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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

The Sea Dragons/海の竜
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The current Sea Dragon team.

In 1996, the managers of the Hinotori thinktank, based in Tokyo, reported to their government that their hyperbrains had achieved a number of breakthroughs -- notably the creation of an alloy with a tensile strength similar to steel mesh and a weight similar to nylon, a variety of miniaturized electromagnetic projectors, and sophisticated cybernetic controls -- that possessed remarkable synergistic potential. Specifically, these discoveries could be, and had been, combined to create a suit of clothes that could empower their wearer, turning an ordinary human being into a superpower. It seemed that an effective super-soldier process had at last been discovered, and the Japanese government immediately ordered the creation of a small number of these suits for use by the Self Defense Forces.

That was when the difficulty emerged. The first suit manufactured, fashioned in red and white after the Hinomaru, was assigned to Captain Saotome Hikaru of the Air Self Defense Forces. He wore it proudly for roughly one minute before he dropped dead on the spot. The autopsy revealed that his internal organs had suffered incredibly rapid aging, as though he had lived roughly one year for every second he had worn the suit. Subsequent tests, even using the other suits, had similar results. (It has since been theorized that one of the inventors deliberately sabotaged the suits, though their reasons for having done so remain unclear; the most likely suspect committed suicide shortly after the prototypes were delivered.)

For a time, it seemed that a great deal of lives and money had been expended to no point and purpose, as is distressingly common for this sort of research, and the suits were returned to Hinotori for storage. A few months later, however, during the first daikaiju attack, janitor Naoya Shotaro impulsively donned the prototype suit and launched himself into battle against the monster, hoping that he could accomplish something before he died, whether because of the suit or in combat. While his contribution to the defense of Tokyo was ultimately judged to be minimal, by the time that his unconscious form was recovered, it was noted that Naoya had worn the suit for more than an hour without suffering as previous users had.

It soon became apparent that those who had claimed that the suits 'turn[ed] an ordinary human being into a superpower' had spoken more literally than they knew. Counterintuitively, the technology used by the costume placed a greater stress on the biology of a skilled or accomplished person who wore it than it did on the biology of someone without much training or experience. Naoya Shotaro, a high school drop-out, was therefore able to use it safely where Saotome Hikaru, a highly-trained veteran pilot with several doctorates, was unable to do so. He was asked to continue to use the suit as a superhero, and to assist in selecting additional individuals to wear the others. He selected a number of young people of his acquaintance, who often had attitude problems.

In the quarter-century since then, the Sea Dragons (as they have come to be called) have been the mainstays of the Japanese superpower community, with a team consisting of five individuals -- often youths -- who typically serve no more than three years before they can no longer safely use the suits. Ironically, many of them become victims of their own success, as developing the talent to use the suit effectively increases the stress that it places on their health. After "graduating" from active duty, many of them continue to serve as members of the support team for the organization, following in the footsteps of Naoya, who has become the director of the Hinotori Institute that maintains the suits and their users. (Having used the first suit for four years, he resembles a man in his seventies and is an excellent advertisement for the dangers of staying active for too long.)

An additional difficulty that Sea Dragon operatives face is that they are required to keep their identities a secret from the general public. While this is not uncommon among superheroes, it is not a choice for the Sea Dragons; should any of them deliberately reveal to another person -- through any means -- that they use the suit, it immediately and irrevocably ceases to function. Bewilderingly, persons who discover the truth independently of such deliberate reveals, as with the support staff, do not cause this power loss. The reasons for this are every bit as mysterious as the requirements for a person to use the suits safely.

Sea Dragon -- PL 9

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

Powers:
Instant Change: Feature 1 (instant change to or from Sea Dragon Costume) - 1 point
Sea Dragon Costume: Removable (-25 points) - 100 points
* Amazing Confidence: Enhanced Advantages 11 (Fearless 2, Jack-of-all-trades, Ranged Attack 8); Enhanced Defenses 20 (Dodge 4, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Will 8); Impervious Will 8, Limited to Mental Effects - 35 points
* Dragon Wings: Flight 8 (500 MPH), Aquatic, Concentration, Wings - 5 points
* Physical Enhancement: Enhanced Advantages 5 (Agile Feint, Defensive Roll, Evasion, Power Attack, Takedown); Enhanced Agility 6; Enhanced Fighting 6; Enhanced Stamina 6; Enhanced Strength 6; Immunity 10 (life support) - 63 points
* Weapons: Array (19 points)
  • Energy Blast: Ranged Damage 10, Activation (Move Action, -1 point) - 19 points
  • Energy Burst: Ranged Burst Area Damage 7, Activation (Standard Action, -2 points) - 1 point
  • Flare: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Visually Impaired, Visually Disabled, Visually Unaware), Limited to One Sense - 1 point
  • Shocker: Ranged Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 1 point
Advantages:
Agile Feint, Defensive Roll, Evasion, Fearless 2, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 8, Takedown, Teamwork

Skills:
Deception 4 (+5), Expertise: Pop Culture 4 (+5), Expertise: Science 4 (+5), Insight 3 (+4), Perception 3 (+4).

Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 6)
Energy Blast +8 (Ranged Damage 10)
Shocker +8 (Ranged Fortitude 9)
Energy Burst -- (Ranged Burst Area Damage 7)
Flare -- (Ranged Burst Area Fortitude 9)

Defense:
Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude 10, Toughness 8/6, Will 8

Totals:
Abilities 6 + Powers 101 + Advantages 1 + Skills 9 + Defenses 0 = 117 points

Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 9
Skill PL: 0

Complications:
Varies, But Always Heroic--Motivation. Secret Identity.

Note: Experienced Sea Dragon operatives might have Leadership, Acrobatics, Close Combat: Unarmed or Stealth skills, additional Expertises, and possibly slightly higher mental abilities. They cannot have Skill PL 4 or higher, however.

誰だ 誰だ 誰だ 空のかなたに踊る影
"Who is it, who is it, who is it/That shadow dancing in the sky"
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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Tattooedman
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Tattooedman »

Nicely done.
Jabroniville wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:45 pm
LOl- "The Tattooed Man"? What kind of ABSOLUTE DILDO would refer to himself as "The Tattooed Man" :P!?!
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Thank you!
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
greycrusader
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by greycrusader »

Very intriguing! The mystery behind the Sea Dragon suits are a worthy story arc for certain! Perhaps the sabotage of the suits involved an arcane curse or really esoteric science (beyond even a “normal” Hyperbrain? Are you planning on ever revealing more?

All my best
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

greycrusader wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 4:04 am Very intriguing! The mystery behind the Sea Dragon suits are a worthy story arc for certain! Perhaps the sabotage of the suits involved an arcane curse or really esoteric science (beyond even a “normal” Hyperbrain? Are you planning on ever revealing more?
I wasn't, but ... isn't it sort of interesting that something a bit like this had happened before? And these aren't the only superpower costumes out there; could there be a connection?

Thanks always!
"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 »

Kusunoki Izuku/楠木出久
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The members of the Ghost Sweepers can be roughly divided between those who believe that the entities from which they draw their powers are independent entities, and those who believe that they are manifestations of parts of their own consciousnesses. Kusonoki Izuku, who draws a power that enhances his intellect from what may be the ghost of 16th century magician/inventor Kashin Koji, is right in the middle of this divide. On the one hand, as a scientist, he is not inclined to accept spiritual explanations for the phenomena he experiences; on the other, it has been observed that there is no member of the team who is as scrupulous about maintaining the taboos that the spirit demands of him.

But that principle does not arise from faith, but rather fear. Early on in his time with the Ghost Sweepers -- he joined the team in 2017, after being discovered building robots in his high school mechanic shop -- Izuku was exposed to a weapon that temporarily severed his connection to the spirit. While still able to use the devices that he had already built, he found it difficult to repair them, and experienced a unique terror when he attempted to consult his notes on the subject and found that he could not understand them, despite recognizing his own writing. That experience, and the understanding of just how much could have potentially gone wrong if he had opened up any of his devices, is what inspires him to be very careful about keeping the ghost happy, regardless of whether it is really a ghost.

Aside from that concern, Izuku is a well-adjusted individual, who enjoys the simple pleasures of the world he wants to help protect. He is a huge fan of special effects movies, and has dreams of one day working to make them if he should ever lose his powers. He also has built friendships with all of his teammates, especially Tetsu, for whom he performs routine maintenance. This has occasionally caused difficulties, as Izuku has to fight the tendency to treat Tetsu as a machine instead of a mechanical person.

While often not thrilled to have to join the Ghost Sweepers in the field -- his offensive capabilities are useful only in specialized circumstances, and his defensive ones are not that impressive -- he understands that his skills are vital when they are needed. He is the only one with the capacity to enter the subspace dimensions ("kekkai") that their opponents sometimes create, and the only one who can help the team to beat a hasty retreat from such broken worlds when necessary. He also sometimes acts as the wheelman for the team, and enjoys such episodes a lot. Besides which, given that Sayo often acts independently, there would only be four field operatives if he stayed back -- and that would be terribly bad luck.

Kusunoki Izuku -- PL 8

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

Powers:
Ghost Traps: Array (25 points); Removable (-5 points)
  • Anti-Incorporeal Ordinance: Burst Area Cumulative Affliction 8 (Resisted by Will; Hindered, Immobile, Paralyzed), Concentration, Limited to incorporeal targets, Triggered - 28 points
  • Possession Neutralizing Ordinance: Burst Area Nullify Mind Control 8, Simultaneous, Triggered - 1 point
Gate Crasher: Movement 2 (dimensional travel [kekkai]); Easily Removable (-0 points) - 4 points
Sensor Gear: Variable 1 (sensors); Easily Removable (-2 points) - 5 points
Spirit of Invention: Enhanced Advantages 3 (Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all Trades); Enhanced Intellect 4 - 11 points

Typical Variable Sets:
Default: Senses 5 (acute extended mystical awareness, direction sense, time sense) - 5 points


Advantages:
Defensive Roll, Equipment 3, Evasion, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all-Trades, Languages 2 (English, French, Spanish, Vietnamese [Japanese is native]).

Equipment:
Body Armor (Protection 2), Smartphone and 10 points of equipment as needed.

Skills:
Athletics 6 (+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+6), Deception 4 (+6), Expertise: Magic 4 (+11/+7), Expertise: Popular Culture 6 (+13/+9), Expertise: Science 4 (+11/+7), Insight 4 (+7), Investigation 5 (+12/+8), Perception 5 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8), Technology 6 (+13/+9), Vehicles 7 (+10).

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 0)
Anti-Incorporeal Ordinance -- (Burst Area Will 9)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 6, Fortitude 4, Toughness 6/4/2, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 41 + Advantages 7 + Skills 30 + Defenses 17 = 131 points

Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 7
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 8

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Power Loss (Spirit of Invention, if Kashin is offended.) Secret (government agent.)
"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

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Esther Hoshino
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To slightly misquote someone, "it ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things everybody knows that ain’t so." The background of Esther Hoshino is one such case. Her official history is that she is the adopted daughter of the late Hoshino Kiichi, who inherited his fortune following his death twenty-six years ago. This is well known to be a pack of lies, however, and everybody -- or at least everybody who pays attention to this sort of gossip -- knows that Esther was actually the biracial daughter of Kiichi and his mistress, adopted by him after his sons disappointed him. Unfortunately, everybody knows things that are not so.

The woman who now calls herself Esther Hoshino was born around sixty years* ago on Bogoin, a heavily industrialized world in the core of the Technate. By the time she was an adult, using the name Atara, she was heavily involved with the Vaskhane crime syndicate, as they offered her the opportunity to develop her scientific talents as she pleased, where the supposedly legitimate authorities would have worried about ethics and consequences and that sort of rot. However, her career with the syndicate was undistinguished, and while the Bureau of Law Enforcement maintains a still-open file about her activities, it is fairly slim.

That would likely change if they were aware that she was dispatched on a mission to Earth in 1989, to investigate the activities of Kuklafron, the primary Vaskhane operative on that planet. Some of the accounts that had reached them about what he was getting up to seemed disturbingly eccentric, and Atara was under orders to eliminate him if necessary. While she had already decided that it would be necessary as soon as she received her instructions, she was a bit surprised at the competence Kuklafron demonstrated despite his eccentricities, and ultimately chose to work with him rather than oppose him.

Having done so, she was in a better position to discover some of the intriguing plant life on Earth, something that previous Vaskhane operatives, even Kuklafron, had overlooked. Her major discovery was that the primary ingredient of boosterspice, a plant known to Terrans as "silphium", was growing in the wild here, with the Terrans apparently oblivious to its useful properties. (Or were they? Some of those supposedly wild growths showed signs of deliberate cultivation in the not-so-distant past.) Regardless, she was able to acquire a large crop of them and refine them into a useable form, and promptly started using her own product to slow her age as well as black marketing it.

Shortly after that, the operations of Vaskhane as a whole were dealt a lethal blow by a coordinated effort between JSOT, the Scavengers, and the crew of the TSV Adventure. Atara was able to avoid death or capture, but had to go underground with the assistance of one of her best customers, Hoshino Kiichi, who agreed to let her pose as his daughter under the name Esther. That lasted for the next four years, until the old fool passed away. Despite what you might expect, she did nothing to speed that up, and apparently genuinely mourned his death for a while.

By 1996, however, she had recovered enough to start considering some new schemes, focused on seizing various ancient relics to be found on Earth, especially those she suspected to be of extraterrestrial origin. Her first major plan to do so involved manipulating a certain adventuring archaeologist into gathering them for her, only for Penelope Jones to prove more resourceful than she expected. This was the ruin of her scheme and came dangerously close to ruining her personally, but she survived to plot revenge.

Unfortunately, the countless times their paths crossed over the next decade all went exactly the same way. Esther always survived and escaped exposure. But she failed to gain the assets that she wanted and her attempts at revenge on Jones herself were always thwarted, for all that she sometimes inflicted great harm on the friends and associates of her nemesis. (She never went after Virginia Jones, however, less because of any limits she might possess than because she entertained ambitions of one day turning mother and daughter against each other.) Ulimately, however, when Penelope Jones did disappear from the scene it had nothing to do with her, which was extremely vexing.

She continued her schemes, opposed by the Sea Dragons or the Discovery Company, among others, and though she actually enjoyed some successes, now, it failed to really satisfy her. When Virginia Jones followed in the footsteps of her mother, she perked up a bit, but the younger Jones lacked something that had made her mother so frustrating, even after she started working with that mystic boytoy of hers. Esther was seriously considering packing it in, gathering up her assets and leaving this dull world to its own devices, when something wonderful happened.

Shortly after Penelope Jones started teaching at the Futurian Academy, a letter was delivered to her there. It was unsigned. The author congratulated her on escaping from death once again, and for successfully hiding for all those years. But I have been watching you since your return, and it's obvious that you are a very unhappy woman. And despite everything, I find that I really do hate that, Penny. (Penelope Jones enjoys being called "Penny" even less than her daughter likes being called "Ginny".) I want you to be happy ... because my own happiness, when I finally destroy you once and for all, will be lessened if you're not. There is no sport in ruining you as you are now.Enjoy your last few days, Penny. See you real soon.

"So what's this, then?" asked Naru Hasegawa, as she watched her co-worker reading the letter.

"Form letter," Penelope replied, and threw it in the trash. "I think I need some aspirin."

Esther Hoshino -- PL 7

Abilities:
STR
0 | STA 1 | AGL 0 | DEX 2 | FGT 0 | INT 8 | AWE 4 | PRE 3

Powers:
Boosterspice: Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) - 3 points
Shielded Mind: Impervious Will 8, Limited to Mental Effects - 4 points
Translator Implant: Comprehend Languages 2 (speak, understand) - 6 points

Advantages:
Benefit 5 (billionaire), Connected, Inventor, Languages 2 (English, Japanese, others, [Technate Standard is native]), Well-informed.

Skills:
Deception 7 (+10), Expertise: Business 3 (+11), Expertise: Criminal 3 (+11), Expertise: Galactic 2 (+10), Expertise: Science 4 (+12), Insight 5 (+9), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+11), Technology 4 (+12).

Offense:
Initiative +0
Unarmed +0 (Close Damage 0)

Defense:
Dodge 3, Parry 2, Fortitude 3, Toughness 1, Will 9.

Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 13 + Advantages 10 + Skills 20 + Defenses 12 = 90 points

Offensive PL: 0*
Defensive PL: 2*
Resistance PL: 6
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Power--Motivation. Hatred/Obsession (Penelope Jones.) Power Loss (Boosterspice, must take regular spice doses.) Secret (alien, criminal.)
"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 »

Hebi-Onna/蛇女
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In the course of life, everyone -- nearly everyone -- accumulates regrets. There are many healthy ways to deal with them, and many unhealthy ways as well. One of the unhealthy ways is to allow the regret to fester until it becomes a grudge, and then to allow the grudge to fester until one will do anything to avenge it. And there are always those who are happy to arrange for that anything to be done in exchange for money. Usually a lot of money.

Up until eight years ago, Kurihara Kayako -- almost certainly not her original name, but that really no longer matters -- was one such facilitator for acts of vengeance, active mostly in Tokyo but with connections throughout the home islands. In exchange for a fairly large sum of money, she would arrange for the objects of grudges to suffer social ruin; for much larger sums, she would bring about their deaths. She always kept her own hands clean, working through cut-outs, and was quite adept at finding homicidal and/or suicidal people to act as her patsies, and quite merciless in exploiting them.

If she felt any regrets about this life she had made for herself, it was that so much of the money that she made had to go into offshore accounts that she couldn't access easily, such that she had to live a fairly spartan lifestyle instead of the luxurious one that her income could have made. But that would have attracted official attention, and Kayako knew that she had to avoid it. So she dealt with this regret in a much more healthy manner than the pathetic people who came to her did -- or at least, so she told herself.

And then, one day, she was contacted by the usual weeping housewife whose precious little darling had become a recluse after coming in second place to some other student in the national exams, and now wanted revenge for his sake. Kayako outlined how much she would charge to socially ruin the parents of the other student, finding all of this to be quite boring. But the client clarified then that she didn't want to take revenge on the parents, but on their child. Putting a briefcase containing around two and a half million yen on the table, she described exactly how she wanted the boy who had humiliated her son to be violated, tortured and murdered, with the briefcase being the first installment, with the final payment totalling ten million yen.

Kayako stared at the briefcase. It alone was more money than she had ever gotten for a single job before this, and the final amount was more than she might make in a year. But the task was more disturbing than anything she had ever done, and the victim had done nothing to deserve such a fate. Nevertheless, she knew that if she turned the job down, the client would seek out one of her competitors and make the same offer to them, and she hated the idea that they might show less scruples than her and profit from them. Ignoring what vestigial conscience she might have possessed and her sense that this was more trouble than it was worth, she took the money.

In setting things up, she was even more careful than normal. She worked through two layers of cut-outs, with the actual murderer committing suicide shortly after their bloody work was done, and then personally eliminated the only people who could have tied her to this. Then she contacted the client with the good news ... and was first annoyed that the client claimed that she had no idea what she was talking about, and then confused when she claimed to have no son. Contacting her own sources, Kayako discovered that the client was telling the truth -- even though a few weeks before, when she had diligently checked them out, every source had claimed the exact opposite.

She had been set up. As Kayako realized this, she was immediately confronted by the agent of her downfall, the occupant of the house of the Snake in the Shēngxiào, who explained to a constricted Kayako that he had been hired by a collection of her former victims and clients to deal with their grudge against her. Leering at her, he asked if she had any last words to pass on. "You talk too much," she said, and then he was shot in the head by the bodyguard she had hired as soon as she realized that things were turning pear-shaped.

Before she could quite recover, however, Kayako realized that she was still not alone. Diorite herself had attended the death of her servant, and offered the house of the Snake to his killer -- not the one who had taken the shot, but Kayako herself. Suspecting that the alternative was her demise -- whether immediately or when the police caught up to her -- Kayako agreed, and became the second occupant of the house of the Snake, better known as Hebi-Onna ("Serpent-Woman".) If she has any regrets about this, it's that the first victim of her new life was that bodyguard; it seemed a poor repayment for saving her life. Oh well.

Since then, Hebi-Onna has spent the majority of her time between doing her old job, usually for the benefit of the other members of the Shēngxiào but sometimes for clients who still seek her out. She no longer bothers to use cut-outs, though, and now actively encourages those clients to take more horrific revenges than they originally wanted. In this, she has frequently found herself opposed by the superhero Kerero Taicho. While that is certainly frustrating, Hebi-Onna chooses not to hold a grudge. A snake will inevitably eat a frog after all. The minority of her time has been spent hunting down all those who hired the earlier Snake to deal with her. She does hold a grudge over that.

In terms of her powers, Hebi-Onna is able to employ damaging psychokinesis ("coils of the snake"), hypnotic mind control ("gaze of the snake") and a "nerve touch" that can set up a delayed organ failure ("venom of the snake".) Her only defensive abilities are her enhanced reflexes and flexibility, however, and she always remembers how her precursor died so easily. She will always exercise appropriate caution in dealing with an opponent, seeking to escape first and foremost. Now that she is able to live the more luxurious life that she always wanted, she has so much more to lose, after all.

Hebi-Onna -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR
2 | STA 2 | AGL 6 | DEX 7 | FGT 9 | INT 2 | AWE 2 | PRE 2

Powers:
Mantle of the Snake: Array (25 points)
  • Coils of the Snake: Perception Range Damaging Move Object 8, Subtle - 25 points
  • Gaze of the Snake: Perception Range Cumulative Affliction 8 (Resisted by Will; Dazed & Vulnerable, Stunned & Defenseless, Paralyzed & Unaware), Extra Condition, Sight Dependent, Subtle - 1 point
  • Venom of the Snake: Progressive Weaken Stamina 7 (Resisted by Fortitude), Insidious, Subtle 2, Triggered - 1 point
Advantages:
Benefit 3 (millionaire), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 2, Taunt, Well-informed.

Skills:
Deception 9 (+11), Expertise: Crime 8 (+10), Expertise: Magic 6 (+8), Expertise: Streetwise 10 (+12), Insight 8 (+10), Investigation 8 (+10), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Guns 2 (+9), Sleight of Hand 4 (+11), Stealth 3 (+9).

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 2)
Venom of the Snake +9 (Close Fortitude 7)
Coil of the Snake -- (Perception Range Damage 8)
Gaze of the Snake -- (Perception Range Will 8)

Defense:
Dodge 7, Parry 9, Fortitude 6, Toughness 7/2, Will 8.

Totals:
Abilities 64 + Powers 27 + Advantages 9 + Skills 36 + Defenses 11 = 147 points

Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 8
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Revenge--Motivation. Subject to Orders.
"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 »

Tomokaze Kyousuke/友風京介
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It probably said something unfortunate about his lifestyle that his immediate reaction to awakening in considerable pain was a sense of resignation. Nothing so verbal as the words, "here we go again"; the pain left no room for that sort of coherent thought. But mixed with the hurt was a weariness, and a bit of dread on top of them both. After a moment, the pain eased to a manageable level, and his eyes opened to an unfamiliar ceiling. The view was then interrupted by something much more familiar -- the face of Nagase Aya, Isekai no Miko, Warpwitch. His charge, his employer. His furiously angry all-of-the above. The furiously angry part was especially familiar, and he braced himself for what was to come.

She did not disappoint. "You did it again," she said, in a quietly menacing tone. "Again, you jumped in front of some inane science fiction weapon that was pointed at me. Again, it went off and put you in the hospital. Again, you interrupted my line of sight to the inane science fiction weapon so that I couldn't interfere with it and thus prevent the part where it went off. You did it all again -- after I told you to stop. Doing. That."

He opened his mouth to offer some sort of defense to her accusation, but she kept right on delivering her opening argument. "This is the fifth time this year. You will be in here for a week. During that time, I will have to hire a temp to answer the phones, do the filing, drive me places, all that stuff that is in your actual job description, plus the things that aren't in there like the foot massages that you are starting to be slightly competent at doing. This is an enormous hassle. Why are you inflicting this enormous hassle on me?"

"I regret my actions," he managed to mutter.

"You regret your actions," she repeated in mockery of his tone. "Well, that makes it all just dandy, doesn't it? No, it does not. How many more times am I going to have to say, stop trying to help me outside of the office, before you actually do it? Or are you determined to keep doing these things and thus keep arousing my anger? Do you enjoy my anger? Is that it? Does this little song and dance that I do amuse you?"

"No," he said. "It does not."

There was no real right answer to that question. Both claiming that he did find it amusing and claiming that he did not would have made her equally angry. The only comfort in telling the truth was a sense that he was doing the right thing, even though it caused him nothing but pain. That was probably a sign of a serious flaw in his character.

"Then why?" she said, subsiding a bit, to her quietly menacing level of anger. "Why do you keep doing this? Why go through this, over and over? You could quit. I wouldn't give you a good reference, because you know how much you irritate me, but you have years in this job that could get you one that wouldn't put you in this sort of danger. Tell me -- why do you keep working for me when you know what's going to happen?"

He looked at her, remembering the day that they had met, the day that the most unusual person had come into his life and changed it forever, turning it upside down. He remembered learning the truth about her, being told to keep it from her, and watching that hurt her over and over again. He remembered the day his nerve finally broke, and he told her the truth, and everything had turned upside down again, but not in a way that set things back to the way that they had been at the start. More like moving it up the threaded shank of a screw, towards a destination that he still did not understand, and probably never would.

The truth, then. "I have a duty," he said.

She stared at him. "Fine, then," she said quietly. Then shouted. "Fine, then! Do your damned duty! Get yourself killed trying to help me! I won't care if you do! I will forget you the second you're dead, you hear me? You -- you person without relevance or significance!" Finally bereft of language, she let out a snarl of purest anger, then turned and stomped towards the door out of the hospital room.

Just before she reached it, it slid open, and a nurse with bright pink hair was standing there. "Please do not shout, it disturbs the patients," she said in a calm tone.

"That's fine, my patience is disturbed, too," Aya snapped in English, then brushed past her.

The nurse closed the door behind her, then approached the bed where he had, after a moment where he managed to sit up enough to watch that confrontation, collapsed once more. "She seems quite angry," said the nurse as she made a note of his vitals. There was something odd about that, but he was too tired to give it much thought.

"I said the wrong thing," he replied agreeably. "I don't know what the right thing would have been."

"I suppose you could have said that you have a duty of care where she's concerned," said the nurse.

"Kindness can seem cruel, sometimes, and too much truth can be just as harmful as a complete lie," he said, shaking his head. "I learned that the hard way."

"Maybe," said the nurse. "Or maybe you learned the wrong lesson. Oh well. I guess that's love."

What a weird thing to say, he thought as the nurse walked away from his bed. What a -- "Wait," he said aloud. "Do I know you?"

She paused at the door, looked back as she slid it open. There was something strangely familiar about that smile, and the cool blue eye above it, but he found it hard to remember any details. "Not anymore," she said, and was gone.

The nurse walked down the hallway a short distance, then pulled a fob out of her pocket and clicked it. With a sound like a key being drawn along a piano string, a glowing portal opened up before her, then closed as she stepped through.

Tomokaze Kyousuke -- PL 5

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

Advantages:
Contacts, Defensive Roll, Equipment 5, Language (English [Japanese is native]), Luck 2, Ranged Attack 2, Well-Informed.

Equipment:
Meta-taser (Ranged Affliction 5 [Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated]), Smartphone, and 13 points of equipment as needed.

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+5), Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: Administrator 3 (+5), Expertise: Science 4 (+6), Expertise: Streetwise 2 (+4), Insight 5 (+7), Intimidation 4 (+6), Investigation 6 (+8), Perception 4 (+6), Persuasion 4 (+6), Ranged Combat: Meta-Taser 2 (+3), Technology 4 (+6), Vehicles 4 (+5).

Offense:
Initiative +1
Unarmed +3 (Damage 1)
Meta-Taser +5 (Ranged Fortitude 5)

Defense:
Dodge 5, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Toughness 5/3, Will 4.

Totals:
Abilities 30 + Powers 0 + Advantages 13 + Skills 26 + Defenses 8 = 77 points

Offensive PL: 5
Defensive PL: 5
Resistance PL: 4
Skill PL: 3

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Duty of Care (Nagase Aya.) Secret (Argus agent.)
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EternalPhoenix
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by EternalPhoenix »

You know...if he's always leaping in front of her, he should have Interpose. :)
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

EternalPhoenix wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:48 pm You know...if he's always leaping in front of her, he should have Interpose. :)
It's a Heroic Feat powered by his Duty of Care complication; if he had the advantage, he could do it for anyone, and he can't. :)
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Davies wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:07 pm
EternalPhoenix wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:48 pm You know...if he's always leaping in front of her, he should have Interpose. :)
It's a Heroic Feat powered by his Duty of Care complication; if he had the advantage, he could do it for anyone, and he can't. :)
Makes sense, makes sense. :)
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Jacky Frost
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Considering that she has been active in the shadows of Denver for more than forty years, without any time "away", one would think that the woman who calls herself Jacky Frost would get a bit more respect. Two factors get in the way of that, however. The first is her relative lack of ambition. While she expects, and generally gets, a piece out of any deals that are made in her nightclub, she always settles for a comparatively small piece and has never tried to expand her operations beyond Inferno. The second, more significant reason is the rumors which claim that she acts as an informant for the police and superheroes.

Sixteen years old when Denver received its "bath" of mutagens, Janet Whitney was left with the ability to absorb heat and a complete lack of any ability to turn that absorption off. The best that she could manage was the ability to reign it in so that she only drew the heat from objects or people she touched, which generally hurt them quite a bit. (Her aging process was also greatly slowed, but that would not be apparent for years to come.) There are tales that suggest she initially tried to use this gift as a vigilante, but found crime more appealing in the long run. By the time that the Mile High Marauders were founded, she had already established herself as a club owner and backer for various heists and other schemes.

Throughout her long life, however, she has never really been motivated by a desire for profit. She likes money, of course, but her primary goal in life has always been to add excitement to a life that seemed cold and dull even before she found out that she would be around for decades. Thus, Jackie has shown willingness to take more chances than other criminals, up to and including burning (pun intended) associates if she thinks doing so would result in something interesting. These chances have a habit of paying off.

While her personal morality can be described as "interesting=good/boring=bad", some of the acts she considers boring have a coincidental relationship to acts that conventional morality might describe as appalling. She regards human trafficking with disgust and contempt, for example, and has been known to interfere with those who bring such business into her club. (Actually seeking them out is not something she would ever do, though.) She also finds the goals of the metasupremacist movement to be pointless and inane, and has no problem ratting them out when they come to her attention.

When she passes on information to superheroes -- never to the police, despite the rumors -- it is always on her own terms. Trying to get her to give up information when she does not want to do so is futile. On the other hand, she never asks for any exchange of favors for information, either, believing that this will help to communicate the seriousness of the situation when she does make her reveals. She has cultivated relationships with both the Blur and Polymorph this way, though she associates more with the latter than the former, these days. She avoids dealing with heroes who have ice or cold-related powers as much as possible.

Jackie can usually be found observing the activity of Inferno -- dubbed that because she runs the place to be rather warm -- from a private lounge that overlooks the dance floor. She does go down among the crowd from time to time, less out of a desire to socialize than because she wants to remind everyone who owns the place. When she does so, she has security around her to ensure that no one gets too close, as much for their benefit as her own. During the hours that Inferno is closed to the public, she runs the heater at an even higher level, enough to be uncomfortable for most humans. To her, these temperatures are blissful, and she congratulates herself for putting most of her money into the private generator that powers them ...

Jacky Frost -- PL 7

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

Powers:
Icy Cold: Reaction Damage 6, Permanent; Environment 1 (intense cold); Immunity 11 (aging, fire effects) - 36 points

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit 2 (independently wealthy), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 2, Equipment 2, Fast Grab, Well-Informed.

Equipment:
Inferno: Size Medium; Toughness 10; Features Communications, Living Space, Power (Environment 2 [intense heat]), Power Supply, Secret, Secure Feature (living space), Security System - 10 points

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+8), Deception 6 (+10), Expertise: Business 6 (+8), Expertise: Crime 8 (+10), Expertise: Streetwise 9 (+11), Insight 7 (+10), Investigation 6 (+8), Intimidation 6 (+10), Perception 6 (+9), Persuasion 8 (+12).

Offense:
Initiative +3
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 1 and Damage 6)

Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 8, Fortitude 3, Toughness 6/1, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 42 + Powers 36 + Advantages 11 + Skills 33 + Defenses 13 = 135 points

Offensive PL: 7
Defensive PL: 7
Resistance PL: 5
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Thrills--Motivation. Flashes of Conscience. Reputation (informer.) Weakness (other sources of cold.)
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

The Dreamfiend
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In the late 1960s, a man named Garry Potter worked as a janitor at the Willow Point school in the small town of Summerland, New York. When the town suffered a rash of child disappearances in 1968, Potter was implicated as a suspect and arrested for the crimes, but released on his own recognizance due to a lack of evidence. Owing to a rumor that the charges against Potter had only been dropped due to a legal technicality, a group of concerned parents took up arms against Potter and attacked him at his workplace. In the ensuing melee, Potter was set on fire and burned to death. None of the vigilantes would admit who was responsible for this, and in the end no one was ever convicted for Garry Potter's death. To most, his guilt was proved when clothes belonging to some of the missing children were found buried in the backyard of his home, and the disappearances stopped after his death. For a while, at least.

A decade later, a reporter (already somewhat famous for having covered the aftermath of a series of murders in Warren County, New Jersey) paid a visit to Summerland to chronicle the town's unusually high rate of suicide, homicide, and disappearance, which had if anything increased after the death of Garry Potter. The alleged killer had become a creature of local folklore, even featuring in songs sung by children. The reporter speculated that the ghost of Potter was haunting the town, either metaphorically or literally. This speculation eventually gave birth to a series of movies that portrayed Garry Potter as a malevolent ghost that haunted the teenagers of Summerland and other parts.

But what the reporter never discovered was that he was not the first person to investigate Summerland. Just what drew occultist Leonard Valentine, years from becoming the third Blakestone, to this town in 1975 remains unclear, but he was better equipped both to get to the bottom of things and to ensure that no subsequent inquiry would be able to learn the truth. What he discovered disgusted and angered him. Not only had Garry Potter been innocent of the crimes of which he was accused, but the police officer who had actually been responsible for the disappearances (with the children sold into slavery across the country) had started the rumor about the "legal technicality", and then covered it up by planting the clothes in the home of the dead man.

It was not possible to punish the worst offender in this case -- the officer had died of a heart attack in the interval -- but Valentine felt a revulsion for the entire community for the willful blindness and prejudice that had led to the tragedy. Using magic he did not fully understand, he tore a piece of his own psyche away from the rest and transformed it into a phantasmal entity that could afflict the dreams of the people of Summerland. It was his expressed intention that it would embody the verses of one of the songs about Garry Potter, and that Summerland would, indeed, never sleep again. Having completed his work, Leonard Valentine left Summerland and never looked back.

The monster that he made, the Dreamfiend, could not actually kill people in their dreams, unlike the fictional character inspired by all this. But the manipulations of the dreams that it inflicted on their victims left them without restful sleep and could even put them into a cataleptic state. When the latter happened, the monster would materialize and finish off the helpless victims, usually by smothering them, before returning to a phantom state. On rare occasions, the demon would materialize to attack a conscious (but usually weakened) target. While a dangerous combatant, and hard to hurt, the demon was (and still is) most vulnerable in these instances. But whatever is done to it, it always reforms within a week.

Through the rest of the seventies and the eighties that followed, the Dreamfiend haunted the nights of Summerland, slowly accumulating power from those it fed upon. A handful of occultists and would-be heroes who discovered its activities attempted to prevent them, but usually just became its prey. By 1991, it had gained enough that it shattered the psychic fetters that bound it to Summerland, allowing it to seek victims across the country. It settled for a time in Snoqualmie, Washington, before a group of eccentric FBI agents managed to exorcise it in 1996. More recently, the Dreamfiend has haunted the town of Orono, Maine, preying upon the students at the University there. The authorities in Orono have begun to realize that there is a problem, but have yet to figure out what steps need to be taken to address it, and will likely spend many sleepless nights before they do. If they're lucky.

Dreamfiend -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR
4 | STA - | AGL 2 | DEX 1 | FGT 4 | INT 3 | AWE 5 | PRE 3

Powers:
Born and Reborn From Dreams: Immortality 2 (1 week); Protection 8; Regeneration 1 (natural healing) - 13 points
Dreamspeech: Mental Communication 1, Limited to sleeping targets - 4 points
Nightmare: Perception Range Cumulative Affliction 10 (Resisted by Will; Fatigued, Exhausted, Incapacitated), Limited to sleeping targets, Subtle 2 - 32 points
Phantasm: Linked Concealment 10, Materializing; Flight 8 (500 MPH), Distracting; Immunity 30 (Fortitude saves); Linked Insubstantial 4, Materializing - 78 points

Advantages:
Assessment, Daze (Intimidation), Improved Critical 2 (unarmed), Improved Initiative.

Skills:
Deception 10 (+13), Insight 8 (+13), Intimidation 10 (+13).

Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +4 (Close Damage 4, Crit 18-20)
Dream Mastery -- (Perception Affliction 10)

Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 6, Fortitude -, Toughness 8, Will 9.

Totals:
Abilities 34 + Powers 127 + Advantages 5 + Skills 14 + Defenses 10 = 190 points

Offensive PL: 10
Defensive PL: 7
Resistance PL: 9
Skill PL: 8

Complications:
Sadism--Motivation. Obviously Inhuman.

Note: Nightmare is a fear effect, so Fearless improves resistance checks against it.
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Tattooedman
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Tattooedman »

Nice conversion of a character from one of your other threads.
Jabroniville wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:45 pm
LOl- "The Tattooed Man"? What kind of ABSOLUTE DILDO would refer to himself as "The Tattooed Man" :P!?!
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