Amelia Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 (edited) In Brief: Huntress dresses like Moon Knight and learns kung-fu in K'un L'un to control the Daredevil powers she got from Captain America's super-serum. Player: Grumblefloof Character: Mister Strix Power Level: 13 (9) Tradeoffs: NonePower Points: 193/196 Unspent Power Points: 3 Veteran Rewards: Bronze: Additional character slot at PL12/180PP (Mister Strix) Silver: 6PP of free Equipment ranks for Mister Strix, 9PP of Equipment/Minions/Sidekick unclaimed Gold: Unclaimed. Residence: A two-story townhouse with a modest exterior and a heavily renovated interior, located in the Hardwick Park neighborhood of Bedlam City. Base of Operations: The bunker hidden under his townhouse. Alternate Identity: Brian Marcus Brubaker Identity: Secret Birthplace: Bedlam City, Wisconsin, USA Occupation: Sculptor Affiliations: Shambala Temple (former student), The Labyrinth (DNAscent test subject) Family: Franklin "Frank" Brubaker (Father), Ann Miller-Brubaker (Mother, Deceased), David Brubaker (Older Brother), Joan Romita-Brubaker (Sister-In-Law), Samantha "Sammee" Brubaker-Mazzuchelli (Older Sister), Eduardo "Ed" Mazzuchelli (Brother-In-Law), Wade Brubaker (Younger Brother, Deceased), Alexandra "Alex" Nocenti (Ex-Girlfriend) Description Age: 26 (DoB: 1991) Apparent Age: 26 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian of mixed German and Irish descent Height: 6ft 3in Weight: 250 lbs. Eyes: None (Grey prosthetics) Hair: Blond The skin on the top half of his face is still heavily scarred from being lacerated and burned by jagged shards of superheated shrapnel. His hair and sunglasses hide most of the scars, but not all of them. He wears a set of acrylic prosthetic eyes which mimic his original grey eye color. When out in public in his civilian identity, his usual mode of dress is "business casual," and he wears the dark sunglasses and wields the white cane which universally mark him as a blind man. Were it not for his blindness, strangers might assume he was an NFL linebacker or a Hollywood stuntman. Power Description Thanks to the DNAscent process, all of Brian's physical abilities are just beyond the normal human range. His strength, endurance, agility, and reflexes are all slightly higher than what any normal person could achieve, and unlike athletes without super-powers, his body is optimized for all kinds of physical activity. Unlike a normal human, he could be the world's greatest weightlifter, sprinter, and marathon runner, all at once. All of Brian's non-visual senses absorb information with far greater detail and sensitivity than a normal human. He can hear a person's heartbeat from across the room, hear a tear sliding down their cheek, and feel the vibration through the floor when they take a step. He can rest a pretzel on his tongue and count exactly how many grains of salt are embedded into it. He can feel the weight of a pistol and know exactly how many bullets it contains. He can run his fingers along a page of text and "read" it by feeling the difference between the ink and the paper, or "view" a picture by feeling the differences between the colors of ink or paint. He can caress an object gently enough to feel any fingerprints left on it, without disturbing the prints, and he can perceive enough detail to compare them to other prints he's felt. His nose acts as a mobile gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, able to distinguish the chemical makeup of a substance by the smell of its molecular components. In essence, his hyper-keen senses make him a walking crime laboratory. His enhanced senses of hearing and touch also give him superhuman balance and physical coordination. Brian no longer has eyes, but his brain processes and interprets most of his enhanced sensory input visually. He can hear sound and feel vibration just as a normal human would, but he can also "see" it in his mind, with the sound waves of different frequencies and decibel levels appearing to him as lines of correspondingly different colors and sizes, coating and illuminating the objects around them. Scents appear in his mind's eye as translucent clouds of mist, in various colors and sizes, leaving trails he can follow. His sense of smell is acute enough to judge the distance between himself and its source, as a normal human could with sound. As he moves closer to the source of the scent, it becomes "brighter" and "louder" to him. The DNAscent process not only enhanced Brian's original senses, but provided a new one as well: Echolocation. His brain has been altered to include a disk similar to the "melon" of a whale or a dolphin's melon. This disk emits waves of high-frequency sound in all directions. Those ultra-sound waves bounce off of the objects around him, and then return to his ears. A fraction of a second later, his brain interprets the results and paints him a mental picture of his surroundings. This allows him to "see" in all directions at once, though he focuses on one roughly 90-degree field of "view" at a time, with the rest appearing as translucent overlays. This allows him to "see" just as a normal human would see in the visual light spectrum, only without color or fine detail. He would, for example, perceive the difference between the bricks and the grout of a wall, but he would not perceive chalk drawings or spraypaint on that wall. He can effectively "see" human faces, but he can't "look someone in the eye." The echolocation is far more advanced than that of any existing animals or technological devices. He can it echolocation "off," in a manner similar to how a human closes their eyes. While it is active, anyone capable of hearing ultra-sound can detect the waves emanating from his brain, and the echoes returning to his ears. History Brian Brubaker never saw the world clearly until the day he lost his eyes. "You can have anything you want, but you have to want it enough. With hard work, anything is possible. People get what they deserve." Frank Brubaker made sure his sons lived by those words. He was a self-described "city college kid" who "pulled myself up from nothing by my own boot-straps." He grew up on Stark Hill, but when Stone Ridge opened, he was one of the first people to move in. With his money, he could move anywhere, but he chose to stay in Bedlam and give back to his hometown. To hear him tell it, Bedlam City was full of poor people because they just didn't work hard enough. Ann Miller was a minimum-wage kid who hitched a ride out of the Shady Meadows trailer park as soon as she could pass for 18. She didn't mind if Frank slapped her around a bit, as long as he did it less than her parents did, and as long as he was going places. They were both young and hungry, willing to do whatever it took to get ahead. By the time their first child was born, Brubaker Imports was well on its way to becoming one of the country's most profitable shipping empires, moving just about anything that needed moving to just about anywhere in the world. Their kids went to private schools. But Frank always stressed the importance of hard work, often with the back of his hand. His kids weren't going to have a free ride. They were going to work for everything they had, just like he had. Despite the abuse, Brian idolized his father, and spent every waking moment desperately trying to earn his approval. He got near perfect grades, tried out for every sport, auditioned for every play, took after-school jobs and summer internships. Brian was 19, home for a visit from his sophomore year at Freedom City University, the day he saw his family for the last time. His mother and his little brother Wade were already waiting in the limo. Brian was walking down the driveway when the driver turned the key. His father had just made it through the front door. The ignition switch set off a car bomb. Ann and Wade were blown to pieces. Brian was blown across the driveway. Shrapnel shredded the front of his tuxedo. His face was a mess of steaming metal. Frank's jacket got dirty. Brian woke up in the hospital to his father's voice, telling him that he was going to fix everything. He'd only been there a couple of days when his father told him he was being moved to a "private clinic." Brian didn't know why the new nurse sedated him. He was kept in an induced coma, but he could still hear the people around him. As the "treatments" progressed, he could hear them louder, more clearly, from further away. He heard things he was never meant to hear, like why his father took so many "business trips" to Freedom City. Frank Brubaker's life was a lie. When recounting his family history, he would neglect to mention that his grandfather was none other than the infamous Hans Graumach, also known as Die Eule of the Nazi superteam Die Ubersoldaten. In Frank's case, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. If he had told his sons the truth, then their words to live by would have been a different quote: "In devastation, there is opportunity. When there is blood in the streets, buy property." The car bomb was meant for Frank, a "gift" from one of his "business rivals." The Brubaker fortune didn't come from moving freight. It came from smuggling and human trafficking, on an industrial scale, and it got a big boost from new "friends" in Freedom City. Ann and Frank had enough Irish blood between them to join the local Bedlam syndicate in Stark Hill, but once the Italians absorbed it, they knew they'd never rise to the top, at least not out in the open. They needed outside help, secret help. Frank and Ann's operation was built during the tail end of the Franklin Moore era and the aftermath of the Terminus Invasion. With a period of low superhero presence in town, and the sudden death and destruction of so many Freedom City citizens and their properties (legitimate businesses and mob fronts alike), The Labyrinth and its front syndicates were able to quietly expand. One of the fronts they expanded into was Bedlam City, where there has never been a shortage of vulnerable and desperate people, or men of means looking to take advantage of them. Years later, the Labyrinth would wind up owning the legitimate city government as well, but they started with the black markets. Brubaker Imports is a subsidiary of Delphic Industries, which is in turn owned and operated by Constantine Urallos, part of the inner circle of Taurus. Most of the trafficked victims are sold to sweatshops or domestic slavery. Some are given to The Labyrinth directly, to become test subjects for the DNAscent process. Frank knows he's a part of something bigger than the crime syndicates he pays lip service and a small cut to, but he has no idea of the true scope of Taurus's evil. When Brian lost his eyes, Frank called in a favor. He didn't want Brian to become a brainwashed super-thug. He just wanted to give his only surviving son his eyes back. He didn't bother to get Brian's consent before letting the Labyrinth's mad scientists play with him. As far as the Labyrinth scientists were aware, the treatment failed. Brian's body was enhanced to just past the peak physical condition for a normal human, but his eyes had failed to regenerate. Brian had heard enough during the treatments to know he should keep the unintended side-effects to himself. He didn't tell anyone about how all his other senses had been enhanced, or how he now possessed a natural sonar that would be the envy of every navy on Earth. The DNAscent process didn't restore what he'd lost, but it boosted everything he had left. He knew that he would need to keep his cards close to his chest if he were ever going to be able to use his new gifts to dismantle the horrific empire his father had built on a foundation of blood and human misery. He was quiet and distant after his "recovery." His father, never the most emotionally available man himself, didn't press the issue. Frank was consumed with guilt, a foreign sensation to him. When Brian decided he wanted to "study abroad," Frank didn't try to stop him. But the boarding school for the blind in Spain returned Brian's tuition cheque to Frank, un-cashed. He had never shown up. Frank had secretly sent bodyguards overseas with Brian to watch his back discreetly, but Brian gave them the slip. His trust fund account sat untouched. One day, Brian Brubaker just vanished off the face of the Earth. He wandered through Europe and Asia for a time, learning anything he could get people to teach him, before he found himself chasing the legend of Shambala Vale, scaling the mountain peaks, and finding refuge among the ancient order of monks. They taught him how to master his new senses, and how to temper the worst of his rage. They gave him outlets for that rage. He took up sculpting. They instructed him in the original martial art from which all others descended. They helped to temper the worst of his rage. During one of his meditations, he observed a rat breaking into a container of stored rice, and an owl swooping down from the night sky to pluck that rat up off the ground. That incident became a symbol for him, and soon, it would become a symbol for his city. Seven years after he disappeared, Brian Brubaker quietly returned to Bedlam City. He spent a few months in Europe first, where the "intense, macabre, Giger-esque" works of the "mysterious, reclusive blind sculptor" became a darling of the art scene on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Then he bought (and renovated) a humble two-story townhouse in Hardwick Park, where he planned his mission to save his city. His father employed thugs, crooked cops, money-laundering accountants, coyotes and snakeheads, all vermin who preyed upon the innocent and the desperate. Brian would became a creature of the night who would rid his city of that vermin. He became Mister Strix. Personality Brian grew up as a mostly-happy son who suppressed his anger and idolized his abusive father. Now that idol has fallen farther than he ever thought possible, and that suppressed anger is coming back like a hurricane. The revelation of his father's true nature forced Brian to re-examine everything he ever thought he knew about himself and the world around him. Good things didn't always come to those who worked hard for them like he was always taught. In fact, more often than not, the worst things happened to the best people, while the worst people took advantage of them and laughed all the way to the bank. Even if you never give up, you can still lose. Those revelations, and the trauma of his injuries, lost family members, and subsequent transformation, left him bitter, cynical, and full of rage. Gaining the ability to know when most people are lying showed him just how often people lie, which eroded his faith in human nature even further. He hears everyone's dirty secrets, and he's overwhelmed by just how many dirty secrets everyone has. His time with the Shambala monks helped to soften that edge, but he still believes that justice only happens in the world when a righteous person forces it to. The monks showed him that the world can be a better place than it is, without vermin like his father gnawing at its foundations. But that vermin will feed, unless an owl comes along to eat them first. So much of the world he thought he knew is a dirty lie, that he's not even sure that world is worth saving. But he'll die before he stops trying to save the world, because it's his family, his people, who corrupt and destroy it. He owes the world his father's debt. These days, Brian enjoys solitude, partially as a result of his disillusionment and partially as a practical matter of his enhanced senses amplifying every outside stimulus. Just as everyone a speedster meets is the annoyingly slow customer in front of them in the ATM or checkout line, every person Brian meets is the neighbor who blasts his TV or stereo at all hours of the night or the guy sitting next to him on the bus who hasn't showered in a week. He rarely engages in conversation at all, and even when he does engage, he remains laconic, withholding, almost sullen. He does have a sense of humor, but it leans toward the dry, the morbid, and the self-deprecating. He is reluctant to volunteer information, and his reaction to those he meets defaults to suspicion (though his powers make clearing that suspicion and earning some measure of trust a faster process than it would be otherwise). Everyone is guilty (of something) until proven innocent. He has come to view emotional attachment to other individuals as a weakness, and so he does the best he can to avoid it. But since he is human, he can't avoid forming attachments, no matter how much he chastises himself for it in hindsight. Powers & Tactics Brian is an expert martial artist, and a world-class detective, athlete, and inflitrator. The DNAscent process left him at peak physical condition, just barely superhuman. His enhanced senses make it almost impossible to lie to him or to catch him off-guard. He prefers to strike from stealth, ending a fight in one decisive blow before it begins. When facing a foe directly, he still takes any opportunity to remove the advantage of their sight, whether by destroying light sources or by deploying smoke bombs. He adapts his fighting style to each opponent, seeking to counter them rather than match them or beat them at their own game. If they seem to favor karate punches and kicks, or the knee and elbow strikes of muay thai, then he'll use jiujutsu grapples. If they fight defensively, focusing on parries or avoidance, then he'll be aggressive, getting inside their defenses. Since the Shambala style is the foundation for every martial art on Earth, anyone fighting him is likely to see something familiar, mixed with something else completely foreign. He uses his cape to obscure and distort his movements. His enhanced agility allows him to move and strike in unexpected directions and angles relative to his foes. He uses custom-built throwing knives, stylized like crescent moons or an owl's talons, to disarm and distract foes at a distance, before closing in to finish the job with fists and feet. Complications Addiction (Painkillers and Stimulants): Brian's enhanced senses cause him chronic headaches, and make it difficult for him to get restful sleep. The meditation techniques he learned in Shambala Vale mitigate this problem, but they do not eliminate it entirely. The GM can force Brian to save against effects like Nauseate, or even automatically inflict conditions like Sickened, to represent the pain caused by his powers, or by medication withdrawal. The GM can also inflict conditions like Fatigued upon Brian, to represent lost sleep, or withdrawal from stimulants. Disability (Blindness): Brian's enhanced touch can feel the difference between ink and paper, and even between different pigments, which allows him to perceive color by touch. His echolocation, on the other hand, can perceive distance, size, and shape, but not color. It can perceive texture, but not with the same level of detail as normal human vision. This means he can only read text or view pictures if they are within arms reach. The screens of television sets, computer monitors, tablets, and smartphones may as well be blank to him, even to his touch, unless they have been specifically modified for blind users. He cannot directly perceive the level of light in the local area directly. At best, he can infer by feeling the heat from a nearby light source, if it emits significant heat at all. Incandescent bulbs are easy, but LED bulbs are difficult to impossible. Anything in his surroundings which depends on light, text, or color is invisible to him once it is physically out of reach. His enhanced smell can identify people by their individual scent, and his echolocation and tremor-sense together provide enough detail to differentiate between people based on size, shape, and mass, but not enough to let him tell their faces apart from one another. The white cane and dark glasses sometimes make him a target for opportunistic criminals, and if he puts up much of a fight, he'll arouse suspicion. He is physically capable of operating a vehicle or heavy machinery, but he cannot obtain a license to do so legally. Enemies (The Labyrinth, Frank Brubaker, David Brubaker): Frank Brubaker is a human trafficking kingpin, and he initiated his oldest son David into the family business years ago. Neither Brian, nor his father or brother, understand the full scope of The Labyrinth, the grand machine in which they are tiny cogs. Family Secrets: His father is a crime lord with good publicity, and his great-grandfather was a Nazi supervillain. Lost Love: Brian had a girlfriend in college, Alexandra "Alex" Nocenti. When he vanished from her life without warning, she came looking for him. When she asked too many questions, Frank Brubaker panicked and overreacted. He had her kidnapped, brainwashed, and subjected to the DNAscent process, turning her into his bodyguard and enforcer. The girl Brian loved now stands at his hated father's side. Noticeable (Echolocation): Anyone with Ultra-Hearing, or any other applicable Super-Senses, can hear the waves of ultra-sound being broadcast by Brian's brain when he uses his echolocation. This includes animals such as dogs, bats, dolphins, and whales. Obligation (Shambala Temple): The monks of the Shambala Vale took Brian in and trained him. One or more of their number may call upon him for aid in the future. Power Loss: A GM can force Brian to make Concentration checks to make sense of the information provided by his superhuman senses. Failure can leave him with the equivalent of hallucinations or "blindness." Secret (Identity): Brian may be superhuman, but he's not invincible. One sniper's bullet could end him. And if Brian's father finds out who's targeting him, then he'll make Brian wish for a bullet to the head. Vulnerabilities (Sensory Overload, Sonic Powers): A GM can arbitrarily increase the effective power rank of any effect which overloads Brian's senses, such as loud noises or tear gas. A GM can also force Brian to save against additional attack effects, such as Auditory Dazzle or Nauseate, when someone near him uses, or is targeted by, a power with the "Sonic" descriptor. Weakness (Sensory Overload): When Brian is exposed to sensory overload, such as loud noises or tear gas, a GM can inflict penalties to his checks and combat traits as if he had the Weakness drawback. Abilities 16 + 16 + 16 + 8 + 8 + 4 = 68PP Strength: 26 (+8) (Heavy Load: 1,200 lbs.) Dexterity: 26 (+8) Constitution: 26 (+8) Intelligence: 18 (+4) Wisdom: 18 (+4) Charisma: 14 (+2) Combat 8 + 8 = 16PP Initiative: +8 (+8 Dex) Attack: +10 Melee (+4 Base, +6 Attack Focus), +4 Ranged (+4 Base), +9 Shuriken (+4 Base, +4 Attack Specalization, +1 Masterwork) Grapple: +18 (+10 Melee Attack, +8 Strength) Defense: +10 (+4 Base, +6 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-FootedUncanny Dodge Knockback Resistance: 4 ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC23 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical, Bludgeoning) Shuriken Ranged DC24 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical, Piercing/Slashing, Lethal) Stunning Attack Touch DC23 Fortitude (Staged) Dazed/Stunned/Unconscious Saving Throws 0 + 2 + 6 = 8PP Toughness: +8 (+8 Con) Fortitude: +8 (+8 Con, +0PP) Reflex: +10Evasion 2 (+8 Dex, +2PP) Will: +10Ultimate Save (+4 Wis, +6PP) Skills 156R = 39PP Acrobatics 7 (+15)Skill Mastery Climb 7 (+15) Concentration 6 (+10)Trance Craft (Art) 11 (+15) Disable Device 11 (+15) Escape 7 (+15)Ultimate Skill Gather Information 13 (+15) Intimidation 13 (+15) Investigation 11 (+15) Knowledge (Streetwise) 6 (+10) Languages 12 (Atlantean, Braille, Cantonese, English [Native], French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Morse Code, Nepali, Russian, Spanish) Notice 16 (+20)Skill Mastery Search 11 (+15) Sense Motive 16 (+20)Skill Mastery Stealth 7 (+15)Skill Mastery Swim 2 (+10)Swimming Feats 34PP Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus (Melee) 6 Attack Specialization (Shuriken) 2 Benefit 2 (Status [Famous Artist], Wealth) Dodge Focus 6Equipment 6 (30EP)Veteran Reward Evasion 2 Grapple Finesse Hide In Plain Sight Improved Ranged Disarm Luck 3 Quick Change (Costume) Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Notice, Sense Motive, Stealth) Stunning Attack Takedown Attack 2 Trance Ultimate Save (Will) Ultimate Skill (Escape) Well-Informed Equipment 6PP = 29/30EP Disable Device Tools [0EP] Grapple-Gun Baton Super-Movement 1 (Swinging, Feats: Subtle [Disguised as a cane]) [3EP] Masterwork Smartphone (Modified for blind users) [1EP] Medication (Painkillers and Stimulants) [1EP] Shuriken Blast 1 (100ft Max Range, Extras: Autofire, Flaws: Unreliable [5 Uses], Feats: Improved Range [25ft Range Increments], Masterwork [+1 Attack], Mighty 8, Subtle, Drawbacks: Lethal) [12EP] Smoke Pellets Obscure 2 (10ft radius, Visual-Type Senses, Extras: Action [Move], Independent, Total Fade, Flaws: Limited [One Sense: Normal Vision], Unreliable [5 Uses], Feats: Subtle, Drawbacks: Full Power, Reduced Range 2 [2 20ft Range Increments = 40ft Max Range]) [2EP] Townhouse with Secret Bunker (PL13 HQ) [10EP] Size: Tiny [-1EP] Toughness: +10 [1EP] (Earthquake-Proofing, Bulletproof Windows, Steel Plate Shear Walls reinforced with Pre-Cast Concrete) Features: [10EP] Computer Concealed 2 (+15DC = DC25) Fire Prevention System Gym Living Space Power System Security System 2 (DC25) Workshop 3 + 1 + 1 + 12 + 2 + 10 = 29/30EP = 6PP Powers 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 21 + 1 = 28PP Features 1 (Internal Laboratory [Can analyze clues with the Investigation skill on the spot, without access to a crime lab]) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Senses) Immunity 5 (Interaction Skills, Flaws: Limited [1/2 Effect]) [3PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Super-Senses) Leaping 1 (x2, Running Long Jump: 36ft) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Training) Speed 1 (10MPH / 100ft per Move Action) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Training) Super-Senses 21 (Accurate Extended Normal Hearing, Acute Analytical Extended Tracking 2 Normal Smell/Taste, Analytical Normal Touch, Danger Sense 3 [Sense Types: Auditory, Olfactory, Tactile], Sonar [Ultra-Hearing, Extras: Accurate, Counters Concealment, Flaws: Counters Concealment Limited to One Sense], Tremor-Sense, Uncanny Dodge 3 [Sense Types: Auditory, Olfactory, Tactile]) [21PP] (Descriptors: Mutation) Swimming 1 (2.5MPH / 25ft per Move Action, Can always Take 10 on Swimming checks) [1PP] (Descriptors: Mutation, Training) Drawbacks -0PP [None] Abilities (68) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (8) + Skills (39) + Feats (34) + Powers (28) - Drawbacks (0) = 193/196 Power Points Edited April 28, 2017 by Fox +1pp for March 2017 Link to comment
Brown Dynamite Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 I only have one quibble. And only one quibble. Which would be the linked Swimming+Speed+Leaping. Being the +0 version of linked you would have to swim, run, and leap at the same time. Which seems a bit unnecessary. Link to comment
Amelia Posted February 6, 2017 Author Share Posted February 6, 2017 8 hours ago, HG Morrison said: I only have one quibble. And only one quibble. Which would be the linked Swimming+Speed+Leaping. Being the +0 version of linked you would have to swim, run, and leap at the same time. Which seems a bit unnecessary. They're linked so that they're the same power. Conceptually, they're all enhanced movement on account of his enhanced physical abilities. Mechanically, since they're all one power, the Innate feat applies to all of them. Made more sense than buying it for each one individually. I don't think you necessarily have to use all 3 powers at once for them to all be active at once. But I can break them apart if you want. Link to comment
Brown Dynamite Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Despite the fact that it's essentially paramount to the same result cost wise, I would prefer if they were in something like an innate container. Link to comment
Amelia Posted February 6, 2017 Author Share Posted February 6, 2017 I broke apart the movement powers, got rid of the Innate feat, and used the spare point to buy another rank of Luck. Link to comment
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