New Harbour Needs Heroes! (IC)

[Dodgeson]

Another day in the city of New Harbour, though perhaps stranger than most, sitting on the coast it was no stranger to fog however the extent to which it reached in land, blanketing the city was more than a little unusual. Many places like Tomorrow, Jubilee or Ruby City might have simply brushed this off, trusting that their own valiant heroes were enough to deal with any situation that might arise but the citizens of New Harbour had more reason than most to distrust extra-normal events. Still it would take more than a little mist to stop people from going about their day and this went double for its heroes, currently making the headlines were a trio of smash and grab artists that had taken to calling themselves the Speed Demons, as the name suggested all three of them were speedsters and while they had mastered their abilities enough to be able to vibrate through solid matter, they hadn't quite gotten to the point where said matter would not then violently explode.

It was this distinctive calling card that had drawn the attention of two of the city's patrolling heroes, Platformer and Wildcard, to an upscale electronics store in the cutting edge tech district that had emerged following the city's rebirth (Astonishing Industries had managed to pick up a lot of real estate during the rebuilding of the city, which is a conspiracy theory for another time), a messy hole breaching whatever was left of the front wall of the building and the storefront conspicuously absent of any and all speakers and with no (obvious) sign of the delinquent metahumans.

Speaking of the tech district, the sheer amount of companies and businesses pushing the edges of what was possible in such a small space made the place a veritable candy store for a techhead like Jill Glass, but she wouldn't have much time to appreciate the innovative devices on display not only due to the explosion that sounded a few blocks away but also the discharge of an energy weapon that narrowly missed her, leaving scorch mark on the concrete! Following the weapon back to its point of origin the temporally displaced girl would see a large albino lion creature standing upright dressed in a primitive looking garb with what appeared to be a bow in their hands and loops of silver cord hanging from their belt that seemed to twist and writhe as if it was a living thing.

Elsewhere in the city the fog was thickest down by the docks but one could safely assume that Captain Blackcoat had more important thing to worry about, in many ways being a benevolent benefactor was much more difficult than being a feared buccaneer in the golden age of piracy, there was certainly more paperwork involved. This wouldn't be a problem for long though as a member of his crew burst in to the captain's quarters.

"Captain, you're going to want to see this!" He said breathlessly before turning back the way he came, hurrying back up to the deck of the Eternal. The crewman hadn't been joking either, there hanging in the sky was a pair what could only be described as steel longboats, moving through the air as easily as Blackcoat's own ship would sail a calm sea. Lest the pirate captain have any doubts about the intention of the strange vessels, slots quickly slid open on the side of one of the ships to reveal a row of cannons that quickly opened fire with a deafening BOOM!

Of course Captain Blackcoat wasn't the only hero that called the docks home, as one of the gateways to the city many of the gangs that had moved in following the reconstruction considered the area to be valuable and were willing to wage war with each other to make it theirs. Standing between them and the innocent people who had to live and work in the area was Scylla! Her daily scouting giving her a perfect vantage point to see the suddenly appearing sky ships and their sudden aggression.

[Quellian-dyrae]

While many people might have thought that trying to patrol in the fog would be rather unproductive, for Kevin it was a minor inconvenience at worst! Oh, true, his camera angle shenanigans didn't let him ignore it. And no, he didn't have other super-senses that would let him navigate just as well without need for clarity of vision. His quest markers didn't do any good in patrolling. No, this wasn't about powers, this was about methodology! No! It was more than that! This was about habit!

And Kevin was going to explore the entire level anyway in case there were hidden power ups, so the fog didn't really change that.

When he encountered the rather-too-literally-hole-in-the-wall electronics store, it didn't take him long to connect the damage with the recent headlines. These guys were speedsters and there had presumably been an amount of time measured in units greater than microseconds since this hole had been created, so in principle they could be anywhere in the city by now. Kevin approached anyway; they might still be inside somewhere, even if they weren't they might have left clues that could help track them down, and even if they hadn't look there was a gaping hole in the side of the building and Kevin knew the entrance to a mission instance when he saw one.

As he entered the building he swapped to his Third-Person Viewpoint and hit Pause (simply good sense when there might be hostile speedsters about), zooming his camera angle around the interior of the electronics store, scanning for any hidden foes, or anything that might have stood out as significant or unusual. He did go ahead and step aside from the entry as he did, not because he didn't think he could present some obstruction to the speedsters if they tried to get past him, but because they could just blow up another wall to get out if they wanted to so whatever. While he searched he also pulled up whatever information he had in his Menus on the Speed Demons.

Spoiler

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Given the fog and so as not to make assumptions about his entrance I'm operating on the assumption that Kevin just hasn't seen Wildcard yet. My understanding is we're in a different part of the city than the others so he wouldn't have noticed like the explosion, energy blast, or flying ships.

Well Informed on the Speed Demons (+5 for Eidetic Memory): (1d20+20)[40]. Kevin will also Routine an Expertise (Superheroes/villains) check on them for 30.

Perception to scan around the electronics building with Third Person Viewpoint: [roll]1d20+10z[/roll].

[LoonyLadle]

Jill was taking a day off. She was self-employed now, so she could do that! If anyone asked, though, she would have said she was doing research.

There has been a lot to learn about this strange world. It was technologically and socially backward in a lot of ways. They hadn't colonized the stars, solved energy, or eradicated scarcity. Discrimination and corruption runs rampant. The superhuman population was also very high, and so many of them decided to use their abilities illegally. When she had first arrived in this timeline she had thought it all dumb and dangerous and regressive.

But electricity!

Jill knew about electricity, of course, but the people of this timeline do so much more with it. It isn't just a power source; it is a means of communication and applied on a massive scale. Such a massive innovation ought to have accelerated the humanity of this time to a new golden age within a matter of decades! But, ironically, that same mass communication had instead and counter-intuitively turned all attempts at verbal debate into a metaphorical basketball game where the teams are on different courts and stand around the basket racking up meaningless points and throwing dung over the dividing wall.

Was this the darkest timeline? Who knew for sure.

Jill is suddenly interrupted from her bitter reverie by a nearby explosion. What the heck?! That isn't normal! She starts jogging towards the source of the sound to see if there is any assistance that her modest abilities could render. When you break it down enough, human bodies are just organic machines and Jill does not discriminate when it comes to repairs!

Before she can get far however, Jill's self-defense implants warn her to jump out of the path of an incoming energy blast! "Whoa, careful friend!" she chastises the reckless demihumanoid. "That could have hurt someone!"

Jill sizes up the creature. She isn't sure if this qualifies as strange in this weirdness magnet of a city. There was that man who was just a brain in a glass jar, and that girl who was an octopus from the waist down (she was a good time but an expensive date), and then that gendervague floating alien crystal person who looked a little like four snowflakes stuck in each other. Lion man with energy bow barely even raised an eyebrow even if he was an unusual color, but on the other hand all those other strangenesses were from her own world. It was a coin toss!

"Heeeey, did that bow just shoot a plasma arrow?!" Jill asks, curiosity getting the better of her. "What are those silver things? They're squirming! I have never seen tech like that before!"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

An unassuming Iara stares up from an alley just off of the narrow seaside street, her mouth agape. Despite their enormous size, the two airships are hard to make out in today's dense fog. Iara's eyes see them only as vague silhouettes. Luckily, the sound of cannon fire tells her everything she needs to know. While the local dockworkers and the owner of the nearby fudge shop point and shout, the noise and fog covers for Iara as she dashes off the pier and into the water.

Barely a second later, a column of water erupts from the shoreline, carrying Scylla up to one of the cannon ports. She shouldn't have any trouble squeezing in, but for the moment she only gets a peek inside.

Spoiler: Rolls?

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She runs to the water and swims under a ship with Speed. Let's call it the one on the left, so the Northmost one. She then turns on her Scylla persona and Flight powers and flies up cannonward.

Mobility to grab onto the side of the cannon port: (1d20+10)[28]. If this fails or is just too hard, she can just hover next to it in her watery flight bubble instead. This roll can also be her initiative if needed, because my brain has somehow decided her ability to get the drop on this crew hinges on her ability coolly latch onto a moving vehicle.

Perception to peek behind the cannon (and hear, with her accurate hearing shtick): (1d20+10)[26]

That's probably all of the actions she can do this round.

[Llyarden]

Jake landed outside the store with a loud thump and a crackling of fire that was apparently moonlighting as lightning bolts that scattered across the tarmac. Stupid fog making the ground come out of nowhere. Still not my worst landing.

He paused, looking at the destroyed storefront. "Speakers?" he asked aloud. "That's something strangely specific to steal. A place like this has gotta have more expensive stuff than this lying around, right? I mean, I know a good audio setup is worth its weight in gold and all, but I've never heard of people taking that literally before."

Rachel didn't reply, because of course she didn't, she wasn't actually listening in over his comms. That didn't stop him talking to her when he thought he was alone - and often when he didn't think he was alone, come to think of it. By the standards of superheroes, commentating over his own actions barely ranked on the weirdness scale.

He brushed himself off, sending a handful of snowflakes into the fog, and made his way towards the giant hole in the wall to look around.

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm assuming since Kevin moved out of the way of the giant hole in the wall, Jake won't be able to see him until he actually gets into the store himself.

Expertise (Superheroes/Supervillains) on the Speed Demons: (1d20+20)[40]
Expertise (Superpowers) to figure out if their particular form of superspeed might leave a trail of, like, bits of exploded road as they ran away or something: (1d20+20)[24]
And to round things off, Expertise (Science) to figure out if there might be a reason these guys might want a ridiculous number of high-end speakers other than to make an absolutely banging audio setup: (1d20+10)[13]

[Starsign]

Today had been a day planned for little happening; paperwork always piled up on Blackcoat's old wooden desk. He even intended to catch up on the ones which had been there for several days now. A little rolling fog and heavy waves hitting The Eternal wasn't going to disturb some much-needed work to be done with all the contracts, contacts, and payments he's made throughout New Harbour. He even could've gotten it done before the sun set. Things just happen to distract him from time to time.

And the sudden appearance of these two longboats is certainly a distraction he must turn his attention to.

The immortal captain feels the rumbling of the Eternal through his boots as the longboats open fire. He tilts his old captain hat down, unfazed compared to the rest of his crew who ran across the deck; unlike him, they did not face the terrors of the sea for over five hundred years. "To your positions, men!" His voice shouts out through the booming cannons. "I want ye ships down to sea an' locker now!" His orders mix with directions and instructions to target the vulnerable areas of the longboats, something he's picked up over his years of naval battle.

The Eternal was a rather archaic-looking ship, designed in hardened and reinforced wood with tough linen rope and sails like it was right out of the golden age of piracy. Yet the best smiths, mechanics and some magical reinforcement can let it survive, thrive even, in the modern world.

What The Eternal didn't have was its own flight capabilities, instead relegated to the sea as Blackcoat thinks of a way to board them. One of his eyes looked over at the water column suddenly shooting out from the sea. He recognizes that... He just needs to find a way up to join her.

Spoiler: OOC

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Alrighty, let's make a Proficiency check to determine either, A) the best place for the Eternal to fire at the longboats, or B) the best way for Blackcoat to get aboard the ships. I'll use Nautical if it applies, otherwise I'll take Boatsmanship or something similar if that works better: (1d20+10)[26]

[Dodgeson]

The story of the Speed Demons was one that apparently Platformer and Wildcard were both very familiar with, perhaps they had caught the segment that HCNN (Start your morning with Harry Beale! An all-star journalist who, fun fact, had been in the same year at St Ambrose as Kevin) had run on them in the wake of their last crime spree? Damian, Matt and 'Rush' (not his real name but woe betide anyone that called him Elton) were three metahumans who struck on the 'ingenious' idea of parleying their superhuman speed in to a career as couriers but a series of unfortunate business decisions lead them to having to take some jobs carrying less than legal packages to keep their head above water, when this came to light the business was basically over and they threw themselves in to crime full time using the contacts they'd managed to accrue.

Unfortunately for Wildcard thought, despite their talent for blowing holes in things, the Speed Demons didn't really have anything that made them particularly easy to track but on the hand they didn't exactly have anything going for them in terms of avoiding detection and hey how difficult could it be to track them down? How many people are going to have a sound system that sweet?

Elsewhere in the tech district the leonine creature took a moment to internally berate itself for ruining the element of surprise and missing the shot and then it vanished from its perch, appearing again instantly before Jill, the bow now stashed on its back. "Here, let me show you." It growled threateningly, unhooking the silver thread from its belt and hurling it bola style towards her neck!

Spoiler: OOC

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Leoni Hunter
Move Action: Teleport closer to Jill with Time Walk
Standard Action: Attack Jill with The Wyrm (1d20+10)[27] DC20 PL Check vs Cumulative Dazed/Compelled/Controlled if that hits Hits

Down by the docks Scylla rose up towards one of the floating ships and grabbed on to the side of the cannon with ease, peering in to the ship itself she would see six large albino lionmen who were all far too busy rushing around and loading the cannons with glittering crystal orbs to notice her presence. Towards the far end of the ship there was a set of stairs leading back up on deck where she could hear a voice bellow "Faster you mogs or you'll have the Chainmaker to answer to!"

"OUR ALL FOR THE CHAINMAKER!" A chorus of other voice called back in reply before being drowned out by another loud volley from the cannons.

"Aye aye Captain!" The crew of the Eternal knew what they were doing and were quickly to their stations even as the whole ship was rocked by yet another broadside from the strange invaders. Of course then the Captain turned is attention to how even the odds against the flying vessels, what was called for was some good old fashion boarding! The Eternal wasn't exactly short of the tools for such a thing or of course the owner of that waterspout might be able to help if Blackcoat could get their attention...

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin turned to look at the voice as Wildcard spoke. (He actually physically turned to regard him rather than just shifting his camera angle; he had been trying to get better about that stuff.) "Oh, hey," he said; he hadn't met Wildcard before, but he had done his research on New Harbour so he at least recognized him as one of the city's new heroes.

"Yeah it's pretty weird," Kevin agreed. He did not appear aware that the other hero hadn't actually been talking to him. "They must have needed the speakers specifically for something. I suppose the most likely possibility is that they have a black market connection that happens to specialize in high-end audio equipment or some such. It's not like you can just walk into any store and trade whatever random items you've picked up for half their market price with no questions asked, even if I've never been entirely sure why..." Granted, it hadn't been something he bothered worrying about much ever since he had finally abandoned all hope of actually having an inventory somewhere back in Junior year.

With no clues or threats obvious to a visual scan, he started going through the store more methodically, searching around for any possible clues the culprits might have left behind.
"Although let's be clear, I am not ruling out some kind of sound-manipulating villain who calls themself Audiophiend, or a super-inventor shenaniganing up some sort of mass mind-control device from common household electronics, or something equally ludicrous," he added as he searched.

Spoiler

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Investigation to conduct a Search at [roll]1d20+10z[/roll].

Also sure, Expertise (Criminal) to see if Kevin might know about some sort of local black market source for high-end audio supplies or whatever. Using half rank thanks to Eidetic Memory since he's not trained in it, +5 for Eidetic Memory's bonus: [roll]1d20+12z[/roll].

I'll also just check his Quest Markers just to be safe. I assume there wouldn't be one since finding these guys is presumably "part of the challenge", but I'd feel silly if I conducted a whole investigation and then it turned out Dodge was just expecting me to turn on my Quest Markers the whole time.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Chainmaker. Scylla's never heard of them before, but that name is evocative in all the wrong ways. Granted, she herself is named after a monster that eats people, but still.

Acting on the first idea that comes to mind, Scylla decides to let the sea aboard. About 25 tons of water pour into the room through the cannon port, washing over the weapons to hopefully render them inoperable. Thanks to something like telekinesis, the salty pool takes shape around the line of cannons without flowing away as it usually would. Given that this ship was already defying gravity, perhaps that isn't so surprising.

Scylla dives into the water wall and disappears. In her element, she's practically a ghost. She slips down the row, a few cannons away, to keep them guessing as she thinks up her next move.

Spoiler

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Create Water to fill up this whole side of the room, then turn on Concealment and swim in as an invisible, inaudible, un-smellable liquifish.

[LoonyLadle]

Jill gasps a little as the creature seems to teleport in front of her. Wow, that voice certainly sounded scary! Did he always sound like that? That must make it hard to make friends!

Her implants warn her again but she is too slow to move away from the silvery object as it is hurled lightning-fast at her. It wraps around her neck and a certain feeling settles over Jill's mind. Her mouth contorts into a few silent words as she works out what is happening to her.

"Oh," Jill says, crestfallen, as understanding flops onto her like a lead blanket. "I understand now." He's a Bad Guy. And there's nothing Jill can do about it.

Spoiler

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Guess Jill is Controlled then! Gosh, already? I didn't even get to do anything. =(

[Llyarden]

Jake blinked as he realised there was someone else there, looking over the other...hero?..for a moment, taking in the outfit.

...oh. He knew who this guy was. Rach had mentioned him a couple times, and if even half what she'd told him was right, he was good.

Which...made it a little jarring when the guy started wondering why you couldn't sell anything to anyone in the real world, but it wasn't like Jake could exactly say his own powers were perfectly controlled, and as far as he understood it Platformer's powers were literally living in a video game, so fair enough.

"I mean, with these guys they might literally just be playing tunes for themselves," he commented. "They're not exactly the height of criminal genius."

Nonetheless, he brought up the holographic display integrated into his costume (which probably made him look a bit like a video game character himself) and searched for any upcoming concerts - or more likely raves - in the near future, figuring that if someone needed a bunch of speakers it was probably going to be for some kind of performance, and high-end performances would probably have their own stuff anyway.

Spoiler: OOC

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Expertise (Popular Culture) or (Current Events) to do some research into places/people who might need a massive load of speakers in the near future: (1d20+20)[23]

...I apparently forgot to give myself Expertise (Criminal) even though Jake's been doing this whole hero thing for years. Good job, me.

[Starsign]

Blackcoat didn't need a moment to realize that The Eternal, for all its benefits, was not equipped to face powerful alien ships in the skies. He had adjusted the ship's cannons to aim high upward, but blackened iron cannon fire only did so much against advanced technology; and his crew, for all their bravado and confidence, lacked enough experience and skill to keep up with supervillains. So a lot of things had to be done by the captain himself.

When you're over five hundred years old, you get a knack for fighting things normally beyond your capabilities.

"Grappling hooks! Mount 'em to the cannon! he ordered with a mighty shout, piercing the sound of waves and cannon fire. The newer pirates under his command gives a confused look, while the more experienced pirates quickly moved below deck. Working together, they opened the back hatch of a dark cannon and tied one end of a rope to it; on the other end, a decisively sharp hook, split four ways. Blackcoat's trusted men close the cannon and aim it upward at the ship not-currently being flooded by a rising tower of water. With a loud *BOOM* of gunpowder, the cannon fires out the hook, slamming into the longboat's underbelly with nothing but a heavy rope connecting it with the pirate ship.

The cautious-but-confident pirate lord gives a nod as he draws a blade from his left hip: a cutlass of the finest metal, light grey in color, shockingly rustproof, and sharper than the finest katana on Earth. "Excellent, men! he shouts again, leaping onto the thin wooden rail of The Eternal "Ye hold the ship and let NONE board, lest they walk t' plank!"

In an action rarely does in the golden age of piracy, Blackcoat presses his boots on the heavy rope and begins running across it in an impressive feat of mobility. To board alone was considered suicide for most pirates; to board using only rope for a platform, even more so. However, Blackcoat was not one to do this if he hadn't done it a dozen times in the past. He lacked the superhuman agility of other heroes, but The Eternal always had a stash of items to make up for it.

That is the enemy's mistake of going after him on his ship, as he boarded their own using the nearest entrance from the rope.

Spoiler: OOC

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Alright, let's power stunt some movement. I will stunt The Captain's Handy Grappling Hook (Flight, limited to staying or landing on some physical object like a rope) off of his main array. Will use this to climb up to and into the ship.

If there is time, let's do a Perception check to see if Blackcoat might find anything of value on the ship: (1d20+8)[16] But it probably won't help as much if he climbs into a trap.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"I'd figure in that case just one set of speakers would do?" Kevin replied, although after thinking about it for a moment, he shrugged. "Although I guess they are speedsters, so they might want to set up a sound system in multiple different locations that they travel between regularly. I'd still lean somewhat against it though. If it's just a personal thing, they'll be no easier to track down than they were yesterday, so what would even be the point of us - both of us, no less - stumbling across this particular robbery if it wasn't the setup to an actual mission? I mean, two superheroes just happening to arrive at the same petty robbery simultaneously?"

"There's got to be a quest hook there; we just have to find it," he said with a firm nod. It almost sounded like he was trying to be encouraging, if one discounts the not-quite-monotone delivery.

Look, he gave real-world logic a fair try. You all saw him. Considered likely motivations in context with their established background and everything.

[Dodgeson]

Both turning to their own methods of information gathering Platformer and Wildcard considered their options, as far as the Ambrose alumni was aware there were several 'legitimate business people' in New Harbour who rumour had it, dealt in goods that had been acquired through less than legal methods. Though it would be a challenge in and of itself to get them to admit it, doubly so if the person doing the asking was a known hero. As for upcoming events that would be requiring an extensive sound system there was only one thing that immediately jumped to mind, the upcoming New Harbour Food Festival & Carnival, once a yearly celebration of food and fun this would mark the first time since the city's destruction that it was being held. Of course though this was an event officially sanctioned by the city, so it was debatable whether they'd need to purchase illicit equipment in the first place.

Still our heroes wouldn't have too much time to ponder all this information as they suddenly had company! A veritable hunting party of savage humanoid lions appearing by the hole in the store. At the head of the group one of the interlopers, dressed in a green cloak and holding a silver scepter in one paw, regarded the pair for a moment before growling out "Seize them!" to its cohorts, the octette of lion men behind them reaching to their belt for devices that extended in to metal staves with crackling tips and advancing menacingly.

Spoiler: OOC

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Initiative
Platformer: (1d20+12)[26]
Wildcard: (1d20)[11]

Leoni Hunting Party (1d20+10)[18]

Not too far away the silver chord wrapped around Jill's neck and in an instant her world became infinitely smaller. The Wyrm began its terrible work and all her futures and possibilities began to collapse one by one until the only thing left before her was timeline where she served the slavers. Satisfied that the thing around her neck had done its work, the hunter growled a single order "You will serve us now" before placing a single heavy paw on her shoulder and vanishing.

When they reappeared they were elsewhere in the city and they weren't alone, it was immediately clear that Jill hadn't been the only target of the invaders as there in the fog in front of them was an enormous crowd of people, all with the telltale silver chord squirming against their neck, standing the shadow of enormous corkscrew shaped structure that seemed to be embedded in to the ground.

"Wait here until you are given further instruction." Her captor snarled before stalking off through the crowd.

Spoiler: OOC

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Since you're Compelled and not Controlled now's the time to make another DC20 PL Save to throw off the effect and while you're at it...

Spoiler: Perception (DC20)

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One of the figures in the crowd stands out to you, a redheaded woman who appears to be coved in a sheathe of glowing white light.

Unfortunately for Scylla the ship's weapons were more than capable of functioning when wet, on the plus side they weren't capable of functioning without the crew and as lower berth flooded with salt water the lion men scurried for the stairs that lead to the deck, leaving the weapons perfectly harmless.

"What the blazes happened down there?!" The voice Scylla heard before bellowed.

"The weapons have flooded!"

"Flooded?! We're in the sky!"

"It was witchcraft!"

"Witchcraft!? Well get down there and subdue that ship or never mind the Chainmaker, you'll have me to answer to!"

Suitably chastised the lionmen promptly vanished, appearing on the deck of the Eternal with their weapons drawn. Something that Blackcoat would miss entirely as he launched himself through the air to land on the deck of the next sky ship. With most of the crew down below working the weapons he would find himself face to face with 5 of the leonine invaders, one markedly larger than the others with a patch covering one eye standing towards the back of the ship.

"Time hasn't touched you has it?" The creature said with a nasty grin "I wonder if the same can be said for my blade? Surrender now if you know what's good for you."

[Llyarden]

"Oh, what the - hey, no, don't seize us!"

Jake whirled around, vines flowing from his body and wrapping around him in a protective sheathe, as he spread both hands and focused.

Please be useful, please be useful, please be...

"...heck yeah!" he muttered under his breath, as the twining vines around his hand took on a shimmering purple light, before clearing his throat and looking at the...cat people? Living in New Harbour was certainly an experience.

"Seriously, we're busy investigating bad guys already. Wait your turn!"

He spread his arms, and the swirling vines of darkness erupted in all directions, crawling across the walls, floor and ceiling of the shop before springing as though propelled from a hose to wrap around the cat people and cloud their senses, turning them against each other even as the darkness assaulted their bodies.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Amplify Elements.
Free: Set Control Elements (60) to Elemental Blast [11, not sure why I wrote 12], Increased Range ehhh let's say 4 and hope 120ft is enough [4], Greater Energy Control [20], and 25 points in the random elemental effects, which turns into *drumroll* Nightmare, Regenerate Armour and half Winding Vines. The random descriptor turns into...Mental? I feel like I need to adjust my descriptor generator, a Toughness-resisted blast with the Mental descriptor is kinda weird.
Putting that all together and we have...Damage 10 [Uncontrolled Descriptor], Increased Range 4, Affliction 10 [Entranced/Compelled/Controlled, Will], Regeneration 10, and a bunch of flat modifiers.
Free: Use Control Elements to Link Damage and Affliction and apply Burst Area to both.
Standard: Attack however many Leoni I can fit in a 30ft radius with Control Elements. DC20 Defence for half, DC25/20 Toughness vs [Mental] Damage and DC20/15 Will vs [Darkness] [Mental] Entranced/Compelled/Controlled. This has Indirect 4 and Ricochet 1.

Status: Fine.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Success! Except Rutherford's ship is still in danger, since these guys can apparently just bwoop over. Hopefully Blackcoat can handle them better in person. What Scylla really needs to do is bring the whole ship down somehow, but it seems too big to just push around with water jets...

She moves the wall of seawater from the cannons to the stairway, and her invisible self along with it. From there, water flows out onto the deck as though the lower berth had already filled up and was spilling out.

Spoiler

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Move action: reposition my vague water ball to the top of the stairs
Standard action: turn on the Environment power, flooding the deck so it's hard to walk around up here

Once that happens, look for a control room entrance: (1d20+10)[26], +10 to sense anything that's now in the 250-foot radius pool.

[LoonyLadle]

Whoa! Teleportedededed! Neat! Jill was expecting something a little more impressive when she was the thing being teleported, but nope, it was pretty boring. Literally blink and you miss it. Boo! But the fact that lion man could do that without any sort of obvious technological aid was impressive in its own way. Was it some kind of natural ability, had they miniaturized the technology to such a degree, or was it being done from some kind of external power source? Questions! If she could get access to the tech maybe she could study and improve it for her new masters.

No! Nope! None of that! Jill reaches up to rip the silver squirmy from her neck and deposit it into her fanny pack for later study and analysis. Something about the confused and frightened enslaved people around her suggests that she might need a systematic solution, like a big aerosolized anti-brainworm spray. Before she does so however she realizes that she seems to have circumnavigated its functions subconsciously, and so decides to keep it on so as to appear as enthralled as the others. Her last girlfriend had been into hypnotic domination, so she gives a word of thanks to her adventuresome school days. The stupid cat bad guy hadn't even tried to take her wrench. Dumb dumb dumb! She was gonna punish their bottoms extra hard when this is over.

Jill had been hoping she would be taken to their headquarters or ship or whatever, but it looks like they were marshaling their prisoners first. She heads towards the huge corkscrew structure, attempting to glean some understanding of its function -- and perhaps how to mess with it.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin didn't so much as blink at the sudden appearance of arbitrarily hostile forces that had nothing whatsoever to do with the scope of the current mission. Random encounters were something he was entirely used to. Honestly, he kinda appreciated the enemies just up and appearing out of nowhere and beginning immediate hostilities. More bad guys should be like them.

He'd grant, teleporting lion-dudes with electro-staves weren't exactly the sort of random encounter he'd expect in a New Harbour electronics store. Definitely a violation of Rockman's Razor, but whatever.

Wildcard seemed to have the crowd control well in hand, which was good. Without a Power Up, Kevin's techs weren't really ideal for large groups. He favored a more targeted fighting style.

Speaking of which, that scepter sure looked fancy!

"Bigger, stronger, and better-equipped aliens than you have tried!" Kevin shot back, and as soon as Wildcard's blast had cleared, he leaped into the fray. Literally, at that, springing over whichever alions (not a typo, I am a terrible person) stood between him and their leader and coming down with his trademark stomping attack, aiming to bounce several times off the guy's head before back-flipping back to his original position.

Ideally, with his scepter now in hand.

Spoiler

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Free: Reconfigure Game Mechanics. 10 points to Run/Jump, 30 points to Damage, Strength, and Weaken Toughness, all with the Stomp Limit and Multiattack, and let's leave the other 10 on Third-Person Viewpoint and Quest Markers.

Move: Jump into Close range of the guy with the scepter.

Standard: Attack with Tactical Stomping Power Flurry at (1d20+10)[12]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Multiattack/20+Multiattack vs. Damage Linked Weaken Toughness, Strength DC 20+Multiattack vs. Disarm. And of course the low rolls start as soon as combat begins. Well played, dice. Well played.

Move-by Action: Double-jump back to original position.

Current Status: Normal.

[Starsign]

Focused on the longboat, and currently unaware of the situation on The Eternal, Blackcoat stood tall against the five leonine warriors, or perhaps pirates, who had presumably been expecting boarders. The loud, technological babble of the ship's lights and buttons made for a sensory-inflicting irritation on the human pirate's ears and eyes. Had he not been familiar with seeing alien tech, the place might have actually bothered Blackcoat.

Instead, the ancient pirate looked gave a deathly glare towards the invaders, quite unimpressed at their attempt to attack his own ship. The normally approachable pirate suddenly gives off a stone-hardened look; his black pirate hat and clothing almost giving the visage of the reaper's cloak, and his cutlass like the blade of the scythe. He looked as much as a human as he did a nightmare of a pirate. And the look, scary to pirates by itself, was only backed up by his thunderous voice.

"No worldly element nor created blade can take me to the locker. I be conqueror o' t' the seas fer five hundred years. And I be livin' fer another thousand still. I've felled TENFOLD t' numbers I see 'fore me; an' anything t' captain can do, I'll do far WORSE. If ye value ye life, drop ye weapon and RUN."

It has been awhile since he's given such a speech; they never were great for negotiations, but it is a great way to defuse a potentially hostile situation.

Spoiler: OOC

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Looks like the perfect time to try out The Pirate's Terrifying Presence (Affliction 10; Impaired/Disabled/Controlled; Burst Area; Selective; Limited [Impaired/Disabled/Hindered only apply to active checks, Compelled/Controlled can only force targets to back down, flee, surrender, etc]; DC 20 Will)

Since it's an Area attack, the DC should apply, though there might be a reflect save for half?

[Dodgeson]

Wildcard's darkness surged forward and engulfed the invaders, clouding their minds and battering their bodies, leaving their leader standing vacant and still amongst the chaos with another of their number and sending another pair sprawling to the floor unconscious, at least until Platformer leaped forward and though his attack didn't seem to harm the figure in green it definitely snapped him out of his fugue. The raiders had their orders and those that were left charged forward, two working in concert to try and bring their crackling staves down on Platformer while the other three mobbed Wildcard, hoping to bring him down before he could wreak move havoc with his strange powers.

Watching the others rush forward the shaman simply narrowed his gaze in Platformer's direction, apparently snapping him out of a daze wasn't enough to earn the hero any goodwill, waving his staff towards him.

Spoiler: OOC

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Leoni Raider #1
Move: Move in to Close with Platformer
Standard: Aid Raider #2 (1d20+13)[18] vs DC10 +2

Leoni Raider #2
Move: Move in to Close with Platformer
Standard: Attack Platformer with Stun Staff (1d20+8)[10] DC23 Toughness & DC18 Fortitude vs Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated if that hits. Miss

Leoni Raider #3
Move: Move in to Close with Wildcard
Standard: Aid Raider #5 (1d20+13)[31] vs DC10 +5

Leoni Raider #4
Move: Move in to Close with Wildcard
Standard: Team Attack with Raider #5 with Stun Staff (1d20+13)[18] +2

Leoni Raider #5
Move: Move in to Close with Wildcard
Standard: Attack Wildcard with Stun Staff (1d20+8)[13] DC23 Toughness & DC18 Fortitude vs Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated if that hits. Hits DC25/18

Leoni Shaman
Move: Nah
Standard: Attack Platformer with Slow make a DC20 Will Save vs Dazed&Vulnerable/Stunned&Defenceless/Paralysed

The Wyrm was effective at what it did but it took longer to gorge on some timelines than others, giving Jill just the opportunity she needed to break free and reassert herself from the sinister device. Of course now she was deep behind enemy lines and surrounded, not just by the leonine invaders but by the almost mannequin-like figures of the other people that they had been able to capture. Which of course should have given her ample cover to creep toward the strange structure in front of her if not for two things, one she wasn't exactly the most stealth person in the world and two, her captors possessed heightened senses far beyond those of a mere Earther.

"You there, don't move!" She had only managed to take a few steps when the sound of one of the lionmen assigned to watch over their newly acquired cattle called out to her, bow already drawn and pointed in her direction. "Take another step and I fire! Don't think we can't afford to lose a few slaves."

"Looks like we got another one giving the Wyrm indigestion" Another of the creatures spoke, moving through the crowd towards her.

Moving (flowing?) up on to the deck Scylla's search for a control room would leave her disappointingly empty handed, the deck appeared to be bizzarely low tech, in fact if it wasn't currently floating in the sky it would be easy to simply write the ship off as something far far less advanced. Standing towards the back of the vessel was another of the creatures standing behind an enormous ships wheel and whilst they occasionally stole a glance towards the encroaching water they didn't seem to be letting it bother them much.

"Show yourself witch!" They growled towards the water, determined not to let theirs be the ship that fell first.

Speaking of the other ship, three of the Leoni on deck took one look at the fearsome figure of Captain Blackcoat and simply disappeared, rather risking the wrath of the Chainmaker than face the man in front of them.

"COWARDS! If I ever find you I'll have your hides!" The larger Leoni yelled impotently in to the air before turning his attention to the remaining member of his crew "Have you ever tasted immortal?" He asked, the other Leoni shaking his head "Then today is going to be a good day."

The other crewman simply nodded his head, grinning a predator's smile to signal his understanding before rushing forward, slashing his claws at Blackcoat as the other vanished only to appear again above Blackcoat's head with their blade drawn!

"DIE!"

Spoiler: OOC

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Leoni Raider
Move: Move in to Close with Blackcoat
Standard: Aid Leoni Raider Leader (1d20+13)[23] vs DC10 +5

Leoni Raid Leader
Move: Teleport in to Close with Blackcoat
Standard: Power Attack +2 Blackcoat with Shieldbreaker (1d20+8)[23] DC27/22 Toughness vs Damage, Weaken Toughness & Cumulative Vulnerable/Defenceless if that hits. Hits

[Llyarden]

Jake raised one arm to block the staff, wincing as his powers chose the wrong moment to change to water control and the electricity arced through him. "Ow...great." Runes flowed about his free hand and he swept it through the air, sending a hail of unstoppable bolts of mystic energy flying at the raiders.

"I...already told...you," he growled, through gritted teeth. "Wait...your...turn!" A pulse of air whipped around him, hurtling towards the shaman and threatening to hurl him - and anyone that got in the way - out of the store...which might not have been the greatest idea given the whole 'peasoup fog' thing, but it wasn't like his powers had that kind of foresight.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Dazed, and, uh, Dazed.
Free: Set Control Elements to Elemental Blast {11}, Range 4 {4; 120ft}, and 25 points random: Guiding Winds, Disintegrate, and one-half Whirling Winds (Gust). Not the most useful combo in the world, but I'll take it. Random descriptor becomes [Magic].
Free: Configure Control Elements: Damage 10 (Alternate Resistance: Defence) Linked Move Object 10 (Limited to Away, Contagious, Selective)
Standard: Attack the Raiders with Damage and Takedown 2, and the Shaman with Move Object, Power Attacking for 2, and now that I know the Raiders are Minions, routine attacks against them for 18 for DC27 Defence vs Damage.
Against the Shaman, (1d20+8)[16] for DC22 Strength or Dodge vs Move Object away, Contagious just in case someone interposes for him.
End of Turn: Fort to recover from Dazed (DC20): (1d20+8)[24] Honestly I'm perfectly happy with the rolls going that way.

Status: Bruised, possibly Dazed (Fort 20)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Now look, I'm not going to say that learning that his own mother had been secretly implanting mental barriers to prevent him from understanding the full scope of his powers had caused Kevin to overreact or anything. I'm just saying that these days? It was going to take a lot more than a Slow spell to beat his willpower. The goons he deftly dodged.

In fairness, he did start moving a bit slower, but that was only because he didn't really need to be altering reality to augment his mobility to paragon-level speeds to effectively maneuver around an electronics store. With the goons now more separated from their leader, Kevin disengaged from the two that had attacked him and closed back into melee with the shaman, coming at him with a one-two strike to the chest followed by a powerful uppercut, before settling back into a blocking stance. It wouldn't send him smashing through the roof Mortal Kombat style (and more's the pity) but it might knock a little blinking alarm clock out of him with the hands moving backwards - a Power Up that would reverse an injury through time, providing healing. If it appeared he'd send it flying over to Wildcard.

His menus were flitting through his vision as he fought (back in the day that had been distracting, but he'd long since gotten used to it). He opened up a Chat to his fellow hero, a little chat box just suddenly floating there in the lower-right corner of his vision. If he concentrated on it time would slow down and the chat would expand so he could read it and reply at his convenience.

Platformer: Looks like the fog is these guys' doing.
Platformer: Evidently they've popped up a few times throughout history. Basically grabbing a bunch of people up. Some suggestion that they're slavers.
Platformer: They tend to grab up a lot of people when they come, and given that the fog has been covering the entire city, I expect there are more attacks happening.

Spoiler

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Free: Reconfigure Game Mechanics. Visual Communication 1 (Rapid 2) [6] from Chat, Stomp [5], Strike [5], Striking Flurry [10], Block [10], Healing Items [10], and four ranks of Shoot [4].

Move: Into Close range of the Leoni Shaman.

Standard: Attack the Leoni Shaman with Striking Flurry at (1d20+10)[23]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Multiattack vs. Damage. If he fails by two degrees or more, Wildcard receives Healing at (1d20+10)[17]. Either way, Kevin is Deflected for two rounds. That should clear Wildcard's Bruise if the shaman fails by two degrees

Current Status: Normal, Deflect 1d10+18 (SE).

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Scylla sees the wheel and flows towards it. She doesn't think about how such a mechanism would handle three-dimensional flight.

"Bold of you to be calling me a witch, after everything you've been doing."

Her voice echoes up from the pool as it splashes up against the helm's modest steering platform. She hums a few ascending arpeggios before rising up across with him with her thin lips pursed in a single tuning note, which she crescendos until it's reverberating across the deck.

Just as she gets his attention, she shoots upwards, letting a sudden water jet carry her above and behind the maned helmsman, only to drop her in a floating ball of water just out of his reach. Her voice follows her acrobatics in a wordless tune, impossibly capturing every movement of herself and the ship in sound alone.

With two more gentle notes, she gently waves her hand for him to stand aside so she can take the controls.

If he doesn't feel like doing that, any one of his comrades can come over to pull him aside instead.

Spoiler

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Free?: Dropping out of stealth and back into Scylla's form.

Movement: Switching to platform flight and zipping over the wheel, ready to drop into the helmsman's spot. She can be pulled out of her little water bubble, if only they can reach...

Attack! Affliction! Everyone who can hear her sing - so, probably everyone on the deck of this ship - gets to Defend with a DC of 20 to plug their ears if they want to. Otherwise, it's Will DC20 to resist Entranced, DC15 to resist Compelled.

[Starsign]

The first slash came so easily to Blackcoat's eyes. It was a telegraphed swing of the invader's claws, charging straight at him. Someone as old as the pirate knows that you should never charge straight forward at a capable and dangerous pirate lord. So the human swiftly, calmly, and easily backstepped from the leonine's claws, ready to counterattack.

And then Blackcoat realized it was too easy.

Too little, too late. Blackcoat turned and looked up just to see the leader and his blade coming down. The material of the blade collides into the pirate lord's cloak and flesh, leaving a sharp laceration vertically downward. For a brief moment, that looked like all there'd be to the fight: a courageous pirate lord boarding and falling before advanced alien invaders.

Instead, the leonine leader would look up and discover Blackcoat not just alive, but also unshaken by an otherwise nasty blow. "Not bad," he says quite plainly. Blackcoat has been shot, stabbed, slashed, punched, and all other manners of harm over his centuries; alien tech wasn't going to stop him. "But ye made a poor choice."

Quickly and fluidly, the human pirate tumbled around the leonine leader. With the mighty metal cutlass in hand, Blackcoat spun his flashy blade around him and quickly lashed out thrice to the remaining leonine minion. Blackcoat's fighting style is profound and honed, able to stop and counter any blow coming at him. He's performed his many maneuvers hundreds of times, though he's rarely fought aliens with it.

Spoiler: OOC

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This calls for a potentially more defensive play. Using Cutlass of the Sharpest Metal on the remaining leonine minion, and using Takedown 2 to attack the leader if the minion goes down. Using Accurate Attack +2/-2 to help land the hit.

DC 23 Toughness vs Minion on hit: (1d20+12)[19]
DC 23 Toughness vs Leader on hit: (1d20+12)[21]

[LoonyLadle]

Jill stops when ordered to, like a good little slave might have. "Sorry, I was just fascinated by your thingus over here!" she says happily, pretending not to be acutely aware of the weapon pointed in her direction. "I'm kind of an engineer and I'm so curious to know about my glorious overlords' technology you know!"

(( Rolled a 16 on deception. ))

[Dodgeson]

Wildcard's mystic bolts hit home against the raider's sending a trio of them dropping to the floor, though the rest appeared to be made of hardier stuff and unfortunately for the hero those were the ones currently menacing him with the crackling staves, and of course the one patiently waiting their turn, but they probably didn't need to worry too much about them.

Wind whipped around the store with enough force to send some not-exactly reasonably priced flat screen televisions toppling on to the floor but as the wind rushed towards the shaman it petered out before it could touch them, they brought the fog with them and traversed temporal winds, the regular kind was just as easy for them to control. What he couldn't control though was being uppercutted, Kevin's blow sending him stumbling back a few paces but he was no weaker physically than the rest of his people and wasn't out yet. Freezing the hero hadn't worked so this time they decided to try the reverse, bringing the weight of ages down on him with a wave of their staff.

Spoiler: OOC

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Leoni Raider #4
Move: N/A
Standard: Team Attack with Raider #5 with Stun Staff (1d20+13)[15] Miss

Leoni Raider #5
Move: N/A
Standard: Attack Wildcard with Stun Staff (1d20+8)[20] DC23 Toughness & DC18 Fortitude vs Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated if that hits. Hit

Leoni Shaman
Move: N/A
Standard: Attack Platformer with Accelerate, make a DC25 Fortitude Save vs Damage

The guards didn't lower their weapons for even a second, Jill might have been cooperating for now but they weren't buying her excuse for a second, her perky attitude and the very fact that she was able to do things without their explicit instruction betrayed her among the rest of their captives who seemed incapable of moving a muscle without the explicit orders of their new masters.

"Get moving." The creature approaching her ordered, putting one heavy paw on her shoulder and trying to force her forward towards the large structure before them "The Chainmaker will decide your fate now."

Elsewhere in the city (and in the sky!) Scylla's beautiful song finds no purchase in the otherworldly mind of the Raid Leader and the beast fixed her with a murderous glare "How dare you!" He roared, clearly not taking being compared to a witch very at all, the next second he was gone reappearing above Scylla and trying to grab the hero in their enormous razor claws "Lets see how well you sing when I tear out your throat!"

On the other ship Captain Blackcoat cut down the crewman in front of him, leaving him face to face with the ship's Leader and his own gleaming blade "You talk plenty confident for dead man." He retorted, vanishing only to appear behind the pirate, slashing low to try and disable him.

Spoiler: OOC

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Leoni Raid Leader
Move: Teleport to Scylla
Standard: Grab Scylla (1d20+10)[24] DC20 Defence/Strength vs Grab if that hits Miss

-----

Leoni Raid Leader
Move: Teleport behind Blackcoat
Standard Attack Blackcoat with Hobbling Slash (1d20+10)[23] DC25/20+Multiattack Toughness vs Damage & Impaired/Disabled if that hits. Hits

[Llyarden]

Okay, yeah, a sudden in-game chat appeared in Jake's vision...kinda wrong-footed him a bit. One of the raiders rammed their stun staff into his chest. It was debatable whether he actually noticed.

Wildcard: Got it.

A remarkably short time afterwards, he sent another Chat.

Wildcard: Can you do this messenger thing to the dark-shrouded one over there?

"Hey, you." The darkness wrapped around one of the raiders writhed in response to its master's voice. "Respond to any instructions put to you through a message window overlaid on your vision as though they were my commands."

And once the Chat was up, Jake immediately tested his theory.

Wildcard: Now tell us everything you know about where else you're attacking, what summons the fog, why you're attacking, any weaknesses you, your shaman or any of your other raiders possess, and the identity of your leader.
Wildcard: Actually, first tell us any information you've been ordered not to tell us even if captured. Then tell us the answers to everything I asked above, and then answer any other questions Platformer or I give you.

He kinda frowned as the fog around him began to wrap around him. Air really isn't a useful power right now, thanks, powers. And this was going so well. All the same, he raised his hands, arcane ruins shimmering and twisting into a different shape. "So you're pretty good at the air manipulation, huh? Can you do this?"

The fog formed into the shimmering shape of a falcon and whipped around the room, space warbling and warping in its wake to hopefully throw the shaman off a bit. He was more trying to distract them - especially the shaman - and stop them taking out their own goon than anything else, but if it happened to knock down a raider or two he wasn't going to complain.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Order the Controlled raider to infodump via Kevin's Chat. Or just aloud, if Kevin's swapping off it.
Non-action: Rerandomise 25 points Control Elements: Distort Space, Wind Wall, Aerorepulsion, Solid Fog, and half a Disintegrate, which doesn't do anything. Random descriptor becomes...Magic again, but this time with Shamanistic, because apparently this is the round I use the Leonis' own stuff on them or something.
Free: Configure Control Elements: Damage 10 Linked Weaken Attack Bonus 10 Linked Close Deflect 10.
Standard: Attack the remaining Raiders with Damage, the Shaman with Weaken Attack bonus even if he doesn't seem to use attacks all that much, and Deflect...myself, I guess? All-out attacking for 2, power attacking for 4, routining vs the Raiders for DC29 Toughness vs Damage.
Vs the Shaman: (1d20+8)[24] for DC24...I forgot to define the resistance? Should be Will...vs Weaken Attack Bonus.

Status: 1 Bruise, -2 defence, deflected at 1d10+14.

[Quellian-dyrae]

While Kevin had temporal powers of his own, he could really only use them to stop time, so he wasn't quite prepared for the accelerated aging attack. His body began flickering, seeming noticeably older with every reappearance. Worse, his life bar started dropping precipitously.

That was annoying, happening this early in a battle. Fortunately, Kevin was still young enough that accelerated aging could only go so far, and as a tank-role character, he had access to a pretty powerful self-heal, albeit one with a long enough cooldown that he could only really use it once a battle. Still, it was more efficient than hoping for a Power Up, so he pulled the trigger on it, reverting back to his normal age and refilling most of his lifebar.

Platformer: Uh, sure.

Kevin dutifully opened the Chat to the compelled goon. He kinda blinked at Wildcard's message. Was...was he trying to get information out of a random encounter mook? That was some pretty out-of-the-box thinking there. If that actually worked, Kevin'd be impressed.

(He tried to remind himself that while from his perspective these guys appeared like a random encounter, they were actually sapient beings and there was no real reason they wouldn't have some useful knowledge about their forces and mission and so on. But he was having trouble getting that reasoning past the part of his brain that doubted these guys had lines or were even mechanically capable of initiating dialog boxes.)

Meanwhile! This time-manipulator was proving a capable mini-boss. Kevin could respect that. As he stopped flickering, he attacked anew with hasted speed in a rapid combo attack, several body-blows with a quick disarming strike slipped in between them, and all finished off with a crushing blow straight to the face to pour on the damage.

Spoiler

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Move: Staggered.

Standard: Recover from Staggered.

Free: Reconfigure Game Mechanics. Chat 2 (Rapid 2) [10], Stomp [5], Strike [5], Striking Flurry [10], Power Strike [10], Activate [10].

Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: Attack the Leoni Shaman at (1d20+10)[17]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Multiattack/20 vs. Damage Linked Weaken Toughness, and Strength DC 20 vs. Disarm.

End of turn: Secondary Effect triggers. Kevin is Deflected at 1d10+18.

Current Status: 1 Bruise, Fatigued as of next turn, +2 Defense this turn, Deflect (1d10+18). Recover used.

[Starsign]

Fighting a teleporting enemy was a new experience for Blackcoat, or at least one who could willingly teleport wherever they like every few seconds. There was no footwork involved, no way to trip up or predict where the opponent will move. In a swordfight, this put Blackcoat at a rather problematic disadvantage. Struggling to adapt, the pirate lord did his best by quickly doing a single, evasive spin to catch where the leonine leader would be; Blackcoat found him just before the invader's blade slid on and over his knee; even the slight laceration was painful, though barely a problem for Blackcoat, and certainly far worse than getting the knee sliced open.

"Only I be sayin' when I stop speaking," the human retorts, certainly sounding confident. "And I be sliced 'n diced by a thousand blades. One more lick ain't going to bother me." What the pirate left out was his rather familiar dislike for the dishonest attacks, ones designed to cripple, weaken, or otherwise make an example of an opponent. It was something Blackcoat saw far, far too much during the golden age of piracy.

Which was why he picked up a few tricks from it, and in a leap of quick thinking, swing a simple, easily-predictable slash at the leonine warrior... as Blackcoat took out his old, shockingly durable flintlock pistol and fired a painful lead ball at the invader's own knee.

Sometimes you simply have to play dirty.

Spoiler: OOC

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Alright! let's use Painful Dirty Trick. Damage 10 + Weaken Toughness 10 (DC 25 Toughness + DC 20 Fortitude) on hit: (1d20+10)[24]

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

In the half-second the lion man spends in the air with Scylla, she can feel his claws swipe into her even as she twists aside, and he gets to experience the sensation of running a fork through soup. Scylla slips out of his grip like an eel and jets down to the ground ahead of him with an uncanny splashing effect.

By the time the Raid Leader lands on his feet and looks up, the finned witch already has one hand on the steering wheel he left behind. Unable to resist the urge, she touches her eye and sticks out her tongue for one last childish taunt.

"Nyeh!"

Then she spins the wheel with all her might, hoping to send this thing careening into its sister ship, or at least render it spinning out of control for a minute. Or maybe just crash it into the sea? Either way, really. It's not like she has any idea what she's doing.

Spoiler

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There are some contingencies here that might normally be talked through in an in-person game. If the wheel is way too heavy for her (odd, but believable if it's designed for use by PL8+ beastbois) she can try summoning a jet of water to spin it as a Move Object effect.

At any rate, actually attaining her goal of ramming the other ship probably entails a check of some kind, even if she's willing to call a success what most pilots would call a critical failure in this case.

Probably Untrained Expertise: (1d20)[17]