Assallya

(D&D based) "TALES OF THE LONELY INN"

"Down here go!" a goblins spat, "Down! Down go!"

Assallya's blue eyes widened at the sight of a nocked short bow being pointed at her. The goblin was scared, his long triangular ears folded back almost flush with the burgundy conical cap that folded back towards the base of his skull. His spiny teeth were displayed in his slit of a mouth, a mouth that was far too large for the tiny body. Raising her hands slowly up adjacent to her tapered elven ears the courtesan swallowed. The goblin looked like he might loose at any provocation and kept peering over his tiny shoulder towards the dark elf in the distance cutting a swathe through his allies.

"Don't," Assallya replied, "I'm worth lots of coin at the slave market."

That much was true. It was how she'd started her life after all, sold into slavery at a young age and moved half way across known creation. It had also been reason why she had been taken alive in the past when all the rest of her adventuring comrades had been slain, thus allowing her chance to escape. She considered reaching down for the crossbow at her feet but immediately discounted it. She suspected any quick darting moment would prove ruinous and moving slowly and furtively would take far too long and thus be far too obvious. No, it would have to be a spell, a spell of the lower circles for speed and subtlety.

She waited and then when next the goblin turned to peer over his shoulder she cast. It was a single syllable of high power and her most basic tool. Her invisible magic darted forwards, ensnaring the moss green skinned goblin in its clutches and then began to sink in towards his skin. Then, surprisingly, the rarest of things happened. Sorcery could be a fickle ally at times and her magic was repulsed. The invisible bindings shattered and fell away into tatters. The goblin felt something amiss but could not place that he had nearly been enspelled.

The goblin's face turned back to her, drawn by her arcane word and he loosed.

Assallya wailed in agony as the goblin's arrow flew true. It slammed into her sternum, a mere two finger's width from her navel. Fire lanced through her and she fell back against the backrest of the bench, clutching at the wound. Her teeth ground against the pain and blood seeped through her fingers. Pushing with her legs against the footboard she slid into the corner of the bench furthest from her assailant. Dimly, through a haze of pain, she saw the goblin knocking another arrow...

X-Men: The Divided

DarkShadow

Real Name: Sarah Covenry
Age: Nineteen
Gender: Female
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 97lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Occupation: Student, Former Exotic Dancer
Legal Status: Citizen of Canada with a criminal record, illegally immigrated to the United States
Marital Status: Single
Place of Birth: Toronto, Canada
Present Group Affiliation: X-Men
Past Group Affiliations: None

Powers:
Darkshadow seemingly has "Umbrakinesis". This, of course is impossible. She actually possesses a unique form of Ectoplamic Generation. Normally ectoplasm appears as white smoky tendrils or images. This is the stuff that ghost and spirits use to materialize and affect our world. Like telepathy, ectoplasm is a natural part of all beings and any with proper discipline can use this extension of their souls. Darkshadow's ectoplasm differs from most peoples is that her manifestation is either invisible or entirely black and is mostly opaque. This is what allows her to create darkness, wherever she places her ectoplasm light cannot penetrate. Ectoplasm, however, for no known reason is affected by sunlight which causes it to disintegrate. This is what causes spirits (and possibly vampires ?) to only manifest at night. Sarah's 'plasm is far more powerful and is not as adversely affected by sunlight. Sarah has no actual idea of how this power is based and thinks she merely has control over darkness. No one has ever pointed out to her that solid darkness is contrary to all laws of physics. Ectoplasm has three states, intangible, semi-tangible and solid, what each allows her to do is discussed below.
--Ectoplasmic Darkness in the Intangible State This power allows her to create darkness in a large radius, the amount varies as according to ambient light. On a cloudy night she could cover a city block. At high noon this is limited to a 20' radius sphere. Of course, people and things can pass through the darkness at will. All vision is impossible and most scopes such as starlight and infra-red are completely useless. True thermal vision, the ability to see heat is unaffected as is any means of navigating by sound or radio waves. She can even place the darkness inside a sealed environment due to the 'plasm's intangible abilities. Her ability to make darkness appear at a distance attests to the 'plasm's ability to become invisible, yet this is completely subconcious. She can see in all forms of darkness (save mentally induced). Additionally she can 'feel' someone penetrating her darkness like someone lightly brushing across her hair, this sensation is so slight she often does not notice it. This is due to the fact taht the 'plasm is an extension of her mind.
--Semi Tangible State In it's semi-intangible state, DarkShadow can manipulate the world about her to a small degree. She can use the 'plasm as smoky tendril to lift small objects up to a couple of pounds or drag a 10 pound object across the floor. She can sense things through this darkness much more clearly and can use these to feel things much like her hand does. She can stretch wisps of darkness across a threshold and await them being broken, her senses will tell her that they have been broken and there is trouble afoot. Another thing she often creates are Shadow Monsters, illusions composed entirely of dark ectoplasm. Like a ghost with no soul or controlling force. These things can be any size but no matter what are weak creatures with no mind of their own and controlled entirely by Sarah. Being semi-intangible they are somewhat resilient but have little strength. The damage they are likely to inflict is negligible and limited to nothing more than a serious cat scratch. They are useful to intimidate and drive the enemy. Also, her costume is composed of this form of darkness. It protects her from being pummeled by average people of normal human strength. The main purpose of the suit is to protect her from weapons fire. In this case a bullet willl not penetrate as the force is spread across her body. It will hurt a lot, and if a heavy caliber will likely knock her unconcious leaving large bruises.
--Solid State In this state her 'plasm loses all flexibility. She can create any shape she desires from small roses to large spheres of protection. The structural strength of these spheres can withstand normal weapons fire, but can be layed one over another until she is able to potentially, after a great deal of preparation and on a dark night, to stop a nuclear bomb. (Completely impossible due to the vast amount of light unleashed, see below) Since these shapes have no means of locomotion they have no ability to move any thing, but as a bridge or structural support could lift an amount equal to five tons.

Quirks: Since Darkshadow's ability it ectoplasmic it may or may not provide a disruptive influence on telepathic powers.

Weaknesses: Since ectoplasm is negatively affected by light, all laser or light based attacks can penetrate all her defenses. Powers that vastly increase the amount of ambient light reduce her powers by a like amount. DarkShadow's powers function without concious effort, so that when she creates an object it exhists until she disperses it. This does not hold however while she is unconscious. Without the driving force of her will all her creations dissolve into black steam that quickly disintegrates into the air.

Background
Sarah was born in Toronto, Ontario in North York General Hospital. Her loving parents were kind and compassionate and her early memories are filled with stories and fairy tales. She was bred to believe in Fairies and Dragons. Her entire childhood had her dreaming of being Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. She wished to be the helpless fair damsel who was rescued by a handsome prince and live happily ever after. That was the case until the nightmares came, a frightening movie (Well, frightening to one her age) brought out dark fears that manifested in her room. All her stories of Dragons, Trolls and monsters beneath her bed literally became real as her poorly developed shadow powers painted them across the wall. It was after a long time and serious amount of psychological help that she overcame these ' Shadow Monsters ' and developed a mental block inhibiting her inborn gifts. Over the years, her love of fantasy never faded. She read avariciously any book she could attain, always envisioning herself as the lead heroine or hapless damsel. Outside, in the school yard she encouraged the others to join her on her adventurers, and played out her whimsical romantic fantasies. So she continued, the perfect girl, chaste in her conservative clothing. And just a little too innocent...

Late one evening while walking home, Sarah was accosted by muggers who given the circumstances were about to expand the criminal activities to include rape as well. Her total overriding fear shattered her mental block and unloosed her powers once more. The shadows danced about them and the criminals stared about in shock, then one of the shadows struck. A light scratch appeared on the robbers face and he instantly turns to flee. The second was not so easily cowed. Turning upon Sarah with harsh profane words about mutants he made to strike with his knife. The darkness enveloped them both and she extended her open hand towards her assailant. Raw black smoke coalesced about her hand and blasted forth in a hailstorm of jet shards. Flesh was pierced and ripped blood splaying in from a dozen wounds, his chest cavity perforated to the point where his lungs labored unsuccessfully for air. Within moments the assailant was dead, but Sarah in fevered terrified haste had already left the scene. Horrified she denied the event had occurred struggling to forget what she saw as a gift that could only be evil in nature, a power whose sole purpose was in destruction..

It was later in that final year of High School that a new student arrived. This powerful telepath knew everything about her. His delving into others minds had gained him knowledge about Sarah's altercation with her would-be rapists. Having no physical powers of his own, he was intrigued by her powers possible uses to him. He set about bending to her will. He moved slowly over an entire year, constantly monitoring her thoughts. He became close to her, earned her trust through subconscious suggestion. He added to this an emotional response, a flushed shy feeling coupled with arousal. But this was just one aspect to his plan, whenever her thoughts stayed to the subject of boys he made sure that her body overreacted, flushing with arousal.

hen the second part of his plan was put into action. After a few months he plowed into her mind dominating her completely. With her consciousness repressed he used her body to fulfill his own basic needs. Every time he handed her back consciousness and control of her body to find herself in terrible states. First she hound herself in the arms of various boys she did not know. Soon afterwards he made it worse, she found herself stripped near naked atop one of the school cafeteria's tables stripping for the school's boys . This embarrassment alone was a terrible blow to her self image and world view. Each time she turned to her new friend who spoke of repressed desires and wanton lust. He declared victory when she awakened to find herself naked in bed next to another boy. Taking control of the boy he convinced her that they had had sex when they did not. She ran to him and begged him for help where he revealed his mental powers to her and agreed to help. Distraught she did not notice the connection. He explained that there was nothing she could do and that this was the way she truly was. That once she accepted that fact the blackouts would cease. Flooding her with lust she succumbed to his will. He had artfully played her innocent nature, doubts about herself, and fear of her own power against her, and gained an accomplice.

After that it they set their sights on villainy. With Sarah's mentalist master sneaking into the minds of bank personnel they determined the time when the bank was open and a mere steel gate preventing entry. (During busy times they leave the vault open...He didn't want to dominate someone into opening the door because it would reveal his presence) Sarah flooded the branch with darkness and easily strolled into the bank taking an easy million. A super group attempted to stop them as they escaped but of the four heroes DarkShadow took out one and her mentalist companion dominated one to take out the other two who were stunned into shock. The two fled and headed for the American border. Crossing it easily, he came to a stop on the roadside, paralyzed Sarah and evicted her from the vehicle. Tossing her a few thousand dollars for her trouble, the man, unidentified by the police left her to her own devices.

The police later caught up with her but before she could be taken in she was met by Professor Xavier who used his abilities to cause those involved to forget that they had captured her and brought her to the mansion. Together they have been working on repairing the damage the unknown telepath has done to her. Given the amount of time she was in his clutches this is a time consuming process.

Villains "R" Us: Inauguration

A mono-molecular blade? I'd classify such a thing as a power. That's definitely not standard fare. It would also have to be something nonmetallic or cyborgs would just up and walk out on a regular basis. That's why I suggested the acid. If one were prescient one could swallow a glass ampule at the appropriate time and just wait for it to come out the other end.

Villains "R" Us: Inauguration

Smuggled in a knife... highly unlikely but possible. Cutting through steel bars with a knife- impossible! Cutting through an inch or more of ballistic polymer- impossible! It's not humanly possibly to manage such a feat.

Now... maybe if it was bars, a diamond embedded strand of carbon fibre wire would be easy to secrete and you could then slowly, ever so slowly saw through the bars. If it's a sheet of transparent ballistic polymer... well, a string saw isn't going to be much help.

Maybe a hidden vial of acid, allowing one to reach out and around to the control panel. Then by paying attention to the pattern of beeps one might be able to surmise the opening code (provided of course it isn't a card + passcode system or a biometric keypad.)

Villains "R" Us: Inauguration

I'm not saying not to, or that it is impossible. I'm just curious as to the "how". Escaping the cell would be the hardest part. Without tools, how is Thane supposed to get out? It's not like he can file down a plastic food tray into a probing tool like a common criminal.
.

Villains "R" Us: Inauguration

Glass, an entire world of glass. Sarah Covenry lived in a world of glass. She was a princess in a crystalline castle. A single minute room, a cell with walls like a fish tank. Unfortunately, there was little to see. Behind all walls but one was simply a swathe of electric lights, bank after bank of light emitting diodes that could, she supposed, rival the output of the sun!. Sitting in her cushioned cot in her bright orange jumpsuit Sarah changed the channel on her television, nothing live of course- and never the news, but plenty of mindless drivel to occupy an eternity. Sarah supposed it wasn't so bad, especially compared to the cells of many of the others. She had a shower, a comb, few cushions and a clicker for the television. So long as she didn't try and summon any darkness she was comfortable. If she did, those banks of lights would brighten to counter anything she did. She'd tried to fight it in the beginning but that much light created a lot of heat and she'd passed out from the effort, covered in sweat, barely being able to breathe from the stifling sauna that her cell had become.

She was bored, so very bored. Sure she had television and books and the food was somewhat decent compared to a life of fast food but a lack of variety grew stale no matter how good one had it. Tapping one bare foot against the plastic floor she hummed along to a music video she was watching and watched the guard stride past. She sometimes talked to the guards, even though she wasn't supposed to, just for a change of pace. Several times she'd opened the top of her jump suit and shoved her bare bosom in their faces just to break the monotony. That had been a mistake and she had regretted it. The jibes and taunts she'd received since had been scathing. They also didn't bother averting their eyes when she showered behind the completely transparent curtain. Thankfully she hadn't done anything more. Who knew what they'd do if she'd done something more lewd.

Creating a small shadow puppet in her hand, Sarah winced slightly as the lights fluoresced. This was the best she could do. Anything more and the lights would become painfully bright. Not that she could see a use for it. She'd tried making a crowbar but she had nowhere near the strength necessary to use it. No, she was well and truly stuck. She only hoped that one of the other inmates had allies outside. All she needed was a power outage, anything to shut off the automatic lights and then she'd be out.

RP of Minions

Okay, so you have minions and factions but that doesn't answer the importa t questkkns like... what can we play: goblins, orcs, humans , amazons, elves, cyborgs, special forces snipers?

X-Men: The Divided

Let's just say, in the old version, anyone with the power to destroy humanity is "Omega". This included Ice Man because he could, with time and effort, bring about an ice age. Cyclops is an omega... because he could eventually blow up the world by shooting down at the Earth's core which means generally, ALL energy projectors and telekinetics are Omegas... which makes no sense.

Hence... the original... 1990's scale. It was written by one of the comic author's at the time and published in the back of one of the comics... In it he was trying to collect why there were both a number system (Class 3 mutants?) and Greek letters. (Alpha, Omega... etc)

---

Mutant Classifications and Powers Levels

Tier 1: Mutant has no combative abilities above human normal.
Tier 2: Mutant can be subdued through use of police or standard infantry
Tier 3: Specialized Forces required to take the mutant down
Tier 4: Use of full military assets or sentinels to take target down
Tier 5: Nearly Unstoppable. The Juggernaut or the Hulk

Alpha Mutants: The most powerful and most feared mutants. Alpha mutants have extremely powerful mutant traits without any significant flaws. Less than 10% of mutants are Alpha mutants so they are very rare. Some of the Alpha mutants include Gambit, Professor X, Colossus, and Emma Frost.
Classify Mutants as Alpha level if they have a normal human appearance and their mutation is powerful, useful and controllable (i.e. turn it on and off, direct it at will.)

Beta Mutants: As far as how potent their powers are Beta Mutants are on the same level as Alpha mutants. The difference between Beta Mutants and Alpha Mutants is that the Beta Mutants have flaws, albeit very small flaws. The Beta mutants are also believed to be about 10% of the mutant population. Some examples of Beta mutants are Wolverine, Mystique and Sabretooth.
Classify mutants as Beta Level if they have a normal human appearance and their mutation is powerful, useful, but less controllable, like Cyclops who can't turn his power off, but can still lead a normal life with only minor preparation. Wolverine, who has healing powers, can't ever decide NOT to rapidly heal from an injury, but this does not impair him in any reasonable way.

Gamma Mutants: Very powerful but with flaws; Unlike the Beta mutants a Gamma mutant's flaw is a major flaw that makes their life very hard. The best example is probably Rogue. Rogue can absorb a mutant's power which makes her very powerful, but she can't touch people without triggering her power, which makes any kind of romantic life difficult. Also, while Alpha and Beta mutants can pass as regular looking humans, many Gamma mutants cannot because they have physical deformities like Blob or Marrow.
Classify mutants as Gamma Level if their mutation is powerful, uncontrollable, sometimes useful but usually detrimental to living a normal life, such as a monstrously inhuman appearance that can't be switched off at will.

Delta Mutants: Delta Mutants are like Alpha mutants in that they don't have any significant flaws. The only problem is that Delta mutants don't have powers that match an Alpha mutant, or even a Beta or Gamma mutant. At least 50% of mutants are Delta mutants making them the most common type of mutant. Some examples of Delta mutants are Forge, Domino and Callisto.
Classify mutants as Delta-Level if they have a normal human appearance, but their mutagenic powers are weaker or only narrowly applicable, though still controllable.

Epsilon-Delta Mutants: Epsilon-Delta Mutants are mutants that don't always manifest their power. An Epsilon-Delta's power will only manifest in certain circumstances and they don't use their powers very often. Their powers may manifest due to trauma, influence from somebody or somebody else or physical contact with someone.
Classify mutants as Episilon-Delta Level if they have a normal human appearance and their mutation is relatively weak, uncontrollable, and narrowly applicable.

Epsilon Mutants: Epsilon Mutants are unfortunate mutants. Epsilon mutants pretty much have no chance of having a regular life in society due to their major flaws. If that isn't bad enough Epsilon mutants also only have minor superhuman powers. About 20% of mutants are Epsilon Mutants. A good example of an Epsilon mutant is Beak.
Classify mutants as Episilon Level if they have an inhuman appearance or their mutation makes it impossible for them to function normally. Any accompanying "superpowers" would be next to useless. Epsilon mutants are differentiated from Gamma mutants in that a Gamma mutant's inhuman appearance would provide a compensating benefit like superior strength.

Zeta mutants: Zetas are not mutants that have powers like the X-Men and other mutants. Zeta mutants are simply humans that have defects. So Zeta mutants would include humans that people would refer to as "circus freaks".
Classify mutants as Zeta-Level if they're ugly humans with hideous birth defects.

Omega mutants: Omega mutants are the most powerful class of mutants. Omega mutants can control matter and energy, have unlimited potential and are possibly even immortal. All Omega mutants are also Alpha mutants but not all Alpha mutants are Omega mutants. For example Jean Grey is an Alpha mutant because of her power and lack of flaws and is also an Omega mutant because of how powerful she is. Gambit on the other hand falls under Alpha mutant for the same reasons but isn't powerful enough to be an Omega mutant.
Only classify mutants as Omega Level if they have been explicitly referenced as Omega Level within continuity or if they regularly match the feats of a known Omega Level mutant.

---

Thus, X-23 is an Alpha 3. Generally, awesome powers, looks completely normal (if you don't count that creepy angry stare she's giving me for using her as an example), and you need specialized special forces to take her down and heaven help them if she finds them before they find her!

Phoenix, of course, is an Omega 5. Cyclops is a Beta 4 mainly because he can knock down a city block in one blast if he wished but you really only need special forces to take him down. Etc.

X-Men: The Divided

Oh goodness. When I get home I'll cut and paste the old system from the nineties. Don't use the new system. In the new system everyone is an omega!

(D&D based) "TALES OF THE LONELY INN"

Bah! Not my best work, very dry and non-descript. That's what I get for soing it in a mall food court with a dozen distractions a minute!