The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

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Voltron64
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Voltron64 »

I take it that Lord Greystroke was well acquainted with Dame Beatrice Barrowman well and long before Argus was created?

(I also headcanon with Dame Barrowman that she served as the inspiration for Oscar Wilde who she knew in the biblical sense as well. What can I say, sexuality's a spectrum.)
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Voltron64 wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:10 pm I take it that Lord Greystroke was well acquainted with Dame Beatrice Barrowman well and long before Argus was created?
They first met back in the sixties, but they don't like each other very much.

Edit: Something I forgot to mention. He did know Virginia Jones' mother well. Very very well.
Voltron64 wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:10 pm(I also headcanon with Dame Barrowman that she served as the inspiration for Oscar Wilde who she knew in the biblical sense as well. What can I say, sexuality's a spectrum.)
Beatrice: Mercy. I'm flattered, but I'm certainly not that old.
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Cadmus
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Few people can make the claim to have changed the world even once. Marc Bolton has done so three times, and aims to do it a few more times before he's finished.

In fairness, the first time he changed the world wasn't really his doing. In 1995, he was identified as a Hyperbrain at the age of thirteen, and the government naturally sought to enroll him in a think tank, where his talents would be put to use in the public interest. Marc's parents, however, decided to tell the public interest where to go and how to get there, and used their wealth and contacts to fight this attempt at conscripting their son. It took two years, but they ultimately did win their legal battle, in the process starting the end of the think tank movement in the United States, and eventually the rest of the world.

It should be said that Marc is somewhat ambivalent about this part of his personal history, though he's quite willing to claim the credit for it if someone views it as a positive. Personally, he wonders if, had he worked in one of the think tanks, he might have helped to develop technologies that could have saved his parents' lives during Cerebron's attack four years later, as well as preventing the serious injuries he suffered in the process. But he doesn't dwell on such regrets very often, preferring to look to the future he'll help to make rather than the what-might-have-beens.

Marc focused his private education on how to overcome the challenges of mobility that he faced. He initially studied cybernetic repair of his spinal column, and helped to make a few breakthoughs in this area. But ultimately, he decided that he didn't want to implant technology into his body and run the risk of having it malfunction. Something outside of his body, something that he could personally repair if it broke down, would better suit his personal needs. He needed an exoskeleton.

While quite wealthy, Marc didn't have the personal resources to develop such a device. (Well, anybody can throw together a functional exoskeleton in their garage, but such devices don't usually have a very long operating life.) So, in 2008, he accepted a job offer from the famous Newton Corporation, and went to work in its R&D division, which was, somewhat ironically, patterned after the think tank from which many of its senior members had been recruited. This was not a place where his personal history won him many friends, but Marc focused on doing his work and doing it well, and came to the attention of the Newton Corporation's famous, eccentric founder, who came to view him as a protege.

It only took two and a half years for Marc to get very, very tired of the man's patronizing attitude and notorious reality distortion field, and his employment at Newton ended shortly after a furious argument with the boss. Everything that he'd worked on at Newton would normally have belonged to Newton, of course, but Marc had planned for that, and managed to include language in his contract that indicated that concepts he'd developed before starting work there, and continued to develop while there, were his. And so the most important parts of his design were carefully registered as his own.

(His erstwhile employer was furious when he realized this, and swore that he would spend evey penny his company had to take vengeance. While he died soon afterwards, the company's subsequent heads -- thoroughly under the sway of his reality distortion field -- have continued the vendetta. Their behavior is actually more akin to that of members of a cult than that of employees of a corporation.)

In any event, after about a year, Marc's exoskeleton was ready for testing. He wasn't willing to ask another person to risk their lives to use his technology, and so he suited himself up and put on a non-functional helmet to hide his identity, in case anything went wrong. Thus equipped, he went for a jog, expecting that people would treat the mechanical individual running down San Vicente Boulevard as just a harmless curiosity. He underestimated the paranoia of a group of would-be bank robbers, who panicked and began shooting at what they assumed to be a superhero. Fortunately, they weren't very good shots.

Marc considered just running away for a moment before anger at the situation led him to fight back. He easily overcame the robbers, since he'd designed his suit to give him slightly greater than peak human strength. When the police arrived and asked for his name, he hesitated and answered, "I guess you can call me Sp-- oh, wait, someone already took that name, didn't they. Um. Uh. Who was it that founded -- oh, right, Cadmus!" Later, he'd discover that Cadmus had in fact founded Thebes, rather than the city he was thinking of, but the dragon-tooth born men who fought for him were named Spartoi, explaining his confusion.

The current generation of Spartoi powered armor is much more advanced than that original exoskeleton, incorporating a variety of onboard weaponry and better armor. The most notable recent improvement was the addition of circuitry that allows Marc to remotely operate up to four robotic Spartoi suits, as backup. Officially, the operator of the Spartoi suit is an employee of Cadmus Enterprises, of which Marc is both president and CEO, as the liability he'd have to pay if it became known that he was personally operating it would be much greater.

In the meanwhile, simpler versions of the original Spartoi exoskeleton have begun to be sold, as have production models of the later powered armor version, to the American military, for use by special operations. Marc has a few qualms about this, but silences his own conscience with the promise that he'll roll all the money into peaceful research and development. He's unaware that this has resulted in the decision by the Powerhouse not to offer him membership, despite the fact that he's probably Los Angeles' most noteworthy superhero. It's probably just as well; he'd prefer to be working in his lab or his office, or pursuing his own heroic agenda, leaving him no real time to work with a larger group.

Cadmus -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR 10/1 | STA 1 | AGL 4/0 | DEX 2 | FGT 6/2 | INT 7 | AWE 2 | PRE 2

Powers:
Spartoi Powered Armor: Removable (-32 points)
* Armored Shell: Impervious Protection 8 - 16 points
* Chest Lamp: Environment 1 (light) - 1 point
* Comm System: Radio Communication 3 - 9 points
* Cybernetic Controls: Enhanced Agility 4; Enhanced Defenses 8 (Dodge 4, Parry 4); Enhanced Fighting 4 - 24 points
* Rocket Boosters: Flight 8 (500 MPH) - 16 points
* Sealed Systems: Immunity 10 (life support) - 10 points
* Sensors: Senses 10 (accurate extended 2 radio, direction sense, distance sense, infravision, ultravision, time sense) - 10 points
* Summon Reinforcements: Summon 6 (Spartoi robots), Controlled, Horde, Multiple Minions 2, Self-Powered - 42 points
* Weapons Systems: Array (20 points)
  • Chest Lamp Flare: Cone Area Cumulative Affliction 10 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Impaired, Disabled, Unaware), Limited to One Sense - 20 points
  • Cybernetic Muscles: Enhanced Advantage 2 (Close Attack); Enhanced Strength 9 - 1 point
  • Electro-Stunner: Ranged Affliction 10 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 1 point
  • Force Blasters: Ranged Damage 10 - 1 point
  • Omni-Blaster: Line Area Damage 10 - 1 point
Advantages:
Benefit 4 (Multi-millionaire), Eidetic Memory, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Skill Mastery (Technology).

Skills:
Expertise: Business 7 (+14), Expertise: Science 6 (+13), Investigation 5 (+12), Perception 8 (+11), Persuasion 8 (+11), Ranged Combat: Weapon Systems 8 (+10), Technology 8 (+15).

Offense:
Initiative +5/+1
Unarmed +8/+2 (Close Damage 9/0)
Chest Lamp Flare -- (Cone Area Affliction 10, Resisted by Dodge)
Electro Stunner +10 (Ranged Affliction 10, Resisted by Dodge)
Force Blaster +10 (Ranged Damage 10)
Omni Blaster -- (Line Area Damage 10)

Defenses:
Dodge 8/0, Parry 10/2, Fortitude 3, Toughness 9/1, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 34 + Powers 120 + Advantages 8 + Skills 26 + Defenses 7 = 195 points

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Enemy (Newton Corporation.) Secret Identity. Wheelchair User. Workaholic.

Spartoi Robots -- PL 6

Abilities:
STR 9/2 | STA -- | AGL 2 | DEX 4 | FGT 2 | INT -- | AWE 0 | PRE --

Powers:
Armored Chassis: Impervious Protection 8 - 16 points
Chest Light: Environment 1 (light) - 1 point
Comm System: Radio Communication 1 - 3 points
Robot: Immunity 30 (Fortitude) - 30 points
Rocket Boosters: Flight 8 (500 MPH) - 16 points
Sensors: Senses 8 (direction sense, distance sense, infravision, accurate extended radio, time sense) - 8 points
Weapon Systems: Array (16 points)
  • Chest Lamp Flare: Cone Area Cumulative Affliction 6 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Impaired, Disabled, Unaware), Limited to One Sense - 1 point
  • Cybernetic Muscles: Enhanced Advantage 1 (Close Attack); Enhanced Strength 7 - 1 point
  • Electro-Stunner: Ranged Affliction 8 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 16 point
  • Force Blasters: Ranged Damage 8 - 1 point
  • Omni Blaster: Line Area Damage 8 - 1 point
Advantages:
Teamwork

Skills:
Perception 4 (+4).

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +3 (Close Damage 9)
Electro-Stunner +4 (Ranged Affliction 8, Resisted by Dodge)
Force Blasters +4 (Ranged Damage 8)
Omni Blaster -- (Line Area Damage 8)

Defense:
Dodge 4, Parry 4, Fortitude --, Toughness 8, Will --

Totals:
Abilities -10 + Powers 93 + Advantages 1 + Skills 2 + Defenses 4 = 90 points
Last edited by Davies on Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Dracula
Image
The above is a reasonably good representation of what he really looks like. His shapechanging abilities allow him to look much younger when he pleases.

They've spun some pretty good stories, haven't they? "Vlad Tepes, after his lifetime of cruelty, was cursed with immortality and an undying thirst for blood by a --" And here the tale splits, some blaming a Romany vampiress, some a fairy obsessed with the night, some the devil, some his own unbreakable will. "-- and ever since he has haunted the shadows as Dracula!!" Blah, blah, blah, I vant to suck your bluhd.

Feh. All lies. Vlad III was actually well known among the vampires of his era as their unflinching adversary, and while they likely had enough of a sense of irony to have found the notion of transforming him into one of their slaves appealing, by the time he met his death, his body was in no condition to be transformed into one of the undead. Whatever hell he found for himself, it is not this one in which we live. Ask any scholar of Stoker's novel and they'll tell you that his Count is a poor match to the historical impaler, that Stoker was writing about a "Count Wampyr" until some mysterious stranger suggested he use Dracula as his model. (That one's a lie, too, but we'll get to it later.)

Vlad III was married multiple times, and had many children. By a Hungarian noblewoman named Illona, his eldest son was also named Vlad Dracula, who made a claim to the Wallachian throne but never ruled. The younger Vlad's own eldest son was given the name Ladislas Dracula, and became the administrator of Castle Hunedoara. His two sons, the younger Ladislas Dracula and John Dracula, were granted baronial titles by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1535, in honor of their ancestors' crusades. Ladislas had only one son, also named John, who married a woman named Anna, had no known children, and disappeared from history. And as we all know, where history ends, myth begins.

John Dracula de Band (to use his full name) was a scholarly man. And unfortunately, he was not a particularly wise scholarly man, as his studies soon led him into arcane and esoteric subjects. As some of the later stories suggested, his wife committed suicide, and he may have told himself at some point that his studies were directed towards the possibility of raising her from the dead, but if so he was kidding himself. Eventually, his studies uncovered a copy of the semi-legendary Book of the Great Scorpion. Using the rituals within, he was able to transform himself into a vampire, to ensure that he could continue to exist so as to gain further knowledge and power. Ever since, he has haunted the shadows as Dracula.

In the seventeenth century, he managed to inveigle himself into a position of caretaker of certain properties in the Borgo Pass region owned by descendants of his cousin George Dracula de Band after those descendants died out. Almost immediately, he began styling himself Count Dracula. The handful of local heroes who dared to oppose him were defeated with terrible ease, and he took steps to ensure that no tales of his deeds spread beyond the borders of his tiny kingdom. But overall, his was a quiet terror, and he spent most of the eighteenth century and the nineteenth in slumber, earthquakes marking his periodic awakenings.

After one such earthquake in 1893, he embarked on his first great war against the world. The full details of his visit to England have only recently come to light; suffice it to say that he failed to gain the foothold in the West that he sought, and yet retained many agents of his will even after he was forced to flee into the shadows. Such has been the consequence of every one of his campaigns since then -- he never wins, and yet he always ends up with a few advantages that he didn't have before. He always comes back, and he keeps getting stronger.

His fourth campaign, in the seventies and early eighties, laid the foundations for his current power base, when he inveigled -- or perhaps the word is seduced -- the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom into the belief that they shared common enemies and interests, and that he could be an effective weapon against those enemies. Much of what now exists in Britain is the product of that tryst -- the authoritarian regime, the ubiquitous surveillance (which means nothing to a vampire, of course) and the distancing from affairs of the continent. That isolation, in particular, serves Dracula's interests very well indeed.

However, many of his assets were expended last year when he attempted to extend his power even further, to New York City, which pitted him against Argus initially and later the Powerhouse. He was defeated, most notably losing his trio of 'brides', and Argus is now carefully monitoring all the sites believed to be his 'castle', making it harder for him to return to his homeland to rest and await a better day. But his influence over the British government, and that of Romania, remains unchecked, and he may have built up a network of agents, not all of whom are captured or identified, in America as well.

His revenge is just begun. He spreads it over centuries, and time is on his side.

Dracula -- PL 15

Abilities:
STR
7 | STA - | AGL 5 | DEX 5 | FGT 10 | INT 5 | AWE 4 | PRE 7

Powers:
Blood Drain:
Weaken Stamina 12 (Resisted by Fortitude), Grab-Based, Limited to Draining 1 rank per round - 4 points
Blood Link: Mental Communication 3, Limited to anyone who drinks his blood; Mind-Reading 8, Sensory Link, Limited to anyone who drinks his blood) - 25 points
Ghostly: Permanent Concealment 8 (audio, radio, visual), Limited to machines, Quirk (no reflection in mirrors) - 7 points
Sorcery: Array (47 points)
  • Call of the Wild: Summon Animals 2 (Bats, Rats, or Wolves), Horde, Mental Link, Multiple Minions 6, Dynamic - 2 points[/li]
  • Emotional Assault: Perception Ranged Cumulative Affliction 11 [Resisted and Overcome by Will; Impaired, Disabled, Incapacitated], Insidious, Subtle, Variable Descriptor [Emotions], Dynamic - 48 points[/li]
  • Lord of Storms: Environment 10 (3 points of effect), Selective, Dynamic - 2 points[/li]
  • Protean Form: Flight 3; Insubstantial 2; Morph 4 - 1 point[/li]
Spider-Climb: Movement 1 (Clinging) - 2 points
Undead: Immortality 6, Limited (not when staked or beheaded); Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects); Impervious Protection 12, Limited, Not Impervious against mystical damage; Regeneration 10, Source [coffin lined with Hungarian soil] - 58 points

Advantages:
Benefit 5 (Alternate Identity 4, Multi-millionaire), Connected, Fascinate (Persuasion), Improved Critical (Blood Drain), Improved Hold, Jack-of-all-trades, Languages 4 (many), Leadership, Power Attack, Ritualist, Startle

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+14), Deception 8 (+15), Expertise: History 6 (+11), Expertise: Magic 5 (+12), Insight 6 (+10), Intimidation 8 (+15), Perception 9 (+13), Persuasion 8 (+15), Stealth 6 (+11)

Offense:
Initiative +9
Unarmed +14 (Close Damage 7)
Blood Drain +10 (Close Weaken Stamina 12, Critical 19-20)
Emotional Assault -- (Perception Range Will 11)

Defense:
Dodge 14, Parry 14, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 12, Will 15.

Totals:
Abilities 76 + Powers 150 + Advantages 18 + Skills 30 + Defenses 24 = 298 points

Complications:
Power--Motivation. Compulsion
(must be invited into any privately-owned dwelling he does not own). Power Loss (All powers except Undead Invulnerability cannot be used in daylight hours.) Weakness (can be held back by a holy symbol in the hands of a sincere believer or by garlic).
Other Noteworthy Vampires

Carmilla Karnstein [PL 10]:
The novella by J. Sheridan LeFanu was based on a true story, and Carmilla was not best pleased by the wide reveal of her existence, even if the story ends with her dead, as she was clearly not. She haunted Central Europe up until the end of World War II, after which she departed for America, continuing her occasional predation on vulnerable young women. While unrepentant in her evil, she has been known to oppose other, greater evils that were a threat to her. She despises Dracula for attempting to make her into one of his 'brides'.

Lord Clarence Ruthven [PL 11]: The short story by John Polidori is fictional. However, George Gordon Byron became a vampire shortly before what history regards as his death, and whimsically adopted an alias inspired by a pair of characters based upon himself. Aside from occasional returns to the United Kingdom, he has largely resided in Greece and Turkey, engaged in various schemes to enrich himself at the expense of people he doesn't respect -- which includes pretty much everyone. He and Dracula have occasionally allied on schemes of mutual interest, but are more often rivals.

Orlock [PL 12]: While the film by F.W. Murnau is fictional, the government of the Second Reich experimented with vampiric essence in the 1890s to create a "super-soldier". The result was a hideous, inhuman monster who was only notionally under his handler's control, and who slipped that leash entirely in the early 1930s. Bereft of any memories of a mortal existence, he adopted the name of the cinematic vampire he most resembled. He has proven every bit as difficult to permanently destroy as Dracula, who is able to force him to do as the elder vampire bids.

Benedict Nichols [PL 9]: American vampire, unwillingly cursed with the affliction shortly after the Revolution. He was imprisoned for all of the 19th century and most of the 20th, until freed in the mid 1960s. He despises his state, and has fruitlessly sought a cure. Unlike most vampires, he strives to maintain some humanity, and feeds only on those he judges to be truly evil ... or who seriously annoy him. He was an ally of some worth to Jeremiah Wander. Nichols has never encountered Dracula, and believes him (and Carmilla, and Ruthven, and Orlock) to be fictional.

Blodörn [PL 9]: Swedish death metal performer who 'pretends' to be a vampire, taking sadistic amusement in making his chosen prey (groupies, mostly) beg him to drink their blood. The other members of his group are entirely in his thrall, serving as members of his cult. An active supporter of white supremacy and dark heathenry, Blodörn has claimed to be the inspiration for a certain fictional vampire musician. This is complete nonsense, as he only became a vampire in 1987. He soiled himself the one time he encountered Dracula, and would do anything the King commanded of him.

Mina Harker [PL 9]: Not her real name, but she'll use it all the same. Formerly one of Dracula's brides, she seized the opportunity to break Dracula's hold on her during the affair in New York, and then fled into the night. Rumors place her in London, hiding from the government's vampire hunters and plotting to kidnap "Lucy Westenra", who's been held prisoner by the English establishment since the end of the 19th century. While as merciless as any vampire, all that she wants is to be with the last being on Earth whom she still loves, in a place where no one can find them, harm them, or rule them. And enough blood to sustain them, of course.
Last edited by Davies on Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Baron Khan
Image

For the longest time, all that he wanted was for everyone in the world to know the suffering he once did, perhaps in the hope that if they were all broken as he had been, at least some of them would also emerge from it as he had, and he would have ... not friends, perhaps, but peers he could respect. But lately, he has developed a different ambition, as though re-evaluating the way that the world has changed over the course of his long life, and realizing that he will never be able to create the world he imagines from the clay that the present provides. The past, therefore, must change to suit him.

He first became known in the community of Russian exiles living in Japan in the late 1920s, under the name Lothar von Ungern-Sternberg, claiming to have been the child of the brief marriage of the notorious Mad Baron Roman von Ungern Sternberg to his mother, who'd died in childbirth soon after the marriage, in 1905. Even at the time, there were those who regarded this claim with skepticism, as the Young Baron, as he was called, seemed too old to have been born only two decades before. Nevertheless, he engaged in all manner of conspiracies during his time in Japan, always scheming towards the goal of a renewed global conflict.

In the rise of the Nazis, he saw an ideal tool for that goal, though he later claimed to have regarded their beliefs as contemptible. (Of course, he has nothing but contempt for any ideology that doesn't originate from himself.) He traveled to Germany and sought to make himself useful to the new order, frequently acting as an envoy to various mad scientists or criminal masterminds whose services were sought, such as the notorious Ivan Narangerel. But the Baron's ambitions of becoming part of the inner circle of Hitler's advisers were constantly thwarted.

By 1943, he'd finally had enough, and it was clear (to him) that the war would end within a few years, long before he wanted it to. Thus, he defected to the United States, hoping that he could influence the eventual victor of the war to continue it with the Soviets. These mad dreams were thwarted as well, and people began to take note of the fact that he no longer seemed older than his supposed age, but actually much younger. Frustrated, he turned from scheming to outright criminal activity, under the alias Baron Khan.

At last, in his first battle against the Futurian, he admitted the truth -- he was not Ungern-Sternberg's son, but possibly his remote ancestor. He had been born in the early 17th century, conscripted to fight in the Thirty Years War, and received a fatal wound in battle. In the fading moments of his consciousness, he glimpsed a brilliant flash of light, and he awoke an hour later, fully healed and stronger than he had ever been. War had taken his life, and then war returned it. War, then, was what the world deserved.

The Futurian was not sure how much of this to believe, but his analysis of the Baron's cells confirmed that he was indeed centuries old. Attempts to imprison him failed, as with many of the early supercriminals, but the Baron increasingly found the United States to be too hot for him. He fled the country, engaging in schemes in Asia and Europe. While in France in 1969, he encountered his most persistent opponents, in la Belle and la Bête. Much as with the Futurian, something about these two vexed him deeply.

Only recently, through the assistance of a mind probe, has he discovered the reasons for that. The possibility of gaining access to time travel, and reshaping the world so that the war he desires will have been both constant and ubiquitous, consumes his thoughts. All his schemes are now directed to that end. The possibility that this change in his desires serves the interests of someone other than himself, that he is not warrior but weapon, does not occur to him ...

Baron Khan -- PL 11

Abilities:
STR
7 | STA 8 | AGL 3 | DEX 4 | FGT 14 | INT 6 | AWE 4 | PRE 5

Powers:
Immortality:
Immortality 10; Immunity 7 (aging, disease, pain effects, poison, vampiric blood drain) - 27 points

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Benefit 4 (Billionaire), Connected, Defensive Attack, Evasion, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Jack-of-all-Trades, Leadership, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Startle, Takedown, Uncanny Dodge.

Skills:
Acrobatics 5 (+8), Athletics 5 (+12), Deception 8 (+13), Expertise: Conspiracy 8 (+14), Expertise: Military 8 (+14), Insight 10 (+14), Intimidation 8 (+13), Perception 6 (+10), Persuasion 6 (+11), Ranged Combat: Guns 8 (+12), Stealth 5 (+8), Vehicles 5 (+9).

Offense:
Initiative +7
Unarmed +14 (Close Damage 7)

Defense:
Dodge 12, Parry 14, Fortitude 11, Toughness 8, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 104 + Powers 27 + Advantages 20 + Skills 41 + Defenses 15 = 207 points

Complications:
Obsession With War--Motivation. Neither Understands Nor Appreciates Art. Vindictive.
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Eradicaton
Image
Primary mode
Image
Disguise mode

He's not altogether sure how long ago it was that everything changed for him; sometime between fifty and sixty orbits of this planet in the past, roughly. It would be simple enough to check his logs and see exactly when the event took place, then do the math of converting that to the units of time that the organics use ... but he can't really see the point. They're not supposed to know about it, anyway. No one is.

Back then, he was a minor functionary in his faction -- a non-entity, really -- charged with keeping infrastructure in their region of influence in working order. He likes to think that he was good at his job, but he knows that he probably wasn't. He certainly wasn't terribly enthusiastic about it, though there wasn't any real ambition in him to become something more, not then, only a craving to be recognized.

Regardless, he was given an assignment to do some maintenance on one of the older communications hubs in the region. No one seemed to know what the blasted thing was used for! He had to dig ridiculously ancient documents out of the archives in order to figure out how he was supposed to access it, much less what he was supposed to do when he got inside. Still, the systems were fairly simple, and most of them seemed intact, so he hooked himself up to do a diagnostic as it went online.

And. Then. He. Saw. IT.

It was a very different Ectotronian who stumbled out of the hub from the one who'd slouched in a while earlier. He returned to headquarters, quietly filed his last report to the maintenance division, and applied for a transfer to the military. It surprised his superiors, but with things starting to heat up on a number of different fronts, they needed all the cold bodies that they could get. The fixer was probably committing suicide, but that was his misfortune, and none of their own.

He not only survived, but thrived, becoming a titan of the battlefield, and more than that. He used barely-understood technologies that allowed him to not only increase his size, as many of his fellows did, but to reduce it to the point where he often slipped past the best sensors, making him the ideal spy, saboteur, and assassin. His enemies, and his allies, too, began to call him the Eradicating Aeon, or Eradicaton. The name amused him, given the givens.

After a few decades, he'd risen in the faction's ranks to where he helped to set policy, though he never stopped going into the field to help implement it. He was the one who suggested that they give any consideration to the offer that one group of Terrans made to them, and then, once they'd considered it, pushed for the alliance. That didn't work out very well for the rest of the faction, but he had plans that went far beyond that. With the intelligence that he received, he made an additional modification to his size-shifting field, and transported himself to Earth even as the other factions annihilated his former allies.

He didn't bother to continue his alliance with the Pythons once he'd arrived. His analysis of the situation told him that they were on their way out, and that there was no possibility that he could change that situation, even if he'd wanted to. It was unfortunate that he'd eventually run out of fuel without support from them, but the prospect of sleep did not terrify him, nor the dreams which would come. He knew that he would one day wake, when the hints that he'd left behind were discovered.

That happened some fifteen years after he went to sleep. When he was awakened, he listened with interest to what the human called Billie Zane had to say. Her goals seemed no more congruent with his own than Pythia's before her, and she was even more deluded. But what she told him about the current situation suggested some interesting possibilities, and so he agreed to work with her. ("For her", as she put it. Delusional, of course.)

The alliance didn't last terribly long, but it produced the results that he wanted, in that it gave him command of a group of human dissidents desperate for some greater power to lead and protect them. And oh, look, he was a greater power! He's honestly a bit surprised how fond he's become of these sad little organics, and will actually go to some lengths to keep them alive; they can only be tools, but any good maintainer knows that you should keep your tools in good working order.

None of them can know, though, that their master has a master, though he's only ever glimpsed that great being once, save in dreams. And he knows that unless he succeeds in delivering at least one world to the master when it passes through this solar system again, he'll be every bit as doomed as everything else. Two would be his preference. Three or four would be truly ideal ...

Eradicaton -- PL 13

Abilities:
STR
15/7 | STA -- | AGL 0 | DEX 2 | FGT 8 | INT 3 | AWE 4 | PRE 4

Powers:
Cannon:
Ranged Damage 7, Extended Range; Enhanced Ranged Damage 8, Quirk (1 rank per rank of Growth active) - 30 points
Reconstruction: Immortality 5 (minimum of 1 day), Check Required (Technology, DC 20) - 1 point
Robot in Disguise: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects); Morph 1 (self-propelled artillery); Impervious Protection 8 - 51 points
Sensors & Communications: Radio Communication 3; Senses 8 (accurate extended 2 radio, darkvision, direction sense) - 20 points
Size-shifting: Array (28 points)
  • Larger: Growth 8 (+8 Strength, +8 Protection, -4 Dodge, -4 Parry, +4 Intimidation, -8 Stealth, +1 Speed); Enhanced Growth 4 (-2 Dodge, -2 Parry, +2 Intimidation, -4 Stealth), No Strength or Protection - 28 points
  • Smaller: Flight 6 (120 MPH); Shrinking 8 (+4 Dodge, +4 Parry, +8 Stealth, -4 Intimidation, -1 Speed), Normal Strength - 1 point
  • Spacewarp: Extended Teleport 9 - 1 point
Wheels: Speed 4 (30 MPH) - 4 points

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Assessment, Eidetic Memory, Inspire 2, Leadership, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Ranged, Cover).

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+11), Deception 8 (+12), Expertise: Military 10 (+13), Insight 6 (+10), Intimidation 8 (+18/+12/+8), Ranged Combat: Cannon 9 (+11), Stealth 4 (-8/+4/+12), Technology 8 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +0
Unarmed +11 (Close Damage 15/7)
Cannon +11 (Ranged Damage 15/7)

Defense:
Dodge 8/14/18, Parry 8/14/18, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 16/8, Will 11

Totals:
Abilities 46 + Powers 135 + Advantages 8 + Skills 26 + Defenses 27 = 242 points

Complications:
Power--Motivation. Demands Loyalty, But Gives It In Return. Power Loss
(must take one round between uses of Cannon and Wheels). Secret (servant of a greater master). Weakness (requires large amounts of fuel or energy).
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Lord Carnifex
Image

Very little can be conclusively said about the entity who refers to himself as Lord Carnifex when speaking English. He -- and that gendering is an assumption that dates from the first time that the time-travelling villain first attacked the Institute, in 1963 -- has offered many different motivations for his decision to attack the heroes of Earth's twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His initial claim was that he was the ruler of Earth in the thirtieth century, who had decided to conquer Earth in every preceding century -- out of a desire to say that he'd done it, apparently -- and randomly picked 1963 as his twentieth century target.

However, it's not at all clear that that was the first attack from his own perspective, and, as if to confuse matters more, he has stated that he was (will be?) lying when he claimed to be from the thirtieth century, with other episodes mentioning eras ranging from the twenty-fifth to the frankly absurd three hundred and forty-second centuries. He has also stated that he is a human, an evolved human, a cyborg, an evolved cyborg, an evolved cockroach, and various sorts of alien. The story keeps changing, and each time Lord Carnifex either states that previous accounts were simply lies, or claims to have never made them in the first place. The possibility that there are multiple Lord Carnifexes has been seriously discussed, but there is no more proof of this hypothesis than there is of any other.

While being held captive during Lord Carnifex's 2007 invasion, Paragon took the opportunity to ask the would-be conqueror a few choice questions about his activities. Not his motivations -- he'd studied previous accounts, and knew that to be a dead end. But he asked why Lord Carnifex, if he wanted to conquer 'the present', he hadn't attacked between 1982 and 1998, when superheroes were incredibly few and far between? Why didn't he eliminate his opposition before they became a potential threat, or even in their infancy? Why did he treat it like an elaborate game?

"Because it is," Lord Carnifex answered. "And what makes you think I haven't done any of that, only to find the outcome so unsatisfying that I undid the results?" He went on to suggest that any time he'd been defeated in the past had been because his opposition had satisfied the 'victory condition' that he'd arbitrarily chosen before embarking on his scheme. Of course, he wasn't so kind as to tell anyone, especially Paragon, what the current 'victory condition' was. Not that it would be valid in subsequent encounters, anyway.

Aside from the rather disturbing things that this suggests about the psychology of this entity, the most distressing possibility that has recently come up in discussions about Lord Carnifex is the implication that he may be the outcome of the ongoing transhuman evolution of Exelion. Suggesting this is one of the few things that will genuinely outrage that distinguished gentleman, with furious denial his immediate response. Notwithstanding that, the control over time that Exelion demonstrates is very similar, in some respects, to the time manipulation that is Lord Carnifex's most reliable weapon. And Lord Carnifex's suggestion that any limitations he has are ultimately self-imposed recalls comments that Exelion has made about discovering that the limitations on time travel that he possessed, as the Futurian, were self-imposed.

Of course, there's also the possibility that the games that Lord Carnifex plays with our era are all part of one 'big game', and all these implications and stories are themselves all part of some strategy ...

Lord Carnifex -- PL 15

Abilities:
STR
7 | STA 7 | AGL 3 | DEX 5 | FGT 6 | INT 9 | AWE 5 | PRE 5

Powers:
Advanced Biology:
Immortality 10; Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) - 23 points
Armor: Removable (-13 points)
* Body Armor: Impervious Protection 7 - 14 points
* Life Support: Immunity 8 (environmental conditions, starvation and thirst, suffocation) - 8 points
* Time Vision: Senses 9 (postcognition, precognition, time sense) - 9 points
* Weapon Systems: Array (33 points)
  • Blasters: Ranged Damage 15, Accurate 3 -- 33 points
  • Tractor/Presser Beam: Move Object 16, Accurate - 1 point
Time Manipulation Basics: Enhanced Defenses 20 (Dodge 10, Parry 10); Movement 3 (time travel 3); Quickness 8; Speed 8 (500 MPH) - 42 points
Time Manipulation Mastery: Array (55 points)
  • Accelerate Aging: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 18 (Resisted by Fortitude; Fatigued, Exhausted, Transformed [elderly and feeble]), Reversible - 55 points
  • Temporal Banishment: Ranged Attack Movement 3 (Time Travel 3), Resisted by Dodge, Accurate 2, Extra Ranks 9 (DC 24), Precise, Reversible - 1 point
  • Temporal Stasis: Ranged Affliction 18 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Will; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobile, Paralyzed and Unaware), Extra Condition, Reversible - 1 point
  • Time Distortion Field: Burst Area Affliction 15 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Will; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobile, Paralyzed and Unaware), Extra Condition, Reversible - 1 point
Advantages:
Assessment, Benefit 5 (Billionaire), Chronal Memory, Connected, Contacts, Improved Initiative, Inventor, Languages 6, Ranged Attack 4, Redirect, Set-Up, Well-Informed.

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 7 (+13), Deception 7 (+12), Expertise: History 5 (+14), Expertise: Military 5 (+14), Expertise: Science 5 (+14) Insight 5 (+10), Intimidation 7 (+12), Investigation 2 (+11), Perception 5 (+10), Persuasion 4 (+9), Ranged Combat: Time Manipulation 3 (+8), Technology 5 (+14), Vehicles 8 (+13).

Offense:
Initiative +7
Unarmed +13 (Close Damage 7)
Blasters +15 (Ranged Damage 15)
Accelerate Aging +12 (Ranged Fortitude 18)
Temporal Banishment +16 (Ranged Attack 14, Resisted by Dodge)
Temporal Stasis +12 (Ranged Affliction 18, Resisted by Dodge)
Time Distortion Field -- (Burst Area Affliction 15, Resisted by Dodge)

Defense:
Dodge 14/4, Parry 16/6, Fortitude 11, Toughness 14/7, Will 11.

Totals:
Abilities 94 + Powers 178 + Advantages 24 + Skills 34 + Defenses 10 = 350 points

Complications:
Amusement--Motivation. Manipulative. Self-Imposed Limitations.
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Exelion
Image
Now
Image
Then

The year was 1938, and Jason Conrad (born Jason Korzeniowski), an engineering prodigy, was twenty-four years old. Based out of Brooklyn, he had until recently been a member of the Greater New York Science Fiction Club, but had followed several members whom he respected in quitting that group to form a different one in the previous year. He agreed with their view that science fiction authors (and scientists in general) should work towards the realization of a scientific world state. His own work had led him in directions which he (incorrectly) believed that no other human being had seriously explored, developing a working time displacement field generator.

As he'd been able to send lab rats forward a few hours in time with no apparent ill-effects, he deemed himself ready for a human experiment. Incorporating the generator into a futuristic outfit, he planned to skip forward a few weeks to the next meeting of the club, and reveal his invention to his fellow fanatics. Setting the belt buckle dial appropriately, Jason activated it ... and vanished.

For whatever reason, he didn't rematerialize until early in 1956, more than seventeen years later. Shocked at this development, and at all that had happened in the interval, Jason first sought to return to his point of departure to warn the world of what was coming. However, his attempts to reverse the polarity of the time displacement field, so as to allow that anachronous movement, were all met with failure. Eventually, he accepted his situation, and resolved to use his intelligence, and some of the other applications of his field, to continue the struggle for civilization in this new era, under the name of his former club -- as the Futurian, one of the first superheroes to emerge in that age.

The Futurian helped to found the Institute, but he was never seriously considered for the group's leader, owing to his left-wing connections. (Ironically, having learned about the course of Soviet history during his absence, he'd rejected his Trotskyist convictions before that, though he remained committed to the idea of a scientific world government.) He was a frequent opponent of Baron Khan in those years, as well as having a rather remarkable rogues' gallery of opponents equipped with various rayguns. All the while, he continued to tinker with his displacement field in hopes of achieving true time travel, which he learned was possible through a meeting with Bruce Rutherford, the inspiration for H.G. Wells' novel. But success in that goal eluded him for quite some time.

On the dark day in 1971, while attempting to persuade Stardust to halt his aggression, the Futurian was apparently disintegrated by Stardust's use of a ray unlike any that his prior foes had ever employed. In fact, Jason attempted to jump forward a few moments in order to demonstrate the futility of the conflict, only for the ray to interact oddly with the field. Consequently, he emerged nearly two thousand years later, in an era when the entire planet Earth was covered by a single city occupied by the posthuman descendants of humanity.

With the help of Metropolis' science council, the Futurian was finally able to alter his time field so as to go backwards in time, which could have allowed him to return to his own era. Yet he hesitated to do so. This time was, in many ways, the fulfillment of every dream that he'd ever had. All of humanity was united, peace had lasted for as long as anyone could remember, and no one was hungry or angry. He didn't quite fit in with the posthumans, but he hadn't ever really fit in back home, either. So he chose to stay, or at least to use this place as his new base for his adventures in time.

He looked much older, and was no longer wearing his familiar costume, when he finally did come back to the superheroic era, making a brief appearance to assist during Cerebron's attack but disappearing before anyone could offer him membership in the Powerhouse. Around the same time, he purchased some buildings in Cardiff and gave instructions to some builders. When he next appeared, in 2006, it was to establish the Futurian Academy for Superhuman Adolescents, the first school for would-be superheroes.

Exelion, as he now calls himself ('Jason' will just get a raised eyebrow, and 'Futurian' a rueful chuckle at best) tries to train his young charges so that their abilities are no danger to themselves or others. While absolute pacifism is probably not a feasible attitude for people in this era, he still strives to teach them to consider the ramifications of their actions, to choose mercy and kindness whenever possible. On the other hand, he also allows them to go on excursions without his personal supervision, knowing that there are things one can only learn through direct experience ... no matter how painful some of those experiences can be.

Part of the reason for that course of action is his own limitations. Apparently, Exelion is bound to the Academy's location due to circumstances that he refuses to discuss, and cannot leave it in 'the present'. He can leave the area by traveling into the present or the future, but cannot travel into a time period where he already exists. These rules appear to be absolute, but Exelion apparently is working to overcome them, just as he worked to overcome his inability to go backwards in time. Given his suspected connection to the time-traveling malefactor Lord Carnifex, that may not be such a good thing.

From off-hand comments that he's made, Exelion prefers to avoid dealing with most of his former colleagues because he knows exactly how many of them will meet their ends. That said, he will help any of them, or any superheroes in general, who seek out his assistance, though the help that they get will not always be the help that they want ...

The Futurian -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR
1 | STA 2 | AGL 4 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 6 | AWE 2 | PRE 2

Powers:
Time Travel Mechanism:
Removable (-15 points)
Time Travel Basics: Enhanced Advantages 4 (Defensive Roll, Improved Initiative 3), Enhanced Defenses 24 (Dodge 12, Parry 12); Movement 3 (time travel 2 [future]); Quickness 10; Speed 10 (2,000 MPH) - 52 points
Time Travel Tricks: Array (20 points)
[ul]
[li]Disruption Attack: Penetrating Damage 9, Accurate 2 - 20 points[/li]
[li]Phase Shift: Insubstantial 4 - 1 point[/li]
[/ul]

Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Close Attack 3, Inventor, Set-Up, Well-Informed.

Skills:
Deception 9 (+11), Expertise: Science 6 (+12), Insight 8 (+10), Investigation 5 (+11), Persuasion 9 (+11), Technology 6 (+12), Vehicles 8 (+11), Sleight of Hand 7 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +16
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 1)
Disruption Attack +11 (Close Damage 9)

Defense:
Dodge 16/4, Parry 16/4, Fortitude 9, Toughness 4/2, Will 8

Totals:
Abilities 48 + Powers 58 + Advantages 7 + Skills 29 + Defenses 13 = 155 points

Complications:
Doing Good--Motivation. Nervous Around Women. Secret Identity.


Exelion -- PL 12

Abilities:
STR
2 | STA 4 | AGL 6 | DEX 5 | FGT 6 | INT 8 | AWE 4 | PRE 4

Powers:
Advanced Biology:
Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) - 3 points
Time Travel Basics: Enhanced Advantages 4 (Defensive Roll, Improved Initiative 3); Enhanced Defenses 24 (Dodge 12, Parry 12); Movement 3 (time travel 3); Quickness 10; Speed 10 (2,000 MPH) - 54 points
Time Travel Tricks: Array (25 points)
  • Disruption Attack: Penetrating Damage 11, Accurate 2, Subtle - 25 points
  • Phase Shift: Insubstantial 4; Affects Insubstantial on Strength 2 - 1 point
  • Stasis Touch: Affliction 11 (Resisted by Will; Hindered & Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobile, Paralyzed and Unaware), Extra Condition, Accurate 2, Subtle - 1 point
Advantages:
Assessment, Beginner's Luck, Benefit 3 (millionaire), Chronal Memory, Close Attack 3, Inventor, Languages 4 (many, some that don't exist yet), Redirect, Set-Up, Well-Informed.

Skills:
Deception 9 (+13), Expertise: History 7 (+15), Expertise: Science 6 (+14), Expertise: Teaching 5 (+13), Insight 8 (+12), Investigation 5 (+13), Perception 8 (+12), Persuasion 9 (+13), Technology 6 (+14), Vehicles 8 (+13), Sleight of Hand 7 (+12).

Offense:
Initiative +18
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 2)
Disruption Attack +13 (Close Damage 11)
Stasis Touch +13 (Close Will 11)

Defense:
Dodge 18/6, Parry 18/6, Fortitude 11, Toughness 6/4, Will 10

Totals:
Abilities 78 + Powers 74 + Advantages 17 + Skills 39 + Defenses 13 = 221 points

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Cannot Leave Academy Grounds in the Present. Cannot Exist More Than Once In The Same Era. Curious. Pacifist Until Provoked.
Last edited by Davies on Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Ladybird
Image

Karen Nichols liked to think of herself as a fairly typical Canadian teenager, growing up in Edmonton's suburb of St. Albert. Sure, she'd actually read every page of her smartphone's manual, and she'd rebuilt an old desktop computer so that it worked like a thousand times better than a new model, but that was just a hobby. She was just as interested in fashion and entertainment as she was in electronics and mechanics. And, like pretty much everyone else, she was fascinated by superheroes.

The one flaw in that was that there weren't a lot of Canadian superheroes to fascinate her. As the new wave had gotten started, a small group of plucky Canadian heroes had banded together in imitation of the Powerhouse, but they'd all either died or retired after the events of 2007, except for the dog ... and no one was really sure where the dog was, these days. Karen didn't mind reading about American or international heroes, but she wished that there were more at home, too.

Then one day one of her friends, hearing her talk about this again, asked her the question that changed her life: "So why don't you go be a hero then?" Karen thought about the question, and couldn't think of a good reason not to do something like that! (The possibility of a painful demise seemed remote.) Back in the 60s, Canada had had an entire team of powered-armor types called the Golden Eagles, and she'd recently read up on the specs of their suits. So she worked in secret to build a suit of her own.

Lo and behold, the thing actually worked! Taking it up for its first flight was one of the most exhilirating moments of her life thus far, even if she couldn't find any serious crime to fight. When Karen sauntered back whistling into her family home, however, she was greeted by her parents glaring at her in an incredibly unsympathetic way while footage of her flight played on the evening news. Apparently, her certainty that she was concealing her latest project from them had been in error.

The 'rents didn't really object to her going off to be a superhero in general, but they did specifically have a few problems with the idea of her doing that without adequate training or, ahem, supervision. So they gave her an ultimatum -- if she wanted to keep doing this sort of thing, she was going to be packed off to some boarding school in the U.K. where she could learn how to do it right. Otherwise, they'd make her dismantle the suit and forget all about this. It was really no choice at all.

The upside of it was that she suspects that if her parents had had any idea how much craziness she was going to get into at the Academy, they probably never would have even considered it as an option. Out of the school's twenty students, she's probably the leading tech-head, and strives to be everyone's best friend, or second best at least. She's even managed to get something at least vaguely resembling a smile out of Naru Hasegawa, the school's compsci instructor, at least once. Despite everything -- and she really finds what she's learning about Britain to be really disturbing -- she still views all of this as a grand adventure.

In combat, Ladybird prefers to hang back and shoot from a distance, since she's much less equipped for hand to hand than most of her teammates. That said, she's better equipped to mix it up close than some of them, so she frequently tasks herself to act as a bodyguard. She constantly tinkers with her armor's systems, sometimes supplementing her tried and true weapons with experimental ones, though, in keeping with the Academy's philosophy, she prefers to use lower-lehality ones wherever possible. Her biggest contribution to the team, though, is her rather large pocketbook, courtesy of her parents. She sometimes worries about the possibility that this will dry up if they ever find out what she gets up to ...

Ladybird -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR
5/0 | STA 0 | AGL 1 | DEX 1 | FGT 6/2 | INT 6 | AWE 2 | PRE 2

Powers:
Ladybird Armored Suit: Removable (-14 points)
* Armored Shell: Impervious Protection 6 - 12 points
* Communications Systems: Radio Communications 2 - 8 points
* Cybernetic Controls: Enhanced Defenses 4 (Dodge 4) - 4 points
* Rocket Turbines: Flight 7 (250 MPH) - 14 points
* Sealed Systems: Immunity 10 (life support) - 10 points
* Sensors: Senses 2 (extended vision, infravision) - 2 points
* Weapon Array: Array (18 points)
  • Electro-Stunner: Ranged Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated), Accurate 3 - 21 points
  • Electro-Blaster: Ranged Damage 9, Accurate 3 - 1 point
  • Strength and Accuracy Booster: Enhanced Fighting 4; Enhanced Strength 5 - 1 point
Advantages:
Benefit 2 (Independently Wealthy), Defensive Attack, Equipment, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Language (French), Move-by Action, Well-Informed

Equipment:
Smartphone and 3 points as needed.

Skills:
Expertise: Popular Culture 3 (+9), Expertise: Science 4 (+10), Insight 6 (+8), Perception 5 (+7), Persuasion 4 (+6), Ranged Combat: Weapon Systems 6 (+7) Technology 4 (+10)

Offense:
Initiative +1
Unarmed +6/+2 (Close Damage 5/0)
Electro-Stunner +7 (Ranged Fortitude 9)
Plasma-Blaster +7 (Ranged Damage 9)

Defense:
Dodge 10/6, Parry 9/5, Fortitude 2, Toughness 6/0, Will 6

Totals:
Abilities 28 + Powers 56 + Advantages 9 + Skills 16 + Defenses 14 = 123 points

Complications:
Thrills--Motivation. Minor. Power Loss
(Weapon Systems have limited charge). Prejudice (Canadian in England).
Last edited by Davies on Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Black Mouser
Image

Anna Catrin Griffiths has been a resident of the Academy longer than any of the other students who make up the Class of 2024, though she only began her formal studies last year. She was found asleep at the Academy gates not long after they opened for the first time, wrapped in a blanket with no means of identification. The most likely explanation is that she was abandoned there by a family, or single parent, who were unable to cope with the fact that their daughter had obvious physical mutations. She was roughly three years old at the time.

Exelion, through some careful detective work, has located the most likely candidates to have been Anna's biological parents, and has decided to tell her about them when she turns eighteen. For her part, Anna has decided that she will never seek out such information, as she doubts that a meeting with these people would make either herself or them happy. She chooses to frame her experience in the idea that her biological family gave her the best gift they could give her: the opportunity to grow up in an environment where her unique appearance was not regarded with suspicion or hatred.

That maturity has also led her to take the role of her team's sergeant, supporting its titular leader and working to make their plans both feasible and functional, rather than acting as the leader herself. She's also the group's infiltration expert and tracker, though the latter speciality rarely comes up, given that their opponents are usually not subtle enough to avoid leaving a trail that anyone could follow. Her lack of ranged options is probably her biggest weakness, and she hasn't yet come up with a way to overcome that and still remain within her theme.

In terms of her personality, Anna usually demonstrates a rather dry and ironic sense of humor, delivering sly commentary on the absurdities she encounters with a completely deadpan expression. She can easily shift from needing a great deal of distance from her fellows to desiring considerable closeness with them. She satisfies the former need by going out alone at night and patrolling Cardiff from the shadows; the latter will usually result in her snuggling up against a teammate while they're both idle. Unfortunately for some of her fellows, however, she has come to the conclusion that she's probably aromantic (though not asexual) so relationships are not on the menu.

Her closest personal connection is with Exelion, whom she regards as her actual parent. As such, she is probably the student most committed to his philosophy of rational pacifism, though her abilities and skill set ensure that when she does resort to violence, she also fully commits to that as well. A mouser does not try to bring their prey back alive, after all.

Black Mouser -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR
4 | STA 6 | AGL 6 | DEX 4 | FGT 10 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 1

Powers:
Claws:
Strength-based Damage 2, Improved Critical - 3 points
Feline Senses: Senses 3 (Low-Light Vision, Acute and Tracking Olfactory) - 3 points
Feline Movement: Leaping 3 (60 feet); Movement 3 (Safe Fall, Sure-Footed, Trackless); Speed 4 (30 MPH) - 13 points

Advantages:
Agile Feint, All-Out Attack, Diehard, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Initiative, Language (English, [Welsh is native]), Move-by Action, Takedown

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+12), Athletics 8 (+12), Perception 9 (+11), Stealth 7 (+13)

Offense:
Initiative +10
Unarmed +10 (Close Damage 4)
Claws +10 (Close Damage 6, Crit 19-20)

Defense:
Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude 9, Toughness 6, Will 6

Totals:
Abilities 68 + Powers 19 + Advantages 11 + Skills 15 + Defenses 11 = 124 points

Complications:
Acceptance--Motivation. Minor. Prejudice
(mutations).
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Leverage
Image

When Carlos Loyola was born and started levitating almost as soon as he was set down in his bassinet, it didn't arouse much comment from the well-paid private physicians and nurses who handled the birth. As with a number of very old money families, it was fairly common for members of the Loyola family to have such abilities and keep them a well-guarded secret. Carlos, privately educated until he turned thirteen, was taught the same virtues of secrecy and self-control that his family had practiced for centuries, and showed every sign of being a proud and worthy scion of his people.

And then puberty hit him like a brick, and his powers went nova -- becoming much greater in scope than they'd ever been before, and thus well beyond his ability to control. A number of incidents that were likewise beyond the ability of his family to cover up exposed him as a superhuman to the general public, and caused a few of Spain's more ambitious and capable investigative journalists to start looking at old reports about other members of the clan with new eyes. It was decided that the best thing to do would be to get Carlos out of the country until the heat died down, and one of his uncles remembered a favor owed them from decades before.

And so Carlos was enrolled in the Academy prematurely (unlike most of his classmates, he was only fourteen at the start of his first year, and turned fifteen only a few months ago) with instructions that he must either master his abilities or not bother to come back home. He has taken this charge to heart, and now rarely experiences the sort of telekinetic outburst that started this whole mess. 'Rarely', however, is not good enough for him, and so he continues his training, hoping to go beyond 'getting it right' to a point where he can't 'get it wrong'.

However, he realizes that he can't just spend the next four years in constant struggle. His tutors always made it very clear to him that the powers that his family possessed were decidedly less important to their rise than the ability to make and sustain connections with other persons of influence, and Carlos intends to develop as many connections with his fellow students as possible. He realized almost immediately that his reflexively-adopted persona of 'the young prince' was not going to win him many friends, and so he's striving to seem like a somewhat humbled individual who's realized that he's in a much larger pond than he used to be. It's a complete pretense, of course, but people have been known to become what they pretend to be if they pretend for too long.

Carlos' true nature is that of an immensely ambitious young man. Raised to believe in his superiority, his exposure has made him question the validity of his family's commitment to secrecy. Wouldn't it be better -- for himself, for his family, even for the entire world -- if they openly admitted what they were and openly held the reins of power that they now covertly clutch? His study of history, focusing on this history of his family, has shown him that there were so many times when they chose secrecy over influence, and those choices seem to contradict everything that his family supposedly values. When he masters his powers and graduates from the academy, he intends to return and not only join his family, but seize control of it ... and possibly much else as well.

And so, he continues to develop his social and psychic abilities, so as to develop the maximum amount of both sorts of leverage, with particular emphasis on providing a different style of leadership than his group's official leader can provide, a more encouraging and supportive style. Eventually, he's sure, the success of these tactics will result in the titular leadership being bestowed on the one to whom it rightfully belongs. In combat, he keeps his distance and uses his powers as something of a blunt instrument, though also employing them to protect his teammates when need be. He needs them to respect him, and they can't do that while unconscious.

While he's much richer than most of his classmates, his access to that wealth is carefully monitored, and so he doesn't actually have much more disposable money than they do. This only bothers him a little. A much greater problem is that he's realizing that he is attracted to a certain person that he really shouldn't be attracted to. While trained to believe that romance is for poets, and that his relationships would always be carefully managed by his family, he's questioning the rightness of that tradition, too. It's possible that, if this attraction develops into a relationship, that will soften some of his harder edges. Then again, perhaps not.

Leverage -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR
0 | STA 1 | AGL 2 | DEX 2 | FGT 0 | INT 2 | AWE 4 | PRE 2

Powers:
Basic Telekinesis:
Move Object 8, Accurate 3 - 19 points
Telekinetic Flight: Flight 5 (60 MPH), Distracting - 5 points
Telekinetic Shield: Sustained Impervious Protection 8 - 16 points
Telekinetic Tricks: Array (19 points)
  • Telekinetic Bolt: Ranged Damage 8, Accurate 3 - 19 points
  • Telekinetic Constructs: Moveable Create 6 - 1 point
  • Telekinetic Hammer: Ranged Burst Area Damage 6 - 1 point
Advantages:
Connections, Inspire, Language (English, [Spanish is native]), Well-informed.

Skills:
Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: High Society 5 (+7), Expertise: History 4 (+6), Insight 5 (+9), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 6 (+8)

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed + 0 (Close Damage 0)
Telekinetic Bolt +8 (Ranged Damage 8)
Telekinetic Hammer -- (Ranged Burst Area Damage 6

Defense:
Dodge 7, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Toughness 9/1, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 26 + Powers 61 + Advantages 4 + Skills 15 + Defenses 17 = 123 points

Complications:
Ambition--Motivation. Hard To Be Humble When You're Perfect In Every Way. Minor. Prejudice
(Spaniard in the UK).
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Prelude
Image

Two years ago, Trouble found herself dealing with a ring of car thieves who'd set up shop in Pike Place Market and were terrorizing the locals. It was a fairly simple evening's work for her, made slightly more complicated by the arrival and interference of a much younger costumed crimefighter. While she was slightly impressed by the talent that he demonstrated, she didn't approve of children involving themselves in adult business like this. (This might seem hypocritical, given her own background, but Trouble would never wish her history on anyone else.)

When it was over, the masked youth anxiously asked how he'd done, and if he was now her sidekick. Trouble, who neither wanted nor needed a sidekick, explained this to him, but his response convinced her that he was taking this no to mean 'continue to persuade me'. He fled into the night, continuing to demonstrate some impressive stealth skills for one so young ... but not enough to escape from a veteran of two decades in the superhero business. She followed him to the loft where he was squatting and settled in to learn about this person.

His name was Neal Porter, age thirteen, and this was not the first time he'd crossed her path. Six years before that, she'd uncovered proof that his father was running a money laundering operation for the Garzonas crime family, and brought about his arrest. Mr. Porter kept his mouth shut during his trial, and went to prison for his bosses ... who thanked him by making sure that the guy who shivved him during his first week in prison never got out of solitary.

Neal's mother quickly found a new husband who was, unfortunately, not at all interested in raising someone else's son. Thus the boy found himself shuffled off to his grandparents, and then out on the street after they both died within a week of each other four years later. He sought out the help of the Garzonas, but was told that any debts that they owed his family had been paid long before, and that they had all the teenaged runners that they could possibly want already.

Abandoned by both family and 'family', Neal found himself thinking about the one person involved in all this who'd demonstrated a consistent pattern of integrity -- Trouble. He grew somewhat obsessed with her, and decided to train himself to become her kid sidekick, seeking a place to belong. In the process, he developed the ability he called 'battlesense', a state of heightened awareness and reflex speed that made him a formidable combatant despite no real experience.

Feeling a certain sense of responsibility for what had happened, and a recognition that Neal was, like her, just trying to make sense of a crazy world, Trouble agreed to work with him. (Sam was not happy about this, and it led to their first real argument.) After just a few months, however, she reached the conclusion that her life and approach to crimefighting was just too dangerous for someone as inexperienced as 'Prelude', but wasn't sure how to arrange for him to get the experience that he needed. And then she thought of the Academy.

Neal's test scores and experience have marked him out as an effective tactical leader for his team, and he strives to live up to that assignment. Ultimately, though, this whole situation is only a stepping stone for him before he gets back to where he belongs, at Trouble's side. As such, he tries to avoid dealing with his fellow students in anything other than what he imagines is a professional manner. He's explicitly said that he's not there to make friends, but to learn how to be a superhero, and politely but firmly pushes away anyone who tries to get close to him.

Fundamentally, there's a deep difference between himself and his former mentor. Where Trouble seeks an end to conflict, and would prefer to live out her life without ever being in any more fights, Prelude fundamentally welcomes conflict and chaos, thriving on it as a way to avoid dealing with the pain of his losses. He actually understands this, and it is his dream to eventually transcend Trouble and become someone who can protect her, instead of the other way around. Whether this is a reasonable goal remains to be seen. (Signs point to no, though.)

Prelude -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR
1 | STA 2 | AGL 3 | DEX 3 | FGT 8/6 | INT 4 | AWE 3 | PRE 2

Powers:
Battlesense:
Linked Enhanced Advantage 5 (Ranged Attack 5) and Enhanced Fighting 2, Activation (Standard Action) - 7 points

Advantages:
Agile Feint, Assessment, Contacts, Defensive Roll 2, Equipment 7, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Initiative, Instant Up, Jack-of-all-trades, Leadership, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 2.

Equipment:
Smartphone, Restraints, Flashlight, Multi-tool, Rebreather - 6 points
Motorcycle: Size: Medium; STR 1; Speed 6 (ground); Defense 10; Toughness 8 - 10 points
Swingline: Movement 1 (Swinging) - 2 points
Utility Belt: Array (12 points)
  • Bolos: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 4 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Damage; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobilized), Extra Condition, Limited Degree - 12 points
  • Boomerangs: Strength-based Ranged Damage 1, Accurate 2 - 1 point
  • Explosives: Ranged Burst Area Damage 4 - 1 point
  • Power-Knuckles: Strength-based Damage 3, Improved Critical, Inaccurate - 1 point
  • Taser: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 4 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 1 point
  • Tear-Gas Pellets: Range Cloud Area Affliction 4 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed and Visually Impaired, Stunned and Visually Disabled), Extra Condition, Limited Degree - 1 point
Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+11), Athletics 8 (+9), Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+14/+12), Expertise: Streetwise 4 (+8), Insight 5 (+8), Investigation 6 (+10), Perception 5 (+8), Stealth 8 (+11), Technology 6 (+10), Vehicles 6 (+9)

Offense:
Initiative +7
Unarmed +14/+12 (Close Damage 1)
Power Knuckles +12/+10 (Close Damage 4)
Bolos +10/+5 (Ranged Affliction 4, Resisted by Dodge)
Taser +10/+5 (Ranged Fortitude 4)
Boomerangs +14/+9 (Ranged Damage 2)
Explosives - (Ranged Burst Area Damage 4)
Tear Gas Pellet - (Ranged Cloud Area Fortitude 4)

Defense:
Dodge 7, Parry 9/7, Fortitude 6, Toughness 7/2, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 48 + Powers 7 + Advantages 21 + Skills 32 + Defenses 15 = 123 points

Complications:
Recognition--Motivation. Minor. Obsession
(Trouble). Prejudice (American in the U.K). Secret Identity.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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Voltron64
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Voltron64 »

Davies wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2020 7:19 pm Karen Nichols liked to think of herself as a fairly typical Canadian teenager, growing up in Edmonton's suburb of St. Albert. Sure, she'd actually read every page of her smartphone's manual, and she'd rebuilt an old desktop computer so that it worked like a thousand times better than a new model, but that was just a hobby. She was just as interested in fashion and entertainment as she was in electronics and mechanics. And, like pretty much everyone else, she was fascinated by superheroes.

The one flaw in that was that there weren't a lot of Canadian superheroes to fascinate her. As the new wave had gotten started, a small group of plucky Canadian heroes had banded together in imitation of the Power Company, but they'd all either died or retired after the events of 2007, except for the dog ... and no one was really sure where the dog was, these days. Karen didn't mind reading about American or international heroes, but she wished that there were still some at home, too.
Then what's Paragon, chopped liver?
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

... well that's embarrassing. She views Ontario as a different country?

Edited so that it's "more at home", rather than "still some at home".
Last edited by Davies on Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Shockwave
Image

The gillpeople of Atlantis are not quite as mutation-prone as the people of the surface world, but 'not quite' should not be confused for 'not at all'. The latest example of this is a young member of Atlantis' military, who demonstrated strength and stamina much greater than those of a normal Atlantean during his physical examination. While the military normally just places such wild talents in special units, a different decision was made in this particular case by the royal family's chief advisor.

The Atlanteans are not interested in the surface. However, their leaders are not blind to the fact that the surface, or at least some factions of the surface, are interested in them, and are uncertain of their ability to resist the possibly hostile intentions of those groups. While they have had assistance from Nereus and Havfrue, among other surface heroes, becoming dependent on them is not in their interests. So a plan was developed to send a representative to learn how to be a 'superhero'. The original plan, to send one of their water-controlling adepts, was scrapped when Bahukka's abilities were discovered.

Bahukka is something of an innocent. He views his current situation as a somewhat unusual duty assignment, and intends to complete it to the best of his ability. If command wants him to learn from these surfacers, he'll learn everything that they have to teach him. He doesn't understand why he got this assignment, as the idea that he's something unusual has not fully sunk in. He understands that he's much stronger than a typical surfacer, but not that he's also much stronger than a typical Atlantean.

Despite that blind spot, he's actually also much more imaginative and insightful than a typical Atlantean, and has adjusted well to the idea that the military way of doing things is not appropriate for a student at the Academy. Notably, he understands that it's important to use his blaster in less-lethal ways, and has actually taken to these instructions like a bird takes to the sky. (You expected a different analogy there, didn't you?) While always starting from the position that people, whether his own kindred or those of the surface, generally mean well, he's not bothered when it's shown that specific individuals don't. "The currents of Mother Ocean do not all flow the same way."

In combat, Shockwave tends to close, and prefers to remove enemies from combat by grappling them, ideally seeking to put them in holds so his teammates can get their own hits in. Generally, he reserves his blaster trident for targets who are out of reach or whom it would be dangerous to wrestle -- people who are on fire, for example. He doesn't enjoy swimming in Cardiff's lakes and rivers, but will if that's the best way to pursue someone.

Shockwave -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR
9 | STA 7 | AGL 4 | DEX 4 | FGT 7 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 1

Powers:
Aquatic:
Immunity 3 (cold, drowning, pressure); Movement 1 (Environmental Adaptation—Aquatic); Senses 1 (Low-Light Vision); Swimming 7 (60 MPH) - 13 points
Blaster Trident: Ranged Damage 8; Easily Removable (-6 points) - 10 points

Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Chokehold, Great Endurance, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Language (English [Atlantean is native]), Teamwork

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+9), Expertise: Military 5 (+6), Intimidation 5 (+6), Insight 4 (+6), Perception 5 (+7), Vehicles 4 (+8).

Offense:
Initiative +4
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 9)
Blaster Trident +4 (Ranged Damage 8)

Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 9, Fortitude 8, Toughness 7, Will 5

Totals:
Abilities 70 + Powers 23 + Advantages 7 + Skills 15 + Defenses 8 = 123 points

Complications:
Loyalty--Motivation. Inhuman Appearance. Lack of Familiarity With Surface Culture. Weakness
(lack of regular exposure to water).
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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