SquirrelWizard

Elisa sighed and shook her head, "They just had to go stir things up over there, didn't they." she pulled a cellphone out of a concealed pocket and pressed send, "Max, yeah this is Elisa... Yes the gun is in one piece... Okay we are going to need you to pick us up at the 2-6, and drop us off at the Target Point earlier than usual. Max, it isn't my fault that two of the groups members decided to have an ice cream social over there. Well, things cant be too bad, they called for a pickup... Okay we'll see you in 20 minutes."

<Potential ending of the post, a combination of the Shopping run, and the retrieval mission can tweak if nessicery.>

Elisa put the cellphone back into the pocket, and went to her room and brought back a map of Striga. She flattened it out on a nearby desk, and gave the rest of the group a stern look, "Okay folks, the mission has changed. Max will be arriving any moment now. He will be our mode of transport to and from striga, believe me, he has his methods. Now, we are going to break up into two groups, and hit two seperate Council bases at once. The two teams will be the Rescue team, and the Recovery team. The rescue team will be going in and retrieving Abrhams and Mystic from the base. The Recover team will be infiltrating a Council Warehouse, and recovering specific parts and weapons from the warehouse. I am going to be in charge of the Recovery mission as I am in need of ammuntion. I would strongly suggest that Newton be in charge of the Rescue mission."

Elisa slung the rifle over her shoulder, "While you guys work out where the others went, I'm gonna go head out and go shopping. If any of you are interested in joining me, I'll be leaving in the hour.....'

(Heh, me birthday was on 8/17)

A semi-feral growl came from the doorway, as a cog was thrown through into the room, and exploded in a cloud of sparks and scrap metal on a near by wall. Elisa dashed through the door accompanied by the dull hum of the Rikti energy rifle she carried. Her tail lashed back and forth, as Elisa sized up the situation.

"You can not end me human."

Elisa saw RJ using the robot's leg to beat it into submission. The first bolt of energy struck the robot in the shoulder, shearing off armor plating, "Hey Junkpile!" Elisa yelled over the sounds of combat, "I'm Welladi!"

The final statement was puntuated by even more energy bolts as Elisa started to strafe towards the right side of the room.


(OOC: Meh... I've got like 4 or 5 more days of wierd activity before I can start posting normal like.)

OOC: Sorry I'm going through a transition period with housing.

Elisa shrugged, "I'm not too sure, but it definately inconveninced him. Newton, you deal with teleportation, can you trace where Mystic went? You know like tracking via reverse teleportation?"

Elisa gave the Skull in front of her a slight shove, followed by a swift kick to the back. The Skull prefromed a gracefull Superman face plant right into one of the advancing minions.

In a fluid motion, she unslung the Rikti Rifle from her shoulder and and started to fall back to the hole the Skulls had dug.

"Pull them into this tunnel, if anything we can surprise those Terrans," She jerked her head back towards where the skulls had come from, "Anyways, I don't have heavy munitions gear, we're gonna have to string them out."

Elisa had followed shortly behind Abrams, so she was scanning the room as the Skulls broke in.

“Let’s see if Trisha has our protection money set…hey, who’s that?” the third asked, pointing at Abrahms and the cat-lady.

As the first Skull rose into the air, Elisa had already sprinted into action. A blur passed by Abrahms, and shot towards the Skull. Elisa grabbed the Terran's arm, gave a quick twist, gave it a little yank, and stepped behind him with her other hand on the guys throat.

Elisa leaned near the Skull's ear, "Let's play a game, you move," she tightened the grip on the Skull's throat, a set of retractable claws dug into his fleash slightly, "You bleed."

Elisa stood stock still for a moment. Her tail assumed a slow rythmic side to side motion, as she scanned the area. Her ears twitched alittle and she looked from her far left, to her far right.

She finally crouched back down, "As far as I can tell, we are the only ones up here. Any chance those two groups are just digging towards each other by happenstance?"

Arden woke from his slumber, "Stupid plooshy chairs..." he muttered to himself as he yawned and stretched. His armor made a creaking noise as he made his way to the men's bedroom. The door shut and for a few minutes there was the sound of pieces of metal clinking together. After a while, Arden reappeared from the bedroom dressed in a rough cloth tunic, and a pair of slightly baggy cloth pants. He smoothed out his beard and sniffed, "Hmmm.... smells like something is cooking in the kitchen..."

Elisa looked over to Max, "Max, I'm out of ammuntition with my other weapon, any chance I could borrow a side arm until we can go on the shopping trip?" Max scratched his chin, "Well, I normally dont do this sort of thing, but it does seem like you need one." He snapped his fingers and a Rikti Energy Rifle phased into existance in his hands, "Now, you didn't get this from me, and I want it back in one piece," Max handed the rifle to Elisa, "Now, you have a beauty parlor to deal with." He had a big toothy grin, "Dont worry about me, I'll just heckle these guys while you're gone." Max jerked his thumb at Mystic and the others. Elisa started for the door, when Max called out once again, "Listen, if you can find anything that I'd be interested in, it would be much appreciated!"

Elisa stood outside of the 2-6, "Newton, Can you teleport me? Otherwise, this is going to be one long run.."

(End of Semester is coming up, so my posting may become funky. Also, Elisa's armor is repairing/recharging itself, so she doesn't have a travel power.)

Elisa entered the 2-6, Max followed in behind her. She looked around, "I take it nobody else is interested in our little shopping expedition?" She glanced over to Mystic, "I'm heading out with Max here, I should be back tomarrow."

The low thrum of an engine pushed its way above the hammering of the workers. A dinged up van was kicking up dust on the road as it headed towards the 2-6.

Elisa walked out onto the road in a black jumpsuit that made her long purple hair stand out even more. Her tail flicked back and forth in what a few people thought was a contented manner. She waved at the van, which pulled up to her.

A thin old man dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt hopped out of the van and gave Elisa a toothy smile that was missing a few teeth. "I got your call Elisa, heard you wanted to go shopping. I know the perfect place to start too." The man looked around, "What happened here? Looks like you went through a warzone." Elisa shrugged, "Yeah somebody layed down some bad Mojo on the building I was in. We returned in kind, but had to retreat." The man spat on the ground, "Pah, you gave them hell I bet. I dont know many people who go up against the Feline Fury." Elisa gave the man a calm look, "Max, I don't know where you picked up that nickname for me, but I don't think it particularly sticks." The man let out a braying laugh, "Ah... Elisa you should learn to take a compliment. By the way, anybody else going to join us on this venture?"

Okay I played with Defiance on two occasions, before the lagg and disconnects threatened to drive me crazy.

the first was with a new Archery blaster I made.

I was doing the first mission, and just ran the character down. The problem I see, is riding by the seat of your pants doesn't work that well. All to often a blaster will either see to much aggro, or two little for Defiance to take effect. This is because...

Too much = Death in 1 to 2 volleys
Too little = not enough damage to get your Defiance up to a reasonable number.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, but it is severely hindered by the fact that Blasters are basically Bastards. We hit the target when he is down, and without aid. While the target is rolling in pain, we kick them in their 'nads and laugh at them. Then we leave them in the hallway so their wails for mercy draw out their friends. We choose to fight on our terms. Defiance means we let the enemy beat us up, which basically means we let the enemy dictate the battle, which often equals a Blaster Faceplant.

Sure enough, I was riding by the seat of my pants, keeping defiance high, and I got smoked by two even conned minions.

Second is the inherant flaw with the system.

I did this with my level 21 AR/Dev Blaster. I flew up to the top of the map, and just turned off fly. Upon being splatted upon the earth, you could have heard the defiance bar smack the top. I think I gave mine a concussion. So, fully defianced up, all one has to do is ubernuke, which makes street missions supereasy, and superdeadly at the same time.

Sure, blasters live by the seat of their pants. Sure, definace helps at time, and provides extra damage. But what hurts defiance is the fact that you must keep taking damage to retain it, which most blasters try to avoid.

For blasters, Incoming Damage = Bad, Outgoing Damage = Good.

A dull rumbling beard quivering snore reverberated from the dwarf who was sitting in a large chair, completely oblivious to the orange pieces.

Elisa shook her head furiously, "Damn Terrans. What we just went through wasn't some minor attack. The whole 2-6 just got ripped out of one place and sent to another... You'd think they were at some Spring Day Celebration ceremony." She picked up the Boxed up turret and slung her rifle over her shoulder, and glared menecingly at the group, "I'm going shopping. If anybody wants to join me I'm leaving in an hour."

Elisa shook her head as she ticked off the empty clips, "I almost got into reserves there..." Abrhams had just gotten finished with his explination of why he was here, when Elisa yelled over her shoulder, "Hey, Mystic, you and Ion need to either to run that thing down to M.A.G.I. and let them figure it out, or do it yourself. We need to start to properly fortify this area. An anti-magic whatcha-ma-call-it shield will be a good start." She looked back at Abrahms, "You said you had some sort of Terran military training? Good, your gonna be helping with me as we get this place suited up for combat." she started to fold her gun emplacement up, "this is ridiculous... Getting phased into some zombie dimension and then put under siege... Terran Ninjas comming out of the sewers..." her tail started to flick back and forth angryly.

There was a loud crack, and the zombies attacking the 2-6 all of a sudden started to act all funky. Some milled aimlessly while others tried to get into the building. Elisa dumped a smoke gernade in front of the building and slipped past the zombies. "I'm in, about to lay down some heavy fire on the front. By the way, they'll be confused for a bit, I just took out one of their leaders. I wouldn't expect this to be a permenant thing though." She looked at the smoky front door. "Okay, lets say hello..."

the rest was drowned out by the sound of gunfire as she started to unload clip after clip of ammunition into the zombies climbing into the building.

*note that these are all questions asked "before" I roll up a character*


Things I like to ask myself about my character.

1) Is his costume functional or just show?

Arden Deepforge wears armor that helps proctect him from damage. Elisa S'thani has power armor that holds some of her abilities, and helps resist damage. Mini Taxi's costume has no function other than defining him in combat. Kisanna Madieve's costume serves to make male villians follow her around like little puppydogs... (ha take that pet cap!)

The reason this is important, is this is the first thing the villian is going to see. The question is, does the costume hide your identity? As a general rule functional costumes don't. That is because they are more concerned with providing defense/holding powers, than they are hiding who you are. This doesn't mean they cant, but more likely than not, the way you end up hiding your identity is with a full helmet.

2) Is your character human? If not, how well can they blend in?

None of my Superheros can blend in well with normal Society. Arden is a stout short man with a flowing beard (he really sticks out in that way), Elisa has friggen cat ears and a tail, Kisanna has horns and a tail, and MiniTaxi is just plain short (he fits in the most out of the four)

So how does this affect them? Some heroes of this type bite the bullet and just use their normal names opposed to assuming a secret identity. If you wanted to put a hit on Elisa, all you would have to do is walk around killing Catgirls.

(then again, on Guardian server Catgirls make up a large portion of the population...)

If your character doesnt have any outstanding traits (tails, horns, green skin) then they can generally pass themselves off as human. This means that a secret identity would be more feasable for them.

3) How does your character feel about being a Hero.

Some characters may not exactly want to be known as a Hero. This may be because it puts those around them at risk, or just the fact that they dont want to be in the spotlight all the time. This further goes to support the secret identity question. A person who doesn't want to be known as a superhero is going to have a secret identity, whereas the person who either doesn't care, or wants to be known as a superhero will probably not have one.

4) How has your characters past influenced them.

Were they raised in an all superhero home? Were they told that their powers were bad, and that they should never admit to using them? This plays a role in their choice as it is how they have grown up with their powers. Either as a tool, or as a curse.

That helps with determining your hero's name. The next part is the biography.

Each biography is going to include about 3 things.

1) How your hero got his powers.
2) Why your hero is a hero. (his drive)
3) Who he is, and how he got here.

after that you can include quirks about your hero and so forth.

(I know this post is kinda rushed, I lost intrest in it about 3/4ths of the way through it.)

(OOC: sorry, I've been kinda zonked out lately and have seemed to have forgotten about this... We're kinda overdue for an explosion right now.)

Elisa watched Mystic screw around with the zombies, but she casually glanced at the zombie horde. She was looking for a leuitenant, an officer of power. As the atage goes, "A solder cant fight nearly as well when his brain is plastered on the wall behind him..." (yeah something like that).

She spotted him at the back of the group, as he was pushing the zombies to attack, and at the same time bringing reinforcements. Elisa Hovered a bit and sized the man up.

Elisa didn't know much about the banished pantheon. In fact this would be her first encounter with them. But, from her experience in Paragon, the Terrans that lead the gangs were often much tougher than their grunt counterparts. So, she hovered away from where Mystic was keeping the Zombies occuepied and two things happened at the same time. First, a small drone popped out of her armor and painted the Leutenant with a targeting laser. Second, Elisa brought her gun up to her shoulder and began to sight down it.

Arden smoothed out his beard.

"Aie, ye people be from aroun' here. But me, I be diffrent. A few seasons ago, I was retir'd from ta whole adventur'n set up, and was teach'n ta youngans about how ta swing an axe. I was ta forgemaster an ta hero of Thalin's Glen. Ye see, at only a few seasons before that. I helped ta hold off a Troll incusion, wit noth'n more than me axe and me brains. One day I be walk'n along ta road when I was a sucked into some mystical portal. When I popped out I'd have ta say I was about... thirty feet in ta air. I had a second ta look down and pick which guy looked softer ta land on. Well there were these two funny look'n humans, Hellions as they call them'selves. So I pick'd ta one holding ta funny pipe. Well... ta make a long story short. I saved some guy, and was told ta sign up as a hero."

“Can we have a big boom soon?”

Elisa nodded, "In about 5 seconds. You might want to cover your ears."

5 seconds later.

Deep in the middle of the zombie horde, came a brilliant light, coupled with a barely audibal whine. The whine quickly turned into an earsplitting roar, that caused the ground to shake, as a wave of flame engulfed a good portion of the center mass of zombies, picked them up, and tossed them violently into the air.

Meanwhile at the 2-6, it started to rain bits and pieces of burnt zombie matter...

Even though Elisa had followed her own advice, her ears were still ringing. She surveyed her work, and then saw Mystic dealing with the spirits. Three things happened at the same time, Elisa jumped, turned nearly invisible again, and started to fly up to where Mystic was fighting.

The shadowy form of Elisa flew up into the air. She hovered, and watched the battle unfold, paitently waiting as the zombies and wraiths tried to beat each other to the 2-6.

Then she struck.

3 canisters fell from the sky, each one spewing forth a black smoke cloud covering a decent sized area in the middle of the group. Elisa landed right next to a zombie who was trying to push the smoke out of the way. "Perfect," she thought, and ducked under the zombies wild arms and put the suitcase down in front of her. The process of setting up the bomb was very simplified. In the company, you had to be able to set it up under duress. Generally the quicker the better. She opened the case revealing various vials of fluids connected to a small device in the center. This was a jury rigged Devestator Class demolitions setup. Being that she was limited with the chemicals she had on hand, this thing was merely a shadow of its original.

That means that it doesn't gut a building in one shot. In fact, it is pretty useless against buildings as most of the damage it creates is fire based. Elisa finished tightening a tripwire to a fuse, and turned the thing on. It emitted a low hum and the numbers 15 lit up on the display. She pressed a red activation button and the thing started to count down, "Newton get me out of here now!"

Elisa ran back to her room, and came back with yet another box, this one was the size of a suitcase. "Okay, I'm ready," she faded away as her stealth generator kicked in, "When you guys are.

You know I really hate to burst your bubble, but there was a Pen and Paper RPG called Heroes or something.

And it has been out for a while.

It had a diffrent system where you could build powers with pros (explosive radius) and cons (limited use) and you customized your characters stats with points opposed to picking a set Archetype.

The core book was a thick one at that.

Elisa hefted her gun, "Did somebody say something about explosions?" she had that cocky grin on her face, "Okay I've got a few good ideas about how to cause as much damage as possible, and in the shortest amount of time available. Newton, I'm gonna probably end up calling you for one of your little teleport whatchamajiggers. Keep an ear out, alright?" She looked down at the Gun, "Oh, and if you need to, fall back to this room, the gun is all set up and everything."

Maybe 15-16 dont remember exactly.

My favorite races were Kender, Gnomes, and Gully Dwarves.