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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8451225" data-attributes="member: 30538">Nephren-ka<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-DjFpvxC/1/f7ac6e51/M/masks-of-nyarlathotep-34920-M.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />More than two thousand years before the current era, the last king of Egypt's Sixth Dynasty was named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netjerkare_Siptah" target="_blank">Netjerkare Siptah</a>. Closer to his time than to our own, yet still many centuries later, a Greek author would tell a story about this era which claimed that a queen named Nitocris had taken vengeance on her brother's murderers by diverting the Nile to drown them. For a long time in the history of Egyptology, this story was thought to be complete fiction, and later a distortion in which Netjerkare's name was misrepresented as Nitocris, but even then just a silly story.The silly story covered something far more horrible. Netjerkare Siptah's reign came to an end when he was murdered by the local governors of Egypt, but they were not so foolish to place his younger sister, whose name has not come down to this day, on the throne in his place. Her desire was not for vengeance, but for her brother to return and take back what was rightfully his. Invoking powers she did not fully understand through an ancient song, driven by the twin madnesses of love and hope, she called something down out of darkness between the stars that took up residence in her brother's corpse and rebuilt it to suit itself. Netjerkare -- Nephren-ka -- had awakened, and the chaos of the Seventh Dynasty was his first great triumph.Eventually, sanity reasserted itself with the start of the dynasty that followed. Fleeing those who sought his end, Nephren-ka took refuge within Earth, sleeping for centuries and rising when there was opportunity to work his will. How many times he did this, how much his actions shaped the history of the World That Burned, may never be known. He rose again in the 1920s and worked much madness, yet suffered a serious defeat that forced him into hiding in 1936, sleeping fitfully before he returned in 1983 as a foe of the Justice Alliance. For more than a decade, he strove to drive the world insane for his own amusement and that of the Old Ones.And then, in the last years of the twentieth century, the world went mad in a way he had not anticipated, and nuclear war broke out. The death and destruction might have amused Nephren-ka, had a megaton blast not come down not far from where he was lairing in 1997, near Memphis, Tennessee, before he could prepare appropriate wards. He suffered horribly and retreated into a deep sleep, unsure if the world would still be there when he awakened. The process of his awakening began some fifteen years later, when he was finally restored enough to perceive and influence the minds around him.For the first time in eons, he found himself genuinely surprised when he learned who some of those minds were. Some years before his awakening, the World That Burned had been discovered by interlopers from the extradimensional city known as the Sprawl. They naturally sought to take advantage of the diminished circumstances of the former reality by looting as much as they could, openly employing their technological advantages. As it happened, one group of them discovered the tomb of Nephren-Ka and mistook it for a supply cache, and so became the Dread Pharaoh's first conquests from another world, bringing their master's body back with them to the Sprawl.There, he continued to seize command of minds, exploiting the Sprawl's medical technology to heal the wounds he'd suffered much sooner than they otherwise might, ending his slumber in six years instead of the decades that it would have taken naturally. He learned much in the process, about the many worlds that the Sprawl sought to plunder. Fate and his own will had delivered him to a place where he might have his way with not just a nation or even a world, but all possible realities.Of course, first Nephren-ka must complete the conquest of the Sprawl itself. While its leaders are largely pathetic, powerless non-entities, some of them have nevertheless managed to avoid becoming his dominated vassals and resist the assassination attempts of those who serve him. As yet, vanishingly few of the denizens of the Sprawl even know that the Dread Pharaoh even exists, viewing the current situation as just a more intense period of intercorporate struggle. It is a vexing situation, and may become even more vexing if he is opposed by that which created him and that which has ever thwarted him -- a voice raised in song, driven by the twin madnesses of hope and love.Nephren-Ka -- PL 13Abilities:STR 9 | STA 7 | AGL 4 | DEX 5 | FGT 7 | INT 13 | AWE 10 | PRE 12Powers:Alien: Immunity 31 (aging, life support, mental effects); Protection 6, Impervious 12; Senses 8 (mystical awareness, vision counters all concealment and illusion) - 57 pointsSorcery: Array (46 points)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Call of the Wild: Summon Animals 3 (wild beasts), Broad, Horde, Mental Link, Multiple Minions 5, Dynamic - 47 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Darkling Bolts: Ranged Multiattack Damage 14, Incurable, Dynamic - 2 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lord of Illusions: Illusion 11 (all senses), Resistable (Will), Dynamic - 2 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mind over Matter: Perception Range Damaging Move Object 11 (50 tons), Dynamic - 2 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Obey Me: Perception Range Progressive Affliction 9 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Compelled, Controlled), Dynamic - 2 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Protean Form: Flight 8 (500 MPH); Insubstantial 2; Morph 4 - 1 point</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Scrying: Remote Sensing 8 (all senses; 250 miles), Subtle 2, Dynamic - 2 points</li> </ul>Voice of the Mind: Comprehend Languages 3 (speak and be understood in all languages); Mental Communication 3 - 21 pointsAdvantages:Improved Hold, Jack-of-all-Trades, Ritualist, Taunt.Skills:Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+11), Deception 5 (+17), Expertise: Magic 6 (+18), Insight 4 (+14), Intimidation 3 (+15), Perception 6 (+16), Persuasion 1 (+13), Ranged Combat: Sorcery 7 (+12).Offense:Initiative +4Unarmed +11 (Close Damage 9)Darkling Bolts +12 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 14)Mind over Matter -- (Perception Range Damage 11)Obey Me -- (Perception Range Will 9)Defense:Dodge 11, Parry 11, Fortitude 10, Toughness 13, Will 12.Totals:Abilities 134 + Powers 135 + Advantages 4 + Skills 18 + Defenses 16 = 307 pointsOffensive PL: 13Defensive PL: 12Resistance PL: 11Skill PL: 13Complications:Power--Motivation. Sadism. Vulnerability (sonic and music attacks.)</blockquote>

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