One of the classic tropes of the "monster/weird horror" books that Marvel and other publishers used to do in their early days was the "museum display that's actually a slumbering menace" story. These mostly predated the superhero boom of the Silver Age but overlapped it to some degree, and it still shows up now and then even in modern cape comics. This villain's a nod to those old tropes. With some tweaking to its backstory it could appear almost anywhere - superheroes are remarkably prone to stumbling over the remnants of lost civilizations, and villains are prone to collecting strange artifacts that might be better left alone.
Effigy of the God-King Nurom-Ghat-Gahon
The Effigy of the God-King was originally part of a stunning architectural find discovered in thawing Canadian permafrost. Surveyors found the ruins of a massive stone complex that seemed to be some kind of palace or temple, belonging to no known civilization and dating back to an almost impossible ten thousand years. The structures were mostly empty, but one chamber contained a shockingly lifelike statue made of an unknown metal alloy, toppled and apparently damaged. Where the face should have been was simply a void into the hollow interior of the sculpture. After several years of further excavation and exploration a few more artifacts were found - damaged ornaments, strange coins or tokens, a broken scepter, and an elaborate death mask, all made of the same strange metal.
The whole lot were eventually assembled into displays for a global museum tour to raise funds for further digs on the sprawling site, but it wasn't until the artifacts went on display in [museum in your campaign city] that the true nature of the statue was revealed. A museum staffer with a touch of true mystic sensitivity fell under the control of the death mask, used its power to bypass the security measures and replaced the mask on the statue, returning the Effigy of the God-King Nurom-Ghat-Gaton to "life" for the first time in millennia.
The re-animated Effigy immediately took steps to alter its surrounding to recreate its antediluvian court, mentally transforming civilian bystanders into properly worshipful subjects and beginning to alter the museum building itself. Local superheroes managed to stop the wave of change before it spread too far and battered the Effigy into torpor again, eventually separating the mask and statue from one another and leaving both seemingly powerless. The two have been contained for further study - but the God-King sleeps uneasily now, and soon the Effigy will rise to walk again...
Description: A powerfully-built male figure wearing nothing but a short wraparound kilt in a vaguely Egyptian style. It wears an elaborate mask sculpted to resemble an impassive, sharp-featured face with a third eye upon its forehead. The whole thing, clothing, mask and all, is made of some strange golden-bronze alloy despite its graceful organic movements. Its voice is cold, commanding and stentorian.
Gender: Male Age: Unknown Height: 6'1" Eyes: Orichalcum
Hair: Flowing Orichalcum Locks Skin: Orichalcum Build: Heroically Muscled
Approach: Ancient Archetype: Indomitable
Health: 50 + (5 x H)
Powers: Suggestion d12, Strength d10, Vitality d10, Transmutation d8
Qualities: Conviction d12, Imposing d12, Magical Lore d10, Forgotten God-King d8, History d8
Status: Always d8
Abilities:
Certainty of the Godhead (A) Boost yourself using Conviction. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
Divine Word (A) Take a basic action using Magical Lore. Use your Max die.
Enchanted Orichalcum (I) Reduce damage dealt to you by two.
Kneel Before the God-King (A) Hinder multiple targets using Suggestion. Use your Max die. Attack each target using your Mid + Min dice.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional, but often in effect):
Brainwashing Zone (I) +10 Health. While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' qualities of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size. In the Yellow zone all of the heroes' qualities of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total). In the Red zone, all heroes' quality dice are treated as d4. Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a quality entirely until this upgrade is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, create a new friendly minion with a die size equal to the hero's largest power die to represent the brainwashed hero.
Master of Mysticism (I) If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.
Tactics
The Effigy regards itself as a god-on-Earth, inherently superior to any mere mortal and unaccustomed to being opposed in any meaningful way. As such, it tends to be unsubtle in the extreme, relying on Kneel Before the God-King to crush opponents' wills and convert them into fawning sycophants. If that fails to do the job immediately it will employ Certainty of the Godhead and repeat its efforts, relying on Enchanted Orichalcum and a large Health pool to outlast any persistent foes. Divine Word is used only when the Effigy wants to do something unusual, generally an Overcome to create a Challenge, forcibly transform some NPC into one of its followers, or alter the environment to suits its tastes better.
With its upgrade, foes are even further handicapped by its undeniable might and risk becoming mind-controlled pawns when defeated. Its mastery makes Divine Word Overcomes much more reliable, letting the Effigy change reality on a grander scale.
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Mask-Bearer d12 lieutenant
Description: A normal human being carrying the death mask of the inactive Effigy. Most often a hapless museum worker, archeologist, or security guard, but it could be would-be thief or just an unlucky bystander as well. Mentally dominated by the mask and mostly interested in finding the Effigy's inanimate body and reuniting the mask with it.
Special: This lieutenant cannot be in the same scene as the active form of the Effigy of the God-King. The Mask-Bearer is literally carrying the Effigy's face around trying to re-attach it to its body.
Arise, My God-King!: If you are within arm's reach of the Effigy's inactive statue form, you may use your action to reunite it with the its death mask. Roll your die to Overcome. If your result is 4+ add the villain form of the Effigy of the God-King to the scene at full Health, add a single Devout Subject minion to the scene (representing your disempowered form) then remove yourself from the scene.
Godlike Stride: At the end of your turn, you may move to any location in the scene, ignoring any intervening obstacles. Treat this as a combination of teleportation and flight as needed.
Will of the God-King: You may use your action to force a nearby hero to temporarily act as your bodyguard. When you do so, roll your die and the target hero rolls their status die. If you roll higher, you may force that hero to Defend you against all Attacks until the start of their next turn by rolling their single highest power die. All damage prevented by that Defend is dealt to the hero instead of you.
Devout Subject d6 minion
Description: Normal everyday human beings transformed into loyal worshippers of the God-King. They're mostly focused on chanting prayers to Nurom-Ghat-Gaton and violently chastising unbelievers, but if you give them time they may get up to something really unpleasant like arranging human sacrifices.
Freed From Control: Heroes can take an Overcome action to break the Effigy's mental control over you. If they succeed, roll your die and Boost all nearby heroes using that roll, then you escape to safety and are removed from the scene.
Mentally Enslaved Victims: You gain a +2 bonus to saves against damage from Attacks by heroes who are using non-lethal methods to subdue you. Heroes can opt to use potentially lethal force to avoid that bonus, but they'll probably regret it in the long run.
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Design Notes: The Mask-Bearer lieutenant above is included if you want to give the heroes a chance to stop the Effigy from getting animated in the first place, and should generally show up only in scenes where the static statue form is present. You could certainly use him more independently in a scene where he's trying to locate the stature if it's been hidden away in storage somewhere, or even stolen by some other villain. A d12 lieutenant is still a pretty respectable threat, and he could bring along a bunch of Devout Subject minions or other suitable allies if it fits your story. His Godlike Stride ability makes it easy to justify him escaping a scene after he's found whatever clues to the statue's location he might be after.
If you want to make things much more difficult for your heroes, you could have a Devout Subject minion grab the death mask when the Effigy is defeated, transforming into a Mask-Bearer and forcing the heroes to keep him away from the fallen statue form or have to defeat the Effigy all over again. Players probably won't let that happen, but if it does they'll certainly learn to free/eliminate all the minions first in the future. If you really want to add insult to injury, a hero who wound up getting turned into a minion by Brainwashing Zone could absolutely be turned into a Mask-Bearer if the timing is right.
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