World of Freedom 3.2 - Whatever Comes To Mind

[Davies]

With a flourish in the direction of Celeste Rockfish, too.

Thanks!

[Jabroniville]

I dig the Infinite Girl's bio. Glad I could kinda/sorta inspire a set of Legion-esque builds! Are these all new characters, or ones you've had around for a while?

[Davies]

Completely new, though Xianxia and Enforcer have backstory elements that hearken back to the Project Freedom campaign.

[Davies]

The Centurion II



On a distant world, a scientist put his only son, not more than a few months old, down in the passenger compartment of a single-occupant spacecraft ... and then turned to the small army coordinating this most recent launch, and nodded his assent. He did his best to hide his anxiety, hoping against hope that he'd managed to keep secret the slight genetic modifications that he'd made to the infant, that would -- hopefully -- ensure that when this infant came of age, he would not "soften up" the world to which he'd been sent, in advance of their world's main invasion force. He would, instead, want only to live as one of them. And then the vessel was launched, and sped through hyperspace to the tiny blue world called Earth.

The vessel entered Earth's atmosphere in 1989, and was headed for a crash landing in the mid-west, when it was intercepted by the Centurion. It wasn't a type of ship that he'd ever seen before, so he brought it down to a safe landing and opened it up. Startled to see a humanoid child within, he was even more startled when it demonstrated uncanny strength -- not unlike his own, at that age. There was no recording in the craft, nor any other information about where the child had come from. So Centurion decided to leave him in the care of an old friend of his -- a student he'd taught, who'd grown up to become a teaching colleague, and who'd figured out his secret identity.

Sandra Leeds and her husband Tim were startled when Centurion knocked on their door (literally!) and asked them to look after this child while he investigated the spacecraft's origins. They accepted, having recently discovered that they couldn't have children themselves, and named him "Caias", a Latinate name, in honor of Centurion's own origins. Unfortunately, what with one thing and another, the hero never did get around to finding out anything more about the mysterious spacecraft.

"Casey" Leeds was aware that he could do things that most other kids around him could not do from an early age, and always felt more than slightly ashamed of this fact. It wasn't anything his parents did; if anything, they encouraged him to be at ease with his abilities, while still keeping them a secret. But Casey felt ... soiled, whenever he used his powers. He didn't know why. Complicating matters further was his friendship with (and mild crush on) one of his mother's students, Xena Latham, a prodigy only four years older than he who was already taking high school classes. Xena had already developed a theory that superhumans weren't actually contributing anything positive to human development, and might actually be diminishing it. If Xena, who was so much smarter than he was, believed this, then maybe there was something to it ...

Then 9/11 happened. Xena went completely ballistic, loudly asserting -- to anyone and everyone -- that this was the proof of her theories, that this would never have happened in a world where there weren't superbeings. A few months later, she disappeared completely. Eventually, Casey would learn that she had hooked up with GENOCIDE, the domestic terrorist organization bent on the extermination of all superhumans. To say that this was unsettling to him would be an understatement.

In 2005, his high school class took a trip to Freedom City, and the inevitable happened. Rant and Rave just had to pick a fight with Doc Otaku just as the class was visiting the Hunter Museum, and heavy things had to get knocked over, and Casey just had to go use his powers to save his classmates from getting crushed. And because no good deed goes unpunished, he wasn't even able to pull it off without anyone noticing. Only a few weeks after they got home, his parents were visited by Duncan Summers, who offered a full scholarship to attend the Claremont Academy and membership with the Next Gen.

Serving reluctantly and unhappily, Casey did manage to make friends with Nereid, and with her encouragement, decided to explore the mystery of his origins. This led to a series of events, too complicated to go into here, that revealed those origins to him, and led to the annihilation of his homeworld, as well as his exile to hyperspace. (For full details, see here, here, here, here, and here.*) He was finally set free of this exile in 2465, and promptly volunteered to assist the human sphere in its war against the Grue. Eventually, he became known as the Centurion, as he was now regarded as the greatest hero of his era, as the original Centurion had been.

In the present day of 2525, Casey Leeds is a man at peace with himself. He outgrew the conditioning that his father implanted in him quite some time ago, and no longer regards his superhuman attributes as disgusting or unpleasant. On the other hand, he doesn't take any particular pride or pleasure in them; they're just tools, like the flight ring that the Clockwatcher gave him when they first met. (It seems to be the product of a technology centuries ahead of even the advanced science of the 26th century. When asked about it, the Clockwatcher simply states that he was asked to give it to the Centurion in gratitude for services to be rendered.) He would still very much like to be a normal human being, but accepts that this is never going to happen, and would not be susceptible to offers to make it happen.

He is very aware of the fact that he's not, and probably never will be, the equal of the original Centurion at his prime. As a result, he employs some technological aids to enhance his natural abilities, but will only do so when facing serious threats. He wants to live up to his predecessor's legacy, but he never listens to or believes the hype.

His experiences in the void have left him with a great deal of patience. He knows that evil can flourish for a time, but that even if it is left unchecked, it will eventually destroy itself. Nonetheless, for the sake of the innocent, it is better to stop it from flourishing before it can start.

That said, one crucial fact about him sometimes escapes people's attention. He was not trained by the original Centurion -- in fact, they met only one time, when he was about three years old. He was trained by the Raven, and it shows. When fighting fairly will end a fight sooner, he'll do so; when fighting very dirty will accomplish the same end, that's what he'll do too.

The Centurion -- PL 15

Abilities: STR 15 | STA 15 | AGL 1 | DEX 1 | FGT 9 | INT 6 | AWE 4 | PRE 5
Powers: Flight Ring (Flight 15; Immunity 3 [suffocation, vacuum]; Movement 2 [space travel 2]; Sustained Impervious Protection 6; Removable), Invulnerability (Immunity 8 [aging, cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, starvation & thirst]; Impervious Toughness 10), Power Lifting (Enhanced Strength 2, Limited to lifting), Super-Speed (Enhanced Advantages 2 [Improved Initiative 2]), Quickness 10; Array: Speed 10, AP: Leaping 10, AP: Swimming 10), Telescopic Vision (Senses 3 [extended vision 3]).
Equipment: Power Cesti (Strength-based Damage 4), Universal Translator (Comprehend Languages 4).
Advantages: Assessment, Defensive Attack, Equipment 4, Improved Initiative, Interpose, Jack-of-all-Trades, Leadership, Ultimate Effort (Toughness checks).
Skills: Expertise: History 3 (+9), Expertise: Teacher 6 (+11), Insight 10 (+14), Intimidation 6 (+11), Perception 8 (+12), Persuasion 8 (+13), Technology 4 (+10), Treatment 3 (+9).
Offense: Initiative +9, Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 15), Power Cestus +9 (Close Damage 19)
Defense: Dodge 8, Parry 9, Fortitude 18, Toughness 21/15, Will 12.
Totals: Abilities 112 + Powers 86 + Advantages 10 + Skills 24 + Defenses 15 = 247 points
Complications: Responsibility--Motivation. Relationship (Thetis the Eternal). Reputation (near godlike regard among the citizens of the Confederation).

* Owing to temporal confusion, the character in question is given the name "Caias Ward" in these accounts. This should be ignored.

[MacynSnow]

Yes,finally a better version of Valor(thought i liked the "boxer" look he had when first fighting the young Superman clone)!
Also nice call-back to Superman's origin,since the Centurion was supposed to be an MnM Superman analogue......

[Davies]

Thanks!

[Davies]

Overshadow II



Historical records (those that have survived) describe the end of the Secret Hierarchy of Agents for Domination Over the World as coming in the year 2078, at the height of some conflict between nations. (The details of this conflict have been lost.) A fleet of space battleships were launched from a secret factory in the asteroid belt, taking up orbit above all of Earth's major cities, and broadcasted a demand for surrender to SHADOW. A small group of heroes (about whom, again, nothing is recorded) managed to infiltrate the armada's command vessel and destroy it, in the process apparently annihilating Overshadow and all of his clone bodies. They also started a chain reaction that either disabled or destroyed the other ships. But it was later discovered that a handful of those vessels somehow escaped, never to be seen again.

The conventional assumption was that they limped away, heavily damaged, and eventually succumbed to entropy. Extravagant conspiracy theories grew up around the lost ships, most suggesting that, nearly two hundred years before Bergenholm, a hyperspace drive had been installed in them, and that they'd escaped not only the battle, but the solar system itself. These legends were, of course, ignored or mocked. It should come as no surprise, then, that they were substantially correct. After a long ride through hyperspace, the ragtag survivors of the armada emerged far beyond those regions of the galaxy explored by the Lor, and made planetfall on an Earth-like world. There, held together by the iron will of their leader -- though she herself had been gravely wounded in the retreat, and soon had to undergo extensive cybernetic replacement surgery -- they began to create the Final Society.

Introducing her own genetic material into the clone troopers' makeup-- since she had demonstrated her superiority over Wilhelm Kantor, by surviving as he had not -- the new Overshadow started fresh. The next generation of clones would be evenly divided between males and females. It would be a purely aesthetic distinction, of course, since all reproduction took place in the laboratory. But aesthetics mattered. There was only one law in this sterile utopia -- any conflict between the clones was punishable by death for all involved. The new Overshadow intended to keep her people focused on the great work ahead of them. All but one of the ships was cannibalized to become the nucleus of an industrial base, building the tools to build the tools, and so on.

It took centuries to build the second SHADOW armada, with ships incorporating dozens of improvements imagined by the new Overshadow -- who by that time was the only Overshadow mentioned in the revised histories. She had no intention of fighting the last war again. This would be a very different affair, altogether.

By 2515, they were ready. Leaving behind only a few hundred clones to continue work on Overshadow's backup plan, the second armada launched, led by a vast flagship built on the skeleton of Overshadow's original vessel. In time, they came to the outer limits of the Confederation of World, and attacked a lightly defended agricultural planet. There was no negotiation, no discussion of terms of surrender; they had not come to conquer or rule. They simply bombarded the planet from orbit, rendering it uninhabitable. And then they moved on to the next.

The repeated failures of both the Freedom Legion and the Confederation Navy to achieve any meaningful victory over SHADOW has strengthened a number of secessionist arguments, which may be part of Overshadow's long-term strategy. (Or it may be a bonus.) Whenever any force capable of doing serious damage to the armada approaches, the ships activate some form of cloaking device, which has foiled even the most advanced sensors available. (In truth, the cloaking device is not what it seems. Rather than concealing the ships, it shifts them physically into the Shattenwelt. They remain there until it seems likely that their would-be attackers have dispersed, then return and mop up any remnants before escaping.)

On a handful of occasions, the planetary defenses of a world attacked by the armada have been sufficient to repel the initial assault. To crack such nuts, raiding parties of SHADOW troopers will be sent down in attack ships to sabotage the defenses. Since these troopers know that they'll be killed when the bombardment commences, they are perfectly willing to employ suicidal tactics to achieve their objectives.

And what of Overshadow herself? The few precious moments that she can spare from administration and strategy, she spends composing scores for the piano, which no one else ever hears. Locked in her private quarters, she plays them as worlds burn. As she does, it sometimes occurs to her to wonder whether this is really the future that she wanted. But then she realizes that it must be. After all, she sent visions of it to her past self, using the time transmitters developed for her backup plan, and despite seeing it, her past self continued on this course. Clearly, this must be what she wanted all along. So she's content, though she does hope that the Centurion will rouse himself to defend a world targeted by SHADOW soon.

Xena does want to see Casey one last time.

Overshadow II -- PL 15

Abilities: STR 11/1 | STA 7/2 | AGL 1 | DEX 3 | FGT 13 | INT 14 | AWE 7 | PRE 7
Powers: Arsenal (Array: Ranged Damage 15, Variable 2 [technological], AP: Linked Damage 15 and Weaken Toughness 15, Accurate, Improved Critical; Easily Removable), Cybernetics (Enhanced Stamina 5; Enhanced Strength 10; Impervious Fortitude 12; Impervious Toughness 7; Impervious Will 16; Senses 10 [darkvision, extended 2 dimensional awareness, direction sense, distance sense, time sense, visual senses penetrate illusions]), Force Field Generator (Flight 10; Sustained Impervious Protection 10; Removable).
Advantages: Assessment, Chokehold, Improvised Tools, Improved Grab, Inventor, Skill Mastery (Technology), Takedown Attack.
Skills: Expertise: Music 11 (+18), Expertise: Science 10 (+24), Insight 12 (+19), Intimidation 8 (+15), Perception 8 (+15), Ranged Attack: Arsenal 12 (+15), Technology 11 (+25), Vehicles 8 (+11).
Offense: Initiative +1, Unarmed +13 (Close Damage 11), Beam Saber +15 (Close Damage 15 and Weaken Toughness 15, Crit 19-20), Arsenal +15 (Ranged Damage 15).
Defense: Dodge 11, Parry 13, Fortitude 12/7, Toughness 17/7, Will 16.
Totals: Abilities 96 + Powers 127 + Advantages 7 + Skills 40 + Defenses 24 = 294 points
Complications: Omnicidal Psychosis--Motivation. Cybernetics Require Maintenance.

[Davies]

The Dragon



Frances Psion was born to a mother who hated her and tried to burn her to death within a few days of her birth. She was raised by a man with messianic delusions, and placed under the command of the most calculating empath ever to live. All of them used her for their own purposes, without ever considering what she might want. Yet all of them are gone, now, and the girl on fire remains, having taken the psychic energies and life forces of beings that might as well be gods, transformed them into fuel for her own flames, and thus raised herself up among them.

But apparently, she no longer has any purpose to her existence except for the undeniable impulse to continue that existence, regardless of any challenges that come her way. She never deigns to speak to non-psionics, and rarely even communicates with those who are psionic, except to inform them that she has chosen them for her food. The Dragon did actually condescend to have a conversation with Oxana Atreus, the planetary defender of the world of New Delphi, after failing to claim the latter as her prey but satisfying her hunger by consuming one of Oxana's companions.

She spoke of her own confusion at how the mental man, of which she considered herself an early example, had managed to make themselves essential to the functioning of galactic society without the violent revolution she had always been taught would be necessary. It made her wonder how much else her mentors had been wrong about ... yet that was a meaningless speculation, for she was too old and too much the product of those lessons to ever change her ways. Oxana attempted to persuade her that she could find other ways to satisfy her hunger, but the Dragon dismissed such notions. She claimed that she would exist forever as a warning that the mental man must never be taken for granted, and continue to spur the evolution of her kind by preying on those who were too weak to defend themselves, until all that was left was a species that could overcome even her.

Despite her predations, the Dragon is not considered as serious a threat to the Confederation of Planets as, for example, the members of the Tyranny Legion. This is because her raids are not limited to Confederation worlds, but also to planets within the Grue Unity. Telepathic Grue metamorphs are as likely to satisfy her hunger as Lor-descended mentats. For this reason, there is an effort within the Confederation military establishment to try and control the Dragon, using her as a weapon against the Grue. This will, of course, all end in tears.

The Dragon -- PL 16

Abilities: STR 0 | STA 1 | AGL 4 | DEX 6 | FGT 6 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 3
Powers: Cosmic Lifeforce (Immunity 36 [aging, cold effects, fire effects, life support, radiation damage]), Dragon's Flame (Array: Ranged Damage 22, AP: Ranged Burst Area Damage 14, AP: Ranged Shapeable Area Damage 14, AP: Environment 11 [extreme heat, daylight]), Flame Aura (Reaction Damage 16, Selective), Psychic Vampirism (Linked Cumulative Affliction 16 [Resisted & Overcome by Will; Fatigued, Exhausted, Incapacitated] and Weaken Psionic Powers 16, Broad, Simultaneous), Psychokinetic Force Field (Sustained Impervious Protection 19), Psychokinetic Levitation and Spacewarp (Flight 12; Movement 2 [space travel])
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Improved Critical (fire blast) 4, Power Attack, Startle.
Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+12), Intimidation 12 (+15), Perception 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Fire Blast 4 (+14).
Offense: Initiative +4, Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 0 plus Damage 16), Fire Blast +10 (Ranged Damage 22, Crit 16-20), Fireball -- (Ranged Burst Area Damage 14), Fire Shaping -- (Ranged Shapeable Area Damage 14), Psychic Vampirism +6 (Close Will 16).
Defense: Dodge 12, Parry 8, Fortitude 12, Toughness 20/1, Will 18.
Totals: Abilities 46 + Powers 294 + Advantages 7 + Skills 16 + Defenses 35 = 398 points
Complications: Survival--Motivation. Weakness (must use psychic vampirism on targets with psionic powers or own powers diminish).

[Davies]

Later today ...

"I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added a strange and brooding apprehension of hideous physical danger; a danger widespread and all-embracing, such a danger as may be imagined only in the most terrible phantasms of the night. I recall that the people went about with pale and worried faces, and whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard."

[Yojimbo]

Camus?

[Davies]

Camus?

"... whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard. A sense of monstrous guilt was upon the land, and out of the abysses between the stars swept chill currents that made men shiver in dark and lonely places. There was a daemoniac alteration in the sequence of the seasons—the autumn heat lingered fearsomely, and everyone felt that the world and perhaps the universe had passed from the control of known gods or forces to that of gods or forces which were unknown.

"And it was then that Nyer-ut-hotep came out of Egypt."

Excerpted from The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft, Revised 2525 Edition.

The Black Pharaoh
AKA Nyer-ut-hotep



And then it was done, and there was still enough that was human in him to be astonished that the beings with whom he had bargained had kept their end of the arrangement after what were millennia for him and merely the blink of an eye for such as they. For an eon, he had been little more than a face for the crawling chaos of the Nameless Ones, but now they were done with him, and he could go his way. He gazed out upon an age as unimaginable to him as, he suspected, his own era of sorcery and the sword might be to them, and vowed that it would come under his rule.

The Black Pharaoh's first campaign, begun on Earth itself in the years immediately after the Grue War, proved a failure despite his many initial victories. The champions of this era, the Freedom Legion, were well advised by the one called Nightstalker, not yet the Master Mage she would become but still a potent wielder of magic. In combination with the powers of her fellows, he was outmatched and put to flight. Yet it was a flight that none of them could match, for the madness he had unleashed had been a cover for his successful quest for the Staff of Ptah, which gave him the power to walk between worlds.

His flight took him to Alpha Carinae III, the mineral rich desert planet called Argo, and there his skills made for himself a place as the chief astronomer of the Sultan of that world. It is likely that it was on the Black Pharaoh's advice that the Sultan claimed for himself the title of Caliph -- a presumption regarded as blasphemous by the entire Muslim world on Earth, and likewise rejected by the majority of Muslims elsewhere in the Confederation. This isolation suited the Black Pharaoh, and has continued to suit him through the reigns of three "Caliphs".

As long as he enjoys the patronage of the planet's ruler, there is very little that the Confederation or the Legion can do about the Black Pharaoh, beyond thwarting his schemes. On a handful of occasions, they have managed to do so in a way that so embarrasses him before his "master" that he has fallen out of favor, sometimes for as long as a year. But he always regains his position, and it sometimes seems that he succeeds in many schemes for every one that the Legion thwarts. He was offered membership in the Tyranny Legion when it was formed, yet rejected it -- largely out of outrage, it seems, that a non-entity like Vorgol came up with the notion before he could.

The Black Pharaoh's only real weakness is psychological. Most who have had such close encounters with the Nameless Ones as he have lost their sanity. A smaller number have emerged mentally tougher -- yet often harder as well. In contrast, his mind is no stronger than it was when he began his journeys, and he still knows fear. If anything, he experiences fear to an even greater degree. It could be fairly said that he lacks conviction, which might explain why he prefers to rule behind the scenes.

In truth, his greatest fear is one that his enemies have yet to realize. After so many millennia, there is little if any proof that there was such a ruler of pre-Dynastic Egypt as Nyer-ut-hotep, that there ever was such a man of any sort. Could it be that he is little more than a pawn of the Nameless Ones, called into being at their whim, given an imagined 'life', and doomed to fade from view once he has achieved whatever unknowable purpose they set for him? These are the dreads that drive him.

Nyer-ut-hotep -- PL 16

Abilities: STR 15/-1, STA 23/7, AGL 0, DEX 2, FGT 2, INT 3, AWE 9, PRE 3
Powers: Mystic Senses (Senses 2 [danger sense, magic awareness]), Semi-Invulnerable (Immunity 80 [All Toughness effects], Limited to half-effect), Sorcery (Array: Ranged Damage 16, AP: Ranged Affliction 16 [Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Transformed], AP: Growth 16, AP: Perception Range Cumulative Affliction 8 [Will; Dazed, Compelled, Controlled], AP: Perception Range Move Object 10, AP: Create 16), Spell of Shielding (Enhanced Dodge 15; Enhanced Parry 15), Staff of Ptah (Movement 3 [space travel]; Accurate Extended Teleport 28, Portal; Easily Removable).
Advantages: Benefit 4 (Diplomatic Immunity, Status, Wealth 2), Fascinate (Deception), Languages 3 (Arabic, Galacta, others, [Ancient Egyptian is native]), Ranged Attack 5, Ritualist, Trance.
Skills: Deception 12 (+15), Expertise: Astronomy 8 (+11), Expertise: Magic 19 (+22), Intimidation 10 (+13), Persuasion 12 (+15), Ranged Combat: Sorcery 5 (+7).
Offense: Initiative +0, Unarmed +2 (Close Damage -1, 15 at maximum size), Arcane Bolt +12 (Ranged Damage 16), Polymorph Spell +12 (Ranged Fortitude 16), Mind Control -- (Perception Range Will 8).
Defense: Dodge 17/9/2, Parry 17/9/2, Fortitude 23/7, Toughness 23/7, Will 9.
Totals: Abilities 50 + Powers 213 + Advantages 15 + Skills 33 + Defenses 2 = 313 points
Complications: Power--Motivation. Arrogance. Feigned Obedience (to the Caliph of Argo.)

[Voltron64]

In truth, his greatest fear is one that his enemies have yet to realize. After so many millennia, there is little if any proof that there was such a ruler of pre-Dynastic Egypt as Nyer-ut-hotep, that there ever was such a man of any sort. Could it be that he is little more than a pawn of the Nameless Ones, called into being at their whim, given an imagined 'life', and doomed to fade from view once he has achieved whatever unknowable purpose they set for him? These are the dreads that drive him.

Or perhaps maybe he actually was once a man, just never a ruler, maybe perhaps the opposite who dreamed of being such.

[Yojimbo]

D'oh!

It sounded like the opening of The Plague, and instead it was "Nyarlathotep." Silly me.

That's a pretty cool version of him.

[Davies]

D'oh!

It sounded like the opening of The Plague, and instead it was "Nyarlathotep." Silly me.

No, that was actually a good guess, and I might want to do something of that nature later on.

Thanks!

[Arkrite]

He was thus allowed access to the library, and -- somewhat predictably -- his earliest requests were for the writings left behind by one Master Wu Tuo-fa, his supposed ancestor, five hundred years before. He was genuinely surprised by the life story recounted in these texts. The man had been a criminal, of all things, before he'd finally achieved enlightenment and studied at the Temple just as Mighael was doing now. The texts contained no way to prove any connection between him and the Wuzen family, for his writings ended in 2018, the year of the conquest.

Huh, so that's what that guy was up to.

Devourer

Ah, the scary hard done by guy who's just a lot of fun.

And hey, he's on his way to being Space Pope!

The Infinite Girl

Oh dear, sounds like she didn't just lose clones, but full parts of her personality.

It emitted this hologram of a white-haired man with a serious smirk congratulating Roy -- still in archaic English -- for his perspicacity in choosing the SaneTech Enforcer for his power augmentation requirements.

"SaneTech. Because if it's not Sane, then what is it?"

I just have this image of the MegaMan X upgrade pods with the holographic Dr Light for some reason. ;~)

Xena does want to see Casey one last time.

Tragic.

I'm also wondering if there will be "The Shadow Wars" with Kantor rebuilt Shadow organization vs Xena's... rebuilt Shadow organization.
The sheer confusion from the outside would be funny.
"They came out of nowhere, destroying everything that got in their way... even themselves!"

The Dragon

Ah yes, trying to toy with the cosmic level monster with the firm belief that they're really in control...
I suspect she's going to kill a lot of people in the near future... And a lot of them are going to wear really shocked expressions.