Ember Point (brainstorming city details)

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Commander Titan
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Ember Point (brainstorming city details)

Post by Commander Titan »

Creator's Note:
Spoiler
This project was driven, initially, by random generators. Especially, but bot exclusively, those on Fantasy Name Generators. This was to spark my imagination, and because my usual instinct when making a supers setting is to be very reliant on homages and expies - blame my uncle showing me Planetary at a young age! I won’t explain each entry’s random gen inspirations in detail. Just know that if anything seems out of left field, well, then chance is to blame.

Unlike the venerable Davies and EternalPhoenix, I’m not much for doing actual character builds - I've only played with the M&M system once or twice. So I’m gonna post bios and backgrounds here, for now. Maybe if I find myself in possession of more free time, I'll do some builds...)
Ember Point

Ember Point is one of the major American cities, situated in the Pacific Northwest. It is located a little ways inland, lying along the Goodwitch River, up against the river’s source in Lake Carson, and extending up to and a ways up the enigmatic Mount Alexandra.

It is perhaps best known in the present for three things - being a major air transportation hub (and the indisputable capital of North American airship travel); being the home of the reformed Battalion super-team (one of the world’s major superhero teams); and being the origin of the modern vampire rights and integration movement.

This of course believes a long history - Ember Point was founded in the mid-1800s, and the area has been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries longer. It was home to the early electrical experiments of the pioneering scientist Aurelia Vondrák (hence why the VE power company is still baked there), as well as several members of the distinguished legacy of Captain Scorpion. There are rumors that the unconquerable Trongo! has deep-time connections to fossils in Mount Alexandra, and rock and roll music would never have been the same without the contributions of local grunge band the Dead Mutants.

The city’s history itself is notable: the Three Gs (Glorioso, Grendel, and Goldilocks) defined heroism in the 1960s, before several ignominious developments. The widely-beloved hero Bolt, the Electric Swordsman and his sidekick Sparky (better known today as the vampire hero Bloodbolt, leader of the Sanguine Sentinels) came to prominence in later years, and of course the city is now arguably the center of American superhero culture ever since the Battalion were reformed there in 2007.

Ultimately, Ember Point is a lens to look at the world of superheroes, supervillains and superhumans. Like any vantage point, it is simultaneously revealing and limiting. Not every major figure is tied to the city (though a surprising number are). But it is a valuable and valorous place to start.

Guide to Ember Point

The Neighborhoods of Ember Point - Overview

The Eastside
  • The Lakefront
  • The Greco
  • BGH (Burnglenhurst)
  • Cookchester
  • Port Roy
  • Summertide
  • Stadium Point
The Northside
  • Hartley
  • Tin Hills
  • Mulligan
The Southside
  • Barleford
  • Saint André
  • Fengate
  • Lowgrove / "Lowgrave"

Character Index

Heroes

The Three Gs - Not really a team, but associated 60s contemporaries Captain Scorpion - Heroic Legacy
The Battalion - This World's Greatest Heroes

Revival (Ember Point) Era: 2007 - Present Original (Chicago) Era: 1975 - 1999 The Unspeakables - Supernatural Superheroes! Independent Heroes
Villains

The Sportsmen / Bad Sportsmen / Bad Sports - Sports-themed jobbers
History: Part1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Original Run
  • Coach (I) [Craig Ruby] - Founder
  • #1 - Lineman - Football - Founder
  • #2 - Doubleplayer - Baseball - Founder
  • #3 - Enforcer - Ice Hockey - Founder
  • #4 - Rebounder - Basketball - Founder
  • #7 - Gridiron - Football
  • #9 - Tripleplayer - Baseball
  • #12 - Ghost Goalie - Soccer
  • #14 - Shadowboxer - Boxing
  • #16 - Foulball [Mason "Sonny" Shaw] - Baseball
  • #17 - Discus - Discus
  • #19 - Riposte - Fencing
  • #21 - Shotgun - Football
  • #22 - Bazooka - Baseball
  • #23 - Howitzer - Ice Hockey
  • #24 - Shooting Guard - Basketball
  • #27 - Batswoman - Cricket
  • #28 - Batsman - Cricket
  • #30 - Pentathlete [Sidney Leon] - Pentathalon
Revived Team
  • #00 - Coach (II) [Mason "Sonny" Shaw] - Founder
  • #01 - Audible - Football - Founder
  • #02 - Racketeer - Tennis - Founder
  • #03 - Grappler - Mixed Martial Arts - Founder
  • #01 - Point Guard - Basketball - Founder
  • #05 - Marker - Darts
  • #08 - 8-Man - Rugby
  • #10 - Horsepower & BR-0-NK-0 - Rodeo
  • #11 - Cooldown - eSports
The Magnolia Family - Faction of the Chicago Outfit
  • Tommaso "Tommy" Magnolia aka "The Grocer"
  • Nicolas "Nicky" Magnolia aka "Nick the Knife" aka "Boss Nicky"
  • Blackjack [Nero Magnolia]
The Murk - Occult criminal organization
  • Harry Burke - Boss of the Murk
The Ruthless Regiment - Arch-foes of the original Battalion The Salvation Network - Ecofascist superhuman supremacists The Telementals - Television come to life!
  • The Screen Queen
  • "Ray Cathode"
Yellowbloods - Demonic invasive force
Common Morphs - Link
Spoiler
  • Mournmouthes
  • Hooded Vortices
  • Demon Masks
  • Gaunt Hunters
  • Curious Creepers
  • Satan’s Eyes
  • Horrorlings
  • Grotesqueries
  • Fogboys
  • Abysmal Centurions
  • Meager Mumblers & Baleful Babblers
  • Cinderflies
  • the Revelatory Beast
Elite Morphs
Spoiler
  • Promising Pupils - Servants of Doctor Hell
  • Yellow Berets - Servants of Battlecry
  • City-Sinners - Servants of the Metropolitan and inhabitants of Horizon
  • Collapsing Giants - Servants of the Metropolitan and inhabitants of Horizon
  • Living Shrouds - Servants of Firefly
  • Brothers-in-Arms - Servants of the Devil Knight
Yellow Princes - Link
  • The Sly Trader - Saleswoman
  • Doctor Hell - Scholar
  • Battlecry - Soldier
  • The Metropolitan and Horizon, the Hungry City - Sensate
  • Firefly - (Former) Superhero
  • The Devil Knight / Tyrfang - Swordsman
  • The Yellow King - Sovereign
Independent Villains
Independents / Neutrals / Third Parties / Others

FIREBIRD - Rogue magical paramilitary / espionage group. They'll save the world, no matter what sacrifices it takes.
  • The Gray Lady - Founder
  • The Illustrated Woman ["Lydia"] - High-level operative
  • Agent KETCH ["Carlos Mitchell"] - High-level operative
The Flock aka "The Learned Society of Melampian Practitioners" - Scholarly society of mages
  • Andre Wiseman - Birdhouse #25 (Ember Point, USA) - Sample Member
  • Margaret Hutton - Birdhouse #67 (Edinburgh, Scotland) - Sample Member
  • La Poetisa [Cándida Trueba] - Birdhouse #19 (Santiago, Chile) - Sample Member
The Seven Shadows aka the Sevenfold - Elite club of high mages, wrapped in myth and legend
  1. Red Shadow
  2. Indigo Shadow
  3. Yellow Shadow - The Animator ["Anton Marionette"]
  4. Violet Shadow
  5. Blue Shadow
  6. Orange Shadow - Professor Devil [Isla DeVille]
  7. Green Shadow - Jewell Sparrow

Worldbuilding Details
Bonus & Side Content
Last edited by Commander Titan on Mon Jan 29, 2024 1:24 am, edited 85 times in total.
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Re: Ember Point

Post by Davies »

Interesting start.

(Goldilocks, eh?)
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Re: Ember Point

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Well. Color me intrigued.
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Re: Goldilocks & the Banshees

Post by Commander Titan »

(Wasn't sure exactly where to start, but Davies noted "Goldilocks" so...)

Goldilocks & the Banshees

A Brief Introduction to “the Three Gs” of Ember Point
Ember Point was not a part of the Golden Age. While the city had its share of eccentric adventurers in the late 1800s and early 1900s, no costumed superheroes emerged in the Thirties, even as the first Captain Scorpion and his ilk were spreading like wildfire elsewhere.

However, in the Sixties, Ember Point’s local heroic scene began to develop. While at first still in the “pulp adventurer” mold, it planted the seeds for later generations. This first heroic age is said to have peaked in the middle of the decade, when Glorioso, Grendel, and Goldilocks were all active at the same time. While they only interacted a handful of times, they’ve to be known as the Three Gs.


Taking to the Skies

Penelope “Penny” Patrick was born in 1938 to an Irish-American family in a small town outside Ember Point. Her childhood was typical, until the Patrick family attended the 1952 Ember Point Centennial Exposition. One of the many, many attractions was an air show. While living near Ember Point meant that Penny was used to seeing the slow, ponderous airships traveling to and from Port Roy, this was the first time she saw heavier-than-air planes up close, and what a daredevil pilot could push them to do.

As the barnstormers performed, Penny was hooked. In that moment, she knew in her soul that she wanted to fly.

Her parents were fortunately supportive, but even if they hadn’t been, Patrick would have made it to the clouds. She wrote to the Ninety-Nines, who provided guidance and mentorship, and worked a variety of jobs to pay for flying lessons. Appropriately enough, she proved a prodigiously talented pilot. Earning money flying lessons gave way to earning money to buy and customize her own plane.

This had been a private pursuit, until one fateful day in 1959. A Crown Airlines transport airship, packed with dangerous chemicals broke free of its moorings in a storm. Buffeted by the winds, it threatened to crash and spill its cargo over downtown Ember Point. Desperate city officials began evacuations, only for a single plane to dart out of the night sky, dodging wind, rain, and lightning to approach the airship.

A daring, improvised lassoing maneuver ensued, with a hook and rope attached to the plane, and the airship was towed away from the city, to an empty airfield where it could land and its contents be disposed of safely. Journalists and emergency responders raced one another to the scene, and found the mystery plane just as it landed. The assembly watched as the pilot exited the cockpit, and were shocked to see the blonde tresses of the youthful pilot emerge from beneath their flight cap. A quick-thinking photographer captured the moment.

Goldilocks Saves Ember Point! was the headline the next day, and the name stuck.

Penny recognized a branding opportunity when she saw it, and took “Goldilocks” as her callsign when in the air, with a stylized golden “G” adorning the nose of her plane. She was an immediate sensation, performing her own air shows, trying for speed and distance records, and making the radio and TV circuits. Fame came as naturally to her as flying, but she knew how to use it.

Few suspected that while she played the role of celebrity, she quietly investigated the initial incident with the airship. Her knowledge of engineering and aeronautics allowed her to discover that the airship had been intentionally damaged. She went public with her findings and exposed a conspiracy of industrial saboteurs and corrupt businessmen. These were the first of several villains she would take on, ranging from mundane crime rings to organized sky pirates to mad scientists.

Fortunately, as her list of enemies grew, so would her list of allies…


Flying in Formation

Over the first five years of her adventures, Penny inspired and gathered several fellow like-minded aviatrixes, and in 1964 the team made a full public debut.

They were:
  • Carol Garcia, callsign Violet; a Mexican engineer and inventor (and amateur gardener). She had a violet painted on her plane.
  • Marilyn Chidi, callsign Lucky; a British-Nigerian bush pilot who had done one-in-a-million supply runs to remote locations. She had a four-leaf clover painted on her plane.
  • Alix Schuyler, callsign Duchess; the kid of the group, a runaway from a wealthy family of East Coast WASPs. She had a tiara painted on her plane.
And the group’s secretary, Eugene “Gene” Turner, aka “Wheels” (as in “kept the wheels turning” and/or because he had to stay grounded due to a fear of heights, depending who you asked).

While officially they were simply "Penelope Patrick’s Flying Circus", the group’s incorporation of cutting-edge, prototype jet engines of Garcia’s design led to them being known as the Banshees (for the hellish sound when the jet engines kicked in).

While based in Ember Point, the Banshees roamed far and wide, gaining fame and fortune across the globe (while allowing Glorioso and Grendel to grow their own profiles and their own niches in the city). They chased masked fascists through European ice caves and dueled robotic pterosaurs over remote South Pacific islands.

As international celebrities, they helped put Ember Point on the map outside the US, and were role models themselves. They had a robust touring schedule, and often whatever adventure they were meant to talk about would be superseded by tales of the thrilling obstacles they’d overcome just to arrive in London, or São Paulo, or Tokyo.

Ironically, for such a world traveler, Goldilocks would be practically at home when she made her last appearance…


Into the Wild Blue Yonder

In 1973, just outside Ember Point, Goldilocks was testing a prototype plane designed for extremely high altitude flights. All was going well, until suddenly her radio began to cut to static and all contact was lost. She disappeared from observation by ground and the other Banshees couldn’t her no matter how much they circled.

Carol Garcia’s fuel calculations gave them a search area, and they spent hours, into days, into weeks, searching for any sign of Goldilocks or her plane. Ultimately it was believed that she’d either crashed or been faced to bail out somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, having lost track of where she was and passed over the coast.

After a year, she was declared legally dead. A memorial was erected in Ember Point, and a local airfield was renamed Penelope Patrick Airport.

While the Banshees persisted a few months after, the pilots eventually went their separate ways. Carol Garcia felt guilty that her plane design must have been responsible and led search efforts for many years later, before retiring from the public eye. She would continue to tinker and her designs are still studied by the aerospace and mechanics students at CAIRN. Marilyn Chidi continued to work with search & rescue and emergency relief organizations, including the Dolphins. Alix Schuyler went onto become a pioneer as one of the first female pilots for Crown Airlines, later serving as an executive of the company. And Gene Turner became an aviation historian, keeping and recovering records of firsts and notable flights and flyers.

Patrick’s disappearance was one of the great stock mysteries of pop culture, with all sorts of theories tossed around. It seemed destined to remain an unanswerable question, until it was suddenly and unexpectedly answered in the 2000s…

But that’s a story for a later time.



Possible Plot Seeds & Campaign Uses
  • While I’ll eventually into Penny Patrick’s disappearance and ultimate fate, in a game set before the modern era it could be the impetus for an investigation. Perhaps the Banshees come to the PCs with a potential clue, and ask for their help going to the remote or otherwise dangerous locale (or the PCs are the Banshees). This could be a false lead or a real one, and either way, the only limits to what they discover are your imagination. Bermuda Triangle, enemy POW camp, or something else are all possibilities.
  • The Banshees could serve as transportation for a team without any flyers. After a joint adventure, they agree to help ferry the PCs to crisis zones in a hurry. But of course that means that they, in turn, may ask the players for help in other scenarios. Such as needing a group to play bait as airship passengers to catch some particularly pernicious sky pirates, only for chaos to unfold aboard the airship while planes duel outside.
  • The Banshees show up anywhere around the globe. This lets them act as a deus ex machina, if the PCs need backup out of the blue. Goldilocks, Violet, Lucky, and Duchess may show up in a bar brawl or fly in raining down air support on the super-villains the heroes have been struggling against.
  • Maybe someone has stolen one of the Banshees planes, using them for aerial crimes. Maybe the Banshees are being framed, and the PCs need to clear their names. How they catch the fastest, most maneuverable planes around? Maybe they have to build their own, or find a clever way to track their airborne quarry and surprise them when they land.
  • Goldilocks and the Banshees could have a legacy in the form of any hero who flies, whether through their own power, power armor, or even a advanced modern plane. The names have cachet, but would lead to the expectation that the hero acts as a role model, and probably something of a celebrity, with their every move and activity tracked than most.
Last edited by Commander Titan on Wed Nov 02, 2022 4:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Ember Point

Post by Davies »

:clap: :clap: :clap:

This is seriously great stuff.
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Re: Ember Point

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Penelope Patrick and her Flying Circus really capture the spirit of the Golden Age, and that's a fact. Amelia Earhart meets the Blackhawks with a side of Buffalo Bill's outfit. Excellent. In this one person's opinion, you should do the other two of the three G's, and then Captain Scorpion.
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Grendel - The Warrior!

Post by Commander Titan »

Grendel

A Brief Introduction to Mount Alexandra

Perhaps THE most distinctive feature of Ember Point, at least to people who don’t live there, is Mount Alexandra.

Constantly in view from any part of Ember Point, Mount Alexandra is an intimidating natural landmark. In fact, it’s even part of the city - Port Roy technically encompasses an area about halfway up the mountain, though by and large these are airship docking facilities with no permanent residents.

But people don’t talk about it, mostly, for its economic impact.

Mount Alexandra, quite frankly, is weird.

Famously, the paranormal investigation and documentary show Threshold of Imagination devoted half a season to the mysteries of Mount Alexandra (the disappearance of Penny Patrick was covered in just one half of a single episode, for comparison). While Mount Alexandra is located within the bounds of the Cascades, it isn’t quite in alignment with the expected location for such a mountain. It’s geological history is confusing and frequently debated, displaying distinctive features of a mountain simultaneously older and younger than its speculated age, and of a peak located in a very different part of the Earth than the PNW.

It is confusingly volcanic - it’s occasional tendency to lazily leak ash is the reason for Ember Point being named as it is, and there is enough geothermal activity that the power company VE (Vondrák Electromatics) maintains a number of facilities up and down the mountain. Indeed, the strange properties Ember Point extend to the mineral water that filters down from its heights - the discovery of its beneficial properties for vampires helped prompt the creation of the Sanguine Sentinels and the modern vampire public relations campaign.

And there are even odder features - the indigenous Coastal Salish peoples who inhabit Ember Point a variety of stories about the “Visiting Mountain,” including an alleged tendency to disappear and “spend time elsewhere.” Trongologists and paleontologists have noted that recent excavations of the mountain have shown that Mount Alexandra contains numerous buried megatrongorian skeletons (megatrongorians being the species of the famous kaiju Trongo!). And there are rumors of stranger things still, found by explorers in caves that go deep within the mountain…


Down From the Mountain

All this is to say that the appearance of Grendel, while undoubtedly strange, is hardly the weirdest thing to happen on Mount Alexandra.

The exact circumstances of his arrival were unclear, including to the man himself. Sometime in 1963 he wandered into the city, coming downhill from the mountain. Appearing for all the world like a well-built, strangely complexioned man with shoulder-length hair, looking to be in his mid-thirties, he might have been just another eccentric. But when he spotted a group of local toughs attempting to intimidate some women exiting a nearby bar, he stepped in.

Moments later, the toughs were laid out across the street, and an enterprising local hustler named Frederick “Freddy’ Fleming believed he’d found his meal ticket.

Treating the hero of the hour to a lunch at a diner, Freddy pieced together the new arrival’s story, as best as he could recall and present it:

His name was Grendel, and he was a roaming warrior of the realm of Ankore, a brutal and savage place with winged raiders, horned giants, evil sorcerers, and more. It bore little resemblance to the America of the 1960s, save for the presence of a towering mountain. Pursued by bandits and wolves, Grendel had ascended the mountain, before descending it and somehow arriving in Ember Point. Confused, but eager to prove his worth as a warrior and earn renown, Grendel ached for fame and battle.

Freddy took this to be a marvelous stage persona, but needed a proper name to sign for all of Grendel’s paperwork. Thus, he was legally dubbed “John Smith,” though he never answered to that name unless someone reminded him that certain formalities required it.

To Grendel, Fleming was “a bard,” a necessary part of any journey to legend and immortality. To Fleming, “John” was a meal ticket, but then, gradually, a friend.

To the public at large, Grendel was soon to be the third and final of the Three Gs, after Goldilocks and Glorioso


Treading the jeweled thrones of the Earth…

With Fleming’s assistance, “John” became a celebrity. He performed feats of strength and daring, whether it was weightlifting, acrobatics, or wrestling with a variety of willing challengers. Grendel became a wealthy man, and a notorious showman.

While Grendel did think of himself as a “hero,” it was in the Greek sense, of a figure with the power and will to seek glory– not as a selfless defender of the weak and thwarter of evil. Yet Grendel’s hatred of “bullies and tyrants” was so strong that he found himself involved in all sorts of adventures.

than once, Grendel broke up the drug dens of the Doctor of Delight, Orlando Pagan, though as as a fighter and not a detective he was unable to bring him to justice. More successfully, he took down the boxer-turned-extortionist Mister Hogg (born Gunther Hogan). He also located and brutally beat the serial killer John Doe, targeting the “dead-and-missing man” to defend the otherwise forgotten people of the city late at night that Grendel felt a kinship to. The barbarian-out-of-time was even one of the first to face down the shadowy assassin known as the Infamous Owl, a feat now considered even more impressive given the Owl’s later outing as a vampire of considerable age. And that doesn’t even touch all the times he challenged cops, landlords, and more when they tried to lord their power over the little guy within Grendel’s line of sight.

Grendel spent many a night in a jail cell, but through a combination of public adoration and shrewd legal work and bribery on Fleming’s part, Grendel was never sent to trial. In some ways this fed a concerning attitude, as he continued to be a larger-than-life figure. He never quite fell in the way Glorioso did, his refusal to live within the bounds of modern society began to grate on the public…


From Warrior in the Field to King on his Throne

Grendel outlasted the other two of the Three Gs, and lived to see the rise of the truly superhuman age. No matter how skilled a warrior and brawler he was, increasingly superhuman criminals and villains outpaced him, and superpowered heroes surpassed him in terms of public fascination.

Fleming, for all his schemes, was actually a far better and fairer manager than most celebrities ever luck into having, even today, and made investments that kept Grendel a wealthy man. This helped make up a little bit for how his body began to fail him with age - he didn’t move quite as swiftly, more strike quite as strongly as he used to.

Thus, in 1978, Grendel announced his “retirement” from public life. He withdrew to enjoy the fruits of his career - copious amounts of food, alcohol, and other creature comforts. However, this proved insufficient to sate the appetites of the wandering warrior, and he briefly “unretired” in 1980 to join the Battalion for about a year.

He certainly pulled his weight among true demigods on Earth, but he was unable to recapture the thrills or glory he sought, and left the group after about a year (claims that this was also the result of losing a wrestling match to his teammate, the Volunteer, are ungenerous - even if true, the latter was half Grendel’s age).

Grendel returned to the privacy of retirement for two more years, until he released another, brief public statement in 1984: “I tire of Ember Point, of America, of this loud and exhausting and overbright world you call Earth. I will be going home now.”

Fleming would later confirm that last he heard, Grendel had started to once again ascend Mount Alexandra on foot. The once mighty warrior, dented but not broken, disappeared from history…


The Aftermath

Grendel proved something of a fitness idol for later generations - his “Warrior’s Workout” may have been a cash-in on his celebrity, but it also was a seriously considered regimen, for those able to keep up with it.

Furthermore, while Fleming eventually got Grendel to agree to stick to his fists and grapples, to avoid murder and assault charges, the barbarian hero had several famous photos taken wielding a sword, which Bolt would later admit were partly responsible for inspiring his own heroic career as “the Electric Swordsman.”

Fleming himself, after his friend’s disappearance, would become a talent manager and aid to a number of further celebrities - most of which were not “heroes” or other do-gooders, but some were. He used his considerable, if subtle, influence to push for the acceptance of such vigilantes. Whether this was for a profit motive or out of altruism, or perhaps even shame, brought on by Grendel’s career, is unknown.

As for Grendel himself, investigators have only managed to complicate the truth of his story. While he claimed to have descended Mount Alexandra immediately after climbing a similar mountain in his homeland of Ankore, years after his disappearance a small cabin was discovered on a high ridge. Evidence within the ridge suggested that a man at least resembling Grendel had spent some time there as a woodsman. Some think that Grendel was a mundane man, who had either a psychotic break or burst of inspiration before walking into Ember Point as a time-lost hero. Others think point out that the cabin did not seem long-inhabited, and a confused Grendel who had passed through spacetime may have spent some blurry weeks or months there before he managed to reclaim his identity.

Stranger still is the fact that nearly three decades after Grendel began his final ascent of Mount Alexandra, spelunkers found human remains in a cave high up the mountain. These remains were tested and dental records proved a near perfect match for Grendel’s, aged up to about his mid-eighties. Except the remains were also carbon-dated and found to be several dozen millennia old…



Possible Plot Seeds & Campaign Uses
  • Freddy Fleming contacts the strongest of the PCs, asking to arrange an exhibition match between the hero and Grendel. If they’re reluctant, Fleming agrees to make it a charity match. The hero gets to have a series of press conferences with Grendel, as the warrior acts the heel and gets in the hero’s face (though once backstage he quickly admits it is mostly play-acting for the press). Come the night of the big show, foes of Grendel and/or the PCs sneak into the audience, aiming to disrupt the show, or rob the box office, or otherwise cause a ruckus - the PC in the match must keep the show going while the rest of the players thwart the villains!
  • After a particularly impressive feat, Freddy Fleming reaches out and asks to rep one of the PCs! This is particularly appropriate for phyiscally impressive heroes. This naturally leads to associating with other personalities in Freddy's stable, like Grendel. "John Smith" is perfectly friendly with the PC, but perhaps too much so - they will be invited to all sorts of crazy parties, lasting long into the morning, and then expected to still make both their heroic and performing commitments, no matter how exhausted! Is the life of a celebrity right for the PC? What about when it becomes clear that Fleming has unintentionally gotten into debt with shady criminal figures, and Grendel is ready to cut a far-too-bloody swath through them to help his friend?
  • Generations after Grendel’s disappearance, a hero may be inspired by him. This is appropriate for any superstrong or fantasy warrior-themed heroes. However, this will mean that plenty of people (heroes, villains, and otherwise) will seek to challenge the PC in question, aiming to show they are the world’s strongest / deadliest / toughest.
  • The PCs are asked to help look for a hiker who went missing on Mount Alexandra (or it is an important NPC for one of the heroes, and thus they go looking themselves). Wandering through woods and caves, they emerge to an unfamiliar landscape where armored warriors on horseback come charging up, releasing a hail of black arrows. The heroes are aided in surviving this first battle by a muscular warrior figure. One or more of the PCs recognize him as the legendary Grendel (or he introduces himself) – but this is either a Grendel younger than when he arrived in Ember Point, or an older, more seasoned Grendel. If the former, there may be a risk of somehow damaging the timestream if the heroes interfere too much (but of course the missing hiker needs to be rescued!). If the latter, like Jonah Hex in the Justice League cartoon episode he appeared in ("The Once and Future Thing: Part 1: Weird Western Tales"), Grendel is all-too familiar with modern language, tools, and weapons. He’s the grumpy mentor to the heroes in the strange fantasy land of Ankore.
  • All manner of other strange things may emerge from Mount Alexandra - other lost warriors, wizards, and rogues from Ankore, or perhaps from even stranger times. Your PCs are prepared for any supervillain team, but are they prepared for a pastiche of the last D&D party they played, who wander out from a cave on Mount Alexandra and think Ember Point looks ripe for looting? Especially if these adventurers aren't really villains as much as people completely lost for context in the present day? Perhaps they be reasoned with - even convinced to be heroes like Grendel!
Last edited by Commander Titan on Fri Jun 23, 2023 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ember Point

Post by Commander Titan »

Davies wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 3:44 am :clap: :clap: :clap:

This is seriously great stuff.
EternalPhoenix wrote: Wed Nov 02, 2022 11:45 pm Penelope Patrick and her Flying Circus really capture the spirit of the Golden Age, and that's a fact. Amelia Earhart meets the Blackhawks with a side of Buffalo Bill's outfit. Excellent. In this one person's opinion, you should do the other two of the three G's, and then Captain Scorpion.
Thank you both! This has always been a fun exercise for me to take random bits (names, inspiration, etc.) and stitch them together rather than my usual habit of "Here's the Superman homage, now here's Batman, now here's..."

I will aim to tell the shameful story of Glorioso the Hypnotic Detective tomorrow, to finish out the Three Gs. As for Captain Scorpion, well, there are at least five well-known (plus at least two often-overlooked) Captains Scorpion to detail, so I may give the first one or two but then shift around to cover a different area.

We'll see!
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Re: Ember Point

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Commander Titan wrote: Thu Nov 03, 2022 4:44 am
Thank you both! This has always been a fun exercise for me to take random bits (names, inspiration, etc.) and stitch them together rather than my usual habit of "Here's the Superman homage, now here's Batman, now here's..."

I will aim to tell the shameful story of Glorioso the Hypnotic Detective tomorrow, to finish out the Three Gs. As for Captain Scorpion, well, there are at least five well-known (plus at least two often-overlooked) Captains Scorpion to detail, so I may give the first one or two but then shift around to cover a different area.

We'll see!
As I'm sure you've noticed, I don't quite do it that way. I'm more of a blender and remixer of concepts in search of doing something different yet familiar. Homages are nice, but everyone does them. I've never been the type to blindly follow what everyone else is doing. :mrgreen:

Anyway, Grendal is interesting. Not quite a hero by modern standards, but the barbarian hero lost in a strange land is an old, old archetype. Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and their contemporizes and successors smile on you.
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Glorioso, the Hypnotic Detective

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Glorioso, the Hypnotic Detective

No brief introduction this time - the case of Glorioso, the Hypnotic Detective must speak for itself.


The Rise

A year after Goldilocks stopped the runaway blimp, another unusual crimefighter made his debut.

In the Spring of 1960, the so-called “Television Heists,” a series of unusual and highly complicated robberies stumped the Ember Point Police Department. Penny Patrick, while an unskilled investigator herself, was out of town on a different adventure. After the fourth robbery, a letter was published in the Ember Point Hourglass (the city’s local paper, usually called “The Hour” by locals), offering several suggestions to the detectives in charge. This included speculation on suspects, means, and even a possible way to catch and trap the criminals.

The note was signed “Glorioso” - no last name.

Given that weeks had passed by without a break in the case, the press and public jumped on this mysterious figure’s suggestions. However, the EPPD ignored it entirely, refusing to even entertain the notion of taking advice from some silly-named amateur. Another robbery occurred, another letter appeared, and the EPPD mocked its suggestions and the writer’s persona.

After the sixth robbery, pressure from the public and city government forced the police’s hand. After a press release, inviting Glorioso to consult, a figure turned up the next day at police HQ.

Tall, bald, and white with mirrored-glasses and a trenchcoat complete with fedora, Glorioso was quite the character the second he stepped into view. But he offered precise instruction on how to track, trap, and prosecute the “TV Bandits,” and thus he won his fame.

When the entire ring was arrested, and pled guilty, Glorioso became an overnight celebrity and hero.

Goldilocks might thwart action-y plots and uncover evil, but Glorioso made sure that it went to prison. He closed cases at a rate that professional officers could only dream of.

He took on a number of strange cases, and a number of strange villains - the gadget-using magician Count Conjuro went to prison, as did Graham Farnett for the Radioactive Killer murders. And while even Glorioso couldn’t ensure the arrest of notorious drug lord Orlando Pagan, he sent so many of "the Doctor of Delight’s" lieutenants and minions to prison as to cripple the kingpin’s operations.

There was no case Glorioso couldn’t solve - or at least no case where he couldn’t get suspects to confess. His specialty was confession, like a priest - he was known as the Hypnotic Detective for his ability to convince evildoers to reform, renounce evil, and to report on their comrades.

There were all manner of difficult cases brought before Glorioso - his wizard-like ability to resolve them made him a favorite of the papers, the police, and even the feds. Too often, Goldilocks or Grendel might thwart a villain, but in a way that made it nearly impossible to prosecute them.

Glorioso was the golden boy - not a fighter, not a flyer. Perhaps it was inevitable that he was too good to be true…


The Fall

"The Great Detective" is a fun concept. The idea that someone reduce human interactions and violations to a science. That every case or crime is a puzzle to be reduced to “who did this.” That you just need one man smart enough to ask the right questions.

Glorioso traded on that reputation for quite some time.

A quirky figure, he was nonetheless well-built for fame. He gave interviews on TV and radio, with all the right anecdotes. He called the EPPD the “real heroes” as he solved their cases and served up their suspects. When he was offered fame and fortune as his reward, he took it in suitably humble and reluctant motions.

The criminals he put away - they admitted that they did it. How could he have been wrong?

Marianne Hoffman, of the Hour, needed to answer that question.

It’s a joke, right? Someone arrested, much less convicted, for a crime claims that “I was framed” or “they made me plead guilty.” They’re just trying to dodge responsibility, right? Especially if they already confessed.

And yet - if one looked, there were holes in stories. Not all of them. Some of Glorioso’s cases, it must be admitted, seemed completely legitimate.

But others?

His “obvious suspects” had potential alibis that nobody had bothered to look into thoroughly. His “ingenious” explanations had holes once you actually went through the trouble to reenact them. His detective work relied more on miraculous confessions and incriminations than it did on real replicability and logic.

Hoffman worked in private, for months. She knew that the story she was pursuing could make her enemy number one, just as Glorioso was regarded as a public hero - not just a skilled detective, but someone who was a moral force - the evildoers admitted what they were doing was evil, and the good guys stayed good.

And then, in 1968, she went public. The Hour, after weeks of legal review, bit the bullet and published a series of articles detailing Hoffman’s review of Glorioso’s cases. Even as the pieces took pains to acknowledge where Glorioso was probably right, they highlighted that many, many of Glorioso’s arrests were solely based on confessions impossible to verify. And these confessions?

They’d been coerced, by superhuman means.

It was an astonishing exposé, debated by the public and denied by Glorioso’s supporters in law enforcement and elsewhere. But the reporting was solid, the evidence unignorable, and the Hour stood by its reporter.

It was an incredible scandal - Ember Point became decidedly hostile towards costumed adventurers, causing Goldilocks and Grendel to mostly operate elsewhere. And at the city, state, and national level, a whole slew of laws to address what superhuman powers could and could not be used to do in law enforcement and in court.

Glorioso, disgraced, surrendered to the police and pled guilty to the charges brought against him (this was probably the only reason he actually faced jail time, as superhuman case law was so new that his case would have been almost impossible to prosecute otherwise).

He claimed in his statement to the court that he’d “never meant for it to get this far,” that he’d begun intending to only use his hypnotic abilities to crack cases where lives were at stake, or time was absolutely of the essence. But as his career progressed and his fame grew, he succumbed to pressure and started cutting corners - where once he’d committed to solid detective work, with genuine insights, he compelled suspects to name names and give him details. Eventually he stopped looking for the real culprits, and began to compel criminals on a hunch into confessing.

So, on 1969, Leonard George, once the greatest light of Ember Point, and now it’s greatest shame, went to prison…


The Aftermath

Any case Glorioso had even conceivably consulted on or looked at had to be tossed out. People who had lost years of their lives got their freedom, but even with the blowback against Glorioso still suffered the stigma of being “ex-felons,” and struggled to find work and make up for lost time. Actual criminals that Glorioso had worked against, including supervillains, had to be freed as well, and soon resumed their ways, having learned from one another in prison and now encouraged by their one-time nemesis’ fall.

A whole series of lawsuits, against both Leonard George and the EPPD, were launched. The settlements cost the city millions, and were used as an excuse to cut costs elsewhere by city officials. Hoffman and her fellows at the Hour won a Pullitzer. And the sad case of Gra

George was consigned to Hallowhill Prison, where he was kept in isolation, and required to wear special glasses that counteracted his hypnotic abilities. He kept to himself during his sentence, but was eventually knifed during an altercation in 1974, dying in the prison infirmary shortly thereafter, at the age of 49.

Before he died, he served as a valuable, if exceptionally awkward, confidant and consultant for Count Conjuro. But the story of how that onetime became one of Ember Point’s heroes is a story for another time…


The Eyes Have It

So, how did Glorioso do it? What was the source of his hypnotic powers? Psionics? Magic? Mysterious technology?

The answer is both more mundane and far stranger.

There is an exceedingly rare condition that occurs in maybe one-in-ten-million people. Being so rare, it doesn’t have a well studied and agreed upon medical name. Instead, it is colloquially known in some areas as “the Eyes of Eventide,” for the resemblance of the eyes of the affected to a starry night sky.

You see, like many children, Leonard George’s eyes had appeared a bright bluish gray at birth, and then darkened. But unlike other children, they took on the distinctive look of the EoE. The Eyes have a powerful hypnotic effect - they entrance people who look at them. Even a passing glance seems to draw the attention of the human eye, and a brief look can cause someone to freeze in their tracks, paralyzed. Coupled with a slow and steady voice, and other more conventional mesmeric skills, Glorioso could easily drop people into a deep hypnotic state, which didn’t appear as an obvious trance.

People could be made to say almost anything, telling the truth or lying despite their reluctance.

Mercifully, Glorioso never had anyone do anything, violent or otherwise - he was driven by fame and reputation more than by a desire to have personal power over anyone. It’s unclear if someone enthralled by the Eyes of Eventide could be commanded to hurt themselves or others, but history abounds with stories of all sorts of unearthly, uncannily persuasive figures.

The condition has a minor benefit of excellent night vision and nearly 20-20 vision, though the increased sensitivity to light encourages wearing dark glasses during the day (in addition to their use hiding the condition from onlookers). It works on a visual level - something about the eyes and patterns afflicts the human brain and encourages a state of receptiveness. The effect didn’t work at all in still photos (the little oscillations the “flecks” in the eye made were key, it seems), and barely over the video of the time due to the general resolution, even for color footage. How effective it might be over modern digital footage is unknown…



Possible Plot Seeds & Campaign Uses
  • The obvious use is for the PCs to be contemporary heroes in 1960s Ember Point, who work with Marianne Hoffman or in place of her, to expose Glorioso. The easiest way would be for the stereotypical scenario where someone they know, someone they care for and who also has an airtight alibi, nonetheless confesses to a crime the Hypnotic Detective is investigating. But it could also be that they get approached, perhaps even by an enemy, who believes something is up. Glorioso is at the height of his powers, so to speak, and he’s beloved by the city and powerful figures within it. Can the heroes gather the evidence, and the influence, to prove his crimes? What will people think of them afterwards?
  • Alternatively, an interesting take would be to have a game set in prison - either Hallowhill or elsewhere (Glorioso could be transferred for security reasons, and he may survive longer in this timeline). Much like the Mutants & Masterminds book Lockdown, Leonard George could take some young prisoners under his wing. While he admitted his guilt and does indeed feel a lot of shame for his crimes, he could become amenable to anyone who decides to try and play to his pride, and express admiration for his heroic days. He’s a potent manipulator, but also still a genuinely skilled detective. Maybe a murder is committed or some other mystery occurs in the prison - can Glorioso be recruited, and trusted, by the PCs to them solve it?
  • The Eyes of Eventide are rare, but not unique. They could pop up as a condition possessed by a PC or a villain in a different era. Games set after Glorioso’s fall will probably see people known to have the condition viewed with suspicion, perhaps even targeted by those who want to use them for their own purposes (or fear they will be like another Glorioso). If a villain has the Eyes, perhaps this isn’t known at first. Somehow people are committing and confessing to a series of crimes, and the PCs learn of the similarities to the case of Glorioso, and understanding the past will help them solve the present day case. Marianne Hoffman could be a very useful contact in such a situation.
  • There’s a gathering of the world’s greatest detectives. Perhaps this is a social meeting or publicity stunt during Glorioso’s lifetime. Or perhaps some cosmic or temporal entity drags detectives from across time and space. The first to solve some important mystery stands to gain fame and fortune, or perhaps mystical power! The PCs must compete with Glorioso, and other unusual and perhaps unethical detectives.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - the Rise & Fall of Glorioso)

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So that's the "Three Gs" as individuals. Glorioso took longer than I planned, and each of these is still up for revisions at some point (such is the nebulous nature of "canon" in a superhero-verse), but soon I'll tackle perhaps at least the first Captain Scorpion, as requested. Then I think I'll touch on Count Conjuro, since his story follows from Glorioso's in many ways. And maybe at some point some notes on the Three Gs costumes, and some of the times they met up.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - the Rise & Fall of Glorioso)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Maybe not entirely what I expected, but it's still a good tale well told. Glorioso was all too human and fallible in the end.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - the Rise & Fall of Glorioso)

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Glorioso was the first character developed for this little exercise. I couldn't decide if I should do a hero or villain first, and wound up settling on the idea of one becoming the other. Or more specifically a hero falling from grace.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - Captain Scorpion I)

Post by Commander Titan »

Captain Scorpion (I)

A Brief Introduction to the Concept of Captain Scorpion

There are many heroic identities in the world. Some latter-day adventurers take on the names of their forebears, to continue a legacy or simply by coincidence. This usually happens only once or twice - hero-ing is simply too dangerous, and heroes simply too varied, too individual, to carry on multi-generational legacies. After all, for many costumed adventurers, their greatest hope is to create a world where their own children and heirs never have to don a costume to secure justice.

Yet, for reasons unknown, there has been one heroic identity that recurs throughout Earth’s history. In Ember Point and elsewhere, one name recurs, It is the name of a champion, a righter of wrongs, and a defender of the innocent. The lineage extends back decades, and if certain adventurers are to be believed, far into the future…

There seem to be three unifying factors between all these heroes:

1) They are standout heroes of their generation. Leaders of super-teams, or paradigm shifters between heroic ages, or makers of the ultimate sacrifice to save the day.
2) They possess a “Sting of Justice” - some weapon, power, technique, item, or other edge that they use in the pursuit of good over evil.
3) Always, for their own reasons, they are drawn to use the fated name: “Captain Scorpion”.


Beware the Sting of Justice!

The first well-known Captain Scorpion was also one of the first superheroes of the Golden Age in general. He may have been the first such hero, but it's hard to tell with this sort of thing - none of the Golden Agers held press conferences, so some of them took a while to get traction in the media and public consciousness.

His first confirmed case was in 1930, solving a series of poisonings in Chicago, proving that what police had believed to be a series of unrelated accidents and suicides were in fact murders committed by the same offender, with said offender left wounded but alive with evidence for the police to discover. There was a note at the scene - “Those criminals the police cannot or will not stop, Captain Scorpion will! All evildoers beware - the Sting of Justice!”

This was to be followed up by identifying and capturing the serial killer known as the Midwest Ripper, rounding up the bank robbing Brown family, led by Ellen “Ma Cannon” Brown, known for their use of overwhelming firepower in their heists, and dealing permanently with the original poisoner that he had first brought to justice - Joseph Mayer, who took on the name the Toxin Man when he escaped prison (after feigning illness using his own concoction and escaping the medical ward).

However, Captain Scorpion would also become known for his battles with the Chicago mob. Al Capone’s arrest opened the doors for a series of would-be challengers, most notably Davide or “David” Marinello aka “The Little Barbarian.” While relatively short-statured and hot-headed, Marinello was also a devious plotter and criminal mastermind who learned from Capone’s fall and kept his own operation more effective. While no slouch with a knife himself, he employed a series of hulking bodyguards and henchmen, each nicknamed “Goliath,” many of whom met their end facing Captain Scorpion, either by his fists or his bullets - the “Sting of Justice” dealt from the hero’s customized revolver.

Captain Scorpion was indeed a killer, and the police never stopped hunting him for what were by all legal definitions vigilante executions. That he continued to show them up, and always managed to avoid their traps, certainly didn’t help his reputation with them. As part of the first generation of superheroes, the public largely excused his methods in favor of his results, though modern historians tend to reassess his legacy. He certainly gave as good as he got, with numerous reports of him taking seemingly lethal wounds, only to reappear days or weeks later, seemingly none the worse for wear.

However, he made a final and presumed fatal last appearance in 1943. With World War II raging, Captain Scorpion had turned his attention from organized crime to saboteurs and war profiteers, and even supercriminals had mostly taken the memo to put aside their efforts during the War (Marinello allegedly cooperated with the government to protect ports and transportation hubs, while half the Brown family enlisted and as the “Cannon Clan” earned fame with the Marine Raiders).

A group of Nazi-sympathizers and agents planned a massive bombing of key wartime facilities, but they were uncovered and dealt with by Captain Scorpion. However, they still had a speedboat laden with explosives, and the hero was last seen steering the boat out onto Lake Michigan, getting as far away from everyone and everything else as possible before it exploded.

The War was the dominant concern, and in the years after the Axis surrendered, Chicagoans could only think back and wonder who their costumed crimefighter may have been under his mask…


Heroic Origins & Private Lives

Born in 1897, John Jennings, known to his colleagues as “Doctor Jennings” and to his friends and loved ones as “Jack,” was a bright young man from a WASP-y family in the Midwest. He attended Northwestern University, excelling in chemistry and biology, and like several other members of his family he obtained his medical license. Unlike his more “respectable” forebears, however, Jennings chose to work with the Chicago police as a medical examiner and forensic pathologist, performing autopsies and examining causes of death.

However, the police were alternatively corrupt or overworked, and a great many cases went unsolved or uninvestigated, no matter how promising the leads Jennings found were.

To fill his time and let off steam from work, Jennings pursued his scientific interests with gusto. Besides a desire to help the forgotten and overlooked, part of why he’d become a pathologist was due to his admittedly grim and macabre fascination with how the body could be manipulated, even turned against itself, by poisons and other chemical inducements. This included studying entomology and arachnology, as well as the possible medical uses of various venoms.

He spent a considerable amount of his fortune on acquiring stranger and rarer specimens, culminating in the acquisition of a particular red scorpion of unknown species. The dealer who Jennings purchased it from was shadier than most, and never turned up again after their transaction. The scorpion in question possessed a chemically-unique venom in its sting, one that Jennings believed had great potential for fighting cancer and dealing with clotting and other issues, if properly treated and refined.

One night, after being told in no uncertain terms by his supervisors in Chicago PD that the “poisonings” he harped on were not considered murders and would not be investigated as such, Jennings set to work late in his home lab. The combination of anger and more than a few drinks made him sloppy, and while attempting to interact with his crimson specimen in its terrarium he was stung.

Jennings stumbled back, and immediately passed out. He dreamed a deep, dreamless sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, however, he felt fine. Indeed, he felt better than fine - for while never adverse to a little bit of exercise, Jennings suddenly found himself in the best shape of his life. He soon found that his strength had grown prodigiously, and in the course of testing out his newfound strength he would also discover he had an incredible ability to heal.

The curious scorpion itself had died overnight. Whether this was from stress, or illness, or something else, like a bee having a single sting before dying, he was never able to determine.

Flush with power, angry at the police’s apathy, and full of certainty that he knew how to solve the case, Jennings put together a costume and identity. He donned a black outfit with red accents (the inside of his jacket, the logo on his chest and gloves) themed after the strange creature which had given him his powers. He dubbed himself Captain Scorpion, for his costume was adapted from a spare police uniform, and set out into the night to enter history.

He was able to pursue many cases based on what he overheard from the police, which was also how he was always keyed into their attempts to capture Captain Scorpion. Several detectives suspected the Captain might be an officer himself, but Jenningsremained above suspicion and outmaneuvered their mole hunts. However, he came to realize that he would need another source of information as well.

Thus, he approached a reporter for the Herald-Examiner, one Dexter Kear. Captain Scorpion proposed the two share information, giving Kear inside scoops that nobody else would get, while the Captain found ways to learn outside of official police investigations.

Kear was chosen after careful consideration on Jennings’ part, selected for his honesty, integrity, and dogged pursuit of the truth regardless of what unfortunate truths might be revealed, or which powerful people might be inconvenienced.

What Jack didn’t expect, however, was that over the course of their years working together, they would fall in love.

While Dr. John Jennings and Dexter Kear could barely associate socially without raising suspicion, Captain Scorpion moved in the shadows and was not subject to public scrutiny. He eventually revealed his identity to Kear, but the wry journalist noted that he’d ID’d the man beneath the mask months ago, but said nothing to allow Jack to make his confession in his own time. “After all, a journalist protects his sources…”


And Now, Something With Poison In It, I Think

In the course of his adventures, Captain Scorpion took a lot of punishment. He had what is known in many quarters as a “healing factor.” Wounds that would cripple anyone else merely inconvenienced him, though things that might kill someone else could still leave him laid up for weeks at a time.

However, what slowly became apparent as he battled more and more deadly foes, and took on greater and greater wounds, was that there was a cost associated with this vitality. It was not truly apparent until the mid-to-late Thirties, but Jack Jennings aged at a rate of approximately 2.5 years for every one that passed. For a time this helped keep his identity secret, as many took John Jennings to be ill in some way, and “too old” to be the seemingly spry young hero. But it also led to the emergence of health problems that his healing factor seemingly couldn’t affect.

This, and the changing criminal and cultural landscape, led to Jennings’ decision to retire. By the time he thwarted the Toxin Man’s final scheme in 1940 (which involved Mayer posthumously coordinating a series of copycats with detailed pre-mortem plans), the Captain had the body of a man of about 60.

He survived the boat explosion on the lake, of course, but took the opportunity to disappear. Jennings had already left his job as a medical examiner, citing his declining health. He took the remains of his family money (much of it spent on costumes, gadgets, and other gear, but fortunately still enough to live on) and spent the rest of his days living quietly with Kear, who cared for Jack as he aged.

In 1950, Dr. John Jennings passed away, looking like a man in his eighties, and leaving only a single person behind who knew the truth behind the legend of the first Captain Scorpion. Decades later, when Kear himself grew old, he would put together a tribute to his long-gone love in his memoirs, arranging for them to be released after his death, with certain redactions made, and thus in 1992, John Jennings was finally named and given the credit (and blame) that many felt Captain Scorpion had earned…



Possible Plot Seeds & Campaign Uses
  • I’ll touch on other Captains Scorpion in the future, but it’s an open legacy. A PC could always take on the moniker of Captain Scorpion (and as you’ll eventually see, such a hero need not imitate John Jennings in costume, powers, or style!)
  • In a game set in the 1930s, Captain Scorpion could appear as a rival, friendly or otherwise, to the PCs. If they’re against killing they could come into conflict with Captain Scorpion’s over his more Golden Age morality. Likewise if the PCs are time travelers. Alternatively, if the PCs are also in that pulp hero-style space, they could join forces. The Chicago Outfit are potent enemies, with or without mafiosos taking on supervillain-stylings as part of the costumed arms race.
  • The crimson scorpion that empowered John Jennings may be a mutant of some kind, or perhaps just one of an entire species. As such, someone else could always gain the same or similar powers from it. This could empower a single hero or villain. Or in a present day game, some faction could be attempting to develop supersoldier serums or street drugs from the venom. And in turn this could be a power origin. The “heal fast, die young” aspect of the venom adds extra concerns.
  • Dr, Jennings could be an NPC contact, a pathologist who comes to the PCs to express his concerns about a case that nobody else is investigating. Perhaps one of the PCs is a journalist that Jennings approaches to share information instead of or in addition to Dexter Kear, maybe without realizing they are a vigilante as well. Or maybe Jennings does know the PC is a hero, and wants to test and assess them as a possible successor to protect Chicago, knowing that he is aging prematurely.
Last edited by Commander Titan on Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - Captain Scorpion I)

Post by Davies »

An amazing blend of concepts. I can't wait to see where your explorations turn next.
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