Sunday, November 6, 2022

Judas Progenitor, Psychic Who Brings Out the Worst In People

This villain might be tragic if he didn't seem so happy about doing the terrible things he does.  As it is, he's an unrepentant evildoer who sees hypocrisy behind every good deed. 

Judas Progenitor

Subject 410 was part of a secret research program under the aegis of [pick shadowy organization or dubious government of your choice] that was attempting to induce psychic abilities in brainwashed "volunteers" with an eye toward employing their abilities in intelligence work.  Their results were mixed at best, and in Subject 410's case they manifested as a unique ability the researchers dubbed the "Judas Progenitor" effect.  In addition to basic telepathy, he could dig through the mind of those nearby and weave the very worst aspects of their characters into "evil twin" psychic constructs that were physically indistinguishable from their originals but mental thralls of their creator.  

Unfortunately for [project founder] the full manifestation of this power also broke down the brainwashing that was supposed to ensure loyalty and obedience, as well as breaking whatever was left of Subject 410's sanity.  It took only a few minutes for him to quietly duplicate enough project personnel to use their doppelgangers to sabotage the entire base and aid him in his escape from its ruins   Since then he's followed the whims of his shattered and unstable psyche, seeking out the criminal underworld as the most psychically "honest" minds he can find.  Working under the supranym of Judas Progenitor, he despises so-called heroes and authority figures and gleefully aids true villains against them.  His greatest pleasure is confronting superheroes with evil duplicates that highlight the worst elements of their inner selves.

To put it mildly, his worldview is a very dark and cynical one, made worse by his inability to avoid seeing the worst in everyone around him.

Description: A pale, awkward looking young man with wide staring eyes and erratic facial tics, dressed in black combat boots and a pale grey jumpsuit with the number 410 prominently displayed in black on the left breast and across the back.  May be "disguised" with an battered dark brown tactical overcoat or by adopting unremarkable civilian clothing, although he's never comfortable outside his jumpsuit or something similar.  Don't touch the boots.  They're his boots, and you can't have them.   

Gender: Male            Age: Late Teens?           Height: 5'11"           Eyes: Green, Bloodshot

Hair: Black Buzzcut              Skin: Sickly Pale           Build: Gangly

Approach: Creator                   Archetype: Indomitable

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d10, Awareness d8, Telepathy d8, Precognition d6                                       

Qualities: Insight d10, Conviction d8, Imposing d8, Self-Discipline d8, Unstable Test Subject d8

Status:  Always d8

Abilities:

Recursive Reflections (A) Use Illusions to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of these minions is the same as the die size of your Min die.

Sift Through Your Worst Impulses (A) Attack multiple targets using Conviction.  Hinder those targets using your Min die.

Through A Mirror Darkly (A) Use Illusions to create a lieutenant of the same die size as your Max die.

Unnatural Perceptions (A) Boost yourself using Insight.  Use your Max die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.

Upgrades & Masteries:

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all of your Quality dice except Unstable Test Subject by one die size (Max d12).

Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.

Tactics

Judas Progenitor prefers to avoid physical confrontations, although his lack of mobility powers or stealth means he has to rely on his allies (including the ones he creates) to accomplish that.  Given the opportunity he'll create a fair number of minion-grade duplicates of convenient civilians, security guards, and police officers before a fight begins and might even have lieutenant-grade doppelgangers of NPC superheroes (all "bought " normally as scene elements), especially if he's working alone or with just one or two villainous allies.

Once an action scene starts, he'll usually open with Unnatural Perceptions to provide a lasting bonus for himself, followed by hitting as many hero targets as possible with Sift Through Your Worst Impulses to decide who he hates most at the moment.  After that he'll create an "evil twin" of his preferred victim with Through A Mirror Darkly, repeating against other heroes until he's got a duplicate of each PC hero in play.  If there are a lot of neutral or hero-allied people in the scene he'll likely take a turn or two using Recursive Reflections to make evil copies of them as well, just to add to the confusion.

His upgrade represents him after he's had a little time to get used to his powers, the basic form reflecting Judas Progenitor shortly after his breakout from the testing facility he was empowered at.  He can only use his mastery when he has some evil doppelgangers available and they aren't all busy fighting heroes.

Conceptually, Judas Progenitor's Illusions power (usually paired with Insight or sometimes Conviction) is the basis for his creations, representing the fact that they're not-quite-real evil psychic construct versions of actual people.  He can only have one lieutenant-grade duplicate of any given hero active at once, although he can (but rarely does) make many minion duplicates of the same target with Recursive Reflection.  Awareness is his sense of the evil within others, and he gets extremely angry with anyone who's such a paragon of virtue that he can't "see" at least some inner darkness in them.  A hero might be able to use appropriate Principles to Overcome their own flaws, which would weaken or eliminate any twin based on them and really gets Judas's attention.  Telepathy works pretty much as you'd expect, although he's much better at perceiving negative thoughts than positive ones.  Precognition is less actual temporal foresight than augmented knowledge and reaction time thanks to reading the minds of those around him, and may fail against inorganic or mindless foes.

 ______________________________________________________________

Judas Progenitor is all about creating evil copies of people, whether they're heroes, allies like police or security guards, or innocent bystanders.  These could also be used as the morally-inverted denizens of an alternate universe (no doubt with an inexplicable fondness for goatees and belly shirts) or the products of cursed mirror or similar magic.

Twisted Reflection d8 minion (might be d10 or even d12 when using Recursive Reflections)

Description: Evil duplicates of innocent bystanders, policemen, security guards or anyone else nearby.  Physically identical to their "parent" but at best they seem a bit off somehow and at worst they're just vicious killers.  Might also appear as a multitude of flawed copies of a single hero, in which case they're obviously not the real thing.

Just Plain Mean: When you take an Attack action, you gain a +1 bonus, which increases to +2 if your "parent" was armed with a proper weapon of some kind.

Not Quite Real: A hero may take an Overcome action to disbelieve your existence.  If they succeed, they may remove Min die Twisted Reflection minions from the scene, starting with the ones with the smallest die size.


Warped Doppelganger d10 lieutenant (might be d8, d10, or even d12 when using Through A Mirror Darkly)

Description: Physically identical to a hero, and can manifest similar powers.  Mentally, they reflect the worst aspects of the hero amplified a thousand-fold, and will behave accordingly when Judas Progenitor isn't directly commanding them.  They particularly despise their "parent" and will prioritize them as a target when possible.  

Variable Abilities:  Use the guidelines on pages 287-289 of the core rulebook to assign suitable abilities to the Warped Doppelganger, aiming to loosely emulate the abilities and powers of the hero they're a copy of.

Your Own Worst Enemy: When you (or any minion you have personally created) Attack your "parent" hero gain a +2 bonus.  When your "parent" hero (or any minion they have personally created) Attack you, they gain a +2 bonus against you.


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