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  1. In Brief: Spider-Man as re-imagined by Guillermo del Toro, with bits of Robin and Daredevil mixed in. Character: Octoman Power Level: 14 (Built as PL8) Tradeoffs: None Power Points: 206/207PP Unspent Points: 1 Catchphrases & Nicknames: "Octo-Boy" (He does not like this one); "Señor Ocho"; "The Outrageous Octoman"; "The Crime-Fighting Kraken"; "The Sensational Cephalopod"; "The Loudmouth Leviathan"; "Who ordered the calamari?" Alternate Identity: Benicio "Ben" Wang Identity: Secret Legal Status: USA citizen (minor) with no criminal record Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York Base of Operations: Freedom City, New Jersey Residence: The Claremont Academy dorms during the week, and an apartment in the West End on the weekend Occupation: Student Affiliations: Claremont Academy (Student) Family: Amaya Molina Santiago (Mother), Diego Wang (Father), Sofia Santiago Vasquez (Maternal Grandmother), Benicio Molina Ramirez (Maternal Grandfather), Jasmine Guinto-Wang (Paternal Grandmother), Asher Wang (Paternal Grandfather), several unnamed aunts, uncles, and cousins DESCRIPTION Age: 16 (Date of Birth: 2003) Apparent Age: 16 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Mother is Puerto Rican Afro-Latina. Father is half Ashkenazi Jewish, half Filipino. Height: 5'7" Weight: 140 lbs. Hair: None (Formerly Black) Eyes: Yellow (Formerly Brown) Because of his mixed ancestry, Ben's actual ethnicity is difficult for people to guess at first glance. He has big eyes and a heart-shaped face with soft features which makes him look younger than he is. His build is that of a typical semi-athletic lanky teenager. During his day-to-day life out of costume, he uses his shapeshifting power to mimic his original appearance before his mutation. He recreates the brown eyes that turned yellow, and the medium-length Afro hairstyle he wore before all his body hair fell out. He also hides the new lines and folds all over his skin, which appear to be scars but are actually new orifices. The other changes to his body from the mutation are less visible. An x-ray would reveal his lack of a rigid skeleton, and several new organs and muscular structures. His blood is thick, like syrup, and purple, since it contains both the hemoglobin normally found in humans (which is red, since it contains iron), and the hemocyanin found in cephalopods (which is blue, since it contains copper). His blood pressure is significantly higher than that of a normal human. When he is cut, his blood generally sprays instead of dripping. His blood is also slightly radioactive; not enough to be dangerous, but enough for Geiger counters to register a noticeable uptick. Ben technically walks around naked most of the time. Both his normal street clothes and his superhero "costume" are just manifestations of his ability to change the shape, texture, and color of his own flesh. When he is "in costume", the impossibly perfect way that the "fabric" clings to his skin is a clue for close observers to its true nature. His "mask" somehow adheres to his face in a manner which conveys all of his facial expressions , and the "mouth hole" never falls out of place or exposes any of the skin around it, no matter how much he moves, talks, or gets punched in the face. HISTORY Benicio Wang was born in Brooklyn to Gen-X parents. His mother, Maya, is an overworked public defender of Puerto Rican Afro-Latina descent. His father, Diego, is a half-Filipino, half-Ashkenazi overworked baker and deli cook. Ben frequently jokes that his lineage makes him the most Brooklyn guy who ever lived. If one of his parents are in earshot, they will retort that they moved to Freedom City when he was a small child, and visiting his grandparents during the holidays doesn't make him a New Yorker. Ben met Geckoman in 2010, though Gecks probably doesn't remember. The 18-year-old superhero was occupied with defending Freedom City from the third Grue invasion, and working things out with his supervillain girlfriend. But Ben will never, ever forget it. He was only seven years old when his family found themselves trapped in the Millennium Mall, huddling behind an increasingly fatigued and desperate Spellbound. Ben was impressed with her and the lightning-wand she used to zap away the invading aliens, but with her black costume and icy demeanor, she scared the boy almost as much as the Grue. When the brightly-colored, wise-cracking Geckoman dropped down through the skylight and started jumping around, tossing boomerangs, and kicking giant monsters in the face, little Ben's fear evaporated. From that day forward, Ben was a lifelong #Geckofan. Eight years later, Doctor Cooper Seidel was hard at work trying to stabilize and enhance his universal antivenom serum, and his resulting transformation into the reptile monster Goanna. He had retained a gang of hired thugs who had helped him steal the lab equipment, rare animal specimens, and radioactive materials he needed for his latest experiments. He closely monitored local law enforcement communications, so he had advance warning when the multi-agency task force finally found his hideout and moved to raid it. Seidel and his henchmen hastily loaded the irradiated animal specimens into a truck and escaped just as the tactical units broke down the door. The truck had enough of a lead that they might have escaped, if a bystander hadn't lost their grip on their dog's leash. Or if the dog hadn't then run out into the middle of the road. Or if fifteen year-old computer science prodigy Ben Wang hadn't run out into the road after the dog to scoop it up. Or if Seidel's henchman hadn't swerved at high speed to avoid Ben and lost control of the truck, flipping and crashing it. The truck and the tanks inside it broke open, spilling water and a menagerie of mutated animals into the street. Ben saved the dog, but the truck clipped him, sending him flying several feet away. He was dazed for a few moments, before the rush of cold water on the asphalt under him cleared his head. He saw a tiny yellow octopus crawling on his hand, and had just enough time to think it was cute before it bit him. Seidel ordered his henchmen to gather up the escaped test subjects, but no amount of money could convince them to pick up a bunch of radioactive venomous creatures with their bare hands. While Ben was wracked with painful muscle spasms which escalated into projectile vomiting, diarrhea, and a full-blown seizure, an enraged Seidel transformed into Goanna and slaughtered his own "cowardly and incompetent" henchmen, along with the occupants of the first couple of police cars who responded to the crash. Goanna intended to do the same to the bumbling idiot boy who had ruined everything, but when he saw that one of his test subjects had already done the work for him, he merely laughed while the boy suffocated on the pavement. Knowing that some combination of the FCPD's STAR squad, AEGIS, or one or more superheroes would show up soon, Goanna fled into the sewers. Seidel showed up at the hospital where Ben had been taken later that same night, intent on harvesting samples from the boy's corpse, since it was all the remained of his months of research. He was surprised to learn that the boy had survived. He took careful note of the boy's name, and resolved to keep him under close surveillance. Ben received prompt medical attention, and he seemed to make a full recovery, with one exception: The song he'd been listening to on his headphones when he dove out in front of that truck was the last thing he would ever hear. Hearing loss isn't a normal symptom of either vehicular collisions or tetrodotoxin poisoning, but the doctors had no other idea what else could have caused it. It wasn't until several days after he was discharged from the hospital that Ben's body began to change significantly. The changes happened gradually, over the course of several months. Ben hid them from everyone, even his parents. As his new powers slowly manifested, he learned how to use them through a combination of new instinct and trial and error. He knew immediately what he wanted to do with them. Right after his sixteenth birthday, during the summer before his sophomore year of high school, Ben put on his costume and started swinging through the streets of Freedom City as Octoman. PERSONALITY & MOTIVATION Ben is bright, inquisitive, and altruistic, but he can't keep his big mouth shut. Growing up as the latchkey-kid only child of two workaholic parents has turned him into a bit of an unconscious attention-seeker. He likes to make an entrance. He has an opinion to share about everything. If he's not rambling, he's arguing. If a joke or an insult comes to his mind, then it also comes out of his mouth. He never stops trash-talking during a competition or a fight. He's actually a pretty lonely and sensitive kid, but he never met an emotion he couldn't hide under sarcasm or just drown out with his motor-mouth. He doesn't know how to pick his battles, and his refusal to let the slightest disagreement, injustice, or insult go unchallenged gets him into trouble. But even when he's railing against injustice, he generally tries to keep things light. He'll keep making bad jokes and puns past the point where anyone is laughing (if they ever were to begin with). After his brush with death, Ben just felt lucky. But once his powers manifested, weird though they are, he felt blessed. Ben has two passions in life: Hacking, and superheroes. He maintains active accounts on both HeroHouse and TroubAlert (Username: Geckofan). He's been obsessed with Geckoman in particular (and, to a lesser extent, the rest of his Young Freedom and Interceptors teammates) since he was seven years old. He had resigned himself to, maybe, at best, using his hacking skills to play a support role for a superhero someday. But he desperately wanted to be an actual superhero, just like Gecks. His resulting disability and (slight) disfigurement have put a damper on his enthusiasm, but only a slight one. He's still having trouble adjusting, but he loves being a superhero more than he misses his hearing. POWERS & TACTICS Ben has a surprising amount of hand-to-hand combat training for a teenager. He's been wrestling since junior high, and he's been taking self-defense classes since he was seven (they weren't a hard sell for his parents after he almost died in the Grue invasion). His superhuman agility and flexibility, his bundle of sticky tentacles stretching and lashing out for dozens or hundreds of feet in every direction, his lack of response to any auditory stimuli, and his youthful recklessness and loud mouth all combine to make him a confusing and irritating opponent. He can potentially attack or evade in any direction. He can lash out with his tentacles like whips, use them to grab a foe and pull them in for a punch or a kick, or use them to pull himself in close for the same. He will wrap his tentacles around a foe, and then slam that foe into objects, terrain, or even other foes. He'll grab a faraway foe and pull them in for a punch, or pull himself to them, boot-first. His ink sprays and venomous bite make him even more unpredictable. Ben was a normal human, but an injection of radioactive octopus venom mutated him into a human-cephalopod hybrid. His body has grown several new glands, organs, and orifices. He has no bones left in his body. They have transformed into cartilage and muscle. So while his body looks "solid" from the outside, he can bend, stretch, and compress his flesh, contorting into any position and squeezing through any crevices. His skin can secrete a clear mucous which acts as a lubricant to aid this process. The outer layers of his flesh are so flexible and malleable that he can change the texture of his skin at will. His skin cells contain pigments which can be released with muscle contractions in a virtually infinite variety of combinations, allowing him to change his coloration to anything he can imagine. These traits allow him to effectively becoming invisible in the normal visual light spectrum, or to mimic the appearance of any object or creature. This also makes it virtually impossible for foes in hand-to-hand combat to keep a grip on him. He has superhuman levels of strength, agility, stamina, and resilience. With his thick skin, powerful and flexible muscles, and lack of a rigid skeleton, he is able to absorb traumatic impact, cuts and blunt force alike, with less likelihood of real injury. He has grown several "back-up organs", which makes it less likely that any wounds he suffers will be debilitating. He has three hearts, and enough brain and nervous tissue running throughout his body to act as a second brain and spinal cord. His body will recover inside a couple of hours from wounds that would kill or cripple a normal person, or at least leave them bedridden for days. Like a cephalopod, his body can even regrow lost limbs. He isn't technically immune to fatigue, disease, infection, radiation, or extremes of temperature or pressure, but his body is so effective at fighting them off that sometimes it seems like he is; he has, for lack of a better term, "super-health". New orifices on his forearms and on the sides and back of his torso can deploy tentacles*, which can stretch until they are hundreds of feet long. The same neural tissue running through the rest of his body also runs through the tentacles, allowing his brain to control all of them perfectly. (*Technically, these new limbs are "arms", rather than "tentacles", since they have suckers along their entire length, instead of just at the ends, but this distinction only matters to marine biologists.) His body contains a network of hollow tubes and bladders similar to a cephalopod siphon. He can use muscular contractions to force fluids through those tubes and out of his body through a series of new orifices. The primary use of his internal siphon is locomotion. By forcing air or water through it, he creates jet propulsion, launching himself through the water or up into the air. That internal siphon can also expel the pungent, opaque black ink produced by another one of his new organs. He can release it gradually, creating a cloud which provides cover (the gas quickly dissolves in open air, so it is equally effective under water or on dry land), or he can fire a concentrated burst of ink directly into the face of an enemy, temporarily blinding them and overwhelming their olfactory senses in a manner similar to that of tear gas or pepper spray. A substantial portion of his extra brain tissue is devoted to processing visual and olfactory input, and the suckers on his tentacles act as extra noses and tongues. His senses of sight, smell, and taste are enhanced far beyond those of a normal human. His eyes can perceive a wider array of color at finer detail, and he has excellent night vision. He can distinguish fine details in scent and taste, and track them to their source like a bloodhound. His body is truly amphibious, adapted equally well to life in open air or under water. His aforementioned increased visual acuity allows him to see perfectly in the dim light of deep water. He has gills on the sides of his neck, which remain closed in open air but which allow him to breathe while he is under water. His skin acts as near-perfect insulation, keeping him from losing his body heat. His blood contains both hemoglobin and hemocyanin, so it is equally effective at keeping his tissues oxygenated in both open air and freezing water. His siphon allows him to regulate his internal fluid pressure, which, along with his flexible muscles, lets him adapt to the crushing weight of the deep sea. His head contains venom sacs, which produce a paralytic poison similar to that of the octopus who bit him. His body injects this poison with a combination of a pharyngeal jaw and a proboscis: A pair of pincers, similar to a cephalopod beak, on the end of a second tongue, hidden under his original tongue, which can telescope over a foot from his mouth, fully extending in a fraction of a second. His own body is immune to this venom, and other, similar toxins. COMPLICATIONS Accidents: Ben is inexperienced and reckless. The GM can give him a Hero Point in exchange for declaring that Ben's actions have created some sort of hazard, which he must drop his current task to deal with. Alien Blood: Ben's blood is a wildly different color and consistency from normal human blood, and it is slightly radioactive. Once it leaves his body, it is no longer subject to his Morph power, and its true nature is revealed. Since his blood pressure is so much higher than that of a normal human, when his blood does leave his body, it is usually quite obvious. It is not dangerous, but Geiger counters will register a noticeable uptick in its presence. The GM can give Ben a Hero Point if his blood causes some sort of setback. Examples include revealing his presence when it would otherwise go unnoticed, or social interaction turning hostile when he is revealed as something not quite human. Disability (Deaf): Ben permanently has the Deafened condition (Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition, page 171). He suffers a -4 penalty to Initiative, and he automatically fails auditory Notice checks (Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition, page 52). Ben has another Acute Radius sense, his normal olfactory sense, but that doesn't necessarily provide him with the same information that an auditory sense would. The GM can give him a Hero Point every time he suffers a setback due to his inability to hear, such as missing important dialogue. The most common example would be a failure on his part to correctly read another person's lips while they speak. According to the Masterminds Manual, page 14, in order to read lips, he must make a visual Notice check at +5DC. According to Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition, pages 51-52, this is a base DC10 check, since it is DC0 to notice something standing out in the open but DC10 to perceive fine details about it. With the +5 penalty, the Notice check for lip reading would have a base DC15, with an additional +5 DC if the GM decides that Ben is "distracted", and another +1DC for every 10ft Notice increment between Ben and the person whose lips he's trying to read. If he fails by 1-4, then he can't make out what they're saying, and if he fails by 5+, then he misinterprets their words. Enemy (Goanna): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when Goanna shows up to make an already bad situation worse. Since Goanna knows Ben's secret identity, he could show up anywhere, at any time. Loudmouth: Ben doesn't know when to keep his big mouth shut. The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he creates a setback for himself by mouthing off. Alternately, the GM can give another character a Hero Point when Ben creates a setback for them. If the GM doesn't feel that Ben is being sufficiently mouthy, then they can give him a Hero Point in exchange for forcing him to mouth off in a situation where doing so will create a setback for him. Alternately, the GM can give another character a Hero Point and force Ben to mouth off in a way which will create a setback for that other character. Obsession (Geckoman): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point if Ben creates a setback for himself due to his obsessive hero-worship of Geckoman, such as neglecting his responsibilities or ruining a social interaction. The GM can also give him a Hero Point in exchange for forcing him to do this. Power Loss (Ink, Venom): Ben's body produces ink and venom which he can use as weapons, but it does not produce an infinite supply, and once depleted, it takes time to replenish. The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he tries to use one of these powers in exchange for declaring that he has run out of "ammunition". Prejudice: Ben is black, Latino, Asian, Jewish, disabled, and a mutate. The GM can give him a Hero Point when another character's ignorance of and/or prejudice against one or more of these groups creates a setback for him. Responsibilities (Family, School): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he faces a setback on account of obligations to his parents or his schoolwork. For example, the GM can give him a Hero Point at the start of a day or thread and declare that he is Fatigued because he didn't have time to get enough sleep. Secrets (Identity, Mutation): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he has a task to accomplish, but is hindered by the need to protect his identity, and/or his nature as a mutate. Sensory Overload (Olfactory, Visual): Ben has enhanced smell, taste, and vision. The GM can give him a Hero Point in exchange for increasing the effective power rank of sensory powers like Dazzle which target those sense types. Status (Minor): It's possible that Ben might face a setback on account of his legal age which even his Morph power and high Bluff score couldn't get him out of. If the GM can come up with one, then they can give him a Hero Point in exchange for inflicting it upon him. ABILITIES 2 + 4 + 4 + 8 + 4 + 8 = 30PP Strength: 26/12 (+8/+1), 56/12 Lifting (Heavy Load: 58,880 lbs. [29.44 tons] / 130 lbs.) Dexterity: 26/14 (+8/+2) Constitution: 26/14 (+8/+2) Intelligence: 18 (+4) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 18 (+4) COMBAT 6 + 6 = 12PP Initiative: +12/-2 (+8/+2 Dex, +8 Enhanced Improved Initiative, -4 Deafened) Attack: +8 Melee (+3 Base, +5 Melee Attack Focus), +3 Ranged (+3 Base) Grapple: +32/+10 vs one target, +28/+10 vs multiple targets (+8 Melee Attack, +8/+2 Strength/Dexterity, +4 Additional Limbs, +6 Elongation, +6 Super-Strength) Defense: +8 (+3 Base, +5 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback Resistance: 4/1 SAVING THROWS 0 + 0 + 6 = 6PP Toughness: +8/+2 (+8/+2 Con) Fortitude: +8/+2 (+8/+2 Con, +0PP) Reflex: +8/+2 (+8/+2 Dex, +0PP)Evasion 2 Will: +8 (+2 Wis, +6PP) SKILLS 72R = 18PP Acrobatics 3 (+15/+5)Skill Mastery Bluff 13 (+17)Distract, Fascinate, Fast Task (Feint, Taunt), Skill Mastery, Taunt Computers 13 (+17)Online Research + Well-Informed, Second Chance, Skill Mastery, Ultimate Skill Craft (Electronic) 1 (+5) Disguise 0 (+5/+4, +10 or +50 with Morph) Escape 0 (+14/+2, Automatic with Insubstantial) Knowledge (Current Events) 6 (+10) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 1 (+5) Knowledge (Pop Culture) 11 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 6 (+10) Knowledge (Theology & Philosophy) 1 (+5) Languages 3 (American Sign Language [ASL], English [Native], Hebrew, Spanish) Notice 3 (+15/+5)Deafened Search 1 (+15/+5) Sleight of Hand 3 (+15/+5)Skill Mastery Stealth 3 (+15/+5) Swim 4 (+15/+5)Swimming FEATS 24PP Attack Focus (Melee) 5 Chokehold Distract (Bluff) Dodge Focus 5 Fascinate (Bluff) Fast Task 2 (Feint, Taunt) Grapple Finesse Luck 2 Online Research Second Chance (Computers) Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Computers, Sleight of Hand) Taunt Well-Informed Ultimate Skill (Computers) Enhanced: Environmental Adaptation (Underwater) Evasion 2 Improved Initiative 2 Uncanny Dodge (Sense Types: Olfactory) POWERS 116PP Additional Limbs 4 (10 Limbs; Extras: Duration [Sustained]; Feats: Ambidexterity) [5PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Retractable Tentacles) Concealment 2 (Normal Vision; Flaws: Blending, Passive) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Elongation 6 (Elongate 300ft per Move Action, 250ft Max, Free action to retract; 60ft Range Increments for elongated melee attacks; Flaws: Limited [Additional Limbs]) [3PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Stretchy Tentacles) Enhanced Constitution 12 [12PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Redundant Organs, Regeneration, Super-Toughness) Enhanced Dexterity 12 [12PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Agility, Super-Reflexes) Enhanced Feats 4 (Evasion 2, Improved Initiative 2) [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Reflexes, Super-Senses) Enhanced Skills 36 (Acrobatics 4, Disguise 1, Notice 10, Search 10, Sleight of Hand 4, Stealth 4, Swim 3) [9PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Agility, Super-Reflexes, Super-Senses) Features 2 (Environmental Adaptation [Underwater]; Internal Compartment) [2PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Immunity 6 (Cold; Critical Hits; Poison; Pressure; Suffocation [Underwater]) [6PP] (Descriptors: Brain Tissue Distributed Throughout Body, Gills, Insulated Skin, Internal Network of Fluid Bladders & Siphons, Mutation, No Skeleton, Venom Glands) Insubstantial 1 (Feats: Subtle) [6PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, No Skeleton, Shapeshifting) Morph 1 (Any Form; +5 Disguise) [3PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Octopus Movement 2 (4PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power) [5PP] Base Power: [4PP] Leaping 4 (x25, Running Long Jump: 450ft) [4PP] (Descriptors: Biological Jet Propulsion, Mutation) Alternate Power: [4PP] Swimming 4 (25MPH, 250ft per Move Action; Can Take 10 on Swim checks) [4PP] (Descriptors: Biological Jet Propulsion, Mutation) Octopus Power 13 (26PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 4) [30PP] Base Power: [14 + 12 = 26PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Strength) Enhanced Strength 14 [14PP] Super-Strength 6 (Lifting Strength: 56, Heavy Load: 58,880 lbs. [29.44 tons]) [12PP] Alternate Power: [22 + 4 = 26PP] Dazzle 8 (Sense Types: Olfactory + Visual; Flaws: Range [Touch]; Feats: Extended Reach 4 [25ft], Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) [22PP] (Descriptors: Ink Spray, Mutation) Obscure 2 (Sense Types: Olfactory + Visual; Area: 10ft radius; Extras: Independent, Total Fade [4 rounds]; Flaws: Limited [One Sense: Normal Vision], Range [Touch]) [4PP] (Descriptors: Ink Cloud, Mutation) Alternate Power: [24PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Morph 8 (9; Any Form; +45 Disguise) [24PP] Alternate Power: [26PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Pharyngeal Jaw, Proboscis, Venom) Paralyze 8 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude], Secondary Effect; Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) [26PP] Alternate Power: [26PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, "Tentacle Storm") Snare 8 (Extras: Area [Type: Targeted, Shape: Cone], Engulf, Selective; Flaws: Duration [Concentration]; Feats: Chokehold, Progression [Area Size] 1 [25ft/rank = 200ft]) [26PP] Regeneration 7 (Recovery 1 [+9]; Recovery Rate: Injured 3 [1 minute], Staggered 1 [20 minutes], Disabled 2 [1 hour]; Feats: Regrowth) [8PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Super-Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2 [Full Speed; Not Flat-Footed]) [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Suckers) Super-Senses 6 (Acute Tracking Smell/Taste; Danger Sense [Sense Types: Olfactory]; Low-Light Vision; Microscopic Vision 1 [Dust]; Uncanny Dodge [Sense Types: Olfactory]) [6PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Suckers) Abilities (30) + Combat (12) + Saving Throws (6) + Skills (18) + Feats (24) + Powers (116) - Drawbacks (0) = 204/207 Power Points ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC23/16 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Additional Limbs 250ft Max, + Elongation 60ft Increments Ink 25ft DC18 Reflex Dazzle (Visual + Olfactory) DC18 Fortitude Recover Tentacle Storm Touch/Area DC18 Reflex (Staged) Entangled/Bound (200ft Cone) Venom Touch DC18 Fortitude (Staged) Slowed/Paralyzed
  2. In Brief: Neo-Nazi Mac Gargan Character: Webmaster (Spider Centaur Form / Normal Form) Power Level: 10 Tradeoffs: -2 Attack / +2 Damage, -2 Defense / +2 Toughness) Power Points: 233 Alternate Identity: Josef Bankowski Identity: Public Legal Status: USA citizen and fugitive Birthplace: Freedom City, New Jersey Base of Operations: Freedom City, New Jersey Residence: Mobile Occupation: Former: Mechanic, Current: Criminal Affiliations: None Family: Olivia Lenkiewicz (ex-wife), Mia Bankowski (daughter), Gabriel Bankowski (son), unnamed brother, sister, parents, cousins, aunts, and uncles DESCRIPTION Age: 27 (Date of Birth: 1992) Apparent Age: 27 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian Polish-American Height: Werespider Form: 8'6", Human Form: 6'1" Weight: Werespider Form: 1,200 lbs., Human Form: 170 lbs. Hair: Werespider Form: None, Human Form: Blond Eyes: Werespider Form: Black, Human Form: Blue In his human form, Josef Bankowski is tall and lean. Excessive drug use leaves him looking pale with dark circles around his bloodshot eyes. In his "werespider" form, he's a "spider-centaur". From the waist down, he has the body of a giant northern funnel web spider. From the waist up, he's still humanoid, but his flesh is red and covered with black spiky chitinous plates. In his "spider swarm" form, he's a human-sized mass of spiders all coordinated by a hive mind. HISTORY Josef Bankowski's grandparents were devout Catholics who fled Poland in the 1960s, escaping the Communist regime which would control that country for another quarter of a century. They immigrated to America, where they were granted refugee status and, eventually, citizenship. Josef, like his parents, was born in Freedom City, growing up as part of the multi-ethnic tapestry that is Freedom's West End. Josef's father enlisted in the Marine Corps and then worked as an auto mechanic, eventually owning his own shop, where Josef started working as a teen. Josef started doing hard drugs in high school. His already terrible grades got even worse, and by his senior year, he managed to not only flunk out, but also impregnate his 17-year-old classmate Olivia Lenkiewicz, the daughter of family friends. Olivia carried the child to term, and the two were married before her senior year. With no other prospects, and at the urging of his father, Josef joined the Marines, like his father before him. The discipline didn't take. He resumed his old lifestyle, using again and cheating on his wife (both with random pick-ups and with professional sex workers), almost as soon as he got out of basic training, as often as he could make the time for it. The first few times he was caught, he was reprimanded, but let off with warnings or light informal punishments. But eventually, his behavior became too egregious for the Corps to ignore. He made it almost halfway through his first 4-year enlistment term before being arrested, court-martialed, and dishonorably discharged. He spent a year in prison. Olivia stayed married to him for several more years despite his behavior. She was forced to become the primary breadwinner when he proved to be chronically unemployable. Despite his record, he would get various mechanic jobs, but he could never hold them for long before either losing his temper or failing to show up to work on time (or at all) because he was too busy indulging his addictions. He regularly cheated on his wife, spent their money on his addictions, and physically abused both his wife and their two children. Olivia finally kicked him out of their apartment in 2017, getting a restraining order which Josef frequently violated. They were separated for a year before Olivia filed for divorce, which was finalized in 2019. Josef spent the two years after their separation sleeping on his brother's couch, and tumbling down an online rabbit hole of political radicalization. He'd been interested in pick-up "artistry" and "uncensored" anonymous image-sharing message boards since he was a teenager, but after his long-suffering wife left him, he found a ready-made pipeline to an ideology which affirmed that he was the true victim. His political views quickly shifted from reactionary to outright fascistic, buoyed by rabid bigotry. He established his own online presence during those two years, starting a vlog series where he parroted the same bigoted talking points as a thousand other guys just like him, and presented an account of his life which was heavily distorted in his favor. Meanwhile, his addictive behavior continued to escalate. In 2019, after his divorce was finalized, Josef started abusing "super" drugs. After taking a "powerball" of Max and Zoom, he went to his ex-wife's apartment. His own brother called the police on him after he left. After breaking in, he assaulted Olivia, her mother, and her new boyfriend, and took the entire family hostage at gunpoint. On his first outing as a superhero, Octoman intervened, and, with Bombshell's aid, he defeated Josef, though Josef almost beat him to death in the process. After the police took him into custody, Josef suffered multiple organ failure. The super-drugs had taken their toll. With his history, no hospital would consider transplants. He was advised to check into hospice care for what the doctors expected to be the last few weeks of his life. Meanwhile, despite his prognosis, the city, state, and federal attorneys offices all moved forward with indictments. The charges included multiple counts of kidnapping, and, because of the super-drugs in his system at the time, assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault, and attempted murder. Josef was facing multiple lifetimes worth of prison time alongside certain death, before his thirtieth birthday. Because he no longer had powers once the drugs had left his system, and because he was physically incapacitated, Josef was held in the Freedom City Correctional Facility just outside Hanover, while awaiting the trial no one expected him to live to see. Doctor Cooper Seidel, who had kept Octoman under surveillance ever since the accident which gave Octoman his powers, had observed Octoman's battle with Josef, taking an interest in him. Seidel infiltrated the minimum-security facility and kidnapped Josef, spiriting him away to Seidel's new secret laboratory. Months before, Seidel had genetically altered a group of venomous animals with months of retroviral therapy and nuclear radiation exposure, as part of his continuing quest to refine and enhance the universal antivenom serum which gave him the ability to transform into the monster Goanna. Seidel had lost those animals when he had to pack up his lab to flee the authorities, and his hired thug crashed the truck after swerving to avoid 15-year-old Ben Wang, who had run out into the street to save a dog. During the following few months, Seidel had split his efforts between spying on Wang, who had gained powers after being bitten by the blue-ringed octopus, and combing the sewers with a Geiger counter to recover as many of the experimental specimens as he could. One of the animals Seidel managed to recover was a northern funnel web spider. Seidel injected the spider's venom into Josef, out of pure scientific curiosity. Seidel didn't care whether Josef lived or died. He just wanted to see what would happen. And he told Josef as much. But Josef didn't die. He gained the ability to shapeshift into a giant centaur-like human/spider hybrid, or a human-sized swarm of spiders with his mind as a collective consciousness spread out among them. He escaped from Seidel's lab after his first transformation. Josef quickly parlayed his new powers into a career as a professional criminal. His main sources of income are violent armed robbery, extortion, and murder, both on his own initiative and for hire to other supervillains and organized syndicates. He also occasional commits various terrorist acts for his own gratification, using his superhuman strength to wreck buildings such as community resource centers, restaurants, and nightclubs which are associated with people he considers "degenerates" or "foreign invaders". Some of his earliest "work" was for the national designer drug cartel owned and operated by Cortex (Threat Report, page 24). Along with money, and super-drugs tailored to overcome Josef's enhanced physiology, Cortex provided Josef with a unique form of compensation: He used his world-class tech skills to help Josef maintain and expand his social media presence, despite his fugitive status. With Cortex's help, Josef has been able to continue his vlog series, which has attracted a significant following in a short time among the worst people on the internet. The regressive reactionary politics he advocates in his rambling, drug-fueled hours of recorded hate-speech still aren't any different from what a thousand other men just like him are already saying, but his status as a powered supervillain gives him a level of prestige above and beyond his peers. His videos get taken down from the more legitimate platforms almost as soon as they go up, but they get downloaded and re-posted all over the less reputable parts of the web. Despite multiple active law enforcement investigations, and the more legitimate crowdfunding platforms refusing to get anywhere near him, he has been able to collect regular crypto-currency donations from his fans, which keeps him living comfortably between "jobs". Multiple technologically-inclined heroes have attempted to trace the source of his uploads or cut off his funding, but so far, Cortex has foiled those efforts. Cortex considers it both an amusing intellectual exercise, and another means of controlling a useful but ultimately disposable asset. The moment Josef steps out of line, Cortex can cut off his supply of drugs, donations, and adulation with a few keystrokes. PERSONALITY & MOTIVATION Josef describes himself as "a ladies man", "an alpha male", "a soldier", "a working man", "a patriot", "a man of God", and "a defender of Western Civilization". In reality, he's a coward, a bully, a bigot, an addict, and a blowhard. His ego is inflated and his skin is paper-thin. He loudly, belligerently hates and disdains anyone who isn't a white male heterosexual cisgender Christian-identified native-born citizen who's seeking or already in a nuclear family. Everyone else, he refers to as "degenerates", "parasites", and "globalists". He isn't nearly as intelligent or well-educated as he claims or even thinks he is. He used to have a sort of "bad boy charm" which bought him initial success in his romantic endeavors, but he drowned it in bitterness and resentment years ago. Now he appears at first glance to be the hateful creep he truly is. He doesn't love anyone, but there are people (like his ex-wife and their children) whom he wants to possess. His main priority in life is to secure for himself a never-ending stream of money, drugs, sex, and adulation. His secondary priority is vengeance on everyone who ever "wronged" him, everyone who ever dared to make him feel weak. Goanna, Octoman, and Bombshell are all at the top of that list. A distant third is to promote an ideology which just so happens to state that those things are his birthright. POWERS & TACTICS Josef has limited shapeshifting abilities. He can become a swarm of tiny spiders (a form used mainly for escape and infiltration, though the spiders do have deadly venom), or a giant spider/human hybrid. Every transformation is extremely painful and bloody, driving him to further drug abuse. He "molts" or "sheds" like an arthropod or a reptile. Like them, he can regrow lost limbs. In his "werespider" form, Josef is superhumanly strong and agile. His carapace is hard enough to deflect bullets. He has four arms, each of which can deploy a retractable sword-like claw from the forearm, and eight spider legs, each ending in a similarly sharp claw. The spider legs allow him to climb walls, run faster than a bicycle or an Olympic sprinter, and jump several hundred feet through the air. Despite his size, his spider legs are surprisingly quiet, allowing him to sneak up on his foes. Glands in his forearms can fire streams of sticky webbing which is stronger than steel cable. A pair of glands in his jaw secrete two chemicals into his mouth which become highly acidic once mixed. When he acid dissolves organic matter, he finds the resulting slurry irresistibly delicious. ABILITIES 12PP Strength: 30/12 (+10/+1), 60/12 Lifting (Heavy Load: 50 tons / 130 lbs.) Dexterity: 26/12 (+8/+1) Constitution: 28/12 (+9/+1) Intelligence: 10 (+0) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 14 (+2) COMBAT 36PP Initiative: +8/+1 Attack: +8/+9 (+9 Base, -1 Size), +10 Webs Damage: +10/+1 Unarmed/Thrown, +12 Claws, +10 Acid, +10 Webs Grapple: +32/+10 vs one target, +28/+10 vs multiple targets (+8/+9 Melee Attack, +10/+1 Strength, +4 Size, +4 Additional Limbs, +6 Super-Strength) Defense: +8/+9 (+9 Base, -1 Size), +4/+5 Flat-Footed Knockback Resistance: 15/0 SAVING THROWS 9PP Toughness: +12/+1 (+9/+1 Con, +3 Protection, Impervious 8 ) Fortitude: +9/+1 (+9/+1 Con, +0PP) Reflex: +8/+1 (+8/+1 Dex, +0PP) Will: +9 (+0 Wis, +9PP) SKILLS 52R = 13PP Acrobatics 0 (+10/+1) Bluff 3 (+5) Climb 0 (+6/+1) Craft (Mechanical) 8 (+8) Drive 5 (+15/+6) Gather Information 3 (+5) Intimidation 4 (+18/+6) Knowledge (Current Events) 5 (+5) Knowledge (Pop Culture) 5 (+5) Knowledge (Streetwise) 8 (+8) Knowledge (Technology) 5 (+5) Languages 1 (English [Native], Polish) Notice 0 (+10/+1) Search 1 (+10/+1) Sense Motive 0 (+10/+1) Stealth 0 (+15/+1) Survival 4 (+5) Swim 0 (+6/+1) FEATS 5PP All-Out Attack Distract (Intimidation) Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Enhanced: Uncanny Dodge (Sense Types: Tactile) POWERS 158PP Additional Limbs 4 (+10 Limbs, Feats: Ambidexterity) [4PP] (Descriptors: 2 Extra Arms, 8 Spider Legs, Mutation) Burrowing 4 (10MPH, 100ft per Move Action) [4PP] (Descriptors: Acid, Claws, Mutation) Enhanced Skills 52 (Acrobatics 2, Intimidation 12, Notice 9, Search 9, Sense Motive 9, Stealth 11) [13PP] (Descriptors: Horrifying Appearance, Mutation, Spider Eyes, Spider Legs, Super-Agility, Super-Senses) Enhanced Constitution 12 (Feats: Regrowth) [13PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Regeneration, Super-Stamina, Super-Toughness) Enhanced Dexterity 14 [14PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Agility, Super-Reflexes) Enhanced Strength 10 [10PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Strength) Growth 4 (Size: Large, Size Modifiers: +5ft Reach, +8 Strength [+13 Lifting], +4 Constitution, -1 Attack, -1 Defense, +4 Grapple, +4 Knockback Resistance, +2 Intimidation, -4 Stealth, Extras: Duration [Continuous], Flaws: Permanent, Feats: Innate) [13PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider-Centaur) Immovable 1 (Extras: Unstoppable) [2PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Legs) Immunity 1 (Own Powers) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Impervious Toughness 8 [8PP] (Descriptors: Carapace, Mutation) Leaping 4 (x25, Running Long Jump: 500ft) [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Strength) Morph 1 (One Form, Extras: Duration [Continuous], Feats: Metamorph 2 [Human Form, Spider-Centaur Form, Spider Swarm Form], Drawbacks: Action 2 [Standard]) [2PP] (Descriptors: Molting, Mutation, Shapeshifting, Shedding) Protection 3 [3PP] (Descriptors: Carapace, Mutation) Speed 2 (25MPH, 250ft per Move Action) [2PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Legs, Web Swinging) Spider Power 16 (32PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 2) [34PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Base Power: [4PP] (Additional Descriptors: Forearm Claws, Spider Leg Claws) Damage 2 (Feats: Improved Critical [19-20], Mighty, Variable Descriptor [Forearm Claws and/or Spider Leg Claws, Piercing and/or Slashing damage], Drawbacks: Lethal) [4PP] Alternate Power: [31PP] (Additional Descriptors: Acid) Drain Toughness 10 (Extras: Affects Objects, Linked [Damage], Secondary Effect, Flaws: Requires Grapple, Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) [22PP] Damage 10 (Extras: Linked [Drain], Secondary Effect, Flaws: Requires Grapple, Drawbacks: Lethal) [9PP] Alternate Power: [32PP] (Additional Descriptors: Webs) Snare 10 (10 120ft Range Increments, 1,200ft Max Range, Extras: Contagious, Feats: Accurate [+2 Attack], Tether) [32PP] Super-Movement 5 (Sure-Footed 2, Swinging, Wall-Crawling 2) [10PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Legs, Webs) Super-Senses 9 (Danger Sense [Sense Types: Tactile], Low-Light Vision, Radius Visual Senses, Ultra-Vision, Tremor-Sense, Uncanny Dodge [Sense Types: Tactile]) [9PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Eyes, Spider Hairs) Super-Strength 6 (Lifting Strength: 60, Heavy Load: 50 tons) [12PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Abilities (12) + Combat (36) + Saving Throws (9) + Skills (13) + Feats (5) + Powers (158) - Drawbacks (0) = 233 Power Points Character: Webmaster (Spider Swarm Form) Power Level: 10 Tradeoffs: None Power Points: 163 ABILITIES 35PP Strength: 01 (-5) (Heavy Load: 10 lbs.) Dexterity: 30 (+10) Constitution: 28 (+9) Intelligence: 10 (+0) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 14 (+2) COMBAT 40PP Initiative: +10 Attack: +10 Damage: -5 Unarmed, +10 Venom Grapple: +5, Automatic Escape with Insubstantial Defense: +10, +5 Flat-Footed Knockback Resistance: 5 SAVING THROWS 9PP Toughness: +10 (+9 Con, +1 Protection) Fortitude: +9 (+9 Con, +0PP) Reflex: +10 (+10 Dex, +0PP) Will: +9 (+0 Wis, +9PP) SKILLS 36R = 9PP Acrobatics 2 (+12) Languages 1 (English [Native], Polish) Escape 0 (+10, Automatic with Insubstantial) Notice 9 (+10) Search 10 (+10) Sense Motive 9 (+10) Stealth 5 (+15) FEATS 0PP [None] Enhanced: Uncanny Dodge (Sense Types: Tactile) POWERS 78PP Burrowing 1 (1MPH, 10ft per Move Action) [1PP] (Descriptors: Claws, Mutation) Immunity 3 (Critical Hits, Own Powers) [3PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Swarm) Insubstantial 1 (Liquid, Extras: Duration [Continuous], Flaws: Duration [Permanent], Feats: Innate) [6PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Swarm) Morph 1 (One Form, Extras: Duration [Continuous], Feats: Metamorph 2 [Human Form, Spider Centaur Form, Spider Swarm Form], Drawbacks: Action 2 [Standard]) [2PP] (Descriptors: Molting, Mutation, Shapeshifting, Shedding) Protection 1 [1PP] (Descriptors: Carapace, Mutation) Spider Power 15 (30PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power) [31PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Base Power: [30PP] (Additional Descriptors: Necrotic Venom) Damage 10 (Extras: Autofire, Alternate Save [Fortitude], Feats: Accurate, Drawbacks: Lethal) [30PP] Alternate Power: [2PP] (Additional Descriptors: Webs) Create Object 1 (Volume: 1 5ft cube, Toughness: 1, Lifting Strength: 5 [Heavy Load: 50 lbs.], Extras: Duration [Continuous], Flaws: Permanent, Range [Touch], Feats: Innate) [2PP] Super-Movement 5 (Slithering, Sure-Footed 2, Wall-Crawling 2) [10PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Legs) Super-Senses 9 (Danger Sense [Sense Types: Tactile], Low-Light Vision, Radius Visual Senses, Ultra-Vision, Tremor-Sense, Uncanny Dodge [Sense Types: Tactile]) [9PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Spider Eyes, Spider Hairs) DRAWBACKS -8PP Disability (Mute, Frequency: Very Common, Intensity: Moderate) [-4PP] Disability (No Hands, Frequency: Very Common, Intensity: Moderate) [-4PP] Abilities (35) + Combat (40) + Saving Throws (9) + Skills (9) + Feats (0) + Powers (78) - Drawbacks (8) = 163 Power Points
  3. In Brief: Moonstone meets Poison Ivy, with a dash of Venom, and side helpings of Elle Woods and Blanche Devereaux. Character: Persephone Power Level: 12 (Built as PL10) Tradeoffs: None Power Points: 186/189PP Unspent Points: 3 Alternate Identity: Camellia Blume, M.D. Identity: Secret Legal Status: USA citizen with no criminal record Birthplace: Vibora Bay, Florida Base of Operations: Vibora Bay, Florida Residence: A rented house in Atwater Occupation: Psychiatrist (self-employed, private practice) Affiliations: University of Florida (alumnus), Delta Delta Delta (alumnus), Florida Board of Medicine (licensed physician), American Medical Association (board-certified psychiatrist) Family: Younger fraternal twin brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, parents, several aunts, uncles, and grandparents DESCRIPTION Age: 30 (Date of Birth: 1989) Apparent Age: 30 Gender: Female Ethnicity: Anglo-Germanic Caucasian American Height: 5’10” Weight: 140 lbs. Hair: Human Form: Platinum-Blonde, Plant Form: Purple Eyes: Human Form: Blue, Plant Form: Purple A friend once described her as “Grace Kelly’s head on Kate Upton’s body”. She has brilliant blue eyes set into a heart-shaped face, framed with a mane of shiny and thick platinum blonde hair which falls down to the top of her thighs. She has the kind of hourglass figure that usually requires aggressive corsetry, and most of her substantial height is in her long legs. Her voice is heavy, breathy, and deeper than most people expect, with a slight Southern drawl. She carries herself with the calm, quiet confidence of someone who’s accustomed to being welcome everywhere she goes. She has a big smile, and it gets a lot of exercise. She has an extensive wardrobe; more than one person has joked that they’ve never seen her wear anything twice. She has personally altered most of her clothes, both to better fit and support her body, and to replace the buttons and clasps with magnets, which allows her to get in and out of them quickly (a trick live stage productions use to cope with frequent costume changes). Her personal style, heavily influenced by the local climate, consists mainly of above-the-knee sundresses in bright colors and floral prints, paired with some kind of ornate sandals, more often than not with 4-5 inch heels that make her tower over most of the people around her. During the couple of months a year where the weather in Vibora Bay dips below 70F, she’ll switch to sweater dresses with higher necklines, swap out the sandals for closed-toes or boots, and add some heavy tights for extra warmth. In more casual settings, she sometimes trades the dresses for crop tops paired with denim short-shorts or short skirts, and on the beach, where she goes every chance she gets, she rocks the bikini. She loves jewelry; pearls are her favorite, and she owns pieces in every color of the rainbow. Outside, she’s rarely seen without both oversized sunglasses, some kind of a large, floppy-brimmed straw or silk hat with a bow or flower on the ribbon, varieties of which she also owns in every color. In professional settings, she wears decorative glasses with clear lenses, mainly in the hope that she’ll be taken more seriously once the “smart people have poor eyesight” stereotype cancels out the “dumb blonde” trope, but also because it gives her another accessory to play with. When she uses her powers, her skin turns green, and her eyes and hair both turn purple. Her hair grows even longer, almost touching the ground, and it takes on a life of its own. The coloration shifts to different shades depending on her mood, and the hair moves of its own accord, suddenly when in response to her emotional state, but otherwise gently floating and swaying as though she were underwater. Her ability to shape plant matter with her thoughts also extends to her own body. She can make plant appendages like vines, thorns, leaves, and roots sprout from her skin, with whatever pigmentation or texture she desires. Her costume is made from such appendages, consisting of thousands of overlapping leaves growing out of her skin, and falling away when she switches back to a human appearance. There's usually a flower in her hair, but that's because it's growing out of her head. She can also release luciferns and their catalyzing enzymes into parts of her body, causing them to glow. She does this most often with her hair and eyes. HISTORY Carmellia Blume’s parents met while they were both students at the University of Florida’s Vibora Bay campus. Her mother was a cheerleader and her father played football. They both stuck around long enough to earn Master’s degrees, hers in interior design and his in engineering. After graduation, she started her own firm, while he went to work for Vibora Petroleum, where he quickly ascended to upper management. By gradually invested in dozens of rental properties and restaurant franchises, in Vibora Bay and throughout North Florida, her parents did their part to maintain their family's wealth for another generation. Her father has been a member of the elite Mahogany Club since before she was born. Carmellia beat her “little” twin brother into the world by a few minutes. She grew up in a Cluet Farms mansion, immersed in luxury and privilege. Her teens and early twenties were a hurricane of private schools, cheerleading practices, cotillions, debutante balls, modeling jobs, and beauty pageants, just like her mother before her. She was the queen of her high school, but she was a benevolent queen, who never tolerated bullying. She attended the University of Florida, a legacy admission, like her parents before her. She joined the Tri-Delta sorority, like her mother before her. She even spent a year studying abroad in Paris, like her mother had at her age. But ultimately, she decided that, while dancing and modeling were fun, they weren't fulfilling. She wanted to spend her life helping people in a more direct manner. So after four years of college, she applied to UFVB's prestigious medical school. It was the first time in her life when she made a real decision, instead of just following in her parents footsteps. The modeling money and pageant prizes she’d saved up took a big bite out of the tuition, so she didn’t have to dip too far into her trust fund. After four years of medical school, she chose psychiatry as her specialty, combining her academic prowess and her social skills to make the world a better place, one person at a time. After another four years, she completed her residency and obtained her medical license. She rented an apartment in Far Weston (separate from the rented Atwater house she lived in), and started her own practice out of it, living off of her trust fund until she accumulated enough patients to make her practice self-sustaining. Camellia kept a garden at home, and her office space was filled with flowers. This caused one of her first patients visible distress. But he wasn't floraphobic. Instead, he seemed to be suffering from auditory hallucinations, or some other delusion. He claimed that one of his wife’s plants was talking to him. No one else seemed to be able to hear the voice, but it was growing louder and more insistent, while not making any sense, and he was convinced it was coming from the purple orchid his wife had brought home a few weeks prior. After a few weeks of talk sessions and a prescription for anti-anxiety medication failed to yield any results, he brought the orchid in question to his session, and refused to bring it back home with him. She didn’t think it would help his recovery to force the issue, so she let him leave without it, intending to return it to him later. The orchid was sitting on the front seat of her car during her commute home. That commute was interrupted when she drove by what appeared to be a mugging or assault taking place in an alley just off the street. She pulled off into the alley, flashed her lights, honked her horn, and shouted that she was calling the police, hoping to scare away the attackers. But the attackers were New Shadows gang members, vampires, and they weren’t mugging their victim, they were feeding on him. They used their superhuman strength to flip her car over, trapping her in the alley. But as they started to drag her out of the wrecked car, she heard a woman's voice inside her mind, and it seemed like time froze. The voice offered Camellia power, the power she would need to survive this ordeal and many like it. But she could only give Camellia that power if they were “bonded”. Camellia decided that, whatever that meant, it was better than letting herself or that poor man be killed, so she agreed. Time started passing again, and the orchid started moving under its own power, shattering its pot and pressing itself against Camellia. The flower somehow phased through her flesh and bone, sinking into her chest. She felt its roots expand throughout her body. It occurred to her that this should have been painful or terrifying or disgusting, but instead it was invigorating. Leaves and bark sprouted from her flesh, covering every inch of her skin. The vampires were shocked when they reached for a human but pulled out a humanoid plant-monster. Their shock gave her all the time she needed. Acting on instinct, she summoned plants to her aid, and they responded. Roots from a nearby tree stretched and snaked through the dirt before bursting bursting up out of the ground, breaking through the concrete like it was glass. The roots hardened into spears and impaled the vampires, who all crumbled into ash. As soon as the danger had passed, the leafy armor dried up and crumbled off of Camellia’s skin. She used her cell phone to call an ambulance for the bleeding man and a tow truck for her totaled car, and she tended to his wounds as best she could while they waited. She told the police that she’d turned too fast into the alley and flipped over, which must have scared away “the muggers”. The wounded man didn’t contradict her. Camellia spent the weeks after the incident telepathically communing with her new symbiote, learning what little the symbiote knew of her own history, and growing accustomed to her new abilities and the changes the symbiote was making to her body. The symbiote had been part of a race of semi-sentient plants engineered and grown as biological weapons by the humans of another Earth in an alternate dimension. That dimension fell to Omega, and this symbiote happened to be on a part of that Earth which wound up floating in the Terminus instead of being annihilated. When a rift opened up near the symbiote during the most recent Terminus incursion into her dimension, she pulled up her roots and let herself fall through. The symbiote offered to separate from Camellia if she so desired, but Camellia refused when she learned that separation would require intensive surgery which could kill both of them. Instead, Camellia decided to cope with whatever changes might come, and put her new abilities to good use, making the world a better place like she’d always wanted to. PERSONALITY & MOTIVATION Camellia's behavior comes from a combination of a naturally big heart and being raised in a semi-aristocratic subculture in which tradition was revered and courtesy was paramount. She strives to always be polite, modest, generous, and forgiving. She hates to see people suffer, even when they deserve it. She’s sensitive to the moods of the people around her, and it’s important to her to make those people as comfortable as possible. Her guiding principle in daily life is “Make everybody feel welcome, and never make anybody feel second-rate.” She greets everyone with a warm smile and an opening for as much small talk as they'd like, and she almost never swears or insults people. When someone else commits a faux pas, she’s far more likely to ignore it or attempt to cover for it than she is to draw attention to it or mock them. She values integrity, both in herself and in others, so she won’t lie to protect people’s feelings, but she will distract, deflect, and omit. Every child gets told at some point “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”, but unlike most children, she took that sentiment to heart, leaving the hard truths for one-on-one sessions behind closed doors. She detests bullying of any kind, and she won't hesitate to step in and put herself between the bully and their victim. She loves social interaction and embraces every opportunity for it. Everyone has a story, and she wants to hear them all. She make a point of maintaining correspondence with all of her family, former school friends, sorority sisters, and coworkers. Once you're part of her world, you don't leave. She remembers every birthday, and she sends hand-written “Thank You” notes for everything. She likes attention, which is fortunate, because she’d get plenty of it whether she liked it or not. She doesn’t demand the spotlight, but she’s very comfortable under it. She’s a hopeless romantic who falls hard and fast both in and out of love. She doesn’t expect or demand old school chivalry, but she’s a total sucker for it. POWERS & TACTICS The symbiotic alien plant which fused with her has transformed her body on the molecular level into an ambulatory plant. Her flesh, blood, and bone has mostly been replaced with cellulose, sap, and wood, and what remains has little value beyond the cosmetic. Her plant tissues are more durable and resilient than her old flesh. Her body engages in photosynthesis, so she doesn’t need to breathe or eat food, though she still does, both for the pleasurable sensation and because she can derive nutrients from it; it’s the equivalent of spreading fertilizer over crops. She can also extend roots from her body down into soil to obtain water and nutrients, but eating and drinking feels more familiar. The diseases and poisons of animals no longer affect her, although certain chemical fertilizers have effects on her similar to those of caffeine or alcohol when she discreetly adds them to her coffee and cocktails (making those drinks toxic for anyone else in the process). Like an old tree, her aging process has stalled to the point of being imperceptible. With an infusion of sunlight, her body is able to mend most wounds instantly, and even grievous injuries will heal in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks. However, as a plant, she is more vulnerable to dehydration and extremes of temperature, her tissues are more flammable, and defoliants and herbicides which would be harmless to a human will kill her in a matter of minutes. Through the symbiote, she can psychically detect, communicate with, animate, control, and alter plants. She can make them move and act on her behalf, and she can transform them extensively, shaping them like clay, greatly increasing or decreasing their size, strength, and resilience, and making them sprout flowers which then burst open with psychoactive pollen or latex. She doesn't strictly need to take any physical action to alter or control plants, but she uses physical gestures to help herself focus. In battle, she looks like she's dancing or conducting an orchestra. The transformations she uses most often reverse themselves as soon as she stops exerting the mental effort to maintain them; permanent changes require greater effort (power stunts for Continuous/Lasting or Independent versions of her powers). Nearby plants even respond to her unconscious desires and survival instinct, moving out of her way, or moving and stretching to protect her, blocking or swatting aside incoming attacks. Her ability to shape plant matter with her thoughts also extends to her own body. She can make plant appendages like vines, thorns, leaves, and roots sprout from her skin, with whatever pigmentation or texture she desires. In battle, she often grows an extra layer of thick bark over her skin, harder than rock. She can release luciferns and their catalyzing enzymes into parts of her body, causing them to glow. In a battle, engaging directly with supervillains is her last resort. Her first priorities are healing the wounded, and using her Create Object and Move Object powers to protect bystanders and even other heroes, either by shielding them or by moving them to a safe place. Even when she does fight directly, she attempts to restrain or incapacitate while doing as little harm as possible. Technically, she can create vines to whip or strangle, or thorns to cut and stab, either from her own body directly or by altering other plants, but she’s so loathe to do so that she leaves that to occasional power stunts, instead of buying any Damage-based alternate powers for her Plant Control array. COMPLICATIONS Accidents: Her powers are potentially destructive, especially when used indoors. Tree roots might burst up through floors or streets, while tree branches and stretched bushes come crashing through windows and walls. The GM can give her a Hero Point if the use of her powers causes a setback. Perhaps she triggers an effect like Environment Control which hinders her in the rest of the fight. Or maybe she endangers bystanders, and she must try to rescue them while the villain is still attacking. Alternately, the GM can give other PCs a Hero Point in exchange for making her attack powers affect her allies as well as the villains. For example, if she were to use her Fatigue power to spray a villain with a plant-derived sedative, and another hero then used a melee attack against that villain, the GM could declare retroactively that the Fatigue effect had acquired the Contagious extra, and some of the sedative was transferred from the villain to the melee-attacking hero, who now has to save against the Fatigue effect as well. Honor: She will always choose to help bystanders, even if it means letting the villain get away. She always uses the minimum force required to incapacitate a villain, and she will accept any surrender immediately. Even though she’s good at sniffing out lies, cunning villains can manipulate her by telling her what she wants to hear. The GM can give her a Hero Point if this causes some sort of setback, such as a penalty on a Sense Motive check or a free surprise attack against her. Hopeless Romantic: Friends and family have joked over the years that she "falls in love with every man she meets". The GM can give her a Hero Point in exchange for giving her a circumstance penalty on opposed interaction skill checks like Bluff or Diplomacy, or saving throws against effects like Emotion Control (Love), if her opponent is a man with a high Charisma score, interaction skill bonus, and/or the Attractive feat, or if the player and GM agree that he’s “her type”. The GM can also give her a Hero Point if she suffers a setback on account of being distracted by attraction, such as being surprise attacked. Finally, the GM can give her a Hero Point in exchange for forcing her to make a saving throw or skill check to avoid being Dazed or Fascinated, as if the attractive character had and used those feats, even if he did not. Medium (Plant Control): The GM can give her a Hero Point in exchange for arbitrarily deciding that there are no plants close enough for her to use her Plant Control array. At the GM’s discretion, this could 1) deprive her of the power entirely, 2) make it operate at a reduced power rank, since she would have to harvest material for the plant structures from her own body, or 3) make it acquire the Tiring or Side-Effect flaw, for the same reason. Normal Identity: If a villain were to restrain her or otherwise render her helpless, then they could surgically (or violently) remove the symbiote plant from inside her chest. If this were to happen, then all the changes it has made to her body would gradually revert, and she would lose all her powers and become a normal human again. Both she and the symbiote would suffer from withdrawal, and either of them could die, especially the symbiote. If the GM ever caused such a horrendous thing to occur, then giving her a Hero Point would be the least they could do. Phobia (Fire): Fire is one of the few things which can cause her serious harm, and she has an instinctual fear of it. The GM can give her a Hero Point in exchange for forcing her to make a Will save against an Emotion Control (Fear) effect. The GM is free to assign the effect whatever power rank they choose, but it should take into account the size and intensity of the fire (the effective Damage rank) and her proximity to it. Power Loss (Immunity): There are some circumstances in which her Immunity to Suffocation would not apply, such as being caught in a vacuum, or being immersed in water too dark and deep for any sunlight to trigger her photosynthesis. Similarly, if deprived of both food (either animal food or nutritious soil) and sunlight, then she will begin suffering from starvation, despite her Immunity to it. The GM can give her a Hero Point if she is caught in such circumstances and begins suffocating or starving. The GM can also give her a Hero Point when a villain scores a critical hit or a Sneak Attack against her, and suppress her Immunity to Critical Hits, allowing the villain to keep their damage bonus. Responsibilities: She has a large, active social network of family, school friends, sorority sisters, and former coworkers. She’ll drop everything to come to their aid. The GM can give her a Hero Point if a request for that aid comes at the worst possible time. She also has standing appointments with paying clients at her psychiatry practice four days a week, with the potential for emergency calls during off hours. The GM can give her a Hero Point if her day job somehow interferes with her hero work. Secret (Identity): The GM can give her a Hero Point if a potential reveal of her identity causes her some sort of setback, or if a villain learns her identity and then creates a setback for her by going after her friends, family, and/or patients. Soft-Hearted: She doesn’t like to see anyone suffer, even villains. As good as she is at telling truth from lies, she’s still a sucker for a sob story. The GM can give her a Hero Point in exchange for a penalty on checks like Sense Motive to discern the truth behind a wounded-gazelle gambit. Where others may see “A hard man doing a hard job, willing to make the tough choices and do what’s necessary”, she sees only callousness and cruelty which she cannot abide. She’s as likely to come to blows with “grim dark avenger” vigilantes as she is with actual supervillains. The GM can give either her or another PC a Hero Point in exchange for forcing her either to not take a certain action which would harm another person, or else to take a certain action which would prevent harm to another person or end harm they were already enduring. For example, if a villain appeared to already be restrained, incapacitated, or severely weakened, and another PC were still attacking them, or interrogating them in a violent or threatening manner, then the GM could invoke this complication, force her to put a stop to it, and give either her or the other PC a Hero Point. ABILITIES 40PP Strength: 10 (+0) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 30/18 (+10/+4) Intelligence: 14 (+2) Wisdom: 20 (+5) Charisma: 24 (+7) COMBAT 16PP Initiative: +2 Attack: +4 Base, +10 Plant Control Grapple: +4, +20 Plant Control Defense: +10/+4 Base, +5/+2 Flat-Footed Knockback Resistance: 10/2, 5/2 once Ablative Impervious is gone SAVING THROWS 7PP Toughness: +10/+4 (+10/+4 Con, Impervious 10 [Ablative]) Fortitude: +10/+4 (+10/+4 Con, +0PP) Reflex: +10/+4 (+2 Dex, +6 Enhanced Reflex, +2PP) Will: +10 (+5 Wis, +5PP) SKILLS 108R = 27PP Acrobatics 8 (+10) Bluff 11 (+18, +22 Attractive)Distract, Taunt Concentration 5 (+10) Craft (Artistic) 8 (+10) Diplomacy 11 (+18, +22 Attractive)Connected, Fascinate Gather Information 13 (+20)Contacts Knowledge (Behavioral Sciences) 13 (+15) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 8 (+10) Knowledge (Pop Culture) 2 (+4) Languages 1 (English [Native], French) Medicine 3 (+8) Perform (Dance) 3 (+10) Perform (Oratory) 3 (+10) Sense Motive 15 (+20) Swim 4 (+4) FEATS 12PP Attractive Benefit (Wealth) Connected Distract (Bluff) Fascinate (Diplomacy) Interpose Leadership Luck 3 Quick Change Taunt POWERS 96PP Enhanced Constitution 12 [12PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Plant Body) Enhanced Defense 6 [12PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Animate Plants, Plant Control) Enhanced Reflex 6 [6PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Animate Plants, Plant Control) Environment Control 1 (Light [Level 1], Area: 5ft radius, Extras: Action [Move], Flaws: Range [Touch]) [1PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Bioluminescence, Plant Body, Shapeshifting) Flight 2 (25MPH, 250ft per Move Action, Extras: Affects Others, Flaws: Platform) [4PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Animate Plants, Plant Control) Immunity 5 (Critical Hits, Own Powers, Suffocation) [5PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Photosynthesis, Plant Body) Immunity 4 (Aging, Disease, Poison, Starvation/Thirst, Flaws: Limited [Aging Immunity is 1/2 effect; Immune to Diseases and Poisons which affect animals, but not those which affect plants; Immune to Starvation but not to Thirst]) [2PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Photosynthesis, Plant Body) Impervious Toughness 10 (Extras: Force Field [Free Action, Sustained Duration], Flaws: Ablative) [5PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Bark Armor, Plant Body, Shapeshifting) Morph 1 (Broad Group [Humanoids], Extras: Duration [Continuous], Flaws: Limited [Plant-People]) [2PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Plant Body, Shapeshifting) Plant Control 14 (28PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 6) [34PP] (Descriptors: Alien) Base Power: [28PP] (Additional Descriptors: Animate Plants) Move Object 10 (Range: 10 100ft Increments, 1,000ft Max, Lifting Strength: 50 [Heavy Load: 12 tons], Feats: Accurate 3 [+6 Attack], Improved Pin, Indirect 3, Variable Descriptor [Animating plants to either move themselves or to grasp and move non-plant targets]) [28PP] Alternate Power: [28PP] (Additional Descriptors: Animate Plants, Plant Growth) Create Object 10 (Range: 10 100ft Increments, 1,000ft Max, Volume: 10 cubes, Toughness: 10, Lifting Strength: 50 [Heavy Load: 12 tons], Feats: Indirect 3, Progression [Size] 3 [50ft cubes], Selective, Stationary [Resists being moved with Strength 30]) [28PP] Alternate Power: [28PP] (Additional Descriptors: Animate Plants, Flowers, Psychoactive Pollen, Toxin) Emotion Control 10 (Extras: Secondary Effect, Flaws: Range [Ranged, 10 100ft Increments, 1,000ft Max], Feats: Accurate 3 [+6 Attack], Indirect 3, Mind Blank, Reversible) [28PP] Alternate Power: [28PP] (Additional Descriptors: Animate Plants, Flowers, Sedative Latex, Toxin) Fatigue 10 (Extras: Range [Ranged, 10 100ft Increments, 1,000ft Max], Secondary Effect, Flaws: Action [Full], Distracting, Feats: Accurate 3 [+6 Attack], Indirect 3, Reversible, Sedation) [28PP] Alternate Power: [28PP] Healing 9 (Extras: Action [Standard], Total, Flaws: Distracting, Feats: Variable Descriptor [Mending plants directly with florakinesis, or using medicinally enhanced plants to heal non-plant targets]) [28PP] Alternate Power: [27PP] (Additional Descriptors: Animate Plants, Grasping Branches/Vines) Snare 10 (Range: 10 100ft Increments, 1,000ft Max, Feats: Accurate 3 [+6 Attack], Indirect 3, Reversible) [27PP] Alternate Power: [28PP] (Additional Descriptors: Shape Plants) Transform 10 (Plants, Extras: Duration [Continuous, Lasting], Flaws: Action [Full], Distracting, Range [Touch], Feats: Accurate 3 [+6 Attack], Extended Reach [10ft], Indirect, Progression [Mass] 3 [5 tons]) [28PP] Plant Telepathy 2 (4PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power) [5PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Psychic) Base Power: [4PP] Comprehend 2 (Plants 2 [Speak To, Understand]) [4PP] Alternate Power: [2PP] Super-Senses 2 (Postcognition, Flaws: Medium [Plants]) [2PP] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection 1 [1 week], Feats: Regrowth) [2PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Plant Body) Super-Movement 1 (Permeate 1 [1/4 Speed], Flaws: Limited [Plants]) [1PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Animate Plants, Plant Control) Super-Senses 5 (Plant Awareness, Descriptor Frequency: Common, Sense Type: Mental [Default Extras: None], Extras: Acute, Radius, Ranged) [5PP] (Descriptors: Alien, Plant Control, Psychic) DRAWBACKS -12PP Vulnerability (Cold effects, Frequency: Common, Intensity: Minor [+1 DC]) [-2PP] Vulnerability (Dehydration effects, Frequency: Uncommon, Intensity: Minor [+1 DC]) [-1PP] Vulnerability (Fire/Heat effects, Frequency: Common, Intensity: Moderate [+50% Effect Rank]) [-3PP] Weakness (Defoliants/Herbicides, Frequency: Uncommon, Intensity: Moderate [-1 Con], Time: 1/round) [-6PP] ATTACK RANGE SAVING THROW EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC15 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Create Object Ranged DC20 Reflex Trapped Dropped Object Ranged/Area DC20 Reflex Avoided DC25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Emotion Control Ranged DC20 Will (Staged) Calm: Removes all Emotion Control conditions Despair: Shaken/Helpless Fear: Shaken/Frightened/Panicked Hate: Attitude = Hostile Hope: Removes Despair and Fear Love: Attitude = Friendly/Helpful/Fanatical Fatigue Ranged DC20 Fortitude (Staged) Fatigued/Exhausted/Unconscious Healing Touch DC19 Fortitude (Harmless) Healing Move Object Ranged Grapple vs +20 Pinned/Bound Thrown Object Throwing (Str 50) DC25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Snare Ranged DC20 Reflex (Staged) Entangled/Bound Transform Touch +5ft DC20 Fortitude Transformed Abilities (40) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (7) + Skills (27) + Feats (12) + Powers (96) - Drawbacks (12) = 186/189 Power Points
  4. Octoman Alternate Identity: Benicio "Ben" Wang Base of Operations: Freedom City Concept: Ultimate Spider-Man meets Robin meets Daredevil, as reimagined by Guillermo del Toro Table of Contents Allies, Associates, & Enemies Costume & Appearance Current Role & Hooks Design Notes Headquarters History Personal Life Personality & Motivation Powers & Skills Timeline Reputation Allies, Associates, & Enemies Allies The Interceptors Bombshell saved Octoman's life during his first outing as a superhero, and afterward, she brought him to the secret Interceptors headquarters in the Espadas School, where she tended to his wounds while he met Jack of All Blades and one of their children. Bombshell and Jack helped Ben get into the Claremont Academy, and promised to help him in the future. Associates Horrorshow His roommate during his first year at the Claremont Academy. Parents As part of his admission process for the Claremont Academy, Ben had to tell his parents about his powers. He has not, however, told them that he is Octoman. His dad likes superheroes almost as much as he does, and would probably be proud of him. But his mother hates superheroes. Extended Family Ben's four grandparents all live in Brooklyn. He's visited them during almost every holiday of his life. None of them are particularly wealthy or influential, but they do love him. Enemies Goanna The mad scientist Cooper Seidel knows that he turned Ben Wang into Octoman. He wants to collect as much data from the boy as he can before punishing the boy for ruining his experiments. Webmaster Josef Bankowski, the abusive junkie Bombshell and Octoman apprehended during his first outing as a superhero was eventually captured by Goanna, whose experiments transformed him into the supervillain who now calls himself "Webmaster". He'll drop everything for a chance to get revenge on any of them. Costume & Appearance Because of his mixed ancestry, Ben's actual ethnicity is difficult for people to guess at first glance. He has big eyes and a heart-shaped face with soft features which makes him look younger than he is. His build is that of a typical semi-athletic lanky teenager. During his day-to-day life out of costume, he uses his shapeshifting power to mimic his original appearance before his mutation. He recreates the brown eyes that turned yellow, and the medium-length Afro hairstyle he wore before all his body hair fell out. He also hides the new lines and folds in his skin, which appear to be scars but are actually new orifices. He has three on each side of his neck, one each on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet, another on each forearm, and several along the sides and back of his torso. The other changes to his body from the mutation are less visible. An x-ray would reveal his lack of a rigid skeleton, and several new organs and muscular structures. His blood is thick, like syrup, and purple, since it contains both the hemoglobin normally found in humans (which is red, since it contains iron), and the hemocyanin found in cephalopods (which is blue, since it contains copper). His blood pressure is significantly higher than that of a normal human. When he is cut, his blood is less likely to drip and more likely to spray. His blood is also slightly radioactive; not enough to be dangerous, but enough for Geiger counters to register a noticeable uptick. Ben technically walks around naked most of the time. Both his normal street clothes and his superhero "costume" are just manifestations of his ability to change the shape, texture, and color of his own flesh. When he is "in costume", the impossibly perfect way that the "fabric" clings to his skin is a clue for close observers to its true nature. His "mask" somehow adheres to his face in a manner which conveys all of his facial expressions , and the "mouth hole" never falls out of place or exposes any of the skin around it, no matter how much he moves, talks, or gets punched in the face. Current Role & Hooks Ben loves being a superhero. It's all he ever dreamed of. He will literally jump at any opportunity to participate in anything that he thinks of as "superhero stuff". Protecting the West End, like Geckoman and the Interceptors before him, is his top priority, but he's willing and able to chase trouble through any corner of Freedom City, or beyond. He's going to Claremont because Geckoman went there, and he wants to be like Geckoman. Design Notes Octoman is simultaneously a spin on Spider-Man (particularly both versions of Ultimate Spider-Man), and a legacy character for Geckoman, whose love of that PC mirrors my own. He's a downright Lovecraftian take, as if Spider-Man, Robin, and Daredevil were to be combined and re-imagined by Guillermo del Toro. Headquarters During the school week, Ben lives in the dorms at the Claremont Academy. On the weekends and during vacations, he returns to his parents apartment in the West End. History Benicio Wang was born in Brooklyn to Gen-X parents. His mother, Maya, is an overworked public defender of Puerto Rican Afro-Latina descent. His father, Diego, is a half-Filipino, half-Ashkenazi overworked baker and deli cook. Ben frequently jokes that his lineage makes him the most Brooklyn guy who ever lived. If one of his parents are in earshot, they will retort that they moved to Freedom City when he was a small child, and visiting his grandparents during the holidays doesn't make him a New Yorker. Ben met Geckoman in 2010, though Gecks probably doesn't remember. The 18-year-old superhero was occupied with defending Freedom City from the third Grue invasion, and working things out with his supervillain girlfriend. But Ben will never, ever forget it. He was only seven years old when his family found themselves trapped in the Millennium Mall, huddling behind an increasingly fatigued and desperate Spellbound. Ben was impressed with her and the lightning-wand she used to zap away the invading aliens, but with her black costume and icy demeanor, she scared the boy almost as much as the Grue. When the brightly-colored, wise-cracking Geckoman dropped down through the skylight and started jumping around, tossing boomerangs, and kicking giant monsters in the face, little Ben's fear evaporated. From that day forward, Ben was a lifelong #Geckofan. Eight years later, Doctor Cooper Seidel was hard at work trying to stabilize and enhance his universal antivenom serum, and his resulting transformation into the reptile monster Goanna. He had retained a gang of hired thugs who had helped him steal the lab equipment, rare animal specimens, and radioactive materials he needed for his latest experiments. He closely monitored local law enforcement communications, so he had advance warning when the multi-agency task force finally found his hideout and moved to raid it. Seidel and his henchmen hastily loaded the irradiated animal specimens into a truck and escaped just as the tactical units broke down the door. The truck had enough of a lead that they might have escaped, if a bystander hadn't lost their grip on their dog's leash. Or if the dog hadn't then run out into the middle of the road. Or if fifteen year-old computer science prodigy Ben Wang hadn't run out into the road after the dog to scoop it up. Or if Seidel's henchman hadn't swerved at high speed to avoid Ben and lost control of the truck, flipping and crashing it. The truck and the tanks inside it broke open, spilling water and a menagerie of mutated animals into the street. Ben saved the dog, but the truck clipped him, sending him flying several feet away. He was dazed for a few moments, before the rush of cold water on the asphalt under him cleared his head. He saw a tiny yellow octopus crawling on his hand, and had just enough time to think it was cute before it bit him. Seidel ordered his henchmen to gather up the escaped test subjects, but no amount of money could convince them to pick up a bunch of radioactive venomous creatures with their bare hands. While Ben was wracked with painful muscle spasms which escalated into projectile vomiting, diarrhea, and a full-blown seizure, an enraged Seidel transformed into Goanna and slaughtered his own "cowardly and incompetent" henchmen, along with the occupants of the first couple of police cars who responded to the crash. Goanna intended to do the same to the bumbling idiot boy who had ruined everything, but when he saw that one of his test subjects had already done the work for him, he merely laughed while the boy suffocated on the pavement. Knowing that some combination of the FCPD's STAR squad, AEGIS, or one or more superheroes would show up soon, Goanna fled into the sewers. Seidel showed up at the hospital where Ben had been taken later that same night, intent on harvesting samples from the boy's corpse, since it was all the remained of his months of research. He was surprised to learn that the boy had survived. He took careful note of the boy's name, and resolved to keep him under close surveillance. Ben received prompt medical attention, and he seemed to make a full recovery, with one exception: The song he'd been listening to on his headphones when he dove out in front of that truck was the last thing he would ever hear. Hearing loss isn't a normal symptom of either vehicular collisions or tetrodotoxin poisoning, but the doctors had no other idea what else could have caused it. It wasn't until several days after he was discharged from the hospital that Ben's body began to change significantly. The changes happened gradually, over the course of several months. Ben hid them from everyone, even his parents. As his new powers slowly manifested, he learned how to use them through a combination of new instinct and trial and error. He knew immediately what he wanted to do with them. Right after his sixteenth birthday, during the summer before his sophomore year of high school, Ben put on his costume and started swinging through the streets of Freedom City as Octoman. Personal Life Ben's parents love him, but they don't really have time for him. They're both workaholics with jobs which demand that they be workaholics, so he tends to fall through the cracks. Most of Ben's social life takes place online. He didn't have many in-person friends, even before he moved to a new school across town. His mutated appearance and new disability make him feel self-conscious and isolated. He's become adept at lip-reading, but not perfect, and not everyone has the time or the inclination to learn how to sign with him. He's open to romantic relationships, but he doesn't think any would survive the girl in question seeing the "real" him. Personality & Motivation Ben is bright, inquisitive, and altruistic, but he can't keep his big mouth shut. Growing up as the latchkey-kid only child of two workaholic parents has turned him into a bit of an unconscious attention-seeker. He likes to make an entrance. He has an opinion to share about everything. If he's not rambling, he's arguing. If a joke or an insult comes to his mind, then it also comes out of his mouth. He never stops trash-talking during a competition or a fight. He's actually a pretty sensitive kid, but he never met an emotion he couldn't hide under sarcasm or just drown out with his motor-mouth. He doesn't know how to pick his battles, and his refusal to let the slightest disagreement, injustice, or insult go unchallenged gets him into trouble. But even when he's railing against injustice, he generally tries to keep things light. He'll keep making bad jokes and puns past the point where anyone is laughing (if they ever were to begin with). After his brush with death, Ben just felt lucky. But once his powers manifested, weird though they are, he felt blessed. Ben has two passions in life: Hacking, and superheroes. He maintains active accounts on both HeroHouse and TroubAlert (Username: Geckofan). He's been obsessed with Geckoman in particular (and, to a lesser extent, the rest of his Young Freedom and Interceptors teammates) since he was seven years old. He had resigned himself to, maybe, at best, using his hacking skills to play a support role for a superhero someday. But he desperately wanted to be an actual superhero, just like Gecks. His resulting disability and (slight) disfigurement have put a damper on his enthusiasm, but only a slight one. He's still having trouble adjusting, but he loves being a superhero more than he misses his hearing. Powers & Skills Ben is a world-class hacker who can get into almost any system. Ben has a surprising amount of hand-to-hand combat training for a teenager. He's been wrestling since junior high, and he's been taking self-defense classes since he was seven (they weren't a hard sell for his parents after he almost died in the Grue invasion). His superhuman agility and flexibility, his bundle of sticky tentacles stretching and lashing out for dozens or hundreds of feet in every direction, his lack of response to any auditory stimuli, and his youthful recklessness and loud mouth all combine to make him a confusing and irritating opponent. He can potentially attack or evade in any direction. He can lash out with his tentacles like whips, use them to grab a foe and pull them in for a punch or a kick, or use them to pull himself in close for the same. He will wrap his tentacles around a foe, and then slam that foe into objects, terrain, or even other foes. He'll grab a faraway foe and pull them in for a punch, or pull himself to them, boot-first. His ink sprays and venomous bite make him even more unpredictable. Ben was a normal human, but an injection of radioactive octopus venom mutated him into a human-cephalopod hybrid. His body has grown several new glands, organs, and orifices. He has almost no bones left in his body. Most of them have transformed into cartilage and muscle. So while his body looks "solid" from the outside, he can bend, stretch, and compress his flesh, contorting into any position and squeezing through any crevices. His skin can secrete a clear mucous which acts as a lubricant to aid this process. The outer layers of his flesh are so flexible and malleable that he can change the texture of his skin at will. His skin cells contain pigments which can be released with muscle contractions in a virtually infinite variety of combinations, allowing him to change his coloration to anything he can imagine. These traits allow him to effectively becoming invisible in the normal visual light spectrum, or to mimic the appearance of any object or creature. This also makes it virtually impossible for foes in hand-to-hand combat to keep a grip on him. He has superhuman levels of strength, agility, stamina, and to a lesser extent, resilience. With his thick skin, powerful and flexible muscles, and lack of a rigid skeleton, he is able to absorb traumatic impact, cuts and blunt force alike, with less likelihood of real injury. He has grown several "back-up organs", which make it less likely that any wounds he suffers will be debilitating. He has three hearts, and enough brain and nervous tissue running throughout his body to act as a second brain and spinal cord. He has what would be considered a "weak healing factor" by superhuman standards (not enough for Regeneration or Impervious Toughness, but enough for a high Constitution score). His body can repair minor damage quickly, and more severe wounds are less likely to happen in the first place. He doesn't heal from serious injury much "faster" than a normal human, but he heals "better". Given time to recuperate, he will reliably make a full recovery from trauma which would cripple or kill a normal person. Like a cephalopod, his body can even regrow lost limbs. He isn't technically immune to fatigue, disease, infection, radiation, or extremes of temperature or pressure, but his body is so effective at fighting them off that sometimes it seems like he is. He has, for lack of a better term, "super-health". New orifices on his forearms and on the sides and back of his torso can deploy tentacles*, which can stretch for hundreds of feet. The same neural tissue running through the rest of his body also runs through the tentacles, allowing his brain to control all of them perfectly. (*Technically, these new limbs are "arms", rather than "tentacles", since they have suckers along their entire length, instead of just at the ends, but this distinction only matters to marine biologists.) His body contains a network of hollow tubes and bladders similar to a cephalopod siphon. He can use muscular contractions to force fluids through those tubes and out of his body, through a series of new orifices on the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet, and his lower back. The primary use of his internal siphon is locomotion. By forcing air or water through it, he creates jet propulsion, launching himself through the water or up into the air. A substantial portion of his extra brain tissue is devoted to processing visual and olfactory input, and the suckers on his tentacles act as extra noses and tongues. His senses of sight, smell, and taste are enhanced far beyond those of a normal human. His eyes can perceive a wider array of color at finer detail, and he has excellent night vision. He can distinguish fine details in scent and taste, and track them to their source like a bloodhound. His body is truly amphibious, adapted equally well to life in open air or under water. His aforementioned increased visual acuity allows him to see perfectly in the dim light of deep water. He has gills on the sides of his neck, which remain closed in open air but which allow him to breathe while he is under water. His skin acts as near-perfect insulation, keeping him from losing his body heat. His blood contains both hemoglobin and hemocyanin, so it is equally effective at keeping his tissues oxygenated in both open air and freezing water. His siphon allows him to regulate his internal fluid pressure, which, along with his flexible muscles, lets him adapt to the crushing weight of the deep sea. His internal siphon can also expel the pungent, opaque black ink produced by another one of his new organs. He can release it gradually, creating a cloud which provides cover (the gas quickly dissolves in open air, so it is equally effective under water or on dry land), or he can fire a concentrated burst of ink directly into the face of an enemy, temporarily blinding them and overwhelming their olfactory senses in a manner similar to that of tear gas or pepper spray. His head contains venom sacs, which produce a paralytic poison similar to that of the octopus who bit him. His body injects this poison with a combination of a pharyngeal jaw and a proboscis: A pair of pincers, similar to a cephalopod beak, on the end of a second tongue, hidden under his original tongue, which can telescope over a foot from his mouth, fully extending in a fraction of a second. His own body is immune to this venom, and other, similar toxins. Timeline 2019 Octoman: Close To Home: During his first outing as Octoman, Ben meets Bombshell, and they clash with the man who would become Webmaster. Bombshell later takes Octoman to the Interceptors headquarters, where he meets Jack of All Blades. Bombshell convinces Octoman to attend the Claremont Academy. It's Moving Day: Ben finally sets foot on the Claremont campus. Dagon The King: Ben attends a guest lecture by Sea-Devil. It does not go well. Freaky Fraternity: Ben commiserates with Horrorshow about the fallout from "Dagon The King". Rat Patrol: Ben commiserates with Soliton about the fallout from "Dagon The King". Tech Compliance (IN PROGRESS): Ben joins Tech Club at Claremont. It's Me, Daystar: During the evening following Ben's first night at Clarmeont's Tech Club, he and Daystar exchange emails. Daka Rush (IN PROGRESS): Octoman gets ambushed by some rogue Dakanans. Puppy Love (IN PROGRESS): Octoman helps out Soliton. The Pinball Wizard Strikes! (IN PROGRESS): Octoman teams up with Archer and Spectre. Punching Up: Ben works out and spars with his fellow students in an impromptu boxing lesson by Rebound. Hydra Yas Queen (IN PROGRESS): Octoman helps out Artificer. Reptile Brain (IN PROGRESS): Ben's Claremont squad takes a trip to the zoo. 2020 The Eagle Flies Alone (IN PROGRESS): Ben gets caught up in Angelic and Pan's school prank. #ReleaseTheRavenCut: Miss Grue asks Horrorshow for help, and Ben tags along. Phone A Friend (IN PROGRESS): Ben is one of several fellow Claremont students invited by Angelic to a party at the DuTemps castle. Ancient Enemies (IN PROGRESS): Ben and the rest of Clarmont's Green Squad help Veronica Danger rescue a pair of lost Danger International archaeologists.
  5. For this character's background and original statistics, see Freedom's Most Wanted, page 75, and Freedom City 3rd Edition, page 245. Character: Goanna Power Level: 12 Tradeoffs: -4 Attack / +4 Damage (Bite/Claws), -4 Defense / +4 Toughness Power Points: 259 Alternate Identity: Doctor Cooper Seidel Identity: Public Legal Status: USA citizen and fugitive Base of Operations: Freedom City, New Jersey Residence: Mobile Occupation: Former: Geneticist, Herpetologist; Current: Criminal Affiliations: Doctor Sophia Marks (former fiancée); ASTRO Labs (former employer) DESCRIPTION Gender: Male Height: 9' as Goanna, 5'10" as Seidel Weight: 750 lbs. as Goanna, 155 lbs. as Seidel Hair: None as Goanna, Brown as Seidel Eyes: Red as Goanna, Brown as Seidel UPDATES The immortal Daedalus still holds out hope for a cure to Doctor Cooper Seidel's condition. Doctor Sophia Marks has cancelled her engagement to Doctor Seidel and moved on with her life. The "Cooper Seidel" and "Goanna" personalities have meshed back together. The arrogant, entitled petulance which represented the "dark side" of Doctor Seidel's personality and had metastasized into Goanna are now the dominant forces in his psyche at all times. Goanna, while still prone to violent rage, is no longer controlled by it. The change between Seidel and Goanna is almost completely physical now, with almost no psychological changes. Doctor Seidel no longer sees his condition as something which needs to be cured, only stabilized and enhanced. He has refined his mutagenetic antivenom serum multiple times, which has granted him greater control over his transformations. He can now willingly transform from Seidel into Goanna or vice versa, and Goanna is larger and stronger than before. He retains his human form mostly for utility and convenience; he is no longer repulsed by his reptilian form. He still transforms into Goanna involuntarily sometimes, when angered or hurt. Exposure to the image or voice of Doctor Marks will sometimes still transform him back from Goanna into Seidel. Doctor Seidel refuses to face the reality that Doctor Marks has left him. Instead, he embraces the delusion that she belongs to him and they are fated to reunite. Once he thinks he's perfected his serum, he plans to kidnap and infect her. He thinks that she will love him again when he turns her into a creature like the one he's become. ABILITIES 16PP Strength: 35/10 (+12/+0), 60/10 Lifting (Heavy Load: 50 tons / 100 lbs.) Dexterity: 18/10 (+4/+0) Constitution: 34/10 (+12/+0) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 12 (+1) COMBAT 36PP Initiative: +4 Attack: +8 (+9 Base, -1 Size), +12 Venom Damage +12 Unarmed/Thrown, +16 Claws, +12 Venom Grapple: +30 (+10 Melee Attack, +12 Strength, +4 Size, +4 Super-Strength) Defense: +8 (+9 Base, -1 Size), +4 Flat-Footed Knockback Resistance: 16 ATTACK RANGE SAVING THROW EFFECT Unarmed Touch +5ft* DC27 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Bite/Claws Touch +5ft* DC31 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical, Lethal) Venom Bite Touch +5ft* DC22 Fortitude (Staged) Slowed/Paralyzed Venom Spit Touch +30ft* DC22 Reflex Dazzle Visual DC22 Fortitude Recover *Touch-range at Size Large is 10ft. SAVING THROWS 14PP Toughness: +16 (Impervious 8, +12 Con, +4 Protection) Fortitude: +12 (+12 Con, +0PP) Reflex: +8 (+4 Dex, +4PP) Will: +12 (+2 Wis, +10PP) SKILLS 132R = 33PP Computers 10 (+15) Craft (Chemical) 15 (+20) Handle Animal 9 (+10) Intimidation 12 (+13, +15 Size) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 15 (+20) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 15 (+20) Knowledge (Technology) 5 (+10) Medicine 13 (+15) Notice 10 (+12) Search 7 (+12) Survival 13 (+15) Swim 8 (+20)Swimming FEATS 10PP All-Out Attack Animal Empathy Chokehold Environmental Adaptation (Underwater) Grapple Finesse Improved Grapple Improved Pin Improved Trip Power Attack Startle POWERS 161PP Additional Limbs 1 (+1 Limb) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Tail) Concealment 4 (All Visual-type senses, Flaws: Blending, Passive) [2PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Enhanced Constitution 19 [19PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Regeneration, Super-Toughness) Enhanced Dexterity 8 [8PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Agility, Super-Reflexes) Enhanced Strength 15 [15PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Strength) Growth 5 (Size: Large, Extras: Duration [Continuous], Flaws: Permanent, Feats: Innate) [16PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Immunity 4 (Environmental 2 [Cold, Pressure], Poison, Suffocation [Underwater]) [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Impervious Toughness 8 [8PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Regeneration, Scales, Super-Toughness) Leaping 4 (x25, Running Long Jump: 550ft) [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Strength) Protection 4 [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Scales, Super-Toughness) Regeneration 11 (Recovery Rate: Bruised 3 [No rest], Injured 6 [No rest], Disabled 2 [1 hour], Feats: Regrowth) [12PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Reptile Power 20 (40PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 2) [42PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Base Power: [7PP] Damage 4 (Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Mighty, Variable Descriptor [Claws and/or Bite, Piercing and/or Slashing], Drawbacks: Lethal) [7PP] (Descriptors: Bite, Claws, Mutation) Alternate Power: [20PP] Dazzle 12 (Sense Types: Visual, Flaws: Range [Touch], Feats: Accurate 2 [+4 Attack], Extended Reach 4 [25ft], Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) [20PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Venomous Spit) Alternate Power: [40PP] Paralyze 12 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude], Secondary Effect, Feats: Accurate 2 [+4 Attack], Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) [40PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Venomous Bite) Speed 2 (25MPH / 250ft per Move Action) [2PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Super-Movement 3 (Slithering, Wall-Crawling 2) [6PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Super-Senses 6 (Acute Tracking Smell/Taste, Danger Sense [Sense Types: Olfactory], Infra-Vision, Low-Light Vision, Uncanny Dodge [Sense Types: Olfactory]) [6PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Super-Strength 4 (Lifting Strength: 60, Heavy Load: 50 tons) [8PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Swimming 4 (25MPH / 250ft per Move Action, Can Take 10 on Swimming checks) [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) DRAWBACKS -11PP Involuntary Transformation (From Cooper Seidel into Goanna, triggered by anger or pain, Frequency: Very Common, Intensity: Moderate [DC10 to resist change]) [-4PP] Involuntary Transformation (From Goanna into Cooper Seidel, triggered by Doctor Sophia Marks, Frequency: Uncommon, Intensity: Minor [DC5 to resist change]) [-1PP] Normal Identity (Frequency: Common [Full Action], Intensity: Major) [-6PP] Abilities (16) + Combat (36) + Saving Throws (14) + Skills (33) + Feats (10) + Powers (161) - Drawbacks (11) = 259 Power Points
  6. In Brief: Guillermo del Toro shoves Miles Morales, Tim Drake, and Matt Murdock into a blender. Character: Octoman Power Level: 13 (Built as PL10) Tradeoffs: None Power Points: 202/204 PP Unspent Points: 2 Catchphrases & Nicknames: "Octo-Boy" (He does not like this one); "Señor Ocho"; "The Outrageous Octoman"; "The Crime-Fighting Kraken"; "The Loudmouth Leviathan"; "Who ordered the calamari?" Alternate Identity: Benicio Wang Identity: Secret Legal Status: USA citizen (minor) with no criminal record Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York Base of Operations: Freedom City, New Jersey Residence: An apartment in the West End Occupation: Student Affiliations: None Family: Amaya Molina Santiago (Mother), Diego Wang (Father), Sofia Santiago Vasquez (Maternal Grandmother), Benicio Molina Ramirez (Maternal Grandfather), Jasmine Guinto-Wang (Paternal Grandmother), Asher Wang (Paternal Grandfather), Several unnamed aunts, uncles, and cousins DESCRIPTION Age: 16 (Date of Birth: 2003) Apparent Age: 16 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Mother is Puerto Rican Afro-Latina. Father is half Ashkenazi Jewish, half Filipino. Height: 5'9" Weight: 150 lbs. Hair: None (Formerly Black) Eyes: Yellow (Formerly Brown) Because of his mixed ancestry, Ben's actual ethnicity is difficult for people to guess at first glance. He has big eyes and a heart-shaped face with soft features which makes him look younger than he is. His build is that of a typical semi-athletic lanky teenager. During his day-to-day life out of costume, he uses his shapeshifting power to mimic his original appearance before his mutation. He recreates the brown eyes that turned yellow, and the medium-length Afro hairstyle he wore before all his body hair fell out. He also hides the new lines and folds in his skin, which appear to be scars but are actually new orifices. He has three on each side of his neck, one each on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet, another on each forearm, and several along the sides and back of his torso. The other changes to his body from the mutation are less visible. An x-ray would reveal his lack of a rigid skeleton, and several new organs and muscular structures. His blood is thick, like syrup, and purple, since it contains both the hemoglobin normally found in humans (which is red, since it contains iron), and the hemocyanin found in cephalopods (which is blue, since it contains copper). His blood pressure is significantly higher than that of a normal human. When he is cut, his blood is less likely to drip and more likely to spray. His blood is also slightly radioactive; not enough to be dangerous, but enough for Geiger counters to register a noticeable uptick. Ben technically walks around naked most of the time. Both his normal street clothes and his superhero "costume" are just manifestations of his ability to change the shape, texture, and color of his own flesh. When he is "in costume", the impossibly perfect way that the "fabric" clings to his skin is a clue for close observers to its true nature. His "mask" somehow adheres to his face in a manner which conveys all of his facial expressions , and the "mouth hole" never falls out of place or exposes any of the skin around it, no matter how much he moves, talks, or gets punched in the face. HISTORY Benicio Wang was born in Brooklyn to Gen-X parents. His mother, Maya, is an overworked public defender of Puerto Rican Afro-Latina descent. His father, Diego, is a half-Filipino, half-Ashkenazi overworked baker and deli cook. Ben frequently jokes that his lineage makes him the most Brooklyn guy who ever lived. If one of his parents are in earshot, they will retort that they moved to Freedom City when he was a small child, and visiting his grandparents during the holidays doesn't make him a New Yorker. Ben met Geckoman in 2010, though Gecks probably doesn't remember. The 18-year-old superhero was occupied with defending Freedom City from the third Grue invasion, and working things out with his supervillain girlfriend. But Ben will never, ever forget it. He was only seven years old when his family found themselves trapped in the Millennium Mall, huddling behind an increasingly fatigued and desperate Spellbound. Ben was impressed with her and the lightning-wand she used to zap away the invading aliens, but with her black costume and icy demeanor, she scared the boy almost as much as the Grue. When the brightly-colored, wise-cracking Geckoman dropped down through the skylight and started jumping around, tossing boomerangs, and kicking giant monsters in the face, little Ben's fear evaporated. From that day forward, Ben was a lifelong #Geckofan. Eight years later, Doctor Cooper Seidel was hard at work trying to stabilize and enhance his universal antivenom serum, and his resulting transformation into the reptile monster Goanna. He had retained a gang of hired thugs who had helped him steal the lab equipment, rare animal specimens, and radioactive materials he needed for his latest experiments. He closely monitored local law enforcement communications, so he had advance warning when the multi-agency task force finally found his hideout and moved to raid it. Seidel and his henchmen hastily loaded the irradiated animal specimens into a truck and escaped just as the tactical units broke down the door. The truck had enough of a lead that they might have escaped, if a bystander hadn't lost their grip on their dog's leash. Or if the dog hadn't then run out into the middle of the road. Or if fifteen year-old computer science prodigy Ben Wang hadn't run out into the road after the dog to scoop it up. Or if Seidel's henchman hadn't swerved at high speed to avoid Ben and lost control of the truck, flipping and crashing it. The truck and the tanks inside it broke open, spilling water and a menagerie of mutated animals into the street. Ben saved the dog, but the truck clipped him, sending him flying several feet away. He was dazed for a few moments, before the rush of cold water on the asphalt under him cleared his head. He saw a tiny yellow octopus crawling on his hand, and had just enough time to think it was cute before it bit him. Seidel ordered his henchmen to gather up the escaped test subjects, but no amount of money could convince them to pick up a bunch of radioactive venomous creatures with their bare hands. While Ben was wracked with painful muscle spasms which escalated into projectile vomiting, diarrhea, and a full-blown seizure, an enraged Seidel transformed into Goanna and slaughtered his own "cowardly and incompetent" henchmen, along with the occupants of the first couple of police cars who responded to the crash. Goanna intended to do the same to the bumbling idiot boy who had ruined everything, but when he saw that one of his test subjects had already done the work for him, he merely laughed while the boy suffocated on the pavement. Knowing that some combination of the FCPD's STAR squad, AEGIS, or one or more superheroes would show up soon, Goanna fled into the sewers. Seidel showed up at the hospital where Ben had been taken later that same night, intent on harvesting samples from the boy's corpse, since it was all the remained of his months of research. He was surprised to learn that the boy had survived. He took careful note of the boy's name, and resolved to keep him under close surveillance. Ben received prompt medical attention, and he seemed to make a full recovery, with one exception: The song he'd been listening to on his headphones when he dove out in front of that truck was the last thing he would ever hear. Hearing loss isn't a normal symptom of either vehicular collisions or tetrodotoxin poisoning, but the doctors had no other idea what else could have caused it. It wasn't until several days after he was discharged from the hospital that Ben's body began to change significantly. The changes happened gradually, over the course of several months. Ben hid them from everyone, even his parents. As his new powers slowly manifested, he learned how to use them through a combination of new instinct and trial and error. He knew immediately what he wanted to do with them. Right after his sixteenth birthday, during the summer before his sophomore year of high school, Ben put on his costume and started swinging through the streets of Freedom City as Octoman. PERSONALITY & MOTIVATION Ben is bright, inquisitive, and altruistic, but he can't keep his big mouth shut. Growing up as the latchkey-kid only child of two workaholic parents has turned him into a bit of an unconscious attention-seeker. He likes to make an entrance. He has an opinion to share about everything. If he's not rambling, he's arguing. If a joke or an insult comes to his mind, then it also comes out of his mouth. He never stops trash-talking during a competition or a fight. He's actually a pretty sensitive kid, but he never met an emotion he couldn't hide under sarcasm or just drown out with his motor-mouth. He doesn't know how to pick his battles, and his refusal to let the slightest disagreement, injustice, or insult go unchallenged gets him into trouble. But even when he's railing against injustice, he generally tries to keep things light. He'll keep making bad jokes and puns past the point where anyone is laughing (if they ever were to begin with). After his brush with death, Ben just felt lucky. But once his powers manifested, weird though they are, he felt blessed. Ben has two passions in life: Hacking, and superheroes. He maintains active accounts on both HeroHouse and TroubAlert (Username: Geckofan). He's been obsessed with Geckoman in particular (and, to a lesser extent, the rest of his Young Freedom and Interceptors teammates) since he was seven years old. He had resigned himself to, maybe, at best, using his hacking skills to play a support role for a superhero someday. But he desperately wanted to be an actual superhero, just like Gecks. His resulting disability and (slight) disfigurement have put a damper on his enthusiasm, but only a slight one. He's still having trouble adjusting, but he loves being a superhero more than he misses his hearing. POWERS & TACTICS Ben has a surprising amount of hand-to-hand combat training for a teenager. He's been wrestling since junior high, and he's been taking self-defense classes since he was seven (they weren't a hard sell for his parents after he almost died in the Grue invasion). His superhuman agility and flexibility, his bundle of sticky tentacles stretching and lashing out for dozens or hundreds of feet in every direction, his lack of response to any auditory stimuli, and his youthful recklessness and loud mouth all combine to make him a confusing and irritating opponent. He can potentially attack or evade in any direction. He can lash out with his tentacles like whips, use them to grab a foe and pull them in for a punch or a kick, or use them to pull himself in close for the same. He will wrap his tentacles around a foe, and then slam that foe into objects, terrain, or even other foes. He'll grab a faraway foe and pull them in for a punch, or pull himself to them, boot-first. His ink sprays and venomous bite make him even more unpredictable. Ben was a normal human, but an injection of radioactive octopus venom mutated him into a human-cephalopod hybrid. His body has grown several new glands, organs, and orifices. He has almost no bones left in his body. Most of them have transformed into cartilage and muscle. So while his body looks "solid" from the outside, he can bend, stretch, and compress his flesh, contorting into any position and squeezing through any crevices. His skin can secrete a clear mucous which acts as a lubricant to aid this process. The outer layers of his flesh are so flexible and malleable that he can change the texture of his skin at will. His skin cells contain pigments which can be released with muscle contractions in a virtually infinite variety of combinations, allowing him to change his coloration to anything he can imagine. These traits allow him to effectively becoming invisible in the normal visual light spectrum, or to mimic the appearance of any object or creature. This also makes it virtually impossible for foes in hand-to-hand combat to keep a grip on him. He has superhuman levels of strength, agility, stamina, and to a lesser extent, resilience. With his thick skin, powerful and flexible muscles, and lack of a rigid skeleton, he is able to absorb traumatic impact, cuts and blunt force alike, with less likelihood of real injury. He has grown several "back-up organs", which make it less likely that any wounds he suffers will be debilitating. He has three hearts, and enough brain and nervous tissue running throughout his body to act as a second brain and spinal cord. He has what would be considered a "weak healing factor" by superhuman standards (not enough for Regeneration or Impervious Toughness, but enough for a high Constitution score). His body can repair minor damage quickly, and more severe wounds are less likely to happen in the first place. He doesn't heal from serious injury much "faster" than a normal human, but he heals "better". Given time to recuperate, he will reliably make a full recovery from trauma which would cripple or kill a normal person. Like a cephalopod, his body can even regrow lost limbs. He isn't technically immune to fatigue, disease, infection, radiation, or extremes of temperature or pressure, but his body is so effective at fighting them off that sometimes it seems like he is. He has, for lack of a better term, "super-health". New orifices on his forearms and on the sides and back of his torso can deploy tentacles*, which can stretch for hundreds of feet. The same neural tissue running through the rest of his body also runs through the tentacles, allowing his brain to control all of them perfectly. (*Technically, these new limbs are "arms", rather than "tentacles", since they have suckers along their entire length, instead of just at the ends, but this distinction only matters to marine biologists.) His body contains a network of hollow tubes and bladders similar to a cephalopod siphon. He can use muscular contractions to force fluids through those tubes and out of his body, through a series of new orifices on the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet, and his lower back. The primary use of his internal siphon is locomotion. By forcing air or water through it, he creates jet propulsion, launching himself through the water or up into the air. A substantial portion of his extra brain tissue is devoted to processing visual and olfactory input, and the suckers on his tentacles act as extra noses and tongues. His senses of sight, smell, and taste are enhanced far beyond those of a normal human. His eyes can perceive a wider array of color at finer detail, and he has excellent night vision. He can distinguish fine details in scent and taste, and track them to their source like a bloodhound. His body is truly amphibious, adapted equally well to life in open air or under water. His aforementioned increased visual acuity allows him to see perfectly in the dim light of deep water. He has gills on the sides of his neck, which remain closed in open air but which allow him to breathe while he is under water. His skin acts as near-perfect insulation, keeping him from losing his body heat. His blood contains both hemoglobin and hemocyanin, so it is equally effective at keeping his tissues oxygenated in both open air and freezing water. His siphon allows him to regulate his internal fluid pressure, which, along with his flexible muscles, lets him adapt to the crushing weight of the deep sea. His internal siphon can also expel the pungent, opaque black ink produced by another one of his new organs. He can release it gradually, creating a cloud which provides cover (the gas quickly dissolves in open air, so it is equally effective under water or on dry land), or he can fire a concentrated burst of ink directly into the face of an enemy, temporarily blinding them and overwhelming their olfactory senses in a manner similar to that of tear gas or pepper spray. His head contains venom sacs, which produce a paralytic poison similar to that of the octopus who bit him. His body injects this poison with a combination of a pharyngeal jaw and a proboscis: A pair of pincers, similar to a cephalopod beak, on the end of a second tongue, hidden under his original tongue, which can telescope over a foot from his mouth, fully extending in a fraction of a second. His own body is immune to this venom, and other, similar toxins. COMPLICATIONS Accidents: Ben is inexperienced and reckless. The GM can give him a Hero Point in exchange for declaring that Ben's actions have created some sort of hazard, which he must drop his current task to deal with. Alien Blood: Ben's blood is a wildly different color and consistency from normal human blood, and it is slightly radioactive. Once it leaves his body, it is no longer subject to his Morph power, and its true nature is revealed. Since his blood pressure is so much higher than that of a normal human, when his blood does leave his body, it is usually quite obvious. It is not dangerous, but Geiger counters will register a noticeable uptick in its presence. The GM can give Ben a Hero Point if his blood causes some sort of setback. Examples include revealing his presence when it would otherwise go unnoticed, or social interaction turning hostile when he is revealed as something not quite human. Disability (Deaf): Ben permanently has the Deafened condition (Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition, page 171). He suffers a -4 penalty to Initiative, and he automatically fails auditory Notice checks (Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition, page 52). Ben has another Acute Radius sense, his normal olfactory sense, but that doesn't necessarily provide him with the same information that an auditory sense would. The GM can give him a Hero Point every time he suffers a setback due to his inability to hear. The most common example would be a failure on his part to correctly read another person's lips while they speak. According to the Masterminds Manual, page 14, in order to read lips, he must make a visual Notice check at +5DC. According to Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition, pages 51-52, this is a base DC10 check, since it is DC0 to notice something standing out in the open but DC10 to perceive fine details about it. With the +5 penalty, the Notice check for lip reading would have a base DC15, with an additional +5 DC if the GM decides that Ben is "distracted", and another +1DC for every 10ft Notice increment between Ben and the person whose lips he's trying to read. If he fails by 1-4, then he can't make out what they're saying, and if he fails by 5+, then he misinterprets their words. Enemy (Goanna): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when Goanna shows up to make an already bad situation worse. Since Goanna knows Ben's secret identity, he could show up anywhere, at any time. Loudmouth: Ben doesn't know when to keep his big mouth shut. The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he creates a setback for himself by mouthing off. Alternately, the GM can give another character a Hero Point when Ben creates a setback for them. If the GM doesn't feel that Ben is being sufficiently mouthy, then they can give him a Hero Point in exchange for forcing him to mouth off in a situation where doing so will create a setback for him. Alternately, the GM can give another character a Hero Point and force Ben to mouth off in a way which will create a setback for that other character. Obsession (Geckoman): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point if Ben creates a setback for himself due to his obsessive hero-worship of Geckoman, such as neglecting his responsibilities or ruining a social interaction. The GM can also give him a Hero Point in exchange for forcing him to do this. Power Loss (Ink, Venom): Ben's body produces ink and venom which he can use as weapons, but it does not produce an infinite supply, and once depleted, it takes time to replenish. The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he tries to use one of these powers in exchange for declaring that he has run out of "ammunition". Prejudice: Ben is black, Latino, Asian, Jewish, disabled, and a mutate. The GM can give him a Hero Point when another character's ignorance of and/or prejudice against one or more of these groups creates a setback for him. Responsibilities (Family, School): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he faces a setback on account of obligations to his parents or his schoolwork. For example, the GM can give him a Hero Point at the start of a day or thread and declare that he is Fatigued because he didn't have time to get enough sleep. Secrets (Identity, Mutation): The GM can give Ben a Hero Point when he has a task to accomplish, but is hindered by the need to protect his identity, and/or his nature as a mutate. Sensory Overload (Olfactory, Visual): Ben has enhanced smell, taste, and vision. The GM can give him a Hero Point in exchange for increasing the effective power rank of sensory powers like Dazzle which target those sense types. Status (Minor): It's possible that Ben might face a setback on account of his legal age which even his Morph power and high Bluff score couldn't get him out of. If the GM can come up with one, then they can give him a Hero Point in exchange for inflicting it upon him. ABILITIES 32PP Strength: 30/14 (+10/+2), 50/14 Lifting (Heavy Load: 12 tons / 175 lbs.) Dexterity: 30/14 (+10/+2) Constitution: 26/14 (+8/+2) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 10 (+0) Charisma: 20 (+5) COMBAT 16PP Initiative: +10/-2 (+10/+2 Dex, +4 Enhanced Improved Initiative, -4 Deafened) Attack: +10 Melee (+4 Base, +6 Attack Focus [Melee]), +4 Ranged (+4 Base) Grapple: +34/+12 vs one target, +30/+12 vs multiple targets (+10 Melee Attack, +10/+2 Strength/Dexterity, +4 Additional Limbs, +6 Elongation, +4 Super-Strength) Defense: +10 (+4 Base, +6 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback Resistance: 5/2, 4/1 Flat-Footed ATTACK RANGE SAVING THROW EFFECT Unarmed Touch* DC25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Mass Tentacles Touch/Area DC20 Reflex Bound (Helpless) Ink Spray Touch +20ft DC20 Reflex Dazzle Olfactory + Visual DC20 Fortitude Recover Venomous Bite Touch DC20 Fortitude (Staged) Slowed/Paralyzed *Up to 250ft with Elongation. SAVING THROWS 10PP Toughness: +10/+4 (+8/+2 Con, +2 Defensive Roll), +8/+2 Flat-Footed Fortitude: +8/+2 (+8/+2 Con, +0PP) Reflex: +12/+4 (+10/+2 Dex, +2PP)Evasion Will: +8 (+0 Wis, +8PP) SKILLS 68R = 17PP Acrobatics 3 (+15/+5)Skill Mastery Bluff 15 (+20)Skill Mastery, Taunt Computers 15 (+20)Second Chance, Skill Mastery, Ultimate Skill Disguise 0 (+5, +10 or +50 with Morph) Escape 0 (+16/+2, Automatic with Insubstantial) Knowledge (Current Events) 5 (+10) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 2 (+7) Knowledge (Pop Culture) 10 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 5 (+10) Knowledge (Theology & Philosophy) 1 (+6) Languages 3 (American Sign Language [ASL], English [Native], Hebrew, Spanish) Notice 5 (+15/+5)Skill Mastery, Deafened Search 0 (+15/+5) Stealth 2 (+15/+4) Swim 2 (+15/+4)Swimming FEATS 24PP Attack Focus (Melee) 6 Chokehold Defensive Roll (+2 Toughness) Dodge Focus 6 Grapple Finesse Luck 3 Online Research Second Chance (Computers) Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Computers, Notice) Taunt Well-Informed Ultimate Skill (Computers) Enhanced: Environmental Adaptation (Underwater) Evasion Improved Initiative POWERS 103PP Concealment 2 (Normal Vision, Flaws: Blending, Passive) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Enhanced Constitution 12 [12PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Redundant Organs, Regeneration, Super-Toughness) Enhanced Dexterity 16 (Feats: Evasion, Improved Initiative) [18PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Agility, Super-Reflexes) Enhanced Skills 28 (Acrobatics 2, Notice 10, Search 10, Stealth 3, Swim 3) [7PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Agility, Super-Reflexes, Super-Senses) Features 2 (Environmental Adaptation [Underwater], Internal Compartment) [2PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Immunity 4 (Environmental 2 [Cold, Pressure], Poison, Suffocation [Underwater]) [4PP] (Descriptors: Gills, Insulated Skin, Internal Network of Fluid Bladders & Siphons, Mutation, No Skeleton, Venom Glands) Morph 1 (+5 Disguise, Any Form) [3PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Octopus Movement 2 (4PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power) [5PP] Base Power: [4PP] Leaping 4 (x25, Running Long Jump: 500ft) [4PP] (Descriptors: Biological Jet Propulsion, Mutation) Alternate Power: [4PP] Swimming 4 (25MPH / 250ft per Move Action, Can Take 10 on Swim checks) [4PP] (Descriptors: Biological Jet Propulsion, Mutation) Octopus Power 16 (32PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 4) [36PP] Base Power: [5 + 3 + 16 + 8 = 32PP] Additional Limbs 4 (+10 Limbs, Extras: Duration [Sustained], Feats: Ambidexterity) [5PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Retractable Tentacles) Elongation 6 (250ft Max Elongation, Elongate 300ft per Move Action, Free action to retract, 60ft Range Increments for elongated melee attacks, Flaws: Limited [Additional Limbs]) [3PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Stretchy Tentacles) Enhanced Strength 16 [16PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Strength) Super-Strength 4 (Lifting Strength: 50, Heavy Load: 12 tons) [8PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Alternate Power: [26 + 6 = 32PP] Dazzle 10 (Sense Types: Olfactory + Visual, Flaws: Range [Touch], Feats: Extended Reach 4 [25ft], Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) [26PP] (Descriptors: Ink Spray, Mutation) Obscure 3 (Sense Types: Olfactory + Visual, Area: 25ft radius, Extras: Independent, Total Fade [6 rounds], Flaws: Limited [One Sense: Normal Vision], Range [Touch]) [6PP] (Descriptors: Ink Cloud, Mutation) Alternate Power: [6 + 24 = 30PP] Insubstantial 1 (Feats: Subtle) [6PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Morph 8 (9, +45 Disguise, Any Form) [24PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Shapeshifting) Alternate Power: [32PP] Paralyze 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude], Secondary Effect, Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) [32PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Pharyngeal Jaw, Proboscis, Venom) Alternate Power: [32PP] Snare 10 (Extras: Area [Type: Targeted, Shape: Cone], Engulf, Selective, Flaws: Duration [Concentration], Feats: Chokehold, Progression [Area Size] 1 [25ft/rank = 250ft]) [32PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Tentacles) Regeneration 5 (Recovery 1 [+9]; Recovery Rate: Injured 2 [5 minutes], Disabled 2 [1 hour]; Feats: Regrowth) [6PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Super-Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2 [Full Speed, Not Flat-Footed]) [4PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Suckers) Super-Senses 5 (Acute Tracking Smell/Taste, Danger Sense [Sense Types: Olfactory], Low-Light Vision, Uncanny Dodge [Sense Types: Olfactory]) [5PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Suckers) TOTALS Abilities (32) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (10) + Skills (17) + Feats (24) + Powers (103) - Drawbacks (0) = 202/204 Power Points
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