Timageness

OOC: Verulas pushed the knife into Brontes' chest as if to force him to take it, not to stab him. Sorry it wasn't clearer. IC: "Don't get me wrong; I don't care if you kill the other Vortixx and the annoying one. And yeah, soldiers should expect that in war. But the term "defenseless" does apply to prisoners whom you've already beaten, and badly I might add. Besides," Verulas continued, staring him in the eye as he spoke. "What do you think the invaders are doing inside the city at the moment? Do you want someone to mistake these two for slain defenders just because of how they died? I'm not too big on honor myself, but that would be like spitting in the face of those who gave their lives protecting the city.""As for you," he said, looking at Dayeth. "Shut up."He unsheathed another knife, throwing it and causing a potted plant to fall in her lap as the blade itself sunk into a wall on the opposite side of the room."Unless you want to be used for target practice."He turned to the Vortixx."Speak."

Good point Nato, but he found her annoying from the start. And I'm pretty sure the doctors finished the job on that one.

For the record, Tiragath, you're talking about killing a PC who is already tied up and captured. If it was seconds after the battle, and one of the prisoners wasn't Dayeth (who is really getting on Verulas' nerves- sorry, Nato), Verulas would have actually agreed with Brontes. Throwing all of the prisoners inside the hospital and burning them to death, however, is not in his playbook.

I'm more of a fan of TTV's Makuta-Burger myself.

I tend to go for quality over quantity when I kill, be it PC or NPC. It's not about the number, it's about how memorable they were. Take Verulas' flashback sequence for example. He didn't kill any PC's, but he did kill four Matoran as an enslaved pit fighter, cut the throats of an entire bandit camp while they were sleeping, and left their disemboweled leader to be torn appart by his own hunting dogs, all before becoming a Toa. If he ever got his hands on a PC, I wouldn't want to be in their position.

IC: "I was thinking of destroying the place too," Verulas said to the Vo-Toa. "But only to deny them treatment and weaken their hold on the place so it's easier to take back. We may have failed as defenders today, but we should send them the message that one day, we'll be back as avengers. If they want a war, then they best be prepared for one." "As for the prisoners," he growled, "I've seen some Karz in my life. And don't get me wrong; I've been on both sides. Burning defenseless prisoners alive? That's some serious Karz; Karz that stays with you for the rest of your days, that haunts your dreams at night. Karz you don't come back from," he said, unsheathing two knives and pushing one onto the Vo-Toa's chest. "If you're going to kill them, you do it quick and you do it humanely." He turned to the Vortixx last, kneeling down beside him and placing the other blade against his throat. "As for you, I have no idea what you're talking about. But I do know one thing, and it's that I don't like being spied on."

IC: "Well then," Verulas said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I guess verbally assaulting him will just have to do." He turned back towards the Vo-Toa and continued speaking. "You might want to do the weapon collecting, Sparky. I know that I'd think twice about putting up a fight if the person confiscating my gear could fry me like a slice of Rahi-bacon. Just saying."

IC: "Looks can be deceiving," Verulas said, keeping an eye on the Vortixx. "His species does have a bad reputation for trickery, after all. But his attack on this place does validate your point. Who knows? We might get lucky; his friends could care about his safety and if we used him as leverage, they just might back off." The Bo-Toa held out his hand, preparing to ensnare the downed foe in vines, but paused and turned his attention to where he deduced the Titan was standing. "Unless our friend here wants to beat the Karz out of him some more to kill off his morale first...," he said, trying not to grin. "Because we can let that happen too."

Yeah, but it wouldn't be considered dead as it would be still feeding off of its users elemental energy (I don't think a Bo-Toa would envelope themselves in an armor that they couldn't remove), and living wood is a lot tougher to burn. Also, in addition to Keeper's reasoning, only wedged weapons (such as hatchets), bullets (depending on the distance), or acids would really be able to put a dent in it, thus using it as an extra layer between blows and their biomechanical armor/"skin" wouldn't be entirely impractical. And while we were discussing the plant control thing, I forgot to mention that it would be a bit unfair for an archer to manipulate their arrows into trees before they hit their targets.

Oh, don't get me wrong; Verulas uses wood in his bag of elemental tricks, it's just that I don't consider him having power over it anymore if it isn't connected to a plant. I've had an instance in both Ko-Koro and Ta-Koro where I created the pieces for both a sled and a wooden replacement wheel for a fruit cart, but, after putting them together manually, I didn't realistically see how he could still have control over those two objects as they were no longer alive; this is why he also didn't manipulate the cut piece of vine to slither across the snow after Dayeth during their fight. Moving on, does anyone know if a Bo-Toa could create wood/bark armor?

OOC: Yeah, I've been running into a similar problem concerning the visibility of my character as well. I know his mask doesn't make him completely invisible, but other characters shouldn't be automatically noticing him when it's active either. IC: Verulas led the Vo-Toa back into the lobby after the Vortixx (Seriously, why was his problems always with them lately? Couldn't he run into any angry Skakdi, disgruntled Lesterin, or morally-impaired Toa who wanted a piece of him anymore?), drawing his sword and activating his mask just in time to- Watch him get blown away by the Titan's staff. He promptly became visible once more, smacking himself in the forehead lightly with the flat of his blade for not anticipating that the Titan would use his mask to follow through with his assault. Well, this turned out to be a waste of time...

I've been playing under the impression that the element of Plantlife grants access only to living materials (i.e. Verulas could manipulate trees to grab people, but not collapse a hut made of bamboo in on its residents) since the element is called "Plantlife" and not "Plant By-Products." I also treated Earth as soil (as in it contained moisture and nutrients to grow plants), which helped me distinguish it from stone. Sand and Crystal would have to be their own elements as they'd make Stone a bit OP.

This is going to sound stupid, but what are the chances of a Crystal-Toa (still haven't got word on a prefix) being able to create rock-candy?

OOC: I'm just going to save some space in this post by deactivating Verulas' Volitak. And Nato, he was actually going to complain about hostile Vortixx again, but if you really want him to go after Enforcer... IC: Verulas deactivated his Volitak and prepared to go after the Vortixx when he was surprised by the Vo-Toa who had previously electricuted him. He appeared apologetic and unaware of the chaos around him, which was expected since he was inside packing when the attack occurred. "Apparently, somebody thought we were doing a really good job protecting the place, and decided to throw us a surprise party," he said, sliding down the roof and landing in the snow next to him as pain shot through his ribs. "And as far as I'm concerned, the hatchet's buried. We've got a bit more to worry about than grudges." He leaned against the outer wall, noticing the lack of crystal and panting as the rest of his injuries started to act up. He stared at the other defender and smiled. "Fine by me. I'm going Vortixx hunting."

... I'm going to go slap myself upside the head for giving a certain Vortixx NPC in Ko-Wahi two Cordak Blasters now...

Deadpool and Vezon are both awesome, but let's leave the Marvel characters out of this.

OOC: Okay, now I'm starting to see what Krayzikk's talking about. Btw Nato, Verulas still had his Volitak activated when he was climbing the hospital, and still does now. IC: Verulas watched everything going on around him, taking his time to pick and choose who he was going to help. The Crystal-Toa had disappeared a little while ago, but based on her reaction to the stretcher, he figured that she'd want to fight her own battles. The Skakdi was charging a foe just outside the building, but he was intuitive enough to take care of himself; the meat-shield idea was impressive. Kellin was out in plain view of everyone with Cancer doing... something..., but the acid trick they had pulled, not to mention that he really wasn't fighting at the moment, should've kept him relatively safe. Frosty was dealing with two attackers, but he looked capable enough. A Skakdi made her way towards the hospital, but there was some distance between them. And a Vortixx just dived into the lobby to escape the avalanche. Perfect.

Teridax is in the top three as well, yes.

Completely agree with Nato and Silo on Roodaka being in the game at some point, as she's my favorite Bionicle villian (ever so slightly pushing Vezon into second place). As for Sidorak... well, he can come too. But only if she uses his head as a decoration for her wall.

OOC: Technically, Mortem was freed by Haarnak. Unfortunately, that should mean that Mortem also had the melting iron from the shackles burn its way into his ankles because Haarnak used his elemental energy to remove them. And Krayzikk is still invisible due to Mortem's cloak, Daniel, so unless Champion can somehow see his heat signature... IC: Verulas shot out another vine to retrieve his knife before absorbing them both to retain what little elemental energy he had left, repeating both processes once more to scale the hospital's outer wall and appear on the roof next to the female Toa. He heard something else hit the rooftop as he crossed his arms over his chest, assuming that the Titan had teleported up there as well despite the fact that he could not see him. "Anyone else feel like we're getting played here? That group was way too lightly armed to have seriously thought they stood a chance at taking this place," he said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Planning to get all of the sets at once (including the Defenders/Protectors and the Lord of Skull Spiders). I'll probably build Tahu first, since he was my first Mata/Nuva, then Kopaka in an attempt to make up for never getting my hands on his Mata set.

Ah. Just ignore that last post then.

I would imagine that if Makuta is made up of antidermis like his canon counterpart, and a Parakuka is a lesser "son" of Makuta, then antidermis would affect it like a performance enhancing drug would when introduced into its system. The host would probably become more powerful than normal during the time when the Parakuka is "active" and may have an even more monsterous transformation, but at the cost of the Parakuka draining its host's energy faster than normal. Of course, I could be wrong.

IC: Verulas emerged from the doorway with his mask activated, not wanting to draw attention to himself just yet as he surveyed the area. Before he could react, an attacking Skakdi was about to blast their side's Skakdi with Impact Vision after throwing one of his hatchets at him. A quick throw of a knife took care of the weapon, but their ally was still knocked back into the Makuta-worshipping Vortixx. He quickly took stock of his own elemental powers, and, after realising he wouldn't be creating trees again anytime soon, created six mist-bomb plants before throwing them around the area so the defenders could capitalize on the momentary distraction they would cause. Still, he knew that their efforts would be in vain if they didn't discover what was really about to happen. He saw the Skakdi move again, this time preparing a blow upon the unaware defender with his other weapon as a vine emerged from the Bo-Toa's palm, wrapping around his tool and allowing him to pull it from his hand. Nice try.

IC: The doctor treating Verulas' wounds accidentally brushed against his chest, causing his ribs to flare up in pain. He woke from his dream, putting one of his knives up against their throat before realising where he was. "Sorry," he mumbled as he lowered the blade. "Force of habit." War cries entered his ears as he returned to his feet, his hands securing the backpack around his shoulders as he went to check out the situation. Two Lesterin, one Vortixx, and three Skakdi charged at the hospital, the first three attacking the defenders while the second three focused on the hospital itself. He noticed their light armament and, after comparing it to what the previous Vortixx and Ta-Matoran were packing, concluded that they were not the same calibur of foe they were previously fighting. So why were they here? Verulas had been in the business long enough to know a distraction when he saw one, but the others might not have caught on. Whatever was going on, he had to get out there, wounded or not. And fast.