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Lucia Sakaguchi

 

Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 90/90

 

STR: -1 (8), DEX: +2 (14), CON: +1 (12), INT: +1 (12), WIS: +2 (14), CHA: +1 (12)

 

Tough: +0/+4, Fort: +3, Ref: +5, Will: +5

 

Skills: Acrobatics 3 (+5), Bluff 4 (+5), Concentration 3 (+5), Diplomacy 4 (+5), Disable Device 4 (+5), Gather Information 4 (+5), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 4 (+5), Knowledge (popular culture) 4 (+5), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 4 (+5), Language 6 (+6), Notice 3 (+5), Sense Motive 3 (+5), Stealth 4 (+10), Swim 6 (+5)

 

Feats: Attack Focus (melee), Attack Specialization (Unarmed Attack), Dodge Focus 3, Luck 2, Taunt

 

Powers:

Armored Wetsuit (Device 1) (Hard to lose)

   Immunity 1 (suffocation: Drowning)

   Protection 4 (+4 Toughness)

Literal Child (Shrinking 4) (-4 STR, -1 Toughness, -1 size category, 3/4 movement speed; Permanent; Innate)

White Magic (Array 9) (default power: healing)

   Healing 4 (Default; DC 14; Range (ranged), Restoration; Persistent, Regrowth)

   Nauseate 4 (Array; DC 14; Range (ranged), Secondary Effect; Accurate 2 (+4))

   Paralyze 4 (Array; DC 14; Range (ranged), Secondary Effect; Accurate 2 (+4))

   Stun 4 (Array; DC 14; Range (ranged), Secondary Effect; Accurate 2 (+4))

 

Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +4, Melee: +5, Grapple: -1)

 

Attacks: Nauseate 4, +8 (DC Fort/Staged 14), Paralyze 4, +8 (DC Staged/Will 14), Stun 4, +8 (DC Fort/Staged 14), Unarmed Attack, +7 (DC 14)

 

Defense: +8  (Flat-footed: +3), Size: Small, Knockback: -1

 

Initiative: +2

 

Languages: Chinese (Cantonese), English, French, Japanese, Palauan Native , Portuguese, Tahitian

 

Totals: Abilities 16 + Skills 14 (56 ranks) + Feats 8 + Powers 30 + Combat 14 + Saves 8 + Drawbacks 0 = 90

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 8

Height: 4’2”

Weight: 55 lbs.

Ethnicity: Mixed (Japanese, Portugeuse, Indonesian, & Dutch)

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Green

 

Background: Lucia Sakaguchi is the daughter of Yasmine Sakaguchi and Tobias. She’s, you know, eight, so there isn’t a lot to tell. She’s learning a lot from her mom, dad, Aunt Rikki, and Uncle Willie. In fact, she learned White Magic from watching her mom, acrobatics from her dad, stealth from Aunt Rikki, and how to throw a good punch from Uncle Willie. Her life consists of sun, sand, a little mischief, and easygoing adventures around Koror. School’s kind of a pain, but when it lets out it’s fun time, baby. She’s never left Koror, but there’ll be time for that later. She’s basically been an unofficial part of the Guild since she was barely a toddler. Lately, though, she and the powered kids have been teaming up. There’s little jobs around Koror that get posted to the Guild, too. Find a lost pet. Deliver a gift. Little things. The eight of them are unofficially known as the Seawings NuGen.

 

Powers & Tactics: Lucia is a White Magician like her mother. She’s barely apprentice level, however, and thus her spells are still very weak by comparison. She hasn’t made any contracts with summonable creatures/spirits, either, so she is incapable of summoning. With that said, she can heal, nauseate, paralyze, or stun with her normal spells. She also has, from Aunt Rikki, an Armored Wetsuit. It provides an oxygen supply since she’s not a great swimmer yet, and is armored just in case she gets into shenanigans.

 

Tactically, Lucia understands she’s not a strong fighter yet. So she plays support as best she can. In the kind of fights the NuGen get into (against wild animals and other foes with low to minimal Will saves), typically her Paralyze is her best bet. Nauseate and Stun can be of use from time to time. And she can easily heal her friends’ injuries. As a mere fledgling apprentice, she has very few power stunts. They are the “buff” spells all of which are Boost 6 with Ranged and Total Fade. She can Boost things like Leaping, Impervious Toughness, Speed, or Super Strength.

 

Personality: Lucia is a very energetic and cheerful girl. She is kind, but with a mischievous streak. If you want personality depth, you’ve come to the wrong place. She’s just a rambunctious, good natured kid. Emphasis on the kid, as the expected immaturity is there too.

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Ting Heskett

 

Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 90/90

 

STR: -2 (6), DEX: +1 (12), CON: +5 (20), INT: +5 (20), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +0 (10)

 

Tough: +4/+8, Fort: +5, Ref: +3, Will: +5

 

Skills: Acrobatics 4 (+5), Diplomacy 5 (+5), Language 3 (+3), Notice 2 (+5), Sense Motive 2 (+5)

 

Feats: Beginner's Luck, Eidetic Memory, Jack-of-All-Trades, Luck 2

 

Powers:

"Natural" Childhood (Shrinking 4) (-4 STR, -1 Toughness, -1 size category, 3/4 movement speed; Permanent)

Highly Advanced Android Body (Container, Passive 3) (Subtle 2 (unnoticable))

   Internal Fuel Cell (Immunity 11) (life support, sleep, starvation & thirst)

   Sturdy Internal Structure (Protection 4) (+4 Toughness)

Quickened Mind (Quickness 2) (Perform routine tasks at 5x speed; One Type (Mental))

Wishing Bracelet Wishes (Variable 4) (acquire: any one of (type) - technological powers, limited to: summoned devices; Power Loss (Without Wishing Bracelet))

 

Power Settings:

3-D Video Projector (Power Setting) (Powers: 3-D Holograph Projector (Illusion 4))

Anti Grav Unit (Power Setting) (Powers: Anti Grav Unit (Linked))

Autoblaster Pistol (Power Setting) (Powers: Autoblaster Pistol (Blast 4))

Babel Effect Generator (Power Setting) (Powers: Babel Effect Generator (Comprehend 4))

Heal Ray (Power Setting) (Powers: Heal Ray (Healing 4))

Laser Sword (Power Setting) (Powers: Laser Sword (Linked))

Magneto-Gravitic Projector (Power Setting) (Powers: Magneto-Gravitic Projector (Move Object 4))

Negative Light Projector (Power Setting) (Powers: Negative Light Projector (Concealment 4))

Phase Variance Shifter (Power Setting) (Powers: Phase Variance Shifter (Insubstantial 4))

Self Regenerator (Power Setting) (Powers: Self Regenerator (Healing 4))

 

Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +4, Melee: +4, Grapple: -3)

 

Attacks: Autoblaster Pistol (Blast 4), +8 (DC 19), Laser Sword Burn (Drain 4), +8 (DC Fort/Staged 14), Laser Sword Strike (Strike 4), +8 (DC 19), Unarmed Attack, +4 (DC 13)

 

Defense: +4  (Flat-footed: +2), Size: Small, Knockback: -3

 

Initiative: +1

 

Languages: Cantonese Native, English, Japanese, Palauan

 

Totals: Abilities 28 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 5 + Powers 37 + Combat 12 + Saves 4 + Drawbacks 0 = 90

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): At least 10,000 (chronological pre activation), 5 years (post activation), approx. 8 years (appearance)

Height: 4’ 3

Weight: 60 lbs.

Ethnicity: Pacific Islander (appearance), highly advanced android (real)

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Ting Heskett is a highly advanced android. So advanced that Rikki says if she tried to mess with her systems it’d be like a caveman pounding on a microchip. Rikki was the one who found her, in a ruin dating back to the Magi-Tech war 10,000 years ago. Her purpose is unknown. She was the only functional thing in that ruin, and the records, well...10,000 years is just too long (in Rikki’s experience) for any information storage medium to survive. Rikki managed to activate her by accident (see caveman, microchip), and basically just took her home when she left. She’s basically Rikki’s daughter at this point. Today, Ting is a proud part of the Seawings Adventurer Guild, teaming with the NuGen. Ting is Cantonese for “enduring” or “timeless”. It fits her pretty well, or so Rikki thought. Nathaniel Truman took a look at her, too, and agreed with the caveman-microchip analogy.

What nobody knows, not even Ting herself, is that she was a Special Forces soldier in that war. She was a lot more capable in those days, but she was critically injured and brought to a recovery facility. The catastrophic end to the war left the facility in its ruined state and all Ting could do was reboot to her base state. Which was when Rikki found her, as a tiny child.

 

Powers & Tactics: Ting is a highly advanced android. So advanced, in fact, that you have to be a tech expert and have access to the appropriate scanning tech to notice that she isn’t a human being. She has an Internal Fuel Cell that removes the needs to eat, breath, and sleep along with being able to completely ignore disease, poison, and environmental concerns. Please do note that is the *need* to eat, breathe, and sleep. She still does all three when necessary. Her natural stamina is bountiful and easy to maintain. And her Sturdy Internal Structure helps protect her from damage. Her mind even processes stimuli 5 times faster than an unpowered human. But the showstopper is her Wishing Bracelet Wishes. This is decidedly not what they are. Somewhere, buried deep in the earth, is a vault full of all manner of wondrous technological devices. And she can summon them to her hand by making a wish with her special bracelet. Except she’s mentally an eight years old child, so she’s wrong. Sort of. She only needs the bracelet because she believes she does. There is no apparent limit to the types of devices she can summon, but their overall power is limited. It is not known if that’s because she’s “young” or because that’s all the power they have.

 

Tactically, Ting is tough to predict because of her Wishing Bracelet Wishes. She can effectively pull out 4 ranks of any power with any extras or power feats up to 20PP. Her versatility is insane. And she has the raw intellect to know what to wish for and when. So she can play support, drop damage, chase exotic saves, anything. And she can take a lot of damage for a PL 6. She does not power stunt, as she literally has a Variable power.

 

Personality: Ting is...kind of vacant. Blank stare. Apparently not a lot going on upstairs. Lights are on but nobody’s home. Cloud Cuckoo Lander is the trope. To be fair, her mom is basically Rikki, and uh…she’s a very…carefree parent. With that said, Ting is just a really quiet and subdued kid. She has memories of another life, but they don’t make sense. There was some kind of war? Maybe? The world she’s in doesn’t make a lot of sense. She is still an android, after all, and lacks that intuitive knowledge of what it is to be human. So she’s a weirdo, but rapidly learning. Which is what the usual blank stare is about. Information processing.

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“The Shadow Wolf” Lucien Rousseau

 

Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 90/90

 

STR: +5 (10/20), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +5 (14/20), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +1 (12), CHA: +2 (14)

 

Tough: +4/+7, Fort: +5, Ref: +5, Will: +3

 

Skills: Acrobatics 5 (+8), Intimidate 8 (+8), Language 4 (+4), Notice 4 (+5), Sense Motive 4 (+5), Stealth 3 (+10)

 

Feats: Attack Specialization (Unarmed Attack), Improved Critical 2 (Shadow Claws (Strike 2)), Startle, Takedown Attack

 

Powers:

Demonic Atavism (Container, Passive 6)

   Demonic Constitution (Enhanced Constitution 6) (+6 CON)

   Demonic Might (Super-Strength 1) (+5 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 600 lbs; +1 STR to some checks)

   Demonic Strength (Enhanced Strength 10) (+10 STR)

   Senses of the Shadow Wolf (Super-Senses 3) (darkvision, scent)

   Shadow Armor (Protection 3) (+3 Toughness; Impervious [3 extra ranks])

Just A Kid (Shrinking 4) (-4 STR, -1 Toughness, -1 size category, 3/4 movement speed; Permanent; Innate)

Shadow Claws (Strike 2) (DC 22, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Shadow Claws (Strike 2)); Mighty)

 

Attack Bonus: +5 (Ranged: +5, Melee: +5, Grapple: +5/+6)

 

Attacks: Shadow Claws (Strike 2), +5 (DC 22), Unarmed Attack, +7 (DC 20)

 

Defense: +5  (Flat-footed: +3), Size: Small, Knockback: -5

 

Initiative: +3

 

Languages: English, French Native, Japanese, Palauan, Portuguese

 

Totals: Abilities 20 + Skills 7 (28 ranks) + Feats 3 + Powers 40 + Combat 16 + Saves 4 + Drawbacks 0 = 90

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 8

Height: 4’ 3”

Weight: 60 lbs.

Ethnicity: French Tahitian

Hair: Black

Eyes: Red

 

Background: Lucien Rousseau has no biological relationship with his adopted mother, Portia Rousseau. Just so that’s clear. They do both have a demonic atavism, but they’re different ones. France has some dark history, seems like. This is why Portia adopted him, actually. He was an orphan, and the system didn’t know how to handle a kid with near superhuman strength, shadow claws, and not nearly enough maturity to handle the demonic influence on his mind. He literally can’t hurt Portia, even if he could hit her. It was a very useful lesson in humility. She’s been teaching him how to handle his destructive demonic urges. Lately, though, he’s been hanging out with the NuGen as their resident bruiser. It’s been okay.

 

Powers & Tactics: One of Lucien’s ancestors was a demon. A shadow wolf demon, apparently. What this does for him is nothing fancy. He’s just got near superhuman strength, stamina, and durability. And, of course, the aforementioned claws made out of corporeal shadows. He can put them away, though, as they’re willing manifestations of his powers. Lastly, he can see in any level of darkness and tell the difference between one scent and another. Perhaps when he grows up a bit, so will his powers.

 

Tactically, Lucien is not complicated. Claws, claws, and more claws. Throw in an unarmed strike or Startle just for variety. His sheer durability at such a young age has made him quite reckless, as well. He doesn’t know what a power stunt even is.

 

Personality: Lucien is an angry, aggressive shithead, but not in the scary as hell grown man kind of way. He’s just an insecure kid, both overconfident in and scared of his powers. This is glaringly obvious to anyone who interacts with him. He wants friends and to be loved, as any orphan would be, but wow is he bad at expressing it honestly. Because he’s an eight year old with demonic urges to murder trying to influence his mind. He miiiiight have a little bit of a crush of Lucia. Also tempering his shitheadedness is Portia just destroying him when he goes too far. Mostly with intimidate, but sometimes they throw hands. 6 vs 12. Goes just about the way you’d expect.

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Charlie Teriong

 

Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 90/90

 

STR: +1 (12), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +3 (16), INT: +1 (12), WIS: +2 (14), CHA: +2 (14)

 

Tough: +2/+3, Fort: +3, Ref: +7, Will: +3

 

Skills: Acrobatics 7 (+10), Bluff 8 (+10), Diplomacy 3 (+5), Knowledge (popular culture) 4 (+5), Language 4 (+4), Notice 3 (+5), Sense Motive 3 (+5), Swim 4 (+5)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus (melee) 4, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Dodge Focus 2, Evasion, Improved Critical 2 (Ohana II Strike (Strike 3)), Improved Initiative, Luck 2, Takedown Attack, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Leaping 1 (Jumping distance: x2)

Literally A Child (Shrinking 4) (-4 STR, -1 Toughness, -1 size category, 3/4 movement speed; Permanent; Innate)

Ohana II (Device 2) (Hard to lose)

   Ohana II Strike (Strike 3) (DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Ohana II Strike (Strike 3)); Penetrating [1 extra rank]; Mighty)

Speed 1 (Speed: 10 mph, 88 ft./rnd)

Swimming 1 (Speed: 2.5 mph, 22 ft./rnd)

 

Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +4, Melee: +8, Grapple: +4)

 

Attacks: Ohana II Strike (Strike 3), +8 (DC 19), Unarmed Attack, +8 (DC 16)

 

Defense: +8  (Flat-footed: +3), Size: Small, Knockback: +0

 

Initiative: +7

 

Languages: Chinese (Cantonese), English Native, Japanese, Palauan, Russian

 

Totals: Abilities 28 + Skills 9 (36 ranks) + Feats 16 + Powers 16 + Combat 16 + Saves 5 + Drawbacks 0 = 90

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 10

Height: 4’ 7

Weight: 75 lbs.

Ethnicity: Mixed (Palauan, Japanese, & Russian)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

 

Background: Charlie Teriong is the first child of Lucy Hasegawa and Willie Teriong. He’s only ten years old, so not that much has happened to him yet. He displayed no capacity for magic, so Lucy can’t teach him anything. Chi cultivation takes years and years of training, so even with Willie teaching him he can’t use it yet. So Willie went back to his enchanted swordsmith and got his son the shortsword Ohana II. Tobias has been teaching him and he’s coming along really well, showing as much as a gift for athletics as the older man, despite his young age. Lately, though, he’s been teaming up with the NuGen to do some small jobs around Koror.

 

Powers & Tactics: Charlie has no superhuman powers of any kind, making do with swordsmanship and athleticism. His enchanted short sword, Ohana II, is a bit more powerful than normal, and much sharper. His training means he can run/swim faster, and jumper higher than any normal kid could possibly do.

 

Tactically, there’s not a huge amount going on. He’s got Acrobatic Bluff to knock foes off balance, Taunt to demoralize them, and Defensive Attack to protect himself against superior enemies. He definitely stays mobile. Other than that, his only plan is “hit with sword”. Obviously, he can’t power stunt at all.

 

Personality: Charlie takes after his dad and Uncle Tobias. Meaning he’s goofy, carefree, and kind with a very big heart. He can buckle down and be serious when necessary, but mostly yeah. He’s the silly comic relief one.

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Raven

 

Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 135/135

 

STR: +5 (10/20), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +5 (14/20), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +10 (20/30)

 

Tough: +4/+6, Fort: +5, Ref: +5, Will: +3

 

Skills: Acrobatics 9 (+12), Bluff 10 (+20), Diplomacy 10 (+20), Gather Information 10 (+20), Intimidate 7 (+15), Notice 9 (+9), Sense Motive 9 (+9)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Specialization (Unarmed Attack), Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Challenge - Improved Feint, Challenge - Improved Taunt, Defensive Roll, Improved Initiative, Improved Trick, Luck 3, Move-by Action, Takedown Attack 2, Ultimate Effort (Bluff checks), Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Animal Spirit (Container, Passive 6)

   Raven's Senses (Super-Senses 2) (acute: Normal Olfactory, radius: Visual)

   Raven's Wings (Flight 3) (Speed: 50 mph, 440 ft./rnd; Power Loss (Restrainable))

   Ravenclaw (Strike 2) (DC 22; Mighty)

   Spirit's Armor (Protection 1) (+1 Toughness)

   Spirit's Might (Super-Strength 1) (+5 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 600 lbs; +1 STR to some checks)

   Spirit's Stamina (Enhanced Constitution 6) (+6 CON)

   Spirit's Strength (Enhanced Strength 10) (+10 STR)

   Talk to Ravens (Comprehend 2) (animals - speak to, animals - understand; Narrow Group (ravens))

Child Sized (Shrinking 4) (-4 STR, -1 Toughness, -1 size category, 3/4 movement speed; Permanent; Innate)

Trickster (Container, Passive 4)

   Comprehend 2 (languages - understand all, languages - you're understood)

   Enhanced Charisma 10 (+10 CHA)

   Luck Control 1 (force a re-roll, Feats: Luck 3)

 

Attack Bonus: +5 (Ranged: +5, Melee: +5, Grapple: +5/+6)

 

Attacks: Ravenclaw (Strike 2), +5 (DC 22), Unarmed Attack, +7 (DC 20)

 

Defense: +5  (Flat-footed: +3), Size: Small, Knockback: -2

 

Initiative: +7

 

Languages: Native Language

 

Totals: Abilities 30 + Skills 16 (64 ranks) + Feats 13 + Powers 55 + Combat 16 + Saves 5 + Drawbacks 0 = 135

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): At least 12,000. Possibly over a million years. (chronological), 8 years (appearance)

Height: 4’ 4

Weight: 50 lbs.

Ethnicity: Native American (Atlantic coast variant)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Raven was not born. She simply abruptly existed one day. There are many, many stories of her in the various mythoi of North America’s native tribes. Some are true. Some are lies she told. Some are lies told about her. At any rate, there she was. The First and Highest of all ravens. Feared by some, worshiped by others, etc. Unlike a certain shaggy fool, she took her duties seriously. She may have been a capricious trickster, but she taught valuable lessons with her tricks and took care not to harm mortals if it wasn’t necessary. But time went on. The Industrial Revolution made it a little easier to get around from place to place. She pestered that canine to perform his duties properly now and again, and perhaps needlessly antagonized him from time to time. They were truly rivals. She lost track of him for a few decades, as happened occasionally, but she managed to find him again. She thought she’d screw with him by showing up naked in his bed. She’d done it before. Sometimes he was annoyed. Other times they had sex instead. What Raven did not know is that he had a girlfriend. One with superhuman strength and a big black sword to stab her in the heart with. And so, Raven died. Well, kind of. She, like all animal spirits, can’t die in the way that mortals understand it. So instead of simply being a corpse on the floor, her biological age rewound until that of a child. And basically she is now Portia and Coyote’s child, despite retaining all of her memories. It is horrible. And then they stuck her with being the chaperone and sort of protector of the NuGen. Just…super.

 

Powers & Tactics: Raven is a Native American animal spirit. This means all of her powers are divinely bestowed, even though she is not a god himself. And because she’s Raven, that means she’s basically a avian totem. Her powers, due to her weird rebirth, are far weaker than they used to be. She is now only a borderline superhuman powerhouse with a spectral foot claw attack and the inability to age who can converse casually with ravens. Not any avian species, just ravens. Yeah, she can fly with her wings, her sense of smell is better and she can see all around herself with her flexible neck, but the real action is in her Trickster powers. Speaking any language. Charisma to burn. She can even bend probability in her favor.

 

Tactically, Raven is not exactly one dimensional. She has her Ravenclaw and her unarmed strikes, true, but she also has Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Improved Feint, and Improved Taunt. Her Bluff bonus is effectively unstoppable at her PL. As one of the NuGen’s tanks, and kind of their protector, she throws down hard to make sure the children don’t come to harm. Even if she appears to be one of them. In her weakened state, she has no power stunts available.

 

Personality: Raven is a combination of poor impulse control, narcissism, and an instinctive knack for making poor life choices. She is a liar and a trickster. It is literally her nature, and as she isn’t strictly speaking a human being, she cannot defy it. This does not, however, mean that she permits it to define her. The animal spirits have duties, and like hell if she’ll abandon them to just do whatever she likes. Her tricks are almost always of a benevolent or at least non-malicious nature. She is a teacher of lessons and deflator of egos. She doesn’t want to actually harm anyone, but disrespect what she is (as opposed to her personality, dress code, current stature, etc) at your extreme peril. Regardless of how she appears and behaves, she is not a mortal in any way. Human lives, in the abstract, mean very little to her. Mortals come and go. Her concern for their welfare is out of professionalism, not a warm and caring heart. She is, after all, the First and Highest of a species of scavenging avian omnivores. She is an opportunist par excellence. Though to be fair, she’s grown a bit fond of the NuGen. They’re good kids, really. Not a single fool among them, adjusting for age. She doesn’t mind being their chaperone and sort of protector. But don’t misunderstand. She is Raven, and anyone who trusts her too completely is a fool who deserves what happens to them.

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Jing Zhang

 

Power Level: 8; Power Points Spent: 120/120

 

STR: +0 (10), DEX: +4 (18), CON: +3 (16), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +2 (14), CHA: +0 (10)

 

Tough: +2/+4, Fort: +5, Ref: +8, Will: +5

 

Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+12), Concentration 8 (+10), Diplomacy 10 (+10), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 5 (+5), Language 2 (+2), Medicine 3 (+5), Notice 8 (+10), Sense Motive 8 (+10), Stealth 8 (+16)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus (melee) 5, Defensive Roll 2, Dodge Focus 5, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Grappling Finesse, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Redirect, Takedown Attack, Trance, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Chi Enhancement (Container, Passive 2)

   Leaping 2 (Jumping distance: x5)

   Speed 2 (Speed: 25 mph, 220 ft./rnd)

   Super-Movement 3 (slow fall, swinging, wall-crawling 1 (half speed))

Child Prodigy (Shrinking 4) (-4 STR, -1 Toughness, -1 size category, 3/4 movement speed; Permanent; Innate)

Martial Arts Techniques (Array 6) (default power: strike)

   Chi Healing (Healing 6) (Array; Restoration; Personal)

   Iron Fist Strike (Strike 6) (Default; DC 21; Penetrating)

   Paralyzing Palm (Paralyze 6) (Array; DC 16)

   Stunning Fist (Stun 6) (Array; DC 16)

   Thousand Fists (Strike 6) (Array; DC 21; Autofire (interval 2, max +5))

 

Attack Bonus: +5 (Ranged: +5, Melee: +10, Grapple: +9)

 

Attacks: Iron Fist Strike (Strike 6), +10 (DC 21), Paralyzing Palm (Paralyze 6), +10 (DC Staged/Will 16), Stunning Fist (Stun 6), +10 (DC Fort/Staged 16), Thousand Fists (Strike 6), +10 (DC 21), Unarmed Attack, +10 (DC 15)

 

Defense: +10  (Flat-footed: +3), Size: Small, Knockback: -1

 

Initiative: +8

 

Languages: Chinese (Mandarin) Native, English, Japanese

 

Totals: Abilities 22 + Skills 15 (60 ranks) + Feats 27 + Powers 31 + Combat 16 + Saves 9 + Drawbacks 0 = 120

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 7 (biological) / Approximately 1100 (chronological)

Height: 3’ 11’

Weight: 45 lbs.

Ethnicity: Han Chinese

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Over 1100 years ago, during the waning years of the Tang Dynasty in China, there was a prophecy. Rebellions, natural disasters, and the ambitions of local officials threatened to destroy all the Tang had built. Even the Emperors themselves had lost interest in ruling in favor of the privileges said ruling afforded. The Mandate of Heaven was in danger of being lost. But the prophecy stated that a legend from the past would be reincarnated, and their might and wisdom would save all of China from the turmoil that accompanied a dynasty’s fall. This chosen one was Jing Zhang (Zhang Jing in the Chinese name order). There was some confusion and disdain regarding her gender among the monks, but the auguries and divinations were clear. It wasn’t exactly clear who she had been in a prior life, but her skill in the martial arts was unmistakable, and she had much wisdom for someone still in their first decade of life. The mistake that was made was in assuming that any child, even a chosen reincarnation, would be prepared for both the pressure of saving millions from chaos and the reality of what that entailed (being directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of many). She was a few weeks past her seventh birthday. This was not what she wanted. Not at all. So she did what any child would do. She ran away. There was a storm. She was swept away by a river. If not for the cave, she would have drowned. She searched and searched, but there was no way out other than through the water, and she could not swim. So there was one thing to be done. Wait. A normal child would have died of starvation. Jing Zhang was no normal child. She entered a deep trance and fell into a state of suspended animation. Time ceased to have any meaning as she dreamt mindlessly. The monks would find her. And perhaps they would have, in time. But the Tang Dynasty came to it’s end inside of a decade, and in the chaos of the Five Dynasties/Ten Kingdoms era, the monastery was destroyed. Its records were lost. And so Jing Zhang sat, more motionless than a stature, as years and years went by.

A millennium later, an earthquake and one of the many dams China built uncovered her cave. Chipped out of the stone was this wonderful statue of a little girl. The years and exposure had placed a layer of stone over her skin and hair, so that she resembled one. Chinese archaeologies recommended very careful handling so as not to break her. This layer of stone also prevented any light, sound, or other stimuli from reaching her dulled senses, and the careful handling prevented any real sensation of movement. The era of her creation could not be identified, and eventually she languished in a museum in Hong Kong post reunification. A careless movement put a chip in the stone behind her ear. It was not enough to cause her flesh to be viewable, but enough for the first bits of different sensation in a thousand years to reach her mind. Through backroom dealing, she ended up with a rich man as a part of his collection. He wanted her because of the gradually increasing chi inside of the statue, not knowing or caring that there was a person inside. Yasmine Sakaguchi, Rebecca Heskett, and Portia Rousseau, hearing of the mysterious statue through sources, determined that whatever was inside was waking up, and this was possibly a Very Bad Thing. Things inside ancient statures waking up being typically so. Especially when said statues are found in caves that had only been accessible by river for only the gods knew how long. But alas, the OG trio were just a bit late on this occasion. As the statue rocked, they prepared for a fight. Jing Zhang had been asleep for a very long time, and it had taken her a while to rouse enough to shake free. But tonight was the night. She broke free. Yas, Rikkil, and Portia looked at the kid for a second, then put away their weapons. Rikki even knelt down to talk to the tyke. Unfortunately, modern Cantonese matches Middle Chinese rather…poorly. And so the confused and irritated Jing punched Rikki in the nose. Rikki was comically laid out flat with a broken nose. Yas and Portia had to “fight” the little girl who was apparently one heck of a martial artist for her age. Jing couldn’t lay a hand on the quick stepping Yas without Portia stepping in the way and when she could hit Portia the obvious foreigner just tanked it. It was a problem. But then Rikki blinked the stars out of her eyes and pulled a Universal Translator out of her gear. Actually able to talk to one other, there was no need to fight. Soon, Jing found herself a member of the Seawings Adventurer Guild while she adapted to being way out of her own time and culture. She is currently with the NuGen because they needed a heavy hitter and she was one by their standards.

 

Powers & Tactics: Jing Zhang technically doesn’t have any superhuman powers. Her “powers” come from the use of Chi, which all humans have and can train to use and training in the martial arts. She is, however, an epic level prodigy. Most of the monks had maybe half of her power and skill as grown adults, let alone children. The first part of what she does with it is become the ultimate parkour user. She jumps higher, runs faster, and basically can get around like gravity only half applies to her, wuxia style. The second part is a variety of martial arts techniques using Chi to increase their power. She can paralyze, stun, strike rapidly or incredibly hard, and even heal herself.

 

Tacticallly, Jing doesn’t mess around. She’ll approach from Stealth if she can, but either way it’s Thousand Fists time. If they tank that through Impervious Toughness, then she’ll go with Iron Fist Strike. If their Toughness score is too high for that, then Paralyzing Palm and Stunning Fist come out to play. She’ll abuse Move by Action, naturally, and pull out Acrobatic Bluff at need. Power Attack is generally used to smash through walls and such. She can, of course, power stunt, but it’s a little uncommon. Strength of Chi (Enhanced Strength 12), Chi-splosion (Strike 6 [Burst Area]) and Blinding Fist (Dazzle 6 [Visual Senses]) are the most likely. Her suspended animation trick was one of these, but there’s no current need to repeat it.

 

Personality: You know that trope, Arrogant Kung Fu Guy? Yeah, except she’s a girl and not actually a jerk. She’s just suffering extreme culture shock. 2019 Palau is very, very different from late Tang dynasty China. Her social skills kind of mostly don’t exist, on account of 1) culture shock, 2) being raised by an isolated society of monks, and 3) being seven years old. The monks did teach her protocol, and how to act in various social situations, but those were applicable only in that time and place. So she’s a weirdo (again, culture shock; she’s not actually all that strange) who can be likeable enough to make friends but also annoy anyone with her overblown pride in her ability. Said ability being the only thing she has left of the world she came from.

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Hana Choi

 

Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 90/90

 

STR: -2 (6), DEX: +1 (12), CON: +0 (10), INT: +5 (20), WIS: +2 (14), CHA: +1 (12)

 

Tough: -1/+4, Fort: +3, Ref: +3/+7, Will: +3

 

Skills: Concentration 8 (+10), Craft (electronic) 5 (+10), Craft (mechanical) 5 (+10), Knowledge (physical sciences) 5 (+10), Knowledge (technology) 5 (+10), Language 2 (+2), Notice 3 (+5), Sense Motive 3 (+5)

 

Feats: Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Improved Critical 2 (Slashing Mode (Strike 4)), Improvised Tools, Inventor, Skill Mastery (Craft (elec & mech), KN (phys sci & tech)), Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Electro-Tech Sword (Device 3) (Easy to lose)

   Sword Modes (Array 5) (default power: strike; Accurate 2 (+4))

      Electro Blast Mode (Blast 4) (Array; DC 19; Precise)

      Heat Mode (Drain 4) (Array; drains: single trait - toughness, DC 14; Affects Objects)

      Shock Mode (Stun 4) (Array; DC 14)

      Slashing Mode (Strike 4) (Default; DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Slashing Mode (Strike 4)); Penetrating)

Kid Sized (Shrinking 4) (-4 STR, -1 Toughness, -1 size category, 3/4 movement speed; Permanent; Innate)

Shielding Bracelet (Device 3) (Hard to lose; Subtle (subtle))

   Anti-AOE Defense (Enhanced Trait 5) (Traits: Reflex +4 (+7), Feats: Evasion)

   Enhanced Trait 1 (Feats: Uncanny Dodge (Auditory))

   Force Armor (Force Field 5) (+5 Toughness)

   Force Shield (Shield 4) (+4 dodge bonus)

Spatial Sneakers (Device 3) (Hard to lose; Subtle (subtle))

   Space Warping (Teleport 4) (400 ft. as move action, 1 mile as full action; Accurate; Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy)

 

Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +4, Melee: +4, Grapple: -3)

 

Attacks: Electro Blast Mode (Blast 4), +8 (DC 19), Heat Mode (Drain 4), +8 (DC Fort/Staged 14), Shock Mode (Stun 4), +8 (DC Fort/Staged 14), Slashing Mode (Strike 4), +8 (DC 19), Unarmed Attack, +4 (DC 13)

 

Defense: +8  (Flat-footed: +2), Size: Small, Knockback: -1

 

Initiative: +1

 

Languages: English, Japanese, Korean Native

 

Totals: Abilities 18 + Skills 9 (36 ranks) + Feats 5 + Powers 40 + Combat 12 + Saves 6 + Drawbacks 0 = 90

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 9

Height: 4’ 4”

Weight: 65 lbs.

Ethnicity: South Korean

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Hana Choi’s father, Sun-Woo, was a professional superhero in his native South Korea. A gadgeteer type, he put in many years and was well respected, but an injury and his wife’s cancer provided an opportune time for retirement. Unfortunately, his wife’s cancer proved fatal. After the funeral, Sun-Woo found it too painful to remain in South Korea. A job posting intrigued him, and he and Hana (then barely a toddler) came to Koror to work for the growing Seawings Adventurer Guild. With the two most skilled techies (Rebecca Heskett and Nathaniel Truman) often away from the Guild and Laki Sigrah still underage, the Guild needed help. This was and is Soon-Woo’s job, though it has become easier as Laki came of age and many of the “Truman Girls” have proven to have tech skills. Still, he provides steady support that won’t be off on an adventure tomorrow, so he still has his job. And Hana is growing up in the Guild. Though her father has kept her somewhat sequestered due to the sheer chaotic nature of daily Guild life, she is beginning to branch out as a part of the NuGen.

 

Powers & Tactics: Hana has no superhuman powers of any kind. She does have three technological devices of her own design, as she’s quite the techie for her age and ferociously intelligent as well. Her father was the classic “raygun, force field belt, rocket pack” kind of gadgeteer, but she’s taking a different approach. Her Electro-Tech Sword is, well, a sword powered by electricity. It’s a sword, so it can cut things. The electricity can be a taser style shock, a ranged blast, or channeled through the blade to heat it up to melt through things. The Shielding Bracelet is exactly what it says it is, just more than a force field. It also helps her avoid being hit in the first place and even helps with area attacks. And her Spatial Sneakers are how she gets around, more or less. They let her teleport through local space via tiny wormholes.

 

Tactically, well…Hana has very little combat experience at this stage. So she really just teleports up to the enemy and tries to slice them with Slashing Mode. If that’s transparently a bad idea, then Electro Blast Mode. She does use Shock Mode when violence is not the answer. Heat Mode is for cutting through objects, not enemies. And she can always teleport away and get an adult if things aren’t going well. She does know what a power stunt is, but not how to do one yet.

 

Personality: Hana is bored out of her mind. She’s about as normal as a kid can be, growing up in Koror alongside the Guild. But god, is she ever bored. The perils of being a genius at age 9. Palau isn’t the biggest country in the world, in size or population, so she’s basically feeling that small town boredom. That sensation of being trapped somewhere where nothing interesting ever really happens. She’s having a nice quiet childhood and it is slowly driving her stimulation starved mind insane. So basically she’s kind of apathetic about everything, barring something significantly out of the ordinary. In those cases, the events have her full attention. Her eyes might even sparkle.

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The Seawings As Of January 2019

 

Whew. A lot’s changed since we last talked. Then again, a decade going by will do that. I guess we can start with me. I married Tobias, and we have a daughter, Lucia. She’s eight as we start this year and well…she’s…huh. I don’t know how to express this.

-Yas

 

Sweet kid, but so not born with an off switch. Not that I mind, heh.

-Rikki

 

She’s her father’s daughter and yours at the same time. For good or ill.

-Portia

 

That’s a little…yeah, okay. Fair. Next we’ll do Rikki.

-Yas

 

Yas, as much as I love talking about me, you’re kind of burying the lead here.

-Rikki

 

I agree. Individual updates are what the individual entries are for.

-Portia

 

All right, then we’ll just hit the big finish right now. You see, after we saved the world again and Tobias came back, the Seawings as they were just kind of…drifted apart. Not all at once, but over the next year or so we just spent less and less time together until the three of realized we really weren’t a team anymore and didn’t mind it so much. That sounds sadder than it is. I mean, Tobias and I got married, then I got pregnant. Rikki was pouring more and more of her effort into her tech and helping rebuild Techie Isle off of Macau. Portia had Coyote and needed to reconnect with her former squadmates. We didn’t call it quits or anything. We still got together now and then to adventure, but it wasn’t even a part time thing. Our lives just…separated, and that’s all there was to it.

-Yas

 

It’s true. We each had our own stuff to do that we’d been putting off a little. Or a lot, in my case. Techie Isle is my home. Yeah I know, Macau. It’s technically a part of the city, but it’s a small island off the coast. See, when Macau started to be a gambling wonderland my people-the techies, all mixed race like me-wanted their own place to do their thing. Couldn’t do it in the city, you know? Disturbed the tourists and gamblers. Too loud, occasionally dangerous. So we moved to the Isle. Done deal, right? Pretty much. Except the first time around saving the world with Yas, Tobias, and the rest it got kind of…blown up. I know, I know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, you try thinking rationally when two thirds of all your friends and family are dead or dying and the mountain sized magical monster responsible is breathing down your neck. Had to save Macau somehow, right? I think Dad did okay, considering. Anyway, the survivors were fixing the Isle up, but ain’t none of ‘em as good as me, see? So after Yas, Portia, n’ me saved the world again, there wasn’t any excuse left for me to put off helpin’ anymore. Tobias was back, happy ending to the story, right?

-Rikki

 

Indeed. As for me, Yas is right. Part of their second-my first-time saving the world was saving my old squadmates. They were mostly all right afterward, but it was important to me for us to reconnect. And, of course, I had to sort out things with the French government. They thought I was dead, and since I wasn’t I was technically absent without leave. Between the two, I had less and less time for Seawings adventures. I did avoid jail time, but I was given the equivalent of a bad conduct discharge. It was better than being charged with desertion, so I did not contest it.

-Portia

 

So there we are, more or less broken up. Then, on what might have well been our last adventure for months, we met Nathaniel Truman. Everything started again from there. His…”Home For Dimensionally Displaced Girls”, in reality just his oversized and rundown mansion, was both finally starting to fall apart and was woefully underequipped for the sheer number of girls present. This wasn’t his fault, really. He gets dimensionally displaced himself, on a continuous basis. He’s only on our Earth for about ten days out of every thirty. Between that, and always coming back injured and exhausted, his financial status was a wreck. This is when I had an idea. I wanted the Seawings to continue, but the three of us couldn’t do it full time. So I suggested we combine forces. Many of his girls were capable fighters and eager to adventure like we do, and Nate was no slouch himself. He thought it over, and agreed. The Seawings Adventurer Guild was born.

-Yas

 

And ya know, this is when I met The Stranger and we hooked up. I asked our old buds Lucy, Willie, and Kaikoa to join, and they totally did! It was pretty awesome. So we’ve got like twelve people, right? And a handful of dimensionally displaced girls. Such a good start. And when we’re not kickin’ bad guy booty, exploring ancient places, or whatever else? Barbecue bash on the beach, baby!

-Rikki

 

It was a good start, but so much more has happened since. Over time some of the displaced girls have managed to go home again, and more have come. And we ended up with another team. Rumble Hearts, as they call themselves. Even the children team up with each other for lesser adventures around town.

-Portia

 

Yes, they do. Lucia’s more or less in charge, but it does make me uncomfortable. What if they get hurt? She’s not that good of a white mage yet. But anyway, the way the Guild has ended up working is that we don’t all go out at the same time. It’s usually anywhere from three to seven together. So that’s us. No longer just one little team, but a whole guild of adventurers. Isn’t it exciting?

-Yas

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League of Seven

 

Overview

 

The League of Seven are monsters. There’s no doubt about that. They each have a personal kill total at least in the hundreds over the course of their lives in addition to their lesser crimes. They’re among the worst of the worst as far as the world’s criminals go. Yet…Byronic Hero is in full effect. Understanding their backstories and motivations makes them quite sympathetic, and ultimately tragic in a way.  These are people who could have easily gone another in a better direction, had they made different choices. But they did not, and so they make the world a worse place by being in it.

 

They were organized, initially, by the Grand Wizard Methion. What his full plan is for doing so remains in his own endlessly devious mind, as they are not a part of the Strength Revolution organization at all. In fact, the entire League is loosely affiliated at best. They’re not quite world threatening master villains; that role is entirely owned in the Phoenixverse by Methion himself. They are, however, one step down from that. They have access to their own organizations. They have power bases, plans, and regularly take action to attain their goals. But their goals are nothing so prosaic as world or even national domination. Yori’s driven by an ambition to be the most infamous and wealthy criminal the world will ever know. Kiske aspires to greater and greater personal power, albeit to protect his people. Ruslan and Daisuke are waiting to meet the person capable of finally killing them, albeit for different reasons. Lakis is on a narcissistic power trip that often outweighs his somewhat noble goal of erasing crime from the world. Etcetera.

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Yori Newgate

 

Power Level: 14; Power Points Spent: 250/250

 

STR: +4 (18), DEX: +2 (14), CON: +4 (18), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +7 (24), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +4/+18, Fort: +9, Ref: +9, Will: +18

 

Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+10), Concentration 13 (+20), Craft (mechanical) 2 (+5), Craft (structural) 2 (+5), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Drive 8 (+10), Gather Information 12 (+15), Intimidate 17 (+20), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 12 (+15), Knowledge (current events) 7 (+10), Knowledge (earth sciences) 7 (+10), Knowledge (streetwise) 17 (+20), Knowledge (tactics) 2 (+5), Knowledge (technology) 2 (+5), Notice 8 (+15), Sense Motive 8 (+15), Stealth 8 (+10), Survival 8 (+15)

 

Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Benefit (Pirate Lord), Challenge - Improved Demoralize, Challenge - Improved Startle, Contacts, Improved Critical 2 (Umbral Blitz (Blast 10)), Improved Initiative 2, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers), Skill Mastery (Gather Info, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive), Startle, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Polyglot (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all; Limited (to languages with more than a million speakers))

Umbra Projection (Array 18) (default power: blast)

   Massive Shadow Portal (Teleport ? (Array; 2000 miles as full action; Accurate, Portal; Long-Range; Progression 4 (Portal Size (100x100)))

   Shadow Realm (Dimensional Pocket 9) (Array; Capacity: 50000 lbs., DC 19; Burst Area (45 ft. radius - General), Selective Attack)

   Shadow-portation (Teleport 10) (Array; 1000 ft. as move action, 200000 miles as full action; Accurate; Medium (Darkness/Shadows); Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy, Progression, Mass (carry 250 lbs), Turnabout)

   Umbra Field (Obscure 10) (Array; affects: visual senses, Radius: 5000 ft.; Selective Attack)

   Umbral Bindings (Snare 18) (Array; DC 28)

   Umbral Blast (Blast 18) (Default; DC 33)

   Umbral Blitz (Blast 10) (Array; DC 25, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Umbral Blitz (Blast 10)); Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Accurate 4 (+8))

   Umbral Bomb (Blast 12) (Array; DC 27; Burst Area (60 ft. radius - General))

Umbral Armor (Force Field 14) (+14 Toughness; Impervious [12 ranks only])

Umbral Regeneration (Regeneration 28) (recovery bonus 5 (+5 to recover), recovery rate (bruised) 3 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (disabled) 8 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (injured) 6 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (staggered) 6 (recover 1 / round without rest); Source (Darkness/Shadows); Persistent, Regrowth)

Umbral Vision (Super-Senses 2) (darkvision)

 

Attack Bonus: +10 (Ranged: +10, Melee: +10, Grapple: +14)

 

Attacks: Shadow Realm (Dimensional Pocket 9) (DC Ref/Will 19), Umbral Bindings (Snare 18), +10 (DC Ref/Staged 28), Umbral Blast (Blast 18), +10 (DC 33), Umbral Blitz (Blast 10), +18 (DC 25), Umbral Bomb (Blast 12) (DC 27), Unarmed Attack, +10 (DC 19)

 

Defense: +10  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -15

 

Initiative: +10

 

Languages: Native Language

 

Totals: Abilities 46 + Skills 37 (148 ranks) + Feats 14 + Powers 90 + Combat 40 + Saves 23 + Drawbacks 0 = 250

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 33

Height: 6’ 8”

Weight: 300 lbs

Ethnicity: Sudanese/Somalian

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Yori Newgate was born with nothing. Famine and warfare had devastated his homeland. There was little left for him. Parents? What were those?  He met two kinds of people as he grew out of being a child. Those that wanted to help him, and those that wanted to exploit or kill him. The latter always seemed to outlive the former. That is, when the former wasn’t turning into the latter. For survival, he became a pirate. It…wasn’t a bad life, all things considered. Ransom a cargo ship, and you were set for months. Especially if you became captain of your crew. Then he did not anticipate a comrade’s betrayal, and was left bleeding to death from several bullet wounds in the middle of the desert. Virtually anyone else would have died. Yori, through sheer force of will, survived. His comrade and those who aided him died in agony. Yori had learned. Trust? Community? Please. Honor among thieves is a myth perpetuated by fools. Reputation was what mattered. He had found his ambition. To become so infamous no one would dare cross him again. The kind of man written about in large font in history textbooks. Oh, yes. But to do that, he needed power. So through money and more nefarious and wicked means, he sought power. A man broken by torture babbled about a mighty gem no sorcerer had been able to permanently tame. Yori tracked the Umbral Gem down and seized it. And a mortal man’s towering ambition and will to see it done cowed the darkest of shadows into acquiescence. A fearsome Pirate Lord was born, to sail the seven seas without mercy or pity. Because Yori’s ambition is not yet satisfied.

 

The Umbral Gem, for the record, is an ancient magical artifact. It is said to contain the soul of the first magician to ever attempt to control elemental darkness. This is, obviously, untrue though the mistake is easy to make. There is an intelligence inside the Gem. Although nonsentient as all nonmortals are, it does possess its own desires. There are, in essence, to eat light, heat, and life. As much and as often as possible. Many have tried to claim its immense power. Some even succeeded, in part. But all before Yori faltered and were consumed. Yori is the first to earn this being’s respect. Where others attempted to control it with spells or bargains, Yori forced it into submission with his naked will alone. He is a most interesting mortal, and so the Gem is content to serve until the day he weakens. Then he will be eaten, like the rest. What the Gem does not realize is that Yori has told Death to get lost once before, and Father Time is shaping up to be no different. The story of his recruitment into the League of Seven is arguably similar. He was Methion’s first pick precisely because of his powerful will and towering ambition. Such a man is rare and valuable, if put to correct use. As for Yori, what better way to advance his ambition than working with some of the world’s most notorious villains? And it also meant that the Grand Wizard owed him a favor…

 

Powers & Tactics: Yori has dominated the Umbral Gem with sheer willpower, something no one else has been able to do. So he has immense power over shadows and darkness. They can armor him, annihilate or restrain his foes, and even open portals between individual shadows (effectively teleporting between them, even over vast distances) or even into a mysterious shadow realm. Being out of direct light even causes his injuries to heal rapidly. His power and durability in combat are simply immense. His list of contemporary rivals in both areas can be counted on two hands, barring vastly powerful beings such as Asteroth, Methion, and Nick Phoenix. Historically it gets a bit…crowded. Even among the League of Seven, his raw power isn’t quite matched. The closest is Ruslan Turgenev, and even he’s a step behind.

 

Tactically, Yori actually tries to avoid anything that looks like a fair fight. Massive Shadow Portal can send his ships far away from any pursuers, and Shadow-portation can do the same for him quite easily. But sometimes a man’s got to stand and fight for his ambitions, and that’s when Yori reveals he’s not just cowardly, but a cheating bastard too. Massive Shadow Portal can just as easily gate in some hapless civilians. His crew can take hostages. Umbral Field can blind the entire battlefield while his crew gets on with their deadly work. Shadow Realm can make it seem like he’s alone until surprise! Because he is keenly aware of being the “big gun” in his crew’s arsenal and thus makes every effort to appear far less powerful than he is. Until there’s no other choice or it’s too late for anyone to carry word of his power away. Therefore, Umbral Blitz is his most used attack power. Umbral Bomb has blown big holes in pursuing Navy ships. Umbral Bindings and Umbral Blast are for when he’s genuinely fighting and not just supporting his crew. He typically doesn’t bother with his cap shifting feats or Improved Startle unless he’s genuinely fighting. An All Out Attack with Umbral Blast after an Improved Startle is an excellent way to annihilate an unsuspecting opponent. He does, however, use Improved Demoralize with impunity, supporting his crew’s murderous efforts. He doesn’t actually power stunt much, if at all. His array is already large and full of highly effective abilities. The only power he might stunt outside of extremely rare circumstances is Umbral Chains. It’s a Snare with the same rank, feats, and extras as Umbral Blitz. But even this is highly unlikely to happen in a given encounter.

 

Personality: Yori is a jovial man. He acquits himself well in casual conversation, and comes off as a very likeable man. He’s quite humble and willing to laugh at himself. No ego at all to speak of. He’s loyal to friends and allies, for the most part. All in all, he seems like a very good guy. Except for the whole…remorseless thief and murderer…part. It’s not something he enjoys, per se. He’s not some psychopath. But his towering ambition comes before anything else. Before property rights. Before others’ lives. Before his own dignity and self respect. Whatever it takes to stand at the pinnacle, with everything the world has to offer and with nobody able to touch him. WHATEVER. IT. TAKES. He’ll sleep like a baby as long as his ambition is furthered by his actions, no matter how heinous and/or despicable they are. He’s even willing to become a good man who serves the causes of justice and peace. However, the need for that…uh…hasn’t come up yet. What a surprise.

Yori finds the League of Seven amusing. Even Kiske, though he hates him like the rest do. They all think of him (except Daisuke, who wouldn’t know an independent thought if it bit him on the ass) as some vulgar thug with more power than brains. Ha, that’s actually true come to think of it. But it doesn’t mean he’s stupid. It’s easy to do business with Ruslan, Daisuke, and Valia. Even Kiske will play ball for a chance to examine the Umbral Gem again, the lunatic. Shazza isn’t interested in doing business (she prefers to just take what she wants rather than negotiate and bargain), but you know…he likes Little Miss Violence. She’s a young woman after his own heart. So he ships her gang some weapons now and again that she can “steal”. Lakis, on the other hand, he knows wants to kill him. Fortunately, Newgate isn’t his real name. Hell, even Yori doesn’t know what his surname actually is, bwahaha!

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Kiske, Of The Thousand

 

Power Level: 13; Power Points Spent: 300/300

 

STR: +5 (20), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +5 (20), INT: +7 (25), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +10, Fort: +10, Ref: +16, Will: +10

 

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+15), Bluff 12 (+15), Diplomacy 12 (+15), Gather Information 12 (+15), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 13 (+20), Knowledge (tactics) 13 (+20), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 13 (+20), Notice 12 (+15), Sense Motive 12 (+15), Stealth 7 (+10)

 

Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 2, Attack Specialization 2 (Blossom Strike (Strike 5)), Benefit (Demon Hunters Supreme Commander), Challenge - Improved Feint, Challenge - Improved Taunt, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 6, Eidetic Memory, Evasion 2, Improved Critical 2 (Blossom Strike (Strike 5)), Improved Critical 2 (Mystic Blast (Blast 16)), Improved Initiative, Improved Trick, Master Plan, Master Plan 2 (tactics), Move-by Action, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Skill Mastery (Bluff, KN (tactics), Notice, Sense Motive), Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Enchanted Durability (Protection 5) (+5 Toughness)

Immortality (Ageless) (Immunity 1) (aging)

Immortality (Regenerative) (Regeneration 11) (recovery bonus 4 (+4 to recover), recovery rate (disabled) 2 (recover 1 / hour), recovery rate (injured) 2 (recover 1 / 5 mins), recovery rate (staggered) 2 (recover 1 / 5 mins), resurrection 1 (1 week); Persistent, Regrowth)

Last Second Parry (Luck Control 1) (force a re-roll; Limited 2 (Attacks against self))

Mirror Moon, Ocean Blossom (Device 16) (Easy to lose, Only you can use)

   Blossom Strike (Strike 5) (DC 25, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Blossom Strike (Strike 5)); Affects Insubstantial 2 (full power), Mighty)

   Lunar Hypnosis (Illusion 13) (affects: all sense types, DC 23; Duration (sustained); Progression, Area 5 (250 ft. radius))

Omnilingual (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all)

One Thousand Spells (Array 18) (default power: blast)

   Enchanted Leaping (Leaping 6) (Alternate; Jumping distance: x100)

   Enchanted Might (Super-Strength 6) (Alternate; +30 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 12.8 tons; +6 STR to some checks)

   Enchanted Movement (Super-Movement 3) (Alternate; air walking 2 (full speed), slow fall)

   Enchanted Quickness (Quickness 6) (Alternate; Perform routine tasks at 100x speed)

   Enchanted Speed (Speed 6) (Alternate; Speed: 500 mph, 4400 ft./rnd)

   Mystic Bindings (Snare 10) (Array; DC 20; Regenerating; Accurate 3 (+6), Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 (Broad group - Any Magic))

   Mystic Blast (Blast 16) (Array; DC 31, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Mystic Blast (Blast 16)); Variable Descriptor 2 (Broad group - Any Magic))

   Mystic Bolts (Blast 10) (Default; DC 25; Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Accurate 3 (+6), Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 (Broad group - Any Magic))

   Mystic Burst (Blast 10) (Array; DC 25; Burst Area (50-1250 ft. radius - General); Progression, Increase Area 4 (area x25), Variable Descriptor 2 (Broad group - Any Magic))

   Mystic Dazzle (Dazzle 10) (Array; affects: 1 type + visual - auditory, DC 20; Accurate 3 (+6), Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 (Broad group - Any Magic))

   Mystic Passage (Teleport 9) (Array; 20000 miles as full action; Accurate, Portal; Long-Range)

   Mystic Telekinesis (Move Object 16) (Array; Strength: 80, Carry: 272.4 tons / 544.8 tons / 819.2 tons / 1.6k tons; Indirect 3 (any point, any direction), Precise)

Sword Supremacy (Probability Control 1) (Minimum Result: 1; Limited 2 (Swords))

 

Attack Bonus: +10 (Ranged: +10, Melee: +12, Grapple: +17/+23)

 

Attacks: Blossom Strike (Strike 5), +16 (DC 25), Mystic Bindings (Snare 10), +16 (DC Ref/Staged 20), Mystic Blast (Blast 16), +10 (DC 31), Mystic Bolts (Blast 10), +16 (DC 25), Mystic Burst (Blast 10) (DC 25), Mystic Dazzle (Dazzle 10), +16 (DC Fort/Ref 20), Unarmed Attack, +12 (DC 20)

 

Defense: +16  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -5

 

Initiative: +7

 

Languages: Native Language

 

Totals: Abilities 53 + Skills 30 (118 ranks) + Feats 31 + Powers 121 + Combat 40 + Saves 25 + Drawbacks 0 = 300

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): Unkown (known to be at least 300 years)

Height: 6’ 1”

Weight: 180 lbs

Ethnicity: Okinawan

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Kiske of the Thousand was a good man once. A hero, the greatest of his society of demon hunters. As was traditional, he was trained in a group of four. They were closer than siblings. The whole quartet were prodigies, and quickly became known as great heroes of the society. The war against the local demon sect had been raging forever. And it was clear that the demon hunters could win. Advantages went unpressed. Opportunities were abandoned. In fairness, almost all would have required them to behave as monstrously as demons. To abandon their honor, morals, and principles just for mere victory. And so, the war went on. Demon hunters died or were corrupted by evil and executed. Kiske’s quartet was no exception. One sacrificed himself to contain a massive threat. Another was corrupted, but as Kiske attacked the third (ignorant of the corruption) stepped in the way to stop the fight and died. Kiske finally killed the last after that. And the war went on. Theirs was just another story of it. But Kiske’s eyes were opened. He’d always heeded the wisdom of the elders. But he saw it now. These…morals. These…ethics. These…principles. They were prolonging the war for their own honor. What use was being good, noble, and just if it only led to a pile of corpses? To suffering, misery, and despair? No. Enough. Kiske didn’t care about any of that anymore. He just wanted the dying to stop. He took steps, and others followed him. Some ignorant, and some with eyes open. In one brilliant tactical move, he let a demon hit platoon in to kill the elders. The elders died, and the hit platoon was slaughtered. Without leadership, Kiske himself took command and channeled the rage of his compatriots into a full scale massacre of the demon sect. Warriors, noncombatants, children, all were cut down. The war was ended. But the world still held demons. There were other sects, and they all needed to go. But this time it would be done without any unnecessary clinging to morality, nobility, or honor. As time passed, Kiske crossed line after line until he no longer could be considered a good man. And he dragged his society down with him. He never understood that the entire point of their existence wasn’t about winning fights, but souls. There will always be demons. Life will always contain suffering, misery, and despair. People will always die. What matters is how people live, not just that they do. This is why Kiske has fallen so low and has no idea. It is a concept he has not and will likely never grasp. And he has just enough justifiable pride in his own abilities to discount anyone speaking to him. He cannot see that his society has shrunken over the centuries, and that they are little more than a band of rogue killers. Powerful? Able to slaughter ordinary demons in droves? Yes. Hero? Able to protect from temptation and evil? No.

 

Normally, Kiske would spurn an offer like the one to join the League of Seven. He doesn’t see himself and his group as villains, after all, and to hell with what the Grand Wizard Methion thinks. He’ll remove him from the equation if he makes a move. Hubris defined, that Kiske. Naturally, Methion knew this and sweetened the pot with various tidbits of magical knowledge and knowledge of the membership. The only “he’s hopelessly evil” dealbreaker was Yori Newgate, and the chance to study his Umbral Gem was simply too good to pass up. So Kiske joined up. He, understandably, doesn’t see it as a villainous group. As heroic as him and his? No. But do they do what’s necessary to survive, regardless of moral grandstanding? It’s a start.

 

Powers & Tactics: Kiske is both a master swordsman and a master magician. He has a potent enchanted sword, the symbol of his group, and his body is also well enchanted. Mirror Moon, Ocean Blossom can only be properly used by him. For anyone else it is an ordinary Damage 3 (Might, Improved Crit) Sword. This is because it was originally drawn from his soul in a rather intense magical ceremony and corporealized into a nigh unbreakable blade with a special magical ability. It is much more effective than normal swords in his hands, having more power, more sharpness, and the ability to cut incorporeal foes without any reduction in effectiveness. The special powers of his society’s swords traditionally fall into the realms of Flame, Frost, or Shock. But every so often, someone different emerges. Like Kiske, and his Lunar Hypnosis illusions. They affect every sense perfectly. The only caveat is that the blade of the sword needs to be visible, meaning it is unsheathed. While he can’t conceal things directly, he can make anything look, sound, smell, feel, or even taste like something else.

As a master magician, well…he is Kiske, of The Thousand Spells. This is, arguably, understating things. He is not merely a master but a genius magical prodigy. He has had centuries to find new spells and master them. And there is his specific talent of his, which is why he’s so good. His nickname in training was Mirror Mimic, because any spell he only has to see once and then he can perform it. It isn’t mimicry as a superhuman power. He’s replicating the effects with his own magical abilities. He’s just that good, and even from early days had that much of an encyclopedic knowledge of magic and spells. As such these days he has a dazzling variety of spells as his disposal. He can do damage in big, rapid fire, and area varieties. He can bind limbs, dazzle senses, teleport, and lift vast weights at range. But his favorite thing to do is enhance his body. This enhanced his mobility considerably with enhanced speed, leaping, and the ability to walk on air itself. His carrying capacity is also increased.

The enchantments to his body are relatively subtle by comparison. His physical durability is significantly higher, he can speak, read, and understand all languages, and he is effectively immortal. That last one is something of a big deal in the Phoenixverse. Agelessness is difficult enough to acquire, but the ability to return from death (even if it’s after a week) is vanishingly rare. The list of (former) mortals who can do that is short indeed.

 

Tactically, he is Kiske, of the Thousand Plans. It is an exercise in overcoming great odds just to get to fight him at all. He is beyond mastery in tactical matters, so expect extreme difficulty in responding to his activities in time to do anything about them. If you do, expect to wade through his lieutenants (who are no pushovers) first. Once you do that, you are faced with a man who can effortlessly deceive all of your senses with Lunar Hypnosis. So you may fight an illusory copy of him and not know. Or feel a gentle caress instead of his blade cutting through your flesh. Or suddenly be faced with an empty room, as he’s departed while you were wrapped in illusions. If you somehow make yourself an obstacle to his plans, he’ll simply kill you while you have no clue where he is. Unless you can consistently sense through his illusions, you have no way to legitimately fight him. If you can do this, then you have to deal with a master swordsman who can slice to you ribbons in melee and a master magician who do just about whatever he wants to do to you from range. It will be a very stiff and difficult fight. Because he is Kiske, of the Thousand Plans and he can engage a Master Plan at any time for full bonus. He can move his caps around to his heart’s content. Improved Feint and Improved Taunt can ruin your day. Good luck. You’l need it. Personally I would not count any power stunts off his array as such and grant Hero Points, but that’s just me. Feel free to do so. Said power stunts can be basically anything you can think of that fits into 36 PP and meets caps if an attack power. While he can cast a variety of utility spells, his own mindset leads to using combat spells. So keep that in mind.

 

Personality: Kiske of the Thousand. Thousand what? Plans, reasons, spells, agonies. Take your pick. It’s probably accurate. At first, he seems like a hero. A good man. He says all the right things. But he has allowed ruthless pragmatism to utterly consume him. Because he believes he’s right, and so far to his eyes events have born that out. The sin of pride, writ large. He’s a master manipulator, with plans within plans and always in control. He can come off as cold and emotionless once the hero mask is off, but this isn’t the case at all. Inside, deep inside, is a storm of pain and rage that has never abated. He controls it, and well, but is completely ignorant to how much it drives him. For no matter what he has to do, no one will suffer as he has suffered. This is, of course, why Methion picked him. Because the same things drive the Grand Wizard, only is well aware of them.

Of the League of Seven, Kiske is the one they all basically hate. He’s a villain. A bad guy. A thief and remorseless killer. It’s obvious to anyone with a set of functioning eyes and brain. How open they are about it varies, however, and of course Daisuke is the exception as he shows no feelings of any kind. And in fairness he hates them all right back. They’re villains. Terrible, horrible, awful people. He’s a hero. Saving lives from demons every day. Honestly. Yori is the worst, but the Umbral Gen is his study project. Ruslan is a meathead with more muscles than brains. Daisuke is a sad puppet who can’t see his strings. He should probably kill Lakis (the man is exceedingly delusional), but pissing off the entire Greek pantheon is a bad idea. Even if they don’t like Thanatos, he’s family and his revenge attempt could snowball into a war with them. Shazza is absolutely pitiful. Rage and spite hiding a wounded child. And Valia? The Baroness is a relic with delusions of both grandeur and relevance.

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Ruslan Turgenev

 

Power Level: 14; Power Points Spent: 250/250

 

STR: +17 (20/45), DEX: +5 (20), CON: +17 (20/45), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +17, Fort: +17, Ref: +10, Will: +10

 

Skills: Acrobatics 10 (+15), Bluff 12 (+15), Concentration 17 (+20), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Gather Information 7 (+10), Intimidate 12 (+15), Knowledge (current events) 7 (+10), Knowledge (streetwise) 17 (+20), Knowledge (tactics) 12 (+15), Language 5 (+5), Notice 12 (+15), Sense Motive 12 (+15), Stealth 10 (+15)

 

Feats: Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 4, Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Challenge - Improved Demoralize, Challenge - Improved Feint, Challenge - Improved Startle, Challenge - Improved Taunt, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 4, Evasion, Grappling Finesse, Improved Critical 2 (Unarmed Attack), Improved Defense 2, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers), Skill Mastery 2 (Acro, Bluff, Intim, Notice, Sen Mot), Startle, Stunning Attack, Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Demonic Power Levels (Alternate Form 12)

   True 100 Percent (Alternate Form) (Powers: Impervious Toughness 12, Super-Strength 7, Strength +25 (45, +17), Constitution +25 (45, +17), Attack Bonus -4 (+7/+11 Melee), Defense Bonus -4 (+11))

      Impervious Toughness 12

      Super-Strength 7 (+35 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 819.2 tons; +7 STR to some checks)

Martial Arts Training (Container, Passive 2)

   Leaping 2 (Jumping distance: x5)

   Quickness 2 (Perform routine tasks at 5x speed)

   Speed 2 (Speed: 25 mph, 220 ft./rnd)

   Super-Movement 1 (slow fall)

 

Power Settings:

25 Percent (Alternate Form) (Powers: Impervious Toughness 4, Super-Strength 3, Strength +5 (25, +7), Constitution +5 (25, +7))

50 Percent (Alternate Form) (Powers: Impervious Toughness 6, Super-Strength 4, Strength +10 (30, +10), Constitution +10 (30, +10), Attack Bonus -1 (+10/+14 Melee), Defense Bonus -1 (+14))

75 Percent (Alternate Form) (Powers: Impervious Toughness 8, Super-Strength 5, Strength +15 (35, +12), Constitution +15 (35, +12), Attack Bonus -1 (+10/+14 Melee), Defense Bonus -1 (+14))

100 Percent (Alternate Form) (Powers: Impervious Toughness 10, Super-Strength 6, Strength +20 (40, +15), Constitution +20 (40, +15), Attack Bonus -4 (+7/+11 Melee), Defense Bonus -4 (+11))

True 100 Percent (Alternate Form) (Powers: Impervious Toughness 12, Super-Strength 7, Strength +25 (45, +17), Constitution +25 (45, +17), Attack Bonus -4 (+7/+11 Melee), Defense Bonus -4 (+11))

 

Attack Bonus: +11/+7 (Ranged: +11/+7, Melee: +15/+11, Grapple: +32/+35)

 

Attacks: Unarmed Attack, +11 (DC 32)

 

Defense: +15/+11  (Flat-footed: +4), Knockback: -14

 

Initiative: +9

 

Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Japanese, Russian Native, Spanish

 

Totals: Abilities 48 + Skills 35 (140 ranks) + Feats 37 + Powers 74 + Combat 44 + Saves 12 + Drawbacks 0 = 250

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 114

Height: 7’ (Normal & 25 Percent); 7’ 5” (50 Percent & 75 Percent); 7’ 10” (100 Percent & True 100 Percent)

Weight: 350 lbs (Normal & 25 Percent); 425 lbs (50 Percent & 75 Percent); 500 lbs (100 Percent & True 100 Percent)

Ethnicity: Russian

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Ruslan Turgenev started as a hero. A skilled martial artist who fought demons in his native Russia. But time and the sheer limitation of being only human wore on him. Still, he built a dojo, gathered students, and even married a fellow demon fighting martial artist. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good. It was enough. And then, while he and his wife were away on a trip, a powerful demon destroyed his dojo and massacred his students. The only chance for vengeance was at a certain martial arts tournament deep in Siberia. He needed a team of five. With his wife, they recruited three more. At the tournament, they fought their way through to the end. There, Ruslan beat the demon to death with his bare hands. The tournament had a reward for winning, however. Whatever the surviving winners desired. As only he and his wife were left, that meant two wishes. Frustrated beyond endurance with his human weakness, Ruslan chose to shed it forever and assume the power of the demon he had just killed. His wife pleaded with him not to, but he did it anyway. He was an immensely powerful demon now, and standing next to someone who couldn’t let such a thing escape to kill humans. He did not want to fight her, but he didn’t want to die even more. And so he beat his wife to death with his bare hands, too. But only his body had been changed, not his mind. He had what he wanted. But oh gods, was the price ever dear. Age would not weaken him. He had strength and toughness beyond steel’s ability to match. As time passed, he learned how to generate more and more power. But now he was the target of demon hunters. Allies, friends, and acquaintances fell to his fists. He learned his wife had survived, due to her wish, and that she wanted nothing to do with him. The demon outside was a remorseless monster, but the man inside? Not so much. Still, years of mercenary work built up something resembling an organization and contacts. So when the Grand Wizard Methion came calling, Ruslan had no objections to joining this League of Seven.

 

Powers & Tactics: Ruslan is essentially a demon now, albeit one with no esoteric powers or external command over Hellfire. He can channel it, but only internally. Specifically, for incredible strength and durability. He was a master martial artist to begin with, so this is an absolutely deadly combination. He can control the percentage of his power channeled, as the more he channels, the bulkier he becomes. This reduces his accuracy, and so is only worth it against foes that can take that kind of punishment and keep going. The names of the levels are lies he tells his opponents. 25 Percent (which is actually 20 percent) isn’t outside of human ability, and doesn’t inhibit his movements at all, but 50 Percent (actually 40) and 75 Percent  (actually 60) certainly are and do inhibit his movements slightly. 100 Percent (actually 80) and True 100 Percent (not a lie) are otherworldly in physical power and durability, but his bulk now significantly inhibits his movements.

He has kept up his training from his martial arts days, as well, and so is surprisingly mobile for such a huge powerhouse. He runs fast, moves quick, and leaps higher than unpowered humans do, even without channeling Hellfire.

 

Tactically, well…he’s an unarmed melee fighter. The only thing he does is unarmed strikes. With that said, he has the Improved versions of Acrobatic Bluff, Feint, Demoralize, Startle, and Taunt. So he’s got the full list of options to get an opponent flat footed and punched out. In addition, he has all of the cap shifting feats and Stunning Attack to keep things interesting. Basically still fights like he doesn’t have any powers. Just like the PL 10 Martial Artist he once was. Being careful not to get hit too much. Smashing weapons out of hands. Grappling when necessary. He has no power stunts available.

 

Personality: Ruslan hates himself. His self loathing is without limit, and includes an active desire to die. However, suicide is not enough of a punishment for his sins. And honestly…he’s afraid to die. Isn’t that strange? A man with a death wish who is afraid of dying? Therefore, he seeks someone capable of killing him in a fight. On the outside, he shows little emotion aside from indulging slightly in the demonic penchant for sadism. To all outward appearances he is the remorseless killing machine he pretends to be. However, he is also a man of his word, and will only do what he is being paid to do. If they’re paying for protection and not killing then his enemies will remain alive. He avoids collateral damage whenever possible. He calls it professionalism, but in truth? There is still just enough of the hero he was in him for that.

 

Ruslan is an old pro. The League of Seven is not his first rodeo. Yes, fuck Kiske with the fury of a thousand exploding suns. A less justifiably arrogant son of a bitch, he has never met. But the rest are fine. He just…doesn’t really care about them. If they want to do business that’s fine. If not, he doesn’t really think about them. They’re all much more dangerous than they pretend to be. Yes, even Valia, unsubtle with it as she is. He’s old enough to remember. Her ego (bigger than even Kiske’s, astonishingly) is almost justified, considering. The 70s were a wild time. And that includes some bleed over from the late 60s and early 80s.

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Daisuke Uehara

 

Power Level: 11; Power Points Spent: 250/250

 

STR: +1 (12), DEX: +5 (20), CON: +1 (12), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +5 (20), CHA: +0 (10)

 

Tough: +1/+5, Fort: +7, Ref: +16, Will: +10

 

Skills: Acrobatics 10 (+15), Diplomacy 12 (+12), Disable Device 12 (+15), Gather Information 10 (+10), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 2 (+5), Knowledge (life sciences) 7 (+10), Knowledge (streetwise) 12 (+15), Knowledge (tactics) 7 (+10), Medicine 5 (+10), Notice 15 (+20), Search 7 (+10), Sense Motive 5 (+10), Stealth 15 (+20), Survival 5 (+10)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 2, Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Dodge Focus, Equipment 1, Evasion 2, Grappling Finesse, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Critical 2 (Ninja Sword (Strike 3)), Improved Critical 2 (Poison Needle (Strike 4)), Improved Critical 2 (Wrist Crossbow (Blast 4)), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Disable Device, Notice, Stealth), Sneak Attack (+2), Takedown Attack 2, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Elite Ninja Training (Container, Passive 2)

   Leaping 1 (Jumping distance: x2)

   Speed 1 (Speed: 10 mph, 88 ft./rnd)

   Super-Movement 4 (perfect balance, slow fall, sure-footed 1 (25% penalty reduction), trackless)

Ninja Arsenal (Device 3) (Easy to lose; Custom 3 (Multiple Weapons 3))

   Ninja Arsenal (Array 6) (default power: strike)

      Customized Shuriken (Blast 3) (Array; DC 19; Autofire (interval 2, max +5) [1 extra rank]; Accurate (+2), Mighty (+1 to damage))

      Ninja Sword (Strike 3) (Default; DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Ninja Sword (Strike 3)); Penetrating [1 extra rank]; Mighty, Precise, Subtle (subtle))

      Poison Needle (Strike 4) (Array; DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Poison Needle (Strike 4)); Alternate Save (Fortitude); Custom (Insidious), Subtle (subtle))

      Wrist Crossbow (Blast 4) (Array; DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Wrist Crossbow (Blast 4)); Accurate (+2), Subtle (subtle))

Polyglot (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all; Limited (Languages with more than a million speakers))

Shinobi Armor (Device 3) (Hard to lose; Subtle (subtle))

   Body Armor (Protection 3) (+3 Toughness)

   Herbal Drug Infusion (Healing 4) (Action (standard), Restoration; Personal)

The Auburn Crown (Array 24) (default power: illusion)

   Crown Of Desecration (Damage 9) (Array; DC 24; Alternate Save (Will), Range 2 (perception), Secondary Effect; Sense-Dependent (Visual); Subtle 2 (unnoticable))

   Crown Of Mind (Linked)

      Mind Control 11 (Linked; DC 21; Conscious, Duration (sustained); Sense-Dependent (Visual); Custom (Insidious), Subtle (subtle))

      Mind Reading 11 (Linked; DC 21; Duration (sustained); Sense-Dependent (Visual); Custom (Insidious), Subtle (subtle))

   Crown Of The Unreal (Illusion 11) (Default; affects: all sense types, DC 21; Duration (sustained); Phantasms; Progression, Area 4 (100 ft. radius))

 

Equipment: Mission Specific Equipment 5

 

Attack Bonus: +14 (Ranged: +14, Melee: +16, Grapple: +21)

 

Attacks: Crown Of Desecration (Damage 9) (DC Staged/Will 24), Customized Shuriken (Blast 3), +16 (DC 19), Mind Control 11 (DC Will 21), Mind Reading 11 (DC Will 21), Ninja Sword (Strike 3), +16 (DC 19), Poison Needle (Strike 4), +16 (DC Fort 19), Unarmed Attack, +16 (DC 16), Wrist Crossbow (Blast 4), +16 (DC 19)

 

Defense: +16  (Flat-footed: +8), Knockback: -2

 

Initiative: +9

 

Languages: Japanese Native

 

Totals: Abilities 30 + Skills 31 (124 ranks) + Feats 21 + Powers 88 + Combat 58 + Saves 22 + Drawbacks 0 = 250

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 21

Height: 5’ 9”

Weight: 150 lbs

Ethnicity: Japanese

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Daisuke Uehara is the perfect ninja. The flawless ideal of what a true shinobi should be. And it has cost him everything that ever mattered to him. He was born to the Uehara ninja clan, and from the time he could walk was trained in their ways. Those ways are a bit different from pop cultural interpretations. The ninja don’t have uniforms. They aren’t all peerless masters of stealth and assassination. What they are is simple. Freelance spies. Real spies. Their job is to be inconspicuous while learning information their employer desires to know. Assassination (in most cases) is a tool of last resort. For it exposes the ninja to potential capture and/or death. This does not mean that they aren’t trained fighters. Quite the opposite. However, it does mean that their skill sets can and do vary. The primary ninja skill trees are: the classic Assassin (source of the pop cultural image), Voice (disguise and deception), and Chi Wizard (which is a thing all it’s own). Assassin’s very name is a misnomer. They do far less killing than the name suggests. What they are is unseen and unknown. They are eyes and ears. When people think they are alone, they give up their secrets quite easily. Voices range from the classic con artist/seducer to the master of disguise and impersonation. Some targets must be convinced to give up their secrets. They will not surrender them to an unseen observer. Or security is simply too tight for a unauthorized human to penetrate it. Thus, someone authorized must get in. This is the job of the Voice. Chi Wizard is a more…esoteric…skill set. There are a variety of abilities that can be fueled by the body’s natural chi energies. Ninja typically use these powers to augment their abilities from the other two skill trees, but there are those who pursue mastery of chi as an end to inself. They are to be feared, as they can mimic most of what the other two skill trees can do, and much more power besides. However, the path of chi is longer and more difficult, so true Chi Wizards are rare.

 

He was a prodigy, excelling as his Assassin training. Chi Wizard was proving more challenging, but as Voice was completely beyond him he kept working diligently. Until, at age 15 he was summoned before the leader of all the ninja clans. This aging man (due one day to be killed and replaced by Penny Nihara [see NPC Investigations]) gave young Daisuke a mission. Kill his clan. Every single one. Their grudge from Japan’s loss in WWII and the resulting humiliation of the Emperor (in their eyes) was about to threaten the ninja clans and Japan itself. Daisuke’s heart protested, vigorously. Even his reason told him that he would be branded traitor forever, his memory reviled. However, he was the flawless ideal. Nothing more than a tool to be used as his superiors saw fit. His heart protested from the locked, soundproof box he kept it in inside his mind. He would complete the task given to him by his superior, or die trying. However…the emotional stress was suppressed, not erased. The clan’s trademark Chi Wizard technique, the telepathic (but not psionic) Auburn Crown. Named such for how the user’s eyes appeared. The primary illusion casting power proved most useful as he killed his cousins. The retired. The old. Those still in training. The young. His aunts. His uncles. His father. His mother. He killed absolutely everyone, from over a century to under a year old. With a sword, shuriken, and whatever else he could get his hands on. Everyone…except his little brother. Clan Uehara’s sleepy town had over a thousand living people in it when the sun set. When it rose again, there was one. His beloved little brother, Shou. He stood there, with his mother’s literal blood on his literal hands. He looked at his brother. His brother looked back. The box cracked, just a little. He couldn’t do it. He. Couldn’t. Do. It. And gods help him, he was still trying. He used the Auburn Crown instead, and sealed all of Shou’s memories away.

 

The rest of the Uehara ninja were scattered across the globe, waiting for the signal to strike. A signal that would never come, but provided an opportunity for Daisuke to hunt down and kill them. It was not so difficult. And then…there was nothing left to do. A kinslayer and traitor would never receive new orders. His 16th birthday had not yet arrived. Well. He could seek out his own orders. There were clients going unserved. He settled into his new life as a freelance spy and assassin. He lives simply, with the majority of the proceeds of his activities held in a trust for his brother. The seal on Shou’s memories will break someday, and he will need resources with which to find Daisuke and kill him. In the meantime, the Grand Wizard Methion has invited him to a group of fellow professional criminals. It’s another source of orders. He has nothing else. The Auburn Crown drains copious amounts of Chi, compared to other forms of Chi Wizardry, just by being available for use. He was still mastering the basics of that school. He had not yet learned to how generate enough Chi to sustain such a thing. Chi is one’s life force and vital essence. Basically, his greatest power is slowly killing him. He does not have the knowledge to stop it. Nor does he have any way of gaining such knowledge or any real desire to do so. Therefore, as he declines, he has gathered a few like minded individuals to aid him.

 

Powers & Tactics: Daisuke, technically, does not have any superhuman powers. Even the Auburn Crown can technically be achieved by anyone through diligent training of their chi and undergoing significant emotional strain. All the Uehara clan did was figure out the shortcuts to avoid decades of effort. And even that was a generational process. He carries four weapons, wears a suit of light armor, and maintains, despite his growing infirmity, greater than normal movement abilities from his training.

The Auburn Crown techniques were devised to replicate actual magic and metahuman powers. Telepathic ones, specifically. Magic left traces. Vengeful mages in pursuit of offending ninja turned out…less than optimal. And metahumans were specifically genetic. Or carried imperfectly through bloodlines, as was understood at the time. And so, the Auburn Crown was developed. The ninja focuses their Chi through their own eyes (creating the jagged auburn irises) directly impacting the target’s mind. Understandably, line of sight to the target is required. The base effect that every Uehara clan ninja trained in Chi Wizardry learned (whether or not they could use it is another matter) was the Crown of the Unreal. It’s an illusion effect that can deceive all of the senses of an unlimited number of targets. The only limitation being that the ninja-Daisuke, in this case-has to be able to see all of their targets. There is also the Crown of Mind, which is a combination of reading a target’s mind and controlling it. It makes both infiltration and information gathering effortless. Everything the target knows and everything they can do is at the ninja’s disposal. With a little outside of the box thinking, no one will ever know the ninja was ever anywhere, as neither the target nor anyone watching them would be aware of anything wrong. The only problem is that the target has to see the ninja (specifically the ninja’s eyes) for this Crown to activate. Afterward this is unnecessary. The last of Daisuke’s Crown abilities is the Crown of Desecration. This too requires the ninja to be seen by the target. What it does is cause the target to suffer an horrific illusionary attack and then another shortly afterward. While the attacks themselves are an illusion, the damage they can inflict on the target’s mind is very real. Daisuke has killed with this Crown in the past.

As he has with each of his weapons. They’re basically what they say they are. Easily hidden, effective weaponry. A Ninja Sword. A Customized Shuriken. A Poison Needle. And a Wrist Crossbow. His accuracy when using them puts him among the best combatants, pure skill wise, on the planet. His Shinobi Armor is, well, armor. But it also can infuse him with Herbal Drugs whenever the Chi drain from the Auburn Crown threatens to take more of his vitality or he’s suffered significant injury. It doesn’t always work, mind, but it’s there. His Elite Ninja Training enhances his overall mobility slightly, and makes him impressively difficult to track.

 

Tactically, Daisuke is a nightmare. Elite ninja are bad enough, but one who can deceive all of your senses just by looking at you? If he doesn’t want to fight (and he usually doesn’t), between the Crown of Unreality and Hide In Plain Sight he’s simply gone. Stopping him from performing an assassination, corporate espionage, or sabotage is an impressively difficult task if you don’t have the Super Senses to penetrate his illusions and mundane Stealth. If you do, he’s still one of the finest combatants, skillwise, on the planet. And can tear apart your defenses with Improved Acrobatic Bluff. All Out and Power Attack are for aggressively disabling enemies while Defensive Attack is for escape and evasion if overwhelmed and/or outnumbered. And the  Crown of Desecration is a hell of a trump card. He does not power stunt under any circumstances. What is on the sheet is what he has, as far as powers go.

 

Personality: Daisuke is the flawless ideal of shinobi. His emotions and desires are completely suppressed, so far as they’d affect his actions and decision making. He is utterly obedient to the task laid before him. And he hates himself more than anyone else could comprehend. His grief and despair at his actions are boundless. He is not insane or suffering from any mental illnesses or disorders. It would be easier if he was. Instead he simply has a passive death wish that his ninja training can’t entirely suppress. He seeks out orders, executes them, and performs bodily maintenance (eating, sleeping, exercising, etc) mechanically and without apparent feeling. It’s both very creepy and kind of sad at the same time. Only someone with empathic abilities would notice (and likely flee the room because of) his true feelings. A ninja, after all, is only a tool to be used. And a tool does not have feelings or desires of its own.

Of the League of Seven, he is the only one who is actually redeemable. It wasn’t Daisuke who decided to be a thief, spy, and assassin for hire. This is not the life he wished to live. It never was. But he took to the ninja training like a duck to water, and so his wants and feelings have become irrelevant. If that highly potent brainwashing can be broken, a very remorseful young man who is desperate to make amends will be found underneath. Of course, he will need to be convinced that making amends doesn’t require his death, and to be taught enough about Chi Wizardry so he can stop the Auburn Crown slowly killing him, but it is entirely possible to turn him into a hero. Probable? Likely? No. Possible? Yes.

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Lakis Hasapis

 

Power Level: 10; Power Points Spent: 250/250

 

STR: +2 (14), DEX: +2 (14), CON: +2 (14), INT: +7 (25), WIS: +5 (20), CHA: +5 (20)

 

Tough: +2/+7, Fort: +7, Ref: +7, Will: +10

 

Skills: Acrobatics 3 (+5), Bluff 15 (+20), Computers 13 (+20), Craft (electronic) 8 (+15), Craft (mechanical) 8 (+15), Diplomacy 15 (+20), Disguise 15 (+20), Drive 3 (+5), Gather Information 15 (+20), Investigate 8 (+15), Knowledge (business) 8 (+15), Knowledge (civics) 8 (+15), Knowledge (current events) 3 (+10), Knowledge (physical sciences) 8 (+15), Knowledge (streetwise) 8 (+15), Knowledge (tactics) 13 (+20), Knowledge (technology) 8 (+15), Notice 5 (+10), Search 8 (+15), Sense Motive 15 (+20), Stealth 13 (+15)

 

Feats: Beginner's Luck, Benefit (Security Clearance (International Law Enforcement)), Benefit 3 (Wealth), Benefit 4 (Alternate Identity 4 (Leland Lawlett & 3 others)), Defensive Roll, Eidetic Memory, Equipment 2, Improved Defense, Jack-of-All-Trades, Master Plan, Master Plan 2 (tactics), Precise Shot, Quick Change 2, Quick Draw, Skill Mastery (Bluff, Comp, Diplo, Disg, Gather Info, Sen Mot, Stea), Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Absolute Genius (Container, Passive ?

   Offensive and Defensive Analytics (Enhanced Trait 28) (Traits: Attack Bonus +7 (+12), Defense Bonus +7 (+12))

   Omnilinguist (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all)

   Refined Senses (Super-Senses 3) (acute: Normal Olfactory, acute: Normal Taste, analytical: Normal Auditory)

   Superior Mental Speed (Quickness 6) (Perform routine tasks at 100x speed; One Type (Mental))

Adaptable Sunglasses (Device 3) (Hard to lose, Only you can use; Subtle (subtle))

   Datalink 3 (sense type: radio; Subtle 2 (unnoticable))

   Sensory Shield 4 (sense: one sense - visual, +8 to saves vs. Dazzle attacks)

   Super-Senses 6 (analytical (type): Visual, extended (type): Visual 1 (-1 per 100 ft), infravision, ultravision)

Synthskin Suit (Device 1) (Hard to lose, Only you can use; Subtle 2 (unnoticable))

   Protection 4 (+4 Toughness; Subtle (subtle))

ThanaNote (Device 10) (Easy to lose; Subtle 2 (unnoticable))

   Note Taking (Array 21) (default power: drain; Custom (Insidious), Incurable, Indirect 2 (any point, directed away), Subtle 2 (unnoticable), Variable Descriptor 2 (Broad group - Any Divine); Custom (Array 20.5))

      Sudden Death (Drain 10) (Default; drains: single trait - con, DC 20; Duration 2 (sustained), Range 2 (perception), Secondary Effect; Action (full), Limited (Must know targets real name); Slow Fade (1 minute))

      Irrational Actions (Mind Control 10) (Array; DC 20; Duration (sustained), Effortless, Instant Command, Secondary Effect; Action (full), Limited (Must know targets real name); Mental Link)

 

Equipment: Heavy Pistol

 

Attack Bonus: +5/+12 (Ranged: +5/+12, Melee: +5/+12, Grapple: +7/+14)

 

Attacks: Heavy Pistol, +12 (DC 19), Sudden Death (Drain 10) (DC Fort/Staged 20), Irrational Actions (Mind Control 10) (DC Will 20), Unarmed Attack, +12 (DC 17)

 

Defense: +5/+12  (Flat-footed: +6), Knockback: -3

 

Initiative: +2

 

Languages: Greek Native

 

Totals: Abilities 47 + Skills 50 (200 ranks) + Feats 23 + Powers 95 + Combat 20 + Saves 15 + Drawbacks 0 = 250

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 25

Height: 5’ 10”

Weight: 165 lbs.

Ethnicity: Greek

Hair: Dark Brown

Eyes: Brown

 

Background: Lakis Hasapiswas a normal Greek teenager in Athens. Admittedly, he was a genius and a prodigy. But he had no superhuman powers or aspirations. His father was the equivalent of Chief of Detectives in Athens’s police force and he thought that maybe he’d be a detective or a prosecutor. He was graduating that year, after all. University was a no brainer. It was simply the choice between a Criminal Justice major and pursing a Law degree. And then the Greek god of Death (not the afterlife, dying itself), appeared before him. Thanatos granted Lakis power, in the form of the ThanaNote. Any name written or typed into it would die. They could also be given any command that would lead to their deaths. This was the birth of the serial killer known only as The Light. They say power doesn’t corrupt, it just reveals who you really were. For you see, Lakis harbored a desire to end crime itself. He was a very big fan of Vincent Mortelini (see BLACK and The Phantom Network) but also knew his hero would vehemently reject his adulation. There was little an ordinary person could do to pursue real justice, so he had resolved to settle somewhat for the regular variety. Except now he didn’t have to. Oh, it would make an excellent cover, but he could kill with impunity. A few experiments to test the ThanaNote’s limits, and he was set.

 

The emergence of a certain amoral detective provided Lakis with his first clue that it wouldn’t be quite so easy. His The Light persona became an absolute requirement to avoid scrutiny. The two geniuses fenced back and forth for over a year. The detective absolutely knew Lakis was The Light. It was a matter of proving it, and how he was killing in the first place. Lakis took every available safe opportunity to prevent this, including joining the task force hunting The Light (only possible for a mere high school graduate because his father was the leader). But at last, Lakis’s abilities proved superior. Because he convinced Thanatos, who had given him the ThanaNote for his own amusement, to kill the detective. After all, if Lakis lost and went to prison, Thanatos would be deprived of his amusement. And that wouldn’t do, now would it? Not that Lakis thought he was in any trouble, of course, but even being hunted like this was inhibiting him providing Thanatos with said amusment. Goodness, the detective was interfering in the affairs of gods. Thanatos, being an arrogant bastard like most of the Greek pantheon (and none too bright in the bargain), agreed. And so the detective died of a heretofore unnoticed heart defect. That hadn’t been there the day before.

Lakis went on with his life, attending university. His bachelor’s and master’s in the criminal justice field wouldn’t earn themselves, after all. He did not, however, take the kind of accelerated program someone with his intellect and GPA might be expected to. He needed the free time a normal schedule would bring. He was, after all, a vital cog in the task force investigating the The Light. Well. At least until Interpol took over. Too many deaths in too many countries. The Light had been busy (aka the other reason Lakis needed the free time). Athens would keep investigating, technically, but Interpol would now do the heavy lifting. It took earning his Bachelor’s degree to get onto that task force as a member of Interpol. He has recently graduated with his Master’s degree and is with Interpol full time now. He is a genuinely brilliant investigator and detective. One of the best in the world, in fact. He has earned a well deserved reputation for solving cases once thought impossible and bringing seemingly Teflon-coated criminals to justice. But alas, The Light remains one step ahead of him at all times. The serial killer remains every mocking of the efforts of law enforcement. It is always a race against time before The Light kills their most prominent suspects. Thanks to Lakis, they win more often now, but it’s still a bitter pill to be stymied by the law or a government only for The Light to strike. Still, Lakis has gotten the closest of anyone to unmasking The Light. A cult devoted to the serial killer has sprung up in recent years, and he has been instrumental in keeping them largely harmless as they struggle and fail to grow into a major terrorist group. There are rumblings and rumors that he is to be made Lead Investigator on The Light’s task force.

Part of the secret to Lakis’s success is his alternate identities. 4 very different men provide a wealth of connections and business wealth. The internet is such a useful tool. 1 for the business world (plenty of scum here, but one must be certain of their guilt before killing them), another for the criminal underworld (to learn who the big names are, the better to kill them), and 2 more with excellent excuses to travel (so he can kill). Effectively disguising oneself in the age of facial recognition is challenging, but Lakis is up to it. The Cult grows, but not too fast. He has no problem sacrificing those who would threaten him.  This is the extent of the control he has over them. It’s grown up quite organically, with no input from him at all really. His life is a busy one. Cases to investigate. Money to make. Scum to kill. Busy, busy, busy.

Normally, Lakis would have ignored Methion’s offer to join the League of Seven. Honestly, he doesn’t know how he attracted the Grand Wizard’s attention. He’s neither hero nor villain, in his mind. However, his work for Interpol has revealed a startling level of evil that Methion is personally but not directly responsible for. And what better chance to rid the world of the Grand Wizard and those he’d consider allies? Except for Daisuke, the poor man. His life is more of a punishment than death could ever be, and it’s his clients who need to go. All Lakis has to do is learn their names and wait for the appropriate opportunity. How hard could it be? He is, after all, a God of Justice. Still. He may have the mind and power of a god, but he lacks the body of one. The few meetings he has attended have been via phone or hacked Skype account.

Meanwhile, Methion knows what Lakis does not. Hidden away in a secret school, that amoral detective’s successors have almost finished their training…

 

Powers & Tactics: Lakis is has no superhuman powers. He is, however, a genius with a long list of skills including technological mastery. He keeps a pair of devices (Synthskin Suit and Adaptable Sunglasses) for low key work, and carries a regular Heavy Pistol. He has effectively weaponized his genius to make him a truly superior human. And, of course, the reason he’s bothered with all of this. The showstopper of his devices. The ThanaNote.

The ThanaNote is a divine artifact. Its appearance is variable. Sometimes it’s an ordinary notebook. Sometimes it’s a tablet. But mostly, it’s his PDA. It’s not strange at all to see a modern young detective with a PDA to take notes with. Though most people assume it’s a phone. What it actually does is kill people. Input their name into the ThanaNote, and they die. That is its main function and indeed what Thanatos used it for. More precisely, it drains their vitality away without them or anyone watching being able to notice anything is wrong. A secondary function is able to control minds so that the target undertakes extremely risky or outright irrational actions. Generally, this is either committing murder themselves or getting themselves into a situation where escaping death would be extremely difficult if not impossible.

The Synthskin Suit is basically body armor. However, it doesn’t look like anything special in anyway. The durability boost of a Tactical Vest in what is essentially a leotard. The Adaptable Sunglasses, however, have a bit more to them. They help protect his sight from being dazzled, enhance his vision considerably, and allow him to quietly hack into any computer system within a thousand feet. The latter of which has been instrumental in law enforcement not connecting him with The Light.

How he has weaponized his mind is also a feat of brilliance. He isn’t a particularly well trained combatant. However, there are but so many angles a person can attack and be attacked from, if they can see their opponent(s). Additionally, there are but so many angles a person can dodge from and to. It’s also a matter of probability and playing the odds correctly. Offensive and Defensive Analytics, if you would. He’s quite good at this by now. He has also mastered every languages on earth, making him and Ommilinguist. He has refined his senses, enhancing scent, taste, and hearing. And he has accelerated his thought process through constant practice, discovering shortcuts that effective speed up his entire mind approximately one hundred times faster than a ordinary person.

 

Tactically, if Lakis is involved in open combat with superheroes, he’s already lost everything. Therefore the real battle with him is the mental battle. Because those who make themselves his enemy are enemies of Justice itself. And those must be killed. What must be pierced are the layers of protection he has given himself. His disguises. His alternate identities. His wealth. And his reputation. All the while protecting your real name from a man who can hack any database undetected, talk anyone into revealing your secrets, and who most of the law enforcement community will line up to defend. But say you do get him into open combat and he doesn’t know your real name. The best case scenario. He’s PL 10 defensively and PL 8 offensively. He’s keenly aware of this. He’s running the hell away unless it’s like a PL7 or two he can just shoot to death. If he does know your real name at any point, you’re going to have a tragic demise via Sudden Death unless you’ve got a ridiculous Fort save that can hit DC 20 significantly more often than it can’t. And those, very consciously, aren’t the circles he runs in. Again, while he may have the mind and power of a god, his flesh is all too mortal. He does actually have one power stunt available from the ThanaNote. Swap Damage for Drain on Sudden Death, keeping all Extras and Flaws. It doesn’t have a name, as he’s never actually used it. But if he gets desperate enough…

 

Personality: Lakis was always a bit of an arrogant narcissist, but having power over life and death ballooned this into a full blown god complex He does, however, understand his limitations. Once more, while he may have the mind and power of a god, his flesh is all too mortal. As long as he doesn’t get overconfident and start making stupid mistakes, he quite literally doesn’t believe he can ever lose. He has been chosen, in his mind, to be the modern world’s God of Justice. It is a tremendous responsibility that he must live up to at all costs. However, this is all internal. Externally he is a charming and brilliant detective. A man devoted to pursing justice by all legal means available. A paragon of unshakable integrity. The kind of man some superheroes like to point to as “the real heroes”. The irony is not lost on him.

Because he doesn’t see himself as a villain but instead as a God of Justice, understandably he is Not A Fan of the other members of the League. Yes, even Daisuke. But this is well camouflaged. With them, he can simply be The Light, not Lakis Hasapis, star Interpol detective. Let his freak flag fly, so to speak. For they know him only as The Light (this is actually true, Methion made sure of it as a condition he set for joining) and so he can let his narcissism free. The only one of them he doesn’t plan to murder is Daisuke, who is merely a puppet in constant search for a puppeteer. He’s a little too savvy for Lakis himself to permanently assume that role, but he does make an excellent distraction if anyone super comes hunting for The Light. And an exquisite lure/stalking horse for the kind of person who is capable of both contacting and hiring a literal rogue ninja assassin.

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Shazza Ferreira (Nanotech Riflewoman)

 

Power Level: 12; Power Points Spent: 250/250

 

STR: +5 (14/20), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +3 (16), INT: +2 (14), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +3/+9, Fort: +9, Ref: +9/+15, Will: +9

 

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+15), Bluff 12 (+15), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Gather Information 12 (+15), Intimidate 12 (+15), Knowledge (streetwise) 8 (+10), Knowledge (tactics) 8 (+10), Knowledge (technology) 3 (+5), Language 2 (+2), Notice 12 (+15), Sense Motive 12 (+15), Stealth 12 (+15)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Evasion 2, Improved Aim, Improved Critical 2 (Plasma Saber Burn (Drain 9)), Improved Critical 2 (Plasma Saber Slash (Strike 4)), Improved Initiative 3, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Notice, Sense Motive, Stealth), Takedown Attack, Ultimate Effort (Aim), Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

ARMS System (Container, Passive 18)

   Accelerated Movement (Super-Movement 6) (slow fall, sure-footed 2 (50% penalty reduction), wall-crawling 2 (full speed), water walking)

   Accelerated Physiology (Quickness 6) (Perform routine tasks at 100x speed)

   Accelerated Physiology (Speed 6) (Speed: 500 mph, 4400 ft./rnd)

   Accelerator Sub Systems (Enhanced Trait 33) (Traits: Attack Bonus +6 (+15), Defense Bonus +6 (+15), Reflex +6 (+15), Feats: Improved Initiative 3)

   ARMS Sensors (Super-Senses 6) (direction sense, distance sense, extended (type): Visual 1 (-1 per 100 ft), infravision, ultravision)

   Nanomachine Armor (Protection 6) (+6 Toughness; Impervious [3 extra ranks])

   Nanomachine Might (Super-Strength 3) (+15 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 3.2k lbs; +3 STR to some checks)

   Nanomachine Strength (Enhanced Strength 6) (+6 STR)

ARMS.EXE (Array 15) (default power: blast)

   Assault Rifle Mode (Blast 9) (Default; DC 24; Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Improved Range (225 ft. incr), Precise, Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2250 feet))

   Flash Pellet Mode (Dazzle 9) (Array; affects: visual senses, DC 19; Burst Area (45 ft. radius - General); Improved Range (225 ft. incr), Precise, Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2250 feet))

   Maser Mode (Blast 9) (Array; DC 24; Alternate Save (Fortitude); Improved Range (225 ft. incr), Precise, Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2250 feet))

   Micro Missile Mode (Blast 9) (Array; DC 24; Burst Area (45-90 ft. radius - Targeted); Improved Range (225 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Area (area x2), Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2250 feet))

   Plasma Saber Mode (Linked)

      Plasma Saber Burn (Drain 9) (Linked; drains: single trait - toughness, DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Plasma Saber Burn (Drain 9)); Affects Objects)

      Plasma Saber Slash (Strike 4) (Linked; DC 24, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Plasma Saber Slash (Strike 4)); Penetrating [3 ranks only]; Mighty)

 

Attack Bonus: +9/+15 (Ranged: +9/+15, Melee: +9/+15, Grapple: +14/+23)

 

Attacks: Assault Rifle Mode (Blast 9), +15 (DC 24), Flash Pellet Mode (Dazzle 9) (DC Fort/Ref 19), Maser Mode (Blast 9), +15 (DC Fort 24), Micro Missile Mode (Blast 9), +15 (DC 24), Plasma Saber Burn (Drain 9), +15 (DC Fort/Staged 19), Plasma Saber Slash (Strike 4), +15 (DC 24), Unarmed Attack, +15 (DC 20)

 

Defense: +9/+15  (Flat-footed: +8), Knockback: -9

 

Initiative: +15

 

Languages: English, German, Portuguese Native

 

Totals: Abilities 32 + Skills 28 (112 ranks) + Feats 12 + Powers 124 + Combat 36 + Saves 18 + Drawbacks 0 = 250

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 19

Height: 5’ 6”

Weight: 150 lbs. (30 lbs of nanomachines)

Ethnicity: Brazilian (Mixed Race, Pardo in Brazil)

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

 

Background: Shazza Ferreira is a brutal, violent young woman with no regard for anyone who isn’t a part of her gang. She is a damaged ball of rage and spite with a body count that spans the entire socioeconomic range of Brazil. She was born in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Even by favela standards, her little family was desperately poor. Her childhood was…educational, in a variety of ways. It was a hopeless life, filled with violence and often enough shocking brutality. She was more witness than victim, but she was a victim. Then she got older, and puberty hit. The options list for a teenager in her position was quite short. Join the drug trafficking gang that ran her favela. Cycle through boyfriends like her mother and other local girls. Leave for the city proper and pray you could get a job before your meager savings ran out. And, of course, becoming addicted to drugs would complicate any option one would choose. Even if it made a miserable life more bearable. Shazza said fuck precisely all of that. She gathered a few like minded local girls and formed her own gang instead, with the plan being to take over her favela. Considering her opposition was made up of heavily armed professional criminals, this was a monumentally stupid idea in theory. In practice, her savage brutality and complete indifference to her own mortality helped inspire something resembling a small scale revolution. The casualty rate in her burgeoning gang was often hideous, but the reason she fought brought plenty of followers to her to replace them. And the ones who survived got better. And better. She didn’t fight for freedom, justice, or anything noble like that. She fought because fuck them. Fuck their money. Fuck their guns. Fuck their power. Fuck their rules. Fuck the entire system they perpetuated. She started with nothing, wanted more, and resolutely did not fucking care how she got it.

 

The world according to Shazza is made up of two kinds of people. The ones who get fucked, and the ones who do the fucking. She was going to be in the latter group, by any means necessary. Or she was going to be dead, and beyond caring. Her childhood, after all, was quite educational on how the former group was treated. The scars it left were physical, mental, and spiritual. What was done to her was bad enough. What she witnessed was worse. It was in the midst of this war for her favela that she discovered the secret Agency lab. Luckily, they were into all sorts of superpowered research. Including the ARMS System prototype. Unluckily, the Agency’s usual security measures were more than a match for mundane gang members. She and some of her gang were captured. Never one to turn down free test subjects, the Agency’s scientists got to work. The gang members with her died screaming as the nanomachines turned their bodies to so much crushed pulp. Shazza, however, survived through sheer spite and determination. Or so she tells herself. The truth is the scientists finally got the settings right when they got to her, and leaving the gang’s leader for last was just a little light hearted sadism. The Agency is not exactly full of nice people. They did, in fact, have countermeasures in place to prevent her from turning on them, but they dramatically underestimated her pain tolerance. Shazza hadn’t given a fuck about anything short of intense agony for years at this point. Rage is a helluva anesthetic, or so the saying goes. So she killed everyone in the building wearing a security outfit or a labcoat, recruited every functional prisoner for her gang, and left the rest to survive or not until her gang could rescue them properly. Empowered in this way, her gang tore the drug traffickers apart in days and took over many of Rio’s favelas in weeks.

 

Today, she runs most of Rio’s favelas, and arguably better than anyone else but the government ever did. She battles the Brazilian military and police, the drug cartels, and various organized crime groups, all of whom can afford serious firepower. But her gang grows in strength, skill, and arms with every passing month.  None of her foes can properly concentrate their forces against hers without her showing up and blowing things apart. She is classified as a literal terrorist…which isn’t exactly wrong, per se, considering the attacks she’s both performed and authorized (including personally assassinating the body double of the Brazilian president; she thought it was him). But it feels weird, as she still doesn’t give a fuck about religion or nationalism. Her motivation is the same it’s ever been. But even she isn’t stupid enough to offer the Grand Wizard Methion open defiance. Especially after he disabled the ARMS System with a wave of his hand. So if he wants her to join this League of Seven, she’ll go along with it. For now.

 

Powers & Tactics: Shazza’s powers come from the ARMS System. Designed by the infamous Agency, it is a collection of nanomachines that turn an ordinary person into a superhuman soldier without any need for equipment or resupply beyond food and shelter. The original concept was significantly weaker, but Shazza’s neurology has somehow hacked the nanomachines and made them more effective. Maybe it’s the rage? At any rate, the primary components of the ARMS System are the Accelerator and ARMS.EXE.

The Accelerator “accelerates” all of her physical abilities. She’s a pocket speedster, capable of moving and reacting at speeds just below the speed of sound. This enhances her offensive and defensive abilities to “shoot the wings off flies” and “bullet dodging” levels, respectively. Her durability has been ratcheted up heavy machine gun tanking territory. She has low level superhuman strength, enough to bend steel and smash stone. Even her vision is enhanced, extending it both in distance and light spectrum.

ARMS.EXE is the weapon element. Nanomachines shape into a firearm in the user’s hand. The user’s bodily waste (from the large intestine, kidneys, and lung exhalation) is mined and transformed at the subatomic level into ammunition. If there is none to be found (which is unlikely, it’s a highly efficient conversion process) it will rip molecules out of the air or from the ground beneath her feet and convert them. She typically forms a rifle, but it can look like any firearm. It has several modes.  Assault Rifle Mode is an extremely high powered machine gun, outperforming even vehicle mounted weaponry. Flash Pellet Mode launches a small but extremely bright explosive that can dazzle the vision of anyone caught in its radius. Maser Mode is slightly different. The bodily waste is used as fuel to generate a powerful microwave beam, cooking targets alive. Micro Missile Mode, however, is more of the same. The firearm launches a barrage of powerful explosives. Plasma Saber Mode is entirely different, to the point where it doesn’t even look like a firearm anymore. The bodily waste is used as fuel to magnetically contain and ignite air into plasma so hot it can cut through just about anything. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, her most lethal weapon.

 

Tactically, Shazza is effectively a one woman army. Incredible mobility, can hit targets from further away than the average person can even see, with an excellent balance of power and pinpoint accuracy. Assault Rifle Mode is her most used setting, followed by Micro Missile Mode. She doesn’t give a fuck about collateral damage, either. Except for her gang. The rest share third place and depend on circumstance. Against opponents who can’t hit worth a damn (whether their bonus sucks or the dice aren’t favoring them is irrelevant, as long as they can’t surpass an 18 today apparently) or have managed to piss her off (typically via usage of interaction skills to feint or demoralize, whether successful or not), she’ll All Out Power Attack. If this causes her to get hurt in the former case she’ll stop. In the latter she uh, won’t. She has Improved Acrobatic Bluff for stripping the Dodge Bonus off before attacking, and Improved Aim So she doesn’t need to do the All Out part. She makes very, very liberal use of Move By Action. When she uses Ultimate Aim, her target is typically at least a thousand feet away and thus she’s suffering a pretty hefty penalty to accuracy. She has a variety of power stunts available, but she never uses any of them. Because why use a sleeping dart or a taser shot when you can just shoot the bastards? Or blow them up? Not a creative problem solver, that Shazza.

 

Personality: Shazza is a very angry and spiteful person. This hides an inner core of pain and trauma. Her scars run deep. The scared little girl who both experienced and witnessed things little girls absolutely shouldn’t is still very much present. She’s just buried under a fuckton of rage, spite, and “fuck you” attitude. She usually comes off as a raging, psychopathic killing machine who doesn’t care about anyone but herself. And yet. The favelas under her rule are considerably better treated than they were under the drug traffickers or police militias (illegal paramilitary organizations, not actual law enforcement). They were actually better off the actual government and their Pacifying Protection Units, however. Because she is exploiting the residents just like the other criminals do, even if there’s a sliding scale in place. She’s not acting out of greed, sadism, or malice. She remembers what it was like to have nothing, and be robbed of even that. And those willing to stand up to her, even in the face of a gruesome horrible death earn her respect. No, her rage and hate is reserved for those who have everything. World’s got one rule, after all. Just one. Fuck, or be fucked. She’s going to be the one doing the fucking. Everyone else can bend over, or be dead. She doesn’t particularly care which. For the record, Shazza herself has not been sexually abused or assaulted. However, her childhood taught her that she’s extremely lucky in that regard. Hence her attitude.

Regarding the League of Seven, Shazza is easily the most disconnected from them. She’s busy fighting and running her own private war on multiple fronts. She simply doesn’t care about anything else. If there’s a meeting, she’ll show up. Hell, she’ll host if she needs to. Kiske can go fuck himself, though. Sanctimonious bastard. But she has nothing to do with any of their criminal endeavours, for the most part. They’re not a part of her gang, so she doesn’t care whether they succeed or fail at them. For their part, they stay out of her way. Ruslan and Daisuke don’t take Brazilian contracts. Yori ignores Brazilian shipping, to or from. Lakis hasn’t killed any of her gang he knows the names of. Valia doesn’t sell her tech (weapons, medical, or otherwise) to the Latin American underworld (Southeast Asia’s more lucrative right now anyway). Even Kiske doesn’t cross Brazilian borders without a courtesy call, and even then it’s mainly to kill demons who might give her gang trouble they don’t know how to handle. And if he should find a magical artifact or knowledge, he shares with her. She does have some magic in her gang. In return, on the rare occasions where any of them need her brand of support(ing fire), she shows up. That’s it.

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Baroness Valia

 

Power Level: 15; Power Points Spent: 300/300

 

STR: +15 (10/40), DEX: +1 (12), CON: +5 (10/20), INT: +10 (20/30), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +5/+15, Fort: +5/+15, Ref: +3/+9, Will: +12/+15

 

Skills: Bluff 12 (+15), Computers 10 (+20), Craft (chemical) 10 (+20), Craft (electronic) 10 (+20), Craft (mechanical) 10 (+20), Diplomacy 12 (+15), Disable Device 10 (+20), Gather Information 12 (+15), Intimidate 12 (+15), Knowledge (art) 5 (+15), Knowledge (business) 10 (+20), Knowledge (earth sciences) 10 (+20), Knowledge (life sciences) 10 (+20), Knowledge (physical sciences) 10 (+20), Knowledge (streetwise) 10 (+20), Knowledge (technology) 10 (+20), Language 8 (+8), Notice 7 (+10), Perform (keyboards) 7 (+10), Perform (stringed instruments) 7 (+10), Sense Motive 12 (+15)

 

Feats: Accurate Attack, Attack Specialization 3 (Unarmed Attack), Beginner's Luck, Benefit (Status (Baroness of Karelia)), Benefit 3 (Wealth (Near Limitless)), Connected, Contacts, Dodge Focus 6, Eidetic Memory, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Skill Mastery (Computers, Craft (chem, elec, & mech)), Speed of Thought (use INT for Init, not DEX), Startle, Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Ultimate Effort (Will saves), Uncanny Dodge (Auditory), Well-Informed

 

Powers:

Battlesuit Valiant (Device 27) (Hard to lose, Only you can use)

   Armor Plating (Protection 10) (+10 Toughness; Impervious)

   Enhanced Defenses (Enhanced Trait 25) (Traits: Fortitude +10 (+15), Reflex +6 (+9), Will +3 (+15), Feats: Dodge Focus 6)

   Life Support Systems (Immunity 9) (life support)

   Sensor Suite (Super-Senses 11) (accurate: Radio, accurate (type): Auditory, darkvision, radio, ultra-hearing)

   Valiant Arms (Array 24) (default power: - linked powers -)

      Valiant Beam (Strike 15) (Array; DC 30; Line Area (5x375-3750 ft. line - General), Selective Attack; Progression, Increase Area 3 (area x10))

      Valiant Cannon (Blast 15) (Array; DC 30; Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Accurate 3 (+6))

      Valiant Might (Linked)

         Enhanced Strength 20 (Linked; +20 STR, Feats: Attack Specialization 3 (Unarmed Attack))

         Super-Strength 12 (Linked; +60 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 13.1k tons; +12 STR to some checks)

   Valiant Boot Jets (Flight 10) (Speed: 10000 mph, 88000 ft./rnd)

Cybernetics (Container, Passive 9)

   Comprehend 3 (codes & ciphers, machines / electronics - speak to, machines / electronics - understand)

   Datalink 1 (sense type: radio)

   Enhanced Constitution 10 (+10 CON)

   Enhanced Intelligence 10 (+10 INT)

   Enhanced Strength 10 (+10 STR)

   Impervious Toughness 5

   Quickness 6 (Perform routine tasks at 100x speed; One Type (Mental))

 

Attack Bonus: +9 (Ranged: +9, Melee: +9, Grapple: +24/+36)

 

Attacks: Unarmed Attack, +15 (DC 30), Valiant Beam (Strike 15) (DC 30), Valiant Cannon (Blast 15), +15 (DC 30)

 

Defense: +15  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -15

 

Initiative: +1

 

Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Finnish, French, German, Karelian Native, Russian, Spanish

 

Totals: Abilities 24 + Skills 51 (204 ranks) + Feats 23 + Powers 155 + Combat 36 + Saves 11 + Drawbacks 0 = 300

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 77

Height: 5’ 4” (5’ 5” in prime, 6’ 6” in Battlesuit Valiant)

Weight: 115 lbs. (750 lbs in Battlesuit Valiant)

Ethnicity: Karelian (similar to Finnish)

Hair: Brown (dyed, she’s just about snow white otherwise)

Eyes: Brown

 

Background: Baroness Valia is a terrible person, but this was not always so. Her parents taught her well, whether or not she wished to learn. She is the sovereign ruler of Karelia, a small barony between Finland and Russia. The barony itself has grown in wealth under her reign, but her parents were always wealthy. She lacked for nothing. Except parents who were not amoral sociopaths (in the pop culture definition, not the literal). They drilled her in the “real” ways of the world. Still, the lessons did not take, not right away. Mainly become she hated them. There was kindness and compassion in her, even if she did believe her wealth and status meant she could do as she pleased. It started with Megagirl’s debut in 1963. The tiny paragon San Francisco so adored for her “heroics”. What had she done to deserve such love? Her “heroics” cost her little. It was Valia who had sunk much money into the city’s infrastructure. It was her companies that were kickstarting the computer revolution and pioneering new avenues of disease research. It was her genius that made the city great. But did they throw her parades? No. Catch one plane. Foil a few bank robberies. Please. She was immune to bullets. Even rockets did negligible damage. She was faster than fighter jets. Strong enough to crack titanium. Titanium! And the only things she did with all that power were things someone with a third of that power wouldn’t struggle with. There was no heroism in that, only self aggrandizement.  Valia vowed to reveal Megagirl as the utter fraud she was.

This did not happen. Scheme after scheme failed. It was very…Superman and Lex Luthor. Only somehow pettier. It evolved to the point where everything Valia did, in business or in her personal life, was to upstage Megagirl. Her vanity, ego, and pride demanded nothing less. But she had not yet crossed the line into outright criminality. Plenty of shady business, and things that people without her good name and money for excellent lawyers would do prison time for. The thing is, Valia was wrong. Megagirl was the real deal. A true blue superhero, in grand Silver Age fashion. And perhaps the Valia that had started all this could have, in time, accepted it. But it was not to be. Her purse, large as it was, had strings. Her parents lived and worked in London. Her companies were, ever so technically, subsidiaries of theirs. They recalled her daughter for a talk. Her father, being out of the country, was flying back for this talk, but her mother was still in London. Her father did not arrive, dying in a plane crash that was largely attributed to the KGB. The Soviets had long been tired of him keeping them from exploiting Karelia’s resources. How they knew about his travel plans was an intriguing mystery, but most bought this official story. The funeral was held, and both Valia and her mother retreated to her penthouse office, They were alone. Not 30 minutes later, Valia’s mother went through the window of her penthouse office. Valia will claim until the end of her days that her mother committed suicide in front of her. And indeed, that is the official story which few question. Valia’s parents were publically known to be very close. It was completely believable that she would kill herself. But the truth was that Valia finally crossed the line. Her obsession was about to be curtailed by two of the three people she hated most in the world. So she got rid of them. The KGB had been after her father since Stalin first seized power. All it took were a few false promises and a tipoff, and her father ceased to be. Her mother was growing frail as she aged, and the sudden death of her husband took her off guard. It was remarkably easy, all things considered.

The 70s saw an escalation from Valia merely trying to discredit Megagirl to trying to murder her in the bargain. Her companies quietly abandoned San Francisco as a headquarters. The collateral damage of her schemes rose, as did the difficulty in proving she had anything to do with them. If it was questionable whether or not she was a supervillain before, she certainly was one now. The ever improving battlesuit (that she could get out of surprisingly quickly to avoid becoming known as the pilot, and then self destruct to varying degrees of collateral damage) was just the icing on the cake. And as the reigning Baroness of Karelia, she enjoyed diplomatic immunity. As for Karelia itself, it underwent a sudden technological revolution. The prior regime had barely cared about their nation, but Valia saw the value in its natural resources and people. And, of course, the value of having enough military might to…discourage…attempts to remove her diplomatic immunity via force. The benefits of her genius would go to Karelia first, and then the rest of the world. The battles between the Baroness and Megagirl grew ever more dramatic and intense. She drew in other supervillains, and unleashed a full scale war on Megagirl and her allies, the Champions of Justice. Twice. They failed both times because supervillains are an inherently fractious and unprofessional bunch. She was, arguably, the world’s most dangerous person for several years except…she took good care of Karelia. The standard of living there grew higher than anyone else in the world. And unlike several of her peers, she wasn’t motivated by bloodlust, rage, or greed. It was always about pride with her. Superheroes were bullshit, and before God she’d prove it. Either by killing them or destroying their credibility. There were civilian casualties in battles, to be sure, but mysteriously they always seemed to have generous life insurance policies. And any medical bills were paid in full before anyone could be properly charged. It was true that crossing her unprepared could have horrific consequences, but she was never a part of the common scum and villainy. She had honor, and outside of her schemes she could prove to be a surprising ally. She teamed up with the Champions against two alien invasions, and slapped down personally any attempts by the Soviet People’s Guard to intervene in Vietnam. The slow collapse of the Warsaw Pact, as its nations turned to democracy, could in some part be traced to her network of operatives. And then, in the mid 80s, the Champions (except for Starman and Starwoman) disappeared in space.

Valia no longer had a nemesis to battle. She adopted a new one for a time in Nick Phoenix, but in the end his power was too great and his presence on Earth too inconsistent for it to last. And so the prideful Baroness seemingly retired. It has been nearly thirty years. She was no longer young. The Battlesuit Valiant only appeared for official functions. The most dangerous person in the world had seemingly defanged herself. Publicially, this was absolutely the case. Privately was an entirely different matter. Over twenty five years of borderline criminal and criminal behavior had built up a vast network of contacts and operatives. The business world had long been conquered. Her nemesis was gone. Neither world domination nor actual retirement held any appeal. So she set out to conquer the criminal underworld instead. As stronger laws and more stringent enforcement toppled the old families and syndicates, Valia’s organization quietly took over. Those who were not suffering under such were brought to heel by a firm application of Battlesuit Valiant. She didn’t overthrow everyone, only doing just enough to have a finger in every pie. Annoying Methion was not worth the trouble. Between her web of businesses both licit and illicit she is very likely the wealthiest person on the planet. The only other reasonable contender for this title is Methion himself. And he is not a public figure by any means. Karelia is a paradise. She has augmented her aging body with cybernetics. She looks perhaps two thirds of her over seventy years. It took much persuading to get her to join the League. Most of them are children in her eyes. She has fought gods, demons, and beings with powers like both. She is Valia. They are nothing. But humoring the Grand Wizard costs her little. What she does not know that Methion does is that Megagirl will be returning to Earth very soon. What happened to her and the Champions is a topic best discussed elsewhere, but regardless Valia’s sworn nemesis is returning. The Baroness is old. She has no successors. Karelia’s military advantage is less than it once was. She is well known now to the international community, as more and more documents have become available to historians. Her vast financial resources are drawing sharks. To engage in such battles as she did in the old days could prove disastrous. She requires allies, Methion knows, and so he has provided.

 

Powers & Tactics: Valia is a absolute master of science and technology. She has augmented her aging body with advanced cybernetics. But the absolute main event is her armored Battlesuit Valiant. Veteran of a thousand battles and upgraded within an inch of its life. It makes her one of the most overall powerful people (hero or villain) on the planet.

Her Cybernetics augment her strength, stamina, durability, and intellect. She cannot be harmed by small arms fire. Her mind operates at 100 times unaugmented human speed. She can both speak to and understand all technology, and encryption of any kind unravels before her eyes in moments. Additionally, she has a short range connection with which to hack technological devices and equipment.

Battlesuit Valiant is, in many ways, the Phoenixverse’s prototypical battlesuit. Often imitated, never duplicated. It’s got heavy armor plating that’s endured shots that would have leveled a building. It enhances all of her defensive capabilities. It’s a closed system, protecting her from harmful environments and comes with its own oxygen supply. It’s got a sensor suite that includes both radar and sonar. It’s even got boot jets than supply hypersonic flight. It’s standard weaponry included incredible strength, a oscillating blaster in each palm, and a chest beam that can extend almost three quarters of a mile. The striking power of these three is capable of punching through titanium, and her carrying capacity regards naval battleships as light.

 

Tactically, Valia is pretty straightforward, actually. She has both Accurate Attack and Power Attack, but they only come out as adjustments if she’s either not hitting or hitting easily, respectively. For non flying or melee only opponents she’ll abuse Move by Action, blasting away. Though she has no problem enforcing her will with her fists, she spent decades battling a pure paragon. She’s understandably a little gun shy about melee. Unless, of course, her opponent is ranged only like your stereotypically energy controller and mystics. With that said, the single most important thing to remember is that she has the Inventor feat. She always, always, comes to the battle with her average result of 20PP spent on enhancing Battlesuit Valiant. Alternate Powers for her Valiant Arms array, to take advantage of weaknesses. Buffing Sensor Suite or Valiant Boot Jets. Immunity to her opponent’s primary effect descriptor. She has the experience and the connections, and the Contacts to find out the strengths and weaknesses of whoever’s opposing her, so feel free to exploit them with her. As such, she doesn’t have any power stunts. She brings her extra stuff to the dance with her. Treat that 20PP of Invention as a Gadgets power that requires off screen time to change how it’s points are allocated.

 

Personality: Valia is pride personified. Hers burns hotter than the sun, and if it were a physical object it would probably be bigger. She is supremely arrogant and bows to absolutely no one under any circumstances. She is not, however, immune to persuasion. And she has a strong sense of honor. As stated above, her motivation was always pride. She takes care to avoid creating casualties among civilians and law enforcement, and subtly grants reparations when they do occur. Her intent has always been to prove her point, not be a common murderer or thief. She can see the bigger picture, beyond her own desires. If she has no quarrel with a given person, she can be quite helpful. Even almost heroic. She can be ridiculously petty at times, too. But in the end, it is all self aggrandizement. Because her self cannot be aggrandized enough.

Valia is the odd one out among the League of Seven, in many ways. She’s the one with easily visible ethical standards, and the lowest personal body count (her indirect one, however, is the highest by a country mile; corrupt corporate activities+drug trafficking+underworld wars+pushing 60 years active jacks her numbers past the sky and into space). If anyone can be convinced to abandon if not outright turn on the group, it is Valia. This would take a very deft hand, as she is an old pro at mind games and deception. Still, she’s often visibly uncomfortable during meetings. She openly despises Yori Newgate and Shazza Pereira for being “vulgar savages”. Such classism, much wow. The arrogance of Kiske (who thinks himself above this villainous crowd) and the narcissism of Lakis (He has the power of a god? So what? Valia has beaten them before) rub her the wrong way, too.

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Nayan

 

Power Level: 9; Power Points Spent: 225/225

 

STR: +3 (16), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +3 (16), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +6, Fort: +7, Ref: +12, Will: +8

 

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+15), Bluff 12 (+15), Concentration 12 (+15), Diplomacy 12 (+15), Drive 12 (+15), Gather Information 12 (+15), Intimidate 12 (+15), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 2 (+5), Knowledge (streetwise) 12 (+15), Language 8 (+8), Medicine 2 (+5), Notice 12 (+15), Sense Motive 12 (+15), Stealth 12 (+15)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus (melee) 3, Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Challenge - Improved Demoralize, Challenge - Improved Feint, Challenge - Improved Startle, Challenge - Improved Taunt, Connected, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 3, Elusive Target, Evasion, Improved Critical 2 (Duplicate Swarm (Strike 3)), Improved Critical 2 (Martial Arts (Strike 3)), Improved Initiative, Improved Trick, Jack-of-All-Trades, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Redirect, Set-Up, Skill Mastery 2 (Acro, Bluff, Diplo, Drive, Gather Info, Intim, Notice, Sen Mot, Stealth), Startle, Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Teamwork 3, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory), Well-Informed

 

Powers:

Duplicate Dodge (Concealment 10) (all senses; Limited (to Miss Chance))

Duplication (Array 20) (default power: summon)

   Duplica-port (Teleport ? (Array; 800 ft. as move action, 2000 miles as full action; Accurate; Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy, Turnabout)

   Duplicate Grappling (Snare 6) (Array; DC 16; Burst Area (30-150 ft. radius - Targeted), Constricting, Duration (concentration), Regenerating, Selective Attack; Range (touch); Indirect 2 (any point, directed away), Progression, Increase Area 2 (area x5))

   Duplicate Sense Borrowing (ESP ? (Array; affects: all types; No Conduit)

   Duplicate Swarm (Strike 3) (Array; DC 21, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Duplicate Swarm (Strike 3)); Burst Area (30-150 ft. radius - Targeted) [3 extra ranks], Autofire (interval 2, max +5) [3 extra ranks], Penetrating [3 extra ranks], Secondary Effect [3 extra ranks], Selective Attack [3 extra ranks]; Indirect 2 (any point, directed away), Mighty, Progression, Increase Area 2 (area x5))

   Duplication (Summon 12) (Default; Horde; Mental Link, Progression, # Minions 2 (5 minions), Sacrifice)

   Reabsorb Duplicates (Healing 12) (Array; Restoration, Total; Personal; Persistent, Regrowth)

Martial Arts (Strike 3) (DC 21, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Martial Arts (Strike 3)); Mighty)

Toughened (Protection 3) (+3 Toughness)

 

Attack Bonus: +9 (Ranged: +9, Melee: +12, Grapple: +15)

 

Attacks: Duplicate Grappling (Snare 6), +12 (DC Ref/Staged 16), Duplicate Swarm (Strike 3), +12 (DC 21), Martial Arts (Strike 3), +12 (DC 21), Unarmed Attack, +12 (DC 18)

 

Defense: +12  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -3

 

Initiative: +7

 

Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Hindi Native, Japanese, Russian, Spanish

 

Totals: Abilities 36 + Skills 36 (144 ranks) + Feats 35 + Powers 64 + Combat 36 + Saves 18 + Drawbacks 0 = 225

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 25

Height: 5’ 11”

Weight: 200 lbs.

Ethnicity: Indian (Northern)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Nayan was born in the Indian state of Uttarakhand (its casual name for a long time and official name since 2006; it was officially renamed Uttaranchal when it became a state in 1998 and prior was a part of the state of Utter Pradesh). It’s a beautiful place. Mostly mountainous and heavily forested. Filled with Hindu temples and pilgrimage centers. 10 million people spread over 20.5 thousand square miles. The north is actually part of the Himalayas, and as such is much less habitable than the southern regions, which encompass everything from grassland to swamps. Nayan’s childhood should have been idyllic. Unfortunately, he started his life with two immense burdens. The first was that his parents were legendary superheroes (they were martial artists and magicians, from a village full of same) who protected Garhwal and Kumaon (Uttarakhand’s two divisions and old names for those regions regardless) from many threats. The second was the events of the day of his birth. A terrible asura (Christianity would call them demons, but that’s only accurate as far as their alignment on the good/evil axis) escaped to Earth, and his entire village turned out to defend against it. All except his mother, who was giving birth to Nayan. The battle was bloody, and many skilled villagers fell. Desperate, his father burned his life force for one last spell. For the asura had escaped by stealing an astra, a potent divine weapon. With this last spell, his father ripped the astra from the asura and sealed it in his own son. But it wasn’t quite enough, and the astra threatened to break free. With the last of her strength (being exhausted from literally giving birth minutes before), his mother completed the seal and died.  Without its weapon, the rest of the villagers were able to banish the asura and save Uttarakhand once again. A hell of a birthday. And one nobody wanted to burden the poor boy with by telling him about it.

The son of two legendary figures, with an incredibly dangerous weapon sealed inside him. And then Nayan turned out to have much less aptitude for both magic and the martial arts. And and nobody knew when a divine servant or a actual deity would come to reclaim the astra. And and and there was the underlying question of exactly how human Nayan was. Had or would the astra’s potent divine energies and martial nature change him physically, mentally, or spiritually? It was impossible to know. Hell, would the seal hold up over time? Would Nayan just…explode one day, his body unable to contain the energies? There was an infinite number of questions, and only one undersized orphan to pile them on. Not that anyone actually asked him. Obviously, he wouldn’t know. The net effect was to make him the outcast child of the village. With everyone too afraid of who he might be to be concerned with who he actually was. And as the runt of both the martial arts and magician training, he wasn’t exactly going to change minds any time soon. Neither was his acting out as the village rascal and clown.

Time passed, and he improved (from hopeless to merely mediocre) through sheer hard work. In martial arts, anyway. As far as magic went, he might as well have no ability at all. Then there was an incident where he was given a chance to look at advanced magic texts. Most of it was incomprehensible to him. One spell, however, was not. It was actually really easy. And suddenly there was two Nayans. He has duplicated himself for the first time. This came in handy when the criminal who’d tricked him into stealing the text tried to kill him for it. He may have been a mediocre at best martial artist who couldn’t beat u anyone worth a darn, but a few dozen of him? Totally different story. He beat the stuffing out of the criminal and returned both them and the text to the village. Unfortunately, even with the real criminal in custody, the village had been and still was all too willing to believe the worst of Nayan. He owed them no loyalty, after a lifetime of rejection. He was just about grown up, so he left quietly in the middle of the night.

It was a journey to study the martial arts in order to become the greatest martial artist in the world…that quickly turned into a life of crime, because like hell did he have any life skills. Great at mischief and okay at punching aren’t really what legal employers are looking for. Well. He got better at fighting, anyway. Plenty of opportunities. He honed his duplication and martial arts abilities crossing all of India battling criminals, vagabonds, law enforcement, and some lesser superheroes. But at last he had a fateful encounter with a future Pirate Lord in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Yori Newgate was on a talent search for new crewmen. He paid well, by all rumors, and by the gods did Nayan have a desperate need to get out of India. A certain nameless duplicating martial artist was appearing higher and higher on Most Wanted lists across the nation and had just made his first appearance on the national one. Ah, a match made in heaven. No, seriously. The most common Blackgate Pirate member is, by a country mile, Nayan. Well, his duplicates. The real deal functions basically as Yori’s first mate and second in command. It wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but his journey to be trained by the greatest has gone really well thanks to his position. He’s been kind of…everywhere, almost? Nayan is still not entirely sure how his life turned out this way, but he’s having a good time. At least when they’re not fighting people and/or other ships to the death. That’s terrifying.

Meanwhile, there’s still a very powerful divine weapon sealed inside his body. That somebody is eventually going to want back. And because the villagers neglected to ever tell him about it, he has absolutely no idea it’s there. And and the seal his parents put there was never intended to last literally his entire lifespan. It is slowly starting to fail. Again, he has no idea that it is there.  And and and it is those potent divine energies have been overwhelming and restraining his magical abilities. When the seal does fail or is removed, a lifetime of suppressed magical power will be free to emerge. The gods only know what this will do to him and his immediate environment. A third time, he has no idea about any of this. It should go without saying that his village has been looking for him for a while. It should also go without saying that the Indian magical community has gained a low level of panic at how he’s gone missing for so long along with a moderate level of irritation at his village for driving him away.

 

Powers & Tactics: Nayan is a expert martial artist and a pretty terrible spellcaster. So terrible, that he can only use one spell. It makes duplicates of him so identical not even his own dead parents could tell the difference. He’s mastered it to such a degree that he can summon a legion of allies for an attack or grapple and dismiss them in seconds, look through their senses (and they’re in lots of places now), switch places with any of them, and even reabsorb some of the older ones so he can heal himself. He’s even ridiculously difficult to hit because he can pass the hit to a duplicate as he steps out of the way. The thing about his duplicates and why he dismisses them so rapidly under normal circumstances, is that they kind of…can’t be dismissed anymore, after a while. Well, short of punching them out and making them collapse into residual mana. After about 4 hours of existence, they separate from the spell and become their own existence. Until they take that fateful bit of damage, anyway.

Nayan’s extensive martial arts training has made him able to strike much harder than his strength would indicate, and provided a level of extra durability/pain tolerance. It’s like he’s swinging a warhammer while wearing some kind of armored jumpsuit, except he’s completely unarmed and armored.

 

Tactically, he’s an unarmed fighter. He uses punches and kicks. Sometimes elbow or knee strikes. Normally in the form of Duplicate Swarm. He’s effectively a literal one man army doing this. Duplicate Grapple can also serve this purpose. He’s basically got every possible way, skill and feat wise, to get the drop on an opponent. Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Improved Feint, Improved Taunt, Improved Demoralize, and Improved Startle. Fighting him without Counters or Penetrates Concealment on your Accurate sense means he can use Improved Trick and Redirect to make fighting him an exercise in sheer frustration. And even if you do harm him, Reabsorb Duplicates is going to most likely wipe his worst two damage conditions away. If it doesn’t wipe more with a really good roll. Dupllica-port is good for quick escapes and unexpected appearances. Duplicate Sense Borrowing is excellent for scouting areas. But sometimes a man’s got to be in more than one place at once, and that’s where Duplication comes in handy. Duplicates don’t have access to his Duplication array, but are otherwise mechanically and physically identical. So he and the duplicates, between Power Attack, Aid actions and Teamwork 3, can inflict serious damage. This tactic works just as well with his fellow crewmates. He can technically power stunt, but only bothers under special circumstances. The thing he’ll most commonly do is jack up the number of duplicates he can make with his Duplication power.

 

Personality: Ignore Nayan’s ability scores for a moment. He’s an idiot. There’s nothing wrong with his ability to think and reason (hence the good scores), but his desperate need for validation leaves him easily manipulated. And when things inevitably go wrong because of this he does what he’s been doing since he was a child. Run away if he can, fight if he can’t. He may look like a grown adult, but inside he’s still the village rascal and clown making mischief for attention. But theft, assault, piracy, and accessory to murder (as he hasn’t actually killed anyone himself) are far more serious than watercolor graffiti’ing staturary or switching the mild sauce with the hot one for school lunch curry. On some level, he knows this. But he also doesn’t see a way out short of basically going to prison for the rest of his life. And by the gods he doesn’t want to do that. So he continues to hang out with and help terrible people do terrible things, while trying to convince himself he’s not as bad as them. His life, in his eyes, has been a long series of accidents, misunderstandings, and picking the least awful choice available.

And yet…

Something in this young man fights against just giving up and/or taking the easy way out for any situation/reason. Yeah, he’s scared of going to prison for basically forever. But before that happened he’d have to surrender himself to the authorities. Who still don’t know who he is. It’d be giving up and admitting he can’t get out of what he’s gotten himself into somehow. He still has a heart, and a conscience. He’s how heroes might finally break the Blackgate Pirates. Because it does bother him, what they do. And it especially bothers him that the rest are just…okay with it. If the heroes can solve the somewhat intractable problem of him being a notorious pirate and criminal by a method other than jail or execution, he’ll happily switch sides. Because ultimately, there’s nothing evil or villainous about him. He’s just made a lot of naïve mistakes, been manipulated, and is now kind of trapped. The reason he works so well in his role as first mate is because he really is a good dude and people like and trust him.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Zuberi Wafula

 

Power Level: 9; Power Points Spent: 180/180

 

STR: +12 (11/35), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +3 (16), INT: +6 (22), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +3/+6, Fort: +9, Ref: +3, Will: +12

 

Skills: Bluff 9 (+12), Computers 9 (+15), Craft (chemical) 9 (+15), Craft (electronic) 9 (+15), Craft (mechanical) 9 (+15), Disable Device 3 (+9), Gather Information 6 (+9), Intimidate 9 (+12), Knowledge (life sciences) 9 (+15), Knowledge (physical sciences) 9 (+15), Knowledge (technology) 9 (+15), Notice 7 (+10), Sense Motive 7 (+10)

 

Feats: Accurate Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 3, Dodge Focus 3, Eidetic Memory, Grappling Finesse, Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Pin, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-All-Trades, Power Attack, Speed of Thought (use INT for Init, not DEX), Startle, Takedown Attack 2, Uncanny Dodge (Visual)

 

Powers:

Heavy Coat and Goggles (Device 2) (Hard to lose; Subtle (subtle))

   Protection 3 (+3 Toughness; Subtle (subtle))

   Sensory Shield 3 (sense: all senses, +6 to saves vs. Dazzle attacks)

Polyglot (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all; Limited (to languages with more than a million speakers))

Tentacle Harness (Device 12) (Hard to lose)

   Additional Limbs 3 (5 extra limbs; +3 to Grapple when not using Imp. Grapple, Feats: Improved Grapple)

   Elongation 3 (Elongation: 25 ft., range incr 30 ft., +3 Escape & Grapple; Permanent)

   Enhanced Strength 24 (+24 STR)

   Quickness 2 (Perform routine tasks at 5x speed; One Type (Physical))

   Speed 3 (Speed: 50 mph, 440 ft./rnd)

   Super-Movement 6 (slow fall, sure-footed 1 (25% penalty reduction), swinging, wall-crawling 2 (full speed), water walking)

   Super-Senses 3 (infravision, radius (type): Visual)

   Super-Strength 6 (+30 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 102.4 tons; +6 STR to some checks)

 

Attack Bonus: +3 (Ranged: +3, Melee: +6, Grapple: +18/+27)

 

Attacks: Unarmed Attack, +6 (DC 27)

 

Defense: +12  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -3

 

Initiative: +4

 

Languages: Swahili Native

 

Totals: Abilities 31 + Skills 26 (104 ranks) + Feats 21 + Powers 60 + Combat 24 + Saves 18 + Drawbacks 0 = 180

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 53

Height: 5’ 9”

Weight: 240

Ethnicity: West African (Kikuyu, specifically)

Hair: Shaved

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Zuberi Wafula is a proud graduate of the University of Nairobi with a double doctorate in electronic and mechanical engineering The university itself is not so proud. It’s a classic story. He was a research professor, experimenting with a new breed of cybernetics he called psionetics. The goal was to minimize actual implantation in favor of psionic connectors that could operate via a limited form of telepathy. Cybernetics themselves are cutting edge technology in the Phoenixverse, so Zuberi’s research was absolutely on the bleeding edge of science. His sole research assistant was a young man named Paul. The two, despite their age differences, formed quite a fond friendship. Everything was going well, and it became time to show off their prototype.

Paul had his reservations, but Zuberi overruled him. He’d take the risk upon himself. This was a mistake. The processors in his Tentacle Harness, put there to aid his brain in controlling said tentacles, ended up overriding his brain instead. The Harness went out of control. It could have been a massacre, but fortunately Paul happened to be the secret identity of a spider themed superhero. He managed to disable the Harness before anyone was seriously injured. It was a hell of a setback, but Zuberi was confident he could iron out the problem. And the idea did work. Between him and Paul, they convinced the University to give the project another chance. Unfortunately, they had more and more trouble producing tangible results. They were making real progress, but without another demonstration it was growing more and more difficult to convince the university to continue funding the project. Finally, the axe fell. Zuberi was forced to take his work elsewhere. He scraped together a small company with his savings and hired Paul. He was so close.

Then he found out the unscrupulous department head had arranged behind the scenes to have his funding cut off and stolen his research to be used for an even less scrupulous weapons manufacturer. He found out via a cease and desist letter from said corporation. It would be tempted to say Zuberi snapped, and that’s the official line. But he could have never harmed anyone without putting on the Harness. The processors overriding brain function problem had been solved, along with many others. The problem remaining (which really wasn’t a problem for the weapons company) was that they still negated the wearer’s inhibitions. The official story is that Zuberi snapped, put the Harness on, and proceeded to murder his department head and every primary executive of the weapons corp. Specifically by throwing them out of the skyscraper they were meeting in at the time. The real story is that he snapped in that room, as they were laughing at the fat idiot who thought his genius and dream mattered more than money and power. He’d been a puppet from the start. Even with the Harness on, he was clearly in control of himself. The fat idiot couldn’t possibly harm a fly. Dance, puppet, dance. Well. He showed them, didn’t he? Then he uploaded a virus hat either corrupted or erased all the data in their systems. The fight with Paul (in his superheroic guise) back at Zuberi’s small offices was a violent and emotional affair. Zuberi had known Paul was a superhero for a long time, as he was terrible at hiding it and Zuberi was not an idiot.

But Paul won, and Zuberi went to prison. For about five minutes. He staged a mass breakout that threatened all of Nairobi. Paul and a few other local heroes were run ragged collecting everyone. Zuberi was better prepared this time, and Paul lost their second fight. The last thing the hero saw before blacking out was Zuberi striding into a portal made of shadows. The last thing he heard was a belly laugh that sounded nothing like his now former mentor. The breakout had been staged with the aid of Yori Newgate. Zuberi had joined the Blackgate Pirates.

 

Powers & Tactics: Zuberi has no superhuman powers, only a pair of devices. In fact he’s kind of in terrible shape despite his CON score. His Heavy Coat and Goggles help protect his body from damage and his senses from being dazzled. The Tentacle Harness, however, is the main event. It has four tentacles attached to a thick belt at his waist. They’re attached behind him, at the base of his spine. The tentacles are fantastically strong, able to lift busses  and train cars without effort. Even locomotives and tanks aren’t beyond them, though they take real effort. Walking with the lower set instead of his legs gives him speed comparable to city-bound automobiles. They can climb walls and swing from anywhere, granting him greater mobility than said automobiles. They have cameras that see into the infrared feeding into his sensory cortex. Their positioning means he can basically see all around himself. And they grant him five times the physical reach of any unpowered human.

 

Tactically, he’s not that complicated. He’s a pure melee fighter who can strike, grapple, or both with Improved Grab. He’s actually a fearsome grappler for his Power Level, and so that’s more or less his go to move. He’ll usually use a +5 Accurate Attack, after which most foes find it impressively difficult to escape and he can crush them with that +12 STR bonus. He’s capable of both Feint and Startle as a professional level, so those get mixed in as needed. He relies pretty hard on that 25 ft. reach, whether no matter the opponent. If he has time to prepare for the battle, he is absolutely bringing his average Inventor result of 15PP’s worth of something to the fight. Most common is Immunity 5 (entrapment), but that leaves 10PP with which to negate or minimize an enemy’s strengths. He is not capable of power stunting whatsoever. Inventor is the best he can do.

 

Personality: Zuberi was always somewhat arrogant and self-centered, like many geniuses. But he knew enough to keep it under control. He had to function in society as someone with no real power, after all. However, in the skyscraper when he snapped, he started to change. There is no coming back from committing multiple murders, no matter how worthy your justification. As such, and with the Harness negating his inhibitions, he has fully embraced being a super villain. Arrogant, selfish, and bombastic, he plays the role to the hilt. It’s fun. These days, even with his work on the Harness complete (meaning the inhibition negation is gone), he has not noticeably changed. Because like the rest of the crew, he has an ambition. A dream. Not for one moment has he ever given up on his technology being used to benefit mankind. Naturally, he would receive the accolades and praise for such genius work that he believes he deserves. Why, he could even sit in prison for the rest of his days knowing that he had succeeded at last. And that everyone who ever doubted him knew how deeply wrong they were to do so. But alas. He is a well known international criminal. A pirate and a murderer many times over. It cannot happen. Unless, of course, Captain Newgate achieves his ambition. Such a lofty perch would have many benefits to those who brought him to such heights.

Zuberi is not a man you save. There is no redeeming him. He has grown too used to doing as he pleases without regard to the law or morality. He has shed too much blood and caused too much pain without caring for the consequences of his actions. Up above is not a lie. He was always a man who wanted his name etched into history forever. Specifically for his scientific work. Being a pirate and a murderer was never the plan, not that he minds. So if your heroes could find a way to get the international scientific community to accept his completed research (because it works without problem now) and shower him with all those accolades and validation of his genius, he would quietly surrender and go to prison for the rest of his life. Whether Yori and the crew would let him is another matter.

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Layla Khan

 

Power Level: 11; Power Points Spent: 180/180

 

STR: +2 (14), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +3 (16), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +5 (20), CHA: +0 (10)

 

Tough: +3/+5, Fort: +7, Ref: +15, Will: +8

 

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+15), Craft (mechanical) 2 (+5), Diplomacy 10 (+10), Disguise 10 (+10), Gather Information 10 (+10), Knowledge (physical sciences) 2 (+5), Knowledge (streetwise) 2 (+5), Knowledge (tactics) 7 (+10), Language 5 (+5), Notice 15 (+20), Sense Motive 5 (+10), Stealth 12 (+15)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (ranged) 4, Attack Specialization (Sniper Rifle (Device 6)), Defensive Roll 2, Dodge Focus 6, Equipment 4, Evasion 2, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Aim, Improved Critical 2 (Sniper Rifle Shot (Blast 7)), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Precise Shot 2, Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Disguise, Notice, Stealth), Ultimate Effort (Aim), Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Firearm Supremacy (Probability Control 1) (Minimum Result: 1; Limited 2 (Firearms))

Smoke Grenade (Obscure 4) (affects: visual senses, Radius: 50 ft.; Independent)

Sniper Rifle (Device 6) (Easy to lose)

   Sniper Rifle Shot (Blast 7) (DC 22, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Sniper Rifle Shot (Blast 7)); Penetrating; Improved Range 3 (700 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 3 (max range x10, 7000 feet), Subtle (subtle))

Sniper's Harness (Device 5) (Hard to lose)

   Cloaking Field (Concealment 10) (all senses; Passive)

   Goggles (Super-Senses 😎 (direction sense, distance sense, extended (type): Vision 2 (-1 per 1k ft), infravision, ultravision)

   Wrist Grapple (Linked)

      Speed 1 (Linked; Speed: 10 mph, 88 ft./rnd)

      Super-Movement 3 (Linked; slow fall, wall-crawling 2 (full speed))

 

Equipment: Secondary Arsenal (Assault Rifle, Knife, Machete, Masterwork Heavy Pistol, Smoke Grenade [Smoke Grenade (Obscure 4), affects: visual senses, Radius: 50 ft.; Independent])

 

Attack Bonus: +9 (Ranged: +13, Melee: +9, Grapple: +11)

 

Attacks: Assault Rifle, +13 (DC 20), Knife, +9 (DC 18), Machete, +9 (DC 20), Masterwork Heavy Pistol, +14 (DC 19), Sniper Rifle Shot (Blast 7), +15 (DC 22), Unarmed Attack, +9 (DC 17)

 

Defense: +15  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -2

 

Initiative: +7

 

Languages: Arabic Native, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Kurdish, Spanish, Turkish

 

Totals: Abilities 32 + Skills 23 (92 ranks) + Feats 30 + Powers 40 + Combat 36 + Saves 19 + Drawbacks 0 = 180

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 23

Height: 5’ 7”

Weight: 145 lbs.

Ethnicity: Saudi

Hair: Blonde (dyed, naturally Black)

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Layla Khan is a unpowered young woman from Saudi Arabia. This should already tell you much about how her life has gone. Saudia Arabia is…near the bottom, as far as equality between the genders is concerned. Cishet males stand at the top. Everyone else is…significantly lower. They have their reasons for this, and whether they’re good, bad, or something else I will leave as an exercise for the reader. Layla was a prodigy, as far as shooting went. She seemed to be born to fire guns at a high level of proficiency. Unfortunately, she was born with the wrong set of genitals for this to be considered especially important. Aside from one permissive shooting fan of an uncle, her conservative family had no use for her talents. Perhaps the government would have, but it never came to that. She stole one of her uncle’s rifles and one of his handguns, disguised herself, and slipped out of the country. She was 15 at the time. It would be nice to say that she fell in with some friendly terrorists and everything worked out great. But no. Layla shot a lot of men who would have taken away her obvious birthright. For faith. For honor. Out of jealousy. The reasons were varied and many, but ultimately ceased to matter once those voicing them were dead on the ground.

As more and more of their blood drained into sand and soil, more and more of Layla’s humanity drained with it. She had wanted to fight for a cause. For something that mattered. But in the end she became nothing more than an assassin for hire. She spent her earnings on better weapons and gear. And she kept her prices relatively low. It was never about the money. She didn’t care about getting rich. Recognition was what she craved. She chased the most difficult jobs, not the ones that paid more. Her notoriety built until she was dodging assassins after her. Some were from or paid by the Israeli Mossad, which has never been shy about removing potential threats to Israel. Some were from or paid by Islamic extremists, who found such a young woman extremely offensive. And, of course, there was the usual hodgepodge of has beens, never weres, and green newbies who were looking to make a name for themselves. There were days when it seemed like half the Middle East wanted to kill her. She didn’t mind the target practice, but it was getting tiresome. She should get out. She was in Khor Fakkan (a port city in the United Arab Emirates belonging specifically to the Emirate of Sharjah), looking to bribe a freighter captain into giving her passage, when the Blackgate Pirates made a ridiculously bold nighttime raid. In the dockside chaos, she sought out the infamous Yori Newgate, who was only too pleased to have one of the Middle East and Asia’s finest sharpshooters join his crew.

 

Powers & Tactics: Layla has no superhuman powers and even her two devices aren’t particularly special. She has a high powered Sniper Rifle and a Sniper’s Harness that does a few useful things. She is, however, one of the best ranged combatants on the planet, especially with her Sniper Rifle. The range it has is ridiculous. Mundane firearms are hitting their limits while she’s still effortlessly clipping the wings off flies. She’s hit targets over a mile away, though that taxes the limits of the gun and her abilities. It is a hell of a gun with armor piercing ammunition and sporting an integral silencer besides. Her Sniper Harness is a perfect complement to it. It has three parts. A Cloaking Field to render her unnoticed until her fateful shot. Goggles that dramatically increase her visual senses, so she can actually see to hit the targets her Sniper Rifle can reach along with the distance to said targets. And a Wrist Grapple to get to those elevated perches that are so perfect for sniping. She also has but does not always carry a variety of secondary weapons. An assault rifle, a masterwork heavy pistol, a machete, a knife, and some smoke grenades.

 

Tactically, she’s a sniper. And one with a hell of a lot of range to work with. If she’s the one starting the engagement, between her Cloaking Field and Hide In Plain Sight, you’ll never know she’s there until your brains are splattering the pavement. Those same to two items make you starting the engagement a difficult proposition at best. She knows very well that melee or normal ranged combat against superhuman level foes is a suicidal endeavor. The melee fighters either outclass her in skill by a wide margin or have the physical strength to casually break her bones. The ranged fighters are worse, with a completely unpredictable assortment of abilities that can effortlessly outclass one unpowered human woman with a gun. PL 11 does not equal stupid or overconfident. To beat her, you have to bring the Super Senses to overcome Concealment, Obscure (remember the smoke grenades?), and Stealth, then endure a heavily attack and defense shifted PL11 with Acrobatic Bluff and Power Attack who is willing to shoot you as many time as it takes. Some movement speed ranks are also a good idea, because she likes to run away, too. Straight fights are for those with death wishes, and she doesn’t have one. She cannot power stunt. What she has is on the sheet.

 

Personality: Layla was once an idealistic young girl, until reality and killing a few dozen people caught up to her. She’s the stereotypical cold and stoic professional sniper now. Everyone is kept at arm’s length, because she may one day have to provide their brain matter with additional ventilation. She’s killed so many times and from so many ranges that human life just isn’t special to her anymore. She can kill as easily as breathing, and with about as much thought and feeling behind it. The other Blackgate Pirates (except Nayan, naturally) are killers, sure, but it also means something to them. For good or ill (mostly for ill), they feel something about killing and it’s something they actually decide to do. With Layla it’s basically reflex. There’s no thoughts about sparing enemies or showing mercy. Race doesn’t matter. Gender doesn’t matter. Age doesn’t matter. There are only targets and not targets. Targets are shot to death. Not targets are constantly assessed to determine if they have become targets. There is very little humanity left in her, and that is almost entirely contained in her deep seated craving for recognition. She is absolutely one of the top 100 sharpshooters on the planet, and she’s still improving. She wants that talent and hard won skill acknowledged. Specifically by the King of Saudia Arabia, at least to start. Despite all the ways she kind of isn’t one, she still considers herself a good Muslim woman.

Layla is not redeemable. She can’t be saved no matter how persuasive or compassionate the heroes are. There is no cheat route to dealing with her. Her craving for recognition is not something that can ever be truly satisfied. She has to be outwitted, overpowered, and beaten into the ground. And even then the heroes must be cautious, for she will not be taken alive if she can manage it. She won’t suicide directly, but she will do everything she can to force the issue and leave the heroes no choice. Assuming, of course, she can’t possibly escape to fight another day. This includes after she’s technically captured so escort her to that cell personally, heroes. Or you might find out she beat the shit out of the cops doing that, stole a gun, killed some or all of them, and escaped.

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Blackgate Pirates

 

Overview

 

The Blackgate Pirates are, without a doubt, the biggest menace to global shipping. Thanks to their Captain, Yori Newgate, they can show up practically anywhere and be gone just as quickly. For modern navies, Yori’s teleport portals are an absolute nightmare. He doesn’t seem to operate a fleet of ships, either. He’s a thoroughly modern pirate, using speedboats from an ever changing home base. Sometimes said base is a bigger ship. Sometimes it’s on land in a coastal area. And under Yori’s command they’re bold as hell, sometimes raiding multiple ships while they’re docked in a port city or feeding on a canal like the Suez or Panama off and on for a day or two before a naval response inevitably shoos them away. Hostage taking, kidnapping, murder more or less for hire, robbing the safes, stealing cargo, sinking ships. They’ve done it all. They’ve stolen whole ships, sold the cargo on the black market, and then sold off the ship itself.

 

Superheroic response has been piecemeal and ineffective. Since Yori moves their base of operations around so much, tracking them down is difficult at best. The primary members of the crew (Yori, Nayan, Zuberi, and Layla) either match or outclass the average superhero (which is a PL 8 in the Phoenixverse) so an entire team must be assembled. Yori purposefully operates more often on seas close to economically disadvantaged countries with poor navies. Giving the world’s top navies (such as the US, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, or UK Royal) extra motivation to hunt him is not on his to do list. There’s bold, and then there’s foolish. This and the global span on his activities makes forming such a team a daunting challenge. There’s never enough heroes to go around, and a given country being economically weak exacerbates this. And even if  a team of heroes is assembled and manages to track the Pirates down, Yori is likely to kill them all by himself as the vast, vast majority of professional superheroes in the Phoenixverse are decidedly not equipped to deal with a heavily damage and toughness shifted PL 14. And so the Blackgate Pirates continue to do as they please in pursuit of their boundless ambitions.

 

Tactics

 

For rank and file crew the Thug and Soldier archetypes will do fine. A duplicate of Nayan tends to command individual squads, with the real deal in overall command of raids. Yori is usually busy keeping the portal open, but will step in if things start going poorly. Zuberi typically has a squad of his own, hunting for supplies equipment useful to the Pirates as a whole. He’s also the assessor for unknown tech. Layla provides overwatch, sniping anyone who looks like they’re either in or taking a leadership position, calling for backup, holding a position that’s blocking a squad’s advance, etc. She’s not the only one doing that, a few rank and file crew do it too, but she’s incredibly effective by comparison. Yori’s loyalty to rank of file crew and Nayan duplicates doesn’t exist. They’re easily abandoned and easily replaced. Layla will cover Zuberi’s return (and he moves his ass like it’s on fire, not stopping for anything). Nayan covers for everyone as best he can, and is usually the last one out, swapping with a duplicate back at the current base. Rank and file crew left behind will likely surrender, but Nayan duplicates will fight to the last as they know they’re not “real”.

 

Additionally, in the Phoenixverse those who have reached PL 12 have earned a special free Benefit feat that slightly alters the rules on Extra and/or Extraordinary Effort for them. They are detailed below. Nayan is a special case due to the astra inside him. If it wasn’t there, he’d have hit PL 12 by now as a magician. So he has access.

 

Pirate Crew Member

Feat Name

Effect

Yori Newgate

Unstoppable Ambition

May use Extra Effort as a Reaction to apply his Will save in place of any other bonus.

Nayan

Believe It

Normally, a PC or NPC can only add one power feat with Extra Effort. Even if they’re increasing the rank of a power feat they already have. Nayan is different. His Duplication Summon power, should he choose to increase the ranks of Progression (# Minions), he will increase it by 2 ranks, becoming able to summon 25 duplicates. This also applies to Extraordinary Effort, and so if he uses this he will be able to summon up to 100 duplicates.

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Zuki, The Thunderer

 

Power Level: 12; Power Points Spent: 255/255

 

STR: +3 (16), DEX: +5 (20), CON: +3 (16), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +5 (20), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +9, Fort: +9, Ref: +15, Will: +9

 

Skills: Acrobatics 10 (+15), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Gather Information 7 (+10), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 12 (+15), Knowledge (history) 7 (+10), Knowledge (physical sciences) 2 (+5), Notice 10 (+15), Sense Motive 10 (+15)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 2, Attack Specialization 2 (Awoken Slash (Strike 6)), Benefit (Demon Hunter Commander), Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 6, Evasion 2, Improved Critical 2 (Awoken Slash (Strike 6)), Improved Initiative 7, Improved Trick, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Redirect, Ritualist, Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers), Takedown Attack 2, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Enchanted Durability (Protection 6) (+6 Toughness)

Immortality (Ageless) (Immunity 1) (aging)

Immortality (Regenerative) (Regeneration 10) (recovery bonus 6 (+6 to recover), recovery rate (disabled) 1 (recover 1 / 5 hours), recovery rate (injured) 1 (recover 1 / 20 mins), recovery rate (staggered) 1 (recover 1 / 20 mins), resurrection 1 (1 week); Persistent, Regrowth)

Last Second Parry (Luck Control 1) (force a re-roll; Limited 2 (attacks against Zuki))

Lightning Magic (Array 17) (default power: blast)

   Chain Lightning (Blast 9) (Array; DC 24; Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Accurate 3 (+6), Indirect 3 (any point, any direction), Precise)

   Lightning Bolt (Blast 15) (Default; DC 30; Indirect 3 (any point, any direction), Precise)

   Lightning Flash (Dazzle 9) (Array; affects: visual senses, DC 19; Perception Area (General); Sense-Dependent (Visual); Indirect 3 (any point, any direction))

   Lightning Form (Linked)

      Affects Corporeal on Sword Attack (Features 9)

      Concealment 10 (Linked; all senses; Limited (to miss chance))

      Insubstantial 3 (Linked; Energy)

   Lightning Storm (Blast 9) (Array; DC 24; Shapeable Area (9-18 cubes of 125 cu. ft. (5x5x5) - Targeted); Accurate 3 (+6), Indirect 3 (any point, any direction), Progression, Increase Area (area x2))

   Stunning Bolt (Stun 9) (Array; DC 19; Range (ranged); Accurate 3 (+6), Indirect 3 (any point, any direction))

Omnilingual (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all)

Sword Supremacy (Probability Control 1) (Minimum Result: 1; Limited 2)

Thunder Flash, Divine Dream (Device 14) (Easy to lose, Only you can use)

   Awoken Slash (Strike 6) (DC 24, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Awoken Slash (Strike 6)); Autofire (interval 2, max +5) [3 extra ranks], Penetrating; Mighty)

   Lightning Movement (Super-Movement 5) (air walking 2 (full speed), wall-crawling 2 (full speed), water walking; Limited (to while moving))

   Lightning Proof (Immunity 5) (damage type: Electricity)

   Lightning Quickness (Quickness 14) (Perform routine tasks at 50000x speed)

   Lightning Reactions (Enhanced Trait 😎 (Traits: Evasion 2 +1 (+2), Feats: Improved Initiative 7)

   Lightning Speed (Speed 14) (Speed: 250000 mph, 2200000 ft./rnd)

 

Attack Bonus: +9 (Ranged: +9, Melee: +11, Grapple: +14)

 

Attacks: Awoken Slash (Strike 6), +15 (DC 24), Chain Lightning (Blast 9), +15 (DC 24), Lightning Bolt (Blast 15), +9 (DC 30), Lightning Flash (Dazzle 9) (DC Fort/Ref 19), Lightning Storm (Blast 9), +15 (DC 24), Stunning Bolt (Stun 9), +15 (DC Fort/Staged 19), Unarmed Attack, +11 (DC 18)

 

Defense: +15  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -4

 

Initiative: +33

 

Languages: Icelandic Native

 

Totals: Abilities 44 + Skills 17 (65 ranks) + Feats 27 + Powers 111 + Combat 36 + Saves 20 + Drawbacks 0 = 255

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): Unkown (known to be at least 200 years)

Height: 5’ 7”

Weight: 150 lbs.

Ethnicity: Icelandic

Hair: Strawberry Blond

Eyes: Hazel

 

Background: Zuki, The Thunderer was there. He was a green, wet behind the ears rookie when Kiske took over their demon hunting society. He wasn’t involved, and doesn’t know what Kiske actually did, but he was there. He remembers his teammates. Tana, of The Waves. Isora, of Beast Blood. Nika, The Heartfire. How was it that he rose to stand beside Kiske as his right hand, while so many others fell away? Isora, who fell in combat as he’d always wished. Tana, who departed in disgust as Kiske’s new methods and likely died of old age. Nika, the girl Zuki loved, who followed her brother Tana into exile. The old guard, the mighty warriors Zuki looked up to in those days? Where did they go? Time is ever merciless. To a select few did Kiske grant his knowledge of functional immortality. To the ones he would have stand by his side for the rest of time. But Zuki is troubled. Because he was there. He remembers. These days their society is an armed camp full of serious professional warriors, but before? He remembers the laughter of children and old men. Lovers necking in quiet corners. It was a happy place full of light and life and hope. They are so few now, where before they were so many. 17 clans, collapsed into just 3. And these days they are so violent. Killing demons is important, he agrees. Protecting their own is important, he agrees with this too. But outsiders are no longer regarded as friends unmet, but as enemies unrevealed. He remembers the old teachings. And he is troubled. Kiske having steered everyone wrong is an impossibility. He is a good and virtuous man. A brilliant hero who has saved more lives than anyone will ever know. Zuki knows this to be true. He believes it with all his heart. Moreover, Kiske is the man who raised Zuki up from nothing. Who taught him so much about swordsmanship and magic. Kiske is his mentor and his personal hero. He looks up to him both literally and figuratively. But he remembers, and he is troubled. The truth his eyes have seen and the memories of his earliest days war with loyalty to and faith in one great man. And even if Kiske were somehow removed, what happens next? Who leads them?

At any rate, Zuki leads the Shock Clan. It’s a broad tent, these days. The remnants of the actual Shock Clan are the most numerous, but bits and pieces of Metal, Storm, and Thunder remain within it. Zuki himself is Shock Clan through and through, however.  He never had any intention of rising this high. Hell, he thought he’d be killed long before he became anyone who mattered at all. He was some dumb kid who got in bad debt with loansharks (thanks to certain unscrupulous and gold digging women) and ended up on the other side of the world from his home, lonely and afraid. But his sensei believed in him. Tana also held to his faith even when Zuki didn’t deserve it. Isora…was mostly an asshole. And Nika was mute, but kind in small ways. But none of them died. None of them became corrupted. Tana was a shining light. A beacon. Isora was a savage warrior, slicing all foes in his path. And Nika too, contributed. Her sobriquet was accurate, as she was the beating heart of the team and unfailing support right when they needed it. And so, for such good friends, for justice, and for honor, Zuki found his strength and started walking beside them. They were never invincible. They were wounded, beaten down, poisoned and/or otherwise messed up often enough. But they always pulled through. They survived. But Kiske, their shiny new leader supreme commander, was changing things. He wasn’t wrong. No squad or team had ever come back unharmed, and they came back short one with depressing regularity. It wasn’t all the time, or even most of the time. But the rookies were thinned out by combat against demons. Nobody was ever failed out for not measuring up. Those actually inept were reassigned to support duties even the deeply mediocre were sent on missions just like the top of the training class. They were expected to behave with dignity, compassion, and honor. Even in the face of a gruesome, horrible death and/or failing their missions. Zuki and his squad were whole…but he knew several that weren’t. Horrific permanent injuries, maimings, and of course the ones who simply never came back at all. Kiske wasn’t wrong. It didn’t need to be so horrible.

He should have never said anything to Tana. The conversation turned into a debate which turned into an argument which turned into their team breaking. They were veterans now. Tana had been growing more and more visibly uncomfortable with the changes Kiske had instituted. After the argument with Zuki, Tana had a blazing one with Kiske himself. And the next day he was leaving. Nika was horribly torn, but she couldn’t abandon her brother. Isora and Zuki couldn’t abandon their home. The latter two were reassigned to different teams. Isora died shortly thereafter, chainsawing his way through a horde of demons. And Kiske began personally mentoring the heartbroken Zuki. Zuki’s abilities and his perception of himself improved. Time went by, and the old Shock Clan commander retired. The Clan held a vote, and Kiske approved the results. Zuki, the Thunderer, was their new commander.

 

Powers & Tactics: Zuki is both a master swordsman and a expert magician. He has a potent enchanted sword, the symbol of his group, and his body is also well enchanted. Thunder Flash, Divine Dream can only be properly used by him. For anyone else it is an ordinary Damage 3 (Might, Improved Crit) Sword. This is because it was originally drawn from his soul in a rather intense magical ceremony and corporealized into a nigh unbreakable blade with a special magical ability. It is much more effective than normal swords in his hands, having more power, more sharpness, and the ability to cut several times with one swing. The special powers of his society’s swords traditionally fall into the realms of Flame, Frost, or Shock. He is no exception to this, being fully fledged Shock Clan. And so his special power is literally being as fast as lightning. Full on hypersonic speedster style. Up walls, across water, and even through the air itself (albeit at a halfspeed ascending or descending) He’s also immune to electrical damage.

As a magician, he does lightning. Not electricity, lightning. Lightning Bolt is literally that, and just as powerful as the real thing. Chain Lightning is weaker, but strikes repeatedly and is more accurate. Lightning Storm maintains the accuracy, but spreads it over a wide area. Lightning Flash blinds the hell out of anyone who can’t close their eyes in time. Stunning Bolt is for when more polite violence is required. And the last of his regular arsenal is his absolutely amazing Lightning Form, in which he transforms himself into living lightning. He is virtually untouchable in this form, and his sword still works on the corporeal. And these are just the Thunder Flash half of his magic. The Divine Dream half remains unawakened. He is not aware of this.

The enchantments to his body are relatively subtle by comparison. His physical durability is significantly higher, he can speak, read, and understand all languages, and he is effectively immortal. That last one is something of a big deal in the Phoenixverse. Agelessness is difficult enough to acquire, but the ability to return from death (even if it’s after a week) is vanishingly rare. The list of (former) mortals who can do that is short indeed. It was Kiske who learned of the method, and performed the ritual on his top lieutenants. Like Zuki.

 

Tactically, Zuki can come off as closer to a god than a man. Faster than most can perceive and casually summoning ridiculous amounts of lightning. His eyes glowing with energy and his body sparking with electricity. His first move (with +33 Init, he tends to go before everyone) is to flash step in and take advantage of everyone else technically being Flat Footed to start chopping foes down with his sword and Takedown Attack 2’ing his way through the rest. Many a demonic mook squad has been annihilated by this. Even humans are not immune, though he never uses lethal damage against them. Lightning Storm can also be very effective in clearing mobs. Lightning Bolt is the heavy artillery, with Chain Lightning swapping in when accuracy is needed at range. Lightning Flash has turned the tide of many a group battle. For more difficult opponents, Lightning Form and his sword generally suffice. With that active, he is genuinely impressively difficult to hit. And that’s without getting into the fact that he has Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Improved Trick, and Redirect. All of which, along with Move By Action, he uses liberally. All Out and Power Attack are also on tap. They are particularly impressive with used in tandem for a +5 with Lightning Storm. Or that opening strike with his sword, if he only has one opponent. He will retreat if combat is going badly, but his Clan comes first. He is technically capable of power stunting, but the use of that would be a narrative device to show that his the Divine Dream half of his magic exists. Otherwise he won’t power stunt at all.

 

Personality: Zuki is defined by a lack of self confidence. He just doesn’t see himself the way others do, or the way he actually is. It’s better than it was in the old days. It’s like…when he was a green, wet behind the ears rookie. He still saw himself as a helpless civilian who’d die easily on the battlefield. Even when he had the courage to stand beside his old friends, he still didn’t see himself as any more skill than one of said rookies. Despite this being demonstrably untrue. Even now, when he’s a godlike badass, he doesn’t see himself as any better than one of his rank and file veterans. He does know he’s fully competent, but amazing? Spectacular? No. This is because he’s comparing himself to the Tana and Isora of his memories and the Kiske of now. Anyone would feel inadequate next to that group. Outside of this he’s actually a startlingly good guy. He keeps his Clan well stocked with compliments and praise, but shrugs off any directed at him with self depreciating humor. Outside of combat he’s a friendly, easygoing guy who sadly remains a sucker for a pretty face. In combat he’s the wrathful god of lightning, serious as a heart attack. He cares a lot for his Clan and the Society in general. The only reason he qualifies as a villain at all is his loyalty to Kiske. Otherwise he’d absolutely be a hero. Of course, Kiske knows this and so doesn’t ask him or his Clan to directly participate in any truly unsavory business. One of the other two Clans will be the main force, with Shock running interference. This does not mean that Zuki has never killed anyone. He has done his very best to avoid it, but a lightning bolt striking a tank or assault helicopter has predictable results for the crew inside. They were military. They knew the risks of getting into a fight with superhuman opposition, and they did it anyway. This does not make him feel better. Neither does the fact that he saved members of his Clan in the process.

Which means, naturally, that Zuki is the point where savvy heroes can redeem the entire Devil Hunter Society. If the heroes can get Zuki to fully believe in and trust himself at last and turn on Kiske for being evil af, his Divine Dream magic will awaken and he’ll be both willing and able of handing the arrogant bastard his ass on a plate. Zuki flipping will flip Rina, which will flip Kino, which flips the whole Society. Getting him to believe in and trust himself is easier said than done, and getting him to turn on his mentor and personal hero may well be even harder. It’s going to be a long and tedious process of becoming his friend and gathering evidence against Kiske. But like the saying goes, easy isn’t for heroes, is it?

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Rina, The Iceheart

 

Power Level: 11; Power Points Spent: 240/240

 

STR: +2 (14), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +3 (16), INT: +2 (14), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +9/+14, Fort: +8, Ref: +8, Will: +14

 

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+15), Concentration 12 (+15), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Gather Information 7 (+10), Intimidate 12 (+15), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 13 (+15), Knowledge (history) 8 (+10), Knowledge (physical sciences) 3 (+5), Knowledge (tactics) 3 (+5), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 8 (+10), Notice 12 (+15), Sense Motive 12 (+15), Stealth 7 (+10)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 2, Attack Specialization 2 (Heartsong Strike (Strike 6)), Attractive (+4), Benefit (Demon Hunter Commander), Challenge - Improved Demoralize, Challenge - Improved Startle, Evasion, Improved Critical 2 (Chill Wind (Blast 8)), Improved Critical 2 (Heartsong Strike (Strike 6)), Improved Critical 2 (Ice Bonds (Snare 14)), Improved Critical 2 (Ice Javelin (Blast 14)), Improved Critical 2 (Snowblind (Dazzle 14)), Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Ritualist, Set-Up, Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive), Startle, Takedown Attack 2, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Enchanted Durability (Protection 6) (+6 Toughness)

Ice Wind, Heart Song (Device 12) (Easy to lose, Only you can use)

   Chilling Field (Force Field 5) (+5 Toughness, Feats: Attractive (+4); Impervious [6 extra ranks])

   Coldproof (Immunity 10) (common descriptor: Ice/Cold)

   Heart's Song (Emotion Control 11) (DC 21; Perception Area (General), Secondary Effect, Selective Attack; Limited (to current emotion felt), Range 2 (touch))

   Heartsong Strike (Strike 6) (DC 23, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Heartsong Strike (Strike 6)); Mighty, Precise, Subtle (subtle))

Icewind Magic (Array 16) (default power: blast)

   Flying Platform (Flight 😎 (Alternate; Speed: 2500 mph, 22000 ft./rnd; Platform)

   Howling Blizzard (Obscure 😎 (Alternate; affects: visual senses, Radius: 1000 ft.; Selective Attack)

   Chill Wind (Blast 😎 (Array; DC 23, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Chill Wind (Blast 8)); Alternate Save (Fortitude); Accurate 3 (+6), Homing (1 attempt), Improved Range (200 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2000 feet))

   Chilling Burst (Paralyze 10) (Array; DC 20; Burst Area (50-250 ft. radius - General), Duration (concentration); Action (full); Progression, Increase Area 2 (area x5))

   Hailstorm (Blast 10) (Array; DC 25; Cloud Area (50 ft. diameter, lingers - General); Indirect 2 (any point, directed away))

   Ice Bonds (Snare 14) (Array; DC 24, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Ice Bonds (Snare 14)); Homing (1 attempt), Precise)

   Ice Darts (Blast 😎 (Array; DC 23; Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Accurate 3 (+6), Improved Range (200 ft. incr), Precise, Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2000 feet))

   Ice Javelin (Blast 14) (Default; DC 29, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Ice Javelin (Blast 14)); Homing (1 attempt), Precise)

   Icewind Burst (Move Object 10) (Array; Strength: 50, Carry: 4.3 tons / 8.5 tons / 12.8 tons / 25.6 tons, DC 25; Cone Area (100-500 ft. cone - General), Damaging; Range (touch); Progression, Increase Area 2 (area x5))

   Snowblind (Dazzle 14) (Array; affects: visual senses, DC 24, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Snowblind (Dazzle 14)); Precise)

Immortality (Ageless) (Immunity 1) (aging)

Immortality (Regenerative) (Regeneration 13) (recovery bonus 6 (+6 to recover), recovery rate (disabled) 2 (recover 1 / hour), recovery rate (injured) 2 (recover 1 / 5 mins), recovery rate (staggered) 2 (recover 1 / 5 mins), resurrection 1 (1 week); Persistent, Regrowth)

Omnilingual (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all)

 

Attack Bonus: +8 (Ranged: +8, Melee: +10, Grapple: +12)

 

Attacks: Chill Wind (Blast 8), +14 (DC Fort 23), Chilling Burst (Paralyze 10) (DC Staged/Will 20), Hailstorm (Blast 10) (DC 25), Heart's Song (Emotion Control 11) (DC Staged/Will 21), Heartsong Strike (Strike 6), +14 (DC 23), Ice Bonds (Snare 14), +8 (DC Ref/Staged 24), Ice Darts (Blast 8), +14 (DC 23), Ice Javelin (Blast 14), +8 (DC 29), Icewind Burst (Move Object 10) (DC 25), Snowblind (Dazzle 14), +8 (DC Fort/Ref 24), Unarmed Attack, +10 (DC 17)

 

Defense: +8  (Flat-footed: +4), Knockback: -12

 

Initiative: +3

 

Languages: Native Language

 

Totals: Abilities 32 + Skills 29 (116 ranks) + Feats 20 + Powers 106 + Combat 32 + Saves 21 + Drawbacks 0 = 240

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): Unknown (at least 150 years)

Height: 5’

Weight: 95 lbs.

Ethnicity: Japanese

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Rina, The Iceheart is in an awkward position. She herself was not yet born during Kiske’s rise to power. She has no personal knowledge of how much things have changed. Her older brother (who adopted her into their family) however, was a Clan leader at the time. He retired specifically because he did not agree with the changes. Also Kiske kicked his ass in a non lethal duel. Byakusei, of the Blossoming Storm (his name) pulled her out of a crowd of rookies. She got there the old fashioned way. She volunteered. When you’re barely into your teen years and all but one of your equally orphaned childhood friends have died, well. Few people cared about destitute peasant orphans during the Meiji Restoration. Survival was a constant struggle, but they had each other. Until slowly, they didn’t. Disease, lack of food, and cruel winters took all but her and Rokuro away one by one. They were too old to steal like they did as children. The punishment should they be caught would be much more severe. Their choices were few, and all bad. But the Devil Hunter Society promised room and board, as long as they were willing to fight supernatural menaces. Everything else promised either a pittance of cash, or virtual enslavement to a trade’s master. They could not wait too long to decide, either. Rina’s cold beauty had been noticed, and Rokuro’s life meant nothing to such unscrupulous men. Either they would decide their futures now, or they would be decided for them. A heavy thing to place on barely more than children. Of course, they joined the Society as recruits. They trained diligently and well.

Rokuro had some talent with a sword, but his deficiencies with magic kept him in the normal classes. Rina, however, progressed well in both categories and was admitted to the elite training courses. Where Byakusei noticed her. It was Rina’s decision to join his family. A better home. Better food. Better training. And, of course, Rokuro would be freed of having to look after her. Rokuro, for his part, kept his objections to himself until it was much too late. That house was a cold and lonely place. But the accommodations were better than the recruit dorms, which were a big tent with a bunch of cots in it. One for the men, one for the women. The food was of better quality and more plentiful. One bowl of rice made for a poor meal, but it was all the recruits got. Occasionally there was fish at dinner, but still. And Byakusei directed her training himself. The Storm Clan Commander was a far better teacher than rank and file veterans who drew the short straw or “volunteered”. Even if he was a bit hands off, she learned a lot. But training ends, and field work begins.

Kiske took notice for her progression as time went on, and began offering her more and more prominent missions. He was curious to see if she would excel, and when she did he was well pleased. He did not serve as a trainer, but as a mentor figure. Further down the line, when Frost Clan needed a new commander, it was his recommendation that clinched the win in the vote for her. She’s settled into the role rather nicely. But her position remains awkward. Two men who she has great respect and gratitude towards have diametrically opposed views. Deciding between them was impossible. So instead she covered her heart with layers of ice, and has done her best to follow orders. What the society does under Kiske’s command is sometimes evil. However, the goal is always good. She’s deeply conflicted and trapped in decision paralysis. So she is The Iceheart.

 

Powers & Tactics: Rina is both a expert swordswoman and magician. She has a potent enchanted sword, the symbol of her group, and her body is also well enchanted. Ice Wind, Heart Song can only be properly used by her. For anyone else it is an ordinary Damage 3 (Might, Improved Crit) Sword. This is because it was originally drawn from her soul in a rather intense magical ceremony and corporealized into a nigh unbreakable blade with a special magical ability. It is much more effective than normal swords in her hands, having more power, more sharpness, and more precision. It even shrouds Rina with just enough frost to disguise her slashes as breezes to unkeen eyes. The special powers of her society’s swords traditionally fall into the realms of Flame, Frost, or Shock. She is somewhat unique to this, being fully fledged Frost Clan hybridized with the currently extinct Sound Clan. Therefore she has two special abilities instead of one. This is, needless to say, highly unusual. Chilling Field uses the power of absolute zero (where all matter ceases movement) to drain the energy of any attack directed at her. This makes her considerably more durable than her peers. Heart’s Song can force whatever emotion she’s currently feeling onto anyone who can hear her sword sing said song. This is less useful than it sounds, as her sobriquet of The Iceheart is not inaccurate. Early on, she had trouble controlling it. Combined with her other nonpower related issues, she earned her sobriquet.

As a magician, she does ice, cold, and wind. She has a wide variety of ways to do damage. Ice Javelin is high damage and single target. Ice Darts is weaker, but more accurate while using multiple hits. Chill Wind does its best to freeze its target solid, bypassing armor from equipment, devices, or superhuman powers. Hailstorm is exactly that. Chunks of ice fall from the sky and batter the enemies across an area. Icewind Burst combines damage with the ability to move things or enemies. She has a few spells that have more exotic  effects, as well. Ice Bonds can bind a target in ice, and Snowblind can, well, blind people. Chiling Burst is arguably the best of them, as it exposes an area to such intense cold that anyone within it slowly loses the ability to move. Her final regular spell slot is  occupied by two options. Frozen Platform she can ride to fly around at hypersonic speeds, while Howling Blizzard blots out vision in a thousand foot radius.

The enchantments to his body are relatively subtle by comparison. Her physical durability is significantly higher, she can speak, read, and understand all languages, and she is effectively immortal. That last one is something of a big deal in the Phoenixverse. Agelessness is difficult enough to acquire, but the ability to return from death (even if it’s after a week) is vanishingly rare. The list of (former) mortals who can do that is short indeed. It was Kiske who learned of the method, and performed the ritual on his top lieutenants. Like Rina.

 

Tactically, Rina can seem more like a goddess of winter than a mortal. She shows a decided preference for ranged combat, which helps a lot in that impression. Aside from that, it’s Ranged Combat 101 with her.  Area attack for groups of enemies, single targets once they’re whittled down. Collateral damage really isn’t her thing, so she’ll be careful with that. Chilling Burst is her favorite area spell. Ice Javelin and Ice Darts are tied for favorite single target spell. One of her favorite things to do, when with a full Frost Clan team, is unleash Howling Blizzard to blind the opposition while her team does its work. And there’s nothing like an Demoralize and Startle combo (one of them Improved), used with Set Up, to let her underlings rock a tougher opponent’s world. Her underlings or Zuki and Kino should they be fighting together. She is very protective of her Clanmates and makes sure they get out safely.

 

Personality: Rina comes across initially as emotionless to the point of sociopathy. This is the direct opposite of the truth. She cares a lot. About her Clan. About the Society. About right and wrong. But she’s caught in a grey area. Like Kiske, she doesn’t want anyone in her Clan or indeed in the Society to die. So they have to be stronger than and more ruthless to their enemies. For the former, that means there’s knowledge and artifacts that they absolutely need, regardless of whether or not the current owner is willing to surrender them or not. This has, inevitably, made them many human enemies. Enemies that cannot be allowed to harm the Clan or the Society. So when the two sides clash, she must do everything she can to prevent casualties to her own. And that means killing people. She is deeply uncomfortable with stealing and killing, but she cannot see a better solution. She knows it’s wrong, but the alternative is burying more and more friends. So she piles the ice high on her warm and caring heart, and gets on with what needs to be done. Without complaint.

As stated in Zuki, the Thunderer’s entry, flipping him to the hero side will flip Rina. This is because she thinks herself alone in her reservations and as such dares not speak them aloud to anyone. Zuki going to war with Kiske shows her that no, she’s not alone. This melts the ice piled on her heart and breaks her decision paralysis. No more. She sides with Zuki in that how they treat others is more important than preserving their own lives at all costs. And it is seeing the two of them stand against Kiske that makes Kino get to thinking, and change sides himself.

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Kino, of the Stars

 

Power Level: 11; Power Points Spent: 225/225

 

STR: +4 (18), DEX: +4 (18), CON: +4 (18), INT: +2 (14), WIS: +2 (14), CHA: +2 (14)

 

Tough: +10, Fort: +9, Ref: +12, Will: +9

 

Skills: Acrobatics 11 (+15), Bluff 13 (+15), Diplomacy 8 (+10), Gather Information 8 (+10), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 8 (+10), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 8 (+10), Language 1 (+1), Notice 8 (+10), Sense Motive 8 (+10), Sleight of Hand 1 (+5), Stealth 6 (+10)

 

Feats: Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 4, Challenge - Improved Feint, Challenge - Improved Taunt, Dodge Focus 3, Evasion, Improved Critical 2 (Blazing Fire (Drain 10)), Improved Critical 2 (Blazing Strike (Strike 6)), Improved Critical 2 (Dazzling Beam (Stun 8)), Improved Critical 2 (Fire Blast (Blast 14)), Improved Critical 2 (Fire Bolts (Blast 8)), Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Sleight of Hand, Stealth), Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Blazing Sun, Burning Soul (Device 12) (Easy to lose, Only you can use)

   Blazing Sword (Linked)

      Blazing Fire (Drain 10) (Linked; drains: single trait - toughness, DC 20, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Blazing Fire (Drain 10)); Affects Objects)

      Blazing Strike (Strike 6) (Linked; DC 25, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Blazing Strike (Strike 6)); Penetrating [5 ranks only]; Mighty)

   Burning Regeneration (Regeneration 24+1) ([Stacking ranks: +1], recovery bonus 5 (+5 to recover), recovery rate (bruised) 3 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (disabled) 6 (recover 1 / round), recovery rate (injured) 5 (recover 1 / action), recovery rate (staggered) 5 (recover 1 / action))

Enchanted Durability (Protection 6) (+6 Toughness)

Immortality (Ageless) (Immunity 1) (aging)

Immortality (Regenerative) (Regeneration 1) (resurrection 1 (1 week); Stacks with (Burning Regeneration (Regeneration 24+1)); Persistent, Regrowth)

Omnilingual (Comprehend 3) (languages - read all, languages - speak all, languages - understand all)

Sunfire Magic (Array 16) (default power: blast)

   Blinding Burst (Dazzle 10) (Array; affects: visual senses, DC 20; Burst Area (50-250 ft. radius - General), Selective Attack; Range (touch); Progression, Increase Area 2 (area x5))

   Crushing Gravity Field (Move Object 10) (Array; Strength: 50, Carry: 4.3 tons / 8.5 tons / 12.8 tons / 25.6 tons, DC 25; Burst Area (50-250 ft. radius - General), Damaging; Limited Direction (Downwards); Progression, Increase Area 2 (area x5))

   Dazzling Beam (Stun 😎 (Array; DC 18, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Dazzling Beam (Stun 8)); Range (ranged); Accurate 3 (+6), Improved Range (200 ft. incr), Precise, Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2000 feet))

   Fire Blast (Blast 14) (Default; DC 29, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Fire Blast (Blast 14)); Precise, Ricochet (1 bounce))

   Fire Bolts (Blast 😎 (Array; DC 23, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Fire Bolts (Blast 8)); Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Accurate 3 (+6), Improved Range (200 ft. incr), Precise, Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 2000 feet))

   Fire Bomb (Blast 10) (Array; DC 25; Burst Area (50-250 ft. radius - General); Progression, Increase Area 2 (area x5))

   Gravikinesis (Move Object 10) (Array; Strength: 50, Carry: 4.3 tons / 8.5 tons / 12.8 tons / 25.6 tons; Burst Area (50-100 ft. radius - General); Progression, Increase Area (area x2), Selective)

   Gravity Warp (Teleport 9) (Array; 900 ft. as move action, 20000 miles as full action; Accurate; Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy, Progression, Mass (carry 250 lbs), Turnabout)

   Regenerative Sunlight (Healing 10) (Array; DC 20; Action (standard), Range (ranged); Limited to Others; Persistent, Regrowth)

 

Attack Bonus: +8 (Ranged: +8, Melee: +12, Grapple: +16)

 

Attacks: Blazing Fire (Drain 10), +12 (DC Fort/Staged 20), Blazing Strike (Strike 6), +12 (DC 25), Blinding Burst (Dazzle 10) (DC Fort/Ref 20), Crushing Gravity Field (Move Object 10) (DC 25), Dazzling Beam (Stun 8), +14 (DC Fort/Staged 18), Fire Blast (Blast 14), +8 (DC 29), Fire Bolts (Blast 8), +14 (DC 23), Fire Bomb (Blast 10) (DC 25), Unarmed Attack, +12 (DC 19)

 

Defense: +12  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -5

 

Initiative: +4

 

Languages: English, Swahili Native

 

Totals: Abilities 36 + Skills 20 (80 ranks) + Feats 21 + Powers 94 + Combat 34 + Saves 20 + Drawbacks 0 = 225

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): Unknown (at least 100 years)

Height: 5’ 11”

Weight: 175 lbs.

Ethnicity: Sub Saharan African (tribe unknown)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Dark Brown

 

Background: Kino, of the Stars doesn’t remember a lot about his life before the Society. World War I’s African theatre was somewhat sparse on action compared to Europe, but he remembers soldiers passing through his village (Town? City? He doesn’t quite remember.). His next memory is of being sick. He knows this was the influenza epidemic that started in 1918. The Spanish flu that killed millions of Africans. He is quite certain it was about to kill him, too, were it not for the intervention of Kiske and the Devil Hunter Society. According to the Society’s records, a pestilence demon was thriving on the outbreak, making it worse than it would have otherwise been and drawing others of its ilk to the area. Kiske killed it personally, and a Zuki, The Thunderer led squad (his first mission as Shock Clan Commander) killed off the rest. A support squad from Frost Clan (featuring Rina, The Iceheart as a leader of a bodyguard squad) lent medical aid through means both mundane and magical. Kino survived. Others did not. Kino wanted to join such cool people. Mighty warriors with great magic. Great heroes, with a dashing and intelligent leader. It wasn’t a recruitment mission (they had come to exterminate the demon specifically), but Kiske liked the look of the boy. The long sickness had destroyed his memory of who he was, and nobody stepped forward to claim him as their own. So when Kiske and the Society left, Kino went with them.

The boy trained hard, but he was no prodigy. Quite ordinary, really, as recruits went. The only thing that set him apart was not merely just the capacity for, but the determination to endure body and soul crushing amounts of hard work. Kiske had many other matters to attend to, but he checked in on Kino and the recruits from time to time. Zuki remembered the spirited lad, and checked in sometimes himself. Kino’s determination not to die back in Africa had made a small impression on Rina, too, and she checked on him sometimes as well. It wasn’t mentorship, not really. And those three weren’t alone. But still. He graduated training, and was assigned to a rookie squad. Zazie, the Steel Wind. Yuki, the Quenched. And his rival Delun, of the Journey. In times past, one or two of them would not have survived to make veteran status. Under Kiske’s rule, all four did relatively unscathed. As veterans, with their changeable squad compositions, the four worked together much less often. Time went on and on. Zazie became one of Zuki’s Lieutenants. Yuki became one of Rina’s shortly after she became Frost Clan Commander. And both Kino and Delun became one for the Fire Clan Commander.

However, nothing lasts forever. Akiko, the Phoenix, died suddenly and surprisingly permanently. A new Fire Clan Commander was needed. To Kino’s surprise, Delun gave him his recommendation and stepped aside. The rivalry was well and truly buried. The other two Clan Commanders had been tracking his career if not actively mentoring him, and let their preference for him be known. His former squadmates spoke well of him, after all. But it was his hero of a century ago, Kiske, who shocked him out of his shoes by convincing the other Fire Clan Lieutenant to also stand aside. With only one candidate, the vote was a foregone conclusion. Kino, thrilled to his toes, now got to stand beside the heroes from so long ago as their equal. For the most part. Kiske as still the boss. This suits Kino fine, as his first mission as Commander was to annihilate the demon whose curse had stole Akiko’s life. It was, naturally, a complete success.

 

Powers & Tactics: Zuki is both a expert swordsman and a expert magician. He has a potent enchanted sword, the symbol of his group, and his body is also well enchanted. Blazing Sun, Burning Soul can only be properly used by him. For anyone else it is an ordinary Damage 3 (Mighty, Improved Crit) Sword. This is because it was originally drawn from his soul in a rather intense magical ceremony and corporealized into a nigh unbreakable blade with a special magical ability. It is much more effective than normal swords in his hands, having more power, and more sharpness. It also emits a heat so intense there is likely nothing in the world it cannot cut. The special powers of his society’s swords traditionally fall into the realms of Flame, Frost, or Shock. He is a slight exception to this, being fully fledged Sun Clan. The Sun Clan was subsumed into the Fire Clan before Kino’s arrival, but all the same.  His special ability is rapid regeneration. His injuries literally burn out of existence, as flames incinerate any trace of physical injury. It’s quite the spectacle, even if it does require a little conscious effort for the most part. He’s hoping to fix that soon.

As a magician, he is extremely versatile. His Sunfire Magic has produced fire, light, and gravitic effects. It’s possible he could use radiation or a limited range of magnetic or even electric effects one day. At any rate, he uses fire purely for damage. Fire Blast is the big shot. Fire Bolts do less damage but is more accurate and strikes multiple times. Fire Burst is the crowd control, doing damage over an area. It is important to note that this is stellar and therefore nuclear fire. Effects that counter normal fire will have no effect on it. His main focus with light spells is disabling the opponent. Blinding Burst (which can disable the visual senses of everyone in an area) and Dazzling Beam (which simply overwhelms the target with light and color, essentially inducing a non-physical seizure) support this. However, Regenerative Sunlight is a healing spell that only works on other people. It opens up all sorts of interesting questions about what his magic can do with light beyond photonic manipulation. His gravitic spells through more fuel on this fire, as they’re all quite different. Crushing Gravity Field is literally that. Anything caught within the area is subject to damage and being pressed to the ground unable to move. Gravikinesis allows him to move a selected amount of objects within an area. It can be used on people, as well, but cannot do direct damage. Gravity Warp bends spacetime to its will with raw gravitic force, connecting two points and permitting him to effectively teleport over potentially vast distances.

The enchantments to his body are relatively subtle by comparison. His physical durability is significantly higher, he can speak, read, and understand all languages, and he is effectively immortal. That last one is something of a big deal in the Phoenixverse. Agelessness is difficult enough to acquire, but the ability to return from death (even if it’s after a week) is vanishingly rare. The list of (former) mortals who can do that is short indeed. It was Kiske who learned of the method, and performed the ritual on his top lieutenants. Like Kino.

 

Tactically, Kino can seem like a wrathful god of the sun than a mortal. He shows a decided preference for his sword. This is fair, as one swing tends to either cripple or outright kill most opponents. This generally permits him to Takedown Attack 2 his way through a large amount of opponents. And with Gravity Warp, he can approach from unexpected angles. But he is a competent battlefield strategist. Thus larger groups can get hit with Blinding Burst, Crushing Gravity Field, or Fire Bomb. And some enemies have auras or reaction damage, so Dazzling Beam, Fire Blast, and Fire Bolts can be effective in those situations. Gravikinesis and Regenerative Sunlight allow him to be effective is a support role, as well. A Feint or Taunt (Improved version, naturally) can swing things in his favor, as well. And nothing yet has survived a full +5 All Out Power Attack with his sword. Gravity Warp also serves a second purpose. Burning regeneration requires a standard action to remove most damage conditions. So it can give him a quick breather to remove Disabled and/or Staggered before charging back in. Like the other two Clan Commanders, he takes very good care of his Clan and team, protecting them as much as possible. He is always the last one to retreat because Gravity Warp’s long range option is an easy escape.

There’s actually a lot of power stunts Kino can do, as befits his magic’s versatility. Fire Blast, Fire Bolts, and Fire Bomb can have the Fire descriptor replaced with Laser (for light) or Gravitic (for gravity) if a foe is immune to fire damage. Blinding Burst and Dazzling Beam can swap feats, extras, and total ranks to become Blinding Beam and Dazzling Burst. He can even turn Blinding Burst into Fireflash, which is an effect descriptor swap from Light to Fire. He’s even got a Maser Blast, which resembles Fire Bolts with Autofire and the Fire descriptor swapped out for Alt Save (Fort) and the Radiation descriptor, respectively. In the support arena, he’s got Low-G Zone, which is Super Strength 10 (Feats: Progression [Increase Area], Selective; Extras: Affects Others, Burst Area; Flaw: Duration [sustained]). So everybody he wants within a 50-100 foot radius suddenly has +50 lifting STR and a max load of over a hundred tons. For when you absolutely, positively, gotta carry smething ridiculously heavy with all your friends, accept no substitutes. And that’s the story here. All of his power stunts are very situational. He won’t pull one of these out unless it’s been proven necessary.

 

Personality: Kino is a hardworking and dependable guy. He’s a nice guy with an appealing if simple personality and people just tend to like him. He feels like the luckiest person in the world, getting to work alongside his heroes from his early days. His determination is more than superheroic. He just doesn’t know how to give up, because the only thing he’s ever been truly great at is working hard. His is a simple creed. Work hard, be kind to others, and protect those important to you. The main problem with him, the thing that makes him a villain at the present time, is that he doesn’t see people from outside of Devil Hunter Society as, well, people. In fairness, he’s spent about 90 percent of his life with the Society, has spent all that time hero worshiping them as the people who saved his life, and encounters with outsiders almost always involve said outsiders being deliberately obstructive and/or getting violent. He quite literally doesn’t know any better than to consider outsiders almost as bad as demons and combat them accordingly. So surprisingly enough, the youngest member of and newcomer to the Clan Commanders has the highest personal body count. Basically he’s a shonen protagonist except on the wrong side.

As noted in the entries for Zuki, the Thunderer and Rina, the Iceheart, flipping them from villain to good will flip Kino. Because he’s not a sociopath or anything. He has a conscience, and it works just fine. As stated above, he just doesn’t know any better. But Zuki and Rina do, and it’s quite literally the first time in his life he’s been confronted (from someone he’d listen to) with this idea. That outsider doesn’t necessarily equal enemy. He’s neither blind nor stupid. Outsiders are humans, too. And in an instant, he’s angrier than he’s ever been in his life. Genuinely goddamn furious. Kiske is such a bastard. Using Kino. Manipulating Rina and Zuki. And for what? To protect everyone? Bullshit. The Society isn’t everyone. There are those out there just as weak and vulnerable as he was a century ago. Outsiders are not all enemies. Some are people, as worthy of protection as the Society’s own. With all three Clan Commanders against him, Kiske’s rule over the Society is broken. What happens next is entirely up to you, GM. Dismantle the whole org? Throw everyone in prison? Let them atone as true heroes once again? The choices are boundless and all yours.

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Devil Hunter Society

 

Overview

 

The Devil Hunter Society is over three thousand years old and it is, in fact, an off shoot of a earlier organization in China. The Yayoi people brought the trappings with them when they migrated over to Japan. China’s relative instability compared to Japan over those three thousand years caused the original parent organization (itself a splinter group) to splinter over and over again until no sect had any special relevance. The Society itself was relatively tiny and insignificant, only operating on a very local scale through all of the Yayoi and Kofun periods. Yet even in these very early days they operated on something resembling the modern superheroic ethos through a marked Buddhist influence on their philosophies. The Asuka period saw growth and incorporation into the government. Demons were a problem for the consolidating Imperial government, and the Society had the expertise to combat them effectively. By the Nara period, Devil Hunters, though still relatively few in number, could operate with impunity as long as they were doing their job. Unfortunately, two smallpox epidemics and the distrust of the powerful Fujiwara clan in the early Heian period led to the Society’s ouster as official civil servants and tighter restrictions on their operations. This, in turn, led to the creation of the Society’s alternate dimensional headquarters. This was prescient, as the warring between the Taira and Minamoto clans over control of Japan would have forced the Society to pick a side and contribute warriors…if they had not already vanished. The Society had as little to do with recorded Japanese history as possible, from this point onward. The decentralization of Japanese government into a feudal system was actually quite helpful in this regard. Being known to the ruler of one province did not mean they would be known to the ruler of the next. And periodic civil wars meant that who those rulers were could change from one decade to the next.

So what was the Society up to, as the Kamakura period gave way to the Muromachi period which in turn gave way to the brief Azuchi-Momoyama period? Expanding. The wars left many orphans in their wake, and the number of demons and devils that were taking advantage of the carnage was large. However, the larger the organization, the more difficult it becomes to hide its footprints. There is some evidence that Oda Nobunaga knew of their existence, but not where or how to find them. Toyotomi Hideyoshi certainly knew of them and probably where to find them, but still not how to do so. It was Tokugawa Ieyasu who figured out that last part, but he waited until after the battle of Sekigahara. For the first time in literal centuries, the Society Supreme Commander and his 17 Clan Commanders met with the leader of a mostly unified Japan and his entourage. Tokugawa, and by extension his shogunate…were not fans. Though in their defense, an army of highly skilled warriors and/or powerful magicians that numbering nearly ten thousand strong and can show up on the doorstep of literally any city or castle is kind of a nightmare scenario no matter their stated intentions. Especially if they refuse to be controlled by you and you have literally no way of forcing the issue, as their base of operations is completely unreachable to you. With that said, while the Tokugawa Shogunate clamped down on the Society like they did a lot of things, the common people had long known better than to get the people who slew the demons who appeared periodically to murder and/or eat the common people. Additionally, the Society’s operations had greatly expanded in the preceding centuries. While most of Europe was held in an iron grip by the Catholic Church’s Paladin Order, much of Asia and Africa saw repeated visits from Devil Hunters on missions ranging from demon extermination to knowledge seeking to recruitment. The Islamic proscription against magic was a rude surprise, and so operations in Middle Eastern and other Islamic nations was kept low.

And then Kiske, of the Thousand, launched his revolution. The Society experienced a dramatic philosophical shift into pragmatism and ruthlessness. While it remained a Society in name, in practice Kiske turned it into his own private demon killing army. He sought knowledge, power, and the annihilation of all demonkind. He deemed that the sacrifices to obtain such things would no longer be paid in the blood of Devil Hunters. Combat training ramped up, as his minimum standards were high. Recruitment missions were slashed in numbers, as the number of potential recruits that could meet his standards were low. Extermination missions were also reduced to prevent casualties among those who did not meet his standards. And a new type of mission appeared to replace knowledge seeking entirely. Requisition missions. It was a new name for the same thing, except no longer would the Society take no for an answer. Furthermore, Kiske didn’t care at all about the Paladin Order or Islamic law, and increased operations in all of Europe and every Islamic nation. He also took the opportunity the Meiji Restoration afforded and destroyed the Tokugawa Shogunate’s records on the Society, along with expanding operations to the Americas.

Today, the Society numbers approximately five hundred warriors with ten times that in support staff. The numbers drop off was not from casualties, not really. Though the Headquarters increases the longevity of those who dwell in it, they still age. And Devil Hunters on active status are in the field (and thus aging normally) as often as they are at home. Combined with those who left the Society or merely retired in disgust at Kiske’s methods and a miniscule recruitment rate, the Society’s numbers dwindled to their current state. As no Devil Hunter seeks fame for their actions, it has taken until the modern age with the internet for them to become anywhere near widely known. Even now, they’re only really known among the global magical community. Interpol is in Oda Nobunaga’s position of old, where they know an organization calling itself the Devil Hunters exists but where they come from is a giant shoulder shrug. Heroes trying to stop them from doing all the crime stuff will have their work cut out of them. Then again, isn’t that what heroes are for? Doing the highly improbable, if not outright impossible?

 

Headquarters

 

Devil Hunter Society HQ

 

Equipment Points Spent: 25

 

Toughness: +10

 

Features: Concealed 2, Dual Size, Gym, Holding Cells, Infirmary, Isolated, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Personnel, Power System, Sealed, Workshop

 

Powers:

Communication 9 (sense type: magic; Omni-Directional Area)

ESP 9 (affects: 2 types, inc. visual - visual & auditory; No Conduit; Limited)

Inhabitant Longevity (Features 1)

Teleport 9 (20000 miles as full action; Accurate, Portal; Anchor (Society Headquarters ), Long-Range)

 

Size: Awesome

 

Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 14 + Powers 4 + Combat 6 + Saves 1 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 25

 

You know, I call it a headquarters but it’s really a full sized town, albeit mostly empty. Nestled in a small valley in rural Japan, and basically completely forgotten is a blast from Japan’s past. The buildings here evoke Heian period Kyoto in the interior, but the exterior is just a sleepy farm town surrounded by plenty of rice paddies and other fields. There are no cell or smart phones. There is no electricity or modern machinery. A visitor, unlikely as that may be, would feel like they just stepped back in time several centuries. Until said visitor notices their first spell casting. Everyone who lives here is a member of a Clan, and can cast spells. Granted, the civilian population/support staff is generally pretty weak, but there’s no need for flint and tinder when a little blast of fire will do. Irrigation is easy when you can create water with a small spell. Who needs a flashlight when there’s a Fire Clansman (Light Subclan) in the neighborhood? Etcetera. The interior has a training academy, various practice grounds, and quarters for all the actual Devil Hunters. There’s meeting halls and offices for Kiske, Zuki, Rina, Kino, and their Lieutenants. But the overall vibe is kind of…sad? Fifty five hundred living in a town that could effortlessly accommodate ten times that number is really sad. Step off the beaten path and you’ll find homes and businesses abandoned for decades, if not over a century. There are no children in the interior. It is literally an armed camp, on a perpetual war footing. However, it’s got everything the Devil Hunter need to do what they do, and thus they call it home.

 

Tactics

 

Let’s start with a quick chart.

Experience Level

PPower Level

Sword Atk Bonus/Damage

Magic Atk Bonus/Damage

Defense/Toughness

Rookie

6

9/3, 8/4, or 7/5

5/7, 4/8, or 3/9

9/3, 8/4, or 7/5

Graduate

7

10/4, 9/5, or 8/6

6/8, 5/9, or 4/10

10/4, 9/5, or 8/6

Veteran

8

12/4, 11/5, 10/6, or 9/7

6/10 or 4/12

12/4, 11/5, 10/6, or 9/7

Senior Veteran

/

Support Lieutenant

9

13/5, 12/6, or 10/8

8/10 or 6/12

12/6, 10/8, or 9/9

Combat Lieutenant

10

14/6, 13/7, or 12/8

10/10, 8/12, or 6/14

14/6, 12/8, or 10/10

 

Good. Each of the three Clan Commanders has two Combat Lieutenants and one Support Lieutenant. Both Combat Lieutenants are supported by a Senior Veteran. The rest of each Clan is made up of a mix of Veterans, Graduates, and Rookies.  Each Combat Lieutenant commands either Sword or Spell Squad, which identifies the specialty of the Squad. Typically, the Power Level of the other ability (Magic for Sword, Sword for Spell) will be one or two lower and thus not as used in combat. Each Support Lieutenant commands the Support Squad. Now, their magical capabilities can be quite broad, depending on Subclan. The three main Clans are Fire (fire controllers, naturally), Frost (cold controllers, generally without the Create Object power), and Shock (electricity controllers, of course). However, many have a Subclan (formerly a full Clan before numbers dwindled too far and forced a merger) Fire has Sun (parts of fire, light, gravity, and radiation controllers), Light (pure light controllers) Fang (animal mimics). Frost has Water (water controllers, naturally), Forest (plant controllers), and Ki (life controllers). Shock has Metal (magnetism), Storm (weather), and Thunder (bits of sonic, air, and kinetic controllers). Earth (pure earth controllers), Sound (pure sonic controllers), Might (pure gravity controllers), Night (darkness and dream controllers), and Moon (illusionists/mimics with bits of light control) are currently extinct, with the only example of the latter being Kiske himself.

 

…I’ll probably end up making the Lieutenants at some point, bleh. Anyway, teams are five strong with the team leader being the strongest member. No ties allowed. Small scale missions will only a single team, commanded at least by a Veteran. Moderate scale missions will have three teams, and at minimum are led by a Senior Veteran with a Veteran commanding each of the other teams. Large scale missions will see a five team layout, and at minimum are led by a Lieutenant and seconded by a Senior Veteran (theirs if a Combat Lieutenant). The Senior Veteran will have their own team, and the other three will be led by Veterans. Massive scale missions are dramatic endeavors featuring anywhere from seven to twenty five teams. They typically feature multiple Clans, their Commanders, and multiple Lieutenants. However, mission scale is not the sole determining factor in who leads a mission and its teams. What’s listed above is for a low relative threat level.. The higher the threat level, the higher ranked the mission leader and his subordinates are. It’s not unheard of for high threat level but small scale missions to feature a Clan Commander, both their Combat Lieutenants, and both of their Senior Veterans. So you as GM have a certain flexibility in putting a group together to oppose your heroes.

 

Additionally, in the Phoenixverse those who have reached PL 12 have earned a special free Benefit feat that slightly alters the rules on Extra and/or Extraordinary Effort for them. They are detailed below.

 

Pirate Crew Member

Feat Name

Effect

Kiske, of the Thousand

One Thousand Spells

Kiske does not need to have an action readied to counter magical powers. He may simply do so. Normally, this would require a Hero Point (or in this case, granting one to the hero being countered). For him it does not (and no HP is granted to the hero being countered). The opposed power check, however, is performed as normal.

Zuki, the Thunderer

Thunderclap: Divine Cleft

When attacking with his sword, Zuki may use Extra Effort to double the positive effects of All Out Attack or Power Attack. Meaning that Defense may be traded for Attack Bonus or Attack Bonus for Damage at a 1:2 ratio. This effect only lasts for the round it is used in. He may not do it for both feats with one use of Extra Effort. To do both at the same time, Extraordinary Effort is required.

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Tatsuya Gushiken

 

Power Level: 12; Power Points Spent: 210/210

 

STR: +5 (20), DEX: +5 (20), CON: +5 (20), INT: +2 (14), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

 

Tough: +5/+9, Fort: +8, Ref: +15, Will: +10

 

Skills: Acrobatics 10 (+15), Craft (artistic) 3 (+5), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Intimidate 17 (+20), Knowledge (art) 3 (+5), Knowledge (current events) 3 (+5), Knowledge (streetwise) 3 (+5), Knowledge (tactics) 8 (+10), Language 6 (+6), Notice 12 (+15), Sense Motive 12 (+15)

 

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Assessment, Attack Focus (melee) 6, Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Challenge - Improved Cunning Fighter, Challenge - Improved Demoralize, Challenge - Improved Startle, Cunning Fighter, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 6, Evasion, Improved Critical (Black Dragon Shock (Strike 4)), Improved Critical 2 (Black Dragon Cutter (Drain 9)), Improved Critical 2 (Black Dragon Cutter (Strike 4)), Improved Critical 2 (Black Dragon Secret Technique: Infinite Worlds (Strike 4)), Improved Initiative, Lionheart, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive), Startle, Takedown Attack 2, Ultimate Effort (Toughness saves), Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

 

Powers:

Black Dragon Style Training (Container, Passive 6) (Custom 2 (Container 5.6))

   Leaping 2 (Jumping distance: x5)

   Protection 4 (+4 Toughness)

   Quickness 2 (Perform routine tasks at 5x speed)

   Speed 2 (Speed: 25 mph, 220 ft./rnd)

   Super-Movement 1 (slow fall)

   Super-Movement 1 (wall-crawling 1 (half speed); Limited (while moving))

   Super-Senses 3 (accurate: Normal Auditory, danger sense: Mental)

   Super-Strength 6 (+30 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 12.8 tons; +6 STR to some checks)

Black Dragon Swords (Device 7) (Easy to lose, Only you can use)

   Black Dragon Techniques (Array 15) (default power: strike)

      Black Dragon Cannon (Blast 9) (Array; DC 24; Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Accurate 3 (+6))

      Black Dragon Cutter (Linked)

         Black Dragon Cutter (Drain 9) (Linked; drains: single trait - toughness, DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Black Dragon Cutter (Drain 9)); Affects Objects)

         Black Dragon Cutter (Strike 4) (Linked; DC 24, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Black Dragon Cutter (Strike 4)); Mighty)

      Black Dragon Gust (Linked)

         Black Dragon Gust (Move Object 9) (Linked; Strength: 45, Carry: 4.3k / 4.3 tons / 6.4 tons / 12.8 tons; Cone Area (90-180 ft. cone - General); Limited Direction (Away), Range (touch); Progression, Increase Area (area x2))

         Black Dragon Gust (Trip 9) (Linked; Cone Area (90-180 ft. cone - General), Knockback; Range (touch); Improved Throw, Progression, Increase Area (area x2))

      Black Dragon Secret Technique: Infinite Worlds (Strike 4) (Default; DC 24, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Black Dragon Secret Technique: Infinite Worlds (Strike 4)); Autofire (interval 2, max +5) [5 extra ranks], Penetrating [3 ranks only], Secondary Effect [5 extra ranks]; Affects Insubstantial 2 (full power), Mighty)

      Black Dragon Shock (Linked)

         Black Dragon Shock (Emotion Control 9) (Linked; DC 19, Feats: Improved Critical (Black Dragon Shock (Emotion Control 9)); Shapeable Area (9 cubes of 125 cu. ft. (5x5x5) - Targeted); Limited to Emotion (Fear), Range 2 (touch))

         Black Dragon Shock (Strike 4) (Linked; DC 24, Feats: Improved Critical (Black Dragon Shock (Strike 4)); Alternate Save (Will) [5 extra ranks], Shapeable Area (9 cubes of 125 cu. ft. (5x5x5) - Targeted) [5 extra ranks]; Mighty)

      Black Dragon Twister (Move Object 9) (Array; Strength: 45, Carry: 4.3k / 4.3 tons / 6.4 tons / 12.8 tons, DC 24; Cylinder Area (45-450 ft. radius + height - General), Damaging; Duration (concentration); Progression, Increase Area 3 (area x10))

Sword Supremacy (Probability Control 1) (Minimum Result: 1; Limited 2 (Swords))

 

Attack Bonus: +9 (Ranged: +9, Melee: +15, Grapple: +20/+26)

 

Attacks: Black Dragon Cannon (Blast 9), +15 (DC 24), Black Dragon Cutter (Drain 9), +15 (DC Fort/Staged 19), Black Dragon Cutter (Strike 4), +15 (DC 24), Black Dragon Gust (Trip 9) (DC 19), Black Dragon Secret Technique: Infinite Worlds (Strike 4), +15 (DC 24), Black Dragon Shock (Emotion Control 9), +15 (DC Staged/Will 19), Black Dragon Shock (Strike 4), +15 (DC Will 24), Black Dragon Twister (Move Object 9) (DC 24), Unarmed Attack, +15 (DC 20)

 

Defense: +15  (Flat-footed: +5), Knockback: -4

 

Initiative: +9

 

Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Japanese Native, Russian, Spanish

 

Totals: Abilities 46 + Skills 21 (84 ranks) + Feats 34 + Powers 53 + Combat 36 + Saves 20 + Drawbacks 0 = 210

 

Age (as of Jan 2019): 27

Height: 5’ 9”

Weight: 185 lbs.

Ethnicity: Okinawan

Hair: Dark Green

Eyes: Dark Brown w/ faint Red glow

 

Background: Tatsuya Gushiken (Gushiken Tatsuya in the Japanese ordering) is a man on a mission. He has one purpose in life and one purpose only. To become strong enough to defeat the World’s Greatest Swordsman and take that title from him. There’s one small problem with that goal, however. Jin, the owner of that title and servant to the sun goddess Amaterasu, formally retired a year ago due to injury. And his primary rival, the man who calls himself Daimyo, actively refuses to take it up. So it’s been a free for all across the world as swordsmen and women fight to the death for the right to call themselves the World’s Greatest. The qualifications are simple enough. You can’t have any superhuman powers or devices that boost your abilities. And you can never, ever, lose to another sword user who qualifies except the acknowledged World’s Greatest. It was harder to determine who was the World’s Greatest before the advent of the telegraph. It’s only  gotten easier since, with radio, telephones, and the internet. Tatusya is on the shortlist to take the crown, but he’s not there yet. There’s a whole lot of dueling left to be done.

It all started way back when he was a kid in a rural village in Okinawa. Young orphan boy and his even younger little sister (Yuzumi), taken in by a kindly kendo dojo master and his young daughter Katsumi. Even in those days, Tatsuya had his eyes on his goal, but Katsumi had the same goal. And so they trained until the two were the strongest in the dojo, despite being 8 (Tatsuya) and 12 (Katsumi) years old. Those who witnessed both agreed that Katsumi was the better of the pair. The idea of being subordinate to anyone rankled Tatsuya, and he challenged Katsumi. She beat him. He challenged her again, to a midnight duel with real swords. She beat him again, without cutting him at all. He tried a third time, with two swords to her one. If anything, he lost faster. Katsumi was a kind girl, but one hell of a prodigy in swordsmanship and perfectly happy to prove it at any time. Tatsuya was dejected the next day. A old friend of the dojo master was visiting. A very old woman named Samantha, who wore three swords in casual defiance of Japan’s laws. When she was leaving, she took a little time to sit with the poor boy and chat with him a while. Well, more like relentlessly tease and mock him for being so damn serious at his age. He did not know it, but she was the former World’s Greatest Swordswoman and a grandmaster in the Black Dragon sword style. She showed him a few moves to amuse herself, but the exertion quickly exhausted the very old woman. With a warning to never get old, she departed in the dojo master’s car. The lesson that Tatsuya took from this was that three swords were better than two. Katsumi showed him that night that he was very wrong. Though Tatsuya’s desperate, frustrated tears Katsumi reminded him that she was 4 years older and that as a boy he would most likely grow up to be bigger and thus physically stronger than she ever would be. Skill and finesse were important, yes, but size, reach, and strength settled more fights than not. This did not entirely sooth Tatsuya, but it did make the two firm friends. It was an idyllic life. Until shortly after Katsumi’s 13th birthday, when she tripped and fell down the stairs. She broke her neck in the fall and died. It broke both Tatsuya and Yuzumi’s hearts. Her eually heartbroken father at last managed to pry the truth out of Tatsuya.

Tatsuya sought the pinnacle of strength for one reason. To protect his little sister. To protect Yuzumi. Their parents knew the details better, but they were dead and beyond talking. All Tatsuya knew is that his sister was special and powerful people wanted her for that specialness. The dojo master sighed…and decided to induct Tatsuya in the Black Dragon sword style that he was a master of. It was training straight out of hell. Black Dragon Style is, of course, a three sword style. One sword is held in each hand, and one in the teeth. The training was long, grinding, and brutal. Stronger. Faster. Tougher. More accurate. Better dodging. The training was kept from Yuzumi. She had a kind, gentle, and reserved temperament. Tatsuya didn’t want to tell her that she was a fugitive and that her beloved brother was undergoing what could only charitably described as voluntary torture to gain the power to protect her. Tatsuya, you see, was normal. He was not a prodigy, not really. Just a hard worker with plenty of free time on his hands. He had no special physical aptitudes. The training wasn’t merely to increase his abilities, but to increase all of his natural talents and aptitudes relating to swordsmanship. His very genetics and natural physiology had to be forced into compliance. Many terrible things happened in that oversized basement beneath the dojo. Basically every type of physical training under the sun. The very best of modern pharmacology and alchemy. A few discreet surgical procedures. And the power of the titular Black Dragon, or as it was better known to mystical types all over, the world, the Dragon of Shadowed Flames. Typically it was referred to as an evil, corrupt spirit or demon. This was inaccurate. Only the spirit part was correct. It was not evil or corrupt. Rather, it was amoral, offering power at a brutal price.

In that basement, during those hellish years, all the physical, mental, and spiritual weakness was burned out of Tatsuya. At 17 years of age, the dojo master finally deemed him ready for the final challenge. Here’s your swords, kid. Now you fight the Dragon. It was not quite so simply as slashing it enough times. The battle was physical, mental, and spiritual. It was arduous, and taxed him to his newly gained uttermost limits. It was not, in the end, a battle he could or was even supposed to win. But the Dragon found him his sacrifices acceptable, and granted him a small measure of power. Minor physiogical alterations, so that the results of his training would stick with minimal effort. But the big thing was blackening Tatsuya’s swords. They were rendered nigh indestructible compared with normal blades, and with them the various techniques he had learned would be much more effective. Normal steel tended to, well, break under the strain of performing Black Dragon Style techniques at full power. Even limiting the force put in only put off the inevitable snapping. And the edges needed continual maintenance beforehand. And then he went upstairs. It had been three days. He was exhausted and covered in sweat. His hair and eyes had changed.

He returned to chaos. In those three days out of the few thousand he’d been living at the dojo, the ones seeking Yuzumi had found her. Much had been revealed, and many dojo students were badly injured. Even the master himself was not currently able to stand from the beating he’d taken. The story was simple. Yuzumi was an astonishingly powerful cryomancer, and the infamous Agency wanted her to be their latest weapon. As usual, whether she or anyone else was willing to allow this or if she was even that type of personality were completely irrelevant to them. Minds could be altered. Opposing forces could be killed. They’d hired a powerful mercenary, assembled a combat squad, went where she was, and took her. It took Tatsuya a week of killing his way through the Japanese underworld looking for Agency employees to find her. The lab was buried in a remote section of the Hokkaido mountains. But there was something wrong. As Tatsuya approached, a huge man smashed the massive front door completely off its hinges with one punch. The young man prepared to fight, but Ruslan Turgenev only greeted him and told him Yuzumi was inside. There were no closed doors, let alone locked ones, and no one to block his way. Why? Ruslan completed his contract, to deliver the girl. Payment was delayed, which annoyed him. And the pointless cruelty and sadism of the Agency scientists and researchers annoyed him further. Especially because it wasn’t just directed at Yuzumi. They thought they’d make Ruslan listen to her screams and desperate pleading, and he’d do nothing. They were wrong. Seconds after his payment was finalized, he started killing all of them. They’d only finalized his payment because she’d stopped screaming and pleading. Ruslan did not have a heart made of stone, despite his reputation. The mercenary walked away. Tatsuya wasn’t willing to let him at first, but Ruslan brought up the excellent point that the dojo’s master (who was still stronger than Tatsuya at this point) lost to Ruslan. What was Tatsuya going to do? So Tatsuya let him leave, and rescued his sister. Unfortunately, Yuzumi didn’t remember him. She didn’t remember much of anything. Her personality had not been changed, but her memories had been wiped. Posing only as a friend, he took her back to the dojo to recover. A few days later, Ruslan visited with an important reality check. The Agency was absolutely going to return, and they would hire someone with even less scruples than Ruslan next time. Probably more than one. As it was, Tatsuya would not be able to protect her. He and everyone at the dojo would be killed. However, Ruslan had a solution. A protection contract. Ruslan didn’t need to physically remain at the dojo, either. Crossing the old mercenary carried a steep, steep price. He had a reputation, after all, especially when it came to completing his contracts. Tatsuya didn’t have money, but he didn’t need it. He could work for Ruslan until such time as his own abilities and reputation were enough to protect Yuzumi on their own. Lest anyone think Ruslan was getting soft, this deal benefited him, too. The fight with the dojo’s master had impressed him, and if the boy was likely to surpass the aging man in a few years. Such a warrior by his side would be very profitable. Tatsuya didn’t hesitate. He was in. All of his goals would be furthered in this, and all he had to do was train and fight? No thought was required. He left Yuzumi thinking of him only as a friend of the dojo, not her older brother.

Today, Tatsuya is the longest serving member of the Turgenev Mercenary Group. Ten years of traveling the world for mercenary contracts and battling swordsman and women. Others have both come and gone…either to the grave or prison. Yuzumi is living a quiet life at the dojo’s town. She has married a certain redheaded idiot and former delinquent. Their first child, a daughter, was born last year. But it’s not enough yet. Tatsuya cannot rest until he is the World’s Greatest Swordman. For his sister, for long departed Katsumi, and for himself. So when someone calls with a contract offer or a opportunity to duel presents itself, he ties his black bandana to his head and leaps at the opportunity to further hone his skills and advance his reputation. Meanwhile, Yuzumi is starting to remember her past…

 

Powers & Tactics: Tatsuya has no superhuman powers of any kind. He has no special devices of any kind. The Black Dragon Swords may be three regular (if virtually indestructible) Damage 3 (Improved Crit, Mighty) swords in anyone else’s hands, but the effects he can use with them are a result of his masterful sword skill and extreme training. The same is true of his Black Sword Style Training abilities. The Dragon of Shadowed Flames only made it easier for these abilities to be gained and maintained. It did not grant them at all.

The Black Dragon Techniques can technically be performed with ordinary swords, but performing them at full power breaks them irreparably. Even limited power causes significant to severe damage, depending on sword quality. It is the Black Dragon Swords that permit Tatsuya to use the full power of the techniques without worry. A fraction of the power of the Dragon of Shadowed Flames has been imbued into them, rendering them virtually unbreakable. Black Dragon Style Techniques are performed with the use of three swords. One in each hand, and one clenched in the teeth. A ventriloquism trick allows the swordsman to speak. The closest to a basic attack in the Techniques is Black Dragon Cutter. Finely honed technique permits the user to cut through just about anything with one slash. Even mighty adamantine will be cut. Black Dragon Shock is a literally terror inducing attack that strikes directly at an group of opponent’s minds. Even if they resist the fear, they may still take damage from it. Black Dragon Gust is a lightning quick slash of the air that knocks away anyone and anything in a cone shaped area from the swordsman. Black Dragon Twister takes this up a notch (being a lightning fast spinning slash of the air), to a fully fledged tornado that features razor wind. It can pick up, hold, and throw things, too. Although especially skilled, strong, or flexible opponents can get out of it. Black Dragon Cannon is, surprisingly for a swordsman, a ranged attack. He slashes the air so hard, fast, and precisely that a razor sharp blade of wind is generated and flies at the target. However, the crown jewel is the Black Dragon Secret Technique: Infinite Worlds. A seemingly endless storm of blades descend on the opponent. The more it is used, the more endless the parade of slashes and cuts seems.

Black Dragon Style Training essentially turns Tatsuya into somewhat of a super soldier analogue. He is faster, quicker, and can jump further than any “normal” human. His body can endure significantly more damage, he can wall run with the best of them, and his hearing and sense of danger are enhanced. However, the real showstopper is his carrying capacity. It is blatantly superhuman, taking several tons to even slow him down. He has probably reached the limits of what strength he can achieve. However, his speed, quickness, and leaping can likely still improve.

 

Tactically, Black Dragon Gust is basic “you aren’t a threat to me, go away” selection. When it works, it blasts enemies at least a thousand feet away. Next up in threat level is Black Dragon Shock. He doesn’t use lethal damage with this one ever, as that’s not the point of it. Moving up one level is Black Dragon Twister. He does use lethal damage with this, but only with actual military. Civilians like law enforcement or superheroes he keeps it a nonlethal attack. At this stage, Black Dragon Cutter is standard, with Takedown Attack 2 on tap if the others didn’t clear out the riffraff. Again, this is a nonlethal attack against law enforcement and most superheroes, but lethal against the military or superheroic sword users. Black Dragon Secret Technique: Infinite Worlds is at the top of the hierarchy. This is always a lethal attack. Black Dragon Cannon stands outside the hierarchy, as it’s exclusively for enemies he can’t reach for whatever reason. Keep in mind that these are his standard tactics. He responds to taking lethal damage by inflicting some of his own if he wasn’t already. A personal grudge/vendetta may change his damage to lethal against a specific hero. Conversely, a lack of respect for a specific hero’s abilities may result in nonlethal instead. Moreover, this is all subservient to the terms of a contract. If the client doesn’t specify their preferences, all of the above applies. If the client does, expect him to obey to the letter. Keep in mind that he’s a warrior, not an assassin. If he’s on a killing mission, the target(s) is/are  armed and/or in possession of superhuman powers and thus capable of defending themselves. Or the client has lied and now the heroes have to protect someone entirely different than expected.

With that said, with the Improved versions of Acrobatic Bluff, Cunning Fighter (ATK bonus used to Feint), Demoralize, and Startle in his toolkit, most people can say goodbye to their dodge bonus. He’s unique among the highly accurate in that he’ll still use the +2 version of Accurate Attack at times. In fact, he’ll change his tradeoffs with that, All Out, Defensive, and Power Attack fairly frequently. He seeks cover against ranged opponents, naturally, and seeks to get in melee range with his versatile movement capabilities. The most surprising thing he has is Ultimate Toughness. More than one opponent has smashed him to the ground with an attack no human should survive, let alone endure, only for him to rise again and cut them down.

 

Personality: Tatsuya is a warrior. A stoic, badass man of honor. He’d have been just as at home if he had come of age for the Mongol invasions of Japan or the Sengoku period. His entire life is oriented around becoming the World’s Greatest Swordsman. He’s a villain because he’s not an especially moral person. The lives of strangers and enemies mean nothing to him. This does not mean he’s an immoral person, either. Rather, he’s largely amoral. His friends and allies he will protect, certainly, and he’s not some asshole who’s impossible to get along with. He can drink, dance, and tell stories at the tavern/pub/bar with the best of them. But make no mistake; he is a predator in human form. All that lovely humanity can disappear in an instant and all that left is something resembling a demon. One who’d be more than happy to fight you to the death. Said demon may only be unleashed in response to appropriate challenge, but it is still there. For he has a strong code of honor. There’s no honor in killing the weak or those who never had the ability to defend themselves, but soldiers are putting their lives on the line by the nature of their profession. It’d be dishonorable not to kill them when they choose to fight. He’s not a mindless contract completing automaton, either. Heroes can dodge fighting him at all if they come up with a clever plan that lets him technically fulfill his contract.

Ultimately, Tatsuya isn’t someone you redeem, exactly. He’s been killing people for a decade. He is not and never will be one of the good guys. And even if the heroes completely take apart the Agency (a task worthy of a full campaign on its own, as detailed in The Agency’s section), protecting his sister Yuzumi from them is the only reason why he’s working for Ruslan. It is not the only reason why he’s pursuing becoming the World’s Greatest Swordsman. He’s also doing it for his fallen childhood friend, and for his own pride as a swordman. With that said, if the heroes can find another way to keep his sister protected, and assist her in remembering him…the reunion would mellow him, some. He doesn’t want his kind gentle sister to know he’s a killer of hundreds and feared as a god of war. To see him as covered in blood as he is. Her eyes widening in horror and disgust haunt his nightmares. Not that that would happen, mind. It’s all in his head. What would actually happen is that she would accept him. Completely. And tell him he didn’t need to work so hard for her sake anymore. Thus he wouldn’t. No reason to work for Ruslan, hence no real villainy. His only killing would be in defense of his life or the lives of those he cares about. He’s made his fair share of enemies, after all. Or, you know, in duels to determine who is continuing on the road to becoming the World’s Greatest Swordsman. Because that’s how that works. Did you think he’d stop? Silly heroes.

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