As long as I was rummaging through old campaign notes for Hugo Hellbinder and company I figured I might as well do a writeup for the organization that was behind him in my game. These people (and things, in some cases) were the primary antagonists in one of my 2022 games, where they operated as a kind of magic/supernatural-themed mashup of Marvel's Hydra, GI Joe's Cobra, and your generic occult conspiracy.
DOOM
The organization known as DOOM is an international terrorist organization of occultists who share a common hatred of modern civilization, blaming it for marginalizing the practice of magic in favor of science and technology. The group is decentralized, operating as as a bewildering array of sinister cabals, dark cults, hidden orders and sinister sects, most of whom have little connection to one another beyond their agreement with DOOM's destructive agenda. Individual sub-groups vary wildly in terms of membership size, mundane and magical resources, and overall power, but all are united in despising the existing world order and all those who accept it.
There's no such thing as a "typical" DOOM cell, but almost all of them have an inner cadre of fairly accomplished magical adepts supported by less talented (and more expendable) acolytes. Some call on the powers of eldritch entities, others perform the darkest of ritual magics, some concentrate on crafting arcane artifacts, and a few even toy with the balance of life and death through necromancy. Their plots invariably revolve around magical terrorism meant to destabilize modern society. A favorite approach is to cause a showy mass casualty event followed up by extortion, threatening to repeat the attack on a grander scale if their demands aren't met. Those demands are often quite strange and often impossible, but usually display either an anti-technological bent or a desire for artifacts and obscure books.
Most cells are divided into two broad tiers of membership. Low-powered apprentices make up the bulk of most cells, while the more potent leadership positions are occupied by adepts. Individual adepts rarely rival actual superhumans (like your PCs) in raw power, with those who do reach such levels of mastery breaking away from (or being driven out of) DOOM to pursue their own schemes from then on. Instead, you'll generally find a group of adepts working together, aided by larger numbers of apprentices and often accompanied in action scenes by multiple magical challenges to deal with - including Doomsday Devices in the form of rituals, strange alchemical substances, etc.
Heavier support capable of matching a superhero is usually in the form of magical constructs (see Brazen Idol below) or wielders of the most potent mystical relics available (see the Larva Vesparum below). DOOM cells are also capable of creating entities like Corpsefires or Silent Harvesters, empowering murderous pawns like Bodycount or summoning and binding more demonic reskins of Gadfly to harass victims they don't wish to destroy outright.
On rare occasions a DOOM cell may employ more mundane mercenary villains, but the organization is seen as too extreme and unreliable by the supercrime community for that to happen often.
One notable quirk of the organization as a whole is that while everyone agrees that DOOM is an acronym, no two cells agree on what it stands for. Some examples include:
- Dread Order of Mystics
- Directorate of Occult Mayhem
- Dark Overlords of Mankind
- Devotees of Obscure Magics
- Doleful Orchestra of Malice
- Deepest of Occluded Mysteries
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Individual cells within DOOM vary widely, but these two writeups reflect the most basic rank-and-file and roughly average leader-tier members. It wouldn't be uncommon for either or both to have another ability to reflect unique specialties, and other types of minions with magical themes (eg animated corpses or bound spirits for necromancer cells, summoned devils for diabolists, etc.) are fairly common as well.
Servants of DOOM d8 minions
Description: Whether they're called apprentices, acolytes, cultists or something more exotic, these are human occultists who've learned just enough magic to be truly dangerous with it - both to themselves and others. They rarely carry weapons as such, but some might have wands or staves, usually more for show than anything. Different cells have different accoutrements, but in general you can expect to see a lot of robes and hoods, often in dark colors that don't show blood stains as badly.
Dangerous Magics: Whenever you roll the maximum possible result on your die, add +2 to that result and then reduce your die size by one step. If this would take you below a d4, you are defeated.
Adepts of DOOM d10 lieutenants
Description: Adepts, masters, sages or some other title, these (mostly) human occultists have the mystic might to have clawed their way into the leadership ranks of their DOOM cell. Their magics are potent indeed, rivalled only by their ruthless ambition. Most rely purely on their spells but a few might carry ceremonial implements for the aesthetics. Their ritual costumes are more impressive than those of their servants but still lean toward robes and hoods.
Master and Apprentice: You are accompanied by a d6 minion with no abilities that represents a personal apprentice or familiar. They always act immediately after your turn, and cannot be chosen to take their turn at any other time. If you are defeated, so is your personal minion.
Serve Your Master: Whenever you roll your die, you may remove one nearby allied minion from the scene to roll their die and add it to your result. You can only use this ability once per roll you make.
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Brazen Idol
Brazen Idols are broad category of magical constructs designed to give their spellcasting creators some raw physical might to draw upon. Optimized for combat, they're fairly thick-witted otherwise and often play the role of sentry in DOOM strongholds or other wizards' lairs. While rare, they aren't unique and variant models are fairly common, but the writeup below is fairly typical. Other versions might trade out the detachable flying fists for flame-breath, gouts of toxic smoke, or exotic melee weapons.
Description: A towering brazen statue in the shape of a six-armed demon-thing, with short, thick legs and an apelike posture. Its snarling visage is lit from within by an unnatural flame that glows through its eyes and grated mouth. The thing's movements are smooth and organic despite being sculpted of metal. The only sounds it makes are ringing footfalls, the crackling of it internal fires and the clang of its powerful blows landing home on its victims.
Gender: None Age: Antique Height: 7'10" Eye: Hollow Pits Lit With Flame
Hair: Spiky Brass Skin: Polished Brass Build: Squat, Hunched, Six-Armed
Approach: Bully Archetype: Indomitable
Health: 45 + (5 x H)
Powers: Strength d10, Momentum d8, Part Detachment d8
Qualities: Battle Construct d8, Fitness d8, Self-Discipline d8
Status: Always d8
Abilities:
Brazen Juggernaut (A) Attack one target using Momentum. Either Hinder that target using your Max die, or Defend yourself using your Min die and you and the target end up elsewhere in the scene.
Enchanted Brass (I) Reduce damage dealt to you by 2.
Grasping Hands of Doom (A) Attack two nearby targets using Part Detachment. Use your Max die against one target and your Mid + Min dice against the other. If either target Defends against the Attack, that Defend applies to both Attacks.
Relentless Bludgeoning (A) Attack one target using Strength. Use your Max die. Until the start of your next turn, use your Mid die to Defend against all Attacks from that target.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Group Fighter (I) +20 Health. When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.
Tactics
This version of Brazen Idol is simple but efficient fighter, although it will require careful instructions to deal with much outside of a fight. It prefers to use Brazen Juggernaut to drag a single foe away from allies. It can then use Relentless Bludgeoning to keep them from resisting effectively while it pounds on them - something it can also do at range by hurling a barrage of debris or its own detached fists at targets. If faced with multiple ranged foes it uses Grasping Hands of Doom to send a pair of its own hands magically flying off to deal with them, smashing their victims together if possible. While the Brazen Idol lacks reactive defenses it is inherently quite durable thanks to being made of Enchanted Brass.
More important, powerful and wealthy cabals will upgrade their Idol(s) to make them even more efficient fighters, which is usually obvious thanks to the addition on a fourth pair of arms and often a second or even third head. Its mastery is reflects the thing's limited mentality even when upgraded.
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Larva Vesparum ("Mask of Wasps")
The Larva Vesparum ("Mask of Wasps" in English) is a self-aware magical artifact dating back to the time of the Roman Empire, and may be even older than that. It takes the form of a face mask with insect-like jeweled eye coverings. Any who don the thing become part of an inhuman gestalt consciousness. Strong-minded people (like our heroes) can resist, retaining their autonomy and eventually fight off the mystical "infection" but for most the bond is permanent, lasting even past the point of physical death. The hive mind behind the mask has access to an ever-growing body of knowledge and memories going back thousands of years. Its precise goals are unclear, but like DOOM the thing is no fan of modern civilization and its often found working with (or even quietly controlling) a cell full of cultists dedicated to recruiting more to wear the Mask of Wasps and join with the collective intelligence.
The relic has been separated from its current wearer and confined in high-security facilities for study on several occasions, but winds up either being stolen or tempting some dupe into putting it on sooner or later. Mystics and psychics who've managed to contact the gestalt entity without losing themselves to it report an extremely alien core mentality that's evolving as it absorbs more and more human minds. The thing is inhumanly patient, content to spend long dormant periods exploring its own inner mindscape between bouts of activity when it has a living bearer again. Former bearers lapse into a comatose state while it's dormant, but revive as puppets if the thing becomes active - which has sometimes been the first warning that some new fool has donned the Larva Vesparum.
Description: A self-adhering domino mask with distinctive compound eye-lenses, worn by a strangely indistinct humanoid figure. Anyone with mystic senses can immediately detect that this is a powerful artifact with a will of its own that connects to a much larger mentality that has exists across other times and dimensions. Regardless of who wears the thing it's always that mask that draws your attention and stays in memory afterward. This is especially true when those bejeweled eyes are firing eldritch rays of dark magic, of course. The thing speaks rarely, but when it does it sounds like a chorus of voices all at once.
Minions of this thing are visually identical, but it's somehow apparent even to the most mundane observer that their masks are mere magical reflections of the true one.
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: Infernal d10, Awareness d8, Duplication d8, Suggestion d6
Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Gestalt Magical Sapience d8, History d8, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Self-Discipline d8
Status: Always d8
Abilities:
Collective Awareness (R) Defend by rolling your single status die. If this reduces the damage to zero, Boost using the amount of damage prevented.
Hive Mind Summons (A) Use Gestalt Magical Sapience 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.
Massed Eye-Beams (A) Attack using Infernal. Use your Max die with a bonus equal to the number of minions you control.
Unnatural Durability (I) Reduce the amount of damage dealt to you by two.
Upgrades & Masteries:
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 current wearer of the Larva Vesparum acts as the focus of a mystical hive mind composed of all who've ever worn the mask, living or dead. Hive Mind Summons lets them conjure former wearers to the scene as inhumanly coordinated minions, adding to the strength of their Massed Eye-Beams and taking independent actions as well. Collective Awareness is a very versatile defensive reaction that should be used against relatively low-damage hits (including on allies) whenever possible to maximize the chances of triggering the free Boost rider, while Unnatural Durability helps keep your primary form in action. You can also take Overcomes with Suggestion + Magical Lore to "infect" a suitable target that's gone Out and force them to don the mask, leaving them open to manipulation by the hivemind in the future, setting up future narrative complications.
With its upgrade the gestalt intelligence now has more direct influence on those around them, and can more easily infect others and immediately transform them into wasp-masked minions. Its mastery reflects growing magical prowess as more and more of the hive mind's attention is focused on the immediate situation.
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