[Mutants & Masterminds] A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

[Davies]

Karsa Har-ul

Born a bit less than twenty-five solar years ago on the planet Dhakimat, Karsa Har-ul led a fairly typical life on one of the many small family-run farm/ranches that constitute the largest private settlements on her home world. Then she turned sixteen and her number came up in the planetary government's conscription lottery, she was inducted into the military service and her entrance exam indicated that she was a good candidate for the super-soldier project. Despite the difficulty of the training, she developed additional abilities, above and beyond those possessed of all Dhakamites.

Commissioned as a lieutenant, Karsa was assigned to a unit of troopers sent to deal with a group of space pirates operating out of one of their star system's asteroid belts. The mission was a success but their ship sustained some damage during the battle. When their drive engaged to take them back to the mother world, it proceeded to go into overdrive, flinging them from the back reaches of the Imperium to the borders of the Technate, a journey that would normally take years, in less than a second. And then it blew up.

The unit's captain died in the explosion, leaving Karsa in command. Swallowing her panic, she sent out scouts to determine the local circumstances before their powers faded. They soon learned that the planets of the nearest star system were being attacked by a huge force of invaders who were being fought by a much smaller force who seemed to be fighting a delaying action. Karsa will claim that she threw a quill to determine which side to assist, but the truth is that she's always favored the underfrax in any fight. And so, they went to the aid of the Last Men Standing.

They were only supposed to stay in the alliance long enough to repair their ship's drive so that they could start their journey home, but obtaining the materials needed proved harder than expected. They were still stuck in their holding pattern when the Lasters joined forces with Earth's Powerhouse organization in 2015, and Karsa met the last Anacreonite. She was quite impressed with him, but they didn't have long to talk before the Dark Side launched an ambush of the Laster fleet, with the Dhakamite vessel apparently lost with all hands.

In fact, Kharsa alone survived that conflagration, shoved into an escape pod by her sergeant. Injured and dazed, she set the vessel on a course that would take it to Earth and then went into coldsleep. Three years later, it arrived on Earth and crash landed in Northern Ontario, where Paragon discovered it. Kharsa awoke from her slumber, smiled at her rescuer, and then collapsed to vomit all over his nice shiny boots.

She spent a few months recovering from her injuries in Paragon's secret sanctuary, visited by both Paragon and Jora. Towards the end of this period she underwent an interview with Argus agents to determine whether she (a) posed any threat to the people of Earth or (b) had any useful intelligence about the rest of the galaxy. The answer to both questions was a qualified 'no', and so it was arranged for her to receive a special refugee status, leaving her free to explore the planet.

This is more or less what she's done since then. Kharsa tends to stick to rural and wilderness areas, since even the smallest cities are much more heavily populated than anything she's ever known, and make her uncomfortable as a consequence. However, she's slowly becoming accustomed to the different circumstances found on this planet, since she was trained to "improvise, adapt and overcome". Even so, she prefers her own company to most others.

Kharsa is not a superhero ... yet. As already mentioned, she has a strong tendency to stick up for those she perceives as the weaker or wronged party, and this often leads to her taking a stand to protect people. However, she also recognizes that this tendency can get her into a lot of trouble, and so she sometimes tries to suppress it, leading her to walk away from situations where she could help. What she's ultimately going to decide to do once she finally finds her footing is not clear. She still wants to return to Dhakimat and report on her unit's fate, but she suspects that is probably a chipdream and that she's going to be stuck on this planet for the rest of her extended lifespan. If so, then she should probably start thinking about how to make it a home worth having.

Karsa Har-ul -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR 8 | STA 7 | AGL 1 | DEX 1 | FGT 5 | INT 0 | AWE 0 | PRE 0

Powers:
Dhakimat Powers: Array (11 points)

• Blast Vision: Ranged Damage 5, Accurate - 11 point
• Hyper-Speed: Enhanced Flight 5 - 1 point
• Hyper-Strength: Enhanced Strength 3; Enhanced Strength 5, Limited to Lifting - 1 point

Great Speed: Enhanced Advantages 8 (Close Attack 2, Improved Initiative 3, Interpose, Move-by Action); Enhanced Defense 12 (Dodge 6, Parry 6); Flight 8 (500 MPH), Aquatic; Quickness 8 - 45 points
Great Toughness: Immunity 10 (life support); Impervious Toughness 6; Regeneration 5 - 21 points

Advantages:
Close Attack 2, Improved Initiative 3, Interpose, Language (English), Move-by Action, Ranged Attack 4.

Skills:
Expertise: Military 6 (+6), Expertise: Survival 5 (+5), Perception 4 (+4), Vehicles 5 (+6).

Offense:
Initiative +13
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 8)
Hyper-Strength +7 (Close Damage 11)
Blast Vision +7 (Close Damage 5)

Defense:
Dodge 10/4, Parry 11/5, Fortitude 9, Toughness 7, Will 5.

Totals:
Abilities 44 + Powers 79 + Advantages 5 + Skills 10 + Defenses 10 = 148 points

Complications:
Finding A Purpose--Motivation. Loner. Power Loss (all; exposure to theonite.) Secret Identity.

 

[Davies]

Jolene

In 1973, a rising star in the American country music genre released a song entitled 'Jolene', with lyrics describing the beauty of a seductive woman whom the singer fears will claim her male lover, combined with pleas for her not to do so. The artist claimed, in interviews, that this song had been inspired by an encounter with a bank teller who fit the description, who had been flirting with her husband. At other times, she would claim that the song was based on a fan who sought her autograph. Regardless, the reality behind the song made her unwilling to sing it too often.

Art, it has been said, is using lies to tell the truth. The words and tune of the song 'Jolene' are actually much older than those accounts would claim, as it is one of a number of songs sung in the Appalachian Mountains, largely crafted as warnings. It's not as old as some of those songs, dating back to around the turn of the century where some of them go back centuries. The song was actually softened in its popular release, where the singer pleads with Jolene to refrain from seducing her man, where in the original version she is pleading for his life.

It has been a long time since the woman known as Jolene has haunted the Appalachians. Over the decades, she moved south and east, through Georgia and then through Florida. She settled in Miami in the early Eighties and has lived there ever since, growing rich on the avails of drugs and prostitution. The money doesn't matter to her as much as the opportunities these businesses present to force people to compromise their integrity, often in ruinous ways. She enjoys seeing how far she can bend people, and watching them break.

Her story began in the 19th century, in Ireland, but quickly moved to London, where she lived a life of not-all-that-quiet desperation as one of the streetwalkers of the East End. No, she wasn't one of the ones you may have heard about, but she knew some of them. That was the reason why, one night in 1892, when she saw a man running down an alley in a panic, she knew him for who he was. Whatever fear she might have felt was smothered by a rage she'd never imagined she could feel.

She chased him, not knowing what she was going to do to the murderer of her friends when she caught him, but knowing that she had to do to this. She followed him through a door where no door should be, and emerged somewhere else. Various things then transpired. A few years later, another door opened, an ocean's distance away in the city of Nashville, and the woman named Jolene walked out of it, made beautiful and terrible by her experiences on the other side, and began to carve out her reputation.

Her primary superhuman ability, aside from her longevity and unearthly charisma, is the ability to steal 'vital energy' from people. This can either take the form of a slow, steady drain from all of those in her vicinity, which leaves people tired or even unconscious but won't actually kill them, or a fast, deadly theft from someone whom she touches directly. Being who and what she is, she enjoys employing the latter through a kiss or other intimate contact.

Jolene has no loyalty to the beings who made her what she was, and does not see herself as serving their designs. (She may be wrong about this. Or not.) Perhaps the strangest aspect of her existence is the way that she can sometimes be moved by the pleas of the truly innocent, as the song about her would suggest, as long as her vanity is flattered in the process. And she gives most of the money she makes through her criminal enterprises to charity, supporting shelters for the abused and food banks in the process.

If anyone suggested to her that this suggests a hidden heart of gold, she would first laugh and then find one of the beneficiaries of her 'charity' and slaughter them out of hand to demonstrate her contempt for the idea. She views herself as a parasite on society, sickening and weakening it ... but not killing her host, at least not quickly. She wants to take her time, for she has all the time in the world. (For this reason, she has never bestirred herself to finish things with Jack, even though she knows him for what he is.)

Jolene -- PL 11

Abilities:
STR 5 | STA 5 | AGL 5 | DEX 3 | FGT 10 | INT 2 | AWE 3 | PRE 8

Powers:
Energy Drain: Array (38 points)

• Fast and Deadly: Cumulative Affliction 12 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed & Vulnerable, Stunned & Defenseless, Incapacitated & Dying), Extra Condition - 1 point
• Slow and Steady: Burst Area Cumulative Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed & Fatigued, Exhausted & Stunned, Incapacitated), Extra Condition, Subtle, Insidious - 38 points

Gift of Gab: Comprehend Languages 3 - 9 points
Not of this Earth: Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison); Immunity 20 (mental effects), Limited to Half Effect; Impervious Protection 4 - 21 points

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit 4 (crime lord, millionaire), Connected, Daze (Deception), Fascinate (Deception), Fearless 2, Improved Initiative, Well-Informed.

Skills:
Deception 7 (+15), Expertise: Crime 10 (+12), Expertise: Streetwise 8 (+10), Insight 8 (+11), Intimidation 6 (+14), Perception 6 (+9), Persuasion 5 (+13).

Offense:
Initiative +9
Unarmed +10 (Close Damage 5)
Fast & Deadly Drain +10 (Close Fortitude 12)
Slow & Steady Drain -- (Burst Area Fortitude 9)

Defense:
Dodge 10, Parry 11, Fortitude 9, Toughness 9, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 82 + Powers 69 + Advantages 12 + Skills 26 + Defenses 16 = 205 points

Complications:
Corruption--Motivation. Dependency (regular use of Energy Drain power). Charitable Impulses.

 

[Davies]

Devilray

As far back as he can remember, he always wanted to be a pirate. Born just over thirty years ago, under the name Masul Ebrahim in Davoul City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, his youth was not a happy one, and he escaped from these years by listening to the 'heroic' tales of the pirates of the Sulu Sea. They were the embodiment of the vigor and excitement that was so lacking in his life, and he vowed to himself and to Allah that one day he would join them and have his name become a legend as well. And, in his late teens, after years spent training to build himself up from the weak and feeble child he had been, his dream came true.

Gradually, through a combination of his own skill and the attrition of other leaders among the pirate bands that included him -- some of which he may have arranged himself -- he became a leader among them, able to recruit a dozen men for their exploits. They robbed, raided, kidnapped and ransomed. The only thing that distinguished the groups under his command was an absolute and iron command from Ebrahim that they were not to assault women in a sexual manner. It should not be thought that this was due to any tender feelings for women on his part; he was vocal about his disgust for them, but also believed that rapine was a distraction that his men did not need.

In 2006, Ebrahim was one of several pirates, from all over the world, who were contacted by an unknown patron, outfitted with advanced weaponry and given training to launch an attack on the superhero Nereus, on the same day that a number of other assaults on superheroes both well-known and obscure took place. Ebrahim expected the job to be a relatively simple one, given their numbers and the weapons at their disposal, and looked forward to a large payout at the mission's end.

He never even fired a shot when they finally confronted the aquatic man, who smashed through them like they were made from bubble wrap, sending many of them flying off of the ship into the water. Ebrahim was stunned at the sight of him. Later, as he floated in the sea, the cold making the pain of his bruises fade, he would reach a conclusion. He had to kill this man. No matter what happened, this man must die for what he had done.

His mysterious employer, who was an agent of Billie Zane's organization, was more than happy to assist him in acquiring the weapons Ebrahim would need to do this, resulting in him gaining and learning to use a suit of turbofan-equipped armor that would allow him to move in air and water, and give him the strength to match that of Nereus. It's only been fairly recently that Ebrahim has learned who his actual employer is. How he rationalizes his contempt for women with the fact that he must, by his sense of honor, accept orders that ultimately come from a woman is known only to him, but it seems likely that he's just biding his time until he can make a break from the organization's oversight.

Until then, however, he accepts various missions that take him to all parts of the world to rob, raid, kidnap and ransom. In a lot of ways, his job has not changed. But now he usually works alone, especially during the times that he especially cherishes, when he is free to seek out his vengeance on Nereus. He has never succeeded in his goal, of course, and never even seriously harmed his foe, but he will never stop trying until he succeeds. Then, order will finally be restored to the universe, and he will stop having dreams of that first battle, surely.

He will never accept that he is trying to kill a part of himself that will not die until he does.

Devilray - PL 10

Abilities:
STR 11/2 | STA 3 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 5 | INT 0 | AWE 1 | PRE 2

Powers:
Diving Suit: Removable (-17 points)

• Armored Shell: Protection 9, Impervious 5 - 14 points
• Devil Rays: Array (18 points)
  • Lethal Setting: Ranged Damage 9 - 18 points
  • Stun Setting: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 6 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 1 point
• Exoskeleton: Enhanced Strength 9; Movement 1 (environmental adaptation--aquatic) - 20 points
• Life Support: Immunity 10 (life support)
• Sensors: Senses 5 (accurate extended hearing, radio, ultra-hearing) - 5 points
• Turbofans: Flight 9 (1000 MPH), Aquatic - 19 points

Advantages:
Favored Environment (Aquatic), Improved Hold, Languages 3 (Arabic, English, Spanish, others, [native]), Leadership, Move-by Action, Ranged Attack 4

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+15/+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+9), Expertise: Criminal 8 (+8), Intimidation 6 (+8), Investigation 6 (+6), Perception 8 (+9), Ranged Combat: Devil Rays 4 (+7), Technology 6 (+6), Vehicles 6 (+9).

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 11/2)
Lethal Devil Ray +11 (Ranged Damage 9)
Stun Devil Ray +11 (Ranged Fortitude 6)

Defense:
Dodge 7, Parry 8, Fortitude 6, Toughness 11/2, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 70 + Advantages 10 + Skills 26 + Defense 17 = 159 points

Complications:
Vengeance--Motivation. Misogyny. Obligation (to Billie Zane).

 

[Virgo]

I hope this will be of interest to someone; I've been posting a fairly large collection of M&M builds on my Google Drive.

Your builds are amazing, Davies - thank you so much for sharing them. Question for you: on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being very easy and 10 being very difficult), how would you rate the process of creating a character?

It's a shame that superhero rpg's haven't caught on in spite of their influence on popular culture. I even started a thread back in 2017 about it - Superheroes are a hot commodity -- why aren't superhero RPG's?

My very first RPG experience was Hero Games' "Champions" (incoherent mumbling that sounds like a number) years ago. Since then, I've had an soft spot for superheroic-themed games (the first mmorpg I beta tested was "City of Heroes"). I was fortunate enough to find a complete set of Green Ronin's "DC Adventures" books and have been hoping to find like-minded players in my area for a long time now, but alas, nothing.

 

[Davies]

Your builds are amazing, Davies - thank you so much for sharing them. Question for you: on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being very easy and 10 being very difficult), how would you rate the process of creating a character?

Well, as with anything else, it gets easier with practice, but even at the start it's much easier to put together an M&M character than, for example, a Hero system character, because the system is much more streamlined. But it's not as easy as putting together an Icons character or a Fate character, where you don't have to worry so much about checks and balances. So ... call it a 3 after a lot of practice, and maybe a 5 when you're just starting out. (I don't even want to think about what a 10 on this scale would look like ... EDIT: No, I suspect that it would look like a Transformers game played with GURPS Robots and GURPS Vehicles.)

Regardless, thank you for the kind words!

 

[Davies]

Llogres

Quite recently, Prydwen found herself 'housesitting' for Blakestone while she and Nick were in Australia for some esoteric purpose or other. The notion of posting a guard on a building that no one can enter without the owner's explicit permission struck her as slightly absurd, but its wisdom was soon demonstrated when it became apparent that this forbiddance didn't prevent someone from entering the House of Riddles from an unconventional direction. Prydwen barely had time to get her shield in the way of the intruder's mighty spear, with the clash of the two potent relics creating an unearthly din. When it at last faded, the Last Knight of Camelot realized that she was facing off with a woman with the mirror image of her face.

Prydwen had not heard, then, of the journey that Paragon had taken to and from a world where a handful of historical differences had produced a familiar yet strangely different group of superhuman champions. While her counterpart halted her attack once she realized whom she was fighting, the other woman showed no inclination to discuss the situation, or say anything, for that matter. (Later, when she had become slightly more vocal, it became clear that she had no more understanding of the causes of this situation.) She was clearly observing and learning from her circumstances, just as Johanna would, but did not speak until several hours had passed. The first word to pass her lips was her nomme de guerre -- Llogres.

Gradually, over the next few days, Llogres revealed her history. It was much like Prydwen's tale, up to a point -- that point being when this other Johanna's father had actually taken an interest in her training, and presented her with his own fabled lance, Rhongomiant, where the local Johanna had only ever been given a few terse words of praise from her father, and claimed her shield as a battle trophy. After that point, their stories were again much the same, until the point where they freed Morgan from his crystal cave.

In Prydwen's world, that was when the callous old mage sent her more than a thousand years into the future. But in Llogres' world, he chose otherwise, perhaps because of the confidence that the girl's father had shown in his choice of gifts. He pushed her into the crystalline matrix that had imprisoned him, giving her to a dreamless sleep until such time as he had need of her. 'Such time' came frequently over the years, decades, and centuries that followed. Perhaps as a consequence, Morgan's attempts to extend his own life were more fruitful, and he eventually retreated from the world into a shadow realm of his own creation, becoming known to all by the name associated with his legend.

This constant cycle of being awakened, sent into battle, and then returned to sleep caused Johanna's mind to wither, somewhat. She speaks very little, focusing all her effort on the pursuit of whichever enemy her Merlin sends her after. She can seem cold and unfeeling, yet there is a buried vein of kindness in her that becomes most apparent when she is dealing with animals, whom she seems better able to relate to than she can with people.

In her world's 2012, she was once again awakened and sent to hunt down a target chosen by Merlin, but matters turned out somewhat differently than they usually did. While she was able to find and eliminate her foe, her master was too distracted by other matters to return her to her slumber, leaving Llogres to her own devices. By the time that he was able to command her, she no longer cared to obey such commands. Merlin pragmatically chose to grant her some freedom rather than risk losing such an effective weapon in his arsenal. And so she became her own master for the first time in centuries.

Beyond this account of her origins, Llogres wouldn't speak much of her life. It's clear that she knows the woman called Snow, Blakestone's counterpart, and also obvious, from her reaction to meeting Nick, that there's someone much like him in her life. But none of this was pertinent to the tactical or strategic problem of returning her to her own world, and so she chose to focus on that, instead. The problem was ultimately solved when Blakestone fiddled with the House of Riddle's dimensional boundaries until Llogres was drawn back to her world of origin, then further altering them to make this episode less likely to recur.

Less likely, of course, is not the same thing as impossible, as Prydwen of all people is well aware.

Llogres -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR 8 | STA 8 | AGL 5 | DEX 3 | FGT 9 | INT 2 | AWE 6 | PRE 4

Powers:
Runic Armor: Immunity 21 (own powers, mental effects), Subtle; Impervious Protection 3, Subtle; Removable (-6 points) - 23 points
Spear of Wounding: Array (16 points); Easily Removable (-6 points), Indestructible

• Close Combat: Strength-based Damage 3, Improved Critical 4, Reach - 1 point
• Ranged: Ranged Damage 8 - 16 points

Superhuman: Leaping 3 (60 feet); Regeneration 2; Speed 3 (16 MPH) - 8 points

Advantages:
All-out Attack, Animal Empathy, Beginner's Luck, Daze (Intimidation), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Smash, Jack-of-all-Trades, Language 2 (English, Greek, Latin, Welsh, [Brythonic is native]), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 2, Startle, Weapon Break, Weapon Bind.

Skills:
Athletics 6 (+14), Acrobatics 6 (+11), Deception 9 (+13), Expertise: Magic 6 (+10), Expertise: Survival 8 (+10), Insight 6 (+12), Intimidation 9 (+13), Perception 6 (+12), Persuasion 5 (+9), Ranged Combat: Thrown Spear 6 (+9), Stealth 7 (+12).

Offense:
Initiative +9
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 8)
Spear +9 (Close Damage 11, Crit 16-20)
Thrown Spear +11 (Close Damage 8)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 9, Fortitude 10, Toughness 11/8, Will 10

Totals:
Abilities 90 + Powers 43 + Advantages 16 + Skills 37 + Defenses 9 = 195 points

Complications:
Justice--Motivation. Fish Out of Water. Subject to Authority (Merlin) Taciturn. Wanted by the Authorities.

 

[Davies]

The Veil

Until his powers came on all at once in 2008, when he was fifteen, Larry Vincent had no idea that he was a mutant. None of his family had every had any sort of exposure to mysterious substances as far as they knew, and the source of his powers was a complete mystery to them. Well, possibly not all of them; Larry's father later claimed that his own father, named Lamont for a friend of his long-dead grandparents, had smiled in a somewhat cryptic manner when he heard the news, and later joined his voice to the representative from the Academy in urging his son and daughter-in-law to send their child to Wales. Whatever the old man knew went with him to his grave, two years later.

Regardless, Larry was packed off to the Academy, where he learned the many ways that he could use the mysterious, shadow-like substance that he was able to conjure. He wasn't the best student, and probably earned more than his share of reprimands for getting into trouble on and off campus, but no one could question the courage -- the somewhat impetuous courage -- that he brought to his team-ups with his fellow students. That quality, and his unique powers, resulted in him becoming the first graduate from the Academy to be offered membership in the Powerhouse.

He turned it down. He claimed that all he wanted, for the moment, was to go back home to New Orleans and reconnect with his family and friends, and that he wasn't sure about continuing as a superhero. This was of course a lie, and not a particularly believable one, but the Powerhouse accepted it nonetheless, with Paragon assuring him that the invitation would remain open for as long as needed. Larry thanked him, but knew that his shadowy nature wouldn't really fit in well with the brightly colored costumes of the rest of the team.

He did go home, and spent a while exploring his old home town. While things were better than they had been in his memories of the years right after Katrina, there were still a lot of problems. Well, if it was easy, they wouldn't need a superhero, now would they? He developed the identity of the Veil over the next few months, and embarked on his career in October of 2013.

While the Veil's powers are purely paraphysical in nature, with no mystical component, Larry has taken the time to learn as much about Afro-Caribbean religion and magic as he can. Mostly this is because his most frequent opponent has been the crime lord known as Simon Legendre, who claims -- possibly even truthfully -- to be a decades old bokor who was employed in Haiti's notorious Tonton Macoute. The Veil isn't sure how much of his own hype the gangster believes, but Legendre clearly does have genuine powers ... but these have been successfully opposed by other practitioners of this tradition who've lent their aid to the Veil, in thanks for his help in the past.

He recently made peace with another recurring enemy, the super-villainess Black Velvet, after they were forced to join forces against a Saturn kill team sent after them. Black Velvet, who has similar powers to his own, has decided that she's much too old for these games now that she's in her fifties, and has retired back to Memphis to spend more time with her kids and her mother. As the balance of favors owed and owing between them following their team-up leans somewhat in her direction, the Veil has decided to just take this as a win.

In combat, the Veil generally prefers to hang back and use ranged attacks when possible. He does have a reasonable level of hand-to-hand combat training, and his shadow powers can deflect and absorb most powers, but he remembers getting beat up a lot despite these advantages when he was a student. He's still a fearless champion who strikes fear into the hearts of evil-doers, but he has learned a bit of caution as he's grown up.

The Veil -- PL 10

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

Powers:
Shadow Control: Array (18 points)

• Shadow Bind: Cumulative Ranged Affliction 6 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Will; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobilized), Extra Condition, Limited Degree - 1 point
• Shadow Bolt: Ranged Damage 8, Accurate 2 - 18 points
• Shadow Images: Perception Ranged Affliction 9 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Entranced, Compelled, Controlled), Limited to fleeing or cowering in terror - 1 point
• Shadow Shroud: Ranged Burst Area Visual Concealment 4 Attack - 1 point

Shadowform: Concealment 4 (visual), Limited to areas of shadow or darkness; Feature (shadows conceal identity) - 5 points
Shadowshield: Enhanced Defenses 8 (Dodge 4, Parry 4); Immunity 10 (light effects); Sustained Impervious Protection 4 - 26 points
Shadowstep: Extended Teleport 7, Medium (shadows) - 14 points

Advantages:
Close Attack 4, Contacts, Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Fearless 2, Improved Trip, Power Attack, Startle

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+7), Expertise: Streetwise 6 (+8), Expertise: Theology 4 (+6), Intimidation 7 (+9), Investigation 4 (+6), Perception 4 (+7), Ranged Combat: Shadow Control 5 (+8), Sleight of Hand 4 (+7), Stealth 4 (+8).

Offense:
Initiative +4
Unarmed +11 (Close Damage 0)
Shadow Bind +8 (Ranged Affliction 6, Resisted by Dodge)
Shadow Bolt +12 (Ranged Damage 8)
Shadow Images -- (Perception Range Will 9)
Shadow Shroud -- (Ranged Burst Area Concealment 4, Resisted by Will)

Defense:
Dodge 9/5, Parry 8/4, Fortitude 5, Toughness 11/7/2, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 38 + Powers 66 + Advantages 14 + Skills 21 + Defense 11 = 150 points

Complications:
Justice--Motivation. Enemy (Simon Legendre). Secret Identity.

 

[Davies]

Machinanima

Even in mad science, many of the greatest discoveries are not the products of lone geniuses having single moments of inspiration, but rather long periods of extensive labor to which many brilliant minds contribute. Such is the case of the invention of the android superhero known as Machinanima, or Emil Rossum to use his civilian identity.

The road to his creation began in 1999, when Valerian Rossum developed a thesis that combined the earliest published work on androtics, dating from the mid-60s, with Andre LaFontaine's more recent publications about memory metals and memory plastics, which had been employed in the empowerment of Trouble. The third major source for Rossum's theories was the research he'd assisted in compiling while a grad student employed at the Morrison Institute, a study of how the Omnivore's powers worked, conducted during the villain's brief incarceration during the early 90s. From these diverse sources, Rossum believed that he could create an android which would be able to imitate the super-powers of any opponent, becoming an incredibly adaptive combatant in the process.

Unfortunately, while his theory was convincing and persuasive, the aftermath of Cerebron's attack had a decidedly chilling effect on androtic research of all sorts. Unable to find sponsors for his work, Valerian turned to crime in order to obtain the funds he needed to realize his goals. Unfortunately, he was a much better scientist than a criminal mastermind, and wound up caught by Argus almost immediately, and was promptly turned over to the authorities, tried and packed off to jail.

Except that was an elaborate fiction woven by Billie Zane. Her interest in androtics was very limited, preferring non-humanoid and completely mechanical robots as she did, but she decided that Rossum's talents would make a fine addition to the conspiracy that she was weaving. A willing patsy was found to take Rossum's place in the dock and later in prison, with the man himself going to work for Argus under a false name.

Early on in his employment, Rossum and Zane had a brief discussion about his android, whose creation had plateaued even with the greater resources he could access. Essentially, he was unable to create a power supply to fuel the power duplication process. Zane casually outlined some experiments that she'd recently conducted with extradimensional energy sources -- which would later power her Warsuit. It is now believed that this conversation and the diagrams sketched on a napkin probably saved Valerian more than a decade of work.

But it didn't seem that way at the time, for by the time that Zane launched her coup in 2006, Rossum had still not managed to get his prototype up and running. He was captured by Argus -- for real this time -- and tried once again for his original crimes and for what he'd done in support of the coup, including a few things for which he was basically scapegoated. Sent to prison, he will likely not be considered for potential release until 2028. The android prototype was also taken into Argus custody and stored in one of their warehouses in Ireland.

As it turned out, Valerian had made a crucial error in his calculations about how long it would take his creation's batteries to charge, drawing from their extradimensional sources. Instead of a few weeks to fully charge, it took about seven years. In 2013, the android awoke inside the aforementioned warehouse, and naturally attempted to escape from what he viewed as a prison. As it happened, a number of students from the Academy were on a field trip to that warehouse, and both prevented him from doing much damage and rescued him from the somewhat overzealous response by Argus to his escape attempt.

Subsequently, Exelion used some of his clout to persuade Argus' directors to let the android become a student at his Academy, employing their aid to create the identity of Emil Rossum. Machinanima, to use his heroic alias, proved to be a talented if not particularly brilliant student, and graduated with respectable grades five years later. With his public identity's American citizenship -- not strictly a lie, as he was entirely constructed in the United States and could be said to have been 'born' there, despite having spent his entire infancy and childhood abroad -- he returned there to begin his career as a superhero.

He has settled in Baltimore, as it didn't have a native superhero of its own. Machinanima has since learned that this is likely the result of enemy action by the somewhat notorious House of Ashe, a group of local mutant criminals who claim to be descendants of the Usher family whom Poe wrote about. He's failed to make much of an impact on their activities as of yet, though it's only been two years. Roderick Ashe, the family's head, has developed a rather clever strategy for dealing with this new adversary -- he sends only mundane criminals after him, rather than superpowered mercenaries whom Machinanima would be able to imitate.

As Emil Rossum, Machinanima has also made a few friends in Baltimore, most notably a young woman named Penny Lane, who's gone through a rather startling variety of jobs in just the past two years. Penny is well aware of Rossum's true nature, and supports and encourages his attempts to develop a more human attitude. He doesn't necessarily want to become human -- his existence does have certain advantages -- but he does want to be accepted as a person by the general public. That is probably going to take a long time, but he has it to spend.

Machinanima -- PL 9

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

Powers:
Android Body: Immunity 30 (Fortitude); Protection 8 - 38 points
Power Duplication: Variable 10 (another person's powers), Limited to targets that can be accurately perceived, Cannot duplicate technological powers, Perception Check Required (DC 15) - 64 points
Semblance: Morph 1 (human form); Enhanced Morph 2, Limited to individuals whose power has been copied - 13 points

Advantages:
Assessment, Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Jack-of-all-Trades, Skill Mastery (Insight)

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+8), Deception 6 (+8), Insight 6 (+8), Investigation 6 (+8), Perception 6 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8).

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 2)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 8, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 18 + Powers 115 + Advantages 6 + Skills 18 + Defense 18 = 176 points

Complications:
Acceptance--Motivation. Enemy (the House of Ashe.) Prejudice (android.) Relationship (Penny Lane.)

 

[Davies]

The Keeper

The lifeblood of any large city is its water supply, and from the very start, the city of Chicago has drawn most of its water from Lake Michigan. Even in the 19th century, however, that particular body of water was often polluted, and once it became clear that simply drawing the water from further away from the shore would not suffice, efforts began to be made to purify it. Chlorination was introduced in 1916, followed by the start of the construction of a major water treatment plant in 1930. The Great Depression and the Second World War delayed the completion of that plant until 1947, but the South Water Filtration Plant that began operations in that year was the largest plant in the world, until it was supplanted by the Central Water Filtration Plant in 1964. Even then, it played a major role in providing fresh water to Chicago and the surrounding area ...

... until 2001, when Cerebron's robots devastated it. The plant was judged to be unsalvageable during the city's reconstruction, and a new plant began construction in 2003, slightly to the north. The original building was simply abandoned, as there was not enough money to properly demolish it under the circumstances. Reports of the homeless taking shelter there were ignored; under the circumstances, everyone had other things to worry about.

And then the first of the bodies showed up outside the plant's former gates. Fingerprints identified these first few victims as men and women who'd been arrested for vagrancy in the past. While the manner in which they'd met their deaths was certainly disturbing, the police department took the attitude that these deaths were probably the result of violence within the homeless community taking shelter within the plant, and that the investigation would probably go nowhere. By 2007, when the body count reached twenty-four, it was more apparent that the community which had existed a few years before that had largely dispersed out of fear.

That was also the year that the first victim who wasn't one of the homeless was discovered, and the police were finally compelled to send in a group of heavily armed investigators to determine what was afoot. Only one of them ever reported back, telling stories of horrific traps and a monstrous figure who had slaughtered the others without mercy. As this affair took place during a period in which Darkwing was being hunted by the police, they were unable (and unwilling) to contact him for assistance.

He went in anyway, and had his first confrontation with the being now known as the Keeper. Clearly a mutant given his unusual size, strength and ability to go without oxygen, water or food, he views any intruders in the environs of the former plant as trespassers in his private domain, to be hunted down, captured in traps and then executed, or killed by more lethal devices. He does not speak, and there is some evidence that he cannot read, either, despite having a great deal of technical skill. He wears a mask that he never removes; beneath it is a horribly deformed countenance.

Darkwing has had numerous unsatisfactory confrontations with the Keeper. He has never been able to capture him, and by now views the apparent deaths that the killer suffers as the manner in which the Keeper makes his escape, returning to his old habits after a sufficient time has passed. As Darkwing cannot focus all his efforts on the problem of taking the Keeper into custody, and so defeating him in combat is only a short-term solution to the problem. A more long-term plan will require preventing his access to the raw materials with which he constructs his traps and other inventions, as well as the shells for his gun. Just who his supplier is remains a mystery.

As with many of the mysteries in contemporary Chicago, the solution is Jack. While in his 'gangster' or 'mad scientist' personalities, Darkwing's archenemy frequently provides the Keeper with care packages of parts and shells. There is no grand scheme here; Jack simply finds it amusing to observe what the Keeper comes up with, as well as Darkwing's enduring frustration with the way that the Keeper has avoided capture. It's not clear whether he knows anything more about the Keeper's mysterious origins than Darkwing does, but it's likely that he considers them irrelevant to his interests.

The Keeper -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR 5 | STA 6 | AGL 1 | DEX 3 | FGT 7 | INT -1 | AWE 3 | PRE 0

Powers:
Harpoon: Strength-based Damage 3, Reach; Easily Removable (-2 points) - 2 points
Hunter: Senses 1 (low-light vision) - 1 point
Survivor: Immunity 10 (life support); Immunity 20 (mental effects), Limited to Half Effect - 20 points
Traps: Variable 5 (traps), Subtle 2 - 37 points

Typical Settings:
Spike Pit: Burst Area Damage 8, Triggered - 17 points
Tar Pit: Burst Area Affliction 6 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Strength; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and
Immobilized), Extra Condition, Progressive, Triggered, Limited Degree - 25 points

Advantages:
All-out Attack, Chokehold, Close Attack, Diehard, Equipment 3, Fast Grab, Fearless 2, Improved Smash, Inventor, Power Attack, Prone Fighting, Startle, Tracking.

Equipment:
Body Armor (Protection 3), Shotgun (Ranged Damage 5).

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+9), Intimidation 8 (+8), Perception 6 (+9), Ranged Combat: Guns 4 (+7), Stealth 6 (+7), Technology 8 (+7).

Offense:
Initiative +1
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 5)
Hook +8 (Close Damage 8)
Shotgun +7 (Ranged Damage 5)

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

Totals:
Abilities 48 + Powers 60 + Advantages 16 + Skills 18 + Defenses 9 = 151 points

Complications:
Obsession (guarding the plant)--Motivation. Horrible Appearance. Non-Verbal. Weakness (becomes Dazed and Vulnerable in bright light).

 

[Davies]

Special Agent Stephen Gregory

In 2007, an arms smuggler named Viktor Bout was apprehended by American agents directed by FBI Special Agent Stephen Gregory. It had been a difficult and stressful chase for both the pursuer and the pursued. Gregory looked forward to seeing his captive go to trial, and told him so. Bout smiled, then, and told him what was going to happen -- in just a few minutes, someone from the State Department was going to come to the door of the room where he was being held, and tell Gregory to release him, as he was far too useful to certain parts of the American government to go down this way. Gregory opened his mouth to answer this ... and then there was a knock on the door.

No one moved for a moment, and then Gregory told his partner, a woman who'd saved his life more than once, to answer it. And as she did so, Gregory drew his hold-out piece and shot her in the back, and the man from the State Department in his face, then turned the gun on Bout, who stammered out, "But you're the good g--" before he joined the ranks of the deceased. Having done so, Gregory casually put the gun into Bout's hand, and manipulated it to shoot himself in the shoulder. No one questioned his version of events, later.

For his entire life, Stephen Gregory had suffered from violent impulses that he had struggled to suppress and control. At university, he studied psychology in hopes of gaining a better understanding of his condition. That had led him to the Bureau, where he hoped that committing himself to Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity would help him to master these urges. Unfortunately, on that day in 2007, Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity had failed him, and so he he needed to find a new cause to champion. He found it in the motto of the Bureau's most hated rival: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Ever since then, Special Agent Stephen Gregory has pursued the truth, so that he can be set free of his need to control his violent tendencies. He has murdered, stolen, and tortured in the name of this pursuit, and will do so again. Well, maybe not torture; it's fairly clear that inflicting physical pain on someone in order to get information is not a viable practice. Inflicting emotional pain on someone by inflicting physical pain on their loved ones, and relying on that to get information, is something he's interested in studying, though.

At the moment, Gregory is heading up the never-ending investigation of Argus by the Bureau. He doesn't care, anymore, about whatever crimes the agency is engaged in or covering up, but all the secrets that they're hiding are nearly irresistible to him. In pursuit of this investigation, he has also led up the effort to use a number of supervillains, such as Bombast, as intelligence sources. The irony appeals to him.

Special Agent Stephen Gregory -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 1 | AGL 3 | DEX 4 | FGT 8 | INT 9 | AWE 9 | PRE 5

Powers:
Fast Learner: Variable 2 (learned skills and knowledge), Slow - 12 points
My Mind is My Self, and My Self is My Mind: Sustained Immunity 20 (mental effects), Limited to Half Effect - 10 points
Speed-Thinker:Quickness 8, Limited to Mental Tasks - 4 points

Default Setting:
Enhanced Advantage 3 (Evasion, Favored Enemy [variable], Uncanny Dodge); Enhanced Skills 4 (Vehicles 8); Strength-based Damage 2, Improved Critical - 10 points

Advantages:
Assessment, Benefit (FBI Special Agent), Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Equipment 4, Evasion, Favored Enemy (variable), Improved Critical 4 (light pistol), Improved Defense, Improved Initiative, Jack-of-all-Trades, Ranged Attack 6, Redirect, Seize Initiative, Set-Up, Skill Mastery (Insight, Investigation), Uncanny Dodge, Well-Informed.

Equipment:
Light Pistol (Ranged Damage 3), and 14 points of equipment as needed.

Skills:
Deception 6 (+11), Expertise: Civics 3 (+12), Expertise: Streetwise 3 (+12), Insight 4 (+13), Intimidation 5 (+10), Investigation 4 (+13), Perception 3 (+12), Sleight of Hand 5 (+9), Stealth 7 (+10), Technology 2 (+11), Vehicles 8 (+12)

Offense:
Initiative +5
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 2, Crit 19-20)
Light Pistol +9 (Ranged Damage 3, Crit 16-20)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 10, Fortitude 3, Toughness 6/1, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 78 + Powers 26 + Advantages 29 + Skills 19 + Defenses 7 = 159 points

Complications:
I Must Know--Motivation. Completely Callous (understands emotions, but does not care.) Secret (many crimes.)