blackhand

The Moroaică Savage melee/Energy Aura Brute In game, I really enjoyed playing with the near invisibility of Energy Aura and various auras, bats, moths, a slime colored as blood, to flesh this character out. FYI idea started from something I watched on Romanian folklore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroi (PPD sketch artist rendition) Sergeant Shih & Lieutenant Ayers, Paragon Police Department Sergeant Shih [on phone]: Urgently in need of backup. We got twentyish Warriors. Ayers and I are barricaded in the upper room, on the west side of the warehouse. Urgent, they’ll hack through soon enough and some are climbing toward a window. Yes, correct. Thanks. Shih out. Shih to Ayers: SWAT is on route from Central. [warehouse door flies off hinges] Ayers: That fast?! Wait, are those…..bats? [Shih looks] Shih: Nope. Gods. You don’t want to watch this. Ayers: What? What?! Sergeant? Shih: Moroaică. [screams from warehouse floor] Ayers: She’s a hero? Shih: Not a hero and not backup, at least not officially. And more a ‘what’ than a ‘she’ Ask Dr. Toth. I’m no magical taxonomist. A Romanian vampire, witch, ghost creature…she doesn’t like the taste of cops at least. [Ayers looking out] Ayers: $^*#. Not just a neck biter. $%^ me. As the screams stopped, the Moroaică crashed through the window. Her solid black eyes scanned the room and her beastly visage turned to a childlike but bloody smile. She gave the cops a thumbs up and was gone. Dr. Susannah Toth - File excerpts. MSI1457 Tentatively coded as an individual magic super being, it should be noted further evidence is needed to confirm origin and if the subject is even one person. She was captured without struggle once by PPD and “leaked through a drain in the interrogation room,” after providing some useful intel on some Family leaders. For one, there is no clear or consistent physical description of the subject. While she has been caught on security cameras, the footage is all at some distance and our ‘enhance’ software is on the fritz. When subject(s) gets close to cameras, they experience power surges or other glitches. Second, many eyewitnesses report that the subject's face seems to change over mere seconds. Some reported she seemed to take on the appearance of bystanders. These reports dovetail, if you will, with the shapeshifting ability. Subject seems to most closely resemble the moroaice documented by our EU counterparts in the Romania office. The apparent pattern to her victims being known villains, and frequently powered ones, is unique however. Powers include superhuman strength and speed, claws which have seen to cut through metal doors, flight (or at least extreme leaping), voice mimicry, fast healing, draining electrolytes, fangs and serrated teeth, subject’s jaw seems to be unfused (i.e. like a snake). There is some indication that subject’s reported shape shifting (moths, bats, rats) and stealth are probably telepathic. Nick o’ Time reported he could sense subject with his heat ‘vision’ in one spot while she appeared to be elsewhere shapeshifted. Notably, Nick also reported her body temperature was very high, probably 150-175 F. PPD Internal Affairs also has a file on the subject, as it seems she may have hacked secured PPD channels or might be getting inside tips. Notably in this regard, SWAT has shown up for at least five operations to find all the wanted villains dead and boxes of donuts (with complimentary bloody handprints on the outside) ((with no discernible prints)). -Dr. Susannah Toth, Freedom Corp Liaison to Paragon Police Department/ Magical Asset and Threat Specialist

Inessa magic ice/ice Scrapper Long long ago, in the cold Siberian snow, Even as a child, Inessa was always wild. She preferred to be alone, wandering woods far from home. It was talking to a bear, that made a neighbor stare, And an overprotective swan, that followed her along. But suspicions would not abate, when she was seen to levitate. In her small and sleepy town, the outrage swirled around. ‘Witchcraft’ they said, ‘a curse’, or ‘even something worse.’ They tried to burn her at the stake, but the flames just wouldn’t take. They stabbed her with a sword, but she seemed to be quite bored. After several other tries, to which she merely rolled her eyes, They bound her hands and feet, and tossed her in the sea. Returning with the full moon, all glowing white and blue, The villagers cowered in fear, she laughed loud and clear, ‘Well, I enjoyed drowning the most, but that also won’t kill a ghost.’ Inessa Khertek was born in 1899. Contemporaneous accounts vary as to whether she was actually killed by her villagers as a witch and came back or if she’d been undead for many years. The most famous song though, suggests the latter. Inessa is suspected of the assassination of many authoritarian leaders over the years. Though she is known to use cold powers generally when working collaboratively with hero orgs, subduing and arresting villains, she apparently is quite skilled at possession. Many of the assassinations she is credited with were forced suicides.

I have this on going character bio theme where I imagine what I would be like if I had super powers. And mostly, I imagine I would not want a very super supername or costumey costume. So I use a lot of the plain pants, shoes, and shirts. And a lot with some random number on their chest as if it is a sportball player they are a fan of. The ones I really loved but long didnt use were various wings, jet packs, i.e. flying bits. If my character concept doesnt make sense for another travel power, or the build isnt so tight, I prefer fly. And I think the wings and such add to that experience. But I didnt feel like they made sense on most of my character…until I duhhhh remembered there are costume change macros. So now I have many flying characters that ‘put on’ their mech wings or jet pack when traveling.

The last one is what I do too. I have a few sets of defense, resist, heals, and the various damage types. While they dont add up to a coherent build usually, they get you often part of the way to where teaming buffs get you a pretty good sense of your character before you get to 50.

A comedy or errors. Thanks for the summary.

An homage to my wife actually who is an archaeologist…if that counts as an homage. plant/dark/dark Dom Early Life Samarkand will tell you she is not actually from Samarkand. But her home town is no longer on any map. When she was born around 1200 A.D., she lived outside what is now Samarkand in southeastern Uzbekistan. After the Mongols invaded the Khwarezmian Empire in 1219, she was buried alive as a witch. She doesn’t remember a lot from that time. The End of a Long Sleep She was unearthed by archaeologists in 2018. What they thought they found was an intricate face carved into a massive tree stump. But after they brought in lighting to begin carefully excavating the carving and massive root system, the face began to speak. It kept repeating a single word - the old Persian word for water. The Persian language has changed a lot over that time. That largely is why she doesn’t mind being called Samarkand. Farsi speakers don’t pronounce Firuzeh as she remembers. Although she has been acting in all respects as a proper hero since getting reoriented, authorities still have her under observation due to initial instability. Firuzeh never studied magic formally. It was always something that came naturally to her. The fact that all her power is ultimately drawn from the Netherworld was a complete surprise to her. Though her memory is deeply fragmented, her earliest memory of her magic was simply being upset that a flower her father had given her mother had died. She looked at it lovingly and dark tendrils came from the ground and healed it. The following is classified at FC Level 3: Insert clearance code to enable. Firuzeh can photosynthesize and ‘eat’ through her skin. For her own rapid healing, she essentially rapidly stitches her own wounds with plant based fibers. These eventually seem to return to something more like skin. Perhaps not for the faint of heart, while she prefers to empower the growth of plants in dirt to ensnare those she is sent to arrest, she can grow plants from within a foe.

I definitely aim toward making it work with my character concept. But if the build is really tight, sometimes that wins out of necessity which usually means super speed or super jump (given a build need for Hasten or Combat Jumping). If the character concept or build doesnt push it any way, flight for convenience and I usually make an alternate costume with a jet pack and/or jet boots.

Very cool. (Sorry for the bad pun) sincerely, nice work.

Ive sometimes found it very useful. Like on a character that needs super speed for invisibility and thematic reasons, and where I have nit too tight a build, Ive put it in Combat Jumping. Then there is a lot of spots where you can just jump too without needing to toggle on one of the purchased temp travels.

I have a new one OMG Lasers Pew Pew. She was a party kid ended up homeless and stumbled into squatting at a deceased super villain’s lair. Stole all his stuff…beam rifle/traps.

Interestingly, when I took Mandarin, the teacher said he would be able to tell who the practiced musicians were in a week or two…Little game he liked to play. He was indeed about 75% correct when he guessed.

One of my few regrets is that I never stuck with any one other language to get fluent. I grew up with bilingual parents (English/German) and basically used the German for easy As through high school but never tried to get better. Took Latin and Chinese for fun. Got near conversational at French and Spanish due to living with girlfriends with those as first languages. And now, my wife and I speak some Hindi around the house, but that too has a bit of a fractured set up…her parents speak different first languages, Urdu and Gujarati, and mostly speak together in Hindi, but kinda have their own mishmash with Urdu and Gujarati. Always found it easy to pick up when immersed and then it largely goes out of my brain for speaking.

Lila Blackthorn Magic Blaster Archery/Tactical Arrow Hello fellow hero Pardon me, Lila Blackthorn of clan Roothaven. Thou wouldn't befall to know the coordinates to ae certain “Blue pearl” ar mabe ”Fae Earth?” Aye, I worry ‘tis futile. If the good gentlelady a’ Portal Corp can’t help…[looks forlorn] Aye, I was minding mine own business one sun’d day, walking myown pet snail Shiny when I saw ae strange glowy tunnel. Like my dear mother oftsaid, an itchy nose asks for ae cut on the foot, but we went to see if treasure might be there. Next thing we knew, we were in the mid of one of your 'streets' and neary hit by a 'car.' Mistress Liberty sete me to clan Longbow and I mighty appreciate the rich new bow and alchemical arrows, but alas, I miss me mum. Origin Lila is from a parallel Earth where magic is much more common and has been for ages. This fact greatly slowed any industrial revolution there might have been. She stumbled through an interdimensional portal one day and landed in Dublin. Portal Corp has not been able to find out her origin despite assigning one of their best researchers to it. Irish Longbow took to orienting her. Powers Reflexes/Dodging: Lila is intimately in tune with the natural forces around her. She may be fast and able to dodge easily, but she also can subtly control air to divert projectiles and similar. Archery: Lila has 20/5 vision, (like an Eagle) which isn't uncommon for her species. She can also magically ‘see’ the wind and other natural forces. In all, this makes archery very natural for her. Healing: She can heal herself and others rather rapidly, though her Longbow trainers, since coming to Primal Earth, have steered her away from that as she has made some mistakes not quite understanding the lack of innate magical ability in many people and the differences in human versus fae physiology. (she healed a bystanders’ back and they now have insect wings). Stealth: She is also incredibly flexible (the wings do fold flat), coupled with her small size, can fit into very tiny spaces. Equipped with a stealth unit, she is often assigned surveillance missions. Trivia Lila was not primarily an archer before coming to Primal Earth. She was a beast master. However, the types of beasts here are not the ones she is used to. Longbow did an aptitude assessment and she scored most highly on archery. Lila is still learning our version of English. Her first language is Irish and English in her dimension never had the influx of Franco Norman from a Viking invasion. (interestingly, there was a William the Conqueror, very similar up until the invasion, but the Anglo Saxons had giants that sunk most of their boats).

I really appreciate the thinking in this thread. I’m very much one to dwell on the origin simply because I want it to make sense for my bio. Mostly, my decisions are pretty similar to the above, but youve given me a few interesting twists I hadnt thought of…like natural being appropriate for other species. Another thing I enjoy about it is making the origin seemingly an ill fit, until you read the bio. Like I have a full on robot looking grav/dark troller, magic origin. But if you read the bio, youll see she had minor magic netherworld based gifts until she was killed, became a poltergeist of sorts, found a Clockwork body and started modding herself. Or I have a stereotypical angel looking claws/willpower scrapper, with techy claws, a targeting drone, caltrops, etc. Mutant. She was just born very strong, tough, and with wings. She gets annoyed actually about the angel thing.

After loving the character Domino from Deadpool, I made a good luck bad luck character here. An Assault Rifle Corr. Assault Rifle? What? Well Time was thematically all the good luck (buffs) and the debuffs were bad luck. But as the bio indicates Through training, [Lucky Lucero] has been able to amplify her powers. “Still y’all, it isn't exactly fast or efficient in the heat of battle to have to wait for them to trip over their shoelaces or take friendly fire. So can I get a gun? A big ol chongus of a gun. Oh and a shiny jetpack.”