Caliburn
Born in 1949, the child of a fairly well-to-do Welsh family who'd lost both his parents before his sixteenth birthday, Adam Sinclair went on to study archaeology at Oxford, while also developing his physical skills by practicing rugby and fencing. In the process, he met and became engaged to Jennifer Randall, a CID detective. While she chased criminals, most notably a latter day Jack the Ripper, his studies attempted to understand the historical anomalies of "Arthurian" Dark Ages Britain. (By the early 1970s, it was largely accepted that a OOPart-producing culture had existed in the British isles at that time, but most historians were reluctant to associate it with the legends of King Arthur, which had after all been written down much later.)
Adam's studies finally brought him face to face with an entity which appeared to match up with the accounts of the Lady of the Lake, who answered his flurry of questions with a question of her own: "Why do you seek heroism in the past, rather than embracing it in the present?"
Something awakened in him in response to her words, and when he returned home, he created a costume for himself and set out to assist Jennifer in her investigations as the costumed crimefighter Caliburn. Together, the detective and the masked avenger were able to end the new Ripper killings, exposing them as the work of one Zachary King -- or rather, of the man who was impersonating the late Zachary King, who would eventually use the name Janus.
Tragically, Strangeways Prison proved incapable of holding Janus for more than a month. Following his escape, he murdered Jennifer and disfigured Adam's face before fleeing the country. Adam paused only long enough to make modfications to his costume to prevent further injuries of this nature before beginning his pursuit of Janus. That long chase, taking him around the world several times over, has lasted almost the rest of Caliburn's life thus far. He has often managed to prevent Janus' long term schemes, but been frustrated in his attempts to prevent Janus from causing terrible tragedies in the course of those schemes, and has never managed to apprehend him. Despite the temptation and the opportunity, Caliburn has never yet chosen to take the law into his own hands and permanently end Janus' threat. He believes that to do so would dishonor Jennifer's memory.
In 1977, Caliburn met and befriended the American heroine Lady Starbright, whose assistance proved critical in one of his very few major victories over Janus, where, just once, nobody died. He attempted to pay her back by coming to her assistance in 1982, when she came under attack by several of her foes at once, but he was no more able to save her than was the Centurion, also present on that occasion. In her memory, he agreed to join forces with the other heroes who'd come to Lady Starbright's assistance as the Guard. While the team was loosely organized and rarely met over the next decade, they did form tight bonds of friendship between the various members.
The Centurion's death during the Terminus Invasion, and the subsequent organization of the new Freedom League, prompted the dissolution of the Guard, as a number of its members joined the new group while others considered retirement. Caliburn did neither, continuing his long, lonely hunt for Janus, as well as fighting street crime in the New York area and maintaining a secret identity as an archaeology professor at Empire State University. By 1999, however, he was well aware that he was no longer in the excellent fighting shape he'd been a decade earlier, and so began to think about the possibility of resuming a normal life.
Janus apparently got wind of this somehow, and decided to give his archenemy a push. He exposed Adam Sinclair's secret identity to the world on live television. (It's considered very likely that Dr. Stratos' exposure of Captain Thunder a year later was inspired by this event.) Caliburn responded by abandoning his identity as Adam Sinclair, living as Caliburn full-time,
never removing his mask, and insisting that he be referred to as Professor Caliburn by the staff and students at ESU. Fortunately, he had tenure.
Even so, he was considered semi-retired by 2013, more often acting as a consultant to other superheroes when they found themselves dealing with Janus' schemes than heading out to deal with them himself. However, his adventures with Ray Gardner and reconnection with Grandmother Raven made him realize that he missed the action and danger of being an active superhero, and he agreed to help form a new team for other members of the Old Guard. He truly believes that this time, with their help, he'll finally put Janus behind bars and keep him there.
Caliburn -- PL 8
Abilities: STR 5 |
STA 5 |
AGL 6 |
DEX 5 |
FGT 9 |
INT 4 |
AWE 4 |
PRE 4
Powers: Mind Shield (Impervious Will 8),
Sixth Sense (Senses 2 [detect truth (sense, auditory)],
Trained Strength (Strength-based Damage 2)
Equipment: Utility Belt (see
Gadget Guide, p. 112).
Advantages: Agile Feint, Assessment, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment 10, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Disarm, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Improvised Tools, Languages 3, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 3, Skill Mastery (Investigation), Takedown, Uncanny Dodge, Well-Informed.
Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+14), Athletics 10 (+15), Deception 8 (+12), Expertise: Archaeology 6 (+10), Insight 8 (+12), Intimidation 8 (+12), Investigation 14 (+18), Perception 12 (+16), Persuasion 8 (+14), Sleight of Hand 8 (+13), Stealth 10 (+16), Technology 6 (+10), Vehicles 6 (+11).
Offense: Initiative +10, Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 7) or by equipment.
Defense: Dodge 9, Parry 9, Fortitude 8, Toughness 7/5, Will 8.
Totals: Abilities 84 + Powers 12 + Advantages 33 + Skills 56 + Defenses 10 = 195 points
Complications: Justice--Motivation. Always Wears Mask. Enemy (Janus).'
Note: At his peak, in the 1980s, Caliburn had a Fighting score of 13, Ranged Attack 8, and Dodge 11.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."