Another super-thug, but this one's a bit of specialist for when a villain wants a hero captured relatively intact. He's surprisingly tough to beat one-on-one, and with a little support even teams may have trouble stopping him from making off with his target. His employer usually provides transport to retrieve Gruj and his victim when the job's done, although he's pretty fast and hard to stop if he has to lug an unconscious hero off by himself.
Gruj
The brutish lout known as Gruj is a well-known mercenary super-thug, most often employed to confront a troublesome hero, beat them senseless and then abduct them for their current employer. He's pretty good at that kind of work, with a fine sense of how much damage a target can take without lasting harm. While he's not squeamish about crippling or killing people either, Gruj doesn't do so deliberately and won't take assassination work. If questioned about his stance on the subject, he'll just grunt and snarl that killing makes more trouble that it's worth in the long run.
Gruj's origins are a mystery, but his questionably-human physiology suggests some explanations. He might be some kind of geneered human-animal hybrid like Karkinos, the Mighty Bullfrog, or Florida Man, or something less explicable like the Three Bears. He doesn't work long-term for villains or on any established teams, and what he does on his time off is mostly unknown. The notable exception is the occasional pub crawl with the similarly cryptic villain BG Gruff. Gruj has also made a couple of appearances at gaming conventions in the past, entering cosplay contests as a "Proper Old-School Orc" with foam weaponry and armor.
Description: A hulking humanoid figure with mottled bluish-green skin and rather porcine features - you could almost call that a snout if you aren't afraid of a beating. Usually barefoot (are those pig's feet?) and dressed in nothing but dirty gray coveralls and a a soiled baseball cap with a shamrock on it. Smells about as bad as he looks, and speaking mostly in grunts and curses. Tends to laugh a lot while delivering a beatdown.
Gender: Male Age: 24 Height: 6'2" Eyes: Muddy Brown
Hair: None, Cranial Scars Skin: Sickly Bluish-Green Build: Apelike
Approach: Bully Archetype: Indomitable
Health: 45 + (5 x H)
Powers: Momentum d10, Speed d8, Strength d8
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Fitness d8, Vindictive Super-Thug d8
Status: Always d8
Abilities:
Brutalize (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.
Manhandle (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.
Pig-Headed (I) Reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.
Soak It Up (R) Defend by rolling your single status die. If that Defend reduces the damage to zero, Boost yourself using the amount of damage prevented.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health. Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).
Master of Superiority (I) As long as you are manifesting an effect related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.
Tactics
Gruj has all the subtlety of a wrecking ball when it comes to a fight. He'll single out one designated target and use Brutalize on them repeatedly until they're knocked out, then either carry them off as a prisoner or start on a new foe. Attempts to intervene will largely be shrugged off by Durable and judicious use of Soak It Up. If sufficiently harassed (usually with Hinders or high-damage attacks) by other heroes attempting to intervene, he uses Manhandle to drag his victim off to someplace more private, crashing through obstacles at speed before resuming the one-on-one beating. While he could theoretically play bodyguard using his reaction, Gruj only does so when explicitly ordered to - and even then only when someone's keeping a close eye on him to ensure he doesn't "forget" in the heat of action.
He rarely has an upgrade unless working for a very powerful mastermind villain who can augment him to greater power levels, usually in order to take multiple heroes prisoner at once.
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