[Mutants & Masterminds] A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic
- Thread starter Davies
- Start date
Davies
Legend
Something like that, combined with elements of the world of MHA and that of Pokemon. ("all animal species", I said.) Also other references.
Also -- how Abraxas is beaten.
0) A number of treaties are arranged through the good offices of Argus.
1) Lured through a portal to Tanelorn, where all seven of the guardians engage him in combat. They are able to inflict serious injuries, resulting in his flight.
2) But the portal that led to Tanelorn no longer leads back to the World Less Magical. It leads to the World More Sorcerous, where several Eternals, possibly including a Hierarch, engage him in combat. They leave him staggered and critically injured and allow his flight.
3) The portal through which he flees takes him back to the World Less Magical, where the assembled Power Prism users, with Edeth at the forefront, finish the job. No mercy asked, no quarter given. Casualties will be high.
Also -- how Abraxas is beaten.
0) A number of treaties are arranged through the good offices of Argus.
1) Lured through a portal to Tanelorn, where all seven of the guardians engage him in combat. They are able to inflict serious injuries, resulting in his flight.
2) But the portal that led to Tanelorn no longer leads back to the World Less Magical. It leads to the World More Sorcerous, where several Eternals, possibly including a Hierarch, engage him in combat. They leave him staggered and critically injured and allow his flight.
3) The portal through which he flees takes him back to the World Less Magical, where the assembled Power Prism users, with Edeth at the forefront, finish the job. No mercy asked, no quarter given. Casualties will be high.
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After fighting two sets of demigods and gods proper in a row, a bloodied, fatigued Abraxas flees back to his home reality and reunites with his Daathian armies only to encounter this...
Davies
Legend
Barry Grimwald
When Barnabas "Barry" Grimwald became one of the first students to attend the Futurian Academy for Superpowered Adolescents in 2006, he had no intention of becoming a superhero. Having developed strength, speed and toughness just a bit over the limits of human accomplishment, or so the doctors told him, Barry quickly developed a very straightforward ambition. He was going to be the first member of what he envisioned as an entire league of superpower football players, recruited from all over the world to demonstrate that sports could unite people like nothing else. He was not shy about describing this dream, and was not bothered when people laughed at it. They laughed at the Wright Brothers, too.
He held on to that goal for a long time, longer than anyone would have expected, and he actually managed to make some headway on putting those dreams into practice, seeking out potential corporate sponsors and finding other potential players. But by his fourth year in the Academy, even Barry had begun to admit, to himself and to his friends, that the obstacles to the International Football League were a bit more than he could overcome, even with the additional advantage he had discovered in his studies -- the ability to psychically influence probabilities. He might have been able to make the improbable possible, but the difficulties he was facing were completely impossible.
So, when he graduated from the Academy in 2011, Barry made the decision to continue the career he had begun with his classmates, under the alias Fullback, and applied to work at Heroic Enterprises soon after it opened up. Despite (or possibly because of) a positive reference from Exelion, he was turned down as not bringing anything novel to the group. (His supposed probability controlling powers were apparently viewed with extreme skepticism by his evaluators, among them Alan Prince.) Frustrated, Barry decided to go it alone, persuading the city council of New Haven, Connecticut, to hire him as their civic defender based on his football iconography. (Walter Camp, the father of American football, attended college at Yale and is buried in New Haven.)
For the next three years, Fullback had a respectable if not often all that dramatic career as a superhero; while New Haven had a reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in America, the criminal activity he was required to deal with was largely mundane rather than superpower. Fullback certainly helped to reduce the crime rates in the parts of the city that were viewed as important by the government, and that was all that anyone could ask of him. Except that he felt he should do more, pushed himself ... and suffered serious injuries while attempting to peacefully resolve a domestic dispute as his overtaxed luck finally failed him.
Out of action for months, Barry found that the city council had decided not to renew his contract for another year, leaving him at loose ends. That was when Exelion contacted him and revealed that the Academy was about to lose its current physical education teacher when he retired at the end of the year. Obtaining a teaching certificate in Cardiff, Barry returned to his old haunts. The names had all changed since he hung around, but there were still kids who needed to learn the value of a strong body and mind, and who needed to learn their own limits. So he settled in.
Barry has acted as a mentor and role model for the students of the Academy for the last seven years. He takes his job seriously, strives to be firm but fair, and has absolutely no tolerance for bullying of any kind. He tries to avoid talking about his personal history with the kids, but will not hide anything about it from those who ask, either. Calling him a failure of a hero will get a firm nod and the reply, "I dare you to do better." However ... especially in the last few years, he has been found occasionally following the students on their "practical experience" expeditions, ostensibly to make sure that nobody gets into trouble they cannot handle. Whether he is trying to relive his own glory days is not clear even to himself, but these adventures have sometimes seen him getting rescued by the students that he was trying to help. But not all the time.
Barry is a little uncomfortable with the recently arrived combat instructor, Kathy Scathach. The Academy has never had a formal combat training program before, and he is unsure whether he likes the idea that the kids are going to need this sort of practice to achieve their goals. However, any time that he has considered complaining, he has considered the list of the twenty names on the Memorial Plinth, four of whom were friends of his, and decided to keep his mouth shut. Scathach herself has shown no awareness of his unease.
Barry Grimwald -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 4 | STA 5 | AGL 3 | DEX 3 | FGT 7 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 3
Powers:
Fast Runner: Speed 3 (16 MPH) - 3 points
King of the Impossible: Luck Control 4 - 12 points
Advantages:
Diehard, Evasion, Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Initiative, Improvised Weapon, Inspire 2, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Taunt, Teamwork.
Skills:
Athletics 7 (+11), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+10), Deception 7 (+10), Expertise: Sports 9 (+10), Expertise: Streetwise 6 (+7), Insight 7 (+9), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 5 (+8), Ranged Combat: Thrown 4 (+7), Treatment 8 (+9).
Offense:
Initiative +7
Unarmed or Improvised Weapon +10 (Close Damage 4 or more)
Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 10, Fortitude 9, Toughness 5, Will 7
Totals:
Abilities 56 + Powers 15 + Advantages 12 + Skills 31 + Defenses 17 = 131 points
Offensive PL: 7*
Defensive PL: 8
Resistance PL: 8
Skill PL: 6
Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Misses His Glory Days. Prejudice (American in the UK.)
Note: As Fullback, Barry was PL 9 and wore a Removable Costume device with Protection 3 and Senses 2 (extended vision, low-light vision); he also had 3 ranks of Luck as an extra for his Luck Control.
When Barnabas "Barry" Grimwald became one of the first students to attend the Futurian Academy for Superpowered Adolescents in 2006, he had no intention of becoming a superhero. Having developed strength, speed and toughness just a bit over the limits of human accomplishment, or so the doctors told him, Barry quickly developed a very straightforward ambition. He was going to be the first member of what he envisioned as an entire league of superpower football players, recruited from all over the world to demonstrate that sports could unite people like nothing else. He was not shy about describing this dream, and was not bothered when people laughed at it. They laughed at the Wright Brothers, too.
He held on to that goal for a long time, longer than anyone would have expected, and he actually managed to make some headway on putting those dreams into practice, seeking out potential corporate sponsors and finding other potential players. But by his fourth year in the Academy, even Barry had begun to admit, to himself and to his friends, that the obstacles to the International Football League were a bit more than he could overcome, even with the additional advantage he had discovered in his studies -- the ability to psychically influence probabilities. He might have been able to make the improbable possible, but the difficulties he was facing were completely impossible.
So, when he graduated from the Academy in 2011, Barry made the decision to continue the career he had begun with his classmates, under the alias Fullback, and applied to work at Heroic Enterprises soon after it opened up. Despite (or possibly because of) a positive reference from Exelion, he was turned down as not bringing anything novel to the group. (His supposed probability controlling powers were apparently viewed with extreme skepticism by his evaluators, among them Alan Prince.) Frustrated, Barry decided to go it alone, persuading the city council of New Haven, Connecticut, to hire him as their civic defender based on his football iconography. (Walter Camp, the father of American football, attended college at Yale and is buried in New Haven.)
For the next three years, Fullback had a respectable if not often all that dramatic career as a superhero; while New Haven had a reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in America, the criminal activity he was required to deal with was largely mundane rather than superpower. Fullback certainly helped to reduce the crime rates in the parts of the city that were viewed as important by the government, and that was all that anyone could ask of him. Except that he felt he should do more, pushed himself ... and suffered serious injuries while attempting to peacefully resolve a domestic dispute as his overtaxed luck finally failed him.
Out of action for months, Barry found that the city council had decided not to renew his contract for another year, leaving him at loose ends. That was when Exelion contacted him and revealed that the Academy was about to lose its current physical education teacher when he retired at the end of the year. Obtaining a teaching certificate in Cardiff, Barry returned to his old haunts. The names had all changed since he hung around, but there were still kids who needed to learn the value of a strong body and mind, and who needed to learn their own limits. So he settled in.
Barry has acted as a mentor and role model for the students of the Academy for the last seven years. He takes his job seriously, strives to be firm but fair, and has absolutely no tolerance for bullying of any kind. He tries to avoid talking about his personal history with the kids, but will not hide anything about it from those who ask, either. Calling him a failure of a hero will get a firm nod and the reply, "I dare you to do better." However ... especially in the last few years, he has been found occasionally following the students on their "practical experience" expeditions, ostensibly to make sure that nobody gets into trouble they cannot handle. Whether he is trying to relive his own glory days is not clear even to himself, but these adventures have sometimes seen him getting rescued by the students that he was trying to help. But not all the time.
Barry is a little uncomfortable with the recently arrived combat instructor, Kathy Scathach. The Academy has never had a formal combat training program before, and he is unsure whether he likes the idea that the kids are going to need this sort of practice to achieve their goals. However, any time that he has considered complaining, he has considered the list of the twenty names on the Memorial Plinth, four of whom were friends of his, and decided to keep his mouth shut. Scathach herself has shown no awareness of his unease.
Barry Grimwald -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 4 | STA 5 | AGL 3 | DEX 3 | FGT 7 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 3
Powers:
Fast Runner: Speed 3 (16 MPH) - 3 points
King of the Impossible: Luck Control 4 - 12 points
Advantages:
Diehard, Evasion, Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Initiative, Improvised Weapon, Inspire 2, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Taunt, Teamwork.
Skills:
Athletics 7 (+11), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+10), Deception 7 (+10), Expertise: Sports 9 (+10), Expertise: Streetwise 6 (+7), Insight 7 (+9), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 5 (+8), Ranged Combat: Thrown 4 (+7), Treatment 8 (+9).
Offense:
Initiative +7
Unarmed or Improvised Weapon +10 (Close Damage 4 or more)
Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 10, Fortitude 9, Toughness 5, Will 7
Totals:
Abilities 56 + Powers 15 + Advantages 12 + Skills 31 + Defenses 17 = 131 points
Offensive PL: 7*
Defensive PL: 8
Resistance PL: 8
Skill PL: 6
Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Misses His Glory Days. Prejudice (American in the UK.)
Note: As Fullback, Barry was PL 9 and wore a Removable Costume device with Protection 3 and Senses 2 (extended vision, low-light vision); he also had 3 ranks of Luck as an extra for his Luck Control.
Davies
Legend
Colonel Alqadar/عقيد القدر
In the more than a decade since it happened, Refeeq el-Heshem, now known as Colonel Alqadar ("Colonel Fate") has generally tried to avoid obsessing over why it happened. It did happen, the life he had known ended as a consequence, and now he was fighting a different sort of war than he had ever envisaged, alongside allies he could not fully trust against beings who were, effectively, Shaitan. Nevertheless, data about the situation would occasionally come his way, and by now he has a fairly well-supported theory about it.
Back then, he was a veteran of the Royal Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia who had gone on to a lengthy career with the General Intelligence Presidency, the kingdom's primary intelligence agency. In 2007, he happened to be assigned to act as the monitor for a recently contracted mercenary hired to improve the security forces, the alien robot known as Seismic. They worked well together, and el-Heshem was just a bit quicker to absorb the lessons about warfare in the superpower age that the robot was teaching than some of his peers.
Two and a half years later, while he and his oldest son were having a discussion in his office in Riyadh about a commendation that the boy had recently received, a group of assassins broke into the building and attempted to kill el-Heshem. His son saved his life at the cost of his own. (Or at least that was how it seemed at the time.) Infuriated, el-Heshem took a sabbatical to hunt down those who were behind the killers, with Seismic (by that time having transitioned into his role as a satellite) providing critical assistance.
Seismic revealed to him that these operatives had been cut-outs employed -- through numerous layers of proxies -- by one of the four ASIs whose existence he had recently discovered. Just which one, just what had motivated them, these were questions that he could not yet answer, then. Nevertheless, el-Heshem determined that the war would not end until all four had been eliminated, and became the first recruit for what would eventually become the Gray Seal, resigning from the GIP and adopting the alias Colonel Alqadar.
The picture that has gradually emerged since then is appalling. His son, far from having died in his place, had been the target. Savitor had intended for el-Heshem to "discover" that the assassins were supposedly working for the Koreans, and become even more radical in his dislike of the superpowered, eventually joining Saturn. The goal, then, was to use this tragedy to enhance the narrative that Savitor seeks to spread, that mundane humanity cannot be trusted to manage its own affairs, but must rely on greater-than-human leaders -- first the superpowered, then the artificial minds that will eventually replace them.
Alqadar occasionally finds his ongoing alliance with such an artificial mind to be ironic, in light of that. But such is the fate he has been given, and he will not turn away from it.
Colonel Alqadar -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 2 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 2 | FGT 5 | INT 5 | AWE 3 | PRE 2
Powers:
Mind of Steel: Immunity 20 (mental effects), Limited to half effect - 10 points
Radiotelepathy Mindlink: Selective Area Radio Communication 3, Limited to those with radiotelepathy, Subtle; Senses 1 (radio) - 17 points
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Assessment, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment 6, Fearless 2, Improved Initiative, Languages 4 (English, French, Mandarin, Russian, others [Arabic is native]), Leadership, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 3, Startle, Ultimate Effort (Expertise: Military), Well-informed.
Equipment:
Body Armor (Protection 3).
Arsenal: Array (24 points)
Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+8), Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: Military 8 (+13), Insight 8 (+11), Intimidation 10 (+12), Investigation 5 (+10), Perception 6 (+9), Ranged Combat: Guns 6 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8), Technology 3 (+8), Vehicles 5 (+7).
Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 2)
Automatic Rifle +11 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 5)
Blaster Rifle +5 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 8)
Sniper Rifle +11 (Ranged Damage 5, Crit 19-20)
Grenade -- (Ranged Burst Area Damage 5)
Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 5, Toughness 7/5/4/2, Will 9.
Totals:
Abilities 46 + Powers 27 + Advantages 25 + Skills 35 + Defenses 18 = 152 points
Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 8
Skill PL: 8
Resistance PL: 7
Complications:
Justice (Or Possibly Revenge)--Motivation. Distrust of Superpowers. Family (estranged wife, estranged younger son.) Secret (Gray Seal.)
Note: Character concept by Voltron64.
على كف القدر نمشي ولا ندري عن المكتوب
"On the palm of fate we walk and do not know what is written."
In the more than a decade since it happened, Refeeq el-Heshem, now known as Colonel Alqadar ("Colonel Fate") has generally tried to avoid obsessing over why it happened. It did happen, the life he had known ended as a consequence, and now he was fighting a different sort of war than he had ever envisaged, alongside allies he could not fully trust against beings who were, effectively, Shaitan. Nevertheless, data about the situation would occasionally come his way, and by now he has a fairly well-supported theory about it.
Back then, he was a veteran of the Royal Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia who had gone on to a lengthy career with the General Intelligence Presidency, the kingdom's primary intelligence agency. In 2007, he happened to be assigned to act as the monitor for a recently contracted mercenary hired to improve the security forces, the alien robot known as Seismic. They worked well together, and el-Heshem was just a bit quicker to absorb the lessons about warfare in the superpower age that the robot was teaching than some of his peers.
Two and a half years later, while he and his oldest son were having a discussion in his office in Riyadh about a commendation that the boy had recently received, a group of assassins broke into the building and attempted to kill el-Heshem. His son saved his life at the cost of his own. (Or at least that was how it seemed at the time.) Infuriated, el-Heshem took a sabbatical to hunt down those who were behind the killers, with Seismic (by that time having transitioned into his role as a satellite) providing critical assistance.
Seismic revealed to him that these operatives had been cut-outs employed -- through numerous layers of proxies -- by one of the four ASIs whose existence he had recently discovered. Just which one, just what had motivated them, these were questions that he could not yet answer, then. Nevertheless, el-Heshem determined that the war would not end until all four had been eliminated, and became the first recruit for what would eventually become the Gray Seal, resigning from the GIP and adopting the alias Colonel Alqadar.
The picture that has gradually emerged since then is appalling. His son, far from having died in his place, had been the target. Savitor had intended for el-Heshem to "discover" that the assassins were supposedly working for the Koreans, and become even more radical in his dislike of the superpowered, eventually joining Saturn. The goal, then, was to use this tragedy to enhance the narrative that Savitor seeks to spread, that mundane humanity cannot be trusted to manage its own affairs, but must rely on greater-than-human leaders -- first the superpowered, then the artificial minds that will eventually replace them.
Alqadar occasionally finds his ongoing alliance with such an artificial mind to be ironic, in light of that. But such is the fate he has been given, and he will not turn away from it.
Colonel Alqadar -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 2 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 2 | FGT 5 | INT 5 | AWE 3 | PRE 2
Powers:
Mind of Steel: Immunity 20 (mental effects), Limited to half effect - 10 points
Radiotelepathy Mindlink: Selective Area Radio Communication 3, Limited to those with radiotelepathy, Subtle; Senses 1 (radio) - 17 points
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Assessment, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment 6, Fearless 2, Improved Initiative, Languages 4 (English, French, Mandarin, Russian, others [Arabic is native]), Leadership, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 3, Startle, Ultimate Effort (Expertise: Military), Well-informed.
Equipment:
Body Armor (Protection 3).
Arsenal: Array (24 points)
- Autoblaster: Ranged Multiattack Damage 8 - 24 points
- Automatic Rifle: Ranged Multiattack Damage 5 - 1 point
- Sniper Rifle: Ranged Damage 5, Improved Critical - 1 point
- Grenade: Ranged Burst Area Damage 5 - 1 point
Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+8), Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: Military 8 (+13), Insight 8 (+11), Intimidation 10 (+12), Investigation 5 (+10), Perception 6 (+9), Ranged Combat: Guns 6 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8), Technology 3 (+8), Vehicles 5 (+7).
Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 2)
Automatic Rifle +11 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 5)
Blaster Rifle +5 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 8)
Sniper Rifle +11 (Ranged Damage 5, Crit 19-20)
Grenade -- (Ranged Burst Area Damage 5)
Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 5, Toughness 7/5/4/2, Will 9.
Totals:
Abilities 46 + Powers 27 + Advantages 25 + Skills 35 + Defenses 18 = 152 points
Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 8
Skill PL: 8
Resistance PL: 7
Complications:
Justice (Or Possibly Revenge)--Motivation. Distrust of Superpowers. Family (estranged wife, estranged younger son.) Secret (Gray Seal.)
Note: Character concept by Voltron64.
على كف القدر نمشي ولا ندري عن المكتوب
"On the palm of fate we walk and do not know what is written."
Davies
Legend
Penelope Jones
People saw her throw off bon mots after putting an end to some villain who was trying to kill her, and viewed her as being cold as ice, never knowing that she would go home to a nearly empty manor afterwards and cry herself senseless over how scared she had been. People saw her wrecking more of the heritage of the world than she ever managed to document and crack jokes about it, never knowing that she poured huge amounts of her family fortune into trying to recover what had been damaged. Everyone saw so much in her -- explorer, adventurer, hero, criminal, and, never deny it, sex object -- that maybe it is not all that surprising that no one ever stopped to wonder what she saw in herself. And apparently, what she saw in herself was a gigantic failure.
Just as her own daughter grew up in her shadow, Penelope Jones grew up in the shadow of her father and grandfather, both far more respected archaeologists than she ever managed to be. She heard what people said about her -- "one of the worst things to ever happen to archaeology in the history of the discipline", in the words of one particularly eloquent jerk -- and arguing the point would have done no good. So she kept on having her bloody adventures, even though she had come to hate everything about these fiascos, until one of them finally killed her.
Except that she only died in the "no one could possibly have survived that" sense. Spared the reaper one more time, she spent weeks trying to make it back to Quito, only to find out that Penelope Jones had been reported missing and was presumed dead. Deciding that this suited her, Penelope eventually made a quiet life for herself on the Isla de la Sol in Lake Titicaca, avoiding contact with tourists while conducting some private study of the Incan ruins there. She had the peace that she had craved for so long, and was content.
That contentment was disturbed a few weeks ago when Virginia, having grown up into even more of a menace than she herself had ever been, teamed up with some aliens to finally investigate the account of her death. Panicking, Penelope faked up what she hoped would be taken as a gravesite and attempted to present it to these Vagabonds as the place where Penelope Jones had eventually passed away. She honestly thought she had succeeded, and watched the boat that they were taking pull away from the docks while indulging in some monologue about how it was better this way.
Then she turned around and found that Virginia was standing behind her and glaring furiously in her direction. "Do you think I don't know a bloody thing about anthropology?!" she ranted. "That skeleton showed no signs that it had ever been anywhere close to the sort of pollution you would have grown up in! Where's your head at?!" After some further abuse, and the return of the boat, Virginia essentially ordered Penelope to get on the boat and return to civilization with her. Penelope, thoroughly cowed, did so.
She and her daughter have not spoken a word to each other since then. Penelope does feel bad about this, but to her mind, it only makes sense that she would be just as much of a failure as a mother as she was at everything else that ever actually mattered, and Ginny is probably better off without her. While attempting to disentangle her status as one of the legally dead, she has been given a position as the social studies teacher at the Futurian Academy. She expects that she is failing at this, too, since the students keep asking her about her adventures -- ick -- rather than what the course material.
Ah well. Time is bound to catch up with her eventually.
Penelope Jones -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 4 | AWE 3 | PRE 2
Powers:
Cunning Linguist: Comprehend Languages 3 (understand, be understood, read), Quirk (requires a scene of exposure) - 8 points
Advantages:
Attractive, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Evasion 2, Improved Initiative, Jack-of-all-trades, Tracking, Well-informed.
Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+10), Athletics 6 (+7), Expertise: History 9 (+13), Expertise: Survival 7 (+11), Insight 9 (+12), Intimidation 8 (+10), Investigation 6 (+10), Perception 7 (+10), Persuasion 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Guns 7 (+10), Stealth 6 (+8), Vehicles 5 (+8)
Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +4 (Close Damage 1)
Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Toughness 4/2, Will 6
Totals:
Abilities 42 + Powers 8 + Advantages 9 + Skills 43 + Defenses 9 = 111 points
Offensive PL: 3*
Defensive PL: 5
Resistance PL: 5
Skill PL: 8
Complications:
Peace--Motivation. Legally Dead. Old Enemies. Terrible Self Image. Unbelievably Estranged Family (Virginia.)
Note: In her prime, back in the 90s, she was PL9; her physical abilities and FGT were each 1 rank higher, her Ranged Combat: Guns skill was 1 rank less, and she had Benefit 4 (millionaire, paired guns), Defensive Roll 2, and an Equipment budget like that of Virginia, favoring a pair of Heavy Pistols (Ranged Damage 4.)
People saw her throw off bon mots after putting an end to some villain who was trying to kill her, and viewed her as being cold as ice, never knowing that she would go home to a nearly empty manor afterwards and cry herself senseless over how scared she had been. People saw her wrecking more of the heritage of the world than she ever managed to document and crack jokes about it, never knowing that she poured huge amounts of her family fortune into trying to recover what had been damaged. Everyone saw so much in her -- explorer, adventurer, hero, criminal, and, never deny it, sex object -- that maybe it is not all that surprising that no one ever stopped to wonder what she saw in herself. And apparently, what she saw in herself was a gigantic failure.
Just as her own daughter grew up in her shadow, Penelope Jones grew up in the shadow of her father and grandfather, both far more respected archaeologists than she ever managed to be. She heard what people said about her -- "one of the worst things to ever happen to archaeology in the history of the discipline", in the words of one particularly eloquent jerk -- and arguing the point would have done no good. So she kept on having her bloody adventures, even though she had come to hate everything about these fiascos, until one of them finally killed her.
Except that she only died in the "no one could possibly have survived that" sense. Spared the reaper one more time, she spent weeks trying to make it back to Quito, only to find out that Penelope Jones had been reported missing and was presumed dead. Deciding that this suited her, Penelope eventually made a quiet life for herself on the Isla de la Sol in Lake Titicaca, avoiding contact with tourists while conducting some private study of the Incan ruins there. She had the peace that she had craved for so long, and was content.
That contentment was disturbed a few weeks ago when Virginia, having grown up into even more of a menace than she herself had ever been, teamed up with some aliens to finally investigate the account of her death. Panicking, Penelope faked up what she hoped would be taken as a gravesite and attempted to present it to these Vagabonds as the place where Penelope Jones had eventually passed away. She honestly thought she had succeeded, and watched the boat that they were taking pull away from the docks while indulging in some monologue about how it was better this way.
Then she turned around and found that Virginia was standing behind her and glaring furiously in her direction. "Do you think I don't know a bloody thing about anthropology?!" she ranted. "That skeleton showed no signs that it had ever been anywhere close to the sort of pollution you would have grown up in! Where's your head at?!" After some further abuse, and the return of the boat, Virginia essentially ordered Penelope to get on the boat and return to civilization with her. Penelope, thoroughly cowed, did so.
She and her daughter have not spoken a word to each other since then. Penelope does feel bad about this, but to her mind, it only makes sense that she would be just as much of a failure as a mother as she was at everything else that ever actually mattered, and Ginny is probably better off without her. While attempting to disentangle her status as one of the legally dead, she has been given a position as the social studies teacher at the Futurian Academy. She expects that she is failing at this, too, since the students keep asking her about her adventures -- ick -- rather than what the course material.
Ah well. Time is bound to catch up with her eventually.
Penelope Jones -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 4 | AWE 3 | PRE 2
Powers:
Cunning Linguist: Comprehend Languages 3 (understand, be understood, read), Quirk (requires a scene of exposure) - 8 points
Advantages:
Attractive, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Evasion 2, Improved Initiative, Jack-of-all-trades, Tracking, Well-informed.
Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+10), Athletics 6 (+7), Expertise: History 9 (+13), Expertise: Survival 7 (+11), Insight 9 (+12), Intimidation 8 (+10), Investigation 6 (+10), Perception 7 (+10), Persuasion 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Guns 7 (+10), Stealth 6 (+8), Vehicles 5 (+8)
Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +4 (Close Damage 1)
Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Toughness 4/2, Will 6
Totals:
Abilities 42 + Powers 8 + Advantages 9 + Skills 43 + Defenses 9 = 111 points
Offensive PL: 3*
Defensive PL: 5
Resistance PL: 5
Skill PL: 8
Complications:
Peace--Motivation. Legally Dead. Old Enemies. Terrible Self Image. Unbelievably Estranged Family (Virginia.)
Note: In her prime, back in the 90s, she was PL9; her physical abilities and FGT were each 1 rank higher, her Ranged Combat: Guns skill was 1 rank less, and she had Benefit 4 (millionaire, paired guns), Defensive Roll 2, and an Equipment budget like that of Virginia, favoring a pair of Heavy Pistols (Ranged Damage 4.)
Davies
Legend
The Sea Dragons/海の竜
The current Sea Dragon team
In 1996, the managers of the Hinotori thinktank, based in Tokyo, reported to their government that their hyperbrains had achieved a number of breakthroughs -- notably the creation of an alloy with a tensile strength similar to steel mesh and a weight similar to nylon, a variety of miniaturized electromagnetic projectors, and sophisticated cybernetic controls -- that possessed remarkable synergistic potential. Specifically, these discoveries could be, and had been, combined to create a suit of clothes that could empower their wearer, turning an ordinary human being into a superpower. It seemed that an effective super-soldier process had at last been discovered, and the Japanese government immediately ordered the creation of a small number of these suits for use by the Self Defense Forces.
That was when the difficulty emerged. The first suit manufactured, fashioned in red and white after the Hinomaru, was assigned to Captain Saotome Hikaru of the Air Self Defense Forces. He wore it proudly for roughly one minute before he dropped dead on the spot. The autopsy revealed that his internal organs had suffered incredibly rapid aging, as though he had lived roughly one year for every second he had worn the suit. Subsequent tests, even using the other suits, had similar results. (It has since been theorized that one of the inventors deliberately sabotaged the suits, though their reasons for having done so remain unclear; the most likely suspect committed suicide shortly after the prototypes were delivered.)
For a time, it seemed that a great deal of lives and money had been expended to no point and purpose, as is distressingly common for this sort of research, and the suits were returned to Hinotori for storage. A few months later, however, during the first daikaiju attack, janitor Naoya Shotaro impulsively donned the prototype suit and launched himself into battle against the monster, hoping that he could accomplish something before he died, whether because of the suit or in combat. While his contribution to the defense of Tokyo was ultimately judged to be minimal, by the time that his unconscious form was recovered, it was noted that Naoya had worn the suit for more than an hour without suffering as previous users had.
It soon became apparent that those who had claimed that the suits 'turn[ed] an ordinary human being into a superpower' had spoken more literally than they knew. Counterintuitively, the technology used by the costume placed a greater stress on the biology of a skilled or accomplished person who wore it than it did on the biology of someone without much training or experience. Naoya Shotaro, a high school drop-out, was therefore able to use it safely where Saotome Hikaru, a highly-trained veteran pilot with several doctorates, was unable to do so. He was asked to continue to use the suit as a superhero, and to assist in selecting additional individuals to wear the others. He selected a number of young people of his acquaintance, who often had attitude problems.
In the quarter-century since then, the Sea Dragons (as they have come to be called) have been the mainstays of the Japanese superpower community, with a team consisting of five individuals -- often youths -- who typically serve no more than three years before they can no longer safely use the suits. Ironically, many of them become victims of their own success, as developing the talent to use the suit effectively increases the stress that it places on their health. After "graduating" from active duty, many of them continue to serve as members of the support team for the organization, following in the footsteps of Naoya, who has become the director of the Hinotori Institute that maintains the suits and their users. (Having used the first suit for four years, he resembles a man in his seventies and is an excellent advertisement for the dangers of staying active for too long.)
An additional difficulty that Sea Dragon operatives face is that they are required to keep their identities a secret from the general public. While this is not uncommon among superheroes, it is not a choice for the Sea Dragons; should any of them deliberately reveal to another person -- through any means -- that they use the suit, it immediately and irrevocably ceases to function. Bewilderingly, persons who discover the truth independently of such deliberate reveals, as with the support staff, do not cause this power loss. The reasons for this are every bit as mysterious as the requirements for a person to use the suits safely.
Sea Dragon -- PL 9
Abilities:
STR 6/0 | STA 6/0 | AGL 6/0 | DEX 0 | FGT 6/0 | INT 1 | AWE 1 | PRE 1
Powers:
Instant Change: Feature 1 (instant change to or from Sea Dragon Costume) - 1 point
Sea Dragon Costume: Removable (-25 points) - 100 points
Agile Feint, Defensive Roll, Evasion, Fearless 2, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 8, Takedown, Teamwork
Skills:
Deception 4 (+5), Expertise: Pop Culture 4 (+5), Expertise: Science 4 (+5), Insight 3 (+4), Perception 3 (+4).
Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 6)
Energy Blast +8 (Ranged Damage 10)
Shocker +8 (Ranged Fortitude 9)
Energy Burst -- (Ranged Burst Area Damage 7)
Flare -- (Ranged Burst Area Fortitude 9)
Defense:
Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude 10, Toughness 8/6, Will 8
Totals:
Abilities 6 + Powers 101 + Advantages 1 + Skills 9 + Defenses 0 = 117 points
Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 9
Skill PL: 0
Complications:
Varies, But Always Heroic--Motivation. Secret Identity.
Note: Experienced Sea Dragon operatives might have Leadership, Acrobatics, Close Combat: Unarmed or Stealth skills, additional Expertises, and possibly slightly higher mental abilities. They cannot have Skill PL 4 or higher, however.
誰だ 誰だ 誰だ 空のかなたに踊る影
"Who is it, who is it, who is it/That shadow dancing in the sky"
The current Sea Dragon team
In 1996, the managers of the Hinotori thinktank, based in Tokyo, reported to their government that their hyperbrains had achieved a number of breakthroughs -- notably the creation of an alloy with a tensile strength similar to steel mesh and a weight similar to nylon, a variety of miniaturized electromagnetic projectors, and sophisticated cybernetic controls -- that possessed remarkable synergistic potential. Specifically, these discoveries could be, and had been, combined to create a suit of clothes that could empower their wearer, turning an ordinary human being into a superpower. It seemed that an effective super-soldier process had at last been discovered, and the Japanese government immediately ordered the creation of a small number of these suits for use by the Self Defense Forces.
That was when the difficulty emerged. The first suit manufactured, fashioned in red and white after the Hinomaru, was assigned to Captain Saotome Hikaru of the Air Self Defense Forces. He wore it proudly for roughly one minute before he dropped dead on the spot. The autopsy revealed that his internal organs had suffered incredibly rapid aging, as though he had lived roughly one year for every second he had worn the suit. Subsequent tests, even using the other suits, had similar results. (It has since been theorized that one of the inventors deliberately sabotaged the suits, though their reasons for having done so remain unclear; the most likely suspect committed suicide shortly after the prototypes were delivered.)
For a time, it seemed that a great deal of lives and money had been expended to no point and purpose, as is distressingly common for this sort of research, and the suits were returned to Hinotori for storage. A few months later, however, during the first daikaiju attack, janitor Naoya Shotaro impulsively donned the prototype suit and launched himself into battle against the monster, hoping that he could accomplish something before he died, whether because of the suit or in combat. While his contribution to the defense of Tokyo was ultimately judged to be minimal, by the time that his unconscious form was recovered, it was noted that Naoya had worn the suit for more than an hour without suffering as previous users had.
It soon became apparent that those who had claimed that the suits 'turn[ed] an ordinary human being into a superpower' had spoken more literally than they knew. Counterintuitively, the technology used by the costume placed a greater stress on the biology of a skilled or accomplished person who wore it than it did on the biology of someone without much training or experience. Naoya Shotaro, a high school drop-out, was therefore able to use it safely where Saotome Hikaru, a highly-trained veteran pilot with several doctorates, was unable to do so. He was asked to continue to use the suit as a superhero, and to assist in selecting additional individuals to wear the others. He selected a number of young people of his acquaintance, who often had attitude problems.
In the quarter-century since then, the Sea Dragons (as they have come to be called) have been the mainstays of the Japanese superpower community, with a team consisting of five individuals -- often youths -- who typically serve no more than three years before they can no longer safely use the suits. Ironically, many of them become victims of their own success, as developing the talent to use the suit effectively increases the stress that it places on their health. After "graduating" from active duty, many of them continue to serve as members of the support team for the organization, following in the footsteps of Naoya, who has become the director of the Hinotori Institute that maintains the suits and their users. (Having used the first suit for four years, he resembles a man in his seventies and is an excellent advertisement for the dangers of staying active for too long.)
An additional difficulty that Sea Dragon operatives face is that they are required to keep their identities a secret from the general public. While this is not uncommon among superheroes, it is not a choice for the Sea Dragons; should any of them deliberately reveal to another person -- through any means -- that they use the suit, it immediately and irrevocably ceases to function. Bewilderingly, persons who discover the truth independently of such deliberate reveals, as with the support staff, do not cause this power loss. The reasons for this are every bit as mysterious as the requirements for a person to use the suits safely.
Sea Dragon -- PL 9
Abilities:
STR 6/0 | STA 6/0 | AGL 6/0 | DEX 0 | FGT 6/0 | INT 1 | AWE 1 | PRE 1
Powers:
Instant Change: Feature 1 (instant change to or from Sea Dragon Costume) - 1 point
Sea Dragon Costume: Removable (-25 points) - 100 points
- Amazing Confidence: Enhanced Advantages 11 (Fearless 2, Jack-of-all-trades, Ranged Attack 8); Enhanced Defenses 20 (Dodge 4, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Will 8); Impervious Will 8, Limited to Mental Effects - 35 points
- Dragon Wings: Flight 8 (500 MPH), Aquatic, Concentration, Wings - 5 points
- Physical Enhancement: Enhanced Advantages 5 (Agile Feint, Defensive Roll, Evasion, Power Attack, Takedown); Enhanced Agility 6; Enhanced Fighting 6; Enhanced Stamina 6; Enhanced Strength 6; Immunity 10 (life support) - 63 points
- Weapons: Array (19 points)
- Energy Blast: Ranged Damage 10, Activation (Move Action, -1 point) - 19 points
- Energy Burst: Ranged Burst Area Damage 7, Activation (Standard Action, -2 points) - 1 point
- Flare: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Visually Impaired, Visually Disabled, Visually Unaware), Limited to One Sense - 1 point
- Shocker: Ranged Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 1 point
Agile Feint, Defensive Roll, Evasion, Fearless 2, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 8, Takedown, Teamwork
Skills:
Deception 4 (+5), Expertise: Pop Culture 4 (+5), Expertise: Science 4 (+5), Insight 3 (+4), Perception 3 (+4).
Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 6)
Energy Blast +8 (Ranged Damage 10)
Shocker +8 (Ranged Fortitude 9)
Energy Burst -- (Ranged Burst Area Damage 7)
Flare -- (Ranged Burst Area Fortitude 9)
Defense:
Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude 10, Toughness 8/6, Will 8
Totals:
Abilities 6 + Powers 101 + Advantages 1 + Skills 9 + Defenses 0 = 117 points
Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 9
Skill PL: 0
Complications:
Varies, But Always Heroic--Motivation. Secret Identity.
Note: Experienced Sea Dragon operatives might have Leadership, Acrobatics, Close Combat: Unarmed or Stealth skills, additional Expertises, and possibly slightly higher mental abilities. They cannot have Skill PL 4 or higher, however.
誰だ 誰だ 誰だ 空のかなたに踊る影
"Who is it, who is it, who is it/That shadow dancing in the sky"
Davies
Legend
Kusunoki Izuku/楠木出久
The members of the Ghost Sweepers can be roughly divided between those who believe that the entities from which they draw their powers are independent entities, and those who believe that they are manifestations of parts of their own consciousnesses. Kusonoki Izuku, who draws a power that enhances his intellect from what may be the ghost of 16th century magician/inventor Kashin Koji, is right in the middle of this divide. On the one hand, as a scientist, he is not inclined to accept spiritual explanations for the phenomena he experiences; on the other, it has been observed that there is no member of the team who is as scrupulous about maintaining the taboos that the spirit demands of him.
But that principle does not arise from faith, but rather fear. Early on in his time with the Ghost Sweepers -- he joined the team in 2017, after being discovered building robots in his high school mechanic shop -- Izuku was exposed to a weapon that temporarily severed his connection to the spirit. While still able to use the devices that he had already built, he found it difficult to repair them, and experienced a unique terror when he attempted to consult his notes on the subject and found that he could not understand them, despite recognizing his own writing. That experience, and the understanding of just how much could have potentially gone wrong if he had opened up any of his devices, is what inspires him to be very careful about keeping the ghost happy, regardless of whether it is really a ghost.
Aside from that concern, Izuku is a well-adjusted individual, who enjoys the simple pleasures of the world he wants to help protect. He is a huge fan of special effects movies, and has dreams of one day working to make them if he should ever lose his powers. He also has built friendships with all of his teammates, especially Tetsu, for whom he performs routine maintenance. This has occasionally caused difficulties, as Izuku has to fight the tendency to treat Tetsu as a machine instead of a mechanical person.
While often not thrilled to have to join the Ghost Sweepers in the field -- his offensive capabilities are useful only in specialized circumstances, and his defensive ones are not that impressive -- he understands that his skills are vital when they are needed. He is the only one with the capacity to enter the subspace dimensions ("kekkai") that their opponents sometimes create, and the only one who can help the team to beat a hasty retreat from such broken worlds when necessary. He also sometimes acts as the wheelman for the team, and enjoys such episodes a lot. Besides which, given that Sayo often acts independently, there would only be four field operatives if he stayed back -- and that would be terribly bad luck.
Kusunoki Izuku -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 3 | INT 7/3 | AWE 3 | PRE 2
Powers:
Ghost Traps: Array (25 points); Removable (-5 points)
Sensor Gear: Variable 1 (sensors); Easily Removable (-2 points) - 5 points
Spirit of Invention: Enhanced Advantages 3 (Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all Trades); Enhanced Intellect 4 - 11 points
Typical Variable Sets:
Default: Senses 5 (acute extended mystical awareness, direction sense, time sense) - 5 points
Advantages:
Defensive Roll, Equipment 3, Evasion, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all-Trades, Languages 2 (English, French, Spanish, Vietnamese [Japanese is native]).
Equipment:
Body Armor (Protection 2), Smartphone and 10 points of equipment as needed.
Skills:
Athletics 6 (+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+6), Deception 4 (+6), Expertise: Magic 4 (+11/+7), Expertise: Popular Culture 6 (+13/+9), Expertise: Science 4 (+11/+7), Insight 4 (+7), Investigation 5 (+12/+8), Perception 5 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8), Technology 6 (+13/+9), Vehicles 7 (+10).
Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 0)
Anti-Incorporeal Ordinance -- (Burst Area Will 9)
Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 6, Fortitude 4, Toughness 6/4/2, Will 9
Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 41 + Advantages 7 + Skills 30 + Defenses 17 = 131 points
Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 7
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 8
Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Power Loss (Spirit of Invention, if Kashin is offended.) Secret (government agent.)
The members of the Ghost Sweepers can be roughly divided between those who believe that the entities from which they draw their powers are independent entities, and those who believe that they are manifestations of parts of their own consciousnesses. Kusonoki Izuku, who draws a power that enhances his intellect from what may be the ghost of 16th century magician/inventor Kashin Koji, is right in the middle of this divide. On the one hand, as a scientist, he is not inclined to accept spiritual explanations for the phenomena he experiences; on the other, it has been observed that there is no member of the team who is as scrupulous about maintaining the taboos that the spirit demands of him.
But that principle does not arise from faith, but rather fear. Early on in his time with the Ghost Sweepers -- he joined the team in 2017, after being discovered building robots in his high school mechanic shop -- Izuku was exposed to a weapon that temporarily severed his connection to the spirit. While still able to use the devices that he had already built, he found it difficult to repair them, and experienced a unique terror when he attempted to consult his notes on the subject and found that he could not understand them, despite recognizing his own writing. That experience, and the understanding of just how much could have potentially gone wrong if he had opened up any of his devices, is what inspires him to be very careful about keeping the ghost happy, regardless of whether it is really a ghost.
Aside from that concern, Izuku is a well-adjusted individual, who enjoys the simple pleasures of the world he wants to help protect. He is a huge fan of special effects movies, and has dreams of one day working to make them if he should ever lose his powers. He also has built friendships with all of his teammates, especially Tetsu, for whom he performs routine maintenance. This has occasionally caused difficulties, as Izuku has to fight the tendency to treat Tetsu as a machine instead of a mechanical person.
While often not thrilled to have to join the Ghost Sweepers in the field -- his offensive capabilities are useful only in specialized circumstances, and his defensive ones are not that impressive -- he understands that his skills are vital when they are needed. He is the only one with the capacity to enter the subspace dimensions ("kekkai") that their opponents sometimes create, and the only one who can help the team to beat a hasty retreat from such broken worlds when necessary. He also sometimes acts as the wheelman for the team, and enjoys such episodes a lot. Besides which, given that Sayo often acts independently, there would only be four field operatives if he stayed back -- and that would be terribly bad luck.
Kusunoki Izuku -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 3 | INT 7/3 | AWE 3 | PRE 2
Powers:
Ghost Traps: Array (25 points); Removable (-5 points)
- Anti-Incorporeal Ordinance: Burst Area Cumulative Affliction 8 (Resisted by Will; Hindered, Immobile, Paralyzed), Concentration, Limited to incorporeal targets, Triggered - 28 points
- Possession Neutralizing Ordinance: Burst Area Nullify Mind Control 8, Simultaneous, Triggered - 1 point
Sensor Gear: Variable 1 (sensors); Easily Removable (-2 points) - 5 points
Spirit of Invention: Enhanced Advantages 3 (Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all Trades); Enhanced Intellect 4 - 11 points
Typical Variable Sets:
Default: Senses 5 (acute extended mystical awareness, direction sense, time sense) - 5 points
Advantages:
Defensive Roll, Equipment 3, Evasion, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all-Trades, Languages 2 (English, French, Spanish, Vietnamese [Japanese is native]).
Equipment:
Body Armor (Protection 2), Smartphone and 10 points of equipment as needed.
Skills:
Athletics 6 (+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+6), Deception 4 (+6), Expertise: Magic 4 (+11/+7), Expertise: Popular Culture 6 (+13/+9), Expertise: Science 4 (+11/+7), Insight 4 (+7), Investigation 5 (+12/+8), Perception 5 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8), Technology 6 (+13/+9), Vehicles 7 (+10).
Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 0)
Anti-Incorporeal Ordinance -- (Burst Area Will 9)
Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 6, Fortitude 4, Toughness 6/4/2, Will 9
Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 41 + Advantages 7 + Skills 30 + Defenses 17 = 131 points
Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 7
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 8
Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Power Loss (Spirit of Invention, if Kashin is offended.) Secret (government agent.)
Davies
Legend
Esther Hoshino
To slightly misquote someone, "it ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things everybody knows that ain’t so." The background of Esther Hoshino is one such case. Her official history is that she is the adopted daughter of the late Hoshino Kiichi, who inherited his fortune following his death twenty-six years ago. This is well known to be a pack of lies, however, and everybody -- or at least everybody who pays attention to this sort of gossip -- knows that Esther was actually the biracial daughter of Kiichi and his mistress, adopted by him after his sons disappointed him. Unfortunately, everybody knows things that are not so.
The woman who now calls herself Esther Hoshino was born around sixty years* ago on Bogoin, a heavily industrialized world in the core of the Technate. By the time she was an adult, using the name Atara, she was heavily involved with the Vaskhane crime syndicate, as they offered her the opportunity to develop her scientific talents as she pleased, where the supposedly legitimate authorities would have worried about ethics and consequences and that sort of rot. However, her career with the syndicate was undistinguished, and while the Bureau of Law Enforcement maintains a still-open file about her activities, it is fairly slim.
That would likely change if they were aware that she was dispatched on a mission to Earth in 1989, to investigate the activities of Kuklafron, the primary Vaskhane operative on that planet. Some of the accounts that had reached them about what he was getting up to seemed disturbingly eccentric, and Atara was under orders to eliminate him if necessary. While she had already decided that it would be necessary as soon as she received her instructions, she was a bit surprised at the competence Kuklafron demonstrated despite his eccentricities, and ultimately chose to work with him rather than oppose him.
Having done so, she was in a better position to discover some of the intriguing plant life on Earth, something that previous Vaskhane operatives, even Kuklafron, had overlooked. Her major discovery was that the primary ingredient of boosterspice, a plant known to Terrans as "silphium", was growing in the wild here, with the Terrans apparently oblivious to its useful properties. (Or were they? Some of those supposedly wild growths showed signs of deliberate cultivation in the not-so-distant past.) Regardless, she was able to acquire a large crop of them and refine them into a useable form, and promptly started using her own product to slow her age as well as black marketing it.
Shortly after that, the operations of Vaskhane as a whole were dealt a lethal blow by a coordinated effort between JSOT, the Scavengers, and the crew of the TSV Adventure. Atara was able to avoid death or capture, but had to go underground with the assistance of one of her best customers, Hoshino Kiichi, who agreed to let her pose as his daughter under the name Esther. That lasted for the next four years, until the old fool passed away. Despite what you might expect, she did nothing to speed that up, and apparently genuinely mourned his death for a while.
By 1996, however, she had recovered enough to start considering some new schemes, focused on seizing various ancient relics to be found on Earth, especially those she suspected to be of extraterrestrial origin. Her first major plan to do so involved manipulating a certain adventuring archaeologist into gathering them for her, only for Penelope Jones to prove more resourceful than she expected. This was the ruin of her scheme and came dangerously close to ruining her personally, but she survived to plot revenge.
Unfortunately, the countless times their paths crossed over the next decade all went exactly the same way. Esther always survived and escaped exposure. But she failed to gain the assets that she wanted and her attempts at revenge on Jones herself were always thwarted, for all that she sometimes inflicted great harm on the friends and associates of her nemesis. (She never went after Virginia Jones, however, less because of any limits she might possess than because she entertained ambitions of one day turning mother and daughter against each other.) Ulimately, however, when Penelope Jones did disappear from the scene it had nothing to do with her, which was extremely vexing.
She continued her schemes, opposed by the Sea Dragons or the Discovery Company, among others, and though she actually enjoyed some successes, now, it failed to really satisfy her. When Virginia Jones followed in the footsteps of her mother, she perked up a bit, but the younger Jones lacked something that had made her mother so frustrating, even after she started working with that mystic boytoy of hers. Esther was seriously considering packing it in, gathering up her assets and leaving this dull world to its own devices, when something wonderful happened.
Shortly after Penelope Jones started teaching at the Futurian Academy, a letter was delivered to her there. It was unsigned. The author congratulated her on escaping from death once again, and for successfully hiding for all those years. But I have been watching you since your return, and it's obvious that you are a very unhappy woman. And despite everything, I find that I really do hate that, Penny. (Penelope Jones enjoys being called "Penny" even less than her daughter likes being called "Ginny".) I want you to be happy ... because my own happiness, when I finally destroy you once and for all, will be lessened if you're not. There is no sport in ruining you as you are now.Enjoy your last few days, Penny. See you real soon.
"So what's this, then?" asked Naru Hasegawa, as she watched her co-worker reading the letter.
"Form letter," Penelope replied, and threw it in the trash. "I think I need some aspirin."
Esther Hoshino -- PL 7
Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 1 | AGL 0 | DEX 2 | FGT 0 | INT 8 | AWE 4 | PRE 3
Powers:
Boosterspice: Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) - 3 points
Shielded Mind: Impervious Will 8, Limited to Mental Effects - 4 points
Translator Implant: Comprehend Languages 2 (speak, understand) - 6 points
Advantages:
Benefit 5 (billionaire), Connected, Inventor, Languages 2 (English, Japanese, others, [Technate Standard is native]), Well-informed.
Skills:
Deception 7 (+10), Expertise: Business 3 (+11), Expertise: Criminal 3 (+11), Expertise: Galactic 2 (+10), Expertise: Science 4 (+12), Insight 5 (+9), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+11), Technology 4 (+12).
Offense:
Initiative +0
Unarmed +0 (Close Damage 0)
Defense:
Dodge 3, Parry 2, Fortitude 3, Toughness 1, Will 9.
Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 13 + Advantages 10 + Skills 20 + Defenses 12 = 90 points
Offensive PL: 0*
Defensive PL: 2*
Resistance PL: 6
Skill PL: 7
Complications:
Power--Motivation. Hatred/Obsession (Penelope Jones.) Power Loss (Boosterspice, must take regular spice doses.) Secret (alien, criminal.)
To slightly misquote someone, "it ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things everybody knows that ain’t so." The background of Esther Hoshino is one such case. Her official history is that she is the adopted daughter of the late Hoshino Kiichi, who inherited his fortune following his death twenty-six years ago. This is well known to be a pack of lies, however, and everybody -- or at least everybody who pays attention to this sort of gossip -- knows that Esther was actually the biracial daughter of Kiichi and his mistress, adopted by him after his sons disappointed him. Unfortunately, everybody knows things that are not so.
The woman who now calls herself Esther Hoshino was born around sixty years* ago on Bogoin, a heavily industrialized world in the core of the Technate. By the time she was an adult, using the name Atara, she was heavily involved with the Vaskhane crime syndicate, as they offered her the opportunity to develop her scientific talents as she pleased, where the supposedly legitimate authorities would have worried about ethics and consequences and that sort of rot. However, her career with the syndicate was undistinguished, and while the Bureau of Law Enforcement maintains a still-open file about her activities, it is fairly slim.
That would likely change if they were aware that she was dispatched on a mission to Earth in 1989, to investigate the activities of Kuklafron, the primary Vaskhane operative on that planet. Some of the accounts that had reached them about what he was getting up to seemed disturbingly eccentric, and Atara was under orders to eliminate him if necessary. While she had already decided that it would be necessary as soon as she received her instructions, she was a bit surprised at the competence Kuklafron demonstrated despite his eccentricities, and ultimately chose to work with him rather than oppose him.
Having done so, she was in a better position to discover some of the intriguing plant life on Earth, something that previous Vaskhane operatives, even Kuklafron, had overlooked. Her major discovery was that the primary ingredient of boosterspice, a plant known to Terrans as "silphium", was growing in the wild here, with the Terrans apparently oblivious to its useful properties. (Or were they? Some of those supposedly wild growths showed signs of deliberate cultivation in the not-so-distant past.) Regardless, she was able to acquire a large crop of them and refine them into a useable form, and promptly started using her own product to slow her age as well as black marketing it.
Shortly after that, the operations of Vaskhane as a whole were dealt a lethal blow by a coordinated effort between JSOT, the Scavengers, and the crew of the TSV Adventure. Atara was able to avoid death or capture, but had to go underground with the assistance of one of her best customers, Hoshino Kiichi, who agreed to let her pose as his daughter under the name Esther. That lasted for the next four years, until the old fool passed away. Despite what you might expect, she did nothing to speed that up, and apparently genuinely mourned his death for a while.
By 1996, however, she had recovered enough to start considering some new schemes, focused on seizing various ancient relics to be found on Earth, especially those she suspected to be of extraterrestrial origin. Her first major plan to do so involved manipulating a certain adventuring archaeologist into gathering them for her, only for Penelope Jones to prove more resourceful than she expected. This was the ruin of her scheme and came dangerously close to ruining her personally, but she survived to plot revenge.
Unfortunately, the countless times their paths crossed over the next decade all went exactly the same way. Esther always survived and escaped exposure. But she failed to gain the assets that she wanted and her attempts at revenge on Jones herself were always thwarted, for all that she sometimes inflicted great harm on the friends and associates of her nemesis. (She never went after Virginia Jones, however, less because of any limits she might possess than because she entertained ambitions of one day turning mother and daughter against each other.) Ulimately, however, when Penelope Jones did disappear from the scene it had nothing to do with her, which was extremely vexing.
She continued her schemes, opposed by the Sea Dragons or the Discovery Company, among others, and though she actually enjoyed some successes, now, it failed to really satisfy her. When Virginia Jones followed in the footsteps of her mother, she perked up a bit, but the younger Jones lacked something that had made her mother so frustrating, even after she started working with that mystic boytoy of hers. Esther was seriously considering packing it in, gathering up her assets and leaving this dull world to its own devices, when something wonderful happened.
Shortly after Penelope Jones started teaching at the Futurian Academy, a letter was delivered to her there. It was unsigned. The author congratulated her on escaping from death once again, and for successfully hiding for all those years. But I have been watching you since your return, and it's obvious that you are a very unhappy woman. And despite everything, I find that I really do hate that, Penny. (Penelope Jones enjoys being called "Penny" even less than her daughter likes being called "Ginny".) I want you to be happy ... because my own happiness, when I finally destroy you once and for all, will be lessened if you're not. There is no sport in ruining you as you are now.Enjoy your last few days, Penny. See you real soon.
"So what's this, then?" asked Naru Hasegawa, as she watched her co-worker reading the letter.
"Form letter," Penelope replied, and threw it in the trash. "I think I need some aspirin."
Esther Hoshino -- PL 7
Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 1 | AGL 0 | DEX 2 | FGT 0 | INT 8 | AWE 4 | PRE 3
Powers:
Boosterspice: Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) - 3 points
Shielded Mind: Impervious Will 8, Limited to Mental Effects - 4 points
Translator Implant: Comprehend Languages 2 (speak, understand) - 6 points
Advantages:
Benefit 5 (billionaire), Connected, Inventor, Languages 2 (English, Japanese, others, [Technate Standard is native]), Well-informed.
Skills:
Deception 7 (+10), Expertise: Business 3 (+11), Expertise: Criminal 3 (+11), Expertise: Galactic 2 (+10), Expertise: Science 4 (+12), Insight 5 (+9), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+11), Technology 4 (+12).
Offense:
Initiative +0
Unarmed +0 (Close Damage 0)
Defense:
Dodge 3, Parry 2, Fortitude 3, Toughness 1, Will 9.
Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 13 + Advantages 10 + Skills 20 + Defenses 12 = 90 points
Offensive PL: 0*
Defensive PL: 2*
Resistance PL: 6
Skill PL: 7
Complications:
Power--Motivation. Hatred/Obsession (Penelope Jones.) Power Loss (Boosterspice, must take regular spice doses.) Secret (alien, criminal.)
Davies
Legend
Hebi-Onna/蛇女
In the course of life, everyone -- nearly everyone -- accumulates regrets. There are many healthy ways to deal with them, and many unhealthy ways as well. One of the unhealthy ways is to allow the regret to fester until it becomes a grudge, and then to allow the grudge to fester until one will do anything to avenge it. And there are always those who are happy to arrange for that anything to be done in exchange for money. Usually a lot of money.
Up until eight years ago, Kurihara Kayako -- almost certainly not her original name, but that really no longer matters -- was one such facilitator for acts of vengeance, active mostly in Tokyo but with connections throughout the home islands. In exchange for a fairly large sum of money, she would arrange for the objects of grudges to suffer social ruin; for much larger sums, she would bring about their deaths. She always kept her own hands clean, working through cut-outs, and was quite adept at finding homicidal and/or suicidal people to act as her patsies, and quite merciless in exploiting them.
If she felt any regrets about this life she had made for herself, it was that so much of the money that she made had to go into offshore accounts that she couldn't access easily, such that she had to live a fairly spartan lifestyle instead of the luxurious one that her income could have made. But that would have attracted official attention, and Kayako knew that she had to avoid it. So she dealt with this regret in a much more healthy manner than the pathetic people who came to her did -- or at least, so she told herself.
And then, one day, she was contacted by the usual weeping housewife whose precious little darling had become a recluse after coming in second place to some other student in the national exams, and now wanted revenge for his sake. Kayako outlined how much she would charge to socially ruin the parents of the other student, finding all of this to be quite boring. But the client clarified then that she didn't want to take revenge on the parents, but on their child. Putting a briefcase containing around two and a half million yen on the table, she described exactly how she wanted the boy who had humiliated her son to be violated, tortured and murdered, with the briefcase being the first installment, with the final payment totalling ten million yen.
Kayako stared at the briefcase. It alone was more money than she had ever gotten for a single job before this, and the final amount was more than she might make in a year. But the task was more disturbing than anything she had ever done, and the victim had done nothing to deserve such a fate. Nevertheless, she knew that if she turned the job down, the client would seek out one of her competitors and make the same offer to them, and she hated the idea that they might show less scruples than her and profit from them. Ignoring what vestigial conscience she might have possessed and her sense that this was more trouble than it was worth, she took the money.
In setting things up, she was even more careful than normal. She worked through two layers of cut-outs, with the actual murderer committing suicide shortly after their bloody work was done, and then personally eliminated the only people who could have tied her to this. Then she contacted the client with the good news ... and was first annoyed that the client claimed that she had no idea what she was talking about, and then confused when she claimed to have no son. Contacting her own sources, Kayako discovered that the client was telling the truth -- even though a few weeks before, when she had diligently checked them out, every source had claimed the exact opposite.
She had been set up. As Kayako realized this, she was immediately confronted by the agent of her downfall, the occupant of the house of the Snake in the Shēngxiào, who explained to a constricted Kayako that he had been hired by a collection of her former victims and clients to deal with their grudge against her. Leering at her, he asked if she had any last words to pass on. "You talk too much," she said, and then he was shot in the head by the bodyguard she had hired as soon as she realized that things were turning pear-shaped.
Before she could quite recover, however, Kayako realized that she was still not alone. Diorite herself had attended the death of her servant, and offered the house of the Snake to his killer -- not the one who had taken the shot, but Kayako herself. Suspecting that the alternative was her demise -- whether immediately or when the police caught up to her -- Kayako agreed, and became the second occupant of the house of the Snake, better known as Hebi-Onna ("Serpent-Woman".) If she has any regrets about this, it's that the first victim of her new life was that bodyguard; it seemed a poor repayment for saving her life. Oh well.
Since then, Hebi-Onna has spent the majority of her time between doing her old job, usually for the benefit of the other members of the Shēngxiào but sometimes for clients who still seek her out. She no longer bothers to use cut-outs, though, and now actively encourages those clients to take more horrific revenges than they originally wanted. In this, she has frequently found herself opposed by the superhero Kerero Taicho. While that is certainly frustrating, Hebi-Onna chooses not to hold a grudge. A snake will inevitably eat a frog after all. The minority of her time has been spent hunting down all those who hired the earlier Snake to deal with her. She does hold a grudge over that.
In terms of her powers, Hebi-Onna is able to employ damaging psychokinesis ("coils of the snake"), hypnotic mind control ("gaze of the snake") and a "nerve touch" that can set up a delayed organ failure ("venom of the snake".) Her only defensive abilities are her enhanced reflexes and flexibility, however, and she always remembers how her precursor died so easily. She will always exercise appropriate caution in dealing with an opponent, seeking to escape first and foremost. Now that she is able to live the more luxurious life that she always wanted, she has so much more to lose, after all.
Hebi-Onna -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 2 | STA 2 | AGL 6 | DEX 7 | FGT 9 | INT 2 | AWE 2 | PRE 2
Powers:
Mantle of the Snake: Array (25 points)
Advantages:
Benefit 3 (millionaire), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 2, Taunt, Well-informed.
Skills:
Deception 9 (+11), Expertise: Crime 8 (+10), Expertise: Magic 6 (+8), Expertise: Streetwise 10 (+12), Insight 8 (+10), Investigation 8 (+10), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Guns 2 (+9), Sleight of Hand 4 (+11), Stealth 3 (+9).
Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 2)
Venom of the Snake +9 (Close Fortitude 7)
Coil of the Snake -- (Perception Range Damage 8)
Gaze of the Snake -- (Perception Range Will 8)
Defense:
Dodge 7, Parry 9, Fortitude 6, Toughness 7/2, Will 8.
Totals:
Abilities 64 + Powers 27 + Advantages 9 + Skills 36 + Defenses 11 = 147 points
Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 8
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 7
Complications:
Revenge--Motivation. Subject to Orders.
In the course of life, everyone -- nearly everyone -- accumulates regrets. There are many healthy ways to deal with them, and many unhealthy ways as well. One of the unhealthy ways is to allow the regret to fester until it becomes a grudge, and then to allow the grudge to fester until one will do anything to avenge it. And there are always those who are happy to arrange for that anything to be done in exchange for money. Usually a lot of money.
Up until eight years ago, Kurihara Kayako -- almost certainly not her original name, but that really no longer matters -- was one such facilitator for acts of vengeance, active mostly in Tokyo but with connections throughout the home islands. In exchange for a fairly large sum of money, she would arrange for the objects of grudges to suffer social ruin; for much larger sums, she would bring about their deaths. She always kept her own hands clean, working through cut-outs, and was quite adept at finding homicidal and/or suicidal people to act as her patsies, and quite merciless in exploiting them.
If she felt any regrets about this life she had made for herself, it was that so much of the money that she made had to go into offshore accounts that she couldn't access easily, such that she had to live a fairly spartan lifestyle instead of the luxurious one that her income could have made. But that would have attracted official attention, and Kayako knew that she had to avoid it. So she dealt with this regret in a much more healthy manner than the pathetic people who came to her did -- or at least, so she told herself.
And then, one day, she was contacted by the usual weeping housewife whose precious little darling had become a recluse after coming in second place to some other student in the national exams, and now wanted revenge for his sake. Kayako outlined how much she would charge to socially ruin the parents of the other student, finding all of this to be quite boring. But the client clarified then that she didn't want to take revenge on the parents, but on their child. Putting a briefcase containing around two and a half million yen on the table, she described exactly how she wanted the boy who had humiliated her son to be violated, tortured and murdered, with the briefcase being the first installment, with the final payment totalling ten million yen.
Kayako stared at the briefcase. It alone was more money than she had ever gotten for a single job before this, and the final amount was more than she might make in a year. But the task was more disturbing than anything she had ever done, and the victim had done nothing to deserve such a fate. Nevertheless, she knew that if she turned the job down, the client would seek out one of her competitors and make the same offer to them, and she hated the idea that they might show less scruples than her and profit from them. Ignoring what vestigial conscience she might have possessed and her sense that this was more trouble than it was worth, she took the money.
In setting things up, she was even more careful than normal. She worked through two layers of cut-outs, with the actual murderer committing suicide shortly after their bloody work was done, and then personally eliminated the only people who could have tied her to this. Then she contacted the client with the good news ... and was first annoyed that the client claimed that she had no idea what she was talking about, and then confused when she claimed to have no son. Contacting her own sources, Kayako discovered that the client was telling the truth -- even though a few weeks before, when she had diligently checked them out, every source had claimed the exact opposite.
She had been set up. As Kayako realized this, she was immediately confronted by the agent of her downfall, the occupant of the house of the Snake in the Shēngxiào, who explained to a constricted Kayako that he had been hired by a collection of her former victims and clients to deal with their grudge against her. Leering at her, he asked if she had any last words to pass on. "You talk too much," she said, and then he was shot in the head by the bodyguard she had hired as soon as she realized that things were turning pear-shaped.
Before she could quite recover, however, Kayako realized that she was still not alone. Diorite herself had attended the death of her servant, and offered the house of the Snake to his killer -- not the one who had taken the shot, but Kayako herself. Suspecting that the alternative was her demise -- whether immediately or when the police caught up to her -- Kayako agreed, and became the second occupant of the house of the Snake, better known as Hebi-Onna ("Serpent-Woman".) If she has any regrets about this, it's that the first victim of her new life was that bodyguard; it seemed a poor repayment for saving her life. Oh well.
Since then, Hebi-Onna has spent the majority of her time between doing her old job, usually for the benefit of the other members of the Shēngxiào but sometimes for clients who still seek her out. She no longer bothers to use cut-outs, though, and now actively encourages those clients to take more horrific revenges than they originally wanted. In this, she has frequently found herself opposed by the superhero Kerero Taicho. While that is certainly frustrating, Hebi-Onna chooses not to hold a grudge. A snake will inevitably eat a frog after all. The minority of her time has been spent hunting down all those who hired the earlier Snake to deal with her. She does hold a grudge over that.
In terms of her powers, Hebi-Onna is able to employ damaging psychokinesis ("coils of the snake"), hypnotic mind control ("gaze of the snake") and a "nerve touch" that can set up a delayed organ failure ("venom of the snake".) Her only defensive abilities are her enhanced reflexes and flexibility, however, and she always remembers how her precursor died so easily. She will always exercise appropriate caution in dealing with an opponent, seeking to escape first and foremost. Now that she is able to live the more luxurious life that she always wanted, she has so much more to lose, after all.
Hebi-Onna -- PL 8
Abilities:
STR 2 | STA 2 | AGL 6 | DEX 7 | FGT 9 | INT 2 | AWE 2 | PRE 2
Powers:
Mantle of the Snake: Array (25 points)
- Coils of the Snake: Perception Range Damaging Move Object 8, Subtle - 25 points
- Gaze of the Snake: Perception Range Cumulative Affliction 8 (Resisted by Will; Dazed & Vulnerable, Stunned & Defenseless, Paralyzed & Unaware), Extra Condition, Sight Dependent, Subtle - 1 point
- Venom of the Snake: Progressive Weaken Stamina 7 (Resisted by Fortitude), Insidious, Subtle 2, Triggered - 1 point
Advantages:
Benefit 3 (millionaire), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 2, Taunt, Well-informed.
Skills:
Deception 9 (+11), Expertise: Crime 8 (+10), Expertise: Magic 6 (+8), Expertise: Streetwise 10 (+12), Insight 8 (+10), Investigation 8 (+10), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Guns 2 (+9), Sleight of Hand 4 (+11), Stealth 3 (+9).
Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 2)
Venom of the Snake +9 (Close Fortitude 7)
Coil of the Snake -- (Perception Range Damage 8)
Gaze of the Snake -- (Perception Range Will 8)
Defense:
Dodge 7, Parry 9, Fortitude 6, Toughness 7/2, Will 8.
Totals:
Abilities 64 + Powers 27 + Advantages 9 + Skills 36 + Defenses 11 = 147 points
Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 8
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 7
Complications:
Revenge--Motivation. Subject to Orders.
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