Thursday, August 18, 2022

Die Hexenkonigin & Malicien, A Diabolic Duo

A pair of truly awful villains.  The literal demon is arguably the less reprehensible of them.

Die Hexenkonigin

This charmer claims to have sold her True Name and original identity to her dark masters for power, and since fingerprinting her just produces pentagrams it's hard to argue with her about that.  Die Hexenkonigin (that's "the Witch Queen" in English) is a raving neo-Nazi loon and claims to draw her magical powers from Hell itself.  It shouldn't come as any surprise that she's wanted for murder of the "human sacrifice" variety amongst other crimes.  

She usually works on her own or with other racist villains, who aren't as rare as most people would like.  Most often she's accompanied by dupes and thugs that she'll throw always as distractions, and who will probably wind up on an improvised altar the moment they annoy her.  Her villainy usually involves acting on her twisted ideologies or trying to gather more magical power or both.  Sometimes she'll lower herself to simple bank heists to help fill the coffers of some hate group she's temporarily working with, but that's less common and she's likely to bail out if things go awry.  

Description: A tall, blue-eyed blonde with sharp features, wearing a modified SS uniform with the sleeves removed to display her extensive ink.  She favors impractical high-heeled boots that add a bit to her height.  Carries an old-fashioned German pistol, a ceremonial dagger, and her hands are covered in strangely shaped rings graven with symbols of arcane significance.

Gender: Female            Age: 36            Height: 5'11"           Eyes: Ice Blue

Hair: Short Blonde             Skin: Pale, Eldritch Tattoos in Gothic Script          Build: Buxom

Approach: Specialized                   Archetype: Loner

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Infernal d10, Enchanted Luger d8                                     

Qualities: Magical Lore d12, Neo-Nazi Demonologist d8, Ranged Combat d8 

Status: (# of Other Villains) 0 - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 3+ - d6

Abilities:

Boon of Vonex (I) As long as you have no nearby allies in the scene, increase the damage you deal by 1 and reduce the damage you are dealt by 1.

Carmine Coils of Cytomazz (A) Attack using Magical Lore.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Defend yourself using your Mid die.

Hexmarked Bullets (A) Attack using Ranged Attack.  Use you Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second target, and your Min die against a third target.

Prism of Redirection (R) Defend against an Attack where you are the only target by rolling your single Magical Lore die.  One other nearby target takes an amount of damage equal to the amount reduced by this reaction.

Umbral Shackles of Uku (A) Hinder multiple targets using Magical Lore.  Recover Health equal to the number of targets Hindered this way.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  All your power dice increase in size by 1 step (max d12).

Master of Mysticism (I) If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.

Tactics

Die Hexenkonigin prefers to work at a distance from the fray, raining spells and hexed shots down from a safe distance.  She's far to proud to use actual bodyguards and gets buffs from Boon of Vonex when working alone.  Her Prism of Redirection reaction also works well when she's isolated.  Offensively she'll switch between the Carmine Coils of Cytomazz for single targets, Umbral Shackles of Uku to weaken multiple foes while healing a bit, and Hexmarked Bullets for efficient multi-target damage.

With her upgrades she's a bit more powerful and better at pulling off magical rituals, although somehow her extra powers never seem to last long.  Hard to find enough souls to feed to her masters, I guess.

Die Hexenkonigin is also a dyed-in-the-wool neo-Nazi human-sacrificing demon-worshipper with all the charming personal traits that implies, so you don't have to feel bad about socking her a good one.  Not a redeeming feature to be found here, and even actual Nazi supervillains left over from WW2 find her pretty close to intolerable - in part because her German accent is execrable.

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Malicien, Demon With A Thousand Faces

The entity known as Malicien claims to be many things, but "devil" is the most accurate description for it.  An otherworldly creature from a dimension that combines the worst features of several visions of Hell, it appears on Earth only when summoned by some foolish or black-hearted mystic.  It can be a potent ally if properly constrained, but should never be fully trusted.  Malicien's nature is deceit itself and it has no set size, form, or even personality.  Most often it copies the appearance of others, either as deliberate mockery or to spread confusion.  When confronted with violence it adopts more lethal forms and employs its natural weaponry with inhuman fury.

Malicien enjoys working with die Hexenkonigin, and through her the broader neo-Nazi and White Supremacist community.  It's also been known to insinuate itself into occult conspiracies and diabolic cults, sometimes without their awareness of its true nature and interests. 

Description: Most often appears as either a duplicate of its summoner, but also fond of appearing to be an innocent victim or bystander if the opportunity arises.  It may also copy an opponent's looks, often distorting it in some mocking way.  If working with die Hexenkonigin it usually duplicates her look, making them appear to be twins until it shapeshifts.  

Gender: Variable           Age: Ageless            Height: Variable           Eyes: Variable

Hair: Variable                               Skin: Variable                                 Build: Variable

Approach: Prideful                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  55 + (5 x H)

Powers: Infernal d10, Shapeshifting d10, Size-Changing d10, Teleportation d8

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Magical Lore d10, Literal Demon d8, Persuasion d8, Stealth d8

Status: (# of Environmental targets/challenges) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Demonic Savagery (A) Attack one target using Close Combat.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Defend against all Attacks against you by all other targets until the start of your next turn using your Mid die.

Immortal Vigor (I) Reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.

Legions of the Damned (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice.  Attack every target in the scene except yourself with those dice.  Remove those minions.

Raise Hell (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone or one zone closer to the Red.

Soul Siphon (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice and Recover that much Health.  Remove those minions.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  All your power dice increase in size by one step (max d12).

Master of Mysticism (I) If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.

Tactics

Malicien's mere presence strains the fabric of reality, and it prefers to use Raise Hell to twist the environment to suit its tastes, reflected by its increasing status die.  Its otherworldly nature makes it resistant to harm with Immortal Vigor, and its endlessly mutable form lets it attack with Demonic Savagery if forced into fighting directly.  Malicien takes a twisted pleasure in throwing away the lives of its allies, and happily feeds on its own minions with Soul Siphon or drives them into suicidal attacks with Legions of the Damned.

Outside of combat, Malicien is very good at imitating others for short periods, but its chaotic nature means it lacks the patience to maintain a long-term impersonation. It's also a decent mentor for aspiring magicians, assuming one likes their magic as dark as possible.

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Hellish Environmental Twists (add to existing environment twist options, if any)

If there's no existing environment in play, use a d8/d8/d8 dice pool when called for by these twists.

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Stench of Brimstone: Roll the environment dice.  Start challenge.  Clear the Air 0  Hinder all heroes with the Min die while this challenge is in effect.

Unholy Chorus: Start challenge.  Drown Out the Chanting 000 or Perform Counter-magic 0  Whenever an environment twist would add minions to the scene, add +2 to the number that appear.  Whenever an environment twist would add a lieutenant to the scene, increase its die size by 1 (max d12).

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Rise From Hell: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of d6 Damned Soul minions to the scene equal to the Mid die.

Gate In Ally: Add a d10 Type I Demon lieutenant to the scene.

Red Zone

(Minor Twist)

Dimensional Breach: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of d6 Damned Soul minions to the scene equal to the Max die.

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Lost Souls d6 minions

Description: Wailing clouds of reddish-orange vapor shaped vaguely like a human being, hot to the touch and reeking of sulfur and brimstone.  They rise from the glowing, smoking footprints of their summoner.


Type 1 Demon d10 lieutenant

Description: Gangly humanoid vulture-thing, about 9' tall if it stood up straight.  Stinks of rot and decay.

Ungodly Stench: When this creature Hinders, it may target multiple close enemies and adds +1 to any penalty inflicted.

Winged Horror: This creature can fly, albeit clumsily.

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Design Commentary: Domain villains (and some Titans, to a lesser degree) are dependent on environmental twists for a lot of their effectiveness, which makes them more work to build and can be kind of limiting if you do full custom environments for each one you use.  Malicien here is an attempt at a compromise.  Rather than being tied to a specific environment, it brings a selection of of its own thematic twists that add to an existing environment, representing it warping a "normal" place to be more hellish.  A GM could choose to use either the original environ or the added ones each time a twist comes up, and Malicien can activate its own twists with Raise Hell - but if the demon is defeated or leaves the scene its thematic twists should probably disappear with it.


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