Davies
Legend
You're right, I'll change that to "What vengeance Nocticula will take when ..."
[Mutants & Masterminds] A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic
Davies
Legend
Simon Munroe
More than anything else, the children of the ancient families are raised to believe that their lives and choices will have significance. Whether that quality will derive from their powers or from their wealth depends on their circumstances, but the idea that there might come a day when they will be faced with a situation where these things don't matter usually doesn't usually feature in their thinking. If it should happen that they encounter a circumstance where they are humbled in that way, it may be a recipe for the birth of -- perhaps not a hero, as such, but a better example of the human species than they've been to that point. Or, of course, a much worse one.
Simon Munroe, born into an privileged British family, was raised to believe that he would one day join the ranks of the secret masters of the world. From an early age, since he was a quite clever child, he formed an idea of what sort of master he would be. To his credit, he wanted to improve the circumstances of the world rather than exploiting it, and specifically planned to focus all of the power that would one day be his on improving the world's ecological situation.
This concern for the environmental health of the planet likely came, in part, from the weather controlling powers he possessed, which left him very sensitive to the ways that human activity was influencing the atmosphere. However, Simon also realized that his own powers of meteorokinesis were not quite as grand as those of some of the members of his family tree had been, and that he was going to need to rely on his financial advantages to make his mark on the world. And that meant he would have to wait for his turn at the helm of his family's businesses. Which was fine, for if his parents had never had much time for him or his ideas, he had no reason to wish harm on them, either.
And then the world changed forever, and his parents died in Cerebron's attack. At just twenty-seven, Simon Munroe was now the one who made the big decisions about how his family's money was used, and if he hadn't wanted things to be this way, he found that he could live with the consequences, and contacted his business managers to start making preparations for the more green approaches he'd been planning for a while.
That was when things started to go horribly wrong, for the managers told him, very bluntly, that their fiduciary responsibility prevented them from following his instructions if they believed that those instructions would lead to serious material losses for the family. Simon could certainly fire them and hire new personnel to take their places, but whoever he hired would be in the same situation, and nothing would change. Some more moderate versions of his plans might be possible, but the big ideas he'd been planning all this while were never going to be on the table.
The financial power he'd always dreamed of possessing wasn't going to help him any more than his weather control did. Simon retreated to the family estate, and let his frustrations explode into a small, localized storm over the the manor, as he stood on the roof in the rain and screamed wordlessly up at the sky. The tantrum finally reached an end when the storm clouds he'd called into being finally produced a lightning bolt -- not one of the ones that he could summon up, but the genuine article -- that smashed into him.
This had never happened before, and he'd never known that his powers also allowed him to harmlessly absorb electrical energy, and then channel it to enhance his weather controlling powers to the point where he was as powerful as some of those hoary old bastards he'd read about. It didn't last very long, particularly as he began using his powers to smash the manor. But the realization that his powers, which he'd never regarded as anything special, were potentially great, changed how he was going to approach things from now on. It was time for some direct action.
Ever since, Simon Munroe has heedlessly pursued an ecoterrorist agenda, clashing with heroes and villains alike in his pursuit of a world that suits his ideas about the ideal environment, most recently with Nike after he attempted to personally 'correct' Athens' emissions. He routinely juices himself with small electric shocks, building up a reservoir of power in the process. He has grown completely callous about the fate of human lives in the pursuit of this goal, and has idly speculated out loud that culling the population down to about a tenth of its current level would probably do much to get the process of healing the planet started. (That it would also create an ecological catastrophe of its own doesn't really register with him.)
That's a bit much, even for the most ruthless members of his former society, whose plans definitely aren't best served by Simon's goals, so he's suffered a number of assassination attempts over the last two decades. He's been thought dead many times, but keeps returning. Nike finds him uncomfortably reminiscent of one of her father, who had a similar set of powers ...
Simon Munroe -- PL 12
Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 3 | AGL 4 | DEX 2 | FGT 3 | INT 3 | AWE 4 | PRE 2
Powers:
Electrical Absorption: Immunity 10 (electrical effects); Variable 5 (enhanced weather control powers), Free Action, Fades, Only After Electrical Damage - 45 points
Weather Control: Array (20 points)
Advantages:
Agile Feint, Benefit 5 (billionaire), Connections, Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Roll, Fearless 2, Improved Defense, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Well-informed.
Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+12), Athletics 9 (+10), Expertise: Business 6 (+9), Expertise: Science 6 (+9), Insight 5 (+9), Intimidation 8 (+10), Persuasion 9 (+11), Ranged Combat: Weather Control 7 (+9), Perception 8 (+12).
Offense:
Initiative +4
Unarmed +3 (Close Damage 1)
Dazzling Display +9 (Ranged Fortitude 15/6)
Lifting Winds -- (Cylinder Area Damage 11/4)
Lightning Bolts +9 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 14/6)
Defense:
Dodge 15/9, Parry 14/8, Fortitude 5, Toughness 5/3, Will 9
Totals:
Abilities 44 + Powers 81 + Advantages 14 + Skills 33 + Defenses 17 = 189 points
Complications:
Environmental Fervor--Motivation. Makes a Show of Acting More In Sorrow Than In Anger. Tends to Retreat When Actually Angry.
More than anything else, the children of the ancient families are raised to believe that their lives and choices will have significance. Whether that quality will derive from their powers or from their wealth depends on their circumstances, but the idea that there might come a day when they will be faced with a situation where these things don't matter usually doesn't usually feature in their thinking. If it should happen that they encounter a circumstance where they are humbled in that way, it may be a recipe for the birth of -- perhaps not a hero, as such, but a better example of the human species than they've been to that point. Or, of course, a much worse one.
Simon Munroe, born into an privileged British family, was raised to believe that he would one day join the ranks of the secret masters of the world. From an early age, since he was a quite clever child, he formed an idea of what sort of master he would be. To his credit, he wanted to improve the circumstances of the world rather than exploiting it, and specifically planned to focus all of the power that would one day be his on improving the world's ecological situation.
This concern for the environmental health of the planet likely came, in part, from the weather controlling powers he possessed, which left him very sensitive to the ways that human activity was influencing the atmosphere. However, Simon also realized that his own powers of meteorokinesis were not quite as grand as those of some of the members of his family tree had been, and that he was going to need to rely on his financial advantages to make his mark on the world. And that meant he would have to wait for his turn at the helm of his family's businesses. Which was fine, for if his parents had never had much time for him or his ideas, he had no reason to wish harm on them, either.
And then the world changed forever, and his parents died in Cerebron's attack. At just twenty-seven, Simon Munroe was now the one who made the big decisions about how his family's money was used, and if he hadn't wanted things to be this way, he found that he could live with the consequences, and contacted his business managers to start making preparations for the more green approaches he'd been planning for a while.
That was when things started to go horribly wrong, for the managers told him, very bluntly, that their fiduciary responsibility prevented them from following his instructions if they believed that those instructions would lead to serious material losses for the family. Simon could certainly fire them and hire new personnel to take their places, but whoever he hired would be in the same situation, and nothing would change. Some more moderate versions of his plans might be possible, but the big ideas he'd been planning all this while were never going to be on the table.
The financial power he'd always dreamed of possessing wasn't going to help him any more than his weather control did. Simon retreated to the family estate, and let his frustrations explode into a small, localized storm over the the manor, as he stood on the roof in the rain and screamed wordlessly up at the sky. The tantrum finally reached an end when the storm clouds he'd called into being finally produced a lightning bolt -- not one of the ones that he could summon up, but the genuine article -- that smashed into him.
This had never happened before, and he'd never known that his powers also allowed him to harmlessly absorb electrical energy, and then channel it to enhance his weather controlling powers to the point where he was as powerful as some of those hoary old bastards he'd read about. It didn't last very long, particularly as he began using his powers to smash the manor. But the realization that his powers, which he'd never regarded as anything special, were potentially great, changed how he was going to approach things from now on. It was time for some direct action.
Ever since, Simon Munroe has heedlessly pursued an ecoterrorist agenda, clashing with heroes and villains alike in his pursuit of a world that suits his ideas about the ideal environment, most recently with Nike after he attempted to personally 'correct' Athens' emissions. He routinely juices himself with small electric shocks, building up a reservoir of power in the process. He has grown completely callous about the fate of human lives in the pursuit of this goal, and has idly speculated out loud that culling the population down to about a tenth of its current level would probably do much to get the process of healing the planet started. (That it would also create an ecological catastrophe of its own doesn't really register with him.)
That's a bit much, even for the most ruthless members of his former society, whose plans definitely aren't best served by Simon's goals, so he's suffered a number of assassination attempts over the last two decades. He's been thought dead many times, but keeps returning. Nike finds him uncomfortably reminiscent of one of her father, who had a similar set of powers ...
Simon Munroe -- PL 12
Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 3 | AGL 4 | DEX 2 | FGT 3 | INT 3 | AWE 4 | PRE 2
Powers:
Electrical Absorption: Immunity 10 (electrical effects); Variable 5 (enhanced weather control powers), Free Action, Fades, Only After Electrical Damage - 45 points
Weather Control: Array (20 points)
- Dazzling Display: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 6/15 (Resisted and Overcome by Fortitude; Vision and Auditory Impaired, Vision and Auditory Disabled, Vision and Auditory Unaware) - 1 point
- Lifting Winds: Cylinder Area Damaging Move Object 4/11 - 1 point
- Lightning Bolts: Ranged Multiattack Damage 6/14, Indirect 2 - 1 point
- Localized Storm: Environment 5/11 (Cold, Impede Movement, Visibility), Selective - 20 points
- Wind Riding: Selective Burst Area Affects Others and Self Flight 4/9 (30 MPH/1000 MPH) - 1 point
Advantages:
Agile Feint, Benefit 5 (billionaire), Connections, Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Roll, Fearless 2, Improved Defense, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Well-informed.
Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+12), Athletics 9 (+10), Expertise: Business 6 (+9), Expertise: Science 6 (+9), Insight 5 (+9), Intimidation 8 (+10), Persuasion 9 (+11), Ranged Combat: Weather Control 7 (+9), Perception 8 (+12).
Offense:
Initiative +4
Unarmed +3 (Close Damage 1)
Dazzling Display +9 (Ranged Fortitude 15/6)
Lifting Winds -- (Cylinder Area Damage 11/4)
Lightning Bolts +9 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 14/6)
Defense:
Dodge 15/9, Parry 14/8, Fortitude 5, Toughness 5/3, Will 9
Totals:
Abilities 44 + Powers 81 + Advantages 14 + Skills 33 + Defenses 17 = 189 points
Complications:
Environmental Fervor--Motivation. Makes a Show of Acting More In Sorrow Than In Anger. Tends to Retreat When Actually Angry.
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It's funny too because I've been imagining A World Less Magical to be far greener and for far longer than our reality. (Chalk it up to the think tanks and three and a half decades of nigh-consecutive Democratic administrations among other things. Like the Atlanteans stating they'll outlive humanity long after the changes they make to the planet blowing back at them.)
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Davies
Legend
In some respects, it probably is. But, as always, the perfect is the enemy of the good.
Davies
Legend
Warning: Disturbing content ahead.
Roderick Ashe
The complicated origins of the House of Ashe has already been told in the biography of Penelope Ashe, better known as Penny Lane. For three generations after Timothy Ashe took that as his name, his family made an apparently sincere effort to move away from the degenerate practices of their forebears, making alliances through intermarriage with other families of the secret aristocracy of America, in the belief that this would restore the family's latent powers. Shortly before the turn of the twentieth century, these efforts finally began to bear fruit, with the birth of a number of children who possessed the sensory faculties that their ancestors had known.
These children of the House of Ashe were encouraged -- or perhaps compelled -- to marry within their small circle. The results were mixed, with only some of the children demonstrating greater aptitudes for psychic talents, and others demonstrating only questionable sanity. The damage had been done, however, and the next generation of the Ashe family would become even more disturbingly inbred, as was Nicholas Ashe.
Roderick Ashe, the current head of the house, rose to that position in 2008, when he was forty-four years old. (In the interests of not disturbing the readers of this document, the simplest terms for the familial relationships between members of the House of Ashe will be used hereafter.) The former head had been his mother's older brother, and was known not to think highly of Roderick, who seemed to take no real interest in the family business of vice, preferring to engage in what the Ashes considered to be artistic pursuits.
In 1994, however, Roderick became the father of a daughter named Penelope. Sadly, the child's mother died shortly after giving birth, due to an unfortunate accident with the pieces of a shattered hand mirror. Initially, Penny was of very little interest to Roderick, and her care was entirely given to a series of nannies. But when it became clear that she was an actual mind reader, at around thirteen years of age, she became the subject of a great deal of extremely prurient interest from the male members of her family. This lead her to run away from home within the next year
A few months after that happened, Roderick seized control over the House of Ashe, killing only a few of his rivals in the process, preferring to intimidate them so that he could make use of their talents later. He laid down a single simple rule for the family -- Penelope was to be left entirely to her own devices until such time as she returned home of her own volition. Any attempt to coerce or compel her to do so would be met with extraordinary sanction. With that done, Roderick turned to the business of running the business. In addition to the family's traditional vice, he's moved into information brokerage, and does a great deal of business with the Combination, Jolene, and the Schemer.
Of course, Roderick fully intends to one day bring Penny back home as a bride and the mother of more of his children, who will ideally have her telepathy as well as his own psychometry, the tool that has ensured he knows nearly everything that goes on in Baltimore. While it would have been nice if she'd rejected the world as an Ashe is supposed to do, the fact that she's been gone for more than twelve years suggests that this won't happen. So she'll have to be brought back forcefully, and the edict was always meant for everyone else, not himself.
The alliance she's made with that obnoxious construct Machinanima complicates matters, but Roderick is quite confident that he can overcome this obstacle, too. The possibility of using Machinanima to eliminate another of his problems, namely Corentin Van Damme, also intrigues him. If the operation succeeds, he is sure to be recognized as the leader of all the families, and get started on the grand project of bringing them all around to the House of Ashe's way of thinking. What a gift that would be to give his first grandchild ...
Roderick Ashe -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 2 | AGL 1 | DEX 2 | FGT 2 | INT 3 | AWE 7 | PRE 3
Powers:
Shielded Mind: Impervious Will 6, Limited to Mental Effects - 3 points
Supreme Psychometry: Enhanced Advantage 1 (Ultimate Effort [Investigation]), Quirk (only for Well-Informed checks); Mind Reading 8, Limited to Emotions, Only while Remote Sensing; Remote Sensing 13 (all senses), Medium (inanimate object touched within the last twenty-four hours), Simultaneous; Senses 4 (Postcognition), Limited to inanimate object as subject; Senses 2 (darkvision), Only while Remote Sensing - 60 points
Advantages:
Assessment, Benefit 5 (billionaire), Connected, Contacts, Improved Initiative, Languages 3 (many), Skill Mastery (Perception), Well-informed.
Skills:
Deception 8 (+11), Expertise: Business 8 (+11), Expertise: Criminal 8 (+11), Insight 5 (+12), Investigation 10 (+13), Perception 6 (+13), Persuasion 7 (+10), Sleight of Hand 8 (+10), Stealth 8 (+9).
Offense:
Initiative +5
Unarmed +2 (Close Damage 0)
Defense:
Dodge 5, Parry 6, Fortitude 3, Toughness 2, Will 7
Totals:
Abilities 34 + Powers 63 + Advantages 14 + Skills 34 + Defenses 9 = 154 points
Complications:
Power--Motivation. Completely Depraved. Obsession (Penny Lane.) Secrets (many.)
Roderick Ashe
The complicated origins of the House of Ashe has already been told in the biography of Penelope Ashe, better known as Penny Lane. For three generations after Timothy Ashe took that as his name, his family made an apparently sincere effort to move away from the degenerate practices of their forebears, making alliances through intermarriage with other families of the secret aristocracy of America, in the belief that this would restore the family's latent powers. Shortly before the turn of the twentieth century, these efforts finally began to bear fruit, with the birth of a number of children who possessed the sensory faculties that their ancestors had known.
These children of the House of Ashe were encouraged -- or perhaps compelled -- to marry within their small circle. The results were mixed, with only some of the children demonstrating greater aptitudes for psychic talents, and others demonstrating only questionable sanity. The damage had been done, however, and the next generation of the Ashe family would become even more disturbingly inbred, as was Nicholas Ashe.
Roderick Ashe, the current head of the house, rose to that position in 2008, when he was forty-four years old. (In the interests of not disturbing the readers of this document, the simplest terms for the familial relationships between members of the House of Ashe will be used hereafter.) The former head had been his mother's older brother, and was known not to think highly of Roderick, who seemed to take no real interest in the family business of vice, preferring to engage in what the Ashes considered to be artistic pursuits.
In 1994, however, Roderick became the father of a daughter named Penelope. Sadly, the child's mother died shortly after giving birth, due to an unfortunate accident with the pieces of a shattered hand mirror. Initially, Penny was of very little interest to Roderick, and her care was entirely given to a series of nannies. But when it became clear that she was an actual mind reader, at around thirteen years of age, she became the subject of a great deal of extremely prurient interest from the male members of her family. This lead her to run away from home within the next year
A few months after that happened, Roderick seized control over the House of Ashe, killing only a few of his rivals in the process, preferring to intimidate them so that he could make use of their talents later. He laid down a single simple rule for the family -- Penelope was to be left entirely to her own devices until such time as she returned home of her own volition. Any attempt to coerce or compel her to do so would be met with extraordinary sanction. With that done, Roderick turned to the business of running the business. In addition to the family's traditional vice, he's moved into information brokerage, and does a great deal of business with the Combination, Jolene, and the Schemer.
Of course, Roderick fully intends to one day bring Penny back home as a bride and the mother of more of his children, who will ideally have her telepathy as well as his own psychometry, the tool that has ensured he knows nearly everything that goes on in Baltimore. While it would have been nice if she'd rejected the world as an Ashe is supposed to do, the fact that she's been gone for more than twelve years suggests that this won't happen. So she'll have to be brought back forcefully, and the edict was always meant for everyone else, not himself.
The alliance she's made with that obnoxious construct Machinanima complicates matters, but Roderick is quite confident that he can overcome this obstacle, too. The possibility of using Machinanima to eliminate another of his problems, namely Corentin Van Damme, also intrigues him. If the operation succeeds, he is sure to be recognized as the leader of all the families, and get started on the grand project of bringing them all around to the House of Ashe's way of thinking. What a gift that would be to give his first grandchild ...
Roderick Ashe -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 2 | AGL 1 | DEX 2 | FGT 2 | INT 3 | AWE 7 | PRE 3
Powers:
Shielded Mind: Impervious Will 6, Limited to Mental Effects - 3 points
Supreme Psychometry: Enhanced Advantage 1 (Ultimate Effort [Investigation]), Quirk (only for Well-Informed checks); Mind Reading 8, Limited to Emotions, Only while Remote Sensing; Remote Sensing 13 (all senses), Medium (inanimate object touched within the last twenty-four hours), Simultaneous; Senses 4 (Postcognition), Limited to inanimate object as subject; Senses 2 (darkvision), Only while Remote Sensing - 60 points
Advantages:
Assessment, Benefit 5 (billionaire), Connected, Contacts, Improved Initiative, Languages 3 (many), Skill Mastery (Perception), Well-informed.
Skills:
Deception 8 (+11), Expertise: Business 8 (+11), Expertise: Criminal 8 (+11), Insight 5 (+12), Investigation 10 (+13), Perception 6 (+13), Persuasion 7 (+10), Sleight of Hand 8 (+10), Stealth 8 (+9).
Offense:
Initiative +5
Unarmed +2 (Close Damage 0)
Defense:
Dodge 5, Parry 6, Fortitude 3, Toughness 2, Will 7
Totals:
Abilities 34 + Powers 63 + Advantages 14 + Skills 34 + Defenses 9 = 154 points
Complications:
Power--Motivation. Completely Depraved. Obsession (Penny Lane.) Secrets (many.)
As if they would ever go along with that inbred pervert's grand plan. Honestly, it would more than likely shatter the Mutant Families if it went ahead.
Davies
Legend
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Well you did say the leaders of the Mutant Families were divided by those motivated entirely by greed, spite, and sado-sexual urges and the rest who were absolutely terrified of the former and so did nothing to oppose them...
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