or inherited, because if it wasn't it might have developed a bit of a phobia of Ronin after casually he cut the Hindering Hand in half.

    Speaking of casual and virtually-instantaneous annihilation of floating magical hands! The Harming Hand managed to unleash a blast of fire, for what good that accomplished. It injured Ronin. I'm pretty sure the only antagonist in the history of the Misfits to actually accomplish something meaningful by injuring Ronin was Teddy "Too Many Great Options To Choose From; Take Your Pick" Roosevelt, and frankly, the Harming Hand is not Teddy Roosevelt (or a Hulk, for that matter). The second thereafter, Serum had run her lightning blade clean through its palm, the electrical energy badly disrupting its magical form. Ronin followed up with a telekinetic slash that blew motes of silvery light away from it...and then on came the Builder, leaping on the thing in full predatory fury. The Builder's claws rent the magical hand limb from limb finger from finger, shredding it apart in seconds.

    "YES!" Kayla let out a whispered cheer over the commlinks when the guardian constructs were taken out. One less thing between the heroes and her sister.

    As Sarah teleported into the museum and began to examine the Lotus Breaker Device, Sarah-27663 nodded at both her and Ronin's orders, opening a portal of her own to bring her (and the rest of the group) in. Serum flicked a button on her sword hilt, a little syringe shooting out from the bottom, which she handed to Ronin. "It's regenerative," she told him as she walked through the portal, Shadowcat following after. Evidently her codename hadn't been assigned at random.

    Spoiler
    Show
    Well, one battle over, so all PCs take a Hero Point. For purposes of regeneration and such, figure about a round passes before the next fight begins. Movement through the portal or otherwise to get to the main room can be considered prior to combat starting, so you won't have to waste any actions on that.


    Spoiler: Sarah
    Show
    With a cursory examination, you can tell that the Lotus Breaker Device is tied to the armors. Best you can tell, the device is controlled by neural interface, presumably connected to the helmets. Most likely, all six helmets would be needed to overcome security measures, assuming they were all used to initiate the security. So, default solution would be, knock these guys out, take their helmets, and mentally order the machine to release Katie. And now you know the other reason I filled in the numbers with NPCs.

    However, with that Technology check, you are able to gather enough of an understanding of the machine that you could potentially disable its security measures directly. This would take four move actions per helmet negated; so a total of 24 move actions to disable it outright, or like sixteen move actions and two helmets or whatever combination. The helmets are Removable devices; they can be taken and equipped as a single move action once the wearer is Stunned and Defenseless, but can't be disarmed.

    This is somewhat risky; in any round Sarah spends actions working on the machine, if she fails a resistance check, she'll have to make a DC 30 Technology check or lose any progress she made that round, and if she fails the Technology check Katie will have to roll Fortitude against Damage of a rank equal to the points she fails by.

    This isn't a Routine procedure, so Quickness doesn't apply. Sarah can instruct others on what to do (although she'd need to forego auditory concealment to do so, of course), allowing them to spend their actions on the process. This is still fairly complicated, so they'd need to make DC 20 Technology checks each round they do it, with failures carrying consequences as above. And if they fail a resistance check in the round they do it the DC for that round retroactively increases to 30.

    So, safest and easiest move is just dropping these guys, but if you want to spend the actions and take a bit of risk, you might be able to negate the Lotus Breaker's contribution to the combat early and possibly even get Katie into play on your side.


    In the center of the room there was a big ol' machine that had a similar general aesthetic to the weapons and armor on Katie's attackers. It was a cylindrical device with a metallic floor, center, and domed top, and metal walls separating its confines into eight cells, which were then encased in some sort of glass or other transparent polymer. Katie was in one of those cells, bound to the back wall by her wrists and ankles, evidently unconscious, although you could see her eyes moving rapidly beneath their lids. The entire left side of her face was black and blue and covered in dried blood. Several wires and tubes had been stuck into her in several places, most notably around her head. There were thin streams of dried blood under each of those as well.

    While the glass fronts on the empty cells were clear, the one on Katie's had several displays on it, though it was hard to tell what they meant. (If anyone wishes to roll the skill checks that were in Sarah's Scrying spoiler you may feel free.)

    The six abductors were standing around the device, their backs to it all in a circle, keeping watch over the whole room. As Ronin had seen before, they evidently knew the Misfits' tricks (well, their regular tricks anyway, since none of them were aware in the slightest of a fully-cloaked Sarah Saturn examining their machine). They looked probably-human, although the powered armor fully covered them, so it was tough to say for sure (and really appearing human only meant so much anyway). The armor itself was made of some dull white metal that almost looked more like ivory than steel, with a smooth, rounded design, but still bulky enough that its value as armor would not be questioned. Each suit was equipped with an archaic weapon - a frankly-unnecessarily-large maul, a pair of axes, a mace and shield, a single longsword, a crossbow, and the last just gauntlets. The armor and weapons alike were covered with...what looked kind of like magical runes, which were glowing in various colors (respectively, red, green, yellow, blue, purple, and white).

    Now, Sarah had given an overview of the situation already. But hearing was different than seeing. When Ronin arrived and saw the state and situation Katie's was in, Kayla let out a shaking sob of a moan. Honestly, she sounded like she had just been stabbed.

    Round 1

    As soon as the group entered, the Lotus Breaker Device began to glow with silver light.

    Spoiler: In the Mindscape
    Show
    Katie was crumpled on the ground, weeping.
    "Katie..."
    Darkseid was gone. He had left her alone amidst the broken bodies. Her heroes, her friends, her family. He had left her alone with her loss while he presumably went to destroy the rest of her planet. And there was nothing she could do to stop him. So she just collapsed sobbing atop her sister's corpse and waited for the end.
    "Katie..."
    It wouldn't be accurate to say it was her worst nightmare. For all the many scenes her brain, wakeful and sleeping alike, had come up with to torment her with possibilities of loss, it had never showed her anything like this.

    "Katie!"

    Katie gasped and looked up, blinking through the haze of tears that she couldn't make stop. She could barely make out the figure standing in front of her, but after a moment of squinting and wiping her eyes-

    "Rachel!" Honestly, she had only met Rachel in passing. Like, she knew who she was, had exchanged a few words with her during certain visits with the X-Men, but...she didn't really know her all that well.
    Even recently, when she had been visiting the X-Mansion more regularly to hang out with Fred, she hadn't really crossed Rachel's path. She understood why that was, of course, but Starsoul had requested she keep their conversation in confidence, so she'd never really brought it up.

    And you wouldn't know it from her reaction. Katie all but sprang to her feet and threw her arms around Rachel as if she were her only friend, burying her face against her shoulder before breaking into fresh sobs. "I-I'm sorry! I-I tried- he- they- Oh God, Fred... Rachel I- I'm so- I-"

    "Katie," Rachel said again, gently, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. "It's okay. This isn't real."

    "It's not...I couldn't, he was just too-"

    Rachel pushed Katie back to hold her out at arm's length, fixing her with a firm stare. "Katie! Listen to me! This. Isn't. Real."

    "It...what?"

    "You were in Gotham. Do you remember? You were abducted or something."

    Still sniffling and with tears streaming down her face, Katie beheld Rachel with kinda dazed incomprehension for several moments before answering, "I...three days ago. But...but others rescued me and-"

    "No. They didn't. Not yet anyway. You're in some kind of mindscape. This is all in your head.
    A phantasm. They have you attached to some sort of a machine. Your sister was worried about you. She came to X-Mansion to get Fred. He called me in. I was able to make contact with you but you didn't return it, and there was a block to my projections. So I'm using Cerebro. I have you location, Fred knows it. He's got Kitty calling in the cavalry. We're coming. Alright?"


    "They're...they're okay? Fred, Kitty...Kayla? They're- they're alright?"

    "They're fine. The only one in any danger is you. Well, and the people who abducted you, I suppose," she added with a big of a smug smirk.

    "Oh thank God! Oh Rachel thank you so much!"

    "Don't forget the part where you're still in danger."

    "Yeah no that is literally the best news I've heard all day. Oh God I thought...it was..." Katie trailed off with a shaky breath.

    "I get it," Rachel said, with a pointed look over the scene that had been woven in Katie's mind. "Listen, you just sit tight, okay? I have to go, but we are on the way!"

    "Okay. Okay. Rachel...thank you."

    "Yeah, of course," Rachel replied, before narrowing her eyes in brief concentration.

    Nothing happened.

    Rachel looked around, frowned, and concentrated again.

    Still nothing.

    "...****."

    "Wh...?"

    "I can't break the link. It must be the machine you're attached to."

    "But...you're on Cerebro!"

    Katie could see the gears turning behind Rachel's eyes as she considered the situation. "Yeah...and Cerebro is a very powerful psionic device. But so whatever they've got you hooked up to. And technically, my conscious mind is a lot closer to it right now."

    "Yeah no...that's not what I...isn't Cerebro dangerous?"

    Rachel gave a light, dismissive chuckle, although the concern in her eyes betrayed her. "Yeah, but don't worry. I'm a powerful psychic. I can handle it fine." She let out a kinda annoyed sigh and said, "Well, hope you don't mind some company."

    Katie was looking at her in a not-particularly-reassured manner.

    "Look, it'll be fine. Like I said, Fred and Kitty are on the case. As soon as Fred notices I've gone unresponsive, they'll whelm whatever forces they've got and move. You fought whoever it was that took you, right?
    Care to judge their chance of presenting a meaningful obstacle to Fred and Kitty trying to rescue people they care about?"


    "...Okay yeah. Six on one and without my wand I managed to hold them off for about half a minute. They'll be lucky to last half that."

    "Exactly. Factor in travel time or, Fred being Fred, the lack thereof, and we're talking maybe half aa minute. An extra half a minute on Cerebro's nothing big."

    "Okay. Okay, that makes-"

    And then came the howls.

    The two heroes cast their gazes into the distance. To the massive horde of slavering paradaemons that were bearing down on their location.

    "They're...not real, right?" Katie asked tentatively.

    Rachel gave a little sigh. "Not real..." she agreed. "Doesn't mean they're not threats."

    "...Right."

    Rachel turned and started walking towards them, chunks of the ground cracking free of the bonds of earth at her telekinetic command, hovering around her ready to throw. "So. With that fancy mage training of yours, did you ever learn how to fight a psychic duel?" Rachel asked conversationally.

    Katie gave a faint hint of a smile as she followed after Rachel, her Helping Hand rising into the air beside her, floating along at her flank like a squire. "I mean, I only know the basics, but magic is first and foremost an expression of will. I can hold my own."

    "Alright then," Rachel said, hurling her boulders at the shrieking mass of monsters while Katie raised a silvery shield around them. "Let's do this."


    Silvery shields manifested around all six of the abductors, and auras of risen power flared up around two of them - the one with the maul and the one with the sword. You also notice some of the silver light kinda sink into them. Sarah and Ronin for sure, but probably Shadowcat and the Builder too, have enough experience with Katie's magic that it looks familiar to when she heals people. Although it's kinda pointless since, you know, you literally just got here, none of these guys are injured yet.

    Which...is kinda telling. Even operating on the assumption that the device is generously augmenting Katie's power (and judging by the intensity of all the glowing lights and such, it is augmenting them very generously) creating that many effects at once has to require drawing enormous amounts of power from her. Sarah doesn't have to assume; she can see from the machine's outputs that Katie's magical energy dropped noticeably even just from that one effect. Thing is, there was no need for the healing, so these guys either don't know or don't care to modulate the machine's output for the tactical situation. It's just going full force no questions asked. Admittedly, not a dumb move when facing the Misfits and their allies, but still. Katie's magical energy is not limitless, and her ability to rejuvenate it is somewhat dependent on what she has left. There are limits Katie just won't go past, reflexively. If this machine ignores them...it could drain her power dry.

    And if it doesn't stop there, it could possibly suck out the whole of her life force to power its augmentations.

    The Breaker Knights were themselves quick to react to the heroes' arrival - but not quicker than Serum. She flew straight for the mace-and-shield wielder, flicking a button on her sword. Instead of producing a bolt of lightning this time, it emanated a slender "blade" of sky blue light, which she slashed in a rapid flurry and with a rather familiar thrumming sound effect.

    So, Agent Serum? Evidently a total Star Wars fangirl. Fair enough.

    The Breaker Knights moved quick to engage, the maul-wielded launching forward at the Builder and swinging its massive hammer. A blast of fire exploded from the maul opposite the swing, the rocket tech propelling it with augmented force in a crushing blow.

    The axe-wielder went for Kitty, slashing with both weapons in a rapid flurry of blows hasted by jets of compressed, focused air that...did absolutely nothing to stop the attack from passing right through her. Phasing, yo. These guys had done their homework on the Misfits, but evidently not the X-Men.

    The mace-wielder struck back against Serum, hammering her with its mace and following up with a powerful shield bash in an effort to leave her stunned and disoriented.

    The sword-wielder, as if compelled by an undeniable force of destiny, squared off against Ronin. Corrosive acid seeped from the blade as the Breaker Knight slashed it hard at Ronin's forehead. But there was a fearsome power behind this blow, and Fred could see the slight disruption in the air of telekinetic energy surrounding the blade to strengthen its swing.

    It wasn't only Katie's powers being siphoned through the Lotus Breaker Device.

    Gauntlets went after Sarah-27663, striking with a series of quick, precise strikes without much power behind them, but where she touched eroding blasts of water energy would burst out, to weaken the young gadgeteer's defensive tech.

    Crossbow took to the air to get a clear view, a bolt nocked and ready, certain that Sarah Saturn would be teleporting in presently (and having no idea she was already there).

    Spoiler
    Show
    I'm assuming Ronin and the Builder are also heading into the main room, either through Sarah-27663's portal or by their own means. If not, let me know and I'll shift your attacker's actions to someone else.

    Also, you guys can consider this a climactic battle. I'm gonna get with Herod to see if he's ready/still wanting to take back the reins, or if not I'll figure out some other plan, but either way the Hero Points for this mini-arc will reset after this fight, so use 'em or lose 'em.

    I am also giving each PC a bonus Hero Point for effective GM Fiat. Because the Lotus Breaker Device cheats, just, so hard, you guys.

    The Lotus Breaker Device:
    Move: The Lotus Breaker Device steals a Hero Point! Katie loses her Hero Point, which the Lotus Breaker uses to power Arcane Blessing. All Breaker Knights gain one Hero Point, which expires at the end of the scene. (I told you it cheats.)

    Standard: Use Stolen Power. The Variable is split evenly among Maul and Sword. All allies are Deflected at 1d10+25. All allies receive Healing at (1d20+15)[27], Limited per my Healing Points rules (big thing to note: anyone who gets damaged has the effects of the Healing halved on their next turn). The Healing causes no effect currently though since none of them are injured. For the Variable:

    30 points to add Secondary Effect to all three effects of Maul's Crushing Blow.
    30 points to duplicate the effects of Sword's Corrosive Strike and Link it to Acid Edge.

    Katie suffers the Side Effect of this power. (Seriously. So hard.) Each time it uses it, she has to roll Will DC 21 vs. Weaken Will with no cap. If her Will is reduced to -5, she rolls Fortitude DC 21 vs. Weaken Fortitude with no cap. If her Will and Fortitude are both reduced to -5, she rolls Will DC 21 vs. Impaired/Disabled/Dying, Limited to Magic. If her magic is killed, she rolls Fortitude DC 21 vs. Impaired/Disabled/Dying. If Katie dies, the Lotus Breaker can no longer use Stolen Power. Katie Will: (1d20+12)[26]. Resists

    Reaction: Use Borrowed Power. Sword receives a Team Attack at (1d20+25)[43] after Teamwork. +5

    Rachel suffers the Side Effect of this power. Each time it uses it, she has to roll Will DC 22 (after her Half Will Immunity) vs. Damage from Cerebro. Rachel Will: (1d20+12)[16]. Also, I had totally forgotten before, but Ronin, take a Hero Point for your A Motley Crew of Friends and Family Complication, for Rachel being in danger/her powers being used to make the Lotus Breaker Device stronger. Bruised and Dazed

    Serum:
    Move: Into Close range of Mace.
    Standard: Attack Mace with Lightsaber (Aggressive) at (1d20+10)[25], Deflected at (1d10+25)[29]. On a hit, Parry ((1d20+8)[20]) DC 25+Multiattack vs. Incurable Damage. Deflected

    Maul:
    Move: Into Close range of the Builder.
    Standard: Attack the Builder with augmented Crushing Blow at (1d20+10)[19]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25 vs. Damage, and if you fail to beat DC 20, you also take Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated Affliction and Weaken Toughness. All three effects have been augmented with a Secondary Effect. Just hits.

    Axes:
    Move: Into Close range of Shadowcat.
    Standard: Attack Shadowcat with Razorgale Flurry, but it's irrelevant since it can't beat her Insubstantial.

    Mace:
    Move: Attempt to Feint Serum at (1d20+5)[12] vs. (1d20+18)[27]. lolno
    Standard: Attack Serum with Smash'n'Bash at (1d20+10)[23]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+10)[11]) DC 25 vs. Damage, Will ((1d20+10)[19]) DC 20 vs. Cumulative Vulnerable/Stunned/Incapacitated. Serum's going to spend one of her Luck rerolls to reroll that Toughness save. She's Vulnerable from the Affliction.

    Sword:
    Move: Into Close range of Ronin.
    Standard: Attack Ronin with augmented Acid Edge at (1d20+10)[29]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Team Attack vs. Secondary Effect Damage, and if you fail to beat DC 20, also take Weaken All Defenses (the Secondary Effect doesn't apply to the Weaken or benefit from Team Attack), and Fortitude DC 20 vs. Secondary Effect Impaired/Disabled Affliction. Hit. Toughness DC is 30/20 from the Team Attack.

    Crossbow:
    Move: Up high.
    Standard: Ready an action to attack Sarah with Sniper's Shot if she appears. Due to its Draw a Bead benefit, while restricting its Readied attack to a single potential target, it counts as Aiming (and is correspondingly Vulnerable, though that doesn't lessen the effectiveness of the Deflect).

    Gauntlets:
    Move: Into Close range of Sarah-27663.
    Standard: Attack Sarah-27663 with Eroding Touch at (1d20+10)[17]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+14)[29]) DC 20 vs. Weaken All Defenses. Hit. Resists.

    All PCs are on turn. Allied NPCs will act at the top of my next post, but if you want them to support your actions for this upcoming turn let me know and I'll do those beforehand.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2018-10-14 at 02:29 PM.
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  15. - Top - End - #105
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    That's an abomination!

    Rene looked at this gigantic monster of a machine Sarah called the Lotus Breaker. He never imagined it'd look so big. Why the size, why the construction? It boggles the reptilian's crazed mind why these medieval people in power armor are using something like this. What the hell are they trying to do?

    And then he saw Katie, one of his closest friends, hooked up to that machine. Hooked ****ing up, goddamn wires and tubes and all. Rene's sharp snout tore open; small, sharp teeth chattering between each other as his green-yellow scales slightly pale. "Katie," he said quietly, unable to tell if she is in pain or not. She... she has to be. It's wires, wires and tubes to skin. How could it not hurt? "K-Katie!" A sound of horror escaped from his lizard-like tongue as it turned dark blue; the dark iris in his blood-red eyes widen in madness. He couldn't let them do this. He cann't let them do this!

    "KATIE!"

    The horrid screech came out of his snout as his normally-hunched self leaned further more before charging forward at the machine and-

    DODGE!

    *WHAM*

    -took a jet-powered maul to his side. The knockback sent the reptilian tumbling away and over next to Agent Serum; the thick scales on his back absorbed most of the impact as he tumbled and landed on his stomach. A hurried, twitching gurgle came out of his mouth as he slithered up to his legs, took one look at Serum, then quickly dashed to stop Mace's swings-

    *SMACK*

    *THUMP*

    ...With his head, taking the thick metal weapon to his head results in a large, ugly bruise across his left eye that quickly begins healing. The shield bash would've also thrown him off-balance were his body a little less bulky.

    The reptilian gives off more rushed breaths between his many sharp teeth as he wildly swings his left, scaly arm to knock back Mace. His instincts send him rolling leftward, practically tripping over his thick tail, as he avoids an overhead swing from Maul who quakes the floor with his massive hammer. God, Rene does not want to be a green pancake from that!

    His clawed hands and feet screech into the ground as he looks to Serum on his left. "C'mon!" he hisses to her pleadingly, hoping to coordinate with her as he slithers toward and then around Maul as Rene's tail sweeps upward and slams down hard on Maul's back. This is the only good thing I've learned, he thinks miserably to himself, recalling his days at the Spire. Rene didn't learn actual martial arts back when he was working with Fury but Serum should be able to tell some of the teachings that the reptilian has kept in mind. The clever slithering flanking and tail swipe from behind should be a sign.

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Switching to Survival Instinct for now.

    Rene will take advantage of Serum's assist and All-Out Attack and Power Attack +5/-5 on Maul: (1d20+17)[34] DC 30 Toughness on hit. Provided it does hit, Rene will also use Improved Grab+Fast Grab to grapple Maul (probably via using his tail to keep Maul's head pressed into the ground or something)

  16. - Top - End - #106
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Ronin straightened up and forced breath out of his nose. Despite being blasted by magic, he was good to go. He took the momentary lull to power up further. The golden aura was joined by a burst of heat and crackling force. Serum offered him the.. uh… serum and he extended his hand to hand it back to her.

    “I’m fine, save it in c--”

    Kitty, who had been glaring at this whole event, snatched it out of his outstretched hand.

    “Take it,” she said as she looked him right in the shades.

    Fred’s stoic expression melted. He obediently held out his arm and Kitty injected the fluid. Satisfied, she gave Fred an affectionate little smile and turned to Serum. “Someone’s got to take care of him.”

    The group entered in through the portal and chaos erupted immediately. Ronin and Shadowcat stayed in close quarters with each other, fighting back to back and preventing the Breaker Knights from blindsiding either one of them. Ronin squared off with the swordsman. Even without True Sight he could see which powers that machine was robbing from Katie and Rachel. It made Fred's blood flow with fury.

    Longsword came at him and slashed. Fred's combat awareness stopped him from being killed as he quickly realized that not even his superstrength could stop this attack. Instead of blocking head-on, Ronin brought his katana upwards to deflect the corrosive blade and change its course. He was partially successful, avoiding a mortal wound but catching a nasty cut on his forehead. Blood ran forth from the wound down over the right side of his face.

    Ronin reacted like nothing had happened. His turn. His sword began to glow bright white. Instead of trying to best Katie's stolen barrier spell, Ronin used - "Storm of Swords!" He slashed at Longsword. Flashes of magical force erupted throughout the room, striking all enemies within range.

    Ronin stepped back into Shadowcat and held Starsoul low in both hands - a migi gedan stance. "Your stolen powers won't save you."

    Spoiler
    Show
    Non-action: Fake regen bruised
    Move: Dazed
    Standard: Storm of Swords
    Free: Talk smack
    Spoiler
    Show

  17. - Top - End - #107
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Not for the first time, Sarah had to remind herself that there were Very Good Reasons why she didn't call in backup from alternate versions of herself anymore. It would have been useful to be able to bring in three or four more iterations of herself to help shut this machine down. Her next thought was actually to kill Katie; she was pretty sure that her tech would let her resurrect the magician after the fact. She struck down that idea 1) because it would definitely lead to a misunderstanding with the rest of the group and 2) it was probably not ethically kosher.

    While murdering her teammate for short-term gain was off the table, she could definitely learn from her. There was no reason Sarah couldn't use some of Katie's tricks herself. The best thing about portals was that they could do almost anything. Her shunt field used short-lived micro-portals to disperse the energy of incoming attacks in harmless ways. Her portal blaster had enough power for her to do the same trick on a much bigger scale.

    In an instant, her powerful brain took in the whole scene, and she started to make predictions. In a fight, it was hard to predict what would happen fast enough to be useful. But she was arguably the smartest person on the planet, and she could think fast. As she made her predictions, she programmed her portal blaster to open up small portals to intercept her enemies' attacks - and turn them back on themselves. Before activating the program, she took care to move and put as much cover between her and Crossbow as possible, including the Lotus Breaker itself.

    Spoiler: Actions
    Show
    First: movement to take cover from Crossbow. If possible I'd like to move so that he doesn't have LOS to Sarah at all and can't make his readied attack. Then, for the standard action: more power stunts! Off the arsenal array, again, which means I've got 35 points to spend. Here we go:

    Deflect 11, with these extras: Selective Burst Area, Reflect, Secondary Effect, and Subtle 2, and these flaws: Tiring and Close Range.

    That'll kill her concealment, but it should protect everyone in our group (including Sarah) for the next 2 rounds with a deflection shield.

    I'll also go ahead and spend a hero point now and another next round, so I'll end up Fatigued.

    In addition, Polymath is set to: Favored Environment, Improved Defense, Evasion 2, and Uncanny Dodge. The FE bonus will go to defenses.
    Last edited by CandyLaser; 2018-10-19 at 10:28 PM.

  18. - Top - End - #108
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Quellian-dyrae's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Round 2

    Her initial attack foiled by the shield, Agent Serum shifted tactics. Following Rene's play, she lashed out at Maul with a series of quick, measured strikes, standing ready to defend the Builder with her lightsaber while pressing the integrity of the shield. And it did the job well enough; Rene's tail smashed through the overtaxed defense and caught Maul solidly. The powered armor managed to hold up even against the Builder's formidable strength, but that didn't prevent his tail from wrapping around the warrior, pinning it solidly.

    Out went the Storm of Swords, at full SSj2 power! The barrage of telekinetic strikes overwhelmed even the powerful shield, hammering all five of the nearby hostiles. Their armor held up pretty well, but Maul and Sword, closer to the center, took the full force of it. Maul's armor sustained some damage, and Sword was sent stumbling briefly backward from the force.

    Sarah reappeared, crouched down beside the Lotus Breaker to stay out of Crossbow's line of sight. She didn't seem to be doing anything, though. Kinda like how she didn't seem to be here earlier, I suppose.

    Shadowcat's eyes narrowed dangerously when she saw the state Katie was in, but she kept her cool and assessed the situation tactically. Fred was hammering away with his Storm of Swords, making distractions and tactical maneuvers less than critical. Sarah was doing who-knows-what; Kitty had heard enough Misfits stories to expect she had a plan and if her assistance were required for it she would be apprised of that fact. Serum and the Builder were tag-teaming fine. And then there was Teen Sarah. She looked a bit overwhelmed and uncertain.

    "Hey! Back me up!" she called, as she raced back and forth through Axes, vibrating the molecules and energies around her. In addition to being extremely distracting, the maneuver should hopefully disrupt the shield enough for Teen Sarah to get an attack through.

    As for Sarah-27663 herself, well...yeah, she was not exactly prepared for this. But she had a quick wit and, honestly, dispensing the super-powered smack-down was not something she had ever had particular trouble with. She shot forward to get on the opposite side of Axes while it was distracted by Shadowcat, and then suddenly and abruptly reversed her momentum with a sudden jet thrust from her feet, propelling herself at high speeds at the power-armored abductor to strike with overwhelming force. Unfortunately, even weakened by Shadowcat, the barrier was still strong enough to deflect her momentum aside.

    The Lotus Breaker Device continued pumping out power, shielding, healing, and augmenting. This time, the power was concentrated most heavily on Axes and Mace.

    "You want to try to hold me down!?" Maul snarled at the Builder as it - no, he, the voice was definitely masculine - struggled to free himself from the Builder's hold. He didn't have much leverage to attack, so he let the power of his weapon do the job for him, propelling the rocket maul straight at the ground and releasing a destructive shockwave over the area. The force didn't seem to damage anything composed of that dull white metal.

    "And what!?" Axes (another masculine voice) retorted as Shadowcat and Sarah-27663's combo attack was turned aside.
    "You guys got nothing for us! Nothing!" he extolled, honestly sounding super-excited about this whole throw-down. "Ahhh...here we go!" he extolled as Maul unleashed the shockwave in the close quarters. He was quick to follow suit, whirling around with both weapons slashing through the air, sending wave after wave of razor-sharp air slashes flying around at every hero nearby, before jetting back to get out of range of another Storm of Swords (he was excited, not stupid).

    Since Rene had leaped in to defend Serum, Mace decided to cut out the middleman and go after him directly. "Let's see if you're so quick to jump in the way when I've shattered your scales to dust!" he challenged, slamming forward with his shield and tossing his mace around behind the Builder, using the gravity-warping powers of his weapons to pull it back towards the shield, attempting to crush the Builder between them under tons of simulated force. Then he flew back, likewise getting some separation from the rest of his team.

    Sword's voice was feminine as she responded to Ronin's smack-talk over a ringing exchange of sword blows, "Save us? Please. We were expecting worse than this! Where's Thunderstruck at? Ooh, or Spider-Man? You think a half team of Misfits, a couple C-listers, and like the least-dangerous X-Man," gonna be honest here Kitty might have laughed at her if she wasn't kinda furious right now, "are going to be enough to beat us?"

    ...And then Sarah's portals dumped all the acid she had been trying to hit Ronin with on her head, badly corroding her armor. I know that you underestimate the Misfits at your peril, but I'll admit even I didn't expect it to be that soon.

    "Tammy, there!" Gauntlets called, pointing at Sarah, before shooting forward to attack Serum and the Builder with a flurry of blows, her gauntlets shining with white light and the wind picking up around her, hastening her strikes, before she zipped off past them to get some distance.

    "With the names though!" Crossbow, or Tammy evidently, complained as she swooped down, firing a crossbow bolt at Sarah and using her own weapon's telekinetic effects to guide it straight to her, while tapping the Lotus Breaker's telekinesis (wherever that had come from, it hadn't happened in testing but she wasn't going to complain) to add force to the attack, before swooping back up to the ceiling.

    Spoiler
    Show
    First off, here's a map. The ceiling in 40' high, for reference.

    The Lotus Breaker Device:
    Move: Be ominous and machiney.
    Standard: Use Stolen Powers. Allies are Deflected at 1d10+25 and receive (1d20+15)[24] Healing Points (halved for those who failed a resistance check last turn). Axes and Mace are augmented. Sword and Maul heal a Bruise.

    30 points to add Linked Weaken Toughness 10 (Burst Area, Selective) to Axes' Razorgale Whirlwind.
    20 points to add Linked Affliction 10 (Vulnerable/Stunned/Incapacitated; Toughness; Cumulative) to Mace's Hammer'n'Anvil.
    10 points to add Multiattack to the Damage of Hammer'n'Anvil.

    Reaction: Use Borrowed Powers as a Team Attack for Crossbow at (1d20+25)[44], Deflected at (1d10+23)[30]. If Deflected it Reflects but since it's Limited to providing a Team Attack it won't cause any effect unless someone else attacks the Lotus Breaker Device this turn, in which case it will Team Attack with them using Sarah's attack bonus of (1d20+8)[26], Deflected at (1d10+25)[30]. +5

    Katie Will (DC 21): (1d20+12)[26]. Resists
    Rachel Will (DC 22 after half immunity, -1 for Bruise): (1d20+11)[16]. Bruised and Dazed

    Maul:
    Move: Attempt to Escape (DC 20) at (1d20+3)[18] after -5 for Improved Hold and -2 for Impaired. Good try. Still fails.
    Standard: Use Shockwave Strike. Everybody give me Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 vs. Damage.
    Shadowcat: Phases since this is a [Physical] [Ballistic] attack.
    Sarah-27663 Dodge: (1d20+6)[15]. Toughness: (1d20+14)[24]. Dodge save should have been at -5, not that it matters. Bruised
    Serum Dodge: (1d20+11)[31]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[27]. Resists

    Axes:
    Standard: Use augmented Razorgale Whirlwind. Everybody but Sarah give me Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 and 20/15 vs. Damage Linked Weaken Toughness (you only roll Toughness once).
    Shadowcat: Phases since this is a [Physical] [Slashing] attack. It's just barely possible I did not design this battle with Kitty in mind.
    Sarah-27663 Dodge: (1d20+6)[9]. Toughness: (1d20+14)[30]. Again, Dodge save should have been at -5, again it doesn't matter. Resists
    Serum Dodge: (1d20+11)[31]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[24]. Resists
    Move: Into Y13.

    Mace:
    Standard: Attack the Builder with augmented Hammer'n'Anvil at (1d20+10)[28], Deflected at (1d10+21)[30]. If Deflected, it Reflects at (1d20+8)[21], Deflected at (1d10+25)[27]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Multiattack/20 vs. Damage Linked Cumulative Vulnerable/Stunned/Incapacitated, Parry DC 20 vs. Weaken Toughness. Double Deflected
    Move: Into M3.

    Sword:
    Move: Dazed.
    Standard: Attack Ronin with Death of a Thousand Melting Cuts at (1d20+10)[12], Deflected at (1d10+22)[28]. If Deflected, it Reflects at (1d20+8)[28], Deflected at (1d10+25)[28]. On a hit, Parry DC 20+Multiattack vs. Weaken Toughness. Deflected. Reflect crits (Deflect doesn't negate the crit since ties there go to the attacker so it would just hit without the critical bonus). Will roll Sword's Parry OOC.

    Gauntlets:
    Free: Point out Sarah's position. Also Tammy's name. So we'll split the difference and call her an average teammate.
    Move: Into D14.
    Standard: Attack Serum and the Builder with Whirlwind Flurry, Multiattacking for 2. On a hit, Toughness DC 25 vs. Secondary Effect Damage. If either attack is Deflected, it is Reflected at (1d20+8)[14], Deflected at (1d10+25)[27]. If both are Deflected, the DC receives the single-target Multiattack bonus. Deflected
    Serum: (1d20+8)[20], Deflected at (1d10+23)[24]. Deflected
    The Builder: (1d20+8)[24], Deflected at (1d10+21)[27]. Deflected
    Move-by Action: Into G22.

    Crossbow:
    Move: Into N17, 20' up.
    Standard: Attack Sarah with Guided Shot. Perception Range attack. Toughness DC 25+Team Attack vs. Damage.

    All PCs are on turn.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2018-10-20 at 01:02 AM.
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  19. - Top - End - #109
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Slightly unprepared for the quake hit, Rene's body shakes violently as the maul slammed into the ground; his clawed feet dug into the ground helped keep the force from throwing him off on his scaly back. The blow does leave him open to Mace's dangerous combination attack. The shield slams hard into the reptilian's scaly arms that come up to block it, while the mace itself-

    ...Is effortlessly and harmlessly knocked away by Serum.

    Rene turns to catch a glimpse of Serum before blindly swiping in front of him. Nothing but air; Mace already flew back right before Rene could do anything about it. It takes a harder toll on him than it should. He imagines Mace now fully out of his sight, as if he can no longer reach his opponent. Mace disappeared into the darkness as the reptilian's sharp teeth begin chattering. He feels his vision fading. Frustration in his cold-blooded mind over Katie's capture draws him to doing the only thing he can right now.

    Lash out!

    As if answering to Maul's question, Rene lifts up his thick tail once more and smashes it down on the armored villain. A painful hiss erodes from Rene's snout as he turns around, slams his clawed feet down on Maul's neck and begins smashing the helm! As Rene learned from Fury, grabbing the throat is a good way to keep an enemy held in place; and while a helmet may protect you from bleed wounds but it sure won't help the concussion if you hit it hard enough!

    "Why? WHY?!" He hisses in terror in-between his scaled-hardened punches. "Why are you doing this to my friend? Why are you doing this to Katie?!" His panic and horror translates to a panicked need to act and to do something. His building powers are useless here; he can't simply take Katie out of that godawful machine. Rene has to do something, and in the pitch-black background covering his eyes, where everyone else has disappeared in a dark void, all he can do is beat down those he can see.

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Alrighty! Since Rene has Maul Defenseless, Rene will go and just apply Strength Damage here; also applying Killer Instinct to add on more effects.

    DC 25 Multiattack Toughness + DC 20 Fort vs Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated and Dazed/Stunned/Paralyzed

    And then EE to do it again cause now is as good a time as any!

  20. - Top - End - #110
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    As Fred fought the Breaker Knights, he began to understand that they were nothing without the assistance of the Lotus Breaker. He began to think of ways to deal with it. He could try and teleport the machine, or pick it up and run off with it. However, the Breaker, being a magical construct with its own very potent defenses, stood a very good chance of fighting off either of those maneuvers. It’s possible the team could wall it off, but then one of the six Knights would tear down the barrier. Sarah Saturn was still near the machine messing with it. Ronin would see what she was doing before going to plan B: getting The Builder to build.

    Maul struck the ground. Ronin raised his right arm up to brace against the shockwave. He withstood the attack completely. Axes let out an imitation Storm of Swords. Ronin tucked and rolled forward, escaping the attack save for a nick to his arm. Considering Fred’s superhuman ability to take a beating, it wasn’t a problem.

    Ronin smirked at Sword as her own attack backfired. So that’s what Sarah Saturn was up to over there. Sword’s trash talk was… well.. she didn’t know this team very well did she?

    “Sure you want those to be your last words?”

    Ronin slashed again, creating a telekinetic slash so close to Sword’s body that the Breaker’s barrier couldn’t stop it. With SSJ2, that strike packed enough punch to keep harming the opponent after the perceived slash.

    “We’re in fireball formation, boss!”

    Ronin nodded and motioned with his head to Kitty. The samurai left after-images as he moved out of “Fireball Formation” and towards Axes, who had moved away from the fray for the same reason.

    Spoiler
    Show
    Fake regen bruised.
    Standard: TK Swordplay on Sword.
    Move: Move towards Axes and out of Fireball Formation.
    Free: Some talking.
    Spoiler
    Show

  21. - Top - End - #111
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    CandyLaser's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Sarah effortlessly no-sold the incoming attacks and blinked out of the easy area-of-attack of their enemies. The moments she'd had to observe and predict their behavior meant that there was no way for the assault to get through her shunt field. That also meant she had more time to think, and that, in turn, meant that she knew how they were going to win.

    It was obvious that Katie's stolen power was fueling their opponents. And while it wouldn't be easy to cut off the machine's access to Katie, she could interrupt its ability to feed that power to their rivals. The best time to do that was right before the machine sent out its next burst of energy, and so she waited, timing things just so to ensure that there was no way anyone could interfere with the plan.

    Spoiler: Actions
    Show
    Moving out of fireball formation, then readying an action to Create an undetectable wall as described in discord right before the Lotus Breaker machine acts.

  22. - Top - End - #112
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Quellian-dyrae's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Round 3

    The Builder's furious attack on the defenseless Maul began crumpling his armor, but he managed to endure it for the time being. Fred's telekinetic attack, guided by his will so that deflection was irrelevant, smashed a dent into Sword's mail. Shadowcat, seeing the effectiveness of her disruptive phasing against the Lotus Breaker's shields, went all out with that, racing through Maul and Sword to open them up to her teammates. Serum lashed out with her lightning blade, although even with Shadowcat's disruption, the shield was still strong enough to turn that attack aside. Following the party's strategy, she disengaged to avoid presenting a further target for area attacks.

    Sarah-27663 stepped through a portal, coming out in front of Sword with two blades now jutting from her arms. I...may not be getting things properly cross with that though. These weren't slender Wolverine claws, or even long "Mortal Kombat Baraka" style arm-blades. These were big ol' honkin' "somebody played a lot of Final Fantasy while she was growing up" oversized greatswords, and she slashed them in a devastating X-chop at Sword. The blow struck the power-armored swordswoman squarely, and might have finished her, but Katie jerked in a weird spasm and a fleeting sheen of silver light played over Sword's armor, mitigating the force of the blow. Barely. It still rent two huge holes in her breastplate and cut deep into her sides. Sarah-27663 then blinked again to clear more space.

    So, you know, the abductors weren't having a great time. But that was okay. More protection, healing, and augmentation was coming from the Lotus Breaker. Another wave of silver power built up and flowed out-

    And hit an invisible wall just a couple feet from the machine before fading away, its power going to waste.

    The bad guys? I'mma be honest, they kinda freaked out.

    "B-break it...!" the badly-injured Sword guttered out. "Get...get ready to...to shatter the replacement...when they put it back up!"

    "We can't see when they put it up!" Mace retorted.

    "Everybody attack then get to the Lotus Breaker! They can't block us if we're in contact with it!"

    "A little stuck here!"

    "It won't matter they'll just blast us all if we cluster. Let's just take them out!" (...Most. Most of them were freaking out.)

    "The scientist is the only one who isn't fighting and we know she's capable of barriers," Crossbow's voice cut through the growing panic of her teammates as she leveled her weapon at Sarah's head. "She's the most likely one to have created it. Someone break the shield. Everyone else, focus fire!" TWANG!

    "Get...offa...ME!" Maul roared, continuing to pound the ground with rocket-powered shockwaves.

    Sword pointed her weapon, firing a deluge of acid to melt away Sarah's barrier.

    Mace and Gauntlets swooped in at Sarah, attacking together, Mace with an aggressive assault of blow after hammering blow of his mace, its gravity-warping powers not only lending weight to the strike, but trying to pin Sarah to the ground. Gauntlets drew the strength of the earth into her fists as she struck, hammering with stunning force and using the earthen power to augment Mace's gravitational pull, before flying back.

    Axes flew at Sarah in a quick attack-run, hacking and slashing with hasted speed, his axes focusing the air they displaced with their motion into a razor-thin crescent around the heads, sharp enough to sever molecular bonds.

    Spoiler
    Show
    The Lotus Breaker Device:
    Move: Break lotuses.
    Standard: Use Stolen Power, triggering Sarah's Readied action. While it does possess a Dodge defense, it does not possess a movement speed, which due to the way Created traps work means it could not move to escape the enclosure even if it defended successfully. The effects are therefore blocked. Katie Will (DC 21): (1d20+12)[29]. Resists
    Reaction: Use Borrowed Power. The effects are blocked. Rachel Will (DC 22, -2 for Bruises): (1d20+10)[14]. Bruised and Dazed

    Crossbow:
    Move: Nah.
    Standard: Aim at Sarah. Crossbow is Vulnerable this turn.
    Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: Attack Sarah with Sniper's Shot at (1d20+15)[26], Deflected at (1d10+20)[30]. A successful Deflect Reflects it at (1d20+8)[25]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25 vs. Damage, Will DC 20 vs. Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless, and Fortitude DC 20 vs. Weaken Toughness. Deflected. Reflect hits. Will roll saves in OOC.

    Maul:
    Move: Attempt to Escape (DC 20, -5 for Improved Hold, -2 for Impaired) at (1d20+3)[20]. Huh, actually manages it.
    Standard: Shockwave Strike. Since the team is no longer in Fireball FormationTM, only the Builder and Shadowcat (and Sarah's barrier I guess) are in the area, and Shadowcat's still phased. Builder, give me Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 vs. Damage.
    Barrier Toughness: (1d20+14)[21]. Bruised

    Sword:
    Move: Staggered.
    Standard: Acid Beam on the barrier. Since it lacks a Parry defense, it is automatically DESTROYED.
    End of Turn: Recover a point of Toughness.

    Gauntlets:
    Move: Into Close range of Sarah.
    Standard: Attack Sarah with Earthen Kata as a Team Attack with Mace, +5 for Teamwork since she's figuring to support, and Accurate Attacking for 2, at (1d20+17)[19], Deflected at (1d10+20)[30] and potentially Reflected at (1d20+8)[15]. If she hits without the Teamwork bonus but Mace misses, it's Toughness DC 23/18 vs. Damage Linked Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless, Strength or Dodge DC 20 vs. Grab. If she hits without the Teamwork bonus, the Affliction has nothing to stack with an applies regardless. Deflected. Reflect misses.
    Move-by Action: Into W17, unless she ends up Grabbing Sarah, if she is Mace does this instead.

    Mace:
    Move: Into T6.
    Standard: Attack Sarah with Ground'n'Pound, All Out Attack for 5, at (1d20+15)[31], Deflected at (1d10+20)[28], and potentially Reflected at (1d20+8)[14]. If he misses by less than 5 and Gauntlets hits his Teamwork bonus will instead boost her Damage and Move Object DCs. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Team Attack vs. Damage, Strength or Dodge DC 20+Team Attack vs. Grab, and Athletics or Acrobatics DC (1d20+15)[33] vs. Trip. Hit...buuuut Sarah-27663 will Interpose that one.

    Axes:
    Move: Into Close range of Sarah.
    Standard: Attack Sarah with Razorgale Flurry, Accurate Attacking for 2, at (1d20+12)[22], Deflected at (1d10+20)[25] and potentially Reflected at (1d20+8)[23]. On a hit, Parry DC 23+Multiattack vs. Damage. Deflected. Reflect hits. Will roll the saves OOC.
    Move-by Action: Into I6.

    All PCs are on turn.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2018-11-01 at 02:00 PM.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

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  23. - Top - End - #113
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    "You're right. I'm not fighting. I'm winning." Sarah didn't even bother to move - between her counterpart and her deflection portals, none of their incoming attacks threatened her in the slightest. Of course, the deflection fields were going down, but their enemies didn't know that. It was a calculated bluff, and hopefully it would also draw more enemy fire to her - instead of to the new wall of virtual matter that was even now taking shape around the Lotus Breaker. It probably wouldn't last long after they realized it was there, but the virtual mass particles were invisible and almost completely undetectable. Indeed, it was just manipulation of the Higgs field - basic science, as far as Sarah was concerned.

    That said, she saw how quickly Sword demolished her last construct. She figured it would be worth her while to give her a little bit more to deal with, and so she warped the space around Sword as well, aiming to entrap her in another cage of invisible force.

    Spoiler: Actions
    Show
    Extra effort to surge, and I'll spend an HP to avoid becoming more fatigued. I'll use one action to encase Sword in a Created bubble of force. Here's an attack roll, if needed: (1d20+8)[20]. The second action will be to Ready another Create, like last round.

    Polymath is set to Favored Environment, Evasion 2, Uncanny Dodge, with a point left over. The Favored Environment bonus goes to defenses.

  24. - Top - End - #114
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Most of the Breaker Knights panicked when Sarah Prime cut off the Lotus Breaker. They all turned and tried to dogpile the heavily armored scientist. Even Axes turned his back on Ronin… It wasn’t going to work out well for him.

    Spoiler: Shadowcat / Anyone Else Paying Attention
    Show
    Ronin sheathed Starsoul, then looked at Shadowcat. He pointed silently at Axes, then raised his palms towards the ceiling. Glittering motes of multi-colored light winked into being, drawn into the space above his hands. They came together, forming a roiling ball of magic.

    “Arigatou, minna.”

    Ronin lifted his hands and took hold of the ball. Immediately, Fred’s golden aura was suffused with colors and swirling motes. He lowered into an iaijutsu stance.


    Shadowcat did her thing and harried Axes, throwing his defenses off. As he struggled to recover, a pair of voices shouting might have got his attention.

    SPIRIT SWORD STRIKE!

    As he turned around, Ronin blasted across the room towards Axes. His right sword held a high grip on his scabbard and his left was gripping and drawing Starsoul. The draw of the sword and the slash itself would have been hard to follow with the naked eye were it not for the bright glowing trail the slash left, cleaving through Axes’ armor and leaving a worrying glow behind (if you’re Axes).

    Starsoul was still aglow in magical energy and Crossbow looked 1) like the leader; and 2) like she had spent too long aiming. Ronin surged into the air, flying up to her and delivering an upwards slash from below that carried through until he came to a hover above her. That strike also left a worrying glow (if you’re Crossbow).

    Spoiler
    Show
    Actions were in the OOC. I don’t think Fred had any damage to fake-regen, but if he does… he does.
    Spoiler
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  25. - Top - End - #115
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    With little but a mad panic and a tail, Rene is quickly thrown off his clawed feet and onto the ground as Maul's second shockwave frees the big knight from the reptilian's grasp. The Builder hisses as he's knocked back and away as his cold-blooded body groans and rumbles in ache.

    He got no answer, no reason, no damn justification for why these knights have kidnapped his friend. Their disorganized cries and orders only further ache his damaged mind. They don't get what's going on with this thing. They might not even know what they're doing to her!

    The reptilian slithers off his scaly, hardened back and on his clawed hands and feet. His body curves around, briefly glaring at Maul before looking upward. Even as his eyes see barely anything other than darkness, he can make out one figure above him, off-balanced and unfocused as she seems to adjust her ranged weapon. It's the perfect target, the perfect prey at this moment. And there is nowhere to hide in this forest building!

    Rene hisses again as, going by his bestial instincts, slithers to the nearby wall, up the wall, and then alongside the ceiling way up high as if it were the canopy. His reptilian head jerks downward, looking at the small, flying knight below. Rene would normally be terrified of this height. He's so high up. His body will collapse the moment he hits the ground.

    But Katie today is in danger! And instincts tell him he must- Leap! Now!

    His claws yank off as he pushes himself from the ceiling, falling limbs wide out as he comes down on top to slice and slam Crossbow into the ground!

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    So through some climbing and falling nonsense, Rene is attacking Crossbow with his Killer Instinct part active still. All-Out Attack and Power Attack +5/-5: (1d20+12)[13] DC 30+Multiattack Toughness and DC 20 Fort vs Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated and Dazed/Stunned/Paralyzed on hit.

    Also if hit, Rene will try grappling as a free action since he has Fast Grab: (1d20+10)[17]

  26. - Top - End - #116
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Quellian-dyrae's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Round 4

    Boy. Six seconds without the Lotus Breaker and everything just kinda falls apart, doesn't it?

    Shadowcat rushed straight through Maul, on a straight-line path for Axes, but she stopped short, her real attack being the disruptive phasing as she passed through Maul's body, although the technowardings on his armor protected him. Axes glanced her way, but was still paying enough attention to his surroundings that he was on his guard against Ronin.

    Much good it did him. The Spirit Sword Strike hammered him full-force, darn near shattering his armor and leaving a nasty gash in his chest. The second blow against Crossbow hit only slightly less squarely, knocking her back with an ominously-glowing dent in her mail. As as if she weren't having a bad enough day, the Builder dropped in in a feral frenzy, further rending her armor and catching her in his superhumanly strong grasp, bearing her down to land atop the Lotus Breaker Device.

    "You're such a nerd," Kitty teased over comms, her voice bemused, as Fred went full anime with calling his attacks.

    Sarah-27663 teleported in the way of Mace's blow, her cybernetically-reinforced body easily absorbing the physical force. It managed to knock her to the ground, but just before she landed she opened another portal beneath herself, and through she was pretty much horizontal when she fell through it, when a second one opened up behind Mace and she dropped out of it, it was feet-first. "Yeah! PORTAL, um, SWORD STRIKE!" she yelled out exuberantly (leave her alone she's new at this) as a pair of blade-like portals shot out of her hands as she came down with a crossing slash at Maul's back, the weaponized portals slicing clean through armor and flesh.

    Sword, meanwhile, collapsed, overcome by the injuries that Ronin and Sarah-27663 had inflicted upon her.

    Serum gestured with her blade, and a swarm of nanites swooped towards maul, linking with her saber via the control glove holding it and emulating its current mechanical structure. A beam of brilliant blue light extended out as the nanites swept past, slashing quick at Maul, but he managed to dodge the blow, before flying over to hover around the Builder like a knight's squire, guarding him from a return attack.

    Which all left the Breaker Knights in something of a quandary. How do you focus fire when like literally more than half of the opposing force is competing for the slot of priority target?

    Maul growled and launched himself doggedly at Ronin, hauling back and unloading a rocket-powered swing to try to send him flying into the Builder and, ideally, knock him off of Crossbow, before flying down to land atop the Lotus Breaker himself.

    Axes, badly injured, just gave a warcry and lashed out in flurry of axe blows at empty air, razor-sharp projections of wind flying from the blades to slash at Ronin.

    Mace, also badly hurt, took another swing at Sarah, manipulating gravity to try to launch her at her counterpart.

    Crossbow wasn't in much of a state to do any, like, aiming, or anything fancy like that, but the kinetic manipulations of her crossbow nocked it, and let her fire another shot at Sarah, and guide it straight to her.

    Gauntlets flew at builder, wind whipping around her to hasten her blows as she made a barrage of strikes, every attack gradually building up a static charge that would continue to grow, before darting past the Builder to try to reach the Lotus Breaker.

    Then the Lotus Breaker's power flared up, shielding and healing those who had managed to make contact, but Sarah's new wall appeared to block the power from reaching Axes and Mace. None of the three tried to escape the dome of force - far as they were concerned, more defense was better at the moment. (Not that Sarah couldn't just drop the wall, but whatever).

    Spoiler
    Show
    Maul:
    Move: Into L12.
    Standard: Attack Ronin with Rocket Slam, All Out Power Attack for 5, at (1d20+10)[25]. On a hit, Toughness DC 30 vs. Damage, Strength DC 25 or be launched at the Builder at (1d20+10)[26], Deflected at (1d10+17)[27]. If that hits, Builder, Toughness DC 30 vs Damage, and since the Move Object is Contagious, Strength DC 25 or be launched away from Crossbow and into P25. Hits Ronin, Deflected from Builder.
    Move-by Action: Land on top of the Lotus Breaker Device.

    Axes:
    Move: Staggered.
    Standard: Attack Ronin with Razorgale Barrage, All Out Power Attack for 5, at (1d20+10)[17]. On a hit, Toughness DC 30+Multiattack vs. Damage. Hits due to AoA, but no Multiattack
    End of Turn: Recover a point of Toughness.

    Mace:
    Move: Staggered.
    Standard: Attack Sarah with Ground'n'Pound, All Out Power Attack for 5, at (1d20+10)[14]. On a hit, Toughness DC 30 vs. Damage, Strength or Dodge DC 25 or be Grabbed and swung at Sarah-27663 at (1d20+10)[16]. If she's hit, Toughness ((1d20+13)[32]) DC 30 vs. Damage. Miss

    Crossbow:
    Move: Dazed.
    Standard: Attack Sarah with Guided Shot. Toughness DC 25 vs. Damage.
    End of Turn: Fortitude to recover from Affliction (DC 25): (1d20+8)[18]. Recover a point of Toughness. Nope

    Gauntlets:
    Move: Into Close range of the Builder.
    Standard: Attack the Builder with Whirlwind Flurry, All Out Power Attack for 5, at (1d20+10)[28], Deflected at (1d10+17)[23]. On a hit, Toughness DC 30+Multiattack vs. Secondary Effect Damage. Hit. +2 Multiattack. DC 32.
    Move-by Action: Into O16.

    The Lotus Breaker Device:
    Move: If it could do this, things would be going a lot better for these guys right now.
    Standard: Stolen Power. Sarah's Readied action is triggered, so this only affects the ones who are in contact with the device, all of whom are trapped (but also shielded) by the barrier unless Sarah ceases maintaining it. Builder, if Maul doesn't successfully launch you, and Ronin, if Maul does successfully launch you, you're in there with them (or I suppose more accurately, they're trapped in there with you). Maul, Crossbow, and Gauntlets are Deflected at 1d10+25 and receive (1d20+15)[16] Healing Points. They also each get 20 points of augmentation: Maul heals his Bruise, Crossbow gets 8/10 towards healing a Bruise, Gauntlets wasn't injured anyway.
    Maul: Crushing Blow Affliction gets Alternate Resistance (Will), Crushing Blow Weaken gets Alternate Resistance (Fortitude).
    Crossbow: Add Linked Affliction 10 (Impaired/Disabled; Toughness; Perception Range, Limited Degree) to Guided Shot.
    Gauntlets: Add Linked Damage 10 (Secondary Effect) to Eroding Touch.
    Katie Will (DC 21): (1d20+12)[24]. Katie straight flip refuses to break. Apparently you just tell her all her friends are actually alive and her will becomes inviolate. I'm torn between being proud of her as my PC and annoyed that she's ruining my dramatic tension.
    Reaction: Pretty much waste Borrowed Power again.
    Rachel Will (DC 22, -3 for Bruises): (1d20+9)[19]. Bruised, but not Dazed for a change!

    All PCs are on turn.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2018-11-09 at 12:31 AM.
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  27. - Top - End - #117
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    CandyLaser's Avatar

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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    "Moving in close? That's almost clever," Sarah said. "Almost." Her shunt field redirected Mace's attack, making their weapon twist in mid-swing and smash into the floor. Crossbow's attack was more accurate - but no more effective, as the bolt disappeared into a portal, never to be seen again. "You see, now you're all in one place, and I suspect my colleagues will enlighten you as to why that's a mistake." She dropped the wall she'd created and focused her attention on Mace instead. A cold, thin smile formed on her lips as her armor appeared around her, popping into existence at her mental command. When she spoke again, her voice was metallic and amplified by the Titanomachy exo-frame's systems. "You should have surrendered when you saw me." She lunged forward, and the suit's servo motors powered up, delivering a truly mighty blow to Mace.

    Spoiler: Actions and Rolls
    Show
    Free action: drop the wall. Standard action: don the exo-frame. Extra effort to surge: attack! Polymath is set to Power Attack, All-Out Attack, Favored Environment, Evasion 2. FE bonus is on the attack, and I'll go all-in on all-out and power attacking. Here's the roll: (1d20+10)[16] I'll spend another HP to ignore the fatigue from extra effort.

  28. - Top - End - #118
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Fred’s lips curved into a smirk when he heard Kitty. She wasn’t wrong. And Teen Sarah, well… looks like Fred was going to take a new student, cause she’s a quick learner. But first things first.

    Maul came in hot and Ronin had, as he tends to do, left himself open to attack in order to take out as many enemies as possible. Ronin brought up Starsoul and braced, but took the hammer blow hard. Super-strength or not, it didn’t increase his mass… so he became the que ball shot at the Builder.

    Ronin was spinning in the air, careening towards the Builder when he managed to catch a glimpse of Axes attacking. As Fred landed (hard), he hit the dirt and slid low enough to only catch a minor laceration.

    Ronin stood up and looked at Axes. “Remember when you said… we had nothing for you?” Purely for effect, Fred snapped his fingers. Bright, silvery light flooded the room as the both of them exploded.

    “Bye Tammy.”

    Andunleashedthe rest. Ronin unleahsed two Storm of Swords in rapid succession, something he was going to keep doing if they kept being shielded.
    Spoiler
    Show

  29. - Top - End - #119
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Round 5

    These ancient Asgardian quasimagitech suits were pretty slick pieces of tech. Honestly, if the Lotus Breaker had contained more than one victim to draw power from, they might well have been fairly terrifying.

    But let's be clear: they weren't the Titanomech.

    Sarah hauled back and slammed Mace full-force. He managed to get his shield in the way, but the force of the blow still knocked the wind out of him and sent him spinning uncontrollably.

    Right into Sarah-27663's fist as she blasted off with her thrusters to propel a crushing blow straight at his head. There was a flash of silver from the Lotus Breaker, a fleeting shield rising up around him, reinforcing his helmet to withstand a blow that would have otherwise knocked him clean out. But as any quarterback will tell you, it doesn't matter how hard your helmet is when your brain is slamming into your skull at high speeds. Mace reeled, his weapon and shield hanging limply in his stands, standing with mouth agape and eyes unfocused between the two instances of Sarah Saturn.

    Frankly, that's a bad enough place to be when you're in tip-top shape and proper fighting form.

    Ronin's storm of swords cut more telekinetic slices into Maul and Gauntlets' armor, but honestly that was the sideshow. A snap of his fingers, and the lingering energy of his Spirit Sword Strikes detonated in a burst of magical force, blowing Axes' and Crossbow's breastplates to pieces and sending them flying away to land in heaps. Good luck healing that.

    The Builder rushed Maul, his injuries closing before the Breaker Knight's eyes as he lunged in with raking claws. He punched clean through the Lotus Breaker's shield and gouged another slash in Maul's armor, although the warrior managed to keep from getting caught in the Builder's grasp this time.

    A slender spike jutted from the bottom of the sword hilt that Serum's drone had become, and jabbed builder with a quick injection of her healing serum, in hopes of outhealing the damage that the static charge was doing. Unfortunately, even supplemented by his regeneration, it could only do so much.

    Shadowcat raced up at Maul, lunging for him and shifting back out of phase as she struck, trying to use the sudden shift to bypass the Lotus Breaker's frequency and rend Maul on the molecular level. Unfortunately, the shield was still strong enough to turn her attack aside.

    Even so, the odds were now 2:1 in the heroes' favor - and Mace didn't look like he'd be making particularly valuable contributions any time soon. "All to me!" Maul growled, and the Lotus Breaker flared with power again, healing and shielding the three remaining Breaker Knights. But silver light blazed up mightily around Maul, as he absorbed the full power of the machine's augmentative energy. "Now! TAKE THIS!" He brought his hammer down atop the Lotus Breaker on full thrust, and though the machine's shields rebuffed the force of the attack, that just meant that all that energy exploded outward to hammer the heroes.

    Gauntlets, meanwhile, flew up to try to take out one of the more hopefully-vulnerable members of the team, angling straight for Shadowcat. She knew, of course, that the punch she threw wouldn't harm her - but the blazing flame that engulfed her fist as she struck just might! And if it did, the fire would detonate outward, to roast Ronin and the Builder and hopefully force them back from Maul.

    Mace was either concocting a diabolical plan as subtle as it was brilliant, to singlehandedly win the entire fight in one perfect move, or he was wobbling around with a severe concussion. One of those two for sure!

    Spoiler
    Show
    The Lotus Breaker Device:
    Move: It is perfectly comfortable with its current position. Also incapable of changing it, to be fair, but don't delude yourselves into thinking it wants to!
    Standard: Stolen Power. Enemy team Deflected, receive (1d20+15)[31] Healing Points, and Maul gets the full 60-point Augment: Maul and Mace each heal one Bruise and get 5 HP towards healing another. Gauntlets heals her Bruise.
    10 points to add another dose of Burst Area to Shockwave Strike.
    50 points to add Linked Affliction 10 (Impaired+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless; Alternate Resistance [Fortitude], Extra Condition, Burst Area 2, Selective, Limited Degree).
    Katie Will (DC 21): (1d20+12)[21]. ...I think Katie's somehow been getting magical energy back this whole time. Like she might be a little over half full at this point, I don't even know.
    Reaction: Borrowed Power as a Team Attack for Gauntlets at (1d20+25)[32]. Against Shadowcat's defense that's only +2.
    Rachel Will (DC 22, -4 for Bruises): (1d20+8)[23]. Rachel's getting a handle on dealing with Cerebro while her consciousness is miles away from her brain or whatever.

    Mace:
    Stunned.
    End of Turn: Fortitude to remove Stunned+Defenseless (DC 29): (1d20+10)[17]. ...Yeah this could take a while.

    Maul:
    Move: Nah.
    Standard: Augmented Shockwave Strike. Everybody but Serum (and Shadowcat who remains immune to [Physical] [Ballistic]) give me Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 vs. Damage, Fortitude DC 20/15 vs. Impaired+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless.
    Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: DO IT AGAIN! The party gets a floating Hero Point as he buys off the fatigue.

    Gauntlets:
    Move: Into L13.
    Standard: Attack Shadowcat with Burning Punch, All Out Attack for 5, at (1d20+15)[33]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+6)[26]) DC 25+Team Attack vs. Secondary Effect Damage. If that hits, it also fills a 15' radius with a Selective Cloud Area, so Ronin and Builder will have to roll Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 vs. Damage in that case. Hit. Crit resists. Gauntlets' strategy had a fundamental fatal flaw - it failed to take into account the fact that Shadowcat is a mutant.
    End of Turn: Secondary Effect triggers. Builder, Toughness DC 32 vs. Damage.

    All PCs are on turn.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2018-11-14 at 01:22 AM.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

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    M&M 3e Character Guide

  30. - Top - End - #120
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    Default Re: Project Tomorrow - A Reassembly Filler Arc

    Yet again, the best efforts of the Knights barely made an impact on Sarah Saturn and her super-science. Maul's shockwaves mostly glanced off her, their kinetic energy dispersed by the advanced alloys of her armor. The combined effect of all those attacks? She was a little bit dizzy.

    "You lack precision and control," she said, as she activated one of her armor's weapon systems. "Allow me to demonstrate." Small portals opened next to Maul, Mace, and Gauntlets, just over their heads - and a handful of silver orbs, each the size of a quarter, swarmed out. They attached themselves to the two Knights, and then exploded, covering both in a crackling, coruscating net of flames and destruction.

    At that, Sarah took flight, moving away from both Maul and Mace, aiming to get out of further shockwave range.

    Spoiler: Actions
    Show
    Using Portal Bombs - Selective Burst Damage 11. Looking at the map, I think I can hit all three enemies, but if I can't I'll aim to hit as many as possible. Polymath will be set to Evasion 2, Favored Environment (defense bonus), Uncanny Dodge, and 2 ranks of Expertise: Films of Buster Keaton.

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