The New FORCE Ops [IC: 8]: The World of Shadows

[Shock]

Warshade
HP: 1 LP: 1

"One hour. OK." Liz looked over her list of potential adversaries. "I'm working on a list of people who might work with Driogano. I can have it ready with strengths and weaknesses by the time we get there."

[Tattooedman]

Aurora: As you skim through the files you recall Zalman talking about a new criminal who popped up in the West Coast that matches the description of the King of Hearts; a man who somehow managed to steal the power of a demon for himself and now uses those powers as a criminal. He is a blood-thirsty monster that consumes human flesh on a regular basis and is able to turn those with the strongest wills into his willing slaves with only a few words.

I'm assuming here (and we all know what that means....) that by taking 10 Aurora's Expertise (Magic) check would be something like 25 total or so? Anyways it's over 20 which is enough to snag her some results.

[kenseido]

Archer

Danny shifts uncomfortably in the chair. Everyone here seems to have some automatic assignment for pre-misson breifings leaving Danny definitely the odd man out. He could probably drum something up on a computer if he needed to but it looks like Warshade has it covered.

Besides, that is the 'old' Danny.

So he sits there and continues to browse through the files given to him and wait for any additional details provided by the other team members.

[ClassDunce]

Susan West - Dovetail

Susan flipped through the file as she listened to everyone around her. "Driogano isn't really my biggest fan." She said as she cleared her throat. "I might have robbed him a few months back while under the control of a crazy magician with daddy issues. We'll probably end up fighting Driogano's men as well as these guys."

She shrugged and continued to flip through the file. "The superpowered muscle on both sides of this won't hesitate to use lethal force. We'll need to be just short of that. Fast and hard."

[catsi563]

Vindicator

Eva had finished the math and it added up to a bunch of goons robbing banks at random which was a frustrating variable to deal with. It basically left them in a reactive state instead of a proactive one which was always a disadvantage.

Ah well she sighed to herself, and resumed her seat silently taking in everything ready to take in any new information as it came to light.

[Jalinth]

Lina "Aurora" Howe
HP: 1 LP: 1
Condition: Okay

"Dovetail is right about that one for sure." Aurora pointed at on of the photographs. "The King of Hearts. He matches the description of a man Zalman told me about. Crazy SOB stole the power from a demon, giving him the best and worst of both worlds. Not only does he kill and eat other people, but he can use his dark magics to enslave the will of others with just a few words. We are going to need to be careful with him. I don't like having to fight my friends."

Aurora paused a moment, her gaze going distant. "You know, I might be able to make a charm that would resist his powers. It would take some time though, and I can't promise it would be ready before we had to leave. Do you have any idea how soon after the briefing we are going to be deploying? I need to know how many corners I'd need to cut."

I'm assuming here (and we all know what that means....) that by taking 10 Aurora's Expertise (Magic) check would be something like 25 total or so? Anyways it's over 20 which is enough to snag her some results.

Aye, Sorry about that. Skills remained the same in all incarnation of the build. My purposed final version has finally been posted.

Immunity: Magic [Limited: Half Effect, Unreliable (5 uses] 2PP

This gives someone some resistance to magic, but the speed at which she had to make the item means that it won't stand up to the stress for long.
DC 12 to build. Taking -10 on both design and build checks means she can get it done in 2.5 hours by taking ten. If she needs to rush things, she can get it done in half that time with a roll.

I thought about giving it the noticeable quirk as well, which would mean there would be an very obvious protection around the wearer of the charm, that gets noticeably weaker with each attack it is subject to. I will do that if TM is ok with that and it looks like we won't have time for her to make the non-noticeable one.

[Tattooedman]

Aurora: Ethan nods at your added information. "You've got an hour until the team is supposed to meet with the S.T.A.R.s for their final briefing on the operation. So if you can do it in that amount of time I suggest getting to it."

I don't see any problems with the artifact as it's proposed, even with the Noticeable Quirk. But to get that built within the time-frame you'll have to do some dice rolling.

[Jalinth]

Lina "Aurora" Howe
HP: 1 LP: 1
Condition: Okay

"Ok. So probably no time afterwards." Aurora takes a deep breath. "Alright. I can do this. It won't be subtle or stable in the long term but I can do it."

"I'm reasonable at shaking off charms and enchantment magics, so I'm not in dire need of the protection. I'll let Dovetail decide who should carry it."

[ClassDunce]

Susan West - Dovetail

"I'm reasonable at shaking off charms and enchantment magics, so I'm not in dire need of the protection. I'll let Dovetail decide who should carry it."

"If you can get something working," Susan answered, "then give it to Vindicator. Right now she's our heaviest hitter and if she's turned..." She let it trail off to give everyone a chance to ponder the possible outcome of that.

"Listen up." She said, "This could go bad really quick. The Palace is usually pretty full of civilians and with two separate groups of combatants... It would be best if we could keep this from becoming a three way dance. Maybe hit the Royals before they make it inside the Palace..." She shook her head, "We'll have to wait and see what Taylor knows before we can really plan anything though..."

Susan had made a point of not letting her voice change as she said Taylor's name. She had recently begun a relationship of a romantic nature with the Freedom City Detective but she hadn't shared that with anyone else on the team yet and she didn't think he had shared with it anyone on the force. This would've been the first time they had worked together since... well you know.

[kenseido]

Archer

Danny stood up after Dovetail finished. The thought of one of them getting turned was a little upsetting. This was his first reall mission and now there is the possibility that one of the people he was supposed to call teammate could end up being an opponent.

Or all of them.

At any rate, he wasn't very good at sitting around and waiting. He has been working hard for this moment for months now, and now that it was so close, he found himself getting a little nervous.

He can't fail. Not again.

[Tattooedman]

Everyone: "It sounds like some of you have a lot of preperations to do before meeting up with Maddicks and the S.T.A.R. Squad in an hour so unless anyone has any more questions I'll bring this briefing to a close and let those who need to, get to it." Ethan says.

[catsi563]

Vindicator


Eva shrugged casually and stood to leave. "I'll be in the lab if anyone needs me, let me know when its time." she trhew over her shoulder as she left.

She spent the next hour running 6 various experiments simultaneously while putting Daedelus a move down in their ongoing chess game--he shouldnt have moved that knight thier-- only to be stymied when he revealed a clever ruse that alowed a pawn to take her bishop--*shake fist* next time--before she finally got the call.

She'd studied up on the aegis files on all the members of the Royals and was confident she could handle anythung they could throw at her, Diamond would be tough, as would Ace. The others while dangerous mos tlikely couldnty stand up to her suits firepower.

She'd need an edge against Diamond, and thanks to the inherant nature of diamonds crystaline latice structure and its latent thermal conduction she thought she might ahve an answer.

Quickly she set to work putting together some modifications to the suits plasma relays, the suit primarily generated kinetic force but with only a minor modification she was able to loosen the bonds of the containment field to agitate the plasma more making it the equivalent of a bolt of pure star energy.

Lastly she was able to adjust the frequency on the blasters to create a thermal inversion in a diamonds latice work. And theoreticaly in any carbon based structure. Which meant Ace was in for a suprise as well.

Auroras not the onyl one working on a new toy, Its time our resident genius stepped up.

So get to work Liz

Evas tech check 28 more then enough to create a new gadget. Her mental quickness renders the design phase almost instantaeous, and she'll hero point the build phase to have it done in an hour.
Thermal Carbon Bond Disruptor (Ranged Drain toughness 5 affects objects (reduced range 50 feet), and Linked +0; 2 ranks of improved Critical, Accurate, blast 5 Reduced range -1 (50 feet), added to her blast arrays powers) 18pp total as an linked power usuable only for this scene ie the next fight with them.

[kenseido]

Archer

As the others go off to their own little projects, Danny makes his way down to the practice area to fire off some arrows. He could hit the target with his eyes closed, but something about the step-by-step process Ethan had taught him was relaxing, almost meditative. Like when he would code, he would get into a rhythym doing some basic decryption and the problem would solve itself.

Unfortunately, there was no solution presenting itself. Instead, a discussion he had with his mother came forefront in his mind.

"Mom, I got you a home health care worker. She's going to come by a couple hours a day to help out."

"Nonsense, Danny. I can do fine on my own."

"I can't be here all the time. My new job... takes up to much time. Besides, I can afford it now."

"I'll be fine. Waste of money; you should be spending it on that girl you introduced me to last week."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Dru is just a friend. Besides, she isn't into guys."

His Mom gave him that look.

"Well you need to find someone nice. You can't spend all your time working. How are you ever going to have time for a family?"

Danny sighed.

"I just don't want you being alone."

Damn... he missed. Okay, two inches off center isn't technically a miss; but to him it was.

He reset and rapid fired several arrows dead center at the target. Now if he could only do that with distractions.

[Shock]

Warshade
HP: 1 LP: 1

Liz sat in her chair, unresponsive to the closing of the briefing. She was too busy working up plans for dealing with the likely henchmen.

ELIZABETH
What?
YOU SHOULD GO SEE ARCHER
Who?
DANNY. THE NEW GUY
Why?
BECAUSE HE'S NEW AND THIS IS HIS FIRST MISSION
For what? Lay down the rules? A pep talk?
JUST MAKE HIM PART OF THE TEAM. NOBODY'S DONE THAT YET
Yeah but... what do I say? I'm kinda busy here.
HE WENT OFF BY HIMSELF. EVERYONE'S BUSY. THERE'S NO COMRADERY AROUND HERE. TAKE FIVE MINUTES. MAKE A CONNECTION
You know I don't do that. I'm no good at it.
TIME TO START. YOU WANT TO BE A LEADER RIGHT?
All right. But this is going to be awkward. If he thinks I'm weird, it's going to be your fault.

Liz rose and headed off in search of Danny with her nose buried in her data. A few minutes later, she was in the gym and glanced up in time to see him stick several arrows right in the bullseye. "Hey Danny, um..."
NICE SHOOTING
"nice shooting. Dead center, every time."

[kenseido]

Archer

Danny looks up from his target and turns to see who came in. Warshade, he thinks.

"Thanks." As he says it, his turned body lets loose the arrow in his bow. The arrow flies into the left wall, riccochets up into the ceiling, and then back down to strike the target dead center.

"It's actually my gift. I don't miss."

He pauses for a second. "Well, when I let it do it's thing, I don't miss. When I start trying to tell it how or where to shoot because I am in a hurry, then its a little different."

Danny walks over to her. "You're Warshade, right?" He offers his hand to her.